The church stands close to the sea front at the corner of Cliff Street and Flinders Parade and is a prominent and well-known landmark in the area.
A timber fence encloses the church grounds and there is a pair of iron gates set at the street corner in line with the main entrance to the church. The building exhibits the principal characteristics of Carpenter Gothic style through its plan and various elements including its timber construction, steeply pitched roof, prominent timber gables and pointed arch motif to windows and doors.
The building is constructed of timber, cruciform in plan, and set on concrete piers. The space between the piers is filled with concrete block work.
The steeply pitched gabled roof is clad with corrugated metal sheeting and has an octagonal lantern and spire set at the roof crossing. This is clad in decorative pressed metal sheeting and has timber louvres set in panels at the base. The projecting gables to nave and transepts ends are decorated with fretwork panels above arched timber framing and have a rose window set with pink and blue coloured glass. Pairs of lancet windows set with obscure glass and sheltered by label mouldings also light the church. The main entrance porch has projecting gables over the door and flanking arched windows. There are smaller porches to the transepts and rear.
There is an entrance vestibule and two pairs of arched timber doors set with lead light open into the main body of the church. The walls and ceiling are lined with beaded boards and the roof is supported by hammer beam. The floor is presently carpeted and there is a low platform at western end. This has gothic influenced panelling at the rear and has a small room on each side of the platform with the doors concealed in the panelling. Office rooms with a small gallery above have been constructed in the northern transept.
There is a modern metal garage at the southwest corner of the building and a single storey modern brick hall to the rear of the church. There structures are not considered to have heritage significance.
","history":"The former Sandgate Baptist Church is the second Baptist church in Sandgate and opened on Christmas Day 1887.
Baptists first arrived in Queensland in 1851 and were established in Brisbane by 1855. A church was constructed for them in Wharf Street, Brisbane in early 1859, soon after the arrival of Reverend B G Wilson. From this church, preaching stations were begun which developed into suburban churches. From 1868 open-air Baptist services were being held at Sandgate on the shore in the vicinity of the 1887 church.
In September 1852, J C Burnett made the first survey of the Sandgate area and the first sales of land were held in 1853. By 1858 there were 25 people living there and a hotel and shops had been established. In the 1860s, as access to the area improved, Sandgate developed as a seaside town on the English model providing salubrious sea air and a refuge from the oppressive heat of a Brisbane summer. Early Governors of Queensland and other prominent citizens spent holidays at Sandgate and there were guesthouses and houses available for rent from an early date.
By 1871 Sandgate had a population of 155 and in 1872 the first Baptist chapel, a small building in Loudon Street, was built. Within two years the settlement had a school and was linked by coach to Brisbane three times a week. By 1877 coaches travelled between Sandgate and Brisbane twice a day. In 1880 Sandgate was declared a town and in 1882 was connected to the capital by train. This dramatically reduced travel time to less than half an hour and boosted Sandgate's popularity as a place of residence and for holidaymakers and day-trippers.
By 1886 the population of Sandgate had risen to 1598 and the congregation of the Baptist chapel had increased to a point where it had outgrown the chapel in Loudon Street. A church member, George Phillips, donated a triangular piece of land consisting of 27 perches near the sea front at the corner of Flinders Parade and Cliff Street. It was agreed early in 1887 to form a Baptist Church separate from the Wharf Street church in Brisbane and the new building was constructed to the design of prominent Brisbane architect, Richard Gailey.
Gailey was trained as an architect in Londonderry, Ireland, and settled in Brisbane in 1864. He established his own practice in 1865, and over the next 60 years built up a thriving business, working until his death in 1924. He designed many hotels and commercial buildings, but also designed numerous churches. A staunch Baptist, he donated his services for a number of church buildings including the City Tabernacle in Brisbane. He is thought to have designed for first Baptist chapel in Sandgate.
A local builder, William Street, constructed the new church at a cost of £1300, the spire being erected by steeplejack Mr Collins. It originally had a shingled roof and was lit by kerosene lamps. A substantial building in the township, it seated 350 and probably served visitors and holidaymakers as well as the local community. Because it was one of the largest buildings in the developing town, the church was also sought after as a meeting place by a number of organisations, including the Freemasons. The first Masonic Lodge in Sandgate met there from 1894 until they acquired their own lodge in 1920.
Renovations to the church were undertaken in 1928, 1945 and in 1986 when a major renovation project was completed in time for the centenary of the opening of the church. Over time the church roof was replaced with slate, then iron sheeting and finally with coloured metal sheeting. The original kerosene lighting of the church was in turn replaced by gas, then electricity. The structure, however, remains substantially unchanged since its completion.
A modern metal garage adjoins the rear of the church and there is a single storey brick hall to the rear.
","criteria":"The former Sandgate Baptist church is important in demonstrating the development of the Sandgate area, an early settlement close to Brisbane that became a popular seaside resort serving the city. The church was built in 1887 following the boom in Sandgate's population as a consequence of its connection with Brisbane by rail. It is the second Baptist church in Sandgate and reflects the growth of the Baptist Union in Queensland, replacing a small chapel built in 1872. The size and quality of the church reflect not just the growth of the area but the importance given to religious observance in nineteenth century Queensland.
|The former Sandgate Baptist church is an excellent and substantially intact example of a timber church of its era in the Carpenter Gothic style.
|It has aesthetic value as a well-composed building on a landmark site on the seafront. In its form, scale and detail it makes an important visual contribution to the built character of Sandgate, a fact acknowledged by its popularity over the years as a subject for photographs.
|The former Sandgate Baptist church has a long association with the people of Sandgate and the surrounding district, being a place of worship and a meeting place for community groups for over a hundred years.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":4067,"place_ref":602504,"name":"Union College","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"38 Upland Road","suburb":"ST LUCIA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-12-06","description":"The University of Queensland is located on a large allotment on a bend of the Brisbane River at St Lucia. The Great Court is sited to dominate the rise of the land and have a commanding view of the surrounding campus buildings, the playing fields and the river beyond. The residential colleges are grouped to the south along the river with Union College set slightly further back.
Union College comprises several buildings. The two main buildings are linear in form and have an extruded appearance. The facilities block is a single-storey building facing north-east, which flows through underneath the lower storey of the residential block. The structure has a steel sheeted roof supported by an off-form concrete portal frame infilled with Mt Coot-tha bluestone. This type of structure creates a large open-plan internal space. The floors are parquetry, the ceilings are lined with strawboard and the joinery is blackbean. There is a distinctive brick fireplace with four arched openings over a central hearth.
There are courtyards formed between the angles of the buildings. Raised areas set with trees and surrounded by bluestone retaining walls preserve original hillocks on the site. The existing major trees have been supplemented by plantings of other trees, shrubs and flowering plants
The residential block is a three-storey building supported on off-form concrete pilotis. Sections of it are infilled below as the ground level drops away, but the three storey residential section is constant. The plan form of the building follows different angles, facing variously north-east, east, and north, creating courtyards that contain large mature trees and gardens. The pilotis support dark manganese brick internal walls. Open stairwells with off-form concrete external balustrades are located at regular intervals along the building. The external areas of off-form concrete have been painted. Windows are metal framed, with the original windows composed of a large panel spanning the window space at the top with two smaller windows below. All are pivoted horizontally and double-glazed with Venetian blinds enclosed. Most of the upper panels of the original windows have been replaced with triple hopper windows. The roof is reinforced concrete, and ceilings are sprayed vermiculite.
The former staff house lies between the accommodation and facilities blocks and echoes the form and materials of the accommodation blocks. It is .is a two-storey building constructed of brick and off form concrete with steel framed windows.
","history":"The Union College building at the University of Queensland campus was built in five major stages between 1964 and 1972 to the design of James Birrell, Staff Architect for the University between 1961 and 1966.
Proposals for a Queensland university were first made in the 1870s, but the idea did not have strong public or government support in a new colony where tertiary education was not a funding priority. An Act of State Parliament eventually established the new University of Queensland on December 10, 1909. Sir William MacGregor, the incoming Governor of Queensland, was appointed as the first Chancellor. Before his arrival, it had been decided to purchase and renovate 'Fernberg', a house at Bardon, as the new Government House and to use the vacated government residence and part of its grounds at Gardens Point for the University. This was a controversial decision and many thought that the building and domain were unsuitable and too small for the purpose. There was little room for expansion and there were conflicts with the neighbouring Brisbane Central Technical College. In 1910 the first teaching faculties were created and in early 1911 the first students enrolled, although relocation was already being discussed.
Victoria Park had been chosen in 1906 as a campus site, though the high cost of preparing the steeply sloping land for building presented problems and Yeronga Park and St Lucia were also considered as options. In 1926 the difficulty of obtaining a suitable permanent site was solved when Dr James Mayne and Miss Mary Mayne made £50,000 available to the Brisbane City Council to resume land at St Lucia and present it to the University. In 1930 the University Senate handed over Victoria Park, less eleven acres reserved for a medical school, to the Brisbane City Council in exchange for the St Lucia site.
During the years of the Depression that followed, government funding and staff numbers were reduced, although student enrolments trebled between 1923 and 1933. There was no prospect of building on the new site until 1935 when the Premier, W. Forgan Smith, announced that the Queensland government would undertake construction. The University Senate committee produced a preliminary design and the Sydney firm of Hennessy, Hennessy & Co was appointed as architects for the project. They produced the Great Court plan with its sandstone, classically inspired buildings that remains central to the University and which influenced later building.
The foundation stone was laid in 1937 but the Second World War disrupted work and the main building was used as the headquarters of General Sir Thomas Blamey, head of the Australian Defence forces. Work had re-commenced by 1948 and the Forgan Smith Building was officially opened in May 1949 followed by other major buildings of the Great Court in the 1950s and 60s.
Residential Colleges to accommodate the students had been established for some time on the edges of the inner city area but it was intended that they should relocate when permanent sites were available on the new campus. Sites had been allocated for Emmanuel, St John's, King's, St Leo's, Duchesne and Women's Colleges, although the war had halted construction plans, as it had the development of the University buildings. Religious institutions ran all but Women's College and all accommodated only a single gender.
In 1943 the University of Queensland Student's Union planned a non-denominational Union College as an alternative to traditional religious colleges. It was expected that after the war student numbers would increase greatly and that accommodation would be in short supply. A Student Housing Committee was formed. It was intended that the new college should be owned by the Union, run by a Warden elected by the students and approved by the university Senate, and governed by a representative body of students. However, land had only been allocated at St Lucia for the six colleges existing when plans were drawn up in the 1930s. High building costs also delayed the construction of a new building and the Union opened a student hostel in rented premises in Wickham Terrace in 1947. By 1950 the hostel had gained College status and in 1952, the Union requested that land be allocated for the college on the St Lucia campus. Land opposite the St John's College site and bordered by the no 1 oval and a grove of native trees was reserved for Union College in December 1952. Building schemes were considered in 1953, but the cost was too great and the Union purchased two large houses in Wickham Terrace in April 1956, after the premises they had formerly rented was sold.
In January 1958, a sub committee was set up to consider building schemes, though these could not be implemented until the 1963-66 triennium. The buildings at Wickham Terrace had proved to be a good investment and the loan was paid out by 1960. It was decided to survey the St Lucia site, though the University's Staff Architect, James Birrell, questioned its suitability. He suggested that 'if the Union College were built along the west frontage of the Tree Reserve in buildings artfully arranged to avoid destruction of trees, it would be on elevated ground, not overlooked by surrounding country, associated only with residential development and on good foundation.' This new site was approved and transferred to the college in December and Birrell began preparation of plans for the college.
James Peter Birrell was born in Melbourne and studied architecture at Melbourne Technical College. Following World War Two he worked as a draughtsman for the State, then the Commonwealth Works Departments. As a cadet architect with the Commonwealth Department of Works he was accepted as a fourth year student at the University of Melbourne. After graduating in 1951 he graduated and worked briefly as Resident Architect at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories. In 1952 he co-founded Architecture and Arts with Peter Burns, Helen O'Donnell and Norman Lehey. Transferred to Canberra, he worked on the design of schools, telephone exchanges, group housing, and alterations to the Canberra Repertory Theatre. Moving back to Melbourne in 1953, he worked on post office buildings. Birrell exhibited with the Contemporary Art Society and helped to organise a tour for them before being transferred to Darwin to take charge of the Commonwealth Department drawing office. Here he designed schools, hospital extensions, shopping centres and various ancillary structures.
In 1955 he resigned from the Commonwealth Works Department and was appointed Architect in Charge of the drawing office of the Brisbane City Council's Architectural Branch. While with the Council, he designed a large number of public buildings, many of which were illustrated in national design journals, and included such innovative buildings as the Toowong Municipal Library [602011], the Centenary Pool [601240] and the Wickham Terrace Car Park [601511].
Birrell was Architect to the University of Queensland from 1961-66, overseeing the university's second major phase of construction development. Beginning part time lecturing at the University's Department of Architecture and at QIT, he also worked on the Master Plan for the expansion of the University. His most notable buildings designed in this period include Union College, the JD Story Administration Building, Staff House and the Agriculture and Entomology Building (now the Hartley Teakle Building). As part of his work for the University, he designed the James Cook University in Townsville in 1963, and continued to design buildings for the St Lucia campus. In 1965 Birrell was appointed President of the Australian Planning Institute. In 1966 he designed the Union Theatre and Hartley Teakle Building before moving into private practice.
By July 1963, Birrell had developed a plan for Union College that he believed would:
Provide a residential collegiate atmosphere without undue institutional appearance. This has been achieved by meandering the dormitory block in a more of less rambling fashion so that it encloses in effect two cloistered courtyards, one of which overlooks no 2 oval across the top of the communal facilities building and the other, the residential section of Upland Road. Incidentally, this meandering avoids the removal of any substantial trees.
The facilities block has been arranged along even contours one floor lower than the dormitory building so that at no point are the bedroom outlooks detrimentally affected. Service entrance is at the north so that service facilities are grouped against the future substation area that adjoins the sites, hence buffering incompatible areas from the College. The facilities block requires the removal of two trees only.
This plan represented the cutting edge of international ideas on architecture in respect of its form and the mode of its construction and generated a considerable amount of interest in the building and design industries.. It achieved a combination of good quality design and economy while responding imaginatively to its site. In an era when buildings in Queensland were generally constructed on a cleared and levelled site, not only the placement, but also the design of the college buildings was influenced by the existing topography and vegetation, which became part of the design. Union College would have an impact on the funding of college buildings throughout Australia. The tender of T J Watkins was accepted in June 1964 and the first stage was still being completed when Education Minister, Jack Pizzey, officially opened it in July 1965. The first stage comprised part of the Common Facilities wing residential blocks and staff quarters at a cost of £240,000 (480,000). The new college was adjudged one of the ten best buildings in Australia for 1965 by the Australian Journal of Architecture and Arts.
Union College marked a departure from the design of other residential colleges on campus. Innovative features ranged from the large one piece pivoting windows to the flat roof intended to be used for living and recreational space. Forms were simple and robust and the stone, timber, off form concrete and metals chosen were intended to weather to soft tones of grey with contrasts in texture.
The college was not only innovative in its form and use of materials and in its response to the site, but also in concept. Previous designs for student accommodation in Queensland were more conservative and had followed traditional institutional models. Union College had courtyards, recreational and tutorial facilities and student units, providing a modern lifestyle for adult students. As an extension of this approach, in 1968 Union College became the first coeducational residential college in Queensland. Although this was a controversial move in the conservative atmosphere of the time, this and other features of life at Union College, innovative in the 1960s and 70s, are now the norm as university accommodation more closely reflects daily life in the wider community.
Extensions were carried out during the 1963-66 triennium including extending the facilities wing, landscaping and constructing the warden's residence on the ground floor of block F. The tender of C P Hornick and Sons was accepted in May 1966 for an overall cost of $77,463.
The next stage comprised construction of Block C (floors GHJ and KLM). The tender of Harris James was accepted in July 1967 and the work was completed in June 1968 at a cost of $412,815. Half of the rooms in this residential block were made available to women students, though they were at first accommodated on different floors to the men.
In June 1968 the Brisbane City Council purchased the two old college buildings in Wickham Terrace at a cost of $265,000. Planning for the 4th stage of construction began in 1969. This was to complete the residential wings and build units for married tutors and tutorial rooms. Federal funding of $150,000 was granted for this stage (PQR floors) and the tender of C P Hornick was accepted in December 1969. The completed cost was $397,344.
Plans were then begun for the completion of the college (XYZ floors). Harris James tender was accepted in January 1973 and work was finalized in 1974. The college as a whole was estimated to have cost $1,500,000 to build.
In the late 1990s a detached brick function room with a tiled, hipped roof was constructed to the rear of the kitchen. It was also designed by Birrell, but does not match the earlier buildings in form or materials.
Some changes have taken place, though the buildings are substantially intact and retain their character. The off-form concrete has been painted with sealant. Trios of hopper windows have replaced the majority of the large pivoted windowpanes that formed a distinctive feature of the design. An unsympathetic security fence has been added at the south.
The landmark trees, which were an important part of the original design concept, remain though secondary planting of has been added.
","criteria":"Union College marks an important stage in the modern development of the University of Queensland. An innovative residential college designed in 1963, it was modern and functional in concept and construction and responds to the vegetation and topography of its site. It marked a departure from college design on this campus and reflected international ideas on architecture.
|Union College was highly praised at the time of its building as visually pleasing, well conceived and innovative structure.
|Union College was highly praised at the time of its building as visually pleasing, well conceived and innovative structure. The design was innovative in its interaction with the site, in its form and use of materials and represented a high degree of creative achievement, recognised by a High Commendation award by Arts and Architecture journal as one of the best ten new buildings in Australia at the time.
|Union College has social significance as an important component of university life to the many people who have resided there as students or as teachers and administrators. It also represented a departure from tradition in the provision of a modern lifestyle for students and as the first residential college in Queensland to offer accommodation to both men and women.
|Union College is important as a major work of James Birrell, an architect of national stature and repute, and is evidence of his thought and practice. Birrell was Staff Architect for the University of Queensland when he selected the site and designed Union College and was involved with the master planning of the campus. He had a design philosophy that integrated structures and landscape as evidenced by this building. The work of James Birrell, particularly for the Brisbane City Council and the University of Queensland is widely held to be influential and innovative.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":4161,"place_ref":602444,"name":"Hamilton Town Hall","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"36-42 Racecourse Road","suburb":"HAMILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The former Hamilton Town Hall is on a corner block, with the entrance to the Library from Racecourse Road and the entrance to the Hall from Rossiter Parade. Itl consists of a series of linked single-storey structures comprising the original brick main building (Hall and Library), a timber Supper Room, and the 1973 brick annexe. The main building is a load-bearing face brick structure with a timber-framed floor and a timber-framed terracotta tiled roof. Externally the building features English-bond face brickwork contrasted by a rendered base, string courses and entablature. Both street elevations are emphasized by a pedimented frontispiece. The original balustraded parapet is now missing, as are the metal palisades and gates to both street alignments.
Library (formerly Council Chambers)
The entrance to the library consists of a vestibule with Art Nouveau-styled leaded glass windows and tessellated/encaustic floor tiles. Some floor tiles are replicas laid down in 2004. Only a small section of the border pattern consists of the original tiles, the others being specially made replicas laid in 2004. Panels in the French doors opening into the library and sections on either side of the doors are all matching leadlight.
Internally, the Library has been substantially altered by the removal of walls and doorways. However, the 'Reliance' strongroom with steel doors remains in working order. The main windows to both street facades are original Diocletian windows and sashes. The interior features shallow coffered ceilings with plaster rose. Picture rails remain in some rooms, and the section of the library with the strongroom is half paneled. The original open verandah to the north of the library has been unsympathetically enclosed with timber boarding and glass louvres.
Hall and Supper Room
The Hall, across the rear of the library, is much more intact and features a fibrous plaster ceiling with coffered timber beams. Two large roof ventilators are built into the Hall roof.
The Supper Room is a small single-storey timber-framed weather board clad structure with a timber floor close to the ground, paired casement windows, and a gabled, corrugated iron roof. Internally, the Supper Room is an open space with cupboards and a sink underneath the windows at the rear of the room. It is linked to the Hall by a dressing room, and a recently constructed covered walkway of no heritage significance incorporating ornate timber detailing which is neither original nor authentic and has unsympathetically altered two of the original large Hall windows.
Annexe
The Mobile Library Service Annexe is a modern cavity brick concrete slab on ground structure with a tiled roof. The building in its scale, form, materials and detailing are all unsympathetic to the main building to which it is attached. It is not considered to have any heritage significance
","history":"The Hamilton Town Hall, a single-storey brick building comprising Council Chambers and public hall, was erected in 1920 for the Hamilton Town Council. It was designed by M.T. Stanley, and is one eight remaining Town Halls from the twenty that were built prior to the formation of Greater Brisbane in 1925
When Moreton Bay was opened for free settlement in 1842, local government was controlled from Sydney, using British Imperial Government policy. The Municipality of Brisbane was not proclaimed until 1859, and the first Council was elected in the same year. As settlements sprang up around Brisbane a desire for separate municipality status developed, and in 1879 the Divisional Boards Act provided for a number of new autonomous authorities adjacent to Brisbane. By 1891, 21 local authorities had been created in the Brisbane metropolitan area under this legislation. These consisted of the City of Brisbane as well as a municipality, shires, divisions, and one borough.
In 1890, the Hamilton Division separated from Toombul, although the Hamilton Divisional Board initially conducted its business from the Toombul Divisional Board Offices. Andrew Petrie was appointed the first Chairman. The Board became a Town Council in 1904 and the first Mayor was J.B. Charlton. In 1917 the Council purchased 64 perches (approximately 1600square metres) of land in Racecourse Road with the intention of building Council Chambers and a Public Hall. In 1919 plans and specifications for the new building were received from Montague Stanley, son of F.D.G. Stanley, the well-known colonial architect. At a special meeting, amendments were made, including a wider front door and the use of Australian manufactured materials. A tender from Messrs McArthur & Walker for £6,894 was accepted and the current mayor Alderman George Rees laid the foundation stone on 26 September 1919. Extra walling and iron railing with a double gate along Racecourse Road was added to the plan and the building was completed in 1920 for a cost of £8,873.
The Town Hall accommodated Council Officers as well as providing Council Chambers and a public Hall. There were a kitchen and a strong room, but it is not known if the Supper Room was constructed at this time. An Honour Board for local residents who had contributed to The First World War was erected in the Council Offices.
With rapid population increases, small local governments found it ever more difficult to fund and administer their responsibilities effectively and economically. The development of services such as roads, transport, water supply and sewerage could only be efficiently managed by an overarching authority. A move to amalgamate local authorities began in 1902 when the division of Booroodabin rejoined the city of Brisbane. The idea of amalgamation was promoted throughout the 1900s and culminated in the City of Brisbane Act of 1924, when Hamilton was one of the towns and shires who joined to form the Brisbane City Council. The first Greater Brisbane Council was elected on 21 February 1925 and the Hamilton Town Council was disbanded.
The Town Hall then became the property of the Brisbane City Council and since that time has had various uses. During 1925/1926 it is recorded as a Council Depot in the Post Office Directories. From 1927 it was known as the School of Arts and provided a venue for social events. The building was headquarters for the Australian Army Survey Corps during World War Two. After the war, major alterations were made to the Council Chambers to create the Hamilton Municipal Library. The Hall continued to be used for various social activities. Additions were made to the northern end of the Hall in 1973 to accommodate the Mobile Library Service. Further changes in 1987 included alterations to the dressing room and a covered walkway between the Supper Room and the Hall. The former Town Hall still houses the City Council's Hamilton Library and it is used by an amateur theatrical group and by other local groups for meetings and social activities. Though its use as a venue for functions and gatherings and as a local library, the building has long associations with the cultural and social life of the area.
","criteria":"Hamilton Town Hall is important in demonstrating the pattern of Brisbane's development, in particular the construction of civic buildings for the local authorities that predated the formation of the Brisbane City Council in 1925. It is important for its association with the development of the Hamilton district, and is evidence for its growth and prosperity in the early twentieth century.
|Hamilton Town Hall is important as a good example a town hall of the Interwar period.
|As a handsome and well-composed public building on a prominent site, Hamilton Town Hall is important for its landmark quality and its formal two-street facade makes a substantial contribution to the character of the area.
|Hamilton Town Hall is important to the community. The building has social significance as a centrally located civic building which has been a focal point for social and community functions for over eighty years.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":4173,"place_ref":602788,"name":"Fortitude Valley Child Health Centre","alternate_name":"Fortitude Valley Baby Clinic & Nurse Training Centre","street_address":"112 Alfred Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2011-08-12","description":"The Fortitude Valley Child Health Centre, formerly the Maternal and Child Welfare Clinic, is a two-storey brick structure with part basement, located on a sloping site facing north-west and fronting Alfred Street. The building is in an Arts and Crafts style and sits slightly back from its front boundary behind a brick fence with tall, capped piers and a simple, timber gate.
\nThe building has a hipped roof of corrugated, asbestos cement sheet with projecting, ventilated gables at the ridge. The exterior front and side walls are red face brick in English bond to the basement and front verandah, and stretcher bond up to the sill level of the first floor, above which the treatment is painted, pebble-dash stucco to the timber eaves. Face brick quoining extends the height of both levels and the upper level windows have face brick lintels. Windows are typically timber casements of eight panes with fanlights and cement rendered sills. Some windows/fanlights have been removed and replaced with fixed panes or sheet material for ventilation ducts. Most are shielded by steel mesh security panels on steel frames attached to the building. Two upper-level windows on the north-east elevation have timber hoods. Mounted on the building at ground floor level are many air-handling units with ducting running up the face of the building.
\nA cement render plaque on the front façade reads 'BABY CLINIC TRAINING CENTRE, ERECTED 1923 AD, HON W McCORMACK, HOME SEC.Y'. The rear verandah on two levels, supported on an English bond brick wall, is enclosed with painted weatherboards and a variety of windows, some of which date to the 1927 enclosure. A 1940 timber fire stair runs down the rear elevation from the upper level to the ground floor but not to the rear yard.
\nEntrance is through a central verandah flush with the Alfred Street façade. On both the ground and first levels, the verandah is timber and has simple, painted timber battening, balustrade, and weatherboards. The verandah is partially enclosed by timber casements, fixed glass, and sheet fixed behind the balustrade. The ground floor retains an early, steel, expandable security gate and early timber bench. The front door has been replaced with a modern one but the original may survive in the doors that are stacked in the basement.
\nThe room layout corresponds very closely to the 1940 reconfiguration. This comprises a large central space with stair that is a reception area on the ground level and a waiting area on the upper level that gives access to rooms on three sides.
\nThe building retains its original partitions, constructed of cement plaster on vertical steel rods and metal lathe. The rooms on the enclosed front and rear verandahs have walls lined with vertically jointed tongue and groove boards
\nThe ceilings throughout the core of the building are lined with flat sheet and timber cover battens in a simple geometric pattern and on the upper level there are ventilation panels that have been sheeted closed with the grille potentially surviving behind. The ceilings to the enclosed verandah are lined with vertically jointed tongue and groove boards with the exception of the front ground floor which has a ceiling lined with ripple iron. No original ceiling fittings have been retained with modern light fixtures and ceiling fans found throughout. The cornice is a square, timber cover strip. Internally, windows and doors have distinctive, tapered timber architraves. Generally the doors have 3 panels and are high-waisted, and almost all retain their original hardware including keyhole covers. Those opening onto the now enclosed verandahs are french with low waists and twelve lights in the upper section of each leaf. Door panel mouldings and skirtings differ between the original building and later extension. Windows, where original, are multi-paned, retain original hardware, and most have had their glass painted out. The skirtings are timber and are a simple ogee in the oldest part and a simple splay in the 1938 extension. The floors are linoleum sheets and tiles, or carpet throughout. The original crows ash timber flooring may survive underneath. The central spaces on both levels have chair rails and the first floor waiting area contains a picture rail.
\nMost of the original fittings remain including plumbing items, joinery, architraves, dado rails, and an impressive silky oak staircase. The enclosed portion of the front verandah on the ground floor also contains many early items that have been gathered over time and relate to baby clinic functions including baby-weighing scales, metal cots, photos of nurses, and a variety of furniture. The basement contains some early or original doors removed from the upper levels.
\nThere is narrow vehicular access to the rear of the site along the south-west side of the building. Nothing remains of the original garden. The rear boundary is shared with the Fortitude Valley Railway Station and has a high chain wire fence with barbed wire security.
\n","history":"
The Fortitude Valley Child Health Centre was constructed in 1923 as a baby clinic, maternity and infant nurse training centre, and administrative headquarters for baby clinics in the state and has been operating continuously for child health care since. It was the first purpose-built maternal and child welfare nurse training centre in Queensland following the introduction of the Maternity Act 1922 which was part of a national and international movement to improve the health of mothers and babies.
Queensland infant death rates were high at the turn of the 20th century. Dr Alfred Jefferis Turner, the Brisbane Children's Hospital's first resident medical officer appointed in 1889, was instrumental in reducing the death rate through his work on developing a diphtheria antitoxin which he introduced to Brisbane in 1894. Dr Turner then embarked on a further public health campaign, educating mothers in the hygienic preparation of food, particularly for those infants not breast fed [1], as diarrhoea remained a major factor in infant deaths.
Such initiatives reflected a growing international move towards the reduction of infant mortality through maternal education. Both England and Germany established Schools for Mothers in 1905. In New Zealand, the Royal Society for the Health of Women was founded in 1907 by Dr Frederick Truby King. His emphasis was on the promotion of breast feeding, the training of nurses in maternal and infant welfare and the education of parents in domestic hygiene. [2]
In 1908 Dr Turner established the first infant welfare clinic in Brisbane. [3] He saw up to 100 babies a week, free of charge, although this clinic was a short-lived operation due to a lack of funds. [4] Ongoing lobbying for the establishment of baby clinics was undertaken by the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the Women's Electoral League and the National Council of Women. Following a child welfare conference in Sydney in 1916, the establishment of three (later expanded to four) Queensland baby clinics was announced by the Home Secretary John Huxham in August 1917. [5] At that time there were 11 clinics in New South Wales and one in Victoria. [6] South Australia had adopted the English/German model of the School for Mothers, opening its first Institute in Adelaide in September 1911. [7] Huxham travelled to Sydney and Melbourne in January 1918, to assess these clinics in preparation for planning the Brisbane baby clinics. [8]
The first Queensland Government baby clinic opened in a rented cottage in Brunswick Street, near Robertson Street, Fortitude Valley [9] on 8 March 1918, managed by Matron Florence Chatfield of the Diamantina Hospital. In the early decades of the 20th century Fortitude Valley was a popular residential area. It had become an important commercial and retail district in the late nineteenth century following its establishment in the 1850s with the expansion of the settlement of the town of Brisbane. The three other clinics opened shortly after at Woolloongabba, Spring Hill and West End. [10]
Public health and social reform was implicit in the growth of the town planning movement and in mid-1918 at the second Australian Town Planning Conference and Exhibition held in Brisbane, a display provided advice on bathing, clothing and proper nutrition of infants. [11] The organiser of this conference was Charles Edward Chuter, an officer of the Home Secretary's Department, who was to have a significant impact on the Queensland health system. Charles Chuter initiated the funding of facilities for mothers and infants through the Golden Casket lottery, where profits were allocated to the Motherhood, Child Welfare and Hospital Fund. The government assumed management of lotteries in 1920.
The profits generated through the Golden Casket facilitated the implementation of the Maternity Act 1922. The introduction of this Act was a turning point in health services for women and children in Queensland. It provided for the establishment of maternity hospitals and baby clinics throughout the state. The policy had four aims: to decrease the death rate of mothers and babies, to increase the birth rate, to increase outback settlement, and to train mothers in how to care for children. A Labor government initiative, the Maternity Act 1922 had been formulated in a social and political context where the issue of fostering and developing a healthy and virile population was closely linked to the economic development of the state.
On 22 January 1923 the Daily Standard declared that Labor's noblest legislation was about to take practical form with the construction of a maternal and child welfare clinic and training school for nurses in Fortitude Valley. A brief for the clinic had been prepared by Chuter and included the accommodation of a lecture room, the usual equipment for a clinic, and a ward with three beds to accommodate mothers. It was to be the headquarters of the Maternal and Child Welfare Clinics in Queensland and the distribution centre for supplies and literature. The building was designed by Queensland Department of Public Works' architect, Cecil James Virgo (1895 - 1976). His work includes a number of fine public buildings of the interwar period - Coorparoo State School (1929-34), Mackay Central State School (1933, QHR 601911), Milton State School (1935), and Toowoomba North State School (1937).
Virgo's work is representative of the high-quality design that the Department produced during the interwar period. Typically the work was classically inspired though executed in contemporary styles with a conscious emphasis on giving institutional buildings a domestic character. These were constructed with high-quality materials and workmanship to achieve economical but long-lasting buildings.
A site in Alfred Street Fortitude Valley containing two cottages was purchased from local merchant TC Beirne for the sum of ¿850. The new site was in a central location close to the shopping area and to public transport with the Brunswick Street Railway Station directly adjacent. At that time a cottage near the corner of Alfred Street was refurbished for use as the clinic, while the second cottage was sold for removal enabling the construction of the new purpose-built clinic and nurse training centre. [12] The brick building of two-storeys and basement was commenced in 1923, and was nearing completion in October when it was discovered that the Brisbane City Council intended to sewer the area, delaying it being finished while the drainage was altered. The Department of Public Works reported on 4 January 1924 that the building was completed, pending the connection to the sewerage. Matron Chatfield moved in on 15 January, although the opening of the new clinic was delayed until October 1924 waiting for drainage approvals. The building cost ¿5,000. [13]
The new Fortitude Valley Baby Clinic and Nurse Training Centre (now known as the Fortitude Valley Child Health Centre) had a timber verandah on both levels at the front and rear with timber lattice screening. The ground floor contained the clinic with waiting room and doctor's and treatment rooms as well as the resident nurses-in-training accommodation with a day room, bathroom and kitchen. The first floor held the training centre with a large lecture room and ward to house three mothers and their babies, the Superintendent Nurse's bedroom and a sitting room. The basement was used for storage and laundry. Brisbane City Council's Parks Division laid out the grounds at a cost of ¿20 that was borne by the Home Secretary. The floors were originally stained and polished timber, but by November 1925 a request was made to purchase linoleum to be installed throughout, because the slippery floors were considered dangerous to mothers and children. [14]
The first nurses at the centre were trained elsewhere. Nurse Barron, trained at the Karitane Nursing School in New Zealand, was the head of the establishment. Three other nurses trained at the Tresillian Child Welfare Centre in Sydney. The first four month training course for Queensland nurses commenced at the end of 1924. It produced eight graduates, trained in the Truby King Mothercraft system, followed by a further eleven in 1925. [15] These nurses went on to run new baby clinics [16], including those at Rockhampton, Townsville, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Cairns, Maryborough, Bundaberg Gympie, Mackay, Charters Towers, Woolloongabba and Warwick all constructed between October 1923 and February 1930. Apart from the Cairns clinic, the remaining ten regional clinics were of a standardised design. Thirty-five maternity wards were built in hospitals across the state at this time. [17]
In 1925-26 the Fortitude Valley Child Health Centre had the highest number of attendances and visits to new-borns compared with others in operation located in Herschel Street Brisbane City, West End, Woolloongabba, and Wynnum South. As headquarters for Queensland's baby clinics, administration of the clinics was performed from the building until around 1942 with clinics being sent 'rules' attempting to standardise the quality of health care throughout the state. [18] Dr Turner was appointed part-time director of the Department of Infant Welfare in July 1926 and he and Nurse Barron began travelling the state lecturing and writing about the need for high standards of infant care.
By July 1927 the number of patients attending the clinic for treatment had increased and accommodation was insufficient. The front verandah was enclosed with asbestos cement sheeting and venetian blinds for more room. In the same year the rear verandah was enclosed with sliding sashes to form a bedroom for the Superintendent Nurse and her previous room was converted to an office. With increased staff numbers, the rear verandah on the ground floor was enclosed with sashes to form a dining room. In 1928 a portion of the ground floor, front verandah was enclosed with sashes to give mothers and their babies' greater privacy from the street.
The Fortitude Valley Child Health Centre was expanded in 1929 to include ante-natal care [19] (pre-birth health care) and during the 1930s the accommodation at the clinic was regularly overtaxed. A large clinic was planned for South Brisbane at this time but was never built. Legislation introduced in 1932 made it compulsory for all births to be notified to the district registrar within 48 hours. The registrar then had to inform the nearest clinic within 24 hours.
In 1933 the building was painted externally and the old kalsomine paint was removed from the interior walls, which were then repainted.
The baby clinic system continued to expand during the 1930s. Nurses travelled the state in a specially fitted out rail car, equipped as a baby clinic, lecture room and staff quarters. A number of regional sub-centres were established from 1929, and these were also accessed by nurses travelling by rail. By 1938 the rail car was limited to the north-west corner of the state and the remainder was serviced by 26 baby clinics and 78 sub-centres. Both Dr Turner and Nurse Barron retired in 1938. In 1939 the name of the service was changed from the Department of Infant Welfare, to the Maternal and Child Welfare Department.
In 1938, a 4.5 m wide two-storey extension with basement was added to the Alfred Street building along the entire south-western side adding many new rooms and additional space. The extension was designed by Public Works architect Francis Lionel Jones in matching style and detail to the original building. The verandah roof was altered so as to be continuous from the main roof. In 1940 the upper level, front verandah was enclosed with casements and a fire stair was added to the back verandah. This extension was used as a Mothercraft home. The 1938 Annual Report of the Acting Director of Infant Welfare, Dr THR Matthewson, reported that the Alfred Street Clinic had taken in some premature and delicate babies and their mothers, including a set of triplets, all of whom had made satisfactory progress. There was a demonstrated need for a designated mothercraft home, but at that time the service could only be offered during the time that nurses were in training, which only occurred for eight months of the year.
In 1938 Dr Matthewson initiated an informal correspondence service for mothers unable to attend local clinics. [20] The following year he reported that lectures and demonstration of infant feeding were given to four doctors at the request of the British Medical Association, and that Lady Cilento, Lecturer in Mothercraft at the University of Queensland, attended the Alfred Street Clinic with her class of medical students on two occasions for demonstrations on care, management and feeding of infants. [21]
During the war, the clinic service particularly monitored families who had to be evacuated from areas where invasion seemed imminent. The petrol shortage led to an establishment of clinics in every suburb, amounting to 38 by 1942. Dr Matthewson was permanently appointed to the position of Medical Director in August 1941. At that time the facilities at the Alfred Street building were overcrowded. The Department of Defence which had occupied the Lady Lamington Hospital, vacated it, allowing for the Director, Superintendant, clerical staff, the nurses in charge of the correspondence centre, and ante-natal service to be relocated to this building. The correspondence service was able to be formalised from the new location.
The Mothercraft residential service could then be properly established at St Paul's Terrace, and housed 29 mothers and 53 infants during its first year, compared with 18 mothers and 31 infants who had been housed at Alfred Street the previous year. The Training School was relocated to St Paul's Terrace in 1942, and nurses accommodated in a nearby boarding house. [22] A second Mothercraft Home opened in Clayfield in 1943. Mothercraft facilities were expanded with the opening of 'Unara' in Toowoomba in 1947, the Jefferis Turner Home in Ipswich in August 1952, and the Rockhampton Home in September 1952.
By 1950 the infant mortality rate was reduced to fewer than 25 deaths per thousand births. New clinics were established in regional centres and many of the early clinic buildings were either extended or sold and larger buildings provided. Dr Jean McFarlane, who had become Deputy Director General in 1957, began regular television appearances in the early 1960s advising mothers on the management of their babies. [23] By 1975, Queensland recorded the lowest ever recorded infant mortality rate of 15 deaths per 1000 live births.
Major changes in the function of the Fortitude Valley Child Health Centre occurred from this time. During 1975 some administrative staff relocated to the first section of a new building under construction on the site of the former Lady Lamington Hospital, in St Paul's Terrace. It opened in November 1977 and included a Mothercraft Home and Nurse Training Centre. In 1978 the Maternal Child Welfare Service celebrated its 60th Jubilee. During this time the Fortitude Valley Child Health Centre continued to operate as a baby clinic although the use of the entire building had somewhat diminished since the 1941 relocation of the administrative, training and residential functions. Consequently little alteration has been made to the building fabric since then. In 1997, the directorate of Queensland Health's Oral Health Service moved into the building and in 2011 occupied the upper level and two offices on the ground level. [24] Community Child Health Services continues to occupy the remainder of the ground level of the building.
","criteria":"The Fortitude Valley Child Health Centre (1923) is important in demonstrating the development of Queensland Government health and social policy as it was the first training centre for maternal and child welfare nurses in the state, the headquarters and administration centre for all other baby clinics in the state, operated as one of the first baby clinics, and provided accommodation for mothers. Built as a Queensland Government initiative following the introduction of the Maternity Act 1922 and with funding from the state-operated lottery, the Golden Casket, it is important in demonstrating the government response to the early twentieth century Australia-wide movement to educate mothers in infant welfare and domestic hygiene, aimed at reducing the infant mortality rate.
|The Fortitude Valley Child Health Centre is highly intact and important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a purpose-built maternal and child welfare clinic, which include the spacious waiting area, doctor's room, treatment room and nurse accommodation. It also includes a nurse training centre incorporating a lecture room, and mother and baby accommodation consisting of wards, sitting room and laundry and ironing rooms.
The Fortitude Valley Child Health Centre is a good example of an interwar Queensland Department of Public Works institutional building characterised by good quality design and materials and constructed economically with discreet use of decorative treatments to achieve a domestic scale and character well suited to its use.
|Remaining as one of the two operational child health clinics from a group of 13 built across the state between 1923 and 1930, the Fortitude Valley Child Health Centre is significant for being highly intact and, as of 2011, having been in continuous use as a child health centre.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14820,"place_ref":600045,"name":"Dunaverty","alternate_name":"Carvarmore","street_address":"21 Birkbeck Street","suburb":"ALBION","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Located on the corner of Birkbeck and Hudson Rd, Dunaverty is a picturesque chamferboard cottage with a hipped corrugated iron roof. In its corner position and with its rich external detailing, the residence is prominent in a street of modest cottages along Birkbeck St, and makes a picturesque contribution to the streetscape.
The house is L-shaped in plan, with a wing extending out to the north east. It has a front verandah overlooking Birkbeck St to the south-west, a side verandah along the south eastern frontage, and an enclosed verandah in the northern corner. The building has a hipped roof, with gently curved verandah awnings.
The front elevation presents a richly decorated face to the street framed by mature palms. The verandah has cast iron posts with floriated capitals, and richly detailed cast iron valances and balustrade panels. The main entrance has a projecting barrel vault supported on paired posts, which has a finely carved fretwork panel with thistle motifs and a unicorn in a crest. The end panels of the verandah thistle motifs encircling a lion in a crest. The main roof has a scalloped timber trim and carved double eaves brackets. The front entrance has coloured glass surrounds with etched thistle motifs, and is flanked by projecting bay windows.
The north-west elevation facing Hudson Rd has sash windows protected by hoods on shaped timber brackets with fretwork panels which also incorporate the thistle motif. The rear verandah is enclosed with vertical timber louvres, but the fretwork end panels remain visible. Timber French doors and casement windows open onto the verandah to the south-east. Two richly detailed brick chimneys surmounted by barley-twisted terracotta chimney pots are visible from the rear of the house.
The house has three bedrooms and a rear kitchen along the south-western side; a central entrance hall, and a joined living and dining room to the north-east. The interior contains fine decorative detailing. It has cedar joinery throughout. The fanlights above the four doors to the front of the house are made of fretwork panels which incorporate the thistle motifs, and nicknames of Fraser's family: Nellie, Charlie, Mima, and Katie. The house has timber ceiling roses throughout which also incorporate thistle patterns, as do the coloured glass panels to the hall door (no longer extant). Much of the ironmongery in the house, particularly the door hinges and some escutcheons are decorated with floral patterns.
Dunaverty is an intact 'boom era' middle class residence with fine idiosyncratic detailing which makes a picturesque contribution to Birkbeck St.
","history":"Dunaverty was built in 1887 by builder and real estate entrepreneur Archibald McNish Fraser.
Fraser arrived in Brisbane from Argylshire in Scotland in 1880, aged 22, having completed his building apprenticeship, but with little money. He began his career in Brisbane working as a building contractor in Brisbane and Cleveland. Fraser built up his business, and by the mid 1880s had begun to move into real estate. Within two years of his arrival, he married Jemima Barclay, and in 1885 he purchased the Dunaverty site from his father-in-law, ganger John Barclay. He formally launched his own real estate business called the Onward Real Property Mart in 1887, the same year that Dunaverty was completed. By 1888 he had been made a J.P.
In 1888 the Aldine History of Queensland praised Fraser as exemplifying a breed of young Brisbane entrepreneurs who had risen to affluence from modest beginnings, saying: "...It is with pride the city looks upon the prosperity of many such young men..."
Fraser personalised Dunaverty with the decorative detailing. Much of the glass and timberwork incorporates Scottish thistle motifs. The fanlights over the four doors to the front of the house incorporate the nicknames of three of his five children (two were born whilst the Frasers lived at Dunaverty) and his wife: Nellie, Charlie, Mima, and Katie (Ellen, Charles, Jemima and Christina). The house may have been built to showcase Fraser's business.
The Fraser family moved out of Dunaverty during the recession in the early 1890s to Exeter St, West End. The family lived in a number of residences in South Brisbane and Highgate Hill in the following years. Dunaverty remained the property of the Frasers until 1912. Archibald McNish Fraser died in 1918.
After the Fraser family moved out of Dunaverty, the house had new tenants almost every year. In 1912 Dunaverty was bought by William McGregor, when it was renamed "Carvarmore". Again it was not occupied by its owners until it was sold again in 1925. The south-east verandah may have been added around this time. Dunaverty changed hands several times until the current owners bought it in 1998.
The previous owner added a polygonal room to the southern corner, and bathroom and laundry structures to the rear of the house. Until the current owners purchased the property, Dunaverty was a rental property, as it had been for much of the time since it was built. The house remains intact as a boom-era residence with personalised detailing. However, during 1998 the house was vacant, and some of the cedar joinery and ironmongery was stolen.
","criteria":"It has a strong association with one of Brisbane's 1880s immigrant entrepreneurs, Archibald McNish Fraser. The house is a fine and intact example of a 'boom era' 1880s timber residence which contains fine personalised detailing and which makes a picturesque contribution to the Birkbeck St and Hudson Rd streetscape.
|The house is a fine and intact example of a 'boom era' 1880s timber residence which contains fine personalised detailing and which makes a picturesque contribution to the Birkbeck St and Hudson Rd streetscape.
|The house is a fine and intact example of a 'boom era' 1880s timber residence which contains fine personalised detailing and which makes a picturesque contribution to the Birkbeck St and Hudson Rd streetscape.
|It has a strong association with one of Brisbane's 1880s immigrant entrepreneurs, Archibald McNish Fraser.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14821,"place_ref":600046,"name":"Farrington House","alternate_name":"Clifford House; Farrington","street_address":"39 David Street","suburb":"ALDERLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Farrington House is a single storeyed timber house with accommodation provided in the attic and underneath. The house is prominently sited on a hill top in Alderley, with expansive views of the surrounding areas.
The building is almost square in plan, with verandahs on four sides, partially enclosed on the southern and western sides. The corrugated iron gabled roof is punctuated with three dormer windows each on the tapering northern and southern sides. The gable ends of the buildings feature narrow timber balconies, with hipped awnings, flanked by multi pane casement windows. Overhanging eaves and the decorative barge boards of the gables are supported on paired timber fretwork brackets. The single skinned external walls of the principal floor of the house are cross braced. Gable ends are clad with chamfered timber boards, and the underneath of the building is clad with tongue and grooved boarding.
The south elevation of Farrington House houses the principal entrance which is via concrete stairs leading to a gabled section in the verandah awning, featuring a fretwork panel and with a finial. The verandah awning is supported on paired stop chamfered timber posts with mouldings, and fretwork brackets and infill panels between the paired posts. A cast iron balustrade, signed with John Grase Registered December 14 1883 NO14.1, is surmounted by a bread loaf handrail. These same details are found on the gable balconies.
The front door is half glazed with a leadlight panel incorporating the words Farrington House and Dulcius ex Asperis. French doors flank this and are also found leading from all other rooms opening onto the verandah.
Internally, the house is arranged around a central hallway which extends from the front door to a rear door, and is comprised of an entrance section separated from the stair section by a plaster arch lined with cedar moulding. The half turn cedar stair, has turned newel and balusters and arrives in a central open balustraded well on the attic floor. Generally the interior walls are of beaded board to the ground floor and tongue and groove on the floor above; the floors are timber board and joinery of stained cedar. Ceilings on the ground floor are generally plaster, whilst those above are beaded board.
To the west of the central hallway are the formal dining and drawing rooms, separated by a four leaf folding cedar doorway, with six panelled doors. A dark grey marble chimney piece, denoting the former dining room, features early encaustic tiles and cast iron fire place. These rooms and the hallway are distinguished from others in the house by high skirtings boards and more elaborate cornices.
","history":"Farrington House is a single storeyed timber building with attic which was apparently built in about 1882 for Frederick Waters Wilson.
Wilson was a wealthy biscuit manufacturer and champion wedding cake designer. His company FW Wilson & Co, Steam Biscuit Manufacturers (est. 1874), was the first steam biscuit factory in the colony. Wilson utilised some of his 13 acres (5.2 hectares) for farming.
Apparently the property was rented from the mid 1890s till 1915 when David Henry Rhoades, a furniture manufacturer and retailer of Fortitude Valley, subdivided the estate so that the land was reduced to 2 acres (0.8 hectares).
Colonel Henry William Lee lived at Farrington House from 1917 to 1930. Lee, a schoolteacher, was a foundation member of the Queensland Teachers Union and was on the University Senate from 1920 to 23. His eldest daughter Iva Ada was the first woman resident at Women's College studying pharmacy. Farrington House provided a social venue for Lee's children, several of whom were married there. It was during the Lees' occupation that the house was converted from kerosene lighting to electricity and the telephone installed.
Over the next two decades Farrington House changed owners frequently until purchased by the Baptist Union of Queensland. From 1948 to 1956 it was known as Clifford House, and used by the Baptists as a residence for the elderly. It subsequently became a rooming house and flats. Originally a detached kitchen and laundry were linked to the dwelling by a covered way, and beyond was a brick bathroom.
The house has been substantially renovated during its life, and has been returned to its stautus as a private residence. Though little remains of the original garden and orchard, the well is still viable and the position provides 360? views of Brisbane from this prominent hill-top house. Recently two stained glass windows, signed by Messrs Ashwin and Falconer, Stained Glass Artists, 314 Pitt St Sydney NSW of c1882 were removed from the house.
","criteria":"Farrington House demonstrates the growth of the Alderley area, and typifies the evolution of many large Queensland homes, through family home, rental property and refuge uses.
|The building is of importance for its architectural quality, as a picturesque version of a late nineteenth century Queensland house, which remains intact in form. The house, situated on a prominent site in Alderley, is a local landmark.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14822,"place_ref":600047,"name":"Chateau Nous","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"1 Rupert Terrace","suburb":"ASCOT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This two-storeyed rendered masonry house, with a flat sheet metal roof concealed behind a parapet wall, sits on a level southeast corner site in Ascot. The building shows a strong Functionalist approach in its design, with architectural and decorative elements including brick banding, which is now painted over, curved corner walls and windows, glass bricks and contrasting vertical and horizontal elements.
The entrance is on the south, recessed below a flat concrete awning supported by large concrete brackets. Directly above is a projecting angled alcove, with windows to the first floor, which culminates at the parapet. The building has terracotta tiled roofdecks with solid upstands and metal tubular railings to the southeast and northwest. The north side of the building sits on a face brick base with a dining terrace on the northeast, below the main bedroom, which overlooks the lawn tennis court to the north. The entrance to the subfloor air-raid shelter is located on the east below a projecting rounded pediment.
The building has metal framed casement windows, some of which have geometric leadlight panels with some windows set in curved walls. French doors, of both metal and timber frames, open onto decks which are shaded by recent metal framed canvas awnings. Awnings also shade windows to the west on the first floor. A recent timber framed carport with brick bases is attached to the western face, and trellises built in the same style are located at the south entry and at the north overlooking the tennis court.
Internally, walls are plastered and most rooms have decorative plaster ceilings. An Art Deco influence is evident with a nautical design, consisting of three concentric circles with intersecting rippled or straight lines, which is used in the wrought iron stair railing and repeated in the leadlight french doors opening off the foyer, is outlined in brass strips in the main bathroom's aggregate floor and is depicted on the chrome hood of the fireplace.
The foyer has a marble tiled floor which continues into the lounge and dining rooms and borders the carpeted stair. The foyer and stair walls are panelled with timber veneer to first floor height and the door into the kitchen has a glass porthole. The entrance door has a sandblasted panel with the inscription CHATEAU NOUS, and all doors and architraves are stained timber with chrome door hardware.
The lounge has a corner brick fireplace with a chrome hood and mirrored panels above the mantelpiece. The south wall has twin rows of vertical glass bricks and the east wall is rounded. A vertical row of glass bricks is located in the south wall of the informal dining room, which also has a servery to the L-shaped kitchen which has been refitted. The original garage is used as a guest bedroom, but retains the timber and glass garage doors which have also been reproduced for the more recent garage located on the northwest.
The former servants quarters are used for sewing and storage. The cork tiled family room extension is accessed from the kitchen, the junction of which has a lightwell which provides natural light and ventilation to the main bathroom above. The stairwell has a vertical row of glass bricks which is now backed by rice paper screens to the family room and bedroom above.
The first floor breakfast room has timber veneer wall panelling and a dumb waiter cabinet, which is no longer used. The projecting angled alcove above the entry is located in this room. The main bedroom extension has relocated the original bedroom window to the north wall and has a curved east wall with replica leadlight windows.
The main bathroom has green Vitrolite wall panels with a mauve bath and basin. The children's bedroom, which was originally a deck, has a flat concrete awning to its internal entrance and an internal window to the adjoining bedroom.
The grounds include an inground concrete swimming pool to the southeast and a lawn tennis court with timber and wire fencing to the north with dressing sheds built between these at the east. A low rendered masonry garden wall runs along both street frontages with a higher masonry wall screening the pool area.
","history":"Chateau Nous is a two-storeyed rendered masonry house with a flat sheet metal roof concealed behind a parapet wall. An earlier house on the site was relocated in 1937 when the property was purchased by Brisbane dentist George Stewart and his wife Eileen.
They employed architect Douglas Francis Woodcraft Roberts to design the building. Roberts had travelled, worked and studied in the USA and designed the building from a Functionalist approach. His design was considered ultra modern for Brisbane in 1938, and incorporated many of the latest architectural trends and materials with a strong Art Deco influence to the interiors.
The house was noted for its all electric kitchen with appliances arranged in one line, and an electric dumb waiter servicing an upstairs breakfast room. The Stewarts employed four full time staff; two maids, a nurse and a gardener.
Additions to the building started within two years of its completion, with the enclosure of the dining room, and of the balcony over the servants quarters for a billiard room. During the Second World War a reinforced concrete air raid shelter, which the Stewarts shared with their neighbours, was constructed.
After Dr Stewarts death in 1962 the building was rented until Brisbane architect Noel Robinson purchased it in 1979. An inground swimming pool was added and in 1985 an adjoining block of land was purchased. The following year a large extension in keeping with the architecture of the building and consisting of a family room, remodelled kitchen, terrace, garage, master bedroom and ensuite was added to the north, as well as a grass tennis court.
","criteria":"Chateau Nous demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage, in that it is an early example of Functionalist domestic architecture in Brisbane. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Functionalist building.
Chateau Nous is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the contribution of the building and grounds, through scale, form and material, to the local streetscape and Ascot townscap, through the quality and intactness of the original Art Deco interior elements and as an example of both Functionalist and Art Deco design.
Chateau Nous is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative achievement for the late 1930s in Brisbane, in its adoption of Functionalist architecture.
Chateau Nous has a special association with architect DFW Roberts, as an unusual example of his domestic work, being an early use of Functionalist architecture in Brisbane.
|Chateau Nous demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage, in that it is an early example of Functionalist domestic architecture in Brisbane.
|The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Functionalist building.
|Chateau Nous is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the contribution of the building and grounds, through scale, form and material, to the local streetscape and Ascot townscap, through the quality and intactness of the original Art Deco interior elements and as an example of both Functionalist and Art Deco design.
|Chateau Nous is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative achievement for the late 1930s in Brisbane, in its adoption of Functionalist architecture.
|Chateau Nous has a special association with architect DFW Roberts, as an unusual example of his domestic work, being an early use of Functionalist architecture in Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14823,"place_ref":600048,"name":"Windermere","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"14 Sutherland Avenue","suburb":"ASCOT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Windermere is a substantial picturesque single-storeyed chamferboard residence with corrugated iron roofs. The house sits on a rise and is set back from Sutherland Avenue, overlooking gardens which contain mature trees and a tennis court. The building and mature trees contribute to the Ascot townscape.
\nThe building has been added to and altered over the years, but the core of the house and its principal frontage to the street remain substantially intact in form and detail. This core comprises a 'public realm' of formal entertaining areas to the south, separated by a generous corridor/entry hall from a 'private realm' of rooms for family use. The house also has two more recently added wings which extend out to the rear: part of the southern wing is a 1930s addition. The house has wide verandahs to the south and the east, which connect via a gazebo in the south eastern corner. A verandah to the north east is now partially enclosed. The house has multiple projecting bays: large faceted bays to the north east and southwest, which project out beyond the main roof line; a bay to the north encircled by a faceted verandah; a small step-out bay to the north and two small faceted bays either side of the front entrance.
\nExternally, the house has picturesque and fine detailing. The large projecting bays have faceted roofs, battened eaves, shaped timber eaves brackets, and are crowned with tall finials. The verandahs have cast iron balustrades, chamfered timber posts with timber capitals, and mortice and tenoned lattice spandrels, curved timber valances, and timber-lined ceilings. The gazebo to the south east corner of the house has an ogee roof topped with a large turned finial. The base of the house is enclosed with lattice panels. The eastern (front) elevation has a central entrance stair which arrives under a projecting pediment supported on paired posts. The wide cedar entrance door is framed with sidelights and fanlights.
\nThe 'core' of the house has high timber lined ceilings, and timber lined floors and walls with picture rails throughout. The house contains fine detailing, including cedar joinery, etched and coloured glass windows, timber ceiling roses, mouldings and marble fireplaces with hand-painted tiles. The corridors have fine cedar arches with scalloped edges. The timber sash windows have frosted edging with patterned corners. Several fanlights also have coloured glass. Timber French doors open onto the verandahs.
\nThe grounds contain some large mature trees, including Bunya pines and Camphor Laurel. The Sutherland Avenue frontage has a finely decorated fence with substantial gateposts.
","history":"Windermere was built on land first alienated in 1855 by pastoralist James Sutherland. Sutherland owned many acres in the Toombul parish and land in the city. He worshipped at the Fortitude Valley Wesleyan Methodist Church to which he left an annual legacy when he died in 1875. Sutherland appears to have built a three bedroom dwelling on the site called \"Hillside House\". The house was rented in the late 1870s and in the early 1880s surveyor Henry St John Woods address was Windermere. On Wood's taking up the position of government surveyor at Maryborough in 1885 the house became vacant.
\nIt is believed that Windermere was demolished and a new house was built for Sutherland's daughter Ruth and her husband solicitor John George Appel on the site c 1886. The house may have been designed by architect Richard Gailey, although this remains unsubstantiated.
\nJohn Appel married Ruth Sutherland in 1879, and shortly afterwards was admitted as a solicitor. He retired from practice around ten years later to become a pastoralist and politician. He was a member of the Hamilton Shire Council in 1890-1908, and was chairman twice: after Hamilton became a municipality he was twice mayor. Appel had farming interests in the Nerang area, and in 1902 he also became a member for six years of the Nerang Shire Council. Appel stood for and won the seat of Albert in 1908, and joined the ministry as secretary for mines and public works, finding his true metier as home secretary in 1909, retaining this portfolio until 1915.
\nWindermere was owned by Charles Frederick White for five years from 1918, during which time it was rented. In 1923 it was the house was bought by George Kermode Jeffrey and his wife Lillian. During the 1920s the detached kitchen wing and servants quarters were demolished, and the eastern verandah enclosed.
\nFrom 1928 until 1967 the property was owned and inhabited by Dr Ellis Murphy and his wife Mary (daughter of T.C. Bierne). Dr Ellis was a physician to the Brisbane Hospital from 1938 to 1954, and part-time Professor of Medicine at the University of Queensland from 1950-54. He was knighted in 1967.
\nIn 1967 Windermere was purchased by Barbara and Trevor Cottee. In 1984 it was bought by Robert Geoffrey Bentley and his wife, and again sold in 1986 to Peter Maloney and wife. During the 1980s, the house underwent substantial modifications which included the reconstruction of the front stairs, the addition of a bathroom and study in the northern section of the house, the demolition of the rear laundry and bathroom, works to the rear of the house, and the re-decking of the front verandah. In 1994 the residence was bought by T &D Weeks, and extensive reburbishment of the gardens, rear wings, front verandah and interior was undertaken. The place subsequently changed hands in 1998, 2002 and 2014 and remains in private ownership.
","criteria":"Windermere is an excellent example of the type of home built for the prominent families during the 1880s boom period. It has a strong association with prominent Queensland politician/pastoralist John Appel, and notable Brisbane physician Dr Ellis Murphy. The picturesque residence and mature trees contribute to the Ascot townscape, and the residence contains fine internal detailing.
|Windermere is an excellent example of the type of home built for the prominent families during the 1880s boom period.
|The picturesque residence and mature trees contribute to the Ascot townscape, and the residence contains fine internal detailing.
|It has a strong association with prominent Queensland politician/pastoralist John Appel, and notable Brisbane physician Dr Ellis Murphy.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14824,"place_ref":600049,"name":"Glen Lyon","alternate_name":"Marist Fathers Monastery | Glenlyon | Glenlyon House","street_address":"34 Glenlyon Drive","suburb":"ASHGROVE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Glen Lyon is a large two-storeyed brick residence which is rendered to resemble ashlar. It has a hipped tiled roof, which originally was clad with slates. Wide verandahs on three sides at both levels are ornamented with cast-iron balustrading and Corinthian pillars.
At the front and north-eastern side, sets of white marble steps with urns lead to the lower verandah, which is paved with black and white marble. Bay windows to both levels on the front elevation have wide, rectangular, sashed windows, and the front entrance incorporates side panels and a fanlight of stained glass. Kitchen and bedroom wings at the rear enclose a courtyard containing a well.
Marble fireplaces are a feature of the interior, and the joinery is mainly of oak. Hand-painted decoration is visible on one of the ceilings. An elaborate stained glass window above the central staircase bears the motto of the first owners - Semper fidelis (always faithful) - but the lion's head family crest formerly located beneath this has been replaced by depictions of the Virgin Mary and Child.
Adjacent to the residence is a chapel which was formerly a billiards room, gun room and cellar. It is a small rendered brick building with a corrugated-iron hipped roof, bay windows, and arched porches. Most of the windows contain stained glass.
The detached brick dairy is externally intact, but has been converted into a toilet block. The former servants' quarters remains, as does the well.
The house and outbuildings remain on a much reduced site of approximately .78 of a hectare.
","history":"This two-storeyed residence, the second oldest in the Ashgrove area, was erected in 1876-7 for Alexander Stewart, a partner in the merchant firm of Stewart & Hemmant. It was the centrepiece of a 250 acre (100 hectare) estate acquired by Stewart in 1875 and 1876. The property, which extended along both sides of Enoggera Creek, was named Glen Lyon after Stewart's birthplace in Scotland.
Probably designed by architect James Cowlishaw, the original plans were modified when financial considerations forced Stewart to have a more modest residence erected.
At Glen Lyon, Stewart created a country estate. Within a few years the property contained a dairy herd, fowl runs, duck pond, an orchard and vegetable garden and an assortment of outbuildings. A well was sunk, detached servants' quarters and a dairy were constructed at the rear of the main house, and a coachman's cottage, known as the Lodge, was erected near Waterworks Road.
An avenue of bunya pines, which still stand, was planted the length of the front drive (now Glenlyon Drive). The present entrance gates are not the original; wrought iron gates set in pillars of granite, which formerly fronted Waterworks Road, have been removed to Stuartholme Convent.
A detached billiards room was constructed in the 1880s or early 1890s, and the grounds around the house were landscaped. Steps led from the billiard room to a tennis court.
Alexander Stewart died in 1918 and the property was subsequently sold. Most of the estate was purchased by developer T M Burke who gradually subdivided it as the Glenlyon Estate. The house and immediate surrounds were purchased by the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane. From about 1927 the house was rented to the New Zealand province of the Society of Mary (Marist Fathers), who purchased it in 1930. The Marist Fathers sold Glen Lyon c2003 and it currently functions as a private residence.
","criteria":"Glen Lyon is one of the earliest residences in the Enoggera Creek area, and is closely associated with the development of the suburb of Ashgrove.
|Glen Lyon is a rare and substantially intact late 1870s country house with associated outbuildings and gardens, and an avenue of trees.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14826,"place_ref":600051,"name":"Raymont Lodge","alternate_name":"Drysllwyn | Raymont Residential College","street_address":"47 Cadell Street","suburb":"AUCHENFLOWER","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Situated on the crest of a rise overlooking Auchenflower, Raymont Lodge is a large, two-storeyed red brick residence built in the Federation style. The building has a half-gabled roof of broad profile, rolled edge iron sheeting with a projecting hipped bay to the northeast and southeast, a pedimented entry porch to the northwest and elaborately detailed chimneys.
The building has deep verandahs with arched masonry arcades and timber balustrade to the north, east and west. The entry porch is approached via a wide flight of steps and has paired columns to the first floor supporting the pediment. French doors with fanlights and step-out sash windows open onto the verandahs. The timber panelled main entry door is set in a large arched brick opening with stained glass fanlight and sidelights. A bathroom opening off the southeast verandah has a similarly elaborate doorway.
The interior features decorative stained glass, ornate plaster mouldings and finely detailed cedar staircases, joinery, panelling and fireplace surrounds.
The building is approached via a paved drive and turning circle from the northwest, with most of the recently constructed buildings being located to the north, east and south of the building leaving the Cadell Street aspect intact. The grounds contain a number of mature trees, with an inground concrete swimming pool to the northwest.
Although much of the site has been subdivided and sold for suburban housing, remnants of the original landscaping survive, as does a section of masonry perimeter fence, with iron entrance gates, which extends to the corner of Cadell Street and Park Avenue, returning along the latter.
","history":"This large, two-storeyed brick residence was built c. 1904-05 for mining entrepreneur William Davies. Around the turn of the century Davies, who had been involved in the gold industry in Gympie, moved to Brisbane, and in 1903 he purchased the Auchenflower site.
Architect Claude Chambers whose Brisbane work spanned fifty years (1885-1935) won a competition to design the residence. The building was large and spacious, and the main interior spaces were richly decorated. The ground floor contained dining, breakfast and drawing rooms, library, kitchen, bathroom laundry and storerooms. On the first floor were located a main bedroom with dressing room and bathroom, two other bedrooms, another bathroom, a visitor's room, and servant's bedroom. Verandahs on two levels enclosed the building on three sides. The grounds contained a formal garden.
During the 1930s part of the property was subdivided for residential development. The Davies family resided at Drysllwyn until February 1942, when it was leased to the Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association for use by Somerville House as a day school. Somerville House had been forced to vacate temporarily their property at South Brisbane for use as Administrative headquarters for the United States Army.
In 1944-45 the property was acquired by the Methodist Church, and converted into a hostel for country girls studying in Brisbane. The hostel was opened in August 1945 and the building renamed Raymont Lodge, in honour of Mrs E Raymont who had made a substantial bequest to the Methodist Church.
The hostel was run under the auspices of the Central Methodist Mission. A parsonage for the Superintendent of the Central Methodist Mission was erected in the western corner of the property facing Cadell Street. By the 1960s a new dormitory wing had been added to house both male and female students.
During the 1980s major changes occurred on the site with the Uniting Church relocating its state headquarters and Trinity Theological College in the grounds. A three storey brick office building was erected at the rear of Drysllwyn and facing Bayliss Street. As well, a new residential building was built to promote accommodation for tertiary students. Conservation work was undertaken on Drysllwyn during this period.
Drysllwyn currently provides office space, meeting rooms and a student common room for the Trinity Theological College.
","criteria":"Raymont Lodge is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial federation style residence.
Raymont Lodge is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, the quality and craftsmanship of its main interior spaces and the streetscape contribution of the building and grounds.
Raymont Lodge has a special association with the life of mining entrepreneur William Davies, the domestic work of architect Claude Chambers and the benevolent work of the Methodist Church.
|Raymont Lodge is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial federation style residence.
|Raymont Lodge is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, the quality and craftsmanship of its main interior spaces and the streetscape contribution of the building and grounds.
|Raymont Lodge has a special association with the life of mining entrepreneur William Davies, the domestic work of architect Claude Chambers and the benevolent work of the Methodist Church.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14827,"place_ref":600052,"name":"Moorlands","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"451 Coronation Drive","suburb":"AUCHENFLOWER","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"Moorlands is a large, two storeyed, rendered brick building, with timber belvedere and an attached service wing to the rear. It stands prominently on a hill overlooking the Brisbane River at the Toowong Reach, in substantial grounds fronting Coronation Drive.
\nThe main roof is clad with slate, but the steep turreted roof of a corner observation tower is sheeted in broad-profile galvanised iron. Four double chimney stacks rise above the roofline.
\nThe southeast and northeast elevations, with views of the river, feature verandahs on both levels, an elaborate timber belvedere at the corner, and a projecting gable with bay windows in the front (southeastern) elevation. The verandahs and tower are detailed with double timber posts with shared capitals and timber brackets, a balustrading of fine cast iron, and a timber valance.
\nInternally the walls and high ceilings are plastered and painted, with plaster ceiling roses in every room and arches in the hallways and in front of the bay windows.
\nThe principal rooms feature elaborate cornices, paper friezes and timber moulding picture rails, which once were decorated in polychrome and gilding. Only the principal front room retains the original decoration.
\nMost rooms contain a fireplace with glazed ceramic tiles and a marble surround. Extensive cedar joinery (particularly the fine staircase and folding doors on the ground floor), is employed throughout the interior. Fretwork balustrading panels in the stairwell feature the intertwined letters PM and on the base newel are carved the words sursum corda (lift up your hearts). The stairwell is lit by a large stained glass window of elaborate design.
\nThe internal arrangement of rooms survives, including the cellars beneath the kitchen.
\nA number of mature trees including bunya, poinciana and jacaranda are remnants of an earlier landscaped garden. The multi-storeyed Wesley Hospital complex is situated adjacent to the building.
","history":"Moorlands was constructed in 1892 for the Mayne family of Brisbane. It replaced an earlier timber residence on the site which was known as Moorlands Villa.
\nMary Mayne, widow of Patrick Mayne, had purchased the earlier house and almost six hectares in 1878. Patrick Mayne was a prominent Brisbane resident in the 1860s-70s who owned a butcher shop in Queen Street, served as an alderman and speculated in property. Mary Mayne and her five children resided in Moorlands Villa until her death in September 1889.
\nFour of the children, James, William, Isaac and Mary, continued to occupy the property and decided to build a new house. The foundation stone was laid by Mary Mayne on 3 June 1892. Beneath this was placed a time-capsule, enclosing newspapers of the day and a statement explaining why the house was being built.
\nThe building was designed by architect Richard Gailey, and erected by contractor Arthur Smith. The ground floor contained porch, vestibule, staircase hall, drawing room, parlour, dining room, smoking room, cloakroom, serving room, pantries and kitchen. The basement housed cellars, dairy, stores and laundry. A vestibule, ten bedrooms and several bathrooms were located on the first floor.
\nMoorlands remained the property of the Mayne family until 1940, when it was bequeathed to the University of Queensland, to which the family also had donated funds in the 1920s to purchase the St Lucia campus.
\nUnited States service personnel and the Australian Army occupied the Moorlands property during the Second World War and erected huts in the grounds (since removed). In 1947 the building was sold to the Brisbane Legacy War Widows and Orphans Fund, and accommodated war-orphaned children and widows until 1971.
\nThe Methodist (later Uniting) Church bought the property in 1971 and the Wesley Hospital, which opened in March 1977, was built in the grounds behind the house. Moorlands was renovated and converted to office accommodation for the Blue Nursing Service. In the 1990s it was the head office of the Uniting Church's Division of Aged Care and Domiciliary Services.
\nFollowing road widening in the 1970s the front fencing was removed and the gates and gate posts (replicas of the originals) were relocated higher up towards the main building.
","criteria":"Moorlands is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial 1890's brick residence.
\nMoorlands is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular its landmark quality, contribution to the Coronation Drive streetscape and to the riverscape of the Toowong Reach of the Brisbane River.
\nMoorlands has special association with the Mayne family, major benefactors of the University of Queensland, and with the domestic work of architect Richard Gailey.
|Moorlands is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial 1890's brick residence.
|Moorlands is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular its landmark quality, contribution to the Coronation Drive streetscape and to the riverscape of the Toowong Reach of the Brisbane River.
|Moorlands has special association with the Mayne family, major benefactors of the University of Queensland, and with the domestic work of architect Richard Gailey.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14828,"place_ref":600053,"name":"Bardon House","alternate_name":"Franciscan Sisters' Convent","street_address":"41 The Drive","suburb":"BARDON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Bardon House and St Mary Magdalene's Hall are located within the grounds of St Joseph's School, Bardon. Bardon House is located on a rise above The Drive to the south, near the intersection with Cecil Road. Originally situated overlooking Ithaca Creek, it is now partly surrounded by school buildings to the west, north and northwest. The open space that extends between the House and the Hall to the east, enhances the setting of the two buildings; in 2017 the area is in use as a carpark. The Hall is situated adjacent to and facing the main entrance to the school off The Drive, and a lawn area to the front is bordered by a low brick fence. Due to its elevated position, Bardon House is a prominent feature along The Drive and makes an important contribution to the streetscape. An important feature of the place is the views formed by the relationship between Bardon House, its surrounds and the hills of the Taylor Range to the west.
\nBardon House
\nBardon House, an example of Victorian Gothic-styled architecture, is a two-storeyed stone structure that has a complex steeply pitched roof, with intersecting gables and dormer windows. The roof was originally shingled, but is currently sheeted with ribbed decking, and the chimney stacks have been removed. The gables have decorative fretwork bargeboards, and the dormers have louvred window units. The building has an L-shaped plan, with the main wing facing northeast and a service wing at the rear to the south. A single-storeyed gabled extension has been added to the rear southern wing, and lean-to additions to the western side.
\nThe building is constructed of a combination of coursed and uncoursed squared rubble, with the remains of tuck pointing, and rough faced sandstone quoining to corners, doors and windows.
\nThe northeast elevation has a central projecting gable, and an enclosed verandah to the ground floor. The gable has a central louvred window, surmounted by a sandstone relieving arch, with a stepped sandstone moulding below. The enclosed verandah has a corrugated iron lean-to roof, fibrous cement cladding, and louvred and casement windows.
\nThe southeast elevation has a wide gable end to the main wing, with a narrower projecting gable adjacent to the south. A lean-to verandah is located adjacent to the southern wing. The wide gable has a large multi-paned leadlight sash window to the ground floor, with evidence of a former window hood, surmounted by a sandstone relieving arch. The first floor has a smaller casement window surmounting a stepped sandstone moulding, with a narrow lancet to the apex. The narrower gable has a central door to the ground floor, which is no longer used, with a fanlight and squared sandstone moulding forming the upper part of an architrave. The first floor has a narrow lancet window, with glass louvres, surmounting a stepped sandstone moulding. The lean-to verandah has been enclosed with timber lattice at the northern end, and has square timber posts and timber rail balustrade.
\nThe northwest elevation has a gable end to the main wing, with two courses of sandstone forming a base, and a large louvred window to the ground floor surmounted by a sandstone relieving arch. The first floor has a smaller casement window surmounting a stepped sandstone moulding. A small square window opening, with glass louvres lighting a non-original toilet, has been inserted to the south of the casement window. External plumbing is also visible.
\nThe lean-to addition to the western side of the rear wing has a corrugated iron roof, fibrous cement cladding, louvred windows and a brick base. A single-storeyed southern extension is constructed of Flemish bond brickwork, with a corrugated iron gable roof. The southern end of the southeast verandah has been enclosed with fibrous cement cladding, and has casement windows and French doors onto the verandah.
\nInternally, the ground floor of the main wing has a large central room (chapel), with a smaller room either side, and an enclosed verandah lined with fibrous cement sheeting along the northeast. The northern room has a central partition wall, which divides the space forming two bedrooms, and which bisects the fireplace surround and window. A staircase and hallway is located within the intersection with the southern wing, which has a living room with a verandah on the southeast. A kitchen and music room with verandah forms the later extension to the south. The western side has a lean-to addition, containing a dining room, laundry, bathroom, store and hallway, and is lined with fibrous cement sheeting. The ground floor of the building has mainly rendered masonry walls, pressed metal ceilings, and French doors with fanlights opening onto verandahs. The joinery is painted throughout, but reportedly is of cedar, and includes panelled doors, some with fanlights, architraves, skirtings and some fireplace surrounds. All fireplaces have been filled in.
\nA small room adjacent to the staircase has an external door which is no longer used, and a pivoting window with coloured glass panels opening onto the southeast verandah. This room may have formed part of the original entrance foyer, but the original arrangement in unknown. The staircase is early, but not original, and consists of a narrow dog-leg with winders, narrow turned timber newel posts and slim timber balusters. The wall to the south of the staircase has fibrous cement sheeting. The rear kitchen area has been altered, with a small room forming a two-way pantry, and a door and window to the western addition being removed.
\nInternally, the first floor contains bedrooms with a hallway along the southwest side and a bathroom at the northwest end. Walls and ceilings are lined with fibrous cement sheeting, with the rake of the roof sloping to approximately window sill height. A partition wall divides the central room into two bedrooms, bisecting a dormer window. The northwest bathroom, toilet and bedroom were also formed by a partition wall dividing a larger room. A large bedroom, to the southwest of the stairs, is accessed by a short hallway extension of the landing.
\nA carport is located on the southern side of the western lean-to addition, and a timber fence encloses a western garden. A large mango tree is situated near the southwest corner of the house. Modern concrete block retaining walls align approximately parallel to the northeast and southeast sides of the house, forming a landscaped platform containing lawn areas and garden beds with hedges and shrubs.
\nSt Mary Magdalene's Hall (Lyon’s Hall)
\nThe Hall is located on a steeply sloping site, with the front entrance on the southwest at ground level, and the rear of the building supported on a combination of tall concrete stumps and modern metal posts. It is a single-storeyed weatherboard-clad and tile-roofed structure comprising: a rectangular gable-roofed core with raised ridge ventilation; a hip-roofed bay with a projecting gabled porch framing the entrance; a large faceted bay containing a stage at the rear; and an office in the eastern corner. External stairs access the office and the northeast corner of the hall. Windows comprising glass horizontal louvres, with flat-sheeted fanlights, are evenly spaced along either side. Part of the understorey has been enclosed, with a combination of painted blockwork and flat sheeted walls, and has timber-framed casement windows.
\nThe front porch sits on a brick plinth, which is accessed by a concrete ramp, and has a sheeted and battened gable infill. A marble foundation stone is embedded in the brickwork; it reads: ‘ST MARY MAGDALENE’S | THIS FOUNDATION STONE WAS BLESSED AND LAID BY THE RIGH REVEREND MONSIGNOR BYRNE, V.G. | 5TH SEPTEMBER 1926’. A modern metal plaque is also fixed to the brickwork; it reads: ‘LYONS’ HALL | FR RAY LYONS | Bardon Curate from 1937, Bardon Parish Priest 1954-1977’.
\nThe interior layout comprises a large open hall space, with storage and a modern kitchen in the entrance bay. The raised stage is accessed by timber steps and framed by a bulkhead surround. The interior features decorative timberwork throughout. The walls are of stained timber vertical boards to dado height, above which the walls are sheeted with a pale coloured material with dark stained cover strips placed in a symmetrical pattern. The ceiling features open timber trusses and is lined with dark stained timber boards which are diagonally laid with lattice ventilators at either end.
\nOther Buildings
\nOther buildings, structures, pathways, and sheds, and modern partitions and joinery, within the cultural heritage boundary are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Bardon House, a two-storeyed stone residence, was constructed in 1863/64 by Joshua Jeays, builder, architect and early mayor of Brisbane. It is thought that he constructed it for his wife Sarah, who died prior to its completion.
\nJoshua Jeays (1812-1881) arrived in Moreton Bay from England with his wife Sarah and four children in 1853. Born in Leicestershire, he trained as a carpenter and builder and worked in London before emigrating. Jeays established himself independently as a builder and contractor in Brisbane from 1857 after dissolving his earlier partnership with JW Thompson, securing contracts for many notable early Brisbane buildings including Old Government House [QHR 600118]. After retiring in 1864, he continued to operate his stone quarry at Woogaroo, where some of the finer stone for Bardon House was quarried. He was also involved in local politics, becoming an alderman of the Brisbane Municipal Council in its foundation year, 1859 and serving as Mayor in 1864-65. From 1854, Jeays resided with his family at a house on North Quay.[1]
\nThe first half of the 1860s was a period of strong growth for Brisbane in the newly established colony of Queensland. Immigration boosted the population dramatically (more than doubling between 1861 and 1864 to over 12,000) and many substantial public and private buildings were constructed during this time. The urban environment of Brisbane's fledgling town centre, where residential dwellings co-existed in close proximity with commercial and industrial activity, was characterised by congestion, noise, and poor sanitation, common among other developing towns and cities in mid-19th century Australia.[2]
\nDuring this period ‘villa estates', located in the suburban periphery in then semi-rural settings - on elevated locations such as along ridgelines, and in some instances with river frontage - became an increasingly popular type of dwelling for Brisbane's more affluent residents. This demographic included senior public servants, professionals and successful business people. The flight to residential villa estates by the affluent was a development pattern that occurred internationally during the Victorian era. Key elements of villa estates included large and comfortable houses, associated outbuildings such as servant's quarters and stabling, expansive garden settings, and a ‘good road to town’.[3]
\nIn November 1862, in the first land sales for the area, Jeays acquired two Country Lots (Portions 301 and 302) ‘on Ithaca Creek’ before purchasing the adjacent Portion 300 from Francis Lyon in early 1863. Comprising 38 acres (15.38 ha), Portion 300 was the property on which Bardon House was constructed.[4]
\nBardon House is thought to have been constructed by Jeays during 1863/64. The name is derived from Leicestershire County’s highest landmark, Bardon Hill, close to Joshua and Sarah Jeays’ respective home towns of Loughborough and Beeby.[5]
\nSarah Jeays died in July 1864 while her husband was serving as the mayor of Brisbane; Joshua Jeays retired from business shortly afterwards and never resided at Bardon House, remaining at North Quay until his death in 1881.[6]
\nJeays advertised a ‘Stone-Built Suburban VILLA RESIDENCE’ (sic) for lease in February 1865, with similar adverts appearing in subsequent months in the Brisbane Courier. By early 1866, Jeays’ daughter Sarah and husband [Sir] Charles Lilley (later Premier and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland) resided there. A family notice marking the birth of a son (Arthur) in March 1866 is the earliest documented reference to the place being called Bardon.[7] The Lilley’s occupancy of Bardon House appears to have ended by mid-1867, when Jeays was again advertising Bardon:
\n‘…a stone Villa, containing ten rooms beside coach-house, stables, out-offices, and garden, and 40 or 90 acres of land securely fenced.’[8]
\nThe kitchen wing connected to Bardon House (to the south of the stone building) is built of brick. It has not been established if this was an original component of the house when first built, or if it was constructed later.
\nThereafter, a succession of notable Brisbane residents and their families occupied the property for various periods of time. This included Thomas Harlin (First headmaster of Brisbane Boys Grammar School), and [Sir] Thomas Mc Ilwraith (later Premier of Queensland). John Stennett (of pharmaceutical firm Elliot Brothers) and his family occupied Bardon House from 1878-1886. Stennett bought just over 32 acres of land of portion 301 shortly before Joshua Jeays death in March 1881, later building a new residence Northam (demolished) in 1886. Subsequent tenants from the mid-1880s to early 1900s were stock and sharebroker Brownlow Cole, customs officer Charles William Rich and Johannes Christian Brunnich, a government agricultural chemist.[9]
\nJoshua Jeays died in March 1881 with the land that comprised his Bardon estate remaining in the ownership of the Jeays/Lilley family until 1911.[10] From 1903 Bardon House was leased to Arthur Exley who lived there with his wife Elizabeth, five daughters and son until 1925, one of the longest tenants at the property. Exley had an extensive career with the Department of Public Instruction (1886-1928) and was the headmaster of the nearby Ithaca State School [QHR 650022] when his family moved to Bardon. Elizabeth played a prominent role in the community, especially in relation to social services for women and children, helping to establish the first Queensland branch of the Anglican missionary organisation the Mothers Union and the District Nursing Association.[11]
\nThe recollections of the youngest Exley daughter Joyce of Bardon in the early 1900s, provide a glimpse into the layout and features of the property at this time:
\n“… The house itself was approached by a drive whose gate was at the top of the drive and descended to the house enclosed by a bamboo drive—bamboos on either side of the road… the house grounds were about an acre with large trees—Bunya Pine, Moreton Bay Figs on either side of a circular carriage way to the front door. There was a terrace to the right [north] of the house the length of the long side verandah… A gate led to the back garden—two huge bamboo clumps and a vegetable garden which was in turn enclosed in the house acre. Below were stables—a carriage house, a coal shed, three horse boxes, a cow bail and cow sheds—and a forbidden loft. On the rise which is on the corner of Cecil Road and The Drive was a ‘man’s room’, a cottage sized room, mostly used by us children as a playroom.[12]
\n\n
Repairs are thought to have been made to the house c.1910s, including the replacement of the original shingle roof with asbestos slates. Around this time pressed metal ceilings replaced some sections of plaster and lathe ceilings that had failed.[13]
\nFollowing the death of owner Edwyn Lilley in 1911, Arthur Exley, master builder Arthur Barltrop and solicitor Patrick O’Sullivan acquired the Bardon property holdings and formed the company Bardon Estate Limited, subdividing much of the land for new housing. Allotments were offered for sale in four stages between 1912 and 1921. As part of this subdivision, the original Bardon House driveway was gazetted as a road (The Drive). Five acres (2.023 ha), comprising parts of the original portions 300 and 301 were retained as surroundings for the house.[14]
\nThe Exleys remained at Bardon house until the property was purchased by Archbishop James Duhig, for the Roman Catholic Church in 1925 for £2250. This occurred during a period of unprecedented growth in building and land acquisition by the Roman Catholic Church in Queensland. Duhig was appointed as Archbishop in 1917 having previously had served as Co-adjator Archbishop to his predecessor, Archbishop Dunne since 1912. It was from this time that Duhig planned immense growth within the Church. This growth was manifest by the large number of churches, schools, convents and presbyteries built increasing the church's presence in Queensland. In addition to new buildings, Duhig keenly acquired a number of Brisbane’s earliest substantial and prominent residences (such as Bardon House) for church purposes.[15]
\nThe parish of Bardon was declared in 1926, the 38th Parish of the Archdiocese, the same year suburb was officially designated. The first mass was celebrated at Bardon House in March 1925 by Monsignor Lee of nearby Rosalie Parish. It was held in the central room of Bardon House, with the mantelpiece and table substituting as an altar.[16]
\nAppointed in 1925, Father Max Irvine, the Chaplain at Stuartholme Convent, became the first Parish Priest, and resided at Bardon House. By the following year, services were no longer held in Bardon House, as a church-school (St Mary Magdalene's, originally spelt Magdalen) was constructed within the grounds. Architect John (J.P. or Jack) Donoghue designed the new building, which was constructed by V Robinson. Donoghue (1894-1960) was an articled pupil with Hennessey and Hennessey, and later associate, and went on to design many buildings for the Catholic Church across Queensland, both in independent practice (1926-1937) and in the subsequent partnerships of Donoghue and Fulton (1937-1946) and Donoghue, Cusick and Edwards (1947-1960). A contemporary newspaper article on ‘new architect’ Donoghue indicates that the church-school may have been Donoghue’s earliest work as a lone practitioner.[17]
\nThe foundation stone for the church-school was laid at a ceremony in September, with the building officially opened on 7 November by Archbishop Duhig. It was a timber structure with a tiled and ventilated roof, built on a sloping site to the east of the house. At the time of its construction it was considered to be a ‘temporary arrangement,[18] but went on to serve as the parish church for nearly 40 years. A new St Mary Magdalene's church was constructed in 1963 on the grounds below Bardon House, designed by parishioner and architect Brian Hackett. The timber church was retained as a hall for school and parish purposes. A plaque at the entrance of the building indicates it was renamed ‘Lyons Hall’ c1977 in honour of long serving parish priest Fr Ray Lyons.[19]
\nWhile the intention was for the 1926 church to also be used as a school, this did not occur until 1938. Parish Priest, Dr O'Donoghue vacated Bardon and nuns of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (Franciscan Sisters, invited by Duhig) moved in on January 19, 1938 to establish a convent and new primary school, to be known as St Joseph’s. St Joseph's School was opened on January 24th 1938, with 31 male and female pupils. By the end of the year, a separate school building [located between Bardon house and the church, since demolished] was constructed on the site, its erection made possible through an anonymous donation of £1000. The church was used for teaching pupils from this time and an area under the building was later enclosed as classroom space.[20]
\nAs part of its adaptation for convent and school use, the north facing verandah of Bardon House was enclosed to accommodate a classroom. The eastern verandah was enclosed with lattice around this time, while stone walls of the enclosed verandahs were also rendered. Further modifications related to its use as a convent from c.1950s included: internal lining of upper floor walls and ceilings with sheeting, and addition of bathroom; partitioning of some bedrooms; addition of built-in cupboards; re-roofing of the kitchen wing with corrugated iron; addition of a verandah to the east of the kitchen, and removal of western verandahs and ground floor bathrooms, replaced by the addition of new utility wing. By 1979, the slate roof had been replaced by flat pan metal roof and the (once prominent) chimneys had been removed.[21]
\nFrom the post-war era onwards, St Joseph's School developed and grew. A range of school buildings and sporting facilities have been constructed on the grounds since this time. Most structures on the school site now date from post-2000 era. The earliest surviving school building is the 1958 Forrest building, immediately west of Bardon House.
","criteria":"Bardon House (c1863/64) is important for the evidence it provides of the way of life of prosperous citizens in the outer suburbs of Brisbane in the early decades of Queensland's history. In 1925, Bardon House was acquired for use as a convent and church for the new parish of Rosalie, and as such, demonstrates the evolution of the Roman Catholic church in Queensland. This is also demonstrated by the adjacent St Mary Magdelene's Hall which was constructed in 1926 as the first parish church. It remained in use until a new church was constructed in 1963.
|Bardon House is a Victorian Gothic style stone house with a complex steeply pitched roof of intersecting gables and dormer windows and is an uncommon example of this style of architecture in Queensland.
|The house is of aesthetic significance due to its prominence in the streetscape and for its fine workmanship and architectural style. It is important as an early example of a fine quality 1860s Queensland residence of masonry construction and fine joinery.
\nSt Mary Magdelene's Hall is also of aesthetic significance for its high degree of internal detailing.
|The house and the hall are significant for their association with the local parish, and with the Roman Catholic Church who have been the owners of Bardon House, St Mary Magdelene's Hall and the grounds since 1925.
|Bardon House is significant for its association with its first owner, Joshua Jeays, who was a prominent Brisbane builder, architect and politician.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14829,"place_ref":600054,"name":"Cintra House","alternate_name":"Cintra","street_address":"23 Boyd Street","suburb":"BOWEN HILLS","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Cintra House is a two-storeyed masonry house dating from the 1860s, with double-storeyed verandahs on two sides and with a corrugated metal roof. A gabled service wing extends off the rear. The eastern elevation features a double-storeyed faceted bay (possibly 1890). The present two-storeyed verandah running along the northern and western sides, has cast-iron balusters, double posts, and frieze. On the lower level, the latticed valance replaced an earlier scalloped tongue and groove valance at the time of refurbishment. The capitals to the lower level posts were removed at the same time. A small verandah above the entrance porch is of similar design and materials as the main verandah.
Internally the house has been renovated with little of the earlier fabric surviving. It now consists of two reception rooms and a dining room on the ground floor and five bedrooms upstairs. A modern kitchen is located in the service wing.
The house is situated in a prominent hillside position. The sweeping north lawn is lined with a row of mature palm trees.
","history":"The original Cintra, a two-storeyed Georgian influenced stone house, was built in 1863-64 for George Webb to a design by Benjamin Backhouse. It comprised four rooms on each level, surrounded by a ground floor verandah.
In 1877 the property was bought by Boyd Dunlop Morehead, a successful pastoralist and businessman who was Premier of Queensland 1888-90. To accommodate his growing family, Morehead extended the house to the south. This extension now forms a separate residence. A rear service wing is thought to have been built in the 1870s. Possibly about 1890 he added the faceted bay on the eastern side. The old verandah was replaced with two-storeyed verandahs along the northern and western sides.
Morehead died in 1905 and in 1912 Cintra was acquired by railway contractor and businessman Acheson Overend. In 1925 he sold Cintra which was then divided into two, the connection to the southern extension being dismantled. The southern extension eventually, with alterations and additions, became the Cintra Nursing Home.
Cintra House became Our Lady of Victories Convent in 1927. From 1966 to 1973 it was the headquarters of the Queensland Motor Sporting Club. It was refurbished subsequently and became Cintra House Galleries until 1987 when it returned to its original use as a family home.
","criteria":"A large "villa" residence which embodies structural and stylistic changes from the 1860s, reflecting changing affluent lifestyle and tastes.
|Its landmark quality as one of Brisbane's most commanding hilltop residences.
|Its association with Boyd Morehead.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14830,"place_ref":600055,"name":"Miegunyah","alternate_name":"Beverley Wood","street_address":"35 Jordan Terrace","suburb":"BOWEN HILLS","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Miegunyah is a single-storeyed timber house (c.1885) surrounded by a verandah with cast-iron balusters, wide filigree posts and valances. Bay windows at the front do not extend to the hipped roof which is in corrugated iron.
Entry is via a projecting gabled portico with a fretwork pediment. The house is highset at the front with brick piers and honeycomb brick infill. The stairs and portico base are in solid masonry ornamented in classic detail including arches with keystones.
The exterior of the timber stables at the rear has been conserved while the interior has been altered to provide caretaker accommodation.
","history":"This single-storeyed timber residence was built around 1885 on land owned by William Perry, a successful ironmonger and merchant who lived at nearby Folkstone. Perry had bought the land in 1875, and the house was occupied by his adult sons Herbert and George who built Perry House (QHR 600103).
Miegunyah remained in the Perry family until 1926, and several changes of ownership followed to 1966. The house was saved from demolition by the Queensland Womens Historical Association, who by 1967 had raised sufficient funds to acquire the building. They refurbished the house and later opened it as a house museum dedicated to the pioneer women of Queensland. The interior has been partly returned to its original layout and colour scheme.
","criteria":"Miegunyah demonstrates the principal characteristics of a substantial single storeyed 1880s residence, including stables and garden. The fine quality of the residence exhibits particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community.
Miegunyah is significant for the association between the building and the Perry family, prominent Brisbane merchants and also with the work of the Queensland Women's Historical Association.
|Miegunyah demonstrates the principal characteristics of a substantial single storeyed 1880s residence, including stables and garden.
|The fine quality of the residence exhibits particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community.
|Miegunyah is significant for the association between the building and the Perry family, prominent Brisbane merchants and also with the work of the Queensland Women's Historical Association.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14831,"place_ref":600056,"name":"The Holy Triad Temple","alternate_name":"Sarm Sung Goon | Breakfast Creek Joss House","street_address":"32 Higgs Street","suburb":"ALBION","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The temple is a rectangular, rendered brick structure with a complex triple roof of Chinese terracotta tiles. A feature of this roof is the elaborate ceramic ornamentation, incorporating Chinese historical and mythological characters, on the ridges and barges.
The interior comprises three sections: an entrance, a sky-lit middle section, and the temple proper with its carved altar and figures of the gods of wealth, medicine and knowledge. Internal decoration is elaborate, and includes exposed carved and gilded timber supports, and furnishings such as silks, embroideries, lanterns and lamps.
In the 1965-66 restoration, the middle roof section, which had been removed, was repositioned. Much of the original interior decoration, which had been either salvaged or vandalised, was replaced.
The temple survives in a back street sandwiched between the Breakfast Creek Hotel, Albion Park Racecourse and light industrial development, with the former vista across Breakfast Creek lost. A plain concrete block building has been constructed adjacent to the temple, and the grounds have been concreted and enclosed with a brick fence and gateway.
","history":"The Temple of the Holy Triad was constructed in 1885-86 for the Cantonese Chinese community of Brisbane.
In the 1880s sizeable numbers of Cantonese settled in Brisbane. They were most conspicuous in small businesses (particularly in Fortitude Valley and along Albert Street), and in market gardening (especially on the flats around Breakfast Creek and Eagle Farm). By 1888 Brisbane depended almost entirely on the Chinese for its supply of fresh vegetables.
Construction of the temple was an attempt by the leaders of Brisbane's five Cantonese clans to provide their people with a community focus. The elaborate triple roof was imported from China by Quong Nam Tai & Co, Brisbane's most prominent Chinese trading firm, and the building was erected by Chinese artisans.
The temple was opened on 21 January 1886, and remained the focus of Chinese community activity in Brisbane for nearly sixty years. This was followed by a period of declining interest and neglect until the formation in 1965 of the Chinese Temple Society.
The society undertook work on the temple and it was re-opened in June 1966. It today offers a focus for various Chinese communities.
In the second half of the nineteenth century Chinese immigrants erected temples on most of the principal Queensland goldfields and ports. Only three temples survive in Queensland from this period: the Breakfast Creek temple, the small Chun Lo Goon temple at Rockhampton, which has been removed to the city's Chinese Garden; and the Hou Wang temple at Atherton. The latter is smaller than the Breakfast Creek temple and is constructed of local materials.
","criteria":"The Temple of the Holy Triad is significant as evidence of the development of Chinese settlement in nineteenth century Brisbane.
|The Temple of the Holy Triad is significant as a rare example of a nineteenth century Chinese temple in Queensland.
|The Temple of the Holy Triad is significant as a rare example of a nineteenth century Chinese temple in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14832,"place_ref":600057,"name":"Breakfast Creek Hotel","alternate_name":"Breaky Creek Hotel","street_address":"2 Kingsford Smith Drive","suburb":"ALBION","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Breakfast Creek Hotel is an ornate, two-storeyed, rendered masonry building with cement dressings and corrugated iron and sheeted roofs. It comprises a main building with verandahs to the south, west and east (1889), and a brick service wing extending to the rear (early 1900s) with timber extensions (c1926). The building is prominently located at the junction of Breakfast Creek Road and Kingsford Smith Drive, and at the confluence of Breakfast Creek and the Brisbane River. Its rich external decoration and prominent crested mansard roofs at the corners, combined with its location, gives the building landmark status in the Breakfast Creek townscape.
The 1889 building is extravagantly detailed. The Breakfast Creek Road frontage to the south has projecting end bays with vermiculated stone quoins which flank a ground floor loggia and first floor verandah. These bays have mansard roofs with crested widows walks. The western bay has a doorway framed by pilasters and a pediment, with windows framed with pilasters above. The eastern bay has a two-storey height faceted bay window. The loggia has round columns and cement extrados.
The building is encircled with a deep cornice with scrolled brackets and dentils, surmounted by a parapet with circular motifs. The parapet supports five pediments. The central pediment has an arched panel inscribed with the words Breakfast Creek Hotel, which is topped with an arched gable which is embellished with acroteria. The central pediment is flanked by two triangular pediments with scrolls inscribed with the words W.M.G and AD 1889. The east and western elevations also have triangular pediments.
The verandahs around the building have intricately detailed cast iron balustrades, and columns with valances. The columns are paired, and have floriated capitals, hexagonal bases, and fluted shafts. The verandah to the west is supported on cast iron columns with cast iron valances and spandrel panels.
The 1889 building has two large bars on the ground floor either side of an entrance hall and offices and meeting rooms upstairs, and contains some rich internal decoration. The entrance hall has a decorated arch with a female figure on the keystone, a terrazzo floor with the letters BCH inlaid at the door, cedar stairs with richly turned balusters and newels at the northern end, and four timber framed doors with etched glass with floral motifs leading to the bars. The western bar has a terrazzo floor, and is decorated with black and white polished ceramic tiles, and etched glass and coloured glass windows with floral motifs. The eastern bar has coloured glass windows over mirrors along its eastern wall, and a bay window with etched and coloured glass.
The stairs to the upper floor also give access to the service wing at half-landing level. The doorway has coloured glass surrounds with painted allegorical figures and geometrically patterned coloured glass panels. There is a pressed metal ceiling above these stairs.
The upper floor of the 1889 building contains large meeting rooms and smaller offices either side of a small east-west corridor and a wider north-south corridor; both have central decorative arches. There is a large room in the south east corner which has a fireplace with marble surrounds, and another in the south west corner which has a decorative plaster ceiling and full-length sash windows.
The rear service wing, containing the kitchen and service areas, is brick with cement dressings, and has a brick-on-edge string course at first floor level. It has a hipped corrugated iron roof with decorative timber eaves brackets. This service wing has been extended at ground floor level to the east, with a single-storeyed timber pavilion with a pitched roof containing a dining room.
The dining room opens to the outside with large timber folding doors on two walls. It is lined with coloured polished ceramic tiles and has a plaster ceiling with a rounded stepped cornice, and pilasters with staggered flat capitals with rounded ends.
","history":"This large, two-storeyed brick hotel was constructed in 1889 for William MacNaughton Galloway, an Edward Street seaman's outfitter who served as president of the Breakfast Creek Bridge Board from 1887 to 1889, and as Mayor of Brisbane from 1889 to 1890.
The site initially was part of a larger subdivision of 9 acres which was alienated in 1845 and acquired by Thomas Hennessy, carpenter, of Brisbane, in 1849. By 1862, and probably much earlier, Mrs Hennessy had established a Breakfast Creek Hotel on part of this property. Whether this was on the site of the 1890 building is not clear. A traffic bridge across Breakfast Creek was established as early as 1848, and the early hotel was located in its vicinity. Publican Michael Campbell took over the Breakfast Creek Hotel in 1863, but the business does not appear to have survived to the late 1860s.
Galloway's hotel was erected during a period of growth in the Breakfast Creek area associated with quarrying, timber-milling, the construction of the Albion racecourse, and the opening of the new Breakfast Creek Bridge on 24 May 1889.
Tenders were called in April 1889 by architects George S Simkin and John Ibler, and the foundation stone was laid on 18 May 1889. The successful contractors were Thomas Woollam and William Norman with a price of £5,300. Described as a family hotel, the Breakfast Creek Hotel opened on 17 May 1890. At the time, the building occupied a commanding position at the northern end of the new Breakfast Creek Bridge, visible from the city, Albion and Hamilton approaches. The interiors were considered very fine, the fittings in the bar on the ground floor of the west wing being particularly impressive. Large folding doors between the east wing dining and commercial rooms on the ground floor, could be opened to create a large banqueting room. Above the staircase landing was a partition containing a stained glass medallion depicting Lady Macbeth, framed by two enamel-painted allegorical figures. There were ten bedrooms and a large drawing room on the first floor, all of which had extensive views of the Brisbane River, Breakfast Creek, and surrounding country. At the rear were the kitchen, servant's rooms and stables, the latter floored with hardwood blocks set in cement. With the ground being particularly damp, the whole of the subfloor was occupied by cellars, the walls and floors of which were constructed of concrete, and in effect forming the foundations.
Following William Galloway's death in 1895, his wife Anne retained the hotel license until 1901, before removing to Southport. In 1900 she sold the property to Perkins Brewery, but remained the lessee for another year. The two-storeyed eastern wing at the rear dates from around the turn of the century, and may have been erected following the transfer to Perkins.
Publican Michael John McGuire held the lease from 1901 to 1917, and since 1926, the lease and license of the Breakfast Creek Hotel have been held principally by members of the Cavill family. In 1926, Brisbane architect Richard Gailey called tenders for alterations and additions to the hotel, and a cold room was constructed in 1930.
The Breakfast Creek Hotel has become a Brisbane landmark, and remains the only hotel in Brisbane which still offers beer 'off the wood'. Its 20th century clientele have included an assorted mix of waterside workers, fishermen, railway workers, policemen, journalists, lawyers, bookies, petty criminals and politicians.
","criteria":"The Breakfast Creek Hotel is closely associated with the development of the Breakfast Creek area in the late 19th century, and with prominent Brisbane personality WM Galloway.
|It is a fine example of late 1880s boom-era commercial architecture in Brisbane, and one of few known works by Brisbane architects Simkin & Ibler.
|It is a fine example of late 1880s boom-era commercial architecture in Brisbane, and one of few known works by Brisbane architects Simkin & Ibler.
|The Breakfast Creek Hotel is an ornate, richly detailed building which assumes landmark status in the Breakfast Creek townscape. It contains some rich internal detailing, including cedar stairs, coloured and etched glass, decorative mouldings, and coloured tiles.
The Breakfast Creek Hotel survives as an integral element in a grouping of culturally significant places at the junction of Breakfast Creek and the Brisbane River, including Newstead House (1846) and Park [600265], the Temple of the Holy Triad (1886) [600056] and Breakfast Creek Bridge (1889).
|It is one of the best-known hotels in Brisbane, and in the 20th century has been associated with working-class and labor party groups from waterside workers to politicians.
|The Breakfast Creek Hotel is closely associated with the development of the Breakfast Creek area in the late 19th century, and with prominent Brisbane personality WM Galloway.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14833,"place_ref":600058,"name":"Brisbane Arcade","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"160 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Brisbane Arcade connects Queen and Adelaide Streets in the block between Edward and Albert Streets. The facades at each end have similar features - both are three storeys high and five window bays across, of face brickwork with cement dressings, and use plain classical details.
\nThe Queen Street facade has triangular Classical pediments at parapet level above each end window bay. These end bays are separated by flanking brick pilasters and have cantilevered balconies on both levels with wrought iron railings consisting of vertical balustrading. The openings contain timber framed multi-paned windows and french doors which open onto the balconies. Ornate floral mouldings are situated on the pilasters to either side of the upper level openings. A deep bracketed cornice runs between the base of the pediments separating the parapet from the remainder of the facade. The parapet has raised sections at each end and in the centre where there is the name 'BRISBANE ARCADE' in raised lettering.
\nThe Adelaide Street facade has a similar arrangement of openings, but has arched windows in the end bays of the top floor with keystones that extend to the cornice line. A similar cornice occurs above all the other window openings as sun hoods. Cantilevered balconies occur only on the first floor level at each end and in the centre. These have wrought iron railings with diagonal balustrading.
\nThe entry to the arcade is central on both facades. The three storey sections extend only part of the distance into the block from both ends and are linked by the two storey arcade. The basement of this central section is currently in use as a food outlet. Some of the ground floor shops have been changed from the traditional materials polished timber shopfronts and lead-light windows to be replaced by marble and other modern products. The central space features a distinctive patterned terrazzo with brass inlay floor finish and timber-battened panel ceilings, it has a void running along the length of the arcade and in this area the roof is raised to admit light through clerestory windows and the metal roof trusses are left exposed. The arcade thoroughfare is crossed by a central walkway linking the galleries on each side, this upper level also features the polished timber shopfronts and lead-light windows with timber boarded ceilings and balustrades of timber posts with decorative metal infill panels. The upper level is accessed by stairs at each end which retain their original terrazzo finishes. The roof structure above the arcade consists of lightweight exposed steel trusses, and natural light is allowed into the space through clerestory windows on each side.
","history":"The Brisbane Arcade was opened in 1924. It was constructed at a cost of £70 000 for James O'Neil Mayne and Mary Emelia Mayne whose father, Patrick Mayne, had purchased the property as two adjoining allotments in 1853 (allotment 2 of section 10, with a frontage to Queen Street) and 1854 (allotment 17 of section 10, with a frontage to Adelaide Street).
\nThe arcade was designed by Richard Gailey Jnr, and built by J & E L Rees (Queen Street section), & Forsyth and Speering (Adelaide Street section). It provided a pedestrian and commercial link between Queen and Adelaide Streets. The arcade contained shops with frontages to Adelaide and Queen Streets, 20 shops on the ground level of the arcade, and a further 20 on the first floor. The building also contained office accommodation on the first level. The Arcade was one of a number of building projects in Queen Street during the 1920s including Ascot Chambers in 1924 (QHR 600089); Tattersalls, 1925 (QHR 600093) and the Regent Theatre, 1928 (QHR 600140).
\nWith the deaths of James (1939) and Mary Mayne (1940) the University of Queensland became the beneficiary of the property. In 1983 the arcade was extensively refurbished. The alterations included the addition of a timber panelled canopy, stained timber doors and leadlight glass in the shopfronts. In 1990 the shopfronts on the ground floor were replaced and many of the interiors were altered.
","criteria":"The Brisbane Arcade is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a 1920s purpose-built shopping arcade in the central business district of Brisbane.
The Brisbane Arcade is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Brisbane community and those interested in retail design, in particular the quality of its design, use of materials and craftsmanship displayed in the main internal space and street facades its contribution to the central business district townscape, and the Queen Street and Adelaide Street streetscapes.
|The Brisbane Arcade is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a 1920s purpose-built shopping arcade in the central business district of Brisbane.
|The Brisbane Arcade is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Brisbane community and those interested in retail design, in particular the quality of its design, use of materials and craftsmanship displayed in the main internal space and street facades its contribution to the central business district townscape, and the Queen Street and Adelaide Street streetscapes.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14834,"place_ref":600059,"name":"Former Queensland Government Offices (Anzac Square Building)","alternate_name":"State Government Offices; The Murdoch Apartments/Hotel; Rendezvous; ANZAC Square Building","street_address":"255 Ann Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Former Queensland Government Offices (Anzac Square Building) is a seven-storeyed masonry and steel structure containing offices and ground level shops. Situated at the south-western end of the block bounded by Ann, Edward, Adelaide and Creek streets, the building forms an integral part of a design which includes a memorial square and offices for the Commonwealth Government. The square is part of a larger open space which links the Central Railway Station and the GPO.
\nThe building consists of the repetition of six units of similar design around a central courtyard. The lower two storeys form a podium built to the property alignment. The podium is faced in Helidon sandstone with a granite base. The five upper levels are divided into six towers each separated from the next by deep recessed bays which act as light courts. The external brick walls of the upper levels are channelled and rendered to resemble the banded sandstone of the podium. The steel frame of the building supports the walls which are not loadbearing.
\nThe building has repetitive facades which are articulated vertically and horizontally. Vertically they are divided into base, middle and top. Horizontally the longer Edward Street and Anzac Square facades are divided into three by the recesses which form light courts while the Adelaide and Ann Street facades are divided into two. Towers located at the rear of the light recesses protrude above the general parapet level. The composition of the facades is emphasised by the restrained use of classical detail. A moulded projection marks the junction between podium and middle levels. The upper level features classical balustrading and cornices. The middle and upper levels are a lighter colour than the base with the exception of the spandrel panels under the windows. The darker colour and slight recessing of the spandrel panels causes the spaces between the windows to appear as simplified pilasters.
\nWrapping around two thirds of the Edward Street and all of the Adelaide Street facades is a steel framed copper sheeted awning. The awning steps down the Edward Street elevation following the slope of the pavement. It is supported on metal tie rods and has pressed decoration including a coffered ceiling, rosettes and acanthus leaf friezes.
\nIn the centre of the Edward Street facade on the street level is a shopping arcade which is also an entrance to the building. The arcade has mosaic tiled floor with patterned border, a coffered plaster ceiling and timber and glass shop fronts. Two more entrances are located on this elevation. Double timber doors, positioned below the recesses between each unit, open onto long corridors leading to small lift foyers.
\nA vehicle entrance with ornamental cast iron gates is located on the ground level of the Adelaide Street facade. It leads to the central courtyard. Flanking this entrance are two pedestrian entrances which lead via corridors to lift foyers. The main foyer space in the building is on the northern side of the vehicular access and features a grand staircase leading to the first floor level. Most of the remainder of the Adelaide and Edward Street facades at ground level is occupied by shops. Original shop fronts have plate glass windows with copper-clad glazing bars and timber panelling.
\nThere are two entrances from Anzac Square. These are similar to the entrances from Edward Street and are located between each unit.
\nThe site originally sloped steeply from Ann Street down to Adelaide Street and was excavated to create a flat platform. The Ann Street facade is five storeys, with a further two storeys and a mezzanine located below pavement level. In the centre of this facade is a prominent arched portal. This entrance is faced in smooth sandstone and its simplified modern design, without mouldings or banding, contrasts with the external finishes of the remainder of the building.
\nAll of the building's entrances lead to the middle of the building where they are connected by a main corridor which wraps around the central courtyard. Vertical circulation is via stairs and lifts along the main corridor.
\nAlthough most of the office spaces have been altered since construction, the public spaces of the building retain their original finishes. These interiors are enriched by the use of simplified classically-derived ornament and richly patterned materials. The foyers and hallways on the lower levels feature marble panelling on the walls, and black and white mosaic tiles on the floors with black marble skirtings. Staircases, columns and pilasters are also of marble. On the upper levels terrazzo is used instead of marble. The staircases have cast iron balustrades with timber handrails and marble or terrazzo treads. Steel casement windows are used throughout with the exception of Units 3 and 4 which have timber casements. Internal walls are generally double brick with a rendered finish. The former caretakers flat located on the roof is of lightweight construction with a corrugated iron roof.
\nThe external walls of the central courtyard are rendered and painted. At each level above the ground are two concrete balconies with simple metal handrails which cantilever into the courtyard.
","history":"The Former Queensland Government Offices (Anzac Square Building) was built in stages commencing in 1931 and completed by 1959. It forms an integral part of the design by JS Murdoch, Chief Architect of the Commonwealth, for the block bounded by Edward, Ann, Creek and Adelaide streets and consisting of separate state and federal government offices flanking a memorial square.
\nPrior to the construction of the Queensland Government Offices the site was occupied by the old Normal School, near the Edward and Adelaide streets corner, and a fire station at the corner of Edward and Ann streets. The land for the Normal School was originally granted in 1852 to the Board for National Education. Further grants were made to the Board of General Education in 1861. The Normal School opened in 1863. The school acquired more land along the Ann Street frontage in 1871 but in 1889 the allotment at the corner of Ann and Edward Streets was dedicated for a Fire Brigade Station Reserve. A fire station, designed by HW Atkinson, was built in 1890.
\nThe Commonwealth Government owned much of the remaining part of the block. Around 1910 it was investigating a proposal to create a square in front of the Central Railway Station [QHR 600073] that would serve as a fitting entrance to the city. The idea of a square dedicated to the memory of the Anzacs was first raised soon after the Gallipoli campaign in 1916. A committee was formed in 1919 by Lt Col DC Cameron to lobby for the creation of a commemorative square that would occupy the entire block. In 1921 the Commonwealth Standing Committee on Public Works decided to erect a National War Memorial as part of the redevelopment of the block.
\nIn 1923 JS Murdoch proposed a layout for the block which included a central square flanked by rectangular office blocks of similar appearance. An alternative design was produced by the former Deputy Government Architect Lt Col T Pye later in the same year. This scheme, featuring a semicircular drive with triangular planned offices in the northern and western corners of the site, was sent to the federal government for consideration.
\nMurdoch subsequently sent three alternative designs to the Brisbane City Council and the State Public Works Department. One of these was adopted to coordinate the design of the block. Design guidelines were established allowing for the construction of seven-storeyed buildings consisting of a two-storeyed base faced in granite and sandstone and upper walls of brick or concrete rendered to imitate stone. Detailed design and documentation of the Queensland Government Offices was carried out by the Architectural Branch of the Queensland Public Works Department, in accordance with the guidelines, under the supervision of AB Leven. Elevations were designed to match the proposed Commonwealth Government Offices [QHR 600064].
\nBy 1928 land in the centre of the block, with frontages to Ann and Adelaide Streets of 228 feet, was dedicated for the purpose of public park under the control of Brisbane City Council. A national competition held in 1928 to design the Anzac memorial and square was won by Sydney architects Buchanan and Cowper. By 1929 the designs of Anzac Square and the Queensland Government Offices had been finalised. Anzac Square was opened in 1930 [QHR 600062].
\nThe Normal School and adjacent Army Drill shed were demolished by 1930. The site was excavated at the corner of Edward and Adelaide streets in preparation for the first stage of construction of the new Queensland Government Offices; Units 1 and 2. In the final design a two-storeyed podium formed the base for six five-storeyed towers connected by a corridor which wrapped around a central courtyard. Each tower block constituted a unit. Eighteen tenders were received on March 25, 1931 for the construction of Unit 1, located in the centre of the Edward Street facade, and Unit 2, on the Edward and Adelaide streets corner.
\nThe lowest tenderer, AH Mason with a price of 19 3844 pounds 13 shillings, was accepted on April 14 1931. The contract time was two years. Emphasis was placed on the use, where possible, of local products in line with the government's \"Queensland Made\" policy. Timbers such as silky oak, Queensland satiny, rose walnut, yellow wood ash, rose mahogany, maple and walnut bean were incorporated into the designs for parquetry flooring and wall panelling in the various offices. Many of the public spaces were lined with marble supplied by the Ulam Quarries near Rockhampton. Services in the new building included lifts, intercommunicating telephone systems, pneumatic despatch tube system, mechanical ventilation and vacuum-cleaning system. Units 1 and 2 were occupied by the Public Curator and the State Government Insurance Office in June 1933.
\nConstruction of Unit 3 commenced in 1934, using day labour, and was finished by 1937. The design took advantage of the street frontages in Units 1, 2 and 3 by including small shops and an arcade on the ground floors of the Edward and Adelaide Street elevations.
\nDuring 1940/41 approval was given to proceed with the construction of the fourth unit. This unit, located in the centre of the Anzac Square frontage, was to accommodate the Titles Office, Stamp Duties Office, State Advances Corporation and Bureau of Rural Development. Despite a pressing need for office accommodation, work was stopped due to war induced shortages of materials, especially steel. In 1944 the exposed steel frame was encased in concrete and a concrete floor was poured to provide weather protection for the frame. Construction proceeded slowly and Unit 4 was not finished and fully occupied until 1948.
\nTenders were called during 1948 for the final stage of the building, Units 5 and 6 on Ann Street. The contract was let but it was not expected to be finished for two years due to shortages. The fire station was demolished in 1950 and the site excavated. Work halted in 1952 due to restrictions of Loans Funds. Building recommenced in 1954 and was completed by 1960.
\nWork on the Commonwealth offices commenced in 1934 and 2 units were completed and occupied by 1936. No more work was done on the project. In 1968 at the request of the Commonwealth government both the State Government and the Brisbane City Council, as trustee of the square, agreed to abandon the design covenants governing the block and a fifteen storey office building was constructed on the corner of Creek and Ann streets.
\nDuring the 1970s a number of redevelopment schemes were proposed by the Brisbane City Council for Anzac Square but were not built. The Queensland Government Offices underwent a major refurbishment in the early 1980s when many of the original interior fittings, including the timber paneling and flooring, were removed or concealed. In the mid 1980s raised walkways were constructed across Anzac Square which partly obscure the view of the adjoining facade of the Queensland Government Offices.
","criteria":"The Former Queensland Government Offices (Anzac Square Building) is an integral part of a larger design, the conception and execution of which involved the cooperative efforts of three tiers of government.
\nThe building is representative of the policies and priorities of the Queensland Government of the 1920s and 1930s, having a strong association with the \"Queensland Made\" ethic and daylabouring employment schemes. Its long period of construction demonstrates the commitment of successive state governments to the completion of an ambitious and unified undertaking. The staging of the construction is evident in the form of the building, clearly divided into six units.
|Anzac Square and the adjoining Queensland and Commonwealth Government Offices constitutes the most important Queensland example of the Anzac memorial movement and shows the extent of the monumentalism of this national building program. The architecture of this group demonstrates the formality and solemnity deemed necessary to commemorate the sacrifice of Australian soldiers in war. This aesthetic, drawn from the western classical tradition, was considered consistent with the expression of the functions of government.
\nIt is a prominent example of a large public building designed in the 1920s, which has been in continuous use as shops and government offices since construction.
|The building, through its restrained style, imposing bulk, symmetrical composition and judicious use of classical detail, is consistent with and contributes to the aesthetic qualities of Anzac Square and the Commonwealth Government Offices.
|The Former Queensland Government Offices (Anzac Square Building) is a major example of the work of the nationally important architect JS Murdoch and an example of the high quality of design and construction achieved by the Queensland Works Department under AB Leven, especially the external facades and the internal public spaces which have been little altered since first built.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14835,"place_ref":600060,"name":"South African War Memorial","alternate_name":"Boer War Memorial","street_address":"228 Adelaide Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The life-size bronzed statue depicts a Queensland Mounted Infantryman. Uniform and accoutrements show meticulous attention to detail, such as the Queensland hat-badge and emu plumes affixed to the slouch hat, and even the horse on which the trooper sits marked with the Queensland Government "QG" brand.
On two sides of the trachyte pedestal large bronze plaques contain the names of the eighty-nine Queensland soldiers who lost their lives in the South African war.
","history":"The first overseas conflict in which colonial Queensland troops were involved occurred during 1899-1902 in South Africa. The Queensland Government despatched volunteer contingents of mounted infantrymen to the war to aid the forces of the British Commonwealth involved in the armed intervention. Eighty-nine Queenslanders died during the war. In the years after the war a public committee was established to erect a memorial to the fallen, but the funds raised were insufficient and the project lapsed.
In 1912 James Laurence Watts, a Brisbane sculptor, was commissioned to provide "an equestrian statue in bronze" for the South African Fallen Soldiers Memorial Committee. His commission was conditional on his final design being scrutinised by a panel representing "no less than four areas of expertise", which included art, veterinary surgery, architecture and soldiery. The statue, which depicts a fully equipped mounted trooper of the Queensland contingents to South African war, was sent to England to be bronzed, but the outbreak of World War I delayed its return. Watts meanwhile was also commissioned to provide another memorial in London to Queenslanders who died in South Africa.
Finally in 1919 the completed statue returned to Brisbane and was placed in a position of prominence atop the rise at the intersection of Turbot and Edward Streets, where it faced towards the Botanical Gardens and dominated the street vista. The pedestal on which the statue sat was constructed by local firm Lowther & Sons. Queensland Governor, Sir Hamilton Gould-Adams unveiled the memorial in December 1919. The African War Veterans Association of Queensland organised annual marches to the statue on 31 May, Anniversary Day, the anniversary of the signing of peace in South Africa. The marches were followed by commemorative services on the site.
After creation of Anzac Square in 1930, the African War Veterans Association made a number of approaches for the memorial to be moved to the square. This was done in early April 1939 in time for the Anzac Day ceremonies of that year, Lowther & Sons reassembling the pedestal.
The memorial still stands in Anzac Square, fronting Adelaide Street. In 1991 restoration work was carried out on behalf of the Returned Services League.
","criteria":"The South African War Memorial is significant as the only memorial in Brisbane dedicated to all members of the Queensland contingents who died during the South African conflict, and one of the few South African War memorials in the state. The Memorial reflects the strong parochial feeling still evident in post-Federation Queensland and of a continuing attachment to British Imperialism.
|The South African War Memorial is significant as the only memorial in Brisbane dedicated to all members of the Queensland contingents who died during the South African conflict, and one of the few South African War memorials in the state.
The South African War Memorial is significant as a rare example of the work of Brisbane sculptor J L Watts and as part of a group of war memorials in Anzac Square which retain considerable significance to the public.
|The Memorial reflects the strong parochial feeling still evident in post-Federation Queensland and of a continuing attachment to British Imperialism.
The South African War Memorial is significant as a rare example of the work of Brisbane sculptor J L Watts and as part of a group of war memorials in Anzac Square which retain considerable significance to the public.
|The South African War Memorial is significant as a rare example of the work of Brisbane sculptor J L Watts and as part of a group of war memorials in Anzac Square which retain considerable significance to the public.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14837,"place_ref":600062,"name":"Anzac Square","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"228 Adelaide Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Anzac Square, occupies an area of more than .5 of a hectare between Ann and Adelaide Streets. It lies in a band of pedestrian access space extending from Central Station through four city blocks. On the river side of Anzac Square are Post Office Square, the GPO precinct and St Stephens Cathedral grounds.
The Square is formally arranged. From a small stone wall edged by formal gardens on Adelaide Street, three paths, separated by lawns and mature trees, converge on a large elevated Shrine at Ann Street. These paths represent the three branches of the armed forces, Army, Navy and Air Force. Trees along these paths include Palms, Bribie Island Pines and Bottle Trees - the latter were donated by Colonel Cameron, former Light Horseman and active lobbyist for the square.
A dominant feature of the Square is the Shrine. It is a adaptation of the classical Greek temenos (sacred enclosure) and tholos (circular shrine) comprising a circular colonnade of Helidon sandstone on a three-tiered base of Queensland granite, and stands approximately 7 m high on a paved forecourt extending to the Ann Street footpath. Eighteen Doric columns support a circular entablature externally ornamented with rosettes and internally inscribed with the names of battlefields where Australian soldiers fought. The colonnade is enclosed by cast iron railings that span the columns. Within the circular enclosure a bronze urn houses the Eternal Flame - a symbol of faithful remembrance.
Beneath the Shrine is a large crypt containing the Shrine of Memories, a memorial of the Second World War, and several other memorials dedicated to various Queensland contingents of the armed forces.
Twin stone staircases wrap around the Shrine, descending to the level of the Square. On either side of the staircase are shallow tiled reflecting pools - symbols of tranquillity and renewed life. Large sandstone retaining walls rise from the lawns of the Square to the footpath under the Shrine.
The Queensland Women's War Memorial is located in the western wall of Anzac Square, below the Shrine of Remembrance. It consists of a relief panel in Helidon sandstone depicting a military procession. The panel is surmounted by a centrally placed bronze laurel wreath and the inscription 'Erected by the women of Queensland in memory of those who lost their lives through The Great War 1914-1918'. A sandstone and stone pedestal supports a bronze and sandstone drinking fountain mounted on upturned bronze dolphins - symbols of renewed life.
The equestrian memorial of the South African War dominates the entry to the central path at Adelaide Street. A life-size bronzed statue, it depicts a Queensland Mounted Infantryman. On two sides of the trachyte pedestal large bronze plaques contain the names of the eighty-nine Queensland soldiers who lost their lives in the South African war.
Memorials to the Korean and Vietnam wars are also located in the Square.
The Square is flanked by State Government Offices to the south and Commonwealth Government Offices on the north. These are generally of restrained classical design and sympathetic in scale to the space, except the 1970s Commonwealth Government highrise extension on Ann Street. They frame vistas through the Square to the GPO in the east and Central Station to the west.
","history":"Australia's involvement in World War I exacted a heavy toll in death and injury. Of a relatively small population of about five million people, 60,000 troops were killed and 152,000 wounded. Australia's casualty rate of 68.5% was the highest of the Allied forces.
The idea of a large memorial park and monument in the centre of the city commemorating those who had participated and died in the Great War was first raised in 1916. The original plan was to use the whole city block bounded by Ann, Edward, Adelaide and Creek Streets for the Square but as negotiations with Federal, State and local governments continued throughout the early 1920s, a smaller site was determined. In 1928 State and Federal governments agreed to grant lands for the Square and to erect flanking buildings to a co-ordinated design.
Anzac Square commemorates all Queenslanders who participated in war, not just Brisbane residents. In 1928 a competition for the design of a Shrine of remembrance was won by Sydney architects Buchanan and Cowper. Construction proceeded over the following two years and on Armistice Day 11 November 1930 the Governor Sir John Goodwin dedicated the Shrine and the Square. In 1933 the Square was declared a Reserve for Park purposes and the Brisbane City Council was appointed trustee of the site.
In 1932 the Queensland Womens War Memorial was unveiled. This memorial was an initiative of the Brisbane Women's Club and funded by public subscription. It was designed and executed by Daphne Mayo with assistance from George Harvey.
A memorial commissioned by the 9th Battalion (AIF) Association was mounted in the Crypt and unveiled by the Governor-General Lord Gowrie on 17 August 1937. Commemorating the battalion's 45 officers and 1048 other ranks who lost their lives in the war, it was undertaken by former Brisbane sculptor W Leslie Bowles at a cost of £500. Bowles was noted for his memorial work, having been head sculptor at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra during the years 1924-31.
In 1939 a memorial commemorating Queenslanders who served in the South Africa conflict 1899-1902 was relocated to the Square. This memorial, featuring a fully equipped mounted trooper originally stood near the intersection of Turbot and Edward Streets. It was designed by James Watts and sat on a pedestal constructed by local firm Lowther & Sons.
During the 1960s and 1970s various proposals were made to alter the Square as part of the redevelopment of property on the opposite side of Adelaide Street. These plans met with considerable public resistance. After a protracted public debate, a compromise plan involving limited encroachment on Anzac Square was agreed upon. This work was completed by 1984 and included the construction of a pair of elevated pedestrian bridges to Post Office Square, enlarging the crypt under the Shrine, and the realignment of the Adelaide Street entrance to the Square.
Originally envisaged as a First World War memorial, Anzac Square has become a repository for memorials of other wars. In 1984 the Second World War Shrine of Memories was relocated in the enlarged crypt under the Shrine and during 1988 memorials to those who served in the Korean and Vietnam wars were erected in the square.
Anzac Square remains as the focus of armed services commemorations, particularly on Anzac Day.
","criteria":"Anzac Square, a State memorial to those who participated in overseas armed service campaigns and the site for major commemorative occasions is significant as a rare example formal urban design of such a scale and degree of unity.
|Anzac Square, a State memorial to those who participated in overseas armed service campaigns and the site for major commemorative occasions is significant as a rare example formal urban design of such a scale and degree of unity.
Anzac Square is significant as one of the few examples of Australian war iconography which include servicewomen.
Anzac Square is significant as it contains the only memorial in Brisbane dedicated to all members of the Queensland contingents who died during the South African conflict, and one of the few South African War memorials in the state.
|Anzac Square, a State memorial to those who participated in overseas armed service campaigns and the site for major commemorative occasions is significant as a rare example formal urban design of such a scale and degree of unity.
Anzac Square is important for its contribution to the central city area as a large open space, combining green and built elements.
Anzac Square is significant as examples of the work of Queensland artists and sculptors Daphne Mayo, L Watts and W L Bowles.
|Anzac Square, a State memorial to those who participated in overseas armed service campaigns and the site for major commemorative occasions is significant as a rare example formal urban design of such a scale and degree of unity
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14839,"place_ref":600064,"name":"Commonwealth Government Offices","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"232 Adelaide Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Commonwealth Government building, situated in Adelaide Street adjacent to Anzac Square, is a seven storeyed masonry building. It has a concrete encased steel frame with a polished granite base, sandstone cladding with banded rusticated coursing to second floor level, and upper levels of rendered brick imitating the stonework below.
The top storey is visually separated by balconies across its openings and a large projecting cornice incorporating dentil blocks. Antifixae are regularly spaced along the upper surface of the cornice. The recess between the wings facing Anzac Square extends down to the third floor level which has an arched opening and a flat roof. The lift tower situated at the back of the recess extends above the parapet line of the remainder of the building. It culminates in an archway with a keystone, and then steps inwards to a flat top.
The entry facade to Adelaide Street has its end window bays visually separated. Entries occur at the base of these bays, the major public entry on the right. Plain giant order pilasters occur to either side of the fourth and fifth floor windows of these bays. Cable moulding is a decorative feature of the facade around each entry. The windows are all steel framed casements. Granite steps lead to the recessed entry doors which are bronze sheeted with adjoining bronze and copper panelling. The entry screens are wrought iron.
The ground floor lobby is lined with imported marble while the floor is formed of black and white mosaic tiles. The upper level lobbies use terrazzo instead. Some of the moulded plaster ornamentation is visible at the tops of the columns, on the faces of the pilasters, and under the beams on the ground floor. The upper floors have drop panels on two sides of the columns and on the face of the pilasters. A timber Commonwealth crest has been installed between the doors of two of the refurbished lifts in the lobby.
","history":"This building, the first offices owned by the Commonwealth Government in Brisbane, was erected from 1933 to 1936. It formed part of a 1920s-1930s local, state and federal government re-development of the inner city Brisbane block bounded by Ann, Edward, Adelaide and Creek Streets, resulting in the construction of Anzac Square (1928-30) flanked by imposing State and Commonwealth Government Offices.
In the 1910s the Commonwealth Government had acquired the land between Ann and Adelaide Streets and fronting Creek Street, then occupied principally by commercial buildings, with the intention of erecting substantial Commonwealth offices on the site. There is some indication that this early scheme may have included the establishment of a public square opposite Central Railway Station.
A proposal was mooted in 1916 to develop a large memorial park and monument in the centre of Brisbane to commemorate Queensland sacrifice and participation in the Great War, and a committee was formed in 1919 to lobby for the creation of a commemorative square to occupy the whole of the land bounded by Ann, Edward, Adelaide and Creek Streets. Negotiations in the early 1920s between the Brisbane City Council (which wished to develop the park), the Queensland Government (which owned the southern part of the block) and Commonwealth Government (which owned the northern section) resulted in a smaller area determined for the park, which was to be flanked by similarly designed Commonwealth Government Offices to the north and State Government Offices to the south. In 1923 JS Murdoch, the Chief Architect of the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs, prepared an overall design for the precinct, as well as designs for Commonwealth Government Offices on the north side of the proposed square.
In the mid-1920s both the State and Commonwealth governments dedicated part of the block to become a public park under the control of the Brisbane City Council, and Anzac Memorial Park was developed on the site in 1928-30.
In 1927 the Commonwealth Public Works Committee agreed to erect a seven storey building to cover the whole of the remaining Commonwealth property between Adelaide and Ann Streets and fronting Creek Street. The existing buildings on the site were demolished in 1928, but the downturn in the economy delayed construction. In 1933 the State Government requested that building begin in order to provide work for the unemployed. Financial stringency called for the modification of the plans, and only two wings of the original design were built for a cost of £90 000. This work was completed in 1936, and provided 35 000 ft² (3 252 m²) of office space. With its restrained use of co-ordinated Classical detailing, the building complemented the adjacent Anzac Square and the State Government Offices (designed by the Queensland Government Architect's Office in keeping with Murdoch's overall scheme, and erected in stages between 1931 and 1960).
In 1968 the government abandoned the prescribed design for completion of the Commonwealth Government Offices and in 1972 instead erected a new 15 storey office block on the corner of Ann and Creek Streets. In the 1980s the exterior of the building was refurbished.
","criteria":"Commonwealth Government Offices is important in illustrating the expansion and centralisation of Commonwealth bureaucracy in Queensland in the early 20th century. As an integral part of the Anzac Square precinct re-development of the 1920s and 1930s, the place is important evidence of early co-operation and co-ordination between local, state and federal governments. Construction of the Commonwealth Government Offices is significant also as an important government job-creation scheme in Queensland during the 1930s depression.
|Commonwealth Government Offices is an accomplished example of a 1930s Neo-classical government office building in Brisbane, and is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of its type.
|Aesthetically, it is significant for its coherence in design, scale and materials with Anzac Square and the adjacent State Government Offices.
|Commonwealth Government Offices is also significant as an example of the government work of distinguished architect JS Murdoch.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14840,"place_ref":600065,"name":"Brisbane City Hall","alternate_name":"City Hall Brisbane","street_address":"64 Adelaide Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Brisbane City Hall, located at the corners of Ann, Adelaide, and Albert Streets, is a large building in the Classical Revival style. Constructed between 1920 and 1930 its tower was the tallest structure in the inner city until the 1960s. The building is axially arranged around a central circular concert hall with its main architectural features located centrally on each of the three facades. The spaces formed between the rectilinear outer plan form and the inner circular one are used as lightwells to courtyards. The clock tower centred above the entrance portico is the predominant feature of the building and stands around 90m above street level. It houses a set of Westminster chimes, sheet copper clocks of 5m diameter and an observation tower. On top of the tower's copper pyramidal roof is an open metal sphere that housed a red neon light, which in the past served as an air navigation beacon. The buildings other main architectural feature is its copper dome roof over the auditorium which is supported on a brick base and is 31 metres in diameter remaining unobstructed by columns.
The symmetrical front facade has a central pediment supported by well proportioned giant order Corinthian columns, and this now forms the entry porch. The tympanum features a sculpture by Daphne Mayo depicting early settlement. The removal of the granite entry stairs and the partial concealment of the base, owing to the construction of the King George Square carpark, diminished the overall scale of the front of the building and removed its previous spatial relationship with Albert Street.
To either side of the front entry porch the building has a colonnade of columns with Ionic capitals. On the side facades pilasters have been used instead. The centrally located entries on these facades still manage to exhibit a scale approaching that of the front. The base of the building, now partly obscured by the King George Square carpark, features semicircular headed windows with wrought iron grilles.
The foliage surrounding the building is distinctive and adds to the overall quality of environment nearby. Of particular note are the Cuban Royal Palms in front of the King George Square facade. These have become almost synonymous with the building over time and incorporated into the City Council logo. The Adelaide Street facade is covered in a large part by a climbing plant (Monstera deliciosa).
Internally the building has many fine spaces. These include the Main Auditorium which seats over 1500 people, has a gallery level, and contains a large organ that pre-dates the building. The main casework for this was designed by architects Hall and Prentice and is constructed from Queensland maple. The panels over the choir stalls were sculptured by Daphne Mayo. The King George Square entry foyer has a high vaulted ceiling with ornamental plaster work. Other details include a mosaic tiled floor and a panelled dado of coloured marble around the walls. The main staircase is constructed of Australian, Italian and Belgian marble, with newel post hewn from solid blocks of Sicilian marble. The woodwork in the entry is crafted from Queensland timbers. The entry vestibules off Ann and Adelaide Street have leadlight panels located centrally on the first floor level designed by William Bustard. Two of these occur in the Adelaide Street vestibule and a duplicate of one of these is in the Ann Street vestibule. The Council Chambers feature an Oxy-copper steel plate ceiling supported on pillars of Australian marble, and furniture carved from rich Queensland timbers.
City Hall is built predominantly of local materials: Helidon freestone for the walls of the upper three storeys; Enoggera granite for the ground floor and basement; local timber for the internal joinery; and local Darra cement.
The Classical entry portico along with the dominant Clock tower and the large central auditorium with its copper dome all contribute to making this a fine municipal building.
","history":"Brisbane's first Town Hall was opened in 1864 in Queen Street, however, by 1882 it was considered inadequate. The construction of new municipal chambers, however, was retarded by controversy over the location of the new hall - Adelaide Street or Petrie Bight. Town Planners and many citizens favoured the latter site, now Centenary Place, as development of the Central Business District was expanding northwards. The present site was chosen, despite its swampy conditions, as it was largely council land and required minimal resumptions. In 1909 architects Corrie, Atkinson and McLay designed the new town hall, but their contract was terminated when Brisbane property owners refused to sanction the £180 000 loan required for construction.
To generate public enthusiasm for the project a foundation stone was laid by Governor Gould Adams on 3 February 1917, although a new design had not been drawn. On 22 July 1917 Council voted to employ architects TR Hall and GG Prentice to design municipal offices and a public hall which would be a credit to the city for generations. By November 1919 Hall and Prentice had submitted their design estimated at £480 000. The plans featured a clock tower, 300 feet high, topped with a sculpture of the "Angel of Peace". The Ann and Albert Street facades were crowned by a group of life size statues depicting a chariot drawn by prancing horses and the building corners were capped by two copper domes.
A second foundation stone was laid on 29 July 1920 by the Prince of Wales. A time capsule was placed beneath the stone which contained coins, newspaper clippings and council records. Arthur Midson and Sons' tender of £119 870 for the foundation was accepted. Wet conditions made work difficult and despite continuous pumping of the site, one workman drowned during an inspection. Excavations to a depth of 54 feet were required before bedrock was reached.
The contract for the construction of the superstructure was given to DD Carrick who submitted the lowest tender of £506 375. In 1923 the plans were modified to cut costs, eliminating the chariot statues. DD Carrick signed the new contract on 10 March 1924 and work commenced almost immediately. By late 1927 Council staff began to occupy the building and on 24 January 1928 the first meeting was held in the chambers. On 8 April 1930 Governor Sir John Goodwin opened the Brisbane City Hall. It was proclaimed a "symbol of civic pride", "an inspiration for citizenship" and an "edifice which for grandeur, dignity and architectural effect was without its peer in the Commonwealth". The sculpture on the tympanum which depicted the settlement of Queensland, was crafted by local artist Daphne Mayo. Its unveiling on 17 December 1930, completed the construction of City Hall.
The construction of King George Square was first proposed in the 1930s and the area was marked for "civic purposes" on the 1959 Town Plan. In 1962 negotiations began for the acquisition of properties for demolition and the following year initial plans were drawn. Albert Street was closed in 1966 and plans were finalised in 1968. King George Square was officially opened on 18 March 1975, as the forecourt to the City Hall. The transfer of council departments to the Brisbane Administration Centre after 1976, allowed the renovation of City Hall and its partial conversion to a community centre. On 9 March 1977 the Art Gallery/Museum on the ground floor was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. Since then the administration offices have been converted to function rooms, as originally intended; Council Chambers redecorated; and the central library, clubrooms and kindercraft day nursery have been added.
","criteria":"Brisbane City Hall is historically significant as the Brisbane City Council chambers and offices since 1930 and the symbolic focus of the municipality, it provides a sense of place for the Brisbane community.
|Brisbane City Hall is a fine example of a Classical Revival civic building with a modern steel and concrete structure.
Brisbane City Hall is a well known example of the work of Hall and Prentice.
Brisbane City Hall is constructed almost entirely of local building materials, the City Hall is a tribute to local architects, contractors, tradesmen and artists.
|Brisbane City Hall with its clock tower and King George Square as its forecourt create a landmark in Brisbane.
|The building contains notable technical achievements ranging from the span of copper dome roof over the auditorium, the height of the clock tower and the unique foundations that were designed to alleviate the problems of a water hole on the site.
|Brisbane City Hall with its clock tower and King George Square as its forecourt create a landmark in Brisbane.
|Brisbane City Hall is a well known example of the work of Hall and Prentice.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14841,"place_ref":600066,"name":"Albert Street Uniting Church","alternate_name":"Albert Street Methodist Church","street_address":"319 Albert Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Albert Street Uniting Church is built of red brick with trimmings in white Oamaru limestone, now painted, and has a slate roof. It is an example of a Victorian Gothic Revival church with its cruciform plan shape, steeply pitched roof forms, the imposing spire beside the entry, and the heavy buttressing of the facades.
The entry to the church is from an open porch with three Gothic arches at the end of the nave. Similar arcades exist down the sides of the church. A single large Gothic opening with fine tracery is located above the entry porch. To the right of the entry is a tower rising to the octagonal spire which has tall dormers on four of its faces and four pinnacles at the corners of its base. The top of the spire has a wrought iron finial.
The roof on the nave also has small dormer ventilators. A side entry is to the right of the base of the tower and has a broad Gothic arch with a steeply pitched parapet topped by a cross. The end of each transept has a rose window in the gable end above a pair of Gothic arched windows that in turn are above groups of smaller openings.
Internally, the nave floor slopes down towards the pulpit and the walls are rendered, with a timber boarded dado. The galleries contain tiered seating and are supported on cast iron columns with ornate capitals. The main ceiling and gallery soffits are diagonally boarded and finely carved timberwork is incorporated into the gallery railings, roof structure and furnishings.
The focus of the interior is the pulpit and organ. The pulpit is raised several metres above the floor, and reflects the importance in the Methodist tradition that was given to preaching. Above and behind the pulpit is a large decoratively painted pipe organ which reflects the value placed by Methodists on music and singing.
","history":"The first Methodist church in Brisbane, a modest brick chapel, was constructed in 1849 on the corner of Albert Street and Burnett Lane. It was replaced in 1856 by a larger building. By the early 1880s the congregation had grown substantially and in 1884 purchased a site on the corner of Albert and Ann Streets. A competition was held for the design of a new church which was won by G H M Addison.
The church was built for a cost of £10,000 by contractor Thomas Pearson & Sons. Other tradespeople included Petrie & Son (joinery), and Exton and Gough (stained glass windows). In keeping with the importance placed on music in Methodism, a large pipe organ was installed. It was built by George Benson of Manchester for a cost of £1,000. Five foundation stones were laid by prominent congregation members on 18 August 1888 and the church was officially opened on 8 November 1889.
In the 1920s a marble honour board was erected in the front entrance vestibule commemorating the members of the congregation who served in World War 1. Additional stained glass windows were installed as memorials in 1944 and 1947. Restoration work was undertaken in 1974-75 and involved the replacement of the slate roof. Further repair work on the building has recently commenced.
In 1907 the church became known as the Central Methodist Mission in recognition of its wider responsibilities as the main Methodist church in the city. The congregation has been involved in a variety of welfare activities and has developed an extensive network of accommodation and other services for aged people.
The church served as the symbolic centre of Methodism in Queensland. The Annual Conference was opened each year in the church and significant occasions for Methodists were celebrated there. With the formation of the Uniting Church in 1977, the church was renamed Albert Street Uniting Church.
","criteria":"As an excellent example of a Victorian Gothic Revival church, climatically adapted with side colonnades and front porch; and internally a good example of the major attributes of the Methodist tradition.
\nFor its association with the Methodist Church in Queensland.
\nAs a dominant element on the corner of Albert and Ann Streets, and for its contribution to the townscape at King George Square.
\nAs one of the major works of the architect G H M Addison.
|As an excellent example of a Victorian Gothic Revival church, climatically adapted with side colonnades and front porch; and internally a good example of the major attributes of the Methodist tradition.
As one of the major works of the architect G H M Addison.
|As a dominant element on the corner of Albert and Ann Streets, and for its contribution to the townscape at King George Square.
|For its association with the Methodist Church in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14842,"place_ref":600067,"name":"Brisbane Botanic Gardens","alternate_name":"Walter Hill Fountain; Queen's Park; Botanic Gardens Brisbane","street_address":"147 Alice Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-02-03","description":"The Brisbane Botanic Gardens, occupying 20 ha, is bounded by George, Alice and Edward Streets and the Brisbane river. They comprise three major sections: the former Queen's Park along Alice Street, the Botanic Gardens proper [adjacent to the river], and the former Government Domain at the rear of the Queensland University of Technology [formerly part of the grounds to Old Government House].
Set in undulating grounds, the gardens are bordered by mature shade trees which also create avenues and groves. A lake and formal lawns, gardens and structures provide a diversity of passive recreational activities. A series of interconnecting paths link a riverside concourse with other perimeter paths.
The gardens contain an avenue of Bunya Pines (Araucaria bidwilli) planted in the 1850s and an avenue of Weeping Figs (Ficus benjamina) planted in the 1870s. It also contains a number of other rare plants, particularly palms and figs - some in formal planting arrangements within the lawns, others within mass planted gardens - and an avenue of Cook Pines (Araucaria cookii).
A low stone wall (1860s) surmounted by an iron railing fence runs the length of Alice Street and extends into George Street. Large iron gates provide entry at George, Albert and Edward Streets. A cottage c1900s, with Arts and Crafts decorative elements, is located at the southern end of the gardens on a hill known as Residence Hill. This building is surrounded by trees and shrubs, some of which are survivors of late 1850s and early 1860s plantings.
In a hollow to the north of Residence Hill, is the Walter Hill fountain. It stands on a stepped octagonal base of three tiers. The body of the fountain continues this shape but tapers towards its top. The lion shaped drinking fountains, presently not functioning, and basins are of white marble in contrast with the freestone of the rest of the structure.
To the south of Residence Hill is a 1980s grassed amphitheatre facing a stage beside the river. Other structures for public convenience and recreational use are dispersed throughout the gardens.
","history":"Much of the present-day Botanic Gardens was surveyed and selected as the site for a Public Garden in 1828 by the NSW Colonial Botanist Charles Fraser. During the convict period, part of the land was used for growing crops.
In 1855 a portion of several acres was declared a Botanic Reserve. In the same year Walter Hill was appointed Curator of the Botanic Reserve, and began an active planting and experimental program. He made a major contribution to the development of commercial crops in Queensland including tobacco, sugar, grape vines, wheat, tropical fruits, fibrous, dyeing and tanning plants and tea, coffee and spices. He encouraged the work of the sugar pioneer John Buhot which culminated in the first production of granulated sugar in Queensland in April 1862. Hill also supported the work of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society which was formed in 1862, and the Botanic Gardens was the propagation and distribution point for the Society's imports.
By 1866 Hill had succeeded in having the extent of the Botanic Gardens enlarged to approximately 27 acres (11 ha). A 10 acre (4 ha) strip along Alice Street was not part of the Gardens but served as a park and sporting field known as Queen's Park.
Early building work in the area included a Superintendent's cottage in the late 1850s, a platform for a battery of cannon in the early 1860s, a stone and iron fence around Queen's Park in 1865-66 [utilising stone from the old gaol on Petrie Terrace], and a drinking fountain in 1867. The fountain, designed by Colonial Architect Charles Tiffin, was erected only a year after reticulated water from the Enoggera reservoir was introduced to Brisbane. It later became known as the Walter Hill fountain.
Scientific activity was complemented by public recreational use of the Gardens, along with the Domain (on the southern boundary of the Gardens) and Queen's Park. By the 1880s, some of the scientific work previously performed by the Botanic Gardens was being carried out by the Queensland Acclimatisation Society at Bowen Park. The Herbarium and Botanic Library were moved from the Gardens for a period but were returned in 1905 when John Frederick Bailey was appointed Curator of the Botanic Gardens.
Extensive dredging of Gardens Point in 1915 removed about 9 acres (3.6 ha) from the Domain and Botanic Gardens but in the following year the amalgamation of the Gardens, Queens Park and part of the Domain resulted in a new Botanic Gardens of about 50 acres (20 ha).
The City of Brisbane Act of 1924 transferred responsibility for the Botanic Gardens to the Brisbane City Council, but the Herbarium remained as part of the Department of Agriculture and Stock.
Since the opening of the Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens in the mid 1970s, the Brisbane Botanic Gardens has become principally a recreational venue. Re-development of the Gardens in the late 1980s saw the introduction of new recreational structures and restoration work on the former Queen's Park fence.
","criteria":"The Brisbane Botanic Gardens are historically important as the most significant, non-Aboriginal cultural landscape in Queensland, having a continuous horticultural history since 1828, without any significant loss of land area or change in use over that time. It remains the premier public park and recreational facility for the capital of Queensland, which role it has performed since the early 1840s.
|Plant collections date to the 1850s, many having been planted by Walter Hill, the first Director of the Botanic Gardens. Many of the specimens are either rare in cultivation or of great maturity or both. Many important plant introductions to Queensland, of both an agricultural and ornamental nature, can be traced directly to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens and the work of its early curators.
|These gardens are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an evolving public and botanical garden dating from the mid-19th century, containing the most extensive mature gardens in Queensland. There are a number of historic structures in the gardens, including the Walter Hill Drinking Fountain (1867), the former band pavilion (1878), the boundary stone walls, gates and cast iron railings (1865-85), the former bear pit shelter (1905), the former curator's residence (1909) [now the kiosk], the riverwall from Edward Street to the Domain (1918), the southern stone staircase on the riverbank (1918-19) and the middle and northern stone staircases (both 1923-24). The place also contains a number of historically significant early engineering projects, including the stormwater drainage system (1865 onwards), reticulated water supply from Enoggera Dam (1867) and underground electricity supply for lighting purposes (1907).
|The Brisbane Botanic Gardens are significant as a Brisbane landmark and for their visual amenity and natural wildlife values as the major verdant landscaped area in the city's central business district.
|Many important social events have taken place within the gardens, and the place is generally held in high regard by the local community and is a popular destination for visitors to Brisbane.
|The place has a special association with the pioneering work of curators Walter Hill (1855-81), Philip MacMahon (1886-1905), JF Bailey (1905-1917) and Ernest Walter Bick (1917-1939).
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14843,"place_ref":600068,"name":"Public Works Depot","alternate_name":"Smellie & Co Warehouse | Britannia Foundry","street_address":"210 Alice Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This two storeyed building, situated in Alice Street, is of brick construction with a rendered facade and a galvanised iron roof.
The facade has semi-circular arched windows on both levels. There are eight openings on the upper level and three to each side of a central square carriage way on the lower level. All the arched openings have moulded architraves, sills, and ornamented keystones. An opening on the ground floor has been converted to a doorway. A pilaster of vermiculated quoins runs down the northern end of the facade. A frieze and dentilled cornice extend across the building and are surmounted by two simple triangular pediments with scroll-like brackets to each side.
The rear elevation had a circular opening and four rectangular ones, all of which have been blocked up. A steel escape stair and aluminium framed glazed doors have been inserted on the exposed side of the building facing the yard.
The interior of the building has been altered but still shows evidence of it's original construction and use. Some cast iron columns incorporating brackets remain at the front of the building on the ground floor. The timber trusses of the two gable roofs are exposed on the upper level.
","history":"This building was constructed c1887 for the engineering and iron founding firm of Harvey Sargeant & Co. Harvey, Sargeant & Co was founded in 1880 and was part of the fledgling heavy engineering industry in Queensland. It produced ironworks, brick making machinery, girders, and agricultural machinery. The ironworks necessary for much of the building boom carried out in Brisbane in the 1880s were supplied by Harvey, Sargeant, & Co.
In 1885 the company purchased a site in Alice Street for a foundry and a building was erected c1887. Called the Britannia Foundry, it was one of several foundries in the street, including Smellie & Co, and Smith, Forrester & Co, who operated the Queensland Ironworks.
Harvey, Sargeant & Co went into insolvency in 1892, but a new company was formed to continue operating the foundry. In 1903 the business moved to new premises in Alice Street. The firm remained in this part of the city until 1966 when it moved to Sherwood, and now trades under the name of ANI-Sargeant.
In 1909 the property was purchased by Smellie & Co, a firm which imported machinery and farming equipment, for use as a warehouse. Smellie's owned adjacent properties in Alice and Edward Streets (QHR 600092 and QHR 600097). In 1945, Smellie & Co sold the building, along with its other properties to the Queensland government. The Department of Public Works has used this building as a workshop, and more recently for storage.
","criteria":"The building also provides evidence of engineering and foundry works which previously were a major activity in the Alice Street area.
|The Public Works Depot is significant as an example of an intact 1880s industrial building with a decorative facade.
|The Public Works Depot is significant for its contribution to the Alice Street streetscape along with neighbouring Old Mineral House [600092].
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14844,"place_ref":600069,"name":"Parliament House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"69 Alice Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Parliament House is located at the intersection of George and Alice Streets and comprises the main wing, fronting George Street and a wing constructed at a later date, fronting Alice Street. It is an imposing three storeyed masonry building in Classical Revival style.
The entire building forms a dominant landmark at the northern end of the Government Precinct along George Street and is complemented by other nineteenth century buildings in the immediate area, including the Queensland Club [600113] and the Mansions [600119]. It also has a strong physical relationship with the Botanic Gardens [600067] opposite.
The original part of the building is constructed of dressed Woogaroo freestone. The arcades are of Murphy's Creek sandstone and the porte cochere is of Helidon white sandstone.
The George Street facade is symmetrical in design, comprising central and end pavilions connected by colonnaded wings.
The central pavilion has a porte cochere at ground level, above which is a balustraded terrace. The upper two storeys are surmounted by an entablature and parapet. The roof is square domed with decorative iron cresting and a dormer window with sandstone surrounds is centrally located on each of the four elevations.
The two end pavilions are symmetrically designed on both the front and end elevations, with three elongated arched windows on the ground floor, three windows surmounted by triangular pediments of the first floor and three smaller windows on the second floor. String courses are located at sill height and quoins demarcate each corner. This section is also surmounted by an entablature and parapet, which surrounds a mansard roof with decorative iron cresting.
The wings are slightly set back and connect the central and end pavilions. They comprise colonnades on the ground and first floors, a balustraded terrace to the second floor, and are also surmounted by an entablature and parapet. The roofs are gabled with centrally placed ventilation fleches.
The Alice Street range is similar in design to the wings of the George Street range, with colonnades to the ground and first floor levels, and a balustraded terrace to the second floor. The south west end is capped with a mansard roof, matching those on the George Street range. The Alice Street range varies from the George Street range, by the inclusion of decorative panels of relief carved stonework depicting Queensland flora, including a staghorn keystone above the central entrance. The south west elevation has a timber verandah with cast iron balustrades to all three levels.
The rear of the building faces a central courtyard surrounded by Parliament House and the annexe building. The rear elevations are less decorative in design, and a timber verandah with cast iron balustrades, similar in design to that on the Alice Street range, runs the length of the George Street range.
Internally, the rooms express the exterior massing, with the George Street range containing the primary rooms. The grand stair rises at the rear of the central pavilion, and libraries are located at the front on the first and second levels. At the landings of the grand stair are large stained glass windows depicting Queen Victoria and other subjects. The first floor of the connecting wings contains the Legislative Assembly at the north west end and the Council Chambers at the south east end. These spaces are open to the second level, on which the press and public galleries are located.
The south west end of the Alice Street range houses a cellar in the basement , a dining room and bar on the first floor and a billiard room on the second floor.
The remainder of the areas comprise offices of Members of Parliament and support staff, corridors and service areas. Secondary staircases to the public and press galleries are located within the wings on either side of the central pavilion. A concealed spiral staircase is located in offices at the south east end of the George Street range, allowing access from an office of the ground floor to the Council Chambers gallery of the second floor.
All rooms have ornate plaster cornices and ceiling roses which vary in design. Most offices have marble mantelpieces, with variations in the stone type and design in each of the ranges, and all areas have cedar joinery. Some offices in the Alice Street range are divided by cedar folding doors.
Alterations to the fabric, such as the lowering of ceilings to allow for air conditioning ducting is apparent in most areas. Original cornices and ceiling are visible in services cupboards. New lighting, decorative finishes and soft furnishings have been introduced into most areas.
","history":"The main wing of Parliament House (facing George Street) was erected between 1865 and 1867 as the seat of Queensland government after separation in 1859. It was designed by Colonial Architect Charles Tiffin and is the most substantial building erected in this period. The wing facing Alice Street was constructed between 1887 and 1889, supervised by Colonial Architect, G Connolly.
Prior to separation, Moreton Bay was included in an electoral division which encompassed all areas north of Port Macquarie. By 1851 Moreton Bay had elected a Member to the Legislative Council of New South Wales, and when separation occurred the region was represented by nine Members.
In 1859, the colony of Queensland was granted separation from New South Wales and a constitution was established, based on the English Westminster system. This provided the need for a legislature in two chambers, and conversion of the previous prison barracks in Queen Street was undertaken to fulfil this.
This proved unsatisfactory and in 1864, a Commission was established to host a competition for a new House of Parliament. The committee members decided upon 20 000 as the amount which competitors should endeavour to make the basis of the probable cost. Entries were received and the design of Benjamin Backhouse was considered to be most suitable. However it proved to be too costly and the design of Colonial Architect Charles Tiffin was selected instead. This decision caused much controversy and the Commission was eventually forced to alter the previous plans and call for a new design. In December 1864 the Queensland Daily Guardian reported that the whole of the designs are to be rejected and an entirely new and original design has been adopted. The new building design is more imposing, more appropriate and will afford more accommodation.
Tiffin's new design comprised four ranges around a central court, with the Legislative chambers in the George Street range and government offices in the remaining ranges. The arrangement of space, both of the building as a whole and within the individual chambers is indicative of the way in which Parliamentary proceedings were, and still are, conducted
The building was to be erected on what was then part of Queens Park, adjacent to the Government Domain and the Botanic Gardens. The foundation stone was laid on July 14 1865 by Governor Bowen and work commenced on the George Street range.
In 1865 the Brisbane Courier described the George Street range as being 304 feet long by 86 feet deep at the centre......by 103 feet in height to the top of a curved mansard roof over the libraries and the grand staircase.
Now described as Classical Revival in style, it was then described as renaissance as adopted in the Louvre and Tulleries, but of a less ornate character and more in keeping with the position of the colony. The external walls are constructed of freestone from Mr Jeays quarry at Woogaroo and the roof was originally of English slates..... the ridges and mansards terminated with iron cresting.
Internally, the Courier described the building as plain and substantial, however finishes included large stained glass windows by Messrs Chance of Birmingham featuring portraits of the Queen, the Prince and the Princess of Wales, large and ornate sunlights, also imported from England, cedar doors with panels of open bronze work, and ornate plasterwork.
By 1867, the work was complete, although due to financial constraints, only the George Street range had been constructed.
Tiffin retired from the position of Colonial Architect in 1869 and was succeeded by F D G Stanley. The building remained as constructed until 1878 when additions were made including the construction of archways and colonnades to the George Street facade and erection of the stone and iron palisade fence to the George and Alice Street frontages.
In 1887 it was again decided to make additions to the House and the Alice Street range was constructed, completed in 1889. The Colonial Architect at this time was George St Paul Connolly, who supervised the work. Although the extension conforms to Tiffin's original design principals, it shows slight variations in the form of relief stonework panels comprising staghorns, eucalyptus leaves, gum nuts and convolvulus. The designer of these is thought to have been Thomas Pye, chief draftsman of the Department of Public Works at the time. The sculptor is unidentified, having been employed by the contractor Daniel MacDonald.
The abolition of the Legislative Council in 1922 rendered the Council Chamber obsolete. Although rarely used, the space remains intact.
The multi-storey parliamentary annexe at the rear of the original building was erected in 1979, followed by the addition of the porte cochere to the George Street range in 1981. The new porte cochere was based on Tiffin's original design, although it was increased in size to allow for the passage of cars.
In 1982, the building was renovated at a cost of thirteen million dollars. This included extensive refurbishment of all areas, including the addition of air conditioning in all rooms, the installation of security and fire protection services and externally, the replacement of finishes such as the tessellated tiles to the ground floor arcades and the original copper sheeting to the roof with a new material.
","criteria":"Parliament House was constructed between 1865 and 1867 as the seat of Queensland government after separation from New South Wales in 1859. It is unique as the first and only purpose built Parliament House in Queensland and, as the continuing seat of Parliament, is immensely important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history. At the time of construction it was the largest and most imposing building in the state, indicating of the sense of permanency and ambition felt by the government of Queensland at that time. Its nearest rival in scale and style was Government House (600118), previously completed in 1862.
|It is unique as the first and only purpose built Parliament House in Queensland and, as the continuing seat of Parliament, is immensely important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history.
|Parliament House demonstrates the principal characteristics of a building of its type, and the design and plan and illustrates the way in which Queensland Parliament operates. The planning of the Chambers in particular, demonstrates the hierarchy of Parliamentary proceedings.
|The place is a significant landmark in the city of Brisbane, both alone and as part of an immediate precinct at the intersection of Alice and George Streets. It also forms part of a larger Government Precinct extending from Old Government House to the Law Courts.
Parliament House is of considerable aesthetic significance due to its landmark qualities and for its high degree of design and workmanship, including exterior details and internal features such as stained glass windows and cedar joinery.
|The design and construction of a building of this scale at such an early stage in the history of Brisbane demonstrates a high degree of creative and technical achievement.
|As the seat of Queensland government and the place where virtually every significant political decision has been made over the past 130 years, Parliament House has strong associations with the people of Brisbane and the State of Queensland.
|It also has special association with the architects involved in its construction, including Charles Tiffin, F D G Stanley, G Connolly and Thomas Pye who is thought to have designed the relief panels on the Alice Street wing.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14846,"place_ref":600071,"name":"Ann Street Presbyterian Church","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"141 Ann Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Ann Street Presbyterian Church is a rendered stone and brick building set well above Ann Street and King George Square with a ornate render and cast iron wall and steps down to Ann Street. The roof, of ribbed galvanised iron, consists of a series of steeply pitched gables. The windows are generally tall lancets, with a few rounded-headed ones. The front elevation contains two portal doors inset within semi-circular arches with ogival mouldings and patterned decoration in the render, and a rose window above. The words 'Ann St. Presbyterian Church' are set in render above the door.
Timber detailing, fittings and furnishings feature prominently in the interior. The ceiling comprises diagonal boarding with regularly spaced fretwork panels above exposed timber trusses. Broad timber arches are located along the side walls of the transepts. A timber screen divides the entrance porch from the main body of the church. The floor slopes gradually down from the entry to the communion table, elders court and pulpit. A large pipe organ dominates the eastern wall.
The 1936 hall and offices and the third transept of the church do not form part of the listing.
","history":"The first major contingent of Presbyterians to arrive in Queensland came as part of JD Lang's immigration scheme in the late 1840s. The first Presbyterian services were conducted in a house at Kangaroo Point until 1851 when a small timber church was opened at South Brisbane. For the benefit of North Brisbane residents, services were also conducted in the School of Arts building on the corner of Queen and Creek streets.
In 1854 the congregation purchased three allotments in Ann Street and four years later a simple stone building, erected by Joshua Jeays for a cost of £960, was opened and became known as the Ann Street Presbyterian Church. A fire on 21 December 1871 destroyed all but the stone walls of the church. It was rebuilt, partly with stone from the earlier church, during 1872-1873. The church was formally reopened on 26 October 1873.
In 1897 major alterations and additions were undertaken. Designed by AB Wilson, the work included the addition of buttresses, double transepts, a basement, the construction of stone steps and fence at the front, plastering of the exterior, and the installation of a rose window in the front wall. Further work was undertaken to the interior in 1903 to accommodate and a new organ, and between 1903-14 a third transept was added.
In 1936 a two storeyed extension, adjoining the northern end of the transepts, was built. Designed by DFW Roberts it comprised hall and offices. As well as offices for the parish it also contained the central offices of the Presbyterian Church in Queensland. Buttressing was also added to either side of the front of the building to match that on the later transepts. This work was completed for a cost of £6,000.
During the mid 1960s, the future of the church was threatened when the Brisbane City Council sought to acquire the site as part of the redevelopment of King George Square. Church and community pressure, however, ensured the survival of the building.
","criteria":"The Ann Street Presbyterian Church is significant as one of the oldest churches still in use in Queensland, it is important in demonstrating the pattern of development of churches in Queensland's history.
|The building demonstrates the principal characteristics of the Presbyterian tradition as a church building, with a harmonious sequence of later additions.
|The church is important in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community including the quality and intactness of the interior of the church and the contribution the church makes to the townscape and to King George Square.
|As the site of continuous Presbyterian worship since 1858, the Ann Street Presbyterian Church has a strong and special association with the Presbyterian community for social, cultural and spiritual reasons.
|The church has a special association with architect AB Wilson who was associated with the Presbyterian church.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14847,"place_ref":600072,"name":"Brisbane School of Arts","alternate_name":"Servants Home (former); School of Arts Brisbane","street_address":"166 Ann Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The School of Arts building is a two-storey masonry building elevated above Ann Street. The lower level is of coursed rubble masonry with red brick quoins and string courses. The upper two levels of the building are entirely brick, with the arched headed openings symmetrically arranged. The rolled iron hipped roof is surmounted by a 15 foot (4.6 metre) lantern light with projecting eaves.
The entry stairs and front and side verandahs contain timber balustrades of diagonal crossed pieces and circular brackets below the eaves. The verandah roof drops in a shallow curve from below the eaves brackets of the main roof to its gutter line.
The double height lecture hall and three classrooms (1884) have face brick with timber floors, roof trusses, and corrugated galvanised iron roof. The library extension (1908) is constructed in a similar manner and consists of a double height room with a lantern roof light.
The building was restored in 1984-1985. Few interior fittings and furnishings remain, but the organisation of the internal space is relatively intact. Rooms on the ground floor are used for exhibitions while the first floor contains offices and a craft gallery. Original roof strutting is visible in the uppermost floor of the 1860s section and staircases and fireplaces have been retained. The tiered seating and balconies in the first floor of the lecture hall remain.
","history":"This building was erected in 1865-66. Known as the Servants Home, it provided accommodation for single adult females who had migrated to Queensland and were awaiting employment as domestic servants. Designed by H Edwin Bridges, the building comprised a ground floor and two upper galleries. All four elevations were identical. A notable feature of the interior was the lantern above the void in the two upper floors which provided natural lighting to the building. A 6,000 imperial gallon (27,300 litre) tank under the roof service the building with water. The contractors were Messrs Butler and Forster.
In 1873 the property was purchased by the trustees of the North Brisbane School of Arts for £1,000. The building was let to tenants for several years before it was converted to a school of arts. In 1877 contractor Blair Cunningham added verandahs and other modifications designed by Richard Gailey for a cost of £1,377. The new School of Arts building was opened on 17 May 1878.
The North Brisbane School of Arts was established in 1849 and its first premises were located on the corner Queen and Creek Streets. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it played an important role in the cultural life of the community. The School of Arts provided a library for members, conducted public lectures, and organised classes in a wide variety of subjects.
To meet the needs for technical education classes, a hall was added to the rear in 1884. This space was used for the Brisbane Technical College which operated under the auspices of the School of Arts until 1902 when the government took responsibility for technical education.
The lending library was a major activity of the School of Arts. In 1908, to make room for an increase in the number of books, an extension, designed by Messrs Atkinson and McLay, was built beside the hall.
Membership of the School of Arts steadily declined during the 1920s and 1930s. To increase revenue, shops were built in front of the building in 1937. In 1955 a brick upper storey was added to the shops with connections to the School of Arts building. The verandahs were removed at this time.
In 1966 trusteeship of the property was transferred to the Brisbane City Council which continued to operate a public library at the site until 1981. In 1983 the front offices and shops were demolished and restoration work undertaken. The building was re-opened on 13 February 1985 and is currently let to various community groups.
","criteria":"The School of Arts is significant for its association with the North Brisbane School of Arts which played a prominent role in the cultural life of Brisbane during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
|The building remains as a rare surviving example of an inner-city masonry building of the 1860s.
|The School of Arts is significant for the successful integration of the extensions under various architects, especially the verandahs designed by Richard Gailey.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14848,"place_ref":600073,"name":"Central Railway Station","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"270 Ann Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Central Station complex has been substantially altered, with the most intact section being the facade fronting Ann Street. This section is an example of Federation Free Style architecture. The complex fronts Ann Street and is bounded by Edward, Turbot and Creek Streets. The clock tower of the Ann Street frontage aligns with the war memorial opposite and the entire building provides a backdrop for Anzac Square [600062]. The Ann Street building of Central Station comprises a symmetrically designed building with a central section and clock tower, flanked by two storey intermediate wings on either side. It is of face brick, coloured red, with decorative elements of stone and a cream coloured brick. A side wing is located on the Creek Street side of the main building. As a working railway station, the entire complex has undergone much alteration, and little remains of the original station. Internally, the spaces are also substantially altered, with little original fabric remaining. The most intact internal area is located at the southwestern end of the Edward Street wing of the building, now used as a bar.
","history":"Central Station was constructed as the inner city link of the Queensland railway network, operational from 18 August 1889. The first Station building at Central was of timber and corrugated iron with pitched roof and segmental barrel vaulted roof over the platform serving Roma Street. On 12 May 1899, a contract was let for a permanent building. It is thought that the initial design was conceived in the architectural section of the Railway Department's Chief Engineer's Office, however the architect is unknown. The additions of the clock tower and awning were designed by former Colonial Architect, J J Clark. The initial complex comprised two through tracks and a dock with two tracks on either side. In 1909 the dock platforms were converted to provide two additional through tracks. No further substantial changes were made to the complex until 1914 when the Edward Street side wing was extended. Shortly after, a second storey was added to the side wing at the Creek Street end of the building. Work of a minor nature was then carried out until the 1970s, when substantial alterations to the complex took place. This included the construction of Railway Centre in the 1970s, followed by the construction of the Sheraton Hotel in the 1980s.
","criteria":"The Central Railway Station was opened in 1889 as part of the connection of Roma Street through Central to Brunswick Street, Bowen Hills and Mayne. The extant building was erected in 1899 to replace the previous temporary timber and corrugated iron building. The complex demonstrates the evolution of the history of Queensland by being representative of the development of railway usage in Queensland.
|The building has a special association with architect, JJ Clark who was responsible for the final design of the building.
|It is a significant landmark in the city of Brisbane, both alone and as part of a precinct which includes The Shrine of Remembrance, Anzac Square [600062] The Queensland Government Offices [600059] and the General Post Office [600148] through Post Office Square.
The Central Railway Complex is of considerable aesthetic significance due to its landmark qualities and for its high degree of design and workmanship, including exterior details such as decorative stonework, brickwork and rendering, and internal features such as ornate column capitals and ceilings in southwestern end of the Edward Street wing.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14849,"place_ref":600074,"name":"Masonic Temple","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"311 Ann Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Masonic Temple located in upper Ann Street is built in the Classical Revival style. It is rectangular in plan form with its short elevation facing Ann Street. The front facade features six fluted giant order Corinthian columns supporting a rich entablature and pediment. Between the two central columns are lead-light steel framed windows and the main entry door at the base of the building. The sliding entry doors are bronze and heavily studded. In the bays between columns to either side of the entry are two bronze flagstaffs. The lower portion of the front is a grey granite base containing the foundation stone. The rest of the building has a concrete frame structure encased with both brick and sandstone. The front facade above the granite base is sandstone from Yangan, Queensland. The initial structure was designed to allow for the possible addition of extra storeys at a future date.
Internally on the ground floor level directly behind the entry is the Hall of Remembrance with its central urn surrounded by eight free standing Tuscan columns arranged in a circle. Above this is a floor of lodge rooms arranged around a central corridor, and on the level above there are supper rooms arranged in a similar fashion. The top level is mainly taken up by the Grand Hall, a large symmetrical open space with a vaulted coffered ceiling and stepped seating facing the centre. The walls of the hall are surrounded by evenly spaced paired Corinthian pilasters. The floors are connected by a staircase consisting of varying coloured marble, white Carrara and black Buchan for the main stair with a green dado. A multi-coloured marble mosaic is a feature of the landing. The stair also features a wrought iron balustrade with polished timber handrail, and is top lit from above.
The symmetrical facade and overscale columns give the building great presence as part of the streetscape in this portion of Ann Street.
","history":"The Masonic Temple was constructed between 1928 and 1930. In April 1921 the United Grand Lodge of Queensland was formed by the union of the 281 Freemasons' lodges in Queensland. To commemorate the union the Grand Lodge agreed to construct a centrally located temple. In December 1921 land in Ann Street, with a 77 feet (23.5 metres) frontage and depth of 148 feet (54.1 metres), was purchased. In December 1922 an additional 6.3 perches (159.4 square metres) was acquired to make the site symmetrical. The total cost of the land was £6 874.
In June 1923 a competition was held to produce a design for the temple. On 8 December 1924 the plans of Lange Powell (Freemason) of Atkinson, Powell and Conrad, were chosen from the 16 entries submitted. The design provided a four storey building, with a basement for the caretaker and storerooms. The ground floor held the executive offices of the Grand Lodges of Queensland, a library and a museum. In the centre of the large circular vestibule was the Urn of Remembrance to Brethren who died in First World War. The first floor comprised supper rooms and the second held the lodge rooms. The Grand Lodge room, approximately 91 by 71 by 32 feet (27.7 by 21.6 by 9.7 metres), on the top floor, seated 1100 people, and was described in the Architecture and Building Journal in February 1928 as the "largest and finest of its kind in Australia". The tender of £101 171 from Messrs George A Stronach and Son, builders, was accepted.
On 25 April 1928 Most Worshipful Brother Justice Charles Stumm laid the foundation stone. A capsule was placed beneath the stone which contained copies of the 4 Metropolitan newspapers of 24 April 1928, duplicate cheques contributed by Lodges and Brethren, a copy of the Grand Master's speech and coins. Building commenced in May 1928. The temple was completed in 1930 at a cost of £103 000, plus £10 000 for furniture. Freemasons throughout Queensland contributed towards the expense. On 9 December 1930 Sir John Goodwin, Governor of Queensland, unveiled and dedicated the memorial urn and the following day the Temple was opened and dedicated as a memorial to fallen Brethren, a symbol of Masonic unity in Queensland and as a monument to Freemasonry in Queensland. Since 1930 the hall has been the centre of Masonic activity in Queensland.
","criteria":"The Masonic Temple was built as a monument to Freemasonry in Queensland and as a World War I memorial and is held in high esteem within the Masonic community.
|The Masonic Temple is an exceptional example of a Masonic Temple in Australia, it is the only dedicated Grand Hall in Australia which is capable of accommodating a Grand Installation.
|The Masonic Temple is a fine example of a Classical Revival building designed by LL Powell with particularly fine workmanship evident in its details.
\nThe building is significant for its substantial intactness both externally and internally.
|The Masonic Temple is significant for its contribution to the streetscape of Ann Street brought to prominence by the scale of its facade with its giant order Corinthian columns.
\nThe Masonic Temple is significant for the grandeur of its internal spaces especially the Grand Hall and the Court of Remembrance around its Memorial Urn.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14850,"place_ref":600075,"name":"St Martin's House","alternate_name":"St Martin's Hospital | St Martins House","street_address":"373 Ann Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Martin's House is built on stone foundations with external walls of brick with sandstone facings, and is roofed with terracotta shingle tiles. The building is organised in plan so as to create a series of protected courtyards around the south transept of St John's Cathedral. This maintains the continuity of the system of closed spaces that surround the Cathedral on three sides.
\t
The massing of the building is centred on the service tower which has radiating wings. The tower has three levels and a basement while the remainder of the building is two storeyed. The facade oriented towards the cathedral is the most ornate, with a conical roof over the operating theatre, but that towards the south west with its cloister is also an important part of the building. Openings are a combination of square headed and semi-circular, segmented, and Gothic arches.
The exterior is enhanced by the quality of the detailing including: the corbelled brickwork, cruciform rain-water spouts, and the statue of St Martin of Tours in a niche in the western gable.
Arts and Crafts elements are clearly evident, and visually there are many similarities with the house most identified with that movement in the United Kingdom, the Red House by Philip Webb. Gothic elements are also present and St Martin's complements the other buildings which form the cathedral group.
Internally almost all the evidence of the building's use as a hospital has been lost in its change to office and residential use. Although the joinery has been retained, the northern wards and central corridor have been combined into one large office area and suspended ceilings installed. The original top floor kitchen has been converted into living quarters. The southern verandah is enclosed, and a fire stair has been constructed behind the facade facing Ann Street.
","history":"St Martin's House was built as a hospital by the Anglican Church as a memorial to those who had fought in World War 1. The name St Martin's Hospital was chosen as the Armistice had been signed on St Martin's day.
Designed by Lange Powell, St Martin's Hosptial was built by local contractor Thomas Keenan & Son for approximately £46,000 ($92,000). It was an accomplished design by an eminent local architect with an eclectic repetoire. It was opened and dedicated on 28 November 1922. The hospital was run by the Sisters of the Sacred Advent to care for the sick, and contained seven main wards, single rooms and two operating theatres. The main kitchen was built on the top floor, while smaller kitchens were installed on each floor for food distribution.
A children's wing was added in 1940. In 1945 a statue of St Martin, designed by William Bustard and crafted by Jack Muller was set in the Ann Street wall of the hospital.
In June 1971 the hospital was closed, and the patients moved to a new hospital at Zillmere. During the 1970s, plans to demolish the building were thwarted by a public campaign led by the Save St. Martin's Committee.
Recently the building was renovated, and in November 1990 St Martin's House was opened as the administrative headquarters for the Anglican Diocese. The top floor was converted to living quarters for the Precentor.
","criteria":"St Martin's House is significant as a memorial to World War I servicemen and women. The building also survives as evidence of the nursing activities of the Sisters of the Sacred Advent
|St Martin's House is significant as a highly accomplished building displaying characteristic Arts and Crafts massing, fine detail and workmanship, and a range of major materials. The building forms an integral part of a group of ecclesiastical buildings and spaces.
|St Martin's House is significant as a highly accomplished building displaying characteristic Arts and Crafts massing, fine detail and workmanship, and a range of major materials. The building forms an integral part of a group of ecclesiastical buildings and spaces.
|St Martin's House is significant as a fine example of the work of eminent architect Lange Powell, and a major work of Thomas Keenan, builder.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14851,"place_ref":600076,"name":"St Johns Cathedral","alternate_name":"St John's Cathedral","street_address":"413 Ann Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St John's Cathedral is a Gothic revival building in the manner of French Gothic cathedrals, highlighted by the use of a chevet. The external stonework is porphyry (Brisbane tuff) from Windsor quarry. The interior stonework is Helidon sandstone, while the openings and ornamental stonework are New South Wales sandstone. The roof is constructed of terracotta shingles.
The building is laid out in the form of a traditional cross with a double aisle on either side of the nave, with chapels flanking the ambulatory at the sanctuary end. The transepts have flanking turrets. Two more turrets flank the sanctuary end of the building. The buttresses on the building are relatively small in proportion to the height of the nave, a characteristic of later Gothic cathedrals. Diminutive flying buttresses are used at appropriate points. This resulted in some failures during the initial construction, and has been a contributing factor in the later stages of the building having been completed using a steel frame structure.
The most dominant internal feature is the 18 m high stone ribbed vaulted ceiling. In the nave these are sprung from a clerestory level. A gallery runs above the inner aisles on each side of the nave. Two small Gothic arched openings occur for every larger one below running down each side. The transepts are similarly vaulted but without aisles. The crossing consists of a broad stone vault based on an almost square plan form. Beyond this is the choir which extends in the same width as the nave to an apsidal end. This is surrounded by an ambulatory and flanked by two small chapels. The northern Lady Chapel has slender compound columns detached from the walls supporting the quadripartite vaulting system. A circular tracery window is a feature of the end wall of the northern transept. The stained glass has a wide variety of styles, artists and dates. The choir stalls are ornately carved timber elements. The communion rails, the work of L J Harvey are of Queensland maple.
St John's Cathedral is the centrepiece of a complex comprising The Deanery [600078], Webber House [600079], Church House [600077] and St Martin's House [600075].
","history":"Construction of St John's Cathedral began in 1901 and has proceeded in several major stages to the present.
When the Diocese of Brisbane was created in 1859, St John's Church in William Street became the Pro-Cathedral. Preliminary plans for a cathedral were made by the first Bishop of Brisbane, Edward Tufnell, in the 1860s, but never came to fruition. In 1885 William Webber was consecrated the third Bishop of Brisbane, and throughout his episcopacy devoted considerable time and energy to the cathedral project. Webber chose the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887 to launch a scheme to raise subscriptions towards the building of the cathedral. He made five trips to England to raise funds for the construction of St John's Cathedral.
Webber engaged noted English architect John Pearson to design the Cathedral. Pearson was widely recognised for his expertise in Gothic Revival architecture and was responsible for the design of Truro Cathedral. Pearson's design was in the spirit of thirteenth and fourteenth century English Gothic with many characteristics of French Gothic.
The estimated cost of the first stage, including the sanctuary, side chapels, transepts and one bay was £33,000. Despite considerable fund raising efforts, by 1898 £22,875 was still required to build the first section. In 1899, as a result of several factors the Church decided to build the Cathedral on an elevated site in Ann Street. The Pro-Cathedral land was purchased by the government in the same year for £33,000 and this provided the funds to purchase the new site.
Pearson died in 1897, leaving his son Frank to continue the design work and Robin S Dods, was appointed supervising architect. The foundation stone was laid by HRH, George, Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V) on 22 May 1901. [1] The contract for the first stage was awarded to Peter Rodgers from Ballarat in April 1906. Work commenced immediately [2] and was completed in 1910. The remains of Webber, who had died in 1903 before his dream was fulfilled, were re-interred under the High Altar. The pulpit and cross were designed by Frank Pearson and crafted in England. The first three canon stalls were carved in England from Indian teak. Additional stalls, carved by Colin Blumson in Queensland maple, were added in the 1950s and 1960s.
Work commenced on the second stage in 1957, when foundations of two bays of the nave and side aisles were laid under the supervision of architects Conrad & Gargett. This work cost £9639. The stonework for this section did not commence immediately. In 1965 a contract was let and the work completed in 1968. On 22 November 1968, the extensions were consecrated by Archbishop Strong. The foundations for the final bay and west towers were constructed during these extensions.
A set of eight bells have recently been hung in the north-west tower. These bells were cast in 1876 by Messrs John Warner and Sons, London, and were initially housed in a timber belfry in the grounds of the Pro-Cathedral. They were then re-located in a timber belfry (designed by Robin Dods) in the cathedral grounds before being placed in their present position.
Further work began in June 1989 and involves the extension of the nave, and the construction of two western towers, central tower and porches. This retains the external form of the original design of the reinforced structure.
References
[1] 'Cathedral Foundation-Stone', The Queenslander, 1 June 1901, p. 1024; 'Cathedral Foundation-Stone', Brisbane Courier, 23 May 1901, p. 5.
[2] 'Queensland News', Morning Bulletin, 20 April 1906, p. 5; 'The Mail Bag', The Queenslander, 21 April 1906, p. 34.
","criteria":"It is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, in particular the development of the Anglican church.
|As a rare and scholarly attempt of an authentic essay in a French Gothic Cathedral, it demonstrates a rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|It demonstrates the principal characteristics of the ecclesiastical work of English architect JL Pearson
|It exhibits particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, including:
(i) the quality of materials, details and craftsmanship of the building and its associated furniture, fittings and artwork;
(ii) its position as the centrepiece of a well integrated group of ecclesiastical buildings and spaces on an important city site; and
(iii) the level of craftsmanship exhibited by the vaulted stone ceilings and the ornate timber carving on the choir stalls.
|As the focal point of Anglican worship in Brisbane and the seat of the Archbishop, it has a strong and special association with the community.
|It has special association with Bishop Webber and his vision of a grand Cathedral.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14852,"place_ref":600077,"name":"Church House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"417 Ann Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Church House is a two storeyed building, constructed in brick with some relieving stone courses and dressings to the windows. The steeply pitched gable roof is tiled and finishes at the southern end with a low raking parapet. The other end features a simple gable indicating the proposed second stage extension.
It is essentially Gothic in its overall form, especially the dominant high pitched roof and narrow lancet windows but has been greatly influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement. The upper storey of the Ann Street facade has three cantilevered concrete balconies with wrought iron balustrading and an oriel window. The eaves overhang of the roof skirts around the gable ends as a sunhood. The fenestration on the upper level has square heads while the lower level has gothic arches apart from a side doorway which has a semi-circular arch. The main entry off Ann Street is a broad gothic arched opening with stone trimmings.
Internally, most of the original fabric remains. Changes have included some modern partitioning and surface ducted air-conditioning.
","history":"In 1899 the Church of England acquired property in Ann Street for the construction of a cathedral, day school and church offices. In 1909 Church House, to a design of Robin Dods, the diocesan architect, was built as the Diocesan Offices for the Diocese of Brisbane. It was stage one of a complex which was also to include a Synod Hall. The complete design followed an L-shape plan and would have extended the building close to Webber House (QHR 600079), creating a small closed space around St John's Cathedral. The design was applauded by fellow architects and displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition at London in 1910.
Church House is still used as offices and currently houses the Diocesan Archives and Social Welfare department of the Diocese.
","criteria":"Church House is significant for its association with the Anglican Diocese since 1904.
|Combining the Arts and Crafts manner, Church House is significant for its well resolved design and detail, forming an integral part of an ecclesiastical group of buildings.
|Combining the Arts and Crafts manner, Church House is significant for its well resolved design and detail, forming an integral part of an ecclesiastical group of buildings.
|Combining the Arts and Crafts manner, Church House is significant for its well resolved design and detail, forming an integral part of an ecclesiastical group of buildings.
|Church House is significant as an important work of prominent Brisbane architect Robin Dods.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14853,"place_ref":600078,"name":"The Deanery","alternate_name":"Adelaide House","street_address":"417 Ann Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This two storey residence with attic has external walls of 600mm thick random porphyry (Brisbane tuff) with sandstone facings. It has a symmetrical plan form with a nearly pyramidal hipped roof with hipped attic dormer windows. Two of these face the river and another pair face Ann Street to the rear of the building. Chimneys rise from the end hips of the main roof.
The two-level timber verandahs have shallow hipped roofs at the upper level with the one facing Adelaide Street having a gable section in line with the entry at the ground floor level. French doors open to the verandahs which have timber posts and detailing. The side verandah has paired posts compared to the verandah over the entry which has individual ones. The original entry, which now faces the sheer drop to Adelaide Street has a freestone pilastered entrance porch, flanked by two Doric columns at the front. The entry door is surrounded by leadlight windows.
The house has a high degree of integrity internally, despite alterations to room layouts at various stages which involved both the removal and additions of walls and doors. Some original fireplaces remain, as does most joinery including the staircase, which is painted white. The side verandahs have been enclosed.
","history":"This residence, originally known as Adelaide House, was constructed for Dr William Hobbs who arrived in Brisbane in May 1849 as the ship's surgeon on board the Chasely, the second of Reverend John Dunmore Lang's immigrant ships. Hobbs was a prominent medical figure. In 1853 Hobbs commissioned Andrew Petrie to build a two storey house on a hill overlooking the river.
When Sir George Bowen was appointed Queensland's first Governor in 1859, Government House was still being planned. As an interim measure, Adelaide House was rented by the government for £350 per year, as the Governor's residence. On 10 December 1859, the proclamation creating the colony of Queensland was read by Bowen on the first floor balcony of Adelaide House where he was sworn in as Governor by Judge Lutwyche. On the completion of Government House in lower George Street in 1862, Dr Hobbs returned with his family to Adelaide House.
In the 1880s excavations for the extension of Adelaide Street destroyed Dr Hobbs's garden and left the house close to the steep cutting, prompting the family to move in 1883. From 1883 until 1899 the property was let to various tenants and for a period was used as a day school and later a boarding house.
In 1899, the property was acquired by the Church of England and was used as a Church Institute, a book depot and Diocesan Registry. With the construction of Church House (QHR 600077) in 1909, Adelaide House was renovated and the verandahs, to a design of Robin Dods, were added. After the consecration of St John's Cathedral (QHR 600076) in 1910, Adelaide House became the residence for the Dean and known as The Deanery.
Alterations and renovations costing £4,000 were undertaken in 1954. Also a double garage was built, replacing the coach house and stables. The Dean moved into the northern section of the building and the Precentor occupied the southern half. Recently, the Precentor moved to nearby St Martins House (QHR 600075).
","criteria":"The Deanery is significant as Queensland's first Government House and the site where Queensland was proclaimed a colony.
|The building is also a rare example of an 1850s residence.
|The Deanery is significant as an example of the work of Andrew Petrie who constructed many of Brisbane's early buildings.
|The Deanery is significant for its association with Dr Hobbs, a prominent medical figure in nineteenth century Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14854,"place_ref":600079,"name":"Webber House","alternate_name":"Cathedral Schools and St John's Institute","street_address":"439 Ann Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Built in 1904, as part of the St John's Cathedral complex, Webber House is a three storeyed masonry building with steeply pitched slate roofs. While the roof form and windows give it a Gothic appearance, the details, mixture of materials, scale of elements, external spaces are influenced by the contemporary Arts and Crafts movement.
The massing of the building consists of steep gable roofs gradually stepping up at right angles to each other until they reach the tall three storeyed central gable portion. The stonework appears generally in the lower part of the structure up to the top of the first level and then appears in strips and around the window openings in the brickwork above. The fenestration is predominantly Gothic arched but some square headed openings and small quatrefoil vents appear high up in some of the gable ends. Two of the gable roofs have lower portions of a lesser pitch, creating a form of sun hood. Immediately below the eaves line of this feature of the roof is a band of glazing separated in one case by the tops of buttresses when they occur, and in the other by timber posts.
Internally, a spacious stairwell leads to the upper floors. The top floor features a steep boarded ceiling above timber trusses which are supported at each end on three turned timber columns.
Fretting stonework to the ground floor has been cement-rendered to imitate the original pick-faced and margined stones. The building is generally intact both externally and internally.
","history":"In 1899 the Church of England acquired property in Ann Street for the construction of a cathedral, day school and church offices. On 19 October 1904, the foundation stones were laid for a building known as the Cathedral School and Church Institute. It was constructed by Worley and Whitehead of Ipswich to a joint design of John S Murdoch and the diocesan architect Robin S Dods. Murdoch, who was an architect for the State Works Department (1894-1903) took leave of absence to design Webber House and also St Luke's Anglican Church in Charlotte Street (QHR 600083).
Stone from St John's Pro-Cathedral in William Street (demolished in 1904) was re-used for the foundation stones, and in the front and rear walls. The main doors, most of the gothic style windows and the roof trusses were also re-used.
The ground floor contained the assembly hall and at the rear were two covered playsheds. The second floor included the institute reading room, two schoolrooms and the teachers' room. The top storey was one large room for the institute. In all, accommodation was provided for 300 children.
The Sisters of the Sacred Advent conducted a school in the premises from 1936 until 1941. During the Second World War the building was occupied by the Australian Army Engineering Corps and the Army Medical Department and was subsequently used for Cathedral activities and meeting hall.
In 1969-70 the building was renovated and the verandahs were enclosed. It was named Webber House in honour of William Webber, third Bishop of Brisbane (1885-1903). Webber had been instrumental in initiating the development of the cathedral precinct.
","criteria":"(Criterion under review)
|Webber House is significant as an excellent example of a creative architectural design in the Arts and Crafts manner re-using materials from the Pro-Cathedral. The building forms an integral part of the cathedral complex.
|Webber House is significant as an excellent example of a creative architectural design in the Arts and Crafts manner re-using materials from the Pro-Cathedral. The building forms an integral part of the cathedral complex.
|Webber House is significant as an example of the work of two prominent Queensland architects, John Murdoch and Robin Dods. The building is also significant for its association with Bishop Webber who was instrumental in the development of the Cathedral complex.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14855,"place_ref":600080,"name":"Credit Union Australia Building","alternate_name":"RACQ Building | Queensland Brewery Co","street_address":"501 Ann Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The three storeyed brick building is prominently located on the corner of Ann and Boundary Streets, opposite Centenary Place. It is built with applied Art Deco motifs influenced by the Functionalist movement.
Horizontal strip windows delineate levels on the two street facades and contrast with the vertically expressed elements of the corner tower. This tower forms a prominent entry and also serves as the location for vertical circulation. A chevron motif is regularly spaced around its upper portion.
The Ann Street facade has a cantilevered awning over a ramp providing access to a second entry.
The main entry vestibule is a three storeyed void with a corner entry at the ground floor level and a second inner entry parallel to Ann Street. This makes the lower portion of this space asymmetrical. The original glass blocks of the corner piece have been replaced by curved plate glass. The lower portion of the three storeyed space is of concrete block while plaster is located above marked to simulate blockwork. The ceiling is plaster and has a decorated cornice and a vertical light fitting suspended from its centre. The stairwell is walled with plaster marked in a similar way to the upper portion of the entry vestibule. The stair has polished timber handrails with a metal balustrade and brackets. The passenger elevator is predominantly intact. Only some of the original timber veneer partitioning remains in the general office space.
Despite the loss of some of its integrity the building is still an indicator of the beginning of the stylistic influence of the European Modern Movement in Queensland. It is also prominent for the manner in which it is designed to take advantage of its location on a corner site.
","history":"This building was constructed between 1940 and 1942 for the Queensland Brewery Company. Designed by H S McDonald of Addison and McDonald, it replaced the company's headquarters in Queen Street, Petrie Bight. Half the ground floor and the first floors were used as administrative offices, while the remainder of these floors and the top storey provided cellars, a wine and spirits department, cooperage and goods handling and loading facilities.
The design was a departure from accepted forms for commercial buildings in Queensland at the time. McDonald fused the assertive curves and angles of the Art Deco with the flowing horizontal lines of the Functionalist movement. This latter style was characterised by its simple geometric shapes, its light colours and large glass areas. The building also exemplified the use of new materials like the original glass brick of the circular entry tower and the synthetic stone of the original signage. Both these elements have since been removed.
In February 1966 the property was purchased by the Royal Automobile Club of Australia (RACQ). Architects Cook and Kerrison & Partners adapted the building for its new use. The offices on the ground floor were occupied by customer services, the first floor accommodated the RACQ insurance staff, and the second floor provided management offices and two board rooms.
In 1980 the property was sold to the Australia Post and Telecom Credit Union, although RACQ leased the building for three years until their new offices were constructed. Credit Union Australia purchased the property in 1983, and undertook further modifications.
","criteria":"The Credit Union Australia Building is significant as a relatively rare example of a landmark building with Art Deco embellishments. The building is significant as an example of the work of H S McDonald who played a role in the introduction of Functionalist style to Queensland.
|The Credit Union Australia Building is significant as a relatively rare example of a landmark building with Art Deco embellishments. The building is significant as an example of the work of H S McDonald who played a role in the introduction of Functionalist style to Queensland.
|The Credit Union Australia Building is significant as a relatively rare example of a landmark building with Art Deco embellishments.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14857,"place_ref":600082,"name":"Charlotte House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"139 - 145 Charlotte Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This timber frame, brick and cement render warehouse with four storeys and basement stands in Charlotte Street close to another warehouse building, Harrolds Marine [600081]. At the north-eastern end of the building a highly differentiated bay marks a carriage entrance.
Large pilasters separate six window openings and the carriageway bay. Three of these pilasters mark the ends of the building and the carriageway bay and are distinguished, by greater ornamentation, from the five 'minor' pilasters. At basement and ground floors, the pilasters are fluted whilst those at the upper levels carry a Greek linear pattern.
Two protruding string courses, one above the ground floor and another above the second floor, define the three sections of the building. The underside of the upper string course carries a row of fine dentils and an inscribed Greek pattern. Fluted brackets mark the ends of the building and the carriageway bay which is further distinguished by a richly moulded pediment above the first string course. Above the minor pilasters of the upper floor the painted lettering 'Charlotte House' is surmounted by a moulded cornice. The major pilasters extend to deeply fluted brackets and at the roof line, another pediment marked '1886' distinguishes the carriageway bay. The point of this pediment and the line of each of the eight pilasters is accented on the roof by acroteria.
Behind the building is a two-storey brick store which was constructed as part of the original project.
While substantial internal alterations were carried out on the building in 1964, both the structure and the facade remain intact. The timber framing, floor joists and herringbone strutting are evident on the underside of the first floor carriageway.
","history":"This four storeyed warehouse was erected in 1888-89. Built for Wallace Warren & Co, merchants, importers, bonded warehousemen and shipping agents, Charlotte House was designed by J J Lough. In the early 1880s, Lough had been in partnership with Benjamin Backhouse in Sydney and his unusual choice of Greek and Egyptian motifs for the building reflects similar work by Backhouse in Sydney on a warehouse for Dalton Brothers in the late 1870s.
The construction of this warehouse in Charlotte Street reflected the emergence of the immediate area as a warehousing precinct. Formerly known as Frogs Hollow, by the late 1880s, the area was dominated by warehouses and also industrial buildings.
Between 1889 and 1894, Wallace Warren & Co operated their business from the building but following the depression of the early 1890s, they were declared bankrupt in 1894. The new owners, the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, leased the building to various tenants including Crescent Packing Co which processed and packaged coffee and spices there, bag manufacturers Joyce Brothers, and C E Babbidge, a printer and stereotyper. Between 1911 and 1919 the prominent Sydney-based tea merchants, Inglis Ltd, distributors of the Billy Tea brand, occupied part of the building. Their distinctive sign covered the entire length of the southern wall.
From 1912 to 1963 the building was owned by the ironmongers Robertson Tait & Co then by its successor Wilson Tait, wholesale hardware merchants.
The new owners in 1963, Charlotte House Pty Ltd, carried out extensive internal alterations in 1964. Currently, the building is occupied by a variety of commercial tenants.
","criteria":"Charlotte House is significant as it provides evidence of the emergence of the Frogs Hollow area as a warehousing precinct. The building remains as a reminder of this previous function of the area.
|Charlotte House is significant as a rare and good example of a late nineteenth century warehouse, with an intact facade which incorporates Greek and Egyptian motifs.
|Charlotte House is significant as a rare and good example of a late nineteenth century warehouse, with an intact facade which incorporates Greek and Egyptian motifs.
|Charlotte House is significant as a rare and good example of a late nineteenth century warehouse, with an intact facade which incorporates Greek and Egyptian motifs.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14858,"place_ref":600083,"name":"Pancake Manor","alternate_name":"St Lukes Anglican Church | St Luke's Anglican Church","street_address":"10 Charlotte Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This is a finely detailed brick building in the Romanesque style whose predominant feature is the massive relieving archway containing vertical openings at the end of the chancel. It has a complicated roof form combining both hips and gables, along with a small octagonal tower near the entry. The roof sheeting is rolled iron. The plain brickwork is punctuated by bands of different coloured brick and the occasional use of stone around windows and doors. The building has the unusual arrangement of having entries to both floor levels at the chancel end in an attempt to optimise the building's orientation. The major entry to the upper church level is defined by a recessed porch.
The exterior and interior finishes of the building are particularly intact, despite the building's change of use, installation of kitchen facilities, and inappropriate interior door and external signage.
","history":"This church was constructed in 1904. This site was purchased in 1903 by the Church of England for a new mission church. Prior to this, the mission had rented rooms throughout Brisbane and St Lukes provided its first permanent home. On 3 February 1904 the dedication stone of St Lukes Cathedral was laid by His Excellency, Sir Herbert Chermside, Governor of Queensland. St Lukes served as a temporary cathedral between the demolition of St Johns Pro-Cathedral, 1904 and the opening of St Johns Cathedral in 1910. Architect, John Smith Murdoch, was commissioned to design a church which would utilise fully the limited site area. Murdoch, who was an architect for the State Works Department (1894-1903); Chief Architect for Home Affairs (1919-22) and Chief Architect of the Commonwealth (1926-30) took leave of absence to design St Luke's and Webber House. St Lukes was purpose built for the Mission headquarters, providing meeting rooms in the basement. John Steward & Co constructed St Lukes which was dedicated on 14 August 1904 by the Administrator, the Venerable AE David, Archdeacon of Brisbane. On St Thomas Day, 21 December 1904 Saint Clair George Alfred Donaldson was enthroned as Bishop of Brisbane in St Lukes. The ceremony was well attended by prominent clergy members and as the church could only seat 402 people, entry was restricted to ticket holders only.
After 1910 St Lukes served its intended purpose as the headquarters of the Anglican Church Mission. The Mission was an evangelistic group which worked amongst the disadvantaged supplying food and shelter for the destitute and saving young girls from moral degradation. It also provided ministering to districts without parishes or churches. It ran several youth clubs, including the Newsboys Club, providing social companionship and spiritual guidance for the members. In 1908 the Overseas Girls Club was founded and later the hall was used as a meeting and recreational venue for the Girls Friendly Society. During the First World War Canon David Garland, resident Chaplain of St Lukes, was Director of the Soldiers Church of England Help Society and the Mission corresponded with servicemen at the front. An Anzac Club was opened at St Lukes for returned soldiers and the hall was used for Sunday teas and dances. On 18 June 1917 a Nurses Honour Board was unveiled in St Lukes War Chapel in recognition of those who served in World War I. During the Second World War St Lukes provided a meeting place and Saturday night dances for soldiers stationed in Brisbane.
St Lukes remained the Mission Headquarters until the 1950s and the meeting place of the Synod of the Diocese until 1977, after which St Lukes was no longer needed for church purposes. In 1979 St Lukes Church was converted into a restaurant.
","criteria":"St Lukes was purpose built as a hall with meeting rooms to assist the Church of England Mission in its role of providing Christian charity to the community and ministering to districts without parishes or churches.
St Lukes has religious significance as the Anglican Pro-Cathedral, 1904-1910, as the Mission Headquarters, 1904-1950s, and as the meeting place of the Synod of the Diocese until 1977 and socially significant as a recreational venue for Anglican youth groups and World War I and World War 2 veterans.
|The quality of its polychrome brickwork and picturesque roof forms make the building visually appealing, and is a successful example of a building designed to fulfil the dual purpose of both Mission headquarters and Church.
|The quality of its polychrome brickwork and picturesque roof forms make the building visually appealing, and is a successful example of a building designed to fulfil the dual purpose of both Mission headquarters and Church.
The scale and materials of this building form a visual complement to the other buildings in the precinct, notably the red facebrick facades of John Mills Himself and the John Reid and Nephews buildings.
|The quality of its polychrome brickwork and picturesque roof forms make the building visually appealing, and is a successful example of a building designed to fulfil the dual purpose of both Mission headquarters and Church.
|St Lukes has religious significance as the Anglican Pro-Cathedral, 1904-1910, as the Mission Headquarters, 1904-1950s, and as the meeting place of the Synod of the Diocese until 1977 and socially significant as a recreational venue for Anglican youth groups and World War I and World War 2 veterans.
|The church was designed by John S Murdoch who was commissioned by the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane to design St Lukes and Webber House in 1904.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14859,"place_ref":600084,"name":"John Mills Himself Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"40 Charlotte Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"John Mills Himself is the tallest of a group of brick buildings in Charlotte Street extending from the Pancake Manor (600083) to George Weston and Sons (600085). It consists of two buildings connected by an open timber stairway. The portion fronting Charlotte Street is three storeys high with a face brick and render street elevation and a tall decorative parapet. The ground floor has an entry to either side of a central window with a plinth of darker brick. The window sills are the same dark brick. The remainder of the facade is divided by brick pilasters into a large central bay flanked by narrow bays. Between the first and second floor is a horizontal band of blue ceramic tiles broken only by the pilasters. The end brick pilasters continue through the parapet to become tall freestanding columns, while the central two support a triangular classical pediment. Below the pediment in the tall parapet are the words "John Mills Himself" picked out in raised rendered lettering. The timber doors and windows on the facade are original.
The upper portion of the side walls extend in a tall flowing double curve to support the parapet. Behind the front section the building is only two storeys high. The top level has natural light from a central clerestory. Under the clerestory internally some roof trusses are partially exposed. The ceiling is timber boarding. Modern office partitioning has been added to the internal spaces in the three-storey section of the building.
At the rear is a separate building facing a laneway from Elizabeth Street. This is two storeys above a basement and has two loading bays centrally on its rear facade. A projecting gantry is located centrally in the end gable. The basement runs the length of both buildings. This building has an exposed structure with large scale timber beams and columns, timber joists separated by herring-bone strutting and exposed timber trusses.
","history":"The confidence and optimism caused by Queensland's economic prosperity between 1908 and 1914, found its expression in the redevelopment of inner city areas like Charlotte Street where light industry workshops replaced timber residential and business premises. Small industrial businesses, such as John Reid and Nephews (engineers), George Weston (metal merchants) and John Mills (printer)(QHR 600084) built their premises in Charlotte Street on the fringe of the commercial centre, in 1912-13, 1915 and 1918, respectively.
In July 1918 this site was purchased by John Charles Mills. Mills traded as Mills and Green, printers and stationers from 1907-8 in Adelaide Street, but on dissolution of the partnership, he traded alone, under the name John Mills Himself. During World War I his business expanded and he established a large warehouse at Newstead. In 1919 he moved to Charlotte Street and constructed his office, printery workshop and warehouse on this site previously occupied by Markwell's cottage. By the 1920s the business was well established, attracting clients such as Steele Rudd. Mills leased the remainder of the building to related businesses, including the Gresham Publishing Company Ltd from 1920 to 1933 and the Press Etching Company, blockmakers and process engravers from 1921 to 1941. Other rooms were leased to clothing manufacturers, mapmakers, watchmakers and lantern slide makers.
After John Mills' death in 1934, his business was continued by his sons, John and Sam Mills. During World War II part of the building was used as a gymnasium for the National Fitness Movement. In recent years it has been occupied by a variety of tenants associated with the arts. The property remained in the Mills family until the 1980s.
","criteria":"John Mills Himself Building is significant as an example of the redevelopment of Charlotte Street in the early twentieth century as a light industrial precinct.
|John Mills Himself Building is significant for the contribution the scale, texture and form of the building makes to the streetscape.
John Mills Himself Building provides a visual complement to other brick buildings nearby including George Weston, John Reid and Nephews and the Pancake Manor.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14861,"place_ref":600086,"name":"St Andrews Uniting Church","alternate_name":"St Andrew's Presbyterian Church","street_address":"131 Creek Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Andrew's Church is a substantial brick and concrete building, occupying a prominent Brisbane CBD site on the corner of Creek and Ann Streets. The building is constructed in alignment with the footpath and covering most of the property allotment.
The church is a well-composed building, relying more for its character relying on the intrinsic characteristics of natural materials and the bold massing of simple forms than on ornamentation and decoration, which are often characteristic of ecclesiastical architecture. The architect, Payne, was much influenced by the late Victorian interest in Romanesque architectural styles, and this influence is most obvious at St Andrews' in the repeated use of the semicircular arched opening, vaulted and domed ceilings, sparse use of Celtic and Norman ornamentation and sophisticated face brickwork.
The building is asymmetrically arranged, with principal facades to both Creek and Ann Streets. It is a loadbearing brick structure with concrete foundation and basement substructure. Concrete detailing is found throughout the building, and includes door and window surrounds, tracery, stairs, roof detailing, internal vaulting and dome and internal corbelling. The building's ecclesiastical function is apparent in the traditional cruciform floor plan, with transepts extending from the north-south running nave, to the east and west, the western transept facing Ann Street. A rectangular wing, housing the early Session House, abuts the northern end of the building, also with principal entrance to Ann Street. The unglazed terracotta tiled roof of the church is gabled over the nave and transepts, with the Session House separately gabled with end to Ann Street. Complementing the forms of the steeply pitched gabled roofs, is a square planned tower at the principal corner of the site, and turned through 45°, thus truncating the corner of the building and providing a suitable position for a corner entrance. The tower houses the principal semicircular arched doorway at ground level, accessed via several concrete steps, above which are several elongated rectangular and small circular openings with large semicircular arched openings near the cornice line. A simple concrete parapet, with ribbed detail and four simple corner pinnacles, surmounts the tower and partially conceals the pyramidal roof that has a concrete apex surmounted by a fine wrought iron finial.
The asymmetrically composed western facade of the building, addressing Ann Street, comprises the gabled ends of the western transept and, at the northern end, an entrance porch abutting the smaller gabled end of the Session House. Between the entrance porch and transept is a recessed wall, forming part of the wall of the nave of the church, which is externally buttressed with two tapered brick projections, extending to the sub floor level. The buttresses extend out from the building to be aligned with the transept face and have semicircular arched openings at their bases, forming a cloister-like external court adjacent to the hall in the basement of the church. The gabled transept end has three semicircular arched window openings, elongated and extending over much of the length of the gabled end. The entrance porch is square planned projection, with a simple roof and housing a semicircular arched doorway providing access to an internal porch leading to the narthex of the church. Above the doorway are several concrete bands one of which is pebble dashed, above these are three small circular windows in a horizontal line with concrete surrounds. The gabled end of the session house is visually dominated by a projecting bay window or oriel, at first floor level. Below this at ground floor level is a semicircular arched doorway providing entrance to the session house and a tripartite window arrangement of small equally sized rectangular openings, glazed with stained and coloured glass.
The Creek Street facade of the building comprises the gabled southern end of the church that is symmetrically composed. Dominant on the face of the gable is a bowed projection, forming the external wall of the corridor at the rear of the chancel and following its rounded shape. The projecting rounded shape of this feature is reflected in the base and support of the large semicircular arched opening, through which it projects. On the face of the projection are a number of elongated semicircular arched windows, filled with stained and coloured glass panels, and beneath these are a number of decorative brick bands. The bowed base of the arched opening has a series of window openings, like slits, which provide natural lighting to the corridor within. The base of the archway is supported on a concrete corbel. Below this projection, at street level, are three semicircular arched door openings, fitted with collapsible steel gates, with ornamental ironwork in the head of the archway. Flanking these openings are two arched openings fitted with four windows glazed with square multi-paned glass panels.
The principal entrance to the building is via a large semicircular arched doorway that is at the base of the tower, turned to run diagonally to the building. A double timber door from this entrance provides access to a small circular entrance vestibule from where two curved concrete stairs lead to the choir and vestry to the east and to the church auditorium on the western side. The vestibule, which has a concrete ceiling and floor, features lettering around the concrete cornice, 'ENTER INTO HIS GATES WITH THANKSGIVING'. This arrangement was not intended as the usual entrance for the congregation to the church, which was planned through two doorways from Ann Street providing access to an encaustic tiled porch with a concrete stair leading to the narthex, or outer chamber of the church auditorium. The narthex houses many fine architectural details including three stained glass panels in semicircular arched openings, supplied by FW Ashwin & Co. Three timber doors in the southern wall of the narthex provide entry to the auditorium.
The church interior is in the traditional ecclesiastical cruciform plan, with shallow transepts formed at the southern end and expressed externally by the gabled projections to Ann Street and on the opposite side of the building. The body of the church is entirely open with a raked timber boarded ceiling, clad with ruberoid matting, and arched roof trusses which, like most of the joinery in the building, have been stained to a dark timber colour. The transepts, lower in hight than the body of the church have large window openings, some of which have been fitted with stained glass panels. At the rear of the church, on the northern wall are three large tripartite window opening arrangements fitted with stained glass panels, featuring stories from the life of Christ.
Dominating the interior is a large and fine organ, found, in Presbyterian manner, raised in the chancel of the church and almost filling the entire cavity. A round headed chancel archway separates the apsidal chancel from the body of the church and provides the springing point for a semi-domical ceiling in the chancel area. The silky oak organ case is a fine piece of joinery designed by the architect of the church and featuring carved panels and gold lettering and very well integrated with the other altar furniture, choir seating and other joinery in the building. The chancel area comprises a number of tiers, with elders' and minister's seating on the lowest level, and choir seating, protected by a wrought iron balustrade, above.
At the rear of the chancel and expressed externally in the bowing projection in the arched opening on the Creek Street gabled section of the building, is a narrow corridor providing access to each side of the choir stalls and also between the principal stairs of the building. The narrowness and low lighting afforded through slits to Creek Street, make this corridor and associated spaces seem catacomb-like.
Characteristic of the church auditorium level of St Andrew's Church is the high quality and innovative and unusual design of the internal joinery. The stair joinery, doors, windows and their framing, along with church seating, wainscotting, benches, and other fittings are very well designed pieces, original to this building and contribute to the building's outstanding design.
Beneath the church auditorium and entered from an open entrance porch off Creek Street access to which is provided through three large semicircular arched doorway openings is the church hall. The interior of the hall is dominated by a double row of large concrete piers, and is flanked on the eastern side by an open courtyard along the Ann Street retaining wall boundary that is braced with a system of buttresses aligned with the internal columns in both auditoria.
Housed in a two storeyed section abutting the northern side of the building, the Session House, is the administrative core of the church, with the original session room and ladies' parlour. Though these are has been recently renovated to provide some modern office accommodation, many of the early spaces have been retained.
","history":"St Andrews Church was constructed in 1905 for the local parish of the Presbyterian Church previously located on land now used as part of Brisbane Central Railway Station. The building was designed by innovative architect, George D. Payne.
The Presbyterian congregation who eventually built St Andrew's, constructed their first church at the corner of Wickham Terrace and Creek Streets in 1863. This building, designed by Benjamin Backhouse, was known as the Union Presbyterian Church in commemoration of the amalgamation of the Church of Scotland, Free Church and United Presbyterian Church to form the Presbyterian Church of Queensland. The first minister appointed by the congregation was James Love, an Irishman who started preaching in the School of Arts building in Ann Street upon his arrival in Queensland. The congregation at the Union Presbyterian Church remained in their small sandstone church until 1887 when a new larger church designed by Willoughby Powell was constructed. This building was an ornate early English Gothic structure of brick, prominent in early photographs of Brisbane, which featured attached buttressing terminating in pinnacles above an open parapet and a large tower in the north west corner.
Unfortunately, only ten years after the construction of their new church the congregation learnt of plans to quadruple the lines at Brisbane Central Railway Station, meaning the land on which the church was built was to be wholly or partially resumed. By 1900 firm plans were laid for the expansion of Central Station and negotiations began between the church and the Railway Commissioner over compensation. A deal was made for the payment of £20,000, paid to the Supreme Court and payable to the church on proof that the money was to be used for the acquiring of land and the construction of a substitute church. The former church was available rent free until October 1903 when plans for the railway station were to be realised.
A new site for the construction of their third church was found by the elders of the Presbyterian congregation on the corner of Ann and Creek Streets. The land was then occupied by a manufacturing plant and the land belonged to William Perry, who had leased the property from the original holder of the Deed off Grant, Henry Murray in 1875. In November 1884 Perry purchased the property and a quick succession of owners follows until the land was bought by Charles Elliott of Melbourne in December 1888. In July 1894 the Australian Mutual Provident Society became the owners of the property and it was they who appointed elders from the Presbyterian congregation as trustees of the site in 1901. After the Presbyterian Church Property Act of 1909 the property was vested in the Presbyterian Church of Queensland in February 1911.
Thus, after 1901 the former Wickham Terrace Presbyterian congregation became the owners of the land on the corner of Ann and Creek Streets and plans for the construction of a new building were made. The minutes of a meeting held on 8 July 1902 record the following resolutions; that a church be constructed on the site at a cost of between £8000 and £10,000 and that a competition be held for a design for the church open to Brisbane architects. The sum of £100 was to be expended in prize money, awarding the winner and three commended works. The competition stipulated that seating be provided for 500 people with provision for 200 additional attendants. Other facilities were to include an organ, choir stalls, a hall underneath the church, a minister's vestry, ladies parlour, choir room, toilets and a session room. The building was to be of brick or stone with pricing provided for both schemes. Further requirements were for three entrances from Ann Street, one to the administrative areas and two to the body of the church and an entrance from Creek Street also giving access to the hall beneath the church. During October 1902 the results of the competition, which was judged by Brisbane architect, Claude Chambers, were published in local newspapers and weekly journals and these nominated George D Payne of the Public Works Department as the winner of the competition with other local architect VC Voller coming second and architectural partnership, Addison and Corrie, being awarded third prize.
George D. Payne, the winning architect, was employed at the time within the Queensland Public Works Department, after moving to Brisbane in 1898 from New South Wales where he was in private practice after a period of employment with architectural partnership, Lowerish and Moorhouse. During his professional life in Sydney he entered many competitions and, despite the poor economic conditions, maintained a reasonably successful practice. Payne was a foundation member and inaugural president of the Sydney Architectural Association. In March 1898 Payne took a position as a temporary draftsman in the Public Works Department where he was involved in the design and construction of several outstanding public buildings in Queensland including the Rockhampton Customs House, the Townsville Customs House, detail work on first floor verandahs of the Warwick Post Office, and the East Brisbane State School. In February 1901 Payne was appointed assistant to Thomas Pye, the District Architect of the Southern Division, but soon after, under notice of retrenchment, entered the competition for the design of St Andrew's Church. After he was announced winner in late 1902 he remained at the works department until December 1902 when he resigned to undertake construction supervision of his winning design. After construction of the church, Payne continued in private practice but failed to "attract work of a scale commensurate with his talent." It is therefore for the work at St Andrews on which his state and, indeed, national reputation as an innovative and highly skilled architect is based.
Construction on the church began in late 1902, after the tender of Messrs A Lind and Son, assisted by foreman Alexander Anderson, for * was accepted, and continued until 27 August 1905 when it was opened for public worship. Payne remained involved in the project throughout construction and it is perhaps for this reason that the finished building is characterised throughout by well integrated and sophisticated detailing. A lengthy report in a Presbyterian newspaper, The Messenger commemorating the opening of the church comments on public comment of the building, likening criticism from some corners to that experienced by the opening of Westminster Cathedral (1895-1903); the Roman Catholic Cathedral located in central London. This was designed by John Francis Bentley, and constructed in polychrome banded brickwork in the manner of Byzantine or Early Christian churches, quite different from the usual Gothic tone of churches of the time in that part of Europe. The article says, "there is no denying that it (St Andrew's) is unique as far as the Commonwealth is concerned. It has no prototype that we know", and continued on to describe the style of architecture as "a phase of early Christian or early Romanesque, that had its best expression in simplicity and severity of detail which relies for effect on the impressive dignity of the grouping of masses, forms, proportion, and which excludes all extravagant and unnecessary ornament." Those design features of St Andrews' which are of the Romanesque style, include the previously discussed massing of bold forms; the use of simple geometric shapes; semicircular arched openings; the half domed interior to the chancel area; vaulting in the narthex and in the hall beneath the church; the general heaviness of many of these features rendered in face brick and the sparse use of Celtic and Norman ornamentation.
Design of churches during the Victorian period in Britain and her empire was dominated by a revival of the forms and inspiration of the Gothic movement. The Gothic church of the thirteenth and fourteenth century came to be a symbol of the power and glory of the church in a time when such characteristics were seriously threatened. Toward the end of the nineteenth century a new direction was taken, emphasising the influence of an earlier period of church building; early Christian ecclesiastical architecture, most obviously that of Byzantine and Romanesque periods. It is after manner that Payne conceived his design for St Andrew's.
Of the many fine features in the completed church the most remarkable are the semi-domed chancel, the organ and several panels of stained glass. The ceiling of the chancel was formed from a semi dome of concrete with a 28 feet span and, supposedly, marking the introduction of the groined vault into Queensland. The organ is a spectacular example of the work of Austral Organ Works, in a silky oak case designed by George Payne and built by Messrs JD Campbell and Son for £1440. The kinetic electric blower installed in the organ was apparently the first installed in Australia and relies on a rotary action, combining a series of duct fans to eliminate noise from operation. The prominence and importance attached to the organ reflects the significance of music in the Presbyterian church, particularly at the time of the construction of this building. Three stained glass windows in the narthex of the church are of particular note as the work of prominent Sydney stained glazier, FW Ashwin and Co. The central panels represent the Burning Bush and flanking it are two figural windows, one of John Knox and the other of John Calvin, both of who were associated with the early development of Presbyterianism. Ashwin and Co. also provided other, unspecified, leadlighting for the building and the total sum of their contract was £66.
The newly constructed church was much admired in Brisbane, and remains one of the most interesting ecclesiastical buildings in the state.
There was a universal feeling expressed by those present who had not previously seen the interior that they had not dreamed that it would be so magnifical, the austerity of the exterior scarcely preparing them for the fine effect of the chancel, with its shining brass and gleaming silver and burnished gold, the splendid sweep of the interior arches, the spacious auditorium unbroken by a single pillar, and the lofty roof, where sunbeams glinted and shadows came and went.
Very few changes have been made to St Andrew's Church since its construction was completed in 1905. As the fiftieth anniversary of the congregation approached in the 1914, small changes were made to improve the acoustics, ventilation and natural lighting of the building. These alterations included laying a ruberoid flooring, providing new window openings, and installing electric fans at the northern end of the auditorium. A large stained glass window was installed at the northern end of the auditorium, above the narthex, in 1921 in celebration of another anniversary.
Following the formation in 1977 of the Uniting Church in Australia, from the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational religions, St Andrew's Church is now a Uniting Church. More recent changes to the building include the conversion of the session house and ladies' parlour into contemporary office space.
","criteria":"St Andrew's Uniting Church, formerly Presbyterian, is a large centrally located church that demonstrates the growth of Presbyterianism in Queensland, particularly in Brisbane where it was the home of one of the largest congregations for many years. The building, constructed in 1905 following expansion at Brisbane Central Railway Station, illustrates the growth of this area of the city.
|St Andrew's Church is a rare example of the Brisbane work of the renowned and fine architect, George D. Payne and has special associations with him. Though Payne practised in Brisbane for many years after construction of St Andrew's, none other of his buildings are of comparable prominence.
|The building is an excellent example of the turn of the century development in ecclesiastical architecture that saw the emergence of strong early Christian, Romanesque and Byzantine influences, where previously a Gothic language dominated. The building is one of the earliest ecclesiastical buildings in Brisbane that employs this Romanesque detail and form, influenced by trends in both England where Westminster Cathedral had been erected, and America where the influential architect, HH Richardson was practicing in a style now known as American Romanesque.
Other features contributing to the significance of the church are the early church seating, elder's seating and altar furniture and other early details and fittings. The building is good and characteristic example of a Presbyterian Church with an open auditorium, prominent organ and tiered chancel arrangement.
|St Andrew's Church is a landmark in Brisbane, dominating the Ann and Creek Streets streetscape, employing strong architectural forms, including steeply pitched gables and a tower, on a prominent site. The building has many prominent features of aesthetic and historical importance including the stained glass windows, organ and the internal domed ceiling of the chancel.
|St Andrew's is a well-designed building of outstanding architectural merit, it is innovative and well composed with a sophisticated and well-integrated level of original detail.
|The building has special associations with the Uniting and Presbyterian Church as a place of worship for about ninety years and as the home of a congregation that was established in the 1860s.
|St Andrew's Church is a rare example of the Brisbane work of the renowned and fine architect, George D. Payne and has special associations with him. Though Payne practised in Brisbane for many years after construction of St Andrew's, none other of his buildings are of comparable prominence.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14862,"place_ref":600087,"name":"Eagle Street Fountain","alternate_name":"Mooney Memorial Fountain","street_address":"118 Eagle Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This highly decorative drinking fountain stands on a triangular piece of land at the junction of Queen and Eagle Streets. The foundation and steps are 3.9 m square and built of porphyry (Brisbane tuff). The base is 2.1 m square and built of granite from Mount Alexander in Victoria.
It has four corner columns on its granite base, with richly foliated capitals and raised pedestals, surmounted by four Gothic arches which support a foliated and ribbed spire. The spire, which was originally topped by an ornate finial, rises to 10 m above the ground. The portion between the columns and below the arches is of sandstone ashlar, and this is where the plaques are located. Three lions heads above ornate basins, all of white Sicilian marble are located between the base of the piers on three sides of the fountain. The water supply through the heads was regulated by a system easily accessible by the removal of a single stone.
Although the fountain originally dominated the Eagle Street corner, the scale of recent adjacent high-rise buildings has lessened its visual impact. However, a large fig nearby supports its present claim as a landmark.
","history":"This fountain, erected between 1878 and 1880, was designed by the City Engineer, WH Chambers. It was built at a cost of £627 as part of measures to enhance the visual character of that part of the city. The fountain was funded by the Brisbane Municipal Council and public subscriptions. The fountain incorporated local porphyry (Brisbane tuff), Murphy's Creek sandstone, and imported granite and marble. Inscribed on the fountain were the names of the Aldermen in the 1879 Council, the City Engineer, the Town Clerk, and William Webster, the sculptor.
The fountain popularly became known as the Mooney Memorial Fountain. This name arose through donations given at the time towards a memorial to James Mooney, a volunteer fireman who had lost his life while fighting a fire in Queen Street in March 1877. The official Mooney Memorial, however, was erected above Mooney's grave at Toowong Cemetery using funds raised publicly by his friends and fire-fighter colleagues.
When the Eagle Street fountain was restored in 1988, a special tablet was inscribed as a dedication to James Mooney and to other firemen who had lost their lives in the line of duty.
","criteria":"The Eagle Street Fountain is significant as an excellent example of a Victorian era public monument and amenity of careful and ornate design and fine materials and workmanship.
Situated at the intersection of Queen and Eagle Streets, the Eagle Street Fountain is significant for its landmark value.
The Eagle Street Fountain is significant for its association with James Mooney, a volunteer fireman who had lost his life while fighting a fire in Queen Street in March 1877.
|The Eagle Street Fountain is significant as an excellent example of a Victorian era public monument and amenity of careful and ornate design and fine materials and workmanship.
|The Eagle Street Fountain is significant as an excellent example of a Victorian era public monument and amenity of careful and ornate design and fine materials and workmanship.
Situated at the intersection of Queen and Eagle Streets, the Eagle Street Fountain is significant for its landmark value.
|The Eagle Street Fountain is significant for its association with James Mooney, a volunteer fireman who had lost his life while fighting a fire in Queen Street in March 1877.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14863,"place_ref":600088,"name":"The Port Office","alternate_name":"Stamford Plaza | Harbours and Marine Building","street_address":"39 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Port Office is a two storey, 1880s building which features restrained Classical detailing combined with decorative cast iron work. The building has a prominent entry porch with an extensive elevation facing Edward Street. It has three gable ended projecting bays connected by verandahs. The walls are rendered brick while the roof is sheeted in rolled iron. The lower floor level features plain circular columns supporting the verandah and keyed pilasters. The upper level verandah has slender cast iron columns.
The building has austere Classical detailing with Roman arched openings and a string course in the form of a cornice that runs the perimeter of the building above the ground floor windows. The building has circular ventilator openings in each gable end. Above the roof are chimneys of varying heights, and decorative cast iron ridge cresting. The building is now separated from the river by the Heritage Hotel.
Internally, the building has been extensively renovated and adapted to include ground level specialty shops and a restaurant and bar on the top floor. Two of the shops on the ground floor have had mezzanine levels inserted. Otherwise original ceiling heights have been retained.
","history":"The Port Office was built in 1879-80 to a design by FDG Stanley, the Colonial Architect. It replaced an earlier building nearby. The contractor was John Petrie who had tendered £8,811 for the work. The building was erected on land adjoining the old Port Office. A slipway and wharves for use by the Department were adjacent. In 1885 a two-storey extension was constructed at the rear of the building.
In 1929 the building was extended to provide more space for the Department of Labour which had occupied the building since 1906. A tide marker on the wall of the building since the turn of the century was damaged during the 1974 floods but was later replaced.
In 1988 the property was leased to a private company and the building became part of the Heritage Hotel complex. Extensive renovations were undertaken including the removal of all post 1880 additions, and the addition of the end balconies which were shown on the Colonial Architect's original plans.
","criteria":"Evidence of the expansion of maritime trade in the late 1870s and its importance to the developing economy of the colony.
|An example of the work of Colonial Architect FDG Stanley, and of building contractor John Petrie.
|Its contribution to the streetscape as part of a maritime precinct.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14865,"place_ref":600090,"name":"109 Edward Street","alternate_name":"Metro Arts Centre | Coronation House | Community Arts Centre","street_address":"117 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This is a five storey brick building with a basement level. The internal structure consists of timber floors and columns. The street facade is divided into five bays by plain broad pilasters. The central and outside bays contain tall, narrow paired windows, while the wider intermediate bays contain three wider windows. All window openings are square-headed. The facade features austere classical detailing with string courses dividing the floor levels.
The ground floor level features, on the western side, a cart entrance and internal laneway which leads to a rear courtyard. The simple parapet has stepped sections above the central and outside bays. The sides of the building have no ornamentation but have a regular pattern of window openings. The rear of the building has an internal hoist and motor under a curved corrugated iron roof with hinged landings at each level.
The building is substantially intact, particularly the upper floors, with visible evidence of the timber columns and beams, timber flooring, brick walls and service hoist. Considerable settlement of the upper floors is evident. Alterations to the building include the removal of some floor structure and the insertion of partitioning to accommodate a cinema and cafeteria.
","history":"This warehouse was erected in 1890 for Captain George Poynter Heath, who had purchased the site in 1871. The first tenant was George Myers & Co, general importers of china, glass, earthenware and other household products. In March 1902 the upper levels were substantially damaged by fire but were later repaired.
The warehouse was subdivided in 1907 to accommodate other tenants. In 1912, Myers & Co purchased the building and became the sole occupants. The firm remained in the building until 1930 when it was forced into liquidation. Between 1931 and 1937 the building was vacant. In 1938 the building was renamed Coronation House in celebration of the coronation of George VI. It was occupied by various tenants including manufacturing agents and importers.
During the latter part of World War 2, sections of the building were occupied by the Commonwealth Department of Supply and Shipping. In March 1949 the property was acquired by the Commonwealth of Australia and was used by various Commonwealth government departments.
By the early 1970s the building was regarded as unsuitable for government offices and by 1976 all government departments had moved elsewhere. In that year, work began on converting the building into a community arts centre. In July 1981 the Community Arts Centre was officially opened, and contained theatre, two art galleries, rehearsal rooms, workshop spaces, meeting rooms, dark room, printing shop, cinema and restaurant. Further work was undertaken in 1988 to provide additional facilities for artists. The building was renamed the Metro Arts Centre in 1988.
","criteria":"The Metro Arts Centre is significant for the evidence it provides, along with other surviving nineteenth and early twentieth century warehouses, of the scale of the former warehousing area in that part of the city.
|The Metro Arts Centre is significant as a good and rare example of a late Victorian warehouse.
|The Metro Arts Centre is significant as a good and rare example of a late Victorian warehouse.
|The building is also significant for its visual contribution to the character and continuity of the Edward Street streetscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14866,"place_ref":600091,"name":"Catholic Centre","alternate_name":"Edwards Dunlop Building","street_address":"149 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This polychrome brick and stone Federation era building comprises four storeys with a basement.
The upper three levels are encompassed by giant order pilasters that separate the window openings. These have plain capitals that support cut stone semi-circular arches over the top windows. The parapet has four shallow concave curves punctuated by projecting piers at the centre and ends.
The street facade has three entrances. The main entry on the western end is emphasised by a projecting stone pediment and another served as a carriageway. The windows to the major ground floor space are shaded by the later addition of a deep corrugated iron sun-hood supported on cast iron brackets.
The windows to the basement are separated by rusticated stone piers and protected by cast iron picket screens.
The rear of the building has been painted and has a tall T-shaped arched tank stand located centrally at the top.
Internally elements of finely detailed original joinery survive. Timber posts, beams and brick walls are unpainted.
","history":"This building was erected in 1900 for Edwards Dunlop & Co Ltd, a Sydney based paper merchandising firm. The architects were probably the Sydney firm Slatyer & Cosh. The building featured an electric lift, modern fire fighting equipment and an extensive telephone system.
The company occupied the building on 1 January 1901, the day of Federation. It was an apt moment, as Federation removed many of the obstacles to intercolonial trade, allowing Sydney-based companies like Edwards Dunlop to more economically tap the Queensland market.
By 1910 the company was considered to be the largest paper wholesaling firm in the state. It was the contractor to the Queensland Department of Public Instruction, supplying text and exercise books and wall maps to schools around the state. The company acquired adjoining portions of land in 1925 and 1957, taking their block in an L-shape to Charlotte Street.
In 1974 Edwards Dunlop moved to premises at Eagle Farm, and in the following year the building was purchased by the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane. Renovations and modifications were undertaken which included the installation of a new lift and stairs, the construction of video and radio studios, and the provision of access to St Stephens Cathedral. The building is currently occupied by various Catholic organisations.
","criteria":"The Catholic Centre is significant as a Federation era warehouse with a finely detailed face brick and stone facade, much intact internal structure, and joinery.
The Catholic Centre is significant for its contribution to the Edward Street streetscape, which here is dominated by late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings.
|The Catholic Centre is significant as a Federation era warehouse with a finely detailed face brick and stone facade, much intact internal structure, and joinery.
|The Catholic Centre is significant for its contribution to the Edward Street streetscape, which here is dominated by late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14867,"place_ref":600092,"name":"Old Mineral House","alternate_name":"Smellie & Co Warehouse","street_address":"2 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Old Mineral House, situated on the corner of Edward and Alice Streets, is a five storeyed building of rendered brick, with a cast iron and timber internal structure and timber flooring.
The street facades are visually divided by rendered vertical bands imitating stonework into three bays in Edward Street, and five in Alice Street. The ground floor level is rendered to simulate broad segmental arched openings with keystones, some containing a pair of windows and others single large openings. The main entry is in the central bay of the Edward Street facade and has a semi-circular arched opening with flanking pilasters supporting an austere projecting entablature and cornice. Paired window openings are situated in the bays on the first and second floors. These are spaced to fit the size of each bay and have rendered quoined surrounds.
A frieze with a cornice above marks the top of the original building. The same bays are continued above this to the new parapet but contain different types of window openings. On the fourth level each bay has three window openings consisting of a wide central one, flanked by narrower openings separated by small pilasters, while on the fifth level, the openings are arched. Another cornice runs around the top of the building at parapet level. Classical pediments free of ornament are situated at the parapet level of the central bay of each street facade. The parapets step to a raised central section which stands above these.
Internally the building's structure is predominantly intact. It consists of cast iron columns supporting timber beams on the lower levels and timber beams and columns on the additional upper levels. The staircases and lifts are more recent additions.
","history":"This warehouse was constructed for the firm of Smellie & Co in 1888 with extensions in the late 1890s.
RR Smellie & Co was established in the 1860s as a foundry and engineering works in Alice Street, producing cast iron products for the building industry, and equipment for steamships and locomotives. In the 1880s, RR Smellie & Co altered the orientation of its business, concentrating on importing machinery, implements, and general hardware supplies. The repair and manufacturing plant of RR Smellie & Co was continued by Smith, Forrester, and Co. In 1882, the company became known as Smellie & Co.
The change in direction of the business meant that Smellie & Co required warehouse space. A double-storeyed warehouse was constructed further along Alice Street circa 1884 but these premises proved to be too small as the business prospered in the 1880s. In 1888 a new warehouse, designed by Richard Gailey, was built for the company on the corner of Edward and Alice Streets in 1888. A three storeyed building, it was erected by William Anthony who had tended £6,987 for the project. The warehouse stocked a diverse range of hardware, engineering requisites, and farming equipment. Two storeys were added to the building in the late 1890s as a result of the continuing expansion of the company's business.
In 1930 this building was leased to ACB Limited, drapers, and in 1935, the Department of Public Works became lessees. The Queensland government purchased the property in 1945, along with a number of buildings owned by the firm in the area. Smellie & Co Pty Ltd went into voluntary liquidation in 1946.
The Department of Public Works has used this building for a variety of purposes since 1945. These uses have given the building its various names - Naval House, the Industrial High School, and Mineral House.
","criteria":"As an example of a intact late Victorian era warehouse with classical detailing
For the disciplined manner in which it articulates the corner and terminates both the Alice and Edward Street streetscapes
For its association with the firm of Smellie & Co, a prominent Queensland importing, engineering and iron founding firm of the nineteenth century
|As an example of a intact late Victorian era warehouse with classical detailing
|For the disciplined manner in which it articulates the corner and terminates both the Alice and Edward Street streetscapes
|For its association with the firm of Smellie & Co, a prominent Queensland importing, engineering and iron founding firm of the nineteenth century
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14868,"place_ref":600093,"name":"Tattersalls Club","alternate_name":"Tattersalls","street_address":"206 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Tattersalls Club is a three and four storeyed building with frontages to Edward and Queen Streets.
The Edward Street façade is in the Classical Revival style and in materials and detail is linked with the neighbouring Ascot Chambers. The central three bays on the upper two levels have flanking giant order pilasters, with double pilasters, at each end. The two outer sections have arched openings on the top level and a cantilevered balcony with cast iron railings. Below the cantilevered steel awning the building has modern shopfronts to each side of the arcade.
The later Queen Street façade is in the Art Deco style and comprises three bays separated by giant order pilasters. The parapet has the name TATTERSALLS CLUB. The building has stone facing on a concrete frame. Recent additions are aluminium sun-hoods to the windows of the upper two levels. Below the building's cantilevered awning are modern shopfronts. The recent renovation of the arcade has seen the reinstatement of the Daphne Mayo frieze above the shopfronts.
The upper floors of the Edward Street building contain the main hall. An ornate fibrous plaster vaulted ceiling supported on timber trusses spans the hall and the back wall contains another frieze by the Daphne Mayo. The upper gallery contains a barber shop, turkish baths, card room, reception rooms and library. The dining hall located on the upper floors of the Queen Street building has a 10.7 m high ceiling and walls decorated in grey and white marble. This space features wall paintings by local artists. The arcade on the ground floor dates from the 1990 refurbishment.
","history":"These clubrooms were constructed for the Tattersalls Club of Brisbane in 1925-26, with extensions in 1938-39 and 1949.
Tattersalls Club was formed in November 1883, following the model of sporting clubs established in Britain. It was particularly concerned with horse racing, and the club held its first race meeting in 1884. Tattersalls Club met in the Australian Hotel at the corner of Queen and Albert Streets from 1883 until 1888 and then subsequently leased various premises as its clubrooms. Tattersalls made several inner city property investments, the sale of which financed the acquisition of a site in Edward Street for new clubrooms, as well as a 6 feet by 64 feet right of way to Queen Street.
The new clubrooms were designed by Hall and Prentice, architects for Brisbane's new City Hall, and the contractors were Green and Sons. Erected at a cost of £41 000, with an additional £5 000 spent on fittings and furnishings, Tattersalls Club was opened on 28 July 1926 and provided billiard, card, reading and dining rooms for its members. The main hall was modelled on the repository at Tattersalls auction room in London. Sculptor Daphne Mayo executed the decorative plaster frieze entitled The Horse in Sport along the wall of the Queen Street entrance passageway.
In 1936 an adjoining property in Queen Street was bought for £18 500 to enable the clubrooms to be extended. Constructed by J Hutchinson and Son, to the designs of T R Hall and L B Phillips, these extensions contained a new dining room and were opened on 27 June 1939. The dining room featured a 10.7 m high ceiling, marble walls, Queensland maple and silky oak, and murals created by local artists W Bustard, C H Lancaster, P Stanhope Hobday and Melville Haysom, depicting the Australian landscape. In 1949 further Queen Street property was acquired and again the club expanded with the provision of a library and new offices.
In 1990 Tattersalls was refurbished with altered floor levels at a cost of $5,000,000. A new Queen Street entrance was constructed, and incorporated a vaulted ceiling and the Daphne Mayo friezes from the original entry.
","criteria":"The club buildings are significant for their close association with the Tattersalls Club, one of Brisbane's most prestigious social and sporting clubs.
They are an important illustration of the importation and translation of English social traditions to Queensland, remaining a substantially intact example of a traditional gentlemen's club providing luxuriously appointed rooms and facilities for its members.
|They are an important illustration of the importation and translation of English social traditions to Queensland, remaining a substantially intact example of a traditional gentlemen's club providing luxuriously appointed rooms and facilities for its members.
The buildings are significant for the quality and intactness of the interiors on the upper levels, which incorporate Queensland materials and works by local artists.
|The friezes are the work of prominent Queensland sculptor, Daphne Mayo, and are considered particularly good illustrations of her work. The façades are good examples of the Classical Revival and Art Deco Styles by important Brisbane architects Hall and Prentice, and later, Hall and Phillips.
|The friezes are the work of prominent Queensland sculptor, Daphne Mayo, and are considered particularly good illustrations of her work. The façades are good examples of the Classical Revival and Art Deco Styles by important Brisbane architects Hall and Prentice, and later, Hall and Phillips.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14869,"place_ref":600094,"name":"Rothwells Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"237 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Rothwells building is a five storeyed masonry building with a basement. The street facade contains individual classical variants common in late Victorian buildings.
The lower floors have wide arched openings with flanking columns topped by decorative capitals, while the windows have arched architraves with keystones. At the parapet level there is a cornice supported by bracketing, and above this is an ornate triangular pediment spanning the width of the building bearing the words 'ROTHWELL'S - ESTABLISHED 1897'.
Internally the building is connected with its neighbour Rowes and contains the servicing for both buildings. Suspended ceilings and modern office partitioning predominate.
The building is similar in design to the adjacent Rowes Building.
","history":"Rothwells Building was erected in 1885 along with the adjacent Rowes Building (QHR 600095). These buildings were erected together for their respective owners, John Forsyth and Thomas MacDonald-Paterson. Forsyth was a local merchant while MacDonald-Paterson was a solicitor and who also served as a Member of Parliament. The buildings cost £13,000 to erect and the contractor for the project was W Macfarlane. The ground floor was designed to be used as offices while the other floors were intended for either offices or warehousing.
Forsyth leased his half of the building to Carew, Gardner and Billington Limited in January 1887. This family drapery and importing company later purchased the building in 1896, and in turn leased the building to Rothwells Ltd from December
1904. This firm of drapers and tailors was established in 1897 and in 1909 purchased the building for £9,000. In January 1909 a fire burned out four floors of Rothwells Chambers, as it was then known, and the damaged portions of the building were rebuilt.
During 1957 and 1958 interior renovations were undertaken. Considerable alterations occurred in the early 1980s as part of the redevelopment of this site and the adjacent Rowes Building. The building currently contains a tavern, an arcade of shops and office accommodation.
The current owners purchased the building in 1980.
","criteria":"The Rothwells Building is significant as it demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1880s commercial building with an elaborate facade.
The Rothwells Building is significant as it exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular its fine, classically detailed facade, and its form, materials and scale, which make a strong contribution to the Edward Street streetscape.
|The Rothwells Building is significant as it demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1880s commercial building with an elaborate facade.
|The Rothwells Building is significant as it exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular its fine, classically detailed facade, and its form, materials and scale, which make a strong contribution to the Edward Street streetscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14870,"place_ref":600095,"name":"Rowes Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"221 Adelaide Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Rowes Building is a five storeyed masonry building with a basement. The classical detailing of the front facade contains individual classical variants common in late Victorian commercial buildings. Most of this ornamentation is executed in plaster.
The lower floors have wide arched openings with wide flanking columns topped by decorative capitals. The windows on the upper floors have arched architraves with keystones and are separated by engaged columns with elaborate capitals. At the parapet level there is a cornice supported by bracketing, and centrally above this is a narrow pediment bearing the name 'ROWES'. The lower level shopfront has also been refitted and a first floor balcony removed. The laneway elevation is a simplified version of the street facade, with round-headed windows in an articulated brick wall.
Internally the timber trusses have been left exposed on the upper level and the french doors with lead lights which opened onto the first floor balcony remain.
The building is similar in design to the adjacent Rothwells Building.
","history":"Rowes Building was erected in 1885 along with the adjacent Rothwells Building (QHR 600094). These buildings were erected together for their respective owners, Thomas MacDonald-Paterson and John Forsyth. MacDonald-Paterson was a solicitor and also served as Member of the Parliament. The buildings cost £13,000 to erect and the contractor for the project was W Macfarlane. The ground floor was designed to be used as offices while the other floors were intended for either offices or warehousing.
Macdonald-Paterson took an office in his half of the premises and leased the remaining floorspace.
In 1903 William Effy signed a ten year lease which covered the basement, ground floor and first floor balcony of the site. Effy, whose mother Minna Rowe had established the highly successful Rowes Cafe in Queen Street, continued the catering establishment at the new address and by 1909 the site contained a ground floor dining room with seating for 380 guests.
Effy purchased the building in 1914, and in 1925 he engaged architects Hall and Prentice to design major alterations and additions. The scheme, which cost £162,000, included the purchase of what was known as the City Garage, over which Rowes ballroom was built, and additional Adelaide Street frontage. The Adelaide Street building was demolished and a six storeyed building erected, the ground floor containing a shopping arcade with access to Rowes Cafe. The upper floors were divided into office accommodation. The T-shaped complex had its original frontage to Edward Street, but an increased depth to an approximate distance of 300 feet (91.5 m). Further alterations to the Edward Street facade were undertaken in late 1926.
In 1958 part of the original cafe was converted to an arcade of shops with extensions in 1961. Rowes passed into the ownership of National Mutual Life Association and a major redevelopment of the combined Rowes/Rothwells buildings took place in 1984.
","criteria":"The Rowes Building is significant as it demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1880s commercial building with an elaborate facade.
The Rowes Building is significant as it exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, it has a fine, classically detailed facade. Its form, materials and scale make a strong contribution to the Edward Street streetscape.
|The Rowes Building is significant as it demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1880s commercial building with an elaborate facade.
|The Rowes Building is significant as it exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, it has a fine, classically detailed facade. Its form, materials and scale make a strong contribution to the Edward Street streetscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14871,"place_ref":600096,"name":"People's Palace","alternate_name":"Salvation Army Hostel | Peoples Palace","street_address":"308 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This large Federation era building is a predominantly red brick structure with painted cement rendered trimmings, decorative cast iron work, and a corner tower.
The plan form is that of a hollow rectangle, with the central opening providing light and air to the rooms. It comprises five storeys plus a basement, and additions above the roof line, it has continuous verandahs on three levels, while the fourth has a steeply pitched roof with red tiles in a diamond pattern punctuated by dormer windows.
The corner octagonal tower, marking the main entrance, has a bell shaped roof with small dormers in each roof segment. Adjacent to the tower is a polygonal brick lift tower.
The verandah's feature decorative cast iron balustrades and friezes with timber posts and handrails. The semi-circular arched and circular windows to the tower have cream painted cement render dressings to contrast with the red brick.
Internally the rectangular courtyard has been divided into two by the insertion of a modern brick fire stair. The hipped roof with clerestory remains above the basement dining saloon in the northern courtyard. This is now used as office space but its original entry doors remain. Pressed metal ceilings remain in many sections of the building. The upper levels have not been refurbished, but the partitioning of the lower levels is not original. The original lift with its sliding doors, timber panelling and surrounding stairwell remains beside the entry foyer.
","history":"The People's Palace was built in 1910-11 for the Salvation Army as a temperance hotel. Designed by Colonel Saunders, the Salvation Army's architect, it comprised three floors of accommodation, a service basement and a rooftop garden. Built near Central Railway Station, the hotel contained 130 rooms and provided inexpensive 'working class' accommodation for travellers.
The concept of temperance hotels grew out of the temperance movement and the Peoples Palace was the first of its type in Queensland. No alcohol, gambling or 'other evils' were permitted on the premises.
In 1913 extensions were undertaken which involved adding an extra two storeys. Renovations and internal re-arrangements continued over the decades as uses and priorities changed. In 1979 the building was leased out as budget accommodation. Recently, the Salvation Army has established its headquarters on the site and the building is now primarily used as offices.
","criteria":"(Criterion under review)
|The Peoples Palace is significant as a rare example of a purpose built temperance hotel, it demonstrates rare and uncommon aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|The building demonstrates the principal characteristics of a Federation building.
The Peoples Palace is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community in particular, it is a fine example of a Federation brick and render building with the corner entry tower and decorative cast iron work on the verandahs.
|The Peoples Palace is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community in particular, it is a fine example of a Federation brick and render building with the corner entry tower and decorative cast iron work on the verandahs.
The Peoples Palace is significant as a prominent landmark on the corner of Ann and Edward Street with its corner tower being one of a series along Ann Street.
|The building is important for as it has special association with the work of the Salvation Army since 1911, an organisation of importance in Queensland's history.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14872,"place_ref":600097,"name":"Smellie's Building","alternate_name":"Smellies Building","street_address":"32 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This brick warehouse, located at the river end of Edward Street, internally has a large timber structure incorporating a mezzanine level with a central opening.
The main facade, of tuck-pointed red brick, reflects the structural bays of the building with a large central arched opening, and slightly smaller flanking arches. The three bays are defined by brick pilasters which extend through to the parapet. The windows in the upper portions of each bay have narrow timber glazing bars. The central bay contains a roller shutter door while the bay on the eastern end contains a timber door with a carved timber baroque pediment.
The base of the building creates a podium consisting of darker coloured brick on a porphyry plinth stone with an upper section having a Greek key pattern in render.
The parapet is divided by raised elements which continue the line of the pilasters. Each of these is topped by a small classical pediment. The central portion of the parapet is raised and comes to a shallow peak with a flag pole behind. The name 'SMELLIE & CO' appears prominently in render above the central bay. The date '1895' and the words 'HARDWARE AND MACHINERY' also appear on the main facade.
The clerestory, on each side of the central king post trussed roof, provides natural light to both levels through the central mezzanine opening. Large timber beams and columns support both the mezzanine level and the roof. The mezzanine flooring is supported on closely spaced timber joists separated by herring-bone strutting.
","history":"This warehouse was constructed in 1895-96 for the importing firm Smellie & Co.
RR Smellie & Co was established in the 1860s as a foundry and engineering works in Alice Street. Like others in the area, the firm produced cast iron products for the building industry, and equipment for steamships and locomotives. In the 1880s, RR Smellie & Co altered the orientation of its business, concentrating on importing machinery, implements, and general hardware supplies. In 1882, the company became known as Smellie & Co.
Smellie's premises in Alice Street proved to be too small as the business prospered in the 1880s. An additional warehouse was constructed further along Alice Street circa 1884. A three storeyed warehouse (QHR 600092) designed by Richard Gailey was constructed in 1888 on the corner of Edward and Alice Streets. This expansion of warehouse space was not sufficient to accommodate the ever-increasing trade of Smellie & Co, and a new bulk warehouse was constructed nearby in Edward Street in 1895-96. The architect for the building was Claude William Chambers.
From this warehouse Smellie & Co stocked a diverse range of hardware, engineering requisites, and farming equipment.
The company remained a prominent merchandising firm in Queensland until the 1930s when the economic depression adversely affected its business. During this period it began leasing its various properties in this area to the Department of Public Works. The Queensland government acquired this property in 1945, along with a number of buildings owned by Smellie & Co. In 1946 Smellie & Co went into voluntary liquidation.
The Department of Public Works has used this building as storage, and as a car park, among other uses.
","criteria":"Smellie's Building is part of a surviving group of industrial buildings and warehouses in lower Edward Street and Alice Street, demonstrating the evolution of Frog's Hollow as the principal warehousing and light-industrial sector of Brisbane's central business district, which was sustained from the second half of the 19th century through to the early decades of the 20th century.
|Smellie's Building is significant as an accomplished and intact example of an 1890s warehouse with a finely detailed polychrome brick facade. The building is a good example of the industrial work of well-respected Brisbane architect, CW Chambers.
|Smellie's Building is significant for its contribution to the Edward Street streetscape in association with the Port Office [600088], Old Mineral House [600092], the Port Office Hotel [600098] and the Naval Offices [600101].
|Smellie's Building is significant for its association with the firm of Smellie & Co, a prominent Queensland importing, engineering and iron founding firm.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14873,"place_ref":600098,"name":"Port Office Hotel","alternate_name":"Shamrock Hotel","street_address":"40 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Port Office Hotel, located on the corner of Edward and Margaret Streets, is a two storeyed rendered brick building with a corrugated iron roof. The rendered brickwork is scribed to imitate stonework and has bays separated by rendered quoins while a number of the window openings have stone sills. A cantilevered awning dominates the street facades.
A separate store with a hipped roof, filling in the 'L' shape plan to create a rectangle, has been incorporated into the structure. A verandah has been added to the eastern back wall. Leadlight windows remain in some of the ground floor openings.
Internally some of the early timber doors, architraves, and skirtings survive but otherwise the majority including the stair has been altered in various refurbishments since the 1950s.
","history":"The first hotel on this site was opened in May 1864 and was known as the Shamrock Hotel.
In late 1876 the Shamrock Hotel was reconstructed as a two storey masonry building with verandahs. It was designed by James Cowlishaw with Charles Midson the contractor.
In 1888 the remodelled hotel was described as being 'extremely commodious, containing (besides public and private bars and an attractive clubroom) fifteen bedrooms, a drawing room, two bath rooms and four public rooms on the ground floor'. The hotel was patronised by workers from nearby shipping and industrial and riverside businesses. With the change of licensee c. 1909, J C Cutbush renamed the hotel the Port Office Hotel.
In 1955 the hotel was refurbished under the direction of architect F L Cullen. This work included the removal of all the verandahs, lacework, canopies and chimneystacks and renovation of the interior fittings.
During the 1980's further internal renovations have been undertaken.
","criteria":"The Port Office Hotel is significant for its contribution to the lower Edward Street streetscape in association with the Port Office, Naval Offices, Old Mineral House and Smellie's Building.
|The Port Office Hotel is significant for its contribution to the lower Edward Street streetscape in association with the Port Office, Naval Offices, Old Mineral House and Smellie's Building.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14874,"place_ref":600099,"name":"South East Queensland Water Board Building","alternate_name":"Geedeejay House | Brisbane & Area Water Board Building","street_address":"41 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This is a brick building of three storeys on a base of porphyry (Brisbane tuff) stonework that also has a basement level. The exterior brickwork has been rendered, with the side scored to imitate ashlar work. The Edward Street elevation is symmetrical and divided into three bays, equally spaced. Each floor is defined by a string course, those higher up the facade more ornate than those below. Single windows are centred in a bay on each level and are separated by pairs of pilasters. These are plain at the second level but have been given emphasis at the upper level by the use of recessed panels. The upper level windows consist of a tall central opening flanked by two shorter ones. Above this taller window is a small triangular pediment with scroll like brackets to each side which helps emphasise the vertical nature of this building on its narrow site. The windows at each level are timber frame double hung sashes.
The Edward Street facade is intact to the upper levels, but the interior has apparently been extensively refurbished. The building does not respond its corner site but has an austere side elevation with some plain openings facing Margaret Street. Plain string courses continue on the Margaret Street facade in line with those on the front of the building. The later full-height extension to the rear of the building has recently been rebuilt.
","history":"This warehouse was built between 1885 and 1886, during the 1880s building boom. The site was purchased by Alexander Brand Webster and William Webster, importers of general merchandise, commission, insurance and shipping agents and wholesale stationers in 1885. The warehouse was designed by Alex B Wilson and constructed by Thomas Rees, builder for £3021.11.0.
Largely as a result of its proximity to the river, the building was occupied by merchants and indent agents for 77 years. The first occupant, from 1887-1906, was Robert Martin, a prominent, well respected businessman in the ship chandlery trade. His business, R Martin & Co, ironmongers, sail makers and riggers was one of the largest in Queensland. From 1909-12 the building was occupied by Sturmfels Stores and in 1913-14 was listed as a Workman's Home run by the Salvation Army. In 1914, EF Broad (Qld Ltd) general merchant, indent agent and supplier to various food manufacturers moved to this building. The company remained there until 1963, having purchased the property in 1956. In 1982 the Brisbane and Area Water Board acquired this site and converted the upper levels into office accommodation. The authority became the South East Queensland Water Board in 1991.
","criteria":"The South East Queensland Water Board Building is a product of the 1880s building boom, the building reflects the development of lower Edward Street as a warehouse precinct.
|The elaborate facade is typical as a slightly restrained variant of late Victorian ornamentation and detail, which differs from the austerity of later warehouse design.
|The warehouses, including the adjoining Spencers building, provide visual cohesion to the streetscape as they were built to the Edward Street frontage and are similar in scale, height, materials and design features.
This narrow warehouse is a particularly fine example because of its ornate Victorian detailing - especially on the upper levels - which emphasises the building's height.
|This building is significant for its association with architect, AB Wilson, who also designed Webster and Co's warehouse at 146-160 Mary Street, and for the long term occupancy of R Martin & Co, prominent ship chandler and EF Broad Pty Ltd, successful general merchants.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14875,"place_ref":600100,"name":"Spencers Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"47-51 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-08-27","description":"This Victorian warehouse has austere classical detailing in both rendered and unrendered brickwork. The building consists of four storeys and a basement level and is divided into two identical portions. The upper three floors of each portion are separated by a string course. The ground floor has tall arched openings surrounded by render that imitates rusticated stonework. Above each centre bay at the street level is a simple triangular classical pediment. The three upper levels are unrendered brick. Windows on these levels are separated by projecting brick pilasters. The windows on the two middle levels have arched heads and those on the upper level have curved pediments. Paired moulded brackets support the cornice line at the upper level. Above this the parapet has plain triangular pediments located over each central bay. The engaged brick piers at the sides and in the centre of the building continue the rusticated theme of the rendered base by having seven fielded plaster panels regularly distributed along the height of the pier on each level.
Both rendered and unrendered portions of the building have been altered with the use of aluminium shopfronting at street level, moving the entry into a side bay, and a cantilevered awning. Some of the other windows have also been modified with the use of aluminium framed glazing. The face brickwork has been painted, eliminating the original distinction between the upper three levels and the rendered street level facade. At the rear the face brick remains unpainted, and the two portions are distinguished by separate gable ends with central loading gantries. A modern steel fire stair serves both sections of the building.
","history":"The land at the site occupies part of allotments 4 and 5 of section 35 which were acquired respectively by James Donald in 1852 and the well-known Benjamin Cribb in 1854. Cribb and Donald co-operated in subdivision and resubdivision of the allotments with the land under study passing to William Hood in 1876. Hood was a principal of the firm Hood & Binnie whose iron foundry works were located at the site until 1888. In that year title to the land passed to Frances Sophia Jones wife of the Anglican clergyman Rev Thomas Jones who had accompanied Brisbane's first Anglican Bishop, EW Tufnell on his arrival in 1860. It was unusual in those times for a married woman to have sole title to this kind of property, but Frances Jones probably did not have ultimate control over it. Until the Married Womens Property Act was introduced in Queensland in 1890, a husband was entitled to the income from such a property and could mortgage it without his wife's consent - unless her family had secured it to her through a trust. By May 1889 Frances Jones had mortgaged the property to a total of £5000, presumably to finance the erection of the building which Thomas Rees undertook during the year; FDG Stanley, former Colonial Architect, was the designer. Rees had also built the adjacent warehouse (now Water Board Building) several years earlier.
The building was complete by early 1890 and in February Benjamin Brothers Ltd occupied the western section (Nos 49-51) - using it as a bulk store. The building was flooded in the March 1890 floods and a photo taken at the time shows a 'To Let' sign advertising the eastern section. Leasing agent was the Queensland Trustees Executors Agency Co (QTEA), presumably acting for Frances Sophia Jones. Two floods (1890 and 1893), low occupancy rates and a severely depressed economy no doubt contributed to the repossession of the building in 1894. In the same year QTEA was struck off the companies register. The vacancy rates of the 1890s were relieved somewhat around the turn of the century with the first of a series of long-term tenancies. Leonard Spencer, coach builder and ironmonger began a twenty-odd year occupancy of Nos 45-47 in 1903. Another enduring tenancy, that of Roche & Dahl leather merchants (Nos 49-51), began in 1911.
In 1913 ownership of the property was transferred to James Milne and James Raff of the machinery firm Smellie & Co whose business premises were nearby and can still be seen today. In the late 1920s or early 1930s Leonard Spencer built his own building, Spencer Chambers, at 53 Edward Street and moved out of Nos 45-47. His place was taken by John Mitchell Hamilton, tent manufacturer who eventually bought the entire building, with his son, in 1941. In the mid 1940s Jolly & Batchelor carried on the leather tradition at the building, buying out Roche & Dahl and moving into their premises. For many years, Jolly & Batchelor operated their business there; in 1964 they left the central city area for South Brisbane where they continue to provide materials and equipment to the leather trade and to the public. Another Spencer, a typewriter dealer, bought Nos 45-47 in 1978, but sold it to the present owners in 1987. The present owners of Nos 47-51 acquired the property in 1965.
","criteria":"Spencers Buildng is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the pattern of warehouse development in this area of Brisbane during the late nineteenth century.
|With its classical styling, Spencers Building demonstrates some of the principal characteristics of a Victorian warehouse.
|Spencers Building is important in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community including the unusual decorative treatment of the facade which differentiates this building from other late nineteenth century warehouses and the visual cohesion of the warehouses, including the adjoining South East Queensland Water Board Building, in height, scale and materials.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14876,"place_ref":600101,"name":"Naval Offices (former), Brisbane","alternate_name":"Naval Offices (former)","street_address":"3 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2013-03-21","description":"The former Naval Offices is a two-storey brick building on the corner of Edward and Alice streets, Brisbane, adjacent to and overlooking the Brisbane River. The building occupies the majority of the allotment with a small yard behind. Primary entrance is from Edward Street with a secondary entrance from the Alice Street road reserve.
\nThe building is of load-bearing brick construction with timber floor and roof structure. A two-storey timber verandah at the rear overlooks the yard to the river and is not of cultural heritage significance. The building elevations are face brick in English bond, with the upper level finished in stucco with face brick quoining to the corners and around windows. The bricks are deep red with contrasting pale grey tuck pointing. Windows are large and rectangular with brick lintels and timber-framed, double-hung sashes with slender, moulded-timber glazing bars. There is one circular window on the upper level of the Alice Street side closest to the river. The hipped roof overhangs the upper floor, has bracketed timber eaves and is clad with roll and pan metal sheet. There is a central metal octagonal ventilation fleche on the ridge and two tall chimneys flank the sides of the building.
\nThe building is two-storey with an asymmetrical, single-storey projection to Edward Street accommodating the entry portico and former public reception area. The building is notable for its Arts and Crafts decorative treatments including: extensive use of high-quality, tuck pointed face brickwork and stucco; rendered dressings; tall decorative brickwork chimneys with chimney pots; decorative eaves brackets; a prominent semi-circular window flanked by horizontal bands of render; and rusticated Tuscan order columns and a curved pediment with a sculpted naval coat of arms to the portico.
\nA decorative wrought iron gate opens to the entry portico where the floor is finished with tessellated encaustic tiles with slate thresholds and the ceiling is v-jointed timber boards. There are two adjacent entry doors from the porch; both are timber double doors with leaded fanlights. The larger door opens into the hall via a small foyer and the smaller door into the front room which is divided into two parts by a large arched opening.
\nThe ground floor plan is organised around a central stair hall running front to back with two main rooms on either side. The ground floor has vinyl-covered, timber floors; plaster walls; moulded timber skirtings, architraves and cornices; and v-jointed timber board ceilings with decorative timber fretwork vents. Floor-to-ceiling height on the ground floor is 3.6m. The main rooms have a fireplace each with a simple moulded plaster surround and mantle, and a decorative cast-iron firebox. The rear northern room has a strong room with a heavy iron door. The doors into the four rooms are varnished timber with moulded panels and rectangular glazed fanlights. The ground floor offices are numbered 1 to 4, and the interior double doors to the foyer carry the words ‘Commonwealth of Australia Naval Office' on the glass.
\nA large plaster royal coat of arms is positioned above the doors of the small entry foyer. The timber half-turn stair has a decorative timber balustrade and a small cleaner's cupboard with sink is underneath.
\nThe rear verandah of the ground floor leads to male and female toilets (1991) that are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance. A rear yard has an enclosure for mechanical equipment and a garden with trees and shrubs - the vegetation is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance. Four flagpoles are located at the northern rear corner of the building and are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nOn the Alice Street side concrete stairs lead into a narrow side yard enclosed by a short, brick and timber fence. This yard wraps around the building along this side to meet the front porch on Edward Street. The Alice Street entrance door is timber v-jointed boards, ledged and braced, with a rectangular fanlight. The threshold is a single, large slate. This door opens to a small hall and stair up to the landing of the main stair which rises to the first floor. French doors open into the stair landing from the first floor rear verandah at a height above floor level, indicating a previous floor and stair configuration.
\nThe first floor has carpet covered timber floors, plaster walls, simple timber skirtings and cornices, moulded timber architraves, and a ripple iron ceiling with metal ventilation panels. The floor is divided by timber partitions that are not full height. A layout of previous partitions is visible on the ceiling. There are four non-functional fireplaces without mantle or firebox. A rear room contains a kitchen. Timber-framed, glazed French doors and a clear-finished panelled timber door open onto the rear verandah from the rear rooms of the first floor.
\nThe former Naval Offices is a small building within a streetscape of larger structures featuring other late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century masonry buildings including the former Port Office [QHR 600088], Smellie & Co. warehouse [QHR 600092], Smellie's Building [QHR 600097], and the Port Office Hotel [QHR 600098] and is adjacent to the entrance gates of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens [QHR 600067]. The building is visible from the Brisbane River and there is a sight line from the former Naval Offices to the former Naval Stores at Kangaroo Point [QHR 600239] across the river.
","history":"The brick former Naval Offices at 3 Edward Street in Brisbane was constructed in 1900-01 by the Queensland Department of Public Works as the first purpose-built headquarters for naval forces in Queensland. Built for the Queensland Marine Defence Force (QMDF), it was soon used by the Australian Commonwealth Navy (ACN). It was transferred to Commonwealth ownership in 1911 and was used by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
The former Naval Offices is located midway along the Town Reach (Petrie's Bight to Garden Point) of the Brisbane River, within a block bounded by Margaret, Edward and Alice streets and the river. Over time this area was utilised by a number of Queensland Government entities dedicated to commercial shipping, including: the Government Shipping Office, Port Office, Marine Board Office, Harbours and Rivers Department, Hydraulic Engineers and Shipping Master's departments, Marine Department and the Government Seamen's Saving Bank.[1] A Reserve for the Harbour Master's Department of 1 rood and 30 perches (1771sqm) was surveyed in 1862 between the corner of Alice and Edward streets and the river, and a stone and brick building was erected that year.[2] Later known as the (first) Port Office, it included offices on the ground floor and store rooms and a boatshed underneath. Prior to this date the Harbour Master was based in George Street.[3]
Military use of the immediate area started c.1886, when the QMDF occupied the 1862 Port Office.[4] The QMDF was created in 1885 in response to fears that Queensland's coastal settlements were vulnerable to Russian warships. In the late 1870s tensions between Britain and Russia had raised concerns regarding the defence of Britain's overseas colonies. Colonel Sir William Jervois of the Royal Engineers, assisted by Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Scratchley, toured the Australian colonies to make recommendations for defence arrangements and the pair visited Queensland in August 1877. In order to deal with the perceived Russian naval threat to Brisbane they recommended utilising small naval vessels to disrupt enemy landings, a coastal fort with submarine mines across the river at Lytton, and a mobile field force of infantry and engineers with artillery. A Naval Brigade and a Torpedo Corps was also required.[5] When the Defence Act 1884 was gazetted on 25 February 1885, the existing Queensland Volunteer Force (land forces) became the Queensland Defence Force (QDF). The Queensland Defence (Marine) Force was gazetted on 3 March 1885.
Lieutenant Walton Drake had taken command of the Naval Brigade from 1 January 1885, tasked with training volunteers. Two 50-strong companies of Brisbane naval volunteers were announced that month and additional naval brigades were later formed at other Queensland ports, including Townsville, Rockhampton, Maryborough, Cairns, Cooktown, Bundaberg, Thursday Island and Mackay.[6]
Naval vessels were also ordered as part of the proposed plan to defend Queensland. The first vessel of Queensland's new navy to be delivered was the steel, second-class spar torpedo boat ‘Mosquito', which arrived as deck cargo in Brisbane in October 1884.[7] Prior to this the closest thing that Queensland had to a naval vessel was the Queensland Government schooner ‘Pearl', which conducted survey work and guarded the pearling fisheries in northern Queensland waters.[8]
The main strength of the QMDF, the sister Alpha class gunboats ‘Gayundah' (meaning Thunder) and ‘Paluma' (Lightning), ordered from Britain in 1883[9] and launched in 1884, arrived in March 1885 and May 1885 respectively.[10]
The ‘Gayundah' sailed to Queensland under Commander (later Captain) Henry Townley Wright, a retired Royal Navy officer.[11] Wright was appointed as Senior Naval Officer (SNO) and Superintendent of the QMDF on 30 March 1885, as well as remaining in command of the ‘Gayundah'.[12] Those of the crew who elected to remain in Queensland's service became the first permanent members of the QMDF. The ‘Gayundah' was used to train QMDF seamen, while the ‘Paluma' was used on survey work by the British Admiralty until being handed back to Queensland in 1895.[13] The last regular vessel of the QMDF was the ‘Midge', a mahogany timber picquet boat/spar torpedo boat, which arrived in 1888.[14]
Auxiliary vessels in the QMDF included a locally-built steamer ‘Miner', and the government steamer ‘Otter'. Five steam hopper barges of the Harbours and Rivers Department, the ‘Bonito', ‘Stingaree', ‘Dolphin', ‘Bream' and 'Pumba', could also be armed if required for port defence.
A Permanent Force, HMQS Gayundah, QDF (Marine), was established in February 1892, but most of its full-time crew were paid off in 1893 as part of cutbacks during the 1890s depression, as was the ‘Paluma's' crew after the ship had completed its survey work.[15] For most of the 1890s the gunboats were used by naval brigade crews solely for training.
In and near Brisbane, a number of buildings were erected for the QMDF. The Naval Stores [QHR 600239] and a wharf were built at the base of the Kangaroo Point cliffs in 1886-87, across the river from the QMDF headquarters on Edward Street. A sub-marine mining (naval mine) store was erected c.1886 at Fort Lytton [QHR 600248], and a sub-marine mining drill hall was later built at the west end of Alice Street in 1900.
By 1896, the old Port Office used by the QMDF was in a poor state and the foundations, inundated during the 1893 floods, were settling and causing wall cracks. On 1 August 1899 the QMDF's Staff Paymaster, Edward Vincent Pollock, also complained that the roof was leaking water onto his paperwork.[16] Later that month £1500 was allocated by the Department of Public Works for the construction of new offices.[17]
In May 1900 it was decided by Queensland's new Naval Commandant, Captain William Rooke Creswell, that the new offices would replace the cottage of the Marine Department's messenger/caretaker at the corner of Edward and Alice Streets. Tenders were invited in late August and the cottage was demolished.
Plans for the new Naval Offices were approved by AB Brady, the Government Architect within the Department of Public Works (DPW), on 14 September 1900,[18] but since he was trained as an engineer it is unlikely to be his design. The DPW employed a number of accomplished architects at this time and the work could be attributed to Thomas Pye (First Assistant Architect from July 1899),[19] John Smith Murdoch (Second Assistant Architect from 1 July 1899), [20] or George David Payne (Temporary Draughtsman 1898-1901). Pye supervised larger works, while Murdoch took charge of the designing and drafting staff.
DPW was involved in the design and construction of Queensland's most important buildings and capital works following its formation in 1866. Employing a succession of highly-talented architects, DPW produced many fine buildings of high architectural merit. Prior to World War II these buildings were characterised by: highly-functional, rational plan arrangements that were commodious and accommodating; use of high-quality, durable materials, preferably sourced from Queensland; and a quality of civic dignity brought about through style, scaling, and form.
The tender of James Mason of Brisbane of £1845/17/6 for the Brisbane Naval Offices was accepted in October 1900, and the building was completed by late June 1901.[21] ‘The Queenslander' reported on 16 November 1901 that the building's facing bricks were dark-brown, relieved with cement dressings and rough-cast work. The roof was covered with rolled galvanised iron. The Annual Report for DPW to 30 June 1901 (where the Naval Offices was listed under principal works completed during the year) mentioned internal fittings of pine and cedar. No other Australian colony built naval offices in this period, just prior to Federation and the transfer of defence assets. Queensland may have done so to ensure the continued use of Brisbane by the Commonwealth Navy.[22]
As a naval headquarters, the building was designed with spaces for the senior naval officers and their administrative staff, along with a strong room for the Staff Paymaster. The original ground floor plan included an entry porch off Edward Street, with double doors leading north-west into a public space which was separated by a counter from the Clerk's office. There was also a set of double doors leading north-east into a vestibule between the front offices, and onwards into a central hall. To the rear of the Clerk's Office was the Paymaster's Office, which included a projecting strong room at the rear of the building. The right front (southern) office was for the Commandant, while the right rear (eastern) office was for the Officer of the Naval Corps. Each had a fireplace.
Behind the Naval Corp's office was the separate Brigade Entrance. From this entrance the ground floor rear verandah could be accessed, as well as a stairway up to a landing from which people could either descend to the ground floor offices, or continue up to the first floor. The latter was a large open space used as an Orderly (Administrative) Room, with four fireplaces and a small lavatory and store at the right rear (eastern) corner. This space may have been later partitioned for sleeping quarters and offices.[23] The 1900 plans do not show the ventilation fleche which was present on the roof when the building was finished.[24] This fleche was removed by the mid 1980s, and was replicated in the 1990s.
Although the QMDF existed when the building was started, the first occupants were technically the Queensland components of a Commonwealth Navy. After the Australian Commonwealth was formed on 1 January 1901 the defence forces of the separate colonies were transferred to the new Federal Government in March. However, procedural delays meant arrangements were not completed until 1902.[25]
At the time of Federation, Queensland's naval forces numbered 750 men of all ranks, and it was one of four states (including Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia) to contribute ships to the Australian Commonwealth Naval Force (ACNF), formed on 1 March 1901 - handing over the ‘Gayundah', ‘Paluma', ‘Mosquito' and ‘Midge'. Captain Creswell remained the Commandant of the Queensland-based flotilla of the ACN. In late 1904 Captain Creswell was appointed Director of Commonwealth Naval Forces,[26] and his place as Queensland Naval Commandant was taken by Captain Frederick Tickell (to 1907). By 1904, 49% of Australia's serving naval officers had served in the QMDF.[27]
Captain Creswell was a major advocate for an independent Australian navy. Australia had been a separate British Naval Station since 1859 and a squadron of the Royal Navy was maintained in Australian waters until 1913. After March 1901 the Royal Navy was still paid to provide blue water defence (a force projection capability beyond coastal defence), but Captain Creswell lobbied for an autonomous Australian blue water navy. The 1909 Imperial Conference agreed to form an Australian fleet, and the first ships of this fleet, the destroyers ‘Yarra' and ‘Parramatta', reached Australia in 1910. On 10 July 1911 King George V granted the title ‘Royal Australian Navy' to the ACN and in October 1913 formal control of these units was transferred to the Commonwealth Naval Board.[28] Meanwhile, in 1911 district naval officers were appointed around Australia to replace the naval commandants. [29]
Although the Commonwealth took control of Queensland's naval forces in 1901, the Naval Offices was not transferred to Commonwealth ownership until 1911. DPW was still maintaining the building in 1910 and it was still in Queensland ownership in June 1911.[30]
A number of alterations were made to the Naval Offices during Commonwealth ownership. February 1933 plans included the addition of a first floor rear verandah with an enclosed laundry and new stairs from the side yard. At the same time the first floor was converted into a residence for the Senior Naval Officer, and the large space was partitioned into domestic rooms. The internal stairway from the main ground floor hall was removed, so the upstairs residence could only be accessed from the old Brigade Entrance or the new rear verandah. Two sets of French doors plus a single door were installed between the verandah and the residence. A ‘typiste' (typists) room was added to the north-west end of the original ground floor rear verandah, and a new lavatory was added behind the strong room.[31] Further additions in late 1939 resulted in a new office, lavatory and water closet (WC) being built behind the strong room, replacing the 1933 lavatory.[32] Two other WCs were also built sometime between 1933 and 1939 on and adjacent to the rear verandah.[33]
After Japan entered World War II in December 1941, Brisbane became an important supply and command centre and the resulting expansion of the Allied naval presence in the city meant larger Naval Staff Offices were urgently required. During 1942-43 commercial buildings in Queen Street were requisitioned and occupied by the Australian and United States navies.[34] Although the Operational Staff of the RAN's Naval Officer in Charge (NOIC), Queensland, was based in Queen Street, the District Naval Officer, Queensland, remained at the Edward Street Naval Offices with the Civil Secretariat and Accounts staffs.[35] Other wartime RAN facilities in Brisbane were located at Colmslie and New Farm. The Smellie and Co. warehouse [QHR 600092] opposite the Naval Offices was used by the US Red Cross before becoming an Australian Comforts Fund hostel for the Royal Navy in 1945.[36]
Further alterations were made to accommodate the extra staff at the Naval Offices. In 1944 a two-storey timber office extension was added behind the existing verandahs, the verandahs were enclosed as offices, and toilet arrangements were reconfigured. The stairway to the first floor 1933 verandah was removed, as was the first floor verandah laundry. The original steps up to the rear yard from Alice Street were removed and replaced with steps that climbed south-west to the side yard.[37]
By 1977 the former Naval Offices was vacant, its functions having been transferred to HMAS Moreton at New Farm (naval base, closed 1994). The Edward Street site was surplus to Commonwealth requirements but, as it was included on the Register of the National Estate by this time, a decision was made to lease the property for 99 years rather than sell it. This enabled conditions protecting the heritage values of the original section of the former Naval Offices to be written into the lease. The building was leased to Jakuma Limited in November 1981. The lease was transferred to Historic Holdings Pty Ltd in 1987, and to HSH Hotels (Australia) Limited in 2000.
From 1982 the former Naval Offices was used as Muddies Seafood Restaurant, and alterations were made including removing walls between the ground floor offices, constructing a new stair in the ground floor hall, removing internal partitions in the rear timber extensions on both levels, a new kitchen fit-out on the first floor, and adding a fire escape stair to the rear.
After the restaurant closed in 1989, the building was vacant for a period before being refurbished in the early 1990s.[38] This refurbishment was designed by Bruce Buchanan Architects and saw the restoration of lost or obscured significant fabric. The 1944 office extensions to the rear of the building were demolished and the rear verandah was reconstructed. The ground floor toilets were upgraded, partitions were reinstated between the offices on the ground floor, and the first floor partitions were removed to make one large space. At some time after this work the first floor was again partitioned into rooms although these walls do not reach the ceiling. A new kitchenette was built at the rear eastern corner of the first floor.
Behind the former Naval Offices, the Stamford Hotel, a large multi-storey building, was constructed in 1990 and a boardwalk was built behind the former Naval Offices along the river edge. However, a visual connection between the former Naval Offices and the river was maintained. The flagpole at the front of the building is not an original feature, but was there by World War II; while the four flagpoles located near the rear northern corner of the building date from between 1974 and 1991. The building was returned to Queensland State Government ownership in 2011, and in 2012 the ground floor was occupied by a florist, while an architectural firm and a property developer sub-leased the first floor.
","criteria":"The 1901 former Naval Offices, Brisbane, is important surviving evidence of the existence of the Queensland Marine Defence Force (QMDF, established 1885) and the later policy of basing Australian naval vessels in Queensland. Although the QMDF ceased to exist soon after the building was finished, it was used by the Australian Commonwealth Navy (ACN) and then the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) until the 1970s.
Constructed by the Queensland Government as the first purpose-built headquarters for naval forces in Queensland, the former Naval Offices illustrates the importance placed on the naval defence of Queensland at the time of Federation.
|The former Naval Offices has a long-standing and important historical association with the naval forces of Queensland and Australia, being built for the QMDF before being used by the Queensland flotilla of the ACN, and later the RAN, between 1901 and the mid 1970s.
|The intact and distinctive former Naval Offices is unique as the only naval headquarters building constructed by the Queensland government.
|The former Naval Offices is important for its aesthetic significance through an accomplished use of Arts and Crafts decorative treatments. These include: an asymmetrical composition; extensive use of high-quality, tuck-pointed face brickwork and stucco; rendered dressings; tall chimneys with decorative chimney pots; decorative eaves with brackets; circular accents; contrasting earthy colours and textures; a conspicuous use of hand-crafted ornamentation; ornate decorative features of the portico including rusticated Tuscan order columns and a curved pediment with a sculpted naval coat of arms.
As a finely crafted, small-scale building, the former Naval Offices makes an important contribution to the streetscape of the Lower Edward Street precinct of late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings including the Port Office [QHR 600088], Smellie & Co. warehouse [QHR 600092], Smellie's Building [QHR 600097] and the Port Office Hotel [QHR 600098]; as well as the Brisbane Botanic Gardens [QHR 600067].
|The former Naval Offices is a fine example of the well-designed buildings constructed by the Queensland Department of Public Works. The building has a highly-functional, rational plan; is well constructed using high-quality, durable materials sourced from Queensland; and has a quality of civic dignity achieved through style, scaling, and form.
The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a naval office. In particular its internal layout illustrates its former naval administrative use, with a separate front entrance for the public and a side entrance for the Naval Brigade leading to the first floor, separate offices on the ground floor, and a strong room.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion H | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14877,"place_ref":600102,"name":"93-103 Edward Street","alternate_name":"Youngs Building | Optical Products","street_address":"93-103 Edward Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-02-22","description":"This Federation era warehouse shows many characteristics of the type with its fine detailing and unrendered brickwork. From Edward Street the building can be divided visually into four bays of equal width. The two central ones being identical to each other and the two outer bays while different to these are essentially the same as each other. Each of the four bays is symmetrical, with two narrow raised sections to either side with a slightly higher parapet, and a broader recessed central section between them. A continuous line of string coursing runs around the building across the face of the bays at the ground floor ceiling level, the first floor sill level and the second floor head level. This upper coursing is broken in two places at the recessed portions of the two central bays where there is a broad arch with voussoirs expressed alternately in render. The recessed portions of the outer bays have three tall rectangular windows on both the upper levels. Located above the string course over each top level window is a small brick arched opening. The outer bays also have raised semicircular sections of parapet centred at the top of each raised narrow section. Many of the openings on all levels have also had their glazing replaced with modern windows using aluminium window frames. One of the central openings at the first floor level features leadlight window panes.
The corner of the building has a section of brick wall that curves onto the Mary Street facade. This facade has a raised portion near the corner with a single opening on each level. The building then continues back in the manner of one of the recessed portions on the front of the building with broad arches at the upper level but with paired windows below rather than a group of three. As the ground drops away at this corner, openings to the basement appear at footpath level.
The facade retains its original face brickwork and rendered decoration, although considerable changes have occurred to the window openings and types. Internally, some evidence of the original structure and finishes remains, particularly the pressed metal ceilings to the first floor of the left hand bay. A brick water tank support tower exists at roof level at the rear of the building.
","history":"Located at the corner of Edward and Mary Street, 93-103 Edward Street was constructed as a warehouse in 1910. The three-storey masonry building in the former commercial and warehousing precinct of the Brisbane central business district demonstrates the development of lower Edward Street in the early 20th century.
\nRecognising the investment potential of this warehouse precinct, Horace Edwin Broughton Young and Charles Ernest Young purchased the site of the Commercial Hotel for redevelopment in July 1909. The Young family had founded the Fairymead Sugar Company Limited in 1879, which by 1912 was one of the largest mills in the Southern Hemisphere. The timber framed brick warehouse constructed on this site in 1910, at a cost of £16,000, was three storeys high, with a basement, and a fourth storey on the corner section. The building was leased the same year to Queensland Agency Company (merchants), Kronheimer Ltd (tobacco and cigar merchants) and Gregory and Davidson (merchants and arrowroot manufacturers). On 30 April 1912 fire broke out in the corner section of Youngs Building, occupied by the Queensland Agency and caused considerable damage to parts of the building and much of the stock kept on the premises. The fourth floor collapsed and was never rebuilt, leaving the repaired building three storeys throughout. Since then, various interior refurbishments have occurred for office and commercial uses.
\nIn 1923 the property was subdivided. Subdivision 1 was acquired by WD Wills and HO Wills (Australia) Ltd (tobacco merchants) and John Simon Goldman and Ernest Victor Goldman, warehousemen, purchased subdivision 3. After Horace Young's death in December 1925, the remaining subdivisions were sold to Taubmans (Qld) Ltd and Arthur Cocks and Co, merchants. Change of ownership occurred in 1968 and subsequently the building has provided office space for numerous commercial tenants. In 2023, the building remains an important element in the streetscape and continues to be used for office and retail purposes.
","criteria":"93-103 Edward Streets is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the evolution of lower Edward Street as a commercial/warehousing precinct and of the upsurge in the building industry in the early twentieth century.
|93-103 Edward Street demonstrates the principal characteristics of a federation era warehouse with its broad arches and finely detailed face brick facade.
|93-103 Edward Street exhibits particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, including the length of its facade which contributes to the streetscape of Edward Street.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14878,"place_ref":600103,"name":"Perry House","alternate_name":"Royal Albert Apartments","street_address":"167 Albert Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1994-10-27","description":"Originally an eight storeyed, timber frame brickwork construction in the Federation warehouse tradition, this building is set on a two storey podium of cement render. Plain brick piers, linked at each floor level by recessed horizontal bands of cement render, rise from above the podium. The corner piers are extended to block-like turrets above the roof line. The original plain brick parapet bore the name 'Perry Bros. Ltd.'. This was removed in 1923 to make way for the addition of another storey between the turrets. The present parapet above the additional storey bears the name 'Perry House'. The strong straight lines of the piers are relieved at both podium and turret levels by the use of arch and keystone elements. Bands of cement render on the turrets and upper storey provide an intensified echo of the banded effect on the main body of the building.
The building presents an integrated exterior, with little alteration except for the addition of the upper storey, minor modifications to the ground floor facade and the addition of a street awning with pressed metal ceilings. Major internal work on each floor has concealed the timber frame, with beams above lowered ceilings and columns encased.
","history":"Perry House was designed in 1910 by Claude William Chambers to house the business of Perry Brothers, whose hardware firm had been in operation in Brisbane since 1860. William Perry, father of the Perry brothers - Herbert and George - was a prominent Brisbane businessman. Before the construction of the building, the Perry brothers had operated a wholesale outlet in Queen Street. They were to expand their operation at Perry House, as every floor of the building was occupied with their business activities and storage of their goods.
CW Chambers was a prominent Brisbane architect of the time. He trained in Melbourne and worked in Sydney, before joining FDG Stanley in Brisbane and establishing his own firm in 1889. His several partnerships between 1889 and 1935 produced designs for both Brisbane and Sydney including commercial buildings, warehouses and wharf buildings. Lange L Powell, another notable Brisbane architect, joined Chambers in a partnership in 1911 and managed the construction of Perry House. Thomas Keenan, the builder, had a long career in Brisbane from 1886 to 1923.
The construction of Perry House occupied a considerable period of time, beginning in 1911 and not reaching completion until early 1913. Frequent strikes appear to have slowed progress. Perry House was the highest building in Brisbane on its completion and its construction was followed with great interest by the Brisbane community. An extra storey, designed by Powell, was added in 1923.
","criteria":"It demonstrates the evolution of a method of merchandising where retailing firms grew into large wholesaling enterprises.
|The robust qualities of the lower floors, the simplicity of the materials, verticality of design and accentuation of the corners combine to give a landmark quality to the building which exhibits particular aesthetic qualities valued by the community.
|It demonstrates a high degree of technical achievement for the period 1910/13 as an example of a very tall building in a timber framed construction method which was obsolescent by this period.
|It has strong association with:
(i) the prominent hardware merchandising firm Perry Brothers who commenced business in Brisbane in 1860, and;
(ii) the commercial work of architects CW Chambers and Lange Powell whose contributions to the commercial buildings of Brisbane are significant.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14879,"place_ref":600104,"name":"Heckelmanns Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"171 Elizabeth Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Only the lower portion of the building's three level rendered brick facade can be attributed to the architect Andrea Stombuco. The upper two levels, which replaced Stombuco's single upper level, abandoned the arched openings of the original for a plainer trabeated construction. This has provided the building with a certain visual strength as the arched portion provides an apparent base for the upper levels of the building.
The facade is treated as two identical sections corresponding to the building's original subdivisions. Each of these sections comprises three bays with the central one being narrower than the other two. Originally, on the lower level, the central bays had the broad arched doorway to each tenancy which were flanked by a pair of arched windows to each side, but the windows on the southern section of the facade have since been opened up to ground level. This early portion of the facade is ordered by unfluted Corinthian pilasters rising from a plinth at sill level to a plain string course.
The upper two floors are linked by fluted giant order composite pilasters. The bay system is maintained with large rectangular windows in the flanking bays. As with the arched openings below, each window has its own framing pilasters.
The parapet is a heavily decorated cornice which supports, over the central bay of each section, a highly ornate pediment, the northern one bearing the initials JWH, and the southern one carrying the date of the buildings reconstruction, 1891. Three square ornate urns mark the centre and ends of the building at parapet level. Decoration is rich but used in a discreet way and consists mainly of panels of foliage at points of emphasis.
The facade is intact with the exception of window openings to the southern half which have been extended below the plinth at ground level, and re-glazed as large fixed panels to the upper levels. Internally, exposed trusses appear at the top level of the left hand bay. This side of the building also retains its timber post structure. The interior of the right hand bay has been covered by modern office partitioning and ceilings.
","history":"In July 1873, Joseph Wendelin Heckelmann purchased 36 perches in Elizabeth Street from which he subdivided 2.4 perches in 1878. In 1884 he erected a two storeyed business premises with cellars which Arthur S and Leopold S Benjamin, merchants, occupied and opened on 22 October, 1884. A seven year lease between the Benjamin Brothers and Heckelmann was formalised from September of that year at an annual rate of £500. The premises, which cost £6,000 were designed by architect Andrea Stombuco and erected by W Watson. Built of stone and brick with a stuccoed facade, the building had a frontage of 66 feet to Elizabeth Street and a depth of 80 feet. A mechanical lift was incorporated in the building.
Alterations occurred circa 1888, but the majority of the building was destroyed by fire in December 1890. Using the original foundations and the ground floor facade, the building was re-erected in 1891 to a height of three storeys excluding basement. It is thought that architect John Cohen may have been responsible for the design of the renovations. Joseph Heckelmann caused his initials and the date of reconstruction to be noted in the frieze below each pediment. Heckelmann, a tinsmith by trade, was an alderman of the Hamilton Town Council at the time, having been elected in 1890. Benjamin Brothers did not re-establish in the building but long term tenants such as soft goods manufacturer J Leutenegger occupied the site from 1895 to 1934. Leutenegger was also Swiss Consul for a time and the consulate office was in this building.
Joseph Heckelmann died in 1925 and the ownership passed to his family. In 1951 the building was purchased by the Commercial Bank of Australia Limited and continued to be leased. It was subdivided in 1963 and two years later one half of the building was bought by Kenneth Rosewall and Rodney G Laver, noted Australian sportsmen. The other portion remained in the hands of the Commercial Bank and its successor Westpac Banking Corporation. Kern Corporation subsequently became the owner of the entire building.
","criteria":"Heckelmanns Building is significant as a surviving element of the economic boom of the 1880s and the development of an Elizabeth Street commercial precinct. It is significant as part of an important streetscape including nearby Tara House.
|Heckelmanns Building is characteristic of a Victorian era retail warehouse with its elaborate and ornate facade treatment.
Heckelmanns Building is significant for the sympathetic rebuilding of the upper levels in relation to the original ground floor.
|This building is important for its association with owner Joseph Wendelin Heckelmann, successful businessman and local councillor; with notable Brisbane merchandising firm Benjamin Bros; and with long-term tenant J Leutenegger.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14880,"place_ref":600105,"name":"Tara House (Irish Club)","alternate_name":"Irish Club","street_address":"179 Elizabeth Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Tara House is situated in a section of Elizabeth Street previously used as a warehousing precinct. It is located close to other remnants of the warehouse era, notably the adjacent Heckelmann Building (600104) and the present Kings Car Park. Current use of the area is for shops and offices.
Tara House is a two-storey, cement-rendered brick building with basement of the late 1870s, with simple classical detailing, including an arcaded upper level crowned by an entablature and balustraded parapet. The arcade is composed of two symmetrical sections on either side of a central pilaster. Each section contains five semi-circular arched openings, the central one of which is flanked by pilasters and topped, above the parapet, by a triangular pediment. The central pilaster and the pilasters at either end of the facade are each crowned by an urn above the parapet.
Extensive alterations to the building in 1927-28 saw the demolition of the original back wall and the addition of a reinforced concrete and steel extension. At the same time the interior of the first floor was remodelled. A panelled, arched ceiling to the rear half of this floor is decorated in modelled fibrous plaster with angels, harps and Australian floral motifs in gold relief. The walls are panelled in silky oak; the floor is hardwood. Lead light panels in the ceiling and one end wall depict the four counties of Ireland and the Queensland coat of arms, while other leadlight windows are located in the north-east side wall.
The original ground floor facade and interior finishes have been removed. The upper floor interior finishes of the 1927-28 alterations are intact despite the intrusion of a bar and kitchen and some suspended ceilings. The basement has been extensively refurbished.
","history":"The land at the site was bought by James Hunter, a boot manufacturer, in 1877 for £2250. Soon afterwards, Richard Gailey, architect, called for tenders for the construction of two Elizabeth Street stores for James Hunter. By 1879 Hunter was advertising his warehouses to let at £200 per annum. Hunter's investment in this property was part of a more general, growing interest in this warehousing quarter. Messrs Unmack & Heussler, produce merchants, politicians and prominent citizens, conducted their business at the building from 1879 to 1884. From 1884 to 1899, the building was owned by the wealthy London merchant Alexander McArthur and used as the Brisbane branch of his extensive warehousing firm. The new owner in 1899 was James Cowlishaw, architect, newspaper proprietor, company director and politician. During Cowlishaw's time various importers, warehousing firms and manufacturers agents were tenants. Cowlishaw financed the Queensland Irish Association's (QIA) purchase of the building in 1919 by a mortgage of £8000 (purchase price was £11 000). The building has been in the hands of the QIA continuously since that time. The success of the QIA reflects the significance of Queensland's Irish population from the start of free settlement. In the 1860s, 18% of the Queensland population was Irish-born.
Tara House has undergone regular alterations and maintenance to the interior - mostly provision of services and fittings but major structural and interior work was carried out on the building in 1927-28 - a joint project of the well-known architectural firms Cavanagh & Cavanagh and R Coutts & Son. The internal alterations were designed to highlight the Irish association with the building, an association which has extended over more than seventy years. The building was named Tara House in an official ceremony on 28 June 1948.
","criteria":"Tara House is significant for its architectural quality, in particular the fine design, detailing, materials and workmanship of the interior, which were part of the 1927-28 renovations. Tara House is an example of a facade by Richard Gailey, who designed many city buildings in Brisbane in the 1880s, and is significant for its association with the Irish community in Brisbane and the Queensland Irish Association. It is also significant for its contribution to the streetscape in association with the adjoining Heckelmann's Building.
|Tara House is significant for its architectural quality, in particular the fine design, detailing, materials and workmanship of the interior, which were part of the 1927-28 renovations.
Tara House is significant for its contribution to the streetscape in association with the adjoining Heckelmann's Building.
|Tara House is significant for its association with the Irish community in Brisbane and the Queensland Irish Association.
|Tara House is an example of a facade by Richard Gailey, who designed many city buildings in Brisbane in the 1880s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14881,"place_ref":600106,"name":"St Stephens School","alternate_name":"St Stephen's Catholic School | Mercy House","street_address":"172 Charlotte Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This three-storeyed school building is built in the Gothic Revival style. It is T-shaped in plan form with the top of the T being the street elevation and the leg of the T extending back into the site. The building is symmetrical from the front elevation. Most window openings have Gothic pointed arches. There are three large openings across the lower level with six smaller windows on the first level, and another six on the upper level. The middle portion of the building has pointed openings whilst those on the wings are rectangular. The central section rises above the wings to a gable containing a small rose window. The building is constructed of brick and has plaster used decoratively around window openings and as horizontal mouldings. The entry is located centrally within a elaborately rendered porch. Verandahs run along either side of the central brick core. Another verandah has been recently added across the rear of the building replacing an unsympathetic brick extension. The masonry and cast iron front fence uses similar detailing to the body of the building and was probably constructed at the same time.
Internally the building has undergone a variety of alterations. The original stair remains to the right of the entry but its timber structure and railing have been painted. On the top level large brackets which support the trusses are exposed, but the ceiling line is not original. A suspended ceiling comes down below the window heads on the ground floor.
","history":"The school stands on land which was designated for church use in 1847 and officially granted to the Catholic Church in 1849. The very first denominational school in Brisbane had been established in 1845 by the Catholic Church - an indication of early Catholic commitment to education. The aspirations of the Catholic Church and the nature of the 1875 education legislation in Queensland ensured that the early commitment became an enduring feature of Catholic activity, for the church deplored the secular nature of instruction offered in 'state' schools and determined to establish its own schools wherever possible. It was within this context that the erection of St Stephens School occurred.
Classes had been conducted in various 'second-hand' buildings since 1845, but on 20 March 1892 Archbishop Dunne, a trained teacher, laid the foundation stone for this purpose-built school. A tin capsule containing copies of the three Brisbane daily newspapers and the Australasian was lodged under the stone. Mr John Ibler of Simkin & Ibler, the designers of the building, was present at the ceremony and the contractor, Thomas Rees, made a donation towards the cost of erection. Rees was a prolific building contractor of the period - he built the present Water Board Building (QHR 600099) and Spencers Building (QHR 600100).
Construction time was quite brief - on 25 September 1892 the school was blessed by Cardinal Moran in the presence of a large public gathering. By contemporary standards this was a most impressive school and Cardinal Moran was moved to remark that he hoped '...the people of New South Wales would not allow themselves to be surpassed by those of Queensland in the erection of such schools.' The cardinal and several visiting church officials were in Brisbane to open two new churches, lay the foundation stone of another, bless the new school and unveil a statue of the late Bishop O'Quinn.
The school was run by the Sisters of Mercy as a primary school for girls until its closure in 1965. Subsequently the building was extended and later reopened in 1967 as church administration offices. The 1960s extension was subsequently removed as part of the large St Stephens Cathedral project of the late 1980s.
","criteria":"St Stephen's School is significant as evidence of the determination of the Catholic Church to develop its own system of education rather than accept the state's secular education policies.
|(Criterion under review)
|St Stephen's School is representative of the imposing architectural style employed in late nineteenth century church schools.
St Stephen's School is an example of an inner city Gothic Revival school that is one of a group of ecclesiastical buildings prominent in this part of the city.
St Stephen's School is significant for its contribution, together with other buildings in this ecclesiastical group, to the Charlotte Street streetscape.
|St Stephen's School is significant for its association with the significant contribution of the Sisters of Mercy to Catholic education in Queensland and as a building held in high esteem by the Catholic community and the wider Brisbane public.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14882,"place_ref":600107,"name":"St Stephens Cathedral","alternate_name":"St Stephen's Catholic Cathedral","street_address":"259-269 Elizabeth Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Gothic Revival church is of a standard English type with its cruciform plan shape and in the manner it derives its articulation from the hierarchy of aisles, nave and steep roof. It is spare in some of its features possibly as a result of limited finances, and design changes during construction brought about for the same reason. The lightweight plaster ceilings do not need the support of buttresses at the clerestory level, leaving the sides of the nave relatively blank. The building's major feature is the pair of octagonal stair towers topped by spires to either side of the western facade. This facade has a diminutive entry doorway above which is a large perpendicular Gothic stained glass window depicting Christ's Ascension, St Stephen and other saints. The relatively severe ends of each transept only have three tall lancet window openings. The clerestory has tripartite pointed windows one in each bay, while the bays below these at aisle level have single Gothic arched openings flanked by small buttresses.
The building is built of porphyry (Brisbane Tuff) and freestone. The relative absence of mouldings and extensive use of corbelling can be attributed to changing design intentions. The recent work on the building has replaced the original spires (that had already been removed) with GRC replicas. On the Charlotte Street side the most notable addition was the semi-circular Blessed Sacrament Chapel, in modular concrete and glass flanked on one side by the Reconciliation Chapel and on the other the baptismal area. This addition is clad in stone veneer in a modern manner with only a vestigial references to the original Gothic revival style. The additions have resulted in a considerable increase in lighting levels in the sanctuary end of the Cathedral. Art work including sculpture and stained glass in these spaces is by contemporary artists including Warren Langley and Peter Schipperheyn. The differences between old and new are also highlighted by the change in floor surfaces. Below the extensions is a two level reinforced concrete carpark.
Internally the nave elevation is two-storeyed with squat unadorned columns supporting heavily moulded pointed arches. Pilasters rise from corbels above the columns to support transverse ribs under the pointed plaster barrel vault. The aisles have plaster vaults supported on longitudinal, transverse and diagonal ribs which spring from corbels similar to those in the nave.
At the time of the 1989 alterations much of the external stone retaining wall and cast iron fencing that once ran along the Elizabeth Street footpath was removed and replaced by the present stair spanning the width of the front of the building. A similar tinted concrete wall was built on the Charlotte Street frontage, but some original and cast iron walling adjoins on the St Stephens School frontage. The grounds surrounding the Cathedral are predominantly an open grassy area to the south crossed by concrete paths and planted with palm trees.
","history":"This cathedral was built in various stages between 1864 and 1922 with additions at the sanctuary end in 1989.
The land at the site was originally designated for church purposes in 1847. Six allotments of section 33 were set aside for the use of the Roman Catholic Church in September 1848 with the original deeds of grant being signed by Governor Charles Fitzroy in November 1849. Father Hanly, one of the first parish priests, purchased allotment 13 in 1851 and allotment 6 in 1854 and a further 18 perches of land was bought by Bishop Quinn in 1877 to extend the school playgrounds.
From the early days of free settlement, Brisbane's Catholic population was significant as they comprised 30% of residents in 1846. By 1861 Catholics constituted about 25% of the total Queensland population. St Stephens Cathedral was the third site for Catholic worship in Brisbane. Services were originally conducted in a rented brick building near the corner of Elizabeth and Albert Streets until 1850 when Old St Stephens Church (QHR 600108) was completed. In 1859 with the separation of Queensland, the Archdiocese of Brisbane was created with James Quinn as the first bishop. Quinn, who did not arrive from Ireland until 1861, planned a large cathedral to accommodate a growing congregation and on the Feast of St Stephen (26 December) in 1863 he laid the foundation stone for a grand cathedral designed by Benjamin Backhouse. The project was to be completed in stages and about one-third of the total area of the foundations was laid in 1864, after which work ceased for several years during the economic crisis of the later 1860s. In the late 1860s R George Suter was commissioned to design a smaller, simpler building than the one originally planned and in 1870 work recommenced on the existing foundations. By early 1874 the nave of the cathedral was sufficiently completed for the opening service to be held on 17 May, but work continued for several months after this date.
In 1884 the top of the west gable was completed and the two sandstone spires were added. In October 1887, the cathedral was furnished with four benefactors' gifts: a large French-made Carrara marble altar with a relief panel of the Last Supper, and three stained glass windows made in Munich. One window depicted the Sacred Heart, the second showed the resurrection of Lazarus and the third was a group of three medallions showing the Lamb with the Cross, St John and the Virgin and Child. The medallions were installed over the northern door.
The depression of the 1890s discouraged further additions but with the post-Federation recovery, plans to add the transepts were revived. A 1911 Hall & Dods design shows an ambitious proposal for completion works which included a large tower at the intersection of the nave and transepts. However, the death of Archbishop Robert Dunne in 1917 made way for a successor, James Duhig, whose long-range plans for a cathedral did not include St Stephens. James Duhig decided to work towards the construction on another site of a new cathedral, to be known as the Holy Name Cathedral. The grand plans for completion of St Stephens were abandoned and instead a simple Hennessy, Hennessy & Hall design was adopted for the addition of transepts and a sanctuary to St Stephens. Duhig laid the foundation stone for these additions in October 1920 and the work was completed in 1922.
Meanwhile the plans for the Holy Name Cathedral proceeded and in an impressive ceremony on 16 September 1928 two massive foundation stones were laid by visiting church dignitaries. Legal and financial difficulties postponed work on the Holy Name Cathedral which was never built - St Stephens was to remain the site for the bishop's seat.
Serious erosion of the two sandstone spires prompted their removal in 1977 and in the 1980s Archbishop Rush initiated plans for the restoration and extension of the cathedral. Architect Robin Gibson designed modifications to the building. Internal modifications respond to changing liturgical practices.The sandstone spires were replaced with ones of glass-reinforced concrete and three new chapels were added to the eastern frontage. During this development, the foundation stones from the Holy Name Cathedral site were relocated to the grounds of St Stephens and the Last Supper relief panel from the 1887 altar was set into a wall. The modified cathedral was dedicated on 3 December 1989.
","criteria":"St Stephens Cathedral is significant as evidence of the prominence of the Catholic community in pre-Separation Queensland.
|St Stephens Cathedral is significant as a typical but plain example of a Gothic Revival Cathedral, with a cruciform plan shape and a hierarchy of aisles to either side of the nave.
|As the centrepiece of an important group of ecclesiastical buildings that are visually a prominent part of this section of the city.
|It is the symbolic focus of Catholicism in Brisbane and as the site of the Bishop's seat since 1864.
|St Stephens Cathedral is significant for its association with Bishop Quinn.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14883,"place_ref":600108,"name":"Old St Stephens Church","alternate_name":"Pugin Chapel | Old St Stephen's Catholic Church","street_address":"249 Elizabeth Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The chapel is made of locally quarried sandstone and originally had a shingled roof, now slate. It conforms to a standard English type of small church with a simple rectangular nave with a square chancel attached via an arch. A little square sacristy is attached to the north side of the chancel and a square porch gives onto the south-west end of the nave.
Externally the elevations are extremely simple with an unadorned ashlar lower section with small lancets let into the wall above a roll moulding to form a clerestory. The chancel has a small rose in the gable with three lancets below.
The west end of the chapel has a simple but attractive perpendicular window in the upper section with a door in the lower section. The original stone tracery of the window has been replaced with wood. Externally the sandstone has weathered badly. A small stone bell tower was once mounted above the western gable but was taken down before 1875.
Internally the chapel has fine Gothic proportions. It has finely crafted timber trusses with collar ties and a timber ceiling above. The stonework has been painted and the ecclesiastical accoutrements removed.
Old St Stephens Church is located towards the front of the site facing Elizabeth Street and south of the Cathedral. The open space surrounding the church is enclosed to each side by the southern elevation of the Cathedral, the rear of the buildings facing Edward Street and the back of St Stephens Girls School. This is an open grassy area that is now planted with rows of palm trees and crossed by concrete paths as part of the 1989 project involving the renovation of the Cathedral.
","history":"The land at the site was originally planned for church purposes in 1847. Six allotments of section 33 were set aside for the use of the Roman Catholic Church in September 1848 with the original deeds of grant being signed by Governor Charles Fitzroy in November 1849.
From the early days of free settlement, Brisbane's Catholic population was significant with Catholics comprising 30% of residents in 1846. In 1849 and 1850 the New South Wales Government, under provisions of Governor Richard Bourke's 1836 Church Act, subsidised the building of Old St Stephens Church which was opened on 12 May 1850. It was built by Alexander Goold, to a design attributed to the internationally renowned Gothic Revival architect Augustus Welby Pugin, a personal friend of Sydney-based Archbishop Polding.
With the growth of Brisbane's Catholic community and with Separation approaching, the Archdiocese of Brisbane was created in 1859. Old St Stephens became a cathedral but its capacity became increasingly inadequate and on 26 December 1863, Archbishop Quinn laid the foundation stone for a new cathedral. In the eleven years it took to finish the new St Stephens Cathedral (QHR 600107), provision was made for extra space in the old church. A wooden annexe was built onto the northern frontage and extra doorways were cut in the stone wall on this side. Inadequate accommodation was not the only problem, for the soft sandstone was crumbling, particularly that of the little belfry which had to be dismantled at some time before 1875. A temporary wooden belfry was erected to a design by architect AB Wilson in 1888.
After the consecration of the new cathedral in 1874, the old church was used as a school by the Christian Brothers until they moved to their new site at Gregory Terrace in 1880. The Sisters of Mercy then conducted a school in the old church building until the permanent St Stephens School (QHR 600106) was opened in 1892. Since that time the building has been variously used as a storeroom, offices, display space, meeting area and choir practice room.
Bibliography
Andrews, Brian. 'St Stephen's Church, Brisbane, Queensland', essay for the Pugin Foundation viewed at http://www.puginfoundation.org/buildings/ on 21 August 2013.
","criteria":"Old St Stephens Church is significant as the oldest surviving church building in Brisbane and provides evidence of construction techniques used in Brisbane in the 1840s.
|(Criterion under review)
|Old St Stephens Church is significant as the oldest surviving church building in Brisbane and provides evidence of construction techniques used in Brisbane in the 1840s.
Old St Stephens Church is an excellent example of a small stone English Gothic Revival church and is significant as an example of the first churches erected in Brisbane with permanence in mind.
|Old St Stephen's Church is significant as part of a group of prominent ecclesiastical buildings of which this is the earliest component.
|Old St Stephens Church is important for its association with a religious group of significance in the early settlement of Brisbane. The Church is continues to be a building held in high esteem by both the Catholic community and the general public.
|Old St Stephens Church is significant as an example of the work of a prominent early builder, Andrew Petrie and as the product of a design attributed to renowned British architect, AWN Pugin.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14886,"place_ref":600111,"name":"Family Services Building","alternate_name":"Queensland Government Savings Bank | Queensland Government Insurance Building | Former Administration Building","street_address":"171 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The building situated at the corner of George and Elizabeth Streets consists of eight storeys, a basement and rooms on the roof level. The structure, a concrete encased steel frame with brick infill and reinforced concrete floors, is faced on the two street facades with Helidon sandstone sitting on a granite base. The northeast and southeast elevations are constructed of brick with reinforced concrete heads and sills.
The building which overlooks Queens Gardens (600112) to the southwest forms part of the group of important government buildings, including the Lands Administration Building (600123), the Treasury Building (600143) and the former State Library (600177), which surround the park.
The Elizabeth and George Street facades are divided vertically, by projecting stone cornices, into three parts. These are a podium level consisting of the double height ground floor and the first level of offices, a five storeyed middle section and the top floor of the building surmounted by a parapet wall. At the corners of the street elevations pavilions, distinguished by banded rustication, extend from the ground floor to the parapet. The podium level is also marked by banded rustication. In the centre of the George Street elevation on the podium level is an arched open-bed semicircular pediment supporting a sculpture group that consists of two figures on either side of a shield. The division between the middle and top section of the George Street elevation is embellished by an open-topped semicircular pediment. Steel windows frames and sashes are used throughout the building. Pavement lights are located adjacent to the arched basement windows of the Elizabeth Street elevation.
Public entrances are located on the ground floor of the three corner pavilions. The entrance on the corner of George and Elizabeth Streets leads into the former banking chamber. The George Street entrance and the Elizabeth Street entrance give access to the office levels.
The Elizabeth street entry opens onto a vestibule which has walls and columns finished in pink, grey and black marble arranged in rectilinear patterns, marble steps, a terrazzo floor and an enriched plaster ceiling, cornice and frieze. The lift enclosure has been paint finished to match the marble walls. The doors leading to the banking chamber have been replaced by a fire door. A fire door at the rear of the vestibule leads to a large square planned reinforced concrete staircase with an ornamental wrought iron balustrade and cedar handrail. The walls above the staircase are lined to dado height with large glazed green tiles. The stairwell, illuminated by a large roof lantern and arched windows, has been converted to a fire isolated exit separated from the office space. A smaller staircase, with similar but less ornate details, is located in the eastern corner of the building and opens onto the banking chamber.
The George Street entry vestibule, once identical to the Elizabeth Street vestibule, is fitted with varnished maple panelling, a suspended vermiculite ceiling and two lifts. Original glass and timber doors between the vestibule and the banking chamber are all that remain of the original fittings.
Two arched stone doorways on the George and Elizabeth Streets corner lead to a mosaic tiled vestibule with a domed plaster ceiling and a timber panelled screen wall enriched with carving and pilasters. Built into the screen are two sets of timber and glass double doors that open onto the former banking chamber. This grand double height room is now obscured by two levels of offices that have been built into the space. The lower section of the walls is lined with carved timber panelling while the rendered upper section is embellished with delicate plaster detailing. Ionic columns and pilasters support a richly ornamented plaster ceiling.
All the office floors, from the first floor to the top floor, are similar. An open plan with large columns is divided by modern office partitioning and suspended ceilings conceal the original ceilings. Heavily reinforced concrete strong rooms and safes are located in the basement with smaller strong rooms on each floor. The lightwell, on the southeast side of the building, contains steel fire escape stairs and steel and concrete walkways. A brick and concrete extension accessed from the walkway has been built into the lightwell and the large windows to the banking chamber and offices have been bricked in. Former photographic rooms, the staircase lantern, toilets, stores, elevator and plant enclosures, are located on the flat roof of the building.
The exterior of the building is intact. The interior while apparently much altered retains many original features, both visible and obscured.
","history":"Brisbane's first high-rise government office building was constructed between 1914 and 1922. It was intended partly as general public offices, but more importantly as state headquarters for the enormously successful Queensland Government Savings Bank, established in 1864.
Bank headquarters had occupied a purpose-designed banking chamber and offices in the second wing of the Treasury Building from early 1893. By 1912 these premises were no longer adequate. In consequence, the state government decided to construct a separate and substantial building on the opposite corner of George and Elizabeth Streets, as new bank headquarters.
George Gerald Hutton, assistant architect in the government architect's office from 1913-22, is credited with the design.
It is likely Hutton also designed the sculpture, representing commerce and industry, on the George Street elevation. This and the royal coat of arms on the George-Elizabeth Street corner were carved in 1920 by Sydney sculptor WP MacIntosh, who had carved an allegorical sculpture for the Executive Building (QHR 600123) in 1903-04. The shields of the parapet were carved by local masons under MacIntosh's supervision.
Site excavation and the concrete foundations were completed in 1913-14, at a cost of £6,149. In 1914 the contract for the superstructure was let for £113,567, and construction commenced that year. A shortage of structural steel prolonged the work, and completion took close to eight years.
Before the building was finished, the Queensland Labor Government transferred the business and assets of the state bank to the Commonwealth Bank, on 8 December 1920. The nearly completed, purpose-designed Queensland state bank headquarters building was then fitted out for the Queensland Government Insurance Office.
By 1921 the offices had been renamed the Queensland Government Insurance Building. It was completed and fully occupied by mid-1922, with the SGIO occupying the basement, ground, and first to third floors. Other first occupants included the State Land Tax Office, the State Industrial Arbitration Court, the Public Service Commissioner, the Public Curator and the Main Roads Board. Most of these had removed from cramped quarters in the Treasury Building opposite. Accommodated on the roof was the State Time Station's observing room.
From 1925-26 Queensland's first official radio broadcaster, the Queensland Radio Service and station 4QG (Queensland Government), which had been established in July 1925, were located in rooms on the roof of the State Government Insurance Building. This necessitated the installation of large aerials on the roof, which were not removed until after 1945. Both 4QG and the Postmaster General's radio station broadcast from the building during the 1930s. From 1930 to 1932, 4QG was part of Australia's first national radio network, the privately owned Australian Broadcasting Company Ltd. In mid-1932 the licence was transferred to the federal government's newly created Australian Broadcasting Commission.
In 1931 the SGIO removed to other premises and the building was occupied principally by the Land and Income Tax Department. Despite income tax being transferred to federal control c.1943, the office block was known as the Taxation Building until 1962.
In 1947 the original lift and concrete staircase in the George Street vestibule were removed, and replaced with a pair of lifts.
In 1962 the building was occupied by the Co-ordinator-General's Department and renamed the Administration Building. With the new tenancy, the George Street vestibule was refitted and the original lift in the Elizabeth Street vestibule was replaced.
From 1963 to 1984 the Health Department was a principal occupant of the Administration Building. Since 1988 the building has been occupied by Family Services, and takes its name from this department.
In 1990 the Elizabeth Street vestibule was partly refurbished.
","criteria":"The Family Services Building is significant as Queensland's first government high-rise office block, and the most important building constructed by the Queensland government in the second decade of the twentieth century.
|The Family Services Building is significant as an integral member of the most prominent, important and cohesive group of government buildings in Queensland. Further, the Family Services Building is significant for its townscape contribution, particularly in relation to the adjacent historic buildings and sites.
Significant as an early use of steel-framed high-rise construction in Queensland, the Family Services Building is also an accomplished building in design, materials and workmanship, which exhibits particularly fine and inventive detailing, and is important for the aesthetic quality of the sculptural work.
|Significant as an early use of steel-framed high-rise construction in Queensland, the Family Services Building is also an accomplished building in design, materials and workmanship, which exhibits particularly fine and inventive detailing, and is important for the aesthetic quality of the sculptural work.
|The Family Services Building is significant as the major work of later Queensland government architect GG Hutton and for its association with government administration for over seven decades.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14887,"place_ref":600112,"name":"Queens Gardens","alternate_name":"St Johns Church Reserve | St John's Church Reserve | Executive Gardens","street_address":"144 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Queens Gardens is a public park, square in plan, that is bounded by William, Elizabeth and George Streets on the southwestern, northwestern and northeastern sides and by the Lands Administration Building (600123) on the southeastern edge. Located around the perimeter of the Gardens are a number of important government buildings including the Lands Administration Building, the Treasury Building (600143), the former State Library (600177) and the Family Services Building (600111).
\nThe main elements of the design are: an asphalt area in front of the Lands Administration Building which connects George and William Streets; a diagonal path leading from the northern corner to the centre of the asphalt area; and a large lawn bounded by Elizabeth Street, the diagonal path, the asphalt area and garden beds along William Street. A lily pond, recently rebuilt, is located adjacent to the intersection of the diagonal path and the asphalt area. On the southwestern side of the pond is a converted fountain, now a sandstone and concrete planter box. The diagonal path is emphasised by a row of colvillea trees [colvillea racemosa]. A coral tree [Erythrina spp.] marks the entrance to the park from George Street.
\nWith the exception of specimen trees most of the planting in the park is kept at a low level so as not to divide the space visually. Barriers to movement, if not vision, are created along George Street by a zig-zag hedge [Acalypha] and along William Street by a chain wire fence, hedge and garden bed.
\nAlthough the design of the park is relatively recent, earlier monuments have been incorporated which provide links to the previous form of the site. Two bronze statues on stone pedestals remain in their original locations. A marble slab in the paved area indicates the position of the altar of the former St John's Pro-Cathedral.
\nA statue of Queen Victoria, is centrally positioned on the asphalt area in front of the symmetrical facade of the Lands Administration Building. The diagonal path is terminated by the monument which looks towards the Treasury Building and is framed by two leopard trees [ceasalpinia ferrea]. The bronze statue stands on a pedestal, the upper portion of which is made of brown Helidon sandstone and the lower portion of Enoggera granite. The pedestal is square in form, with chamfered corners and is set on a flight of three granite steps. Directly behind the Queen is a 1915 Krupp gun.
\nThe TJ Ryan statue also stands on a pedestal of Helidon sandstone and Enoggera granite. Separated from the main area of the park by a fence and garden, it is positioned diagonally facing the corner of William and Elizabeth Streets. An ornamental bronze plaque is attached to the pedestal.
\nA recent addition to the park's memorials is a rough hewn block of bluestone with a bronze plaque bolted to it that commemorates the service of Australian women in war. It is located on the southwestern side of the asphalt area between rose beds.
\nTimber and concrete benches are placed along the paths and around the lily pond. The original cast-iron lamp posts on cast-iron pedestals have been relocated along the paths. The planting is dominated by exotic plants with coloured foliage and decorative leaf shape. Many garden beds have plants clipped into geometric patterns.
\nThe Gardens provide a foreground for viewing the principal facades of the Lands Administration Building, the former Library and the Family Services Building, and forms a pleasant aspect for the buildings which overlook it.
","history":"Queens Gardens was established in several stages between 1905 and 1962, on a site which has been associated both with the earliest phase of the penal settlement at Moreton Bay, and with the establishment of the Church of England in Queensland.
During the convict era the engineer's weatherboard cottage stood on part of the site, at the corner of William and Elizabeth Streets. It appears to have been both the first house and the first sawn timber building to be erected in Brisbane Town.
Occupying most of the remainder of the site was a lumber yard, erected c.1825, which contained the engineer's stores and workshops. By 1838 the lumber yard had been moved, and the cottage had been converted into offices. The section of the present park along George Street was part of the chaplain's garden from 1840 at least.
In 1848 the site was acquired by the Church of England. A parsonage was constructed at the corner of William and Elizabeth Streets in 1850-51, and St John's Church was erected on the site, further along William Street, in 1850-54. In 1868 it was extended. A detached bell tower was erected in 1877, and in 1879-80 a building which served as church school, synod hall, library and committee rooms was built in the eastern corner of the site.
In the 1880s the Church proclaimed the square a future cathedral site, and a new Church Institute and Synod Hall was erected in the northern corner of the square in 1897.
Following church protests at the 1899 announcement of plans to erect a new lands and survey building adjacent to the pro-cathedral, the government offered to purchase the church square, and acquired it the same year.
In 1901 the Church Institute building was occupied by the Police Department and later served as offices for the Criminal Investigation Branch.
In 1904 the pro-cathedral, belltower, church school and parsonage were demolished and a 0.25 hectare, 30 metre wide strip between William and George Streets, adjacent to the new Executive Building, was proclaimed as the Executive Gardens.
A bronze statue of Queen Victoria, a replica by English sculptor Thomas Brock of the original in Portsmouth, was erected in mid-1906. The purchase was arranged by local artist Godfrey Rivers, and was funded by public subscription and subsidies from state and local government. The pedestal was designed by the Public Works Department and crafted by local stonemason William Kitchen, at a cost of £567.
The statue was an expression of Queensland's loyalty to the British Empire. On Empire Day veterans from the Crimean, Sudan and South African wars gathered in what became known as the Queens Gardens, which became also an assembly point for state occasions such as funeral or celebratory processions. The monument remains the only statue of Queen Victoria in Brisbane.
In late 1906 the reserve was extended to an area of 0.37 hectares, with the inclusion of the site of the former parsonage.
In 1917 a Krupp 77mm field gun, captured from the German army in France in 1915, was placed in the gardens. It was a gift from King George V, at the request of Thomas Joseph Ryan, lawyer, anti-conscriptionist and Queensland Labor Premier 1915-1919.
A bronze statue of TJ Ryan, designed by Australian sculptor Bertram MacKennal and erected by public subscription, was unveiled in the gardens in 1925. The sandstone base was provided by the Brisbane City Council.
In 1962 the CIB building at the northern corner of the site was demolished and the park was extended to occupy the entire square, with a total area of 0.48 hectares. A new layout for the gardens was prepared as a joint state and local government scheme in preparation for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Brisbane in March 1963. Brisbane City Council landscape architect, horticulturalist and author, Harry Oakman, was responsible for the design and landscaping, and architectural detailing was undertaken by Department of Works architect Graham De Gruchy.
In 1990 the Queensland Service Women's Association erected a Monument of Memories in the park, honouring the 70,000 service women.
","criteria":"Queens Gardens are important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, particularly in the evolution of the site from convict administration use to the centre of Anglicanism in Queensland to public park and focus for Queensland's most important government precinct. Queens Gardens also demonstrate the historic and governmental associations of the Queen Victoria and TJ Ryan statues.
|The site is significant for its potential to reveal substrata evidence of building materials and artefacts from the 1820s, which could contribute to an understanding of the early European settlement of Queensland.
|The present garden layout is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the work of influential landscape architect Harry Oakman, and is one of the most intact of his works surviving in Brisbane.
|The gardens, together with the Queen Victoria and TJ Ryan statues, exhibit landscape and aesthetic qualities, and a townscape contribution as the integrating core of a remarkably fine group of public buildings, which are valued by the community.
|The site has a special association with the Anglican Church and its early history in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14888,"place_ref":600113,"name":"Queensland Club","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"19 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Queensland Club, located on the corner of Alice and George Streets diagonally opposite Parliament House, is a three storey rendered brick building incorporating Italianate elements.
The building is a broad 'H'-shape in plan form, with its long elevation to Alice Street and one side to George Street. The main entry is in the central part of the building beneath a deep porch. There are verandahs on two levels across the front and down the side of each wing. These are supported by Tuscan columns on the ground floor and slender Corinthian cast iron columns on the first floor. The balustrades on both levels are of decorative cast ironwork.
At the end of each wing is a projecting bay window on the ground and first floor level with open balustrade above. Quoins punctuate the corners of the building and there are banded piers on either side of the entry. Above the third level the building has an open parapet and large ornate urns at the corner of each wing. A classical pediment topped by a finial is located above the entry.
The main entry has a large semi-circular fan-light. On the ground floor the windows are double hung sashes and on the first floor french-lights. The grounds contain mature trees and tennis court.
The spacious entrance hall has a staircase with cast iron balustrading. The ground floor contains large and lofty reception rooms and a dining room in the northern wing. The joinery is of cedar with restrained plasterwork mostly original. The upper floors contain guest rooms.
Both street frontages are fenced with a low rendered masonry retaining wall with square piers and cast iron balustrade infill. The Alice Street main entrance features an ogee shaped cast iron arch with a central light fitting and swing gates. A section of the George Street carpark is bounded by a wire fence and a large fig tree is located in the Alice and George Street corner garden.
","history":"The Queensland Club building was constructed between 1882-84. The club was established in December 1859 following the apparent success of the North Australian Club in Ipswich, and coinciding with the establishment of Queensland as a separate colony. Adopting the British tradition of private clubs for influential members of the community, it provided a recreational venue and accommodation for men of common interests and socio-economic backgrounds. Membership was largely comprised of pastoralists, politicians, business and professional men.
The club met initially in small premises in Mary Street. As membership increased, a larger venue was required and in 1881 the club purchased three allotments on the corner of George and Alice Streets, which was known as Hodgsons Corner. FDG Stanley, a member of the club, was appointed architect.
The proximity to the seat of government made it an appropriate locale for the new club premises. Stanley's plans were modified by the members and finally approved in March 1882. The contractor was J Smith and Sons and the contract sum was £14,150.
The building was opened in June 1884 and contained 41 members' bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a clubroom, dining room, billiard room, smoking room, visitors room, offices and the necessary kitchens, servants rooms and toilets, providing a 'home away from home' for society's male elite.
In September 1888 the club purchased the adjoining site in Alice Street for £4,000, and stables, laundry and a bottle house were erected. Three years later these buildings were demolished and a bowling green established. The green remained mostly unused and in 1900, it was converted to a tennis court.
In 1985 a fire caused damage to the club premises and changes to the room layout of the upper floor bedrooms were carried out in conjunction with the repair work. Minor renovations were undertaken during 1990-91.
","criteria":"The Queensland Club is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as an example of the transposition of a British, class oriented gentlemen's club, to Brisbane Society.
|The building demonstrates the principal characteristics of a nineteenth century purpose built, exclusive mens' club based on British tradition.
|The Queensland Club exhibits particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community through its contribution to the streetscape at Alice and George Streets, and to Parliament House and the Botanic Gardens.
|The Queensland Club is significant for its special association with the work of architect FDG Stanley, a member of the Queensland Club.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14889,"place_ref":600114,"name":"Government Printing Office (former)","alternate_name":"Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (110 George Street) | Public Services Club (84 William Street) | Sciencentre (110 George Street) | The Printing Building | Former Government Printing Office","street_address":"110 George Street and 84 William Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former Government Printing Office is sited within an important precinct of substantial masonry buildings built for other government uses. It comprises two separate buildings: one facing William Street, the other facing George Street, with a paved courtyard between. The buildings have noticeably robust structural systems and open floor plans lit by many large windows. Stephens Lane (easement not road reserve) runs along the north-western side and, together with a cart lane (access route not road reserve) adjacent to the south-eastern elevation of the William Street building, provides access to the courtyard. The fronts of the buildings are more decorative than the rear and side elevations.
The William Street building, located on the corner of William Street and Stephens Lane, is a three-storeyed building with a steeply-pitched mansard roof clad with slate on the steep portion and rib and pan galvanised steel sheets on the shallow remainder. It is L-shaped, comprising a William Street wing and a rear wing around a fenced, paved rear courtyard accessible from the courtyard. The roof has a clerestory of narrow, amber-coloured, fixed glazing at the change in pitch and lengths of cast iron ridge cresting. The building has a rusticated sandstone plinth and brick walls. The front and side walls are face brick while the rear walls are painted with areas of render where extensions have been demolished. Two brick chimneys with distinctive shaped cappings are located at the Stephens Lane end of the building.
The William Street facade is primarily symmetrical with a ground floor colonnade of five pointed arches between two slightly projecting bays. Blind circular openings are located in the infills between each arch. The colonnade is reached via central stone stairs. Five sets of horizontal-pivot timber sash windows align with the five arches of the colonnade. The entry is asymmetrical and located at the Stephens Lane end of the colonnade. The two end bays have stop-chamfered corners to the ground and first floors which are rendered and painted. Engaged columns capped with foliated convex elements are located within the stop chamfers. Each end bay has a centrally located segmental arch which surrounds a rendered section containing two lancet-type windows with semi-circular heads. The first floor levels have three similarly styled windows, symmetrically placed, and the second floor levels have larger scale windows which project above the eaves line and have curved pediments. A variety of bonds make up the brickwork, including English, Flemish, and English Garden Wall. The bricks of the William Street wing are discernibly better quality than those of the rear wing and have struck or ruled pointing. Carved sandstone brackets line the eaves.
The Stephens Lane elevation is similar in detail to the front elevation, with rendered arches containing multiple lancet-type windows at ground floor level and a concave corrugated iron awning over the first floor windows. The string courses of the front elevation continue around this elevation.
The south-eastern cart lane is paved and the bricks on this face of the building are heavily scored and scratched from the passing of vehicles.
The rear elevations are less decorative. A combination of arched and rectangular windows is used on all levels and a number of windows and doors at the rear of the building have been bricked in. A partially enclosed timber verandah is located on the north-west elevation of the rear wing. The courtyard garden is formed by modern steel partitions to enclose an outdoor seating area.
The building is structurally composite. The entire ground floor is concrete slab with a crawl space underneath the William Street wing and a small basement under the rear wing that connects to the underground car park behind the building. The remaining floors of the William Street are timber and those of the rear wing are concrete. The services including lifts, stairs, kitchens, cold rooms and toilets are located in the rear wing and are not of cultural heritage significance. The William Street wing comprises predominantly open spaces.
The building has a rear entry into the rear wing that has become the main entrance. The ground and first floor levels of the William Street wing are similar in design, with original joinery, iron columns, and exposed rafters and beams. Walls are rendered and painted. The William Street wing is partitioned on ground level into three rooms, each with a fireplace. The rooms retain finely detailed joinery and ceilings are beaded tong and groove timber board ceilings with timber mouldings. Generally, the building retains early and original door and window hardware.
The second floor of the William Street wing is notable for its exposed roof structure comprising multiple sets of Queens post trusses with unusual tusk tenon detailing and rafters. Members are stop-chamfered. The ceiling comprises beaded boarding laid diagonally and is raked to follow the mansard roof. The roof members and ceiling are stained dark brown. The amber-coloured glass in the clerestory is also used in the top of windows to William Street and Stephens Lane. The walls are bagged and painted brick. Elements not of cultural heritage significance in the building include: post-1983 elements such as the basement, the escape stair at the junction of the two wings, the partitions and suspended ceilings in the rear wing, any replica cast iron columns not in their original positions, steel strengthening of the roof framing, the rear verandahs, reconstructed chimney sections, air conditioning ducts, and the modern fit-out and joinery.
The George Street building is a substantial brick building of three storeys and a partial basement forming an L-shape around a rear courtyard. One wing of the building fronts George Street and the other fronts Stephens Lane and both have slightly different structural systems. The George Street wing has timber floor and roof framing supported by large timber columns with timber bolsters. The Stephens Lane wing has a concrete floor to the ground floor and timber floor and roof framing supported by cast iron columns.
The George Street facade is symmetrically composed around a central, slightly projecting entrance bay with wings both side terminating in a pavilion. It is in a Classical Revival style. The facade is primarily smooth rendered above a rusticated porphyry base and the entrance bay and two subsidiary entrances are sandstone. The facade comprises many square headed windows with square-formed string courses. Decorative features are primarily restricted to the ground floor and include rendered details and carved stonework.
The entrance bay has a rusticated base of granite and an arch leads to an inset porch with stairs up to the entrance doors. These doors are timber with stained glass panels and side lights depicting various printing techniques. Above the arch is a relief carved devil's face and banners with the words PRINTING OFFICE and the date 1910. A large entablature separates the ground level from the upper two levels which have double pilasters rising through both levels on either side of windows. The pilasters have Ionic order capitals with the faces of devils between the volutes and the two sets of windows are double hung and have balustrades in front of them. The pilasters support a broken-bed pediment with relief carving to the tympanum featuring the Queensland Coat of Arms. Above the pediment is a parapet with pedestals at either end supporting sculpted stone devils holding shields bearing the printer's emblem.
The Stephens Lane and rear elevations reflect the subsidiary and functional nature of the lane frontage and ‘back of house' conditions. A lightly rusticated porphyry base supports painted brick walls with many square headed windows. The rear elevations of the two wings are face brick but of discernibly different bricks on either wing. The Stephens Lane wing has dark brown face brick laid in English bond with segmental arches of red brick over the windows. The windows are two paned casement windows and the sills are either painted stone or rendered. The ground level is an arcade of arched openings forming a covered walkway with a glazed wall forming the enclosure to the interior offices.
The rear elevation of the George Street wing is in red face brick in an English bond with lighter red brick headers. The windows are two paned double hung timber sashes with stone sills. The first and second floors have a balcony that extends the length of the building and curves to provide access into the Stephens Lane wing. It has a cast iron handrail and is supported by cast iron brackets. The same brackets support the extended eaves to the second level.
Access to the George Street wing is from the rear courtyard. The original entrance from George Street is sealed and a new glass partition and door of recent construction are located directly in front of these internally. The interior spaces are large with high ceilings. The Stephens Lane wing has timber tongue and groove ceilings and the George Street wing has ripple iron ceilings on the ground and first floors and timber boards on the second floor. Walls are either plastered and painted, or sandblasted brick. The building has four ventilated and glazed roof lanterns; three in the Stephens Lane wing and one large one in the George Street wing.
To either side of the now-disused George Street entrance are offices with partitions of French polished silky oak and maple and clear glazing above. The main doors into these areas also have stained glass panels and the remainder have etched glass panels with lettering designating the office use. Ceilings and cornices in these areas are pressed metal. Post-1983 elements not of cultural heritage significance include: reconstructed walls at the south end of the Stephens Lane wing and the east end of the George Street wing, the link to the Executive Annex, modern partitions and fit-out, and new work in the basement.
The courtyard between the two buildings is planted with jacarandas and forms the roof of a four storey underground concrete car park which is not of cultural heritage significance. Other elements within the cultural heritage boundary which have no cultural heritage significance include the stone capping to the wall along Stephens Lane; the modern fabric of the courtyard garden of the Public Services Club, on the site of the 1865 building; the light well to the basement of the George Street wing; and vents to the underground car park. Adjacent to the William Street building and also fronting William Street is the Executive Annexe, a four-storey concrete building that is not of cultural heritage significance.
For further information regarding the fabric of the former Government Printing Office refer to:
Miles, J and McCulloch, T, Project Services. November 2006. Conservation Plan for the Public Services Club, William Street Brisbane. For the Accommodation Office, Queensland Department of Public Works.
Project Services, June 2010. Former Government Printing Office: a conservation plan for 110 George Street and the Public Services Club, Brisbane. For the Accommodation Office, Queensland Department of Public Works.
","history":"The Queensland Government Printing Office (former) was located between George Street and William Street, south-east of Stephens Lane, between 1862 and 1983, and consisted of a number of buildings. As the first purpose-built government printing office in Queensland, the Government Printing Office played an important role in administration of the colony and then the state of Queensland. The former Government Printing Office complex, which demonstrates the quality and evolving styles of the work of the Colonial/Government Architect's Office between the 1870s and the 1910s, currently consists of two buildings, built over three different periods: a three storey brick building facing William Street constructed 1872-74; a three storey brick building erected along Stephens Lane between 1884-87; and a three storey brick extension to the Stephens Lane building, constructed along George Street between 1910-12.
\nA government printing office was required in Queensland after separation in 1859 when the establishment of the new Colonial Government generated a need for the printing of Hansard, the official report of the proceedings of the Houses of Parliament. Many other items were also printed on the premises, including postage stamps, Government Gazettes, Acts of Parliament, annual reports of departments, survey maps, text books, electoral rolls, school readers, and banknotes.
\nThe dissemination of Hansard and other government information to the public is vital to the healthy operation of a democracy, ensuring that the business of parliament is accessible to all, and facilitating transparency regarding government decisions. The printing office was therefore integral to the operation of the Queensland Government - and its importance was reflected by its proximity to Parliament, the quality and scale of the printing office buildings, and the quality of the documents produced.
\nThe Queensland Government Gazette was first printed by Theophilus Pugh, publisher of the Moreton Bay Courier. Pugh was replaced by William C Belbridge of the Queensland Guardian, who became the first official Government Printer by March 1862.[1] That year the first purpose-designed government printing office in Queensland, a two storey timber building (not extant) designed by Queensland's first Colonial Architect, Charles Tiffin, was built facing William Street on a ridge running parallel to both William Street and George Street.
\nSince the 1820s the north bank of the Brisbane River and the adjacent ridgeline has featured a concentration of government and associated activities and uses. This ridge was the site of administration buildings for the Moreton Bay penal settlement, which relocated from Redcliffe to Brisbane, occupying this site from 1825-1839. When the penal settlement closed, the remnant infrastructure was used by surveyors as a basis for the layout for the new town of Brisbane. Set at right angles to the river, the prisoner's barracks determined Queen Street, while the line of buildings along the ridge determined William Street. Streets surveyed parallel to these streets, including George Street, formed Brisbane's rectangular grid.[2] The house and kitchen of the Commandant of the penal settlement stood on land just south-east of the Government Printing Office, until the Commandant's buildings were demolished c.1861.[3]
\nWhile a range of buildings and activities occurred along George and William Streets after Free Settlement began in 1842, the government maintained its dominant presence in the area. At some sites, such as the Commissariat Stores [QHR 600176] and Botanical Gardens [QHR 600067], earlier uses were continued. The establishment phase following the creation of Queensland in 1859 saw the new colonial government reserve land parcels and construct a range of buildings to facilitate its functions. The building of Government House [QHR 600118] and Parliament House [QHR 600069] along the eastern end of the George Street alignment in the 1860s firmly entrenched the physical reality of a government precinct in the area.[4]
\nDue to this government precinct, the Government Printing Office's immediate neighbour to the north-west, the 1851 United Evangelical Church, became a government telegraph office in 1861; hence the naming of ‘Telegraph Lane' between the telegraph office and the printing office. This laneway from William Street to George Street was later renamed Stephens Lane.
\nAs Queensland grew, so did demands on the Government Printing Office. The 1862 timber building was altered in 1863 and 1864, and in 1865 an ‘L' shaped three storey brick and stone building (not extant), also designed by Tiffin, was constructed to the rear (north-east), using day labour.[5] It included an underground cistern with a domed top (location unknown) and was connected to the 1862 building. By 1872 the complex included a small engine room, workshop and stables (none of which are extant) behind the 1865 building. That year James Beal (Government Printer 1867 to 1893) requested a new building to cope with the increased work of the Government Printing Office,[6] and in August 1872 the Secretary for Public Works recommended that Francis Drummond Greville (FDG) Stanley prepare a plan.
\nFDG Stanley immigrated to Queensland in 1861 and became one of the most prolific and well known Queensland architects of the late nineteenth century. In 1863 he became a clerk of works in the Office of the Colonial Architect. Upon Tiffin's retirement in 1872, Stanley became Colonial Architect, holding the position until 1881 when he entered private practice.
\nStanley wanted the new building at the Government Printing Office to be constructed with machine-pressed bricks, which were not yet produced in Brisbane. At the time it was reported that he wanted ‘to provide as much accommodation as possible in a plain substantial building, without striving after architectural display. The structure, however...will have really a handsome and imposing appearance'.[7] Tenders were called in October 1872,[8] and the tender of John Petrie, for £4,751 plus £170 for machine pressed bricks and £50 for internal dressing, was accepted. The building included stone footings, brick walls, cast iron airbricks to the understorey and at the ceilings, cast iron columns (ground and first floors, front wing only), and water closets (WCs) and a lift at the end of the rear wing on each floor. The roof was steeply pitched to assist ventilation. Construction was estimated to take six months, but the new office was not completed until 1874, with delays being blamed on a shortage of bricklayers. The machinery was installed and gas lights were fitted by April 1874, and the finished cost was £5331/3/6.[9]
\nThe front (William Street) wing of the new building stood on the site of the 1862 building, which had been demolished in late 1872.[10] The new William Street building had an ‘L' shape and extended onto the (recently repurchased) land previously occupied by the Commandant's residence, wrapping around the south-east side of the 1865 building. It had an arcade to the street frontage of the ground floor, and the roof was covered in Welsh slate to reduce the risk of fire. Narrow rear verandahs were located on the north-west side of the first and second floors of the rear wing. The ground floor included a public counter, offices, newspaper room, and a large publishing room in the front wing, with a store in the rear wing. The first floor consisted of a composing room in the front wing, with a drying room in the rear wing; while the second floor contained a binding room in the front wing and a ruling room in the rear wing. It was connected to the 1865 building, which included a machine printing room on the ground floor, the engraving and lithographic work on the first floor, and machine ruling and book binding on the second floor.[11]
\nIn 1879 the neighbouring telegraph office (former church) was converted into the residence of the Government Printer, and in 1880 the engine room at the rear of the 1865 building was enlarged and the stables were demolished. More land was purchased in 1883, prior to further expansion of the Government Printing Office complex onto land to the south-east. A master plan for the Government Printing Office, drawn in 1884, planned a ‘U' shaped building along Telegraph Lane, George Street, and returning along the south-east side of the complex, wrapping around a new engine room.[12] It also planned a replication of the William Street building on the other side of a ‘cart entrance' from William Street to the engine room, but this never occurred.
\nInstead, between 1884 and 1887 three new buildings were constructed, all by John Petrie: a three storey brick building along Telegraph Lane, with a short elevation to George Street; a two storey brick engine room (not extant) to the south-east; and a two storey brick Lithographic Office (not extant) south-east of the engine room. The 1880 engine room extension to the rear of the 1865 building was demolished around this time.
\nJohn Petrie's tender of £13,043 (initially for a two storey building on Telegraph Lane and the engine room) was accepted in July 1884, plus an extra £8000 in 1885 for the addition of a third storey to the Telegraph Lane building, plus the Lithographic Office.[13] The Telegraph Lane building, which was separated from the 1865 building by a yard, included a basement; a machine room on the ground floor; reading rooms, fount, paper, material and store rooms on first floor; and a composing room on the second floor. The design has been attributed to John James Clark, Colonial Architect from 1883-85.[14] The engine room was completed in late 1885, and housed steam engines and generators which supplied electricity for Queensland's Parliament House from 1886,[15] plus smaller steam engines for powering the Government Printing Office's machinery. The other two new buildings were finished in early 1887.[16]
\nChanges were later also made to the older buildings within the complex, including the addition of four cast iron columns on the first floor of the front wing of the William Street building in 1890; increasing the height of the 1865 building in 1891 to improve ventilation; and lowering the level of William Street in 1892, requiring construction of a concrete plinth to protect the foundations of the William Street building. In 1897 the brick wall between the public office and accountant's office in the William Street building was removed, with the addition of an extra iron column in its place.[17] In 1900 zinc roof sheets on the flatter section of the roof of William Street building were replaced with galvanised rib and pans steel. In 1903 the level of Telegraph Lane, which by now had been renamed Stephens Lane, was lowered. Nearby, in 1901 the neighbouring former church was demolished to allow construction of an Executive Building which later became the Land Administration Building [QHR 600123].
\nThe ongoing development of the city and its wharves downstream from the original convict site meant that George Street had become more important than William Street by this time. A three storey brick extension of the Stephens Lane building along George Street, which became the new ‘front' for the Government Printing Office, was commenced in 1910, while an additional three storey brick extension (not extant) between the Stephens Lane building and the William Street building required the demolition of (with possible incorporation of parts of) the 1865 brick building. The George Street wing was built by Thomas Hiron, who tendered £21,450, while the Stephens Lane infill building was constructed by J Maskrey, who tendered £2896.[18] The George Street wing was finished around mid 1912.
\nThe 1910 plans for the George Street wing were signed by AB Brady, Government Architect, and by Andrew Irving, acting deputy Government Architect, while 1911 plans are signed by Thomas Pye, Deputy Government Architect. However, the design of the George Street wing has been attributed to Edwin Evan Smith, a draughtsman who had assisted Thomas Pye with the design of the Executive Building, and who later became the State Government Architect for Victoria.[19] Smith, also a painter, potter and sculptor, and an examiner in modelling for the Brisbane Technical College, designed the sculptures on the building. These include two freestanding devils on the parapet above the main entrance and a relief carved devil's head, directly above the entrance. Traditionally, devils are a symbol of the printing trade, generally accepted as representing printer's apprentices.[20]
\nThese details were sculpted by well known Sydney sculptor, William P Macintosh who arrived in Sydney from Edinburgh in 1880 and from 1890 was Sydney's leading architectural sculptor. He received many commissions in New South Wales; his major work being the Queen Victoria Markets. Macintosh arrived in Brisbane in 1903 to complete his major Queensland work, the Executive Building, and was also responsible for the sculptural details on the former Government Savings Bank.[21]
\nThe George Street wing connected with both the 1887 Stephens Lane building and the 1887 Lithographic Office, forming a ‘U' around the engine room. It was symmetrical, with the main entrance in the centre and secondary entrances and stair halls either side of the central section. There was an electric lift adjacent to each stair hall, and a basement. Whereas the roof of the Stephens Lane wing was supported on timber queen bolt trusses, the George Street wing used timber queen post trusses; and while cast iron columns had been used to support the main floor beams in the Stephens Lane wing, hardwood columns were used in the George Street wing.[22] It appears that the new building was considered a model for Government Printing Offices, as the South Australian Government Printer requested copies of the plan to assist in the design and extension of the Adelaide Printery building.[23]
\nTwo storeys were also added to the engine room c.1910, and its use appears to have changed at this time to include a Sterro Room and workshop on the ground floor; men's and women's clubs, dining rooms and lavatories on the first floor; reading rooms on the second floor; and lavatories and toilets on the third floor.[24]
\nIn 1910 plans the George Street wing's basement included stock rooms and a strong room; the ground floor (from the south-east to the north-west) contained an extension to the lithographic room (from the adjacent Lithographic Office), dispatch room, offices and a public counter; while the first floor contained another extension to the lithographic room plus bookbinding (an extension to the Stephens Lane wing's bookbinding floor). The second floor was used by compositors, in an extension of the function of the second floor of the Stephens Lane wing.
\nBy this time the William Street building had been reduced to secondary or service functions, including printing of railway tickets. The ground floor was a store, the first floor was used as a machine ruling room, and the second floor was the artists and process workroom. Around this time new windows were inserted to the top floor and new dormers were added to the roof (all since removed), and the toilets and lift at the end of the rear wing were demolished. From the end of the first floor rear verandah, a gallery ran to the former engine room and the Lithographic Office.[25]
\nIn 1912 electricity was connected to all buildings on the site by the Edison and Swan United Electric Light Company Ltd. Various other improvements were made to the building over the years, including strengthening of the floors and installation of fire sprinklers.[26] By 1916 there were three small, one-storey buildings (stores and a workshop, not extant) in the corner of the complex, located between the William Street building and the Lithographic Office. Soon afterwards, the importance of the Government Printing Office in disseminating information to the public was demonstrated. In November 1917 the Australian military conducted a night raid on the Government Printing Office to seize copies of Hansard which the Federal Government did not wish circulated, as they covered debates in the Queensland Parliament on military censorship and the conscription issue. The military also temporarily took possession of the Government Printing Office in August 1918, this time to prevent coverage of statements made in the Queensland Parliament about the treatment of Irish and German internees.[27]
\nChanges to the site continued before and after World War II. In 1924 some of the roof slates of the William Street building were replaced with iron sheets, and more were replaced in 1933.[28] In 1952 toilets were built at the rear of William Street building, and in 1959 the Lithographic Office was extended towards the engine room and a concrete floor was laid to most of the ground floor of the Stephens Lane wing. In 1970 a new metal-clad building (not extant) was constructed south-west of the Lithographic Office, demolishing the c.1916 workshop.[29]
\nMeanwhile, the immediate post-war years of the late 1940s saw the Queensland Government begin to expand their activities considerably in Brisbane city. Most public servants were then located in the Treasury and Executive Buildings in George Street and in offices in Anzac Square. The shortage of office accommodation in the centre of Brisbane, and the need to address future requirements, led to a phase of governmental property acquisition in the city. The purchase of properties on George and William Streets between the Government Printing Office and Parliament House was a key focus, in addition to other acquisitions on Charlotte, Mary and Margaret Streets.
\nThe consolidation of government ownership and usage along George and William streets led to a number of schemes being investigated by the state to further the development of a ‘government precinct'. By 1965, a masterplan had been developed that involved the demolition of all buildings between the old Executive Building and Parliament House, to enable the construction of three high-rise office buildings in a ‘plaza setting'. However, only one of these was built - between 1968 and 1971 a new Executive Building was constructed south-east of the Government Printing Office.[30] By the early 1970s the 1960s plan for the precinct was considered no longer suitable and a number of other proposals for the area were explored.[31]
\nA 1974 ‘George Street Masterplan' involved lower-rise buildings spread out over greater areas and the demolition of the Belle Vue Hotel and the Mansions [QHR 600119]. A major influence in ultimately shaping the layout of the area during the 1970s was the growing community support for the retention of older buildings within the government precinct, especially the Belle Vue Hotel and the Mansions. Spearheaded by the National Trust, the government-related associations and links between buildings, their architectural qualities, and aesthetic contributions to the area were highlighted in submissions to the government and in the public sphere. The unannounced June 1974 removal of the balconies of the Belle Vue Hotel was a deliberate action by the State government to degrade the visual appearance of the area, and drew further attention to the conservation cause.[32]
\nIn April 1979 Cabinet adopted a recommendation for a schedule of demolition work to further the development of the government precinct. The Belle Vue Hotel was to be demolished, but the Mansions and the original section of Harris Terrace [QHR 600121] were to be retained, renovated and adapted. On 21 April, three days after this decision, the Belle Vue Hotel was demolished in the early hours of the morning, a notorious event in the history of heritage conservation in Queensland.[33]
\nThe Government Printing Office moved to new premises in Woolloongabba in October 1983, and a number of former Government Printing Office buildings were demolished in 1986-87 to make way for a four storey Executive Annex, connected to the 1971 Executive Building, and a four-level underground car park. The Lithographic Office, former engine room, the two remaining c.1916 buildings, the 1970s building, the toilets at the rear of the William Street building and the Stephens Lane infill building were demolished. The construction of the car park under the site of the engine room and up to the south-east side and rear of the rear wing of the William Street building removed the remaining archaeological traces of the Commandant's cottage and kitchen with cellar, although the material was recorded by staff from the Queensland Museum.[34] The Commandant's cottage and kitchen wing are defined in outline by contrasting coloured bricks and sandstone in the new paving laid in 1987. The remaining section of the Commandant's cottage would have been under the footprint of the rear wing of the William Street building, but construction of a small basement (c.1987) of reinforced concrete beneath the rear wing would have destroyed any surviving material.
\nIn 1989 the Queensland Museum Sciencentre moved into the William Street building, and prior restoration and renovation work undertaken in 1986-88 included: the demolition of non-original dormer windows and restoration of the clerestory, reconstruction of the roof framing and replacement of the corrugated iron roofing with slate and galvanised steel sheeting, and reconstruction of the rear verandah. Removal, reconstruction or restoration of doors and windows took place, and some external openings were sealed, while some new windows and doors were inserted. The existing ground floor slab and flooring was replaced, along with sections of the front wing's timber flooring on the first and second floors. The rear wing's floors were replaced with reinforced concrete suspended slabs. Other strengthening of floors utilised steel beams and trusses, and all casements were replaced as pivot windows.[35]
\nThe George Street/Stephens Lane building was renovated between 1987 and 1991 with work including: replacement roof sheeting, the formation of new walls where the Stephens Lane infill building and Lithographic Office had been demolished, construction of a glass-walled arcade on the south-east wall of the Stephens Lane wing, a tiered theatre at the south-east end of the second floor of the George Street wing, removal of the original lifts in the George Street wing and installation of two new lifts and toilets at the George Street end of the Stephens Lane wing, a new stairwell at the south-west end of the Stephens Lane wing, plus a light court extension from the basement to the courtyard and a link from the basement to the underground car park.[36]
\nThe Sciencentre moved from the William Street building into the George Street/ Stephens Lane building in 1992, from where it operated until 2002. In 1993 the William Street building's interior was remodelled for commercial use as the Public Services Club, and in 2005-6 the George Street wing was refurbished for use by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, with a complete new fit-out and closure of the main entrance. [37]
","criteria":"The Queensland Government Printing Office (former) was the first purpose-built government printery in Queensland and operated on the site from 1862 to 1983, playing an essential part in the administration of Queensland for 121 years. The dissemination of Hansard and other government information is an important part of democracy, promoting public access to parliamentary debate and facilitating transparency regarding government decisions. The expansion of the site and addition of new buildings over time was a result of the growth of the Queensland Government and its functions.
As part of a government precinct that has existed since 1825, the place helps to demonstrate the early importance of this part of Brisbane to the administration of the Moreton Bay penal settlement and later the colony and state of Queensland. The proximity of the printing office to Parliament is also a reflection of its important role in government.
The former Government Printing Office buildings fit within a pattern of substantial, well designed masonry buildings constructed to the designs of colonial and government architects. The structures show an adaption to Queensland's climate and the increased availability of materials and skills over time, including improvements in brick manufacturing processes. The designs of the constituent buildings also demonstrate the increased ambitiousness of the projects of the Colonial/Government Architect's Office between the 1870s and the 1910s.
The survival of the main Government Printing Office buildings, despite 1960s plans for the demolition of the complex, demonstrates how increased public concern about the preservation of heritage buildings influenced government redevelopment plans during the 1970s and 1980s.
|The Queensland Government Printing Office (former) was the only government printing office in Queensland from 1862 to 1983.
|Located within a government precinct, the buildings of the Government Printing Office (former) continue to demonstrate the principal characteristics of a nineteenth/early twentieth century printing office. The interiors have good natural lighting and ventilation and are plain and robust compared to the more elaborate street appearance. The buildings feature smaller, more finely detailed administration areas supporting large production areas and substantial structural framing provides unobstructed floor areas and allows for heavy floor loadings. Access to the rear of the buildings was provided, at different times, via Stephens Lane and the cart lane south-east of the Williams Street building.
The use of brick walls, as well as the use of slate on the William Street building's roof, demonstrates the precautions taken against the threat of fire, while the skylights on the top floor of the Stephens Lane/George Street building demonstrates the compositors' need for good natural light.
The carved Queensland crest, printers' devils, and leaded stained glass with images of the printing process on the George Street wing are also indications of the place's former status and use. At the time of construction, the design of the 1910-12 George Street wing was considered to be a model for other state printing offices.
The William Street building is a good example of the work of the Colonial Architect, Francis Drummond Greville Stanley, while the George Street wing of the Government Printing Office is an excellent example of the work of Edwin Evan Smith, a draughtsman in the Government Architect's Office, and the Sydney sculptor William P Macintosh.
|The Government Printing Office (former) is an integral part of the most prominent and cohesive group of government buildings in Queensland. A major landmark in the city of Brisbane, together with the former Treasury Building [QHR 600143], former Land Administration Building [QHR 600123], and Queens Gardens [QHR 600112] situated between William and George Streets, the Government Printing Office (former) contributes to both streetscapes. Other buildings in the group include the State Library (former) [QHR 600177], Commissariat Stores (former) [QHR 600176] and the Department of Primary Industries Building (former) [QHR 601093] on William Street; and the former Family Services Building [QHR 600111] on George Street. Unified by quality design, materials, form, finish and workmanship, this group of visually cohesive buildings dominate the southern edge of the central business district, adjacent to the north bank of the Brisbane River. The view down, and access along, Stephens Lane enhances the visual appreciation of the former Government Printing Office and former Land Administration Building.
The buildings within the complex display a high degree of design and workmanship internally and externally. The 1872-74 William Street building is differentiated within the precinct by its distinctively steeply pitched roof form, awnings, arcade and dark face-brickwork skilfully relieved with stone detailing. The 1887 Stephens Lane building and its 1910-12 George Street wing share a uniformity and convention in scale symmetry and classical detailing with the other George Street government buildings. The detailing of the George Street entrance with sculpted stone printers' devils over the entry is of particular aesthetic value.
|The site has a long and close association with the Government Printing Office, a department which played an important role in the administration of Queensland through its dissemination of government information to the public.
|The place has the potential to reveal information that will contribute to our understanding of Queensland's history. There is the potential for sub-surface material to survive relating to the first printing office (1862), particularly the foundations, as well as material relating to the 1865 building, including an underground cistern and associated stables.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H | Criterion C","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14890,"place_ref":600115,"name":"Treasury Hotel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"175 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-11-04","description":"The Treasury Hotel, located on the corner of George and Elizabeth Streets, is a three storey building with basement. It contains classical detailing, as do other nearby prominent buildings including the Treasury Building [600143] and Treasury Chambers [600116].
Typical of many hotels, it is located on a corner site and has a truncated corner that originally contained the entry. The hotel was originally L-shaped and an arched carriageway in George Street gave access to the rear of the building. This rear courtyard has been built in and is now part of the hotel.
On the main facades, there is a decorative string course above the first floor verandah roof. The windows on the second floor have moulded bracketed sills and decorative pediments. Above this are regularly spaced paired brackets supporting a cornice, surmounted by a parapet. Pedestals carrying urns divide the parapet into sections, some of which contain balustrading, while others are solid with the title 'TREASURY HOTEL' in raised lettering. On the centre of the parapet of the Elizabeth Street facade is a pediment. A similar pediment crowns the corner and has a flagpole located behind it.
The ground floor below a street awning has been modified and covered in modern brickwork. The upper two storeys retain much of the original detail but some of this is obscured by modern sun hoods and a altered first floor verandah which has raked posts. Some herring-bone strutting is situated between the joists of the structure spanning the laneway off George Street beside the building. Internally, none of the original detailing remains as a result of the building being thoroughly renovated in the late 1970s.
","history":"The Treasury Hotel was built in 1887-88, replacing an earlier hotel, the Dunmore Arms (1865).
In 1885 James Hunter took a 25 year lease from William Cribb on several adjoining allotments on the corner of George and Elizabeth Streets from William Cribb.
Hunter planned a major commercial development on the site, and in 1886 erected office buildings with Treasury Chambers (QHR 600116) fronting George St and Francis House (QHR 601121) on Elizabeth Street. The choice of location was astute, for the new Treasury Building (QHR 600143) opposite was being erected and enhanced the prestige of the area. Financial problems prevented Hunter from completing the project and in 1887 he sub-let the Dunmore Arms site to well-known Brisbane publican, Denis O'Connor.
O'Connor engaged architects John Hall & Son to design a new hotel for the site. The contractor was Abraham James and the contract sum £3,999. Borrowing its name from the partially-finished new government offices opposite, the hotel offered 'tastefully furnished and decorated' accommodation to 'Families and Commercial Gentlemen'. In May 1889 O'Connor transferred his sub-lease to George Back Cutbush who remained the lessee until 1910. In 1906 William Cribb donated both allotments 18 & 19 to the YMCA in return for an annuity of £400. Over the next few years the YMCA sold most of this property and the new owner of the Treasury Hotel in 1908 was William Denis O'Connor. The hotel remained linked with the O'Connor family till the late 1950s.
During the late 1880's the Treasury Hotel was one of a large number of hotels in the city. In 1889 there were 9 hotels in George Street. The Treasury Hotel (QHR 600115) and the Transcontinental Hotel (QHR 600122) are the only George Street buildings from this period that remain in use as hotels.
","criteria":"The Treasury Hotel is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the evolution of hotels in Brisbane.
|The Treasury Hotel demonstrates the principal characteristics of a nineteenth century inner city hotel.
|The Treasury Hotel exhibits particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, including its prominence on the corner of George and Elizabeth Streets and its position as part of a group of buildings of complementary scale and fine detail that address Queens Park.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14891,"place_ref":600116,"name":"Treasury Chambers & St Francis House & Symons Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"179 - 191 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Treasury Chambers, located in George Street opposite the Treasury Building, is a three storeyed rendered brick office building. Like the Treasury Building and the adjacent Treasury Hotel, the facade features classical detailing.
The facade contains a narrow entry bay with a raised pediment and an oriel window and eight three-storeyed bays. Individual bays are marked by pilasters which rise through both upper levels and culminate in moulded capitals. The line of each pilaster is carried through to roof level by a projected section of cornice topped by a block in the parapet and a pedestal and ball above the parapet line. Each bay contains three window openings flanked by small pilasters with acanthus leaf capitals. A broad string course decorated with a row of rosettes separates the square-headed windows of the first floor from those on the upper level. These are arched and their keystones extend to a cornice embellished with brackets and a row of dentils. The balustraded parapet is pierced by arcaded openings.
Pediments mark the end bay and the proposed central entry. The entry bay is further differentiated from the other bays by an oriel window which extends from the first floor and culminates in a balcony at the second floor.
The ground floor facades have been altered to provide aluminium framed shop fronts. The suspended awning replaced a curved awning which had a barrel vault emphasising the entry.
Internally, the ground floors to all the tenancies and most upper floors, have been altered. Some upper levels contain original fabric, including pressed metal ceilings.
St Francis House and Symons Building, with frontages to Elizabeth Street, were a continuation of Treasury Chambers.
The facade of the northern end of the Elizabeth Street section, the Symons Building, has been rebuilt with unadorned reinforced concrete facade with metal windows. The facade of the southern section, St Francis House, consists of two bays which have been altered at the ground floor. Above this the two bays are differentiated by double height pilasters. Each bay contains three window openings on each level, those on the first floor level are square headed and those on the upper level arched. The facade is decorated with moulded plaster details including small pilasters with acanthus leaf capitals, rosettes, keystones, brackets, cornice and balustraded parapet.
","history":"Treasury Chambers & St Francis House & Symons Building was built in 1886 as prestige office accommodation and shops. Its construction reflected the atmosphere of prosperity and optimism generated in Queensland with the 1880s growth in real estate, construction and mining sectors.
In 1885 James Hunter, boot manufacturer and property developer, took a 25 year lease from William Cribb on several adjoining allotments on the corner of George and Elizabeth Streets. Hunter anticipated the need for fashionable office accommodation close to the new government offices (Treasury Building (QHR 600143)) then under construction. He planned to erect, in two stages, a large L-shaped complex fronting George and Elizabeth Streets with accommodation for shops and offices.
The building was designed by Richard Gailey and the contractor was George Gazzard. The first stage of the 'Hunters Building' project, with frontages to George and Elizabeth Streets, was completed in 1886 for an estimated cost of £10 000. Financial problems prevented Hunter proceeding with the second stage - a corner section linking the George and Elizabeth Street buildings. In 1887 Hunter sub-let part of his lease to Denis O'Connor who built the Treasury Hotel (QHR 600115) on the corner site. In 1900 Hunter was declared bankrupt.
Despite the 'gap' between the Elizabeth Street section (St Francis House and Symons Building) and the George Street section (Treasury Chambers), the Hunter's Building complex was regarded as a unit. Newspaper reports indicate that a balcony connected all upper floor offices and this is consistent with the official address given for the upper floor tenants of the Elizabeth Street buildings as 183 George Street - this practice continued until 1923. The location and architectural distinction of the building attracted notable tenants. For the first two years various government departments were housed there until the William Street section of the Treasury Buildings was completed in 1889.
In 1906, William Cribb donated the property to the YMCA which subsequently subdivided and sold most of the land by 1910.
In the early 1920s, the George Street land was subdivided again and by the end of the decade various parts of the site were held on separate titles. Prominent long-term tenants were A P Greenfield & Co and Whitehouse Pianos. Their fellow-occupants included societies, workers in the professions and the skilled clothing trades and teachers of the arts.
The Elizabeth Street buildings remained under one title (owned by the Caledonian Society) until 1949 when the present St Francis House was bought by the Order of Capuchin Franciscan Fathers. The fathers conducted masses and social events in their building until about 1970. A fire at the Caledonian Society rooms in 1948 destroyed the society's records and may have prompted the major changes to the facade of the present Symons Building. In 1960 the Caledonian Society moved to Kangaroo Point selling their Elizabeth Street building to the Symons family who renamed the building and used it as a suit factory for almost thirty years.
In 1960 the back extension (c1910) of the Symons Building became the home of Charles Lisner's Academy Theatre, and later the first home of the Queensland Ballet Company. This artistic focus was accompanied by commercial and light industrial use of the Elizabeth Street buildings, during which period the interiors were altered substantially.
In 1993 most of St Francis House & Symons Building were demolished, but the Elizabeth Street facades remain.
","criteria":"Treasury Chambers & St Francis House & Symons Building, erected in the mid-1880s as a commercial investment, is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, being material evidence of the optimism generated by the economic prosperity of the era.
|Importantly, the place demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1880s prestige office building in Queensland, and the commercial work of acclaimed Brisbane architect Richard Gailey.
|Treasury Chambers & St Francis House & Symons Building also exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular its contribution to the George Street streetscape as part of a group of buildings of complementary scale and fine detail in this section of George Street between Queen and Elizabeth Streets, and its contribution to the Elizabeth Street streetscape through its scale and detailing.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14892,"place_ref":600117,"name":"First World War Honour Board","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"142 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The honour board is affixed to the wall of the main corridor on the first floor of the Lands Administration Building in Brisbane, immediately opposite the George Street elevator.
It is a large honour board, 2 metres high by 2.5 metres wide, constructed of Queensland silky oak. A central panel of red bean bears the Queensland coat of arms and the gold-painted names of 94 departmental staff and authorised surveyors who served in the First World War. The surrounds are carved in a stippled pattern with lotus plants (an ancient symbol of sleep) in relief in the lower section. The latter rarely appear on Queensland war memorials.
Within a rich moulding of laurel leaves in the upper left hand corner is an oval shaped metal plaque depicting in bas relief a cavalry charge and infantry soldiers advancing in battle, intended to illustrate the different fighting units in action. A carved scroll unfolds from the plaque and bears the relief lettering Roll of Honour.
The whole board is set into a simple frame.
","history":"The First World War Honour Board was erected by employees of the Queensland Lands Department in 1917, as a tribute to fellow staff on active service.
The overall design was created by AR McKellar, a draftsman in the lithographic branch of the survey section. The affixed metal plaque was designed by AV Thomas, the officer in charge of the lithographic branch. Manufacture was carried out at the Queensland Government railway workshops at Ipswich, and the wood carving was crafted by noted local wood carver George Varley Boyce, who taught carving at Brisbane technical schools from c.1902 to 1916.
The honour board was unveiled by the then governor of Queensland, Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams, on 2 May 1917.
It remains a focus for Anzac commemoration, with wreaths being laid before the honour board each April 25.
The board was restored by the Lands Department in 1981.
","criteria":"As a unique record in Queensland of participation and sacrifice in the First World War.
For its material richness, fine craftsmanship and unique design amongst Queensland war memorials.
As the only identified public work of local Brisbane wood carver GV Boyce.
|As a unique record in Queensland of participation and sacrifice in the First World War.
|For its material richness, fine craftsmanship and unique design amongst Queensland war memorials.
|For its material richness, fine craftsmanship and unique design amongst Queensland war memorials.
|As the only identified public work of local Brisbane wood carver GV Boyce.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14893,"place_ref":600118,"name":"Old Government House","alternate_name":"University of Queensland | Government House","street_address":"2 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Old Government House is a substantial sandstone building of two stories, situated adjacent to the Botanic Gardens, amidst the buildings of the Queensland University of Technology. Surrounding the building are several important gardens featuring large established trees.
A driveway which, in earlier times, provided access between Old Government House and Parliament House is apparent along George Street into the QUT grounds on the road adjacent to the Botanic Gardens. Along this route are early sandstone fence pillars, plantings and road forms.
Old Government House is symmetrically planned with the principal entrance from the south east, facing away from the Brisbane CBD toward the river. The two storeyed section of the house has a square plan, with two bays projecting from the sides of the house, emphasised by the addition of two storeyed semi-circular colonnaded spaces.
The galvanised iron, rib and pan roof is gabled over the principal entrance but hipped elsewhere, including the projecting bays. A one storeyed extension at the rear of the building, houses the former servants' quarters and men's billiard room. Generally openings throughout the building are protected by timber shutters.
The south eastern elevation, housing the principal entrance, features a central projecting bay, with a pedimented gabled roof. The principal doorway is through a sandstone porte cochere bounded by four large square sandstone columns, with a cornice above and hipped roof featuring iron cresting. The round headed arched entrance door opening is flanked by two round headed arched window openings on the ground floor and above these on the first floor are three square headed arched windows separated by pilasters. To either side of the entrance bay are two storeyed verandahs; arcaded on the lower floor on paired cast iron ionic columns. The upper floor verandah has simple cast iron columns with a cross braced iron balustrade.
The verandahs continue around the sides of the building and abut the projecting bays on the east and west facades of the building. The projecting bays feature semi-circular porches with verandahs above. The porch is defined by a number of large ionic columns, made of cast iron on the western side and sandstone on the eastern. The verandahs above the porches, carry the detail of the general house verandah.
The billiard room is attached to the southern end of the western facade. The entrance bay to this section projects from the face of the building slightly and features a central doorway, protected by a hipped iron awning supported by large carved corbels. Flanking the opening are two small elongated windows openings. Centrally located above the doorway is a decorative parapet detail, featuring a rectangular stone section with a carved cartouche with date '1899', which is flanked by scroll and leaf mouldings in the corners between the stone section and the parapet. Surmounting the rectangular section is a shallow arched entablature.
The rear, southern elevation, has a one-storeyed rendered parapeted facade, with regularly spaced pilasters, a wide cornice and a solid parapet with balustrade featuring a chain motif, surmounted by spherical finials at the corners. A courtyard is accessed via an arched opening in this wall, which features a double arched timber door. Past the opening is a wide covered walkway from which the former kitchen and servants' quarters are accessed. The walkway leads to an internal courtyard, providing natural lighting to several of the interior spaces, including the stairwell.
Through the principal entrance of the house is an entrance hall on either side of which are french doors leading to the adjacent verandahs. This room provides entrance to the central hall through three double half glazed timber doors with transom windows; both the doors and the above lights feature etched glass panels. The central hall is the principal room of the house from which the other major rooms are accessed. The central space of this room is demarcated by four wide archways, two plaster arches within the space and two large timber arched doorways leading to the drawing and dining rooms flanking the hall. The doorways have large timber sliding doors, housed within the walls. The former dining and drawing rooms, flanking the hall, have a number of french doors opening onto the verandahs.
The half turn open well stair with landing is at the northern end of the hall and has fine cast iron balusters and timber handrail which forms a wreath at the base of the stairs. A round headed arched stair window is flanked by round headed arched mirrors of similar size. On the first floor a mezzanine gallery, forming a void above the central section of the hall below, features a large skylight, comprising a number of etched glass panels and ventilation panels within elaborate timber framing. On the first floor in the gallery, is another plaster archway demarcating the stair area. From the gallery are accessed the principal first floor rooms.
Generally, the interior of Old Government House has timber floors, protectively covered in some places with masonite boarding. The walls and ceilings are plastered, and many rooms feature reconstructed colour schemes. Large cornices are features in the principal rooms, whilst less extravagant ones are found in the rooms with formerly, more private uses. The internal joinery is of the highest quality cedar, with six panelled moulded doors and fine architraves and skirting boards. The french doors leading onto the verandahs are glazed with two panels of glass, and have operable transom windows above. Introduced lighting within the space is generally surface mounted in central areas of the walls. Throughout the building are original uncovered patches of an early decorative painting scheme.
The gardens and grounds around the building, provide a picturesque setting for the house, and include features such as the kidney lawn, the rear garden and a number of beds adjacent to the rear garden and the current QUT library. The open lawns allow the house to be appreciated in its villa form. The kidney lawn, between the house and the Botanic Gardens, features several established trees, including a hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), a bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) and palm trees. These sparsely placed trees ensure that the house maintains a visual relationship with the Botanic Gardens and beyond. A pony tail tree (Beaucarnea recurvata), adjacent to the Botanic Gardens, is a particularly significant remainder of an earlier scheme. A fence and gateway to the east of the kidney lawn is also an element of the early garden, and the bougainvillea growing over it is particularly significant.
On the opposite side of the house is the rear garden which is a lawn with border planting. To the south are several garden beds, now separated by paved areas, which feature many original elements of the Government House garden, including a clam-shell fountain and associated planting and several large figs, a kauri pine (Agathis microstachya) and an ivory curl flower tree (Buckinghamia celsissima).
","history":"Old Government House was constructed from 1860 to 1862 to the design of Colonial Architect, Charles Tiffin at a cost of £17,000. It served as the home of the various Governors of Queensland from its completion in 1862 until 1910 when it became the inaugural of the University of Queensland.
Queensland became a separate colony in 1859, when Governor Bowen was appointed to govern until electoral roles were established. Robert Herbert was then elected as the first Colonial Secretary, a position akin to the present day Premier. In 1860 funding was allocated by the newly formed Parliament of Queensland for the construction of Government House. This was to be the first major public building which the Parliament planned.
A site was chosen for the house adjacent to the Botanic Gardens which had been established on the site of a government garden in 1855, when the curator, Walter Hill, was employed. Originally, the intention of the government was to construct a larger Government House in the country and therefore Government House was smaller than other Government Houses of Australia. It was described by the architect, Charles Tiffin, as the most economical vice regal residence in the Australian Colonies. £17,000 was allocated for the construction of the building, which was a major undertaking for a small colony of only 30, 000 settlers, facing an uncertain economical future.
Charles Tiffin was born in Newcastle, England and emigrated to the colonies in the mid 1850s, when he arrived in Victoria. He was appointed to the position of Clerk of Works for Moreton Bay in May 1857. Tiffin was responsible for the designs of a range of public buildings, the first of his major projects being the Ipswich Court House, extant in 1995. After separation, Tiffin became Queensland's first Colonial Architect.
Government House provided family accommodation, public reception areas and government offices. The house was carefully designed to take advantage of its siting on a promontory. The formal entrance and function rooms faced the river, away from the growing township; the offices were located to the north-east of the building; family quarters were on the south west and the rear north west of the building, housed servant's quarters and kitchen areas. By June 18, 1862, the Queensland Daily Guardian, reported that Governor and Lady Bowen had been in residence at Government House for one month, and that the building appears to be well adapted in point of coolness and ventilation to the climate of this colony; the rooms being large, lofty and airy, and furnished in a plain but exceedingly tasteful manner.
The house demonstrates an early understanding of ventilation principles in sub-tropical climates, in which Tiffin was known to be interested. Features of the house like the ventilated lantern, the large number of french doors, and the sliding doors on the ground floor, suggest a concern for air movement in the building.
The grounds surrounding the building were laid out by the director of the botanical Gardens, Mr Walter Hill, and it is understood that Lady Bowen also took a great interest in the gardens The grounds were thought to reflect the highest credit on Mr Walter Hill. A detailed description of the areas on each side of the house (comprised) a raised terrace, half moon and crescent shaped, neatly covered with sods of grass, and traced out in various designs for the cultivation of flowers and plants.
Governor Bowen remained at Government House until 1868, when he was recalled to England and Colonel Samuel Blackall became the new Governor of Queensland. Many alterations were made during the 1870s which saw the house adopt a more tropical form, most obviously with the addition of first floor verandahs, thereby distinguishing it from Government Houses in other states. Functions organised by the various Governors became larger to accommodate the larger population, and a prefabricated supper room/ballroom was erected on the lawn to the south west adjacent to the drawing room. In 1895, the house was completely redecorated. Old Government House was extended with a Billiard Room on the northern corner of the building in 1899.
The Federation of Australia, meant a reduction in the role of the Governor, but the real diminishing of their powers came about in around 1910 with the abolishment of the Upper House.
A committee was formed by the Premier, Mr Kidston, to select a site for a University in Queensland, and their recommendation was the Domain which was the grounds of the, then, Government House. In 1909 the House was dedicated to the new university, with five acres around it set aside for both a university and a technical college, with the remaining area given over to the Botanic Gardens. The Governor, who was then MacGregor, moved out of the house in 1910, to what were thought to be temporary arrangements at Fernberg, Paddington. By 1914, the new grounds of the University and Technical College were deemed unsuitable, and bids were made for the return of the Governor to the house, but these were unsuccessful.
Though the University transferred to St Lucia in 1945 it still retained many rooms in the former Government House. As the State Government retained the ownership of the former Government House, it was put to use by various official departments, and suffered from deterioration. In 1973 the National Trust moved into the building on the basis that they would gradually become the custodians of the entire building. Extensive alterations were carried out by the State Works Department, which again caused damage to the original fabric of the building. By 1982 the National Trust had assumed control over most of the building. The Technical College became the Queensland Institute of Technology, which in turn became the Queensland University of Technology and remains on the site surrounding Old Government House.
","criteria":"Old Government House demonstrates the evolution of the government in Queensland, and particularly the changing role of the Governor in Queensland from 1860 until 1910. The house was the first major project completed by the newly formed colony of Queensland. The former Government House is an important element in the government precinct of George and William Streets.
|Old Government House is unique, as the only purpose built Government House in Queensland and as a rare surviving example of the domestic work of the Colonial Architect, Charles Tiffin. The house contains many rare finishes and fittings, particularly the internal joinery.
|The house has the potential to yield further information, by archaeological investigation, of aspects of domestic life in Queensland from the 1860s. The kidney lawn, though changed in shape, may have evidence of early planting schemes and may provide evidence of the early work of prominent botanist and Botanic Gardens curator, Walter Hill.
|Old Government House displays the characteristics of a well appointed nineteenth century house, particularly in its demarcation of zoning for public and private use, and the evidence it provides of many early domestic facilities.
The building is a fine example of nineteenth century domestic architecture influenced by classical revival styles modified for a tropical environment. The design of the house is a creative accomplishment, in that the private and public aspects are well integrated to form a cohesive building.
|The building is of considerable aesthetic quality, employing well proportioned, classical design features, with exceptional fittings and finishes. The immediate environment including the Kidney Lawn, rear garden and several remnants of gardens in the vicinity promote the picturesque qualities of the villa form of the house. Several large established trees add to its aesthetic qualities and are visual links to the nearby Botanic Gardens. The house retains an important link with Parliament House, along the former carriageway where early planting and gate pillars.
|The building is a fine example of nineteenth century domestic architecture influenced by classical revival styles modified for a tropical environment. The design of the house is a creative accomplishment, in that the private and public aspects are well integrated to form a cohesive building.
|The house has strong associations with the Queensland for its role in the evolution of the Queensland Government. It retains strong associations with many groups, including the National Trust of Queensland, the Queensland University of Technology and the University of Queensland.
|The house has special association with a number of prominent Queenslanders, including all the Governors who lived at the house, the architect, Charles Tiffin, Walter Hill, as well as with the University of Queensland which used the house as their first site, and with the National Trust who have been associated with the building for over twenty years.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14894,"place_ref":600119,"name":"The Mansions","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"40 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"The Mansions is a three-storeyed brick and stone terrace on the corner of Margaret and George Street, Brisbane. The building stands in an urban context, on a high ridge of land, with open landscaped space behind and beside it. The precinct is dominated by mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth century state government-related buildings including the nearby Parliament House [QHR 600069], Queensland Club [QHR 600113], Harris Terrace [QHR 600121], the former Government Printing Office [QHR 600114], former Land Administration Building [QHR 600123], and the former Treasury [QHR 600143]. It makes a strong contribution to the George and Margaret Streets streetscapes as a prominent, decorative and striking form.
The Mansions is a face brick structure with limestone dressings and a painted, corrugated steel roof. It sits back slightly from the George Street alignment behind a brick pier fence with wrought iron panels. However, it is built to the Margaret Street alignment. The building is visibly separated into six houses unified by the façade - a deep arcade of arches on the ground and first floors along both street fronts. The second floor is partially incorporated within the roof space behind a decorative parapet. Each house has an octagonal bay projecting onto the arcade on both levels that is carried through onto the roof as a multi-faced hip perpendicular to the main roof. Although fully cohesive, the design is perceptibly five houses facing George Street that are mirrors of each other in plan with a sixth house, on the corner, primarily facing Margaret Street that is of an individual layout and superior scale. The sixth house has two octagonal bays and they are larger and project fully to the street alignment. The entrance to the sixth house is from Margaret Street.
The building is designed in a Victorian style with Italianate influences. The arcade is decoratively treated. Short cast iron colonettes have Ionic order capitals incorporating garland swags, carved limestone panels, and entrances accentuated by triangular pediments. Two sculpted limestone cats sit atop the parapet of the George Street facade.
Wings with timber verandahs on their ground and first floors extend off the rear and are separated by courtyards. Rear walls feature cement render indicating the profile of demolished service wings.
The interior of the building is considerably altered. Room layouts indicate original separate tenancies but openings in the party walls now connect them. Fittings, though ornate, are reproductions and lower ceilings conceal air-conditioning ducts. A lift and other modern facilities are also installed.
Please refer to the 2009 Conservation Management Plan prepared by Jinx Miles of the Department of Public Works, Queensland, for further detail about the fabric.
","history":"The Mansions, built in 1889 and located near Parliament House [QHR 600069] on the George Street ridge at the corner of Margaret Street, was designed by architect George Henry Male Addison as six attached elite masonry houses. Constructed by RE Burton for £11,700, it was an investment for three Queensland politicians - Boyd Dunlop Morehead, then Premier; William Pattison, Treasurer; and John Stevenson, member for Clermont - during a decade of enormous population growth and land development in Brisbane.
\nSince the 1820s, the north bank and adjacent ridgeline of the Brisbane River, now containing William and George Streets, has always featured a concentration of government and associated activities and uses. Over the period of the Moreton Bay penal settlement, buildings constructed along this ridgeline, were utilised by government officials for ‘accommodation, administration and control'.[1] When the settlement was closed in 1842, the remnant penal infrastructure was used by surveyors as a basis for the layout for the new town of Brisbane. Set at right angles to the river, the prisoner's barracks determined Queen Street, while the line of buildings along the ridge determined William Street. Streets surveyed parallel to these streets including George Street, formed Brisbane's rectangular grid.[2]
\nWhile a range of buildings and activities occurred along George and William Streets from the 1840s, the government maintained its dominant presence in the area. At some sites (such as the Commissariat Store (former) [QHR 600176] and Brisbane Botanic Gardens [QHR 600067]) earlier uses were continued. The establishment phase following the creation of Queensland in 1859 saw the new colonial government reserve land parcels and construct a range of buildings to facilitate its functions. The building of Government House [QHR 600118] and Parliament House [QHR 600069] along the eastern end of the George Street alignment in the 1860s firmly entrenched the physical reality of a government precinct in the area.[3]
\nThe siting of Parliament House had a pronounced effect on the built environment around lower George Street. Many of Queensland's early politicians were pastoralists, a reflection of their economic dominance in the colony. Together with a growing workforce of public servants, these politicians required accommodation when in Brisbane. From the 1860s to the 1880s, a range of buildings, many built by, or for politicians, were built to address these needs.[4]
\nThroughout the 1880s Brisbane was transforming into a colonial city. Many of Queensland's immigrants remained in the capital, swelling the population from almost 40,000 in 1881 to well over 90,000 in 1891. This growth stimulated building, municipal organisation, amenities and services, and cultural and leisure outlets. The flourishing building activity caused Brisbane's practising architects to treble in number, and builders and contractors to rise from 16 in 1882 to 87 in 1887. Brisbane's centre sprouted a host of impressive new stone buildings including the Customs House [QHR 600156], additions to the Government Printing Office [QHR 600114], the first wing of the Treasury Building [QHR 600143] and the Alice Street facade of Parliament House. The number of inhabited dwellings in the capital almost doubled between 1881 and 1891 from 5,814 to 10,321, causing the town to overshoot its old boundaries. Consequently, land speculation was extensive and the capital value of metropolitan land rose towards its peak in 1890, a level not approximated again until 1925.[5]
\nThe land on which The Mansions was later erected, lots 1 and 2 of Portion 38, was originally purchased as Town Lot 56 in 1852 by land speculator James Gibbon.[6] By 1863 he had subdivided the land into three lots, but lots 1 and 2 remained vacant. The land was transferred in 1882 to William Williams, a successful Brisbane businessman associated with the Australian Steam Navigation Shipping Company. He in turn sold the vacant land in August 1888 to Pattison, Morehead and Stevenson who were members of parliament, business associates and friends.[7]
\nBD Morehead (1843-1905) was a pastoralist, businessman and politician who served in both the Queensland Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. With AB Buchanan he established BD Morehead and Co. in 1873 which comprised a mercantile and trading business and a stock and station agency. He experienced financial disaster in the 1893 economic crisis.[8] William Pattison (1830-96), a businessman, mine director and politician, served in the Queensland Legislative Assembly between 1886 and 1893. He was one of the original shareholders and later chairman of directors of the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Co but was damaged politically and economically by the 50 per cent collapse of this company's share price from mid-1888.[9] John Stevenson was a pastoralist who bought into the firm of BD Morehead and Co., managing the stock and station business until 1896 when he formed the business J Stevenson and Co. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1875 to 1893.[10]
\nThese three men engaged architect George Henry Male Addison to design a row of houses for the George Street site. Addison had moved from Melbourne to Brisbane and established a branch of Oakden, Addison and Kemp, which in 1888 won the competition to build a new exhibition hall for the National Agricultural and Industrial Association on Gregory Terrace [QHR 600209, Old Museum Building, Brisbane]. Addison was an accomplished designer, his buildings stylistically eclectic and more ornately and highly finished than any previously seen in the city. The distinctive use of face brickwork relieved with stone or rendered detailing and steep, dominant roof forms are characteristics of his work.[11] Other Addison-designed buildings include the Albert Street Uniting Church, Brisbane [QHR 600066] and The Strand Theatre, Toowoomba [QHR 600849]. Addison's skills and distinctive style of domestic architecture were recognised and attracted business from Queensland's leading professionals.[12] Noteworthy houses designed by him are Cliveden Mansions, Brisbane [QHR 602186], Kirkston, Brisbane [QHR 600351], Oonooraba, Maryborough [QHR 600707], Ralahyne, Brisbane [QHR 600182] and Cumbooquepa [Somerville House QHR 600305]. Addison called tenders for the construction of The Mansions viz ‘city residences in George street' in the Brisbane Courier on 29 September 1888, closing on 15 October.[13] RE Burton's tender of £11,600 was accepted.[14]
\nThe Mansions was designed to be impressive and aesthetically pleasing, utilising high quality materials, generous use of ornamentation and careful composition of building forms, the six individual houses being unified by the overriding use of arcades and the arrangement, in alternating pairs, of entries and roof dormers. The design was well suited to the climate, the arcades providing shade without impeding ventilation. Soon after the residences were completed in late 1889 The Boomerang described them as ‘unique in their way, being built after the Queen Anne style of red brick with stone facing. They have been constructed to suit the climate. The mantelpieces are very rich and were specially imported. In fact, its as fine a terrace as any in Australia'.[15] Addison published a drawing of The Mansions in 1890 in the Building and Engineering Journal of Australia, describing them as ‘convenient and roomy having three reception rooms and ten bedrooms, exclusive of servants' quarters. The front is of brick, relieved with Oomaroo [sic] stone, the total cost £11,700...'.[16]
\nThe Mansions as terraced houses were a type of land use that was uncommon in colonial Queensland due to the enactment of the Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act 1885. This legislation enforced a minimum lot size of 16 perches (404 m2) and a minimum frontage of 30 feet (10 metres) effectively stopping the building of terraced housing in Queensland except as a rental investment.[17] Early, pre-legislation versions of terraced housing in Brisbane included Harris Terrace [QHR 600121] and Hodgson's Terrace (demolished) in George Street; Athol Place, Spring Hill (1860s) [QHR 600167]; Princess Row, Petrie Terrace (1863) and a group of four houses (c1884-85) in Wellington Road, Petrie Terrace. Terraces built around 1885 or afterwards included Byrne Terrace on Wickham Terrace (1885-86, architects John Hall and Son, demolished), O'Keefe Terrace on Petrie Terrace (1886-87, architect Andrew Stombucco and Son), Cook Terrace (1889, possibly Taylor and Richer) [QHR 600250] on Coronation Drive, Cross Terrace, Red Hill (1886) [QHR 600285] and Petrie Mansions on Petrie Terrace (1887-8); Brighton Terrace, West End (1890 John B Nicholson) [QHR 600343]; and two terrace houses on Wellington Street, Petrie Terrace (1894/95). Of these, The Mansions were the grandest and most ambitious architecturally.[18]
\nElite tenants began to occupy the well-located residences from 1889 but the economic downturn which culminated in the 1893 depression denied full occupancy. Although the Queensland economy experienced problems from the mid-1880s, the downturn only became apparent from 1889 after local confidence waned and British investment funds dried up. The building industry was affected first and most severely, then depression spread to other sectors of the economy. The severest years of the depression in Queensland were from 1891 to 1893.[19] Brisbane's economic experiences followed those of the Queensland economy overall but with different emphases. The phenomenal growth of the 1880s had culminated in widespread speculation in land and buildings, which created an excess capacity of offices and dwellings. Brisbane's descent into depression began with a crash in the construction and building materials industries and the collapse of building societies towards the end of 1891 after the climax of its land and building boom. Land and rent values began dropping in 1890, reaching their lowest level in 1893-4. Empty dwellings became a common sight in the city and suburbs - some deserted while other recently built ones had never been occupied.[20] All three investors in The Mansions suffered severe financial losses during this depression.
\nBy 30 November 1889 two of the villas were occupied by members of parliament, William Pattison and the Hon. Hume Black.[21] Advertisements in the Brisbane Courier for tenants to let both the ‘George Street Mansions and Harris Terrace' on the opposite corner of Margaret Street appeared in the Brisbane Courier during December 1889. Other early residents were doctors - in 1890 Dr Fourness Simmons and a Dr Bennett.[22] The 1891 Post Office Directory listed four houses as unoccupied and two occupied by doctors, EM Owens and A Bennett.[23] In December 1891, Dr Lilian Cooper, Queensland's first woman doctor, established her consulting rooms in The Mansions and resided there for several years after the 1893 floods.[24] Pattison moved from The Mansions in July 1891 and a Mrs Prince, previously of Glencairn, Wickham Terrace advertised that she had leased ‘the Hon. W Pattison's late residence, The Mansion, George Street' and would be ‘pleased to receive applications for Accommodation. The buildings are situated close to Parliament House and are therefore highly suited to members'.[25] In 1892 The Mansion's housed a Mrs Probyn who resided in ‘The Grange' (possibly a boarding house) and which was replaced the following year by Elizabeth Bird's boarding house.[26]
\nBetween 1896 and 1954 The Mansions were used primarily as boarding houses, which operated under various names. Guests included professional families such as barrister and later University of Queensland Registrar FWS Cumbrae Stewart and family from 1906, the Commissioner of Public Health Elkington and wife in 1912, District Court Judge McNaughton and Electrical Engineer Nelson.[27] Some doctors such as AB Carvosso continued to practice from The Mansions.[28]
\nDespite ownership of The Mansions changing a number of times, this did not result in changes of use. The property was transferred to the Queensland National Bank in August 1898 and was sold in 1912 to Gerard Ralph Gore and Christiana Gore, pastoralists on the Darling Downs, in order to recoup the loan for its construction.[29] In 1925 the property was sold again but due to the owner's death quickly transferred to the Queensland Trustees. In 1947 the property was sold to three new owners, two of whom ran three boarding houses using the property's six villas. The boarding houses (from the Alice Street end) were named Lonsdale (24-26 George), Glenmore (28-30) and Binna Burra (32-44).[30] In 1954 The Mansions were offered at public auction, but passed in when the reserve was not reached.[31]
\nSubsequently, the Queensland Government purchased the property for use as government offices as part of its acquisition of buildings in George Street under what was then officially known as the ‘George Street Plan'.[32] A shortage of accommodation for administrative offices in State-owned buildings had been identified immediately post-war when the Queensland government began to expand their activities considerably in Brisbane city. Most public servants were then located in the Treasury and Executive Buildings in George Street and in offices in Anzac Square. The shortage of office accommodation in the centre of Brisbane, and the need to address future requirements, led to a phase of governmental property acquisition in the city. The purchase of properties on George and William Streets between the Government Printing Office and Parliament House was a key focus, in addition to other acquisitions on Charlotte, Mary and Margaret Streets. Properties in William Street were purchased in 1946-47 and the expenditure in 1954 on properties for this purpose in George, William and Margaret Streets, including The Mansions, was £60,500.[33] Despite their varying condition and former uses, many of these newly acquired buildings were quickly adapted for government use.[34]
\nAt this time the Department of Public Works prepared measured drawings of The Mansions.[35] ‘Lonsdale' and ‘Glenmore' were described as ‘a three storey double brick building...conducted as a residential and compris[ing] 32 rooms, 16 of which are let as flatettes and 16 as serviced rooms'.[36] Linings and ceilings were plaster except at the top floor where ceilings were beaded pine. Floors were mainly pine. There were 10 fireplaces of which two were marble and the remainder ‘ornamental timber'. There was one ‘set of 4' [1.2m] wide twin cedar staircases in excellent condition'. Four bathrooms, two shower rooms, two laundries and six sewerage units served the property. The condition of the properties was considered to be fair. At the rear of the land, there were two double storey brick dormitories and a garage, which were of much inferior construction and finish to the main building.[37]
\nConversion of The Mansions into government offices cost £45,054. Drawings prepared for the conversion show that the general configuration of the houses was changed. Walls were removed, new doorways made, fireplaces blocked, internal partitions installed, concrete floors for toilets added and all stairs except one at the rear of no. 28-30 were removed or altered. Original details including dado panelling in the halls and dining rooms, and leadlight sidelights on the front doors were removed. Evidence of the original asymmetrical arrangement of bay windows at ground floor level was lost except in no. 24-26 and new load-bearing partitions were installed on the first and second floor levels above the dining rooms.[38]
\nA range of government departments occupied The Mansions until the 1970s. The Government Statistician's Office was located on the ground floor from c1956 and by 1961 the Medical boards, Licensing Commission, Prices Branch, Department of Public Works and Probation Office occupied the first floor. Replanning of the Medical boards' offices took place in 1967 and remodelling of the ground floor for the Comptroller-General of Prisons occurred in 1972.[39]
\nThe consolidation of government ownership and usage along George and William streets led to a number of schemes in being investigated by the state to further the development of a ‘government precinct'. By 1965, a masterplan had been developed involving the demolition of all buildings between the Executive Building (later Land Administration Building) [QHR 600123] and Parliament House, to enable the construction of three high-rise office buildings in a ‘plaza setting'. In November 1965 the government announced the proposed demolition of its George Street office buildings. The present day Executive Building was completed in 1971 as part of this plan. However, by the early 1970s this plan for the precinct was considered no longer suitable and a number of other proposals for the area were explored.[40]
\nA 1974 ‘George Street Masterplan' involved lower rise buildings spread out over greater areas and the demolition of the Belle Vue Hotel and The Mansions. A major influence in ultimately shaping the layout of the area during the 1970s was the growing community support for the retention of older buildings within the government precinct. In 1973 the National Trust began a public campaign to save both The Mansions and its next-door neighbour in George Street, the Belle Vue Hotel, from demolition under the Queensland Government's ‘George Street Masterplan'.[41] The campaign highlighted the government-related associations and links between buildings, their architectural qualities, and aesthetic contributions to the area in submissions to the government and in the public sphere. The unannounced June 1974 removal of the balconies of the Bellevue Hotel was a deliberate action by the State government to degrade the visual appearance of the area, and drew further attention to the conservation cause.[42]
\nUltimately the Belle Vue Hotel was demolished in April 1979 after Cabinet adopted a recommended schedule of demolition work to further the development of the government precinct. The Belle Vue Hotel was to be demolished, but The Mansions and the original section of Harris Terrace were to be retained, renovated and adapted. On 21 April, three days after this decision, the Belle Vue Hotel was demolished in the early hours of the morning, a notorious event in the history of heritage conservation in Queensland causing a furore of public complaint. [43]
\nThe Mansions servants' wings and stables were demolished later in 1979 in accordance with the Cabinet decision.[44] However, this did not cause a complete loss of the area to the rear of The Mansions, which may still reveal archaeological information about foundations and material culture related to servants' occupation of this area of the site.
\nSubsequently, several schemes were prepared for the reconstruction and conservation of The Mansions. Measured drawings of the remaining sections of the building were prepared and exteriors photographed. Plans for the renovations and alterations were prepared by Lund Hutton Ryan Architects in 1980 and in 1982 further plans for the restoration were prepared by Conrad and Gargett in association with the Department of Public Works. At this time it was reported that there were problems with rising damp; the existing roof framing was generally sound; none of the original staircases survived; all internal walls were plastered brick or plaster and lathe on timber framing; the few original ceilings on the ground and first floors were plaster and lathe while on the second floor they were tongue and groove pine; some original skirtings, architraves, cornices and ceiling roses remained; some original fire surrounds and grates survived; many original doors and windows survived but were in disrepair; and hardware had been changed.[45]
\nA final renovation scheme was prepared then carried out in 1983-4. This development removed most of the 1950s fit-out as well as removing original material, reconstructing features and adding new features such as a lift and air conditioning plant. A transverse corridor was created by enclosing parts of the rear courtyards in glass requiring reconfiguration of the rear verandahs. Stairs and toilets were installed in the second reception room at the ground floor level. Walls which formed the small front room at the first floor level were removed. All the ceilings and the remaining evidence of the original off centre bay layout of no. 24-26 at ground floor level and the surviving dining room fireplace in no. 40 were removed. Castings of ceiling roses were installed throughout the rooms. Most of the wall plaster was removed. Most door and window joinery was reconstructed. New stairs were constructed using detail and parts from the original but in a new configuration. The roof sheeting was replaced, new finials constructed and the rear verandahs rebuilt. New dormer windows at roof level were constructed facing south-west over the new rear verandahs. Most of the ground floor and second floor ceiling framing and some of the roof framing was replaced. All floors were re-laid with plywood and hearths removed, concrete slabs were laid in wet areas, tie downs were installed and new ceramic tile paving was laid on verandah floors.[46]
\nOn 28 April 1986 Premier Bjelke Petersen officially opened the Government Precinct Development incorporating the State Works Centre, the renovated Harris Terrace and The Mansions. After the redevelopment, The Mansions housed a variety of professional offices and exclusive specialist retail stores. A restaurant also operated in the building.[47]
\nSince this refurbishment only minor alterations have occurred to the buildings, apart from updating of services and the provision of equitable access. A freestanding roof was constructed next to the south-east rear verandah of the house at the Alice Street end for the restaurant tenant in 1988.[48] In 2005 timber decking and ramps were added in Queen's Place for access at the Alice Street end.[49]
\nIn 1990 there was a proposal to sell The Mansions with the Port Office and Smellies building but this did not proceed.[50]
\nThe Mansions continues to be used as professional offices and a restaurant in 2012.
","criteria":"The Mansions (1889) is important in demonstrating the evolution of urban development in colonial Queensland as a result of the 1880s land boom, especially in the capital city Brisbane.
It demonstrates the pattern of development of the Brisbane CBD with lower George Street as a prestigious residential area associated with parliament and the site of professional offices from the 1860s. The Mansions is a distinctive example of this residential development of lower George Street.
It also demonstrates, through its purchase and refit for government offices, the development of lower George Street as a government office precinct post World War II.
The survival of The Mansions, despite 1960s plans for its demolition, demonstrates how increased public concern about the preservation of heritage buildings influenced government redevelopment plans during the 1970s and 1980s.
|The Mansions demonstrates nineteenth century terraced housing - a form of housing, which was uncommon and is now rare in Queensland. The building is a distinctive and exceptional example of prestigious, late nineteenth century terraced housing.
|The Mansions is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of late nineteenth century, terraced housing. Defining elements of this style of housing include its shared dividing walls, repetition of form and linear house plan. Comprising six residences, the building is a fine and rare Queensland example of prestigious, late nineteenth century terrace housing and exemplifies the urban lifestyle experienced by affluent Queenslanders of this period.
The Mansions are also an excellent example of the work of George Henry Male Addison, a designer who made an important contribution to Queensland's built environment. Stylistically these highly finished and ornate terrace houses are unlike any others in Queensland but are characteristic of Addison's work as an accomplished designer achieving maximum effect with roof form and face brickwork relieved with stone detailing.
|The Mansions is important for its architectural attributes. The skilful and complex composition of face brickwork, stone detailing, shady arcaded verandahs, integrated gardens and fencing, and complex roof form are of aesthetic beauty and make a strong contribution to the George and Margaret Streets streetscape and to the government precinct in George and William Streets.
|The Mansions has a strong association for its cultural heritage significance with Queenslanders concerned about heritage issues. It was the focus of the National Trust of Queensland's campaign to save the Belle Vue Hotel and The Mansions during the 1970s, which had wide public support and resulted in The Mansions not being demolished. Newspaper, film, magazine and journal articles from the period demonstrate this association.
|The Mansions has potential to contribute to a greater understanding of Queensland's history. Potential exists at the rear of The Mansions for archaeological materials including footings and foundations associated with the former servants' and kitchen wings, and objects and refuse commonly found within domestic contexts, particularly ceramic, glass and personal items.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion C","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14895,"place_ref":600120,"name":"McDonnell & East Ltd Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"414 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-12-10","description":"The building is three storeys high with a basement. It combines characteristics of many of the styles from the first quarter of the century. It has a Federation red brick and stucco facade and Art Nouveau lettering. The detailing reflects both the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau styles.
The building is of red brick with stucco render originally painted cream. The George Street facade has since been painted beige and its details picked out in a deep green. The George Street facade has six window bays and is divided into two equal sections of three. The central bay of each section has a pediment above its upper level window. All the windows on the George Street frontage have had the glazing painted over in the same colour as the walls with frames painted green.
The Tank Street frontage retains its alternating red brick and white rendered bays. There are four brick sections, which contain individual window bays. The first two rendered sections have two window bays while the end section has four. The upper level windows in the rendered bays have semi-circular arched openings, with three courses of unrendered brick above them for emphasis. All the windows in the rendered sections are grouped in pairs that are separated by unrendered bands of brick that have their bonding pattern picked out. White painted downpipes run down the wall in these locations.
Raised lettering with the name of the store and the goods it provided are a feature of both facades. There are raised sections of parapet centred over each pediment on the George Street facade and above each unrendered brick bay on the Tank Street facade. Flagpoles are located behind each raised section of parapet. A small curved portion flanks the sides of each raised parapet. The facade has protruding sills supported on decorative stucco brackets and similar hood moulds over the upper level windows.
Internally the original pressed metal remains above the modular suspended ceilings. This is completely exposed in the basement level and in some store rooms.
The building has suffered from the addition of modern shopfronts, the removal of the original awning and the painting of the George Street facade, but still contributes greatly to the streetscapes of both George and Tank Streets.
","history":"This three-storeyed brick department store building was erected in several stages between 1912 and 1963, for the Brisbane firm of McDonnell & East Ltd.
In 1886, Irishmen Frank McDonnell and Hubert East emigrated to Brisbane, where they were employed in the drapery trade. From 1889, McDonnell was closely connected with the movement for the early closing of shops. He entered Parliament in 1896 as the Labor member for Fortitude Valley, and largely due to his efforts, early closing was introduced in 1900.
In October 1901, the firm of McDonnell & East Ltd was established and, with the financial backing of businessman and publican Peter Murphy, owner of the Transcontinental Hotel (QHR 6000122), the firm purchased John Reid's drapery business, and the lease of the premises, at 402-408 George Street.
Within six years McDonnell & East Ltd was well established as a firm of importers, cash drapers, tailors, outfitters, dressmakers and milliners. About 1908, Jack McDonnell and Fraser and Harry East, sons of the founders, entered the firm.
In 1911, McDonnell & East Ltd acquired the adjoining George Street allotments to the corner of Tank Street, and in October 1911 Brisbane architect Thomas Ramsay Hall called tenders for a new brick building. The contract was let to A Gillespie with a price of £10,734, which included electrical fittings, counter, fixtures and passenger lift. Construction began in January 1912, and the new building, advertised as the White Store, was occupied in April 1913. The company continued to lease the original building.
Following the success of the White Store, which doubled profits within a year, the company purchased a contiguous block in Tank Street, behind the new showrooms, in 1913. In mid-1914 TR Hall again called tenders for a store for McDonnell & East Ltd, and the contract was let to New Farm builder Mark Doggett, with a price of £1,310. This building was completed late in 1914, but it is not clear whether it remains as part of the present complex.
The business flourished, assisted by the re-location of the Brisbane Markets to Roma Street in 1915, and the proximity of the tram stops in George Street and the Roma Street railway station, which brought custom. McDonnell & East Ltd became a public company in 1920.
Between c.1917 and 1921, McDonnell & East Ltd acquired another three adjacent sites: a property in Turbot Street; the allotment occupied by the original George Street store; and a laneway running in from Tank Street, which was closed in exchange for the company's creating a laneway in from Turbot Street.
In the mid-1920s, architects TR Hall and GG Prentice designed substantial three-storeyed extensions for these sites. The work was carried out by contractor FJ Corbett, who started in late 1925 and finished in March 1928. The original leased premises, fronting George Street, were demolished and replaced with a three-storeyed extension of the 1912 building. A separate but adjoining three-storeyed building was erected on the Tank Street sites. The extensions conformed with the 1912 street elevations, and featured the latest fittings, elevators and modern conveniences. At the same time, new shop fronts were installed in the corner building by contractors Robertson & Corbett. The founders of the firm just lived to see the extensions completed: Hubert East died in May 1928, and Frank McDonnell followed him six months later. Fraser East and Jack McDonnell took over as joint managing directors.
The renovations and extensions, which cost approximately £35,000, immediately boosted the status of McDonnell & East Ltd and George Street as a trading centre. The design allowed for further additions in Tank Street, but the subsequent depression and war thwarted this proposal.
The George Street Post Office was located in the McDonnell & East Ltd building from 27 July 1931 until 28 September 1990. The area was let to the Postmaster General's Department free of charge for the first ten years, with the fittings supplied by the store. The office was manned by PMG staff.
After the Second World War business flourished once again, and by 1967 McDonnell & East Ltd had purchased all the property fronting Tank Street to North Quay; all the allotments facing North Quay up to, but excluding, the church at the corner of Turbot Street; and another allotment fronting Turbot Street. The site in Tank Street adjoining the 1928 building was acquired in 1950. It contained a two-storeyed building, into which McDonnell & East Ltd expanded. In 1960 this building was reconstructed as a three-storeyed extension of the McDonnell & East Ltd store. No attempt was made to design a street facade to conform with the 1912-1928 building.
A large, free customer car park, occupying most of the remainder of McDonnell & East Ltd's property at the rear of the store, was constructed in stages between about 1956 and 1969. This no longer survives.
Substantial renovations were carried out in the 1960s: the street level windows were remodelled in 1960; a number of small buildings at the rear of the store were demolished and replaced with a three-storeyed extension, creating an L-shape, in 1963; and in 1964 all remaining dividing walls on the three levels were removed. The Queensland Room Coffee Lounge and Gallery was opened in 1965, and won an international award for a community service project in a retail store.
In 1984, McDonnell & East Ltd was taken over by an investment group, but the family name was retained. It remains the only department store firm, of the several founded in Brisbane in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to have survived.
","criteria":"The McDonnell & East Ltd Building is important in contributing to the evolution of upper George Street as a commercial precinct, aided by the establishment of the markets and transportation and the financial investments of businessman and publican Peter Murphy.
|The McDonnell & East Ltd Building is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an early 20th century department store, including the incorporation of advertising into the facade to illustrate the building's function.
|The McDonnell & East Ltd Building is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the quality of the street elevations, with the stepped parapet, ornamental detail and lettering, and paired window openings which give the facades a rhythmic quality.
|The building has a special association with the Brisbane firm of McDonnell & East Ltd and their contribution to the development of a department store culture in Brisbane in the early 20th century. The McDonnell & East Ltd Building also has special association with influential Brisbane architects TR Hall and GG Prentice, as an example of their commercial work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14896,"place_ref":600121,"name":"Harris Terrace","alternate_name":"Harris Court","street_address":"68 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Harris Terrace (1866) is a terrace of six former houses standing on the corner of George and Margaret streets in Brisbane’s CBD. In its prominent corner location, the building contributes to a precinct of other stately 19th to early-20th century buildings and there are attractive views encompassing its front elevation and built form available from Margaret and George streets.
\nThe building is long and narrow, stretching along George Street which it faces, and each house comprises two storeys plus an attic level. It stands near the front of its allotment behind narrow garden beds. It has brick walls: front and side walls are rendered and scored with ashlar coursing while the rear brick walls are not rendered. It has a timber-framed gable roof clad with slate shingles. The building is divided by brick party walls into three mirror-reversed pairs of houses. The party walls incorporate back-to-back rendered brick chimney stacks which extend above the roof line. Each house has two central barrel-vaulted dormer windows into the attic level (one front-facing and one rear-facing).
\nThe front elevation features a convex-roofed, two-storeyed verandah with a masonry ground floor slab and a timber-framed first floor. It features filigree cast metal posts and balustrades, and a masonry transom at first floor level with moulded render cornice. The party walls of the six houses extend forward to divide the front verandah into six, featuring arched niches or openings on both levels. The front of each house has an arch-headed door to one side and two double-hung windows on the ground floor and three French doors on the first floor.
\nThe side elevations of the building are mostly blank: two original narrow windows on the Margaret Street one (south-eastern) have been supplemented at an early stage by an arch-headed ground floor window. The building’s other (north-western) side elevation has a pair of small, attic-level windows with a shared timber-framed, bull-nose hood with timber board cheeks.
\nThe rear elevation has windows on both levels and projecting from the rear wall are two-storey sections, which accommodate part of each house’s stair hall. This formed the connection between the main house and the now-demolished service wings. Each stair hall features tall, arch-headed windows above a ground floor door (some of these tall windows have been altered to be shorter and some of the doors have been converted to windows c1960-1 but retain their brick flat arch heads).
\nThe interior layout of each former house, likely originally identical, has been altered to convert them into interconnected open plan offices. Openings have been made in the original brick partitions; some are large or have removed entire partitions.
\nComprising front hall and rear stair hall beside a front drawing room connected to a rear dining room, the ground floor’s original layout is substantially legible. As is the first floor’s layout, comprising two bedrooms. On both levels, openings have been made in a line through the centre of the building to form a transverse corridor. Modern suspended ceilings concealing services have been run through these corridors. The attic level retains some elements of the original partitioning, with one large space created across the entire six houses: non-original partitions have been inserted in the centre of the attic to form a mechanical plant room.
\nThree of the stair halls have decorative timber stairs (which are likely to incorporate original fabric in their c1985 reconstruction): the other stairs have been removed to convert these stair halls to toilets/kitchenettes with concrete slab floors. The openings from the stair hall into the now-demolished rear service wing, which was likely a few steps lower than the main house floor level, have been in-filled. The drawing room, dining room, and first floor bedrooms retain chimney breasts; however, the arched fireplaces have been closed over with masonry and smooth plastered.
\nConsiderable conservation work (c1985) has occurred throughout the building. This includes the verandah filigree work, interior plasterwork (walls, ceilings, and cornices) and timber joinery (skirtings, stairs, windows, doors, and fanlights). The rear-facing dormer windows (originally small and simple) have been removed and rebuilt to match the large decorative dormers of the front. The reconstruction work has not replicated the hierarchy of decorative details in joinery or plaster work. It has replicated the decorative detail of the ground floor (the most decorative) and applied it to all floors and areas (so that the attic has the same decorative detail as the ground floor).
\nFeatures of Harris Terrace of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of Harris Terrace not of state-level cultural heritage significance:
\nAreas of archaeological potential of state-level significance:
\nHarris Terrace is a two-storey plus attic masonry building on George Street, Brisbane City.[1] Initially a residential terrace of six houses, it was constructed in 1866 for Brisbane businessman and politician George Harris and was designed by noted architect James Cowlishaw.
\nTraditionally part of the lands of the Turrbal and Jagera Peoples,[2] since the 1820s, the north bank and adjacent ridgeline of the Brisbane River, now containing William and George streets, has featured a concentration of government and associated activities and uses. Over the period of the Moreton Bay penal settlement, buildings were constructed along this ridgeline and utilised by government officials for ‘accommodation, administration and control'.[3] When the area was opened for free settlement in 1842, the remnant penal infrastructure was used by surveyors as a basis for the layout of the new town of Brisbane. Set at right angles to the river, the prisoner's barracks determined Queen Street, while the line of buildings along the ridge determined William Street. Streets surveyed parallel to these streets, including George Street, formed Brisbane's rectangular grid.[4]
\nWhile a range of buildings and activities occurred along George and William streets and the north bank from the 1840s, the government maintained a dominant presence in the area. At some sites, such as the Commissariat Store (former) [QHR 600176] and Brisbane Botanic Gardens [QHR 600067], earlier uses were continued. The establishment phase following the creation of Queensland in 1859 saw the new colonial government reserve land parcels and construct a range of buildings to facilitate its functions. The building of Government House [QHR 600118] and Parliament House [QHR 600069] at the eastern end of George Street in the 1860s consolidated the area as a government precinct.[5]
\nThe location of Parliament House had a pronounced effect on the built environment around lower George Street. Many of Queensland's early politicians were pastoralists, a reflection of their economic dominance in the colony. Together with a growing workforce of public servants, these politicians required accommodation when in Brisbane. From the 1860s to the 1880s, a range of buildings, many built by, or for politicians, was constructed to address these needs.[6]
\nHarris Terrace was erected as a speculative investment for George Harris. Harris (1831-1891) was born in London, migrated with his family to Sydney in 1833 and came to Brisbane in 1848 to work with his elder brother John. The partnership of John and George Harris, general merchants and shipping agents, was established in 1853, with the firm involved in importing goods and exporting wool and tallow. George Harris became a well-known business and society figure in Brisbane. Following Queensland's separation from New South Wales in 1859 he was appointed a member of the first Legislative Council, serving until August 1878.[7]
\nThe first half of the 1860s was a period of strong growth for Brisbane. Immigration boosted the population dramatically (more than doubling between 1861 and 1864 to over 12,000) and many substantial public and private buildings were constructed during this time. The permanent nature of the buildings was also partly influenced by provisions in the Municipalities Act 1864, which required brick or stone construction and non-flammable roofing material in designated first class building areas.[8]
\nIn 1865 Harris commissioned architect James Cowlishaw to design a terrace building of six self-contained residences on the western corner of George and Margaret streets. The property, originally surveyed as allotment 1 of section 9, had been previously owned by John Betts, a property speculator who bought the land at one of Brisbane's earliest land sales in Sydney in 1842. It is unclear if any improvements were made to the land prior to Harris purchasing the property in 1856. Cowlishaw, considered Brisbane's ‘first successful private architect'[9] arrived in 1860 from Sydney and soon became highly regarded and in demand. Prior to designing the terrace, Cowlishaw undertook other design work for Harris and his firm, including improvements to J&G Harris' wharf and stores at nearby Short Street , a new Ipswich warehouse, and repairs and additions to his then residence, Newstead House [QHR 600265]. In 1861 Cowlishaw also designed a terrace building on the eastern corner of George and Margaret streets for another politician, Arthur Hodgson.[10]
\nTerrace houses were an urban residential building type that came to Australia from England in the early 19th century. Essentially narrow-fronted adjoining houses, terraces were built as dwellings for people across the classes, as was reflected in their respective forms, scales, materials and settings. While fairly common in mid-to-late 19th century suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, terraces were fewer in Brisbane. Those constructed were largely in the centre of Brisbane, or in nearby residential areas like Spring Hill and Petrie Terrace.[11] In 2020, there are 13 known rows of 19th century terrace houses remaining in Queensland.[12]
\nThe Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act 1885, introduced to avoid ‘slum' conditions in areas of medium density dwellings, effectively limited the construction of terraces in Queensland. The minimum size of 16 perches (405 m2) for allotment subdivisions established the detached house as the standard dwelling type. While some terrace houses were built by property speculators as rentals in Brisbane after 1885 (most notably The Mansions [QHR 600119]) dwellings could not be sold individually. Other than Harris Terrace, only three other terrace houses constructed in the 1860s, Athol Place, Spring Hill [QHR 600167]; Princess Row, Petrie Terrace; and 558-62 Boundary Street, Spring Hill [Brisbane City Council heritage register] survive in Brisbane.[13]
\nCowlishaw first advertised for whole or separate tenders for the construction of Harris Terrace, described as ‘six first class houses', in July 1865. He readvertised in February 1866, again requesting the erection of the six houses ‘at the risk of the former contractor'. When the building was completed, a Mr Clarke[14] was identified as the contractor, with the cost of construction £8000. The building was advertised in December 1866 as ready for occupation from 1 January 1867.[15] Shortly after, the building was described as, '...substantially built, possessing an imposing exterior presence, and the interior arrangements contain all the requisites of a well-finished dwelling house of the mother-country, combined with the protection required by a warm climate...'.[16]
\nWhen completed, Harris Terrace was a two-storey rendered brick building with an attic level in the roof space. Based on early descriptions, in each of the six houses, which were arranged in mirror-reverse pairs, the ground floor contained a drawing and dining rooms connected by folding doors, with two bedrooms on the first floor and two more in the attic. Extending from the rear of each house was a two-storey service wing, connected to the house via a stair hall. It housed a kitchen and bathroom. Behind this was a single-storey section, conjecturally accommodating a servant's bedroom or laundry. The building had a gable slate roof with barrel-vaulted dormer attic windows partly concealed by a balustraded parapet, bearing ‘HARRIS TERRACE 1866' at its centre. A two-storey verandah with a concave roof ran along the front and featured filigree cast iron posts and balustrade (first floor only). The ground floor front windows had timber louvre shutters and, possibly an early addition, the first floor was sheltered on the balustrade line by full length venetian blinds on four of the six houses.[17] The verandahs were divided by the party walls, featuring arched niches, and the front yard was divided into individual, narrow gardens behind a decorative picket fence. Immediately adjacent to the building on George Street (on its northwest side) stood a single-storey building, and Harris Terrace was prominent within the 1860s George Street streetscape into the early-20th century.[18] Views to Harris Terrace were obtained from George and Margaret streets from the northwest to the north and around to the east, and southeast.[19]
\nEarly tenants of Harris Terrace who were members of Parliament included Joshua Bell, William Yaldwyn and Kevin O'Doherty. Other early tenants, Mrs Unsworth (no. 5) and Mrs and Miss de Villers (no. 3) ran girls schools in 1867, with the latter offering rooms for boarders.[20] By mid-1868 Harris Terrace was promoted as having ‘already acquired the reputation of being the best private residences in the city'.[21] Along with politicians, medical professionals and senior public servants also numbered among early residents. The houses were individually numbered and some were given their own name.
\nFollowing insolvency in 1876, George Harris surrendered Harris Terrace to mortgagee James Taylor, a Darling Downs landholder and politician. In 1887 the property was acquired by two other members of Parliament, Boyd Morehead and William Pattison, who both lived at Harris Terrace at this time. The following year Morehead and Pattison, with another politician John Stevenson, commissioned the building of ‘The Mansions' – Brisbane's most elaborate terrace house, adjacent to Harris Terrace on the southern corner of George and Margaret streets.[22]
\nThe use of the houses in Harris Terrace for accommodation continued into the first decades of the 20th century. From the mid-1880s some of the individual houses became boarding houses. By the 1920s all of the houses contained in Harris Terrace were being utilised for boarding, often called ‘residential chambers'. In 1922 Frank, Jessie and Ethel Lingley bought the building and changed the name to ‘Harris Court'. The Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act was repealed in 1923 and from this time individual titles were created for the Harris Terrace houses. The Lingleys retained the house on the Margaret Street corner adapting it into a café and building a front extension to the George Street alignment, with an awning over the footpath.[23] The Royal Queensland Art Society acquired one of the houses in 1924. House no. 5 (fifth from the Margaret Street corner) had by the 1940s been altered with a two-storey front extension to the George Street alignment, also with an awning over the footpath.[24]
\nIn the immediate post-war years of the late 1940s the Queensland Government expanded its activities considerably in Brisbane City. Most public servants were then located in the Treasury Building [QHR 600143] and Executive Building (later the Land Administration Building [QHR 600123] in George Street and in offices in the Anzac Square Building [QHR 600059]. The shortage of office accommodation in the centre of Brisbane, and the need to address future requirements, led to a phase of governmental property acquisition in the city. The purchase of properties on George and William streets between the Government Printing Office [QHR 600114] and Parliament House was a key focus, in addition to other acquisitions on Charlotte, Mary, and Margaret streets. Harris Terrace was purchased around this time. Despite their varying condition and former uses, these newly acquired buildings were quickly adapted for government use.[25]
\nHowever, because Harris Terrace was bought with existing leases, it was not until the mid-1950s that the last tenants left the building. In 1958, architect John Hitch, in association with architects from the Department of Public Works, prepared plans to adapt the building for government use. The original service wings and outbuildings to the rear were demolished and replaced by a new steel-framed, sawtooth-roofed annexe, connected to the earlier structure, and containing open-plan office spaces.[26]
\nAlterations occurred to the original building in 1960-61, including the removal of the verandahs and later extensions from the front of the building, and the replacement of the front doors with windows to the middle four houses, leaving entrances only at either end of the building. Original windows were removed or replaced, the barrel-vaulted dormers were replaced with gabled dormers, and chimney and fireplace openings were bricked in. The interiors of Harris Terrace were also altered. Three of the original six staircases were removed, replaced with toilets on ground and first floors, and partitions were demolished and openings made in party walls to link the rooms into a series of open offices. A range of government offices were accommodated in the old building and annexe following the completion of works.[27]
\nThe consolidation of government ownership and usage along George and William streets led to the state investigating a number of schemes to further the development of a ‘government precinct'. By 1965, a masterplan had been developed involving the demolition of all buildings between the old Executive Building and Parliament House (which would have included Harris Terrace), to enable the construction of three 15-storey office buildings in a ‘plaza setting'. Only one of these, a high-rise called the Executive Building, was completed in 1971 (demolished 2017) as part of this plan. By the early 1970s this plan for the precinct was considered unsuitable and a number of other proposals for the area were explored.[28]
\nA 1974 ‘George Street Masterplan' was developed, envisioning lower rise buildings spread out over greater areas, some retention of existing buildings, and the demolition of the Belle Vue Hotel (opposite Parliament House) and The Mansions (adjacent). Ultimately, a major influence in shaping the layout of the area during the 1970s was the growing community support for the retention of older buildings within the government precinct, especially the Belle Vue Hotel and The Mansions. Spearheaded by the National Trust, the government-related associations and links between buildings, their architectural qualities, and aesthetic contributions to the area were highlighted in submissions to the government and in the public sphere. The unannounced June 1974 removal of the balconies of the Belle Vue Hotel was a deliberate action by the State government to degrade the visual appearance of the area, and drew further attention to the conservation cause.[29]
\nIn April 1979 Cabinet adopted a recommendation for a schedule of demolition work to progress the development of the government precinct. The Belle Vue Hotel was to be demolished, but The Mansions and the original section of Harris Court were to be retained, renovated, and adapted. On 21 April, three days after this decision, the Belle Vue Hotel was demolished in the early hours of the morning, a notorious event in the history of heritage conservation in Queensland.[30]
\nHarris Terrace and The Mansions were retained, while large areas were cleared around it to build the State Works Centre (80 George Street), a sprawling seven-storey building on two George Street blocks (bridged across Margaret Street), completed in 1985. Harris Terrace and The Mansions stood in the new building’s landscaped forecourts. As part of this project, renovations and major conservation works were undertaken at Harris Terrace involving architects from the Department of Public Works in association with Conrad and Gargett Architects. Work included the reconstruction of the verandahs, with new posts and balustrades similar to the originals; a new slate roof; reinstatement of front entrance doors (not all operable) and barrel-vaulted dormers (those of the rear were made larger than the originals); installation of new doors, windows, architraves, and skirtings of earlier forms and profiles; and new moulded ceilings on the ground and first floors. At this time the building reverted to its original name of ‘Harris Terrace'.[31] Thereafter, it was used as office accommodation.
\nThe State Works Centre was demolished in 2017 (as were other large government buildings in the precinct) to make way for an extensive integrated resort development called ‘Queen’s Wharf Brisbane’. Harris Terrace was retained and vacated, planned for redevelopment and integration into the precinct. Beside and behind the building, deep excavations were made to build a multi-storey underground car park. Archaeological investigations prior to the deep excavations revealed footings from the adjacent former United Services Club (built c1913, demolished c1980s) to the northwest, and disturbance associated with construction of the State Works Centre development to the southwest.[32]
\nA strip of land along the back of Harris Terrace, approximately 1.3m from the rear walls of the stair halls that connected with the former service wings, was not excavated. Limited archaeological investigations undertaken in this area in 2017 revealed substantial Brisbane tuff footings beneath the main terrace house, and shallow brick footings beneath one of the stair halls, as well as 19th century glass, ceramic, and metal artefactual material and faunal remains (bone).[33]
\nIn 2020, Harris Terrace is one of 11 known 1860s buildings remaining in Brisbane City; one of only 13 known rows of terrace houses in Queensland; and one of only four known 1860s rows of terrace houses in Queensland (all in Brisbane).[34]
","criteria":"Harris Terrace, constructed as a terrace of six houses in 1866, is important in demonstrating the evolution of housing in Queensland. A rare example of 1860s terrace housing, it illustrates the early use of this housing type in Queensland.
\nHarris Terrace is important in demonstrating the early residential nature of lower George Street, a pattern that occurred largely in response to the concentration of government and associated activities in this area of inner Brisbane.
|As one of only 13 known 19th century terraces remaining in Queensland, of which only four are known to remain from the 1860s, Harris Terrace is important as a rare example of this type. It is also rare as a surviving 1860s building in Brisbane City.
|Harris Terrace has potential to contribute knowledge that will lead to a greater understanding of early urban residential construction and living in Queensland. The area immediately behind the building may contain archaeological evidence including the foundations of the demolished service wings. Artefacts within this and subfloor areas may include those commonly associated with domestic habitation such as glass, ceramics, and bone. Archaeological investigations have the potential to yield information about mid-19th century urban residential building techniques and materials, and the activities, lifestyles and material culture of the former occupants of Harris Terrace.
|Harris Terrace is important for its aesthetic significance with its dignified, well-composed front elevation and filigree open verandahs. Standing on its prominent corner site, with views of its front elevation and built form from George and Margaret streets, Harris Terrace makes an important contribution to the lower George Street streetscape of stately 19th century buildings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14897,"place_ref":600122,"name":"Transcontinental Hotel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"468 & 482 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This Victorian era hotel located near the intersection of George and Roma Street features filigree cast iron lacework that has recently been reinstated onto the original cast iron verandah posts. It is of rendered brick construction with three storeys on the George Street facade and a fourth level basement. The basement walls are Brisbane Tuff stonework. The George Street facade has a post supported curved corrugated iron awning over the footpath, and balconies on the upper two levels. Eight pairs of French-lights open onto the balconies on each level. The first floor is emphasised by having a greater balcony height than the top floor. The topmost balcony has a curved corrugated iron roof hipped at the ends.
The building is crowned with a decorative parapet which includes the name 'TRANSCONTINENTAL HOTEL' in raised lettering and a curved central parapet section bearing the date 1884 in a circular recess.
Although the building has been restored externally, its internal refurbishment, involving the removal of fittings and the creation of a large internal space, does not convey the impression of a Victorian Hotel. Its prominent location and the intact nature of its external Victorian detailing make this building a notable landmark in this area of Brisbane.
","history":"The Transcontinental Hotel was constructed in 1883-4. In 1879 Peter Murphy, wine and spirit merchant, leased premises in George Street from Francois Boudin. In 1881 he acquired the adjoining vacant land. On 28 August 1883 Peter Murphy, then publican and lessee of the Burgundy Hotel, businessman, financier of MacDonnell & East (1901) and Member of the Legislative Council (MLC, 1904-1922), announced by public notice in The Telegraph his intention to apply for a new publican's license and to build a new hotel on this site. Intended to accommodate passengers from the nearby railway, the Transcontinental Hotel was to comprise "16 bedrooms, 1 dining room, 1 luncheon room, 1 billiard room, 4 sitting rooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, store, pantry, cellar and outhouses".
On 22 September 1883 renowned architect Francis Drummond Greville (FDG) Stanley called tenders for the erection of a first class hotel for Peter Murphy. The new hotel, with a frontage of 74 feet and a depth of 40 feet, was four storeys high, one of which was below street level. The Brisbane Courier reported that the Transcontinental Hotel contained 27 bedrooms, seven public rooms, billiard room and a private bar". A sunshade of "ornamental design" was attached to the front and the two upper storeys had balconies four feet, six inches wide, with "ornamental iron columns, brackets, frieze and railings". The hotel offered comfortable accommodation, a first class table, with "all the delicacies of the season being provided". The bar trade was one of the largest in Brisbane, with only the best liquor carried.
In the 1880s, George Street contained most of Brisbane's inner city first-class hotels, including the Bell Vue (1886), Cosmopolitan (1887), Shakespeare (1887-88), Treasury (1887-88), Criterion (c1883), Imperial (1885-6), Lennon's (1883-4), Grosvenor (c1882), New Crown (188?) and the Transcontinental (1883-4). Of these, the Treasury, Grosvenor and Transcontinental are the only three to have survived.
In 1906 new lessee Denis O'Connor commissioned architect, GHM Addison to design extensive alterations to the interior. At the opening ceremony of the new bar on 30 October 1906 the Transcontinental was declared to be "the most ornate and best equipped" hotel in Australia. In 1925 the hotel was further remodelled as part of Peter Murphy's redevelopment plans for upper George Street as a commercial precinct. Murphy's business acumen was realised by 1926 when upper George Street was declared to be "one of the most flourishing business" sectors outside of Queen Street and Fortitude Valley.
The Murphy family owned the Transcontinental Hotel until 1935 when it was sold to Castlemaine Perkins. The McCoy family were licensees from the 1930s until the 1980s. In 1988 the hotel owners, Austotel, commissioned Hampton Interiors to restore the Transcontinental. The ornate cast iron balustrading which was removed in 1965, was reinstated and the original exterior colours were repainted.
","criteria":"Built near Roma Street Railway Station, the Transcontinental Hotel is important in illustrating the important role of hotels in providing accommodation for Queensland travellers in the late 19th century. It also provides rare surviving evidence of the former importance of George Street as a late 19th century accommodation precinct.
|The Transcontinental is a typical example of an 1880s era boom era hotel in Brisbane's central business district, displaying filigree cast iron lacework and a post supported street awning.
|It has aesthetic significance as a prominent part of the streetscape at the intersection of George and Roma Streets.
|The Transcontinental Hotel is significant for its strong association with Peter Murphy, Member of the Legislative Council, publican and George Street property speculator, from 1881 until 1925.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14898,"place_ref":600123,"name":"Land Administration Building","alternate_name":"Former Executive Building","street_address":"142 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Lands Administration Building is a four-storeyed government office building occupying a site bounded by George Street, Stephens Lane, William Street and Queens Gardens (600112). The form and scale of the building complement the Treasury Building (600143) and the former State Library (600177) located nearby. It forms the southeastern edge of the important group of government buildings surrounding Queens Gardens, which also includes the Family Services Building (600111) and the William Street retaining wall (600135).
The building is constructed of masonry, steel and concrete and faced with sandstone from Helidon and Warwick. It sits on a plinth faced with alternate courses of Enoggera and Mt Crosby granite. The principal elevation to Queens Gardens and the elevations to George and William Streets have banded rustication on the lower two storeys. This two-storeyed base supports a colonnade of giant order ionic columns.
The design of the facades is in the style of the Edwardian Baroque. At each corner and in the centre of the principal elevation, pavilions jut out terminating the colonnade. The pavilions are enriched with rusticated columns and pilasters. The central pavilion addressing Queens Park is surmounted by an open segmental pediment. This pediment supports an allegorical sculpture depicting agriculture and mining.
The building has an entrance in the centre of both the George Street and William Street elevations. Each entrance is marked with a broken segmental pediment. Behind the upper colonnades there is a long recessed balcony. The use of fine wrought iron detail to balustrades, railings and gates compliments the masonry detail.
The stained glass in the entrance vestibules and elsewhere in the interior complements the use of sculpture externally. Depicted in stained glass in the William Street vestibule is a sower, a reaper, a pioneer and squatter. The glass in the George Street vestibule depicts a tiller and a herdsman. A marble tablet set into the wall of this entrance is inscribed with the message sent by King George V to the people of Australia on 25 April 1916, establishing the Anzac day tradition. An honour board commemorating Lands Department staff who served in the First World War is located in the corridor on the first floor [see appendix].
The basic form of the building echoes the layout of the Treasury building. It is a perimeter block building around a central courtyard. A wide hallway runs around most of the building with doorways on either side opening onto rooms that are lit via windows to the courtyard or to the street or garden. The hallway does not continue through the centre of that part of the building located on Stephens Lane. Rooms in this wing are accessed from an arcade on the northeastern edge of the courtyard. Cast-iron balconies also provide circulation around the courtyard. Vertical circulation is provided by fine staircases and lifts associated with the two street entrances. The design also echoes the Treasury building by providing colonnades on the three main elevations.
The construction demonstrates an early use of reinforced concrete floors in a large scale building. Steel framing was employed in the roofs over the photographic rooms on the top floor and over the fireproofed sections. Metal roller shutters were installed in the fireproof sections.
The principal architectural spaces include rooms formerly used for the Executive Council Chamber, the Land Court, and offices of the Premier and the Minister of Lands, which have a private stairway to George Street. These rooms have ornamental coffered plaster ceilings and timber panelling to dado height. The former Executive Council Chamber has three stained glass windows positioned above the dado which can also be seen from the hallway.
The building is very intact, internally and externally.
","history":"This four-storeyed masonry government office building was erected between 1901 and 1905. Initially intended as offices for the Lands and Survey Departments, it was finished and occupied in 1905 as the Executive Building, accommodating both the Lands and Survey Departments and offices of the Premier and Executive Council. It is the most prominent Brisbane example of state building activity associated with the economic recovery of the late 1890s, and with the colony's newly federated status.
In 1898-99 plans were prepared under the supervision of chief architect Thomas Pye of the government architect's office. Special provisions for the Lands Department included Minister's offices, drafting rooms, photographic and heliographic rooms, and a Land Court. With the inclusion of offices for the Executive Council and Cabinet, a separate entrance in George Street was designed for ministerial access.
A £2,900 contract for site preparation and foundations was commenced in 1899, and in 1901 the principal construction contract for £141,000 was let to Brisbane builder Arthur Midson.
The use of expanded metal lathing as a re-enforcement to the concrete floors and ceilings was amongst the earliest application of such technology in Australia, and was a first in Queensland.
The building was symbolic of state pride and achievement, and was seen as a showcase for Queensland materials. Granite used as the base course and plinth was obtained from Enoggera and Mount Crosby. Brown freestone from Helidon was used to face the outer walls, and freestone from Yangan near Warwick was used on the colonnade walls. The decorative carving to the facades, completed during 1903-04, included in the northwestern elevation an allegorical group representing Queensland mining and agriculture, carved by New South Wales sculptor WP MacIntosh to a design by Thomas Pye. The mantelpieces were constructed of a variety of Queensland timbers (maple, cedar, black bean and silky oak) representing the state's timber resources. Allegorical stained glass highlighted the rural nature of the Queensland economy.
The Queensland National Art Gallery occupied a purpose-designed room the length of the third floor above George Street from 1905 until 1930.
Both Executive Council and Cabinet met in the building from 1905 until 1971, when new offices were constructed at 100 George Street. Since then the former Executive Building has been known as the Land Administration Building.
The gas lamps on the pavements at the William and George Street entrances were erected by about 1911. Those delineating the George Street entrance appear to have been moved further apart. They still function, lit by natural gas.
","criteria":"As the most important building constructed by the Queensland government during the economic recovery of the early 1900s, the Lands Administration Building is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history.
|The highly intact Lands Administration Building is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of Edwardian Baroque public architecture, and is the finest example of its type constructed in Queensland.
|The building is important in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, and by architectural historians in particular, the accomplished design, detailing, materials and workmanship, its townscape contribution, particularly in relation to the adjacent buildings and sites and the aesthetic quality and connotations of the associated artworks and furnishings, including the stained glass and sculptural work.
|The Lands Administration Building has a strong and special association with the role and prestige of government, being an integral member of the most prominent, important and cohesive group of government buildings in Queensland.
|The Lands Administration Building has a strong and special association with the role and prestige of government, being an integral member of the most prominent, important and cohesive group of government buildings in Queensland.
The building has a special association with Queensland Executive government for nearly seven decade and with important Queensland architect Thomas Pye, being one of his major works.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14899,"place_ref":600124,"name":"Brisbane Grammar School","alternate_name":"Brisbane Grammar","street_address":"24 Gregory Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"Brisbane Grammar School
The Brisbane Grammar School is sited on the crest of a ridge that overlooks Albert Park and Roma St Railway yards to the south, and Victoria Park and Kelvin Grove to the north; the site is bounded by College Road, Gregory Terrace, and the Railway Line, and has its main entrance from Gregory Terrace.
The siting and architectural character of buildings at Boys Grammar School reinforce a hierarchy of buildings of primary and secondary importance. The 'primary' buildings include the Main Building (1879), the Administration Building (1912) and War Memorial Library (1923), which form a collection of brick Collegiate Gothic buildings with pale masonry dressings and pitched rooves at the centre of the school. They are sited on highest point of the school grounds, a finger-shaped plateau which runs westwards from Gregory Terrace. The central buildings are encircled by 'secondary' buildings comprised of classrooms and boarders accommodation to the north and the east, sited on the sides of slopes which fall way from the central plateau. These include brick, pitched roof buildings which are complementary in character to the central buildings: the School House (1887), the New Building (1916) and the more recently acquired Correspondence School (1899). The Sports Grounds extend towards the north west at a lower terraced level which has been cut out of the side of the hill. The south of the school is screened from the road with a vegetated embankment. The recent entrance driveway from Gregory Terrace and the symmetrical grouping of new buildings around the axis of the War Memorial Library contrasts with the picturesque grouping of the buildings as seen from the earlier entrance driveway.
The grounds contain a number of memorial objects; the "German" field gun to the south of the Main Building, an octagonal sandstone memorial drinking fountain to the east of the Administration Building, and several plaques to the buildings' exteriors. The grounds also contain a double-storeyed brick and corrugated iron roofed toilet block, sited on an escarpment to the northwest of the Main Building. It has rendered concrete lintels, unglazed high-set openings and a rendered masonry portico.
Vegetation features within the grounds include: remains of an avenue of Moreton Bay figs which once led from the school gates to the main buildings (planted 1879); a row of palms which supplanted some of the figs (planted 1918); three "royal trees" (two planted in 1881 and one in 1968); four pines, seeds of which came from the Lone Pine at Gallipoli on the bank near the "German" field gun (planted in 1978), several figs to the south west entrance to the oval (1941), and a number of trees planted or donated by eminent people associated with the school.
A pair of steel gates hinged from brick posts are located on the south eastern boundary of the school; these gates mark an entry that is no longer in use. A porphyry square-necked rubble wall runs along part of the southern boundary.
The Brisbane Grammar School forms an unusually intact collection of buildings, notable for the coherent architectural character and siting logic that has been developed and largely maintained over the years.
Brisbane Grammar School - Main Building
Sited centrally on the schools highest plateau, with its principal frontage to College Road, the Main Building is a double-storeyed brick Gothic building with rendered masonry and cement dressings and a slate tiled pitched roof. It is a symmetrical building comprised of central Great Hall rising above and flanked by two classroom wings. The wings have a crucifix plan, and their long axes run east-west; the Great Hall runs north-south and has an Oamaru stone porch to its south. The building has been extended to the north with a Science Wing (1912) to the eastern end and new classrooms (1963) to the western end.
The roof is comprised of a series of intersecting pitches which run concurrent with the long axes of the rooms below, and is decorated with a band of fish-tailed slates.
The Southern frontage to College Rd has three double-storeyed projecting bays with parapeted gables and corner buttresses to the Great Hall and end classrooms. The eastern and western frontages have single, central double-storeyed projecting bays, also with corner buttresses and parapeted gables.
To the north, only the projecting bay of the Great Hall remains visible.
To the south, the projecting bays are spaced with an arcaded awning to the ground floor with a sheet metal roof, rendered masonry spandrels and paired cast iron columns with Collegiate Gothic capitals. The Oamaru stone porch, a single-storeyed aedicule, has arched entry ways to the east and west, surmounted by pediments and flanked by paired half columns, and two arched openings to the south. The columns capitals are richly carved with oak, holly and shamrock leaf motifs. The cornice, pediment and balustrade feature quatrefoil motifs.
The northern frontage has timber verandahs giving access to first level classrooms, with squared sheeted spandrel panels, and supported on paired columns with foliate capitals. The verandahs have battened balustrades, raked timber ceilings to the upper level and ripple iron ceilings to ground level. Part of the verandah to the east has been closed in with fibre cement sheeting.
The projecting bays to the south, east and west have pairs of pointed arch tracery windows with single rosettes above, with a single larger tracery window to the northern and southern end of the Great Hall. Rectangular windows with pointed arch motifs run between the projecting bays, and the rooms are accessed via timber double doors. Rendered masonry dressings include toothed window surrounds, hood mouldings, cornices with dentils, and copings.
The upper level classrooms at the ends of the east and west wings feature timber arched braced trusses springing from semi-circular impost blocks, diagonally boarded timber ceilings with exposed rafters, and timber cornices with quatrefoil motifs. The four classrooms either side of the Great hall on the upper floor and several on the ground floor have sheeted ceilings with dark timber coverstrips.
The Great Hall is spanned by similar but more elaborately decorated arched timber trusses to those found in the classrooms, also landing on semi-circular impost blocks. It has a diagonally boarded timber ceiling with exposed rafters and purlins, finished with a timber cornice with pierced motifs. The interior features two large stained glass windows, one at each end of the hall, and one to each side amongst a run of lancet windows. The entrances to the south, east and west have pointed arch cedar double doors. The doors and windows have mouldings, and a stepped dado moulding decorates the north and south walls. The Great Hall contains a number of memorial plaques, and WWI and WWII honour rolls.
This impressive primary building of the Grammar School group remains substantially intact in form and detail, retaining its well-crafted features, in particular the upper level classroom and Great Hall interiors, and the Oamaru stone porch.
Brisbane Grammar School - School House
The School House is a three-storeyed, Gothic-influenced painted brick building, sited on a slope to the west of the Main Building. It has a red terracotta tiled roof, comprised of a central, low pitched hipped portion and more steeply pitched edges intersected by gables. A 1972 boarding house directly adjoins the School House to the north.
The building has a rectangular plan, and is entered from the west on the ground floor, and the north, south and east on the first floor. A small loggia connects to the eastern entrance. To the ground and first floors, rooms are accessed from cruciform corridors with stairs to the west and the south. The intersection of the corridors are decorated with rendered masonry arches, and many of the ceilings are timber-boarded. The first floor bay windows are framed internally by a flat arch.
The upper floor is an impressive space with exposed timber trusses which span the width of the building. The gable ends of the exterior are expressed internally in the timber-lined ceiling.
The exterior has two differing expressions, the eastern and western elevations having an 'institutional' appearance in comparison to the more domestically-scaled southern facade designed as the entrance (previously the headmaster's residence). The eastern and western elevations are symmetrical compositions of gabled bays and paired windows, while the southern elevation features a one and a half storey entry portico with a gable end on the wall above, flanked by bay windows with small tiled roofs.
The building has triangular head windows to the upper storey, arched windows to the first floor, and windows with slightly flatter arches to the ground floor. Each gable end has a rounded triangular vent at its peak. The elevations are linked horizontally with projecting brick courses running at floor and sill level. These brick courses are comprised of diagonally-placed brick ends under a projecting course, framing rectangular motifs.
The School House is an integral part of the Grammar School group, exhibiting fine architectural qualities in the composition and brickwork detailing of its exterior, and its impressive interior space to the upper level.
Brisbane Grammar School Administration Building
The Science Wing is a two-storeyed Collegiate Gothic building adjoining the eastern wing of the Main Building to the north. Complementing the Main Building in form, the Science Wing is made of brick with light masonry dressings, and employs a similar formal language of parapeted gabled bays with corners buttresses to the north, east and west. It has a pitched tiled roof, with a pyramidal fleche rising above the roof line.
The western and eastern elevations are comprised of single gable ends, with two large pointed arch windows surmounted by three small lancets. The western elevation has a memorial bell-cote, set in a rendered masonry surround with bell suspended above a more recent clock. The northern elevation has a projecting gabled bay with two large pointed arched windows with a rosette above. It is flanked by two single-storeyed gabled bays with rectangular windows.
The refurbishment of the building included most of the windows. Leaded glass windows were replaced with steel mullioned windows with concrete spandrel panels and new rendered masonry surrounds, while pointed arched windows to the side walls were replaced with triangular head windows.
Originally comprised of three double-storeyed height rooms extending in turn to the west, north, and further out to the east, the building has been divided into two storeys. The ground floor has been partitioned for administrative offices, and the first floor now serves as a meeting area.
The fine and impressive timber roof structures of the three major rooms remain visible on the upper floor, being comprised of exposed timber blade trusses on quarter-round impost blocks. The ceilings have exposed rafter and purlins over timber boarding. A corner is formed by the continuation of the ceiling along the top of the wall.
Despite substantial internal alterations and the replacement of windows, the building remains a fine addition to the Main Building, retaining major elements of its skilfully-designed interior and exterior.
Brisbane Grammar School - New Building
The New Building is a two-storeyed brick building with timber verandahs, rendered concrete lintels and a fibro-cement tiled gambrel roof. It has a rectangular plan, with its long axis running east-west, and is sited immediately to the north of the main building. It has been cut into an escarpment, the result being a reduction of the bulk of the building in relation to the Main Building. It has one storey above ground level to the south, and two storeys above ground level to the north, with unobstructed views over the sports field, Victoria Park and Kelvin Grove. The escarpment has been retained with a brick batter wall.
The building is entered from the south via a timber bridge which runs across the batter wall at first floor level. This entrance is marked with a gable end with vertical timber battens, centred tulip motif, and curved valances. The same gable end is featured to the north.
The four classrooms to each level are accessed via north and south verandahs, and vertically linked with internal terrazzo stairs. To the south, the verandahs have vertically battened timber balustrades, and timber lattice panels to the lower level. To the north, the timber balustrades have been replaced with chainwire and steel pipe, and the lattice replaced with sheeted timber panels. The timber posts to the gabled ends, and to the east and western ends of the verandahs are paired, and decorated with timber panels with tulip motifs.
The verandah ceilings to the upper level are raked, with timber boarding with exposed eaves rafters; the western and eastern ends of the ceilings are finished with triangular panels with vertical battens. The verandahs have ripple iron ceilings to the ground floor.
The classrooms are lined and rendered internally, and have sheeted ceilings. All the classrooms are accessed from both sides via timber double doors. The rooms have two types of grided timber windows; paired sliding sash windows, and high-set grided timber windows with an inward tilting panel.
Despite alterations to the northern elevation, the building remains an intact example of skilful design with modest decoration achieved within the budgetary constraints of the classroom block type.
Brisbane Grammar School - War Memorial Library
The War Memorial Library is located immediately to the east of the Main Building, and terminates a vista to the west from Gregory Terrace which is framed by two 1960s buildings. It is a free-standing octagonal Gothic building with stained glass windows, and is made of red brick in English bond with sandstone dressings. It has a steeply pitched slate-tiled octagonal roof covering a single-storeyed space of tall proportions.
The building has stepped buttresses at the corners of the octagon, while the faces of the octagon have paired lancet windows alternating with single lancets which have dormers above. The entrances to the building are on the north and south faces through pointed arch timber double doors with carved inscriptions on either side. The sandstone door surrounds feature a gable carved with trefoil motifs above a hood mould. The sandstone battlement also features trefoil motifs, and is punctuated with curved gables surmounting the buttresses. Other sandstone dressings include hood
mouldings and toothed surrounds to windows, thin pilasters crowned with small spires which link the dormers to the windows below, and two courses of rough hewn stone at the base.
The interior has an elaborate exposed roof structure consisting of small arched trusses springing from sandstone impost blocks, which are centred on brick piers at the corners of the octagons. The trusses meet at a mid-point below the roof pinnacle; the remainder of the roof is supported with struts springing from a central half-post. It has a timber boarded ceiling with exposed rafters, and the dormers are expressed in the ceiling.
The room has twelve high-set stained glass windows with sandstone voussoirs encircling the room, as well as four stained glass windows to the dormers. Of the twelve windows, ten feature figures personifying chivalrous virtues; the window over the north door features the figure of peace, while south windows features that of victory. The building contains a number of commemorative plaques, and dark timber furniture with Gothic detailing. The latter comprises the "Crystal Cabinet", the "Octagonal Cabinet", a tall glass-fronted cabinet, a smaller glass-fronted cabinet, and a bench.
The Memorial Library is a very fine building in concept, composition and detailing. Its substantial and rich symbolic content makes it an unusual feature of a school building group.
Brisbane Grammar School - Old Correspondence School
The Old Correspondence School is located to the west of the School House [600124b], on a lower terraced level which falls gently to the west. It is a double-storeyed banded red-brick building with a red corrugated iron hipped roof, fronting onto and rising above College Road. The building is comprised of two wings; an 1899 wing which runs north-south, with its address to College Road, and an adjoining 1923 wing running east-west, which has a semi-basement to the west.
The southern elevation has a fine brick and sandstone entrance portico. The northern elevation has a projecting bay with its own pyramid roof, containing toilets, which is linked to the building with an enclosed timber verandah clad in weatherboard. The western elevation has a single-storeyed weatherboard-clad enclosed verandah, while the eastern elevation has a double-storeyed enclosed verandah. The eastern elevation has been extended with a single storeyed weatherboard annex.
The brickwork is banded with sandstone courses to the 1899 section, and beige brick courses to the later addition. These courses run above and below the windows, and a deep band of blue-grey brick runs around the base of the entire building. The windows to the upper level have flat arches with splayed brick voussoirs (excepting to the toilet bay). The ground floor windows have square heads with sandstone lintels and keystones to the 1899 section, and splayed brick lintels to the newer section. All openings to the west are protected with corrugated iron sunshades on timber brackets.
The entry portico to the south has rusticated brick pilasters flanking a sandstone arch with toothed voussoirs, set in a brick gable end surmounted by a sandstone cornice with dentils. The timber double entrance doors are surmounted by a similar sandstone arch around a glazed fanlight.
The interior features two timber staircases, which have timber balustrades with turned newels with rounded terminals. The windows are sliding sash with grided panes to the upper leaves, excluding those to the verandahs and toilet bay. The verandahs are accessed with timber double doors with fanlights.
The 1899 section has ripple iron ceilings, while the 1925 section has sheeted ceilings with coverstrips. The southern rooms have views to the city, Petrie Terrace and Paddington.
The 1898 building exhibits some fine detailing, and the later addition is successfully complementary in form, character and materials.
","history":"Brisbane Grammar School
The Brisbane Grammar School, constituted under the Grammar School Act 1860-1864, was officially opened on 1 February 1869 under the Headmastership of Thomas Harlin. It was the second Grammar School established in Queensland. The first buildings designed by architect Benjamin Backhouse with later additions by RG Suter were erected on a site along Roma Street and were demolished in 1911.
Following the expansion of the railway network, the school moved to the present site on Gregory Terrace. The foundation stone was laid by the Chairman of Trustees, Hon Charles Lilley on 28 November 1879. The site granted by the government in 1878 was bounded on three sides by Gregory Terrace, College Road (then known as New Road), and the railway line. In addition the School was granted by the government a piece of land across the railway line for a sporting ground and a corresponding area was excised from the south west corner of the Gregory Terrace site.
Arranging of the drive and tree planting including the planting of an avenue of Moreton Bay Figs along the main drive was carried out at the new site by School Trustee and founding member of the Acclimatisation Society LA Bernays. In 1918 the figs on the northern side of the drive were replaced by cocos palms. In 1881, students moved to the new school. The Main Building (QHR 600124a), comprising the Great Hall with single storeyed wings of classrooms on either side, was designed by architect James Cowlishaw. It was built to face College Road, overlooking the city and the old school. In the same year two Moreton Bay figs were planted by Princes Edward and George in the drive.
Not until the opening in 1887 of the School House (QHR 600124b), designed by architect Richard Gailey, was accommodation provided for boarders within the school grounds. The three storeyed School House also provided accommodation for Headmaster Roe and his family. In 1909 Roe resigned to become the Inspector General and Chief Educational Advisor in the Department of Public Instruction and former deputy FSN
Bousfield became Headmaster. In the same year, additions and alterations by architect GD Payne were carried out to the School House. Payne, who was the father of two boys at the school, was also responsible for the 1912 additions to the Main Building comprising a chemistry laboratory and physics laboratory (QHR 600124c) which were erected at a cost of less than £6,000 and for the New Building (QHR 600123d) erected in 1916 by the Works Department at a cost of £4,983. At this time levelling of the hill wicket was carried out. Later, in 1925 the Works Department carried out further work at the school with the addition of a second floor to the classroom wings of the Main Building.
On 11 August 1921, a World War I trophy, a "German" field gun donated to the school by old boy, Brigadier General LC Wilson, was unveiled.
The War Memorial Library (QHR 600124e) was opened on Armistice Day 1924 by Governor Nathan. Built as a memorial to some 1020 members of the School who served during World War I, it was erected to the design of architect John Barr, who had succeeded in a competition held amongst old boys of the school and subscribers to the War Memorial fund.
In 1928, former deputy Stuart Stephenson was appointed Headmaster and an appeal was launched to transform the Hill Wicket into a new turf cricket ground. The new turf which was levelled under the unemployment scheme was opened in 1932. In 1931 part of the oval was excised for the making of Gilcrest Avenue and in return the school was granted a portion of Victoria Park. With the depression, direct government funding and indirect funding via state scholarships was reduced. In the mid 1930's various improvements financed by government grant were undertaken and Brisbane City Council workmen beautified the approach and entrance to the school grounds with gardens, lawns, and rockeries.
Old boy George Carson-Cooling was appointed Headmaster in 1940 and was followed by HR Pigott in 1948. The oval across Gilcrest Avenue was leased from 1948-1966 to Ballymore. In the early 1950s beautification of the grounds was undertaken including planting shrubs on the frontage facing Brisbane; levelling part of the entrance road; making gardens at the gate and around the School House; a low stone wall and garden beds were made by fathers in 1955 to the College Road entrance; a start was made on filling up part of "no man's land" between boys and girls school to make a new playing field; and the main football ground was extended to full size with space for a running track and miniature rifle range.
In 1953, AE McLucas was appointed Headmaster. In that year the Frank Walker Gymnasium was opened and in the following year, the Old Boys Second World War Memorial Swimming Pool was opened.
HF Newell was appointed Head in 1956. New entrance gates were erected in 1959 and a new science block opened in 1960. In 1961 a players pavilion was erected on the oval and in the following year the Headmaster moved from the School House to a brick residence erected in the grounds. In 1963, a wing of four classrooms was added to the Main Building and the Newell Quadrangle was completed by the following year.
The Centenary Building Project was announced in 1964. It included the building of the Centennial Hall and the Library. Other work included the construction of Advanced Science Laboratories (1965); the conversion of the Science Wing into administration offices and masters common room (1966), the Manual Training Building (1967); additions to the School House (1972); the Humanities Building (1975); the addition of two floors to the Manual Training Building to become the Language Laboratory (1981); and the Music Auditorium (1982).
In 1982 the permanent closure of Kalinga Avenue between the Brisbane Grammar School and Brisbane Girls Grammar School was granted. In 1992, the Old Correspondence School (QHR 600124e), located on what was intended as part of the original endowment land, was purchased from the State Government.
Brisbane Grammar School - Main Building
The Main Building, comprising the Great Hall and classroom wings, was designed by architect James Cowlishaw and erected in 1880 with a second floor added to the classroom wings by the Public Works Department in 1925. It was the first building to be erected at the Brisbane Grammar School's new Gregory Terrace site.
With the expansion of the Roma Street railway yards, the school was forced to move to a new location selected on Gregory Terrace. On 28 November 1879 the foundation stone was laid by Chairman of Trustees and school benefactor, the Hon Charles Lilley.
By 1881, the new building costing some £12,000, had been completed by contractor, W MacFarlane. A detached wooden cottage was also erected for the caretaker and included a dining room for the pupils. Like the Main Building, this featured the use of the quatrefoil motif. The new school overlooked both the old school site and the city. Its hill top location was considered salubrious and picturesque. Cowlishaw's Collegiate Gothic design provided for a large central Hall, with single storeyed classroom wings on either side. It was brick and roofed with banded Bangor slates with cast iron cresting on the ridges.
The main entry, facing the city, was by a covered carriage porch of Oamaru stone bearing a number of carvings, and which led to the Great Hall. Inside, the ceiling was coloured sky blue and decorated with hundreds of gold stars. Soon after the opening the large stained glass windows, funded by subscriptions, were installed. Made by Ferguson and Urie of Melbourne, they are thought to be the earliest Australian produced windows in Queensland. Both windows are used to portray the ideals of the school. The northern window shows a young Queen Victoria flanked by men famous in British history, including maritime and military leaders, statesmen, poets, playwrights, and men of science, who look down on the boys inviting them to "emulate their noble deeds". The theme of the southern grisaille window speaks of the rewards bestowed by the Crown for loyalty and service. On either side of the Great Hall were the class room wings including Headmaster's office and science laboratory. As in the Great Hall, the ceilings and rafters of these rooms were coloured.
In 1912, the Science Wing (QHR 600124c) comprising chemistry and physics laboratories was added to the eastern wing by architect GD Payne. Major additions were undertaken in 1925, when a second floor containing ten new classrooms was added to what had previously been the single storeyed class room wings. In 1924, in response to rising enrolments, the Trustees of the school wrote to the Government Architect requesting that plans be prepared for eight additional classrooms. A proposal to extend the New Building was considered by the Public Works Department where the Chief Architect at the time was WJ Ewart, an old boy. In the following year the plan was rejected in favour of a proposal by old boy architect AE Brooks, to add the second floor. The proposal was considered by the Trustees to further dignify the architectural beauty of the building. It was also considered cheaper than the erection of a separate building. Leonard Kempster of the Public Works Department modified that proposal to enable the existing ground floor to be altered as little as possible thereby retaining the ground floor. The work, which cost £11,290 involved the raising of the existing roof to form the roof of the second storey and included the removal of fireplaces and chimneys and the replacement of the slate tiled roof.
In 1935, under architect TR Hall, an old boy, the slate roof of the Great Hall was renewed and the outside walls repaired. The stained glass window designed by William Bustard and executed by RS Exton was unveiled in 1951. It was donated by the Old Boys in memory of Maud Carson-Cooling, the wife of Headmaster George Carson-Cooling. Various works were undertaken during the mid 1950's, under the supervision of Professor RP Cummings including the repair of the roof of the main building, the renovation of the cloisters, the releading of the stained glass windows of the Great Hall; and the repainting of the interior of the Hall in an array of colours including the 500 gold stars on the ceiling.
In response to changes in education policy, in 1963, a two storeyed addition was made to the western wing consisting of 4 classrooms to accommodate what amounted to a double intake for the following year.
Lining the walls of the Great Hall are a number of honour boards and memorials. These include a bronze memorial plate designed by old boy architect RS Dods in 1897 in memory of school benefactor Sir Charles Lilley. In 1902 Dods also designed the cedar TJ Byrnes Honour Board, erected in memory of an old boy and former Premier of Queensland. In 1938, the Honour Board was extended with two lateral wings to Dods' original design. In 1916, an Honour Board, designed by TR Hall containing the names of 640 old boys who joined the Imperial forces during the Great War was unveiled together with tablets to Lt Colonel Hubert Harris and Captain TJ Bundrit. In 1949, the World War II honour board, designed by old boy architect DS Prangley, was unveiled. In the 1950's reorganisation of the interior of the Hall to accommodate the various memorials was carried out including the moving of the TJ Byrnes Honour Board.
Although now too small for entire gatherings of the school, the Great Hall remains a central symbol of it. The original classrooms are predominantly used as staff rooms.
Brisbane Grammar School - School House
The School House is a three storeyed brick building designed by architect Richard Gailey, and erected in 1887 to provide on site accommodation for boarders as well as a Headmaster's residence.
Prior to the erection of the School House, boarders at the School were housed off the school grounds, in the residences of masters and later nearby the residence of Headmaster Roe. In about 1883 plans for a boarding house were prepared by the architect of the Main Building (QHR 600124a), James Cowlishaw. Cowlishaw's proposal was not proceeded with, however, as the estimated cost of £8,500 exceeded the budget by some £2,500. Cowlishaw did however recommend to the Trustees that his former Clerk of Works, Richard Gailey be approached.
Gailey's plans forwarded to the School in September 1885 provided for a three storeyed red and white brick building. The Headmaster's residence occupied the main floor; with service and dining areas in the lower floor and the boys housed on the top floor which was divided into numerous cubicles. Gailey's planning of the entries to the School House was strategic. Access by the boys to the building was via a bridge to the Headmasters residence on the main floor from where the staircase lead to the floors above and below, giving the Headmaster complete control over the movement of his charges. Separate entry to the Headmaster's residence was provided from the southern side of the building. A Treasury loan of some £8,000 was made for the erection of the School House which was opened in January 1887, the contractor being H Holmes (£6,950).
In 1909, architect and father of two Brisbane Grammar School boys, GD Payne was commissioned to design alterations and additions to the School House. This was to be the first of Payne's works for the School. Later he was to design the Science Wing (QHR 600124c) added to the Main Building and the New Building (600124d). His work to the School House included a single storeyed timber framed building for servants' accommodation and ancillary facilities; on the lower story a larger dining room where the matron, laundry and common room were previously located; conversion of the former dining room to boys' prep room and former servants' quarters into additional study area, and the addition of single storeyed timber framed verandah to the northern end of the building housing a store, larder, and dairy. Alterations to the main and top floor, consisting of conversion of part of Headmaster's residence into boys' dormitory accommodation, and on the upper floor rearrangement of partitions and upgrading of showers and lavatories, may also have been carried out at this time, but were certainly completed by 1925.
During the 1930s the School House was repainted and improvements carried out. In the 1950s the slate roof was replaced by tiles. In 1962, a separate house was erected for the Headmaster and the Headmaster moved from the School House. In 1972, the three storeyed reinforced concrete dormitory wing, erected on the northern end of the School House by architect Colin Trapp, was opened.
Brisbane Grammar School Administration Building
The Administration Building is a two storeyed brick building adjoining the eastern classroom wing of the Main Building, which was erected as a science block in 1912 the design of architect GD Payne.
The Main Building erected in 1880 contained a science laboratory however the Science Wing was intended for the "more thorough experimental teaching of science". The Science Wing was the first classroom addition carried out at the School since its opening at the Gregory Terrace site. George Payne was also to be responsible for the design of further school buildings with the erection of the New Building in 1916. In 1909 Payne, who had two boys at the school, had also designed additions and alterations to the School House.
Payne's Science Wing was a contemporary and complementary interpretation of Cowlishaw's Collegiate Gothic building, in brick with light-coloured dressings, and high pointed arch coloured and leaded pane windows. It contained a large chemistry laboratory and smaller physics laboratory with timber galleries. These classrooms were impressive double-storey height spaces with exposed roof structures, and clerestory lighting and ventilation.
The cost of £6,000 was funded by the selling of endowment lands and a grant from Treasury for equipment. The Science Wing was opened on 26 July 1912 by the Governor Sir William MacGregor, a strong supporter of education and the advancement of science, and the school's Visitor.
In 1928 a bellcote designed by architect AE Brooks, an old boy, was erected by the Old Boys of the school in memory of school janitor and ringer of bells, George Rylatt.
A water fountain designed by architect TR Hall, an old boy, was erected to the south of the building in memory of Graham M Lumsden, who was killed during World War II. This was moved to the eastern side in 1964.
As part of the school's centenary building program, Payne's Science Wing was converted into an Administration Building by school architect Colin Trapp. The new work was opened in 1966.
Brisbane Grammar School - New Building
The New Building, a two storeyed brick building designed for the Trustees of the Brisbane Grammar School by Architect GD Payne, was erected by the Public Works Department in 1916 at a cost of some £5000 on the northern side of the Main Building overlooking the oval.
The New Building (as it is still known) was erected in response to the increasing numbers of enrolments at the School. Like other Grammar Schools, the Brisbane Grammar School was largely dependent for its enrolments on boys who were in receipt of State Scholarships. In 1914, a change in the policy of the awarding of those Scholarships occurred resulting in an increasing number of recipients and hence an increasing number of enrolments at the school. In response to this increase, the Trustees requested the Government to erect extra class room accommodation and forwarded a proposal by school architect GD Payne.
Payne, who had two boys at the School, had already designed additions to the School House (QHR 600124b) as well as the Science Wing (QHR 600124c) added to the Main Building in 1912. His sketch plans show a two-storeyed building containing eight classrooms (including a chemistry and physics laboratory) connected by a covered way to a block of toilets. He proposed a timber building with fibro cement linings and a roof of red fibro cement slates with the cost including retaining wall to be £3480. Payne's siting of the proposed new building took advantage of the aspect offered to the north as well as visually linking the Main Building and the later Science Wing, whilst maintaining the primacy of the Main Building.
Funding for the new building was to be provided by the government and responsibility for its erection passed to the State Works Department. Some modifications were made to Payne's plans in 1914 by the Public Works Department however Payne's scheme was substantially retained including his selected site. Works Department drawings by HJ Parr included a central corridor and stair and some changes to the size of rooms. Costings were prepared by the Department for both a brick (£5,500) and a timber (£4,000) building however in September 1914 tenders were called for the erection of the brick building. The contractor for the works carried out during 1915 was J MacArthur of Toowong with joinery by Pattersons of Toowong and tiles and cement ceilings by Ladgrove.
In 1954, the repainting of the New Building was supervised by Professor Cumming, who was also responsible for the colour scheme at the Great Hall. Cumming's colour scheme was described by the school magazine as being something out of the ordinary and of an almost bewildering diversity.
With the extensions of the oval during the 1950's, the verandahs of the New Building became and remain a grandstand for spectators of school sporting events about this time. The classrooms, particularly those on the ends of the upper floor are regarded as the best in the School.
Brisbane Grammar School - War Memorial Library
The Memorial Library, erected to the design of architect John Barr, an old boy, as a memorial to old boys who served in World War I, was opened on Armistice Day 1924.
On 14 August 1916, an Honour Board, which at that time recorded the names of 640 old boys who joined the Imperial Forces during the Great War, was unveiled in the Great Hall. On that day a meeting was held at which it was resolved to erect a more substantial memorial and subscriptions were opened. The War Memorial Building Committee, chaired by the Chairman of Trustees, JL Woolcock was formed, and the canvassing for funds was commenced but soon deferred due to the Federal War Precautions Act which required the conservation of resources for the war effort.
Various forms of memorial were considered by the Committee. Unable to erect a chapel, due to the constraints of the Grammar School Act, the subscribers chose a useful monument, a library. In 1919, on the recommendation of a subcommittee consisting of ER Crouch, TR Hall, and HW Atkinson, it was decided that a building of "approved Gothic design" be erected in the school grounds to be used as a war record room and library. The site chosen by the subcommittee was on the south side of the drive facing College Road however this was changed in October 1920 to the existing site so as to save costs on the foundations. At this time a number of architects, who were either old boys of the school or subscribers to the fund were approached for designs. Their brief required a building of Gothic 13th/14th century design with two lancet windows in each face with medallion or three lancet windows in each face with the windows to start from 7 to 8 feet above floor level. Architect GHM Addison was enlisted to consider five of the eight schemes submitted. Addison recommended the scheme submitted by John Barr be awarded first prize, with an entry by R Martin Wilson awarded second prize.
Barr was in practice in New South Wales. He designed the old Fisher Library (now the Nicholson Museum) and later was to win another memorial competition, this time at the Melbourne Grammar School (check this). As Barr was resident in Sydney, he arranged for another old boy and former pupil of Addison, architect AE Brooks, to supervise the construction of the building.
Tenders for the erection of the building were first called in February 1923, however no tender was accepted and tenders were recalled with some modifications of the original plan in April. The tender of Peter Frew of £4385 was accepted which provided for the substitution of concrete for freestone in parapets, iron for copper dormers, and solid walls in place of hollow.
On Anzac Day 1923, the foundation stone was laid by the School Visitor and State Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan. Beneath the stone was buried the same bottle as was placed under the foundation stone of the original school in Roma Street in 1868.
In December 1923 the committee resolved that a uniform design for the stained glass windows be adopted with the window over the doorway to be representative of Victory (St George) and over the opposite door to be representative of Peace. Those windows were subscribed to by the Trustees and the Old Boys Association respectively. The other chivalric virtues chosen by the Committee to be represented in the windows were justice, magnanimity, courtesy, honour, service, fortitude, reverence, loyalty, duty, and truth. These were subscribed to by families and others in memory of sons, brothers, and friends and were designed and executed by Charles Tute.
Tute is also believed to have executed the library furniture which was probably designed by Barr. It included four bookcases to stand at right angles to piers, six benches and tables, six chairs, and the Crystal Cabinet, which housed the Golden Book, comprising four volumes bound in brown moroccan leather by the Government Printer. The Book records, on pages framed with red Flanders poppies drawn by one of the daughters of Headmaster Roe, Madge Roe, the names of 1020 Brisbane Grammar School volunteers as written by the President of the Old Boys Association, CB Fox. An octagonal display case was also made by long-time master, AJ Mason.
The memorial was intended to house a great reference library and books were donated in memory of the fallen. Other books donated included signed volumes written by old boys. Signed photographs of wartime political and military leaders from various parts of the Empire were also sought and placed around the walls.
Many of the original contents of the Library are still in the possession of the school or have been reacquired. The War Memorial Library is now maintained by the school as a memorial and museum.
Brisbane Grammar School - Old Correspondence School
The Old Correspondence School is a two storeyed red brick building erected in 1899 by the Works Department for the Department of Agriculture for use as a Stock Institute, and was acquired by the Brisbane Grammar School from the State Government in 1992.
The Stock Institute was established as part of the Stock Branch of the Colonial Secretary's Department in 1893 to research the nature and origin of stock diseases and to develop preventative measures against these. It was the first Stock Institute in Australia. The first premises of the Institute were in Turbot Street Brisbane. The first Director, microbiologist, CJ Pound was known for his work on various animal and human diseases, most particularly for his work on tick fever. In 1897 the Stock Branch was transferred to the Department of Agriculture where Pound renewed his complaints regarding the unsuitability of the Turbot Street building.
By the following year, plans for new premises had been completed by the Public Works Department. The new building erected on College Road by contractor William Herd for £1,800, contained on the ground floor, laboratories and a photographic room and on the second floor, a museum, and a lecture and specimen room. An animal yard containing sheds and stalls was erected at the rear. To the front, timber steps were constructed leading down to College Road.
The new site provided the Stock Institute with a prominent position overlooking the city with ready access to transport, both rail and road. The site adjoined the Brisbane Grammar School and had been intended to form part of the 1878 grant to the Trustees of the Brisbane Grammar School. In 1877, it was excised from the proposed grant and exchanged for land more suitable for use as a sports ground.
In 1901 the Stock Institute was transferred to the Home Secretary's Department. In that year a timber post mortem room and more stables and sheds were built in the grounds. Now known as the Bacteriological Institute, with Charles Pound as the Government Bacteriologist, its work included research into human diseases, the examination of water samples, and the preparation of pathological samples. During the plague epidemics of the first decade of the century plague work was undertaken, and complaints were received from the adjoining Grammar School regarding the hazards of keeping rats on premises so close to the school's boarding house.
In 1907, the Bacteriological Institute was returned to the newly renamed Department of Agriculture and Stock although work was still done for the Health Department. Sydney Dodd was appointed Principal Veterinary Surgeon and Bacteriologist. Under pressure from the Queensland branch of the British Medical Association the Institute was again transferred to the Health Department in 1909 where it became the Laboratory of Pathology and Microbiology under the directorship of Dr JJD Harris. Work continued on research into human diseases, including during World War I, work on the epidemics of meningitis in army camps. All stock related work was undertaken at the newly established Stock Experiment Station at Yeerongpilly. In 1918 the Laboratory relocated to the Old Police Court at South Brisbane. In that year the Queensland Hookworm Campaign was established and soon after the Normanby building became the central office of the campaign under director Dr WA Sawyer.
In 1925 the building was converted for use by the Irrigation and Water Supply Commission. A three storeyed wing designed by the Public Works Department was added at the rear of the building by day labour at a cost of £4,500. The addition included in the basement, a printing room and strong rooms.
During World War II, when wartime conditions made it impossible for many children to attend school, enrolments rose to a peak of 11,000 with a staff of 150. After the war, the PCS assisted in establishing rehabilitation schemes for returned service people. With closer settlement, improved transport and provision of more schools, enrolments of the school once known as the biggest in the southern hemisphere, began to decline.
The Primary Correspondence School vacated the building in 1979 but remained in use by the Education Department until 1992.
","criteria":"The Brisbane Grammar School is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the history of education and the development of the Grammar Schools evidence of the development of a self-conscious pedagogical culture within the Brisbane Grammar School.
The Main Building of the Brisbane Grammar School is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's development, in particular, the development of the grammar schools and provides evidence of the development of a self-conscious pedagogical culture within the Brisbane Grammar School.
The School House of the Brisbane Grammar School is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history, in particular, the building registers the changing attitudes in boarding practices.
The Brisbane Grammar School Administration Building is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the evolution of the study of science in the school curriculum.
The New Building of the Brisbane Grammar School is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history, in particular changes in educational policy in the state and the role of Grammar Schools in the secondary school system.
The War Memorial Library is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the participation by former students and staff, in World War I, and in common with many other communities, the need to memorialise that participation and loss.
The Old Correspondence School is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history in particular the importance of primary industries and the role played by government via the Stock Institute in its development, the development of the role of the Health Department in public health with the establishment of the Bacteriological Institute and the Laboratory of Pathology and Microbiology and the development of distance education.
|The Main Building [600124a], School House [600124b], Administration Building [600124c], New Building [600124d], and War Memorial Library [600124e] comprise a rare example of a group of buildings where a clear aesthetic coherence has been sustained.
The Main Building of the Brisbane Grammar School is important in demonstrating rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage, containing early examples of Australian designed stained glass.
The War Memorial Library demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage, in particular its substantial and rich symbolic content make it an unusual and distinctive part of a school building group.
|The Main Building of the Brisbane Grammar School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Collegiate Gothic educational building.
The School House of the Brisbane Grammar School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a school boarding house.
The Old Correspondence School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a building of the Public Works Department, who at this time set high standards for public architecture.
|The Brisbane Grammar School is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular its quality as a group of buildings, comprising the Main Building [600124a], School House [600124b], Administration Building [600124c], New Building [600124d], and War Memorial Library [600124e], which complement each other in character, materials, and siting. The Brisbane Grammar School is significant for the fineness and symbolic content of some of its crafted elements and its contribution to the townscape as a landmark.
The Main Building of the Brisbane Grammar School is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, the impressive exterior which reinforces the buildings as the focus of the Grammar School Group, the exceptional quality of the upper-level classroom interiors, the Great Hall and the Oamaru Stone porch and the well crafted quality and symbolic content of the memorials and stained glass windows in the Great Hall.
The School House of the Brisbane Grammar School is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, the accomplished design of the exterior in its delineation of the building's domestic and institutional roles, in its brickwork detailing, and the impressive quality of the interior of the upper level.
The Brisbane Grammar School Administration Building is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, its contribution to the Grammar School group in its skilful reworking by GD Payne of the architectural vocabulary of the Main Building. The Brisbane Grammar School Administration Building is significant as it contains the remnants of fine interiors, particularly the timber roof structures.
The New Building of the Brisbane Grammar School is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community in particular, its accomplished design within the constraints of the classroom block type, its complementary siting in relation to the Main Building and its modest decorative detailing.
The War Memorial Library is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic qualities valued by the community, in particular its architectural distinction in concept, composition and detailing, the high quality and symbolic content of the stained-glass windows, the high quality of the purpose-built furniture and its contribution to the school's distinctive skyline.
The Old Correspondence School is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic qualities valued by the community, in particular, the fine detailing of the 1899 building, the entrance portico, the skilful design of the extension to the 1899 building in terms of its complementary form, character, materials and detailing and its landmark qualities.
|The Brisbane Grammar School is significant for its special association with the Brisbane community and the community of the Brisbane Grammar School for social and cultural reasons.
The Main Building of the Brisbane Grammar School is significant for its special association with the Brisbane Grammar School community, in particular the Great Hall is both a symbol of and memorial to the school and its members.
The School House of the Brisbane Grammar School has a strong and special association with Brisbane Grammar School community, particularly the boarders since 1887.
The War Memorial Library has a strong and special association with the Brisbane Grammar School, in particular as a memorial to the old boys who served in the Great War and also to the many subscribers and others who contributed to its erection as a symbol forming part of the nomenclature of school.
|The buildings and grounds of the Brisbane Grammar School have a special association with the life and work of the Trustees, Headmasters, teachers, students, Official Visitors and many others associated with the school, many of whom have been prominent in Queensland's history. The Brisbane Grammar School also has a special association with the work of a number of architects in particular, James Cowlishaw, Richard Gailey, GD Payne, Public Works Department, John Barr, RS Dods, and TR Hall, a number of whom were old boys of the school.
The Main Building of the Brisbane Grammar School is significant for its special association with the work of architect James Cowlishaw and with the Public Works Department.
The School House of the Brisbane Grammar School has a special association with the work of architect Richard Gailey.
The Brisbane Grammar School Administration Building has a special association with the work of architect GD Payne, who was also the architect for the New Building (600124d) and with School Janitor George Rylatt, whose association with the school is memorialised in the building.
The New Building of the Brisbane Grammar School has a special association with the work of GD Payne, who was also the architect for the Administration Building (600124c) and with the work of the Works Department, which at this time enjoyed eminence under Government Architect AB Brady, and which was responsible for numerous school buildings.
The War Memorial Library has a special association with the work of an old boy, architect John Barr and with the work of artist, Charles Tute.
The Old Correspondence School has a special association with the work of a number of government departments including the Department of Primary Industries in particular the Stock Institute, which was the first established in Australia, with the Department of Health, in particular as the Bacteriological Institute and the Laboratory of Pathology and Microbiology, with the Department of Education and the work of the Primary Correspondence School for over 40 years and with the Works Department.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14900,"place_ref":600125,"name":"HB Sales Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"125 Margaret Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-04-23","description":"Adjoining Watson Brothers' Building [600126] in Margaret Street, the HB Sales Building is a single-storeyed brick workshop with an early galvanised iron extension at the rear. The front freestyle facade is symmetrical around a wide central opening with flanking arched double-hung sash windows. All three openings in the front facade currently have individual canvas awnings. At each edge of the facade a pilaster extends up to the parapet. Situated on each pilaster is a downpipe whose rainwater head has the date 1912 cast onto it. Between the pilasters above the central opening is a plain rendered portion and above this the name HB SALES in raised lettering. The parapet has a raised centrepiece separated from the side pilasters by inverted semi-circular cut-outs. The centrepiece consists of a dentilled cornice supporting an unusual triangular pediment with a curved top, behind which a gable roof extends the length of the building. A water closet projects to one side at the rear of the brick building, behind which is the galvanised iron extension, extant by 1913.
Internally there is an early mezzanine level which has been extended toward the front of the building, with a new stair. The building is currently occupied by The Hub Café, a specialist internet café.
","history":"This single-storeyed brick building was erected in the second half of 1912 for Smith and Balls' Acme Engineering Works, on land acquired by Sarah Balls, widow, in the same year.
It was built during the period of expansion, rather than diversification, which characterised the rapidly growing Queensland economy from 1903 to 1914, and illustrates the continued early 20th century development of Frog's Hollow - the ground between George and Edward Streets, bounded on the west by Elizabeth Street and on the east by Alice Street - as a commercial and light-industrial precinct.
Low-lying and swampy, Frog's Hollow had been farmed by convict labour during the penal settlement of the 1820s and 1830s, and in the 1840s and 1850s was sparsely settled with cottages erected on the higher ground. In the busy post-Separation decades of the 1860s and 1870s, an ad hoc process of land filling was undertaken as Frog's Hollow became more densely populated by the working classes, and shophouses, house-workshops, small factories or workshops, boarding houses and hotels were erected. During the boom years of the 1880s, these residences and small workshops were replaced gradually with large and imposing commercial and industrial premises, as Frog's Hollow, conveniently located near the wharves along Eagle Street and Petrie's Bight, emerged as Brisbane's principal light-industrial and warehousing precinct. Factories and workshops specialising in clothing, footware, saddlery, furniture, building, printing, brewing, milling, confectionary or biscuit manufacture, coachmaking, ship-fitting and metal-working, as well as substantial importer and manufacturer warehousing, either were established or expanded. By the late 1880s, engineering and ironfounding firms were particularly prominent in the Edward-Alice-Margaret Street precinct, and included Smellie & Co.; Smith, Forrester & Co.; Harvey Sargeant & Co.; and Overend & Co. Development of Frog's Hollow slowed during the Depression years of the 1890s, but resumed in the first two decades of the 20th century.
Smith and Balls' 1912 engineering works contributed to this early 20th century consolidation of Frog's Hollow as a light-industrial precinct. Built next to Watson Brothers' Building (1887) (QHR 600126), a Margaret Street plumbers, gasfitters and galvanised iron and lead works, the Acme Engineering Works was appropriately and conveniently located in the metal-working precinct concentrated around Alice, Margaret and lower Edward Streets.
Brisbane architect Frank Longland called tenders in June 1912 for the erection of brick premises in Margaret Street for the Acme Engineering Works. The successful tenderer was GE Day of New Farm. Longland, formerly an articled pupil of former colonial architect FDG Stanley, built up a small but successful architectural practice in Brisbane spanning the years 1893 to 1924. He was a Councillor of the Queensland Institute of Architects 1894-95, and was made a Fellow by 1913. Some of Longland's 1890s works have been identified - principally small commissions - and the Acme Engineering Works building in Margaret Street is one of his few known 20th century works to survive. He appears to have been a progressive architect who followed the latest in contemporary European architectural trends, his work ranging from the freestyle facade of the Acme Engineering Works (1912) to the restrained functionality of the 1918 Howes Brothers produce store at the corner of Petrie Terrace and Sexton Street. Of functionalist appearance in contrast to similar buildings of the period, the latter seems remarkably modern in outlook.
By 1913, Smith and Balls' Acme Engineering Works, consulting and marine engineers, coppersmiths, brass and iron moulders, blacksmiths and general engineers, had occupied their Margaret Street building. Acme Engineering Works, managed by Alex J Smith, had operated previously from 37 Charlotte Street, and specialised in milk condenser work. Smith appears to have gone into partnership with Mrs Sarah Balls, of the Stock Exchange Hotel in Queen Street, to facilitate the move to Margaret Street. The firm ceased business c1928, and in October that year title to the property was transferred to Charles Joshua Jeays, Arthur Vivian Jeays and Albert Frederick Jeays. Charles J Jeays, builders' and plumbers' supplies, had occupied the site by 1930, and remained there until c1943. After the Second World War, the building is understood to have been occupied by Gardiner Batteries, whose principal business was located in O'Reilly's Buildings, Margaret Street, just south of the former Acme Engineering Works. In 1958 HB Sales, a chemical wholesale company, occupied the building. The property passed out of the Jeays family in 1963, and Orb Holdings Pty Ltd acquired title in 1978.
","criteria":"The HB Sales Building, erected for the Acme Engineering Works in 1912 during Queensland's first 20th century boom, is important in demonstrating the evolution of Frog's Hollow as the principal warehousing and light-industrial sector of Brisbane's central business district, which was sustained from the second half of the 19th century through to the early decades of the 20th century.
|The HB Sales Building demonstrates several rare aspects of Brisbane's cultural heritage, being a rare extant example of a light-industrial workshop surviving in the Brisbane central business district and one of the few identified 20th century works by Brisbane architect Frank Longland. The freestyle facade was, and remains, a rare design for an industrial building in Brisbane.
|The building is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a small-scale brick Federation-era workshop, designed to impress, but with economy.
|The HB Sales Building is significant for its streetscape contribution to Margaret Street. The decorative freestyle facade remains intact, and although the face-brickwork has been painted, retains its aesthetic appeal.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14901,"place_ref":600126,"name":"Watson Brothers Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"129 Margaret Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-04-23","description":"Watson Brothers Building is a three-storeyed brick warehouse with a rendered facade. It consists of three equal portions across. The ground floor section of the two northern portions have been removed for vehicular access, but dividing walls remain extending to the rear of the building. The surviving southern portion has three segmental arched openings. The left two openings are now recessed doorways and the other a window. Originally the most northern portion had a similar arrangement of openings while the central portion had a window to one side and large opening for carriage access to the rear. The pilasters to each side of the surviving southern ground floor portion are rendered to imitate stone coursework capped with mouldings and rosettes. Above this is a cornice with small dentils separating the upper two floors from the ground floor.
The three portions are divided on the two upper levels by fluted giant order pilasters with ornate Corinthian capitals that include grotesque masks. The first floor windows have segmental arches and the ones on the top floor are semi-circular. The arches are embellished with hood and label mouldings and decorated key stones. These openings have balustrading in their lower portion. A line of rosettes between pilasters separates the two upper floors. The words WATSON BROS. LIMITED appear painted on the frieze below the parapet. Centred on the parapet of each portion is a closed-off arch below a small triangular pediment and flanked by florid scrolls. An open balustrade links these and other solid sections of parapet which support urns, visually separating the three distinct parts of the building at parapet level. The central archway contains the words WATSONS 1887 BUILDINGS. The side and back walls are unpainted brickwork. No trace remains of an earlier post-supported street awning [extant by c1902, but not part of the original design] with its curved corrugated iron roof and central archway.
On the side wall facing the laneway it is still possible to distinguish signwriting describing Watson's goods - hardware and plumbing supplies. The laneway provides a link across the city block and has a visual quality contributed to by the unrendered expanse of the side of the building. The rear elevation of the building is visually divided into three distinct portions relating to those of the front, each with a gable end. These have large central openings running through all levels and loading gantries located centrally above, although the central gantry has been removed. Smaller individual windows are situated to either side of each large opening on the upper two levels.
To the rear of the warehouse, and separated from it by an open courtyard, is a two storeyed building open to the north west. This timber framed structure is supported on all sides but the north west, on stone walls bounding the property line and in sections acting as retaining walls. These stone walls, of squared porphyry rubble laid in courses, are extended in height by two generations of brickwork additions which support the triangular timber trusses of the corrugated iron skillion roof.
The walls and concrete floor of the courtyard bear evidence of earlier buildings on this site through a series of recesses left by the removal of earlier timber framing members, likely to be from early stables on the site.
Internally, large open areas of timber flooring still exist, but some internal partitioning has been added. From the new vehicular access ways the timber joists and herring-bone strutting of the floor above can be clearly seen. Some evidence of closed-off arched openings exist in the dividing walls at ground floor level.
","history":"This three-storeyed brick warehouse was constructed in 1887 for the successful Brisbane plumbing firm of Watson Brothers. It was designed by prominent Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, who in the 1880s and 1890s made a substantial contribution to Brisbane's central business district with his designs for commercial and industrial buildings such as shops, offices, hotels, warehouses and factories.
Watson Brothers Plumbing and Gasfitting Company was established by George Watson, a Glasgow plumber who migrated to Brisbane in 1862, and by the mid-1860s had established a small plumbing business in Albert Street. In 1880 George retired leaving his four sons - George Jnr, Thomas, James and John Douglas - to continue the business. By the mid-1880s the firm, now known as Watson Brothers, was well established as plumbers, gasfitters and galvanised iron and lead works, with workshops in Edward Street and stores and an office in Eagle Street. George Watson Jnr was soon to take a prominent role in Brisbane's civic affairs: he was an alderman on the Brisbane Municipal Council from 1891 to 1896, and Mayor of Brisbane 1892-93.
Queensland's economic 'high' of the 1880s produced an unprecedented building boom, especially in Brisbane. Watson Brothers plumbing and sanitary supplies business flourished, and in late 1885 the brothers purchased land in Margaret Street to accommodate a larger warehouse and workshop. Importantly, the site remained central and was close to the wharves along Eagle Street and Petrie's Bight.
Watson Brothers' 1887 building was erected during a period of great change in the low-lying, swampy district of inner Brisbane known as Frog's Hollow - the ground between George and Edward Streets, bounded on the west by Elizabeth Street and on the east by Alice Street. The area was farmed by convict labour during the penal settlement of the 1820s and 1830s, and in the 1840s and 1850s was sparsely settled with cottages erected on the higher land. In the busy post-Separation decades of the 1860s and 1870s, an ad hoc process of land filling was undertaken as Frog's Hollow became more densely populated by the working classes, and shophouses, house-workshops, small factories or workshops, boarding houses and hotels were erected. During the boom years of the 1880s, these residences and small workshops were replaced gradually with large and imposing commercial and industrial premises, as Frog's Hollow, conveniently located near the wharves, emerged as Brisbane's principal light-industrial and warehousing precinct. Factories and workshops specialising in clothing, footware, saddlery, furniture, building, printing, brewing, milling, confectionary or biscuit manufacture, coachmaking, ship-fitting and metal-working, as well as substantial importer and manufacturer warehousing, either were established or expanded. By the late 1880s, engineering and ironfounding firms were particularly prominent in the lower Edward, Alice and Margaret Streets precinct, and included Smellie & Co., Smith, Forrester & Co., Harvey Sargeant & Co., and Overend & Co. Watson Brothers incorporated a small workshop at the rear of their 1887 warehouse, which was appropriately located in the metal-working precinct of Frog's Hollow.
The Watson Brothers Building (1887), with its three storeys and ornate facade, was one of the more imposing of the Frog's Hollow warehouses. Similar warehouses/factories erected at this period included the 1887 speculative warehouse at the corner of Edward and Mary Streets (later the Coal Board Building) (QHR 600132); Smellie & Co.'s 1888-89 warehouse at the corner of Edward and Alice Streets (QHR 600092); and George Myers & Co.'s warehouse (1889-90) in Edward Street (now the Metro Arts Building) (QHR 600090). Interestingly, all four were designed by architect Richard Gailey.
Gailey conducted a highly successful and prolific architectural practice in Brisbane for nearly 60 years, from 1865 until his death in 1924. While hotels were his speciality - he designed or modified over 30 in Brisbane alone in the period 1869-95 - he also designed a large number of substantial, often highly decorative, warehouses and office buildings, and contributed significantly to the re-building of Brisbane in the 1880s as a prosperous, late Victorian city.
Some of Gailey's other boom-era central city work survives, including the Irish Club (1877-1879) in Elizabeth Street (QHR 600105); Colonial Mutual Life Building (1882-83) in Queen Street (QHR 600160); Treasury Chambers (1885-86) in George and Elizabeth Streets (Elizabeth Street now a facade) (QHR 600116); and Finney Isles & Co.'s (1887) store at the corner of Edward and Adelaide Streets. Some of his CBD buildings have survived as facades only: Telegraph Newspaper Company offices (1878) in Queen Street (now part of the Myer Centre facade); former Allan and Stark Building (1881-82 & 1885) on the opposite side of Queen Street (QHR 600162); and Hill's Buildings (1888-89) in Queen Street, Petrie's Bight (later the Queensland Country Life Building) (QHR 600158).
Gailey was architect to the Bank of New South Wales, the Brisbane Grammar Schools (from 1882) [600124] and the Children's Hospital (from 1883). A staunch Baptist, he designed the Baptist City Tabernacle (1889-90) at the corner of Wickham Terrace and Upper Edward Street (QHR 600175) and numerous suburban (mostly non-conformist Protestant) churches. Some of his better-known Brisbane residential work includes the alterations and additions to Fernberg (1888-90) at Paddington (now Government House) [600275]; and Moorlands (1892) at Toowong (QHR 600052).
Gailey's work was not confined to Brisbane, and examples of his work survive throughout Queensland. He was a prolific designer, whose decorative detailing retains its popular appeal. He was also a successful busninessman and property developer, took a keen interest in civic, church and benevolent affairs, served on numerous committees and boards, was a prominent freemason, and was a foundation vice-president of the Queensland Institute of Architects in 1889-90. Gailey was at the forefront of the re-development of Brisbane in the 1880s, and his significance cannot be underestimated.
Watson Brothers' 1887 building was erected by contractors Smith and Balls [Henry Smith and John Irwin Balls], who had tendered with a price of £4500. When the provision and execution of the metal work by Watson Brothers was included, however, the actual cost of construction was over £6,000. When completed in October 1887, the building was described as a handsome three-storied pile, of brick with ornamental façade. [Queensland Figaro 22 October 1887:647] It had a frontage of 66 feet to Margaret Street and a depth of 80 feet. The ground floor was divided into 3 sections: a central carriage way which permitted wagons and carts to access the rear yard; offices, with a storeroom behind, on the south side; and warehousing space on the north side. The second floor was partitioned by three masonry walls with archway access between, and served as showrooms. The third storey contained a single, undivided space utilised as the packing and unpacking department. There were three rear doors on the second and third levels, and American lifts were installed to permit goods to be hoisted to or from the back yard. A shed and workshop, fitted with machinery and racks, was located at the rear of the yard - [this structure was two-storeyed by 1918, and probably by 1913] - and along the northern wall of the yard were out-offices and a three-stalled stables. In October 1887, a month before they opened, Watson Brothers advertised half to two-thirds of the building for lease. In subsequent years the firm occupied the entire warehouse.
Despite serious flooding in 1893 and an economic depression in the 1890s, by the turn of the century Watson Brothers had emerged as Queensland's largest plumbing and sanitary engineering business. In 1907 a retail plumbing supply and general hardware branch store was opened in Queen Street, and in 1918 a new plumbing workshop was erected on land adjoining the rear of the Margaret Street property, facing Alice Street. During the First World War, Watson Brothers carried out plumbing alterations to 90% of all vessels converted to troopships in Queensland and sent tradesmen to Sydney for the same task; during the Second World War the firm provided equipment for Australian and American forces in Brisbane. The business remained a family enterprise until 1961 when it was forced into liquidation. The Margaret Street property was sold in 1963 to Margaret Street Holdings and transferred to Orb Holdings in 1978. During the early 1980s the building was occupied by the Queensland Ballet Company.
","criteria":"Watson Brothers Building is important in illustrating the rise to prominence of local Queensland manufacturing and enterprise during the 1880s boom period, and demonstrates the evolution of Frog's Hollow as the principal warehousing and light-industrial sector of Brisbane's central business district during the second half of the 19th century.
|The site includes a late 19th century yard and remnant evidence of the original stables and out-offices, and a workshop extant by c1918, the survival of which in Brisbane's central business district is a now rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|Watson Brothers Building is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an 1880s boom era warehouse with ornate detailing. It is one of a group of warehouses of similar scale and materials erected in Frog's Hollow during the late 1880s-early 1890s, which contribute to our understanding of late 19th century concerns with promoting commerce and industry through substantial and imposing building design.
|Watson Brothers Building is significant for its streetscape contribution to Margaret Street in terms of the scale and rhythm of its facade, and the presence of a laneway exposing much of the northern side of the building. The highly decorative facade, intact above the ground floor, retains its aesthetic appeal.
|The building is significant for its special association with local Brisbane plumbing firm Watson Brothers [earlier George Watson] and its contribution to Queensland's building industry for nearly a century. The building is also a fine example of the commercial work of influential Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, whose Brisbane [Queensland] practice spanned nearly 6 decades and who made a particularly significant contribution to the Brisbane townscape in the 1880s and 1890s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14902,"place_ref":600127,"name":"The Brisbane Synagogue","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"98 Margaret Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The building is constructed of stuccoed brickwork on a concrete foundation. The principal feature of the Margaret Street frontage is a doorway surmounted by a massive arch above which is a large circular tracery window of Oamaru stone. The window carries the circular motif through to the geometry of the tracery, and features leadlight panels. The front is flanked on either side by a minaret turret that becomes octagonal in its upper portion with narrow slit openings, and is topped by an octagonal cupola. The end gable above the entry has a central circular ventilator below which is a frieze also including a circular motif. The portions of the building recessed to either side of the entry also have circular tracery windows in recessed arched openings at the upper level. Below these openings on each side are a pair of Romanesque arched windows.
The main stepped broad arch of the entry is supported on small Corinthian columns with the front section at the top of the arch inscribed with the words "THE BRISBANE SYNAGOGUE". Above this is an ornamental row of dentils, and to either side geometrical rosettes. The back wall of the building also has a large circular tracery window of Oamaru stone. The side walls have large swinging windows to provide cross ventilation.
The building was designed to accommodate 400 people, 260 of them on the ground floor and the remainder on the upper level women's gallery which extends over the entry and down both sides. The interior is divided into a nave and side aisles by large octagonal columns with moulded caps and cement bases. Broad semi-circular arches span between the capitals. The ceiling consists of timber boarding with circular fretwork ventilators evenly spaced down the centre. The gallery is supported on small trusses and is approached by two flights of stairs, one at the front and the other at the rear. The seating on both levels is stepped and faces the centre where there is a carved timber platform. An arched recess approached by stone steps is located in the end wall. This has a circular tracery window above it, and is flanked on either side by marble plaques. Brightly coloured stained glass is situated in the circular windows on the gallery level and also the arched lower openings.
","history":"The Jewish families who settled in Queensland from the time of Separation formed the nucleus of the Brisbane Hebrew Congregation founded in Brisbane in 1865. The congregation used a number of venues as temporary places of worship, while raising money through various land speculations to purchase a site and build a Synagogue. The present site was purchased by R B Lewin and sold to the congregation for £200. In 1885 designs for a Synagogue were sought from architects and plans submitted by Arthur Morry, who worked in the Government Architect's office, were chosen. The foundation stone was laid on 7 July 1885 and a bottle containing artefacts and documents was embedded beneath it. The foundation stone is no longer visible following the raising of the level of Margaret Street, and it is believed that the courtyard of the Synagogue was raised at the same time. This is supported by the fact that ventilated arches for the basement are now located well below ground level.
Arthur Midson, a prominent building contractor, built the Synagogue for the sum of £6450. It was finally consecrated on 18 July 1886. The building features a large circular geometric tracery window of Oamaru stone above the Margaret Street arched doorway. The stained glass lead lighting was obtained from Messrs Lyon, Cottier & Co of Sydney. The window is flanked on either side by a minaret turret which rose to a height of 90 feet (27 metres) from the original ground level. The rendered brick structure, constructed on concrete foundations, contains a basement, a nave and side aisles on the ground floor with a minister's retiring or robe room at the rear. In accordance with traditional Jewish religious practices the sexes are seperated during worship, and a gallery level for females only is incorporated constructed. It contains 140 seats and two women's retiring rooms.
The Synagogue remained largely unaltered over the years. Prior to the centenary celebrations of the Brisbane Jewish community in 1965, considerable renovations were carried out, including the installation of additional stained glass windows. Many of these were donated by congregation members whose families died in the Holocaust (World War II). The words 'The Brisbane Synagogue' and the congregation's spiritual name 'Kehilla Kedosha Sha'ari Emuna', (The Holy Congregation of the Gates of Faith) were added over the arched entry during 1967/68.
","criteria":"The Brisbane Synagogue is Brisbane's first purpose built Synagogue, and is significant as an important development in nineteenth century Jewish worship in the city. The building reflects the development of Jewish settlement in the city during the 1880s.
|The addition of windows are a rare Brisbane memorial to Jewish people who died in the Second World War.
|Located within the foundation stone cavity are artefacts and memorabilia which have the potential for yielding information about the Jewish community in the 1880s.
|The Brisbane Synagogue is significant as an example of the design work of Arthur Morry, prominent Brisbane architect, and of Arthur Midson, local building contractor.
\nAs an example of Australian-Jewish places of worship, the Brisbane Synagogue typifies the customs and liturgical practices of the Hebrew community.
|As a free-standing element with an entry porch, the building contributes to the streetscape of Margaret Street.
|The adaption in its design of both circular and octagonal elements to a traditional plan form to create a style suitable for an inner-city Synagogue.
|The building also has special significance to Brisbane's Hebrew community.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14903,"place_ref":600128,"name":"Wenley House","alternate_name":"Jewell's Building","street_address":"20-30 Market Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This 1864 commercial building in the Georgian manner, has a strong visual impact among highrise commercial developments. It is a two storeyed rendered brick building with basement and consists of six separate tenancies. It is symmetrically planned with each tenancy having its own entry with flanking windows, giving the facade a certain repetitive nature. The windows on the upper level are aligned with those below. A curved pediment is located over the two central tenancies at parapet level with the words 'WENLEY HOUSE' following the curve of the parapet and the date 1865 centred below. The entry doorways have keyed surrounds with grotesque faces located on the keystones. There is a continuous pronounced cornice below parapet level, and a continuous band as a sill to the upper level windows. The lower level windows have individual sills supported on moulded brackets.
The rear of the building is divided into symmetrical gable ended sections that have central openings originally intended for goods delivery and serviced by small overhead gantries. These openings are flanked by double-hung windows on both levels. The end bay at the rear has been extended across the laneway. The laneway and rear of the building are also visually important.
Internally, in the tenancies at each end, roof trusses are still visible. From the basement of some of the tenancies herring-bone strutting can be seen between the joists of the floors above. Some of the floor levels have been modified to suit the different tenancies.
","history":"This warehouse was erected in 1864 by M M Jewell, who came to Queensland in the early 1860s, after working as a builder in Sydney. In September 1863 he purchased this site at the corner of Charlotte and Market Streets, which was close to the wharves along the Town Reach.
\nWork began in January 1864 on the construction of what became known as Jewell's Building. Architect for the project was Thomas Taylor, a partner of local firm Furnival and Taylor. Taylor's design of six individual tenancies maximised potential return for Jewell. By July 1864 advertisements in the Queensland Daily Guardian advised space to let in the building, and various merchants and shipping agents took up leases.
\nJewell and his wife died in 1869, leaving the property to their daughter Rachel. In 1874 Emanuel Barnett and Co, importers and warehousemen, obtained title which they held until 1919.
\nSubsequent to the decline of the shipping and warehousing activity in the area, the building has been used for a variety of purposes.
","criteria":"It is evidence of the former shipping and warehousing activity in the part of the city close to the Town Reach.
|Wenley House is a rare example of an extant 1860s warehouse in the Brisbane central business district.
|Wenley House is a fine, intact example of a commercial building designed to accommodate separate tenancies, with individual entries, roofs and loading gantries.
|The building contributes to the streetscape of Market Street by virtue of its form, scale and detail.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14905,"place_ref":600130,"name":"Mooneys Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"130-132 Mary Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-06-22","description":"This is a two-storeyed stone building with a basement. It adjoins Perkins Stables (600129), and a laneway between 138 Mary Street (600131), and has Charlotte House (600082) and Harrolds Marine (600081) located behind addressing Charlotte Street.
The building is divided into two symmetrical portions that reflect the original subdivision of land. The rendered facade is designed with restrained moulded Italianate detailing of predominantly horizontal banding. The facade is divided horizontally by a string course and vertically by pilasters. There are three arched openings on both levels of each section. Decorative elements include architraves, pilasters, keystones, horizontal mouldings, rosettes ornamental urns and triangular pediments centrally placed in the parapet.
The side and rear walls of the building are unrendered porphyry (Brisbane Tuff) with some sandstone. Openings appear to have been made to the laneway on both levels. At the rear, the gable roof forms of both portions of the building are clearly expressed. All but one of the upper level openings have been changed, however the original brick archways for the openings remain.
Internally the building retains much of its post and beam timber structure, with floors supported by timber joists separated by herring-bone strutting. The roof structure is exposed timber trusses. The interior of the building otherwise incorporates modern office partitioning.
","history":"This warehouse was erected in 1883 for William Mooney, a Brisbane wholesale and retail tobacconist. Designed by former Queensland colonial architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley, it was constructed by J S Martin for approximately £3,000.
In 1891 the building was transferred to William Perry (of Perry Bros, ironmongers), who died soon after the change of ownership, and for more than twenty years the property remained in Perry's trust estate. In 1901, manufacturing chemists Taylor & Colledge occupied the building. From 1908 to 1919 the building was tenanted by John M Mooney a crockery, cutlery, glassware and general merchant. In August 1919 the Commonwealth of Australia purchased the building from the Perry estate trustees for £6500. At the time the building was described as an old but substantial building in good condition. . . There is no ceiling or lining and the walls of stone and heavy beams and posts of ironbark are exposed.
Since mid-1915 the Australian Government had been planning a repatriation scheme for the hundreds of thousands of soldiers expected to return from the war. Newly-formed state war councils were charged with various responsibilities aimed at settling returned soldiers into peace time occupations. The permanent body responsible for soldier resettlement, the Repatriation Department, was formed in April 1918, and the Queensland Branch moved into Mooneys Building in the following year. The branch administered soldier employment, training for trades, medical and general assistance to soldiers as well as provision of welfare to soldiers and/or families of soldiers killed or incapacitated.
The Repatriation Department remained in the building until the 1950s. The building was subsequently occupied by another defence authority, the Recruiting Directorate. In 1980, the property was bought by the current owners.
","criteria":"Mooneys Building is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an 1880s stone warehouse with its facade designed in Italianate style.
In its style, scale and materials, Mooneys Building exhibits a contribution to the immediate streetscape, which includes Perkins Stables [600129] and 138 Mary Street [600131], which is valued by the community.
The building has a special association with former Queensland colonial architect FDG Stanley, as an example of his commercial work.
|Mooneys Building is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an 1880s stone warehouse with its facade designed in Italianate style.
|In its style, scale and materials, Mooneys Building exhibits a contribution to the immediate streetscape, which includes Perkins Stables [600129] and 138 Mary Street [600131], which is valued by the community.
|The building has a special association with former Queensland colonial architect FDG Stanley, as an example of his commercial work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14906,"place_ref":600131,"name":"138 Mary Street","alternate_name":"Perkins Wine & Spirit Store | Buzzards","street_address":"138 Mary Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"A small commercial building and store located at 138 Mary Street nearby to Perkins Stables (600129) and Mooneys Building (600130) with Harolds Marine (600081) and Charlotte House (600082) behind.
A single level brick building on a stone basement half exposed at footpath level. Its facade has been rendered and painted a cream colour. The facade is divided into two nearly identical symmetrical portions each with three major arched openings. The middle opening of each portion is slightly wider than the other openings and above them are triangular pediments at parapet level supported on moulded brackets. The facade treatment to the plinth is rendered and coursed to resemble ashlar. A string course runs across between the openings at the springing level of the arches. The semi-circular arches have moulded surrounds and keystones. A dentilled cornice line runs below the parapet in line with the base of the triangular pediments. The original entry is in the centre of the eastern bay and two new entries have been placed in the facade to match the original opening. Laneways run down both sides of the building and there are a series of square headed openings down each side to take advantage of natural light. At the rear a plain brick L-shape building forms a courtyard with the back of the front building. This would seem to be a later addition (before 1913) having shallow broad arched brick openings. The connecting narrow part of the building has a loading bay at first floor level.
Internally, the front building has some stonework visible in the basement but upstairs has been refurbished. Much of the original floor structure of the rear building is visible from the basement level.
","history":"This building was erected c1901 for Perkins Brewery. Brisbane's first brewery, the City Brewery was established in Mary Street in the 1860s. In 1972, the City Brewery was bought by Toowoomba brewers Patrick and Thomas Perkins. The business expanded rapidly under their control, and by the 1880s occupied a large portion of land between Mary and Margaret Streets. The Perkins complex, particularly the six storeyed brewing tower, dominated this part of the of the city.
The need for increased space prompted the purchase of 138 Mary Street in 1899. By 1902 Perkins & Co had erected a building on the site which they used as a Wine & Spirit store. This building was probably to a design of Richard Gailey as he had worked on other buildings for the Perkins company.
In 1928 Perkins merged with another prominent Brisbane brewing firm to form Castlemaine Perkins Ltd and from that time the Perkins operations were gradually moved from the city to the Castlemaine site at Milton. In 1937 fire severely damaged the main Perkins complex opposite. Only this building, and the former stables at 124 Mary Street(QHR 600129), survive from what was once a large inner city industrial complex.
In 1943 the building was sold to Alfred Lawrence & Co Ltd, manufacturing chemists. Alfred Lawrence & Co Ltd retained ownership of the building until 1977.
","criteria":"An important remnant of a major industrial brewing complex significant in the industrial and commercial history of the State.
|As a fine example of a small, commercial building of the early 1900s.
|For the contribution of its style, scale and form to the immediate streetscape which includes Mooney's Building (600130) and Perkins Stables (600129).
|For its association with Perkins breweries.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14907,"place_ref":600132,"name":"169 Mary Street","alternate_name":"Coal Board Building","street_address":"169 Mary Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former Coal Board building, located on the eastern corner of Edward and Mary Streets opposite Young's Building, Optical Products [600102], is a three-storeyed rendered masonry structure, with basement, and a corrugated iron twin gable roof concealed behind a parapet wall.
The building is divided into two equal portions, with a central masonry wall with two arched openings per floor, which are expressed on the Mary Street facade. Each portion consists of three bays, separated by pilasters with cornices between each floor, and surmounted by a solid parapet with a central triangular pediment flanked by spherical finials. The building has one street entrance, located in the central bay of the corner portion.
The ground floor has a single large sash window to each bay, with basement windows covered by cast iron screens below. The central bay has a curved pediment and the pilasters are scribed to imitate stonework. The first floor has twin sashes, with shallow arched window heads and rendered mouldings, and a concrete balustrade below to each bay. The second floor is similar, but with rounded window heads.
The Edward Street facade, divided into four bays, is treated similarly but the ground floor sashes have been altered. The rear wall, which is not rendered, is of English bond brickwork.
The main entry has twin panelled timber doors, with fanlight, opening into a vestibule with glazed timber doors and a lower hardboard ceiling with timber cover strips. The ground floor has sections of pressed metal ceilings near the entrance, with hardboard ceilings throughout the rest of the space. A staircase, with turned timber balustrade, is located at the south corner of the building. An early goods lift, located at the southeast, has a folding metal door and is surmounted by the lift motor room on the roof.
The first floor has panelled ceilings with timber coverstrips, and the second floor has hardboard ceilings. The basement has a concrete floor, and steel columns and beams have been inserted to support the floor above.
A three-storeyed masonry toilet block and steel fire stair are built at the rear and are connected by concrete walkways. Carparking space is also located at the rear fronting Edward Street.
","history":"This three-storeyed masonry warehouse was erected in 1887-88 for Queensland pastoralists and politicians William Allan, MLA and William Graham, MLC.
The land was granted first to John Balfour in 1852. In 1885 the property was transferred to William Allan, then in 1887 he was joined by William Graham as tenants in common. Both Allan and Graham came from Edinburgh originally, and had a number of business interests in common, including sitting on the first board of the Royal Bank of Queensland, established in 1885, and were closely associated with BD Morehead & Co.
An expansion of commercial and building activity in Brisbane in the 1880s transformed the streets around lower Edward Street, which were close to the wharves along the town reach of the Brisbane River, into a warehouse precinct. Built as an investment, Allan's and Graham's warehouse reflects this development phase, and remains one of a small group of late Victorian warehouses surviving in Brisbane. Other comparable buildings include the Metro Arts Building (1890) (QHR 600090), Spencer's Building (1890) (QHR 600100) and the Brisbane and Area Water Board Building (1886) (QHR 600099) in Edward Street, Charlotte House (1888) (QHR 600082) in Charlotte Street, Watson Brothers Building (1887) (QHR 600126) in Margaret Street, and Tara House (1878) (QHR 600105) and Heckelmann's Building (1891) (QHR 600104) in Elizabeth Street.
In January 1887, architect Richard Gailey called tenders for the erection of a warehouse at the corner of Edward and Mary Streets. Constructed by Brisbane contractor T Game at a cost of £4,295, the building was completed in 1888. First leased by J & B Sniders, importers of china and glass, the warehouse was subsequently used by McMurtie & Co. (boot manufacturers), and a variety of produce and leather merchants, engineers, hardware suppliers and saddlers' ironmongers.
From 1900 to 1914 the property was owned by the Gibson family of Bingera Plantation, near Bundaberg, and between 1928 and 1960 was owned and occupied by Mauri Brothers and Thomson Ltd. The property was purchased by the Commissioner of Main Roads in 1960 and transferred to the Crown in 1968. Since then the building has been used as offices for the Queensland government and community groups.
","criteria":"169 Mary Street is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, providing evidence of the former important warehousing function of the lower Edward Street area.
|169 Mary Street is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an ornate late Victorian warehouse, whose style, scale and detail self-consciously express 1880s optimism.
|169 Mary Street is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the important contribution which the rhythm and scale of its facade make to both Edward and Mary Streets.
|169 Mary Street has a special association with the work of architect Richard Gailey, whose firm made a significant contribution to the townscape of Brisbane in the 1880s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14908,"place_ref":600133,"name":"Naldham House","alternate_name":"AUSN House","street_address":"193 Mary Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Naldham House, located on the corner of Mary and Felix Street, is a three storeyed rendered brick building with basement. The building forms a thin rectangle in plan form with the tower being located at the river end. Redevelopment of the adjacent site has now removed the visual link with the river.
The principal facade is to Mary Street and contains a colonnade on the ground and first floors. The detailing on the facade is a free adaptation of classical detailing, with ascending orders on succeeding levels.
On the first floor there are paired fluted pilasters without capitals. The colonnade at this level has paired columns with stylised ionic capitals. The window openings on the second floor are large and have semi-circular arched heads. Between these openings are paired pilasters with one large Corinthian capital that extends across the top of both. Above the capitals is a plain frieze, a cornice and a parapet composed of Italianate balusters. The narrow northern facade has the date "1888" on the upper frieze.
The most distinctive feature of the building is the octagonal tower with cupola at the river end. The cupola, tower end and street facades of the building are intact.
The eastern facade, which now contains the main entrance, incorporates classical detail. The date "1988" appears below the cornice. The building has been refurbished internally. The interior including a new staircase was constructed in the manner of a late nineteenth century colonial club.
","history":"Naldham House was built in the late 1870s with major extensions in 1889 and served for almost a century as a shipping office. In 1988 major external and internal alternations were carried out in converting the building into premises for a club.
The site, adjacent to the Brisbane River, was acquired by the Australasian Steam Navigation Company (ASN) in March 1852 although the company did not construct wharves until 1859 the company's first wharf had been erected on the new site followed by a second wharf near Eagle Street in 1861.
In 1864 a two storeyed office was erected and occupied by Henry O'Reilly the ASN's Brisbane agent. This building was situated on the northern (tower) end of the present Naldham House. In 1877 the ASN's Brisbane office was elevated from agency to branch status, and at some time between 1875 and 1878 the office building was extended to the Felix Street corner.
In the mid 1880s the ASN was taken over and amalgamated with several other shipping companies to form the Australasian United Steam Navigation Company (AUSN) which became a dominant force in Queensland and Australian shipping.
In August 1888 architects McCredie Bros & Chambers called tenders for the extension of the Felix Street offices of the AUSN. The successful tenderer was J R Locke of Redfern, Sydney. At a cost of £11,000 the upper storey was demolished and two new floors were added, a tower and cupola built into the northern end, a balcony included in the Mary Street side and new entrances formed.
In 1914, MacDonald Hamilton & Co became agents for AUSN and instigated internal renovations (c. 1915-20), including silky oak panelling on the first floor. They were also responsible for the change of the name to Naldham House which was derived from the firm's telex address.
MacDonald Hamilton & Co managed AUSN activities until the winding up of the AUSN in 1960. They carried out further internal renovations and a new entrance to Mary Street was constructed. The firm remained in the building until 1986.
In 1988-89 major alterations and additions were undertaken as part of the incorporation of the building in the new riverside development, Waterfront Place. This work included the demolition of the adjacent bond store and the replicates details of the Mary Street facade on the previously blank eastern wall, which has now become the main entrance facade. Naldham House is presently used as a private club and conference centre.
","criteria":"Naldham House provides evidence of major shipping activity along the town reach and of the former prominence of the Australian United Steam Navigation Company in Queensland's maritime industry
|(Criterion under review)
|The building is a fine example of a late nineteenth century maritime building with an imposing architectural presence.
|The building is a fine example of a late nineteenth century maritime building with an imposing architectural presence.
Naldham House is significant as a remnant of a former streetscape of opulent mercantile buildings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14909,"place_ref":600134,"name":"Coronation Drive (North Quay) Retaining Wall","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Coronation Drive","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"A mass concrete wall topped by a brick parapet wall and wrought iron railing which extends for a length of about 200 metres along the northern river bank between Boomerang Street and Eagle Terrace. It is built into bedrock at depths varying from 3 to 8 metres. The wall, which is almost 1 metre thick at ground level extends by a series of gradations to thicknesses between 1.2 and 2.4 metres at the base. The view of the wall from the road reveals only the brick piers and decorative wrought iron railings of the parapet wall. At either end of the wall are marble plaques inscribed with the words 'James Hipwood Mayor 1887'. Beneath the parapet wall the concrete retaining wall is visible from the bike path and from the river.
","history":"In late January 1887 Brisbane experienced severe storms which resulted in flash flooding and damage throughout the city. A couple of weeks after the floods, sections of the river bank and road along North Quay fell into the river. An existing embankment and 'dry stone wall' had been undercut and collapsed. The Municipal Council of Brisbane was advised by their Chief Engineer, Thomas Kirk, of several options for dealing with the problem. The council decided on the most permanent solution - to construct a mass concrete retaining wall at an approximate cost of £13,000.
Kirk's choice of concrete rather than masonry work was quite adventurous, as mass concrete technology was new to Australia. Kirk prepared the designs and the contract was awarded to George E Willcocks. Work began in May and the actual construction time was shorter than even Willcocks' optimistic estimate - the road was opened four months later. One of the most challenging tasks in the construction involved massive excavations, the deepest being for a huge coffer dam which kept the river waters out of the site. The men preparing the foundations many feet below the low tide mark worked behind this dam with the full force of the water bearing on the other side.
G E Willcocks had been involved in railway construction in South Africa in the early 1880s. After hearing of the Queensland government's plan to borrow £10 000 000 for an expanded railway construction programme, he migrated to Australia in 1885. In 1886 he began a long career in municipal and government works by winning a contract for building a storm water drainage system in South Brisbane and Kangaroo Point. Other public works followed - Stratton Drain, the Ann Street wall, the North Quay (now Coronation Drive) wall, extensive railway works in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales and the wood blocking of Queen and George Streets.
The stone cappings which were on the piers have been replaced with bricks. A section of the western end of the wall was moved in 1983.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1887, the Coronation Drive [North Quay] retaining wall is as an early example in Queensland of mass concrete technology and is a major engineering achievement of the period.
|Constructed in 1887, the Coronation Drive [North Quay] retaining wall is as an early example in Queensland of mass concrete technology and is a major engineering achievement of the period.
|Constructed in 1887, the Coronation Drive [North Quay] retaining wall is as an early example in Queensland of mass concrete technology and is a major engineering achievement of the period.
|The retaining wall is as an example of the work of George E Willcocks, a contractor who was responsible for a number of large public projects.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14910,"place_ref":600135,"name":"William Street and Queens Wharf Road retaining walls","alternate_name":"North Quay porphyry wall","street_address":"William Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Aligned approximately northwest to southeast, the walls are located on the southern sides of William Street and adjacent Queens Wharf Road; between Queen Street and the former Victoria Bridge abutment to the northwest, and the Elizabeth Street exit-ramp of the Riverside Expressway to the southeast. The walls are set high on the north bank of the Brisbane River, and visually form a plinth to the Treasury Building when viewed from the south.
\nWilliam Street retaining wall (1888-89)
\nThe William Street retaining wall is constructed of rough-coursed Brisbane Tuff, with a parapet, sandstone coping and decorative cast iron railing. It extends approximately 70 metres along William Street and reaches a maximum height of approximately 7 metres to the Queens Wharf Road frontage. A marble pedestal terminating the wall at the Victoria Bridge end is inscribed WM Galloway Mayor 1889, and supports an elaborate gas lamp stand base bearing the words Smith, Faulkner & Co. 1889.
\nVarious structures are incorporated into the wall, including (from northwest to southeast): a concrete WWII air raid shelter; an interwar stairwell and men’s toilet block; a modern driveway entrance accessing an underground service area for the nearby Treasury Casino; and a modern entrance to the early closet recess.
\nThe WWII concrete air-raid shelter is contiguous to the wall on the Queens Wharf Road level. Constructed of reinforced concrete, it has a flat slab roof and off-form walls. Boarded timber doors are located at either end, with the western doorway truncated by a modern concrete footpath (infilled former entrance stair). Four window openings, with metal mesh screens, have been formed on the southwestern wall and the slab roof is framed by a modern metal fence.
\nOriginal stonework and perhaps additional stones face both sides of the interwar stairwell, which has a decorative metal railing. This leads to the men's toilet block that has been built into the wall, with render-framed window and door openings facing Queens Wharf Road that have been filled with modern metal louvres. The letters BCC are emblazoned in raised cement render in the arch above the central window, and there are rendered panels (signage painted over) above the doorway and on the southwest facing wall. A concrete ventilation shaft, octagonal in plan and approximately 3 metres high, is centred on the toilet block parapet. Decorative metal lamp brackets are fixed atop the vent and on the western corner of the toilet block.
\nA plinth of exposed rock at the base of the wall extends between the toilet block and the expressway exit-ramp abutments, punctuated by the modern Treasury Casino driveway entrance driveway and former closet recess. The parapet, coping and metal fence above the rendered driveway entrance has been reconstructed. The entrance to the original closet recess has a modern concrete render surround and louvred metal vent.
\nQueens Wharf Road wall (1936)
\nOn the other side of Queens Wharf Road is a wall that extends approximately 40 metres and consists of a decorative wrought iron railing sitting on top of a Brisbane Tuff dwarf wall between stone pillars. A concrete base wall with a rough-laid pebble finish is visible in some sections. Ornamental sandstone capping stones on the pillars are cut at the corners so that they form gables in elevation. Two gateways in the wall are marked by taller pillars with flat capping stones. The western gateway leads to concrete steps that have a base of stone walls and are closed-off by a modern fence. The western end of the Queens Wharf Road wall has been reconstructed (incorporating original stone), and adjoins the northern abutment of the 1897 Victoria Bridge.
\nThe embankment below is retained by Brisbane Tuff walls, pebble and concrete walls and battered earth banks. Modern steps, ramps and a public lift have been incorporated into recent landscaping works.
\nArchaeological Potential
\nThere is the potential to encounter previously undisturbed archaeological deposits below the modern road surface along Queens Wharf Road, to the west of the men’s toilet block; disturbance to the east associated with the Riverside Expressway and Treasury Casino development has reduced archaeological potential in that area. Potential finds may include historical artefacts or features relating to the early establishment and/or subsequent periods of development of the area.
","history":"The William Street and Queens Wharf Road retaining walls were built in 1889 (southern side of William Street) and 1936 (southern side of Queens Wharf Road). Constructed of Brisbane Tuff (commonly referred to as porphyry), with sandstone coping and decorative metal railings, the walls extend approximately 70 metres, between Queen and Elizabeth Streets. The William Street wall retains original features including a decorative cast iron lamp base on a marble plinth, at the western end, and a former closet recess, at the eastern end. Subsequent additions include: an interwar stairwell and men’s toilets with concrete ventilation shaft; and a World War Two (WWII) air raid shelter. Positioned above the north bank of the Brisbane River, the walls form a visual plinth at the base of the Treasury Building [QHR 600143] when viewed from the south.
\nThe William Street retaining wall was planned in 1888 to endow William Street with some aesthetic distinction to compliment the new Treasury Building being erected opposite the site. Drawings from 1883 by architect John James Clark show the wall with a lamp stand at the western end, forming a visual plinth in the foreground of the William Street frontage of the Treasury Building.[1] The Victoria Bridge end of an old rubble wall along William Street was to be replaced by a Brisbane Tuff and sandstone wall with an elaborate cast iron railing and a small closet recess or pissoir built into the wall at the Elizabeth Street end.[2]
\nIn November 1888 the contract was awarded by the Brisbane Municipal Council to EJ O'Connor, who in the previous year had stabilised the large Brisbane Tuff retaining wall at Queen Street, Petrie's Bight [QHR 600159]. Within five months O'Connor was contracted to excavate and reform William Street and build the retaining wall for £1431.[3] By the time Cabinet first met in the new Treasury Building in 1889, the wall, railing and gas lamp in William Street were completed.
\nThe South Australian marble end post, set on a base of Enoggera granite, was a gift to Mayor Galloway from the mayor of Adelaide, who had visited Brisbane while the wall was being completed.[4] The railing and the elaborate gas lantern were made by local firm Smith Faulkner & Co (formerly Smith Forrester & Co), who also had provided the cast iron railing for the large retaining wall at Petrie's Bight.
\nBy 1890 a cab stand had been established at the Victoria Bridge end of the William Street wall. By the turn of the century the cabs had been supplanted by horse-drawn buses, and a small timber and iron shelter for the convenience of waiting passengers had been erected on the William Street pavement abutting the end railing.[5] This was removed by about 1910.
\nAdditional public toilet facilities were provided with the construction of a urinal on the southern side of Queens Wharf Road by the late 1890s, to the east of the northern abutment of the 1897 Victoria Bridge [QHR 600303].[6] In 1914 the early closet recess off Queens Wharf Road was closed for repairs and a new public toilet block for women and children was opened on the corner of William and Elizabeth Streets in 1915.[7] Built of brick, with a tiled roof, the women’s toilet block remained in use until the early 1970s.
\nUntil 1928 when the Queen Street frontage of the Treasury Building was completed, the William Street frontage was an important focus for official occasions. In January 1901 large crowds congregated in front of the wall to hear Lord Lamington proclaim the Commonwealth of Australia from a balcony of the Treasury Building opposite.
\nIn the decades that followed, the wall served more practical purposes. In the twentieth century motorbuses replaced the horse-drawn vehicles lined along William Street, and by the early 1930s a large timber bus timetable sign had been erected against the railing of the retaining wall.
\nAttention shifted to the improvement of North Quay in the late 1920s, with the Works Committee of the Brisbane City Council recommending a beautification scheme be prepared for the William Street side of the Victoria Bridge in July 1928. The development of a new dumping ground at Milton Road meant that the Sanitary Wharf, accessed via Queens Wharf Road, would no longer be used for the removal of night soil, presenting an opportunity for an area with unpleasant associations to be transformed.[8]
\nBy May 1929 a full scheme for the William Street frontage of the Brisbane River had been prepared by the City Architect, with an estimated overall cost of £11,000.[9] While the cost for the entire scheme was seen as prohibitive, the inclusion of a lavatory block responded to public concerns about the small number of public conveniences available in the city at the time (eleven in the central area of the city and on the south side).[10] By June 1930 the Health Committee had approved plans for the 20ft 6in x 11ft (6.25m x 3.35m) structure to be built into the wall and accessed from William Street and Queens Wharf Road, at an estimated cost of £1,000.[11]
\nConstruction commenced in the early 1930s, with fill under the William Street footpath excavated and a three metre section of the wall and railing was apparently realigned to accommodate a stairway leading from William Street to the new public conveniences. The entrance to the original closet recess was likely bricked over at this period also. By 1932 the William Street men’s lavatories, along with those at Customs House, were being leased for £26 per annum.[12]
\nThe new toilet block had a concrete ventilation shaft with a decorative metal lamp bracket, positioned along the parapet on William Street. It was similar in design (but of a smaller scale) to the Monier ventilator shafts [QHR 601995, 602067, 602068] that were erected in city streets in the early 20th century, to remove foul and unhealthy smells from the drainage systems.
\nThe decorative masonry and iron wall on the other side of Queens Wharf Road was erected in the 1930s, replacing a dilapidated timber fence.[13] Plans were prepared in 1934, but the wall was not erected until 1936. It appears to have been intended to, demark the entrance to a ramp that led to Hayles Wharf below, which was leased from the council. Sections of the retaining wall here were extant before this period and stairs built to the west of the ramp possibly incorporated part of the former urinal structure.[14]
\nAs a wartime precaution, the Brisbane City Council erected an air-raid shelter on the Queens Wharf Road frontage of the William Street retaining wall, abutting the Victoria Bridge end, circa early 1940s. Plans show the 58ft x 11ft 6inch (17.7m x 3.5m) shelter was constructed of reinforced concrete, including its slab roof and internal blast walls, and had a doorway at the eastern end and steps down to an entrance at the northwest end.[15] Above this a bus shelter, equipped with public telephones and a drinking fountain was erected on the William Street footpath in 1944, resulting in the removal of a section of the wall parapet and railing. This remained a principal stop for buses servicing Brisbane's southern suburbs until a major underground bus station was constructed in the 1980s that had a tunnel entrance at the southern end of Queen Street. The William Street bus shelter was demolished c2008 and a new metal fence was built around the top of the air raid shelter at that time.
\nWith the completion of the new Victoria Bridge in 1969, the 1897 bridge was demolished, with the exception of the northern abutment adjacent to the Queens Wharf Road wall. In the early 1970s, female toilet accommodation was provided abutting the wall on Queens Wharf Road, with a section of the William Street wall parapet and railing removed to extend the footpath over the flat roof, and 20 metres of the wall and the 1915 women’s toilet block was demolished to make way for the Elizabeth Street off-ramp for the Riverside Expressway.
\nIn the mid 1990s the Treasury Building was redeveloped as the Treasury Casino, which involved the excavation of a large services basement under William Street. Part of Queens Wharf Road was lowered, as evidenced by exposed rock at the base of the wall to the east of the men’s toilet block, and the 1970s female toilets were demolished, to allow the formation of an underground driveway entrance through the William Street wall. A section of the stone parapet, coping and balustrade above were reconstructed, and the driveway entrance framed with a rendered finish. The interwar men’s toilets were closed and metal louvres were installed in the window and door openings, along with the (previously bricked-in) opening to the former closet recess.
\nMore recent works associated with the upgrade of the North Quay Ferry Terminal included landscaping of the embankment and the construction of a viewing platform, public lift, stairs and ramps to provide access from Queens Wharf Road. The ramp that led to Hayles Wharf was demolished and the western end of the Queens Wharf Road wall was reconstructed using original stone.
\nIn 2016 the foundations of the 1915 women’s toilet block were encountered during traffic signal works on the corner of William and Elizabeth Streets. The archaeological potential of Queens Wharf Road, once the main thoroughfare up the steep river bank to the early penal settlement, has been identified as ‘exceptional’ in the Brisbane City Central Business District Archaeological Plan (EHP, 2013).
","criteria":"The William Street and Queens Wharf Road retaining walls are important in demonstrating the historical development of Queensland’s civic infrastructure and urban facilities from the late 19th to the mid 20th century.
\nConstruction of the William Street wall (1889) was closely associated with the Treasury Building [QHR 600143], making a functional and aesthetic contribution to a site that was an expression of Queensland’s economic aspirations and a focus for official occasions.
\nThe various sanitation elements incorporated into the William Street wall, from a simple closet recess to an interwar toilet block with ventilation shaft, illustrate the development of urban public health facilities.
\nDesigned to afford protection in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter is important in demonstrating the impact of WWII on the civilian population of Brisbane and as part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane.
\nThe Queens Wharf Road wall (1936) is important in demonstrating interwar beautification initiatives undertaken along the north bank of the Brisbane River.
|The place has the potential to contain archaeological artefacts that are an important source of information about Queensland's history. Despite disturbance in some areas, there is the potential for subsurface material to survive relating to the establishment, evolution and pattern of settlement of early Brisbane as a penal colony, as well as accumulated material from subsequent periods of development of Queensland's capital city.
\nArchaeological investigation has the potential to answer important research questions critical to Queensland's history. Such questions could focus on but are not limited to the identification of the locations and purposes of previously undocumented buildings, evolution of road and other civic infrastructure, and individual and collective living conditions.
|The William Street wall is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a late 19th century stone retaining wall, and is a good example of its type. It retains its rough-course Brisbane Tuff construction, with sandstone coping and metal railings, which along with a lamp stand base at the western end are good examples of the decorative work of important 19th century Brisbane founders Smith Forrester & Co.
\nThe shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a WWII public air raid shelter.
|The William Street and Queens Wharf Road retaining walls are of aesthetic significance for their contribution to the definition of an important ceremonial and civic space associated with the river front and the Treasury Building. The textured surface of the stone, its varied colouration and the light and open effect of the railings endow both walls with an attractive streetscape presence.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14912,"place_ref":600137,"name":"Gardams","alternate_name":"Rutter and Sons","street_address":"114 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Gardam's building is a small scale Victorian era commercial building that features some elaborate Italianate detailing. It has two storeys of stuccoed brick on a stone basement.
At street level the facade has been modernised with large plate glass shop windows and a recessed central entrance. However, the upper facade remains as it was when the building was constructed. Three window openings with round arched heads fill the upper facade. The elaborate hood moulds of the arches are carried by fluted pilasters with Corinthian capitals. This arrangement gives the impression of arcading on the upper facade. Within the openings are timber sash windows. Large stylised vermiculated keystones rise from the arches to support the cornice. At either end of the upper facade large fluted pilasters with Corinthian capitals also support the cornice.
The cornice is an elaborate element of the facade considering the size of the building. It has large brackets and ornamented dentils. Above the cornice is a parapet with a central triangular pediment. At the ends of the parapet are pedestals and an open Italianate balustrade runs between these and the pediment. Three large cast cement urns crown the pedestals and the pediment.
The building at the rear of the site fronting Burnett Lane was originally separate, but has been amalgamated with the front building during the present ownership. Evidence of this connection can be clearly seen from the upper level of the rear building. A connection has also been made at the first floor level in the front section of the building to allow access to the same level of the neighbouring Hardy Brothers building.
This example of a small scale Victorian commercial building is part of a surviving group of buildings of similar scale and detail from this era fronting Queen Street and as such contributes greatly to the streetscape.
","history":"This building was constructed in late 1881 and occupied by January 1882.
The deed of grant for allotment 11A was made to Auguste Deleuse in September 1881, following the 1880 demolition of the convict barracks which had occupied the site since 1827. A government decision to dispose of this Crown land prompted the redevelopment of that portion of the northern side of Queen street bounded by Albert Street and the first Town Hall (now Lennons Hotel site). Deleuse erected a two storeyed building with basement, and negotiated a five year lease with jeweller Thomas Gerrard.
Ownership of the property transferred to John Ferguson in April 1888. Ferguson, MLA for Rockhampton at the time, was also a building contractor and mining investor. His purchase of this site appears to have been speculative. After Fergusons death in 1906 title passed to various trustees who retained the site until its purchase by Gardams Silk Store Pty Ltd at auction in August 1950. Tenants at the time of sale were Rutter and Son, chemists, who had been there since the latter years of World War I.
In addition to the original building, another brick building with ground, mezzanine and two upper floors fronting Burnett Lane was included in the sale. Sewerage maps indicate a structure in that position from at least 1913. This building has been incorporated within the present Gardams premises. Gardams continue to occupy the site as a retail business.
","criteria":"Gardams Building is significant as evidence of the secondary phase of development in Queen Street during the early 1880s, initiated by the disposal of the convict barracks.
|Gardams remains a good example of a small two-storeyed commercial building of the Victorian era with ornate detailing.
|Aesthetically, it is significant as a part of a group of surviving 1880s commercial buildings which contribute to the streetscape of Queen Street.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14913,"place_ref":600138,"name":"Hardy Brothers","alternate_name":"Love's Auction Mart","street_address":"116 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Hardy Brothers is a Victorian era Italianate building located at 116 Queen Street. It consists of two storeys and a basement and is built predominantly of stuccoed brick on a stone foundation.
The lower level Queen Street facade has undergone numerous changes while the upper level is mostly intact. This consists of three semicircular arched window openings, the central arch being larger than the ones to either side. This central arch originally had two smaller archways supported on a slender central Corinthian column above which was a small circular window. The original sash windows of these openings have been replaced by large casements. The three openings are separated by pilasters with Corinthian capitals. Below each window is a balustrade of roundels, with a rosette in each circle. Above the arches is a continuous decorative label mould of floral motifs, with floral label stops. The cornice is made prominent by a row of dentils, and four sets of elaborate paired brackets. Above the cornice is an ornate parapet with a central triangular pediment containing three arched recesses echoing the window openings below. The rest of the parapet has a balustrade of small arched balusters, and at each end of the parapet is a pedestal supporting a vase. A vase also stands at the peak of the central pediment.
The lower facade originally had three arched openings, but by the 1890s a steel and glass shopfront had been installed. The shopfront has been considerably altered over time to suit different tenants. One such shopfront was designed by Lange Powell in 1914. The street level facade now has a recessed doorway, plate glass window and a modern cantilevered awning.
Internally the building is connected at the first floor level to its neighbour Gardams. At the basement level there is visible evidence of the original stone construction, brick partitioning walls and timber structure to the floor above.
The building is part of a group of intact Victorian era buildings in this part of Queen Street and thus has a significant influence on the streetscape.
","history":"This building was constructed in 1881 principally for Love's Auction Mart, on land owned by Brisbane architect Richard Gailey.
A government decision to demolish the convict barracks which covered this site since 1827 and to dispose of the Crown land, gave impetus to the redevelopment of that portion of the northern side of Queen street bounded by the old Town Hall (now Lennons Hotel site) and Albert Street. A deed of grant for allotment 12 of section 12 was issued to Richard Gailey, architect, in April 1881. By June work had commenced on the erection of a two-storeyed brick building with stone foundations. With a 24 foot frontage to Queen Street and a depth of 138 feet, the lower floor of the building was to serve as an auction mart for David Love, auctioneer and valuator. Richard Gailey occupied some office space on the upper floor. Given his ownership of the land and occupancy of the office, it is most probable that Gailey was responsible for the design of the building.
In 1888 importing ironmongers Wilson and Southerden moved to this site. Before moving in they made improvements to the premises, rebuilding part of the facade by erecting an archway on the ground level, described as the finest in the city. Gailey transferred title to his mortgagor Australian Mutual Provident Society in July 1894. AMP issued a 3 year lease to John, Samuel and Arthur Morley Hardy. The Hardy brothers initially leased only the ground and basement floors, and purchased the site in October 1895. Photographic suppliers Baker and Rouse shared the ground floor during the late 1890s, and WT Atthow solicitor occupied rooms on the first floor.
Various tenants occupied the upper floor in the intervening years until 1963 when Gardams Trading Pty Ltd took over the lease. An opening from the adjacent Gardams building was made in the wall, allowing movement between premises.
In 1979 title for this property passed from Hardy Brothers, though the company occupying it continues to trade under that name.
","criteria":"Hardy Brothers building survives as an important example of the secondary phase of development in Queen Street during the early 1880s, initiated by the disposal of the convict barracks.
|The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a late 19th century commercial building with ornate Italianate detailing, and aesthetically makes a strong contribution to the streetscape of Queen Street as part of a group of surviving 1880s commercial buildings.
|The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a late 19th century commercial building with ornate Italianate detailing, and aesthetically makes a strong contribution to the streetscape of Queen Street as part of a group of surviving 1880s commercial buildings.
|The place has a strong and special long term association with the firm of Hardy Brothers, and a special association with owner and occupier Brisbane architect Richard Gailey.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14914,"place_ref":600139,"name":"Sportsgirl","alternate_name":"Edwards and Chapman","street_address":"120 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Sportsgirl building located at 120 Queen Street dates from the Victorian era and was designed by FDG Stanley with ornate Italianate detailing.
It consists of three storeys with a basement and an attic level. It has a simple rectangular plan with brick back and side walls and a richly ornamented front. The rear of the building is polychrome brickwork while the front also uses lightly coloured Oamaru limestone although it is now not obvious as the facade has been painted white. At street level facing Queen Street there is presently a modern shop front with a central doorway flanked by shop windows, and a suspended awning above.
The first floor level has a projecting bay or oriel window with flanking arcades. The original detail of the bay window has been replaced with a modern glazed structure. The arcading is composed of round headed arches supported on partially fluted pilasters, with Corinthian capitals. Recessed behind the arches are plate glass windows which have been entirely blanked out with its current usage.
The second floor level has round headed window openings in line with the arches on the level below. These openings have decorative hood mouldings, and prominent keystones of acanthus leaves. The facade is finished with a dentilled string course which is the base of a Corinthian entablature with Italianate balustrading. A vase is located above a pedestal at each end and centred above the parapet is a triangular pediment. This has the words 'ERECTED 1882' engraved on the surface.
Internally the building has suffered with its changing ownership, but although the original internal columns have been encased some traces of their original decoration remain.
The rear polychrome brick facade of the building has a carefully composed elevation of arched openings with the stone base partially exposed. Little has changed to this facade since it was first constructed apart from the bricking up of some of the openings and the installation of modern entry doors for access from Burnett Lane.
The building is part of a group of surviving Victorian commercial buildings that are prominent in this portion of Queen Street.
","history":"This building was erected as a retail warehouse during 1881-82 and occupied by Edwards and Chapman in December of 1882.
Welsh businessman Richard Edwards joined Scotsman James Chapman in the establishment of a drapery store in Brisbane in 1877. Successful in their venture, the two required larger premises and in September 1881 acquired deeds of grant to Allotments 13, 13A and 14 of Section 12. The convict barracks, later first parliamentary buildings and supreme court had stood on this site from 1827 until its demolition in early 1881. A government decision to dispose of this Crown land prompted the redevelopment of the northern side of Queen street bounded by the old Town Hall (now Lennons Hotel site) and Albert Street.
Ex-Colonial Architect Francis DG Stanley supervised the construction of the building by contractor H Holmes. With a frontage of 48 feet to Queen Street and a depth of 138 feet, this substantial warehouse incorporated features designed to 'meet the requirements of a tropical climate'. The three storey building with basement was notable for it 18 foot ceilings, and had an oval opening 50 feet by 15 feet in each floor. This device was intended to allow ventilation and better light dispersion. A hydraulic powered Otis lift was also incorporated in the building.
The company was dissolved when Richard Edwards retired in 1891 and James Chapman obtained title to the site in May of that year. As Chapman and Company the business diversified into soft furnishings and furniture. In 1923 extensive alterations were carried out to the shopfronts by SS Carrick under the guidance of architectural firm Hall and Prentice. The work necessitated the insertion of steel columns and girders into the existing stonework.
Chapmans sold the building in 1938 ending the a 56 year association with the site. Subsequent owners have continued the retail use of the premises, the current occupants being involved in the merchandising of female apparel.
","criteria":"Sportsgirl is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, in particular the secondary phase of development in Queen Street during the early 1880s, initiated by the disposal of the convict barracks.
|Sportsgirl demonstrates the principal characteristics of the commercial work of Brisbane architect, FDG Stanley and of a Victorian era commercial building with ornate Italianate detailing.
|Sportsgirl is important in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, its contribution to the streetscape of Queen Street as part of a group of surviving 1880s commercial buildings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14915,"place_ref":600140,"name":"Regent Building","alternate_name":"Regent Theatre","street_address":"167 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Regent Building is located at 167 Queen Street, with public access off the Queen Street Mall between Edward and Albert Streets. Within the vicinity of the Regent are the 1924 Brisbane Arcade (QHR 600058), the 1930 National Australia Bank (QHR 600141), the 1981 Wintergarden Shopping Centre and the 1986 Hilton Hotel. Occupying approximately half of lot 2 on RP49018 on its Queen Street side, this five-storey building is what remains intact of the original theatre complex. It contains the decorated entrance hall, an adjacent small retail tenancy and a coffee shop (spaces originally part of single tenancy) at ground level. On levels one to four above ground there are tenantable offices, while below ground there is a basement. Behind this part of the building, connected to the hall by a wide set of stairs and three double doors, is the grand foyer with its marble staircase. The heritage boundary takes in the wall, its openings and the joinery that forms the south-eastern end of this foyer.
\nFaçades
\nThe Queen Street façade of the Regent Building (completed late 1928) was designed using classically-inspired detailing and proportions, and was described in A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture (1994) as 'a Palazzo façade, imbued with an Art Deco flavour.' It is symmetrical, with three window bays across and four storeys above ground level, although the fourth floor is stepped back and has no windows on this building face. The first floor features rustication in the form of scored render imitating stonework, and similarly-made arched windows topped with moulded keystones and sitting on decorated panels. The second and third floors have plain, giant-order pilasters, with stylised 'Composite' capitals. All windows retain their original metal frames, featuring a combination of fixed and casement windows with multiple lights. The second floor windows sit on a sill of Italianate balusters, running between the pilasters. Below the third floor windows are moulded tripartite panels featuring centred oval medallions. Inside the medallions are the entwined letters CB (standing for Capitol Building). Panels between the pilaster capitals are decorated with festoons. The frieze features paired rosettes at each end framing the name 'REGENT BVILDING' lettered across its centre. An exaggerated cornice supported on closely-spaced brackets projects over the frieze and is roofed with terracotta-style tiles presenting small, semi-circular profiles to the street. Topping the building is a parapet, which combines solid sections corresponding to the pilasters below and intervening open sections of Italianate balusters.
\nPart of the south-western (side) façade of the Regent Building is visible from the Queen Street Mall, revealing a general scheme of orange brickwork infill walls and concrete framing. The central section has a large, concrete-framed bay window, which supports a small corrugated fibro-sheeted awning with gutter. The metal windows on levels two, three and four are original, either large sets including four awning leafs each divided into four lights, or a narrow set including two pivoting leafs, one above the other, each divided into four lights. While the sills on the first two levels are concrete, those on the top are brick. The two windows at the southern end of this wall to level three are sheltered by an early hood made with light timber framing, fibro roof sheeting, guttering and flat metal sheet braces. All glass appears to be frosted with a fine wire mesh embedded in it. The opposite, north-eastern facade is not visible from the street as the Wintergarden Building has been built to that boundary.
\nRoofs
\nA combination of gable, saw-toothed and flat roof sections cover the top level of the Regent Building facing Queen Street. A large gable and skillion clad in ribbed metal roof sheeting sits over the grand foyer. (Aerial information suggests the roofing cladding of the front section of the building is also ribbed metal.)
\nAt street level, the Regent Building frontage is divided in two, with access to the entrance hall on the right hand side and a small retail tenancy on the left. The façade under the awning is largely clad in marble with a strip of modern signage running as a frieze above the doorways. The awning cantilevers over the Queen Street Mall by approximately three metres with metal tie rods providing support from above. Otherwise clad in metal roof sheeting, the underside to the awning features contoured metal-sheet housing for numerous rows of light bulbs. Several recent illuminated signs hang from here. An ornamental leadlight fringe runs along the south-west and north-west edges of the awning. Dating from the heyday of the theatre, this decoration, aside from other features of the awning, is considered to be of heritage significance.
\nGround floor interiors
\nEntering from the Queen Street Mall, the components of the building that served the Regent Theatre are: the single-height threshold space off the street; the large, double-height entrance hall; and beyond this the elaborate grand foyer, which retains the marble staircase that once led to the 1929 theatre's mezzanine promenade. The interiors of all these spaces are extravagantly ornamented in a confection of styles, which include Art Deco, Spanish Gothic, Baroque and Neo-classical or Empire. A key strategy employed in the design of picture palaces of this era, these styles are freely used to create eclectic visual effects without concern for historical or stylistic accuracy. These spaces form an impressive sequence, retaining coherence despite the mixture of decorative styles.
\nThe threshold space between the Queen Street Mall and the entrance hall is single-height, approximately six metres wide and four-and-a-half metres deep. It has a patterned terrazzo floor, marble skirting, a large, classically-styled cornice and a central ceiling rose with round light fitting. An alcove on one side features decorative plasterwork in a classical style around its border, as does the lintel forming the opening between it and the entrance hall. Recent features such as signage and television screens are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nThe entrance hall is a long, high-ceilinged space that acts as a thoroughfare between the Queen Street Mall, the coffee shop, the upper-level tenancies and the grand foyer. After passing through the threshold space, there is a ticket booth immediately on the right hand side (possibly containing elements from the original ticket booth in the grand foyer beyond). It is approximately eight metres long and has a waist-height marble counter with an attached metal screen that extends to above head height on two sides.
\nThe coffee shop has recent fittings and furnishings, although sections of the Art Deco-style cornice here appear to be original fabric. Closest to the street are two simple rectangular openings, while the opening closest to the grand foyer has a timber frame and semi-circular fanlight with frosted glass lights. Two openings nearest the Mall have been in-filled during the 1979-1980 renovation.
\nThe lift and main staircase to the upper floors of the Regent Building are accessed through the rear of the coffee shop and sit in the eastern corner of this part of the building. At the far end of the entrance hall, a set of marble steps spanning its full width lead up to a landing enclosed by three sets of original double doors opening into the grand foyer. Two handrails made of copper with brass divide the stair into three. The double doors are made from timber and have full-height glass lights and chrome fittings. The threshold is polished granite.
\nEntrance hall
\nThe dominant feature of the entrance hall is its high, barrel-vaulted ceiling decorated with Neo-classical Empire-style plasterwork and murals. The decorative pattern consists of raised, geometric shapes and festoons painted bronze, set on a pale background and divided by strips of fretwork. The end vaults are painted with colourful medieval scenes. Two elaborate original chandeliers, with red glass panels and faux candle lights are suspended from the centre of two ceiling medallions. There is an elaborate cornice and the walls resemble courses of travertine block work. Shallow pilasters divide the long walls, with a decorative frieze of small pointed arches running between them. Another frieze line sits further down the wall sections at door head height. Brass candelabras are attached to each pilaster in line with these lower friezes. Above the door openings at either end of the hall are fixed large billboards with ornamental plaster frames surmounted by crowns. The floor is carpeted and has a marble skirting, but the original patterned terrazzo floor, similar to that in the threshold space, is believed to survive beneath the carpet.
\nGrand foyer
\nThe grand foyer is an impressive single volume with richly ornamented walls and ceiling; predominantly Spanish Gothic with Baroque effects, such as the use of Rococo plasterwork and large mirrored surfaces. It is approximately 22 metres long, 12 metres wide and three-and-a-half storeys high. The doors leading from the entrance hall open into the western corner of the space. To the left stands a recent ticket and snacks counter which, along with various signage, is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance. Centrally placed along the south-eastern wall, and leading up to a mezzanine level, is the grand marble staircase. On either side of it, at ground level, are double doors that lead into spaces outside of the heritage boundary.
\nThe ceiling in the grand foyer is vaulted with deep groins that continue down the walls to form alcoves for a series of blind balconies. The entire surface area is painted with medieval-themed figures and patterns. The colour scheme relies on warm colours (predominantly reds, browns, greens and cream) given a yellow cast by the muted lighting. The groined sections of the ceiling are painted in a pattern of twisted vines with a small shield in the centre. The edge between the groined and arched surfaces is defined by a narrow red strip patterned with yellow quatrefoils. On the lowest part of the arched panels various figures in medieval costume are depicted; each standing under the archway of a colonnade, some with shields between them. Moving up towards the centre of the ceiling, another shield, flanked by lions, hovers above the colonnade arches. Spanning the ceiling centre line are three large patterned circles featuring central sunbursts. Hanging from the centre of these are two large lanterns, similar to those featured in the entrance hall.
\nAll four walls of the grand foyer are heavily ornamented, most of which follows a dense pattern of thick, vine-like swirls and leaves that are painted mottled cream, beige and pale grey. The pale colour of this encrusted plasterwork and the extensiveness of its use within the foyer (in combination with other elements such as mirrors), are the key reasons for the design style being described as Rococo.
\nThe long side walls are each punctuated by four blind balconies, set into the alcoves formed by the elongated ceiling groins. These balcony alcoves have low plasterwork balustrades at their base, tall mirrored panels on the flat wall behind and are capped by elaborate plasterwork canopies, from which red velvet curtains with a gold tasselled fringe are suspended. Below each blind balcony are mirrored panels with a darkly painted plaster border. Between them, from floor level to just below the ceiling, are paired, rounded pilasters encrusted with tracery. Single columns sit between the end balconies and the wall corners. Brass candelabra are fixed between each balcony at balustrade height and concealed lights at the top of the pilasters shine up onto the arched, painted ceiling.
\nDominating the north-western end wall of the foyer is a large false Gothic window, made from plaster with panels of reflective bronze paint imitating glass. This feature is repeated on the opposite wall, with the lower portion serving as the doorway at the top of the grand marble staircase. Decorative friezes run across the north-western end wall at above door height, and two small lanterns are attached on either side of its Gothic window. All other wall surfaces throughout the grand foyer are scored and painted to resemble travertine block work.
\nA key element in the grand foyer is its staircase, which at approximately five metres wide and nine metres long was built on a scale to suit that of the large space it occupies, as well as to accommodate the numbers of patrons of the former 1929 theatre. It is clad in white marble with grey veins, and its bottom few steps swell out in a shallow curve, flanked on either side by ornate, plaster balustrade end posts that are topped with vessels for displaying flowers. The remainder of the balustrade on either side is made from plaster employing the same style of ornamentation as the walls, with the top surface of the upper rail covered in maroon and white marble and the bottom skirting made of grey-blue and white marble. A copper and brass handrail, similar to the one in the entrance hall, runs up the centre of the staircase. A landing divides the stairs in two, in line with the height of the balconies along the side walls. Both this landing and the one at the top of the stairs are finished with square marble tiles. The end posts at the top of the stairs are simple, square plinths with a marble top and additional plaster flower bowls. The upper landing extends the width of the hall to form a narrow balcony, around which the balustrade of the staircase continues. Square plasterwork panels set into the end wall at this level conceal air-conditioning ducts.
\nThe doors leading out of the grand foyer into adjoining spaces on the ground floor match those connecting the foyer and entrance hall. In front of these doors, the wide soffit to the balcony above is decorated with a distinctive pattern of swirls interlocking to form a series of circles and has a circular light fitting in its centre. Beneath the grand marble staircase, accessed through openings on either side, there is a storeroom which retains an original timber door featuring a simple geometric pattern of ribs. Next to this storeroom are stairs that lead down to the basement (currently not in use), which retain original handrails and brackets.
\nMarble skirtings feature throughout the grand foyer, including around the base of the staircase. The floor at ground level is covered in recent carpet, as is the upper landing area on either side of the grand staircase.
\nBasement
\nThe basement comprises a number of bare rooms stripped of wall, ceiling and floor linings and services after c2000 when the last tenants quit the space. The basement section of the stairwell closest to Queen Street has been sealed off, while access is still open from the stairs under the marble staircase in the grand foyer.
\nLevels one to four tenancies
\nOf the four levels of tenancies located above the ground floor of the Regent Building, the first three share an original general floor plan, consisting of a central, straight hallway linking various rooms to the lift and stairwell at its southern end. Rooms line this corridor along its length to the south-west and at the Queen Street end of the building, while staircases, toilets and other service spaces occupy the north-eastern side. The 1928 stair winds around a generously-scaled void and has a wrought iron balustrade with a timber handrail moulded in a single length. While remaining in its original location next to the 1928 stair, the lift itself is not original. Further along the north-eastern side of the building there is a narrow light well, with toilets between it and the central hallway, and a fire escape staircase at its Queen Street end, which was installed during the building's 1978-80 redevelopment. The toilets occupy their original positions in the building but have been renovated since being first installed there. The windows looking into the light well, apart from those to the main stairwell (metal-framed), have been removed and the openings filled in. Kitchenettes and services cupboards sit between the 1979 fire escape and the central hallway.
\nA number of features found on level one are of note. The first is a theatrette overlooking Queen Street. It has a small section of tiered seating and a bio box, and is decorated with curtains covering most walls and a number of brass candelabra similar to those found elsewhere in the building and likely to be from the original 1929 fit-out of the Regent Building. There are also sections of cornice matching those present in the café downstairs. The second feature is two interwar timber doors with frosted glass upper lights along the south-western side of the corridor on this floor. These open to reveal the ceiling framing above the entrance hall. Further to these are pieces of original architrave, skirting boards and several plaster corbels.
\nOn all four of these floors, original parquetry remains under the carpet. It is exposed in the central corridor of level three and its reception area. Suspended ceilings have been installed on these levels, as well as some recent studwork and plasterboard partitioning.
\nThe top level (four) sits under a sawtooth roof at the front and two concealed gables at the rear. It is more open plan than the tenantable levels below, however its service spaces around the light well correspond to those below and a central hallway is delineated by columns. Aside from its windows on the south-eastern and south-western walls, there are clerestory windows oriented to Queen Street. A bulkhead disguising ducted air-conditioning has been installed over the central corridor space and in the toilets. Most wall and ceiling linings appear to be recent.
","history":"The Regent Building comprises part of the original Regent Theatre complex constructed on land between Queen Street and Elizabeth Streets, between 1928 and 1929. It includes a basement, four levels of tenancies at 167 Queen Street, two street-level shops, and the ornately decorated entrance hall and grand foyer, which led into the original 2500-seat Regent Theatre. The Regent Building was designed by Melbourne architect Charles N Hollinshed, in association with Richard Gailey Junior in Brisbane.
\nWhile the office building was completed late in 1928, and tenanted from April 1929, the theatre opened to the public in November 1929. The building was redeveloped in the late 1970s, with four cinemas installed in the space originally occupied by the 2500-seat theatre and opened in 1980 as the Hoyts Entertainment Centre. This development retained the four levels of tenancies, the basement, two street level shops, the entrance hall and grand foyer. One of the four cinemas, known as the Showcase Theatre and located on the lower level of the complex, was constructed to recall the design of the original Regent Theatre. Its vestibule was also a re-construction recalling the vestibule which had been on a mezzanine level of the original theatre. The entertainment centre was closed for further redevelopment in June 2010.
\nSituated in Brisbane's main thoroughfare, Queen Street, between Albert and Edward Streets, the Regent Building was located within the city's central shopping, business and entertainment precinct. It was constructed on a number of contiguous land parcels with one long, narrow lot (2/RP49279) having frontage to both Queen and Elizabeth Streets, and a number of contiguous lots facing Elizabeth Street. The shape of the allotments, determined the theatre's plan. The narrow Queen Street lot comprised the entrance hall and grand foyer, giving the theatre a prestigious address, while the auditorium was constructed on the broad part of the site in Elizabeth Street. The Queen Street lot had been acquired in the 1850s by Patrick Mayne. Its ownership later passed into the possession of two of his children; Dr James O'Neil Mayne and Mary Emelia Mayne. The Elizabeth Street lots, where the original theatre was constructed, comprised three additional lots; one of which had also been acquired by Patrick Mayne in the 1850s (L217/B11826) and passed to his children after his death. The remaining two lots (L1/RP574 & L1/RP575) that comprised the theatre site were purchased by film director and entrepreneur JC Williamson in 1928 and transferred to Hoyts Theatres Ltd in June 1929. Dr James Mayne leased the Elizabeth Street allotment and part of 2/RP49279 to Capitol Theatres Ltd for 50 years from 1 December 1927, which transferred both leases to Hoyts in September 1932. After James and Mary Mayne died in 1939 and 1940 respectively, their estate was left to the University of Queensland as the sole beneficiary.
\nApproval to build a lavish Regent Theatre in Brisbane, which would accommodate all classes of theatrical entertainment from opera to vaudeville and films, was granted by the City Council in 1926, at a time when 'picture palaces' were gaining popularity worldwide. In central Brisbane, the Regent was to join a substantial cohort of theatres and theatre-cinemas which formed the basis of a vibrant cultural and social hub. By 1930, apart from the new Regent, Queen Street between Albert and Edward Streets housed His Majesty's (opened 1888), the Wintergarden (opened in 1924), and the Majestic (opened 1915, rebuilt as Odeon 1957). Three other venues had operated in Queen Street but were closed by 1923: the Pavilion and Strand De Luxe Theatres between the site of the Regent and Albert Street, and West's Olympia at the corner of Queen and North Quay. Nearby in Albert Street were The Tivoli (built as a theatre in 1915 and converted to a cinema in 1927), the Empire (opened 1911, renamed St James in 1933, and the Paris in 1965), and the Lyceum (1909, remodelled as the Elite in the 1920s and substantially rebuilt in 1965 as the George Twin Cinema) in George Street. Elsewhere were the Theatre Royal in Elizabeth Street (opened 1881, demolished) and Centennial Hall in Adelaide Street (opened 1888, later Coconut Grove dance hall and Guild Café Theatre, which closed 1949). One of the last to be constructed within the same street block as the Regent was the 1937 Metro Theatre in Albert Street. Some of these were demolished in the 1960s and by 1986 only the George Cinema and the Metro, remodelled as the Albert Cinemas, remained.
\nThe architects responsible for the design of the 1929 Regent Theatre Building worked in association. They were Charles Neville Hollinshed, a Melbourne-based architect, and Richard Gailey Junior, a prominent Brisbane practitioner who, among other commissions, had designed the nearby Brisbane Arcade (QHR 600058) for Dr James Mayne in 1924. Hollinshed was involved with other large theatre projects, including a number in Melbourne such as the Fitzroy Regent, the Comedy Theatre and the refurbishment of Her Majesty's. Aaron Bolot, then an employee of Gailey, also worked on the project. Their designs were featured in the Architecture and Building Journal of Queensland; first in June and July 1927, later through 1928, and into 1929, where the scale and splendour of the building were amply described. The Queen Street section - occupied by April 1929 - comprised a basement, a street-facing shop, four levels of commercial tenancies, the entrance hall, and the grand foyer. It was originally to be the Capitol Building, which is why there are intertwined CBs on the front façade. The theatre was constructed on the larger Elizabeth Street site and included six shops at street level and a 200-space basement car-park, accessible from Elizabeth Street.
\nThe brick shell of the theatre building on Elizabeth Street enclosed a composite steel and concrete frame with ancillary timber framing used to support the floors and ceilings and their decorative features. The Regent in Brisbane reflected the evolution of the picture palace concept devised by Samuel Lionel 'Roxy' Rothapfel's 1913 Regent Theatre in New York which created a fantasy interior where audiences could lose themselves within an evocatively-decorated atmospheric picture palace. This style was perpetuated by Hoyts in a chain of Regent theatres built across Australia in the 1920s, in Melbourne (Victorian Heritage Register [VHR]), South Yarra, Ballarat (VHR), Perth, Sydney and Adelaide (facade on South Australian Heritage Register). Two more were built in New Zealand in Auckland and Palmerston North. The Brisbane Regent's interiors were a blend of Gothic, Baroque and Classical themes. Two building contractors were employed on the Brisbane Regent: AJ Dickenson for the theatre component and J & EL Rees for the Queen Street section. Construction and fit-out costs, including furnishings (some of which reputedly were antiques collected from overseas), paintings, the main chandelier, Belgian carpets, a Wurlitzer organ, and a state-of-the-art air conditioning system, amounted to around £400,000.
\nAlmost a year after the tenancies on Queen Street were completed, the Regent Theatre opened on 8 November 1929 being described as 'palatial', 'rich in detail' and 'strikingly beautiful'. Seating more than 2500 patrons it was one of the largest theatres in the Commonwealth and comprised an extensive stage with fly tower and a large movie screen and stage, modern lighting facilities, three talking machines, and a £25,000 Wurlitzer organ from New York. A large dome stretching above the stalls featured a one ton bronze chandelier in the centre of an oval ceiling medallion set within a 'sunburst' surround. The elaborate decorative plaster work was prepared by Picton Hopkins and Son Pty Ltd in Melbourne with some involvement by the local Decorative Tile Company in its installation, which also completed the marble tiling. The ornament moulds were designed and cast in Melbourne. The final plaster pieces were cast in situ in Brisbane and then fixed into place and painted. A new proprietary board product known as 'Craftex' was used to replicate stone and marble on the walls. The Mollocco Brothers of Sydney created the marble work on the staircase. The furniture and artworks used throughout the building had been selected by the Managing Director of Hoyts, Frank Thring Senior, during his travels in Europe. He had been a Managing Director with JC Williamson Films Ltd before it merged in 1926 with Hoyts Pty Ltd to form Hoyts Theatres Ltd. Thring went on to make the first Australian 'talkies' with his company Efftee Film Productions in 1930-31.
\nThe Regent tenanted office building operated successfully from April 1929, when its first tenant, a dressmaking academy was soon joined by hairdressers, estate agents, accountants, a costume designer and the Western Electric Company which provided sound reproduction equipment. A café was located on the ground floor facing Queen Street and in 1949 tea rooms operated on the second floor. Hoyts had offices in the basement level, which ran the entire length of the building.
\nThe Regent, like other theatres of the time, offered a temporary escape from the harsh reality of life during the Depression. The theatre also showed newsreels, keeping audiences informed of current events, which was particularly important during WWII. The introduction of drive-in theatres from the mid 1950s and television from 1959 in Queensland were largely responsible for the decline in attendances at these large picture theatres. From the 1970s, cinema companies began constructing multiplexes to cater for smaller audience numbers watching a wider range of films.
\nFrom late 1969 Hoyts and the trustees of the Mayne Estate began devising proposals to redevelop the Regent Theatre. The manager of Hoyts Queensland revealed these plans in a Courier Mail article in January 1973 which prompted the National Trust of Queensland to investigate the historic value of the theatre and include it on the organisation's heritage list from July 1974. In view of the looming date of 1977, when the lease granted to Hoyts over the Mayne estate land would expire, it was decided that the best option for the continued generation of income was to replace the existing theatre with a number of smaller cinemas. The local architectural firm commissioned by the trustees to complete the design for this proposal was Lange L Powell, Dods and Thorpe. The National Trust made an objection to a preliminary application lodged with the Brisbane City Council and succeeded in postponing the project. In the meantime the organisation presented alternative plans, which were eventually deemed economically unviable. A final application was approved by the BCC in June 1978 for a scheme that retained the entrance hall and grand foyer, café and offices but replaced the auditorium with four cinemas and a shopping arcade. An active local 'Save the Regent' campaign began the following month, just after the National Heritage Commission announced that the theatre would be included on its National Register.
\nThe final film screening in the original Regent Theatre was on 27 August 1978, demolition being planned for a few weeks later. The University of Queensland Senate tried to postpone the redevelopment while options to convert the Regent to a live theatre venue were further explored, and the Building Workers Industrial Union imposed a Green Ban on the site from 12 September to facilitate these discussions. This was lifted on 8 December, when again no commercially viable option for retaining the theatre had been found.
\nWorkers began demolition on Saturday 9 December 1979. Newspaper reports indicate that seven or eight young men demolished the interior with sledge hammers, axes and chain saws. Plaster on the walls was broken up, the royal boxes destroyed, and seats either kicked in or thrown from the upper windows to the ground. The plaster decoration around the screen was destroyed although the ceiling remained intact on Monday 11 December. The University Senate stated that the trustees' architects had been on site to ensure that any items required for the redevelopment were retained. Some of the interior fittings were salvaged for local cinemas such as the Majestic at Pomona. The 'Save the Regent' organisation complained to the Labour Relations Minister over the demolition and for breaches of the Construction Safety Act 1971, for which a prosecution was initiated in December 1979.
\nAfter some delays during construction, the $5 million redevelopment opened on 2 August 1980, being known as the Hoyts Entertainment Centre. Apart from the new, much smaller cinemas, one of which was decorated with plaster ornament either salvaged or recast from the 1929 originals, the building contained a ground level vestibule and bar adjacent to this embellished cinema that were fitted out in a similar manner. Two cinemas with their own 'modern' foyer were installed on an upper level accessed via the grand staircase, and a food outlet (MacDonalds) was set up in the basement. The Regent Building facing Queen Street remained intact with minor alterations and served as an entrance to the new cinema complex.
\nIn 1992, under the Queensland Heritage Act 1992 (the Act), the Hoyts Entertainment Centre was provisionally entered in the newly created Queensland Heritage Register (QHR). The heritage boundary attached to this listing encompassed all that remained of the original Regent Theatre Building, including the new cinemas within the remnant theatre shell. An objection to the inclusion of these parts was lodged the following year. As required by the Act an independent assessor was appointed to investigate the objection and concluded that the building component on Elizabeth Street, where the four cinemas had been inserted, was not of significance and that this area should not be permanently entered in the heritage register. In 1994, after considering the independent assessor's report, the Heritage Council reduced the boundary to its current extent.
\nThe Regent Theatre complex continued operation in various guises until June 2010, hosting among other gala events the annual Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) since about 1995 and housing BIFF administration. In 2010 a development was planned that encompasses the Regent, Wintergarden Shopping Centre and Hilton Hotel sites, contiguous along Queen and Elizabeth Streets. The project involved the demolition of the Regent cinema box and the four cinemas within it and construction of a commercial office tower on the site. It also involved conservation works to the heritage-listed Regent Building, including the tenanted building on Queen Street, the entrance hall and grand foyer and the integration of the latter into the new mixed-used complex.
","criteria":"Opened in 1929, the location of the Regent Building in Queen Street demonstrates the development of this street as a cultural centre from the 1920s.
|The Regent Building is characteristic of a 1920s picture palace, and is one of only four Hoyts/Regent picture palaces constructed in Australia at this time.
|The Regent Building is characteristic of a 1920s picture palace, and is one of only four Hoyts/Regent picture palaces constructed in Australia at this time.
|The Regent Building is valued by the community, and the ornate interior of the entry foyer has aesthetic quality.
|The Regent Building is valued by the community, and the ornate interior of the entry foyer has aesthetic quality.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14916,"place_ref":600141,"name":"National Australia Bank","alternate_name":"National Bank of Australasia","street_address":"180 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The National Australia Bank Central Branch, located at 180 Queen Street, is a seven storey structure with a steel frame and reinforced concrete floors and roof. The external walls are brick with sandstone facing and a granite plinth on the front facade. The sandstone is from Yangan, Queensland and the granite from Uralla, New South Wales.
The main facade, in the Classical Revival style, is divided into five vertical bays. The three central bays are distinguished by flanking giant order pilasters which extend from above the ground floor level to the cornice line below the parapet.
The openings on the upper level have semicircular arches. The three central openings have individual balconies with balustrading and a projecting cornice/balustrade that returns to the flanking side bays. These are plainer with narrower openings. The original glazing on the building has been replaced by aluminium framed glazing to a similar pattern.
At the ground floor level the building has four engaged Doric columns above the granite plinth and flanking the three entrance doorways. Over these is an entablature that has balustraded balconies to the first floor level.
The ground floor contains the main banking chamber with a mezzanine level, partly renovated. Much of the plaster detailing in the chamber remains. The vestibule and adjoining lift lobby have finely figured marble linings. The second and third floors retain the original office layout and finishes, but other levels have been modified to accommodate larger tenancies. The relatively austere basement contains carefully detailed security grilles and a strong room.
","history":"This building, constructed in 1929-30, replaced an earlier bank which had erected in 1891 for the Royal Bank of Queensland. In 1917 the Royal Bank of Queensland merged with another Queensland bank, the Bank of North Queensland to form the Bank of Queensland. In 1922, the Bank of Queensland was absorbed by the National Bank of Australasia and several years later decided to build a new bank on the site.
Designed by Melbourne architects A & K Henderson with assistance from local firm of Atkinson, Powell & Conrad, the contractor was G A Stronach, with the technical advice of Thomas Walker Pearce. It was an example of the pervasive fashion for the neo-classical style in commercial and civic buildings, of similar scale and materials during the period. The building was opened on 6 May 1930 and its lavish fittings and imposing style attracted favourable comment. Prominent features of the building included the large bronze doors in the Queen Street entrance, separate lifts for tenants, and a special women's banking section fitted with lounge, retiring room, writing facilities and telephone. Over the years various professional tenants have occupied the upper floors - solicitors, doctors, accountants, architects, and optometrists.
The new building, like its predecessor, served as the head office of the National Bank of Australasia in Queensland until 1948 when it absorbed the last of the distinctively Queensland banks of the nineteenth century, the Queensland National Bank. The new head office was set up in the former QN Bank building on the corner of Queen and Creek Streets. In 1983 the NBA merged with the Commercial Banking Corporation to form the National Australia Bank.
","criteria":"(Criterion under review)
|The National Australia Bank is a fine example of a 1920s bank with Classical elements reflecting the solidity of a financial institution.
|The building is significant for its contribution to the streetscape in terms of style, scale, and texture, in conjunction with the adjoining Finney Isles building.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14917,"place_ref":600142,"name":"David Jones","alternate_name":"Finney Isles & Co.","street_address":"196 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The David Jones store, with frontages to Queen and Adelaide Streets, comprises sections of varying levels and differing facade treatment. The place is interlinked with the Queens Plaza shopping complex.
\nThe southern Queen Street section (1909) has six storeys with a basement. The facade contains five vertical bays of windows, now painted, above the ground floor level. The bays are divided by a cluster of slender columns and mouldings extending into delicate floral decoration at their top. The cornice is elaborately decorated with egg and dart moulding, and rows of rosettes on the soffit and face. The words, 'THE BIG BLOCK' and 'FINNEY ISLES & CO. LIMITED' are contained on the parapet in raised lettering. Above the parapet is a central raised classical pediment containing the date 'A1909D'.
\nThe northern Adelaide Street section (1909) comprises three storeys. The facade is more austere than that of Queen Street, reflecting the lesser importance of this street address. Originally having five distinct bays, half of the far right bay has been removed in the construction of the neighbouring section. The upper level windows have broad arched openings that are visually connected to the square headed windows below by plain flanking pilasters. Above these at parapet level is a central triangular pediment incorporating the date 'A 1909 D'.
\nThe southern Adelaide Street section (1936) comprises six storeys. The facade, in the Art Deco style, consists of three bays of four windows separated by pilasters. The art deco treatment returns for some distance along the southern wall. The windows are all small, slender rectangular openings. Decorative friezes occur between the pilasters at each change in level, and again on the parapet.
\nThe shopfronts at both Adelaide Street and Queen Streets contain modern glazing, finishes and fittings.
\nInternally the store has been substantially changed. Part of the original ceiling is visible at the front of the 1909 Queen Street section on the upper level. On the first floor of the Adelaide Street section the ceiling is also substantially intact. The 1930s Adelaide Street section retains much of its Art Deco detailing, particularly evident is the black and white Rockhampton marble around the lift wells.
","history":"This department store complex was built in stages between 1909 and 1936 for the firm of Finney Isles & Co. The firm was established by Thomas Finney and James Isles in 1864 with a draper's store in Fortitude Valley. The business quickly expanded, occupying Queen Street premises in the 1870s, then the City Exchange building in Edward & Adelaide Streets from the mid 1880s in which it sold a wide range of clothing, furniture and household items. Finney Isles, like many retailing firms, had a manufacturing section making both clothing and furniture.
\nNew premises, which were called the 'Big Block', were erected for the company in 1909-10. Designed by C W Chambers with J Mason the contractor, the building comprised five floors on Queen Street and three floors on Adelaide Street. The use of reinforced concrete for structural purposes was one of the first occasions in Queensland. The Adelaide Street site was previously occupied by the Gaiety Theatre and part of its southern wall was incorporated in the new structure. The building featured innovative display windows on Queen Street, silky oak staircases, lifts decorated in latticed ironwork and silky oak, pneumatic tubes for exchanging cash, a roof-top water tower and a large generator providing electricity to the lights, lifts, pneumatic system and the 400 sewing machines in the workrooms.
\nIn 1921 the company acquired a two storeyed building adjoining the northern side of the Queen Street store and it was converted for use as the men's department. In 1929 this building was extended to four storeys and the facade remodelled to a similar style of the 1909 store.
\nThe complex was further extended in 1936 when a three storeyed building was erected on the southern side of the Adelaide Street store. Designed by the firm of Atkinson and Conrad, the work was undertaken by Stuart Bros Ltd.
\nAdditional floors and a screen were added to the 1929 Queen Street building after 1949 and the 1936 Adelaide Street building was extended to five storeys prior to 1962. Finney Isles & Co was taken over by David Jones in the 1960s.
\nIn 2017 the place is interlinked with the Queens Plaza shopping complex.
","criteria":"(Criterion under review)
|David Jones demonstrates the principal characteristics of a larger scale and early 20th century department store and forms part of streetscape comprised of a group of complementary buildings including the nearby National Australia Bank [600141].
|The building exhibits important aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the finely articulated 1909 Queen Street façade, the disciplined 1936 art deco façade and the building's contribution to the Queen and Adelaide streetscapes.
|David Jones has a special association with the life and work of Thomas Finney and James Isles, and with their firm, Finney Isles & Co, a major Queensland department store.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14918,"place_ref":600143,"name":"Treasury Building","alternate_name":"Treasury Casino | New Public Offices","street_address":"21 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Treasury Building, a four-storeyed masonry perimeter block, occupies an entire city block bounded by Queen, George, Elizabeth and William Streets. It forms the northern edge of the group of important public buildings surrounding Queens Gardens (600112). These include the Lands Administration Building to the southeast of the park, the Family Services Building (600111) to the northeast, and on the southwestern edge, between the gardens and the Brisbane River, the former State Library (600177) and the William Street retaining wall (600135).
The view of the building from the river, interrupted only by the freeway, is enhanced by the elevated position of the site. The building consists of a partly sunken basement and an elevated ground floor or piano nobile above which are two additional floors. It is built to the property alignment around a large central courtyard.
The design is consistent with English practice of the late nineteenth century in employing a classical style drawn from sixteenth century Italian architecture. Arcades protect the northeast, northwest and southwest elevations. The arcaded facades are symmetrical with central towers of one additional storey surmounted by a pediment. The corners are emphasised with pavilions which step forward terminating the arcades. The basement walls are distinguished by smooth banded rustication. The southeast facade has no arcade and no central tower.
The building is faced with sandstone ashlar except for the inner walls of the arcade. These brick walls are finished with lined and unpainted render imitating ashlar. Each phase of construction has used a different type of sandstone. A colour difference is discernible between the Highfields stone used for the first phase of construction, and the Helidon sandstones used for the later stages. The external walls sit on a porphyry plinth. A matching porphyry dwarf wall adjoins the building on some elevations surmounted by a wrought iron fence.
The first and second phases of construction employ a fire protection system in parts of the building. Vaulted coke concrete floors are supported on concrete encased wrought iron joists and bearers. Beams are supported at walls by engaged piers or on freestanding concrete encased cast iron columns. Steel roller shutters slide down to protect openings. The structure of the third phase of the building consists of reinforced concrete slabs supported on loadbearing masonry columns and steel girders. The roofs of the earlier sections are hipped corrugated iron, easily distinguished from the roof of the third stage which is a flat reinforced concrete slab protected by a bituminous membrane.
The building has several entrances. The main entry is located centrally on the Queen Street facade where a wide flight of stairs leading to three sets of timber framed glass double doors in arched doorways gives access to a foyer on the ground floor level. The foyer has a coffered plaster ceiling and strongly patterned floor. A pair of ionic columns opposite the entrance frame the central flight of the symmetrically designed grand staircase. This staircase, part of the third phase of construction, is made of reinforced concrete rather than the cast iron stringers with slate treads that were used on the earlier staircases. The staircase is lit with Palladian motif windows opening onto the courtyard.
Wide continuous hallways connect all rooms on each level while vertical circulation is via generous staircases located along the hallway. With the exception of the grand staircase, stairwells are top lit by delicate timber framed glass lanterns. All staircases feature timber handrails, ornamental cast iron balustrades and stair landings that are contrasted with the treads by the use of bold geometric patterning. Some of the original staircases have been removed. Rooms open off the hallways on both sides and are lit either from the street or via the courtyard. Cast-iron balconies run around the courtyard on every level. Rooms facing the courtyard have french doors opening onto these balconies. Two wings containing toilets and washrooms project into the courtyard space.
The building has restrained rendered and painted interiors that feature cedar joinery and ornamental plasterwork. The level of ornateness varies according to the importance of the room. Rooms in the William Street wing have decorative cast-iron wall ventilators, marble fireplaces and plaster ceiling roses. The Cabinet room, positioned in the centre of this wing on the piano nobile, is distinguished by a more embellished plaster ceiling and elaborate carved cedar panels over the doorways. Ministers suites, located in the corner pavilions, and rooms associated with the Cabinet overlook the street. These rooms have french doors opening onto arcades and connecting doors and private corridors so that circulation between ministerial spaces is possible without encountering the public.
A contemporary 1920s interior was achieved in the third phase of the building by infilling between loadbearing columns with semi-demountable partitions. These partitions consist of a timber stud frame with asbestos cement panelling below head height and patterned glass above.
The exterior of the building is highly intact while the interior has had only minor modifications.
","history":"The Treasury Building was erected in three stages between 1886 and 1928.
The site at the junction of the George and Queen Street axes had been reserved for government purposes from 1825, and was associated with the Treasury from the 1860s. It was occupied initially by convict-built officers' quarters and military barracks. In 1864 the military moved from the site and the existing buildings were occupied by the Registrar-General, Treasury and Engineer of Harbours. In 1874 a single-storeyed building for the Registrar-General was erected on the corner of George and Queen Streets, anticipating a government re-development of what had become known as Treasury Square.
In 1883 the colonial government decided to construct new public offices on Treasury Square. A design competition, for a two-storeyed perimeter block to occupy the entire square, was won by Melbourne architects Grainger and D'Ebro, but their design was never used. The newly appointed Queensland colonial architect, John James Clark, argued that the site warranted a four-storeyed complex, to be erected in stages as government accommodation was required. Clark's own design, entered in the competition prior to his appointment as Queensland colonial architect in September 1883, was used.
Clark is significant in Australian architectural history. He received his training and experience in the architectural office of the Victorian Department of Public Works, and designed major public buildings in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.
Documentation for the first stage of the Treasury Building, which fronted William Street and the Brisbane River and returned a short distance down Elizabeth and Queen Streets, was completed by mid-1885, and site preparation followed immediately. Tenders for the main contract were called in April 1886, and Sydney builders Phippard Bros & Co. were successful with a contract price of £94,697/10/-. The principal architect on site was Thomas Pye, who resigned from the colonial architect's office in February 1887 to supervise the construction as a Phippard Bros employee.
When completed in September 1889, the new centre of government administration in Queensland was occupied by the Premier, Colonial Secretary, Registrar-General (in a purpose-built fire-proof section at the corner of William and Elizabeth Streets), Treasury, Mines, Works, Police and Auditor-General. It was home to the Cabinet and frequently to the Executive Council from late 1889 to 1905.
Stage two, which completed the Elizabeth Street section and continued two-thirds of the way along the George Street frontage, was commenced almost immediately. The documentation and working drawings were prepared by Thomas Pye, re-employed by the colonial architect's office to supervise the project. Tenders were called in April 1890, and the principal contract was let to builder John Jude of Adelaide, with a contract price of £67,000.
The contract was completed by February 1893 and the new wing was occupied in the middle of that year by the Registrar of Titles, Justice, Works, Public Instruction and the State Savings Bank, for whom a purpose-built banking chamber was included in the design which in all other details replicated stage one. Later in 1893 the courtyard was landscaped with a grass oval surrounded by a gravel carriageway, border planting, and trees.
The site then consisted of stages one and two of the Treasury Building, and the 1874 office of the Registrar-General.
In the 1890s and early 1900s the imposing Treasury Building served as a symbol of self-government and as a focus for celebratory and patriotic displays. In 1901 the proclamation of the Australian Commonwealth was read from a balcony on the William Street elevation.
Owing to the construction around the turn of the century of new offices for the Department of Agriculture and the Executive Building (QHR 600123), which provided additional government accommodation, work on the third stage of the Treasury Building was not started until 1922. The Registrar-General's building was demolished late 1922/early 1923, and construction commenced in mid-1923, using day labour. This was deliberate government encouragement of state enterprise, as was the government acquisition of Millers Quarries at Helidon to provide the stone.
The front elevation of the third section differed only slightly from Clark's original concept, although structurally and in internal materials and fittings it was a 1920s building. It was completed, occupied and opened officially in 1928 at a final cost of £137,817, providing expanded accommodation for existing Treasury Building tenants.
In the 1950s, demand for further accommodation led to the construction in 1961 of a five-storeyed annex in the courtyard. In 1971 the Treasury and Works Departments moved to the new Executive Building at 100 George Street, thus severing the Treasury Building's connection with these principal government departments. The annex was demolished in 1987, in anticipation of a major government refurbishment of the site.
Since 1989 the Registrar-General has remained the sole occupant of the Treasury Building, but it continues to be the best known and identifiable government office building in Queensland.
","criteria":"The Treasury Building is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history being a visual expression of Queensland aspiration and pride in the rapid progress of the colony since 1859. The building is prominent physical evidence of Queensland's rapid economic growth and associated government confidence and enterprise in the 1880s. The physical intactness of the building, particularly in the interior spaces, demonstrates the working of Queensland executive and administration government in the late nineteenth century.
|As an intact late nineteenth century building, whose continuity of design has been preserved over three stages, the Treasury Building demonstrates a rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|The Treasury Building is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of Italian Renaissance style in late nineteenth century Australian public buildings, and is an outstanding example of its type.
|The building is important in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, and by architectural historians in particular, namely the accomplished design, detailing, materials and workmanship and its landmark quality and townscape contribution, particularly in relation to the adjacent buildings and sites and to the river.
|The Treasury Building is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative achievement, being a major work by foremost Australian architect JJ Clark.
|The Treasury Building has a strong and special association with the role and prestige of government, being a popular symbol of accountable self-government in Queensland for over a century, and an integral member of the most prominent, important and cohesive group of government buildings in Queensland.
|Both site and building have had a special association with authority, government and administration in Queensland since 1825.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14922,"place_ref":600147,"name":"MacArthur Chambers","alternate_name":"AMP Building","street_address":"229 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"MacArthur Chambers, an interwar commercial building, is located on the corner of Queen and Edward Streets. Comprising nine storeys with an attic and basement, the building has a concrete encased steel frame with an external shell consisting of a granite base and Helidon freestone facing.
The street facades are arranged symmetrically. The openings on the ground level are all arched. The stone facing of the ground and first floor levels is separated into horizontal bands which radiate from around the arches imitating voussoirs. These continue up the side bays of the building to the top level. The central bays, between the second and seventh floors have flush stonework. The three central bays above the seventh floor have a Corinthian colonnade that corresponds to that on the ground level. A dentilled cornice line occurs above ground level above which is a plinth with balusters in front of the window openings. Another horizontal cornice line runs at the seventh floor level which has a plinth above it. The entablature has a large dentilled cornice supporting a parapet with a raised section corresponding to the three central bays.
The Edward Street facade is longer but also symmetrical. The central window bays are flanked by rusticated bands of stonework in the central portion of the building. On each side are two other bays and a banded rusticated corner bay. At the ground floor level the entry is emphasised only by a portico of pilasters over these three bays. At the first floor level on both facades the windows in the flush bays are surmounted by pediments supported on brackets. The middle opening on this level of the Edward Street facade has a curved pediment, while the middle opening on the Queen Street facade has an archway with the emblematic statuary situated in front of it. The whole building is set on a polished grey granite plinth which incorporates stairs leading up to each entry.
Internally the main banking chamber retains much of its plaster detailing but it has all been painted a cream colour. The entry vestibule to this space has a vaulted coffered ceiling. The Edward Street entry retains its original doors and apart from the lifts much of the original lobby with its marble staircase extending to the top level of the building remains. The window suites in the building are mostly original. On the eighth floor a section of the building has been set aside to commemorate MacArthur's occupancy.
","history":"This building was constructed between 1931 and 1934 as the Queensland headquarters of the Australian Mutual Provident Society (AMP), replacing two earlier AMP buildings on the site (1877-79 and 1885).
The AMP Society was formed in Sydney in 1848/49 under the NSW Friendly Society's Act of 1843, and was one of a number of benefit and friendly societies established in the Australian colonies from the mid to late 19th century. Founded by a group of prominent Sydney philanthropists, the AMP Society initially offered life assurance policies, endowments and annuities aimed principally at ensuring that women and children were not left destitute on the death of the principal income earner. Growth in the early 1850s was slow, but in 1857 the Society was incorporated by act of parliament, and by the 1890s it was the most prominent of the Australian benefit and insurance societies, with a world-wide reputation.
The first Queensland office (an agency) was opened in Brisbane in 1875. Purpose-designed offices were erected for the AMP in Brisbane in 1877-79 and 1885 at the corner of Queen and Edward Streets, but these were replaced by the 1931-34 building. It was a measure of the success of the society that its new Queensland headquarters were erected during the worst years of the 1930s depression.
Designed by established Brisbane architects Francis R Hall and Harold M Cook, the offices were constructed by local master builder George A Stronach (overseer Thomas Percy) with technical supervision by consulting Brisbane structural engineer RJ McWilliam, for approximately £255,000. Contemporary reports described the quality Australian materials, the high standard of craftsmanship, and the modern engineering techniques employed. Marble throughout came from New South Wales and the building was faced with Helidon freestone. The granite used for the base was tested by the University of Queensland before construction, and was declared to be the finest granite in existence, with a crushing strength of 1365 tons per square inch. Queensland company Evans Deakin & Co. Ltd manufactured the 1150 tons of steelwork used in the building. The five girders spanning the ground floor banking chamber have a span of 43 feet and each weighs 24 tons. Construction of the steel framework using bolts rather than rivets was considered particularly innovative in Brisbane in 1932.
The emblematic statuary above the main entrance in Queen Street was carved by Fred Gowan of Sydney from Sicilian marble. The tableau illustrates the Society's motto Amicus certus in re incerta [a certain friend in an uncertain event] and depicts an erect female figure, with a cornucopia by her right side, holding the palm of victory in her left hand. To her left is a seated woman and child; to her right a seated male. Until c1980 when the logo was changed an Amicus tableau was erected on almost every AMP building, and usually was removed when the Society no longer occupied the premises. When the Society moved to new Creek Street premises in 1978, however, the Amicus tableau remained on the Queen Street building.
The ground floor contained the vestibule, the manager's office and a spacious banking chamber, 136ft x 87ft (41.4 x 26.5 m). The board room with adjoining luncheon room was on the eighth floor and featured a parquetry floor of Queensland timbers. Staff offices and facilities were provided on the seventh, eighth and ninth floors. The remainder of the building was tenanted.
MacArthur Chambers was one of several high-rise buildings erected in Queen Street in the 1920s and early 1930s. These included Ascot Chambers (1925), National Mutual Life Building (1926) (QHR 600151) and Colonial Mutual Life Building (1931) (QHR 600150).
Because of its central location and reinforced concrete roof, the building was used as the headquarters of the Allied Forces in the South-West Pacific during the Second World War. Tenants were compulsorily evacuated under military orders from 21 July 1942 until 14 June 1945. The AMP Society reserved the basement and part of the ground floor, while the Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces in South West Pacific Area, General Douglas MacArthur occupied the Board Room and his staff occupied the remainder of the building.
After the Second World War the building reverted to its former use as the AMP's Queensland headquarters until February 1978 when the Society moved to Eagle Street. In 1979 the ground and mezzanine floors were refurbished and leased as retail premises and offices. The building was re-opened and named MacArthur Chambers in honour of General MacArthur. In November 1990 the Brisbane City Council acquired MacArthur Chambers.
","criteria":"MacArthur Chambers has a significant role in Australian and Queensland history as the Headquarters of the Allied Forces in the South-West Pacific during the Second World War.
|MacArthur Chambers is a distinguished interwar commercial building with a fine traditional classical façade considered appropriate for a conservative financial institution, whilst employing an advanced structural system internally, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type.
|The building is significant aesthetically for its prominent corner location and contribution to the distinctive streetscape of both Queen and Edward Streets, and for the quality of the detailing, materials and craftsmanship.
|MacArthur Chambers is a distinguished interwar commercial building with a fine traditional classical façade considered appropriate for a conservative financial institution, whilst employing an advanced structural system internally, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type.
|It is also significant for its strong association with the important AMP Society, their outstanding success in Queensland during the interwar period, and their contribution to working class welfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14925,"place_ref":600150,"name":"Newspaper House","alternate_name":"The Manor Apartments | Colonial Mutual Life Building","street_address":"289 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This inter-war commercial building is ten storeys high with a narrow frontage to Queen Street and a long side elevation. It has been designed in sympathy with adjoining buildings, matching the arcade of the GPO at its base and responding to the parapet line of Custom Credit House in its upper levels. The building has a concrete encased steel frame with concrete floors and is faced in Benedict Stone the colours of Queensland which range from green to pink. The style of the sculptured ornament on the building facades is influenced by American Art Deco buildings of this period, as well as containing some Norman influence. It is similar in style to interstate Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd buildings.
The building has three paired window bays across the Queen Street facade. Three double height arched openings occur at the ground floor level. On the level above are paired window openings with arched heads and a central ornamented column. The two levels below the top floor have paired window bays which are similar but double the height. At the base of these is an imitation balcony with balusters supported on brackets. In this way the building has both a distinctive top and base. A similar projecting balcony occurs in front of the central window bay on the level below. Above the double height bays at the base of the top level sculptured lions stand on projecting brackets. The one facing the corner is winged. The parapet has raised portions each with a projecting stylised eagle 'gargoyle'. Similar gargoyles appear in the same location a level below and also below each projecting flag post above the third floor.
The entire Queen Street facade is repeated at each end of the side elevation, the central bays of which are plainer. Behind the parapet the building has an interesting roofscape of steeply pitched terracotta tiled roofs, one above the caretakers quarters and another over the lift room on the eleventh floor. At street level individual awnings have been located between the archways. From the rear laneway the building duplicates much of the front facade but is painted.
Internally the original detailing remains in the fire stairs, including the handrail and tiled landings. All the levels have been refurbished with suspended ceilings that sit below the window heads. The caretaker's quarters has been refurbished.
","history":"The building was constructed between 1930 and 1931 for Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society (CML). The Queensland branch of CML was formed in June 1874 and the society built offices at 62 Queen Street in 1883. CML purchased this site in August 1906 and constructed a new premises. These offices were demolished in 1930 to enable the construction of a new commodious building on the site for the expanding society. Between 1925 and 1934 much of the south side of Queen Street was redeveloped, including National Mutual Life Association Building (1926) (QHR 600151), the Commonwealth Bank (1929) and the AMP building (1931-4) (QHR 600147).
To compensate for the site's narrow frontage of 33 feet (9.9 metres), an agreement was made between the Commonwealth authorities, who administer the adjoining GPO, and CML to allow a "right-of-way to extend the full depth of the building". The Benedict stone used for the facing, a mixture of cement and crushed porphyry (Brisbane tuff), was manufactured by Benedict Stone (Qld) Pty Ltd which was established by Archbishop Duhig to manufacture the stone required for the Holy Name Cathedral, Fortitude Valley. The product was developed at the turn of the twentieth century by American manufacturer, Benedict. Duhig obtained a licence from America and opened the Benedict Stone works at Bowen Hills on 9 August 1929. In February 1930 CML advanced Duhig a £70,000 mortgage on his properties which included the stone works. A mutually dependent relationship developed between CML, Duhig and Jack Hennessey, architect. CML used Benedict stone to build a number of their Australian offices, ensuring some of their mortgage was repaid and employed Hennessey and Concrete Construction (Qld) Ltd - Duhig's architect and contractor for the Holy Name Cathedral. As Hennessey, Hennessey & Co., was based in Sydney, construction was supervised by Leo Drinan, the firm's Brisbane Manager. Concrete Construction (Qld) Ltd also built the CML offices in Sydney and Melbourne. George Harvey was responsible for the masonry work on the building and may have cast the gargoyles on the facade. The stone was delivered and positioned within seven months, setting an Australian record for stonework. Built during an economic depression, its construction provided employment for many Queensland workers.
On 12 November 1931 the CML building was officially opened by the Governor, Lieutenant-General Sir John Goodwin. The ground floor provided offices for Colonial Mutual and the arcade leading to Queen Street contained retail premises. The offices and professional suites on the upper floors were available for lease.
Queensland Newspapers purchased the site in September 1983, cleaned and repaired the exterior and re-opened the building as Newspaper House on 11 September 1985.
","criteria":"Newspaper House is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the commercial redevelopment of this portion of Queen Street during the period 1925-34.
|Newspaper House is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an inter-war commercial building.
|Newspaper House exhibits particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community including its rich decoration including gargoyles, shields, lions, friezes and relief blocks and its two finely detailed facades which complement important elements of the adjoining buildings and contribute to the visual cohesiveness of this portion of Queen Street.
|Newspaper House is important in demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement through the use of locally produced Benedict stone which was an innovative building material in Brisbane in the early 1930s.
|Newspaper House has a special association with the relationship between the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society, Archbishop Duhig and architects Hennessey, Hennessey and Co.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14926,"place_ref":600151,"name":"Custom Credit House","alternate_name":"National Mutual Life Building | Metway Chambers","street_address":"293 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This inter-war commercial building is seven storeys in height with a basement and a caretakers office as an attic level. It is a stone faced building on a reinforced concrete structure. The scale and form of the building and the colour of its stonework complements nearby buildings on this side of Queen Street.
It has a bronze faced suspended awning and bronze panels separating the windows of the end bays, from the second floor upwards. These end window bays project slightly from the rest of the building and have plain, flanking giant order pilasters. The three central bays of windows are more closely spaced. At their second floor level they extend to the floor and have a projecting balcony that is supported on brackets. This has a wrought iron railing of a diamond shape pattern between balusters of the same material.
The stone facing of the first floor level has banded rustication and visually forms a plinth to the upper levels. The windows of the three central bays are separated by decorative stone panels in the same pattern as the bronze panels of the outer bays. An elaborate cornice appears at the top of the facade. The raised sections of parapet above the end bays each have three small bronze acroteria.
Two flag poles are situated between these raised sections. The caretakers quarters are set back behind this at roof level. The visible portion of the north-eastern elevation has some window openings, but its surface has been rendered and painted. The windows of the front facade are still the original pattern with crossed diagonal glazing bars in their upper portion with four vertical panes below. The shopfronts below the street awning are not original.
Internally the ground floor lobby and lifts have been refurbished. The original main stair remains but has been enclosed as a fire stair and now exits to the footpath. All floors now have suspended ceilings and partitioning. The original caretaker's quarters is now used as office space and opens to a small roof terrace behind the parapet.
","history":"Custom Credit House was constructed in 1926 for the National Mutual Life Association. Part of this site was purchased by the National Mutual Life Association of Australasia in January 1883 for the association's headquarters. Title to the adjoining allotment was acquired by the association in July 1920. National Mutual Life proposed the reconstruction of its central offices on the site in 1925. Other contemporaneous redevelopments near the site included the Commonwealth Bank (1929), Colonial Mutual Life (1930-31) and the AMP building (1930-34).
\nDesigned by Melbourne architects Gibbs, Finlay and Morsby, in conjunction with Thomas B M Wightman, Brisbane, the new seven storey building provided 114 offices, a basement and caretaker's quarters on the roof. The tender of JL Green and Sons, contractors, was accepted in January 1926, the former offices were demolished in February and construction began.
\nNational Mutual Life occupied the building until 1981 when the property was sold to Havelah Investments. In 1982 Comord Pty Ltd purchased the building and the following year $4 million was spent on refurbishment. Since In 1987 the building was leased by Custom Credit and in 1988 Suncorp Insurance bought the property. The property was transferred to Bloomberg Incorporation Limited in 1993. The ground floor was subsequently leased for banking purposes by Metway and later Suncorp, following their merger. Commercial office space within the building has been leased by a number of tenants since the 1990s. In 2017 the University of Queensland established new city premises at the building, leasing the ground floor and parts of levels six and seven for postgraduate study and executive education.[1]
","criteria":"It is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the 1925/35 redevelopment of this financial sector of Queen Street.
|It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an inter-war commercial building.
|It is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular:
(i) as a fine example of an interwar commercial building reflecting the dignity and solidity of a financial institution;
(ii) the building's contribution to the visual cohesiveness of this portion of Queen Street.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14927,"place_ref":600152,"name":"First World War Honour Board","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"308 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The honour board is a large bronze panel framed by mouldings and relief ornamentation, with lettering covering the pediment and frieze. In the upper corners of the panel are brass and enamelled representations of the Australian Commonwealth flag and of the Union Jack. In the lower corners are the brass bas relief figures of an Australian Infantryman and a Light Horseman.
","history":"Of the 331,946 Australians who embarked for overseas service, nearly 60,000 did not survive the First World War. Memorials were commissioned by service organisations, shire or city councils and by business groups. Some commemorated those who had died, while others recorded all who had served in the armed forces during the war. This honour board was erected by the Queensland National Bank in commemoration of those employees who served during this War.
The Sydney firm of Wunderlich Ltd, suppliers of architectural metalwork, manufactured the board. Listed in an oval centrepiece are the names of 115 employees of the Queensland National Bank who saw service during the war and returned. Around this are the photographs and names of 22 employees who died while on active service. The memorial was unveiled by George E Bunning, Chairman of the Queensland National Bank Board on 19 August, 1920. It is located to one side of the main entrance of the banking chamber, matched by a less elaborate Wunderlich honour board commemorating service of QNB employees during the Second World War.
","criteria":"The Honour Board is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, being a reflection of a sentiment that saw its expression in the public chronicling of the names of all servicemen.
The Honour Board is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a commemorative memorial erected by an employer in honour of employees who saw active service during the First World War and of the elaborate memorial metalwork carried out by Sydney firm Wunderlich Ltd.
The Honour Board exhibits in the elaborate art metalwork an aesthetic quality valued by the community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14928,"place_ref":600153,"name":"National Australia Bank","alternate_name":"Queensland National Bank; NAB building","street_address":"308 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former Queensland National Bank building is a three-storeyed brick structure with sandstone facings, built in the Classical Revival style which was common in bank architecture of the period. The building has a distinct Palladian influence with careful classical detailing and giant order columns. It is built on a corner, and the two facades are dominated by bays of Corinthian columns which rise through the upper two storeys. This portion of the Queen Street facade protrudes in the form of a porch while the similar colonnade on Creek Street is recessed. The ground floor level has a plinth with arched openings set between groups of pilasters. Recessed behind the balconies of the upper-level central bays are more openings. Local sandstone was mainly used as the wall facing material and the pilasters, and locally grown cedar for the main entry doors, while the giant order Corinthian columns are imported Oamaru limestone. These columns rise from the first floor balcony. The pediment which originally surmounted the Queen Street facade was replaced by a brick and concrete oblong in 1915.
The building has a high degree of integrity externally and internally including original furnishings. It has many grand spaces including the Banking Chamber with its glazed roof and supporting columns, the Formal Dining Room, and the Board Room. The lift with its surrounding stair is a major feature of the building. First and Second World War Honour Boards are located to either side of the entry and face into the main banking chamber. [See appendix 600152]
","history":"This large masonry building was constructed 1881-1885 as the new Head Office for the successful and influential Queensland National Bank.
The burgeoning gold mining industry of the early 1870s created a mood of optimism and a desire for increased development capital, free from inter-colonial and overseas control. Seizing on this mood, eight prominent local businessmen and politicians formed the Queensland National Bank (QN Bank) in March 1872. Immediate widespread support of the bank exceeded expectations and the continuing patronage of powerful political figures ensured its prominence. When Thomas McIlwraith, a Queensland National Bank director, became Premier in 1879, he swiftly transferred the Queensland Government accounts to the Bank.
In December 1872, the Queensland National Bank, which was leasing Warry's Store in Queen Street, purchased the North Brisbane School of Arts land and building at the corner of Queen and Creek Streets for the sum of £8000, as the site for the bank's new Head Office. The bank's lease on Warry's building was not to run out until June 1879 and in the meantime, the School of Arts Committee leased back its original building from the bank.
Choosing an appropriate design for the new building proved to be a long and complicated process. Francis Drummond Greville Stanley, the Colonial Architect, informed the QN Bank in 1877 that he intended to go into private practice, and the Bank's Board of Directors asked him to design the new head office. However, Stanley did not resign at that time, and the Bank engaged Reed and Barnes of Melbourne to design the building. In August 1878 a plan was adopted with some alterations. More than eight months later, however, Reed and Barnes were requested to sell the plans so Stanley could carry out the design on a reduced scale. With a cheque for 100 guineas for their services, Reed and Barnes reluctantly took their plans back rather than sell them. In the same month, Stanley presented his plans to the bank with a cost estimate of £26 000. Tenders were called for the erection of the building in February of 1881 and Messrs Southall and Tracey were successful with a cost of £33 997.
Clerk of Works for the project was John Daniel Heal, publican, building contractor, stonemason and ex-Mayor of Brisbane (1879). Foreman of works for Southall and Tracey was longtime employee William Relf. The foundation stone was laid in July 1881 but delays for want of building materials, particularly the New Zealand stone, extended the construction period by almost 18 months. It was completed by August 1885.
Queensland sandstone, mainly from the Murphy Creek quarries, (specifically selected by Alexander Innes, stonemason and late foreman of the quarries) was used in the construction of the building. New Zealand Oamaru limestone was imported for the Corinthian columns of the Queen and Creek Streets frontages. The mantle pieces and the marble for the entrance hall were purchased by Lt-Colonel ER Drury, the Bank's General Manager, while he was in the United Kingdom during 1883-84. The upper floors provided a lavish suite for the Manager, while the lower floors accommodated banking chambers and offices. Drury also selected much of the furniture still extant on the bank's upper floors. A passenger lift was installed in the 1890s and electricity replaced gas for the building lighting around the same time.
Manuel Hornibrook, Master Builder, was contracted for the carrying out of extensive additions and the remodelling of the banking chamber during the early months of 1924. Honour boards were installed in the bank after World War I and World War II, to commemorate employees who served in the wars.
Despite the 1890s economic depression and a major political scandal late in the same decade, the QN Bank prospered, retaining the State Government accounts until 1920. Competition with nationally based banks saw a profit decline during the next two decades. The QN Bank merged with The National Bank of Australasia Limited in 1947 and its successor, the National Australia Bank, now owns the premises. In recognition of the Bank's decision not to redevelop the site during the 1970s, the National Trust of Queensland presented it with the John Herbert Award 1975-76. In 1981 considerable refurbishment and restoration of the building took place. Subsequently, only minor works have been carried out.
","criteria":"The former Queensland National Bank head office is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, being a major symbol of the economic growth in Queensland of the 1880s and a reflection of the close relationship between the Queensland National Bank and the Queensland Government at that time.
The Honour Board is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, being a reflection of a sentiment that saw its expression in the public chronicling of the names of all servicemen.
|The former Queensland National Bank head office demonstrates a rare aspect of Queensland's history, being a substantial and important 1880s commercial building in the Brisbane central business district which has retained a high degree of external and internal intactness, including much of the original furniture and fixture.
|The former Queensland National Bank head office is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial commercial building in the Classical Revival style, distinguished by the quality of its detailing and materials.
The Honour Board is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a commemorative memorial erected by an employer in honour of employees who saw active service during the First World War and of the elaborate memorial metalwork carried out by Sydney firm Wunderlich Ltd.
|The former Queensland National Bank head office is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular its streetscape value on a prominent corner in Brisbane's central business district and its expression of the elan and the solidity which the Queensland National Bank attempted to project in the early 1880s and its high degree of external and internal intactness.
The Honour Board exhibits in the elaborate art metalwork an aesthetic quality valued by the community.
|The former Queensland National Bank head office has a special association with the life and work of prominent Queensland architect, FDG Stanley, being one of the finest works attributed to him and with the Queensland National Bank's first General Manager, Lt-Colonel ER Drury, being evidence of his power and influence both in the bank and in Queensland in the last quarter of the 19th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14929,"place_ref":600154,"name":"Westpac Bank Building","alternate_name":"Bank of New South Wales Building","street_address":"33 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Westpac Bank building is a six storeyed masonry building located on the corner of Queen and George Streets. The structure is steel framed with reinforced concrete floors. It contains Neo-classical elements that were common in Bank architecture of this period.
The main facades comprise Helidon freestone as a stone facing on a base of Uralla polished granite, that on Queen Street incorporating a "piano nobile" of giant order Ionic columns. This facade projects forward in the immediate area of the columns bringing them to greater prominence. The entablature above the columns incorporates the name 'BANK OF NEW SOUTH WALES' into the frieze. A decorative dentil cornice line runs around the perimeter of the building above this. The parapet is relatively austere, and the portion above the columns rises to a low apex.
The George Street facade also contains five window bays. The three central ones are recessed rather than projecting.
The larger openings below the "piano nobile" are arched, with small square openings above them except the main entrance. The stone facing on this section resembles ashlar.
Internally the main banking chamber and its entry are predominantly intact. Both the foyer to George Street and that at the corner of Queen and George Streets have been refurbished. Giant order square columns rise from the ground floor through the mezzanine level with gilded corinthian capitals. The building has a rooftop atrium courtyard with cast iron Ionic columns, but this is now roofed over. These columns were verandah posts from the 1866 bank building and were incorporated in the design of the new building.
","history":"This bank was constructed between 1928-30, replacing an earlier building. The Bank of New South Wales began operating on the site in rented premises in 1851. In 1853, the bank purchased the property and in 1866 erected a purpose built bank with residence.
This building was demolished in 1928 and replaced with a new building which was completed in 1930. Designed by the firm of Hall and Devereux, it was erected by FJ Corbett & Sons for approximately £124,000. It was an example of the pervasive fashion for the neo-classical style in commercial and civic buildings of similar scale and materials during this period. 33 Queen Street remained the headquarters of the Bank of New South Wales until a new chief office was built in 1970. It is now a branch of the Westpac Banking Corporation, a successor of the Bank of New South Wales.
","criteria":"The Westpac Bank building and site are significant in illustrating the pattern and evolution of Queensland's history. The site has been associated with the Bank of New South Wales/Westpac since 1851.
|The Westpac Bank building is significant as the predominantly intact 1920s interior of the ground floor banking chamber represents a rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|The Westpac Bank building is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an interwar neo-classical bank building.
|The building is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the use of the neo-classical design for a 20th century financial institution reflecting the dignity and solidity of such institutions and the quality and craftsmanship of the building's main interior spaces.
The building makes a significant contribution to the streetscape of Queen and George Streets.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14931,"place_ref":600156,"name":"Brisbane Customs House (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"427 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"The Brisbane Customs House, located at the northern end of Queen Street and beside the Brisbane River at the northern end of the Town Reach, is an imposing two-storeyed rendered brick building in the classical style. The site is prominent due to the proximity to the river, the bend in Queen Street and the general topography which opens up many views to and from the building. A prominent feature is the large copper dome at the semi-circular northern end which is a focal point viewed from both directions along Queen Street and from the river for ships arriving from Moreton Bay. The architectural form of the building announces the northern edge of the city centre and is sympathetic to the landscape features of cliffs and river bends.
The architectural form clearly demonstrates the intended purpose of the building with the double entrance from both the city and the river, which is a response to the siting of the building between the river and the town. The riverside setting allows long views across and along the river to the building.
Other features of the Brisbane Customs House which demonstrate its former use are more characteristic of late 19th century customs houses in Australia, especially the general design and planning arrangement of the building to include an imposing masonry façade, an impressive public space (the former Long Room now used for functions), a secure bonded warehouse (the former Queens Warehouse, now converted to an art gallery), offices and a secure boundary fence.
The Brisbane Customs House is a well proportioned and skilfully designed example of a Victorian building in the Renaissance mode executed to take best advantage of its dominant site and solve the practical problems of dual access from the town and from the river. It has considerable unity in its scale, form and use of materials.
The main structure of the building is of brick on a stone foundation. The columns, pilasters, balusters to the colonnade, the parapet and side entrances are of Murphy's Creek sandstone. There are cast iron balustrades on the recessed verandahs and external stairs. The main roof is clad with corrugated iron. Timber window and door joinery survives reasonably intact on the exterior walls.
The exterior of the building is very intact except for the loss of the original roof, which was replaced by the present steel trussed roof in the 1940s, the removal of chimneys and the widening of the northwestern end of the balconies in the 1940s.
The interior fabric is less intact due to the alterations and additions carried out during its use as a customs house and to the most recent refurbishment, which removed much of the 1940s fabric but recovered aspects of the 19th century form, including reconstruction of the original timber staircase.
Inside the building the most imposing space is that of the Long Room beneath the dome. Fluted Corinthian pilasters of painted plaster are below the coffered ceiling of the dome, which has a central glazed section. In the basement some of the original walls with arched openings remain.
The 1890-91 Moggill sandstone retaining wall carries around the perimeter of the site reasonably intact and incorporates a wrought iron balustrade, masonry piers, stairs and rooms for the former underground privies at the river's edge. There is a small ground with a mature fig tree and sunken garden, which contribute to the building's riverside setting.
","history":"The Brisbane Customs House at the northern end of the Town Reach of the Brisbane River, near Petrie's Bight, was erected between 1886 and 1889 to a design prepared by Charles McLay of the Queensland Colonial Architect's Office.
The 1880s building replaced an earlier and much smaller customs house on the site. The location had been chosen in 1849 following the declaration of Moreton Bay as a port of entry in 1846 and after considerable discussion as to the most suitable location for a customs house. At the time shipping activity was centred on the South Brisbane Reach and the decision to locate a customs house at the northern end of the Town Reach acted as an impetus for the development of wharves along this part of the river. A small building was erected for customs purposes in 1850 and in the following decades became increasingly inadequate as Brisbane emerged as the principal commercial centre and port of Queensland.
In 1884 the Queensland Government decided to construct a new customs house. In March 1886 a design by Charles McLay was selected from many proposals in the Colonial Architect's Office for a new Brisbane Customs House. McLay completed the specification in May 1886 and construction commenced in September that year.
Charles McLay was the major designer under the colonial architect George Connolly and was appointed Chief Draftsman in 1889. His works include the Bundaberg Post Office, probably the Fortitude Post Office and the Lady Norman Wing Brisbane Children's Hospital (with JJ Clark), of which the Brisbane Customs House is by far the most ambitious and prominent design.
The contract was let to one of Brisbane's oldest and most respected contractors, John Petrie & Son, who tendered with a price of £37,342. The contract time was 30 months but because of difficulties with the supply of some materials, especially stone for the foundations, and alterations to the original plans, the building took longer than anticipated to complete and it was opened on 2 September 1889. Retaining walls, fencing, a double staircase down to the river and nearby earth closets were also constructed.
The completed building incorporated pedimented gables and a massive colonnade. Heraldic scenes in the pediments were precursors to the official Queensland coat of arms, which was not granted until 1893. A curved iron balustrade to the balconies included the initials of the reigning sovereign, Victoria Regina, in the cast. Red cedar was used extensively for desks, counters, cabinets and tables as well as for a massive and elegant staircase.
The Brisbane Customs House was built during a period of economic prosperity and a construction 'boom' in Queensland and was amongst the more impressive of a number of notable public and commercial buildings erected in Brisbane during the 1880s, which included the first stage of the Treasury Building (1886-1889). Public pride in the new customs house was considerable. On 7 September 1889, a few days after the building was opened for business, the local Brisbane Courier newspaper drew attention to "the handsome and imposing appearance, especially as seen from the river or from Petrie's Bight" and predicted that the Brisbane Customs House with its tall columns, pilasters and large copper-sheathed dome would "become one of the features of the city".
In 1891 stables, additional retaining walls and fencing, and more earth closets were erected at a cost of £446. By the mid-1890s gardens and a driveway had been developed. The mature fig tree now at the site was possibly planted about this time. Minor repairs were carried out throughout the 1890s, including some work in 1895 after seven feet (2.1 m) of water inundated the basement during the Brisbane River floods early in 1893.
By December 1908 the Brisbane Customs House, valued at £80,804 (£40,804 for the structure and £40,000 for the site), had been transferred to the Commonwealth.
In 1906 the inadequacies of the original flat roof were overcome by the installation of a new hipped roof. Rearrangement of counters and partitions in the Long Room was carried out in 1911 and again in 1919. Frequently minor repairs, cleaning and maintenance work was carried out to the interior of the building in succeeding decades. In 1947 major internal alterations were undertaken: all but two of the internal masonry walls were demolished; the timber floors were replaced by concrete slabs; the cedar staircase was removed and a new terrazzo one was installed at another location; mezzanine floors were erected in the Long Room; and the roof was replaced - without the original chimneys. In 1978 part of the exterior was cleaned, repaired and sealed and painted.
In the mid-1980s the Australian Customs Department moved out of the building to Australia House. The building remained vacant from 1988 until leased by the University of Queensland and restored as a convention centre and art gallery in the mid-1990s. At this period some of the interior masonry walls that had been removed in 1947 were replaced and the original timber stair was reconstructed. Non-significant partitions added after 1948 and parts of the 1940s fit out were removed except for some good quality intact 1940s office cabinetry which survived and part of the 1940s main stair which provided access to the basement. Two of the 1940s galleries added to the Long Room were removed and one, at the southwest end, retained and adapted. Timber window and door joinery was conserved and plaster mouldings reconstructed where they were missing.
In 2015, Customs House continues to be used by the University of Queensland as a function centre, art gallery and restaurant.
","criteria":"The former Brisbane Customs House, constructed between 1886 and 1889 to a design prepared by Charles McLay of the Queensland Colonial Architect's Office, was in use by the customs service for nearly a century. It is important historically as an expression of the importance of the customs service to Queensland and to Australia and for its site, which relates to the establishment of Brisbane as a port of entry and the development of major wharfage along the Town Reach of the Brisbane River and Petrie's Bight. The Brisbane Customs House was built during a period of economic prosperity and a construction 'boom' in Queensland and was amongst the more impressive of a number of notable public and commercial buildings erected in Brisbane during the 1880s. It is important in demonstrating part of the pattern of Queensland's history.
|The former Brisbane Customs House is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class of cultural places: late 19th century masonry customs houses. These characteristics include: the imposing form; general arrangement of spaces to include Long Room, Bond Store and offices; and secure fencing. It is a fine example of the work of architect Charles McLay and a good example of one of a series of customs houses designed in the Queensland Colonial Architect's office and of the work of contractor John Petrie.
|The Brisbane Customs House has aesthetic value as a well proportioned and skillfully designed Victorian building in the Renaissance mode, executed to take best advantage of its dominant site and solve the practical problems of dual access from the town and from the river. It has considerable unity in its scale, form and use of materials. With its copper dome and two storey colonnade, it makes an imposing and important contribution the streetscape and to the townscape. Its location on the riverbank adds to its aesthetic values, allowing distant views from along and across the river.
|The place has strong associations for the Brisbane community as a landmark and as a rare surviving marker of the Port of Brisbane before it moved to the mouth of the river.
|It has a special association with the Australian Customs Service, which occupied the building for nearly 100 years.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14932,"place_ref":600157,"name":"ANZ Bank","alternate_name":"Trustees Chambers","street_address":"43 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The ANZ bank is a two-storeyed brick building, with rendered decoration, located beside the Westpac Building at the southern end of the Myer Centre in Queen Street.
The classical main facade, has an arcaded verandah at the first floor level. The verandah has three arched openings and at each end are square headed window openings. Square pilasters with florid capitals are situated to each side of these windows and at each end of the arcade which has matching engaged columns to each side of every arch. The originally unrendered brickwork on the first floor has been painted.
The shopfronts at street level are modern in materials and design.
At the rear the building takes on a domestic scale with separate hipped roofs, a chimney, and a timber verandah at first floor level which extends around to the original toilets, which are located in a narrow wing are the rear of the building.
Internally the building has some intact portions. In a front section of the basement the vaulted underside of the slab above supported on cast iron columns is clearly visible. This has three vaults supported on two rows of columns extending five bays back from the front of the building. A pair of double-hung sash windows exist at the side to the rear of the building behind the neighbouring Westpac Building.
","history":"This building was constructed c. 1900. The site was purchased by the Bank of New South Wales in 1853. In 1866 the Bank erected premises on the corner of Queen and George Streets across part of both allotments, and the remainder of the site became a garden associated with the bank residence.
In February 1899 the Bank decided to construct a building on the vacant land and engaged architects Addison and Corrie to design a two storeyed commercial building. Walter Taylor was the contractor, and the building containing offices and shops was completed in late 1900 at a cost of £6,737.
The basement and ground floor were leased to Queensland Trustees Limited, while the upper floors was leased to several legal firms. Queensland Trustees moved to other premises in 1913, but the building remained known as Trustee Chambers.
Alterations to Trustees Chambers were made in late 1933. In November 1935 Trustees Chambers was sold to HA Manahan & Sons Proprietary Limited, chain store grocers. In 1957 the Prudential Assurance Company Limited purchased the building and leased it to the Australia and New Zealand Bank Ltd. In 1985 ANZ Properties (Australia) Limited became the registered proprietors.
","criteria":"The ANZ Bank demonstrates the principal characteristics of a late Victorian commercial building and is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, the arcaded first floor and the buildings' contribution to the streetscape of Queen Street as one of a group of surviving 19th and 20th century buildings and facades.
|The ANZ Bank demonstrates the principal characteristics of a late Victorian commercial building and is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, the arcaded first floor and the buildings' contribution to the streetscape of Queen Street as one of a group of surviving 19th and 20th century buildings and facades.
|The ANZ Bank demonstrates the principal characteristics of a late Victorian commercial building and is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, the arcaded first floor and the buildings' contribution to the streetscape of Queen Street as one of a group of surviving 19th and 20th century buildings and facades.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14933,"place_ref":600158,"name":"Former Queensland Country Life Building façade","alternate_name":"Hill's Buildings","street_address":"424-426 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The existing main facade comprises three identical bays. The northern matching bay and the remainder of the building have been demolished. The facade is lavishly decorated with Victorian Italianate detail executed in rendered brickwork, on the upper three of its four storeys.
The three remaining bays are identical in elevation. At street level all the original detailing has been removed, except for the large curved pediments above each entry. The first and second floors are linked by giant order Corinthian pilasters which support a highly moulded frieze and cornice. The central pilasters of each bay have a pediment, which rises above the cornice. On the top floor the line of the large lower pilasters is continued by smaller paired pilasters. The bays of the building at parapet level are divided by pedestals supporting urns. Each bay has a central semi-circular pediment containing the date A.D. 1888 in raised lettering, and is topped by a small finial which completes a striking silhouette.
","history":"The former Queensland Country Life Building was constructed in 1888-89 as a speculative venture for influential Queensland pastoralists, politicians, company directors and businessmen, Charles Lumley Hill and John Stevenson. Known originally as Hill's Buildings, this group of four warehouses was sited opposite the Customs House (QHR 600156) and close to the municipal wharves at Petrie's Bight, and was designed to attract shipping companies, merchants, warehousemen, bond storekeepers, insurance companies and others as tenants. Together with the Customs House, the building was constructed during a building boom which saw a number of notable public and commercial buildings erected in Brisbane during the 1880s.
The present Customs House was constructed between 1886 and 1889, replacing a smaller building erected in 1850. The site for the Customs House was chosen in 1849 after considerable discussion as to the most suitable location. At the time, shipping activity was centred on the South Brisbane Reach, and the decision to locate the Customs House at the northern end of the Town Reach acted as an impetus for the development of wharves on this part of the river, and warehouses in the immediate vicinity. The earlier building became increasingly inadequate as Brisbane developed as the major port in the colony, and in 1884 the Queensland Government decided to construct a new Customs House.
The growing importance of this part of the city is further reflected in the construction of the Eagle Street Fountain (QHR 600087) between 1878 and 1880 as part of measures to enhance the visual character of the area.
The warehouses were constructed as a four-storeyed masonry building divided into four bays, with individual entrances, and were erected in two consecutive stages. Part of the site was transferred to Hill in August 1881, part also to Hill in January 1888, and the remainder to Stevenson in October 1888. In January 1888, established Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, acting for Charles Lumley Hill, invited expressions of interest from prospective tenants in new business premises to be erected opposite the Customs House, with a frontage of 51 feet to Queen Street. He indicated that no expense was to be spared in either design or utility. In March 1888, Gailey called tenders, again on Lumley Hill's behalf, for the construction of two warehouses at Petrie's Bight. A contract for the two warehouses was let in April to George Gazzard, who tendered with a price of £8,900. Gailey and Gazzard had collaborated on a number of major Brisbane projects in the 1880s, including the Regatta Hotel (1886) (QHR 600331), Treasury Chambers (1886-87) (QHR 600116), and Brisbane Girls Grammar School. In July 1888, Gailey called tenders for the construction of another two warehouses at Petrie's Bight, and the successful tenderer was again George Gazzard, with a price of £8,444.
The warehouses were completed toward the end of the boom decade, and proved slow to let. One of the first tenants was Taylor, Enoch & Co., wholesale boot importers, who occupied the northern warehouse c1890. The other three warehouses were listed as vacant in the 1891 Brisbane Post Office Directory, but RL Armour, warehousemen and importers of general drapery and fancy goods, had moved to the building by 1892. WJ Weatherill, consular agent for the United States of America, importer, and manager of the Queensland Post Office Directory, occupied offices in Hill's Buildings during the second half of the 1890s. The shipping line William Howard Smith and Sons later occupied offices in the building. Edward Butler and Sons [initially Edward Butler & Frederick Rathbone], importers of wholesale saddlery, leased part of the building from January 1899 until 1948, when Edward Butler & Co purchased the warehouse they were leasing.
In 1905, Stevenson's part of the property passed to the Australian Mutual Provident Society, as mortgagee. Lumley Hill died in 1909, and his widow sold her interest in this property in 1911. There followed a variety of owners and lessees of the four warehouses, but the two most closely associated with the building in the second half of the 19th century were the United Graziers' Association and the Queensland Country Life newspaper. In late 1955, Queensland Country Life announced that it was moving to ground floor premises in the United Graziers' Association building at 432 Queen Street. In 1964 the trustees of the United Graziers' Association of Queensland, Union of Employers, purchased part of the site, and in 1977 this was transferred to Queensland Country Life Newspaper Pty Ltd. In 1973 the northern warehouse was sold and subsequently demolished for the construction of an adjoining highrise. The existing facade was retained when the remainder of the building was demolished in 1991.
","criteria":"The facade of the former Queensland Country Life Building dates from 1888-89, and together with the Customs House [600156] opposite, is one of the few structures which provide evidence of the official entrance to the former Port of Brisbane.
As a remnant of a commercial warehouse, the facade provides important evidence of the development of the Town Reach area as an important commercial warehousing district.
|It survives as an example of the work of architect Richard Gailey, whose firm was responsible for many of the ornamental boom-era commercial buildings of the 1880s, which defined Brisbane's image as a late-Victorian city until well into the middle of the 20th century.
|The facade makes a strong contribution to the streetscape as an important element near the intersection of Queen and Wharf Street, and as a complement in scale and style to the Customs House opposite.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14934,"place_ref":600159,"name":"Petrie Bight Retaining Wall","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"443-501 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This 150 metre long, parapeted retaining wall, ranging in height from 5 to 9 metres is built of porphyry (Brisbane tuff). The blocks are laid in courses and surmounted by a detailed cast-iron railing which incorporates one of the two original lamp standards and terminates in a sandstone endpost at the Customs House end of the wall. At the northern end of the wall, eight engaged buttresses, added only a few years after construction of the wall, afford further support.
The arches provide rhythm to the mass of the wall while the finely detailed balustrade adds an effect of light and space. The distinctive pinks, greens and browns of the porphyry contribute to the aesthetic appeal of the wall.
As the wall was backfilled with rock to the present level of Queen Street, only the parapet and railing are visible from the street. From the river side, however, the wall with its varying depths and distinctive arches and supporting pilasters is clearly visible.
The wall is largely intact despite several modifications.
","history":"This retaining wall was built in 1881-82 for the Brisbane Municipal Council. The contractor for the project was Henry Patten and the cast iron balustrading was manufactured locally by Smith Forrester & Co.
In 1880, after the Council purchased Kennedy Wharf [just downstream from the present Customs House], they obtained a loan of £7000 to build the retaining wall and extend Kennedy Wharf to Macrossan Street. Besides providing more working space behind the wharves, the wall marked the recently widened alignment of Queen Street.
In 1887 the City Engineer reported that the wall was out of plumb by 9 inches (23 cm) in 100 yards (91.4 metres). In consequence, the wall was stabilised by the addition of eight engaged buttresses.
Use of the Petrie Bight area changed after the 1940s when downstream shipping facilities were established, and the area below the retaining wall became available for development. One such development saw the establishment of a landscaped recreation area beside a car park.
Recent alterations since 1988 have seen about 20 metres of the wall dismantled and reconstructed on a new alignment. The parapet has been breached in three places with openings ranging from 5 to 8 metres wide. One of the openings now houses a reinforced concrete stairway which leads to a five storey building erected on the river side of the wall.
","criteria":"The Petrie Bight Retaining Wall is important in illustrating the development of Brisbane's road and wharf facilities by the Brisbane Municipal Council in the late 19th century. Construction of the wall was associated closely with municipal acquisition of Kennedy Wharf, and reflects the Council's developing role in providing improved transportation facilities in Brisbane. It survives as an example of a major engineering project undertaken by the Brisbane Municipal Council in the 1880s.
|The Petrie Bight Retaining Wall is also a fine example of a late 19th century stone retaining wall, and is important in illustrating its type. It has aesthetic significance in the contribution of its scale and texture to the Brisbane riverscape, and the cast-iron work remains an example of the decorative work of important Brisbane ironfounders Smith Forrester & Co.
|It has aesthetic significance in the contribution of its scale and texture to the Brisbane riverscape, and the cast-iron work remains an example of the decorative work of important Brisbane ironfounders Smith Forrester & Co.
|The Petrie Bight Retaining Wall is important in illustrating the development of Brisbane's road and wharf facilities by the Brisbane Municipal Council in the late 19th century. Construction of the wall was associated closely with municipal acquisition of Kennedy Wharf, and reflects the Council's developing role in providing improved transportation facilities in Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14935,"place_ref":600160,"name":"62 Queen Street","alternate_name":"Sussans Building | Colonial Mutual Chambers","street_address":"62 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"62 Queen Street is a three storeyed rendered brick building with basement.
\nThe facade is dominated by an oriel window supported by corbelling enriched with floral decoration. In the centre of the window running horizontally at second floor level is a band decorated with six different badges. Above this, mullions bisected by transoms divide the window into twenty-four lights. The head of each light is embellished with Gothic style tracery, composed of ogee curves. On both upper levels the windows extend from the floor to the ceiling. Decorated turrets flank the oriel window. The parapet is castellated and in the centre is a badge bearing the crest of the Society.
\nOn each side of the oriel window are niches with ogee curved heads similar to the tracery. At both ends, the facade culminates in a turret. The turrets are decorated with tracery, bands of floral ornamentation and are surmounted with a finial. The turrets originally extended from the street level, but the lower sections have been removed. The parapet is castellated and in the centre is a badge bearing the crest of the Society.
\nThe rear facade facing Burnett Lane is rendered brickwork lined to suggest stonework. There are four window openings, with sandstone sills, on each level. The window openings have tudor arched heads which are emphasised by a continuous hood mould. On the rear facade one rectangular cast iron pipe and two nineteenth century rainwater heads survive.
\nInternally the building has had a mezzanine inserted above the ground floor level. An ornate pressed metal ceiling survives on the level above.
","history":"This building was erected in 1883 for the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society who had acquired the site two years previously for £3,140.
The allotment was part of a larger site that previously contained buildings which were erected during the period Moreton Bay was a penal settlement. A government decision to demolish several convict era buildings, and to dispose of the crown land, gave impetus to the commercial redevelopment of the western side of Queen Street.
The building was designed by Richard Gailey and the contractor was W McPark. Gailey was responsible for the design of many of the commercial buildings in Brisbane during the 1880s that were characterised by Classical idioms and details, however in this building, he employed Gothic motifs. Sir Thomas McIlwraith, an early director of the company, laid the foundation stone in September 1883.
The Society occupied most of the building, which became known as the Colonial Mutual Chambers, and leased out the remaining floorspace. In 1906 Colonial Mutual moved its headquarters, but retained ownership of the building and continued to lease the premises. It was purchased in 1936 by the Carnegie family, dealers in quality musical instruments, and remained in the family until 1972. Since the 1960s the building has been used for offices on the upper levels and retail outlets on the ground floor.
A spire with flag pole and the lower sections of the flanking turrets have been removed. The skyline has been further altered by the removal of the attic rooms and the line of chimneys that rose above the wall adjoining the old Town Hall.
","criteria":"62 Queen Street is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland history, in particularly as evidence of the commercial redevelopment of Queen Street in the 1880s which took place as a result of the disposal of buildings erected during the penal era.
|62 Queen Street is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an 1880s commercial building and the eclectic stylistic range of the work of architect Richard Gailey.
|62 Queen Street is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community in particular as an 1880s commercial building incorporating a gothic facade, and the building's contribution to the Queen Street streetscape, which comprises a group of 19th and early 20th century buildings and facades.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14936,"place_ref":600161,"name":"City International Duty Free","alternate_name":"Palings Building","street_address":"86 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Palings building located in central Queen Street is one of four original adjoining bays, only two of which remain. The other adjacent bay is the old Manwaring building which was incorporated as part of the original Myers complex in 1965.
The majority of both bays date from the Victorian period and are decorated in an Italianate style. The Palings bay consists of four storeys and a basement, the fourth storey being an addition dating from before 1918. This differs from the upper level in the neighbouring bay whereas the original building below is identical in form across both bays.
The bays of the original building are separated by keyed rusticated pilasters and individually are quite narrow in proportion. Both remaining bays extend through to Burnett Lane at the rear. Each bay is symmetrical with the first floor level having rectangular openings and the level above, the top level of the original building, having arched openings with ornamental keystones. The additional full level of Palings has a large archway broken into narrow vertical openings. To each side of this in the corner are ornamental panels with floral mouldings. The upper parapet has the name 'PALINGS' in raised lettering. Another partial level is situated above this at the rear of the building and contained toilet facilities. This level is not evident from the Queen Street facade. The rear of the building has plain square openings and is finished in rendered concrete.
Internally the building is very intact, and the shopfittings of the ground floor level would seem easily reversible. Notably the finely detailed plaster ceilings, and the timber passenger lift have survived.
This building along with the adjacent surviving bay make a major contribution to the streetscape in this portion of Queen Street both in their scale and the vertical rhythm of their facades.
","history":"Palings Building was one of a set of four office buildings erected in 1885, adjacent to the old Brisbane Town Hall in Queen Street. They were constructed for Dr Power, WH Paling and Co. of Sydney, and JS Manwaring, at a cost of £13,000.
Building contractors Patten and Son had commenced construction by July 1885. Of brick with stone foundations, each building comprised three floors and a basement. Established Brisbane architect Richard Gailey designed the four identical premises with a common Queen Street frontage.
William Henry Paling gained title to the site in 1886, but Paling & Co. did not occupy the building until 1888. Dutch born Paling had emigrated to Australia in 1853, and had established himself in Sydney in the 1850s as a tutor of piano and violin, composer, concert performer, the inaugurator of several music societies, and a music warehouseman, retailing musical instruments and sheet music. In the 1870s and 1880s, Paling was active in local government and philanthropic work, and died at his Sydney home in 1895.
In 1884, Paling had opened a branch of his business in Toowoomba before establishing the Queen Street store a few years later. Although there were a number of other music and musical instrument sellers in Brisbane in 1888, Paling & Co.'s store flourished, and for nearly a century they were the leaders in the sales of records, sheet music and pianos in Queensland. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Paling's piano tuners travelled throughout Brisbane and the Darling Downs, and recitals (until 1930) and tutoring (until the early 1940s) were offered at the Queen Street store. A third Queensland store was opened in Townsville in 1923. In the 1920s, the firm 'diversified', with the sale of radios and phonographs. From c1914 to 1974, Paling's Queen Street store also offered Brisbane's leading theatre booking service.
An additional storey with an elaborate facade surmounted by an equally ornate pediment was erected on the Paling's Queen Street building prior to 1911. The upper pediment has since been removed. Further unspecified additions were carried out during 1918-19 by builder Blair Cunningham under the guidance of architects Chambers and Powell. The site was occupied by Palings until 1986.
","criteria":"The City International Duty Free Building demonstrates a rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage, being one of a surviving pair of Richard Gailey designed retail buildings in Queen Street, which originally were part of a group of four.
The City International Duty Free Building is important in demonstrating a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the intactness of the interior, including the detailed plaster ceilings and the timber-panelled lift and its contribution to the streetscape of Queen Street as part of a group of intact 1880s commercial buildings.
The City International Duty Free Building has a special association with the firm of WH Paling & Co. Ltd, music and musical instrument retailers, and their contribution to Queensland musical and other cultural pursuits for nearly a century.
|The City International Duty Free Building demonstrates a rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage, being one of a surviving pair of Richard Gailey designed retail buildings in Queen Street, which originally were part of a group of four.
|The City International Duty Free Building is important in demonstrating a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the intactness of the interior, including the detailed plaster ceilings and the timber-panelled lift and its contribution to the streetscape of Queen Street as part of a group of intact 1880s commercial buildings.
|The City International Duty Free Building has a special association with the firm of WH Paling & Co. Ltd, music and musical instrument retailers, and their contribution to Queensland musical and other cultural pursuits for nearly a century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14937,"place_ref":600162,"name":"Myer Store (former) [incorporating Miss Brisbane 600136]","alternate_name":"Allan and Stark","street_address":"110 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former Myer Store, located in central Queen Street, comprises a series of contiguous three and four storeyed brick buildings. Despite being originally separate buildings, the rendered facade is given unity and coherence by the repetition of Classical details.
The main section of the facade features, on the upper levels, bays of arched openings separated by simple pilasters. On the second level the arches are supported by columns with rosette capitals, and on the third level the arches are supported by pilasters with Corinthian capitals. The string course and the cornice form unifying lines across the facade, although the number of arches for each bay and the spacing between them varies. Two bays of the building rise to a fourth storey with plain rectangular openings. The parapet, formerly with a balustrade and pedestals supporting vases, is now solid. A cantilevered street awning runs the length of the complex.
The southern bay differs from the rest of the facade with its finer and more decorative treatment. The openings on the second level are rectangular and separated by fluted pilasters, while on the third level the openings are arched and separated by Corinthian pilasters. There are ornamental keystones above the arches and the central keystones bear the initials 'M' and 'P' respectively for Manwaring and Paling, the original building owners. A prominent cornice with a course of large dentils runs across this section.
Internally, the building has been substantially altered. The original fabric is visible in some areas, including roof trusses and timber joists separated by herring-bone strutting. Ceilings of a variety of types of pressed metal and plaster remain visible in parts of the building.
","history":"The former Myer Store consists of a series of buildings which were erected between 1881 and the early 1920s. A government decision to demolish the convict barracks which covered a large portion of this site, and to dispose of the Crown land, prompted the commercial redevelopment of the northern side of Queen Street bounded by Albert Street and the Town Hall.
James Allan and Robert Stark began their drapery business in South Brisbane in 1882. Following severe flooding in 1893, Allan and Stark decided to move to the north side of the river. Leasing part of these Queen Street sites from 1899, the company gradually acquired the individual properties over a period of 65 years.
The building on allotment 8, designed by Andrea Stombuco, was erected in 1881 for solicitors Browne and Ruthning, and acquired by Allan and Stark in 1914. In 1918 two additional floors were built, corresponding to the adjacent property on allotment 8A.
The building on allotment 8A was erected in 1881 for A R Jones and occupied by a millinery and dressmaking firm and a photographic studio. It was purchased by Allan and Stark in April 1911 and two more floors were added in the same year.
Allotment 7 was developed in 1918 as part of the redevelopment of allotment 8.
Allotment 9 was purchased by Thomas Illidge in 1881 on which was built a two storey building. Allan and Stark began leasing this property in 1899, and in the late 1900s a third storey was added. Allan and Stark finally purchased the building in 1925.
In 1881-82 a three storeyed brick building, designed by Richard Gailey was erected on allotments 9,10,10A and 11 for Charles Lumley Hill and William Young. The building was initially leased to John and James Hislop, cabinet makers and upholsterers, and Watson, Ferguson and Co, stationers and lithographers. The floors of these buildings were supported by wrought iron girders allowing wider, open spaces for the tenancies. Allan and Stark acquired allotments 9A and 10 in August 1901. Allan and Stark leased the section of the building on allotments 10A and 1 from 1932 until 1952 when they purchased the property.
The southern end of the complex was acquired by Allan and Stark in 1965. This property was built in 1885 and designed by Richard Gailey. A three storeyed brick building, it comprised four common bays across the main facade, each representing individual tenancies for the building. An additional storey with pediment was erected between 1918 and 1923. Allan and Stark acquired the northern half of the building, and of the other two bays, one has been demolished and the other is Paling's Building (QHR 600161).
In 1970 Myer Queensland Stores Ltd purchased the Allan and Stark properties, and continued to use the complex as a department store. In 1988 the complex was vacated when the store moved to new premises directly opposite in the Queen Street Mall.
","criteria":"The former Myer Store provides evidence of the 1880s development of Queen Street initiated by the disposal of the former convict barracks.
|The building is significant for its contribution, in scale, form, and style, to the Queen Street streetscape which comprises a group of nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings and facades.
|The former Myer Store is significant for its association with the firm Allan and Stark.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14939,"place_ref":600164,"name":"Ballow Chambers","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"121 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Ballow Chambers, a three storeyed brick building, is located towards the eastern end of Wickham Terrace, overlooking the city centre, within a precinct associated since the 1880s with Brisbane's medical profession. The street facade, with five bays has restrained Georgian details: a central, rendered, triple-arched entry with balcony above; stucco quoins and strings; and a cornice and parapet with balustrading. Rectangular multi-paned casement windows with fanlights and metal glazing bars define each storey. Windows along the northern wall are shaded by awnings supported on large brackets.
Internally the building is divided into suites of medical offices, accessed via a hallway on each level. The ground floor corridor is particularly intact, and displays a sequence of arches, plastered walls, and timber skirting boards and dado rail (now painted). A central staircase of dark-stained, silky oak treads and handrail, with wrought iron balustrading and dado tiles, services all floors, as does the adjacent elevator. A casement window and arched fanlight with multi-paned leadlights is a prominent feature of the ground floor stairwell.
The original configuration of suites has been retained, despite some remodelling of individual offices. The interior public spaces sustain the 1920s ambience. Ballow Chambers continues as a specialist medical office building.
","history":"This three-storeyed masonry office building was constructed in two stages, in 1924 and in 1926, for Ballow Chambers Ltd, a group of medical practitioners headed by Charles Thelander. The company acquired most of the site in 1924. Bunya Bunya Cottage, erected on the site c. 1870s, had accommodated a medical practice in the late 1880s, and from about 1900.
Brisbane architect Lange Powell was commissioned to design the new building. Powell was an established Brisbane architect, whose work includes St Martins Hospital (1922) (QHR 600075) and the Masonic Temple (1930) (QHR 600074), both in Ann Street, Brisbane.
Ballow Chambers was one of the earliest of the purpose-built specialist medical buildings in Brisbane. These interwar medical office redevelopments along Wickham Terrace included Wickham House (1923-24), Craigston (1927) (QHR 600165), Inchcolm (1930) (QHR 600170) and Brisbane Clinic (1930) (QHR 600171). Their construction constituted the second phase (the first being in the 1880s) of the Terrace's growth as a medical precinct, and was indicative of new directions toward specialist medicine in Queensland in the interwar years.
The ground floor and sub-floor of Ballow Chambers were constructed in 1924, with a further two storeys added in 1926. John Hutchinson was the builder for both stages. The building was named after a colonial surgeon and the first doctor to establish a private practice in Brisbane, David Ballow, who died of typhus fever while treating emigrants quarantined at Dunwich in 1850.
","criteria":"Ballow Chambers is important in demonstrating the interwar evolution of Wickham Terrace as an important medical specialist precinct in Brisbane, and is associated with the development of specialist medicine in Queensland.
|Ballow Chambers is an accomplished building which is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a purpose-built interwar medical office building, including in the restrained design the assertion of medical specialist prestige.
|As one of a related group of classical facades, Ballow Chambers exhibits a strong aesthetic contribution to the Wickham Terrace streetscape, which is valued by the community.
|The building has a special association with Brisbane architect Lange L Powell, as an example of his interwar work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14940,"place_ref":600165,"name":"Craigston","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"217 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Craigston is located on Wickham Terrace, overlooking the city centre, within a precinct associated since the 1880s with Brisbane's medical profession.
It is an eight-storeyed building with a sub-floor, rooftop garden, and viewing tower, and is constructed of rendered brick with a steel-reinforced concrete frame.
The design is Spanish Mission style, with an arched entry, arched windows and a decorative parapet at penthouse level, and a corner tower with a terracotta tiled roof.
Apart from a sympathetic enclosing of the balconies, the exterior of the building is intact.
Professional suites occupy the ground and sub-floors, with the remaining levels providing residential accommodation. Apart from the sixth level, which has always accommodated two apartments, each of the residential levels originally contained one spacious flat with central arrival hall, servants' rooms in the back western corner and family living in the L-shape. Most of the flats have been subdivided since, with apartments currently numbering twelve.
The block is serviced by a central elevator, dumb waiter and common L-shaped hallways, which are lined with dark-stained silky oak dado panelling.
Access to the professional suites is via the front entrance, with a separate side entry (at the southwest end of the hallway) reserved for the use of residents.
Several small garden beds with edgings of Brisbane tuff have been established at the front and along the south-western side of the building.
","history":"This eight-storeyed building was constructed in 1927 for a group of Brisbane medical practitioners.
In the mid-1920s Dr Sydney Fancourt McDonald introduced to Brisbane the concept of a multi-function office/residential block, comprising professional suites on the ground floor and residential apartments on the levels above. Craigston Ltd was formed with McDonald as chairman, and Brisbane architects Atkinson & Conrad (1918-1927) were commissioned to design the structure.
Arnold Conrad and David Wales (draftsman) worked on the design in 1926, incorporating possibly the first reinforced concrete frame in a multi-storeyed building in Brisbane. The design also demonstrated Atkinson & Conrad's interest in the Spanish Mission style, which they used in a variety of local buildings, including the Tristram Factory at West End.
The building was erected in 1927 by builder and engineer Walter Taylor, under the supervision of architect T.B.F. Gargett. Taylor's later work included the Indooroopilly Bridge (1932-36) (QHR 600181).
Craigston was built during the interwar redevelopment of the medical precinct along Wickham Terrace, which included Ballow Chambers (QHR 600165), Inchcolm (QHR 600170), Brisbane Clinic (QHR 600171) and Wickham House. Their construction constituted the second phase (the first being in the 1880s) of the Terrace's growth as a medical precinct.
","criteria":"As Brisbane's first multi-storeyed apartment block, Craigston is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, in particular of multi-storeyed developments in Brisbane.
As Brisbane's first purpose built medical office block to provide residential accommodation for its professional tenants, Craigston is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the development of Wickham Terrace as a medical precinct.
|As a prominent Brisbane example, Craigston is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the application of the Spanish Mission style to a multi-storeyed building.
|Craigston is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Brisbane community, in particular its contribution to the Wickham Terrace streetscape and the Brisbane townscape.
|Craigston is important in demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement as possibly the first use of a reinforced concrete frame in a multi-storeyed building in Queensland.
|Craigston has a special association with Brisbane builder and engineer Walter Taylor as a major example of his work and with Brisbane architectural firm Atkinson and Conrad as a prominent example of the firm's work, in particular their application ofthe Spanish Mission style.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14941,"place_ref":600166,"name":"Bryntirion","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"287 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-12-17","description":"Bryntirion is a chamferboard house on a stone foundation with a corrugated iron roof, built in 1861 with subsequent additions to the rear, front and western elevations. The house sits on its eastern alignment and is surrounded by lush subtropical gardens on the north, south and west. Glimpses of the house from the street are through formally arranged exotic and native trees.
The stone base probably indicates the extent of the original house. Above the stone base are four rooms; two bedrooms, two reception rooms and a central hallway. The ground falls away at the rear of the building forming a room in the stone base, now disused but once the original kitchen. The original cast-iron range remains in the fireplace.
A wing projects from the rear of the house along the eastern boundary. It also has a stone base which contains the original laundry with zinc tubs. This wing is further
extended by a single storey gable roofed timber structure originally built as a stables and servants accommodation. A narrow gable roofed timber addition, built in the 1930s, extends along the western side of the stone based rear wing.
The front facade has been significantly altered, mainly around 1900. It now features a projecting gable roofed room on the eastern side, a classically detailed entry porch in the centre and an attached rotunda with an ogee profiled cupola on the south west corner. These picturesquely arranged elements are connected by an open verandah. Verandahs on the west and north are enclosed. The interior of the house is intact with the exception of the reception rooms and hall which have been remodelled.
The complex of corrugated iron roofs articulates separately the mass of buildings constructed over time. The original house has the largest roof, made up of hips and valleys, the rear wings are hipped and gabled and the verandahs are flat or curved skillions. Five brick chimneys stacks of varying sizes and the pointed cupola complete the roofscape.
Bryntirion is an intact building that retains its 1860s core and garden setting.
","history":"The house was built in 1861 for Edward Southerden, a successful Queen Street draper, to a design by James Furnival who had recently established his practice in Brisbane. Extensions have included an 1876 design by Richard Gailey.
In 1882 it was sold to Richard Edwards who gave the house its Welsh name. Edwards was a partner in the drapery firm Edwards & Chapman, and a director of Telegraph newspapers for thirty years. He became the first member for Oxley in the federal parliament in 1901 and retired in 1913. In 1896 Edwards bought and demolished the neighbouring Athol Cottage and established Bryntirion's large garden in its place. Richard Edwards died in 1915 and the house remained in the family, occupied by his grandchildren and used as a doctor's surgery.
","criteria":"As a large villa residence embodying structural and stylistic changes from the 1860s, Bryntirion is important in demonstrating the pattern of changing affluent lifestyle and tastes in Brisbane.
|As one of the few remaining 1860s buildings in Brisbane, and the only example of a house on Wickham Terrace to be in continuous use as a family residence and doctor's surgery, Bryntirion demonstrates aspects of Brisbane's cultural heritage which are now rare.
|Bryntirion is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the layout and planting of a large private garden dating from the late nineteenth century; and of a residence built in the 1860s and extended over time.
|Bryntirion is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by Brisbane's community, in particular the picturesque composition of the building's architectural elements and the contribution of the established garden to the Wickham Terrace and Burley Street streetscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14942,"place_ref":600167,"name":"Athol Place","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"307 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Athol Place is a row of three Colonial Georgian style terrace houses. Two storey in height, it is built in Brisbane tuff with a corrugated iron roof replacing the original shingles. A timber verandah with cast-iron balustrading extends across the front of the building of the upper level. As with many of its contemporaries, the row appears as a unified building with a single hipped roof. The interior is lined with plaster except for the rear sections which are in tongue and groove timber.
The ground floor consists of a central waiting room with doors leading off on either side to doctors' consulting rooms. At the rear of each of these is an examination room which is entered through an archway. French doors open out from the reception and consulting rooms onto a hallway which runs across the width of the building. On the other side of the hall are a kitchen and offices and three stairwells leading to the flats on the first floor. These flats consist of an open kitchen and bathroom area at the top of the stairs, a wide hallway with living room on one side and two bedrooms which open out through french doors onto the front verandah.
A sub-floor is created by the fall of the land at the rear of the building forming three rooms and three cellars. Until renovation, the original layout of each terrace house consisted of two ground floor reception rooms, each with a fireplace, and a wing comprising kitchen and service-rooms at the back. A staircase on one side of the front room leads to the upstairs bedrooms.
","history":"Athol Place was built in the early 1860s soon after Wickham Terrace was opened up for development. The block of three stone terrace houses was built by Alexander McNab, a building contractor, who retained them as rental properties. McNab lived next door in Athol Cottage which has since been demolished. Both properties were named after McNab's home town of Blair Athol in Scotland. An early tenant was the noted physician Dr Joseph Bankcroft who opened consulting rooms there in 1866, shortly after starting his Brisbane practice. Later tenants included McNab's son Alexander, who established the legal firm of Chambers McNab and Brisbane Girls High School which used one residence as a boarding house. In 1916 the property was sold to Patrick Ryan whose family moved into one of the residences. In 1929 the Ryans moved out and converted the property into six flats. They sold Athol Place in 1972 to a firm of engineers who in turn sold it to Drs Herron and Cohen in 1979. They reinstated the exterior and refurbished the interior of the property, creating the two consulting rooms and a reception area on the ground floor and three flats upstairs.
","criteria":"Built soon after the opening up of Wickham Terrace, Athol Place is significant as one of the earliest stone terrace houses with Georgian elements built in Brisbane.
|It is one of the few surviving original residential buildings left along this street, and is indicative of the type of house once common when this was a residential area. Terrace houses, though numerous, were not as common in Brisbane as they were in southern capitals. The demolition of many of their number has increased the rarity of early examples still extant. As most two storey terrace houses in Brisbane were built in brick or timber, the stone construction of Athol Place increases its significance.
|The building is a fine example of its type and contributes to the streetscape of Wickham Terrace including Bryntirion on the adjacent corner of Birley Street.
|The building is a fine example of its type and contributes to the streetscape of Wickham Terrace including Bryntirion on the adjacent corner of Birley Street.
|Athol Place's significance is enhanced by its association with Alexander McNab, the successful early Brisbane developer who built and owned it for many years. This was the residence of his son Alexander, the prominent solicitor, and was at one time the surgery of Dr Joseph Bancroft, the pioneer physician.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14943,"place_ref":600168,"name":"All Saints Anglican Church","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"32 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This single-storeyed porphyry stone church sits on a raised triangular site at the junction of Ann Street and Wickham Terrace, Brisbane.
The rectangular plan has a raised pulpit, projecting chancel and vestry. A transept is suggested by gables on the north and south elevations, and the building shows gothic influences in its design. The gabled roof is clad with ribbed metal sheeting and features double-ridge ventilation. The chancel has a similar roof, but at a lower height, with a small section of clerestory. The vestry has a skillion roof.
The western elevation has twin stone entrance porches, three lancet windows and a stone cross at the top of the gable. Dressed stone work is used around windows and to the top of the gable, and an inscription reads DOMUS MEA DOMUS ORATIONIS (my house shall be called a house of prayer). The chancel gable has three lancets, two quatrefoils and a rose window surmounted by a vesica. The eastern nave gable is surmounted by a carved stone bellcote from which a bell is hung.
A timber entrance porch with a stone base and gabled roof is located on the northern elevation. There is also a plaque commemorating the dedication of the church. The southern elevation has brick banding to the corners of the stone plinth. The transept gables have two quatrefoils and a rose window with dressed stone surrounds.
Internally, walls are rendered and all windows feature stained glass. The nave has hammer-beam trusses with a boarded ceiling. The chancel has scissor braces with a boarded ceiling. An organ gallery has been installed at the western end of the nave. This is supported by metal posts and is accessed via a spiral cast-iron stair.
Fluorescent lights are fixed to the underside of the hammerbeams. A carved and painted timber screen surrounds the side chapel, and plaster mouldings feature around windows and above the arch to the chancel.
The floors are of timber, with the sanctuary and chancel raised above the nave. Two stone arches, which have been infilled with stone blocks, appear on the western elevation and to the south side of the chancel.
The grounds include remnants of a row of palm trees, and stone fencing, masonary gate posts with a gothic-style gas lantern (electrified) along the Wickham Street boundary, and a large jacaranda to the southwest of the nave.
","history":"This single-storeyed porphyry stone church, the oldest Anglican Church in Brisbane, was erected in 1861, and rebuilt in 1869, for the Wickham Terrace District Anglican congregation. It is one of the few remaining parish churches in Queensland owned under the colonial provision of private trustees of church property.
The Church of England was the first church to be established in Queensland. In 1849 the site for St Johns church was granted, with the church being consecrated in 1854. The Wickham Terrace land was granted to the Anglican Church in 1856, although the first deed of grant was dated september 1865, and was intended initially as the Episcopalian Cathedral site. The Diocese of Brisbane was formed in 1859, with Bishop Tufnell, the first Bishop of Brisbane, taking office in 1860, and designating St Johns as the pro-Cathedral.
The early 1860s growth of Windmill Hill and Spring Hill as residential areas, prompted Bishop Tufnell in 1861 to promote the establishment of an Anglican church on the former Cathedral site on Wickham Terrace. The original church, a rubble structure, was designed by noted architect Benjamin Backhouse in 1861, and opened on 23 February 1862 by Bishop Tufnell. It was known officially as the Wickham Terrace Episcopalian Church, or the Wickham Terrace District Church, and unofficially as the Tabernacle, with a parish carved out of St Johns parish, and extending as far as the present parish of Milton.
As the small Anglican community grew, the decision was taken to enlarge the church. Architect Richard George Suter, church warden, Cambridge graduate and proponent of the Gothic style which dominated Anglican church architecture in Australia, designed the alterations which were carried out in 1869.
The dedication took place on 5 April 1869, with Governor Samuel W Blackall laying the foundation stone, a time capsule being deposited and Bishop Tufnell naming the church All Saints. Soon after the western extension was begun, structural problems were found with the first church were realised, resulting in the demolition of the rubble walls. Only the original floor plan, flooring and roof were retained. The church was increased in length by 20 feet, wall height was increased by 6 feet and the roof by 8 feet. A chancel and vestry were added, and Brisbane tuff (porphyry) was used for the walls. Provision was made for a baptistery or large western porch to be added, but this was not carried out. The church was constructed by Mr George Ely, stonemason of Spring Hill, and was completed at a cost of £1,864, excluding architect's fees. It was opened on 8 September 1869 by Bishop Tufnell, who designated it as All Saints Church.
In 1873, the parish was divided, with the parish of Milton being established. An adjacent rectory was built in 1880, and a hall/school building in 1884.
By the early 1900s, the services at All Saints were considered the most Anglo-Catholic in the diocese. In 1923 the use of incense in public worship was introduced, and three years later the pulpit crucifix was installed. In Brisbane, All Saints developed as the high Church of England while St Johns Anglican Cathedral (QHR 600076) remained the low church.
The east end of the church contains the oldest stained glass windows in Brisbane, installed in 1870. The altar lights, presented in 1884, were the first in Brisbane. Artwork includes plaster Stations of the Cross sculpted by Brisbane artist Daphne Mayo in 1935, and a bronze and wood sculpture entitled Christ Accepting The Cross, by Andre Meszaros, erected in the forecourt to celebrate the centenary of All Saints in 1962.
The organ, made in London by TC Lewis and originally installed in St Johns Pro-Cathedral in Queen's Park in 1873, was transferred to St Lukes Church (QHR 600083), Charlotte Street, and later refurbished and moved to All Saints in 1957. The organ loft with circular cast iron stair, are later additions and are located at the western end of the church. The original shingle roof has been replaced a number of times, currently with ribbed metal sheeting.
The church floor was replaced and walls repointed in 1933, and in 1934 the stone fence facing Wickham Tce replaced a timber fence constructed in 1871. In 1988, both hall and rectory were sold and demolished for the construction of an adjacent highrise tower. A new church hall and office complex fronting Ann Street was constructed in 1993.
A substantial section of the stone wall along Wickham Terrace was demolished in 1993.
","criteria":"All Saints Anglican Church is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the development of the Anglican Church in Brisbane.
|The Church demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage, in particular, as one of the oldest surviving Anglican churches in Brisbane containing the oldest stained glass and containing the organ from St John's Pro-Cathedral.
|The building is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Gothic influenced, 1860s stone church in Brisbane.
|All Saints Anglican Church is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Brisbane community, in particular, the siting of the church and surviving early grounds, and their contribution through scale, form, materials and planting to the Wickham Terrace and Ann Street streetscapes and Brisbane townscape. Also highly valued is the quality of the stonework and interior, including stained glass, timber joinery, early furnishings, sculptures and artwork.
|All Saints Anglican Church has a strong and special association with the Brisbane Anglican community as one of the oldest surviving Anglican churches in Brisbane, and with the Anglo-Catholic movement in Queensland.
|The building has a special association with the work of noted architect RG Suter and noted Brisbane artist/sculptor Daphne Mayo.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14944,"place_ref":600169,"name":"Theosophical Society Building","alternate_name":"Callender House","street_address":"355 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The building comprises a pair of 1860s two-storeyed semi-detached brick houses with a 1912 timber extension to the side and rear.
\nThe original houses are small in scale without halls or corridors, and include attic and basement. Construction is of brick, with brick on edge construction on walls protected by verandahs. The main roof is gabled and clad in corrugated galvanised iron, concealing earlier shingles. The main facade has a two-storeyed timber verandah, reconstructed in 1986-87 to a 1910 photograph.
\nThe timber extension designed by Dods added new large rooms on two levels at the rear, and a single-storeyed kitchen wing. A new porch and hall gave entrance to both consulting rooms and house. The extension is clad with weatherboards, lined with timber and roofed with corrugated galvanised iron. There is no visible evidence of earlier kitchen wings. The fence in front of the extension is by Dods. Dods' enclosure of the front verandahs does not survive.
\nIn its present form the building clearly reveals the two major stages in its development.
","history":"This pair of semi-detached houses was built in late 1863 to early 1864. The building was probably erected by the first landowner Patrick Mayne (1856), or possibly for the second owner John McNab. The houses were advertised for rent on 30 January 1864, two days after registration in McNab's name, when they were described as 'newly erected ... containing five rooms and kitchen'.
Subsequent owners included Joseph Buckle (1885-1910), a Primitive Methodist minister, who resided there for a period. From at least 1883 the building was known as Callender House.
The property was purchased in 1910 by Dr Espie Dods, who moved there from 97 Wickham Terrace. His architect brother Robin renovated and extended the property for its use as a private house and consulting rooms. This reflected the medico-residential character of the Terrace at the time.
In 1925 the property, which included adjacent land now occupied by the Liberal Catholic Church, was purchased by the Brisbane Theosophical Society. Minor alterations were carried out in 1925 by architects Hall & Prentice. Major conservation work was undertaken in 1986-87.
","criteria":"The building is evidence of the former residential and medico-residential character of Wickham Terrace
|The former Callender House is one of the few remaining 1860s buildings in Brisbane and is a rare example of semi-detached housing which was relatively common in the 1860s.
|As an important example of the work of the architect RS Dods, which demonstrates his skill in adapting an older building, the former Callender House is significant.
|(Criterion under review)
|As an important example of the work of the architect RS Dods, which demonstrates his skill in adapting an older building, the former Callender House is significant.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14945,"place_ref":600170,"name":"Inchcolm","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"73 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-03-23","description":"Inchcolm is located at the eastern end of Wickham Terrace, overlooking the city centre, within an area dominated by buildings accommodating the medical and allied professions.
The building comprises four storeys to parapet level, with a basement and another floor above and behind the parapet.
The Georgian-style facade is of English bond face red brickwork, contrasted with rendered detailing. The ground floor level is rendered and scored to resemble ashlar, and the small projecting arched entrance is crowned by a cornice and parapet.
Internally the building is divided into suites of medical offices, accessed via a narrow central corridor on each level.
The ground floor lobby features entrance doors with cut bevelled glazing, dark-stained silky oak panelling to picture-rail height, plaster ceiling panels with moulded cornices, and terrazzo borders in the passageway in front of the elevator, which is located in the middle of the eastern side of the building. This panelled and metal-meshed lift installation, which was designed to accommodate stretcher patients, is circled by a staircase which services all levels. The stairwell walls are rendered and pointed to resemble stone work.
Although some remodelling of individual offices has occurred, the interior public spaces remain substantially intact and sustain the ambience of a 1930s building.
","history":"This five-storeyed masonry office building was constructed in 1930, on a site which has been associated with the medical profession since the 1880s, when the first Inchcolm was established by Dr John Thomson. This building contained both his private residence and consulting rooms, and during the 1910s and 1920s it operated as a private hospital.
The property was transferred to the Wharf Street Congregational Church in 1925, and subsequently sold in 1929 to Inchcolm Ltd, a group of medical practitioners initiated by George Douglas. The company commissioned Brisbane architect Eric Percival Trewern, who was influential in popularising Georgian revival style in Brisbane domestic building during the interwar years, to design a new medical office building for the site.
Constructed by builders J I Green & Son in 1930, Inchcolm was part of the interwar redevelopment of the medical precinct along Wickham Terrace, which included Brisbane Clinic (QHR 600171), Ballow Chambers (QHR 600164), Wickham House, and Craigston (QHR 600165). Their construction constituted the second phase (the first being in the 1880s) of the Terrace's growth as a medical precinct, and was indicative of new directions toward specialist medicine in Queensland in the interwar years.
Inchcolm continues to be used by the medical profession.
","criteria":"Inchcolm is important in demonstrating the interwar evolution of Wickham Terrace as an important medical specialist precinct in Brisbane, and is associated with the development of specialist medicine in Queensland
|Inchcolm is an accomplished and intact building which is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a purpose-built interwar medical office building, including in the restrained design the assertion of medical specialist prestige
|As one of a related group of classical facades, and in particular in association with adjacent Lister House, Inchcolm with its neo-Georgian facade exhibits a strong contribution to the Wickham Terrace streetscape, which is valued by the community
|The building has a special association with Brisbane architect EP Trewern, as an example of his work
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14946,"place_ref":600171,"name":"Lister House","alternate_name":"Brisbane Clinic","street_address":"79 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Lister House is located towards the eastern end of Wickham Terrace, overlooking the city centre, within an area dominated by buildings accommodating medical and allied professions. It is a two-storeyed, brick building with basement.
The main arched entrance is surrounded by rendered mouldings which match the heavy render quoining to the angles of the building. Above the doorway is displayed a crest which incorporates a lighted torch, the date (1930) and the motto Lux sanant (light heals). On each side of the entrance are ornate bronze lamps of florentine design and arched windows with exaggerated keystones. Three rectangular windows with prominent mouldings distinguish the upper level. A heavy rendered cornice with a tiled roof behind completes the building.
Although built in two stages, the internal finish to the newer section mirrors that of the first. The interior features silky oak joinery, parquetry floors, rough plaster finish on the walls to picture-rail height, plaster ceilings and cornices employing a variety of decorative mouldings, and leadlighted fanlights above doorways and in the arches of the central corridor.
There are two reception and stairwell areas in the building, with the front staircase featuring silky oak treads and wrought iron balustrading.
The basement was designed specifically to accommodate an x-ray unit, and continues to be used for this purpose.
Lister House continues as a specialist medical office building.
","history":"This two-storeyed masonry building was constructed in 1930 as purpose-designed medical suites for Lister House Ltd, a group of medical practitioners.
Lister House Ltd acquired the site from the Congregational Church in 1929, and commissioned Brisbane architect Raymond Clare Nowland to design a building which could function along the lines of the Mayo Clinic in the United States. The contractor for the project was J I Green & Co.
Drs LJ Jarvis Nye, John Bostock and John Power used the American model to institute the first specialist group practice in Queensland, the Brisbane Clinic, characterised by new standards of investigation and treatment, group consultation, shared facilities, and a reading circle (until the 1950s).
Lister House was one of a number of interwar medical office redevelopments along Wickham Terrace. These included Inchcolm (QHR 600170), Ballow Chambers (QHR 600164), Wickham House and Craigston (QHR 600165). Their construction constituted the second phase (the first being in the 1880s) of the Terrace's growth as a medical precinct, and was indicative of new directions toward specialist medicine in Queensland in the interwar years.
In 1948 the building was extended to the rear with the addition of a second reception and stairwell area and six offices on each storey.
Some renovation of the building was undertaken in the 1980s.
","criteria":"Lister House is important in demonstrating the interwar evolution of Wickham Terrace as an important medical specialist precinct in Brisbane, and is associated with the development of specialist medicine in Queensland
|Lister House is an accomplished and intact building which is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a small-scale, purpose-built interwar medical office building, including in the restrained design the assertion of medical specialist prestige.
|As one of a related group of classical facades, and in particular in association with adjacent Inchcolm [600170], Lister House with its mannered facade exhibits a strong contribution to the Wickham Terrace streetscape, which is valued by the community.
|The building has a special association with Brisbane architect RC Nowland, as an example of his private sector work and the innovative Brisbane Clinic concept, which was modelled on the Mayo Clinic in the United States of America.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14947,"place_ref":600172,"name":"Ritas at Dods House Restaurant","alternate_name":"Dods House","street_address":"97 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The house is solid brick with roughcast render, the Federation era design influenced by the 'Arts and Crafts' movement. It is built on two levels, the ground floor facing Wickham Terrace, and a full subfloor which was formerly exposed as the land fell away toward the rear of the house. The front elevation is dominated by a gabled projection with a window bay. A small porch with an oval window nestles in the angle. The masonry fence with turned timber balusters complements the house. The roof is tiled in terracotta shingle tiles and features a blind dormer which is louvered and glazed.
The house had a long wing extending back from the square core. A verandah, and a double width verandah room or a piazza, extended into the yard between the wing and the core on both levels. Internally, the entry features a black and white marble floor and timber wall panelling. Elsewhere, the walls are lined in plaster with substantial joinery in silky oak. Some ceilings are lath and plaster while others, in particular the dining room are timber.
Four fireplaces are located at the front and rear of the building. Originally, the ground floor housed a doctor's consulting room, drawing room and bedrooms, while the dining room, kitchen and servants' rooms were located on the subfloor.
The layout has been retained in the restaurant, with eating areas on the ground level and the dining room used for large functions. The kitchen has been enlarged, extending back in place of the verandah and piazza, and the ground level verandah now opens out onto the cocktail bar.
","history":"The house was commissioned for Dr Espie Dods by his mother and built next to the family home owned by his stepfather, Dr Charles F Marks. It was designed by Dods's brother Robin S Dods, the well known architect, as a townhouse and surgery. Although Dods lived in the house for only a few years before moving up the hill to Callender House, the property remained in the Marks family's possession and was let as a residence and surgery to a series of doctors until it was sold as part of the Marks' property for redevelopment.
The Marks' home and huge weeping fig tree were demolished in 1982 and replaced with the Silverton office tower, and Dods House was converted into a restaurant as part of the forecourt development.
","criteria":"The significance of the house lies in its use, building style and family associations. It is a rare surviving example of a combined doctor's residence and surgery which was once commonplace on Wickham Terrace. The only other extant examples are Bryntirion, which is still a residence, and Callender House which was also occupied by Dr Espie Dods and renovated by his architect brother Robin Dods.
The house reflects Robin Dods' Scottish training and contemporary 'Arts and Crafts' design trends which he fused with vernacular elements to create an unusual and innovative design. This was unlike any of his other domestic work and used materials and features uncommon in Queensland houses of the Federation period.
That the place is still known as Dods House testifies to the strong public association which exists between the building and its designer and first owner. Robin Dods was a prolific and respected architect in Brisbane and then Sydney.
|The significance of the house lies in its use, building style and family associations.
It is a rare surviving example of a combined doctor's residence and surgery which was once commonplace on Wickham Terrace. The only other extant examples are Bryntirion, which is still a residence, and Callender House which was also occupied by Dr Espie Dods and renovated by his architect brother Robin Dods.
|(Criterion under review)
|The significance of the house lies in its use, building style and family associations.
The house reflects Robin Dods' Scottish training and contemporary 'Arts and Crafts' design trends which he fused with vernacular elements to create an unusual and innovative design. This was unlike any of his other domestic work and used materials and features uncommon in Queensland houses of the Federation period.
|The significance of the house lies in its use, building style and family associations.
That the place is still known as Dods House testifies to the strong public association which exists between the building and its designer and first owner. Robin Dods was a prolific and respected architect in Brisbane and then Sydney.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14948,"place_ref":600173,"name":"Windmill Tower","alternate_name":"Old Windmill | Brisbane Observatory","street_address":"226 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Circular in plan, the windmill tower is largely made of rendered stone and brick. It tapers towards the top where it is surmounted by an observation platform with an iron railing, hexagonal timber cabin or observation house, and time ball and timber mast. At its base the tower is approximately 8.4 metres in diameter, reducing to about 4.5m at the top. Excluding the time ball and its mast, it stands at about 16m in height on Wickham Terrace in Spring Hill, overlooking the modern office towers of Brisbane's central business district. The tower occupies the western end of the reserve, with the reconstructed flagstaff in its eastern half. Surrounding these is lawn. The boundary on Wickham Terrace is formed by a low stone wall with regular stone piers, between which are strung single chain guards, and a garden bed behind. About half way along its length is a decorative iron archway and stone stairs leading up to a concrete path to the entrance door of the tower. The rear reserve boundary marked by a hedge adjoins that of the Water Reservoirs (QHR 600174), the three gable roofs of which nestle below the park lawn. These are places flanked by parks, Wickham Park to the west and King Edward to the east. Opposite the windmill tower is the cylindrical Mill Hotel, opened in circa 1968 deliberately referencing its form.
\nThe tower sits on a circular sub-wall of Brisbane Tuff about 1400mm thick, which is founded on bedrock. Standing on a plinth, the walls at the base are about 1000mm thick, reducing at the top to about 650mm. To the ground and first floors the walls are stone (ashlar with lime mortar) with 200mm deep outer stone lintels above the door and window.[39] Behind these were middle and inner hardwood lintels, the former having been replaced with steel hollow sections in 1996.[40]
\nFrom the second floor to the underside of the cantilevered balcony the walls are English bond clay brick except for a segment on part of the third floor (at about 10,500mm to 13,000mm above ground) where the outer half of the wall is stone with brick inside. Some random stones run the full width of the wall here. Six narrow, regularly spaced windows open out of this wall segment. There are low rise brick arches above them and timber middle and inner lintels. In the brick above this segment, on the inside, there are curved hardwood plates (these appear to be the remains of the windmill's curb support, curb and cap frame cut down by Andrew Petrie in 1861 to provide clearance for the stairway). These timbers appear to have been locally sourced and comprise grey ironbark and spotted gum and yellow wood (Eucalyptus siderophloia, Eucalyptus maculata and Flindersia xanthoxya).[41]
\nThe entire exterior surface is rendered in a mock ashlar finish (substantially renewed in 1988).[42] A lip is created in the render surface at the first floor or reefing stage level. Above, below and around the upper ring of windows the render finish follows the simple stone frame. A single-level observation house and platform surmount the tower with a riveted copper time ball and painted hardwood mast projecting above it.
\nOn the windmill tower's interior the single volume spaces of each floor are punctuated by the hexagonal stair which connects the ground with the observatory house. The ground floor is a concrete slab while the upper floors are timber-framed with timber floor boards of hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii). The stair winds around a central newel and is lined with tongue-and-groove vertical boards. The treads were strengthened and protected from further wear during the 1988 conservation work.[43] The bottom of the stair posts are founded in the ground floor concrete slab. The stair timbers are largely red cedar (Toona australis), expect for the boarding, which is hoop pine.[44]
\nThe observation house is offset south of the tower's centreline and hexagonal in plan (the stairs are similarly offset). Its walls and five-faceted roof are timber-framed. Externally it is clad with chamferboards on the walls and metal sheeting on the roof. Internally it is lined with tongue-and-groove vertical boards. A door leads out to the circular balcony that surrounds it. The balustrade is wrought iron while the balcony floor is lined with flat copper sheets with timber duckboarding over. It is supported on the outside by closely-spaced carved timber brackets. A round hardwood mast projects out of the roof of the cabin. It has a 160 square base, is lap spliced inside the cabin to a 160 square post that carries down to the third floor. A riveted copper time-ball with central hole sits atop the cabin, with its hoisting rope running through top of the mast.[45]
\nThe tower has five casement windows: two opposite the door, one above the other, another above the door and two more higher up facing north and south. The tiny windows that currently provide illumination for the top floor under the observation cabin are a unique aspect. The sliding windows in the lookout or observation house were installed in 1988 to resemble the originals. The timber double entrance door at the base of the tower has a stone drip mould over it, as do the casements.
\nThere is no clear sign of where the drive shaft from the external treadmill entered the tower[46], although the 1861 renovations may have disguised the entry point. The internal wall of the tower shows many signs of repair, any of which may be related to the treadmill operation.
\nThe grounds surrounding the tower are grassed and sparsely landscaped and although there are no visible surface remnants, are likely to contain subsurface archaeological evidence of the use of the site over its entire history.
\nThe sections of Wickham Terrace and Bartley Street included within the heritage boundary have exceptional potential to contain remains of the convict-era treadmill. The road infrastructure, including the road surface, lighting and signage, is not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The oldest convict-built structure surviving in Queensland, the windmill tower has accommodated a range of uses. Constructed in 1828 to process the wheat and corn crops of the Moreton Bay penal settlement, it had a treadmill attached for times when there was no wind but also as a tool for punishing convicts. The mill ceased grinding grain in 1845 and the treadmill was removed sometime before 1849. From 1855 the tower was reused as a signal station to communicate shipping news between the entrance of the Brisbane River and the town. Substantial renovations were made to it in 1861 including the installation of a time ball to assist in regulating clocks and watches. Twenty years later a cottage for the signalman was constructed to the immediate west of the tower, with a detached kitchen erected to the south two years after that. Both were later demolished. The windmill tower was used as a facility for early radio, telephony and television communications research from the 1920s and underwent substantial conservation work in the 1980s and 2009.
In May 1825, after eight months of occupation at Redcliffe, the contingent of convicts, soldiers, administrators and their families comprising the Moreton Bay penal settlement relocated to the site of present-day Brisbane's central business district. The growing settlement was to be self-sufficient in feeding its residents by cultivating corn (also known as maize) and wheat crops at the government farm, which were then processed into meal and flour by hand mills.[1] By 1827, with a substantial crop to process, the settlement storekeeper recommended a treadmill be erected to grind the crop into flour. Commandant Logan indicated at this time that such a devise at Brisbane town would be of service and also provide an avenue for the punishment of convicts.[2]
There is little evidence confirming details of the windmill tower's planning and construction. In July 1828, Peter Beauclerk Spicer, the Superintendent of Convicts at the time, recorded in his diary that convicts were 'clearing ground for foundations for the Mill' and proceeded to dig a circular trench that reached bedrock and had a circumference of approximately 9 metres.[3] Allan Cunningham noted soon after that construction was in progress. The mill was constructed on the highest point overlooking the settlement on what is now Wickham Terrace. By 31 October 1828 the first grain was being ground at the site by a mill gang; however it is supposed that this was done by a treadmill as the rotating cap and sails associated with the wind-powered operation of the mill were not brought to the site until November.[4] Circumstantial evidence suggests that the wind-powered grinding of grain did not begin until December.
There were two pairs of millstones inside the tower, each driven independently by the treadmill and sail mechanisms. The former was located outside the tower, a shaft connecting the treadwheel and the mill cogwheels inside. Two sketches from the early 1830s show the windmill tower and its sail stocks in place,[5] while an 1839 description depicts a tower built from stone and brick, comprising four floors, a treadmill and windmill. From 1829 the windmill tower was said to be continually requiring repair, possibly because its equipment was all made from locally-available timber rather than iron[6].
The treadmill was an important component of the mill, for use as punishment without trial, and for times when there was no wind but the amounts of grain sufficient to sustain the settlement still required processing. No plans exist of the Brisbane treadmill, however, the Office of the Colonial Architect produced a standard Design for Tread Mill Adapted for Country Districts Average Estimate £120.[7] Between 25 and 30 men worked at the mill at any one time. Sixteen operated the treadmill, although as there are no plans, it is uncertain whether it comprised a standard 16-place treadmill, or two 8-place sections connected to a common shaft. Each man would climb five steps to get onto the wheel, standing on the 9 inch wide treads and holding on to the rail. The men would then work as though ascending steps to operate the treadmill. Some undertook this task while in leg irons, while the more able used one hand to hold on and the other to draw sketches of people, animals and scenes on the boards of the mill. The men would work from sunrise to sunset with three hours rest in the middle of the day in summer, and two hours in winter.[8] [9] The first casualty of the treadmill, which produced the first official record of its existence, occurred in September 1829 when prisoner Michael Collins lost his life after being entangled in the operating mechanism. Maps of 1840s Brisbane feature a rectangular structure attached to the outside of the tower, Robert Dixon's in particular showing a 6 x 5 metre structure, probably the treadmill, located on ground that was to become Wickham Terrace.
In July 1841 the Brisbane tower was reputedly the site of a public execution of two Aboriginal men who had been convicted in Sydney of the murder of Assistant Surveyor Stapylton and one of his party near Mount Lindsay. They were returned to Moreton Bay and hanged with about 100 Aboriginal people present, however it may be that the execution took place elsewhere on what was known as Windmill Hill.[10]
Indicative of the prominence of its physical position, the tower served as one of the stations for the trigonometrical survey of the Moreton Bay district conducted by Robert Dixon, Granville Stapylton and James Warner from May 1839 in preparation for the area being opened to free settlement.[11]
In February 1836 the windmill tower was struck by lightning, causing severe damage throughout, including to the treadmill. A convict millwright was brought from Sydney in June for the repairs, which amounted to a major rebuild of the structure that was not completed until May 1837.[12] In April 1839, with the closure of the Moreton Bay penal settlement being planned, the windmill tower was one of the buildings recommended for transfer to the colony. This was approved in 1840-41 but it continued to sporadically process grain until 1845, when due to crop failure, a stagnant population and the availability of imported flour, it finally ceased being used. The penal settlement had officially closed in February 1842. The treadmill operated until 1845 and had been removed by October 1849[13].
The windmill tower in Brisbane is the oldest of its type left standing in Australia and further distinguished by having been built by convict labour. The earliest standing stone windmill towers extant around the country date from the 1830s and include: one built in 1837 in South Perth, Western Australia[14]; another built in the same year at Oatlands in Tasmania which operated until 1890[15]; and another built at Mount Gilead near Campbelltown in New South Wales in 1836[16]. Most were built to process grains into flour. Other surviving mill towers are the one built in 1842 by FR Nixon at Mount Barker in South Australia; Chapman's mill built around 1850 at Wonnerup in Western Australia[17], and another built at a similar time on an island in the Murray River near Yunderup in Western Australia[18]. None of the nineteen windmill towers that characterised the early settlement at Sydney have survived.[19] Technological developments, most particularly steam power which was more dependable than wind power or that generated by convict labour at a treadmill, rendered wind-driven mills largely redundant.
After the cessation of milling operations there were discussions about possible future use of Brisbane's windmill tower. In December 1849 the tower was put up for auction and bought by a government official who promptly sought tenders for removal of it and its machinery (the auction terms required it to be cleared away by three months after the sale).[20] Ownership of the place quickly reverted to the Crown because of a legal problem with the sale, but not before some dismantling had occurred.[21] In a January 1850 article the Moreton Bay Courier continued its appeal for the windmill not to be pulled down and secured by the town, arguing that aside from its landmark and picturesque qualities it was the ‘best fixed point for land measurement in the district'. In this vein the site was the most accessible viewing point for the picturesque landscape of Brisbane and its environs. Despite earlier calls to erase evidence of Brisbane's convict past, 'sentiment and pragmatism combined to override the detrimental taint of convictism' saving the tower from destruction. The sails were still in place in 1854 and appear in a painting of the windmill completed in 1855.[22]
By 1855 Brisbane was the leading Queensland port and it became important to establish signal stations to communicate shipping news between the entrance of the Brisbane River and the town, one of which was set up on Windmill Hill. This required modifications to the tower to include a semaphore station connected to the electric telegraph. Information on ships entering the river was converted to semaphore signals using flags hoisted on a mast erected on top of the tower. The renovations were undertaken by John Petrie in October 1861 to plans by colonial architect Charles Tiffin and included the removal of the windmill stocks or arms and wheels; the laying of floors on each storey; new doors and windows; a weatherproof floor on the top of the tower with an iron railing; a new winding staircase from bottom to top; repair of stone, brickwork and plastering; and the installation of a high flagstaff to fly signals.[23] The tower's renovation at this time also fitted it out as a public observatory and it became known by that term.[24] The following year it became the first home of the newly founded Queensland Museum; serving this purpose until 1868 when other accommodation was provided in the old convict barracks or parliamentary building on Queen Street.[25]
Petrie also installed a time ball on the tower to provide a reliable authority for regulating clocks and watches. It was dropped at one o'clock each day based on observations relayed by telegraph from Sydney. The time ball was replaced by a time gun in 1866, with an embankment and shed constructed to hold the gun in 1874. After 1882 the gun and shed were moved to the eastern section of the current reserve before the shed was demolished in 1908. The time gun proved useful to people as far away as Logan, Caboolture and Ipswich. The old gun was replaced in 1888 with another before a new electrically-controlled time ball was installed in 1894. This was associated with the legislated implementation of a single time throughout the colony, being designated as ten hours earlier than the mean time at Greenwich. Adjustments were made to the tower at this time to accommodate the new time ball. The roof was lowered and the flagstaff pared down.[26]
A cottage for the signalman was constructed in 1883 to the immediate west of the tower to plans prepared by Government Architect FDG Stanley and on part of the Waterworks reserve. Two years later a detached kitchen was also constructed behind it to the south of the tower. Use of the signal station was discontinued in 1921 by the state government, which then sought a new use for the structure and land. [27] Despite this the flagstaff remained in place until 1949. From January 1893 the Fire Brigade implemented a nightly observation post from a specially-constructed platform on top of the tower. This was used until around 1922.
The Commonwealth government assumed responsibility for the site in 1901 but control reverted to the state in 1908 when it was designated as an Observatory Reserve. In 1902 it had been connected to the Railway Telegraph Office at Roma Street so that the railways had the correct time for their operations. The evidence of historical photographs suggests that sometime between 1902 and 1912 the cabin at the top was increased in size.[28] The time ball remained in operation until 1930.
The site was placed under the trusteeship of the Brisbane City Council in 1922. The site of the cottage remained in the hands of the Waterworks Board and a boundary re-arrangement had to occur to allow its continued use in relation to the observatory. At this time the Queensland Institute of Radio Engineers began wireless radio and telephony research at the tower, and used the signalman's cottage to meet two nights a month. Apparatus to operate a wireless radio station was installed in 1926. The cottage was occupied on a more regular basis in order to reduce the risk of vandalism to the tower, but fell vacant. In 1926 the City Architect, AH Foster, proposed a plan for beautifying the observatory, which included removal of the cottage and adjacent sheds. The tender of Messrs Guyomar and Wright to remove the cottage, shed and outhouse for £60 was accepted.[29] At this time the stone and wrought iron wall along Wickham Terrace was erected. It was intended to add 'dignity to the historical reserve, and harmonise with the massive character of the Tower'.[30]
From 1924 Thomas Elliott installed equipment in the tower to undertake cutting-edge television research; he and Allen Campbell giving a demonstration from the site in 1934 which constituted Queensland's first television broadcast. It was considered by many at the time as the most outstanding achievement thus far in the history of television in Australia. They gained a license from the government and continued experimental broadcasting from the tower until about 1944.[31]
From 1945 the Brisbane City Council was considering suitable action to preserve the tower, which had become a popular visitor attraction. Some restoration work was carried out in 1950 on the advice of Frank Costello (then Officer in Charge of Planning and Building with the City Council), which included removal of old render and re-rendering the entire structure. It was at this time that the flagstaff was removed in preparation for making the open ground of the reserve 'a real park'. Certainly these conservation efforts considered the heritage value of the place as well as the public's use of it.
However by 1962 the windmill tower was again in poor condition. Floodlighting to enhance its appearance for tourists was undertaken for the first time during the Warana Festival five years later. In the early 1970s the Council and the National Trust of Queensland undertook detailed investigations regarding restoration and transfer of trusteeship from the council to the trust (the latter were abandoned in 1976). None of the original plans or any of the original windmill machinery parts could be located at that time. Based on these findings the National Trust formed the opinion that the building should be preserved in its present form and not reconstructed to its windmill form.
In 1982 City Council undertook some external maintenance work on the observation house or cabin, including replacement of deteriorated timber to the balcony and sills, and corrugated iron on the roof, and repair of the time ball and its mast (which was shortened by about 300 mm to remove some part affected by dry rot).[32]
In 1987 a consortium of companies involved in the construction of the Central Plaza office building offered to assist the Brisbane City Council with the conservation of the Windmill Tower. To inform this work a conservation study was undertaken by Allom Lovell Marquis-Kyle Architects, which also oversaw conservation work[33]. Preliminary archaeological investigations undertaken at this time identified the remains of the original flagstaff base which was reinstated.[34] The conserved Windmill Tower was opened by the Lord Mayor of Brisbane on 3 November 1988. A further archaeological investigation was carried out at the site in 1989-90 by a University of Queensland team, revealing clear stratigraphic layers datable to each of the key phases of use of the site.[35] In August 1993 further investigations of the fabric of the tower were undertaken to explore the extent of the footings and the nature of construction of the curb and cap frame. More conservation work was carried out in May 1996. [36]
In 2009 the Brisbane City Council received considerable funding to carry out restoration work of the windmill tower through the State Government's Q150 Connecting Brisbane project. It was intended that the structure be publically accessible to allow visitors to experience the view from its observation platform, a practice that has been commented on since the 1860s.[37] In 2008-2009 the Brisbane CBD Archaeological Plan assessed the area of the observatory reserve and a length of Wickham Terrace associated with it as having exceptional archaeological research potential because of the combination of its association with the penal settlement and the low level of ground disturbance that has occurred there since.[38]
","criteria":"The Windmill Tower in Spring Hill is tangible evidence of the initial European occupation of the Moreton Bay area and important physical evidence of the development of it as a penal settlement, free settlement and separate colony. It is the oldest convict-built structure surviving in Queensland and the oldest extant windmill tower in Australia.
The Windmill Tower is important in illustrating various key phases of the history of Brisbane. It has been used for a variety of purposes, including the grinding of grain and as a form of punishment for convicts, as a trigonometrical survey station, as a signal station for shipping, the Queensland Museum's first home, the official timekeeping device for the settlement, an observation tower, and as a site for wireless radio and telephony research and for early television research and broadcasting.
|The Windmill Tower is one of only two buildings to survive from the Moreton Bay penal settlement. It is distinctive amongst other early windmill towers around Australia in being the only surviving one built by convict labour. Other surviving towers, including the mill at South Perth in Western Australia (1837), the Callington Mill at Oatlands in Tasmania (1837), and the Mount Barker mill in South Australia (1842), were constructed by non-convict labour for free enterprise concerns.
|The Windmill Tower has potential to contribute new knowledge and a greater understanding of Queensland's early settlement and development. Potential exists for archaeological evidence relating to all phases of occupation and use, particularly the convict period and evidence of the external treadmill layout and design, and the later signalman's cottage.
Archaeological investigations at the Windmill Tower have the potential to contribute important new information about actual treadmill design and construction techniques, early punishment practices employed in Moreton Bay, the domestic conditions of mid to late nineteenth century Brisbane through artefact analysis, as well other previously unknown or undocumented uses of the windmill tower site.
Archaeological evidence of the treadmill would illustrate nineteenth century punishment practices and the necessity of technological solutions for the grinding of enough grain to feed the fledgling settlement.
|Being the oldest extant windmill tower in Australia, and Queensland's oldest stone building, the Windmill Tower in Brisbane is an exemplar of this class of cultural place. Its height and location on a central Brisbane hilltop are also important in demonstrating the characteristics of an early signal station, lookout and site for wireless radio, telephony and early television research.
|The Windmill Tower has great aesthetic significance for its landmark quality, being situated on a prominent hilltop overlooking central Brisbane; a quality widely acknowledged from the beginnings of free settlement until the present day. The unusual and characteristic shape of the structure is distinctive even in the earliest pictorial representations of the Brisbane landscape. Despite subsequent city development obscuring or entirely obliterating the views to it from other parts of the area, the windmill tower is still strongly evocative and symbolic of Queensland's convict past, one of its key periods of significance.
|The use of the Windmill Tower as a signal station from 1855 demonstrates an aspect of innovative technology to develop a system of communication linking semaphore and electric telegraph to relay shipping news to the settlement. The tower is also an important reflection of the management of timekeeping in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through the use of time balls and a time gun at the site from 1861 until 1930. The earliest research in Queensland into wireless radio and telephony was undertaken at the tower from 1922. Cutting edge television technology was also researched and demonstrated at the tower from 1924 until at least 1949.
|The Windmill Tower has a special association with the Brisbane and Queensland communities, serving as an important landmark and being a tangible and symbolic representation of European settlement of the state. The tower was recognised as early as 1850 for its landmark and picturesque qualities in a swell of public support against its proposed demolition. This public interest has been ongoing, demonstrated in concerns voiced to the present day over renovation and restoration.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14949,"place_ref":600174,"name":"Service Reservoirs","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"230 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Service Reservoirs stand on an elevated, irregular-shaped, 3799m2, landscaped site, downhill from Windmill Tower (QHR 600173) on the outskirts of the Brisbane CBD and adjacent to Wickham Terrace in Spring Hill. The site comprises two, partially subterranean, gable roofed structures that align with Wickham Terrace at the northern edge of the site.
\nStanding separately and perpendicular to each other, the two rectangular Service Reservoirs are constructed of thick brick walls that are protected by later additions of timber-framed, corrugated metal roofs. The earlier, smaller structure has a single gable roof, while the larger, later one is double-gabled. Both reservoirs have subsidiary gabled ridge-vents to allow for ventilation and a box gutter runs along the valley between the double gables of the larger reservoir to ensure adequate drainage. Along the longitudinal sides of each reservoir, the roofs meet exterior white-washed and painted brick walls. The brick walls continue around to the gable-ends on which banks of timber louvers which provide ventilation to the interiors. The two reservoirs feature timber doors on each gable end which are elevated above the brick wall height and allow entry to the interiors. A set of timber stairs on the western gable-end of the small reservoir provides access to this reservoir. Ladders descend into the two reservoirs from all timber doors.
\nInternally, the Service Reservoirs are empty of water and are divided into compartments (eight in the smaller and fifteen in the larger) by brick, high arched baffle walls, which step down in height towards the centre of the spaces and are designed to withstand external pressure. In the small reservoir, a small portion of the interior walls are cement rendered, while the remainder are facebrick. All interior walls in the large reservoir have a cement wash coating. Both reservoirs have a concrete floor slab and hardwood timber roof framing is exposed within each space. Within the two reservoirs, 30mm metal tie rods span between external walls. The terminations of each tie rod are visible on the exterior of the reservoirs where vertical timber packers stand. A cast-iron inlet and outlet, valve chambers and pits, and main outlet and scour pipes remain within the reservoirs.
","history":"The Service Reservoirs (1871 and 1882) are located adjacent to the Windmill Tower (QHR 600173) on Wickham Terrace in Spring Hill, Brisbane. Constructed as purpose-designed water storage and distribution facilities to service Brisbane's rapidly growing population in the late 19th century, the Service Reservoirs represent both a creative and technical achievement of the Colonial era. The reservoirs constitute two mostly subterranean tanks, constructed of brick arched walls, roofed in the early 1900s and once connected by a series of pipes to Enoggera Dam. They were the first of their kind in the state.
Aboriginal occupation of what is now the Brisbane City area was located within a close distance of freshwater streams, at the main camps at "Barrambin" (York's Hollow, now Victoria Park) and "Me-An-Jin" (Gardens Point). When European settlement was established in the area, the proximity of a sufficient water supply had a significant impact on where it was to be situated. The Moreton Bay Penal Settlement was established at Redcliffe in 1824, under the instructions of John Oxley that a suitable location would be "easy of access, difficult to escape from, and hard to attack; furthermore, it should be near fresh water and contain three hundred acres for cultivation".[1] Only one year after settlement, the inadequacy of Redcliffe's water supply became apparent and the settlement relocated to the current Brisbane City site.[2] Adjacent to the river, the new site allowed the collection of water from the first substantial water supply within 15miles (24.14km) of the mouth of the Brisbane River, a freshwater creek and a chain of water holes near the present Roma Street Station.[3]
In 1826, Captain Logan arrived as Commandant and established a works program; key buildings were replaced with substantial structures made of stone and brick. Further development was encouraged by the construction of King's Wharf (1827) which allowed goods to be transferred from incoming ships.[4] Due to this expansion of the penal settlement, by 1829 the quantity and quality of the water supply had dramatically decreased.[5] In response, Captain Logan under the guidance of engineer and Clerk of Works, Andrew Petrie, ordered the excavation of an earthen dam across a creek near present-day Tank Street that was intended to hold up to a year's supply of water. From this dam, water was reticulated through a series of hollow ironbark logs with convict-powered pumps to a small number of buildings within Brisbane, including the prisoners' and military barracks, and the Commandant's quarters.[6]
Brisbane experienced rapid growth after its opening for free settlement in 1842 and the population quickly rose to 812 by 1845. Water carriers charged exorbitant prices for their services and water was frequently required to be transported from Breakfast Creek at times of drought when the earthen reservoir dried up.[7] By the 1850s the supply of fresh water became polluted from bathing, washing and watering animals. The walls of the dam deteriorated and leaked, and in 1858 it collapsed.[8]
The Municipalities Act 1858 tasked local councils with the obligation to control their town's water supply.[9] Brisbane's Municipal Council (formed in 1859, the same year as Queensland's separation from New South Wales) only made short-term repairs to the dam due to other priorities such as constructing roads, Municipal Headquarters, and improving drainage and sanitary conditions.[10] The Council constructed a temporary tank on the edge of the reservoir in Tank Street and licensed water carriers to serve the people Brisbane, whose population had increased by 54 percent between 1856 and 1861 to 5900 people.[11] It soon became clear that Brisbane required a much larger water supply. Tensions emerged between the Municipal Council and the Queensland Government over who was accountable for funding future systems.[12]
Despite the strenuous debate amongst alderman regarding the best solution, and continual conflict between the Council and Queensland Government over control, the Brisbane Municipal Council made the decision in 1863 to adopt a long term solution from a report by Civil Hydraulic Engineer, Thomas Oldham.[13] This proposal involved a gravity reticulation system to the city fed from a dam constructed at a higher elevation on Enoggera Creek. A service reservoir would be constructed near the top of Windmill Hill on Wickham Terrace, the highest suitable site near town, to store water before distribution. Oldham's scheme was designed to provide a 12month water supply to 200,000 people; five times Brisbane's population at the time.[14] The Brisbane Waterworks Act 1863 enabled the Municipal Council to construct reservoirs, supply water to the town and to charge for services, but allowed the Queensland Government to influence decisions with the establishment of a Board of Waterworks.[15]
Joseph Brady was appointed as Engineer to the Board of Waterworks and oversaw the construction of Enoggera Dam which began on 18 August 1864. The dam was completed by March 1866, with alterations made to reduce expenditure; pipework sizes were minimised and plans for the Wickham Terrace Service Reservoir were scrapped.[16] By legislation, responsibility transferred to the Brisbane Board of Waterworks in August 1866, and later that month 94 chains (1.89km) of water mains reticulating to Queen, George and Edward Streets were turned on.[17] By 1869 reticulation to the southern side of the river was achieved.[18] The system was the first reticulated gravity supply and the first municipal engineering undertaking in Queensland.[19] Being the first of their kind in the colony, the Service Reservoirs at Spring Hill set a precedent for subsequent water supply schemes throughout Queensland, including places such as Ipswich, Toowoomba, Maryborough and Rockhampton.[20]
After complaints from Brisbane residents about mains not servicing higher areas of town and of a poor supply during peak hours, the Board of Waterworks decided to proceed with the construction of a Service Reservoir near the observatory on Wickham Terrace.[21] Tenders were called in 1870 for the construction of a reservoir in either concrete or brick. Henry Holmes' tender was accepted specifying the use of concrete, but after preliminary excavations and the identification of cracks in concrete samples, Holmes requested to change the walls to brick and subsequently offered to withdraw his contract.[22] The Board of Waterworks made the decision to complete the contract under its own Clerk of Works; immediately letting a contract for bricklaying and purchasing 69,000 locally produced bricks.[23]
The first Reservoir at Wickham Terrace was completed in 1871 and was filled for the first time on 24 February 1871. The Reservoir was a 60ft x 30ft (18m x 9m) open-air structure, with 480mm (3 bricks) thick outer walls and arched brick internal cross-walls that divided the reservoirs into 15ft (4.5m) squares. It held 126,000 gallons (570,000 L) of water which came to a depth of 13ft 6in (4.15m). For 10hours every night, the mains were turned off and the reservoir was filled to keep up with demand for the following day.[24] The Service Reservoir had a major effect on both the cost and the standard of living in Brisbane with the average cost of delivered water dropping from the 1866 price of 20shillings/1000gallons to just 1shilling/1000 gallons.[25] In 1872 a tender for £36 from H Wakefield to raise the walls by 2ft (60.96cm) and increase the Reservoir's capacity was accepted and in 1876 an additional main from Enoggera Dam was laid to allow water to be reticulated to higher parts of town.[26] Further complaints, together with a surge in Brisbane's population in the late 1870s, due to immigration, port activities and the construction of the railway, prompted suggestions that the Reservoir had become inadequate and that a second, much larger reservoir was required to support increasing demand.[27]
In 1882, plans were drawn for a second reservoir to be completed by the end of the year by W Innes and Son for £2797-10-0. An additional main was laid across Victoria Bridge to service the higher parts of Kangaroo Point and South Brisbane.[28] The second Reservoir was constructed with 510mm (4 bricks) thick brick walls. The interior was divided into 15 spaces by arched brick walls; the spaces being a square shape in the central section and rectangular on the eastern and western sides.[29] In 1889, the Board of Waterworks considered roofing both reservoirs; these additions did not take place at this time due to the leaking condition of the reservoirs, the declining reliance on them and the introduction of other water supply systems.[30]
Only a few years after the second reservoir was constructed, other improvements were made in Brisbane's water supply system to cope with the population boom of the 1880s. This included the building of the Gold Creek dam in 1885-86, and the Highgate Hill service reservoir, which was of mass concrete rather than arched brick walls, in 1889. The commissioning of Mt Crosby pumping station in 1893 marked the decline of gravity water supply. The service reservoirs continued to only supply water to the lower parts of the city. Although the larger reservoir retained water in case of emergency, both reservoirs were removed from use between 1898 and 1906.[31]
In 1904-05 the reservoirs were recommended for reconditioning to bring them back to a usable standard. These works comprised: the reconnection with the original Enoggera main; the provision of roofs to prevent the growth of algae and to stop animals falling or being thrown in; and the installation of a spray inlet, a floating outlet and a relief valve for the Mt Crosby supply.[32] In July 1905 tenders were called for further works on the small reservoir, including the cement rendering of internal walls. Contractors, Maskrey and Kitchen, were approved to re-roof the reservoir for £226-6-8 including extras.[33] After 1906, little work was completed on the Service Reservoirs apart from routine maintenance.[34]
Along with the reservoirs, several other structures were constructed; over time these were demolished or removed. A cottage was constructed by JP Hardy in 1871 for £125 and was built to house the Inspector who was responsible for overseeing the reservoirs running day and night.[35] The Inspector's cottage was removed from site before 1959. A second cottage was constructed in 1894 as a caretakers' house. This became the turncock's residence between 1958 and 1959, was occupied until 1976 and was vacant until destroyed by fire in 1977.[36] A third residence was erected for the Senior Inspector in 1909 for £315-12-0. At different periods until 1958, the third residence also housed the Superintendent of Mains and Services, and the turncock. The residence was considered uneconomical to repair in 1958 and was moved off the site by early 1959.[37]
The Wickham Terrace service reservoirs remained an integral part of the Brisbane water supply system until 3 September 1962 when the water main from Enoggera Dam collapsed and was shut down, unable to serve an increasingly high-rise inner city due to their comparatively small capacity and low elevation. Redevelopment proposals for the reservoirs during the 1980s included converting the area into an art gallery, bus exchange, restaurant and theatre in the round.
In 2014, after two years of negotiations with the Brisbane City Council, the Brisbane based Underground Opera Company completed a $150,000 temporary fit-out to allow the staging of a series of opera performances within the space.[38] The service reservoirs continue to serve as a visual reminder of the vital importance of a reliable, accessible and clean water supply, as well as the technical advancements in the early development of Brisbane and Queensland.[39]
","criteria":"The Wickham Terrace service reservoirs are an historic expression of demographic growth, improvement in living standards and local politics in Brisbane during the years of early self-government.
|In Queensland they are the first of a series of inground reservoirs, but quite unusual in being the only ones known to have been built of brick with arched baffle walls rather than concrete.
|The sub-surface pits, chambers and pipes, and the sites of the two former houses have the potential to reveal technical and archaeological evidence.
|In Australian context there are important differences in form, material and dating between each of the above reservoirs; but their similarities, particularly between Wickham Terrace and Adelaide, are such that the former may be treated as a significant example of its type.
|In addition the reservoirs have long formed a pleasing part of the 'Windmill Hill' reserves, which also include the old convict tower mill [600173], a reconstructed signal flagstaff and surrounding parkland. Their dimly lit, resonant and monumental interior spaces are also atmospheric in character.
|As an important part of the Enoggera waterworks system, and a simple but handsome solution to the problem of an adequate water supply, the reservoirs represent both a technical and a creative achievement of the Colonial era.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14950,"place_ref":600175,"name":"Baptist City Tabernacle","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"163 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This centrally planned church is a cement rendered brick building with parapet walls that conceal a galvanised corrugated iron roof. It is situated on a sloping site on the corner of Upper Edward Street and Wickham Terrace, overlooking the central business district, with the main entrance on the higher Wickham Terrace side.
The front facade is distinguished by centrally positioned entry stairs and an attached tower, surmounted by a cupola, that is prominently located on the southwest corner, the highest part of the site. With the exception of the four-storeyed tower, the building is two-storeys tall and sits on a base that forms a third storey, visible at the rear and sides.
All four facades are composed of variations of the same classically derived elements and motifs and are symmetrical except for the location of the tower. Each facade is divided into three bays, the central bay being larger than the two peripheral bays.
The central bay sits proud on the front and rear elevations and recedes slightly on the east and west elevations. Each central bay is further divided into three parts and has a rose window in the centre of the upper level. All other openings are arched. On the south, east and west facades the central bay is surmounted by a triangular pediment. Corners and compositional divisions in the facade are marked by banded rustication and rusticated pilasters.
The longer east and west elevations have two additional bays recessed between the two main bays. In these recesses are arched entry doors that open onto the lower-ground floor. On this level are the sunday school rooms, lecture hall, kitchen and meeting rooms.
On the ground level above, the entry vestibule opens onto the double height space of the church; a 70ft wide space which is spanned by timber trusses that are concealed by a flat plaster ceiling. In the corners of the building are two-storeyed rooms that look into this space, as does the gallery located over the vestibule. Internal walls are plastered and contain built-in circular cast iron ventilation grates. Decoration is restrained with the windows containing geometric patterned leadlight.
Cedar pews are arranged in a semicircular pattern facing the pulpit, baptistery, organ and choir gallery that are located at the northern end of the space and feature timber panelling. A screen has been built behind the choir. This screen blocks the original view from the auditorium of the north wall with its rose and arched windows and the spiralling timber stairs.
","history":"The Baptist City Tabernacle is a large cement rendered church on a corner site overlooking the central business district.
Baptists first arrived in Brisbane about 1851, with the first Baptist church being built in 1859 on the corner of Wharf and Adelaide Street. By 1887, with a congregation of over 400, a new church was needed. Prominent Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, a member of the congregation, designed both the Tabernacle and the former manse which still survives on an adjacent site. The dedication took place on 9 October 1890 and the total cost was over £18,000. It was described at the time as being a Classic Venetian style building.
The first pastor was Rev. William Whale, a notable Brisbane churchman, leader and preacher of the time. In the early 1900s, Miss Fewing's Private School for Girls, which later became Somerville House, occupied the basement. The Baptist Theological College was formed in the tower and occupied it for many years, along with the minister's fraternal for use as a meeting place. The basement rooms provided space for the Sunday School, and related church activities.
The Tabernacle is the major centre for the Baptist Church in Queensland and site for the annual Assembly and other Union functions. Until recently it was the administrative headquarters for the Baptist Union.
","criteria":"The Baptist City Tabernacle, as the home of Brisbane's oldest Baptist congregation, is important in demonstrating the evolution of the Baptist Church in Queensland.
|The Baptist City Tabernacle is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular:
The Baptist City Tabernacle is significant for its contribution to the Brisbane townscape, Wickham Terrace and Upper Edward Street Streetscapes and as a city landmark.
The composition of the building's architectural elements and the quality and craftsmanship of the timber joinery and leadlight contribute the Baptist City Tabernacle's aesthetic significance.
|The Baptist City Tabernacle has a strong association with the Baptist Church, in Queensland, and has a special association with notable Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, as a major example of his ecclesiastical work.
|The Baptist City Tabernacle has a strong association with the Baptist Church, in Queensland, and has a special association with notable Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, as a major example of his ecclesiastical work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14951,"place_ref":600176,"name":"Commissariat Store (former)","alternate_name":"Colonial Store (1860-1898) | Commissariat Stores (former) | State Stores Building (1923-1960) | Government Stores (1898-1923)","street_address":"115-127 William Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former Commissariat Store is a three-storey building set within an excavation in the ridge topped by William Street and facing the northern bank of the Brisbane River; the chief point of access to it being from William Street via a walkway connecting the top storey and footpath. The original path of entry from the river (and now demolished wharf) is from Queens Wharf Road through a paved yard, enclosed by a stone wall set with a central pair of iron gates (c1982).
The building is framed on the north-west and south-east by original retaining walls of roughly dressed and squared blocks of Brisbane Tuff brought to courses, and on the north-east by a combination of retaining wall types. The early arrangement featured lower and upper walls separated by a slim triangle of land opening to the south. The upper wall was concrete while the lower was stone and largely convict-built. The northern end of the upper concrete wall collapsed and destroyed half of the lower wall in 2011. The damaged part of lower wall has been rebuilt using salvaged stone (some Brisbane tuff dating from the original construction and some sandstone installed in the 1970s). The undamaged section of the lower wall features original Tuff blocks and upper sections of 1970s sandstone.[43]
The two lower levels of the building are built of stone - both sandstone and iron-stained Brisbane Tuff - and the upper storey is of rendered brick. The hipped roof is clad in corrugated galvanised steel sheeting and features a central fleche and gable centred on the Queens Wharf elevation, and two dormer windows facing William Street.
The south-western, river-facing elevation is divided into three bays by engaged piers at each building corner and the projection of the central section of wall; the widest bay being the central one under the gable. It features an arrangement of three openings (windows and doors) on each level, while the side bays feature two windows each level. The windows on the lower two storeys are casements, while those on the top storey are double-hung. An oeil-de-boeuf is centred under the gable in the same position as a small window in the 1829 structure. Below this on the upper storey is also the royal cypher of King George IV and the date 1829 in a recessed panel. A large double door with fanlight opens into the yard from the centre of the ground level elevation, and above it is another door.
The arrangement of windows on the William Street elevation is similar to that on Queens Wharf Road, however there are no bays. An arched hood supported on twin corbels shelters the double entrance doors. Inside the curve of the hood are the words Government Stores. As the upper level corresponds to the footpath level of William Street , these entry doors are accessed via a concrete walkway with iron balustrades. A modern ramp has been installed to the south of the walkway. The side elevations feature three windows each level.
Windows on the lower two storeys have arched heads, while those on the top level to the north-west and south-west have hoods. Many of the former windows have bars, some of which are original. There is also a door to the first floor from Miller Park on the north-west side of the building.
Many changes have occurred on the interior, which comprises a series of temporary partitions to create office, exhibition and storage space for the RHSQ.
Miller Park (excluding easement K/CP892185 in the north-west corner) contains no buildings, stepping down from William Street to Queens Wharf Road by means of a large terrace and a series of ramps and stairs. The c1982 landscaping consists of open areas of grass and plantings of various trees and shrubs. Park infrastructure includes concrete pathways and ramps with galvanised metal railings, brick garden edging and steps, lighting, seating and rubbish bins. The ramps, pathways and steps enable public access between William Street and Queens Wharf Road.
A path and gateway with glass security gate lead from Miller Park to the north-west entrance of the Commissariat Store. A stone retaining wall runs along the Queens Wharf boundary of Miller Park. The north-western half of the wall is the original convict-built construction predating 1838. The remainder is a c1982 replacement. None of the c1982 landscaping or infrastructure is considered of cultural heritage significance.
Although there is no physical surface evidence of potential archaeological remains, the documented history and usage of the site, and previous archaeological investigations including those undertaken following the January 2011 flood, indicates the potential for artefacts to remain subsurface in some areas of Miller Park.
","history":"The Commissariat Store was constructed of local stone in 1828-9 by Moreton Bay penal settlement convicts as a two-storey provisions store near the Brisbane River and what was to become Queen's Wharf. A third storey of rendered brick was added in 1913 to accommodate its continuing use as a government store and providing an address to William Street.
\nIn 1823 Moreton Bay was chosen as a penal settlement for secondary offenders or those who had re-offended while serving their sentence of transportation in Australia. It was intended to better control these convicts and affect a reform in them through isolation, hard labour, strict discipline and harsh living conditions. In 1824 Lieutenant Miller arrived at Redcliffe with 30 convicts. As this location proved unsuitable, the settlement was moved in 1825 inland to a ridge overlooking and bounded on three sides by the Brisbane River, and simple buildings were constructed to serve it.[1]
\nPenal colonies were run on a military system and so a commissariat directed the procurement, supply and distribution of essential goods, as well as serving as a custom house and bank. The first building used for this purpose in what would become Brisbane Town at Moreton Bay was a slab structure in the vicinity of the current intersection of Albert and Elizabeth streets. There were two other store structures at Amity Point and Dunwich on Stradbroke Island. In 1826 Captain Logan arrived as Commandant and began a works program that replaced key buildings with more substantial structures made of stone and brick. One of these was the Commissariat Store.[2] Along with houses for the Commandant, Commissariat officer and chaplain, it was erected on the ridge running parallel to William and George Street that remains the focus of government to the present day.[3]
\nA position near the river bank was selected for the new store, following recommended procedure, to allow goods to be conveniently loaded and unloaded from a wharf. This also provided a single point for the entry and distribution of tools, weapons, clothing and food rations to permit secure control of such vital supplies. The design was by William John Dumaresq (1793-1868) whose plans arrived from Sydney in April 1828; work on the foundations commencing some months later.[4] Dumaresq was also responsible for the design of the store at Dunwich completed in 1828.[5]
\nThe original river bank in this area was quite steep and the underlying rock was quarried to create a relatively level building platform.[6] The excavation work was heavy and carried out by the Gaol Gang of convicts as a specific punishment, but the masonry and other construction work required skilled labour and was most likely supervised by Lieutenant Thomas Bainbrigge, sent especially from Sydney with suitable workmen in 1827 and made Superintendent of Works for the colony the following year.[7] Some time after retaining walls were constructed around three sides of the store building; the one to William Street appearing in an 1838 cross-section and the two at each side in Petrie's front elevation of the building also dated to that year.[8]
\nIn common with the settlement's other new buildings, the Commissariat Store followed a simple design suitable for everyday use in a penal colony and was well constructed from local materials.
\nThe first outpost of the convict colony in Australia had been established in New South Wales in 1788, the settlement being almost immediately extended to Norfolk Island (abandoned in 1814 and re-established 1825), and then to Tasmania, to Newcastle (later to Port Macquarie), Moreton Bay and then to Western Australia (WA).[9] The only convict-built Commissariat Stores that survive today, aside from that in Brisbane, number seven. Two remain in WA in Fremantle (1852) and Guildford (1853-4) [both entered in the WA state Heritage Register]. Four remain in Tasmania and are listed in its state register: on Maria Island (1825, part of the Darlington Probation Station also nominated to the World Heritage List in 2008), in Hobart (1808-10), Launceston (1828, Commonwealth Heritage List as Paterson Barracks Commissariat Store) and Oatlands (1827). And one remains as part of the Kingston and Arthur's Vale Historic Area on Norfolk Island [1835, also nominated to the World Heritage List in 2008].
\nTwo of the earliest store buildings in New South Wales, both at Sydney Cove (1812) and Parramatta, have been demolished. Only three of the surviving buildings, all of which have been quite changed over time, are older than the store in Brisbane.[10] All built during a similar period and for the same purpose, the surviving store buildings exhibit a number of similar characteristics, which include: proximity to both a point of entry for goods and the settlement served, robust and utilitarian form communicating authority, and incorporating aspects of Georgian and Regency architectural styles such as symmetrical elevations with windows decreasing in size from lower to upper levels, and restrained, classically inspired decoration.
\nThe importance of the Brisbane store and its river frontage as a portal to the colony was emphasised by the addition of the royal cypher of King George IV and the date to the front, river-facing gable; features retained when the third storey was added later. The clear orientation towards the river (and what is now Queens Wharf Road) is also reflected in the stonework itself, which is evenly coursed at the front, but more random at the rear (William Street) and sides (Miller Park to the north-west). The Commissariat Store was built of Brisbane Tuff from the quarry at Kangaroo Point with sandstone from Oxley Creek used for footings, the base course, quoins, sills and lintels.[11] The windows were small, unglazed and barred for security and the roof was clad with ironbark shingles. It was completed in 1829.
\nThe only entry point into the penal settlement was via the adjacent wharf on the Brisbane River. Initially known as the King's Wharf or Jetty, it was constructed by 1827 when the boat crew's hut and boat builder's shed were first occupied. A crane was constructed on the end of the wharf in order to transfer goods from the arriving ships to the shore.[12] The main roadway into the settlement was up along the steep river bank following the present day alignment of Queens Wharf Road.[13] A pedestrian path developed along the slope from the wharf to the ridge of present-day William Street passing to the north-west of the Commissariat Store, through what is now Miller Park.[14] A retaining wall along the Queens Wharf Road frontage of Miller Park had been constructed by convicts before 1831. A wall, with an opening leading to stairs in a position corresponding to this path, appears in an 1838 plan.[15] A pencil sketch by Henry Boucher Bowerman dated c1835 shows a wall here with an arched opening a few metres up the hill from the store yard wall.[16]
\nThe penal colony closed in 1839 and Moreton Bay was declared open for free settlement in 1842. Other government buildings were soon sold or demolished but the Commissariat Store was retained for continued government use as a store. This did not require all the space available and allowed the upper floor to serve the government in a number of other capacities, being used for land sales in 1848 and intermittently to house immigrants during the 1850s.[17] During this time a door was cut through to the first floor on the north-western side of the building.[18] This enabled immigrants to enter the building through what is now Miller Park without the need to access the ground floor store. Proximity to the immigration barracks of the time (on the site of the Treasury Building [QHR 600143]), the former military barracks and guard house fitted out to receive immigrants in 1848, made the store a convenient place to accommodate overflow numbers. This use continued even after a purpose-built immigration barracks was constructed on land immediately to the south-east of the store in 1865-66 (95 William Street) and is likely to have only stopped when the new depot opened at Kangaroo Point in 1887.[19]
\nIn 1860, following the creation of the colony of Queensland, the store was renamed the Colonial Store. It was repaired and the upper floor was converted for use as police barracks. Eighteen new hardwood sash windows were added. Internally, six pine batten doors and a partition were constructed to provide married men's quarters and single men's barracks on the first floor. At this time a fireplace, new ironbark shingle roof, wall, window and door were added to the kitchen building in the yard (constructed there c1857). On the ground floor of the store, a raised timber floor was installed and the windows enlarged and glazed. [20]
\nThe storekeeper and a staff of twelve handled everything from oil for lighthouses to blankets for distribution to the Aborigines. A cottage for the storekeeper was constructed in the southern corner of the yard between 1861 and 1872, with a gabled extension to it completed in 1873.[21] During the ‘Bread and Blood' riots of 1866 an attempt was made to force entry to the store, possibly because it was seen as a symbol of government and its control of essentials.[22]
\nFurther north-west along William Street, the first purpose-built home of the Queensland Museum was constructed between 1876 and 1879 to a design by Francis Drummond Grenville Stanley [State Library (former) QHR 600177]. Over three storeys, it was intended this building comprise later stages. It created an area of open ground between its south-eastern side and the store that continued to be used as a pathway from the wharf area on the river and centre of town, and to provide access to the store's side door.
\nThe Colonial Store was repaired and added to as the colony grew. In 1886 a single-storey brick wing was added at right angles to the original building on its southern corner running out to the boundary of the yard to the Queens Wharf Road. The wing was used as a stationery annexe, and received an extra storey in 1900. It is unclear what changes to other structures in the yard were occasioned by the erection of this annexe. It is possible the c1857 kitchen building was moved to the adjacent land (now Miller Park) at this time and the storekeepers cottage moved or demolished.[23]
\nThe yard also contained a number of ancillary buildings for storage and other purposes. The stables (and shed) which were said to have stood in the western corner of the yard were destroyed by fire in 1888 and then rebuilt.[24] The old saddlery were destroyed in 1895 and replaced with a new building constructed between the store and the William Street retaining wall.[25]
\nIn October 1886, the Colonial Storekeeper had written to the Under Secretary of Works drawing his attention to the bad state of the wooden fence erected in William Street to back up the footpath in front of the store.[26] A timber embankment was erected in 1887-89 (above and about 1.5 metres away from the earlier retaining wall) and fill was used to even out the land surface.[27] In 1890 the timber embankment was replaced by a concrete retaining wall that cut through the existing land fill.[28]
\nA strong room was built in the Commissariat Store for record books in 1888 and in 1889 William Street was lowered necessitating some underpinning of the existing retaining wall.[29] The roof shingles were replaced with corrugated iron about this time. In 1898, as Federation approached, the store building was renamed the Government Stores.[30]
\nIn time, and as the city developed, the river location became less convenient. By 1907 it was deemed by the storekeeper to be too far from the steamer wharf and railway station. In 1911 he suggested that if relocation was not possible, the addition of a lightweight upper storey with access to William Street would be helpful, providing increased floor space and improving lighting and summer cooling conditions. This suggestion was adopted and the work was commenced by contractor William Kitchen at a cost of £2194 pounds in late 1912.
\nThe new storey was constructed of rendered brick in a Georgian Revival style sympathetic to the existing building. To keep costs down, as many as possible of the old roof timbers were reused and clad with new corrugated iron. A ventilation fleche and dormer windows were inserted to allow the attic space to be used and timber columns were added to the lower floors to help support the extra weight. A gantry and new main entrance to William Street with a semicircular hood effectively changed the orientation of the building towards the city. A new concrete retaining wall was constructed along part of the Miller Park frontage on William Street. The timber paling fence extended the full width of both lots was refurbished. Work was completed in 1913 and an electric goods lift added the following year.[31]
\nIn 1923, the State Stores Board was created as an initiative of the Labor government to facilitate efficient and economical purchase and distribution of goods used by government departments. This system ran with little change until the 1980s and it was administered from the former Commissariat Store, now renamed the States Stores Building. As storage needs increased, some sections moved to other buildings and in 1960 Stores vacated the building. Queensland State Archives then occupied the ground floor until 1968 and various government departments used the upper floors. Some alterations were made to accommodate their use, including installation of a new lift, which necessitated the removal of the penthouse of the 1914 lift, and probable removal of the fleche.[32]
\nA plan from 1944 indicates that a number of ancillary buildings stood in the yard surrounding the Commissariat Store at that time, including: the two-story brick annexe in the southern corner (1886 and 1900); a packing case shed in the western corner; storage sheds along the northern part of the eastern elevation and the north and south-eastern walls of the building; a saddlery store along the entire north-eastern wall of the building (almost filling the gap between the building and the retaining wall to William Street); and a toilet block in the northern corner of the site.[33]
\nDuring World War II (WWII), occupants of the store utilised a stair and walkway constructed at the top of the William Street retaining wall to access an air raid shelter associated with the adjacent Agriculture and Stock Building (95 William Street).[34] It has been suggested that in 1945 an air raid trench constructed in the open land adjacent to the Commissariat Store (now Miller Park) was filled in.
\nOne of the sheds in the yard was demolished and rebuilt in 1952-53. A few years later the timber fence running along the store and park lots on William Street was replaced in chain wire. In the 1960s the saddlery store and another timber shed were demolished. The pedestrian bridges leading into the store from William Street and the open ground to the north-east (now Miller Park) were rebuilt in concrete, with the original iron balustrades and gate being reused.[35]
\nThe 1870s museum building on William Street had become the free Public Library of Queensland by 1902. Having housed the John Oxley Library from 1931, the building's name was changed to the State Library of Queensland in 1971. In 1958 major extensions were designed to commemorate the centenary of Queensland's creation as a separate colony from New South Wales. This work was complete by 1959 and involved the construction of a large loading dock in the north-western corner of the adjacent block (where Miller Park would be established in 1980). This dock stands within easement K/CP892185 (outside the heritage boundary) and destroyed part of the convict-built retaining wall along Queens Wharf Road and extinguished the archaeological potential of that area of land.
\nThe heritage value of the Commissariat Store has long been recognised and in 1959 it was included on the first shortlist of places recommended for preservation by the Queensland government. Extensive repairs were carried out to the stonework over a number of years and in 1970 a mason's workshop was set up in the yard to facilitate this work. In 1976 the building was vacated and the Royal Historical Society of Queensland (RHSQ) was granted occupation. The two-storey brick annexe was demolished at this time. Extensive renovations were completed to the Commissariat Store building between 1978 and 1979 including removal of the staircase, lift and strongroom and replacement of the 1861 flooring on the ground floor with masonry. The roof was tiled over new steel framework.
\nAn archaeological investigation of the ground floor and ceiling spaces of the Commissariat Store was also undertaken in 1978 as part of the restoration works.[36] An underfloor U-shaped brick drain was revealed during excavations (running under the centre of the building and appearing to drain from William Street toward the river).[37] A wide range of artefacts were recovered in deposits below the floorboards, in the drain and in the ceiling spaces dating from the entire period of occupation and use of the building.[38] The level of disturbance in the yard areas around the store – occasioned by the demolition of a range of yard buildings founded on concrete slabs - suggests it is unlikely that further archaeological evidence will be found under these areas.[39] There is some potential to find artefacts in the land now occupied by Miller Park.
\nThe land adjacent to the north-west of the Commissariat Store was officially gazetted as a park reserve in 1980 and named Miller Park after Captain Henry Miller, the first Commandant of the Moreton Bay penal settlement.[40] The Store was officially opened as the headquarters of the RHSQ at this time. In 1982 in the Store's yard a paved driveway, grassed area and work shed for the stonemasons (later demolished in 1997) were installed. At this time a new stone wall and metal gates were also constructed to the Queens Wharf Road boundary of Miller Park, leaving a short section of convict-built stone wall. The park was also landscaped including construction of new ramps, staircases, retaining walls, rails and brick paths, the installation of lighting, seats, rubbish bins and new turf and plantings. None of these features are considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
\nA conservation plan was prepared for the Department of Public Works in 1998 and work began to reverse or modify inappropriate changes made during the renovations of the 1970s. The store's roof was re-sheeted in wide pan galvanised steel and the fleche reconstructed to recall its appearance in 1913. New pointing was completed both inside and out. The stair to the walkway on Miller Park was rebuilt. A new plywood floor was installed on the ground level, as were new steel tension members to the adzed beams there. A new lift, toilets and services, glass partitions and balustrades, and suspended ceiling on the top level were also installed at this time. This work was completed in late 2000, after which the building also housed the collection and library of the RHSQ, which continues to occupy the building in 2012.
\nThe store was damaged by a burst water main during the flood of January 2011. Half of the William Street retaining wall between Miller Park and the walkway into the Store collapsed, sending over 75 cubic metres of sediment and debris into the yard and ground floor areas.[41] A large concrete slab pierced the ground floor wall on the northern corner of the building. Emergency works were undertaken to stabilise the damaged section. The store's wall was repaired by Queensland Government stonemasons using original pieces of building stone salvaged from the debris.
\nAn archaeological salvage project recovered 8579 artefacts from the debris. Artefacts included ceramic, glass and faunal materials dating from the 1850s through to the 1880s. The artefacts derive from a single depositional unit of land fill within the stratigraphy of the site that dates to the construction of the timber retaining wall in 1887.[42]
","criteria":"Completed in 1829, the former Commissariat Store demonstrates the evolution of European settlement in Queensland, being one of only two buildings surviving from the Moreton Bay penal colony, having become a government store when free settlement was established until the 1960s and accommodating a range of other government uses, including serving as an overflow point for immigrants from the 1850s until 1887 when the Yungaba depot opened [QHR 600245]. Changes to the fabric and orientation of the building over that time reflect the development of Brisbane. The adjacent area of land, now known as Miller Park, has been an open space since the earliest European settlement, and continues to provide a pedestrian thoroughfare linking the river and city.
|As a key penal colony structure the former Commissariat Store is a very rare survivor in Queensland and, being one of only eight convict-built commissariat buildings remaining in Australia, at a national level. The stone retaining walls that remain around the store and that fronting Queens Wharf Road along part of Miller Park are the only examples remaining in Queensland that were built by convicts. All these structures provide rare evidence of the building methods, skills and materials available at that time.
|Archaeological investigation of the Commissariat Store building and Miller Park, has the potential to reveal important information about the penal colony and the subsequent use of the site. This investigation may provide insight into official and unofficial uses of the space, the lifeways of convicts, arriving immigrants and other early residents, as well as the material culture of nineteenth century Brisbane.
|This place is important in retaining the principal characteristics of a penal-era Commissariat Store that adapted to free settlement and transformation into a Government Store, through its simple form, robust construction, Georgian and Regency architectural influences - all of which help impart to the building a sense of the authority it represented - and its location between the river (from where goods and immigrants arrived) and the centre of the penal and later free settlement.
|The Commissariat Store, the three retaining walls that carve its site out of the William Street ridge and the remaining section of wall on Queens Wharf Road are of great aesthetic value as landmarks, seen from William Street and from the Brisbane River. The place is an integral part of the most prominent and cohesive group of government buildings in Queensland, which includes the: former Treasury Building [QHR 600143], former State Library [QHR 600177], former Land Administration Building [QHR 600123], Queens Gardens [QHR 600112], and the former Government Printing Office [QHR 600114].
|The Commissariat Store has a special association with Commandant Patrick Logan, as one of the few remaining components of his penal-era building program, which made a major contribution to the development of the colony and state of Queensland.
The building also has an enduring association with the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, its occupant since 1976 which has adopted the building's riverside elevation as the dominant feature of its logo.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14952,"place_ref":600177,"name":"State Library (former)","alternate_name":"Museum","street_address":"159 William Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former State Library is situated between William Street and the river, overlooking Queens Park (600112). It was the first of a major series of government buildings,the Treasury Building (600143), the Lands Administration Building (600123), and the Family Services Building (600111), which surround Queens Gardens (600112). It is adjacent to the William street retaining wall (600135).
The earliest part of the building was a three storeyed masonry structure with a sandstone facade. The facade is designed using classical elements, with a rusticated base and double-height columns rising from the piano nobile to support an entablature. The centre of the facade is marked by an aedicule containing an arched doorway, at ground level (the original entrance, now blocked in) and a small pediment above in the entablature. The large unfluted columns with lotus leaf capitals form a colonnade in front of the second and third storeys. Consoles rise through the entablature above each column. The top pediment is marked by stretches of balustrade. All the windows in this front facade are arched.
The interior of the first section was substantially remodelled in 1964-65, with the addition of a concrete frame structure, new floors, a mezzanine and air-conditioning.
The 1958-59 extension, to the west and south, is of four storeys, only one of which appears above William Street. The William Street frontage features a random pattered wall at the main entrance under a low-pitched copper-sheathed roof. The western wall is decorated with a large glass mosaic mural, 20.7 metres by 4.4 metres, the design suggesting primitive organic forms indicative of growth and development. On the river side is an aluminium sculpture approximately 6 metres high. Entitled Enlightenment, it depicts three figures reaching towards the sun, symbolising the dissemination of enlightenment to mankind. To the south the extension was designed as a series of concrete fin walls providing views of the river, private work areas and shade from the sun.
","history":"This building was constructed in two stages. The three-storeyed William Street section was erected by the colonial Queensland Government between 1876 and 1879, as the first purpose-built home for the Queensland Museum, which had been established in 1855. The four-storeyed extension was erected in 1958-59 as the Queensland Government's major centennial project.
In 1876 the design for the first section was completed under the supervision of colonial architect FDG Stanley, and a construction contract for £10,701 was let to W Macfarlane. The building was erected as stage one of a complex which was to incorporate two flanking wings housing the main staircases, and an arcade and colonnade fronting the river.
The choice of a classical style of architecture, modelled on 16th century Italian buildings and its central location close to the city's southern entrance, reflected the museum's importance in the scientific and cultural life of Brisbane.
The building was completed and occupied early in 1879, but proved inadequate for museum purposes. In 1881 the area below was levelled and the basement was extended. By 1884 the government was setting aside funds for a new museum building, but economic depression necessitated the museum remaining in the cramped William Street premises until removed to the former Exhibition Building at Gregory Terrace in 1899.
A £1,900 contract was let in September 1900 for conversion of the former museum building into premises for the free Public Library of Queensland, established in 1896. The library opened in the refurbished building in April 1902. The name was changed to the State Library of Queensland in 1971.
The John Oxley Library, established in 1926 as the principal centre for research material on Queensland history, was housed in the State Library building from 1931.
As a major centennial project, the library building was extended in 1958-59, at a cost of over £265,000. The additions, designed by government architects WG Thain, P Prystupa, U Stukoff, AJ Wheeler, D Davies and H de Jong, included an exhibition hall on the western side and reading rooms on the river elevation.
In 1958 national competitions were held for designs for a wall mural and sculpture to embellish the exterior of the new Centennial Hall. These were won by Victorian artist Lindsay Edward and Brisbane sculptor Leonard G Shillam. Shillam's aluminium sculpture was cast by the Non-Ferrous Foundry of Brisbane.
The extensions were opened officially in August 1959 by Princess Alexandra.
In 1964-65 the first section was gutted and renovated, including removal of the skylight, at a cost of over £227,000. The exterior brickwork may have been rendered at this time also. The William Street frontage remained largely intact, as one of the city's few surviving 1870s facades.
The State and John Oxley libraries removed to new premises in the Southbank Cultural Centre in 1988, since which time the William Street building has been utilised as a library store.
","criteria":"The former State Library provides evidence of the importance of the Queensland Museum as an institution in late nineteenth century Brisbane scientific and cultural life.
The former State Library is significant for its historical association with the 1958-59 extension, the major centennial project by the Queensland Government and for its association with the State Library of Queensland since 1902.
|The building is significant as an example of an 1870s public building in central Brisbane.
|The building is an integral member of the most prominent, important and cohesive group of government buildings in Queensland. As a fine classical facade by FDG Stanley, the building is significant for its architectural quality.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14954,"place_ref":600179,"name":"Bulimba House","alternate_name":"Toogoolawah","street_address":"34 Kenbury Street","suburb":"BULIMBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Bulimba House is a fine two-storeyed sandstone and brick residence which sits on the rise of gently sloping hill, and is set in a garden containing mature trees. The house in its setting makes a picturesque contribution to the Bulimba townscape.
Bulimba House has a steeply pitched terracotta tiled gabled roof, with substantial chimneys rising above the roof line. The external form expresses a simple L-shaped plan; the front (north) elevation has two projecting gables to the western end, and a deep ground floor verandah with a terracotta tiled skillion roof to the eastern end. The back of the house (to the south) also has a deep ground floor verandah with a (now enclosed) verandah above.
The exterior is modestly detailed, comprising tooled square-coursed sandstone to the north, west and eastern facades, and English bond brickwork south. The roof tiles (c1919) have small turtle emblems. The front elevation has single central casement windows to the gable ends, with a projecting bay window to the ground floor. The windows have curved pressed metal hoods with heart-shaped motifs (a later addition), and the bay window has smooth grey sandstone dressings. The gable ends have deep timber boarded eaves with terracotta finials. The verandah is supported on chamfered octagonal timber posts with rounded capitals, and has timber boarded spandrel panels with internally exposed bracing. The verandah ceiling is timber boarded.
The south verandah also has chamfered octagonal timber posts and timber spandrels (now partly obscured by later alterations). The end elevations are more utilitarian, with only three openings to the west and a small room under the skillion roof surmounted by a gable end to the east. The brickwork to the back (south) elevation has up-struck mortar.
The interior contains some fine detailing. It has cedar and hoop pine joinery throughout. The centrally located entrance hall has cedar stairs with a finely turned and carved balustrade. An ogee-shaped archway decorates the foot of the stairs. The Dining Room has a deep plaster cornice, and a fireplace with a finely carved mantelpiece, and tiled and cast iron surrounds. It also contains a bay window which sits in an arched recess. The bay window has sliding internal timber shutters which are encased in timber panels under the window sill. The Drawing Room has a cornice with a deep shadow line, a deep three-piece pine and cedar skirting, and a cast iron and tiled fireplace with a marble mantelpiece. It has timber louvred shutters and timber double doors set in deep timber reveals opening onto the verandahs.
The upstairs rooms have raked ceilings, and contain fireplaces with timber and marble mantelpieces.
The gardens contain a circular drive, a timber flagpole and several of the mature trees on the property, which include mangoes, camphor laurels and jacarandas.
","history":"Bulimba House was erected in 1849-50 for early Queensland pastoralist David McConnel, who in 1841 had established Cressbrook in the Brisbane Valley, the second run in the Moreton Bay district of New South Wales.
\nIn mid-1849 he purchased 173 acres (69 hectares) of land on the angle of the Brisbane River approximately five miles downstream from Brisbane Town. The subtropical rainforest area was known to the local Aborigines as Tugulawa or Toogoolawah, meaning 'shape of heart'.
\nHere McConnel established an experimental farm, attempting to prove that cash-crop agriculture was a viable activity in Moreton Bay. Early crops included cotton, wheat, barley, maize, oats, lucerne, rye grass and yams.
\nWhilst residing at Kangaroo Point in the second half of 1849, McConnel employed builder Andrew Petrie to construct the house at Toogoolawah, the first masonry Tudor style homestead in the Brisbane region. The stone, as sandstone without directional grain, was quarried from the nearby Quarries Reach of the Brisbane River, and Moreton Bay cedar was employed in both the structure and the finishes.
\nCabinetmaker Robert Towell was engaged to craft most of the furniture on the spot, using local cedar and stained pine.
\nMcConnel and his wife Mary moved to Toogoolawah in December 1849, living in the detached service wing until the main house was completed. By 1852 they were using the Aboriginal name from the Whites Hill area which was already the official name for the whole parish - Bulimba, meaning place of the magpie lark or peewee.
\nSituated on a rise in the centre of the property, Bulimba House overlooked the entire estate and boasted sweeping panoramic views from every window. It functioned as the centrepiece of a model manorial farm which, besides the cash cropping, operated self-sufficiently with a dairy herd, numerous livestock and poultry, kitchen garden and extensive orchard.
\nBy 1853 the farm comprised 220 acres and included a variety of outbuildings: kitchen, laundry, store, stable, coachhouse, workrooms, dairies, barns and workers' cottages. In the early years eighty to one hundred men were employed on the estate, although some of these were probably seasonal, and various wives and daughters served in the house, kitchen, laundry and dairy.
\nIn manorial tradition, McConnel encouraged his workers to establish their own farms, selling them small portions of the Bulimba property for which they made regular repayments from their wages, and were given time off to clear and cultivate.
\nDue to Mary McConnel's ill health the property was sold in February 1853 to pastoralist Donald Coutts for £5,000, and the McConnels returned temporarily to Britain. Most of the household furniture also was sold at this time.
\nCoutts later subdivided the estate but remained in the house until his death in 1869. Thorpe Riding, who purchased Bulimba House in September 1871, sub-divided the property to smaller land parcels, which were sold following his death in 1877.[1] Since then the house has been owned or rented by a number of prominent Brisbanites including Arthur Edward Moore, premier of Queensland from 1929 to 1932, who purchased Bulimba House in 1935. The property remains a family home on a much reduced site of 0.65 hectares. Substantial additions to the rear of the house and some internal alterations were made during the 1970s by the owners at the time. The timber kitchen and service wing was demolished at this time. The current owners have undertaken extensive conservation work throughout the house and have refurbished the kitchen.
","criteria":"Bulimba House is significant historically as the focus of one of Brisbane's earliest experimental riverine farms, and has an important association with the growth of Bulimba as a farming community in the 1850s.
|It is rare as an early surviving sandstone homestead in Brisbane, and evidences the skills of Brisbane's early Scottish carpenters and stonemasons.
|The house is a fine, modestly-detailed building, containing some finely-detailed internal elements, and in its setting makes a picturesque contribution to the Bulimba townscape.
|The house is a fine, modestly-detailed building, containing some finely-detailed internal elements, and in its setting makes a picturesque contribution to the Bulimba townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14955,"place_ref":600180,"name":"Bulimba Memorial Park","alternate_name":"Jamieson Park | Bulimba Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Park","street_address":"129 Oxford Street","suburb":"BULIMBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Bulimba Memorial Park comprises approximately 4.6 hectares of land in the heart of the suburb of Bulimba, bounded by Godwin Street to the west, Oxford Street on the north, Stuart Street to the east, and housing and sections of Barramul Street to the south. The extensive perimeter is delineated by regularly spaced timber posts, and the roadway boundaries ensure free access and visibility and plenty of street parking for park users. The ground is flat, and apart from some perimeter plantings, mostly comprises open playing fields.
The park contains a number of elements intended as memorials to local persons who served in the First World War. These include a gateway, memorial pillar, grandstand and perimeter trees.
1. memorial gateway [c1919], a wrought iron arch bearing the words Memorial Park, supported by a pair of solid timber posts, is located along the Oxford Street boundary.
2. memorial pillar [c1919], adjacent to the Oxford Street gateway, resembles a small solid lectern constructed of concrete. It has a square base and a short pedestal with cornice. A brass memorial plaque is set on the face of the lectern.
3. memorial trees [c1919-23], principally figs with alternating palms. The mature trees, mostly along Oxford Street, provide shade for spectators and locals enjoying the park's open space.
4. memorial grandstand [c1923], a two-storeyed timber structure with a gable roof of corrugated iron, located midway along the Godwin Street side of the park. The symmetrical front facade is dominated by a wide gabled bay which is flanked by access stairs that lead to the raked-back seating in the upper level. The sloped seating is balanced by the angle of the skillion roof of the rear changing rooms at ground level. The grandstand is open-sided, the roof being supported by slender timber columns with winged brackets. Decorative elements include dowel balustrades and lattice valance panels.
Other structures within the park include a shelter shed [c1920s] near the corner of Oxford and Stuart Streets, Girl Guides' Hall [1950s], former Scout Hut [1950s - now a soccer club], senior citizens' club [c1983], public toilets [1980s] and canteen [1980s].
The c1920s shelter shed is an open-sided structure, with timber posts with winged brackets supporting a short-ridged roof of corrugated iron.
The soccer club is a two-storeyed, L-shaped building with a corrugated iron gable roof. The ground floor is constructed of concrete bricks while the first floor is weatherboard, and there is an extensive timber deck at first floor level. The Girl Guides' Hall is a two-storeyed weatherboard structure with a gable roof of corrugated iron. The senior citizens' club, at the corner of Stuart and Barramul Streets, is a brick and glass, L-shaped structure. Near the 1923 grandstand are brick public toilets and a concrete block canteen, both with flat roofs.
","history":"Part of Bulimba Memorial Park may have been established by the Balmoral Shire Council as early as c1904, as Jamieson Park. Following the First World War [1914-18] it was opened officially on 1 November 1919 by WH Barnes MLA as the Bulimba Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Park, dedicated to Bulimba servicemen and women who had served in the Great War.
Robert Jamieson was an early Bulimba farmer and the park is part of his c1888 subdivision of portion 7. Bulimba ratepayers had discussed the acquisition of part of Jamieson's land for a recreation ground as early as January 1888, when it was offered to them at a reduced price. Nearly 4 acres [1.6 hectares] of this land eventually was acquired by the Balmoral Shire Council in 1904, and in subsequent years a number of adjacent subdivisions were incorporated within the park.
The first memorials erected in the park were the Oxford Road formal entrance gateway and an adjacent pillar. A plaque on the memorial pillar records that the park is dedicated to the soldiers, sailors and nurses who enlisted from Bulimba for service in the Great War 1914-1919.
Between 1919 and 1923 trees were planted along the Stuart, Godwin and Oxford Street frontages. Each tree bore a commemorative plaque honouring a serviceman killed in action. These plaques have since disappeared, and only six names are recorded. Most of the surviving memorial trees are located along Oxford Street.
The grandstand on the Godwin Street side was built about 1923 through local fund raising efforts. It has been suggested that the architect was GMH Addison, who designed the nearby Bulimba Ferry terminal building.
In 1925, the park became the property of the Brisbane City Council, following the creation of Greater Brisbane.
A shelter shed near the corner of Oxford and Stuart Streets appears to date from the 1920s. Other structures on the site include playground equipment adjacent to the shelter shed and 1950s Girl Guides and Boy Scouts buildings. The former Boy Scout Hut is leased by the Southside Eagles Soccer Club and has been extended. The Babs Shield Senior Citizens Club was built c1983. Other buildings include 1980s toilet facilities and a canteen.
During the 1980s the Brisbane City Council found that not all the subdivisions which comprised the park were Council owned. These were officially acquired, including the unformed James Street, and by 1990 the park contained over 4.6 hectares.
The park has been a venue for local cricket, rugby, soccer and other recreational uses since early this century. It is adjacent to the local shopping centre and it is the only remaining open park land with sporting facilities in the district.
","criteria":"Bulimba Memorial Park is significant as a First World War memorial park with extensive and varied components. The trees are significant for their commemorative function, aesthetic value and practical usage.
|The place is important as a Brisbane open space which, unusually, is available for both organised and informal recreational use.
|The grandstand is a fine example of interwar vernacular domestic architecture adapted to non-domestic use. The trees are significant for their commemorative function, aesthetic value and practical usage. The park is a community landmark which has been used for a variety of social and recreational functions for over eight decades, and its aesthetic value contributes significantly to the Bulimba townscape.
|The place is important as a Brisbane open space which, unusually, is available for both organised and informal recreational use. The park is a community landmark which has been used for a variety of social and recreational functions for over eight decades, and its aesthetic value contributes significantly to the Bulimba townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14956,"place_ref":600181,"name":"Walter Taylor Bridge","alternate_name":"Indooroopilly Toll Bridge","street_address":"Coonan Street","suburb":"INDOOROOPILLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Walter Taylor Bridge spans the Brisbane River from Indooroopilly to Chelmer, at the junction of the Chelmer and Indooroopilly reaches.
The deck is suspended from two sets of steel cables, each comprising twelve wire ropes, saddled on concrete towers at either end, and anchored in rock and concrete. Each of the mild steel saddles is positioned 35.6 m above high water mark, and the span between the towers is 183 m. The total weight of cable suspended across the river is 145.5 tonnes.
The design is of a rare type developed by American engineer D B Steinman and used first at Florianópolis, Brazil in 1926. The upper chords of the steel stiffening trusses slope upwards to join the cables at the quarter points, where they are clamped to the cables. In the centre half of the span the cables act as the upper chords, forming part of the stiffening trusses. There are no hangers in the side spans, the structure having straight back-stays.
A dual carriage road is carried on transverse timber decking supported by steel stringers and cross girders. Originally the bridge carried a 6.1 m roadway and a 1.7 m footpath, but this has been modified.
The pylons are constructed of steel-reinforced concrete. On the Indooroopilly side, the pylon rises 26.5 m above the foundations, which are formed on solid ground. The Chelmer pylon rises 38.4 m above pileheads at the water edge, which were driven at an average depth of 14.6 m into rock, and reinforced with concrete slabs and ties.
Both towers contain residential accommodation, with walls up to 1.7 m thick.
The northern approach is at ground level, but the southern approach is elevated, with three deck-type steel plate girder spans. The anchorages form part of the road approaches.
","history":"This steel and concrete suspension bridge was constructed by Indooroopilly Toll Bridge Ltd in 1932-36, as a private enterprise. It remains the longest span suspension bridge in Australia.
It was erected at a cost of approximately £85,000 by Brisbane contractor Walter Taylor. Taylor was the inspiration behind the project, the originator of the design concept, a director and secretary of Indooroopilly Toll Bridge Ltd, and the principal fund raiser.
Taylor had produced plans for a river bridge at Indooroopilly as early as 1924, but had failed to gain government support. In 1929 he presented a new proposal to the Brisbane City Council for a privately funded bridge, utilising the steel tie-back cables which had been employed in the cantilever erection of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
State Government approval was sought in July 1931. Under the subsequent Tolls on Privately Constructed Road Traffic Facilities Act of 1931, Taylor obtained a franchise in November 1931. This permitted collection of tolls for 35 years from the opening date or until paid for, plus retention of ten percent interest per year and working costs.
Design details for the steel superstructure were prepared by Queensland railway engineer Walter J Doak, and those for the reinforced concrete pylons and anchorages by Brisbane engineer Russell John McWilliam. In the 1920s McWilliam had been involved in the preparation of working drawings for Brisbane's new City Hall.
The bridge was erected in stages over four years as the finance became available, with work commencing on the Indooroopilly pylon in 1932 when the first £10,000 had been raised. Each stage was checked by the Main Roads Commission.
The residential accommodation provided in each of the towers remains unique in Australia. The apartments in the northern tower were occupied by the tollkeeper and those in the southern tower were occupied by the bridge supervisor. The southern pylon also housed a kiosk and boathouse beneath road level, catering for summer visitors to the then popular Chelmer sands.
The construction provided much needed employment for Brisbane workers at a time of economic depression. Most of the steelwork was completed in workshops erected on site, and with the exception of the ropes and cables, all the materials were procured or manufactured in Australia.
On 4 January 1936, Walter Taylor drove the first vehicle across the bridge, which was opened officially on 14 February 1936. It remained a toll bridge until handed over to the Brisbane City Council in 1965.
The bridge stimulated suburban development from Chelmer to Oxley and facilitated communication between Ipswich and Brisbane. It remains the only river traffic bridge between Chelmer and Indooroopilly.
Taylor died in 1955, and on 5 April 1956 the bridge was renamed officially as the Walter Taylor Bridge.
","criteria":"The Walter Taylor Bridge at Indooroopilly is significant for its integral role in Brisbane suburban development from Chelmer to Oxley, and as an historically important link between Ipswich and Brisbane.
|It is a rare Florianópolis-type bridge, and the only one of its kind in Australia. It also has rarity value as Australia's longest span suspension bridge, and is significant for its unusual incorporation of residential accommodation into the bridge structure.
|It is a rare Florianópolis-type bridge, and the only one of its kind in Australia.
|The Walter Taylor Bridge has landmark quality and makes a strong aesthetic contribution to the riverscape along the Indooroopilly and Chelmer reaches of the Brisbane River.
|It is significant for its innovations in design and implementation, as a major example of the design skills of engineers WJ Doak and RJ McWilliam, and as a tribute to the vision and energy of contractor Walter Taylor.
|It is significant for its innovations in design and implementation, as a major example of the design skills of engineers WJ Doak and RJ McWilliam, and as a tribute to the vision and energy of contractor Walter Taylor.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14957,"place_ref":600182,"name":"Ralahyne","alternate_name":"Koojarewon | Huntington | East View","street_address":"40 Enderley Road","suburb":"CLAYFIELD","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Ralahyne is a single-storey timber building with a hipped roof of corrugated iron. The house is built side onto the street, with the front facade facing eastward across the grounds.
The southern elevation, which faces the street, consists of a long servants' wing which joins the dining room at the eastern end. The dining room is marked by a faceted projected bay. The eastern, or front elevation, is dominated by a wide verandah which features cast-iron balustrading and frieze panels. Twin bays, discernible only by their faceted hips in the roofline, project onto the verandah.
The northern elevation has two faceted projecting bays, one on either end, joined by a verandah similar to that along the front. At the western, or rear elevation, the ends of the northern and service wings are linked by a verandah enclosed with shutters to form a large ballroom which has a domed ceiling and skylights. This forms a shallow courtyard, the remnant of a much deeper one which once existed.
Timber ceilings are found in most rooms, the dining room featuring a coffered example with moulded beams. The drawing room has a carrara marble fireplace and two fluted columns which mark the beginning of the projecting bay. Substantial cedar joinery, including mantelpieces, is found throughout.
","history":"This single storeyed timber residence was built in 1888 for Robert Gray, the then under colonial secretary. It was designed by prominent architect George HM Addison and replaced a small four-roomed house on the site.
The 8 acre (3.2 hectare) property was called 'East View' until 1892 then Koojarewon until 1900 and then Huntington. Gray became Commissioner of Railways in 1889 and died in 1902.
The property was bought by Ada Laird who lived there with her husband until 1907. In 1904 the Lairds engaged the firm of Hall & Dods to undertake alterations and additions to the house valued at over £1000. Huntington was sold to Annie Millar in 1907 and renamed Nowranie. The Millars lived there until 1918 when it was sold to Ruby Winten. In 1920 the property was bought by Henrietta Watson who renamed it Ralahyne. It remained in the Watson family until 1985 when it was sold to the present owners. The property has been subdivided several times.
","criteria":"As an expression of the confidence in the 1880s boom and the future of its owner in the public service.
|As an example of the large houses built on the hills to the northeast of the city and of the increasing use of timber and iron for these houses.
|As a showcase for the design possibilities of timber, both in external features and interior decoration.
|As a showcase for the design possibilities of timber, both in external features and interior decoration.
|For its association with architects GHM Addison and RS Dods.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14958,"place_ref":600183,"name":"Stanley Hall","alternate_name":"St Rita's Convent School","street_address":"25 Enderley Road","suburb":"CLAYFIELD","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Stanley Hall is a substantial two-storeyed rendered masonry former residence located on the rise of Clayfield Heights. The building is located at the core of St Rita's College, overlooking a tree-lined entrance drive and front gardens to the north-east, and capturing expansive views to the north and the east.
Stanley Hall's complex form reflects its different stages of construction. The ground floor (1885-86) is oriented north-east, whilst the upper floor (1890) is orientated east west, creating another primary frontage for the building. The eastern elevation is asymmetrical and steps back to a single-storeyed bay to the south, with a two-storeyed bay at the northern end adjacent to an off-centre tower which rises to three storeys. The northern elevation is a more formal arrangement of two-storeyed bays flanking a now enclosed verandah. A ground floor timber verandah encircles the building. The corrugated iron roof comprises hipped roofs over bays projecting from central hipped roofs to the ground and first floors, and skillions to the verandahs. The tower has a crested mansard roof.
The building retains some of its rich ornamentation. The first floor bays on the northern frontage have single windows framed by pilasters, and are encircled with cornices, with a parapet with pediments above the windows. The two-storeyed parapeted bay to the eastern frontage has a (now enclosed) belvedere, with arched openings with imposts, extrados, keystones, small balustrades, and parapet with stepped cornice. The tower has rectangular windows to first floor level, surmounted by arched windows encircled in elaborately detailed Dutch gables. The Dutch gables have festooning and are interspersed with acroteria on pedestals. The tower makes a large footprint on the ground floor which frames the main entrance, and has arched openings with keystones.
The verandah which surrounds the building to north, east and partially to the west has timber boarded ceilings, fine lattice spandrels, and cast iron balustrades. It is supported on paired, chamfered posts with small curvilinear valances. On the northern frontage, substantial timber posts and bases with arched cast iron valances which are probably part of the 1885-86 building are located within the verandah.
Internally, Stanley Hall comprises grander rooms relating to the projecting bays at the ends of the building, interlinked by more modest and service rooms, accessed by central corridors on each level. The building contains finely crafted elements throughout. The centrally located main entrance has fine stained glass surrounds with a hibiscus motif. The entrance hall opens onto an impressive cedar staircase with richly turned and carved balusters and newels, and fine timber panels. The corridors to the ground floor have fluted cedar panels to dado level, and panelled cedar doors. The former dining room to the south has a fireplace with a richly carved timber mantelpiece, and fine hand-painted tiled hearth. The Drawing Room to the north has an arcade which separates a central rectangular space from peripheral pocket spaces formed by the projecting bays. The arcades have cast iron column on cedar-encased bases with floriated capitals, and extrados and keystones to the arches. The drawing room fireplace has richly carved surrounds. The "Prince of Wales" room immediately behind the Drawing Room has a marble mantelpiece, and tall timber doors opening onto the verandah. Amongst the ground floor service rooms is a former strong room which contains a substantial cast iron safe. The first floor contains bedrooms, and a former bathroom with an access hatch to the tower; these rooms command an excellent view of Eagle Farm.
Stanley Hall retains much of its earlier ironmongery, including push plates and locks which are more richly ornamented in living areas of the building and more plain in service areas.
The grounds of Stanley Hall to the north-east contain mature trees including camphor laurels, jacarandas, figs, palms, and several species of pines, which mark the boundaries, line the driveway and intersperse the grounds.
","history":"This large masonry residence was erected c1885-86 as a single-storeyed building for successful Brisbane produce dealer John William Forth. The house was remodelled and two-storeyed additions were constructed for the subsequent owner, Western Queensland pastoralist Herbert Hunter, in 1890.
The site was part of a larger parcel of land, comprising portions 86-90, parish of Toombul, first alienated by Brisbane businessman James Sutherland in 1858. Sutherland's interest in this property was purely speculative. He later subdivided portions 86 & 87 into four allotments, but in 1879 transferred the bulk of these subdivisions (approximately 23 acres) to Queensland pastoralist and politician, William Alcock Tully. Tully also acquired the property as an investment, and in 1881 sold subdivisions 3 & 4 of portions 86 & 87, comprising over 12.5 acres, to another Queensland pastoralist, politician and businessman, Charles Lumley Hill. This property was transferred in January 1885 to John William Forth, who subsequently erected Stanley Hall on the site.
John Forth and his wife Selina had arrived in Brisbane in May 1857, when in their early twenties, and had been associated with the development of Brisbane for close to thirty years before acquiring the Albion (now Clayfield) property. Forth built up a successful wholesale and retail produce business in Brisbane, and was alderman for the East Ward in 1882 and 1883. In the early 1880s, the family - which included 10 children by August 1880 - was resident on Wickham Terrace. Stanley Hall appears to have been erected for the Forth family in 1885-86.
The Forths resided only a short time at Stanley Hall. Clara Forth, their 20 year old daughter, died there in 1886, and shortly after the family returned from a visit to Europe toward the end of the year, John Forth was killed while helping transplant trees in a paddock near his home, on 28 December 1886.
The property had been transferred to Selina Forth in April 1886, but after John's death the family moved back to Wickham Terrace in 1887, and let Stanley Hall to Brisbane sharebroker and commission agent John Wilson. In August 1888 the property was transferred to Herbert Hunter, who at the same time borrowed £6,000 from Selina Forth.
Hunter had emigrated from Scotland to Australia in 1863, when aged 27. He tried a variety of jobs, eventually gaining employment as a clerk on William Miles' Dulacca sheep station, on the Condamine near Roma. In 1866, Hunter married Miles' daughter, Jessie, and ran Dulacca for his father-in-law for some years. Miles transferred to Hunter the lease of Redford station in the Maranoa district in the early 1870s, and Victoria Downs in the Warrego district by the mid-1870s. Hunter had disposed of Redford by the mid-1880s, but retained the vast consolidated run of Victoria Downs. Stanley Hall was purchased in 1888 as his town house.
A successful grazier and horse racing enthusiast, Hunter appears to have acquired Stanley Hall more for its proximity to the racecourse at Eagle Farm than for the house itself, which he subsequently re-developed into the present grand residence. In 1889, he commissioned Brisbane architect GHM Addison to remodel the existing house and design extensive additions, at a cost of £3,550. The house was virtually re-built 1889-90, and an upper storey and tower were added, permitting views of the nearby racecourse, and across the Brisbane River to Moreton Bay. A gabled timber coachhouse and stables were erected near the house, and an extensive orchard was established, occupying the block now bounded by Enderley and Alexandra Roads and Florence and Craven Streets.
Hunter eventually sold Stanley Hall in 1910 to wealthy pastoralist Edward Goddard Blume, who owned a string of stations (principally sheep) throughout Queensland and New South Wales. Like Hunter, he owned several racehorses, and won a number of Melbourne and Caulfield cups. Blume was well known in Queensland social circles, and during the visit of the Prince of Wales to Brisbane in July 1920, entertained the Prince at Stanley Hall.
In the early 1920s, Blume subdivided and sold off the bulk of the property, and in 1926 the house, on 4.5 acres of land, was sold to the Order of the Sisters of the Presentation in Queensland for £22,000. At Stanley Hall, the sisters established the present St Rita's Convent School in September 1926. In subsequent years the school expanded, with the first new building erected in 1939. The attached, single-storeyed kitchen and service wing was demolished in 1968 to make way for a new classroom block, and the coachhouse and stables no longer survive. None of the post-1926 structures is included in the Entry in the Heritage Register.
","criteria":"Stanley Hall survives as a substantially intact grand residence of the late 1880s and early 1890s in Brisbane. It was associated with two prominent Queensland pastoralists for over 35 years, and as their lavish town residence, well illustrates Queensland's former economic dependence on the pastoral industry.
|Stanley Hall survives as a substantially intact grand residence of the late 1880s and early 1890s in Brisbane. It was associated with two prominent Queensland pastoralists for over 35 years, and as their lavish town residence, well illustrates Queensland's former economic dependence on the pastoral industry.
|Stanley Hall has a picturesque external form which reflects the stages of its construction and particular interests of its former owners, and contains some finely crafted internal elements. It is a fine example of the work of Brisbane architect GHM Addison.
|Since 1926, the place has been associated with the work of the Catholic Church in female secondary education in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14959,"place_ref":600184,"name":"Tarranalma","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"18 Tarranalma Avenue","suburb":"CLAYFIELD","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Tarranalma is a large two-storeyed house built in rendered brick with a corrugated iron roof. The house is surrounded by 8 feet (2.4 metres) wide verandahs on both floors, which are interrupted by four double-storey projecting bays featuring bow windows.
On the ground floor the square core contains the drawing, breakfast, dining and billiard rooms around a central hallway. The hallway leads to the substantial service wing which includes the kitchen, two large pantries, two bedrooms and a bathroom. A large staircase between the dining and billiard rooms leads to four large bedrooms which repeat the layout of the main rooms below. Above the service wing are five smaller bedrooms linked to the service rooms by a staircase at the far end of the wing.
","history":"This two-storeyed brick house was built in 1890 for James Milne of the firm Smellie & Co. Although no architect is known, the house has many similarities to Verney by Richard Gailey.
In 1910 Milne offered Tarranalma as a possible government house, but his price was too high. In 1919 he sold the property to George Logan who was a prominent pastoralist. Originally it stood in some 12 acres (4.8 hectares) of grounds but from 1926 to 1929 Logan subdivided and sold off most of the property.
After the death of his widow Susan in 1963, the house was converted into seven flats. In 1984 Tarranalma was sold to its present owners who have restored it as a family home.
","criteria":"As evidence of the confidence of the 1880s boom.
|As characteristic of the large houses built on the hills to the northeast of the city and stylistically similar to contemporary houses such as Monte Video and Verney.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14960,"place_ref":600185,"name":"Queen Alexandra Home","alternate_name":"Hatherton/ Queen Alexandra Home for Children | Alexandra House - College of Tourism and Hospitality | Alexandra House - College of Catering and Hospitality Services","street_address":"347 Old Cleveland Road","suburb":"COORPAROO","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Queen Alexandra Home, located on the crest of a rise fronting Old Cleveland Road to the northwest, is a two-storeyed rendered masonry building consisting of an 1886 section named Hatherton with a 1919 wing to the southwest called Kingsbury.
The building has a hipped corrugated iron roof to Hatherton and a gambrel roof to Kingsbury. It has verandahs to three sides and service buildings attached to the rear. The verandahs have cast iron balustrade, valance, brackets and paired columns. The northeast and southwest verandahs have been enclosed with multi-paned windows and hardboard panelling.
Hatherton is frontally symmetrical, with a slightly projecting gabled porch accessed by a short flight of steps with an arched valance above. The gable has a fretwork panel, decorative bargeboard and finial, and the main entry consists of an arched fanlight and sidelight assembly of etched glass with carved timber mouldings and panelled timber door. Step out sashes, with incised architraves, open to the verandahs on both levels. The rear of the building has a two-storeyed kitchen wing with a sub-floor room and covered walkways accessing adjacent structures.
Internally, Hatherton has a central corridor with a tiled foyer leading through an archway with plaster mouldings to a timber staircase. This has a cast iron balustrade, carved timber newel post, timber panelling and an arched leadlight sash window at the landing level. This space is decorated with a stencil dado, and has timber architraves, skirtings and panelled doors with glass fanlights. The ground floor has two rooms to the northeast, with the northern room having a white marble fireplace surround with painted tile inserts and the other having a darker marble surround with black stone in relief and painted tiles. The southwest side consists of one large room with a red and green marble fireplace surround, with painted tile inserts, at the southern end. The first floor consists of four rooms, with only the northern room containing a marble fireplace surround, but this has been damaged with the mantle piece missing. A bar has been inserted on the southwest side and a dumb waiter at the rear connecting the kitchen below. Apart from the foyer, kitchen and bar, Hatherton is carpeted throughout.
Kingsbury, containing a large function room with two central timber columns to both floors, has french doors and step out sash windows, with incised architraves, opening to verandahs. Casement windows open to the rear, the ground floor is timber and the first floor is carpeted.
Attached to the southern corner is a single-storeyed weatherboard building with a corrugated iron gable roof and concrete stumps. This has been fitted out as toilet facilities.
To the south of the kitchen wing is a two-storeyed classroom structure with a corrugated fibrous cement gable roof. The ground floor is brick and the first floor is weatherboard, and it is linked to the rear of Hatherton by a covered timber walkway.
Queen Alexandra Home has a concrete driveway to the northwest with memorial metal gates fronting Old Cleveland Road. A masonry retaining wall fence encloses an area of lawn with rose beds and a central flag pole. The L-shaped College of Tourism and Hospitality surrounds the building from the northeast to the south, with small areas of garden on the northeast and carparking to the south. A driveway is located on the southwest boundary.
","history":"Hatherton, a two-storeyed brick residence was erected in 1886 near the intersection of Old Cleveland and Cavendish Roads in Coorparoo. A wing, named Kingsbury, was added in 1919.
The design of Hatherton is attributed to the firm of John Hall and Son, and the contractor was Abraham James. Hatherton was built for Brisbane businessman Reuben Nicklin, manager of the Brisbane Office of Butler Brothers, Saddlers and Ironmongers. Prior to moving to Hatherton, Nicklin and his family lived at Langlands, also at Coorparoo, which had been built for Nicklin in the early 1880s.
By the late 1880s, Coorparoo was still principally a rural area, despite several estates having been subdivided and the suburb being connected to South Brisbane by rail. The population of Coorparoo was small, and dispersed around the Old Cleveland and Cavendish Roads intersection.
Nicklin and his wife Jane Lahey drowned in February 1890, when the RMS Quetta sank in Torres Strait, en route to England. Their daughter Alice, was one of only two European women to survive the shipwreck.
Hatherton was occupied by various people including members of the Nicklin and Lahey families as well as the Hon AJ Carter MLC, until 1911 when the building was acquired by the Methodist Church. The church had established its first children's home, named the Queen Alexandra Home for Children, the previous year at Robgill, in Indooroopilly. The home was managed and controlled by the Queen Alexandra Ladies' Committee. By 1911 the Home required additional room, and in December that year the staff and children were transferred from Indooroopilly to Hatherton. Hatherton was officially opened as the Queen Alexandra Home for Children in March 1912. The Nicklin family maintained their involvement with the place, as WL Nicklin (son of Reuben Nicklin) was one of the trustees of the property for the Methodist Church.
By 1918 the Home was filled to capacity, and in 1919 tenders were called by architect HGO Thomas for brick additions to Queen Alexandra Home. The foundation stone of the additions was laid in October that year, and the contractor was Mr Hobbs. The new wing was named Kingsbury in memory of Mrs JJ Kingsbury, first president of the Home. Subsequent additions during the 1920s increased the capacity of the Home from fifty to 100 children. During the mid-1940s, day pupils from Somerville House were taught at the Home.
In 1958 the Methodist Church changed its policy on child care from institutional homes to group family homes, and the last children were transferred from the Home in 1960. The building was purchased by the Queensland Government and used by the Education Department for domestic science education. During this period, the building was known as Alexandra House.
In 1963 an annexe was constructed at the rear of the House, and from 1967 further facilities were added to the site. In 1977 the building became the College of Catering and Hospitality Services, Coorparoo, being renamed the College of Tourism and Hospitality (COTAH), in 1984.
Queen Alexandra Home was extensively refurbished for use as a community centre in 1986-87, and most of the additions and partitions in the Kingsbury wing were removed at this time.
","criteria":"The location of Queen Alexandra Home on Old Cleveland Road demonstrates the development of Coorparoo as a residential area from the 1880s.
|Queen Alexandra Home, comprising a substantial 1880s masonry residence, has strong aesthetic qualities including the use of highly decorative cast iron.
|The building maintains a special association with the community and with the work of the Methodist Church, through its use as a children's home, college of further education and community centre.
|The building maintains a special association with the community and with the work of the Methodist Church, through its use as a children's home, college of further education and community centre. The building is also associated with the Nicklin family, being erected for Reuben Nicklin.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14961,"place_ref":600186,"name":"Eagle Farm Women's Prison and Factory Site","alternate_name":"Eagle Farm Womens Prison | Eagle Farm Agricultural Establishment","street_address":"116 Lamington Avenue","suburb":"EAGLE FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"The old Eagle Farm airport, of which the site of the former Eagle Farm convict settlement form part, is bounded on the south by Lamington Avenue and the Pinkenba Railway, to the east by Viola Place, to the west by the Gateway Arterial Road, to the north-west by a drainage channel and to the north-east by Lomandra Drive and Cassia Place. The land in the centre of the area is now flat and featureless, apart from remnant structures from WWII and the remains of runways from the post-war development of the airport.
Virtually none of the old airport area exists as it did prior to European settlement. Only the foundations of the Eagle Farm Settlement survive. During the construction of the Brisbane Airport in WWII, the site was covered with a variable depth of fill.
","history":"In September 1829 Commandant Patrick Logan of the Moreton Bay penal settlement founded a secondary agricultural establishment approximately eight miles from the town, at Eagle Farm. One hundred and fifty men were deployed to clear the site, and by January 1832 about 680 acres (272.5 hectares) were under cultivation with mostly maize and some potatoes, some cattle and pigs were also being raised.
Working so near the Eagle Farm swamp caused a noticeable increase in malaria amongst the convicts, but despite calls for its abandonment, the farm was maintained. By 1836, 768 acres (307.2 hectares) had been cleared, but no more than 46 acres (16.4 hectares) were under cultivation.
Female convicts are recorded at Eagle Farm from 1830, and by 1836 there were forty. Stationing female felons at Eagle Farm was an attempt to reduce fraternisation between the women and male convicts and the military, the latter being forbidden to cross the bridge at Breakfast Creek. Despite these precautions, assignations were frequent. By the end of June 1836 the construction of strong slab cells at Eagle Farm was considered necessary. In 1837 all female prisoners in Brisbane Town were removed to Eagle Farm. By November 1838 the decision had been taken to abandon the Moreton Bay penal settlement.
By March 1839 the Eagle Farm Women's Prison and Factory consisted of a Supervisor's cottage with walls plastered internally and externally, with detached slab kitchen at rear. A two-roomed hut occupied by male convicts and two-roomed hut serving as matron's quarters, with another room under construction and a slab kitchen at rear. All were slab buildings including the Female Factory which comprised a number of four-roomed accommodation buildings; a store, a school, a hospital (plastered) and workhouse, each of one room; a two-roomed building housing the cook house and needle room; and a block of six cells. The area was surrounded by a double fence, the outer being a stockade of strut poles with sharp tops, 17 feet (5.2 metres) high, 320 feet (97 metres) long and 311 feet (94 metres) deep.
By July 1839, however, all the female convicts had been removed and Eagle Farm was virtually abandoned, although it was still functioning as a government cattle station in 1841.
In 1842 the land was surveyed, put up for public auction and subsequently farmed. The buildings were demolished at an unknown date.
The area was associated with civil aviation from 1922, and was covered with a fill of variable depth during construction of a major air base at Eagle Farm in 1942. Brisbane Airport operated here from 1948 until 1988.
The site remains one of only six surviving in Brisbane from the convict period, with the former Moreton Bay penal settlement being one of only seven sites in Australia associated with secondary punishment.
","criteria":"The Eagle Farm Women's Prison and Factory Site is significant as one of few sites surviving in Brisbane from the convict period and a remnant of only seven sites associated with secondary punishment in Australia. Further, the Women's Prison and Factory Site is one of even fewer sites, both in Brisbane and in the national context, associated specifically with female felons.
|The Eagle Farm Women's Prison and Factory Site is significant as one of the earliest sites of building activity in Queensland, initial construction having occurred within 5 years of the establishment of the settlement of Brisbane Town.
|The Eagle Farm Women's Prison and Factory Site has potential to reveal substrata evidence of a number of factors including the administration of the convict system in the final years of transportation, the confinement and punishment of female convicts, building materials and construction technology and artefacts associated with the activities, occupations and social status of groups and individuals.
|The establishment of the Eagle Farm Women's Prison and Factory Site is associated with early historical figures such as New South Wales Governor, Darling and Commandant Logan.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14962,"place_ref":600187,"name":"Eskgrove","alternate_name":"Grey Eagles | Eskgrove Cottage","street_address":"56 Laidlaw Parade","suburb":"EAST BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This is an 1850s low-set, single-storeyed sandstone house which originally consisted of a square stone core with a projecting front room and a rear service wing.
The house has a steep sloping broken-back corrugated iron roof topped by a pyramidal chimney ventilator. External walls are painted pebble dash render over the original sandstone, with plain margins along the base line, wall edges and around the doors.
There is a verandah on three sides of the core and a pavilion on the rear eastern side. The front and western verandahs are supported by precast aluminium doric columns. Pairs of french doors on either side of the projecting vestibule have wooden shutters.
Brick walls divide the interior into four rooms. The two front rooms share a back-to-back fireplace. French doors provide assess between rooms and onto the verandah.
The rear wing also has a broken-back roof and is built of stone with a timber pediment back and front. In 1985 this wing comprised three bedrooms.
Various rear extensions in asbestos sheeting and weatherboards include bathrooms, extended verandah and laundry.
Many mature trees provide ample shade for this pre-separation colonial dwelling which remains substantially intact in form.
","history":"This single-storeyed stone residence was erected in 1853 for former Sydney bank manager Archibald Hepburn Hutchinson, on land he had acquired from surveyor James Charles Burnett earlier the same year.
Burnett had alienated Eastern Suburban Allotments 51-53, a property of just over 12.5 acres [about 5 hectares] fronting the Brisbane River near Norman Creek, between November 1851 and December 1852. Whether Burnett resided on this land is not clear.
Hutchinson acquired title to all three allotments in February 1853, for the sum of £88/10/1. It is likely that a report in The Moreton Bay Courier of 18 June 1853, mentioning the construction for Mr Hutchinson of a stone building for a dwelling house, on the bank of the river below Kangaroo Point, refers to the construction of Eskgrove.
By the mid-1850s there were only three river estates along the south bank of the Brisbane River from Shafston Reach to Norman Creek: Shafston House [commenced in 1851 as Ravenscott for Rev. Robert Creyke and completed in 1852 as Shafston House for Henry Stuart Russell - (QHR 600241)]; the Rev. Thomas Mowbray's Riversdale [probably constructed c1851 - now the site of Mowbray Park - (QHR 600189)] and Eskgrove (QHR 600187). All three houses were of stone construction.
Hutchinson died at Eskgrove in 1854, following which his wife and children appear to have returned to Sydney. Their Brisbane house was retained as a rental property. Eskgrove was a middle-class residence with fine river views, and was occupied by a number of persons prominent in the development of early Queensland, including squatters William Kent Jr [1857-58] and Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior [1858-59], Governor Bowen's private secretary Abram Moriarty [1859-60], Lieutenant George Poynter Heath, RN, Portmaster of Queensland [c1861-c1865] and Robert Kerr Acheson by 1868.
The Brisbane Courier of 26 September 1868 described the property as pleasantly situated on the bank of the river, containing six rooms, with kitchen and two servants' rooms, stables and outhouses attached, standing in a well grassed thirteen acre paddock and has a kitchen garden.
By 1876 William David Nisbet, Chief Engineer Harbours and Rivers, had taken up residence. However, it appears that the place still retained a close association with the Hutchinson family, for when Catherine Isabella Hutchinson [Archibald's daughter] married squatter Andrew Bowman in March 1877, her normal place of residence was given as Eskgrove, Brisbane.
In 1880 Nisbet purchased the house and the whole of the Eskgrove estate from the Hutchinson family for £2,000. Title was transferred to Brisbane businessmen NJ Howes and AS Leslie in 1885, at which time the estate was subdivided and Thomas Scanlan, a Woolloongabba publican and later Mayor of South Brisbane, purchased the house and about 4 acres [1.2 hectares] of land. An 1885 plan of the Eskgrove Estate, shows that the house comprised a square core with one large rear wing, with a shed and stables located between the house and Lytton Road.
Following Scanlan's death in December 1892, Eskgrove again became a rental property. As part of the realisation of Scanlan's estate, Eskgrove was offered for sale early in 1895, at which time the property comprised a stone house with a timber wing and timber outbuildings on 2 roods 33.3 perches [this included a river frontage, as Laidlaw Parade did not yet extend between Scanlan and Eskgrove streets], plus another 3 acres 1 rood 7.1 perches with a long frontage to the Brisbane River and to Lytton Road. By 1902 Laidlaw Parade had been extended between Scanlan and Eskgrove streets, and Eskgrove house and land [still the 1885 subdivisions] was offered at auction as the Scanlan Estate. At this time the earlier rear timber wing appears to have been replaced and the shed and stables had been removed, but a cottage, not shown on the 1885 estate map and associated with the house, was located on the river side of Laidlaw Parade, to the west of the main residence.
Eskgrove remained a rental property, despite transfers of title in 1905 and 1910, until the Joseph Walter Tritton family, who owned the property from 1910 to 1966, made it their family home about 1920. In later years the house apparently was used as flats and then a nursing home called Grey Eagles. During these years the building was variously extended and modified. Since 1975 the house has been occupied as a private residence, and renamed Eskgrove.
","criteria":"Eskgrove, constructed in 1853, is significant historically as a rare surviving Brisbane pre-separation residence, closely associated with the earliest riverine development of the eastern suburbs. Associated with a number of persons significant in the early development of Queensland, the place contributes to our understanding of residential and social hierarchies in early Brisbane, and of the role of the Brisbane River within this structure.
|Eskgrove, constructed in 1853, is significant historically as a rare surviving Brisbane pre-separation residence, closely associated with the earliest riverine development of the eastern suburbs.
|Eskgrove is significant as important evidence of 1850s stone construction techniques in Queensland, and of the early adaptation of Georgian design to Brisbane lifestyle and climate.
|The place is valued by the community for its early association with the development of East Brisbane, and as one of the earliest surviving residences in Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14963,"place_ref":600188,"name":"La Trobe","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"58 LaTrobe Street","suburb":"EAST BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The main facade of this two-storeyed brick dwelling has a timber verandah with cast-iron balustrading, timber valance on the lower level and cast-iron fringe to the upper level. The brickwork has rendered quoins, jambs and lintels. Five pairs of french doors and the front door all have fanlights.
The internal walls are lined with tongue and groove boards. Both floors have a central passageway with one long room on the left, which includes a fireplace with cast-iron grate and timber surround. On the right are two rooms and the staircase.
The ground floor rear verandah has a convex iron roof and is enclosed. On the left hand side it provides access to the modern replacement kitchen, family room, laundry and storeroom.
Mature street trees complement this refurbished dwelling.
","history":"This two-storeyed house was built c1886 for William Henry Genn, a plumber, iron worker and wood carver.
Latrobe Street was created along with the mid-1880s subdivision of the Mowbraytown Estate, from which East Brisbane derives much of its historical identity. The Estate was part of a substantial parcel of East Brisbane land, including what is now Mowbray Park, alienated in the 1850s by the 'father' of Presbyterianism in Queensland, Rev. Thomas Mowbray. Mowbray died in 1867, and in 1884 his widow sold part of the estate to Josiah Young of Brisbane. Young immediately subdivided this land as the Mowbraytown Estate, prior to the introduction of the Undue Subdivision of Land Act 1885, which limited residential blocks to no less than 16 perches. The Mowbraytown blocks were long, narrow allotments of between 13 and 14 perches, and attracted mostly working class and lower middle class purchasers. By 1887 there were 13 houses in Latrobe Street, including Genn's house, most of which were occupied by artisans.
Unusually for Brisbane, where milled timber was the cheapest available building product, Genn's house was constructed of bricks from William Williams' brickyard at Lutwyche. Williams' bricks are identified from the frog, or imprint, of an open hand with a heart.
La Trobe most likely derived its name from its location in Latrobe Street, and was known as such by 1922. It appears to have been used mostly as a rental property, and has changed ownership many times. In the late 1940s it was converted into three flats. Subsequent alterations and conversions included the enclosing of verandahs.
New owners began refurbishment in the early 1980s. This included the opening of the verandahs with cast-iron balustrading, and a new kitchen on the site of the original.
","criteria":"It illustrates the rapid development of East Brisbane during the boom of the 1880s, especially following the subdivision of the Mowbraytown Estate c1884, and makes an important contribution to the historical character of East Brisbane and to the Latrobe Street streetscape.
|La Trobe, erected c1886, is a fine example of a small, two-storeyed, 1880s brick dwelling, which is uncommon in Brisbane.
|La Trobe, erected c1886, is a fine example of a small, two-storeyed, 1880s brick dwelling, which is uncommon in Brisbane.
|It illustrates the rapid development of East Brisbane during the boom of the 1880s, especially following the subdivision of the Mowbraytown Estate c1884, and makes an important contribution to the historical character of East Brisbane and to the Latrobe Street streetscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14964,"place_ref":600189,"name":"Mowbray Park and East Brisbane War Memorial","alternate_name":"Riversdale","street_address":"38, 60 and 78 Lytton Road","suburb":"EAST BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Mowbray Park comprises 3.2 hectares of treed paths and lawns on a site which slopes gently down to the edge of the Brisbane River from Lytton Road. Remains of former swimming baths are situated in the north-western corner of the park. A boat house (not of heritage significance) is located in the north-eastern corner. The park also contains a finely crafted First World War Memorial. The park accommodates a bowls and a croquet club to the southwest; these structures are not of heritage significance.
The site contains a range of mature plantings and is traversed by a number of paths which meet in the centre of the park. These include: a central Palm-lined path which leads from Lytton Rd to the river; another Palm-lined path which crosses the south-eastern sector of the park; a diagonal path across the north-west sector which passes a remnant stand of eucalypts including Moreton Bay Ash, Grey Iron Bark and Forest Red Gum; a riverside path lined with a range of ornamental trees including Bauhinias and Jacarandas and a row of Palms; and a higher, parallel path which is lined with Fig trees. In addition, the park contains other clusters of mature trees, some of which appear to have lined paths which no longer exist. These include: clusters of large Figs in the south-east and south western corners of the park; a grove of Eucalypts and Pines in the south-eastern sector, and a grove of large Fig trees in the north-eastern sector.
The former swimming baths comprise two porphyry retaining walls which are cut into the river's edge and form a shallow C shape. The lower retaining wall along the water's edge is approximately 100m long, and has two sets of porphyry steps which lead directly into the water. The upper wall retains the escarpment, and is approximately 70m long. Timber pylons where boats are now moored define the boundary of the baths.
The War Memorial is located to the east on the central path at the Lytton Rd end of the park. It comprises a statue on a tall pedestal flanked by 2 cannons. The statue is a life-size Helidon sandstone rendition of an Australian Light Horseman, with a rifle pointing upwards. The pedestal is painted sandstone, and has 4 large marble plaques attached with 520 names inscribed in lead. The Melbourne granite base has 4 steps, and has 4 scroll-shaped marble plaques inscribed with an additional 196 names, and 3 smaller plaques which commemorate the laying of the foundation stone and the unveiling. The pedestal is set centrally in a concrete base and kerbing. The cannons are also set into the base; they comprise 9 lb (4.08 kg) rifled muzzle loader steel cannons, which bear the Royal monogram of Queen Victoria. Both cannons have inscribed marble plaques. A tall flagpole is located immediately to the south-east of the memorial.
","history":"In 1903-04, the South Brisbane City Council acquired the riverfront property known as Mowbray's Paddock, alienated by Rev. Thomas Mowbray in the 1850s, for public park purposes. The new reserve was named officially as Mowbray Park in September 1904.
Rev. Thomas Mowbray had arrived in Moreton Bay in 1847, and although he was never inducted into a charge during his twenty years at Moreton Bay, he was instrumental in establishing the Presbyterian Church in Brisbane in the 1850s. In December 1850, he purchased approximately 12 acres of land along the southern bank of the Brisbane River at what was then referred to as Kangaroo Point, downstream from Rev. Robert Creyke's purchase, Ravenscott (later Shafston House), overlooking New Farm. Title was transferred to him in November 1851. In the 1850s, Mowbray built his family home, Riversdale, on this site. Thomas Mowbray died in 1867, but the family retained the property until its sale to the South Brisbane City Council in 1904.
In a report presented to the full Council on 14 December 1903, the advantages of the site for a public park were enumerated:
Mowbray's property is in every way suitable for a public Park or garden having suitable soil, and undulating land reaching to the water's edge, and in addition it will also provide the necessary accommodation for bowling greens, Tennis Courts, and Croquet lawns. The property has a North Easterly aspect, and has an extended view of two reaches of the river, is above flood level, and is situated on the East Brisbane Tramway route. There is no public park or reserve in this locality, and no other piece of land in the neighbourhood so suitable for this purpose.
Lengthy negotiations between the Council and James Anderson Mowbray, Thomas's son, were undertaken in 1903, with the result that Mowbray offered portions 48-50, parish of South Brisbane, to the Council for £6,000, and assisted in its purchase with a mortgage. The property, which consisted of the present park as well as the adjacent lands between the park and what is now Park Avenue [this included the present bowling club, croquet club, former scout lease and former tennis courts site], was transferred to the South Brisbane City Council in January 1905.
The land was acquired by the City Council at the same time as a site at Highgate Hill, and the initiative for these purchases has been attributed to the Mayor of South Brisbane in 1903, Alderman GH Blocksidge, who promoted the expansion of public gardens and parks in the rapidly developing municipality.
In 1904, entrance gates to Mowbray's Paddock were erected, and the old house on the site (Riversdale) was sold for removal for £9. In the same year, the East Brisbane Bowling Club was formed, and the South Brisbane City Council agreed to lease to the club the southwest corner of the reserve, fronting Lytton Road. In 1906, the Council agreed to lease parts of the western end of Mowbray Park to the East Brisbane Croquet Club and to the East Brisbane Tennis Club.
Constant erosion along the riverbank at Mowbray Park prompted the Council to consider construction of a stone retaining wall. At the Council's request, the Engineer for Harbours and Rivers prepared a plan for a random stone wall early in 1904, but this was not implemented immediately. In 1906, the Council proposed that a swimming bath should be included in the construction, and in 1907 a landing stage as well. The State Government agreed to assist in the financing, but construction was delayed while the Council enquired as to the most favourable terms under which this work could be carried out. Finally in August 1907, the Council instructed the State Government to proceed with the retaining wall (not including baths or jetty), and construction had commenced by mid-February 1908.
Late in 1909, the South Brisbane City Council called tenders for the construction of a kiosk and attached cottage in Mowbray Park. On 31 January 1910, the Council accepted the tender of contractor J Finn, with a price of £300, and the kiosk was ready for occupation by 10 May 1910.
In August 1910, a public meeting was held at Woolloongabba to urge the construction of a bandstand in Mowbray Park, and a guarantee of £100 toward cost of construction was promised by those who attended. The South Brisbane City Council agreed to subsidise a bandstand to cost approximately £150, provided the Citizens Committee prepared plans and estimates. These were submitted in September 1910, and the Council called tenders in October. The contract was let to W Reed, with a price of £165, and the new bandstand was opened officially on 8 February 1911.
The need for a landing stage or jetty at Mowbray park was reconsidered in late 1910, and expressions of interest were called from ferry/tug boat companies. The jetty appears to have been constructed by the Council early in 1911.
In the second half of 1914, the South Brisbane City Council set aside part of Mowbray Park as a children's playground, but whether this facility was ever developed is not clear from Council records. The playground is not indicated on the 1922 South Brisbane City Council Sewerage Detail Plan of the area, nor on a 1949 contour survey of the park.
In 1916-17, the earliest First World War Memorial in Brisbane, an honour roll and statue honouring all soldiers, sailors and nurses who had enlisted for active service from the 8C [East Brisbane and Kangaroo Point] Training Area, was erected at Mowbray Park by local residents. A public subscription was raised by the East Brisbane Cadet Committee, and the tender of £187/10/- from W Batstone & Sons, monumental masons of Annerley Road, was accepted in March 1916. The 'digger' statue, a rare Queensland representation of an Australian Light Horseman, was carved by Alfred Batstone. The foundation stone was laid in November 1916, on the brow of the hill near Lytton Road, with views of both the Shafston and Humbug reaches of the Brisbane River, and the memorial was unveiled by Lady Goold-Adams on 11 August 1917. It was flanked by two cannon, reputedly part of Thursday Island's 19th century defences, and was surrounded by a garden in the shape of a cross. Additional honour rolls were added during and after the war. A metal railing fence around the memorial had been constructed by 1925, but this was replaced with stone kerbing in 1929, with stone recycled from the old Normal School in Adelaide Street, which was being demolished to make way for Brisbane's Anzac Square.
The question of providing swimming baths at Mowbray Park was raised with the South Brisbane City Council several times during the 1910s, both by public committees and individual aldermen, but little was achieved until the end of the decade. Throughout 1918, Alderman RE Burton agitated for the establishment of a bathing enclosure at Mowbray Park; the matter was referred to the Council's finance committee, and the motion to erect a swimming enclosure on the Brisbane River at Mowbray Park was finally adopted on 20 January 1919. Plans were prepared by the City Engineer by March, and the enclosure was completed in late 1919 and was officially opened on 24 January 1920. A Mowbray Park Swimming Club was established even before the baths were opened, and the baths proved popular for summer carnivals and general recreation.
When the kiosk lease came up for renewal in 1920, the Council decided to seek a married couple as lessees, with the wife to take the lease of the refreshment kiosk and residence, and the husband to be appointed as caretaker to the swimming baths and park. The first lease under this arrangement was taken up in October 1920. Once the caretaker was appointed, the Council arranged for the proper management of the baths: separate bathing hours for males and females were prescribed, the land side of the baths was enclosed with wire fencing, and admission prices were established. Changing rooms had been constructed by mid-1922.
With the establishment of Greater Brisbane in August 1925, control and ownership of Mowbray Park was transferred to the new Greater Brisbane City Council.
The park was a popular venue for sailing regattas in the 1920s and 1930s. In April 1936 the Church of England Grammar School applied to the Brisbane City Council for permission to erect a boat house on the river bank at Mowbray Park, near Laidlaw Parade, for use by the school's rowing club. With the application was submitted a plan for a hardwood structure with tiled roof, in dimension 70 feet long by 28 feet wide and 12 feet high. The application was approved, and the school was granted a lease over the boat house site. The building, which was owned by the school, was extended at a later date, and was known as the Elder Hunter Boat House. In 2005 the building was replaced by the Graham Fowles Boat House.
Mowbray Park is understood to have been the site of a 'tent city' for homeless families in the early 1930s, during the Depression.
In mid-1945, the Brisbane City Council was preparing a final design and layout for Mowbray Park. A 1949 contour plan of the park indicates that much of its mid-20th century layout has been retained.
In 1974 the First World War Memorial was moved to its present position to allow for extensions to the East Brisbane Bowling Club. About 1976, the 1910 kiosk/caretaker's cottage was demolished. The bandstand may have been demolished at this time also. The tennis courts and scouts' dens have been removed. The swimming enclosure was removed at an earlier period but the stone retaining walls and steps associated with the baths remain. The whole of the park reserve is significant but the bowls and croquet club buildings are not considered to be of heritage significance.
","criteria":"Mowbray Park is significant for its close association with the development of East Brisbane, both in its early connection with the Mowbray family and their substantial land holdings in the suburb, and as an initiative of the former South Brisbane City Council in preserving urban public open space during a population and housing boom.
In a broader context, the stone retaining wall and steps are an important illustration of the evolution of recreational activity along the Brisbane River.
Mowbray Park, like Newstead Park, survives as important evidence of the riverine estates which lined much of the Brisbane River in the mid-19th century.
The memorial has cultural heritage significance as evidence of a widespread social movement expressing Australian patriotism and nationalism of the period, and belongs to a class of commemorative structures erected as a record of the local impact of a major historical event and intended to endure.
|Mowbray Park, like Newstead Park, survives as important evidence of the riverine estates which lined much of the Brisbane River in the mid-19th century. Adjacent properties such as Shafston and Eskgrove, and Bulimba further downstream, did not survive the 19th century. Mowbray Park is one of comparatively few inner Brisbane parks which provides substantial open space with river views.
The East Brisbane War Memorial in Mowbray Park is significant for its aesthetic quality and craftsmanship, the rarity of the Australian Light Horseman statue in a Queensland war memorial, and as evidence of the work of established monumental masons W Batstone & Sons.
The East Brisbane War Memorial is important also as a unique source of historical information.
|Mowbray Park, like Newstead Park, survives as important evidence of the riverine estates which lined much of the Brisbane River in the mid-19th century. Adjacent properties such as Shafston and Eskgrove, and Bulimba further downstream, did not survive the 19th century. Mowbray Park is one of comparatively few inner Brisbane parks which provides substantial open space with river views.
|Mowbray Park is one of comparatively few inner Brisbane parks which provides substantial open space with river views.
Mowbray Park is a richly planted picturesque enclave which contributes to the local townscape, and contains a finely crafted War Memorial. The park contains early plantings and remnant structures which evidence its evolution and earlier use patterns.
The East Brisbane War Memorial in Mowbray Park is significant for its aesthetic quality and craftsmanship, the rarity of the Australian Light Horseman statue in a Queensland war memorial, and as evidence of the work of established monumental masons W Batstone & Sons.
|It has been the focus of local community recreational and memorial activity for over 90 years.
The boat house, and the retaining wall and steps associated with the former baths, are evidence of the park's riverside community recreation role.
|Mowbray Park is significant for its close association with the development of East Brisbane, both in its early connection with the Mowbray family and their substantial land holdings in the suburb, and as an initiative of the former South Brisbane City Council in preserving urban public open space during a population and housing boom.
The East Brisbane War Memorial in Mowbray Park is significant for its aesthetic quality and craftsmanship, the rarity of the Australian Light Horseman statue in a Queensland war memorial, and as evidence of the work of established monumental masons W Batstone & Sons.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14965,"place_ref":600190,"name":"Hester Villa","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"58 Stafford Street","suburb":"EAST BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Hester Villa is a timber and corrugated iron dwelling built about 1901. It occupies three blocks in an area of medium density housing.
The dwelling is supported by timber stumps but the sub-floor is enclosed at the back. It has a stepped verandah on three sides, a short ridge tin roof supported by twin eaves brackets and a ventilator gablet. The front facade features one bay window, ornate cast-iron balustrading, timber columns with capitals and brackets, and twin posts which support a fretwork pediment.
The four panel front door is enhanced by ruby flashed glass sidelights and provides ingress to the central corridor. Walls are lined with tongue and groove boards while step-out sash windows allow access to the verandah.
The house and garden have been sensitively rehabilitated.
","history":"Hester Villa is a single-storey dwelling that was built about 1901 for Captain Robert Pearn. A penny nailed above the front doorway records the date. The house replaced the original family home which had burnt down.
Pearn was a master mariner who at one stage was involved with the recruiting of Pacific Islanders. After his death in 1910, his wife Louisa inherited the house. It remained the Pearn family home until 1968.
In the late 1970s the house was in a very dilapidated condition. It was acquired by conservation architect Ray Oliver and his wife, and has been sympathetically refurbished.
","criteria":"Hester Villa is a valuable reflection of middling status family housing in suburban Brisbane.
|Hester Villa is a fine example of a timber and iron house of the Federation period.
|Hester Villa is a fine example of a timber and iron house of the Federation period.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14966,"place_ref":600191,"name":"Hughesville","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"2497 Logan Road","suburb":"EIGHT MILE PLAINS","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Hughesville stands on a grassy slope at the intersection of Logan and Padstow Roads, both of which are major arterial roads.
\nIt is a substantial timber-framed house, clad with broad chamferboards and lined with double beaded tongue and groove boards. It sits on short wooden stumps.
\nThe core is encircled by wide beech verandahs, with step-out sash windows opening from every room, and roofs of corrugated iron. The front and side verandahs have slender cast-iron corinthian columns, tripled at the corners, and delicate cast iron balustrading. This decoration contrasts with the square timber posts and timber balustrading (now removed) of the rear verandah.
\nThe pyramid-shaped corrugated iron roof of the core is separated from the verandah roofs by a small cornice with paired console brackets. At the apex is a widow's walk, with cast iron cresting and corner finials.
\nIn comparison with the exterior, the interior is functionally austere. The core comprises a wide central hallway, with front parlour and dining room to the right and three bedrooms to the left. From the parlour a faceted bay window projects onto the front verandah. At either end of the hallway are mirror-imaged front and back doorways, each with a cedar fanlight and sidelights.
\nJoinery throughout is of red cedar, as are the interior floorboards, with japanned edges in the main rooms. There is a cedar mantelpiece in the dining room and a grey marble mantelpiece with gilt mirror in the parlour, surrounding back-to-back fireplaces. The internal walls bear early paintwork, including a plain dado strip along the hallway.
\nA servant's entrance leads from the dining room to a gable-roofed timber kitchen house, with servant's room, attached to the rear verandah. It is unlined, and retains the original brick fireplace.
\nAll that remains visible of an early garden layout are two camphor laurel trees, one on either side of the front path, and a large mango tree. Several outbuildings, including two stables, a buggy shed and harness room, are no longer extant, and less than one hectare of the original property remains.
","history":"Hughesville, a substantial, single-storeyed timber residence, was erected in 1892-93 for Richard Alfred Hughes, a local horse-dealer, to a design by architect George Thornhill Campbell-Wilson. Reputedly, the house was a wedding gift from Alfred (Fred) Hughes to his son Richard, who married Elizabeth Magee in 1891.
Fred Hughes was a horse-dealer and livery stables keeper, resident in Brisbane from at least 1871, when he purchased land in Charlotte Street. He had established a livery stables on this site by 1874. In the mid-1880s, Hughes and his family moved to Upper Mt Gravatt, where they owned a property at the corner of Kessels and Logan Roads. He sold the Charlotte Street property in 1889, but maintained a livery stables in Adelaide Street during the first half of the 1890s. At his Upper Mt Gravatt stables, Fred Hughes bred blood stock, including arabs.
In January 1892, his son Richard, aged 19 years, acquired title to over 8 hectares of land at Eight Mile Plains, just south of Upper Mt Gravatt along the Logan Road. On this property Hughesville was erected, at the junction of Logan and Padstow Roads. The architect was George Thornhill Campbell-Wilson, who practised in Brisbane from 1889 to c1934.
George Campbell-Wilson was born in Brisbane, the eldest son of architect George William Campbell Wilson and Ada Weedon. He trained under his father and practised as an architect in Queen Street, Brisbane, from 1889 until his retirement in c1934.
Hughesville was arguably the finest house in the district, a farming community approximately eight miles south of the One-mile [Woolloongabba]. The Eight Mile Plains had been combed by timbergetters prior to its opening as an agricultural reserve in the early 1860s. Over 7,800 acres in the nearby Coopers Plains area had been proclaimed the Brisbane Agricultural Reserve in June 1861. In October 1864, this was extended by a further 5,500 acres, and the whole - encompassing what are now the suburbs of Sunnybank, Sunnybank Hills, Runcorn, Kuraby, Eight Mile Plains, and parts of Coopers Plains, Algester and Stretton - were proclaimed the Eight Mile Plains Agricultural Reserve. Fruit and some vegetable growing were the principal activities. By 1869, the area was sufficiently populated to necessitate the opening of a school at Eight Mile Plains, but the real impetus for the expansion of small farming in the district came with the opening of the extension railway from Yeerongpilly to Loganlea, in April 1885. By the time Hughesville was erected in the 1890s, Eight Mile Plains had emerged as a solid farming community.
Richard Hughes followed his father's occupation, and ran horses on the Logan Road property until 1912-13. The house remained in the Hughes family until 1994.
","criteria":"Hughesville is a substantial 1890s residence which survives as illustration of a past way of life, and of a particular residential type - the quintessential Queensland house of the late colonial period.
|Hughesville is a substantial 1890s residence which survives as illustration of a past way of life, and of a particular residential type - the quintessential Queensland house of the late colonial period. It is significant for its intactness, cohesive character, aesthetic appeal and landmark position.
|It is significant for its intactness, cohesive character, aesthetic appeal and landmark position.
|The house has a strong community association, being for many years a principal landmark along the old Pacific Highway [Logan Road] to the Gold Coast, demarking the outskirts of Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14969,"place_ref":600194,"name":"Killarney","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"9 Laurel Street","suburb":"ENOGGERA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Killarney was originally a four-roomed single-storeyed house surrounded by a verandah, with a detached kitchen at the rear. It was built of hand-made bricks, with a short ridge roof of corrugated iron. The front windows are six-paned double-hung sashes. French doors open to the side verandahs which have broad timber posts. The internal brick walls are lined with lime plaster, while the ceilings are cedar boards.
The interior has been modified by the sheeting of the walls and ceilings. A modern kitchen has been incorporated in the house and a bathroom added on the back verandah. The original kitchen was demolished in 1975 and replaced with a four-roomed wing joined to the house by an enclosed verandah. The bricks from the kitchen were reused in the new structure.
An early underground water tank is located in the back yard.
","history":"Killarney is thought to have been erected in the 1860s for Timothy Corbett - a Brisbane property owner and Kedron Brook farmer. It is one of the earliest surviving residences in the Kedron Brook district and, for Queensland, of rare early brick construction.
Timothy Corbett was an Irish Catholic immigrant and patriot, and a very early Moreton Bay settler, having arrived here in the early 1840s, possibly even before the penal settlement was declared open to free settlement in February 1842. He was involved in various Brisbane business enterprises, and from 1850 was included on the Brisbane jury lists.
In October 1851 Corbett purchased approximately 30 acres [12 hectares - portion 4, parish of Enoggera] of Crown land along Kedron Brook for the sum of £30, and in March 1852 purchased the adjoining 35 acres [14 hectares - portion 5, parish of Enoggera] for £35. The land had been surveyed in June 1849 and offered at public auction in November 1849, but did not sell at the time. These blocks were covered with Oak Brush and Tea Tree flat, and passing through them was a Proven road from Brisbane - the original line of the South Pine Road [Survey Plan M.1118.20].
From the 1860s, the Kedron Brook district was well-known for its mixed farming, vineyards and orchards, and as the gateway to the farming and timber centres of Samford and South Pine. Reputedly, the first Governor of Queensland, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, and Lady Bowen were frequent visitors to the Surrenden vineyard on Kedron Brook in the early 1860s.
It is not clear when Corbett started to farm his Kedron Brook land, nor when he moved there. In government land sales registers he is recorded in August 1853 and again in December 1857 [when he bought a farm block on the river at St Lucia] as being resident in Brisbane. He married Alice Finn in Brisbane in 1856 and their first three children were all Brisbane births. In 1864-65, Corbett was in partnership with George Edmonstone in the construction of Queen Street buildings designed by architect WH Ellerker. Whether Ellerker, who left Queensland in late 1866, was associated also with the design of Killarney, has yet to be established.
It is likely that the Corbetts moved to Kedron Brook in the 1860s, and probably were resident there by mid-1871, when T Corbett, Church of Rome, was elected by the local community as a school patron. Corbett and his neighbour James Mooney each gave part of their land fronting South Pine Road, [on portions 5 and 6 respectively], for the establishment of the Enoggera Primary School, which opened in September 1871. The Corbetts were among the earliest settlers along Kedron Brook and were well-known in the district, their property being the venue for many community gatherings. Other early settlers included the Lade, Mott, Robinson, Dunlop, and McDowall families.
The district remained an isolated farming community until the extension of the railway from the Newmarket saleyards to Enoggera, which opened for traffic on 4 February 1889. After this the Kedron Brook district slowly acquired a suburban character, and by the 1920s was divided into a number of smaller, closely settled suburbs: Alderley, Enoggera, Gaythorne, and Groveley. By the 1930s, the district also had an industrial focus, with saw mills, potteries, and brick-making works.
Following Timothy Corbett's death at his Enoggera residence in 1887, Killarney passed to his eldest son Edward Joseph Corbett, a solicitor who had developed a successful law practice in Brisbane. Timothy's widow, Alice, was bequeathed the use of the house for as long as she wished to continue residence there. In 1889 EJ Corbett married Cecelia Mary Beirne, and the couple continued to reside at Killarney, with Alice Corbett, until Edward's death following a tragic accident in 1893, at the early age of 32. Killarney then passed to his widow Cecelia and to his brother William Francis Corbett, of Hamilton, as administrators. Although the Corbett family retained the property until the 1910s, Killarney appears to have become a rental property by 1895.
In 1912, title to the Corbett farm, including the residence, was transferred to David Rhoades, who subdivided the land into residential allotments as the Derby Estate. By 1931, the estate was thickly settled. In 1925 title to Killarney and its remaining 62 perches [1578m²] passed to the Tate family, then in 1934 to Emily Firrell. Killarney passed to Mrs Firrell's daughter, Beryl Agnes Farry, in 1948, and it remains her property.
","criteria":"Killarney, erected c1860s, is important for its association with the early settlement of Kedron Brook/Enoggera as a farming district.
|The house is one of comparatively few surviving, mid-19th century Brisbane residences, and is one of the oldest remaining houses in the Kedron Brook district. It is a rare surviving example of a mid-19th century brick house in Queensland, and has potential to reveal more about Brisbane's early brickmaking history and technology.
|It is a rare surviving example of a mid-19th century brick house in Queensland, and has potential to reveal more about Brisbane's early brickmaking history and technology.
|It is a rare surviving example of a mid-19th century brick house in Queensland, and has potential to reveal more about Brisbane's early brickmaking history and technology.
|It has aesthetic value, particularly in the rustic materials and simple design.
|The place has a strong association with the life and work of Timothy Corbett and his family, Corbett being amongst the earliest free settlers following the closure of the Moreton Bay penal colony in 1842.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14973,"place_ref":600198,"name":"Fortitude Valley Post Office (former)","alternate_name":"Fortitude Valley Post and Telegraph Office","street_address":"740 Ann Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-01-24","description":"The Fortitude Valley Post Office occupies an almost level south-east corner site at Ann and Ballow Streets, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. The original building occupies approximately 40 per cent of the existing site allotment No. 21.
The Post Office is a two storey brickwork, steel and timber construction, with porphyry footings. The brickwork is cement rendered externally and incised with a ruled ashlar finish. The building's southern and eastern corners are elaborately decorated with rendered mouldings that include ornate window hood-mouldings, sculptural friezes, partly balustraded parapets and unusual shaped pediments. Sandstone steps lead up to the ground floor level arcades on both street frontages. The arcades are formed by a set of segmental arches carried by rendered piers supported by pedestals. Above the arcades are open verandahs that have intricately designed cast iron balcony columns and railings.
The original 1887 section of the building is roughly square in plan, with walls that are mainly of plaster-rendered brickwork. Some remnants of the original lath-and-plaster timber framed interior partition walls survive on the upper floor level. Ceilings and soffits throughout the building are lined with 125 mm beaded tongue & groove boarding, however a timber framed dropped ceiling, sheeted in plasterboard has been introduced at ground level in some areas. Floors throughout the building are 100mm hardwood tongue and grooved boards that have been overlaid with carpet at the ground level and vinyl tiles at the upper level. Some original cedar doors and architraves have survived. Two fireplaces, formerly located on the building northern wall, have both been bricked up and their surrounds removed.
At ground level the original building currently consists mainly of a corner vestibule and one large space, partly partitioned to create three small offices along the northern wall. Several openings in the original rear wall of the building provide access to the substantially altered former rear verandah area. As part of the alterations in this verandah area a strong room has been constructed with plaster-rendered brickwork, a reinforced concrete floor and ceiling, and a metal safe door. At the northern end of this area is the original cedar staircase, now painted, which leads to the upper floor. At the upper level there are several large rooms formed by the removal of most original partition walls. Male and female toilets have been introduced along the northern wall. All of the original ceder French doors at the upper level still survive, although they have been over painted.
Adjacent to the 1887 section of the building is a two storeyed brick extension constructed in 1970. The structure, which faces Ballow Street, contains an extensive mail room, private mail box area and garage at ground level, and postman's setting up area and staff lunch area at the upper level. Large openings between the two parts of the building exist at both floor levels.
The roof on the 1887 section of the post office is currently a single low gradient steel deck skillion that slopes from Ann Street down towards the rear of the section. The original chimney stacks have been removed. A second steel deck skillion of similar gradient exists over the later two storeyed section at the rear.
","history":"The Fortitude Valley Post Office and Telegraph Office as it was first called, was constructed in 1887 by William Ferguson for the Queensland Post and Telegraph Department to a design prepared by the Colonial Architect's Office of the Department of Public Works. The original working drawings are unsigned however it is believed that the design was carried out by either JJ Clarke, who was the Colonial Architect from 1883 to 1886 or George Connolly, who held the position from 1887 to 1891. The building, composed in the Victorian Italianate architectural style, is one of only ten substantial Queensland post offices designed in this style that were all built between 1879 and 1898. Comparatively, the Fortitude Valley Post Office has the most ornately detailed cement rendered facade and is the only post office designed and constructed with mansard roofs. The building was also one of only two masonry post offices that were built in 1887 - all others were constructed of timber.
Government policies in 1887 required that post and telegraph services were combined, and that accommodation for Postmasters and their families be provided. Accordingly the Fortitude Valley Post Office was designed to have post and telegraph services at ground level with living quarters above. A single storey service wing originally extended northwards to the rear of the building and opened onto a fenced courtyard abutting Ballow Street. Internally the ground floor consisted of a spacious office area for the combined services of post and telegraph. Access to the postal services was via the vestibule located at the corner of Ann and Ballow Streets that led to a small public area with a diagonal counter. Telegraph or parcel services were accessed via the smaller vestibule located at the far end of the arcade facing Ann Street. The first floor was occupied entirely by the Postmaster's living quarters and consisted of two living rooms, four bedrooms and an internal bathroom. The single storeyed service wing at the rear contained of the Postmaster's dining room, kitchen and servant's room. Earth closets were located adjacent to the kitchen, in northern corner of the site.
At the time of the Fortitude Valley Post Office's construction, the suburb was experiencing a period of great business and residential expansion. Nearby areas such as New Farm and Teneriffe to the east and Breakfast Creek and Bulimba Reach to the north were similarly experiencing expansion. The opening of the Teneriffe wharves to international shipping accelerated the growth of the area and this, together with a large increase in the volume of business, placed severe strain on the original postal and telegraph facilities in Fortitude Valley that had been set up in 1877. The government's purchase of the site at the corner of Ann and Ballow Streets in 1884 caused a controversy amongst the local residents and businesses in Fortitude Valley who desirous of a centrally located post office closer to the centre of business, at the corner of Brunswick and Wickham Streets. The matter caused some debate within the Post and Telegraph Department in 1885, however plans for the Ann Street site proceeded irrespectively. Aversion to the post office's location persisted among the local community for many years until eventually the matter was settled in 1936 by the Director-General of the Postmaster-General's Department in Melbourne who declared that funds for the construction of a new post office would not be available.
Following the formation of the Postmaster General's Department in 1901, the responsibility for the Fortitude Valley Post Office was transferred to the Commonwealth. Minor alterations were made to the ground floor interior in 1909 and again in 1925. It was around this time that the post office took on the ancillary responsibility of social security payments. A report prepared by the Acting District Inspector in November 1929 stated that 1 205 pensions were being paid weekly from the Fortitude Valley Post Office and it was understood that this was, with one exception, the heaviest pensions paying centre in the Commonwealth at the time.
Documentation of the removal of the mansard roofs and cast concrete capitals from the Fortitude Valley Post Office have not be found however it is believed to have occurred prior to 1949. Pressure from the Commonwealth to expand facilities eventually led to the vacation of the Postmaster from the first floor c.1950. It was proposed that the rooms be used for a Telegraph and Despatch room and staff facilities, however the area was used minimally thereafter. In 1958 major alterations were carried out on the entire building. Amongst these changes was the introduction of a stairwell in the main entrance vestibule, private letter boxes in the smaller vestibule off Ann Street, removal of all interior walls on the first floor and the partial rebuilding of the service wing at the rear. Further alterations, carried in 1970, caused the rear wing to be completely demolished and replaced with a larger two storey wing that abuts Ballow Street. Substantial reorganisation of the original post office's interior was also carried out at this time. Suspended ceilings were introduced in some areas of the ground floor at this time.
The Postmaster General's Department remained responsible for the Fortitude Valley Post Office until 1975 when Australia Post and Telecom Australia were created, thus dividing the postal and telecommunication services into two semi-government departments. Australia Post carried out alterations to the building in 1987, which effectively stripped the ground floor interior of all previous accretions. Externally, some restoration of the original fabric was carried out and a historic colour scheme was reinstated.
","criteria":"The Fortitude Valley Post Office, built in 1887, is important for its ability to demonstrate the evolution of post and telegraph services in Queensland and the development of Fortitude Valley, at a time of rapid trade, commerce, industry and residential expansion in the area. The grand style and scale of the building demonstrate the prosperity of Fortitude Valley at that time.
The siting of the building at the corner of Ann and Ballow Streets is of interest for the controversy it caused between the government and the local residents and businesses who were preferable of the building being located closer to the business centre of Fortitude Valley. The post office is also of interest for the ancillary role it played in the distribution of social security payments of various kinds during the early 1900's, at which time it was claimed to be among the heaviest pensions paying centre in the Commonwealth.
|The building is a rare example of a post office composed in the Victorian Italianate style, being one of only ten such buildings designed by the Colonial Architect's Office of the Department of Public Works in that architectural form. The Fortitude Valley Post Office is particularly unusual as the only post office in Queensland to be designed and constructed with mansard style roofs.
|The building's ornately detailed facade, regarded amongst the most elaborate of all post offices in Queensland, is of considerable aesthetic significance. The variety of mouldings, motifs and cast masonry decorations demonstrate a fine quality of workmanship.
It is of interest as an example of a post office with a combined postmaster's residence.
|The building's ornately detailed facade, regarded amongst the most elaborate of all post offices in Queensland, is of considerable aesthetic significance. The variety of mouldings, motifs and cast masonry decorations demonstrate a fine quality of workmanship. The building remains as one of only a few substantial late nineteenth century buildings in Fortitude Valley, and its contribution to its surroundings is highly significant for demonstrating the character of the area at the turn of the century.
|The Fortitude Valley Post Office has a strong association with the general community of Fortitude Valley for the essential role it has played in the provision of essential postal and telecommunication services. The siting of the building at the corner of Ann and Ballow Streets is of interest for the controversy it caused between the government and the local residents and businesses who were preferable of the building being located closer to the business centre of Fortitude Valley. The post office is also of interest for the ancillary role it played in the distribution of social security payments of various kinds during the early 1900's, at which time it was claimed to be among the heaviest pensions paying centre in the Commonwealth.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14974,"place_ref":600199,"name":"Empire Hotel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"339 Brunswick Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"A rendered building constructed of brick and stone, the Empire Hotel is located at a prominent intersection in Fortitude Valley. It consists of a main three storeyed L-shaped structure with basement, a two storeyed section on the south-western end facing Brunswick Street, a one storeyed skillion roofed section adjoining the rear of the main building, and a detached one-storeyed rendered masonry toilet block, also at the rear.
The Brunswick Street elevation comprises six bays and the Ann Street elevation contains three bays. A cantilevered awning extends along the two street frontages which are tiled at ground level.
Above the awning are two levels of projecting verandahs. These highly ornate verandahs are supported by twin cast-iron columns and feature timber handrails, cast-iron balustrades and brackets and a timber and cast-iron frieze at the junction between the first and second levels. French doors open onto the verandah which is roofed with rolled corrugated iron.
Painted corrugated iron hip roofs are concealed on the street elevations by an ornate masonry parapet wall. Supported on shallow twin brackets, the parapet consists of masonry balusters and pillars at the junction of each bay topped by urns. A projecting pediment in the Brunswick Street facade which breaks the line of the parapet is flanked by interlocking circles, instead of balusters.
The ground floor contains a bottle shop entered from the street corner, a public bar with entry from Brunswick Street, an entry foyer also opening off Brunswick Street, a lounge bar and bistro and a loading bay. There are remnants of art deco plaster work throughout. The entry foyer, now in the art deco manner, features decorative plaster ceilings, patterned floors, tiled walls, timber doors with etched glass panels, and a 1930s lift. The original 1889 staircase has been refurbished with metal balustrade and tiled walls to the first floor level but retains its original timber joinery and balustrade between the first and second floor. Two arched windows, the lower one being leadlight, illuminate the stairwell.
A lounge, dining room, kitchen, private bar and staff rooms are located on the first floor. These rooms have ornate plaster cornices and ceilings. The lounge and dining rooms have timber parquetry floors and coloured leadlight windows in distinctive art deco patterns.
On the second floor bedrooms and bathrooms are linked by a central corridor. Much of the fabric dates from 1889 including doors, architraves and skirtings, plasters arches over the hallway and main stairwell. A second staircase, with original timber panelling and balustrades, links the first and second floors at the south-western end of the Anne Street elevation.
Despite the demolition of part of the Ann street wing, the Empire Hotel is a large and impressive building. The street facades are intact above awning level and internally much of the original fabric remains along with evidence of major refurbishments.
","history":"This three-storeyed, rendered brick hotel was erected in 1888 for Nathaniel Corrigan. It replaced an earlier Empire (Family) Hotel (1865) which had been owned by Corrigan since 1873.
\nThe new hotel was designed by prominent architect Richard Gailey who also designed the nearby Prince Consort (QHR 600212), Wickham (QHR 600213) and Jubilee (QHR 600211) hotels. The construction of these hotels in the late 1880s reflected the confidence of the period and development that occurred in Fortitude Valley.
\nThe Empire was constructed by Smith and Ball Contractors and the first publican was Walter McFarlane. The hotel extended 130ft (39m) along Ann Street and 120ft (36m) along Brunswick Street, and contained over sixty rooms.
\nThe hotel was renovated in 1925 to plans by Richard Gailey Jnr and again in 1937 to plans by architects Hall and Phillips. This latter work involved converting part of the Ann Street section to the 'Empire Apartments'. These apartments were later demolished in the 1960s, reducing the Ann Street frontage from seven bays to three. The original convex iron and post awning has been replaced by one with a cantilevered design.
","criteria":"The Empire Hotel is significant for its association with a major phase in the development of Fortitude Valley.
|The Empire Hotel is significant as an excellent example of a large ornate 1880s hotel which was partly refurbished in the 1930s and makes a dominant contribution to the streetscape at the intersection of Ann and Brunswick Streets.
|The Empire Hotel is significant as an excellent example of a large ornate 1880s hotel which was partly refurbished in the 1930s and makes a dominant contribution to the streetscape at the intersection of Ann and Brunswick Streets.
|The Empire Hotel is significant as one of a group of hotels designed by architect Richard Gailey which contribute to the architectural character of Brisbane through their imposing presence, and extensive use of ornamental cast-iron and classical detailing.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14975,"place_ref":600200,"name":"All Hallows' Convent and School","alternate_name":"Adderton (Convent)","street_address":"547 Ann Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"All Hallows' Convent and School is prominently situated in Fortitude Valley on a site bounded by Ann Street, Kemp Place, Ivory Street, Antrim Street and Boundary Street. A masonry retaining wall surrounds the school on the Ann Street and Kemp Place boundaries. The site commands views over Spring Hill, the Brisbane River and the Brisbane CBD.
\nGenerally the buildings on the site are introspectively arranged, focussed on a central terraced area which, in turn, overlooks the of the Brisbane River, over Petrie Bight. The principal entrance to the school grounds is through the gateway off Ann Street, where access is provided to a driveway which passes through the school and convent grounds before leaving at the only other access point, off Kemp Place.
\nThe buildings which comprise the site include the convent complex; St Ann's, the former Industrial School; the Main Building; McCauley Hall, a former teachers' college, Aquinas Hall and the library; Loreto, the gymnasium and auditorium complex; and several smaller structures including the former art studio, St Brigid's classrooms, a chaplain's residence, a gatekeeper's lodge and gateway. Along with these, are several landscaped areas which contribute to the setting of the buildings including the central terraced area, the flagpole lawn, playing fields to the north of the site and extensive gardens.
\nThe Convent
\nThe convent complex consists of the principal convent building which comprises Adderton, the chapel and various additions; a House of Mercy and a timber laundry.
\nThe convent is a substantial four storeyed masonry building, consisting of a central section in which the early building, Adderton, is contained, and flanking this transverse wings semi- enclosing a rear courtyard on three sides. Within this courtyard is a U-planned building-the former House of Mercy. To the north-west of the convent, between this building and the Ann Street boundary is a lawn and early timber laundry building.
\nThe central section of the convent runs south west-north east, parallel to the Ann Street boundary wall, the south western wing houses the chapel and is symmetrical with the three storeyed north eastern wing used for bedrooms and community. The convent, as it now appears, was completed in three major stages, manifest in design and construction; the 1850s house, Adderton, the 1891-2 extension and the chapel extension of 1921.
\nThe south eastern facade, where the principal entrance is located, is terminated at both ends by the projecting elevations of the transverse wings. These bays have hipped roofs partially concealed by a decorative parapeted gable, surmounted at the apex by a pedimented feature, supported on reeded pilasters and flanked by pilasters surmounted by finials. Various round and square-headed arched openings, with both recessed and projecting surrounds are found symmetrically arranged on the elevation of the end bays. The south western wing has a more recent one storeyed entrance porch providing access to the chapel. The rendered masonry porch of rectangular plan has two round headed arched openings within a round headed arched recess, and moulded string courses and is surmounted by an entablature above which is an Italianate balustrade. Recent access lifts and ramps are not of State-level cultural heritage significance.
\nThe building, over the central section and north eastern wing, has a hipped slate roof, and spaced regularly along the roof line of the north-east and south-east facades are decorative Anglo-Dutch gables. Roof vents line the ridge. The central section and north-eastern wing are surrounded by two storeys of verandahs, on the lower and first floors of the building. Supporting the corrugated iron verandah awning are cast iron columns, occasionally paired. The verandah features cast iron balustrading with the intertwined letters AHC within the pattern, cast iron frieze panels and column brackets. The window openings which line the principal facade have fixed louvre timber shutters.
\nMany features of the original home, Adderton, remain extant including its facade to the south east, with early window openings and doorway over which is an elliptical fanlight fitted with a stained glass panel.
\nThe half-glazed entrance door opens onto an entrance vestibule, flanked to the north and south by parlours, and screened from a central hallway running parallel to the facade, by an elliptical arced opening fitted with a four panel glazed timber screen. Each parlour is fitted with a marble fireplace and two finely mullioned 12 paned vertical sash windows, one panel of which is stained. Beyond the screen and within the central hallway is a geometric timber stair, winding to the first floor with square sectioned balusters from each tread and a timber handrail following the complex curvature of the stair.
\nThe central hallway, which is repeated on each floor provides access to the many small rooms and is broken by a series of plaster archways. Internally the convent has rendered masonry walls, plaster ceilings and covered timber floors. Early fireplaces, ovens and other fittings remain extant in the unrendered basement level of the convent.
\nThe chapel wing comprises two sections: the earlier 1890 chapel toward the front elevation of the building and extending from the rear of this the 1921 extension. Externally, the extension employs stripped classical detailing with rusticated pilasters dividing the external walls and separating the round headed arched openings. Other detailing includes a projecting base, moulded string courses, enlarged keystone detailing above the arched openings and moulded entablature forming a parapet some of which is surmounted by an Italianate baluster detail above. The chapel has a traditional plan, with central nave, side aisles, polygonal sanctuary and a shallow transept extending from the south-western end of the building.
\nInternally the variations of material, construction and detailing clearly indicates the two phases of the construction of the chapel. The rear, earlier section, which extends approximately one-third of the length of the nave features coffered ceilings of stained timber and timber panelled walls. An arcade supported on marbelised columns separates this section from the 1921 extension. On the floor above the rear section of the chapel is a pipe organ which opens onto the nave extension through a large archway.
\nThe interior of the chapel extension, like the exterior, has a classical design influence with round headed archways and openings, neo-classical painted decoration and classical mouldings. The nave has shallow side aisles divided from the body by a nave arcade of round headed arched openings with moulded architraves and large plaster keystones, all supported on marbelised columns with decorative plaster capitals. The barrel vaulted ceiling of the nave, is punctuated with operable clerestory windows and these are separated by moulded ribs. The sanctuary, which is divided from the nave by a round headed archway supported on substantial red marble columns, is semi-circular in plan and covered by a half domed ceiling. Within this space is a large painting of Jesus flanked by arched stained glass windows from FX Zettler in Munich, and higher on the rear wall is a small rose window. Painted decoration cover most of the surfaces in the sanctuary area.
\nThe former House of Mercy, located within the rear courtyard of the convent is a two-storeyed U-planned rendered masonry building. External walkways line elevations closest to the convent and these provided access to the interior. The northeast wing of the central floor (level with the ground floor of Adderton) is divided into small rooms, and wall nibs and heads indicate the former interior layout of the northwest and southwest wings (its recent café fit-out (2020) is not of State-significance). The ground floor of this houses larger rooms.
\nTo the rear of the convent is a simple timber building, with gabled roof and large roof ventilators used as a laundry.
\nThe Main Building
\nThe Main Building, the principal school building of All Hallows' is situated in the eastern corner of the block overlooking the Brisbane River and with extensive views of the Brisbane CBD and Kangaroo Point. The design of the three storeyed stone building is strongly inspired by classical architecture, particularly that of Renaissance Italy. This influence informs the composition and detailing of the arcaded facades and general planning of the building.
\nThe 1882 section of the building extends along the north eastern boundary of the All Hallows' block, the 1901 extension is situated abutting the north east end of the original building and later extensions are perpendicular to these, extending north west from the original wing and incorporating the early music rooms. The building, although the result of five phases of construction completed over about 60 years, is reasonably cohesive, particularly on those elevations facing inward toward the central open spaces of the school. These facades are all lined with arcaded loggias similar to those found encircling the original 1882 section of the building.
\nThe building is essentially rectangular in plan, with a long rectangular wing extending north west from the eastern corner of the building. The shallow pitched hipped roof of wide gauge corrugated iron is partially concealed by an Italianate parapet. Projecting through the roof at regular intervals are squat pyramidal roofed towers. These are vertical extensions of projecting bays on the facade of the building. The projecting entrance bay of the original 1882 building is emphasised by pediments at the roof line and a larger tower with a very steeply pitched roof ornamented with cast iron cresting.
\nArcaded loggias, sections of which have been infilled with glazing, are found on the ground and first floors with round headed arched window openings on the second floor. The openings of the arcades and the windows are divided by pilastered wall sections.
\nThe principal entrance of the earliest section of the south eastern, emphasised by the projecting bay is through a recent double timber door surmounted by semi-circular fanlight fitted within an early arched opening. Beyond this door is an entrance vestibule and through another panelled and moulded double timber door with semi circular fanlight and sidelights, access is given to the stair hall. The entrance vestibule has tessellated ceramic tiles on the floor and a moulded plaster ceiling. The dark stained timber stair, beyond this entrance, is dog legged with half-landings at each turn. On the first floor, this stair arrives in a room between a concert hall and a music library. The concert hall has a coffered plaster ceiling with recent mouldings and round headed arched windows with vertical sash fittings, opening onto the loggia spaces. At the north eastern end of the hall is a timber stage accessed via wide shallow stairs from the main body of the room. Beneath the stage are music practice rooms. The music library features a white marble fireplace, dark stained timber joinery, and round headed arched openings fitted with french doors opening onto the loggia. Small stairways on the second floor give access to the tower rooms above.
\nThe plan of the building has large rooms connected to stairhalls and other rooms by loggias and walkways on the two external faces of the building. This plan continues in the abutting wing, but with walkways located only along the arcaded, south western elevation, giving access to the rooms. Stairhalls are located near the principal entrance of the Main Building (1882), in the eastern corner of the building (1901) and centrally in the extension (1919). Two sets of concrete fire escape stairs and a lift are also found within the building.
\nThe north western wing of the Main Building continues the external detailing of the earlier sections on its south western, inward facing, facade only. The south eastern facade of the wing, viewed from the Kemp Place boundary of the site provides evidence of the growth of the building, with four phases of development readily apparent in the roof lines, levels and detailing.
\nIncorporated in the later wing, and disguised on the south western face with subsequent arcading, is an early two storeyed building housing music practice rooms. These are located centrally, and are apparent on the north eastern facade. The building is of rendered brick and has an ornamental roof ventilator centrally located on the steeply pitched hipped roof. Small rectangular window openings line the north eastern face. The floor levels of this building are not aligned with the floor levels of the surrounding buildings, therefore small internal staircases provide access to the rooms. The music practice rooms, themselves, are evident on the ground floor of this building.
\nAbutting the north east face of the Main Building is a tuckshop wing, which is an amalgamation of a 1933 concrete building with a corrugated iron gambrel roof and a later c1960s brick addition. The 1933 section retains its roof form and external detailing which consists of recessed bays housing large rectangular window openings separated by shallow pilasters.
\nSt Ann's
\nSt Ann's is a substantial three storeyed rendered masonry building with partial basement. Facing north west and situated on the Ann Street boundary of the school St Ann's is the only building on the site which addresses the street. The design of the building shows an influence of Gothic revival architecture particularly in the detailing of the Ann Street facade where pointed arched openings and mouldings, grouped lancet windows, steeply pitched parapeted gables and repeated use of the quatrefoil motif are found.
\nThe building is symmetrically composed about a recessed central bay lined with three storeys of balconies on the front and rear elevations, flanked by transverse wings. These side wings have steeply pitched parapeted gables and at the level of the ground floor projecting bays whose gabled awnings reflect the gabled roof form. Grouped lancet windows under pointed and flat headed arched hood moulds on the second floor, small rose windows, statue niches and Latin Cross finials at the apex of the gables contribute to the ornamentation of the wings. The render on the Ann Street facade is scribed with ashlar coursing.
\nA central bi-furcating stairway, with substantial masonry balustrade featuring cut-out quatrefoils accesses the ground floor verandah of the building on the Ann Street facade. The verandah awning on the ground floor has a thin gauge corrugated iron soffit and is supported on reeded cast iron columns and has a cast iron balustrade and pointed arched friezes which also feature a quatrefoil motif. The verandah on the floor above has square timber columns, cast iron balustrading and a timber boarded soffit.
\nCentrally located on the ground floor verandah is a six panelled entrance door which is surrounded by rectangular transom window and sidelights of very fine stained glass panels from Munich. The entrance door opens onto a vestibule where access is provided to parlours on either side. A moulded round headed archway separates the vestibule from the central hallway, which runs parallel to the entrance facade of the building terminating at the chapel entrance to the north-east and in the stairhall to the south-west. Internally the building has rendered masonry walls throughout, timber boarded ceilings, timber floors, high quality timber architraves, skirting boards and stairways.
\nThe principal internal stair is housed in the stairhall which is expressed externally on the south-west facade with a projecting bay which features four pairs of rectangular stained glass window openings, signifying the level of each floor and the basement. The open well timber stair has turned timber balusters and carved newels and drops. Another, more simple, stair is housed in the southern corner of the building.
\nThe chapel, located in north eastern wing of the ground floor of the building is a long room only the north western end of which was originally intended for this use. This end has a coffered timber ceiling with plaster mouldings, grisaille (or non-figured) stained glass panels in tre-foiled lancets and fine timber joinery. A sanctuary, at the north western end of the chapel, is separated by an elliptical headed archway, and houses a small marble altar flanked by single tre-foiled lancets fitted with figured stained glass panels. Access is provided from the central hallway to the chapel via a dark stained timber doorway with a pointed arch transom light above. Classrooms fill the remainder of the ground and first floors. The second floor houses several early bedroom cells lining the north west side of the building, with access to an enclosed verandah facing Ann Street. The basement of the building has remnants of early brick fireplaces.
\nAbutting the southern corner of St Ann's and extending to the south east is a one storeyed brick extension with hipped corrugated iron roof and verandah awning on the north eastern side supported on chamfered timber posts.
\nOther
\nAs well as the larger buildings on the All Hallows' Convent and School site many smaller buildings are of cultural heritage significance. These include the Ann Street and Kemp Place retaining wall and incorporated gateway and lodge; a chaplain's residence, St Brigid's classroom block, the art studio and several areas of open space including the Terrace, gardens around the convent, playing fields and other open areas.
\nThe porphyry retaining wall extends from the gateway, adjacent to St Ann's, on Ann Street, north east and is curved around the corner and finishes in Kemp Place. The wall, made from randomly coursed rock faced porphyry rubble, varies in height from 4m on the Kemp Place elevation to 14m on Ann Street. A course of stonework projects from the wall near the top of the structure.
\nIncorporated in the Ann Street face of the wall, adjacent to St Ann's is a gatekeeper's lodge and gateway. The gateway which is constructed from rock faced porphyry and smooth faced sandstone is the principal entrance to the school and provides access to the driveway. The symmetrically composed structure employs classical details. The opening is through a round headed archway, the arched section of which is filled with a cast iron plate bearing the letters AMDG. The surrounds of the archway including the voussoirs and keystone are of rough cut porphyry. Rounded and tapering pilasters with Ionic capitals, of smooth faced sandstone, flank the opening. A sandstone entablature surmounting the pilasters features a moulded cornice supported on corbels with a smaller sandstone architrave above. Sitting on the top of each end of the gateway are stone carvings of urns with flames rising from them. Centrally located on the architrave on four steps is a carved globe with a copper Latin cross surmounting it. Shorter porphyry walls flank the gateway.
\nAdjacent to the north of the gateway, is a gatekeepers' lodge whose Ann Street facade is a continuation of the school's retaining wall, the lodge being slightly taller than the adjacent wall. The building is two storeyed, and with the cutting down of Ann Street after the lodge's construction a retaining wall has been added as a base to the Ann Street facade of the building. This facade projects slightly from the face of the retaining wall and is detailed with smooth faced sandstone string coursing in line with the sill of the two storeys of windows. The steeply pitched hipped slate roof is concealed on the Ann Street facade by a parapet, being an entablature, consisting of a cornice with dentils surmounted by an architrave. Two storeys of round headed arched windows are featured on this facade, reflecting the early levels of the building. These windows differ in detail on each storey, the lower having sandstone tracery dividing the opening into two lancet windows with round arched heads and a circular opening between. The upper storey openings are simply round headed arched openings. Window and door openings on the south western wall indicate the previous entrance level of the building. Internally the building has timber floors throughout, plaster and lath walls, timber boarded ceilings, an early quarter-turn timber stair with turned balusters and simple timber architraves and skirting boards.
\nAdjoining the gatehouse is a small rendered masonry building used for a chaplain's residence. This is a one storeyed rendered brick building with stripped classical facades and detailing similar to that of the nearby chapel extension. The external walls which consist of recessed bays separated by rusticated pilasters, are parapeted with a simple entablature concealing the shallow hipped roof. Access is provided to the front door of the building down broad concrete steps with rendered masonry balustrading. The front door opens onto an semi-internal entrance hall with timber lattice screens. Internally the residence has two principal rooms, a living room beyond the entrance hall and from this a bedroom with ensuite bathroom. Internal finishes include pressed metal ceilings and cornices, rendered walls and chamfered timber skirting boards. The adjacent building, St Brigid's, is of similar detail and houses two classrooms with access provided to the interior via broad concrete steps. Between St Brigid's and the chaplain's residence is a hexagonally planned building with hexagonal pyramidal corrugated iron roof, originally in use as an aviary, but now a classroom.
\nThe former art studio, located between the Main Building extension and the convent, is a single storeyed concrete building of simple rectangular plan with a hipped corrugated iron roof. The building was designed an art studio and therefore planned to provide abundant natural lighting and ventilation. The facade of the building is symmetrically composed around a central doorway flanking which are large window openings separated by pilasters with simple moulded capitals and bases and supporting a cornice, on which the overhanging corrugated iron roof sits.
\nMcCauley Hall, situated on the northern corner of the site, is a four storeyed brick building with reinforced concrete framing elements and a skillion roof. The building displays qualities of many post-war buildings of Australia showing a strong International style influence, whose physical attributes on this building include large planes of brickwork juxtaposed with textured panels and large areas of horizontally grouped window openings. Aquinas Hall has similar construction and detailing, and is a four storeyed brick building with reinforced concrete framing externally expressed.
\nIn the gardens adjacent to the chapel is a small polychrome brick building which houses life-size statues commemorating Jesus' death on Calvary. This structure has a gabled roof flanked by brick pinnacles, all surrounding the round headed arched opening through which the statues are seen.
\nMuch of the open space, garden areas and established trees are of importance to the setting and understanding of the school. In particular the split-level Terrace, an open lawned area forming a central court which retains a vista toward the river via a small lawn to the south-west of the Main Building. St Gertrude's playing grounds in the northern corner of the school is an established area with important planting including a bougainvillea hedge and a large weeping fig. The gardens surrounding the convent provide a buffer zone between this and the other, more public, buildings on the site. These areas are the chapel garden, the driveway, the former kitchen garden to the north-east and the lawn between the convent and Ann Street which houses many rotary washing lines. There are many large established trees on the site.
\nNon-significant buildings/structures
\nFeatures not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nAll Hallows' Convent and School was established in 1863 on Petrie Bight, as the first permanent site of the convent and school of the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland. The site comprises many important buildings reflecting the growth of the school. The arrangement of the site and the buildings thereon reflect the acquisition of land and the introspective nature of the planning of the school.
\nFollowing the separation of Queensland from New South Wales in 1859, a new Roman Catholic diocese which separated the newly formed Diocese of Queensland from the Diocese of Newcastle. On 14 April 1859 James Quinn, who was residing in Ireland at the time, was appointed the first Bishop of Queensland and arrived in Brisbane on 12 March 1861. Between his appointment and his arrival, Quinn recruited desperately needed clergy and religious Sisters. He arrived in Brisbane with several priests and five Sisters of Mercy, under the guidance of the Mother Superior, Mother Mary Vincent Whitty.
\nThe Sisters of Mercy were principally a teaching order, founded in Ireland by Catherine McAuley in 1831. The establishment of religious schools in the new colony was seen as a crucial need to instil and strengthen faith in the struggling community. The day after Mother Vincent's arrival a deputation from Ipswich requested that the Sisters settle in their town, but accommodation was soon found for the sisters in Brisbane, where the need for them must have been greater felt.
\nAdderton and the Convent
\nIn December 1863 Bishop Quinn purchased on behalf of the Sisters of Mercy the former home of Dr George Fullerton who had been appointed to the first Legislative Council of Queensland but soon after left for Maranoa. The house, presumably built for Fullerton was known as Adderton and was sold to Quinn for £6000. The house was located on Petrie Bight, across Ann Street from the Bishop's own rented residence, Dara, and these two properties were considered two of the largest and best appointed homes in Brisbane at the time. On their arrival the Sisters had been provided with only temporary accommodation near St Stephen's church Adderton was to be used as a convent for the Sisters of Mercy, and as accommodation for a boarding school. Among the chief concerns of the Bishop was the establishment of a Catholic education system, and this was his primary motivation for introducing to Queensland the order of sisters renowned for their teaching.
\nIt is thought that the newly formed school was named All Hallows' by Mother Vincent after All Hallows' College, Dublin which was in turn named to recall the seventh century parish church, All Hallows'-by-the-Tower in London. All Hallows', Brisbane was to operate in conjunction with the school at St Stephen's which had been established and operated by lay members of the community since 1845, but for which the Sisters assumed the management of upon their arrival in 1861. All Hallows' was established as a 'select' school, where money raised from fees could be used to finance the parish or 'poor' schools, of which the school at St Stephen's was an early example.
\nThe construction of Adderton for Dr Fullerton was reported as nearly completed May 1858.[1] Fullerton had purchased the property above Petrie Bight, which had far reaching views of Brisbane, from Thomas Adams in 1857.[2] Adams, with Henry Watson, acquired the original Deeds of Grant of the land in two separate deeds in July 1844 and May 1852. After its construction Adderton was located on 2 acres on what was known as Duncan's Hill but the site is now perceived, after the cutting down of Ann Street, as a cliff face to Ann Street sloping south eastward to the river.
\nAdderton forms the central section of the present day convent, and was originally a two storeyed house with basement which was designed and constructed by early Brisbane builder, Andrew Petrie. Petrie was principally a building contractor, but was able to provide designs for local buildings until the influx of architects to Brisbane in the 1860s. Petrie was also responsible for the design and construction of the 1853 Adelaide House, later known as the Deanery, for Dr William Hobbs.
\nAn early photograph of Adderton reveals it as a simple stone building of Georgian proportion and detail; a centrally located doorway with an elliptical fanlight above, flanked by timber shuttered windows and with chimney stacks protruding from each end of a simple gabled roof. Many of the features of the early house including a geometric stair, entrance door and light, windows and shutters, fireplaces along with the general planning of the interior are extant within what has become a much larger convent.
\nAn article published before the completion of Adderton described the building as a brick stuccoed, ‘exceedingly plain but strong building in the London street style’. The article noted its interior as including ‘large, well lighted and lofty’ rooms, with polished cedar timber fittings and marble mantle-pieces to principal rooms. The drawing and dining rooms were divided into two parts by folding doors, and the kitchens and dairy were located below the ground level (at level with the coach-houses, stable, cow and fowl-houses, and out-offices).[3]
\nOn 1 November 1863 the Sisters and some boarders from St Stephen's school transferred to Adderton. Classrooms were established in the reception and dining rooms on the ground floor, the study to the rear of these was used as a chapel and the floor above became sleeping quarters. Thus began the school and convent of All Hallows' which continues today as the head convent of the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland and from where the Sisters rapidly expanded their network of educational and social welfare institutions.
\nThe education offered by the Sisters for the young women of Queensland was of a high standard, and sought after by members of all religious denominations from regional centres all over Queensland and northern New South Wales. Indeed the number of non-Catholic enrolments exceeded that of the Catholic enrolments for many years until the 1880s, and remained equal to them until the turn of the century. This ecumenical spirit persisted despite the establishment of the Girls Grammar School in 1875. 1879 saw All Hallows' produce its first candidate for the Sydney University Junior Public Examinations, being the first female candidate from a convent school in Australia. The Sisters were able to provide a comprehensive education including music, domestic science as well as more academic pursuits where specialist teachers of this sort were not introduced into State Schools until the 1940s.
\nAdderton remained unaltered as the head convent for the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland until 1890, when major alterations were planned which saw the former two storeyed house engulfed in a much larger complex involving another storey, an extension of fifty feet in the length of the house and the addition of transverse wings. These alterations were planned by local architects Hunter and Corrie and executed in 1892, by contractors Messrs Woollam and Norman for upwards of £13,000. A descriptive report of the nearly completed building was carried in the national architectural periodical, the Building and Engineering Journal of February 27, 1892.
\nThe basement of the new convent contained accommodation for 'House of Refuge' girls, work rooms, bathrooms and storage areas. The ground floor housed various reception room and offices, a nuns' sacristy and halls for the building's three main staircases, along with the sisters' dining room and a chapel in the south-western wing. The chapel featured an apsidal chancel, floored with encaustic tiles and accessed via wide marble stairs; fine pine joinery and panelling stained to a light cedar colour; and a memorial stained glass window from Munich. Seating accommodation in the chapel was divided such that the Sisters sat on the ground floor and the boarders at the convent were seated in a gallery above the entrance of the chapel. Verandahs were added to the front and rear of the ground and first floors of the central section of the building at this time. The cement rendered brick extensions were erected on concrete foundations, and with a slate roof.
\nWith this 1892 extension a walkway was constructed which connected the convent to the school building erected in 1884. Incorporated as part of the walkway was a bell tower in which was placed an Angelus bell brought with the Sisters from Ireland in 1861 and dedicated to Saint Charles Borromeo, which to this day chimes daily at noon.
\nAlong with education the Sisters of Mercy at All Hallows' provided many other social programmes, including the care and concern for the welfare of those considered less fortunate. Bishop Quinn approved the establishment of a House of Mercy (occasionally also referred to as the previously mentioned House of Refuge) at All Hallows' on February 11, 1875 with the aim of the protection of poor women of good character, and in fact, providing accommodation for women including unwed mothers, inebriates and former prisoners in return for domestic work of various types. Later, parents or the police were able to send young girls to the House as a preventative measure against further trouble. A separate building was constructed as the House of Mercy at All Hallows' in 1878 between the rear of the convent and the Ann Street boundary. This building had a U-shaped plan, forming an enclosed courtyard with the convent. A large laundry was built in the vicinity in 1897, and this was one of the principal workshops of the inhabitants of the House of Mercy.
\nThe north-eastern wing of the convent was extended toward Ann Street in 1913 to house further dining, library and bedroom facilities. In 1921 the chapel, in the other wing, was almost tripled in size, removing the apsidal chancel and extending the whole wing toward the Ann Street perimeter of the school, and adding a transept toward the south-west. This extension, designed by local architects, Hall and Prentice was not designed to emulate the earlier Victorian building, rather a stripped classical architectural language was employed. The chapel was re-furbished in 1968 in line with the recently produced guidelines for changes of Roman Catholic services determined by Vatican II Council. The centrally facing dark stained timber pews were replaced with light pine seating facing the new, more centrally located altar.
\nWithin the garden to the south of the chapel a small brick building was constructed in 1915 to designs of prominent local architect George Henry Male Addison, to house a life size sculpture of Jesus' crucifixion. This was erected by builder, J. Bowen whose tender price was £130. A grotto, located on the northern side of the convent, and a statue of Our Lady on the circular driveway, in the front of the convent were on the grounds by the early 1930s.
\nThe Wall, Lodge and Gate
\nThe environment on Duncan's Hill gradually changed as what was formerly named High Road was renamed Ann Street, and this was cut down by 15 feet in 1865. From that time the convent at All Hallows' began to be perceived as situated at the top of a cliff-face rather than, as previously, at the apex of a gentle hill. Ann Street was subject to three more cuts, in 1876, 1886 and finally in 1927, when it took its present form.
\nThe cutting down of Ann Street in 1876 necessitated the rebuilding of the original 1865 wall, which saw it extended along Ann Street. In 1879, three years after the reconstruction of the wall a stone gatekeepers lodge and entrance gateway were constructed to designs of Rev. Joseph Augustine Canali, an architect and engineer who arrived from Italy at the behest of Quinn in 1872 with the intention of joining the priesthood in Queensland which he did in 1879. The builders for the project were O'Keeffe, Masterson and Martin who constructed the lodge and gateway for a cost of £3473/8/1. The gatehouse, which seems to have replaced an earlier structure built with Adderton, served as the convent almonry for many years after its construction.
\nAnother cutting of Ann Street took place in 1886 and the final cutting in 1927 saw the wall increased in length, extending around into Kemp Place. At this time a base was added to the gatehouse making it level with the new road and the gate was lowered.
\nThe Main Building
\nAs the school and convent increased in size and the Sisters of Mercy became wealthier, incentive arose to acquire the entire block on which the convent stood, bordered by Ann Street, Kemp Place, Ivory Street and Boundary Street. In December 1879 land on the Ivory Street side of the site was purchased from James Ivory for £2173, for the construction of a separate school building, overlooking the Brisbane River.
\nBishop Quinn laid the foundation stone of the building on January 2, 1881. The architect for the project was Andrea Giovanni Stombuco, a Florentine who moved Australia in 1851 and to Brisbane in 1875. Upon his arrival in the country Stombuco worked variously as a monumental mason, sculptor and builder, before becoming an architect, a profession for which he claims he was self-taught. As an artisan, Stombuco undertook much work for the Catholic Church and the church was to become his primary patron when he began practice as an architect. On advice from the church Stombuco moved to Brisbane and may have taken up a position offered by Quinn as Diocesan architect. Among the buildings he designed for the Catholic Church were St Joseph's Christian Brothers Schools at both Gregory Terrace (1875-6) and Nudgee (1889-90); Rathbawn (1875-8) a home for Quinn at Nudgee; several churches including Laidley (1878), Pine Mountain (1878), Sacred Heart at Sandgate (1880-1), Church of the Holy Cross, Wooloowin (1886) and St Joseph's at Kangaroo Point (1887-8).
\nThe All Hallows' school building, which has become known as the Main Building, was constructed by Edward Vallely and completed in late 1882 at a cost of £8899/2/-. The original building was a substantial three storeyed structure, with a central tower dividing two symmetrically arranged wings featuring open arcaded loggias to the lower two storeys. The central tower which appeared on the south eastern side of the building was planned by Bishop Quinn as his own office, where he could oversee the development and management of the school curriculum. However, before the building was completed Quinn died and Robert Dunne was appointed his successor .
\nThe Main Building housed class rooms, boarders' accommodation and a concert hall. A separate two storeyed building to the north-east of the Main Building was constructed at this time to house music practice rooms.
\nBy 1901 space in the Main Building was insufficient and a further wing was planned for the Main Building to designs of local architects, Hall and Dods, a partnership of Francis Richard Hall and Robert Smith Dods and the extension was constructed by John Watson. This wing which extended toward the north-west was very similar in detail to the original building, continuing the arcading, roof line and detailing. The extension included a boarders' dining room, an extension of the concert hall, another stairhall fitted with a fine timber stair and additional boarding accommodation.
\nThomas Ramsay Hall, a local architect and half-brother of Francis Hall, designed a further extension wing to the Main Building in 1919, perpendicular to the existing building and incorporating the building housing the early music practice rooms. Two further additions were made to this wing of the Main Building, extending it north west, to designs of architects Prentice and Atkinson in 1934 and in 1940. These later additions continued the arcading on the south-western facade and extended it along to disguise the early music practice rooms. Prentice and Atkinson were also responsible for the addition of a lavatory and bathroom block on the north east of the building in 1933. With the phasing out of the boarders from All Hallows' from 1969 changes were made to the Main Building, turning former accommodation quarters into classrooms.
\nSt Ann's Industrial School
\nThe gold rush period of the 1850s and 1860s in Australia saw more concern and governmental involvement with the care of homeless children. Officials were given powers to place neglected and delinquent children in institutions often offering religious as well as technical training, modelled on the English district union schools.
\nFollowing the Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act of 1865, which regulated the detention of neglected and criminal children, the Sisters established an industrial school in 1868 in rented cottages adjacent to All Hallows'. St Ann's Industrial School, as it became known, was concerned with the full-time education of young girls in domestic arts and sciences, including cooking, dressmaking and needlework. The Sisters established the Industrial School to continue the training of young girls leaving St Vincent's orphanage at Nudgee, in an attempt to prolong their entry in the workforce, where the state age for discharge could be as low as ten years. However St Ann's was soon accepting full fee paying students. Work produced at the school was exhibited nationally and the institute became a highly regarded training centre.
\nIn 1876 the school's Liquidation Committee approved the construction of a new building to house the Industrial School and land previously rented by the Sisters was purchased from the estate of George Poole for £3000. This land faced Ann Street to the south west of the main entrance.
\nAndrea Stombuco, the designer of the Main Building at All Hallows', called tenders for the construction of an Industrial School in the early 1880s, but financial constraints delayed the construction of the building. Tenders were again called in 1893, to revised designs of FDG Stanley and Son, and the contractors Woollam and Norman who had only recently finished the construction of the extensions to the All Hallows' Convent, were commissioned as builders for the project. Messrs Leach and Son were the decorators employed. St Ann's was completed for a cost of about £7000 and officially opened by the Governor, Sir Henry Wylie Norman on July 15, 1894. A newspaper report of the opening in The Age gave the following account of the nature of the school
\nAs it is well-known the institution is largely self-supporting, being the abode of dress-makers, lace and fancy needle workers. St Ann's has gradually grown until now it assumes the position of an important destroyer of the nonsensical fallacies of free-trade which have blighted colonial youth in the past. We hope the children will grow in goodness and usefulness, and that a kindred institution will, in the early future, be established for boys where they may acquire useful trades.
\nAn Industrial School for boys was, indeed, established by Archbishop Dunne in the printing offices of the Catholic newspaper, The Australian.
\nChanges in the education system saw the partial closure of St Ann's in the 1940s, when the building became used as a boarding house for young women studying at university or working in the city. In 1964 an extensive refurbishment of the building was undertaken which converted the lower floors of the building into classrooms, anticipating the future growth of the school.
\nOther Buildings
\nAll Hallows' School and Convent have seen many periods of concentrated growth; the 1880s and early 1890s saw the construction of the Main Building, and the first major extension of the convent. During the 1920s and 30s the convent was again extended, the Main Building was extended twice and several small buildings were constructed including the chaplains residency, St Brigids and an art studio.
\nThe art studio was constructed between the north eastern wing of the Main Building and the Convent in 1922 to designs of local architects, Hall and Prentice at a cost of £1437. This small one storeyed masonry structure was designed to maximise natural lighting, with large windows and skylighting and an open plan. A similar art studio was constructed at Lourdes Hill School in 1923.
\nHall and Prentice, or the later firm of Hall and Phillips which formed with the dissolution of the previous partnership in 1929, are thought to have designed two other buildings on the campus, as well as the before mentioned extension of the chapel in 1921. These are a chaplain's residence constructed in 1936, abutting the gatekeeper's lodge above the Ann Street wall and St Brigids, a classroom block, built in 1924. These two buildings have similar classical detailing to that found on Hall and Phillips' extension of the nearby chapel.
\nAdjacent to St Brigids is a small octagonal building of one storey, with a high pitched pyramidal roof which was apparently constructed as an aviary, but is now used for classroom and meeting space.
\nLater buildings extant on the site include McCauley Hall which was constructed as the first Catholic teachers' college in Queensland in 1958; Aquinas Hall a four storeyed building containing language, history and science laboratories, designed by Frank Cullen and Partners and opened in 1964 to which a science and library wing were added in 1972 and extended in 1978; and, most recently, Loreto Hall, a gymnasium complex, incorporating a large auditorium and art rooms designed by Graeme Thiedeke and opened in 1985. Loreto Hall replaced one of the very few buildings on the site known to have been demolished, a small one storeyed building known as Nazereth. This was constructed in 1952 for use by the lower primary school, and with the closing of the primary school in 1981, Nazereth was used for art rooms until its demolition.
\nIn 1913 All Hallows' became the home of one of the first school swimming pools in Queensland, which was replaced in 1960 by the extant pool and associated buildings.
\nEarly 21st Century Alterations
\nIn 2009, the former caretaker’s workshop to the southwest of McCauley Hall, its adjoining toilets and link-bridge, and the toilet block to the rear of the Convent’s former laundry building were demolished to make way for a play area.
\nBetween 2009 and 2011, the multi-purpose playing courts in the courtyard bounded by the western side of the Main Building, walkway and former art studio were removed and converted into a landscaped courtyard.
\nThe pool at the north end of the site was removed in 2013 and replaced by a netball/tennis court and adjoining courtyard in 2014, coinciding with the construction of a new building (intended for use by year 7 students) over the previous tennis court to the north of the Main Building.
\nBetween 2018 and 2019, Adderton’s southwest end was converted for use as a museum (Mercy Heritage Centre). Works to facilitate this conversion broadly included a new circular stair to the courtyard between the House of Mercy and Adderton’s northern wing, replacement of an accessibility ramp to the front (southeast) verandah, addition of a removeable ramp for access to the southern rooms, removal of some sections of interior partitions and doors to the upper level of Adderton, and replacement of toilet facilities to the upper level of the House of Mercy. Within the courtyard formed by the House of Mercy, the lift’s motor room was demolished, new theatre stairs/seating was added at the ground (courtyard) level and a new freestanding shade structure added over.
\nIn 2020, alterations were made to the interior of the House of Mercy, within its central floor’s northwest and southwest wings, to accommodate a café fit-out. Wall nibs and heads were retained to retain an understanding of the early interior layout.
","criteria":"All Hallows' Convent was the first permanent home of the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland and has remained a focal point for their activities until the present day. From All Hallows', the Sisters of Mercy have established convents over the State from where their educational and social programmes are implemented. All Hallows' provides evidence of the development of the order in Queensland.
\nAll Hallows' School is the oldest surviving secondary school in Brisbane and is able to demonstrate the pattern of development of education particularly in privately managed schools in Queensland.
\nThe school and convent have remained an important feature of the Catholic Church in Queensland throughout the site's 130 year history reflected in the active interest of Archbishops Quinn, Dunne and Duhig in the planning and development of the institution.
|Several of the buildings on the site provide evidence of early social and cultural customs which are no longer practiced. St Ann's is one of the few Industrial Schools in Brisbane and thus provides rare evidence of earlier forms of technical education. The gatehouse acted as an almonry for many years and this was always an important element of the Sisters' social programmes. The convent, incorporating the former House of Mercy demonstrates the manner in which the Sisters of Mercy extended charity to whom they considered unfortunate women.
The core of the convent at All Hallow's is one of the earliest surviving houses in Brisbane, Adderton built for Dr George Fullerton in the 1850s. Features which remain extant from this building include a rare Queensland example of a geometric spiral stair, early glazing and timber joinery.
|Archaeological investigations of Adderton would, potentially, reveal early building construction techniques, materials and early land use of the site.
|There has been considerable change on the site, though very little demolition of buildings, and therefore the site retains an intact record of the growth of the school, and is a very good example of a nineteenth century convent and school site. The introspective nature of the site planning and the relationship among the various provide an intact physical manifestation of the Catholic ethos of female education during the nineteenth and twentieth century.
|The All Hallows' site is a prominent element of inner Brisbane, and in particular the Fortitude Valley area. The school and convent is a major landmark in Brisbane, given prominence by the dramatic skyline of the major buildings. The site is planned with cohesion, consciously introspective around central courts, manifesting traditional collegiate planning.
Several individual buildings have architectural merit, and together, form an important compendium of the works of many of Brisbane's premier architectural practitioners and firms. The site contains both large scale buildings which are prominently sited and well-designed, as well as more humble structures which contribute to the contextual environment of the larger buildings.
Individually the buildings are of aesthetic and architectural value. The Georgian proportion and restraint of Adderton influenced the additions of the Convent which is a well-sited and composed building suited to Brisbane's sub-tropical climate. Several of the 1920s and 1930s buildings on the site including the chapel extension, St Brigid's, the chaplain's residence and the art studio, are well composed buildings manifesting an influence of inter-war classicism. The former St Ann's Industrial School of 1894 is a well composed building with Gothic revival detailing and is an important element of Ann Street. The 1882 Main Building is, again, a well-composed building with sensitive additions and a good example of educational building design of the Victorian period. Aquinas Hall is a well-articulated building of the post-war period. Many of the garden areas and established trees contribute to the picturesque qualities of the place. The open areas of the school allow these buildings to maintain a close relationship with the river and surrounding areas whilst also providing appropriate settings.
Many individual features of the building are of very high quality and have significance for their craftsmanship. Such features include the timber joinery and stained glass panels in the Main Building, Convent and St Ann's.
|The school and convent has associations with many people of importance to Queensland history including Archbishops Quinn, Dunne and Duhig; Mother Mary Vincent Whitty who established the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland; and Mother Mary Potter who was a long time superior of the order. Many prominent Queensland architects and builders are associated with the site including Andrew Petrie, Andrea Stombuco, FDG Stanley, Hunter and Corrie, Hall and Dods, Hall and Prentice, GHM Addison and Frank Cullen.
|All Hallows' has special associations with various groups in Queensland; the Catholic Church as their major secondary school for females; the Sisters of Mercy as their head convent and principal school and the school community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14976,"place_ref":600201,"name":"Holy Trinity Rectory","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"141 Brookes Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Holy Trinity Rectory (1889) is situated adjacent to Holy Trinity Church (1876-77 with additions 1920-21 and 1929) and Holy Trinity Parish Hall (1891) in Fortitude Valley. All three buildings are located on a site bounded by Brookes, Church and Wickham streets at the northern end of Fortitude Valley. They complement each other in terms of scale, materials (each is of brick construction), use of Gothic stylistic elements and garden settings. The rectory is positioned to the south east of the church, fronting Brookes Street and to the north east of the parish hall, which faces Church Street.
The rectory is a two-storeyed brick building with verandahs to both floors. It has a core hipped roof and projecting gables to three elevations. At the rear is an attached, two-storeyed timber service wing with a hipped roof. All the roofs are clad with galvanized iron and the core roof has a ridge vent. Three single brick chimneys with vaulted tops rise above this roof and there is an external brick chimney at the end of the timber service wing.
The main gabled elevation to Brookes Street has a rendered plinth and is decorated with a rendered band at the upper floor level, rendered window sills, label moulds and panels below the windows. The projecting roof gable is supported on fretwork timber brackets and there is a circular vent to the gable peak. Windows in the projecting gable are in sets of three to each floor, with narrow brick mullions. The ground floor window in this gabled projection has a corrugated iron hood supported on decorative timber brackets.
The ground floor verandahs are supported on squat brick piers, with square timber verandah posts with cap moulds and brackets but no balustrade. A deep frieze below the upper floor has exposed timber cross-bracing with vertically jointed boards behind. The upper floor verandahs have the same square timber verandah posts as the ground floor, supporting skillion verandah roofs of galvanized iron separate to the main roof. The upper verandahs have a cast iron balustrade. The rear verandah has been enclosed with timber boards.
Most of the interior walls are of brick with a smooth plaster finish and most rooms have simple cornices and a high, narrow picture rail. Some rooms have decorative moulded plaster ceiling roses, but overall the decoration is very restrained. French doors open to the verandahs.
The building is set back from the street in a simple garden setting. There is a low retaining wall of rusticated, coursed stonework along the Brookes Street road alignment in front of the rectory. A timber picket fence separates the rectory yard from the church grounds.
","history":"The Holy Trinity Rectory at 141 Brookes Street, Fortitude Valley is a two-storeyed brick building constructed in 1889 to a design prepared by former Queensland Colonial Architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley.
The Church of England was the first institutional religion established in Queensland, with the parish of St John's in Brisbane created in 1849 as part of the Diocese of Newcastle. Land bounded by George, William and Elizabeth streets was granted to the church and St John's Church was consecrated on this site in 1854. This parish encompassed a wide district which extended well beyond the Brisbane town boundary and included Milton, Enoggera and Sandgate.
By the mid-1850s a village of 100 to 150 houses had been established at Fortitude Valley just north of the Brisbane town boundary and there were more homes scattered through the semi-bush to the north and east. For Valley residents, access to St John's Church at the southern end of North Brisbane was difficult. Principal access was via the steep, unformed track of Ann Street over Duncan's Hill, which was not cut down until the 1860s and 1870s. Wickham Street did not exist at this period; in its place was a series of ponds and brickyards.
In recognition of the increasing settlement of the district north of Brisbane, part of St John's parish separated in 1856 to form Holy Trinity parish. The new parish encompassed the areas of Fortitude Valley, Bowen Hills and New Farm and extended west to Enoggera and north to Sandgate. At first a cottage was rented at the corner of Ann and Ballow Streets for use as a Church of England school on weekdays and as a place of worship on Sundays. In 1857 the New South Wales government granted to the parish two acres of land bounded by Ann, Brookes, Church and Wickham streets for church purposes (the present site of the Holy Trinity Church, Rectory and Parish Hall). In the same year a long, stone building was erected on this site for use as a school room and temporary church.
The Diocese of Brisbane was formed in 1859, with Bishop Tufnell taking office as the first Bishop of Brisbane in 1860. At this time St John's Church was designated as the pro-Cathedral, and Holy Trinity parish was incorporated into the Diocese of Brisbane.
The first Holy Trinity rectory was built for Rev. John Mosely who was appointed in 1861. It was a stone building situated in Leichhardt Street between Quarry and Love streets, on a crown land grant to the Church which extended through to Water Street.
During the 1860s and 1870s Fortitude Valley developed as a commercial and residential centre and population density in the Valley and surrounding areas increased substantially. The 1857 stone building was enlarged in 1862 to accommodate an expanding congregation and by the mid-1870s Holy Trinity parish was committed to the construction of a new, larger church on the Brookes Street site. Designed in 1875 by the then Queensland Colonial Architect, FDG Stanley, the second Holy Trinity church was erected in 1876-77 by contractor James Robinson. The 1857 stone church/school building remained in use as a schoolroom.
As the parish grew, the disadvantages of having the rectory separated from the church eventually led to the construction in 1889 of a new rectory in Brookes Street, adjacent to Holy Trinity Church, at a cost of £1,935. Like the 1876-77 church, the second rectory was designed by FDG Stanley and constructed by builder James Robinson.
Stanley was born in Edinburgh in 1839 and trained in Scotland as an architect. He emigrated to Brisbane in 1862 and practised privately before gaining employment with the Queensland government in the office of the Colonial Architect, Charles Tiffin, in 1863. Following Tiffin's retirement Stanley was appointed Colonial Architect from 1 January 1872, a position he held until 1881. Throughout this period of government employment he accepted a number of private commissions and continued in private practice in Brisbane, Maryborough and Toowoomba after he left the public service. Stanley was a prolific architect and his work is found throughout Queensland.
Stanley's design for Holy Trinity Rectory was for a substantial brick house of two storeys with broad verandahs on both levels, projecting gables and a corrugated iron roof. Some of the stone from the former rectory in Leichhardt Street was recycled in a retaining wall along the Brookes Street boundary.
The 1889 residence continues to function as Holy Trinity Rectory.
","criteria":"Holy Trinity Rectory, Fortitude Valley is part of an ecclesiastical group comprising Holy Trinity Church (1876-77, 1920-21, 1929), Holy Trinity Rectory (1889) and Holy Trinity Hall (1891-92). The site has historical significance for its association with the establishment of the Anglican Church in Queensland and the surviving buildings are important evidence of the late 19th century consolidation of the Church of England in Queensland, which is an important theme in the state's history. The place also illustrates the expansion of suburban Brisbane in the late 19th century.
|Holy Trinity Rectory is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class: a substantial late 19th century rectory. In its scale (two-storeyed), use of materials (especially the brick construction and decorative cast iron work) and Gothic stylistic elements, the building is reflective of themes predominant in late 1880s boom-era residences in Brisbane. Holy Trinity parish was at its peak at this period and the building reflects the comparative wealth of the parishioners. However, restraint in the simple interior finishes and modest decorative detailing reflects the building's ecclesiastical function. The building is a good example of the ecclesiastical residential work of prolific Queensland architect FDG Stanley and has aesthetic significance generated by its design, materials and garden setting, which includes a stone and cast-iron retaining wall along the Brookes Street frontage.
|The building is a good example of the ecclesiastical residential work of prolific Queensland architect FDG Stanley and has aesthetic significance generated by its design, materials and garden setting, which includes a stone and cast-iron retaining wall along the Brookes Street frontage.
Holy Trinity Rectory makes a significant contribution to the Holy Trinity Precinct in Fortitude Valley. This group is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class: a substantially intact, cohesive, late 19th century Queensland ecclesiastical precinct. The cohesion is due to the consistency in scale, forms, materials, use of Gothic design elements, quality of architectural design and location within a garden setting (including mature trees and retaining walls). The arrangement and inter-relationship of the buildings on the site is important in illustrating how the precinct functions. Since the late 19th century Holy Trinity Precinct has made a significant aesthetic contribution to the Brisbane townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14977,"place_ref":600202,"name":"Holy Trinity Church","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"141 Brookes Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Holy Trinity Church is a substantial brick and stone building located on a site bound by Church, Wickham and Brookes Streets, Fortitude Valley. The church precinct includes the Holy Trinity Parish Hall (600203), and the Holy Trinity Rectory (600201).
The church has a central clerestoried nave which is flanked by aisles and intercepted by transepts midway. It sits on a stone base and is mainly constructed of dark brick laid in the English bond method, with the window surrounds, string courses and copings finished in cement render. The roof is of rolled metal which replaced the original Welsh slate roof of Duchess size tiles, and has cast iron cresting running along the ridge of the body and transepts of the church. A stone cross sits on the point of each gable end.
A pair of Gothic arched doors are centrally located in the symmetrically arranged south face of the building. They are set into a portal entrance of cement render and brick which features a hood moulding. An early pointed arched stained glass and tracery window is centred above the portal entrance, above which is a small rectangular window. The remainder of the south face consists of two smaller lancet windows on either side of the doors, and a gable end which is flanked by towers topped with pinnacles on either side. All of the brickwork to this face, apart from the portal entrance is bagged and painted.
The east and west faces of the church are similar, both having centrally located transepts flanked by four equal bays of windows, two on either side of the transept gables. These bays of windows are made up of three lancet windows of stained glass and surrounded by lighter brickwork and cement render. The bays are divided by buttresses of dark brick which have cement rendered copings. The transept gables have double doors located centrally between two small windows and have been bagged and painted to match the front face of the church. Above the doorway is a circular window with stone tracery and stained glass panels. This is also surrounded by lighter brickwork. The colours of the stained glass in these windows differs on each side of the building. There are eight clerestory windows on either side of the transept gables. These are replacements of the originals and are round arched with each window divided into three smaller arches. Centrally located in the roof line above these windows are two ventilation gablets, one on either side of the transept gables.
The north face or rear of the building is an addition to the original building, and was built in 1921. This addition had been included in the original design for the church and it was always intended that it be built as the parish grew. It is constructed in the same style and of the same materials as the remainder of the building and houses the chancel and vestry. The rear face is dominated by a large grouped lancet stained glass window which sits above the reredos internally. On the eastern side of the chancel is a small rectangular room which houses the vestry, and on the western side is a small polygonal room. The walls to these rooms are lower than the rest of the building and are capped with a concrete parapet punctuated with a quatrefoil design. These rooms are accessed externally by timber double doors which have a leadlight window above them. Both the doors and the window are set into a Gothic arch similar in style to those in the original part of the building.
Internally the walls are rendered masonry and scored to represent stone in places. The floor is concrete with two bands of encaustic tiles running the length of the nave and a feature pattern of encaustic and tessellated tiles at the entry. To the right of the entry doors is a semi circular staircase leading to the gallery which houses seating and an early organ. The seats to the gallery are of cedar and pine and appear to have a ventilation system located in the floor underneath them.
The nave arcade is made up of six cast iron pillars on either side. These are of complex section cast to resemble clustered pillars used in Early English churches and sit on octagonal rendered masonry bases. They are linked by a cast iron framework decorated with a punched quatrefoil motif, forming pointed arched openings. The spandrels are fitted with timber panels featuring alternating cutout patterns.
The roof construction of the body of the church has hammer beam roof trusses and is lined with timber boards which are laid diagonally. All timber work, including the pews is either natural teak or timber stained to a teak colour. Many pieces of liturgical furniture are retained in the church.
A high, pointed arch divides the nave from the chancel. This is dominated by the altar and the reredos which is carved of Yangan freestone. The sanctuary is defined by the altar rails which are timber carved and stained to match the rest of the timber work.
Situated in front of the chancel are the lectern and pulpit. The pulpit is also of carved freestone with detailing in pink marble. The lectern is brass and is in the shape of an eagle with outstretched wings.
","history":"Construction on The Holy Trinity Church in Fortitude Valley began in 1876 and was completed in 1877 by the Anglican Church. It was the second Anglican church on this site and the third in Fortitude Valley.
Fortitude Valley was established in 1849 and the first rector, The Rev. E.K. Yeatman, of 'our mother church in this portion of Australia' was appointed in 1856. The Holy Trinity Parish included Sandgate, New Farm, Enoggera and Bowen Hills, and as St Johns was situated on the site of what is now Queens Park, parishioners had difficulty attending services. 'The Ann Street cutting had not been started. There was no Wickham Street, only a row of ponds and brickyards on the site'. By 1856, it was apparent that St Johns was not large enough for the growing parish, and a new church was established in a rented cottage at the corner of Ann and Ballow Streets, across from what is now the Fortitude Valley Post Office. Divine services were held on Sunday, and a day school was conducted during the week.
In 1857 the parish was granted two acres of land for church purposes by the New South Wales government. This is the same site that the current church is now located on. The first building was constructed as a temporary church at a cost of £495, and was described as 'a long, plain building of rough stone and cut facings'. It was later enlarged at a further cost of £300.
The first rectory was built for The Reverend John Mosely who was appointed in 1861. It cost £650 and was situated in Leichhardt Street on land which extended to Water Street. This land was a Crown grant to the Church of England.
When the Rev. James Love was appointed in 1875, it was decided that a new church was required. 'From the acorn - as represented by the first cottage room - the oak of the present Trinity Church was bursting'. Church wardens John Bramston, Henry Whyborn and the Attorney General of Queensland began a fund raising appeal. The architect for the church was F.D.G. Stanley. Although he was employed as Colonial Architect at the time, the Holy Trinity church was one of his many private projects.
His initial drawings were for a stone building, but the tenders must have been too high as new plans were produced for a stone or brick building of smaller scale with options for the building to be built with or without a chancel and for the copings, window dressings and string courses to be of stone or cement.
He also designed a number of other churches of both brick and stone that were of a similar style and scale to the Holy Trinity. These included St Pauls at Maryborough, and the Holy Trinity at Mackay.
The corner stone of the Holy Trinity, Fortitude Valley was laid on Saturday April 29th, 1876 and the building was formally opened by Bishop Hale on Saturday July 21st, 1877. It was constructed without a chancel and with cement dressings by James Robinson, bricklayer and builder, at a cost of approximately £3000.
It was now apparent that the old rectory was too far away from the church and in 1891 it was sold. A new rectory, also designed by F.D.G. Stanley and constructed by James Robinson, was erected next to the church. In January 1892, the old church which was being used as a school was demolished and replaced with a new building to be used as a hall. This building was designed by diocesan architect J.H. Buckeridge.
In 1919 the Rev. Samuel Watkin went to Maryborough to inspect the chancel of St Pauls Church of England which had also been designed by F.D.G. Stanley. Upon his return he was instructed to begin interviewing architects to ascertain the cost of a new chancel.
Church records mention Mr Addison, architect in connection with the chancel. This could be G.H.M. Addison or his son G.F. Addison. Tenders were received by the church in April 1920 and ranged from £1775 to £2268. The new chancel and sanctuary were dedicated on Sunday, September 4th 1921 by Archbishop Donaldson.
Mr Addison was once again consulted when the rector received a cheque from a donor for the remodelling of the clerestory windows in 1925. He presented several designs, one of which was selected. It was estimated that it would cost between £500 and £600, and the donor instructed that specifications should proceed, saying 'it was possible that the design might be carried out. If so it would remove an ugly blot and substitute a thing of beauty'. The new clerestory windows were dedicated on June 14th 1925 by Archbishop Sharp.
On Sunday, November 10th 1929 the last major addition to the church, the new reredos was dedicated. It was designed by Lange L. Powell of Atkinson, Powell and Conrad, and was carved by A.L. Petrie.
Apart from a brick retaining wall that was erected in 1956 as a memorial to those who died in World War Two, the grounds and buildings have remained relatively intact from this date.
","criteria":"The Holy Trinity Church demonstrates the rapid growth of the Anglican community not only in Fortitude Valley but also in communities further to the North and East of Fortitude Valley.
|The building demonstrates the principal characteristics of a mid - Victorian interpretation of Early English Gothic architecture, and also an example of the ecclesiastical work of prominent Brisbane architect F.D.G. Stanley. It has a number of intact elements typical to this style, including the plan form and detailing which includes the gallery and organ, joinery and stained glass windows.
|As a substantial church in a prominent location, Holy Trinity Church is of considerable aesthetic value.
|The design uses particularly innovative building techniques for the period in which it was built. These include the cement flooring and the use of cast iron columns in the nave arcade.
|It was only seven years after the first settlers arrived in The Valley that the need arose for a new church. From that time, the church has had a strong association with the Anglican community.
The church contains many items of furniture of special value to the parish community.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14978,"place_ref":600203,"name":"Holy Trinity Parish Hall","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"141 Brookes Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Holy Trinity Parish Hall (1891-92) is situated adjacent to Holy Trinity Church (1876-77, 1920-21, 1929) and Holy Trinity Rectory (1889) in Fortitude Valley. All three buildings are located on a site bounded by Brookes, Church and Wickham streets at the northern end of Fortitude Valley. They complement each other in terms of scale, materials (each is of brick construction), use of Gothic stylistic elements and garden setting. The parish hall, fronting Church Street, is positioned to the south east of the church and to the south west of the rectory, which faces Brookes Street.
Holy Trinity Parish Hall is a substantial, single-storeyed brick building with a multi-gabled roof. It is a plain but well resolved design, incorporating motifs common to Gothic-styled ecclesiastical building in the cruciform plan, spire (roof ventilator), lancet windows and joinery detailing.
The building rests on a base of pale cream bricks and the red brick exterior walls are decorated with bands of the same cream brick, which accent the wall face and the window sills and heads. Windows are simple lancets and door openings have flat stone lintels with corbelled shoulders or pointed arches of cream brick. The roof is of corrugated iron over exposed timber framing, with a timber-boarded ceiling. There is a timber-framed spire with louvred ventilator openings at the crossing of the transepts with the main roof.
At the western corner of the building is a marble foundation stone or plaque with the inscription: This foundation stone was laid by the Bishop of Brisbane October 17th 1891. JH Buckeridge, architect. John Quinn, contractor.
Above the main entrance door is another plaque with the inscription: Trinity Sunday School opened by His Excellency Sir Henry Wylie Norman KGB, GCMG January 23rd 1892. J Spooner, rector. A Trimble, superintendent.
The interior comprises one large, high, open central space (the main hall) divided from four small former class rooms along each long side by lancet-arched openings with folding timber doors. The interior walls are plastered and the floor is of narrow timber boards.
A small front grassed yard to Church Street has some plantings and a low brick retaining wall along the road alignment.
","history":"Holy Trinity Parish Hall at Church Street, Fortitude Valley is a substantial brick building constructed in 1891-92 to the design of Brisbane architect JH Buckeridge. It replaced an earlier stone school room on the site.
The Church of England was the first institutional religion established in Queensland, with the parish of St John's in Brisbane created in 1849 as part of the Diocese of Newcastle. Land bounded by George, William and Elizabeth streets was granted to the church and St John's Church was consecrated on this site in 1854. This parish encompassed a wide district which extended well beyond the Brisbane town boundary and included Milton, Enoggera and Sandgate.
By the mid-1850s a village of 100 to 150 houses had been established at Fortitude Valley just north of the Brisbane town boundary and there were more homes scattered through the semi-bush to the north and east. For Valley residents, access to St John's Church at the southern end of North Brisbane was difficult. Principal access was via the steep, unformed track of Ann Street over Duncan's Hill, which was not cut down until the 1860s and 1870s. Wickham Street did not exist at this period; in its place was a series of ponds and brickyards.
In recognition of the increasing settlement of the district north of Brisbane, part of St John's parish separated in 1856 to form Holy Trinity parish. The new parish encompassed the areas of Fortitude Valley, Bowen Hills and New Farm and extended west to Enoggera and north to Sandgate. At first a cottage was rented at the corner of Ann and Ballow Streets for use as a Church of England school on weekdays and as a place of worship on Sundays. In 1857 the New South Wales government granted to the parish two acres of land bounded by Ann, Brookes, Church and Wickham streets for church purposes (the present site of the Holy Trinity Church, Rectory and Parish Hall). In the same year a long, stone building was erected on this site for use as a school room and temporary church.
The Diocese of Brisbane was formed in 1859, with Bishop Tufnell taking office as the first Bishop of Brisbane in 1860. At this time St John's Church was designated as the pro-Cathedral, and Holy Trinity parish was incorporated into the Diocese of Brisbane.
During the 1860s and 1870s Fortitude Valley developed as a commercial and residential centre and population density in the Valley and surrounding areas increased substantially. The 1857 stone building was enlarged in 1862 to accommodate an expanding congregation and by the mid-1870s Holy Trinity parish was committed to the construction of a new, larger church on the Brookes Street site. Designed in 1875 by the then Queensland Colonial Architect, FDG Stanley, the second Holy Trinity church was erected in 1876-77 by contractor James Robinson. The 1857 stone church/school building remained in use as a schoolroom. In 1889 a new rectory was constructed fronting Brookes Street, replacing an earlier rectory in Leichhardt Street.
In 1891 the parish's Leichhardt Street property was sold for £3,500 and the stone schoolroom was demolished to make way for the present brick parish hall in Church Street. The sale of the Leichhardt Street land likely financed construction of the new hall.
Holy Trinity Parish Hall was designed as a Sunday school-cum-hall by architect John Hingeston Buckeridge. As Brisbane Diocesan architect from 1887 to 1902, Buckeridge was responsible for many Church of England ecclesiastical buildings in southeast Queensland, including: the Church of St John the Baptist, Bulimba (1888); St Matthew's Church, Kilkivan (1888); St Mary's Church, Mount Morgan (1888-89); St Andrew's Rectory, South Brisbane (1889); St Mary's Rectory and additions to the church hall, Kangaroo Point (1889); St Agnes' Church, Esk (1889); St George's Church, Redland Bay (1889-90); the church-school of St Michaels and All Angels at New Farm (1890-91); Holy Trinity Rectory, Woolloongabba (1890-91); Anglican churches at Killarney, St George, Woodford and Yuleba in 1891; Christ Church, Milton (1891); Christ Church, Bundaberg (1892-99); St Luke's, Toowoomba (1894); St Augustine's, Hamilton (1895-96); the Anglican Church Institute and Synod Hall in Brisbane (1895-97); St Colomb's at Sandgate (1899); St John the Evangelist Church at Mundoolun (1899); St Paul's, Roma; and the Childers Church of England Church (1899). Buckeridge also designed the All Souls' Quetta Memorial Church (later Cathedral) on Thursday Island (1892-93).
The foundation stone of the new parish school was laid by the Bishop of Brisbane, Dr Webber, on 17 October 1891. The building was completed in approximated 3 months by contractor John Quinn at a cost of £1,775, which included stabling at the rear of the building. It was opened formally as the Holy Trinity Sunday School by the Governor of Queensland, Sir Henry Wylie Norman, on 23 January 1892.
At completion the building was described in the local press as 'a very creditable addition to the architecture of the Valley.' It contained a main hall measuring 92ft by 24ft, two transepts each 24ft by 14ft and four classrooms, each 17ft by 12ft. The classrooms were separated from the main hall and transepts by arches and folding timber doors, which could be opened to allow the whole to be used as one hall. At one end of the main hall was a platform or stage, with a library at one side and a retiring room on the other, each 12ft by 8ft; at the other end of the main hall was a raised infants' gallery, which could accommodate 100 children. In total, the building could accommodate over 500 children or 400 adults comfortably. The interior was finished originally in face brick.
The majority of Brisbane Diocesan buildings of this period were constructed of timber, which was less expensive than stone or brick. Construction of a parish hall-cum-school room in brick was uncommon and the substantial nature of the Holy Trinity Parish Hall reflects the strength of Holy Trinity parish in the late 19th century.
","criteria":"Holy Trinity Parish Hall, Fortitude Valley is part of an ecclesiastical group comprising Holy Trinity Church (1876-77, 1920-21 & 1929), Holy Trinity Rectory (1889) and Holy Trinity Parish Hall (1891-92). The site has historical significance for its association with the establishment of the Anglican Church in Queensland and the surviving buildings are important evidence of the late 19th century consolidation of the Church of England in Queensland, which is an important theme in the state's history. The place also illustrates the expansion of suburban Brisbane in the late 19th century.
|Holy Trinity Parish Hall demonstrates an uncommon aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage, being one of comparatively few 19th century Church of England parish halls of brick construction in Queensland.
|Holy Trinity Parish Hall is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class. It is a substantial school room-cum-hall utilising Gothic stylistic elements popular in ecclesiastical buildings of the period, including the cruciform plan, ridge ventilator in the form of a small spire, lancet windows and joinery detailing. Holy Trinity parish was at its peak in the late 19th century and the parish hall, in its substantial scale and brick construction, reflects the comparative wealth of the parishioners, while restraint in the interior finishes and modest decorative detailing reflects the building's ecclesiastical function.
The building is a good example of the ecclesiastical work of Brisbane Diocesan architect JH Buckeridge and has aesthetic significance generated by its design, materials and garden setting.
Holy Trinity Parish Hall makes a significant contribution to the Holy Trinity Precinct in Fortitude Valley. This group is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class: a substantially intact, cohesive, late 19th century Queensland ecclesiastical precinct. The cohesion is due to the consistency in scale, forms, materials, use of Gothic design elements, quality of architectural design and location within a garden setting (including mature trees and retaining walls). The arrangement and inter-relationship of the buildings on the site is important in illustrating how the precinct functions.
|The building is a good example of the ecclesiastical work of Brisbane Diocesan architect JH Buckeridge and has aesthetic significance generated by its design, materials and garden setting.
Since the late 19th century Holy Trinity Precinct has made a significant aesthetic contribution to the Brisbane townscape.
|Holy Trinity Parish Hall is of social significance, being associated with the work of the Holy Trinity parish since 1892.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14979,"place_ref":600204,"name":"Gregory Place & Gregory Hall","alternate_name":"Fortitude Valley Wesleyan Church and Church Hall | Fortitude Valley Methodist Church and Church Hall | Epworth Centre","street_address":"116-120 Brookes Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Gregory Place (1888) and Gregory Hall (1871) are two Gothic influenced red brick and cement render former churches. The buildings sit at right angles to each other; Gregory Place fronts Brookes Street, while Gregory Hall runs parallel to the street. The buildings are complementary in form, detail and materials, although Gregory Place is more elaborately ornamented. The buildings sit within and contribute to both a late nineteenth century streetscape and a precinct of Gothic influenced church buildings.
The modest 1871 building is a simple hall with buttressed brick walls and a steeply pitched corrugated iron roof. It has single triangular head lancet windows between buttresses to the side walls. The south-eastern elevation, formerly the 'front' elevation, has a central pointed arch entrance, flanked by paired lancets, with a group of three lancets to the pinnacle of the gable. The north-western elevation has two pointed arched entrances and a group of three lancets.
The ornamentation of openings and wall surfaces is also modest but fine: the windows have slightly projecting corbelled triangular heads; the end gables have brick pointed arch courses above the grouped windows; the windows sills, buttress copings and plinth are picked out in cement render, and diagonal brick end courses decorate the sills, cornice and plinth.
The interior of the 1871 building is painted brick, spanned by timber hammerbeam trusses landing on impost blocks. The ceiling is timber-lined with exposed rafters, and is finished with a band of diagonally laid brick ends. The windows are diamond-glazed. The refurbishment of the interior has included an extensive timber mezzanine, with beams which abut existing walls, exposed air conditioning ducts, new toilets and a kitchen.
The 1888 building is also essentially a simple hall, embellished with parapeted gables with turrets at the ends, and rich decoration of openings and wall surfaces. It has a steeply pitched concrete tiled roof, with an octagonal spire springing from the ridge. A gabled annex is attached to the rear.
The building has buttressed walls, pointed arched tracery windows, and rosette windows to the gable ends. The street elevation has a recessed entry with floriated colonnettes surmounted by a large tracery window and small lancet windows. The building is decorated with white cement render to copings, cornices and window surrounds; it also has stone hood mouldings, beige brick voussoirs, a dado with quatrefoil motifs and a rendered plinth. The gables and turrets to the Brookes Street end are topped with small finials.
The 1888 building has a rendered masonry interior, with an organ recess and vestry to the north-eastern end, and a timber panelled entry vestibule at the south-western end. The latter contains a timber WWI Honour Roll, and is flanked by timber stairs leading to a timber choir loft supported by two floriated colonnettes. The roof is supported by timber hammerbeam trusses with a king post landing on floriated imposts, and has a diagonally-timbered ceiling with exposed purlins and triangular vents, which is finished with a deep plaster cornice. The two gables to the side elevations are expressed in the ceiling over the choir loft, and a horizontal timber panel with a carved rose covers the base of the spire. The organ recess has a stencilled, half-domed ceiling with a rich moulding to its reveal, and is framed with floriated colonettes.
The windows are mostly richly patterned stained glass, including two-light tracery windows lining the east and west walls, a larger four-light window over the choir loft, and rosettes to the side gables and above the organ recess. The internal refurbishment is similar to that of the 1870 building, and has included an extensive timber mezzanine with beams which abut existing walls, exposed air conditioning ducts, new toilets and a kitchen in the vestry area, and additional partitioning for offices.
Externally, the two buildings are unusually complementary in form, materials and details, the later building being a richer elaboration of the modest but fine earlier building. The 1871 building contains some fine, simple timber and brick detailing, while the 1888 interior comprises more lavish plaster and carved timber decoration. Much of the buildings remain intact in form and detail. The spatial quality of the interiors, however, has been substantially altered by the installation of the mezzanine, air conditioning ducts and new partitioning.
","history":"The former Fortitude Valley Wesleyan Church and Church Hall were erected in 1887-88 and 1870-71 respectively, on a site in Ann Street granted to the Wesleyan Church by the Crown in 1861. The site fronted what was then known as the Eagle Farm Road (later Ann Street), and included allotments for a church, school and parsonage.
The first Fortitude Valley Wesleyan Church had been erected on another site in Ann Street in 1856. At that time, the Valley was part of the Brisbane Circuit.
In 1867, the Brisbane Circuit was divided into two: the Valley and Albert Street. The new Valley Circuit was a large one, embracing Eagle Farm, Nundah and Sandgate, and was centred on the small Ann Street church.
In 1870-71, a larger church, which could seat 400 persons, was built on the 1861 land grant, fronting Ann Street. It was the first church to be erected in the new Valley Circuit. The foundation stone was laid on 31 October 1870, and the opening service was held on 26 March 1871. It was designed by Brisbane architect James Cowlishaw and erected by contractor Thomas Reading at a cost of approximately £1,050. At the time, the brick building with its slate roof was one of the most substantial churches in Brisbane.
Also in 1871, a small timber parsonage was constructed at the rear of the church. This building was replaced in 1885 by a larger parsonage, Epworth, at 53 Brookes Street. The original parsonage is no longer extant.
In the 1880s, the Valley developed as a major retail and residential centre, and Brisbane's northern suburbs expanded as the large estates of the 1860s and 1870s were subdivided. The Valley Wesleyan congregation expanded also, and the decision was taken in 1886 to erect a larger church adjacent to the 1870-71 building, but facing Brookes Street, on the same land grant. The new church was designed by Brisbane architect George Simkin in 1887 and constructed by contractor Blair Cunningham in 1887-88. The final cost of the building, including furniture and fittings, was £4,941. The foundation stone was laid on 20 August 1887, and the opening service was held on 13 January 1889.
The stained glass windows were imported from Munich. The organ, now removed, was commenced in Brisbane by Edward Wauldron in 1887 and completed by Thomas Christmas in 1889. Christmas, who arrived in Brisbane from Melbourne in 1877, was a musical instrument dealer and piano and organ builder, and is credited with having constructed most of the locally-made organs in Queensland by 1888.
The vestries were part of in the initial design, but appear to have been added at a later date. The glass windows in these rooms were supplied by Exton & Gough of Brisbane.
After the new church was built, the old church was used as the church hall.
The new Valley Wesleyan Church enhanced the status of Methodism in Brisbane. For a short time prior to the new Albert Street Wesleyan Church (QHR 600066), erected in 1888-89, gaining prominence, the new Valley church was the leading Wesleyan church in the city.
The Valley Wesleyan Church has been described as a "Mother of Churches". From here, many Northern Brisbane suburban churches were opened, from Windsor to North Pine and Sandgate, which ultimately became centres of new circuits.
Following the 1898 unification of Queensland's various Methodist groups - Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, Bible Christians, and United Free Methodists - the Brookes Street church became known as the Fortitude Valley Methodist Church.
Following the establishment of the Uniting Church in 1977, the Fortitude Valley Methodist Church and Church Hall were closed, with the final service, revoking their status as sacred buildings, conducted on 27 February 1977. The secular buildings were renamed the Epworth Centre; the former church was let to the TN! Theatre Company, and the Valley Child Care Centre operated in the hall. In 1985 the buildings were sold to the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia Queensland Incorporated, and renamed Gregory Place and Gregory Hall, in honour of former Queensland explorer and surveyor-general, Sir Augustus Charles Gregory. Both buildings have been refurbished as offices, with the headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society located in the 1871 building (Gregory Hall).
","criteria":"Gregory Place and Gregory Hall are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, providing evidence of the development and growth of the Wesleyan Church in Brisbane and as one of a group of substantial churches built in Fortitude Valley in the 1870s and 1880s, reflecting the residential growth of the Valley and adjacent suburbs in the last quarter of the 19th century.
|The 1888 building demonstrates the principal characteristics of a substantial, ornate, brick church of the late 1880s, in Brisbane.
|The buildings exhibit aesthetic characteristics which are valued by the community, in particular; their aesthetic cohesion due to their complementary scale, form, detail and materials, their contribution to both the Brookes Street townscape and the precinct of Gothic-influenced church buildings which includes the Holy Trinity Church and Rectory, the modest but fine quality of the detailing of the 1871 building and the fine and elaborate quality of the crafted elements of the 1888 building, in particular the stained glass windows and ornaments to the buildings fabric in timber, stone and plaster.
|Gregory Place and Gregory Hall have a special association as the "Mother Church" from which most of the North Brisbane Methodist churches, from Windsor to Sandgate and North Pine, devolved.
|Gregory Place and Gregory Hall have a special association with the work of the Methodist Church, in particular that of the Wesleyan Church, in Brisbane from 1870 to 1977 and with Brisbane architects James Cowlishaw and George Simkin, being examples of their ecclesiastical work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14981,"place_ref":600206,"name":"Potters Gallery","alternate_name":"Fortitude Valley Primitive Methodist Church | Brunswick Street Uniting Church | Brunswick Street Methodist Church","street_address":"483 Brunswick Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Potters Gallery, a single-storeyed rendered masonry building with a stone plinth, is located on a raised corner site overlooking Brunswick Street and is accessed via twin stairs built into a carefully articulated and unpainted brick retaining wall.
The steep pitch gabled roof is clad with corrugated iron, and the building shows a strong Gothic influence in its design.
The rectangular plan consists of five bays with buttressed walls, and a rear storeroom with a corrugated iron skillion roof. Each bay houses a single lancet window, each of which is glazed with a sandblasted glass panel.
The symmetrical, highly decorative northern elevation has twin pointed arch doorways with entrance porches, a single lancet window and a rose window above. Access is via a twin set of stone stairs, and the elevation is framed by twin spires. The building has decorative timber work to eaves and bargeboards, with decorative mouldings around windows.
The southern elevation has a rose window above the original pulpit with the storeroom attached below. The rose windows are glazed in red, blue and yellow glass panels.
Internally, open timber trusses are positioned in line with the buttresses and the ceiling is boarded. Interior walls are rendered and a steel mezzanine has been inserted, supported by twelve columns and attached to the side walls in four places. Access is via a stair from the original raised pulpit platform which has the original pulpit and rail.
The storeroom has fanlights above windows and doors, and has been partially partitioned. A recent administration building is located to the rear of the building.
","history":"This brick building was erected in 1876 for the Primitive Methodist congregation of Brisbane, on a site in Brunswick Street acquired by The Corporation of the Primitive Methodist Connexion in 1875.
It was the third Primitive Methodist Church erected in Brisbane. Primitive Methodist Services conducted by lay preachers commenced in Brisbane in 1859, and the first minister arrived the following year. A small church was built in Windmell (now McLachlan) Street, Fortitude Valley, in 1861, and shortly afterwards, a second church was erected in Adelaide Street. By the mid-1870s, a new church was necessary to serve the expanding Fortitude Valley population.
Plans for the new church were drawn by Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, who designed a substantial number of Protestant churches in Queensland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the Wickham Terrace Baptist Tabernacle (QHR 600175), opened in 1890. Tenders for the Brunswick Street church were called in February 1876, and the contract was let to John Smith & Sons of Adelaide Street. Several foundation stones were laid on 1 March 1876, and the building was completed in about five and a half months at a cost of approximately £1,100, including fittings. The opening service was conducted on 24 September 1876. The Brunswick Street church became the centre of Primitive Methodism in Brisbane.
One of the most successful of the church's activities was the establishment of the Fortitude Valley Penny Savings Bank, which operated from the church premises from 1886 until 1982, and then from a private residence until wound up in 1993. Penny Savings Banks had operated in Brisbane from at least the 1870s, and generally were run by churches, working men's associations or lodges. They were neither registered banking institutions nor building or friendly societies; the aim of these banks appears to have been more to encourage people who could not afford the minimum deposit required by regular savings banks, to save. The Fortitude Valley Penny Savings Bank was established by Mr H Bennett, and maintained primarily by the Bennett family for over a century. Associated initially with the Primitive Methodist Sunday School, the bank later offered first mortgage housing loans. It was autonomous from the working of the church, but profits were donated to church maintenance and special projects.
Following the 1898 unification of Queensland's various Methodist groups - Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, Bible Christians, and United Free Methodists - the Fortitude Valley Primitive Methodist Church became known as the Brunswick Street Methodist Church.
The building was extended in 1900, when a vestry and classroom were added at the rear of the building. These extensions were planned to commemorate the advent of the 20th century.
In 1935-36, a timber hall was constructed at the rear of the property. Plans were drawn by Rev FA Malcolm, and the building was erected by voluntary labour, at a cost of £375. A stump-capping ceremony was held on 17 August 1935, and the hall was opened on
5 April 1936. This building has been altered substantially, and does not form part of the present entry in the Heritage Register.
In 1977 the congregation joined the Uniting Church and combined with the Fortitude Valley Presbyterian Church. The Brunswick Street church was required no longer, and was sold to the Queensland Potters Association in 1982. The Association refurbished the building and added a steel-framed mezzanine floor. In 1983 it opened the Potters Gallery on the premises to display and sell members' work.
","criteria":"The Potters Gallery is important in demonstrating the establishment and evolution of Primitive Methodism in Queensland in the second half of the 19th century.
|The Potters Gallery is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular its contribution, through scale, form and materials, to the Brunswick Street streetscape and Fortitude Valley townscape and its highly decorative northern street elevation.
|The Potters Gallery has a special association with Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, as an example of his ecclesiastical work and with the Fortitude Valley Penny Savings Bank for nearly a century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14982,"place_ref":600207,"name":"La Scala","alternate_name":"Craig Athol","street_address":"517 Brunswick Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"La Scala is a three-storeyed timber building which sits on a narrow corner site overlooking Brunswick Street and has a hipped terracotta tiled roof with decorative finials.
The three levels are dissimilar in plan, and consist of offices on the ground floor and a single residence on each of the floors above linked via a stairwell bay. The building shows influences of a mixture of stylistic trends in the treatment of materials and the spatial organisation.
A roofdeck above the ground floor overlooks Brunswick Street and is surfaced with fibro tiles. The rear of the building sits on tall timber stumps and the perimeter has batten screens. The building is clad in weatherboard and features a bay window stairwell to the north.
There is a rough cast concrete and brick pier retaining wall to both street frontages. Entry to the ground floor is via a set of stairs built into the retaining wall on the northern side. Levels two and three are accessed via a timber stair and porch on the eastern side.
Verandahs on levels two and three have been enclosed with timber screens and an assortment of louvred, casement, sliding and hopper windows. Verandahs have solid weatherboard balustrading with inverted semicircular openings with batten infill.
Levels one and two have terracotta tile awnings with timber brackets. Two offices have been added to the rear of the ground level, and a rear bedroom and side bathroom, both with corrugated iron skillion roofs, have been added to level two.
The office foyer has an external timber door with glass sidelights and fanlight, and an internal timber door with decorative leadlight in the door, sidelights and fanlight.
The foyer to level two features decorative leadlight in the sidelights, fanlight and oval window. The internal timber stair balustrade consists of wide battens with a stylised tulip fretwork motif, and the bay has casement windows.
All public rooms on levels one and two feature decorative plaster ceilings, which vary in design from room to room. The lounge and dining rooms on level two, seperated by a timber screen, have the most ornate ceilings consisting of borders of fruit.
Internal walls are single skin vertically jointed boards. Windows are mainly casement with fanlights above and french doors open onto verandahs and the front deck.
","history":"The three-storeyed timber house was built in 1914 for Dr THR Mathewson to a design by architect TR Hall. Mathewson named the house Craig Athol. He operated his practice from the ground floor and lived in the house above.
In 1923 he moved his practice to Wickham Terrace but continued to live in the house, renting out the ground floor to another doctor. The house and surgery were owned and occupied by a number of doctors over the years before being turned into flats in the 1970s. The original stables were demolished and a small addition was built on the rear of the house.
In 1980 the property was bought by its current owner who is restoring it. The ground floor, which was enlarged in the 1980s, housed an architectural practice for some years until 1992 and is now divided into three separate tenancies.
","criteria":"La Scala is significant as it demonstrates innovative architectural ideas including the large roofdeck for outdoor living, the free planforms linked via the stairwell bay, and the stylistic innovation in the use of decorative elements and materials.
La Scala is significant for the unusual scale and form of the building and retaining walls and the contribution these elements make to the Brunswick Street streetscape. Also significant is the aesthetic quality of decorative elements including plaster ceilings, timber batten detailing, leadlight panels and timber work.
La Scala is significant as an example of the domestic work of architect TR Hall.
|La Scala is significant for the unusual scale and form of the building and retaining walls and the contribution these elements make to the Brunswick Street streetscape. Also significant is the aesthetic quality of decorative elements including plaster ceilings, timber batten detailing, leadlight panels and timber work.
|La Scala is significant as it demonstrates innovative architectural ideas including the large roofdeck for outdoor living, the free planforms linked via the stairwell bay, and the stylistic innovation in the use of decorative elements and materials.
|La Scala is significant as an example of the domestic work of architect TR Hall.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14983,"place_ref":600208,"name":"Holy Name Cathedral Site","alternate_name":"Holy Name Crypt and built sections of the Holy Name Cathedral","street_address":"Gipps Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Holy Name Cathedral site is located between Gotha, Ann and Gipps Streets in Fortitude Valley. South-west of the site is an open space known as Centenary Place, which provides vista from the site to the City beyond. All Hallows School [600200] is located south-east of the site. The majority of the site is generally level, but elevated above street level.
Remnants of the Holy Name Cathedral site perimeter walls face Ann Street and Gotha Street. The walls are detailed in the Revival Classic architectural style and constructed of reinforced concrete with a coursed ashlar porphry stone facing. The wasll steps out at the rear and is separated from the solid rock face behind it. The gap between the wall and the rock face is rubble filled.
The base of the wall is constructed of porphry blocks with punched faces and tooled margins. The wall is capped with a freestone balustrade however the balusters have been removed and only the solid panels remain.
There are niches in the Gotha Street perimeter wall that are constructed of freestone and granite, and there is evidence that they once contains water features.
","history":"During the years 1912 to 1927, the Catholic Church undertook a building program in the Brisbane Archdiocese of enormous proportions. The quantity and quality of the buildings erected by the Catholic Church at that time represent a significant proportion of the best twentieth century architecture of Brisbane. Most were designed by eminent architects of the day and were located on hill tops to create landmarks that dominate Brisbane's skyline.
The site chosen for the proposed Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Name had strong and long standing associations with the Roman Catholic Church in Fortitude Valley. In 1862 Bishop Quinn took residence in a house named 'Dara' that had been built on the site in 1850. The building was replaced in 1890-91 by a much grander house of the same name, however in 1928 it too, was demolished to make way for the proposed Holy Name Cathedral. The site, near the intersection of Ann and Boundary Streets, was also an area of immense town planning interest.
The concept of a Holy Name Cathedral was the dream of Archbishop James Duhig (1871-1965). Duhig was a towering figure in the Catholic Church in Australia who played a significant role in the community not only as a churchman, but also as a politician, fundraiser and diplomat. Although Brisbane already had a Roman Catholic Cathedral, St Stephens (QHR 600107), completed in 1874 in Elizabeth Street, Duhig felt that this building and site were not a sufficiently glorious manifestation of Christendom as he perceived it. He maintained that in modern times the art of cathedral building had deteriorated and he saw himself as the patron to revise that art. An essential element of Duhig's dream was to have the foundation stone of the new cathedral laid by one of the Cardinals of the Vatican.
From the beginning it was proposed that the Holy Name Cathedral would become amongst the largest in the southern hemisphere. Particular emphasis was put on 'high class' architecture together with the use of Australian materials and workmanship. In 1927 the initial cost of the cathedral was estimated at £750 000. Fund-raising for a project of this size would have needed to have been on a scale unprecedented for a church in Australia. Duhig devised several strategies for raising the required funds, amongst them several unsuccessful investments in prospecting for oil at Roma. Another speculative venture was the formation of the Queensland firm of Benedict Stone Queensland Pty. Ltd. in 1928. The company produced a reconstructed stone based on an American process that intended for use on the new cathedral. Foundations for the proposed building use some Benedict stonework.
The design of the Holy Name Cathedral is attributed to the Sydney architectural firm of Hennessy, Hennessy & Co. During the 1920's, Duhig had worked with Jack Hennessy, son of the founder of the firm, on several ecclesiastical projects such as Stuartholme Convent at Bardon and the first stage of Villa Maria Convent in St Pauls Terrace, Brisbane. The plan of the Renaissance style cathedral was a Latin Cross formation, consisting of a 27.5 metre (90 feet) wide nave divided into a main central aisle and two processional aisles each 36.5 metres (120 feet) long. Across the transept it was to measure 66 metres (216 feet). The full length of the cathedral was 104 metres (340 feet). The proposed height of the main wall was 25.5 metres (83 feet) and flanking towers 39 metres (128 feet). The dome was to be covered with copper and surmounted by an enormous bronze cross. The exterior walls were to be built of polychromatic brickwork and terra cotta, although later the decision was made to face the building with Benedict Stone.
The first work to be completed on the site was the Ann Street perimeter wall. The wall, which was designed by Hennessy Hennessy and Co as part of the overall cathedral scheme, was paid for and built by the Brisbane City Council in return for the resumption of about 10 metres of church
Turning of the first sods on the Holy Name Cathedral site occurred in the presence of church and city leaders on 9 June 1927. Preliminary excavation and the setting of the concrete foundations for the towers and a larger portion of the perimeter walls took place in early 1928. Sunday, 16 September 1928, was the date for the consecration of the foundation stone by Papal Legate, Cardinal Cerretti, who had come to Australia for the Eucharistic Congress in Sydney. The occasion attracted 35 000 people and was highlighted by the placement of earth and stone from Rome under a foundation stone that had the Papal Arms emblazoned with the Cardinal's on the side. A matching block displaying the Duhig coat of arms was also laid over a foundation containing soil from the four provinces of Ireland.
Financial difficulties continued to plague to Holy Name Cathedral project and were exacerbated by the deep economic Depression affecting the entire nation. Between 1930 and 1935 Duhig managed to scrape together enough money to complete the crypt but no further constructional work on the Holy Name Cathedral site was ever made. A legal battle with the architects over payment of fees in 1950 and a formal church protest against Duhig, claiming imprudence, irresponsibility, malevolence and subservience to the wealthy, put an end to the dream of a new cathedral. Following the it is believed that Duhig never mentioned the cathedral in public again and took his dream with him when he died in 1965.
Removal of the two foundation stones and return of holy earth to Rome
In February 1985 the Roman Catholic Church sold the Holy Name Cathedral site to FA Pidgeon & Son Pty. Ltd. An application to demolish the built sections of the cathedral was submitted to the Heritage Committee in September 1991. In 1992 approval was given to demolish the crypt, the church foundations, the steps and part of the wall along Gotha Street. The perimeter walls along Ann Street and part of Gotha Street were retained.
","criteria":"The remaining elements of the site are the only physical relics of Duhig's dream to build the largest cathedral in Australia, and of the design as documented by Hennessy Hennessy & Co., architects. The proposed development of the site was also the impetus for Duhig's speculative venture in the formation of the Queensland firm of Benedict Stone, a reconstructed stone used on several significant buildings in Brisbane.
The boundary walls are of significance by their association with the 1928 visit of Papal Legate, Cardinal Cerretti, a direct link with the Vatican and one of the most spectacular ceremonies that Brisbane has witnessed.
|The perimeter walls of the site provide a visual link between the church's other religious establishments in the area, and have a significant influence on the surrounding streetscape, particularly Centenary Park, the form and axial layout of which are a direct response to the design of the proposed cathedral. The site's pivotal location between the Brisbane city centre and Fortitude Valley has played an important role in the development of town planning schemes that attempted to unite the two areas.
|The Holy Name site has long standing associations with the Roman Catholic Church in Fortitude Valley.
|The Holy Name Cathedral site contains evidence that demonstrates its association with Archbishop Duhig, an important leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Queensland, who had a pervasive influence on both church and national life and was renowned for his involvement in the establishment of a number of church buildings in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14984,"place_ref":600209,"name":"Old Museum Building","alternate_name":"Exhibition Building | Concert Hall","street_address":"480 Gregory Terrace","suburb":"BOWEN HILLS","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Old Museum Building is prominently located near the corner of a 1.5 hectare site at the intersection of Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace. The freestanding building is orientated roughly north-south and is surrounded by well laid out gardens and numerous outbuildings.
The building is basically a single storied structure containing both a mezzanine and basement level. Externally the building exhibits many characteristics of the Romanesque architectural style such as boldly articulated walls constructed in contrasting bands of red and cream brickwork, strongly modelled semicircular openings and numerous polygonal turrets. The principal facade of the building is symmetrical and its three dimensional form creates a striking profile by the use of parapeted gables and a pair of cupola roofed towers. Stucco string courses, copings and finials decorate the polychromatic brick walls. Terracotta relieves the walls in a few places such as the central arch of the Concert Hall porch and the spandrel above it. The terracotta openwork parapets that originally topped the walls, have mostly been removed. The base course of each wall is constructed of dark glazed brickwork.
The building is mostly lit by arch headed windows with timber multi-pane sashes in both the arched and Diocletian type form. The large window at the western end of the Exhibition Hall has fixed coloured leadlight glazing in timber frames, reinforced with iron bars in traditional fashion.
The building's two main wings were originally roofed with corrugated galvanised iron, of which none has survived. The domed tops of the towers at the front of the Concert Hall are roofed with sheet metal, which may be the original.
The building's interior has been more radically altered than the exterior, although it generally retains the form it acquired during the museum conversion. The Concert Hall's interior retains its original volume and general form, although much of the fabric of the galleries has been removed, along with the organ, stage and raking auditorium floor.
The Exhibition Hall interior retains the form it attained during the 1890s' conversion into a museum space including the gallery floor level, clerestory windows, ceiling lining and roof ventilation system. Public toilets have been constructed at the eastern end of the hall. The original port cochere has been enclosed to form a lobby. Roller doors and partitions have been introduced at the north-east and south-east corners of the ground floor level.
The basement level, located directly beneath the Exhibition Hall, displays the form it had after the museum conversion. The space is divided into various rooms with half-glazed timber partitions. Glazed floor lights with cast iron frames are set into the floor of the hall above. A trolley track and trapdoor have been installed to allow specimens to be moved up into the Exhibition Hall.
The grounds surrounding the Old Museum Building essentially retain the same character and layout they had when they were first developed. Additional outbuildings, introduced as a result of accommodation pressures, have partially intruded on the gardens and their condition has declined generally due to limitations on resources.
","history":"Among the first Europeans to use the site now bounded by Bowen Bridge Road, O'Connell Terrace, Brookes Street and Gregory Terrace, was by the Acclimatisation Society of Queensland in 1863. The Society used the site to grow and propagate the plants and seeds sent from other parts of the colony and around the world. They built an office and boardroom, bush-house and glasshouse, and had an orchard and gardens for decorative plants. Various introduced animals were kept and grazed on the site. It seems the plantings were extensive and quickly developed - by 1871 the Society's garden was seen as a place of public institution and recreation. In 1887 the creek in the lower area, where the railway now runs, was damned to form a series of decorative ponds. The Society played an important role in the beginnings of commercial agriculture in Queensland, and introduced or trialed many crops including mango trees, ginger plants, sugar cane, olive trees and choco vines.
\nAs Brisbane developed, the Society's grounds came under some pressure from other prospective users. In 1875, 23 acres of land was leased as an exhibition ground to the Queensland National Agricultural and Industrial Association. Brisbane's first Exhibition Building was opened at the junction of Gregory Terrace and Bowen Bridge Road on 22 August 1876. When the timber building was destroyed by fire in June 1888, a competition was immediately organised to design a more permanent Exhibition Building on the same site. The competition was held and prizes were awarded, however a new building did not immediately proceed. Financial difficulties and the possibility of importing a prefabricated building from England delayed the project until 1890. The passing of the National Association and Acclimatisation Society Act in 1890 legally allowed the National Association to become owners of the land they occupied and also empowered them to borrow money from the Government to erect its new building.
\nThe original design competition had been won by the architect GHM Addison, who proposed a building estimated to cost around £20 000. Amendments to the original brief meant that in 1890 the new Exhibition Building was redesigned by Addison and a T-shaped building, accommodating an exhibition hall, concert hall and basement dining room was built.
\nThe foundation stone was laid on 25 April 1891 and the entire building was expeditiously completed by August of the same year. The building was built of brick with a corrugated iron roof. The glazed bricks were locally manufactured by James Campbell, who also produced the terracotta elements. The roof framing and iron were imported from England. The Concert Hall occupied the shaft section of the T shaped building with the Exhibition Hall located at the top. On the northern side of the Exhibition Hall was a colonnaded verandah, with access to the hall through french doors. Half the area beneath the Exhibition Hall was a large open dining room with an adjacent kitchen. The basement was built of dark glazed bricks with the upper walls being red and cream bricks. Both the Exhibition Hall and the Concert Hall had projecting porte cocheres - the Concert Hall one decorated with terracotta tiles. An openwork terracotta parapet ran along the tops of the brick walls, punctuated by the caps of abutments that ran up the walls. The principal facades of the Exhibition and Concert Halls were each marked by a pair of towers.
\nAddison's original drawings show a brick boundary wall topped by metal railing, with densely planted shrubberies behind the wall. However this treatment of the grounds did not immediately proceed and the surroundings remained in a fairly undeveloped state until plans for the grounds were prepared in 1897 by Leslie G. Corrie, architect for the Queensland International Exhibition. These plans showed a formal layout of carriage drive, pathways, shrubbery, flower beds and a fountain. Bush houses abutting and extending from the northern side of the Exhibition Building framed and terminated the avenue approach from the exhibition grounds. The main entrance remained from Bowen Bridge Road with the carriage drive running in front of the Concert Hall porte cochere, around into the porte cochere of the Exhibition Hall then curving out to the gate on Gregory Terrace. Shrubberies existed along Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace between the fence and drives. A formal arrangement of grass-edged flower beds, with a fountain as the centrepiece of one, were laid out within the curve of the carriage drive.
\nRecords indicate that the National Association continued to experience financial problems following the erection of the new building. In 1897 the responsibility of repaying the government loan, combined with the depressed economic conditions of the 1890s, caused the Association to go into liquidation and the government to take over ownership of the building.
\nIn 1900 the Brisbane City Council, following the purchase of the Concert Hall's purpose built organ, leased the hall from the Government and organised a program of regular concerts and civic functions. At the same time, the Queensland Museum decided to move to and adapt the Exhibition Hall for a museum, after twenty years in a comparatively smaller purpose built building in William Street. Tenders for altering the Exhibition Hall into a museum were called in March 1899 and involved the construction of a gallery within the main hall, addition of a line of windows in the main northern wall to light the new gallery and modifications to the basement dining room to provide offices, preparation and storage spaces. The boundary wall and fence along Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace were completed soon after and the grounds around the building were developed as an ornamental strolling garden. From 1897 to 1929 John Jordan, Curator of the Museum Gardens, is thought to have played an important role in the design and development of the grounds. Photographs from the period show the gardens as well established, with a layout and planting character recognisable as very similar to that existing today.
\nIn 1930, following the opening of its City Hall auditorium, the Brisbane City Council vacated the Concert Hall and the space was converted to an art gallery. Further alterations involving the enclosure of the Museum's porte cochere were also carried at this time. The space was occupied until 1974 when the collection was moved to a temporary location in the city while a purpose built gallery was completed on the South Bank precinct. The Queensland Museum then expanded into the space and remained in the building until 1987 when they also moved to the South Bank precinct.
\nSeveral outbuildings have been constructed in the Old Museum grounds, particularly during the 1960's. The main ones are:
\n- A bomb shelter, built of brick during World War 2
\n- A large steel shed, built 1968
\n- The conservation buildings, built of stud construction in the 1960s and 70s
\n- The spirit store, built of brick in the 1970s
\n- The education building, built of brick in the 1970s
\n- The demountable building, put up in the 1970s
\nSince the Queensland Museum moved out of the building, it has been the temporary home of the Queensland Youth Orchestra, the Restaurant and Caterers Association and various other short term activities. Only minor changes have been made to the building to accommodate these uses.
","criteria":"Designed and built as an exhibition hall in 1891 and then converted to a museum, the Old Museum is significant as a symbol of nineteenth century scientific, industrial and agricultural innovation. The size and the style of the building epitomise the enthusiasm and celebration of exhibitions during the Victorian period and the peak of Brisbane's 1880s building boom.
The building is important as a symbol of the Queensland Museum for 86 years and for demonstrating the evolution and development of the public museum.
The Concert Hall has played an important role in the artistic life of Queensland and is significant for its constant use for cultural purposes. The venue is an important surviving civic auditorium, that demonstrates the development of choral and orchestral music performance in Brisbane from the 1890's to the 1930's.
The building represents the confidence of the 1880s economic boom and is among the most substantial public works built during that period.
|The building is important as one of only two exhibition buildings built during the nineteenth century still standing in Australia.
|The building's fabric records the typical form of the nineteenth century museum.
|The use of polychrome brick, with maximum effect, its form, scale and detail contribute to the considerable aesthetic significance of the building which in turn reflect significantly on the visual character and quality of its surroundings.
|The building and its grounds are important for the role they have played in the community as a place of recreational activities firstly with the Acclimatisation Society gardens in 1863, more firmly with the Exhibition Building, and then the Museum at which time the gardens were considered an integral part of the whole complex.
|The hall also has an association with the development of the Queensland Art Gallery.
The Old Museum is an important example of work by the well-known architect GHM Addison, that demonstrates his skill in design and adaptation to the circumstances of the building's brief and its time.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14985,"place_ref":600210,"name":"St Patricks Church","alternate_name":"St Patrick's Church | St Patrick's Catholic Church","street_address":"58 Morgan Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Patricks Church is a substantial Gothic-influenced stone building centrally sited on an interior block accessed via Berwick and Morgan Streets. Only the north-eastern facade of the church is visible from the end of Morgan Street.
The church has a monumental presence, with a simple rectangular form constructed in rough-axed porphyry. Its broad nave and aisles are expressed as three parapeted gables to the north-eastern principal elevation, following the line of three steeply pitched corrugated iron roofs. To the south-west, the nave extends past the aisles, forming a projecting chancel with a vestry attached in the south-western corner. The building has buttressed walls, and generous pointed arched windows and doors.
The coursed rubble stonework is dressed with sandstone to the hood mouldings, cornice, crosses and window tracery. The window reveals are in rendered brickwork and are surmounted with alternating green and pink stone voussoirs.
The church interior is impressive; the nave is separated from the aisles by octagonal columns supporting pointed arches. The nave is spanned by timber braced trusses with a king post and quatrefoil motifs to the haunches; an ornamental timber fretwork truss/arch is centred over the chancel. Simpler scissor trusses run the length of the aisles. The diagonally boarded timber ceiling with exposed rafters is finished with a timber frieze with quatrefoil motifs. The side walls have diamond-glazed coloured-glass edged tracery windows, with smaller half-lights over the doors. Above the altar is a large stained glass window depicting the resurrection. The pointed arched doors are timber framed and boarded.
The chancel contains a richly carved Gothic-inspired Oamaru stone altar which sits on a stepped marble base bounded by a marble balustrade with brass gates. Less elaborate marble altars are located at the ends of the aisles. A stepped timber choir and organ loft is located at the other end of the church; it is supported by two colonnettes, and is accessed by stone spiral stairs enclosed by a rendered brick wall. The loft balustrade is carved with quatrefoils, and has a continuous fretwork music stand at handrail level. The organ has richly carved timber surrounds. A timber-panelled reconciliation room is located to the north-eastern corner. The church also contains some fine furnishings including cedar pews decorated with gothic motifs and fretwork, a marble baptismal font, and an ornamental holy water stand.
The grounds include a steel bell suspended from an approximately four metre high steel frame in the southern corner, a stone memorial in the centre of a circular drive to the north east, and several mature fig trees. The site also contains newer school buildings which link to the church via a walkway abutting the western vestry entrance.
St Patricks is a fine intact stone church, containing well-crafted stained glass windows and carved elements in timber, Oamaru stone and marble.
","history":"This stone, Gothic-styled church was erected in 1880-82, to accommodate the growing Catholic population in Fortitude Valley. It replaced an earlier St Patrick's, erected in Wickham Street, opposite Duncan Street, in 1861, one block from the residence of the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Brisbane, James O'Quinn.
\nIn the 1860s, Irish Catholics, brought to Queensland through the efforts of O'Quinn's Queensland Immigration Society, congregated in Fortitude Valley and adjacent suburbs. St Patrick's parish extended from Spring Hill, through the Valley to Newstead, Teneriffe and New Farm. By the late 1870s, the parish had outgrown the Wickham Street church.
\nThe new St Patrick's Church was one of the last of the substantial masonry ecclesiastical structures erected under Bishop O'Quinn's patronage, and was the largest church built during his occupancy of the Queensland Bishopric, 1861 to 1881, being at the time of greater seating capacity than St Stephen's Cathedral. O'Quinn transposed to Queensland, Ireland's Bishop Cullen's philosophy that new churches and ecclesiastical institutions should be expensive and Gothic, symbolising the new age of Irish Roman Catholicism. His successor, Robert Dunne (Bishop and later Archbishop of Brisbane 1882-1917), opposed such ostentatious displays, which had nearly bankrupted the Brisbane diocese.
\nThe Morgan Street site, occupied by Magill's Paragon Nursery in the 1870s, was acquired by church trustees, including Bishop O'Quinn, c1880. In September that year, between 4,000 and 5,000 people gathered to watch the Bishop lay the foundation stone for the new church. Designed by architect and sculptor Andrea Giovanni Stombuco, the former Goulburn Diocesan Architect who reputedly was invited to Brisbane by Bishop O'Quinn, the church was to accommodate 1500 people. Tenders were called in October 1880, and the contract was let to Brisbane builder John Arthur Manis O'Keeffe. Constructed of local porphyry and dressed with Murphy's Creek sandstone, St Patrick's was completed in 1882 at an estimated cost of £6,000. The tower, which was part of the original design, was not built. The church was consecrated on 3 December 1882, by Archbishop Dunne.
\nFittings included an organ constructed by local Brisbane musical instrument dealer and piano and organ builder, Thomas Christmas, at a cost of £360. Christmas, who had arrived in Brisbane from Melbourne in 1877, was credited with having constructed most of the locally-made organs in Queensland by 1888.
\nIn 1886 a belfry and bell were erected in the grounds, on the highest point on the site. The bell of patent cast steel, manufactured by Vicker, Son & Co. Ltd of Sheffield, England, was a gift from Fortitude Valley parishioner Thomas Reedy. In 1886-7 ornamental additions were made to the church. The high altar of New Zealand Oamaru stone, designed and reputedly sculpted by Stombuco, was completed. Also installed were a timber pulpit; side altars of Oamaru stone, sculpted by John Petrie & Son of Brisbane; and, in the eastern wall, a large stained glass window imported from Lyons in France.
\nSt Patrick's remained a large and important Irish Catholic parish until after the Second World War, despite the establishment of a separate New Farm parish c1928. From the 1950s, however, the Valley declined as a residential area, and from this is dated the gradual withering away of a local congregation.
\nAt some period after the Second World War, possibly in the 1950s, the side altars and altar rails were replaced in marble, and marble flooring was laid in the chancel. By this time, the demographic composition of Fortitude Valley was changing, with substantial numbers of European migrants (principally Italian) congregating in Fortitude Valley/New Farm. Following the Vatican II resolutions of 1962, a new altar and sanctuary dais were installed in the middle of the church. A timber screen and doors just inside the main entrance have been removed. The 1886 belfry is no longer extant, but the original bell survives, housed in a steel structure.
\nIn 1955, buildings formerly associated with St Patrick's School (located previously in Wickham Street and then in Ivory Street), were erected in the church grounds, and in 1969, a Presbytery. These buildings do not form part of the present entry in the Heritage Register.
\nThe parish of St Patrick's was dissolved c1990, and the church is administered from St Stephen's Cathedral. It attracts a large Sunday Mass congregation from the wider Brisbane Catholic community, and is popular for weddings and baptisms.
","criteria":"St Patrick's Church is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, being evidence of the consolidation of the Catholic church in Queensland in the last quarter of the 19th century. It is one of a group of substantial churches built in Fortitude Valley in the 1870s and 1880s, reflecting the residential growth of the Valley and adjacent suburbs in the last quarter of the 19th century.
|St Patrick's Church is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a late 19th century, Gothic-style stone church in Brisbane.
|The building is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics which are valued by the community, namely the monumental and finely detailed quality of the exterior, the impressive spatial quality of its generous and finely detailed interior. Also of significance is the rich aesthetic quality of its crafted elements, in particular, the stained glass windows, the timber carvings to the organ loft balustrade, music stand, and to the pipe organ, the Oamaru stone altar, the marble altars and altar enclosure, and church furniture including the cedar pews, baptismal font and holy water stand.
|St Patrick's Church is significant as the focus of Catholic worship in Fortitude Valley for over a century, the building has a strong association with the local Catholic community, and in particular with the Irish Catholic community.
|The building has a special association with the work of the Catholic Church in Brisbane and the ecclesiastical work of architect and sculptor Andrea Stombuco.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14986,"place_ref":600211,"name":"Jubilee Hotel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"464-468 St Pauls Terrace","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Jubilee Hotel, located on the corner of Constance Street and St Pauls Terrace, is a two-storeyed rendered brick building with a basement. L-shaped in plan the building has ornate street facades featuring arched window and door openings and an ornamented parapet. Small arched openings at the base of the street elevations ventilate the basement.
\nWindows and doors in the ground floor street elevations have been replaced with fixed glass with the exception of double timber doors opening off Constance Street and three double hung timber windows in the public bar.
\nThe St Pauls Terrace elevation, articulated with classical detailing, is divided into three bays. The central bay is recessed to form loggias on the ground and first floors. The main entrance is framed by an arched open top pediment. This entrance, a timber door with fanlight and sidelights, opens onto a central hallway. Much of the ground floor interior has been altered. Plaster ceilings with ornate ceiling roses and cornices remain in the hallway and lounge bar. The hallway retains its rear doors and a richly detailed set of double doors leading to the public bar. Timber stairs at the back of the hallway lead to the first floor.
\nThe doors at the rear of the hallway open onto an L-shaped, skillion roofed, rear verandah. It has been enclosed on the ground floor by subsequent extensions and on the first floor by glass louvres. A second timber stair runs in a single flight between the two levels of verandah.
\nThe first floor (formerly used for accommodation purposes) has undergone some alterations. The hallway has been blocked by a partition wall and bathrooms have been built at both ends of the rear verandah. A section of masonry wall has been removed to create a large room on the southern corner of the first floor.
\nA beer garden consisting of timber decks and skillion roofs has been added to the rear of the hotel amalgamating a previously freestanding masonry structure with a corrugated iron hip roof. Sections of the beer garden, and other modern function/dining/bar spaces, extend outside the heritage boundary into adjacent lots.
\nThe north east elevation has a lowset modern verandah with a battened undercroft. The verandah runs along the façade, stopping just before the window located closest to St Paul’s Terrace. A timber framed skillion roof extends out to the edge of the car park and over the verandah. The roof is steel framed and clad in corrugated metal sheeting. Horizontal timber slats wrap around the enclosure. This verandah is not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The Jubilee Hotel, a two-storeyed rendered brick building with basement was constructed for brewer William Gooley in 1887-88.
\nThe widespread economic, population and building boom that characterised Queensland during the 1880s saw the Fortitude Valley (the Valley) grow in population and develop as a major urban centre of Brisbane, with an intensification of development of commercial and industrial premises, and stores. Many earlier timber structures were replaced by more permanent masonry buildings.
\nHotels have played an important role in the historical development of Queensland. Often the first places to appear along transport routes and at fledgling settlements, hotels have catered to travellers, provided spaces for communities to drink, socialize and conduct business and meetings, and have strongly contributed to local economies. Architecturally, hotels have ranged from ephemeral makeshift shanties to more permanent and imposing buildings that have competed with civic and commercial buildings to dominate their surrounds. In urban areas, street corners have been particularly favoured sites for hotels to emphasize their presence. Over time, legislative provisions for licensed premises influenced the architecture and layout of hotels, by requiring a range of minimal standards including those related to the number of rooms, height limits of rooms, and separate entries for guests. Coupled with the domestic nature of the services provided, the requirement for licensees to reside on the premises shaped hotels' characteristic internal mix of private and public spaces.[1]
\nThe Jubilee Hotel was designed by architect Richard Gailey who called for tenders for the erection of the building in September 1887.[2] Richard Gailey (1834-1924) was a Londonderry (Ireland) architect who settled in Brisbane in 1864. He established his own practice in 1865, and over the next 60 years built up a thriving business, working until his death in 1924. He designed Baptist churches including the Baptist Tabernacle, Brisbane [QHR 600175], former Ipswich Baptist Church, Ipswich [QHR 602573]; commercial buildings such as banks including the Westpac Bank, Normanton (former bank of NSW) [QHR 600394]; and many other Brisbane hotels including the Orient Hotel [QHR 602122], Regatta Hotel [QHR 600331] and Wickham Hotel [QHR 600213]. Many commercial buildings in Brisbane designed by Gailey during the 1880s were characterised by classical idioms and details.[3]
\nThis was a boom time for hotel construction in the Valley, with the Gailey designed Empire (QHR 600199) and Prince Consort (QHR 600212) hotels also opening in 1888. The Jubilee differed from these other hotels in size and location. It was built to a smaller scale yet remained an imposing building because of its location in what was then a residential area.
\nA description of the hotel appeared in the 1888 publication Aldine's History of Queensland:
\nThis is a new hotel, opened about the middle of 1888, and the proprietress, Mrs. Abella Atwell, has a lease of it for ten years. It is two stories high, and in appearance is equal to any hotel in the city. It is well provided with sitting rooms, a very large dining room, and also a large bar furnished with all the latest fittings. There is also a large yard and stabling, so that those with horses will find every convenience. The bed-rooms are large and airy, and upon the whole the hotel will be found very comfortable, especially to those who want to live in a healthy locality away from the noise and dust of the principal streets, yet sufficiently close to the city.[4]
\nThe first licensee was Isabella Atwell who ran the hotel, until 1902. Atwell leased the hotel from Gooley until it was transferred to her husband William Woods for ten years following their marriage in 1892. Other proprietors throughout the early 1900's included Angus and Mary McKinnon, and Denis McNamara. McNamara's lease was transferred to Timothy James McKinnon who in turn transferred it to James Cavill in 1923. It was then transferred back to McNamara in 1924. When William Gooley (who was chief brewer for Perkins and Co) died in 1916, ownership was transmitted to his wife Margaret Gooley who owned the property until 1926 when it was transferred to Castlemaine Perkins. In 1925 alterations to the hotel were carried out by A Low &Co. to the design of Richard Gailey (Jnr), son of the original architect. The purchase by Castlemaine Perkins at this time aligned with their practice of acquiring hotel freeholds and leases throughout Queensland. The hotel's ownership remained unchanged until 1986.[5] The ground floor was subsequently refurbished and a beer garden added at the rear.
\nA number of owners and lessees have been associated with the Jubilee since 1986, which continues to operate as a hotel in 2017.
","criteria":"Its association with a major phase in the development of Fortitude Valley.
|A fine example of an 1880s hotel of simple massing, and with classical embellishments internally and externally.
|Its contribution to the St Pauls Terrace Streetscape.
|One of a group of hotels designed by architect Richard Gailey which contribute to the architectural character of Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14987,"place_ref":600212,"name":"Prince Consort Hotel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"230 Wickham Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The hotel consists of two, three storey, masonry buildings connected by timber verandahs.
The principal range along Wickham Street is rendered to resemble ashlar. It has balconies to the two upper floors with cast iron twin posts, and balustrades and friezes of differing designs to each floor. The upper balcony has a curved galvanised iron roof below a corbelled and bracketed string course, a rendered parapet with two triangular pediments, and concrete balusters and urns. French doors with fanlights, between pilasters, open onto the balconies. Changes to the street elevation have been confined to the ground floor shopfronts and the replacement of the original curved, post-supported awning with a flat cantilevered awning.
The second building at the rear, is at right angles to the main building. The two buildings are connected by verandahs, which although partially enclosed contain much of the original fabric including timber railings and valances.
A number of small accretions have been built at the rear of the building. In the yard behind the building is a large air raid shelter now used as a store room.
Internally the hotel retains its original layout and much of its 1880s detailing and finishes. The basement under the main building has openings knocked through the walls. The bars on the ground floor have been renovated a number of times. The main staircase is intact, as are plasterwork and joinery.
","history":"The present Prince Consort Hotel, a three-storeyed masonry building, was erected in 1887-88 for Brisbane publican John Daniel Heal.
It was the second Prince Consort Hotel to occupy the site. The first was built c.1863 and leased by Heal. In 1879 Heal purchased the hotel and by 1887 he had acquired several adjoining subdivisions as well. The old building was demolished and its larger replacement took twelve months to build.
The new Prince Consort Hotel was designed by architect Richard Gailey, who called tenders in mid-1887.
It was erected by contractor William Ferguson at a cost of £9,400, and was completed in August 1888. Ferguson died before the hotel was finished, but the contract was completed by his executors.
Its construction in the 1880s reflected the general building boom in Queensland which accompanied a period of unprecedented economic growth. During the second half of the 1880s, Valley residents witnessed the construction of four large hotels all designed by architect Richard Gailey. The Wickham (1885) (QHR 600213), the Empire (1887) (QHR 600199), the Jubilee (1887) (QHR 600211) and the Prince Consort contained extensive accommodation and were located on prominent sites. Gailey also designed the Regatta Hotel (QHR 600331) at Toowong in 1886.
When completed, the new Prince Consort boasted one of the largest bars in Brisbane, three parlours, a large dining room, billiard room, kitchen, cellar, six bathrooms and twenty-eight bedrooms. Four large shops were also built on the ground floor.
Running the whole length of the first floor facade was a reception area, known as the Club Room, divided by a folding partition into two rooms. It was a regular meeting venue for local Valley groups such as lodges.
In 1935 the hotel underwent alterations and additions, the architect was J P Donoghue and the contractor J Corbett. The hotel's curved, post-supported awning was probably replaced with the flat cantilevered awning at this time.
","criteria":"Erected during a period of rapid growth in the development of Fortitude Valley, the Prince Consort Hotel is significant as an excellent and intact example of a large, ornate hotel constructed in the late 1880s.
|Erected during a period of rapid growth in the development of Fortitude Valley, the Prince Consort Hotel is significant as an excellent and intact example of a large, ornate hotel constructed in the late 1880s.
|The Prince Consort Hotel contributes to the Wickham Street streetscape, and is significant as one of a group of hotels designed by architect Richard Gailey which contribute to the architectural character of Brisbane through their imposing presence, extensive use of ornamental cast-iron and classical detailing.
|The Prince Consort Hotel contributes to the Wickham Street streetscape, and is significant as one of a group of hotels designed by architect Richard Gailey which contribute to the architectural character of Brisbane through their imposing presence, extensive use of ornamental cast-iron and classical detailing.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14988,"place_ref":600213,"name":"Wickham Hotel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"308 Wickham Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Wickham Hotel, a three-storeyed rendered brick building with basement, is located on the corner of Wickham, Ballow and Alden Streets.
An awning with pressed metal ceilings cantilevers over the footpath on the main facades facing Wickham and Ballow Streets. Below the awning the external wall of the ground floor is finished with mosaic tiles, now painted. The walls above the awning are rendered and lined to suggest stonework and are embellished by horizontal bands at the sill and impost levels of the windows.
The ground floor has rectangular timber sash windows. Windows on the first and second floors are arranged in an alternating pattern of paired narrow arched windows and wider single arched windows. A timber framed verandah projects from the first floor. It has a rolled corrugated iron roof and ornamental cast-iron balustrade, posts, post brackets and frieze. The building has painted corrugated iron hip roofs with narrow overhangs supported on paired modillions. Three rendered chimney stacks are located along the ridges of the roof.
An L-shaped verandah is located on the northern corner of the first and second floors at the rear of the building. This verandah is enclosed on the north-western side by a three-storeyed painted brick extension housing bathrooms. Timber posts, balustrade, brackets and boarded frieze remain on the north east.
Five sets of timber double doors provide entry from the street. The main entry, located on the Wickham Street facade, opens to a foyer which has a richly embellished plaster ceiling and cornice and contains a generously proportioned timber stair leading to the first floor. The remainder of the ground floor has been refurbished and is occupied by bars, service areas and a bottle shop.
Except for a bar located in the southern corner of the first floor, the first and second floors are used for accommodation. The main stair leads only to the first floor. It is connected by an L-shaped corridor to a narrow timber stair that runs between first and second floors. Internally the first and second floor retain much of the original fabric including rendered masonry walls, plaster cornices and skirtings. Timber doors with transom lights open off the central hallway while doors leading to the verandah are half glazed with fanlights above.
The finishes and detail of the facade and much of the interior of the ground floor have been altered. The rest of the building remains largely unchanged.
","history":"The Wickham Hotel is a three-storeyed masonry hotel, constructed by the firm Cussack and O'Keefe in 1885 for Timothy O'Shea who had amalgamated a number of blocks in 1881.
The design was by architect Richard Gailey who was also responsible for the design of several other hotels in Brisbane during the 1880s. These included the Regatta at Toowong, and the Prince Consort, Empire and Jubilee in Fortitude Valley.
It was bought in 1895 by Denis O'Connor who owned it until his death in 1937. In 1972 it was sold to Carlton & United Brewing. For most of its existence, the Wickham Hotel has been leased to licensees. The hotel has undergone a number of modifications primarily on the ground floor. Single storeyed extensions have been built on the north-east and north-west sides, and a new drive-in bottle shop abutting the hotel was built recently.
","criteria":"The Wickham Hotel is associated with a major phase in the development of Fortitude Valley.
|The Wickham Hotel is an example of a large 1880s three-storeyed hotel with intact, cantilevered single storey verandah and contributes to the Wickham Street streetscape.
|The Wickham Hotel is an example of a large 1880s three-storeyed hotel with intact, cantilevered single storey verandah and contributes to the Wickham Street streetscape.
|The building is one of a group of hotels designed by architect Richard Gailey which contribute to the architectural character of Brisbane through their imposing presence, extensive use of ornamental cast-iron and classical detailing.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14989,"place_ref":600214,"name":"McWhirters Marketplace","alternate_name":"Myer | McWhirters & Son Ltd | McWhirters | McWhirter's","street_address":"Wickham Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"McWhirters is centrally located in Fortitude Valley on a site bound by Wickham, Warner and Brunswick Streets. It comprises four adjoining buildings which form a large brick three, four and five-storeyed complex.
The building fronting Warner Street [c1902-05], is a three-storeyed pale brick building with a parapeted facade, with two gabled ends facing the street. The facade has arched windows with beige brick voussoirs, keystones, and trim to round windows in the centre of the gables. Internally, the building has an unusual exposed timber roof structure comprised of trusses spanning double beams on timber columns with triangular brackets. The timber boarded ceiling is partially raked, and has pressed metal rosettes.
The five-storeyed 1912 brick building occupies the corner of Brunswick and Wickham Streets. Its facade has continuous piers and arched openings to the first and fourth floors, and is trimmed with rendered concrete sills, lintels and insets. The parapet has a substantial cornice with dentils, and raised portions bearing the name "McWhirters". The Wickham and Warner Streets corner is rounded, and has a castellated parapet and a round window at first floor level. Internally, this 1912 section retains some of its pressed metal ceilings with floral motifs and some column capitals with plaster scrolls, and has an encased steel structure.
The four-storeyed 1923 brick building faces Brunswick Street. The facade is similar to the 1912 building facades in materials, with some variation in detailing. The facade has a continuous arched brick spandrel above the third level windows, and a substantial parapet which also bears the McWhirters name. It has a concrete internal structure.
The 1930-31 building facing Brunswick and Wickham Streets is four and five storeys, and matches, with identical detailing, the facades of the 1912 and 1923 sections. The facades are linked with a richly detailed truncated corner with polychrome glazed terracotta tiles integrated with the brickwork. This corner has two continuous brick piers crowned with an arched tiled panel rising above the parapet line, which bears the McWhirter's monogram in a Lily of the Valley motif. The windows are spaced with tiled panels in diamond patterns. The corner contains the principal entrance to the building, which is covered by a curved awning with decorative glass insets.
The corner entrance doors are set in arched polished black stone surrounds. The entrance foyer is a double-storeyed height space which is finely decorated with white marble panels set in black marble grids, and decorative plasterwork based on diamond and star patterns. Internally, this 1930-31 section has a concrete-encased steel structure.
The entire building is encircled with a stepped metal awning, which has a sheeted soffit on Brunswick Street and a pressed metal soffit with floral motifs on Wickham and Warner Streets. Two sets of timber and etched glass entrance doors have been incorporated into the refurbishment in the 1912 section.
The exterior form and detailing of McWhirters remains largely intact, although the ground floor brickwork and openings are mostly new. The building retains its prominence, contributing to the early 20th century commercial character and streetscape of centre Fortitude Valley. Its distinctive corner assumes landmark status. Some fine remnants of the early 20th century department store interiors are visible, including the roof structure of the c1902-05 building, remains of pressed metal ceilings and column decorations in the 1912 building, and decoration to the entrance hall of the 1930-31 building.
","history":"McWhirters Marketplace, comprising 4 adjoining brick buildings of from three to five storeys in height, was erected in four stages on land acquired between 1899 and 1929, by Brisbane draper James McWhirter and the firm of McWhirter & Son Ltd [later McWhirters Ltd].
On arrival in Australia in 1878 from Ayrshire, Scotland, James McWhirter worked for merchants DL Brown & Co. before entering into partnership with Mr Duncan Sinclair in a South Brisbane drapery business, c1883. After a few years the partnership was dissolved, and McWhirter returned to Brown & Co. before joining TC Beirne in his Fortitude Valley drapery business c1894, firstly as manager, then in partnership for about 3 years. McWhirter sold out to Beirne in 1898, and in the same year purchased MD Piggott's drapery business, located in leased premises across the road at 292 Brunswick Street. Piggott had been TC Beirne's employer in Ireland, and his former partner in South Brisbane, but moved from Fortitude Valley in 1898 to concentrate on his Toowoomba store, established in 1896. When McWhirter took over Piggott's Brunswick Street business, the new firm of McWhirter and Son, drapers, was established, opening in September 1898 with a staff of 30.
James McWhirter was an experienced manager and astute businessman who established his drapery business just as the Queensland economy was recovering from the severe economic depression of the 1890s. Despite the slowing of the economy engendered by the widespread drought of 1900-02, McWhirter was in a position to capitalise on Queensland's economic boom of the early 20th century, and within three decades the firm he established in 1898 had expanded from a small drapery business to one of Brisbane's largest and most sophisticated departmental retailers, with a principal store occupying over an acre of land bounded by Brunswick, Wickham and Warner Streets, Fortitude Valley, at the well known Valley Corner.
In the early years of the 20th century, Fortitude Valley, centred around the intersection of Wickham and Brunswick Streets [the Valley Corner], became one of the most important shopping centres in Brisbane. This is explained partly by the ready availability of efficient public transport - train from the late 1880s and electric tram from the late 1890s; partly by a rising population in the surrounding suburbs of New Farm, Bowen Hills and Newstead; but most importantly by the healthy spirit of competition between the Valley's principal retail stores - TC Beirne, McWhirter, Overells and later the ACB Company and Waltons as well - which attracted customers from all over Brisbane.
From its establishment in 1898, McWhirter & Son expanded rapidly. In 1899 McWhirter purchased the allotments at the northeast corner of the busy intersection of Wickham and Brunswick Streets, although these were not occupied by McWhirters for another three decades. In 1902 the firm also acquired land at 48 Warner Street, at the rear of their Brunswick Street shop, and extended the Brunswick Street building the depth of the block between Brunswick and Warner Streets. In 1905 they secured an adjoining allotment in Warner Street, on which they erected another warehouse, which appears to be an extension of the c1902 building.
In 1905 the firm was registered as a private company, McWhirter & Son Ltd, and by 1907 was listed at 292-298 Brunswick Street, having expanded into several adjacent shops east of the original building. By 1909 the firm employed 270 staff, had established a London office, directly imported many lines, and had developed an extensive mail-order department servicing all parts of rural Queensland, as well as clients in New South Wales, South Australia and British New Guinea. The firm pioneered the free carriage of mail-orders, and attracted a wide custom. The majority of their clientele were women, so besides drapery and a particularly fine millinery department, the firm stocked medicines, perfumes, silks, and home furnishings. The facade of the Brunswick Street building had been remodelled by 1909 with the first arcade front in Brisbane, and the firm's colourful window displays were a great attraction.
In 1910 McWhirter acquired title to four more allotments in Warner Street, and between 1910 and 1914 to the two allotments in Brunswick Street occupied by his first store and adjacent premises to the west. The Warner Street land was situated between McWhirter's existing 48 Warner Street warehouse and Wickham Street, with long frontages to both streets. Reportedly purchased for £8,000, McWhirter intended to erect on this site, thoroughly modern and well-equipped buildings, such as will meet the requirements of the ever-increasing trade.
McWhirter commissioned Brisbane architects Atkinson and McLay to design a substantial, five-storeyed building for this corner, and when completed in 1912, the new building became an immediate Valley landmark, seen for miles around, and dominated the Valley Corner area. Described as a vast emporium on its opening in October 1912 - and subsequently marketed as such by McWhirter - the store was well-appointed in fine materials. Every effort had been made to design the most modern and progressive of department stores, with new devices for the comfort, convenience and prompt attention to customers. On the ground level the extensive street frontages had the latest in island windows with narrow copper mouldings. There were five street entrances, and mosaic tiling and leadlights in the main vestibule. The interior was well-ventilated and well-lighted; fittings were of silky oak throughout; and the ceilings were lined with Wunderlich pressed metal. A sprinkler system was installed for fire prevention, there were three electric elevators for the convenience of customers, and the pneumatic cash tube system was the largest in the state. In an innovative move, hundreds of silky oak display tables permitted customers to browse and inspect goods without being dependent on sales assistants. Other goods were displayed in glass cabinets under glass counters, and there were sliding glass doors to the shelves behind the counters.
The grand new store housed over 50 departments. Manchester, materials, haberdashery, jewellery, travel goods, etc were located on the ground floor. The first floor, which housed the millinery and women's clothing departments [including a corset boudoir], was particularly well-appointed. It contained a large circular display room with carpet on the floor, mirrors everywhere, and showcases so arranged as to form little retreats or parlours. On the second floor were furniture, carpets, linoleum, and on the third were crockery, glassware, kitchenware, toys, and for the convenience of customers, a tearoom overlooking the river and suburbs. On the top floor were the dressmaking and tailoring workrooms, equipped with revolving pedestals for fittings.
Clearly, McWhirters had identified their principal clientele as female, and dedicated the new building to this market. The men's clothing department had been relegated to the Brunswick Street store, although it did take up most of this building. A new boot department was opened, serving both male and female customers, but this was not located in the 1912 building.
McWhirter's 1912 store was the one of the first of the big Brisbane department stores - rivals included TC Beirne and Overells in Fortitude Valley, McDonnell & East near Roma Street Station, and Finneys and Allan & Stark in Queen Street - to reflect international trends in modern department store retailing. Between 1860 and 1920, the industrialised world's level of affluence and leisure time increased significantly, and the 'art of shopping', once the prerogative of the wives of the wealthy, was adopted eagerly by the wives of the emerging middle classes. By the mid-19th century department stores were evolving world-wide to accommodate the rising numbers of middle class shoppers. The earliest of the grand department stores was Aristide Boucicault's Bon Marché, which opened in Paris in 1852, followed by Macy's in New York in 1860. These provided important models, but in Australia the department store was also the logical extension of the general store or drapery.
To complement the refined department store environment, customers [predominantly female] experienced a superior quality of service, the object of which was to make them feel special and confident. Often this entailed an attitude of deference, but more commonly in Australia this developed into cheerful, polite efficiency and promises of honesty and fair dealing. Whichever method was employed, the aim was the same - to encourage spending.
McWhirter and Son Ltd were at the cutting edge of department store culture in Brisbane, prospering through the 1910s despite the slowing of the Queensland economy during the First World War. About 1918 a substantial, 4-storeyed brick bulk store was erected in Warner Street opposite McWhirters' c1902-05 warehouse. One floor of this contained a staff dining hall/meeting room. By 1921 McWhirter's Motor Garage was operating on the north side of Ballow Street in Fortitude Valley, to house and service the firm's fleet of delivery vehicles.
James McWhirter junior died suddenly in 1919, and in 1920 the firm was floated as a public company, McWhirters Ltd, with James McWhirter senior as managing director.
Further expansion took place with the acquisition in 1921 of the Brunswick Street allotments between McWhirter's existing store and the allotments he had purchased in 1899 at the corner of Wickham and Brunswick Streets. With the exception of a lane off Wickham Street, McWhirter now owned all the allotments between Brunswick and Warner Streets, from Wickham Street east to, and including, his first Brunswick Street store - an area of nearly an acre in the centre of the most popular shopping district in Brisbane. Building commenced in 1922-23 with the construction of a new four-storeyed store replacing McWhirter's original store in Brunswick Street. The building impressed with the wide span between columns, excellent lighting and ventilation, and fast elevators.
James McWhirter died in England in 1925, but the firm of McWhirters Ltd continued to grow, paralleling the development of Fortitude Valley as a thriving commercial centre, with its three competing anchor stores of TC Beirne, Overells and McWhirters. By the 1930s, McWhirters had also branched into shirt manufacture, with their own clothing factory in the Valley. The mail order department had remained an important and lucrative aspect of the business, and McWhirters also offered credit and lay-by systems. Part of the success of McWhirters, like other early 20th century department stores in Brisbane, lay also in the value placed by management on employees. By 1931, some of the nearly 800 McWhirter employees had been with the firm over 3 decades, and staff had their own benefit society.
In 1929 the company secured title to the lane off Wickham Street beside their 1912 store, and in 1930-31, just as Australia was being caught up in a severe, world-wide economic depression, McWhirters Ltd constructed a four and five-storeyed brick building on the corner of Brunswick and Wickham Streets, linking the facades of their 1912 and 1923 buildings. The steel framed building with reinforced concrete walls and facework in brick and terracotta, was designed by the Brisbane architectural firm of TR Hall and LB Phillips [designers of Brisbane City Hall and Ascot Chambers]. It featured a principal truncated corner, richly decorated in the Art Deco style, which became a landmark advertisement for the store on the busy Valley Corner. The builder was GA Stronach of Brisbane, who tendered with a price of £112,000; the 800 tons of structural steel was manufactured and erected by local firm Evans, Deakin, & Co. Ltd; and Wunderlich supplied the terracotta tiles used on the truncated corner as well as pressed metal and fibrous cement ceilings. McWhirters department store now had a floor space of 6.5 acres.
The exterior facades of the 1930-31 building were designed to replicate those of the 1912 and 1923 buildings, but internally the building reflected new trends in department store presentation. There were no partitions, each floor measuring about 300ft by 200ft, with supporting concrete pillars masked by stained wood cabinets. Large twin-elevators were installed and the pneumatic tube system was extended. On the ground level three separate 'lock-up' shops fronted Brunswick Street, for businesses which traded after normal [5.30pm] store hours.
In 1955 McWhirters was purchased by Myer, a Melbourne-based department store chain, which continued to operate the former McWhirters complex as a department store until 1988, when the Myer consortium closed its Valley store. The closure reflected the decline of retailing in Fortitude Valley from at least the 1970s, principally due to changing demographics, an increasing dependency on the motor car, and strong competition from suburban shopping centres. In 1989 the property was redeveloped as McWhirters Marketplace, entailing extensive internal refurbishment.
","criteria":"The growth of the McWhirters complex is important in demonstrating the pattern and evolution of Queensland's history, reflecting the late 19th/early 20th century development of Fortitude Valley as a major commercial and shopping centre, which was sustained well into the post-Second World War period. Historically, McWhirters is also significant in providing evidence of the development and nature of early 20th century department stores in Queensland, and of the shopping culture engendered by them.
|The 1930-31 building has a finely detailed landmark Art Deco corner demonstrating a rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|McWhirters is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial early 20th century department store built in stages, and which employs elements of the facade as advertising and contains remnants of earlier department store decorative detailing in the c1902-05, 1912 and 1930-31 sections.
|McWhirters is of aesthetic value: it is a prominent building which makes a strong contribution to the commercial character and streetscape of centre Fortitude Valley; the fine interwar Art Deco corner is a Brisbane landmark; and the corner entrance foyer contains fine decorative detailing.
|McWhirters at the Valley Corner has a special association for Queenslanders, having symbolised 'The Valley' to several generations of local residents and visitors alike.
|The place has a special association with the life and work of James McWhirter and the firm of McWhirter & Son Ltd [later McWhirters Ltd], and with the work of architects Atkinson & McLay and Hall & Phillips. McWhirters also has a special association with the Wunderlich company, the 1930-31 corner facade being a major example of their work in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14990,"place_ref":600215,"name":"Beth-Eden","alternate_name":"Verney | Rakeevan","street_address":"85 Bank Road","suburb":"GRACEVILLE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Beth-Eden is a two-storeyed rendered brick house with a weatherboard stables/coach-house overlooking the Chelmer Reach of the Brisbane River. It is surrounded by single-storeyed brick buildings associated with the nursing home.
The corrugated iron hipped roof has projecting gables, two of which surmount bay windows on the northern and western elevations. The bays intercept the double height verandahs which feature on all four elevations. The roof has decorative render to the chimney stacks, eaves and gables.
The verandahs have decorative cast iron balustrading and columns, with brackets and valance on the lower verandah. The northern and eastern verandahs are roofed by a corrugated iron skillion awning, and sections of western and southern verandahs have been enclosed. The eastern verandah has been partially glazed, and a service building connects to the main building via a walkway.
The building has classical mouldings and a pedimented arched portico over the main entrance. The entrance contains black and white marble tiles and decorative sandblasted glass door surrounds and fanlight, on which is written 'VERNEY'.
The entrance hall contains a carved timber staircase with a large sandblasted glass window at the landing level. Decorative plaster mouldings feature around archways and light fittings. Ground floor public rooms, originally drawing and dining rooms, have marble fireplaces and timber panelling with folding timber doors between. Both floors have been altered with the first floor being used for accommodation and the ground floor for servicing. The building has double hung sash windows, fanlights above internal doors and an elevator has been installed in the entrance hall.
The original stables/coach-house is located to the southwest of the main building and now serves as a garage. This weatherboard building has a corrugated iron gabled roof with decorative timber bargeboards and a central hay loft. The building has single skin vertically jointed internal walls and large openings have been cut into the northern facade.
","history":"Beth-Eden is a two-storeyed rendered brick house with a weatherboard stables/coach-house, overlooking the Brisbane River. Originally called Verney, Beth-Eden was erected in 1888 for newspaper proprietor Charles Hardie Buzacott. The architect was Richard Gailey, who in 1884 had designed the Courier Building for Buzacott.
In 1895, John Ferguson MLA, a Rockhampton parliamentarian and a major shareholder in the Mt Morgan Mine company, purchased the property, which became the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Mr and Mrs A H Chambers. Mr Chambers was the manager of the Union Bank and changed the name of the house to Rakeevan, after his family home in Ireland.
In 1903 Ferguson's other daughter and her husband, Joshua Thomas Bell MLA, took up residence. Bell, from Jimbour Station, held various portfolios and also served as speaker of the Legislative Assembly. The Ferguson daughters established extensive tropical gardens in the grounds and in 1921 Rakeevan hosted the inaugural Sherwood Shire Agricultural, Horticultural and Industrial Society Show. Most of the gardens have been destroyed by subsequent development.
Rakeevan was lent by Mrs Bell as a military convalescent home during and after the First World War, following which it stood empty until purchased in the late 1920s by Gulf pastoralist James Stanislaus Kirby. Politician Dr Felix Dittmer was the next owner, and in 1957 he sold the property to the Glad Tidings Tabernacle.
The property was renamed Beth-Eden and officially opened as a retirement home in 1958. The house was modified and associated accommodation and service buildings were constructed.
The only remaining original outbuilding is the stables/coach-house to the southwest of the house.
","criteria":"Beth-Eden demonstrates an uncommon aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage, containing a now rare late 19th century timber stables/coach-house.
Beth-Eden is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial, ornate, two-storeyed, 1880s masonry house, overlooking the Brisbane River.
Beth-Eden is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the quality of the interior design, materials and craftsmanship.
Beth-Eden has a special association with prominent 19th century newspaper proprietor C H Buzacott and with important Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, being an example of his domestic work.
|Beth-Eden demonstrates an uncommon aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage, containing a now rare late 19th century timber stables/coach-house.
|Beth-Eden is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial, ornate, two-storeyed, 1880s masonry house, overlooking the Brisbane River.
|Beth-Eden is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the quality of the interior design, materials and craftsmanship.
|Beth-Eden has a special association with prominent 19th century newspaper proprietor C H Buzacott and with important Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, being an example of his domestic work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14991,"place_ref":600216,"name":"Toorak House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"28 Annie Street","suburb":"HAMILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1994-03-02","description":"Toorak House is a substantial, Gothic-influenced, two storeyed sandstone residence with richly decorated interiors. It has steeply pitched shingle roofs and a single storeyed brick and corrugated iron wing attached to the rear. The house is impressively set within gardens containing mature trees and manicured garden beds, and sits on the crest of Hamilton Hill, commanding extensive views.
The south, principal elevation has a strong formal presence, with a castellated square tower rising above the roofline flanked by two tall bay windows and steeply pitched dormer windows. The ground floor has a U-shaped timber verandah with a corrugated iron roof which has been enclosed with flyscreen to the west and glazing to the east. The main entrance comprises a flight of stone stairs guarded by a pair of lifesize marble lions, leading to an arched opening at the foot of the tower. The marble landing is inset with the word TOORAK.
The east and west elevations of the sandstone house comprise two gables with tall bay windows; the southern gabled bays step out to align with the external face of the verandah. The first floor has small balconies with timber balustrades braced in diagonal patterns. The house has timber sash windows and french doors.
The sandstone house has decorative external detailing in stone and timber trim. The square-snecked rubble stonework is dressed with projecting quoins, keystones, toothed windows surrounds and string courses and the tower has an arched cornice. The roofs are decorated with scalloped barge boards, finials, and carved eaves brackets. The verandah has chamfered timber posts and ornamental timber valances.
The internal layout comprises four substantial and two smaller rooms either side of a central corridor on the ground floor, and four large and two small bedrooms on the upper floor. The entrance hall has frescos on the walls and ceilings, and is divided with a decorative arch. The rooms throughout the ground floor contain marble chimney breasts and rich plaster work and cornices. The joinery appears to be primarily cedar.
Timber stairs with carved newels located at the end of the corridor give access both to upstairs rooms and a sheeted storage area at half-landing level via coloured glass doors. The ceilings throughout the upper level are half-raked and follow the lines of the roofs. The floor level steps up toward the south, accommodating higher ceilings below. The principal rooms have dormer windows expressed in the ceilings, french doors glazed in geometric patterns opening onto small balconies, and circular timber ceiling roses. A small room at the end of the corridor contains narrow timber stairs leading to a platform at the top of the tower. This vantage point offers 360? views of Brisbane and surrounds.
The rear wing is a modest structure in Flemish bond brickwork, with timber windows and louvred french doors opening onto a verandah to the east. The building has been extended and modified to the north east, north west and west. It consists of a kitchen, several bedrooms and an office, also accessed from a central corridor. The corridor and the rooms to the west have flagstone floors, while the rooms to the east have timber floors. The western rooms have been extensively refurbished, while the eastern rooms retain their timber boarded and pressed metal ceilings.
The gardens provide a picturesque setting for the house. To the south, an oval rose garden encircled by an oval drive reinforces the formality of the front facade. The eastern garden is terraced, and the northern garden has lawn, a mature hedge and a brick outhouse with a convex corrugated iron roof. The grounds contain many substantial and mature trees, including mature palms, camphor laurels, jacarandas, liquidambars, and Moreton Bay chestnuts.
","history":"This two storeyed stone residence was erected c1865 at Breakfast Creek for Brisbane businessman James Robert Dickson. Dickson appeared to be living at Breakfast Creek by March 1865, and references to the Dicksons at Toorak appear later that year.
Dickson arrived in Brisbane in 1862, and was in business with Arthur Martin as an auctioneer and land agent until August 1864 when the partnership was dissolved. Martin continued business under his own name, and Dickson formed a new partnership with James Duncan, as general auctioneers and land and commission agents. The firms of A Martin and Dickson and Duncan appear to have been responsible for much of the land subdivision and sales in Brisbane during the mid-late 1860s. Dickson entered Parliament in 1873 as the Member for Enoggera, and held various offices until he resigned in 1887. After failing to regain a seat in the 1888 general election, Dickson did not re-enter politics until 1892 when he won the seat of Bulimba. Dickson became Premier in October 1898, holding this position until December 1899. A strong advocate of Federation, Dickson was a member of the Australian delegation to England for the passage of the Commonwealth bill through the Imperial parliament. Dickson was a member of the first Federal Parliament and appointed the first Commonwealth Minister of Defence. Dickson was involved also in various companies including the Royal Bank of Queensland, the Brisbane Permanent Building and Banking Society, Queensland Trustees and the Queensland Insurance and Land Mortgage Company. Knighted on the day of Federation, he died 10 days later.
William Robert Howe Weekes of Brisbane was granted almost 32 acres of land in 1864. This land included four (4) allotments in the Parish of Toombul, fronting the Brisbane River. Subdivision of this land appeared to commence the following year when Dickson acquired part of the land. By 1873, an area of just under ten (10) acres of land, which included Toorak and grounds, had been transferred into Annie Dickson's name (Dickson's wife). Following Annie's death in 1880, the land was held by Dickson, as trustee.
Toorak was built of stone reputedly from the nearby Petrie quarries at Albion. The design and name of Toorak are believed to have been derived from a house at Toorak in Melbourne designed by a cousin of Dickson. The design of Toorak reflects the influence of the English Picturesque movement on Australian domestic architecture of the late nineteenth century.
A photograph of Toorak taken c1885 shows that the house was originally single storeyed with a two level entry hall protruding through the verandah roof. The second storey appears to have been added by the 1890s. An upper section was added to the tower by the 1890s.
Dickson, accompanied by four of his daughters, travelled to Europe in early 1890, returning to Brisbane in late 1891. It is believed that while Dickson was overseas, he acquired the two marble lions which stand at the entrance of Toorak, and that he hired Italian artists to undertake decorative work inside Toorak.
Following Dickson's death in 1901, the land was transferred to Power and Agnes Dickson (two of his children) as trustees. By this time, Toorak stood on an area of just over four (4) acres. Toorak was leased by Eton High School (later St Margaret's School) run by the Sisters of Sacred Advent in 1907. Although Toorak was regarded as an ideal healthy environment for boarders, it was considered to be "too great a climb for day pupils", and the Sisters moved the school to Donatello c1910.
Additions to Toorak were undertaken by Richard Gailey in 1915.
Toorak was acquired by grazier George Moffatt in 1916, and then in 1929 by John Gibson of the pioneer sugar family. Subsequent owners were Brisbane businessman Patrick Woulfe, prominent grazier, philanthropist and art collector Harold de Vahl Rubin, and pastoralist Sir William Allen in 1963. Since Allen's death in 1977 Toorak has remained in the Allen family, and stands on an area of 7535m2 (just under two acres).
","criteria":"As a substantial stone residence established in the Breakfast Creek area, it demonstrates the pattern of settlement and growth in Brisbane from the 1860s.
|The house and its garden demonstrates the principal characteristics of a substantial villa residence influenced by the English Picturesque movement.
|It is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, including:(i)its fine interiors; (ii)the impressive external form and its fine detail; and (iii)the picturesque quality of the mature gardens surrounding the house.
|It has a special association with important political and social figures in 19th and 20th century Queensland (Dicksons, Moffatts, Gibsons, Woulfes, de Vahl Rubins, Allens).
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14992,"place_ref":600217,"name":"Woolahra","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"1 Lexington Terrace","suburb":"HAMILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Woolahra is a two-storey brick house which blends Georgian and Renaissance elements in its design. The house is T shaped, with a one room wide wing across the front forming the crossbar, and a wider wing extending off the rear, forming the stem.
Its walls are rendered on the front and southern side, and painted on the northern side and the rear. The hipped corrugated iron roof has a decorative cast-iron comb along the ridges. A double storey verandah featuring decorative cast-iron posts, brackets, balusters and frieze, runs across the front of the house.
On the upper floor there are five french doors with leadlight fanlights and on the ground floor the front door has leadlight fan and sidelights with the name Woolahra incorporated. There are bay windows on either side. On the ends of the front wing there are heavily moulded Renaissance style windows which contrast with the simpler Georgian sash windows along the sides and rear of the back wing.
The theme of Georgian simplicity is continued inside the house where the lath and plaster walls and ceilings appear undecorated except for substantial joinery.
","history":"Woolahra, a two-storeyed brick house, was probably built in 1888 on land owned by Ellen Elizabeth Wheeler. A widow, she had bought the property in 1887.
Its first occupant appears to have been Charles Pritchard who married Mrs Wheeler. In 1896 the land was transferred to Ellen Elizabeth Pritchard. She died in 1932 and the house passed through a number of absentee owners who subdivided the property. The present owners bought the house and its remaining grounds in 1946.
","criteria":"As a reflection of the confidence of the 1880s boom.
As an early example of the type of large houses built on the hills to the northeast of the city.
|As a late illustration of the Georgian style with the addition of renaissance details and ornate verandahs.
|As a late illustration of the Georgian style with the addition of renaissance details and ornate verandahs.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14993,"place_ref":600218,"name":"Cremorne","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"34 Mullens Street","suburb":"HAMILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Cremorne is a large, imposing, single-storeyed timber residence, situated halfway up the steep slope of Eldernell/Hamilton Hill in Brisbane. It has expansive views of the Brisbane River and the city's south-eastern suburbs. and is a prominent landmark when viewed from the southern suburbs. It has a terraced front lawn, with a long, central flight of concrete steps leading to the lower terrace. A sealed driveway, accessed from Mullens Street through brick entrance pillars and a timber trellis, sweeps in front of the house and up around the eastern side of the property to a carport at the rear. This driveway is lined by an avenue of distinctive, mature Queen Palms [Arecastrum romanzoffianum].
\nThe house is rectangular in plan, and has a corrugated iron-clad roof comprising a complex of hips, gables, ridges and pavilions, with decorative gablets and finials, and three brick chimney stacks. There are verandahs, with separate roofs, on all four sides. Several of these have been enclosed. The open verandahs all have simple timber balustrading and timber frieze, and ceilings of narrow tongue and groove boarding. Most of the walls are single-skin tongue and groove boarding, but where exposed to the weather, are clad externally with chamferboards.
\nDue to the natural slope of the ground toward the south, the house is high-set at the front facing south toward the river, but low-set at the rear, where there is a small, level backyard excavated from the hillside. The house mostly sits on timber stumps with concrete footings, but the perimeter stumps have been replaced by brick piers with arched timber battening between. A centrally positioned, divided brick stair, with a gabled portico above, gives access to the front verandah and front door.
\nThe front elevation is dominated by a deep, open verandah with large rotundas or pavilions on the south-west and south-east corners, which take advantage of the views and river breezes. This verandah has simple timber valances, posts and balusters, and the rotundas have ogee-shaped cupolas above a frieze of pink and green glass panels. On the south-west corner of the house a large, faceted bay window projects onto the verandah from the main bedroom; this is mirrored on the south-east corner by another faceted bay projecting from the drawing room. Both bays are embellished with very fine Art Nouveau leadlights.There are similar leadlights around the front door. The front exterior wall has been lined with fibrous cement sheeting and timber battening at some time after construction.
\nOn the western side of the house, the verandah outside the main and second bedrooms has been enclosed with casement windows and fibrous cement sheeting installed behind the timber balustrade. This area is separated from the south-west rotunda by large folding timber doors. The narrow, western verandah passageway outside the rear bedrooms and bathroom is only partly enclosed, with a timber frieze and timber lattice infill above the timber balustrade. Part of the eastern verandah, adjacent to the drawing room, is enclosed as a sunroom, with a single door opening onto the south-east corner rotunda. The rear verandah still functions as a passage, but is enclosed with chamferboards and sliding aluminium-framed windows.
\nInternally, the house retains the original configuration of rooms, with the private rooms on the western side separated by an entrance vestibule and north-south central hallway from the public rooms on the eastern side, and a service wing at the rear.
\nThe private rooms comprise a master bedroom and second bedroom opening off the central hall, and a side passage leading west from the central hallway to the dressing room, bathroom, and another bedroom. A small bedroom at the north-west corner of the house is accessed from the now enclosed rear verandah. There is another room, possibly a former bedroom, which also opens off the back verandah, but it has been modified substantially.
\nOpening off the front vestibule to the east is the drawing room, which has a south-east bay with leadlight windows and french doors opening onto the front verandah. The dining room opens off the central hallway and has an eastern bay with leadlights and a large, step-out window opening onto the eastern verandah. The drawing and dining rooms are separated by a side passage which leads east off the central hallway to what is now the sunroom [formerly part of the eastern verandah]. The door opening from this hallway to the sunroom is an external door, with leadlight surrounds.
\nThe service wing behind the dining room comprises servery, crockery room, kitchen [with a c1960 fit-out] and two servant's bedrooms, one of which has early linoleum flooring. A later bathroom and laundry are located on the enclosed verandah of the service wing.
\nThe interior has early joinery throughout - including a decorative, arched timber divider between the entrance vestibule and central hallway, and timber arches to the side passageways - all of which has been painted. The drawing and dining rooms have fireplaces with early marbled timber fireplace surrounds, fireplace and hearth tiles, and metal grates and fenders. Most of the timber partition walls are clad with later fibrous cement sheeting with wallpaper and a later timber dado strip. Most of the rooms have later plaster ceilings, but the entrance vestibule and drawing room have early, decorative pressed metal ceilings. Floors throughout are of narrow hardwood.
\nThe 2008 pavilion sited at the rear of the house in the north-western corner has a steeply pitched hipped roof and is clad in ribbed metal sheeting and weatherboards. A swimming pool and heavily landscaped gardens are located along the rear boundary.
\n","history":"
Cremorne is a substantial, single-storeyed, high-set timber residence erected c1905-06 for Brisbane publican James Denis O'Connor. It was designed by the firm of Eaton & Bates, Sydney-trained architects who built up a substantial Queensland practice from c1894-c1908.
\nJD O'Connor, born in Ireland c1860, had immigrated to South Australia in 1878, and was in business in Adelaide before moving north to Queensland, reputedly for health reasons, in 1889. His brother, Denis O'Connor, was already a well-known Brisbane publican, connected from at least 1884 with a number of Brisbane hotels, including the Globe, Dunmore Arms, O'Connor's Family Hotel [at Stones Corner], Oriental [later the Wickham] (QHR600213) from 1890, and later with the Prince Consort (QHR600212) in Fortitude Valley. JD O'Connor held the licence to the Stanley Hotel at the corner of Stanley Street and Boggo Road, Woolloongabba, 1890-96.
\nIn Brisbane in 1895, JD O'Connor married Catherine Julia Graham, whose father, John Graham, was one of the earliest land holders at Moreton Bay, having purchased land at South Brisbane in 1842. Johnny Graham was a well-known Brisbane identity and property owner, and a keen sportsman. For 30 years, from 1866 to 1896, he held the licences to several South Brisbane hotels. He established Graham's Family Hotel in Stanley Street, South Brisbane in 1888, and held the licence until 1896, when it was transferred to his son-in-law, who changed the name to O'Connor's Hotel. JD O'Connor is understood to have sold O'Connor's Hotel c1909, and retired from the hotel business altogether c1913.
\nIn 1904, JD O'Connor obtained title to nearly 1.5 acres of hillside land at Hamilton, formerly part of the Eldernell Estate and first subdivided in 1890. Here he erected a very fine timber residence which he named Cremorne. Although the JD O'Connor's had only one child, a daughter born in 1896, they erected a large house designed for entertaining, with generously proportioned rooms, and wide verandahs and verandah pavilions which took advantage of the magnificent views of the Brisbane river, southern suburbs and city. It was designed by one of the most fashionable architectural firms of the day, Messrs Eaton & Bates of Brisbane, Rockhampton and Townsville.
\nSydney-trained architects George T Eaton and Albert E Bates had formed a partnership in Rockhampton c1894 and developed a successful Central Queensland practice in the late 19th century, with branch offices established at Mount Morgan and Longreach by 1898, Clermont in 1900, Gladstone in 1901, Maryborough in 1902, and Townsville by 1902. Arthur B Polin from Sydney joined the partnership in Townsville c1901; it becoming Eaton, Bates & Polin. After 1902 their head office was moved to Brisbane, with branches retained at Rockhampton and Townsville. A branch operated briefly at Toowoomba in the early 1900s. The practice undertook a wide variety of architectural work, from hotels and commercial buildings to residences, hospitals and masonic halls, and received a number of commissions from the Catholic Church, including churches, schools, convents and presbyteries. One of the practice’s most glamorous commissions was for the new Queen's Hotel [1901-04] (QHR 600936) at Townsville. Cremorne [1905-06] is one of their larger residential designs. Its style was eclectic, drawing upon both eastern and western classical traditions, with a particular emphasis on verandahs and pavilions - both as a decorative device and as appropriate to the Queensland climate.
\nEaton & Bates called tenders for a large villa residence on the Eldernell Estate, Hamilton, in June 1905, and this is thought to refer to Cremorne. The O'Connor family was resident at Mullens Street, Hamilton, by 1907.
\nThree generations of the O'Connor family resided at the property for nearly 90 years, and retained ownership until the late 1990s. JD O'Connor had transferred title to his wife in 1916, prior to his death [at Cremorne] in 1919. Following Mrs O'Connor's death in 1952, Cremorne passed to their daughter, Lynette Mulcahy, who had married Thomas Edward Mulcahy in 1921. The Mulcahys had two children, a son and daughter, and Cremorne subsequently passed to their daughter, who subdivided the land, selling the house on a reduced site comprising two lots in 1998 and an access easement from Quarry Street to the east. Alterations and additions including an attached pavilion to the north-eastern corner of the house and a pool along the rear boundary were completed in 2008. In 2014, the southern allotment on Kingsford Smith Drive was subdivided into three. In 2015, roadwork has been undertaken to seal the easement and residences are being constructed on two of the three allotments.
\n","criteria":"
Cremorne, a large, substantially intact timber residence constructed in 1905-06, is important in illustrating the continued development of Hamilton in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, as one of Brisbane's most prestigious suburbs.
|The house is an outstanding example of Queensland federation-period domestic architecture, which, with its generous verandahs, distinctive rotundas, and attention to ventilation in the design, materials and details, addresses both aspect and climate in a creative and aesthetic manner.
|Situated on a prominent riverside site, Cremorne and its grounds are significant for their landmark and aesthetic qualities.
|The house is important as the only identified Brisbane example of the domestic work of architects Eaton & Bates, who made a significant contribution to Queensland architecture in the late 1890s and early 1900s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14994,"place_ref":600219,"name":"Palma Rosa","alternate_name":"Sans Souci | Palmerosa/Palmarosa","street_address":"9 Queens Road","suburb":"HAMILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Palma Rosa is located on a hillside block at Hamilton overlooking the Albion Park Racecourse and Breakfast Creek. From the racecourse, the house is the most prominent building in the landscape, and possesses considerable landmark value.
Palma Rosa is a large sandstone residence arranged on three levels [two storeys and a full sub-floor] and has an attached 5 level tower, from the upper level of which there are fine vistas of the Bulimba and Hamilton Reaches of the Brisbane River. The windows on the fourth level of the tower have been filled in.
The building has a hipped roof, the outer faces of which are clad with slate tiles and the inner with 'panel deck'. There are double-storeyed, early 1980s, reconstructed verandahs across the northern [front] and eastern elevations, returning around the southern [rear] elevation to end at a tower. On the western elevation the original verandahs have been enclosed to provide toilets/bathrooms. There is a 3-level, projecting faceted bay, on both the southern and western sides of the building. These take advantage of the vistas over the racecourse to Breakfast Creek and the Brisbane River beyond. The front of the building addresses Queens Road to the north. The principal entrance is via a flight of centrally-positioned front steps leading to the piano nobile.
Internally the house comprises 15 main rooms on 3 levels, with a wide vestibule/hallway running centrally north-south through the house on each level. The floor plans of all 3 levels are almost identical. The principal rooms on the ground and first floor are over 4 metres in height and have decorative plaster cornices which are perforated or undercut, and perforated ceiling roses [these appear to have been designed to ventilate to the roof or floor cavity above]. There is extensive use of cedar joinery throughout, including panelled reveals and carved transoms to the doorways. The hallway on the principal level has tessellated tiles on the floor and corinthian pilasters to the archway separating hall from vestibule. There are 8 fireplaces with marble surrounds and tiles to the hearths, as well as the kitchen flue.
The house occupies most of the 1181m² block, with a few trees and shrubs along the side boundaries and a small lawn at the rear. There is little original planting. Across the front of the property is a masonry and cast-iron fence.
","history":"Palma Rosa is a three-level sandstone house built in 1886-87, possibly as a speculative venture for, and to the design of, prominent Brisbane architect Andrea Stombuco. It is one of Stombuco's most flamboyant residential designs, erected at the pinnacle of his success in Queensland. Ironically, construction of the building may also have been a strong contributory cause to his near insolvency in the late 1880s/early 1890s.
Andrea Stombuco was an Italian sculptor and builder who had travelled widely and was involved in various business enterprises, including stone quarrying at Capetown in South Africa, before emigrating to Victoria in 1851. After trying his luck on the goldfields, he established himself in Victoria as a sculptor, monumental mason, builder and architect, and found a patron in the Roman Catholic Church. He was the contractor for a number of Catholic churches in Victoria and for most of the stonework of Ballarat Cathedral, and in 1869 was appointed Catholic Diocesan Architect for Goulburn in New South Wales.
Stombuco moved to Queensland in 1875 on the advice of Rev. Patrick Dunne of Goulburn, and may have been appointed Catholic Diocesan Architect, receiving a number of important architectural commissions from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brisbane, James O'Quinn. These included St Joseph's Christian Brothers' College on Gregory Terrace [1875-76], St Mary's Presbytery at Ipswich [1876], St Francis Xavier Church at Goodna [1880-81], part of All Hallows at Petrie Bight [1880-82] and St Patrick's Church at Fortitude Valley [1880-82]. With his eldest son, Giovanni Stombuco, whom he took into partnership in 1886, he also designed St Joseph's Christian Brother's College at Nudgee, erected 1889-90. Among his more prominent non-Catholic works were St Andrew's Anglican Church at South Brisbane [1878-83] and Her Majesty's Opera House in Queen Street [1885-88].
Stombuco designed a number of large houses in Brisbane, including Friedenthal [1886-87] at Eagle Farm for WH Heckelman; and Rhyndarra [1889] at Yeronga for W Williams. He also designed several speculative ventures for himself, including Bertholme at New Farm [now the Moreton Club]. When Queensland's boom economy crashed in 1890, Stombuco was forced to auction his then residence, Briar House - a more modest residence in Lechmere Street, New Farm, which he had erected in 1888 - and left Queensland for Perth, Western Australia in 1891. His wife and son remained in Queensland, but Stombuco never returned, and died in Perth in 1907. Giovanni Stombuco retired from architecture when his father left Queensland in 1891, moving with his mother to Spring Vale Farm at Kuraby.
Whether Palma Rosa [originally named Sans Souci -'without care'] was built as a speculative venture, or whether it was intended as the Stombuco family home, is not clear. If the Stombucos occupied the house, it was very briefly. The house was completed by mid-December 1887, when Stombuco hosted an entertainment at Sans Souci to mark the completion of the building, but from 1888 to 1891, when he left the colony, the Queensland Post Office Directories list Stombuco's private residence as Lechmere Street, New Farm.
Stombuco had obtained title to the Sans Souci site in 1886. At that time it comprised 3 roods 19.2 perches, and was part of the Toorak Estate subdivision. The house was designed in 1886, the year Giovanni Stombuco entered into partnership with his father, but it is not known to what extent he contributed to the design. The house was constructed in 1886-87 by Brisbane contractors JAM O'Keeffe [who possibly had the overall supervision], A Petrie [who supplied the stone] and J Watson [presumably of the plumbing firm Watson Brothers], and builders Bell & McLaughlan.
On completion in late 1887, Sans Souci was described in the local press as undoubtedly one of the finest residences in or about Brisbane. The building was of three storeys, and constructed of stone from Petrie's Quarry [probably the nearby Petrie's Quarry, on the northern side of Crosby Road]. The rooms were all generously proportioned, with elaborate french-polished joinery and highly decorative cornices and ceiling roses in the principal rooms. The main hallway was decorated with an arch supported by fluted columns with corinthian capitals, and had tessellated Minton tiles on the floor. Sicilian marble was used for the steps at the front door and at the porch entrance, and for most of the mantelpieces, which also had Minton tiles in the hearths.
Original plans indicate that the sub-floor contained a generous L-shaped dining room, kitchen, scullery, pantry and servant's room; the piano nobile contained a drawing room and library [connected by folding doors] over the dining room, a boudoir and two bedrooms on the east side of the hall, and a main staircase off the vestibule to the west; and the upper floor accommodated 5 bedrooms and a bathroom. The three floor plans virtually replicated each other, and included a generous hall, 10 feet wide, running centrally north-south on each level. Initially, verandahs across the whole of the southern and western elevations were intended, but only sections of these appear to have been built.
In September 1888, Stombuco took out a mortgage of £4,500 on Sans Souci from the Queensland Investment and Land Mortgage Company Ltd, of which Sir Arthur Hunter Palmer, premier of Queensland from May 1870 to January 1874, was a director and principal shareholder. Even before Stombuco left Queensland in 1891, it appears that the mortgage company controlled the property, although Stombuco technically retained title until 1913. The house was clearly a rental property by 1890, at which time it was known as Palmerosa, and was occupied briefly [c1889-90] by prominent Brisbane jeweller Lewis Flegeltaub, who had moved to Newstead House by 1891. Through the 1890s and early 1900s, Palmarosa was home to a number of socially prominent people and their families, including Joseph Bennett [possibly a Fassifern grazier] 1892-93; Reginald E Finlay [manager of the Queensland Investment and Land Mortgage Company Ltd] c1894-97; Captain TM Almond [Queensland portmaster 1890-1902] in the late 1890s; and William Hood, MLA, in the early 1900s.
From c1904 to c1934, the principal occupant was Arthur Cecil Hunter Palmer, a civil engineer and second son of Sir Arthur Hunter Palmer. ACH [Cecil] Palmer and his wife, Lorna Barron, appear to have settled at Palmarosa within a year or so of their marriage in August 1902, and in 1913 title to the property was transferred to Mr Palmer. The Palmers were well known in Brisbane society for their race-day verandah parties at Palmarosa, overlooking the Albion Park Racecourse, with 'bookies' said to have visited the house to take bets. By 1932 the house had been divided into three flats, with the Palmers occupying the top floor. During the Second World War, Palmarosa was occupied by United States military personnel from 1942 to c1945.
The house remained in the Palmer family until title passed in 1945 to Charles Robinson, then to Charles Lawrence Hayles in 1946. In 1951 the residence was converted to a boarding house - several of its residents later became prominent, including Sir William Knox and several judges - and Hayles subdivided the property in 1954. Title to the house block was transferred a number of times in the 1950s, and in the late 1950s or early 1960s the place was converted to a private convalescence hospital. By September 1963 the verandahs had been removed and additional toilets installed for hospital use. Also by this date, the name Palma Rosa was being spelt as two words.
In 1972 the property, on a reduced site of just over 1 rood [1181m²], was bought at auction by Ralph Holden on behalf of the English Speaking Union [ESU], a Queensland branch of which he had established in Brisbane in 1968. The ESU, based in London, is an educational, cultural and social society advocating English as an international means of communication. There are a number of branches of the ESU in Australia and in many other nations, but few own property.
Since 1972 Palma Rosa has functioned as club rooms and art gallery for the ESU's Queensland branch. In 1975 a new deed of grant was issued to The English Speaking Union [Queensland Branch], in which the Hamilton land was granted to the Union and its successors Upon Trust for Buildings (Preservation of Historic Heritage) purposes. In the early 1980s the Union installed a resident caretaker at Palma Rosa, a role which later was taken by the president of the English Speaking Union in Queensland, Patricia Johnson, and her family.
Repair works for the ESU were undertaken at Palma Rosa between 1972 and the mid-1980s, including reconstruction of the verandahs, and in 1996-97 the Union commissioned a substantial conservation report on the building.
","criteria":"Palma Rosa, erected in 1887 on a scale and finish unusual even in Brisbane's more substantial 19th century homes, is important in illustrating the confidence in the 1880s boom which re-shaped Queensland's economic environment, and created a building boom in Brisbane.
|Palma Rosa, erected in 1887 on a scale and finish unusual even in Brisbane's more substantial 19th century homes, is important in illustrating the confidence in the 1880s boom which re-shaped Queensland's economic environment, and created a building boom in Brisbane.
|It is an excellent example of the domestic work of prominent Brisbane architect Andrea Giovanni Stombuco and is a splendid example of an 1880s elite residence in Queensland.
|The ornately decorated interior, reflective of the architect's flamboyant taste, is of strong aesthetic value.
|The place has landmark value, and has had a special association for the English Speaking Union as their Brisbane club rooms since 1972.
|The place has landmark value, and has had a special association for the English Speaking Union as their Brisbane club rooms since 1972.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14995,"place_ref":600220,"name":"Anning Monument (Boer War Memorial)","alternate_name":"Hemmant Boer War Memorial","street_address":"cnr Boonoo Street","suburb":"HEMMANT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Boer War Memorial is situated in a large park in Hemmant. It sits beside a grassed playing area in front of a group of children's swings.
The sandstone memorial comprises a base and pedestal surmounted by a obelisk. It sits on a concrete pad and is surrounded by evenly spaced metal posts linked by a metal chain.
The base is a smooth faced step with a chamfered top edge. Surmounting this is the pedestal plinth which is smooth faced and capped with large cyma recta mouldings. The front face displays a high relief carving of a trooper's hat and bandolier. Rising from the plinth is the pedestal dado. It is a square pillar with recessed panels on each side. The front face has a leaded marble plaque set into the recess bearing an inscription to Lance Corporal John Harry Anning. The dado is capped by a large cornice made up of a number of cyma recta and torus mouldings.
Projecting from the pedestal is the obelisk. It sits on a plinth capped with cyma recta and torus mouldings and also has a leaded marble plaque on the front face. It bears another inscription to Lance Corporal Anning.
The obelisk has a relief carved tasselled shroud draped over the top. Below the shroud are relief carved crossed rifles, bound with cord and resting on a banner. The banner hangs from a staff with a small crown at the top.
","history":"The Anning Monument was unveiled in March 1903. It was designed and executed by monumental mason William Busby of Toowong, Brisbane.
The stone memorial honours local man, Lance Corporal John Harry Anning of the 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen. The memorial was erected by his friends and comrades after he was killed in action at Koppiesfontein, South Africa on 6 August 1901 at the age of eighteen.
It was originally sited at the junction of Lytton and Hemmant Roads, but was re-sited in 1968 after it was hit by a car.
The Anning memorial was constructed at an early phase of the history of war memorials in the state. After the First World War, the construction of war memorials was prolific. In 1903, when this memorial was unveiled, they were still quite rare.
Australian war memorials are valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste.
Although there are now many different types of memorials throughout Queensland there are few Boer War Memorials.
","criteria":"War Memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state. They provide evidence of an era of widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism, particularly during and following the First World War. The monuments manifest a unique documentary record and are demonstrative of popular taste in the inter-war period. The memorial was constructed at an early phase of the history of war memorials in the state.
|The monuments manifest a unique documentary record and are demonstrative of popular taste in the inter-war period.
It is an uncommon example of a memorial erected in memory of a single soldier.
|The Boer War Memorial is an important Queensland monument. It is one of the few memorials in Queensland to commemorate the involvement and death of Queensland soldiers in the Boer War of 1899-1902. After the First World War, memorials were erected in most Queensland towns, however in 1903, when this memorial was unveiled, they were still quite rare. It is an uncommon example of a memorial erected in memory of a single soldier.
The memorial at Hemmant demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event. This is achieved through the appropriate use of various symbolic elements including a shroud, crossed rifles, and obelisk
|The Boer War Memorial is of aesthetic significance for its high level of workmanship and design.
|It has a strong and continuing association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and as the focal point for the remembrance of that event.
|It also has special association with Brisbane monumental mason, William Busby as an example of his work
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14996,"place_ref":600221,"name":"Hemmant Christian Community Church","alternate_name":"Tingalpa Wesleyan Methodist Church | Hemmant Uniting Church | Hemmant Methodist Church","street_address":"69 Hemmant Road","suburb":"HEMMANT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This weatherboard church is rectangular in shape with a small gabled front porch. A bellcote surmounts the front of the gable roof which is in corrugated iron. The front gable is decorated with scalloped timber barge boards. There are 6 gothic-style leadlight windows along each side of the building and two at the front. They are all memorials to the church's pioneer families.
The interior walls and ceiling are lined with horizontal double-headed tongue and groove boards. A folding timber screen divides the building in two, separating the church from a meeting room.
","history":"This building was opened in November 1866 as the Tingalpa Wesleyan Methodist Church, within the East Brisbane Circuit - later incorporated into the Wynnum Circuit as the Hemmant Methodist Church.
The Tingalpa district, which included Hemmant, had been opened up to farming in 1859. Settlement expanded following the introduction of the 1864 Coffee and Sugar Regulations, when most of the land in the district along Doughboy [Bulimba] Creek and the Brisbane River was taken up for sugar growing.
Tenders for the construction of a Wesleyan Church at Church Hill, Tingalpa were called in August-September 1865, and the building was officially opened in November 1866. Local involvement included that of the Hon. Angus Gibson MLC, who served as a church trustee for 50 years. Together with the school, built in 1864, the church contributed to the nucleus of the village of Hemmant.
The building was extended by 5 metres at an unknown date, and in 1947 the windows and most of the interior fittings and furniture were replaced.
Hemmant Methodist Church functioned as the Hemmant Uniting Church following the amalgamation of Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches as the Uniting Church of Australia in the mid-1970s. In 1988 it was closed due to a declining congregation. Saved from demolition by a local community group, the building was re-opened as the non-denominational Hemmant Christian Community Church.
","criteria":"Hemmant Christian Community Church , erected in 1865-66, is significant historically as one of the oldest churches in Brisbane, associated with the early establishment of Methodism in Queensland and with the development of Tingalpa/Hemmant as a farming district in the second half of the 19th century.
|The building illustrates the principal characteristics of a modest, 19th century timber gothic-style church in Queensland, and has functioned as a community focus and landmark for over 130 years.
|The building illustrates the principal characteristics of a modest, 19th century timber gothic-style church in Queensland, and has functioned as a community focus and landmark for over 130 years.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14997,"place_ref":600222,"name":"Glengariff","alternate_name":"Glenaplin | Dura","street_address":"5 Derby Street","suburb":"HENDRA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"Glengariff is a two storey brick residence located on the corner of Derby and Burilda Streets Hendra, the heart of Brisbane's racing industry. It is set in generous grounds which have been reduced in size by the formation of TC Beirne Park to the north (c1949) and to the east the subdivision for residential purposes of land (1993) that was originally occupied by a tennis court and croquet green.
The property is accessed from Derby Street through a recent gate and via a semi-circular driveway. A double garage is located in Burilda Street which has a line of mature Bunya Pines running along its boundary. On the northern side of the house are two large camphor laurel trees. Other plantings appear to be of recent origin. A tennis court (1985) exists to the north of the house.
The house has a corrugated iron gabled roof with prominent chimneys, one four flue and two three flue, two positioned at the ridge line and one on the north end gable. The principle elevation facing Derby Street is asymmetric and has a rendered brick entry portico with a three storey tower that rises through the first floor and above the gutter line and is finished with a low hipped roof. To the left of this is a rendered brick gabled wing with two storey bay window with central and top cornices. To the right a late Victorian two storey cast iron verandah runs around the eastern gabled wing. The verandah is supported on paired cast iron posts with a deep semicircular cast iron valance between, in a floral design, at ground floor and shallow valance above at first floor. The balustrade on the first floor is cast iron with a timber handrail. To the west is a wide Edwardian timber verandah extension which has detailing that is an interpretation of the late Victorian verandah with paired square timber posts, timber semicircular valance with slatted detail, slatted timber balustrade with central diamond pattern section at ground and first floors and shaped bracket posts at first floor. The walls beneath the verandahs are painted and unpainted brick with rendered quoins on the corners and surrounding doors, windows.
A lift has been installed on the northern verandah that rises through the first floor and is finished in a weatherboard clad dormer.
A narrow two storey brick wing extends off the north side with a narrow two storey cast iron verandah on the east side with the same cast iron detail as the rest of the verandah but with a lancet shaped valance. On the west of this wing the verandah has been enclosed with weatherboard.
Basement carparking has been created recently by excavation and the formation of a terrace to the north of the house. An original brick water tank which has a dome shaped top exists in this basement.
Glengariff which now has plan form that is roughly T shaped is entered via the entrance portico through heavy timber double doors which have lead light glass head and side windows. Above the door is located Bishop O'Donnell's Coat of Arms. The entrance hall is divided by a colonnade which leads to a single width return timber stair upto the first floor. The flight of the stair, which has carved timber newels and turned balusters, appears to have been altered.
To the left of the entrance stair is the dining room which has a bay window at its southern end which has four high double hung windows with leadlight hopper windows with a central roundel with painted birds (a detail repeated in other rooms) over. At the north end is a central black marble fireplace with surrounding high timber mantle with central mirror and flanking book cases. Early wall paper is in evidence in the cupboards behind this fitting. This room opens out to the wide timber verandah to the west. To the north, behind the dining room, is another smaller room, physical evidence suggests that this may have originally accommodated the stair.
To the right of the entrance hall is a lounge room with white marble fireplace, surround and mantle. On the left side of this is a semicircular arched opening and on the right side a blind opening in the same detail. This room opens onto the verandah via French doors in the south and east elevations, and connects to the kitchen (inserted 1985) which has been fitted out in contemporary fashion. The north wall has been extended under the verandah with a timber and glass screen. There is a French door to the verandah in the east wall.
Access to the former kitchen wing is through single half glass door with lead light over onto the northern verandah. This verandah leads to the former kitchen and a secondary stair to the first floor.
The main stair with a lead light window at the half landing rises to the first floor landing which has been altered towards the south to form bathroom facilities. To the left of the landing are two bedrooms that open out on to the verandah via French doors. To the south off the landing is a large bedroom with a bay window and openings onto the western verandah. To the north of this are a further two bedrooms and behind this the secondary stair and a bedroom in the former kitchen wing. The enclosed verandah on the western side contains a bedroom and bathroom.
Access to the tower is from the first floor verandah via a decorative cast iron spiral stair.
","history":"Glengariff (then called Dura) was erected in 1888-89 for bank manager Edward Jones by architect HGO Thomas. The site consisting of some 19 blocks (described as sections 87-105 of allotment 16 portion 2) totally nearly 5 acres was acquired by Jones in 1886 from the Queensland Turf Club. Located a short distance to the north of the Eagle Farm Racecourse, it had formed part of the original grant made in 1863 of over 300 acres to the QTC to enable the club to re-establish its racecourse, then at New Farm, at Eagle Farm. To overcome financial difficulties, parts of the original grant were sold off by the Club; the first subdivisions (of a number of 4-5 acre blocks) occurred in 1878. The Glengariff holding formed part of a second subdivision of some 180 blocks in the area roughly bound by Manson, Zillman, Gerler, and Nudgee Roads; street names such as Derby Street (after races, racecourses, and QTC trustees) alluding to the area's turf origins.
\nThe 1880s was a period of great economic prosperity in Queensland - no better evidenced than the resulting building boom which transformed the central business districts of many of the state's towns. In the suburbs of Brisbane, that prosperity was also evidenced in the substantial villa residences erected by the princes of the commercial world. In the midst of the boom, the Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd (established in Melbourne in 1866) opened its Brisbane branch in 1886 with Edward Jones as its manager. The Hendra site selected by Jones for his own suburban villa was somewhat unlikely: possessing neither elevation nor proximity to the river. It did however have proximity to the state's premier racecourse and to the recently opened Sandgate / City Railway line (via Hendra Railway Station). A number of other substantial houses had also been erected in the vicinity including Stanley Hall (QHR 600183) and Ralahyne (QHR 600182) (1888) in Enderley Road; WH Heckelman's two story residence Friendenthal erected 1886-67 on Nudgee Road (architect Andrea Stombuco); in 1892 James Clark's substantial timber residence Dunsinane was erected on Manson Rd (architect GHM Addison).
\nThe two storey masonry Dura was located to the southern (most elevated) part of the site with views from the upper floor of the surrounding district; the tower with its view to the south presumably providing a lookout to the Racecourse - a feature known to have been included for this purpose in additions to the nearby Stanley Hall undertaken in 1888-89 by architect GHM Addison for racing aficionado Hubert Hunter. A contemporary lithograph (which shows Dura prior to the 1907 Dods additions) shows a two story bay to the western elevation (matching the two story bay to the southern elevation) with a hipped roof running back to the main roof. It is not known whether this was actually built or if it was removed to accommodate the later addition of the Dods verandahs. To the north of this bay, the lithograph also shows windows at both levels with continuous hoods in place of the enclosed verandahs which now exist.
\nDescribed in 1888 by the Aldine History of Queensland as one of the rising young architects of the city, Welsh architect Hubert George Octavius Thomas (1857-1922) arrived in Brisbane in 1883 practising in his own right from c1885. After his marriage in 1898, Thomas lived and practised at Sandgate; his work there including a band stand at Moore Park (demolished), extensive alterations and additions to Howrah (later Blue Waters) as well as the removal and rebuilding of the Wesleyan Church (which Thomas attended) and the building of the parsonage. In 1903 Thomas moved his office back to the city. Other works include his own house Rheidol a single story stylistic relative to Dura erected c1889 at Montague Rd Sth Brisbane (demolished); a house for his father-in-law William Lee (1896-7) at Wooloongabba; and possibly his later house at Wooloowin, Nanteos. Thomas may also have been responsible for additions to Cintra (QHR 600054) in 1888. A founder and President of the St David's Society in Brisbane, Thomas died in 1922. Thomas is said to have specialised in suburban villas of which Dura/Glengariff would appear to be his most substantial.
\nEdward Jones did not however reside at Dura for long; by 1892 he is no longer listed in the Post Office Directories. It appears however that the house (recorded by the 1895 McKellar's Map as Glen Aplin) was rented to the manager of the Queensland National Bank (DG Stuart) until about the time when acquired by TC Beirne and his family in 1898.
\nThomas Charles Beirne (1860-1949) arrived in Australia from Ireland in 1884. Together with Irish contemporaries MD Piggott (with whom Beirne established his first store at South Brisbane in 1886) and FJ McDonnell, TC Beirne was to found a fortune based on the burgeoning retail trade which saw the transformation of small nineteenth century draper's stores into the large department stores of the twentieth century. Beirne's own fortunes became closely aligned with that of Fortitude Valley where (after the dissolution of his partnership in 1891 with MD Piggott who in turn established what became Piggott's Department Store in Toowoomba (QHR 600861)) Beirne established his store. The store grew over the succeeding decades to become Queensland's leading departmental Store; correspondingly the once unfashionable Fortitude Valley became Brisbane's principal shopping area. Other stores were also to be established at Ipswich (1892) and Mackay (1902). A successful businessman (with extensive interests in the Brisbane Tramway Company, the Australian Mutual Provident Society, Queensland Trustees, Atlas Assurance Company, and the British Australian Cotton Association), Beirne was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1905, and elected to the Council of the University of Queensland in 1927 becoming warden from 1928-1941. In 1935 he donated £20,000 to establish the TC Beirne School of Law. A devout Roman Catholic and close friend and confidant of Archbishop James Duhig (1871-1965), Beirne was also a prominent benefactor of the church including Duhig's grandiose scheme for the building of the Holy Name Cathedral (QHR 600208); the architect for which and many other Duhig projects, Jack Hennessy jnr, was to marry one of the Beirne daughters. In 1929 he was awarded a papal knighthood of the Order of St Gregory. At his death in 1949 the Courier-Mail commented that Brisbane has lost a personality whose life has been woven strongly into its own progress and development for half a century.
\nAs TC Beirne's Fortitude Valley store was to be central to the public expression of the man so Glengariff (as the Beirnes renamed Dura) was to his private life: the Australian Dictionary of Biography describing his pastimes as mainly connected with his family life [he and his wife Ann Kavanagh had ten children, five daughters surviving infancy] and his home, Glengariff, at Hendra, with its beautiful grounds, tennis and croquet courts. What prompted the move to Glengariff is not known: prior to the purchase of Glengariff the family are not believed to have owned their own home: leasing a property at Moray Street, New Farm and earlier living above the Brunswick Street store. By this time, however, Beirne was established as a successful businessman; moreover just prior to purchasing Glengariff there was much illness in the family with a baby boy dying from pneumonia and TC Beirne himself suffering from typhoid fever. The semi-rural Glengariff may have appeared the answer.
\nIn his memoirs, TC (as he was known) recalled inspecting the property with his wife in whose name the property was acquired:
\nThe house was a large two-storied building standing in five acres of land, the lower portion of which was under water. It was the home of water birds, such as the ibis, and the call of the curlew and the croaking of the frogs made it a very eerie place. The house itself had a look of utter neglect about it, and the garden was completely overgrown with giant bamboos, making it almost impossible to see the house from the road ... Mother, having viewed the house from every angle, turned to me and said, \"What a beautiful home it will make!\"
\nOn moving in, the bamboos were cleared away from the house but a lovely line of bunya pines along the west side (which remain today) was left; a large portion of the land was ploughed and crops of pineapples and rosellas, and lucerne for the cows were grown. To the east of the house was a tennis court and after becoming a fan of croquet TC had a croquet lawn constructed adjoining Goodwood Street.
\nIn 1923 the Queensland Society Magazine (November 1923 p23) published photographs showing sweeping gravel paths including a circular drive to the front of the house, the entrance hall (by which time the stair which physical evidence suggests may have been moved is in its existing position), the double archwayed drawing room containing many art treasures, and dining room. On the upper level were some five bedrooms and separate quarters for the staff. A timber garage was erected sometime after 1908 on Ascot Street (now Burilda Street) after fire destroyed the stables (located to the north of the house). An undated sewerage detail plan also shows the circular brick underground water tank located to the north of the house (which remains in existence).
\nIn 1907 architect RS (Robin) Dods (1868-1920) of the firm Hall & Dods undertook additions to Glengariff costing £496. Dods had previously undertaken work for TC Beirne and their relationship was to be longstanding: Hall & Dods undertook several stages of building to the Fortitude Valley store and warehousing (1902 - 1913) and the building of new stores at Ipswich (1902; additions 1909) and Mackay (1907). Dods also designed a house at Albion (c1912) for the eldest Beirne daughter.
\nDods' work at Glengariff included the addition of double storeyed verandah rooms to the western side of the house and the building in of cupboards in the dining room. The use of weatherboard and the detailing employed would also suggest that Dods was responsible for alterations and / or additions to the rear service part of the house (including enclosing of the existing verandah to the rear of the western side on two levels with weatherboard). The articulation of the main stair may have been altered at this time. Dods had a highly developed architectural imagination: his introduction of the formal and philosophical ideas of both the British Arts and Crafts movement and Edwardian classicism and his significant functional solutions to the problems of living and building in Queensland combined to achieve an architectural revolution in Brisbane. In his domestic work, Dods reassessed local timber construction refining familiar elements including the planning and detailing of verandahs . Dods work at Glengariff is typical: the addition of timber verandahs (expanded in size to become outdoor rooms) on the western side offered protection from the western sun as well as permitting a flexibility of use including as a ball-room (on the ground level) and outside sleeping quarters (on the upper level). The Edwardian concerns for light and ventilation (which were central to Dods own work) linked to the health of the mind and body, which found their high point in the open air wards for treatment of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (several being designed by Dods for the Brisbane Hospital) and Queensland's open air schools are clearly in evidence in Dods' work at Glengariff.
\nAfter the death of their mother (in 1940) and father (in 1949) the five Beirne daughters gifted Glengariff to the church as an episcopal residence. TC Beirne's longstanding friend Archbishop James Duhig offered it to his newly appointed Coadjutor Archbishop, Patrick O'Donnell. Contemporaneously more than half of the original Glengariff holding (lots 91-101) fronting Gerler Road became a municipal park, TC Beirne Park. Changes undertaken by the Church include the removal of a lift (installed by TC Beirne for use by his wife); the installation of Archbishop O'Donnell's coat of arms above the front door and fire place in the drawing room (which remain) and the replacing of the timber entrance gates (located near the corner of Burilda and Derby Streets) and paling fence with chain wire. Glengariff was to remain Archbishop O'Donnell's home even after the death of James Duhig in 1965 when he became Archbishop; he chose not to move to Wynberg, the residence purchased by Duhig in 1925 as the Archbishop's residence after the demolition of Dara to make way for the building of Duhig's most ambitious building project the ill fated Holy Name Cathedral (QHR 600208). After the death of Archbishop O'Donnell, his secretary (and previously secretary to Archbishop Duhig) Rev Father Francis Douglas remained in residence until his death after which it was sold by the church in 1985 to its present owners.
\nMore recently a number of changes have been made to the house and grounds including the repositioning of the kitchen from the rear service wing to one room of the drawing room, the formation of a terrace to the rear of the new kitchen, with garage below, and the building of a new tennis court to the north of the house. Some changes have also apparently been made to the upstairs bedrooms and rear service wing including refitting of bathrooms. In 1993 roughly half of the remaining holding (lots 102-105) which previously contained the croquet and tennis courts to the east of the house were sold and a number of new houses erected. That land no longer forms part of the Entry in the Heritage Register.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1888-89, Glengariff (or Dura as it was then known) is one of a number of large villa residences erected throughout Brisbane during the late nineteenth century. The semi-rural villas, of which Glengariff (with its remaining grounds) is typical, sought to combine the amenities of both the city and country and provide evidence of the marriage of buoyant economic times with the aspirations of those who benefited from them.
Glengariff is closely associated with the development of Hendra as the racing heart of Brisbane which followed on the establishment of Eagle Farm Racecourse (and subsequent subdivision of the original Deed of Grant by the Queensland Turf Club, of which Glengariff is part) and the opening of the Hendra Railway Station in 1882.
|The two storied brick Glengariff is a fine example of the work of architects HGO Thomas and RS (Robin) Dods whose 1907 additions included the two story verandah rooms to the western side.
The layout of the front drive and the line of Bunya Pines survive as evidence of early garden plans; the brick water tank is believed to be rare.
|The house and grounds are of considerable aesthetic significance in particular the qualities of the cast iron work, joinery, glasswork, and the Dods additions.
|For half a century Glengariff was the home of prominent Brisbane Catholic retailer, businessman, and benefactor TC Beirne and his family. Its gift to the Brisbane Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church after TC Beirne's death in 1949, and its subsequent use as the home of the Archbishop James Duhig's Coadjutor Archbishop O'Donnell (after the death of Duhig in 1965 Archbishop) for a further three decades, was a continuation of a long line of interwoven histories of TC Beirne, the church, and the city of Brisbane. Thus Glengariff was not only the home of one of the city's most influential citizens but also became a symbol of his collaboration with another, Archbishop James Duhig who both individually and together did so much to shape the history (including the social and built fabric) of Brisbane in the first half of the century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14999,"place_ref":600224,"name":"Coorooman","alternate_name":"The Grange","street_address":"38 Dorchester Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Coorooman is a substantial timber residence situated on a ridge at South Brisbane overlooking the Brisbane River. The house is oriented to the north and Vulture Street, but from at least 1865, the site has been accessed from Dorchester Street to the south.
The core is rectangular in form, with an encircling verandah, a highly pitched gabled-roof [originally shingled but now clad with corrugated iron], attic rooms and a brick basement. Parts of the verandah have been enclosed. Decorative elements include scalloped barge boards, turned finials with twisted lightning conductors, distinctive arched dormer windows, turned cedar verandah balusters and two classically-moulded chimney heads. Internally, much of the original cedar joinery survives.
There are four rooms on the main floor and another four rooms in the attic. These are lit by windows in the dormers and in the gable ends. The brick foundations contain two large basement rooms, one of which was used as LC Ball's photographic darkroom.
To the southeast of the main building is a formerly detached timber wing containing kitchen and staff quarters.
The grounds contain part of an early slab fence, and plantings include a Norfolk Island pine thought to date to c1930.
","history":"Coorooman, a single-storeyed timber residence with attic and basement, was constructed by c1882, when it was known as Grange House. Materials and stylistic details suggest it was erected much earlier, probably in the 1860s.
Portion 147, a 9 acre parcel which included the Grange House site, was alienated in 1856 by Thomas Blacket Stephens. Portion 147 was part of approximately 125 acres - most of the land between what is now Stephen's Road and Gladstone Road, and from Vulture Street to Gloucester Street - alienated by TB Stephens at this period. Stephens erected the first Cumbooquepa (QHR 600305) on this land, and may have erected Grange House as well, which would account for its northern orientation to Vulture Street.
Stephens subdivided portion 147 about 1863, and title to the Grange House site of 24.8 perches [subdivisions 16 and 17], fronting the newly created Water Street West to the south and overlooking the Brisbane River to the north, was transferred to Helen Bell and her sister Ann Paton Love, in April 1863. The Love family retained title to this property until the late 1870s, but do not appear to have lived there.
In 1882 title passed to Janet Burns, and she and her husband John were resident at Grange House by the following year. He was a merchant in business with his brother, James, who established the trading and mercantile firm of Burns, Philp & Co. Ltd in 1883. John Burns died in 1884, but Grange House remained the property of the Burns family until 1912, during which time it was mostly rented to middle class tenants.
Lionel Clive Ball acquired the property in 1912, and renamed the house Coorooman. Ball became chief government geologist in 1931 and pioneered the geological mapping of Queensland based on aerial photography. The Ball family held the property until 1956.
Coorooman remains a substantially intact, mid-19th century residence.
","criteria":"Coorooman, erected by c1882, is significant historically for its association with the mid-19th century expansion of middle-class residential settlement on the ridges of South Brisbane, overlooking the Brisbane River.
|It remains substantially intact, and is an important example of an early gothic-style house in Brisbane.
|Coorooman occupies a prominent position, and is important as one of Brisbane's commanding hilltop houses which contributes significantly to the townscape of South Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15000,"place_ref":600225,"name":"Kinauld","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"116 Dornoch Terrace","suburb":"HIGHGATE HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Kinauld is a large timber house built on a steeply sloping site. It is square in plan with a single-storey at street level and two-storeys at the rear. The twin hipped roof with valley is clad in corrugated iron.
The front verandah has a hipped roof, cast-iron balustrades and timber venetians. The central frontispiece has a gabled pediment. The chamfered board walls are broken by pairs of step-out windows either side of the central front door.
The plan of the main floor is most innovative, with all rooms except the drawing room opening off a central room or circulation space that has no windows. The front door opens onto a short hall with two doors, one of which leads to the central room. The right hand door opens on to the large front drawing room which has pairs of step-out windows that provide egress to the front and eastern verandahs and a bay window.
Walls and ceilings were lath and plaster, while skirting boards, doors and architraves were cedar.
The sub-floor was composed of a kitchen, dining room, laundry and store room.
Externally Kinauld presents a substantially intact colonial facade.
","history":"This timber and corrugated iron hill-top house was erected in 1888 for the widow of Alexander Macintosh.
Alexander Macintosh came to Brisbane from Scotland in 1865 with his wife and family of nine children. In 1866 he purchased the site and built a simple timber dwelling, which he called Kinauld. Mackintosh died in 1877, but in 1888 his wife commissioned Brisbane architect Alexander B Wilson to design the present Kinauld, immediately behind the first.
Macintosh descendants owned the dwelling until 1953, occupying the house until the late 1930s. During the Second World War it was rented by HW Herbert, manager of Queensland Trustees.
Subsequent owners made many internal alterations: marble fireplaces, cedar fittings and stained glass were removed, ceilings were sheeted with asbestos, verandahs enclosed, rooms modified and the rear verandah's cast-iron balustrading sold off.
Restoration by current owners includes reconstructing the front facade, front door and ceilings, and replacing fittings.
","criteria":"Kinauld, constructed in 1888, survives as one of Brisbane's commanding hilltop houses and is important for its association with the early settlement of Highgate Hill.
|As an accomplished building of innovative form and unusual style, it is a fine example of the early domestic work of Brisbane architect Alexander B Wilson.
|Kinauld, as one of the Brisbane's commanding hilltop houses, contributes significantly to the South Brisbane/Highgate Hill townscape and to the historic streetscape of Dornoch Terrace.
|Kinauld is also important for its association with the Macintosh family.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15001,"place_ref":600226,"name":"Wairuna","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"27 Hampstead Road","suburb":"HIGHGATE HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Wairuna is a substantial mostly one storeyed elevated timber building on a prominent site in Hampstead Road, Highgate Hill. The building has a complex steeply pitched hipped and gabled roof clad with red Marseilles patterned terracotta roof tiles. Gabled projections on the roof give external expression to bay windows and other projections which would otherwise be concealed by verandahs. The gabled projections on the roof are clad with a variety of small terracotta tiles or horizontal timber boarding. The projections have decorative bargeboards partially infilled with either vertical timber battening or cross braced timber members.
The building is timber framed and clad with horizontal beaded boarding. Tall rectangular stuccoed chimney stacks with simple cut out decorative motif below the cap. The building is lined on the northern façade, facing toward the central business district, with a wide timber framed verandah. The verandah has rectangular timber posts, a simple vertical battened balustrade. The verandahs are lined with timber louvred screen and latticing. The pitch of the roof becomes more shallow over the verandahs.
Pedestrian entrance to the house is via a set of secured concrete stairs from Hampstead Road which curve up to a lawned terrace in front of the northern façade of the house. From this timber steps lead to a double timber latticed door in a small diagonally placed porch projecting from the verandah. This north eastern end of the verandah expands to form a large open piazza area. From the piazza access is provided to an double timber entrance door, flanked by leadlight sidelights and surmounted by a rectangular transom, also glazed with leadlight. From here, a small entrance vestibule is separated from the entrance hall by a colonnade.
Internally the building has timber boarded floors, vertical timber boarded walls and ceilings clad with decorative pressed metal sheeting. The interior is arranged around a large central space comprising the entrance hall and a large conservatory hall to the west of the hall and linked by a short hallway. Both of these central rooms have large clerestory windows, providing natural light to what would otherwise be quite dark central rooms. Surrounding these rooms and accessed from them are a number of rooms including a drawing room, dining room, study, three bedrooms along with a number of smaller ancillary rooms including a servant's bedroom, bathroom and toilet, kitchen, serving pantry and scullery. Access is provided to two stairs from the conservatory, one internal timber stair and, quite near this , at the western end of the house, an external stair, leading to a rear terrace. Most internal timber doors, which are generally four panelled, are surmounted by operable transom lights. The internal rooms are generally generously sized spaces and the interior is a substantially intact late nineteenth century residence, although many of the service areas have been refitted with modern facilities.
","history":"Wairuna was constructed as the residence of James Allan between 1896 and 1900, to the design of fine Brisbane architect Robin Dods.
James Allan was the co-founder of the drapery and outfitting firm, Allan and Stark who had outlets in South Brisbane and Queen Street. Allan and Stark were operating from the mid 1880s and remained in business as a major Queensland department store until they were taken over by Myer in the later half of the twentieth century.
James Allan and his new wife, Elizabeth Stark, moved into a house in Hampstead Road on the site of Wairuna which Allan bought on 4 February 1885. Wairuna was constructed in several stages from 1896 until 1900 and there is suggestion that the original house in which the couple were living was somehow incorporated in the new Dods' designed residence. However there is very little evidence of this at the house, although material including timber and doors may well have been recycled within the Allan's new house. When constructed Wairuna included a tennis court and tennis pavilion, a fence and surrounding gardens.
Robert Smith (Robin) Dods was a prolific, innovative and highly skilled Brisbane architect. Dods was articled in Edinburgh to Hay and Henderson and also attended classes of the local Architectural Association, before moving to London and joining the office of prominent nineteenth century architect, Sir Aston Webb in 1890. He returned to Brisbane after winning a competition for the Brisbane Hospital and began a partnership with local architect, FR Hall. Dods was a sophisticated architect, able to well integrate the contemporary innovative design of the Arts and Crafts movement with the climactic features of a sub tropical climate. Wairuna is certainly an example of this integration of ideas, a finely designed building following the Arts and Crafts tradition with a high pitched complex roof, multi gabled and bayed projections and an overall picturesque quality, achieved whilst obtaining a comfortable and livable Queensland house.
James Allan died on 27 January 1938 and Wairuna was acquired by the Presbyterian Church on 16 March 1943. The building was used as a hostel from 1939 until 1972, then as a Home Mission Training Institute and in 1977 was used as a Uniting Church manse. During the period of church ownership many internal partitions were added and the bathroom facilities were extended. A church hall was constructed on the site of the former tennis court. Subdivision followed and the church was sold into private ownership in about 1984.
","criteria":"Wairuna is a substantial timber residence, constructed between 1896 and 1900, and demonstrates the growth of South Brisbane during this period when many large residences were erected.
|The building is a good example of the work of Robin Dods, adapting Arts and Crafts design philosophy with the climactic constraints posed by sub tropical dwelling.
|(Criterion under review)
|The building has special associations with Robin Dods, the architect and with James Allan for whom it was constructed.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15002,"place_ref":600227,"name":"Nassagaweya","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"37 Gray Road","suburb":"WEST END","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Nassagaweya is a two-storeyed timber house (c.1885) with a pyramid roof in corrugated iron, which was previously slate. Built on a corner block, the square-shaped core has a number of gabled projections on the street frontages.
The front elevation is dominated by a double-storeyed gabled verandah on the left which has cast-iron balusters and frieze and a pierced timber valance. On the right is a gabled portico. This leads onto a small verandah, enclosed by timber louvres, which projects to the side.
The side elevation is a complex arrangement of gabled insert verandahs, the louvred verandah and a projecting kitchen entry.
Internally, the room spaces and joinery reflect the innovative spirit of the exterior. The house remains unaltered except for a room apparently added at the rear. The overall effect is an unusual and whimsical composition.
Outbuildings, including stables, burnt down some time ago.
","history":"Nassagaweya was built in c.1885 by architect Arthur Morry as his own residence. He was later to become mayor of South Brisbane and the local member of parliament.
After Morry left the house in 1895 the property was probably rented until 1915 when it was purchased by a Scottish-Canadian, John Gillies. He named the house Nassagaweya after his birth place in Ontario, a Delaware Indian word meaning 'home by the maple forests'. Gillies died in 1946 and the house remains in the family. Today it occupies a corner site, the adjoining streets of which are named after two previous owners of the property, Gray and Morry.
","criteria":"One of several, sizeable timber houses built at Hill End during the 1880s boom.
|Nassagaweya is significant as an individualistic and intact 1880s residence.
|Nassagaweya is significant for its close association with architect and politician Arthur Morry, built as his own residence.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15003,"place_ref":600228,"name":"Wanda Walha","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"15 Gray Road","suburb":"WEST END","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Wanda Walha is a large two-storeyed timber residence with a double-storeyed front verandah.
\nThe hipped corrugated iron roof features a projecting gable on the left side at the front. The verandah has cast iron posts and balusters. The wide decoratively notched valance on the lower level is in timber. A gabled frontispiece projects from the verandah at the centre.
\nSash windows with timber hoods feature along the side elevations and there is an upstairs verandah at the rear.
\nA central hallway runs the length of the house with drawing and dining rooms, separated by cedar folding doors, on the right. A sitting room, study and a bedroom are on the left. The kitchen wing at the rear has been relocated at right angles to its original position. Upstairs are a further six bedrooms. The interior is austerely finished.
\nAlthough most of the house is original, much of the verandah decoration and the central staircase were removed in the conversion to flats. These have been replaced with copies of the originals.
","history":"Wanda Walha was built in 1886 for successful merchant William Alexander Wilson. It was probably designed by his neighbour, the architect Arthur Morry.
Originally a grocer, Wilson was also a partner in the neighbouring West End Sawmill & Steam Joinery Co Ltd. This may explain the choice of timber as the material for Wanda Walha. He also built a number of other timber houses on his five acre (2 hectare) property, for rental. From the early 1890s he also rented Wanda Walha.
In 1906 Wanda Walha became the home of Robert Scott, an accountant, who bought the house form Wilson in 1914. It remained in the Scott family until 1978 during which time it was converted into flats. During the early 1980s the house was refurbished and returned to its use as a family home.
","criteria":"(Criterion under review)
|Wanda Walha is significant as an example of an imposing timber house built on the southside for a successful businessman.
Wanda Walha is significant as a timber variation of a style usually associated with brick residences built during the 1880s boom.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15004,"place_ref":600229,"name":"Tighnabruaich","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"203 Clarence Road","suburb":"INDOOROOPILLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"Tighnabruaich occupies a block of 1.19 hectares in central Indooroopilly, with frontages to the Brisbane River and to Clarence Road. The house is positioned overlooking the river to the south. Access to the house is via a circular driveway off Clarence Road.
Tighnabruaich is a timber framed house on brick piers. The main part of the residence is two-storeyed, with a single-storeyed, 'L'-shaped wing on the western side. The fall of the land towards the river provides space for a brick basement under the single-storeyed section. The whole has a corrugated iron clad roof comprising a series of gables and dormer windows. Single-storeyed verandahs are found on the northern and southern elevations of the building and along the length of the eastern elevation.
The house is asymmetrically arranged in both plan and elevation. The stud walls are clad with chamferboard externally and lath and plaster internally.
The principal entrance to the building is in the north elevation, where an elaborate covered porch provides shelter for the main entrance, which has a six-panelled cedar door with semi-circular fanlight and sidelights.
The ground floor contains a number of large public rooms with bay windows and french doors, arranged around a central stair hall. An entrance vestibule with a tessellated tiled floor leads to the stair hall through an arched opening filled with a carved timber screen. The central stair is an open well with half-turn timber stair with landings and has very fine cedar joinery including turned balusters, prominent newel posts and spandrel panelling.
Generally the interior of the house has plaster ceilings, timber boarded floors and very fine stained cedar joinery. Most doorways have operable fanlights above. Plaster archways provide access to the major rooms on the ground floor and these rooms have plaster ceiling roses and deep plaster cornices.
The upper floor of Tighnabruaich has a number of smaller rooms, again opening off the cental stair hall and off halls radiating from this. Some of the upper floor rooms have partially raked ceilings of plasterboard, following the line of the roof trusses.
The grounds include an early carriageway lined with mature trees; large areas of lawn to the north of the house; and a tennis court to the east of the drive. At the southern end of the site the ground slopes steeply to the river, the bank being heavily vegetated.
","history":"Tighnabruaich, overlooking the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly, was constructed c1889 as the home of Henry Charles Stanley, Chief Engineer for Railways in Queensland. It was designed by his brother, the former Colonial Architect, Francis Drummond Greville Stanley.
Tighnabruaich is situated in central Indooroopilly. Despite having been surveyed into farm allotments in 1858, this area did not attract agricultural settlement to the same extent as the surrounding areas of Fig Tree Pocket, Long Pocket and St Lucia (originally known as Indooroopilly Pocket). Central Indooroopilly was steeply ridged and covered in dense scrub and the steep river banks did not provide ready access to river transport, the principal means of communication and trade with Brisbane and Ipswich in the mid-19th century.
Sections of central Indooroopilly remained undeveloped and isolated until construction of the Brisbane to Ipswich Railway through the district in the mid-1870s. Indooroopilly Railway Station was opened and named in 1875 and the first railway bridge across the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly was built in 1876, providing the impetus for closer suburban residential settlement in the district. A small township developed near the railway station, which by the late 1880s included a hotel, shops and a carpenter. In the last quarter of the 19th century a number of fine villas were erected on the banks of the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly, within reasonable proximity of the railway station.
The land on which Tighnabruaich is situated was part of a 42 acre block (portion 46, parish of Indooroopilly) with frontage to the Brisbane River, first sold at government auction on 27 September 1859 to James Henderson. There is little evidence to suggest that Henderson farmed or otherwise developed this land. In April 1873 the portion was transferred to Louis Stamm, a German-born Brisbane businessman who had had a varied career in Queensland since 1855 as a merchant, newspaper proprietor and brewery owner.
By October 1873 the Queensland government had determined that the Brisbane to Ipswich railway would cross the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly, that the rail corridor would pass through portion 46 and that a railway station would be established on part of this portion. In that month a road (Station Road/Indooroopilly Station Road) was surveyed from Moggill Road to the site of the proposed Indooroopilly Railway Station. The segmentation of portion 46 was formalized on a survey plan dated March 1875. The railway corridor and new road were transferred to the Queensland government the same year and Louis Stamm retained the remainder of portion 46 on 3 subdivisions. In April 1875 an extension of Indooroopilly Station Road (later known as Indooroopilly Road, then Lambert Road) was surveyed from the road to Long Pocket (Indooroopilly Road) to the government road along the eastern boundary of portion 46 (Musgrave Road - later Clarence Road). In June 1877 an extension of this new road was surveyed through portion 46 to the Indooroopilly Railway Station.
At some period prior to June 1891, Louis Stamm sold re-subdivision 3 of subdivision 1, a block of nearly 9½ acres bounded by the railway line on the west, the Brisbane River on the south, Musgrave Road on the east and Indooroopilly Station Road (Lambert Road) to the north, to Henry Charles Stanley. This was the future site of Tighnabruaich.
HC Stanley was born in Edinburgh in 1840. He studied engineering at Edinburgh University and subsequently worked as an engineer in Scotland before emigrating in the early 1860s to Queensland where he was employed as an assistant engineer on the construction of the colony's first railway (between Ipswich and Toowoomba). He was employed as a railway engineer by the Queensland government from 1 January 1866 and was appointed Chief Engineer for Railways in 1872, a position he held until 1901.
Tighnabruaich was designed by HC Stanley's elder brother, Francis Drummond Greville Stanley. Francis was born in Edinburgh in 1839 and trained in Scotland as an architect. He emigrated to Brisbane in 1862 and practised privately before gaining employment with the Queensland government in the office of the Colonial Architect, Charles Tiffin, in 1863. Following Tiffin's retirement FDG Stanley was appointed Colonial Architect from 1 January 1872, a position he held until 1881. Throughout this period of government employment he accepted a number of private commissions and continued in private practice in Brisbane, Maryborough and Toowoomba after he left the public service. Stanley was a prolific architect and his work is found throughout Queensland.
His design for Tighnabruaich was for a decorative, two-storeyed timber residence with a single-storeyed timber wing with basement. The roof comprised a number of steeply pitched gables and dormer windows (after domestic-scaled Gothic revival buildings) and was clad originally with timber shingles. It is thought that the house was erected c1889, as postal directories first record HC Stanley as resident at Indooroopilly in 1890. Prior to this he resided at Ascog in Church Street, Toowong.
The house was conceived as a villa in a park setting and about the time Tighnabruaich was constructed the property was cleared of vegetation, with the exception of a few specimen Eucalypt spp. A typical late 19th century garden was established in the immediate vicinity of the house, including the planting of an avenue of trees along a circular carriageway off Musgrave Road (later Clarence Road) and some Ficus spp.
In 1891 HC Stanley entered into a complicated financial arrangement with New South Wales grazier Solomon Wiseman, who held title to Tighnabruaich from June that year and who took out a substantial mortgage on the property from the Queensland Investment and Land Mortgage Company. The memorandum of transfer associated with this transaction also records that Stanley had purchased the land from Stamm for £3,100. Wiseman later subdivided the property and four subdivisions fronting Clarence Road were sold c1900. A Lambert Road subdivision was sold c1904. Following Wiseman's death in late 1901 the property became the responsibility of trustees. At this time HC Stanley and his family moved to Hamilton and Tighnabruaich was used briefly as a boarding house for the Bowen House boys' school in Ann Street, prior to the sale of the house on 8 acres 1 rood 7.2 perches (the total of subdivisions 1-2 and 8-14) to Herbert Brealey Hemming on 6 February 1904, for £2200.
Hemming was a solicitor with the distinguished Brisbane legal practice of Wilson, Newman Wilson and Hemming. He and his family resided at Tighnabruaich until c1915/16. During their occupancy tennis parties were regular events at Tighnabruaich. Dairy cattle were grazed on part of the land and part of the basement of the house was used as a dairy. From c1915/16 Hemming leased the house to Mrs Emma McGill, who operated it as a boarding house until the mid-1920s. The house appears to have remained vacant from the mid-1920s until requisitioned for use by the military during the World War II. One source suggests that a Dr Underwood occupied Tighnabruaich as a private hospital in the late 1930s, but this has yet to be confirmed.
An article written for the Queenslander in 1932 described various elements of the grounds of Tighnabruaich, including some 'fine old gum trees' in the cow paddock adjacent to the railway line; entrance gates to Clarence Street giving access to a drive lined by Camphor Laurels; a tennis court to the south east of the drive; hedging, steps to the lower grounds, accessed through a creeper-clad archway; and some 'fine Jacarandas and other flowering trees'.
Between 1916 and 1919 another house owned by Hemming, Witton Manor, was moved to the Tighnabruaich grounds from its original site further upstream at Indooroopilly (now occupied by the junior school of St Joseph's College Nudgee) and renamed Witton House. This was positioned in the south west corner of the grounds, facing the river, where it remained until its demolition in 1967. Hemming resided at Witton House from at least 1919 until c1938. Following Hemming's death on 8 March 1942 Tighnabruaich was administered by Queensland Trustees Limited on behalf of the Hemming estate.
The property was requisitioned from about October 1942 for use by a joint United States-Australian Intelligence Unit, the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) associated with the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre. These units directed the handling of captured Japanese prisoners and documents. During the war many huts and tents were assembled on the grounds for use by American soldiers; brick cell blocks were constructed in the center of the property, north west of the main house, to accommodate Japanese prisoners of war being held for interrogation; two interrogation rooms were erected to the immediate east of the main house; an Orderly's Office was established on the north west side of the main driveway off Clarence Road; a translation room was erected on the tennis court; Witton House functioned as the Sergeants' Mess; and Tighnabruaich was partitioned for office accommodation. The roof of the eastern verandah of Tighnabruaich was removed during this period.
Toward the end of the war the Australian Army decided to retain Tighnabruaich and the property was transferred to the Commonwealth on 13 June 1945. ATIS vacated Tighnabruaich about July 1945 and until July 1946 it functioned as a 7th Australian Women's Army Service barracks. During this period the main house was used as an officers' mess and Witton House accommodated non-commissioned officers. Other ranks occupied the huts and tents in the grounds. The property was then used solely for Army administrative purposes until 1949, when the main house was converted into two flats to accommodate senior Army officers. At this time the original eastern verandah was removed and a staircase to the upstairs flat was installed. By July 1951 the translators' room had been removed from the tennis court and in 1955 a small timber tennis shed or storeroom was erected adjacent to the court.
From January 1951 until mid-1998 Tighnabruaich functioned as the residence of the General of Command, Northern Command, Australian Army (later Commander 1st Division). The remainder of the site continued to be used for army purposes (Indooroopilly Barracks and Witton Barracks). After 1957 work to Tighnabruaich was carried out to restore it as a showplace and entertainment facility for the senior army officers who occupied the house as a family home. From this period many of the alterations made between 1942 and the 1950s were replaced with original or reconstructed fabric. A carport was added to the house in 1958 and a lavatory was installed on the ground floor under the main staircase in 1962. The staircase to the former upstairs flat was removed in 1966 and the eastern verandah was reconstructed.
Between January 1951 and March 1998, 20 senior army officers occupied Tighnabruaich as a family home. During this period a tradition was established whereby each resident general planted a tree on the property.
In 1998 the site was subdivided by the Commonwealth and Tighnabruaich house, on a reduced 1.19 hectares, was sold as freehold to private owners. The remainder of the property was retained by the Commonwealth. The grounds associated with Tighnabruiach house retained a river frontage, the early circular carriageway and the mature trees lining this drive, the tennis court and trees planted by resident army generals since 1951. Any other evidence of the military presence on the site has been removed. Tighnabruaich is occupied currently as a residence.
","criteria":"Tighnabruaich is a large, two-storeyed timber residence constructed c1889 for HC Stanley, Chief Engineer for Railways in Queensland, to a design by his brother, former Colonial Architect FDG Stanley. The place is important in demonstrating the pattern of growth of Brisbane, specifically at Indooroopilly, where middle-class suburban residential development was attracted to the district after the opening of the Indooroopilly Railway Station in 1875. As one of a group of substantial, late 1880s residences constructed in Brisbane, Tighnabruaich also contributes to our understanding of the nature of the Queensland economic 'boom' of this period. The property is significant for its association with allied interrogation of prisoners of war during World War II and, during the second half of the 20th century, as the showcase residence of officers commanding the Australian Army in Queensland.
|The house in its garden setting remains comparatively intact and a good example of a well-designed 19th century middle-class villa. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class, including planning, use of materials, decorative detailing, riverside location and the retention and layout of the grounds (including early carriageway, tennis court and plantings). The building is a fine example of the mature domestic work of FDG Stanley and contributes to the body of knowledge about the work of this prolific and influential Queensland architect.
|The building has aesthetic value as a well-composed, picturesque residence influenced by Gothic revival architecture popular during the second half of the 19th century. It contributes to the townscape of Indooroopilly and is a landmark along the Brisbane-Ipswich railway.
|Tighnabruaich has a special association with the Australian Army as the residence of the generals commanding the Army in Queensland for close to half a century. Trees planted by resident generals remain as evidence of that association.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15005,"place_ref":600230,"name":"Greylands","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"47 Dennis Street","suburb":"INDOOROOPILLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The original portion of Greylands is a brick building, single-storeyed at the front and double at the rear. The plan is symmetrical about a wide hallway which features a central screen with double doors. Two rooms on the right are divided by a set of folding doors. On the other side of the hallway are two bedrooms. Joinery throughout is of cedar, and all fireplaces retain their mantelpieces of marble, grates and hearths. Floors in each room are edged in cedar.
Original lath and plaster ceilings have been replaced, though plaster cornices remain in all rooms. In the sub-floor at the rear are five small rooms which were used as servants' quarters and a laundry. Externally the house features a fretwork pediment over the front steps.
Wide verandahs with cast-iron balustrading extend across the front and along two sides. The verandah roof is supported by paired verandah posts on brick piers, and separated from the main hipped roof of corrugated iron by a cornice with paired console brackets.
","history":"The site was part of a parcel of land purchased by Thomas Lodge Murray Prior in 1859. In 1876 his friend Graham Lloyd Hart, a city lawyer, purchased a subdivided portion of 43 acres and in the following year built Greylands. It is likely that Brisbane architect John Hall designed the house. The family resided at Greylands until Hart's death in 1897 except for a period in the 1880s when they lived on Wickham Terrace.
While it is unclear who owned the property next, it is likely that Queensland National Bank, which had been mortgagee for the Harts, took over the property. John Piper McKenzie, manager of the Bank's Brisbane Office lived there from 1900-1908. The next tenant was David Lahey, timber merchant, who leased the house from 1910-12. His daughter Vida painted the Monday Morning laundry scene at Greylands which hangs in the Queensland Art Gallery.
The residence was bought by Bank employee Alfred Dennis in 1912 and the estate was gradually subdivided. Dennis is credited with demolishing the old wooden wings and stables at the back, with building a new extension of five rooms and providing the tennis court. On his death in 1944 the property was sold to Norman Pixley and ultimately to the Power family in 1984, who refurbished the property.
","criteria":"One of the earliest villa residences in the Indooroopilly area, and a dignified example of 1870s design, the house and its setting provide a glimpse into the way of life of Brisbane's professional and business families.
In addition to its elegant exterior form, the house displays craftsmanship and detailing of a high standard including its cedar joinery and other interior decoration. Its appeal is enhanced by the retention of almost 5000 square metres of landscaped grounds which are free from urban intrusion.
Greylands was the home of Graham Lloyd Hart, founder of law firm Flower & Hart which has been prominent in Brisbane legal circles since the 1870s. That this was the location of Vida Lahey's much admired painting of women working in the laundry, Monday Morning, adds social import to the house
|One of the earliest villa residences in the Indooroopilly area, and a dignified example of 1870s design, the house and its setting provide a glimpse into the way of life of Brisbane's professional and business families.
|In addition to its elegant exterior form, the house displays craftsmanship and detailing of a high standard including its cedar joinery and other interior decoration. Its appeal is enhanced by the retention of almost 5000 square metres of landscaped grounds which are free from urban intrusion.
|Greylands was the home of Graham Lloyd Hart, founder of law firm Flower & Hart which has been prominent in Brisbane legal circles since the 1870s. That this was the location of Vida Lahey's much admired painting of women working in the laundry, Monday Morning, adds social import to the house
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15006,"place_ref":600231,"name":"St Andrews Church Hall","alternate_name":"St Andrews Church (temporary) | Indooroopilly Church of England Sunday School | St Andrew's Church Hall","street_address":"72 Lambert Road","suburb":"INDOOROOPILLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-07-09","description":"St Andrews Hall is a single-storeyed Gothic influenced timber hall sited to the rear of a battle-axe block, diagonally opposite St Andrews Church (1965). The hall has a steeply pitched corrugated iron roof, and exposed stud framing and cross-bracing over chamferboards. The southern end of the hall has a small decorative entrance portico with a pitched roof, while the extensions to the north (sanctuary c1902 and choir vestry c1930) have a lower roofline and project out to the east and the west. These extensions match the rest of the building in external detail.
Internal alterations (c1965) have included the removal of decorative detailing associated with the sacristy, sanctuary and vestry for refurbishment as a kitchen, servery and store area. The chancel arch appears to have been cut out and sheeted over. The floor has been lowered to the level of the former nave, stained glass windows replaced with louvred windows, and a timber ramp adjoining the entrance portico has been installed. External views of the building are partially obscured by a toilet block abutting the church to the south and a new brick rectory at right angles to the church to the north.
The hall is lit with tall rectangular windows which retain their stained glass toplights. Both the doors and windows have pointed arch timber-framed heads inside rectangular frames. The building is protected from water penetration by substantial roof overhangs with shaped eaves brackets, and broad timber weathercapping sloped at 45 degrees over a deep fascia around the base. The corners are protected and articulated with quarter-rounds between studs at right angles, and the gable ends are weatherboarded, the northern end having a leaf-shaped vent. The northern elevation bears the most noticeable marks of change, with the surrounds of now removed stained glass windows, a boarded-in pointed arch window frame, and a now disused door.
The entrance portico is finely detailed with carved round columns, a barge-board with a cinq-foil motif, and an exposed roof structure over a timber boarded ceiling.
Internally, the church retains its timber boarded floor and ceiling. The ceiling is raked, flattening out halfway, and has round carved timber ventilation panels. The scissor tie-rods to the roof structure are exposed.
The building is an externally intact example of exposed frame construction which has particularly well-considered weatherproofing detailing. It also retains with some fine external decorative elements, in particular the entrance portico, and the window and door framings.
","history":"St Andrew's church hall was built in 1889 on half an acre of land, as the Indooroopilly Church of England Sunday School. Indooroopilly was originally included in the Parish of Toowong when it was formed in 1870. With the advent of the railway during the 1870s, an increasing number of people settled in Indooroopilly. Regular Church of England services were not held in the district until the 1880s. In 1888 the first meeting of those interested in the erection of an Anglican church in Indooroopilly was held and a committee formed to pursue this intention. The Parish of Indooroopilly separated from the Parish of Toowong in 1890.
Diocesan Architect, JH Buckeridge, was instructed to prepare a plan for a brick church to accommodate 500 people, and to give an estimate for a portion to seat 250 people. Buckeridge's plan was considered too large, and possibly too expensive, for the district, and he was asked to prepare another plan for a church to seat 250 people. The construction of the brick church was deferred, and it was decided that a sunday school hall would be erected on the land, at a cost not to exceed £300. The sunday school hall would be temporarily used as a church, then as a sunday school when the permanent brick structure was erected.
The building was built by P Christensen, and cost £320. It was one of approximately ninety Anglican buildings erected during the episcopate of Bishop Webber, from 1885-1903. Webber had an understanding of ecclesiastical design and architecture generally and was responsible for bringing Buckeridge to Brisbane from London, as diocesan architect. Buckeridge was responsible for the design of over twenty timber churches in the Diocese of Brisbane.
The land for the church was donated by Graham Lloyd Hart, a prominent Brisbane solicitor and active member of the Church of England. It would appear that Hart's offer of the land was conditional upon a brick church being ultimately erected on the land.
A number of memorials to former parishioners were added to the timber building which mainly included furnishings and ceremonial items. A set of three stained glass windows to the memory of Hart who died in 1897, were incorporated in the building in 1900. A new chancel was added in 1902. The sanctuary was built by JL Pratt with the design assistance of WH Mobsby of the Parochial Council. A choir vestry was added to the sanctuary c1930, designed by SC Rookwood.
In 1963 the timber building was moved about 150 metres to the north-west and re-oriented 90°, prior to the construction of the new brick church. Internal alterations were undertaken c1965, to convert the timber building into the parish hall. These included the removal of decorative elements particularly around the sanctuary and altar. The stained glass windows and other memorials were removed, and the majority placed in the brick church in 1965.
A timber toilet block has been constructed immediately adjacent to the entry porch of the hall. A new rectory was built at the rear of the hall in 1985.
","criteria":"St Andrew's Church Hall is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history in particular the expansion of the Anglican Church in Brisbane in the late nineteenth century and the development of the Indooroopilly parish and the practice of erecting timber buildings as temporary structures until a masonry church could be erected as a permanent structure.
|St Andrew's Church Hall is significant as a rare example of a late 19th century exposed frame church and demonstrates the principal characteristics of a late nineteenth-century timber church by JH Buckeridge; and an exposed frame timber hall.
|St Andrew's Church Hall is significant as a rare example of a late 19th century exposed frame church and demonstrates the principal characteristics of a late nineteenth-century timber church by JH Buckeridge; and an exposed frame timber hall.
|The building's fine external decorative elements, in particular the entrance portico and windows and door framing exhibit aesthetic characteristics valued by the community.
|The use of timber technology is important in demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement.
|As the temporary parish church then church hall for St Andrew's parish, it has special association with the Anglican community in Indooroopilly.
|St Andrew's Church Hall has special association with the life of GL Hart and the work of JH Buckeridge, both of whom were associated with the Anglican Church.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15007,"place_ref":600232,"name":"Albert Bridge","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Brisbane River between Indooroopilly and Chelmer","suburb":"INDOOROOPILLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Albert Bridge spans the Brisbane River from Indooroopilly to Chelmer, at the junction of the Chelmer and Indooroopilly reaches.
It is a fully riveted structure consisting of two arched 'hogsback' mild steel trusses supported on stone abutments either side, and on a central concrete pier. This pier is encased in an elliptical wrought-iron caisson to low water level, then built up with masonry to the truss bearings.
Each truss is 103.7 metres long, 12.6 metres high in the middle, 8.2 metres wide, and weighs approximately 606 tonnes. Their design employs a double-intersection web system of diagonal members, based on the Linville system developed in the United States in the 1860s. They are strengthened by horizontal wind bracing at roadway level, and by elaborate overhead cross bracing.
The double railroad is carried by four longitudinal steel trough girders, with the sides of the troughs acting as guards against derailment. These are supported by massive cross-girders riveted to the underneath of the vertical struts and lower booms of the main trusses, at 5.2 metre intervals. The decking consists of ironbark longitudinals bedded on bitumen and sand, and bolted to steel tee bars which connect the trough girders transversely.
A cantilevered wrought iron footway is carried on the upstream side of the bridge.
","history":"Albert Bridge, which is a 'hogsback' steel truss bridge on masonry piers, was constructed in 1894-95. It is the second Albert Bridge on the site, replacing an earlier 1876 structure which was washed away in the floods of 1893. Both bridges were named in honour of the Prince of Wales, Prince Albert.
The second bridge was designed by Henry Charles Stanley, Queensland's Chief Engineer of Railways from 1892 to 1901, and is considered his major work. In designing the bridge as two long spans with one central pier, Stanley sought to avoid the obstruction to flood waters posed by multiple piers, which had been the downfall of the previous Albert Bridge.
Innovations in the design included the attachment of cross girders, protection against derailment, provision against strong wind gusts, and provision for free expansion under varying temperatures. The working drawings and specification were prepared by FL Keir of the Chief Engineer's office, and were completed by mid-1893. Keir was also the resident engineer on the site.
In August 1893 the contract was let to Brisbane contractors John McCormick & Son, with a price of £66,061. McCormick & Son also later won the contract for the ironwork on the second permanent Victoria Bridge, 1896-97. Expiry date for the Albert Bridge contract was set at 14 December 1894, but it was not opened to traffic until August 1895. A Scottish coal strike held up delivery of the rolled steel for eight months, and removal of the river bedrock for the central pier alone took four months.
A condition of the construction contract was that as much of the work as possible be done in Queensland. Messrs McCormick erected a workshop adjacent to the site at Indooroopilly, and imported machinery necessary for constructing the superstructure and the caisson for the central pier. Up to 240 persons were employed on site at any one time, and quarry workers provided freestone from Pearson's quarries at Helidon, the bluestone in the concrete from Jenkin's Bundamba quarry, and the granite for the bedstones and cutwater quoins from Mount Crosby. In 1895 the bridge was the largest in Australia of local manufacture.
The most difficult aspect of the work was the construction of the central pier and its foundation caisson. The latter weighed about 230 tons [232.3 tonnes], rested 81 feet [24.6 metres] below high water mark, and was sunk 2 feet [0.6 metre] into the rock. The riverbed sand and gravel could be dredged, but divers extracted the rock manually.
The southern span was erected above what remained of the former bridge, and was extended to the centre pier. The old pylons were then removed.
The northern truss was floated into position. The shore end rested on two trolleys, and when the tide was at its highest, specially constructed staging on an old barque took the weight of the other end of the truss from temporary piles. Winches were then used to pull the hulk across the river toward the centre pier, to which the truss was attached.
The cores of the earlier bridge abutments were widened and heightened to take the new superstructure. Parapets were constructed after the trusses had been fixed in place, and were completed in November 1895.
The Albert Bridge remains one of Australia's largest truss bridges. At the time of its completion, as a metal truss bridge it was second only to the first Hawkesbury rail bridge [1889] in span length. The Albert Bridge is still Australia's third longest span metal truss bridge, after Brisbane's Story Bridge [1940] (QHR 600240) and the second Hawkesbury rail bridge [1945].
The bridge was integral to the southwest railway system linking Brisbane with Ipswich, the Darling Downs, and southeast Queensland. With increased traffic it was supplemented with an adjacent upstream rail bridge in 1957, which together remained the only Brisbane River rail crossing prior to construction of the Merivale Bridge in 1978.
The Albert Bridge currently handles only passenger traffic.
","criteria":"Albert Bridge at Indooroopilly is significant as an early, large span metal truss bridge in Australia, and remains the country's third longest span metal truss bridge. At the time of construction, Albert Bridge was the largest bridge in Australia to be manufactured locally.
Albert Bridge is significant for its contribution to the railway system linking the capital with southern and western Queensland, remaining for over six decades part of the only railway link across the Brisbane River.
|The bridge is highly intact, and provides important physical evidence of late 19th century railway bridge design and construction in Australia.
|The bridge is important also for its landmark quality and aesthetic contribution to the riverscape along the Indooroopilly reach of the Brisbane River.
|It is important for its innovations in design and implementation, and remains a major example of the design skills of engineer HC Stanley, and of the work of Brisbane contractors John McCormick & Son.
|It is important for its innovations in design and implementation, and remains a major example of the design skills of engineer HC Stanley, and of the work of Brisbane contractors John McCormick & Son.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15008,"place_ref":600233,"name":"Sinnamon Farm","alternate_name":"600236 | 600234 | 600237 | Glen Ross and Seventeen Mile Rocks School | Beechwood | Avondale and Macleod aviation site","street_address":"645 & 693 Seventeen Mile Rocks Road","suburb":"SINNAMON PARK","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Sinnamon Farm comprises two separate areas of land on Seventeen Mile Rocks Road, Sinnamon Park. The two areas are approximately 250 metres apart; the western area is approximately 1.95ha and the eastern area is approximately 0.47ha, totalling approximately 2.42ha.
The place comprises all of the buildings, structures, sites, objects, planting and land associated with the Sinnamon family within the heritage register boundary. This includes the following:
Beechwood (1869), a gable-roofed, verandahed house and planting.
This farm house comprises four bedrooms and a parlour, and is a typical timber dwelling of the Separation period, although the detached kitchen and stables no longer exist. The front and back verandah roofs are joined continuously to the main gable roof, its split hardwood shingles now covered by corrugated galvanised iron. The front verandah is plainly furnished with square stick balustrading. Four pairs of french doors open onto this verandah. The house is constructed of pitsawn timber, adzed and otherwise shaped on the property. This includes internal cedar joinery, and hardwood log bearers which run the width of the house on stumps, their ends protruding beyond the walls. The rear verandah or skillion has been modified. The early formal garden has long gone, but several old Bunya Pines line the river front.
Glen Ross (1887) is the burnt out remains of a homestead at the westernmost part of the western site. The yard comprises a formal front garden, rear vegetable beds, an orchard to the east including persimmon and a large Moreton Bay fig tree near the front gate. To the west a group of outbuildings provides shelter for various vehicles and implements, including the early Sinnamon family plough of bush timber and iron share. An adjacent shed of vertical slabs survives, as well as more recent structures.
Avondale (c1890s), a short ridge-roofed, verandahed house, with outbuildings.
To the east of Beechwood is Avondale, another late 19th century Queensland farmhouse which is similar in form to Glen Ross. Built of timber and corrugated iron, Avondale has wide verandahs on all sides and is ornamented with cast iron balustrading, brackets, and a small cast-iron valance between the timber posts. The rear and parts of the side verandahs have been enclosed. Its exposed stud frame, which is lined on the inside with vertical tongue and groove boards, is accentuated by a large cross brace on either side of each four-paned sash window. Avondale has fewer main rooms than Glen Ross, and the walls of four inch vertically jointed boards and the rear projection indicate a later construction period. Outbuildings to the west include an old slab and corrugated iron barn with a recent extension. There are the stone remnants of a circular horse-powered mill race to the west of the house.
Former Seventeen Mile Rocks School (1877), a relocated gable-roofed, verandahed building, with shelter shed. The one roomed (28 feet x 16 feet) school building now set on a concrete block base was typical for a rural locality. It is an unadorned, front and back verandahed, gable roofed structure with weatherboard cladding and a corrugated galvanised iron roof. The ceiling is lined with diagonal tongue and groove sheeting and the interior walls are lined with narrow vertically jointed tongue and groove boards. The original front window sashes have been replaced with casements. Early furnishings include student desks and benches. The schoolhouse is complemented by a detached hip-roofed, corrugated iron-covered shelter shed.
","history":"Sinnamon Farm comprises two separate areas of land on Seventeen Mile Rocks Road, Sinnamon Park. The place features buildings, structures, sites, objects, planting and land associated with the Sinnamon family. The main buildings are Beechwood (1869), a gable-roofed, verandahed house with plantings; Avondale (c1890s), a short ridge-roofed, verandahed house, with outbuildings, and the Former Seventeen Mile Rocks School (1877), a relocated gable-roofed, verandahed building, with shelter shed.
\nThe Sinnamon family arrived at Brisbane in 1863. James (born 1813) was a farmer from County Armagh, in what is now Northern Ireland. With his wife Margaret (born 1821), and 11 children (including daughter Margaret who was born enroute), the family emigrated for economic betterment and to escape sectarian conflict in Ireland.
\nIn 1865 the family first purchased land at Seventeen Mile Rocks, on the Mermaid Reach of the Brisbane River. This area, which had been surveyed into small farms between 1863 and 1864, sold rapidly due to economic buoyancy and increased immigration during the early 1860s. To the initial parcel of 20 acres (8.1 ha) (portion 302) purchased from William Lovell in 1865, James added adjacent allotments from other vendors. Since land along much of the river was dense sub-tropical rainforest or vine scrub, the family had to clear sufficient farm land by felling and firing.
\nOn portion 299 (acquired by James Sinnamon in 1866), a large split slab hut with earthen floor was constructed. In addition to using their government land orders totalling £216, the Sinnamons borrowed money for capital improvements, which was repaid within several years. By 1869 they were able to build the more commodious, handsawn timber house further up the hill, known as Beechwood (portion 302).To construct Beechwood, the family cut and hauled timber from the property to their nearby sawpit. While hauling, James was kicked by a horse and injured; he later deteriorated and died 4 November 1869. His widow Margaret and family completed the building and carried on farming, later erecting other buildings for farming and family purposes. John, the eldest and unmarried son, resided at Beechwood with his mother until her death in 1904 aged 83 and his own demise ten years later. Beechwood was occupied continuously from 1869 until at least the early 1990s. Together with Wolston House (1863) [QHR600339] at Wacol, it is one of the oldest residences in the district.
\nIn 1887 a third and more substantial residence, Glen Ross, was constructed to the west of Beechwood (on portion 301) for James Jr, the sixth child of James and Margaret Sinnamon, who had acquired title to the land in 1880. James Jr married in December 1887, and the new house, named Glen Ross in reference to the family home in Ireland, was extended over time to accommodate six sons and three daughters. A substantial hay shed was erected on the Glen Ross farm c1890, but was burnt down in 1978. After James Jr died in 1942 aged 91, the farming property was purchased, occupied and augmented by their fourth child, Hercules V (HV) Sinnamon (later Sir Hercules), a businessman and farmer. HV Sinnamon placed sharefarmers on the land and continued to maintain the Sinnamon farms. Glen Ross was destroyed by fire 15 July 2007, after a long period of being unoccupied.
\nA fourth residence, Avondale, (on portion 304) to the east of Beechwood, was erected in the 1890s for Benjamin Sinnamon, the ninth child, who purchased the property in 1886 from other family members. He married Elizabeth Annie Primrose in 1889, and they and their six children resided at Avondale. Following Benjamin's death in 1941, the property was sold out of the Sinnamon family before it was purchased by HV Sinnamon in 1949.
\nIn December 1872 George, the third of James and Margaret Sinnamon's children, purchased a 40 acre (16ha) property (comprising portion 313 and 312) on the opposite side of Seventeen Mile Rocks Road. It is not known if the property included the homestead Rosemount at the time of sale or if George had it erected soon after purchase. Rosemount burnt down about 1970, after which the property was presented to the Methodist Church, which erected the Sinnamon (Retirement Village) on the site. An avenue of mango trees remains from the Rosemount homestead.
\nOver time, the Sinnamon farms produced a wide range of primary produce, commencing with sugarcane and cotton, then maize, potatoes, pineapples and dairy produce, and also bred horses. In later years the major activity was dairy farming, complemented by the breeding of Jersey stock.
\nThe Sinnamon family also took a leading part in local affairs, in particular with the establishment of the Seventeen Mile Rocks School and the local church (Sinnamon Uniting Memorial Church; QHR 600235), and Benjamin Sinnamon served on the Sherwood Shire Council.
\nChildren in the Seventeen Mile Rocks area had to journey to Corinda to school until April 1870 when a provisional school began operating from the Bible Christian Church building in Goggs Road. It was established on the initiative of the Rev. William Woolcock and the local farmers on the Bible Christian Church committee. By 1876 local residents had collected sufficient funds towards erecting a new school facing Goggs Road (on the southeast corner of portion 316), about 100 metres north of the Bible Christian Church building. The new building was completed in 1877 and opened at the beginning of the 1878 school year with 32 pupils. The schoolhouse was complemented by a detached shelter shed and a teacher's residence.
\nIn the early 1900s the interior of the schoolhouse was lined with narrow tongue and groove boards and its shingled roof was replaced with corrugated galvanised iron. Generations of the Sinnamon family had attended the school and been involved in its development, particularly HV Sinnamon's father, James Jr, who was the school committee's first treasurer, and his uncle Benjamin, who was chairman of the school committee for forty years. The school closed in 1966, when Jindalee State School opened. The schoolhouse and shelter shed (but not the teacher's residence) were sold to HV Sinnamon and moved to his property (portion 304) in the late 1980s. It was then used by school groups as an interactive museum.
\nIn 1988 a brass plaque was installed at the front of the school to commemorate aviator Thomas Macleod’s launching of a biplane glider on 22 December 1910. This has been hailed as the first successful attempt in Queensland to raise a biplane glider from the ground. This flight occurred from a slope on land that was formerly portion 303 (land adjacent to, but not included in the heritage register boundary for Sinnamon Farm).
\nThe family property between Seventeen Mile Rocks Road and the Brisbane River was retained in family ownership, principally through the efforts of HV Sinnamon. In order to preserve his family's history and heritage in the Seventeen Mile Rocks area, HV Sinnamon opposed the proposal for a cross-river bridge through the remaining farmland, shifted the threatened former state school onto his property, and published a history of the Sinnamon family. In the mid-1960s he also donated land for the relocation of the threatened Seventeen Mile Rocks Church. After campaigning to have the Sinnamon farm area conserved as a heritage precinct, HV Sinnamon died in 1994, at the age of 94 years.
\nSubsequently, much of the Sinnamon property was sold and subdivided, primarily for residential development.
\n","criteria":"
Sinnamon Farm is significant historically because it illustrates the early phase of rural settlement and land use which took place along reaches of the Brisbane River and other Queensland waterways from the 1860s to the 1890s, especially the clearing of rainforest for 'scrub farms', the ensuing pattern of farming, and the growth of community life centred on the family, school and church. In particular, the farm survives as illustration of the evolution, association and location within a single family of a small grouping of farm dwellings, outbuildings and associated community buildings.
|The buildings, structures, sites, objects, and plantings of Sinnamon Farm form a rare rural grouping within a late 20th century suburban district in Brisbane, and are important in illustrating a past way of life. As a farming landscape, with a developmental sequence of 19th century buildings and structures, Sinnamon Farm forms a rare and distinctive grouping in Brisbane.
|The principal buildings and structures of Sinnamon Farm include a gable-roofed house of the late 1860s, two 1880s-90s residences, slab outbuildings and an 1870s gable-roofed schoolhouse. These are typical timber buildings of what was once rural Queensland, and in their intactness are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of their type.
|Sinnamon Farm is important for its strong association with the Sinnamon family, which has been prominent in local affairs, the development of the district and many other fields of public endeavour since the 1860s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15010,"place_ref":600235,"name":"Sinnamon Memorial Uniting Church","alternate_name":"Seventeen Mile Rocks Church","street_address":"675 Seventeen Mile Rocks Road","suburb":"SINNAMON PARK","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This small chamferboard building sits on concrete stumps well back from Seventeen Mile Rocks Road, on a grassed site with recent perimeter pine plantings. It has a simple rectangular plan, with a small front porch. The high-pitched gabled main roof and front porch roof were shingled originally, but these have been replaced with corrugated iron. The ceiling is lined with six inch tongue and groove boards and the walls are strengthened by two iron tie-bars. The frame, which was exposed on the inside, is now boarded and sheeted internally. Early furnishings include four silver-plated kerosene lamps with tin shades, a medium-sized harmonium and a simple pulpit of vertically jointed cedar raised on a dais with two steps on either side. Seating only sixty persons on twelve pine pews (now painted), this was a typical small rural chapel.
","history":"In 1888 this building replaced a small bark and shingle chapel erected in 1880 at the corner of Goggs and Seventeen Mile Rocks Road, adjacent to the former Seventeen Mile Rocks School. The builder was Wilson Henry, a local resident and a cousin to the Sinnamon family, pioneers of the Seventeen Mile Rocks area since the mid-1860s. The new building was intended for use by the Church of England, but as the church was unable to supply a clergyman, the congregation was served by the Primitive Methodist Church of Ipswich, whose minister arrived by rowboat. By the 1950s the congregation had dwindled to sisters Edith and Isobel Sinnamon. In 1966 the western extension of Seventeen Mile Rocks Road to the new suburb of Jindalee necessitated relocation of the building, which was moved onto land donated by Hercules V Sinnamon from the Sinnamon family's original 1865 holding. Two years later the chapel re-opened as the Rocks Road Sinnamon Memorial Methodist Church and though lacking a regular congregation, it served for occasional functions. In 1980 the church centenary was commemorated by the planting of pine trees around the perimeter. Since the Sinnamon family and their relatives had filled most church positions over the years, the building was aptly re-sited and re-named.
","criteria":"Rocks Road Sinnamon Memorial Uniting Church is significant for its social and spiritual role in the evolution of the Seventeen Mile Rocks area as a close-knit farming community in the second half of the 19th century.
|The building is important for its contribution to a rare surviving rural landscape in Brisbane, created by a group of late 19th century farm houses, church, school and school house, other farm structures and farm land along Seventeen Mile Rocks Road and Goggs Road, within a highly planned late 20th century suburban district.
|The building survives as a good example of a small, late 19th century rural chapel and retains a strong connection with the Seventeen Mile Rocks locality.
|In particular, the church has a close association with the Sinnamon family, who were amongst the earliest settlers in the district and have retained a strong presence in the area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15013,"place_ref":600238,"name":"Kedron Lodge","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"123 Nelson Street","suburb":"WOOLOOWIN","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Kedron Lodge is a large two-storeyed dwelling of twenty rooms beside Kedron Brook. Built of sandstone from John Petrie's Albion Quarry, its irregular silhouette is created by several steeply pitched gable roofs and five brick chimneys. Decoration includes traceried bargeboards, window mouldings and the castellated parapet and mouldings on the ground floor faceted bay. The unshaded windows are multi-paned sash. A string course delineates the two floors. The entrance porch leads to a large square-shaped front hall which gives access to the cedar staircase and the cellar. The hall terminates at a longitudal gallery or hallway that connects the rear wings. Like Toorak House (600216), Kedron Lodge is an excellent example of the two-storeyed Gothic style residence.
The house occupies a corner position. On its left is a Catholic church and behind Kedron Lodge is the church hall. The grounds include a swimming pool but little planting.
","history":"Kedron Lodge was one of the first Brisbane dwellings designed by architect Christopher Potter. It was built by John Petrie, for the first judge of the Queensland Supreme Court, Alfred James Lutwyche (1810-80). The judge had purchased portion 18 of 35 acres (14 hectares) for £35 in January 1860. He established a very viable farm and orchard, and built stables to satisfy his horse-racing interests. He was an acknowledged gourmet and bon-vivant, as well as a leading Anglican and controversial judge.
William H Kent, a race-horse owner and grazier, was the next inhabitant from about 1890 to 1905. He added a ballroom to the house, established a noteworthy garden and utilised the stables. In subsequent years Kedron Lodge was rented till purchased by a Mr Walton, who was responsible for the subdivision of the estate.
From 1930-89 the Lodge was owned by the Catholic Church. During this era it was a home for priests, a convent and finally a youth refuge. The subsequent owners have stinted little in returning the home to its former status.
","criteria":"Kedron Lodge is one of the original villa estates which was typical of many which were built on the fringe of Brisbane in the 1860s, but which have suffered since from suburban subdivision.
|The building is a rare example of a substantial Colonial Gothic house built in stone in the early 1880s by Christopher Potter and John Petrie for Judge Lutwyche.
|The building is a rare example of a substantial Colonial Gothic house built in stone in the early 1880s by Christopher Potter and John Petrie for Judge Lutwyche.
|Designed by less well known architect Christopher Potter and built by premier builder John Petrie, Kedron Lodge has harmonious form, style and fabric.
|Kedron Lodge is also significant as the home of Queensland's first Supreme Court judge after whom the suburb has been named.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15014,"place_ref":600239,"name":"Naval Stores (former)","alternate_name":"Naval Depot | Naval Brigade Stores","street_address":"34 Amesbury Street","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The complex stands on a narrow strip of river flat with steep cliffs and includes the following items:
1 Store No 1 (1886-88), the ground floor and charred remnants of the first floor are all that remain as a result of the 1987 fire. Prior to the fire, style and construction were similar to that of Store No 2.
2 Store No 2 (1886-88) is smaller in floor size. It has two gablets with hoists and two pairs of ventilators. There are pairs of board doors and a set of wooden stairs inside and outside provides access to the first floor. It has a hardwood frame clad with corrugated iron. The ground floor is concrete with concrete footings and stone plinths and the roof has twin gables. Sash windows are multi-paned and protected by sunhoods. Walls and ceilings are lined with tongue and groove boards. At the northern end is a skillion roofed smithy and forge.
3 Wharf (1887-88) is an integral part of the stores. Wooden piles support the wooden decking and stanchions. The wharf has been resheeted with diagonal boarding over the original.
4 Wooden stairs (c.1890) connect various parts of the complex and are currently in a very dilapidated state and unsafe for public use.
5 Turntable (c.1900), for manoeuvring guns to and from ships. Only the outline remains.
6 Paint store (c.1900), a one room timber structure on stumps with a corrugated iron hip roof.
7 Magazine (c.1900), a single room weatherboard structure with corrugated iron gable roof and brick stumps.
8 Slip (c.1900) is concrete and has been extended over the years.
9 Duty hut, a one room weatherboard structure with corrugated iron pyramid roof that is lined internally.
10 Changing rooms, timber with sloping corrugated iron roof; built on the foundations of the 1890s boat shed.
11 Toilet facilities, a timber and corrugated iron structure.
The site remains a strong visual element of the riverscape.
","history":"The original Naval Stores comprised a pair of two-storeyed iron-clad stud-framed buildings and a wharf, which were constructed between 1886 and 1888. The complex has been used throughout its naval and army history for two main purposes, as a storage depot and for training.
In 1884, at the height of the Russian war scare, the Queensland colonial government commissioned two gunboats, the Gayundah and Paluma. In 1885 the gunboats arrived and with the government's acquisition of other vessels the development of a naval depot for storage, repairs and training became necessary. The Naval Stores were built on the site of a former Kangaroo Point quarry.
The ground floor of Store No 1 contained the battery and lecture rooms used for training. The four rooms upstairs were used for stores and carpenters' shops. By 1913 upstairs was partitioned to provide for an orderly room, instructors' mess room and several small storerooms.
Store No 2 originally consisted of two large rooms on either floor, with workshops on the ground floor. The first floor storerooms included the torpedo store room.
After the 1893 floods, Store No 1 boat shed was replaced with a detached shed, a bridge linking the two stores was built, and an extension to the cliff stairs was added. About 1900 several additions to the site included the paint store, magazine, turntable between the stores and some first floor ceilings were lined.
The wooden stairs provide access up the cliff to Amesbury Street and St Marys Church which has been the Naval Chapel for many years. The stairs have been extended over the years.
As the Queensland Naval Brigade developed, further depots were located at Maryborough, Rockhampton, Townsville, Cairns and Cooktown. Other colonies also developed their naval and military forces. The depot was the base of the Queensland Navy until the formation of the Royal Australian Navy after Federation.
Radio communication history was made in 1903 when the first Australian ship to use wireless telegraphy, the Gayundah, sent signals from Moreton Bay to the Stores. Alterations to the stores and additional structures were built during the occupation of the site by the Royal Australian Navy. The RAN Reserve vacated the site in 1959 and it was occupied by the Army till 1984.
In 1984, two 8 inch (20.3 cm) breech-loading Armstrong forward guns from the Gayundah and Paluma were recovered. One gun and its mount have been lent to the Queensland Maritime Museum Association.
The flagpoles, semaphore and several other structures have disappeared since 1984.
In 1987 the property was purchased by the Brisbane City Council, tenders were called for its development and a fire partially destroyed Store No 1. The unoccupied Store No 2 has suffered degradation from vandals and white ant infestation.
","criteria":"The former Naval Stores provide evidence of the Queensland Marine Defence Force which was an integral part of the Queensland colonial defences.
|The former Naval Stores are significant as part of the historic cityscape at Kangaroo Point which includes the former Kangaroo Point quarry, St Mary's Church group and the linking cliff face stairs.
|The Stores are significant for their continuous association with both colonial and Commonwealth defence forces.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15015,"place_ref":600240,"name":"Story Bridge","alternate_name":"Kangaroo Point Bridge | Jubilee Bridge","street_address":"Bradfield Highway","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Story Bridge spans Petrie Bight from Kangaroo Point to Fortitude Valley.
It totals 1,072 metres in length, measured from the commencement of the retaining walls at the beginning of the southern approach, to the northern pier. It remains the largest span metal truss bridge in Australia, with a main span of 281.7 metres.
The elevated sections comprise six variations in structure:
* 111 metres of side retaining walls with a reinforced concrete roadway slab resting on fill;
* 72 metres of side curtain walls carrying an overhead suspended slab, assisted by concrete columns at 6.1 metre intervals beneath the slab;
* 118 metres of reinforced concrete beam and slab construction comprising nine spans arranged into three sets of three continuous spans;
* 93 metres of shallow steel Warren trusses supporting an overhead reinforced concrete deck;
* 228 metres of steel Pratt trusses supporting an overhead reinforced concrete deck;
* 446 metres of main bridge consisting of two 82.1 metre anchor spans and a main span of two cantilevers each 93.9 metres long supporting a suspended span 93.9 metres in length. An 18.3 metre reinforced concrete deck is carried between the steel trusses, and 3 metre concrete footways are carried on steel cantilevers outside the trusses on both sides.
The superstructure is supported by concrete piers. Above ground, the two principal piers consist of two tapered rectangular shafts, hollow to 7 metres below cap level, and tied together below cap level by a deep arched brace. The main southern pier is founded on two caissons driven to 40 metres below ground level and connected by a massive below-ground T-beam.
The height of the trusses over the main piers is 47.34 metres. The K type web member has been employed, and most of the joints are rigid. A lateral bracing system is fitted in the plane of the lower chords, and sway frames between the trusses stabilise the upper chords. The top chord panel members above the two end panels of the suspended span have not carried any load since construction, but have been retained to provide visual continuity along the upper chord.
The reinforced concrete deck is carried on transverse cross girders pinned to the trusses at panel points. These support longitudinal stringers at 3.35 metre centres, which in turn support transverse joists at 1.67 metre intervals, these being made composite with the deck. Expansion joints in the concrete deck occur at approximately every second panel point.
The bridge retains its original form, and currently carries a large volume of inner-city traffic in six lanes.
","history":"This steel and concrete cantilevered bridge was constructed between 1935 and 1940 by contractors Evans Deakin-Hornibrook for the Queensland Government.
As early as January 1926 the Greater Brisbane Council's Cross River Commission had recommended the construction of a bridge at Kangaroo Point. Due to sectarian interests and prohibitive costs, however, the council chose instead to erect the Grey Street Bridge in 1929-32.
In 1933 the new Queensland Labor Government amended the Bureau of Industry Act, permitting the establishment of a Bridge Board chaired by JR Kemp, Commissioner for Main Roads, to plan a government-constructed toll bridge at Kangaroo Point.
Premature in terms of traffic requirements, the bridge was promoted as an employment-generating scheme. It was one of three such projects undertaken by the Queensland Government in the mid-1930s, the others being the Stanley River Dam and the University of Queensland campus at St Lucia.
Dr JCC Bradfield, designer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, was appointed consulting engineer on 1 January 1934. He chose JA Holt as supervising engineer for the design of the bridge and supervision of the contract. Design and site surveys were undertaken in 1934.
Although modelled on the Montreal Harbour Bridge, completed in 1930, Bradfield emphasised that the grey steel elevation of the bridge was designed to harmonise with Brisbane's natural skyline.
Tenders for the Kangaroo Point Bridge were called in January 1935. The contract was let to Evans Deakin-Hornibrook Constructions Pty Ltd, with a price of £1,154,000, and construction commenced in May.
The Story Bridge remains the largest steel bridge designed and built mostly by Australians from Australian materials. Approximately 95 per cent of the materials used were of Australian manufacture, and 89 per cent of the cost of works was expended in Queensland.
All the steelwork, approximately 12,000 tonnes, was fabricated at the Rocklea workshop of Evans, Deakin & Co. Ltd. One truss of each type of approach span, and all joints of the main bridge, were assembled at the workshop then dismantled before removal, ensuring there were no difficulties in erecting the steelwork on site.
The concrete work and erection of the superstructure was carried out on site by the MR Hornibrook organisation.
The bridge was constructed simultaneously from both ends, with the main piers erected first. Excavations for the southern pier necessitated men working in watertight airlock chambers within steel caissons up to 40 metres below ground level. This was the deepest airlock work done in Australia at the time.
The approach spans were erected by a hammer-head crane operating along a runway. Then the anchor-cantilever trusses were erected in five stages using a 40 tonne derrick crane running on a temporary track on the bridge deck. Finally the bridge was closed using a system of wedge devices inserted in the top and bottom chords of each truss at the ends of the suspended span.
During 1938, which was the busiest period of construction, close to 400 persons were employed in the workshops, offices and on site.
From mid-1935 to 1940 the bridge was known as the Jubilee Bridge, honouring George V, but when opened on 6 July 1940 it was named after JD Story, the Public Service Commissioner and a member of the Bridge Board. The designer and the chairman of the Bridge Board were honoured in the naming of the southern approach viaduct as the Bradfield Highway and the northern approach as Kemp Place.
Although an engineering success, the bridge was regarded initially as a white elephant, the toll being unpopular and the traffic demand negligible. Not until the arrival of American troops in 1942 was the Story Bridge fully utilised. Nevertheless, the final cost of £1.6 million was recuperated within seven years, and in 1947 the bridge was transferred to the Brisbane City Council and the toll was removed.
The Story Bridge has become one of Brisbane's most widely recognised landmarks. Its illumination, carried out by SEQEB in time for the 1986 Warana festival, reflects its unique status as a symbol of the city.
","criteria":"The Story Bridge, erected 1935-40, is significant as a major example of Queensland Labor Government involvement in employment-generating schemes during the 1930s depression.
|It is rare as the largest steel bridge designed, fabricated and constructed in Australia by Australians.
|The structure is important for its landmark quality and aesthetic contribution to the Brisbane townscape, and is significant to the Queensland community as a symbol of Brisbane.
|The Story Bridge is important in demonstrating a high degree of technical accomplishment as the largest span metal truss bridge in Australia, as a major engineering and construction feat, and as evidence of the design skills and vision of Dr JCC Bradfield.
|The Story Bridge is signifcant also as a major work by Queensland contractors Evans, Deakin & Co. Ltd and Hornibrook Constructions Pty Ltd.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15016,"place_ref":600241,"name":"Shafston House","alternate_name":"Shafston International College | Ravenscott | Anzac Hostel","street_address":"23 Castlebar Street","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"Shafston house stands on a large site which slopes down to the Brisbane river at Kangaroo Point. Buildings include the original house and its kitchen (1851), the former ward block (1919), the former orderlies' accommodation (1928), the former postal depot (1936), a recent garage and a very recent two-storeyed adjacent to the kitchen.
The one-storey brick and stone residence features a highly pitched gabled roof, attic rooms and cellars. The walls rest on foundations of Brisbane tuff and the roof, once shingled and then slated, is clad with terracotta tiles. To the rear is the original detached brick service wing, also on a Brisbane tuff stone foundation.
The style is Gothic-revival, with exterior decoration including: elaborate plaster mouldings to bargeboards; timber pendants in the gables; dormers; and quoining to the projecting front gables.
The southern front projection features a bay window with corrugated iron roof and awning. At the northern end, french doors open onto a faceted balcony with a steeply-pitched iron roof and cast-iron balustrading of a circle and cross-brace pattern. The main entrance is defined by a rendered masonry portico off-set to the south of the small front verandah.
Internal walls are mostly rendered brick and the floorboards are of pine. The main reception rooms feature coffered ceilings. The ornate friezes, cornices and dados in the principal rooms, which were restored in the early 1980s, are thought to date from the 1880s.
Joinery throughout is of cedar, with the early twentieth century renovations reflecting the influence of the Art Nouveau movement. The extent of RS Dods changes are not known but the fireplaces and much of the internal joinery and panelling, especially in the stairwell and doorways, are attributed to him. Dods probably added the diagonally glazed window panes in the upper windows.
A number of other structures have been erected in the grounds, the most significant of which is the large ward block constructed in 1919. This is a single-storey low-set timber building on stumps. The ward was designed as open-sided, but has since been excavated under to allow for the construction of new accommodation, enclosed and extended and substantial changes made to the immediate setting.
The fine entrance gateway from Castlebar Street with cast iron gates and posts and adjoining cast iron fence set on sandstone plinths and pillars survive as some of the early fencing. The form of the driveway sweeping around the front of the house from Castlebar to Thorn Street can be distinguished, but these have been paved and parking bays added. Some stone paving from the kerb to the property boundary at Castlebar Street remains.
The terraced lawn between the house and the river remains reasonably intact, but remaining areas have been much altered to provide paving and parking. Some large and mature trees on the northwest boundary survive including a fig tree near the former orderlies cottage.
Close to the river some brick and stone retaining walls of an apparently early date survive.
","history":"Shafston House comprises a group of buildings constructed between 1851 and the 1930s, set in substantial grounds with frontage to the Brisbane River. The main house was constructed in several stages between 1851 and 1904.
The southern part of Kangaroo Point along the riverfront as far as Norman Creek was surveyed into acreage allotments by James Warner in mid-1850. The Rev. Robert Creyke (Church of England) purchased from the Crown two of these allotments (eastern suburban allotments 44 and 45) containing just over 10¾ acres with frontage to the Brisbane River, just within the Brisbane town boundary. A deed of grant was issued to him in November 1851. On portion 44 he constructed a single-storeyed house that he called Ravenscott. Creyke joined a number of Brisbane's early gentry and pastoralists from the hinterland who, in the 1840s and 1850s, established town estates along the Brisbane River, most of them just outside the official town boundaries. These included Newstead (1846) near Breakfast Creek, Toogoolawah (later Bulimba, 1849-50) across the river from Newstead, Riversdale (now Mowbray Park, early 1850s), Milton (c1852 or 1853) just beyond the western town boundary and Eskgrove (1853) downstream from Shafston and Riversdale.
An 1851 sketch of Ravenscott attributed to visiting artist Conrad Martins shows a long, single-storeyed, low-set residence with verandahs and hipped roof, overlooking the Brisbane River. The grounds were mostly cleared and included outbuildings, the whole enclosed by a post and rail fence.
In December 1852 Creyke's Kangaroo Point property was transferred to Darling Downs pastoralist and politician Henry Stuart Russell, who in his memoires states that he 'completed' the house and re-named it Shafston, likely after his wife's birthplace in Jamaica. This implies that the core of Shafston House incorporates the earlier Ravenscott. Russell also purchased a number of neighbouring blocks to create a town riverine estate of over 44 acres (17.6 hectares).
In April 1854 Russell advertised Shafston for letting or sale. At this time the house, constructed of brick and stone, contained a drawing room and dining room separated by folding doors, five large bedrooms, closets and a roomy pantry. A passage 67 feet long ran nearly the length of the house. Beneath the drawing room was a stone dairy, larder and wine-cellar 8 feet high. There was a verandah 160 feet in length. At the rear, attached via a covered way, was a brick service block, which included a large kitchen (stone flagged), two servants' bedrooms, large laundry, store rooms and offices. Off the laundry was a drying yard enclosed by a paling fence. A large brick outbuilding contained a two-stall stables, coach-house, harness room and 2 grooms' rooms, with a loft over all. Other improvements included a fowl-house, well and a garden of about 3 acres enclosed by a paling fence. The whole property, which comprised approximately 44 acres, was enclosed with a four-rail hardwood fence. Most of the improvements had been made within the previous 18 months (that is, since late 1852 when Russell had acquired the property).
Shafston did not sell in 1854 and was offered for sale again in October 1855. By this time Russell had vacated the premises and it was operating as a boarding house. The ground floor comprised 8 rooms, staircase and china closet and had hardwood joists and flooring. There was a verandah front and back, the front verandah being 56 feet long and 10 feet wide, under which there were three spacious cellars. French doors opened onto the front verandah. The dining and drawing rooms were separated by folding doors. The attic contained three rooms, two of which were large enough to make suitable bedrooms 'if required'. This suggests that the 5 bedrooms mentioned in the 1854 advertisement were all located on the ground floor. Attached was a kitchen, servants' rooms and pantry, with a verandah at the front. There was a substantial stable 25 feet by 15 feet.
Again the property did not sell. Tenants in the 1850s included Nehemiah Bartley and Brisbane solicitor Daniel Foley Roberts and his family.
A sketch of Shafston dated c1858 shows a substantial, single-storeyed house with a front verandah, a high-pitched roof, attic rooms and three dormer windows overlooking the Brisbane River.
Title to the estate was transferred to grazier and sugar-grower Louis Hope in October 1859. It appears that Hope did not reside at Shafston. Gilbert Eliot, Speaker of the Queensland Parliament, tenanted Shafston House from 1860 to 1871 and tenants in the 1870s included William Barker of Telemon Station and Dr and Mrs Henry Challinor.
In 1875 Hope subdivided the property and in late 1876, during William Barker's tenancy, Shafston House on just over 4 acres (1.6 hectares) of riverfront land was advertised for sale. The house contained 9 rooms on the ground floor and had changed little since 1854: a brick and stone house with a roof of hardwood shingles and iron, drawing room ("the largest and coolest to be found in any private family in this colony"), dining room, five bedrooms, closets, dressing and bath rooms, kitchen and about six servants' apartments, a large brick stable with two stalls, coach-house, man's room and hay-house and galvanised iron and underground water storage tanks. No sale was transacted at this time and in August 1881 the same advertisement was run in the Brisbane Courier.
In mid-1883 Shafston House was transferred to Mary Jane Foster, wife of Charles Milne Foster of Brisbane ironmongers Foster and Kelk. Foster had learnt the family ironmongery business in Lincoln, Yorkshire and after emigrating to Queensland he established in Brisbane with his brother-in-law the successful ironmongery firm of Foster and Kelk. The Fosters, who resided at Shafston House until 1896, reputedly remodelled the house in the early 1880s, the architect for this work thought to be former Queensland Colonial Architect, FDG Stanley. The remodelling at this period appears to have included replacing the verandahs in their present form, adding the entry portico and more elaborate and picturesque Gothic detailing. The bay windows also were probably added at this time.
In the late 1890s and early 1900s the house was occupied sequentially by tenants EB Bland, manager of the BISN Company; John F McMullen; and William Gray of Webster & Co.
By 1903 pastoralist James Henry McConnel of Cressbrook in the Brisbane River Valley, had occupied Shafston House as his family's town house. Title to the property was transferred to him in 1904 and in that year he commissioned noted Brisbane architect Robin Smith Dods to undertake a third renovation of the house. Dods' contribution appears to have been the elaborate timber work in the front hall and the two main public rooms (drawing and dining rooms) and likely the windows in the dormers. His work includes decorative elements like the fireplaces, timber fretwork to the entrance and the cupboard below the stair.
Shafston House remained the McConnel home until c1913 and in 1915 it was leased to the Creche and Kindergarten Association as a teacher training centre.
In 1919, in the aftermath of the Great War of 1914-1918, the property was acquired by the Commonwealth government and converted into an Anzac Hostel for the care and treatment of totally and permanently incapacitated ex-servicemen. Anzac Hostels were established in most Australian states at this period.
At this time the property consisted of the main house, kitchen block, stables and a bush house. The 1919 alterations were extensive. The main house initially served both hostel and administrative functions, with the former drawing room being converted into a ward, the dining room retaining its original function and the bedrooms occupied as nurses room, matron's room, etc. A study and a bedroom at the western end of the house were combined by the removal of a wall to create a recreation room. The attic level, which in 1919 was a single open space, was partitioned into bedrooms for nurses and a box room, with the landing retained as a common room. The kitchen courtyard was roofed and two new rooms were constructed in that space. A timber laundry block was constructed to the south of the kitchen and the stables were converted into orderlies' quarters.
To accommodate the returned servicemen a large open-sided ward block was erected in the terraced front grounds to the northeast of the house in 1919, connected to the house via a covered way. This single-storeyed building was high-set on stumps with an attached ablutions block on the eastern side. It demonstrated aspects of public health theory, especially the benefits of fresh air in the recuperative process and in maintaining good health, popular at the time. Theory was translated into practice in a number of government designs for public buildings such as open-sided school blocks and hospital wards in the 1910s and early 1920s.
Anzac Hostel received its first patients on 19 July 1920 and functioned as a repatriation hospital until c1969.
In the late 1920s and 1930s the Commonwealth subdivided and sold the southern part of the property, reducing the house grounds to just over 2 acres (0.8 hectare). At this time the early brick stables building, which was located on the subdivided land, was demolished and replaced in 1928 by a small timber building constructed to the northwest of the house as quarters for orderlies working at the hostel. This building comprised three rooms and a verandah and toilets at the rear. The 1919 laundry block was moved to a position just east of the kitchen block and a new garage was constructed in the southwest corner of the remaining grounds, near Thorn Street.
In 1937 the East Brisbane Postal Depot was constructed for the Postmaster General's Department in the southwest corner of the property, between Thorn Street and the hostel garage. It comprised a single room, 14 feet by 12½ feet. A large 'L'-shaped extension was erected in 1951, for use as a mail sorting room.
From 1969 to 1987 the place was occupied by the Royal Australian Air Force. The change in use necessitated a number of alterations to the fabric of the place, including rearrangements of offices, installation of a bar and fire-escapes, upgrading of bathroom facilities, new floor finishes, enclosure of verandahs and the enclosing of the previously open sub-floor in the main house. A garage and store were erected between the ward block and the river. Work to the grounds included new paving, new fences along the street frontages, new street entrances, new driveways, parking areas and tree planting along the Castlebar Street and southern boundaries. By 1981 the main house was used as an administrative headquarters and mess and as offices for the RAAF police; a Movement Control Centre had been established in the ward block; the headquarters of the Queensland Air Training Corps was located in the former kitchen block; the RAAF Public Relations and Photographic Section was accommodated in the garage/former postal depot; and the former orderlies building had been converted into a tavern.
In 1978 the cultural heritage significance of Shafston House was recognised by its inclusion in the Commonwealth Register of the National Estate and in the 1980s conservation work carried out on the main house.
In 1988 Shafston House was leased to a Brisbane entrepreneur under two consecutive ninety-nine year leases. After failing to gain local government approval for use of the property as a restaurant and function venue, the house was refurbished as a residence. The 1919 laundry was demolished and a new garage constructed adjacent to the early kitchen building. The ward block was refurbished, additional bathrooms installed in the house and changes were made to landscaping.
In 1994 the lease was transferred to another entrepreneur and in 1995/96 the property was redeveloped as part of the Shafston International College. The main house was refurbished, with some loss of reconstructed colour schemes, and the link to the kitchen wing enclosed with a new sitting room. Further substantial works were carried out to the grounds and other buildings in the grounds, including enclosure of the open-air ward. A concrete board walk and new retaining walls were installed on the river frontage to Brisbane City Council requirements.
The property was converted to freehold title between 1998 and 2002.
","criteria":"Constructed as a single-storeyed house in 1851 with significant modifications c1852-53, early 1880s and 1904, Shafston House is one of a small group of riverine estate residences surviving in Brisbane from the pre-separation period and is important in demonstrating the early pattern of Queensland's history. The house is situated in an elevated position and maintains strong visual links with the river looking over a large terraced lawn, the general form of which remains intact. Of the surviving 1840s and 1850s riverine houses in Brisbane, only Newstead House (1846) and Shafston House (1851) retain this relationship with the river.
\nThe house retained its status as a gentleman's residence for over 60 years during which time it was associated with a number of prominent persons who helped shape the pattern of development of Queensland, including Rev. Robert Creyke who began construction of the house in 1851, Darling Downs pastoralist and politician Henry Stuart Russell who completed the house in 1852 in its Gothic form and named the property 'Shafston', the Hon. Louis Hope who owned the property from 1859 to the early 1880s, the Foster family (of ironmongers Foster & Kelk) who reputedly remodelling the house in the early 1880s and pastoralist James Henry McConnel of Cressbrook whose family commissioned the architect RS Dods to further modify the house.
\nThe property is significant also for its later development and function as an Anzac Hostel (1919-c1969) for the care and treatment of totally and permanently incapacitated ex-servicemen, illustrating the impact of the first and second world wars on Australia and how this nation dealt with that impact. It was the only Anzac Hostel in Queensland developed as a long term hostel for totally and permanently incapacitated servicemen returning from the Great War and is one of only two remaining former first world war repatriation hospitals in Queensland, the other being Rosemount at Windsor.
|Shafston House has rarity value as one of the earliest houses surviving in Brisbane. It is probably the third oldest house in the metropolitan area, after Newstead House (1846) and Bulimba House (1849-50) and a rare surviving remnant of a riverine estate of a type typical in the early development of Brisbane.
|Evidence of the 1850s house lies within the existing structure and has potential to reveal evidence of 1850s construction methods in Queensland, which is uncommon.
|With its stone cellars, attic rooms, detached brick service block, terraced grounds and river frontage, its decorative detailing and demarcation between public and private spaces and between 'family' and 'servant' areas, Shafston House is important in demonstrating in its form, materials, design, layout, size and detailing the principal characteristics of its class: an evolving, substantial, mid-19th century middle-class riverine house. Since 1851 the house has retained its original siting in an estate overlooking the river, a river frontage and the visual link between the house and the river.
The main rooms, in particular the drawing room and dining room contain rare evidence of elaborate high Victorian taste with painted dados and friezes and elaborate joinery and mantlepieces. The character of the internal refurbishment by Dods also survives. The drawing room and dining room contain the best evidence of Dods internal refurbishment but also contain bay windows attributed to Stanley. Decorative elements like the fireplaces, timber fretwork to the entrance and the cupboard below the stair and upstairs details, including the dormers, have been attributed to Dods.
Several outbuildings associated with the repatriation hospital were constructed during this period, including an open-air ward (1919), garage (c1919) and orderlies' quarters (1928). These are important to our understanding of how the place functioned as a hospital.
The former Ward Block built in 1919 in a pavilion form demonstrates the plan typical of smaller hospitals of the time providing two wards separated by smaller rooms and is typical in its lightweight timber construction. The siting to catch breezes and enhance airflow characterises health practices that were considered important at the time.
|Shafston House is an evolving house with major renovations in the 1850s, 1880s and 1900s, that has maintained a cohesive aesthetic appeal. The aesthetic significance is engendered principally by the picturesque values of the Victorian Gothic style of architecture (including the decorative detailing) and the garden layout and riverside setting. Although overlaid by the later work of the architects Stanley and Dods, the characteristics of the style remain. The verandahs and entrance porch introduced in the 1880s and the interior joinery introduced in the early 1900s make further aesthetic contributions. The place is a landmark along the Brisbane River and in views from New Farm across the river and makes a significant aesthetic contribution to the Brisbane riverscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15017,"place_ref":600242,"name":"Home","alternate_name":"Lamb House","street_address":"9 Leopard Street","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Home is conspicuously situated at the top of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, overlooking the South Brisbane and Town reaches of the Brisbane River, at the south end of the Brisbane suburb of Kangaroo Point. The 0.36ha, irregular shaped site hugs the adjacent corner block at the southwest, with the primary street frontage to Leopard Street at the east, and a service frontage to Wild Street at the south. All other sides are bounded by residential properties. The place comprises a masonry residence, approached by a curved entrance drive leading from Leopard Street, and is set within developed grounds with outbuildings, a tennis court, built landscape features and mature vegetation.
\nThe grand two-storey residence is an inner-city landmark due to its form, scale, orientation and elevated site. The place has extensive views of Brisbane central business district (CBD), Kangaroo Point and the Brisbane River; and is highly visible from many parts of the Brisbane CBD, the Brisbane River and its various bridges, Kangaroo Point, and the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance are:
\n‘Home’ - Residence (1902-03)
\nThe two-storey residence is of brick construction with a tiled roof, a southeast observatory tower, and ground and first floor verandahs to its north, east and west sides. The residence addresses its surroundings, with prominent gable-ends facing southeast toward the entrance driveway, and northeast toward the Town Reach of the Brisbane River. A first floor verandah on the northwest elevation provides views up the South Brisbane Reach of the river.
\nThe main entrance to the residence is through a portico centred on the southeast elevation. Vertically aligned with the observatory tower, the portico features a moulded concrete segmental (curved) pediment to the ground floor and a closed swan-neck pediment to the first floor.
\nThe place has features typical of the Federation-era Queen Anne style, including its: asymmetrical form; dominant roof-form with gables and an observation tower; terracotta-tiled roof; terracotta chimney pots; half-timbered detailing to gable ends; and ornamental timber posts, brackets and valances. Its red and red-brown face brick exterior walls contrast with extensive concrete mouldings, timberwork and ornamentation.
\nThe internal arrangement of rooms is hierarchical, with public and service rooms to the ground floor, and private rooms to the first floor. The rooms on both floors radiate around a central staircase and hall. Entered via a vestibule which leads to a central staircase and features a lavatory to one side, the ground floor comprises a northeastern drawing room connected to a northwestern dining room; a southeastern morning room; and a southwestern kitchen, scullery and link to the service wing. The first floor contains six bedrooms with an eastern bathroom. The larger first floor rooms are the principal bedrooms. The secondary bedrooms are of a smaller size at the west side of the house and adjacent to a housemaid’s and press store.
\nFurther delineation of the hierarchy between principal rooms (dining room, drawing room, morning room, four larger bedrooms, and staircase / vestibule) and service rooms is revealed in the fabric finishes and room sizes; with the comparative dimensions and relationships between rooms reflecting designated functions of early 20th century living. The principal rooms are generally larger and feature elaborate finishes, such as pressed metal ceilings and ceiling roses, and wide hardwood timber skirting boards and architraves. Fireplaces are located in the dining room, drawing room, morning room, and the two largest bedrooms. The service rooms are smaller and have simpler finishes, such as narrower skirting boards and architraves, and softwood timbers. Service fireplaces are located in the kitchen and scullery; and a service stair is separated from the main stairwell.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nform: double-ridged roof, hipped and Dutch-gabled to the southwest end, and hipped and gabled to the northeast end; with a transverse hip which aligns with the observatory tower; a transverse gable to the southeast; and separate verandah roofs
\nterracotta tile roof cladding; timber roof framing; and lead flashing
\nprominent gable-ends to the northeast and southeast elevations of rough-cast render, with half-timbered detailing, timber bargeboards, and timber brackets
\nrainwater goods: ogee-profile galvanised iron gutters (24 gauge) with galvanised iron brackets, and galvanised iron downpipes (some have octagonal rain-heads)
\nlight-well to southeast ridge (now boarded over)
\nprotruding chimneys: face brick flues with moulded terracotta chimney pots
\nopen eaves, with exposed timber framing over timber board linings
\npyramid, terracotta-tiled roof, with timber roof framing, and finial
\nopen eaves, with exposed timber framing over timber board linings
\nred-brown face brick walls, open to the upper section for views
\nmoulded concrete balustrade
\nconcrete floor
\naccess passageway with corrugated iron (small profile) wall cladding and hardwood timber stair
\nCement render finish to front portico columns, arches, cornices and pediments; chimney caps; and the front stair side walls
\nMoulded concrete ornamental details, including the word ‘HOME’ surrounded by a moulded leaf detail to the front portico; a circular motif over the first floor portico pediment; dentil detail to ground floor portico pediment; scroll motifs to gable-ends; detailed balustrades to portico and observatory tower
\nshot-edged timber floorboards to ground floor; and tongue-and groove (T&G) timber floorboards to first floor
\ncorrugated galvanised iron (small profile) sheet-cladding to ground floor ceiling; and T&G V-jointed (VJ) timber boards to first floor ceiling
\nchamfered top plates
\nturned and detailed verandah posts with collars
\nvalance, including: arched hardwood brackets between posts (solid timber to the ground floor, and VJ timber boards to the first floor); timber spindles; and hardwood fascia boards
\ntimber weatherboard cladding to frieze between ground and first floor verandahs, lined internally with VJ timber boards
\ncast iron panelled balusters of a decorative design
\nchamfered timber handrail
\ntessellated tiles to front porch (stair to porch specified as having slate treads)
\nbay windows to dining room and main bedroom on northeast elevation
\nother original windows, most with double-hung sashes
\nleadlight glazing to skylight, front door, vestibule door, cloak room (potentially the lavatory) window, small windows to dining room fireplace; bathroom windows; some verandah doors, and fanlights over dining room and drawing room windows
\npanelled cedar front entrance door with barrel bolts
\npanelled cedar, half-glazed door to rear walkway and to first floor verandah
\ncedar door to scullery
\npanelled cedar doors with finger plates to drawing room, dining room, hall and breakfast room
\ncedar, half-glazed vestibule door with lead lights, centre-pivoting fanlights and brass bolts
\npanelled cedar doors to bathroom and wash-house
\ncedar doors with finger plates between first floor hall and bedrooms
\npanelled timber sliding door between dining room and drawing room, with metal runners
\npanelled pine doors to kitchen, scullery and pantry doors
\npine doors to two smaller bedrooms and to cupboards
\ntimber ledged door adjacent stair to observatory tower from first floor verandah
\ntimber shutters to most windows and verandah-facing exterior doors
\nskirtings: 12in (305mm) cedar to dining room, drawing room and staircase; 10 inch (254mm) to morning room, cloak room, staircase and the four principal bedrooms; 10 inch (254mm) pine to kitchen and back room passage; and 8 inch (203mm) pine to all other rooms
\narchitraves: 7 inch (178mm) cedar to staircase, drawing room and dining room; 6 inch (152mm) cedar to breakfast room and four principal bedrooms; and 5 inch (127mm) to all other openings
\ncedar central staircase with handrail, turned newels, turned balusters, stringers, carved details, and panelled cedar to underside (stair soffit)
\nseparate timber staircase leading to observatory tower
\nbuilt-in cedar seats with leather upholstery (location is unconfirmed)
\nhardwood mantle-pieces (specified as cedar, bean tree or ‘other fancy woods’)
\npine shelves over kitchen and scullery fireplaces
\nceiling roses to dining room, drawing room, and the four principal bedrooms
\ntimber dado panelling (specified as ‘cedar or other fancy woods such as bean tree’) to main hall and dining room
\nterracotta tile skillion roof
\ntimber square posts, bargeboards, stair and end-cheeks
\ntimber lattice screen enclosure
\nService Wing
\nThe service wing is located west of the residence, and is linked by a covered walkway and small stair. It is a single-storey masonry building with a gable roof, and comprises three rooms: a wash-house at the south, a central fuel store and earth closets (toilets) to the north.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nGarage
\nLocated at the south end of the site, immediately adjacent Wild Street, the garage is a single-storey masonry building. Car access is via the driveway to the northeast, with an additional door to the northwest.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFront boundary fence and entrance gates
\nThe front boundary fence and entrance gates are located along the Leopard Street boundary.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nEntrance driveway
\nThe entrance driveway leads from the front entrance gates, past the front entrance to the residence, and terminates at the garage. It has a sealed surface and edging.
\nTennis Court and Pavilion, including Northwest Fence
\nThe tennis court is located adjacent to Leopard Street, in an open area southeast of the entrance driveway. On its southwest side is a timber-framed pavilion with a terracotta tiled gable roof; and along its northwest side is a face brick fence, which is detailed to match the front boundary fence.
\nThe recent chain-wire fence surrounding the court is not of cultural heritage significance.
\nBoundary fence and service driveway to Wild Street
\nAlong the Wild Street boundary is a timber-framed fence and gate. The gate opens onto a service driveway that leads from the street, curves around a tree and terminates at the southwest side of the residence (the driveway’s surface is unconfirmed).
\nLandscape Features
\nThe house is set within substantial established grounds, with mature landscaping, trees and gardens.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nViews and setting
\nStanding at the top of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, the residence is a highly visible in its riverside and garden setting. Its distinctive form, scale, siting and elevation enhance its landmark status as a part of inner-city Brisbane and its prominence from various viewing points.
\nViews of state-level cultural heritage significance include to, from and between the residence and the following locations:
\nNote: This description is based on an inspection of the exterior features of the place from publicly accessible locations, a desktop survey of the site [31] and historical sources such as information provided in the original specification by AB Wilson. [32] While further detailed inspection, analysis and research may be required to confirm the below information, there appears to be no evidence of major extensions or alterations to the place.
","history":"This substantial, two-storeyed brick residence was erected in 1902-03 for John Lamb, co-proprietor of the successful Queen Street drapery establishment of Edwards & Lamb, and a businessman with enlightened attitudes toward his employees. Named ‘Home’, (also known as Lamb House) the house has remained in the sole ownership of the Lamb family since its construction. Designed by eminent architect Alexander B Wilson, the residence embraced the Federation Queen Anne style and is recognised as one of Wilson’s greatest domestic works.
\nKangaroo Point, located within the traditional lands of the Jagera and Turrbul people, was one of the earliest localities used for colonial purposes following the establishment of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement. The Kangaroo Point Cliffs were quarried for their Brisbane tuff, used in building works for the colony, and the area was farmed from 1837. Following the opening of the colony for free settlement in the 1840s, land along the peninsula was offered for sale.[1] Industry and shipping was established along the river front, with modest working-class dwellings dotting the lower-lying areas. By the 1850s, the higher land at Kangaroo Point was attracting wealthy residents who erected substantial homes overlooking the Brisbane River.[2]
\nThe highest part of Kangaroo Point was River Terrace, running atop the Kangaroo Point Cliffs. By 1875 the terrace was recognised as ‘beauteous… with its unrivalled coup d’oeil of the great city’, and recommended to visitors for sightseeing.[3] Subdivisions along the east side of the terrace were offered for sale from the 1850s, but the western side was reserved for public purposes, providing a dramatic clifftop promenade between the Kangaroo Point State School and St Mary’s church, at the Main Street intersection, and Leopard Street, a continuation of River Terrace.[4]
\nBy the turn of the 20th century Kangaroo Point was a highly appealing residential area, both for its quiet, leafy nature and for its proximity to the city, with ferry and bus services linking the area to the central business district. In 1901, a parcel of eight undeveloped subdivisions on Leopard and Wild streets, at the highest elevation overlooking the Gardens Point, were sold by the mortgagee. The subdivisions surrounded an older residence, ‘Rockfield’, built on the corner of Leopard and Wild streets, circa 1890, for Captain Daniel McGregor. The undeveloped sites had first been offered for sale in October 1852 and granted to John McCabe in 1855. They were transferred to land agent GT Lang in 1882, before they were purchased in August 1901 by John Lamb.[5]
\nEnglish-born John Lamb and his business partner to-be Thomas Edwards arrived in Australia on the ship Cuzco in 1881. After settling briefly in New South Wales, they established a drapery and clothier business in Brisbane’s premier shopping district, Queen Street, in 1884. Edwards and Lamb was one of a number of locally-established drapery firms opened between the 1860s and 1890s, which were the forerunners of Brisbane’s major department stores.[6] By 1888, Edwards and Lamb had made ‘such rapid strides that… it is one of the representative mercantile house of the kind in the colony.’[7] The firm openly supported workers’ rights, and was actively engaged in the Early Closing Association movement, which campaigned for shorter working hours for retail workers. The movement’s first chair and secretary were both recruited from Edwards and Lamb, and in the 1890s the firm employed Frank McDonnell as a manager-cum-union organiser until McDonnell’s elevation to Queensland Parliament in 1896. This was quickly followed by the passage of the Factories and Shops Act 1896, and the introduction of early closing in its 1900 replacement. McDonnell credited Edwards and Lamb for his success.[8]
\nFollowing the death of Thomas Edwards in 1897, John Lamb purchased Edwards’ share in the business, and continued it on his own. In 1899, Lamb married Sarah Jeane Stephens in Maryborough, and by 1901 the couple had two children, with a third due in 1902. With his family growing, and his business on firm footing, Lamb purchased the Kangaroo Point sites and moved into temporary accommodation in Leopard Street, pending the construction of a new family residence.[9]
\nLamb’s timing coincided with a period of steady residential growth in Brisbane. The city had suffered in the 1890s from the combined effects of an economic depression and extensive flooding, and commissions for substantial houses had fallen off. By 1900, the economy was recovering, and businessmen and retailers engaged Brisbane’s prominent architects to design a number of large residences in the inner-city and suburban areas, from Waterton, at Chelmer, circa 1900, for insurance agent Thomas Beevor Steele (architect unknown) (QHR 602340); Drysllwyn, in Auchenflower, c1905, by architect Claude William Chambers, for mining entrepreneur William Davies (QHR 600051); Endrim, at Toowong, 1906, by unknown architect, for tram company director JS Badger (QHR 650071); Turrawan, at Clayfield, 1906, by Hall and Dods, for doctor Arthur Halford (combined surgery/house)(QHR 602452); Cremorne, at Hamilton, circa 1906, by Eaton and Bates, for publican James O'Connor (QHR 600218); Feniton, at New Farm, 1906, by RS Dods, for the Trude family (QHR 650078); to Weemalla, at Corinda, 1909, by RS Dods, for insurance company manager RM Steele (QHR 602820).[10]
\nLamb engaged architect Alexander Brown Wilson to design his new Kangaroo Point house. Wilson was by then a well-established Brisbane architect, having commenced work with the Queensland Public Works Department in 1875 at the age of 16. From 1882 he was employed as architect FDG Stanley’s principal draftsman, before beginning his architectural training in Brisbane and Europe. He became the first Queensland-trained associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects, returning to Brisbane to open his own architectural practice in 1884. He also helped found the Queensland Institute of Architects in 1888, and served four terms as its president. Wilson’s practice quickly developed into a substantial firm, particularly renowned for its church and domestic designs. Prominent examples of Wilson’s domestic work survive in Brisbane, including Leckhampton (1890, QHR 600246), Kinauld (1888, QHR 600225) and Como (1890, QHR 601474), but his most recognised domestic work was his design for John Lamb.[11]
\nIn designing Lamb’s house, Wilson put his personal interpretation on the Queen Anne style. Imported from Britain and the United States, Federation ‘Queen Anne’ was the dominant style in Australian domestic architecture for substantial houses at the turn of the 20th century. Popularised by the influential British architect Richard Norman Shaw, who in the 1870s began designing country houses in an eclectic style combining elements from many periods of traditional English rural building, the style was labelled ‘Queen Anne’ after it became popular in America. In Australia, the style was characterised by: red facebrick walls, often with contrasting white painted ornamentation or timber joinery; complex roof forms with towers and multiple gables; Tudor-style half-timber panelling in gable ends; tall brick chimneys; terracotta detailing; and picturesque asymmetry. Roofs were often French Marseilles tile with a detailed ridge or apex. Verandahs featured ornamental posts, brackets, balustrades and valances. Patterns in leadlight windows, doors and fanlights tended to echo the free curves found in nature as the influence of Art Nouveau on the Queen Anne design became increasingly apparent after the 1900s. Although not as popular or extensively used as in Victoria and New South Wales, the Federation Queen Anne style spread to Queensland and was incorporated into designs from the 1890s until the 1940s. In Queensland the style was often applied to traditional timber houses, influencing their roof forms, timber verandah detailing and other ornamentation.[12]
\nNotable Queen Anne features of the Lamb residence include its red brick composition, terracotta shingle tiles, chimney post, turned timber posts, gables of suggested half-timbering and Classical motifs on the three-storey tower.[13]
\nWilson drew plans for Lamb’s house, and a specification was detailed in September 1901. Wilson’s design for the residence set out a ground and first floor, with a protruding observation tower. It was of brick construction, with a tiled roof featuring half-timbered detailing to gable-ends; and a concrete-finished entrance porch aligned vertically with the observation tower. The front door, accessed by the porch, led to the central staircase via a vestibule, which had a lavatory to one side. On the river (northern) side of the residence was an eastern drawing room and connected western dining room that both featured fireplaces, architraves, large windows, skirting boards and ‘wainscoting’ (dado panelling). On the southern side of the residence was a morning (breakfast) room to the east, which opened onto the front verandah; with the kitchen, scullery and connected service wing to the west. Upstairs, there were six bedrooms, each of a different size; a small housemaid’s store and press; and a bathroom behind the central staircase. An additional stair climbed the observation tower, which had a viewing platform in response to the house’s prominent position atop the Kangaroo Point Cliffs. Externally, there were two water tanks, a service wing, including a washhouse with fuel store and earth closet, and a full-sized tennis court (56 x 17m).[14] Early photographs from the Leopard Street entrance driveway show various concrete render mouldings, including the residence’s name, Home, above the pediment to the entrance porch; and iron entrance gates set within a front fence with polychromatic brickwork and concrete capping.[15]
\nThe specifications also clearly distinguished between the primary and other rooms, requiring cedar and ‘fancy wood’ of a wider profile for timber joinery in the public rooms (including drawing, dining and morning rooms, staircase, vestibule and lavatory) and four principal bedrooms; with pine in the two back bedrooms and kitchen. Pressed metal ceilings and / or ceiling roses were to be located in public rooms and principal bedrooms, with leadlight glazing specified for use in a skylight, the front door, vestibule door, cloak-room (potentially describing the lavatory) window, small windows to dining room fireplace, bathroom windows, some verandah doors, and fanlights over dining room and drawing room windows. The drawing room and main bedroom featured bay windows. [16]
\nWilson called for tenders for the brick villa in March 1902. The house was constructed over a twelve month period by builder William Anthony at a contract price of £3,250. Work was underway by June 1902, when the ‘fine two-storied residence… commanding a beautiful prospect’ was described in the Brisbane Courier as the main work occupying Wilson’s ‘architectural skill’.[17][18]
\nThe eight subdivisions provided a generous 3133m2 site for the house and its features. The house was positioned near the back of the site, taking advantage of the extensive views, with a driveway from Leopard Street curving around the tennis court. The Leopard Street frontage was lined by a polychromatic brick wall and ornate driveway gates, also designed by Wilson. Fig trees were planted along the Leopard Street frontage to the property, with additional trees and gardens along the northern boundary, the tennis court fence and the circular driveway, which terminated in front of the house. A service entrance ran from Wild Street to the kitchen and service wing.[19]
\nThe Lamb family house was completed by April 1903, when Mrs Lamb advertised for a general servant from ‘Home, River terrace’.[20] The youngest of the Lambs’ four children was born in 1905; by 1910, Mrs Lamb, with two servants and a children’s nursemaid, advertised for additional help.[21]
\nThe attraction of Kangaroo Point as a quiet but centrally located suburb for the well-to-do continued well into the 1920s. Its reputation as a leafy garden suburb was enhanced in the 1910s when River Terrace was planted with a line of fig trees and garden beds, improving the clifftop promenade. A photograph taken of the River Terrace promenade in 1919 displayed both the vegetation improvements and the view, which terminated in Home and its neighbouring house, Edgecliffe. In 1928 the suburb was recognised as one of the ‘garden suburbs of Brisbane’, with ‘handsome residences, well-kept gardens, wide-streets, and tree-lined avenues.’[22] From the 1930s, however, houses along the peninsula (including a number of historic homes) were removed for the construction of the Story Bridge (1940) [QHR 600240], and the suburb became increasingly busy. [23]
\nFew changes appear to have been made to Home after its construction. Architect Wilson undertook minor repairs to the property in 1911, and a brick garage was added at the Wild Street boundary by 1925, with the circular driveway removed and extended to the garage. A pavilion was later added to the tennis court (extant by 1942).[24] The trees, which had become substantial by the 1940s, were cut back in the late 1950s or early 1960s.[25]
\nJohn Lamb senior died in 1920, passing the Edwards and Lamb business to his two sons, John and Frank, and the house to his widow, Sarah. Home was mortgaged in 1922 for the sum of £8,000. Three of the Lamb children did not marry, and continued to reside in the large family residence. Both sons worked for the retail firm, while Sarah and her daughters hosted a number of social and fundraising events at the house in the 1920s and 30s, particularly in aid of the nearby St Mary’s Anglican Church. The three unmarried children also purchased the neighbouring Rockfield in 1941. Following Sarah’s death in 1956, ownership of Home passed to her daughters, who remained resident at the house. [26]
\nThe Lamb family business – known both as Edwards and Lambs and simply Lamb’s – operated successfully into the mid-20th century, as one of the renowned Queensland draperies which dominated the state’s retailing market until the 1950s. From the small Queen Street store, it expanded to a large commercial operation with a mail order business for country customers, and was ‘always assured of patronage, especially from country people, who know they are dealing with a reputable establishment’.[27] Until 1921 it relied on word-of-mouth, rather than advertising, for its business. Edwards and Lambs’ premises were extended in 1932 and 1938, doubling the floor size and improving the layout, until it developed a ‘world-wide reputation’ by 1949. A Victory Farm was established at Holland Park during WWII, changing to flowers after the war to decorate the business premises. The Lamb brothers also continued to operate Edwards and Lamb with attention to the welfare of its employees, providing a superannuation scheme and mutual benefits society; additional Christmas holidays; and an extra week’s pay on the firm’s 60th anniversary. As neither a private nor public company, the business was the responsibility of the Lamb brothers, and after both passed away, the firm was sold to Factors Ltd. The sale coincided with the demise of the Queensland-based retailers in the 1960s, when they were superseded by drive-in suburban shopping centres, and sold to large southern retailers.[28]
\nHome’s prominent position and striking style have made it a Brisbane landmark. As early as 1906 the ‘fine residence’ was considered worthy of note amongst the ‘suburban beauties’ of Kangaroo Point, and the ‘stately home’ featured as one of Brisbane’s newer homes photographed for the Queenslander in 1927.[29] Home has featured in numerous publications, including Salon, the Architectural Journal of New South Wales; Towards the Dawn; 150 years of Brisbane River Housing; architectural sketches; blog posts and tourism websites; and picture postcards of the city. Visible along two stretches of the Brisbane River, as well as from the Botanic Gardens, Kangaroo Point Cliffs and South Bank, it has attracted the attention of tourists, and the house was dramatically floodlit for the Royal Visit in 1954. In 2010, Home was recognised by the Australian Institute of Architects as a nationally significant work, as an important landmark, the best known residential work of Wilson, and arguably Brisbane’s most distinguished Queen Anne styled mansion.[30]
\nHome remained the property of the Lamb family until 2021, when it was sold and transferred to new owners.
","criteria":"Its construction illustrates the sustained development of Kangaroo Point as a residential suburb from the 1840s, and in particular the continued appeal to middle class residents of the high land overlooking the Brisbane River at Kangaroo Point, contributing to our understanding of residential and social hierarchies in Brisbane, and of the role of the Brisbane River within this structure.
|Home, erected c1902, is a rare surviving example of a grand, intact Federation period residence in the Brisbane district.
|Home is a most accomplished building in its architectural design, materials, workmanship and setting, and is significant as a major example of the domestic work of notable Brisbane architect Alexander B Wilson.
|The prominently situated residence has landmark quality and makes a strong aesthetic contribution to the townscape along the Kangaroo Point cliffs. Significant also are the views from Home of the Brisbane River and central business district, which appear to have influenced the siting and design of the house.
|Home is a most accomplished building in its architectural design, materials, workmanship and setting, and is significant as a major example of the domestic work of notable Brisbane architect Alexander B Wilson.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15018,"place_ref":600243,"name":"Silverwells","alternate_name":"Morningside (261) | Blairgowie (267) | Bishopcroft (267)","street_address":"261 - 267 Main Street","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This pair of two-storeyed semi-detached brick houses stands in a garden setting between the Story Bridge and the Town Reach of the Brisbane River, with city views from the rear of the property.
They rest on a foundation of Brisbane tuff and share a common hipped roof and a central double chimney which rises above the party wall. The roof is clad with corrugated galvanised iron, but is likely to have been shingled or slated originally. Console brackets beneath narrow eaves define the lower roofline.
The Georgian-styled rendered exterior is scored to resemble ashlar, and presents a symmetrical front facade to Main Street. Entrances are set back at either end under small pedimented porticos, and the upper storey of each house features narrow, round-headed windows either side of large french doors. These open onto a small balcony above a projecting ground floor bay. All the second level windows and doors are protected by curved drip moulding and full-length shutters.
Detailing is unusual in the use of round or diamond-shaped holes 'punched' through the pediments, window heads and balconies.
Front verandahs at ground floor level are separated by a masonry wall and feature discrete concave, corrugated iron awnings supported by broad timber posts. A set of french doors opens onto each verandah from the drawing rooms.
Internally each house is a mirror image of the other, with ground floor hall, drawing room and dining room, a bathroom at the first landing, and bedrooms on the top floor. Ceilings at the lower level are 13'6" (4m) high and an archway with folding cedar doors separates the drawing and dining rooms. Cellars lie beneath the ground floors.
At the rear remain the detached single-storey service wings, each formerly containing kitchen and maid's room. The northern kitchen has been modernised internally, and the southern one has been refitted as a guest suite. The rear verandah of the southern house has been remodelled as the kitchen.
1970s renovation of the northern house also resulted in the installation of an attic bedroom with a small balcony at the rear, enclosure and extension of the back verandah to create a living space, and the addition of a terrace and pool to the back yard.
Despite the alterations, the pair presents a highly intact and cohesive exterior, with the semi-detached relationship not immediately apparent.
","history":"The land on which these semi-detached houses stand was acquired in 1861 by Sydney merchant Joseph Thompson. It is believed he purchased a number of Kangaroo Point properties on which he erected various dwellings in the 1860s, and that the semi-detached houses were amongst these rental investments.
No precise date of construction has been identified, but the houses are prominent in a photograph of Kangaroo Point taken between 1867 and the mid 1870s. As Edward Lamb, an occupant in the 1870s, was resident in Main Street in 1867-8, it is possible that the pair was constructed by then.
Thompson retained the property until his death in 1902, when it passed to William Mann Thompson, who subsequently subdivided the land. Since 1924 the houses have been held under separate title, with the northern house generally owner-occupied, but the southern one being a rental property from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Over more than one hundred and twenty years the houses have maintained their status as genteel accommodation, whose tenants have numbered amongst Brisbane's more successful business, legal and political figures.
","criteria":"Silverwells is associated with the 1860s development of the higher ground at Kangaroo Point as a genteel address.
Silverwells is possibly the oldest residential building remaining at Kangaroo Point.
|Silverwells is a rare Brisbane semi-detached brick housing, more common in Sydney in the 1860s.
|The residence contributes aesthetically to the highly intact, stylish and cohesive facade of the Kangaroo Point townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15019,"place_ref":600244,"name":"St Marys Anglican Church","alternate_name":"St Mary's Anglican Church; St Marys Kangaroo Point;","street_address":"433, 447, 449 Main Street","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Marys is a Gothic style church built on a prominent riverside site above the Kangaroo Point quarries. Constructed of Brisbane tuff, it is cruciform in shape, but with shallow transepts and a faceted sanctuary bay. The gable roof, originally timber shingled, is now in ribbed galvanized iron. It is surmounted by a small stone bellcote at the front gable.
In the interior, the nave is unlined, and timber trusses, resting on small masonry pillars, support the roof. The sanctuary is lined with plaster and its ceiling features three paintings by the noted artist Godfrey Rivers.
The hall is a timber structure on concrete stumps. Cruciform in shape, it has a gabled corrugated iron roof surmounted by a central ventilation lantern.
The rectory is a large single-storeyed brick residence with verandahs on three sides. It stands on brick piers with honeycomb infill. Entry is through a gabled frontispiece. The verandah has timber posts and balusters. A number of bays on the rear verandah add to the complexity of the corrugated roof which is a series of hips and gables.
","history":"The Church of St Marys Kangaroo Point was built in 1873 by Alfred Grant to a design by diocesan architect Richard G Suter. It replaced a timber structure built in 1849 on land closer to the river. In 1892 a cyclone caused considerable damage to the church's roof and bellcote.
The pipe organ is the oldest in Queensland, dating from the early nineteenth century. It was imported from a London church in 1876.
The church hall was built in 1879. The rectory, designed by diocesan architect John H Buckeridge, was completed in 1889.
St Marys was patronized by the governors when they resided at Old Government House. It has always been the naval chapel in Queensland and was once connected by stairs with the Naval Stores below the quarry face. The Warriors' Chapel, dedicated in 1950, contains a memorial to those who died on HMAS Voyager in 1964.
","criteria":"St Marys Anglican Church is significant as having always been the naval chapel in Queensland.
St Marys Anglican Church contains the oldest pipe organ in Queensland and the religious art of Godfrey Rivers.
|St Marys Anglican Church is an early and intact religious precinct of church, hall and rectory and is one of the only two surviving stone churches designed by RG Suter.
|St Marys Anglican Church is an early and intact religious precinct of church, hall and rectory and is one of the only two surviving stone churches designed by RG Suter.
|The building remains as an historical and visual landmark in Kangaroo Point.
|St Marys Anglican Church is significant as having always been the naval chapel in Queensland.
|St Marys Anglican Church is an early and intact religious precinct of church, hall and rectory and is one of the only two surviving stone churches designed by RG Suter.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15020,"place_ref":600245,"name":"Yungaba Immigration Depot","alternate_name":"No.6 Australian General Hospital | Immigration Barracks","street_address":"102 Main Street","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Yungaba is located at Main Street, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane. Sited on the banks of the Brisbane River, adjacent to the Storey Bridge the property holds a prominent position on Petrie Bight. The principal approach to the site is directed towards the river frontage however the common access to the site is from Main Street. This point of landward entry passes through the rear of the site and reveals a collection of ancillary buildings associated with different uses the site has had through its history.
\nYungaba is constructed as a symmetrical cruciform plan dominated by a substantial central entrance loggia which is flanked by two three-storey towers. These elements define the entry core of the building and the commencement of the two wings which extend to the north and south of the core. The building is a two-storey load-bearing brick structure with timber framed floors and roof. The roof form is comprised of intersecting gable roof forms punctuated by the pyramidal roofs of the two three storey towers. The roof is clad with corrugated metal sheeting and includes a series of ornate metal ridge ventilators.
\nVerandahs extend along the eastern and western elevations of the wings of the building. The verandahs have timber posts and handrails with decorative cast iron balustrade infill panels. The end sections of the verandahs are also enclosed with lattice screening. Beyond the line of the verandah, windows are sheltered under sunhoods constructed from cast iron wall brackets and timber hood framing, clad with metal sheeting.
\nThe adaptive reuse of the building into ten apartments over the two main levels has left the overall form, central entrance and court intact. Apartment complexes have been constructed as part of the site's redevelopment to the north of the depot building. A Multicultural Centre, opened in 2016, is located to the northwest of the depot building facing Main Street.
\nOn the riverside of Yungaba a ring road sweeps past the entry to the building and out toward the river edge returning to the point of entry at the northern end of the building. A collection of mature and more recent plantings line the ring road with the central area being predominately grass. A swimming pool and associated facilities are located in the southeast corner of the site.
\nThe western grounds contain ancillary facilities associated with the residential development comprising an early brick earth closet adapted as a pavilion building; open and covered carparks; and, covered walkways.
","history":"\"Yungaba\" is a two-storey brick institutional building designed as an immigrant depot in 1885 by John James (JJ) Clark, colonial architect for Queensland. Following his dismissal shortly after, the building plan was developed by Edward Henry Alder and Robert Henry Mills. Constructed by William Peter Clark, the building is described as being of Italianate/Queensland/ Institutional style.[1]
\nFollowing the subdivision of Kangaroo Point in 1843-44, lots 21 and 22 were purchased by Judah and Isaac Solomon and Thomas Adams. Some time later John \"Tinker\" Campbell, a neighbouring land-owner, purchased a share in both lots and transferred his boiling-down works to that location to gain the benefit of the small stream which crossed the properties. Following a series of financial transactions, the land was purchased by Robert Douglas in 1853 for £400. Douglas constructed a house on lot 21 which he named \"The Willows\". Douglas was a prominent and popular person in Brisbane society at that time although some scandal arose when it was revealed that he had sold his Kangaroo Point property to the government for £14,000 in 1884.
\nThe government had been aware for some time that the immigration facilities at William Street were inadequate for their needs. The decision to acquire the land at Kangaroo Point was justified by the need to provide 'pleasant surroundings' for those who recently arrived in the colony. The pattern of immigration fluctuated wildly over the years. In the period immediately preceding the construction of the Kangaroo Point depot, immigration had been at an all time high.
\nWilliam Peter Clark, the successful tenderer for the work, ran into a series of difficulties with the construction which resulted in almost a year's delay in the completion. The interior layout was designed by William Hodgen and arranged in a manner typical of institutional buildings of the time. Married quarters were in the form of separate cubicles on the ground level, and single quarters (segregated by gender, and in dormitory form) on the upper level. Symmetrical pairs of laundry and privy facilities were arranged to the rear of the building.
\nThe first administrator was William Edward Parry-Okeden. Parry-Okeden was already a highly competent and practical man with a reputation for fair-dealing and vigorous commitment to his occupation. Parry-Okeden and his family moved to Brisbane from Blackall to take up his appointment at the Immigration Depot. Later he was appointed Under Colonial Secretary and played an active role in both the management of Aborigines, the organisation of the Native Police and the resolution of the shearers' strikes. Following the floods of 1887, Parry-Okeden and his wife refurbished \"The Willows\" which continued as their residence during his four years as immigration agent.
\nFrom the outset Parry Okeden saw that a number of critical issues needed to be addressed before the depot could operate efficiently. Problems dogged the project throughout its early years. Difficulties were experienced due to poor drainage resulting from the re-direction of the natural drainage into a stormwater drain. Subsequent drainage works had varying degrees of success but the building soon showed signs of rising damp exacerbated by the poor quality bricks used during construction. Gas and water connections were either very basic or completely absent from vital parts of the building, there was no wharf facility at which to disembark the immigrants and, once landed, there was no facility for isolating those suspected of suffering contagious disease.
\nFor a long time it was argued the damp problem was a result of rain beating on the sides of the building, rather than due to poor site drainage. In 1891 the verandahs on the eastern end of the northern side of the building were extended to shelter the walls from the rain. A matching verandah extension at the western end was not constructed until 1899 as the expense was considered too great when the source of the damp had not been proven. The later extension was made to regain the symmetry of the facade, rather than as a means of protecting the walls from the rain.
\nWharf facilities were provided at the river bank in 1887 with a large luggage shed on the river bank. Parry-Okeden pointed out that the design was less than practical since a wide gap had been left between the two structures. At high tide the wharf was cut off from land by a twelve foot expanse of water. At low water the wharf was inaccessible from the river due to the shallow water at this point. Repeated requests were necessary before the problems were rectified.
\nAn outbreak of scarlet fever in 1889 lent urgency to the already noted need for isolation wards in which to treat sick immigrants. The same year a facility was constructed, but, due to an oversight in the plans, it had no facilities for the provision of gas or water or for the disposal of waste and storm water. Similar problems dogged the long awaited 'disinfecting plant' which was first vandalised and later inundated due to faulty drainage.
\nWhen immigration levels were low, the building was used for a variety of purposes. In 1900 it served as temporary accommodation for the inmates of the Dunwich Asylum which had been appropriated as an isolation ward for plague victims. In 1904-06 it was again appropriated as accommodation for South Sea Islanders being repatriated under new Commonwealth laws. The arrival of an immigrant ship led to the re-location of the Islanders to rented accommodation nearby as it was considered inappropriate to expect the \"two races\" to co-habit.
\nThe outbreak of World War I led to another change in use, the building being requisitioned for use as a military hospital. Few alterations to the fabric occurred although two single-storey wards were constructed to the southeast of the building. At the end of the war, the building provided an ideal reception area for returning servicemen who, with their wives, were feted at public receptions. Most of the building activity associated with this phase was removed at the end of the war.
\nFrom the end of WWI and throughout the 1920s, immigration swelled. The Great Depression of the 1930s led to a rapid fall in numbers, exacerbated by the cancellation of the assisted passage schemes. In 1938 the assistance scheme was reinstated and numbers rapidly climbed, only to fall again with the commencement of WWII.
\nDuring the period of inactivity in the 1930s, the building was used to house the team working on the construction of the Story Bridge. Accommodation for the superintendent of works, Jon Job Crew (JJC) Bradfield, was provided in the eastern room on the ground floor of the north wing. The entire upper floor of the north wing was devoted to offices and drafting rooms for the works in progress. Four dormer windows were inserted into the roof of the North wing dormitory to provide additional light for the draftsmen. The team for the concurrent Stanley River Dam project were relegated to a large room on the lower floor
\nThe bridge construction was undertaken by Evans Deakin, who converted the depot grounds into an industrial site with workshops and storehouses. A row of three open sheds cut off the connection between the hostel and the river, remaining in place until some time after the works were completed. The bridge is carried on tall pylons across the site to the rear of the principal building. The danger from falling debris and intentionally thrown objects has resulted in the need to identify an easement across the property on which no buildings can be constructed.
\nWith the commencement of WWII the hostel was used to accommodate a hundred women and children evacuated from Hong Kong in 1940. In 1941 the depot was once again converted into a hospital, treating general patients. In 1942 it was devoted to 'special' cases - those soldiers suffering the effects of venereal diseases. The buildings along the river frontage continued to be occupied by Evans Deakin, however most of the other structures on the site were used for the treatment of patients. Most of these buildings are now demolished.
\nThe post-war immigration boom led to a renewed life for the building which was renamed Yungaba State Immigration Office and Reception Centre. The name \"Yungaba\" derives from the Gubbi Gubbi Aboriginal language from the Maroochy area and means \"place of sunshine\". The volume of post-war immigration was such that the hostel was unable to cope with more than a small proportion of new arrivals, and the bulk were re-directed to the many empty military camps around the city. Of these, Camp Columbia at Wacol was perhaps the best known.
\nThe post-war period saw extensive alterations made to the building. Cubicles were provided in the downstairs dormitories, toilet facilities were re-modelled or re-built, the kitchen was enlarged and refurbished and the exterior brickwork was limewashed. Minor alterations occurred until 1990 when the verandahs were removed and reconstructed. In 1993 the building was refitted to provide office accommodation for the Department of Family Services. This refit involved the demolition of the partitions in the North wing. The access to the river was regained following the demolition of the sheds occupied by Evans Deakin and new accommodation facilities erected in the 1970s respected this important axis.
\nIn 1988 Yungaba became the first building entered on the Queensland Estate Register maintained under the Cultural Record (Landscapes Queensland and Queensland Estate) Act 1987. The entry was a result of community concern over the impact of the re-development of Kangaroo Point and the need to conserve significant elements of the community's heritage. In 1992 Yungaba was entered in to the Queensland Heritage Register following the introduction of the Queensland Heritage Act 1992.
\nIn 2019, the depot building has been adaptively reused as apartments and houses ten apartments over two main levels.
","criteria":"Yungaba is symbolic of the high priority that was placed on immigration during the late nineteenth century and the manner in which the colonial, and then State governments provided for those needs. The government's ambitious and extensive immigration programs established Queensland as the 'immigration colony' of Australia with immigration levels higher than any other colony or state in the country.
|Yungaba is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural place in that it clearly demonstrates the characteristics of institutional buildings of the late nineteenth century in its symmetrical layout and the hierarchy of decoration used to define the various functions of the place. The relatively unchanged quality of the original fabric provides information regarding the status and priority given to immigration during the period in which it was built.
Yungaba provides an example of the form of accommodation provided for newly arrived immigrants to Australia in the late nineteenth century. Its original layout, with gender- separated dormitory accommodation for singles, single-room accommodations for families and shared toilet facilities provides comment on the understanding of privacy, morality and human behaviour current at the time.
|Yungaba is important in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community or a particular group as it is a distinguished building located on the banks of the Brisbane River with clear views between the site and the river. Its elegant, yet restrained ornamentation softens the potential austerity of its symmetrical plan.
|Yungaba has a special association with a wide variety of communities and cultural groups for social and cultural reasons. It has been used to accommodate generations of immigrants, to welcome soldiers and their dependents on their return from three major conflicts, it has housed South Sea Islanders awaiting repatriation to their home islands under Commonwealth legislation, and it is closely associated with the construction of the Story Bridge, one of Brisbane's landmarks. Its listing as the first building to be protected under the Cultural Record (Landscapes Queensland and Queensland Estate) Act 1987 demonstrates is strong community value within the city of Brisbane.
|Yungaba has a particular association with the works of J J Clark, Colonial Architect and William Parry Okeden, later Under Colonial Secretary, who was instrumental in the settlement of both the shearers' strikes and the problems with the Native Police. Parry-Okeden also had a significant role in the relationship between the colonial government and Aborigines due to his extensive knowledge of Aboriginal languages and dialects.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15021,"place_ref":600246,"name":"Leckhampton","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"69 Shafston Avenue","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Leckhampton is a two-storeyed brick house with a ribbed iron hipped roof. The front and south-east side of the house are sheltered on both levels by deep verandahs which feature decorative cast-iron balusters, columns and friezes. A square, double-storeyed bay, surmounted by a parapet, projects from the northern corner of the main facade. Entry is through a pedimented doorway which leads to a vestibule hall and stairway lit by an impressive stained glass window. Two single-storeyed enclosed verandahs have been added to the rear. A new paved entertainment and pool area behind the house link Leckhampton with the new building.
","history":"Considered to be the work of noted architect Alexander B Wilson, Leckhampton was built for Charles Snow shortly after he purchased the land in 1889. Snow, a prominent city jeweller, was also the founder of the Boy Scouts in Queensland. He died in 1913 and the house remained in the Snow family until 1924.
Leckhampton was converted into flats by the 1960s. In 1984 the building was refurbished as office accommodation. As part of the redevelopment a similarly styled building was constructed next door.
","criteria":"Leckhampton provides evidence of an expression of confidence during the 1880s by a prominent businessman and of the earlier affluent residential character of parts of Kangaroo Point.
|Leckhampton is significant as an externally intact and aesthetically pleasing example of a large, late nineteenth century, city residence on the southside.
|Leckhampton is significant as an externally intact and aesthetically pleasing example of a large, late nineteenth century, city residence on the southside.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15022,"place_ref":600247,"name":"Lota House - Edwin Marsden Tooth Memorial Home","alternate_name":"Lota House; Edwin Marsden Tooth Memorial Home","street_address":"162 Oceana Terrace","suburb":"LOTA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Lota House is a two-storeyed rendered brick building with timber extensions, which stands on the crest of a hill rising up from The Esplanade at Lota, on the shores of Moreton Bay. The house overlooks the bay to the northeast. Between the house and the bay is a strip of eucalypt woodland which runs along the cliff to The Esplanade, and then returns along a gully by the southeast boundary.
The site is grassed with a scattering of eucalypts, particularly in the southeastern corner which is the subject of a Brisbane City Council Vegetation Protection Order. There is a variety of large planted trees including a fig, camphor laurels, and particularly a bunya pine, on the northwestern side of the house. The present access to the site is by a curving bitumen driveway lined with pine trees from Oceana Terrace to the southwest, which terminates at the entry to the house. To the south side of the drive is a timber garage with a gabled corrugated iron roof.
Through the site is a series of single-storeyed accommodation buildings for the aged which have been constructed since the acquisition of the property by the Anglican Church. These buildings are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance. Linking these buildings are covered ways which run across the northeastern and northwestern elevations of the house.
At present, the lower level of the original part of Lota House is used for activities for the residents, hairdressing, and a small office space under the stair. The upper level is the residence of the Superintendent and her family which extends into the southwest extension. The rear section of this level is for overnight staff accommodation. The lower level of this wing houses the kitchen and some store areas. The northwest wing is the new Dining Room and the Chapel.
The original section of Lota House is a two-storeyed rendered brick building with characteristics demonstrating Georgian influence. The entry to the house is from the circular driveway to the southeast, but the principal facade is the symmetrical northeastern face addressing the bay. The hipped roof of the house and the verandah roof are both of slate. At each end of the roof is a moulded brick chimney. The upper level single-pane sashed windows and ground level French doors have louvred cedar shutters on unusual iron rails and recessed tracks which slide to close. It has a wide concrete verandah to three sides, with a colonnade of turned timber posts of Tuscan order, paired either side of the entry, and as a triplet to one corner. The verandah also retains much of its sandstone nosing.
Running southwest from the original house is a two-storeyed weatherboard addition with a hipped corrugated iron roof and a pair of brick chimneys which join into one. The windows are small-paned timber sashed and casements, with those to the southeast facade having hoods of ripple iron and timber. Running northwest from the original house is a single-storeyed addition. It contains the Chapel, formerly the Billiard Room which is clad also in weatherboards, with a corrugated steel half-hipped roof and gablets of louvred timber vents. It also contains the new main Dining Room, added as part of the conversion to a retirement home, which is a steel framed structure with a metal deck roof.
From the verandah, the large four-panelled entry door leads to the Entry Hall, which then opens into the Drawing Room, the Dining Room, a room now used for hairdressing, and the former Office which is now the passage to the kitchen. At the end of the hall is a plaster archway leading to the main timber stair to the upper level. The doors are tall, four-panelled polished cedar doors with unusual hinged ventilation panels in the timber fanlights. The ceiling exhibits the undulations of probable lathe and plaster construction, and has a circular plaster moulding in its centre where a ceiling rose may once have been. The Dining and Drawing Rooms are separated by a dividing wall of tall polished cedar hinged doors, panelled similarly to the other interior doors. Glazed French doors lead from these rooms onto the verandah. Both rooms have timber chimney-pieces dating from early this century. The taller of these, to the Drawing Room, features turned posts, a mirror and tiled surround. Much of the original polished cedar joinery is still intact, including doors, skirtings, and architraves to doorways and the dividing wall opening.
The main stair, also of cedar, has turned timber balusters and newels. Up two steps at the landing is a linen store with a ripple iron ceiling. From the upper landing is a plaster archway similar to that of the lower level, leading to a hall from which open four rooms, formerly Bedrooms and a Dressing Room. The larger two of these, now the Living Room and Kitchen, have simple cedar chimneypieces decorated with pilasters and scrolled consoles. Also from the upper landing is an archway filled with a polished timber door and glazed screen leading to the former schoolroom and the remainder of the timber extension. Above the stair is some further steps to a landing leading to small attic-type room formerly called the "Little Room" which is over the Linen Room. The doorways to this level are similar to those below, but the ventilation panels in the fanlights are of more squat proportions.
The lower level of the southwest addition contains the main kitchen including cold room, pantry and servery; staff dining room; laundry and the secondary timber stair to the upper level. This level was largely altered as part of the conversion to a retirement home. The stair has squared newels with tapered caps, and a slatted balustrade. The rooms have tongue and groove boarded walls and ceilings, with fretted ceiling roses. The doors here are also low-waisted and four-panelled, but are painted and have tilting glazed fanlights above.
At the end of the northwest addition is the Chapel. It also has walls and ceilings lined with tongue and groove boards. The ceiling is raked to the line of the collar tie, and has a pressed metal ceiling rose at its centre. The floor is of narrow polished timber boards. To the southwestern end, a raised timber platform forming a sanctuary has been added.
","history":"The earliest section of Lota House, a substantial two-storeyed rendered brick residence, was constructed in 1865-66 for Irish born Queensland squatter and politician William Duckett White, MLC. The name commemorates the family home of his wife, Jane Simpson, in County Cork, Ireland.
William and Jane White and their two children emigrated from Ireland to Sydney as assisted immigrants in 1840, and bought farm land on the Richmond River. Flood losses forced the family out of the Richmond and through 1842-43 White taught school in the Mangrove area north of Sydney until accepting an offer in 1844 to manage Beau Desert run in the Moreton Bay District for his cousin Joseph Phelps Robinson. Robinson died in 1848, following which his brother George and WD White raised the capital to purchase Beau Desert, one of the largest runs on the Logan. About 1857, WD White left Beau Desert under the management of his son, Albert William Duckett White, and William, Jane and their daughter Helena moved to Eagle Farm near Brisbane. On 26 April 1861 White was appointed to the Queensland Legislative Council, a position he held for over 19 years until 5 August 1880.
WD White (later WD White & Son, then WD White & Sons) acquired considerable Queensland property. In addition to the Beau Desert holding, White took up three runs in the Gold Coast hinterland in the early 1850s: Tubber in 1852 and Murry Jerry and Dungogie runs acquired from AW Compigne in 1853. In 1867 he took up the lease of Pimpama and Cumboomba (or Coombabah) runs in the Beenleigh area but these were thrown open for selection in 1869, the lease lapsed, and in 1871 White acquired from Robert Towns the consolidated runs of Kerry, Sarabah, and Nindooinbah adjacent to Beau Desert. Much of Beau Desert was cut up for closer settlement in the 1860s and early 1870s, following which WD White & Son acquired the Bluff Downs holdings in the Kennedy District 1872-76. From 1882 the Whites were in partnership with the Collins family of Mundoolun on the Logan as White Collins & Co., and in the 1880s and 1890s this partnership, which survived for about a century, acquired several stations in northwest Queensland. Besides this pastoral empire, the Whites also held Beenleigh and Southport town properties and the Lota estate near Brisbane.
Between 1860 and 1863 WD White acquired adjoining lands overlooking Waterloo Bay near Brisbane, to create a bayside property of about 350 acres. Approximately 200 acres (portions 79, 79A and 145, parish of Tingalpa) bounded by what is now Gannon Avenue to the north, Whites Road to the west, Hides and Orallo Streets to the south, and Waterloo Bay to the east, were acquired in WD White's name. Portion 90, the land lying to the south between Hides and Orallo Streets and Lota Creek, was acquired in the names of WD White, RGW Herbert (first Premier of Queensland) and J Bramston, but appears to have been worked as part of White's Lota estate from an early period.
Lota House was erected on portion 79, comprising 153 acres purchased by White in November 1860 and transferred to him in January 1861. Brisbane architect Thomas Taylor called tenders for a villa residence at Lota in November 1865, the proprietor to provide the stone, brick, lime and timber. By June 1866 Taylor, architect to the Hon. William Duckett White [Brisbane Courier 16 June 1866 p1 c3] was in debt and White called the tenders for the plumbing and plastering work. The Whites are believed to have resided at Wyvernleigh [erected early 1860s, now demolished] on the adjacent Manly estate while Lota House was built, enabling WD White's close supervision of the construction. Lota House was completed by January 1867, when it was described by the White's son-in-law, Graham Mylne, as a grand, comfortable new house with large rooms, fresh breezes, and views over Moreton Bay.
The entrance to Lota House faced south, but the principal rooms overlooked the bay to the east. A dairy was located on the southwest corner of the house, truncating the surrounding ground floor verandahs. The ground floor comprised a large entrance vestibule with drawing and dining rooms to the right, an office and staircase leading to the upper level on the right, a small sitting room at the end of the hall, next to which was a bootroom, and a pantry beneath the staircase, from which access to a cellar was gained. Upstairs comprised bedrooms and a dressing room. Servants' quarters and kitchen were located in a detached wing.
The Whites developed their property as a country estate in the tradition of British landed gentry, and by the 1880s it was well established. A pair of big white gates flanked by Moreton Bay figs (located on what is now White's Road with a gatekeeper's lodge nearby) gave access to a curved drive leading through open grass paddocks to the house, which was surrounded by extensive gardens designed by Jane White. At the rear of the house a grassed courtyard separated it from stables, coachhouses, and haylofts opposite, and a detached kitchen wing and servants' quarters at right angles to the main building was connected to the house by a covered walkway. In the courtyard were two deep underground tanks, each covered with a large, circular cut stone, and from these rain water was pumped to the house, kitchen, stables and garden. Further to the west, on the slope behind the stables, were yards, cow bales, fowl houses and pig styes, as well as a hut accommodating South Sea Islanders working on the property. Cows and horses grazed in the paddocks surrounding the house, and maize, sorghum and hay were grown on the flats of Lota Creek as supplementary fodder. Like most of the farmers in the district, White probably grew sugar cane on the property. The estate ran down to the bay, where by the 1910s there was a boat-shed and jetty.
The Whites often entertained at Lota House, and Governor Bowen and RGW Herbert were frequent visitors. Herbert not only was in partnership with White in some of the Lota land, but had acquired in his own name portions 88, 89 and 91, comprising at least 250 acres, to the west of White's Road.
WD White was active in the local community, being one of the first members of the Bulimba Divisional Board established in 1879-80, a warden of the Tingalpa Anglican Church (now Christ Church, Tingalpa), and a Justice of the Peace.
In 1867 he transferred the Lota estate (portions 79, 79A and 90) to his wife. When Jane White died in 1887 the estate passed to her son Albert William Duckett White of Bluff Downs, with life tenancy for her husband WD White. In 1890 the railways resumed some Lota land for the Brisbane-Cleveland line.
Following William Duckett White's death in 1893 the house was rented to various tenants, during which time it fell into disrepair and the garden deteriorated. In 1908, WD White's grandson, William Duckett White (Duckett) acquired the property. Duckett had married in 1906 and on return from a world tour in 1908, he and his wife took up residence at Lota House, which they renovated and extended. The extensions were of timber and comprised a substantial two-storeyed wing at the rear incorporating kitchen and laundry on the ground floor and service stairs leading to a school room, spare bedroom, two bathrooms and servants' quarters on the upper floor; a single-storeyed day nursery on the west corner of the downstairs verandah; a separate billiard room to the northwest of the house; and a covered way and bush house roofed with wooden slats between the billiard room and the main house. Brisbane architect Claude W Chambers called tenders for the work in September 1908. At this time, the 1865-66 dining and drawing rooms were redecorated by the Sydney firm Beard Watsons with ornate timber mantelpieces (replacing earlier white marble) and new wallpapers and carpets. Duckett White also subdivided the estate, with land sales starting from 1911, and the grounds surrounding Lota House were reduced to just under 10 acres. The pine trees lining the driveway from Oceana Terrace to the front of the house most likely were planted at this period.
WD White's daughter Helena had married a Capt Graham Mylne and their son Graham Ernest Mylne purchased Lota House from his cousin Duckett White in 1913. The Mylnes took up residence in October 1913, but title to the property was not transferred until April 1914. Graham was general manager of White Collins & Co. from 1913 to 1942, and his wife Kathleen was prominently involved with the Queensland Country Women's Association. The Mylnes resided at Lota House until Graham's death in 1958, following which the family sold the property to the Anglican Church in late 1960.
To fund the purchase the Church utilised a legacy from Sir Edwin Tooth combined with a government subsidy, and on 27 July 1963 Lady Tooth opened Lota House - Edwin Marsden Tooth Memorial Home as accommodation for the aged. Three accommodation blocks were erected on the property at that time, and several new facilities were opened in 1991. At this time, the covered way, bushhouse and part of the former billiard room (now a chapel) were removed to accommodate a large dining room. In the early 1990s the main building was refurbished. Lota House remains the property of the Anglican Church and still functions as aged accommodation.
In the mid-1980s the Friends of EM Tooth Memorial Home were founded. Although this voluntary group is largely concerned with the welfare of the home's residents, the Friends are also keenly interested in the history and heritage of the place and were involved with its recent refurbishment.
The remnant eucalypt woodland on the southeast and southwest perimeters of the property has been associated with Lota House from the earliest establishment of the estate. The woodland, which extends over the cliff along The Esplanade, forms a landmark in the Lota area and has been entered in the Brisbane City Council's Brisbane Conservation Atlas (prepared in the 1980s and 1990s) for its high biological and scenic values. In 1992 this woodland was subject to a BCC Vegetation Protection Order for its high scenic and landscape value.
","criteria":"Lota House illustrates part of the pattern of Queensland history: the 1860s establishment of gentry estates in Brisbane's eastern bayside suburbs. In particular, the formation and later subdivision of the Lota Estate determined the manner in which the Lota area developed from the 1860s to the early years of the 20th century.
|The house is rare as the oldest surviving residence in the Manly-Lota area, remains one of few 1860s residences of its type to survive in Queensland, and offers an illustration of a past way of life which is no longer common. It is also a rare example of 1860s Georgian-influenced domestic architecture surviving in Queensland. The surviving eucalypt woodland, the Bunya pine and other early trees provide rare evidence of the nature of the early Lota estate garden and grounds.
|The earliest section of Lota House illustrates the principal characteristics of a substantial, two-storeyed, Georgian-influenced 1860s brick residence, in particular the external and internal symmetry and proportions, delicate detailing, and choice of materials: brick, render, slate and cedar. Its siting on a prominent location with panoramic views and extensive grounds exemplifies its class and era. The 1908 extensions and renovations illustrate the evolving nature of a large, bayside family home.
|The earliest section of Lota House is important in exhibiting a number of aesthetic features: the simple rectilinear form punctuated by the colonnaded verandah retains the elegant symmetry and proportion of the Georgian influence; the retention of the internal proportions and planning; the substantial amount of original fabric remaining intact, particularly the cedar joinery which includes doors, skirtings, architraves and staircases; and the sliding louvred shutters to the upper windows and French doors which are also rare and innovative.
The woodland is a landmark in the Lota area.
|Lota House has an important association for the local community with the establishment and development of European settlement in the Manly-Lota district: the name of the suburb is derived from Lota House, a number of the nearby streets have been named after Lota House occupants, and the place features prominently in the published history of the area.
|Lota House is significant also for its association with prominent Queensland pastoralist and politician William Duckett White and his family, the property remaining with the White-Mylne families for over a century. It has had a strong association with the work of the Anglican Church in aged care since the early 1960s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15023,"place_ref":600248,"name":"Fort Lytton","alternate_name":"Fort Lytton National Park","street_address":"160 South Street","suburb":"LYTTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Fort Lytton (established 1880-82) is situated on low-lying ground at the south head of the original entrance to the Brisbane River. It is approached by land from the south, through the former Lytton Quarantine Station (established 1913-14), with entry via South Street at Lytton. Downstream from the fort is the Port of Brisbane, established in the last quarter of the 20th century on mostly reclaimed land; to the east, the land between the fort and Lytton Hill is occupied by the Lytton Oil Refinery.
\nThe fort area is defined by a wire perimeter fence and can be divided into two sections – the eastern area and the western area (separated by a moat that primarily wraps around the perimeter of the eastern area’s north end).
\nFeatures of Fort Lytton of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nEastern area
\nThe eastern area of the fort comprises the fortifications-proper (Earthwork Fort) at the north end of the site, and an open drill area to the south. On the eastern side of the drill area are two substantial, c1880s brick stores. These are both rectangular in form, with corrugated-iron gabled roofs, and set on concrete slabs. They have six-pane double-hung sash windows and large timber doors at the eastern ends. The buildings have been restored and house an interpretative display and military museum. Four concrete slabs to the west of these buildings mark the position of other structures since removed.
\nBeyond these buildings the fortifications are entered across a causeway over the moat and an open passage through the earthen embankment. The passage is lined with whitewashed concrete walls. The embankment is a high, steeply sloping, turfed glacis in the form of a pentangle which completely encloses the fort structures. The moat extends along four sides of the pentangle, but has been filled-in along the seaward wall of the fort. An arm of water extends towards the west in the direction of the old docking facilities.
\nThe interior of the fort is an open level grassy area. Several cement slabs and foundations are located on the level ground at the base of the southern embankment. The armaments are concentrated along the northern and north western walls of the enclosure. These consist of a series of concrete casemates and seven gun emplacements together with ammunition storage and handling facilities. Gun pits 1 and 2 are arranged symmetrically either side of a recessed area with separate entry. Entry to the gun pits is through a central arched opening. Between these lies a recessed area roofed with an iron awning. The awning shelters two rectangular entrances into the loading gallery. The gun pits are accessed through the arched entrances and consist of a semicircular pit enclosed with concrete walls. In gun pit 1 a restored hydro-pneumatic gun mounting has been installed on which is mounted a restored 6-inch Armstrong breech-loading gun. The pit is covered by a sheet of metal on which is painted a blue area indicating what was once an opening through which the disappearing gun was raised for firing. Gun pit 2 contains evidence of the location of the gun fitting. From gun pit 2 a concrete-lined passage leads to the outer gun pit 7 (which housed a twin 6-pounder gun during WWII. At the base of this, lying askew against the side of the moat, lies the concrete command post (which served during WWII to direct fire from the twin 6-pounder gun). To the south of this area a T-shaped depression in the ground marks the location of the Nordenfelt machine gun position. This lies between gun pits 1 and 2 and gun pits 3 and 4. Gun pit 3 is open to the sky, with steep steps leading from ground level to the top of the embankment. Rectangular in form, it contrasts strongly with the highly modified gun pit 4 (which was altered during WWII). Gun pit 4 has a semicircular front to its overhead protection, allowing a 170° view of the river approaches. At the rear of this structure steps lead down to the interior of the fort.
\nAt the south western corner of the fort a rectangular building faces the moat at ground level. This housed the engine room and coal store.
\nWestern area
\nDirectly across from the engine room and coal store, on the western side of the moat lies a gun cotton store, and on the southern side of the moat is a priming pit for the submarine mines. To the west of the gun cotton store, a low concrete wall is pierced by two semicircular enclosures (gun pits 5 and 6) which house the two original 64-pounder muzzle-loading guns. Northwest of these is a concrete two storey tower which housed the searchlight operated during WWII. Some distance to the southwest of these structures a concrete building accommodated the searchlight facilities installed in 1903 to light the minefield. Jetty facilities lie on the banks of the river beside a man-made inlet. To the northeast of the WWII Searchlight Tower are the concrete foundations of the WWII winch blocks which operated the boom gate across the river.
\nGuns, artillery pieces and artefacts related to the use and history of the place
\nThe fort includes original guns and artillery pieces that were part of the fort’s defences, or were used for training on the site, from the colonial era through to the end of WWII. These pieces include:
\nFeatures not of State-level cultural heritage significance
\nFeatures of Fort Lytton not of State-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFort Lytton, a pentagonal earthwork fortification located at the mouth of the Brisbane River, part of the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Jagera peoples, was constructed in 1880-82 by the Queensland Government on advice from British military engineers Col. Sir WFD Jervois and Lt. Col. PH Scratchley. The fort contributed to the coastal defence of Queensland until the end of the Second World War (WWII). In 1990 the site was gazetted as an Historic National Park.
\nPrior to the 1860s, defence of the Australian colonies had been solely the responsibility of the Imperial government. Britain considered that the Imperial Navy would always provide the first line of defence in any threat to her colonial empire, but from 1863 required the Australian colonies, by then self-governing, to contribute toward the costs of maintaining Imperial garrisons on colonial soil, and encouraged the colonies to provide for their own military infrastructure such as fortifications and barracks. Queensland, which had separated from New South Wales in December 1859, could not afford to contribute to Imperial defence, and so Imperial troops were gradually withdrawn from the colony - the last had left by 1870. In the 1860s Queensland established a number of volunteer defence units, based on the British model, but their effectiveness was severely impaired by a lack of armaments and ammunition.
\nBy the 1870s the Australian colonies were developing rapidly and were concerned with potential threats from colonial powers such as Russia and France (the latter had annexed New Caledonia in 1873). In 1877 the colonial governments of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia, anxious to secure the land defence of their coastlines, jointly invited British Royal Engineers Colonel Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois and Lieutenant-Colonel Peter H Scratchley, to inspect existing defence installations and make recommendations as to how these might be improved. Scratchley's particular expertise was in the design and construction of deterrent coastal fortresses.
\nJervois and Scratchley identified maritime attacks as the greatest threat to Australia, and recommended that coastal defences be developed for all the mainland colonies. Despite being physically closer to the source of most threats, Queensland, with its sparse population and limited resources, was not considered to be greatly at risk. In his August 1877 preliminary report on Queensland coastal defences, Jervois identified the principal threat to Queensland security as an attack from the sea on the major ports (Brisbane, Rockhampton and Maryborough), in the form of city bombardment to secure supplies and coal, rather than for permanent occupation. Sea-power would prove the first line of defence, but recommended that Brisbane, as the capital and principal port of Queensland, be defended with the construction of a fort at Lytton, at the mouth of the Brisbane River. Moreton Bay, with its myriad of islands on which enemy forces might establish bases from which to raid the mainland, could not possibly be defended. However, sandbars at the mouth of the Brisbane River, which restricted the size of up-river vessels to a 4.8 metre draught (unarmoured gun boats), provided a natural defence which could be enhanced with the construction of a fort at the river mouth, supplemented by sub-marine mines located so as to force shipping within range of the guns located at the fort.
\nIn late 1878, despite initial opposition to the cost of Jervois' scheme, the Queensland Parliament sanctioned the construction of Fort Lytton. Early in 1879 Scratchley fixed the position of the battery, and Colonial Architect FDG Stanley, in consultation with Scratchley, commenced work on plans for the barracks, magazines and gun emplacements, which were to be constructed in brick and concrete. Excavation and earthworks for the Lytton battery commenced in August 1880, tenders for construction of barracks, magazine, etc were called in September 1880, and the main battery was completed by mid-1882. The contractor for the whole was John Watson of Bulimba.
\nThe fort was constructed at an initial cost of £10,000 and comprised four gun emplacements protected by a closed earthwork parapet, surrounded by a water-filled moat, which extended a quarter of a mile around the perimeter, enclosing some 900 square yards of ground. Within the moat was a narrow berm, beyond which was an earthen mound or parapet, turfed to reduce the risk of erosion and to improve the camouflage of the site – the object being to conceal the fort from ships entering the river. The mound formed an irregular pentagon, and within the parapet were set four gun-bays to house the guns. Gun pits 1 and 2 on the fort’s right (north) face, with 6-inch rifled, muzzle-loading (RML) guns, protected the seaward approach to the fort, and pits 3 and 4 on the left (northwest) face, with 64-pounder RMLs, covered the mined area within the river mouth. In 1893 the 64-pounders in gun pits 3 and 4 were replaced with 6-pounder quick firing (QF) guns, and gun pits 5 and 6, outside and on the left flank of the main fort, were constructed to house the 64-pounder RML guns. The landward side was to be defended by field guns.
\nInside the fort were barracks and magazines, including a powder room and a shell room, with brick-lined passages connecting the magazines to the gun emplacements. Lifting tackle was installed on rails to facilitate the handling of ammunition. Special accommodation was provided for the electrical connections associated with the submarine explosive devices which were strung across the river. The rear parapet sheltered timber buildings to house the officers, guards, cook-house and ablutions areas. The entry was provided with a timber bridge and the entry passage was reinforced with timber blocks bolted together. A wooden gate reinforced with iron sheeting protected the entry. Scratchley also arranged for prickly plants, trees and buffalo grass to be planted over the battery, to supplement the defences. In addition, a boys' reformatory was established on nearby Lytton Hill [QHR 601366] in 1880-81, the buildings to serve a dual function as part of a Redoubt commanding Fort Lytton. The Redoubt was not completed until 1885.
\nEven as Fort Lytton was under construction, attitudes towards colonial defence were changing. Military experts were supporting the implementation of more mobile defence forces, as opposed to fixed facilities such as the Lytton battery. Technology was changing rapidly, both for weaponry and shipping, such that techniques for defence against maritime attack were under constant review. Despite this, Fort Lytton was maintained and contributed to Queensland's defences until the mid-20th century. It also served as a semi-permanent military camp from 1881 until the early 1930s, principally during the annual Easter Encampments at which militia from all over Queensland gathered at Lytton for manoeuvres.
\nFollowing the passage of Queensland's Defence Act 1884 under which a core defence force of 150 men was established, supplemented by militia groups, \"A\" Battery Queensland Artillery was garrisoned at Fort Lytton. During the 'Russian scare' of March 1885 (generated by British-Russian mobilisation along the Afghanistan border), 20 men from \"A\" Battery, and 200 troops raised from militia units, were mobilised at Fort Lytton to defend Brisbane; the force was stood down in May when the border dispute was submitted to arbitration.
\nFollowing the 'Russian scare' a series of improvements to the Lytton battery were approved in 1887. These included the provision of casemates immediately behind the two 6-inch gun pits, and an engine shed at the southwest corner of the fort to accommodate dynamo, two boilers, and duplicate engines. An underground tank to hold 10,000 gallons of water was also constructed. The fort’s 6-inch muzzle-loading guns were replaced by 6-inch breech-loading guns on hydro-pneumatic carriages. These new guns, both emplaced c1888-89, could ‘disappear’ down into their gun pits for reloading, and their emplacements were modified accordingly. The slope of the embankments at Fort Lytton was eased to provide a deflection surface or glacis for enemy shells. Further improvements occurred as funds became available.
\nWhen the Lytton Defence Reserve of 120 acres (48 hectares) was finally gazetted late in 1887, it included Reformatory Hill, Fort Lytton, and possibly part of the Customs Reserve. By 1901 the Defence Reserve had been extended to 640 acres (259 hectares) following the resumption (in two stages: 1891 and 1900) of Lytton township for defence purposes.
\nThe severe economic depression of the early 1890s restricted expenditure on Fort Lytton, but by 1897 money was once again being spent on the facility. A shed was provided for artillery stores and a new smithy, fitters' and carpenters' workshops and a large new store were constructed. Additional storage was provided in 1900.
\nIn 1901 the Queensland Defence Force was amalgamated into the new Commonwealth defence force, and Fort Lytton was transferred to Commonwealth ownership. By this time, the fort’s armament included three Nordenfelt volley guns: a 4-barrel Nordenfelt of 1 inch calibre; and two 10-barrel Nordenfelt guns of 0.45 inch calibre. Various small improvements were made to the fort during the early 1900s. In 1903 a new concrete base was provided for the search light which had been installed in 1892. Culverts, roads and wharf structures were repaired and improved. A new bridge was provided over the moat in 1907 as well as new ablutions areas, gates and kitchen facilities. In the years immediately prior to the First World War (WWI, 1914-18) yards for horses were provided and major repairs were made to the wharf servicing the fort. With the outbreak of war, new barracks and cook-houses were erected (1914-15) and water supplies and drainage were improved. A new forage barn was built in 1916 and a dermatological hospital was constructed on Lytton Hill in 1917. The fort fired in anger only twice during WWI – on both occasions a round was fired across the bows of civilian craft which ignored procedures for approaching the river mouth during war time.
\nIn 1913-14 a quarantine station was established on land adjacent to the fort. This accommodated newly arrived immigrants and persons considered to be at risk of causing infection to the general population. The quarantine station buildings at various times also provided accommodation for persons stationed at the fort. Fort Lytton also played a role in the function of the quarantine station, controlling ships attempting to enter the Brisbane River without appropriate health clearances.
\nBy the end of WWI the inadequacies of Fort Lytton as a defensive base were clearly apparent. Expenditure was kept to a minimum during the interwar period and in 1932 the wharf at Fort Lytton was closed, with the battery relying on the berthing facilities at the quarantine station. In 1938 training walls and revetments were installed along the river banks to improve navigation and flood control.
\nWWII (1939-45) brought a major change in the role which Fort Lytton served in the defence of Australia. The longer-ranging capabilities of modern armaments made real the threat of shipping and aircraft strikes. In response, outer coastal battery and controlled mining defences were established on Moreton and Bribie Islands, and heavy anti-aircraft installations were provided at Lytton, Colmslie, Hemmant, Balmoral, Heath Park, Victoria Park, Bannister Park in Hendra, Pinkenba, Archerfield, and Amberley. Fort Lytton provided an important coastal communication link and was pivotal to the coastal defence of the Brisbane River. Boom defences against submarine invasion were placed in the river at Lytton, and the fort was adapted to defend these: gun pit 4 was altered, with concrete overhead protection, to accommodate a modern 4.7 inch QF gun; gun pit 7 was installed to house a twin-barrelled 6-pounder QF gun; and a concrete forward command post on timber legs was constructed to provide a better viewing position than was available previously. A signal station was established on Lytton Hill early in the war and replaced with an RAAF radar station. A heavy anti-aircraft battery [QHR 650230] was established on land between the fort and the hill. Coastal artillery units also trained on their guns at Lytton during the war, before being deployed elsewhere.
\nFort Lytton's role as a defensive facility ceased in 1946 when all fixed coastal defensive positions in Australia were decommissioned, but military authorities reinstated Fort Lytton as a signals and communications base through the 1950s. In the early 1960s the land was acquired by Ampol for the establishment of an oil refinery. During the construction of the refinery fill was deposited in the moat. The timber bridge across the moat, which the military had damaged by fire in the 1950s, was later replaced by a permanent causeway.
\nBesides its defence and communications functions, the Lytton battery also acquired a ceremonial role. In May 1901 it was the venue for His Royal Highness, the Duke of York, to present medals to Lytton-trained troops who had served in the South African War (1899-1902). In 1963 a 21 gun salute at Lytton welcomed Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II in the Britannia as she sailed up the Brisbane River. In April 1991 the muzzle-loading cannon at the fort were fired to greet Royal Australian Navy vessels returning from the Gulf War.
\nBy the 1970s various community-based historical groups were lobbying for the protection and restoration of the area and in 1988 the Department of Environment, Conservation and Tourism, through the National Parks and Wildlife Service, took over the management of the former fort. In 1990 Fort Lytton was declared an Historic National Park, and during the last decade of the 20th century the site was recorded, and the framework of the fort restored. Two original 64-pounder muzzle-loading guns were returned to their emplacements in gun pits 5 and 6. Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service established the Lytton Museum in the former artillery store in 1991. Preliminary works in anticipation of the stabilisation of some concrete roofs and retaining walls, and the restoration of existing drainage pipes, was undertaken in 1994. Stabilisation and restoration work has subsequently continued on-site.
\nFrom 1992 the Fort Lytton Historical Association worked with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service to enhance the Fort’s interpretation through the installation of replica artillery pieces in their original positions. This included in 1996 the breech-loading hydro-pneumatic 6-inch gun in pit No. 1. Fort Lytton Historical Association has also conducted guided tours of the Fort and has further assisted interpretation through the development of an on-site historical artillery collection. This includes a number of artillery and other historic items relevant to the history of the site (such as the Air Defence Predictor and Sperry Searchlight). Collectively these form a permanent display of artefacts which assist in the interpretation of the site. From 1990 regular firing of the muzzle-loading cannons commenced, and annual re-enactment pageants at the fort continued until 2019.
\nIn 1999, Fort Lytton National Park was extended with the incorporation of part of the adjacent former Lytton Quarantine Station. The buildings on this site have been occupied and managed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service since 1988, and serve as the administration centre for Fort Lytton National Park. In 2018 the Queensland Military Historical Society established a new museum in the former Quarantine Station Dining hall. In 2024, Lytton Hill and the WWII heavy anti-aircraft battery remain outside the National Park, on land occupied by the Lytton Oil Refinery.
","criteria":"Fort Lytton, constructed 1880-82, is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, being important evidence of the colony's response to providing for its own coastal defence needs following the withdrawal of Imperial garrisons in the 1860s. It is important for the intactness of the physical evidence of the 1870s defence scheme, and retains additions and alterations which illustrate the evolution of Queensland's defence planning and of military process and technology from the 1880s to the 1940s. The place is significant nationally as part of the first co-ordinated system of coastal defence in Australia.
|Fort Lytton provides rare surviving evidence of a late 19th century coastal fortification in Queensland, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, with moat, glacis and gun emplacements in situ.
|Fort Lytton provides rare surviving evidence of a late 19th century coastal fortification in Queensland, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, with moat, glacis and gun emplacements in situ. It is important also in illustrating the principal characteristics of 20th century military activity, including Second World War adaptations to accommodate new facilities.
|The place evokes an aesthetic response, engendered by the desolate, denuded, artificial landscape of undulating earthworks and planted grasses, combined with the sense of ruin and remote setting at the mouth of the Brisbane River.
|The fort has a strong association for Queenslanders as a symbol of defence and military activity in Brisbane and in Queensland. The former strong association with annual Easter encampments is now commemorated in the annual Easter displays at the fort.
|The place has a strong association with military activity in Queensland, as a site for defence, training and military support. In addition the place has a special association with the work of Col. Sir WFD Jervois, whose 1877 scheme for the defence of Queensland included recommendation that a fort be established at Lytton, and with the work of Lt-Col. PH Scratchley and Colonial Architect FDG Stanley, who, in the design and construction of Fort Lytton, implemented Jervois' ideas.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15024,"place_ref":600249,"name":"Manly War Memorial","alternate_name":"Soldiers Memorial Park | Manly Dam | Ferguson Street Reserve","street_address":"184 Carlton Terrace","suburb":"MANLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"The First World War Memorial is situated in a small park at the end of the main shopping street of Manly. It sits in a constructed oval shaped amphitheatre within the park which comprises a formal arrangement of paths, garden seats, hedges and mature trees.
The memorial is surrounded by kerbing with bollards at each corner which are square in plan with pyramidal apexes. It sits on a circular concrete pad with kerbing to the outside edge.
The digger statue is missing, however the pedestal remains. It sits on a rock faced granite base with a chamfered top. It is of simple design and constructed of sandstone which has been painted.
The plinth has a smooth faced step surmounted by a simple moulding and another smooth faced step. This is capped by a small cornice. The dado has a small base step and the shaft has slightly tapering sides. The front face displays a marble plaque with the leaded names of the local men who fell in the First World War and the word MANLY is incised on the lower step. The western face also displays a marble plaque with the leaded names of the local men who fell in the Second World War.
The pedestal dado is capped by a simple concave cornice.
","history":"The Manly War Memorial was unveiled by WH Barnes, MLA on 5 March 1921. It is not known who designed the memorial, or who the mason was. The memorial, originally of Helidon brown freestone on a base of Enoggera granite, with a statue of Carrara marble, honours the 16 local men who fell during the First World War.
The land on which the park is located was originally part of a 150 acres (61 hectares) lot bought by Thomas Jones in 1860. In 1882 the land was sold to the Arnold brothers who sub divided the land for auction. From the late 1890s the area was designated as a water reserve and eventually formed part of the Manly Dam, filled in some time after 1908. The land was never developed and was subsequently divided by a road. The memorial was erected around 1920, however the land, which had always been considered a park, was not officially resumed until 1937.
Previously known as Manly Memorial Park, it was re-named in 1990 after Richard Russell, pioneer Manly citizen and businessman who was elected Mayor in 1919.
Australia, and Queensland in particular, had few civic monuments before the First World War. The memorials erected in its wake became our first national monuments, recording the devastating impact of the war on a young nation. Australia lost 60 000 from a population of about 4 million, representing one in five of those who served. No previous or subsequent war has made such an impact on the nation.
Even before the end of the war, memorials became a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief. To those who erected them, they were as sacred as grave sites, substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East. British policy decreed that the Empire war dead were to be buried where they fell. The word 'cenotaph', commonly applied to war memorials at the time, literally means 'empty tomb'.
Australian war memorials are distinctive in that they commemorate not only the dead. Australians were proud that their first great national army, unlike other belligerent armies, was composed entirely of volunteers, men worthy of honour whether or not they paid the supreme sacrifice. Many memorials honour all who served from a locality, not just the dead, providing valuable evidence of community involvement in the war. Such evidence is not readily obtainable from military records, or from state or national listings, where names are categorised alphabetically or by military unit.
Australian war memorials are also valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time, not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste. In Queensland, the soldier statue was the popular choice of memorial, whereas the obelisk predominated in the southern states, possibly a reflection of Queensland's larger working-class population and a lesser involvement of architects.
Many of the First World War monuments have been updated to record local involvement in later conflicts, and some have fallen victim to unsympathetic re-location and repair.
Although there are many different types of memorials in Queensland, the digger statue is the most common. It was the most popular choice of communities responsible for erecting the memorials, embodying the ANZAC myth and representing the qualities of the ideal Australian.....loyalty, courage, youth, innocence and masculinity. The digger was a phenomenon peculiar to Queensland, perhaps due to the fact that other states had followed Britain's lead and established Advisory Boards made up of architects and artists, prior to the erection of war memorials. The digger statue was not highly regarded by artists and architects who were involved in the design of relatively few Queensland memorials.
Most statues were constructed by local masonry firms, although some were by artists or imported. They varied slightly in design, presumably to suit the needs of the communities who commissioned them.
The Manly digger statue was plagued by acts of vandalism over the years, which culminated in 1992 in the statue being pulled from the pedestal and the head broken off. The statue was replaced with a concrete replica in 2007, but the original Italian marble statue, thought lost, was rediscovered in a Brisbane City Council depot in Lota in 2013.
","criteria":"War Memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state. They provide evidence of an era of widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism, particularly during and following the First World War.
|The monuments manifest a unique documentary record and are demonstrative of popular taste in the inter-war period.
Erected in 1921, the memorial at Manly demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event. This is achieved through the use of appropriate materials and design elements.
|The memorial and its intact setting are a landmark within Manly and contribute to the aesthetic qualities of the townscape.
|It has a strong and continuing association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and as the focal point for the remembrance of that event.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15025,"place_ref":600250,"name":"Cook Terrace","alternate_name":"Milton Terrace | Gloralgar Flats","street_address":"249 Coronation Drive","suburb":"MILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Cook Terrace consists of six two-storeyed rendered brick houses, each with an attic and sub-floor.
The attics are contained within a corrugated iron mansard roof, which is divided by continuations of the party walls, which also separate the front and back verandahs.
Each attic is lit by a single dormer at the rear and a pair at the front. The latter appear to have been added at a later date, and a high front parapet of repeating circles, which partly obscured the roof, probably was removed at the same time.
Each house also has two double chimneys rising above the western dividing walls.
The front elevation is unified by supporting timber posts and capitals with cast-iron valances, brackets and balustrading, much of which has been replaced but not to the original pattern, along ground and first floors. The first floor verandahs are roofed with convex iron and overhang slightly those of the ground floor, and were glazed in 1984. A rendered front wall and stepped approaches separate the terrace from the street pavement.
Each house is constructed to an identical floor plan. On the ground floor an entrance to the side leads to the hallway from which two rooms open - originally drawing and dining rooms. These are divided by folding cedar doors, with a bay window which overlooks the river from the front room. At the far end of the hallway a cedar staircase leads to the first floor and attic.
On the first floor a broad arch separates the two main rooms, which were intended probably as bedroom and sitting room. Two sets of french doors open onto the front verandah from the main room and a smaller adjacent room, which likely was the dressing room, to its right. The rear room is lit by a triple window.
The attic also is divided into a front and back room, but the partitioning is plasterboard and no evidence of any original division is visible.
Interior finishes to each house include cedar joinery, plastered walls, marble fireplace surrounds in the ground floor rooms and tessellated entrance tiles.
Air-conditioning, sound-proofing, electronic security systems and signage, were introduced during the 1980s renovation.
Each house has a detached timber two-storeyed service wing, accessed from the rear verandah. Externally they remain substantially intact, but have been gutted. Glazed terracotta paving tiles, bearing the name J Petrie on the reverse, line the courtyards between the kitchen houses.
Around the turn of the century the western house was remodelled to include: a verandah extension with decorative timber elements of the Federation period along the side wall; a 'dome room' rear addition which features a high coffered ceiling with arched timber ribs, four inch
(10 cm) tongue and groove lining boards, chair rail, and fireplace with its original picture tiles; and pressed metal ceilings and ornamental pillars with capitals in the archway of the two ground floor rooms.
Cook Terrace is situated on one of the busiest arterial roads linking the western suburbs with the centre of the city. However, the river view remains undisturbed, and the mature fig tree in the grounds at the corner of Park Road and Coronation Drive contributes to the nineteenth century ambience.
","history":"This building was constructed as a two-storeyed brick row of six houses in 1888-9 by Brisbane builder Joseph Blain Cook.
In September of 1888 Cook had acquired from squatter John Frederick McDougall the title to subdivisions 1 to 6 of the Milton House estate, a section of prime real estate along the Milton reach of the Brisbane River.
He raised a mortgage of £6000 on the property to finance construction of the terrace. The first house was erected in late 1888, and the remainder of the row was completed in 1889. The architect is unknown.
The terrace was built as a rental property, the Queensland Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act of 1885 prohibiting the granting of titles to individual terrace houses. The enterprise reflected the economic optimism of the late 1880s, but within two years of construction Cook was declared insolvent and the terrace passed to his mortgagees.
By 1895 the row was known as Milton Terrace, and with its river views and breezes and proximity to the centre of town, it remained one of Brisbane's more prestigious rental addresses until well into the twentieth century, attracting mainly professional and white-collar tenants.
The house adjacent to Park Road was occupied by the Rourke family from about 1895 to 1905. They owned the terrace at that period and it is likely they were responsible for adding a southwestern verandah and dome room.
By 1920 each house had been subdivided into at least two flats, and builder Simon Smith, who acquired the property in 1923, may have been responsible for removing the front parapet and installing dormer windows.
By 1928 a tennis court had been established in the southwestern yard. This is no longer extant.
In the thirties the name Milton Terrace was lost, and by the end of the decade the houses were known collectively as Gloralgar Flats.
During the second world war the flats are believed to have been rented by army authorities for officer accommodation.
In the postwar period the verandahs were enclosed and the six houses were converted into twenty-seven flats, which were considered something of a bohemian retreat. Despite its decline, the building remained a visual landmark along Coronation Drive, and in 1984 it was refurbished and recycled as offices and a restaurant.
","criteria":"Completed in 1889, Cook Terrace provides evidence of the 1880s boom era confidence in Brisbane.
|Cook Terrace is substantially intact, including attached timber service wings which are rare, and survives as one of few nineteenth century terraces in Brisbane.
The continuation of the masonry party walls above the roof line, is an uncommon type of construction in attached row housing in Brisbane.
|Cook Terrace is substantially intact, including attached timber service wings which are rare, and survives as one of few nineteenth century terraces in Brisbane.
|Cook Terrace is prominently located fronting Coronation Drive, and contributes to the Coronation Drive riverscape and streetscape.
|Cook Terrace is a local landmark and has a strong association for the people of Brisbane with Milton history, both 19th century and more recent 20th century, particularly when Cook Terrace was converted to flats and attracted a student clientele in the 1960s and 1970s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15026,"place_ref":600251,"name":"Lucerne","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"23 Fernberg Road","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Modest in concept, Lucerne is a single-storey, rectangular brick house with attic rooms. The dwelling consists of a central hallway with study and dining room to the right; a long sitting room to the left; modern kitchen and bathroom facilities at the rear; and an internal cedar staircase leading from a large room, projecting at the rear centre, to attic bedrooms and bathroom. A former detached kitchen house with fireplace is located at the rear to the east. French doors, with casement fanlights above, lead from the two front rooms onto the verandahs. Internal joinery is of cedar, which has been painted, and the walls are plastered. The whole is surmounted by a gabled roof with a ridge running transverse to the axis of the house. Roof shingling has been replaced with galvanised iron. An attic dormer window overlooks a simple timber posted front verandah, from which the original cross-braced balustrading has been removed. Casement windows with bull-nosed hoods have been added to each gable, which retain their scalloped bargeboards. Sympathetic detached additions have been made to the rear of the cottage since 1969.
","history":"James Young, a bricklayer by trade who reputedly worked as a foreman for John Petrie, acquired 6 acres 2 roods of land at Milton, adjoining what later became Bishopsbourne, by deed of grant dated 22 August 1859. The house is believed to have been built by 1862, the first of three homes which Young constructed on the property, to accommodate a family of sixteen children. By the early 1870s Young was renting the house to John Guthrie, listed in the 1874 directories as a squatter, but by the late 1870s as a solicitor. Guthrie is credited with naming the cottage Lucerne. In the late 1870s the Misses Davis possibly ran a school from the premises. By 1877 the house comprised drawing, dining and sitting rooms on the ground floor, an attic space divided into four bedrooms, a bathroom and detached kitchen-house with servant's quarters, along with various outbuildings. Alexander Duncan Campbell purchased the residence on 2 acres 3 roods 33.8 perches early in 1879, and by mid-1883 Lucerne was in the possession of Agnes wife of John Scott MLA (1883-98). Scott, a pastoralist and parliamentarian, resided there until his death in 1898. The property remained in the hands of his heirs until purchased by Miss Annie Hirst in 1905. Members of the Hirst family lived at Lucerne for many years, until the former's death in 1940. Since 1947 the property has had three owners, the Wards, the Morrows and the O'Sullivans, the latter having resided at Lucerne since 1969. In that year a new kitchen and eating area were created along the enclosed rear verandah, and the old detached kitchen converted to a bedroom. A series of detached additions at the rear of the house have been erected since.
","criteria":"Lucerne was built early in the Separation era, when Queenslanders were conscious of the need to substantiate their existence in the local environment. Brick cottages, often the homes of the lower middle-class, were relatively common at this time.
|The gabled brick building with its high-pitched roof and dormer window is a rare survivor in contemporary Brisbane.
Lucerne remains as a fine example of 1860s brick house construction, especially since it was erected by the artisan-owner as a family residence.
|Lucerne is an attractive house of unpretentious yet balanced proportions. The simplicity of form reflects both its function as a first home and the skill of its builder. Details such as the scalloped bargeboards, interior cedar staircase and joinery, and casement fanlights, are obvious aesthetic features.
|In a history spanning approximately one hundred and thirty years, Lucerne, which began as a craftsman's dwelling, became home to a number of notable Queensland families. As early as 1877, the house was advertised as a 'gentleman's residence', and such it has remained.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15027,"place_ref":600252,"name":"Christ Church","alternate_name":"Memorial Church (former) | Christ Church (Anglican)","street_address":"9 Chippendall Street","suburb":"MILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Situated at the corner of Hale and Chippendall Streets, Christ Church and its spire are still a visible and distinctive presence in the surrounding area, which is now occupied by light industry rather than residential buildings. The neighbouring Lang Park Stadium dominates the built environment. The church precinct is separated from the Hale Street diversion by a high retaining wall. An open garden area lies between the church and rectory and the memorial reserve is accessed from there by a gate set in a wall. The church grounds retain some mature trees.
The church is a timber building, set on a low base of concrete blocks. It is cruciform in plan with a slender spire over the crossing. The roof is clad with diamond shaped asbestos cement tiles and the pitch breaks to cover the verandahs on either side. There is a polygonal timber baptistery. The building displays to great advantage the beauty and utility of Queensland timber. The exterior is clad with painted weatherboard except for the outside walls to the verandahs which have exposed studs. Inside, the church is lined with unpainted vee-jointed pine boards which have deepened in colour with age. It has a crown post roof with scissor braces. The transepts contain a Lady Chapel and Warrior's Chapel and are separated from the nave by pointed arches.
The windows in the body of the church are casements with trefoil heads in moulded frames and are set with clear glass, but a group of seven above the altar are set with stained glass depicting Christ and the saints Paul, Mary, John, and Barnabus. The baptistery beyond an arch at the southern end of the building is lit by modern stained glass windows.
A number of fittings reused from the earlier church include a stone font given by Andrew Petrie in 1874 to the first chapel. There is a brass lectern donated as a memorial in 1892 and the pulpit dates from 1914. Pews in the choir and nave are carved and add to the rich timber colours of the interior. There is a timber Honour Board from World War I.
The small pipe organ by Whitehouse to the right of the chancel was extensively rebuilt and electrified in 1984.
The rectory is no longer used for this purpose, although the church uses several rooms on the enclosed verandah facing the street as offices. The body of the house is let as a residence. It is a single-storey timber house with a steeply pitched roof, clad in corrugated iron and decorated with fretted barge boards. It is on low stumps and has brick chimneys. A central hall opens into a dining and living rooms on the left and two bedrooms on the right. At the rear there is a kitchen wing containing scullery, maid's room and kitchen. The house has lath and plaster walls in the main internal rooms, an unusual feature in a comparatively modest home. The verandah has been enclosed and extended over time, however, the house is generally very intact and has well detailed joinery. Details such as the arched timber front demonstrate the influence of the Gothic style.
The Memorial Reserve contains 21 memorials from the former Anglican burial reserve, a number of which commemorate members of well know pioneer families.
","history":"The ecclesiastical precinct at Christ Church Milton contains a timber church and rectory and a memorial reserve. The church was designed in 1891 by J H Buckeridge for use as both a Sunday school and a temporary church. The rectory was built in 1883 to a design of F.D.G. Stanley.
The parish has a close association with the first major burial ground in Brisbane. Established in the early 1840s bordering on Boundary Street, now called Hale Street, the cemetery was divided into sections serving six Christian denominations and the Jewish community. During the 1860s and early 1870s, the Anglican community in Milton held services in the mortuary chapel which served their portion of the cemetery. In 1873 the Parish of Milton was formed and served a larger area than is presently the case, extending to Paddington, Enoggera, Red Hill, Milton, Rosalie, Torwood and Auchenflower. From 1875 burials at the cemetery ceased.
By 1874, the congregation had grown to the point where it needed a larger, more permanent church building. A parcel of land adjacent to the Anglican section of the cemetery was purchased and a stone church constructed to the design of Richard Suter, lay preacher to the congregation and diocesan architect. It was dedicated on 16 January 1876 to the memory of these buried in the adjacent cemetery. Even though funds had been supplemented by borrowing, it was not possible to complete the church as designed and the western end was finished in brick and timber. A rectory was also provided for the parish priest. Additional land was purchased close to the church in 1882 and a timber dwelling in 'Gothic' style was built to the design of F.D.G. Stanley in early 1883. In 1888 the church and rectory allotments were amalgamated into a whole by the purchase of two adjoining blocks.
The foundations to the new church proved to be faulty, necessitating costly repairs. Extensive damage was also sustained during a severe storm in 1890, after which it was decided to sell the church for demolition. A large Sunday School hall was also needed as the population of the area grew. In 1890 there were 250 pupils and 600 in 1900 as the suburbs developed. In the nineteenth century, Sunday schools were thought to be very important, not only to teach religion, where government education was secular, but to mould character and encourage a high standard of ethics in adult life. The congregation could not afford two buildings and so a practical compromise was made in which the new hall was designed to also serve as an interim church.
The new church/school was designed by J.H. Buckeridge. He had been engaged in 1886 as Diocesan Architect by Bishop William Webber, whose vision for the Church in Queensland included the erection of substantial new buildings to serve an expanding population. Although many could not be expensive, they were lifted above the ordinary by Buckeridge through quality of design and materials. Christ Church is possibly his most innovative design and was built for £920 by Lars Anderson, a Danish sawmiller and builder based at Esk. Anderson and his two brothers were very successful in this industry, partly because he had been instrumental in developing a system of light rail to extract timber from areas which were previously inaccessible due to difficult terrain. It is probable that Andersen was chosen rather than a local builder because he had constructed the Anglican Church at Esk. This was also designed by Buckeridge and the Milton parish incumbent, Rev. J.E. Leighton, had previously been Rector there. The choice is justified in the quality of Andersen's work evident in Christ Church. The timber used was shipped down from the Esk valley and the design made full use of the attributes of the various species.
The stump capping took place on 4 June 1891 and the building was opened and dedicated by Bishop Webber on 18 September 1891. The new church/hall building was placed on a different location within the allotment to the existing church as this continued in use while the hall was built. Some furnishings were transferred, including a stone font donated to the first chapel by Andrew Petrie. Due to the financial constraints under which the church was operating, and the original perception of the place as principally serving as a Sunday School, many of the furnishings of the church were added later. The roof was originally clad in timber shingles.
From the beginning the church served not only the residents of the surrounding area, but also the staff and inmates of the nearby gaol. It ministered to the needs of the neighbouring garrison at Victoria Barracks and provided spiritual support to outlying communities. The parish established a number of social activities including a men's society, ladies' guild and girl's friendly society, but it also made an important contribution to the wider community by the foundation by the Mother's Union of a home nursing service that was to evolve into St Luke's Nursing Service.
The old cemetery grounds fell into disrepair and in 1911 the land was resumed for public purposes. Although some burials were re-interred in other cemeteries, in many cases only the headstones were relocated. In 1912-14 over 500 headstones were removed to a memorial reserve set aside within the boundary of the old Anglican cemetery section, which contained some twenty four burials. During the Depression most of these stones were removed and destroyed.
Between 1905 and 1908, a timber hall was built to the east of the church and in 1918 additions and alterations were made including the replacement of the roof shingles with asbestos cement tiles and the acquisition of a larger organ which necessitated alterations to the floor and ceiling. Changes to the fabric of the church have otherwise been minor.
In 1987 a ring road was proposed which meant resumption of a substantial section of the church grounds including part of the Memorial Reserve. In spite of strong objections by the congregation and community, road construction went ahead in 1989/90. The hall was demolished and the headstones were relocated within the remaining memorial reserve, which contains some early burials and provides evidence for use of this area as Brisbane's first public cemetery.
Despite the original intention of the hall serving only as an intermediate church, the building continues in use as a church to this day. The timber stumps have been replaced by low wall of concrete blocks and there are modern toilets built underneath. The spire was damaged by a storm in 1985 and was rebuilt without the ventilation louvres.
","criteria":"Christ Church Milton is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history, containing within its grounds a section of Brisbane's first public cemetery. Christ Church is closely associated with the development of Milton and Petrie Terrace as suburbs of Brisbane and as a 'mother church' nurtured the development of several later parishes. The size and quality of the church building, intended originally as a Sunday School, demonstrates the importance given to religious education in nineteenth century Queensland.
|The timbers from the Esk Valley used in the construction of the church are of a size and quality that have become rare today. The positioning of the church, rectory and hall in close proximity to the graveyard is an uncommon characteristic in Queensland churches. The reserve and the graves and memorials it contains are the only visible evidence of Queensland's first major public cemetery.
|Christ Church Milton is important as a good example of a Sunday School hall and church combined; an option that a number of early parishes chose as an interim measure where financial resources were limited. The wide verandahs and open floor space are characteristic of a hall, yet the building also has ecclesiastical features such as a cruciform floor plan, a steeple/ventilator and a baptistery. The rectory is a good, intact example of a cottage ornée of its era, having a quality of design and finish unusual in a house of its modest scale. The memorials contained in the reserve demonstrate 19th century customs connected with burial and mourning.
|Christ Church Milton has aesthetic significance for the quality of its design, exhibiting such features relating to the Arts and Crafts movement as a highly competent use of timber materials throughout, the broken pitch of the principal roof and the introduction of an elaborate roof form. The rectory has aesthetic significance as a well executed Gothic cottage ornée, a style perhaps thought particularly suitable for church house.
|Christ Church Milton is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative and technical achievement at a particular period. The use of a variety of timbers and the treatment of the ceiling show a high degree of technical competence. The design is an imaginative solution to the problem of containing diverse uses in a single building and shows a considered response to climate through its use of wide verandahs and a ventilator incorporated into the steeple.
|It has social and spiritual associations with the congregation of the parish, some of whom made notable contributions to the wider community.
|Christ Church has a special association with the life and work of the Diocesan Architect, J H Buckeridge, and Bishop William Webber, whose vision for the developing church in Queensland encompassed new buildings of substance and quality. It is associated with the work of Lars Anderson whose innovative methods contributed to the development of the Queensland timber industry particularly in the Brisbane Valley.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15028,"place_ref":600253,"name":"Milton House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"50 McDougall Street","suburb":"MILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The hip-roofed house is Colonial Georgian in style and plan, having a typical front doorway with segmented sidelights and an arched fanlight, and a symmetrical arrangement of rooms about a central hallway on each floor. The ground floor has wide, open verandahs on three sides. Two service rooms run across the rear of the core, incorporating pavilion wings of the side verandahs.
The walls are of brick, which is lime rendered and jointed to give the impression of stone. A three-roomed cellar is constructed of rough rubble walling, and entered by steps on the south side of the verandah. The roof shingles have been replaced with corrugated iron.
Internally, the narrow cedar staircase has shaped handrails and stick balusters (replacements), the vestibule features an ornate plaster ceiling, and the dining room has an early 20th century pressed metal ceiling. The first floor, with narrow stick-balustraded verandahs on three sides, originally accommodated bedrooms. These verandahs are accessed by french doors, though the louvred shutters have not been reinstated. Fireplaces remain in the ground floor rooms but have been enclosed upstairs. They lead to dominant chimney-stacks which are set diagonally to the ridge of the wide hipped roof.
Milton House was originally built as a homestead, high on the riverbank overlooking the surrounding property. Photographs taken in the 1860s show a line of palms between two Norfolk Island pines and a pathway edged with shrubbery leading down towards the river. All of these plantings seem to have disappeared by the 1950s. The present garden and lawns to the front and sides of the house were planted at the time of the building's refurbishment but include mature poinciana and jacaranda trees. The rear of the house opens onto a newly built tennis court, swimming pool and outdoor entertaining area. The river facade can be glimpsed from Coronation Drive, framed by modern office blocks.
","history":"Milton House was erected in 1852 or 1853 for retired Queen Street chemist Ambrose Eldridge. It was the first substantial house in the area and soon a local landmark, being prominent in early views of Brisbane. It was the base for Eldridge's experimental farming when the Moreton Bay region was struggling to establish itself, and later for JF McDougall's considerable pastoral holdings in the area.
Ambrose Eldridge was a Sydney chemist who arrived in Moreton Bay in late July 1847 to work in John Taggart's Medical Hall, a chemist shop in Queen Street. Taggart eventually sold out to Eldridge, who took over from 1 October 1849, and developed the business as a chemist, druggist, oilman, and grocer.
In the late 1840s and 1850s, Eldridge adopted an active and enthusiastic role in the development of Brisbane and Queensland. He was prominent in the Separation movement and served on a wide variety of local committees (for most of which he was a founding member), including those of the Hospital, the proposed Brisbane Market (1851), the Moreton Bay Steam Navigation Company, the Moreton Bay Horticultural Society, the Brisbane Exchange, the Northern Districts Agricultural and Pastoral Association, the Moreton Bay Immigration and Land Company (first chairman of directors in 1855-56), and the Moreton Bay Building Society, which was dissolved in 1854 to re-emerge as the Moreton Bay Permanent Investment and Building Society in 1855. He was active in promoting local issues such as a bridge over Breakfast Creek, a committee to communicate between the electors of Moreton Bay and their representative in the Legislative Council in Sydney, a survey of the Brisbane River entrance and bar, direct emigration to Moreton Bay, government funding to churches, and regularly subscribed to rewards for the discovery of gold in the Moreton and Darling Downs districts. He was a prominent member of St John's Anglican Church, and an active participant in the Brisbane School of Arts and Sciences and the Moreton Bay Musical Society. During the early 1850s his business flourished and he acquired a number of Brisbane town and suburban allotments.
Eldridge was a well-respected townsman with a clear commitment to the development of Brisbane at political, civic, economic and social levels, but he was also something of a visionary. Like the indomitable Dr JD Lang, who envisioned a Moreton Bay populated by yeomen farmers, Eldridge was determined to prove that agriculture in the Northern Districts of New South Wales was economically viable.
In the second half of 1851, Eldridge, who had little knowledge of farming, purchased Western Suburban Allotments 4 to 11, totalling over 30 acres, along the northern bank of the Brisbane River, just beyond the town boundary. Here, at what he named Milton Farm, Eldridge experimented with cotton growing, hoping to prove that agriculture at Moreton Bay could be sustained and profitable. Whilst not the only Moreton Bay resident to experiment with cotton-growing at the time, he was initially one of the most successful.
Cotton was a logical crop with which to experiment - it was one of the principal import of Great Britain, and an important basis of her manufacturing industry, and if grown successfully at Moreton Bay, would ensure the prosperity of the Northern Districts of New South Wales, and enhance local aspirations for Separation.
By September 1852, five acres of the Milton land had been cleared, and were planted the following month with seeds of the finest Sea Island Cotton. At the close of 1852, Eldridge retired from business, selling the Medical Hall and devoting his time to the Milton experiment. It is likely that Milton House was erected about this time. By June 1853 the first crop of Milton cotton was being picked, yielding at least 20 bales. Eldridge reported in the local press that, not including the cost of land and land clearing, he had expended £38 in the experiment, and had made a profit of £14. That December he was awarded first prize of £30 by the NSW Government, for samples of the cotton sent to Sydney in a government-sponsored competition. Two years later he sent samples of the Milton cotton to the Paris Exhibition of 1855, where it was highly acclaimed.
In 1853, Eldridge expanded his efforts to promote profitable local farming, taking up on long lease approximately 400 acres at Eagle Farm. By late 1854 this land had been cleared, and in March 1855, Eldridge announced his intention of removing to Eagle Farm, and selling the Milton Estate. The Eldridges resided at Milton through the remainder of 1855, but the property, including a mansion house was sold and transferred to pastoralist John Frederick McDougall in January 1856, for £2,300.
For Eldridge, the move spelt disaster. The experiments at Eagle Farm appear to have failed, and by 1859 he had returned to the chemist business, opening a shop at Ipswich. He died in 1860, leaving his family penniless.
JF McDougall, a member of the first Queensland Legislative Council, farmed the Milton Estate, adding large western suburbs leaseholds to his holding, and enlarging the house considerably. From 1864 the McDougalls resided at Rosalie Station and let Milton. Tenants included Arthur Manning, the Colonial Under-Secretary, Henry Walsh, MLC and speaker of the Legislative Assembly, and James Crombie. The house gave its name to the local suburb, while neighbouring Rosalie took its name from McDougall's Darling Downs property, bearing testament to the one time extent of his holdings in the western suburbs.
Milton Farm was sold to the Queensland Investment and Land Mortgage Co. Ltd in 1885 and subdivided for residential development, at which time the newly created streets of McDougall, Manning, Walsh and Crombie were named after previous owners or occupiers of Milton House. The Commissioner of Police, David Thompson Seymour, bought an area of nearly two acres, including the house, in 1887, but sold it the next year to Dr Hugh Bell, a noted physician and consultant at the Brisbane General Hospital for forty years. In 1904 the property was purchased by grain merchant William Siemon and his family, who renovated the premises in 1922. In 1955 the Siemon family gave the property to the Presbyterian Church, which used Milton House as a hostel for women college students until 1983. The building subsequently became part of the Kings Row Corporate Park development, at which time it was refurbished to resemble its outward appearance of the 1860s.
","criteria":"Milton House is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, being associated with important early agricultural experimentation in pre-separation Queensland, associated with the pastoral development of the western suburbs prior to closer settlement in the 1860s and as one of the oldest surviving houses in Brisbane and the first substantial house in the western suburbs.
|Milton House demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage, being one of the few surviving pre-Separation houses in Brisbane, numbered with Newstead [600265], Bulimba [600179] and Shafston Houses [600241] and as a rare example of 1850s Colonial Georgian architecture in Brisbane.
|Milton House survives sufficiently in form, feature and material, to be important in demonstrating the principal features of Colonial Georgian architecture adapted to local climatic conditions, notably through the inclusion of verandahs and french doors on three sides.
|Milton House has a special association with the local community with the house giving its name to the local suburb, with the neighbouring suburb of Rosalie perpetuating the association with the second owner of Milton House, JF McDougall and as an early local landmark, still visible from the arterial river road to the western suburbs.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15029,"place_ref":600254,"name":"Old Bishopsbourne","alternate_name":"St Francis Theological College | Bishopsbourne","street_address":"233 Milton Road","suburb":"MILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Old Bishopsbourne is a large, two-storeyed residence constructed of local porphyry and sandstone. The style is a blend of derived and vernacular elements.
On both floors, french casements with fanlights open from the main rooms onto wide verandahs, which are enclosed externally by Gothic stone arches, creating a cloistered atmosphere. The second storey verandah balustrade is constructed of cast iron fashioned in an inverted arch pattern.
The hipped roof is slated with four tall chimney-stacks. Small louvred gablets ventilate the roof.
Internally the sandstock brickwork is cement rendered and lime plastered, with little ornamentation. All the internal joinery, including 10 feet [3 metres] high folding doors which retract into the walls, is of Queensland red cedar.
The ground floor comprises a small vestibule separated by a cedar and etched glass screen from a broad hallway running the length of the house; three rooms to the right used for drawing room and study functions; three rooms to the left which open to one large dining area; an enclosed section of the front verandah which now contains a bathroom; and a modern kitchen at the rear.
The upstairs has been converted into the principal's quarters, containing six bedrooms, two bathrooms, a lounge and a kitchen.
A two-storeyed brick and stone annexe with a corrugated iron roof, formerly the service wing, is attached at the rear. The iron balustrade pattern of the main building is repeated around the annexe verandahs, the lower level of which incorporates a deep timber valance.
Underneath both the main building and the annexe are large cellars, intended originally as larders and storage space.
While an on-going building programme has resulted in substantial changes to the site, sufficient grounds and mature trees remain to sustain the garden setting ambience, and the residence itself remains largely intact. The 1870s gateposts survive, but only fragments of the early garden beds. The 1930s stone terracing survives.
Other significant buildings within the grounds include:
- Old Bishopsbourne Chapel [1912], a Gothic style, gable-roofed stone building (QHR 600255);
- the 1936 St Francis' Theological College Building, a gable-roofed and verandahed, interwar hostel-type timber building;
- St Francis' Theological College Library Building [1959], a postwar International style brick, concrete and glass structure with ecclesiastical undertones.
Endeavour by successive architects to incorporate gable and arch motifs within their contemporary designs, creates a sense of harmony within the grounds.
","history":"This two-storeyed stone residence was constructed in 1865-68 for Edward Tufnell, the first Anglican Bishop of Brisbane [1860-74], as his See house. It remained the home of the Anglican primates of Brisbane until 1964.
In 1862 Tufnell, on behalf of the Anglican Church, received from Emmeline Leslie a gift of 16 acres [6.5 hectares] of eucalypt woodland along the Milton Road. The site was earmarked for a See house.
During a short sojourn in England, Tufnell raised £4,400 for the Brisbane Diocese. Despite popular opposition to the expense, £3,000 of this was spent constructing Bishopsbourne.
The architect was Benjamin Backhouse, who had practised in Geelong, Ballarat and London, before arriving in Brisbane in 1861. Backhouse left Brisbane for Sydney in 1868, but in the short time he was resident in Queensland, his work was prolific, ranging from houses to churches to school to hotels to commercial and warehouse premises. Among these works were a number of substantial Brisbane residences - such as Cintra at Bowen Hills in 1863-64 (QHR 600054), Fernberg at Bardon c1865 (QHR 600275), and Baroona at Rosalie in 1866 (QHR 600289) - and several ecclesiastic buildings, including the first All Saints Church on Wickham Terrace, erected in 1861-62 (QHR 600168); St Stephen's School and convent in 1862; St Mary's Convent at Ipswich in 1863-63; the second St Stephen's Cathedral, commenced in 1863-64 (QHR 600107), and St Mary's Catholic Church at Warwick, erected 1863-65. In the mid-1860s he designed National Schools at Toowoomba, Warwick, Condamine, Laidley, Goondiwindi, Nanango, Bald Hills, Bowen, Maryborough and Fortitude Valley for the Queensland Board of Education. He also designed the first Brisbane Grammar School in Roma Street, constructed 1868-69.
During construction of the residence, much of the indigenous woodland was cleared. Remnants of survive, but most of the eucalypts are secondary growth. Garden beds for flowers, vegetables and fruit were established in the 1870s. Hoop and Bunya pines, staghorns and elkhorns were introduced at this period as well. Pencil pines were planted after 1912.
In the 1870s, porphyry and sandstone gateposts were erected on Milton Road, defining the entrance to the carriage approach to the See house. A timber chapel designed by diocesan architect Richard George Suter was constructed in the grounds c1870, but was replaced in 1912 by the current stone building. [See (QHR 600255)]
In 1886 Brisbane architects Banks and Carandini designed a two-storeyed brick and stone kitchen/service wing to replace an earlier wooden structure.
During the 1930s a number of significant changes were made to the grounds of Bishopsbourne. Land fronting Milton and Baroona Roads and Heussler Terrace was subdivided and sold, reducing the area to 12 acres. Stone terraces along the eastern and western slopes were constructed, using relief labour. These were planted with shrubs, annuals and a bougainvillea hedge, but have been largely grassed over since.
In 1936 St Francis' Theological College was transferred from Nundah to the grounds of Bishopsbourne, where a wooden dormitory and classroom building was constructed. Two brick and concrete structures were erected for the College in 1959, one being the vice-principal's residence and the other an award-winning library.
Some restoration work at Bishopsbourne was undertaken in 1962, particularly of the cedar joinery. However, in 1964 Archbishop Strong moved to Eldernell at Hamilton, which became the new Bishopsbourne, and the former See house at Milton became part of St Francis' Theological College. The 1860s core was refurbished as the principal's residence, and the 1880s service wing was converted into quarters for the vice-principal.
During the 1980s, pressure for increased student accommodation resulted in the construction of a number of two-storeyed, brick, semi-detached townhouses in the grounds of St Francis' Theological College. A new timber administration building and a set of timber townhouses were constructed in the early 1990s.
","criteria":"Old Bishopsbourne [St Francis Theological College] and its substantial grounds, which include early garden fragments, early gateposts, a 1912 Robin Dods designed stone chapel, 1930s terracing and a number of buildings associated with St Francis Theological College [from 1936], is significant historically as one of the oldest ecclesiastical precincts in Queensland.
Old Bishopsbourne, a purpose-designed See house constructed 1865-68, is significant historically for its strong association with the mid-19th century consolidation of the Anglican Church in Queensland, and with the Anglican Bishops and Archbishops of Brisbane for nearly a century.
|It [Old Bishopsbourne] is an accomplished and aesthetically appealing building with a simplicity of design and austerity of decoration which reflect its function and purpose as an ecclesiastical residence. It is important as a major work by prominent architect Benjamin Backhouse, and one of the more intact of his surviving Brisbane works.
The 1936 theological college accommodation and lecture room building is a good example of interwar hostel-type accommodation, and the award-winning 1959 college library building is a fine example of International style in Brisbane.
|Old Bishopsbourne is a Milton landmark, still visible in the western vista from Petrie Terrace.
|The 1936 theological college accommodation and lecture room building is a good example of interwar hostel-type accommodation, and the award-winning 1959 college library building is a fine example of International style in Brisbane.
|The place has had a strong association with the work of the Anglican Church in Queensland for over 130 years, and each of the buildings in the grounds illustrates further consolidation of the Anglican church in this state.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15030,"place_ref":600255,"name":"Old Bishopsbourne Chapel","alternate_name":"St Francis' Theological College","street_address":"233 Milton Road","suburb":"MILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The chapel is constructed of Brisbane tuff, to a simple rectangular plan 70 feet [21 metres] by 20 feet [6 metres]. The ambience created is that of a medieval shrine blending with Queensland vernacular and derived stylistic elements of the early 20th century.
Eighteen inch [45 centimetre] thick walls with buttresses support a steeply pitched, slate-clad roof. The roof structure of six timber trusses is exposed.
The chapel is lit by long, narrow, Gothic windows in the bays between the buttresses. These windows are unusual in that the lower sections of the openings are unglazed, and are fitted with tongue and groove timber shutters to assist with ventilation and light.
A side porch projects over the entrance, which leads to a small vestry. This is divided from the entrance and interior generally by a timber screen.
The floor is 6 inches above ground level and is covered with red concrete. At the east end the floor originally rose to the sanctuary in the traditional five steps, but the top step has been removed to allow the altar to be detached from the rear wall and to stand free.
The chapel is simply furnished and displays a minimum of adornment. The sanctuary is panelled in silky oak, and decoration of the timber altar is limited to gilded motifs of Australian flora.
The loft at the western end has been installed sympathetically.
","history":"The stone chapel at Old Bishopsbourne [St Francis' Theological College] was erected in 1912, replacing an earlier timber building of exposed studs designed by diocesan architect Richard George Suter and constructed about 1870.
Archbishop Donaldson, arriving at Bishopsbourne in December 1904, recognised the need to replace the original chapel, which had fallen into disrepair.
In 1912 Donaldson commissioned diocesan architects Hall and Dods to design a chapel which would harmonise with the house and grounds. Robin Smith Dods produced the design, and the chapel was constructed under his supervision by builders Hall and Meyers. It was dedicated in 1912.
Dods practised in Brisbane from 1896 to 1916. With this chapel he displayed a mastery of materials and form, proving that simplicity of construction and design can be as powerful as more elaborate structures.
Since 1936 the chapel has been carefully maintained by generations of St Francis' Theological College students. A loft and restored pipe organ, which were donated from a neighbouring church, were installed at the western end of the chapel in 1971.
While Anglican schools in Queensland generally have a chapel, few would be as old as St Francis', and even less would be of local stone.
","criteria":"Historically it is significant for its close association with the Anglican Archbishops of Brisbane for over 50 years, and with the theological college since 1936.
|It is important for its rarity of function, fabric and setting in Brisbane, and remains an integral element in the historic Old Bishopsbourne [St Francis Theological College] ecclesiastical grouping.
|Old Bishopsbourne Chapel, erected in 1912, is significant as a building of outstanding architectural quality, and as a fine example of the ecclesiastical work of Robin S Dods.
|Old Bishopsbourne Chapel, erected in 1912, is significant as a building of outstanding architectural quality, and as a fine example of the ecclesiastical work of Robin S Dods.
|Old Bishopsbourne Chapel, erected in 1912, is significant as a building of outstanding architectural quality, and as a fine example of the ecclesiastical work of Robin S Dods.
|Old Bishopsbourne Chapel, erected in 1912, is significant as a building of outstanding architectural quality, and as a fine example of the ecclesiastical work of Robin S Dods.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15031,"place_ref":600256,"name":"St Matthews Anglican Church","alternate_name":"Grovely Church | St Matthew's Anglican Church","street_address":"35 Church Road","suburb":"MITCHELTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The entry in the Queensland Heritage Register for St Matthew's Anglican Church comprises all of the buildings, structures, sites, objects, planting and land within the Listing Boundary, with the exception of the rectory, which has been altered substantially. The buildings are all painted the same colour and are in good condition. The graveyard is well tendered. Altogether the group inlcudes the following items:
1\tThe church (1867-69), a simple Gothic-styled brick building located high on a hill. It is rectangular in shape, as are the skillion vestry and gabled porch. Rendered walls of hand-made bricks are supported by buttresses and rest on stone foundations. The steeply pitched gabled roof has corrugated iron laid over the original shingles. A bellcote surmounts the front gable. The porch and vestry doorways and windows are lancet shaped.
Internal walls are painted and the lined roof is supported by exposed beams and trusses. The red cedar pews are original. Over the years memorials have been added, including a commemorative plaque presented in 1917 in memory of the Nicholson's son drowned in Mackay in 1882.
Alterations include external render and boarding over of the trefoil window above the porch. Additions include stained glass memorial windows, an altar and other ecclesiastical furniture, raised sanctuary and chancel steps, nave carpet, lighting and other modern facilities.
2 The cemetery (1869 onwards) holds the graves of many of the early settlers of the Grovely/Upper Kedron district including members of the Nicholson family. Monument styles vary, illustrating changing public tastes since 1869.
3 Bell post (1914), comprising a bell which hangs in a cast-iron frame on a timber post. It has rusted and is no longer used.
4 The hall (1917), a simple timber and corrugated iron building with skillion. It is built on stumps and is highset at the back. The steeply pitched roof is hipped at the back and gabled at the front. The entrance porch has a parapet.
5 Rectory (1926), a timber dwelling on stumps. It has a short-ridge corrugated iron roof and is verandah on two sides. The dwelling has been refurbished by various occupants to suit their needs, and is not included in the Heritage listing.
6 Lichgate (1980s), a memorial to Richard Henry Pickering who died in 1976. The gable roof has fibrous cement shingles, while the sides are half stuccoed brick and half carved timber. The open sides repeat the Gothic lancet arch.
","history":"The foundation stone for St Matthew's Anglican Church was laid on 23 September 1867 by Governor George Bowen and the first service was held on 7 February 1869. The church is understood to have been designed by Colonial Architect Charles Tiffin.
The land was owned by John and Mary Nicholson, landed gentry from Wiltshire, England who emigrated to Queensland in 1864 and established themselves at Grovely Farm (later Grovely Lodge), Upper Kedron. Being dedicated Anglicans they soon established church services and a Sunday school in their home. Early in 1867 they approached Bishop Tufnell for permission to build a local church. The Nicholsons provided the hill-top land and much of the capital while other settlers provided their time and materials. Public subscription was raised also.
The Nicholsons had approached Colonial Architect Charles Tiffin to design a simple timber church to accommodate approximately 130 persons. This design was approved at a meeting of interested Upper Kedron residents held in March 1866, but it was proposed also that local brickmakers - a number of whom had moved to the district in the mid-1860s - be approached to donate bricks for the construction. Tenders were called in April 1867 through the office of the Church of England Diocesan Architect, Richard George Suter, for a church of brick and stone. Mr Mahoney was appointed the contractor.
Although the church has never been blessed or consecrated it has been used for baptisms, burials and marriages since 1869. In 1885 John's brother, William Castlemaine Nicholson, converted ownership of the land and church buildings to trustees and they are still privately owned.
The church was known as Grovely Church until 1909 when it was given the name of St Matthew's. In 1914 the bell presented by Howard S Bliss was erected on the bell-post. The church hall was built in 1917, fifty years after the laying of the foundation stone.
St Matthew's became a parochial district in 1920 and the vicarage was built in 1926. The Rev ED Eglinton raised the status of the district to a parish and in December 1947 he was inducted as the first rector of the parish of Grovely. Recently a lichgate was erected to honour a descendant of one of the pioneering families.
","criteria":"St Matthew's Anglican Church, completed in 1869, is significant historically as one of the oldest parish churches in the Brisbane region, and the church and cemetery in particular are a significant creation of, and memorial to, the pioneer families of Grovely/Upper Kedron/Mitchelton. The 1917 hall is illustrative of the development of the area in the first two decades of the 20th century, culminating in St Matthew's becoming a parochial district in 1920.
|St Matthew's Anglican Church is significant also as a rare Queensland example of an Anglican church group, comprising church, cemetery and hall, which is still privately owned and unconsecrated.
|The church remains substantially intact, with the original red cedar pews retained, and is significant in illustrating the principal characteristics of a small brick church of the late 1860s, comparatively few of which were constructed in Queensland.
|The church is significant aesthetically for its picturesque quality and setting, simplicity of design and materials, and craftsmanship, and both church and cemetery command a significant townscape presence in the Mitchelton/Grovely area.
|St Matthew's Anglican Church has a special association for the Anglican congregation of the Grovely/Mitchelton area, which has worshipped at that church since 1869.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15032,"place_ref":600257,"name":"Cape Moreton Lightstation","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Cape Moreton","suburb":"MORETON ISLAND","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-12-03","description":"The Cape Moreton light station is located at the northern end of Moreton Island, a large sand island in Moreton Bay. A complex of detached buildings, it occupies an elevated position on a grassy headland above the rocky cape. The stone lighthouse, the focus of the light station precinct, is positioned at the highest point amongst a cluster of timber framed fibrous cement buildings, newer brick buildings and ancillary structures.
Around the base of the lighthouse are three small sheds; the workshop, former powerhouse and fuel store. On the same level but further to the north are the headkeeper's residence and, north of the residence, a small office. A second residence and two brick sheds are located on a lower level to the west of this group. Some distance from this main grouping is the third residence, to the south west, and a small brick fuel store to the north.
The lighthouse is a cylindrical tower of rockfaced sandstone laid in regular courses which tapers inwards slightly towards the top. The stone tower which comprises a ground level and a main shaft supports a cast iron lantern. Two red bands are painted on the upper part of the tower. An external stone stair which wraps around the shaft leads to the first floor level. External access to the first floor and ground floor levels is via timber doors located at the top and bottom of the stone staircase.
The ground level has a concrete floor and thicker stone walls than the rest of the shaft. Internal access to the first floor level is via a steep ladder stair leading to a trapdoor in the timber floor above. An internal cast iron spiral stair with simple wrought iron handrail supported by a square section iron post at every third step leads from the first floor level to a landing just below the lantern. The final part of the climb to a trap door in the concrete floor of the lantern is via a short ladder. The shaft has painted internal walls. The interior of the tower is lit by small square glass panels in timber frames with splayed reveals.
The lantern which houses the light consists of a conical roof of sheet copper on metal straps surmounted by a ball type vent and wind vane supported by cast iron and glass walls. The lower part of the lantern wall is made up of six cast iron panels bolted together to form a cylinder. This cast iron wall supports a continuous band of curved fixed glass with diagonal cast iron glazing bars. In the centre of the space a new solar powered light, which recently replaced the four panel catadioptric optic, is mounted on a steel box. Encircling the lantern and accessible via a cast iron door in the lantern wall is a concrete gallery with a painted pipe balustrade. The new light is powered by solar panels mounted on the gallery. A small steel or cast iron catwalk runs around the lantern at the junction between the lower wall and the glazing.
From the lantern there are extensive views in all directions, out to sea in the northerly and easterly directions, along the ocean beach to the south and across the island to the south west. The smaller lighthouse at North Point is visible to the north west of the Cape Moreton Lighthouse.
The three residences, built to a standard square plan with a hip roof, have central rooms with no corridors and enclosed verandahs. They are timber framed single storeyed structures clad in fibrous cement sheeting set on splayed concrete stumps. The headkeeper's quarters is closest to the lighthouse with the first assistant's quarters nearby but lower and the second assistant's quarters, an isolated structure, set further down the slope some distance to the south. Although similar in layout a variety of modifications have been made to these dwellings. The headkeeper's quarters and the second assistant's quarters retain corrugated fibrous cement roof sheeting while the first assistant's quarters is roofed in corrugated zincalume. A part of the second assistant's quarters has been fitted out as a small museum. Each house is serviced by two large spherical steel rainwater tanks. The headkeeper's house still maintains a small fenced garden. Remnant planting survives around the other residences.
The three sheds which surround the lighthouse are all rectangular gable roofed timber framed structures with fibrous cement walls and corrugated fibrous cement roofs. On the southern side of the lighthouse is the workshop. Consisting of two rooms, it is fitted with timber framed doors and pivoting sash windows and has no internal lining. This building is built on a raised plinth with two short flights of steps in the northern side which appear to be of sandstone construction. This is probably the remains of an earlier stone building built on the site. The former powerhouse, west of the lighthouse has a reinforced concrete floor, timber double hung sash windows, double timber framed doors and internal fibrous cement wall sheeting. The fuel store, a similar structure to the powerhouse, is located just north of the lighthouse.
The office, a timber framed structure with walls sheeted in fibrous cement and a corrugated fibrous cement roof, is a small square planned room raised on short concrete stumps. The single room overlooks the sea through a continuous band of windows interrupted only by the entry door on the western side.
The garage, powerhouse and P.O.L. store are all small brick buildings with metal deck roofs and reinforced concrete floors.
","history":"The stone lighthouse, which commenced operation in 1857, was the only lighthouse along the Queensland coastline at the time of separation in 1859. It was the only lighthouse in Queensland to be built of stone, and survives as one of five extant lighthouses erected by the New South Wales Government prior to 1862, when the Queensland Department of Ports and Harbours was established.
\nDuring the early period of the Moreton Bay penal settlement, vessels entered Moreton Bay primarily through the South Entrance, which was the passage between Moreton and North Stradbroke Islands. At this time, the south entrance was considered superior to the Northern Entrance around Cape Moreton, as it was much shorter for vessels coming from Sydney; it provided a better anchorage; and vessels were able to head to sea in a northerly wind, which was difficult to do around Cape Moreton. The first navigation aids were placed in Moreton Bay in 1825, and marked the south entrance. A Pilot Station was established at Amity Point on North Stradbroke Island by 1827.
\nThe south entrance proved to be difficult and hazardous for vessels, and during the 1830s, consideration was given to the advantages of using the northern entrance into Moreton Bay. Despite the hazards however, the southern entrance remained the main entrance to the Moreton Bay settlement as it better suited the colony, the entrances were already marked, and the pilot station was already established at Amity Point.
\nDuring the penal settlement period of the 1820s and 1830s, the Regulations for Penal Settlements provided, amongst other matters, that \"No unauthorised or strange vessel shall be allowed to come to an anchorage at a penal settlement except in cases of distress or necessity, in which case they shall receive a military guard on board during their stay...\". Following proclamation of Moreton Bay as a free settlement in 1842, the Regulations were revoked, and shipping activity in Moreton Bay increased. Brisbane was declared a Port of Entry in 1846, and a Warehousing Port in 1849.
\nBy the mid 1840s both the north and south entrances were used by vessels entering Moreton Bay. Captain Wickham and Lieutenant Yule carried out extensive surveys in Moreton Bay in 1846, and buoys marking the northern entrance were laid soon after. Sailing directions for the northern entrance were published in the Moreton Bay Courier in April 1847, in preparation for the closure of the southern passage as the main entrance to the Bay. Following the sinking of the Sovereign in 1847, a harbour master was appointed for Brisbane. Additional buoys were laid to better indicate the northern entrance, and in 1848 the pilot station was moved from Amity Point, firstly to Cowan Cowan then to Bulwer, on Moreton Island. The pilot station marked the first official European settlement of Moreton Island.
\nLighthouse
\nWith the northern entrance now regarded as the main entry point for Moreton Bay, additional navigation aids were required to guide vessels. Brisbane residents petitioned the Government in 1850, seeking the erection of a lighthouse at Cape Moreton. Planning for the structure commenced in 1852 and a site was selected in 1853. The lighthouse was designed in the NSW Colonial Architect's Office, and the drawings dated September 1854, shortly before the resignation of Edmund Blacket as Colonial Architect. Blackett was succeeded by Alexander Dawson, NSW Colonial Architect from 1856-1862. Further drawings for the lighthouse are dated April 1856. The contractor for the lighthouse was Mark Farrell, and the erection of the lighthouse was supervised by Alexander Beazeley, Foreman of Works in the NSW Colonial Architect's office.
\nThe lighthouse and lightkeeper's quarters were mostly completed in stone, quarried from an area on the Island near the lighthouse site. Labour for the construction of the lighthouse and quarters was reputedly provided by prisoners. Tenders for painting the lighthouse tower were called in December 1858. The external masonry and internal cast iron staircases which were part of the 1857 lighthouse are still extant, and are now considered to be rare.
\nThe light consisted of 21 Catoptric lamps, in a sixteen sided iron lantern. The manufacturers of this first light are not known for certain, and although the English firm of Wilkins and Sons is considered to have been the preferred manufacturer of such lights by Colonial Authorities during the mid-nineteenth century, a 1916 report on the lighthouse described the light as being of French origin. The lighthouse was 67 feet (just over 20 metres) high, and the light is recorded as being visible for a distance of 26½ nautical miles in clear weather.
\nThe light was exhibited for the first time in February 1857, and updated sailing directions for the north entrance into Moreton Bay were published at this time. The beginning of operations of the light is also recorded as generating much public interest, with the commencement of pleasure cruises/day trips from Ipswich and Brisbane into the Bay.
\nAdditional navigation aids were erected on Moreton Island from the 1860s, and included lights at Comboyuro Point, North Point, Cowan Cowan Point and Yellow Patch.
\nThe original oil wick lamps at the Cape Moreton lighthouse were replaced with kerosene burning lamps in 1873.
\nIn October 1913 the control and supervision of coastal lights, including Cape Moreton, passed to the Commonwealth Government, although the actual change-over did not occur until July 1915. A survey of light stations along the Australian coast was carried out from 1911-1913 by Commander Brewis, who found that although the tower was in good condition, the catoptric apparatus was out of date, and he proposed that the present light be replaced by a modern quick-flashing apparatus.
\nThe lighthouse tower was extended in 1928, to its present height of 23 metres, presumably to increase the range of the light. The original lantern was dismantled in 1930 and replaced with a Chance Brothers lantern, housing an AGA four panel catadioptric lens, on an AGA pedestal fitted with an AGA acetylene lamp. The lamp incorporated a sun valve which automatically activated the light at sunset. Chance Brothers and Co became the main British manufacturers of lighthouse equipment in the late 1900s, and were subsequently favoured by lighthouse authorities for the supply of the dioptric and catadioptic systems which had been perfected by the firm. In 1937 the light was converted to electric 110V DC operation; a new 240V AC power supply was installed in 1967. It has been suggested that a new lens was installed at this time; probably the pedestal, bearing and optic drive were also replaced. The range of the light is recorded as 27 nautical miles.
\nThe two red bands were painted on the tower in 1942.
\nThe present tungsten lamp was installed in 1988. The lighthouse was converted to solar power and fully automated in 1993.
\nLightstation
\nStone quarters for the head lightkeeper were completed in 1857 as part of the lighthouse construction. Quarters for assistant lightkeepers appear to have also been built at this time. Other buildings erected during the 1860s and 1870s included store rooms, cart shed, feed shed, timber schoolhouse, watch house and stable.
\nSupplies for the lighthouse and lightkeepers were landed at Bulwer Pilot station, then taken by sled to the light station.
\nDuring the period in which oil provided the source of illumination for the light, the main duty of the lightkeeper was to maintain the integrity of the light. Light stations were therefore generally attended by a head lightkeeper and one or more assistant lightkeepers who worked in shifts. The subsequent use of kerosene as the illuminant was similarly labour intensive, as the lamps were required to be watched throughout the night in case the mantle broke. The introduction of electric illumination during the 1930s gradually enabled the number of shifts and, depending upon the other duties and the remoteness of the light station, the number of lightkeepers to be reduced.
\nA telegraph office opened at Cape Moreton in August 1864, followed by a schoolroom in 1879. A telegraph line was constructed during the 1890s, to service the lighthouse. A Morse Lamp for signalling was installed at Cape Moreton c1910. The lamp is recorded as having a range of 20 miles and as being in constant use for signalling purposes. Signal flags were used for daytime communication. A post office opened at Cape Moreton in 1915, and closed in the early 1920s. The Lightkeepers also served as the Post Masters during this period.
\nAn inspection of the residences in 1913 reported that the timber floors and partitions in the buildings had been damaged by ants, and the timber was replaced in the same year.
\nThe stone quarters and associated buildings were demolished, and three new residences erected in 1930. The siting of each residence provided an interesting reflection of the hierarchy of lightkeepers at the station; the Head Lightkeeper's residence was closest to the lighthouse and topographically, the highest of the three. A similar pattern of proximity to the lighthouse and relative position on the side of the hill was followed with the first and second assistant lightkeepers' residences. Alterations were undertaken to the residences during the 1960s and the 1980s, and included the enclosing of verandahs and the replacement of kitchen fittings.
\nAdditional structures including a workshop, powerhouses, fuel store, office, garage, and POL store were added to the light station from the 1930s, and reflect the changes in technology and function of lightstations from this time, including conversion to electric light, and taking weather recordings.
\nA number of graves are reputedly located in the area surrounding the light station complex but there is no evidence available to confirm their existence.
\nIn 1988 a display of lighthouse and sea navigation equipment and memorabilia was established in the second assistant lightkeeper's quarters.
","criteria":"The Cape Moreton Light Station survives as an important demonstration of the evolution of a lighthouse complex from the mid-19th century. Evidence of this evolution includes the alterations to the lighthouse to incorporate changing technology; the three residences which are associated with a period of labour intensive lighthouse operation; and various outbuildings such as the fuel store and powerhouses which have been added to the complex to support the operation of the lighthouse.
Erected by the Government of New South Wales and still in use as part of the coastal navigation system, the lighthouse maintains its association with the establishment of a navigation system for the east coast of Australia from the early 19th century. As the first lighthouse to be erected at Moreton Bay following the closure of the penal settlement, the lighthouse also demonstrates the early development of Brisbane as a shipping port for northern Australia.
|The lighthouse contains rare surviving elements including the external masonry and internal cast iron staircases.
|The light station site has the potential to provide archaeological evidence of building construction techniques from the mid-19th century, and also of lighthouse operations, and the lifestyles of the lightkeepers, until the early-mid 20th century, when the majority of structures were demolished and replaced.
|The structure is the only example of a stone lighthouse in Queensland, the stone being quarried locally.
|Located on a prominent and dramatic headland, the lighthouse is an imposing building, and is a recognised landmark.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15033,"place_ref":600258,"name":"Doggetts Cottage","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"33 Arthur Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Built on tuff foundations, Doggetts Cottage is a four roomed single-storeyed brick house with a detached kitchen wing at the rear. It has a steeply pitched gable roof of corrugated iron.
The convex roofed verandahs across the front and back have square timber posts and stick balusters. The exterior walls exhibit fine brickwork and decorative features such as a string course below the eaves in diagonally laid bricks.
The interior consists of four main rooms and a new kitchen and bathroom on what was the rear verandah leading to the kitchen wing, which is now used for other purposes. Internal walls and ceilings are plastered and the original cedar joinery includes a mantelpiece. A modern staircase leads to the attic in the roof space.
The original timber stables are located along the rear fence line and two wells can be found in the back yard.
","history":"This single-storeyed brick house was built about 1880 by Henry ('Harry') Doggett, bricklayer and builder, as his family home. Doggett was active in civic affairs and was elected mayor of Brisbane in 1913.
Although he died in 1927, the house remained in the family until the 1970s. From 1983 to 1988 it was used as offices for the Martin Agency who carried out alterations. The roofspace was opened up and a new kitchen and bathroom were installed on the verandah. The stables were also enlarged. The property has now returned to its original use as a family home.
","criteria":"As being typical of houses built by artisans as their own home, demonstrating both the skill of the master builder and pride in his craft.
For the high quality materials, workmanship and decorative detailing evident throughout, enhancing its cottage character.
For the surviving stables, wells and kitchen wing which combine to provide a rare glimpse of a tradesman's domestic environment in the late nineteenth century.
As the family home Mayor Doggett after whom the neighbouring street was named.
|For the surviving stables, wells and kitchen wing which combine to provide a rare glimpse of a tradesman's domestic environment in the late nineteenth century.
|As being typical of houses built by artisans as their own home, demonstrating both the skill of the master builder and pride in his craft.
For the high quality materials, workmanship and decorative detailing evident throughout, enhancing its cottage character.
|For the high quality materials, workmanship and decorative detailing evident throughout, enhancing its cottage character.
|As the family home Mayor Doggett after whom the neighbouring street was named.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15034,"place_ref":600259,"name":"Cairnsville","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"41 Balfour Street","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Cairnsville is a gable roofed, single-storeyed timber house of the colonial era, with a kitchen wing extending off the rear. It sits on timber stumps which are lowset at the front, but highset at the rear.
The corrugated iron roof features two dormer windows with semi-circular tank roofs, as well as a window in each gable. The verandah across the front and down the right side of the house has timber posts with cast-iron balusters, brackets and valances. The entrance is marked by a fretwork pediment, beyond which is the panelled front door with leadlight fan and sidelights.
French doors with shutters open out from the rooms onto the verandahs. A large drawing room and dining room, linked by folding doors, are located on the right side of the central hallway, and three bedrooms are on the left. A substantial staircase leads to two attic bedrooms. The kitchen and other service rooms are located in the highset wing at the rear. The subfloor of this wing has been enclosed in brick to create a poolside entertainment area.
","history":"Cairnsville is a single-storeyed timber house built in 1889. It was designed by Richard Gailey, the notable architect, for Charles le Brocq, a prominent builder, local landowner and floating baths proprietor who retained the house as a rental property for professional tenants.
Its first occupant was Albert Victor Drury, a brother of Edward Drury, the general manager of the National Bank of Queensland. He was the clerk of the executive council from 1867 to 1904, and private secretary to Governor William Cairns from 1875 to 1877. Drury named the house in memory of this recently deceased governor.
In 1897 Drury left Cairnsville, which has had a number of owners and tenants in succeeding years, including a period as a boarding house.
","criteria":"A late example of the Colonial Gable style and includes unusual features such as a substantial staircase and the rounded roofs of the dormers.
One of a number of moderate sized timber houses built in New Farm in the late nineteenth century as rental accommodation for the professional classes.
Associated with Richard Gailey, Albert Victor Drury and Governor William Cairns.
|One of a number of moderate sized timber houses built in New Farm in the late nineteenth century as rental accommodation for the professional classes.
|A late example of the Colonial Gable style and includes unusual features such as a substantial staircase and the rounded roofs of the dormers.
|Associated with Richard Gailey, Albert Victor Drury and Governor William Cairns.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15036,"place_ref":600261,"name":"CSR Refinery (former)","alternate_name":"Colonial Sugar Refining Company Refinery, New Farm","street_address":"Lamington Street","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The CSR site is bounded by the Brisbane river on the eastern side, Power Station Park on the southern side, Lamington Street on the western side and the site of the private residence, Amity [600264] on the northern side. The site forms an integral part of the riverfront landscape of industrial elements and is flanked by the New Farm Power Station to the south and extant wharves and woolstores group (a number of which are entered in the Heritage Register) to the north at Teneriffe.
Although the main entrance is now from Lamington Street, the earlier parts of the site address the river. The original core of buildings are centrally located on the site, with a wharf in front of them. A quadrangle is formed in front of the main building by the arrangement of adjacent structures including the brown room, the laboratory and the wharf. Directly behind the central core is the raw sugar store, flanked by warehouses on the southern side and ancillary buildings and the former site of the residence, the Hollins on the northern side. Most structures have been modified in some manner and additional buildings have been constructed at various periods.
There are a number of mature and semi-mature trees, including Moreton Bay figs, poincianas, frangipanis, mango and palm trees. These are dispersed throughout the site, between buildings, along the river's edge and on the former site of the residence, the Hollins.
Due to the large number of structures on the site, it is necessary to describe them individually. Following is a description of each, in chronological order.
1. Main Building (1893)
The main building is a long narrow structure centrally located on the eastern side of the site, addressing the river. It is constructed of load bearing masonry walls composed of face bricks laid in English bond, around a combination of timber and cast iron framework. It is four storeys high at the southern end and five storeys at the northern end with an additional level extending above the southern roof line which is sheeted in corrugated iron.
The brick section comprises a repetitive arrangement of bays divided by engaged pilasters and is divided into the refined sugar store and pan house at the southern end, and the cistern and char house at the northern end. An externally visible brick fire wall divides the building into five and eight bays, between the refined sugar store and the pan house. Twelve-paned arched windows with metal frames are located in each bay on each floor, apart from where modifications have been made.
The repetitive quality of the front elevation, which addresses the river to the east, is interrupted by a series of green tinted pivoting windows which are located on the third and fourth levels, immediately north of the fire wall. Below these windows, and at the southern end of the building are large arched openings, the latter of which aligns with a similar opening at the rear. A corrugated iron awning is suspended above the entrance and extends from the second to the sixth bay, where it steps to above the first floor level. It is tied back to the building and has a valance of timber vertical boards with a scalloped edge.
The southern end facade is void of fenestration, with four engaged pilasters dividing the space vertically. The central section comprises a gable end which has been extended to accommodate the extension at roof level.
The additional level is set back from the roof line and is single storeyed with a two storeyed section in the centre. It has a corrugated iron gable roof with a ventilated ridge. Windows are similar to those in the brick section, except with flat headers rather than arched. The remainder of the original roof is clad in corrugated iron, with eaves supported by decorative brackets.
The northern end of the building is five storeys high. Rising above the roof level is a hexagonal shaped tower, originally used for the storage of char, with single storey gable roofed structures on either side, clad in corrugated iron. The tower roof has coved eaves and decorative brackets, and has a decorative finial at its peak.
The rear of the building has been substantially modified to accommodate new equipment. This includes additions on various levels, the removal of windows in some areas and new openings in others. A number of pieces of equipment are located in this area and some of the extensions connect the main building to the raw sugar store.
Internally many modifications have been made resulting in alterations to the floor levels in some areas, most notably in the char house at the northern end where all floors have been removed, creating a five storey vertical void with a diagonal walkway at the uppermost level. The framing in the southern end (refined sugar store and pan house) is timber, whilst that in the northern end (cistern and char house) is of cast iron.
The roof space in the cistern house incorporates a funnel-like structure which is constructed of substantial timber elements. The ceilings in most other areas are clad with ripple iron, some of which is concealed by suspended ceiling tiles.
Machinery associated with the sugar refining process is located in all areas, however most has been updated since the establishment of the refinery, with few of the earliest items surviving.
2. The Office (1893)
Constructed at the same time as the main building, and located on the south side also addressing the river, the office is a two storeyed structure of face brick laid in English bond. It has a double gabled roof of corrugated iron, with decorative barge boards and a chimney at each end of the front gable. The eaves are supported by a series of decorative brackets.
The front facade is symmetrically composed with three windows with metal sunshades on the first floor and three windows on the ground floor. All windows have new aluminium frames and the central window at ground level was formerly a door. An awning is suspended above the ground level which extends across the eastern facade and wraps half way around the southern end.
A later constructed brick stairwell is located at the southern end of the building. It is stepped back from the front facade and only intrudes into the original building fabric where entrances connect the two structures on both floors.
Internally, the building has been substantially altered to accommodate administration services for the site. It comprises a number of offices divided by plasterboard and glass partitions.
3. Raw Sugar Store (1893, late 1890s, 1924, 1950s/60s & 1970s/80s)
The raw sugar store is the largest structure on the site. The original section was constructed in 1893 and has been extended considerably in a number of stages. This building consists internally of one immense open space, and is used to store raw sugar which is pumped into the northern end of the building.
It is an irregular shaped structure and additions are discernible in variations in the construction and fabric. The original section comprises corrugated iron walls and roof on a concrete base and is located directly to the west of the main building and parallel to it. The next stage was constructed at the southern end of this section. Later additions were erected on the north western side, causing the site to be extended. The largest addition faces Lamington Street and comprises concrete walls with a sloping corrugated iron roof. This abuts a taller gable roofed section in the centre, clad in corrugated iron. Large openings at the southern and northern ends of the building allow for machinery access.
4. Workshops (1893 & 1920)
The workshops are sited behind the amenities/canteen block, to the north of the main building. The first section of this building was constructed in 1893 and now makes up the southern portion of the workshop building. It is a corrugated iron clad structure of which the rear section is approximately half a storey higher than the front section. A ventilated ridge runs the length of both sections of the gabled roof and various types of window and door openings are located on the southern side. A single storey structure with a skillion roof is located at the rear of the building.
The northern side of the workshop building was constructed at a later date and is noticeably different in that it has a sawtooth roof. This building and the front of both buildings are surrounded by a brick envelope with a flat topped parapet, of which the uppermost section is rendered. Horizontal louvre windows are located in the central section of the southern and eastern elevations. They are defined as a group by a continuous rendered hood which projects over the windows, rendered sills and by the brickwork in which they are contained, which projects slightly from the main plane of the building.
Internally the area is a large open space, with smaller spaces partitioned off to provide offices. However it is discernibly two different buildings, evident by the differences in roof structure.
5. Boiler House (1893, 1950s/60s & 1970s/80s)
Originally constructed in 1893, the boiler house has been extended a number of times. It is located on the eastern side of the main building and now comprises four sections which vary in height, all of which are clad in colorbond trimdeck. The earliest sections are those on the southern side which have gabled corrugated iron roofs with ventilated ridges.
A circular tapered metal chimney projects above the site at the rear of this building.
6. The Wharf (1893& c1976)
Located over the river in the front of the main building, this structure has been renewed a number of times, although its configuration has remained the same. Located in front of the main building, it comprises a U-shaped concrete pad with access ramps at either end, supported by a series of piles encased in concrete. A low white painted timber rail is located at the perimeter of the structure.
7 Laboratory (late 1890s & early 1920s)
Abutting the front of the main building and extending to the east is a two storeyed building of brick construction with an awning to the southern elevation. Together with other structures it encloses a quadrangle in front of the main building. The laboratory building has been constructed in two phases, evident in differences in the brickwork and window forms. Entrance to the upper floor is via a later constructed external brick stair at the eastern end of the southern side of the building. The awning is supported by circular steel posts and has a small valance similar to that on the awning on the main building. A valance of the same design decorates the awning over the entrance stairs.
Internally, this building has been substantially modified and comprises a series of rooms divided by plasterboard and glass partitions.
8. Syrup Store (late 1890s & 1920s)
Located on the southern side of the office, this building was constructed in two stages and comprises a double gabled structure supported on brick piers. The southern and eastern facades are of metal cladding, whilst the northern and western facades are of brick construction. The building is divided into two separate rooms by a central wall running east-west and has a corrugated iron roof. The room on the southern side has a concrete floor and is entered at ground level, whilst the room on the northern side has a timber floor and is entered via a small flight of stairs on the north-eastern corner.
9. Boilermaker's Shop (c1900)
Located at the rear of the workshops and to the north of the main building, this building is a single storeyed gable roofed structure clad in corrugated iron. The internal space is open with exposed beams and trusses.
10. Lime House (c1900 & 1920s)
Constructed after the initial establishment of the refinery, the lime house is a small structure at the northern end of the site. It is two storeyed at the western end and single storeyed at the eastern end. Both sections are clad in colorbond trimdeck and have corrugated iron gabled roofs.
11. The Brown Room (1901)
The Brown Room is located at the south-eastern point of the quadrangle space, on an embankment fronting the river. It is a single storeyed brown painted timber structure, surrounded by verandahs on three sides. It has a hipped terracotta tiled roof, is of single skin construction and elevated on low stumps. The verandah has posts with moulded collars and a handrail, but no balustrading. All external bracing and verandah posts are detailed with stop chamfers which are picked out in a lighter shade of brown. French doors open on to the verandah from each room.
Internally, the building comprises a large room with two smaller rooms at the southern end. The ceiling is horizontal in the centre and follows the slope of the roof line at the sides. It is supported by a series of timber trusses from which contemporary light fittings and fans are suspended, and is lined with ripple iron. The walls are of vertical tongue and groove boards.
12. Amenities/Canteen Block (1952)
With a similar intended function as the Brown Room, this building is also located on the river's edge, but to the north of the main building. It is a simple two storeyed rectangular structure, constructed of brick with a hipped terracotta tile roof. Verandahs are located on the first floor on the western and eastern sides, overhanging the ground level. The roof line extends over the verandahs and has ventilated eaves. Both verandahs are enclosed with a solid brick base and horizontal glass louvres on the southern end, and open with a simple balustrade of circular metal posts and rails on the northern end. The building is divided horizontally by a rendered section which runs at the level of the first floor.
The ground floor has a series of small windows which are located directly below the rendered section, whilst the first floor elevations incorporate large glazed sections. These take the form of louvres, double hung windows, and french doors, the latter two of which are divided into a series of uniform horizontal panes. All sets of french doors are flanked by fixed side panels, also with horizontal mullions and panes.
The ground floor is divided into a number of sections to accommodate the first aid room, change rooms and toilets. Access to the first floor is via an internal stair on the western side which opens into a large open space.
A canteen is located at the northern end of the first floor and comprises a service counter, behind which is an open kitchen.
The flooring on the upper level is of narrow hardwood floorboards which are highly polished, and the ceiling is of sheet lining with pressed metal ventilators running the length of the space on either side.
13. Recent Buildings (1950s/60s & 1970s/80s)
Two large warehouses are located on the southern end of the site. They are constructed of brick with corrugated iron cladding to the upper walls, awnings and roofs, supported by metal framework. Other recent buildings on the site include smaller ancillary structures at the northern end, and a guard house at the entrance, all of which are primarily constructed of brick and corrugated iron.
14. The Fence (early 1920s - late 1950s)
A white-painted picket fence is located along the river side of the property. It sits above a concrete and stone retaining wall and runs the entire length of the property apart from a small section between the canteen building and the Hollins site. It adjoins a similar fence which is located in front of the private residence, Amity [600264].
15. Landscape Elements
Many mature and semi-mature trees are located throughout the site, softening the effect of the industrial site. The vegetation is particularly noticeable from the eastern side of the river, from where it obscures the buildings on each end of the site.
Other landscape elements on the site include various stone retaining walls and open drains constructed of brick. Also evident are segments of railway tracks including those laid after the 1924 extension on the western side of the site, as well as segments of the original track within the former Wharf Street area adjacent to Amity.
Mature plantings are also located on the former site of the house known as the Hollins. Although the house has been removed from the site, the grassed platform remains, as well as trees which identify the previous alignment of the house. A tennis court also remains at the rear of the site.
","history":"The CSR Refinery at New Farm was erected by the Colonial Sugar Refinery Company in 1892-3. Founded in Sydney in 1855, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (now CSR) has come to dominate the Australian sugar industry, its very name synonymous with sugar.
The 19th century was a time of enormous change in the history of sugar which was to fuel the growth of companies such as CSR and the development of sugar as a new industry in places with suitable growing conditions such as Queensland. The technological advances in the refining process at this time transformed sugar from a luxury item to a staple food and saw a corresponding dramatic increase in the consumption of sugar in western countries.
Attempts at growing sugar cane had been made in Queensland prior to separation, however it was Captain Louis Hope's success in the 1860s which saw government encouragement of the growing of sugar cane in the colony. Plantations developed in the Cleveland, Beenleigh, and Caboolture districts and new areas along the coast quickly opened up including by the 1870s in the Maryborough, Bundaberg, and Mackay districts with sugar refining beginning on a small scale with the opening of the Yengarie sugar mill near Maryborough in 1873 and later the Millaquin refinery at Bundaberg in 1882. By 1874, Queensland was exporting sugar to other Australian colonies. By the 1880s sugar was being grown further north in the Burdekin, Herbert River, and Cairns districts. Moreover, encouraged by Premier Thomas McIlwraith, southern capital and advanced technology was beginning to reach northern plantations. The most important of these southern companies was the Colonial Sugar Refining Company who acquired large tracts of land for the cultivation of sugar in the Mackay district and established 3 large mills in North Queensland.
From the 1860s-1880s, Queensland's sugar industry was dominated by plantations owned by companies or wealthy individuals who usually cultivated large areas of cane and operated their own mills; Pacific Islanders comprised the majority of the workforce. By the 1890s, encouraged by government policy (including the promotion of small land holdings, the encouragement of the establishment of central mills owned by small producers, and moves to exclude the use of Pacific Islander labour) the plantation system was no longer dominant; the industry was increasingly characterised by a division between the growing of the cane by small land owners and the milling and refining by large planters or companies. This change was typified by CSR who reorganised their interests to concentrate more on the value adding end of the market ie milling and refining.
CSR's Brisbane refinery was the fourth in a chain of refineries established by the company in Australia's capital cities in the late 19th century; refineries were opened in Sydney (Pyrmont 1878 which became the largest in Australia), Melbourne (Yarraville; purchased c1875), and Adelaide (Glanville 1891). A refinery in Perth was added in 1930 to complete the chain. According to company records the establishment of the Brisbane refinery was closely linked to the imposition of prohibitive duties on sugar products (in particular recent increases in taxes on syrup and molasses) which would have substantially compromised CSR's share in the (Golden) syrup market in Queensland. The establishment of a local refinery had the added benefit of enabling the company to compete in the refined sugar markets (which were also protected by colonial taxes) in Australia's fourth most populous city.
In 1892 CSR acquired a riverside site of nearly 3 acres (1.2 hectares) on the New Farm peninsular by buying up allotments on the recently subdivided Kingsholme estate. The location had two major advantages: it enabled access for large ships and was also close to the city (and it markets). Construction was supervised by local architects John Hall & Sons and interrupted by the 1893 flood but was completed later that year. The new complex consisted of the refinery building comprising char house, cistern house, pan house and refined sugar store; raw sugar store; melt house; boiler house; workshop; a two storied building containing offices, laboratory, and hessian rooms; and the wharf. The original machinery was made in Scotland or came from the other refineries. The complex was designed by James Muir, the manager of the Pyrmont refinery, who had designed all of the other refineries in Australia. He reputedly modelled New Farm on the Glanville plant (demolished c1991).
Built during a time of economic depression, this development was seen as a sign of optimism and an impetus for economic growth in Queensland, and in particular as an impetus for sugar growing in the colony. In New Farm, although some industry was already clustered around the river, it was the CSR refinery which provided the catalyst for the development of the Bulimba reach of the river as a major industrial and warehousing district: the construction of the Bulimba branch of the city railway (completed in 1897) being undertaken at the request of CSR who immediately extended the branch line as a siding to the refinery. Later development of the area to benefit from the availability of both wharfage and rail facilities included the woolstores (the first being erected in 1909) and the New Farm Power House (1928).
The site has grown in several stages over the past century, adapting to new technology and increasing the refinery's capacity. The first major stage of development from 1893-1910 saw production increased by more than double. Changes to the site included the building of the railway siding as an extension of the Bulimba branch railway and the purchase of additional lands in the late 1890s (including the site of the residence The Hollins which became the manager's residence). To consolidate the land, the company applied for closure of a section of Sydney Street which was then purchased. Additions were made to the raw sugar store; syrup producing facilities were installed, and the hessian store, jelly house, and tea room for senior staff (known as the Brown Room 1901) were erected.
In the thirty years until 1940, the refinery experienced modest growth. The most significant changes were associated with the extension of the raw sugar store involving extending the store beyond the boundaries of the existing site and a realignment of the railway line and Lamington Street. The third stage of the development of the refinery was directly related to World War II which saw output almost doubled in response to a combination of government policies for reserving essential commodities such as sugar and the upgrading of equipment including the introduction of carbonation. The fourth period from 1945-70 was characterised by steady growth. Bulk handling was introduced during this time; other changes included the building of the canteen (1952), extension to the raw sugar store (1960) and a new refined sugar warehouse (1961). From the 1960s sugar arrived by rail or road (rather than by ship). From 1970-1990 works included extensions to the raw sugar store (1973), extensions to the refined sugar store (late 1970s); in 1988, the residence The Hollins was removed from the site; in 1989 the rail link to the refinery was closed. In 1993, the refinery celebrated its centenary: the marking of that event included an open day for the local New Farm community and the publication of a booklet which (importantly) documents some of the social history of the refinery including stories of workers, for whom it was not uncommon to have links with the refinery spanning several generations.
The twentieth century saw sugar develop as one of Queensland's major industries and one of its largest rural commodities. Its growth during this time has been promoted by government policy (both state and federal): the industry being heavily protected and regulated. More recently however tariff levels have been reduced and a number of other structural changes have occurred in the government regulation of the industry. Of the CSR capital city refineries, Pyrmont (substantially demolished 1997/8), Glanville (demolished 1991), and Perth are no longer in use with CSR operating a new super refinery at Mackay. Locally, under the auspices of the Brisbane City Council's Urban Renewal Taskforce, industry is increasingly being encouraged to relocate from innercity New Farm. Against this background, CSR have scheduled the New Farm refinery to cease operations from 1998 after which at least in the short term it is intended for use as a storage facility. The CSR Refinery at New Farm remains as one of the last surviving of Australia's 19th century sugar refineries.
","criteria":"The CSR Refinery at New Farm is important in demonstrating the development of one of Queensland's major industries (and one of its largest rural commodities) - sugar. Erected 1892-3, the refinery is illustrative of the (government promoted) re-orientation of the sugar industry by the 1890s, the effects of which included the establishment of a system of centralised refineries. CSR's Brisbane refinery was built as a direct response to, and is an important illustration of, the effects of the Queensland Government's protectionist trade policies in the decade prior to Federation.
The CSR Refinery at New Farm is important in demonstrating the development from the 1890s of the Bulimba reach of the Brisbane River and adjacent New Farm / Teneriffe area as an industrial and warehousing district of Brisbane for which CSR with its successful lobbying for the building of the Bulimba branch railway provided the catalyst.
|The New Farm refinery is now one of the last surviving 19th century CSR sites in Australia, and is a rare example of an intact late 19th century established sugar refinery with evidence of over 100 years of evolution in the fabric and site layout.
The refinery is now however one of the last surviving industrial sites on the inner city reaches of the Brisbane river and one of the last to retain its wharf.
|The refinery has the potential to yield information that will contribute to a greater understanding of the role of the sugar industry in the history of Queensland and the nature of late 19th century industrial complexes. There is also the potential to reveal further information regarding the evolution of the site and its surroundings which may contribute to an understanding of the cultural environment of an industrial site.
|The site demonstrates the principal characteristics of a large, operational sugar refinery which has evolved over more than a century. These characteristics comprise the composite of buildings, structures and grounds, including the early core of the main refining building, office, laboratory, workshops, raw sugar store and syrup store, ancillary buildings, the transport infrastructure of the wharf and remnant railway alignments, staff amenities including the Brown Room and the Amenities/Canteen Block, and the landscape elements including mature trees, vegetation, open spaces within the grounds, and the spatial relationship of the buildings, structures, grounds, river, wharf, railway alignments and roads. In particular, the main 1893 refining building demonstrates the principal characteristics of a 19th century industrial building, including use of face bricks, restrained embellishment and a narrow, vertical form and is a rare surviving example of its type in Queensland.
|The place has aesthetic significance and is a dominant landmark both from New Farm, and from the river and the eastern suburbs. Its landmark qualities are a result of a number of contributing factors, including the massing of the buildings and their relationship and orientation to the river and each other, individual sections of buildings such as the highly visible char tower with its decorative brackets and finial, the substantial amount of vegetation on the site and the lineal qualities from the east, as defined by the buildings, grassed banks, fence, wharf and river.
The buildings and the spaces between them contribute to the industrial aesthetic of the place. The main building, the laboratory, the brown room, the wharf, the Amenities/Canteen Block, and the open space bounded by these structures and the river, provides an aesthetic focus. A number of buildings demonstrate a high degree of design and workmanship, including the main building, the office, the Brown Room and the Amenities/Canteen Block.
The considerable amount of vegetation which includes trees at various stages of maturity and the many landscape elements such as stone retaining walls, open brick-lined drains, grassed banks and the picket fence along the river front contribute to the aesthetic qualities of the place. The fence in particular is a dominant feature and gives the site a somewhat residential or parklike appearance. It is of particular significance in that it continues along the frontage to Amity [600264], an adjacent residence which was used by CSR as a manager's residence from 1950 to 1980.
Similarly the remnant landscaping from the former site of the Hollins, at the northern end is significant both for its contribution to the aesthetic qualities of the place and for its contribution to interpreting the former use of the site.
|Established over a century ago, the CSR site has strong associations for past and present CSR workers, some of whom have generational links with the place.
|The fourth in a chain of refineries established by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company in Australia's capital cities in the late 19th century, the refinery is also important in demonstrating the company's dominance of both the Queensland and Australian sugar industry for over a century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15037,"place_ref":600262,"name":"Glenugie","alternate_name":"Archibald House","street_address":"186 Moray Street","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Glenugie is a large two-storeyed timber house with a substantial double storey kitchen wing at the rear, attached by a verandah. The house sits on low brick piers linked by honeycomb infill brick screens.
There are double verandahs on all four sides and along the eastern side of the kitchen wing. While the front and side verandahs have cast-iron posts, balusters and valances, the back and kitchen wing verandahs have been enclosed with hopper windows.
There are two double storey gabled projections which interrupt the verandahs on the front and western elevations, and a single one on the upper floor at the rear. These have bay windows with elaborate awnings and timber valances, and pierced barge boards on the gables. The hipped roof of corrugated iron incorporates the three gables, two chimneys and numerous ventilators.
The external walls of the house are chamferboard while internal walls and ceilings are lined with beaded pine boards and feature cedar joinery.
","history":"This two storey, timber house at 186 Moray Street, New Farm, dating from 1884-5, was designed by Brisbane architect Alexander Brown Wilson for Joseph (also known as James) M Davis. It later became the home of businessman and politician John Archibald MLC. From 1930 until 1980 it was used by the Presbyterian and Methodist churches as hostel accommodation for girls.
\nThe New Farm area was traditionally the land of the Jagera and Turrbal peoples. After the Moreton Bay penal settlement was established on the Brisbane River in 1825, in the late 1820s food was grown on the river flats between today’s Merthyr Road and the southeast end of the New Farm peninsula. Following free settlement of Brisbane in 1842, the New Farm peninsula was surveyed and sold in the 1840s for cultivation and livestock, as well as residences for Queensland’s pastoralists, merchants and politicians. In the late 1850s, subdivision of allotments overlooking the Shafston Reach of the Brisbane River, at the northwest end of Bowen Terrace, resulted in the construction of villas for Brisbane’s business leaders during the 1860s, and more of Brisbane’s wealthy inhabitants moved to New Farm, in the 1870s. The subdivision of New Farm intensified in the 1880s, and transport improvements also encourages closer settlement. Horse-drawn trams ran along Brunswick Street to just past Langshaw Street by 1895, and the electrification of this line occurred in 1897.[1]
\nAfter several subdivisions of the larger Eastern Suburban Allotment (ESA) 19, Joseph Mandelson Davis bought re-subdivisions 139 and 140 of subdivision 4 of section 11 in April 1885. On this land, totalling 29½ perches and fronting Moray Street, Glenugie was built. Davis appears to be resident at Glenugie by December 1885 when windows were broken by a vandal and the birth of his son at Glenugie was reported in the Brisbane Courier in August 1886.[2]
\nGlenugie was one of the boom-era homes of the affluent middle classes – well-appointed and comfortable with generously-sized rooms. It was two-storeyed but built of timber rather than masonry, with drawing room, dining room, three large bedrooms, pantry, laundry, kitchen and servant’s room. Joseph M Davis lived at Glenugie until circa 1888 when the property was purchased by Brisbane butcher, Thomas Joseph Mooney who, in the years that followed, accumulated adjacent land (to the west and the rear) creating a more spacious setting for the house.[3]
\nGlenugie’s architect, AB Wilson (1856-1938), worked in the private practice of Colonial Architect, FDG Stanley, and studied in England, before beginning his own architectural practice in Brisbane in 1884. He maintained a long and distinguished career until his retirement in 1928. He was responsible for buildings such as Kinauld on Dornoch Terrace [QHR 600225], Leckhampton at Kangaroo Point [QHR600246], the Plough Inn at Southbank [QHR600294] and the Railway Hotel, Gympie [QHR602540].
\nAfter several owners, Glenugie became the home of John Archibald and his family in 1901 when Archibald purchased the property. After a varied career as teacher, retail manager, clerk of petty sessions, police magistrate and gold warden, Archibald became a partner in Barnes, Archibald & Co, which operated flour-mills on the Darling Downs. After selling his interest in the partnership he formed a partnership with Samuel Crowther in December 1895 and floated the Dominion Milling Co Ltd. He joined the boards of Carricks Ltd, Queensland Trustees Ltd and the Daily Mail Newspaper Co. In 1896 Archibald stood for Warwick in the Legislative Assembly but withdrew in favour of T J Byrnes. He was called to the Legislative Council in the following year by the Premier Sir Hugh Nelson. Archibald was a lay member of the Methodist Church and a Freemason. He was also interested in local government, serving as mayor of Warwick in 1890 and 1897 and alderman 1890-7. Archibald died at Glenugie on 20 May 1907.[4]
\nAfter Archibald’s death his estate was valued for probate at £34,642, most of which was left to his widow Frances Amelia, nee Herbert whom he had married at Harrisville on 19 January 1872. He was survived by three sons and four daughters.[5] In 1907 Glenugie was transferred to Queensland Trustees Ltd and Archibald’s eldest son Robert John Archibald. Mrs Archibald and her unmarried children remained resident at the property. Twice during the 1920s – in 1920 and 1926 – Glenugie was offered for sale.[6]
\nThe property was not sold at this time. Mrs Archibald was resident at Glendower, Teneriffe in January 1929. In 1929, she proposed the family donate the residence to the Presbyterian and Methodist churches to be run as a hostel for girls.[7] She continued to attend Brisbane social events into the 1930s and eventually passed away in 1944.[8]
\nA period of severe housing shortage in Brisbane occurred during the 1920s and 1930s, due mainly to an increasingly buoyant Queensland economy and substantial population growth, as a result of both natural increase and immigration. Demand for new housing to reach unprecedented levels. The rising Brisbane population combined with a substantial fall in the numbers of workers cottages being constructed, created a severe housing shortage. Also, rising rates, maintenance and related costs forced many owners to convert larger houses into flats and to subdivide large parcels of land. Purpose-designed apartment buildings emerged as a new form of residential accommodation in Brisbane during the 1920s. The large suburban estates of New Farm, like Glenugie, attracted developers and residents alike, drawn by the proximity of the suburb to Brisbane’s CBD, its retail facilities and public transport. Consequently, New Farm became a densely-populated inner-city suburb with many apartment blocks such as the Julius Street Flats being erected during the interwar period.[9]
\nGlenugie followed this trend of high density usage when it became a hostel for girls run by the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, renamed Archibald House, in August 1930. The Archibald’s had originally suggested the house be converted into a hospital, but regulations prohibited the use of the two-storey timber dwelling as hospital. The churches contributed £1,000 each towards renovations. The new hostel could accommodate between 30 and 36 girls, and was intended as accommodation for country girls who had come to Brisbane to work or study. Single, double rooms or dormitories were available at ‘low charges’ and in ‘congenial surroundings’.[10] Two of the Archibald daughters served on the hostel committee, hosting musical fundraisers for improvements including a piano and tennis court, the latter added to the Herbert Street frontage in 1938.
\nBy 1940 the hostel was deemed a financial and ecumenical success, as well as meeting a community need.[11] In June 1942 the property, which had been held by the Archibald family trust, was transferred to trustees under the Methodist Model Deed of Queensland and the Presbyterian Church of Queensland.[12]
\nWhen the W. R. Black home was evacuated during World War II, the older girls were sent to Archibald House. If there were no family members to take them in when they reached working age, they remained under the care of the Home Committee until they turned 21. Presbyterian Church records indicate that older girls from the Church-run 'out-of-care' institutions were sent to Archibald House to board in the 1940s. It became a permanent home for those girls working in Brisbane.[13]
\nThe hostel remained busy in the post-war period. Glenugie continued to operate as a hostel for girls until 1980 after which it was sold and returned to use as a private residence. A photograph taken at the time of its sale shows it with enclosed verandahs.[14]
\nIn 1988 Glenugie was advertised for sale after being renovated and the accompanying photograph showed the house with its verandahs re-opened. It was advertised for sale again in 1991, and reverted to use as a private residence. [15] In 2020 Glenugie continues to be used as a private residence.
","criteria":"As an unusual timber version of the large two-storey verandahed houses fashionable in the 1880s.
For its projecting gables, ornate verandah treatment and the exclusive use of timber for both interior and exterior walls which contribute to a composition pleasing in design, scale and detail.
As a rare surviving example of the large houses built in New Farm in the late nineteenth century.
|As an unusual timber version of the large two-storey verandahed houses fashionable in the 1880s.
As a rare surviving example of the large houses built in New Farm in the late nineteenth century.
|For its projecting gables, ornate verandah treatment and the exclusive use of timber for both interior and exterior walls which contribute to a composition pleasing in design, scale and detail.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15038,"place_ref":600263,"name":"Bertholme","alternate_name":"Moreton Club","street_address":"71-73 Moray Street","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Bertholme is a substantial single-storey residence built of sandstone. Its hipped roof, originally slate, is now of corrugated iron. Square in shape, but with a bay projecting slightly at the front, the house is surrounded by a convex roofed verandah.
Built on the sloping riverbank, the house is lowset at the front and highset at the rear, creating a subfloor underneath. The back and side verandahs have been enclosed with weatherboards and only the front verandah retains its original decorative cast-iron balusters, posts and valance. The subfloor has been similarly enclosed, and a highset kitchen house projecting over the driveway at the rear is walled in the same material. A long modern double storey wing at the rear is joined to the house by a shorter wing at the northern end, creating a paved courtyard.
","history":"The land on which Bertholme stands was acquired in 1882 by Andrea Stombuco, the noted architect in Brisbane from 1875 to 1890-90, who also built Palma Rosa and designed Her Majestys Opera House (1888). The house appears to have been erected sometime in the following three years, for it was standing when Stombuco sold the property in 1885 to Giovanni Pulle, an Italian merchant.
Five months later, the property was bought by BD Cohen. He sold it in the 1890s to his brother Henry Cohen, manager of the pharmecutical firm of Elliot Brothers, who named it Bertholme in honour of his wife, Bertha. After the Cohens left Bertholme at the turn of the century, the land was subdivided, while the house became the residence of a succession of professional men.
Miss Jane Ingram bought the property in 1939, and converted it into a nursing home. In 1958, the Moreton Club acquired Bertholme and much of the subdivided land from the original estate. They have built extensive additions on the rear of the house and refurbished it to suit their requirements.
","criteria":"As a rare surviving example of the type of riverside residences built in New Farm in the late nineteenth century.
\nFor its unpainted stone walls and decorative front fence which give the house a distinctive texture and an impression of strength.
\nAs the home of the Moreton Club, Brisbane's premier private club for women.
\nFor its association with Andrea Stombuco, the first owner and one of Brisbane's most flamboyant architects of the 1880s boom period.
|As a rare surviving example of the type of riverside residences built in New Farm in the late nineteenth century.
|For its unpainted stone walls and decorative front fence which give the house a distinctive texture and an impression of strength.
|As the home of the Moreton Club, Brisbane's premier private club for women.
|As the home of the Moreton Club, Brisbane's premier private club for women.
\nFor its association with Andrea Stombuco, the first owner and one of Brisbane's most flamboyant architects of the 1880s boom period.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15039,"place_ref":600264,"name":"Amity","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"101 Welsby Street","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Amity is built fronting the Bulimba Reach of the Brisbane River to the northeast, with access from Welsby Street to the northwest. It is a single-storeyed chamferboard residence with timber stumps and a hipped corrugated iron roof with cast iron ridge cresting. The building has verandahs to three sides fronting the river, and a later addition at the rear which has sub-floor laundry and car accommodation.
\nThe building is symmetrical to the river frontage, with a central entry which has a slightly projecting gable with a decorative timber fretwork panel, timber finial and paired timber posts. Entrance steps have a marker indicating the level of the 1893 flood. Verandahs have cast iron railings and valance, raked boarded ceilings, chamfered timber posts, and adjustable timber louvred panels fixed above railings at verandah corners and along the Welsby Street frontage. Wide step-out sash windows, flanked by narrow sashes, open onto the verandahs from principal rooms, and a lattice screen panel, with door, divides the northwest verandah.
\nThe rear of the building, consisting of a later addition which incorporates the original kitchen wing, has a corrugated iron half-gabled roof, timber batten skirt between stumps, sash windows with hoods, and a large panel of hopper windows with leadlight panels above to the southwest wall.
\nInternally, the front section of the house has a central hall with the northeast main entry consisting of a panelled timber door with leadlight sidelights and fanlight. The sidelights feature Thomas Welsby's initials TW entwined, with the fanlight featuring the name AMITY. Similar door, sidelights and fanlight are located at the rear of the hall, originally opening to the rear verandah, but now opening to the rear section of the house. The hall is bisected by a timber arch with moulded pilasters, imposts, extrados and keystone. On the southeast is a large living room, divided by a large opening which originally housed folding cedar doors which have since been removed, with a fireplace at the southern end with marble surround and tiled inserts. Two bedrooms and a dressing room (originally Welsby's library) are located on the northwest. The building has vertically boarded walls, boarded ceilings with ceiling roses, panelled timber doors with fanlights, and timber skirtings, architraves and cornices.
\nInternally, the rear section of the building has similar finishes, with a large central room with an internal stair to the laundry and garage below, a panel of hopper windows to the southwest with leadlight panels above, and a large ceiling rose. Two bedrooms are located to the southeast, and a bathroom links into the original verandah which is expressed in the ceiling line. A study and a kitchen with a brick fireplace, consisting of the original kitchen wing, are located on the northwest.
\nThe grounds are terraced to the northeast leading to the river, with a central path and stair leading from the main entry to the early timber picket fence and gate at the river's edge. A wrought iron arch with a pendant lamp and timber posts forms the entry from Welsby Street, and a path leads to the main entry. Compass points are set into the path at the main entry, and coral is used for some garden bed edgings. Two large palms are located in the northeast grounds, one at either side of the property, with the northern palm surrounded by a large strangler fig. Large palms and timber steps are located to the east of the building, and camphor laurel trees border the rear yard. A small corrugated iron garage with a skillion roof is located to the south of the building, and a flagpole is located near the picket fence at the river's edge. Parts of the river walkway included in the heritage boundary are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Amity is a single-storeyed timber residence fronting the Bulimba Reach of the Brisbane River at New Farm. The house was built in 1892 for Thomas Welsby (1858-1941), a prominent Brisbane businessman, politician, historian and sportsman.
\nThomas Welsby was born at Ipswich in November 1858 and educated at John Scott's and Ipswich Boys Grammar schools. He worked for the Bank of New South Wales and Australian Joint Stock Bank in Brisbane before leaving to practise as a public accountant, trustee and auditor in 1884. He became a member of the Brisbane Stock Exchange, operated a shipping partnership and audited the Brisbane Municipal Council accounts in 1893.
\nHe was a member of the Booroodabin Divisional Board in 1893-1902 (chairman 1897-1900), and chairman of the New Farm State School committee in 1899-1908. He was instrumental in the formation of the Engineering Supply Company of Australia in 1903, was a director of the Royal Bank of Queensland, and had interests with Sir Robert Philp (Premier of Queensland 1899-1903 and 1907-08) in mining and with GC Willocks, a railway contractor. Welsby was also a trustee for the Mount Garnet railway debentureholders (1901-15), and chairman of Queensland Brewery Ltd (1907-19).
\nHe stood unsuccessfully for the Legislative Assembly as a candidate for Fortitude Valley in 1899, 1902 and 1909. As a Ministerialist he won North Brisbane in 1911 and held Merthyr from 1912-15. Nicknamed 'Bung Bung', he generally disliked parliamentary life.
\nWelsby loved history and sport. He was foundation honorary treasurer (1913), president (1936-37) and vice-president (1917-36, 1937-41) of the Historical Society of Queensland. He advocated that government subsidise the society to collect Queensland's early records, and he bequeathed his large library to the society and his portrait hangs over the entrance. Welsby also wrote seven books about the history of the Moreton Bay region.
\nIn 1882 Welsby had been manager and half-back for Queensland's first intercolonial Rugby Union team which played in Sydney. He helped to revive the code in 1928, was a life member of the Queensland Rugby Union (president 1929-39) and donated the Welsby Cup. He was foundation secretary of the Brisbane Gymnasium in 1882, sponsored boxing matches and formed the Queensland Amateur Boxing and Wrestling Union in 1909. Welsby had a house at Amity on Stradbroke Island and was patron of the Amateur Fishing Society from 1916. He was also a founding member of the Royal Queensland Yacht Club in 1885, later being commodore in 1903-19.
\nWelsby also collected flora and fauna, historical letters and manuscripts, rare editions of early colonial authors and charts prepared by early explorers. The figurehead and smoking chair from the government steam yacht, the Lucinda, were also among his prized possessions. The Lucinda was the vessel on which the Draft Constitution of Australia was signed.
\nWelsby married Margaret Gilchrist Kingston in February 1893. They had two daughters, a son, and a young Torres Strait Islands girl named Jane whom they had fostered. Their son died in 1902 aged two months, and Margaret died the following year from tuberculosis. Jane later became Welsby's housekeeper and remained with him until his death in February 1941 at Amity.
\nThe land on which Amity stands had been alienated from the crown by Thomas Adams on 10 January 1845. Of this land, section 9 of Subdivision A of eastern suburban allotment 22 was acquired by eight Brisbane men on 17 January 1887 and mortgaged to Peter Nicol Russel. This land was sold to the Federal Building Land and Investment Society Ltd on 28 January 1889, and then subdivided. On 15 March 1889 Welsby purchased sub 130 from the Society to whom he then mortgaged the property. Thomas Augustine Ryan purchased subs 131 and 132 on 13 March 1889, and sold sub 131 to Welsby on 22 December 1891. Welsby then mortgaged subs 130 and 131 to the London Chartered Bank of Australia and built Amity. Both allotments were transferred to Margaret Gilchrist Welsby on 2 May 1895. Sub 132 was purchased by Margaret Gilchrist Welsby from Ryan on 12 February 1897. On Margaret's death, the whole property was transmitted to Thomas Welsby as trustee on 28 May 1903.
\nAmity was constructed by Welsby just prior to his marriage, and for the rest of his life was his only Brisbane residence. Prior to the construction of Amity, Welsby had been living with his mother at Clairvue in Bowen Terrace, New Farm. In his memoirs, architects and builders, including the Stanleys and Petries, show up among Welsby's close circle of friends. No tender notice for the construction of the house is to be found in Brisbane newspapers of the time, and it may well have been built by someone he knew. Welsby moved into the house in December 1892, and in February 1893 endured the disastrous flood which came within 8 inches of the verandah flooring. Welsby marked the height of the flood on the entrance stairs, and the marker still survives.
\nAmity was built with its entrance to Roberts Street, but by 1907 this was named Welsby Street. By this time the railway line to the nearby sugar refinery was in place to the south of Forrest Street on Amity's southern boundary. On 14 February 1910 a Deed of Grant was issued to Welsby in trust for allotment 1 of section 65, which adjoined the southern boundary of the property, in place of Forrest Street. A new Certificate of Title was issued for the whole of the land to Welsby as Trustee under Margaret's will.
\nBy the early 1900s, Amity's original design, consisting of a variation of a four room house with encircling verandahs and a kitchen wing at the rear, had become too small for the family. An extension was built at the rear, replacing the rear verandah with bedrooms, a bathroom, a large central room and incorporating the original kitchen wing. The date of this extension is unknown, but it had been completed by 1925 when a drainage survey plan was drawn. This plan also shows a fern house against the eastern verandah and a jetty in the river.
\nIn 1919 Welsby was approached by his neighbour William Ruddle senior to enter into a deal with an English company wanting to purchase both residential properties and the street between them as the site for a wharf. The total offer for both properties was £35,000 of which £15,000 was for Amity. This was an enormous offer as Amity was valued at £3,000; 22 years later, however no sale eventuated.
\nThe whole of land was transferred to Welsby's daughters Marion Clark and Hannah Welsby in equal shares on 18 November 1932, and Marion became sole owner on 5 October 1948.
\nWelsby left his mark on the house in a number of ways, including the orientation of the house to the river, the terraced gardens to the river's edge, his initials in the leadlight sidelights of the entrance, and the name Amity in the leadlight fanlight. Other elements include the coral garden bed edging, compass points marked in the front concrete path, and the 1893 flood marker on the entrance stairs. A river front rotunda and baths had been constructed prior to 1925, and were destroyed during the 1974 floods.
\nAfter Welsby's death in 1941, Jane continued to live at Amity for another 14 months before she moved to Windsor. The property was let for several years until Marion bought Hannah's half share and with her husband James C Clark returned to Amity. Their son James W Clark also lived at Amity for a few years after his return from the Second World War, and built the corrugated iron garage that still stands in the rear garden.
\nJames C Clark died in 1948, and his son moved out when he married in 1950. By this time Amity, with the exception of The Hollins next door which was part of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company Ltd refinery, had been separated from the residential part of New Farm by increasing industry. This included the introduction of the railway line through to the refinery, and the erection of the naval base just downstream by the Royal Australian Navy during the Second World War.
\nOn 30 June 1952, Amity was purchased by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company Ltd and Marion Clark built a house at Hamilton. The company let the house to several tenants and it was used for some years as the refinery manager's residence. The removal of folding doors between the living and dining areas probably occurred during this period.
\nAmity was let as a naval residence for the adjoining HMAS Moreton. On 7 July 1980 the refinery, now CSR Ltd, transferred subs 130-132 which were purchased by the Commonwealth of Australia on 31 July 1980 for use as the residence of the Officer Commanding, Queensland Region, Royal Australian Navy. The river end of Welsby Street was closed and incorporated into HMAS Moreton. When HMAS Moreton closed in 1994 Amity was being used as the residence of the Officer in Charge of the Naval Support Office, South Queensland. The Commonwealth sold the property in 1997, and Amity has been a private residence since that date.
\nThe Hollins, to the southeast of Amity, was removed from its site and relocated in 1988. Amity is now the last surviving nineteenth century timber riverfront residence at New Farm.
","criteria":"Amity is the last surviving timber riverfront residence at New Farm, and provides evidence that the building's immediate vicinity, now principally industrial in nature, was once a fashionable residential area.
|Amity is the last surviving timber riverfront residence at New Farm, and provides evidence that the building's immediate vicinity, now principally industrial in nature, was once a fashionable residential area.
|The building, though not opulent in finishes and detailing, displays a high quality of design and is very intact.
|The building, though not opulent in finishes and detailing, displays a high quality of design and is very intact. The substantial plantings, including palms, figs and camphor laurels, ensure the property contributes strongly to the area's riverscape quality.
|Constructed by Thomas Welsby, prominent Brisbane businessman, politician, historian and sportsman, in 1892, Amity was his principal residence until his death in 1941. The property retains substantial evidence of Welsby's occupation, interests and love of Moreton Bay, including the building's general intactness, design and orientation to the river, artefacts and leadlight panels. The extent of the grounds (dating from 1897), and the gardens including plantings, terracing, borders, artefacts and fencing, are important evidence of Welsby's interests and his long association with Amity. The building remained in the family's possession until 1952, since which time it has had a long association with the nearby CSR Ltd refinery as a manager's residence. Purchased by the Commonwealth in 1980, it has been the principal naval residence in Queensland, associated with HMAS Moreton until its closure in 1994.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15040,"place_ref":600265,"name":"Newstead House and Park","alternate_name":"Newstead House; Newstead Park; Newstead Substation","street_address":"199 Breakfast Creek Road","suburb":"NEWSTEAD","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Newstead House stands prominently on a rise overlooking the confluence of Breakfast Creek and the Brisbane River in the Brisbane suburb of Newstead. Surrounded by the grounds of Newstead Park, the house is orientated with its long axis north-north-west and is situated approximately in the centre of the park. Sloping away from all sides of the house, the park comprises grassed lawns, pathways, garden beds and a variety of trees, some very mature. Breakfast Creek Road forms the western boundary of the park, while to the south is Newstead Avenue and private riverfront properties. The curving waterside edges of the park form a rounded promontory at the intersection of the creek and river. An entrance driveway ascends from the south-west corner of the park towards the house, culminating in a circular garden roundabout containing a giant fig tree. A secondary roadway continues past and around the house, exiting back on to Newstead Avenue. In addition to Newstead House and its adjacent Annex, the only other substantial building on the site is a former Brisbane Tramways electricity substation.
Newstead House
Newstead House is a long rectangular building with two levels. It comprises an upper level containing the principal rooms, and a lower level which is largely below ground. Constructed in stages, the walls and foundations of the house are a combination of stone and red-brown brick. The original 1846 central core has thicker walls than the rest of the house, with deep window and door reveals. External walls on the upper level are rendered and scribed to imitate stone blocks, while on the lower level the wall structure is largely exposed, revealing the different phases and methods of construction. The hipped roof is timber framed and clad in grey concrete tiles, with four brick chimneys protruding along the ridgeline.
The house has wide timber verandahs on all four sides. These have a corrugated metal sheeting roof, raked ceilings lined with timber v-jointed tongue and groove boards, timber posts with simple moulded capitals, and wide timber floorboards. The cross braced timber verandah balustrades with a central circle design are an iconic feature of the house. All timberwork is painted. The north and south verandahs are supported on brick piers with vertical timber batten screens between, and three bays of the southern verandah are in-filled with recent louvred panels.
Alteration to ground levels around Newstead House has resulted in the house appearing single storeyed from the east and west and double storeyed from the north and south. The ground level on the eastern side of the house is a few steps below verandah level, sloping steeply down towards the river, while on the western side a relatively flat formal landscaped courtyard area is seven steps below verandah level.
The western verandah entrance features a two-leaf louvred door with decorative louvred fanlight at the top of the sandstone entry steps, while entry to the eastern verandah is through two timber gates in the balustrade. A former trapdoor is still evident in the floorboards of the western verandah.
The main entrance in the centre of the western wall has a timber two-leaf door with decorative painted glass sidelights and transom. Windows along this side of the house are timber double-hung sashes, while the remaining three sides have glazed, low-waisted timber French doors with rectangular fanlights. Apart from the main entrance, all external openings are protected by louvred timber shutters.
The symmetrical plan of Newstead House is two rooms deep. On the upper floor, the larger public rooms and main bedroom are arranged along the eastern side overlooking the river, and smaller bedrooms and service rooms line the western side. There are no hallways, and rooms are accessed from the verandah or through adjoining rooms. Listed from north to south, room names[99] along the eastern side are the Library, Drawing Room, Dining Room and Master Bedroom. Those along the western side are the Breakfast Room, Girl's Bedroom, Sewing Room, Vestibule, Morning Room, Gentleman's Dressing Room and Bathroom. On the lower level, only the original core contains former rooms, the rest of the area remaining uninhabitable subfloor space. These rooms are named (clockwise from the northern corner) the North Cellar, South Cellar, Kitchen, Laundry and Servant's Quarters.
Floors on the upper level have wide polished timber floorboards, with a black and white marble tiled floor in the Vestibule. Walls are plastered, except the Bathroom which is lined with vertical beaded timber boards. All plaster walls are wallpapered up to picture rail height and painted above. Most ceilings throughout the house are replacement fibrous plaster sheeting, apart from four rooms on the western side which retain plaster ceilings. The only remaining early plaster ceiling rose is in the Master Bedroom.
Interior doors on the upper floor are four-panel cedar doors on brass hinges set within moulded cedar frames, most with glazed transom lights. The large rectangular opening between the Dining and Drawing rooms has folding timber doors, and pocket sliding doors occur between the Drawing Room and Library, and the Dining Room and Master Bedroom. A door at the southern end of the west wall of the Master Bedroom is inoperable, with no door opening behind it. Other joinery throughout the house is cedar, including deep skirtings and architraves.
There are three fireplace openings on the upper level, in the Drawing Room, Dining Room and Breakfast Room, all with marble mantelpieces, iron firebacks and decorative tile outer hearths. A timber mantelpiece with a concrete hearth in the Bathroom is located over a sealed fireplace opening.
On the lower level, the Kitchen, Laundry, Servant's Quarters and part of the passage under the western verandah have a brick paved floor, with possibly original stone flagging in the Laundry at the location of the original entry passage. The North and South cellars and the remainder of the western passage have a 1960s concrete floor. No doors remain in the three western rooms, however door openings have timber frames. Doorways through the central north-south wall to the Cellars have timber ledged and braced doors. This wall also has two small original openings with vertical iron bars which serve as gratings for ventilation purposes between the Kitchen and Servant's Quarters and the Cellars. Original ventilation openings also remain in the eastern wall of the Cellars. Two original brick fireplace openings, with arched openings and raised hearths, are in the Servants Quarters and Kitchen. A stone retaining wall runs along the outer edge of the western passage, supporting the verandah, with a fire escape doorway at the southern end.
The house contains a large collection of antique furniture, objects and paintings, displayed to recreate a house from the late 19th century. These are complimented by modern furnishings and fittings.
The Annex
Adjoining the north-west corner of the house is the Annex, a rectangular, freestanding, two-storeyed, rendered masonry building with a gabled hip roof, connected to the main house by a verandah along its southern wall.
The timber framed roof is clad in the same grey concrete tiles as the main house, and features timber louvres in the gables and the only surviving remnants of an early guttering system, in particular a decorative rainwater head at the south-west corner. The eaves have timber battening to the soffit to allow ventilation, and metal ventilation grilles are set into the masonry walls at various locations. Close inspection of variations in the wall render reveal the location of former openings. Original openings include two windows in the east wall, a doorway and one window in the north wall, and three windows in the western wall. Windows in the eastern and northern walls are timber double hung sashes, while those in the western wall are six-light timber casements. Windows on these three sides have timber louvred shutters matching those of the main house.
The verandah along the southern wall, a modern addition designed to match the main house, is supported by an original masonry wall and piers. A timber weatherboard enclosure at the western end of the verandah houses a lift. No original openings remain in the southern wall.
Apart from a central rendered masonry dividing wall running north-south through the Annex, all internal walls are later additions. The eastern end accommodates a stairwell with a 1960s timber and steel staircase. The first floor contains a modern kitchen, storage, and male and female toilets. The ground floor contains a shop and two bathrooms, one of them accessible. The floor levels of the ground floor concrete slab have been altered to allow for wheelchair access.
On the northern side of the Annex are a driveway and accessible car park, and a paved ramp leading to the entrance of the shop. Garden beds and low shrubs occupy the area between the Annex, the northern verandah of the main house, and a stone retaining wall supports the raised eastern lawn area.
The formal courtyard on the western side of Newstead House features a central circular fountain surrounded by a wide paved pathway that connects the house to the entrance drive, with formal garden beds and shrubs lining the edges of the area.
Former Tramways Substation
To the west of Newstead House is the former Brisbane City Council Tramways Substation No. 5. This masonry building faces west towards Breakfast Creek Road, standing among mature trees and garden beds. A pathway from the roundabout at the top of the Newstead Park entrance drive leads to the main entrance on the right-hand side of the north elevation. A tall, square, symmetrical building, the functional austerity of the substation's exterior is relieved by restrained classical detailing, and distinguished by elegant proportions and fine brickwork.
The pyramid roof is clad in metal roof sheeting with a ventilator at the apex. The undersides of the raked eaves are lined with timber boards and the roof has no guttering or downpipes. The walls are constructed from dark brown glazed bricks laid in an English bond pattern with four evenly spaced pilasters with moulded render capitals and cornice to each elevation. The base of the walls is a rendered concrete plinth, and all concrete surfaces are painted. Rectangular windows with multi-pane fixed lights, flush concrete lintels and brick sills are positioned between each pilaster. One window opening in the western wall has been filled with concrete. The main elevation features a central concrete panel with a logo of the letters B and T intertwined and the title ‘SUBSTATION No. 5' in raised lettering. Regularly spaced rectangular ventilation grilles pierce the base and top of all walls. High in the right hand corner of the southern wall eight circular ceramic insulators are set into the brickwork, formerly the outlets for the cables carrying power to the tram lines.
The main entrance is a single leaf door set within a timber and glass screen that encloses a tall opening once occupied by a roller door. A single door in the southern wall is a later addition, cut into the wall below an existing window.
Inside, the substation is a single large volume with a carpeted floor and painted brick walls. The ceiling is lined with flat plasterboard sheeting with cover strips and has a square ventilating panel in the centre. One vertical and several horizontal steel I-beams remain, with the horizontal beams supported on engaged brick piers or projecting brick corbels. A corbel in the eastern wall supports the cut-off end of a steel beam. An overhead gantry hoist remains attached to a beam running north-south.
A sunken area is located adjacent to the centre of the western wall, surrounded by a timber balustrade and accessed by a set of concrete steps. From this level a set of steep timber steps leads through an opening cut into the upper level slab to a compartment of the underfloor area. This small space has a very low ceiling height and is used for storage in 2013.
A timber staircase in the north-east corner leads to an enclosed mezzanine office, which has modern linings, a carpeted floor and painted brick walls. Three ventilation grilles have been converted into windows and two have been modified to house air-conditioning units.
A brick shed (1939) and other storage structures are located close to the substation on its eastern and northern sides, concealed from view from Newstead House by a timber lattice fence. The pissoir, a former public urinal composed of a curving metal screen, is located south-east of the substation.
Newstead Park
The high ridge of ground running south-west to north-east, with Newstead House at its peak, results in great variation of character and outlook for different sections of Newstead Park. South of the entrance drive is largely grassed lawns with views to the south-west towards Bowen Hills and Herston. The western side, along Breakfast Creek road, is gently sloping, with mature trees, grass lawns, pathways and formal garden beds, many the remnants of early park layouts and planting schemes. The northern park area, along Breakfast Creek, is predominantly open grassed lawns, sloping steeply near the house and becoming shallower closer to the water's edge. This part of the park is intersected by pathways lined with tall palms and a scattering of mature trees, and has sweeping views of the river and of Newstead House. Along the eastern park area, a steeply sloping garden bed separates the riverside pathway from the top of the ridge, curving around to the south of the substation. Land at the bottom of the steep slope is relatively flat and open, while the area adjacent to Newstead Avenue is sloping and heavily shaded by large trees.
The entrance drive is marked by two rough-faced sandstone lamp pillars at the corner of Newstead Avenue and Breakfast Creek Road, each topped with a decorative metal lantern stand and with metal lettering forming the words NEWSTEAD and PARK attached. The asphalt drive, lined with shrubs and palms, ascends in a north-easterly direction towards the house, terminating at the fig tree roundabout, which is edged by vertically placed tuff. The garden bed is equipped with a movement activated speaker which delivers a brief history of the tree and the property to passers-by, encouraging them to enter the house. To the south of the giant fig, near the former substation, is a flat-roofed, brick public toilet block.
Other large mature trees (including figs) are near the substation building, along Newstead Avenue, in the western park area, and in the north-east corner of the park. Avenues of palm trees along pedestrian paths throughout the park are remnant evidence of Harry Moore's original park design, as are many of the path locations. A walking path around the edge of the river and Breakfast Creek links to the New Farm-Newstead bikeway.
The north-west corner of the park, truncated by Breakfast Creek Road and Bridge (re-aligned 1959), contains early curving pathways lined with palm trees, which converge upon a pedestrian access point at the start of the bridge abutment. The southernmost pathway, heading in a south-east direction, is of a later date than the two other pathways. Concrete block walls defining the edge of the paths and garden beds in this area date from the 1959 realignment of Breakfast Creek Road, and a small area of remnant vegetation from the original park[100] remains on the other side of the road near the Breakfast Creek Wharf complex, which can be accessed via a pedestrian underpass.[101]
The majority of memorials and monuments, including the American memorial, Lyndon B Johnson Place, Oxley memorial and tide gauge, are located in the north-east area of the park. Other notable features include a gazebo (1984) and recent pontoon at the north-eastern promontory, and concrete draughts board (1929) and old drinking fountain, both located in the centre of the northern park area. Recent benches, picnic tables and light posts are distributed throughout the park.
Positioned on a high ridge surrounded by open parkland, Newstead House is a prominent and iconic landmark, highly visible from the Brisbane River, Breakfast Creek, and major roads Breakfast Creek Road, the Inner City Bypass and Kingsford Smith Drive. Distant views of the house and park are also had from the riverfront at Bulimba and the heights of Hamilton.
","history":"Newstead House is a large mid-nineteenth century house located on a ridge of parkland overlooking the Hamilton Reach of the Brisbane River at its confluence with Breakfast Creek, and is four kilometres north-east of the Brisbane Central Business District (CBD). The core of the house is the oldest known surviving residence in Brisbane, established by Patrick Leslie in 1846. The house has undergone numerous structural changes, particularly between 1846 and 1867. It was the first heritage property in Queensland to be protected by an Act of Parliament. Newstead Park was acquired by Brisbane City Council and formally opened in 1921. It was designed according to landscaping principles of the early 20th century and has retained the layout and plantings initiated by the Superintendent of Parks Harry Moore from 1915.
John Oxley explored the Brisbane River in 1823 and 1824 and recommended the area around the confluence with Breakfast Creek would be an ideal place to establish a settlement.[1] The local indigenous people had been given the name of the ‘Duke of York's Clan' by European residents and the area was known as ‘Booroodabin', meaning place of oaks.
Following the 1839 closure of the penal settlement, Brisbane town was surveyed and offered for sale from 1842. Land on the banks of the Brisbane River near Breakfast Creek was purchased by brothers-in-law Patrick Leslie and John Clements Wickham in April 1845. Leslie purchased Eastern Suburban Allotments (ESA) 63 and 64 (sold as ESA 13 at the time), while Wickham purchased ESA 62.[2]
Captain John Clements Wickham served in the Royal Navy under Philip Parker King (son of NSW Governor Philip Gidley King). He settled in New South Wales in 1841 where he married Anna, the daughter of Hannibal Macarthur, nephew of John Macarthur who had established a merino flock at Camden Park. Patrick Leslie had married another daughter of Hannibal's, Catherine (Kate) in 1840. Philip Gidley King (son of Philip Parker King) married another sister, Elizabeth Macarthur (his cousin) in 1843,[3] while George Leslie married a fourth sister, Emmeline Macarthur in 1848.[4] Wickham was appointed Police Magistrate for Moreton Bay in January 1843, living in the Commandant's Cottage in George Street.[5]
Patrick Leslie, the second son of William Leslie, ninth laird of Warthill and eighth of Folla in Scotland, came to Australia in 1834 to work on his uncle Walter Davidson's property Collaroi in the Upper Hunter.[6] To gain experience he went to work on John Macarthur's property at Camden,[7] and by 1839 moved to Philip Parker Kings' property Dunheved near Penrith.[8]
Explorer Allan Cunningham told him of the Darling Downs to the north that he had discovered in 1827. Patrick, his younger brothers George and Walter and their sheep, headed north in 1840 selecting runs which became Toolburra and Canning Downs Stations. Still financially indebted to his uncle, Leslie was eventually assisted by his father to clear some debts and purchased two parcels of Brisbane riverfront land in 1845 in his father's name.
By the end of 1845, Patrick Leslie was sourcing building materials for a house he was planning for himself and his wife Kate and son Willy. He named it ‘Newstead', and the family moved in between April and July 1846. Patrick Leslie wrote to his father providing a detailed description of the house, as well as floor plans and a site plan. Constructed from brick, stone and timber, the original house was two storeyed, with living rooms and bedrooms on the upper floor and servants' rooms, cellars and kitchen on the lower floor. A steep staircase in what is now the entry vestibule connected the two floors, and other utilitarian structures were located to the rear (western side) of the house. An 8ft (2.4m) wide verandah on the first floor eastern side, adjoining the sitting room and main bedroom, faced the best views of the river.
He wrote a lengthy description of the setting of the house and the plants grown in the garden, including Kate's garden on the southern side of the house. There was a well, milking yard and cow pen, and a road following a gully to the west. In the same letter, he told his father that he had purchased a run adjacent to Canning Downs in his son's name, and kept his stock on his brother's property. The family had barely settled into the house at Newstead when he decided to return to the Downs. The Leslies departed Newstead on 10 October 1846, leaving it under the management of two employees.[9]
In June 1847 Newstead House was sold to Captain John Clements Wickham for £1000, although not formally transferred by deed until 1 February 1854.[10] The sale was a mutually beneficial arrangement as John and Anna Wickham were about to build on their adjoining lot at Newstead.[11]
Wickham undertook extensions in late 1847 when they moved in. A sketch dated 1848 by Owen Stanley, shows the building was light in colour, (indicating it had been rendered) with verandahs extended to the north and south with the bedrooms extended onto the verandahs. [12]
In April 1853, Captain Wickham was appointed Government Resident for Moreton Bay, having served in the role since January that year. The house then became the unofficial government house. A servants' wing adjacent to the house is evident in a painting produced in July 1853.[13]
In April 1854 the Governor General, Sir Charles Fitz Roy, came to Moreton Bay on an official visit, staying at Newstead. Following a public dinner,[14] Wickham arranged for a meeting on the subject of separation from New South Wales, between the Governor General and key citizens.[15] While Wickham supported separation meetings, the actual event led to the abolition of his position. The new Governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, arrived in Brisbane on 10 December 1859. Wickham left the new colony of Queensland in January 1860 and returned to England.[16]
Newstead House was offered for sale from September 1862,[17] having been occupied by the Attorney General, Ratcliffe Pring, from February 1860. By December 1862 George and Jane Harris advertised for servants for Newstead, presumably indicating their occupation of the house.[18] George Harris, a member of the Legislative Council of Queensland, had married Jane Thorn, daughter of Member of the Legislative Assembly and businessman George Thorn, in Ipswich in 1860. George Harris' brother John had initiated a mercantile and shipping business in Brisbane in the 1840s. George joined the business in 1848 and the firm J & G Harris was formed in April 1853, with John as an agent in London. The Harris brothers established a store in Short Street at North Quay and operated a fleet of ships, a fellmongery, tannery, and a boot and harness factory.[19] The town of Harrisville, south of Ipswich, evolved from J & G Harris's cotton plantation and gin.[20] George Harris commissioned architect James Cowlishaw to design Harris Terrace in George Street in 1865-67 (QHR 600121). He also called for tenders for repairs and additions to Newstead House in 1865 and 1867.[21]
George Harris had acquired the Newstead property (Lots 62, 63, and 65) in 1867, mortgaged for the sum of £4000 to the trustees of the estate of JC Wickham, having previously leased the property.[22] The repairs and additions undertaken by Cowlishaw in 1865 and 1867 led to a major re-design of the house, building four new rooms on both the northern and southern sides. Each of these extensions included new double fireplaces and chimneys. The staircase to the lower floor was removed and replaced by a trapdoor in the verandah floor. A new entrance was created by building a retaining wall which supported the extended front verandah. Fill was deposited to create a gently sloping lawn on the western side, taking water away from the basement structure. Sandstone steps were built, providing a new western entrance to the house. This made a basement of the ground floor of the Leslie structure. The verandahs were extended to 10 feet (3m) in width, provided with railings, new posts, gutters and rainwater heads. The roof shingles were replaced with slate, although sheet metal was used on the verandahs. A marble floor was installed in the entry foyer and marble mantelpieces built into the formal rooms. A substantial new kitchen and servants' quarters were also built during the Harris era.[23]
George Harris arranged for a new certificate of title under the Real Property Act in May 1874.[24] The property was then mortgaged for 10 years to James Taylor of Toowoomba for £10,000.[25] Further building work was required when the stables burnt down in November 1873.[26] Harris declared his business to be insolvent in August 1876 and both Newstead and Harris Terrace were transferred to James Taylor by December 1876.[27]
The Harris's continued to lease the property for many years. Their financial position may have been buoyed by the distribution of the estate of Jane's father, George Thorn, who died in April 1876, with extensive property interests including Claremont homestead (QHR 600589), land in Ipswich and Cleveland (Thornlands),[28] and Normanby Station (QHR 600737) which were offered for sale in 1878-9.[29] James Taylor subdivided much of the estate into housing lots, retaining 11 acres (4.5ha) on which Newstead House was located. The estate was advertised for sale in July 1878.[30]
A further lease for Newstead House was drawn up to George Harris in March 1887, which was surrendered in November the following year.[31] Liquidators were called in to wind-up the affairs of J and G Harris.[32] An attempt was made to sell the property, now reduced to 4.5 acres (8200m2) in December 1888. The newspaper advertisement referred to the main house as being built of stone and brick with a slate roof, comprising an extra large drawing room, dining room, breakfast room, principal bedroom, library, three bedrooms and bathroom with 10ft (3m) verandahs all round; a wooden wing with a slate roof comprising four large bedrooms, a workroom, two storerooms and bathroom; a kitchen wing built of brick with a slate roof incorporating a kitchen, pantry, large storeroom, two servants' rooms, scullery and man's room; and an outhouse consisting of a four stall stable, man's room, harness room, large coach house and laundry. Also on the property was another four stall stable, fowl house, landing jetty, boathouse, bathing house, two 20,000 gallon (90,000 litre) underground tanks and various other tanks; and a magnificent flower, fruit and vegetable garden.[33]
Further subdivision of the surrounding land into suburban lots occurred in 1888 and in 1890,[34] after it was transferred to the Federal Building Land and Investment Society Ltd.[35] An auction sale of all of the Harris's furnishings and belongings was held on 22 April 1890, and George and Jane departed the following day.[36]
Newstead House played host to numerous important visitors over the years, including high ranking members of the clergy,[37] [38] the Governor General, and royalty,[39] as well as hosting large events such as weddings, dinners, balls and boating events on the river, particularly during the occupation of the Harris's.[40] Daughter Evelyn Harris married RG Casey, manager of her grandfather George Thorn's former property, Normanby Station. The 1888 wedding was followed by a lavish reception at Newstead House.[41] Her son Richard, born in 1890, was Governor of Bengal from 1944-46 and in 1960 was appointed life peer to the House of Lords, the Upper House of the United Kingdom. Lord Casey became Governor General of Australia in 1965 to 1969.[42]
The departure of the Harris family was the end of an era for the house, in that no subsequent owners or tenants occupied the dwelling for any substantial length of time. The sale of furnishings of a tenant in March 1896 indicated that the substantial servants' quarters and kitchen of the Harris era had been replaced with the building now referred to as the Annex. It included a kitchen, pantry laundry and possibly one other servants' room.[43] The property was owned by Lysaght Brothers and Company for several years from August 1896. Lysaghts had plans for a wire netting and galvanised iron factory on the site that were never realised.[44] Newstead was briefly run as a boarding house in 1906.[45]
Newstead House was sold in October 1908 to Caroline Amelia Heaslop, wife of Thomas Heaslop, a wholesale grocery merchant, and by November 1909 a major refurbishment had been undertaken. The house continued to be leased to tenants. The Council of the City of Brisbane began negotiations with Mrs Heaslop to purchase the property in 1915[46] and it was formally acquired by the Council of the City of Brisbane in 1918.
The Council had been keen to acquire this prime riverfront site for parkland, and were influenced by the international town planning movement of the time. The Queensland Town Planning Association had formed in March 1915, advocating the need for more metropolitan parks, particularly along the river.[47] In 1918, the property that comprised most of the original ESA 63 including Newstead House was transferred to the Council. This was later devested to the Brisbane City Council (BCC) in 1933 under section 30 of The City of Brisbane Act 1924. A number of options for the use of the house were proposed, including availing the property to returned soldiers as a hostel.[48] Parks Superintendent Henry (Harry) Moore moved into Newstead House in late 1917 or early 1918.[49] The slate roof was replaced at this time, with red painted concrete tiles.[50]
Harry Moore was appointed as Superintendent of Parks in September 1912, initially based at Bowen Park which had recently been vacated by the Acclimatisation Society. From 1909 Moore had been curator of Canterbury Park in Eaglehawk, near Bendigo in Victoria.[51] He had a distinctive style of park layout with a preference for circular garden beds. He preferred the fluidity of gently curving walkways radiating from a few entrance points. His influence can be seen in one remnant section of Canterbury Park, as well as in his other works in Queensland including New Farm Park (QHR 602402), Bowen Park (QHR 601523) and Gympie Memorial Park (QHR 602729). He is also well known for using dry stone walls to create raised garden beds, examples of which can be found in Centenary Place (QHR 602442), Yeronga Memorial Park (QHR 602462), and in the streets of Kangaroo Point and Spring Hill. For shade trees, he favoured a bold mix of palms, pines and dramatic flowering species such as poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima) and jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia). [52]
Moore's appointment occurred during the time of the nascent town planning movement which, among other things, promoted the building of roads in relation to the contours of the land. This is evident in Moore's path layout in Newstead Park. His design included the removal of all riverbank vegetation and the creation of stone revetment walls, removal of old fences, construction of paths, path lighting, and planting additional trees in front of the house.[53] He planted about 150 trees, palms and shrubs initially and then prepared trenching and beds for 700 roses.[54] Newstead Park was officially opened in January 1921.[55]
In 1923, the centenary of the arrival of John Oxley was celebrated in Newstead Park with a band for entertainment.[56] The band rotunda appears to have evolved from a temporary platform provided in 1921, becoming a bandstand by 1925.[57] A World War I trophy cannon was unveiled in the park, near the rotunda, in November 1922.[58] In 1924 the Council announced further resumptions of contiguous land.[59] Twelve buildings were auctioned for removal, from Newstead Avenue, Breakfast Creek Road and Newstead Drive, in March 1926.[60] Stone entrance pillars with lamps mounted on top were built in November 1927.[61] The park also features a large draughts board installed in 1929.[62] A newspaper report in 1929 discussed Harry Moore's ten years of work in the park. Mature trees he retained included bunya pines, Moreton Bay ash, silky oaks, white Cyprus and the Flacourtia ramoutchi of East India. He also planted avenues of Queen Palms, here and in other parks and streets of Brisbane, and was responsible for introducing the distinctive tropical character to Brisbane's open spaces.[63] The large fig tree (Ficus infectoria) within the circular drive dates to the occupation by the Wickhams,[64] and appears to be the oldest tree remaining on the property. Moore and his family continued to live in Newstead House until late 1938.[65]
In 1927 the BCC Tramways Department announced plans to build a substation at Newstead Park.[66] Brisbane Tramways had evolved from a private company which established horse drawn trams in 1885 and a subsequent company delivering electric trams from 1895. The first power station for trams was built in Countess Street in 1897. Various arrangements with the City Electric Light Company continued to supply power until the Brisbane Tramways Trust was initiated by an Act of Parliament in 1922. After the establishment of Greater Brisbane City Council in 1925, which included the acquisition of the Brisbane Tramways Trust, there was an expansion of electricity supply and public transport.
Substation No. 5 in Newstead Park was designed by BCC architect and construction engineer Roy Rusden Ogg, and opened in June 1928. [67] Ogg designed at least 10 of the city's substations up until 1936, as well as the first two stages of the New Farm Powerhouse, which provided electricity to the city's tram network. A total of 10 tramways substations: Russell Street South Brisbane (1927); Ballow Street, Fortitude Valley (1928); Logan Road, Woolloongabba (1928); Petrie Terrace (1928); Windsor (1927, QHR 602492); Paddington (1930, QHR 601198); Norman Park (1935, QHR 602410); Kedron Park Road, Kedron (1935); and Ipswich Road, Annerley (1936), were built through to the mid-1930s, seven of which survive. Many had additions enabling equipment upgrades and a further 5 were built after World War II.[68] Only Newstead and Petrie Terrace substations retain the BT (Brisbane Tramways) logo.[69] To help integrate the industrial substation buildings into their often residential settings, Ogg used neo-classical detailing to ornament the facades.
By the late 1920s Brisbane City Council could not foresee a potential use for Newstead House except as a museum.[70] In September 1931 the Queensland Historical Society (founded 1913) approached the Lord Mayor, Alderman Greene, proposing that Newstead House be made available as an historical library and technological museum.[71] In May 1932, the Society was given use of 3 rooms,[72] although Harry Moore still occupied the house until late 1938. Between 1934 and 1938 a number of proposals were made in relation to the use of the house as a museum.[73] In March 1938 the Queensland Historical Society appointed a special committee to prepare a draft scheme for the creation of a Trust to control the proposed museum.[74]
In February 1939, the Finance Committee of BCC recommended that Newstead House be placed under trust for the use of the Historical Society of Queensland.[75] The Trust would administer the Newstead House Trust Fund and receive donations, bequests, legacies and grants.[76] The Newstead House Trust Act came into force on 1 March 1940, with the State Treasurer, Mr Cooper as chairman, and the Lord Mayor, Alderman Jones, and the President of the Historical Society, Mr Fergus McMaster, as trustees.[77] In preparation for its role as a museum, fire proofing of two rooms and repairs to the house were undertaken to the specification of architects R Coutts and Sons.[78]
From late 1942 through to the end of World War II, Newstead House was occupied by the Photographic Detachment of the 832nd Signal Service Company, Signal Section of the Unites States Army Services of Supply. The house was used as a barracks for the men, while nearby Cintra House housed the photographic laboratory. A gun emplacement was located on the riverfront beyond the bandstand.[79]
In 1950, the Annex was transferred to the Trust and a new certificate of title issued. These are now lots 1 & 2 on RP58673 (house and annex footprints).[80]
The Queensland Women's Historical Association, formed in April 1950, held its inaugural meeting at Newstead House. In late 1951 the Association was given use of the old Breakfast Room for housing records and equipment. It also involved itself with renovation of the house. The Association acquired its own quarters in 1966, purchasing a house known as ‘Beverly Wood' (later reverting to its original name ‘Miegunyah' (QHR 600055)) in 1967.[81]
From 1968 through to the early 1970s, a major renovation of Newstead House was managed by the State Works Department, facilitating its transformation into a house museum. The verandah timbers were taken up allowing the replacement of defective joists. Major earthworks were undertaken around the house at this time and the timber bathroom to the annex and the annex chimney were removed. Works on the basement included removal of plaster from brickwork, some re-pointing of brick walls, damp proofing and paving the floor. The house was opened to the public in February 1971. The works have been ongoing, including re-roofing with concrete tiles in 1977. [82]
David Gibson was appointed as curator in August 1974, a position he retained until 2011. He initiated the ‘Friends of Newstead' committee to assist in fundraising for the development and interpretation of the house.[83] The committee utilised the celebration of the house's 130th anniversary in 1976 to embark on a fundraising campaign to begin renovation and interpretation of the dining room and gentleman's library. Volunteers each devoted one Sunday a month, serving refreshments to visitors, and had raised $6500 by mid 1977.[84] The Royal Historical Society relocated to the former Commissariat Store (QHR 600176) in William Street in October 1981.
After the discontinuation of the Brisbane tramway system in 1969 the substation at Newstead Park, along with Brisbane's other tramway substations, became redundant to Council's needs. The substation was transferred to the Newstead House Board of Trustees in June 1977[85] and work commenced on its conversion into a resource centre. The first phase of the project included the removal of the electrical machinery, rewiring, re-design of the entry door, laying of new carpet and the repainting of the interior. Later a mezzanine level was installed to provide an office area.[86] The Newstead House Resource Centre officially opened in the former tramways substation on 29 September 1978.[87]
In August 1987 the Queensland Government proposed that Newstead House and Park be absorbed by the Queensland Museum[88] citing the advantages of placing the house and surrounding land under common control.[89] This proved to be a controversial proposal which never eventuated, although its administration was ultimately transferred from the Arts portfolio to that of the Department of Environment and Heritage in 1990. [90]
Newstead Park was managed by Harry Oakman, the new BCC Superintendent of Parks, from 1945. One of his first tasks was rejuvenating the many parks occupied by the military during the war years. He re-designed Newstead Park along Breakfast Creek following the realignment of the road for the 1959 construction of a new bridge. He designed and planted shrubberies on either side of the main drive, and filled in gaps in the line of palms with new palms of the same species as those flanking the Moore pathways.[91]
A number of structures and features have been added to the park over the years. A brick tool shed was built behind the substation in 1939. The American Memorial, a Helidon sandstone pillar (10.6m high) with an American eagle on top, was carved by sculptor Tom Farrell, of PJ Lowther and Sons. It was unveiled on 3 May 1952 by Governor Sir John Lavarack, marking the 10th anniversary of the American-Australian naval and air victory in the Coral Sea Battle.[92] The early band rotunda and World War I cannon were removed to allow for the new memorial. This was the first American war memorial in Australia. The second, similar in design, was opened in February 1954 by the Queen, in Kings Avenue Canberra.[93]
Another significant inclusion is the sandstone mounted tide gauge donated by the British India Steam Navigation Company to celebrate Queensland's Centenary in 1959. The stone housing was built by PJ Lowther and Son and the project unveiled in August 1961.[94]
A flagpole was donated to the Historical Society in August 1956 and it was erected near to the house in September, although taken down and reinstated during the renovations of the late 1960s.[95] It flies a replica of the Queensland Ensign which was first unfurled to honour the arrival of Governor Bowen in 1859. On the house wall outside the main bedroom is a plaque honouring Captain John Clements Wickham, donated by his grandson in 1933.
Near the American Memorial, is Lyndon B Johnson Place, unveiled during the American President's visit in 1966. A sundial was installed to the west of the front entry to the house, commemorating the generosity of the Rotary Club of Newstead in providing floodlighting to the river side of the house. It was relocated from a park in Holland Park to Newstead in 1977.[96] A memorial to the Australian Navy Corvettes was established in 1988, near Lyndon B Johnson Place. On the eastern side of the property, near to the site of the former Newstead Wharves, is the Oxley Memorial, constructed in 1983. There is a Service to Vietnam memorial, a Submariner's memorial, the Prisoners from Rakuyo Memorial and a memorial to Charles Willers, the founder of the first Rostrum Club. The park also contains a number of mature trees planted in honour of various people with links to the historical societies.[97]
Newstead Park and its facilities continue to be managed by Brisbane City Council. The lawn and carriageway providing access to the house was re-designed in 1987, initially paved in decomposed granite. The Friends funded paving to this area in 1987, due to damage to the floors from granite stones caught in visitor's shoes. A gazebo was built in 1984 near the site of the original band rotunda. A drinking fountain was donated in 1985 by the Brisbane Lord Mayor Sallyanne Atkinson, who also organised for the relocation of a pissoir from Merthyr Road, New Farm, to a site between the house and the substation in 1987.
In 2006, the Friends of Newstead employed a conservation architect to refurbish the main bedroom of Newstead House. During the site works, the removal of non-significant elements such as the 1970s wallpaper and picture rail revealed: the outline of the 1865 wall that once divided the space into two rooms; fragments of early wallpaper; and the early ceiling which was sheeted over c.1940. The evidence gathered as part of the investigation informed the re-decoration of the room. The ceiling and rose were painted to approximate early colours found and the walls were papered from skirting to cornice with commercially available wallpaper similar to the original.[98]
Equitable access to the house was provided in 2013 with the installation of a disabled parking bay, and a lift and accessible toilets within the Annex, thereby ensuring the continued enjoyment of Newstead House by all Queenslanders. The property is valued for its historic significance as well as being a site for ritual events and celebrations, such as weddings. The house has appeared in numerous tourism promotions, travel guides and television programs over the decades, indicating its landmark status in Brisbane.
References
[1] Johnston, W Ross, Brisbane, the first 30 Years, Brisbane: Boolarong, 1988, pp. 12-16.
[2] Sydney Morning Herald, 16 April 1845, p.3; Survey Plan B12345; Application Package 3608, EHP.
[3] Shaw, AGL; King, Gidley (1758-1808); (no identified author) King, Philip Parker (1791-1856); O'Grady, Frank, King, Philip Gidley (1817-1904); Australian Dictionary of Biography, online, accessed 28 February 2013.
[4] Moreton Bay Courier, 8 January 1848, p.3.
[5] Fisher, Rod, The Best of Colonial Brisbane, Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 2012, p. 8.
[6] Diamond, Marion, ‘The Myth of Patrick Leslie' Queensland History Journal, vol 20 no 11 August 2009, p. 612.
[7] Onlsow, Sibella Macaruthur, Some Early Records of the Macarthurs of Camden, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1914, p.
[8] Diamond, Marion, ‘The Myth of Patrick Leslie' Queensland History Journal, vol 20 no 11 August 2009, p. 613.
[9] Ballard and Roessler, ‘Conservation Study 1993, Newstead House 1846 and later', prepared for the Board of Trustees of Newstead House, submitted 11 March 1994, p. 23.
[10] Ballard and Roessler, p. 302 - referencing Package 3608 in old Titles System.
[11] Ballard and Roessler, p. 26-27.
[12] Ballard and Roessler, p.35-37 - referencing 1848 watercolour by Owen Stanley, State Library of New South Wales ZPXC281.
[13] Painting by Henry John Douglas Scott, held in the State Library of New South Wales DG SSv4/1 - Captain Wickham's Newstead Cottage Brisbane, July 1853.
[14] Illustrated Sydney News, 1 April 1854, p.5.
[15] Moreton Bay Courier, 15 April 1854, p.2-3.
[16] Moreton Bay Courier, 21 February 1860, p.2.
[17] The Courier, 23 September 1862, p.3.
[18] Courier Mail, 31 December 1862, p.3.
[19] Lack, Clem, ‘George Harris, 1831 - 1891) Australian Dictionary of Biography online accessed April 2013.
[20] Brisbane Courier, 6 December 1907, p. 10.
[21] Watson, Don and Judith Mackay, Queensland Architects of the 19th Century, Queensland Museum, 1994, p.p. 46-47.
[22] Titles Application Package 3608 - pre-Torrens system for Newstead House.
[23] Ballard and Roessler, p.132-133.
[24] Certificate of Title 10221052, EHP.
[25] Brisbane Courier, 28 October 1876, p. 6.
[26] Watson, Don and Judith Mackay, Queensland Architects of the 19th Century, Queensland Museum, 1994, p. 47; Brisbane Courier, 25 November 1873, p. 2.
[27] Certificate of Title 10221052, EHP; Ballard and Roessler, p. 67, refer to the transfer of Harris Terrace at the same time.
[28] Brisbane Courier, 23 October 1877, p.3.
[29] Brisbane Courier, 5 February 1878, p. 4; Brisbane Courier, 11 January 1879, p. 7.
[30] Brisbane Courier, 23 July 1878, p.4.
[31] Certificate of Title 10561170, EHP.
[32] Ballard and Roessler, p. 361; Certificate of Title 10561170.
[33] Brisbane Courier, 13 December 1888, p. 8.
[34] Survey Plans RP 9355, 9360, EHP.
[35] Certificate of Title, 10768037, EHP.
[36] Warwick Examiner and Times, 23 April 1890, p.2.
[37] Ballard and Roessler, p. 39-40, p. 307.
[38] Moreton Bay Courier, 8 July 1850, p.1.
[39] Queenslander, 29 February 1868, p.7.
[40] Ballard and Roessler, p. 59.
[41] Brisbane Courier, 24 May 1888, p.5.
[42] Casey, Richard, Gavin Gardiner (1890 - 1976), Australian Dictionary of Biography, online.
[43] Brisbane Courier, 25 March 1896, p. 8.
[44] Brisbane Courier, 20 October 1896, p.2;
[45] Brisbane Courier, 16 December 1905, p.2; Brisbane Courier 6 March 1906, p.8
[46] Brisbane City Council Minutes, 1916, 1917, 1918.
[47] McConville, Chris ‘Queensland's popular movement in planning 1914-1930: socialism, regularity and profit', p. 66, in Robert Freestone (ed), Cities, Citizens and Environmental Reform, histories of Australian Town Planning Associations Sydney University Press, 2009.
[48] Brisbane Courier, 1 March 1918, p. 6.
[49] Queensland Post Office Directory 1918; Wilson, Beth, Kay Cohen and Peter Marquis Kyle - Wilson Landscape Architects; ‘Conservation Study, 1996, Newstead Park, Breakfast Creek Road, Newstead', report prepared for Brisbane City Council Department of Recreation and Health, p.13.
[50] Ballard and Roessler, p. 135.
[51] Bendigo Advertiser 26 October 1909, p.4; Bendigonian, 13 January 1914, p.14.
[52] Sim, Jeannie, ‘Harry Moore, The First Superintendent in Brisbane paper produced from presentations to Brisbane History Group and Friends of Newstead House, 2000; Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens, South Melbourne, Australian Garden History Society, 2002, p, 416.
[53] Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens, South Melbourne, Australian Garden History Society, 2002, p, 440.
[54] Wilson, Beth, Kay Cohen and Peter Marquis Kyle - Wilson Landscape Architects; ‘Conservation Study, 1996, Newstead Park, Breakfast Creek Road, Newstead', report prepared for Brisbane City Council Department of Recreation and Health. p. 57.
[55] Brisbane Courier, 28 January 1921, p.6.
[56] Brisbane Courier, 30 November 1923, p.12.
[57] Ballard and Roessler, p.p.387 - 389.
[58] Brisbane Courier, 14 November 1922, p.4.
[59] Brisbane Courier, 30 April 1924, p.7.
[60] Brisbane Courier, 20 February 1926, p.13.
[61] Brisbane Courier, 12 November 1927, p. 7.
[62] Board of Trustees of Newstead House, Newstead House, self published, 1986 edition, p. 24; Brisbane Courier, 11 March 1933, p. 17.
[63] Sim, Jeannie, ‘Harry Moore, The First Parks Superintendent in Brisbane', paper produced from presentations to Brisbane History Group and Friends of Newstead House, 2000.
[64] Queenslander, 16 January 1930, p.50
[65] Courier Mail, 31 July 1934 P.11; Courier Mail, 9 November 1935, p. 22; Courier Mail, 17 December 1938, p.1.
[66] Brisbane Courier, 12 July 1927, p. 8.
[67] for a full description of the structure, see Brisbane Courier, 1 June 1928, p. 25.
[68] Brisbane Courier 1 June 1928, p. 25
[69] Substation information supplied by BCC archives in collaboration with Brisbane Tramway Museum.
[70] Brisbane Courier, 28 September 1927, p.14.
[71] Brisbane Courier, 17 September 1931, p. 10.
[72] Brisbane Courier, 21 May 1932, p .12.
[73] Newstead House Guide Book, n.d.; ‘Worth Preservation', newspaper clipping, 18 February 1938. Newstead House files, RHSQ.
[74] Newstead House Guide Book, n.d.
[75] Courier Mail, 25 February 1939, p. 7.
[76] Courier Mail, 23 November 1939, p. 7; Newstead House Trust Act 1939 Sections 7 & 10.
[77] Courier Mail, 23 February 1940, p. 14.
[78] Royal Historical Society of Queensland File 8634 - Newstead House repairs: Ballard and Roessler p.p. 396-400.
[79] Marks, Roger, and Peter, Dunn - Brisbane WW2 v Now, Book 1, Newstead House, self published July 2005.
[80] Certificate of Title No 192373 Volume 2577 Folio 5, EHP.
[81] Ballard and Roessler, Newstead House Conservation Study, pp. 404, 413, 420, 421
[82] Ballard and Roessler, p. 423-458; RHSQ File 8636.
[83] Ballard and Roessler, Newstead House Conservation Study, pp. 453-4.
[84] Australian Women's Weekly, 27 July 1977, p. 112.
[85] Certificate of title 15660142, EHP.
[86] Brisbane City Council Heritage Unit - Newstead House and Park file.
[87] Ballard and Roessler, Newstead House Conservation Study, p. 461.
[88] Board of Trustees minutes 27 August 1987, Board of Trustees Minute Book 13 July 1983-11 February 1993, NHA cited by Ballard and Roessler, Newstead House Conservation Study, p. 473.
[89] ‘State gets house: city keeps land', Courier Mail, 8 October 1987, Queensland Newspaper Library cited by Ballard and Roessler, Newstead House Conservation Study, p. 473.
[90] Courier Mail, 18 December 1990, Queensland Newspaper Library cited by Ballard and Roessler, Newstead House Conservation Study, p. 475.
[91] Council of the Heads of Australasian Herbaria, Australian National Herbarium _ Harry Oakman http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/oakman-harry.html accessed 8 April 2013.
[92] Sunday Mail, 4 May 1952,p.3; Courier Mail 7 March 1952, p.3; see also oral history interview by Robyn Buchanan with Tom Farrell, Ipswich City Council library, online http://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/documents/heritage/11_tom_farrell_oral_history.pdf
[93] Canberra Times, 16 February 1954, p.6.
[94] Brisbane City Council, Heritage Unit file - Newstead House and Park.
[95] Ballard and Roessler p.p.410, 413, 429.
[96] Board of Trustees of Newstead House, Newstead House, self published, 1986 edition, p.26.
[97] Wilson, Beth, Kay Cohen and Peter Marquis Kyle - Wilson Landscape Architects; ‘Conservation Study, 1996, Newstead Park, Breakfast Creek Road, Newstead', report prepared for Brisbane City Council Department of Recreation and Health.
[98] Report of Margaret Lawrence-Drew, Master Bedroom Refurbishment report 2006.
[99] Room name allocations are consistent with those used in the Newstead House Conservation Study (1994, Ballard & Roessler)
[100] Not included within the heritage boundary
[101] Wilson, Beth, Kay Cohen and Peter Marquis Kyle - Wilson Landscape Architects; ‘Conservation Study, 1996, Newstead Park, Breakfast Creek Road, Newstead', report prepared for Brisbane City Council Department of Recreation and Health.
","criteria":"Newstead House (1846), as the oldest surviving residence in Brisbane, is important in demonstrating the pattern of the early period of free settlement in Queensland. It served as the unofficial government house during Wickham's appointment as Government Resident between 1853 and 1859. The expansion of the house, financed through the business activities of George Harris, is evidence of the early growth of commerce in Queensland.
Newstead Park is important as the original garden setting for Newstead House. As an early public park from 1915, Newstead Park is important in demonstrating the world-wide influence of the town planning movement in encouraging town and city beautification schemes with the establishment of public parks. The Australian American Memorial located within the park, is the only American war memorial of its type in Queensland and the first of two such memorials in Australia. It is important as evidence of the Australian-USA alliance that was so vital in securing Allied victory in the South-West Pacific area during World War II.
Within an integrated suburban network of substations, the former Brisbane Tramways Substation No. 5 is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's industrial development. In particular, the development of electricity generation and supply, the development of a public transport system and the subsequent suburban expansion of Brisbane in the 1920s and 1930s.
|The core of Newstead House is rare surviving evidence of an 1840s Queensland colonial residence.
|Newstead House and Park have aesthetic qualities that have been admired and valued since the site of the original 1840s cottage was chosen to take advantage of stunning views of the Brisbane River. Positioned on a high ridge surrounded by open parkland, the house is a prominent and iconic landmark, highly visible from nearby suburbs, major roads and the river. The design of the house, with its wide verandahs and long, low form, directs attention towards the views, evoking a sense of tranquillity.
The park, laid out over a steeply undulating site with mature trees, open lawns, curving pathways and formal garden beds, provides an attractive and picturesque setting for the house, allowing it to be viewed from a variety of positions. The strong visual appeal of Newstead House and Park is evidenced by the extensive use of images of the place in publications and travel guides to promote Brisbane and Queensland over the decades.
|Newstead House has a special association with its founder Patrick Leslie, a pioneer of the Darling Downs and the Queensland wool industry; with Captain John Clements Wickham, Government Resident of the Moreton Bay settlement; and with the family of entrepreneur and Member of the Legislative Council, George Harris.
Newstead House has had a special association with the Royal Historical Society of Queensland and the Queensland Women's Historical Society which based their activities in the house for 49 and 17 years respectively. Both organisations were advocates for the ongoing conservation of the property, and both have made substantial contributions to the study of history and heritage in Queensland.
Newstead Park is significant for its association with horticulturalists, landscape designers and Brisbane City Council Superintendents of Parks, Harry Moore and Harry Oakman, both of whom have made significant contributions to the development and design of parks in Brisbane and elsewhere in Australia.
The Australian American Memorial has special significance for veterans of the World War II South-West Pacific campaign and their descendants.
|Newstead House has the potential to yield information that will contribute to our understanding of Queensland's history. As the oldest surviving residence in Brisbane, it has the potential to provide information on the domestic lives of Queenslanders during the nineteenth century.
Newstead Park has the potential to reveal information on the development and design of the gardens of early residents of Newstead House, the early garden layouts of the public park, as well as the leisure activities of generations of Queenslanders. The park may also provide information on the residences which were removed in the 1920s.
Previous archaeological investigations at Newstead House have already demonstrated the potential of the site. Further investigation may reveal the foundations of the earlier servants' quarters (replaced by the current Annex between 1888 and 1896); ancillary buildings, underground services and domestic artefacts.
|Newstead House demonstrates the principal characteristics of a large colonial residence of the mid-late 19th century in Queensland, with a formal entry vestibule, multiple living rooms and bedrooms, separate servants' quarters, and high quality joinery and fittings, including three marble mantelpieces. Generously-sized formal rooms, separated by folding and sliding doors, were designed to accommodate large social functions, and the encircling verandahs, which are an adaptation to the Queensland climate, are accessible from all rooms of the house.
The design and layout of Newstead Park demonstrates the evolution of landscape design from the early 20th century in Queensland. Designed by Harry Moore, the park includes his signature curved pathways radiating from access points, enhanced by avenues of palms, and designed to complement the sublimity of Newstead House and contribute to the distinctive tropical nature of Brisbane's open spaces.
The design of the Australian American Memorial, comprising a classical column surmounted by an eagle, is typical of such memorials throughout the world.
A carefully composed, small-scale, utilitarian building with a temple-like form, the former Tramways Substation is important as a fine example of the work of architect Roy Rusden Ogg, who employed neo-classical detailing to integrate these industrial buildings into their often residential settings. In its design, scale and materials the building displays the principal characteristics of a Brisbane tramways substation, including dark brickwork, classical design, large windows, high ceiling, ventilation panels, large entry doorway and gantry system.
|Newstead House and Park have had a special association with generations of Queenslanders as a place of historic importance and a place for family events, celebrations and rites of passage including weddings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15041,"place_ref":600266,"name":"Roseville","alternate_name":"Uradah","street_address":"56 Chester Street","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-06-25","description":"Roseville is a one-storeyed rendered brick building surrounded by timber and iron lacework verandahs. It has a corrugated iron roof, the principal roof being a U-shaped hip trimmed with paired console brackets, which sits above a convex verandah roof. Two substantial decorated chimneys rise above the roof line. A detached rendered brick service building on a stone base at the rear of the house has now been incorporated into the more recent additions.
The southern frontage presents a symmetrical face to the street with a pair of bay windows which are expressed in the roof, and a central entrance. The entrance is articulated with a fretwork pediment on paired columns which sits slightly in relief to the rest of the verandah, and wide rendered masonry stairs with scrolled strings.
The verandah has chamfered twin posts with valances; the eastern portion of the verandah has been glazed. The outer edge of the verandah sits on a perforated brickwork screen with brick stumps, while the perimeter wall of the house itself rests on a stone base.
The rooms of the house run either side of a central hallway; two grander rooms are located towards the front. The entry section of the hallway has a mosaic tile floor. The interior includes four marble fireplaces, a variety of ceiling rosettes, dados and decorative cornices and mouldings. French doors and large sash windows open to the verandah.
Refurbishment included landscaping, and the garden now contains ornamental pools, waterways, flowerbeds and rich vegetation.
The main building remains essentially intact in form and structure.
","history":"This large single-storeyed residence is on the slopes of Teneriffe Hill. It was constructed about 1886 for George Myers, a successful Brisbane china and glassware merchant whose principal store was located in Queen Street. In 1889 he also erected a warehouse in Edward Street. (QHR 600090)
The site originally was part of James Gibbon's Teneriffe estate. Myers had purchased it in 1885 from architect and newspaper proprietor James Cowlishaw, and it is possible Cowlishaw produced the design.
The residence was called Roseville, reputedly because of the large rose garden Myers established in the grounds.
He sold the property in 1887, and in 1891 the house passed to Mrs Ann Cowell, who renamed it Uradah after a family property at Longreach.
It has operated as a hostel run by the Society of the Divine Word, and subsequently became Roseville Restaurant.
In the early 1980s alterations and additions associated with its conversion to the restaurant included redecorated interiors, new stained glass work and renovated verandahs. A new double-storeyed service building was added at the rear, and the original kitchen wing was modernised. A timber stable building at the rear was demolished.
","criteria":"Roseville is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history as evidence of the development of the Teneriffe area.
|Roseville demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1880s Brisbane residence.
|Roseville is significant for its contribution to the townscape character of Teneriffe Hill and exhibits aesthetic characteristics which are valued by the local community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15043,"place_ref":600268,"name":"Teneriffe House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"37 Teneriffe Drive","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-05-14","description":"Teneriffe House is a large, single-storeyed brick and timber residence located on a hill overlooking the Bulimba reach of the Brisbane River. The principal entrance is at the rear facing Teneriffe Drive, as the front of the house takes advantage of the river views.
The house comprises four sections:
The core (1865 & 1880s) is a well-proportioned, rendered brick building with a hipped roof of corrugated iron and stone foundations. It is encircled by wide verandahs with slender cast-iron columns. The front verandah is 6 metres deep and has cedar fretwork trusses and a sprung floor. The western, or rear, verandah has been enclosed. Dominating the western facade is a rendered portico with entablature, shaped pediment and decorative urns. Beyond the portico a formal entrance leads to a central vestibule, from which radiate four large rooms with cedar joinery and marble mantelpieces. Wide french doors with tall arched panels of glass open onto the verandahs from the two rear rooms. The large front room is divided by an ornamented archway and folding cedar doors. It has large step out windows which telescope into decorative timber panels. The main building now contains two flats.
Attached to the southern end of the rear verandah is a small masonry strong room, with a built-in safe. Adjacent to the strongroom, a timber wing runs east to west. This may be the original 1865 service wing. The verandah along its southern side has been enclosed, but that on the northern side survives. This wing has been converted into two flats, but some of the rooms retain c1920s timber panelling and plasterwork.
To the south a timber wing (c1880s) is connected to the core via the verandahs. Although more modest in scale and materials, it has the same french doors as the core, a double fireplace with marble surrounds, and a small oriel window and folding dividing doors in the long southern room. It has been divided into two flats.
To the southeast is a rendered brick building (c1880s) which once contained a skylit billiard room. Built into the side of the hill at a lower level than the other buildings, it has a walk-on flat roof with a concrete parapet or balustrade. Part of the roof structure has collapsed.
Despite the conversion to flats, Teneriffe House remains substantially intact in form, fabric and detail.
","history":"This large hilltop residence was built in 1865 for Hon. James Gibbon, MLC and property speculator. The house was designed by Melbourne architect William Henry Ellerker, who had won the Queensland Parliament House competition in 1864, and who practised briefly in Brisbane from 1864 to 1866.
In 1854 Gibbon had purchased about 48 hectares of land along the ridge dividing New Farm from Newstead, and named the property Teneriffe. He resided at a number of addresses, including Eskgrove (QHR 600187) at Kangaroo Point and Kingsholme in nearby New Farm, until commissioning the construction of Teneriffe House in 1865.
When completed at a cost of £1,715, Teneriffe House was described as a residence of very superior character, occupying a prominent hilltop position from which it could be seen for many miles. It was constructed of rendered brick on a stone foundation, with ten feet wide verandahs on all sides, and a slate roof. Folding doors separated the large drawing and dining rooms, which each measured 18 feet by 16 feet. The kitchen, pantries and servants' quarters were detached.
In 1882 the property was subdivided, and the house on 2.6 hectares was acquired by Brisbane importer Robert W Wilson, who carried out extensive renovations. It is likely the southern wing and the billiards wing were added at this time. By mid-1886 the main house contained a large drawing room 40 feet by 21 feet, a dining room 26 x 18 feet, a butler's pantry in the recess leading to the kitchen, four bedrooms, two dressing rooms, three bathrooms with plunge and shower baths, and nursery. The front verandah had been extended to 20 feet in depth, and all the verandah posts had been replaced with decorative iron columns. A detached rendered brick building with a flat parapet roof, had been erected, and this contained a billiard room, three bedrooms, and a lavatory. The service wing contained a kitchen, servant's hall, three servant's bedrooms, pantry with fireproof strongroom, storeroom and double cellar. The house was fitted with electric bells, and gas was laid on throughout both house and outbuildings. These included laundry, stables, coachhouse, men's rooms, harness and feed rooms, groom's cottage and a four-roomed gate lodge. The grounds were extensively landscaped, and included a fernery and tennis lawn.
Wilson sold the contents of his home in December 1885, and he and his family returned to England. During the second half of the 1880s, Teneriffe House was occupied by GH Green, manager of the Brisbane branch of the Commercial Bank of Sydney. He was succeeded as bank manager c1891 by David J Abercrombie, who also succeeded to the occupancy of Teneriffe House. The Abercrombies lived at Teneriffe House for nearly 30 years.
In 1905 Reginald Edward Rowe Hillcoat, a North Queensland grazier, acquired Teneriffe House, and the Hillcoat family resided there from 1919. The interior of the western wing, which may have been the first kitchen wing, appears to have been remodelled about this time. Following Hillcoat's death in 1925, the property was subdivided. At this time the Brisbane City Council resumed just over 3.5 acres, which included the original orchard, for park purposes, with compensation of £1,750 to the Hillcoat estate. This resumption survives as Teneriffe Park.
Teneriffe House remains the property of Reginald Hillcoat's descendants. His wife and one of his two daughters lived in the house until their deaths in 1938 and 1983 respectively, but in the late 1960s, the residence was converted into flats.
","criteria":"Teneriffe House is significant for its strong association with, and as the focal point of, the early development of Teneriffe. This large residence embodies structural and stylistic changes dating from the 1860s to the 1920s, in which are reflected changing affluent lifestyles and tastes in Brisbane.
|The wide front verandah and the detached billiard room with its trafficable roof are rare in 19th century Brisbane domestic building. The core of Teneriffe House remains one of Brisbane's few surviving 1860s houses, and one of the few known Brisbane works by Melbourne architect W H Ellerker.
|(Criterion under review)
|The core of Teneriffe House remains one of Brisbane's few surviving 1860s houses, and one of the few known Brisbane works by Melbourne architect W H Ellerker.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15044,"place_ref":600269,"name":"Eulalia","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"75 McIlwraith Avenue","suburb":"NORMAN PARK","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Built on a prominent hill with expansive views, Eulalia is a single-storeyed house with two rear wings, rendered brick walls and a hipped slate roof.
The entire block on which Eulalia and the adjacent Early Street Historical Village are located is planted with mature gums, palm trees, bunya pines, jacarandas and bougainvillea and many other species, making it a dominant landmark in an otherwise typical suburban setting and one of the few surviving examples of mature planting in the area. These plantings are also instrumental in conveying an impression of the original semi-rural setting of Eulalia.
Associated structures on the site include a tank stand and a substantially modified coach house.
The house faces north and comprises a pedimented entrance porch leading onto a wide verandah, flanked by two projecting bays. The verandah continues around three sides of the house, featuring a cast iron balustrade separated by tapered octagonal timber posts with decorative capitals and fretwork brackets. The principal timber is beech.
Tessellated floor tiles continue from the slate steps at the porch through the entry and into the wide hallway. The main door is panelled, with leaded glass sidelights and an etched fanlight featuring gum leaves, a swallow and a dragonfly. A similarly lit doorway is located at the opposite end of the hall. On the right of the hallway are separate drawing and dining rooms, the former incorporating a window bay with Doric fluted columns and pilasters on either side, and the latter a set of cedar folding doors which can be folded back to create one large area incorporating the hallway. On the left of the hall are the master bed, dressing and sitting rooms.
Joinery throughout the house is of cedar, including architraves and pedimented overdoors which reach almost to the plaster cornice of sixteen feet high ceilings. The ornate drawing room mantelpiece is of a mahogany, whilst others are of oak. The long sash windows which open from the main rooms onto the verandah feature hinged dog-doors at floor level.
At the end of the hall, the house divides into two wings, one dowel-balustraded verandah on the left leading to the bathroom and two bedrooms, and the other on the right to the former study and service rooms including a kitchen, pantry, maid's room and laundry. A large cellar is located beneath this wing.
","history":"Eulalia is a single-storeyed brick house which was constructed in 1889. The land on which the house stands was first bought by August Dimper who purchased 88 acres in 1860. In 1888, the land was further subdivided and 22 acres was purchased by Patrick Real.
In the following year Real employed Brisbane architects, John Hall & Sons to design a house for the site and Morley Whitehead of Ipswich were subsequently contracted to build Eulalia, a Greek word meaning speaking well of everybody. At this period, John Smith Murdoch was employed in the office of John Hall and Sons and it is possible that he may have been the designer for Eulalia.
Patrick Real was the son of impoverished Irish emigrants and left school at twelve to become an apprentice carpenter and later to work at the Ipswich Railways Workshops (QHR 601526). After deciding on a legal career, he studied law and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-seven. By the time he built Eulalia in 1889, his practice was one of the largest in Queensland. Real was appointed to the bench in 1890 and in 1903 he became Senior Puisne Judge. He retired in 1922 and died in 1928.
After Real's death, the house was closed and left vacant for a decade during which time it fell victim to vandals and the weather, becoming known locally as the haunted house. Most of the land had been subdivided and sold by 1925 leaving a property of about 2.2 hectares surrounding the house.
In 1938 Eulalia was bought by Stanley and Sheilah Hancock who restored the property, discovering many items in the gardens where they had been discarded by vandals, and re-instating them in the house.
The Hancock family first arrived in Queensland when they moved from Sydney to Ipswich in the late 1850s. The family established a successful timber milling business which involved five generations of the Hancock family and continued until the late 1970s.
Stanley Hancock was president of the National Trust of Queensland from 1974 to 1978. This was a period when a number of National Trust of Queensland properties were established including Bellevue Homestead (QHR 600492), Claremont (QHR 600589) and Brennan and Geraghty's (QHR 600704).
Whilst Eulalia was a family home for the Hancocks, they also used it as a venue for fundraising functions for a number of Brisbane charities.
This 'public' use of Eulalia was further expanded in 1965, when the Hancocks established Earlystreet Historical Village in the grounds of Eulalia. The establishment of the Village is the earliest known example of the Queensland practice of creating 'historical villages' by moving various buildings to one central site. It is therefore demonstrative of the development of conservation practice and theory in Queensland.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1889, Eulalia and its grounds are important for the evidence they provide of the way of life of prosperous citizens in the outer reaches of Brisbane in the late nineteenth century.
|The house is important as an example of a fine quality 1880s Queensland residence of masonry construction that is substantially intact, both externally and internally. It is also an uncommon example of a 19th century residence still located in substantial grounds which separate it from the surrounding suburban development. The grounds and gardens, which contain mature plantings including gums, palm trees, bunya pines, jacarandas and bougainvillea contribute to the overall integrity of the place.
|It has several rare and highly decorative architectural features, including the verandahs surrounding the bay windows and their finely detailed verandah posts and brackets. These features, combined with the fine quality of interior finishes and fittings, including cedar joinery, internal pilasters and columns, and flooring of tessellated tiles give Eulalia considerable aesthetic significance.
|Its prominent location and mature plantings ensure that the entire site is a significant landmark in the area.
|Eulalia is significant for its association with its first owner, the Hon. Patrick Real Senior who was a prominent Brisbane lawyer and Puisne Judge in the early 1890s and is perpetuated in the surrounding streets, including Judge, Patrick and Real Streets. Katherine Street is named after a family member.
It is also significant for its association with its second owner, Stanley Hancock who was President of the National Trust of Queensland from 1974 to 1978, and was influential in the early conservation of Queensland's heritage.
Eulalia also has strong association with the adjacent Early Street Historical Village, established in 1965 in conjunction with the house by the Hancocks as the first known heritage property in Queensland to be promoted as a tourist and educational attraction.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15046,"place_ref":600271,"name":"Nundah Cemetery","alternate_name":"German Station Cemetery","street_address":"88 Hedley Avenue","suburb":"NUNDAH","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The cemetery reserve is located on a small, elliptical ridge above Kedron Brook at Nundah, adjacent to Albert Bishop Park. The entrance has a westerly aspect to Hedley Avenue.
Native trees have been planted recently around the perimeter, but the cemetery itself is exposed and the land subject to erosion. Many of the pathways have been concreted to prevent further deterioration.
The cemetery is crowded, with little order to the layout of graves, and no denominational segregation.
It contains a variety of headstone and decorative memorial monument types, from high Victorian to modern stella. An on-going restoration programme has resulted in many of these being refurbished or replaced, and a number of plaques have been erected on graves of particular historical note.
Toward the front of the reserve, and amidst the gravesites, is an hexagonal rotunda. Constructed of timber posts with arched batten infilling to each facet, the structure is capped by a steeply pitched asbestos tile roof, with terracotta ridging and centre finial. The rotunda was renovated in the 1980s.
The cemetery furnishes a unique record of the families who developed Nundah and surrounding districts from 1838. Included amongst the graves are those of many of the early German missionaries and their families, and that of former Queensland Premier Sir James Dickson (1898-9).
","history":"The cemetery was established in the 1840s by a small group of German Lutheran missionaries who, in 1838, had founded Queensland's first free settlement, at Zion's Hill above Kedron Brook.
Only one death had been recorded at the German Station by 1845, but several children died the following year, and the cemetery is indicated on an 1846 sketch by missionary Carl Gerler.
Certainly the site had been established as a graveyard before James Warner first surveyed it as a cemetery reserve in 1862. None of the wooden crosses marking the earliest graves has survived, but the oldest headstone dates to March 1855.
Although the German Station mission was wound down between 1844 and 1850, several of the missionary families remained in the area. From amongst these settlers the first trustees of the German Station Cemetery were appointed in 1866. Various trustees administered the cemetery until 1930, when the Brisbane City Council took control.
In 1914 a small shelter pavilion was erected at the cemetery. It was designed by architect John Henry Burley, who practised in Brisbane from 1886 until 1936. The builder was J MacDonald, and the structure cost £175.
In 1963 the cemetery was closed.
A sexton resided in the cemetery grounds from at least the 1890s, but since 1975 one sexton based at Lutwyche has cared for the Bald Hills, Lutwyche and Nundah cemeteries. The Nundah sexton's house has been demolished.
In 1982 the Nundah Historic Cemetery Preservation Association was formed to help tend and restore the site.
","criteria":"Queensland's oldest surviving cemetery and the first to be associated with free settlement in the colony.
|A unique source of historical information.
|Its aesthetic quality and contribution to the Nundah townscape
|An expression of aspects of the social, religious, economic and artistic life of the local community, and of its attitudes, values and tastes.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15047,"place_ref":600272,"name":"Toombul Shire Hall (former)","alternate_name":"Toombul Divisional Board Offices","street_address":"1141 Sandgate Road","suburb":"NUNDAH","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former Toombul Shire Hall is located flush to the pavement on Sandgate Road, a major arterial road to the northern suburbs and Bruce Highway.
It is a long, narrow building designed to combine the functions of municipal offices and public hall, with the offices at the front of the building sharing a central entrance and vestibule with the public hall behind. Verandahs run either side down the length of the hall, with brick-based and asbestos-clad toilet blocks attached to the southern verandah.
The building is timber-framed and incorporates a gradation in cladding fabric: a brick facade to Sandgate Road; chamferboard walls to the offices; and corrugated iron sheeting to the hall behind.
The classically styled facade of red brickwork with white strings and arches features a central round-arched portico with low-arched openings on either side, forming a brick balustraded verandah to the left, and an office to the right. A front ramp for wheelchair access is a recent addition.
At the front the building rests on shallow brick foundations, but as the land slopes away towards the rear these are replaced by timber stumps.
Above the public hall is a long gabled roof of corrugated iron with tall galvanised ventilators along the crown.
The office section has a hipped roof, also iron covered, with a steeply pitched pediment over the entrance portico. The pediment is infilled with imitation half-timbering.
The site includes a sizeable area of land to the rear which has been utilised as a works depot housing a number of sheds and equipment. The ground facing Sandgate Road to the south of the hall has been asphalted and fenced with wire mesh. There are no visible remains of any landscaping.
","history":"The former Toombul Shire Hall at Nundah was constructed in 1891 as a combination of municipal offices and public hall for the Toombul Divisional Board.
Construction of the 1891 building was made necessary following the 1890 separation of the Town of Hamilton from the Division of Toombul, which had been created under the Divisional Boards Act of 1879. Following this split the Hamilton Town Council met at the Toombul Divisional Board's old offices at Breakfast Creek, and the Toombul Divisional Board rented premises at Nundah until they could afford the construction of new offices.
In mid-1891 Toombul Divisional Board approached architects John Hall and Son to design sketch plans for new divisional board offices. This architectural firm had designed the South Brisbane Town Hall, which was under construction. The Board agreed on 1 August 1891 that the architects be instructed to prepare plans for board offices, a hall and a clerk's residence, from amended sketch plans. It appears that the clerk's residence was located to the south of the offices and hall, on the Board's property, fronting Sandgate Road.
An application to the colonial treasury for a loan of £1400 was refused, but the Council went ahead with construction in late 1891, probably using day labour. By 2 January 1892 the Toombul Divisional Board was meeting in its new boardroom. Construction had strained the Board's budget, and by early 1892 the Board's bank account was overdrawn by £1460.
Rentals for use of the hall were set at 10 shillings per evening for religious services and 30 shillings per night for balls and functions.
Toombul Divisional Board became Toombul Shire Council in 1903, following the introduction of the Local Government Act of 1902. Toombul Shire Hall remained the property of Toombul Shire Council, continuing to serve the local community as shire offices and public hall, until taken over by the Brisbane City Council following the creation of Greater Brisbane in 1925. Subsequently the site was used as a works depot and the building as the regional health inspector's office and public hall.
In 1928 a skillion-roofed meeting room was added at the rear, side verandahs were attached to the hall and wing spaces were created on the stage.
In 1987-88 the Brisbane City Council undertook restorative and renovation work which included interior and exterior painting in heritage colours, repair and repointing of the exterior brickwork, re-roofing and recladding of the hall walls with galvanised corrugated iron, replacement of timbers in the pediment, and opening up of the northern verandah, which had been enclosed by this date.
The building continues to serve the local community as a popular function and meeting venue.
","criteria":"The former Toombul Shire Hall, erected in 1891, is significant historically for its association with the work of the Toombul Divisional Board and Toombul Shire Council for over 3 decades, and is significant as a late 19th century expression of local authority status within a Queensland community.
|It is the only surviving, non-masonry shire hall retained by the Brisbane City Council.
|The building remains substantially intact, and is an excellent example of 19th century, timber-framed, municipal hall construction in Queensland. The gradation in materials from brick facade to timber-clad front offices to galvanised iron hall, remains an evocative illustration of the tight financial budgets under which most Queensland divisional boards operated.
|The place is important for its landmark quality and aesthetic and historic contribution to the Nundah townscape.
|The former Toombul Shire Hall, erected in 1891, is significant historically for its association with the work of the Toombul Divisional Board and Toombul Shire Council for over 3 decades, and is significant as a late 19th century expression of local authority status within a Queensland community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15048,"place_ref":600273,"name":"Workers' Dwelling No.1","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"35 Surrey Street","suburb":"NUNDAH","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This is a small, high-set weatherboard house with a short ridge corrugated iron roof, a full width front verandah with a convex iron roof which is now enclosed, and a half width rear verandah, also enclosed.
Scalloped galvanised iron window shades enhance the side windows, which are sash type.
The interior of the core consists of a central hallway and four rooms, with a hipped-roof kitchen projecting at the rear.
Exterior modifications have detracted from the building's decorative appeal. In the process of enclosing the front verandah with timber cladding and aluminium windows, a dowelled balustrade, verandah gate and decorative timber posts with capitals and fretwork brackets have been lost. Modern quad guttering has replaced the original ogee profile and acroteria. Timber stumps have been supplanted by concrete and the front fence has been replaced.
","history":"This house was constructed in 1910 for Caroline and Otto Gustav Weissner, and was the first home constructed under the provisions of the Queensland Workers' Dwelling Act of 1909.
\nThe Weissners acquired the Nundah site in June 1909, and on 14 March 1910 they made the first application for housing assistance under the new Act.
\nThe result was a mortgage of £190 to the Workers' Dwelling Board, and construction of the house at a total cost of £220. The mortgage was released in August 1925, when the property changed ownership.
\nThe design - which probably emanated from the architectural office of the Worker's Dwelling Scheme - was conservative, economical, and typical of Queensland vernacular working class housing of the period.
\nThe Workers' Dwelling Act, administered as the Workers' Dwelling Scheme, provided for persons whose income was less than £400 per annum, and who owned a suitable site but no house, to be advanced up to two-thirds of the total value of the site plus the proposed dwelling, to the maximum of three hundred pounds. Loans were to be repaid over twenty years at 5% interest.
\nThe scheme was an early Queensland government initiative to assist working class families to build and purchase their own homes, and was the precursor to the Queensland Housing Commission.
\nDuring the three decades in which the Workers' Dwelling Scheme was in operation, government assistance provided for the construction of 23,515 houses throughout Queensland, and largely created Brisbane's suburban sprawl of the 1920s and 1930s.
\nThe popularity of the 'workers dwelling' and later the 'Queenslander' is directly attributable to the success of the Workers' Dwelling Scheme.
","criteria":"Workers' Dwelling No 1, erected in 1910, is significant as the first house to be constructed under the provisions of the influential Workers' Dwelling Act of 1909.
|It is representative of the 'timber and tin' housing which predominated in Queensland prior to the Second World War, as a direct result of the Workers' Dwelling Scheme.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15049,"place_ref":600274,"name":"Ithaca War Memorial and Park","alternate_name":"Alexander Jolly Park","street_address":"Enoggera Terrace","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Ithaca Memorial Park is located on a south sloping site on the side of a ridge, fronting Enoggera Terrace to the north and with a steep embankment to Latrobe Terrace below to the south. A bitumen path leads down at the eastern side boundary to Latrobe Terrace below. Another asphalt path, at a lesser gradient, sweeps up around the southwestern side of the memorial to Enoggera Terrace. The site includes two mature ficus trees on the western side and a planted embankment down to Latrobe Terrace.
The First World War Memorial comprises a pedestal and column surmounted by a clock with a face on all four sides. It sits on a square concrete platform and is surrounded by dry stone retaining walls and a concrete path. Steps lead to the memorial from each of the four sides forming a cross in plan, with the overall geometry softened by planting, retaining walls and the steep slope of the site.
The sandstone memorial sits on a smooth faced base step which is surmounted by a larger step of sandstone blocks with tapered sides. On the front face of this is a marble plaque. The pedestal comprises a recessed square pillar with engaged columns at each corner. Each face bears a recessed marble plate with the leaded names of the 130 men who died. The columns have Composite order capitals and bases and support a large entablature. The frieze has relief carved festoons on each face and has a small dentil course under the cornice which is composed of cyma recta and cyma reversa mouldings.
The entablature is surmounted by a square pillar on a slightly larger square base. Each face bears a semi circular recess with the word Ithaca carved in relief and pateras on each side. Above this is the pillar itself. Each face has a recessed panel with moulding and on the side facing Enoggera Terrace are two relief carved flags with the inscription Honour the Brave below. The pillar is surmounted by the clock which comprises a clock face on each side with hood moulds over each face. The top of the memorial is rounded and crowned by a sandstone sphere.
","history":"The Ithaca War Memorial and Park was created c.1922 by a committee on behalf of Ithaca citizens. The monument was designed and executed by Brisbane monumental masonry firm A H Thurlow, under the supervision of R Black, the Ithaca town engineer. The stone memorial honours the 130 local men who died on active service during the First World War. The park was laid out by Ithaca Town Council landscape gardener, Alexander Jolly.
The park is situated on a parcel of land sandwiched between Enoggera and Latrobe Terraces on Cooks Hill. It was, and remains crown land designated for road purposes, but by 1922 the cutting along Latrobe Terrace negated future road use. The road survives only in the asphalted walkway beside the park, linking Enoggera and Latrobe Terraces.
In the first decade of the 20th century, Ithaca experienced a housing and population boom largely attributable to the expansion of the tramways through the area. Subsequently, in the 1910s the Ithaca Town Council embarked on a programme of civic improvements which included the formation and metalling of roads; tree planting; and the establishment of numerous embankment gardens, small reserves and street gardens.
Because of the hilly terrain, many of the new streets were divided, leaving embankments which the Ithaca Town Council considered were cheaper to plant and beautify than to cut down. This innovation in Brisbane civic landscaping led to the Council receiving numerous requests from other councils, interstate as well as Queensland, for photographs and plans of Ithaca street improvements. The War Memorial Park is one of the few areas from this period to have survived. Only small sections of the Waterworks Road rockeries remain, and most of the Cook's Hill garden was destroyed when the Paddington Tramways Substation was erected in 1929-30.
The Ithaca War Memorial was unveiled on 25 February 1922 by Sir Matthew Nathan, Governor of Queensland. The final cost totaling 650 was raised by the local community with fund raising beginning by September 1920.
Australia, and Queensland in particular, had few civic monuments before the First World War. The memorials erected in its wake became our first national monuments, recording the devastating impact of the war on a young nation. Australia lost 60 000 from a population of about 4 million, representing one in five of those who served. No previous or subsequent war has made such an impact on the nation.
Even before the end of the war, memorials became a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief. To those who erected them, they were as sacred as grave sites, substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East. British policy decreed that the Empire war dead were to be buried where they fell. The word 'cenotaph', commonly applied to war memorials at the time, literally means 'empty tomb'.
Australian war memorials are distinctive in that they commemorate not only the dead. Australians were proud that their first great national army, unlike other belligerent armies, was composed entirely of volunteers, men worthy of honour whether or not they paid the supreme sacrifice. Many memorials honour all who served from a locality, not just the dead, providing valuable evidence of community involvement in the war. Such evidence is not readily obtainable from military records, or from state or national listings, where names are categorised alphabetically or by military unit.
Australian war memorials are also valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time, not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste. In Queensland, the soldier statue was the popular choice of memorial, whereas the obelisk predominated in the southern states, possibly a reflection of Queensland's larger working-class population and a lesser involvement of architects.
Many of the First World War monuments have been updated to record local involvement in later conflicts, and some have fallen victim to unsympathetic re-location and repair.
There were many different types of war memorials erected in Queensland, however, clock towers were comparatively rare. The memorial at Ithaca is the earliest of this type of memorial, and is the only one of its type in Brisbane. The clock was manufactured by the well-known Synchronome Electric Company of Brisbane, initially driven by a master clock in the adjacent fire station.
At the time of unveiling the hill top on which the memorial is located was bare, permitting the memorial to be a dominant landmark. Now that trees have become established, the landmark qualities of the memorial itself have diminished somewhat. However, the setting and location still forms a landmark within the streetscape.
The landscaping of the park was carried out by Alexander Jolly, Ithaca Town Council landscape gardener (and father of the first Mayor of Greater Brisbane, William Jolly). Son of a Scottish farmer, and a horticultural enthusiast, Jolly had arrived in Brisbane in 1879, aged 22 years. He was head gardener on Alexander Stewart's Glen Lyon estate at Ashgrove for at least seven years before he went to work for the Ithaca Town Council.
Jolly was a self-educated man, whose lifetime of gardening experience transformed the Ithaca townscape in the period c.1915-25. Other landscaping works by Jolly included the rockeries along Musgrave and Waterworks Roads and the landscaping of Cook's Hill. After his death in c1925, the memorial park was renamed the Alexander Jolly Park, "in memory of one of the most esteemed men in the district", and as a "unique tribute . . . to the pick and shovel".
The Alexander Jolly Park, now known as Ithaca Memorial Park, has been maintained by the Brisbane City Council since 1925.
","criteria":"War Memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state. They provide evidence of an era of widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism, particularly during and following the First World War.
|It is rare as the earliest example of the clock tower type of memorial.
|The monuments manifest a unique documentary record and are demonstrative of popular taste in the inter-war period.
Erected c1922, the memorial at Ithaca demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event. This is achieved through the use of appropriate materials and design elements.
|The aesthetic qualities and landmark value of the memorial in its purpose-designed setting contributes to the Paddington townscape.
|It has a strong and continuing association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and as a focal point for remembrance of that event. The park also has special associations with landscape gardener Alexander Jolly as one of the few remaining examples of his work, and with monumental masonry firm A H Thurlow.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15050,"place_ref":600275,"name":"Government House","alternate_name":"Fernberg","street_address":"170 Fernberg Road","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Fernberg is situated on a rise that is approximately 100 metres above sea level overlooking the city in the south-east and Mt Coot-tha to the west. The 15 hectares of grounds comprise formal, ornamental gardens around the main house, ancillary administration, staff and maintenance buildings, the whole of which is surrounded by native bushland. The site is bounded by Fernberg Road, Kaye Street, Baroona Road and Murruba Street.
The Main House
Government House is basically a two storied building with a basement level. Stylistically the building demonstrates Victorian Italianate characteristics such as asymmetrical massing, a prominent tower employing classical motifs, a balustraded roof parapet, bracketed eaves, segmental arch openings and a stucco wall finish.
The earliest section of the house is the 1860s wing which is located at the southern most part of the house. The formal entry to the house is via the 1880's section of the house and the 1937 addition form the eastern wing of the house.
Internally the main focus of the building is its large central foyer that has a large fireplace, timber panelled dados and an intricately carved timber staircase, over shadowed by a large stained glass window depicting a life size Robert the Bruce. The principal rooms located at ground level are the formal reception and dining rooms, and the Governor's study. Each of the rooms is substantially intact however their decorative schemes have been subject to several refurbishments. Original furniture from the Old Government House still remains in these rooms.
At the upper level are the private bedrooms of the Governor and several guest bedrooms that are located in the southern (earliest) wing of the house. These guest rooms were subject to major renovations in 1981-82 and currently are furnished to reflect Australian interiors prior to 1900.
The principal rooms in the basement level of the house are the investiture room, billiard room, private dining room and the kitchen. The interiors of these areas have been greatly altered and some alterations to the original layout have occurred.
Original joinery, partitions, openings and fittings remain extensively through the entire house.
The Grounds
The Government House grounds consist mainly of two different types of gardens; formal and natural bushland. The formal gardens comprise about 25% of the property with the rest being bushland.
The formal gardens include the developed garden areas as well as the drives, paths, retaining walls and steps. Generally, the selection of plant material in this section is exotic and decorative, with some old remnant native trees. There is extensive use of mown grass surfacing in these areas.
The bushland areas are characterised by the presence of remnant Eucalypt forest and the lack of extensive built development. Several paths meander through the area. Several gullies feed into a slightly larger stream in the bottom south eastern corner.
The Ancillary Buildings
The Lodge (built <1910, relocated to site from Old Government House) is a timber building located next to the vice-regal entrance gates. The building, which has two projecting gables, has been extensively altered over a long period of time.
The Chauffer's Residence (built 1923) is a spacious timber house with a gabled roof. The building has a verandah attached to two sides and has a faceted bay at the front.
The Garages (built 1935) are a timber structure with a galvanised iron roof crown with a fleche and weathervane. The garage contains space for seven cars in three separate rooms, and several other small rooms.
The Staff Accommodation (built 1937) is a two storied brick and concrete building located south-west of the main house. The building is substantially intact despite several refurbishments.
The Administration Cottage (built 1948) is a single storied brick building containing several offices, bedrooms and sitting room for the Aide-de-Camp, the Personal Assistant to the Governor and some guest accommodation.
The Gardener's Residence (built 1959) is a standard public service D Type residence.
The Butler's and the Chef's Residences (built 1984 and 1986) are recent constructions as are the two staff garages located nearby.
","history":"The land on which the Government House stands was originally granted as two separate portions. Portion 223 was bought in May 1860 by John Christian Heussler, who also purchased the adjoining portion 291 two years later in partnership with George Reinhard Francksen. In 1864 Francksen died and the land passed to Heussler. At that time the landscape in this outlying suburb of Brisbane may have been close to undeveloped natural bushland.
Hon Johann (John) Christian Heussler M.L.C., 1820-1907, was a native of Germany who emigrated to Victoria, Australia in 1852. Due to poor health he moved to Brisbane 1854 and established the mercantile firm Heussler and Co. Over two decades Heussler became a highly respected business man and citizen of Queensland. He was recognised as a founding member of the Queensland Club, Consul for the Netherlands, German Consul, and Emigration Agent for German shipping companies. In 1866 he was appointed to the Legislative Council.
Heussler is believed to have built his home Fernberg in 1865, giving it a name of German origin that meant "distant mountain". The design of the house is attributed to Benjamin Backhouse, an architect responsible for several substantial commissions in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Local examples of his work include other villa residences such as Baroona (QHR 600289), Cinta (QHR 600054), Riversleigh and Bishopsbourne (QHR 600254). Due to financial difficulties, Heussler was forced to leave the property in 1872 and for the next five years Fernberg was leased. In November 1877 the estate was advertised for sale. The house and grounds were described as being:
Built of brick and stone, being four stories high, having below kitchen and servants' room; on the ground floor spacious drawing, dining, and breakfast rooms; on the first floor three large bedrooms, and one large room on the second floor. The roof is covered with slates, the verandahs and balconies being spacious, and presenting a delightful retreat for the enjoyment of pure air, shade and widespread and charming view.
The grounds are all enclosed, the timber having been thinned so to give the place a park-like appearance, and there is a shrubbery and garden around the house.
The property was transferred to George and Nathan Cohen in 1878, neither of who resided in the house. John Stevenson, a successful pastoralist, stock and station agent and member of the Legislative Assembly, bought Fernberg in the mid 1880's and commissioned architect, Richard Gailey in 1888 to design extensive additions and alterations to the house. The scheme was a major undertaking which more than doubled the size of the original house, and altered the building from an 1860's villa to an Italianate Mansion. The new section had stuccoed detailing, faceted bays and the main entrance was orientated northwards and marked by a tower. These additions made the residence very close to the road, however following the "straightening" of Fernberg Road, the original road became the driveway. The road was transformed into a winding avenue that led to both the front and side entrances. In 1890 a fountain, gates and gate pillars were erected in the grounds that were well established with trees and shrubs. Various other outbuildings and structures were also developed on the property and included: a coach house, five stall stable, harness room, tool room, man's room, laundry, gymnasium, aviary, fowl house, closets, bush house, glass house and asphalt tennis court. The 1890's economic depression brought an end to Stevenson's fortune and by 1895 the property was mortgaged to William Pattison and Walter Russell Hall. Two years later Hall, a well-known philanthropist who had made his fortune from gold at Mount Morgan, took possession of the residence however he chose never to live at the property.
The decision to lease Fernberg as a temporary Vice-regal residence was made in February 1910 following the formal dedication of the original Government House (QHR 600118) as a University on 10 December 1909. At the same time, plans for a new Government House to be erected at Victoria Park were being prepared, however work on the new House never progressed beyond the construction of footings. In June 1911, despite reports that the residence was too small, the government purchased Fernberg. Alterations and renovations carried out immediately included painting, new floor coverings, the installation of electric light, metalling, gravelling, and rolling of roadways and fencing. Several buildings from the former Government House site were moved to Fernberg in 1910-11 to provide accommodation for offices, a billiard room and apartments for the Private Secretary and ADC. A lodge and servants' quarters were also relocated to the site. A chauffeur's cottage was built in 1923, and a commodious timber garage erected in 1935.
Formal gardens were initially developed in 1910, primarily for the purpose of providing functional spaces for Vice-Regal garden parties and fund-raising events. Generally the selection of plant material in these garden areas was exotic, mostly ornamental and some native trees. Surrounding the gardens was the original bushland that covered about 70% of the entire grounds. In comparison to the formal gardens, the bushland received very little attention except for the successive clearing of the understorey plants and later of sapling and shrub regrowth. In 1928 "woodland walks" were created by Governor Sir John and Lady Goodwin through the bushland behind Government House. Paths were created, foot bridges constructed and various native plants introduced, such as jacarandas, wattles and poinsettias.
In September 1936, suggestions to relocate the Governor back to the original residence were raised by the then Governor, Sir Leslie Wilson. Despite serious consideration, the Premier and Cabinet rejected the idea and instead proposed substantial additions to Fernberg thus settling the issue of a permanent Government House. Governor and Lady Wilson were both intimately involved in the plans for additions that were designed by the Department of Public Works. The extent of the 1937 additions included construction of a new eastern wing that contained a large reception room, billiards and supper room and a new bedroom with ensuite. To give coherency to the entire building, the entire exterior of Fernberg was painted cream. New maids' quarters and a laundry were built separate to the main house.
Minor internal alterations were carried out on Fernberg in the mid 1940's after a change of Governor and in anticipation of visits by various members of the Royal Family. Pressure for additional accommodation for the Governor's private staff in the late 1940's resulted in the construction of a single storied brick Auxiliary Building. This building replaced the earlier timber building that had been relocated onto the site in 1910 and was subsequently moved to another site in Bardon. In 1950 a brick Administration building and a new coverway with port cochère were erected. The entire complex was painted white at this time.
In 1953 a balcony with a concrete staircase leading to the ground level, was constructed, opening off the Reception Room. Doors and windows in the Billiards Rooms were altered so that they opened out onto a terrace beneath the balcony.
Additional residences for staff accommodation were introduced in 1959, 1984 and 1986. A tennis court and swimming pool were built in 1959-60. Air conditioning services were first introduced in 1957 and were extended in 1978. Refurbishment of the original section of Fernberg, referred to as the Guest Wing, was carried out in 1981-82. A new Guard House was constructed in 1987 and substantial internal works involving the refurbishment of the reception areas were also carried out in the same year. The main house underwent major external refurbishment and painting again in 1992.
Late in 1992 one hectare of Government House grounds was taken over by the Department of Transport as part of the widening of Kaye Street. The result of these works is the construction of substantial retaining walls along the western perimeter of the property.
The Governors
In the period 1910-37, when Fernberg was considered a temporary Government House, it served as the home for five Governors.
1909-14\tSIR WILLIAM MACGREGOR, Scottish born governor who signed \tthe University Act providing the newly inaugurated University of \tQueensland with a home. He reputedly chose Fernberg because of the \tgrounds in which it stood.
1915-20\tSIR HAMILTON JOHN GOOLD-ADAMS, Irish born governor who \tplayed a prominent role in Queensland's politics during his \tappointment.
1920-25\tSIR MATTHEW NATHAN
1927-32\tSIR THOMAS HERBERT JOHN CHAPMAN GOODWIN
1932-46\tSIR LESLIE ORME WILSON, Queensland's longest serving governor \twho prompted major additions to Fernberg.
Following the declaration of Fernberg as the permanent Government House, the following Governors have resided at the property:
1946-57\tSIR JOHN LAVARACK, first Australian born governor
1958-66\tSIR HENRY ABEL SMITH, Queensland's last English born governor
1966-72\tSIR ALAN MANSFIELD
1972-77\tSIR COLIN HANNAH
1977-85\tSIR JAMES RAMSAY
1985-92\tSIR WALTER CAMBELL
1992-97\tHER EXCELLENCY MRS LENEEN FORDE, first female governor
","criteria":"Government House, Bardon, demonstrates the evolution of the government in Queensland, and is particularly important as the official residence of the State Governor since 1911, and the place for many vice regal functions including Royal visits. It is the Queensland's symbol of British colonisation of Australia.
The creation of an animal 'Sanctuary' and the 'Woodland Walks' by Sir John and Lady Goodwin contribute to the early appreciation of native flora and fauna in Queensland.
|The main house, built in 1865 and originally known as Fernberg, is the only remaining substantial residence and villa estate, of almost original proportions, in Brisbane from the 1860's.
|The residence, as a result of extensive additions in the 1880's, is regarded among the finest examples of a Victorian Italianate villa in Brisbane. Other buildings built in the grounds following the conversion of the house into a vice regal residence contribute to the understanding of the Governor's role and the complex of necessary auxiliary services.
|Government House is important for its strong aesthetic qualities that symbolise the wealth and influence of its residents. The residence's setting, situated on a wooded hilltop position with a tower, has been a significant landmark since its construction. The layout of the grounds, particularly the formal gardens and the surrounding bushland contribute significantly to the intrinsic character of the property.
|Government House, Bardon has had important associations with the governors of Queensland since 1911. The house and grounds contain evidence of the contribution of each of the vice regal couples and also records the changes that were made for Royal Tours.
The residence is important for its association with several prominent architects who have contributed to the evolution of Government House; Benjamin Backhouse (1865), Richard Gailey (1880s) and the Department of Public Works (1937). The house also has important associations with several early successful settlers in Brisbane. Among these were John Heussler, who built the house in 1865 and was prominent both in business and public life in Queensland and John Stevenson, a pastoralist, stock and station agent and member of the Legislative Assembly, who epitomised the success of the 1880s boom time by changing an 1860s villa to an Italianate Mansion.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15051,"place_ref":600276,"name":"Warriston","alternate_name":"Berley Flats","street_address":"6-8 Musgrave Road","suburb":"RED HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Warriston stands on the crest above the Normanby Fiveways, on the edge of the suburb of Petrie-Terrace. The building is associated visually with the Normanby Hotel, and together these buildings frame the view of the city from Musgrave Road.
Warriston comprises a pair of two-storeyed, semi-detached timber residences with verandahs on both levels, front and back. They are surmounted by a corrugated iron roof with a single hip to the front, but with a divided roof to the rear. Separated by a brick party wall which does not rise above the roofline, from the street, the two houses appear as a single entity.
A double staircase with a cross-braced timber balustrade leads to the first level, which is high set at the front. Decorative timber detailing to the front verandahs includes cross-braced balustrades with central rosettes, deep valances on the first level, and double posts with capitals and brackets. The rear verandahs have been enclosed.
The side windows, which are sashed, are shaded by galvanised iron hoods with timber fretwork infill and curved timber brackets.
Each house is a mirror reflection of the other, with the front door opening into a long hall along the brick party wall. This hall is broken into two sections by an arched screen, with the stairway rising from the rear.
The core of each house consists of a pair of reception rooms separated by folding doors on the ground floor, and three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, both levels opening onto the verandahs front and back.
The kitchens are located in a single-storeyed, low-set, timber building attached at the rear. It is square in shape with a short-ridged roof of corrugated iron and verandahs to either end.
Although the former houses now function as offices, the fabric and structure are largely intact. Paint analysis has permitted repainting to the original colours.
The building is one of few 19th century semi-detached houses surviving in Brisbane, and is even rarer for its timber construction.
","history":"Warriston was built c1886 for David Pringle Milne, a Brisbane west ward alderman from 1870-76, retired boot and shoe importer/manufacturer, and proprietor of the Glasgow Boot and Shoe Mart in Queen Street. The semi-detached houses may have been named after Warriston, a northern district of Glasgow.
In 1866 and 1874 Milne had acquired two blocks of land fronting Petrie Terrace [renamed Musgrave Road in 1888], and was recorded as resident on the site from the late 1860s. The kitchen houses attached to the present Warriston may be the original Milne residence.
The Milnes occupied No.2 Warriston [the northern house and closest to the corner of Earle Street and Musgrave Road] until David Milne's death in 1897, while the other side was let to a succession of middle-class occupants. These included surveyors WM Davidson and CT Bedford, Albert E Harte [a prominent Queen-street stock and share broker], and Captain James C O'Brien of the Queensland Defence Force. During the 1890s a private school operated in Warriston No.1.
From the 1910s Warriston served as a boarding house, and in the second half of the 20th century was converted into twelve flats [Berley Flats], the verandahs being enclosed and the exterior sheeted with asbestos-cement and stucco.
In 1986-88 new owners undertook a careful restoration and recycling project to convert the semi-detached houses [at that time still flats] into offices.
","criteria":"Historically it is significant in illustrating the pattern of development of Petrie Terrace, one of the earliest suburbs of Brisbane.
|Warriston, erected c1886, is significant as a rare, intact timber example of the 19th century semi-detached house form in Brisbane, and in particular of the common-roof type.
|It is important for its aesthetic contribution to the Petrie Terrace/Red Hill townscape, and for the quality of its restoration and recycling, demonstrating that 19th century form and 20th century function can be compatible.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15052,"place_ref":600277,"name":"Baroona Labor Hall","alternate_name":"United Brothers Lodge | Josephsons Clothing Factory | Caxton Street Hall","street_address":"15-17 Caxton Street","suburb":"PETRIE TERRACE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Baroona Hall is located at the corner of Caxton and Cathie Streets. Constructed of face brick, with a cement rendered front facade and neo classical detailing, it is located on a sloping site, resulting in it being two storeys at the front and one storey at the rear.
Located within a row of 19th century buildings, it has a dominant streetscape presence.
The two-storey building has a rendered facade with remnants of paint in some areas and a shop and entrance to the hall at street level. The building is divided by central and end pillars, two of which have had the tiles and render removed to expose badly damaged bricks.
The shop, of which the tenant is a tailor, is located on the side nearest Cathie Street. It has a central recessed entrance, with steel framed display windows on either side. There appears to have been few alterations internally. Signage for the store follows the tradition of hand painted signage on the front and end elevations of the awning.
The other side of the front elevation incorporates the entrance to the hall, which is located to one side of the central pillar. The remaining space has been boarded up.
A curved corrugated iron awning is located over the footpath, supported by three timber posts. Above the awning, the facade is symmetrically arranged, with central and end pilasters. Within the bays on either side of the central pilaster are pairs of semi circular arched windows. Above this section is a panel running the width of the building with the words UNITED BROTHERS LODGE in relief. This is capped with a stone entablature below a parapet featuring an open circular pattern. The parapet is divided by short pedestals surmounted by substantial finials. Between these are two pediments with decorative scrollwork and the badly weathered letters MUI on one and OOF on the other. The uppermost part of the pediments have circular elements featuring symbolic elements of the Oddfellows, including a dove and hands shaking.
The elevation to Cathie Street is exposed face brick, with a series of circular and semi circular arched windows. The first three (a small semi circular arched window and two circular windows) are located above three doors with semi circular arched brick headers, of which the central one has been bricked in. Four elongated semi circular arched windows are evenly spaced along the remainder of the elevation. These align with identical windows on the opposite elevation, which are currently boarded up.
The rear of the building is one storey high. It comprises a gable end with a central door flanked by two semi-circular arched windows. The windows are boarded up and obscured by a new brick toilet block. The roof is newly sheeted in galvanised iron, with two decorative ventilators located along the ridge. A chimney is evident towards the front of the building.
Internally, the new entrance leads to a set of stairs which access the main hall. The walls are plastered and painted, with a shadow line at dado height, which steps up around the location of the original stage. New timber floor boards have been laid over the original boards. The ceiling is of tongue and groove boarding with iron tie rods and is horizontal in the centre and follows the slope of the roof line at the sides. The boarding has been covered with sound proofing materials and is obscured by air conditioning ducts and light and sound apparatus. A new stage on a number of levels is constructed over new toilets at the rear of the hall, and a bar with a mezzanine level above is located along the Cathie Street side.
Stairs, possibly with the original timber balustrading lead to the former lodge room from the entrance area. Original doors are located at each end of the wall facing the mezzanine level, with a chimney breast centrally positioned in the same wall. The room has plastered walls and a new tongue and groove boarded ceiling. A bar is located on either side of the wall at the Cathie Street end.
Original joinery details survive in most parts of the hall.
","history":"Baroona Hall is a two storey brick hall constructed in 1884 to a design by Richard Gailey for the United Brothers Lodge of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows. The building reflects the need for larger premises as membership increases and the desire of the organisation to convey a sense of permanence and stability to its members.
Oddfellows societies were established in 17th century England after the demise of the medieval guilds left the working classes completely unprotected in the advent of illness or injury. This led to the formation of friendly societies who banded together to provide, by their own exertions and from their own slender resources, some of the medical and other essential services they lacked. Halls were often constructed by the societies, both as a venue for society meetings, and for use by the community for entertainments, lectures and public and political meetings.
There are three orders of Oddfellows, the largest of which is the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows (MUIOOF). This Order was first established in 1813 in Manchester, spreading rapidly through the industrial north of England and then throughout the whole country.
The first Oddfellows lodge in Australia was formed in 1840 in Sydney by C M Crighton who was previously a brother of a lodge in Manchester. On 21 August 1847, an advertisement was placed in the Brisbane Courier to those residents who may be desirous of becoming members of the Society of Oddfellows proposed to be established in Brisbane.
A lodge was subsequently formed and by 1874, there were twenty two lodges throughout Queensland. Prior to this date, Queensland lodges had been managed as branches of New South Wales lodges, however in 1874, they were granted separation.
The Loyal United Brothers Lodge, Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows was established by eleven Brisbane men in 1873. The inaugural meeting was held in the Lennenberg Hotel in Queen Street, and subsequent meetings were held at the Baptist Hall. Many of the foundation members were employed at Smellies Foundry, and others included draymen, wood carvers, and coachmen.
In 1878, the lodge purchased land in Caxton Street for £257 and due to increases in membership, decided to erect a hall.
The sum of £1800 was borrowed towards the cost of construction which amounted to £1850. Together with furniture and regalia, the total cost was approximately £2400. The building was designed by Richard Gailey and constructed by James Stuart Martin, a leading member of the lodge. Construction began in 1883, and the opening was celebrated in February 1884.
The design incorporated two shops in the front of the building with a hall at the rear, which was entered from the lane at the side of the building. The hall featured a stage and a gallery, with a lodge room and ante room above the shops.
Richard Gailey, the architect, was one of Queensland's most prolific architects. Born in Ireland in 1834, he emigrated to Australia in 1864. Referred to as the doyen of Brisbane's architects, he is responsible for the design of many substantial buildings, both commercial and residential, as well as other society halls including an Oddfellows Hall at Fortitude Valley and a Masonic Hall at Toowong.
The hall was utilised by the lodge and the community for a numbers of years and the shops were continually occupied by a number of small businesses including bakers, stationers, hairdressers, bootmakers and drapers.
However, the economic downturn of the 1890s severely overstretched the resources of the lodge, forcing the society to lease the premises to a commercial tenant.
In 1918, the hall was leased to Isidor Josephson, a clothing manufacturer. Josephson entered the clothing business in Brisbane at the age of 21, and built a substantial business which eventually extended to most other states. His factory premises at Caxton Street were used as an example of bright, airy factories, fitted with machinery which enlightens the labour... in Barton's Jubilee History of Queensland (1909),
The lodge continued to meet upstairs until 1916 when they moved to the BAFS Dispensary in George Street.
The society sold the Caxton Street hall in 1928, however Josephson remained as tenant until 1936 when he moved to new premises in Roma Street. The building remained vacant until the Second World War when it was occupied by the Defence Department Stationer and a hairdresser. It was then vacant again until 1949, when one shop was let by a tailor and the remainder of the building was occupied as the Baroona Labour Hall. The building has also been utilised as a Sunday Market, and the lodge room was used by the Caxton Street Legal Services from 1976. At some stage prior to 1983, one of the shops was converted into the entrance to the hall.
In the late 1980s, the hall was converted for use as a nightclub, and although it has changed hands and images a number of times, it remains in this use.
","criteria":"Baroona Hall was constructed between 1883 and 1884 by the United Brothers Lodge, Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows. The lodge was established in 1873, to meet the needs of a large working class population without protection against injury, illness or other hardships.
The construction of the hall demonstrates the pattern of Queensland's history by being representative of the considerable and necessary service supplied by Friendly Societies in the 19th and early 20th century community.
|The building is also an uncommon example of a cement rendered building which is unpainted, and also of surviving 1950s style signage to the awning.
|The hall demonstrates the principal characteristics of an Oddfellows Hall, including symbols of the society and the division of space into hall, gallery, stage and lodge room. The inclusion of retail premises in front of the hall was also a relatively common feature of community halls.
|Baroona Hall has substantial aesthetic significance, both individually, and as part of the streetscape. This is contributed to by the high degree of design, workmanship and materials.
|The hall has special association with many members of the community, including past and present members of the United Brothers Lodge, and with community groups who used the hall such as the Caxton Street Legal Service. It also has special association with the Australian Labor Party, who used the hall as their branch headquarters from the mid 1940s and are still the owners.
|Baroona Hall is also associated with Brisbane architect, Richard Gailey as an example of his work. Gailey was a prolific architect who designed many notable commercial and residential buildings. He also designed other society halls, including an Oddfellows Hall in Fortitude Valley and a Masonic Hall at Toowong.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15053,"place_ref":600278,"name":"Baroona Special School","alternate_name":"Petrie Terrace School | Petrie Terrace Opportunity School | Baroona Opportunity School","street_address":"1 Hale Street","suburb":"PETRIE TERRACE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Located at the corner of Hale Street and Milton Road, the Baroona Special School comprises a complex of buildings. The earliest buildings on the site were erected in 1867 and 1874, and these buildings retain a prominent position in the south west corner of the site.
1867 Building:
This single-storeyed brick building is T-shaped in plan, with steep gable roofs designed for shingles, and dormer windows either side of the main roof ridge. The walls are of English bond, and the largely unaltered southwest elevation has corbels and eaves brackets to support the dormer windows, and lancet windows with straight pointed heads set between the corbels.
The building is set on Brisbane tuff foundations, with brick buttresses to the corners of the minor gable, the weathering stones of which have rubbed depressions from sharpening slate pencils.
The main gable end walls assumed their present form in 1914, when the timber porch at each end was replaced by a large composite 24-sash window, and the lancet window to each side of the new central window and the double rectangular windows above were bricked up; the brick lozenge-shaped ventilation opening in the gable peak remaining unaltered.
The timber verandah on the east side of the building was also built in 1914, and is contemporary with the two eastern doorways into the classrooms, and the removal of the original galleries from the building interior. There is a later glazed verandah infill on the northwest.
Within the 1867 building, the space is divided into two classrooms by a concertina room divider, and has a raked plaster ceiling.
1874 Building:
Constructed to the north of the 1867 classroom, this building comprised an L-shaped, single-storeyed structure with basement on tuff foundations with a steep pitched roof and dormer windows in the hips.
This building is also in English bond, with lozenge vents in the gable peaks, but unlike the earlier building, has a running frieze of brick corbels below the eaves, raked brick window sills and square headed window openings.
Brick buttresses are provided to the north and east gable corners where the ground falls away.
Although the 1874 south and west timber verandahs and brick porch remain, the north verandah was added in 1914 at the same time as 24 pane composite windows were inserted into each of the three brick gables. Within the building, brick panels were removed and RSJ beams inserted to allow construction of the large glazed door partition to the northern verandah, and the opening into the southern porch area. The existing glazed partitions between classrooms were also constructed in 1914, contemporary with removal of the galleries and bricking-up of selected doors and windows.
The roof truss is lined with timber boards above the rafters, and comprises a mid tie and a tie at the wall plate, with vertical steel connecting rods.
The 1874 building has been extended to the north with a brick store building (before 1929), a timber infants' room built over a basement room (before 1959) and a new passage and classroom built in 1959 with a newly fitted out manual training room and laundry underneath. The 1959 extension has face brickwork foundations, and is sheeted in weatherboards with hopper windows replacing the earlier sliding sashes, and has a corrugated GI roof.
French doors provide access to the early verandahs, which are of timber with hardwood floorboards, square section posts and no balustrading, and which are open except for ventilated storage space on the western edge.
Grounds:
The 1914 drill ground remains as a grassed area to the east of the 1867 building. The reinforced concrete retaining wall along the northern site boundary dates from 1929, the same year that sewage was laid on and a new toilet block constructed beside the 1874 building. The 1929 toilet block was demolished in 1975, to make way for the existing covered play area and administration area. Toilet amenities and a tuckshop now occupy a 1975 steel framed building in the northeast corner of the site, next to the c.1950s fibro hall.
The school grounds and the perimeter have several large mature trees that are likely to have been planted before 1929, and which provide a framework for the attractive carefully tended garden and building surrounds at the school.
","history":"The Baroona Special School comprises a number of buildings, including two brick buildings, one of which was opened in March 1868 as the Petrie Terrace School, whilst the second building was erected in 1874 as the new Petrie Terrace Girls and Infants School.
Petrie Terrace Developed as a working class suburb of Brisbane during the 1860s. A gaol was built on the main road into town in 1860, and military barracks erected in 1864. This site on which the school is located was reserved for educational purposes in the early 1860s.
The Education Act of 1860 established a Board of General Education and provided for a system of government subsidised primary school, similar to the system then operating in New South Wales. Under the Queensland Act, communities were required to contribute one-third of the cost of construction of new school buildings. Pupils at schools were also subject to payment of fees. At its commencement in 1860, the Board acquired four schools; 73 schools had been opened by 1868, and by 1874, 203 schools were open.
By the mid 1860s a school was needed in the rapidly growing Petrie Terrace area, and efforts commenced to raise the necessary funds. The long rectangular classroom with end porches and teachers room was erected in 1867 at a cost of around £400. The classroom was designed to accommodate 150 pupils, with separate "departments" for male and female students. Just over 300 students were enrolled at Petrie Terrace School by the end of 1868, although the average Attendance for that year was 157 pupils.
The building was designed by architect Richard George Suter, who was working in Brisbane by 1865 when he was employed by Benjamin Backhouse. In 1864 Backhouse had prepared a model plan for the Queensland Board of Education, to be used for country schools. Whilst employed in Backhouse's office Suter prepared designs for school buildings, which later lead to the Board commissioning Suter for the design of timber schools and teacher's residences. From the end of 1868 until 1875, Suter undertook almost all of the Board's work which involved approximately 30 National Schools including schools in centres such as Toowoomba, Warwick, Gympie, Rockhampton, Townsville, Roma and Bundaberg as well as the Brisbane area.
An inspection of the school in November 1873 reported that the school was crowded, and that as the district continued to increase in population at least double the classroom accommodation would be required. It is also likely that the introduction in 1870 of free education in Queensland stimulated the growth of the school. The report further noted that it was really a very fine school.
Drawings for a new building were prepared by Suter by January 1874. The tender price for the new building was £1022, and included separate rooms for the female students and the "infants". Although officially opened in January 1875, the new building was occupied from late 1874, and known as the Petrie Terrace Girls and Infants School.
Suter designed the new building to be somewhat in character with the present school. A feature of Suter's work was his utilisation of the materials as used in construction, to provide ornamentation of the building, whilst working within the strict budget set by the Board. The 1867 and 1875 buildings which demonstrated Suter's characteristic use of the Gothic Revival Style, and showed a progression in the design of window openings, and the use of corbel ornamentation of the walls and gables in an attempt to surmount the innate vulgarity of bricks and hardwood.
The headmaster of the Petrie Terrace School (Boys and Girls/Infants) from 1868 to 1898 was John Bowden Fewings, a gentleman and scholar. In 1892 Fewings wrote a collection of letters, (published in 1990 as JB Fewings Memoirs of Toowong) which provide a useful source of information on the development of Toowong and its inhabitants. Petrie Terrace School became well known for its many scholarship successes with many students becoming prominent Brisbane identities.
By 1884 it was recommended that a new school be erected for the boys, who still occupied the 1867 school building. Various sites were considered, and land was reserved in Moreton Street, some streets to the north of the then Petrie Terrace School. Tenders for a new State School for Boys at Petrie Terrace were called in July 1888, and the Boys' School had relocated to the new site by May 1889. The Petrie Terrace Girls and Infants School remained on the original site; the 1867 building used as the Infants' Department.
Improvements to the school grounds were carried out from the early 1880s, and included tree planting in the playground, and the erection of play sheds [no longer extant]. Records indicate that the shade trees planted included bamboos, Moreton Bay figs, silky oaks, camphor laurels, small leafed figs and a jacaranda.
The buildings were altered in 1914, at which time verandahs were added to the eastern side of the 1867 building and the northern side of the 1874 building, and new gable windows and sunshades were added to the exterior of both buildings greatly improving the ventilation and lighting of the classrooms. Both buildings were remodelled, including the removal of interior galleries, and the entry porch from the northern side of the 1867 building, and the reorganisation of the teaching areas in the 1874 building with glass partitions. A new room for teachers was also added to the 1874 building. Also at this time a retaining wall was constructed east of the 1874 building, and a Drill Ground formed. The 1914 plans also indicate two play sheds west of the 1867 building.
In 1921 a classroom was added to the north west of the 1867 building; a new classroom was also added to the north side of the 1874 building at this time.
The site was sewered in 1929, at which time the existing earth closets were removed and a new lavatory block erected.
In July 1953 the Petrie Terrace Boys and Girls Schools were amalgamated. The Girls School relocated to the Moreton Street buildings, and a separate Infants School was formed at the Hale Street school. The Infants School was amalgamated with the Petrie Terrace School in Moreton Street from July 1960, at which time the Hale Street school became the Petrie Terrace Opportunity School. The conversion of the Infants School to the Opportunity School included the addition of a new classroom to the 1874 building, and a further remodelling of classrooms in both buildings. A Manual Training room was built into the basement level of the 1874 building, whilst a former classroom in the same building was converted into a Home Science Room.
Special training for handicapped pupils had commenced in Queensland in the late 1880s, with centres for blind and deaf children. In 1923 WF Bevington, a District Inspector Schools, prepared a plan for the provision of special classes for children with intellectual and emotional problems, who were not making "normal" progress at school. The first "backward" classes as they were initially described, commenced at the South Brisbane Boys' School. The classes proved successful and during 1923 similar classes were formed at the Fortitude Valley (Boys), New Farm (Mixed), Petrie Terrace (Girls), Ipswich Central (Boys), Townsville Central (Boys), Rockhampton and Toowoomba South (Girls) Schools. By the end of 1923, just over 330 pupils were in attendance at these classes, supervised by 15 teachers. From the middle of 1926 the name "Opportunity Schools", rather than Backward Schools, was adopted for these centres.
Additions and remodelling were carried out to the school in 1961, and in 1962 the school was renamed the Baroona Opportunity School. A new toilet block was erected in 1964. Further remodelling of the school commenced in the early 1970s, and in 1975 a new amenities block was erected in place of the 1964 block, and a covered play area and new administration block were constructed. A hall had also been constructed on the site by 1975.
The school was renamed the Baroona Special School in 1974, and has continued to provide special education to the present (June 1995).
","criteria":"As the site of a primary school from the late 1860s, the Baroona Special School is associated with the development of education in Queensland from this time. The School has an important association with the development of Special Education in Queensland, as one of eight schools in which special education classes were held in the early-mid 1920's, and the subsequent conversion of the school to an Opportunity School during the 1960s. The erection of the first building in 1867 and a second building in 1874 also illustrate the development of Petrie Terrace as a residential area during this time.
|The buildings erected in 1867 and in 1874 survive as early examples of brick school buildings designed by prominent architect RG Suter, who was responsible for the design of school buildings in Queensland during the late 1860s and early-mid 1870s, a period of expansion of school facilities in Queensland. Subsequent additions and alterations to the 1867 and 1874 buildings provide evidence of changing attitudes towards primary and special education.
|The grounds of the school contain several mature trees and evidence of earlier use of the grounds, for example as a Drill area. The prominent location of the 1867 and 1874 buildings on the corner of Hale Street and Milton Road, and the mature trees located around the perimeter of the grounds, contribute to the Petrie Terrace townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15055,"place_ref":600280,"name":"Hellesvere","alternate_name":"Eton","street_address":"436 Upper Roma Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Hellesvere is a single storeyed timber residence with attic and partial basement situated on Upper Roma Street, overlooking, to the north, a railway cutting and beyond this Red Hill. The house now subsumes most of the block with a narrow driveway on the eastern side and a small parking lot to the south. Many early plants and trees survive around the building.
The building is generally a timber framed cottage clad with chamfer boards which sits on a brick foundation and basement. Verandahs runs along the southern and northern elevations of the building. The pyramidal corrugated iron roof of Hellesvere is penetrated on the north and south elevations with dormer windows. A brick chimney stack with three flues also projects toward the western edge of the roof.
The principal entrance facade, facing Roma Street to the south, is symmetrically arranged with a central doorway flanked by vertical sash windows. The verandah awning which is supported on pairs of stop-chamfered timber columns with decorative fretwork brackets, features a projecting triangular pediment infilled with fretwork emphasising the entrance.
The windows on the east and west sides of the building are shaded with corrugated iron clad timber framed hoods with vertical battened returns. The lower level of the western face of the building has two entrances' a pair of french doors and a more recent single door.
Internally the building is arranged with rooms off a central hall, towards the rear of which is a timber boarded door leading to a timber stair with cantilevered treads providing access to the attic. The attic which comprises two rooms, separated by a half glazed door, has a raked ceiling following the roof line, projecting through which are the dormer windows.
Generally the interior has beaded timber boards for internal partitions, the external walls and attic ceiling are clad internally with beaded boards with an additional central bead. Toward the south of the house V-J timber boards are used for internal partitions. A door at the end of the hallway provides access to the rear, southern verandah.
The lower floor is accessed via a timber stair with cantilevered treads similar to the internal stair, and this stair is on the rear verandah. At the base of the stairs and running along the line of the first floor verandah is timber decking from which two doors are accessed to the lower floor. Though much internal re-arrangement is obvious on the lower floor an early brick oven recess is evident in what is now the boardroom.
Process: Pursuant to the transitional provisions of the Queensland Heritage Act 1992, all buildings listed in the Schedule to the Heritage Buildings Protection Act 1990 were taken to be places entered provisionally in the Heritage Register. This place was transferred as a provisional entry to the Heritage Register on the basis that is was listed in the schedule to the Heritage Buildings Protection Act 1990. This decision was effective as from 21 August 1992, the date of proclamation of the Queensland Heritage Act 1992.
Further to the transitional provisions of the Queensland Heritage Act 1992, this place is entered permanently in the Heritage Register as of 21 October 1992.
","history":"Hellesvere, a timber cottage on Upper Roma Street, was constructed in about 1877 for Francis Curnow who became Queensland's third Railway Commissioner.
The site of Hellesvere was part of a larger block acquired by land speculator, James Gibbon, in 1852. In 1875 when some of Gibbon's block was resumed for the construction of the Brisbane Terminal Railway Station (now Roma Street Station) the remaining land was subdivided for sale.
By 25 August 1877 Francis Curnow who was an employee of the railway bought one of the allotments and it was on this land that Hellesvere was soon after built. Curnow arrived in Queensland in March 1860 from Cornwall in Britain and by 1866 settled in Ipswich as a railway storekeeper, a position made necessary by the opening of the Ipswich-Grandchester line. He was promoted in January 1877 to the position of Chief Clerk in the Railway Commissioner's Office, a position second only to that of the Commissioner. The offices for the staff of the Secretary for Railways in Queensland were established on the grounds of the original Brisbane Terminal Station at Roma Street, possibly in the early Brisbane Grammar School, resumed for railway purposes.
In 1877 Curnow built Hellesvere, close to his place of work, on the block of land he bought from Gibbons. Hellesvere was a timber cottage with a steeply pitched corrugated iron roof containing an attic with dormer windows on the northern and southern sides.
In January 1884 Curnow was promoted to be the position of Acting Commissioner for Railways and in 1885 was again promoted to the position of Commissioner for Railways. Curnow was the third person to hold this position, superseding Arthur Orpen Herbert who became the Under-Secretary of Railways in 1885.
During the time of Curnow's employment as Commissioner of Railways, the Railways Act (1888) was introduced to create a Board of Commissioners to oversee decision making in the railways, particularly in the employment of staff. The appointment of the Board of Commissioners in 1889 prompted Francis Curnow to retire from the railways with a pension of £500.
Early photographs of Hellesvere show that the house has been changed very little externally, simple timber balustrades have been removed from the sides of the northern (front) verandah and a similar balustrade has been removed from the rear. A room enclosed on the western end of the southern (rear) verandah. An early photograph shows a tree in the front yard similar to that extant now in the same place.
Hellesvere appears as the name of Curnow's house from the 1885-6 edition of the Queensland Post Office Directories. Hellesvere remained in the Curnow family until 1909 after Francis' death in 1901. It was then sold to George Keal and then changed hands many until it became the property of the present owners, John Dimitriou Architects. During its history Hellesvere has been used as a boarding house and as flats. John Dimitriou Architects have been responsible for the removal of more recent accretions and the reconstruction of some early details.
When describing the house in the 1982 publication, More Historic Homes of Brisbane, Ray Sumner states that the building "stands in a street of intact but mutilated old houses." Now, however, Upper Roma Street retains almost no small residences like Hellesvere, these houses have been replaced with large office and temporary accommodation boarding facilities. Hellesvere is therefore an important and rare remnant of what was an early residential street in inner-city Brisbane, containing such homes as Roma Villa and Highmead, the house of early pioneer Simeon Lord.
","criteria":"Francis Curnow, a distinguished employee of the Railway, built Hellesvere near his workplace at the first Brisbane terminal railway station which had been recently completed. Hellesvere is one of the very few extant nineteenth century buildings on or near Roma Street and provides evidence of the early residential nature of this area.
|Hellesvere is one of the very few extant nineteenth century buildings on or near Roma Street and provides evidence of the early residential nature of this area.
The building is a good intact example of an 1870s Queensland house in the inner city, with a rare extant basement kitchen. Such houses were once commonly found in the city but are now rare.
|The building is a good intact example of an 1870s Queensland house in the inner city, with a rare extant basement kitchen. Such houses were once commonly found in the city but are now rare.
|The building has aesthetic value as a well composed timber dwelling which is a landmark on Upper Roma Street as an early building with distinctive steeply pitched pyramidal roof.
|Hellesvere is important as the house of Francis Curnow, the third Railway Commissioner of Queensland, employed in the late nineteenth century when the expansion of the railway was the major force behind the development of the infant colony of Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15057,"place_ref":600282,"name":"Rainworth","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"7 Barton Street","suburb":"BARDON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Rainworth is a vernacular, short-ridge roofed house with stepped but straight-roofed verandahs on three sides. The front elevation shows three pairs of french doors, and one on the lefthand side. Early photographs indicate that the rear of each side verandah had been built to form an enclosed pavilion.
Most exterior walls are of twelve inch chamfer-boards, while interior walls are lined horizontally with beaded tongue and groove boards, as are the high ceilings. For ventilation purposes, casement windows with small wooden knobs may be opened above the french doors.
","history":"Sir Augustus Charles Gregory KCMG CMG FRGS MLC, famed explorer, and surveyor-general of Queensland from 1859 to 1879, built and lived in Rainworth from 1862 until his death in 1905. He reputedly constructed the dwelling himself. Gregory was a dominant, conservative member of the Legislative Council.
He was also an vital personality in Toowong's local government, a leading Queensland freemason and an influential amateur scientist. Rainworth was his rural retreat, his homestead, the place where he could think, invent, create and write.
Unlike Gregory, the subsequent owner, Robert Philp, merchant and politician, rented the property, as did ensuing owners. Subdivision of Gregory's country estate necessitated shifting the house to a more accommodating position. In 1949 it was rented and later purchased by Frederick and Mildred Howell, whose descendants occupy the premises.
","criteria":"Rainworth is a scarce example of a vernacular 1860s dwelling of the steeply pitched short-ridge roof variety. In this case it was built as a farmhouse but is now part of suburban Brisbane.
Rainworth is most important because of its long and personal connection with Sir A.C. Gregory. It still bears the stamp of Gregory the practical bushman rather than the prominent public figure. His standing is recognised in such placenames as Gregory Street, Toowong and Gregory Park, Milton, not to mention the locality of Rainworth itself.
|Rainworth is a scarce example of a vernacular 1860s dwelling of the steeply pitched short-ridge roof variety. In this case it was built as a farmhouse but is now part of suburban Brisbane.
|Rainworth is most important because of its long and personal connection with Sir A.C. Gregory. It still bears the stamp of Gregory the practical bushman rather than the prominent public figure. His standing is recognised in such placenames as Gregory Street, Toowong and Gregory Park, Milton, not to mention the locality of Rainworth itself.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15058,"place_ref":600283,"name":"Normanby Hotel","alternate_name":"The Normanby","street_address":"1 Musgrave Road","suburb":"RED HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Normanby Hotel is a two storey brick building with a lower level, on a prominent, sloping, triangular corner site in Red Hill, Brisbane. Overlooking a major five-ways intersection, the hotel is orientated with its main elevations addressing Musgrave Road to the south-west and Kelvin Grove Road to the south-east, with modern extensions to the rear north-west and north-east sides. A beer garden with a large fig tree occupies the south-east corner of the site.
The hotel is constructed from solid brick walls, timber floors and a timber-framed roof clad in corrugated metal sheeting. The building consists of two three-storey wings at right angles and a narrower, two-storey service wing at the western end, resulting in a U-shaped plan.
The elaborate and eclectic ornamentation of the Normanby Hotel exterior, particularly the south-west and south-east facades, is characteristic of late 19th century ‘Queen Anne' style. Distinctive features include: red face-brick walls laid in English bond, contrasting with light-coloured stone trimmings; a steeply-pitched roof; prominent gables ornamented with a half-timbered effect and metal finials; tall brick chimneys; terracotta decorative details; leadlight windows; and timber balconies and verandahs.
The building is cut into the sloping site so as to appear to be two storeys from Musgrave Road. This elevation is approximately symmetrical, with a recessed central section. The central main entrance and a secondary entrance at the southern end of the facade have marble thresholds, with the word NORMANBY inlaid in lead in the southern threshold. A ‘loggia' of three gothic arches at the northern end is enclosed. The entire lower level of the elevation is clad in 1930s red and grey glazed ceramic tiles, with individual tiles bearing the lettering "Normanby Hotel" located next to the main entrance. The upper floor of the central section has an inset arcaded verandah with painted terracotta baluster columns and a tessellated encaustic tile floor. Openings in the brickwork balustrade form a decorative pattern, while below is a strip of detailed masonry fretwork. Cantilevered timber balconies with highly-detailed timber posts, balustrades, brackets and valances project from each end of the upper floor. The balcony roofs feature their own smaller gable ends with timber panelling and decorative bargeboards.
The three-level south-east elevation has a variety of window configurations and decorative elements. The centrally located ground floor entrance is set back within an arcade supported by two terracotta baluster columns on brick plinths. Above this, an oriel window projects from the first floor. On the second floor there are two carved masonry blocks set into the centre of the wall displaying ‘1890' and ‘The Normanby' in relief. Also on the second floor are two cantilevered timber balconies, similar to those on the Musgrave Road elevation; however, these have been widened, with the original width is indicated by the timber corbels supporting the balcony floor.
The ground floor of the north-east elevation has been opened up for use as a bar space at the eastern corner, with modern brickwork forming new openings. Long timber verandas cantilever from the first and second floors, areas of which have been widened.
The north-west side of the hotel has minimal openings and is largely concealed from view by a modern extension. First floor doors between the brick hotel and the extension were originally windows, evident in the treatment of adjacent brickwork.
The edges of most external openings are emphasised by rounded corner details of shaped bricks. Doors and windows are timber-framed and most windows have thick stone trimmings for heads, sills, transoms and centre mullions. Doors to the verandahs and balconies are low-waisted, timber French doors with leadlight panes and fanlights. Other leadlight windows are located in the entrance hall and on the landing of the main staircase. The building has a variety of leadlight designs in locations suggesting that some doors and fanlights have been relocated from their original positions.
The internal layout of the hotel has been altered in places by new openings, however the second floor remains largely intact. The ground floor comprises a bar, gaming lounge and service spaces; the first floor comprises a bar and function rooms; and the second floor comprises offices and storage space housed in the former bedrooms.
The ground floor bar in the eastern corner addresses Kelvin Grove Road and the adjacent beer garden, with a modern extension projecting from the south-east side. Toilets, a gaming lounge and two small storage rooms are located in the partially-underground former cellars along the southern side of the building, and a kitchen is housed in the north-western wing. Significant features on the ground floor include a gothic archway located opposite the south-eastern entrance and original round-arched openings in the gaming lounge. Walls throughout this level are generally exposed brickwork.
Addressing Musgrave Road on the first floor is the central entrance hall with a main bar area and a billiard room located on either side. The entrance hall features c.1930s glazed ceramic tiles to the lower portion of the plaster-lined walls, a timber balustrade with carved newel posts to the main staircase, and a gothic arched opening leading to the main bar area.
The main bar area on the eastern side of the entrance hall is configured to be one large space through the opening up of interior partitions, indicated by lintels supported by columns. The southern end of the room features glazed ceramic wall tiles (similar to those in the entrance hall) and a decorative pressed metal ceiling and cornices. The northern end of the room has a timber floor, exposed brick walls, a fireplace in the western wall and doorways opening onto the rear verandah.
The billiard room on the western side of the entrance hall has exposed brick walls and modern floor and ceiling linings. At the southern end, the enclosed ‘loggia' bears the traces of many alterations, including a steel beam spanning a wide opening cut into the former front wall. One of the columns has had a portion of encasing concrete removed to reveal the original terracotta column beneath. The side walls of the loggia retain traces of original coloured mortar and tuck pointing, and an arched opening to the entrance hall has shaped-brick edges.
At the rear of the first floor, the verandah area between the north-west wing and the main bar is a modern addition and not of cultural heritage significance. Original first floor partitions are generally exposed brickwork or plastered. Floors are timber boards with some carpeted areas, while skirtings and door and window architraves are generally painted timber.
At the top of the timber staircase on the second floor is a long rectangular room with hallways leading off it to the former bedrooms. This space features a large leadlight window in the northern wall, while French doors at the southern end open onto the front verandah. The former bedrooms have ornamental plaster or pressed metal ceilings. Hallway doors are four-panel, low-waisted timber doors with rectangular, centre-pivoting fanlights above. A variety of early door hardware survives, including round metal knobs and interwar-style lever handles. A small bathroom at the end of one hallway has black and white glazed ceramic wall tiles. A large room in the south-east corner is more elaborately ornamented than the former bedrooms, featuring a fireplace with marble mantelpiece and a cast iron register grate with floral-patterned ceramic tiles. On the walls, a panelling effect is formed by textured plaster and rectangles of narrow timber mouldings. The ceiling is flat plaster with wide cornices. A fireplace in the adjacent room has had the mantelpiece and grate removed. Floors throughout this floor are timber boards and all skirtings and architraves are painted timber.
In the beer garden, a large, well-established fig tree stands in the centre of the garden and a stone retaining wall lines the south-western boundary. All other structures in this area are non-significant additions.
The extensions to the north-west, north-east and south-east sides of the hotel are not of cultural heritage significance. Non-significant elements of the hotel building include: modern windows and doors; bar, kitchen and toilet fit-outs and finishes; modern floor, wall and ceiling linings; recent openings and sections of modern brickwork; and retrofitted services such as air-conditioning ducts.
The Normanby Hotel is an eye-catching and picturesque landmark in the area. Significant views of the south-west and south-east elevations and the fig tree are obtained from surrounding roads.
","history":"The Normanby Hotel, located prominently on the Normanby Fiveways intersection at Red Hill, Brisbane, is a two storey brick building with a lower level, built in 1890 on a site used for hotel purposes since 1872.
\nHotels have played an important role in the historical development of Queensland. Often the first places to appear along transport routes and at fledgling settlements, hotels have catered to travellers, provided spaces for communities to drink, socialize and conduct business and meetings, and have strongly contributed to local economies. Architecturally, hotels have ranged from ephemeral makeshift shanties to more permanent and imposing buildings that have competed with civic and commercial buildings to dominate their surrounds. In urban areas, street corners have been particularly favoured sites for hotels to emphasize their commercial presence.
\nOver time, legislative provisions for licensed premises influenced the architecture and layout of hotels, by requiring a range of minimal standards, including those related to the number of rooms, height limits of rooms, and separate entries for guests. Coupled with the domestic nature of the services provided, the requirement for licensees to reside on the premises shaped hotels' characteristic internal mix of private and public spaces.
\nThe area around the intersection of Petrie Terrace and Kelvin Grove Road, on the fringe of Brisbane's town centre, began to develop from the 1860s. While land was initially surveyed for small residential allotments, the siting at a road junction and increases in traffic led to shops and other services gradually appearing along the road. The growth in the area saw the naming of the small suburb Normanby, after Queensland's third governor (1871-1875) George Augustus Constantine Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby. The route of Brisbane's first suburban railway to Sandgate (1882) went close to this junction, with a Normanby station for passengers operating until the early 1890s.
\nMusgrave Road, originally a continuation of Petrie Terrace toward Red Hill, had developed into a small business area by the 1880s. The forming of College Rd across the rail line (connected to Gregory Terrace) and Countess Street created the Normanby ‘Fiveways', which became one of Brisbane's major traffic intersections, especially following the introduction of horse-drawn bus services and trams (later electric-powered).
\nThe original Normanby Hotel opened in 1872. The first owner and publican, Matthew Burton, purchased land on the corner of Musgrave and Kelvin Grove Roads in 1865. In December 1871 Burton (originally a carpenter) gave notice of his intention to apply for a publican's licence for the Normanby Hotel, which was granted in January 1872. The original hotel, a two storey timber building was oriented towards Kelvin Grove Rd.
\nFollowing the death of Matthew Burton in 1873, the property and lease of the hotel was transferred to his wife Elizabeth Sophia Burton, who continued to operate the hotel. The lease was transferred a number of times from the mid-1880s until William Valentine signed a lease in 1888 for 14 years.
\nThe 1880s was a boom period for Queensland, characterised by strong economic growth and a rapid expansion in population. In Brisbane, this growth was particularly pronounced, with the population more than tripling during the decade. Aided by public transport, suburban areas continued to expand. Many new substantial public and private buildings transformed the built environment, reflecting the confidence and prosperity of the era.
\nIn late 1889, architect John Beauchamp Nicholson, engaged by leaseholder William Valentine, called for tenders for pulling down and rebuilding the Normanby Hotel. Arriving in Brisbane from England in 1876, Nicholson prospered as an architect and property speculator in Brisbane during the 1880s.The Norman Hotel and the Princess Theatre in Woolloongabba and the Alliance Hotel in Spring Hill were among the designs produced by his architectural practice. Nicholson formally went into partnership with Dutch-trained English-born architect Alfred Wright in early 1890, who had previously worked for Nicholson. Wright is considered to be responsible for the design of the Normanby Hotel and other similar styled buildings designed by the firm such as Chardon's Corner Hotel in Annerley and Lady Musgrave Lodge in Spring Hill (both demolished).
\nThe new Normanby Hotel was formally opened in December 1890, a large, ornate two storey brick building with a lower level to the rear. The hotel was built to face Musgrave Rd and its principal elevations were Musgrave Rd and its eastern side, facing a small reserve at the corner of Musgrave and Kelvin Grove Roads. Internally the hotel contained bars and parlours, drawing and billiard rooms, and accommodation for both guests and lessees/employees. The building was described in great detail in a Brisbane Courier article at the time of opening, while a sketch of the building appeared in the Building and engineering journal of Australia and New Zealand in 1891.The hotel was built at a cost of £4000, with Thomas Game the contractor.
\nLike many hotels of its era, the Normanby Hotel was designed to impress, with its ornate stylistic treatment employing elements of the ‘Queen Anne' architectural idiom. The Queen Anne style was generally designed at a domestic scale with complex design details, such as an intricate roof structure, charming towers with conical or pyramidal roofs, and ornate tall chimneys. The style revived aspects of English architecture from the time of Queen Anne's reign (1702-14) and was reminiscent of Tudor or Old- English rural designs. A picturesque, classical style free from the classical rules of proportion, it transformed traditional formal plans and symmetry into an intertwined assortment of detailed bays, dormers, porches and spires. Originating in Britain, the Queen Anne architectural style became particularly popular in the United States of America and Australia. Distinctive design features evident in the design of the Normanby Hotel include the red facebrick walls, a dominant steeply-pitched roof with subsidiary Tudor-style gables, tall chimneys, terracotta decorative details, fine finials, leadlight windows, and verandas with fretted ornamental woodwork.
\nIn the decades after its construction, a number of lessees, including William Valentine, Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan Gray and Company Limited and members of the Burton family operated the hotel. Sophia Burton died in 1901, with the property passing to her sons John, Francis and William Burton. Francis Burton became the sole owner in 1909. Castlemaine-Perkins Limited purchased the property in 1936 at a reported cost of ‘about £52000', although the ownership was not formally transferred until 1944. This purchase by Castlemaine Perkins was part of a wider practice of acquiring hotel freeholds and leases throughout Queensland. This process of vertical integration continued through 1930s, ensuring the companies domination of the Queensland market. Castlemaine-Perkins sold the Normanby Hotel in 1986 and the ownership has since changed a number of times. The present owners (in 2014) acquired the site in 1999 and have since extended the hotel's operations into adjacent property to the west (not included in the heritage register boundary).
\nOver time, extensions and alterations occurred at the hotel in response to the changing demands of its customers. Alterations designed by architect GHM Addison are recorded to have taken place in 1917, while other alterations occurred in 1933. The extent of these alterations is unclear. In 1937 the Licensing Commission approved alterations to the hotel and the addition of a bar, thought to be an extension at the rear of the building towards Kelvin Grove Road. The existing tiling in the entrance hall and on the façade on Musgrave Road date from this time. Two brick garages were also constructed in the 1930s. Both the bar and garages have since been demolished. Between 1958 and 1962 an earlier ‘bottle department' was replaced with a drive-in bottleshop, which has also since been demolished.
\nOn the reserve at the corner of Musgrave and Kelvin Grove Roads, a beer garden connected to the hotel was developed (date unknown). A number of fig trees and a jacaranda were planted in the reserve, of which only one large fig tree survives.
\nWhile the basic form of the 1890 hotel building remains unchanged, the internal layout of the hotel has been altered in places by new openings. In 2014, the ground floor comprises a bar, gaming lounge and service spaces, while the first floor comprises the public bar, configured into one large open space, and function rooms. The second floor, which formerly housed bedrooms and associated spaces, remains largely intact and is used as office and storage space.
\nSources
\nAllom-Lovell Architects, Normanby Hotel: An assessment of significance and impact for the Brisbane City Council, 1999.
\nApperly, Richard, Robert Irving, and Peter Reynolds, A Pictorical Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture: Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present, HarperCollins Publishers, Sydney, 1994.
\nDepartment of Natural Resources and Mines (DNRM), Queensland Government, Certificates of Title: 10080237; 11115167; 16963243.
\nRoger Dixon and Stefan Muthesius, Victorian Architecture, Thames and Hudson, London, 1978.
\nBrisbane Courier, 26 December 1871, p.1; 11 January 1872, p.2; 26 October 1889, p.3; 2 December 1890, p.6.
\nDonald Watson and Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the 19th Century: A Biographical Dictionary, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, 1994, pp.131-132, p.215.
\n","criteria":"
The Normanby Hotel is important in demonstrating the evolution of hotels and the associated evolution of hotel architecture in Queensland. Built in 1890 on a site used as a hotel since 1872, the Normanby Hotel is evidence of a major period of prosperity and growth in Queensland, which was reflected in increasingly elaborate and substantial hotel designs, especially in Brisbane.
|The Normanby Hotel is a fine example of a late 19th century hotel and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type through its prominent location on the corner of a major intersection; its form, scale, and use of detailed exterior ornamentation to attract attention; and its interior layout, which includes bar and service areas on the ground and first floor levels, and former bedroom spaces above.
|The Normanby Hotel has aesthetic significance as a landmark building at the fringe of the Brisbane CBD, standing prominently on the corner of a major five-way intersection. Displaying a rich variety of materials and ornamental details, the hotel is important for the picturesque qualities of its external composition. The south-eastern beer garden features a mature fig tree which provides an attractive setting for the building. The sloping topography and the projecting, triangular-shaped site enhance the visual prominence of main south-west and south-east elevations of the hotel along surrounding roads.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15059,"place_ref":600284,"name":"St Brigids Church","alternate_name":"St Brigid's Catholic Church","street_address":"78 Musgrave Road","suburb":"RED HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The church is prominently situated high on Red Hill, unconventionally oriented north-south, to terminate the vista along George Street (now lost since the construction of the Brisbane Transit Centre).
It is a brick fortress-like building, rectangular, with the chancel, entrance porch and its flanking buttresses semi-octagonal in shape. A single-storeyed vestry protrudes off the west side of the chancel.
Though derived from Albi Cathedral's idiosyncratic style, combining elements of both Romanesque and Gothic traditions, Dods's design owes much to his British Arts and Crafts background and the local climate. Many features of the building, including the high proportions, opening windows with balconies, arches, french doors, and the open chancel area, contribute to a cool environment.
The interior of St Brigids is austere and simple in decoration yet grand in dimensions. The detailing and workmanship in brick, stone, wood, glass and metal are austere but refined. Notable features include the timber ceiling, light fittings, gallery, organ, altars and stained glass. However, the original silky oak and leadlight doors running the length of the nave on the east and west walls, and some other fixed glazing, have been replaced with fully glazed areas which allow excessive light into the interior at floor level.
The original plan included a tower above the chancel but this was not built for lack of funds. LJ Harvey's life size statue of St Brigid above the entrance porch, holds a model of the completed church.
Its hilltop position, close to the city centre, makes it a Brisbane landmark.
","history":"St Brigids Church was built between 1912 and 1914 by prominent builder Thomas Keenan.
It replaced an earlier stone structure built in 1877. As the parish had grown to be one of the largest in Brisbane, the church was built to accommodate 1000 people.
Its design by Robin S. Dods was inspired by St Ceciles Cathedral at Albi, France, which the parish building committee had chosen as the model for St Brigids. It also reflects the influence of some of the design theories current in Europe during Dods's early career in Edinburgh, in particular the Arts and Crafts use of materials and the picturesque approach to landscape and siting.
The opening ceremony in 1915 was a significant occasion in the life of the Catholic community in Brisbane, attended by Archbishop Mannix of Melbourne and presided over by Archbishop Duhig of Brisbane. The construction of St Brigids was regarded as the coming of age of Catholicism in Brisbane. For Duhig, who was to become renowned as a prolific builder of churches and schools, St Brigids was an auspicious beginning.
The parish was largely composed of poor Irish immigrants so that the church became a focal point of the Irish Catholic cause in Queensland.
","criteria":"St Brigids Church is significant as an example of Duhig's efforts to place churches in prominent positions throughout Brisbane and as a symbol of the emerging confidence of Catholicism in Queensland which was dominated by Irish immigrants at the time.
|St Brigids Church is significant as a characteristic part of the inner Brisbane skyline, visible from all directions. Is is an outstanding example, both internally and externally, of the architecture of Robin Dods, a recognised member of the contemporary Arts and Crafts movement in Europe and the United States of America.
|St Brigids Church is significant as a self-conscious townscape composition designed to place an acropolis-like skyline on the axis of George Street and for the impressive quality of the interior which is derived from the carefully considered combination of materials, light and scale.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15060,"place_ref":600285,"name":"Cross Terrace","alternate_name":"Cairns Terrace","street_address":"44-50 Cairns Terrace","suburb":"RED HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Cross Terrace is located on a ridge road in central Red Hill, and is visible from many Paddington vantage points to the south. It is set close to the street alignment at the front and is the most prominent dwelling in a street lined with traditional housing.
It is a two-storeyed, timber framed and clad building with a gabled roof and double verandahs to front and back.
Little remains of the original interior except the fireplaces. The ground floor has been converted into kitchen, dining, sitting, music and bathrooms and the first floor into bedrooms, around a wide open two-level gallery connected by a new central staircase.
French doors opening to the front verandahs have been retained, but the plain stick balusters and frieze on the verandahs are recent, and the dormers have been removed. A double carport with twin gables is located in the centre front.
Despite these changes the gabled, four level form remains intact, as well as the main openings and chimneystacks.
","history":"This former row of four, two-storeyed timber houses was erected in 1887-88 on newly subdivided land purchased by Joseph Cross, a printer or machinist in the Government Printing Office, in late 1886. He was resident at the terrace by 1888.
The buildings were erected at the height of the 1880s economic boom. Possibly because of the Undue Subdivision of Land Act 1885, which prevented individual row houses from being sold on separate titles, the Cross family occupied at least two of the houses originally, and what might otherwise have been built as cheap rental accommodation was larger in scale and more decorative in appearance than usual. Many other inner suburban multiple dwellings were built in timber during the 1880s, but most either were single-storeyed or semi-detached. Its construction reflected also the growing acceptance of timber and corrugated iron in more prestigious dwellings.
Each house comprised six main rooms on four levels: front room and parlour at street level; two bedrooms on the first floor; an attic room; and a kitchen beneath the rear half of each house. The exterior walls were clad with chamferboards and the single gabled roof with corrugated iron, while the interior was lined with lath and plaster. The double verandahs with curved iron roofs to front and back were decorated with cast-iron fringes and balustrades and a decorative timber frieze to the front. Four semi-circular dormer windows with scalloped bargeboards faced the street.
In the 1890s three of the four houses were known as Keira, Mascotte and Kiama.
Cross retained possession of the houses until 1910, during which time white collar, craft and business persons were predominant occupants. After 1945 the building was converted into flats, with the verandahs boarded and louvered to provide modern kitchens and bathrooms. In the 1980s the buildings were renovated and converted into a single house.
","criteria":"Cross Terrace is significant for its association with the closer settlement of the Red Hill area in the 1880s.
|Cross Terrace is significant as the only known evidence of the late 19th century two-storeyed timber terrace house type to survive in Brisbane.
|Cross Terrace is significant as a local landmark and for its contribution to the streetscape along Cairns Terrace.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15061,"place_ref":600286,"name":"Craigerne","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"101 Windsor Road","suburb":"RED HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The rectangular two-storeyed stone house may be described as Colonial Georgian in style, being symmetrical and simple in plan, appearance and detail, with the exception of cast-iron balustrading of front and back verandahs. The external walls are of random ashlar in front, but rubble stone elsewhere, and the hipped roof is of corrugated iron. The long sash windows are louver-shuttered and the verandah roof is concave in form.
Though appearing to be single-storeyed from the street, the sloping land allows for a second floor underneath, each consisting of two rooms on either side of a central hall. The upper rooms on the northern side are connected by folding doors, while the original kitchen is located downstairs. Four chimneys serve fireplaces in each of the eight rooms. Internal walls are brick with plaster rendering. All ceilings are lath and plaster and the substantial joinery is cedar. By and large the house lacks elaboration inside or out.
It was exceptionally well built with first-rate materials throughout, and was restored in the 1980s with the assistance of conservation architects, including the original colour scheme and replicated balustrading.
A two-storey annexe has been built to the right and connected on the upper level by a covered walkway. The new building, while intended to be sympathetic in scale and texture to the original house, has necessitated a wall-opening to accommodate the walkway.
The Windsor Road frontage has a substantial wrought-iron fence with brick piers which seems to be contemporary with the house.
","history":"Craigerne is part of a deed of grant taken up by William McFarlane in 1864. In 1866 McFarlane sold the whole of portion 512 to William McCallum Park, a stonemason and building contractor who subdivided the property into 20 allotments and created Park Street. He kept sudivisions 1,2 & 3 for himself.
Though it is possible that the house was built before the 1880s, the first occupant listed in street directories was Major Walter Snelling who lived there from 1885 until 1887 when Park's father, Andrew, moved in. The Parks' affairs were in the hands of liquidators in 1892-3 when the property passed to the mortgagee, the National Bank of Queensland.
In 1915 it was bought by solicitor Herbert Hemmings. After his death in 1940 it passed into other hands, to be turned into flats in 1950. In 1979 the purchasers were C.A. and Z.W. Wilczynski, who carried out the restoration. The premises were sold to the present owners in 1985, who made the recent alterations.
","criteria":"Craigerne is significant as an unusually late example of the Colonial Georgian architectural style and stone construction.
Craigerne is significant for its pleasing symmetrical appearance and quality materials and craftsmanship.
|Craigerne is significant as an unusually late example of the Colonial Georgian architectural style and stone construction.
|Craigerne is significant for its pleasing symmetrical appearance and quality materials and craftsmanship.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15062,"place_ref":600287,"name":"Glentworth","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"34 Howard Street","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Glentworth is a single-storeyed timber house on stumps, with a central axial corridor and wide verandahs to three sides.
It has a pyramid-shaped, corrugated iron roof crowned by a large timber finial. Convex iron-sheeted verandah roofs are separated from the main roof by a small cornice and paired timber console brackets.
Verandah decoration is restrained: slender timber posts with capitals and brackets; cross-braced timber balustrading; and a timber fretwork pediment of intricate design crowned by another tall timber finial, above the entrance.
The cladding is of 12 inch [30 centimetres] wide chamferboards, and linings and partitions are of vertically jointed tongue and groove.
Externally the house retains its original character, although little remains of the 19th century garden layout.
Glentworth is situated above a gently rising lawn bordered by tall palms and trees, and is visible for a considerable distance from the north. It dominates the vista at the top of Agars Street, and is associated visually with Boondah [600288], Baroona [600289] and other early timber residences in Howard Street, Rosalie.
","history":"Glentworth, a single-storeyed, high-set timber residence, stands on the original subdivisions purchased by Katherine Mary Pery in 1879. The precise date of construction is not known, though the Pery family was resident at Glentworth by 1885. The Hon. Cecil SS Pery was a clerk in the titles office.
In 1888 the Chalk family bought the property, which remained their home until the mid-1960s. Michael Chalk was a highly successful bus proprietor, whose business provided vital communication links between the western suburbs and the city.
In 1967 the property passed to the Salvation Army, which resold it in 1975. The residence remains a family home.
","criteria":"Glentworth, constructed possibly c1880, is significant historically for its association with the early development of Rosalie as a middle-class garden suburb.
|It has representational value as a substantially intact, classic Queensland timber colonial residence of the early 1880s, and makes an aesthetic contribution to the historic Rosalie townscape.
|It has representational value as a substantially intact, classic Queensland timber colonial residence of the early 1880s, and makes an aesthetic contribution to the historic Rosalie townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15063,"place_ref":600288,"name":"Boondah","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"50 Howard Street","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-06-11","description":"Boondah is a single-storeyed weatherboard house with a corrugated iron gabled roof. The building sits on concrete stumps with timber batten infill and is sited on a ridge with the ground sloping to the northeast.
The symmetrical north elevation has two corner octagonal ogee shaped cupola's with tall timber finials and a central front entrance porch with a projecting gable roof. The building has verandahs with corrugated iron skillion roofs to the north, east and west which encircle the octagonal shaped corner bays.
The verandahs have cast iron balustrades with a timber valance and brackets. The verandah walls have single skin vertically jointed boards with french doors and sash windows. The front entrance has leadlight fanlight and sidelights, and opens to a central corridor leading to the rear of the building.
A rear verandah has been enclosed and the rear subfloor space has been bricked in. The grounds include an inground concrete swimming pool in the southeast and a large camphor laurel tree to the southwest. Entry to the site is from the north via a driveway cut into a steep earth embankment.
","history":"This single-storeyed weatherboard house stands on land which was alienated in 1879 by George Blaxland Mott and subdivided after his death in 1882.
Ellen Wickham, widow of Captain John Clements Wickham, the governing official of Moreton Bay settlement until 1859, bought the site and lived there in a house called Manchonlas until her death in 1896. This dwelling was razed about 1906 and was replaced by Boondah c.1907, apparently to a design by notable architect Richard Gailey.
By 1907 Fenton Robinson was living at this address and the property remained with the Robinson family until 1967 and was acquired by the present owners in 1972.
","criteria":"Boondah is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a federation period timber house.
Boondah, both the house and grounds, is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the Brisbane community, in particular as a striking timber house composed with elaborate verandahs and roofline and for the streetscape contribution of the building and grounds.
|Boondah is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a federation period timber house.
|Boondah, both the house and grounds, is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the Brisbane community, in particular as a striking timber house composed with elaborate verandahs and roofline and for the streetscape contribution of the building and grounds.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15064,"place_ref":600289,"name":"Baroona","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"90 Howard Street","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Baroona is a single-storeyed rendered masonry building with a corrugated iron gabled roof. The building sits on a level hilltop site and has verandahs to the east and southeast, and to portions of the north and south elevations.
The gables have timber finials and decorative bargeboards with the eastern bay gable featuring timber fretwork. Verandahs have corrugated iron skillion roofs and the north verandah has an entrance porch with projecting gable.
The east and southeast verandahs sit on timber stumps and have latticed valance and cast iron balustrades. The south verandah has timber arches with lattice infill and opens off a hall with a corrugated iron barrel vault roof which is lined with tongue and groove boards. This vault has glazing to the western end and a central square raised skylight.
The building has sash windows and french doors open onto the verandahs with exposed windows having timber shutters. A brick cellar is located on the southern side, a carport is attached to the southwest and a separate rendered masonry garage with a corrugated iron gabled roof and decorative timber finials and bargeboards is located to the west.
The grounds include a lawn tennis court to the north, mature trees to the west and south and a stone embankment to the northeast.
","history":"The original residence, called Baroona, was designed by Benjamin Backhouse and built in 1866 for William Draper Box on land which the architect had alienated in 1861 and Box acquired in 1865. The property extended from Baroona Road on one side to the outskirts of Torwood on the other.
Box had arrived in Brisbane in 1862 to establish a Queensland branch of his father's mercantile firm, and lived at Baroona until 1885. He was a member of the Queensland Club and of the Legislative Council from 1874 until his death in 1904.
During subsequent years the house was rented by two prominent politicians. Hon. John Donaldson MLA was in residence from about 1886 to 1889, followed by Sir Robert Philp of Burns Philp and Co, the Queensland Premier from 1899 to 1901. William Melbourne Watts, Land Commissioner, purchased the house in 1899 and sold it to Emily and Cornelius Geaney in 1919. Geaney was the City Mutual Life Insurance Company manager and his family retained the property until 1951 when Dr and Mrs Hill became the owners. The present owners purchased it in 1984.
The building was extensively modified by successive owners including the addition of rooms, brick render, eastern verandahs, fretwork gable, northern porch and a modern kitchen.
The name Baroona is also used for the main road, the locality and the municipal ward.
","criteria":"The association with Sir Robert Philp, Hon. John Donaldson and William Draper Box.
Community association with the name Baroona being used for the main road, the locality and the municipal ward.
Landmark value as the areas original house and its siting on the crest of the hill.
Evidence of the domestic work of B Backhouse.
|Landmark value as the areas original house and its siting on the crest of the hill.
|Community association with the name Baroona being used for the main road, the locality and the municipal ward.
|The association with Sir Robert Philp, Hon. John Donaldson and William Draper Box.
Evidence of the domestic work of B Backhouse.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15065,"place_ref":600290,"name":"Sandgate Post Office","alternate_name":"Telegraph Office; Sandgate Post; Post Office Sandgate","street_address":"1 Bowser Parade","suburb":"SANDGATE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"The former Sandgate Post and Telegraph Office is a rectangular, two-storeyed painted brick building with Italian Renaissance stylistic elements. It rests on concrete foundations and has a hipped roof of corrugated iron with acroteria and gablets at either end.
Dominating the front elevation is a projecting gabled portico, with the words Sandgate Post Office in low-relief beneath the first floor windows. Originally this read VR 1887.
Front verandahs to either side of the portico are ornamented with chamfered timber posts, a timber frieze on the lower level and fretwork brackets and cast-iron balustrading on the upper floor. These details were recreated in the 1983-4 restoration to as close to the original as possible. A double rear verandah with formerly the same detailing, remains enclosed.
The interior has been modified and refurbished.
The detached timber service wing to the rear remains, but has been altered substantially.
Also at the rear are two later, single-storeyed brick additions. One is an attached extension constructed c1907 to house the telephone exchange. The other is a more recent, detached, rectangular building which served as a postal depot. It appears to have been erected in the 1980s following re-subdivision of the site in 1978 and replaces a longer timber building extant by 1953.
Both additions employ rooflines and exterior finishes similar to those of the 1886-87 building.
The former Sandgate Post and Telegraph Office stands isolated on the corner of Bowser Parade and Rainbow Street and dominates the vista west along Eagle Terrace and Seymour Street. It forms part of an historical grouping that includes the adjacent war memorial and the nearby former Sandgate Town Hall (601566).
","history":"The two-storeyed Sandgate Post and Telegraph Office was erected in 1886-7 to a design prepared in the office of the Queensland Colonial Architect.
A post office had operated at Sandgate since 1864, on Eagle Terrace near Palm Avenue. In the early 1880s a new site in Bowser Parade, closer to the railway line that had reached Sandgate in 1882, was purchased for £800.
In June 1885 the Post and Telegraph Department requested that the Department of Public Works prepare plans for a new post and telegraph office building for Sandgate, to cost no more than £2,000. It is likely that the design was produced under the supervision of John James Clark, Colonial Architect from 1883 to 1885. Tenders were called in March and April 1886, but the design proved too expensive.
Fresh plans were prepared under the supervision of Clark's successor, George St Paul Connolly, Queensland's first locally born and trained Colonial Architect (1886-91). These plans were further amended to reduce costs and tenders were called in June-July 1886. A contract was let to local Sandgate builder William Street, with a price of £2,025. It is thought that the bricks for the construction were supplied from Leopold Fiedler's brickworks in Roghan Road, Zillmere, beside Cabbage Tree Creek.
The new post and telegraph building, uncommonly substantial for what later became a suburban office, reflected government confidence in the booming economy and the importance of Sandgate both as a popular seaside resort and, increasingly, as a residential commuter district. Sandgate had its own local government at that period and was not officially a 'suburb' of Brisbane until the establishment of Greater Brisbane on 1 October 1925, but the railway enabled residents of Sandgate to commute daily to work in Brisbane.
The building opened as a post and telegraph office on 7 May 1887, with residential accommodation for the postmaster on the first floor, a dining room, post and telegrpah offices and public area on the ground floor and a detached service wing housing kitchen, servant's quarters and wash house. The exterior brickwork was colour-washed originally, but has been painted since 1894.
The layout was innovative, the central public area with an entrance porch either side becoming a principal feature of late 19th and early 20th century Queensland post offices. Along with post and telegraph offices constructed at the important commercial centres of Fortitude Valley (1887) and South Brisbane (1889-90) it was one of only three substantial, two-storeyed brick post offices constructed in metropolitan Brisbane in the late 19th century. The Woolloongabba Post and Telegraph Office, also a substantial two-storeyed brick building, was erected in 1905. It was designed by the Queensland Government Architect's office for the Commonwealth government, which had assumed responsibility for post and telegraph communication following the federation of the Australian colonies on 1 January 1901.
A telephone service was established in the Sandgate Post and Telegraph Office in 1898 and a telephone exchange was installed in 1907. The exchange was removed to a new building c1959.
After the second world war the first floor verandahs were enclosed with fibrous cement sheeting and casement windows and from 1981 the upper floor was used for office purposes.
The exterior was restored in 1983-4 and the interior was refurbished in time for centenary celebrations of the 1887 opening.
The building continued to function as a post office until c2004, when it was sold to private enterprise. Its renovated exterior continues to make a substantial contribution to the townscape of central Sandgate.
","criteria":"The former Sandgate Post Office, erected in 1886-87 as a post and telegraph office, is important in demonstrating the pattern and evolution of Queensland's history. The building survives as an expression of government 'boom' era confidence; of the popularity of Sandgate as both a seaside resort and as a commuter residential district from the 1880s; and of the important role of the post and telegraph services in the Queensland community and economy at this period.
|The building is a substantial former post and telegraph office of a type more usually found in regional centres. It remains substantially intact and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class of cultural places: two-storeyed late 19th century brick post and telegraph offices. These characteristics include: the form (two-storeyed), materials (brick), planning (upstairs residence for the postmaster and downstairs offices including a large central public space with two entrances) and design (classical motifs and detailing).
|The place is significant for its landmark quality, intactness and contribution to the Sandgate townscape. Located in the centre of the Sandgate commercial precinct, the place contributes to an historical grouping that includes the adjacent war memorial and the nearby former Sandgate Town Hall (601566).
|The place is important for having established a precedent for subsequent late 19th century and early 20th century Queensland post and telegraph office layouts, demonstrating creative achievement.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15066,"place_ref":600291,"name":"Saltwood","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"154 Shorncliffe Parade","suburb":"SHORNCLIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-07-09","description":"Saltwood is a single-storeyed chamferboard residence, with a hipped corrugated iron roof, located on the southern corner of Swan Street and Shorncliffe Parade. The building is sited on the crest of a rise opposite Moora park, with views over Moreton Bay and to the islands beyond. The building has concrete stumps and is built close to the corner boundary, with a large lawn to the east.
The earliest northern section of the building has verandahs to three sides, with shaped timber brackets, chamfered posts with capitals, cross-braced balustrade and boarded ceilings. The main entry is from the northwest via a gabled entry with fretwork panel, paired posts and timber louvred doors, and a panelled timber entry door with original hardware. French doors with fanlights and timber shutters open from each room.
The central transverse section consists of two large projecting bays, to the northwest and southeast, surmounted by a timber finial with bracketed eaves, sash windows and shutters.
The southern section has two parallel hipped sections, with a flat roofed section between, surrounded by a recent verandah with a curved corrugated iron awning and timber details to match the earlier section.
Internally, there is a central L-shaped hall, with bedrooms in the northern section and living and dining rooms in the central section. The southern section has been altered and refitted, with a recent kitchen and family room, with two skylight shafts inserted in the hall area. The building has cedar joinery; including a fireplace surround, fretwork ceiling roses and internal doors with fanlights, original door hardware, tongue and groove walls and boarded ceilings. The northern bedroom has a fibrous cement ceiling and a large opening which originally housed four-fold cedar doors, which are currently in storage. The former kitchen has a large fireplace, plaster ceiling, built-in cupboards and sash windows with diamond pattern, lead framed glazing.
The street frontage has a substantial brick pier and timber batten fence, with a gateway on the northwest supporting an overhead beam with the name SALTWOOD.
","history":"This sprawling, single-storeyed timber residence was constructed apparently in several stages during the 1870s and 1880s, as a holiday residence for the Hart and Drury families.
Sandgate/Shorncliffe began development in the 1860s, particularly for those who could afford private transport and holiday residences. With the extension of the railway from Brisbane to Sandgate in 1882, the permanent population grew, and weekend holiday-makers turned the township into a bustling seaside resort.
The Saltwood site was first alienated from the crown in 1854 by William Sheehan of Brisbane, as a 2 rood allotment. In 1867 it was subdivided into five blocks, and in January 1874 the four which fronted Shorncliffe [Parade] were acquired by Graham Lloyd Hart of Greylands (QHR 600230), a prominent Brisbane solicitor. The first section of the building was erected probably for Hart in the mid to late 1870s, as a seaside holiday residence. A transverse section along the western side, and two rear wings, was constructed probably at a later date, possibly in the 1880s, although the southern wing may have been the original detached service wing.
Although Edward Robert Drury, general manager of the Queensland National Bank, did not acquire Saltwood until 1895, he and his family appear to have shared the house with the Hart family, as a holiday home. As early as 1882, Drury had acquired the fifth subdivision of the original site, fronting Swan Street, and this became part of the Saltwood grounds. A photograph dated c1901, shows a separate timber building on the fifth subdivision, which may have been erected soon after Drury's purchase of the site. This building is no longer extant.
Drury died at Saltwood early in 1896, but the residence remained in the Drury family until 1919. It may have functioned as a boarding house or guest house from about 1900.
From 1920 to 1979 the property was owned by the McMenamin family, who used two rooms as a doctor's surgery and locum's room in the late 1960s. During their occupancy, the original picket fence was replaced with the present masonry and timber structure, and by the early 1950s, a tennis court had been created on the lawn to the south of the residence, and the open space between the two rear wings had been covered.
The residence was renovated in the 1980s, and verandahs added to the rear extension after 1986. Most of the present planting dates to the early 1980s.
","criteria":"Saltwood is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of development of Sandgate as a holiday resort.
|Saltwood demonstrates an uncommon aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage, being one of the more intact of the large seaside holiday homes erected in Sandgate in the last half of the 19th century.
|Saltwood is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial, evolving timber holiday home of the 1870s and 1880s, in Brisbane.
|Saltwood is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Brisbane community, in particular, the building's siting, scale, form and materials, and its contribution to the Shorncliffe Parade and Swan Street streetscapes and Shorncliffe townscape and for the quality of the building's interior, including cedar joinery.
|Saltwood has a special association with the Hart and Drury families, who were prominent in Queensland social, legal, business and government circles in the last quarter of the 19th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15067,"place_ref":600292,"name":"Berry & MacFarlane Monument","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Sherwood Road","suburb":"SHERWOOD","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The sandstone monument is located near the front entrance gate of the Sherwood Anglican Cemetery, facing east.
It stands 15 feet 3 inches [4.6 metres] high, and consists of a pedestal on a stepped sandstone base, rising to an obelisk draped by a tasselled shroud. Crossed rifles are carved in relief on the front face of the obelisk, which features a small cornice midway. The pedestal has two inscribed, leaded marble plates, and is ornamented with a trooper's hat and crossed swords in high relief at the base, and a rose and leaf design around the top.
The pedestal shows signs of spalling at the base, partly caused by the monument having been painted, and the relief detail is weathered. Originally the monument was surrounded by a stone kerbing and six posts linked by rails, with marble chips inside the border. The memorial now stands borderless and within 2 metres of the more recently erected columbarium.
","history":"This monument was erected in July 1902 by friends of two young soldiers, Sergeant Robert Edwin Berry [aged 23 years] and Acting Corporal John MacFarlane [aged 21 years], who were killed in action in the Transvaal on 4 January 1902. The Berry family had long been resident in the Sherwood district, and were closely associated with St Matthew's Anglican Church in Sherwood Road [destroyed by fire in 1921].
Both young men were members of the 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen and, like all Australian troops participating in the South African [Boer] War of 1899-1902, were volunteers. As members of the QIB, however, they were under British command, and their pay was issued by the colonial government at English cavalrymen's rates.
The monument was carved by the masonry firm of W Batstone & Sons of South Brisbane, and was erected in the grounds of St Matthew's Anglican Church and Cemetery at Sherwood.
It is one of few South African War monuments erected in Queensland. Amongst these, other Brisbane memorials include the Caskey Monument [1902] in Toowong Cemetery (QHR 600335), the Anning Monument [1903] at Hemmant (QHR 600220) and the South African War Memorial [1919] in Anzac Square (QHR 600060).
","criteria":"The Berry & MacFarlane Monument at Sherwood, erected in 1902, is significant historically as an expression of emergent Australian nationalism in the earliest years of federation.
|It is a rare Queensland South African War monument, and a unique source of historical information.
|It is a skilfully executed example of its type, and a good example of the work of prominent Brisbane monumental masons W Batstone & Sons.
|It is a skilfully executed example of its type, and a good example of the work of prominent Brisbane monumental masons W Batstone & Sons.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15068,"place_ref":600293,"name":"South Brisbane Railway Easement","alternate_name":"Stanley Street Terminus | South Brisbane Wharves Extension | Dry Dock Siding","street_address":"412 Stanley Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former South Brisbane Railway Easement runs along the southern edges of the Queensland Maritime Museum site, bounded by Little Dock Street and Dock Street to the southeast and by Stanley Street to the southwest. The location of former railway lines and associated earthworks is indicated by a series of retaining walls, ground level changes and bitumen pathways. The easement is collocated with the South Brisbane Dry Dock [QHR 600301].
\nSoutheast retaining wall and railway corridor (c1884)
\nAlong the southeast boundary, a long, straight retaining wall, provides grade separation between the former South Brisbane railway station lines (1883-84) on the upper level; and the Dry Dock siding (c1884) and South Brisbane Wharf Railway extension (1896-97) on the lower level. A concrete spoon drain runs along the base of the wall. The wall is divided into two sections: of stone (eastern end) and concrete (western end); with both sections being of the same height with a slight batter:
\nThe eastern end of the wall has been enclosed by later blockwork walls and the western end is partially concealed by earth fill. The roadway between the wall and the Dry Dock buildings, where the siding railway line used to run, is covered with modern bitumen.
\nA second, short remnant of stone wall survives along the edge of the Dock Street pathway, approximately in line with the stone section of the lower-level retaining wall.
\nThe site of the former railway station and lines is buried in fill and a concrete pedestrian walkway along Little Dock Street has been constructed over the top. Gardens (planted with trees and shrubs in 2016) occupy the steep slopes between the Little Dock Street footpath and the Maritime Museum fence line.
\nStanley Street retaining wall (c1884)
\nRunning along the Stanley Street boundary is a high stone retaining wall topped by an iron palisade fence that once formed the western end of the 1880s railway reserve. It is of the same material (Brisbane Tuff) and construction method as the stone section of the southeast retaining wall. The iron fence is strengthened by bracing members to each post, which curve around the wall capping and are fixed into the stonework below. Incomplete stonework and cuts to the iron fence reveal that the wall has been shortened at the southern end. In 2016, a large fig tree is growing out of the eastern side of the wall, causing distortion to the stonework and iron fence, which has had a segment removed.
\nAccess driveway (1880s)
\nAn access driveway to the Dry Dock from a former entrance on Sidon Street, near the corner of Stanley Street, slopes down in a south-easterly direction towards the southern corner of the Maritime Museum grounds. The roadway is lined with bitumen in 2016 and has gardens along the steep embankments on either side. Modern fencing encloses the driveway along the southwest side, and a gate near the top is set back from the former Sidon Street alignment.
\nRailway extension corridor and underpass (1896)
\nThe former rail corridor of the South Brisbane Wharf Railway extension is indicated by a flat bitumen pathway that curves towards the northwest from a point near the southeast retaining wall (the site of a car port in 2016) and passes close to the western end of the Dry Dock. While the bitumen pathway keeps curving around the dock, the railway corridor continues heading northwest, terminating at an underpass through the Sidon Street retaining wall. It is not known if remnants of the railway tracks or sleepers survive underground. Rendered concrete abutments line the sides of the underpass, fronted by square concrete corner pillars. The rest of the underpass has been infilled and sealed off by concrete and blockwork walls. A historical recreation of a short section of track, buffer stop and an early coal cart, which occupies this location in 2016, is not of heritage significance.
\nGoodwill Bridge (2001)
\nThe Goodwill Bridge, which spans the Brisbane River, passes over the site, crossing the northern corner and curving around to run parallel with the southeast side of the Maritime
\nMuseum building. The bridge is supported by a number of steel posts and concrete anchor footings located within the museum grounds. The bridge deck at the Stanley Street entrance sits above the former Sidon Street railway underpass cutting.
\nFeatures not of State-level Heritage Significance:
\nOther elements and structures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nThe South Brisbane Railway Easement was initially part of the Stanley Street railway station which opened 1884, providing the first railway passenger service to South Brisbane, and a direct connection from the West Moreton coal mines to a deep water port. The line ran from Woolloongabba to a station adjacent to the South Brisbane Dry Dock. It closed in 1891 but reopened in 1897 as a goods extension, serving the wharves and businesses along Stanley Street. The goods railway facilitated the trade and commerce conducted in the South Brisbane wharves until its closure in the 1960s.
\nShipping played a significant role in 19th century Queensland as its primary – and sometimes only – means of trade and communication. The development of railway lines were closely associated with the development of ports, with railway lines connecting the hinterland, agricultural and mining districts with the adjacent port.[1] In 1875 a Select Committee emphasised the importance of rail-port connections, in order to export the wool, cattle, agricultural products and minerals which dominated Queensland’s economy. Until the mid-1880s, however, the export of coal from the West Moreton district was frustrated by a lack of direct access to deep water wharves for bunkering coal onto ships for export from Brisbane. Coal was carried to Brisbane by the main line from Ipswich (opened 1875), and was loaded onto drays for transport to the wharves. To facilitate the more efficient handling of coal for export, and as well as other commercial interests, various extensions to the railway system were proposed. In 1880, an extension to the Ipswich-Brisbane line, branching off at South Brisbane Junction [Corinda] between Sherwood and Oxley, and coming around to Woolloongabba and South Brisbane via Yeerongpilly, was tabled in Parliament, and approved in 1881.[2] The project included the establishment of railyards at the water reserve at Woolloongabba, with an extension running through a single-bore, 7-chain (140m) tunnel under Vulture Street to the riverbank.[3] A passenger line would continue west to terminate at a station at the South Brisbane Dry Dock [QHR 600301], just below Stanley Street.[4]
\nContractors Gilliver and Wockner tendered nearly £2,000 beneath the estimated cost and were awarded the contract, beginning work in 1882.[5] The extension was to be augmented by a large coal wharf with railway sidings, constructed along the riverbank adjacent to the Dry Dock.[6] Acheson Overend & Co, responsible for the construction of the Bundaberg-Mount Perry railway, the Warwick-Stanthorpe railway, and South Brisbane Dry Dock, was engaged to construct the coal wharf and sidings in December 1882, at a cost of £11,830.[7]
\nCutting work in the Dry Dock reserve began in May 1882. The earth and stone removed were purchased by the sawmill on the opposite side of the dock and laid on the site near Sidon Street.[8] The contractors for the main line, Gilliver and Wockner, became insolvent in 1883, and construction was completed by the Railways Department.[9] The department finished excavations in October 1883, and constructed a ‘strong stone retaining wall’ up to the level of Stanley Street, just below the post office on Stanley Street (later South Brisbane Library [QHR 600302]).[10]
\nThe South Brisbane extension, coal wharf and sidings were completed in May 1884 and opened without ceremony on 2 June 1884.[11] Passenger trains departed from the Stanley Street terminus three times daily except Sundays. This number doubled within the year. However, the terminus was quickly considered vastly inadequate for both passengers and goods. Complaints about its inability to accommodate more than a single train, its inconvenient location and lack of connection with North Brisbane and the rest of South Brisbane, gave rise to demands for an extension of the line.[12] A plan to connect the station to the wharves which stretched to Victoria Bridge was proposed in 1890,[13] but was thwarted by the construction of a new line that bypassed the Woolloongabba railyards and Stanley Street station entirely. When the new line, Boggo Junction (Dutton Park) to Melbourne Street, was opened on 21 December 1891, the Stanley Street station was closed.[14]
\nIn 1894, after pressure from local business owners, Parliament authorised a goods extension of the South Brisbane railway, commencing at the old Stanley Street station, diverting around the head of the Dry Dock and extending to the Victoria Bridge.[15] Numerous wharves and commercial enterprises along the riverbank at South Brisbane would be served by the extension, which provided a connection to the Woolloongabba railyards, and to the Southern and Western line at Dutton Park. The contract for construction was let in May 1896 to Kirk Brothers and Frew (who had just finished duplicating the line to Yeerongpilly, and who simultaneously were constructing the Mulgrave line).[16] Extensive works, including an overbridge at Sidon Street, were undertaken, and the first goods were carried on the line on 12 April 1897.[17] The passenger station at Stanley Street did not reopen.
\nThe South Brisbane wharves dominated Queensland’s shipping industry in the late 19th and early 20th century, functioning in large part as Brisbane’s port. Large businesses, including shipping company the Adelaide Steamship Navigation Co, meat freezers and exporters Birt and Co, and flour millers the Dominion and Brisbane Milling Companies, operated wharves along the Stanley Street riverfront.[18] Coal traffic boomed, shipping 200,000 tons per annum by 1905.[19] The railway extension played a vital role in maintaining its dominance: primary produce and coal from southern and western Queensland was brought directly to the wharves for export by the railway line, and imported goods carried back along the line, making it a central focus for trade.
\nThe prominence of the South Brisbane wharves declined in the mid-20th century as wharves with up-to-date facilities opened further downstream, and as oil fuel replaced coal, reducing the need for coal bunkering.[20] With diminished requirement for goods carriage, the South Brisbane railway extension closed beyond Glenelg Street in 1961, and the rails were taken up in 1969.[21] The extension, along with the Woolloongabba goods yard, was officially closed in December 1969, and the coal wharf was demolished in 1974.[22]
\nOwnership of the South Brisbane Dry Dock, including the former railway line and easement, was transferred to the Land Administration Commission in 1973. The Queensland Maritime Museum Association opened their base on the site in April 1973, opening to the public in 1979.[23] The site was gazetted as a recreation park and museum in 1976, held in trust by the Brisbane City Council.[24]
\nChanges to Stanley Street and the creation of Little Stanley Street for Expo88 meant that most of the railway easement was in-filled to create firstly a parking area and later, the roadway with the embankment burying the remains of the railway platform. The railway easement retaining wall remained intact.[25]
\nIn 2018 the railway easement is collocated with the South Brisbane Dry Dock, and is part of the Queensland Maritime Museum.[26]
","criteria":"The South Brisbane Railway Easement, constructed in 1882-84, is significant historically as a collection of remnant structures and sites associated with South Brisbane's earliest rail network, constructed in the early 1880s. The place is important for its strong association with the commercial development of South Brisbane in the 1880s and 1890s.
The South Brisbane Railway Easement is an integral element in the historic precinct centred around the South Brisbane Memorial Park, which includes the dry dock (QHR 600301), the former South Brisbane Library (QHR 600302), Cumbooquepa (Somerville House) (QHR 600305), the former South Brisbane Municipal Chambers (QHR 600306) and Ship Inn.
|The South Brisbane Railway Easement has potential to reveal sub-surface archaeological evidence, contributing to a greater understanding of the early workings of Queensland’s railways, in particular their servicing of the Brisbane River wharves.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15069,"place_ref":600294,"name":"Plough Inn","alternate_name":"Plough Inn Hotel","street_address":"South Bank Parklands","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Plough Inn is a two-storeyed rendered masonry building with front and rear verandahs, and a single-storeyed service building to the rear. It has a picturesque front facade which is a remnant of a former streetscape.
The hotel has an L-shaped plan; the rectangular service building is attached via the rear verandah.
The front facade is richly detailed, while other elevations are more perfunctory. The front facade has three bays, expressed with rusticated pilasters and parapet decoration comprising pediments either end and a central name plaque. The pediments are flanked by acroteria, and the plaque is inscribed with the words PLOUGH INN. The pediments and plaques are connected by a miniature balustrade, and rest on a deep cornice with dentils, separated by another band of decoration from a second cornice.
Whilst little remains of the original hotel internally, the Plough Inn retains its external envelope and overall form.
","history":"This two-storeyed former hotel was constructed in 1885 for Brisbane publican Daniel Costigan. It replaced a previous, less substantial structure on the site, which had functioned as the Plough Inn since 1864. The new building was erected during South Brisbane's heyday and was part of the 1880s boom-time reconstruction of Stanley Street premises.
The building was designed by architect Alexander B. Wilson, who is more known for his domestic work. It was built by contractor Abraham James, whose tender of £3,300 was accepted in March 1885.
The hotel, prominently located in central Stanley Street, serviced the commercial heart of South Brisbane. Its proximity to the South Brisbane wharves ensured its popularity amongst those engaged in shipping interests.
Initially the L-shaped interior comprised on the ground floor: a central hall, staircase, dining room, two private rooms [probably for dining also], bar, parlour, storage spaces, billiard room and lavatories; the first floor contained fourteen guest rooms and a bathroom. A verandah along the back of the building connected it to a detached single-storey kitchen. A cellar completed the facilities.
The building has been altered a number of times since its initial construction. In 1922, additions were made by contractors Robertson and Corbette, following the designs of GHM Addison and Son. It is thought that the street awning was added at this time.
In 1987 the building was modified to function as a tavern during Expo '88. Most of the internal walls were removed, the central fire place and chimney were taken out, and the interior was re-fitted. Also the front verandah was widened, the rear verandah extended, and windows and doors replaced at this time.
In 1991-92 a conservation plan for the Plough Inn was prepared by Bruce Buchanan architects, and the interior was fully refurbished. The front verandah was also reconstructed.
The Plough Inn now operates as a Southbank hotel.
","criteria":"The picturesque front facade in particular, along with the nearby Allgas Building facade, survives as a fragment of the former streetscape of Stanley Street, South Brisbane's principal commercial thoroughfare in the late 19th century.
|Plough Inn is significant historically as a rare surviving remnant of the commercial and shipping heart of South Brisbane in the late 19th century.
|The picturesque front facade in particular, along with the nearby Allgas Building facade, survives as a fragment of the former streetscape of Stanley Street, South Brisbane's principal commercial thoroughfare in the late 19th century.
|The place has a strong association with the work of prominent Brisbane architect Alexander B Wilson.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15070,"place_ref":600295,"name":"Allgas Building","alternate_name":"South Brisbane Gas & Light Co. Building | Queensland National Bank | Caledonian House","street_address":"South Bank Parklands","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Allgas building is a two-storeyed rendered masonry building with a parapeted facade and a simple rectangular plan. It has a picturesque front facade which is a remnant of a former streetscape.
The northern facade above the ground floor and its western corner is richly decorated. It has a deep string course separating ground and first floors, and a deep cornice topped by pediments and a miniature balustrade. The elevation has bays of three windows with rusticated surrounds, which align with the pediments and console brackets under the cornice. Paired windows are flanked with fluted pilasters with floriated capitals. At what was once the western street corner, the facade is truncated above ground floor level, and is topped with an arched pediment inscribed with the date 1885.
Whilst little remains of the original building internally, the Allgas retains its overall external form and the rich decorative detailing of the northern facade.
","history":"The Allgas Building, a two-storeyed building in what was formerly central Stanley Street, was erected in 1885 for the drapery and outfitting firm of Allan & Stark. It was built during the peak of South Brisbane commercial development and the reconstruction of Stanley Street premises, and was a reflection of boom era confidence.
Along with a number of prominent South Brisbane firms, Allan & Stark moved across the river to higher ground after the disastrous floods of 1893. Caledonian House was leased to the Queensland National Bank as a branch office [301 Stanley Street] in August 1897, and the South Brisbane Gas & Light Co. Ltd sub-leased a section [305 Stanley Street] from October 1897.
In 1909 the QNB purchased the building for £2,500, with the South Brisbane Gas & Light Co. maintaining its office and showroom there.
Alterations, including changes to the street frontage, were carried out in 1931 under architects Hall and Phillips, and included the erection of an awning and alterations to the shop front. The building was again extended in 1942.
In 1943 the branch was closed as a war time economy, and 301 Stanley Street was leased to shirt and pyjama manufacturer Alfred Portrate until 1949.
The corner premises were reoccupied by maintenance staff of the National Bank of Australasia [formerly the QNB] in 1949. In 1965 it was purchased by the South Brisbane Gas & Light Co. Ltd [Allgas Energy Ltd from 1971].
In 1984 the building was resumed by the Expo Authority, renamed Central House, and functioned once again as a bank during World Expo '88. It also housed the Picasso Restaurant.
The building was again refurbished in 1991 as part of the Southbank redevelopment, and now operates as an administration centre.
Little remains of the original interior of the building. Externally, the northern facade remains intact above ground floor; the ground floor facade has been modified a number of times throughout the life of the building. New openings have been made to other facades.
","criteria":"The picturesque front facade in particular, along with the nearby Plough Inn facade, survives as a fragment of the former streetscape of Stanley Street, South Brisbane's principal commercial thoroughfare in the late 19th century.
It is also significant historically as a rare surviving remnant of the commercial and shipping heart of South Brisbane in the late 19th century.
|It is also significant historically as a rare surviving remnant of the commercial and shipping heart of South Brisbane in the late 19th century.
|The picturesque front facade in particular, along with the nearby Plough Inn facade, survives as a fragment of the former streetscape of Stanley Street, South Brisbane's principal commercial thoroughfare in the late 19th century.
|The Allgas Building at South Brisbane has a strong association with the early years of Allan & Stark, formerly one of Brisbane's most prominent retailing firms.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15071,"place_ref":600296,"name":"Collins Place","alternate_name":"Greyscourt | Byanda","street_address":"271 Grey Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Collins Place is a two-and-a-half storeyed rendered brick building with pitched corrugated iron roofs situated on a slope which falls away from the adjacent Vulture St station. Fronting Grey Street at its south-eastern end, Collins Place currently stands without immediate neighbours on either side.
The building is L-shaped, with a service wing to the rear, and has verandahs on three sides to two levels. It has a hipped roof linking to a gabled roof running over the service wing. The street-facing gable projects and is decorated with a finial and cross pieces. Chimneys with double clay pots rise above the roof line. The verandah has a skillion roof.
Externally-exposed walls have been painted, while those sheltered by the verandah are unpainted, and show light-coloured splayed brick lintels, stone sills, and darker face brickwork. The building has timber sash windows, French doors opening onto the second level verandahs, tripartite windows facing the street to the first floor level, and flat arches to window heads on second floor level. It sits on a rendered masonry base which has intricate brick and iron ventilators.
The verandahs are supported on timber columns with bevelled corners and square capitals, and have cast-iron valances and balustrading. Louvred timber spandrels run beneath the first floor verandah.
Internally, the building comprises rooms either side of a central corridor and stairs, with the two-storeyed service wing being accessed from the rear. It is entered from street level via timber stairs which arrive at the first floor verandah; there are also timber service stairs to the rear. The house retains some earlier detailing, including pressed metal ceilings on the first floor, timber stairs with a richly detailed balustrade and timber panelling, and deep cedar skirtings and reveals.
Collins Place retains the form, some of the internal and much of the external picturesque detailing of a turn of the century townhouse. In its new context it is a fragment of a former streetscape.
","history":"Collins Place was constructed in 1889 or 1890 for Ship Inn proprietor Michael Foley, on land he acquired in 1887. Around the same time Foley also built the neighbouring semi-detached houses of Greyscourt and Beth Eden, which later became known conjointly as Grays Court. Foley's houses were erected during the boom which transformed Grey Street, South Brisbane's principal residential street since the mid 1840s, into a fashionable address.
From 1890 until the early 1910s it was occupied by respected Brisbane surgeon Francis Glynn Connolly, who called the house Byanda.
It passed from the Foley family in 1928, but remained a rental property through subsequent ownerships.
Lynette Bloss, who purchased the property in 1983 and renovated the building, unsuccessfully appealed against its resumption by the Expo Authority in 1984. Ms Bloss bestowed the name Collins Place to commemorate 1857 deed of grant holder, squatter John Collins.
During Expo '88 the building functioned as Collins Place Spaghetti House. The building is currently used as a police station.
","criteria":"It is the only surviving house in what was formerly one of South Brisbane's earliest residential streets, and is remnant evidence of the 1880s transformation of Grey Street into a fashionable address.
|An example of a late 19th century brick townhouse in Brisbane, it also retains its picturesque detailing.
|An example of a late 19th century brick townhouse in Brisbane, it also retains its picturesque detailing.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15073,"place_ref":600298,"name":"Coronation Hotel","alternate_name":"Montague Hotel","street_address":"46 Montague Road","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-04-30","description":"The hotel occupies a corner site on Montague Road. It is a two-storeyed rendered and painted brickwork building with a hipped corrugated iron roof. The street facades are surrounded by a cantilevered iron-lace verandah and an awning over the street, with an entrance at the truncated corner.
The ground floor street facades have paired half-fluted pilasters with square motifs above the capitals, and relief moulds which express a base to the building. Timber french doors alternate with timber sash windows which have narrow side lights. The corrugated iron awning extends beyond the edge of the cantilevered balcony above, and is supported by timber posts; two of the original cast iron corinthian columns remain on the Montague Road frontage.
The first floor has timber french doors and sash windows. The balcony has a cast-iron balustrade, and galvanised sheet iron columns with cast zinc bases and capitals, and a convex corrugated iron awning. The parapet above the awning has a cornice with dentil blocks, a pediment over the corner, and three shaped gables embellished with spheres.
A substantial two-storeyed brick service wing with an intact timber verandah extends off the rear. A gable-roofed laundry stands in the back yard. Next to the service wing is a more recent two-storeyed brick toilet block.
The ground floor interior includes two renovated bars, a dining room which is now partitioned, the kitchen, the store and bathrooms. On the first floor, accessed by a fine timber staircase, are a number of bedrooms and bathrooms. With the exception of the bars and bathrooms, the interior is largely intact. The walls are lined with plaster, and fretwork fanlights remain above the doors. In the bedrooms, the tongue and groove timber ceilings have metal rose vents.
Although the building requires repairs, it is substantially intact, in particularly the exterior, which is a fine example of the architect's skill.
","history":"The Coronation Hotel was built in 1891 to a design by prominent Brisbane architect FDG Stanley. It was originally called the Montague Hotel.
At the time of its construction the hotel stood near the heart of the prospering South Brisbane commercial and residential areas. Its first proprietor was George Lotz. In 1953 it was renamed the Coronation Hotel after the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. From the early 1970s the last licensee was rugby league personality Ripper Doyle.
In 1987 the hotel was acquired for redevelopment by neighbouring QUF Industries. The redevelopment did not eventuate and it operated as a backpackers hostel during Expo 88 and for some time afterwards. It is presently unoccupied.
","criteria":"The Coronation Hotel is significant as it has a special association with architect FDG Stanley as an example of his work.
|The Coronation Hotel is significant as an intact remnant of an early streetscape of a residential scale which is now rare and endangered.
|The hotel demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1890s hotel.
|The Coronation Hotel is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community in its fine design.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15074,"place_ref":600299,"name":"Richard Randall Art Studio","alternate_name":"Richard Randall's Studio","street_address":"Mt Coot-tha Road","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Richard Randall Art Studio is a small, single-storey, timber-framed building located within the grounds of Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Cooth-tha in Toowong. Set against a backdrop of mature trees and bamboo, the building is adjacent to and clearly visible from the car park in the northern area of the Gardens.
High-set on timber and steel stumps over sloping ground, the building is orientated to face south-west and sited to accommodate a level timber and steel walkway from the car park to the front door on the left-hand side of the main elevation. A timber picket fence and gate, constructed in the style of the fence at the studio's original location, stands at the edge of the footpath, with a garden bed behind. Trees and grassed lawns surround the remainder of the building.
Measuring approximately 6m by 14m, the studio building is rectangular in plan with a narrow frontage and a small verandah at the rear. The steeply-pitched roof is clad in red Marseilles tiles with terracotta finials and metal acroteria, and has timber lined eaves, 0.5m wide. The front section of the roof has a half gable, while the rear is hipped, extending over the rear verandah.
Centrally located immediately below the front half gable is a large rectangular inclined skylight supported by timber mullions, the bottom of which meets the top of a projecting bay window. This tripartite window consists of a central sash window with casements on either side. The upper portion of all 3 windows is multi-paned, while the lower portions have a single pane. Both the skylight and the bay window have modern roller blind systems attached to the outside.
The studio has only two other small windows, one on each side elevation. These are timber, double-hung sashes with multi-pane upper lights and a single pane lower light, one on the north-west wall next to the main entry and one on the south-east wall near the rear corner.
The front elevation is clad in timber chamferboards, and the sides with weatherboards. The rear verandah wall retains exposed timber studs, however the southern end has had a modern accessible bathroom inserted within the verandah space. This bathroom is clad with flat sheeting and the verandah’s two-rail dowel balustrade and stop-chamfered posts are retained.
A small sunhood over the entrance is supported by curved timber brackets and clad in mini-orb sheeting, positioned higher than its original location. The low-waisted, 4-panel timber door features some early door hardware, including a central door knob and a door knocker, and has glazed upper panels. Two short posts with ornamental tops incorporated into the door's architrave are the remnants of the original front stair balustrade.
The interior of the studio is a single large room, well-lit by the large bay window and inclined skylight. An entrance hall area is formed by a timber partition wall that extends 2.6m into the room, topped by wide timber boards that act as shelves, partly supported by a small turned timber column.
The high ceiling is coved, with the tie beams of the roof framing exposed through the space. These beams are stop-chamfered and the end beams braced in each corner. The ceiling and walls are lined with timber, v-jointed tongue and groove boards, and the floor with polished timber boards.
Fittings and fixtures within the space include a contemporary aluminium rail for picture hanging, reproduction suspended and wall light fittings, switches and power outlets, and strip lighting fitted discretely to the upper side of the tie beams. A small kitchenette and fridge are located in the south-eastern corner.
The door to the rear verandah is a contemporary 4 panel timber door, located at the northern end of the north-east wall. The verandah floor is lined with linoleum and the raked ceiling is clad in timber v-jointed boards.
The underfloor area of the studio is used as storage space and is enclosed with vertical timber battens.
","history":"The Richard Randall Art Studio was purpose-built in 1900 as a two-storey timber studio and residence for Queensland artist Richard John Randall. While located at its original address at 72 Cordelia Street, South Brisbane, it served as the artist's residence, art studio, classroom and gallery for the last 6 years of his life, before his untimely death in 1906 at the age of 37. Subsequently used as a residence, the upper floor of the studio was saved from demolition in 1988 when it was purchased by the Brisbane City Council and moved to a site in Musgrave Park. In 2007 the studio was relocated for a second time to its current location within the grounds of Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha, Toowong.
Richard John Randall was born in Brisbane in 1869, the first son of George and Naomi Randall, former domestic servants who had recently emigrated from England to Brisbane.[1] Growing up in South Brisbane, where his parents owned an increasingly successful retail business, Richard and his younger brother George (born in 1871) were both educated at the Brisbane Normal School.[2] Richard went on to attend art classes at the Brisbane Technical College, which had been formed in 1882, operating under the control of the Brisbane School of Arts. While studying there he won awards for drawing and modelling.[3] Watercolours and drawings by Richard were also included in the fine arts section of Queensland National Association exhibitions in the late 1880s.[4]
Queensland's art scene was still in its infancy in the late 19th century. The first art society was formed in 1887, the primary aims of which were to promote the fine arts and to establish annual exhibitions in Brisbane at a time when artists had almost no venues for exhibiting and selling their works. The Society was also seen as an important step towards forming a gallery for Queensland, such as had already been established in Sydney and Melbourne. The first exhibition held by the Society took place in the Masonic Hall in Alice Street, Brisbane, on 14 August 1888.[5]
In 1881 Richard's father George Randall was appointed Queensland Emigration Agent to Britain, a position that required him to take extended tours to England. There, he would travel around the various counties encouraging emigration to Queensland, engaging particularly with agricultural labourers. Between 1881 and 1902, George Randall travelled to England 4 times in the position of Emigration Agent, his longest trip lasting 5 years. In the meantime, the profits from the Randall family's South Brisbane business allowed the family to invest extensively in real estate and establish a large farming property at Birkdale, known as Somersby Grange.[6]
In April 1891, at the age of 22, Richard departed Brisbane with his mother and brother to accompany George Randall on his third tour to England.[7] While there, Richard furthered his art studies and applied to enter a well known art school run by Professor Hubert von Herkomer at Bushey, Hertfordshire. In December 1892 he was accepted into the Herkomer School and spent the next few years there, eventually earning a free scholarship and life membership. In 1895 Richard Randall attained his highest commendation, when one of his watercolour paintings, entitled 'The Old Mill', was accepted and exhibited by the Royal Academy of Arts.[8]
After leaving the Herkomer School, Richard Randall spent 18 months working in London, occupying a studio in Queensborough Terrace, Bayswater. During his time there he painted portraits of many eminent gentlemen[9], as well as making excursions to picturesque spots around England and to Paris.[10]
In 1899 Richard Randall returned to Queensland, the purpose of which (according to some sources) was 'to carry out his father's patriotic wish, that now he had received some training and experience he should go back and use this and his talent to help lift art matters in his native city and country.'[11] Richard continued to pursue his career as an artist in Brisbane, becoming involved in exhibitions and competitions. In November 1899 he exhibited 50 of his water-colours for sale in Messrs Isles, Love and Co.'s auction mart, in relation to which he was described as a 'daring colourist'.[12] The influence of Randall's style upon other artists was soon observed in local exhibitions.[13]
Richard Randall set about establishing his own residence and studio in Brisbane soon after his return. The site chosen was a block of land owned by his father at 72 Cordelia Street in South Brisbane, opposite St Andrew's Church of England. Purchased in May 1884,[14] a residence (known as 'Hatfield') was built on the site c1896[15] and early photographs show this residence and the later studio standing close together on the site.[16] Some sources state that the studio was built for Richard Randall by his father, however as George Randall was in England at the time of its construction in 1900, the level of his involvement in the project (beyond providing the land) is unclear. A 1914 account of Richard Randall's life states that Richard personally superintended the erection of the studio.[17]
As a purpose-built studio, rather than an adaptation of an existing building, it is likely that the building's design was based upon the type of artists' studios constructed in parts of London in the late 19th and early 20th century. Favouring the Queen Anne Revival style, these artists' studios were either part of or attached to a single house, or constructed as groups of units. In studio houses, the domestic function of the house was separate from and secondary to its studio use, with the studio itself usually located on the upper floor. Common features of artists' studios included a substantially sized painting room (that served as both a working and entertaining space), and large windows and skylights for adequate natural light, controlled by blinds. In particular, a window joined to an inclined skylight was very popular as it provided both top and side light. Careful consideration was also given to circulation, with an entrance located close to the painting room so that models and visitors would not have to pass through other areas of the house. Purpose-built artists' studios, whether grand or modest, were a reflection of the improved social and professional status of artists working in London in the late Victorian period.[18]
While modest in size and incorporating local materials and construction techniques, the Randall studio's design reflects many of the aspects of a typical London artist's studio, which Richard Randall would have been familiar with, having lived and worked there for some time. Its style, described in a Brisbane newspaper article as resembling a 'Swiss chalet'[19], incorporates characteristics of Australian 'Queen Anne' style, such as an asymmetrical façade, steeply pitched Marseilles tile-clad roof, terracotta roof apex ornaments, a street-facing gable, and projecting bay window with multi-paned top lights.[20] Built on steeply sloping ground, the studio occupied the upper floor at street level and the residence below was accessed by an external staircase at the rear. The residential level consisted of at least four rooms connected by a side verandah,[21] however its exact layout is unknown. The studio itself was a single volume lit by a large bay window and skylight in the centre of the main elevation, with blinds to control light levels. A part-height timber partition wall created an entrance passageway, with a curtain hung across it to shield views into the studio from the front door. The high walls (painted a 'cool green') had few windows, providing ample hanging space for pictures, and the room contained a 'model’s throne.'[22] A contemporary description called it 'a fine commodious studio (said to be one of the best-equipped private studios in Australia).'[23]
Richard Randall's studio was not the first artist's studio to be constructed in Queensland, however free-standing, purpose-built studio buildings remained rare, constructed only by those able to afford it. Of the many practicing artists and photographers working in Brisbane at the time, most operated from existing commercial premises.[24] One known exception was the English-born artist Godfrey Rivers, appointed second art master at the Brisbane Technical College in 1890,[25] who built a wooden studio building in the grounds of the Brisbane School of Arts in 1891 to a design by George Henry Male (GHM) Addison[26]. His studio was described as 'a wooden building of one room, lofty, sufficiently spacious, and admirably lighted by a single fine south window'[27] (building no longer extant).
Once settled into his new studio residence, Richard Randall began advertising for pupils in 'The Brisbane Courier', offering drawing and painting lessons in a variety of mediums, including oils, water-colours and pastels.[28] On Wednesday afternoons he was 'at home' to visitors,[29] providing an opportunity for socialising and displaying his latest works. Richard worked, exhibited and taught at the studio, establishing a reputation as a popular and successful Brisbane artist and teacher, and providing a focus for a coterie of local artists influenced by the Randall style.
When he was not teaching, Richard travelled around south-east Queensland in search of new subjects and scenes to paint. He also took an active role in many artistic clubs and societies, including the Brisbane Sketching Club and the Queensland Art Society, of which he was vice-president from December 1903.[30] A breakaway art society, calling itself the New Society of Artists, formed in 1904, as a result of dissatisfaction with some policies of the more elite Queensland Art Society.[31] In August 1906, the engagement of Richard Randall to Miss Minna Wirth, daughter of one of the founders of the Queensland Art Society, artist Lewis Wirth, was announced in a local paper.[32]
Some time after his return to Australia, Richard received overtures from various London art galleries, and subsequently collections of his works were sent back to England and displayed for purchase. His watercolours and paintings of Australian landscapes and scenery were particularly admired, as they conveyed 'a more pleasing and favourable impression of the Australian bush and scenery than had hitherto been entertained.' [33]
Tragedy struck in October 1906 when Richard Randall died unexpectedly, of what is believed to have been a brain tumour, at Somersby Grange, aged 37. The funeral held on 16 October[34] was well attended by members of Brisbane's artistic circles, including representatives of the Queensland Art Society and the New Society of Artists, who, in a rare moment of unity between the two groups, acted as pall bearers.[35]
Richard's death came as a great shock to his father, who spent much of his time after 1906 promoting the life and works of his son. In 1907 he compiled and published an elaborate memorial brochure, featuring photographs of Richard, his studio and some of his paintings.[36] The studio and its contents were kept intact until c1913, and opened for viewing by the public and eminent guests, such as Governor and Lady Chelmsford, who visited in December 1906 and purchased several watercolour sketches.[37]
In 1909 the South Brisbane Council was persuaded to accept 600 of Richard's works in perpetual trust.[38] A quarter-acre of vacant land adjoining the studio was offered by George Randall as a location for a gallery to house the collection[39], however it was eventually housed on the upper floor of the South Brisbane Technical College [QHR 600302 South Brisbane Library (former)], which had been converted from a library space into the Randall Art Gallery. The Randall Collection contained everything from early and incomplete works and sketches to his most prized paintings. After 1922 the collection was added to by George Randall upon his return from a visit to England, where he had purchased a number of his son's paintings from a London art gallery.[40]
When the City Council of Greater Brisbane was formed in 1925 it took over the assets of the South Brisbane Council, including the Randall Collection, which was moved to Brisbane City Hall [QHR 600065]. Some paintings were hung in reception rooms, while the majority were displayed in a large, well lit room on the fifth floor. The collection's continuous occupation of the foremost gallery space in Brisbane caused friction between the Council, representatives of the Randall family and the Royal Queensland Art Society, who requested to use the gallery for other purposes.[41] In 1943, after being closed for a year due to lack of staff, the collection was removed from the gallery and stored in the City Hall basement.[42] After the end of World War II, the collection was not reinstated to the gallery and the majority of works remained in poor storage conditions in the basement, or were loaned out or taken without any record being kept of where they went. A 1953 newspaper article claimed that the paintings were being eaten by rats and falling into disrepair, however it was not until the mid-1980s that a concerted effort was made to track down and restore the collection, which had dwindled to 154 pieces.[43] In 2013 the Richard Randall collection remains part of the Brisbane City Council owned Museum of Brisbane art collection.[44]
Members of the Randall family retained ownership of the Cordelia Street property until 1981. From late 1913[45] the studio was rented out as a residence, and at some point the upper floor was partitioned. In a 1926 sewerage plan the studio is named 'Brindisi' and is fenced off from two other residences on the property.
In 1987, Richard Randall's Studio was listed by the National Trust of Queensland, who described it as 'a unique example of a purpose-built artist's studio and reception rooms.'[46]
In 1988 the building was threatened with demolition due to redevelopment of the site; however it was purchased in time by Brisbane City Council in recognition of its historical significance.[47] Only the upper floor (the former studio) was saved and relocated approximately 300 metres along Cordelia Street to Musgrave Park, while the remainder of the building was demolished. In 1989 the studio was stumped and re-orientated to a north-west aspect to face an avenue through the park. Internal partitions and a lowered ceiling were removed and the building was repaired and renovated, with facilities such as a small kitchenette installed in a rear corner. In front of the studio a timber picket fence, similar to one which had existed at the original location, was constructed.
The studio was officially opened by the Lord Mayor, Ald. Sallyanne Atkinson, in December 1990 as the Richard Randall Studio, part of the Jagera Arts Centre in Musgrave Park. The Richard Randall Artist's Studio Award, established by the Council the same year, provided rent-free use of the building to selected local artists for set periods as a studio and gallery. Artists were chosen by a panel of professional arts community representatives, and were required to produce a quota of artwork for public use during their residency.[48]
By the mid-2000s the studio was in need of repairs and had become vulnerable to damage by vandals. In 2007 it was relocated for the second time by Brisbane City Council to its present site in the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens, adjacent to the main visitor's car park. Officially opened on 6 October 2008[49] by the Lady Mayoress Mrs Lisa Newman, in the presence of descendants of the Randall family, the renovated studio is used as a function and exhibition venue available to the public and community groups for hire.
References
[1] Walton, Jack, 2007, George Randall: Emigration Officer Extraordinaire, a biography, Brisbane: CopyRight Publishing Company Pty Ltd, p.50.
[2] Walton, George Randall: Emigration Officer Extraordinaire, p.89-90.
[3] The Queenslander, Saturday 13 February 1886, p.259; The Queenslander, Saturday 12 March 1887, p.428.
[4] Brown, Julie K. and Margaret Maynard, 1980, Fine Art Exhibitions in Brisbane 1884-1916, Fryer Library, University of Queensland: St Lucia.
[5] Brown, Fine Art Exhibitions in Brisbane 1884-1916, p.184-185.
[6] Walton, George Randall: Emigration Officer Extraordinaire, p.xi-xii, 131-133.
[7] Walton, George Randall: Emigration Officer Extraordinaire, p.95.
[8] CMJ.,'R. J. Randall, the Australian Painter-Poet, An Appreciation,' essay featured in The Randall Art Gallery and School of Painting, South Brisbane, Catalogue of Works, South Brisbane City Council, c.1914, p.8-10.
[9] The Queenslander, Saturday 21 January 1899, p.140.
[10] CMJ., 'R. J. Randall, the Australian Painter-Poet, An Appreciation,' p.7-12.
[11] The Brisbane Courier, Saturday 20th October 1906.
[12] The Brisbane Courier, Saturday 4 November 1899, p.6.
[13] The Brisbane Courier, Thursday 12 September 1901, p.5.
[14] Deed of Grant 10547250 EHP.
[15] The Brisbane Courier, Tuesday 14 July 1896, p.8.
[16] The Randall Art Gallery and School of Painting, South Brisbane, Catalogue of Works. South Brisbane City Council, c.1914, p.27.
[17] CMJ., 'R. J. Randall, the Australian Painter-Poet, An Appreciation,' p.12.
[18] Orme, Kate, Artists' Studios: Supplementary Planning Guidance, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, accessed March 2013: http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/planningandconservation/planningpolicy/supplementaryplanning.aspx
[19] The Brisbane Courier, Tuesday 22 May 1900, p.4.
[20] Apperley, Richard, Robert Irving and Peter Reynolds, 1994, A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture. Australia: Angus and Robertson Publishers, p.132-135.
[21] National Trust of Queensland Citation BNE 1/750 'Richard Randall's Studio'.
[22] Newspaper article 'Mr R. J. Randall Interviewed,' 1903, contained in In Memoriam: R. J. R., 1907, Brisbane: Simpson, Halligan and Co.
[23] The Brisbane Courier, Saturday 20 October 1906.
[24] For example, artist LWK Wirth had a studio in Darragh's Buildings, Queen Street (Queensland Figaro, Thursday 8 August 1907, p.5), Oscar Fristrom had a studio in Oakden Chambers, Queen Street (The Brisbane Courier, Saturday 3 July 1909, p.6), JS Wiley, a portrait artist, had a studio opposite the Queensland National Bank in Queen Street, and photographer's studios located in Queen Street buildings included the Poulsen studios and the Royal Studios (The Brisbane Courier, Tues 31 August 1909, p.4).
[25] Hogan, Janet. 'Rivers, Richard Godfrey (1859-1925)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rivers-richard-godfrey-8217/text14379, accessed 15 April 2013.
[26] Tender notice, The Brisbane Courier, Saturday 4 April 1891, p.5. Watson & McKay 1994, p.136.
[27] The Brisbane Courier, Wednesday 17 June 1891, p.6.
[28] The Brisbane Courier, Friday 11 May 1900, p.2.
[29] The Brisbane Courier, Friday 6 February 1903, p.7.
[30] The Brisbane Courier, Thursday 10 December 1903, p.4.
[31] Brown, Fine Art Exhibitions in Brisbane 1884-1916, p.188.
[32] Queensland Figaro, Thursday 2 August 1906, p.17.
[33] C. M. J., 'R. J. Randall, the Australian Painter-Poet, An Appreciation,' p.15.
[34] The Brisbane Courier, Wednesday 17 October 1906, p.7.
[35] Brown, Fine Art Exhibitions in Brisbane 1884-1916, p.191.
[36] Queensland Figaro, Thursday 28 March 1907, p.16.
[37] The Brisbane Courier, Saturday 17 November 1906, p.5.
[38] Walton, George Randall: Emigration Officer Extraordinaire, p.141.
[39] C. M. J., 'R. J. Randall, the Australian Painter-Poet, An Appreciation,' p.17.
[40] Walton, George Randall: Emigration Officer Extraordinaire, p.141; QHR entry 600302 South Brisbane Library (former); Queensland Figaro, Thursday 28 March 1907, p.16.
[41] The Courier Mail, Thursday 3 October 1940, p.4.
[42] The Courier Mail, Saturday 10 July 1943, p.3; The Courier Mail, Friday 11 April 1947, p.5.
[43] The Courier Mail, Tuesday 6 October 1953, p.3; Article (newspaper unknown) in 600299 research file, Saturday 24 May 1986, by City Hall reporter Tess Livingstone.
[44] Museum of Brisbane website, accessed 10 April 2013: http://www.museumofbrisbane.com.au/about/collection-2/
[45] The Brisbane Courier, Saturday 1 November 1913, p.6.
[46] National Trust of Queensland Citation BNE 1/750 'Richard Randall's Studio.'
[47] Newspaper article in 600299 research file, dated 17/05/88 (source unknown).
[48] Randall a House of Creation, The Courier Mail, Monday 17 December 1990.
[49] According to plaque attached to the Richard Randall Art Studio.
","criteria":"The Richard Randall Art Studio (1900) is important in demonstrating the evolution and growth of artistic culture in Queensland in the late 19th and early 20th century. Constructed for an aspiring young Queensland artist who had studied and worked in England, the studio is representative of the confidence felt by members of Brisbane's artistic elite in the future of Queensland as a place of culture and artistic inspiration.
The studio building has served as an important venue for the education and professional development of both artists and art students in Queensland, initially under the tutelage of the studio's first owner, Richard Randall, and since the late 1980s as a workshop and exhibition space available to the public.
|As the surviving portion of Richard Randall's purpose-built studio and residence, the Richard Randall Art Studio is an example of a building type that is and always has been rare in Queensland. The building is the only known artist's studio of its type from the early 20th century remaining in Queensland, built in a period when most professional artists worked from existing commercial premises.
|The Richard Randall Art Studio demonstrates the principal characteristics of a purpose-built artist's studio, with a single large internal volume able to accommodate a variety of functions and arrangements of furniture and objects; large plain wall surfaces for displaying artworks; and strategically placed windows and skylight to provide southern light, controlled by blinds. Based upon the type of artist's studio that was common in London in the late 19th century, the studio's design is illustrative of the ideal working environment preferred by professional artists of the period.
|The Richard Randall Art Studio has a special association with the Queensland artist Richard John Randall. A popular and influential artist in his day, Richard Randall made an important contribution to the advancement of art and culture in Queensland through his artworks, teaching and his involvement with leading art societies and clubs. Designed especially for him, the studio was where he lived, worked, taught and exhibited his works for the last 6 years of his life, and where his works were displayed for a further 7 years after his death. The collection of his works, donated by the Randall family to the local authorities in perpetual trust, formed the foundation of the Brisbane City Council's art collection.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15075,"place_ref":600300,"name":"Phoenix Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"647 Stanley Street","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-05-24","description":"Phoenix Buildings, comprising six two-storeyed, rendered masonry, attached shops, are located on the corner of Merton Street facing Stanley Street, a major arterial road through Woolloongabba. They form the end of a group of commercial buildings, ranging from the mid 19th century through to the early 20th century, with street awnings and decorative rendered facades.
The Stanley Street elevation is unified by a curved corrugated iron street awning, which continues in front of neighbouring shops returning slightly into Merton Street, and a narrow first floor verandah. The lined street awning has cast iron paired columns, brackets and valance, with shopfronts of aluminium framed glazing. The verandah has cast iron single columns, brackets, valance and balustrade, curved corrugated iron roof, timber partitions and floor with french doors and fanlights. A rendered parapet balustrade with circular openings above a deep cornice has the inscription PHOENIX BUILDINGS over the two centre panels.
Each shop has a hipped corrugated iron roof with, except for the corner shop, a central clerestory skylight behind a perimeter parapet. The two end shops nearest Merton Street are deeper, giving the building an L-shaped plan, the other four shops have a basement. The Merton Street elevation has pilasters, with cornice and parapet above, and sash windows with moulded surrounds. At the rear of the building the first floor verandahs are enclosed.
A caretakers flat on the first floor at the Merton Street end could indicate the original layout. The building is currently divided into two tenancies.
The ground floor of the Merton Street end tenancy has had party walls removed and has a suspended ceiling. The first floor has single skin tongue and groove partitions, boarded ceilings and clerestory skylights.
The second tenancy has been fitted out for offices with arched openings in party walls and suspended ceilings on both levels.
Turned timber staircases are intact in both tenancies, and basements have back to back fireplaces with shared chimneys which no longer operate.
A concrete block toilet addition with a lean-to corrugated iron roof is attached to the rear.
","history":"Phoenix Buildings were erected in 1889-90 for William Davies, mining entrepreneur, who purchased subdivisions 1-5 of suburban allotment 135, parish of South Brisbane, in late 1888.
The Buildings were designed by Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, who called tenders in April 1889. The contractor was Woolloongabba builder James Rix. Gailey designed a row of ten two-storeyed shops, six of which comprised the initial contract. Shops in the buildings were advertised for rent in the Brisbane Courier of July 1890. The ground floors of the other four shops appear to have been erected about the same time, but the upper floors were never completed.
In 1919, ownership of Phoenix Buildings passed to Davies' son, Maldwyn, who sold the property in mid-1920. The six two-storeyed shops were purchased by George Calile Malouf, who established a drapery business in the two end shops, and rented out the remainder. Malouf's became a familiar Woolloongabba landmark, expanding to include most of the premises. These buildings remain in the Malouf family, but the drapery business ceased operation in 1986.
The four single-storeyed shops were purchased by grocers Barry and Roberts. Although the decorative street awning survives, the buildings themselves have been substantially altered, and do not form part of the listing.
","criteria":"Phoenix Buildings are an integral part of a group of commercial buildings which are important in demonstrating the evolution of Clarence Corner as a business and retail centre from the mid-19th century through to the early 20th century, and in particular, illustrate Woolloongabba's commercial development in the 1880s.
|The place is evidence of 1880s brick attached shops in Brisbane, a now rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|As one of the few known examples of attached shops designed by Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, Phoenix Buildings are important in demonstrating some of the principal characteristics of Gailey's commercial work.
|In scale and form, Phoenix Buildings exhibit an aesthetic contribution to the Stanley Street streetscape and to the Woolloongabba townscape which is valued by the community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15076,"place_ref":600301,"name":"South Brisbane Dry Dock","alternate_name":"Queensland Maritime Museum | Government Graving Dock","street_address":"412 Stanley Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The South Brisbane Dry Dock is incorporated within the grounds of the Queensland Maritime Museum, which occupies a 1.77ha site on a bend in the bank of the Brisbane River in South Brisbane. In addition to the Dry Dock (1876-1881, extended 1887) is a complex of associated buildings, structures and equipment, dating from the 1870s to World War II. The site is bounded by the Southbank Parklands to the northwest, Stanley Street to the southwest, Little Dock Street and Dock Street to the southeast, and adjoins Lower River Terrace at the far eastern end. While relatively flat, the majority of the site sits several metres below street level. The dry dock is collocated with the former South Brisbane Railway Easement [QHR 600293], which runs along the southeast and southwest sides of the site, and comprises a series of retaining walls, ground level changes, sloping gardens and bitumen pathways. The main entrance is located in the centre of the northwest boundary, and a secondary entrance at the eastern end of the site. The main entrance is located in the centre of the northwest boundary, and a secondary entrance at the eastern end of the site. The Dry Dock divides the site into northern and southern areas.
\nSignificant features and buildings in the northern area include:
\no Casual Men’s Change Room (1945).
\no Second Office (1942).
\no Mess Room and Permanent Men’s Change Room (1945).
\nThe southern area of the site contains four buildings closely grouped together near the eastern end of the dry dock. From west to east, the significant buildings are:
\nDry Dock (1876-81, extended 1887)
\nThe Dry Dock is a long, stone-lined basin excavated from solid rock. Orientated in a northeast-southwest direction, it measures approximately 131m long and 22.8m wide at the top (coping) level and is 9.7m deep. The two phases of the dock’s construction are clearly indicated by their different construction methods and materials. The 1881 section (northeast) has parallel sides lined by stone altars (steps) which give it a parabolic section. The 1887 section (southwest) has bare rock walls and tapers to a rounded point. The dock is kept dry and is sealed off from the river by a concrete wall at the northeast end (which replaced the original iron caisson after its removal in 2006).
\nThe floor of the 1881 section is constructed from layers of concrete with an inverted arch of brickwork in between. The floor is lined with porphyry blocks inset with regularly-spaced timber beams (running widthways). Channels for draining the dock run around the edges of the floor. The concrete-backed side walls are lined with stone, comprising a Helidon sandstone cap on porphyry blocks. Each wall has two symmetrically-placed stone stairways and two curved slides, also constructed from stone.
\nThe sloping sides of the 1887 section have rough porphyry blockwork filling in gaps and hollows in the excavated rock walls. The floor is lined with concrete and has long timber beams inset, running lengthways.
\nA walkway crosses the thick concrete wall sealing the river end of the dock, with the iron balustrade from the original caisson attached along the edges. At each end of the walkway a large block of granite forms the inner corners of the dock entrance. On the river side of the entrance, the northeast corner is a masonry feature known as a roundhead, which projects into the river. Semi-circular at its northeast end, it is constructed from large, rough-dressed porphyry blocks capped with Helidon sandstone. On the south side of the entrance is a straight, stone retaining wall of similar construction, which runs parallel to the southern dock wall with a return at the eastern end. Beyond this wall, the sloping river bank is lined with rough porphyry blockwork.
\nWhile the dock is now sealed from the river to prevent water ingress, some fixed features associated with the dock’s operation are retained, including:
\nSidon Street retaining wall (c1879)
\nRunning along the southern edge of the former Sidon Street road reserve is a stone retaining wall, which slopes down from several metres high at the Stanley Street end to ground level behind the Mess and Change Room building. It is constructed from Brisbane Tuff (porphyry) and has a capping with chamfered edges. The blocks vary in size – larger at the base of the wall and smaller near the top.
\nCasual Men’s Change Room (1945)
\nThe Change Room is a small, lowset timber building on concrete stumps, clad in timber chamferboards, with a hipped roof clad with modern corrugated metal sheeting. A single entrance is located in the centre of the southeast wall, accessed by timber steps. Internally, walls are unlined with studs and cross bracing exposed, and there is no ceiling. Non-original timber partitions divide the interior into two rooms (used as locker and shower rooms in 2016) and a small entry area.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nOffice (1942)
\nThe Office is a rectangular timber building, highset on concrete stumps with a hipped roof clad in modern corrugated metal sheeting. The roof extends over a verandah along the southeast side, which is accessed by a projecting timber staircase. Access is via two doors to the verandah and one door to the pathway along the rear (northwest) side. The understorey (used as storage space in 2016) is enclosed by modern timber batten screens on three sides. The northwest side abuts the stone retaining wall along the former Sidon Street. The southwest end of the verandah has been enclosed (used as a toilet in 2016). The interior of the building is divided into three rooms and the location of former partitions is evident on the ceiling. In c2001 the office was lowered to facilitate the construction of the Goodwill Bridge above.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nMess Room and Permanent Men’s Change Room (former, 1945)
\nThe Mess Room and Permanent Men’s Change Room (former) is a long, lowset rectangular building, with a Dutch gable roof clad in modern corrugated metal sheeting. Walls are clad in timber weatherboards, and the understorey enclosed with concrete footings. The main entrance is via a door in the centre of the southeast wall, and secondary entrances are located in the northeast wall and at the northern end of the northwest wall. A former recessed porch in the location of the main entrance door had been enclosed with weatherboards, however the concrete steps and floor slab of the porch remain.
\nInternally, original partitions have been removed and later partitions divide the space into a large room at the northeast end and a bar, kitchen and store room at the southwest end. Part of the northern wall of the porch survives next to the main entrance, and another small section of original partition wall is located along the northwest wall. The walls are unlined, with studwork exposed.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nWorkshop (former, c1943; converted to display hall 1979)
\nThe Workshop (former) building is a long, rectangular, timber-framed, gable-roofed shed with concrete slab floor. The walls are clad in timber weatherboards around the base and vertical timber boards above, and the roof is clad in modern corrugated metal sheeting. Two entrance doors are located in the northwest wall - a large timber, braced and ledged sliding door at the western end, and a set of timber, braced and ledged double doors at the eastern end, accessed by a shallow concrete ramp.
\nInternally, walls are unlined with framework and cross bracing exposed. Square timber posts run along the central axis of the building, supporting steel beams which in turn support a modern suspended ceiling. A secondary structure of thick timber posts and beams sits inside the walls for part of the building’s length, used for stacking and suspending various boats and artefacts in 2016.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nA ventilation opening in the southwest end wall has had the original timber louvre panels (visible in a 1991 photograph) replaced.
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nOffice (former, 1895; altered c1943)
\nThe Office (former) is a rectangular, timber-framed building with a hipped roof clad in modern corrugated metal sheeting. Three of the exterior walls, which were previously surrounded by a verandah, remain single skin with exposed studs and cross bracing, while the fourth wall (southern) is enclosed with weatherboard cladding. Sections of chamfer board cladding at the top of the single skin walls indicate the point at which they met the former verandah roof. The bottom plates of the walls stand on a concrete slab floor.
\nInternally, the building comprises a single, high-ceilinged room. The southern wall is unlined, with the location of a former window evident in the exposed framing at the eastern end, and a small window located at the western end. A top plate running across the ceiling indicates the location of a former partition.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nPump House, Boiler House, Chimney Stack (1879-81), Motor Room (1925) and concrete Bomb Shelter (1943)
\nEncased within a thick, flat-roofed, off-form concrete Bomb Shelter is a series of rooms and the base of a brick chimney. In the northeast corner, under a lower section of roof, is the square Pump House; in the southeast corner is the rectangular Boiler House; and running along the western side is the Motor Room in the northwest corner and a storage room surrounding the base of the Chimney Stack in the southwest corner. Access to the pump and boiler houses is through doorways in the northeast walls. Access to the Motor Room and storage room is through a door in the southwest wall. The two sides of the building are not connected, other than visually through openings in the walls. The floors are concrete and the roof is supported by timber and steel beams with timber board formwork remaining in place.
\nPump House
\nThe Pump House comprises a large, deep pit with battered walls lined with rough-dressed porphyry blocks. The floor level is 1.5m deeper than the bottom of the Dry Dock, and retains original equipment including pipes and two centrifugal pumps, now painted bright colours. Various pipes and chambers (now sealed off) pass underground to connect the Pump House with the Dry Dock, suction well, sluice chamber and the Brisbane River. Ropes connecting the pumps with engines in the adjacent Motor Room pass through openings at the top of the southwest wall. Access down to floor level is via a set of timber stairs which lead to a raised timber platform along the northeast wall. From this platform, an opening in the southeast corner leads, via concrete steps, to the adjoining Boiler House; and an opening in the centre of the northeast wall leads to the bottom landing of two concrete staircases. The staircase heading northwest leads to the exterior and is enclosed by a metal gate; while the one heading southeast is sealed with a timber board door.
\nBoiler House
\nThe Boiler House has a passageway along the northeast wall, leading to a doorway at the southeast end. The enclosing walls are solid concrete, with former coal chutes and various holes in the northeast wall. The concrete floor is approximately 1m below ground level, and the base of the Chimney Stack is visible in the far southwest corner. The southwestern side of the room is taken up by three large boilers, manufactured by Evans, Anderson and Phelan of Brisbane in 1906. Cylindrical in form and laid parallel, the boilers retain their original hatches, valves, dials and other equipment, and are linked by pipes running across the top. Roughly-laid brick walls fill the gaps between the front faces of the boilers and the outer walls, pierced by small, arched openings with metal covers at floor level.
\nGrooves in the outer (northeast) face of the northeast wall indicate the location of a former curved roof that adjoined the Boiler House prior to it being encased in concrete.
\nMotor Room
\nThe Motor Room is at ground level and has a chamfered northwest corner. The southwest wall retains a chamferboard-clad timber wall of the original timber building, which was left in place as formwork. Two large electric motors stand in the centre of the room, and two switchboards stand against the southwest wall. Holes in the concrete floor allow the ropes from the adjacent Pump Room to connect with the motor wheels. A doorway in the southeast wall leads to a rectangular storage space with the base of the Chimney Stack at the southern end. Some concrete walls have circular or square penetrations. The entrance and interconnecting doors are early timber board doors.
\nChimney Stack
\nThe Chimney Stack is approximately 12m high and the base sits 1.5m below ground level. Square in plan, it is constructed from red-brown brick and has slightly tapered sides. Additional strengthening is provided by vertical iron bars at the corner of each face, held in place by nine equally-spaced iron bands clamped together by threaded rod.
\nMachine Shop (former, 1886; extended by 1942, partly demolished c1974, extended and partly rebuilt 1986)
\nThe Machine Shop (former) is a large, enclosed shed of timber pole construction with an arched roof supported by metal bow-chord trusses. Skillion-roofed attachments containing a number of rooms and storage spaces run along both sides, and it adjoins the Boiler House and Pump House at its southwest end. Interiors are unlined. While the iron trusses and parts of the framework at the southwest end of the building are significant elements of the original fabric, the majority of the building has been reconstructed and modified over time.
\nAlong the southeast side of the Machine Shop is a timber-framed, skillion roof structure (c1902) clad in chamferboards and accessed by a door in the northeast wall. Containing three rooms, this structure is used for storage in 2016.
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nGrounds
\nThe grounds surrounding the Dry Dock are predominantly grassed lawns with modern bitumen, concrete, paved or gravel pathways linking the various buildings and forming a circuit around the site. A narrow segment of the site extends beyond the Museum fence line at the eastern end and is used as public space, ornamented by three large metal sculptures incorporating items from the Museum’s collection.
\nOther collection items displayed within the grounds include:
\nGoodwill Bridge (2001)
\nThe Goodwill Bridge, which spans the Brisbane River, passes over the site, crossing the northern corner and curving around to run parallel with the southeast side of the Maritime Museum building. The bridge is supported by a number of steel posts and concrete anchor footings located within the museum grounds. The bridge deck at the Stanley Street entrance sits above the former Sidon Street railway underpass cutting.
\nViews
\nExtensive, unobstructed views of the Brisbane River are obtained from the Dry Dock and its surrounds, reinforcing the site’s long and close connection with the River.
\nFeatures not of State-level Heritage Significance
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nThe South Brisbane Dry Dock was designed in 1875 by William Nisbet, chief engineer for the Department of Harbours & Rivers. Construction was undertaken by J & A Overend between 1876 and 1881. It served a major role in Queensland’s shipping industry until its closure in 1972, and is one of the oldest surviving, substantially intact dry docks in Australia. It has operated as part of the Queensland Maritime Museum since 1979.
\nShipping played a significant role in 19th century Queensland as its primary – and sometimes only – means of trade and communication. Brisbane was declared a port of entry in 1846, a warehousing port in 1849, and in 1850 a Customs House was erected.[1] With the rapid growth of Queensland’s economy in the 30 years following separation, ports were opened in 14 centres along the Queensland coast to service the adjacent hinterland regions. Queensland’s share of the total Australian shipping tonnage climbed from 3% in 1871 to 11% in 1881, in addition to its intercolonial direct trade.[2] Much of this trade came to Brisbane, which had become a much more accessible port after the Upper Flats near the mouth of the river were cleared in 1871, enabling large vessels to access the Town Reach.[3]
\nThe busy Brisbane port required a substantial facility for the maintenance, repair and refitting of commercial ships and the Department of Harbours and Rivers’ dredges, barges and other vessels. Minor repairs could be undertaken at the small patent slip at Kangaroo Point,[4] or by upending vessels on the mud flats, but most commercial vessels used the facilities at Sydney, while the Queensland government lacked any maintenance facilities.[5]
\nA site for a graving[6], or dry dock, was chosen on government-owned land between Stanley Street and the river at South Brisbane. Soundings were taken in the Brisbane River in September 1873, and the site was found to have deep water and solid foundations, suitable for a dock capable of accommodating vessels up to 3000 tons.[7] Civil engineer William D Nisbet, who had been engaged in dock work in England, Scotland and Malta, was appointed Engineer-in-Chief for Harbours and Rivers in 1875. Newly arrived from England, he drafted plans for a graving dock.[8]
\nNisbet’s design comprised a 32ft (9.75m) high, 313ft (95m) long dock, with a possible extension to 450ft (137m). It varied from 40-49.5ft (12-15m) wide at the bottom to 60-74ft (18-23m) at the top. A 3ft (1m) thick brick and cement arch formed the base of the dock, inverted in shape to reduce water pressure. The floor, atop this, was lined in stone and timbers to hold keel blocks along the centreline, which would ships in place during repairs. A series of stone altars (steps) lined both sides of the dock, providing support for timber shores to keep ships upright, and bollards on the ground on either side of the dock to help warp ships in and out. Two culvert drains on either side filled the dock, and a suction-well in a 5ft (1.5m) pit adjoining the dock allowed the water to be emptied. A ship would be floated into the dock, a caisson (dock gate) closed across the sill (or cill) at the entrance, and the dock pumped dry.[9] Workers accessed the dock floor via two sets of stairs. Once the vessel was repaired, sluice gates in the dock were opened to allow river water in, the caisson opened and the ship was floated out.
\nThe design included allowances for local conditions, with the dock set at an angle to the river, optimising ingress and egress, and the sill set at a height over spring tides, giving the dock protection during floods.[10]
\nTenders for excavation and masonry work for the dock were called in September 1875. Melbourne contractors Messrs J and A Overend were awarded the contract in January 1876, with work to take place over the following three years.[11] James and Acheson Overend had established their construction business in 1872, and came highly recommended by the Victorian Railways Engineer-in-Chief for their work on the Oven’s River and Beechworth Railways. They moved their plant to Queensland after winning the Dry Dock contract, and successfully tendered for sections of the Southern and Western Railway (Dalby to Chinchilla). The firm went on to construct sections of the Bundaberg to Mount Perry Railway (including the Splitters Creek Railway Bridge in 1878 [QHR 600529]), Southern Railway (Warwick to Stanthorpe, including Cherry Gully Tunnel, also 1878 [QHR 601517]), Bundaberg (Saltwater Creek Railway Bridge, 1894 [QHR 600370]) and Mackay (Mirani Railway Bridge, Pioneer River).[12]
\nThe Dry Dock site was excavated in the first eighteen months, with excess material laid on South Brisbane streets. Construction followed. Bricks were made on site or sourced locally.[13] Portland cement, granite and porphyry stone (sourced from Queensland and the southern colonies) were employed on the floor, walls and pit, with sandstone (or freestone) on the altars.[14] Brisbane ironfounders Smellie and Co constructed the iron caisson in 1880-1.[15] Machinery to work the caisson and drain the dock, including centrifugal pumps[16] and boilers,[17] were installed next to the dock in a pump- and boiler-house, with steam escaping through a 46ft (14m) brick chimney.[18] The total cost of the work was £83,849 8s 9d.[19]
\nThe barque Doon, which had been damaged in a storm, was the first to utilise the dock on 10 September 1881.[20] Premier Thomas McIlwraith attended the launch of the Doon twelve days later, opening the dock without an official ceremony. The Premier declared that, with £4,000 already spent on repairs to the Doon, ‘the dock would answer the purpose for which it was intended, and… a substantial benefit accrued to the city from having a dock in which repairs to ships could be effected.’[21] Contemporary newspaper reports described the dock as ‘one of the most important of the public works of the colony’.[22]
\nRather than a public facility with employed staff, the dock was available for use by private contractors. A sliding scale of charges was set for use of the dock, and punching, drilling and shearing machinery was installed for hire by contractors undertaking repairs at the dock. In 1886 a workshop or machinery shop (partly extant) was built to house the equipment, adjoining the boiler-house.[23] A crane (no longer extant) was also installed. These improvements to the facilities, plus the promise of a 117ft (35.6m) extension, encouraged shipowners to bring their vessels to Brisbane, instead of Sydney, for overhaul work.[24]
\nFurther improvements followed. The impending extension was interrupted by the construction of the railway extension. Site works around the Dry Dock, including the creation of an embankment and stone retaining walls, were undertaken in 1884-5.[25] The dry dock was lengthened to 420 feet (121m) in 1886-7,[26] by which time 240 vessels had used the facilities. An office (partly extant) was built for £66 in 1895, replacing one destroyed in floods.[27] Additional cranes were installed, including the only extant crane, a 15 ton hand powered crane supplied by Ransome and Rapier of Ipswich in 1906, and put into use in 1907.[28] The three Cornish boilers powering the dock were replaced by Brisbane firm Evans, Anderson and Phelan in 1906, to plans prepared by chief engineer Alexander Cullen; these boilers remain in situ.[29] Electric motors replaced the pumping engines in 1924.[30]
\nThe dock served an essential function as Queensland’s only graving dock until the mid-20th century. It also served an interesting social function after 1902, with swimming carnivals held in the dry dock when not in use by ships.[31] In its first twenty years of operation, an average of 60 vessels a year utilised the dry dock, with a peak of 90 vessels in 1909.[32] Its size and shape limited the vessels it could dock,[33] but it remained a profitable venture for the government until 1925, when patronage declined due to increasing vessel size.
\nBrisbane’s prominence in the South Pacific Campaign during World War II brought a renewed role for the South Brisbane Dry Dock. The HMAS Swan and Katoomba, damaged in the bombing of Darwin, were taken to the South Brisbane Dry Dock for repair in March 1942, inaugurating the dry dock as the Ship Repair Base. Additional facilities were built on the adjacent site (formerly a timberyard). A US Navy submarine base was also established at the dock in April 1942, necessitating additional wharfage and facilities. A new office building (1942), workshop (c1943), and mess and changing facilities (1945) were built on the Sidon Street side of the dry dock to accommodate over 100 arrivals per month.[34] A concrete bomb-proof shelter was constructed over the pump- and boiler-house, engulfing part of the brick chimney.[35] The dock was a vital piece of infrastructure during the war, docking and repairing 298 American, Australian, British and French vessels, before it was returned to the Department of Harbours and Marine in September 1946.[36]
\nIn 1944, the substantial Cairncross Dock was opened downstream on the Brisbane River.[37] Capable of repairing larger ships, the Cairncross Dock catered for vessels that South Brisbane had previously been unable to dock. The South Brisbane Dry Dock became primarily a repair shop for Queensland government vessels, but remained viable for small government and commercial vessels for the next three decades.[38]
\nChanges in shipyard practices, the dominance of large bulk carriers, construction of the Captain Cook Bridge and the need for a major rehabilitation of the dock compelled the government to close the South Brisbane Dry Dock in September 1972.[39] Activities, personnel, plant and equipment were moved to an expanded Cairncross Dock, and the machine shop was partly dismantled.[40]
\nIn 1971, anticipating the closure of the dry dock, members of Queensland’s World Ship Society formed the Queensland Maritime Museum Association (QMMA), and approached the Queensland Government to suggest the establishment of a museum at the dry dock.[41] QMMA members were concerned that the closure of the dock would result in its demolition, and viewed the dock as an ideal location to house its growing maritime artefact and vessel collection.[42] Ownership of the South Brisbane Dry Dock site and buildings was transferred to the Land Administration Commission in 1973. QMMA established its base on the site in April 1973, and opened the museum to the public in 1979.[43] The site was gazetted as a recreation park and museum in 1976, held in trust by the Brisbane City Council, and leased to QMMA.[44] In 1981, the retired naval frigate HMAS Diamantina was docked in the dry dock, and was joined by the lightship Carpentaria in 1985.[45] The machine shop was rebuilt in 1986, using bow trusses possibly from the original machine shop.[46]
\nIn the mid-1980s, sites between Stanley Street and the river were cleared in preparation for Expo 88, removing the last traces of the once-dominant shipping industry in the area. Buildings on the former Ship Repair Base were removed, but after some negotiation the Dry Dock was left intact and became a feature exhibitor, attracting over one million visitors during Expo.[47] Additional buildings and displays were moved onto the site after 1988 as part of the museum. The caisson, which had breached in 1998, was demolished and replaced with a concrete riverwall in 2006.[48] In 2001, the 1945 office was lowered for the construction of the Goodwill pedestrian bridge, which was built over the top of the Sidon Street retaining wall and WWII Dry Dock buildings.[49]
\nIn 2018 the dry dock site continues as the Queensland Maritime Museum.[50]
","criteria":"The South Brisbane Dry Dock (built 1876-81) is important as an infrastructure facility associated with the shipping industry which contributed significantly to the commercial and economic development of Queensland. It is important as rare surviving evidence of 19th century shipping activity along the South Brisbane Reach, and indicative of the massive scale of former riverside industry and port-related activity in Brisbane. It is also important for its role as the Ship Repair Base and US Navy submarine base during World War II, docking and repairing nearly 300 vessels.
\nThe South Brisbane Dry Dock is an integral element in the historic precinct centred around the South Brisbane Memorial Park, which also includes the former South Brisbane Library (QHR 600302), Cumbooquepa (Somerville House) (QHR 600305), the former South Brisbane Municipal Chambers (QHR 600306) and the Ship Inn Hotel.
|The South Brisbane Dry Dock is the only surviving feature of the shipping and manufacturing activity along the South Brisbane Reach. It is a rare surviving Australian example of a dry dock dating from the 19th century, illustrating contemporary engineering and technology. The altars on both sides of the dock for supporting the breasting shores are considered to be a rare surviving feature worldwide of 19th century graving docks. The concrete bombproof shelter is a rare surviving shelter built by the Department of Public Works in 1942 and reflecting the perceived threat of bombing during WWII.
|The South Brisbane Dry Dock is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a dry dock facility. Located immediately adjacent to deep water, in alignment to the Brisbane River, the Dry Dock comprises a long, wide and deep excavated basin. The 1881 section (on the northeast) has parallel sides lined by stone altars (steps) which give it a parabolic section. The 1887 extension (on the southwest), has bare rock and brick walls and tapers to a rounded point. Fixed features associated with the dock’s operation, including iron and concrete bollards, iron rings fixed into the stonework, and a 1906 Ransome and Rapier hand-powered crane, are installed alongside the dock. While the dock is now sealed from the river to prevent water ingress, the pipes, sluice gates and tunnels for the filling and emptying process remain in situ.
\nThe layout of the Dry Dock and its related ancillary structures – including Casual Men’s Change Room (1945), Office (1942), Mess Room and Permanent Men’s Change Room (1945), Workshop (c1943), Office (1895), Pump House, Boiler House, Chimney Stack (1879-81), Motor Room (1925) and concrete Bomb Shelter (1943), Machine Shop (1886) – demonstrate how the facility operated and evolved over time in response to changing needs and technology.
|The South Brisbane Dry Dock makes a strong landmark and aesthetic contribution to the South Brisbane townscape, and is an integral element in the South Brisbane historic precinct. The use of freestone and sandstone on the dock altars provides a striking contrast to its surrounding green landscape and river. Views of the dock are afforded from the surrounding bridge and pathways, and views from the dock are provided along and across the river to the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, Brisbane Botanic Gardens and CBD. The dock also possesses evocative qualities, its location and size reflecting the scale and importance of the shipping industry that once dominated South Brisbane’s riverbanks.
|The South Brisbane Dry Dock is an important example of the work of engineer William D Nisbet in Queensland, and an important monument to 19th century engineering practice. Features such as the choice of location, the alignment to the river, response to geotechnical issues, the early use of cement, the use of porphyry rock and Melbourne granite, the shape of the dock in cross-section to withstand ground-water pressure, its precision design, the design of the sluice valve and the choice of machinery are strong evidence of Nisbet’s superior engineering skills, and demonstrates a high degree of technical achievement.
|The South Brisbane Dry Dock has a strong association with generations of dock workers who were employed at the dry dock during its ninety years of operation. It also has a strong association with the Queensland Maritime Museum Association, which was established in 1971 with the intention of opening a museum at the dry dock. The dry dock has served as the association’s base since 1973, and as its museum since 1979.
|The South Brisbane Dry Dock is significant for its association with the work of contractors, flour-millers and machinery merchants James and Acheson Overend, who made significant contributions to the development of Queensland in the 19th century, particularly in the construction of railway and industrial facilities. The Dry Dock was the firm’s first Queensland construction project.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15077,"place_ref":600302,"name":"South Brisbane Library (former)","alternate_name":"South Brisbane Post and Telegraph / Office South Brisbane | Mechanics Institute and Library / South Brisbane Technical | College / South Brisbane Municipal Library and School of Arts","street_address":"472 Stanley Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former South Brisbane Library stands on the corner of Stanley and Dock Streets in South Brisbane, in a precinct of historic buildings centred around South Brisbane Memorial Park. It is opposite the former South Brisbane Municipal Chambers [600306] and adjacent to the former South Brisbane Railway Easement [600293] and South Brisbane Dry Dock [600301]. Other historically significant places in the immediate vicinity include Cumbooquepa (Somerville House) [600305] and Ship Inn.
\nIt comprises three abutting, interlinked sections forming a single, L-shaped building: the former South Brisbane Post and Telegraph Office (1882) fronting south to Stanley Street; the former South Brisbane Library and Technical College (1898), attached to its eastern side at the intersection of Stanley and Dock streets; and the former City Concert Hall (1902), attached to the library’s northern side, fronting Dock Street. The building has brick walls with rendered dressings, timber-framed floors and intersecting gable and hip roofs clad with corrugated metal sheets. The sections share similar or matching architectural features. A modern, concrete, steel and glass, three-storey structure (2006) has been constructed in the crook of the building’s L-shape and is not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nThe former Post and Telegraph Office section is a square, two-storey, brick building with basement, and a hip roof. Its Stanley Street (front) elevation has large, multi-paned windows, (including a pair of faceted bay windows), a wide awning roof supported by large timber brackets, and a central, pediment-like gablet. Its western elevation is simpler, with few windows, and its northern (rear) elevation, abutted by the modern structure, has a two-storey verandah that has been enclosed.
\nThe former South Brisbane Library and Technical College section is a long and narrow, two-storey, brick building. It has a long gable roof, with a gablet facing Stanley Street, and a square-based, three-storey tower above its main entrance at the street corner. The Dock Street elevation is simpler, with windows at regular intervals separated by pilasters and a secondary entrance at the northern end. Its western elevation has an open, two-level verandah.
\nThe former concert hall section is a long, rectangular, one-storey building with a hip roof with a continuous raised ridge ventilator. It accommodates a large auditorium with timber panelled dados, plaster raked ceilings and an unadorned proscenium stage. French doors open onto a verandah on its western side.
","history":"This complex is composed of three structures built at different times in response to different needs: the South Brisbane Post Office [1881]; the South Brisbane Municipal Library [1897]; and the City Concert Hall [1902].
\nThe South Brisbane Post Office located on the traditional land of the Turrbal and Jagera peoples, was designed by FDG Stanley and W Macfarlane was the contractor. The one-room post office occupied the ground floor. The postmaster's accommodation included three bedrooms and verandah upstairs and basement diningroom, kitchen and bedroom. The original symmetrical front facade included a ground floor arcade with an open verandah above. The central focus was the arched masonry frontispiece.
\nThe Post and Telegraph Office was closed in late 1889 to become the South Brisbane Mechanics Institute and Library. In 1893 the South Brisbane Municipal Council took over the site.
\nAbout 1897, the council with the help of a government subsidy built the corner structure and the complex became known as the South Brisbane Municipal Library and Technical College. John Henry Burley is said to be the architect.
\nThe third stage is the concert hall designed by Alexander B Wilson in 1902. This building included Technical College classrooms in the basement.
\nIn 1909 the council was offered the Richard J Randall collection of artwork. About the same time, with the government take-over of the Technical College, many classrooms became vacant. The council decided to convert the library on the first floor into an art gallery.
\nArchitect George David Payne was employed to convert the former library to the Randall Art Gallery and extend the concert hall and supper room. About 1911 the hall was enlarged at the river end and the supper room extended so that they were capable of seating 600 and 400 persons respectively. The Gallery was officially opened in July 1914.
\nBetween 1910 and 1920 the post office section was rendered and the front enclosed.
\nThe Greater Brisbane City Council took over the structure in 1925 and the library continued to function until 1973. However, the Randall collection was transferred to the Brisbane City Hall. For many years the concert hall continued to be well patronised particularly during the Second World War [1939-45].
\nBetween 1973 and about 1987 the building was neglected and vandalised. The derelict library was refurbished for World Expo '88 as a convention centre and exclusive club. The exterior was painted and the interior was substantially altered to provide two large conference rooms and club rooms. The former Post Office section was converted to modern offices and concrete stairs installed.
\nAfter Expo '88 the building was not utilised until the Queensland Academy of Sport occupied it in 1995 and used the concert hall as a running track. In 2005 the building was purchased by Griffith University for use as a film school, and a new section, designed by architect Hamilton Wilson and containing a verandah, stairs and workrooms, was added to the northwest side. In 2007 the Griffith Film School was officially opened. It continues to operate in the building in 2024.
","criteria":"The former South Brisbane Library is significant historically for its importance as the former Post and Telegraph Office, mechanic's institute, technical college, library, art gallery, and concert hall of South Brisbane, and remains a tangible reminder of civic identity. It is also significant as a marker of the former alignment of Stanley Street, the main commercial thoroughfare of South Brisbane in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
|Despite internal refurbishment, the former concert hall remains important in illustrating the principal characteristics of an early 20th century auditorium designed to address the warm Queensland climate.
|The building demonstrates a visual cohesiveness, despite having been constructed in several stages to the designs of at least three architects, and makes a significant landmark and aesthetic contribution to the historic precinct centred around South Brisbane Memorial Park. It is a significant component of the riverside townscape as seen from the city.
|is an important example of the public work of Brisbane architect AB Wilson.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15078,"place_ref":600303,"name":"Former Victoria Bridge Abutments","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"74 Stanley Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"The Victoria Bridge Abutments stand on both sides of the Brisbane River, downstream of the existing Victoria Bridge, and are aligned approximately southwest to northeast. The abutments are approximately mirror in plan, parallel to the river with a large curved recess in the downstream corner. However, the southern abutment comprises a free-standing podium, while the slightly elevated northern abutment is embedded in the river bank.
\nSouthern Abutment
\nThe walls of the large southern abutment are faced with rock-faced ashlar Brisbane Tuff (commonly referred to as porphyry). The southwest side is faced with polygonal masonry, indicating that it is newer stonework. The podium is capped with the downstream pedestrian footway arch, together with a section of roadway which retains the tracks of the tramway.
\nThe rusticated, sawn stone arch employs Classical stylistic references.The pylons supporting the arch are tapered towards the base of the arch from which they continue as attached pilasters with parallel sides. The arch springs from a cornice at the top of the tapered portion of the supporting pylons. Above the arch a cornice defines the base of a Doric frieze which continues around the tops of the attached pilasters. The entablature is topped with another cornice. Either side of the arch a granite tablet is applied which supports ornate metal brackets which held gas lamps to illuminate the entry to the bridge. A similar tablet is located on the sides of the structure at the same level. The three lowest courses have been treated with a rock-faced surface. The outer pylon of the arch is continued to the base of the abutment as a low profile pilaster with a rock-faced surface. At the centre of the arch, galvanised piping projects and a section hangs parallel with the face of the structure.
\nUpriver (northwest) from the arch a section of roadway remains, bearing sections of tramline. Between the two sets of tracks the remains of a low concrete platform with a rounded end has been left in situ. The surface to the landward side of this platform retains painted chevron markings. On the downriver side (southeast) a low stone wall curves out, terminating in a low pilaster which defines the former entry point for the bridge. The area is paved in concrete. Metal brackets are attached to the stonework of the pylons, the centre of the arch and on the top of the outer pilaster; fittings for a gas illumination. Curved stone kerbing defines the footpath from the road way.
\nA marble tablet is applied to the landward side of the up-river pylon below the lowest cornice, commemorating Hector Vasyli. The tablet is in the form of an aedicule in the Corinthian style. The inscription on the entablature reads:
\nΑΠΑΣΑ ΔΕ ΧΘΩΝ ΑΝΔΡΙ ΓΕΝΝΑΙΩ ΠΑΤΡΙΣ
\nTRANSLATION
\nEVERY LAND IS HIS NATIVE LAND TO A BRAVE MAN
\nThe Corinthian columns frame a tondo beneath which the inscription continues. The tondo contains a bronze relief portrait of the boy facing outward. Below this lies the body of the inscription. The inscription reads:
\nNEAR THIS SPOT AS THE RESULT OF A LAMENTABLE ACCIDENT, WHILST WELCOMING RETURNED SOLDIERS, HECTOR VASYLI WAS KILLED 9TH JUNE 1918 AGED 11 YEARS.
\nDURING HIS BRIEF SOJOURN ON EARTH, HE DEVOTED MUCH OF HIS TIME TO PATRIOTIC WORK FOR AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS DURING THE GREAT EUROPEAN WAR. IN HIS VEINS RAN THE HEROIC BLOOD OF GREECE, AND IN THE BREAST OF A CHILD HE CARRIED THE HEART OF A MAN.
\nTHIS TABLET WAS ERECTED BY THE RETURNED SAILORS, AND SOLDIERS IMPERIAL LEAGUE, HELLENIC (GREEK) ASSOCIATION AND CITIZENS OF BRISBANE.
\nThe stylobate is supported on two brackets of marble.
\nBelow the tablet two rows of metal hooks are attached to the stonework. These may be intended for the support of commemorative wreaths relating to the Anzac Day memorial services. Off centre from the entrance to the arch, a metal bollard remains in situ.
\nAdditional stabilising footings and retaining works have been constructed to maintain the abutment in its present location. All the stonework below the road level is done in rock-cut masonry. Other additions include a metal safety railing around the perimeter which matches the railing of the neighbouring bridge, and a modern walkway with interpretive signage panels linking the podium with the current Victoria Bridge. Two bronze plaques have been applied to the stonework on the north-western side of the podium. The inscriptions show a number of inaccuracies, however are transcribed below:
\nPlaque one - ground level
\n\"This plaque marks the site of the southern approach to the second Victoria Bridge, completed in 1897 at a cost of £125,000 to replace the bridge destroyed by floods in 1896. When the bridge was demolished in 1969, following the completion of the present bridge, this section was retained as a memorial to the endeavour of successive generations of Brisbane's citizens to provide swift means of cross-river transport.\"
\nPlaque two - first landing
\n\"This stonework is all that remains of the first permanent bridge to span the Brisbane River. A temporary wooden structure was erected in 1865 as staging for the permanent bridge, but was closed to traffic from Nov 1897 as a result of flood damage. On the 15th June 1874 the new bridge was opened and named Victoria Bridge. The northern section of the Victoria Bridge collapsed on 6 February 1893 under pressure from debris during the disastrous flood of that year.\"
\nNorthern Abutment
\nThe northern abutment is situated immediately adjacent to the current bridge, with the southwest and southeast sides of the ashlar rock-faced Brisbane Tuff structure visible. There is a smooth sloped sill at the junction between the base and the wall above. The arch and upper courses have been removed, and the fill on top is landscaped and features two (post-1970s) hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii).
\nA modern viewing platform is cantilevered over the abutment, and an adjacent public lift, stairs and ramps provide access from Queens Wharf Road to a walkway and ferry terminal below.
","history":"The Victoria Bridge Abutments are remnants of the fourth bridge to cross the Brisbane River at this point. Constructed in 1896 to a design by A B Brady, Government Architect, the bridge was constructed of iron, with stone abutments at each end. The stonework was undertaken by Arthur Midson and the ironwork by Messrs Cormick. The abutments each comprises a large masonry podium, with the southern of the two supporting a section of road and a sawn stone rusticated arch with composite neoclassical ornament. A marble memorial tablet is fixed to the southern side of the arch to commemorate an eleven year old Greek Australian child, Hector Vasyli, who was accidentally killed on the site in 1918 while welcoming returning soldiers, and is of significance for the Greek community.
\nThe 1896 bridge was the fourth structure to cross the Brisbane River at this point. The first, built from timber in 1865, was closed only two years later due to excessive damage caused by marine borers. A permanent structure was commenced in 1864, but was not completed until 1874 when it was opened by the Governor who named it for the ruling British sovereign. Operating as a toll bridge until 1877 it was destroyed in the February 1893 floods. A further temporary bridge was erected by September 1893 but was again destroyed by flooding in 1896. By this time, however the second permanent bridge was nearing completion.
\nThe opening of the Victoria Bridge in 1874 provided an important transport and communications link between the north and south banks of the river and provided further impetus to the development of the south bank. In the 1880s the south bank experienced a development boom. A dry dock was opened in 1881, coal wharves at Woolloongabba and associated rail links were established in c1885, and South Brisbane was established as the passenger terminus for suburban and country train lines built during the 1880s. Industry and commerce was attracted to the area, and Stanley Street developed into a major retail centre and thoroughfare. The spread of housing included the development of large residences located along the ridges with views of the river and industry developed along the southern bank of Milton Reach.
\nSouth Brisbane Municipality was established in 1888. The development of the civic centre focussed on the Stanley and Vulture Street intersection and included the Town Hall, Post Office Fire Station and Railway Station. The boom of the 1880s collapsed, following maritime and pastoral strikes and the early 1890s and the collapse of banks in 1893. A series of floods in 1893 resulted in the collapse of the Victoria Bridge which cut vital transport and communications links with the central city. Urban expansion continued following the opening of the new Victoria Bridge in 1897 and was further supported by the introduction of electric trams.
\nThe significance of the Victoria Bridge to the commercial development of the south side of the river is best demonstrated in two anecdotes relating to human nature. At the opening of the bridge in 1897 both North and South Brisbane demanded that they have a ceremony to celebrate this significant event. The ceremony therefore required a formal opening on the north side, following which the party of dignitaries proceeded to cross the bridge to the southern bank. Here another ceremony was held and the procession then crossed the river once more to be met with refreshments on the north bank. The second story relates to a Commemoration Day prank perpetrated by students in the early 1930s. Early one morning they installed a sign at each end of the bridge indicating that the bridge was closed to traffic. Police arriving on the scene took the signs at face value and proceeded to prevent vehicular traffic from using the bridge for most of the day. It was not until someone thought to check with the appropriate authorities that it was discovered that the signs were placed in position as a joke. As a consequence of this prank commerce on either side of the river as considerably disrupted and the university students were severely reprimanded for their actions.
\nThe design of the bridge caused much comment, due to the impressive stone arches flanking the approaches and the manner in which the engineers had addressed the various problems presented by the site. The river banks were at two different levels, presenting a design challenge which was competently met by Brady. The gentle slope of the decking from the higher north bank down to the southern abutment was imperceptible to the eye. The cylindrical iron pillars which supported the span across the river were slightly tapered above normal water level.
\nThe bridge provided a divided carriageway for traffic, with two lanes operating in each direction. The central dividing structure echoed the form of the sides of the bridge, consisting of a series of metal lattice framed hog-backs. Each end of the central divider was marked with a rusticated stone pilaster topped with an ornate gas light. The sides of the bridge were also enclosed in lattice trussing. A swinging span was designed to permit the passage of tallmasted ships, however even at that stage such vessels were becoming increasingly scarce and much of the up-river traffic was the lower motorised vessels. Following the introduction of tram services to South Brisbane, this 'swinging girder' was closed permanently to permit the laying of tracks. Each end of the bridge was provided with stone pillars at the river bank and, at the point of entry, rusticated stone arches spanned the pedestrian walkways. Pedestrian footways were provided either side of the main decking. Until the 1930s the Victoria Bridge remained the only permanent crossing point between the north and south banks of the River within Brisbane. By 1926 the bottleneck caused by the increased volume of traffic attempting to use the only river crossing in the city led to the establishment of a commission to explore alternative sites for bridges. After consideration of a number of factors such as flooding, navigation and level of demand, the Grey Street (William Jolley) Bridge (No. 601694) was constructed, followed by the Walter Taylor Bridge which functioned as a toll bridge from its opening in 1936. The Storey Bridge was not opened until 1940 due to pressures against the construction of a down-river bridge which had the potential to limit shipping to the city wharves.
\nIn 1918, during the celebrations marking the end of the Great War and the return of the soldiers from the front, an incident occurred that touched the heart of the public and led to the provision of a memorial tablet on the southern end of the bridge. An 11 year old child, Hector Vasyli, of Greek ancestry, was struck by one of the vehicles in the parade and killed. A marble tablet was erected to his memory and a memorial service has been held at the site on Anzac Day ever since.
\nIn 1969 when the bridge was being demolished, to be replaced by the present structure, the memorial tablet was removed for safekeeping until a suitable location was found for it. Discussion with the Greek Community and Brisbane City Council led to the decision to retain that portion of the southern abutment which had originally held the memorial tablet and so it was returned to its original location on April 24, 1970. During storage the bronze relief head of the boy which decorated the tablet was lost. The Greek Consul, Mr Alex Freeleagus located the boys' sister in Sydney and she provided a photograph of the boy from which a replacement likeness was cast.
\nConstruction of the new bridge resulted in the part demolition of the northern abutment, with the arch and upper courses of the Brisbane Tuff stonework removed. More recent works associated with the upgrade of the North Quay Ferry Terminal included the removal of a curved stone retaining wall (c1920s) that formed a large planter box adjacent to the abutment, and cleaning of the newly exposed stonework. A cantilevered viewing platform was constructed above the abutment, along with an adjacent public lift, stairs and ramps to provide access from Queens Wharf Road to the walkway and ferry terminal below.
\nThe more intact southern bridge abutment retained its arch but was left as a ruin for some time following the demolition of the bridge, photographs taken in 1971 show that it was still in a ruined state at that time. Restoration work is reported as having been undertaken as a part of the revivification of the south bank area in preparation for the 1988 Exposition which was held at South Bank Park. At that time two bronze plaques were attached to the side of the abutment recording the history of the bridge. Conservation works were undertaken in 2003-4, including cleaning, patching and repointing of the stonework. In 2015 a new walkway, featuring interpretive signage panels, was built between the abutment and the modern bridge.
","criteria":"The Victoria Bridge Abutments stand as a memorial of the first permanent bridge to be constructed across the Brisbane River which did not succumb to the forces of nature.
\nThe opening of the bridge in 1897 provided a major boost to the continued development of the City of South Brisbane which had first received its development impetus from the introduction of cross-river transport provided by the previous bridges at this location.
|The abutments have the potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of late 19th century bridge design and construction, including the role they played in addressing the engineering challenges presented by the site.
|Designed by Government Architect AB Brady, the abutment’s 19th century design characteristics, which include classical stylistic references, monumental form and rusticated stonework, combined with their siting on either side of the river, form an evocative reminder of previous efforts to span the Brisbane River and make an important contribution the urban riverscape of Queensland’s capital city. Visible from a range of vantage points, and contrasting with surrounding modern built forms, the prominent southern abutment is a popular landmark destination for tourists and photographers.
|The Victoria Bridge Abutment at South Brisbane has a high social value for the Greek community of Brisbane, containing as it does, the memorial to Hector Vasyli, a young Greek Australian boy who died while demonstrating his loyalty to his adopted homeland. This association is further demonstrated by the role of the Greek community in ensuring that this portion of the bridge was retained to provide a fitting location for the memorial plaque erected in the memory of the Vasyli boy and the continued practice of conducting a memorial service for the boy each Anzac Day.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15079,"place_ref":600304,"name":"St Andrews Anglican Church","alternate_name":"St Andrew's Anglican Church; St Andrews Church South Brisbane; South Brisbane St Andrews","street_address":"160 Vulture Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Andrews is a large, gothic-style limestone church, cruciform in shape.
In addition to the nave and transepts there is a portico at the front and a chancel at the western end. Both of these wings have a lower roof line than the nave. A small vestry is located to the north of the chancel and the half built tower is to the south. There is a substantial subfloor beneath the church. The steeply pitched gable roof is of slate.
A notable feature of the building is the large stained glass windows, especially those located at the end of the chancel, portico and transepts.
The timber hall consists of a core surrounded by enclosed verandah wings. The core has a steeply pitched gable roof in corrugated iron and fine timber ceiling supported by timber trusses.
","history":"St Andrew's Anglican Church at South Brisbane was constructed in several stages: 1878-83, 1887, and 1931-32.
The first Anglican church in South Brisbane had been built c1855 on the corner of Grey and Melbourne Streets. The construction of St Andrews reflected the growing population of the area and the general move of residential and public buildings up the hill away from the flood-prone area of first settlement.
Flamboyant Italian architect Andrea Stombuco was commissioned to design St Andrew's, which was to be a substantial structure in stone. Stombuco, who had designed a number of ecclesiastical buildings for the Catholic Church, including St Joseph's Christian Brothers' College on Gregory Terrace [1875-76], Rathbawn at Nudgee [1875-78] and St Mary's Roman Catholic Presbytery in Ipswich [1875], envisaged a grand structure for St Andrew's, with a prominent tower and spire.
Work commenced in 1878, but was abandoned when the walls had reached a height of only 6 feet [1.8 metres]. Stombuco's design had proved beyond the financial means of the parish, and work did not resume until 1882. The chancel, transepts and first bay of the nave were completed in the following year by the builder James O'Keeffe. An 1887 extension was designed by architect HWK Martin, who had recently arrived in Brisbane from London, and was an active member of the St Andrew's congregation.
The rectory and parish hall were built later, the hall in 1909 to a design by architect William A Caldwell. The rectory was demolished in 1988.
The continued growth in the congregation led to the completion of the nave in 1931-32, under the supervision of architect Lange L Powell. The tower and spire of Stombuco's design were never completed.
","criteria":"St Andrew's Anglican Church is significant historically in demonstrating the expansion of the Anglican Church in Queensland, and the evolution of South Brisbane as a rival to North Brisbane in terms of commerce, municipal development and population increase, in the second half of the 19th century. The construction of St Andrew's illustrates the move away from the river flats after the 1860s flood, and the growing popularity among the middle-class of the higher ridges in South Brisbane and Highgate Hill.
|The place is important as a rare example of a substantial, stone gothic-style church in Brisbane, with particularly fine stained glass windows, and is a well-known South Brisbane landmark which has contributed to the Brisbane townscape for over a century.
|The place is important as a rare example of a substantial, stone gothic-style church in Brisbane, with particularly fine stained glass windows, and is a well-known South Brisbane landmark which has contributed to the Brisbane townscape for over a century.
|The place is important as a rare example of a substantial, stone gothic-style church in Brisbane, with particularly fine stained glass windows, and is a well-known South Brisbane landmark which has contributed to the Brisbane townscape for over a century.
|The place is important as a rare example of a substantial, stone gothic-style church in Brisbane, with particularly fine stained glass windows, and is a well-known South Brisbane landmark which has contributed to the Brisbane townscape for over a century.
|Despite having been constructed in a number of stages between 1878 and 1932, the building reflects much of architect Andrea Stombuco's original vision, and is important in contributing to our understanding of his work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15080,"place_ref":600305,"name":"Somerville House","alternate_name":"Cumbooquepa | Brisbane High School for Girls","street_address":"253 Vulture Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Somerville House comprises structures and landscaping elements, including paths, walls and cuttings on the large triangular block bounded on the north side by Vulture Street and on the west by the railway line. The buildings situated on the main Vulture Street frontage are Cumbooquepa in the north eastern part of the site and, in the northwest corner, the former library/studio building.
Cumbooquepa, a single-storeyed masonry and timber house with terracotta tiled and corrugated iron hip roofs, is located on the highest part of the site overlooking the Brisbane River to the north. It is deliberately sited to present a grand hilltop facade addressing the city. Much of the ornament is lavished on this northern facade, the other sides of the building being relatively modest in materials and detail. The house is constructed of red brick on a patterned brick and stone base with timber verandahs to the side and rear elevations. Originally E-shaped in plan, the long northern facade connects central, eastern and western wings arranged around two verandahed courtyards. The central wing contains the entrance hall, reception rooms, dining room and kitchen while the eastern and western wings are used to provide accommodation for boarders and staff.
The north elevation is a symmetrical composition consisting of bow-fronted pavilions on the eastern and western corners connected by colonnades to a central entry pavilion surmounted by a tower. This front facade is embellished with arches, pediments, quoins, cornices, parapets, balustrades and pilasters with Ionic capitals that are rendered to contrast with the brickwork.
The central entrance pavilion includes two bow-fronted rooms, - a meeting room to the east and study to the west - and a central entrance hall and porch. These rooms have rendered masonry walls, plaster ceilings and feature high quality timber joinery. The entrance hall, has a marbled tiled floor and is timber panelled to dado height. Stained glass in two fanlights and tall arched niches in its four corners depict Shakespearian characters - Touchstone, Jacques, Portia, Beatrice, Viola and Rosalind. The niche in the southwest corner of the hall opens onto a timber staircase which leads to the tower room. In the study are elaborate built-in timber bookshelves and cabinets and a fireplace with an ornate timber surround.
The dining room, accessed from a breezeway at the rear of the entrance hall, has rendered walls with timber wainscoting and an ornate coved and panelled ceiling that is lined with diagonal tongue and groove boards. The room, which overlooks both courtyards, is embellished with stained glass windows in arched openings, elaborate timber lintels over the entry doors, built-in timber furniture, two fireplaces and bay windows in arched recesses.
Circulation throughout the building is via the extensive verandahs and colonnades, all of which are now enclosed. The southern ends of the courtyards, once open, are now blocked off by two brick bathroom wings with storage areas underneath. The house has six brick chimney stacks, some of which are highly ornate.
While the former house is elevated high above the street the former library/studio building, now the chapel, steps down the site. Built on a finger of land between the entry driveway, Vulture Street and the railway line, the building which is integrated with the adjacent pathway, steps and walls, forms an entry onto the site. The former library is a one-storeyed buttressed brick structure with contrasting rendered details including castellated parapets, window frames, arches and base and has steeply pitched terracotta tiled roofs. It was designed in the English Perpendicular "gothic revival" style.
The octagonal north end has four stained glass memorial windows which are the work of Brisbane artist William Bustard. The interiors have been altered and a new entry constructed at the southern end.
These buildings of Somerville House are all red brick with cement render details and form a cohesive and intact group prominently located above the historic precinct surrounding South Brisbane Memorial Park and adjoining the former South Brisbane Town Hall.
","history":"Cumbooquepa is a large single-storeyed house built in 1890 on a ridge overlooking the South Brisbane reach of the river.
The land was acquired in 1856 by Thomas Blackett Stephens, a politician, newspaper proprietor and businessman, who became Brisbane's second mayor. Stevens built a timber dwelling called Cumbooquepa on the property. He died in 1877 and management of his estate passed to his eldest son, William, a politician, businessman and first mayor of South Brisbane.
In 1890 the Stephens family moved into a new house designed by GHM Addison where they lived until the early 1900s. This second Cumbooquepa was built on a higher part of the site, a short distance from the original which was demolished in 1890 to make way for the south coast and southern suburbs railway line.
The house remained in the family until 1919 when the property was acquired by the Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association as the new premises for the Brisbane High School for Girls. In 1920 Somerville House was added to the title of the school honouring Mary Somerville, an English scientist whose name was also associated with Somerville College in Oxford. Constance Elizabeth Harker and Majorie Kate Jarrett, important for their contributions to female education in Queensland, were the co-principals of the school from 1909 until the retirement of Miss Harker in 1931.
An L-shaped two-storeyed educational block was built in 1920 to a design by architects Chambers and Powell with an extension containing a gymnasium and chemistry and biology laboratories completed in 1926.
A two-roomed library building designed by TBF Gargett as a memorial to CE Harker was opened in 1935 and extended to include an art studio in 1939-40. The former library includes memorial stained glass windows by William Bustard. It was probably the first purpose designed library building at a girl's school in Queensland. Recently altered, the building is now used as a chapel.
Early in 1942 Somerville House became General Headquarters, United Army Forces Far East, United States Army Services of Supply and Base Section 3. TBF Gargett, architect to the US Army, was responsible for adapting the school buildings for the army. During this period the school relocated, reopening at South Brisbane in January 1945.
Since the Second World War various classrooms, a five-storeyed science wing and sporting facilities have been erected. The Constance Harker Hall was built during the 1970s. It houses an 1888 pipe organ by Alfred Hunter & Sons of London.
","criteria":"Somerville House is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history as evidence of education for girls in Queensland.
|Somerville House is an uncommon example of a large late 19th century residence, which is exceptional for its architectural quality, lavish interiors, and prominence as a landmark.
|Is significant in relation to criterion D.
|Somerville House is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic qualities valued by the community, in particular the architectural distinction of the former library/studio building, the high quality of the stained glass and timber joinery in Cumbooquepa and the former library/studio building, the cohesive and picturesque grouping of landscape elements and buildings, the contribution of the wall and garden to the streetscape and the contribution to the townscape as a landmark.
|Somerville House has a special association with the Brisbane High School for Girls.
|Somerville House has a special association with the Stephens Family, CE Harker, MK Jarrett and the US Army and Brisbane architects, GHM Addison, and TBF Gargett and artisan William Bustard, and are important examples of their work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15081,"place_ref":600306,"name":"South Brisbane Municipal Chambers (former)","alternate_name":"South Brisbane Town Hall","street_address":"263 Vulture Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former South Brisbane Municipal Chambers stands on a prominent rise at the corner of Vulture and Graham Streets, and is visible from the city side of the river. Despite having sustained several refurbishments, the building remains substantially intact, and retains a dominant presence in the historic precinct centred around South Brisbane Memorial Park.
The building comprises two storeys, a basement, attic and a conspicuous clock tower, and is designed in the free classical style.
It is constructed of red Coorparoo and Waterstown bricks left their natural colour. Bluish-grey Helidon sandstone and terracotta panelling from the Albion works of James Campbell & Sons are used for the exterior decorative detailing. The roof is clad in rolled edge flat iron.
The Vulture Street facade has a loggia on the first floor and a pediment with stylised floral motifs. The simpler Graham Street facade has large sashed triplet windows and sandstone pilasters, with the words Municipal Chambers in low relief beneath a small pediment.
The 70 feet (21 metres) high tower is elaborately decorated with classical motifs above a restrained brick shaft with a four-dial clock. Each clock face is 6 feet (1.8 metres) in diameter.
Internally the building retains its original layout and much of the decorative finishing. On the ground floor are offices and on the first floor are the large council chamber and ancillary rooms. A small room at the rear of the council chamber is an addition, bricked in prior to 1923.
A principal internal feature is the main staircase, with its white marble handrail and steps [whole marble slabs], and strings, newels and balusters of cedar. Above the stairwell is a replica of the original stained glass window with the seal of the Corporation of South Brisbane in the design.
The boundary fence along Vulture and Graham Streets is of brick and stone with a cast-iron railing. At the corner an arched entrance with iron gates and broad stairs leads from the street level to the tiled vestibule.
Several mature palm trees remain in the grounds.
","history":"Constructed in 1891-2 for the South Brisbane Municipal Council, this two-storeyed former municipal chambers provided a focus for the new Borough of South Brisbane [created in 1888], which sought to rival in development and prestige the Municipality of Brisbane.
The site, located centrally between South Brisbane and Woolloongabba, was purchased in 1889 by the South Brisbane Municipal Council for £2600, and was intended for a town hall. Financial restrictions forced a compromise and municipal chambers only were commissioned.
Following a competition in late 1889, the innovative design submitted by John Hall & Son was accepted. It is attributed to John Smith Murdock, who later became Commonwealth Deputy-General of Works and Chief Architect of the Commonwealth, 1926-30.
The contract was let in December 1890 to Brisbane builder and brickmaker Abraham James, with a price of £6,999. Work commenced in January 1891, but was halted temporarily when the contractor was bankrupted. The Council called tenders for separate trades to complete the building, and contracts for the stone, brick, carpentry and joinery work and the boundary fences and entrance gates were let to established Brisbane builders John Stewart & Co. The building was completed in mid-1892 at a total cost of £11,000, and served the South Brisbane Municipal Council until 1925.
The tower clock, installed in 1904 by the Synchronome Electrical Co. of Australasia Ltd, was the first electrically-driven clock system in Australia.
In 1925 the building became the property of the Brisbane City Council and served as offices for the Council's district engineer from 1926 to 1940.
In March 1941 the building was rented by the Australian Army, and in March 1942 it was occupied by the American Military Police as their Base Section Three Headquarters. The Americans removed a large stained glass window above the stairwell to allow construction of a walkway across to the grounds of Somerville House, which served as Base Section Three Army Headquarters. This window was never recovered. In 1943 the Americans erected the two-storeyed brick and fibrous-cement building at the rear.
Following the American withdrawal the building remained vacant for some years, but in 1948 was converted into seven flats for Council employees. In 1955 the State Government purchased the building and converted it into accommodation for the newly established Queensland Conservatorium of Music, who remained there until 1975. Since 1976 the building has been occupied by branches of the Education Department and TAFE, and is currently an Adult Education centre. In 1977 and 1983 restoration work was undertaken, and in 1986 the missing stained glass window was reproduced to the original design.
","criteria":"The former South Brisbane Municipal Chambers are important in illustrating the evolution of Queensland's history, being landmark physical evidence of the consolidation of the Borough of South Brisbane as a political, social and economic rival to the Municipality of Brisbane.
It is a rare masonry municipal chambers in Brisbane, and the most substantial and ornate prior to construction of the new Brisbane City Hall in the 1920s.
|It is a rare masonry municipal chambers in Brisbane, and the most substantial and ornate prior to construction of the new Brisbane City Hall in the 1920s.
|The former South Brisbane Municipal Chambers is a most accomplished and intact building in form, fabric and feature, the first in Brisbane to be designed in free classical style, the first in Australia to incorporate an electrically-driven clock system, and is an excellent example of its type.
|It possesses strong landmark and aesthetic qualities and makes an important contribution to the historic precinct centred around South Brisbane Memorial Park.
|It possesses strong landmark and aesthetic qualities and makes an important contribution to the historic precinct centred around South Brisbane Memorial Park.
|The place is significant as a major and early Brisbane work by important architect John S Murdoch, and for its close association with the work of the South Brisbane Municipal Council and with the presence of United States military personnel in Brisbane during the Second World War.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15082,"place_ref":600307,"name":"South Brisbane Railway Station","alternate_name":"Cultural Centre Station | South Brisbane (Interstate) Station | Melbourne Street Station","street_address":"133 Grey Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The station is a long, two-storeyed brick building with a hipped, corrugated-iron roof. The Grey Street frontage is dominated by a central projecting pedimented entrance. Either side of the entrance are sloping corrugated-iron street awnings, which are supported by cast-iron columns with corinthian capitals and large brackets.
Other Renaissance stylistic elements to the street facade include: romanesque windows on the upper floor, rendered string courses and window mouldings, pilasters with corinthian capitals, and a solid rendered parapet.
A former garden park in front of the Grey Street entrance is now a car park/loading bay.
At the rear of the station building are the platforms, which were constructed level with the upper floor of the main building, in anticipation of the river extension. The awning to No 1 platform retains a tank roof on a steel frame, with cast-iron columns and brackets and a decorative timber frieze [1891]. No 2 platform has a cantilevered butterfly roof [bullnosed until recent re-roofing], which is supported by lattice iron girders [c1918].
On both platforms the furniture consists of a considerable number of early cast-iron framed seats which incorporate the QR logo. Many of these were collected from other Brisbane metropolitan stations for the Expo '88 refurbishment, and have remained.
As preparation for Expo '88 the external brickwork and cast iron was restored, the roof was replaced, and all the exterior brickwork except for the upper level front facade was painted an uncharacteristic pink or peach. Interior renovations included false ceilings, a new staircase for office staff, and repainting.
The main building at the South Brisbane Railway Station remains substantially intact, despite interior alteration, but the turntable, two island platforms, and the front park and garden have been removed.
","history":"The South Brisbane Railway Station on the corner of Melbourne and Grey Streets was constructed in 1891 as the terminus for the new rail extension from Boggo Junction [now Dutton Park]. This line bypassed the Woolloongabba railyards and made redundant the Stanley Street station of 1882-4. The £77,585 contract was let to Murphy & Company on 2 April 1890, and the line was completed by them on 7 December 1891.
A £5,658 contract for erecting the new passenger station was let to Henry Pears on 22 June 1891. It was the second masonry station to be erected in Brisbane after Roma Street [1875], pre-dating Central [1901] by a decade.
Passenger services commenced on 21 December 1891, although the station building had not been completed. For this reason there was no accompanying opening ceremony. When the building opened shortly afterwards it included a temperance refreshment room, and served commuters on the South Coast, Cleveland and Beaudesert lines.
South Brisbane Station was intended as a temporary terminus, pending an extension of the line across the river, so only two platforms were constructed. However, after the 1893 flood washed away the Albert Bridge at Indooroopilly, the station served as the principal terminus for all southern and western rail services for the next two and a half years.
A 1912-13 proposal to expand South Brisbane to a six platform station reflected the increasing importance of the southern rail network, both as a passenger service and as a goods line. This work was undertaken between 1914 and 1918. To handle the increased traffic a 40 feet [12 metres] turntable was constructed in 1916, which was expanded to 60 feet [18 metres] in 1925. This was removed with the change-over to diesel engines in 1968.
In 1930 the standard gauge rail to Sydney was completed and in 1931 the station was renamed South Brisbane (Interstate). A separate interstate platform, station, goods shed and shunting yards were constructed, all of which were demolished in 1986 for Expo '88 redevelopment.
Since 1986 interstate services have terminated at the Brisbane Transit Centre in Roma Street. Two of the c1918 island platforms at South Brisbane were removed to accommodate the cross-river line, and the station has reverted to its original two platforms.
","criteria":"The South Brisbane Railway Station, erected in 1891, is significant historically as a reflection of the importance of South Brisbane as a commercial centre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and as a major terminal in the southeast Queensland regional rail network until 1986.
|It is a substantially intact masonry railway station complete with early platform furniture, one of only three erected in Brisbane by 1901, and a good example of its type.
|It is a substantially intact masonry railway station complete with early platform furniture, one of only three erected in Brisbane by 1901, and a good example of its type.
|The place is significant also for its aesthetic contribution to the South Brisbane townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15083,"place_ref":600308,"name":"19 Gloucester Street","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"19 Gloucester Street","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-07-30","description":"19 Gloucester St is a cottage made of Brisbane tuff with sandstone dressings, with a two-storeyed brick and stone wing to the rear. Its steeply pitched corrugated iron roof contains an attic storey with a single dormer window, and it has a timber verandah with a corrugated iron skillion roof overlooking Gloucester St. It is one of a pair of cottages which are semi-detached, and sits on an eastward falling slope. The cottage has a simple rectangular plan with four rooms to the ground floor which run off a central corridor, and two rooms above. A timber and corrugated iron room links the cottage to the rear wing, which contains a former kitchen with a single room above.
The verandah sits at half level above Gloucester St, and is accessed via stone stairs. It has timber rectangular columns with timber capitals, and an unpainted timber boarded ceiling. The dormer above has a hipped roof, and the half-round guttering is decorated with cresting at the corners. A sandstone and brick chimney rises above the roofline. The windows are multi-paned timber sliding sash windows, and have textured sandstone lintels, quoins and sills; the doors also have textured sandstone surrounds. The eastern attic window is flanked by two timber rails which may have been a lifting device. The rear wing has a hipped corrugated iron roof which adjoins that of its neighbour. A small brick and corrugated iron outhouse sits to the west of the kitchen.
The walls and ceilings in the cottage are plaster and lath, with modestly detailed timber trim throughout (much of it cedar). The timber work includes deep window reveals, mantelpieces to the two northern ground floor rooms, a louvred timber door to the north-west room, steep stairs to the attic rooms and cupboards in the eastern attic room. The rear wing contains an early stove, and steep stairs with a shutter door above.
19 Gloucester St is a rare example of an 1860s inner city residence. The interior is highly intact. The modestly detailed exterior is also intact and contributes to the surrounding turn-of-the-century residential streetscape.
","history":"19 Gloucester Street is a semi-detached stone house, constructed in the late 1860's during the early growth of Spring Hill as a suburb of Brisbane. The house was built for William Grigor, a Scottish immigrant who had arrived in Moreton Bay in 1855.
Grigor and his friend and business partner, James Low, acquired the adjoining properties in Gloucester Street in 1867 and proceeded to construct the pair of semi-detached stone houses on the two sites.
In 1862 Grigor, Low and William Pettigrew had formed a partnership, and Grigor and Low moved to Mooloolah where they hauled timber and rafted it to Brisbane. In 1863 Grigor married Mary Fenwick and together with the Lows, continued working in the timber industry.
By 1868 it would appear that the partnership was experiencing financial difficulties and was possibly dissolved. Low and his family moved to his selection on the banks of the South Maroochy River (later called Yandina). In October 1868 Grigor selected land in the parish of Beerwah, where he commenced construction of Bankfoot House in anticipation of the forthcoming Cobb and Co coach route between Brisbane and Gympie. When Bankfoot House was completed, Grigor was rejoined by his wife, and they established an accommodation house, which was also a post-office, dinner stage and change of horses for Cobb and Co coaches. It is possible that Mary had stayed at the Spring Hill house while Bankfoot House was being built.
For over one hundred and twenty years the property in Gloucester Street has remained with the Grigors and their descendants, and has been rented during most of that period.
In the 1980s the house was returned to as close to original condition as possible. This included replacement of the verandah fabric and guttering to match existing materials.
","criteria":"The residence is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the settlement of Spring Hill as a suburb of Brisbane.
|The residence remains as a rare intact example of an 1860s semi-detached stone house in Brisbane.
|The residence exhibits the principal characteristics of an 1860s stone house in Brisbane and its contribution to the Gloucester St streetscape exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community.
|The residence exhibits the principal characteristics of an 1860s stone house in Brisbane and its contribution to the Gloucester St streetscape exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15084,"place_ref":600309,"name":"St Paul's Presbyterian Church","alternate_name":"St Pauls Presbyterian Church; St Pauls Spring Hill; St Paul's Spring Hill","street_address":"43 St Pauls Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Paul's Presbyterian Church is a stone, gothic-styled building complete with buttresses, belltower and a spire rising 150 feet (45.7m) above the ground.
\nCruciform in shape, the design incorporates a nave, aisles, and well defined transepts. The chancel is truncated. Essentially the plan is symmetrical, with the addition of a small southwestern entry porch for the spiral staircase to the belltower.
\nThe steeply pitched gabled roof with ventilation gablets is clad in broad profile galvanised iron.
\nThree distinct types of stone have been employed in the construction: rough dressed Brisbane tuff, probably from the Spring Hill and Windsor quarries, for the walls and buttresses; durable Helidon sandstone for the window facings; and a softer and less robust sandstone, possibly from Breakfast Creek or Goodna, for other facings and decorative work.
\nAt the front of the church, a pair of large cedar doors open to a main entry porch, paved with tessellated black and white marble. One of the stained glass windows in the entrance, designed by Brisbane artist William Bustard and unveiled in 1923, depicts the apostle Nathaniel. This was donated by the Philp family, following the death in 1922 of former businessman and Queensland Premier, Sir Robert Philp.
\nThe interior is simple yet impressive: the nave, with its stone pillars and gothic arches, is spacious; exposed wooden arches support a roof lining of diagonal tongue and groove, v-jointed red cedar; and the walls are rendered. Each aisle has its own roof, above which a sequence of cusped windows in the clerestory permits natural lighting of the nave.
\nIn the wall above the chancel are a rose window and four large stained glass windows of European manufacture, which depict Old Testament prophets. Double arched windows along the aisles illustrate ten events in the life of St Paul.
\nRed cedar has been employed for internal joinery and furniture, and the sloping floor is of pine.
\nSt Paul's houses the only swung bell in Brisbane, which was cast in 1888 by John Warner & Sons, London. The bell chamber is noted for its perfect acoustic properties in transmitting sound to the nave.
\nAfter more than a century of use, St Paul's remains intact in form, structure, fabric and function.
\nColumbarium and Memorial Garden
\nA columbarium and memorial garden are located to the south of the church, between the church and hall. The columbarium stands about a metre out from the church, south west from the front entrance. It is a sandstone structure approximately 180cm high, containing niches. The enclosed niches have either a plaque with an inscription on them or a temporary cover with an ‘R’ on it that indicates ‘Reserved’.
\nA small sandstone wall stands adjacent to the columbarium and runs around the perimeter of the outer church wall, before extending out on the corner to form the memorial garden bed. After forming the garden boundary, the wall continues to follow the church perimeter before ending in line with a buttress. The wall has small rectangular cappings that cover cavities. Cavities containing ashes have small memorial plaques fixed to the stone capping.
","history":"St Paul's Presbyterian Church, a Gothic-style stone building which dominates the skyline at Spring Hill, was constructed between 1887 and 1889.
The congregation of St Paul's, which at the time was a member of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, founded their first Brisbane church on the corner of Creek and Adelaide Streets in 1863. This early timber structure was replaced in 1876 by a stone building of substantial proportions, which in turn was sold to the Queensland National Bank in 1886 and subsequently demolished. The sale enabled the purchase of a site in Leichhardt Street, Spring Hill for the construction of a new place of worship.
Former colonial architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley was commissioned to design a building well beyond immediate requirements, in anticipation of the church playing a more prominent role in the development of Queensland Presbyterianism.
Stanley had designed a number of masonry churches, including Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Fortitude Valley [1877], St Thomas' Anglican Church in Toowong [1877], and St Paul's Anglican Church in Maryborough [1879].
In 1886 a brick and stone Sabbath School Hall was erected on a corner of the site, and this building served as a temporary church for three years while the larger building was designed and constructed.
Contractor for the £11,000 project was builder and alderman Thomas Rees [later mayor of Brisbane], who completed construction of the church in a little over 18 months. The foundation stone was laid on 8 October 1887 and the church was officially dedicated on 5 May 1889.
Much of the stone from the demolished Creek Street church was re-used in the Leichhardt Street church. Also a stone wall with Glasgow-founded iron railings and entrance gates, a pipe organ manufactured by William Hill & Sons, London c1874, and prophet lights donated in 1878 by former Queensland premier Sir Thomas McIlwraith, were removed to the new site.
Despite grand visions of St Pauls as the state centre of Presbyterian worship, the congregation was small and localised until the early 20th century, when a change of ministry encouraged a more active following.
The interior of the church was redesigned in 1901. The organ and choir stalls were moved from a prominent position beneath the central arch to the southwest transept, and the pulpit was centrally elevated.
St Paul's became a community landmark in Spring Hill, recognised officially with the mid-1930s renaming of a section of Leichhardt Street from Boundary Road to Brookes Street as St Pauls Terrace.
A number of church facilities were extended in the post-war period. This involved installation of an electronic carillon ['the chimes'] in 1950; commissioning of stained glass lights - designed by William Bustard in 1957 and executed by Oliver Cowley between 1958 and 1972 - for the aisle windows; the addition of an electro-pneumatic action to the organ in 1963; and the inclusion of a columbarium in 1967. Renovation of the cedar pulpit, rostrum and communion table was undertaken in 1976.
In the early 1980s the Friends of St Paul's was established, which conducted an appeal to raise funds for restoration work. Funds from the appeal and various grants permitted repairs to some of the ornamental stonework.
To help finance a complete restoration, the rights were sold to develop an office tower and townhouse complex on the site of the former manse, which was demolished. Eventually the land itself was sold.
","criteria":"St Paul's Presbyterian Church, constructed 1887-89, is significant historically for its association with the work of the Presbyterian Church in Queensland, and in particular, as evidence of the Creek Street congregation's anticipation of playing a prominent role in Queensland Presbyterianism.
|It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of 19th century Gothic church design in Queensland: it remains substantially intact, and is one of few churches in Queensland to fully realise the 'gothic' style in stone. In addition, St Paul's is significant for its early pipe organ, stained glass and swung bell.
|The place has considerable landmark quality and aesthetic appeal, and makes a strong aesthetic contribution to both the Spring Hill townscape and the skyline along St Paul's Terrace. It remains an integral element in a cohesive ecclesiastical precinct formed with the adjoining church hall and boundary fence.
|It also has historical significance as the origin of the name of a principal Brisbane street, St Paul's Terrace - indicative of a wider community association with the church as a Brisbane landmark.
|St Paul's is important as a major example of the ecclesiastical work of former colonial architect FDG Stanley.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15085,"place_ref":600310,"name":"St Paul's Presbyterian Church Hall","alternate_name":"Sabbath School Hall; St Pauls Presbyterian Church Hall; St Paul's Spring Hill","street_address":"43 St Pauls Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Paul's Presbyterian Church Hall, designed in the gothic style with classical nuances, is a low, wide brick building with buttresses and stone facings, built to a T-shape plan with the leg abutting the street.
It is capped with a gabled roof clad in broad profile galvanised iron, above which square brick and stone pinnacles rise from the buttresses at the ends of each of the four gables.
The front facade, which has a northwest aspect, features a central, pointed-arch window with drip moulding, three green glass lights, tracery, and mullions; and gothic arched doorways with stone pediments above, on either side of the window. Above this is a broad pediment decorated with abbreviated blind panel tracery.
The interior, with its rendered walls, timber dado panelling and raised dais at the eastern end, is lit by rectangular multi-paned windows located in the bays along the sides.
The hall remains largely intact in form, fabric and function.
","history":"The Sabbath School Hall, designed by former colonial architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley, was the first building to be erected on the Creek Street Presbyterian Church's newly acquired property in Leichhardt Street, Spring Hill, in 1886.
It was built on the site of Brisbane's first children's hospital, a wooden building which was demolished to make room for the hall.
In form and fabric, the hall was designed well beyond immediate requirements, in anticipation of the Creek Street congregation playing a more prominent role in the development of Queensland Presbyterianism.
From May 1886 to May 1889 the Sabbath School Hall functioned as a temporary church while St Paul's was under construction, establishing a precinct which later included church, hall and manse. The manse was demolished in the 1980s.
Over the subsequent century the hall became the focus for the church's social activities, and was home to an active Sunday School in the period prior to the First World War. An extensive library was established in the hall in connection with the Sunday School.
The building served more than the immediate congregation, and in the late 1920s was the venue for local gymnastic competitions.
Falling attendances at evening church services during the 1930s depression resulted in their being conducted in the hall, often in a less formal manner than the regular service.
In February 1942 the Australian defence authorities requisitioned the hall for possible use as an emergency centre during air raids, and from these premises the Hon. RG Menzies conducted his final campaign meeting for the 1949 election.
In 1982 sections of the exterior brickwork were renovated, and early in 1984 a new floor was laid, wiring and power points were renewed, plumbing was repaired and the interior was painted.
","criteria":"St Paul's Presbyterian Church Hall, constructed in 1886, is significant historically as evidence of the Creek Street congregation's anticipation of playing a prominent role in Queensland Presbyterianism, and as an integral part of a cohesive ecclesiastical precinct formed with the adjoining St Paul's Presbyterian Church and boundary fence.
|It is a rare 1880s gothic-styled brick hall in Brisbane, and is an example of the ecclesiastical work of former colonial architect FDG Stanley.
|It is a rare 1880s gothic-styled brick hall in Brisbane, and is an example of the ecclesiastical work of former colonial architect FDG Stanley.
|The place is important for its aesthetic contribution to the Spring Hill townscape.
|It is significant also for its community association as the first of the St Paul's precinct buildings on Spring Hill, and as a venue for local entertainments for over a century.
|It is a rare 1880s gothic-styled brick hall in Brisbane, and is an example of the ecclesiastical work of former colonial architect FDG Stanley.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15086,"place_ref":600311,"name":"Bellmount","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"71 St Pauls Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Bellmount is located on the southern side of St Pauls Terrace, opposite Brisbane Central School, [600312], and amongst a small group of timber houses. The dwelling is essentially a typical four-roomed pyramid roofed cottage that has been extended at the rear. The building occupies almost the full width of the property and is set close to the street boundary. Due to the slope of the site, the house is elevated on timber stumps at the front but set close to the ground at the rear. The apex of the steeply pitched corrugated iron roof is decorated with a timber finial and a single dormer style window projects from the roof towards the street. A skylight has been fitted to the rear slope of the main roof. Half-round guttering, fixed by metal brackets, has been used for the main roof. The external walls of the original house are sheathed in twelve inch chamferboards and most of the original four-paned sash windows remain substantially intact. Th extension at the rear of the building is clad in weather boards and has multi-paned sash windows, which match the dormer window. The front verandah of the house also has a hipped roof that has a convex profile. The verandah has timber posts, brackets and top rails and cast iron balustrading. A pair of latticed screen doors provides access to the verandah and an early louvred infill panel exists at the verandah's southern end. In comparison to the front, the rear verandah is crudely constructed and has been infilled with a variety of claddings such as corrugated iron, lattice and fibreglass sheeting. The floor of the back verandah is brick paved.
The building's original core is square and comprises two bedrooms on the north side, with a combined former parlour and drawing room on the other side. Two later built rooms at the rear provide accommodation for a kitchen and an extra bedroom. The attic bedroom, which is located in the main roof space, is accessed via a narrow set of timber stairs located in the former drawing room. A bathroom has been created by the partial enclosure of the back verandah. The internal walls of the house are single skinned and lined with vertical timber boards which are 8
inches wide in the original section but narrower in the rear extension.
","history":"Bellmount is a small timber cottage constructed in 1880 for Martin McLeod, a bank messenger for the Union Bank of Australia.
Spring Hill first developed in the 1850's and 1860's following the subdivision of crown land north of the town centre. Unlike other suburbs, Spring Hill evolved almost entirely into a residential suburb that had very little commercial or industrial base. Social segregation between the rich and the poor arose immediately in the area due to the undulating topography of the land. The elite built superior residences along the ridges of Wickham and Gregory Terraces, taking advantage of the views, breezes and good natural drainage. In comparison the poor built simple timber houses on small blocks of land in the hollows adjacent to the ridges.
St Pauls Terrace, formerly known as Leichhardt Street, was a lesser ridge road that was taken up by various institutions such as churches and schools. The 1880's boom period saw the development of more elite residences and boarding houses in the Spring Hill area. Amongst the working class people, pyramid-roofed type dwellings such as Bellmount became particularly popular and continued to dominate less prestigious domestic building until the 1890's.
Deed of Grant for a 2 acre allotment along Leichhardt Street was granted to David McConnell as early as 1853. The land was subdivided into several allotments in 1872 of which a 30 perch allotment was purchased by William Cookslerf. Further subdivision of that allotment resulted in three similar parcels of land, one of which was bought by Martin McLeod in 1880. On the site, now known as 71 St Pauls Terrace, McLeod erected a typical four roomed timber worker's cottage with a pyramid type roof. The cottage was later extended by the addition of two more rooms at the rear. Physical detailing of the attic within the main pyramid roof structure suggests that it may also have been added later.
The property remained with the McLeod family for three generations until 1976. The building is currently used as offices.
","criteria":"Bellmount, built in 1880, is important for demonstrating the early inner suburban development of Brisbane, particularly Spring Hill.
|The attic is an unusual example of space utilisation rarely adopted in Queensland due to high internal temperatures.
|The house is a substantially intact example of the typical four-roomed pyramid roofed worker's cottage that dominated domestic building during the 1880's to 1890's.
|The house plays a significant role in the nineteenth century street scape of St Pauls Terrace, contributing aesthetically with its scale, form and use of materials.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15087,"place_ref":600312,"name":"Brisbane Central State School","alternate_name":"Leichhardt Street State School for Boys, Girls, Infants | Leichhardt Street (practising) School | Brisbane Central State School","street_address":"134 Rogers Street","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Brisbane Central State School, built on terraced terrain, comprises a number of elements, including: the Suter building (1874); a play shed (1887); the former boys' school high-set, timber classroom building (1909); the former practising school building (c1929); the former infants' school building (completed by June 1952); playgrounds; and extensive cuttings, retaining walls, landscaping and plantings.
The Suter building is a one-storey, low-set brick structure with a gabled roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. It faces south-west to the main entrance into the grounds on Victoria Street, and the vista of the building from the entrance is framed by trees. It is a long and narrow building aligned south-west and north-east with a timber-framed verandah along the front. The verandah is interrupted by a central, projecting gabled classroom and either side of this is an attached pair of timber-framed and -clad teaching rooms. Surmounting the centre of the roof is a square-based spire and along the ridge are timber-framed, ventilated dormer windows. The brick walls of the building stand on Brisbane tuff footings and the timber-framed portions stand on concrete posts or brick piers. The building features highly-crafted, decorative brickwork including: running corbel friezes under the eaves and gable barge boards; a variety of corbelled decorations; and lancet niches. The rear (north-eastern) wall is cement rendered, scored to mimic coursed stone and has a series of timber-framed casement windows with fanlights, sheltered by timber-framed hoods. The south-eastern gable end wall has a large bricked-in arch. The layout comprises five classrooms facing north-east and one central classroom facing south-west, all accessed from the verandah. The three southern classrooms have timber-lined walls and ceiling with timber roof framing exposed within the space. The other two rooms have suspended ceilings and a masonite sheeting partition.
The playshed is a timber-framed, open-sided shelter with a gable roof supported by timber posts with brackets. The gable ends are clad with timber weatherboards. The roof is clad with corrugated metal sheets and the ceiling is lined with timber, v-jointed boards with a ventilation gap between cladding and ceiling. It has a concrete floor and perimeter seating.
The former boys' school high-set building is very intact and stands adjacent to a tall, brick-faced retaining wall on its north-eastern side. It is a timber-framed building clad with timber weatherboards and has a gable roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. It is high-set on tall brick piers and the understorey is enclosed with timber weatherboards. A timber stair on the north-western side provides access to the upper level. The upper level has a verandah on the north-eastern and south-western sides, partially enclosed on the latter by more recent sheet material and on both sides by modern steel screens. The verandah walls are single-skin with externally-exposed stud framing. Between the studs are timber-framed, horizontal-pivot windows with high sills. The gable end windows are later, steel-framed louvres with original, timber-framed hoods. The upper level comprises one large classroom, accessed from both verandahs via timber, double-leaf doors with horizontal-pivot fanlights. The well-proportioned interior has a high, coved ceiling and is lined with timber, v-jointed boards. A metal tie rod between the verandah walls at cornice height is exposed within the space.
The former practising school building stands on the eastern-most corner of the site and faces St Paul's Terrace to the south-east. This is a large, timber-framed building clad with timber weatherboards and has a gable roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. It is a high-set building and its understorey is enclosed. The interior layout on both levels is not original; all partitions of the upper floor are demolished to form one large space.
The former infants' school stands on the lowest part of the site near the corner of Rogers and Water Streets, separated from the main part of the school by a tall stone-faced retaining wall. Accessed from a curving driveway from Rogers Street, the long, narrow building is a two-storey, facebrick structure with a hipped, tiled roof. The area for the former infants' school is divided into two level areas by a large concrete retaining wall and the school building sits against the wall on the lower level, accessible at grade from both sides. The principal entry is from the driveway into the upper (formerly classroom) level. This entrance is emphasised by large porthole windows, a sweeping, cantilevered concrete awning and curved steps, and a set of large, bifolding, glazed, timber-framed entrance doors. A verandah, enclosed with more-recent glazing, runs along the length of the northern side and a stair at the entry and at the western end leads down to the lower level (formerly open play space). The classrooms and the understorey are subdivided by later, lightweight partitions to form offices; although the original layout is discernible. The walls between former classrooms and the verandah have been demolished. The upper level retains south-facing, timber-framed casement windows and fanlights and sheet-and-batten ceilings.
The school grounds are terraced to form levelled playing areas and feature mature ornamental trees including: camphor laurels (Cinamomum camphora), figs, hoop pines, (Araucaria cunninghamii), palms, jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia), poincianas (Poinciana regia), and eucalypts, as well as gardens and other plantings.
","history":"Agitation for a primary school in the Spring Hill area commenced in 1873, culminating in the establishment of three separate schools - Leichhardt Street Boys' School, Leichhardt Street Girls' School, and Leichhardt Street Infants' School (later renamed Brisbane Central State School). Opening 25 January 1875 on a large site, the schools were initially accommodated in one building built in 1874. As attendance grew, other buildings were constructed, including; a playshed (1887); a high-set, timber classroom building for the boys' school (1909); a timber classroom building for the practising school (c1929); a brick building for the infants' school (c1952); as well as playgrounds, extensive cuttings, retaining walls, landscaping and plantings.
The provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. In 1848 the New South Wales Government established National Schools. This was continued by the Queensland Government after the colony's creation in 1859. The Education Act 1860 established the Queensland Board of General Education and began to standardise curriculum, teacher training, and facilities. The Education Act 1875 provided a number of key initiatives for primary education; it was to be free, compulsory and secular. The Department of Public Instruction was established to administer the Act. This move standardised the provision of education and, despite difficulties, colonial educators achieved a remarkable feat in bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[1]
The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early Queensland communities. The formal education of Queensland children was seen as integral to the success of a town, the colony, and the nation. Land and construction labour was often donated by the local people and schools frequently became a major focus within the community as a place symbolising progress, for social interaction, and as a source of pride. Also, the development and maintenance of schools frequently involved donations and work by teachers, parents, and pupils. Because of their significant connections with the local community, schools have occasionally incorporated other socially important elements such as war memorials and halls used for community purposes. They also typically retain a significant enduring connection with former pupils, their parents, and teachers. Social events involving a wide portion of the local community have often been held at schools, utilising the buildings and grounds - such as fetes, markets, public holiday celebrations, school break-up days, fundraisers, sporting events, reunions, and dances.
As in other Australian colonies, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. This helped to ensure consistency and economy. The standard designs were continually refined by government architects in response to changing needs and educational philosophy. Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in their approach to climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Due to the standardisation of facilities, schools across the state were developed in distinctly similar ways and became complexes of typical components. These components included: the teaching buildings, the school yard, the horse paddock that was often later configured into a sports oval, and a variety of features such as sporting facilities or play equipment, shade structures, gardens and trees.
The initial school building for the Leichhardt Street schools was a low-set, one-storey, brick structure designed by established Brisbane architect Richard George Suter. Suter was a private architect commissioned from 1865 by the Board of General Education to design school buildings. After 1868, Suter was responsible for most of the Board's buildings until 1875. As an architect in the early years of the colony, Suter was prolific despite only practicing for approximately 10 years in Queensland and had a strong influence on the establishment of Queensland architecture, being credited with introducing 'outside studding' construction technique to the state.[2]
Suter's Brisbane school buildings were of brick construction. His initial designs were simple, low-set, structures with gable roofs, and rectangular in plan. In 1873 he introduced an ‘improved plan' adding front and rear verandahs to provide hat rooms and additional play and classroom space beginning a distinctive design solution of 'classroom and verandah' that continued through evolution until at least the 1960s.
The contract to construct the Suter building for the Leichhardt Street schools was let on 5 February 1874 to builders Dennis & Sons, with a price of £1970. The T-shaped building had three large classrooms - the long front wing held two 80 by 25 feet (24.9 by 7.6 metres) classrooms, one each for the boys' and girls' schools, and projecting to the rear was one 25 by 24 feet (7.6 by 7.3 metres) classroom for the infants' school. The building had a symmetrical front elevation with a projecting central room 20 by 25 feet (6.1 by 7.6 metres) flanked by a small teachers' room either side and a verandah along the front and rear.
Enrolments by October 1875 totalled 241 boys, 176 girls, and 250 infants.
In 1887 a playshed was built at the school. This was a timber-framed, open-sided shelter with a gable roof measuring 25 by 45 feet (7.62 by 13.7 metres). The Queensland education system recognised the importance of play in the school curriculum and, as well as classrooms, they provided plans for playsheds, free-standing shelters that provided covered play space and were often used for unofficial teaching space when needed. They were timber-framed structures, generally open on all sides although were sometimes partially enclosed with timber boards or corrugated galvanised iron sheets. The hipped (or less frequently, gabled) roofs were clad with timber shingles or corrugated iron and they had an earth or decomposed granite floor. Fixed timber seating ran between the perimeter posts. Playsheds were a typical addition to state schools across Queensland between c1880s and the 1950s. They were mostly built to standard designs that ranged in size relative to student numbers. School sites were typically cleared of all vegetation and the provision of all-weather outdoor space was needed. After c1909 school buildings were high-set, allowing students to play in the understorey and playsheds were not frequently constructed.
In 1889 a Grand Gala Tree-planting Day was held at the Leichhardt Street schools site. Prior to this, the grounds were described as barren.[3] The provision of outdoor play space was a result of the early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school. Trees and gardens were planted as part of beautification of the school. In the 1870s, schools inspector William Boyd was critical of tropical schools and amongst his recommendations was the importance of the addition of shade trees in the playground. Landscape elements were often constructed to standard designs and were intrinsic to Queensland Government education philosophies. Educationalists believed gardening and tree planting instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land. Aesthetically designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors. More than 50 shade and ornamental trees supplied by the Department of Agriculture were planted in the Leichhardt Street school grounds by its scholars.[4] It was seen as a great success and sparked the introduction of Queensland-wide Arbor Day celebrations the following year.[5] Between 1889 and 1892 about 150 trees were planted in the school grounds.[6]
From the school's opening, the Suter building was overcrowded and had other problems, including poor lighting and ventilation. From 1893 the Department of Public Works became responsible for school design and worked to greatly improve its standard designs to address the natural ventilation and lighting of classroom interiors. The department's architects experimented with different combinations of roof ventilators, ceiling and wall vents, larger windows, dormer windows and ducting. Roof ventilators became fleches which grew larger as the experimentation continued. Prior to the widespread adoption of electricity and artificial lighting, achieving an ideal or even adequate level of natural light in classrooms, without glare, was of critical importance to educators and consequently it became a primary determinant of the design concept and layout of all school buildings. From around 1909 windows were rearranged and enlarged to provide a greater amount of gentle, southern light into the room and desks were rearranged to have the light falling onto the students' left hand side. This reduced glare, and, since students were forcibly right-handed, did not throw a shadow onto the page. This often meant a complete transformation of the fenestration of existing buildings. Windows were larger and sills were lowered to let in more light generally. Smaller classrooms were preferred as they were easier to light correctly. Interiors became lighter and airier and met with immediate approval from educationalists.[7]
Over time, the Leichhardt Street schools' Suter building was altered to improve lighting and ventilation of the interior to standard designs by the department. In c1897 skylights were added to the roof either side of the spire to aid internal lighting of the classrooms. In c1911 these were replaced with dormer windows, and a large arched window was added to the end (south-eastern) wall. To further improve the internal light conditions the rear verandah was removed between 1918 and 1933. The projecting infants' wing was demolished in 1933, replaced by an asphalted assembly area. Banks of casement windows were added to the rear wall to greatly increase the natural lighting and ventilation of the classrooms. This work is typical of the standard 'improvements' designed by the Department of Public Works that were made to older education buildings to meet evolving education philosophies espoused by the Department of Education of over time.[8]
Overcrowding continued at the Leichhardt Street schools and in 1909 a new high-set, timber classroom building was built to the south of the Suter building for the boys' school. This was built to a new standard design introduced in c1909. This high-set, timber design provided better ventilation as well as further teaching space and a covered play space underneath. This was a noticeable new direction and the high-set form became a characteristic of Queensland schools.[9] The understorey of this new building at Leichhardt Street was enclosed between June 1922 and June 1923.[10]
By 1914 a separate building for the Infants' School had been constructed to the northeast of the Suter building.
In 1927 the Brisbane Normal School (Adelaide Street) was closed for demolition and its teachers and students were transferred to Leichhardt Street State School. The Leichhardt Street school also took over the Normal School's role of training teachers.[11] On 4 September 1927, the three Leichhardt Street schools operating from the site (boys', girls', and infants' schools) closed and re-opened the next day under one head teacher as the Leichhardt Street State and Practising School (unofficially known as the Central Practising School).
To accommodate the large increase in pupils, teachers and trainee teachers, additional buildings and toilets were constructed at the school.[12] One of these was a classroom building for the practising school built c1929 facing St Pauls Terrace. It stood on the highest part of the site, separated from the rest of the school by a tall, concrete retaining wall.
During the 1930s and 1940s, the school was known as the 'Scholarship Factory' due to the high success rate of its pupils in the high school scholarship examinations. Many of its teachers and pupils became prominent identities, including Jack Pizzey and Sir Douglas Tooth.
The school was officially renamed the Brisbane Central State School in 1954. A fire damaged the north-western end of the Suter building in 1973.
A large, new brick infants building was constructed at the Water Street end of the site, replacing the earlier infants building. Beginning in the 1950s, school designs were altered with a goal of modernisation. Classrooms had extensive areas of windows; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed, allowing abundant natural light and ventilation.[13] The proliferation of stumps in the understorey was replaced with steel, timber and sometimes concrete trusses that spanned the width of the classroom and provided an unimpeded play space while minimising costs.[14] While the majority of school buildings were built to standard plans, as in other periods, some buildings were also constructed that were individually designed. These were typically constructed in areas of stable, suburban and urban populations and were an evolution of the urban brick school buildings of the early 1900s and depression-era brick school buildings. They were generally substantial structures of brick and concrete that introduced many innovative ideas that found their way into standard plans. For example, brick was progressively used more frequently in high schools as standard.[15] The new infants' building at Brisbane central State School was one of these non-standard designs. Designed in 1949 by the Department of Public Works, construction was completed in the financial year ending June 1952[16]. The building included five classrooms, one kindergarten room, and an open understorey play area. It was occupied by the school until c1966 when use of the building was given to the Department of Health. The building was then used as the Brisbane Institute of Child Guidance, which operated as a separate entity to the school. This new use was officially opened 6 April 1966.[17] The land around the former infants' building was subdivided off and formally transferred to the Department of Health in 1991. Remedial structural work was performed on the building at this time.
The Practising School left Brisbane Central State School c1959. Its building facing St Paul's Terrace was transferred to the Department of Health and used as the Children's Dental Hospital, operating separating from the school. Later, the dental hospital moved out and in c2008 the building was transferred back to school use. The interior was extensively refurbished in 2010 to create a single large space for assembly.
Over time, buildings and structures were added to and removed from the school grounds to accommodate different education programs or to provide new facilities. New toilets were constructed in 2004 and the c1929 toilets were demolished in 2012. A low-set classroom building was constructed adjacent to the rear of the Suter building in c2008.
Enrolments at Brisbane Central State School fluctuated from over 1000 students during the 1930s to fewer than 100 during the 1980s to 220 in 2013. In 2014, the school retains the 1874 Suter building, the 1887 playshed, the 1909 former boys' school building, the c1929 former practising school building, the c1952 former infants' school building, playgrounds, extensive cuttings, retaining walls, landscaping and mature tree plantings.
In 2014, the school is the only remaining inner-city state school and is surrounded by a mix of early Spring Hill housing and modern structures.
References
[1] Logan, Greg and Eddie Clarke, State Education in Queensland: a brief history, a report for the Department of Education, Queensland, 1984, p 2.
[2] Watson, Donald, "Outside Studding ‘Some claims to architectural taste.'" in Historic Environment 1:2:3, 1988, pp. 22-31 and Watson, Donald and Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the 19th century, 1994, p. 185.
[3] The Brisbane Courier, 2 May 1891, p. 6.
[4] The article states that the following were planted: Jacaranda, Ficus macrophylla, bunya bunya, balsam of Peru, and Poinciana regia.
[5] The Queenslander, 7 May 1892, p. 897-898.
[6] The Queenslander, 7 May 1892, p. 897-898.
[7] Burmester, Paul et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, 1996, pp. 19-20.
[8] Alterations information taken from Department of Public Works architectural drawings Queensland State Archives.
[9] Burmester, Paul et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, 1996, pp. 19-20.
[10] Report for the Department of Public Works, June 1923, p. 13.
[11] The foundation stone of the Brisbane Normal School, originally the Brisbane National School was moved to Brisbane Central State School.
[12] Report for the Department of Public Works, June 1927, p. 8.
[13] Burmester, Paul et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, 1996, p. 116.
[14] Burmester, Paul et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, 1996, p. 117.
[15] Burmester, Paul et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, 1996, p. 72.
[16] Report of the Department of Public Works for the Year Ended 30th June, 1952, p. 5.
[17] Plaque mounted on building at Rogers Street.
","criteria":"Brisbane Central School, established in 1875, is significant historically for its close association with the development of Spring Hill as an early dormitory suburb of Brisbane, and as one of the oldest extant brick schools in Queensland. It is the last remaining inner-city state school in Brisbane and is important for its historical role in Queensland teacher education.
|It is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of 1870s state school design in Queensland.
|The place has an aesthetic appeal engendered principally by the early form, materials and siting of the 1870s building within grounds with mature trees and landscaping, and makes an aesthetic contribution to the historic Spring Hill townscape.
|It has a strong association for the Brisbane community with the evolution of Spring Hill as one of the city's most historic districts.
|The 1874 building is an excellent example of an institutional building by Brisbane architect RG Suter, and displays a high quality of design and craftsmanship.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15088,"place_ref":600313,"name":"Spring Hill Baths","alternate_name":"Municipal Baths, Spring Hill | City Baths, Arthur Street","street_address":"14 Torrington Street","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Spring Hill Baths is a two-storeyed rendered brick building with a pitched corrugated galvanised iron roof on steel trusses. It has a rendered brick parapet facade which abuts the street alignment, and a double height swimming hall containing a 23.5 metres long by 9.1 metres wide concrete pool, encircled by a timber gallery and 57 dressing boxes. A two-storeyed caretaker's residence occupies the eastern end of the building facing Torrington Street. A single-storeyed weatherboard clubroom and concrete block toilets are located along the northern edge.
Lightweight steel trusses span the full width of the swimming hall, resting on engaged brick piers. The roof has been reclad, and while the original roof fully covered the swimming hall, a large central portion of the roof is now open to the sky. The steel trusses appear to be original.
Square timber columns support the timber balustrade and gallery of tiered timber seating, creating a loggia around the perimeter of the pool. Various signs are incorporated into the timber work, such as Ladies Only This Side and Gents Only This Side. A foundation stone is included in the concrete siding at the north-eastern corner of the pool.
The street facade gives the building substantial presence within the domestic streetscape. It presents a balanced arrangement of arched sash windows and doorways, with a simple parapet and pediment. On the latter is displayed the date 1886 and the inscription Municipal Public Baths James Hipwood Mayor. The facade is crowned with masonry urns and plaster floral motifs. The street entrance is covered by a corrugated iron awning on timber frame and brackets.
Apart from the addition of a filtration system and toilets, the baths remain intact in form, structure and interior detail.
","history":"Constructed for the Corporation of Brisbane in 1886 at a cost of £2,526, the Spring Hill Municipal Baths provided the city with its first inground public baths. They replaced in popularity the older floating baths in the Brisbane River, and provided an important hygiene/sanitation facility in Spring Hill.
They were erected during the 1880s expansion of Brisbane municipal works, which included construction of the second reservoir on Spring Hill and an extensive drainage system in Spring Hollow.
Enoggera contractor William McCallum Park built the structure to a design by city engineer Thomas Kirk, completing the work in August 1886. On the evening of 9 December 1886 and amid great ceremony, the baths were opened by the Mayor of Brisbane, James Hipwood, who took the first plunge.
One of the principal reasons for establishing the Torrington (Arthur) Street bath was its location above the Spring Hollow (Water Street) drain, installed in 1884, the waste water from the baths providing a daily cleanse. River water from Petrie's Bight was pumped to a small reservoir at the top end of Albert Street, then gravity fed down Spring Hill to the Hollow, where it was stored in holding tanks (now boarded over) at the far end of the baths. Each evening the pool was drained and every morning the water was replenished in a process lasting several hours. This system of flushing the Spring Hill drain was employed for three-quarters of a century.
Not until 1914 did the city council install a salt water supply scheme to which the baths were linked. As the Brisbane River grew more polluted, chemicals were added to the pool water, and finally a filtration system was installed in 1961.
In 1902 a gallery and diving platform were erected at the western end of the baths, necessitating the removal of several of the dressing sheds. These were re-instated in 1913 when the gallery was extended around three sides. Also in 1913 an awning was erected over the front entrance. The present club room extension appears to have been added at a later date.
In 1962 a male toilet block was added along the northern elevation, and the caretaker's accommodation was extended.
Until construction of the Wickham Street Municipal Swimming Baths in 1926, the baths at Spring Hill remained the venue for most of Queensland's competitive swimming, both school and amateur. In 1927 it was one of the first pools in Australia to allow mixed bathing, and it remains one of the oldest still in use. In recent years the club room has accommodated an art gallery, and the pool has been used for a variety of purposes, including community theatre.
","criteria":"Spring Hill Baths is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, in its innovative role in promoting public health in Brisbane, including providing a means of the daily flushing of the Spring Hollow drainage scheme.
|Spring Hill Baths demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage, being Brisbane's first inground public baths and being a substantially intact example of late 19th century public swimming baths, complete with early changing cubicles.
|Spring Hill Baths is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of late nineteenth century public baths.
|Spring Hill Baths is important in exhibiting an aesthetic contribution to the Torrington Street streetscape and Spring Hill townscape, which is valued by the community.
|Spring Hill Baths has had a strong community association with Brisbane competitive swimming, swimming instruction, and local recreation since the 1880s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15089,"place_ref":600314,"name":"Moody's Cottages","alternate_name":"Cooee | Allandoon | Moodys Cottages","street_address":"8-12 and 16 Victoria Street","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Cooee
Cooee and its neighbour originally formed a pair of semi-detached, single-storeyed brick cottages with separate, steeply pitched gabled roofs containing attic spaces lit by dormer windows. The galvanised iron roofs are likely to have been shingled originally.
The foundations are of Brisbane tuff and the exterior and party walls are brick on edge ['rats nest' bond], a cheaper form of construction seen occasionally in surviving Brisbane buildings of the 1860s and 1870s, such as the 1863 Callender House [600169] on Wickham Terrace.
The buildings follow the slope down Victoria Street, with the southeastern house higher than its attached neighbour.
Both houses have narrow front verandahs adjacent to the street pavement. These have separate convex galvanised iron roofs, timber posts with replaced fretwork brackets, cast-aluminium balustrading and brick end walls of english bond construction. Timber lattice has been added to the verandah of the higher house.
No.8, the top house and the larger of the two, is comprised of a central brick core with four rooms, an end hallway which leads through the house to an attached kitchen/dining room and bathroom (twentieth century additions), and two attic bedrooms. French doors open from the two front rooms onto the verandah. Internal walls are of brick or vertically jointed pine boards, and cedar doors with fanlights are a feature.
No.12 is a smaller building consisting of two main rooms, attic bedroom, and hallway with a pressed metal ceiling which leads to the rear of the house, where twentieth century kitchen, dining room and bathroom facilities have been added. In 1988 false ceilings were installed in the main rooms to accommodate track lighting, and the house was converted into a gallery, the attic room becoming an artist's studio.
By early 1989 the pair had become a house and gallery/studio with the removal of a section of the brick party wall.
Despite some alteration to both structure and fabric, the former semi-detached houses retain their basic form and materials, present a reasonably intact exterior to the street, and are of a housing type rare in Brisbane.
Allandoon
Allandoon is a small, single-storeyed brick house, rectangular in shape, with a gabled roof of corrugated iron which probably was shingled originally.
The foundations are of Brisbane tuff and the earliest section of the building is constructed of brick on edge ('rats nest' bond), the same technique used in the adjacent semi-detached cottages.
A narrow front verandah, which has a convex corrugated iron roof, timber posts, fretwork brackets, cast-aluminium balustrading and brick end walls of english bond construction, abuts the street pavement.
Internally the house consists of four main rooms opening off a central hallway, with later kitchen, dining and bathroom facilities added at the rear.
The house presents a reasonably intact exterior to the street, and is painted in heritage shades.
","history":"Moody's Cottages were constructed probably in the mid-1870s. They comprise a pair of semi-detached brick houses [Cooee and an unnamed neighbour] and an adjacent, detached brick house [Allandoon].
William Moody, a letter carrier employed by the Brisbane Post Office, acquired subdivisions 23 and 24 of portion 236, parish of North Brisbane, in early 1870. Whether any buildings existed on the site, which Moody had purchased from William John Farmer Cooksley, a Brisbane builder, is not known. Although directories reveal Moody was resident in Brisbane by 1874, he is not listed specifically as living in Victoria Street until 1876.
In September 1874 the property was re-surveyed into three equal resubdivisions by Richard Gailey, licensed surveyor and a leading Brisbane architect, and it is likely that he was the designer of the cottages.
The survey plan was signed by both William Moody and Thomas Spilsbury, a compositor and later Queen Street confectioner, whose purchase of resubdivision 3 from Moody was registered immediately the survey was completed. On this property Spilsbury raised a mortgage of £280, which may have financed the construction of the three houses, in partnership with Moody. The mortgage was released in April 1876, and the resubdivision was resold to Moody in May of the same year.
Little is known of Moody's background which might account for how a postman, promoted to mail sorter in the 1880s, was able to become the owner of three brick houses.
Moody's houses remained the property of his daughters Susannah, Hannah and Margaret Jane until 1949.
Allandoon was renovated in the 1980s, and remains a private residence. In 1988 the semi-detached houses were converted into a house and gallery/studio by well known Brisbane artist Rick Everingham, and the name Cooee is generally applied to the pair.
","criteria":"Moody's Cottages are significant historically as important surviving evidence of the growth of Spring Hill as a dormitory suburb in the 1860s and 1870s, and in particular of the area between Leichhardt Street and Gregory Terrace.
|They are rare Brisbane examples of masonry working class homes of the 1870s, rarer still for their brick and stone construction, brick on edge work, and gable style. They include a rare example of 1870s masonry, semi-detached working class housing in Brisbane.
|They include a rare example of 1870s masonry, semi-detached working class housing in Brisbane.
|The cottages have aesthetic value and are important for their streetscape contribution. They are an integral part of the Victoria and Rogers Streets historical precinct, as identified under the Spring Hill development control plan.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15090,"place_ref":600315,"name":"Saint Helena Island","alternate_name":"St Helena Island | Nungoon","street_address":"St Helena Island","suburb":"ST HELENA ISLAND","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Helena Island is an island of approximately 182 ha in area, located in Moreton Bay to the east of the Brisbane River mouth. The island is low lying with an elevated portion at the northern end. 'Beach rock', or 'cay sandstone', a coarse conglomerate of quartz and other grains bonded mainly with calcite spar, forms the basis of the island which is ringed by mangroves. A large midden extending across the southern portion of the island is evidence of the island's early use by Aborigines. There are numerous ruins relating to the former quarantine station and prison. Later additions include trees at the landward end of the jetty and a modern tram track.
Although physical evidence for the existence of the gaol and of previous Aboriginal use is scattered across the island, buildings and substantial remains visible above ground are grouped in several areas. These are shown on the accompanying map and are:
A causeway of stepped stone blocks with a rubble core which extends approximately 360 metres into the Bay from the south west corner of the island. A timber jetty extends for some distance beyond the causeway and carries the tram lines. The remains of a bathing enclosure of vertical train lines is near the seaward end of the jetty. Near the landward end of the causeway is wall and rubble from the stone boathouse.
On the western side of the island is the prison compound site with the remains of late nineteenth century gaol buildings. This area also includes underground tanks, sections of stone wall and traces of the tramway route. Substantial remains include those of the stores, a long, single storey gabled structure built of rendered local stone with brick quoins and door and window reveals. A platform of rendered stone used for loading runs along the north western wall of this building, which has four rooms, the largest containing a loading bay. The barred grilles to the windows survive and conservation work has recently been carried out to the stone and brickwork of the walls. It has no roof.
Near the stores is the former blacksmith shop. It is a simple rectangular building of large stone blocks and has gabled ends. Stone walls remain from a small office building, a ward building, a bakehouse, gas house lime house and lumber shed. There as small unidentified structures in the site of C yard and near the bakehouse.
Further towards the shore there is a low flat area that was used for prison animals. The only substantial remains of the complex of yards and buildings is the former fodder shed. It is a rectangular stone building with gabled ends and an iron roof. Concrete floors from the piggeries and several wells can be seen.
To the north of the prison buildings is the Chief Warder's house and its detached kitchen. The house is a weatherboard building and has been fully repaired and reconstructed. The detached timber kitchen has recently been conserved. Both are roofed with corrugated iron sheeting. There is a timber laundry building near the house. The site of warders' cottages, the school and church is on the eastern side of the island.
To the south of the prison compound are the remains of the sugar mill and silos and the remains of tramway earthworks linking them to the main complex and jetty. Further south, near the shore line, is the graveyard. It has been fenced with modern plain timber pickets and has over fifty precast concrete crosses with numbers, rather than names, in four rows. These mark the burials of prisoners. Nearby, in a separate section, are civilian burials of which five headstones stand. Some of the inscriptions are no longer readable. Further west along the shore line is the lime kiln constructed of bricks and large blocks of cay sandstone. Between the kiln and causeway and a little further inland is the quarry used to obtain building stone and the midden is close to this.
","history":"St Helena Island in Moreton Bay contains evidence of both Aboriginal use and a number of structures of stone, brick and timber associated with the operation of a quarantine station and a prison during the period 1865 to 1933.
The name of the island recalls an incident in 1828 regarding an Aborigine nick-named Napoleon for his resemblance to the French general who was exiled on the island of St Helena. 'Napoleon', whose real name was Nugoon, stole an axe from the government stores at Dunwich and was 'exiled' by the authorities on one of the Green Islands, however, he constructed a canoe from materials on the island and returned to Dunwich within days. For many years the name of the island alternated between St Helena and Nugoon, however it was the former which gained official recognition.
During the 1840s and '50s the island was a base for the hunting and processing of dugong for meat and oil, which was valued for medicinal purposes. For some time this business was highly profitable, however due to mismanagement and diminishing supplies of dugong it eventually failed.
In 1865 when a quarantine station was planned, the vegetation of the island was divided between mangrove swamp, scrub land and grass flats. Its isolation made it ideal as a location for a quarantine station. Buildings were designed by Charles Tiffin, Colonial Architect, and construction work commenced in 1865 using labour from the prison hulk 'Proserpine', moored at the mouth of the Brisbane River. The first structure completed was a lock-up for the prisoners working on the island. Work proceeded slowly and by 1867 overcrowding in Brisbane prisons had increased to such an extent that it was decided to convert the proposed quarantine station into a prison and to retain the existing quarantine facilities at Dunwich. Despite this, the island was apparently used for quarantine purposes during this period and at least two graves for unidentified immigrants are within the vicinity of prison burials on the eastern shore of the island. The official prison cemetery is on the southern end of the island.
The first superintendent of the gaol was John McDonald, who served in this post for fifteen years, during which time he did much to establish the prison and its associated activities. The philosophy of prisoner rehabilitation was changing from the earlier ethos of punishment and isolation. The aim was to provide prisoners with a full day of constructive activity and instruction which would equip them with life skills. In addition, the financial strictures of the colony made it desirable for the prison to be as self-sufficient as possible. McDonald showed considerable initiative and perseverance in meeting these demands.
Punishment for defaulting prisoners, though considered less brutal than in many prisons, was still strict and included gagging and shot drill. Flogging was reserved for extreme offences and was eventually replaced by incarceration in underground isolation cells. Under McDonald's care the prison was described by newspaper journalists as being of the highest standard with clean, healthy prisoners engaged in constructive enterprises that provided them with excellent opportunities for self improvement. The aim of self-sufficiency was reflected in the process by which new prison buildings were constructed when they were needed. Plans were prepared by several long-serving prisoners to the requirements of the Superintendent, the government architect not being employed. The materials were obtained on the island when possible. The scrub was not sufficient to meet the demand for building timber, but the island stone and the lime extracted from neighbouring coral reefs provided raw materials for many of the structures. The lime was burned in a kiln constructed on the island by 1869 using bricks and the local stone. Later, when the sugar mill was operational, the lime produced was used for settling the vegetable matter suspended in the sugar syrup.
In 1868 a substantial timber barracks to house approximately 130 prisoners was completed, in addition to the buildings and jetty previously constructed for the quarantine station. A bakehouse, wash house, kitchen, punishment cells and a convalescent ward for sick prisoners were also built. On the rising ground behind these buildings, a large timber structure housed store rooms, doctors rooms, clerks rooms, quarters for twelve military personnel and one officer, and accommodation for ten warders. Also on rising ground, though separate, was a five room cottage for the superintendent in an acre of fenced land. A further area was devoted to growing maize, sugar cane and vegetables for the prison. Fifty acres were cleared with the intention of planting sugar cane. This was to be processed in a sugar refinery on site. A boat house of local stone, a coarse conglomerate, was being constructed near the landing area. It was also planned to construct a church and schoolhouse within the stockade.
One of the most successful early enterprises undertaken on the island was the growing and processing of sugar. McDonald trained himself in the processes involved and the mill was considered something of a wonder in its own right. The crushing rollers were horse-driven and hand fed by the prisoners. The syrup was gravity fed into vats for boiling down and crystallisation. The final product was a fine golden coloured sugar of table quality which was used, not only by other government institutions, but was sold commercially. Both cane and sugar won many awards at the annual International Exhibition. The cane served other useful functions on the island, the trash providing fuel for the warders' fires. The chief disadvantage of the cane crop was the cover it provided for malingerers or absconding prisoners. Following Macdonald's departure in 1882, his successor, Capt. Townley, reduced the acreage on the island to provide only for the prison's needs. This crop was subsequently reduced even further, until in 1890 the prison commenced purchasing sugar from external sources. The sugar mill was converted into a laundry and a herd of dairy cattle was introduced to provide milk, butter and cheese for the prison. A low flat area on the western side of the island was used for pasturing prison animals. It had stables, cowsheds, piggeries, sheep yards and a slaughter house.
The prison continued to expand until, at its peak, it could accommodate approximately 300 prisoners. Townley enforced a more rigid discipline than McDonald and the harsh conditions on the island soon earned St Helena the nicknames of the 'hell-hole of the Pacific' and 'Queensland's Inferno', although the press described it as a model prison. The shark-infested waters of Moreton Bay were a barrier to escape, although this was achieved on a few occasions.
A tramline had been constructed between the prison compound and the jetty in the late 1870s to move goods and raw materials. A series of temporary lines were also laid down and relocated as required to transport everything from laundry to the nightsoil brought from the mainland and buried in trenches on the island in the 1880s. A variety of rolling stock was used over the years including a two-handed pumper vehicle similar to that used on railways. This was eventually superseded by a horse drawn tram car which operated for some thirty years. In the 1930s the tramway fell into disrepair and the rails were removed, although much of the associated earthworks remain.
In 1891 five political prisoners were imprisoned on the island for their role in the Shearers' Strikes of that year. One of these, William Hamilton, was later to become Member of the Legislative Assembly for Gregory, Minister for Mines and President of the Legislative Council of Queensland. He later enjoyed reminding others that he had been incarcerated on St Helena for three years.
By the early twentieth century conditions had changed once more under the superintendence of James Ryan and visitors to the island extolled its virtues at length. It was described as the 'pearl of Moreton Bay' and 'the garden of beauty'. Such descriptions aroused public interest and in 1912 a campaign was mounted by the Moreton Bay League for the closure of the prison and the conversion of the island into a place of public recreation. The Government quashed this movement by announcing plans for a new, more substantial prison on St Helena, but this did not proceed and in 1921 it was decided to close the prison and make the island a prison farm. Most of the inmates were removed to Boggo Road Gaol and those who remained were occupied with the demolition of most of the gaol's infrastructure, including fences, stockade walls, workshops and other buildings. A few buildings were retained, possibly because they continued to be of use to the farm. Much of the material removed was later re-used in other government projects. In 1933 the farm was closed down and the remaining prisoners were transferred to Boggo Road Gaol.
In 1933 the island became the responsibility of Brisbane City Council whose plans for the island included golf courses, landing strips, holiday cabins and tennis courts. Of these, only a dance hall and kiosk were erected and a few trees planted to provide shelter at the picnic area near the wharf. A regular ferry service was supplied to carry people to the island, but the scheme proved uneconomic. In 1939 the Council surrendered its control of the island and a dairy farm was established once more.
In 1979 the island became the first 'historic' National Park in Queensland in recognition of the significance of the island's past and those buildings which remained. The island is now an open air museum and studies have been made of the island's history and of the ruins of the prison. Conservation and reconstruction work has been carried out on the surviving buildings and interpretive signage has been installed. In 1997 the Rotary Club of Wynnum/Manly constructed a tram track between the jetty and the principal group of buildings partially following the route of the old tramline.
","criteria":"St Helena Island is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. It is the earliest attempt in Queensland at providing prison facilities which were essentially self-sufficient and aimed at providing inmates with the opportunity for self-improvement and rehabilitation.
|The remains of the settlement on St Helena Island are rare evidence for the operation of a colonial era prison.
|They have the potential to provide information for the manner in which the island was utilised, the range and diversity of uses during this period being well represented by the remains of structures existing there today.
|St Helena Island is important in demonstrating the characteristics of a penal settlement as, despite the partial demolition of the island's buildings, much remains which demonstrates this function.
|St Helena Island is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics valued by the community. The group of ruined buildings standing against the backdrop of pasture land and interspersed with remnants of the formal gardens once present provides a strong aesthetic statement within the waters of Moreton Bay.
|St Helena Island has a special association with the life of John McDonald, the first Superintendent of the prison and with the works of Charles Tiffin, government architect who designed the first buildings to be constructed on the island. The island is also associated with William Hamilton, MLA and other strike leaders who were imprisoned here as a consequence of their roles in the Shearers' Strike of 1891.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15091,"place_ref":600316,"name":"Vida and Jayne Lahey's House","alternate_name":"Wonga Wallen | Laheys House","street_address":"99 Sir Fred Schonnel Drive","suburb":"ST LUCIA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Vida Lahey's house is a two-storeyed timber building with a shallow gable roof of corrugated iron. The gable ends are clad with shingles and the external walls are clad with weatherboard. The building has a rectangular plan, with the short northern elevation forming the dominant facade, on which the centrally located entrance is defined by a small portico supported by curved side brackets and adorned with simple classical details.
The outstanding quality of the clear finished timber joinery and fittings on the interior of Vida Lahey's house is particularly noteworthy. The internal walls are lined with vertically-jointed boards of first grade timber. Timber boards lining the ceiling are raked to meet the underside of the ceiling joists on the east and west walls of the house. An outstanding feature of the interior is the joists of hoop pine running the full width of the house. Each joist was made from one piece of timber completely free from knots over its long expanse, a rarity today.
Joinery, including a dado rail, architraves, windows and doors, is clear finished timber darker than the lining timber. The bedrooms and bathroom are accessed from a central entrance hall and living room. The kitchen is within the living room, divided by fitted cupboards and shelving of the same high quality timber joinery combining pine and cedar. Other timber fittings designed for the interior include several concealed storage cupboards, a wardrobe and other smaller cupboards. The floor is white beech and the walls hoop pine.
","history":"Vida Lahey's house was originally built for Romeo Lahey above Canungra, on a spur of the Darlington Range and was completed in 1920. Later the house was moved from the outskirts to the Canungra township on the hill above the present Catholic Church and occupied by David and his wife, Jane Jemima Lahey nee Walmsley, and then moved again by Vida and Jayne Lahey in 1946 to its present block in Sir Fred Schonell Drive, St Lucia.
Francis and Alicia Lahey, Vida and Romeo's grandparents, arrived in Australia with eleven children in 1862 from Ireland. They settled on land by Rocky Waterholes Creek, Salisbury, where they commenced farming but found the land unsuitable. In 1870 Francis, with his older sons and some employees, moved to Pimpama, where the rest of the family moved in 1872 after the sale of the first property. In the early 1880s, the sons of Francis Lahey began investigating the establishment of a timber mill on the Canungra Creek. In 1884, David, the youngest son of Francis and Alicia, father of Vida born in 1882 and later Romeo born in 1887, established a saw and planing mill in the sparsely populated Canungra area. The mill flourished for many years and provided employment for the local area which grew rapidly as a result. The Lahey family were responsible for the construction of many significant roads and railways in the Canungra area, sometimes contributing substantial proportions of the construction cost.
Following the extension of the railway from Logan Village to Canungra in 1914, the Laheys' mill at Canungra grew into what was thought to be the largest and best-equipped softwood mill in the southern hemisphere. The Lahey family business continued until 1920 when the mill was bought by the War Service Home Commission who acquired timber mills all over the country to meet the vast housing needs of returned soldiers. The mill was operated only for a few years by the WSHC after which time another firm purchased it. David Lahey remained the manager for many years after the mill was sold.
David Lahey and his wife, Jane, had twelve children, Vida being the first born and Romeo the fourth child. Jane and her children moved to Yeronga, Brisbane in 1899 when David sold the Pimpama property. This move allowed opportunities for further education for both the sons and daughters of the family, whilst David remained in Canungra travelling to Brisbane each weekend. The family is listed at addresses including Yeronglea, between Yeronga and Feez Streets and the Brisbane River at Yeronga, Sidney House, in River Road, Toowong and Greylands, Harts Road at Indooroopilly and then the house David Lahey built alongside Laheys' mill at Corinda, also called Wonga Wallen.
Vida Lahey's house was constructed during a period when the Laheys' owned the mill and frequently built houses for employees in Canungra. The house which was originally positioned on the Darlington Spur was designed by Romeo Lahey, who had completed a town planning course at the University of London in 1919, following his service in the Great War. The house, which was to be known as the Wonga Wallen, was constructed using the family timber in 1920.
His extensive experience with timber milling and natural resources interested Romeo Lahey in the conservation of forests and the need for national; following his father's example he initiated reafforestation in the Canungra district and successfully lobbied for suitable areas to be declared national parks. In 1930 Romeo became the founding president of the National Parks Association of Queensland and was instrumental in the declaration of the Lamington National Park. He bought and named Lone Pine on the Brisbane River, planning to live there after returning from the First World War. Subsequently, the property was sold to Mr C.A.M. Reid who developed it as a nature reserve. In 1946 Romeo was one of the founders for the Save the Tree campaign.
Romeo and his wife Alice Sybil Lahey, nee Delpratt remained living at Wonga Wallen for a short time after their marriage in 1920, after which David and Jemima Lahey moved the house into Canungra near the catholic church for their own use. When David Lahey died in 1942, two years after the death of his wife, he left the house to his two unmarried daughters, Vida and Jayne. The sisters having bought a block of land in what is now Sir Fred Schonell Drive moved the house from Canungra to this site in 1946. Prior to its removal, another sister, Gladys, lived at the house after having nursed her father.
The house was built in the Canungra township with a paved loggia extending along the front of the house, and a separate wing containing the laundry and bathroom facilities which extended along the rear of the house. On its removal to Brisbane, these two elements remained in Canungra and were standing in February 1995, on either side of a more recent house. When moved Wonga Wallen was turned on its side, making the original double front door a side entrance off a new balcony.
Vida Lahey, born in 1882, was a prominent Queensland artist who exhibited widely from 1902 until 1965, three years before her death. She was one of the first female artists in Queensland, and indeed, Australia, who regarded themselves as professionals and who sought to earn a living from practising their art. Vida pioneered art classes for both children and adults in Queensland; and she and Daphne Mayo were responsible for the foundation of the Queensland Art Fund in 1929, which helped to establish an art library and acquire works of art for the state. Vida was awarded the Society of Artists (NSW) Medal in 1945, in appreciation of good services for the advancement of Australian art, the Coronation Medal in 1953 and in 1958 honoured with an MBE for services to art. Vida is known to have painted at least two paintings of the house, Wonga Wallen, Canungra in the late 1930s and Wonga Wallen Loggia at Canungra in the 1940s both in the collection of Ms Shirley Lahey. Another painting, Bedroom at St Lucia with Dobell portrait, c.1961, was painted by Vida in her St Lucia bedroom.
Vida remained at the house until her death in 1968 when the property was transferred to the sole ownership of her sister Jayne who remained there until a few years before her death in 1982 during which time another sister, Mavis Denholm nee Lahey lived in the house. The house was bought from the estate by Ms Iris Conroy in 1984 who subdivided the block and moved the house to one side causing it to be renumbered from 97 to 99 Sir Fred Schonell Drive. This most recent relocation saw the removal of a porch on the eastern side of the building and the house being raised. The ground floor has been filled in to form a garage.
","criteria":"The house is significant for its internal timber work, reflecting the involvement of the Lahey family in the timber industry in south east Queensland.
|Both in workmanship and material, the clear finished timber is outstanding in its quality. It is significant that this timberwork has remained unpainted and in good repair since construction in 1920.
|Vida Lahey's house is significant for its associations with members of the Lahey family who, for varied reasons were important in the history of Queensland. Romeo W. Lahey MBE, who designed the house and originally lived in it, was an early advocate of the Queensland National Parks movement. Romeo's sister Vida, who lived in the house for over twenty years, was an early female artist in Queensland and a key figure in the development of the Queensland Art Gallery and is considered to be one of the most interesting and influential figures in Queensland artistic development. Romeo and Vida's father, David Lahey, together with his brothers, pioneered the timber industry in Canungra encouraging unprecedented growth in the region.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15092,"place_ref":600317,"name":"Langer House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"396 Swann Road","suburb":"ST LUCIA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The house, a three storeyed masonry and timber structure, is located in a well known suburban street on a small rectangular block with a narrow frontage. The site is a south facing slope that falls steeply away from the street. In the space between the house and the footpath is a single storeyed garage, a covered access to the house and a small walled garden containing a fish pond. On the footpath in front of the house stand a very tall River Gum. Concealed from the street behind the house is a mature rainforest garden.
Rectangular in plan the house spans across the block with minimal setbacks from side boundaries. The walls are constructed of brickwork which has been rendered and painted, floors are built of timber and skillion roofs are sheeted in corrugated asbestos cement. Openings, primarily timber casement windows, are concentrated in the longer northern and southern elevations facilitating illumination and ventilation of the interior while maintaining privacy. The compact plan of the house ensures the maximum amount of garden space on the small site.
The northern facade rises two storeys above the street. Windows on this elevation are protected by protruding window surrounds on the upper level and a masonry projection that forms an awning over ground level openings. A row of ventilator slots is located above the upper level windows. The main roof of the house, concealed behind the parapet wall on the northern elevation, has an overhang onto the roof terrace.
Originally built on two levels, the house now has a third level which has been built into the former undercroft space. The front door of the house opens into an entrance hall containing a timber stair which now extends down to the added lower level. This middle level consists of open planned living spaces. Adjacent to the hall is the kitchen which opens onto a former dining area. A long room, originally divided by a timber screen into living area and study, extends across the back of the house with a fireplace on the eastern end. Timber framed double doors open from the hallway into the long room. The internal timber panelling has been removed and the fireplace, originally exposed brickwork, has been bagged and painted.
The upper level consists of two small bedrooms, a bathroom and a large roof terrace which overlooks the densely planted rear garden. The roof terrace is accessed from the landing at the top of the stairs through double timber doors. Built-in cupboards in the principal bedroom have been painted. A wardrobe designed by Karl Langer remains in the smaller bedroom. Doors which opened from the principal bedroom directly onto the terrace have been replaced with windows.
The former Japanese garden has been altered by the increase to the height of the brick garden wall and the removal of the original planting.
","history":"A vacant block of land on a southern slope in St Lucia was acquired by Karl and Gertrude Langer in 1950 as the site for their new home. The house, a two storeyed brick structure with flat roof designed by Dr Karl Langer was completed in the same year. It remained the home of Karl and Gertrude Langer till their deaths in 1969 and 1984 respectively. Constructed under post war building restrictions, including a floor area limit of 12.5 squares or 13.5 squares if a staircase was incorporated, the design was the product of Karl Langer's research into local climatic issues and his European architectural training.
At the rear of the house a rainforest garden was established, a unique undertaking at that time, using indigenous plants such as ferns, native violets and verbenas, cunjevois, walking stick palms, myrtle bushes, ground orchids and rainforest trees. The front garden, a more formal arrangement with a hedge and fish pond was designed in the Japanese style. Timber furniture designed by Karl Langer in the 1930s was used to furnish the house.
Karl Langer was born in Vienna in 1903 where he lived until emigrating to Australia in 1939 with his wife Gertrude. Karl studied architecture in Vienna most notably in the Master Class run by Peter Behrens at the Viennese Academy graduating in 1926. During this time Karl had worked in the office of Josef Frank, who was to be come well known in Swedish modernism, and later in the office of Schmidt and Aichinger. In 1928 he was appointed the architect in charge of Behrens Vienna office where he designed and supervised important works such as the tobacco factory in Linz, Austria. At this time he also commenced studies in Art History at the Vienna University graduating as a Doctor of Philosophy in 1933 with a thesis entitled "Origins and Development of Concrete Construction". In 1935 Karl established his own practice in Vienna.
Gertrude Froeschel was born in Vienna in 1908. She commenced study in the History of Art at Vienna University in 1926 being taught by Professor Josef Strzygowski and later attended lectures by Henri Focillon at the Sorbonne. In 1932 she married a fellow student Karl Langer graduating the following year on the same night as he with a Doctorate of Philosophy in Art History. In 1938 with the annexation of Austria by the Third Reich, Gertrude who was Jewish, and Karl left Vienna and travelled via Athens to Australia.
Karl and Gertrude arrived in Sydney in May of 1939 proceeding to Brisbane in July so that Karl could commence work for architects Cook and Kerrison. From the time of their arrival until their deaths the Langers dedicated themselves to a great variety of civic and professional activities. Their combined efforts greatly influenced the development of the arts and design in Queensland especially through such organisations as the Queensland Art Gallery Society, the Australian Council for the Arts and the Vacation Schools of Creative Art in which they fulfilled key roles over many years.
Karl became well known throughout Australia shortly after his arrival when his appointment to the position of Assistant Town Planner with the Brisbane City Council in 1944 resulted in a Parliamentary Enquiry. The primary cause for complaint was the appointment of an 'enemy alien' over a returned soldier. The outcome of this enquiry found that Karl Langer was an individual whose talent and experience clearly distinguished him as the most suitable applicant. He was still prevented from taking up the position, as Queensland Railways, his employer, refused to release him invoking wartime manpower regulations. He remained in the service of the Queensland Railways until 1946 when he left to establish his architectural and planning practice in Brisbane. He worked throughout Australia and was the initiator of many influential urban design ideas such as the site for the Sydney Opera House and the pedestrianisation of Queen Street. He was the designer of buildings such as Main Roads Building, Spring Hill; St Peters Chapel, Indooroopilly; Lennons Broadbeach Hotel on the Gold Coast, and worked in the regional centres of Queensland as an architect, town planner and landscape architect.
Karl lectured at the University of Queensland and the Queensland Institute of Technology in design, town planning and landscape architecture. Research carried out when he first arrived in Brisbane pioneered the field of climatic design and resulted in 1944 in the publication of an influential booklet called 'Subtropical Housing'. He was instrumental in establishing, and was the first president of the Brisbane division of the Australian Planning Institute and the Queensland Branch of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and was a Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects.
Gertrude was the art critic for The Courier Mail from 1953 until her death, her last review being published on the day she died, 19 September 1984. She was a foundation member of the International Association of Art Critics and was president of the Association's Australian Division from 1975 to 1978. Through her work with the Gallery Society and her personal donations of art works including drawings by Karl she exerted her influence on the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery.
The house was sold to the present owner after the death of Gertrude Langer. Alterations were subsequently made to the interior and a third level was added.
","criteria":"It is an excellent example of the invigorating contribution to Australian culture made by 20th century migrants.
|The Langer House at St Lucia survives as a fine example of the work of the important and influential architect Karl Langer.
|Through the decorative restraint evident in the facade detailing and composition, and the efficient but spacious planning of the house, Langer introduced to Brisbane aesthetic ideals and social concerns drawn from his experience of European modernism.
|It is an inventive and pioneering solution to the problem of domestic design in Brisbane under post-Second World War building restrictions.
Karl Langer's original observations of local climate and landscape led to the incorporation of climatic design principles and an innovative approach to garden design including experimental gardening in the Japanese style and the suburban rainforest garden.
|The home of Gertrude and Karl Langer from 1950 until their deaths, the house and garden are the creation and embodiment of a partnership which had a significant impact on cultural life in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15094,"place_ref":600319,"name":"Mactaggarts Woolstore (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"53 Vernon Terrace","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Sited along the river's edge, on the corner of Vernon Terrace and Commercial Rd, Mactaggarts is a prominent building within the Woolstores group. The building is a substantial, rectangular three-storeyed parapeted brick building with uniform fenestration. Externally Mactaggarts contributes to the Woolstores townscape. Internally, it is the most intact building in the woolstores group, retaining expansive areas of unpartitioned space, and intact fittings. The upper floor has impressive spatial qualities.
","history":"The former Mactaggart's Woolstore was erected in 1926 for the New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Agencies Company. Mactaggarts was one of some sixteen woolstores erected in the first half of this century along the river at Teneriffe. From the mid 1960s the woolstores and their associated wharves were in decline, with many of the woolstores being sold as development sites. Finally in 1990, in recognition of the downscaling of industry in the area, the Bulimba branch of the railway was closed.
","criteria":"Mactaggarts Woolstore forms part of the Teneriffe Woolstore group, one of the most cohesive groupings of mercantile buildings in Queensland. The woolstores are powerful evidence of both the importance of the wool industry to the state and the development of its marketing from the turn of the century. The supporting transport infrastructure played an important role in the development of Teneriffe as the woolstore centre; the rail and river links providing evidence of the role of Brisbane as a port for the state's industries.
|Mactaggarts is one of several woolstores built during the 1920s, the second phase of woolstore building in the area, and is typical of the type.
|It contains an impressive skylit upper floor and its interior is the most intact of the woolstores group. It is the last remaining woolstore situated directly on the riverbank.
|(Criterion under review)
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15095,"place_ref":600320,"name":"Australian Estates No.2 Store","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"24 Macquarie Street","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Australian Estates Co. Ltd No 2 Woolstore, which is built into the side of Teneriffe Hill, comprises four floors, in two sections with expansion joins to allow for climatic changes. It was erected during the Postwar era and is International in architectural style. Several features suggest significant deviations in woolstore design and construction during this last phase of development at Teneriffe.
","history":"Australian Estates purchased most of the homes on the site between 1955 and 1959. With the advent of their modern woolstore, the company utilised the top floor as their main showroom rather than their adjacent 1920s building (QHR 600321). In 1978 the property was sold to Service Nominees, one of the Mayfairs group of companies. All floors of the building are currently leased. The property is zoned by the Brisbane City Council's Development Plan (1986) for residential use.
","criteria":"Australian Estates No 2 woolstore is most significant in its own right and for its heritage contribution to the Teneriffe precinct. It reflects important developments, technological features and marketing procedures in Queensland's wool industry, as well as the history of commerce along the Brisbane River and of the pastoral company concerned. Built at the end of the affluent fifties when wool prices were high and 'Australia rode on the sheep's back', the company showed confidence in the economic future.
|In form and fabric, this structure is a rare example of the broad class of brick, concrete and steel woolstores which were built in Australian ports, including Teneriffe, to serve the wool industry after the war; it was also the last of the labour-intensive, multi-storeyed woolstores in Australia.
|In keeping with one other woolstore of similar vintage (600324), this illustrates particularly well the final postwar stage of development in an industrial process and associated building form which are now superseded; though more so since this was the only Queensland store to employ large wool bale modules and fully utilise 1950s technology, and as the only woolstore to rely exclusively on road transport.
|This structure also has considerable visual impact due to its substantial form and International style, including the recessed corner entrance and expressed concrete frame.
Though similar in function to earlier woolstores, this one is significantly different in style and detail.
|In keeping with one other woolstore of similar vintage (600324), this illustrates particularly well the final postwar stage of development in an industrial process and associated building form which are now superseded; though more so since this was the only Queensland store to employ large wool bale modules and fully utilise 1950s technology, and as the only woolstore to rely exclusively on road transport.
|That this woolstore, with its significant pastoral and business connections, is a valued asset and a local landmark along the riverside has been recognised by its inclusion in the Teneriffe Development Plan.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15096,"place_ref":600321,"name":"Australian Estates No.1 Store","alternate_name":"Australian Estates No.1 Wool Store | Australian Estates No.1 Wool Store | Saratoga","street_address":"50 Macquarie Street","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Australian Estates Co. Ltd No 1 Woolstore with 4.5 acres (1.98 hectares) of floor space is the largest single store in the Teneriffe precinct. It is a three-storey brick and timber structure of the Interwar era with restrained Renaissance detail. In keeping with other woolstores and commercial buildings of this period, a tripartite division of base, shaft and entablature is apparent in its functional form.
Its red brick piers and triple window openings separated by downpipes provide a strong degree of verticality. Nevertheless the dominant emphasis above and below the upper floors is horizontal. This is achieved by means of a cornice line surmounted by a rendered frieze displaying the company name and 'erected 1926', and a parapet of decorative brickwork. A prominent string course separates upper levels from the ground floor. However, the base of this building is distinguished more by its piers and openings which provide a covered way for the railway line and loading bays beneath a wide frontal projection. Its angular appearance is ameliorated by a curved and columned entrance porch and balcony which protrude from the southern corner.
As usual for woolstores in Teneriffe, the ground floor is concreted, while the upper floors employ timber posts, beams and flooring and the roof of this building is of corrugated asbestos and reinforced glass. To ensure sufficient level ground for the construction of this store, extensive excavations were carried out and a 64 feet (19.5 metres) high retaining wall of reinforced concrete constructed. Rather than a rear awning for road transport, there is a tunnel running under through the width of the building reducing the ground floor area by 20,000 square feet (1,800 square metres). Inside the front entrance are a passenger elevator and timber stairs providing access to other floors. The second floor includes the usual woolstore offices and client facilities constructed of tongue and groove timber surmounted by opaque glass panels. The showroom on the top floor has square vents with timber louvers beneath the windows, and the customary sawtooth roof which is supported by three rows of tubular metal columns and is aligned from east to west for optimum lighting. Fire protection was provided from the beginning by a complete system of fire alarms. Overhead walkways from Level 2 form a link to the Australian Estates No 2 woolstore on the south (600320) and Elder Smith on the north (600322).
","history":"Part of the site (lot 3) of the Australian Estates No 1 woolstore was purchased originally in 1847 by the Government Resident, Captain John Clements Wickham. The property passed through the hands of several important companies, namely the Brisbane Stevedoring & Wool Dumping Co. Ltd by 1907, Moreheads Ltd in 1914 and the Union Trustee Co. of Australia until 1961, when it was acquired by Australian Estates.
The other part (lot 4) was purchased by the Financial Guarantee & Agency Co. of Queensland in 1888, and acquired by the Australian Estate & Mortgage Co. by 1926. The design was by Montague Talbot Stanley, a Queensland architect and structural engineer, with the construction by the Stuart Bros of Sydney.
When officially opened in 1927 by the Duke and Duchess of York, this woolstore had the largest showroom in Australia, being capable of displaying 24,000 bales. For this reason it was the venue for the vice-regal Ball in honour of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester in 1934. In 1978 the property was acquired by Service Nominees (Qld) Pty Ltd, which belongs to the Mayfairs group of companies, and leased in 1980 to Chevron Discount Furnishers for bulk storage and furniture display.
It is now part of the Wool Store furniture complex in conjunction with the adjacent Elder Smith building (QHR 600322) and Australian Estates No 2 (QHR 600320). This property is zoned in the Brisbane City Council's Teneriffe Development Plan (1986) for residential or continuation of current usage.
","criteria":"The Australian Estates No 1 woolstore is most significant in its own right and for its heritage contribution to the Teneriffe precinct. It reflects important developments, technological features and marketing procedures in Queensland's wool industry since the 1920s as well as the history of quayage along the Brisbane River and of the pastoral companies concerned.
|(Criterion under review)
|In form and fabric, this structure is an excellent example of the broad class of brick and timber woolstores which were built in Australian ports, including Teneriffe, to serve the wool industry.
In company with two other woolstores of similar vintage (600319, 600322), it illustrates particularly well the 1920s stage of development in an industrial process which is now redundant.
|This Interwar structure also has considerable visual impact due to its substantial form, cohesive design and Renaissance detail, particularly the decorative parapet, frontal colonnade and covered railway siding.
|Its special combination of function and style was achieved by MT Stanley, who was a fellow of the Queensland Institute of Architects by 1900 and the son of FDG Stanley. He was also architect for the adjacent Elder Smith Woolstore (600322).
|That this woolstore, with its links to important pastoral companies and royal occasions, is a valued asset and a riverside landmark, has been recognised by its inclusion in the Teneriffe Development Plan.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15097,"place_ref":600322,"name":"Elder Smith Woolstore","alternate_name":"Elder Smith Wool Store | Ansonia","street_address":"64 Macquarie Street","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Elder Smith & Co. Woolstore is a stylish three-storey brick and timber structure of the Interwar era with restrained Renaissance detail. In keeping with other woolstores and commercial buildings of this period, a tripartite division of base, shaft and entablature is apparent in its functional form.
Constructed in red brick, its arched piers and triple window openings separated by downpipes provide a strong degree of verticality. Nevertheless the dominant emphasis above and below the upper floors is horizontal. This is achieved by means of a string course surmounted by a rendered frieze displaying the company name and obtrusive post and balustrade parapeting with recessed arched pediments. Another string course separates the upper levels from the ground floor. However, the base of this building is distinguished more by the open arches of its colonnade which provides a covered way for the railway line and loading bays beneath a wide frontal projection. Striking parapet features are the corbelled machicolations and mock turrets.
As usual for woolstores in Teneriffe, the ground floor is concreted and the upper flooring is heavily timbered with posts, beams and joists, the latter being cross-braced by herringbone struts. Internal timber staircases at the front corners and the original Johns and Waygood passenger lift near the entrance lead to the upper floors. Level 2 walkways connected Australian Estates No 1 and Goldsbrough Mort to this structure, but the latter walkway has been removed. The showroom on the top floor has square ventilators with wooden louvers beneath the windows, and the customary sawtooth roof, which is supported by tubular metal columns and aligned from east to west for optimum lighting. The roof is constructed of corrugated asbestos and reinforced glass.
","history":"The site of the Elders Smith woolstore has had several important owners, including the Government Resident, Captain John Clements Wickham, in 1847 and James Gibbon of Teneriffe House. The first building constructed on the site in 1926 was the Moreheads woolstore, the design being by Montague Talbot Stanley, a Queensland architect and structural engineer, with the construction by the Stuart Bros of Sydney.
Queensland pastoralist, businessman and politician, Boyd Dunlop Morehead (1843-1905) founded BD Morehead & Co. in association with AB Buchanan in 1873. This was a prominent mercantile business and stock and station agency, of which Morehead was the chairman of directors. Moreheads was largely responsible for the inaugurating of the Brisbane wool auctions in 1898. Moreheads Ltd continued operating until 1961 when taken over by Elders, one of the three remaining pastoral houses in Australia.
Oxlade Investments, which belongs to the Mayfairs group of companies, purchased the property in 1983 and all three floors have subsequently been utilised by the Wool Store furniture centre in conjunction with the Australian Estates No 1 building next door (QHR 600321) and Australian Estates No 2 (QHR 600320).
","criteria":"The Elder Smith woolstore is most significant in its own right and for its heritage contribution to the Teneriffe precinct. It reflects important developments, technological features and marketing procedures in Queensland's wool industry since the 1920s as well as the history of quayage along the Brisbane River and of the pastoral companies concerned.
|(Criterion under review)
|In form and fabric, this structure is an excellent example of the broad class of brick and timber woolstores which were built in Australian ports, including Teneriffe, to serve the wool industry.
In keeping with two other woolstores of similar vintage (600319, 600321), it illustrates particularly well the 1920s stage of development in an industrial process which is now redundant.
|This structure also has considerable visual impact due to its substantial form and unusual design, particularly the internal railway siding, repeated arches and pedimented parapet.
|Its special combination of function and style, particularly the railway siding colonnade, was achieved by MT Stanley, who was a fellow of the Queensland Institute of Architects by 1900 and the son of FDG Stanley. He was also the architect responsible for the adjacent Australian Estates No 1 Woolstore (600321).
|That this woolstore, with its significant pastoral and business connections, is a valued asset and a riverside landmark, has been recognised by its inclusion in the Teneriffe Development Plan.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15098,"place_ref":600323,"name":"Goldsbrough Mort Woolstore","alternate_name":"Goldsbrough Mort Wool Store | Dakota","street_address":"88 Macquarie Street","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Goldsbrough Mort & Co. Ltd No 2 woolstore is a four-storey brick and timber structure with a symmetrical facade and restrained decoration. The northern end is built into the steep Teneriffe hillside. Constructed during the Interwar era, its recessed central section is separated by slightly projecting bays on either side. In keeping with other woolstores and commercial buildings of this period, a tripartite division of base, shaft and entablature is apparent in its functional form.
The store's projecting frontal bays, red brick piers and triple window openings separated by downpipes provide a degree of verticality. Nevertheless the dominant emphasis above and below the upper floors is horizontal. This is achieved by means of a strong cornice line, which is surmounted by brick bands and a rendered frieze displaying the company name and construction date between moulded merino sheep heads. This is topped by an emphatic parapet with notched and curved gable pediments as well as flagpoles above the projecting bays. The upper levels are distinguished from the ground floor base line by a straight corrugated iron awning supported by iron rods which shelters the railway siding and loading bays.
Though the main entrance is at the southern end near Beeston Street, a second ornate entrance in the righthand front bay has greek columns and steps that lead through multi-panelled central-opening doors to office accommodation. Since the load born by each ascending floor lessens, so do the supporting walls, piers and corbels. As usual the ground floor is concreted and wool bale storage modules on the first two levels are defined by solid timber posts and beams.
Tubular steel posts are employed on the third level, while the top floor utilised steel ties to truss the vertical section of the sawtooth roof, thereby achieving a span of 30 metres which required only a central row of steel columns. The showroom also has square vents with timber louvers beneath the windows, and the customary sawtooth roof aligned from east to west for optimum lighting.
","history":"The site was part of the Teneriffe hillside alienated in 1854 by James Gibbon, a prominent local resident, land investor and later member of the legislative council. Subsequent landowners include the Financial Guarantee & Agency Co. of Queensland Ltd and the Brisbane Stevedoring & Wool Dumping Co. Ltd. Goldsbrough Mort, a prosperous southern-based pastoral house (est. 1888), opened its first Queensland office in Rockhampton, followed by Brisbane in the early 1910s.
The Teneriffe property of 1 acre 3 roods (7,000 square metres) was purchased in 1922. For about £17,000 the Stuart Brothers built this small woolstore, the first known structure on this site, thereby taking advantage of the 1933 buoyant wool prices and labour market following the depths of the great depression. Beeston Street, which separates the Goldsbrough Mort and Elder Smith stores, had been put through in 1927 and named after Joseph Beeston, the longstanding company secretary of Dath Henderson & Co. Ltd earlier in the century.
The property was acquired by Elders in 1963 and by Oxlade Investments, of the Mayfairs group of companies, in 1984. Elders leased the whole of the building in 1985 and used the ground floor for offices and their rural merchandise store. The third level was used for wool sorting by Brisbane Classing Facilities. The ground floor office is currently occupied by Chevron Discount Furnishers and part of the first floor is rented for the storage of office records. The property is zoned in the Brisbane City Council's Teneriffe Development Plan (1986) for residential or market retail purposes.
","criteria":"The Goldsbrough Mort woolstore is most significant in its own right and for its heritage contribution to the Teneriffe precinct. It reflects important developments, technological features and marketing procedures in Queensland's wool industry since the 1930s as well as the history of commerce along the Brisbane River and of the pastoral companies concerned.
|In keeping with two other woolstores of similar vintage (600325, 601072), this illustrates particularly well the 1930s stage of development in an industrial process which is now redundant; it is also the only remaining Goldsbrough Mort woolstore in Queensland.
|In form and fabric, this structure is an excellent example of the broad class of brick and timber woolstores which were built in Australian ports, including Teneriffe, to serve the wool industry.
In keeping with two other woolstores of similar vintage (600325, 601072), this illustrates particularly well the 1930s stage of development in an industrial process which is now redundant; it is also the only remaining Goldsbrough Mort woolstore in Queensland.
|This structure also has considerable visual impact due to its substantial form and attractive Interwar design, especially its balanced pedimented bays.
|That this woolstore, with its significant pastoral and business connections, is a valued asset and a local landmark, has been recognised by its inclusion in the Teneriffe Development Plan.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15099,"place_ref":600324,"name":"Teneriffe Village (former Paddys Market)","alternate_name":"No 8 Woolstore | Dalgety & Co. Ltd No 3 Woolstore, Queensland Primary Producers | Wool Store No 8","street_address":"110 Macquarie Street","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Paddy's Market is a five-storeyed, brick-clad, steel-framed building which has an irregular shape to suit the site.
A strong horizontal emphasis is achieved by means of rows of windows with concrete sunshades. The building has exposed concrete at the head of the windows with most projecting. Timber framed hopper windows are arranged in two and three panels wide. Some sections have two windows with a louvre section below. Sections of the top floor are four panes high. The ground floor is a mixture of windows and openings, many of which were loading bays originally, in a less regular pattern than the upper floors.
An exhaust duct of galvanised steel extends along the Macquarie Street facade up the length of the building and exhausts above the parapet. A similar duct is on the north side of the building. Also along part of the Macquarie Street facade, terracotta tiles extend from ground level up to the projecting concrete above the head.
The top of the large parapet is a rendered capping. On the west side parapet is the lettering Queensland Primary Producers Woolstores No.8.
The roof of the building has a sawtooth structure with south lights which are not at right angles to the facade of the building. This sawtooth roof, from which the top floor showroom is suffused with light, is usual in woolstore construction.
The internal structure is reinforced concrete floors and steel columns, with a series of trusses supporting the sawtooth roof. It is understood that the river frontage necessitated piers to 28 metres below ground level. Each floor is over 4000 square metres in area.
The ceiling is lined with hardboard and internal brickwork is painted. One lift is located on the south side and a goods lift on the north side. A series of fire escape stairs are throughout the building with one constructed on the footpath on the east side.
Like some Interwar woolstores, a rail siding was accommodated internally on the ground floor. Office accommodation was provided on the ground, first and third floors, access being gained by means of an elevator and concrete stairs.
As Paddy's Market, the ground floor and sections of the first to third floors of the building have been partitioned for a variety of stalls. The showroom floor is occupied by a large fabric cash and carry enterprise.
Of the original equipment, three wool elevators, three wool drops and five wool chutes have been removed, but the original passenger lift survives. Also removed were the internal rail lines, office accommodation and other items associated with the woolstore. A connecting walkway to the former Dalgety Wool Dumping & Grain Store is no longer extant.
","history":"Paddy's Market was erected in 1955-57 as the new No 3 woolstore for the well-known pastoral firm of Dalgety & Co. Ltd. It was the second last store to be erected in the Teneriffe woolstore precinct, and the last in Dalgety's complex, which included a wharf and a wool dumping and grain store. As with earlier woolstores in the Teneriffe area, the building's function was to store and show Queensland wool, sales being conducted at the Wool Exchange in the Brisbane central business district. Like earlier woolstores, the top floor was occupied by a single large showroom, where buyers could examine the wool at leisure under suffusive natural lighting.
The site was owned from 1883 to 1906 by Queensland Brewery Ltd (later Carlton United), manufacturers of Brisbane's popular Bulimba Beer. By 1890 the company had established a brewery at the end of Florence Street, which at the time did not extend to Macquarie Street. In 1906 the woolstore site was sold to Dalgety & Co. Ltd, which built on this and adjacent land from 1906-07 onwards. Dalgetys were the first pastoral company to move into Teneriffe, which in the 1910s and 1920s developed as Brisbane's principal woolstore precinct, to which wool was railed and shipped from all over Queensland, awaiting auction by the large pastoral companies like Dalgety's which dominated the wool industry.
Three major factors shaped this development: the presence of a railway, the availability of deep river wharfage, and the expansion of primary industry in Queensland.
In 1897 the Colonial Sugar Refinery and its wharf were constructed south of Merthyr Road, along with the Bulimba branch railway line connecting the refinery to the main network. Convenient bulk transport was crucial for the movement of wool from distant properties to the woolstores, rail being the cheapest means of bringing the product in for storage until it was shipped out some time after sale. Until the construction of Dalgety's large wharf and first woolstore (1906-07) at Teneriffe, bales were stored in bondstores scattered around Brisbane. Following Dalgety's move into the area, five more stores were erected in Teneriffe during the wool boom between 1909 and 1915, and the excellent wool years and building boom between 1924 and 1925 were responsible for another five, at an outlay of some £3,000,000. During the early 1930s, when wool contributed 50 percent of Queensland's total exports, Brisbane averaged ten wool sales a year, and two more stores were built. Four were added during the 1940s, but these were not as substantial, and only one had a showroom. The wool boom of the 1950s occasioned the construction of the final two woolstores in Teneriffe: Dalgety's new No 3 Store, and Australian Estates Co. Ltd No 2 Store (1957) in Macquarie Street (QHR 600320).
When Florence Street was extended through to Macquarie Street early in 1955, Dalgetys demolished their No 3 single-storey corrugated iron store and No 4 two-storey single brick woolstore. These were replaced in 1955-57 by the present brick building. Jack Michod, Dalgety's Queensland Wool manager, was very involved in the design, in particular regarding natural lighting, floor room spacing and an innovative chute control system. These technological and operational features reflected new marketing procedures in Queensland's wool industry during the boom of the 1950s.
From the mid-1960s, changing economic pressures, the advent of containerism, technological advances in core sampling of wool, and improved breeding standards, caused the wool industry to change to single-level storage, labour-saving methods and computer trading, few of which were feasible at Teneriffe. The pastoral company which was the first to move into the Teneriffe area was also the first to move out. In 1961 Dalgety & Co. Ltd merged with New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Agency Co. Ltd, and as Dalgety & New Zealand Loan Ltd, in 1964 built a new wool centre at Rocklea, selling the redundant Teneriffe No 3 woolstore to Queensland Primary Producers.
From the mid-1960s, the importance of the Teneriffe facilities to the Queensland wool industry slowly declined, and the Teneriffe wharves, having failed to keep pace with technological changes, and lacking sufficient depth for container vessels, were supplanted in 1977-78 by the Port of Brisbane Authority's new river-mouth facilities at Fisherman's Island.
Since the mid-1970s, many of the former woolstores at Teneriffe have been recycled for office, storage and retail purposes. In 1984 Primaries transferred their No 8 Woolstore to 'Paddy' John Stephens, who established a market trading centre in the building. As Paddy's Market, the place has become a popular Brisbane shopping and tourist venue.
","criteria":"Paddy's Market is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, illustrating that the importance of the Teneriffe wool handling facilities to the Queensland wool industry was sustained well into the mid-20th century, as well as highlighting operational and marketing procedures employed in Queensland's wool industry during the boom of the 1950s. Paddy's Market remains an integral element of the most cohesive group of woolstores in Australia, illustrating the development of the Queensland wool industry from the early 1900s to the 1950s.
|This group remains as rare surviving evidence of an industry upon which much of the wealth of Queensland (and of Australia) was built. Paddy's Market also has rarity value as one of only two Teneriffe woolstores illustrating the final postwar stage of development in an industrial process and associated building form which are now superseded, including the orientation of the south-facing roof trusses in relation to the building.
|Paddy's market is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the broad class of brick, concrete and steel woolstores which were built in Australian ports, including Teneriffe, to serve the wool industry after the Second World War, but which illustrates a continuity of traditional elements and form in the materials and style of the 1950s.
|The building is part of a group of woolstores which have formed a landmark along the Brisbane River for many years, and for over a decade has had a special social association for the Queensland community as Paddy's Market.
|(Criterion under review)
|The building is part of a group of woolstores which have formed a landmark along the Brisbane River for many years, and for over a decade has had a special social association for the Queensland community as Paddy's Market.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15100,"place_ref":600325,"name":"Queensland Primary Producers No 4 Woolstore (Commercial House)","alternate_name":"Commercial House","street_address":"16 Skyring Terrace","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Queensland Primary Producers Cooperative Association No 4 Woolstore, formerly Sturmfels Primary Co-operative Association Ltd, is a three-storey brick and timber warehouse which was mostly built during the 1930s. Though developed in three stages, the first and last stage being along the curved frontage, the design is quite cohesive. This was achieved by working around the initial structure which was then pulled down and the interior rebuilt. Constructed largely of variegated reddish toned bricks in a restrained Art Deco style, it implements the common tripartite division of base, shaft and entablature in its functional form.
One third of the way along from Commercial Road is a slightly projecting mock tower with a small stepped pediment, which in addition to the long window openings and box downpipes, provides a degree of verticality. Nevertheless the overwhelming emphasis is horizontal, mainly due to a series of strikingly rendered bands - wide ones delineating each floor above a row of windows, narrow ones beneath each row, and three narrow bands separating the inscribed company name across the broad stepped parapet. The upper levels are distinguished from the ground floor base line by darker bricks, but more so by the straight awning which shelters the railway siding and loading bays with their steel protective plates and inground tracks.
Whereas stages 1 and 2 use Queensland hardwood for joists and beams, stage 3 employs oregon. The former external double-brick wall delimits stages 1 and 3 on the ground and first floors, while the top showroom floor is one vast expanse with a forest of tubular metal poles. The showroom also has square vents with timber louvers beneath the windows, and the customary sawtooth roof aligned from east to west for optimum lighting. This floor never contained a diningroom, as the Primaries No 1 store provided this facility for clients next door. Nevertheless it was equipped with the usual array of bale elevators and wool chutes.
The original office area was on the second floor of stage 1. Today much of the ground and first floors have been converted into modern offices by Mayfairs. They use the main entrance near the Commercial Road end. However, a grand foyer, exposing the oregon posts of stage 3, with a modern timber staircase and commissioned paintings of pastoral scenes, has been created in the centre of the building.
","history":"The site was alienated by settler Daniel Skyring in 1845 and subdivided amongst his sons in 1882; hence the name when the Skyring Road Act resumed some of the land in 1884. In about 1907 Frederic E Sturmfels started his own woolbroking and stock and station agency at Oxley and Sturmfels Ltd began acquiring land at Teneriffe. By 1910 the company had erected a woolstore on the corner of Skyring Terrace and Helen Street.
More land was acquired in 1927 and the firm changed its name in 1932 to Sturmfels Primary Producers Co-operative Association Ltd. Stage 1 of the existing woolstore was built on the corner of Skyring Terrace and Commercial Road by 1937. Stage 3 replaced the original Sturmfels woolstore and was built after Sturmfels Primary Producers Co-operative Agency Ltd amalgamated with Queensland Primary Producers Co-operative Association Ltd in 1941.
On the opposite side of Helen Street was one of the most distinctive of the associated woolstores, Primary Producers No 1. Primaries No 2, 5, 6 and 7 were in Commercial Road and Helen Street. In 1976 the No 4 woolstore was transferred to Oxlade Investments. Renamed Commercial House, it was acquired to store cars 'at grass' and became the head office for the Mayfairs group of companies which owns five other woolstores (QHR 600320, 600321, 600322, 600323, 600326). All of these properties are zoned in the Brisbane City Council's Teneriffe Development Plan (1986) for a mixture of residential, commercial, light industrial, service and tourist recreation purposes.
","criteria":"The Queensland Primary Producers No 4 woolstore is most significant in its own right and for its heritage contribution to the Teneriffe precinct. It reflects important developments, technological features and marketing procedures in Queensland's wool industry since the late 1930s as well as the history of commerce along the Brisbane River and of the pastoral companies concerned.
|(Criterion under review)
|In form and fabric, this structure is an excellent example of the broad class of brick and timber woolstores which were built in Australian ports, to serve the wool industry.
In keeping with two other woolstores of similar vintage (600323, 601072), this illustrates particularly well the 1930s stage of development in an industrial process and associated building form which is now redundant; it is also the site of one of the earliest Teneriffe woolstores, and one of two stores formerly owned by the only remaining Queensland pastoral house.
|This structure also has considerable visual impact due to its substantial form and Interwar Art Deco style, which is unique amongst Teneriffe woolstores.
|That this store, with its significant pastoral and business connections, is a valued asset and a local landmark, has been recognised by its inclusion in the Teneriffe Development Plan.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15101,"place_ref":600326,"name":"Winchcombe Carson Woolstores","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"54 Vernon Terrace","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The three Winchcombe Carson Ltd Woolstores are sited on a block bounded by Vernon Terrace and Ethel, Florence and Dath Streets within the Teneriffe woolstore precinct (601030).
No 1 facing Vernon Terrace is an imposing four-storey building with shallow arched sash windows and a substantial parapet. Constructed during the Federation era, its recessed red brick sections are separated by slightly projecting bays at the centre and sides. These are finished in contrasting white render, quoined at the corners and topped by a form of dutch gable pediment. The date '1911' and 'Wool Store' are inscribed on the central pediment and the name of the company spans the parapet. Each column of windows per rendered bay is surmounted by a modelled voussoir and keystone arch, while those in the red brick sections are linked to the heavily moulded cornice by means of a stucco keystone. While implementing the common tripartite division of base, shaft and entablature, this decorative treatment of the facade is more evocative of English country houses in the Queen Anne period than a waterfront warehouse with a floor area of nearly 3.5 acres (1.5 hectares) and capacity for 20,000 bales of wool.
A base of dark glazed bricks runs the length of the structure, its horizontal line enhanced by a corrugated iron awning with wooden supports and diagonal metal bracing which shelters the railway siding and loading bays, some of which are arched. An unusual feature of this store are double doors which slide into the brick walls, their width determined by the size of a wool bale. A decoratively moulded central doorway leads into the main entrance foyer and offices which are timber panelled. A large passenger lift complemented by a modern timber staircase provides access to the next level. As usual for woolstores built before the First World War, the hardwood upper floors are supported by massive timber posts and braced by herring-boned struts, while the ground floor is concrete.
The showroom on the top floor has the customary sawtooth roof aligned from east to west for optimum lighting. However, this expanse is distinguished by a forest of slender octagonal columns with fretwork brackets, capitals and strings which support the roof of vertical glass and oblique tongue and groove lining. This floor also retains its panelled diningroom, changingroom, telephone booths and other client facilities, as well as lifts and chutes. The rear window openings have been enlarged to connect this top floor with others in the adjacent buildings.
The two subsequent Winchcombe Carson woolstores have their own entrances and are brick built, but are three-storey and less decorative. No 2 has tubular steel columns on the top floor, arched windows and louvred ventilator openings. Though connected to the rear of the Vernon Street store, it has an internal loading bay running between Ethel and Dath Streets for road transport. The third woolstore, which was completed in the 1950s, faces Ethel Street.
","history":"The first Winchcombe Carson building is the oldest extant woolstore in the Teneriffe precinct. Frederick Earle Winchcombe purchased some of the land himself in February 1910, while the remaining homes along the Vernon Terrace frontage were obtained by the company. The building was designed by noted Brisbane architect Claude Chambers.
The Stuart Bros of Sydney built No 1 during 1910-11 and in 1934 were responsible for the rear addition. As the company continued to expand with the wool industry, the adjacent land was acquired by 1955, so that a third store was built and allowance made for yet another. In 1979 Winchcombe Carson merged with Dalgety Australia in Queensland and NSW to form Dalgety Winchcombe. As Dalgetys had moved into a single-floor less labour-intensive complex at Rocklea, the Winchcombe Carson stores were no longer required.
Keita Pty Ltd which belongs to the Mayfairs group of companies, acquired the entire property in 1981. The ground floor is used for commercial and storage purposes, the second and third floors are the RACQ storage depot and the top floors are vacant. Under the Brisbane City Council's Teneriffe Development Plan (1986) the woolstores are designated for a mix of residential and low-intensity non-residential uses, including tourist facilities.
","criteria":"This complex of three Winchcombe Carson woolstores is most significant in its own right and for its heritage contribution to the Teneriffe precinct. It reflects several developmental stages in the economic history of the wool industry, modifications in technology and changes in marketing as well as the history of quayage along the Brisbane River and of the pastoral companies concerned.
|(Criterion under review)
|In form and fabric, these structures are excellent examples of the broad class of woolstores which were built in Australian ports, including Teneriffe, to serve the wool industry. In particular there is a significant parallel in appearance between the showroom of the first Teneriffe store (1911) and the Winchcombe Carsons Woolstore No 2 at Ultimo in NSW (1880s, demolished 1974).
In addition the building facing Vernon Terrace is the oldest and a most intact woolstore remaining in the Teneriffe precinct, and well illustrates the earliest stage of development in an industrial process which is now redundant.
|This woolstore [No. 1] also has considerable visual impact due to its particularly attractive Federation era design.
|Its [No. 1 woolstore] special combination of function and style was achieved by Claude Chambers, a founding member and subsequent president of the Queensland Institute of Architects who also designed warehouse/ commercial buildings for RS Exton & Co., Henry Berry & Co and Finney Isles & Co..
|That the Winchcombe Carson woolstores, with all their pastoral connotations, are a valued asset and riverside landmark, has been recognised by their inclusion in the Teneriffe Development Plan.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15102,"place_ref":600327,"name":"Australian Mercantile Land & Finance Woolstores","alternate_name":"London Woolstore","street_address":"34 Vernon Terrace","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The original Australian Mercantile Land & Finance Co. Ltd Woolstore (AML&F) is a Federation era, four storey, brick and timber warehouse capable of storing 14,000 wool bales. The common architectural division of base, shaft and entablature is evident in its design and function.
Horizontal rows of multipaned windows are subsidiary in overall effect to the vertical lines of quoined piers which separate the window columns. These piers are decoratively composed of cream coloured bricks alternating at every fourth row with a band of darker hue. Contrasting bricks are also patterned throughout the window columns. The twelve-paned sash windows have shallow arched heads, the top row featuring a brick keystone. They are unusual in being designed to pivot for maximum light and ventilation. An elaborate moulded cornice is surmounted by a simple but dominant rendered-brick parapet displaying the company name in bold lettering and hiding the sawtooth roof behind. A straight corrugated iron awning suspended by iron rods over the railway siding and loading bays emphasises the base of the Vernon Terrace facade.
Around the truncated corner in Ethel Street, the main pedestrian entrance of the original building is highlighted by means of a semi-circular porch with a rendered arch. Further along Ethel Street a set of ornate brick gateposts provide road access to awninged loading bays and a two storey woolstore at the rear, with a similar facade to the original building. An overhead walkway connects the two stores.
The showroom on the top floor has the customary sawtooth roof aligned from east to west for optimum lighting. This expanse is distinguished by the roof ventilators and tongue and groove lining and is supported by steel posts which had 1 metre timber cowls around their base. The top floor also retains its panelled refreshment and dressing rooms. Other unusual features of this wool store are the use of twin bearers to which the posts were bolted, rather than the usual capitals, and the several sets of stairs that include turned newel posts.
","history":"AML&F, an English-Australian company incorporated in 1863, had offices in London, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane by 1910 when its Vernon Terrace land was purchased. The company employed leading architect Robin S. Dods and builders Walls & Juster to create an elegant but functional woolstore during 1912, thereby taking advantage of the 1910s boom in wool. The original Hall & Dods architectural plans included a second store, which was built in about 1922 to cope with the subsequent boom of the 1920s.
The property was sold in 1980 to Pacific Fire Protection Pty Ltd, which used level 3 for customer storage, while leasing level 4 to TL Tourrier & Co. Pty Ltd Woolstore. All space is currently leased. The Brisbane City Council's Teneriffe Development Plan (1986) suggests recycling the buildings as a wool exhibition and tourist centre.
","criteria":"This complex of two Australian Mercantile Land & Finance woolstores is most significant in its own right and for its heritage contribution to the Teneriffe precinct. It reflects two developmental stages in the economic history of the wool industry, modifications in technology and changes in marketing as well as the history of quayage along the Brisbane River and of the pastoral company concerned.
|In form and fabric, these structures are excellent examples of the broad class of brick and timber woolstores which were built in Australian ports, including Teneriffe, to serve the wool trade.
In addition the building facing Vernon Terrace is the second oldest intact woolstore remaining in the Teneriffe precinct, and well illustrates the earliest stage of development in an industrial process which is now redundant.
|This woolstore also has considerable visual impact due to its particularly attractive Federation era design and riverside position.
|Though not as innovatory structurally as the bowstring Dennys Lascelles Austin Woolstore built at Geelong in the same year (now demolished), the sophisticated young architect Robin S. Dods achieved a special combination of function and style in the AML&F building. This is also important because of the dwindling corpus of his commercial work which includes the Wallace Bishop Building, Brisbane.
|That the AML&F woolstores, with all their pastoral connotations, are a valued asset and striking riverside landmark, has been recognised by their inclusion in the Teneriffe Development Plan.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15104,"place_ref":600329,"name":"Slab Hut Farm","alternate_name":"Slab Hut Farm Ennoggera Reservoir","street_address":"847 Mt Nebo Road","suburb":"ENOGGERA RESERVOIR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Slab Hut Farm occupies a 5 acre [2 hectare] site at Peewee Bend on Mt Nebo Road. The non-urban zoned property is adjacent to the State Forest near the boundary of Brisbane City and Pine Rivers Shire, in what has become a rural commuter suburb. Although the land has been cleared, several mature fig trees remain.
The various buildings and structures associated with the early development of the property as a dairy farm are grouped in close proximity, clustered along a ridge to take advantage of the natural drainage. These comprise:
1 Slab House\tThis is a low-set, single-storeyed, timber-framed structure with hardwood slab walls and floors and a hipped roof of unlined corrugated iron. Adzed timber rafters and tie beams with few battens support this roof, and the galvanised iron guttering is of early half-round profile. The principal uprights are morticed and tenoned to a bottom plate and carry a top plate, and the whole rests on timber stumps. Split hardwood slabs, both vertical and horizontal, provide the infill between the frames. There are no internal doorways. Slab partitions to ceiling height divide the structure into three rooms, each of which opens onto a verandah which runs the length of the building on the southwest side. The outer edge of the verandah floor is carried by a ground log. The former kitchen features a cooking alcove and chimney of corrugated iron attached to the end wall. This alcove is clad externally with vertical slabs and has a stone floor. Beyond the kitchen a small iron-roofed lean-to supported by timber posts is attached to the rear of the fireplace. The building remains substantially intact and has been furnished as a private museum, illustrating a typical bedroom and kitchen of the pioneer era.
2 Creamery\t\tAlthough similar in structure to the early dwelling, the slab walls of the creamery are horizontal and the light-framed, steeply pitched gabled roof is continued as a shallower pitched hipped roof on all sides to form verandahs. This roof was shingled originally, but is clad now with unlined corrugated iron. The outer edges are supported by timber posts and one of the gabled ends retains its original slab infill. The creamery has been modified sympathetically to provide residential accommodation. This has involved enclosing sections of the verandahs with vertical slabs, glazing of the eastern gable end, some brick walling, and setting in of windows. Concrete covers the original earth floor.
3 Dairy\t\tAdjoining the creamery is the dairy, a simple rectangular building of slab construction which is open on one side. The frame consists of large timber posts set into the ground with a top plate to support the roof, which was shingled originally. The current roof has a frame of milled timber, with corrugated iron cladding and modern guttering. Vertical slabs attached to top and bottom plates provide the infill along three sides. Internally the dairy retains the posts and rails which form the milking stalls, and at the eastern end there is a sapling storage shelf at ceiling level.
4 Calf Shed\t\tBeyond the dairy stands the calf shed, a small structure of four posts with slab walls on three sides and open along one length. It has a corrugated iron gabled roof and slab gable infill. The long side enclosing wall has been shifted from the north to the south of the structure using the old nails.
5 Farmhouse\t\tThe dwelling house is a one-storeyed prefabricated structure of milled timber with a gabled corrugated iron roof. The front is single-skin chamferboard with exposed cross-bracing; the remaining sides are clad in weatherboards and lined with tongue and groove v-joints. Although the farmhouse has been altered with extensions to each end, picture-windows in the rear wall and an additional verandah beyond this, the cottage atmosphere has been retained.
","history":"The present slab structures mostly date from the 1890s, but the site was occupied from the 1870s.
In 1873 English immigrant George Powers Remfry selected 80 acres [32 hectares] of farmland at Mt Nebo [portion 844, parish of Enoggera]. An 1873 survey plan shows a two-roomed store already on the site, erected close to the main road. This store probably serviced timbergetters and goldminers who were working the Enoggera area in the 1860s and 1870s.
By January 1877 Remfry had erected a four-roomed house and outbuildings and had 8 acres [3.2 hectares] cleared and cultivated. Shortly after he was granted a deed to portion 844.
In 1875 Remfry also selected neighbouring portion 863, which comprised 61.5 acres [24.6 hectares]. Together with portion 844, he owned over 140 acres [52 hectares] of mostly uncleared land. In 1879 he raised a mortgage of £100 on the property, but was declared insolvent in 1880 and portion 844 was forfeited. He retained portion 863 until 1890.
Thomas McAfee of Samford appears to have leased portion 844 from the mid-1890s at least, and purchased portion 863 in 1897, although he may have been renting the site previously.
The McAfees developed both portions as a dairy farm, and it was during their occupancy that the present buildings were constructed, erected by owner labour and making use of local hardwood and stone.
Reputedly, McAfee built the three-roomed slab house as the family's first dwelling. Whether there is any connection between the early store of the survey plan [by 1873], Remfry's four-roomed house [by early 1877] and the extant three-roomed slab house [mid-1890s] is not clear. There appears to be no trace of the remains of Remfry's house and outbuildings, unless the McAfees recycled the materials in their buildings.
Around 1910 a second dwelling house was erected, the prefabricated timber building which still functions as the main residence.
In 1931 McAfee's widow purchased portion 844, and the property was maintained as a dairy farm until sold in 1959. The site was subdivided in the 1960s into 5 acre [2 hectare] lots.
For nearly six decades the McAfees were well known in the Mt Nebo community, and their name has been perpetuated in the lookout opposite the present entrance to Slab Hut Farm.
There are few comparable slab structures remaining in the Brisbane area. The only other known, extant slab house remaining on its original site was at Magnolia Farm [1890s] at Sunnybank, which was destroyed by fire early in 1999.
","criteria":"Slab Hut Farm at Mt Nebo, established in the 1890s, is significant historically for its association with the early opening of Mt Nebo to timbergetters and goldminers, and with the development of the area as a farming district in the late 19th century.
|It is a rare Brisbane survivor of the pioneer era, rarer still for the site integrity and intactness of the buildings and structures, which provide unique evidence of the working of a late 19th century Queensland dairy farm.
|They also provide rare surviving evidence of pioneer house construction techniques and materials, and of bush lifestyle.
|Slab Hut Farm has a strong aesthetic appeal, engendered by the rustic setting and materials.
|The place is significant for its local association with the McAfee family.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15105,"place_ref":600330,"name":"Middenbury","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"600 Coronation Drive","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2014-07-18","description":"Middenbury is a low-set, single-storey, brick former residence with rear timber wings and additions, located on a sloping riverfront property in the Brisbane suburb of Toowong. It stands on the highest point of land in the western corner of an approximately 1.5ha site bounded by Coronation Drive to the north-west, Archer Street and a residential property to the south-west, the Brisbane River to the south-east, and residential properties to the north-east. Despite the construction of a number of later buildings on the site and extensive alterations to the surrounding terrain, views from Middenbury to the Brisbane River and the CBD have been maintained, while two large fig trees along the Coronation Drive boundary mark of the location of the original entrance drive.
In 2014, access to Middenbury and other buildings on site is via modern driveways cut into the original slope of the property, one each from Archer Street and Coronation Drive, which meet in the centre of the site. High, sloping concrete retaining walls line the edge of these driveways, effectively cutting off the platform of land on which Middenbury stands from the rest of the site. To the west of these driveways is a car park and loading area. The north-eastern portion of the site is largely covered by buildings. Built in close proximity to Middenbury on the north, east and southern sides are two double-storey buildings, which are connected to Middenbury's verandahs by paths and covered walkways.
Middenbury consists of a rectangular brick core with verandahs to three sides and a hipped roof. It is oriented with its long axis running north-west to south-east, with the south-east elevation facing the Brisbane River. The main entrance is located on the north-east side and a timber wing and other timber additions are attached to the rear (north-west) side.
The roof of the core is clad in slate with lead ridge capping and has boxed eaves ornamented with paired and tripled timber console brackets. Two rendered brick chimney stacks, one double and one single, capped by chimney pots, are symmetrically arranged on either side of the central ridgeline.
The concave, timber-framed verandah roofs are clad in corrugated metal sheeting. Verandah beams have stop-chamfered edges in places. The slender, cylindrical timber verandah posts with square base and top are modern replicas of the original posts, which were more finely detailed. Paired columns are located at the main entrance. The timber verandah decking is supported on rendered brick piers with metal ant caps.
The walls of the core are load-bearing red-brown brick laid in English bond. Above verandah roof height, the external walls are rendered, ornamented with a narrow ovolo moulding supporting the timber eaves brackets to the main roof.
The main entrance has a low-waisted, four panel cedar door with fanlight and half-glazed side panels. Timber-framed French doors with arched lights and rectangular fanlights open on to the three verandahs. One French door on the south-west side has rectangular glazed panels instead of arched. Fanlights are centre-pivoting and French doors are mounted on steel parliament hinges. Two former doorways in the south-west corner of the house have been filled with orange bricks.
Non-significant external features include modern guttering and downpipes, a roof mounted exhaust fan, light fittings, air-conditioning systems, and surrounding garden beds, pathways and covered walkways linked to the verandahs. Concrete stairs to the north-east and south-east verandahs are modern replacements of earlier stairs in these locations.
The core contains seven rooms laid out on either side of an L-shaped corridor, which runs from a vestibule at the main entrance to a central hall before turning north-west to the rear of the house. The principal reception rooms overlook the river on the south-east side of the building, divided by a modern partition wall. Other rooms, including former bedrooms and a small room off the central hall, are different sizes and have had some walls relocated. One large room on the southern side of the corridor has different finishes to the rest of the house, being c1930s in style. A small bathroom and store room are located in the south-west corner of the core.
Early finishes and features include plaster ceilings and cornices, wide cedar skirtings (stained dark brown) and timber picture rails. In 2014, most internal walls are covered by at least one layer of wallpaper which has subsequently been painted over, and the timber floors are covered in carpet. Three former fireplaces have been enclosed.
Typical doors are low-waisted, cedar, four panel leaves set in moulded cedar frames with rectangular, centre-pivoting fanlights with a central vertical glazing bar. Surviving early door hardware includes brass, ceramic and timber knobs and keyhole covers. Some doors may have been relocated from their original positions.
In the entrance vestibule, a moulded plaster archway, with capitals and keystone, ornaments the opening to the central hall. The main reception room has a large rectangular doorway opening with holes in the timber lintel surviving as evidence of previous folding timber doors. This room also has a partially glazed six-panel timber door. The central hall has a curved corner at the intersection with the rear hallway. The small room off the central hall has built-in timber bookcases on either side of the former fireplace.
The c1930s room features a decorative plaster ceiling and cornices, a different profile of timber skirting, and different door architraves. The door to the hallway has a single-light fanlight with dimpled glass. In the western corner of the room is a small built-in cupboard with a linoleum clad floor.
The bathroom next to the c.1930s room has a recent fit-out which is not of cultural heritage significance. Other non-significant fittings and features in the core include ceiling vents for ducted air-conditioning, light fittings and powerpoints, exit signs, modern door and window hardware, replica pine skirtings and timber louvred shutters to the French doors.
The timber structures at the rear of the core consist of an L-shaped wing, remnants of rear verandahs (now enclosed) and 1960s additions.
The L-shaped wing has round timber stumps, external walls clad in timber chamferboards and a hipped roof clad in corrugated metal sheeting. Beneath the building, vertical timber batten screens run between the perimeter stumps, and a timber door on the north-west side provides access to the underfloor area. Windows on the north-east and north-west walls are timber, double-hung sashes. Entrance to this wing is via a half-glazed, four-panel timber door opening onto the north-east verandah, and through internal doors linking it to the other rear extensions. The interior is divided into a large room at the eastern end and a smaller room at the western end. In 2014 the walls and ceilings are lined with painted hardboard or plasterboard, stained timber skirtings and architraves, and the timber floor is lined with modern carpet.
A long rectangular room located along the rear of the core, fitted out as a kitchen in 2014, is in the location of an earlier room or verandah space and may contain early structural fabric. This room has a raked ceiling with a boxed-in beam spanning its length, painted hardboard wall and ceiling linings, and modern carpet over a timber floor. Some early fabric from a previous verandah may also survive in a small hallway area along the southern edge of the L-shaped wing. The remaining rooms are 1960s additions and/or modifications and are not of cultural heritage significance.
Middenbury stands upon a remnant platform of land at original ground height, with lawns and recent garden beds to the north and east sides of the house. In this elevated location, Middenbury retains views to the Brisbane River and the CBD, as well as being visible from the river and from the opposite bank at West End. Two significant, mature fig trees (possibly ficus benjamina) are located north-west of Middenbury along the Coronation Drive boundary. These large trees, overhanging the road, are a landmark feature along Coronation Drive.
","history":"Middenbury, a single-storeyed brick building, rectangular in plan and surrounded by verandahs on three sides, is located in Toowong on an elevated position on the Brisbane River. It was constructed in 1865 as a villa residence on land owned by Mrs Eliza Mary Rogers, who purchased the site of just over 6 acres (2.4 hectares) in that year. Until 1956, the place was used a residence, with large grounds surrounding the house. Following acquisition of the property in 1957 by the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) the site was used for radio and television broadcasting, with Middenbury used primarily for office space.
\nFree settlement occurred in Brisbane, traditional country of the Yuggera and Turrbal people, from 1842. Land available for private ownership was progressively surveyed and offered for sale by the New South Wales government. Land was categorized as either ‘town', within gazetted towns and villages, ‘suburban', within 5 miles of town boundaries or ‘country', beyond this radius. Early settlement was largely focussed on town land on opposite sides of the river at North Brisbane and South Brisbane, while suburban areas, such as Toowong (then referred to as Milton or West Milton) developed more slowly.[1]
\nMoggill Road was surveyed and named in 1849 (later known as River Road, then partly Coronation Drive). It was the first route to Ipswich constructed on the north side of the Brisbane River and was shorter than the Ipswich Road on the other side of the river. The land on which Middenbury was constructed was located along this road. From the early 1850s, land speculators increasingly acquired property in the Milton and Toowong area, much of it initially for agricultural purposes.[2]
\nIn July 1853 James Henderson, a manager of the Bank of Australasia in Sydney, purchased Portion 25, Parish of Enoggera, a parcel of over 16 acres, (6.47 ha) dissected by the Moggill Road and fronting the Brisbane River. Henderson also purchased the adjacent Portion 26 and by 1860 had acquired around 400 acres between what is now Toowong and Indooroopilly. In 1865 surveyor and land agent James Warner (on behalf of Henderson) began advertising land parcels for sale in the ‘Village of Nona', a subdivision plan of most of Portions 25 and 26. The remainder of Portion 25, a parcel of just over 6 acres between Moggill Road and the river, was sold to Eliza Mary Rogers for £100 an acre, with the Certificate of Title registered in April 1865.[3]
\nBorn in 1797 at Rogate, in West Sussex, England, Eliza Mary Rogers (nee Gardner) arrived in Australia in 1835 with her husband Richard Rogers, their three children Eliza Mary, Louisa Emily, Lewis Gardner and three children from Richard's first marriage, Edward, Richard and Anna Susan. Another child Frank was born in 1837. Richard Rogers was employed as Ordnance Storekeeper in Sydney and for a time was also Colonial Storekeeper. In 1850 he was transferred to Hobart and performed similar duties until his retirement in 1855. The Rogers' returned to Sydney and in 1863, Richard accidentally drowned in a shallow creek in their garden at their Darling Point residence ‘Springfield'.[4] Eliza Rogers' move from Sydney may have been influenced by her son Lewis Gardner (LG) living and working in Brisbane at this time. LG Rogers (b.1835) was appointed as a first class revenue clerk for the Queensland Treasury in 1862, a relatively high ranking and well paid position.[5] It is uncertain when Eliza Rogers first came to Brisbane, but by February 1864 she was advertising for domestic servants in Milton.[6]
\nThe first half of the 1860s was a period of strong growth for Brisbane in the newly established colony of Queensland. Immigration boosted the population dramatically (more than doubling between 1861 and 1864 to over 12,000) and many substantial public and private buildings were constructed during this time. The urban environment of Brisbane's fledgling town centre, where residential dwellings co-existed in close proximity with commercial and industrial activity, was characterised by congestion, noise, and poor sanitation, common among other developing towns and cities in mid-19th century Australia.[7] During this period ‘villa estates', located in the suburban periphery in then semi-rural settings - on elevated locations such as along ridgelines, and in some instances with river frontage - became an increasingly popular type of dwelling for Brisbane's more affluent residents. This demographic included higher-ranking public servants, professionals and successful business people. The flight to residential villa estates by the well-to-do was a development pattern that occurred internationally during the Victorian era. Key elements of villa estates included large and comfortable houses, associated outbuildings such as servant's' quarters and stabling, expansive garden settings, and a good road to town.[8]
\nWhile some early Brisbane suburban villa residences were located in relative isolation (such as St Johns Wood, in present day Ashgrove [QHR601506]), in other instances they were established in closer proximity, as occurred along the ridges and on the Brisbane River between Milton and Toowong. At the time of Eliza's Rogers' land purchase there were only a small number of residences in the area. Early substantial residences in the area included: Milton House c1853, built for retired chemist Ambrose Eldridge [QHR600253]; ‘Minto', built for WLG Drew, Queensland's Auditor-General (1877-1889); ‘Dovercourt' (1864), the residence of architect William Ellerker; Moorland Villa (by 1862) for John Markwell, and Richard Langler Drew's ‘Karslake', later residence of early Toowong memoir writer JB Fewings.[9] This early pattern of suburban settlement can be seen as both a geographic and built expression of the emerging socio-economic structure in Brisbane. While Richard Langler Drew (whose early residence had proclaimed his residential subdivision ‘Toowong Village'[10] in 1862, closer suburban settlement did not occur until the 1870s, spurred on by the arrival of the railway to Brisbane from Ipswich. By 1881 there 1275 people living in Toowong in 300 dwellings.[11]
\nIn March 1865, the Brisbane Courier noted, ‘substantial brick villas, instead of wooden houses are on the increase'.[12] A later article in September stated, ‘numerous villa residences have been erected during the past 12 months in the suburbs of the town...No greater proof of the prosperity of a city as a whole can be afforded than that derived from the disposition of its citizens to plant and build on its environs, and to make it their home socially as well as professionally...Scarcely a day passes but our advertising columns invite tenders for the erection of villa residences...'[13]. It was in this year that Middenbury was constructed. The design of Middenbury has been attributed to architect James Cowlishaw although there is no firm evidence of this.[14] An October newspaper advertisement for villa sites on the Nona Estate noted their location next to the residence ‘recently erected for L.G. Rogers, Esq.,'[15] indicating Middenbury was constructed at this time.
\nA 1984 conservation management plan describes Middenbury when it was completed:
\n‘Middenbury...followed the detached villa pattern. The main part of the house was built in brick with a slate roof and was surrounded by verandahs on three sides. A large room, able to be divided by cedar folding doors, occupied the front of the house. Each end of this room was fitted with a cedar mantlepiece. The interior joinery was of cedar. The main door opened into a short hall which led from the verandah on the northern side into a long hall which extended through the centre of the house to a back verandah. It is believed that during the Rogers' occupancy of the house, one half of the large divided room at the east of the house was used as a dining room. The original breakfast room was situated behind the main entrance hall'.[16] Middenbury took advantage of its elevated waterfront location, oriented to face a broad reach of the Brisbane River.
\nBy June 1866, the house was known as ‘Middenbury'.[17] The source of the name has not been verified; one suggested link is the suburb of Midanbury, in Southampton, England, which took its name from a large house Middenbury, built in the 1700s.[18] Both Lewis and Eliza Rogers' name appear in notices related to Middenbury from the time of its completion, and the house appears to have been used as residence by both members of the family. Middenbury was let out for a few months in both 1868 and 1869; at this time it was identified as the house of Eliza Rogers.[19] In 1874, 1 rood and 37 ¼ perches (nearly half an acre or 0.2 ha) of the Middenbury property was acquired by the Commissioner of Railways for the railway extension to Brisbane from Ipswich.[20] An 1875 survey map conducted as part of this process shows Middenbury with verandahs on its northeast and southeast elevations, with the rear of the house flanked by service wings, and a building on the site of the stables.[21]
\nAfter the death of Eliza Rogers at Middenbury in October 1875, the property passed to four of the Rogers siblings - Eliza (Jr), Louisa (Minnie), Lewis and Frank. Lewis Rogers died at Middenbury in December 1876, with his share in the property passing to his wife Frances Wyndowe Rogers (nee Miles) whom he had married in 1867.[22] In March 1877, Frank Rogers was advertising Middenbury for rental, ‘containing drawing, dining, 7 bedrooms, besides kitchen, laundry...coachhouse, stables, garden, and paddock, and every requisite for a gentleman's family'.[23] In the same month, much of the contents of Middenbury were put up for auction. The exhaustive list compiled for the auction reveals the affluent lifestyle of the Rogers' during their residency. In addition to the ‘superior household furniture', ‘culinary requisites' and items used by domestic staff, the family horse and carriage, milch cows, pigs and poultry were also offered for purchase.[24]
\nA number of tenants are known to have occupied Middenbury from 1877 until its purchase by Timothy O'Shea in 1891. Thomas Finney, co-founder of the large Queensland retail firm of Finney, Isles and Co., lived with his family at Middenbury until mid-1883, while his family's new residence, Sidney House (designed by Francis [FDG] Stanley) was erected on the adjacent property.[25] According to Florence Lord, in her 1930s series on Brisbane's Historic Homes, ‘Mr Jackson' brother-in-law of Thomas Finney, resided in Middenbury prior to the Finney's.[26] Hervey Murray-Prior, a barrister and Master of Titles (and son of Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, Queensland's first postmaster-general), was living at Middenbury with his family in 1885. However by September of that year, the contents of the house were advertised for auction, suggesting an end to their tenancy around this time.[27] Henry Bolton, a former Member of the Legislative Assembly in Victoria who became managing director of the Queensland Brewing Company in 1883, was living at Middenbury in mid-1889 when it was offered to let.[28]
\nIn April 1885 Middenbury, described as ‘a commodious country residence...command[ing] views of reaches both up and down the stream, and overlooking the whole of Brisbane, north and south'[29] was put up for auction, but was not sold. By July of that year Frank Rogers had bought out the three other shares held by his two sisters and Francis Rogers, and is believed to have occupied the house periodically in the late 1880s.[30] Frank Rogers subdivided the 5 acre, 2 roods, and 24¾ perch property and sold off parcels to the south of the house, ultimately retaining the residence on just over 2 acres 2 roods and 35 4/10 perches (approx.1.1ha).[31] Present day Archer Street was formed from this subdivision (officially named in 1887) and an entrance to Middenbury was made off this street.[32]
\nIn August 1890 Timothy O'Shea, a retired successful Brisbane produce merchant, signed a one year lease over Middenbury for £17 a month, before buying the property in August 1891.[33] Middenbury remained the family residence of the O'Shea's until 1949. Timothy and Ellen O'Shea emigrated from Killarney, Ireland to Queensland in 1863.[34] Of their five children who were raised in Brisbane, Timothy (Ted), Patrick (Pat or PJ) and only daughter Ella are known to have resided at Middenbury. After her mother's death in 1873, Ella assisted her father in raising the family and running the household, continuing this role after her father died. Patrick, Ted and other brother John, (Jack or JJ) were all solicitors, while another brother Michael James was a doctor. Patrick and Ted established the firm O'Shea and O'Shea (later O'Shea, Corser and Wadley) solicitors in 1891. Apart from his legal practice, Pat was involved in a range of business activities. Along with his brother Ted, he was part of the original syndicate which became the City Electric Light Company, and also maintained interests in the Queensland Brewery, Moreton Sugar Mill, furniture company John Hicks, and suburban property subdivision. An owner and breeder of horses, he was closely involved in the racing industry, a one-time president (for 22 years) and life member of the Queensland Turf Club. The ‘PJ O'Shea Stakes', Queensland's major weight for age staying race, is named in his honour.[35]
\nDuring the O'Shea's time at Middenbury, the longest period of continuous occupancy of the building as a residence, considerable alterations and additions occurred at the property. The largest change to the house was the addition of a brick building containing a study/bedroom and bathroom, connected to the house verandah by an open sided ‘piazza' which featured built-in wall beds. A garage and chauffeur's room were added along Archer Street, near the earlier brick stables which also housed a room for guests. While the extent of alterations to the grounds during the O'Shea period is unclear, it is known a lawn tennis court was established on a terraced area between the river and the house, while other landscape features included a large circular driveway, mature trees and a series of garden beds.[36]
\nTimothy O'Shea died age 91 at Middenbury in 1922. Ella, Pat and Ted (d.1930) never married and lived out their days at Middenbury in comfortable circumstances. Prior to World War II, Middenbury became a well-known social venue for the elite in Brisbane, with the house and the grounds hosting numerous events and guests. The social pages of Brisbane's newspapers regularly reported on occasions held at the residence including events connected to racing and regatta parties. In 1936 Ella was featured as part of the Courier-Mail's ‘Brisbane Hostesses in the Home' series. Pictured in the drawing room of Middenbury, the article claimed, ‘Musicians, actors, travellers...who have been guests...have spread the fame of Miss Ella O'Shea as a hostess in all the English speaking countries'.[37] Ella O'Shea died in 2 February 1949, age 92. Three days later, on 5 February, Pat, who was reported as saying to his ‘intimates', 'If I live only five minutes after my sister, I shall die happy'[38] also died, both leaving substantial estates. Pat's obituary in the Sunday Mail noted the end of an era at the now empty Middenbury, where, ‘Titled people, actors, artists, world celebrities were invited...They found its halls a home and its gardens a soft sanctuary'.[39]
\nMiddenbury was put up for by auction on 6th July 1949. William Ramsay Webster and Amy Louisa Webster, of Webster's Cake and Biscuit Company, and the original Shingle Inn, purchased the property for just over £11,000.[40] Prior to the sale, an auction notice described Middenbury at this time:
\n‘Middenbury is substantially built of brick and wood, with slate and galvanised iron roofs, and comprises spacious verandahs, vestibule, halls, card room, lounge, music room, three bedrooms, two well appointed bathrooms with marble surrounds and shower room, with tiled floors, lounge verandah with set-in folding American beds, study, dining room with wine cellar, scullery, kitchen, with tiled fireplace...Maid's Rooms, brick chimneys with marble mantelpieces... built-in cupboards throughout, polished floors and sewered; Boiler room...laundry equipped with bricked-in copper and porcelain wash tubs, wood rooms, double garage with concreted wash yard, man's room and storerooms; Stable Building, with attic and comfortable bedroom; and 2 sets of brick lavatories'.[41]
\nThe Webster family continued the O'Shea tradition of hosting large social gatherings at Middenbury, and lived there until 1955, when it was sold to Accommodation Australia Ltd.[42] Middenbury and the adjacent property containing Sidney House were purchased and combined (identified in 2014 as Lot 13, RP104400) by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, (ABC, now known as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) in 1957 to establish new adjoining Queensland facilities for radio and television production and broadcasting. Operated by the Australian Government, ABC television commenced radio broadcasting in Australia on 1 July 1932. The Queensland government-owned radio station 4QG was taken over by the ABC and broadcast in the mornings and evenings, before a second station 4QR was opened in 1938 to broadcast the full national program. The ABC was given responsibility to provide national television programs in 1954, commencing in November 1956, in time for the Olympic Games in Melbourne. The focus of ABC's television operations was initially in Melbourne and Sydney until the late 1950s, when services were established in Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart.[43]
\nSidney House was demolished to make way for the first major building on the site, the television studios. Constructed in brick, it was a three storey building mounted by a 130ft steel framed tower for beaming programmes to the main transmitting tower at nearby Mt Cootha. The building included an isolated studio, plus projection, sound, viewing control, and news section rooms. In 1968 the television studio building was extended towards the river. The other major building constructed on the site was the 1964 brick radio studio, located between Archer Street and Middenbury, which included special acoustic studios.[44]
\nThe ABC's first television broadcast in Queensland occurred on 2 November 1959 at 7PM. In a nod to its past, Middenbury hosted some 300 invited guests at the official function to mark the occasion, with 10 televisions set up within the building for viewing of the live broadcast of the ABC's ‘Queensland Television Service'. ‘Channel 2' was Brisbane's third television station and Australia's twelfth.[45]
\nAs with Sidney House, it was never the original intention to retain Middenbury, with its location designated for radio broadcasting facilities. By the early 1960s, earlier outbuildings, including the stables, garage and most of the garden features had been removed. On Coronation Drive, two large weeping figs near the former entrance were retained. As part of the major landscaping of the site, much of Middenbury became surrounded by a steep concrete retaining wall. At the house, the ‘piazza' and bedroom extension and the rear timber wing on the southwest were demolished.[46]
\nIn 1969, a report prepared by the Federal Department of Works on Middenbury identified the historical significance of the building and recommended preserving the house ‘if at all possible'. The report noted part of the building was used for canteen facilities, 'which could be extended to become a most attractive staff amenity' or alternatively ‘an excellent executive office suite'.[47] Repairs had also been undertaken and the interior ‘extensively decorated'.[48] Over time, Middenbury was used mainly as office space while part of the ABC's operations. The building underwent additions and alterations internally, including partitioning in some spaces to create new rooms.[49] While elements disappeared, Middenbury retained its essential 1865 building form, some early internal spaces and cedar joinery, while maintaining its orientation and relationship to the river. In its last few years of occupancy by the ABC, Middenbury housed the Chief Executive, Finance and Human Resources operations.[50]
\nThe ABC vacated its site at Toowong in 2007, following concerns about high incidences of cancer among staff members at the site. As the ABC's key site for broadcasting and production in Queensland for nearly half a century, the Toowong facilities were highly important, broadcasting news, current affairs and numerous other television and radio programs throughout Queensland and other parts of Australia. Between 1957 and 2007, the ABC's facilities were frequently altered, with the addition of other buildings on the site, and internal changes to earlier buildings. With the vacating of the site, much of the broadcasting equipment and associated fittings and fixtures were dismantled or removed, effectively inhibiting the site's ability to demonstrate its former function.[51]
\nIn 1968, Middenbury was one of the earliest listings on the Register of the National Trust of Queensland and was later included in the Register of the National Estate in 1978. When the Queensland Heritage Act 1992 commenced, Middenbury had been included in the newly established Heritage Register. However, in 2004 reference to it having been entered in the state register was removed by a decision of the Queensland Heritage Council, in acceptance of legal advice regarding properties owned by the Australian Government for public purposes. In 2013 the property was transferred from Australian Government to private ownership.
","criteria":"Middenbury, erected in 1865, is important in demonstrating the evolution of residential housing and pattern of settlement in Queensland, in particular the early establishment of villa residences on the suburban periphery of Brisbane in the 1860s. Through its form, materials, location and setting on the Brisbane River, Middenbury makes an important contribution to our understanding of residential and social hierarchies in early Brisbane.
Middenbury is also important for its association with Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), as a component of its Queensland television and radio production facilities from 1957-2007.
|Middenbury is important for its aesthetic value as an elegant and well-composed villa residence designed to take advantage of its elevated position on the bank of the Brisbane River. Encircled by verandahs on three sides and orientated to capture surrounding views, the house demonstrates picturesque qualities, standing out from its surroundings when viewed from the river and the opposite bank at West End.
Two large fig trees, the only surviving elements of Middenbury's former gardens, are a landmark feature along Coronation Drive and make a significant contribution to the streetscape.
|Middenbury is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an 1860s villa residence in Queensland, through its surviving formal plan, consisting of an entrance vestibule, large reception rooms, generously sized bedrooms, rear timber service wing; and the high quality workmanship and materials used in its construction, including fine cedar joinery. Consciously sited in an elevated location, the brick core with slate roof is surrounded on three sides by timber verandahs accessed by French doors, providing a generous space for entertaining and enjoying the views to the Brisbane River and CBD.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15106,"place_ref":600331,"name":"Regatta Hotel","alternate_name":"The Regatta, The Regatta Hotel","street_address":"543 Coronation Drive","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Regatta Hotel, located on a prominent site adjacent to the Toowong Reach of the Brisbane River, is a brick building with hipped corrugated-iron roofs. Comprised of three storeys and a basement, it is encircled by wide verandahs, except for a section on the southern side.
\nThe verandahs to the rendered street facades display a lavish use of cast-iron balustrading, paired cast-iron Corinthian columns and cast-iron and timber friezes. These facades, which curve around the street corner, are surmounted by a solid masonry parapet ornamented by masonry finials.
\nThe more modest verandahs on the southern and western sides, now somewhat altered, have paired chamfered posts and brackets, and a continuation of the patterned timber frieze. A painted brick elevator shaft has been added to the southern elevation and a fire escape stair to the western elevation.
\nThe ground floor, consisting of three bars, service areas and an entry foyer, has been refurbished. Original openings to the verandah have been replaced by sliding glass windows and doors. Sections of the verandah have been enclosed in brick to house toilet facilities. The entry foyer retains the original entry doors and arched openings. The unusual timber staircase located at the rear of the entry foyer runs in a single flight between floors, curving at the lower end of the flight.
\nRooms on the first floor include a bar, a guest dining room, offices, kitchen, toilets and a guest suite. The bar, formerly a dining room, features a marble fireplace and a pair of curved french doors opening onto the northeast corner of the verandah. The manager's residence and guest accommodation occupy the second floor.
\nThe interiors of the first and second floors retain original finishes including pressed metal ceilings and plastered masonry walls ornamented by arches and mouldings. Panelled timber doors with fanlights open off the central hallway. French doors with fanlights lead from the bedrooms and principal public areas to the verandahs.
\nParts of the first floor northern and western verandahs have been enclosed with glass walls. The Regatta Hotel retains a substantially intact exterior and a visual prominence along the Toowong Reach of the Brisbane River.
\nThe modern building constructed as a 'Liquor Barn' (c2006), that is partly located within the heritage boundary is not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"This three-storeyed brick hotel was erected in 1886 for Brisbane publican William Winterford. It was the second Regatta Hotel on the site; a single-storeyed timber building, dating from at least 1876, was removed to make way for the new premises.
The new Regatta was designed by Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, who called tenders in February 1886. It was constructed by contractor George Gazzard, at a cost of £4,800.
The Regatta was one of a number of large, masonry, first-class hotels designed by Gailey in the 1880s. Amongst these were the Wickham (QHR 600213) (1885), Prince Consort (QHR 600212) (1887), Jubilee (QHR 600211) (1888) and Empire (QHR 600199) (1889). They were designed not just for local patronage, but to attract travellers and visitors. Each replaced an earlier and much humbler hotel on the site, and in their ornate exteriors, they reflected the optimism and bravado of the booming Queensland economy of the 1880s.
Winterford opened his new hotel in 1887, anticipating a clientele who would be enticed by the river views, the proximity to town and to the Toowong railway station, the weekend regattas on the doorstep, entertainments such as billiards and boating, a well-stocked wine cellar, large well-ventilated bedrooms, family suites, the luxury of hot and cold baths, and good stabling accommodation. However, neither the hotel's comforts nor the Toowong scenery succeeded in attracting the desired patronage. Lack of wider custom, the financial depression of the early 1890s, and the floods of 1893, nearly ruined Winterford. In 1897, he forfeited the Regatta to his mortgagees.
Ulitmately, the Regatta survived and flourished through a number of owners and lessees, and has found a late 20th century clientele amongst Queensland University students. In 1965 it focussed attention on the women's liberation movement in Brisbane, when two women chained themselves to the public bar footrail, demanding the right to drink alongside men.
","criteria":"The Regatta Hotel is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, being evidence of the optimism and exhuberance of the 1880s economic boom and evidence of the former use of this part of the Brisbane River for sporting and recreational activitie
|It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a large, ornate 1880s hotel which remains substantially intact.
|It exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, being a prominent landmark contributing to the riverscape along the Toowong Reach of the Brisbane River.
|The Regatta Hotel has a special association with the work of architect Richard Gailey, being one of a group of large 1880s hotels designed by him, which contribute to the architectural character of Brisbane through their imposing presence, extensive use of cast-iron and classical detailing.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15107,"place_ref":600332,"name":"Warrawee","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"10 Dean Street","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Warrawee is a vernacular style residence, with a most impressive facade and a full sub-floor. The twelve foot wide verandahs have elegant cast-iron balustrading, and brackets and are lined underneath with ripple iron. The verandah portico with its intricate fretwork pediment, groups of columns, landing, gates and iron lace is quite spectacular, complemented by the twin curved stairs with their scottish thistles in cast-iron panels.
The front verandah is supported by emphatic brick piers with elaborate capitals. Upstairs originally comprised a central hallway with two rooms on the left and three on the right, and a kitchen incorporated at the rear. The upstairs windows are all of the step-out sash type, and doors are of panelled cedar. The fanlights are casements with opaque, diamond pattern glass, though grooves suggest the former presence of fretwork panels.
The inside walls are lined internally with vertical joint boards and externally with chamferboards which are believed to have been milled locally at Pattersons, Toowong. Downstairs the unlined room on the left of the central corridor, which ran the length of the house, was reputedly the 'ballroom'. The righthand side originally comprised three rooms. Downstairs windows are all sashes, some being multi-paned.
","history":"Warrawee is believed to have been built in the mid 1880s, for Albert Henry White, owner of the three acre site. E. John White, manager of the New Zealand Accident Insurance Company, was then in residence. In late 1886 the property was purchased by Alexander John Hunter, who does not appear as a resident until the 1892-93 directory, though a James Hunter is listed for 1891 and 1892. Apparently the property was rented during much of its lifetime. In 1924 John Mullan, a union organiser and politician, purchased the house on 2 roods 34.3 perches. The present owners purchased the property in 1986.
","criteria":"During the boom of the 1880s, displays of wealth were common especially in the ornamental facades of public and commercial buildings. Warrawee is a more unusual domestic example of this phenomenon, particularly of the aspiring bourgeoisie.
Warrawee's grand display of columns, steps and cast-iron has long been admired by the local community.
This cakework facade has had an exceptional impact on the public mind, having been portrayed in various publication, prints, tours and media presentations.
|During the boom of the 1880s, displays of wealth were common especially in the ornamental facades of public and commercial buildings. Warrawee is a more unusual domestic example of this phenomenon, particularly of the aspiring bourgeoisie.
|Warrawee's grand display of columns, steps and cast-iron has long been admired by the local community.
|This cakework facade has had an exceptional impact on the public mind, having been portrayed in various publication, prints, tours and media presentations.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15108,"place_ref":600333,"name":"Trooper Cobb's Grave","alternate_name":"Trooper Cobbs Grave","street_address":"cnr Mount Coot-tha Road and Frederick Street","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The gravestone is a sarcophagus of Helidon sandstone, 1.9 metres long and a metre wide.
On the top, carved in sandstone, are a rifle, hat with emu plume and badge, and a bandolier, the equipment of soldiers in the South African War. A marble plate also rests on the top, bearing an inscription in leaded letters.
The sarcophagus is enclosed by a substantial concrete wall with sandstone coping, pallstones and low iron railings. The grave had suffered from neglect but has been tidied recently. However, little of the inscription lettering survives.
","history":"This memorial was erected in 1901 in Toowong Cemetery, over the grave of Trooper John Cobb of the 3rd Queensland Mounted Infantry, who died in July 1901 a few days after returning to Australia from active service in South Africa. He was 44 years old.
Cobb had seen action at Elands River and Rhenoster Kop in South Africa. Like all Australian troops participating in the South African [Boer] War of 1899-1902, Cobb was a volunteer.
His grave is the only known South African War soldier's grave in Queensland. The memorial was constructed by the prominent monumental mason Andrew Petrie and erected by Cobb's relatives.
","criteria":"Trooper Cobb's Grave, Toowong is significant historically as the only known grave in Queensland of a mortally wounded South African War soldier. It is a rare Queensland South African War memorial, and a unique source of historical information.
|Trooper Cobb's Grave, Toowong is significant historically as the only known grave in Queensland of a mortally wounded South African War soldier. It is a rare Queensland South African War memorial, and a unique source of historical information.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15109,"place_ref":600334,"name":"Temple of Peace","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"cnr Mount Coot-tha Road and Frederick Street","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Temple of Peace mausoleum stands on flat ground shaded by mature trees within the 43-hectare Toowong Cemetery (QHR 601773), in Toowong, a suburb of Brisbane. The monument is prominent, standing near the main entrance, surrounded by smaller burials and memorials.
\nA rectangular stone structure, 2.7m long, 1.7m wide and 3m high, the monument stands on a low, rusticated stone base. Tapered, corner pillars support a stepped roof over the burial chamber. Embellishing the exterior are moulded swags, bosses, and egg and dart ornament; features harking back to classical antiquity and to be found on many war memorials. Other features seem to mock such tradition. The canopy has corner finials shaped like urns - from which sprout stylised, metal plants. Surmounting the canopy is a miniature mausoleum: a dome supported on columns housing a lamp of remembrance (an urn with wreath and flame). Perched above the entrance is a metal dove bearing an olive branch in its beak, presumably a dove of peace though it is black and menacing. The mausoleum's elevations and plan are symmetrical.
\nThe front of the mausoleum faces south, as do the other burials in this portion of the cemetery. A narrow stair leads to a decorative, metal gate, providing access into the mausoleum. Marble plaques with leaded inscriptions are mounted on the pillars beside the entrance and ask for peace, or declare 'THERE IS NO HEAVEN!'. On the entablature above the entrance is a leaded marble plaque inscribed 'THE TEMPLE OF PEACE'.
\nOriginally the mausoleum's sides were open, but now they are enclosed by leadlight windows of Gothic trefoil shape with coloured leadlight above an original painted, stone balustrade. The rear wall is solid.
\nThe mausoleum has a richly-coloured leadlight frieze on all elevations, as well as moulded, render embellishments fixed by nails. The pillars and back wall are rendered and painted. Transparent glass panels cover leadlight and the front, fixed to the mausoleum with stainless steel anchors. The front glass panel has a hinged door to maintain access to the interior.
\nThe interior of the mausoleum is painted and also bears moulded, render embellishments including ceiling rosettes with metal hooks for hanging potted plants. It contains a low marble slab 'sarcophagus' inscribed with 'ALL MY HOPE LIES BURIED HERE'. Standing on the head of the sarcophagus is a stepped, marble cairn inscribed with 'PEACE ON EARTH GOOD WILL TO MEN.', and at the foot is a plaster casket inscribed with 'PUP A FAITHFUL CANINE FRIEND MALICIOUSLY POISONED' with an effigy of a recumbent dog on top. On the rear wall of the interior are marble slabs with many leaded inscriptions, including 'WHEN THE RED FLAG OF HUMANITY FLIES OVER THE WORLD, I SHALL NOT HAVE LIVED IN VAIN. R.R.', 'IN MEMORIAM FRED, GORDON, VICTOR, HENRY, AND I.' and a poem that asks nations to cease 'YOUR WHIRLING DANCE OF DEATH' and for the 'WORKERS OF THE WORLD BE BROTHERS'.
","history":"The Temple of Peace, located near the main entrance of Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane, was erected in 1924 by local dissident Richard Ramo. Its dedication took the form of a pacifist rally.
Like all Australian communities, Brisbane was profoundly affected by the impact of WWI. Of the 330,770 Australians who embarked for overseas service in WWI, 58,961 died and 170,909 were wounded, went missing or became prisoners of war. This meant that around 69% of embarked personnel became casualties - or 21% of eligible Australian males.[1] To date, no previous or subsequent war has had such an impact on Australia in terms of loss of life; almost every community in every Australian state lost young people. Even before the end of hostilities, memorials were being erected by Australian communities to honour local people who had served and died. These memorials were a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief; substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East.
WWI memorials took a variety of forms in Australia, including honour boards (from 1915), stone monuments (including obelisks, soldier statues, arches, crosses, columns or urns), tree-lined memorial avenues, memorial parks, and utilitarian structures such as gates, halls and clocks. In Queensland the soldier statue was the most popular choice of monument, while the obelisk predominated in southern states.[2] Australia's first permanent WWI memorial to honour the men from a particular community was unveiled at Balmain, NSW, 23 April 1916.[3]
The Temple of Peace, a unique and highly unusual monument, appears to commemorate the deaths of Ramo's three natural sons on active service in World War I, along with the more recent suicide of his adopted son and poisoning of his dog. Since its dedication in 1924, the monument has become widely known and its claims have been accepted at face value. Extensive research since 2001 has revealed significant inconsistencies between the monument's claims and genealogical and military service records related to Ramo and his family. Dr. Judith McKay's 'Brisbane's Temple of Peace: war and myth-making'[4], (which forms the basis of this entry), further explores and discusses the Temple of Peace, Ramo's family background and possible motivations behind its construction.
The monument bears inscriptions recording the deaths of Ramo's three soldier sons: Victor, killed at Messines at the age of 33; Henry, died of wounds in Belgium at the age of 29; and Gordon, killed at Gallipoli at 18. According to contemporary accounts of the dedication, the ashes of two of the sons had been recovered and re-interred here.[5] The monument also has the sarcophagus of Fred Borell, Ramo's adopted son, who committed suicide at the age of 27; the inscription reads, ‘A misguided love brought me to an early grave'. The monument also commemorates Pup, Ramo's faithful dog, which had been ‘maliciously poisoned'. A statue of Pup sits atop Fred's sarcophagus. At its base Ramo added the words, ‘All my hope lies buried here'.
Significantly, the Temple of Peace bears none of solemn inscriptions normally associated with war memorials. As Ken Inglis observes in his definitive study of Australian war memorials, these were often of ancient origin, including Biblical or apocryphal, or incorporated patriotic verse.[6] In place of these, Ramo added words expressing his own anguish and generally denouncing war, calling on the world's workers to unite in brotherhood.
Ramo is said to have designed the monument himself and undertaken most of its construction, labouring nine months on the project. This was apart from the help of Brisbane monumental mason WE Parsons with the marble and stone work. Parsons was responsible for another rather irreverent war monument: an extraordinarily relaxed soldier statue, standing pipe in hand and rifle slung from one shoulder, on the Beaudesert War Memorial, which had been unveiled a few years earlier, in 1921.[7]
The monument is essentially a mausoleum, defined in the Macquarie Dictionary as ‘a stately and magnificent tomb'[8]; at the time of its dedication it was likened to an Indian temple,[9] reflecting its curious mix of architectural styles.
The Temple of Peace was described in a newspaper at the time as:
... an elaborately conceived and executed rectangular structure of stone, plaster, and marble, standing about 12ft [3.6m] high. Four corner columns support a canopy, and surmounting this there is an urn. ... A low, pillared marble balustrade is erected on two sides, and the end opposite the entrance steps is entirely enclosed. At the sides of the canopy wooden slabs are inscribed with the names of the three soldier sons of the builder, and with that of his adopted son. At the enclosed end ... is a poem exhorting the nations of the earth to cease from warfare. ... The mausoleum is adorned with ferns hanging from the canopy, and with ornaments in plaster and gilding. Over the steps is a little metal dove.[10]
Ramo's edifice was dedicated on 6 December 1924 in the presence of a large pacifist gathering. The dedication was organised by the Australian Rationalist Association and addressed by its national President, Harry Scott Bennett, who urged those present to not only honour the dead but also promote international fraternity and reject war as an evil of modern capitalism. A trembling Ramo responded by paying tribute to his departed sons and calling for an end to the ‘cursed slaughter of war'.[11]
The coffin bearing the Borell's remains was borne in procession from the Anglican section of the cemetery, where it had been interred a year earlier. The coffin was draped in a red flag and, as it was placed in the monument, the Labor Band played the socialist anthem the ‘Red Flag'.
Absent from the proceedings were any of the religious or military rituals often to be seen at the unveiling of war memorials. The monument's radical and highly orchestrated dedication, together with its subversive features and inscriptions, make it unique among Australian war memorials. As Ken Inglis writes, ‘The count of anti-war memorials is small' and this is ‘a monument like no other anywhere'. Its nearest equivalent, he states, is a pair of plaques erected in Melbourne's Trades Hall in 1918 to commemorate opponents of conscription.[12]
As well as being a strong anti-war expression, the monument appears to be the work of a devoted father mourning the loss of his sons. In this regard, the documentary evidence indicates otherwise. Richard Ramo was born Karl Paul Richard Retzlaff in Prussia in 1863. Migrating to Australia in 1887, he worked as a cabinetmaker and gilder and in 1890 in Sydney married a fellow Prussian, Auguste Elise Seidel, a servant. Between 1891 and 1896 the couple had three sons, all born in New South Wales: Percy, Cecil and Gordon; there was no Victor or Henry, as claimed on the memorial, Gordon is the only son verified. Ramo was naturalised in 1905, at which time he changed his surname from Retzlaff,[13] but his sons adopted different variations of both names.
Two of Richard Ramo's sons did serve in World War I. Gordon, who used the name Redcliff, was a Private in the 19th Battalion and was killed at Gallipoli on 1 November 1915.[14] Cecil, who used the name Raymo, was a Sapper in the 5th Divisional Signal Company and, though wounded, managed to survive the war and went on to serve in the next war.[15] The third son Percy, who used the name Redcliffe, did not serve and spent the war years in Sydney.
Ramo's claim that his son's ashes were recovered and re-interred in the Temple of Peace is inconsistent with Australian and British military practice at the time. Other fallen Australians, like their comrades from other parts of the British Empire, were buried (not cremated) beside the battlefields in which they fell and eventually in the cemeteries of the Imperial War Graves Commission.[16]
The service record of Gordon, the son who died at Gallipoli, provides evidence of Richard Ramo's fractured relationship with his family. A statutory declaration by Percy Ramo stated that Ramo had deserted his sons at an early age and that Gordon, the youngest, had become a ward of the state. It is also known Ramo's wife Elise spent time in a Newcastle mental asylum, losing contact with her surviving sons; according to Ramo's great-granddaughter, he had his wife ‘put away' after years of cruelty and abuse.[17] Other evidence indicates Ramo also is also likely to have suffered from mental health issues.[18] By 1918, Ramo, estranged from his family, had moved to Brisbane where he bought a hairdressing salon at 180 Roma Street. In July 1923 he sold this for a second-hand shop two doors away, where he also lived.
Richard Ramo's adopted son, Ferdinand (Fred) Christian Borell was born in Queensland in 1896. The son of German immigrants Carl Heinrich Borell and his wife Auguste Anna, née Mutzelburg, he grew up on a farm near Laidley. Fred Borrell was a blacksmith by trade and first met Ramo as a hairdressing client. In 1922, when Ramo was ill and needed assistance, Borell began working and residing with Ramo, and was ‘adopted'. Their relationship deteriorated after Borell had an affair with a neighbouring married woman. This led to a showdown, after which Borrell seized a revolver and shot himself. He died on 28 November 1923 and was buried at Toowong Cemetery two days later.[19] A six day inquest followed, attracting much press attention.[20]
The final victim commemorated in Ramo's monument, Pup, his poisoned dog, is not mentioned in accounts of the dedication, so is possibly a later addition. According to Ramo's former neighbour in Petrie Terrace, where he lived at the end of his life, he kept a pack of dogs.[21]
The motivations behind Richard Ramo's decision to to erect the Temple of Peace remain unclear; Ramo, scarcely literate, left no papers. Queensland, along with the rest of Australia, experienced significant volatility and instability in the years following World War I, marked by industrial strife and social, political and ideological conflict. The sanctification of war, expressed most visibly through the erection of war memorials, was not supported by all members of the community. Ramo was certainly a pacifist and socialist, though the precise nature of his beliefs remains unknown.
The monument's inscriptions suggest that he was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World [IWW], or Wobblies; or at least familiar with its propaganda. This was a revolutionary movement that began in the United States in 1905 and soon spread elsewhere. Committed to overthrowing capitalism through industrial action, the IWW sought to unite the world's workers and was implacably opposed to World War I, which it saw as pitting workers against one another in the cause of imperialism and profit. Though the IWW was never as strong in Queensland as in the south, it had a sizeable following in the north among meat and sugar workers and miners, and was involved in the 1916 Shearers' Strike and the 1919 Red Flag Riots. Ramo came to Queensland just as the IWW was at its strongest; its numbers swelled by exiles from the south, where federal legislation banning dissident groups was enforced.[22] Such groups were subject to persecution, so their members and activities were rarely recorded, hence it is impossible to prove Ramo's involvement.
Though the Australian Rationalist Association played a major role in the dedication of Ramo's monument, it is unlikely that he was a Rationalist. The association, a group of freethinkers and socialists, was established in London in 1899. Formed in Queensland a decade later, its members tended to be middle-class intellectuals who held discussions but did not engage in militant propaganda.[23] Though sympathetic for a dissident like Ramo, they would have had little in common with him.
The Temple of Peace is located close to two other major war memorials at Toowong Cemetery: the Cross of Sacrifice and Stone of Remembrance. Replicas of structures found in British battlefield cemeteries across the world, they were the first such memorials to be erected in Australia, to honour the many soldier burials within the cemetery-men who had died upon return from service. The memorials, affirmations of imperial loyalty, were erected by the instigators of Anzac observance, the Queensland Anzac Commemoration Committee, with the assistance of the State Government, and were to become a focus of future observance. They were unveiled on Anzac Day 1924 by Governor-General Lord Forster, with Christian rites and official pageantry, before a crowd of 3000. These memorials would have been under construction just as Ramo was planning his monument.[24]
Whether the siting and form of Ramo's monument was a deliberate pacifist response to the official structures nearby is uncertain; it remains as an impassioned anti-war landmark in its context.
How Ramo, a hairdresser turned second-hand dealer, had the means to erect such a monument which, in its day, would have cost almost as much as an ordinary worker's dwelling, is unknown. He funded another monument in Toowong Cemetery: that of his former hairdressing assistant Albert Willcock (in portion 4, near the Temple of Peace). More curiously, Ramo's name appears on this and other monuments as monumental mason (the Innes and Herd monuments in portion 8) and these share similarities with the Temple of Peace, namely the eccentric ornament.
Richard Ramo remained in Brisbane until his death in 1951 at age of 87. He was cremated and his ashes were added to the Temple of Peace.
Alterations have been made to the mausoleum over time. The enclosing of the sides above the balustrade with leadlight panels, is likely to have been undertaken before Ramo's death in 1951. After falling into disrepair and damage from vandals, the mausoleum was restored in 2009 through funds partially donated by the Queensland Government, the Brisbane City Council, the Friends of Toowong Cemetery and raised from the community.[25] Transparent protective panels were added to all elevations at this time.
","criteria":"The self-styled Temple of Peace was erected in 1924 by Brisbane dissident Richard Ramo and its dedication took the form of a pacifist rally. The monument purports to mourn the deaths of Ramo's three natural sons on active service in World War I along with the more recent suicide of his adopted son and poisoning of his dog, however these claims are spurious. The monument is, rather, an impassioned anti-war statement and has outstanding historical significance in reflecting the volatility and instability of post-war Australian society. Designed and largely built by Ramo himself, its inscriptions reveal his links to the dissident organisation, the Industrial Workers of the World, which sought to unite workers to overthrow capitalism and resist war.
|As an anti-war monument, its form an amalgam of mausoleum and Indian temple, combining stock war memorial imagery with subversive features and inscriptions, it is unique among Australian war memorials.
|The Temple of Peace has aesthetic significance for its extravagant and eccentric design and embellishments and its emotive inscriptions, evoking a sense of loss, instability, despair and hopelessness.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15110,"place_ref":600335,"name":"Caskey Monument","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"cnr Mount Coot-tha Road and Frederick Street","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The monument, which consists of an obelisk on a pedestal, is executed in Helidon sandstone and stands 5 metres high.
The white sandstone obelisk is draped in a shroud. A sword is carved in relief on the front face. Below it is a quill, a tribute to Caskey's academic achievements. On the west face are crossed tennis racquets and on the east, crossed cricket bats, acknowledging his sporting interests. This theme is continued with a football on the front of the pedestal.
The pedestal also features recessed slabs of Italian marble on all sides, flanked by columns of brown sandstone. The front slab bears a leaded inscription. The monument is surrounded by a sandstone retaining wall.
","history":"This monument was erected at Toowong Cemetery in May 1902 in memory of Lieutenant Lachlan John Caskey, who was killed in action at Makari Drift, Caledon River, South Africa on 27 September 1901. He was 31 years old.
Caskey was a member of the 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen and, like all Australian troops participating in the South African [Boer] War of 1899-1902, was a volunteer. As a member of the QIB he was under British command, and his pay was issued by the colonial government at an English cavalryman's rate.
The Caskey Monument is the first known South African War monument to be erected in Queensland. A design competition was won by prominent monumental mason William Busby, a public committee was established to raise the £70 construction cost, and the project was sponsored by the State Government. Caskey was a sportsman and school teacher, and his monument was unveiled by the Minister of Public Instruction.
The Caskey Monument is one of only four known South African War monuments in Brisbane, the others being the Berry and MacFarlane Monument [1902] at Sherwood (QHR 600292), the Anning Monument [1903] at Hemmant (QHR 600220) and the South African War Memorial [1919] in Anzac Square (QHR 600060). The design of the Caskey Monument, particularly the obelisk and draped shroud, appears to have been the model for the others. Another monument to Caskey, erected near Allora where he had taught, has been lost.
","criteria":"The Caskey Monument at Toowong, [unusually, a Government sponsored memorial to an individual], is important as the first known South African War memorial in Queensland and a model for later monuments in this state.
|The Caskey Monument at Toowong, [unusually, a Government sponsored memorial to an individual], is important as the first known South African War memorial in Queensland and a model for later monuments in this state.The monument provides a unique source of historical information, and the design is important in illustrating the social fashion and attitudes of its era.
|The monument provides a unique source of historical information, and the design is important in illustrating the social fashion and attitudes of its era.
The Caskey Monument at Toowong, [unusually, a Government sponsored memorial to an individual], is important as the first known South African War memorial in Queensland and a model for later monuments in this state.
|The monument provides a unique source of historical information, and the design is important in illustrating the social fashion and attitudes of its era.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15111,"place_ref":600336,"name":"St Thomas Church of England","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"69 High Street","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Thomas Church of England, Toowong is situated on a prominent triangular site at the corner of High and Jephson Streets, Toowong. The site comprises a brick church surrounded by established plantings and trees and containing early retaining walls, fences, gates and stairs.
The southern, entrance end of the church addresses the corner of the two streets, where three substantial gate pillars with an iron palisade gate provide a principal entrance to the grounds of the church. Two sets of concrete stairs containing memorial gate posts and memorial plaques give access from the church grounds to the streets flanking the site.
The church is a bi-chrome brick building with a seven bay nave, chancel and a very steeply pitched gabled roof clad with diamond patterned fibrous cement shingles and terracotta ridge capping. A small decorative timber framed fleche at the southern, entrance, end of the church surmounts the apex of the gabled roof, and has a steeply pitched pyramidal roof with an iron cruciform finial. Generally the church is constructed from a dark brown brick and has cream brick detailing, in the form of window surrounds, arched window heads, quoining and string coursing. The church sits on a two course sandstone plinth, the lower course comprises rockfaced blocks and the blocks in the upper course are sparrow picked and margined. The plinth at the northern, most recently constructed, end of the church is constructed from smooth rendered concrete.
The southern, entrance façade has an almost triangular façade due to the overhanging eaves of the steeply pitched roof and squat side walls. This elevation is dominated by a centrally located tripartite window comprising three lancets filled with stained glass and with stuccoed sills and heads and all embraced by a cream brick pointed arch. Flanking the principal window are smaller lancets, with similarly detailed heads and sills.
The bays of the nave are defined on the eastern and western external façades with angle buttressing, which also lines the southern façade. The buttressing features a tapered head of rendered concrete, from which the timber eaves brackets spring. Diagonal buttressing braces the chancel of the church. Centrally located within each bay is an operable lancet window, filled alternately with figured and grisaille stained and coloured glass panels. At the southern end of both side elevations are steeply gabled porches, which are the principal entrances. These are flanked by buttressing which support the timber framing of the roof structure. The gabled ends are open, with a small triangular timber panel near the apex. The porches provide access to double pointed arched timber doors featuring ornate and overscaled iron strapwork hinges.
The northern end of the church comprises a chancel and two transepts. The chancel is a square planned, gable roofed structure abutting the body of the church to which it is similarly detailed although subordinate in height to the principal building. Flanking the chancel are smaller, square planned abutments with hipped roofs, which are in the form of transepts but are, in fact, small rooms, a vestry and a store.
Internally the church is arranged around a central rectangular nave dominated by dark stained timber boarded ceiling, on the underside of a steeply pitched roof. Supporting the roof and defining the nave bays internally are a number of dark stained timber, king post roof trusses. At the northern end of the nave is a chancel, separated from the body of the church by a pointed chancel arch. Internally the walls of the body of the church are rendered and scoured to resemble ashlar stone work. Though externally the church seems to have transepts, these projections, in fact, house a vestry to the west and a store room to the east with entrance to the rooms through timber doors flanking the chancel arch.
The chancel is boarded to about 2100mm with timber panelling, featuring carvings of pointed arches with foiled heads. This panelling steps higher on the rear, northern, wall. On this wall and above the stepped panelling is a tripartite group of stained and coloured glass featuring images from the Adoration of the Magi and housed in a pointed arched recess.
A number of stone, marble or brass plaque memorials line the internal walls of the church and commemorate various figures in the history of the parish of St Thomas, including RL and A Drew and Sarah Frances Zitella Clark. Many of these memorials were carved by Toowong stonemason, L Busby and bear his signature. As well most of the stained and coloured glass, windows thought to be executed by William Bustard are memorials to parishioners. The tripartite stained glass window in the sanctuary depicts a scene of the Adoration of the Magi.
","history":"St Thomas' Church of England, Toowong was constructed in 1877 as the second purpose built Anglican church in Toowong, replacing a 1865 timber building on another site. The church, which was designed by parishioner and prominent Brisbane architect, FDG Stanley, has had two major additions, the first in 1886 when the nave was extended and the second in 1947 when transepts and a chancel were added.
Toowong was described in 1862 by a local resident, Richard Langler Drew, when he nailed a sign to a tree in the district proclaiming the village of Toowong, although the name of the district had been decided much earlier after the call of local birdlife. Soon after Drew's proclamation many large houses were erected in the area and Toowong prospered as a small elite settlement removed from the noise and dust associated with the town centre. It was not long before discussions were held about the establishment of a Church of England congregation which was to be an extension of the All Saints' Parish on Wickham Terrace.
When Queensland became a separate state in 1859, Brisbane became the seat of an Anglican Diocese and the first Bishop, Edward Wyndham Tufnell was appointed. One year later, state aid to the Church of England officially ceased. Unlike Britain, where the Church of England was the established church which received state aid, the Church of England in Australia was to survive in the same manner as the other churches then operating in the country. This decision caused much uneasiness during the early history of the church as the hierarchy was unaccustomed to the processes involved with self funding, most significantly the fundraising aspect. Therefore it is significant that following a meeting on 6 May 1865, Church of England residents of Toowong pledged to assist in the raising of about £150, necessary to construct a building for use as a Church of England. Among those at this first meeting was architect, William Henry Ellerker who was to design the first St Thomas' Church. Also at the meeting was Richard Drew who donated Allotment 13 where the church was to be built in Curlew street overlooking a cutting on Burns Road.
On June 1865 another meeting was held and this time it was chaired by Reverend Thomas Jones of All Saints' Church in Wickham Terrace; a manifestation of the diocese's support of the Toowong residents' scheme. The congregation at Toowong was to be part of the All Saints' Parish, and at this meeting details for the construction of the church were finalised and it was decided that the church could also be used as a temporary school as there was yet to be a state school established in the area. By 1866 the first St Thomas' was complete; a small timber framed and clad building with a gabled shingled roof featuring tripartite lancet window groups. The building cost £185.12.6 and was designed by Ellerker, the parishioner and architect, formerly of Melbourne who practised in Brisbane from 1860 until 1866. To defray the cost of the church a system of letting pews was instigated, securing a regular income but exposing the church to allegations of elitism. By 1867 a newspaper reported that the church, with a capacity of fifty people, was inadequate for the growing congregation. It was clear that steps toward procuring enlargements or the construction of a new church were necessary.
In 1870 St Thomas' became a parish, independent of All Saints'. The congregation then decided that both enlargements to the building and procuring the services of a minister were necessary. To fulfil the latter requirement Robert Creyke was appointed, but it would take some years before steps toward a larger building were taken. During the early 1870s many memorial items were donated to the church including a stone font commemorating Miss Georgina Hely, still in use today in the parish; an altar, an organ and a sedilia (or altar seat). When Robert Creyke resigned his post in 1875, Benjamin Glennie, a prominent and prolific Queensland Church of England minister was appointed.
In the mid 1870s, Toowong was rapidly growing particularly after the rail line was introduced in 1875. While large houses were still constructed in the area, many newly planned streets started to fill with smaller family houses on tighter allotments. By 1878 a State School was opened in Aston Street. In November 1875, at a meeting of the St Thomas' Parish a decision was made to enlist the help of Church of England residents in the area for fundraising and donations toward acquiring a central site for a new permanent masonry church.
The construction of a bi-chrome brick church followed the laying of a foundation stone on 17 February 1877. The land on which the church was built, part of Allotment 27, was initially bought by Henry Buckley in December 1853 and then acquired in July 1865 by Robert Cribb, a successful Brisbane merchant. A Certificate of Title was granted to Benjamin Cribb for Allotment 27 in March 1872 and, after changing hands within the Cribb family once more, was acquired by trustees for the Church of England on 15 December 1876. The trustees nominated were William Leworthy Good Drew, Walter Horatio Wilson and William Henry Miskin. The land remained vested in trustees for the parish until acquired by the Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane in 1968.
Again, the new church was designed by an active parishioner, Francis Drummond Greville Stanley who was the Colonial Architect at the time. Stanley was responsible for the design of many large churches throughout Queensland including large Anglican churches in Fortitude Valley and Maryborough; St Patrick's Church on Calton Hill, Gympie; St Paul's Presbyterian Church, Spring Hill; as well as smaller examples like St David's Church of England in Allora. The church Stanley designed for the St Thomas' parish, of which he was a longstanding and involved parishioner, followed many of the traditions of Early English Gothic parish churches, most significantly in its picturesque setting. The site was chosen for its centrality and prominence and the church was designed as a landmark on this prominent site. Many of the other features of the building contribute to its strong Gothic aesthetic including its dominant steeply pitched gabled roof, gabled porches, bi-chrome brickwork and lancet window openings, many of which were filled with stained and coloured glass in the twentieth century.
The foundation stone of St Thomas' Church was laid by Bishop Hale on 17 February 1877. The contractor for the project was Henry Pears and the building was constructed for about £850. An official opening ceremony in the form of a service was held on 13 October 1877.
The first extensions to the church was executed in 1886 when the original six bay nave was extended by one bay to form a seven bay nave. This work was designed by the original architect of the building, FDG Stanley and is apparent in the slight variation in colour of the brickwork of the seventh bay, at the northern, chancel end of the church. At this time the chancel was a temporary timber framed structure, to be replaced in masonry when funding was available. In 1887 FDG Stanley designed a Sunday School for the Parish which is thought to have been constructed to the north of the building on land adjacent to the church. Later a rectory was constructed between the church and the Sunday School. A second storey was added to the rectory in about 1900.
The celebration of the 75th anniversary of St Thomas' Parish was to incorporate an extension to the church building, incorporating a tower and a permanent masonry chancel at the northern end. Prominent Melbourne ecclesiastical architect, Louis Williams was commissioned to prepare a design for the building. It is not known whether he visited the site, but the perspective sketch he prepared for St Thomas' is a radical departure from the design of the original building. The additions proposed by Williams displayed a more Romanesque than Gothic influence, with a large parapeted tower partially concealing a pyramidal roof, and a chancel with parapeted stepped facades and grouped openings with, what seems to be , round arched heads. This construction of these additions was to cost £3400 and was to coincide with the construction of a large Roman Catholic church nearby. However, although many memorial gates, plaques and stained glass windows were added at this time, the proposed additions did not proceed.
By 1947 another scheme was commissioned, this time by Brisbane architect, AH Conrad, from the partnership of Conrad and Gargett. His design was more in keeping with the original design of the church and, like the Williams' scheme, incorporated a tower and chancel at the northern end. Although the tower did not proceed, the new chancel was constructed at a cost of £3365 by Ashlar constructions. Like the original building this addition was constructed from brick, but on concrete foundations and with a concrete plinth.
In the early 1960s a new low set brick rectory was constructed adjacent to the church, and this and the nineteenth century Sunday School and Parish Hall survive to the north of the church, although a fire in May 1970 gutted the School.
","criteria":"St Thomas' Church is important in demonstrating both the pattern of growth of Toowong from an elite residential settlement in the 1860s to closer settlement following the introduction of the railway in the mid 1870s. As home to one of the earliest established Church of England parishes in Queensland, St Thomas' Church illustrates the development of the Church in the state.
|The building is a fine example of nineteenth century church architecture, showing a strong influence of an Early English Gothic style, which informed most ecclesiastical buildings of the second half of the nineteenth century. Elements of St Thomas' which show this Gothic influence include the steeply pitched and dominant roofscape; the picturesque setting of the building; bi-chrome brickwork; lancet and pointed arched openings; gabled porches; cruciform plan; heavy internal roof trusses and stained and coloured glass.
|St Thomas' Church has remarkable aesthetic value with strong landmark qualities; it is a well composed building picturesquely situated on a prominent site.
The building has many well crafted items of considerable aesthetic value including internal joinery, particularly the altar, pulpit, lectern and internal panelling; stained and coloured glass windows of William Bustard; font; various internal and external memorials and landscaping. The established plantings surrounding the church contribute to its picturesqueness and contain remnants of nineteenth and twentieth century garden design.
|The church has a special association with the St Thomas' parish as their principal place of worship for about 120 years.
|The building has associations with prominent Brisbane architect, FDG Stanley and with other early parishioners, many of whom were important in the early hsitory of the Church of England in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15112,"place_ref":600337,"name":"Brisbane Boys College","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"55 Moggill Road","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Sited slightly below the ridge of Kensington Terrace, the main building is a three-storeyed rendered masonry Spanish Mission style building. Classroom wings with terracotta tiled hipped roofs flank a central entrance, tower, and campanile. It has
concrete floors, timber doors, steel hopper windows to the upper storeys, red brick sills, and rich decorative features to the facades and interior.
Seen from Moggill Rd, the building rises above surrounding vegetation and roofs, being the most prominent building on the hillside. From within the school grounds, it dominates views up the hill from the north to the east, the campanile in particular being consistently visible. The neighbouring school buildings have been limited in height, preserving the vistas to and from the building.
The main entrance to the school is located on the northern frontage, which is two storeyed and divided into five bays. The central bay is gabled and features the main entrance doorway; the doorway is arched and set in a decorated rectangular frame. The two bays which flank the central entrance bays are arcaded with verandahs above, while the two outer bays have paired arched windows and tiled awnings.
The southern frontage, which overlooks the hillside, is three-storeyed, and also has five bays. The central bay, containing the chapel, extends out from the building, and has a hipped roof, with a small gable to the south. The tower behind rises another two storeys above the chapel, and has a pyramid roof. The flat-roofed campanile rises above the tower, and has an entrance at its base with a small round balconette above. The chapel has large arched windows with smaller arched windows above. The bays flanking the chapel and campanile are arcaded up to the second storey.
Decorative features to both frontages include gargoyles, twisted columns between arched windows and to principal doorways, and arched cornices to gables, the tower and the
campanile. A three-storeyed annex extends to the north-east, sitting a half a storey below the rest of the building; it has a hipped roof, rectangular windows, tiled awnings to the south and a timber porch to the north.
Notable features of the interior include timber panelling and two stained glass windows, one depicting the arts, the other, the sciences, in the main entrance foyer. The chapel has a stained glass window to the south.
The headmaster's residence is an asymmetrical gabled composition in matching materials to the main building. It has three gables to the north, two timber-lined, with a smaller gable over the entrance, and is situated above an escarpment to the north of the main building.
","history":"The school was founded as Rudd's College in 1902 at Clayfield by A.W. Rudd. In 1918 it was taken over by the Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association and renamed Brisbane Boys' College.
The main three-storeyed masonry school building, was built in 1930 at Toowong, on land donated by the daughters of Sir Robert Philp. Opened in 1931, the school with its boarding facilities was contained in one building. The building was designed by architects Atkinson and Conrad, who were also responsible for the design of The Southport School c1924-28, and the Church of England Grammar School at East Brisbane 1917-30.
Another storey was added to the main tower by 1950. The verandahs of the main building were enclosed to provide further accommodation but were opened again in 1989.
The headmaster's residence was built in 1936. It also was designed by Atkinson & Conrad. The school has continued to grow and now consists of numerous other buildings with an enrolment of over 1000 students.
","criteria":"Brisbane Boys' College, Toowong, is significant historically for its association with the work of the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches in the provision of education for boys in Queensland since 1918.
|The main building demonstrates the principal characteristics of a substantial school building in the interwar Spanish Mission style, and the Headmaster's Residence is a good example of an interwar rendered masonry house.
|The place is important for its aesthetic values, in particular the accomplished design in the composition of forms and detailing of the main building, which is also a prominent local landmark.
|The place has social significance as the alma mater of the sons of thousands of protestant families in Queensland.
|The main building and headmaster's residence are significant examples of the work of Brisbane architects Atkinson and Conrad, who designed a number of substantial private school buildings in Queensland during the interwar period.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15113,"place_ref":600338,"name":"Pilot Officer Geoffrey Lloyd Wells Memorial Seat","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"103 Stanley Terrace","suburb":"TARINGA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The seat is of rustic design, constructed of slabs of Brisbane tuff. It is set into the front garden wall, also of tuff, fronting Stanley Terrace.
\nThe back of the seat is butterfly-shaped and has a centrally placed metal plaque. In addition to the details of Wells' death, the plaque bears the quote from Winston Churchill 'never has so much been owed by so many to so few'.
\nTimber slats forming the seat have been reconstructed. The style of the fence above the surrounding wall has changed since the seat's construction. However, together with the adjacent shady jacaranda tree, the fence and seat combine to create a picturesque resting spot for passing pedestrians.
","history":"The Pilot Officer Geoffrey Lloyd Wells Memorial Seat is a stone bench with a timber seat, set into a stone wall at 103 Stanley Terrace, Taringa. Constructed c.1941, it is dedicated to Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Pilot Officer Geoffrey Lloyd Wells, who was shot down over The Netherlands on 17 August 1941, age 26, during active service with the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Bomber Command. The seat was erected by his family in the corner of their property, near Mossman Street, as a memorial and for public use. It is a rare form of private memorial, and makes an original and attractive contribution to the streetscape.
\nGeoffrey Lloyd Wells was born 26 June 1915, at a house called ‘Wallingford’, Taringa, Brisbane, the son of Henry Leslie Wells and Elise Irene Wells, nee Lloyd (married 1913).[1] The Wells family was living at ‘Wallingford’, Stanley Terrace, Taringa, by 1914,[2] although when Geoffrey was born, the land on which the memorial seat is located was owned by Frederick Robert Lloyd. It was purchased by Henry Wells in 1918.[3]
\nAt the time of his enlistment in early 1940 Geoffrey Wells was a clerk, and his usual place of residence was Auchenflower, Queensland.[4] He trained at Archerfield (No.2 Elementary Flying Training School) from May 1940, followed by Wagga, NSW (No.2 Service Flying Training School), and Evans Head, NSW (No.1 Bombing and Gunnery School).[5]
\nAlthough Wells was a member of the RAAF, he served in Britain’s RAF. During World War II Britain was short of aircrew so reached an agreement, called the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS), with Australia, New Zealand and Canada. These countries would train aircrew who would then serve in the RAF, or in their own national squadrons (400 series) under RAF control, with many flying with Bomber Command. Almost 40,000 Australians were trained under the EATS scheme during the war, and about 5000 died serving in the RAF.[6] The first Australian contingent of EATS graduates, including Geoffrey, left for Canada in November 1940.[7]
\nAt the time of his death the following year, Geoffrey was the pilot of a Vickers Wellington (Wimpy) Mk1C twin-engine medium bomber (serial number X9700, call sign LN-B, nick-named ‘Celon’[8]) in 99 Squadron, RAF.[9] On a night mission to bomb Duisburg (a river port and industrial city in the Ruhr area of Germany) from RAF Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire, his aircraft was caught in searchlights before being shot down by a German night fighter early on 17 August 1941. The latter aircraft was piloted by Leutnant Hans-Dieter Frank of Stab 1, Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 (NJG1), flying from Venlo airbase (Limberg province, The Netherlands).[10] Frank, piloting a twin engine Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter, claimed two British bombers that night.[11]
\nAfter jettisoning its bomb load, Well’s aircraft hit the ground near Roggel in the province of Limberg, the Netherlands, about 2.15am, and five of the six man crew were killed. Part of one wing destroyed the roof of the Pijls family’s farmhouse. One of the gunners, Sergeant Robert Williams, managed to bail out and he landed on the roof of another family’s farm building, breaking two ribs and his sternum. He was given first aid by the locals in a bar before being captured by the Germans. Williams recalled later in his life that ‘our pilot [Wells] was pretty seriously ill. He had the flu. The crew had problems with that but Flight Command told us to go anyway. When we had left the Belgian Coastline behind us, we noticed searchlights all over the place. There was no flak to be seen, so there had to be night fighters around. Suddenly we ended up in the middle of the searchlights. Under normal conditions the pilot would most probably have been able to shake them off, but as I mentioned before, he wasn’t top fit that night. We were then attacked by a night fighter and that became the beginning of the end…I saw the navigator standing up from his chair and the next moment I noticed that the plane was spinning over on its wing and that we were on fire.’[12]
\nWells and four other crew members were buried at Venlo,[13] and after the war they were reburied in Jonkerbos war cemetery in Nijmegen, (Gelderland province, The Netherlands).[14] Geoffrey Wells is listed as a Flying Officer on his headstone, and on some official records.[15] This is one rank above that of Pilot Officer. Several days after the crash, Pilot Officer GL Wells was listed as ‘missing’ in The Courier Mail. At the time his mother Elsie lived in Milton Road, Auchenflower.[16]
\nWithin a month, Geoffrey’s status was changed from missing to ‘believed killed’. In September 1941, Geoffrey’s father Henry, reported as a manufacturer’s agent, of ‘Wallingford’, Stanley Terrace, Taringa, won the Lord Mayor’s (then John B Chandler) Cup for the ‘most creditable work’ in the Courier Mail footpath garden competition.[17] He also won the section for allotments with more than 100 feet frontage (worked without the assistance of outside labour). The Courier Mail stated that Henry’s son, Pilot Officer GL Wells, had been reported ‘believed killed’ just the previous week. Henry said that his gardening, as well as being a hobby, was a source of consolation to him. The winning garden, along two street frontages, included plantings of 80 trees and shrubs, numerous flower plots, and a ‘rustic seat’, installed for the use of people waiting for buses. Henry Wells gave half of his £5 prize money to the Red Cross, and the other half to his returned soldier gardener.[18]
The current memorial seat post-dates the September 1941 article. A photograph accompanying the article shows a planed timber log, located in front of the first bay of the stone wall, to the east of the current memorial seat. Henry Wells owned the land at 103 Stanley Street until 1951, and he probably built the stone memorial seat between 1941 and 1951 to replace the timber seat with a permanent memorial to his son. The stone pillars of the wall, which once had round bars running through their centres, have been increased in height since 1941. However, the residence ‘Wallingford’ still exists to the northeast of the seat in 2014.
References
[1] Queensland Birth Register Index; ‘Births’, The Queenslander, 17 July 1915, p.9; Queensland Marriages Register Index, 1913 C3295.
[2] ‘Social’, The Brisbane Courier, 24 October 1914, p.15.
[3] Certificate of Title, 10749102, Department of Natural Resources and Mines. The house was probably named after the market town of Wallingford, Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire) in the United Kingdom. The existing ‘Wallingford’ residence may not be the ‘Wallingford’ mentioned in 1914-15, as Henry Wells took out a mortgage in 1931.
[4] Roll of Honour Circular, Geoffrey Lloyd Wells. (Service Number 404077) http://static.awm.gov.au/images/collection/items/ACCNUM_LARGE/RCDIG1069318%5CRCDIG1069318--682-.JPG (accessed 13 May 2014)
[5] ‘State fast bowler now war pilot’, The Courier Mail, 19 November 1940, p.5.
[6] Storr, Alan, 2006. ‘Second World War overview: Royal Australian Air Force’, http://www.awm.gov.au/catalogue/research_centre/pdf/rc09125z004_1.pdf, (accessed 13 May 2014)
[7] ‘Empire Air Training Scheme’, http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/raaf/eats/?query=Empire+Air+training+scheme (accessed 13.5.2014)
[8] ‘99 Squadron Wellington IC X9700 LN-B F/O. Wells’, http://aircrewremembered.com/wells-geoffrey.html, (Accessed 9.5.2014). Celon may refer to Celon, Indre, a commune of the Indre departement in France; or a parish in Allande, a municipality within the province of Asturias, in northern Spain; or Celon (Middle-earth), a river in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celon (accessed 9.05.2014). Celon is Sindarin (Elvish) for ‘stream flowing down the heights’ http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Celon (accessed 9.05.2014).
[9] Storr, Alan, 2006. ‘RAAF fatalities in Second World War among RAAF personnel serving on attachment in Royal Air Force Squadrons and support units’, http://www.awm.gov.au/catalogue/research_centre/pdf/rc09125z004_1.pdf, p.477 (accessed 13 May 2014)
[10] ‘99 Squadron Wellington IC X9700 LN-B F/O. Wells’. No. 99 Squadron was based at RAF Waterbeach from March 1941 to March 1942. http://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/unit-info/770/ (Accessed 13 May 2014).
[11] ‘Known victory Claims – Hans-Dieter Frank’, http://www.worldnavalships.com/aces.php?PilotID=383 (Accessed 13 May 2015). Frank was killed in a mid-air collision with another night fighter in September 1943, after 55 claimed aerial victories. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Dieter_Frank (accessed 13 May 2014).
[12] ‘99 Squadron Wellington IC X9700 LN-B F/O. Wells’.
[13] Roll of Honour Circular, Geoffrey Lloyd Wells; ‘99 Squadron Wellington IC X9700 LN-B F/O. Wells’.
[14] Storr, Alan, 2006. ‘RAAF fatalities in Second World War among RAAF personnel serving on attachment in Royal Air Force Squadrons and support units’.
[15] Storr, Alan, 2006. ‘RAAF fatalities in Second World War among RAAF personnel serving on attachment in Royal Air Force Squadrons and support units’; ‘Roll of Honour – Geoffrey Lloyd Wells’, http://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1714903/ (Accessed 13 May 2014).
[16] ‘Brisbane pilot missing’, The Courier Mail, 20 August 1941, p.3.
[17] ‘Footpaths contest awards…cup winner to give prize money to Red Cross & gardener’, The Courier Mail, 15 September 1941, p.4.
[18] ‘Footpaths contest awards’, The Courier Mail, 15 September 1941, p.4.
Information note
\nOn 17 April 2015 revisions to the history and description contained in the entry in the Queensland Heritage Register for Pilot Officer Geoffrey Lloyd Wells Memorial Seat, were made by the Department to update information in accordance with the Queensland Heritage Act 1992.
","criteria":"It is illustrative of the sustained tradition of memorialising the war dead, which had been established in Queensland at the turn of the 20th century with the South African War of 1899-1902, and popularised during and immediately following the First World War [1914-18].
|The Pilot Officer Geoffrey Lloyd Wells Memorial Seat at Toowong is a rare private memorial erected for public benefit.
|It is illustrative of the sustained tradition of memorialising the war dead, which had been established in Queensland at the turn of the 20th century with the South African War of 1899-1902, and popularised during and immediately following the First World War [1914-18].
|It makes an original and attractive contribution to the streetscape, and is significant as an unusual form of war memorial.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15114,"place_ref":600339,"name":"Wolston House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"223 Grindle Road","suburb":"WACOL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Wolston House is on a rural site between Brisbane and Ipswich overlooking the Brisbane River. The surrounding land is now occupied by Wacol Correctional Centre and the Department of Primary Industries and retains its pastoral aspect. The house is surrounded by a mature garden containing large trees, a well and a pump.
The house is constructed of sandstone and brick with a galvanised iron roof and has six rooms. Two cellars with attached lean-tos form a half basement accessed from the rear. The house is one room deep with the rooms disposed along a verandah supported by timber posts. The rooms are accessed by french windows without a formal entrance. These consist of a large double room divided by folding cedar doors, a bedroom, dining room and a kitchen which is set at a slightly lower level. Much of the joinery is original, however, much of the plaster wall finishes have been reconstructed and the ceilings, which were thought to have been pressed metal and plaster, have been rebuilt in second hand timber.
To the rear of the house, brick basement walls remain from the 1860s children's wing which was demolished in the 1970s. Wolston functions as a house museum and a modern caretaker's residence is situated to one side of the house. There is a modern toilet block behind the house and a timber railway building has been moved to the rear of the site as a store.
The gate posts and part of the wall shown in 1930s photographs survives as do elements of original paving.
The collection, which has been developed to furnish the house, does not relate to it but contains some items associated with people who lived or worked on the property. It contains some significant early furniture and objects.
","history":"Wolston House comprises the homestead and garden from the Wolston Estate, a large pastoral property originally established by Dr Stephen Simpson in 1852 and extended during the 1860s by Matthew Goggs.
Dr Stephen Simpson was appointed Commissioner for Crown Lands for the Moreton Bay District in 1842 when the area was first opened up for free settlement following the closure of the penal colony. He was a cultured man, a doctor of medicine, a Justice of the Peace, a Police Magistrate and a member of the first Legislative Council of Queensland following Separation from New South Wales. His first home in the colony was at Woogaroo, situated between Brisbane and Ipswich on what was to become the site of the Wolston Park Hospital. In 1851, when the opportunity to buy land in the area arose, he purchased 640 acres to the east of his first house on land overlooking the Brisbane River.
The new property, which included stockyard, stables, outbuildings and a house and garden, was laid out by surveyor William Pettigrew in 1852. The garden was planned with care. Pettigrew recorded planting fruit trees there in his diary and Simpson was known for his interest in plants and gardening. It is possible that the fig trees at Wolston were planted by Simpson.
The house that Simpson lived in was much smaller than the homestead that now exists. He had arrived in Brisbane as a recent widower and lived simply, so that a large or formal dwelling would have been unnecessary to him. He constructed a two room brick cottage over a sandstone basement. The house was shingled and had a detached kitchen. This cottage now forms the core of the house. The existing sandstone kitchen which adjoins this section may have been added by Simpson before he sold the house in 1860 or it may have been added by Goggs.
When his wife and child died, Simpson had designated his nephew, John Ommaney, for whom Mount Ommaney is named, as his heir. In 1856 the young man was killed in a riding accident. This may have affected Simpson's commitment to remaining in the colony and a few years later, he put the Wolston estate up for sale and returned to England. According to the auction notice which appeared in the Moreton Bay Courier of 3 January 1860 the estate was by then well established with 2,000 acres of fenced land, an extensive garden and orchards and 250 head of horses and 400 of cattle.
Wolston was purchased by Matthew Buscall Goggs in October 1860. He continued to operate the estate as a cattle and horse breeding station and extended the holding to 100,000 acres. Goggs, who was a farmer's son, had emigrated to Australia in 1841 and took up land at Chinchilla with his first wife. He purchased Wolston following his second marriage to Anne Gedge and they had a family of ten children. Goggs built a sandstone extension to the house in the 1860s to accommodate the needs of his family and in the 1870s a cedar annexe was added containing children's bedrooms. Goggs died in 1882 and was buried in a mausoleum which he had had built in the grounds of the estate. This was damaged in the 1893 floods and the bodies of Goggs and two infants were reburied at Toowong cemetery.
Following Gogg's death, his eldest son, also named Matthew Buscall, ran the estate until around 1890 when he moved to Brisbane. A Mr Thomas Matthews is recorded in Post Office Directories as having lived at Wolston between 1890 to 1893 and may have leased the property from the Goggs family. Over the years the family had bought and sold land and by 1907 the Wolston property had been reduced to 650 acres of land around Wolston House.
In 1907 the Grindle family purchased the property. They built it up and operated a successful dairy, milking 120 cows a day and selling the milk to Brisbane. They covered the shingle roof with corrugated iron and rationalised the spacing of the verandah posts which had previously been irregularly spaced, reflecting the stages in which the house was extended.
In 1956 the estate was purchased by Robert Hurley. By this time the property had become run down and the house was inhabited by three elderly Grindle brothers who were no longer able to run the property. At the time this consisted of 117 acres of freehold land in poor condition. The Hurleys built up the property again establishing an intensive dairying business.
In 1960 the Department of Agriculture and Stock resumed the property to establish a tick research centre. They demolished the farm outbuildings and intended to demolish the homestead also, however this was saved following an intensive campaign by the Women's Historical Society, the Historical Society and the newly formed National Trust of Queensland. In 1965, the house was transferred to the National Trust and became their first property. Sir Raphael Cilento, who was to become the second president of the Trust between 1966 and 1971, and the architect Karl Langer, were prominent in the acquisition of the homestead and in its interpretation.
This interpretation rested on the occupation of the property by Dr Stephen Simpson and so it was decided to demolish the timber section at the rear, which was clearly of a later period. When acquired by the Trust, the house was in poor condition. Along with urgent repairs, extensive reconstruction was also carried out. While reflecting the philosophies of the early 1960s, this approach is not acceptable today. Current conservation philosophy, in line with the recommendations of the Burra Charter, favours minimal intervention and interpretation embraces the whole life of the house and its setting. Wolston House has now been owned by the Trust for over thirty years, and is still open to the public as a museum, so that the effects of changes in conservation philosophies and methods over this period can be studied.
","criteria":"It is also associated with the formation of the National Trust of Queensland and with Sir Raphael Cilento and Karl Langer, who played major roles in the acquisition of Wolston House as the Trust's foundation property.
|Wolston House is a rare surviving early homestead, mainly constructed in the 1860s but incorporating an 1852 cottage. The materials and workmanship which survive from these stages of building illustrate techniques not commonly found in small rural buildings of this period.
|By its form and the lack of a formal entry, the building demonstrates something of the way of life of the first European settlers of the district.
|The nature of the building and its relationship with the landscape has considerable aesthetic appeal which is well liked by the community.
|This place is significant in relation to Criterion G
|The earliest part of the house is associated with Dr Stephen Simpson (1792-1869), a man prominent in public life during the first years of Brisbane. It is also associated with the formation of the National Trust of Queensland and with Sir Raphael Cilento and Karl Langer, who played major roles in the acquisition of Wolston House as the Trust's foundation property.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15115,"place_ref":600340,"name":"Wolston Park Hospital Complex","alternate_name":"Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum | Goodna Mental Hospital | Goodna Hospital for the Insane","street_address":"60 Grindle Road","suburb":"WACOL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Wolston Park Hospital Complex is a complex of public health institutions, some decommissioned, spread across a 311.05ha site in Wacol, approximately 19km southwest of the Brisbane CBD. The site is bounded on its west by the Brisbane River, on its north and northeast by residential and institutional development, and on its east and south by the Ipswich Motorway and Woogaroo Creek.
\nThe complex comprises an extensive collection of purpose-designed buildings, natural and made landscapes, and areas of archaeological potential, spanning the 1860s to 1970s. It is organised into a series of areas that reflect its varied topography, historical functions, and key phases of development related to the evolution of mental health treatment.
\nAt the core of the site is the Central Administration, Services, and Residences Area. To its west is the Female Patients Area, and south of this is the Female Patients Recreation Area and Early Asylum Site. Northeast of the core is the Male Patients Area, and north of this is the Wacol Repatriation Complex. On the east side of this is the Gailes Golf Club course, stretching south along the site boundary. To the northwest of the core is the Riverbank and Nyunda Park Area, stretching north along the river. East and north of this area is the Farm Complex, and east of this is the Basil Stafford Centre.
\nFeatures of Wolston Park Hospital Complex of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nEarly Road Network
\nA network of early roads connects the various core and decentralised zones of the complex.
\nBoyce Road (by 1896) is the main southern entrance to the site, running roughly east to west from near the Ipswich Motorway and connecting to Ellerton Drive.
\nEllerton Drive (c1870s, partly realigned 1913-6) is the connecting road running roughly south to north from the Female Patients Recreation Area to the Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area. It has been partially removed at its southern extent where it historically crossed Woogaroo Creek on a sequence of bridges (footbridge 1870s, road bridge by 1896) to provide the main entrance to the site, however, this route remains open space.
\nHogg Lane (by 1896) and Barrett Drive (by 1896, and its extensions by 1932 and 1948)[1] are secondary roads separating the Central Administration and Services Area from the Male Patients Area and servicing the rear of the male patient wards.
\nWolston Park Road runs roughly south to north, connecting the Central Administration Area to the northern parts of the site and was historically another main entrance to the site from the north. Only the southern section (by 1896) of this road is of state-level cultural heritage significance, comprising only the portion of road running from Ellerton Drive to its intersection with Explorers Walk.
\nTwo long farm roads, Explorers Walk (south to north) and Aveyron Road (east to west), run from patient wards to the northern farm area. Only the routes of these roads are of state-level cultural heritage significance, not any of their infrastructure or materials
\nFeatures of the Early Road Network of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nCentral Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area
\nThe Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area comprises buildings and associated landscape features relating to the core support and logistical functions of the complex, grouped around the northern end of Ellerton Drive and the southern end of Wolston Park Road, and bounded by Hogg Lane to the north.
\nThe features of the Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLayout of Buildings and Landscapes
\nThe buildings and landscapes of the Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area are generally laid out in groups according to function, with reception buildings and landscapes (Visitors’ Garden, Administration, Hospital) at the centre, private functions (Chapel, staff residences) to the east, and key services buildings (Laundry, Powerhouse) to the west. The Recreation Hall (originally a sewing room for female patients during the day) stands to the far west of the area, close to the Female Patients Area. The Morgue stands at a distance from other buildings to the northwest, near the bushland fringe of the area. The Pump Houses and Reservoir stand to the southwest of the area, downhill toward the dams of the Female Patients Recreation Area.
\nA large section of the central area (between the administration and staff residences) has been redeveloped over time with many new buildings added, which are not of state-level cultural heritage significance. Some of these are within early gardens (Visitors’ Garden, staff residences gardens), which has obscured the garden extent but some early trees and landscape structures (paths, underground well, stairs) are retained amidst the new buildings.
\nVisitors’ Garden (c1912) and Visitor’s Pavilion (1920)
\nThe Visitors’ Garden (c1912) is at the front (south end) of the Central Administration Area, highly visible from the Ellerton Drive approach. Originally operating as a fenced but attractive meeting space between patients and visitors, it acts as the foreground setting for the main buildings of the area. The Visitors’ Pavilion (1920) is highly intact and stands centrally in the garden at the end of Wolston Park Road. The garden terrain gently slopes to the south and its original extent (a semicircle shape defined by curving Ellerton Drive/Cricket Lane on its northern side) has been obscured by its eastern half being progressively built over since c1955, however, some mature trees and open spaces are retained amongst the buildings.
\nFeatures of the Visitors’ Garden and Visitor’s Pavilion of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nAdministration Building (1917)
\nThe Administration Building (1917) stands at the centre of the Central Administration Area. Purpose-built as the medical offices building of the hospital with a small residence on the first floor, in 2020 it is used as administration offices and is highly intact. It faces east onto the turnaround driveway off Ellerton Drive. A considerable collection of hospital complex-related paraphernalia is housed in cabinets in the medical superintendent’s office of the ground floor.
\nFeatures of the Administration Building of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nHospital (1917)
\nThe Hospital (1917) stands to the north of the Administration Building and faces south the vehicle driveway. Purpose-built as a hospital ward for males and females, in 2020 it is used as administration offices and is highly intact.
\nFeatures of the Hospital of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nChapel of Hope (1961)
\nThe eastern end of Cricket Drive is the Chapel of Hope (1961). Built as a christian chapel for patients, it is the sole survivor of three similar chapels of different christian faiths erected side by side (Chapel of Hope was the westernmost chapel). In 2020 it is used as for offices and it has had its exterior cladding replaced. The building has been semi-integrated with a new building built on its western side.
\nThe interior was not inspected.
\nA statue of Saint Dymphna (catholic patron saint of people with mental illness) stands approximately 35 metres to the east of the chapel, its corresponding chapel having been demolished.
\nFeatures of the Chapel of Hope of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nMedical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden (1898)
\nThe Medical Superintendent’s Residence (1898) stands near the eastern edge of the Central Administration and Services Area. Built as the substantial residence for the medical superintendent and his family, it is highly intact and in 2020 the rooms accommodate offices with little alteration to the original fabric. It has been incorporated into a fenced high-security area and its open garden setting is retained. The house faces southeastwards down the sloping terrain across Gailes Golf Course out to the surrounding landscape and distant mountains. The northern verandah has been enclosed with weatherboards and timber casement windows, an early alteration in c1912. The original terracotta roof cladding has been replaced with corrugated metal sheets which are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nTwo small freestanding brick outbuildings are retained to the house’s rear (north) – a former garage (coach house) and a smaller, square building (smokehouse).
\nFeatures of the Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nAssistant Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden (1912)
\nThe Assistant Medical Superintendent Residence (1912) stands west of the Medical Superintendent's Residence. This former family house built for the assistant medical superintendent is highly intact and in 2020 the rooms accommodate offices with little alteration to the original fabric. It retains its original open garden setting with former tennis court terrace. The house faces south down the sloping terrain across Gailes Golf Course out to the surrounding landscape and distant mountains.
\nFeatures of the Assistant Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nWell
\nThe Well is located approximately 140m east of the Administration Building and is highly intact. Constructed of brick and sandstone, the underground dome well has a narrow circular opening at ground level and is approximately 6m in diameter at depth. The well is concealed by a concrete slab and metal access panel, which are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of the Well of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nReservoir and Pump Houses (1914)
\nThe Reservoir and Pump Houses (1914) are highly intact and stand on sloping ground to the east of Ellerton Drive. There are two timber pump houses, a water reservoir to their immediate southwest, and associated remnant pipe and pump infrastructure. Built to facilitate the distribution of mains water throughout the site, they pumped water to the elevated water tower (demolished c2000) that stood in the grounds of the former residences to the east.
\nFeatures of the Reservoir of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of the Pump Houses of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nRecreation Hall (1890, extended c1914, remodelled c1972)
\nThe Recreation Hall stands on the western side of the Central Administration and Services Area and was built as a patients ‘workroom’ with dining room. It retains an 1890 brick core (hall), south extension (c1914, stage), and north extension (c1914, toilets). Its side verandahs have been replaced with enclosed function rooms and entrances (c1972). An acoustic ceiling has been installed in the hall, which is not of state-level cultural heritage significance. In 2020 it is used as a hall and is highly intact.
\nFeatures of the Recreation Hall of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nLaundry (1918)
\nThe Laundry (1918) stands to the east of the Recreation Hall. It was built as a communal laundry for the hospital and is highly intact. The building’s original layout was highly-functional, with a loading dock on its western side with double doors into the laundry interior. The large open volume of the interior was originally divided by part-height partitions into large sections, with dirty laundry entering the building from the north end of the loading dock, progressively moving south though the building during the laundering process, and finishing at the southern end of the loading dock for redistribution. A lean-to awning has been added over the loading dock and the large internal volume has had new part-height partitions installed, changes that are not of state-level cultural heritage significance. In 2020 it is used as offices and a canteen. Some hospital complex-related paraphernalia is stored in one office in the building.
\nFeatures of the Laundry of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nPowerhouse (1917)
\nThe Powerhouse (1917) stands to the north of the Laundry. It was built as a coal-fired powerhouse for the hospital complex and is highly intact. The building is in two parts – a large double-height boiler room, and an adjacent single-storey engine room, the floor of which is at the level of an upper gallery of the boiler room. The building includes an open ‘coal bunker’ on the southern side of the boiler room, a later lean-to coal bunker on the western side, and a tall freestanding brick chimney to the north. In 2020 the boiler room is vacant, retains its boilers, and is used as a store for a considerable amount of hospital paraphernalia. The engine room has had partitions installed and is used as offices and contains a small hospital museum.
\nFeatures of the Powerhouse of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nMorgue (1902, extended 1949)
\nThe Morgue (1902, extended 1949) stands to the northwest of the Powerhouse. Purpose-built as a morgue (1902) for the hospital, and extended and remodelled (1949) to increase capacity and incorporate refrigeration, it retains its functional mortuary layout and fixtures. In 2020 the building is vacant and is highly intact.
\nFeatures of the Morgue of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFemale Patients Area
\nThe Female Patients Area comprises a collection of highly-intact 19th and early 20th century patient buildings, located to the west of the Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area, on high ground overlooking the Brisbane River.
\nThe features of the Female Patients Area of state-level significance include:
\nLayout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views
\nThe buildings are set amongst open lawn areas and semi-formal gardens, and informally arranged in a U-shape around an open rise that was the site of other former ward buildings (former layout evidenced by remnant concrete paths and platforms). They are approached from the south via tree-lined Ellerton Drive, from which the substantial Female Wards 1 & 2 is visually prominent across an area of open terraces that mark the sites of the former night nurses quarters and early doctors residences. Other surviving early ward buildings fronting Ellerton Drive are relatively domestic in scale and have front gardens with open lawns and mature trees. The area is uninterrupted by later development or infill.
\nThe views of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFemale Wards 1 & 2 (1866 and additions and modifications in c1868, 1870, 1875, 1905, 1906, 1923, 1937, and 1951)
\nFemale Wards 1 & 2 is a highly-intact large building of different construction phases standing on a slope near the top of a ridge toward the southern end of the Female Patients Area. Its surrounding land falls steeply away to the west down to the Brisbane River and gently down to the south, which was its former fenced yard. This affords the building visual prominence from Ellerton Drive and extensive panoramic views out to the Brisbane River and surrounds from the southwest to north. Originally built (but never used) as a ward for fee-paying patients, the building has been extended and adapted for use as a general ward for female patients. In 2020 it is vacant and its interior has been stripped of floor boards, some floor structure, fixtures, ceilings, and fittings. The building has a complex layering of significant fabric from different periods of construction, and significant alterations of earlier fabric.
\nFeatures of the Female Wards 1 & 2 of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nShelter Shed for Female Patients (by 1944)
\nThe Shelter Shed for Female Patients (by 1944) stands to the rear (southwest) of Female Wards 1 & 2 with an open space between the two buildings. The shed formed part of the perimeter fence of the ward building’s rear yard and although the fence has been demolished the shed retains one attached fence post and bears marks of the fence. Highly intact, the shed is open on one side facing the Female Wards 1 & 2 and has a fireplace.
\nFeatures of the Shelter Shed of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nGarage (by 1944)
\nThe Garage (by 1944) is a highly-intact, small, freestanding single-car garage building located east of, and facing toward, the Shelter Shed for Female Patients.
\nFeatures of the Garage of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nAnderson House and Garden (1917)
\nAnderson House (1917, former Female Patient Admission Ward) is highly intact and stands northeast of Female Wards 1 & 2, facing Ellerton Drive. Purpose-built as an admissions ward for female patients, the building is domestic in scale and set amongst semi-formal gardens, reflecting its original purpose and the principles of moral treatment. Positioned on a rise, the building is accessed from the south via stairs. In 2020 the building accommodates offices with minimal alterations to the original fabric.
\nFeatures of Anderson House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nResidence (1890s-1910s, relocated c1958, c2000)
\nThe Residence (1890s-1910s) is a small timber-framed and -clad house standing south of Anderson House. Originally built as a residence, it has been relocated twice within the complex (in c1958 it was removed from west of McDonnell House to north of the Medical Superintendent’s Residence, and from there in c2000 to its current location). Fabric relating to and after its c1958 move, including its location and setting, fence and yard, verandah enclosures above handrail height and front balustrade, kitchen and bathroom fitouts, and stumps, are not of state-level cultural heritage significance. In 2020 it is vacant and highly intact.
\nFeatures of the Residence of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nBostock House and Garden (1885, extended 1901, c1924)
\nBostock House (1885, former Female Ward 6) stands to the north of Anderson House, set back from and facing Ellerton Drive. Purpose-built as a female ward building, it comprises its original symmetrical core, northeast extension (1901), southwest extension (1901, 1924, lavatory), and northwest verandah extension (c1924, later enclosed). The building retains its open, semi-formal garden setting. In 2020 the building accommodates offices and is highly intact. Fire stair added (c1969) to the rear verandah and over the front verandah (since removed) are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of Bostock House also of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nDawson House (1944)
\nDawson House (1944, former Female Patient Acute Ward) is a substantial two-storey building with basement, built into the steep slope at the northern end of the Female Patients Area. Purpose-built as an acute ward for female patients, the building in its design and layout reflects the principles of Mental Hygiene. In 2020 it is used as a mental health training and research centre and is highly intact. The building has its main front (south) entrance at ground floor and rear (north) entrance at basement level, and retains its open semi-formal garden setting. Later additions and alterations including stair wells (1965) at the northern ends of the wings, air-conditioning plant and ducting, non-original interior partitions enclosing and dividing former open spaces, and fire doors, are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of Dawson House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFemale Bathroom Block (1902)
\nThe Female Bathroom Block (1902, also known as Dawson Annexe) stands to the east of Dawson House. Built as a communal women’s bathroom, it was converted for use as a workroom / sewing room for female patients (1935) then as a ward (1955), and in 2020 is used for archive storage.
\nFeatures of the Female Bathroom Block also of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFemale Patients Recreation Area and Early Asylum Site
\nThe Female Patients Recreation Area and Early Asylum Site is the area of open ground to the southwest of the Female Patient Area, stretching along the Brisbane River and bounded by Woogaroo Creek to the south.
\nThe features of the Female Patients Recreation Area and Early Asylum Site of state-level significance include:
\nLayout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views
\nThe Female Patients Recreation Area comprises buildings (a Cafeteria, Bowling Green, and Change Room and Stores Shed) laid out along a curved ridge that forms a natural amphitheatre around former playing fields on the lower terrace at the edge of the Brisbane River. A further building (Packing Shed and Patients Shelter) stands southwest of the others and overlooks the sloping ground to the south that was historically an area for the cultivation of vegetables.
\nDeveloped on the site of the former Simpson Residence (1843-44) and the subsequent Early Asylum Site (former Woogaroo Insane Asylum, established 1865, demolished 1890-93 floods) the area now forms part of the Wolston Park Golf Club course (1970s), which contributes to the spacious open grounds and landscape setting of the hospital complex.
\nThe views of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nRecreation Grounds (1951-5)
\nDeveloped as a therapeutic environment for female patients in the 1950s, the park-like character, layout, and spatial setting of the Recreation Grounds is intact and uninterrupted by later development. Mature trees (some possibly dating to the Early Asylum era) are dotted throughout the area and clustered in the vicinity of the Cafeteria and Ellerton Drive. The former tennis court on the ridge, and shelter sheds that stood in an arc around the level former playing fields are no longer extant.
\nFeatures of the Recreation Grounds of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nCafeteria (c1951)
\nThe Cafeteria (c1951) is a one-storey slab-on-ground brick building with a hipped roof standing in the centre of the area. It is long and narrow, stretching along the east/west ridgeline and has many windows on its northern side with impressive views across the recreation area’s amphitheatre to the Brisbane River and landscape beyond. Originally built as the communal dining room and kitchen for the patients of the Female Recreation Area, it is highly intact and in 2020 is used as the clubhouse for the Wolston Park Golf Club. Minimal alterations include a freestanding open-sided shelter on the northern side, replacement of its roof cladding from corrugated asbestos sheets to corrugated metal sheets, rearrangement of the ablutions, insertion of folding partitions into the long dining room, and replacement of the folding doors on the northern side of the dining room.
\nFeatures of the Cafeteria of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nChange Room and Stores Shed (c1951)
\nThe Change Room and Stores Shed (c1951) is a small, timber-framed and -clad rectangular freestanding one-storey building to the west of the Cafeteria. Built to accommodate a change room for patients and two store rooms to service the surrounding vegetable fields, it is highly intact and in 2020 is used as a storeroom. Its original boarded doors have been removed/replaced and its original roof cladding has been changed from corrugated asbestos sheets to corrugated metal sheets.
\nOnly the former soil store room interior was inspected.
\nFeatures of the Change Room and Stores Shed of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nPacking Shed and Patients Shelter (c1951)
\nThe Packing Shed and Patients Shelter (c1951) stands to the southwest of the Cafeteria. It is a freestanding, brick, slab-on-ground building with a cross-shaped floor plan. Originally built to service the surrounding vegetable fields, it is highly intact and in 2020 is used as a store for golf course maintenance. Minimal changes include: removal of two walls from the vegetable storeroom, replacement of its roof cladding from corrugated asbestos sheets to corrugated metal sheets, and addition of a freestanding metal-framed shelter on the southern side.
\nOnly the vegetable store room and packing area interiors were inspected.
\nFeatures of the Packing Shed and Patients Shelter of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nEarly Asylum Site (1865), including former Simpson Residence Site (1843-44)
\nPrior to the establishment of the Early Asylum Site (former Woogaroo Insane Asylum, established 1865, demolished following the 1890-93 floods), the area was the site of the former Simpson Residence (1843-44), which comprised a house located on the ridge, with stables to its southwest, and a series of dams along a north-south watercourse to its east.
\nHistorical documents indicate the Early Asylum Site was arranged with a cemetery near the confluence of the Brisbane River and Woogaroo Creek; a hospital to its northwest; and a men’s ward and various service buildings, along the central curved ridge where the Cafeteria currently stands and to its south. Initial access was via a wharf on the river to the north, and later a series of bridges (footbridge 1870s, timber road bridge by 1896, stone and timber road bridge 1916) crossed the creek southeast of the men’s ward. A steam saw and nearby cottage were located northeast of the footbridge. The female ward stood on higher ground to the north, with a doctors residence to its immediate south. By 1896, water management and farming infrastructure included a dam along what is now Boyce Road, and a nearby sawmill, stables, and piggery.
\nFeatures of the Early Asylum Site and former Simpson Residence Site of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nAreas where potential archaeological evidence could contribute to a greater understanding of the early layout and operation of the complex, the activities and living conditions of occupants, and associated transport infrastructure include the:
\nMale Patients Area
\nThe Male Patients Area is highly intact and comprises patient buildings arranged in an L-shape along the inside of two intersecting straight roads (Hogg Lane and Barrett Road) around two sides of a large Recreation Grounds.
\nThe features of the Male Patients Area of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLayout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views
\nThe buildings are laid out in an evenly-spaced, ordered manner along a high curving ridge with clear open spaces around and between them. They have a service access road (Hogg Lane and Barrett Road, formerly highly-secured by fences) on one side. On the other side is the Recreation Grounds, which the buildings look out over and patients were allowed controlled access. The grounds have been contrived to provide a calm outlook from the buildings and achieve security and supervision of patients.
\nThe buildings are visually striking individually and as a group of similarly-scale structures in a formal, consistent arrangement standing in a planned landscape, which heightens their strong institutional character. The area is uninterrupted by later development or infill and is especially evocative when viewed from the Recreation Grounds.
\nThe views of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nRecreation Grounds (by 1895)
\nThe Recreation Grounds of the Male Patients Area is the open area of ground historically accessible to patients and used for therapeutic recreation and an area for agriculture tended by patients. It comprises a large cricket oval at the southern end, an open grassed space at the northern end (former small agriculture area), ringed by a wide open lawn dotted with mature ornamental trees. The grounds are highly intact and not compromised by later development. The extensive and elaborate security fences between the patients wards and the Recreation Grounds have been demolished and a bitumen road has been added between the buildings and the cricket oval, connecting to Barrett Road.
\nFeatures of the Recreation Grounds of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFleming House (by 1896, extended c1917)
\nFleming House (by 1896, extended c1917) is a two-storey brick building standing at the southeast corner of the Male Patient Area, and is the oldest extant building of the area. Purpose-built as a male ward building, it is surrounded by lawn and mature trees and faces north toward the Recreation Grounds. It has wide L-shaped verandahs at each front corner of its ground floor and retains c1917 extensions (rear ablutions block; northeast pantry). In 2020 the building is vacant and highly intact.
\nFeatures of Fleming House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nGladstone House, Jenner House, and Kelsey House (all 1936)
\nGladstone House, Jenner House, and Kelsey House (all 1936) are three highly-intact, almost identical buildings standing in a curving line west of Fleming House. Purpose-built as male ward buildings, they express their original use through architectural details and features designed for patient care and reflect the principles of moral treatment. Surrounded by lawns, they face northeast toward the Recreation Grounds and their primary access is on this side of the buildings. In 2020 they are vacant and have had most later fabric removed.
\nFeatures of Gladstone House, Jenner House, and Kelsey House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nMale Bathroom Block (1902)
\nThe Male Bathroom Block (1902) is a small rectangular building standing west of Jenner House, beside Hogg Lane. Built as a communal men’s bathroom, the building was converted to a pathology lab in 1927 and is now vacant. A later extension has been made to its eastern side, which is not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of the Male Bathroom Block of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nLewis House, McDonnell House, and Noble House (all 1915)
\nLewis House, McDonnell House, and Noble House (all 1915) are three similar buildings standing in a line northeast of Kelsey House. Purpose-built as male ward buildings, they express their original use through architectural details and features designed for incarcerated patient management and reflect the principles of moral treatment. Surrounded by open lawns, they face southeast toward the Recreation Grounds and their primary access is on this side of the buildings. In 2020 they are vacant and have had most later fabric removed as well as most internal fittings and finishes. The timber ground floor structure has been replaced by a concrete slab, and the original rear bathrooms wings have been demolished. Chimneys have been demolished down to roof level and verandahs and bay windows on Lewis House and Noble House have been demolished. McDonnell House has had its projecting rear stairwells demolished.
\nFeatures of Lewis House, McDonnell House, and Noble House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nOsler House (1928) and Pearce House (1934)
\nOsler House (1928) and Pearce House (1934) are two almost identical, highly-intact buildings standing in a line northeast of Noble House at the northern end of the Male Patients Area. Purpose-built as ward buildings for 'violent' or 'difficult' incarcerated male patients, they express their original use through architectural details and features designed for incarcerated patient management and reflect the principles of moral treatment. Surrounded by open lawns, they face southeast toward the Recreation Grounds and their primary access is on this side of the buildings. In 2020they are vacant and have had their bathrooms stripped out and original timber floors replaced by concrete.
\nFeatures of Osler House and Pearce House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nCemetery Site (1895-1912)
\nThe site of the second cemetery associated with the hospital is located on the western side of the Male Patients Area and is an area of archaeological potential. Historically located north of the main hospital buildings and west of the cricket ground, the cemetery was operational between 1895 and 1912, when it was closed to allow construction of the two-storey male wards and burials were reportedly reinterred to the third cemetery to the north by 1913. The area was subsequently developed for residences (1910s-c1958), and kitchens and workshops (1970s), which were later relocated or demolished.
\nPotential archaeological evidence within and around this area includes burials and reinterments, stone and metal grave markers, and other artefacts and features associated with burial practices.
\nWacol Repatriation Complex
\nThe Wacol Repatriation Complex, purpose-designed for the health treatment of returned members of the Australian armed forces, is north east of the Male Patients Area, separated from it by more than 250m. It has been redeveloped (c2012) for office use.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLayout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views
\nThe terrain of this area slopes gently down to the southeast from a ridge, along the crest of which runs Wolston Park Road, the primary road access. The buildings are arranged to direct their patients’ primary views and allow controlled access in the other direction, to the southeast towards the lower Recreation Grounds. The area is laid out symmetrically with buildings spaced well apart by open lawns with mature ornamental trees, which are generally remnants of grander formal planting schemes.
\nFeatures of the layout and views also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nRecreation Grounds (c1954-5)
\nThe Recreation Grounds (c1954-5) comprises a mix of evenly-sloped open lawn areas with mature trees around and between the buildings, and extending down to a cricket oval (1954-5) located at the southeast end of the complex. The generous open grounds provide a spacious landscape setting for the buildings, and were historically accessible to the patients for therapeutic recreation. Formed and used by the patients, the level cricket oval has a timber fence and mature trees to its perimeter, with stone retaining walls forming terraces around its northwest side.
\nFeatures of the Recreation Grounds of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nKitchen Block (1948)
\nThe Kitchen Block, purpose-built as a central kitchen, dining room, and canteen for patients, stands near Wacol Park Road, between Ward A and Ward B. It is the most prominent building of the Repatriation complex and the centre of the area’s symmetrical layout. Its original corrugated asbestos roof sheets, steel-framed windows, and most timber doors have been replaced and it has been converted for use as offices.
\nFeatures of the Kitchen Block of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nWard A (Jacaranda), Ward B (Silky Oak), and Ward C (Lilly Pilly) (all 1948)
\nWards A, B, and C (all 1948) are three similar buildings arranged symmetrically around the Kitchen Block. Purpose-built as repatriation wards for male patients, they express their original use through architectural details and features designed for patient care, and reflect some principles of moral treatment. Surrounded by open lawns, they are accessed from all sides and face southeast across a broad grassed courtyard down toward the Recreation Grounds. They have been converted for use as offices, removing the original internal fixtures and approximately half their original partitions. The buildings have had their original corrugated asbestos roof sheets, steel-framed windows, and most timber doors replaced, and plaster cornices and suspended ceilings have been installed: these are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of Wards A, B, and C of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nOccupational Therapy and Recreation Hall (c1961)
\nThe Occupational Therapy and Recreation Hall (c1961) stands adjacent to Ward C on its northeast side. Purpose-built for accommodating groups of Repatriation Centre (male) patients for occupational therapy ‘shop’ work and general recreation (including film screenings), it is a small brick building with a verandah on its southeastern side and a gable roof. It has been converted for use as offices and storerooms by inserting new partitions. Some windows have been replaced but the building retains most of its original doors and windows. The original corrugated asbestos roof sheets have been replaced with metal sheets of the same corrugation dimension.
\nFeatures of the Occupational Therapy and Recreation Hall of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nCemetery Site (c1913-1945)
\nThe site of the third cemetery associated with the hospital is located immediately northeast of the Wacol Repatriation Pavilion Complex and is an area of archaeological potential. The area operated as a cemetery for the hospital from c1913 to 1945, when burials were reinterred to the Goonda Cemetery. Historically cleared of vegetation, the site comprises regrowth bushland bounded to the northwest by Wolston Park Road and a carpark and southeast by Orford Drive. The surfaces of both roads are built up above the ground level of the cemetery site.
\nPotential archaeological evidence within and around this area includes burials and reinterments, stone and metal grave markers, and other artefacts and features associated with burial practices.
\nGailes Golf Club Course
\nGailes Golf Club Course (1925) is an 18-hole course stretching along the eastern side of the Wacol Repatriation Complex, Male Patients Area, and Staff Residences Area, forming a landscaped perimeter and contributing to their expansive outlooks.
\nAccessed from and bounded by Wilruna Street to its east, the course is an extensive area of contoured and landscaped ground comprising long open fairways and sculpted open greens and sand traps, surrounded by mature trees of various species (remnant eucalypts and introduced plantings).
\nLaid out in the 1920s, and built and maintained by patients, the course reflects the principles of moral treatment. It is highly intact and uncompromised by later development.
\nFeatures of the Gailes Golf Club Course of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nRiverbank and Nyunda Park Area
\nThe Riverbank and Nyunda Park Area comprises an area of bushland located between the core hospital complex and the former Farm Complex, and stretching northeast around the reservoir and uphill towards the Basil Stafford Centre. Former sandstone quarry workings and associated transport infrastructure are evident amongst the riverbank bushland to the west of Explorer’s Walk, which winds north-south through the area. The modern warehouse to the west and the youth detention centre to the east are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of the Riverbank and Nyunda Park Area of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLandscape and Views
\nThe landscape comprises a mix of remnant and regrowth bushland across an area of varied topography. A sandstone ridge runs along the steep-sided riverbank and the undulating inland terrain comprises a series of contoured ridges, slopes and gullies that form a catchment area around the dam reservoir to the north. The area has remained substantially undeveloped throughout its history. It forms part of the natural landscape setting for the hospital complex and contrasts with the relatively open, designed landscapes surrounding the hospital buildings and across the golf course areas to the east and south.
\nFeatures of the Landscape and Views of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFormer Sandstone Quarry and Track (1860s)
\nThe area west of Explorer’s Walk contains a series of quarry workings where stone was extracted from outcrops along the sandstone ridge. There are two main workings (north and south) and other smaller workings scattered around the centre of this area. The workings are evidenced worked faces (vertical) and benched areas (horizontal), and are accessed by a track along which stone was transported to a jetty on the river, approximately 600m to the north. A second track diverts southeast to access the main hospital complex.
\nFeatures of the Quarry Workings and Track of state-level significance also include:
\nHospital Dump Sites
\nThe Hospital Dump Sites comprise a series of medium to high-density artefact scatters located adjacent to a modern powerline easement to the north of the former Quarry Workings. The scatters contain discarded material associated with the hospital and farm complex, with some evidence it has been deposited in a systematic manner – grouped by type.
\nThe largest scatter contains a concentration of glass, ceramic and metal kitchenware and tableware, including large and small fragments of white-glazed earthenware and stoneware jugs, cups and other vessels, white-enamelled metal jugs and pans, and assorted metal containers and utensils. Other scatters contain collections of metal milk cans, water tanks, bed frames, wire fencing and electrical equipment.
\nFarm Complex
\nThe Farm Complex is located toward the northwest portion of the site near the river and stretches south along a winding vehicle road that connects the main patient ward areas north to the farm areas. A second road, Aveyron Road, carries on from the end of Explorers Walk and leads east up to the Basil Stafford Centre. A large dam is at the centre of the area and there are former farm buildings/remnants to its north and south.
\nThe Farm Ward Complex comprises (generally from south to north):
\nPiggery Remnants (1916-19)
\nRemnants of the former piggery (1916-19) are located on the eastern side of Explorer’s Walk. All structures have been removed, however, the large terraced area of land where the piggery stood retains concrete slabs and paths. Running along the downhill edge of the area is an off-form reinforced concreted wall with a cast iron pipe outlet and low walls forming a square concrete feature on its eastern side.
\nFeatures of the Piggery Remnants of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nDam (1950) and Pump House (by 1956)
\nNorth of the Piggery Remnants within bushland is a large dam reservoir (1950) formed in a valley over a natural creek. Its dam wall is a tall earth embankment with Explorer’s Walk running across its top and on its western side is a concrete outlet partially lined with stone emptying toward the river.
\nA Pump House (by 1956) stands near the dam wall on the north side of the reservoir. Built to feed the nearby farm areas and the distant vegetable gardens north of the Male Patients Area, it is a small rectangular building with a gable roof.
\nFeatures of the Dam and Pump House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nLater Farm Ward for Male Patients (c1964, Weeroona)
\nNorth of the Dam, standing on the western side of the intersection of Explorers Walk and Aveyron Road is the Later Farm Ward for Male Patients. It is a large face brick building, primarily one-storey but with a partial lower ground floor level under its southern section. It has a shallow-pitched gable roof with skylights. It has been stripped of most internal linings but retains most of its original floor plan layout. Most original windows and skylights have been removed and it is used as a training centre for police.
\nFeatures of the Later Farm Ward for Male Patients of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\n\n
Farm Overseer’s House (1918, relocated within complex area c2009-13)
\nThe Farm Overseer’s House (1918), relocated from its original position nearby to the east to stand north of the Later Farm Ward for Male Patients, is a one-storey timber-framed and -clad residence with a hip roof. In its new location it has been rotated to face northeast and has been raised high on steel and timber stumps. In 2020 it is vacant and used as a training centre for police.
\nFeatures of the Farm Overseer’s House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nEarly Farm Ward Kitchen and Dairy (1916)
\nStanding east of the Farm Overseer’s House is the Early Farm Ward Kitchen and Dairy (1916). These two small masonry buildings stand on a raised island of land surrounded by a large lower area that has been flattened to form a driver training track for police. These buildings are the rear outbuildings for a large early farm ward that stood in front of them but has been demolished. The kitchen fireplace has been demolished.
\nChanges which have been made that are not of state-level cultural heritage significance include: adding a verandah awning to the south side of the kitchen building and an awning between buildings, cutting a door into the north wall of the scullery to connect it to the heating room, and enclosing the verandah on the south end of the Dairy building and adding a small extension to its north end. The buildings have been converted for use as a staff kitchenette, toilets, and for storage for the track.
\nFeatures of the Early Farm Ward Kitchen and Dairy buildings of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nBasil Stafford Centre
\nThe Basil Stafford Centre is highly intact and comprises a complex of lowset buildings and landscaped grounds, set amongst bushland and located along an elevated ridgeline in the northern portion of the hospital site. Established as a farm ward for adults, the complex also illustrates its subsequent use and evolution as a centre for the treatment of intellectually disabled children and adolescents – spanning broad-based institutionalisation through to individual care in domestic-scaled villas.
\nThe features of the Basil Stafford Centre of state-level significance include:
\nLayout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views
\nHistorically set apart from the main hospital and surrounded by bushland, the Basil Stafford Centre is accessed via Aveyron Road that approaches from the southeast and connects with the former Farm Complex to the southwest. Expansive views of the surrounding landscape are offered from the road along the ridge and from the hilltop position of the main complex.
\nThe main complex is laid out with the elongated three-block Farm Ward Building fronting Aveyron Road, with open terraces between it and the School Building and Swimming Pool to the rear (north). The generous grounds comprise a mix of landscaped open terraces (former exercise yards with perimeter fence) dotted with mature trees that gently slope down to the north, and bushland. The Villas are located downhill to the east and set amongst light bushland.
\nThe views of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFarm Ward Building and Grounds (1954-6)
\nThe Farm Ward Building (1954-6) is a highly-intact sprawling face brick building positioned on the crown of a hill, which is the highest part of the hospital complex site and from all sides of the building are extensive views out to the surrounding landscape. Purpose-built in three successive stages as male wards for incarcerated patients, it expresses its original use through architectural details and features designed for incarcerated patient management, including efficient and logical room layouts, high levels of natural light and ventilation to the interior, provision of communal ablutions, patient wards of dormitories and single rooms, and security and observation of occupants. In 2020 the building is vacant and most later fabric has been removed. The original corrugated asbestos roof sheets have been replaced with metal sheets of the same corrugation dimension. The original ceilings and eaves (sheets-and-battens or fibrous plaster) have been replaced with flat plasterboard throughout.
\nFeatures of the Farm Ward Building and Grounds of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nSchool Building for Child Patients with Intellectual Disabilities (1967) and Swimming Pool (c1973)
\nThe School Building for Child Patients with Intellectual Disabilities (1967) is a highly intact face brick building comprising four connected wings surrounding a grassed courtyard. Purpose built as a school and training centre for children of the adjacent hospital ward building, the school building expresses its original use through architectural details and features designed for child patients with intellectual disabilities, including efficient and logical room layouts, high levels of natural light and ventilation to the interior, increased provision of toilets, and high levels of security and safety of occupants. In 2020 it is used as an office building.
\nFeatures of the school of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nThe Swimming Pool (c1973) is located adjacent to the school building on its west side. It is a concrete in-ground shell with a rectangular pool of lap lanes connected by a narrow swimming channel to a smaller rectangular wading pool. It is surrounded by a wide concrete apron and a small face brick kiosk with flat roof stands at the north corner of the apron. Later pool sheds, stands, shade structures, and a tall brick fence have been added to the pool, which are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of the Swimming Pool of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nVillas (c1978)
\nThe Villas (c1978) comprise two adjacent groups of buildings in bushland at the eastern part of the Basil Stafford Centre area, along Aveyron Road. Built as patient accommodation of a more suburban domestic nature, in 2020 the small buildings continue in this use but have had their interiors replaced for modern patient care standards. The building’s interiors are not of state-level cultural heritage significance, as are non-original external alterations and additions such as tall fences and courtyards.
\nFeatures of the Villas of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nThe Wolston Park Hospital Complex, opened in 1865 as Woogaroo Asylum, occupies a 311.05 hectare site on the banks of the Brisbane River at Wacol, approximately 19km southwest of the Brisbane CBD. One of only three institutions for people with mental illness established by the Queensland Government during the 19th century, it later incorporated a number of mental health facilities and ancillary services. Since the late 20th century, new uses for some areas of the site have evolved, with repurposing of buildings.
\nPrior to 1859, people within the later colony of Queensland, who were certified as insane, were sent to Sydney. Immediately following Separation, they were lodged at the Brisbane Gaol. In 1861 the government instructed Colonial Architect Charles Tiffin to report on a suitable site and draw up plans for a 400-bed asylum. Tiffin recommended an area of land on the banks of the Brisbane River halfway between Brisbane and Ipswich. This was rejected by the Government in favour of a nearby site, upstream at the junction of the Brisbane River and Woogaroo Creek at Woogaroo.
\nThe site of the new asylum was originally part of the lands of the Yuggera Ugarapul People,[1] and had been occupied by the residence of Dr Stephen Simpson, the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Moreton Bay District. Simpson was appointed in 1842 when the area first opened for free settlement following the closure of the penal colony.[2] An 1861 survey plan indicates the presence of a dwelling between the mouth of Woogaroo Creek and a small dam that still exists east of the current Wolston Park Golf Club clubhouse.[3] The dwelling, most likely Simpson's cottage, was sited just southwest of the clubhouse, with a wharf on the river to the north.[4] Late 1860s plans of the asylum's original buildings indicate that they were located at the east end of the current clubhouse.[5]
\nAsylum Era (1865-1908)
\nTenders for the first stage of construction of the asylum were let in January 1863 and by the end of 1864 sufficient buildings were completed for the asylum to begin operation. Woogaroo Asylum opened on 10 January 1865. On 12 January, seven prison warders (two of them women) and ten police constables escorted 57 male and 12 female inmates from Brisbane Gaol to Woogaroo, travelling by river. The 69 patients were accommodated in a two-storeyed brick building initially intended to be the administration block [not extant]. Male inmates were accommodated on the first floor and part of the ground floor. Females occupied a section of the ground floor. A tall timber fence surrounded the building and timber outbuildings accommodated a kitchen, bathroom and staff areas. Dr Kersey Cannan was appointed as Superintendent and a residence was constructed for him on site, northeast of the main asylum buildings [not extant].
\nThis first stage of the asylum was located at the southern end of the site between the Brisbane River and Woogaroo Creek, with the river providing access. Plans of the site made c1869 and in 1878 indicate that a cemetery was established at its far western end, near the confluence of Woogaroo Creek and the Brisbane River. A 1878 survey plan shows the developments on the asylum site: men’s ward, hospital, cottage, a steam saw beside Woogaroo Creek, land under cultivation, a footbridge over Woogaroo Creek, wharf into the Brisbane River, and on the ridge to the north of the main buildings, the female ward and a doctor’s house to its south.[6]
\nIn 1866, a ward for fee-paying patients was erected on an adjacent ridge about 400 metres to the northeast of the main buildings. The building (later Female Wards 1 and 2) was constructed from local sandstone extracted from a nearby quarry owned by Joshua Jeays, which also supplied stone for the construction of Old Government House (1862, QHR600118) and Parliament House (1865; QHR600069).[7] The superintendent, Dr Cannan, claimed responsibility for the building's design, based on principles recommended in the standard treatise on asylum construction at this time.[8] However, the Woogaroo Asylum was not in a position to receive fee-paying patients and the building remained unoccupied for two years until alterations were made so female inmates could be transferred to this block. A partial second storey was added, constructed to the design of Charles Tiffin in 1875, and other substantial alterations and additions were made to the building in 1905-6, 1923, 1937 and 1951. This building accommodated female inmates for over 100 years, and was the first of several in the separate ‘female area’.
\nIn 1867 the first of many Government inquiries into the operations of the asylum took place, with the Queensland Government appointing Dr Henry Challinor to investigate conditions there. Two further inquiries occurred in 1869. Dr Cannan was dismissed from his post as a result of the first inquiry. The second revealed a multitude of mistakes and incompetency and a number of its conclusions related to the inappropriate and insufficient accommodation on site, and the need for improved cooking facilities and provision of a decent water supply. On the recommendation of the select committee, the Queensland Government introduced the Lunacy Act 1869, based on legislation in other Australian colonies and Britain.
\nIt was not until a royal commission was established in 1877 to investigate Woogaroo Asylum and other reception houses in the colony, that the government was forced to take the continuing problems at the asylum more seriously. Despite the construction of two cottage wards in the early 1870s [not extant], overcrowding remained a chronic problem and the commission urged the construction of additional wards, improvements to existing cells, upgrading of services, the planting of shade trees, the establishment of recreation facilities and the provision of employment for patients. A modest building program began in 1878, with the construction of a cottage ward for 60 female patients, and continued with a block of cells for troublesome female patients in 1879; two wards, each for 35 patients, in the male and female areas in 1880, as well as the construction of a kitchen and laundry building to service 500 inmates [these buildings are not extant].[9]
\nA boom in the Queensland economy and a major increase in expenditure on public works was the impetus for a more substantial building program at the asylum during the 1880s. At the same time, the population of the state was increasing rapidly and accompanying social changes brought more admissions. The hospital population doubled in the two decades from 1880. Two new cottage wards (Female no 6 ward, 1885, later known as Bostock House; and a refractory ward) were erected in the female area, while in the male area, a new refractory ward was constructed [not extant] and major additions to the existing Male no 1 ward were undertaken. Despite this new work, conditions for patients scarcely improved as the additional accommodation barely matched the growth in patient numbers.
\nNew legislation was introduced with the Insanity Act 1884 replacing the Lunacy Act 1869. Modelled on New South Wales legislation, it reflected the growing medicalisation of the treatment of madness. The term lunacy was replaced by insanity and the institution where such persons were treated became known as a hospital for the insane rather than an asylum. This Act consolidated the state's role in the treatment and regulation of ‘insane’ people and remained in force for more than 50 years. The institution was renamed Goodna Hospital for the Insane in the same year.[10]
\nIn 1890 the asylum experienced severe flooding when the Brisbane River rose to a height of 40 feet (12.19m), the highest level ever recorded. The entire male area was inundated; buildings, fences, and other structures were seriously damaged and patients had to be re-located. Consequently, the low-lying area near the river was abandoned, with the main male area moved to higher ground to the northeast, where two male wards had already been erected [not extant]. The relocation brought the complex closer to the railway line (opened in 1875), which replaced the river as the primary means of access to the hospital. A Recreation Hall was erected in 1890, which served as a sewing room for female patients during the day and was also used for dances, concerts and church services, as well as a temporary timber building to alleviate overcrowding [not extant]; while in 1892 a substantial two-story brick building for male patients was opened [not extant].[11]
\nSerious flooding in February 1893 further damaged the male area and inundated the main staff residences and the original cemetery. In accordance with the decision to relocate to higher ground, work began on an outdoor recreation area and two similar single storey wards to accommodate 75 patients each (by 1896) [not extant]; male no 5 ward (later Fleming House), a two-storey brick building (c1896); and a second two-storey block (male no 10 ward)[not extant] opened c1900. These buildings overlooked the cricket oval that had been laid out by patient labour. In 1898-9, a substantial brick Medical Superintendent’s Residence, plus outbuildings [later Manor House, Offices], replacing a timber house badly damaged by the 1893 flood, were erected for the new medical superintendent, James Hogg, appointed in 1898. The residence was located on high ground with its main elevation facing south-east, away from the asylum complex.[12] Ellerton Drive, Hogg Lane, and the western half of Boyce Road had been formed to link buildings and areas on the site by 1896. The southernmost part of Barrett Drive led to a new cemetery (cemetery no 2) established north of the asylum buildings and adjacent to the cricket ground, which was used until the early 1910s. From 1898, the complex was known as the Goodna Hospital for the Insane for the next 42 years.
\nThe most significant building project of the early 1900s involved extensive alterations and additions to the original female ward. The first floor was extended across the entire building, which considerably increased accommodation. A large two-storeyed block, the Male no 4 ward [not extant] was also completed, bringing the male area to a well-defined group of eight buildings. A new morgue and two brick bathroom blocks were constructed in 1902 (the Female Bathroom Block was later known as Dawson Annexe and the Male Bathroom Block was later converted into a pathology laboratory).[13]
\nMoral Treatment or Therapy Era (1909-1937)
\nFollowing the death of James Hogg in 1908, Henry Byam Ellerton (c1871-1951) was appointed as Medical Superintendent of Goodna and Chief Inspector of Hospitals for the Insane. Conscious of the need to find the very best possible candidate, the Queensland Government had advertised widely for the position, including in Britain. Ellerton was chosen from a list of 26 applicants and had 14 years’ experience in English asylums. He was an ardent advocate of 'moral treatment' or ‘moral therapy’. Moral treatment marked a major turning point in an understanding of madness and insanity. Formerly regarded as the total absence or distortion of reason and incapable of cure, insanity came to be seen as a product of an immoral or defective social environment, thus people with mental illnesses could be improved in an appropriate and elevating environment. A critical aspect of moral treatment was the provision of a pleasant environment, with an emphasis on well-lit and ventilated buildings with adequate bathing facilities, reasonably sized rooms with sufficient openings and views to the landscape. Recreation and employment were also considered a vital part of the therapeutic process.
\nEllerton was Superintendent of the hospital for 27 years, retiring in 1936. In this period, Wolston Park acquired its modern form with the construction of the core of its buildings and the consolidation of the institutional environment. As Ellerton's vision was to create an integrated and self-sufficient community, the grounds became gardens and wooden fences were replaced with less claustrophobic wire ones.[14] A large bush house, 100 yards long and 20 yards wide (91.44m x 18.29m) [not extant], was established in 1911 to maintain a steady supply of pot plants for the wards and the Recreation Hall and to provide seedlings and young plants for the gardens throughout the hospital. The institution was opened to visits from relatives and friends and recreational activities became integral to the institution's operations. While aesthetically pleasing gardens and views were considered parts of the therapeutic process, the grounds were also important to the public image of the institution. A pleasant landscaped environment with gardens, bushland and open space suggested the hospital was a benign institution and belied its true character as a place where overcrowding was chronic and inmates were strictly controlled and managed.
\nDuring Ellerton's administration, an extensive building programme was undertaken, with Ellerton providing specialist input at the design stage for medical buildings. An Assistant Medical Superintendent’s Residence (later Offices) was added east of the male area, and the Recreation Hall extended to its front (south) in 1912. Existing male wards were demolished and Male no 9 and 10 wards (later Lewis House), Male no 11 ward (later McDonnell House) and Male no 12 and 13 wards (later Noble House) were completed in 1915.[15] The Hospital Ward Block (later Hospital) was completed and a cedar, three-panel, World War I (WWI) Honour Board unveiled in 1916.[16] A new main entrance bridge over Woogaroo Creek,[17] a female admission ward, Female no 7 ward (later Anderson House), the Administration Block (staff offices in 2020), the Powerhouse (offices, stores and small hospital museum in 2020), water reservoirs, and pumping stations were completed in 1914. The Laundry was completed in 1918. Male no 14 ward (later a ward for difficult female patients; afterwards Osler House) was completed in 1929; and Male no 15 ward for difficult male patients (later Pearce House) was completed in 1934; while the Male no 6, 7 and 8 wards (later Gladstone House, Jenner House, and Kelsey House respectively) were completed in 1936. Upon Ellerton's retirement, the male area comprised a total of 13 blocks, all constructed of brick and designed to accommodate between 20 and 120 inmates. However, the upgrading of facilities and increase in beds from 1910 to 1936 failed to negate the increase in patients, and overcrowding remained a chronic problem.[18]
\nCompared with the extensive building program in the male area between 1910 and 1936, improvements in the female area were extremely modest. Ellerton felt that the expansion of the female area was limited due to the topography of the site and advocated additional female wards at other institutions such as Ipswich Mental Hospital (established 1878) and Toowoomba Mental Hospital (established 1890).[19] However, a brick and concrete shelter shed with fireplace was added near Female no 1 and 2 wards in 1929 for ‘difficult patients’.[20] In the period 1910-20, the number of female inmates decreased by 20%, falling from 491 to 389 patients and the 1910 female population level was not regained until 1929. Male patients, including war veterans, increased by 30% during this period, rising from 779 to 1010.[21]
\nThe second cemetery (cemetery no 2), located north of the main buildings and adjacent to the cricket ground, closed in the early 1910s to allow construction of the two-storey male wards, which opened in 1915. A third cemetery (cemetery no 3), located in the northeast sector of the hospital site, appeared on survey plans prepared in the 19th century, but it is unclear whether it also operated from the late 19th century in conjunction with cemetery no 2.[22] Nevertheless, cemetery no 3 became the sole cemetery for the hospital from 1913 until 1945,[23] as Ellerton reported in 1913 that the ‘disinterment of remains from [the] old cemetery and re-internment in[to the] new cemetery – to make room for new wards’ had been completed.[24]
\nDuring Ellerton's period in charge, the institution underwent considerable material improvement and a number of essential services such as a hospital, electricity, and water had been established. For example, Pump houses, a watertower (demolished) and a rendered brick Reservoir, located adjacent to the main drive (later called Ellerton Drive) and connected to the Brisbane pipeline from Mount Crosby, were completed in 1914.[25]
\nAlso formed was the backbone of the road network and upgraded paths that became the basis of the current layout. The main drive from Goodna (Ellerton Drive, 1870s) was realigned opposite the female wards for their extension c1913 and its level altered. Foundation stones, and kerbing and guttering stones for the drive were quarried from the sandstone ridge beside the river, while the surface gravel came from gravel pits in the institution’s grounds. After a new bridge was erected over Woogaroo Creek in 1916, a new road connecting with Ellerton Drive was formed in 1917 and planted with bunya pines and fig species.[26] Hogg Lane, accessing Male no 5-8 wards had been formed by 1896.[27] Barrett Drive, which led to cemetery no 3 (truncated 1946), was established by 1932,[28] but conceivably dates from the commencement of the cemetery by 1913. The track to the new Farm Ward (1916, realigned and upgraded into a road in 1950; later called Explorers Walk) was also formed in this era.[29]
\nMany of the new buildings were well designed and excellent examples of the output of the Queensland Department of Works during this time. Some of the buildings demonstrated a refinement in approaches to patient care, such as the small and domestic scale Female no 7 ward (later Anderson House), which was designed to accommodate female patients when they were first admitted for observation and to receive more individual treatment than was possible in a large ward.
\nRecreational facilities had vastly improved and the complex now had three tennis courts, a Cricket Pavilion and terraces and a Cricket Oval (later Recreation Ground, now known as the Eddie Gilbert Memorial Field) considered one of the best cricket grounds in the state.[30] A golf course had been constructed by patient labour in the 1920s, becoming the well-regarded Gailes Golf Course (1925), which continued to be a source of employment for patients in the upkeep and maintenance of the greens.[31] A small hexagonal, timber Visitors Pavilion was erected near the main drive within the landscaped Visitors Garden (1912) below the Administration Block in c1920.[32]
\nPatients were also employed in farming activities that aided the hospital's self-sufficiency and conformed with the moral therapy model of treatment. Farm activities included a piggery; a dairy; a small cattle herd; and vegetable and crop growing–including oats, maize and lucerne. These activities were extended with the addition of a Farm Ward (1916; later Community Hall, Pappora) [not extant], attached masonry Kitchen with scullery (c1916), masonry Dairy (1916), Sheds (1916) [not extant], and an Overseers Cottage (1918; later Quarter Way House, Residence) [relocated onsite], all about two kilometres northwest of the main hospital complex, set in a rural landscape with mature plantings, built landscape works, and views.[33]
\nHowever, no new techniques or methods of treatment had been introduced. Even the later Male Wards nos 6, 7 and 8 (Gladstone, Jenner and Kelsey), were still firmly based on the moral therapy model, despite their new designs with unusual plan forms. The institutionalisation of people with mental illness in Queensland had become an efficient system of control and regulation, with an emphasis on confinement rather than treatment or care. More patients than ever were admitted to Goodna and no other solution to the treatment of mental illness was even considered possible.
\nMental Hygiene Era (1938-1962)
\nEllerton was succeeded as Medical Superintendent by Dr Basil Stafford, the former Superintendent of Ipswich Mental Hospital in 1938.[34] Ellerton's retirement provided the opportunity to review the entire mental health system in Queensland and in particular, Ellerton's total commitment to moral therapy. By the late 1930s psychiatry was a well-established specialty internationally, though still in its infancy in Australia, and Stafford was alert to the changes psychiatry was bringing to the treatment of mental illness. In 1937 he was sent by the Queensland Government to attend the 2nd International Congress on Mental Hygiene in Paris and on a study tour of hospitals, psychiatric clinics and universities in the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom.
\nOn his return, Stafford recommended various changes to the mental health system, including the implementation of new legislation. These recommendations led to the Mental Hygiene Act 1938, which closely resembled the British Mental Treatment Act 1930. It required active treatment for the mentally ill, attempted to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness, and allowed for voluntary admission to mental hospitals.[35]. Until this time hospitals such as Goodna received only certified patients, most of whom were sent there under a magistrate's order. However, the transition to a less coercive approach to treatment occurred slowly and in 1947 Stafford reported that only 34 of the total 570 patients had been admitted under the voluntary provisions of the Act. The changes were mirrored by the institution’s change of name to Brisbane Mental Hospital c1940.[36]
\nThe ideas of modern treatment introduced by Stafford emphasised the development of a comprehensive psychiatric approach, with adequate numbers of qualified medical staff. Insanity was seen as a disease of the brain and like any other disease required hospitalisation of patients and treatment with drugs. 'Modern treatment' he noted 'demands exhaustive mental and clinical case histories, as well as completely thorough physical examination. This cannot be done by a skeleton staff, however willing'.[37] This approach also brought degrees of specialisation among the staff and hospital procedures. Stafford advocated the separation of chronic wards from those dealing with admission, convalescence, and hospital cases. He believed that mental illness 'demands active therapy, and treatment must not become merely custodial' and urged the use of new types of treatment such as insulin, cardiazol, and electrotherapy.[38]
\nThe first building at Wolston Park to reflect Stafford's modern ideas was Female ward no 4 (later Dawson House), completed in 1944. It provided accommodation for 60 patients and was located on a sloping site close to the existing female wards. It was recognised that a building with a basement could be built on such topography, with the basement accommodating treatment rooms for cardiazol therapy, insulin therapy, malaria therapy, somnifaine or continuous narcosis therapy, and other medical treatments. The most striking difference was that minimal attention was given to the outside environment – this building was inward-looking, signalling the demise of the importance placed on the environment in 'moral treatment' and the increasing medicalisation of the treatment of mental health.[39]
\nAnother important building project for female patients at this time was the construction, between 1951 and 1955, of a special female recreation facility of approximately 2.5 hectares on the western edge of the reserve, adjacent to the Brisbane River. The principal building within the area was a brick Cafeteria with facilities to serve 500 patients (later Ballroom, Wolston Park Golf Clubhouse). Patients could spend the whole day in the recreation area without needing to return to the wards for midday meals. Other facilities in the area included a packing shed, sewing room [not extant], tennis court [not extant], bowling green [later putting green], a large playing field, nine viewing shelters [not extant] and storage sheds [one extant]. The grounds were landscaped by staff and inmate labour. By 1957 more than 200 patients were regularly using the facilities, highlighting the rigorous separation of patients according to gender that operated in all facets of the institution.[40] In 1956, a small brick and timber Visitors Shelter [not extant] was erected west of Ellerton House on Ellerton Drive.
\nBy January 1942, 110 returned soldiers were inmates of Goodna Mental Hospital and the Commonwealth Government expressed concern about the growing numbers being admitted. War veterans had become a significant minority of the hospital population since the final years of WWI and Ellerton had decided that using existing institutions was preferable to building new facilities. During World War II (WWII), however, the Commonwealth agreed to fund the construction of three special wards, with the Queensland Government agreeing to responsibility for the maintenance of the buildings and for staffing. Plans for a complete repatriation unit were prepared by the Department of Public Works in consultation with Basil Stafford. Their design essentially resurrected the principles of 'moral treatment' – the buildings were designed to minimise the sense of confinement associated with mental hospitals, and freedom was emphasised by wide verandahs and dining areas opening onto grassed courtyards and lawns. Construction of the wards began in 1946, and the Wacol Repatriation Pavilion was opened by Governor John Lavarack on 26 January 1948. It comprised three wards: Wards A, B and C; (later called Jacaranda, Silky Oak and Lilly Pilly respectively) each with accommodation for 88 patients and a Kitchen/canteen block. An Occupational Therapy and Recreation Hall was erected c1961 and a cricket oval (later called Sports Oval) in 1954-55.[41]
\nIn 1943, the Superintendent of the Goodna Hospital had advised the Director General of Health and Medical Services that the existing burial ground (cemetery no 3) was ‘almost completely occupied’ and a new one was needed.[42] Instead, the Department of Health and Home Affairs decided to use the local Goodna cemetery and ‘provide a motor hearse for funerals’.[43] Another possible reason for closing the cemetery was the proposed location of the new repatriation buildings between the male area and the cemetery.[44] After the cemetery closed, headstones and grave-markers were relocated to the Goodna cemetery. Bodies were re-interred, but the number is uncertain. In June 1947 the Courier Mail reported in a critical article on the hospital that the patients were ‘to disinter 4000 bodies from the hospital cemetery and re-bury then in Goodna town cemetery’.[45] However, a heritage plaque at Goodna cemetery notes that 192 bodies of the former Woogaroo Asylum were exhumed and relocated to two areas of the Goodna general cemetery, as well as about 2,300 grave markers.[46]
\nBetween 1946 and 1951, as part of the expansion of farming on site, a large dam was constructed south of the farm and irrigation plants installed. A pumping station on the northern side of the lake supplied water from the dam to both the farm and vegetable gardens near the male wards.[47] The pre-existing track (later Explorers Walk) between the main hospital site and the farm was re-aligned around the dam.[48]
\nIn the late 1940s, planning began for a new farm ward complex. Farm wards at the hospital had traditionally operated as semi-independent units where patients enjoyed greater levels of freedom and autonomy, unlike the main wards where people were locked in their cells or wards. A new site on the summit of a hill east of the existing farm wards was chosen and a building comprising two large wards, Farm Ward Block A (east) and B (west), with accommodation for 175 patients and a central dining/recreation block, was erected in stages between 1953 and 1957. Access was via a road completed in 1952, which partly follows a small area of a track evident by 1946 (now called Aveyron Road). Patients included both people with intellectual disabilities and people who had responded well to treatment and had the potential for recovery and discharge. In 1958, part of the farm ward complex was set aside for patients regarded as having intellectually disabilities and in 1964 a five teacher school was established to teach the 160 children who lived there. In 1967, a new school building providing educational and therapeutic facilities comprising classrooms, manual training, domestic science, and special purpose rooms grouped around a central courtyard, was completed. Gradually, all this complex became occupied by children with intellectual disabilities and was renamed the Basil Stafford Centre. Villa style patient accommodation was constructed nearby by 1978.[49]
\nFrom an early period, visiting clergy conducted religious services, but no specific facilities were provided by the government until after the appointment of three fulltime chaplains to the Brisbane Mental Hospital in 1959.[50] To assist them in the conduct of services and in the counselling of patients, three chapels, of similar design, were erected in a semi-circular pattern at the eastern end of Ellerton Drive in 1961. These were the Anglican Chapel of Christ the King [not extant], the Roman Catholic St Dymphna Chapel, in honour of the Catholic Patron Saint of people with mental illnesses [not extant], and the Council of Churches’ Chapel of Hope (later renamed the Chapel of Resurrection, adapted for use as the Forensic Administration after 1996).[51] In 1963, Brisbane Mental Hospital was renamed Brisbane Special Hospital.[52]
\nPsychiatric and Expanded Services (1962-late 1970s)
\nThe hospital population peaked in the mid-1950s, with an average of approximately 2500 residents daily (not including Wacol Repatriation Pavilion patients) and 700 staff. However, by the late 1950s, the efficacy of large-scale, all-purpose institutions for the treatment of mental illness began to be questioned. It was recognised that patients became institutionalised to the extent that living in large institutions perpetuated their mental disorders and did not assist them to recover. The Division of Mental Hygiene within the Health Department embarked on a program of expanding acute psychiatric beds in general hospitals and transferring elderly senile patients from mental hospitals to nursing homes. This resulted in a decline in the number of patients at Goodna, and in 1960 Director Basil Stafford was able to report that, for the first time, the hospital had an excess of beds. The complex began to develop a different role. No longer did it cater for every type of patient from every part of the state; instead the majority of inmates were long-term chronic patients. The new Mental Health Act 1962 emphasised the integration of psychiatric with other services[53] and placed a greater emphasis on voluntary admission. The complex became known as Brisbane Special Hospital at this time, but in 1969 it was re-named Wolston Park Hospital.
\nWith the reduction in long-term patients at the hospital, the old farm ward buildings at the northern end of the site were repurposed in 1965 as a new alcohol rehabilitation centre, known as the Wacol Rehabilitation Centre. Alcoholics had been patients at Wolston Park since the Inebriates Act 1892 allowed for their admission to designated institutions; however, there had been no specific facilities for them. New buildings were erected adjacent to the former farm ward including four wards, offices, and an occupational therapy area. These were a 1960s brick building [not extant]; a new Farm Ward (later called Weeroona), a two-storey brick building designed by Bligh, Jessop, Brentall and Partners, and completed in 1965, which initially served both male and female patients; and a separate complex for female patients (Melaleuca House and Poinciana House) [not extant], designed by Des Hanman & Associates and established in 1974.[54]
\nDe-institutionalisation Era (late 1970s-)
\nIn 1976 the Minister for Health released a paper on the Care of the Intellectually Handicapped, which proved to be the catalyst for major changes in the delivery of mental health services. The Intellectually Handicapped Services branch within the Health Department was established in 1977 and took responsibility for the Basil Stafford Centre. Research into the long-term effects of institutionalisation and the lack of success in the treatment and care provided in institutional settings led to critical questioning of the institutional model for people with mental illnesses, and people with intellectual or physical disabilities. In addition, the increasing criticism of conditions within mental hospitals and the abuse of patients' rights gave impetus to the development of alternative models; in particular, community-based mental health services. The community care model was adopted slowly in Queensland. Institutions were reformed; however, an emphasis on institutional care remained.
\nShort-term care with intensive treatment was the preferred model. Several major building projects, which reflected these changing ideas, were undertaken at Wolston Park during the 1970s, as well as extensive re-modelling of existing structures. In 1978, the Barrett Psychiatry Unit was established to provide acute care. It comprised eight separate buildings, a reception and admission block, three wards with 32 beds, two wards with 16 beds, cafeteria and medical officer's flat. In 1984 it expanded to include inpatients and specialised services for young people. A new medical centre opened in 1979 and in 1980 Nyunda Park, which included an extensive area of bushland and Joshua Jeays’ former sandstone quarry, a dam, and tracks,[55] was set up as an outdoor recreation area. The John Oxley Centre, a forensic psychiatric unit, was built at the western side of the site next to the Brisbane River in 1990 [not extant]. A number of the 19th century buildings were demolished in the 1970s and 1980s, with renovation and rehabilitation of other remaining 19th century buildings occurring in the late 1990s.
\nAt the time the Wolston Park Hospital Complex was entered in the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992, Queensland Health owned the whole site, along with Gailes Golf Course and Wolston Park Golf Course (established c1975), both leased.[56] Afterward, the Basil Stafford Training Centre was transferred to the Department of Community Services, while the northern sector of the site was transferred to the Department of Corrective Services, with maximum-security facilities, the Wolston Correctional Centre and Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre opening on this land in 1999.[57] The Brisbane Youth Detention Centre, opened to the south of the Basil Stafford Training Centre in 2001.[58] In 2020, a new youth detention centre (West Moreton Youth Detention Centre) is under construction beside (northeast of) the existing youth detention centre.[59]
\nAs part of the 1996 Ten Year Mental Health Plan for Queensland, Wolston Park Hospital was formally closed in 2001. The main hospital became known as The Park - Centre for Mental Health and decentralised its extended care services with a greater emphasis on rehabilitation and recovery. The Park provided clinical treatment and rehabilitation programs to patients from central and southern Queensland, including care for people with a chronic mental disorder and for people with a mental disorder who also had an intellectual disability; forensic care services;[60] and an extended treatment service for adolescents. New buildings were added and some of its historical buildings were renovated.[61] Most of the new buildings were domestic in scale and character and included accommodation for patients and medical and administrative facilities. Some replaced buildings erected during the 1970s, such as parts of the Barrett Psychiatric Centre.
\nIn December 2007, the Queensland Police Service (QPS) acquired a large portion of the former Wolston Park Hospital site, which included more than 30 buildings and other infrastructure, for the site of a new Police Academy and other police functions including a Centre for Forensic Investigation, specialist operational facilities, and a warehousing and archiving facility. A master plan of proposed development of the site was created by 2008. In 2009, an additional 41ha, including the early farm site, was acquired by QPS for use as the driver training facility under a memorandum of cooperation with the Department of Corrective Services. Since 2011, QPS has made site infrastructure and landscaping changes to roads and paths, services, open space, landscaping, and carparks; conserved and adapted six existing buildings for new uses; and added new buildings to the site.[62]
\nIn 2020, a 37.75ha parcel of land on the eastern edge of the site remains undeveloped.[63] This was part of a 591-acre (239ha) Reserve for a Cemetery at Woogaroo (R591) gazetted in 1878, but never used for that purpose. The cemetery reserve was altered in 1889, cancelled in 1946,[64] and its land (483 acres/195ha) added to the then Brisbane Special Hospital Reserve (R593).[65] From c1960 until the late 1970s, there was quarrying on the site, northeast of the Basil Stafford Training Centre, accessed primarily from Grindle Road. Gravel extraction from pits on the site, for use in landscaping at the Wolston Park Hospital Complex, also occurred.[66]
\nA strong association between the Queensland community and Wolston Park Hospital Complex has existed for a long time. Throughout much of the institution’s history, it served as a place that provided the community, and families and friends of patients, with hope for the care and treatment of people with mental illnesses.[67] Individuals, Brisbane and Ipswich businesses, and community groups, such as the Country Women’s Association, Returned Sailors’ Soldiers’ & Airmen’s Imperial League of Australia, Red Cross, Women’s Auxiliary of the Queensland Ex-Prisoners of War Association, and the United Protestant Association provided support to patients through entertainments, gifts, donations, outings, and assistance with sports events.[68]
\nBy the mid-1950s, Wolston Park Hospital Complex had become the largest mental hospital in Australia with about 2,500 daily average residents and a staff of almost 800.[69] One history of the institution stated it: ‘was a self-contained community with a close symbiotic relationship to the adjoining township (later, suburb) of Goodna where most of the staff lived. For many locals, the hospital was the place of employment for generations of the same family.’[70] Its workforce included health-care workers and ‘a large team of carpenters, plumbers, blacksmiths, engineers and other tradesmen [who] kept the place running, including the generation of electricity from a…powerhouse.’[71]
\nDuring its long history, more than 50,000 people from throughout Queensland were admitted to the Wolston Park Hospital Complex.[72] This led to strong associations with the place, not necessarily positive. Being sent there had lasting impacts on many patients. For those admitted between 1865 and the 1950s, their experience while incarcerated was often of overcrowding, insufficient staffing, and unpaid work. Later, when the institution’s efforts turned to pro-actively treating mental illness and returning patients to the community, patients underwent experimental drug- or electroconvulsive-therapies. Physical and mental abuse of patients by some staff members was always a possibility, as was sexual abuse.[73] With the transition to primarily community-based services, and the establishment of a patients’ advocate (Patients’ Friend from 1977, changing to Health Ombudsman from 2013) and the Association of Relatives and Friends of the Mentally Ill (ARAFMI Queensland branch formed in 1977), the experiences of patients with mental illness or intellectual disabilities changed.[74]
\nIn 2020, mental health and disability support functions remain on the site, serving patients from the Queensland-wide community (The Park-Mental Health Centre, Basil Stafford Disability Services). Other community links to the site continue, through participation in sporting clubs such as Gailes Golf Club, Wolston Park Golf Club, and the Wolston Park Centenary Cricket Club, which utilise former hospital recreation facilities.
","criteria":"Wolston Park Hospital Complex (established in 1865 as Woogaroo Asylum) is important in demonstrating the evolution of mental health care and welfare in Queensland, and is an early and distinctive example of a substantial public mental health institution.
\nWolston Park Hospital Complex demonstrates the primary role of the state in the care of people with mental illness since the 1860s. Founded by the Queensland government as the first publicly funded mental health institution in the colony, by the 1950s it had become the largest institution providing care and treatment for people with mental illness in Queensland. The site is also important in demonstrating the development of specialist mental health services for returned service personnel and people with intellectual disabilities, including children.
\nWolston Park Hospital Complex retains: a range of buildings dating from the 1860s, which through their design, relationships with each other and their setting, including designed landscapes, gardens and bushland, demonstrate the changing practices in the treatment of mental illness: from confinement and separation in the 19th century (Asylum); to activities and an environment conducive to mental health/recovery from 1909 to the 1930s (Moral Treatment or Therapy); to active treatment and cure through drug and medical therapies from the 1940s (Mental Hygiene 1940s-50s and Psychiatric Services 1960s-70s); to deinstitutionalization and community-based services by the 1980s.
\nThe physical evolution of the site also demonstrates these changes in practices as the complex developed incrementally across its large reserve. Landscaping of the grounds and gardening by patients during the moral treatment era served as a form of therapy, through meaningful work to create a pleasant environment and recreation facilities. Farming was also used as a therapy during the moral treatment era and from the 1950s for those with intellectual disabilities.
\nThe institution’s philosophy of self-sufficiency is illustrated by the riverside quarry (1860s) and associated buildings, structures and landscaping featuring its sandstone; the Farm Wards which provided food supplies; and the Female Wards 1 and 2 constructed using bricks made onsite and timber felled nearby.
|As one of only three mental health institutions established in Queensland in the 19th century, and the only one that illustrates through its fabric and layout the evolution of mental health services from the 1860s onwards, Wolston Park Hospital Complex is rare and distinctive.
|The Wolston Park Hospital Complex has the potential to contribute knowledge that will lead to a greater understanding of early and evolved mental health treatment practices and conditions, the associated activities and infrastructure, the people who lived and worked there, and broader 19th and early-20th century social attitudes towards mental health patients in Queensland.
\nDetailed analysis of the hospital buildings – their planning, design and fabric, along with associated objects and documentary evidence – has the potential to contribute to a greater understanding of the historical functions, operational activities, and conditions experienced by patients subject to a controlled environment.
\nArchaeological investigations at and around the three former cemetery sites may clarify the presence, nature and extent of burials, which along with the identification and analysis of associated artefacts and features has the potential to yield information about the treatment of deceased patients and burial practices at the hospital; spatial distribution and arrangement of graves; and the extent and methods of reinterments.
\nArchaeological investigations of the early asylum area – its wards, hospital, doctors residence and cottage sites, and associated jetty and bridge sites – has the potential to reveal sub-surface artefacts and features that might inform on the layout and operational activities, the living conditions of occupants, and transportation infrastructure associated with the complex. Previously the location of the 1840s Simpson residence, this area also has the potential to yield information about the mid-19th century occupation of the site.
\nThe medium and high-density artefact scatters in the riverbank bushland area, including glass, ceramic and metal kitchenware and tableware, have the potential to contribute to our understanding of the occupants and their material culture, and the day-to-day activities of hospital life.
|Highly-intact, Wolston Park Hospital Complex is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial public mental health institution in Queensland developed from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. Principal characteristics include its: expansive, isolated, and highly-secured site; groups of hospital buildings laid out in areas according to function, with segregation of male and female patients; on-site services and infrastructure to allow self-contained operation; patient cemeteries; and landscape features and functions designed for patient therapy. Wolston Park Hospital Complex is the earliest and most extensive example of its type in Queensland.
\nThe complex’s buildings, structures, and landscapes important in demonstrating this type of place include:
\nEarly road network:
\nCentral Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area:
\nFemale Patients Area:
\nFemale Patients Recreation Area and Early Asylum Site:
\nMale Patients Area:
\nWacol Repatriation Complex:
\nGailes Golf Club Course (1925)
\nFarm Complex:
\nBasil Stafford Centre:
\nand, Hospital Dump Sites.
\nWolston Park Hospital Complex is also important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the architectural work of the Queensland Department of Public Works (DPW), retaining an extensive range of excellent, highly-intact examples of DPW-designed buildings constructed across more than 100 years (1875 to c1978). The principal characteristics of the DPW’s architectural work demonstrated at the hospital complex include: well-designed, fit-for-purpose buildings with a dignified civic character; use of high-quality materials; and abundant natural light and ventilation of interiors.
|Wolston Park Hospital Complex is important for its aesthetic significance due to the expressive and evocative qualities of its highly intact buildings and landscapes.
\nThe place expresses the Queensland Government’s regulation and treatment of people with mental illnesses from the 1860s to the 1970s, particularly its use of moral treatment. Through its elevated location and ordered buildings in formal landscapes surrounded by bushland, with controlled views to and from its features, the government sought to convey the perceptions of order, control, and calm to patients and visitors.
\nThe place is also evocative of institutional life and associated experiences of isolation, dependence, confinement, and treatment. These evocative qualities are layered across a variety of aspects including: substantial ward buildings designed for patient observation, control and management; communal patient dormitories, ablutions, dining, and recreation rooms, and individual patient cells; patient work and recreation landscapes; patient morgue and cemeteries; hospital paraphernalia and dump artefacts; and the patina of use on the fabric of the buildings. Important views unfold across the place, as exemplified by the imposing early female and male ward buildings juxtaposed with their open landscaped surrounds.
|Operating for more than 155 years, Wolston Park Hospital Complex, the oldest and for many years, the largest mental health facility in Queensland, has a strong and special association with the Queensland mental health community, including past and present patients, their family members, friends, and advocates, medical and non-medical staff, social workers, clergy, and volunteers.
|Wolston Park Hospital Complex has a special association with Henry Byam Ellerton (c1871-1951), its Medical Superintendent and the Inspector of the Insane of Queensland between 1909 and 1936, who made a notable contribution to the development of mental health services in the state. Ellerton improved patient care through staff training, occupational therapy, and improved facilities. In accordance with the moral treatment method of patient therapy, Ellerton transformed Wolston Park Hospital Complex, through major building, farming, recreation, and landscaping programmes, laying out the complex in the form it still retains.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15116,"place_ref":600341,"name":"Astrea","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"19 Bank Street","suburb":"WEST END","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Astrea is a pair of two-storeyed semi-detached timber houses.
A double-storeyed verandah runs across the front of the building. This is ornately decorated with cast-iron valances, posts, frieze and balusters. The building has a single hipped roof in corrugated iron.
The separate identity of each house is highlighted by a small gable at either end of the top verandah, each with an intricate fretwork pediment. These are supported by double columns which continue down to the lower level and flank the entry on the ground floor.
Leadlight fan and sidelights surround the cedar panelled front doors. The internal joinery is also cedar.
During the conversion to a house, the brick party wall was opened and one staircase was removed. Recent refurbishment has included the replacement of these features as well as double-storeyed additions at the rear.
","history":"Astrea, a two-storeyed timber building, was constructed c1888 as a pair of semi-detached houses. The architect may have been John Ibler, who in February 1888 called tenders for a pair of semi-detached brick and wood residences in Bank Street.
They were erected for Fedder Jensen as an investment, and rented to white collar tenants. These included his son Magnus, a solicitor and Queensland MLC 1904-15, who is first listed in the post office directories as resident on the east side of Bank Street in 1888. In 1909 the building was sold to Thomas and Harriet Walters, who converted it into a single residence, and possibly gave it the name Astrea.
After falling into a state of disrepair Astrea was sold in 1981 and refurbished as a pair of semi-detached houses.
","criteria":"Astrea at West End, erected c1888, is significant as a rare Brisbane example of a pair of semi-detached timber houses built in the late 19th century, and as an example of a speculative multiple housing venture of the 1880s boom period. They are important also in illustrating the development of West End in the years prior to the floods of 1890 and 1893.
|Astrea at West End, erected c1888, is significant as a rare Brisbane example of a pair of semi-detached timber houses built in the late 19th century, and as an example of a speculative multiple housing venture of the 1880s boom period.
|Astrea at West End, erected c1888, is significant as a rare Brisbane example of a pair of semi-detached timber houses built in the late 19th century, and as an example of a speculative multiple housing venture of the 1880s boom period.
|Astrea has considerable aesthetic appeal, and contributes significantly to the historic West End townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15117,"place_ref":600342,"name":"Gas Stripping Tower","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"277 Montague Road","suburb":"WEST END","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The gas stripping tower is constructed of curved cast components, which fit together to form a slender tower surmounted by a work platform, a water tank disguised as a lantern drum, a cupola and a superimposed weathervane. It stands approximately 21 m high with a diameter of about 3.5 m. Spare relief work decorates the panels, and an access stair and handrail, braced by decorative cast brackets, accentuates the profile.
The 1988 renovation work involved sand blasting the exterior, repainting it in the original reddish brown colour with an epoxy finish, and highlighting the relief work in silver. Also the cupola was removed, repaired and painted silver before being replaced on the tower.
The tower is adjacent to Riverside Drive, and is visible from both river banks. Decorative paving and a commemorative plaque, which were 1988 improvements, define the immediate area.
","history":"This demountable cast iron tower was manufactured in 1912 by Robert Hempster & Sons Ltd, Yorkshire, and transported in segments to Brisbane, where it was erected at the South Brisbane Gas & Light Company's works in Montague Road, West End.
The South Brisbane Gas & Light Company was established in 1885, in direct competition to the Brisbane Gas Corporation. Initially the companies supplied gas to both sides of the river, but in 1889 agreement was reached whereby the BGC supplied the northside, and the SBGLC to the south of the river.
As a result of growing demand for gas and the need to upgrade their facilities, in 1911 the company sent their principal engineer to Britain to assess the latest in gas production technology. The decision to erect a stripping tower was a result of this visit.
The tower was used in the removal of tar and ammonia from raw coal gas. Gas was piped into the base of the tower, from where it rose to the top via a series of internal baffles over which water was sprayed from a header tank at the top of the tower, stripping the gas of coal tar and ammonia in the process. The liquid was drained via a water seal at the bottom, and sold as ammonia liquor.
By 1949 more sophisticated techniques were being employed to remove impurities from gas, and the tower was no longer used. With the availability of natural gas to Brisbane in the 1970s, the company's Montague Road works were made redundant and in 1975 most of the structures on the site were demolished.
In the same year the stripping tower was acquired by the National Trust of Queensland, who dismantled the structure and stored it pending availability of a suitable relocation site. In 1979 it was reassembled in Davies Park, approximately 150 m from its original position. In 1988 Allgas Energy Ltd (formerly the South Brisbane Gas & Light Company) refurbished the tower and landscaped the surrounding area, as a bicentennial gift to Brisbane.
Although relocated, the tower survives as the only one of its type in Australia.
","criteria":"Through its association with the South Brisbane Gas and Light Company, the place demonstrates the evolution of Queensland's history, in particular the evolution of the former West End river bank industrial area
|The place demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage, being the only surviving gas stripping tower in Australia.
|The place exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular its contribution to the riverscape along the Milton-Toowong Reach of the Brisbane River
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15118,"place_ref":600343,"name":"Brighton Terrace","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"30 Sussex Street","suburb":"WEST END","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Brighton Terrace is built on steeply sloped land that drops down from the street frontage and overlooks Brisbane city. The timber picket fence that extends across the entire street length of the terrace was constructed in 1990. Wooden decking provides access to the houses that are set back from the street boundary. Gardens exist only at the rear of the properties where the land evens out. No original vegetation survives as the grounds were extensively re-landscaped with palm trees, low shrubbery and brick paving in 1990.
The four residences which collectively form Brighton Terrace are basically identical. The timber houses are each single storied at street level, with a subfloor level at the rear where the land falls away. Each pair of residences is housed under a single gabled hip roof that is clad in corrugated iron. Projecting gables at the front of each house are decorated with timber sunburst designs and finials while the eaves have pairs of brackets. The exterior walls are clad with narrow chamferboards. Windows at the front of each house are timber framed double hung sashes that have been grouped in threes.
Each house consists of six main rooms and three bathrooms, the plan of which is roughly rectangular. The facades are asymmetrically arranged so that the front bedroom of each house projects forward and a small verandah is created. Original cast iron lacework and posts decorate the front verandahs and the window hood brackets. At the rear of each house are verandahs at two levels that are decorated with introduced timber balustrading and decorative timber brackets. The verandahs are separated by a deep timber valance and the soffits are fitted with introduced ripple iron that has been painted. The brick firewalls which separate the pairs of residences, are cement rendered at the front of the properties only and plastered internally. The internal partition walls at street level are single skinned with vertical beaded tongue and groove boards on a timber frame. The ceilings are also tongue and grooved boards except in the living and dining rooms where plasterboard with plaster ceiling roses has been introduced. At the lower level the walls and ceilings are all plasterboard on timber frames. Floors throughout the house are timber boards overlaid with carpet in the main rooms and vinyl or ceramic tiles in the kitchen and bathrooms. Some original cedar joinery such as architraves and four panelled doors survive at the street level, however most, including the timber fireplace surrounds and the timber consoles in the entry hall, have been introduced during the 1990 renovations. Obscure patterned glass has been fitted into the fanlights above each door at street level and coloured glass into the sidelights of the front door. Each house has two sets of staircases connecting the two floor levels; one internal and the other external. The internal staircase has been entirely reconstructed however the external staircase at the rear contains some original fabric at its upper reaches. The existing kitchen and bathroom fittings and fixtures were all introduced at the time of renovation.
At the rear of each property is a large gabled timber garage with loft above. The structures were constructed in 1990. Access to the garages is via a common driveway located between the two pairs of residences.
","history":"Brighton Terrace, which consists of two sets of identical pairs of semi-detached houses, was apparently built for investment purposes for Emile Adrian Gaujard in 1889-90. Tenders for the construction of the four houses were called on 6 August 1887 by John B. Nicholson, a successful Brisbane architect who prospered in the boom conditions of the late 1880's. Gaujard was a wholesale and retail tobacconist and importer of Gaujard and Elson, which was located in Queen Street, Brisbane. The first two houses were completed in 1889 and were immediately let to A. Mirls, a commercial traveller and WH Robertson, a bank manager. Despite completion in 1890, the second pair of houses were not occupied until 1894. Each of the four houses was individually identified with its own name.
At the time of Brighton Terrace's construction, South Brisbane as in other parts of city, was experiencing a boom period. Residential expansion for respectable middle-class families proliferated in South Brisbane, with the predominant housing type being the four roomed timber cottage with a corrugated iron roof. Terrace housing was not particularly popular as a housing style in early Brisbane, especially amongst the land authorities who were unhappy with the small allotments that resulted after subdivision of the multi-dwelling properties. The passing of the Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act in 1885 abruptly brought an end to the early style of terrace housing in Brisbane. In response, developments, such as Brighton Terrace, were introduced as an alternative to terrace housing that retained some cost benefits in construction. The advantage of building Brighton Terrace as a pair of residences on two allotments was that each pair could be legally sold separately. Most houses in the vicinity of Brighton Terrace were privately owned residences owned by clerks, salesmen and accountants.
Upon the death of Gaujard, ownership of the four houses passed to his daughter Helene Therese Nicol, who was spouse of George Nicol, co-founder of the West End Brewery. The property was sold in 1923 and later, with the addition of fibrous cement sheeting and internal subdivision, converted into twelve flats. In 1990 the buildings were substantially renovated back into four residences and individually sold.
","criteria":"Brighton Terrace, completed in 1890, is important for its ability to visually demonstrate an unusual response to the Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act of 1885 had on the built environment of Brisbane during the boom of the late 1880's.
|This particular response, which involved the speculative construction of an identical pair of semi-detached houses built in timber on two separate allotments, was comparatively rare in Brisbane.
|The terrace is important as an example of multi dwelling construction that was uncommon in Brisbane in the late nineteenth century.
|The residences are of considerable aesthetic significance for their strong contribution to the streetscape, currently enhanced by their coordinated colour scheme and detailing.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15119,"place_ref":600344,"name":"Wilston House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"47 Watson Street","suburb":"NEWMARKET","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Wilston House occupies a dominant hilltop position above Wilston and Newmarket. It is a substantial, single-storeyed, low-set brick residence, principally Georgian in style with vernacular influences in the wide verandahs to all sides.
The core, which consists of a central hallway and six rooms, is roofed with Welsh slate. Initially the hipped roof had a central well over the hallway, but this was covered with a low gabled iron roof by 1925.
A rendered masonry portico with pediment distinguishes the arched front entrance, and from each room french doors with arched lights, fanlights and shutters open onto the verandahs.
Convex iron verandah roofs are separated from the main roof by a small cornice and timber console brackets, and are supported by paired wooden posts with cross-braced capitals and timber brackets.
The 1880s brick renovations are rendered to resemble ashlar, and it is likely the face brickwork was first painted at this time.
Wilston House presents a highly intact facade, with a recent kalsomine coating to the exterior brickwork and render and a Welsh slate roof.
Internally the house is substantially intact, although friezes and a dado decoration in the hallway have been painted over. Cedar has been used for the hallway flooring, and much of the joinery, including the fixed seating in the bay windows and some of the mantelpieces. The remainder of the internal flooring is of pine.
There are pressed metal ceilings and some cast iron mantelpieces - part of the 1880s renovations. Plaster columns in the drawing room, also part of the 1880s redecoration, have been removed. A bathroom occupies what was previously the linen room, and the kitchen is located in a former bedroom.
The site has been reduced to a suburban allotment. A sympathetically designed detached brick studio has been erected in the north west corner of the property. The grounds are bordered to north and west by large trees, including a large, mature Moreton Bay Fig [Ficus macrophylla] in the northwest corner of the block, which dates possibly to the 1870s. On the eastern side of Watson Street, opposite the back gate to Wilston House, is a large, mature Weeping Fig [Ficus benjamina] and two other mature trees: a Jacaranda and a Tupelo hybrid [Nyssa spp], which once formed part of the grounds of Wilston House and are understood to be remnants of late 19th or early 20th century planting. These have been included within the heritage listing boundary.
","history":"This substantial, single-storeyed brick residence, designed by Brisbane architect James Cowlishaw, was constructed c1876 for William Wilson, a mercantile and insurance broker and later Brisbane representative for the Adelaide Milling Company, and a member of the Queensland Legislative Council from 1874 to 1878. The suburb of Wilston derives its name from this residence, which for many years was a prominent landmark in the Newmarket-Wilston district.
William Wilson, the son of Irish farmers James Wilson and Mary Richey, was born in Ireland c1832 and had emigrated to Queensland by August 1858, when he married widow Mary Coutts [née Mackay] in Brisbane. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits and from the early 1860s at least, the family resided in Mary Street, near his business. He was a protestant and a freemason, and became well known in public life.
James Cowlishaw, a Sydney-trained architect and businessman who established his Brisbane architectural practiced in the second half of 1860, appears to have had a long association with William Wilson - one of his earliest Brisbane commissions, in 1861, was for an elegant brick cottage in Mary-street, for Mr Wilson . . . cost £800 - possibly Frogmore Cottage, where the William Wilsons resided prior to the construction of Wilston House.
Wilston House is situated on part of what was originally portion 269, 46 acres [18.6 hectares] alienated by farmer William Lovell in 1859, with title transferred to William Wilson in July 1868. Wilson amalgamated the land with his own neighbouring portion 265 [which he had acquired in 1859] to create a property of 87.5 acres [35.5 hectares]. In May 1875, when both portions were surveyed as part of an application to bring them under the Real Property Act, the land was unoccupied, suggesting that Wilson was not farming here at this period.
In the 1860s and 1870s the district between Enoggera Creek and Kedron Brook was occupied principally by farmers, tanneries along Kedron Brook, and middle class commuter families residing in semi-rural hilltop retreats - such as Daniel Rowntree Somerset's Rosemount [established in the late 1850s], and Justice Cockle's Oakwal [erected 1864-65]. These estates were virtually self-supporting, with vegetable gardens, orchards, domestic livestock and dairies. On some properties, crops were cultivated also. Wilston, established in the mid-1870s at the pinnacle of William Wilson's career [during his period as a member of the Queensland Legislative Council], belonged to this tradition.
In July 1876, James Cowlishaw called tenders for a villa residence at Enoggera for William Wilson, which is understood to refer to Wilston House. Early photographs [circa late 1870s] show a core in face brickwork, with verandahs on three sides [to the west, south and east], a rendered masonry portico to the southern front entrance, a timber section along the north [rear] side of the house with a bay window at the eastern end, and an attached timber kitchen wing at the rear of the main building. The timber section of the house is understood to have contained one large room at the eastern end, divided by two sets of cedar doors from two smaller rooms, possibly guest bedrooms, at the western end. The cedar doors could be opened out to create a ballroom. Whether this wing was part of the original design, or a slightly later addition, is not clear. The portico to the front entrance may be a later addition, as the roof slates continue behind the portico roof structure.
Slightly later photographs, thought to have been taken during the Wilsons' residence and therefore prior to 1885, reveal that the core had been rendered and bay windows to the two front rooms [at the southeast and southwest corners of the house] had been added. These matched in design the bay window of the earlier timber section on the north side of the house. By this period, three terraces on the southern [front] side of the house had been established, with concreted steps leading to each. It is understood that the lower terrace contained a croquet or tennis lawn, on which a portable dance floor and marquee could be erected when the Wilsons entertained.
By May 1884, Wilson had raised a £5,000 mortgage on portions 265 and 269 from Sir Arthur Hunter Palmer, KCMG, premier of Queensland May 1870 to January 1874, acting governor 1883 and 1888-89, a director of the Queensland National Bank in the 1880s and early 1890s, and resident at nearby Oakwal through the 1880s. Whether the mortgage was used to finance the additions to Wilston House, or for some other purpose, is not known. Wilson may have been experiencing financial difficulties at this period, because in October 1884, title to Wilston House was transferred to Brisbane businessman and politician John Stevenson, MLA. One source suggests that Stevenson was part of a syndicate comprising himself, Maurice Hume Black [MLA for Mackay and Minister for Lands], and William Graham [MLC and a director of BD Morehead & Co.]. At the same time as Stevenson acquired title to Wilston House, he [or the syndicate] used the property to help raise a mortgage of £22,500 from the Queensland Investment and Land Mortgage Co. Ltd - of which Sir AH Palmer was a director and principal shareholder.
The Wilsons left Wilston House and Stevenson subdivided the estate c1884-85. In May 1885 Brisbane auctioneer John Cameron [later a director of the Queensland National Bank] auctioned the first section of the Wilston Estate, comprising over 300 residential allotments and Wilston House on about 8 acres of land. The residence was described at this time as comprising drawing and dining rooms elegantly finished, entrance hall, library, breakfast room, five bedrooms [all lofty, spacious, and well ventilated] - verandahs, kitchen, servants' quarters, scullery and storeroom. The grounds contained stables, carriage-house, buggy-shed, harness-room, man's room and hay-house - [possibly housed in one or two structures] - underground tanks holding a domestic water supply, and a flower garden.
Wilston House did not sell at this time, and was advertised for rent in December 1885. Squatter James Tolson [of the pastoral firm of Tolson and Cameron] occupied the house for a few years, and on the Wilston Estate reputedly conducted experiments in freezing mutton for export to Britain. [His landlord, John Stevenson, was a director of the Queensland Meat Export and Agricultural Co.]
Wilston House remained a rental property in Stevenson's name until 1898, when title to the house on about 27.2 acres [11 hectares] passed to his former business associate Boyd Dunlop Morehead, MLA and premier from 1888 to 1890, founder of BD Morehead and Co, and a former director of the Queensland National Bank. Morehead installed the Ladner family as caretakers but they left in 1899, the same year in which title passed to Morehead's mortgagor on the property, the Queensland National Bank.
In 1900, the Queensland National Bank sold Wilston House on 8 acres 3 roods to Major WG Cahill, for £1230. Cahill paid off the house in monthly instalments, which may account for why title was not transferred to him until 1915.
Major William Geoffrey Cahill was under secretary of the Queensland Justice Department 1890-1905, Queensland Commissioner of Police 1905-1917, and honorary aide-de-camp to two Queensland governors in the period 1912-16. He was resident at Wilston House by 1906, and possibly earlier, but this is not clear from the Queensland Post Office Directories.
Local knowledge suggests that the Duke of Cornwall and York [later King George V] visited Wilston House with the Governor of Queensland, Lord Lamington, during the May 1901 Royal Tour to celebrate Federation.
In December 1925, by which time an extension of Watson Street had been surveyed close to Wilston House, the Wilston Hill Estate was again offered at public auction. The house on a little over one acre [.4 hectare], and several surrounding allotments, were purchased by Major Alex Wynyard-Joss, with title transferred in June 1927. Cahill remained resident at Wilston House as Wynyard-Joss' tenant until c1928. In the late 1920s the timber extension and service wing were demolished, and in its place a verandah was constructed along the northern side of the house. Major Wynyard-Joss also renovated the interior, installing electricity and a new bathroom and kitchen, and in 1930 took up residence at Wilston House with his bride. In the 1940s the house block was subdivided yet again, with the two lower southern terraces, and part of the grounds to the north and west of the house, were sold for residential purposes.
Major Wynyard-Joss died in 1954, and the property ultimately passed to his daughter. In 1982-83, a cottage studio was erected in the grounds, to the northwest of the main house.
","criteria":"Wilston House and its grounds (comprising the current grounds associated with 47 Watson Street and remnants of the grounds now located on the Watson Street road reserve) are significant historically as evidence of the early middle-class occupation of the hilltops between Enoggera Creek and Kedron Brook, to the immediate north of Brisbane, and remain important in illustrating 1870s middle-class lifestyle in Brisbane.
|Erected c1876, Wilston House is a highly intact, substantial residence, particularly significant for its brick, cedar and slate construction and its Georgian stylistic elements, and important in illustrating the principal characteristics of its type.
The present grounds, and part of what is now Watson Street road reserve, contain many early plantings associated with Wilston House in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including a large Moreton Bay Fig [Ficus macrophylla], a Weeping Fig [Ficus benjamina], a Jacaranda and a Tupelo hybrid [Nyssa spp]. These plantings are significant for what they reveal about species choice and garden design associated with houses of this era and are of aesthetic significance for their contribution to the grounds of Wilston House and also as part of the landmark qualities of Wilston Hill.
|Wilston House is significant also for its landmark quality and aesthetic and historic contribution to the Wilston/Newmarket townscape.
The present grounds, and part of what is now Watson Street road reserve, contain many early plantings associated with Wilston House in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including a large Moreton Bay Fig [Ficus macrophylla], a Weeping Fig [Ficus benjamina], a Jacaranda and a Tupelo hybrid [Nyssa spp]. These plantings are significant for what they reveal about species choice and garden design associated with houses of this era and are of aesthetic significance for their contribution to the grounds of Wilston House and also as part of the landmark qualities of Wilston Hill.
|It is significant as a good example of the domestic work of prolific Brisbane architect James Cowlishaw.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15120,"place_ref":600345,"name":"Oakwal","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"50 Bush Street","suburb":"WINDSOR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-05-14","description":"Oakwal, a single-storeyed sandstone residence on the crest of a hill just north of Breakfast Creek at Windsor, is encircled by Bush Street. The building exhibits a Georgian influence in its design, such as the symmetrical east elevation with portico, hammered stone walls, paired square timber verandah posts and louvred shutters to french doors.
The building has a slate U-shaped gabled roof with four sandstone chimneys, western gabled parapets, a central box gutter and lower skillion roof verandahs to the south, east and north with paired timber eave brackets. The entrance portico has a timber pediment with sandstone steps and base. Most of the south verandah has been enclosed for bathrooms and studies, and has a weatherboard base, shuttered casement windows and panel infill. The main entrance has double timber doors with fanlight and sidelights, and shuttered arched french doors with fanlights open onto the verandahs.
A gabled wing with a corrugated iron roof has been added to the west. This timber addition has casement windows, a stone base and contains bathrooms, laundry and an office. A stone and weatherboard garage with a gabled roof of corrugated iron has been added to the northwest, sitting lower than the house and almost to the site boundary.
The floorplan consists of rooms opening off a central hallway with archways and a central domed skylight with a light shaft above. Internally, the building has cedar panelled doors with fanlights, architraves and skirtings, rendered masonry walls, plaster ceilings with decorative roses and timber floors with floor coverings. All principal rooms have fireplaces, of which only the front two rooms operate and have marble surrounds. The northwest room has been refitted as the kitchen. The west addition has single-skin tongue and groove walls.
","history":"This substantial, single-storeyed stone residence, designed by Brisbane architect James Cowlishaw, was constructed in 1864 by contractor John Petrie for Justice James Cockle, at a cost of approximately £4,000.
Oakwal is thought to be the second residence on the site. An earlier house may have been erected c1858-59 for Brisbane businessman Daniel Rountree Somerset, who in May 1858 purchased over 20 hectares of land north of Breakfast Creek, which included the Oakwal site, for a little over £120. Somerset had arrived in Brisbane with his family in 1850/51 and during the 1850s was in partnership with John Richardson in a Brisbane warehousing, shipping agency and customs agency business. He was active in the separation movement, and in 1860 was appointed Chief Clerk of the Queensland Customs Department and Shipping Master for the Port of Brisbane.
By 1858 the Somersets were resident at Rosemount, on Breakfast Creek. In December 1858 they advertised Rosemount and several other Brisbane allotments for sale. Descendants believe that the Somersets left Rosemount in April 1859, and that they lived at a residence on the later Oakwal site before selling it on nearly 16.2 hectares to James Cockle in 1863, for £1,000.
Cockle was Chief Justice of Queensland from 1863 to 1879, and as senior commissioner in 1866-67 he consolidated many of Queensland's earliest statutes. He was knighted in 1869. The Cockles commissioned prominent Brisbane architect James Cowlishaw to design their new residence, which they named Oakwal. It is believed they derived the name from Cockle's birthplace at Great Oakley in Essex and his wife's birthplace of Walton in Suffolk.
The Cockles resided at Oakwal for 15 years, during which time Lady Cockle held an annual picnic for local school children in the substantial grounds. When Cockle left the colony in mid-1878 he rented out the house at £250 per annum. The most distinguished of his lessees was Sir Arthur Palmer, former Queensland premier [1870-74] and later acting governor [1883 and 1888-89], who resided at Oakwal in the 1880s. Palmer remained in residence until 1890, despite the property having been sold to the original designer - architect, politician and newspaper proprietor James Cowlishaw - in 1888. A July 1888 newspaper report suggested that the house and lands exchanged hands for around £10,000.
Cowlishaw subdivided and sold off much of the Oakwal estate, but his relatives and their descendants have occupied the house since 1890. In the late 1940s a two-storeyed sandstone kitchen wing was demolished to enable the present land subdivision and the creation of Bush Street. The timber extension was added at this time. Sandstone blocks from the demolished service wing were utilised in the landscaping of the remaining grounds.
","criteria":"Oakwal, erected in 1864, is one of the earliest villa residences established on the hills between Breakfast Creek and Kedron Brook in the mid-19th century, and is important in demonstrating the pattern of settlement and growth of Brisbane's northern suburbs.
|The 1860s sandstone and slate residence is significant for its aesthetic quality, craftsmanship and intactness, including the internal cedar joinery, skylight, plaster ceiling roses, stonework and original beech floors, and remains a rare example of its type in Brisbane.
|The 1860s sandstone and slate residence is significant for its aesthetic quality, craftsmanship and intactness, including the internal cedar joinery, skylight, plaster ceiling roses, stonework and original beech floors, and remains a rare example of its type in Brisbane.
Oakwal is a fine example of the domestic work of prominent Brisbane architect James Cowlishaw, and has a special association with the Cockle, Palmer and Cowlishaw families - important judicial, political and social figures in 19th century Queensland.
|. The 1860s sandstone and slate residence is significant for its aesthetic quality, craftsmanship and intactness, including the internal cedar joinery, skylight, plaster ceiling roses, stonework and original beech floors, and remains a rare example of its type in Brisbane. The house and grounds are significant also for their landmark quality and townscape contribution.
|Oakwal is a fine example of the domestic work of prominent Brisbane architect James Cowlishaw, and has a special association with the Cockle, Palmer and Cowlishaw families - important judicial, political and social figures in 19th century Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15121,"place_ref":600346,"name":"Conon","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"29 Conon Street","suburb":"LUTWYCHE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Conon occupies a hilltop position in Lutwyche overlooking Breakfast Creek. It is a low-set masonry and timber residence which, because of its evolutionary nature, employs a variety of materials and styles.
The earliest section of the house comprises a three-roomed [formerly four] brick core with a timber verandah which formerly encircled the whole. It rests on a rubble foundation of Brisbane tuff which was collected from the property, and is capped by a galvanised iron roof which was shingled originally.
Portions of the verandah survive at the front, southern side and at the rear, and were either conserved or reconstructed in 1987. Dowel balustrading, square timber posts and fretwork brackets of an unusual thistle pattern supply the exterior decoration to this section.
A small cellar is located under the side verandah and a separate basement cellar lies beneath the two early bedrooms.
No visible evidence remains of any early kitchen house, probably timber, associated with the 1863 building.
The rendered brick northern wing with coursed stone foundations and a corrugated iron roof was added in the late 1870s. It comprises an entrance hall, two large sitting rooms [probably formerly drawing and dining rooms] which are divided by an unadorned archway, and a large former kitchen, maid's room and pantry at the rear. Each sitting room has a bay window which also is separated from the body of the room by an arch.
The grounds have been reduced following subdivisions however sufficient has been retained to preserve its garden and sense of space reflecting a 19th century ambience. Despite the subdivision of the original holding the garden setting of the house is important in the understanding and appreciation of the significance of the place and its long history.
Within the grounds there is a sense of isolation from more recent development. Some early plantings and garden features from the mid 19th century remain and indeed the general arrangement of the early garden is reflected in more recent plantings of the 1970s and 1980s.
The association with the McLennan family for almost seventy years is perpetuated in the names of the neighbouring streets: McLennan, Kenneth and Conon.
","history":"This low-set masonry and timber residence was constructed in a number of stages, with the brick and stone core dating to 1863.
Originally the site was part of a ten acre [4 hectare] subdivision acquired by Robert Cribb, Brisbane politician and property dealer, in 1861. In 1863 Cribb sold this to fellow Scottish immigrant Kenneth McLennan, a stonemason from the town of Conon in Scotland, who had arrived in Brisbane in 1855. On the transfer document McLennan listed his occupation as builder, and his descendants believe that McLennan built the house himself in 1863.
In 1878 McLennan raised a £300 mortgage on the property from Brisbane land speculator James Gibbon, which may have financed the addition of a northern brick and stone wing to the house about this time.
By the early 1890s the property included an orchard and vineyard, bowling green, tennis court, stables and various outbuildings. Bunya pines lined the front drive, which is now Conon Street, down to McLennan Street.
Around 1900 a timber extension was added to the southern side of the kitchen, and two internal walls were removed in 1917 to create a larger bedroom.
At Conon, McLennan and his wife Ann Grant, whom he had married at Ipswich in 1855, raised a family of ten children. McLennan appears to have derived his Queensland income from property dealing rather than building. He took a keen interest in church and community affairs, and served as a Windsor Shire councillor and as the first mayor of the Town of Windsor in 1904.
Following the death of his wife in 1912, McLennan moved from Conon and died at New Farm, aged eighty-seven years, on 1 November 1916.
While a small allotment was excised from the original allotment in 1895 it was only after McLennan¿s death that his sons subdivided the original estate retaining for the family two allotments totaling 2 acres 3 rood and 14 perches containing the house and its garden, the tennis court and bowling green.
The house block remained in the McLennan family until 1934, when it was sold to Sir Neil O'Sullivan, a Brisbane solicitor and federal cabinet minister. The northern allotment remained in the family until 1947. The O'Sullivans added a brick bedroom off the southern verandah in 1935.
Lady O'Sullivan sold the property in 1972, but it remains a family residence. In 1980 a larger brick bedroom wing was added at the rear.
","criteria":"Conon is significant historically as one of the earliest houses in the Lutwyche area demonstrating the housing type of that time and of first wave of residential construction in the area. Evidence of later changes and additions to the house are clearly apparent in the surviving fabric.
|Conon has significance as a rare survivor of an 1860s house with an early garden in Brisbane. The scale of the garden and the setting of the house within the more recent suburban fabric of Lutwyche adds to that significance.
|The early core provides important evidence of mid-19th century masonry construction. In its present form it exemplifies the evolving house, extending from a modest mid-19th century core into a substantial late-19th century residence, with a cohesive and intact front façade. The changes reflect the changing fortunes and expectations of its original and later owners.
|Conon sits within a substantial garden which makes a major contribution to the aesthetic significance of the place. The site is surrounded by later suburban houses but the house and its garden retain a nineteenth century ambiance. More recent development is not apparent from within the site and outward views are protected.
|Conon is significant for its association for almost 70 years with the McLennan family, who played an important role in the development of Brisbane in the second half of the 19th century and for its later association with Neil O'Sullivan, at one time Federal Attorney General.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15122,"place_ref":600347,"name":"The Grange","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"38 Crowther Street","suburb":"WINDSOR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Grange, located on the crest of a rise at the southwest corner of Crowther and Fuller streets, consists of a residence fronting Crowther Street to the east with a detached kitchen house to the west.
The residence is a single-storeyed rendered masonry structure with an attic and corrugated iron gable roof. The building has verandahs to four sides with curved corrugated iron awnings, timber posts with shaped brackets and brick paving. Timber sash windows have been built to match early windows in the kitchen house, and timber front and rear doors are later additions.
Internally, the building has four rooms with fireplaces to both north rooms and a central entry to the east and west. The northeast room has cedar cupboards either side of the fireplace and the northwest room has an early timber staircase to the attic. The floor consists of a recent 20mm concrete slab laid over sand on a bed of original brick bats. Walls are lime plastered with horse hair, and have original concrete skirting. Internal timber doors are not original. The attic has a recent ensuite at the north end, and a single Velux roof window has been inserted on the southwestern side.
The kitchen house is a single-storeyed masonry structure, partly rendered, with a corrugated iron gable roof. The building has a verandah to the west with a corrugated iron awning, timber posts and brick paving, and early timber doors and sash windows.
Internally, the building is a single room with a fireplace at the north end, a recent timber floor and limewash finish to the walls. A single Velux roof window has been inserted on the eastern side.
A weatherboard boathouse/living area with a corrugated iron gable roof has been added to the northwest of the kitchen house, and a later weatherboard bunkhouse with a hipped corrugated iron roof has been added to the southwest.
A timber pigeon coop is located in the northwest corner of the site, and a timber picket fence surrounds the eastern side of the residence.
","history":"This small brick house appears to have been constructed c1874 as a family home for Lutwyche brickmaker William Williams, who in that year acquired 9 hectares of land at Lutwyche, including the house site, from Brisbane businessman Nehemiah Bartley. The kitchen was erected in 1877 by contractor John William Young for £69/10/-, being labour only.
Williams was associated with the development of Lutwyche as Brisbane's principal brickmaking district in the 1870s and 1880s, and it is likely that the bricks for his own house and kitchen were supplied from the brickworks on his Lutwyche property. Although Williams had arrived in Queensland from England by early 1864 and was at Lutwyche in 1865, he does not appear to have commenced brickmaking until the 1870s. Some of the first bricks produced by him were used in construction of the Old Government Printery (QHR 600114), erected in 1874.
By 1888 Williams owned four brickyards, including the Milton Brickworks on River Road at Toowong, and was producing the highest per annum output of bricks in the Lutwyche area. Mrs Williams managed the business from c1882, and Williams and his son William, worked two of the brickyards themselves.
Following Williams' death in the early 1890s, the freehold passed to his widow, who sold the house in 1904. The land has been subdivided since, but the house remains a family home.
Fullers Street at Lutwyche was originally named Williams Street, after the early brickmaker and his family, and nearby Brickfield Street recalls the brickmaking enterprise which Williams established at Lutwyche in the 1870s.
","criteria":"The Grange is important in demonstrating the 19th century development of Windsor-Lutwyche as a brick-making district, and is significant as a rare surviving brick, gable-style artisan's home of the 1870s, which offers rare surviving evidence of 1870s brick construction in Brisbane.
|The Grange is important in demonstrating the 19th century development of Windsor-Lutwyche as a brick-making district, and is significant as a rare surviving brick, gable-style artisan's home of the 1870s, which offers rare surviving evidence of 1870s brick construction in Brisbane.
|The Grange is important in demonstrating the 19th century development of Windsor-Lutwyche as a brick-making district, and is significant as a rare surviving brick, gable-style artisan's home of the 1870s, which offers rare surviving evidence of 1870s brick construction in Brisbane.
|It exhibits a range of aesthetic characteristics, including the contribution through scale, form and materials to the local streetscape and Windsor townscape; the quality of the interiors, including early fittings and finishes; and the spatial relationship of the building group and grounds, including later additions.
|The place has a special association with the Williams family and their contribution to the development of the brick-making industry in the Windsor-Lutwyche area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15123,"place_ref":600348,"name":"Craigellachie","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"10 Fosbery Street","suburb":"WINDSOR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Craigellachie is a modestly proportioned, single-storeyed house with fine stone detailing and Georgian features unusual in a house of this size. It retains its original attached brick service wing and two cellars beneath the core.
The main building is constructed of Brisbane tuff, sandstone and brick, with timber floors and an iron roof. Most likely the adjacent quarry across Lutwyche Road supplied the stone for the foundations and walls, and it is believed the dressed sandstone employed on quoining and facings originated from the Albion Quarry behind Bartley's Hill. Bricks used in the kitchen house and internal walls were probably manufactured locally, Lutwyche-Windsor being an early brickmaking centre.
The front features twin projecting gables, each with a circular louvred vent in the gable end, plain bargeboards, timber console brackets, fretwork infill, finial and pendant.
It is unified by a full-length verandah resting on brick piers. This is shaded by a convex corrugated iron roof supported by timber posts with capitals and fretwork brackets. The balustrade is of cast aluminium.
Internally the house consists of a wide, central arched hallway with to the right a living and dining room, each with a cedar fireplace, and to the left three bedrooms.
All the windows are sashed, and joinery and doors (with fanlights) throughout are of cedar. A doorway into the front living room has been widened at some stage.
There is an attached brick kitchen wing at the western rear of the building and an L-shaped back verandah. This is unadorned. Recent owners have installed new bathrooms in the core and have renovated the kitchen wing to include a modern kitchen, breakfast room, laundry and shower room.
Externally the house remains substantially intact.
","history":"Craigellachie, a single-storeyed masonry residence, was constructed during the late 1880s boom, and the resubdivision of Windsor-Lutwyche for closer settlement. It was erected by master stonemason John Grant as his family home.
In 1887 Grant purchased just over an acre of land in what was then known as Alice Street. Two years later he raised a mortgage of £450 on the property, which most likely financed the construction of the house in late 1889 or early 1890.
Whether the house was always known as Craigellachie is unclear, as the name does not appear in post office directories until 1904.
Grant and his wife Jane raised eight children at Craigellachie. He died aged forty-five in December 1899, but the house remained the property of the Grant family until 1974.
The residence was converted into three flats probably in the late 1940s or 1950s, but was refurbished in the mid-1970s. The interior was returned to its original layout, paint to joinery and doors was removed, and the exterior was renovated.
Craigellachie remains a family home.
","criteria":"(Criterion under review)
|Craigellachie is significant as a rare Brisbane example of stone and brick employed in a non-elite home of the 1880s.
|Craigellachie is significant as a surviving Brisbane example of a late nineteenth century artisan's home and for its contribution to the Lutwyche-Windsor townscape, which retains a number of nineteenth century masonry buildings.
|Craigellachie is an accomplished building in design, detail and material, which contributes aesthetically to the streetscape.
Craigellachie is significant as a surviving Brisbane example of a late nineteenth century artisan's home and for its contribution to the Lutwyche-Windsor townscape, which retains a number of nineteenth century masonry buildings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15124,"place_ref":600349,"name":"Windsor Shire Council Chambers (former)","alternate_name":"Windsor Town Council Chambers","street_address":"356 Lutwyche Road","suburb":"WINDSOR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Windsor Shire Council Chambers is a small masonry building constructed of locally quarried porphyry (Brisbane tuff), with dressed sandstone facings and trimmings. It is capped with a corrugated iron gabled roof.
The building is domestic in scale and concept, yet its original civic function is expressed in decorative elements such as an arched entrance with drip moulding, quoining to the rectangular windows, and stepped sandstone courses at the gables. A sandstone slab on the front gable bears the inscription Windsor Shire Council Chambers, with the word 'Shire' overwritten by 'Town'.
The entrance verandah, which has been enclosed with glazing, leads a to central corridor, with two offices to the left and a front office and council meeting room to the right. These are connected by a small attached porch on the eastern side of the building. At the rear an attached stone wing houses a strong room and toilets. Flooring was timber originally, but some floors are now concreted. The interior walls and partitions are plastered and painted.
Located on an island of land, bounded by Lutwyche Road, Hawkins and Palmer Streets, the Windsor Shire Council Chambers occupies a highly visible position, and together with the Memorial Park opposite is particularly prominent from the southern approach along Lutwyche Road.
The site is fenced on three sides with a stone wall and iron pickets, the entrance defined by substantial stone gateposts, cast-iron gates, and a thin metal arch from which an ornate gas lantern once hung. A number of mature fig trees and palms enhance the building's setting.
","history":"The former Windsor Shire Council Chambers was erected in 1896-97 for a cost of £736.
The Windsor Shire Council was formed in 1886 and initially rented space for chambers and offices. In July 1895 the Council decided to erect permanent chambers and engaged Thomas Coutts, a Brisbane-born architect who also worked in Sydney, Melbourne and Newcastle during the 1890s, to design a modest building. In October 1896 a contract for £584 was signed with builder William Parsons. A separate contract for £80 was let for the boundary wall, which was completed in December 1897.
The first meeting of the Windsor Council in the new premises was conducted on 9 March 1897. The building housed the offices and chambers of the Windsor Shire Council (Windsor Town Council from 1904) until the amalgamation of Greater Brisbane in 1925, when it became the property of the Brisbane City Council.
The Brisbane City Council used the building for regional office space and storage. Alterations undertaken by the Council included: widening of the southern window in the office adjoining the front porch to create a doorway; concreting of strong room and toilet floors; relining of ceilings; sealing of fireplaces; and cutting a new door in the corridor.
In 1987 the exterior stonework was redressed as part of a restoration project by the Brisbane City Council. Also the original interior colour scheme was identified, and the grounds were returfed and paved to resemble a typical Brisbane turn of the century garden design.
The premises were vacated by the Council in late 1990, and are now used by the Brisbane Branch of National Trust of Queensland and the Windsor and District Historical Society for offices and meeting rooms.
","criteria":"Windsor Shire Council Chambers is important for its association with the Windsor Shire and the development of the Windsor district.
|Windsor Shire Council Chambers is significant as a fine and unusual example of a small scale masonry civic building.
Windsor Shire Council Chambers is significant as an example of the work of architect Thomas Coutts.
|Windsor Shire Council Chambers is significant for its landmark quality, townscape contribution of both building and site to the Windsor area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15125,"place_ref":600350,"name":"Windsor War Memorial Park","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"311 Lutwyche Road","suburb":"WINDSOR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Windsor War Memorial stands on the highest point of a park situated between Lutwyche Road and Roblane Street, Windsor.
The memorial is an octagonal, pavilion-type structure and is constructed of brown Helidon sandstone. It rests on a wide podium of locally quarried porphyry (Brisbane tuff), with steps at each face.
The memorial has arches on four sides, and on the external corner panels are inscribed the names, originally gilt, of those who died in the war. Inscribed lettering forms a frieze around the entablature, and the whole is surmounted by a cupola and a bronze lantern with a red electric light.
Inside, the concrete floor is painted red and blue, and features a leaded marble commemorative plaque in the centre. The circular ceiling is ornamented with a moulded laurel wreath.
The area immediately surrounding the memorial has been asphalted, but the remainder of the park is grassed and planted with large, mature trees and shrubs. Pink oleanders form a hedge along Lutwyche Road, above stone retaining walls.
Apart from the removal of an inter-war timber bandstand, both park and memorial remain substantially intact. They retain a prominent position in the Windsor townscape, standing on a principal arterial entry to the city and adjacent to the former Windsor Town Council Chambers (1896-97).
","history":"The Windsor War Memorial was unveiled on Anzac Day, 25 April 1925. It was erected on behalf of the citizens of Windsor to commemorate local residents who had served in the First World War.
Costing around £1,300, the memorial was based on an initial concept by ex-alderman McDonald. It was constructed by contractor Peter Frew to a design prepared by honorary architects FR Hall and WA Devereux.
The octagonal pavilion is rare among Queensland's First World War memorials. Yeronga War Memorial (1921) is its closest Brisbane equivalent.
The surrounding park existed prior to the construction of the memorial. It was the site of the former Bowen Bridge State School from 1865 until the latter burnt down about 1914, after which the school reserve was ceded unofficially to the Windsor Town Council for park use. Despite landscaping, erection of the memorial, and public recognition of the Windsor Memorial Park, it was not declared a park reserve until 1930.
","criteria":"Windsor War Memorial Park is significant as a member of a class of commemorative structures erected as a record of the local impact of a major historical event and intended to endure.
Windsor War Memorial Park is significant as a rare and intact example of pavilion-type war memorial.
Windsor War Memorial Park is significant for its landmark quality and contribution to the Windsor townscape.
|Windsor War Memorial Park is significant as a rare and intact example of pavilion-type war memorial.
|Windsor War Memorial Park is significant as a member of a class of commemorative structures erected as a record of the local impact of a major historical event and intended to endure.
|Windsor War Memorial Park is significant for its landmark quality and contribution to the Windsor townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15126,"place_ref":600351,"name":"Kirkston","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"23 Rupert Street","suburb":"WINDSOR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Kirkston is a large two-storeyed brick residence with an attached single-storeyed service wing. It occupies a prominent hilltop position, with the roof line visible from many parts of suburban Lutwyche-Windsor.
The core, which is capped by a complex slate-clad roof of steeply pitched hips and gables, accommodates a number of truncated wings in the design.
Foundations are of cement and the face work of Hendra brick is protected by a damp course.
Wide verandahs to three sides are supported by chamfered timber posts with capitals and brackets, and feature fine cast-iron balustrading and a deep lattice frieze.
Fire escapes have been added, and an early garage of lesser quality has been attached to the northeast wall.
The main house comprises entrance vestibule, stair hall, living and dining rooms, study, library, breakfast room (with cellar below), and strongroom on the ground floor, and six bedrooms and two bathrooms on the first floor. Extra kitchens and bathrooms have been added throughout the house since the original construction.
Distinguishing the interior is a lavish use of stained glass and timber, including English oak and walnut, Tasmanian blackwood and Queensland greasenut. Leadlighting in the ceiling above the stair hall and around the front door is of particular note, as are the timber dado panelling, fireplace surrounds and overmantels in the principal rooms, particularly those in the dining room. A skylight has been installed in the roof over the stair hall to illuminate the glass ceiling.
A half-screen in timber and glass divides the dining and living rooms, and the bay window opening to the southern verandah is separated from the main part of the living room by double arches supported by a slender central timber column. Several of the rooms retain the original wallpaper and friezes, those of the drawing room being especially ornate and intact.
The service extension also is of brick, but the design is Gothic with attic rooms. Two rooms were added to this wing early in the twentieth century.
Two huge weeping figs and the original gateposts remain at the corner of Flower and Palmer Streets. These are included within the citation, although alienated from the house by later subdivisions.
","history":"This substantial, two-storeyed brick residence was constructed in 1888-9 for John Henry Flower, a Brisbane solicitor and co-founder of the still prominent legal firm of Flower & Hart.
Flower acquired the hilltop site of just over 7 acres [2.8 hectares] in 1885. He commissioned respected Brisbane architect George Henry Male Addison [formerly of Melbourne] to design the hilltop home, and in 1888 raised a mortgage of £4,000 on the property.
Addison advertised for tenders in mid-1888, and a contract for £3,459 was let to Brisbane builder John William Young on 17 July.
Young worked rapidly, employing an average of 50 to 70 men throughout the construction period. Foundations and cellar were commenced in early September and within four months the roof was being slated. By late April 1889 the elaborately decorated interior was sufficiently ready for furniture to be moved in [some had been specially built to complement interior finishes], and in June the Flower family took up residence.
The name of the house was derived from that of Flower's wife, Dora Kirk.
Although John Flower died c1918, the family remained at Kirkston for over 50 years. In the early 1930s the site was subdivided amongst Flower's heirs and the house was bequeathed to Rupert Wickham Flower.
Richard Henry Trotter purchased the house on just over half an acre [.2 hectare] in 1941, and apart from three years during the early 1940s when it housed an American military intelligence unit, Kirkston has remained a family residence. One of the more flamboyant of recent owners was Paddy John Stephens of Paddys Markets fame at Teneriffe [1982-7].
Kirkston remains a local landmark, with the early occupants commemorated by the local street names of Flower and Rupert.
","criteria":"Kirkston, erected in 1888-89, is significant as an ornate and substantially intact example of domestic architecture on the grand scale in Brisbane during the 1880s, with the opulence in form and finish reflecting the boom era mentality.
|It is a most accomplished building in design, features, finishes, materials, construction and setting, illustrating the principal characteristics of its type. Kirkston is important as a major early example of the domestic work of architect GHM Addison in Brisbane, the innovative design heralding subsequent Federation period building styles, and as evidence of the skill of builder John William Young.
|The place is significant for its landmark quality and aesthetic contribution to the Windsor-Lutwyche townscape, and for its association with several of Brisbane's more prominent families and entrepreneurs.
|The place is significant for its landmark quality and aesthetic contribution to the Windsor-Lutwyche townscape, and for its association with several of Brisbane's more prominent families and entrepreneurs.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15127,"place_ref":600352,"name":"Boothville","alternate_name":"Monte Video","street_address":"43 Seventh Avenue","suburb":"WINDSOR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Located on over 0.8 hectares of hilltop land, Boothville is a complex of double and single-storeyed timber and masonry buildings. The original rendered masonry and timber house remains as the main focal building, sited in a commanding position at the crest of the hill.
The main building has a long thin U-shaped plan comprised of, to the south, the original double-storeyed masonry house with now enclosed timber verandahs, its single storeyed rendered masonry service wing to the north-west, and the circa 1900 single-storeyed L-shaped timber addition to the north east. The roof is a series of intersecting pitches dominated by the main roof, which features a flattened central portion bound by a cast iron decorative balustrade with finials.
The front (south) elevation of the original house features a double-storeyed bay window under a gable end with carved eaves brackets, and a projecting timber entrance portico with three-post columns, shaped rafter ends and stained glass panels. Verandahs to the south and east have been enclosed with weatherboard, and sheeted in to the west. On both the west and eastern elevations, remains of decorative timber detailing to the verandahs can be seen, with arched battening, a herring bone frieze, and timber columns with capitals. The covered walkway to the service wing to the north features cast iron columns with corinthian capitals.
The entrance door which connected the southern portico to the entry vestibule has been replaced, but its cedar surrounds with stained glass remain. The entry vestibule features a rendered masonry archway at the foot of finely carved timber stairs. To the east is a grand reception room, with an ornate plaster cornice and richly detailed timber and tiled fireplace. The room has folding cedar doors which once linked it to a parlour which is now a ward. The office to the west has elaborate and finely carved timber cupboards, side board, mirrors and overmantel framing a mosaic tiled fireplace built in to the northern wall. The 'service wing' to the rear consists of a large former dining room, a smaller room with a corner fireplace which is now enclosed and which probably functioned as the servants' hall, a large kitchen, and a pantry and scullery, which are now storerooms.
At half-landing level, the stairs lead to a small timber-lined room and another narrower staircase, which leads to what was probably the servants' bedroom above the dining room. Narrow back stairs also lead from the service wing to this bedroom and from the half-landing level to an upper floor room, which was probably the nursery. The top floor housed four bedrooms and a dressing room, which now serve as wards and a kitchen. The principal rooms feature carved timber mantelpieces, and the southern rooms have excellent views of the inner north-western suburbs and city centre.
The grounds retain remnants of the former garden, terracing and fernery and established trees are located around the boundary. Low masonry fences with cast-iron balustrading define the front terraces. The western side of the house has an old well (which had been sealed over c1924 but was re-opened in 1986), and a Garden Chapel. A bitumen driveway follows the original curve around the front lawn to a semi-circular parking area, formerly the carriage reception area, and continues in the direction of the now demolished coach house at the rear. Much of the brick guttering to the early driveway survives.
Despite modification for its function as a maternity hospital, the essential form of the main building remains intact, as do major internal decorative features. The modifications have not substantially diminished the picturesque quality of the siting of the building, its grounds, and some of its external features.
","history":"This two-storeyed brick residence, formerly known as Monte Video, was erected in 1887 for Henry Wallis Glenny, head office manager of the Queensland National Bank from 1884 to 1892.
Between 1885 and 1887 Glenny acquired several Eildon Hill subdivisions, including the Boothville site. Usually the QNB provided residential accommodation for their managers, but in Glenny's case the directors granted him a loan of £6,500 on 23 March 1887, to build his own residence. The house may have been designed by former colonial architect FDG Stanley, who designed a large number of bank offices and residences for the QNB, including the head office in Brisbane, erected 1881-85.
In 1892 Glenny retired from the QNB, which purchased the house from him. It was rented briefly but mostly remained unoccupied until Walter Vardon Ralston, the new general manager of the QNB, and his family occupied the residence in 1896. Initially Ralston rented the house for £150 per annum, but later this was waived, and in 1918 he purchased Monte Video from the QNB. During the Ralstons' occupancy a single-storeyed timber extension, which housed a large billiard room and beyond that an L-shaped sunroom opening to an eastern porch, aviary and fernery, was added at the rear c1900.
Walter Ralston died in 1920 but his widow remained in the house until 1922. In 1923 Monte Video was acquired by William Bramwell Booth, son of the English founder of the Salvation Army. He purchased the property on behalf of the organisation, and in May 1924 the Salvation Army Mothers Hospital moved from Breakfast Creek to Monte Video, which was renamed Boothville.
Apart from a small portion of land which was sold in 1925 to P & AE Nelson, and which was bequeathed back to the Salvation Army in 1956, the hospital and grounds have remained part of the Salvation Army Queensland Property Trust since 1933.
A number of buildings associated with the hospital have been erected on the site since 1924. These include a single-storeyed building which was transported from the hospital's previous site at Breakfast Creek, raised to two-storey height and built in underneath, and a cottage which was relocated from a site in Jephson Street in Toowong in 1962.
A brick labour ward was added in the 1970s, and more recently the courtyard between the two rear wings has been covered and concreted. Recently a brick theatre wing has been added off the eastern side of the timber wing.
","criteria":"Boothville is important in demonstrating the pattern of development of Brisbane's northern suburbs in the late 19th century. It is a large, fundamentally intact masonry residence of the late 1880s which, together with the surviving grounds, is representative of more affluent late 19th century domestic architecture and landscaping in Brisbane.
|It is a large, fundamentally intact masonry residence of the late 1880s which, together with the surviving grounds, is representative of more affluent late 19th century domestic architecture and landscaping in Brisbane.
|The picturesque quality of the siting and remaining external features of the main building at Boothville, and its grounds, make an important contribution to the Windsor townscape. The core building contains finely crafted timber joinery, plaster cornices and leadlights.
|Boothville is significant for its special association with the work of the Salvation Army in Queensland, and has social significance as a maternity hospital for nearly 7 decades.
|Boothville is significant for its special association with the work of the Salvation Army in Queensland, and has social significance as a maternity hospital for nearly 7 decades.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15128,"place_ref":600353,"name":"Princess Theatre","alternate_name":"South Brisbane Public Hall/Boggo Road Theatre","street_address":"8 Annerley Road","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Princess Theatre is a two-storeyed rectangular brick building fronting Annerley Road to the west, with a narrow laneway to either side and rear. The building has three roof sections, the front having a mansard roof and the auditorium and backstage having hipped corrugated iron roofs with central raised sections for ventilation.
The symmetrical, rendered west elevation displays a highly decorative classical influence in its design. The central entrance portico has two corner columns, on square bases, with an entablature with a laurel frieze in relief. The entrance has double timber doors and arched fanlight with coloured glass panels.
The ground floor has a shopfront to either side of the entrance, with a glazed wide arched opening framed by pilasters and entablature. The first floor has a verandah with rendered balustrade, columns, entablature and arched spandrel panels with decorative keystones. This elevation has a rooftop balustrade, between column tops surmounted by spheres, with a central curved pediment with laurels in relief. The mansard roof rises behind.
The other three elevations are of face brick, having darker brick to the ground floor, with a parapet wall. The building has timber walkways along the north and south elevations with double timber doors and casement windows with fanlights opening from the auditorium.
The foyer has a sloping floor to the auditorium entrance, and a central timber stair to the gallery level and first floor offices. The wall surfaces have been rendered and scribed to imitate stone blocks and a new ceiling with downlights has been installed. A door opens to the shops on either side. The landing level has carved timber balusters which pre-date the existing stair and balustrade.
The auditorium is entered under the gallery, or dress circle. The landing above is supported by two cast iron columns and the sloping gallery by four timber posts. The underside of the gallery has pressed metal sheeting. A kitchen/bar has been installed in this area which is separated from the auditorium by an open stud wall.
The auditorium has face brick walls with rendered pilasters and cornice, and timber architraves, dado and panelling below. The ceiling is curved at the corners with boarded panels running lengthwise, widthwise and diagonally. The central area has two roses on cast iron grating for ventilation. The proscenium arch has rendered pilasters and entablature with a laurel frieze.
The backstage area is painted out black. A high level walkway runs around the perimeter and a stair in the southeast corner leads to the basement. The basement has a concrete floor and contains a central storage/ performance space with dressing rooms to the north and an office area to the south, all with external access.
The first floor contains offices open onto the west verandah. Toilets behind open off the top of the stair. The gallery is accessed from the landing and contains six rows of tiered seating.
","history":"This large brick building was constructed in 1888 for prominent Brisbane solicitor Phillip Hardgrave and the South Brisbane Public Hall Company.
Its construction was an entrepreneurial venture responding to the needs of a rapidly expanding South Brisbane, East Brisbane, Woolloongabba, and Thompson Estate population. It provided the newly created Borough of South Brisbane with a central public hall which could be hired for public meetings, lectures, balls, theatrical and musical performances and other public functions.
In 1887 Hardgrave acquired the Boggo Road (later Annerley Road) site, set up the subscription company, and commissioned Brisbane architect John B Nicholson to design the hall. It was erected the following year by builder Blair Cunningham, for a contract price of £5,220.
In the early years, the privately funded hall was known variously as the South Brisbane Public Hall (1888-91) and the Boggo Road Theatre (1892-3).
In 1893 Hardgrave sold the property to his father, John Hardgrave, a former mayor of Brisbane. Renamed the Princess Theatre, the building was used during the 1890s for sporadic productions of live performances and vaudeville, but did not emerge as a major theatrical venue in Brisbane.
Brisbane draper Thomas Finney acquired the property in 1899 and used the theatre as a clothing factory, although the stage was still hired for occasional performances.
With a change of ownership in 1912 the building was rented to clothing manufacturers and Wests Olympia, and from 1914 to 1942 it was leased mainly as a movie-house and performance space for amateur theatre. In the 1930s Brisbane's fledgling amateur theatre companies - Brisbane Repertory Theatre (now La Boite), Brisbane Arts Theatre and the Twelfth Night Theatre Company (later TN! Theatre Co.) - all performed at the Princess.
From 1942 to 1945 the theatre served as the administrative and rehearsal centre for the United States Entertainment Unit. In the years immediately following the war, it was hired to a variety of community groups such as ballet schools, college revues, and scout troops.
From 1949 to 1985 the building lost all association with the performing arts, and was rented to various small businesses, including a paper wholesaler, an engineering firm, a rag merchant, a secondhand dealer and a used appliance retailer. The stage area was leased separately to a printing firm for over thirty years from 1948 to 1979.
In 1985 the property was acquired by REMM Group Ltd, who carried out external restoration, and offered TN! Theatre Company a ten year lease from 1986. Internal restoration and refitting was carried out by TN!.
","criteria":"The Princess Theatre is important in demonstrating the evolution of Woolloongabba/South Brisbane as a major urban centre in Brisbane in the 1880s.
|It is particularly significant as the only intact surviving 19th century theatre in Brisbane, demonstrating an aspect of Brisbane's cultural heritage which is now rare, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial 19th century masonry theatre.
|It is particularly significant as the only intact surviving 19th century theatre in Brisbane, demonstrating an aspect of Brisbane's cultural heritage which is now rare, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial 19th century masonry theatre.
|The Princess Theatre is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Brisbane community, local residents and those interested in theatre design, in particular: the ornately decorated street facade and more restrained interior; and the building's contribution to the Clarence Corner streetscape and Woolloongabba townscape.
|The Princess Theatre has a strong and extensive association with Brisbane theatre, both amateur and professional and has a special association with Brisbane architect John B Nicholson as an example of his commercial work.
|The Princess Theatre has a strong and extensive association with Brisbane theatre, both amateur and professional and has a special association with Brisbane architect John B Nicholson as an example of his commercial work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15129,"place_ref":600354,"name":"Broadway Hotel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"93 Logan Road","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Broadway Hotel is a substantial brick building occupying a prominent corner site in Woolloongabba bounded by the main thoroughfare Logan Road to its northeast, a closed section of road reserve (originally Short Street) to its southeast, Balaclava Street to its southwest (rear), and commercial properties to its northwest side. The building is vacant and bears major fire damage.
\nThe building comprises three parts. A three-storey main block (1890) with part basement stands at the corner of the site with elaborate facades fronting Logan Road and the former Short Street. Extending off its rear are two rectangular wings: a single-storey service wing with basement (1890); and a two-storey wing (by 1915, possibly original or incorporating original fabric).
\nMain Block (1890)
\nThe main block has loadbearing brick walls and interior partitions, timber-framed floors for its rooms, and suspended concrete floors for balconies. The block is roofless, its timber-framed mansard roof and the tower’s spire roof, both clad with metal sheets, have been destroyed in the fires.
\nThe street-facing facades of the hotel’s main block are in an elaborate Late Victorian era style (Queen Anne Revival), featuring multiple pedimented bays, balconies, and an octagonal corner tower over the main entrance. The original polychrome face brick with tuck pointing has been rendered over and painted, and moulded terracotta dressings (string courses, cornices, cappings, balcony balusters, and finials) have been painted over, or demolished (likely 1958). A large, original glass lantern is mounted to the corner tower of the building. The main block’s rear and side facades, originally plain, lime-pencilled face brick, have been rendered and painted. Most external timber joinery has been lost to the fires, including its doors and windows; however, some remnants survive. A modern timber ground floor deck and lightweight roof structure have been attached to the Logan Road facade.
\nThe interior on all floor levels is fire damaged, and has lost original fabric, including lime plaster wall finishes and cornices, lath-and-plaster ceilings, fireplace surrounds, and moulded timber joinery, such as skirtings, architraves, doors, and the main stair, except for a fragment of stair landing at the second floor level.
\nThe ground floor layout, which is not intact, comprises a large public bar room on the principal corner of the building, smaller surrounding rooms, and a rear stair hall. The ground floor balcony fronting Logan Road has had its wall demolished to extend the interior. The ground floor’s original, timber-framed floors have been altered in many areas by the addition of later surfaces including concrete topping slabs.
\nThe first floor layout is considerably intact, comprising a central, L-shaped corridor with rooms opening on either side; however, the walls of the balconies have been demolished to extend the interior. The original floor structure of the first floor generally survives throughout, comprising steel beams on sandstone blocks within the brick walls supporting herringbone strutted timber joists; and areas of original floor boards survive. Some remnants of original moulded skirting, and a double-hung window also survive.
\nThe second floor, originally largely identical to the first floor, is not intact due to the complete loss of its floor and roof; however, most of its masonry partitions survive. Its original Logan Road-facing balcony survives relatively intact. As post-fire stabilising measures, a suspended concrete slab and steel struts have been added to the interior.
\nThe basement, reached via timber stairs through an access hatch in the floor of the public bar, is one room with cast iron posts supporting the steel beam and timber joists floor framing of the ground floor. Two grated lightwells in the former Short Street footpath open into the basement.
\nSingle-Storey Service Wing (1890)
\nThe single-storey service wing is not intact. At its core is the original small, rectangular, wing, with brick walls and timber-framed floors and hip roof. However, its original open eastern verandah has been demolished and replaced by a masonry, flat-roofed extension accommodating toilets, which also wraps around the wing’s southern side. One original timber-framed window survives, and the surviving original brick walls have been rendered and painted. The wing’s hip roof has been extended, but sections of early ogee profile gutters, beaded timber fascias, and timber boarded eaves survive. The original corrugated metal roof sheets have been replaced with modern ribbed metal sheets.
\nThe interior comprises a large room, with non-original partitions forming a toilet in one corner. The original southern wall and most of the original eastern wall have been demolished to form openings into the extension on these sides. New windows and a modern partition with fireplace have been added.
\nThe wing’s basement connects through to that of the main block but is at a higher level. It comprises one room with brick walls, and brick piers support the ground floor.
\nTwo-Storey Wing (by 1915)
\nAlthough its construction date is not known, the two-storey wing may be largely 1890, incorporate 1890 fabric, or a later extension. It is not intact. At least part of its brick wall bonding is built up to the main block rather than keyed into the main block, as the single-storey service wing is. It has a rectangular footprint, concrete slab ground floor, and timber-framed first-floor floor structure. Its earlier, possibly original timber-framed hip roof has been demolished and replaced with a timber-framed skillion roof. It has been extended on its southern end with a skillion-roofed, two-storey, masonry and concrete ablutions block, replacing an early, single-storey, open-sided lean-to shelter (likely laundry) here. The exterior walls, originally face brick, have been largely rendered and painted, and no early doors or windows survive. Many non-original window penetrations and large openings have been made to the exterior.
\nThe ground floor interior layout is not intact. It retains some early masonry partitions, however, modern partitions have been added and doorways closed over and repositioned. It comprises a large room, possibly originally a kitchen or laundry, two smaller adjacent rooms, one a modern cold room, and an L-shaped room, part of which was originally an open-sided verandah-like space that has been enclosed, and the other part an early stair hall to the first floor that has had its stair demolished and converted to a wide corridor to the now-demolished drive-thru. The floor, wall, and ceiling finishes are not early, and the original large fireplace has been demolished.
\nThe first floor is not accessible, as its former access via non-original rear decks has been destroyed. Its interior is not intact, comprising a single, large room and all original partitions demolished. It retains sections of its original timber framed floor structure, floor boards, and early plaster wall finish, however, the floor, wall, and ceiling surfaces are predominantly not early.
\nThe rear yard contains no features or structures of state-level cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The Broadway Hotel, Woolloongabba was built in 1890 during a period of major growth in Queensland’s economy, population, and construction. It operated as a privately-owned commercial hotel until its closure due to a fire in 2010. In 2018, it was heavily damaged in a second fire and remains closed.
\nThe area now known as Woolloongabba is part of the traditional country of the Jagera and Turrbal People.[1] Following European occupation, it was called One Mile Swamp due to a series of large waterholes stretching for a mile between what is now Stanley and Vulture streets. The roads from the Logan and Darling Downs districts converged there and in the 1850s bullock drays and livestock were rested at the waterholes. By the 1860s some of the waterholes had been drained and a fledgling commercial precinct emerged. The name, Woolloongabba, replaced One Mile Swamp in the 1870s.[2]
\nQueensland experienced an economic boom beginning in the 1870s and peaking in the late 1880s before growth slowed dramatically in the early 1890s due to a series of economic setbacks. During the boom, Queensland travel routes and services, particularly railways, were expanded, stimulating growth in industries, increasing the availability of consumer goods and construction materials, and spurring closer settlement, particularly in Brisbane.[3] Trams were introduced as a form of public transport in Brisbane in the mid-1880s and expanded rapidly, shaping the development of the city’s suburbs.[4]
\nMany new hotels were built in the 1880s to service the increased size and mobility of the Queensland population. In the late 19th century, hotels (licensed drinking establishments that also provided lodging) were key venues for social interaction. They provided a vital service for travellers, pastoralists, workers, and others moving around the colony, and were typically located on or near major travel routes or services.[5] Queensland’s many late 19th to early 20th century hotels shared characteristics, including being located prominently in growing urban or suburban areas, serviced by transport routes and amenities. They were typically two- or three-storey, loadbearing brick and timber-framed structures with a grand form, architectural style, and elaborate detailing, designed to attract public attention. The interior functions included public hospitality amenities, such as public bars, lounges, dining rooms, bedrooms, and ablutions, serviced by back of house rooms, such as cellars, store rooms, kitchens, and laundries.[6]
\nIn the 1880s, Woolloongabba developed quickly, together with the adjoining suburbs of East Brisbane, Buranda, and Stones Corner, following the expansion of the railway and tramway systems and the growth of associated commerce and light industry. In 1881 a dry dock was established at South Brisbane and the nearby coal wharves were linked to a railway goods yard at Woolloongabba in 1884. The first (horse drawn) trams in Brisbane ran between Woolloongabba and Newstead in 1885 and had reached Buranda by 1887. South Brisbane and Woolloongabba were amalgamated to form the City of South Brisbane in 1888 and in the following year the first Post Office opened in Woolloongabba and was serviced by tram. The area was booming, as was the Queensland economy generally.[7] It was within this buoyant context that Brisbane publican Michael McKenna bought land in Woolloongabba and built his substantial Broadway Hotel to a design by John Hall & Son.
\nJohn Hall & Son was a successful, Brisbane-based architecture firm, operating from 1883 until 1896. The firm was extremely busy during the 1880s, designing more than 100 buildings in the late 1880s alone, but work lessened after the economic downturn of the early 1890s. Led by principal Francis Richard Hall, the firm employed a number of talented architects, including John Smith Murdoch from the late 1880s to 1893. The firm’s designs were primarily for Brisbane buildings, mostly residences and villas; likely the firm’s most prominent and notable design was the South Brisbane Municipal Council Chambers (QHR 600306), designed in c1890, and its construction completed in 1892 to considerable fanfare.[8] During the same period, the firm completed designs for at least nine Brisbane hotels, one of which was the Broadway Hotel, possibly by Murdoch.[9]
\nThe Broadway Hotel was constructed by local contractors Wooley and White, with their £4820 tender accepted in September 1889.[10] The hotel’s Woolloongabba site, bounded by Logan Road, Short Street, and Balaclava Street, had been transferred to McKenna in January that year. Its location at the intersection of major arterial roads was prominent, and well serviced by the tram line which ran along Logan Road. John Hall & Son’s design was an imposing structure to attract attention, and when completed and opened in 1890 it rapidly became a well-known local landmark.[11]
\nThe Broadway Hotel was a substantial, three-storey, brick hotel in an elaborate Late-Victorian style, described as Queen Anne Revival. Its two street facades were highly decorative, featuring polychrome face brick walls with elaborately moulded terracotta dressings, balconies, parapets, a mansard roof, and an octagonal corner tower with tall, peaked roof. It included a single-storey, rear service wing extending along Short Street with a cast-iron post and lace balustrade verandah facing the street. The wing’s original interior layout and function are not known, but was likely one or two small rooms (kitchen and scullery). It is possible the building included a second rear wing, although its size and functions are not known, and is only confirmed to be here by 1915.[12]
\nMcKenna operated the hotel until the end of 1899, when he leased the hotel to a succession of licensees, and he sold it in 1917.[13]
\nAn air-raid shelter was constructed in the rear yard in 1943.[14] The hotel was refurbished in the late-1950s, including altering room layouts, enclosing balconies, cutting new openings in walls, and closing others, building toilets and a cold room, and adding new finishes. Plans of this work show the second rear wing at this time to be a two-storey, brick wing with hip roof. Its ground floor layout and large fireplace indicate it was possibly an early kitchen and/or laundry and two adjacent, smaller rooms, possibly scullery and storeroom. The first floor, which was at a different level to that of the main block, had a layout and room sizes which were domestic, possibly servants’ or manager’s living rooms. Connecting this wing and the hotel’s main block was a semi-enclosed stair down to the rear yard. The plans also show a two-storey, rear verandah (with cast iron posts at ground level), which ran along the rear of the main block, likely built in 1890. It was demolished as part of the late 1950s work.[15] Further refurbishment work was completed in 1960 and 1962. Also at this time, the hotel’s stables in the rear yard were demolished.[16] In the mid-1980s the hotel underwent a program of refurbishment, alterations, and additions. By this time, the external face brick walls had been painted.[17]
\nIn 1997, the hotel passed into new ownership. In July 2010, while renovations were underway, a fire occurred at the hotel causing extensive damage, and the hotel ceased operation.[18] Still closed, a second major fire occurred in the hotel in September 2018, causing greater damage. The 2018 fire attracted considerable public, political and media interest about the building’s future, following a long period of being unoccupied and subject to vandalism. This included community meetings and petitions to both State and local government to protect the building.[19] After the fire, the hotel’s structure was stabilised, and debris cleanup occurred. The air-raid shelter, found to be structurally unsound, and other, more-recent structures were demolished by 2020. In 2022 a further change in ownership occurred.
\nIn 2024, the hotel remains vacant and fire damaged.
\n","criteria":"
The Broadway Hotel (1890) is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history, providing evidence of: the pattern of 1880s boom-era economic confidence, which led to a large increase in building throughout Queensland, most notably in Brisbane; and the evolution of the Woolloongabba-East Brisbane area in response to the growth of the railway and tramway systems.
|Standing prominently on its corner site on Logan Road, Brisbane, the Broadway Hotel is important for its aesthetic significance as a three-storey hotel in an elaborate, boom-era style. It is a landmark within the Woolloongabba townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15130,"place_ref":600355,"name":"Shop Row","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"609 & 613 Stanley Street","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This two-storeyed brick row comprises five shops, with a single skillion roof of corrugated iron sloping down from the front to the back.
A parapet of exposed face brickwork with applied decoration in cement render dominates the Stanley Street facade. The central design element on this parapet is a pediment scroll with plant motifs; in the bays on either side of the scroll, arch forms in cement render are set in relief.
A first floor cantilevered verandah across the front elevation is ornamented with double timber posts, bracket sweeps to three sides of each post, and batten balustrade and frieze. A set of french doors with fanlight opens centrally from each shop onto the verandah.
At the lower level a corrugated iron street awning is supported by double timber posts.
","history":"This two-storeyed brick shop row was built c1903, probably for John Brett and Winifred Mary Charlton, owners of the adjoining Clarence Hotel.
Although the site on which the shop row is situated housed a number of small businesses from the 1870s onwards, the land subdivision which permitted construction of the brick shop row did not take place until 1903, following purchase of the Clarence Hotel and the adjoining Stanley Street property by the Charltons in 1902-03.
Its occupants have included fruiterers, hairdressers, tobacconists, drapers, and the Australian Bank of Commerce.
","criteria":"Shop Row at Woolloongabba, erected c1903, is important typologically as surviving evidence of Federation-era shop row type in Brisbane, and historically as one of the few surviving commercial buildings of Woolloongabba's early 20th century post-depression recovery.
The place is important for its streetscape contribution, and as an integral part of the Clarence Corner precinct, which encapsulates the principal phases of commercial development in Woolloongabba from the 1860s to the 1930s.
|Shop Row at Woolloongabba, erected c1903, is important typologically as surviving evidence of Federation-era shop row type in Brisbane, and historically as one of the few surviving commercial buildings of Woolloongabba's early 20th century post-depression recovery.
|The place is important for its streetscape contribution, and as an integral part of the Clarence Corner precinct, which encapsulates the principal phases of commercial development in Woolloongabba from the 1860s to the 1930s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15131,"place_ref":600356,"name":"Pollock's Shop House","alternate_name":"Pollocks Shop House","street_address":"617-619 Stanley Street","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Pollock's Shop House is situated in Stanley Street between Clarence Corner and Merton Road, adjacent to Hillyard's Shop House, another c1865 two-storeyed brick building (601059). A narrow laneway runs along the east face of the building, which has a sealed bitumen carpark at the rear.
The building consists of a two storeyed brick core, square in plan, with early double storeyed timber additions to either side, and a single storeyed extension to the rear.
There is a hipped roof on the central brick core, with inward sloping skillion roofs on each side wing that drain to box gutters fixed to the brick walls, and a skillion roof to the rear extension.
The building has a pleasing balance in its design, with two symmetrically placed window openings in the upper level of the plain brick rear facade, and three door openings to the Stanley Street verandah.
Despite the unequal sizes of the side additions, the building's appearance is unified by a street awning and verandah that run the full width of the Stanley Street elevation, with a chamferboard parapet each side of the central roof; and by the rear extension which also spans the full width of the facade.
The eastern facade and the verandah are oversheeted with fibro, as is the soffit of the street awning.
Facebrick coursing of the central core is English Bond brickwork, with corner quoins to the Stanley Street elevation, and round headed openings with sandstone sills at first floor level in the southern face, one of which has been extended to form a doorway.
Internally the central core has set plasterwork to walls, lathe and plaster ceilings, pine floors, and a timber framed roof of corrugated GI sheeting over timber shingles.
The wings are of timber, lined externally with horizontal chamferboards and internally with vertical VJ boards to walls and ceilings, and are roofed in corrugated GI sheeting.
A central chimney services both floors and joinery throughout is of cedar, including the turned staircase.
The interior of the core comprises a front shop, two back rooms in what was possibly the former kitchen, and a side stairwell on the ground floor with a side passage that is now a toilet. At the first floor level, the stairwell opens into a large parlour with french doors to the Stanley Street verandah and doorways either side of the central fireplace to two bedrooms at the rear.
In the eastern wing is a ground floor shop with two small rooms at the rear, giving access to a stair that leads to four upstairs rooms, which are symmetrically placed around a central hallway. Each upstairs room on the eastern and southern elevations has a single double hung sash window, protected by an external hood.
A ground floor shop occupies the western wing, with a room at the rear. Access to the two rooms and small bathroom upstairs is gained through a doorway to the front verandah.
Except for the westernmost shop which has a metal roller shutter, the shopfronts have glazed showcases either side of splayed and glazed reveals and central doorways, and date from early this century.
","history":"This two-storeyed brick building was constructed in the mid-1860s, either for Brisbane businessman and contractor William Pettigrew, who acquired the site in December 1864, or for Brisbane contractor and butcher Alexander Pollock, who acquired title to the site, (then part of the Clarence Estate), in April 1865.
It was one of the earliest masonry buildings at One-mile Swamp (Woolloongabba), erected during the 1860s development of that part of Stanley Street as an early commercial centre.
One-mile Swamp received an investment boost in the early and mid-1860s, following diversion of the Toowoomba mail from South Brisbane to Kangaroo Point, the formation of the New Ipswich Road, (avoiding the Old Ipswich or Boggo [Boghole] Road - later Annerley Road), and the opening of Brisbane's first cross river bridge at South Brisbane in June 1865.
These developments stimulated land investment at One-mile Swamp, and in 1864 the Clarence Town Estate was offered for sale. This parcel of land, which comprised 7 acres with frontages to Stanley Street and Boggo and Merton Roads, had been alienated in 1856 by Thomas Grenier of Brisbane. It was sold to publican Thomas Hayselden in 1863, and the first Clarence Hotel, at the corner of Stanley Street (by then the main Ipswich Road) and Boggo Road, was opened by Hayselden in January 1864.
When Hayselden's Clarence Estate and neighbouring One-mile Swamp or Woolloongabba allotments were being advertised for auction or sale in 1864-65, the potential of the area for both small business and residential purposes was emphasised. Suddenly, in the mid-1860s, an area which previously had been defined by little other than three Hotels - the Clarence at the intersection of the old and new Ipswich Roads, Scanlan's hotel at the Woolloongabba fiveways, and the Buffalo at the corner of Hawthorne Road and New Ipswich Road - acquired a string of small businesses fronting the new Ipswich Road beyond Boggo Road. Amongst these was Pollock's shop house.
Until well into the 1870s, One-mile Swamp was a separate settlement from South Brisbane and Kangaroo Point, and early progress was associated with the traffic from the interior - bullock teams converging on One-mile Swamp from the old and new Ipswich Roads, and the Logan and Cleveland Roads. A further stimulus to development of the area came with the discovery of beds of clay amongst the string of waterholes and marshes which comprised the One-mile Swamp. It is understood that a brickworks was established near the site of the Woolloongabba cricket ground c1856, and that several other such establishments followed in the One-mile Swamp/Kangaroo Point area, flourishing in the 1860s and 1870s.
It is likely that the bricks used in the construction of Pollock's shop-house came from the One-mile Swamp brickworks, and survive to illustrate one of the earliest industries of Woolloongabba.
Alexander Pollock was bankrupted in the crash of 1866/67, and although reputedly he later retrieved his fortune in the Gympie goldrush, was forced to forfeit the Stanley Street property to a mortgagee in 1868.
Since that time a variety of small businesses have operated from the ground floor premises, which totalled four shops by the twentieth century. One of the more enduring businesses established in the building was the oyster saloon run by Luigi Cervetto, fish merchant, who acquired the property in 1912, and neighbouring subdivision 10 in 1920. The Cervetto family retained both sites until 1956. The first floor has been rented as boarding rooms, and more recently occupied by squatters.
","criteria":"It provides rare evidence of the early commercial development of One-Mile Swamp/ Woolloongabba in the mid-1860s; of the early brickmaking industry associated with the area at this time, of which little record, either physical or written, survives; and of 1860s brick construction technique and stylistic and aesthetic choices.
|Pollock's Shop House is one of few two-storeyed, brick, 1860s shop houses to survive in Brisbane.
It provides rare evidence of the early commercial development of One-Mile Swamp/ Woolloongabba in the mid-1860s; of the early brickmaking industry associated with the area at this time, of which little record, either physical or written, survives; and of 1860s brick construction technique and stylistic and aesthetic choices.
|As a substantially intact, detached, two-storeyed brick shop house, this building is particularly important in illustrating a past way of life.
|As an integral part of the Clarence Corner streetscape, and one of a pair of c1865 two-storeyed brick shop houses on adjacent properties fronting Stanley Street, this building contributes strongly to the Woolloongabba townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15132,"place_ref":600357,"name":"Woolloongabba Post Office (former)","alternate_name":"Woolloongabba Post and Telegraph Office | Woolloongabba Post Office","street_address":"765 Stanley Street","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-01-24","description":"The former Woolloongabba Post Office is a two-storeyed rendered masonry building with cement dressings and hipped corrugated iron roofs, located on the corner of Stanley and Hubert Streets. It is richly decorated, and makes a prominent contribution through form, scale and detail to the predominantly parapeted commercial streetscape of Stanley St.
Originally constructed to accommodate a post and telegraph office on the ground floor, and a residence on the first floor, the form and detail of the exterior of the building is skilfully designed to articulate the domestic and public roles of the building. The post office is composed as a single major volume under a hipped roof with ventilated gables, with an attached tower over the entrance vestibule at the corner of Hubert and Stanley Sts. On the north elevation, facing Stanley St, the residence sits behind a 'piazza' or loggia. Towards the rear facing Hubert St, the building, assumes a more domestic character, with a prominent and richly detailed awning, a separate, smaller hipped roof, and a chimney which rises above the roof line. The southern (rear) frontage has a deep timber verandah, and the western frontage overlooking the service lane is unrendered and undecorated. The building has deep eaves with shaped rafter ends.
The two street-facing elevations have horizontal tripartite ornamentation, comprising: a square-snecked rubble stone plinth; cement string course to ground floor sill level; course aggregate rendered walls to the piano nobile; and unrendered brickwork expressed as pilasters above a first floor string course. These elevations are linked with cement banding. The corner tower has large openings at the base with deep lintels with dentils and scrolls. The single windows above have pilasters and single scrolled brackets under the sill, and are surmounted by deep arched hood mouldings with cartouches. The tower roof is topped with an idiosyncratic concave peak and finial. The Stanley St frontage has paired windows to the ground floor either side of a set of three windows surmounted by the central feature of the elevation; an arch with dentils over small cartouches around a large, elaborate cartouche bearing the words POST & TELEGRAPH OFFICE. The more recently added metal WOOLLOONGABBA POST OFFICE, also appears on the Stanley St elevation. The loggia above has brick spandrels and columns with rounded cement capitals.
The openings to the Hubert St elevations have dentils to the ground floor, and single scrolled brackets and sills to the first floor. The main entrance to the former residence on Hubert St comprises a timber lined barrel vault supported on delicate metal brackets, over a central door with a coloured glass arched fanlight flanked by single windows. A second entrance is provided around the corner on the south elevation, which also has an arched coloured glass fanlight and an arched brick lintel.
The verandah to the south, now partially enclosed, has a timber balustrade with timber posts, and timber battens to the verandah soffit. The brickwork to the south is unrendered, revealing splayed brick lintels.
Internally, the former residence is accessed via a set of timber stairs in the south eastern corner of the building. The stairs have turned balusters and substantial newel posts with chamfered rectangular tops. On the first floor, the former residence partition walls have been removed, however the remaining large space retains its timber lined ceilings, a single fretwork ceiling ventilator panel, a former kitchen fireplace, and a fireplace in the south eastern corner with fine timber panelling and ceramic tiled surrounds. Some of the decorative ironmongery remains, including wall ventilator panels, escutcheon plates, and a teardrop-shaped door handle at the ground floor entrance.
The ground floor has also undergone substantial alterations with the installation of new partitions for offices and new ceilings, but retains a central cast iron column and panelled beams traversing the former large mail room. The column has an identification plate at its base which reads HARVEY Margaret St Brisbane.
","history":"The Woolloongabba Post & Telegraph Office was constructed in 1905 for the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs, to a plan designed and supervised by the Queensland Department of Public Works, government architect's office.
It replaced an earlier Woolloongabba Post & Telegraph Office, opened in rented premises in Logan Road, in 1887. The population of Woolloongabba, which had grown steadily between the 1860s and 1880s, increased rapidly following the expansion of the railway line to Woolloongabba in 1884, and the extension of the electric tramway to Woolloongabba/East Brisbane in 1897. During the 1880s and 1890s the 'Gabba developed as Brisbane's fourth major shopping centre, the others being central Brisbane, Fortitude Valley and Stanley Street at South Brisbane. By the turn of the century, most of the allotments facing Stanley Street, Logan Road and Ipswich Road at the Fiveways were fully developed commercial sites.
Following Separation in 1859 and prior to Federation in 1901, the Queensland Government organised the postal service for the state. In 1901 the newly established Commonwealth Government became responsible for communications, and the Commonwealth Postmaster General's Department was created. The transfer of responsibilities from the States to the Commonwealth was gradual, and the Queensland Department of Works continued to carry out design and documentation of post offices on behalf of the Commonwealth Government until c1920.
Alfred Barton Brady was employed with the Queensland Government as Government Architect from 1892-1922. Brady claimed that he always advised on arrangement, style and materials, but it appears that his Senior Assistant, Thomas Pye supervised much of the detailed design. During the 30 years they worked together in the Department, Brady and Pye assembled a talented group of architects and draftsmen who were considered the equal of any in Australia, including from 1893 to 1903 John Smith Murdoch, who was to become Commonwealth Director-General of Works in 1927. Pye later served as deputy government architect from 1906 to 1921, and a major example of his work is the former Executive Building (QHR 600123) in William Street. From the office of the Government Architect there developed a tradition of fine government buildings, including many post offices, customs houses and court houses throughout the State.
A new post office building was proposed as early as 1901, and approval was given in August 1902 to purchase the present site for £1,250. The site was previously owned by the Wesleyan Methodist Church, and provided the Commonwealth with the opportunity to acquire a site for the post office that was on one of the three major streets which formed the Fiveways and was within close proximity of the centre of local activity, the Woolloongabba railway and the tramway.
In October 1903 the Commonwealth requested the Queensland Department of Public Works to prepare sketch plans for the building and to survey the site.
Working plans for the building were completed in 1904, under Pye's supervision.
The design accommodated a large mail room on the ground floor and residential accommodation for the postmaster on the first. This comprised dining and sitting rooms, four bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, scullery, store, rear verandah and front piazza. The latter was a concession to the climate which was unusual in commercial buildings of the time. Provision was made for a ground floor extension along the northwestern side.
Tenders were called in February-March 1905, and the contract was let to builder Thomas Rees with a price of £2,174.
Completed in November 1905, the Woolloongabba Post & Telegraph Office was one of only five masonry post offices constructed in Queensland between 1900 and 1910. In addition to Woolloongabba, these included post offices at Ipswich (1900) (QHR 600555), Stanthorpe (1901) (QHR 600831), Cairns (1906, no longer extant) and Mount Morgan (1910).
The ground floor of the building has undergone several alterations, as the spaces were re-organised to suit the changing functions of the post office. The first floor ceased to function as a residence during the 1950s, and was converted for use by the staff and the district inspector. During the 1960s the first floor was further altered to include a mail room, and most of the remaining partitions were removed. The building was refurbished in 1988, and from 1989 the first floor was leased to the Genealogical Society of Queensland.
The building closed as a post office in 1994, although some offices remain in use by Australia Post.
","criteria":"The former Woolloongabba Post Office survives as evidence of the rapid growth of Woolloongabba which accompanied the expansion of public transport in Brisbane around the turn of the century. Both the population boom and the substantial masonry post office building at Woolloongabba are illustrative of the late 1890s/early 1900s economic high on which Queensland entered the 20th century.
|The former Woolloongabba Post Office is one of few extant substantial masonry post office buildings erected in Queensland during the early 20th century.
|The form and detail of the exterior of the building is skilfully designed to articulate the domestic and public roles of the building. The former post office illustrates competency in design and workmanship, and reflects the high standard of Government buildings in Queensland, designed by the Department of Public Works during the early 20th century. When erected, the building was unusual for its incorporation of a piazza in a commercial building.
|The former post office, located within the predominantly commercial Stanley Street streetscape, displays fine quality public architecture with a strong civic presence.
|The former post office illustrates competency in design and workmanship, and reflects the high standard of Government buildings in Queensland, designed by the Department of Public Works during the early 20th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15133,"place_ref":600358,"name":"St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"330-334B Vulture Street","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral is situated with its main face to Vulture Street, in a setting of tall mature trees.
On the site which rises gently from Vulture Street, and flanked to each side and to the rear by high-set single storey timber buildings of domestic scale, the church building is the central, commanding building in the group. With its white finished walls resembling masonry, symmetrical facade and distinctive towers, the church stands quite tall and contributes significantly to the streetscape in this part of Vulture Street.
In plan, the church is a simple rectangle, with a square attached tower over the front entry and an attached rectangular aisle at each long side.
There are three symmetrically placed entry porches at the front Vulture Street facade, with roof forms and bargeboards shaped to the profile of a cupola and surmounted by ball and cross finials. A three-sided apse is centrally located at the rear.
The square tower houses a choir space directly above the main entry, and a belfry above that, accessed by a series of simple timber ladders.
Above the altar and centrally placed in the main roof is a smaller six-sided tower and cupola.
Constructed on a rendered masonry base, the building is timber framed with a roughcast rendered fibro exterior, save for the western aisle which has been built in rendered masonry subsequent to 1950. The main roof is sheeted in corrugated galvanised iron, and the cupolas and tapering roof to the square tower are made up of flat and curved pieces of galvanised sheeting.
Rendered masonry steps provide access to each of the three front entry doors, which have two leaves in a round-headed opening.
A path runs from the central entry to a metal gate, centrally placed in a rendered masonry fence along the street frontage. This fence comprises pillars with incised crosses and ball finials, between which are masonry panels and steel tube and wire infill panels.
The interior has a wooden floor and a ceiling which follows the line of the rafters, lined with fibro and VJ boards.
In this building the simple geometric forms, crowned with cupolas and punctuated with tall round-headed windows, are an expression of the canon of Russian religious architecture that dates from Byzantium and that has been constructed here in response to local materials, time and place.
","history":"The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St Nicholas was erected in 1935-36. It was the first purpose-built Russian Orthodox church in Australia, and one of the earlier parishes established in the post-1917 Russian Diaspora, yet its construction came comparatively late in the history of Russian emigration to Queensland.
A trickle of Russian emigration to Queensland had been sustained through the 19th century, with numbers increasing substantially from the 1880s. These immigrants were popular with the Queensland government, assimilating rapidly. Most moved into rural occupations, and those who remained in Brisbane gained employment principally in the railways, meatworks and factories. By 1911, Russians comprised the fourth largest ethnic group in Brisbane, congregating in South Brisbane-Woolloongabba.
Queensland's largest intake of Russian immigrants took place in the years 1911-1914. Many were radicals and revolutionaries seeking asylum from tsarist political repression in the final chaotic years of the Russian Empire; considerable numbers were Jews escaping state-inspired pogroms. They had fled Russia via Siberia and Northern China, most making their way to Harbin, in Manchuria, then taking passage from the port of Darien to Townsville or Brisbane, the first Australian ports of call.
Partly because they were scattered throughout the state, and partly because many pre-1920s immigrants associated Russian Orthodoxy with the tsarist system they were fleeing, no formal Russian Orthodox parish was established in Queensland during this period.
Queensland's encouragement of Russian immigration ceased in 1918. During the First World War (1914-18) Australia was allied with Imperial Russia, and although the Russian Empire collapsed in March 1917, Australia, like most Western nations, supported the provisional government, in an attempt to keep Russia engaged in the war. Following the Bolshevik coup of October 1917 and Russia's withdrawal from the war, however, capitalist nations reversed their Russian policies, regarding the new Soviet regime with hostility. From mid-1918 to 1922, a period of violent civil war in Russia, almost all Russian immigration to Queensland was prohibited.
With large numbers of White Russians (monarchists and anti-communists) fleeing the Soviet Union during this period and applying to emigrate to Australia, the Queensland government was forced to relax its immigration restrictions. Along with this influx of White Russian emigrés to Brisbane in the early 1920s, the city's first Russian Orthodox parish was established. Father Alexander Shabasheff, who had fled Russia via China, arrived in Brisbane in 1923, and through the assistance of Canon David Garland of the Church of England, obtained the use of St Thomas' Church of England, at the corner of Grey Street and Fish Lane, South Brisbane, where Russian Orthodox immigrants could worship. From this beginning in 1923 a Russian Orthodox parish was created at South Brisbane in 1925, and in 1925-26 a cottage at 330 Vulture Street, Woolloongabba (site of the present cathedral) was purchased by the parish and converted into a church. In 1926, Father Shabasheff was appointed officially to the parish, by the Administration of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. In 1930, the parish was registered as St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church.
Most of the White Russian emigrés who arrived in Brisbane in the 1920s had moved immediately to rural areas in search of work. By the mid-1930s, despite the depression, many had made sufficient money to enable them to return to Brisbane, where they were less isolated, and where Russian culture was sustained by the local emigré community. The construction of a purpose-designed Russian Orthodox church became a priority for Brisbane's Russian community. With the appointment in 1933 of Father Valentine Antonieff to the parish of St Nicholas, fund raising for a new church commenced. It was to be erected on the site of the existing church, and would be a memorial to the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II.
Engineer and local parishioner Gregory Mechonoshin drew up a basic plan for the new church. This was approved by the parish council, who then commissioned architects Cavanagh & Cavanagh, of Brisbane and Perth, to prepare formal plans. Tenders were called in mid-1935, and the contract was let to builder B Robinson. Assistance in the technical construction of the cupola was given by another parishioner and engineer, Mr Golovznin. Construction commenced in 1935, and when finished (probably early in 1936), the building was consecrated with lesser rites by the local priest. On 4 October 1936, the church was consecrated with full rites by Greek Orthodox Archbishop Timothy of Brisbane, there being no Russian Orthodox bishop yet appointed in Australia.
The iconostasis (timber screen separating the sanctuary from the nave) and royal gates were constructed and decorated by local Russian immigrants. The movable icons and chandelier are of Russian or Chinese origin, and were donated by the widow of Father Tourchinsky. Interior fittings included a shrine to Tsar Nicholas II. The Maltese Cross on the front tower of the building was incorporated not for liturgical reasons, but because it formed part of the Queensland state emblem.
The front fence, extant by May 1939, was constructed a few years after the new church was erected, replacing an earlier picket fence. The work was financed by Alexander Bardin, who had a cattle property near Roma, as a memorial to his wife and parents. It was constructed by local parishioner Michael Zakrjevsky.
The Diocese of Australia was established in December 1946, with Bishop Theodore (Rafalsky) appointed as its head. At the time there were only two Russian Orthodox parishes in Australia, St Nicholas in Brisbane, established in 1925, and St Vladimir's in Sydney, established in 1938. As St Vladimir's Church was only a converted house, and St Nicholas Church had been purpose-built, Bishop Theodore was to be located in Brisbane. After immigration delays, the bishop finally arrived in Brisbane in late 1948, and consecrated St Nicholas Church at Woolloongabba as Australia's first Russian Orthodox Cathedral, on 5 November 1948. The seat of Russian Orthodoxy in Australia remained in Brisbane only a short time. In 1950, Bishop Theodore was appointed Archbishop of Australia and New Zealand, and relocated to Sydney, which was geographically more central to the diocese, and contained a larger post-Second World War Russian immigrant population than Brisbane. Several vicar bishops occupied the Brisbane bishopric between 1950 and 1976, but the position has remained vacant since.
At some time after 1950, the building was extended at each side.
The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St Nicholas remains integral to the survival of Russian culture and religion in Brisbane, despite the more recent establishment of two other Russian Orthodox parishes: St Seraphim's at Woolloongabba (1950s) and a church at Rocklea (1960s). Services are conducted in the liturgical language, Church Slavonic, although every two months an English-language service is held as well, and for many years the church has maintained an important library of Russian works. A large part of Russian cultural identity in Brisbane remains bound with the traditions of Russian Orthodoxy and St Nicholas Cathedral.
","criteria":"The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St Nicholas at Woolloongabba, erected 1935-36, was the first purpose-built Russian Orthodox church in Australia, and was consecrated in 1948 as the first Russian Orthodox cathedral in Australia. From St Nicholas Cathedral, the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Australia and New Zealand was administered from late 1948 to early 1950.
The establishment of St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Brisbane can be contextualised within the wider pattern of Russian emigration following the Bolshevik coup of 1917, and the establishment of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and remains an important link between Queensland and the most significant political upheaval of the 20th century
|(Criterion under review)
|Its simple geometric forms, crowned with cupolas and punctuated with tall round-headed windows, and the interior arrangement of liturgical elements, including the iconostasis and royal gates, are an expression of the canon of Russian religious architecture that dates from Byzantium and that has been constructed here in response to local materials, time and place.
|With its distinctive towers, the church contributes significantly to the streetscape in this part of Vulture Street.
|St Nicholas Cathedral has had a close association with the maintenance of Russian cultural identity and tradition in both Brisbane and Queensland, and is important in illustrating the pluralism of 20th century Queensland/Brisbane society.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15134,"place_ref":600359,"name":"Holy Cross Laundry","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"60 Bridge Street","suburb":"WOOLOOWIN","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The laundry is a single-storeyed brick and timber structure with a corrugated iron roof. The older sections rest on brick piers and probably originally were unpainted externally.
The 1889 brick wing retains its basic form, although sections of walls have been removed, the ceiling is lined, the exterior has been plastered and painted, and the whole has been re-roofed. It still houses the washing room, part of the ironing room and the boiler-room. A recent brick wing has been added to the east of this section to serve as the sorting room.
The wall separating the old wing from the 1899 brick addition has been removed to create one large ironing room. The extension was designed for maximum ventilation, and has a high ceiling lined with tongue and groove boards, tall sash windows and verandahs the length of each side, and large ventilators in the roof. The verandah detailing originally echoed that of the dormitory building, but the existing posts, arches and diagonal battening of the western verandah are mostly replacements suggestive of the original. The eastern verandah has been enclosed and remodelled.
In 1905 a section of the eastern wall of this second wing was removed and a timber extension was constructed to house the packing room; this has been extended since to include office facilities. The loading dock between this timber wing and the boiler room has been enclosed recently.
None of the original equipment remains, although two large steam rollers, one manufactured by Mackenzie Bros Ltd of Sydney and dated 22 April 1936, and another (1940s), are still in operation.
","history":"The Holy Cross Laundry was constructed as an auxiliary wing to the Holy Cross Retreat at Wooloowin in 1888-89.
The retreat was built for the Sisters of Mercy as a tribute to the work of James Quinn, Bishop of Queensland from 1859 until his death in 1881. It was erected adjacent to the Church of the Holy Cross (1886) in Chalk Street, to a design prepared by former colonial architect FDG Stanley.
The institution, known more familiarly as the Magdalen Asylum, provided protection for unmarried mothers and women who were either destitute or deemed to be in need of institutional restraint, and for intellectually handicapped persons, regardless of creed. The adjacent laundry functioned as both a source of revenue to support the home and as a means of teaching skills and discipline.
The original laundry consisted of a single-storeyed section at the eastern end of the dormitory building containing ironing and mangling rooms, and a southern wing which housed the sorting room and washhouse. In 1899 a northern wing in brick with a timber verandah was added. It was designed as a model ironing room equipped with a purpose-built recess which housed tiered stoves capable of heating sixty-eight irons. Large roller presses were in use by 1902 and electric irons were installed in 1917. From the outset the laundry employed steam-driven facilities, initially powered by a gas-operated boiler. An oil burner was installed in the 1980s, and the old boiler-room chimney was demolished.
In the 1890s the laundry secured a number of shipping contracts and by the 1920s had grown to become one of the largest commercial laundries in Brisbane.
In 1977 the dormitory building and kitchen wing were demolished, but the steam laundry has been maintained as a sheltered workshop for intellectually handicapped women and men.
","criteria":"The Holy Cross Laundry, Wooloowin is significant historically because it is the oldest charitable institutional laundry continuing in operation in Brisbane, and provides rare surviving evidence of the workhouse tradition, associated with a refuge for destitute women in the 19th century.
|The Holy Cross Laundry, Wooloowin is significant historically because it is the oldest charitable institutional laundry continuing in operation in Brisbane, and provides rare surviving evidence of the workhouse tradition, associated with a refuge for destitute women in the 19th century.
|The Holy Cross Laundry also survives as an example of late 19th century institutional building style, demonstrating adjustments to regional climatic conditions in an industrial context.
|The place has an important association with the Sisters of Mercy and their involvement in pioneering and maintaining charitable institutions in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15135,"place_ref":600360,"name":"Rhyndarra","alternate_name":"Yeronga Girls' Industrial School; 1 Camp Hospital | Australian Military Forces 1st Military Hospital; National Service Training Hospital | 2 Women's Hospital","street_address":"23 Riverview Place","suburb":"YERONGA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"Rhyndarra comprises a two-storeyed rendered brick residence overlooking the Brisbane River towards Long Pocket to the south, a stables to the northwest of the house, and part of the park reserve to the south and southwest of the house, which was formerly part of the grounds. The house and stables are visible from the approach along Riverview Place.
The house rests on a raised square-snecked stone base. It has a hipped corrugated iron roof with projecting gable above a hipped bay to the southeast.
Double height verandahs almost encircle the building, being broken by a projecting two-storeyed bay on the southern corner. The verandahs have cast iron columns and balustrade, with cast iron brackets and valance to the first floor and a timber lattice valance to the ground floor. The rear first floor verandah has been partially enclosed with fibrous cement and glass louvre panels. Walls are scribed to represent ashlar, the projecting bay has sash windows framed by rendered pilasters supporting a deep cornice and the gable above has a scalloped barge board.
The building is entered via a flight of steps adjacent to the projecting bay with rendered balustrades supporting large urns. The main entry has paired, panelled cedar doors with sidelights and fanlight, with a bay window to the verandah adjacent. French doors with fanlights and tall sash windows open onto the verandahs.
The building has a two-storeyed masonry service wing to the northwest, with a lower two-storeyed addition (1938). This addition has a masonry ground floor, chamferboard first floor and gable roof. A narrow timber stair accesses the first floor verandah from the rear re-entrant corner.
Internally, the ground floor contains a wide entrance hall, with a cedar staircase with turned balustrade and a tall arched sash window. The building has plastered walls, ornate plaster ceilings and cornices, cedar panelled doors, architraves and skirtings and a variety of marble fireplace surrounds. The northeast rooms on the ground floor are connected by a wide opening that originally housed folding cedar doors. The rear wing accommodates a kitchen, bathrooms and service rooms.
The grounds immediately surrounding the house contain remnant plantings from the various gardens that have existed. These include a large Jacaranda to the southeast, Lilly Pilly to the west and a small garden to the north which contains a Crows Ash, Frangipani and Silky Oak. The area of the property fronting the Brisbane River contains a number of large Eucalyptus spp.
The original Rhyndarra stable is located to the northwest of the house, separated from it by Heritage Close. This brick structure has a steeply pitched corrugated iron roof with a lean-to addition at the northeast end. The building has been adaptively reused as a private residence, with sleeping areas to the loft level and living and bedroom areas to the ground level. Roof-lights have been added, and an internal staircase constructed. A single-storeyed addition has been constructed to the south comprising living, kitchen and bathroom areas. The adaptive reuse has retained a strong visual connection between the stable and the villa.
","history":"This substantial, two-storeyed brick residence and stable was erected in 1888-89 for Brisbane businessman William Williams, as his semi-rural suburban residence. Between 1897 and 1942 it functioned as a Salvation Army Girls' Industrial, and from 1942 until the late 1990s as a military hospital.
Establishment of Rhyndarra
In the late 1880s Williams acquired approximately 140 acres of land along the riverfront at Yeronga. The area at this time comprised a mixture of large farming estates and smaller residential subdivisions and was developing as a middle-class suburb following the opening of the Yeronga Railway Station in 1885.
In 1888 Williams commissioned Brisbane architects Andrea Stombuco & Son to design the Yeronga residence. Andrea Stombuco, in practice with his son Giovanni, was an Italian who had arrived in Brisbane in the 1870s after working for a period in the southern colonies. He designed many churches and ecclesiastical buildings for the Catholic Church in Queensland and was completing the opulent Her Majesty's Theatre in Queen Street when Rhyndarra was commissioned. He was noted for his residential work, which included Palma Rosa (QHR 600219) at Hamilton, an elaborate three-storeyed sandstone residence erected in 1886-87. Rhyndarra was amongst Stombuco's last Brisbane works before moving to Western Australia in 1891.
Rhyndarra was constructed in 1888-89 at a cost of £3,200. Detached from the main house were kitchen, servants' quarters, dairy, storeroom, various sheds and a substantial stables. The buildings were erected by contractor R Smith and the lavish interior decoration to the main house was carried out by Lang & Co. The decorative finishes included cedar joinery, marble fireplace surrounds and ornate plaster ceilings and cornices.
Rhyndarra was typical of the large houses built by Brisbane's more prosperous citizens in the late 19th century. The house was raised off the ground on a stone base forming cellars and storerooms, with the ground floor containing dining and drawing rooms with bedrooms on the first floor. A pantry, kitchen and scullery were located at the rear of the house at ground level, with maids' rooms and a bathroom above.
Williams appears to have over extended financially in his 1880s land dealings and with the economic downturn of the 1890s was forced to relinquish the property, which by then was heavily mortgaged. He moved to Western Australia where he lived with a married daughter until his death in the early 20th century.
Salvation Army
The house and land were unoccupied for a period after Williams' departure until leased by the Salvation Army and opened as a home for orphaned and endangered girls (the Yeronga Girls' Industrial School) in 1897. In 1905 Williams was declared insolvent and the Rhyndarra estate passed to the Australian Mutual Provident Society, which was the principal mortgagor. The AMP Society organised the sale of the Rhyndarra estate at which time the property was subdivided into 13 allotments, each having a street and river frontage. Rhyndarra, on a reduced site of approximately 12 acres, was transferred to William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, in 1907.
Booth had established the Salvation Army in England in the mid 1860s as a church with a strong social conscience, campaigning against poverty and the sins of alcoholism and other moral failings. A large part of the work of the church was in establishing homes for people who were destitute, aged, unmarried mothers, orphans and others in need or in peril.
The Girls' Industrial School at Yeronga was one of a number of similar institutions conducted by the Salvation Army in Queensland at this time, including maternity hospitals, receiving some financial assistance from the government for the orphanages. These institutions were periodically visited by public servants who monitored the welfare of the children.
The girls who lived at Rhyndarra were trained for domestic service and situations were found for them when they were old enough to leave the orphanage. In 1910 the matron noted that "each girl is taught housework in all its branches, gradually passing through the different stages from dormitories to dining room, laundry to kitchen and pantry." The house was adapted to accommodate the number of girls resident in the institution. The folding doors dividing the drawing and dining rooms were removed to form the main dormitory and the sitting room was used as a dining room. Upstairs rooms were used to accommodate the girls and the staff, including a matron, cooks and a teacher. The stable was converted for use a schoolroom, where the younger girls were taught basic lessons. The older girls helped look after the younger girls and could attend state schools in surrounding suburbs or were employed in the workroom where they learnt needlework and other tasks, or helped milk the cows. The home aimed at self-sufficiency, with a kitchen garden and flower garden, pigs, chickens, cows and horses.
Numbers at the orphanage fluctuated with changing circumstances and the institution accommodated girls who were orphaned, whose parents were destitute and could not care for them, who had run away or were difficult. In 1899 there were about 30 girls at the home, ranging from 6 to 16 years of age. In the early 1900s there were only 18 girls resident, but by the 1930s and the economic depression of that period the population increased to between 60 to 70 girls, ranging from babies to teenagers.
The greatest change to the physical fabric of Rhyndarra during the Salvation Army's occupation was the construction of a two-storeyed timber and masonry extension at the rear of the house. This extension housed a recreation hall on the first floor, with bathrooms and toilets at ground level. It was constructed by the Salvation Army in 1938 with government funding.
The Salvation Army operated the Girls' Industrial School at Rhyndarra until the Australian Army requisitioned the property in 1942 and the girls were transferred to other institutions outside Brisbane.
World War II
Australia had joined Britain in a declaration of war after Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. In 1942 Rhyndarra was occupied by the Austrlian Army for training purposes for the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) and as a staging area for members en route to places further north and west. Soon after a hospital was constructed in the grounds surrounding the house, for Australian servicewomen and for the Australian Army Medical Women's Service (AAMWS) training.
When war was declared in 1939, there were no Army hospitals in Australia. In the next few years a range of hospitals was built in Australia and overseas, with a total of more than 100 wartime military hospitals operating in Australia. Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS) were located close to the action, both overseas and in Australia, and were little more than tent hospitals set up in the field where casualties were treated and sent onwards for further care. General hospitals were similar to these, although larger and slightly more advanced. Some general hospitals were established overseas in the field. These hospitals returned to Australia (as discreet medical units) with their divisions and were re-established mostly away from the major population centres. Women's hospitals were of a similar type to general hospitals and of this type 26 were built. Of these, it is thought that part of the hospital at Bonegilla in Victoria, is the only one to survive. Other hospitals included camp hospitals and base hospitals. Like women's hospitals, these were constructed in the capital cities and in areas of great troop concentrations, and were more likely permanent structures of timber, fibrous cement sheet and/or corrugated iron, or were established in existing buildings such as houses, which the Army took over as a matter of national importance.
In 1943/44 the Commonwealth Department of Public Works, at the request of the Allied Works Council (AWC), constructed the Australian Women's Hospital at Yeronga. The construction period for the hospital was estimated at four months and it had been completed by June 1944. The new facility provided accommodation for 160 female patients. It comprised fibrous cement and weatherboard wards with kitchens, operating theatre and admission building, all linked by covered ways. Ancillary buildings included pathological, laboratories, canteen and administration units.
The hospital was erected to the northeast of Rhyndarra house and a group of small huts were erected along the northeastern boundary of the site as sleeping quarters for the AAMWS. The nurses had their own sleeping quarters to the southwest of Rhyndarra, with the house used for administration offices, officer's mess, and for recreation. Some minor alterations were made to the house, including removing some of the alterations made by the Salvation Army. The stable was used as the quartermaster's store.
This establishment at Yeronga was known as 2 Women's Hospital (2WH). As a distinct medical unit 2WH had been situated at Redbank, in association with the 2/4 Australian General Hospital (AGH), but it moved completely to the purpose built complex at Yeronga by 1943. Only three specialist women's hospitals were established in Australia during the Second World War, the others being 1 Women's Hospital at Claremont in Western Australia and 3 Women's Hospital located in the grounds of the base hospital at Concord 113 General Hospital, Sydney.
Many women were required to assist the war effort, particularly during 1942 and 1943 when all able-bodied men were required to work in more forward areas. Special services were created to facilitate this, the largest of these being the AWAS (Australian Women's Army Service), formed in mid-1941 in order to release men from some military duties so that they could be employed with fighting units. Recruiting began in early 1942 and by 1944 there were more than 20,000 AWAS members.
The Australian Army Medical Women's Service (AAMWS) had grown out of the VADs (Voluntary Aid Detachments), volunteer women who assisted full-time nurses. With the declaration of war in 1939, approval was given for VADs to work in camp hospitals in Australia. As volunteers, these women worked without pay, but they performed essential work for the war effort. VADs were enrolled full time and in 1941 were brought under the jurisdiction of the Army with the rank of private. Later in 1941 VADs were posted to military hospitals overseas, in groups of about 200. Recruitment was not a problem, but the large numbers of volunteers coming forward placed strains on those in charge. VADs were still under the administration of civilians and to distinguish between those working in civilian operations and those under the Army's jurisdiction were reclassified as the AAMWS.
The AAMWS performed basic medical procedures and provided a back up facility to the trained nurses of the Australian Army's Nursing Service (AANS) in military hospitals. In total there were more than 8,500 members of the AAMWS.
Some members of the AAMWS who trained and worked at the Yeronga hospital were then sent overseas to the various medical units which served in New Guinea, Rabaul and other places in the front line serving at general hospitals. Others filled roles in army base hospitals in Australia such as Concord Hospital in Sydney and Heidelberg in Melbourne.
The 2 Women's Hospital at Yeronga was one of many similar establishments constructed around Brisbane during World War II for service personnel. Apart from the base hospital at Greenslopes (112 AGH), numerous camp hospitals were established, as well as army camps, barracks and bases. Many of the camps and hospitals established in Brisbane were abandoned and disposed of by the Army after the war. The 2 Women's Hospital was retained and the Commonwealth purchased the property in 1946.
After the war, those women who had participated in the services and in paid employment were asked to resume their pre-war lives. The AAMWS and other women's service organisations were demobilised, a process which took many months. It appears that 2 Women's Hospital at Yeronga was used immediately after the war for recuperating servicewomen and for medical check-ups before the women were demobbed.
Post World War II
In the administrative carving up of Commonwealth wartime property after 1945, the site was allocated to the Department of Social Services. The DSS wanted to establish a centre for civilian rehabilitation on the site, however due to the acute housing shortage after the war, the site was briefly allocated to the Queensland Housing Commission from the late 1940s to early 1950s as temporary accommodation for homeless people. Some alterations were made to the wards and other buildings, including Rhyndarra, for this purpose.
During the Cold War of the early 1950s, the Commonwealth government introduced national service. After the 1951 federal elections young men over the age of 18 had to register and serve in the Army, Navy or Air Force for a period of 5-6 months. In light of this recruiting activity, the Army was concerned about its facilities. The accommodation of recruits was provided at personnel depots in capital cities. The existing personnel depot at Indooroopilly was inadequate and Army officials believed that the former women's hospital at Yeronga would satisfactorily handle the recruits. The DSS agreed to the Army's reoccupation of the site and by the early 1950s the northern section of the former women's hospital became known as Northern Command Personnel Depot (NCPD). The southern part became a hospital for national service recruits and trainees. Known as the National Service Training Hospital in 1951, it was referred to as 1 Camp Hospital by the 1960s, after the NCPD has moved elsewhere in the late 1950s.
More recently the hospital expanded as 1 Military Hospital Yeronga, providing minor medical facilities for injured soldiers or those who had become sick during training. This necessitated the construction of a number of additional buildings, mostly accommodation and storage, and a pool and tennis court. Some of the buildings constructed during the Second World War had been demolished due to later construction works.
By the mid 1990s, the main hospital buildings such as the wards and the operating theatres were extant, but had been adapted and altered several times. The admissions building and covered walkways remained, along with various other structures around the site. The AAMWS huts had been replaced by married quarters, the messes were demolished and replaced with new facilities, and the isolation and VD wards had been removed. Rhyndarra and the stables had been used continuously, with officers being accommodated in the main house since the early 1950s.
The 1 Military Hospital functioned together with the repatriation hospital at Greenslopes and facilities at Enoggera and treated its last patients mid-1996. A new hospital, constructed at Gallipoli Army Barracks Enoggera, was commissioned in September 1996 and the former 1 Military Hospital was vacated.
Subsequently the hospital buildings were demolished, leaving only the house, stable and significant trees, prior to the property being subdivided into residential allotments. Rhyndarra survives on a greatly reduced block and the former stables is located on a separate allotment. Part of the riverfront of the original property is now a reserve for park purposes, under the trusteeship of the Brisbane City Council.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1888-89 Rhyndarra, comprising house, stables and surviving grounds, is important for the evidence it provides of the way of life of Brisbane's more prosperous citizens in the late 19th century. As a large semi-rural estate, it was closely associated with the development of Yeronga as a middle-class suburb following the opening of the Yeronga Railway Station in 1885, yet occupied a middle ground between farm and suburban residence.
|Rhyndarra is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class of cultural places: large, late 19th century villa residences set in substantial grounds. These characteristics include: the form (two-storeyed); materials (brick on stone foundations); planning of both the main residence (public rooms downstairs, bedrooms on the upper floor, attached service wing) and the grounds (siting of the house overlooking the river, relationship of the house to auxiliary buildings such as the stables, and garden plantings) and decorative detailing and finishes (including ornate plaster ceilings and cornices, cedar panelled doors, architraves and skirtings and a variety of marble fireplace surrounds). It is a fine example of the work of Brisbane architect Andrea Stombuco.
|Through its form, scale and siting as a riverside residence and together with its remnant plantings, Rhyndarra is of considerable aesthetic significance and the detailing of its materials and finishes reflects a fine quality of workmanship.
|Rhyndarra has a special association with the work of the Salvation Army in housing and protecting orphans and other disadvantaged people in the early 20th century, particularly its concern for orphaned or homeless girls. The rear wing, added by the Salvation Army, has special value as it illustrates the adaptation of the building for use as a girls' home. Rhyndarra is also important for its strong association with the Australian Army as part of the military hospital established in the grounds of Rhyndarra in 1943/44.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15344,"place_ref":600569,"name":"Coorparoo Fire Station (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"219 Cavendish Road","suburb":"COORPAROO","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-06-11","description":"The former Coorparoo Fire Station is a two-storey, symmetrical timber framed building on low concrete stumps standing on the corner of Cavendish Road and Noela Street, Coorparoo. The building is clad with fibrous cement sheeting and horizontal timber batten cover strips to the first storey, has timber weatherboards to the lower storey and a terracotta tiled hipped roof. The front elevation is distinguished by an enclosed verandah balcony to the first floor which projects over the former engine room entrance below.
\nThe building is reached by a small flight of timber stairs from the open concrete carpark to the rear. The stairs arrive at the ground floor landing. The rear door (ground floor) opens into a small corridor from which the bathroom, a bedroom and the large central living room open. The bathroom’s modern fixtures and finishes are not of cultural heritage significance. Additional bedrooms open off the living room and a passage way south of the living room connects to a single room timber framed gabled roof extension to the southwest corner. The ground floor interiors surveyed are lined with tongue and groove boarding and the ceilings are lined with fibrous cement sheeting and timber batten cover strips.
\nThe first floor is reached by a set of timber stairs rising from the ground floor landing. The first floor accommodates a central living room accessible via an entry corridor. The living room opens onto an enclosed balcony which overlooks Cavendish Road. Other rooms open off the entrance corridor and from a corridor travelling southeast off the living room. The living room and the rooms in the north and east corners open by French doors onto the enclosed balcony. There are glazed fanlights above these door and side lights to those off the living room. The interiors are clad with tongue and groove boarding and the ceilings are lined with fibrous cement sheeting with timber batten cover strips. A number of rooms were unavailable for inspection in 2003 but it is known that a modern kitchen has been installed, replacing the original kitchen on the first floor. This modern kitchen fitout is not significant. The cupboard near the bathroom housing the firemen’s pole survives but the pole has been removed and a floor inserted. The early linen cupboard opposite the bathroom and a storage cupboard in the living room survive. A decorative timber archway with a prominent moulded keystone separates the living room from the corridor to the rooms to the southeast. The bathroom’s modern fixtures and finishes are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nWindows to the ground floor rooms are shaded externally by horizontal timber hoods supported on cantilevered timber brackets.
\nA single storey garage structure sits directly against the rear of the former fire station building and a concreted open car park separates this from a two-storey apartment building and garage at the rear of the block, none of which is cultural heritage significance. A concrete path from a gate entrance on Cavendish Road runs along the northwest side and another concrete path and a set of concrete stairs and ramp runs to the glazed front entrance in the centre of the building. A timber fence has been built on the site boundary and borders Cavendish Road and Noela Street.
","history":"A modest, functional civic building, the former Coorparoo Fire Station was the operational centre for fire services in Coorparoo from 1935 until 1976 when it was decommissioned and replaced by the Camp Hill Fire Station.
\nBetween 1860 and 1868 there were five attempts to form a fire fighting service for Brisbane. Each brigade struggled to survive; unable to attract a viable subscription base and hampered by inadequate equipment and an unreliable water supply. The establishment of an effective fire service did not enjoy a high priority among civic and government leaders.
\nA fifth brigade, the City Volunteer Fire Brigade, was established in 1868. New rules provided for better financial control and balanced representation through the Fire Brigade Board with membership from the Brisbane Municipal Council and Insurance companies. These arrangements were consolidated by the Fire Brigades Act of 1881. Funding for fire services came from contributions by Queensland State Government, Brisbane Municipal Council insurance companies and subscriptions. In 1889, the first full-time firemen were employed and a permanent fire brigade was established. A new headquarters, designed by HW Atkinson, was completed on the corner of Ann and Edwards Streets, Brisbane (on a corner of the Normal School site) in 1890. This began a long association between the Fire Brigade and the various architectural firms with whom Atkinson was associated.
\nThe firefighting needs of the city increased as Brisbane continued to develop. The Fire Brigades Act Amendment Act of 1902 allowed local authorities to establish independent boards and brigades. Brigades were formed in Nundah (1916), Hamilton (1917), Windsor (1917), Ithaca (1918), Toowong (1918), Taringa (1919), Wynnum (1921) and Sandgate (1923). These were voluntary bodies with only the superintendent and immediate assistants receiving a salary. The Fire Brigades Act of 1920 rationalised the network of fire brigades in Brisbane and suburbs, centralising control under the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board in 1921.
\nDuring the 1930s, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Board (funded by the State Government) was resisting old fire stations and erecting new stations as part of an upgrading of fire services under the Minister for Health and Home Affairs, Edward Hanlon. Under this program, a new purpose-built two-storey station was constructed to a design by HW Atkinson and AH Conrad on Cavendish Road, Coorparoo.
\nThe department’s commitment to an efficient and modern approach to fire-fighting is clearly reinforced at Coorparoo Fire Station through its seminal use of a modern form that suggests European influence. The lack of ornament, simple form and corner windows (which provide good light to all four walls of rooms and a feeling of spaciousness) are demonstrative of the endeavour by the architectural profession in Queensland during this period to explore new forms and building construction methods. The design elements employed in this building were to become increasingly popular and developed into post-war timber vernacular.
\nBefore the opening of this fire station, the suburbs of Coorparoo, Camp Hill and Holland Park had been vulnerable to severe damage from fires as the attendance times for units coming from the South Brisbane and Balmoral Fire Stations were high. The Coorparoo Fire Station served as a model for the group of fire stations constructed soon after in Nundah (1936) [QHR602119], Wynnum (1938) [QHR602143] and Hamilton (1941). A timber fire station was constructed at Yeronga (1934) [QHR602144] using the same planning principles but with a different planning arrangement to accommodate the peculiarities of that site.
\nThe new building at Coorparoo housed the station facilities on the ground floor and a residence for the superintendent on the first floor. The ground floor accommodated a large central engine room, watchroom, dormitory, reaction room, kitchen and bathroom. The engine room was accessed via a concrete ramp from the driveway crossover in Cavendish Road. The rooms on the ground floor were a step above the engine room. A new floor was inserted in the engine room bringing it to the same level as the other rooms during the occupation by the health clinic. The residential quarters above, accommodated a kitchen, living and dining rooms, bathroom, three bedrooms and an open balcony. A cupboard near the bathroom accommodated the fireman’s pole which ran down into the station below. This combination of station and residence was common in fire stations and this plan was duplicated at Nundah, Wynnum and Hamilton.
\nDecommissioned in 1976 and sold to the Queensland Health Department in 1978, the former fire station operated as a maternal and child welfare clinic during the 1980s and early 1990s. The building changed hands in 1995 and operated for a period as a boarding house. A two-storey apartment block has been constructed to the rear of the block since 1995 and a single storey garage building has been erected at the rear of the fire station building. The fire station building is used for multi-unit residential dwelling purposes.
","criteria":"The Former Coorparoo Fire Station is an important example of the upgrading of fire stations undertaken in Brisbane suburbs by the Queensland Government through the Metropolitan Fire Board during the 1930s. The building was in continuous use as a fire station from 1935 to 1976 and is important as the first of and model for the group of fire stations designed and constructed during this upgrade.
|The Former Coorparoo Fire Station is an important example of the architecture and planning of Brisbane suburban fire stations of the 1930s incorporating offices and engine room to the ground floor and a residence to the first floor. The interiors in both the operational and domestic areas reflect the operation of 1930s fire stations and are substantially intact.
|The Former Coorparoo Fire Station has aesthetic and architectural significance as a former modest, functional civic building. Robust and austere, with its simple horizontal banding and use of readily available materials, it is easily identified in the streetscape. A landmark on Cavendish Road, the former fire station is sympathetic in scale, form and materials to its residential setting.
|The Former Coorparoo Fire Station is a fine example of the work of the architectural firm Atkinson and Conrad. Atkinson, through the firms he was associated with, sustained a long association with the Fire Services in Brisbane commencing in 1890 with his design for the new headquarters for the Brisbane Fire Brigade. His architectural practices were responsible for many of the fire stations throughout Brisbane. It is a proto-Modern building and elements evident in the design may have been influential in popularising their use.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15766,"place_ref":600991,"name":"Windsor State School","alternate_name":"Windsor State School & Windsor Infants School | Windsor Opportunity (Special) School | Bowen Bridge State School","street_address":"270 Lutwyche Road","suburb":"WINDSOR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1994-08-01","description":"The Windsor Campus, located on the eastern slope of Windsor Hill, consists of two masonry school buildings, two toilet blocks and a swimming pool in large treed grounds overlooking Lutwyche Road on the east and bounded by Harris Street on the north and Constitution Road on the south. The main school, a two-storeyed building surrounded by verandahs with an open playspace at the ground level, is situated in the north west corner, the highest part of the site. The single-storeyed Infants' School with partly enclosed area under, is located on the southern side of the main building. Both buildings are constructed with brick walls and timber framed terracotta tiled roofs. A cutting forms the western boundary of the site.
The main school building, based on a U-shaped plan arranged around a playground, is comprised of a northern and southern wing connected at their eastern end by a third wing. Towers with steep bellcast roofs are located in the north east and south east corners, at the junctions between the wings. Each wing, consisting of two levels of classrooms above an open ground floor level, has a gambrel roof extended on two sides to cover the verandahs. The extensive timber verandahs, now enclosed, retain ripple iron ceilings and shingled valances. Movement between the wings is via the continuous verandah which wraps around the playground.
The impressive eastern facade of the central wing flanked by its four storeyed stair towers and surmounted by a fleche, sits above the sweeping grounds and is visible from Lutwyche Road. The main entrances are on the eastern faces of the stair towers where wide stairs lead to ornamented arched openings on the first floor level. The uppermost level of the towers have bullseye windows and openings supported by colonettes. The two further sets of stairs on the front elevation lead to the verandah and feature bullseye windows. Rear entrance, from the playground, is via stairs in the north east and south east corners placed at 45 degrees to the facades.
Attached to the verandahs on the playground elevations and on the eastern front elevation are three storeyed rendered masonry structures consisting of a single room on each level. These tower-like elements have hipped roofs connecting to the main roof of the adjoining wing.
The classroom interiors have high level windows, panelled fibro cement walls, fibro cement ceilings and timber floors. Floor framing is supported on large steel I-beams. Windows in exterior walls have vents above protected by the window awnings. A timber honour board is located on the first floor level of the south wing.
The north wing, originally the mirror-reverse of the south, is now twice the length with an internal stair at the western end. Adjacent to this stair on the upper level, an area which connects the two verandahs contains hat and coat racks.
Two toilet blocks, single storeyed brick structures with hip roofs, define the North west and south west corners of the playground.
The Infants' School is a rectangular building with long elevations facing north to the main building and south across a yard to Constitution Road. Divided into bays which step out from the corners of the building to the centre of each facade, the dark brick walls have contrasting concrete bands at the base and at first floor level and concrete sills. The central bay on the northern and southern facades is surmounted by a gable punctuated by an oculus and has a semicircular arched opening at the base. Brick porches on the eastern and western ends are now enclosed.
The main entrance is via two symmetrically positioned concrete stairs on the southern side of the Infants' School. At the top of the stairs are recessed porches, now enclosed by double glass doors, which open onto entry vestibules. Access to classrooms and offices is via these vestibules and the central corridor which connects them. The corridor, vestibules and porches have concrete floors. The rest of the building has timber floors. Some of the classrooms retain panelled folding partitions between adjoining classrooms. The classrooms are well lit via banks of timber casement windows. Hipped tiled awnings over the windows are supported on timber brackets.
An internal concrete stair on the northern side of the western vestibule leads to the ground floor level. Built as an open undercroft, the ground floor is now partly enclosed providing workshop and storage space. Toilets are located under the brick porches.
The tiled hipped roof which follows the stepped facade is ventilated by a centrally positioned octagonal fleche and features small gables terminating the main ridge.
A series of retaining walls with concrete steps divide the level of the school buildings from the lower part of the grounds. A fenced garden has been created in front of main building. The concrete swimming pool with brick change shed at the eastern end is located on the southern side of the oval. The pool is surrounded by raked timber seating on the other three sides. Mature trees are located throughout the grounds especially along the street frontages.
","history":"The first school building constructed at the Windsor Campus was the Windsor State School, erected in 1915-16 on land acquired by the state government in 1912 and 1914 as a school reserve. A large, two-storeyed masonry building, it replaced the earlier and vastly overcrowded Bowen Bridge State School (established 1865) opposite. It was opened officially on 7 August 1916, having been occupied a week earlier.
Its construction reflected a local population boom, partly an outcome of the extension of the railway line from Mayne to Enoggera via Windsor in 1899 and the consequent closer settlement of the larger estates. In 1904, Windsor was proclaimed a town, incorporating Albion, Wooloowin, Wilston, Windsor, Lutwyche, Newmarket, Swan Hill and portions of Eagle Junction and Kedron.
The state school building was designed by Philip Arthur Edwards, a British trained architect working in the Government Architect's office, for the Queensland Department of Public Instruction. Erected at a cost of £15,154, it was the second largest public works project of 1915, and was one of the largest and most modern brick state schools constructed in Queensland. The building could accommodate 990 pupils at double desks (built in Sydney by EJ Forbes & Son Ltd), and had floorage for 1100 children. Ensuring adequate ventilation was an emphasis of the design.
When occupied in 1916, the school had a population of 1000. By 1918 this had grown to 1093, and the old problems of overcrowding had arisen again.
In 1918 the school reserve was fenced with timber palings, and the first tennis court (earth surfaced) was constructed by the School Committee.
A 30-metre long concrete swimming pool, funded by the School Committee through a bank loan, was constructed in the school grounds in 1925, at a cost of £2,000. In 1926 the dressing sheds were completed and the pool was lit for evening swimming carnivals. It was damaged c1927 during a severe storm, but was rebuilt.
In 1926, Windsor was designated a practising school, where trainees from the Teachers' Training College received classroom teaching experience.
By 1927 there were almost 1500 pupils enrolled, and hundreds of students had no permanent classroom. The Works Department prepared plans for a separate infants' school early in 1927, but this did not eventuate until the 1930s. The school population peaked in 1928, with 1,642 pupils. Facilities were so strained that the school rented the verandahs and front room of the Windsor School of Arts Building as temporary classrooms, while a number of verandahs on the school building were being enclosed. The remaining verandahs were enclosed in subsequent years.
Between 1931 and 1933, over £8,000 was spent on site improvements, as part of the state government's Unemployment Relief Scheme. The grounds were cut and terraced into the three present levels: school; tennis and basketball courts; playing fields.
Finally, in 1934, a brick building was erected to the south of the main block, to accommodate the infant grades and relieve pressure on the main classrooms. It cost about £6,600 and was described at the time as a new departure in planning for infant pupils, providing accommodation for 360 school pupils as well as kindergarten classes, in a self-contained block with an extensive concrete play area below. Whether a kindergarten operated from this building in the 1930s is unclear.
In 1940, brick extensions were made to the western end of the northern wing of the main building, providing a further four classrooms at a cost of about £6,000.
The Second World war caused considerable disruption to school routine. Pupils travelling from a reasonable distance were ordered to attend their closest school; the classroom windows were taped in case of bomb blasts; and the playing fields were zig-zagged with about 366 metres of slit trenches. 1942 National Safety Regulations required that half the children attended school in the morning, and the other half in the afternoon.
Early in 1943 the Allied Works Council erected for the United States Navy, large storerooms on the school grounds at the corner of Lutwyche and Constitution Roads, reducing the available playing field area even further. Despite post-1945 attempts by the school authorities to retrieve the lost ground, these stores were used after the war firstly as a Rehabilitation Training Centre, and then to house Education Department supplies. They are not considered of significance to the entry in the Heritage Register for Windsor Campus.
The school sustained a strong enrolment well into the post-war years. In 1946 there was an average attendance of 756 pupils in the state school, and 323 in the infants'. However, attendance declined through the 1950s and 1960s, as the young families of the first half of the 20th century grew up and moved to the newer outer suburbs, and the local population aged.
With the decline in pupil numbers, changes were made to the school structure. An opportunity school section was opened in the infants' block c1965, and at the beginning of 1967, infants reunited with the older students in the main building, leaving the 1934 building to the opportunity school students.
In the late 1970s, Windsor qualified as a Special Program School, the district being considered of declining social and financial climate. By 1980 enrolment had fallen to 300, with a substantial percentage of children from non-English speaking backgrounds. In 1981 a preschool was established in the Harris Street wing of the main building. Since 1984, senior pupils from the special school (formerly the opportunity school) have attended a school at Newstead, and many of the juniors have been integrated into the regular classrooms. Since the mid-1980s, the state school, special school and preschool have been known collectively as the Windsor Campus.
","criteria":"The buildings of Windsor State School Campus and their functions illustrate changing government attitudes to education requirements over nearly 8 decades. The 1915/1916 school building was built to accommodate the requirements of the most modern of education philosophy in Queensland. Design features include verandah access, an emphasis on natural lighting and ventilation in design, and undercroft playspaces. The 1934 building was purpose-designed to accommodate infant grades, and includes internal circulation, flexible classroom space, and undercroft play area.
|The buildings of Windsor State School Campus and their functions illustrate changing government attitudes to education requirements over nearly 8 decades.
|The wide frontage of the 1916 building with its distinctive towers and elevated position in grounds sweeping down to Lutwyche Road contribute to its prominence as a landmark in the Windsor area. The organisation of this building, articulated into horizontal verandahed wings with attached vertical elements, and the picturesque composition of its facades displaying multiple roof profiles, a mixture of materials including tiles, brickwork, shingles and render, bullseye and arched openings and scenically placed external stairs, associate the school with Arts and Crafts design popular at the time. The 1934 building complements, through its siting and the use of similar materials and decorative motifs, the earlier building. A high quality of construction and detailing characterises both buildings.
|A reflection of changing demographic trends in the Windsor area since it was opened, the school has played an active social and educational role in that community since 1916.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15782,"place_ref":601007,"name":"Second World War Hangar No. 7","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"116 Lamington Avenue","suburb":"EAGLE FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"The Second World War Hangar No.7, located fronting Terminal Drive to the south on the site of the old Brisbane Airport, is a timber truss igloo structure with ribbed sheet metal cladding. The structure is the last surviving Second World War timber truss igloo hangar at Eagle Farm.
The igloo is a form of light nailed hardwood timber arch construction, where each arch is made up of two half arches more or less freely pinned at two abutments close to ground level and at a central or crown pin. Each half arch consists of two adjacent trusses laced together at top and bottom chord level and each truss consists of a top and bottom chord laced together in arch form. As a result, each half truss is made up of four main timber chords sprung into arch form, and light timber bracing nailed in position to form a curved open-latticed box truss.
Hangar 7 faces east-west, and skillion roof additions have been added along the southern and northern sides. The southern side forms the main entry, and consists of a long skillion roof addition along most of this elevation, housing office accommodation, with ribbed metal wall cladding and metal framed glazing. A higher skillion at the eastern end of this elevation houses five metal doors for freight access.
The eastern end has ribbed metal wall cladding and two large metal doors for freight access surmounted by translucent ribbed sheeting. Sections of weatherboard cladding remain at the southeast corner. The northern side has a large steel framed skillion roofed addition with ribbed metal wall cladding, with storage at the northwest end and amenities at the western end.
The western end has weatherboard cladding with a single large doorway for freight access. This end originally faced the runway apron (straight six) and consisted of a central wide doorway with folding doors and high-level glazing. The high level glazing now has aluminium louvred infill, and a covered walkway linking the adjacent hangar 10 is used for covered car parking.
Internally, the building has a concrete floor throughout and exposed unpainted timber truss arches. Sections of the roof have translucent sheeting for light, and the eastern end is supported by scaffolding. The single-storeyed office accommodation along the southwest projects into the space, and is constructed in hardboard sheeting and is surmounted by air handling equipment. The hangar is currently used for freight storage.
Hangar 7 is surrounded by bitumen surfaces, with carparking to the south fronting Terminal Drive, and container storage areas to the north.
","history":"1. History of the Site to the Second World War
The Second World War Hangar No.7, located fronting Terminal Drive on the site of the old Brisbane Airport, is a timber truss igloo structure with ribbed metal sheet cladding. The hangar was constructed in 1942 for the use of the Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit (ATAIU), as part of a major aircraft assembly depot and aerodrome under the control of the US 81st Air Depot Group, and under the US 5th Air Force under the command of General Douglas MacArthur's Supreme Headquarters of the South West Pacific Area. It is the last surviving Second World War timber truss igloo structure at Eagle Farm.
The structure is located adjacent to the site of the Eagle Farm Women's Prison and Factory [600186], the remains of which are located beneath the southeast end of runway 13/31.
In September 1829 Commandant Patrick Logan of the Moreton Bay penal settlement founded a secondary agricultural establishment approximately eight miles from the town at Eagle Farm. Female convicts are recorded at Eagle Farm from 1830, and in 1837 all female prisoners in Brisbane Town were removed to Eagle Farm.
By November 1838 the decision had been taken to abandon the Moreton Bay penal settlement, and by July 1839 all the female convicts had been removed. Eagle Farm was virtually abandoned, although it was still functioning as a government cattle station in 1841.
In 1842 the land was surveyed, put up for public auction and subsequently farmed. The buildings were demolished at an unknown date.
The land on which Hangar No.7 stands was purchased by John Westaway in April 1864. After his death in 1867, title passed to William Westaway who subsequently subdivided the land, and the area of concern was sold to Alonzo Sparkes in April 1914. Doomben Park Recreation Grounds Ltd purchased the site in October 1920, and it was leased in 1932 for 7 years to James Macfarlane and George Rea, after which it was acquired by the Commonwealth.
The opening of the mouth of the Brisbane River to deep water shipping, and the construction of the railway to Pinkenba stimulated growth in the area around Eagle Farm, and housing subdivisions gradually displaced the pastoral uses of the land.
The land at Eagle Farm was inspected by Captain EC Johnston, Superintendent of Aerodromes Civil Aviation Department, in February 1922 as a site for a civil aerodrome. This land (to the north of the site of hangar 7) was subsequently surveyed and acquired from William Lynn and David Wilson for a total cost of £5,464.0.8. The Commonwealth gazettal notice of the aerodrome site occurred on 29 June 1922, and at that time the site was described as containing 84 acres 2 roods 2.3 perches of partly cleared land with black soils, scattered heavy gum and ironbark, and some good grazing areas.
In July 1922 it was intended to lease portions of the aerodrome to various commercial aviation companies, and from 1923 the intention to acquire adjoining lands for expansion of the aerodrome was being expressed. A grass airstrip was formed in 1923, and a layout for hangar blocks with a caretaker's cottage was prepared in February 1924. The Brisbane Civil Aviation hangar was constructed c.1925, and the first commercial operations were commenced by QANTAS in 1926, who formed the Brisbane Flying Training School in 1927.
By August 1928, when the Australian Aero Club held their second annual Aerial Pageant, a second hangar housing QANTAS was located adjacent to the north of the Brisbane Civil Aviation hangar, with a caretakers cottage to the south. The aerial pageant included such events as the Balloon Strafe, where small gas filled balloons were released and the aeroplanes would endeavour to burst them with their propellers in flight. The pageant also included aerobatics, an aerial derby, speed championships, bombing displays, novelty events, crazy flying, parachute decents and an air battle. The entrance to the aerodrome was from the east off Schneider Road adjacent to Mr Wilson's property.
In 1927 Captain Johnston, then Director of Civil Aerodromes Civil Aviation Department, was again looking at acquiring adjacent lands, in particular the Doomben Park Recreation Grounds racecourse straight located to the south of the aerodrome, but costs were prohibitive and much of the surrounding land suffered from poor drainage.
The most significant event to occur in this period was the landing of the Southern Cross in June 1928. Squadron Leader Charles Kingsford-Smith and CTP Ulm completed the first trans-Pacific flight from California to Brisbane, landing at Eagle Farm. Kingsford-Smith and Ulm formed Australian National Airlines in 1929 and initiated scheduled services between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Also of note in 1928, Squadron Leader HJL Hinkler AFC completed the first solo flight from England to Australia in 16 days in a light aeroplane.
In 1928 it was decided to acquire an area of land at Rocklea for use as a civil aerodrome in lieu of Eagle Farm. In August 1929 it was stated that as soon as the aerodrome at Rocklea (Archerfield) was acquired and prepared, flying activities would be transferred from Eagle Farm which would then be available for disposal. The two existing hangars would be moved but the caretakers cottage on the site would remain.
In 1929 the site was placed with the Department of the Interior for sale, and several options for disposal of the property were considered, including industrial sites or to the general public in broad acre lots or by subdivision. In 1931 it was assessed as having a poor prospect of sale, and it was recommended to lease the land until the real estate market improved. At this time the aerodrome was not required by the Department of Defence, and only one aircraft concern (Aircrafts Pty Ltd) was still operating from the site. The land was leased to Messrs Wilson and Campbell for the grazing of cattle and horses.
David Wilson died in September 1934, and his interest in the partnership passed to his widow Margaret Wilson. The partnership held the lease until March 1940. Part of the lease arrangements was that the Queensland Gliding Association was to be allowed to use the site on public holidays, to erect hangars on the land, and to install water supply and any conveniences.
In June 1939 the aerodrome site was still being considered for sale, and the prospects of the area were thought to have improved due to Brisbane City Council policies on oil storage depot locations, the erection of wharves at Hamilton, State government development of the area between Eagle Farm Road and the river, the development of industries in the area, and the small amount of available vacant land. The site was valued at £4,200.
At this time, the Minister for Civil Aviation, the Honourable JV Fairbairn, mentioned that the site was very suitable for training purposes, and directed that it be retained. Captain Johnston, who originally selected the site, also stated that it was suitable for instructional purposes. This decision is likely related to Fairbairn's attendance at a meeting in Ottawa in December 1939 in which the details of the Empire Air Training Scheme (which will be discussed later) were concluded. Australia had declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, and the importance placed on the retention of Eagle Farm is reflected in Fairbairn's report to Prime Minister Menzies that the only activity that we have undertaken which could lead to the winning or losing of the war by our failure or success in carrying out our undertaking is the Empire Air Training Scheme.
2. Military Aviation in Australia, and Events Leading to the Second World War
The Australian Flying Corps were involved in the First World War as part of the Army. Following the establishment of the RAF in 1918, Australia's Minister for Defence, Senator GF Pearce, appointed the Swinburne Committee to report on the needs of military aviation. Australia's involvement in the Imperial defence strategy inevitably placed its senior military commanders in a position subordinate to their British counterparts, and as its starting point the Committee accepted the strategy's basis that Australia's security would continue to be based on sea power. The committee found that while they supported the establishment of an air service, they rejected any suggestion that it should have an independent role. Any Australian air force would exist solely to support the sea and land forces.
The Committee recommended the formation of a single, separate air corps, which would be administered by an Air Board comprised of members of the Naval and Military Boards, while the wings of the corps allotted to the Navy and Army were to be controlled by the Naval and Military Boards respectively. Cabinet approved the proposal on 18 February 1919, and the Air Board was formed with the Air Corps key role determined as surveillance. The Navy and Army had their own tasks for the air service, and in April 1920 put forward a proposal for the formation of an air force to meet certain fundamental needs of the Navy and Army, which included torpedo bombers, patrol planes, flying boats and seaplanes, fighting planes, reconnaissance planes and bombers. The Air Corps became the Royal Australian Air Force on 31 March 1921 with a total complement of 21 officers, and the bulk of its aircraft came as a gift from the Imperial government and consisted of essentially obsolete machines left over from the First World War.
The RAAF came into being as the worlds second separate air force, and its establishment coincided with the decision to place defence spending on a peacetime basis for the first time since the First World War. In 1924, the Air Board described the RAAF's condition as most unsatisfactory and that it survived on a hand to mouth existence, with 65 officers and 300 men and only two machines fit for war. Defence funding became even tighter in the Depression years, and the situation did not improve until the mid-1930s with the growing threat of war and easing of the Depression.
A particularly strong anti-RAAF move emerged in 1929 when there was a possibility that the Air Force would be dismembered and split between the other two forces, a threat which was apparent until after the mid-1930s. This coincided with Salmond Report of 1928 which recommended that Australia substitute air power (due to its speed, mobility, flexibility and offensive striking power) for sea and land power. As the Air Force entered the 1930s, it was still equipped with 1916-17 types of machines, although the growing threat of the Japanese air force had been recognised as early as 1925 in the Memorandum Regarding the Air Defence of Australia by Air Commodore Williams.
The 1920s had seen a vast improvement across the spectrum of aircraft performance, particularly in range and reliability. This was highlighted in 1928 when Squadron Leader Charles Kingsford-Smith and CTP Ulm completed the first trans-Pacific flight from California to Brisbane landing at Eagle Farm, and Squadron Leader HJL Hinkler AFC completed the first solo flight from England to Australia in 16 days in a light aeroplane. The capability now existed for long range strike operations against enemy shipping.
Australia's defence independence was constrained by the commitment to the Imperial strategy and the British connection. The Imperial Conference of 1923 declared that the basis of the Empire's security was the sheltering screen provided by the Royal Navy, a judgement which was confirmed at subsequent conferences until 1937. Twice during the interwar period, a review of the RAAF was thought necessary, but in each occasion the government turned to an RAF officer, resulting in the Salmond Report of 1928 and the Ellington Report of 1938.
Germany had invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and on 3 September 1939 Australia declared war on Germany.
The RAF realised that if massive expansion were necessary, Britain had the industrial capacity to increase aircraft production but it would not be able to train enough aircrew from British sources. Through Australia's commitment to the defence of Britain, agreement was reached that Australia and other Dominions would participate in a massive training program, subsequently known as the Empire Air Training Scheme, the details of which were concluded at a meeting in Ottawa in December 1939. Australia contributed over 27,000 men to the scheme throughout the Second World War.
The RAAF's involvement in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) was more complex than in Europe.
At this date, there were 12 RAAF squadrons, of which two existed in nucleus only and four were citizen force. The aircraft inventory consisted entirely of obsolescent machines. In Brisbane, aviation activities centred on Archerfield and Amberley (under construction).
The aerodrome was taken over by the RAAF for Flying Training purposes on 8 March 1940, and the Wilson and Campbell lease was terminated. In June 1940 the aerodrome accommodated the RAAF No.2 Elementary Flying Training School, as Relief Landing Ground property 41.
On 7 December 1941 the US Navy Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour was attacked by the Japanese. A US convoy bound for the Philippines was redirected to Brisbane, arriving on 22 December 1941. Shortly after the entry of Japan into the War, Australian foreign policy appeared to make its most dramatic shift since Federation. On 27 December 1941 Prime Minister Curtin stated that Australia now looked to America free from any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom...we shall exert all our energies toward the shaping of a plan, with the United States as its cornerstone.
At this time, the RAAF did not have a fighter remotely capable of combating the Japanese Zero, which served the Japanese Naval units.
By February 1942 Japanese forces had gained footholds in territories adjoining northern Australia which made it seem probable that the advance southwards would continue, culminating in the invasion of Australia. This threat of invasion in 1942 is summarised in a statement made by Prime Minister Curtin in 1944, in which he said now that Singapore was lost and we were unable to concentrate a superior fleet, the strength of our defences was inadequate to defend Australia...against an enemy with command of the sea and air. We lacked air support, possessing no fighters whatsoever, and our bomber and reconnaissance planes had been reduced to about 50 machines. No country faced a greater danger with less resources than Australia.
The RAAF had not performed well up until this time, with their involvement in the Far East campaign consisting of a series of devastatingly quick defeats, and a humiliating flight down the Malay Peninsula to Singapore and the Netherlands East Indies before final defeat or capture. On the 19 February 1942 the Japanese bombed Darwin, and the Darwin Air Station was not well prepared. Several Australian and American aircraft were destroyed on the ground or shot down, and large numbers of the RAAF deserted their posts with 278 personnel still missing four days after the attack.
It was against this background that the decision to place the RAAF under General Douglas MacArthur was made on 18 April 1942. The directive appointing General MacArthur as Supreme Commander of the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) placed under his control all armed forces which the governments concerned have assigned, or may assign, to this area.
3. Second World War Construction Work at Eagle Farm
The acquisition of the six furlong (1320 yards) straight extension of Doomben Racecourse and adjacent land bordering the southern boundary of the aerodrome was proposed on 11 December 1941 and was valued at £1,727. The official transfer of the land did not actually occur until February 1954.
The US Convoy, which arrived in Brisbane on 22 December 1941, had crated aircraft on board which required unloading, assembling and flying to their Clark Field destination in the Philippines. A decision was made in January 1942 to develop Eagle Farm as a major aircraft erection depot and aerodrome from which the planes could proceed. Eagle Farm had direct road and rail links to Brisbane, it was close to port facilities and had potential for expansion and provision of multiple runways. The total cost of the development work to Eagle Farm over three years to the end of 1944 was £559,687.
Recognising the need for a co-ordinating agency for all Australian construction of a military nature, an Allied Works Council (AWC) was formed on 25 February 1942, and the works were mainly carried out by the Civil Construction Corps, into which labour and manpower could be drafted. The AWC was disbanded in September 1945.
The straight six extension of the Doomben Racecourse was utilised as a ready made apron for the hangars which were to be built. Initial works were delayed by heavy rain for three weeks converting the ground to a quagmire, and as a result thousands of feet of ashes and coke breeze were carted from the gasworks and deposited in order to keep trucks moving with borrow material from Nudgee. By 18 February 1942 the construction of one hangar had begun and the SW-NE runway was nearing completion. Shiploads of aircraft components were arriving at the port and had to be transported to Amberley for assembly until Eagle Farm was ready. The Americans advised that the runways were urgently needed for the fighter plane protection of Brisbane, and as a result two ten hour shifts were organised using 100 trucks which hauled 33,000 cubic yards of fill to complete the section, and on 29 March 1942 a squadron of P-39 aircraft landed.
The caretaker's cottage at Eagle Farm was repaired to be used as a flight office and daily accommodation for RAAF personnel. Construction of hangars 1 and 2 had begun to the south of the straight six section, and further urgent works were proposed to begin in March 1942, consisting of four 96 ft span hangars (No.s 3,4,8 and 9) of a total of twelve, for an Erection Depot for the US Army Air Corps. This caused some initial problems, as a Colonel Snead stated that he did not want any hangars at Eagle Farm as he had been instructed to operate the aerodrome as a pursuit field, and had 18 fighters based at the field and as such it was inadvisable to have an assembly depot close by.
The construction of hangars 3,4,8 and 9, to an Australianised RAF Type A 1917 design, were begun by contractor TH Dennis, but in April construction work ceased and the hangars were relocated to Charleville. This situation changed quickly, and the hangars were relocated back to Eagle Farm from circa November 1942, to eventually double the length of hangars 1 and 2, and create hangars 3 and 3A (work was still being carried out in January 1944).
By April 1942, Anti Aircraft Artillery units were disposed to protect the wharf areas near Eagle Farm, and camouflage painting of the hangars had begun, as well as treatment to the aerodrome and nearby Emergency Military Camps at Doomben and Ascot Racecourses.
The US Army 81st Air Depot Group was established on 11 May 1942 by order of the War Department in Washington with Headquarters and Supply Squadron located in Brisbane. The Group controlled all services operations relating to aircraft assembly, maintenance and reconstruction initially at Amberley, Tocumwal (NSW) and at Eagle Farm. These activities were centred on Eagle Farm after August 1942.
In June 1942 the possession of nearby houses and land was taken under the provisions of National Security Legislation for the construction of essential runways This was gazetted in July 1943. Cottages were removed intact to a site selected by the owner, with compensation paid for the value of the land with any improvements. The owners had to purchase the new sites themselves, and periodical compensation was paid by the Airboard from the date of possession in June 1942.
The Supreme Headquarters of the South West Pacific Area (SWPA), under the Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur, was based in Brisbane in the AMP Building [600147]. Tenants were compulsorily evacuated under military orders from 21 July 1942 until 14 June 1945.
In October 1942, MR Hornibrook was commissioned by the US Army to erect four large stores at Eagle Farm, most likely hangars 4,5,6 and 7 of an igloo design. The igloo is a form of light nailed timber arch construction. These hangars were built fronting the straight six section, as a ready made apron, with hangar 7 built for the Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit (ATAIU) located separately at the end of the straight. These hangars were based on the US Army 104 ft span timber box frame design and were clad with galvanised iron, but when that material was restricted, terne-coated iron was used, a lead-tin coating usually used for fuel tank manufacture. There were various igloo designs, but the AWC designs were considered to be far more rugged than US designs, and were designed to have a reasonably long life under winds of up to 65 miles per hour, and used standard grade Group C hardwood timber.
The defence building program brought about severe shortages in materials and manpower. The priority for labour and materials, particularly steel, was directed into the war effort which resulted in innovative methods for construction. The AWC engineers adapted themselves to designing all types of timber framed buildings, in some cases utilising green timber due to shortages of seasoned timber. While most structures were designed to be temporary, wartime working stresses were adopted at least 33% greater than normal working stresses.
The standard igloo design resulted from a need for lightweight prefabricated structures which could be quickly erected as aircraft hideouts, or shelters in more remote areas. It has been assumed that the timber lattice arch truss design was based on American steel lattice structures. However, Emil Brizay, a French engineer refugee from Singapore in the office of MR Hornibrook is also credited with designing the construction system on which the igloo was modelled. The igloos at Eagle Farm were one of several designs for lightweight long span structures which utilised timber in small sectional sizes of chords to enable the lattice trusses to be hand nailed in jigs on site and speedily erected at low cost.
These timber truss igloos were widely used, and known locations include Garbutt near Townsville, Cairns, Eagle Farm, Allison Engine Works at Breakfast Creek, Schofield Army Base and Archerfield Airfield.
Hangar 8, a US Butler prefabricated steel portal framed structure located to the northeast of hangar 7, was the last hangar to be constructed in the Second World War period, apparently between May 1943 and July 1944, as a shelter area for aircraft reconstructed by the ATAIU. It was originally erected with a canvas curtain entry and metal roof cladding. Metal side cladding was added later.
4. Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit (ATAIU)
With the outbreak of the Pacific War on December 7 1941, Allied Forces had little or no concrete knowledge about Japanese aircraft and their performance capabilities. The air war over China had been in full swing for over four years, little attempt had been made by Allied Intelligence agencies to learn very much about the Japanese equipment, tactics and potential. Due to severe cuts in military funding following WWI, intelligence units had not been developed for gathering and disseminating this type of information, and the bulk of concern was placed on Hitler's growing airpower and conquests in Europe. Once the US was involved in the War with Japan, there was a frantic effort to fill this information void. There was no meaningful list of Japanese aircraft types, and no way to identify these aircraft when encountered in combat. During this period, every single-engine Japanese fighter was identified as a Zero, and anything else was called a Mitsubishi or a Nakajima.
To sort out this dilemma became the sole responsibility of the Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit (ATAIU) South West Pacific Area. In addition to developing a common means of identifying these aircraft by type, it was essential that the new unit obtain information to develop drawings and models, as well as acquiring photographs. The unit's responsibility was to discover construction techniques, weaknesses, strengths, and latest camouflage techniques. Gathering performance information in comparison to Allied aircraft was essential for developing combat tactics with which to counter the Japanese.
The ATAIU, a small group of intelligence personnel, was formed in Victoria Barracks, Melbourne, and later moved to Brisbane under the US 5th Air Force under the command of General MacArthur's Supreme Headquarters of the SWPA in late 1942/early 1943. The project had the direct authorisation of General George C Kenney, Commander of Allied Air Forces in the SWPA. Its staff headquarters were in the AMP Building [600147] while the technical examination, reconstruction and simulated combat trials with captured Japanese aircraft was located at hangar 7, Eagle Farm. The 81st Air Depot Group controlled all operational activities of these aircraft.
Hangar 7 was the fourth timber framed igloo on the airfield, located some distance from the others at the end of straight six for security reasons. It became the workshops for the ATAIU, and was rectangular in plan with personnel access from centrally located skillion roofed door openings. The west end was clad with weatherboard, with a large central doorway for aircraft access. The building had corrugated iron roof sheeting with flush skylights as it had no artificial lighting. Internally it was divided by low partitions, creating separate cells for the various tasks associated with dismantling, analysing and reassembling the captured aircraft. Each cell had its own specialisation, which included workshops for aircraft engines, navigation systems, radio, weapons, and body reconstruction.
The group had to first collate field information, importantly descriptions of new planes that aircrew could only glimpse in battle. To overcome the confusion caused by the complex method of identifying the ever increasing number of Japanese aircraft types, a system of assigning easily remembered code names to each type was adopted. The Japanese-plane nickname system which came into common usage throughout the Allied air forces was developed. A different name was assigned to each aircraft as it became known to exist, and common first names were chosen.
To keep the plan simple, male names were given to fighters and float planes, and female names to bombers, reconnaissance aircraft and flying boats. Names beginning with T were given to the few transport planes in the Japanese inventory. Trainers were given names of trees, and gliders given names of birds. With the approval of General MacArthur, the MacArthur Southwest Pacific Code Name System came into being, circa September 1942, with an initial list of 50 names. The Tennessee background of Captain Frank McCoy, who was in charge of the ATAIU, was evident immediately because the initial names had a distinct hill-country flavour, such as Zeke, Rufe, Luke, Nate and others. The ATAIU quickly exhausted its list of hillbilly names and turned to names of friends and relatives.
Foreign designers and engineers had been widely employed in Japan's aviation industry prior to 1935, after which a curtain of secrecy had been pulled over Japan's aviation development. These new aircraft were being employed in the air war over China, with the first recorded crash of a Zero being made at Kunming, China in February 1941. It was not until a year later that enough information was gathered to be able to assign it the code name Zeke.
During the first six months of the war, technical intelligence information was almost non-existent due to Air Corps units being in constant retreat and lacking sufficient personnel. Once the Allies were on the offensive, downed enemy planes were able to be returned to flying condition by the ATAIU at Eagle Farm. Buna, in New Guinea, and Guadacanal, in the Solomons, were the first Allied land victories in the Pacific after nearly ten months of defeat.
Initially the field intelligence units inspected downed aircraft, but name plates were in Japanese and serial numbers were designed to be misleading, and few Allied field intelligence personnel read and understood Japanese. In many instances, the ATAIU relied on the assistance of indigenous work crews to retrieve the downed aircraft from remote areas and transport them to the coast, often dragging them through swamps or floating them down rivers on rafts.
A new version of the Zero, which served with the Japanese Naval units, was causing great concern, and battered examples were retrieved from the Buna-Gona area of New Guinea in January 1943. Field inspections gave some answers, but comparative rebuilding and trialing of it against Allied fighters, engaging in combat exercises, was needed. This aircraft was eventually named the Hamp (originally Hap after US Army Air Force Chief of Staff General Hap Arnold) and later named Zeke 32 when it was found to be a variant of Zeke 21, a Mitsubishi A6M3, Naval Type O Model 32 fighter. Australian ground forces were the first to come upon the new Zeke 32 when they occupied Buna airstrip on New Guinea in January 1943.
In most cases technical manuals were not available, so everything was worked out on a trial and error basis. The state of the art was quite common among all airplane manufacturers of that time. In most cases, Japanese flight instruments were replaced by US instruments for those aircraft intended for flight, but engine instruments were retained as they were calibrated for the function they served. US radio equipment and a new oxygen system also replaced Japanese types.
Captain William O Farrior became the first pilot to fly the earliest version of a rebuilt Hamp at Eagle Farm. The intended pilot was killed in a crash the same day, and Farrior was borrowed from a small group of 81st Air Depot test pilots and was to become well known for flying the early Japanese aircraft rebuilt at Eagle Farm. He later moved to Anacostia with the ATAIU and remained with intelligence his entire Air Force career. He first flew the Hamp over Brisbane for 30 minutes with the help of a captured Japanese pilot on 20 July 1943. An Allied aircraft always flew escort during tests of Japanese aircraft at Eagle Farm, and the Japanese aircraft were painted with their insignia to facilitate recognition photography. The Hamp (Zeke 32) was the first Japanese aircraft to be flown in simulated combat against top Allied fighter pilots.
Also flown at Eagle Farm were an Oscar Mk1 Nakajima Ki-43, first flown 17-18 March 1943, and later an Oscar Mk11 was put back in the air circa 4 July 1944. Another Oscar MK11 was flown to Eagle Farm from Hollandia circa July 1944. The Allies had captured the airfields at Hollandia on the northern coast of Dutch New Guinea circa June 1944. The Oscar was the workhorse of the Japanese Army.
A Tony, serialled by the ATAIU as XJ003, was also flown at Eagle Farm between 29 September and 7 October 1944. XJ was an acronym for Experimental Japanese Aircraft. The Tony was developed to use the licence-built Daimler Benz 601 inverted V12 liquid cooled engine of the German Messerschmitt 109. The engine proved unreliable with the Japanese armed forces, suffering from continuing lubricating problems.
Bombers were also assembled at Eagle Farm, including a Betty land based bomber and a Sonia light bomber, however these were never flown.
The ATAIU were ordered back to the US in June 1944 to set up base at Hangar 151, Anacostia Naval Air Station at Washington, D.C, but the shift must have taken some months. During their service in Australia, the ATAIU had not encountered new Japanese aircraft that had been expected to be introduced, but rather improved versions of existing aircraft. The decision was made to consolidate all ATAIU activities, captured Japanese documents and nameplate analysis closer to the Pentagon. The unit travelled by Victory Ship to San Francisco then by a private train to Washington. They retained an intelligence gathering capability in the war zone, with field ATAI units in the SWPA, Pacific Ocean Area, Southeast Asia, China and India. Field ATAI units were headed by a trained officer and included aviation mechanics, photographers, radiomen, ordnancemen, and often translators.
When the war ended, so did the emphasis for further evaluation of these aircraft. In time, most of the aircraft were bulldozed, with a few being retained for museums.
5. Post Second World War Developments at Eagle Farm
The war brought about major changes in the roles of the three airfields in the Brisbane area. Eagle Farm became established as Brisbane Airport for all international and major domestic aviation services due to its location close to the City and the Port of Brisbane. Archerfield receded into a secondary role as a commuter airport and freight transport centre, and Amberley evolved as the major military base for the RAAF.
In January 1946 the Department of Air advised its post war requirements of Eagle Farm with the Department of Civil Aviation. In July 1947, the former US Army assets at Eagle Farm were transferred to the Department of Civil Aviation at a cost of £100,000. These included buildings 1,4,14,17, hangars 1,2,3,3A,4,5,6,7 and 8, as well as the SW-NE runway, the SE-NW runway and the WSW-ENE runway.
In December 1947, Eagle Farm was in the possession of the Department of Civil Aviation. Originally, the land had been acquired in the Department's name, but further areas were acquired through funds by the Department of Air. In April 1948, through the Commonwealth Disposals Commission, the Department of Civil Aviation took control of various assets erected for the RAAF at Eagle Farm from the Department of Air. In May 1949, the transfer took place of buildings, contents, equipment and services from the Commonwealth to the Department of Civil Aviation for £301,318. Hangar 7 was described as being 104x240 ft with frame timber trusses, weatherboard end walls, 23 pairs of eight pane clear glass casements, and 72 reinforced obscure glass skylights.
On 17 September 1947 hangar 7 was leased to Trans Australian Airlines as a cargo handling warehouse. On 21 October 1947 the insurance valuation of the igloo hangar with 24 ft of hard standing either side and 60 ft onto the apron was estimated to be £3700.
Hangar 8 was foreshortened and added to by the transfer of a saw-tooth roof steel trussed hangar from Archerfield in 1948. Drawings dated July 1947 show the dismantling of the western end of the hangar, with the western end being reassembled at the eastern end and an ex-Archerfield hangar No.25 added to the western end. The plan also shows the sites of future hangars 9 and 10.
In June 1949, alterations to hangar 7 and 10 (not yet built) for QANTAS were estimated to cost £21,527. Work to hangar 7 consisted of the construction of; a cafeteria (later lunchroom) and kitchen; male and female locker rooms and toilets; personnel officers and first aid room; welding shop, upholstery shop, dope shop and engineers school; partition walls; new external walls to half way line along each side in asbestos cement sheeting and corrugated iron roof with sashes doors; a lean-to addition on the western end and provision of showers and wc's; installation of new skylights and rotator vents in the roof; installation of cold room; check and repair trusses; installation of light and power to workshop section, engineering school and kitchen (electrical work); drainage (civil engineering); and mechanical services. Total cost was estimated to be £11,769.0.0. A covered walkway was also proposed to link hangar 10 which was being built adjacent to the west, and the western aircraft doorway was enclosed.
Expenditure for the works was approved by the Minister for Civil Aviation in October 1949. The whole of the QANTAS Empire Airways DC3 fleet servicing and maintenance, and certificates of air worthiness, were being carried out in Brisbane. Because of the congestion at Archerfield, QANTAS was obliged to occupy Hangar 10 with a lack of facilities or security. In November 1949, QANTAS were occupying the western end of hangar 7 adjoining hangar 10. The majority of the work to the two hangars was completed c.1952.
Following QANTAS' relocation to the International Terminal in 1975, TAA took over the entire hangar as their air cargo facility. Further internal and external alterations included administration offices to the southwest, and steel framed skillion roofed extension to the north. Eagle Farm served as Brisbane Airport until 1988 with the commissioning of a new complex 5km to the northeast, at which time most major wartime structures were extant. With the opening of the new Domestic Terminal in 1988, the hangar 7 was vacated by Australian Airlines. Since 1991, hangar 7 has been used for warehousing purposes.
The hangars at eagle Farm have been used for airline terminal buildings, baggage handling facilities and amenities facilities.
","criteria":"The Second World War Hangar No.7 was constructed in 1942 to house the work of the Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit which involved the technical examination, reconstruction and simulated combat trials of captured Japanese aircraft. The ATAIU was formed to collect technical information on aircraft with which to develop combat techniques to counter the Japanese, and their work was integral to the Allied victory in the South West Pacific Area.
The development of hangar 7 for the ATAIU, and of Eagle Farm as an aircraft assembly depot and aerodrome, is a result of a shift in Australian foreign policy in December 1941, when Prime Minister Curtin announced that Australia now looked to America free of the United Kingdom to shape a plan with the United States as its cornerstone. As a result, the RAAF was placed under the control of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1942. This contrasts with the previous role of Eagle Farm as part of an RAAF Elementary Flying Training School from 1940 which serviced the Empire Air Training Scheme to provide airmen for the defence of Britain.
The hangar is representative of the massive wartime infrastructure constructed at and around Eagle Farm, the existence of which resulted in the Eagle Farm aircraft assembly depot and aerodrome becoming the Brisbane Airport after the Second World War.
|The hangar is the last surviving of its type at Eagle Farm, and is one of the few extant Second World War structures which demonstrate the site's former role as a major aircraft assembly depot and aerodrome, and the contribution of that function to the defence of the South West Pacific Area.
|The hangar is an example of a timber truss igloo structure and represents an advancement in timber technology achieved during the Second World War, which enabled long span lightweight structures utilising hand nailed timber in small sectional chord sizes to be erected quickly and at low cost.
|The hangar is substantially intact internally, and through its form, scale and materials, makes an aesthetic contribution to the surrounding industrial landscape.
|The hangar is an example of a timber truss igloo structure and represents an advancement in timber technology achieved during the Second World War, which enabled long span lightweight structures utilising hand nailed timber in small sectional chord sizes to be erected quickly and at low cost.
|The hangar has been associated with the development of the Brisbane Airport until 1988, especially as a facility for QANTAS who have been associated with Eagle Farm from 1926.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15795,"place_ref":601020,"name":"Residence, Abbott Street","alternate_name":"Narallen | Hart Residence","street_address":"41 Abbott Street","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-04-28","description":"The residence is a single-storey timber building, with brick fireplaces and chimneys, with a steeply pitched corrugated iron roof. An upper floor with a dormer window, added in 1999, faces Abbott Street. The eastern and northern elevations have verandahs and the western elevation extends over a laundry built at ground level with timber lattice work for additional protection. The verandah remains substantially intact, apart from a section near the kitchen which has been enclosed.
Internally, rooms open to adjacent verandahs with wide french doors with breezeway assemblies. The dining room has a fireplace with marble surrounds and a 'blind' bay window - a device Dods used to facilitate views towards the street or garden, but not towards the neighbouring house.
The kitchen has a bay window, which is a recent addition, along the southern wall.
","history":"The residence was designed by RS Dods as a rental house for his mother, and constructed in 1900. The residence was built adjacent to Dods' own house.
With the closure of the Moreton Bay penal settlement in 1842 Brisbane was opened up for free settlement, however, surveyors had begun subdivision plans for the New Farm area as early as 1839 and large acreage blocks were auctioned through the 1840s and 1850s. Throughout the 1850s the adjacent Fortitude Valley had begun to develop into a residential area, as more suburban allotments were offered for sale. The push towards New Farm was slow and did not take hold until the mid-1860s. Barrister and later Premier, Samuel Griffiths purchased part of New Farm in 1870. Queensland National Bank Manager, ER Drury joined the gathering social elite in 1875, purchasing acreage and constructing his residence on Bowen Terrace. Suburban residential development had extended solidly onto the New Farm peninsular by 1883-84. This growth was accompanied by the introduction of a public transport system which was to have a major impact on Brisbane's suburban development. In 1884 the privately owned Metropolitan Tramway and Investment Company laid Brisbane's first tram tracks. Electrification of the tramway system in Brisbane commenced in 1895. By this time, although industries were established in the New Farm area, significant residential development had continued. Private buses also provided residents with transport in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Deed of Grant for the land on which the residence was to be built was granted to John McConnell in January 1845. Title for the property was transferred to Elizabeth Gray Marks, mother of RS Dods, in June 1899. The following year, Dods had designed houses for himself and his mother. Situated on adjoining properties, these were constructed in 1900. Elizabeth Marks died in July 1908, however, the house stayed within the family for the next 70 years.
Dods, together with Francis Richard Hall, practising as Hall and Dods, is credited with achieving 'an architectural revolution in Brisbane.' For his houses and smaller buildings, Dods reassessed local timber construction, refining familiar elements. His planning and detailing of verandahs and external stairs and his ventilated roofs and gable decorations were widely imitated. Other ideas, such as his use of blind bay windows on narrow sites and his weatherboard enclosure of stumps, remain characteristic of his work alone.
The residence has been identified as forming part of the Significant Character Items outlined in Brisbane City Council's New Farm Teneriffe Hill Heritage and Character Study, within the Sydney Street precinct. Sydney Street is one of the earliest streets established in New Farm. A number of important architect designed houses occur along its tree lined length and in the streets to either side. From Brunswick Street, Sydney Street, rises gently up to Abbott Street. Dods' own house was sold when he moved to Sydney in 1913 and c1970 was demolished when a block of units was constructed. Some alterations have been undertaken to the Abbott Street residence, however, the house is still reasonably intact and remains as a good example of Dods' domestic architecture.
","criteria":"The residence is significant in demonstrating the continued growth of the New Farm area in the early part of the 20th century, following solid suburban residential development in the mid-1880s.
|The residence displays many characteristics which Dods valued in domestic architecture. These characteristics include a concern for climate, illustrated by the orientation and planning, provision of verandahs and large doors and the large, sheltering roof with ventilated ridge; concern for tradition, illustrated by the timber construction, well crafted from quality materials; concern for proportion and detail, evident in the substantial verandah posts and brackets. Internally, the blind bay window, characteristic of Dods' work, is still extant.
|The residence is significant for it contribution to the historic Sydney Street precinct, which incorporates Abbott Street. Apart from the loss of Dods' own house, much of the original housing stock remains.
|The residence has been identified as forming part of the Significant Character Items outlined in Brisbane City Council's New Farm Teneriffe Hill Heritage and Character Study.
|The residence was designed by Robert (Robin) Smith [RS] Dods, generally acknowledged as one of the best architects to practice in Brisbane. Dods is noted for the introduction of new ideas on architectural design which were then current in the United Kingdom which, subsequently, influenced Australian architecture.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15797,"place_ref":601022,"name":"Corbett and Son Store (former)","alternate_name":"Peerless Dry Cleaners | Isis Restaurant | Diamonds Dry Cleaners","street_address":"446-452 Brunswick Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-05-26","description":"The former Corbett and Sons store, a brick single-storeyed with basement structure, is located on the corner of Brunswick and Robertson Streets, Fortitude Valley. The building's roof is concealed behind a high parapet, with a street awning fronting Brunswick Street and returning into Robertson Street. The site slopes to the northeast, with the building having a two-storeyed elevation at the rear.
The principal entrance is located at the truncated corner of the two streets, and is surmounted by a decorative shaped gable with rendered detailing to the parapet. The paired entrance doors are recessed, with a marble step and tessellated tiled threshold, and surmounted by a panel of glass louvres. The shopfront, fronting Brunswick Street and returning into Robertson Street, has large paned display windows surmounted by high level multi-paned panels. Louvred panels located below the display windows along Brunswick Street have been sheeted over. A separate entrance is located at the western end of the Brunswick Street elevation, and consists of a recessed multi-paned door with tiled threshold. The street awning has a box fascia with cast iron columns, two of which are missing. The awning has a pressed metal soffit, and has recently been reconstructed losing some of Dods' original detailing. The building is constructed of painted English bond masonry, but originally consisted of red brickwork relieved with bands of white brickwork with rendered mouldings.
The Robertson Street elevation has a timber framed, hipped corrugated iron awning with window (formerly a separate service entrance with sliding timber doors). A lower entrance at the northern end of the Robertson Street elevation provides access to the basement. The rear of the building has a basement entrance at the northern corner, with a timber stair accessing the rear door to the shop level. Tall windows, with glass louvre panels and security bars, are located at the rear corners of the building, and the brickwork shows evidence of an earlier rear wing. The side elevation also has two small high level window openings, and a window with security bars lighting the basement at the rear corner.
Internally, the shop level has a pressed metal ceiling, areas of which have been damaged, painted masonry walls and a timber floor. The floor was originally set back from the Brunswick Street display windows to provide light and ventilation to the basement, however the setback has been infilled. A shallow bulkhead above the display windows indicate the position of screens which originally formed a backdrop to the display space. The rear northeast corner has a raised section of floor, which allows access from the Robertson Street entrance to the basement. The basement has a concrete floor, and timber posts supporting the floor above.
The northwest side of the site has a concrete slab, and the rear of the site is vacant except for a small shed at the northern corner.
","history":"This brick single storied with basement store was designed by architect RS (Robin) Dods in 1908 for wine merchants and grocers, Patrick and Michael Corbett.
The site, located on the corner of Brunswick and Robertson (then Jane) Streets, was purchased in 1907 by the Corbetts (who had operated a grocery store from the site since 1885) from the estate of Angus Ross subject to an easement, which provided rear access to nearby properties fronting Brunswick St. Ross had acquired the site, which formed part of the eastern suburban allotment (ESA) 37 by deed of grant in 1851, just two years after John Dunmore Lang's privately sponsored immigrants made their settlement in what became known as Fortitude (after one of the immigrant ships) Valley. According to the post office directories, the site remains unoccupied until 1878, when part of it is leased to builder and grocer, Frederick T Smith. By this time, this part of Brunswick Street, which provided the major thoroughfare to New Farm, is starting to develop as a mixed use area, combining small commercial and residential premises.
During the 1880s, development of this section of the Valley intensifies: Brunswick Street between John and Jane Streets now includes a number of commercial premises (music teacher, collar and harness maker, dyer and furrier, painter, and fruiterer) as well as two stores located on the subject site, including from 1885 a grocery store at no.450 operated by Patrick Corbett. Nearby on the opposite side of Jane Street, John Lennon's two story masonry premises (ground floor shop with residence on upper floor) are erected in 1885; and on the opposite side of Brunswick Street, two substantial tobacco factories are constructed in 1889 (Cameron Bros, later to become a brewery and Robert Dixson and Co).
In the 1890s, despite a downturn in the Queensland economy, the Valley continued to develop, lead by the large retailers, TC Beirne and James McWhirter whose Brunswick Street drapers stores quickly grew to become large department stores, and further fuelled by the developing Brisbane tram network in which the Valley was a central node. By the turn of the century the Valley was established as the second major commercial district of the city supplanting South Brisbane and the Woolloongabba fiveways. Corbett's store, although on the fringe of the main Valley commercial area, would conceivably have benefited from this development as well as from the increasing residential population as the land on both sides of Brunswick Street was subdivided.
In 1908, following purchase of the site, Patrick Corbett and his son Michael erect their new masonry premises. Architect RS (Robin) Dods (1868-1920) was to make the most of the sloping corner site. Although single storied, the height of the parapet and the simple bold enrichment of red brickwork relieved with bands of white brickwork (now obscured by paint) and cement dressings enabled the building to robustly address Brunswick and Jane Streets, as well as its nearby more substantial neighbours. The main entrance of the new shop was from the corner, a secondary door from Brunswick Street provided access to the basement level via an internal staircase. The shopfront was constructed to provide a generous display area as well as ventilation and light to the lower floor (via the setback of the floor). A separate delivery entrance to the upper floor was located on Robertson Street via sliding timber doors.
Although a relatively modest example of the work of Robin Dods, Corbett's store is a fine example of his commercial work, much of which has been demolished. From 1896-1916, Dods was in partnership with Francis Hall, as Hall & Dods. Dods is described as having a highly developed architectural imagination, his introduction of the formal and philosophical ideas of both the British Arts and Crafts movement and Edwardian classicism and his significant functional solutions to the problems of living and building in Queensland combined to achieve an "architectural revolution in Brisbane" (Donald Watson & Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the 19th century Queensland Museum 1994 p55)
In 1914, title was granted to Michael Corbett who continued to operate the business until his death in the 1930s. In 1938, the shop was leased to dry cleaners, Diamonds Pty Ltd; Joseph Diamond acquired the site in 1947. Diamonds continued to occupy the site until c1990, when it was acquired by Peerless Drycleaners and later by the present owner. Recent changes to the building include the demolition and rebuilding (with loss of some detail) of the awning over Brunswick St; demolition of a rear corrugated iron addition, and replacement of sliding timber doors to Robertson St service entry with a window. In the last decade, urban renewal has brought considerable changes to the Fortitude Valley area, including changes of use to a number of existing buildings: the upper story of the former grocery store / drycleaning premises is now a restaurant; the basement, a commercial tenancy.
","criteria":"It is important in illustrating the development of Fortitude Valley as it continued to develop into the twentieth century as a major commercial district.
|The store is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a corner store, albeit one with more sophisticated architectural pretensions.
The rear service laneway, which has provided access to nearby Brunswick Street commercial premises since at least 1907, demonstrates a type of land use and development relatively rare in Brisbane.
|The building makes a significant contribution to the Brunswick Street streetscape, and is an important element in the commercial townscape of Fortitude Valley.
|Erected in 1908, the former Corbett & Son store is a fine example of the commercial design work of architect RS (Robin) Dods, generally acknowledged as one of the most accomplished architects to practise in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15798,"place_ref":601023,"name":"Kitawah","alternate_name":"Wewak","street_address":"59 Heath Street","suburb":"EAST BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-06-23","description":"Kitawah is a large and imposing timber house, high-set on stumps with extensive verandahs and a massive hipped roof covered with Marseilles pattern terracotta tiles. The house has two tall masonry chimneys with high level openings and a skirt of timber battens infilling the spaces between the posts. Much of the garden setting is intact, Kitawah is located at the back of the large block with driveways to both sides. The front of the block is a large levelled and grassed area that was formerly a tennis court. The entry staircase is a prominent feature of this elevation, along with a large weatherboard gable with a bold decorative screen in the plane of the bargeboards. Stairs from two sides arrive on a central landing and then a single stair leads to the front verandah, the landing is covered with a simple timber pergola and post and beam-style timber "arches" mark the bottom of the staircases.
The verandahs of the house are characterised by substantial timber posts and a simple balustrade. At the north-eastern corner of the house the verandah enlarges to become a semi-enclosed room of generous proportions, with large vertical timber louvres infilling the space between the roof and the balustrade. A set of stairs leads into the back garden from this room on the southern side. The planning and spatial arrangement of the house is complex, revolving around a number of axes with interlocking rooms of various ceiling heights. A long central hall runs through the house from a small vestibule just inside the front door. Three large bedrooms are located on the eastern side of the hall and are connected to a north-facing verandah which in turn, leads to the outdoor room on the north-eastern corner. Major public rooms are found on the western side of the hall.
The dining room and drawing room are linked by a wide opening with sliding timber doors. The dining room is the larger of the two rooms and has a large, dark brick, arched fireplace. The drawing room has an alcove located on the north side and has windows on two sides, not unlike an enlarged window seat but square in plan. All of these rooms are lined with timber vee-jay boarding and are stained up to the picture rail to simulate the richness of panelling. Bedrooms, hall and public rooms are all carpeted. The north-western corner of the house has now been enclosed with fibro-cement sheeting to form two large rooms, which are semi self-contained with basic bathroom facilities.
A secondary axis is formed on the western side of these rooms by a series of doors that link the kitchen to the dining room, drawing room and on to the front verandah. The back section of the house revolves around the large space of a well-proportioned back hall. The kitchen, bathroom, extra bedroom or study, former servant's room and back stairs all lead off this central space. The kitchen is located to the back of the dining room and has a large fireplace that is back-to-back with the fireplace of the dining room. A large walk-in pantry is located on the north-western corner of the kitchen. The kitchen, bathroom and toilet have recent fittings. The former servant's room is located up a short set of stairs adjacent to the back stairs.
A broad set of stairs with very wide timber treads leads into the wash house area on the ground floor. This area is distinctive of many of Dods' domestic designs with the hipped roof extending down to enclose a high, airy space accommodating a range of "back of house" functions in a semi-open space. This area is used as a laundry and wine cellar and contains the copper and a fireplace.
","history":"Kitawah is a substantial timber residence constructed in 1911 for Brisbane solicitor Llewellyn Stephens and designed by prominent Queensland architect Robin Dods (Hall and Dods). Kitawah is located upon a large block in East Brisbane that was originally part of Eastern Suburban Allotment 82, an area of 34 acres, one rood and eight perches, initially acquired by William Wilson in December 1853. Stephens purchased subdivision "H", on the corner of Barker Street and Heath Street in 1909 and commissioned Dods to design a home for his young family.
Stephens was the eleventh child of Thomas Blackett Stephens, a well known figure in early Brisbane. Amongst other achievements, Thomas Blackett Stephens was the second Mayor of Brisbane, a Member of the Legislative Council, Colonial Treasurer, Secretary of Public Lands and proprietor of the Brisbane Courier. Llewellyn Stephens was born at the family home Cumbooquepa (600305) in South Brisbane in 1873, just four years before his father died. He went on to become a solicitor and an Alderman in South Brisbane and established his own firm Stephens and Tozer which still exists in Brisbane today.
Stephens married Gladys Ryan in 1905 and they lived at another house designed by Dods at 622 Vulture Street, East Brisbane until Kitawah was completed in 1911. They had two children at this stage and went on to have another four who were all born at Kitawah. Family members recall a quiet, family-oriented homelife. The children played games in the garden with neighbouring children and had a number of ponies, Gladys held a monthly "at home" when visitors came to call. The house was extended sometime between 1915 and 1919. As Dods had moved to Sydney in 1913, the nature of his involvement in the design of the extension is not clear. A wing was added to the north-west corner to accommodate bedroom space for the boys, substantially altering the roof-form and appearance of the house from Heath Street. Prior to the extension, the house had verandahs on the western, southern and eastern sides and the massive crippled hipped roof presented an asymmetric front to the street. This asymmetry was maintained with the extension, adding another steep hip whose ridge was at a higher level than the hip on the western side. A gable roof was inserted into the central part of the roof and a decorative screen mounted upon the gable end became a central feature of this elevation. The front stairs were re-aligned to be centered with the new size of the verandah and as a consequence, no longer align with the front door.
Kitawah is a late example of Robin Dods' work in Brisbane, as the following year he moved to Sydney where he did not have the same opportunity to undertake large domestic commissions. Dods was an exceptionally talented and original architect, introducing to Queensland the "formal and philosophical ideas of both the British Arts and Crafts movement and Edwardian classicism". At the same time, he refined and re-worked common elements of traditional Queensland houses and methods of construction and his houses exhibited a common-sense and often innovative approach to designing for the sub-tropical climate. Dods produced an impressive and high quality body of work in Queensland including hospital, commercial and ecclesiastical buildings as well as many residences. In the domestic realm his approach was widely imitated, in particular his planning and detailing of verandahs, external stairs, ventilated roofs and gable decorations.
Gladys Stephens continued to live at Kitawah after Llewellyn died in 1934. In 1936 a 28 perch section of the block on the western side was sub-divided and sold and a further two roods, eight perches sub-divided into four blocks at the back of the block to the north was sold in 1938. Then in 1943 the Stephens family sold the house to the Parer family. The Parers re-named the house Wewak after one of their plantations in Papua New Guinea. The Parers further sub-divided the block in 1951, creating three 24 perch blocks and one 27 perch block, leaving Kitawah on a block with an area of two roods and nine perches. In 1969, the house was sold to Dr James Hemsley and the name of the house reverted to Kitawah. The Hemsley family still maintain ownership of the house.
","criteria":"Kitawah, constructed in 1912, is important in demonstrating the continued growth and development of the East Brisbane area in the early part of the 20th century and illustrating the way of life of affluent families over a period of eighty years.
|Kitawah demonstrates the principal characteristics of a substantial timber urban residence. Set in extensive grounds and impressive in its scale, finish and design excellence, Kitawah is a key example of affluent domestic housing in Queensland.
|The building exhibits outstanding architectural quality and has significance as a surviving, intact example of the mature work of important Queensland architect Robert S.(Robin) Dods. The handling of form, scale, materials and details are exemplary. In particular, the interior finishes and planning are highly intact and of superior quality.
|Acknowledged as one of Dods most complex and sophisticated domestic designs, Kitawah demonstrates a high degree of creative achievement in the development of Queensland housing and has a special association with the work of RS Dods.
|Acknowledged as one of Dods most complex and sophisticated domestic designs, Kitawah demonstrates a high degree of creative achievement in the development of Queensland housing and has a special association with the work of RS Dods. The residence also has an association with the Stephens family, the prominent Queensland family who built the house.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15799,"place_ref":601024,"name":"Thomas Dixon Centre","alternate_name":"T C Dixon & Sons | Dixon's Shoe Centre","street_address":"406 Montague Road","suburb":"WEST END","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-10-05","description":"The Dixon Centre is a substantial two storey brick building, rectangular in plan with a super six asbestos-cement roof covering the original roof of asbestos-cement slates. The site is bounded by Montague Road and Drake and Raven Streets, along which are located a substantial brick fence (which becomes a retaining wall in places) surmounted by regularly spaced brick piers. The timber picket fence which original enclosed the space between the piers is no longer extant. Also located on the site is the store for the Queensland Ballet props (formerly the store for wooden lasts), the engine house, air raid shelter and 1965 brick addition to the main building.
The main building is located at the front of the site with the long axis following the Montague Road boundary. The foundations and ground floor are constructed of concrete which support load bearing walls of plain red machine-made bricks laid in English bond pattern. Attached buttresses are evenly spaced along the walls on the long axis, and sills, dressings and banding at the first floor and sill levels and are highlighted with dark blue salt glazed bricks. Two sets of new metal fire stairs are located on the eastern side of the building.
A single storey brick air raid shelter is located on the eastern side of the main building, the top of which is used as an outdoor seating area opening from the former engine room, now a kitchenette. The 1965 brick showroom at the southwestern corner also survives.
The front entrance, facing Drake Street is symmetrically composed, with a centrally located doorway flanked by windows on either side. The doorway features a pair of five panel bolection moulded doors, surmounted by a fanlight with scalloped glazing bars. The windows to the ground level have arched headers, and they and the entrance are surrounded by dark blue salt glazed voussoirs set out in the manner of a Gibbs surround. A sandstone tablet above the entrance is relief carved with the words ESTABLISHED 1873. The original nine paned windows to the first floor have been replaced with single panes of sheet glass and have flat arches of dark blue salt glazed voussoirs.
The rear elevation, facing Raven Street is similarly composed to the front elevation, but with a less decorative central doorway and rectangular windows featuring three vertical rows of glass louvres to both floors.
Each of the side elevations are also symmetrically composed with a regular fenestration pattern. All windows to the side and rear elevation have three vertical rows of glass louvres with flat arches of dark blue salt glazed voussoirs.
The brick fire wall is evident approximately one third from the Drake Street end of the building. It divides both the walls and the hipped roof which has ventilators evenly spaced along its ridge.
Internally, the space is divided into offices around a central corridor on the ground floor and four practice rooms, three of which are interconnecting, on the first floor. Stairs are internally located both centrally and at the northern end on the Montague Road side of the building. The former engine room is now utilised as a kitchenette.
The first floor practice rooms have exposed king post trusses which span the width of the building.. Evidence of the original use and form of the building includes a piece of equipment suspended within the roof trusses of the practice room at the southern end, hardwood columns in the reception space and exposed brick walls to some areas and an early fire system in the entrance.
A timber framed weatherboard building with a saw tooth roof is located in the south-eastern corner of the site. It is now used as a store for the Queensland Ballet and is an open space divided by wire mesh screens. The walls are unlined and the floor is timber. Light is provided by windows on the side elevations and on the vertical planes of the saw tooth roof.
","history":"The Thomas Dixon Centre was constructed in 1908 as premises for the expanding business of Thomas Dixon, bootmaker and tanner. A substantial two-storey brick building, it was designed by Richard Gailey Architects.
In 1869, encouraged by his brother who was already residing in Brisbane, Thomas Coar Dixon relocated from New South Wales, where he had established a small tannery, to Brisbane. Shortly after his arrival, Dixon established a tannery at West End, which was expanded in 1878 to incorporate a boot and shoe manufacturing business, with equipment, machinery and lasts brought by Dixon from Sydney.
Tanneries and boot and shoe manufacturing were among the earliest established industries in Brisbane. In Barton's Jubilee History of Queensland it is stated that by 1909 there were 21 boot making factories, employing over 1000 people in the metropolitan area. T C Dixon and Sons are mentioned as one of the companies having recently constructed a large factory.
The first Dixon shoe factory was opened in Russell Street and was announced in the Queenslander on July 6 1878. The advertisement guaranteed that the TCD Brand was 'equal to any boot manufactured' due to use of machines of the 'latest and most approved construction and the best materials only being used.'
Disruptions to the business occurred in 1885 when fire destroyed the buildings and again in 1893 when floods damaged goods and swept the tannery shed away. By the early 1900s, Thomas Dixon's son was urging him to construct larger premises. This was partially due to the loss of the previous buildings, but also due to delays of customer orders due to the lack of space available for the employment of additional hands.
In 1906, Dixon purchased the land bounded by Montague Road, and Raven and Drake Streets prior to travelling to Sydney to view the most recently constructed boot manufacturing premises. On his return to Brisbane, Dixon engaged architect Richard Gailey and (according to Dixon) with Dixon's suggestions and Gailey's skill they designed 'the present magnificent building.'
Richard Gailey was one of Queensland's most prolific architects. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to Australia in 1864. Described as the 'doyen of Brisbane's architects,' he is responsible for the design of many substantial buildings in Brisbane, including the Bapist City Tabernacle, a number of hotels including the Regatta and the Orient, private homes including Moorlands and Verney, and commercial buildings and warehouses including Smellie and Co.'s Warehouse, the Metro Arts building and Finney Isles and Co. He also designed many buildings in various towns throughout Queensland.
The contractor of the new Dixon's factory was Mr Burton. Constructed of brick, the warehouse was described by Thomas Dixon as second to none in appearance in the Commonwealth.
The building is symmetrically composed and uses materials which were uncommon for factory buildings of the period. It is Georgian Revival in style, with details including sills, banding and dressings picked out in dark blue salt glazed bricks. The roof was originally covered with diagonally laid asbestos-cement slates which were developed in France and not imported to Australia until c1904. They were not manufactured in Australia until after the First World War. The slates survive under the present super-six sheeting.
The front elevation features windows with arched glazing bars, whilst the fanlight above the door features scalloped glazing bars. The remainder of the windows were originally nine paned in rows of three which pivoted inwards or outwards, however most were replaced with sheet glass or glass louvres in 1983.
Internally, the ground floor originally consisted of an office and storerooms which were located at the southern end of the building. A brick fire wall divided them from the larger area which housed the workroom. The first floor was similarly divided, with the southern end housing a warehouse for finished shoes and a small showroom. The remainder of the first floor contained presses to cut uppers and an area for sewing the uppers. The engine room was located in a single storey building attached to the eastern side of the main building and the original gas engine which drove power shafts suspended beneath the first floor was replaced with an electric motor c1920. This method of power was replaced by self-contained sewing machines c1965.
The new factory was in close proximity to residential dwellings, indicative of the nineteenth century/early twentieth century practice of workers living close to their place of employment. It appears that Thomas Dixon also resided in West End upon his arrival in Brisbane, and the Post Office Directories record him residing near the factory from 1883 until his death in 1909.
After Dixon's death, the business continued under the management of his sons, one of whom managed the shoe factory whilst the other managed the tannery.
Additional buildings were constructed on the site, including a store for wooden lasts constructed prior to 1920, an air raid shelter constructed during the Second World War, and an addition to the south western corner of the factory comprising air conditioned office and showroom, constructed in 1965, all of which survive on the site. A staff amenities block and garage were also constructed, however these no longer survive.
The company of T C Dixon and Sons continued to operate from the West End factory until 1973 when they sold the factory to K D Morris and moved to new and larger premises at Wacol.
In 1975, the building was purchased by the Queensland Government and used as a store until 1991 when it became the home of the Queensland Ballet and the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra after undergoing a $1.8 million refurbishment.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1908 as a shoe and boot manufacturing factory, the Thomas Dixon Centre provides evidence of an early Brisbane industry which is now obsolete.
Surrounded by residential dwellings, the location of the factory demonstrates the former practice of workers to live close to their place of employment.
|The Thomas Dixon Centre provides evidence of early manufacturing industries in Queensland. The significance of the building is further enhanced as few buildings providing evidence of early manufacturing industries survive in Brisbane.
The Thomas Dixon Centre is a rare surviving example of an early twentieth century industrial factory in West End and demonstrates the principal characteristics of a building of its type through its form and use of materials. It also incorporates unusually decorative features for a building of its type, such as feature brickwork and decorative glazing bars to the front windows.
|The Thomas Dixon Centre is a rare surviving example of an early twentieth century industrial factory in West End and demonstrates the principal characteristics of a building of its type through its form and use of materials. It also incorporates unusually decorative features for a building of its type, such as feature brickwork and decorative glazing bars to the front windows.
|It is a landmark within the streetscape due to its scale and elevated location. The symmetrical design and repetitive fenestration pattern, as well as details including the decorative windows to the front elevation and the use of dark blue salt glazed bricks contribute to the aesthetic significance of the place.
|As the headquarters of both the Queensland Ballet and the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra since 1991, the Thomas Dixon Centre has strong associations with these particular cultural groups and the community of West End.
|The Centre has strong association with the Dixon Family who held a high reputation in Brisbane as a 'family' company with management providing good working conditions for their staff.
The place also has special association with architect Richard Gailey, as an example of his work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15800,"place_ref":601025,"name":"University of Queensland, Great Court Complex","alternate_name":"UQ","street_address":"12 Upland Road","suburb":"ST LUCIA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2002-03-08","description":"The Great Court Complex is set on the high ground in the centre of a site enclosed by Cemetery Reach, a bend in the Brisbane River, on the northern, eastern and southern sides, and St Lucia, a residential suburb, on the west. The Court, approximately semicircular in plan with eight unequal sides, is an open grassed space planted intermittently with trees and shrubs and intersected by an axially placed path. The perimeter of the court consists of a continuous colonnade that links five detached buildings, all clad in Helidon sandstone of varying colours ranging from rich purples through to creams and browns. The largest of these, forming the long northern side of the court, is really a complex of three attached buildings. It consists of the centrally located Forgan Smith Building, flanked by the Michie Building at the western end and Duhig Library to the east. The other buildings which face onto the central court are, moving around the perimeter clockwise from the Duhig Library, the Steele Building, the Richards Building, the Parnell Building and the Goddard Building.
\nForgan Smith Building
\nThe Forgan Smith Building, generally considered the front of the Great Court Complex, is a two storeyed reinforced concrete frame structure with masonry infill that is faced in Helidon sandstone. The building is roughly orientated east-west, and together with the Duhig and Michie buildings, forms the University's principle north facing facade.
\nThe building is much influenced in its design style by the Art Deco movement and shares many of this style's principle characteristics including relief lettering, a prominent tower, strong horizontal and vertical elements, monumental entrances, grouped openings, modem construction techniques, and stylised low and high relief sculpture.
\nThe main feature of the Forgan Smith building, and the focal point of the entire Great Court, is the five storey high central tower. The tower marks the university's former main entrance and effectively divides the building into two wings; east (also referred to as the Arts wing) and west (also referred to as the Law wing). External entrances to the building, including those to the two wings, are monumental in scale, and are approached by granite staircases that are equally prodigious. Each of the three entrances is adorned with various forms of sculpture that include low-relief statues depicting important Classical figures from the Arts (William Shakespeare and Geoffrey Chaucer (Plato and Justinian I on the eastern wing) and Law (on the western wing), together with the names of other significant individuals. Large friezes depicting symbols of Australia's primary industries, the heroism of Anzac and the history of University of Queensland are positioned on the parapets adjacent to each entrance. Smaller carvings depicting Aboriginal life in Queensland, the university's coat of arms and inscriptions also appear above each entrance. The external doors to each of the entrances are constructed of solid timber panels that have been formed into stylised cross designs. Vestibule doors are glazed with a varnished timber frame and chrome door hardware.
\nInternally, the Forgan Smith building retains many of its original high quality durable finishes. Original terrazzo, parquetry and rubber tiling (with faux timber finish) laid on concrete floors exist variously throughout the building. Linoleum and carpet have been introduced in more recent years in corridors and some rooms, particularly where there have been internal alterations, such as those at the top level in the far end of the eastern wing. The foyers to each of the three main entrances have been finished in a restrained Art-Deco styling featuring sandstone columns, some detailed with the original Queensland University emblem, sandstone balustrading, and lighting disguised as skylights. The central foyer extends through two floors. Floor finishes in the foyers of the tower are concrete, delicately tinted to harmonise with the sandstone. The vestibules and foyers of the Arts and Law wings are finished in red and ochre coloured terrazzo laid in a pattern strongly indicative of the Art Deco style. Five paned windows, framed in bronze, are used throughout the building and are generally grouped in threes. The original glass used in most of the windows is tinted pink and green that complements the sandstone colouring. Terrazzo used for window sills, stairs and skirtings are of similar pale, muted tones. Original varnished silky oak joinery, such as doors, skirtings and partitions, remains essentially intact throughout the building, except in areas where larger areas have been subdivided, or major refurbishments have occurred such as in the law library. Original chrome and bronze door hardware survives extensively, including the original metal number used to identify each room. Faux marbled tiles have been used as alternative skirtings in some public areas such as corridors and foyers.
\nIn the upper three floors of the tower, extensive alterations have occurred which have effectively created new floors within the space originally designed to hang a carillon of bells. The multipaned windows on these floors have replaced the sculptured and perforated panels that originally existed in their place. The architectural detailing of spaces is indicative of basic service rooms. A lift, located in the south-west corner, and a fire escape stair, located in the south-east corner, have both been introduced into the tower as a result of the alterations to the upper floors.
\nThe western wing of the Forgan Smith Building has an additional floor that extends from the tower to the Michie Building. The roof, which is clad with Colourbond steel sheeting, has a gentle curved form that rises slightly over the level of the original parapet walls. Internally, the majority of this wing has been greatly altered by the removal of the central floor space at the mid level and the introduction of additional columns at ground level and the creation of new top floor slab to replace the previous roof. The detailing of the top floor interior is entirely modern using stainless steel, aluminium windows, terrazzo elements and painted plasterboard. Reproduction of original detailing, such as silky oak joinery, terrazzo, bronze hardware and plaster cornices have been used in the refurbishment of the original two levels.
\nDuhig Building
\nThe Duhig Library is a six storey building with a lower ground level. The building is located at the eastern end of the Forgan Smith building and is similarly constructed using a reinforced concrete frame structure with masonry infill that is clad with sandstone. The large building stylistically has simpler architectural detailing than the Forgan Smith building, and also has a larger overall general form. Some evidence of Art Deco styling is evident in the building's symmetry, strong vertical lines and the parallel grouping of the principle windows in threes. The use of sculpture on the building's facades is comparatively limited and only the name \"LIBRARY\", minor inscriptions and the university's coat of arms and motto have been used to distinguish the former main entrance that is at the lower ground level. The solid timber doors are panelled in a design similar to those on the Forgan Smith building. The courtyard entrance is less ornamented and features only glazed doors with a metallic frame.
\nInternally, the Duhig Library's evidence of the building's earliest finishes is limited to its two lower levels. These finishes are similar to those used in the Forgan Smith building and include the patterned terrazzo flooring of the main foyer (the colour and design of which matches that in the foyers of the Arts and Law wings), terrazzo staircases, balustrades and sills, and marbled cladding to the internal columns of the main reception area on the ground floor level (similarly detailed to the columns in the tower foyers). The lower ground floor has been substantially refurbished in recent years and retains only the original dark coloured ceiling panels.
\nSteele Building
\nThe Steele Building, located south of the Duhig Library, is a two storeyed structure constructed using a reinforced concrete frame structure with masonry infill that is clad with sandstone. Later additions at the rear of the building are clad with face brickwork, except where it is anticipated that the building will be extended in the future. Steel sheeting has been used in this area.
\nThe building's principle facade faces west and its entrance is decorated in the same manner as those of the Arts and Law on the Forgan Smith building. The sculpture includes parapet friezes reflecting the advancement of chemical science from 16th century alchemy. The main courtyard entrance is decorated with the university's coat of arms and motto, and a pair of flanking low relief statues depicting famous chemists, Antone Laurent Lavoisier and John Dalton. A secondary entrance to the building is located at the rear facing south-east and is more modestly decorated only with the university's coat of arms.
\nThe interior of the Steele building has been altered and extended extensively. Remnants of the building's original finishes are mainly evident in its former main entrance vestibule, early corridors and staircases. Red and ochre coloured terrazzo flooring, laid in a pattern similar to that in the Arts/Law foyers, remains under the carpet in the main entrance vestibule. A crude copy of the design has been replicated at the building's rear entrance vestibule using slightly different coloured terrazzo. The walls of the vestibule are clad in sandstone and the internal doors are glazed with a varnished timber frame and chrome door hardware. At the lower level the original corridors have been laid with linoleum that has a contrasting border. The plain coloured walls have been finished with a ruled ashlar design. At the upper level the corridor floors have been laid with rubber tiles that have a faux timber finish and a contrasting border. These tiles are identical to those found in parts of the Forgan Smith building. The main central stair is constructed of contrasting terrazzo in a design similar but slightly simpler to those found in the Forgan Smith building. The stairwell is lit by overhead lighting which is disguised as skylights. Bronze window frames in the Steele building are similar to those in the Forgan Smith building, however many have been painted internally and tinted pink and green glass is fitted only on the external facing walls.
\nThe main auditoriums, originally located in the centre of the building, have recently under gone substantial alterations that have effectively created three smaller theatres out of the space previously occupied by two. The interiors of these theatres have been completely refit. Several of the larger teaching laboratories have also recently been refurbished with new fittings and finishes. Most other areas of the building are offices and small research laboratories that have been extensively partitioned. The earlier partitions are mainly constructed of timber veneered panels that have glazed panels that extend to the ceiling. Later partitions, have used to divide some of the larger rooms into smaller ones. Several new door entrances have also been introduced as a result of additional partitions.
\nRichards Building
\nThe Richards Building, located south-west of the Steele Building and opposite the central tower of the Forgan Smith Building. It is a two storeyed structure constructed using a reinforced concrete frame with masonry infill that is clad with sandstone. It is presently the smallest of the Great Court buildings.
\nThe building's principle facade faces north and its courtyard entrance is decorated with a carved parapet frieze depicting a prehistoric scene, the university's coat of arms and its motto.
\nThe internal layout and finishes in the Richards Building remain substantially intact throughout most of the building. The main entrance doors are solid timber that has a simple grooved design running vertically through the middle of each door. The glazed and timber internal doors and the coloured terrazzo flooring are both of similar detailing to that in the Forgan Smith Building. A bas-relief depicting Professor Richards is carved in the west wall of the sandstone clad vestibule. The central staircase, which is also of similar design to those in the Forgan Smith Building, is constructed of contrasting terrazzo. The corridor walls at ground level have a ruled ashlar finish that is painted and the floor has linoleum tiles laid without any border. Floors of the upper corridors are laid with rubber tiling (with faux timber finish) and a contrasting blue border. All internal room doors are varnished silky oak and retain their original bronze room numbers.
\nOffices and refurbished laboratories mainly occupy the building space. The library, which is located in the north-west corner of the upper floor, contains skylights that are externally covered over and a variety of floor finishes.
\nLocated at the rear of the building is a large circular under ground laboratory.
\nParnell Building
\nThe Parnell Building is located adjacent to the Richards Building, opposite the central tower of the Forgan Smith Building. The two storeyed building is constructed using a reinforced concrete frame structure with masonry infill that is clad with sandstone. The building is connected to the Physics Annexe at the rear via an enclosed walkway
\nThe main entrance is decorated only with the university's coat of arms and motto. The front sliding doors, which are varnished timber of identical design to those on the Richards Building, open into a foyer and corridors that have ruled ashlar walls and floors laid with rubber tiling (with faux timber finish) and a contrasting blue border. Two large lecture theatres occupy the central section of this building, extending through two floor levels. Both of these rooms have been entirely refurbished with suspended ceilings and updated teaching and seating facilities.
\nThe ground and upper floor levels of the Parnell Building are mainly occupied by offices and small laboratories that have all been refurbished to differing degrees. Only one small lecture room at the north-east corner of the upper floor remains substantially intact with its original tiered seating and wooden desks.
\nThe basement of the building consists mainly of store rooms towards the rear of the building with small offices, studios and work rooms towards the front. The entire basement area is crudely finished with exposed services and a low ceiling height.
\nGoddard Building
\nThe Goddard Building is located south of the Michie Building. The building, which is constructed using a reinforced concrete frame structure with masonry infill that is clad with sandstone, is a three storeyed structure, with the main courtyard entrance at the middle level. The building is arranged around two inner courtyards that are clad with brickwork only. Unlike the Forgan Smith Building, window openings throughout the building are grouped in pairs rather than threes.
\nThe building's principle facade faces east and its entrance is decorated in the same manner as those of the Arts and Law on the Forgan Smith building. Low relief statues, depicting: Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel, famous figures in the history of biological science, flank the main courtyard entrance. Immediately above the entrance is the university's coat of arms and motto. Vehicular access to the building's inner courtyards is via a rear entrance to the building. This entrance is more modestly decorated, bearing only the inscription \"BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES\"
\nThe majority of the Goddard building interior has been extensively altered recently. Remnants of the building's original finishes are mainly evident in its main entrance foyer, the central auditorium, and the staircases. The building's main entrance doors are simple panelled sliding doors, which have a varnished finish. The walls of the foyer are clad in sandstone. The main central stair is constructed of contrasting terrazzo in a large double-return design, which extends through the building's three floors. Secondary steps, located at either side of the building, resemble the simple stair design used is most other Great Court buildings. Throughout the building, corridors are finished with pale blue vinyl coverings on concrete slab floors. Modem specimen freezers have been fitted along several sections of corridor. Previously varnished internal walls and doors throughout the building are currently painted. Steel window frames with terrazzo sills exist throughout in the building and are similar to those in the Forgan Smith building, however most frames have been painted internally and only clear glass is fitted.
\nThe main auditorium is located in the centre of the building, and extends through two floors. It area is substantially intact, and retains its original seating, demonstration desk and blackboard framing. Air conditioning ducts, positioned in intermittent vertical drops, have been installed along the side walls.
\nLocated above the auditorium is the Zoology Museum. Originally it was a single area with a mezzanine floor, however recent alterations have created two distinct floor levels. The lower of the two floors has been partitioned to form a number of small offices and laboratories. A short bridge, built recently, connects the rear of the museum across to the rear of the main building.
\nThe building contains several large teaching laboratories, of which all but one have been recently refurbished with new suspended ceilings, contemporary fittings and finishes. Staff offices and small research laboratories are located throughout the two upper floors of the building. The basement level mainly contains refurbished laboratories, stores and a large workshop.
\nSeveral structures have been erected on the roof of the Goddard building. Most of these are steel frame sheds and shelters and are used to store equipment and house large specimens.
\nMichie Building
\nThe Michie building is an eight storey building located at the western end of the Forgan Smith building. It is similarly constructed using a reinforced concrete frame structure with masonry infill that is clad with sandstone. The building is stylistically simpler than the Forgan Smith building, and similar in scale to the Duhig Library. Art Deco styling is limited to the building's symmetry, and the use of stylised relief work below each window on the building's facades. The main entrance, from level two on the northern facade, is far less monumental than most of the other buildings in the Great Court Complex, and is distinguished only by inscription over the doorway.
\nInternally the floors exhibit minimal use of architectural detailing. Only the lift and central spiral staircase foyer areas on each floor demonstrate better quality finishes such as exposed aggregate concrete panels, pebble mix surfaces, sprayed ceiling, pelmetted lighting and fibrous sheeting with a pale mosaic finish. The partitions to all the areas are constructed from lightweight aluminium frames fitted with dark veneered panels. Ceilings throughout the building are false and carry most of the internal services.
\nThe cloister
\nThe entire inner courtyard of the Great Court is surrounded by a Romanesque-Byzantine Revival style arcade of semicircular sandstone arches, supported by simple sandstone columns that are set on granite plinths. The cushion capitals of the columns are decorated with the coat of arms from universities in the British Commonwealth and other principle universities in the world. The same coat of arms is often inscribed on all four sides of the capital. Several shields, particularly in the south west section of the arcade are currently still blank.
\nEach of the main entrances to the individual buildings features arches with carved voussoirs depicting aspects of Queensland's flora and fauna. Several of the voussoirs are currently still blank, particularly in the north east section of the arcade.
\nProjecting grotesques decorate the upper reaches of the cloister walls. These numerous carvings are mainly of human figures, some based on the identities of particular people but many simply based on fanciful images. Recently completed grotesques have been specifically commissioned to represent particular people, chosen by the Senate for their contributions to University life.
\nThe setting
\nUniversity of Queensland is centrally located on a large allotment on a bend of the Brisbane River at St Lucia. The Great Court is sited to dominate the rise of the land and have a commanding view of the surrounding campus buildings, the playing fields and the river beyond. The Forgan Smith Building with its central tower is the focus of the complex both from the university's approach and within the Great Court cloister. The tower was designed to be on a central axis which addressed an intended bridge across the Brisbane River from St Lucia. The area delineated in the university's original plans as a great forecourt remains substantially intact. The current configuration of the driveway does not reflect the landscape design originally envisaged for the area. Full appreciation of the Forgan Smith Building facade as intended has been interrupted by the placement of the Mayne Hall and Central Library immediately in front of it.
\nThe areas between the various court buildings remain open and landscaped with lawns, fountains and a variety of vegetation. The areas provide visual corridors to the other university buildings which are located beyond the Great Court. The various plantings at the University of cypress and pine add to the setting of the place.
","history":"Proposals for a university in Queensland began in the 1870s. A Royal Commission in 1874, chaired by Sir Charles Lilley, recommended the immediate establishment of a university. Those against a university argued that technical rather than academic education was more important in an economy dominated by primary industry. Those in favour of the university, in the face of this opposition, distanced themselves from Oxford and Cambridge and proposed instead a model derived from the mid-western states of the USA. A second Royal Commission in 1891 recommended the inclusion of five faculties in a new university; Arts, Law, Medicine, Science and Applied Science. Education generally was given a low priority in Queensland's budgets, and in a colony with a literacy rate of 57% in 1861, primary education was the first concern well ahead of secondary and technical education. The government, despite the findings of the Royal Commissions, was unwilling to commit funds to the establishment of a university.
In 1893 the Queensland University Extension Movement was begun by a group of private individuals who organised public lecture courses in adult education, hoping to excite wider community support for a university in Queensland. In 1894, 245 students were enrolled in the extension classes and the lectures were described as practical and useful. In 1906 the University Extension Movement staged the University Congress, a forum for interested delegates to promote the idea of a university. Opinion was mobilised, a fund was started and a draft Bill for a Queensland University was prepared. Stress was laid on the practical aspects of university education and its importance for the commerce of Queensland. The proceedings of the Congress were forwarded to Premier Kidston. In October 1906, sixty acres in Victoria Park were gazetted for university purposes
The University of Queensland was established by an Act of State Parliament on December 10, 1909 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Queensland's separation from the colony of New South Wales. The Act allowed for the university to be governed by a senate of 20 men and Sir William MacGregor, the incoming Governor, was appointed the first chancellor with RH Roe as the vice chancellor. Old Government House [600118] in George Street was set aside for the University following the departure of the Governor to the Bardon residence, Fernberg [600275], sparking the first debates about the best location for the university.
In 1910 the first teaching faculties were created. These included Engineering, Classics, Mathematics and Chemistry. In December of the same year, the Senate appointed the first four professors; BD Steele in chemistry, JL Michie in classics, H. Priestly in mathematics and A Gibson in engineering. In 1911 the first students enrolled.
Practically from the start there was controversy about a permanent site for the University. Old Government House was too small and was seen by many as evidence merely of government parsimony. There was not much room for expansion and there were conflicts with the neighbouring Brisbane Central Technical College. Victoria Park had been chosen in 1906 for a permanent site and in 1922 a further 170 acres were vested in the University. The high cost of preparing the steeply sloping land at Victoria Park for building made it a less than ideal site despite its central location and proximity to the Royal Brisbane Hospital. Yeronga Park and St Lucia were considered as options. But in 1926 the whole issue was transformed when Dr James O'Neil Mayne and Miss Mary Emilia Mayne made £50,000 available to the Brisbane City Council to resume land at St Lucia and present it to the University. Opinion was divided with Professor Steele and many members of the medical profession against St Lucia because of its isolation and lack of public transport. A meeting of the Senate, on the 10 December, voted for the St Lucia site on the condition that the city council provided access. Those voting for St Lucia included Archbishop Duhig, EJD Stanley, ACV Melbourne and Professor Richards. Dr Lockhart Gibson, Chancellor AJ Thynne and Archbishop Sharp were amongst those who voted for Victoria Park. In 1930 the Senate handed over Victoria Park, less eleven acres reserved for a medical school, to the Brisbane City Council in exchange for the St Lucia site.
During the years of the Depression that followed the university suffered progressive reduction of government funding. Cuts were made to both staff salaries and numbers while student numbers trebled between 1923 and 1933. There was no prospect of building the new university until 1935 when the Premier, W. Forgan Smith, announced that the Queensland government would undertake construction at St Lucia. This was one of the three major development projects initiated in the mid 1930s by the Queensland government to create employment, the others being the Stanley River Dam and the Story Bridge [600240]. The University Senate called for and received schemes from various enthusiasts, including Professor Hawken, Dr FW Robinson, AB Leven and Dr JJC Bradfield. Taking ideas from these suggestions the Senate committee produced its own preliminary design. The principle building, containing Arts, Law and administration, was E-shaped and enclosed one side of an arcaded quadrangle. Related outer buildings contained Engineering, Biology, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Geology, a museum and a teachers' training college. The Queensland government, despite hopes for a competition, appointed the Sydney firm of Hennessy, Hennessy & Co as architects for the project; and Jack Francis Hennessy (1887-1955) produced the coherent and logical plan that still lies at the heart of the University.
The foundation stone was laid in 1937 by Forgan Smith but it was another year before building commenced. Construction began in March 1938 with the main building, now known as the Forgan Smith Building, and was followed shortly afterward with the lower floors of the library and the Chemistry building. It was to proceed, due to financial constraints, in stages clockwise around the court.
Work was disrupted by the Second World War. The main building served its first use, from 1942-1944, as the headquarters of General Sir Thomas Blamey (head of the Australian Defence forces). The army evacuated the building and work re-commenced by 1948. The Forgan Smith Building was officially opened in May 1949 by Premier Hanlon. The Duhig Library (two-stories only and named for Archbishop Sir James Duhig) was also ready by this time, as was the Steele Building (named for the first professor of chemistry, Professor Bertram Steele).
In 1951 the Richards Building (named for the first professor of geology, Henry Casselli Richards) was completed. In 1955 the Parnell Building (named for the inaugural professor of physics, Thomas Parnell) and an addition to the west wing of the Forgan Smith Building were completed. In 1962, jointly funded by state and commonwealth governments, the Goddard Building (named for the second professor of biology, Ernest Jones Goddard) was completed. In 1965 three extra floors were added to the Duhig Library to the design of James Birrell.
The final building at the western end of the Forgan Smith was to have been a Great Hall. JD Story, the vice chancellor from 1938 until 1960, proposed in 1959 that this be replaced by a western Arts building and in 1972 construction began on the Michie Building (named for first the professor of classics, J.L. Michie). The state government announced in 1974 that it would provide the funding to clad the building in sandstone. The Michie Building was completed in 1978.
In March 1979 the colonnade between the Michie Building and the Goddard Building was completed enclosing the Great Court Complex.
A number of changes have been made over the years to the Great Court Complex. Some of buildings have been augmented or altered: there are various structures on top of the Goddard Building, and a new, discreet addition to the Law Library at the western end of the Forgan Smith Building which was designed by Robert Riddell. Perhaps the most significant change is that the planting within the Court is less formal than originally intended, and takes little account of Hennessy's plans for strong visual axes to tie the whole Court together. Notable also in this respect are Professor Gareth Robert's master plan for the university which involved the closing of the circular drive and the placement of the Main Library and the Great Hall in front of the Forgan Smith Building.
The Sculptors:
As part of Hennessy, Hennessy & Co's original concept, it was intended that the Great Court would include extensive sculptural work portraying historical panels, statues, coats of arms and panels of Australian plant and animal life. Many of the designs were done by Leo Drinan, who was the principle architect with Hennessy, Hennessy & Co. Work on the sculptures began in 1939, with German born John Theodore Muller and Frederick James McGowan as the principle stonemasons. Work was halted by the war in 1942 and McGowan died before it resumed three years later. Muller continued to carve until his death at more than 80 years of age, in 1953. At the time of his death all of the friezes, most of the statues, and half of the grotesques, coats of arms, arches and roundels were completed.
Carving virtually stopped at the University after Muller's death and resumed only after the Michie Building was under construction. A competition amongst several Queensland sculptors in 1976 led to the commissioning of Mrs Rhyl Hinwood. Mrs Hinwood has since continued to carve numerous grotesques and coats of arms for the Court, as well as the two monumental figures at the main entrance to the Goddard Building.
","criteria":"The University of Queensland, established in 1909, commemorates Queensland's 50th anniversary of its separation from the colony of New South Wales. As the state's first university, it demonstrates the gradual evolution of higher education in Queensland, which was considered a low budget priority despite recommendations made to the Government as early as the 1870's.
The selection of a permanent site for the university was the subject of intense government and community debate in 1926. The eventual acquisition of land at St Lucia is strongly associated with Dr James O'Neil Mayne and his sister, Mary Emilia Mayne who made £50 000 available for the Brisbane City Council to purchase the property. In 1935, its Silver Jubilee year, the University decided to commence construction at the St Lucia site. The project was one of the Forgan Smith government's major developments of the 1930's depression years, specifically aimed at creating employment. The premier's involvement is commemorated in the naming of the first completed building on the site. Between 1942 and 1945 the university played an important role in the activities of the Second World War when General Sir Thomas Blamey, head of the Australian Defence Forces, established the Forgan Smith Building as the Land Headquarters.
|(Criterion under review)
|The layout of the Great Court complex is the clearest and most intact example in Australia of a university set out in accordance with the innovative American collegiate planning principles introduced by Thomas Jefferson in the early 1800's. The Jeffersonian concept of an academic village is clearly demonstrated in the complex by the large, open central courtyard that is surrounded by interspersed pavilions representing different disciplines, linked together by internal colonnades. From its location on the highest rise of the land overlooking the surrounding campus buildings, the Great Court is regarded as an important visual symbol of and central core to the University of Queensland.
|Built over a forty year period between 1937 and 1979, the Great Court Complex is significant both architecturally and aesthetically as an extensive and distinctive example of Art Deco styling. Uniformity is an important attribute of the complex, demonstrated not only by congenial characteristics such as monumental scale and form, strong horizontal and vertical lines, and materials but also the abundant sculptural work such as friezes, statues, and grotesques depicting significant individuals and events in the history of the State, the Commonwealth and the University. The public interiors of the individual buildings, particularly those in the Forgan Smith Building, are of notable interest for the high quality detailing of its materials and finishes harmoniously executed in the same style as the exteriors.
|From its location on the highest rise of the land overlooking the surrounding campus buildings, the Great Court is regarded as an important visual symbol of and central core to the University of Queensland. Due to this symbolism, the complex has a strong association with past and present students and faculty members throughout the state.
|The University of Queensland, Great Court Complex has a special association with the work of Hennessy, Hennessy & Co, prominent Australian architects with offices in Brisbane and Sydney, who were responsible for designing a number of institutional and educational complexes throughout Australia during the 1920's and 30's. The original design for the university is regarded as their most aspiring proposal in Queensland and although not completed in its entirely, the Great Court complex part of the University generally conforms to the original plan.
The Great Court Complex also has a strong association with the notable craftsman, John Theodore Muller, a German stonemason responsible for completing much of the Great Court sculpture between 1939 and 1953 including the statues, friezes on the Forgan Smith and Steele Buildings: the distinctive frieze of prehistoric life on the Richards Building; and about half of the grotesques, coats of arms, arches and roundels. The sculptured works form an integral part of the Great Court Complex and represent an immense undertaking in stone.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15801,"place_ref":601026,"name":"Hanworth","alternate_name":"The Hospice | Hanworth","street_address":"109 Lytton Road","suburb":"EAST BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-12-21","description":"Hanworth is a single-storeyed 1860s masonry residence with timber and masonry extensions, standing on a rise above Lytton Road. A drive leads from the Lytton Road to the main entrance, which faces north. There is a garden between Lytton Road and the building, which includes a lawn area and a number of pine trees.
The original section of Hanworth is a single-storeyed, U-shaped, unpainted redbrick building, with characteristics demonstrating a Georgian influence. The principal elevation faces north with a broad verandah running around the northern, eastern and western perimeter of the building. The original building is only one room in depth. The hipped roof and separate verandah roof are sheeted with corrugated iron. At each end of the roof is a moulded brick chimney. It is substantially intact with most of its original glazing, joinery and hardware.
The verandah has a timber floor and elegant cast-iron grille columns supporting the concave roof. The underside of the verandah roof is lined with tongue and groove boards. A timber hand rail and modern wrought iron balustrade run between the columns. The main doorway is in the centre of the northern facade with three sets of french doors to the east and two sets of french doors and a bay window to the west. All the french doors have external shutters.
From the northern verandah the large two-panelled front door leads to the entry hall which runs through to a rear door. The open verandah that ran around the internal section of the U has been enclosed. The drawing room opens from the right of the entry hall. It has a fine white marble fireplace surround and an internal door that leads to the dining room. The dining room has a large bay window and a black marble fireplace surround. The drawing and dining rooms contain pieces of furniture, sideboards, chairs and tables which probably date from the period of the conversion of Hanworth into a home for gentlewomen.
The dining room forms the north-west corner of the building. Behind it is the western wing containing the kitchen and a timber bedroom section. The kitchen is in the 1860s building, although this is probably not the original kitchen as there is no evidence of a chimney. The gabled timber section of the wing probably dates from the conversion to institutional use and contains 7 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Internally the walls are tongue and groove and the casement windows have diamond patterned glazing bars. A besser block laundry is at the end of this wing.
To the left of the entry hall three bedrooms open onto the northern verandah; two of the bedrooms have been created by subdividing one of the original bedrooms. The eastern wing contains three bedrooms and an office. A staircase leads to an attic above the 1860s building. The attic addition has three dormer windows and although not part of the original design probably dates from the Heath's occupation of the house. At the rear of the eastern wing is a two-storeyed, inter-war masonry addition which contains bedrooms and bathrooms.
","history":"Hanworth, a substantial, brick, single-storeyed residence near Norman Creek at East Brisbane, was erected in 1864-65 for Lieutenant George Poynter Heath, RN, Portmaster of Queensland and member of the Marine Board, and his family. It was designed by early Brisbane architect James Cowlishaw.
Hanworth originally stood on just over 7½ acres, first alienated by a Sydney land speculator in 1851. The land fronted the main road to Lytton, had a substantial frontage to Norman Creek, and from the highest point near the Lytton Road, possessed excellent views of the Humbug Reach of the Brisbane River, overlooking New Farm. In July 1863 Heath purchased this land for £241/8/-. It was close to a number of fine residences already established along Humbug Reach, including Eskgrove [600187] (occupied by the Heaths from at least May 1861), Riversdale [Mowbray Park - 600189] and Shafston House [600241] upstream, and Bulimba House [600179] further downstream.
GP Heath [1830-1921] was born at Hanworth in Norfolk, England, second son of Rev. Charles Heath and Mary Anne Poynter. Educated at Cheltenham College, he joined the navy as a cadet in 1845. In 1846-53 he served in HMS Rattlesnake (under Owen Stanley till 1850) and in the Fantome and the Calliope on the Australian station. On his return to England he worked at the Admiralty drawing charts of areas surveyed by the Rattlesnake. Late in 1859 he applied for the government post of marine surveyor in the new colony of Queensland and was appointed. On 23 February 1860, before sailing for Queensland, he married Elizabeth Jane Innes. They arrived in Brisbane in late August 1860, and Heath immediately took up his appointment with the Department of the Surveyor-General.
The early 1860s were formative years for the new colony. One of the first actions of the colonial government was to establish a Select Committee on Government Departments [1860], which recommended that a Portmaster be appointed to take overall charge of the Harbour Master's Department, and the appointment of GP Heath as Portmaster of Queensland, a position he held for nearly 30 years, was made in January 1862. During his long tenure, Heath was responsible for supervising the opening of 13 new ports [including Townsville and Cairns], establishing 33 lighthouses, 6 lightships and 150 small lights, and marking 450 miles of the inner route through the Barrier Reef. In 1862, the colonial government also established the Marine Board of Queensland, comprising the Portmaster of the colony and four other members. From 1869, when he retired from the Royal Navy as a Commander, until his Queensland retirement in 1890, GP Heath was Chairman of the Marine Board. He was also active in Anglican work, serving as chairman of various committees in Synod from 1876 to 1889. For many years he held a commission of the peace. He is memorialised in East Brisbane in Heath and Hanworth Streets and Heath Park.
Work on the construction of Hanworth had been commenced by 16 July 1864. The Heaths were prominent members of Brisbane society, and the architect they chose to design their new home was equally well-known and successful. James Cowlishaw practised architecture in Brisbane from 1860 until c1890, when he retired to devote his attention to his many other business interests, including ownership of The Telegraph newspaper. In the early 1860s he established himself as Brisbane's first successful architect in private practice, and at the time Hanworth was under construction, Cowlishaw had a dozen other major projects underway, including Oakwal [600345], the fine stone residence commissioned by Queensland's then Chief Justice, Sir James Cockle. The Heaths were still resident at Eskgrove in November 1864 when their third child was born, but had left by August 1865 and certainly had occupied Hanworth by the time twin sons were born in July 1866. It is likely they moved into Hanworth in the first half of 1865.
Hanworth was the Heath family's home for nearly 25 years. They moved amongst Brisbane's highest society, and entertained frequently; at the reception held at Hanworth on the marriage of their daughter Cecelia Georgina in 1886, guests included the Governor and Lady Musgrave, the Premier and Mrs Griffith, Treasurer James Dickson, Mr Justice and Mrs Harding, several high-ranking government officials and officers of visiting ships. On 30 June 1890, Commander Heath retired from the position of Portmaster of Queensland. Although the family returned to England soon afterwards, Hanworth remained in Heath's [and later his daughters'] possession, and by 1891 was leased by Brisbane bank manager, [later stock and share broker], Alexander Henry Hudson and his family. The Hudsons resided at Hanworth for about 22 years, and were still in occupation when the property was advertised for sale in October 1909. At this time the house was described as a Substantial Brick Structure, containing 8 rooms and all offices, with 7½ acres of land, having long frontage to the main Lytton road and Norman Creek. [Brisbane Courier 2/10/1909:9:1] The property did not sell, however, and in early 1912, after the Hudsons had moved to Kangaroo Point, was put up for auction as the Hanworth Estate, subdivided into 57 residential allotments. A number of the vacant allotments sold at this time, but the house remained unoccupied until acquired by Mrs Mary Marguerite Wienholt, who obtained title in July 1913. The grounds had been reduced to just over 3 roods, and did not include the former tennis court.
Mrs Wienholt was a member of the Brisbane branch of the Theosophical Society, established in New York in 1875 with the aims of universal brotherhood and the study of comparative religion, philosophy and science. At Hanworth in 1913, Mrs Wienholt established, in memory of her mother, a home for elderly, impoverished gentlewomen, and re-named the place The Hospice. Mrs Wienholt took a strong personal interest in the running of the home until handing over the place in mid-1927 to the Brisbane Theosophical Society, which continued to operate the home according to her wishes, for nearly 70 years. It was sold in 1995 to the Anglican Church, which has re-named it the Hanworth Home for the Aged. The place still accommodates only women.
A description of the house in 1930 suggested that the conversion to a hospice and nursing home in the early 20th century did not substantially alter the 1860s core. Most of the rooms in the long brick front wing remained intact, although one of the large bedrooms had been partitioned into two. A hallway ran from the front entrance [facing north/northeast] to the rear verandah. To the left were the bedrooms [some with marble mantelpieces]; to the right was the drawing room, and beyond that a large bow-windowed dining room, with doors opening onto side and rear verandahs. The drawing and dining rooms had back-to-back fireplaces, with marble mantelpieces. Side wings ran back from each end of the front section, creating a small U-shaped courtyard in which a grove of mandarine trees had been established. The east wing contained an attic room with gabled windows, which was accessed via a small lobby and staircase at the southern end of the wing. The grounds contained a number of mature pine trees of different varieties, and roses and creeping plants climbed the ornamental iron verandah posts.
The principal alterations appear to have been the construction, by 1918, of a timber wing off the west wing at the rear of the house - probably associated with the hospice conversion and possibly occupying the site of a former kitchen wing - and an inter-war two-storeyed brick addition at the south end of the east wing.
","criteria":"Hanworth, erected in 1864-65, is important in illustrating the early development of East Brisbane, and remains one of the suburb's earliest surviving houses. Like nearby Eskgrove [600187], Mowbray Park [600189], and Shafston House [600241], Hanworth, with its former frontage to Norman Creek and views of the Brisbane River, remains important surviving evidence of the fine riverine estates which lined the Humbug Reach of the Brisbane River in the mid-19th century.
|Hanworth, erected in 1864-65, is important in illustrating the early development of East Brisbane, and remains one of the suburb's earliest surviving houses.
|It also has potential to reveal further information about 1860s building techniques in Brisbane, and about the work of early Brisbane architect James Cowlishaw.
|The grounds have been reduced considerably, but the house survives as one of the most intact 1860s residences in Brisbane, and is an excellent example of its type. The simple U-shaped building with its hipped roof, concave verandah, cast-iron columns and red brick, retains the elegant symmetry and proportion of a Georgian-influence design. Internally the planning and proportions of the rooms are still evident and a substantial amount of original fabric remains, particularly joinery, which includes doors, windows, shutters, architraves and skirtings.
|The earliest section of Hanworth is important in exhibiting a number of aesthetic and architectural features. Its picturesque siting on a rise allowed for views up and down the Brisbane River and along Norman Creek.
|The place is important for its long and close association with George Poynter Heath, the first Portmaster of Queensland, who, during his long tenure of office [1862 to 1890], oversaw the establishment of many of Queensland's principal ports, and made the Queensland coast safer for navigation with the erection of an extensive network of lighthouses, lightships, small lights and markers. The place is significant also for its long association with the work of Mary Marguerite Wienholt and the Brisbane Theosophical Society in aged care for women.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15808,"place_ref":601033,"name":"Boggo Road Gaol Complex","alternate_name":"Boggo Road Gaol: No. 2 Division and Remnant No. 1 Division | State Prison for Women | No.2 Division Brisbane Correctional Centre","street_address":"150 Annerley Road","suburb":"DUTTON PARK","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-02-15","description":"Boggo Road Gaol Complex comprises a group of brick buildings and associated outdoor spaces, which formed the State Prison for Women (later called No. 2 Division), and remnants of the demolished No. 1 Division. The place occupies a large site on the rise of a gently sloping hill in Dutton Park, approximately 3km south of Brisbane central business district. Prominently fronting Boggo Road to the north, the site is bounded on its other sides by Annerley Road (west), Peter Doherty Street and Boggo Road Gaol Park (south), and a pedestrian thoroughfare and the ‘Ecosciences Precinct’ (east). The heritage boundary also includes part of Boggo Road Gaol Park, and the Annerley Road, Boggo Road, and Peter Doherty Street road reserves.
\nThe prison complex is largely secured by a tall Perimeter Wall, with primary access provided through a Gatehouse at the north. The Gatehouse accommodates the Entrance Vestibule and the Matron’s Quarters and Warders’ Quarters (accessed from the outer, non-secure side of the perimeter Wall). Standing to the eastern side of the Gatehouse is the Visitor Centre, added in 1987. Attached to the southwestern corner of the Perimeter Wall is the Sentry Cabin and Tower, overlooking the complex. Around the inside of the Perimeter Wall runs the Sterile Zone, an open track separating the prison’s inner buildings and yards from the Perimeter Wall. At the northern end of the complex is a central Quadrangle, flanked by two buildings: the single storey Receiving Room, Kitchen, and Laundry Building (to its east); and the two storey Hospital and Offices Building (to its west). At the southern end of the complex is the central Parade Ground, surrounded by three, three-storey cell block buildings, and fenced exercise yards.
\nRemnants of the demolished No. 1 Division are at the northeastern corner of the complex.
\nFeatures of Boggo Road Gaol Complex of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nState Prison for Women (No. 2 Division)
\nPerimeter Wall, Sentry Cabin and Tower, and Sterile Zone
\nThe tall, face brick Perimeter Wall (1903) is arranged in a rounded rectangular plan form. To its upper half, the width of the brickwork tapers in, and squared face brick pilasters are expressed at regular intervals. The wall is topped with a rounded concrete cap, and is set on a base of Brisbane tuff.
\nWrapping around the inner side of the Perimeter Wall is the Sterile Zone – a band of open space, used as a security measure to facilitate clear observation of the prison. On its inner side, the Sterile Zone is generally defined by recent metal chain-wire fences (formerly timber) and cell block walls. Two gable-roofed sentry boxes, formerly located within the Sterile Zone, are retained within the complex.
\nAttached to the southwest corner of the Perimeter Wall, a Sentry Cabin and Tower (1903, extended 1955) overlooks the complex. It has an octagonal plan-form, and comprises a face brick tower base, integrated with the Perimeter Wall, that supports a timber-framed cabin (observation booth) on top of the wall. Accessed by a spiral stair within the base, the cabin is flanked by walkways that follow the curve of and cantilever over the wall below. The walkways retain their 1955 roof addition and extension.
\nFeatures of the Perimeter Wall, Sentry Cabin and Tower, and Sterile Zone also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Perimeter Wall, Sentry Cabin and Tower, and Sterile Zone not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nGatehouse, including Entrance Vestibule, Matron’s Quarters, and Warders’ Quarters
\nMarking the formal entrance at the north end of the prison complex is the Gatehouse, a face brick building that accommodates the Entrance Vestibule, a double-height central open cartway space, the two-storey Matron’s Quarters on the east side of the Entrance Vestibule, and the two-storey Warders’ Quarters on its west
\nThe front (north) elevation is symmetrical, featuring a large gateway into the Entrance Vestibule with lunette over, and a central rendered parapet with the lettering ‘HM PRISON for –MEN’ (originally ‘HM PRISON for WOMEN’). To each side of the gateway are triangular parapeted end pavilions, accommodating the Matron’s Quarters and Warders’ Quarters with verandahs to their outer sides featuring brick end walls. The front elevation features a well-proportioned composition, with wide corner pilasters, string courses and headers of contrasting red-brown and cream coloured face bricks, expressed circular vents, arched wall openings, and a symmetrical window arrangement. The south elevation is unadorned, presenting as a uniform face brick wall, with windows, doors, and a central arched opening.
\nEntrance Vestibule
\nThe Entrance Vestibule is a rectangular, double-height room with a hip roof. It is the primary entrance into the gaol, separates the interior and exterior of the complex, and is secured by tall, iron gates at its north and south ends. A concrete step runs along each long side of the interior, and doors and windows open onto the space from the Matron’s Quarters and Warders’ Quarters (there is evidence that some openings have been altered). A small, arched opening located high up in the southern wall formerly housed the prison bell (bracket remains, but the bell has been removed).
\nMatron’s Quarters and Warders’ Quarters
\nThe Matron’s Quarters and Warders’ Quarters are two-storey, L-shaped parts of the Gatehouse, mirrored in plan, flanking the Entrance Vestibule. They have gable and hip main roofs and separate skillion verandah roofs.
\nThe ground floor of the Matron’s Quarters comprises a northern former sitting room, separated by a stair from a central non-contact visits room (former dining room), with a southern spiral stair (1985-87) and toilet (former visitor’s room); and waiting rooms and visitor toilets to the east (former kitchen, and servant’s rooms). The building’s first floor features two hallways – one running north-south and the other east-west – accessing three northern rooms (formerly one room), two central rooms (formerly one room), and three rooms, two bathrooms, and a spiral stair at the south (formerly two bedrooms and a bathroom).
\nThe ground floor of the Warders’ Quarters comprises a northern armoury (former office), central visitor waiting room (former dining room), and southern storerooms and stair; with a western room and toilet (former kitchen and store). A hall running north-south along the eastern side of the first floor accesses three rooms (aligned north-south) and a southern room adjacent the stair. From this southern room, a short hall runs west to the stair and a large western room. Two openings to the ground floor verandah have been filled in (openings remain discernible).
\nA free-standing, face brick, skillion-roofed former toilet and laundry block stands to the west of the Warders’ Quarters (a matching toilet block east of the Matron’s Quarters has been demolished).
\nFeatures of the Gatehouse, including the Entrance Vestibule, Matron’s Quarters, and Warders’ Quarters also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Gatehouse, including the Entrance Vestibule, Matron’s Quarters, and Warders’ Quarters not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nQuadrangle
\nThe Quadrangle is a rectangular, flat, open space entered from the Gatehouse at the north and Parade Ground at the south. It provides access to a single-storey, brick building (the Receiving Room, Kitchen, and Laundry Building) on its eastern side, and a two-storey, brick building (the Hospital and Offices Building) on its western side.
\nFeatures of the Quadrangle also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Quadrangle not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nReceiving Room, Kitchen, and Laundry Building (later a Bakery, Library, Recreation Room, Legal Visits Rooms, and Dormitory)
\nThe Receiving Room, Kitchen, and Laundry Building is a single-storey, brick building, located to the east of the Quadrangle. The earliest sections of the building form an L-shaped plan, on two sides of a rear (eastern) service yard, that has been built on with later additions (counselling rooms and store). The building’s western (front) elevation features a verandah, later enclosed.
\nInternally, the main wing of the building (running north-south along the Quadrangle) comprises a northern receiving room and bathroom, and a long, large southern room (originally two stores, a scullery, and kitchen). Wall nibs and changes in the brick walls of the southern room indicate its original layout and openings. The southern wing of the building (running east-west), is the former laundry (later a bakery).
\nThe building has undergone several changes to its fabric and layout since construction, including the enclosure of its western verandah for visitors’ boxes (legal visits rooms), removal of its eastern (rear) verandah (and replacement with counselling rooms), removal of its tall brick chimney, and the alteration of some interior partitions. A cream-coloured exterior face brick wall to the north side of the former laundry room indicates the former location of ovens (added for the room’s use a bakery, and subsequently removed).
\nFeatures of the Receiving Room, Kitchen, and Laundry Building also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Receiving Room, Kitchen, and Laundry Building not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nHospital and Offices Building (later Warders’ Recreation Area)
\nLocated to the west of the Quadrangle is the two-storey, brick Hospital and Offices Building. The building is rectangular in plan, with its long sides facing east and west. Its eastern (front) elevation features a verandah along the ground floor, and its western elevation originally opened onto two exercise yards (now Yard 7A, early openings have been enclosed).
\nInternally, the ground floor comprises a northern stair, a central room (formerly magistrate’s office), and three southern rooms (formerly two rooms: warders’ office and debtor’s office). A single-storey former dispensary room projects from the rear of the building, to the west of the stair. The first floor features a large southern room (former hospital ward), with a former warders’ room and bathroom to its north accessed by an eastern hall.
\nSome of the building fabric has been replaced following a fire in 1996 (particularly to the celling of the large southern room and former warders’ room to the first floor).
\nFeatures of the Hospital and Offices Building also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Hospital and Offices Building not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nParade Ground and Cartway
\nThe Parade Ground is a flat, open space at the centre of the prison complex, entered via the Quadrangle at its north. Six sided, the perimeter of the Parade Ground is formed by the front elevations of three Cell Blocks, and their surrounding fenced Exercise Yards. A shelter shed stands at its centre, which incorporates part of an original lamp post.
\nThe Cartway is a narrow lane that runs eastwards from the Parade Ground, between the Receiving Room, Kitchen, and Laundry Building and Cell Block D, to the Sterile Zone.
\nFeatures of the Parade Ground and Cartway also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Parade Ground and Cartway not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nCell Blocks
\nThree Cell Blocks (Cell Blocks D, E, and F) are positioned in a radiating plan around the central Parade Ground and are separated by fenced Exercise Yards. The three-storey face brick buildings are rectangular in plan form, with their short (front) side facing toward the Parade Ground (Cell Block D west; Cell Block E northwest; and Cell Block F northeast). Blocks E and F largely feature the same detailing, while Block D differs somewhat due to its 1930 conversion from a workshop block.
\nThe interiors of the Cell Blocks contain a full-height central gallery, connecting 42 separate cells. The upper-level walkways running the perimeter of and through the central galleries are constructed of metal (iron) to Block E and F, and those to Block D, are of concrete. Stairs at the rear end of the galleries provide access to each floor.
\nEach cell comprises a small, rectangular space with a curved ceiling; concrete floor; heavy metal door; and an un-glazed, barred window opening. Many cells feature graffiti that dates from the later period of the prison’s use.
\nFeatures of the Cell Blocks also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Cell Blocks not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nExercise Yards
\nNine Exercise Yards (originally ten yards) are located between and adjacent to the three cell blocks and the Hospital and Offices Building, including two small yards to the rear of Cell Block E and Cell Block F. The yards are unroofed spaces that are secured by brick walls and metal wire fences (originally timber fences). Apart from the yards directly behind Cell Block E and Cell Block F, each yard features a skillion-roofed toilet block, and a metal-framed shelter shed dating to the later period of the prison’s operation. The concrete slab ground surfaces are built up over earlier layers, and marks in the concrete indicate the former location of earlier shelter sheds (now removed).
\nA sanitary yard to the rear (southwest) of Cell Block F retains features related to the washing and drying of sanitary tubs/buckets. It includes two timber-framed shelter sheds: a southwest shelter shed that features a concrete and a copper tub, brick piers (formerly supporting a hot water system and boiler), and a circular hole in the roof (indicating the former location of a flue); and a former shower block that is parallel and adjacent to the rear of Cell Block F (shower heads, water tank, and most plumbing has been removed). A sign painted on the yard’s eastern concrete block wall describes the ‘Procedure for washing sanitary tubs’.
\nThe yard to the rear of Cell Block E was originally un-fenced and was later converted for use as a plumbers’ shop (roofed), and a vulnerable persons’ exercise yard. It is only accessible via the Sterile Zone.
\nFeatures of the Exercise Yards also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Exercise Yards not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nRemnants of No. 1 Division
\nLocated in the northeastern corner of the complex are the Remnants of No. 1 Division, comprising a Watchtower and Detention Units Block.
\nWatchtower (c1969-78)
\nThe concrete Watchtower is approximately four storeys in height, and comprises a stairwell in its lower floors (constructed as part of No. 1 Division’s Hospital and Administration Block, c1969-72), which leads up to a later, skillion-roofed room (c1975-8). From this room, an overhead, open-sided concrete walkway (c1975-8) runs south to the roof of the Detention Units Block.
\nDetention Units Block (1974, ground floor cells 1988)
\nThe Detention Units Block is a narrow, three-storey concrete structure that is a remnant of the western end of the former Workshops and Services Building (1974). It has been substantially demolished and comprises: a narrow edge of a former basement room (originally part of a printing room, later a large gymnasium); remnants of a row of ground floor detention cells and their individual cell courtyards (one cell and its courtyard is retained whole; others retain the courtyard and only nibs of the cell walls), a western corridor (converted from a laundry in 1988), and a warder’s office in the northwest corner; and remnants of a row of first floor detention cells (comprising only nib walls of the former cells).
\nFeatures of the Remnants of No. 1 Division also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Remnants of No. 1 Division not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nVisitor Centre (1987)
\nThe Visitor Centre is a large building at the northeastern corner of the complex, to the eastern side of the Gatehouse that provided a secure space for prisoner contact visits (generally with family and friends). Its architectural design facilitated a more relaxed and family-friendly atmosphere than the prison proper, through the use of natural light, artificial turf, the former provision of a playground, and murals.
\nThe interior comprises a large contact visits room accessed from the west, with separate access for prisoners via a prisoner body search room and warders’ office at its southwest corner. The contact visits room is partially roofed and features a naturally-lit courtyard in the northwest corner, secured with a metal-framed cage-wire roof. Landscape murals (titled ‘A Sense of Freedom’, ‘A Lone’, and ‘Tranquility’ [sic]), painted by a former prisoner, Ray Wallace, are to the west, north, and east walls of the contact visits room, and are dated 1988.
\nFeatures of the Visitor Centre also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Visitor Centre not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nSetting
\nThe complex is highly prominent in its streetscape due to its striking front elevation, tall Perimeter Wall, surrounding open space, and distinctive unified material palette that largely comprises red-brown and cream coloured face brick and corrugated metal.
\nOpen spaces to all sides provide a buffer from the public domain, and facilitate views to the complex, particularly from Annerley Road to the west, Boggo Road to the north, and Peter Doherty Street to the south, and allows the appreciation of the complex in the context of the city. The slope of the ground plane up to the complex from the surrounding roads emphasises the imposing presence of the former prison.
\nA stone retaining wall fronting the corner of Annerley and Boggo roads (east of the non-significant ‘Boggo Road Urban Village’ sign) is a remnant of a larger 1933-34 landscaping scheme.
\nThe former locations of timber picket fences to the north of the complex are no longer discernible.
\nFeatures of the Setting also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Setting not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nBoggo Road Gaol Complex, comprising the former State Prison for Women (1903, and later called the No. 2 Division) and remnants from the demolished No. 1 Division (c1972-88), operated as Brisbane’s main prison during most of the 20th century. The site had served as a prison from 1883, when the men’s prison was opened. In 1903, the five buildings of the women’s prison were opened in their own enclave adjacent to the men’s. The women’s prison was designed and constructed to enable the operation of the ‘separate system’, a penological philosophy developed in the 19th century. In 1921, the women’s prison was converted to the No. 2 Division for men. It remained operational through the 20th century, while the 1883 prison (No. 1 Division) was demolished and replaced in the 1960s-70s, to reflect new legislation, design philosophies, and to overcome chronic overcrowding problems. After high-profile unrest in the 1980s and the condemnation of No. 2 Division (for not meeting modern prison and basic human rights standards), both No. 1 and No. 2 Divisions were closed by the early 1990s. No. 1 Division was largely demolished in 1995-6, retaining only remnants attached to the former No. 2 Division, which was retained intact.
\nQueensland’s gaol system
\nIncarceration developed as the primary form of punishment in Europe and America for those who transgressed the law from the late 17th century. Initially acting as temporary holding places for wrongdoers, prisons (known as gaols until 1890[1]) were later constructed to hold prisoners for longer terms, as other forms of punishment (particularly corporal) fell out of favour. The concept was an inherent component of European settlement of Australia, which began in 1788 with the establishment of a large open-air penal establishment for convicts shipped from England. Places of secondary punishment were established for reoffending convicts around the continent. This included the Moreton Bay Penal Colony, opened in 1825 (removed from Redcliffe 1824) at Meanjin, part of the land of the Yuggera and Turrbal people. While largely open-air, prisoners’ barracks and a Female Factory were built to accommodate and control convicts.[2]
\nFollowing free settlement for Europeans in Meanjin (Brisbane) from 1842, a prison was established at the former Female Factory in Queen Street (built 1829, converted and reopened 1849, closed 1860). Shortly after the separation of Queensland from the colony of New South Wales, a new purpose-built gaol was constructed on Petrie Terrace in 1860.[3] This was almost immediately overcrowded, and in 1866 a half-built quarantine station on St Helena Island was converted into a penal establishment to accommodate the overflow.[4] In 1880, with both prisons overpopulated, a site for a new Brisbane gaol was selected on Boggo Road in South Brisbane (now Dutton Park). The new prison – holding male prisoners on short-term sentences – was constructed and opened in 1883. Gaols were also built throughout the 19th century at a number of Queensland’s major towns to hold prisoners on short sentences, supplemented by police lock-ups at smaller towns.[5]
\nQueensland’s gaols were an integral part of a network of institutions that was established across the colony to receive and intern those who were perceived to have deviated from standard behaviour. Nineteenth and early 20th century solutions were to accommodate, control, and discipline such people away from society at a range of institutions, including prisons, mental hospitals, lazarets, asylums and Aboriginal ‘mission stations’. While some of these institutions were operated by charitable organisations, often with benevolent intentions, they rarely provided treatment, opportunities for reform, or a pathway for the incarcerated to leave the institution and rejoin accepted society. Queensland’s extant 19th century institutions include: mental hospitals at Wolston Park (QHR 600340), Ipswich (Challinor Centre, QHR 601821), and Toowoomba (Baillie Henderson, QHR 601161); the Peel Island lazaret (QHR 601901); Ward 13, Dunwich Benevolent Asylum (QHR 650265); the privately-operated Holy Cross Laundry (QHR 600359); and the Normanton Gaol (QHR 601501). None of Queensland’s 19th century prison complexes survive intact, with only ruins of the St Helena prison (within Saint Helena Island, QHR 600315) and some structures of the 1893 Townsville prison (Stewart’s Creek Gaol, QHR 601250) remaining.[6]
\nQueensland’s gaols operated on the ‘association’ system, allowing prisoners to intermingle freely in communal dormitories, workspaces, and yards. While 19th century theories considered criminality to be inherent and hereditary (thus to an extent inevitable),[7] concern was expressed that unconvicted (and potentially innocent) remand prisoners and first-time offenders would be corrupted into a life of crime by recidivists. In 1868 regulations were introduced to classify prisoners by nature of offence (felonies, misdemeanours, those awaiting trial, ‘lunatics’, and debtors), and keep them separate, ‘so far as the construction of the building and the necessities of the works and trades will admit’.[8] In Brisbane, long-term offenders were held at St Helena, with shorter term and remand prisoners at the Brisbane Gaol.[9]
\nWomen were also imprisoned separately from men. Queensland’s female prisoners were mostly convicted for offences such as drunkenness and prostitution. They were convicted in smaller numbers than males, but were considered more incorrigible and prone to recidivism.[10] From 1860 they were imprisoned in a wing of the Brisbane (Petrie Terrace) gaol, but, following complaints about the unsuitability of the conditions for female prisoners, the women were transferred to the former Toowoomba Court House (QHR 601315), converted to a gaol in 1870. A second female prison operated at the Fortitude Valley Police Gaol for short sentences, those on remand, or those awaiting transfer to Toowoomba.[11]
\nBy the 1880s, the subpar conditions at Queensland’s gaols were gaining public attention. All were overcrowded; prisoners’ living conditions were poor; and adherence to the strictest forms of prison philosophy was not obeyed.[12] Alleged abuses in discipline triggered a Parliamentary Inquiry into the management of the colony’s gaols in 1887. The inquiry found conditions at most of the gaols inadequate, and the female prison at Toowoomba was particularly condemned. Queensland’s comparatively high proportion of female prisoners was noted, which, along with the associated quarters, made the classification and separation of female prisoners impossible. This allowed career criminals to freely associate with – and corrupt – young first-time offenders, evidence of which the inquiry heard with concern.[13] Accordingly, the establishment of a new prison for women was recommended.[14]
\nOn 25 November 1890 the first Queensland Prisons Act was assented to, aiming to consolidate and amend the law relating to gaols, prisons, houses of correction, and penal establishments. This Act created a prisons department under the control of the Comptroller-General and clarified the distinction between a Police Gaol, being a specially proclaimed lock up or watch house, and a prison. The nomenclature of ‘prison’ was also adopted in place of ‘gaol’.[15]
\nRegulations were passed under the new Act in 1892, requiring the implementation of separate treatment for prisoners. Separate treatment, or the 'separate system', was born out of 19th century British penal philosophies espoused by prison reformers,[16] influenced by religious penitence theories, and adopted in a model prison at London’s Pentonville Prison (1842). The strictest form of separate treatment required a prisoner to be held in a cell in isolation, where they would eat, exercise, and work, and have no contact with other prisoners. This was occasionally modified to the ‘silent system’, in which prisoners could work together in a workroom but could not communicate with one another (more commonly used in America), or a combined classification and separation system, which grouped prisoners by type of crime, length of sentence or number of reoffences, and allowed prisoners within the class to communicate only with one another. As well as encouraging penitence by leaving prisoners alone with their thoughts, the separate system sought to avoid the creation of a prisoner underclass. Through separation, theoretically, a first-time prisoner could not be tainted by hardened criminals, enticing them into a life of crime, or exchanging ideas of how to better commit crimes.[17]
\nThe 1892 regulations classified Queensland’s prisoners into eight classes, from reoffenders sentenced with or without hard labour, to first-timers sentenced with or without labour, to debtors and lunatics. All prisoners were required to be held in separate cells for at least the first three months of their sentence, then allowed only to associate with others within their class. Those with prison terms of less than 12 months would be required to spend the entire sentence under separate treatment. The classification applied both to women and men.[18]
\nState Prison for Women (1903-1921)
\nConstruction of new prisons implementing the separate system did not immediately follow, delayed by an economic depression which struck in the early 1890s. Simultaneously, conviction rates and prison admissions climbed through the late 1880s and early 1890s, further stressing accommodation at the existing prisons.[19] In 1893, a new prison at Stewart’s Creek in Townsville was opened, operating as the main prison for north Queensland and relieving some of the burden on Brisbane’s prison population.[20] Conditions in the women’s prisons did not substantially improve,[21] however, and residents of both Toowoomba and Fortitude Valley continued to complain about the presence of the prisons in their neighbourhoods.[22] In annual reports for 1895 and 1897, the Comptroller-General of Prisons recommended the construction of a new female prison on the Boggo Road reserve to replace the ‘old and ill-constructed’ Toowoomba prison, and ‘unsuitable and ill-situated’ Fortitude Valley gaol.[23] Designs for a new State Prison for Women were finally prepared between 1898 and 1901.[24] The prison would be the first designed to fully implement the separate system in Queensland.[25]
\nThe 82-cell[26] State Prison for Women was designed by the Department of Public Works (DPW), during an era when it was producing many high-quality public buildings. Between the 1870s and early 1900s the DPW, operating from Brisbane to design government buildings across Queensland, produced a remarkable and substantial body of high-quality civic buildings that were ‘equal to any in the country’, including customs houses, post offices, courthouses, police stations, and schools. By 1899 the DPW was a large team of 20 draftsmen, one junior draftsman, and acclaimed Queensland architects Thomas Pye, John Smith Murdoch, and George David Payne.[27] That year the DPW reported ‘one of the busiest periods in its history’, with plans being prepared for:
\nthe completion of the Treasury Buildings; for new Lands and Survey offices, Brisbane; conversion of the Museum, in William Street, Brisbane, into Public Library; National Art Gallery in the Botanical Gardens, Brisbane; new Gaol for Female Prisoners, Boggo Road, South Brisbane; new Custom House at Townsville; new Court House at Roma; new Gaol at Roma; new Lock Hospital, Brisbane; Reformatory Buildings for boys, at Westbrook; new Police Buildings at Warwick and Bundaberg; additional wards at the Toowoomba Asylum; additions to the Goodna Asylum; additional buildings at the Hospital for Consumptives at Dalby; new Post and Telegraph Offices at Ipswich; extensive alterations to the Post and Telegraph Offices at Toowoomba and Townsville; [and] State School at New Farm.[28]
\nThe designer of the State Prison for Women is not known, but Murdoch, Pye, and William Patrick Hendry appear to have been involved in its design, supervision, and construction.[29] Tenders for the work were called in June 1901, and the contract was awarded to A Lind and Son, at a price of £18,795.[30] Male prisoners cleared and levelled the site in 1899, and construction of the prison began in October 1901.[31]
\nThe construction of a separate and purpose-built prison complex for female prisoners was unusual. ‘Female factories’ (women-only prison buildings) had been constructed at penal settlements around what is now Australia, purpose-built out of necessity.[32] In the colonial period, however, most women’s prisons operated within men’s prisons, both physically and administratively,[33] and usually comprised a single wing (reflecting both the lower number of women convicted, and the lower priority afforded them).[34] For Queensland’s new State Prison for Women, the large Boggo Road site offered the opportunity not only to fully implement ‘modern principles’ of prison design, and isolate male from female prisoners (which had proved difficult at other Queensland prisons[35]), but also to close the much-decried Fortitude Valley and Toowoomba gaols.[36]
\nThe State Prison for Women was constructed east of the men’s prison on the Boggo Road gaol reserve. Set back from Annerley Road on elevated ground, it was surrounded by open space. The entrance drive branched off the men’s prison entrance at the north of the complex. The prison itself covered an area of 240ft by 220ft (73 by 67m), encircled by a 20ft (6m) high brick perimeter wall. Within the wall, five separate buildings were laid out in a half-radial design, from a central (pentagonal) parade ground. This layout, allowing for centralised supervision, had also been implemented at Stewart’s Creek and Rockhampton prisons.[37]
\nAccess to the prison was via immense gates into the gatehouse, a building at the front of the complex which contained a large entrance vestibule, matron’s quarters and warders’ quarters (accessed from outside the prison), offices, a visitors’ room, and the prison bell. Passing through this building, a second pair of gates opened onto a quadrangle, with a two-storey building to the west (containing magistrate’s room, dispensary, warders’ room, debtors’ room, and hospital); and a single-storey building to its east (containing receiving room, kitchen, and laundry. From the quadrangle, a gate set into a ‘formidable looking’[38] iron palisade fence led to the parade ground,[39] an open space around which were three, externally-identical, three-storey buildings: one contained prisoner workrooms (later converted into cells and called Cell Block D); and two were cell blocks (later called Cell Block E and F), each with 41 single cells, a padded cell and darkened punishment cell, a central hall, iron staircase and iron galleries.[40] The three buildings were separated by six exercise yards (a sufficient number of yards to facilitate prisoner classification), and behind the hospital and office building were two further yards: a debtors’ yard; and a yard containing a photographic studio. Atop the southwestern corner of the perimeter wall was a sentry cabin reached by a tower built into the wall. It included a surveillance catwalk and overlooked the prison complex. Running along the inside of the perimeter wall was an open, 12ft (3.5m) wide track called the ‘sterile zone’, delineated from the inner prison buildings and yards by a 10-foot (3m) high timber fence.[41]
\nAll buildings within the complex were of face brick with corrugated iron roofs (supplied from James Campbell and Sons’ Albion brickworks), and featured buff brick bands and quoins and cement dressings, matching the men’s prison. Iron fittings (doors, gates, fences, columns, window frames, and galleries) were supplied by Master Sargent and Co., Britannia Ironworks, and gravel for the ground surfaces was sourced from the O’Connell Town and Bundamba quarries. Specifications provided for the prison had detailed the high quality of materials and workmanship required, with particular attention to the public-facing sections of the complex.[42]
\nIn 1903, the State Prison for Women was completed in June,[43] it was proclaimed on 30 September, and female prisoners were transferred there from Toowoomba and Fortitude Valley in October.[44] Female journalists visited the prison shortly after its opening and were given guided tours by the prison superintendent.[45] They drew attention to aspects of the prison intended to reform its inmates, including the enforcement of separation during the initial incarceration period; and keeping first-time offenders from recidivists.[46] They also noted the cleanliness of the prison, the rigid discipline, and the ‘dreary monotony’.[47]
\nDaily routine inside the prison was highly regimented, including parade and inspection times, meal times, and work, both to keep the prisoners occupied and to contribute to the cost of running the prison. Work for female prisoners included laundry washing, cooking and kitchen duties, and sewing work for other government institutions. In line with the ideals of separate treatment, those at the start of their incarceration ate, worked, and slept in their individual cells, allowing them ample time for the perceived reforming influence of quiet reflection and industry.[48] The cells had limited furnishings and no toilet or bathing facilities; instead, sanitary tubs were provided, to be emptied daily at the sanitary yard, behind the cell block under the watchtower.[49] Washing facilities were installed in the shelter sheds in each yard, though only cold water was provided.
\nFew changes were made to the prison in the following 18 years. In 1904, an ordinary cell in Cell Block F was converted into a ‘condemned’ cell to accommodate women sentenced to death.[50] A sewerage system was installed in 1911 to the staff quarters only;[51] and electric light was installed throughout the complex in 1912.[52] By 1916, the quadrangle and parade ground were planted with lawns, shrubs, and small trees.[53]
\nNo. 2 Division (1921-1974)
\nThe daily average number of female prisoners incarcerated in the State Prison for Women in 1903 and 1904 was 40. Accommodation had been provided for more than twice as many prisoners as were admitted, allowing the separate system practices to be retained. Over the next 20 years, conviction rates for women fell, and by 1920 the prison, with a daily average of 12 female inmates, was far from overcrowded.[54] On the other hand, male accommodation was overtaxed, due in part to the closure of the Cooktown prison for economic reasons and the conversion of the St Helena prison to a farm reformatory, which accommodated smaller numbers of prisoners.[55] In August 1921, the proclamation of the State Prison for Women as being a female only prison was rescinded.[56] The prison was renamed No. 2 Division, the women prisoners were moved out, and around 78 long-sentenced male prisoners were moved in.[57] The change was reflected on the gatehouse by the covering of the ‘WO’ in ‘WOMEN’S PRISON’; the workshop block and cell blocks were renamed blocks D, E, and F; and mesh was added to the workshop block. Boggo Road, comprising the No. 1 Division (men’s 1883 buildings) and No. 2 Division (former women’s prison), became officially known as His Majesty’s Prison Brisbane, or the Brisbane Prison, though its unofficial name of Boggo Road continued in use.[58]
\nIn the late 1920s, the remaining prisoners from the St Helena prison farm were transferred toBoggo Roadas the island was considered too costly and isolated to maintain.[59] To provide additional accommodation and occupation at Boggo Road, a new workshop block was constructed east of No. 2 Division in 1929, on the eastern side of the perimeter wall, connected through the wall via new openingsinto No. 2 Division.[60] The old women's workshop block was converted to a cell block (Cell Block D) in 1930, accommodating the St Helena prisoners.[61] Working gardens to the south and east, outside the perimeter wall of No. 2 Division, also occupied the prisoners.[62]
\nAs the prison network was reformed in the 1920s, attempts were also made to improve prisoner rehabilitation at Boggo Road.[63] Although the daily routine remained highly regimented, discipline was relaxed in the months leading up to a prisoner’s discharge,[64] and skills training was introduced to fit prisoners for life after imprisonment.[65] The prisoners’ work schedules were offset by occasional entertainments (including moving pictures and band concerts[66]). Radio loudspeakers were installed in the cell blocks, with educational programmes broadcast from the prison wireless set in the evenings, improved educational opportunities were provided, and recreation time in the yards was increased to approximately three hours each day.[67] By 1937, Queensland’s imprisonment rate was the lowest in Australia.[68]
\nApart from the conversion of the workshop block, only small changes were made to No. 2 Division between the 1920s and 1940s. The dispensary attached to the rear of the hospital and offices building was converted to a dental surgery, and bars were added on the external side of the windows in cell blocks E and F. The exercise yards, which had been asphalted in 1923, were concreted in 1938; the quadrangle and parade ground paths were also concreted in 1938. The prisoner receiving room, no longer needed, was converted into a further scullery and then a library. The laundry and ironing room, also superfluous, were converted to a bakery in 1945, while the debtors’ yard and photography studio were converted to saddlers’ and paint shops. The open forecourt in front (north) of the complex was landscaped by prisoner labour in 1933-34.[69] Increased security measures were installed after prisoner Arthur ‘Slim’ Halliday effected two escapes from the prison. This included adding punishment cells to Yard 5, and a reinforced door with three padlocks and a double-welded bed to Halliday’s cell (cell 9 in cell block D). Plans to extend the sentry cabin’s observation catwalk were drawn in 1947, though only implemented in 1955 due to material shortages.[70]
\nAs Queensland’s population increased after World War II, its prison population also grew. Between 1949 and 1954 the daily average of incarcerated prisoners in Queensland climbed from 392 to 608.[71] The majority of these were held in Boggo Road.[72] A record number of 300 prisoners was reported there in 1953; increasing to 588 by 1959. With accommodation stretched beyond capacity, condemned buildings were repurposed to hold prisoners, while others were sent to Townsville (maximum security) or prison farms (minimum security) to try to reduce numbers at Boggo Road. The punishment cells in cell blocks E and F were divided into two, creating additional accommodation. Further security was also added to the No. 2 Division buildings, including steel grilles in the staff quarters, safety mesh in the cell block galleries, a shelter shed in the centre of the parade ground, and a prefabricated armed post on the wall of the hospital and offices building overlooking the parade ground.[73]
\nA new Prisons Act was passed in 1958, attempting to implement changing philosophical approaches to incarceration and the separate system. To accommodate these changes and attempt to resolve the chronic overcrowding problem, a new ‘farm prison’ was opened at Wacol, eventually becoming a high security prison. New penalties, including parole, weekend detention, work release, and later community service, were also introduced, reducing the numbers requiring accommodation in Queensland’s prisons. While admissions fell in the early 1960s, they began to climb again in the late 1960s. An increasing number of civil liberties protestors were imprisoned in Boggo Road for refusing to pay fines on principle, and the prison became the centre of vigils held by their families and supporters. On their release, protestors publicised the poor conditions and treatment they had experienced in the prison. Prison officers also began publicly objecting to their working conditions, particularly following the death of an officer on duty in 1966.[74]
\nBetween 1966 and 1978, the 1883 No. 1 Division buildings (including the 1929 workshop serving both divisions) were demolished and gradually replaced with more modern prison accommodation, administration, hospital, and workshop buildings, constructed across the following decade. This new complex was built attached to No. 2 Division’s eastern perimeter wall.[75]
\nThe prisoner accommodation in the new No. 1 Division buildings provided a stark contrast to the No. 2 Division cells. The No. 1 Division cells included a bed, desk, running water, and toilet. They were laid out to a hollow square design, facing an internal courtyard, and received more natural light and ventilation than their early 20th century counterparts.[76]
\nSmall improvements were made in No. 2 Division, including the construction of contact visitation rooms on the verandah of the receiving room, kitchen, and laundry building; the conversion of the kitchen into a television room; the replacement of the timber fences in the exercise yards by mesh security fences; and the installation of televisions in boxes in the exercise yards. The obsolete hospital ward was converted to an officers’ mess. These changes, however, did not rectify the incompatibility of No. 2 Division’s separate system infrastructure with 20th century philosophies of rehabilitation, treatment, and reform. Attempting modern treatment in older prisons like No. 2 Division was either too liberal, leading to increased successful escapes, or too hard, resulting in a lack of essential service provision and resentment from both staff and prisoners.[77]
\nRemand and Maximum Security (1974-1989)
\nBy the 1970s, overcrowding in Boggo Road was rife. Its population of 650 exceeded the prison’s 500-man capacity, and up to three men were accommodated in a single cell.[78] No. 2 Division had been proposed for demolition and replacement, but in 1972, the Comptroller-General reported that its buildings would have to be retained ‘for some years’ in order to accommodate the large number of prisoners.[79] By 1973, No. 2 Division, formerly the ‘industrial section’, housed mainly ‘short-sentence and unemployable prisoners with little work.’[80]
\nUnrest amongst prisoners and prison officers grew in the 1970s, sparked by a range of factors including overcrowding, disruptions brought about by the rebuilding program, lack of prisoner occupation, the introduction of drugs into the prison, and poor working conditions. In January 1971, a riot was reported to have caused $15,000 worth of damage. Prison officers began striking to protest poor working conditions.[81] The imprisonment of two men convicted for mass murder by firebombing Brisbane’s Whiskey-au-Go-Go nightclub brought more notoriety to the prison. Shortcomings in security became evident following a number of breakouts[82] and the admission of four prisoners to hospital for swallowing razors and sharp objects. In May 1974, a three-day warders’ strike against the dismissal of a Wacol officer followed a prison riot, leaving prisoners locked in their damaged and burned cells for more than 50 hours.[83] Some judges refused to send young offenders into Boggo Road to be ‘contaminated’ by the hardened criminals;[84] conversely, the Minister for Welfare and Services reported that young offenders had to be separated from older prisoners for the protection of the latter, so ‘professional in their depredations’ were the young ‘vicious thugs’.[85]
\nFollowing the escape of two prisoners in 1973, an inquiry was held into the conditions of the Queensland Prison system (the Bredhauer inquiry), which recommended changes to Boggo Road. No. 2 Division was recommended to become a maximum-security prison, while No. 1 Division was to be used for medium and low security, remand, and holding cells. Security infrastructure in No. 2 Division was again increased, with additional mesh screening built atop the walls between the exercise yards and the parade ground. The yard shelters were replaced, and a new secure yard (Yard 1A) was added behind cell block E for particular classes of prisoners.[86] An electric shop was also built in the open yard behind the former receiving room.[87] Following breakouts and disturbances at the remand section in No. 1 Division, No. 2 Division was converted to a remand section in 1976.[88]
\nUnrest continued in the late 1970s and 1980s. A dog squad was introduced to Boggo Road in 1977 to control prison outbreaks. In 1979 more political protestors were jailed, including a federal member of parliament objecting to Queensland’s anti-march laws.[89] Prison officers held a week-long strike in 1982. In November 1983, prisoners held a hunger strike to protest the poor prison conditions, and this escalated into a two-day riot, allegedly followed by a mass bashing of prisoners.[90] No. 2 Division was quickly converted to the maximum-security section for Boggo Road, and barbed and razor wire was added atop all structures in the division.[91]
\nFollowing the 1983 incident, an investigation into prison conditions was held (the Longland inquiry), and a report on Queensland’s prison accommodation requirements prepared. At the same time, Boggo Road’s visitor facilities were altered.[92] A block of ten ‘remand interview rooms’ was constructed in the formerly open yard behind the former kitchen.[93] The matron’s quarters was altered to add non-contact visiting booths in its ground floor, and new partitions to form interview rooms in its first floor. In 1985-86, a new Visitor Centre was built adjacent to the former matron’s quarters, serving both divisions.[94] It officially opened in April 1987. In 1988, Ray Wallace, an artist then incarcerated at Boggo Road, painted three murals on the interior walls of the Visitor Centre, as well as two murals on the interior walls of the television room (former kitchen).[95]
\nAnother riot occurred in December 1986. Five hundred prisoners participated, setting fires to blankets, mattresses, and parts of the prison; spray painting walls; and climbing onto the roof to draw public attention to the poor conditions. This attracted high-profile public attention and criticism of the prison by prison research organisations, the Queensland Civil Liberties Council, and other members of the public. A protest outside the prison was held in support, resulting in numerous arrests. In 1987, after discovering a plot for prisoners to seize control of the prison, prison authorities reopened No. 1 Division’s ‘Black Hole’, an underground cell without windows or ventilation. Human Rights Commission officials inspected the cell and condemned the move as inhumane. The cell was closed in December. The laundry in the No. 1 Division workshop building was partially reconfigured to accommodate a six-cell detention block, with a new section built encroaching into the No. 2 Division sterile zone. It officially opened in April 1988.[96]
\nIn March 1988, after further disturbances at Boggo Road, four prisoners climbed onto the roof of No. 2 Division and remained there for one week. They communicated their complaints about substandard conditions inside the prison to the media and supporters surrounding the walls. In April, around 350 No. 2 Division officers went on strike, protesting the prison’s inadequate security measures.[97]
\nThese final years of unrest precipitated the establishment of the Commission of Review into Corrective Services in Queensland (the Kennedy Report, 1988).[98] By this time, the prison was seen as a symbol of all that was inadequate and deficient with the Queensland prison system. No. 2 Division, with its poor conditions and lack of sanitation, was particularly criticised. The Human Rights Commission submitted that the division failed to meet internationally recognised minimum standards for prisoners, lacking essential facilities like running water and ready access to fresh water; and reports of prisoner treatment were inconsistent with human rights standards.[99]
\nThe review found the prison ‘a blot on the urban landscape’ which was ‘hopelessly inadequate to provide corrective services’.[100] The conditions of No. 2 Division were considered so lacking that a commitment to demolish them was sought in the interim report; the final report recommended the demolition of the entire Boggo Road Gaol complex.[101] With the threat of closure and demolition, prisoners’ graffiti was allowed to remain on the cell walls and shelter yard structures.[102]
\nThe Boggo Road prison was renamed the Brisbane Correction Centre, bringing the terminology in line with late 20th century prison ideology, but the new name was short-lived. In the wake of the Kennedy and Fitzgerald inquiries, No. 2 Division was decommissioned in January 1989 and No. 1 Division closed in July 1992. Prisoners were transferred to other Queensland prisons. No. 1 Division was demolished in 1996, except for two small sections attached to the No. 2 Division’s eastern perimeter wall, which remained as remnants awaiting demolition.[103]
\nDescribed as a ‘blight on the community’,[104] Boggo Road’s No. 2 Division had been slated for demolition in the early 1990s. However, its heritage significance was recognised by the community who protested its demolition, and it, and the remnants of No. 1 Division, were retained. Management of No. 2 Division was transferred to a museum group comprised of former prison officers, who led historic tours and oversaw maintenance. Rooms in the gatehouse’s staff quarters, hospital and offices building, and receiving room, kitchen, and laundry building were refurbished and leased to community legal groups and additional museum collections. A range of tourism activities were held at the site into the early 21st century, including gaol tours, ghost tours, and overnight stays.[105] In 2009, Boggo Road Gaol Complex was incorporated into a planned ‘Boggo Road Urban Village’, covering a 9.5ha site. As part of this redevelopment, a large modern science research building, the Ecosciences Precinct, was completed in 2011, built on the location of the former No. 1 Division. Boggo Road Gaol Complex remained in use for tours until March 2022. In 2023, parts of the remnants of No. 1 Division were demolished to make way for further redevelopment of the site east of the perimeter wall.
\nThroughout its operation as a prison, Boggo Road Gaol had remained a focus of curiosity to those outside its walls. Reports of the buildings, daily life in the prison, escapes and escape attempts, biographies of high-profile prisoners, and ex-prisoners’ complaints about poor conditions were published in Queensland newspapers during the first half of the 20th century, morphing into reports on the deteriorating building conditions, unrest, and riots in the second half.[106] Former inmates and employees published biographies centred on their time in the prison, and Boggo Road Gaol historical interest and advocacy groups were formed.[107]
","criteria":"Boggo Road Gaol Complex, comprising the former State Prison for Women (later No. 2 Division, 1903) and remnants of No. 1 Division (opened 1883, rebuilt 1960s-1980s), is important in demonstrating the evolution of prison design and policy in Queensland.
\nThe former State Prison for Women (No. 2 Division) is important as Queensland’s first women’s prison complex and the only women’s prison designed to incorporate the ‘separate system’ in Queensland.
\nAs one of only three gaol complexes designed on the ‘separate system’ in Queensland, No. 2 Division is a rare and exceptional example of 19th century penological principles. Designed as a complex of buildings to punish and rehabilitate its prisoners through separation, its built and plan form, fabric, and layout reflect the conditions under which prisoners were incarcerated. Converted to a male prison in 1921, the complex continued to serve as part of Queensland’s most populous prison until its closure in 1989.
\nThe remnants of No. 1 Division (watchtower incorporating staircase of former hospital building (c.1969-72) and overhead walkway (c.1975-78); section of former workshop building (c.1974); and detention cells (1988)); and the Visitors Centre (1987) are important in demonstrating the evolution in prisoner accommodation and prison facilities in the latter part of the 20th century. The remnants of No. 1 Division are the only part of that complex to remain and as such they are reflective of the use of the much larger site as a gaol from 1883 and demonstrate its continuity of use for over 100 years.
\nFeatures added to the gaol complex during the 1970s and 1980s – including chain-wire and barbed-wire fences and roofs in the exercise yards (c.1970-1984), prisoners’ graffiti (c.1970s-1992), and detention cells (1988) – are important in demonstrating both the deteriorating conditions and the increasing political unrest and civil rights activism associated with the gaol. The gaol complex achieved notoriety for the inadequate conditions and treatment of those inside its walls, and was a focus for protests by prisoners and civilians, part of a broader social and political movement which occurred in Queensland in the late 20th century.
\nBoggo Road Gaol is significant as part of a network of late 19th and early 20th century institutions in Queensland which were designed to control and discipline. Through the gaol complex’s design, form and layout, it demonstrates the control exerted by the government over those interned.
|Boggo Road Gaol Complex (No. 2 Division) is rare as the only surviving intact gaol complex in Queensland reflecting 19th century penological principles, being one of only five such gaol complexes built (including Brisbane men’s prisons at Petrie Terrace (1860, no longer extant) and Boggo Road (1883, no longer extant), Rockhampton (1884, no longer extant) and Townsville (1878, rebuilt 1893, not intact as a complex)).
\nAs a rare Australian example of a prison complex purpose-built for women, the Boggo Road Gaol Complex (No. 2 Division) demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|Boggo Road Gaol Complex (No. 2 Division) is important as a highly intact and rare example of a separate system prison complex established in Queensland during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of this type through its: collection of robust masonry buildings, forming a purpose-built facility for the incarceration of prisoners; tall perimeter walls/fences to prevent escape; defined, highly-secured areas for prisoners and semi-secured areas for staff and visitors; front, imposing gatehouse; tall observation (sentry) towers and open spaces for surveillance of prisoners; large cell blocks with separate prisoner accommodation cells, organised in a radiating plan form around a central observation point (Parade Ground); cells with curved ceilings, heavy cell doors locked from the outside, and purpose-built fixtures (metal shelves, and bed/hammock hooks), accessed via central galleries with central stairs and large banks of windows to their front and rear end walls; outdoor, fenced exercise yards with shelter sheds and amenity blocks; sanitation facilities (sanitation yard, and drains); ancillary buildings for administration, hospital, kitchen and laundry services and resident staff accommodation; and the use of robust materials (namely brick, stone, concrete and metal) throughout the complex.
\nThe complex is also important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the architectural work of the Queensland Department of Public Works (DPW), retaining an extensive range of excellent, highly-intact examples of DPW-designed buildings from the early 20th century. The principal characteristics of the DPW’s architectural work demonstrated at the prison complex include: well-designed, fit-for-purpose buildings with a dignified civic character; use of high-quality materials and construction detail; and provision of natural light and ventilation of interiors (except to cells).
|Highly intact, Boggo Road Gaol Complex (No. 2 Division) has aesthetic importance for its expressive and evocative attributes, high architectural quality, and strong landmark presence.
\nThrough the grand scale, imposing form and robust material palette of the Cell Blocks, Gatehouse, Matron’s Quarters (former) and Warders’ Quarters (former), the tall Perimeter Walls, the observation towers, and the barred and gated openings, the place expresses the power exercised by the State in applying law, order and social regulation during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The foreboding presence of the buildings, and the complex’s high level of security and surveillance (facilitated by sentry towers, open spaces, and visual observation alignments) conveys the sense of incarceration, punishment, and deterrence.
\nThe imposing appearance of the Gatehouse, and the connections between the prison’s spaces (revealing a sequence of movement through the Gatehouse vestibule, into the Quadrangle for processing in the administration buildings, through the Parade Ground and into the secured Cell Blocks and Exercise Yards), are evocative of the sense of restraint and coercion experienced by former prisoners on admission to the gaol complex. The size and scale of the buildings, and the use of solid materials throughout the complex to enforce compliance and deter escape, reflect the lived experience of the prisoners both on arrival and during their terms of incarceration.
\nAccentuated by high-quality and durable materials, elegant formal compositions (most using symmetry), assertive massing, and decorative treatments and refined finishes (such render details, dressed stone, and tuck pointing to brick walls), the architectural quality of the buildings reflects an ordered and moralistic approach to incarceration at the time of construction, the functional robust material requirements of a prison, and affords the complex a dignified townscape presence.
\nGraffiti to Cell Blocks and Exercise Yards, largely dating to the later period of the prison’s use, expresses the sense of confinement, seclusion, political and social ideologies, and sentiment of anti-establishment of former prisoners of Boggo Road Gaol around the time of its closure, and the sub-standard conditions to which they were subjected.
\nThe complex is a landmark in its setting due to the strong physical presence and visual dominance of its elevations (particularly those fronting Boggo Road (north), Annerley Road (west) and Peter Doherty Street/Boggo Road Gaol Park (south)), prominent siting on the rise of Annerley Road, tall Perimeter walls and unified material palette of face brick, concrete and stone.
|Boggo Road Gaol Complex is important for its social significance as a place of confinement within the community and has a strong association with those groups connected to the place, including ex-prisoners and their families, ex-prison warders and others employed within the complex.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15833,"place_ref":601059,"name":"Hillyards Shop House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"615 Stanley Street","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Hillyards shop house is situated in Stanley Street between Clarence Corner and Merton Road, and adjacent to Pollocks shop house, another c.1865 two-storeyed brick building.
The building comprises a main shop on the ground floor, residential accommodation on the first floor, an arched covered carriage-way through to the rear of the property, and a brick and iron skillion-roofed kitchen extension, which projects as a one-storeyed wing at the rear along the western side. The carriage-way has been enclosed to create another shop.
The core is capped by a steeply pitched corrugated-iron roof with a square platform at the top. Probably it was shingled originally.
The front facade is distinguished by a small rendered brick parapet, possibly of later origin, which returns unrendered along both sides of the building. This parapet features three decorative urns and a pediment with a central circular opening which houses a ventilation duct leading via a small gable into the roof.
A cantilevered iron-roofed first floor verandah has been boarded over, and a curved iron street awning is supported by slender cast iron and modern steel columns.
The ground floor has been altered and the main shop facade appears to have been remodelled in the 1920s.
The first floor is substantially intact. It contains five rooms, including a large front parlour. Twelve feet high, timber tongue and groove lined ceilings feature central circular ventilators. The 370mm brick walls are plaster lined and divided internally by walls of eight inch wide tongue and groove vertical joint boards, with narrow timber picture rails and wide skirting boards. Three sets of wide french doors with single pane fanlights open onto the front verandah.
The kitchen wing consists of three rooms with a double fireplace, probably initially housing kitchen, dining room and servant's room.
Despite a number of modifications, the building retains much of the original character. The most significant alterations are the removal of both the early clock tower and the internal staircase.
","history":"This two-storeyed brick shop house was constructed in the mid-1860s for Brisbane watchmaker George Hillyard, who purchased the site in 1865.
It was one of the earliest masonry buildings at One-mile Swamp (Woolloongabba), erected during the 1860s development of that part of Stanley Street as an early commercial centre.
The Hillyard family ran a successful watchmaking and jewellery business from the premises for nearly twenty years. Their shop boasted a clock tower at some stage, an advertisement which served as a convenience for passing travellers and drovers.
After George Hillyard died in 1881 his widow opened a fancy toy shop in part of the building, and William Hillyard continued with the watchmaking business. They sold the Stanley Street property in 1885.
Over the subsequent century a variety of small businesses have operated from the ground floor, with the first floor rented as boarding rooms and more recently occupied by squatters.
","criteria":"Hillyard's Shop House is a rare surviving 1860s detached brick shop house complete with service wing and covered carriage-way, indicative of a way of life no longer common in Brisbane, and is important for its association with the early commercial development of the One-mile Swamp [Woolloongabba] area in the 1860s.
|Hillyard's Shop House is a rare surviving 1860s detached brick shop house complete with service wing and covered carriage-way, indicative of a way of life no longer common in Brisbane, and is important for its association with the early commercial development of the One-mile Swamp [Woolloongabba] area in the 1860s.
|(Criterion under review)
|The place is an integral part of the Clarence Corner streetscape, and particularly significant as one of a pair of c1865 brick, two-storeyed shop houses on adjacent properties fronting Stanley Street. It makes a strong contribution to the Woolloongabba townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15866,"place_ref":601093,"name":"Department of Primary Industries Building (former)","alternate_name":"Immigration Depot | Department of Agriculture and Stock | Department of Agriculture","street_address":"99 William Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-07-04","description":"The former Department of Primary Industries Building, an unpainted rendered and painted brickwork structure, consists of a two-storeyed with basement section fronting William Street with a lower three-storeyed wing at the rear fronting Queen's Wharf Road. The building, located adjacent to the former Commissariat Stores [600176], and across the road from the former Government Printery [600114] and adjacent former Land Administration building [600123], is built on a steeply sloping site, and has a hipped rib and pan galvanised iron roof.
The symmetrical William Street section has a central entrance with a projecting wing at either end. The ground floor has coursed render with quoining, the first floor has an expressed band at window sill height and the eaves are jettied.
The entrance consists of a two-storeyed gabled element which projects from the face of the building, and is composed of an arched doorway to the ground floor with unpainted rendered classical detailing above and to the first floor. The detailing includes coursed render to the ground floor expressing voussoirs, above which is located an open-crown pediment with relief mouldings which are described in the Brisbane Sculpture Guide (Judith McKay 1988) as The festoon of Queensland agricultural produce- including wheat, strawberries, macadamia nuts, bananas and pumpkins- (which) is given due status by the addition of classical acanthus leaves. Above this are paired columns either side of a shield, which originally housed the words DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, which support an entablature with an urn at either end and a low arched window with expressed keystone to the first floor in the centre. The pediment above has a central shield with the date 1898 AD. The doorway has double panelled timber doors, with an arched fanlight with radiating mullions.
The William Street facade has paired tall, narrow, multi-paned timber sash windows, with the end facades having single sashes. The ground floor windows are surrounded by unpainted rendered mouldings with expressed sills and cornices above, and the first floor windows have similar details but with keystone-type heads. The northern end facade has a central chimney, with curved details at first floor height, which is surmounted by a large cornice with double arched flue covers. The southern end facade, the point of connection to the recently demolished post-1899 extensions, has been rendered to suggest floor levels and the position of the original chimney.
The William Street facade also has two lightwells to the basement, located either side of the central entry abutting the end wings, which consist of a curved porphyry retaining wall with sandstone capping and wrought iron balustrading. The lightwells are bridged by a concrete walkway where they abut the end wings, accessing a single panelled timber door with fanlight, and featuring an iron gate with the letters DA intertwined. The southern door, however, has been enclosed and replaced with a sash window, and a later sash window has been introduced to the first floor flanking wall of the southern wing. A retaining wall with sandstone capping, end pillar and wrought iron balustrade extends from the building along the William Street frontage to the south.
The rear of the William Street section has verandahs to all three floors either side of the central rear wing and abutting the end wings. Originally enclosed with vertically jointed boarding covering verandah stairs with open arched sections either end, the verandahs have all since been enclosed with fibrous cement sheeting and a variety of windows.
The rear wing is a three-storeyed painted masonry structure on a porphyry base, one level lower than the William Street section, with a crucifix plan and a number of additions which include a three-storeyed toilet block on the northwest, a two-storeyed enclosure on the southeast, and various stairs and single-storeyed sheds around the base. Floor levels are expressed with relief banding, windows are mostly multi-paned sashes, and timber and iron window hoods are located on most windows on the southwest.
The toilet block has arched sash windows to the base, with high level hopper windows to the floors above. This block is linked to the main structure via cantilevered walkways on the ground and basement levels, which consist of curved iron brackets supporting a timber walkway with iron balustrade. The two-storeyed enclosure on the southeast has a skillion roof, with fixed glazing above chamferboard to the basement level and brick piers. A steel fire stair is located at the rear of the building.
Internally, the William Street section has a central entry vestibule, with rooms accessed via the rear verandah or through adjoining doorways. A concrete stair with an iron balustrade and timber handrail is located centrally in the linking section to the rear wing, and is accessed through an arch which has been enclosed to form a doorway . Timber staircases were originally located on the rear verandahs, but only one flight remains linking the basement and ground floor on the southern side. This staircase has chamfered newel posts with turned capitals, and a timber batten balustrade which has been mostly sheeted over with hardboard. Some original timber verandah balustrading and chamfered posts are visible, again with the majority being sheeted over. Doors are panelled timber with fanlights, walls are plastered, and ceilings are boarded, some of which have been sheeted over with hardboard. Evidence of the former corridor linking the now demolished post-1899 extensions is visible in the first floor at the southern end, with timber and glass partitions dividing the space. The basement level has exposed porphyry walls to the lightwell, and a later lean-to bathroom is located on the south corner accessed via the verandah. Timber fireplace surrounds have been removed, but evidence of their form survives.
Internally, the rear wing consists of a large former immigration ward flanked by former kitchen and bathroom to each floor, with timber post and beam internal construction. The ground floor level has been partitioned with a central corridor leading to a large room at the rear, and has a central skylight which consists of glazed roofing sections which light glazed ceiling panels to the hall and adjacent side rooms. Ceilings throughout this section have pressed metal sheeting of various designs. The basement level has a lower floor level than the William Street section and boarded timber ceilings. The sub-basement level is similar, but with a number of partitioned rooms along either side. The toilet block has concrete floors, plastered walls and timber partition cubicles.
","history":"The former Department of Primary Industries building, finished in unpainted render and painted brickwork, is built on a steeply sloping site with two storeys and basement fronting William Street and a lower three-storeyed wing at the rear fronting Queen's Wharf Road, with a hipped rib and pan galvanised iron roof. The building was originally built as an Immigration Depot, and construction began in 1865 and completed in 1866.
\nThe building was constructed on part of the former Commandant's Garden. The garden had been part of an attempt to establish some principles of behaviour at Penal Settlements throughout the Colony of New South Wales by the introduction of a Code of Regulations by Governor Darling which, amongst other things, entitled the Commandant to four acres of garden to be tended by up to three gardeners.
\nA wharf had been constructed c.1825 in front of the adjacent Commissariat Stores [600176] and was originally known as King's Wharf, until 1837 when it became Queen's Wharf after the ascendancy of Queen Victoria. Queen's Wharf was a point of disembarkation of immigrants to the free colony from 1848 to 1897.
\nSuccessive colonial governments actively pursued a programme of immigration of free settlers after the Penal Settlement had closed down. The first immigrants to come direct from overseas arrived on 15 December 1848 on the barque Artemisia. The first immigrants were housed temporarily in the Old Military Barracks which were located where the former Treasury Building [600143] now stands. By the 1860s the barracks had deteriorated to such an extent that they were described in the local press as 'wretched and dilapidated hovels... repugnant and harrowing and an abominable shed'. The decision was made to erect a new facility, and the site was selected being a short distance from Queen's Wharf.
\nConstruction began in 1865 and completed in 1866. Designed by the office of Queensland's first Colonial Architect, Charles Tiffin, the building was originally single-storeyed with basement to William Street with a three-storeyed wing at the rear. The rear wing contained three large separate wards, each 57 feet by 32 feet; one for single women at the William Street level, with married couples at the basement level and single men at the sub-basement level, which was also ground level at the rear. To each of these wards was attached a kitchen and bathroom, each on opposite sides. Earth closets were incorporated in a timber structure attached to the southwest of the building, and each ward had a separate entrance from the street. There were also residences for the matron and wardsman, and two rooms for the use of clerks and the Immigration Board in the William Street section. The sanitary arrangements were extensive, with a 2,500 gallon tank supplying water to the whole of the building through lead pipes, with a condensing apparatus in operation at the river which pumped water to the building to supplement the supply of rain water. A luggage room was located on the nearby wharf, as immigrants were not allowed to take baggage into the depot.
\nThe building had a hipped slate roof, unpainted brick walls, and footings of porphyry on weathered rock, and the rear section to Queen's Wharf had internal timber posts and beams supporting timber floor joists. The contractor was Mr J Petrie, and plumbers were Messrs Stewart and Watson. The original estimate was £3,800, but it was likely to have exceeded this estimate by several hundred pounds due to the construction of a substantial fence around the property, as well as a washing shed and luggage room.
\nIn December 1887, a new Immigration Depot at Kangaroo Point opened (Yungaba), and the William Street depot acted as a back-up facility until 1889. The ground floor was still being used in January 1890 as a ward for old men.
\nIn 1890 the building was adapted to form the first offices for the newly established Department of Agriculture. The Department was created in 1887, one of a number of steps taken in the expansion of the role of government during the late 1880s and 1890s, and in 1904 became the Department of Agriculture and Stock, and in 1963 became the Department of Primary Industries. From 1890 onwards the old Immigration Depot was progressively altered and extended to accommodate offices and laboratories primarily for the Department of Agriculture and Stock, and subsequently for other government departments.
\nBy December 1890 the Museum of Economic Botany was accommodated within the building. The following year the Minister of Agriculture was accommodated in the former Immigration Depot. The Minister appears to have been housed in the location previously occupied by the museum, at the rear of the building on the ground floor and the museum was relocated in 1893 to the basement (formerly single men's quarters). This area was partitioned, bunks were removed and a five foot high dado of vertically jointed pine was formed.
\nIn 1897 the Stock Branch of the Colonial Secretary's Department was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1898 tenders were called for extensions to the building, including two additional wings at either end and an extra storey to the William Street elevation. The extensions were designed by Thomas Pye, chief draftsman and assistant architect, and John Murdoch, draftsman and assistant architect, under Government Architect Alfred Brady. The form, scale and details of the alterations became the model for all subsequent additions. The tender by Caskie and Thompson was accepted. The extension was of load-bearing cavity brick set in lime-based mortar, with timber floors, and timber roof framing sheeted in galvanised iron rib and pan tiles. External walls were unpainted cement render, and internal walls plastered. The work included the installation of a central skylight in the rear section, and pressed metal ceilings and timber partitions were installed on the ground level of the rear section pre-1916. A toilet block containing earth closets with a nightman's stair was also constructed in 1899.
\nThese extensions reflect the expansion of the Department at this time, particularly the growth in accommodation for entomologists and plant pathologists, as this area of plant science was to continue to expand in response to Queensland's growth in primary production.
\nIn 1900 criticisms of plasterwork (specifically the external rendering over old brickwork to form quoins) led to a royal Commission of Inquiry. Remedial work was subsequently carried out in 1906. Prior to 1915, the southern doorway over the lightwell to William Street was enclosed and replaced with a sash window. In 1916 a new wing was constructed to the south (demolished 1994), consisting of foundation, basement, ground and first floor. This extension accommodated the Agricultural Chemical Laboratory, Entomology and Plant Pathology branches. It was built by day labour, and was intended to form the northwest wing of a new building, with the intention being to demolish the earlier sections of the building. Further extensions to the building were carried out in 1923, 1929, 1935 and 1936.
\nIn 1922 a new staircase was added between the front and rear sections of the building, and the toilet block was reworked in 1924 to replace the original earth closets with water closets.
\nIn 1940 a connection was made between the old photographic studio and the storeroom, and in 1944 the photographic studio suffered major damage by fire. The vertically jointed timber boarding to the rear verandahs was removed c1951 and replaced with fibrous cement sheeting. Due to the confined nature of the area, a gradual drift from the site began in the 1950s, with the Department of Primary Industries vacating the building in 1989. In 1994 the post-1899 extensions were demolished to make way for a proposed new government office complex.
","criteria":"The former Department of Primary Industries building, originally built as an immigration depot in 1865-66 and the interior of which substantially retains its originally planning, is representative of early Queensland Colonial Government infrastructure, and the importance that was placed on immigration and its contribution to the colony's future.
|Together with the adjacent former Commissariat Stores [600176], the building is a rare surviving riverside structure once associated with Queen's Wharf, an important point of transport and commerce from the time of the establishment of the Penal Settlement, and reflects the pattern of development of the surrounding government precinct.
|The building makes a significant aesthetic contribution, through form, scale, and materials, to the Brisbane townscape, and is an important member of a group of early government buildings including the former Commissariat Stores [600176], former Government Printery [600114] and former Land Administration building [600123].
|The building is also illustrative of the growth of the Department of Agriculture; and the importance of its contribution to the growth and development of the Queensland economy.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15870,"place_ref":601097,"name":"Signal Station (former)","alternate_name":"Former Navy Signal Station Fort Cowan","street_address":"25 Dorothy Newnham Street","suburb":"MORETON ISLAND","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-02-01","description":"Located on the western side of Moreton Island at Cowan Cowan, the two storeyed Signal Station is positioned behind the first dune overlooking the beach and shipping channel. To the north along the beach are the remains of concrete gun emplacements.
A small timber framed building, rectangular in plan, it is mounted on low concrete stumps and clad internally and externally with asbestos cement sheeting with asbestos cement cover strips. On the south east corner a double row of stumps lead to a timber door indicating the former position of the entry steps. This door opens into the lower level which consists of two rooms joined by a connecting door. These rooms have suspended timber floors and double hung timber framed windows which are barred and screened.
The upper level, similarly divided into two, consists of a single room with a hip roof and a roof terrace. This upper level is inaccessible as the staircase, formerly an external stair on the eastern side of the building, has been removed. The room has continuous windows running around the perimeter walls which are interrupted only by the two doorways. A doorway remains which would have formerly been at the top of the stair. Another doorway, in the centre of the southern wall, opens from the room onto the roof terrace.
A number of small concrete slabs and other remains are located in the grass around the Signal Station.
","history":"Erected probably during the late 1930s by the Royal Australian Navy, and acquired by the Queensland Government in 1947, this structure was the second signal station to be used at Cowan Cowan, on the western side of Moreton Island.
During the early period of the Moreton Bay penal settlement, vessels entered Moreton Bay primarily through the South Entrance, which was the passage between Moreton and North Stradbroke Islands. The first navigation aids were placed in Moreton Bay in 1825, and marked the south entrance. A Pilot Station was established at Amity Point on North Stradbroke Island by 1827.
The south entrance proved to be difficult and hazardous for vessels and during the 1830s, consideration was given to the advantages of using the northern entrance into Moreton Bay. Despite the hazards however, the southern entrance remained the main entrance to the Moreton Bay settlement as it better suited the colony, the entrances were already marked, and the pilot station was already established at Amity Point.
Following proclamation of Moreton Bay as a free settlement in 1842, the Regulations prohibiting all but authorised vessels to come to an anchorage at a penal settlement except in cases of distress or necessity, ... were revoked, and shipping activity in Moreton Bay increased. Brisbane was declared a Port of Entry in 1846, and a Warehousing Port in 1849.
By the mid 1840s both the north and south entrances were used by vessels entering Moreton Bay. Captain Wickham and Lieutenant Yule carried out extensive surveys in Moreton Bay in 1846, and buoys marking the northern entrance were laid soon after. Sailing directions for the northern entrance were published in the Moreton Bay Courier in April 1847, in preparation for the closure of the southern passage as the main entrance to the Bay. Following the sinking of the Sovereign in 1847, a harbour master was appointed for Brisbane. Additional buoys were laid to better indicate the northern entrance, and in 1848 the pilot station was moved from Amity Point, firstly to Cowan Cowan then to Bulwer, on Moreton Island. The pilot station marked the first official European settlement of Moreton Island.
The pilot station at Bulwer was closed in 1909, with the exception of the signalman who was also in charge of the telephone station. In 1912 the Signal Station was removed to Cowan Cowan, considered to be more convenient for vessels using the North West Channel which had been declared the safest entrance into Moreton Bay during the 1890s. The Channel ran close to the shore near Caloundra, across the bar in a southeasterly direction towards Moreton Island, and then southwesterly towards the mouth of the river, forming a Z-shaped route. James Palmer, the signalman at Bulwer, was appointed Signalman at Cowan Cowan Point from March 1913. Other signalmen stationed at Cowan Cowan included Charles W Hill, Keeper of the Cowan Cowan light for a number of years, and Harry Wadsworth appointed in 1939. By the mid 1940s, the Signal Station building which had been removed from Bulwer to Cowan Cowan, was in a deteriorated condition, and erosion of the coastline placed the building in danger of falling into the sea.
Fort Cowan, located north of the Signal Station, was completed in the late 1930s (sources differ as to whether this was prior to or shortly after the commencement of the Second World War), and formed part of the defensive system for southeast Queensland. Other fortifications apparent throughout Moreton Bay during the Second World War included Caloundra, Bribie Island [601143], and at Rous also on Moreton Island, which together with the existing installations at Fort Lytton [600248], provided a coordinated series of defensive batteries for the region.
The shipping channels in Moreton Bay simplified the proposed placement of batteries. The major access route into the Brisbane River was still the North West Channel, which dictated the ideal positions for artillery batteries, the most effective sites for guns being the closest points to the channel bends. Fort Cowan took over the role of an Examination Battery from Fort Lytton, and a Port War Signal Station (PWSS), also referred to as the Naval Signal Station, was erected in conjunction with this duty. The Examination Service was staffed by Naval Reserve Volunteers, who had been called up in August 1939. As described in a Navy paper prepared in 1949, the function of the Examination Service was to identify and ascertain the character and intentions of vessels seeking to enter defended ports. This was necessary in order that defences could be made aware of any attempted entry of suspicious or unfriendly vessels. Merchant vessels approaching a port would be met by an Examination Vessel, stationed permanently at the Examination Anchorage near the entrance to the port. If an approaching vessel could not be identified, it was directed to proceed to the Examination Anchorage under the observation of the Examination Battery, and further investigation was undertaken. The major function of the Naval Signal Station appears to have been to receive signals from the Examination Vessels and relay messages to the gunnery, rather than to send signals which would have revealed the position of the battery. Two examination vessels appear to have also been stationed at Cowan Cowan during the First World War.
All PWSSs were closed down after September 1945. In 1946, with its own Signal Station in a state of disrepair, the Department of Public Works in Queensland entered into negotiations with the Commonwealth Disposals Commission, for the purchase of the former Naval Signal Station, mast and a nearby cottage. Although consideration was given to acquiring and relocating the former Naval Signal Station, it was decided that to shift the building to another site would risk extensive damage to the fibro walls and roof, and that the Building in its present position is an ideal situation for Signal Station, with Signal tower mast and flag room close by ...This position has a commanding view of Bay and is more suitable than existing site of old signal station. The former Naval Signal Station, including mast, and a residence were acquired by the Queensland Government in May 1947, for a sum of £1 300.
In 1954 the Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) proposed to establish a radio telephone communication service between Brisbane and Cowan Cowan. The PMG had previously expressed interest in acquiring the former Naval Signal Station to house radio telephone equipment, however it was decided that the building was too large for the PMG requirements. The radio telephone equipment was housed in the Signal Station and maintained by Wadsworth in addition to his signal station and lighthouse duties.
With the advent of VHF radio communication for shipping in the early 1960s, the need for signal stations was reduced, and following Wadsworth's retirement in December it was decided to close the Signal Station (the lighthouse which had been converted to automatic gas light in 1950, would continue to operate unattended).
Wadsworth and his wife Jessie, had acquired land adjacent to the Signal Station in 1952. Following the closure of the Signal Station, the Wadsworths sought to acquire the use of part of the signal station building, and were granted an Informal Lease over the former Signal Station site in 1967.
The Australian Telecommunications Commission (Telecom) removed the radio telephone equipment installed by the former PMG's Department, from the building in 1976.
Harry Wadsworth died in 1979, and Jessie died in 1985. In 1987, the Brisbane City Council recommended that the land be set aside as a recreation reserve and a Reserve for Local Government (Historical Park and Recreation) Purposes was gazetted in 1989, under the control of the Brisbane City Council as trustee.
The timber stairs to the upper level of the structure were removed in May 1990. The radio mast/signal mast was removed to the Enoggera Army Barracks in 1993, as the mast was infested with white ants and one of the stays fallen on to the beach.
","criteria":"The Former Signal Station survives as evidence of the role of Cowan Cowan and Moreton Island in the Moreton Bay navigation network, from the mid-19th century when the pilot station was relocated from North Stradbroke to Moreton Island.
Located as part of the former Fort Cowan/Cowan Cowan Battery, this former Naval Signal Station has an association with the defence of Queensland during the Second World War by the Australian Military Force and particularly by the Royal Australian Navy. The former Naval Signal Station is also significant as part of the Cowan Cowan Battery, in turn, part of an integrated series of defence batteries around Moreton Bay.
|The Former Signal Station survives as evidence of the role of Cowan Cowan and Moreton Island in the Moreton Bay navigation network, from the mid-19th century when the pilot station was relocated from North Stradbroke to Moreton Island.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15934,"place_ref":601167,"name":"University of Queensland Medical School","alternate_name":"Mayne Medical School","street_address":"288 Herston Road","suburb":"HERSTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-06-24","description":"Opened in 1939, the University of Queensland Medical School is an imposing, three-storey, red facebrick building in a Renaissance style occupying a commanding position on the northern ridge of a sloping triangular-shaped site of over six acres in Herston Road, Brisbane adjacent to the western boundary of the Royal Brisbane Hospital.
Approached by a steep driveway from Herston Road, a wide sweep of concrete stairs arrives at the main pedimented, temple-front portico entrance containing six giant order columns in a Doric order sitting on a rusticated base of arches framing the porch entrance. Two large decorative bronze lamps flank the central arch entrance to the portico which is marked by a large scroll keystone lettered above with the words "University of Queensland". A single range, the building is symmetrical about this entrance and rests on a rendered rusticated base, has regular bays of plain, flat-arched sash windows with rendered sills to each level and an entablature containing large mutules over a plain frieze containing the lettering "The Medical School". The tympanum contains a carved stone shield. A solid parapet above the cornice screens the accommodation on the flat roofs.
The rear elevation is symmetrical about a projecting broken pedimented entrance dominated by the lift tower which is emphasised by relieved rendered quoining. A small flight of concrete steps flanked by freestanding decorative wrought iron lamps arrives at the entrance porch which is sheltered by a moulded concrete awning supported by large console brackets. Repetitive rhythmic detailing of flat arched timber sash windows to this elevation gives it a stark presence to the street. The elevation is disrupted by the later flights of open metal fire stairs to the east and west ends.
The building is crowned with a 12-segment copper roofed dome over the central portico entrance block. The former flat roof to the east now accommodates offices, additional office and research accommodation has been erected to the west flat roof and both areas are now roofed with copper sheeted low pitched gable roofs.
Two open light wells to each side of the central entrance block ventilate and light adjacent offices, the ground floor toilet areas and the rear corridor.
The building is organised by a single-loaded corridor to the rear, the main rooms are entered from the organising corridor and subsidiary rooms are accessed from transverse passages. The vertical rises are on axis with the main entrance.
The concrete landing of the portico entrance opens through a set of double timber panelled doors into a small lobby which opens into the main entrance hall. A doorbell button is located to the left of the lobby entrance doors within the portico. The lobby is decorated with carved timber work to the panelled door surrounds, has a decorative cut glass fanlight to the main timber panelled doors and rosette pateras to the each side of the fanlight. The floors to the lobby and entrance hall are finished with red, green and yellow terrazzo in geometric patterns and the walls are panelled with stained timber to picture rail height. A decorative elliptical arch marks the junction of the hall and the rear corridor. The inscription within the moulded plaster architrave reads "CUM PIETATE ET SANCTITATE HANC ARTEM MEAM PROFITEBOR". The ceiling is decorated with a plaster relief border of tied straight twigs.
The central stairwell weaves around the lift well and has terrazzo treads and landings and features a grooved silky oak handrail with scrolled ends. The original lift is encased within a decorative lattice metal cage and retains its original interior. The lift operator lever mechanism within the lift chamber has been dismantled.
The rear entrance lobby has a fine terrazzo floor in red, green and yellow, has stained timber wall panelling and features a timber and glass public telephone booth to the southwest corner.
The toilets to the ground and second floors retain fine terrazzo flooring and privacy screens.
Original terrazzo sills to former ground floor laboratory areas remain. The large timber sash windows to the perimeter of the building have generous timber sills to the interiors and provide substantial light to offices, laboratories and the rear corridor. Windows to the corridor and east and west elevation retain much of the original blue-green tinted anti-actinic glazing.
The committee room to the southwest corner of the second floor retains original timber panelling and is now an office.
The library on the first floor has been altered and is now a meeting room with adjacent offices and catering area. This area opens onto the southern balcony, which affords sweeping views across Victoria Park, Victoria Park Golf Course, Queensland University of Technology Kelvin Grove Campus and over towards Gregory Terrace and beyond to Mt Coot-tha. Shelving and display cupboards from the ground floor have been relocated to the former library. The doors to the balcony have a shallow external awning supported by decorative consoles and are flanked by bronze torch globe lamps. The balcony is defined by the giant order columns separated by decorative wrought iron balustrading. Both sets of doors to the former library have decorative leadlight glazing panels and fanlights.
The first floor laboratory remains in use as a teaching laboratory and retains original display and storage cupboards. The benches have been altered and the internal space diminished by the insertion of a false ceiling and servicing.
The original double wall containing service ducts and wiring with sliding access door to the top remains to each floor.
The grassed and tree planted slopes to each side of the main driveway from Herston Road enhance the impressive elevated siting of the School and establish a dramatic forestage for viewing the School from Herston Road, Bramston Terrace and beyond while providing a shady retreat for hospital visitors, students and School and Hospital personnel.
A fence of solid shaped concrete piers with decorative wrought iron balustrading runs along the boundary to Weightman Street with sets of decorative wrought iron gates to the pedestrian entrance on the upper terrace and the garage entrance at the lower end. The grounds to the rear of the building are formed into two lawn terraces separated by a substantial retaining wall with a flight of concrete stairs. There are clipped lawns and round garden beds planted with roses to the upper terrace and a number of shade trees to each terrace . Planted edge gardens flank the path from Weightman Street to the rear entrance. A laneway at basement level provides access to the ground floor motor room.
","history":"A monumental, three-storey, red facebrick building in a Renaissance idiom occupying a ridge adjacent to the Royal Brisbane Hospital and overlooking Victoria Park at Herston, the Medical School was opened by the Premier of Queensland, Hon. W. Forgan Smith, on 11 August 1939.
The establishment of the University of Queensland Medical School was a significant moment for the State of Queensland and for the medical profession.
There were earnest attempts to form a medical school for Queensland over many decades. During the 1870s and 1880s medical personnel from the Brisbane Hospital and the British Medical Association in Queensland advocated the establishment of a medical school. In 1893 the President of the Queensland Medical Society renewed calls for the establishment of a university and a faculty of medicine. In 1913, in the early days of the newly formed University of Queensland, there were further pleas for a medical school.
In 1935, the Forgan Smith Government appointed a committee to investigate proposals to create a Faculty of Medicine within the University. When the Faculty of Medicine was established, the Government agreed to fund the building of a medical school despite the committee recommendation that make-shift provisions for accommodation were to be preferred to further delay in its establishment. "...the Government, after due consideration, decided to provide buildings worthy of the new venture". Recognised as the founders of the Faculty of Medicine, ES Jackson, EJ Goddard, JV Duhig and ES Meyers were instrumental in convincing the Government to fund the construction of the Medical School.
ES Meyers was an ardent campaigner for the establishment of a Medical School for Queensland and was actively involved in medical education throughout his professional life. He initiated the first postgraduate courses for medicine in Queensland, was instrumental in the formation of an Anatomy School, became the first licensed anatomist in Queensland, was actively engaged in the establishment of the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Queensland and was member of the first Faculty of Dentistry. Meyers, second Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1942 to 1955, presided over an era of significant change and in this founding role is recognised for his major contribution to the establishment and development of medical education in Queensland. The galleried lecture theatre in the Medical School has been named the ES Meyers Lecture Theatre in his honour.
The importance of medical research, particularly into tropical medicine, was a significant impetus for the establishment of the Medical School. Work undertaken by Dr Raphael Cilento on leptospiral disease among cane cutters had a significant impact on Premier Forgan Smith and was instrumental in convincing him of the need for Queensland to train its own doctors and provide specialist training in tropical medicine. Professor E Goddard, Professor of Biology in the University of Queensland, had a professional interest in tropical biology and campaigned for research and training in tropical health and urged the establishment of faculties in Medicine and Veterinary Science to facilitate such work.
The Forgan Smith Government was a major force in the expansion of the University and the construction of the Medical School was part of the building program initiated by the Government within the overall development of the University of Queensland. Forgan Smith demonstrated a particular interest in the establishment of a Medical School, recognising its importance for the practice of medicine in the State and as a prestigious project within his Government's building program. Together with the provision of hospitals and maternity clinics; dental clinics and the Dental Hospital and College; the Medical School was part of the Government's commitment to providing universal health care to Queensland. The importance to the Government of the establishment of the Medical School is clear in this comment by EM Hanlon, Minister for Health and Home Affairs, at the commencement of construction:
Queensland had a wonderful future... For a community, the building up of a university and a faculty (of Medicine) were of supreme importance... the Government could be proud that they had brought a complete university into practical politics... Mr Hanlon said the building (Medical School) would be well in keeping with the purpose for which it was being erected. It would not only be adequate, but would be of a dignified character.
Comment about the new Medical School included
as a feature of architectural dignity and importance the new Medical School, erected by the State Public Works Department, provides a most interesting study to all those interested in the development of Brisbane.
The Medical School was constructed during an intensive public works building program undertaken by the Forgan Smith Labor Government in Queensland during the 1930s to counter the effects of the Depression. Design responsibility for the Medical School was assigned to Raymond Clare Nowland, an architect in the Department of Public Works (DPW). Raymond Clare Nowland joined the architectural office of the DPW in November 1932 where he became a senior architect in 1938. He produced the most significant buildings of his career between 1932 and 1942 including the University of Queensland Medical School, Herston (1939); Brisbane Dental Hospital and College (1941) (QHR 601909); Police Barracks, Petrie Terrace (1942); Cairns Government Offices (1935) (QHR 600376); Rockhampton Police Court (QHR 600795); Toowoomba Police Station (QHR 601710); and Maryborough Government Offices (QHR 600713).
This design for the Medical School was developed after extensive consultation with members of the Faculty of Medicine and research into the design and operation of medical schools and colleges in America. The design was based on the model for medical education advocated by the Rockefeller Foundation which emphasised laboratory training in the basic medical sciences and use of hospitals for clinical training. The planning of the Medical School, with its specialist laboratories and proximity to the General Hospital, reflects this approach .
The first sketch plans for the proposed Medical School were prepared by Nowland in February 1936. A modest, three-storey, brick and concrete building "in an adaption of the Romanesque style" accommodating teaching spaces for an envisioned 150 students was sited on the northern part of the site adjacent to the Brisbane General Hospital with the main entrance to Weightman Street. This design was rejected by the Faculty of Medicine who suggested that "a simple Greek front with double columns on either side of the main entrance porch would give the building a more dignified and characteristic appearance and would look better and more striking from a distance". New sketch plans were prepared for a much larger scheme "for a three-storey building of brick, concrete and steel structure with flat roofs in the Renaissance Style" again to the rear of the site but with the main entrance to Herston Road. The School was constructed to this design except that the lantern roof was replaced with a dome. The building has been planned to accommodate further wings to each end.
The monumentality and civic grandeur given to the Medical School reflect the importance of the building to the Government, to the University of Queensland and to the medical profession.
When the building opened the ground floor contained: the main hall; main office; various laboratories and associated facilities including a mortuary. The library, laboratories, lecture rooms, associated offices and equipment rooms occupied the first floor. The second floor accommodated the main galleried lecture theatre, museum, two laboratories and associated support rooms. An animal house stood on the flat roof to the west. Consideration had been given to the provision of services and use of suitable materials to facilitate the effective operation of the building. All windows except those on the south-east were glazed with anti-actinic glass of a soft bluish-green to counteract the glare and reduce heat transmission. Other services and fittings included sound-proofing, ventilating systems, refrigeration, stainless steel and chromium plated fittings, and specialised electrical and drainage systems. A double wall running the length of the building to the rear corridor houses horizontal and vertical service ducts. Furniture and fittings throughout the building are of Queensland timbers and were constructed in the Government's Ipswich Road Workshop.
There is finely crafted decorative work throughout the public spaces including stained timber panelling and decorative carved timber work to the entrance lobbies and hall, decorative plaster work to walls and ceilings, leadlight and cut glass work to doors and fanlights.
Since 1939, all medical students at the University of Queensland have passed beneath the decorative elliptical arch between main entrance hall and the rear corridor which bears the inscription articulating the philosophy upon which the School was established "cum pietate et sanctitate hanc artem meam profitebor" freely translated as "May all members of the general community profit by the art and skill of those who learn, with deference and respect, their profession in this place."
The building has been altered including refurbishment of the galleried lecture theatre, library, some offices and laboratory areas and the roof accommodation. An annexe has been constructed to the east with a direct connecting link to the Medical School and a research and teaching facility has been erected to the west separated from the School building by an open walkway. The exterior of the building is substantially intact. The alterations have diminished the interiors and distorted some internal spatial relationships but much original internal fabric remains including the main entrance hall and main office, the rear entrance porch and telephone booth, terrazzo flooring throughout the building including fine examples of terrazzo in the entrances, panelling, joinery including doors and windows, shelving, furniture, anti-actinic glazing to the windows and leadlight and cut glass decorative glazing to doors and fanlights. Although altered internally, the building retains overall spatial integrity and continues to function as a teaching and research facility for medical education in Queensland.
The Medical School has been associated with the training of medical graduates from the University of Queensland since 1939 and is recognised for its achievements in teaching, service and research. The School has exerted a significant influence on the teaching hospitals in Queensland and research groups associated with the School continue to make major contributions to medical science.
","criteria":"Opened in 1939 as the foundation building for the Faculty of Medicine, the University of Queensland Medical School is important in the development of medical education in Queensland and demonstrates the development of the Faculty of Medicine and the University of Queensland.
The Medical School is important for its association with the extensive public works building program of the Forgan Smith Government during the 1930s and in particular the Government's contribution to the development of the University of Queensland and public health services in Queensland.
The Medical School is one of the most notable buildings in the body of public buildings designed by the Department of Public Works in Queensland and one of an impressive suite of important educational buildings erected throughout Queensland designed in a classical idiom.
The Medical School is recognised for its achievements in teaching, service and research. The School has exerted a significant influence on the teaching hospitals in Queensland and research groups associated with the School continue to make major contributions to medical science.
|The University of Queensland Medical School is important as the only medical school in Queensland.
|The planning and siting of the building is important in demonstrating the adoption of the American model for training medical practitioners which advocated increased laboratory training in basic medical sciences and the use of hospitals for clinical training. The walking and visual links with the Herston Hospital Complex are important in maintaining this association.
|The Medical School has aesthetic and architectural significance. Occupying a commanding position on a triangular site of approximately 6 acres adjacent to the western boundary of the Royal Brisbane Hospital, this grand public building with its symmetrical massing and repetitive rhythmic detailing has a monumental street presence. The views to the place from adjacent properties and from Herston Road are important in maintaining the monumentality of the place. The place is important for the vistas it affords across Victoria Park, Victoria Park Golf Course and Queensland University of Technology Kelvin Grove Campus towards Gregory Terrace and west to Mt Coot-tha; and the sweeping vista and breathtaking views across the north of Brisbane.
The building has a substantially intact exterior and is important for its remaining fine rare interiors including the main entrance hall, the rear entrance hall, lift and liftwell, the central stairwell, toilets, joinery including doors and windows, architraves and skirtings, shelving, panelling, furniture, anti-actinic glazing to the windows, decorative leadlight and cut glass glazing to doors and fanlights. The arch within the main entrance hall is important for articulating the philosophical ideals upon which the Medical School was established "CUM PIETATE ET SANCTITATE HANC ARTEM MEAM PROFITEBOR".
|The Medical School is important in the training of medical students and has a special association with medical students from the University of Queensland.
|The Medical School is important for its association with prominent medical practitioners and scientists including ES Meyers, ES Jackson, EJ Goddard, JV Duhig and R Cilento.
The Medical School is important for its association with the work of the architect Raymond Clare Nowland. The Medical School is one of the most notable buildings designed by Nowland, an architect of considerable talent working in the Department of Public Works during the period of extensive public works building in the 1930s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15935,"place_ref":601168,"name":"Fortitude Valley Police Station","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"119 Brookes Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-06-24","description":"The Fortitude Valley Police Station, a two-storey, L-shaped building in red facebrick with contrasting imitation stone facings in cream cement render, is a striking presence to the corner of Brookes and Wickham Streets, Fortitude Valley. The prominent tiled hipped roof is interrupted at the street corner and building ends by high narrow parapets with relieved quoining. Built around a courtyard containing a lavatory block and garaging to the rear, the Station is distinguished by a rendered portico entrance below an electric clock and rendered arched timber sash window within the high narrow parapet to the corner and striking rendered arches with prominent scroll keystones to the ground floor timber sash windows to both elevations.
Single-height Doric columns flanked by rusticated pilasters beneath a dentilled cornice frame the main corner entrance portico which contains a set of terrazzo stairs and landing. The rusticated rendered arch with a prominent scroll keystone marks the side entrance portico to Wickham Street and is framed by rendered quoining to a high narrow parapet. Wrought iron ornamental grilles are provided to the ground floor street windows and ornamental iron gates to the arched vehicle entrance to Brookes Street. Overlooking Wickham Street from the first floor, an open porch framed by four half-height rendered Doric columns has an elegant, projecting oval balcony with decorative wrought iron balustrading. Bold brackets to lined roof eaves project over the plain flat arched sash windows to the first floor.
The narrow high triangular parapeted rear entrance is accessed from the courtyard from a door sheltered by a moulded concrete awning supported by consoles which sits beneath the large semi-circular window which lights the main stairwell.
The main corner entrance portico opens to a spacious main entrance lobby and hall around which the building hinges and from which central corridors run through each wing. Within the hinge, a dog leg timber stair connects to the first floor and a rear entrance opens to the courtyard beyond. The corridor to the Brookes Street wing opens to the vehicle laneway and the corridor to the Wickham Street wing terminates at a secondary dog leg timber stair. A side passage off this corridor connects via a battened gangway to the lavatory block in the rear courtyard.
The main entrance lobby, hall floors, Wickham Street side entrance lobby, stair treads and landings in both stairwells are in pale gold and white terrazzo with black terrazzo borders to the floors. Two large plaster rosette pateras lie to the upper corners of the main lobby to each side of the elliptical moulded arch with large scroll keystone which separates the lobby from the hall. This opening has now been glazed and contains a glazed security door. The main stair doglegs off the hall and has a grooved silky oak handrail and 6"x6" stop chamfered silky oak newels with sunk necking and domed caps. Ornamental consoles decorate the flat arched openings to the stairwell. The plaster ceilings to the lobby and hall are decorated with a border figure of tied bundles of straight twigs. The Wickham Street entrance stairwell has similar detailing but is narrower.
The offices on the ground floor are accessed from central corridors with semi-circular arched doorways to each end. The rooms retain their original spatial forms with some changes to doorways, some added internal glazing and refurbishment of tiling and fittings to the lavatory areas. The Constables' Day Room continues to be used for this purpose. The insertion of a mezzanine to the former Sergeant's clerks office has disrupted the form of this room. The dormitory accommodation on the first floor retains its spatial integrity and now accommodates offices and associated storage and interview rooms. The tilting fanlights to the bedrooms remain along with window and door joinery, architraves, skirtings, picture rails, fibrous cement ceilings with timber cover strips. The recreation room is now a locker room and opens to the balcony overlooking Wickham Street. The balcony has a concrete floor, decorative wrought iron balustrading and four half-height Doric columns. The balcony affords views across to Holy Trinity Church and associated grounds.
The rear courtyard contains the lavatory block and a two vehicle garage. A retaining wall separates the yard from the adjacent police carparking area which looks onto the former Fortitude Valley State School. This carparking area adjacent to the School was used as a playground by pupils attending the former Fortitude Valley State School until the 1940s.
","history":"Opened on 6 July 1936, the Fortitude Valley Police Station is a striking, two-storeyed red facebrick building with contrasting imitation stone dressings to arched entrances and window surrounds on the corner of Brookes and Wickham Streets, Fortitude Valley.
From the 1850s there was a spread of urban settlement into Fortitude Valley and the area quickly became a thriving village. By the end of the 19th century Fortitude Valley had emerged as an important commercial and retail area with a number of substantial buildings and was a popular residential area. The area continued to expand during the early decades of the 20th century.
The Fortitude Valley Police Station replaced an earlier station in Church Street when the area was elevated to the status of a police district in 1934 and the existing police station in Church Street was declared "quite inadequate for such an important quarter of the city." At the official opening the new station was described as the "finest, most up-to-date, and most comfortable police station in Queensland." The Station provided an entrance lobby and offices on the ground floor for the Inspector of Police and Clerks, Sergeant of Police and Clerk, Records, Station Sergeant's office, Constables and Non-Commissioned Officers' day rooms, plain and uniform Enquiry staff rooms with interrogating rooms, Paymaster and Enquiry rooms; dormitory accommodation, recreation rooms and sitting rooms, married and single men's messes, kitchen and lavatory and bathing facilities on the first floor; a lavatory block connected to the rear of the main building by a battened gangway; and garage to the rear corner of the courtyard. The dormitory was designed to provide commodious accommodation for single constables and were cross ventilated with tilting fanlights to each room. The building has been in continuous use as a police station since its construction.
With changes to police work practices the building has been altered on a number of occasions since 1962. The first floor dormitory accommodation has been adapted for use as office accommodation for the CIB, Records, interviewing rooms and intelligence data recording.
Glazed panels and door have been inserted within the elliptical arch between the main entrance lobby and the main hall; toilet and shower facilities have been refurbished; dropped ceilings have been inserted in some areas; plant for air conditioning and computers inserted; and an office mezzanine inserted within the former Sergeant's Clerks Office. The exterior of the building is substantially intact and much original interior fabric survives including window and door joinery; fibrous cement ceilings with timber cover strips; decorative plaster ceilings; plaster and timber skirtings and architraves; timber picture rails; decorative elliptical arch between the lobby and hall; terrazzo floors to the main entrance lobby and main hall; the main and subsidiary stair cases with terrazzo treads and landings, silky oak handrails and newels, decorative wrought iron balustrading and decorative consoles to the flat arched approaches to the stairwells. Formerly stained and varnished, the timber panelling to the walls throughout the public areas, cover strips to the fibrous cement ceilings, timber architraves, cornices and picture rails are now painted. The integrity and spatial relations of the internal planning remain.
The main entrance stair was an important component of the building and the french polishing section of the building specification referring to the stair handrails, newels and panelling states that "great care to be taken to show off the timber and panels to best advantage".
The Fortitude Valley Police Station is a landmark structure within a precinct of community service buildings including the Fortitude Valley Swimming Baths, former Fortitude Valley State School (QHR 602136), present Fortitude Valley State School, Holy Trinity Church (QHR 600202) and Holy Trinity Rectory (QHR 600201).
Designed by Raymond Clare Nowland, an architect in the Department of Public Works (DPW), the Fortitude Valley Police Station was constructed during an intensive public works building program undertaken by the Forgan Smith Labor Government in Queensland during the 1930s to counter the effects of the Depression.
Raymond Clare Nowland joined the architectural office of the DPW in November 1932 where he became a senior architect in 1938. He produced the most significant buildings of his career between 1932 and 1942 including the University of Queensland Medical School, Herston (1939); Brisbane Dental Hospital and College (1941) (QHR 601909); Police Barracks, Petrie Terrace (1942); the Cairns Government Offices (1935) (QHR 600376), the Rockhampton Police Court (QHR 600795), Toowoomba Police Station (QHR 601710) and Maryborough Government Offices (QHR 600713). Nowland undertook architectural studies at the Sydney Technical College (1911-14) and the Architectural Association School London (1919). In private practice from 1926-32, he undertook a range of domestic and commercial commissions including the Brisbane Clinic, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane (1930) (QHR 600171). His preference for designing within a restrained classicism reflects his architectural training, the prevailing professional architectural attitudes and the design direction given by the Chief Architect, A.B. Leven. Along with many British Empire architects of the 1930s, Leven and Nowland shared a respect for simplicity, order and rational planning which in his public work enabled Nowland to make a notable contribution to the architectural fabric of Queensland towns and cities.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1936, the Fortitude Valley Police Station was the second purpose-built police station erected on the police reserve. The prominent siting, scale and form of this distinctive L-shaped building to the corner of Brookes and Wickham Streets demonstrate the emerging importance of Fortitude Valley as an urban centre and the development of law and order services in the district. The Station provides evidence of the evolution of the role of police and police stations in a major urban district illustrating the decreasing importance of the provision of a supporting accommodation function to the establishment of the Station as an official base for extended police operations.
|The site has had a continuous association with law enforcement activities since 1889 and the present Fortitude Valley Police Station has been operating as a police station for the Fortitude Valley district since 1936. The place is a fine example of the planning of a 1930s police station with barracks though the barracks are now adapted for use as offices.
|A striking, L-shaped, two-storeyed, red facebrick building with contrasting rendered dressings, the Fortitude Valley Police Station is a landmark building on a busy arterial road and forms an integral part of an important group of community service buildings within the area. A prominent public building, the Station provides a strong civic presence and contributes to the streetscape. The careful detailing, use of materials and thoughtful composition illustrate competency in design and workmanship.
The Fortitude Valley Police Station is important for its intact exterior and for its surviving interiors particularly the main entrance lobby, hall and main stair.
The Fortitude Valley Police Station is an integral component within the picturesque precinct of ecclesiastical, recreational, law enforcement and educational buildings and associated grounds formed by the Holy Trinity Church (EHR600202), Holy Trinity Rectory (EHR201), Valley Swimming Baths, former Fortitude Valley State School (EHR602136) and present Fortitude Valley State School.
|The Fortitude Valley Police Station has a special association with Queensland Police, demonstrating the evolution of work practices and the changing nature of the lifestyle associated with police work in a major urban district.
The Fortitude Valley Police Station is important for its association with the extensive public works building program undertaken by the Forgan Smith Government throughout Queensland during the 1930s. The place is an important building within the body of work produced by the Department of Public Works in the first half of the 20th century. The Fortitude Valley Police Station is important for its association with the architect Raymond Clare Nowland. The building is one of the most notable structures designed by Nowland, an architect of considerable talent working in the Department of Public Works during the period of extensive public works building in the 1930s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15936,"place_ref":601171,"name":"Scott Street Flats","alternate_name":"Scott House","street_address":"2 Scott Street","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-04-29","description":"Scott Street Flats is a two storey, timber and masonry Tudor Revival building located overlooking the Brisbane River at Kangaroo Point. The building contains two flats, each occupying a full floor with identical floorplans. Almost square in plan, the building has a pyramid shaped, terracotta tiled roof with overhanging eaves. It is constructed of red face brick at ground level and has a half timbered appearance at upper level, achieved through the use of fibro-cement cladding with timber cover strips. The plain exterior of the building is simply elaborated with arched brick openings at ground floor level, small panels of timber lattice and a timber corbel between the two floors. The western elevation facing the river has four faceted bay windows and downpipes with prominent rainwater heads at each end.
Entry to the flats is on the eastern side of the building. Timber stairs lead to an upper level entry porch enclosed in timber lattice. A similar enclosure is located under the stairs, providing access to the ground floor flat.
The front door opens into an antechamber which narrows to become a hallway. To the left of the front door is a small door opening from the former maid's room. The hallway terminates in a vestibule, shaped as a square on 45 degrees, with doors on each of the four sides leading into various rooms. To the left is the kitchen and dining room, to the right, the sitting room and second bedroom. The main bedroom and bathroom are located off the hallway. An enclosed porch is found on the northern side of the bedrooms, connected by half glass, French doors. A service area and back stairs are located on the southern side of the kitchen and bathroom and provides access between the former maid's room, bathroom and kitchen.
There are timber floors and linoleum throughout and interior walls and ceilings are lined with fibro-cement with timber mouldings. The sitting room and dining room have a narrow plate rail and the ceilings are decorated with a simple grid of flat timber cover moulding. Some early light fittings and linoleum remain. There are generous amounts of built-in storage in all rooms. An entire wall of the kitchen contains a variety of cupboards, drawers and pantry spaces. One set of drawers operates in both directions between the kitchen and adjacent dining room. These drawers sit within a carefully designed storage unit of timber and glass that faces into the dining room.
Windows throughout are generally multi-paned casement windows and doors are timber with three panels and high mid rails, with original hardware throughout. Multi-paned, glass French doors are located between the dining room and sitting room and between the sitting room and porch. The bathroom and kitchen have timber ventilation panels, original features such as a cast iron, claw foot bath and porcelain enamel sinks and a painted concrete floor. A laundry is located in the southern garden at the back of the building and contains concrete sinks and galvanised iron water storage.
","history":"The Scott Street Flats, a two storey building of masonry and timber built in c1925 for Professor and Mrs Cumbrae-Stewart was designed by Elina Mottram, a pioneer woman architect in Queensland. The building is located in Kangaroo Point, close to the river and overlooking the Town Reach to the central business district of Brisbane city. The block is an amalgamation of two allotments that were once part of the Wesleyan Church Reserve of 1850. Mrs Zina Cumbrae-Stewart purchased the land in 1913. Upon her death in 1956, the property passed to her son Francis who is still registered as the owner.
Both Mrs Cumbrae-Stewart and her husband Frank (Francis) were prominent and active citizens of Brisbane early in the century. Frank Cumbrae-Stewart was a barrister and King's Counsel and was appointed the foundation registrar and librarian of the new University of Queensland in 1910. Among his numerous involvements, he was a founder and president of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland and a founder and trustee of the Oxley Library. Historical papers he authored included histories of the Brisbane River, Brisbane bridges and surveyors of the Queensland coast. In 1926 he became Garrick Professor of Law at the University of Queensland.
Mrs Cumbrae-Stewart was equally active. A deeply committed evangelical Anglican, she was an executive member of the Australian Red Cross in Queensland for twenty-two years, was an original member of the Mother's Union and its president for nine years and president of the National Council of Women of Queensland for nine years. She helped found the Queensland Social Service League in 1931 to cope with problems related to the Depression. Other societies she was involved with included the Mothercraft Association, the Traveller's Aid Society and the Shakespeare Society. Zina Cumbrae-Stewart was the first woman to speak from the platform of the Brisbane City Hall and had early involvement in educational broadcasting.
The Cumbrae-Stewarts moved from Taringa to Kangaroo Point sometime around 1914-15. In 1917-18, the Cumbrae-Stewarts moved to 283 Main Street, a large house located on the corner of Main and Scott Streets, adjacent to the site of the Scott Street Flats, which were constructed sometime in 1925. The flats were occupied from about 1926, the first listing to appear was a Lesley Backhouse. The Cumbrae-Stewarts resided at 283 Main Street until 1930. They then moved to the flats, which became known as "Scott House". In 1936 Professor Cumbrae-Stewart retired and the couple re-located to Melbourne where Mrs Cumbrae-Stewart was born and both had been educated.
State Government legislation of 1920 that increased the rating powers of local government and resulted in a doubling of general rates may have provided the impetus for the Cumbrae-Stewarts to develop their block. Many of the large 1880s houses of the inner city suburbs were being converted into flats to address the housing shortages in Brisbane in the 1920s. The Queensland Magazine of May 1925 reported that in Kangaroo Point there were "many beautiful homes still occupied by tenants who have no desire to cut up their gardens to make room for small villas" but that "some very modern flats have sprung up". It was an enterprising move on the part of Mrs Cumbrae-Stewart to build the flats with the dual purpose of investment and providing a convenient home for her husband and herself in their latter years.
In the article "Women Architects and Victorian Modern: 1930-1960", Sarah Schoffel points out that women who were first to enter the architectural profession were restricted in their ability to attract clients, especially in the corporate sector - "women did not have access to the mysterious but often profitable workings of the 'old boy network'." Women did, however, begin to develop their own associations, Schoffel writes "there is also a likelihood that as women architects became more senior they formed connections with other influential women, particularly those involved in welfare and church work, through their membership of the various Melbourne Women's Clubs." We can assume that it was connections such as these that brought Zina Cumbrae-Stewart and Elina Mottram together as client and architect in the mid 1920s. Certainly, Mrs Cumbrae-Stewart was a member of the Lyceum Club in Brisbane and it appears that she took responsibility for most of the family's financial dealings.
Elina Mottram was born in 1903. The only child of building contractor Arthur Mottram, she had early encouragement to become an architect. In 1924, she was the first woman in Brisbane to open her own architectural practice. The Architects and Builders Journal of Queensland reported:
Brisbane has at last a lady architect, in the person of Miss Elina Mottram, of Nundah, who has commenced the practice of her professional in the T and G Building. We offer congratulations on her recent successes at the Technical College and trust that she will get her fair share of support.
She was fortunate to establish her practice during the pre-Depression building boom in Brisbane. Domestic commissions formed the basis of her early work but she went on to have a long and varied career in architecture. In fact, of the small group of nine pioneering women architects in Queensland (that is, those practising before World War II), Mottram was the only one to pursue her architectural career for the full length of her working life.
She taught Building Construction at the Brisbane Central Technical College and from 1926 was a sole practitioner in the central western Queensland town of Longreach. In Longreach she designed a number of houses and public buildings including the Masonic Temple and Longreach Motors, and re-modelled the AWU Hall and the School of Arts. In 1937 she was in partnership with her father in Rockhampton as "A. and E. Mottram. Contractor and Architect". One of their major jobs was the Longreach Hospital and in 1940, she was "foreman" of works on the first stage of construction of this building which was designed by Hall and Phillips. During the Second World War she worked as a draftswoman in the American Army Engineering Office in Rockhampton. Later as a Queensland Railways architect she designed the new railway station at Eagle Junction. A residence in Corinda and the Scott Street Flats are the only known remaining intact examples of her work in Brisbane.
The 1920s saw an increasing number of purpose-built flats erected in inner Brisbane. Tender notices in the Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland indicate that the number of new flats being constructed grew steadily in the early to mid 1920s, reaching record levels in 1929. The economic depression of the early 1930s brought a halt to flat-building activities, which began to recover again in the mid 1930s. 1933-36 was the boom time for flat construction in Brisbane. The Scott Street Flats are an early example of purpose-designed flats and reflect the interwar preference for Old English or Tudor Revival and Spanish/Mediterranean design themes.
Purpose-designed flats introduced a range of new domestic features, some of which are evident in the Scott Street flats. The amount of built-in storage is a significant feature - the kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms are all equipped with sensibly detailed, space efficient units. A maid's bedroom was a feature of many of the more prestigious flats. The Scott Street flats are carefully planned to enable back-of-house movement between bathroom, kitchen, laundry and maid's room on the Southern side of the building whilst maintaining formal living spaces and bedrooms orientated to the North and to city and river views. The two-way drawers and narrow door from maid's room to entry hall are features that allowed the residents to maintain their genteel lifestyles in the new domestic environment of a flat.
","criteria":"Scott Street Flats, a two storey building of masonry and timber built in c1925, is historically important for its association with the entry of women into the professions in Queensland, particularly into the architectural profession.
Scott Street Flats is important in demonstrating the interwar residential development of Brisbane when flats appeared in inner-city suburbs, increasing the density and diversity of the city's housing stock.
|Scott Street Flats demonstrate rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage as there are few surviving intact examples of the work of pioneer woman architects in Queensland.
|The building has aesthetic significance as a well designed example of an early purpose-built flats building in the Tudor Revival style.
|The Scott Street Flats have a special association with the work of Elina Mottram, the first woman to open her own architectural practice in Brisbane and Queensland's longest practising woman architect.
The Scott Street Flats also have an association with Professor and Mrs Cumbrae-Stewart, prominent citizens of Brisbane in the 1910s, 20s and 30s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15944,"place_ref":601180,"name":"Wickham House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"155-157 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-06-23","description":"Wickham House is a five storey building, with an attic, of rendered brick with reinforced concrete floors located towards the eastern end of Wickham Terrace, overlooking the city centre. The ground floor features two shops either side of the entrance to the building on Wickham Terrace.
The Wickham Terrace facade, with three bays has restrained Georgian details including oriel windows with decorative mouldings, a centrally located balcony with rendered balustrading and brackets and moulded string course. Rectangular double hung sash windows, with multi-paned upper windows and moulded architraves, define each storey horizontally. The four upper floors of the building terminate in a projecting dentilled cornice, which does not continue right around the building.
The Upper Edward Street façade, has seven bays, defined by two oriel windows at either end of the façade and a centrally located balcony with rendered balustrading and brackets. Similarly to the Wickham Terrace façade, rectangular double hung sash windows, with multi-paned upper windows and moulded architraves, define each storey horizontally. At ground floor level, the building is rendered and scored to resemble ashlar. The row of double hung sash windows have keystone motifs. A second entrance is located in the Upper Edward Street facade. A round arched opening with large decorative brackets is located above the entrance.
Internally, the entrance foyer has a timber dado panel and timber staircase leading to the upper floors which contain medical suites. The floor is marble and the timber door has bevelled glazing.
","history":"Wickham House, a five storey masonry building, with basement, was constructed in 1924 to a design by Francis R Hall and built by FJ Corbett.
Known as Windmill Hill to residents during the 1840s and 1850s, the Wickham Terrace area was subdivided during 1856 and sold to wealthy citizens. Following the first land sales along the Terrace, also known as 'The Ridge', houses began being constructed. Due to its location, close to the city and elevated, the area soon became popular for professional and business families.
Wickham Terrace was evolving into an area of boarding houses and homes, schools, clubs and medical rooms. Doctors were living and practising on Wickham Terrace as early as the 1860s. One of the first was Dr Joseph Bancroft, who occupied several houses including Athol Place [600167], Inchcolm [600170] and Carlton House. During the 1880s, many doctors and their families moved onto Wickham Terrace, however, by the end of World War I, doctors became more specialised and starting setting up rooms on the Terrace, moving their families out to the suburbs, separating their place of work from their home.
A medical entrepreneur, Dr ACF Halford, commissioned architect FR Hall to design a building for consulting rooms for medical specialists. On 6 January 1923, Hall called for tenders for the construction of '...professional flats at the corner of Wickham terrace and Upper Edward street (to cost £25000)...'. Built by FJ Corbett, Wickham House was opened in July 1924. Allan Oxlade was the decorator and the joinery and floor lino were supplied by James Campbell and Sons Ltd. The building was featured in the Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland on 7 July 1924:
'Brisbane is be congratulated on the enterprise of Dr ACF Halford in erecting such a modern and up-to-date suite of professional chambers known as Wickham House, just completed... on Wickham terrace... The building consists of five floors and basement, that portion facing Wickham Terrace consisting of two shops, one occupied by Mr DJ Clark (Chemist) and the other by Medical and Surgical Requisites Ltd... the main entrance... vestibule... is panelled and floored in marble with swing doors of bevelled glass...'
Wickham House was part of the interwar redevelopment of the medical precinct along Wickham Terrace, which included Brisbane Clinic [600171], Ballow Chambers [600164], Inchcolm [600170] and Craigston [600165]. Their construction constituted the second phase, the first being in the 1880s, of the Terrace's growth as a medical precinct. The attic roof was a later addition to the building in the 1960s.
Wickham House, together with Ballow Chambers, was the scene of a tragic occurrence in December 1955. On Thursday, 1 December 1955, Karl Kast, carrying a home-made bomb shot dead two doctors, Dr AV Meehan and Dr AR Murray and wounded Dr MJ Gallagher and George Boland. A fourth doctor, Dr JRS Lahz was severely traumatised due to the incident. Dr Michael J Gallahger, Kast's first victim, was shot in his offices in Wickham House. Kast then ignited three bombs in the foyer of Wickham House. George Boland, a patient of one of the doctor's in the building, attempted to stub out the bomb only to have it explode and maim his hand. Kast then went to Ballow Chambers, around hundred metres down Wickham Terrace, where he shot Dr Andrew R Murray and attempted to apprehend Dr John RS Latz, who escaped. Following his rampage, Kast locked himself in the office of Dr Lahz, within Ballow Chambers, where he shot himself and ignited another bomb. He later died in hospital. The tragedy was reported in the Courier-Mail on Friday, 2 December, as '...a horrible crime ...[that]...sent a shock of horror through the city and all Queensland'.
Wickham House continues to accommodate medical specialists, maintaining the purpose for which the building was designed and constructed.
","criteria":"Wickham House is important in demonstrating the interwar evolution of Wickham Terrace as an example of specialist medical rooms in Brisbane, and is associated with the development of specialist medicine in Queensland. Wickham House was part of the interwar redevelopment of the medical precinct along Wickham Terrace, which included Brisbane Clinic [600171], Ballow Chambers [600164], Inchcolm [600170] and Craigston [600165]. Their construction constituted the second phase, the first being in the 1880s, of the Terrace's growth as a medical precinct, and was indicative of new directions toward specialist medicine in Queensland in the interwar years.
|Prominently located at the corner of Wickham Terrace and Upper Edward Street, Wickham House is an accomplished and intact building which is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a purpose-built interwar medical office building, including in the restrained design the assertion of medical specialist prestige.
|As one of a related group of classical facades, Wickham House with its neo-Georgian facade exhibits a strong contribution to the Wickham Terrace streetscape.
|The building has a special association with Brisbane architect Francis R Hall, as a prominent example of his work, and as a building which continues to function for the purpose for which it was designed and constructed.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15962,"place_ref":601198,"name":"The Substation","alternate_name":"Paddington Tramways Substation","street_address":"150 Enoggera Terrace","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-03-22","description":"The former tramway substation is a rendered masonry building with a flat concrete roof behind a parapet wall. It is situated prominently adjacent to the intersection of Latrobe and Enoggera Terraces.
The symmetrical facades demonstrate a classical influence in their design. The building has corner pilasters with the longer north and south elevations having a central pilaster. The building has a heavy cornice, feature panels of rough render and a base which is scribed to suggest large size stone blocks.
The building has large sash windows with mottled glass panes with a panel of galvanised iron louvres to either side of each window. There are also ventilation panels in the base and below the cornice. A set of large timber doors is located on the north, which has been painted bright colours, and a section of the base has also been painted.
Internally the building has concrete floors, painted brick walls and steel beams to the roof, with metal covers to the panels of louvres and pink glass inserts to the centre of the sash windows. The east end of the space has a raised floor accessed via a steep metal stair with a more recent steel pipe railing.
The original arrangement of equipment is evident. Floor ducting for the power supply is located in the west end of the space but has been filled in. The high tension switchgear and 1100 KVA transformer have been removed. The upper level has a concrete platform, supported on brick piers, where the rotary converter was located. The original location of the relay panel can be seen against the south wall, and the control and feeder panel against the east wall which supplied power to the feeder cables located either end at the top of the east wall. A toilet cubicle is located in the southeast corner of the space, over which an air compressor was once situated. An overhead gantry crane is still intact. A low exit door has been cut in the south wall, at a later date, and has an external timber access stair. The feeder cables were supported externally by large curved brackets on the east wall which remain intact with insulators. An AC transformer is located externally to the west.
On the western perimeter is a section of stone wall which was part of the gardens originally located on the site.
","history":"The former tramways substation was erected in 1929-30, during a period of tramways expansion which followed the Brisbane City Council's 1925 acquisition of the tramways system from the Brisbane Tramways Trust. It was erected on Cook's Hill, along the Paddington line, on land which was formerly part of the adjacent Ithaca Fire Station.
The Brisbane Tramways Company, a private enterprise formed in 1895, introduced the first electric trams to Brisbane in mid-1897. Following lobbying by the Ithaca Shire Council, a tramway was extend along Musgrave Road to Red Hill, and a line was laid along Caxton Street and Given Terrace as far as Latrobe Terrace in 1898. The Red Hill line was extended to Ashgrove in 1924, and the Paddington line was extended to Bardon in 1937. The spread of the tramways network was a catalyst for residential development in the western suburbs.
In 1926 the Greater Brisbane Council, anxious to control the city's electricity supply, decided to build its own power house at New Farm, under the supervision of the BCC Tramways Department. Opened on 28 June 1928, New Farm distributed 11000 kW AC power to a network of eleven suburban tramway substations erected in the 1920s and 1930s. The function of the Paddington substation, the seventh in the network, was to assist the Petrie Terrace substation (erected 1927-28) in providing a better distribution of power to the increased western suburbs tram services.
Considerable attention was given to the design of these substations. Roy Rusden Ogg, the tramways' architect and construction engineer from 1926 until the late 1930s, in conjunction with tramways' chief engineers Nelson (1925-26) and Arundell (1926-49?), designed at least ten Brisbane substations between 1926 and 1936, and the first two stages of the New Farm powerhouse (1927-29 and 1934-36). Ogg also designed the Tramways Department's Head Office building on Coronation Drive (1929). The Paddington substation, constructed of bricks and structural steel from the old Countess Street power house (closed in mid-1928), was the first of his substation designs to incorporate a parapet wall, flat roof and exterior render.
The Paddington substation was automatic, equipped with an 1100 KVA transformer, a British-Thomson-Houston 1000 kW rotary converter, switchgear, support services, and an overhead crane (designed by the Tramways Department). The substation received 11000 volts AC electricity from the New Farm Power station, via an underground feeder cable. The transformer reduced this supply, which the rotary converter then converted to 600 volts DC for the tramways network.
The substation commenced operation on 11 August 1930 and remained in service until the phasing out of Brisbane's trams in the late 1960s. In 1969 the Paddington line was closed, the substation's electrical equipment was removed, and the building became a storage depot. In 1985, Hands On Art was given a fifteen year lease of the building.
","criteria":"The Paddington Substation is important in demonstrating part of the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history, in that it provides evidence of Brisbane's early 20th century tramway system and its contribution to the growth of the inner western suburbs; and has had a close association with the development of Brisbane's electricity supply system.
|In elements of the fabric and design, the building demonstrates now rare evidence of the electrical system arrangement and working of an interwar, rotary converter type, tramways substation in Brisbane.
|The substation is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a small scale industrial building designed for a prominent urban location.
The building has a special association with the work of tramways architect RR Ogg and chief engineer W Arundell.
|The substation exhibits a landmark quality and contribution to the Brisbane townscape which is valued by the community.
|The building has strong social and cultural associations with the Paddington community, being an integral member of an historic group of sites on Cook's Hill which includes the former Ithaca Fire Station [601199], the Ithaca War Memorial and Park [600274], and Ithaca Embankments [601209].
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15963,"place_ref":601199,"name":"Ithaca Fire Station (former)","alternate_name":"Ithaca Fire Station","street_address":"140 Enoggera Terrace","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-03-02","description":"Ithaca Fire Station (former), situated near the junction of Enoggera and Latrobe Terraces, is a two storeyed building with a hipped corrugated fibro cement roof.
\nThe building is clad with chamferboards at the ground floor and fibro cement to the first floor. The north elevation has a central projecting vehicle bay with two sets of folding timber and glass garage doors. The ground floor has timber sash windows with decorative timber bracketed window hoods, while on the first floor there are casement windows.
\nInternally, the central vehicle bay has a concrete floor with timber floors to the locker room, recreation area and offices on each side. The ground floor walls have tongue and groove boards, the ceilings are boarded and a recessed bay with mottled glass panels opens off the vehicle bay to the locker room. The first floor has tongue and groove boards to the walls, fibro-cement ceiling, timber floors elsewhere, and bathroom and toilet. Some of the original fire station fittings survive.
\n","history":"
The ground floor of this timber and fibro-cement building was erected in 1918-19 as the headquarters of the Ithaca Fire Brigade. The brigade was formed in 1918 by the merger of the Ithaca and Milton Volunteer Fire Brigades, and provided the inner western suburbs with a permanent firefighting force of four, with six auxiliary staff.
\nThe building was erected on Cook's Hill, at the junction of Latrobe and Enoggera Terraces, near where the Ithaca Volunteer Fire Brigade station had stood. The new building was constructed by the firefighters themselves at a cost of £500, using materials from dismantled fire stations. It was designed by the superintendent, A J Harper, who also supervised the work. Site excavation, terracing, and installation of a septic tank were carried out by the Ithaca Town Council, who were eager to promote an improved firefighting service in the town.
\nThe station was opened on 8 February 1919 by the Mayor of Ithaca, Alderman Kaye. It comprised an engine room, recreation room, large dormitory, bathroom and verandah. Located within the grounds were a large shed, which possibly pre-dated the station building, and a fire hose tower, removed from the former Milton Volunteers' Baroona Road station.
\nIn 1921 Brisbane's fire brigades combined to form the Metropolitan Fire Brigades District, and the station continued to be known as the Ithaca Fire Station.
\nExtensive landscaping of Cook's Hill was undertaken in 1919 by the Ithaca Town Council's gardener, Alexander Jolly. Most of this was destroyed with the construction of the adjacent tramway substation in 1929-30.
\nIn 1938 a first floor was added as accommodation for the officer in charge. The architects were Atkinson, Powell and Conrad and the builder was FW Enchelmaier.[1] During the Second World War the building was a base for the Wartime Auxiliary Fire Service.
\nThe fire station functioned until August 1992, when it was vacated. It was the longest operating fire station in the Brisbane area. The hose tower was removed some time after 1981.
\nThe galvanised iron storage shed which was located between the fire station building and the adjacent substation was removed in 1995.
","criteria":"The Ithaca Fire Station (former), constructed in two stages, 1918-19 and 1928, is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, as it is an integral part of a group of civic buildings and places along Enoggera Terrace which demonstrate the identity of the former Ithaca Town.
|It demonstrates the principal characteristics of an early 20th century suburban fire station.
|It exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, including its landmark quality and contribution to the Paddington townscape.
|The place has strong social and cultural association with the Paddington and Brisbane communities as an integral member of an historic group on Cook's Hill which includes the adjacent Ithaca War Memorial and Park [600274], The Paddington Substation [601198], and Ithaca Embankments [601209].
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15967,"place_ref":602472,"name":"Hefferan Park Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"260 Annerley Road","suburb":"ANNERLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The Hefferan Park air raid shelter is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab and a flat roof supported by concrete piers. It stands adjacent to a playground under the canopies of mature fig trees in the northern end of Hefferan Park, which is located at a major road intersection, and is near the Dutton Park Railway Station. The roof of the shelter is painted light green. The bottom sections of the piers are painted red, while the upper sections of the piers are painted white. The floor of the shelter is paved with red and white pavers in a diagonal pattern.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Hefferan Park as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The blast walls of the Hefferan Park air raid shelter were removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the walls is still visible. The shelter roof and piers have been painted and concrete pavers have been laid on the floor.
","criteria":"The Hefferan Park air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located in Hefferan Park is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The Hefferan Park air raid shelter, now used as a park shelter, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15972,"place_ref":601208,"name":"Roma Street Railway Station","alternate_name":"Brisbane Terminus | Brisbane Terminal Station | Brisbane Passenger Station","street_address":"15 Countess Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-03-24","description":"Roma Street Railway Station occupies a 0.55ha site within the extensive Roma Street Station transit complex, located on the western side of the Brisbane central business district. The substantial masonry station building (1875) is set back from and faces Roma Street (although partially obscured by later development), and has a prominent centred entrance to the front (south) and a platform along the rear (north). A later platform and awning to the south is associated with the former Country Station development (1939/40).
\nFeatures of Roma Street Railway Station of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nThe state-level periods of significance of the place are layered and relate to its origins and use as a passenger station (1875-1940) and railway design, traffic and management offices (1875-1974), and the establishment of the former Country Station (1939/40).
\nA large iron-roofed shelter (c1980) to the east of the station, small buildings to the west, and a lift, stairs and escalators accessing the modern subway below, are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nStation building (1875)
\nDesigned in a Victorian-era style, the station building features classically-influenced design elements based around symmetrical massing and floor plan geometry. The long, narrow building is constructed of face brick with a stone plinth, and comprises a central two-storey three-bay core flanked by single-storey wings at the east and west ends. The well-composed front (south) elevation has a prominent centred entrance bay with a projecting two-storey porte cochere (carriage porch, upper storey added 1915) and a ground floor arcade running the length of the core.
\nThe slate-clad roof is hipped over the range, with separate hips over the wings and carriage porch. Tall masonry chimneys punctuate the roofline. A ventilated lantern, clerestories and skylights provide natural light and ventilation to the first floor interior. Pedimented dormer windows fronting the wings strengthen the building’s symmetry.
\nDecorative stone mouldings contrast with the red face brick and articulate the extensive classically-influenced elements and ornamentation. Windows openings (front and side elevations) have face brick round arch heads with stone hoods, and are separated by pilasters with stone capitals. The ground floor window hoods and arcade openings are differentiated from the first floor fenestration by their gothic-influenced depressed pointed arches.
\nDesigned to support the former platform shade (removed 1959), the rear (north) elevation has a parapet and substantial buttresses at the east and west ends. Regularly spaced pilasters separate the paired first floor windows, and bring order to the irregularly-spaced ground floor windows and door openings.
\nThe layout and design of the building interior reflects its original and continued uses – ground floor passenger station and first floor railway administration offices. Evidence remains of the functional and hierarchical layering of spaces, circulation patterns and finishes that distinguished former public and non-public areas, passenger class divisions, and evolving railway operations. Substantial masonry walls outlining the three-bay core extend through both levels and contain fireplaces in public areas and offices. Ground floor rooms are accessed via openings directly from the arcade or platform, or via internal passageways, depending on their former function. The end wings contain stairwells (two west, one east) accessing the first floor, each with separate external entrances.
\nThe core ground floor layout comprises: (central bay) a large former booking hall, divided in two and with separate entrances for first (east) and second (west) class passengers, with a curve-walled ticket office centred on the northern wall, and an early strong room (1911) in the southwest corner; (east bay) former first class waiting rooms (originally separate ladies and gents rooms, combined c1920s for a parcels office), and a luggage passage at the eastern end of the arcade; (west bay) former Station Master’s office, second class waiting room and parcels office (1911 Traffic Collector’s office, west wall removed), arranged along an east-west passageway, and a former telegraph office also accessed via a lobby (openings altered and enclosed) at the western end of the arcade.
\nIn addition to stairwells, the west wing also contains a former book stall office (c1920s Traffic Collector’s office), toilet facilities and access passages. The east wing layout was partly reconfigured in c1920s for a printing office but retains evidence of a former guards and porters room (openings in north wall altered), lamp room (south wall removed), and passage (divided to form gas meter rooms).
\nThe first floor contains offices and associated rooms accessed via a central passageway that runs the length of the building, with an S-bend at the junction of the central and west core bays. A former messenger room and lumber rooms (by 1907) are located in the east wing. The rendered masonry bay walls are articulated by moulded archways where they traverse the passageway, and an elaborate central doorway separates the former Office of Engineer and Railways (east), and the Traffic Managers Department offices (west,). The offices are ventilated and well-lit by skylights and clerestories that supplement the natural lighting from the windows lining the building. Built-in office joinery, redundant communication systems and other services, along with wall-mounted ephemera, illustrate the former functions of the place.
\nStabilisation and conservation works undertaken in recent years have included the restoration and reconstruction of some original and early features in accordance with Burra Charter principles and practice.
\nFeatures of the station building also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nExterior
\nInterior – ground floor
\nInterior – first floor
\nFeatures of the station building not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nPlatform (1875)
\nThe straight, narrow concrete platform along the northern side of the station building illustrates the original and continued use of the place as a passenger station.
\nFeatures of the northern platform also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the northern platform not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nCountry Station platform and awning (1939)
\nThe long, slightly curved platform and awning extending to the west on the southern side of station building, are remnants of the Country Station (1939/40-1985) that was built between the station building and Roma Street.
\nFeatures of the Country Station platform and awning also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the southern platform and awning not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nViews
\nThe station building was designed by FDG Stanley to be a landmark seen from Roma Street so views of its southern elevation are of state-level cultural heritage significance. These views are partially obscured by later development including the Country Station platform awning, Busway Station and Brisbane Transit Centre.
\nOther views have been available over the life of the station building from a range of vantage points, including:
\nThe Roma Street Railway Station was opened in 1875 as the first Brisbane Terminal Station for use on the Brisbane end of the Southern and Western Railway Line from Ipswich. The two-storey station building was designed by Francis Drummond Greville (FDG) Stanley, the Colonial Architect and Superintendent of Public Buildings, in 1873 and built over the next two years by Brisbane builder, John Petrie. The station operated as the Brisbane terminal station until 1889, as a major passenger and administration station until 1940, and Brisbane’s primary railway goods facility until 1991. It served as offices for the Queensland Railway Department (later Queensland Railways, later Queensland Rail) staff for over 100 years, and is the one of the oldest surviving railway buildings in Queensland.
\nIn the Australian colonies, governments fostered the development of railways as a means of developing the country and encouraging settlement. It was argued that rail would reduce freight costs and save travel time for passengers.[1] Queensland’s first railway survey was undertaken by the New South Wales Government in 1856,[2] and following separation,[3] Queensland Parliament passed the Railway Act in 1863, enabling railways to be constructed in the colony. The railway network developed along decentralised lines extending from ports to pastoral and mining centres. The first line, between Ipswich and Bigge's Camp, 34km west of Ipswich (later Grandchester, QHR600729), was opened in 1865. This was the first stage of the four-stage Southern and Western Railway project which linked Ipswich to Toowoomba in 1867, Warwick in 1871, and Dalby in 1878. New railways opened west from Rockhampton in 1867 (the Northern Line, later renamed the Central Railway), west from Townsville in 1880 (the Great Northern Line), Cairns in 1887, and south from Normanton in 1891.
\nThe Southern and Western Railway served the pastoralists and industrialists of Ipswich and the Darling Downs, and was primarily for goods, rather than passengers. With the railhead at Ipswich, a railway to Brisbane was not initially considered essential, as goods could be shipped from Ipswich to Brisbane’s port for export. However, the Bremer and upper Brisbane rivers could not cope with large shipping, and lobbying began for an extension to Brisbane. A preliminary survey of possible lines was completed in 1865,[4] but concerns over the extension’s financial viability put work on hold. A Royal Commission on Railway Construction was called in the 1870s, and recommended the extension: the business generated by it was likely to be profitable, and the colony’s economy, which had collapsed in the mid-1860s, had been bolstered by the Gympie gold rush and was better able to afford new infrastructure.[5]
\nThe extension between Ipswich and Oxley was approved in August 1872,[6] and, the first sod on the extension was turned at Goodna in January 1873. From Oxley, two lines had been surveyed, terminating either at North or South Brisbane. After extensive debate, the route to North Brisbane, via a bridge at Oxley Point (Indooroopilly), was chosen as more cost-effective.[7] The terminus of this route, selected by Railway Department Chief Engineer HC Stanley, was located within the Grammar School reserve at the base of the ‘Green Hills’ (Petrie Terrace). The site was unused by the school and was large enough for a major passenger station and goods yard.[8]
\nThe section between Oxley and Brisbane was approved in October 1873,[9] and the Government called for tenders for the construction of the railway terminus station in Brisbane.[10] FDG Stanley, the recently-appointed Colonial Architect and Superintendent of Buildings within the Public Works Department, was the designer of the building.[11] Stanley had commenced with the Public Works Department in 1863, serving as Superintendent of Buildings after Charles Tiffin vacated the Colonial Architect’s position. He was the official Colonial Architect from 1873-1883, when the colony, recovering from the economic collapse of the 1860s, began to invest in public buildings. Stanley’s designs, balancing classical styles and stylistic features with climate-appropriate adaptations and economic restraint, helped define public architecture in Queensland.[12] Extant examples of major works, designed while he was Colonial Architect, include the original State Library (1876-9, QHR600177); Toowoomba Court House (1876-8, QHR600848); Townsville Magistrates Court (1876-7, QHR600929); Townsville Gaol (now part of Townsville Central State School, 1877, QHR601162); Brisbane’s Port Office (1880, QHR600088); Toowoomba Hospital (surviving kitchen wing 1880, QHR601296); post offices at Gympie (1878-80, QHR600534), South Brisbane (1881, QHR600302) and Toowoomba (1880, QHR600847); as well as the Brisbane Supreme Court (no longer extant). As Superintendent of Buildings he designed the Toowoomba Railway Station (1874, QHR600872), Government Printing Office (1873, QHR600114) and Lady Elliott Island Lighthouse (1872-3).
\nThe Brisbane Courier provided a detailed description of the proposed Terminus Passenger Station in October 1873:
\nThe general style of the building will be that known as the Italian Gothic order of architecture. The material used...will be pressed brick with cut stone facings, this being chosen on account of its durability and as also affording the greatest consonant with economy. The station will consist of a main building, two storeys high, flanked at each end by a single storey wing.[13]
\nThe building was designed to house both a passenger station and railway administrative offices. Passengers would access the station from Roma Street via a carriageway, disembarking at the station’s central carriage porch. The porch fronted a 10ft (3m) wide arcade running the length of the main building. From the arcade, passengers would enter either the first-class booking office on the east or the second-class booking office on the west, both served by a semi-circular ticket office on the rear (northern) wall. Female passengers travelling on second-class tickets could wait in a small room located along a western passage, while separate waiting rooms for first-class male and female passengers were east of the first-class booking office. Doorways in the rear wall of the booking offices and waiting rooms led directly onto the 190-foot (58m) long departure platform. Arriving passengers exited the station via a second platform across the rail line.[14] Luggage was loaded onto trains via the luggage passage, on the eastern end of the building. The guards and porters room, staff facilities, a lamp room and stairs to the upper floor were situated in the eastern wing. The western side of the building held public services, including the telegraph office, station master’s office, and parcel and book office, accessible via a public lobby at the end of the arcade. A private staircase to the traffic managers’ office, a staircase to the traffic department, and toilet facilities were located in the western wing. An office or book stall space, in the northwestern side of the building, was accessible from the platform.[15]
\nUpstairs, the offices of the traffic department, clerks, accountant, draughtsmen, Railways Engineer, Resident Engineer and contractors were accessed from a central passageway which ran almost the length of the building; with a small S-bend in the western end. An arch in the centre of the corridor marked the separation of the traffic department from the Chief Engineer’s office. Both wings hosted staircases.[16]
\nThe building included adaptations for the climate. The arcade sheltered the ground floor rooms from the sun, while skylights in the ceiling and a ventilated lantern provided light and ventilation to the upper floor. All public rooms and most of the offices were fitted with fireplaces. A platform shade, installed on the northern wall of the building over the platform, sheltered passengers from the weather, and was composed of material from an iron station building imported from England for use at Toowoomba.[17] It was supported by brick buttresses at both ends of the building (extant) and on the arrivals platform (no longer extant).[18]
\nCommensurate with Stanley’s design approach, materials used for the station reflected elegance but economy. Apart from the recycled iron roof trusses and columns, the building was constructed of machine-pressed bricks made from locally-sourced clay, more affordable than stone, and praised as ‘cleaner, sharper [and] finer’[19] than Brisbane bricks used in earlier buildings.[20] Freestone for the building dressings and columns was sourced from Murphy’s Creek.[21]
\nConstruction work took place over two years, after contractor John Petrie’s tender of £11,845 was accepted in December 1873.[22] Progress was slow, with the stonework foundations underway in June 1874,[23] and the building only ten foot above the ground by September.[24] The line from Ipswich to Brisbane was opened without ceremony on 14 June 1875. The platform at Brisbane Terminus Passenger Station was half-paved, the rooms and corridors incomplete, the roofing over the platform in progress and there was no permanent lighting. Nonetheless, an interested crowd gathered to watch the first outbound services leave the station.[25] The building was sufficiently complete by August 1875 for the Brisbane Courier to describe it as ‘in all respects convenient, handsome, and well-designed’.[26] The station’s arcade was later highlighted as one of Brisbane’s valued architectural features.[27]
\nThe Brisbane to Ipswich route quickly became the busiest section of line in Queensland.[28] Merchandise and imported goods from the ports were despatched along the line, while produce from the Darling Downs and surrounds – including coal, flour, wool, hay, maize, livestock, vegetable and dairy produce – was brought to Brisbane.[29] A central goods handling facility was opened at the Terminal Station, including a large (64m long) goods shed[30] and two sidings, erected in 1875-6 (no longer extant), while railway produce markets opened outside the station, along George and Roma streets. A maintenance yard also operated at Roma Street, including locomotive and carriage sheds. By 1882 the Terminal Station platforms had been extended to cope with the traffic and trade.[31] Traffic reduced slightly after some export goods were diverted to South Brisbane in 1884,[32] but expanded again.[33] Cattle yards, produce sheds, carriage sheds, gas works, goods sheds, coal stages, cold stores, additional locomotive sheds and siding extensions were all added to Roma Street’s goods yard. None of these structures survive in 2020.[34]
\nPassengers also used the line. Residential occupation of Toowong and Indooroopilly boomed as middle-class city workers took advantage of the four daily train services. In 1882 rail lines were opened from the Terminal Station to Sandgate and the Racecourse, taking day-trippers to the seaside and races, and bringing northern suburbs passengers into Brisbane.[35] In January 1888, the first through-service to Sydney departed from the Terminal Station. However, travellers criticised the lack of direct access from the Terminal Station to the central business district, and in 1889, the Brisbane Central Railway Station was opened. Central Railway Station (QHR 600073) – located closer to the General Post Office and city office buildings – became Brisbane’s main passenger station, and the original Terminal Station was renamed Roma Street Railway Station.[36]
\nDespite its diminished status, Roma Street remained a major centre for passengers and travellers. Through the 19th and early 20th centuries, guards of honour lined Roma Street to greet and farewell significant visitors and figures, including premiers Morehead and Griffith,[37] governors Norman and Lamington;[38] Governor-General Munro-Ferguson;[39] the late politician JM Macrossan, who had died in Sydney;[40] singer Nellie Melba;[41] Lord Kitchener;[42] and Salvation Army General Booth.[43] Roma Street continued to operate as the Sydney Mail terminus until 1931, when the service shifted to South Brisbane.[44] Crowds thronged to Roma Street Station as soldiers departed for the South African War[45] and World War I.[46] Travelling circuses performed in the Roma Street yards,[47] and an historic parade in 1936 included a ‘Puffing Billy’ locomotive,[48] which was displayed at the yards until 1959. Roma Street also continued as the city’s primary goods terminus.[49]
\nThe station building played an important role as office accommodation for Queensland railway staff. Internal rearrangements were made to the building to accommodate growing staff numbers, and improve their working conditions. It was one of the first buildings in Queensland to feature electric light, installed in 1884.[50] The Chief Engineer vacated the building in 1901 and was replaced by the general traffic manager’s department, with a telephonic system of communication installed the same year.[51] Bunker, lumber and message rooms were added to the wings by 1907; a traffic collector’s office and new strongroom were installed in 1911;[52] and parcels, printing offices and machine rooms replaced the first-class waiting rooms, guards’ room and lamp room by 1920.[53] In 1915, an additional storey was constructed atop the central carriage porch, providing more accommodation for the Traffic Branch on the first floor.[54] A traffic control system, coordinating trains between Brisbane and Gympie, was installed and operated from the additional storey in 1927.[55]
\nQueensland’s railway network extended dramatically in the 20th century. The North Coast line connected Brisbane to Gladstone in 1898, Rockhampton in 1904, and Cairns in 1924, providing a direct rail link between Brisbane and Mackay, Townsville, Winton, Forsayth, Cloncurry and Blackall. Southern and western trains reached Dirranbandi, Surat, Cunnamulla and Quilpie.[56] Central Station initially hosted ‘country’ services, but it lacked room for expansion, and Roma Street’s larger site was earmarked for a new country station. Roma Street’s locomotive, carriage and marshalling yard facilities were transferred to the Mayne Rail Yards between 1911 and 1927,[57] and work began on the new station.[58] A 350ft (106m) reinforced concrete, tiled passenger subway was constructed from Roma Street to the platforms in 1936-7, replacing an overhead walkway.[59] A new steel awning was installed above the southern platform (Platform 3 in 2020), in approximately 1939.[60] It was used in conjunction with two platforms at the new country station (no longer extant) for country and other passenger services.[61]
\nOn 30 November 1940 the Country Station was opened at Roma Street Station. This low-lying face brick building and its additional platform sat directly between the 1873-5 building and Roma Street. The new passenger station relieved congestion at Brisbane Central Station and made Roma Street the chief station for long distance travel north. The original station was refurbished, its roof re-clad with corrugated fibrous sheeting; and its brick walls painted red and lined in cream to match the new station building. The southwest pediment was removed and replaced by a new storey on the western end of the building.[62] A covered area was added east of the building where the subway stairs emerged.[63] The original station building was turned over to the General Manager, with offices for clerks, traffic-, livestock-, coach- and wagon staff, maintenance and locomotive staff, telephone and telegraph exchanges, and the train control section.[64]
\nFurther plans to upgrade and alter the building were postponed by World War II, during which time troop trains departed from Roma Street,[65] and the pedestrian subway served as an air-raid shelter.[66] In 1945, plans were drawn to alter doors, windows and stairs in the wings, and partitions on the first floor.[67] A second storey was added over the west wing in 1953 (later removed),[68] and the General Manager’s staircase was repositioned in 1961.[69] Externally, the iron carriage shed platform shade over the northern platform was removed in 1959.[70]
\nExtensive change was undertaken at Roma Street around the original station building in the late 20th century. The southern and northern Brisbane railway systems were directly connected in the 1970s, with the opening of the Merivale Bridge in 1978. In 1985, the country railway station (1940 building) was demolished and replaced by a multi-storey centre incorporating new railway and bus facilities, a hotel, offices and function centre. The original station building was left intact, and two new interstate platforms with standard gauge rails were built on its southern side.[71] The pedestrian subway was refurbished in 1986, with a broom finish concrete and expansion joints, and grated drains were laid on the floor, and a ceramic tile finish on the wall faces to match the subway tiles at Central Station.[72] Roma Street’s rail freight facility was moved to Acacia Ridge in 1991.[73] During the mid-1990s the platforms north and south of the early station building were re-arranged and extended. A bricked waiting area and new roof were added east of the station.[74] Underground, a new concourse was constructed to replace the pedestrian subway, and a 19m section of the original subway converted to a storage room.[75]
\nThe station building remained the General Manager’s Office until 1974.[76] The station master, staff workers and archive storage occupied the building in the 1990s.[77] By 1993, Roma Street was acknowledged as the oldest surviving railway station building in an Australian capital city, and one of the oldest surviving railway buildings in Queensland.[78] A new office fitout was installed on the ground floor for Queensland Rail and the Queensland Police Rail Squad in 1999.[79] Stabilisation, waterproofing and reconstruction works commenced in 2012, including restoration of the brick, plaster, lead flashings, window joinery and stone works.[80] Replacement bricks were custom made in England; Welsh slate was imported from the UK; replacement stone came from Helidon; and rolled lead from England was installed. In 2015, a new steel beams and suspension system was installed between the two storeys, to lift a 65mm bow in the timber floor beams fit amongst the existing timber structures.[81] The second storey of the west wing was removed and the roofline reconstructed to its original configuration.[82] The restoration received an Australian Institute of Architects Queensland award in 2015.[83]
\nIn 2020 the building is vacant, pending further repairs.
","criteria":"Roma Street Railway Station, opened in 1875 as the Brisbane Terminal Station, is important in demonstrating the development of Queensland railways. Built as an extension to the Southern and Western railway, at the terminus of Brisbane’s first railway line, it is one of the earliest surviving station buildings in Queensland, and reflects the extension of the Queensland railway network in the 1870s.
\nThe station, which includes the two-storey passenger and administration building, northern platform and southern platform with awning (1939, associated with the Country Station), provides physical evidence of the social and economic importance of rail as a passenger and goods transport link throughout Queensland, as well as suburban commuter and recreational traffic. Its extensive original and early fabric demonstrate its role as a major city passenger station (1873-1940), goods station (1873-1991), and railway administration offices (1873-1974).
\nAs the oldest surviving railway station in Brisbane, and one of the oldest surviving in Queensland, the station has a degree of rarity. The building is one of Queensland’s few grand masonry 19th century railway stations, including Toowoomba (1874; QHR 600872), South Brisbane (1891; QHR 600307), and Central (1899; QHR 600073).
|Roma Street Railway Station is an excellent, highly intact example of a major 19th century Queensland railway station. Designed to accommodate ground floor station facilities and first floor offices, the building in its form, layout and fabric, provides legible evidence of this former use. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, including: elongated, symmetrical two-storey form fronting a platform to the rear; well-composed principal elevation incorporating classically-influenced stylistic features; prominent centred entrance; booking offices, waiting rooms and associated facilities; and hierarchical layering of spaces and finishes, which distinguish public and non-public areas, passenger class divisions, and roles within railway operations. It demonstrates the use of stylistic features of the era, which determined its roof form, joinery and decorative treatment, as well as climatic adaptations to enhance passenger comfort and provide abundant natural light and ventilation for offices.
\nThe original booking office with ticket window divisions for different classes of passengers is a unique example of its type in Queensland.
\nThe station building is a substantial, early example of the public work of prolific and prominent Queensland Colonial Architect, FDG Stanley, illustrating his skilful deployment of eclectic styles, consideration of climate, and use of materials, to achieve both elegance and economy.
|Roma Street Railway Station is important for the beautiful attributes of its composition and fine architectural quality. The symmetrical front (south) façade is a well-proportioned composition of formal and decorative elements including an arcade and centred projecting carriage porch, which create an impressive entrance sequence. The skilled design approach and workmanship is further evidenced by the decorative stone mouldings that contrast with the tuck-pointed red face brick and articulate the classical and gothic-influenced detailing. The interior retains extensive original and early fabric, including lath and plaster walls and ceilings, timber joinery, an ornate cast-iron staircase and evidence of early decorative treatments.
\nDesigned to address Roma Street to the south, the substantial station building has landmark qualities. Its elegant composition, incorporating classical and gothic-influenced stylistic elements well-executed in high quality materials, expresses the optimism and importance associated with the establishment of the first railway terminal in Queensland’s capital.
\nThe distinctive 19th century station building can be appreciated from a range of viewing points spanning an east-north-west arc. Views can be obtained from Wickham Park and Albert Street, Countess Street and Roma Street Parklands.
|Roma Street Railway Station has a special association with generations of railway passengers as the Brisbane terminal station (1873-1889) and major Brisbane city station (1889-1940). The station has played a part in the cultural and social life of Brisbane people as a city and suburban railway station. The station was the departure and arrival point for recreational venues, commuter transport, and as the site of public displays and entertainments. It has been a significant greeting point for notable figures visiting Brisbane and Queensland, and a mobilisation point for soldiers on war service. It was also the terminus of the inter-colonial/interstate Sydney Mail Train from 1888 until 1931.
\nThe station building also has a special association with the Queensland Railway Department (later Queensland Railways, later Queensland Rail), its staff and railway workers, as offices built and used for administrative, management, design and traffic operations from 1873 until the late 20th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15973,"place_ref":601209,"name":"Ithaca Embankments","alternate_name":"Embankments - Musgrave Rd near Windsor Rd | Embankments - corner Macgregor & Rockbourne Tces | Embankment - Musgrave Rd opp Confederate St | Embankments - Latrobe Tce opp Gladstone St | Embankments - Windsor Rd, Prospect Tce & Victoria St | Embankments - Waterworks Rd & Lintern St | Embankment - Musgrave Rd opp Upper Clifton Tce | Embankments - Fernberg Rd near Government House | Embankment - Northam Avenue | Embankment - corner Latrobe & Macgregor Tces","street_address":"Latrobe Tce & Fernberg Rd","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-03-02","description":"These Ithaca Town Council embankments display similar landscape design, planting, materials, and idiosyncratic features of Alexander Jolly's work. One of the most intact is the Windsor Road embankment, extending from the corner of Prospect Terrace to the corner of Victoria Street, Kelvin Grove.
No 1 embankment
Embankment on Windsor Rd, Kelvin Grove, from Prospect Tce to Victoria St. This embankment surrounds the western crest of Red Hill, bordering Morris Tor apartments on the corner of Prospect Terrace and Windsor Road to the north, continues along Windsor Road in front of Nos 21, 19 and 15 to the corner of Victoria Street and culminates in front of No 65 Victoria Street to the south.
The embankment is covered in lush vegetation, including at least six varieties of Agave sp.; Queen Palms [Syagrus romanzoffiana] ; Camphor laurel [Cinnamomum camphora]; Bougainvillaea sp.; and a number of small shrubs popular in the early part of the twentieth century. The embankment is bordered by a concrete footpath and has several areas of natural rock face. There is a low three tier schist wall along part of Prospect Terrace and in front of Nos 21 and 19 Windsor Road.
A recent low bluestone wall borders the corner of Prospect Terrace and Windsor Road.
A set of concrete stairs is located on the Windsor Road side of the Morris Tor apartments and may have been for the earlier house which stood on the site. A sloping pathway with a timber railing fence leads through the vegetation to No 21 and is bordered by a low three tier dry stone porphyry wall.
A narrow driveway is located on the south boundary of No 19 and is surrounded by substantial groupings of agave sp. A driveway is located on the southern boundary of No 15 along the Victoria Street frontage providing access to No 15 and to No 65 Victoria Street and has planting to both the upper and lower sides. The embankment becomes a rock face in front of No 65.
Large trees are located along the frontages, and within the site boundaries, of the above properties and overhang the embankment below. There is one Weeping Fig [Ficus benjamina] and one Camphor laurel [Cinnamomum camphora] in front of Morris Tor, two Weeping Figs [Ficus benjamina] in front of both Nos 21 and 19, a Mango [Mangifera indica] in front of No 15 and four Weeping Figs [Ficus benjamina] and an avenue of Queen Palms [Syagrus romanzoffiana] in front of No 65. These trees, together with the embankment on Red Hill, form a local landmark visible from the surrounding ridges.
No 2 embankment
Embankment at corner of Windsor & Musgrave Rds, Red Hill, below the Red Hill Post Office, and an opposite divided street retaining wall with lower embankment. Two trees stand on the street corner with a concrete retaining wall and timber rail fence below. The planted embankment begins at the edge of the retaining wall and contains several varieties of agave sp., palms and small shrubs and is bounded by a bitumen footpath and a section of low dry stone wall. On the opposite side of the road is a lower stone retaining wall with a timber rail fence and concrete footpath on the top side and narrow roadway along the base. This roadway has a short embankment on the lower side to the corner of Zig Zag Street. This embankment has a section of stone retaining wall and several varieties of agave sp., trees and grasses.
No 3 embankment
Divided street embankment on Musgrave Rd, Red Hill, between Federal & Confederate Sts. This embankment contains a particularly intact section of dry stone wall which displays varying forms of construction. The embankment is bounded by a bitumen footpath with a timber rail fence along the top. There are several varieties of agave sp., palms, trees and small shrubs as well as areas of rock face.
No 4 embankment
Embankment on Musgrave Rd, Red Hill, below St Brigid's Church. This tall embankment has a retaining wall along the top, which forms the forecourt to St Brigid's Church, and is bounded by a bitumen footpath along the base. There are areas of rock face, several varieties of agave sp., trees, small shrubs and grasses.
No 5 embankment
Divided street embankment on Waterworks Rd, Red Hill, between Mornington & Lintern Sts, and returning into the latter. This embankment has a timber rail fence along the top and is bounded by Waterworks Road along the base. It has large sections of rock face with several varieties of agave sp., small shrubs and grasses, and a concrete stair at the street corner.
No 6 embankment
Divided street embankment on Fernberg Rd, Paddington, near the intersection with Kaye St, and an opposite embankment in front of Government House. The divided street embankment has sections of dry stone wall on the lower side, with several varieties of agave sp., trees and small shrubs. The opposite embankment also has sections of dry stone wall, of a different form of construction, and several varieties of agave sp., trees, palms, small shrubs and a grassed footpath.
No 7 embankment
Embankment on MacGregor Tce, Paddington, from Tooth Ave to Latrobe Tce, and returning into the latter. This tall embankment is bounded by residential properties on the top side and roadway along the base. The embankment has lush vegetation, including several varieties of agave sp., trees, small shrubs and vines with areas of rock face and remnants of a dry stone wall.
No 8 embankment
Embankment at corner of MacGregor & Rockbourne Tces, and returning into both streets. This embankment is bounded by a dry stone wall, prominent on the street corner, and bitumen footpath with areas of rock face along MacGregor Terrace. There are several varieties of agave sp., trees, palms and small shrubs.
No 9 embankment
Divided street embankment on Northam Ave, Bardon, from MacGregor Tce to approximately half the length of Northam Ave. This long embankment has a timber rail fence along the top side, a section of dry stone wall along the base and a concrete stair towards the end. There are several varieties of agave sp., trees, palms, small shrubs and grasses.
No 10 embankment
Embankment on Latrobe Tce, Paddington, from Enoggera Tce to the base of Ithaca Memorial Park. The embankment is bounded by the Ithaca Memorial Park, former fire station and tramway substation along the top side, with Latrobe Terrace along the base. There is a section of dry stone wall at the Memorial Park end with a substantial grouping of agave sp., and a section of dry stone wall at the Enoggera Terrace end, a remnant of the earlier gardens on the site. There are several varieties of agave sp., trees, palms, small shrubs, vines and grasses.
","history":"The rock gardens and early stone retaining walls and edgings on the embankments at Red Hill, were established c1917 for the Ithaca Town Council. In 1918 MacGregor Terrace and Waterworks Road were similarly landscaped after road works, as were Fernberg Road and Northam Avenue in 1923. The remnant Musgrave Road plantings most likely date from 1917-18. The plantings and stone retaining wall along the Latrobe Terrace embankment probably were associated with the landscaping of Cook's Hill in the early 1920s.
In the first decade of the 20th century, Ithaca experienced a housing and population boom largely attributable to the expansion of the tramways through the area. Subsequently, in the 1910s the Ithaca Town Council embarked on a programme of civic improvements which included the establishment of Lang Park [1917], the Ithaca Swimming Pool [1917], and the Ithaca Children's Playground [1918] [601787]; the formation and metalling of roads; tree planting; and the establishment of numerous embankment gardens, small reserves and street gardens throughout the suburbs of Red Hill, Kelvin Grove, Paddington, Rosalie, Bardon, and parts of Milton.
Because of the hilly terrain, many of the new streets were divided, leaving embankments which the Ithaca Town Council considered were cheaper to plant and beautify than to cut down. This approach placed the Council at the forefront of street beautification projects in the Brisbane metropolitan area. By comparison, Brisbane Municipal Council, under the direction of Parks Superintendent Harry Moore, established rock gardens and flower beds along roads such as River Terrace at Kangaroo Point, but generally did not plant out embankments. The South Brisbane Municipal Council appears to have limited street beautification to weed eradication and tree planting.
This innovation in Brisbane civic landscaping led to Ithaca Town Council receiving numerous requests from other councils, interstate as well as Queensland, for photographs and plans of Ithaca street improvements. At the second Australian Town Planning Conference and Exhibition, held in Brisbane in July-August 1918, the Ithaca Town Council exhibited photographs showing treatment of ugly cuttings and street improvements which beautify the street and at the same time solve practical difficulties.
Much of the impetus for the work came from Ithaca Town Council's landscape gardener, Alexander Jolly, (father of the first Mayor of Greater Brisbane, William Jolly), who was a horticultural enthusiast. Son of a Scottish farmer, Jolly had arrived in Brisbane in 1879, aged 22 years. He was head gardener on Alexander Stewart's Glen Lyon estate at Ashgrove for at least seven years before he went to work for the Ithaca Town Council.
Jolly was a self-educated man, whose lifetime of gardening experience transformed the Ithaca townscape in the period c1915-25. His work was praised by the local community, the Ithaca Town Council, and even Sir Matthew Nathan, Governor of Queensland, who in 1925 wrote that Jolly's good taste has given constant pleasure to so many of us Ithaca residents. Some of Jolly's more prominent projects included the rockeries along Musgrave and Waterworks Roads; the landscaping of Cook's Hill; and the Ithaca War Memorial garden, which, after his death, was named Alexander Jolly Park, in memory of one of the most esteemed men in the district, and as a unique tribute . . . to the pick and shovel. Only small sections of the Waterworks Road rockeries remain, and most of the Cook's Hill garden was destroyed when the Paddington Tramways Substation was erected in 1929-30.
The rock gardens listed above survive as some of the more intact examples of Jolly's work. They also remain as testament to the Ithaca Town Council's public consciousness and active involvement in creating a distinctive town environment, in the early years of the 20th century.
","criteria":"The Ithaca Embankments are important in demonstrating the evolution of the Town of Ithaca, providing evidence of the active involvement of the Ithaca Town Council in landscape improvements, and its conscious attempt to enhance the quality of life for Ithaca residents in the early part of the 20th century.
|They are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the Ithaca Town Council's early 20th century street beautification projects, being some of the best surviving examples, and provide important surviving evidence of stone retaining wall and edging techniques practised by Brisbane's public landscape gardeners in the early 20th century.
|They exhibit aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular their contribution to the townscape of Brisbane's inner western suburbs.
|They are significant also for their special association with the work of Ithaca Town Council's landscape gardener, Alexander Jolly, and his transformation of the Ithaca townscape in the early 20th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15983,"place_ref":601219,"name":"Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church Group","alternate_name":"East Brisbane Presbyterian Church","street_address":"22-28 Mowbray Terrace","suburb":"EAST BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-10-22","description":"The Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church group consists of a church, with a small kindergarten room attached at the rear, and an adjacent hall to the east, which are located on a level corner site in East Brisbane.
The single-storeyed timber church, with timber buttresses, has been clad with fibrous cement sheeting and sprayed with a rough finish concrete render. The building has a steep pitched gable roof, a twin gable transept, sprocketed eaves, asbestos cement tiles laid in a diamond pattern and a sheet metal spire surmounted by a cross over the south end of the nave. A small apse extends to the north with a vestry to the west and a store with a corrugated iron roof to the east. A timber kindergarten room, clad in the same material, with a steep pitch gable roof is attached to the north. The building has narrow lancet hopper windows, with leadlight panels to the nave and transept, concrete stumps to the perimeter and a timber and asbestos cement tile hood to the north nave round window.
The south entry, almost to the property boundary, has twin double timber doors with arched fanlights and an asbestos cement tile awning supported by paired timber brackets. The gable above has a triple lancet window with leadlight panels and an arched timber surround, a battened top panel and paired timber brackets.
Internally, the church has a diagonally boarded raked ceiling with scissor trusses and arched timber braces to the nave. Faceted timber columns and pointed arches separate the double gable transept which internally is divided into four gables. The building has tongue and groove walls above the dado with silky oak panelling below. A large pointed arch opens to the apse, which houses a large pipe organ, with a round leadlight window above, and a pointed arch door to the west opening to the vestry. The church has carved silky oak altar, pulpit, rail and high-backed chairs. The entry is separated from the nave by a timber screen and the timber pews appear original.
The hall is a single-storeyed timber building with a steep pitch gable roof with asbestos cement tiles laid in a diamond pattern, roof vents and terracotta ridges and front finial. The east and west sides have a lower pitch, and the front and rear sections have lower hips. The building has concrete stumps, weatherboard sheeting to balustrade height and chamferboard above, with twin centrally pivoted hopper windows and coloured glass fanlights.
The south entry, at footpath level at the property boundary, has a central gable entry with recessed folding double timber doors with a long narrow fanlight and decorative timber brackets and battens. The higher gable behind has a panel of four sash windows with coloured glass inserts and a timber battened panel above.
Internally, the hall has a diagonally boarded raked ceiling, a flat section with fretwork vents at the collar beam and metal ties to the top plate. The building has a timber floor, tongue and groove walls, raised stage and side partitions with double timber doors either side, and timber posts with arched brackets which separate the side aisles. The central entry has a room to either side, and the rear section has a kitchenette.
The property has a concrete post fence with spherical tops, iron gates and wire balustrade on Mowbray Terrace, and a timber and wire fence on Geelong Street.
","history":"Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church was erected in late 1885 on land donated by Williamina Mowbray, widow of the 'father' of Presbyterianism in Queensland, Rev. Thomas Mowbray. In 1851, Mowbray was instrumental in establishing at Grey Street, South Brisbane, Queensland's first Presbyterian church. This building has been demolished, but his name and work is commemorated in the Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church.
In the 1850s, Mowbray acquired a substantial parcel of land, including what is now Mowbray Park and parts of East Brisbane, at what was then referred to as Kangaroo Point. In 1884 Mrs Mowbray sold part of the estate to Josiah Young of Brisbane. Young immediately subdivided this land as the Mowbraytown Estate, from which East Brisbane derives much of its identity. In 1885 Mrs Mowbray re-acquired from Young two allotments at the corner of Geelong Street and Mowbray Terrace, which she then donated to the church.
The rapid development of the East Brisbane Area during the 1880s prompted the establishment of a Charge in Mowbraytown. Mowbraytown was unusual also in that it emerged almost immediately as an established and self-sustaining charge. The first service was conducted on 22 November 1885 and a minister was appointed permanently in March 1886.
The Mowbraytown church was designed by newly established Brisbane architect Alex B Wilson - later an elder of the congregation - and was erected by South Brisbane carpenter and contractor Thomas Gillies at a cost of £600, inclusive of seats and fencing. When completed in November 1885, the body of the church measured 9.5 metres by 8.2 metres, and seated 230 persons. The building was entered via two porches either side of the front gable, and the roof was shingled. The windows opened on pivots, and those in the gabled ends had leadlight borders. The bell, sent from Scotland, was erected in January 1886.
In 1888 a small Sunday school hall, which later became a kindergarten, was built at the rear of the church. The northern half of the church transepts was added in 1899. In 1902 a pipe organ was installed, to which an electric blower was added in 1925.
In 1909, major alterations to the Mowbraytown church included completion of the second half of the transepts, construction of a new vestry, extension of the nave 3 metres toward the street, removal of the main doors from the sides to the front, and the addition of an entry porch. Later, two porches with side doors were added to the northern transept.
A larger Sunday school hall, adjacent to the church and facing Mowbray Terrace, was erected c1916, on land acquired in 1904 from church elder Alexander Smith Lang.
Following the First World War an honour board and memorial pulpit were erected in the church. The building appears to have been re-roofed c1927, with fibrous cement tiles similar to those on the hall. The exterior walls were clad and sprayed in 1966.
The leadlight windows at the front of the church were donated by AB Wilson, who as church architect had designed the extensions and both halls. Wilson designed several other Presbyterian buildings in Brisbane, including extensions to the Ann Street Presbyterian Church. Following his father's retirement in 1928, Ronald M Wilson was appointed church architect.
The Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church has played a strong role in the spiritual and social life of East Brisbane. The hall has been the venue not only for church activities, but also for community concerts, ballet and gymnastics classes, meetings and seminars, dances, children's play groups, and polling booths. Both the church and hall are local landmarks, and have featured prominently in heritage walking tours of East Brisbane organised by the Mowbraytown Residents' Association.
","criteria":"The Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church is important in demonstrating the pattern of growth of Presbyterianism in Brisbane in the late 19th century.
|The Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church Group, including the church and both halls, is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an evolving late 19th/early 20th century suburban church group in Brisbane.
|The Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church Group is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Brisbane community and the church congregation, in particular the contribution of the buildings, in scale and form, to the Mowbray streetscape and East Brisbane townscape, the quality of the church interior, including the timber joinery, leadlight windows, furnishings, organ, memorials, decorations and inscriptions and the intactness and aesthetically cohesive nature of the group.
|The Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church Group has a special association with architect AB Wilson, and his contribution to Presbyterian church architecture in Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15986,"place_ref":601222,"name":"Brisbane State High School","alternate_name":"Brisbane State High School, Block H | South Brisbane Primary School | Brisbane South Intermediate School | Brisbane South Girls and Infants School","street_address":"Cnr Cordelia and Glenelg Streets","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1994-10-31","description":"Brisbane State High School is located in South Brisbane, approximately 1.4km southwest from the Brisbane CBD. The school covers 4.1ha on two adjacent campuses separated by Cordelia Street.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nBlock H (1865, extended 1877, 1929, and 1932)
\nPositioned centrally in the Merivale Street Campus, Block H is a two-storey masonry school building comprising two intersecting perpendicular wings with steeply-pitched gable roofs. The original building (1865) faces northeast and has a perpendicular extension (1877, extended 1929) to the southwest and a linear extension to the southeast (1932).
\nThe 1865/1932 wing has a first floor verandah on its northeast elevation and a two-storey verandah, partially-enclosed with chamferboards, on its southwest elevation. At the northern end of the southwest verandah is a face brick-enclosed concrete stairwell (1929).
\nThe 1877 wing has a two-storey timber verandah on its northwest and southeast elevations. The southwestern end of the northwest verandah has a face brick enclosure on both levels (1928, originally staff toilets) and the southwestern end of the southeast verandah has a weatherboard-clad enclosure.
\nBlock H has been converted for administration use.
\nFeatures of Block H also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of Block H not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nTeachers Rooms (1914 and 1917)
\nTwo Teachers Rooms stand detached from Block H, to the southeast of the 1877 wing. They are small, single-storey, timber-framed and -clad building with Dutch gable roofs and ventilated gablets with timber battens. Accessible via low timber stairs, the buildings accommodate one room.
\nFeatures of the Teachers Rooms also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Teachers Rooms not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nBlock A (1925)
\nBlock A is a three-storey, face brick school building located on the corner of Vulture and Ernest Street. It accommodates staffrooms on the ground floor and classrooms on the first and second floors.
\nIt has a long central wing terminating in short perpendicular wings at the east and west. The elevations have a rendered ground floor and face brick first and second floors. A brick parapet with rendered cornice conceals a gable roof clad in corrugated metal sheets. A verandah runs along the northern side accessing south-facing classrooms with a projecting central bay accommodating the original entrances and stairs. The southern, western, and eastern elevations have banks of windows on the first and second floors evenly spaced between brick pilasters.
\nThe verandah wall has had its doors and windows replaced in the original openings to a different configuration – the openings are of state-level cultural heritage significance but the later configuration and fabric of doors, windows, and fanlights are not.
\nNorth of Block A is a flat parade ground retained by a concrete wall.
\nFeatures of Block A also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of Block A not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFig Trees (predating 1946)
\nOn the Merivale Street campus are three mature fig trees. One stands on the Merivale Street boundary northeast of Block H and has a canopy approximately 25m in diameter extending over the road. One stands to the north of Block H near its front verandah and has a canopy approximately 12m in diameter. A third stands on the Cordelia Street boundary south of Block H and has a canopy approximately 35m in diameter.
","history":"Brisbane State High School (BSHS) comprises two campuses in South Brisbane: the former South Brisbane Primary School (established on the site in 1865); and the initial site of BSHS (established on the site in 1925). After the primary school closed the high school expanded to occupy both sites. The school includes:
\nBlock H, two Teachers Rooms, and three Mature Fig Trees
\nThe core of Block H was constructed by 1865 as the South Brisbane Primary School, with extensions erected in 1877, 1929, and 1932. The two Teachers Rooms were added in 1914 and 1917. The mature fig trees were planted prior to 1946.
\nIn Queensland the Education Act of 1860 established a Board of General Education and provided for a system of government-subsidised primary schools. Under this Act communities were required to contribute one-third of the construction cost for new school buildings but this was later relaxed and in 1864 more schools were constructed, including South Brisbane Primary School. Of the Queensland Government school buildings built to 1865 the only known survivors are Gayndah State School (1861-63) [QHR600516], South Brisbane (by 11 January 1865) [QHR601222] and Warwick East State School (by 11 February 1865) [QHR600947]. Only two other 1860s school buildings survive in Queensland, both dating from 1967; Baroona Special School [QHR600278] and Fortitude Valley State School (former) [QHR602136] [1]
\nFrom the 1850s South Brisbane rivalled North Brisbane as an important commercial and residential area. Moves to establish a school at South Brisbane commenced in 1860. In November 1861 the colonial government granted two acres (8093m2) of land between Cordelia and Merivale streets to the Board of General Education for school purposes. Subscriptions took some time to raise and in April 1863 a primary school was established in temporary, overcrowded accommodation at the Mechanics Institute in Stanley Street. Brisbane architect Christopher Porter (1801-1874) was employed to prepare plans for a new building. Porter was the first architect for the Board of General Education and his work included the design of the Normal School at North Brisbane and schools at Little Ipswich, Ipswich, and Gladstone.[2]
\nThe new school building at South Brisbane was built by Brisbane contractor Charles Beauchamp for £1050 supervised by Brisbane architect Benjamin Backhouse. It was completed for the commencement of the new school year on 23 January 1865, when it was officially opened by Minister for Lands and Works Arthur Macalister.[3]
\nIt was a two-storey brick building designed to accommodate 300 pupils, with one large classroom on each floor. Facing Merivale Street, the front (northeast elevation) had a central brick porch and a balcony on the first floor. A hall accommodating a staircase and hatroom projected centrally from the rear.[4]
\nFurther accommodation was soon needed. A balcony was added to the first floor of the rear in 1874 and substantial additions were made with the construction of a two-storey brick wing perpendicular to the rear of the building in 1877. This provided two new classrooms, one on each floor and each approximately 19ft x30ft (5.7m x 9.1m) and had verandahs running along both sides. It was built by Brisbane contractor Phillip Nott for £725. By this time a verandah had been added to the first floor of the northwest side of the 1865 section, but this was demolished between 1914 and 1930.[5]
\nSouth Brisbane continued to expand in the boom years of the 1880s. It was renamed Borough of South Brisbane in 1887 when the population reached 15,000. During this decade the school playground was filled and levelled, partly using rock excavated in 1884 for the South Brisbane Dry Dock. In 1888 the building’s shingled roof was replaced with corrugated iron sheets.[6]
\nBy the late 1880s the school was overcrowded. In 1888 the Department of Public Instruction divided the school, which had already been operating as two separate departments. A new building erected on the other side of Merivale Street, at the corner of Glenelg Street, became Brisbane South Boys School. South Brisbane Primary School closed and re-opened as Brisbane South Girls and Infants School.[7]
\nFew changes were made to Block H in the following three decades. In 1914 a small timber teachers room was erected on the northwestern side of the 1877 wing and in 1917 another teachers room was built on the southeastern side of the wing.[8] These were small, single-storey, freestanding, one-room buildings that were accessed by a small set of stairs from the asphalt verandah.
\nSouth Brisbane City Council was absorbed in 1925 by Greater Brisbane Council and the area became increasingly industrialised. Enrolments declined at Brisbane South Girls and Infants School and Brisbane South Boys School.[9] In December 1928 the two existing South Brisbane state schools were closed and combined on the former boys’ school site, reopening as Brisbane South State School.[10]
\nThe vacant girls and infants school building was converted to an intermediate school. Intermediate schools, equipped with workshops, laboratories, and domestic science rooms, were established in major Queensland towns after 1928. They reflected a fundamental change in Queensland education policy at the time, catering for 12 and 13 year old students, and offered a two-year course as a link between primary and secondary education.[11]
\nThe building was converted between December 1928 and November 1929, costing £5000. This involved: rendering the exterior walls; demolishing the brick front porch and converting the front door to a window; adding a brick-enclosed concrete stair to the northwestern verandah (requiring the move and refixing of the 1917 teachers room at a short distance on this side with a minor alteration to its front door location); extending the 1877 wing to its rear (southwest) on both levels by 8ft (2.43m); partitioning the four large classrooms to create ten classrooms (three on each level of the 1865 section, and two on each level of the 1877 section); adding larger windows to the southeastern verandah wall of the 1887 wing; adding a staff toilet to both levels of the northwestern verandah of the 1887 wing; and rearranging doors and windows. The building was officially opened in November 1929 as the Brisbane South Intermediate School.[12]
\nAlmost immediately it was planned to extend the 1865 wing by an additional four bays to the southeast, completed in 1932 for £1430. This added a further four classrooms (two on each level) a first floor verandah on the front, an enclosed verandah on both levels of the rear, and another internal stair.[13]
\nBy this time the school grounds included large open areas for play, freestanding toilets, playsheds, and a tennis court. The provision of outdoor play space at schools was the result of the early and continued commitment by the Department of Public Instruction to play-based education, particularly in primary school. Inspectors stressed the importance of adding shade trees to playgrounds. In response, Arbor Day celebrations at schools began in Queensland in 1890. Landscape elements were intrinsic to Queensland Government education philosophies. Educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, and developed aesthetic tastes. At South Brisbane Primary School, trees (including figs) were planted during the 1890s. Aerial photographs taken in 1946 show large shade trees near what was then the boundaries of the school. These included: one large tree on Merivale Street, one on Cordelia Street, and one adjacent to the northwestern corner of the teaching building.[14]
\nThe intermediate school concept was replaced in the 1940s and 1950s by high schools offering a variety of courses. Brisbane South Intermediate School was closed 31 December 1953. By August 1954 the nearby Brisbane South State School was transferred into the former Brisbane South Intermediate School premises. This school closed permanently on 31 December 1963 and the premises was absorbed by the adjacent Brisbane State High School. It was renamed Block H and used mainly for domestic science and manual training classes.[15]
\nBlock H was refurbished in 1989 and the Teachers Rooms were relocated within the school grounds. In 2015 they were moved again back near Block H but not to their original locations and Block H was reconfigured as administration offices by partitioning the classrooms and adding a freestanding lift.[16]
\nIn 2018 Block H and the Teachers Rooms are the school’s primary administration offices and the three large fig trees (predating 1946) provide shade in the school grounds.
\nBlock A
\nUntil 1912 Queensland secondary education was elective. Seeing higher education as having little relevance to Queensland's predominately industry-based economy the Queensland Government was initially reluctant to provide it. However, by the early 20th century this position was considered outdated and the state education system was modernised to provide compulsory, free secondary education.[17]
\nThe State Education Acts Amendment Act of 1912 raised the compulsory school age from 12 to 14, creating the need for increased school accommodation. The first state high schools were established at technical colleges in regional areas without grammar schools. The first purpose-built high schools were constructed in 1917 and were large elaborate timber buildings designed by the Department of Public Works (DPW), responsible for all education architecture.[18]
\nAt this time secular secondary education in Brisbane was limited. The community lobbied for the government to establish a state high school in metropolitan Brisbane. Initially the government provided secondary education as departments of the established Brisbane Technical College, Brisbane Central School, and Normal School but in July 1921 Brisbane State High School was formally established using the Normal School in the CBD as temporary premises. To accommodate the school permanently, land was excised from South Brisbane’s Musgrave Park and the DPW designed a substantial three-storey brick school building for the site. Its foundation stone was laid 22 September 1923.[19]
\nThe building was the first purpose-built state high school in Brisbane and cost £34,500. Minister for Public Instruction Frank Tennison Brennan opened the new school on 27 January 1925 declaring it ‘undoubtedly the finest and most costly school building yet erected by the [Queensland] Government’.[20] Contemporary newspaper reports remarked the provision of secondary education was ‘an absolute necessity in a rising democracy’[21] and South Brisbane parents should take advantage of the ‘golden opportunity’ to educate their children for free. Further, it was seen the school would ‘memorialise the centenary of the first actual settlement in the city and … mark the inauguration of the Greater Brisbane Scheme’.[22]
\nStanding on the site’s highest point, the new building had a commanding view north across a parade ground and playing field. Designed to accommodate 600 pupils, it had separate entrances, stairs, toilets, play areas, and cloakrooms for boys and girls. The ground floor accommodated a large double-height gymnasium in the western end wing. A northern verandah on the first and second floors provided access to a series of south-facing classrooms and it had sheet-and-batten-lined ceilings on the second floor. The classrooms were designed to maximise natural light and ventilation with large banks of south-facing windows.[23]
\nAlthough timber was far more commonly used in the construction of Queensland state schools, from c1900 brick school buildings were occasionally built in urban areas where the population was permanent or rapidly increasing. The number of brick school buildings increased sharply between 1928-1947 when approximately 30 brick school buildings were erected as a component of the Queensland Government’s unemployment relief scheme. After this period, brick school buildings were less frequently built.[24]
\nAt Brisbane State High School, Block A remained relatively unchanged until c1964 when its accommodation was reconfigured. This involved: converting the ground floor to staffrooms; inserting a floor into the double-height gymnasium for further classrooms; creating a new main entrance on the centre of the southern side; closing over the original entrances on the northern side; reconfiguring classrooms by demolishing and adding partitions; replacing windows and doors in the verandah wall; and inserting new stairs in the end wings.[25] In the 1990s further partitions were demolished, doors and windows of the verandah wall were replaced again, ducted air conditioning was installed, a new entry portico was added on the northern side, and further staffrooms were made in the ground floor. In 2009 double-glazed windows were added on the inside of the existing windows on the southern, eastern, and western elevations in conjunction with a new ducted air conditioning system.[26]
\nBrisbane State High School has played an important role in the Brisbane community and continues to do so. In 2018 it is Queensland’s largest state high school [27] and generations of students have been taught there. Many social events have been held in the school’s grounds and buildings and the school continues to be a centre for social, sporting and community events.
","criteria":"Brisbane State High School is important in demonstrating the provision and evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. Established in 1865 as South Brisbane Primary School, the school retains excellent, representative examples of teaching buildings illustrating a continuum of years of experimentation with natural light, classroom size, and ventilation by the Department of Public Works (DPW) to produce an ideal educational environment, set in landscaped grounds with mature trees.
\nWith its core built by January 1865, Block H is one of the first state school buildings constructed in Queensland and is representative of the earliest phase of government-provided education in Queensland, and precursor to the subsequent system of widespread standardised state education. Block H is one of three known surviving examples of a school building constructed during this period. The later extensions and alterations (1877, 1929, 1932) and the two Teachers Rooms (1914, 1917) represent important later stages of school design by the DPW.
\nBlock A (1925), the first purpose-built state high school built in Brisbane, is one of the earliest state high schools in Queensland not attached to a technical college. It illustrates the Queensland Government’s commitment to state-provided secondary education.
|Block H is one of the oldest state school buildings in Queensland, demonstrating rare evidence of the first phase of government-provided education. It is one of five surviving 1860s school buildings and is distinctive as the largest and only two-storey example.
|Block H is a rare example of an 1860s Queensland state school building with later extensions and modifications by the DPW. Intended as a fine, permanent civic asset, it is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of this type, which include: masonry construction with steep roof; verandahs as circulation; doors and windows that maximise natural light and ventilation; large classrooms with lofty interiors; classrooms later divided into smaller classrooms by folding partitions; and a high standard of design and craftsmanship.
\nBlock A is an excellent, intact example of an Urban Brick School Building designed by the DPW. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of this type, which include: a handsome edifice standing in a prominent location; symmetrical two-storey form of classrooms and teachers rooms above an understory of open play spaces; a linear layout of the main floors with rooms accessed by corridors; loadbearing masonry construction; prominent projecting central entrance bay; and a high standard of design to provide superior educational environments that focus on abundant natural light and ventilation. It demonstrates the use of stylistic features of its era, through its roof form, joinery, and decorative treatment.
|Block H has aesthetic significance as a two-storey masonry school building from the 1860s with cohesive later extensions. It has beautiful attributes brought about by its simple rectangular wings with tall gable roofs; well-composed elevations; durable, high quality materials and craftsmanship; open verandahs; and lofty interiors with high levels of natural light and ventilation.
\nHighly intact, Block A has aesthetic significance due to its formal composition, decorative elements, substantial size, and materials through which the DPW sought to convey the concepts of progress and permanence. Standing at a prominent intersection, it is a landmark building in the South Brisbane streetscape.
\nThe fig trees on the Merivale Street campus have aesthetic significance for their streetscape contribution, substantial size and natural beauty within the context of an urban school campus.
|Brisbane State High School has a strong and ongoing association with the South Brisbane and Brisbane community. Generations of children have been taught at the school since state education commenced on the site in 1865. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Brisbane as a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16004,"place_ref":601240,"name":"Centenary Pool Complex","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"400 Gregory Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1996-11-05","description":"The Centenary Pool complex comprises pools (a swimming pool, diving pool with diving boards and wading pool), a grandstand, a single storeyed bath house, and a two-storeyed restaurant and kiosk. These structures sit on a podium which is set into the north-eastern slope of Victoria Park. Constructed in concrete, steel, brick and glass, the elements of the pool form a loose composition of geometric and plastic forms. The complex is modernist-influenced in both design conception and detailing; in particular the buildings are related to the plastic expressionism of modernist architects and artists such as Oscar Niemeyer and Hans Arp.
The design of the pool complex was described by the architect in a brochure celebrating the opening of the pool: The pools are arranged in a random manner so the festive air is developed. Pools in line become too regimented for a park setting....The general aesthetic scheme is that of a free form shape pierced with geometric incisions, that is the concourse with the pools in it. ...hovering above this is another free form volume with geometric shapes placed in it, that is the restaurant with access stairs, ceiling lights and the roof terrace. (Birrell, 1959)
The boundaries of the complex form a fluid rhomboid shape. Within this boundary the pools and buildings relate to a bisecting north-south axis which extends through the park and finishes at the facade of the School of Medicine. The axis locates the central concourse. To the east of this concourse is the swimming pool, measuring 165ft by 60ft, whose eastern edge is lined by a stepped concrete grandstand (designed to seat 1200). The diving pool, measuring 90ft by 60ft, is located in the north west corner of the site and has a four-level diving tower to its western end, and single level boards at each end. A round wading pool is located in the south west corner of the site. The bath house comprises a long curved building which hugs the edge of the slope, and is entered via a ramp leading down to a central ticket office. The restaurant, a raised pavilion with curvilinear walls, also sits on axis and overhangs the swimming pool. The restaurant building contains a kiosk at ground level, and is entered via a concrete ramp which arches over the roof of the dressing sheds.
The buildings exhibit a combination of sculptural and technical inventiveness in their design and detailing. The curvilinear walls of the restaurant are formed with faceted glazed panels set in circular steel columns. The building has a curved off-centre service core containing open-riser concrete stairs spiralling around a concrete riser duct. The service core merges through the roof of the buildings to give access to a roof terrace via oval-shaped doors. The terrace is encircled by a steel balustrade with continuous horizontal rails. The service core is clad with glazed tiles with diamond motifs. The kiosk at ground level is rendered concrete, and has strip windows, a service counter, and T&G boarding running under counter height.
Internally, the restaurant is a fluid, transparent space, with the kitchen at the centre encircled by a curved wall clad in T&G boarding. The northern end of the restaurant has a raised round lit floor which has translucent glass panes set in a steel frame.
The bath house comprises a series of externally expressed steel portal frames, with a concave rendered concrete masonry wall to the south with obscured glass louvres at high level, a convex brick wall to the north with steel louvres, and a metal deck roof. It contains female dressing areas to the west, male dressing areas to the east, and administration, storage and ticketing areas in the centre, flanked by corridors giving access to the pools. The administration and ticketing areas are timber-lined. The change rooms have ceramic tiled floors, and rows of large concrete benches. The female change room has blue terrazzo partitions, while its male counterpart has grey terrazzo and blue glazed ceramic tiled partitions. Externally the brickwork is left unstruck, to express the plasticity of the material (Kennedy, 1993).
The pools and podium area also exhibit considered technical, decorative and sculptural detailing. The main pool has ceramic tiled rounded edging, a scupper channel to absorb waves, and hexagonal ceramic tiled patterns at the ends of the lanes on the floor of the pool. The wading pool is tiled in fluid abstract patterns. The diving boards are supported on splayed concrete columns, from which spring splayed cantilevered platforms, and steel balustrades and stairs with central steel stringers; the diving tower has curved stairs clinging to its northern face. The podium is paved with hexagonal concrete pavers flecked with exposed aggregate, and has raised seating and planting areas with hexagonal concrete edging. The diving pool and main pool have portholes which are accessed via a 'clubroom' below podium level.
The complex has complementary 'modern tropical' landscaping around its boundaries. The eastern and southern edges of the complex have domestically-scaled tracts of brightly coloured tropical plantings (for example Acalyphas, Hibiscus, Travellers Palms, Aloes). A substantial amount of this landscaping is original.
Centenary Pool is sophisticated in its design conception, and inventive in its sculptural and decorative detailing. The original plantings complement the buildings.
","history":"The Centenary Pool complex was constructed in 1959 by the Brisbane City Council, as its principal contribution to the celebrations marking the centenary of local government in Brisbane, proclaimed a City in October 1859, and the proclamation of the separation of Queensland from New South Wales in December 1859.
The complex was designed by Brisbane City Architect James Birrell and his staff, who commenced work on the design in 1957, and was completed in November 1959 at a cost of approximately £150,000. The contractor was Brisbane Master Builder, CP Hornick. The project was Brisbane's first Olympic standard pool and diving pool complex, and until the construction of the Sleeman Sports Complex at Chandler in 1980, remained Brisbane's principal aquatic sports centre. The inclusion of an up-market restaurant was an innovative concept which raised the status of the complex above that of simply a sports facility.
The City Council's choice of a pool complex of Olympic standard, reflected the intense public interest in competitive swimming which had been generated by Australian successes at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Not only was Australia the proud host nation; at the Melbourne Olympics, Australia produced its best performance ever, winning 13 gold medals - 8 in swimming events. Throughout Australia, the popularity of competitive swimming surged, and in the ten years following the Olympics, the Brisbane City Council built seven new public swimming pools. Of these, the Centenary complex was the only one to incorporate diving facilities. The BCC was keen to include a wading pool in the Centenary complex, one of its principal objectives being to provide facilities for children of an early age to be taught to swim.
Centenary Pool was the first public pool complex to be designed by the City Architect rather than by the City Engineers. The Langlands Park pool, the first public swimming pool built by the Council since the early 1930s, was completed in 1958 with some involvement from James Birrell, but had been started by the Engineering Department.
On a national level, Centenary Pool was an Olympic-size pool similar to the Melbourne and Canberra Olympic Pools constructed in 1955. As a type, all three are significant as constructed either for, or as a direct result of, the Melbourne Olympic Games.
James Birrell, Brisbane's City Architect from 1955 to 1961, produced a substantial body of civic work for the BCC, including the Wickham Terrace Carpark, Toowong Library, Toowong Pool, and various suburban libraries. Of his civic work, the Centenary Pool Complex and the Wickham Terrace Carpark are his most important designs. From 1961 to 1966, Birrell was appointed Architect to the University of Queensland, overseeing the university's second major phase of construction development. His most notable buildings from this period include Union College, the JD Story Administration Building, Staff House and the Agriculture and Entomology Building. In 1966 he entered private practice.
Birrell had a talent for exploring new and exciting architectural trends, and of translating these to the Brisbane context. This is demonstrated in the design of the Centenary Pool Complex, which is unlike any of Birrell's other work, and is not in the mainstream of modern international style architecture that was being practised in Australia in the 1950s. It is more closely related to the work of Oscar Niemeyer, (one of the principal designers of Brazil's new capital, Brasilia, in the 1950s and 1960s. Like Niemeyer, Birrell attempted to create in the Centenary Pool design a work of art rather than a purely functionalist structure.
Like many architects of the 1950s, Birrell experimented with using familiar materials and technology in unfamiliar ways. The most innovative use of material in the Centenary Pool complex was in the structural steel in the restaurant and diving tower. Birrell utilised the skills of Brisbane shipbuilders Evans Deakins to shape the top and bottom beams of the restaurant, and of local steel fabricators Sargeants to bend the steel core of the diving tower.
The complex was designed to fit into the slope of the hill overlooking Victoria park, and little excavation was required. On technical aspects of the pool's construction, such as the size and positioning of the filtration equipment, Birrell worked closely with the Brisbane City Council's Chief Health Officer, JB Mabbett.
Underwater floodlighting and observation windows were included in the design, to permit coaches to view their pupils in action from below the surface. These features were highlighted at the official opening of the pool on the evening of 25 November 1959, when the Governor of Queensland, Sir Henry Abel Smith, was treated to an underwater diving display, viewed through the observation window to the diving pool.
The initial design of the complex included a landscaped entrance road and carpark to the south of the pool. Queensland subtropical landscape designer Harry Oakman, who was then manager of the BCC's Parks Department, is understood to have been responsible for the landscape design.
In 1960 the Centenary Pool complex was selected by the editors of the Melbourne publication Architecture and Arts as one of the top ten buildings in Australia. It was also the sole Queensland entry in the 1961 publication New Buildings in the Commonwealth, Australian material for which was compiled by Robin Boyd.
","criteria":"The Centenary Pool complex is historically significant as the Brisbane City Council's principal contribution to the Brisbane and Queensland 1959 centenary celebrations. Its construction also reflects the enormous popularity of competitive swimming in Australia following the successful 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.
|It demonstrates the details, materials, and construction methods of a sculptural variant of Post-War International style. Nationally, Centenary Pool is a significant example of a 1950s Olympic-standard pool and diving pool complex, and can be ranked in importance with the Melbourne and Canberra Olympic pools.
|It is sophisticated in its design conception, and inventive in its sculptural and decorative detailing. The original plantings complement the buildings.
|It is sophisticated in its design conception, and inventive in its sculptural and decorative detailing. The original plantings complement the buildings.
|Its social significance lies in its contribution to the development of competitive swimming in Brisbane, having been the city's principal aquatic sports centre from 1959 to 1980.
|The complex is important as one of the major civic works designed by prominent Queensland architect James Birrell.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16010,"place_ref":601246,"name":"Hornibrook Highway Bridge","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Hornibrook Highway","suburb":"BRIGHTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1994-10-07","description":"The Hornibrook Highway Bridge is a 2.685km long timber and concrete bridge that spans Hayes Inlet and Bramble Bay between Clontarf Point and Brighton, linking Sandgate to Redcliffe. It has identical rendered concrete portals at each end, and two rises along its length which permit small boats to pass underneath.
The bridge construction comprises a timber superstructure supported by reinforced concrete piers with three concrete piles of varying depths. The superstructure has substantial round ironbark girders on corbels, with girders supporting large section ironbark and tallowwood sawn decking. The decking is covered with coarse aggregate bitumen, and has concrete kerb edging. At each end, the first spans of the superstructure are constructed in ribbed reinforced concrete to protect the bridge from termites and fire.
The superstructure has a slight camber that permits periodic tightening of the deck via bolt fixings along the outer girders.
The bridge has steel balustrades comprising steel stanchions supporting two circular hollow section rails and ironbark lightpoles along its length.
The portals at each end are finely detailed monumental Art Deco structures comprising substantial pylons spanned by a deep spandrel facing landward, and more modestly detailed rectangular frames facing bayward. The pylons have banded rusticated bases on concrete pedestals, with central slot windows with decorative grilles on three sides, surmounted by stepped vertical elements. The spandrel is also banded, and has a rectangular central panel with the words Hornibrook Highway fashioned in raised brass lettering. The portals contain toll facilities, comprising a small office and strong room with night safe in the base of the pylons at each end. Externally these rooms are framed by Art Deco relief patterns. On the approach to the bridge the portals are preceded by smaller free-standing pylons either side of the road.
The bridge is now experiencing problems of decay including the cracking of the decking surface caused by rotting planks, the corrosion of steel in the concrete piers, and white ants in the girders.
","history":"The Hornibrook Highway Bridge was constructed in the years 1932-35, by the firm of M.R. Hornibrook. Conceived as a response to high unemployment, and economic recession, it also represented an opportunity to end the isolation of the residents of the Redcliffe Peninsula.
Prior to the construction of the Hornibrook viaduct, the Redcliffe Peninsula was accessed via two main methods of transport: ferry and road. Road transportation in particular was of great concern to the residents of the Redcliffe area. During times of wet weather, the Redcliffe road running via Petrie regularly became impassable to vehicles.
Several schemes had been drafted to improve the accessibility of the Redcliffe area to vehicle owners and also to the growing day-tripper market, having seaside holidays at Redcliffe.
These schemes favoured the construction of a new road link across Hayes Inlet and the mouth of the South Pine River. In 1926, the Redcliffe Council had proposed such a project be considered by the Main Roads Board.
Such a road link would involve crossing 2.7 kilometres of water by viaduct at a cost of 120,000 pounds. This road would then connect with Sandgate-Brisbane main road, avoiding the long drive via Petrie.
M.R. Hornibrook had holidayed in this area and saw the development potential of the Redcliffe area being linked by road to Brisbane. The onset of the financial depression of 1929-33 gave Hornibrook the impetus to plan and construct a road viaduct across from Redcliffe to Sandgate.
Major contracts for construction diminished with the deepening depression, and the decline in public spending. Hornibrook believed a major project was needed to keep together the construction force built up by his company during twenty-five years of work.
In 1931, Hornibrook approached the State Government with a proposal to construct a toll bridge linking the southern part of Redcliffe with the Sandgate area. Initially, this proposal was rejected. After further consultation with the State Government, an act of Parliament was pushed through allowing for the involvement of private enterprise in the construction of toll facilities.
The terms of franchise set the toll, as well as stipulating the length of lease. Hornibrook negotiated successfully for a forty year franchise on the projected road bridge.
The full extent of the project involved a road viaduct 2.68 km in length plus associated roadworks. To finance such a major construction, a prospectus was issued to encourage local investment in Hornibrook Highway Ltd.
Work officially commenced on the project on June 8, 1932, but in its first eighteen months progress was limited, due to a lack of financing. The entry portals at either end of the bridge were completed in early 1933. Continuing financial difficulties forced Hornibrook to attempt to re-finance the company to finish the work as planned by 1935. The major flotation was assisted by a £100,000 loan from the AMP Society, guaranteed by the State Government. Work recommended at a faster pace from July of 1934.
The portals were designed by architect John Beebe. Orginally a Bendigo based architect, Beebe moved to Queensland in 1916, and worked at the Queensland Works Department until 1926. He then moved into private practice in Brisbane until 1936.
Over 2.5 million superfeet of timber was needed to provide girders and decking on the bridge. Two sawmills were bought specially to process timber from the Mt Mee and Conondale Ranges. 250 timbergetters were employed to cut the required amount of timber. Concrete was supplied from the QCL works at Darra - the two portals being the first significant structures in Queensland to use material from this source.
The last plank on the viaduct was spiked into place on September 7, 1935. The bitumen road surface was laid in under three weeks setting an Australian record. The construction of the bridge was similar to other bridges in Queensland, but when it was completed it was the longest road viaduct built over water in the southern hemisphere.
The viaduct was opened to road traffic on October 4, 1935, foreshortening the road journey by several hours. Also a special coordinated road/rail bus service was inaugurated by the company to convey commuters between Sandgate and Redcliffe.
The Hornibrook Highway played an important strategic role during the defence of Australia in World War Two. Military road convoys were able to use the highway to move war material efficiently to points in Queensland.
By the 1970s increasing road volumes necessitated the investigation of a replacement structure capable of carrying additional traffic.
The Hornibrook Highway franchise was surrendered to the Department of Main Roads in 1975 after forty years of operation by the company. From this time the Main Roads Department assumed responsibility for maintaining the structure.
A replacement viaduct was authorised by the Main Roads Department in 1977 to cope with increasing traffic flows to and from the Redcliffe Peninsula. The Houghton Highway as the new bridge was named opened to traffic in 1979.
The Hornibrook Highway was closed to vehicular traffic with the opening of the replacement structure in 1979. It has since been used as a pedestrian thoroughfare and bikeway.
The Hornibrook Highway was a major catalyst in accelerating the urban development of the Redcliffe Peninsula and it's surrounding area. In its planning, construction and operation it represents a major innovation in construction activities in Queensland at a time of economic crisis.
","criteria":"The Hornibrook Highway Bridge, constructed 1932-35, was one of the first road toll facilities in Queensland to be authorised by special act of parliament. It is notable as a major public work constructed by private enterprise at a time of economic depression in Queensland. The bridge was the major impetus for the development of Redcliffe.
|(Criterion under review)
|The finely detailed monumental portals at each end have aesthetic quality.
|In its planning, construction and operation it represents a major innovation in construction activities in Queensland at a time of economic crisis. Its significance also lies in its relationship to the vision of its builder, Manuel Hornibrook, to develop the potential of the city of Redcliffe.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16012,"place_ref":601248,"name":"Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building","alternate_name":"Ruddle's Corner | Freemasons Arms | Bush and Commercial Inn (aka Commercial Inn) | Ruddles","street_address":"323-335 Brunswick Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-08-03","description":"The Royal George Hotel is located on the western corner of Brunswick and Ann Streets, opposite the Empire Hotel [600199] on the southern corner. Ruddle's Building adjoins the Royal George Hotel to the northwest, and also adjoins the former TC Beirne department store to the southeast.
1. Royal George Hotel
The Royal George Hotel is a three-storeyed rendered masonry structure with a corrugated iron hipped roof concealed behind a parapet. The street corner of the building is chamfered, and the core of the building consists of the c.1850 section but essentially what is presented is a 1960s make-over of the Victorian hotel. It is believed that the surviving elements of the c.1850 core consist of the relative sections of exterior walls, chamfered corner, door/window openings, and some internal structural walls.
The ground floor has an awning to both Ann and Brunswick Streets. The awning is supported by metal tie rods fixed to the face of the building at the first floor window head height. The first and second floors have predominantly regularly spaced aluminium framed hopper windows to the Ann Street elevation, and aluminium framed french doors with metal balustrades to the Brunswick Street elevation, with continuous cantilevered metal awnings. The ground floor has predominantly regularly spaced aluminium framed door and window units accessing the public bar and lounge along the Ann Street elevation, and the main entrance which accesses the first and second floor accommodation fronts onto Brunswick Street. The ground floor walls are finished with ceramic tiles, and the Ann Street elevation has the name ROYAL GEORGE HOTEL in relief below the second floor windows.
The southwest end of the Ann Street elevation comprises a visually distinct section of the hotel, which was constructed prior to 1898 as a separate building (or buildings) and was amalgamated into the hotel during the addition of the second floor and verandahs by 1924. Whilst the external treatment of this section is similar to the main section of the Royal George Hotel, it is distinguished by a slightly recessed elevation, changes in floor levels and a stepped street awning. The first and second floors have aluminium framed sliding glass door and window units, with continuous metal balustrades and cantilevered awnings. The southwest end elevation has timber framed sash windows to the second floor, and a number of non-original openings have been introduced to the first floor.
The rear of the building has a series of metal fire stairs, and most of the windows have been replaced with metal framed units. The rear of the site consists mainly of a service area with access via a driveway from Ann Street on the southwest side.
Internally, the building has a public bar on the ground floor fronting Ann Street, with a lounge at the southwest end. A lobby entrance fronts Brunswick Street, with a lift and main stair accessing the first and second floor accommodation. A second bar, located at the northwest end of the Brunswick Street elevation, opens into the southern tenancy of the adjoining Ruddle's Building and onto a timber deck constructed over the footpath. Toilets and service areas are located at the rear. A central stair accesses a basement to the corner section of the hotel which is connected to the basement areas of Ruddle's Building to the northwest. The basement contains evidence of the original structure, particularly the structural walls.
The first and second floors comprise hotel rooms opening off a central corridor, with communal facilities at the rear, and a smoking lobby facing Brunswick Street. Original transverse structural walls survive at the first floor level, as well as the external walls fronting Ann Street. The southwest section has a higher floor level, and the hotel rooms in this section each have bathroom en suite. The northwest end of the first floor level also has hotel rooms with bathroom en suites, and the central corridor opens through to the first floor level of Ruddle's Building adjacent.
2. Ruddle's Building
Ruddle's Building is a two-storeyed rendered masonry structure with three parallel corrugated iron hipped roof sections concealed behind a parapet. The northwest hipped roof has a small non-original clerestory section with a curved roof which provided light to an internal stair which is no longer extant.
The building is comprised of the former Commercial Banking Company of Sydney premises on the northwest side, and three tenancies adjacent to the southeast. This is expressed on the Brunswick Street elevation at ground level as four shopfronts. The first floor elevation comprises a separate tenancy at the northwest end (the former Commercial Banking Company of Sydney), with the remaining three tenancies composed as a single unit with a unifying verandah.
The building is essentially an infill structure which has the overall effect of creating a gradual change of scale and proportion which responded to the adjoining Royal George Hotel (in its 1886 form) to the southeast, and an earlier form of the former TC Beirne Department store to the northwest. The unifying architectural elements included pedimented parapet details, comprising triangular and curved pediments on the Royal George Hotel which were later incorporated into the redevelopment of the former TC Beirne Department store, and which were consciously linked and referenced through the utilisation of triangular and broken apex curved pediments on Ruddle's Building.
The rear of the building, constructed of rendered masonry, has single-storeyed additions containing amenities, kitchens and store areas with corrugated iron roofs. Non-original steel framed stairs and walkways access the first floor.
2.1 former Commercial Banking Company of Sydney premises (northwest tenancy)
The northwest tenancy (the former Commercial Banking Company of Sydney), currently a bar/live music venue, has a non-original awning to Brunswick Street. The awning is supported by metal tie rods fixed to the face of the building at the first floor window sill height, and comprises a deep metal fascia and pressed metal ceiling. The ground floor comprises a non-original timber framed shopfront with central paired timber framed glass doors, with a recessed original doorway at the northwest end. This doorway retains original fanlight and architrave detailing, and originally accessed a corridor leading to the rear internal stair and rear offices. The doorway is currently not used, and the internal planning has changed. The first floor elevation is composed of a central recessed section which continues to the parapet, with an arch with expressed extrados and keystone flanked by wall sections which appear as oversized pilasters each with a central window. The arch opens to a recessed loggia with projecting curved balcony with a wrought steel balustrade, and each window has non-original glass louvres. Expressed drip moulds frame the arch and window openings. An oversized keystone and arched drip moulding, which originally framed the arched entry to the banking premises, is extant below the balcony and above the non-original awning, however much of the original detailing of the ground floor elevation has been removed. The parapet comprises a broken apex curved pediment, and the entablature has oversized dentils.
The building has a two-storeyed section at the rear, with an angled side boundary wall, which forms an access way at the ground level and houses toilets at the first level.
Internally, the ground floor of the northwest tenancy contains a stair on the northwest side accessing the first floor, a bar and seating area, and a separate room at the rear housing a pool table. The rear room has an original tall sash window with architraves, some original detailing such as picture rails, and evidence of early openings in the rear wall. The bar and seating area has a tiled floor, and the walls and ceiling are finished with compressed sheeting. The first floor houses a function room with three large openings onto the recessed loggia fronting Brunswick Street. The clerestory lights the rear of the space, and a door opens into the rear office which has a tall sash window and original details such as architraves and skirtings. A short corridor accesses a bathroom at the rear, which has a boarded ceiling with timber cornice, and original panelled door and architraves.
2.2 remaining three tenancies
The remaining section of the building, which comprises three tenancies, has an awning to Brunswick Street which steps between the adjacent awnings of the Royal George Hotel and the northwest tenancy of the building. The awning has a deep timber fascia, raked boarded timber ceiling and is supported by four columns with Ionic capitals, above each of which is a single sphere. The ground floor comprises three tenancies, currently comprising a cafe and two bars, none of which have original shopfronts. The cafe has a timber framed shopfront with central paired timber framed glass doors. The middle bar has one large opening with a roller door, and the southern bar has been incorporated into the adjoining Royal George Hotel. The southern bar has a raised timber deck constructed over the footpath, and the front wall consists of two sets of folding timber framed glass doors either side of a timber framed window servery.
The first floor elevation is original and comprises a central cantilevered verandah with turned timber posts and balusters, and an ogee shaped corrugated iron awning with oversized dentils to the eaves. A pediment with oversized dentils to the entablature surmounts the awning fronting the parapet, and is flanked by the letters WR on the southern side, and the date 1901 on the northern side. Above these are short sections of balustrade to the parapet. The verandah has a raked boarded ceiling, a central timber partition, and multi-paned french doors with fanlights and expressed architrave mouldings.
The rear of the building has a unifying first floor verandah which has been enclosed with a combination of multi-paned windows, weatherboards and vertical boarding.
Internally, the ground floor of the remaining section of the building houses three tenancies, consisting of a cafe and two bars. The cafe has a non-original raised ground floor, which functions as a mezzanine and affords views of the basement seating area. The cafe has a seating area fronting Brunswick Street to both the basement and raised ground floor, a kitchen and amenities at the rear, original deep cornices and a non-original stair at the rear. Both bars have non original fit-outs, and the southern bar functions as an extension of the adjacent Royal George Hotel. Both bars have basements, with brick arches in adjoining walls. The first floor, which consists of rooms opening off a central corridor, is currently used as accommodation for the staff of the Royal George Hotel, and is accessed via the first floor corridor of the hotel. Sash windows and french doors with tall fanlights open onto the rear enclosed verandah, which has a boarded raked ceiling and face brick exterior wall.
","history":"The Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's building are located on the strategic intersection of Ann and Brunswick Streets (now Brunswick Street Mall) Fortitude Valley. A hotel is known to have existed on this site since 1850. The three storey brick Royal George Hotel contains an early (possibly as early as 1850) two storey core to which several major stages of works have been undertaken. In 1886 major additions transformed the hotel into a late Victorian building; by 1924 a third floor had been added; works undertaken in the 1960s (the current manifestation of the hotel) stripped much of this Victorian decoration from the building. The adjoining two storey brick Ruddle's building was erected in 1901 by William Ruddle whose family operated the Royal George for some 60 years. The building was designed by Brisbane architect RS (Robin) Dods to complement the hotel (as it then was) and to accommodate a number of different tenancies including the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. Together the two buildings form what was known as Ruddle's corner.
The site originally comprised part of Eastern Suburban Allotment 71 alienated in 1850 by James Gibbon. In that same year some 54 perches of ESA 71 was acquired by William Sam Sutton licensee of the Bush and Commercial Inn at Kangaroo Point. In December of that year Sutton was granted permission to transfer his publican's license to his new premises also known as the Bush and Commercial Inn (also known as the Commercial Inn), the forebear of the Royal George. Sutton's hotel was one of only a dozen or so licensed premises in Brisbane at this time including one other in Fortitude Valley, Jeremiah Scanlin's the Strangers Home located diagonally opposite the Commercial Inn.
The two inns were well situated on a strategic intersection of what were then known as the roads to (the former penal establishments of) Eagle Farm and New Farm. In addition to passing trade they serviced the fledgling settlement of Fortitude Valley, established in 1849 as a temporary village by some 256 immigrants privately sponsored by JD Lang, in response to the refusal of government assistance upon their arrival at Moreton Bay. By 1851 however, the Commercial Inn was no longer licensed and Sutton was in financial trouble; his property being offered for sale by the Sheriff in execution of a judgment obtained by Brisbane businessman John Richardson. The Sheriff's advertisement provides the first description of the earliest known hotel on the site; Sutton's Commercial Inn being described as a large brick Building - one portion carried up one story, and the corner portion roofed in and occupied as a Public-house ... There is also an excellent detached Brick Kitchen, Sleeping Rooms, and Stables, securely fenced in with a high Fence.
Based on a combination of evidence (including the Sheriff's advertisement, a later photograph of the hotel, and 1960s floor plans) it is believed that the hotel at this stage comprised a two storey brick section with slate roof and cantilevered verandah fronting Ann Street with a single storeyed brick wing wrapping around the corner of Ann and Brunswick Street (the distinctive chamfered section) attached to the northern end of the Ann Street section.
The property was not apparently sold at this time but instead passed to Sutton's creditor, John Richardson. In addition to his business interests, Richardson was the local representative in the New South Wales Legislative Council and a supporter of both JD Lang and separation. It is not known whether Richardson resided at the property although all buildings were apparently occupied (albeit the Commercial Inn was no longer licensed). In 1853 Richardson advertised the property for sale in two lots, the first lot containing the hotel described as a corner two-story House, two Cottages, and two Brick Houses in an unfinished state. The House contains two sitting rooms, kitchen, and three bed rooms, and is well adapted for a Public House or Store. The Cottages are plastered and comfortably finished; the whole substantially enclosed, and all occupied. The properties were described as well worth the attention of all who either require a house of their own or a good investment for their money, as they will be sold fifty per cent, under what they could now be built for.
In October the Moreton Bay Courier reported that the unfinished brick building at Fortitude Valley, formerly in the occupation of Mr Sutton, has been sold by Mr Richardson, the proprietor for £600, and will be opened as an Hotel. The property described as subdivisions 2, 3, and 4 of block 3 and sub 1 of block 6 of ESA 71 was acquired by William John Loudon (sometimes called London) who established the Freemasons Arms (also known as the Freemasons Hotel) on the site, obtaining a license in April 1854 becoming the only licensed premises in the Valley, the nearby Strangers Home Inn losing its license in that year.
By 1854, only five years after the arrival of the immigrants of the Fortitude, the (Fortitude) Valley was a thriving village exhibiting the most visible changes in Brisbane: there was a 'good brick inn' (Loudon's Freemasons Hotel) in the main street and a constable to keep order; North Brisbane and Fortitude Valley were almost joined with perhaps a kilometre of vacant land between the buildings of the two communities; the land through to Breakfast Creek was opening up; and Fortitude Valley became part of the suburban spread with the subdivision and sale of the early large allotments. (W Ross Johnston, Brisbane the first 30 years Boolarong Publications 1988 pp 235-6, 240)
Given that the hotel building was described on its sale to Loudon as unfinished, it is believed he must have undertaken some building works at this time, possibly adding a second storey to the corner section. During 1854 regular horse and cattle sales were held at the hotel which was apparently considered convenient for its abundant stabling, yards, and excellent paddocks close at hand for the reception of stock previous to day of sale without any extra charge. Loudon remained as licensee of the Freemasons Hotel (renamed the Lamb Inn in 1857) until 1859 although in 1858 the premises (including the hotel and 3 cottages) were sold to Jeremiah Daly. In 1860 George Challenger became licensee and in the following year John Harvey who remained until the hotel license was taken up in 1863 by George Dickens, who had acquired the hotel in 1861. It is Dickens who is believed to have changed the name of the hotel to the Royal George (in 1863). Apparently on account of ill health, Dickens advertises the hotel for let in July 1864:
THE ROYAL GEORGE HOTEL fronting Ann and Brunswick Streets Fortitude Valley. Comprising 18 rooms, out houses, good stabling, spacious yard, and capital cellar. The above is a corner allotment fronting Ann Street being the main road to Breakfast Creek, Eagle Farm, German Station, Bald Hills, Sandgate, and Pine River with a frontage to Brunswick Street leading to Bowen Bridge, Kedron Brook & c. The House is an old established one, and doing a good business, and the proprietor's reason for relinquishing business is on account of ill health in his family ...
A new licensee was not apparently found until the following year when the license was transferred to Henry Penfold and in 1866 to Michael Daly and in the same year back to Dickens (until 1868). In 1868 the property was conveyed to Dickens' mortgagee, the Anglican Bishop of Brisbane. A Sam Loudon (also written as London) is listed as licensee from 1869-70 when Henry Farley assumes the license until 1872. 1872 is to mark the beginning of a more stable proprietorship of the Royal George. In that year William Ruddle leases the hotel from the Anglican Church (officially the Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane) who owned in addition to the Royal George several other blocks of land on this part of Brunswick Street. A photo taken during this time (between 1872 and 1886) shows the Royal George hotel much as it is believed to have existed in the 1850s. By this time a second storey had been added to the chamfered corner section; an adjoining single story building on Brunswick Street also formed part of the hotel site.
In 1885 Ruddle purchased the hotel with a mortgage back to the Anglican church of £3,000. The 30.5 perches of land included the site (to the west of the Royal George) on which the Ruddle's building was later to be erected. In the following year major alterations and additions were undertaken to the hotel, the first of two stages of work which transformed the building into a late Victorian hotel, a form the Royal George would take until the 1960s. This transformation was the work of prominent architect FDG Stanley. Stanley (1839-1897) emigrated from Scotland to Queensland in 1861 joining the Office of the Colonial Architect in 1863 becoming Superintendent of Roads and Buildings (later called Colonial Architect) from 1872-1881. Queensland's longest serving Colonial Architect, his work included the Brisbane's Supreme Court (1874-79) and the GPO (1871-2). Described as the best known of all Queensland's early architects because of the quality, diversity, and extent of his work (Watson & McKay, Queensland Architects of the 19th century Queensland Museum 1994 p169), his private clients included several banks including the Queensland National Bank (for whom Stanley designed their headquarters in Queen Street (1880-85)) and the Anglican Church. His hotel work included The Grands in Maryborough (1884-5) and Bundaberg (1885-6), the Transcontinental Brisbane (1884) [600122] Lennon's Hotel George Street (1883-5; demolished), and the Clarence Hotel South Brisbane (1888-9).
A contemporary report describes Stanley's additions as including taking off the roof of the present building and raising it 4 feet, extending the hotel further along Brunswick Street, making a large cellar underneath, and the addition of cast iron verandahs to the Ann and Brunswick Street elevations. Internally there were new bedrooms, parlours, bar, large dining room, kitchen and offices.
The new Royal George was part of a 1880s hotel boom in the Valley including the nearby Empire Hotel [600199], Prince Consort [600212], Wickham [600213], and Jubilee [600211] hotels, all built between 1885 and 1888. Each was a substantial building located on a prominent site, designed to be conspicuous and offering extensive accommodation and the most modern facilities. Significantly each was funded by a Valley businessman investing in the local community. Such buildings (albeit the Royal George in a somewhat more modest way) reflected the optimism and bravado of the booming Queensland economy of the 1880s, a period of unprecedented economic growth when Brisbane was virtually rebuilt as a prosperous late 19th century Victorian era city, an image sustained until well after the Second World War.
Despite a downturn in the Queensland economy in the 1890s the Valley continued to develop lead by the large retailers, TC Beirne and James McWhirter who both established stores on Brunswick Street in the 1890s which quickly grew to become large department stores and further fuelled by the developing Brisbane tram network in which the Valley was a central node. By the turn of the century the Valley was established as the second major commercial district of the city supplanting South Brisbane and the Woolloongabba fiveways.
For several years after the completion of the additions (until c1894) the Royal George was leased: to Thomas Proe, then Perkins & Co, and back again to Proe. Apart from that period the hotel remained under the proprietorship of the Ruddle family until 1936. Against the backdrop of a flourishing Fortitude Valley, William Ruddle expanded his enterprise. In 1901 he purchased the adjoining block on Ann Street from Samuel Cohen. An 1898 plan shows two double storeyed brick buildings on the site; one facing Ann Street at the southern end of the site and the other adjoining the Royal George. Based on later (1960s) floorplans this adjoining building may in fact have been two buildings already joined. This was later to be incorporated as part of the Royal George.
In the same year (1901) Ruddle mortgaged his hotel block to the church for £10,000 apparently to finance the erection of the Ruddle's building: Hall & Dods called for tenders for the erection of 3 shops banking premises and additions etc. RS (Robin) Dods (1868-1920) had a highly developed architectural imagination: his introduction of the formal and philosophical ideas of both the British Arts and Crafts movement and Edwardian classicism and his significant functional solutions to the problems of living and building in Queensland combined to achieve an architectural revolution in Brisbane (Watson & McKay p55). The two storeyed Ruddle's building situated between the Royal George and TC Beirne's store (for whom Hall & Dods carried out several large commissions including substantial works to the Valley store) comprised several different tenancies whose presence was variously articulated in the form and decoration of the building. The western portion of building was designed and used as premises for the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney (previously the tenants of TC Beirne the bank in the building until 1942 when they moved to their new premises on the opposite side of Brunswick Street). The ground floor portion housed the banking chamber; the first floor with its recessed loggia overlooking Brunswick Street (illustrative of Dods interest in climatic adaptations) may have provided accommodation for the manager. The portion adjoining the hotel housed several commercial tenancies initially including a jeweller, a ham and beef store and a dentist. Above the stores was a photographer's studio occupied by William Ruddle's son, Roland until 1930/31.
In 1902 William Ruddle's son, Ernest became the licensee. During his proprietorship a number of changes were made. By 1914 part of the adjoining Ann Street building (purchased by William Ruddle in 1901) had been incorporated as part of the hotel. By 1924 the second stage of the Victorian manifestation of the hotel had occurred with the addition of a third floor containing guest accommodation. This work involved the replacement of the semi-circular pediments by triangular pediments (echoing the eastern pediment on Ruddle's building) and included the addition of a third floor to the adjoining Ann Street building (or buildings) with verandahs at the two upper levels and pediment detailing continued from the hotel building to complete the visual incorporation of the building with the Royal George. An advertisement in the Brisbane Centenary Official Historical Souvenir (1924) proclaims the Royal George as One of Brisbane's Oldest Establishments (evidenced by a photograph dated 1854 to 1886 showing the early brick hotel) but also as A First-class New and Up-to-date Modern Hotel (illustrated by a contemporary photograph of the three story Victorian hotel; dated 1886 to 1923).
Following the death of William Ruddle in 1919, the hotel and Ruddle's Building passed in trust to his two sons Ernest and Roland. In 1927 the properties were acquired by Ernest Ruddle. In that same year internal alterations were undertaken by architects GHM Addison and Son and builders FJ Corbett and Sons. The modern hotel was described by the Architecture and Building Journal of Queensland although none of the work described appears to have survived:
The public bar is unique as far as Queensland is concerned having two island bars in the one room. These bars are both built of marble as are also the floors, and as the walls are tiled, the whole of the bar can be hosed out when required. Special attention has been given throughout to the fittings, which are of Queensland silky oak
In 1936, the Telegraph trumpeted the sale of the hotel to brewers Castlemaine Perkins: HISTORIC ROYAL GEORGE HOTEL IN VALLEY SOLD AT A RECORD PRICE. This was to mark the end of a 60 year association by the Ruddle family.
Work undertaken during this period included prior to 1949 a cantilevered awning being installed to the former bank section of Ruddle's building. By 1951 other changes to the Ruddle's building included the removal of various ancillary structures to the rear of the building, the erection of toilets at ground level to the rear of what was now the former bank section, and additions to the rear of the eastern end of the Ruddle's building. In 1961 drawings for the second major transformation of the Royal George were prepared by architect HS McDonald. The works costing £100,000 were undertaken by contractor FA Pidgeon. They involved the removal of the Victorian verandahs; the conversion of some french doors to windows, the removal of the entry from the chamfered corner, and the incorporation of part of the ground floor of Ruddle's building into the hotel.
In 1986 the properties were acquired by Quetel Pty Ltd (later Royal George Hotel Holdings). More recent 1990s changes have followed on the formation of the Brunswick Street mall which saw the construction of a raised platform across the former footpath outside the hotel and part of Ruddle's building and the removal of walls on the ground floor of Ruddle's building. Both the Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's building continue as active parts of the social fabric of the Valley: the Royal George accommodating both pub patrons and residents; Ruddle's building currently houses a bar and live music venue in the former bank and a cafe and two bars in the other section.
","criteria":"The forebear of the Royal George Hotel was established on this site in 1850. Known as the Bush and Commercial Inn (later called the Freemasons Arms, Lamb Inn, and from 1863 the Royal George), that early hotel building comprising two brick sections including the distinctive chamfered corner section still apparent today, is believed to form the core of the Royal George Hotel.
The evolution of the Royal George Hotel over several stages from the 1850s is important in illustrating the development of Fortitude Valley. The surviving 1850s core is important and rare surviving evidence of the beginnings of the area; its transformation in 1886 to a late Victorian hotel during Queensland's economic boom in the 1880s was part of a substantial rebuilding of the Valley at this time including the building and rebuilding of a number of Valley hotels. Despite the removal of much of the Victorian decoration in the 1960s the form of the Victorian hotel remains to illustrate this period when the Valley rivalled North and South Brisbane as one of the principal commercial precincts of Brisbane. Erected in 1901 by Royal George owner and licensee, William Ruddle, Ruddle's building was built to cater for the continued commercial growth of the Valley despite the general downturn in the Queensland economy during the 1890s.
|The surviving 1850s core is important and rare surviving evidence of the beginnings of the area; its transformation in 1886 to a late Victorian hotel during Queensland's economic boom in the 1880s was part of a substantial rebuilding of the Valley at this time including the building and rebuilding of a number of Valley hotels.
|Built just one year after a settlement was established in the area by the immigrants of the SS Fortitude, that core (including masonry load bearing walls in the basement and first floor) constitutes rare surviving early fabric which has the potential to reveal evidence of both the workings of a hotel and building practices in the mid 19th century.
|Although the Royal George Hotel has been substantially altered on several occasions, the building retains sufficient elements such as masonry load bearing construction, basement, ground floor public areas, accommodation to the upper floors, and the pattern of external openings which formerly opened onto verandahs, to sufficiently demonstrate the typical characteristics of a late nineteenth century hotel.
Ruddle's Building is important in exhibiting the principal characteristics of the work of architect RS (Robin) Dods, including a considered response to climate, robust detailing, and carefully composed elevations which, with the use of architectural elements, perform an important role in consciously linking and referring to adjacent buildings to create a coherent streetscape.
|Located on a prominent street corner, the Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's Building are important elements in the Fortitude Valley streetscape. Ruddle's Building is of architectural and aesthetic importance, and through its form, scale and materials, illustrates a skilled design approach. Elements such as the recessed loggia and cantilevered first floor verandah demonstrate a considered response to climate, and surviving fabric (particularly in the rear rooms) provide important evidence of the building's original robust internal detailing.
|Apart from two very short periods when the hotel premises were unlicensed, this site, strategically located on the corner of Ann and Brunswick Streets, once known as the roads to the (former penal settlements) of Eagle Farm and New Farm, has been in continuous use as a hotel site for over 140 years giving the site considerable social significance.
|Known together as Ruddle's corner, the Royal George Hotel and Ruddle's building, has a long association with the Ruddle family, members of whom were well known 'Valley' people.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16019,"place_ref":601256,"name":"Torbreck","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"182 Dornoch Terrace","suburb":"HIGHGATE HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-12-17","description":"Prominently located on the crest of Highgate Hill, Torbreck is a landmark, visible from many places in Brisbane. It comprises two modernist-influenced reinforced concrete and brick buildings on a one and a half acre site which slopes steeply to the north. The tallest is a fourteen-storeyed Tower Block which fronts onto and is accessed from Dornoch Terrace; it sits on four levels of garages and storage areas, and is crowned by a glazed observation room. The Tower Block links at foyer level to the top floor of the Garden Block. The Garden Block is eight-storeyed; it fronts onto lawns and a pool, and is also accessed from Chermside St. The stepping of the buildings on the site optimises the northerly aspect and views.
The external form of the Tower Block comprises vertically articulated concrete bays projecting out to the cardinal points from a brick core. It has full length verandahs to the north and south, and balconies facing east and west, including "Romeo and Juliet" balconies, angled out to catch glimpses of the southern views. The eastern and western bays have full height wide blue steel louvres flanked by textured concrete panels. The building rests on a concrete-louvred plinth, and steps up to meet the observation tower at its pinnacle. The garden block is a long rectangular building with verandahs to the north and walkway access to the south, which overlooks gardens with lawned areas, trees and a kidney shaped pool. It has brick walls to the east and west. All the brickwork on Torbreck is patterned and textured with projecting bricks.
The Dornoch Terrace entrance comprises a tiled undercroft with substantial square columns, adjacent to a leasable space with a faceted glass wall. This entrance links, via a waiting lounge, lift lobby, corridor and concrete bridge, to a large concrete viewing terrace on the top storey of the Garden Block. The Garden Block is entered via a porte cochere and glazed foyer in the undercroft.
Torbreck has 150 units, including bedsits, one, two and three bedroom units, and penthouse flats, with brick and reinforced concrete party walls. The Tower Block has a typical plan comprising four units forming a rectangle around a service core, with a single unit wing extending to the north and a double unit wing extending to the south. The typical plan of the Garden Block has seven adjacent units. The units are skilfully planned, optimising both space and views. The units have full-height timber sliding doors leading onto tiled balconies.
The building contains some details which are well-considered in relation to climate and human occupation. The balconies and verandahs have concrete planters with sloped steel balustrades above, flanked by frosted glass panels, providing both privacy and views. Metal sunshades with louvres above the Garden Block balconies and louvres to the Tower Block assist in providing thermal comfort. The walkways to the Garden Block have different coloured chequered tiled floors to each level for orientation. The lift landings in the Tower Block also have different decor for different landing levels. All landing levels in both blocks have steel garbage shute doors and timber milk bottle hatches. The observation tower has sloping glass walls which assist viewing, and contains a central stainless steel and brass direction dial. The observation tower commands exceptional 360? views of Brisbane and surrounds.
Torbreck demonstrates design skill in its adaptation of the 'international style' to site, climate and human occupation, in its maximising the natural advantages of the site; sunshading and louvres, detailing of balustrades, remaining original lift landing features, and observation room. It also demonstrates a clear 50s aesthetic sensibility in its articulation of external forms, and its use of materials, in particular the use of texture in the brick and concrete work, and in its use of steel louvres.
Torbreck remains substantially intact as an impressive Brisbane landmark.
","history":"Torbreck was erected in 1958-1960 to the design of Brisbane architects AH Job and RP Froud and comprised two stages; a low rise Garden Block to Chermside Street and a high rise Tower Block to Dornoch Terrace. Importantly, it was the first multi-storeyed home unit development in Queensland, constructed when Brisbane's Building Ordinances had no provision for home units, and advertised at the time as the greatest single contribution to home development in the state. When first promoted in 1957, the scheme received support from Premier Nicklin, who saw this high-density, inner urban residential development as an important contribution toward curbing Brisbane's urban sprawl.
Torbreck Pty Ltd, which became Torbreck Home Units Ltd from mid-1960, was formed in 1957, and was headed by accountant Wilfred Charles Betts, builder Noel Austin Kratzmann, and solicitor Sholto Douglas. The aim of this company was to promote and construct a new type of Queensland residential accommodation; the multi-storeyed home unit complex. The original sponsor of the scheme was Rowley Pym, a former Western Queensland fencing contractor, whose grandmother is understood to have owned the first Torbreck, a c1876 house whose name meant top of the hill. Title to this Dornoch Terrace site was transferred to the company in mid-1958. The blocks facing Chermside Street were acquired in 1961-62.
The home unit complex was designed by Queensland architects AH Job & RP Froud. Their work was influenced by post-Second World War International Style, particularly the North American model, which had a strong impact on architecture in Queensland in the 1950s. WG Alexander & HV Browne were the structural engineers.
Torbreck was erected by NA Kratzmann Pty Ltd, one of the largest building contractors in Queensland by the late 1950s. The eight-storeyed garden block was constructed using the lift-slab technique, whereby the roof and floors were prefabricated on the ground, then hoisted into position by jacks mounted on the vertical wall supports. This construction technique had not been used in Queensland before. The fourteen-storeyed tower block was erected along more conventional lines.
Rowley Pym formed Torbreck Real Estate Brokers to market the new development, and most of the units were sold before the complex was completed. Purchasers paid a one-third deposit, then the balance was paid in four instalments during the construction period. Owners became investors in the company, receiving £1 shares in Torbreck Home Units Limited to the value of the purchase price. Directors of the company were, and still are, elected from among the unit owners. Despite strata title having been available in Queensland since 1965, Torbreck remains under company title.
Torbreck introduced to Queensland a new concept in residential accommodation. The promotional literature offered Queenslanders a share of the American dream that had reached Australia via the Hollywood cinema: spectacular views, an acre of landscaped gardens, and luxurious, convenient, secure, private accommodation, with an estimated running cost to each owner of 10/- per week. Each floor was serviced by the latest in automatic lifts, and each unit owner was to be provided with a private garage and mail box. Each of the 150 home units was designed with at least one private balcony, and was fitted with built-ins, electric kitchen, two telephone connections (bedroom and lounge), sewerage and garbage disposal facilities, washing machine and clothes drier. Water, pumped from the city reservoirs to large storage tanks on the roof, was treated by the latest in American water-softening equipment. Television reception was available, and a swimming pool was constructed in the grounds.
Due to spiralling construction costs and/or lack of Brisbane City Council approval, some of the more elaborate aspects of the scheme had to be abandoned: shopping facilities and professional suites at ground level; basement laundry service; a top-class restaurant offering room service; a terrace cafe; roof and indoor gardens; and a tennis court, putting green and fully equipped children's playground. A planned rooftop observation lounge translated as an enclosed rooftop viewing deck.
However, the project captured public imagination even before construction commenced. By May 1958, 'Torbreck' had become the most popular lottery syndicate name in Brisbane. By mid-1959, the developers were sufficiently confident in the success of Torbreck to announce preliminary plans and schematic designs for Torbreck-Surfers Paradise and Torbreck-Burleigh. Neither of these developments eventuated, but Torbreck opened the Queensland market for home units. Other projects to follow included Camden along Kingsford Smith Drive, Glenfalloch in New Farm, and Kinkabool at Surfers Paradise. In order to market the property, the developers Reid Murray Developments Pty Ltd published a small brochure detailing the attributes of Torbreck and providing floor plans to the seven types of flats available in the tower block. This document recognises the 'commanding and panoramic views of Brisbane, coupled with the full benefit of cooling breezes' offered by the units.
In 1962/1963 the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (Queensland Chapter) awarded AH Job and RP Froud with a commendation for the Garden Block at Torbreck. The partnership were awarded other RAIA awards including for Residences of a High Standard for the McDough Residence, Fig Tree Pocket also in 1962/3; and a commendation for the Lane Residence, St Lucia in 1965.
","criteria":"Torbreck has historical significance as the first company-titled multi-storeyed home unit development erected in Queensland based on 1950s North American models. The construction of Torbreck pioneered the market for this type of home unit development in Queensland.
|Torbrek is of architectural significance as a well designed example of multi storeyed home unit building, particularly in its site planning and detailing.
The Torbreck complex is a good example of 1950s architectural and landscape design in its form, attention to climate control and use of materials.
|Torbreck has aesthetic and social significance as a prominent landmark of inner suburban Brisbane.
|The Garden Block is an early use of lift slab construction in Queensland and is of technological significance.
|Torbreck has aesthetic and social significance as a prominent landmark of inner suburban Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16026,"place_ref":601263,"name":"Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"615 Brookfield Road","suburb":"BROOKFIELD","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-04-28","description":"The Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd is a single-storey, timber church set on wooden stumps, sited on a rise to the northern side of Brookfield Road. It comprises a four-bay nave, a chancel and a north vestry and west porch. There is a separate sanctuary with an independent roof and raised floor. The church measures twelve metres by six metres, excluding the vestry and porch, and has a seating capacity of approximately eighty. The church is clad externally in white painted chamferboards.
The east window is an under-scaled triplet and the taller flanking windows are set in square frames. The glass in the east windows, including the centre panel depicting the Good Shepherd, was installed in 1981. The west gable wall is characterised by the central west porch and the scalloped timber barge boards. The apex of the west wall has a vent opening with a pointed arch head and is fitted with timber louvres. The gable of the west porch is clad in weatherboards and the porch walls are open above the timber railing. The four lancet windows in each of the nave side walls comprise two centre pivoting timber-frame windows each with a central transom. The gable roofs of the nave and west porch are sheeted with corrugated metal painted red. The roofs over the nave and the porch have decorative scalloped timber bargeboards.
Internally, the nave has an open timber ceiling comprising tied principal rafters, purlins and diagonally laid boards. All ceiling timbers in the nave have been painted. The interior walls of the nave have been lined in sheet material with cover battens over the joints and painted. The unpainted timber ceiling over the sanctuary follows the polygonal plan and reveals rafters and diagonal boarding. Two metal tie rods restrain the sanctuary walls at eave level. The pointed arch chancel arch, somewhat awkwardly integrated with a square opening to the sanctuary, is surmounted by a louvred gable vent. The sanctuary walls have been clad in clear finished, horizontal pine boards. The suspended timber floor has east-west laid boards.
The Church is surrounded by mature conifers and eucalypts.
The Parish Hall [1985] is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd was constructed in 1892. The architect is unknown,
however, it is possible that the design may be attributed to the work of JH Buckeridge, Brisbane Diocesan architect for the Anglican Church from 1886-1902. Buckeridge lived in Sydney from 1892 and managed the design of church buildings from there.
Reverend John Vincent, the first chaplain in the penal settlement of Moreton Bay, then part of the Diocese of Newcastle, arrived in 1829. Up until the late 1840s, parishioners held services in makeshift buildings, open-air services and in private homes. In 1848 land was chosen in the present Queens's Park in George Street for the first Anglican Church in Brisbane, St John the Evangelist. With the establishment of the colony of Queensland in December 1859, it became necessary to form a new diocese within the Anglican Church. The Bishop of the new diocese, Reverend Edward Wyndham Tufnell, arrived in September 1860. Tufnell brought with him six young clergymen, inlcuding the Reverend Thomas Jones who played an important part in the early days of the Church of the Good Shepherd and other churches of the diocese.
By 1870, the Parish of Toowong had been formed and Brookfield was included as a remote part of that parish. By this time, Brookfield was settled by farmers and timbergetters who had arrived in the area in the late 1850s and 1860s. The Reverend Robert Creyke administered to the remote areas of the large parish. A centre for worship was established at Indooroopilly in 1887 and the Church of St Andrew was formally opened by Bishop Webber, Bishop of Brisbane, on 25 August 1889. It is possible that Hedley Allen Dunn was the architect of this church. On 9 January 1890, the Parish of Toowong was divided and the boundaries of the Indooroopilly Parish were fixed, making Brookfield a remote part of the Indooroopilly Parish. Even with a change in Parish boundaries, the Anglican parishioners of Brookfield were still required to travel some distance to church. During one of his visits to Brookfield for services the Reverend AR Rivers encouraged the local people to construct a church, and consequently, a Building Committee was established.
The land that was acquired for the building of a church, on the corner of Brookfield and Boscombe Streets, had been surveyed for sale in 1859. It was originally part of a land grant farmed by John McGrath, who obtained the Deed of Grant in January 1861. It was in October 1892 that the Building Committee purchased the land, for £20, from the owner, William Thomas Gee. On 21 November 1892, the solicitors, Wilson, Newman-Wilson and Hemming, forwarded to the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane the Certificate of Title for the land on which the Church of the Good Shepherd was to be build. The church cost £220 to build and was consecrated on Easter Monday 2 April 1893. The architect of the church is unknown, though, it is likely that it was not designed directly by JH Buckeridge, the Diocesan Architect. There were, however, plans drawn by Buckeridge which Bishop Webber made available to some Building Committees. These plans were intended to assist in costing and assessing sizes, and the Church of the Good Shepherd may have been based on one of these plans.
To reduce costs the interior was originally unlined, revealing the studwork, and the timber was oiled rather than stained or painted. The gable roofs of the church were originally clad with 'stringy-bark' shingles. The north vestry appears to have been added after the building was opened and may account for the presence of chamfer boards on the internal south wall of the vestry. The later addition of vestries was not uncommon was usually related to funding availability. Sometime in the 1930s, the shingle roof was replaced by iron sheeting and in the early 1950s, the interior walls were lined and painted. The chancel interior was clad with 'masonite' and louvre windows were installed on either side of the altar.
During the 1960s, further maintenance work was carried out and the church was repainted and rewired. The sanctuary was relined with clear-finished, horizontal pine boards and the floor around the vestry and pulpit was repaired. During this time the church floor was sanded and varnished.
In 1968, the Parish of Kenmore, Brookfield and Moggill was formed. During the 1980s, stained glass was installed and the church was repaired once more. The adjacent parish hall was built in 1985 to the designs of architect Philip Gough. The church bell, originally located outside the vestry, was moved to a position north of the west porch.
","criteria":"The Church is important in demonstrating the development of the Anglican Church in Queensland and Brookfield during this time.
|The Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd, corner Brookfield and Boscombe Streets, Brookfield was constructed in the late nineteenth century and is of aesthetic significance as a picturesque and well executed example of a Gothic influenced timber ecclesiastical building. Many simple timber churches were constructed throughout Queensland, this example is distinguished by the quality of its design and by its visual cohesion with other historic buildings in the area, including the Uniting Church, constructed in 1871, Brookfield School, established in 1874 and the Brookfield cemetery, established in 1872.
|The Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd, corner Brookfield and Boscombe Streets, Brookfield was constructed in the late nineteenth century and is of aesthetic significance as a picturesque and well executed example of a Gothic influenced timber ecclesiastical building. Many simple timber churches were constructed throughout Queensland, this example is distinguished by the quality of its design and by its visual cohesion with other historic buildings in the area, including the Uniting Church, constructed in 1871, Brookfield School, established in 1874 and the Brookfield cemetery, established in 1872.
|As a place of public worship for over 100 years, the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd has social value for the local Anglican community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16110,"place_ref":601347,"name":"Lytton Quarantine Station (former)","alternate_name":"Lytton Quarantine Complex and Animal Detention Centre | Fort Lytton National Park | Customs Reserve","street_address":"160 South Street","suburb":"LYTTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-09-22","description":"The former Lytton Quarantine Station is located on low, flat land adjacent to and south of Fort Lytton at the southern head of the mouth of the Brisbane River.
The principal structures and elements on that part of the former Lytton Quarantine Station now incorporated within Fort Lytton National Park, include:
Jetty - constructed of timber planks bolted together and supported by wooden piles reinforced with concrete. It is associated with the earliest phase of the development of the quarantine station at Lytton, in the 1910s.
Reception House - a small, timber-framed, weatherboard-clad building with fibrous-cement sheeting and battening in the gabled ends. It has a corrugated iron roof and a verandah at the north end of the building which is constructed over tramway tracks that once linked the quarantine complex to the jetty to the west. The interior has been altered to accommodate offices, but the building remains substantially intact. It is associated with the earliest phase of the development of the quarantine station at Lytton, in the 1910s.
Tram/trolley bridge foundations - these comprise pairs of steel reinforced concrete footings set 2m apart, leading west from the Reception House toward the jetty. In some places wooden sleepers are visible, but the majority of the decking and all the rails are missing. This element is associated with the earliest phase of the development of the quarantine station at Lytton, in the 1910s.
Bath House - a large, rectangular, timber-framed, building with weatherboard-cladding to above sill height, above which is fibrous-cement sheeting and battening. It has a corrugated iron roof with ventilators along the ridge, and rests on a concrete slab. No evidence of services such as shower fittings, etc remains, but the original interior layout is still discernible and the upper level observation post, at the north end of the building, is intact. Two square brick-lined drainage traps [620mm x 620mm] are located on the eastern side of the shower block. The building is associated with the earliest phase of the development of the quarantine station at Lytton, in the 1910s.
Boiler House - a tall, rectangular brick building with engaged piers, corrugated iron roof, substantial external chimney stack and external drains, with boilers and associated fittings internally. The whole is remarkable intact, and is associated with the earliest phase of the development of the quarantine station at Lytton, in the 1910s.
Fuel Shed - this is a small, later, timber-framed, weatherboard-clad structure with a low-pitched corrugated iron roof, adjacent to the eastern end of the boiler room.
Disinfecting block - a large, rectangular, timber-framed, building with weatherboard-cladding to above sill height, above which is fibrous-cement sheeting and battening. It has a corrugated iron roof and rests on a concrete slab. The internal autoclave and associated fittings are in-situ, along with trolley track and trolleys. Trolley or tram lines run west out of the centre of the western end of the building, toward the jetty. An overhead pipeline from the boiler house to the south side of the disinfecting block attaches to the autoclave. The building is remarkably intact, and is associated with the earliest phase of the development of the quarantine station at Lytton, in the 1910s.
Laundry Block- a rectangular, timber-framed, building with weatherboard-cladding to above sill height, above which is fibrous-cement sheeting and battening. It has a corrugated iron gabled roof with iron ventilators along the ridge and on the west side of the roof. The building rests on a concrete slab, and has a verandah over a concrete pathway along part of the western side of the building. There is a later, tall metal roller door at the north end of the building, but the remaining doors and fenestration appear to be original. Concrete footings associated with former tank stands are evident on the east side of the building. The building is remarkably intact, and is associated with the earliest phase of the development of the quarantine station at Lytton, in the 1910s.
Enclosed laundry yard - the yard area to the east and south of the laundry block has a concrete retaining wall approximately 150mm high and 150mm wide. The west and east sides of the yard are bounded by round metal posts capped with concrete while the south side is defined by tram/trolley rails set vertically as posts [1500mm high]. There is an open concrete drain along the eastern side of the yard, inside the fence posts. The yard contains 12 square wooden posts approximately 2m in height, which are likely to have supported clothes lines. A service inspection hatch is located centrally in the southern section of the yard. This has a 1m x 1m concrete housing with a 600mm x 600mm steel lid with embossed cross-hatching and the lettering "Harvey & Son". A block of late 20th century relocatable toilets is also sited in this yard. Despite this, the yard remains substantially intact, and is associated with the earliest phase of the development of the quarantine station at Lytton, in the 1910s.
Two launchmen's cottages - these timber-framed, weatherboard clad cottages are located along the eastern boundary of that part of the former Lytton Quarantine Station which has been incorporated into Fort Lytton National Park, south of the laundry and laundry yard. Originally there were three cottages, but the middle house has been removed. The two remaining houses have corrugated iron roofs and rest on low concrete piers. Although no interior inspection has been made, these houses appear to be reasonably intact. They are associated with the earliest phase of the development of the quarantine station at Lytton, in the 1910s.
Doctor's Quarter's - this two-storeyed building currently functions as the administration centre for Fort Lytton National Park. It was initially a single-storeyed, timber-framed, weatherboard-clad house which has been relocated from elsewhere on the site to its present position south of the Bath House, raised, to create a ground floor which is enclosed with fibrous-cement planking. Although no longer in situ, the place was associated with the earliest phase of the development of the quarantine station at Lytton, in the 1910s.
Workshop - this is a small, rectangular, brick structure, resting on a concrete slab. It has a corrugated iron roof which is lined with timber boards. Internally, exposed roof trusses have been cut and braced to provide higher clearance for machinery. Outside, along the eastern side of the building is a concrete slab and seven pairs of concrete piers in ramp-like formation. On the western side of the building is This structure appears to correspond with a building marked 'workshop' identified on a 1918 plan of the site. It now functions as a machinery store.
Sewerage Treatment Plant - at the far southwest of the site is a small, early sewerage treatment facility 14.8 m long and 5.5m wide. It is of concrete construction, and has a central rectangular wire mesh cage filled with coarse rubble which possibly functioned as primary filtration of effluent. The plant remains substantially intact, and is associated with the earliest phase of the development of the quarantine station at Lytton, in the 1910s.
Apart from the relocation of the former Doctor's Quarters to the northwestern end of the site, the surviving buildings and other structural and archaeological elements maintain their original spatial relationship. The surrounding grounds are mostly grassed, with a new bitumen road, which leads to the present entrance to Fort Lytton, established west of the original metalled roadway into the quarantine station. There are a number of mature, though not large, trees, at the southern end of the site, associated with the former quarantine station.
At the north east end of the site is an unoccupied block, fenced off, and formerly the site of the administrative building, attendant's quarters, stores, isolation hospital and observation block, associated with the establishment of the Lytton Quarantine Station in 1913-14. All of these buildings have been removed from the site, but a number of archaeological elements associated with the quarantine station have been identified. These include the concrete foundation slab and some wall remnants of the former Laboratory Building/Morgue at the far eastern end of the site; the concrete foundation slab of a building marked 'laundry' on a 1918 plan, at the western side of the site; the concrete foundation slab of a small building identified as 'Receiving Shed' on a 1918 plan, at the northern end of the site; and elements of the early drainage system associated with the former Lytton Quarantine Station.
The Lytton Quarantine Station extended a considerable distance to the south of what is now Fort Lytton National Park, and included a venereal diseases hospital and animal quarantine facilities. The 1994 archaeological survey of all 31 hectares of the site identified 237 features associated with the historic use of the site from at least the 1910s. That part of the former Lytton Quarantine Station not included within Fort Lytton National Park is not included within the listing boundary for the entry in the Queensland Heritage Register.
","history":"The Lytton Quarantine Station was established in 1913-1914, to accommodate newly arrived immigrants and persons considered to be at risk of causing infection to the general population. Situated at an isolated location at the mouth of the Brisbane River, the place illustrates early 20th century attitudes to quarantine practices and the provision of quarantine facilities, and is important as part of a continuum of sites in and adjacent to Moreton Bay, used for quarantine purposes from 1844.
\nThere were no human quarantine facilities at Moreton Bay during the penal era 1824-42, as all immigration came via Sydney. Following the opening of the district to free settlement in February 1842, a quarantine station was formed in 1844 at Dunwich, on Stradbroke Island, at the site of a former goods transfer depot established by convicts in the late 1820s. From 1864, Dunwich served as both quarantine station and benevolent asylum. The quarantine station was relocated briefly to St Helena Island in Moreton Bay in 1866-67, along with the newly erected gaol there, but was soon returned to Dunwich. From 1874 to 1915 Peel Island in Moreton Bay served as Brisbane's human quarantine station.
\nThe Lytton site, just south of Fort Lytton at the mouth of the Brisbane River, had a variety of uses prior to the establishment of the Quarantine Station in the early 20th century, occupying a former customs reserve [established 1858-59], sections of the early township of Lytton [surveyed in 1859], and an animal quarantine facility [established 1889].
\nThe history of the Lytton district is closely aligned to the establishment during the 1840s and 1850s of the Port of Moreton Bay at Brisbane Town, on the Brisbane River, rather than at Cleveland on the Bay. Moreton Bay was proclaimed a Port of Entry, with the facilities to collect customs, in June 1846. Brisbane was declared a warehousing port in 1849 and a Customs House was erected there in 1850. In 1857 the New South Wales colonial government began to investigate the suitability of establishing a customs station at the south head of the Brisbane River [present-day Lytton]. In August 1857, surveyor James Warner completed a preliminary survey of a site for a village, which was approved in November 1858, and in December 1858 tenders were called for the construction of a Customs Station nearby on the river. In February 1859 Warner officially surveyed sections 1 to 13 of the village of Lytton, as well as sites for a customs landing place and a signal station.
\nFrom 1 July 1859 a Tide Surveyor was stationed at Lytton. His job was to meet and board all ships entering the harbour, to prevent the evasion of customs duties. He was assisted by a coxswain and four boatmen, also stationed at the Lytton customs reserve. Following separation from New South Wales in December 1859, the Queensland government maintained Lytton's role as the customs entry to the Port of Moreton Bay. From c1864 Water Police-cum-Customs Officers were stationed on the gaol hulk Proserpine at the mouth of the Brisbane River. The Sub-inspector of the Water Police, based at the Lytton Customs Reserve, was also appointed as a health officer, and inspected all vessels entering the port.
\nEarly buildings and structures associated with the Lytton Customs Station included: customs station (1858-9); electric telegraph station (1861); pilots' houses and sheds (1862); boatman's cottage (1863); boat slip (1863); health officer's house (1865); Lytton Wharf (1866); and additional boatmen's quarters (1872).
\nSome sections of Lytton township were alienated between 1860 and 1863, mostly by Brisbane speculators who anticipated the development of wharf facilities at Lytton. Few private buildings were erected there. The Crown and Anchor Hotel operated at Lytton briefly in 1865-66, when a government wharf adjacent to the Customs Reserve was built in 1866 to tranship railway stores and plant for construction of the Southern and Western Railway. From 1878 until c1905 the Lytton Hotel served local farmers and a military presence. Lytton State School was established c1882. In general, the district remained agricultural.
\nSir George Ferguson Bowen, on completion of his term as Governor and departure from Moreton Bay on 4 January 1868, officially named and designated Lytton as Brisbane's port.
\nIn 1877, Lytton was identified as the site for a defence fortification to guard the mouth of the Brisbane River. In 1880-82 Fort Lytton was constructed adjacent to and north of the Customs Reserve.
\nIn the 1880s, colonial concern with the quarantine of imported animals led to the June 1889 proclamation of a small Reserve for Quarantine Purposes at Lytton [Reserve 230 - 1a 3r 29p], on the river adjacent to the Lytton Town Reserve and south of the Customs Reserve. Its location suggests it was for maritime quarantine. By May 1890 builders John Petrie & Son had completed a cottage, stables and forage room on the Lytton Quarantine Reserve, and in 1893, dog kennels were constructed. In April 1894, in anticipation of an expected influx of imported animals following the lifting of restrictions on stock imports, an extension of 2 acres 2 roods to the Reserve for Quarantine Purposes at Lytton was proclaimed as Reserve 231. This extension occupied the southern half of the Customs Reserve. In 1891 and 1900, much of Lytton township was resumed for military purposes, with part of the 1900 resumption allocated to the Animal Quarantine Station. Several existing residences were used for customs personnel and others were removed from the site in the early 20th century.
\nFollowing the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, quarantine became a Federal responsibility under the Commonwealth Quarantine Act 1908. From 1908-1911, the Queensland Commissioner of Public Health [a position created under Queensland's Health Act of 1900] performed the duties of quarantine officer for the Commonwealth. In 1910 Dr JSC Elkington was appointed to this position, and in the following three years established Queensland's public health infrastructure, and oversaw the administration and implementation of State and Commonwealth quarantine practices. In 1922 Elkington wrote a text on quarantine procedures for the Commonwealth, which not only governed quarantine practice in Australia but was adopted as the model in at least three other countries.
\nIn January 1912, the administration of quarantine facilities and practices in Queensland was transferred wholly to the Federal Quarantine Bureau. In December 1913, Elkington resigned his State position and joined the Commonwealth Health Service in Brisbane, overseeing the establishment of the quarantine facility at Lytton.
\nThe establishment of a human quarantine station at Lytton was made practicable following the widening and deepening of the channel through the bar at the mouth of the Brisbane River, completed in 1911. This permitted deep-draught, ocean-going vessels to enter the Brisbane River. Construction of the Lytton Quarantine Station was undertaken by the Queensland Department of Works, financed by a Commonwealth loan, and approved by the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs. Tenders were called in June 1913 for the construction of an administration building, isolation hospital, observation block, attendant's quarters, domestic quarters and stores, with the contract let to Lyons and Paton with a price of £5,153. The quarantine buildings were erected on the north eastern part of the reserve [now a vacant site, part of which is incorporated within Fort Lytton National Park, and part on freehold land owned by Caltex Refineries (Qld) Ltd ]. It is possible that some of the buildings associated with the isolation hospital established at Colmslie in the early 1900s were relocated to the Lytton Quarantine Reserve at this time. In 1914, tenders were called for a laundry, meat store, incinerating shed, footpath and tramway/trolley lines.
\nThe quarantine station buildings were timber-framed and timber-clad with corrugated iron roofs and elevated on low concrete stumps. The wards were segregated with first, second and third class facilities [similar to arrangements on board ship]. Some wards were mosquito-proofed, but most were not. At various times the quarantine station buildings also provided accommodation for persons stationed at adjacent Fort Lytton. The fort also played a role in the function of the quarantine station, controlling ships attempting to enter the Brisbane River without appropriate health clearances. In 1919 the world-wide outbreak of Spanish Influenza which followed the end of the First World War was delayed in Brisbane by some three months, following a strict quarantine at Lytton of personnel returning on troop ships.
\nDuring Elkington's era, a venereal diseases hospital was established on the southern portion of the Lytton Quarantine Reserve, adjacent to South Street. This area is now owned by Caltex Refineries (Qld) Ltd.
\nBy 1928, the Lytton Quarantine Station facilities had been extended and enhanced. Vessels were met at the river mouth by the Health Authorities who boarded each ship [two launches were kept at Lytton] and inspected all goods and personnel on board. Suspect people and goods were landed at Lytton for fumigation and isolation. Jetty facilities permitted passengers to disembark on foot and a crane was provided for conveying sick passengers, luggage and stores to shore. A tram line ran from the jetty to the reception house. A permanent staff of a foreman assistant, two engine-drivers, a coxswain and four assistants was employed to maintain the facilities and attend to non-human quarantine, which included disinfection of luggage and materials using a steam disinfector [autoclave] with attachments for cyanide or formaldehyde gas. A bathing block permitted 10 cabin passengers and 20 crew, third class or deck passengers to bathe simultaneously. Separate accommodation in tents or troop huts had been established for Asiatics, with separate kitchen, dining-room, shelter shed, lavatory and bath blocks. Lighting was supplied from kerosene lamps. A water carriage sewerage system discharged directly into the river, with a chlorination chamber available for disinfection of sewerage as necessary. The medical officer's and foreman assistant's quarters were connected to the city telephone service and internal telephones served most of the principal buildings. A cemetery was located within the grounds.
\nThe Lytton facility functioned as a human quarantine station until the early 1980s, by which time the decision had been made to phase out human quarantine services. Arrangements were made for Kenmore Repatriation Hospital to provide observation facilities in the event that they were required, and in 1982 the Lytton facility reverted to its earlier role as an animal quarantine station, re-designated the Lytton Quarantine Complex and Animal Detention Centre. Facilities comprised a launch jetty, workshop, inflammable store, guinea pig area, imports treatment laboratory, utility buildings area, offices, stores, and animal quarantine detention facilities. In addition to its role as an animal quarantine centre, Lytton served as a communications centre, a base for south side shipping clearance and inspection, a facility for dealing with quarantine treatment and detention of materials, a training area and a depot for stores. Many of the buildings associated with the human quarantine station at Lytton were removed after the 1982 closure, some relocated to sites in the Lytton-Wynnum district.
\nBy the late 1980s the Lytton facility had closed completely. In 1988 management of part of the site and buildings, including the quarantine station jetty, was taken over by the Department of Environment, Conservation and Tourism, through the National Parks and Wildlife Service, associated with the administration of adjacent Fort Lytton, which was declared an Historic National Park in 1990. The building currently used by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service as the administration centre for Fort Lytton, was relocated c1982 from elsewhere on the former quarantine station reserve, where it once functioned as the doctor's quarters. In 1999, that part of the former Lytton Quarantine Station site managed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service was incorporated into Fort Lytton National Park.
\nThe remainder of the former Lytton Quarantine Station site was transferred to the owners of the adjacent oil refinery [now Caltex Refineries (Qld) Ltd] in the late 1980s. No buildings associated with the quarantine station remain on this freehold land, but archaeological evidence of past human activity on the site was identified in a 1994 historical and archaeological survey of the former Lytton Quarantine Station, prepared for the Office of the Co-ordinator-General, Queensland. Although there has been little development of the freehold part of the site to date, for the purposes of this entry in the Queensland Heritage Register, the listing boundary is restricted to that part of the former Lytton Quarantine Station now incorporated within Fort Lytton National Park, at the northern end of the site, which contains a number of extant buildings and structures associated with the functioning of the site as a quarantine station. This does not in any way detract from the significance of the remainder of the site, which remains important for its association with early land use in the Lytton district from at least the 1850s, for its association with the human quarantine facility established at Lytton in the early 20th century, for its potential to reveal archaeological evidence, and for contributing to the sense of isolation which was characteristic of the quarantine facility established here in the 1910s.
","criteria":"The former Lytton Quarantine Station and site is important in illustrating the evolution of Queensland's history, being associated with:
·\tthe early establishment of Lytton township and district prior to Separation in 1859;
·\tthe early establishment of maritime customs and telegraph facilities in Queensland;
·\tthe provision of animal quarantine facilities in the late 19th century;
·\tthe provision of human quarantine facilities in the early 20th century.
In particular, the place is important in illustrating the evolution of attitudes and approaches to the management of infectious diseases in Australia in the immediate post-Federation period. The place is also significant historically as part of a continuum of sites in and adjacent to Moreton Bay used for human quarantine purposes from 1844 to 1982.
|While only some of the Lytton buildings remain, the site still provides important, rare surviving evidence of early 20th century Australian quarantine stations.
|The place has potential to yield historical archaeological information, especially with regard to the location of the burial ground associated with the human quarantine facility, the likely location of which was adjacent to the morgue at the northeast end of the site.
|The surviving quarantine buildings, being substantially intact and mostly in situ, are important in illustrating the principal characteristics of an early 20th century Australian marine quarantine station, including the isolated location, building types [materials, forms, design, aesthetics, coherency and functions], spatial arrangements and grounds layout, and provision of services. Of the three early 20th century quarantine stations established by the Federal Government in Queensland [at Thursday Island, Cape Pallarenda (Townsville) and Lytton (Brisbane)], the Lytton facility was the first and the largest.
|Appropriate interpretation of the surviving buildings, structures and other elements at the northern end of the former Lytton Quarantine Station has the potential to graphically and physically illustrate the experience of the quarantine process which many immigrants to Australia encountered.
|The place has considerable social significance, being associated with the reception of immigrants in Queensland for nearly 70 years. Being quarantined at Lytton was often an immigrant's first experience of life in Queensland and in Australia.
|The place has a special association with the work of Dr JSC Elkington, who was responsible for the design and development of Queensland's early 20th century public health infrastructure, and who became an authority on quarantine practice in post-Federation Australia. The former Lytton Quarantine Station remains illustrative of his work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16116,"place_ref":601353,"name":"6 (390) Australian Anti-Aircraft Battery","alternate_name":"Hemmant Gun Emplacements | 390 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Gun Station Class A","street_address":"214 - 228 Fleming Road","suburb":"HEMMANT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-05-26","description":"The former 6 (390) HAA Bty, is situated along Fleming Road on the peak of Hemmant hill. Brisbane's CBD is visible to the north-west of the site.
The anti-aircraft battery consists of three separate underground ammunition magazines, four gun platforms and a semi-underground command post/plotting room, all constructed of reinforced concrete. The three separate magazines are of identical size, single-roomed, underground and show evidence of a ventilator. The noticeable drop in temperature on entering the structures illustrates the designers awareness of local conditions, and storage of highly explosive material in a sub tropical climate. All magazines and the command post/plotting room have had their steel doors removed.
Three of the four gun emplacements are visible, the fourth partially buried and built upon. The structures are octagonally shaped and surrounded by magazine/store rooms. The most visible example has been converted into a chicken pen. Two drains are located in the floor of the structure with holdfast points for the guns remaining. The second remains intact but has a private dwelling placed on top, and is used as a garage and storage area. The third emplacement has been filled with water and converted to a pool. All three (and presumably the fourth) have the encircling magazine/storage rooms intact. The command post/plotting room is structurally intact and has recently been converted into a gazebo and fernery.
The former 6 (390) HAA battery is the best preserved example of a Class A Gun Station in south east Queensland. It is also the last in the five station group that served Brisbane.
","history":"The 6(390) Australian Anti-Aircraft Battery was constructed c1942 as part of the defence facilities of Brisbane.
The 6 HAA Group was part of a series of "A class" (four gun) defensive positions constructed in an effort to monitor aircraft entering Brisbane airspace during World War II. Others included Colmslie (385), Balmoral (387), Amberley (391) and Archerfield (392). They were built to provide protection to nearby Australian and US naval facilities located along the Brisbane River at Hamilton and Eagle Farm, as well as providing cover for nearby Brisbane airfield. The sighting of gun stations near the Brisbane river also had strategic importance as enemy aircraft would use the river as a navigational aid when conducting reconnaissance.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941, Australia's focus in the war turned to the Pacific. After the raid on Darwin in February 1942, many felt that as Brisbane was the largest city in Queensland, it could possibly be the next to experience a large scale raid by the Japanese. Brisbane was already designated as a staging point, with a significant US buildup underway and the best Port facilities in Queensland. Due to Brisbane's distance from the front line, it could not be raided by land-based bombers however, which had added to the devastation in Darwin. Thus any bombing attack would come from aircraft carriers or long range flying boats refuelled by submarines. Between March and July the Japanese conducted regular reconnaissance missions over Cairns and Townsville using long range twin-engined aircraft. Townsville was actually bombed three times in late July, and the town of Mossman once. During the Townsville raids, A Class stations of 16 HAA (X and Y Batteries) fired on raiding Kawanishi flying boats. While the Japanese were able to penetrate Australia's defences on these occasions, the May Battle of the Coral Sea prevented Japan from completing its objective of achieving large scale carrier based raids along the Queensland coast.
Although Brisbane was never bombed, reconnaissance missions, such as those from submarine based floatplanes or long range flying boats are likely to have occurred. Similar missions were conducted and have been documented over east coast towns from Cairns to Hobart. Sightings and unit records of aircraft capable "I" class submarines in deep water passages near Bribie and Moreton Islands have been recorded, and it is highly likely that similar intelligence gathering missions occurred over Brisbane. Depending on the completion date for the gun station, it is highly probable that 6 (390) HAA either sighted or was involved in action against Japanese reconnaissance aircraft during 1942-43. The site was manned by both AWAS (Australian Women's Army Service) and VDC (Volunteer Defence Corp) personnel from mid 1943, and these arrangements remained in place until August 1945 when all of the HAA sites were disarmed.
In 1942 the Commonwealth Government requisitioned an area of land in the quiet farming community of Hemmant. Known as a class A gun station, 6 (390) Australian HAA originally contained four 3.7 inch autofrettaged type guns, manufactured in Australia. The 3.7 inch anti-aircraft gun was developed shortly before World War Two and was the standard medium anti-aircraft gun for the British Army from 1938 to 1956. Effective range was around 9100 metres. The octagonally shaped emplacements with surrounding magazine/store rooms originally housed a sandbagged entry point with more bags placed on the magazine roof. Rooms contained rifle racks and anti gas equipment, 280 rounds of ammunition for the AA gun and canvas flap doors for the perimeter entrances. Hidden from aerial view, four separate underground magazines provided cool storage for high explosive rounds.
The guns were controlled by a centrally located command post/plotting room. Sightings of suspicious aircraft were relayed to the post for action by Fighter Sector Headquarters which was in turn in communication with observer units. Within the command post were pits for a height finder and predictor. Each gun had to be in sight of the height predictor, which could be no more than 10 feet above or below any gun. Further displacement caused errors, as the predictor could only solve deflection (angle). To find the height of an aircraft, a separate height finder had to be used. A kitchen, showers, latrines and three sleeping quarters were located to the northern extremity of the site next to Hemmant road. It is likely that these structures were prefabricated facilities. No evidence of these buildings remains. One of the four magazines constructed as part of the battery has also been demolished in the years since the end of the war.
","criteria":"6 (390) Aust HAA Hemmant is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as an installation designed to protect Brisbane in the event of enemy air-raids during that conflict. It was one of several anti-aircraft batteries located strategically along the Brisbane River, built to protect Australian and United States naval facilities and Brisbane airfield, and to monitor enemy reconnaissance activity.
|The Hemmant Battery is the only visible and substantially intact anti-aircraft battery in Brisbane, and as such demonstrates a rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|The Battery, in its siting and planning, demonstrates the measures implemented for the strategic defence of Brisbane during World War II. It is a relatively intact example of the "Brisbane Line" fortifications and has the potential to yield further information about this aspect of Queensland's history.
|The Hemmant Battery, with its extant command post, gun emplacements and magazines, and its location in a prominent position overlooking the Brisbane skyline, is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an Australian Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery.
|The Hemmant Battery, set among grassed lawns and paddocks in the sparsely populated suburb of Hemmant, is important because of its aesthetic significance.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16120,"place_ref":601357,"name":"Newmarket Brickworks Chimney","alternate_name":"Hoffman Stack","street_address":"117 Mina Parade","suburb":"ALDERLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-03-24","description":"The (former) Newmarket Brickworks site is located on Mina Parade, Alderley, on the southwest side of a low hill approximately 5km northwest of the Brisbane CBD. The register boundary includes a 408sqm area around the prominent Newmarket Brickworks Chimney, which is centrally located on the historically levelled brickworks site. In 2016, it is surrounded by modern low-rise industrial and commercial development.
\nThe brick chimney is located approximately 40 metres off the Mina Parade frontage. Access to the site is via an easement. The chimney rises to a height of approximately 55 metres, and is a prominent landmark. The square base is approximately 4.7 metres long and rises to about 10 metres; the tall stack above tapers uniformly to about 3 metres square. On each face of the chimney base there are a number of arched recesses, which appear to be decorative elements. One of the recesses, on the south side of the chimney, facing Mina Parade, has been enclosed with concrete. Corbelled brick cornices at the top of the base and the stack, which has a sawtooth course, provide further decorative elements to the structure. Small enclosed arches in the brickwork on the northeast and southwest sides, below the larger arched recesses, indicate the location of former flue openings. A metallic band running the length of the chimney on its eastern side appears to be related to deflecting lightning strikes. Similarly, on the upper section of the chimney, a number of metallic bands are attached around the structure.
\nThe brickworks chimney is a landmark feature visible from a range of vantage points including: foreground roads (Mina Parade, Frederick Street and Yarradale Street); major locality roads (Enoggera Road); and locality parks (Sedgeley Park).
\n\n
\n
The whole of the area formerly occupied by the brickworks has been redeveloped and the chimney now stands in its own space.
","history":"The Newmarket Brickworks Chimney was constructed in 1912 as part of a new brickworks complex at Newmarket, owned by the Brisbane Brick and Builders Supply Company Ltd - or Brisbane Brick, as it was widely known. The chimney, also referred to as the Hoffman stack, is the only surviving built element of the Newmarket Brickworks site.
\nBrickmaking has been practised in Queensland since the days of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement in the 1820s. Local clay was used for making bricks, firstly in Redcliffe, and then in Brisbane. The Brisbane clayfield was situated near a stream at the back of the convict settlement. A kiln was first built near the river but a new kiln was built at the field. Brick production was well under way by the beginning of 1826. A boost was given to the use of brick in colonial Queensland, following a disastrous fire in Queen Street in 1864. Changes made to Local Government Ordinances in response to this encouraged the use of brick for building, although the costs involved meant that brick was mainly used for commercial and public buildings.
\nIn 1911, a group of Brisbane builders and architects formed Brisbane Brick and Builders Supply Company Ltd to obtain and supply good quality bricks, which were then not plentifully available in Brisbane. Two of the company’s directors, William Wilson and John Cockburn acquired land adjacent to the Enoggera branch railway line at Newmarket.[1]
\nHistorically, the location of brickworks was generally determined by their proximity to clay deposits. The site at Newmarket contained a deposit of weathered Bunya Phyllite, a metamorphosed deep-sea sediment formation found in the Brisbane region.[2] Historical images indicate clay was extracted behind the brickworks structures (now sealed); over time the clay quarry extended further into vegetated land owned by Brisbane Brick at the rear of the site. Clay material was pulverised in grinding pans before being transported to dry pressing machines.[3]
\nThe Company based its brickworks design at Newmarket on the Hoffman method of brickmaking. The main kiln was known as the 'Hoffman Kiln'. Mechanisation of brickmaking began in the 1870s. By 1896 the successful Hoffman mechanical method of brickmaking was established in Australia, and for the first time, quality mass produced bricks could be bought at prices well below those of the hand-made equivalent. The Hoffman method was named after Friedrich Hoffman, an Austrian, who invented the technique in 1859. The Hoffman method enabled drying and firing to take place simultaneously. Known as continuous firing, one chamber would be stacked with 'green' bricks, other chambers contained bricks in increasing degrees of dryness, in another chamber firing may just have been commenced, while another may be in full firing, other chambers might be in various degrees of cooling while one chamber might remain empty.
\nAn estimated £25,000 was spent by Brisbane Brick and Builders Supply Company (Brisbane Brick) on establishing the works, featuring one of the largest kilns in Australia. The design catered for a daily output of 85,000 bricks. By July 1912, bricks were being made on the site for use in the construction of the works, and the official opening occurred in October 1912. Aleck Anderson, a former Clerk of Works, and builder, was the first manager of the works.[4]
\nWhile the use of bricks for construction expanded in Queensland during the interwar period, timber remained the dominant material of the state’s building industry, especially for residential purposes. Demand for bricks periodically fell below production and government price controls also impacted on the viability of Queensland brickworks. Brickyards, quickly piled high with large stocks of unsold bricks, were often forced to close down for from six months to two years. After one of these closures the Brisbane Brick issued new preference shares to obtain capital to refit and modernise its original plant at Newmarket, and resume manufacturing. From then until the outbreak of World War II, the company stopped production for one or two brief periods.[5]
\nDuring the war, the Defence Department utilised the Newmarket sheds, kilns and yards to store goods such as clothing, boots and other equipment. The company's engineering staff were engaged to maintain Liberty ships and other defence work. World War II set the brick manufacturing industry back many years, and forced the closure of the company's works at Newmarket.[6] With the end of the war, the brick manufacturing industry then faced the introduction of price controls. At this time, the modernisation of many plants was slowed considerably. With the lifting of price controls many companies, Brisbane Brick included, began a concerted drive to make up for what was considered 'lost time'. Plants were improved and production methods were streamlined. Demand for bricks for homes and new commercial buildings soon outstripped production.[7]
\nBrisbane Brick opened Strathpine Bricks Pty Ltd in 1961 on a site with a large clay deposit. The development of new processes, such as new tunnel kiln equipment to produce bricks, gradually overhauled shortages. The design of the new Strathpine site was considered 'as modern as tomorrow - the concept in brickworks design completely removes the traditional image of the old-type works with its towering smoke stack and unattractive factory'. In this period, Newmarket Bricks Pty Ltd, was a subsidiary of Brisbane Brick and Builders Supply Company, and was producing four million face bricks and eight million common bricks a year.[8]
\nOperation of the Newmarket brickworks was continued by PGH Industries (Queensland) from the mid-1960s. In 1981 the Newmarket brickworks were producing extruded bricks, pavers and screen blocks. By this time, the onsite Bunya Phyllite deposits had been exhausted and clay was obtained from elsewhere.[9] In 1985, the Newmarket site had frontages to Alderley, Wakefield and Yarradale Streets and Mina Parade.
\nIn 1987 the brickworks were demolished and the site subdivided. Buildings demolished included the Hoffman kiln (adjacent to the surviving stack), drying kiln, sorting sheds, dome kiln buildings and stack, and an extruder presses building. At the time of demolition, the chimney was excluded from the demolition permit on the basis of its rarity as a remaining example in Brisbane of a load-bearing brick chimney stack. The site has been fully redeveloped for industrial and other purposes.
The Newmarket Brickworks Chimney is significant as a rare, surviving example of the brick manufacturing industry in Brisbane, and Queensland, in the early part of the 20th century. At this time, brick makers often struggled for patronage in a state which, predominantly, utilised timber in building construction.
The Newmarket Brickworks Chimney is associated with Brisbane Brick and Builders Supply Company Ltd, or Brisbane Brick as it was widely known. Brisbane Brick, in particular, the Newmarket brickworks, provided bricks for buildings within the University of Queensland, including residential colleges and the MLC building on the corner of George and Adelaide Streets.
|The Newmarket Brickworks Chimney is significant as a rare, surviving example of the brick manufacturing industry in Brisbane, and Queensland, in the early part of the 20th century. At this time, brick makers often struggled for patronage in a state which, predominantly, utilised timber in building construction. In 1987, when the Newmarket Brickworks was demolished, the chimney was excluded from the demolition permit on the basis of its rarity as a remaining example in Brisbane of a load-bearing brick chimney stack.
|At a height of over 50 metres, clearly visible from Newmarket Road, Mina Parade and surrounding areas, the Newmarket Brickworks Chimney is significant as a well known Brisbane landmark, recognised by both local and wider communities.
|At a height of over 50 metres, clearly visible from Newmarket Road, Mina Parade and surrounding areas, the Newmarket Brickworks Chimney is significant as a well known Brisbane landmark, recognised by both local and wider communities.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16121,"place_ref":601358,"name":"AMA House","alternate_name":"Hunstanton | BMA House","street_address":"188 L'Estrange Terrace","suburb":"KELVIN GROVE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-07-04","description":"AMA House is a two storeyed house, with external faces clad in rough-cut granite. The building is on the highest part of the block, facing NNE, with expansive views of the surrounding suburbs. The property is entered via a driveway from L'Estrange Terrace which extends to the front of house. A large granite fence, with a tall circular fence post, bounds the property from L'Estrange Terrace on the eastern side of the driveway. Several large, established trees and early gardens are found around the house.
AMA House is asymmetrically arranged, with a T-shaped plan running east-west, with the transverse section at the western end. The house has a gabled roof with overhanging eaves, of Marsailles terracotta interlocking tiles, with several variously shaped sections emphasising elements of the plan. The house has steel members used in otherwise loadbearing construction.
The northern elevation features an attached circular tower at the eastern end, protruding over the roof line. The tower, which is a feature element of the exterior of the house, is roofed with an onion shaped copper tiled dome, surmounted by a simple finial. A large crest carved into the face of the granite and partially painted red, is featured on the tower, directly below the dome. At the western end of the northern facade, is a full length projecting circular bay, similar in size and scale to the tower at the other end. The bay features window openings with curved glass and leadlight glazing. The western facade features a rectangular oriel window on the first storey, supported on oversized carved granite corbels. Below this is the principal entrance to the lower floor, through double timber doors, large enough for use as garage doors.
The first floor of the building forms the original principal living and dining space, and the lower floor housed a garage or carriage storage, the kitchen and possibly servant's quarters. The main entrance to the house is on the northern facade, via a curved concrete stair, which terminates at a small porch on the first floor. The porch, emphasised by a discrete conical, copper tiled roof, is defined by pairs of turned timber columns joined by a timber frieze. The timber balustrade of the porch is integrated with a seating element.
The first floor of the house has a reasonably open plan, which later walls have disguised to some extent. A large verandah on the north side of the house and a breezeway through the house to a morning room, to the south of the entrance form the open spaces, which are different in treatment to the rooms. The verandah, which accounts for nearly half of the width of the house, has large arched openings, with rough-cut granite quoining, with marble sill. These openings are also found in the morning room. Ceramic tiles are found on both the floor and walls of the verandah, black and white chequer-pattern tiles on the floor and glossy brown tiles, with painted feature tiles, to dado height on the walls.
The breezeway is interrupted by an early concrete storage space around which a timber stair to the lower floor winds. The first floor has several elements of high quality timber joinery including architraves, window framing and skirtings. The lower floor is a more rudimentary space, with lower ceilings, very little decorative treatment and plain concrete dividing walls.
The house adjoins a more recent building via a walkway from an existing opening on the first floor.
","history":"This two-storeyed stone house was erected c1914 for William Mandeville Ellis L'Estrange, a prominent electrical engineer who arrived in Queensland in 1887.
Family records note that from the late 1870s until the early 1890s, L'Estrange worked as an assistant to the Surveyor for the Logan District, during which time he also owned and farmed land in the Upper Coomera district. In 1893 L'Estrange commenced work with Edward Barton of the electrical firm Barton and White. In 1896 L'Estrange left Australia to study in England and Germany, later working for the General Electric Company in the United States of America.
L'Estrange returned to Brisbane probably during the late 1890s, and became Secretary of the Brisbane Electric Supply Company Limited, which was reconstructed to become the City Electric Light Company in 1904. From the early 1900s until the late 1930s, L'Estrange maintained his involvement with electricity supply in the Brisbane area, serving as Secretary of the Ipswich Electric Supply Company and as a Director of the City Electric Light Company. L'Estrange was also a prominent member of the Queensland Institute of Engineers, and of the Brisbane division of the Institution of Engineers, Australia. During the late 1920s and early 1930s L'Estrange was also involved with the University of Queensland Senate.
In 1900 L'Estrange married Mary Emmeline Alder, daughter of EH Alder, Chief Inspector of Public Works for Queensland. L'Estrange had acquired the land on which Huntstanton was erected by mid 1914.
The architect of Huntstanton is not known, although family records speculate that the house was possibly designed by either L'Estrange or Barton, a relative of L'Estrange. The stone for the house was quarried reputedly at The Gap. It has been suggested that L'Estrange owned quarries at The Gap and at Grovely. It is understood that the verandah, hall and other indoor tiles were imported from either Italy or France, whilst the roof tiles bear the imprint of their manufacture in Marseilles, France.
Family history records that for a short time the L'Estranges lived with Mary's mother in Clyde Road Herston, moving to Huntstanton c1916.
In 1929 L'Estrange sold Huntstanton to Brisbane medical practitioner Dr James Vincent Duhig, nephew of Archbishop Duhig. Duhig had studied medicine at Sydney University, prior to serving as a medical officer in the Australian Imperial Forces from 1917 until 1919. Following the war Duhig studied pathology at King's College Hospital in London, before returning to Australia where he practiced as a pathologist from 1920, and established pathology laboratories at the Mater Misericordia Hospital also in 1920, and at the Brisbane General Hospital in 1924. Duhig is described as being a militant campaigner for the establishment of a medical school at the University of Queensland, and in 1938 he became the first professor of pathology at the University. Duhig also founded the Red Cross Blood Bank in Queensland.
In October 1955, Duhig offered Huntstanton for sale to the then Queensland Branch of the British Medical Association [BMA].
The inaugural meeting of the Queensland Branch of the BMA was held in Brisbane in May 1894, the role of the association being to advance the cause of medical science. There had previously been three attempts to form a medical association in Queensland; in 1871, 1882 and in 1886 as the Queensland Medical Society which eventually amalgamated with the Queensland Branch of the BMA in 1900. The first headquarters of the Queensland Branch of the BMA was a property in Adelaide Street, acquired by the association in 1912. In 1936 the association moved to a building on Wickham Terrace, which it named BMA House. By the 1950s, additional facilities were required by the association, and estimates were prepared for the erection of a new building on land behind BMA House.
Following Duhig's offer in 1955, the association rescinded its plans to develop the Wickham Terrace property, and purchased Huntstanton, renaming it BMA House. Possibly also a factor influencing the association's decision, was the location of Huntstanton in close proximity to both the city and the Brisbane Hospital and Medical School. The first meeting of the association in its new premises was held in December 1957. The name of the building was changed to AMA House in 1963, reflecting the change from the BMA to the Australian Medical Association.
A hall and additional office space was required by the early 1960s, and plans were prepared by the firm of Lange Powell, Dods and Thorpe for a new building to the northwest of AMA House. The new building was connected to AMA House via a walkway, and was officially opened in 1965, becoming the main administration building for the AMA. Alterations undertaken to AMA House have included the erection of partitions, and enclosing the verandah along the northeast side of the building with glass.
The AMA continues to use AMA House as a venue for meetings and functions, and a library/archive is also located in the building. Parts of the ground and first floor area are presently (May 1995) leased to private firms.
","criteria":"The house provides early evidence of internal open planning.
|The construction technique, including the steel members used in the framing and the granite cladding is unusual for a house of the 1910s.
|The house is a good example of architecture influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and adapted to tropical climate.
|AMA House has considerable aesthetic value, the external massing, materials and detailing which combine to create a picturesque quality.
|Erected by William L'Estrange, a prominent electrical engineer involved in the supply of electricity in Brisbane during the early twentieth century, and located on L'Estrange Terrace, AMA House has an association with L'Estrange.
AMA House is also important for its associations with prominent Brisbane Doctor, JV Duhig, and the Queensland Branch of the Australian Medical Association.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16129,"place_ref":601366,"name":"Lytton Hill","alternate_name":"Signal Hill | Reformatory | Lytton Redoubt","street_address":"Via South Street","suburb":"LYTTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-08-25","description":"Lytton Hill is a small, low hill located about 250 metres south and west of Crab Creek, near the mouth of the Brisbane River. It is situated east/southeast of Fort Lytton and commands views over the Fort and Moreton Bay. It is located on freehold property owned by Caltex Australia Ltd, toward the eastern side of the Lytton Oil Refinery, with large oil and gas holding tanks to the north and west. The eastern side of the hill has been heavily quarried for land fill, and currently presents a red escarpment. The north and west sides of the hill have been cut back somewhat and the slopes modified to reduce water run-off and erosion.
The principal surviving historical elements in mid-2000 include:
1. The former southern access road to Lytton Hill, which skirts the western margin of the site before curving north-east. The surface is of crushed blue metal gravel for about fifty per cent of the its length, then is sealed for the remainder [LH-003]. Since 1994, the road has become overrun with grasses [mostly kept mown], and an erosion ditch has been cut along that part of the road which curves around the western side of the hill. It appears that during this process the cattle grid [019] across the road was removed.
2. A small concrete shed [LH-002] with a timber-framed, galvanised-iron gabled roof, of uncertain date, located in the southwest corner of the site near where the access road begins to curve around the hill, and marked '9' near the entrance door. The raised concrete platform inside the building, and a small concrete unroofed extension on the southern side, suggest this may have been used as a generator shed. It may have been associated with Second World War defences, but possibly is of earlier date.
3. Part of the southwest demi-bastion [LH-005], a raised earthwork which formed the southwest section of the redoubt, completed in 1885. The remainder of the redoubt has been either demolished or eroded following fill being removed from the hillside.
4. A timber fence [LH-004] possibly dating to the Second World War, on the western side of Lytton Hill around the former southwest demi-bastion. As the site was heavily overgrown with lantana and grasses when inspected in July 2000, it is not clear how much of the fence survives. In 1994 the fence consisted of sawn timber uprights [average height 2.5m] spaced 3.3m apart, drilled through to accommodate barbed wire strands 0.22m apart. The uprights were sawn diagonally at the top with a bolt-fixed angled crosspiece to accommodate a further three strands of barbed wire, as in a security fence.
5. The site of the former Reformatory Superintendent's compound [LH-006] - a flat area 20m by 20m on the east side of Lytton Hill, south of the Reformatory compound and Redoubt, with possible garden remnants such as freesias and guava trees.
6. A lineal planting [LH-012] approximately 35 metres in length and 10 metres wide, dominated by two mature fig trees and an understorey of lantana and other fig spp. This is located just south of the former Post and Telegraph Office.
7. An alignment of Pinus Radiata trees [LH-018] following the access road which curves around the northern end of the site. A 1972 aerial photograph shows these trees once lined both sides of the road, forming an avenue approach to the former signals building - by 1994, all but one of the pines on the outside edge of the road had been removed.
8. The former Lytton Post and Telegraph Office (1873) [LH-024], a weatherboard building on timber stumps [with some replacement concrete piers]. It has a hipped roof with gabled transepts at each end. The roof is clad with corrugated iron, covering the original shingles, and there are two brick chimneys, which have sandstone bases. The front [north] has a small central verandah, which has been enclosed. The original kitchen house is extant, and has a skillion-roofed extension of later date. There is a timber-framed external bathroom shed clad with corrugated iron. The interior of the main building has been modified with the removal of one wall. The interior is lined with horizontally-jointed tongue and groove timber boards, much of which is wide, centrally beaded.
9. A rectangular concrete structure [LH-023] adjacent to the former Telegraph Office, probably associated with the Second World War facility established on Lytton Hill. The long axis is aligned east-west and the entrance is via a sliding timber door on the southern side. The structure has a flat concrete roof surmounted by a square concrete footing which supports an inset timber frame covered with corrugated iron. This appears to have functioned as a recess and mounting for an internal structure or machinery no longer present. Internally, the structure comprises two rooms, the east room being larger than the west room.
10. A former butcher's shop/meat store [LH-027] - a timber framed structure clad in fibrous cement and corrugated iron, with fly-wire windows on the south, west and north sides, and a corrugated iron roof. Internally, the building has a small servery at the western end, behind which is the butcher's shop, with two overhead pipes for hanging carcasses. Beyond this is a timber cool room with sheet metal floor covering and sheet metal around the cool room door. The latter is a wooden unit on runners with a guiding overhead rail. There is an access chute to an adjacent holding pen.
11. A holding pen [LH-028] associated with the former butcher's shop/meat store, measuring 9m long by 6m wide, with a perimeter fence of steel posts with wire mesh. A plywood chute on the west side provides access to the butcher shop/meat store.
12. A former signals building [LH-031], comprising a c1898 brick [English bond] building aligned east-west at the northern end of the site, with a substantial northern annex of vertically-jointed tongue-and-groove timber boards (1940s). The brick building rests on a concrete foundation, has a corrugated iron roof, early 6-paned double-hung sash windows in the western and northern elevations, and a doorway in the eastern wall. Internally, the brick section has two rows of cone-shaped porcelain insulators attached to the ceiling, and remnant material used to insulate high tension electric wiring or antennae entering the building. A timber floor has been constructed above an earlier concrete floor, and a network of underfloor channels, possibly once housing for cables, is visible between the two floors. In the southwest corner of the room is a heavy duty switch board, and a large power board is located in the middle of the western wall, in front of a window. There are tiles, possibly of rubber, on the floor. A large opening in the north wall of the brick building leads, via a timber-framed enclosed walkway, to the Second World War timber extension, which is high-set on reinforced concrete piers and has a corrugated fibrous-cement roof. It is accessed externally from the northern end, via a small flight of timber steps. The fibrous-cement ceiling of this extension has been removed.
Later structures on the site include a sheet and corrugated iron lined garage shed on a concrete slab, located to the southwest of the former telegraph office [010]; and SEQEB substation SG1061 - a brick generator shed set on a concrete slab, with a corrugated iron roof and roller door entry [021].
A pile of broken concrete to the southwest of the signals building suggests that some 'tidying' of the site has occurred since 1994. A number of elements identified in the 1994 report may or may not survive, including: a large rectangular concrete slab with part of a stone wall base along the north side, adjacent to the brick section of the former signals building, and known to have been extant by 1890 [LH-043]; a concrete pier [001]; iron posts [009, 022]; a concrete footing [011]; an iron water pipe [013] near the service wing of the former telegraph office; a small earthwork [016]; collapsed timber and wire fencing [017, 033]; concrete slabs [007, 025, 026, 029, 035, 037, 038, 039, 040, 041, 045, 050]; a concrete pathway [030]; a concrete pit [032]; a concrete culvert [034]; a small timber-framed lean-to with corrugated asbestos cladding to three sides and a corrugated iron roof, damaged by fire [036]; a north-south aligned bridge with east-west aligned culvert headwalls spanning a former drainage channel [042]; a Y-shaped path and junction to the south and east of the butcher's shop/meat store [044]; a small rectangular concrete housing for metal taps [046]; a concrete drain [047]; a cast iron grate [moveable relic - 048]; and fragments of earthenware piping near the quarry on the east side of the hill [049].
In July 2000 there appeared to be little evidence of the collapsed galvanised iron tank and stand [LH-014] to the southwest of the former Post and Telegraph Office, identified in the 1994 survey; nor of a flagpole [LH-020] comprising a galvanised iron upright with pulley, located northeast of the former cattle grid across the access road on the western side of the hill, and likely associated with a Second World War facility. Two corrugated galvanised iron tanks on concrete slabs [LH-015], aligned east-west, west of the tank stand, have collapsed and have been crushed and left as a pile of rusting iron.
The site has numerous plantings associated with occupation of the hill since at least 1873. A mature Ficus macrophylla [Moreton Bay Fig] to the notheast of the former Post and Telegraph Office may pre-date non-indigenous occupation.
","history":"Lytton Hill - also known as Signal Hill, Reformatory Hill, or the Lytton Redoubt - is highly significant in Queensland history. Strategically positioned at the mouth of the Brisbane River, the hill has been used as a customs lookout, signal and telegraph station, observation post and redoubt commanding the Fort Lytton defence complex, and boys' reformatory.
The history of the Lytton district is closely aligned to the establishment during the 1840s and 1850s of the Port of Moreton Bay at Brisbane Town, on the Brisbane River, rather than at Cleveland on the Bay. In 1857 the New South Wales colonial government began to investigate the suitability of establishing a customs station at the south head of the Brisbane River [present-day Lytton]. In August 1857, surveyor James Warner completed a preliminary survey of a site for a village at the south head, which was approved in November 1858, and in December 1858 tenders were called for the construction of a Customs Station nearby on the river. In February 1859 Warner officially surveyed sections 1 to 13 of the village of Lytton, as well as sites for a customs landing place and a signal station [Lytton Hill?].
Between 1860 and 1863 some Lytton township allotments were alienated, mostly by Brisbane speculators who anticipated the development of wharf facilities at Lytton. Few private buildings were erected there. The Crown and Anchor Hotel at Lytton held a license in 1865-66 - about the time a government wharf adjacent to the Customs Reserve was built in 1866 to tranship railway stores and plant. From 1878 until c1905 the Lytton Hotel served local farmers and the annual military presence.
Following separation from New South Wales in December 1859, the Queensland government maintained Lytton's role as the customs entry to the Port of Moreton Bay. In 1860-61 an electric telegraph line was constructed from Brisbane to the Lytton Customs Station - the first telegraph line in Queensland built specifically for internal administrative use, to communicate shipping intelligence and meteorological observations from Moreton Bay. The Lytton Telegraph Office opened on 1 June 1861, the third to open in Queensland after Brisbane and Ipswich on the inter-colonial line, which had commenced operation in April 1861. In 1864 the electric telegraph was extended from Lytton via Cleveland and undersea cable to Dunwich on Stradbroke Island and north to Cape Moreton on Moreton Island.
It is possible that Lytton Hill was functioning as a signal station as early as 1859, semaphoring news of the movement of ships to and from Moreton Bay to the Customs Station below, and from 1861, to the Lytton Telegraph Office. From 1866, Signal Hill, as it became known, also proved a useful post from which to observe semaphore messages from the prison on St Helena Island, which was not connected by telegraph.
Sir George Ferguson Bowen, on completion of his term as Governor and departure from Moreton Bay on 4 January 1868, officially named and designated Lytton as Brisbane's port.
The telegraph line at Lytton appears to have been extended from the Customs Reserve to Signal Hill in the early 1870s, when in 1873 tenders were called for the construction of an electric telegraph station and residence on the hill. This was a double-gabled timber building which combined office and residence, and a detached kitchen house at the rear, erected at a cost of £534. The style was the forerunner of the most common 19th century type of post and telegraph office, with decorative finishes to verandah fascias, and sun hoods. Only four of this type of post and telegraph office were constructed in Queensland - the others being at Blackall [1883-84], St George [1885] and Cunnamulla [1889]. The former Lytton Telegraph Office is the only one of these four remaining, and is also one of the earliest surviving, purpose-designed, post and telegraph office buildings in Queensland - pre-dated only by the former Cardwell Post and Telegraph Office [1870], and contemporaneous with the Mt Perry [Tenningerring] and the first Ravenswood offices, both erected in 1873 and both substantially modified.
From 29 April 1876, the Lytton Telegraph Office also functioned as a Post Office. In the 1880s, telegraph lines were extended from Lytton to the Pile Light (constructed 1883) in Moreton Bay and to Fort Lytton.
The history of Lytton Hill from 1880 is closely associated with the establishment of a military facility in the locality. In 1876, in an unprecedented act of colonial cohesion, the principal Australian colonies commissioned military experts General WFD Jervois, RE and Colonel P Scratchley, RE, to advise on colonial defences. As a consequence of their reports, a system of east coast seaboard fortifications was adopted, including Jervois' 1877 recommendation that the Brisbane River be defended with the establishment of a fortification and redoubt at Lytton, commanding lines of submarine torpedoes across the shipping channel at this point. Jervois recommended that the redoubt [an independent fortlet commanding Fort Lytton] be established on Signal Hill, which he considered would be an excellent point whence to watch the movements of an enemy in Moreton Bay.
In July 1878, Scratchley recommended that the occupants of the hulk Proserpine, a former gaol anchored in Moreton Bay which had been refitted c1871 as a boys' reformatory, be removed to buildings on Signal Hill as part of the defensible post to be established there. He considered that the Reformatory buildings would eventually form part of the hill defences, and that the boys could help with ground preparation and maintenance associated with the defence complex.
Despite some political debate, the Queensland colonial government voted to proceed with Jervois' and Scratchley's recommendations for the defence of Brisbane. Plans for the defence complex at Lytton were prepared in the Queensland Colonial Architect's office, and approved by Jervois in February 1879. The redoubt on Signal Hill was to include a large, single-storeyed, hardwood-framed, Reformatory building with chamferboard walls and a shingled roof; kitchen wing; WCs; and a boundary fence enclosing 2 acres.
The Reformatory buildings on Signal Hill were erected in 1880-81, before work started on the redoubt, using day labour assisted by the Reformatory boys. Dormitory accommodation was provided for 120 boys, along with schoolroom, workshops, store-room, kitchen and other facilities. A large vegetable garden was established and a superintendent's cottage was erected to the south of the Reformatory building, beyond the fortification earthworks. This cottage has been identified as an 1864 timber building - possibly moved from the Customs Reserve to Signal Hill c1880. The 1873 Post and Telegraph Office remained within the Reformatory stockade, and the complex was completed and occupied early in March 1881. At this period, Signal Hill became known as Reformatory Hill.
Following the 'Russian scare' of March 1885 [the mobilisation of British and Russian troops along the Russia-Afghanistan border], Colonel French, Commandant of the newly created Queensland Defence Force, took the opportunity to complete the fortification of the redoubt on Reformatory Hill, without which Fort Lytton was vulnerable to attack from land. To this end the stockade fence on the south side was re-erected 20 yards nearer the Reformatory, arrow-headed demi-bastions were formed at the northeast and southwest corners, a ditch was constructed around the fortifications, the trees in front of the redoubt were cleared, a telegraph line was installed from Signal Hill to Fort Lytton below, and ordnance were ordered. In much of this work, the Reformatory boys assisted. By 1887 the Redoubt had been completed, its armament had arrived [although never mounted in position], and French recommended that the Reformatory now be removed. Finally in 1899, just prior to Federation, tenders were called for the removal of the Reformatory buildings from Lytton and their re-erection, with additions, at Westbrook near Toowoomba.
The Lytton Redoubt was used as a semi-permanent military camp from 1881 until the early 1930s, principally during the Queensland Defence Force's annual Easter Encampments, at which militia from all over Queensland gathered at Lytton to practice manoeuvres.
When the Lytton Defence Reserve of 120 acres [48 hectares] was finally gazetted late in 1887, it included Reformatory Hill, Fort Lytton, and possibly part of the Customs Reserve. By 1901 the Defence Reserve had been extended to 640 acres [259 hectares] following the resumption [in two stages: 1891 and 1900] of Lytton township for defence purposes. In the early 1900s this land and all military structures at Lytton were transferred to the new Commonwealth Department of Defence, and the Post and Telegraph Office on Lytton Hill was transferred to the new Commonwealth Post Master General's Department. At this time the only other building identified on Lytton Hill was a military store, erected in 1898 at a cost of £515. This is thought to be the brick building extant at the north end of Lytton Hill, possibly replacing the building marked 'store' on an 1886 plan of the Lytton Redoubt.
The fortifications on Lytton Hill remained in use until at least the early 1900s, when Queensland troops camped and trained on the slopes of Lytton Hill for active service in the South African War [1899-1902]. The preparations for war was the longest continual use of the Lytton defensive positions since they were constructed in the 1880s. Some improvements to Lytton Hill were made at this time, including the construction a 20-stall timber stables building in 1901-02, and in 1903 the erection of a tent store and barbed-wire entanglement around the Redoubt. Subsequently the site deteriorated, prior to its re-occupation by the military during the First World War [1914-18]. In 1917 a dermatological hospital for Australian Infantry Forces and huts for men and officers were erected at Lytton Hill.
Between 1919 and 1931 the flats adjacent to the Lytton Quarantine Station [established 1913-15] were used as Brisbane's first airfield, and it has been suggested that Lytton Hill may have acted as an air traffic control observation station. This has yet to be substantiated.
During the Second World War [1939-45], Lytton Hill was occupied by military signallers and engineers. A number of concrete structures were erected on the hill in association with this use. In addition, the c1880s brick store at the north end of the hill was remodelled as a signals building, and a timber wing added.
After 1945 the Lytton defence facilities were virtually abandoned, but military authorities maintained Lytton Hill as a communications base into the 1950s. In 1954 a wireless station with radar facilities was erected on the hill for the use of the pilot service. It was staffed on a 24 hour basis, seven days a week.
Lytton Hill remained part of the Lytton Defence Reserve until title to the reserve passed to Ampol Refineries [Qld] Pty Ltd in 1963. Subsequent construction of the oil refinery and holding tanks has removed most traces of the Second World War defence installation, which included an airfield, with the exception of the top of Lytton Hill and a Second World War anti-aircraft position with concrete bunkers and gun emplacements, in the refinery grounds adjacent to Fort Lytton. For some years the post and telegraph office on Lytton Hill was occupied as a residence by an employee of the Ampol Refinery.
The Port of Brisbane Authority designated Lytton Hill as the control for the Port of Brisbane c1980, erecting an observation tower there to monitor Brisbane River and Bay shipping. A section of Lytton Hill was ceded from Ampol to the Port Authority for this purpose, but in the late 1990s the tower was removed and the land reverted to refinery ownership [Caltex Australia Pty Ltd, with which Ampol merged in the 1990s].
A 1994 field survey conducted by Austral Archaeology identified 50 archaeological elements visible on the surface of Lytton Hill, and all located above the 20 metre contour line. The bulk of these remain, but the former Post and Telegraph Office was vandalised in 1994, resulting in loss of interior casement windows, doors, light fittings and fireplace surrounds and grates.
","criteria":"Lytton Hill is important in illustrating the evolution of Queensland's history, being:
- a significant communication and observation post at the mouth of the Brisbane River from c1860, illustrating the dependence of the Australian colonies on maritime trade and communications in the 19th century;
- associated with the early and rapid adoption of the electric telegraph in Queensland in the 1860s/1870s;
- a strategic and integral component of the 1880s military facility established at Lytton to defend the Brisbane River;
- associated with the conduct of a Boys Reformatory on the Hill form 1880 to 1899;
- associated with the activities of the Queensland militia from the early 1880s to the early 1930s and with Queensland preparation for participation in the South African War;
- the site of a military hospital during the First World War;
- the site of a strategic signals station during the Second World War;
- the site of the Control Tower for the Port of Brisbane in the late 20th century.
|The site has rarity value, not least for its layering of strategic communication, observation and defence roles for over 130 years. The 1873 former Telegraph Office is the only known surviving example of its age and type in Queensland, and is one of the earliest surviving purpose-designed post and telegraph offices in the State. The surviving section of the Redoubt is a rare example of a defence fortification built in Queensland in the 1880s.
|As an archaeological site, the hill has the potential to reveal traces of occupation from Separation until the present.
|The 1873 former Telegraph Office is the only known surviving example of its age and type in Queensland, and is one of the earliest surviving purpose-designed post and telegraph offices in the State.
|The place has aesthetic value for its sense of dramatic isolation and ruin within the surrounding well-ordered oil refinery, and for the panoramic views both from and to the hill.
|The site is significant socially for its association with the development of military culture in Queensland from the 1880s to the 1930s; and as the site of the Reformatory where boys were educated and trained in Queensland in the last two decades of the 19th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16145,"place_ref":601382,"name":"Woolloongabba Police Station (former)","alternate_name":"Woolloongabba Police Station | South Coast Police District headquarters","street_address":"842-848 Main Street","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1994-11-25","description":"The Woolloongabba Police Station (former) is located in Woolloongabba, approximately 2km southeast of the Brisbane CBD. It comprises a three-storey, brick main building (1913/1937) fronting directly west onto Main Street, and a rear three-storey, brick service wing (Service Annexe, 1937), connected via a two-storey enclosed bridge (Gangway, 1937). The site slopes steeply down from Main Street in the west to the east so that the rear yard is a full storey lower. Standing in the rear southeast corner of the site is a single-storey, brick police vehicle Garage (1937) and in the north is an external timber stair (Relief Workers’ Stair, 1937, reconstructed by 2001) connecting the Main Street footpath down to an open outdoor area (Former Relief Workers’ Assembly Yard, 1937) beside the Main Building.
\nThe place has been extensively refurbished (by 2001) to partially recreate an earlier appearance with the addition of modern services. In 2022, the building is vacant.
\nFeatures of the Woolloongabba Police Station (former) of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nMain Building (1913/1937)
\nThe Main Building is rectangular in plan and symmetrical, comprising a 1913 central section of two storeys with a basement and 1937 extensions on either end, also two storeys with basement. It is in a Federation-era style and the extensions have been designed to match the earlier section, integrating with the original design.
\nOriginally divided internally into two three-storey parts separated by a party wall (accommodating a police station and snr sergeant’s residence), the building is largely in its 1937 configuration when the police station use occupied all rooms.
\nThe building layout generally comprises police station operations rooms and offices on the ground floor, officer bedrooms on the first floor, and prisoner cells, laundry, and Relief Office in the basement, separate from the rest of the building in function and circulation.
\nThe building retains a considerable amount of interwoven original (1913 and 1937) fabric and room configurations. The fabric and configurations from both eras are of State-level cultural heritage significance.
\nThe building has been comprehensively renovated (by 2001) to largely revert it to its 1937 configuration, involving reconstruction of 1913/1937 fabric, primarily timber joinery.
\nAll fabric post-1937, including reconstructed fabric, is not of State-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of the Main Building of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Main Building not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nGangway (1937)
\nThe Gangway is a narrow, raised, two-storey bridge connecting the centre of the Police Building and the Service Annexe behind at their ground and first floor levels. It has an open understorey and stands on non-original steel I-beam portal frames (c1966), which replaced the original face brick piers.
\nIt has timber-framed floors and walls and is lined on its exterior with weatherboards. The interior comprises a long corridor on both levels.
\nThe Gangway has been renovated (by 2001), involving the addition of a lightweight floor ramps the length of the Gangway, added over the original timber floor and short flight of timber steps at the Service Annexe end.
\nA large, raised, two-storey, steel- and timber-framed extension has been added on its southern side (c1966).
\nAll fabric post-1937, including reconstructed fabric, is not of State-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of the Gangway of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Gangway not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nService Annexe (1937)
\nThe Service Annexe is a three-storey rectangular building with face brick walls and a hipped roof. Built as an ablutions, recreation, kitchen, and mess block to service the adjacent station building, it has undergone changes since construction including a major renovation completed by 2002.
\nEntered at the centre of the western side (at the ground and first floors via the Gangway), the building comprises a central stair hall with stair connecting all three levels. At the eastern end of the stair hall is a narrow passageway with small hatch to an incinerator chute, leading to a brick incinerator attached to the centre of the eastern wall.
\nThe building and its layout are largely intact. The basement retains its staff toilets and large recreation room. The ground floor retains its constables’ mess room and kitchen, although the small rooms forming the cook’s lavatory and pantry have been combined into the kitchen by removing the partitions, and the cook’s stair has been demolished and the cook’s entrance bricked over. The first floor toilets and ablutions block are somewhat intact, although later partitions have been added to form female toilets, and the small bath, shower, and boot rooms of the ablutions is now one large space with the demolition of all partitions.
\nAll fabric post-1937, including reconstructed fabric, is not of State-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of the Service Annexe of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Service Annexe not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nGarage (1937)
\nThe Garage is a face brick single-storey building with a timber-framed skillion roof clad with metal sheets. It is long and narrow with its western side open for vehicle entry and its other sides are blank. It stands in the southeast corner of the site and accommodates a single open space for six vehicles.
\nFeatures of the Garage of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Garage not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFormer Relief Workers’ Assembly Yard and Stair (1937)
\nThe Former Relief Workers’ Assembly Yard is a large open area (approximately 380m2) occupying the northern part of the site. It is accessed by a timber stair (1937, reconstructed by 2001) down from Main Street. Originally a flat area surrounded and defined by mature trees and a perimeter fence and containing a small lavatory block for relief workers, these features have been demolished and the yard has been sloped and partially concreted to form a small car park and access driveway leading under the Gangway.
\nFeatures of the Former Relief Workers’ Assembly Yard and Stair of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Former Relief Workers’ Assembly Yard and Stair not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLandscape Features (c1937)
\nLandscape features of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLandscape features not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nViews & Streetscape Contribution
\nThe former Woolloongabba Police Station stands prominently, surrounded by open space, the only building on its block fronting Main Street. Important views to the building are had from surrounding streets.
\nViews of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\n","history":"
The former Woolloongabba Police Station, built in 1913, is a two-storey brick building with basement, constructed at a time when the Queensland Police Force was experiencing significant expansion and change. Designed by the Queensland Department of Public Works (DPW), it initially comprised a police station with barracks accommodation for unmarried officers and family quarters for the senior sergeant. In 1937 the Woolloongabba Police Station became the headquarters of the South Coast Police District, following extensive reforms to the Queensland Police Force. The station was expanded that year to accommodate the increased functions, with the construction of a three-storey service annexe to the rear, and a police vehicle garage. An unemployment relief office was also added in the basement of the main building at this time, where police officers could administer relief work and rations for the unemployed, affected by the Great Depression. In 1993 the police station closed.
\nThe area now known as Woolloongabba is part of the traditional country of the Jagera and Turrbal People. Following European settlement, it was called One Mile Swamp due to a series of large waterholes stretching for a mile between what is now Stanley and Vulture streets. The roads from the Logan and Darling Downs districts converged there and in the 1850s bullock drays and livestock were rested at the waterholes. By the 1860s some of the waterholes had been drained and a fledgling commercial precinct emerged. The name, Woolloongabba, replaced One Mile Swamp in the 1870s.[1]
\nThe population of Woolloongabba, which had grown steadily between the 1860s and 1880s, increased rapidly following the expansion of the railway line to the suburb in 1884, and the extension of the electric tramway to Woolloongabba/East Brisbane in 1897. During the 1880s and 1890s it developed as Brisbane's fourth major shopping centre, the others being central Brisbane, Fortitude Valley and Stanley Street at South Brisbane. By the turn of the century, most of the allotments facing Stanley Street, Logan Road and Ipswich Road at the Fiveways were fully developed commercial sites.[2]
\nThe Woolloongabba Fiveways was arguably the city’s busiest and most dangerous intersection from the late 19th, and well into the 20th centuries. It was the confluence of several main roads, Main Street, Logan Road, Stanley Street, and Ipswich Road. There was also a railway-line and several tram-lines crossing through it, as well as pedestrians negotiating the intersection.[3]
\nIn 1896 the first cricket match was held at the newly established Brisbane Cricket Ground at Woolloongabba, which would become a major centre for sport in Queensland, and bring thousands of spectators to the ground for matches over the years, heralding a Queensland sporting icon, ‘The ‘Gabba’.[4]
\nDuring the first years of settlement in what was later to become the State of Queensland, the police system was executed through the duties of a Police Magistrate. However, this proved to be inadequate and following the appointment of the first Governor of Queensland, Governor Bowen, in 1859, an organised force was established by appointing an Inspector General to take charge of both ordinary and Native Police. Established in 1848, the Native Mounted Police was an armed retaliatory force, distinct from the ordinary police force, engaged to displace and dispossess Aboriginal people of the land that European pastoralists intended to occupy.[5]
\nIn 1863 and 1864, the police system again changed form, following the appointment of the first Commissioner of Police, David Thompson Seymour. He introduced a new system based on the Victorian model comprising Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors, Sergeants, Constables, and a Detective Force. In ensuing years, the structure of the Force underwent several additional modifications and by 1924 Queensland had the highest ratio of policemen to residents in any Australian state, with one officer to every 725 persons.[6]
\nThe first police station in Woolloongabba was established in a rented house on Stanley Street, near Boggo (later Annerley) Road. By 1888, the substantial population growth in Woolloongabba and surrounding suburbs meant the station facilities were no longer adequate, and the police station was removed to a rented house on Ipswich Road, near the Fiveways. A lock-up facility was built in the yard of the house, and two years later, the adjacent house was used for accommodation. By 1910, the needs of the station had again outgrown the building, and approval was given for the erection of a new police station in Woolloongabba.[7]
\nA portion (adjacent to a former Quarry Reserve) of the Woolloongabba Park Reserve facing Main Street was set apart as a Police Reserve, thereby avoiding the need for the Queensland Government to purchase land for the new station. The design for the new building was prepared in 1911, AB Brady being Government Architect at the time. The contract sum for the building, which was completed and occupied in 1913, was £4539.[8]
\nOn completion, the new building was described as:
\nA large two-storey brick building, having wide verandas and balconies relieved with rough cast work on the upper storey. Provision is made on the ground floor for a large dayroom for constables, with kitchen, scullery, and cook’s room, in addition to the sitting and living rooms and kitchen of the quarters for the sergeant. On the first floor, dormitories of ample dimensions are arranged, as also three bedrooms, completing the sergeant’s quarters, whilst bathrooms are also included on the balcony adjoining. The basement is devoted to wash-houses [one for the police station and a separate one for the sergeant’s quarters] and four roomy cells.[9]
\nWoolloongabba Police Station was one of a series of substantial, masonry two-storeyed police stations erected during the early 20th century. In addition to Woolloongabba, these included stations at Warwick (1901) [QHR 600948], Maryborough (1907) (extant), Charters Towers (1911) [QHR 600401], Cairns (1912) (demolished), Townsville (1914) (demolished) and Kedron (1916) (demolished).[10]
\nThe Woolloongabba station was divided vertically into quarters for the senior sergeant (north end of the building), and police station (south end) with day room and officers’ mess on the ground floor and officers’ barracks above. The dayroom was generally the base for station operations. This design reflected the contemporary mode of policing, where duty for constables generally involved patrolling the beat on foot and pursuing inquiries. Patrols were undertaken throughout 24 hours, divided into three eight-hour shifts, and one of the main functions of the station was therefore to provide accommodation for police officers. Four cells were also provided in the basement of Woolloongabba police station.[11]
\nBarracks accommodation in these large police stations was provided for unmarried men, with married men given a rental allowance for accommodation close to the station for themselves and their families. Of those living on site, only the senior sergeant living in the family quarters was permitted to be married. By the early 1920s there were eleven unmarried men accommodated at the station and six married men living elsewhere.[12]
\nNo accommodation for stables was included in the design of the Woolloongabba Police Station, as foot patrol of the district was preferred over mounted patrols. There was initially one bicycle for the officers to use, which ensured faster response times for policing inner-city areas. Bicycles had been slowly introduced into the Queensland Police Force from the late 19th century, with twelve in use by 1899.[13]
\nElectric lights were installed at the station in 1925, and the property connected to sewage in 1926. In 1928, a small, timber-framed, single-room addition was made to the rear verandah on the ground floor to accommodate a dining room for constables.[14]
\nIn 1934 Cecil James Carroll was appointed the new Commissioner of Police and carried out a reorganisation of the force. The population of Queensland had increased rapidly in the interwar years; however, the police force had not been expanded to keep up with this. Sweeping changes were made by Carroll, and in 1935 it was reported that ‘practically every section has been turned over, inspected, and chopped about. Promotions and retirements have been many; new districts have been created to dovetail into a set plan; mechanisation is partly accomplished; and a host of other changes, all calculated to benefit the service, have been made’.[15]
\nIn 1934 the Woolloongabba Police Station was named part of the broader South Brisbane Police District, which encompassed a vast area stretching south to the New South Wales border, west to Beaudesert and east to Wynnum. Headquarters were located at South Brisbane in a two-storey masonry police station building on Grey Street, close to the Vulture Street corner (demolished). To better reflect the area it encompassed, the district was renamed the South Coast Police District in early 1935, ‘it is felt that the district is more truly a South Coast district than a portion of the city.’ The South Coast Police District covered approximately 2060 square miles (5335 km²).[16]
\nAmidst these changes a new headquarters for the South Coast Police District was needed. In 1935 approval was given for the district headquarters to be moved from the South Brisbane Police Station on Grey Street to the Woolloongabba Police Station, as it was ‘ideally situated to be headquarters of the South Coast district. Main roads from Southport, Ipswich, Wynnum, and Manly, and Cleveland converged at the Woolloongabba Fiveways within a few yards of the station’.[17] Additionally, the site had vacant land available for future development. With the newly constructed Story Bridge nearing completion at Kangaroo Point, the position of the new headquarters was deemed advantageous.[18]
\nThe conversion of the Woolloongabba station into the district headquarters demanded additional office accommodation, and it was considered that the rooms occupied by the senior sergeant’s quarters could provide suitable additional office accommodation. The senior sergeant vacated his quarters at the station in October 1934.[19]
\nMajor additions to the station were undertaken in 1936, designed by the DPW, drawn by GR Beveridge and passed by HJ Parr.[20] Completed the following year at an authorised cost of £9555, this work comprised additions to the north and south ends of the existing building designed to match the earlier building in style and materials. The interior of the main building was changed to include smaller individual offices on the ground floor. The large, first floor dormitories were converted to smaller bedrooms by the insertion of new partitions. Also at this time, an additional three-storey brick ‘service annexe’ was built in the rear yard behind the main building, connected to it via a raised, enclosed two-storey ‘gangway’.
\nThe additions and remodelling of the station was outlined in the Department of Public Works’ Annual Report:
\nAdditions to the north and south ends of the existing building, an additional three story brick building at the rear of the existing one, also brick garage building … The three storey addition at the back will be connected to the existing building by gangways at each floor level. The basement will comprise recreation room, buffet and staff lavatories; on the ground floor will be the kitchen, pantry, and constables mess room … and on the first floor bathrooms, showers, bootroom and lavatories.[21]
\nOne of the requirements of the new headquarters was the inclusion of a room for police to administer relief work, a government program instituted under the Income (Unemployment Relief) Act (1930) to reduce unemployment during the Great Depression. Relief labour was used throughout Queensland during the 1930s, to carry out projects such as construction of retaining walls and roads, and improvements to school grounds. Police, as relief agents, were responsible for issuing rations and travelling cards to the unemployed, as well as finding them relief work.[22]
\nOn completion of the additions in 1937, rooms were provided in the basement for a relief office, records, and public counter, ‘the basement will give room for relief office, records, and public space approached by steps from the street level’.[23] With the inclusion of the relief office, ‘which had been kept entirely apart from the police section of the building’[24], the construction of a separate set of stairs from Main Street to the relief office in the basement of the original building separated the relief workers from the main police station. The work also included the formation of an assembly yard and toilets for relief workers at the northern end of the station grounds, adjacent to the relief office.[25]
\nUnder Commissioner Carroll’s reforms, the Queensland Police Force became increasingly mechanised in this period, and by 1938 there were 28 cars, 33 motorcycles, and several other vehicles such as trucks being used throughout the state. A motor garage had been established at the Petrie Terrace Police Depot for servicing and repairs. At Woolloongabba, it was necessary for a garage to be constructed to accommodate police cars and motorcycles; it was completed in 1937. It was face brick with a timber-framed roof and concrete floor, and was open on its west side. The large interior measured 58ft by 18ft (17m x 5.5m), with six car bays, and stood in the southeast (rear) corner of the site. It included an external wash down concreted area immediately in front, and was reached by a driveway sloping down from Main Street.[26] By 1940 the station had two cars and one motorcycle.[27]
\nConcreting of the station yard and other similar projects were undertaken in the late 1930s by relief workers.[28] The Police Reserve was extended to the north, to include a former Quarry Reserve at the corner of Main and Vulture streets.[29]
\nIn September 1937, the South Coast District Headquarters was moved from South Brisbane to the Woolloongabba station; newspapers reported ‘the headquarters of the South Coast police district will be at the Woolloongabba police station, which has been remodelled and enlarged to accommodate the staff of nearly 60 men and non-commissioned officers under the direction of Sub-inspector F.M. O’Driscoll. Many of the records and furnishings of the South Brisbane police station … were transferred by motor truck and police car yesterday’.[30] The new headquarters were officially opened by the Minister for Health and Home Affairs, Edward Michael (Ned) Hanlon, in early October 1937, attended by several dignitaries, including Commissioner Carroll. The Woolloongabba station was to be headquarters to 29 district stations that were staffed by 116 men.[31]
\nA park and playground were completed in 1938 on land adjacent to the police station, at the corner of Main and Vulture streets. The concept for the park and playground, which covered approximately two and a half acres (1ha), was attributed to the Police Welfare Club and included three tennis courts, dressing rooms, grandstands, umpires' stands, and a playground or \"children's sanctuary\" where children would be able to play in safety under the eyes of the police. A basketball court was constructed there in 1939.[32]
\nBy the late 1930s, the relief work was progressively being phased out. The relief office at the station was vacated during 1939, and the room taken over for records.[33]
\nThe building ceased to be used as a barracks in early 1951, the year the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) moved into the building. Rooms previously used as bedrooms on the first floor of the building were occupied as offices by members of the CIB and the uniform inquiry staff. In 1964 the Kangaroo Point and East Brisbane police stations were closed, and these former police divisions were absorbed into the Woolloongabba Police Division.
\nFurther alterations were made to the building c1967 to provide more office accommodation. The few remaining open verandahs were enclosed. A single-storey brick extension was made to the south end of the main building on the ground floor to accommodate a large ‘Traffic Office’ and its understorey was open. Behind this, a large, raised, two-storey, steel- and timber-framed extension was built, infilling the space between the main building and the service annexe on the gangway’s southern side. It accommodated further office space and was open in the understorey. The constables’ dining room extension (1926) was demolished, and rear verandah stairs were repositioned to make room for the extension. Changes were made to the gangway, and its understorey brick piers were demolished and replaced with steel I-beam portal frames.[34]
\nAt the same time, the service annexe was altered to accommodate different uses, as there was limited need for ablutions and mess hall now that there were no living/sleeping quarters on site. On the ground floor, the mess hall, kitchen, and cook’s rooms were converted to records rooms, store, and sergeant’s room, by removing all internal partitions and inserting new lightweight ones. The cook’s entrance was bricked over and the small corridor between the kitchen and the mess hall, east of the internal stair, was blocked off. On the first floor, the ablutions block was converted to a staff lunch room with all internal partitions demolished. Openings were made in the western wall of the service annexe’s ground and first floors, to connect into the new extension adjacent. The basement remained unaltered.[35]
\nChanges occurred to the police station grounds between 1977 and 1981 when a driveway was constructed through the site, beginning at the northern boundary, cutting through the former relief workers’ assembly yard, then passing beneath the gangway to connect with the southern driveway and parking area. Only the western part of the former assembly yard remained grassed after this time. The 1930s toilet block in the northeast corner of the assembly yard was demolished in the mid-1990s and the area was concreted and turned into walled storage bays by 1996.[36]
\nThe playground and basketball court are no longer extant. The tennis courts were removed in early 1993, and replaced by cricket practice nets. The station was vacated by the police in July 1993 when a new station was constructed at Dutton Park.[37]
\nIn 2000-01 the former police station underwent a two-stage major conservation and refurbishment project, by its then owners, the Department of Public Works, to restore lost original features and adapt the building for use as lettable office space. The building works were undertaken by QBuild, with Project Services as the project manager and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) providing detailed building conservation advice.[38]
\nStage one works included: replacement of the roof sheeting and rainwater goods; demolition of a 1967 addition at the southern end of the building; removal of cladding to the verandahs; reconstruction of joinery including verandah balustrades and screens, windows, and batten screens; and repainting the building in an historic colour scheme.
\nStage two works comprised internal refurbishment, including: upgrading facilities such as toilets and kitchens; installation of air-conditioning, insulation and acoustic modifications; and installation of a lift and ramp for disabled access. The roof sheeting of the garage was also replaced. Works to the grounds were undertaken, including: reconstruction of the timber stair from Main Street to the former relief workers’ assembly yard; replacement of the concrete path to the former relief office; new gardens and lawn; conversion of the storage bays into car parks; new carpark in the location of the demolished 1967 addition, and; new perimeter fences and gates.[39]
\nIn 2022 the Woolloongabba Police Station (former) remains a prominent building on Main Street. Reflecting the evolving policies adopted by the Queensland Police Force in the early twentieth century, the station retains aspects of its 1913 establishment phase and its later alterations and additions carried out in the 1930s as part of a modernisation drive, as well as the brief, but important, use as an unemployment relief office during the Great Depression.
","criteria":"The former Woolloongabba Police Station (1913, extended 1937) in its form, fabric, and layout, is important in demonstrating early 20th century policing in Queensland, and the evolution and modernisation of police policy and procedure in the 1930s in the state. Operating continuously from 1913 to 1993, the station was expanded in 1937 to become the South Coast Police District headquarters and included an unemployment relief office from 1937 to 1939. It provides important evidence of the evolving role of the Queensland Police Force and the advancements made in law and order services in Queensland from the early 20th century.
\nThe former relief office (1937), assembly yard and stair from Main Street are a rare and important demonstration of the role the police played in administering the Queensland Government’s relief work programs during the Great Depression.
|Highly intact, the former Woolloongabba Police Station is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an early-20th century urban Queensland police station. Designed by the Department of Public Works, the principal characteristics the place retains include its:
\nRemaining intact, the changes made to the building in 1937 are also important in demonstrating the growth and modernisation of police operations occurring at that time. The principal characteristics of this evolution include:
\nThe former Woolloongabba Police Station is important for its aesthetic significance, as an intact civic building with beautiful attributes and a strong visual presence in its streetscape. Through its skilful, cohesive use of a Federation-era style, symmetry, robust materials, central gabled bay with flanking verandahs, and tall hip roof with fleche, the building is an attractive, well-composed design.
\nAs the only building fronting Main Street on the block, it stands prominently, surrounded by open space with views to it obtained from Main, Stanley, and Vulture streets.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16154,"place_ref":601391,"name":"Nazareth House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"272 Wynnum North Road","suburb":"WYNNUM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2002-04-02","description":"Nazareth House is prominently located on an elevation along Wynnum North Road. The complex consists of a number of buildings including the original building [St Mary's], the Convent and Chapel and two more recent additions, St Joseph's Hostel (1960s) and the nursing home known as Larmeniere (1980s). Nazareth House has sweeping views across the north-east to Moreton Bay.
St Mary's
St Mary's is an H-shaped two storey brick building with basement and a terracotta tiled roof. Verandahs, some of which have been enclosed along the northern and eastern facades on both the ground and first floors, surround the building. A centrally located projecting entrance is situated along the northern façade of the building. The central section of the entrance rises above the roof line forming a parapet. A recess, in which sits a large rendered statue, is located in the upper section of the façade. The statue and recess are surrounded by rendered high relief moulding. Below the statue are the words 'NAZARETH HOUSE'. The parapet is surmounted by a rendered celtic cross and rendered pedestal. Decorative relief work is located along the parapet and on the piers on either side of the central section. The first floor balcony, where it forms part of the projecting entrance, has a large, rounded arch with a moulded keystone. The ground floor verandah, similarly to the rest of the building, has decorative blue brickwork, including blue brick crosses centrally located along the entire facades.
On the northern façade of St Mary's, the western and eastern end of the projecting wings have parapets surmounted by rendered celtic crosses on a rendered pedestal. This façade as the same decorative blue brickwork and decorative relief work on the underside of the parapet. The western façade, the former rear entrance, is now the main entrance to the building. The gabled parapet has a row of dentils on the underside and a group of five windows, four are narrow and rectangular in shape and the central window is larger with a round arch opening with moulded decorative detail. The parapet is surmounted by a rendered pedestal and celtic cross. The verandahs on the ground and first floors have been enclosed and the original doorway has been widened and replaced with automatic doors. A number of other paired timber doors are located along the verandahs on both the ground and first floors. The doors are panelled and have glass breezeway and fanlight assemblies. The foundation stone is located near the front entrance along the northern façade of the building.
Internally, the ground and first floors of St Mary's are similar in plan. The entrance is made up of an elaborate set of paired timber, panelled doors with large fanlight and breezeway assemblies which contain coloured glass and leadlighting. The front entrance of St Mary's, along the northern façade opens to a entry foyer with a pressed metal ceiling and timber panelled doorway and architraves. Rooms open on either side of the entrance foyer. A corridor runs east-west through the building. A turning, timber staircase with an ornate timber newel and timber rails is located off the corridor on the southern side of the central wing of the building. Rooms for the residents are located on both floors. Rooms containing offices open off the corridor. Pressed metal ceilings remain in many of the rooms including the dining room located in the south-western wing and the hall in the north-western wing. A staircase at the eastern end of the building has been isolated to form a fire stair.
Convent and Chapel
The convent is a U-shaped two storey brick building with a basement level. The building has a broken-back roof clad with terracotta tiles. The building has a centrally located projecting entrance with a gabled roof, along the northern elevation. The central section of the entrance rises above the roof line forming a parapet. The parapet is surmounted by a rendered celtic cross. Decorative relief work is located along the parapet and on the piers on either side of the central section. Paired round arched openings are located in the upper section of the façade. The openings are surrounded by decorative blue brickwork. The convent has verandahs to the ground and first floors and, similarly to the projecting entrance, the orange brickwork is surrounded by decorative blue brickwork. Along the ground level verandah has rounded arches and the first floor verandah squared arches. Double hung sash windows, some of which have been screened, are located along the entire façades of the convent.
Internally, the entrance foyer has a pressed metal ceiling and parquetry floor. Large double, timber, panelled doors with coloured glass and leadlighting with breezeway assembly, open to the central corridor. The hallway is rendered with decorative moulded detail along the wall. The Sister's rooms are simple in plan and decorative detail. The rooms have timber doors and architraves with breezeway assembly, painted walls and austere ceilings. Some are slightly larger then others. Hallways leading to bathroom facilities, along with the bathrooms, have terrazzo floors. The modern kitchen is located on the ground floor.
The chapel is built of brick with a gabled roof at the northern end and a clad with terracotta tiles. The entrance to the chapel is located in the southern façade. Also located in this façade is the chapel's foundation stone. The gabled parapet has decorative relief work the underside and a group of three round arched windows, A smaller, narrow, rectangular window with louvres is located above these. The parapet is surmounted by a rendered celtic cross. The chapel is fitted with copper gutters and downpipes.
Internally, the chapel is rendered with a marble altar at the northern end of the building. A number of stained glass windows, as well as timber pews, are located in the chapel. A window opens in the upper section of the west wall of the chapel, this same window forms part of the convent wall. From this window, Sisters within the convent are able to have a view of the altar.
A rendered statue on a concrete pedestal, depicting the Holy Family, the gift of Thomas Mahon and a grotto are located in front of the northern elevation of St Mary's. The entrance gates are brick with a metal archway. The archway contains the words 'NAZARETH HOUSE' spelt out with original metal lettering.
The later buildings, St Josephs and Nursing Hostel, are single storey brick buildings and are located to the south of St Mary's and the convent and chapel. Covered walkways join St Mary's with both buildings. Other buildings which form part of the complex include plant rooms, a laundry and a change room.
","history":"Nazareth House, situated on Tingal Hill, Wynnum, was designed by Brisbane architectural firm, Hennessy, Hennessy, Keesing & Co and JP Donoghue and built by George Turner. Nazareth House was officially opened by Archbishop Duhig in 1925 as part of the charitable institution established on the site by the Poor Sisters of Nazareth.
A Catholic presence in Wynnum was prompted by the establishment of the area as a popular seaside resort. The opening of the Wynnum South Station in 1898 encouraged further development, and the demand for a religious presence in the area grew. In 1903, the first Catholic masses were held in the Shire Hall.
The Congregation of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth was founded by Mother St Basil in London in 1854. The order was established to care for the aged poor at the request of Cardinal Wiseman, Archbishop of Westminster. The first foundation of the of the order to be established in Australia was at Ballarat in 1888. At the request of Archbishop Duhig, a Queensland chapter was founded in 1921. Archbishop Duhig had visited Nazareth House in London and subsequently petitioned the Mother-General to send a community of nuns to Queensland. Duhig then proceeded to search for a suitable site.
In 1918, Duhig purchased Mt Margaret, a property of around 60 acres at Tingal Hill, Wynnum, for the purposes of establishing an aged persons and children's home to be run by the Sisters of Nazareth. The property, which included a large villa, was purchased for £5000 from the trustees of the estate of the late William Kidston, Premier of Queensland from 1906-07. Kidston had entered into an agreement with Duhig prior to his death for the sale of his property for the purposes of establishing a home for the needy.
Due to the difficulties of transport after World War I, it was not possible to secure passages for the sisters until 15 January 1921. On this date, six women, Sister Francis Borgia, Sister St David, Sister M Fulgentia, Sister M Maelisa, Sister Patricia Columba and Sister Joseph Comgall, from Hammersmith, London were joined at Melbourne by Sister Francis Clare (Mother Superior) and Sister Mary Margaret from Ballarat. On first arriving in Brisbane on 3 March 1921, the sisters stayed for three weeks at All Hallows Convent with the Sisters of Mercy. On 4 March, they got their first glimpse of their new home - a dwelling of nine small rooms on rising ground overlooking the sea with Wynnum two miles distant on one side and Brisbane twelve miles on the other.
On Good Friday, 25 March 1921, the Sisters arrived to commence charity work at Wynnum. On 1 April, the first Mass was celebrated in the house by Archbishop Duhig, who also blessed the vestments and the house. The Reverend Dean Horan of Ipswich was the first resident. The sisters also took in and cared for seven elderly ladies. In 1922 the neighbouring property of Silversprings was purchased by Archbishop Duhig for £3500. The house and other buildings from Mt Margaret were moved to the new property where they were joined to the existing house to provide accommodation for the Sisters and those in need of care. By Christmas of 1922, the new home had 35 residents.
Within a couple of years more accommodation was urgently needed. With the help of their benefactors and supported by the Mother House in London, the task of building a new home was undertaken. Work began on the first section in 1924 with the firm Hennessy, Hennessy, Keesing & Co and JP Donoghue, engaged by Archbishop Duhig, designing the new building. The tender of builder George Turner was accepted for £44,200. The foundation stone of what is now the eastern wing of the present building was laid by Archbishop Duhig on 13 April 1924. The building was blessed on 15 August 1925 by Archbishop Duhig and officially opened by then Governor of Queensland, Sir Matthew Nathan, the following day. £3000 was subscribed towards the cost of the new building.
In April 1926, the first children arrived from England to be cared for by the Sisters of Nazareth House. Local children were admitted in October the same year. The Sisters' objective was to care for orphaned or abandoned children. According to the Sisters of Nazareth House, children cared for at Wynnum during the succeeding forty years included both Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. Between 1889-1980 some 4000 children including orphans, wards of the State and migrant children were cared for by the Sisters of Nazareth in 8 homes across Australia and New Zealand.
The Catholic Advocate in January 1930 described Nazareth House as a
'"stately and impressive brick building...terraced lawns leading up to the front entrance and a fine group of statutory in the drive outside...Wide cloistered balconies surround the new building...The entrance hall has richly coloured leadlight windows and in the sitting-room and dining-room on either side are pictures of Nazareth House, Hammersmith, London, where the Sisters had their training...The pretty chapel in the left wing opens into the Sisters' choir room..."
The second stage of construction of the main building was commenced in January 1938 with the foundation stone laid by Archbishop Duhig on 20 March. The opening was held on 2 July 1939. Comprising a convent, chapel and laundry, this section was completed in April 1939 at a cost of £30,000. According to a contemporary article in the Catholic Leader, the extensions consisted of 'one million bricks.'
In 1963, a brick building was constructed in the grounds to provide modern amenities for male residents and a new kitchen block. Two thirds of the cost of the extension was contributed by the Commonwealth Government. At the time of its official opening by Archbishop Duhig, Nazareth House was providing accommodation for 85 'senior citizens' and 70 children.
In 1982 Nazareth House ceased its function as a care facility for children with the move towards placing children in need with foster families. The need for a nursing home unit had long been required and it was decided that a new Nursing Home should be built on the area at the rear of the main building where the children's playground had been, and that the original building should be renovated to make single room accommodation, with ensuite facilities, for hostel residents.
The new Nursing Home was blessed by the Most Reverend EJ Cuskelly, Auxiliary Bishop of Brisbane and opened by Senator, The Hon. DJ Grimes, Minister for Social Security, on Sunday 17 June 1984. The new complex connected to the old building via covered passageways and provided four 4-bed wards, seven 2-bed wards and five single rooms. Work on renovation of the old building commenced in February 1985 and comprised the construction of 42 single rooms with ensuites.
Nazareth House continues to operate as an aged care facility.
","criteria":"Nazareth House is significant for its association with the establishment of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth in Queensland and the religious and social practices they implemented. The establishment of Nazareth House reflects particularly the active interest of James Duhig and his confident building program which saw the establishment of many of the Catholic Church's prominent buildings during his time as Archbishop of Brisbane.
|Prominently located along Wynnum North Road and visible for some distance from Wynnum, Nazareth House is significant for its considerable architectural merit, and landmark value, and is an important example of the works of one Brisbane's premier architectural practitioners and firms, Hennessy & Hennessy, Keesing and Co and JP Donoghue, who undertook many projects for the catholic church during Archbishop Duhig's time.
|Prominently located along Wynnum North Road and visible for some distance from Wynnum, Nazareth House is significant for its considerable architectural merit, and landmark value, and is an important example of the works of one Brisbane's premier architectural practitioners and firms, Hennessy & Hennessy, Keesing and Co and JP Donoghue, who undertook many projects for the catholic church during Archbishop Duhig's time.
|Nazareth House is significant for its association with those, both past and present, who have lived at the house.
|Nazareth House is significant for its association with the establishment of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth in Queensland and the religious and social practices they implemented. The establishment of Nazareth House reflects particularly the active interest of James Duhig and his confident building program which saw the establishment of many of the Catholic Church's prominent buildings during his time as Archbishop of Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16155,"place_ref":602539,"name":"Norman Hotel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"102 Ipswich Road","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-07-12","description":"The Norman Hotel is a two-storey brick hotel prominently located on the corner of Ipswich Road and Qualtrough Street, Woolloongabba.
The hotel addresses both street frontages and has a main entrance on the Ipswich Road and a corner entrance to the public bar. It is confident and flamboyant in style with an ornate parapet concealing a hipped roof, which is clad in corrugated iron and pierced by tall brick chimneys. The ground floor awning and the verandah to the upper floor feature curved corrugated iron roofs supported on slender cast iron columns. Each is truncated at the corner following the line of the building and each is decorated with lacy cast iron valances. The upper level also has cast iron balustrading.
The wing to the rear of the main section along Qualtrough Street is much simpler in form and has sash windows with moulded decoration. The upper level of the hotel has French windows opening onto the verandah. The ground floor has narrow casement windows and a recessed entrance to Ipswich Road approached through a twin arches with a central pillar and matching pilasters to each side.
Inside, the hotel retains a brick cellar space with a ceiling supported by low brick arches and a concrete floor. This is still in use for beer storage.
The Ipswich Road entrance and hall remain, with the public bar on one side of the hall and the gaming area opening off from the other. Upstairs there are conference rooms, toilets and small service rooms. Doors and joinery details generally remain intact.
The kitchen, beer garden and open air eating area to the rear of the site are modern, as is a brick liquor barn, but these are not within the listing boundary.
","history":"The Norman Hotel was built in 1889 for Robert Heaslop to a design from the office of John B. Nicholson. It is a brick hotel prominently sited at the corner of Qualtrough Street on the busy Ipswich Brisbane Road.
In 1859, at the time of Separation from New South Wales, the road between Brisbane and Ipswich was considered by the incoming Governor of Queensland to be the only good road in Queensland and is still a major thoroughfare. At this time, quite a number of Europeans lived around the junction of the five tracks that were to become the Woolloongabba Fiveways, though it was not then thought of as a residential area. In June 1864 William Qualtrough purchased Lots 72 and 73 of Sub 167 on the Ipswich Road. He died in 1870 and left the land to his widow, Elizabeth.
In the 1880s Woolloongabba developed quickly, together with the adjoining suburbs of East Brisbane, Buranda and Stones Corner, following the expansion of the railway and tramway systems and the growth of associated commerce and light industry. In 1881 a dry dock was established at South Brisbane and the nearby coal wharves were linked to a railway goods yard at Woolloongabba in 1884. The first (horse drawn) trams in Brisbane ran between Woolloongabba and Newstead in 1885 and had reached Buranda by 1887.
In 1885 Robert Heaslop purchased the Ipswich Road land from Mrs Qualtrough. He appears to have been a member of a family that had retail interests in the area.
South Brisbane and Woolloongabba were amalgamated to form the City of South Brisbane in 1888 and in the following year the first Post Office opened in Woolloongabba and was serviced by tram. The area was booming, as was the Queensland economy generally, and Robert Heaslop chose this year to build a substantial hotel on his land, registering a mortgage on the title for £3,500 in November 1889. The expansion of the population in the area is reflected in the building of other hotels at the time, such as the Woolloongabba Hotel (1887), the Railway Hotel (1889) and Burke's Hotel (1890). Heaslop's new hotel was built by F Steffans and designed by John B Nicholson.
John Beauchamp Nicholson was born in 1852 in Surry and arrived in Brisbane around 1876. After working as a clerk and foreman for the contractor and later architect, Andrew Murphie and for plumber Hiram Wakefield, he set up an architectural office in October 1885. He worked in partnership with Constantin Mathea between 1886 and January 1887, with J Sinclair Ferguson and with Alfred R L Wright from March 1890 until going into involuntary liquidation in January 1891. During these few years, Nicholson's office designed a variety of handsome and substantial buildings including Lady Musgrave Lodge in 1891 and the 1888 Princess Theatre [600353] at Woolloongabba, though a good proportion of the work catered for the liquor trade and included a number of fine hotels and the Lion Brewery in Townsville.
The Norman Hotel opened in June 1890 with Heaslop as the first licensee. To fulfil the conditions of the 1885 Licensing Acct, the licensee had to live on the premises, so the license was quickly transferred to Henry Marsden, previously publican of the Bowen Hotel in South Brisbane. Heaslop was able to keep an eye on the premises, however, living just across the road from the hotel. Marsden remained as licensee until 1892 when J C Hauer briefly held the license before it was transferred to Samuel Heaslop, possibly a relative of the owner. In December 1896 the hotel was leased to Percy Hubbard at 5.10.0 per week. The lease was transferred to John Dwyer in July 1897, though the licence continued in Hubbard's name until 1898. John, then Mary Dwyer, held the licence until 1900, when the brewing company of Perkins & Co purchased the hotel.
Perkins & Co was one of two breweries, established by Irish families, who had first set up business in Castlemaine, Victoria. Perkins and the Castlemaine Brewery had established breweries in Brisbane and competed for trade. Both undertook the purchase of hotels as 'tied houses' selling only their own beer as part of this competition, Perkins purchasing Burke's Hotel in 1901 and Castlemaine the nearby Broadway Hotel in 1917. Perkins & Co leased the Norman Hotel to a series of publicans and in 1928 the Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan Gray and Company purchased Perkins & Co. Ltd.
From 1900 the Woolloongabba area experienced a slow decline and the hotel, though changing licensees, remained much the same. The main bar was renovated in the 1960s, though little other change occurred until the late 20th century. In 1987 the Cavill family of hoteliers purchased the Norman Hotel. They purchased adjoining land and added a beer garden and outdoor eating area, the steakhouse opening in 1988. In the process of the redevelopment, several detached structures were removed from the rear of the property including stables and an air raid shelter.
The hotel has been renovated and some walls have been removed on the upper floor to create two function rooms. On the ground floor the entrance hall area has been little changed, but the dining room, kitchen, pantry and spirit room have been removed and the space is now used as a gaming area. The main bar on the other side of the hall has been reduced in size and now opens on to the courtyard area through glass folding doors
","criteria":"The Norman Hotel is important in providing evidence of the development of Queensland in the 1880s, a boom period when many fine commercial buildings were constructed, particularly in Brisbane. It is also important is demonstrating the development of the Woolloongabba and East Brisbane area in response to the growth of the tramway system. It demonstrates the importance of the Ipswich-Brisbane Road as a major transport route in the 19th century.
|The Norman Hotel is important as a good example of a quality hotel of its era and demonstrates the principal characteristics of such a building, being prominently placed on a landmark corner site and designed both to attract attention and suggest the quality of service and accommodation on offer. It remains substantially intact and has well preserved exterior detail. It has had continuity of usage as a hotel for well over a hundred years
|The Norman Hotel is a local landmark, being prominently sited on a major road linking Brisbane and Ipswich. It is a well-composed building of architectural merit and makes an important contribution to the character of the area by employing strong architectural features, including an elaborate parapet and well-detailed verandahs.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16158,"place_ref":601395,"name":"TC Beirne Complex and Fortuneland Centre","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"28 Duncan Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-04-29","description":"The TC Beirne Complex occupies a prominent position overlooking the pedestrian thoroughfares of Brunswick and Duncan Streets, Fortitude Valley. Ann Street borders the eastern extreme of the Duncan Street side of the complex. The portion of the complex once used by the company as retail trading space fronts Brunswick Street and is now known as the TC Beirne Centre, while the Fortuneland Centre, once the warehouse, fronts Duncan Street which is now Chinatown.
The TC Beirne Centre
The Brunswick Street elevation is four storeys high and is constructed of rendered and painted masonry. There are thirteen windows on each floor, arranged in vertical panels between flat pilasters and becoming successively less decorated. The first floor windows are casements with semi-circular fanlights and distinctive projecting arched hoods. The second and third floor windows consist of pairs of rectangular sash windows with decorative moulding below the sill and around the frame. Moulded triangular pediments top the second floor windows. The top of each pilaster consists of a shamrock crest, positioned directly below a dentilled cornice.
Above the projecting cornice, the pilasters are extended with recessed panels between them to form a decorative parapet The recessed panels are infilled with masonry circles that shape the initials TCB and all the panels are topped with a flat moulded capping. The building is topped with large arched pediments, originally two in number, and then increased to three when the building was extended. The entrance and ground floor shop fronts are modern.
The interior has been largely replaced and now has an arcade with retail shops through to Duncan Street on the ground floor and modern offices and apartments on the upper floors. In the centre of the building what appears to have been a clerestory is preserved together with its ceiling decoration. The floors below it have been replaced by metal girders to create a light well. No other original internal decoration can be readily seen.
The Duncan Street section of the complex is five storeys high and is of painted brick. Generally, the windows are segmental arches, except on the eastern bay, which has semi-circular arched windows on the first and fourth floors, with square headed windows between. Bold Dutch gables unify the different buildings. The brick parapet has a stepped top with semi-circular pediments and circular vents. Alterations include a wide modern arcade entrance and a glass and metal overhead tunnel, designed by James Birrell, that links the centre to the buildings on the other side of Duncan Street. The shopfronts are now all modern metal and glass, though some of the metal pillars supporting the street awning survive.
Fortuneland Centre
The former warehouse is constructed of painted brick and has its major elevation to Duncan Street adjoining the main store buildings. The building has four storeys and a low brick tower to Duncan Street, similar to that on the TC Beirne section. The building has large segmental arch windows to the upper floors, those on the Duncan Street side being the original timber framed windows and those on the Ann Street elevation have modern metal frames. The top floor is composed largely of banks of multiple paned windows between narrow brick panels. The rear of the building overlooks a laneway and modern windows and small metal balconies have been added, as has a deck area.
The ground floor of the Fortuneland Centre contains 12 shops and restaurants with modern glass and metal shopfronts. The display windows at the corner of Duncan and Ann Streets have been replaced, but some original metal posts supporting the street awning to Duncan and Ann Streets remain. The upper levels of the former warehouse have been reconfigured as apartments and no original internal walls remain. The basement contains a car park.
","history":"The TC Beirne Complex was constructed for Thomas Charles Beirne in 1902 to the design of Robin Dods. The warehouse portion of the building was extended in 1906, and further extensions were made to the structure in 1910 and 1913, also to the design of Dods. By c1931, architects Hennessey & Hennessey had undertaken extensive additions, and in 1938 an extra 30,000 square feet of floor space was added. In 1956 the building was sold to David Jones, and has changed ownership several times since. Geoffrey Pie undertook alterations in 1974.
Thomas Charles Beirne was born in 1860 in Ballymacurly, Ireland, the son of farmers. He was apprenticed to a draper at the age of fourteen, and in 1884 emigrated to Melbourne where he worked as a draper's assistant and later joint manager for Eyre and Shephard and then Foy and Gibsons. Less than two years later a former employer in Ireland, Michael Piggott, invited Beirne to enter into a partnership and the firm of 'Piggott & Beirne' was established in Stanley Street, South Brisbane. By 1891 the partnership had dissolved and TC Beirne took his capital of £1200 and opened his own store in Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, in premises owned by the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane. The shop employed six staff and had a frontage of twenty feet and a depth of fifty feet. TC Beirne had married Ann Kavanagh in 1887, and the Beirne family lived in quarters above the shop.
The success of TC Beirne's store was immediate, and within a few months of opening, the store underwent an expansion into a second and then a third adjoining shop. Beirne attempted to have the owner of the shops, the Anglican Diocese, pay to convert the shops into one store. When this request was rejected, TC Beirne purchased the Diocese holdings in Brunswick Street in 1897 for £8000 on a deposit of £50. The property consisted of five shops and a bank. Architect William Hodgen jnr designed extensive alterations to the property, and by 1900 the business was described as having 'evolved into large bright looking premises with a frontage to Brunswick Street of 110ft'. The same article pronounced TC Beirne & Co. to be one of the 'most popular shopping places in the city of Brisbane'.
By this time, the Beirne family had moved from their quarters above the shop to 'Clevelard', Moray Street, New Farm. In 1899 the family moved again to 'Glengariff', Hendra where additions to the residence were made in 1907 to the design of Dods. Robin Dods was also the architect of a house built for Beirne's eldest daughter, Mrs Morgan, in 1912 (now located at 9 Morgan Street, Albion).
The growth and expansion of TC Beirne & Co. continued for the greater half of the twentieth century. Within a few years of the purchase of the Brunswick Street property, Beirne acquired adjoining properties in Duncan Street. The company was eventually to boast a Brunswick Street frontage of 146 feet, a Duncan Street frontage of 311 feet, and an Ann Street frontage of 62 feet. The shop floor areas fronted Brunswick Street, and warehousing areas were located along Duncan and Ann Streets.
In 1902 Robin Dods of the architectural firm 'Hall & Dods', was commissioned to design the building that was to form the core of the present structure. Additions to the company's warehousing facilities followed in 1906 when Hall & Dods called tenders for 'premises, Duncan Street, Valley, for TC Beirne & Co.'. Master Builder, GA Baumber, completed the work at a cost of £6348. Other major work was completed in 1910 and 1913, also to the design of Robin Dods. The tender of GA Baumber was accepted in 1909, while the work completed in 1913 included a 'new storey and other additions, besides the modernising of the Brunswick Street premises at a cost of about £25,000'. This work increased the number of arches on the parapet from two to three.
Less than twenty years later, c1931, further extensions were made. Architects Hennessey & Hennessey were responsible for the additions. In 1938, 30,000 square feet of floor space was added by contractors GH Turner & Son at a cost of £30,000. The work was completed using structural steel, reinforced concrete and brick, and included the additions of a five-storey building to the Brunswick Street frontage of Beirne's property; and the addition of four storeys on the Duncan Street side of the building.
The success of the TC Beirne & Co. emporium extended outside Brisbane and branches of the store were established in the cities of Ipswich and Mackay, where buildings designed by Robin Dods were erected in 1902 (Ipswich) and 1907 (Mackay). TC Beirne also established a popular and successful mail-order service, extending the company's clientele base into more remote locations.
The early history of another Valley success story, McWhirter's, is directly linked to TC Beirne and Co. In 1894, James McWhirter joined TC Beirne as general manager and temporary partner before leaving to occupy premises on the opposite of Brunswick Street. Like Beirne, McWhirter was an instant success and the two stores, along with other principle retailers, Overells and later the ACB Company and Waltons, did much to ensure the popularity of Fortitude Valley as a shopping destination in the first half of the twentieth century.
While Thomas Charles Beirne became a household name through the success of his retail empire, he was also a prominent figure in wider Brisbane society. He joined the Brisbane Traders Association in 1898 and became its president in 1901. He was a director of the Brisbane Tramways Company, the Brisbane Gas Company, Queensland Trustees, AMP, Atlas Assistance and the British Australian Cotton Foundation. In 1905 he was elected to the Legislative Council where he remained until its abolition in 1922. He was University Warden from 1928 to 1941, and the T.C. Beirne School of Law was founded with his donation of £20,000. Other recipients of his generosity were the Mater Hospital, Duchesne College, St Brigid's Church, Red Hill, and the Holy Name Cathedral scheme. In 1929 he was awarded a Papal Knighthood of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great, Civil Class.
TC Beirne died on 21 April 1949. Seven years later, in 1956, the Fortitude Valley TC Beirne building was sold to David Jones. The building was sold again in 1973 and in 1974 alterations were made to the design of Geoffrey Pie. The TC Beirne building for some time housed a branch of Target, another department store.
In the mid 1990s, the TC Beirne store and the TC Beirne warehouse in Duncan Street to the rear became separately owned. Both buildings have undergone extensive internal alteration and refurbishment and now contain commercial and retail outlets on the lower level and apartments on the upper floors. The TC Beirne Centre also contains offices of the Brisbane City Council. The former warehouse, now Fortuneland Centre, has been subdivided into 49 strata titles.
","criteria":"The building and development of the TC Beirne Complex is important in demonstrating the pattern and evolution of Queensland's history, reflecting the late 19th and early 20th century development of Fortitude Valley as a major commercial and shopping centre, which was sustained well into the post-Second World War period.
|The TC Beirne Complex is important because of its aesthetic significance as a prominent and visually appealing element in the pedestrian streetscapes of Brunswick Street and Duncan Street (China Town).
|The TC Beirne Complex has a special association with the TC Beirne company who played an important part in the development of retailing and department stores in the first half of the twentieth century. The place also has a special association with the life and work of the company's founder, Thomas Charles Beirne, and the work of architect Robin Dods.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16223,"place_ref":601460,"name":"Corpus Christi Church","alternate_name":"Corpus Christi Catholic Church","street_address":"136 Buckland Road","suburb":"NUNDAH","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-07-06","description":"Corpus Christi Church is a brick building situated on the crest of a hill, in Bage Street, Nundah, with expansive views to the north and east. The design of the church was influenced by the Romanesque revival style, in its massing and detailing. Several large trees and established gardens surround the building.
Corpus Christi Church is a symmetrically composed, polychrome brick building, with traditional Latin Cross plan and a polygonal chancel extending from the western end. The terracotta tiled roof, is gabled over the front and two transept entrances and hipped over the chancel. The dominant feature of the church is the copper sheeted dome, which extends about 100 feet above ground level above the junction of the transepts and nave. Surmounted on the dome is an octagonal lantern, with a Celtic cross finial. The dome rests on an octagonal drum, supported square planned arcade. The drum, of polychrome brick, features tripartite arched window openings on each of the eight faces.
The church features polychrome brickwork patterning, including chequer pattern banding on the gables, banding on external columns, dark brick quoining and a dark brick plinth. The external walls are buttressed with shallow attached piers.
The eastern elevation features an open portal, with a vaulted covering sheltered by a gabled awning, supported on coupled columns, featuring plaster cast capitals and bases. The portal opens onto an arcaded entrance porch, defined by similar columns, from which a closed timber quarter turn stair runs to the gallery. Panelled timber doors open off the entrance bay to the church. Above the portal are three round headed arched window openings, glazed with leadlight.
The entrances to the north and south transepts are similar to the main eastern entrance, but with vaulted awnings supported on moulded corbels. The western facade has a brick arcaded verandah echoing the octagonally shaped chancel.
Internally the church is dominated by the coffered interior of the dome at the intersection of the nave and transepts. This is supported on four wide arches, which span the internal width of the church, one of which forms the chancel arch. The chancel features an ornate marble altar and a large Italian painting. Flanking the chancel are two side chapels with religious statues. Unusually, a marble altar rail has survived, as have two confessional bays on the north and south walls. A gallery sits over the eastern end of the interior, with a large Whitehouse Brothers pipe organ. The interior is carpeted and has rendered brick walls with a timber boarded ceiling.
","history":"The Corpus Christi Church was constructed in 1925-6, for the catholic parish at Nundah, who formerly practiced in a small timber church on another site. The church was constructed under the guidance of the then Archbishop James Duhig, who promoted catholic presence in Brisbane by exploiting prominent sites, to produce landmarks. Corpus Christi may have been designed as a scale model for the Holy Name Cathedral which was in the planning stages at this time. The architects for the project were Hennessey, Hennessey, Keesing and Co.
Settlement in the Nundah area began with a Moravian mission set up for Aborigines in the area in 1838. Although the mission was closed by 1848 many of the missionaries and their families remained in the Nundah area. In the 1860s a strong German presence was felt in the area, particularly as a result of immigration. The first Lutheran and Methodist services in Queensland were held in Nundah.
It was not until 1903 that the catholic community in the area, who attended church at Wooloowin, Sandgate, or inner city areas, met to discuss the construction of a church. On June 19, 1904, Archbishop Dunne blessed The Church of the Real Presence, and spoke of the momentous occasion, which saw the opening of a catholic church in what was the birthplace of Protestantism in Queensland. The church cost £600, which was paid off before the opening and was located on the corner of Duke Street and Buckland Road.
A strong catholic presence in Nundah by 1915, dictated the need for a school, and the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of St Joseph were asked to join the parish, to open this school. Previously, property in the area had been purchased by the church as a more suitable church site, due to its position on the crest of a hill. The property previously belonged to a Mr Henry Donkin who had constructed a large house, Marsten, which was used by the sisters as the first school and convent.
A presbytery was built on the grounds of Marsten, soon after 1920, when the Rev Archbishop James Duhig became the registered owner. The first parish priest was Father Jordan, who stayed with the Nundah parish until 1941. Previously, priests cycled from the Wooloowin presbytery to say mass in the small timber church. A site was chosen on the grounds near the school and presbytery for a more imposing church.
It was part of Duhig's grand plan for the development of the Catholic Church in Brisbane that a number of churches be built to manifest the strength of the church. Many of the sites Duhig sought were on hill tops. By 1940, when Duhig had been controlling the estate for twenty-eight years, forty-six new churches in Brisbane had been built since 1912, including St Joseph's at Kangaroo Point, St Ignatius at Toowong and St Agatha's at Clayfield. Duhig favoured certain architects, particular the designers of Corpus Christi, Hennessey and Hennessey, who planned the ill-fated Holy Name Cathedral with the Archbishop. Duhig felt that the construction of churches enhanced the catholic presence and signified the strength and wealth of the church.
Corpus Christi Church was planned to be a golden link in the chain of churches around Brisbane. Some sources state that it was a scale model for the Holy Name Cathedral, which was planned for a site in Ann Street, across the street from All Hallows' School. The design of both of these Hennessey and Hennessey buildings was thought to be reminiscent of St Peter's in Rome, which has the characteristic dome, surmounted by a lantern and cross.
The laying of the foundation stone of the Corpus Christi Church on June 14, 1925 attracted 20,000 people, who donated £2000 to the construction of the church, although the church was not fully paid off until the 1940s.
The church was designed by Hennessey, Hennessey, Keesing and Co, architects in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Jack Hennessey had recently completed the additions to St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, and was a friend and colleague of the archbishop at the time. The work was completed by local contractor, SS Carrick, for a total cost of £16, 840. Corpus Christi Church was opened on November 21, 1926, in a ceremony which saw eight tiers of lights illuminating the dome.
The original house, Marsten was demolished in 1959 to make way for a new convent. The church remains intact with very little alteration.
","criteria":"The Corpus Christi Church was built during a time of expansion of the Catholic Church in Queensland during Archbishop Duhig's time, when an effort was made to create a strong catholic presence, particularly in those areas of traditional Protestant dominance.
The design of Corpus Christi is significant as it paralleled the design of the ill-fated Holy Name Cathedral and may have been planned as a scale model for the cathedral. The Corpus Christi Church is a manifestation of the catholic ethos of exploiting imposing sites to produce prominent landmarks. This is particularly true of churches built during the time of Archbishop James Duhig.
|The church is a particularly good example of an inter-war church, influenced by the fashionable Romanesque revival of church architecture in Australia, with its feature dome, picturesque massing and polychrome brickwork, a style favoured by Archbishop Duhig.
|It is symbolically important to the catholic parish of Nundah.
|The church has special associations with Archbishop James Duhig and the architects Hennessey and Hennessey.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16235,"place_ref":601472,"name":"Residence, 107 Kadumba Street (c1914)","alternate_name":"John Mills' Residence","street_address":"107 Kadumba Street","suburb":"YERONGA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-08-25","description":"107 Kadumba Street is a large, picturesque single-storeyed timber residence, with a corrugated iron roof and timber verandahs. The house is one of a group of three adjacent substantial late 19th and early 20th century timber residences on Kadumba Street screened by a streetscape of mature trees, and contributes to both the streetscape of Kadumba Street and the townscape of Yeronga.
This deep plan house is covered by a capacious hipped roof with three projecting gables to the street-facing elevation to the south and one to the west, and sits above ground level on timber stumps in-filled with timber batten screens. It is encircled by verandahs of varying depths: narrow to the north for service access; more generous to the south for entrance areas; deeper again to the west adjacent to bedrooms, and forming a large outdoor room adjacent to bedrooms and kitchen to the east (an early extension). The verandah ceilings vary in height; flat under gables and raked elsewhere. The house is clad in chamferboard to gable ends and rear service areas, and vertically jointed timber with externally expressed framing in areas protected by verandahs. External rooms open onto verandahs with timber double doors with curved mullions and fanlights.
The southern, street facing elevation has three gabled bays with central stairs; the central, smaller bay is enclosed and forms the main entrance to the house. The bays either side have double square posts, with curvilinear valances, and a spandrel panel of timber battens above. The central bay also has valances, a smaller batten frieze, gable battening, and marbled timber door surrounds.
The house has a symmetrically organised plan, comprising two finely decorated major central rooms - a Drawing Room to the south and Billiard Room to the north, flanked by wings of bedrooms, with the kitchen in the north west corner. The entrance lobby projects into the Drawing Room, and has a front door with coloured glass surrounds, and small side doors with coloured glass panels. The Drawing Room is a generously proportioned and finely finished space, with a timber boarded ceiling with raked edges and a central coloured glass rooflight, and a frieze running between a timber picture rail and cornice. The door between the Drawing Room and Billiard Room has fine coloured glass panels in timber surrounds. The Billiard Room is encircled with 'grained' painted timber panels which run under a silky oak shelf at lintel height, with vertically jointed timber above, finishing in a stencilled frieze running between a timber picture rail and cornice. The north-eastern corner of the room has a diagonally placed fireplace with glazed ceramic tiles, and silky oak mantelpiece and cabinet above. The western end has a large mirror in richly carved surrounds, while the northern wall forms a bay with a central window, and has double doors either side of the bay. Bedrooms all are lined with vertically-jointed timber walls and ceilings, and have fretwork fanlights above the doors.
A weatherboard tennis shed, part of the grounds prior to subdivision and now moved to a new site, is located in the south-west corner of the rear garden, having been moved from another site. The front yard contains a number of mature Tallowwoods, thought to be part of the original forest.
","history":"This house was erected c1914/15 for John Charles Mills and his wife Sarah, who purchased the Yeronga site, which then comprised nearly 2 acres, in October 1913. The transfer was registered in the name of Sarah Mills in January 1915. A map of the Kitchener Estate at Yeronga, which was auctioned on 24 April 1915, refers to John Mills' new residence, and it is likely the house was completed by this date.
John Mills was a successful Brisbane printer, who traded from Adelaide Street as Mills and Green, printers and stationers, in the early years of the 20th century. From 1909, however, Mills was trading as John Mills Himself. During the First World War his business expanded, with a warehouse established at Newstead, and in 1919 he erected new brick premises at 40 Charlotte Street, Brisbane [600084], designed by Brisbane architect John Henry Burley of Queen Street. By the 1920s the business was well established, attracting clients such as Steele Rudd. After his death, the business was conducted by his sons, John and Sam, and remained in the family until the 1980s.
It is possible that JH Burley also designed the Mills' Kadumba Street residence. Burley established a sound architectural practice in southeast Queensland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his residential work including St Joseph's Presbytery, Kangaroo Point [1899], Bellissima Guest House, Canungra, for the Lahey family [1916] and Inverness, the Nestles Company's manager's house at Toogoolawah [1917 - 600498].
John and Sarah Mills resided at Kadumba Street [the section between Grimes and Douglas Streets was known as Dunn Street until 1946] from c1915. John died in 1934, but his wife remained in their Yeronga home until her death in 1953. The property then passed to Queensland Trustees Ltd and was sold to Frederick William Filer and James Francis Swengley in 1954. In 1958 the house, on a reduced site, passed to James Francis and Grace Agnes Swengley, and they sold this property to Keith Eric Watt in 1962. In 1989 it was acquired by heritage conservation writer Ian Evans, who restored the house and grounds.
","criteria":"107 Kadumba Street is significant historically as important evidence of the evolution of Yeronga as a middle-class residential suburb, established as such in the late 19th century, and sustained into the second half of the 20th century.
|It has the potential to reveal further information about late 19th/early 20th century Brisbane architects and their work, and may prove to be a fine example of the work of Brisbane architect JH Burley.
|It is a substantial, picturesque, early 20th century timber residence set in a garden of mature Tallowwood trees, and contains particularly fine interiors.
|As one of a group of similarly substantial late 19th and early 20th century timber residences on Kadumba Street, the building contributes to the streetscape of Kadumba Street and to the townscape of Yeronga.
|The place is significant also for its association with successful Brisbane printer John Charles Mills, who from 1909 traded as John Mills Himself.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16236,"place_ref":601473,"name":"Astolat","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"96 Kadumba Street","suburb":"YERONGA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-08-25","description":"Astolat is a picturesque single-storeyed timber residence, with a corrugated iron roofs and timber verandahs. It sits towards the rear of a wedge-shaped block, and has a front garden with mature trees and a circular drive. The house is one of a group of three adjacent substantial late 19th and early 20th century timber residences on Kadumba St screened by a streetscape of mature trees, and contributes to both the streetscape of Kadumba St and the townscape of Yeronga.
The house has an L-shaped plan, with a hipped primary roof encircled by a raked verandah roof. It has verandahs to the north and the west, and a projecting hexagonal bay at the north west corner. A wide set of timber stairs extends out to the north east from the hexagonal bay.
The house is lined with deep chamferboards and rests on a brick base with screened panels. It has timber double doors with fanlights and louvred outer leaves opening onto the verandah. The verandah has square timber posts with square capitals and arched timber valances, surmounted by spandrels with fine lattice battening, and cast iron balustrades.
","history":"Astolat was erected c1890 for Brisbane solicitor Adolph Frederick Milford Feez, following transfer of the 2 acre 20 perch site to Albrecht Feez, his father, in April 1890. It is thought to have been designed by Brisbane architect GHM Addison.
The house was erected during an important phase in the development of Yeronga. The Yeronga pocket, which fronts the Brisbane River on the eastern side of the Long Pocket Reach, had been taken up for farming purposes in the early 1850s. In the mid-1860s, part of portion 7 (the Kadumba Street area) was subdivided into large residential allotments fronting the river, but in the 1880s, the area suddenly became a fashionable suburban address. The impetus for successful Brisbane businessmen, lawyers, politicians, and civil servants to establish large residences on the river at Yeronga, came with the construction of the South Brisbane rail line from Corinda to Stanley Street, which opened in 1884 and followed Fairfield Road for much of the way.
The majority of fine 1880s and 1890s houses erected in the Yeronga area were built from 1885, following the opening of Yeronga Station that year. Only a few of these residences survive to illustrate the late 19th century development of Yeronga as a middle-class commuter suburb. Amongst those remaining are Como (1889-90) and solicitor Adolph Feez's home Astolat (c1890), which occupy adjacent sites on the southern side of Kadumba Street; Rhyndarra (1889) [600360] at the western end of Kadumba Street; and Avoca (c1880s) in nearby Feez Street.
Yeronga-Lea (c1883), the earliest of the large homes erected in the area, no longer survives. The residence of newspaperman and politician Charles Hardie Buzacott, and of Premier TJ Byrnes in the late 1880s and 1890s, Yeronga-Lea was located on the riverbank, on about 9½ acres of land adjoining the southern boundary of what became the Hayne property. Reputedly, the suburb derives its name from this house. In 1885 the Railway Department named the local station after Mr Buzacott's home, and by January 1886, local residents universally referred to the area as Yeronga, distinguishing themselves from the more generic term of Boggo, the early name for the whole of the district between Clarence Corner and Oxley. Kadumba, erected c1885 for the Grimes family, which had owned farming land at Fairfield/Yeronga/Yeerongpilly since the 1870s, is no longer extant, its name perpetuated in one of the suburb's principal streets.
Astolat may have been designed by respected Brisbane architect GHM Addison of the Melbourne-based firm Oakden, Addison & Kemp, who had called tenders for a house at Indooroopilly for Arthur Feez, Adolph's brother, in late 1887. The verandah detailing and the bay window expressed in the roof by a chamfered hip, are reminiscent of other Addison domestic designs of this period, including Ralahyne (1888) [600182], Kirkston (1888-89) [600351], and the 1888 extensions to Stanley Hall [600183].
The name Astolat is associated with the Arthurian legend, and was mentioned in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, published in England in the 1400s. Elaine, maid of Astolat, drowned herself for the love of Sir Lancelot, Knight of the Round Table. The Feez family appears to have had some fascination for the legend - Adolph Feez's first child, born on 7 March 1890, was christened Elaine.
Adolph Feez, for whom Astolat was commissioned, was born in Brisbane in 1858, son of Rockhampton businessman and politician Colonel Albrecht Feez and Sophia Milford, daughter of Moreton Bay's first Supreme Court Judge. Educated in Rockhampton and Sydney, he spent several years surveying in the Riverina and in western Queensland before taking up law. Gaining legal experience in Melbourne, Charters Towers and Cairns, he completed his articles with Peter MacPherson in Brisbane, and was admitted as a solicitor on 1 December 1885. From 1 January 1886, he was a partner in the firm of MacPherson, Miskin and Feez, solicitors. Miskin retired not long after and the firm carried on as MacPherson and Feez, and were retained in some of the major litigation of the 1890s. The partnership was dissolved c1900, following which Feez practised under his own name until 1905, when he entered into partnership with Arthur Baynes. In 1912, AFT Ruthning joined the partnership, and from 1927 the firm was known as Feez Ruthning and Company, and continues as Feez Ruthning. After nearly 60 years in the legal profession, Adolph Feez retired from practice in 1942.
Feez was a keen sportsman. He represented Queensland in Rugby Union, was an early Master of the Hunt with the Brisbane Hunt Club, founded the Queensland Polo Association, and was a foundation member of the Queensland Lawn Tennis Association. The Brisbane Hunt Club survived for about eight years in the late 1880s and 1890s, with draghunts held usually in the Yeronga district. Reputedly, Feez and his neighbour, JW Hayne, kept the kennels for the Hunt Club on their properties.
Following Albrecht Feez's death in 1896, the property passed to his two sons, Adolph and Arthur, as trustees. Arthur died in 1935, and Adolph's wife, Kate Elise Feez, was nominated trustee in his place. In the late 1930s the property was subdivided, at which time Astolat Street was formed, and by 1947 the Feez family had sold all the subdivisions apart from that on which the house stood.
Adolph Feez died at Astolat on 13 October 1944, survived by his wife and children. His son, Cecil Molle Feez, was appointed a trustee of the property in Adolph's place. Mrs Feez remained at Astolat until 1949, when the property was sold to Stanley Samuel Carrick. It remained in the Carrick family until acquired in 1963 by Dr Kenneth Wilson and his wife Jocelyn, and was transferred in 1980 to the present owners.
","criteria":"Astolat survives as an important illustration of the late 19th century transformation of Yeronga from small farming community to prestigious residential commuter suburb. From a broader perspective, it is important in illustrating the effect that access to rail transport in the late 19th century had on Brisbane's urban environment, creating in the 1870s and 1880s a string of 'outer' suburbs along the new railway lines into the capital. The place also illustrates the nature of Queensland's first generation of suburban rail commuters - principally the affluent middle-class. With the construction of this and other houses of similar status in the area in the late 19th century (including adjacent Como/Barrogill [601474]), the tone of the suburb as a quiet, middle-class residential retreat was established, and sustained into the second half of the 20th century.
|It has the potential to reveal further information about late 19th/early 20th century Brisbane architects and their work, and may prove to be a fine example of the domestic work of important Brisbane architect GHM Addison.
|Astolat is a substantial picturesque timber residence set in a garden of mature trees.
|As one of a group of substantial late 19th and early 20th century timber residences on Kadumba Street, the building contributes to both the streetscape of Kadumba Street and the townscape of Yeronga.
|The place is significant for its long association with the Feez family.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16237,"place_ref":601474,"name":"Como","alternate_name":"Barrogill","street_address":"88 Kadumba Street","suburb":"YERONGA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-08-25","description":"Barrogill, a picturesque substantial single-storeyed timber residence, with steeply pitched corrugated iron roofs, appears on the rise of Kadumba Street framed by its large trees. The house is one of a group of three adjacent substantial late nineteenth century timber residences on Kadumba Street screened by a streetscape of mature trees, and contributes to both the streetscape of Kadumba Street and the townscape of Yeronga.
The house comprises a picturesque composition of steep, decorated gables, encircled by verandahs. To the north, the line of the verandah roof is broken by an entry portico with a hipped roof. The residence is lined with deep chamferboard, has sliding sash windows, and sits on a brick base. The verandah has a gently curved corrugated roof, and cast iron valances and balustrades.
The residence exterior includes some fine decorative detailing. The gables have timber cross-braces, scalloped barge-boards and fretwork at the peaks. The roof is separated from the verandah by a stepped cornice with dentils. The entry portico has a pair of timber panelled arches with keystones, surmounted by a cornice with dentils.
The garden contains fine, mature trees. A row of mango trees lines the south western edge of the site; a large camphor laurel is centrally located in the northern yard; several mango trees line the northern boundary, and a tall hoop pine marks the driveway entrance.
In 1993, the house was described in an auction notice as having ... Wide entrance hall. 4 bedrooms. Formal lounge. Dining room with fireplace. Large sitting room. Reading lounge with fireplaces...Attic. High 3.66 metre ceilings. A newspaper article from the same year described a ...front door (with) spectacular stained glass side and fanlights featuring hand-painted birds and butterflies.
","history":"Barrogill, known earlier as Como, was erected in 1889-90 for Brisbane businessman James Walter Hayne, who had acquired the site in October 1889. The architect was Alexander Brown Wilson, and the contractor, accepted in late 1889, was a Mr Peterson, with a tender of £999, the work to be completed by February 1890.
The house was erected during an important phase in the development of Yeronga. The Yeronga pocket, which fronts the Brisbane River on the eastern side of the Long Pocket Reach, had been taken up for farming purposes in the early 1850s. In the mid-1860s, part of portion 7 (the Kadumba Street area) was subdivided into large residential allotments fronting the river, but in the 1880s, the area suddenly became a fashionable suburban address. The impetus for successful Brisbane businessmen, lawyers, politicians, and civil servants to establish large residences on the river at Yeronga, came with the construction of the South Brisbane rail line from Corinda to Stanley Street, which opened in 1884 and followed Fairfield Road for much of the way.
The majority of fine 1880s and 1890s houses erected in the Yeronga area were built from 1885, following the opening of Yeronga Station that year. Only a few of these residences survive to illustrate the late 19th century development of Yeronga as a middle-class commuter suburb. Amongst those remaining are Como (1889-90) and solicitor Adolph Feez's home Astolat (c1890), which occupy adjacent sites on the southern side of Kadumba Street; Rhyndarra (1889) [600360] at the end of Kadumba Street; and Avoca (c1880s) in nearby Feez Street.
Yeronga-Lea (c1883), the earliest of the large homes erected in the area, no longer survives. The residence of newspaperman and politician Charles Hardie Buzacott, and of Premier TJ Byrnes in the late 1880s and 1890s, Yeronga-Lea was located on the riverbank, on about 9½ acres of land adjoining the southern boundary of what became the Hayne property. Reputedly, the suburb derives its name from this house. In 1885 the Railway Department named the local station after Mr Buzacott's home, and by January 1886, local residents universally referred to the area as Yeronga, distinguishing themselves from the more generic term of Boggo, the early name for the whole of the district between Clarence Corner and Oxley. Kadumba, erected c1885 for the Grimes family, which had owned farming land at Fairfield/Yeronga/Yeerongpilly since the 1870s, is no longer extant, its name perpetuated in one of the suburb's principal streets.
AB Wilson, the designer of Como, was a highly respected Brisbane architect who had developed a substantial practice by the late 1880s. His domestic work included Kinauld (600225) in Highgate Hill, erected in the late 1880s, and Home (600242), the landmark house in Leopard Street at Kangaroo Point, built for the Lamb family in 1902. Wilson also designed the Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church (601219) in 1885 and additions to the Ann Street Presbyterian Church (600071) in 1897. His commercial architecture included The Plough Inn (600294) at South Brisbane, constructed in 1885.
JW Hayne, for whom Como was commissioned, was born in England in 1852 and emigrated to Queensland in 1864 with his parents, who settled in Ipswich. In 1877 he moved to Brisbane and entered the ironmongery firm of Perry Brothers, working his way up to chief clerk and accountant. In 1885 he left Perry Brothers and established a house and land agency in Brisbane, and in the 1890s, entered the boot trade. From at least 1909 until c1920, he was the Queensland representative of the Sydney Morning Herald and Sydney Mail.
At the time his new home was being constructed at Yeronga in 1889-90, Hayne was auditor for the South Brisbane Municipal Council, and secretary of various public companies. He resided at Yeronga with his wife and three daughters only until the late 1890s, but appears to have retained Como until 1915. Reputedly, JW Hayne and his neighbour, Adolph Feez, kept on their properties the kennels for the Brisbane Hunt Club, which flourished in Yeronga in the late 1880s and 1890s.
Thomas Lahey, of sawmillers and timber merchants Lahey Brothers & Nicklin, occupied Como from c1901-c1907. David Cannon, a western Queensland station owner, hotel proprietor and former Longreach and Barcoo shire councillor, 'retired' to Como in 1912, and in February 1915, the title to the Yeronga property was transferred to Margaret Cannon, his wife. Mrs Cannon died in 1923, following which the property passed to the Union Trustee Company of Australia Ltd. In 1925, Como was occupied by another semi-retired western Queensland grazier, Thomas Purcell of Galway Downs near Windorah, and in 1933 the title to the property was transferred to his widow, Subyna Purcell. Mrs Purcell had left Como by that stage, and from 1932 to 1935 the house was occupied by William E Gardner. In 1954 the property was acquired by Emily Perla Brown, and transferred the same year to Donald and Elsie Rosie. The Rosies renamed the house Barrogill, after a castle in Scotland, and in 1958 subdivided the land into five allotments. In 1968 a two-bedroomed, self-contained annex to the house was constructed, to plans drawn by Bligh Jessop Bretnall, architects. The house was retained by the Rosie family until 1993.
","criteria":"Barrogill survives as an important illustration of the late 19th century transformation of Yeronga from small farming community to prestigious residential commuter suburb. From a broader perspective, it is important in illustrating the effect that access to rail transport in the late 19th century had on Brisbane's urban environment, creating in the 1870s and 1880s a string of 'outer' suburbs along the new railway lines into the capital. The place also illustrates the nature of Queensland's first generation of suburban rail commuters - principally the affluent middle-class. With the construction of this and other houses of similar status in the area in the late 19th century (including adjacent Astolat [601473]), the tone of the suburb as a quiet, middle-class residential retreat was established, and sustained into the second half of the 20th century.
|Barrogill is a substantial picturesque timber residence set in a fine garden of mature trees, which appears on the rise of Kadumba Street framed by its large trees.
The house is an excellent and substantially intact example of the domestic work of important Brisbane architect AB Wilson.
|As the most visible of a group of substantial late 19th and early 20th century timber residences on Kadumba Street, the building and grounds contribute significantly to the streetscape of Kadumba Street and the townscape of Yeronga.
|The house is an excellent and substantially intact example of the domestic work of important Brisbane architect AB Wilson.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16239,"place_ref":601476,"name":"East Brisbane State School","alternate_name":"Brisbane East State School","street_address":"90 Wellington Road","suburb":"EAST BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-11-06","description":"East Brisbane State School stands on a large, prominent site in East Brisbane, approximately 2km southeast of Brisbane CBD. The rectangular site is bounded on its east by Wellington Road, to which the school fronts, on its south by Stanley Street, north by Vulture Street, and west by the Brisbane Cricket Ground. Parts of the cricket stadium overhang and stand in the school grounds within easements.
\nStanding at the main front entrance of the school is Block A (1899-1900, extended 1939), a large brick classroom building, U-shaped around a central open area, the Former Parade Ground (1900). Standing southwest of Block A in the site’s southwestern corner is the Former Gymnasium (1907), a small, single-storey, timber building.
\nThe school grounds include six mature fig trees (Ficus sp. likely F. microcarpa) lining the south and east boundaries, remnants of a more extensive planting scheme (by 1946) that has been reduced over time.
\nFeatures of East Brisbane State School of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of East Brisbane State School not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nBlock A (1899-1900, extended/remodelled 1939)
\nBlock A comprises three connected wings forming a symmetrical U-shape around the Former Parade Ground. It is highly intact, retaining original fabric (1899/1900) and fabric from its extension/remodelling (1939).
\nThe building faces east to Wellington Road and is highset to form an open understorey play area. The north and south wings are single-storey and the connecting centre wing is two-storey. The building is face brick with gable and hip roofs clad with corrugated metal sheets. Verandahs run along the long sides of the wings and return across the east side of the side wings, providing access to the classrooms. Attached to the centre of the verandahs of the side wings facing the Former Parade Ground are small face brick blocks – former teacher’s rooms or hatrooms – with gable roofs. Projecting forward from the centre of the front of the central wing is a three-storey, square tower with pyramidal roof forming the main entrance and attached to it on one side is a round belltower with cupola roof.
\nThe building comprises two initial sections (1899 and 1900) that have been modified and extended (1939). Fabric dating after this is not of state level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of Block A of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nUnderstorey
\nVerandahs
\nTeacher’s Rooms (1899, 1900, and 1939)
\nCentral Tower
\nMain Hall
\nClassroom Wings
\nFeatures of Block A not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nUnderstorey
\nVerandahs
\nTeacher’s Rooms
\nMain Hall
\nClassroom Wings
\nFormer Parade Ground (1900)
\nThe Former Parade Ground is an open, flat forecourt east of Block A. It forms the main entrance to the school. It has been re-landscaped with modern materials but retains its original size and remains an open outdoor space.
\nFeatures of the Former Parade Ground of state level cultural heritage significance include its:
\nFeatures of the Former Parade Ground not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nViews to Block A from along Stanley Street and Wellington Road
\nViews of state level cultural heritage significance at the place include:
\nFormer Gymnasium (1907, and alterations for woodworking classrooms 1951)
\nThe Former Gymnasium is a small, rectangular, timber-framed building. Purpose-built as a school gymnasium, it is highly intact, retaining a substantial amount of 1907 fabric, as well as minor window additions from its 1951 conversion to woodworking classrooms.
\nIn 2023 it comprises a single large room used as an assembly hall with a raised stage at one end.
\nFeatures of the Former Gymnasium of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\n1907 Fabric
\nEarly alterations for improved lighting and ventilation
\nFeatures of the Gymnasium not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nTrees within Grounds
\nTrees within the Grounds of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Grounds not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nEast Brisbane State School opened on 10 July 1899 to meet the educational needs of the rapidly growing suburb of East Brisbane.[1] It retains excellent examples of school designs by the Department of Public Works (DPW), including: Block A (1899-1900, modernised and extended in 1939); and a rare, early Former Gymnasium (1907). These are set in landscaped grounds with play and sports areas, and mature trees.
\nEast Brisbane is part of the traditional lands of the Turrbul and Jagera peoples.[2] Non-Indigenous development commenced in the early 1850s with the establishment of three large residential estates along the southern bank of the Brisbane River between the Shafston Reach and Norman Creek.[3] East Brisbane's first suburban boom occurred in the mid-1880s, when the larger residential estates were subdivided. Further subdivision for houses was spurred by the 1897 introduction of an electric tram line to the suburb, which had more than 1600 residences by 1906. Before there was a school in the vicinity, East Brisbane children attended state schools at South Brisbane, Kangaroo Point, and Dutton Park.[4]
\nThe movement to establish a state school at East Brisbane commenced when a committee was appointed at a public meeting in 1890. A school reserve of 0.7ha was gazetted at the corner of Stanley Street and Wellington Road in 1895, adjacent to an 1885 drill shed reserve (to the north) and an 1895 cricket and sport reserve (to the west). Following appointment of a school building committee in 1897, establishment of the school progressed. Builder John W Young’s tender was accepted on 12 October 1898, and a school building was completed on 22 May 1899 – forming the first section of the building called Block A in 2023. The total cost of this first section was around £1910.[5]
\nThe government planned the building to have a 350 student capacity. The single-storey, face brick school building comprised two wings in an L-shape raised on brick arches to form an open understorey play area. Each wing accommodated one large classroom (50ft by 25ft - 15.2m by 7.6m); with males in one classroom, and females in the other. The ceilings were 14ft (4.3m) high, coved, and lined with diagonal pine boards. The windows were tall and narrow with high sills and the gable roof, which included iron structural members, was clad with corrugated metal sheets and had rooftop ventilators. Wide verandahs along the long sides of each wing provided access to the classrooms and had small central projecting hatrooms or teacher’s rooms. The understorey included ‘lavatories’ (handbasin rooms).[6] By January 1900 the school also had two earth closet toilet blocks near the western (rear) boundary.[7]
\nEast Brisbane State School was officially opened on Saturday 8 July 1899, and enrolments grew rapidly, with students transferring from other schools. Total enrolments in 1899 were 1008, far greater than its capacity. To cope, the understorey was enclosed with corrugated iron sheets to create teaching space, and the nearby military drill shed was also utilised.[8]
\nCommencing April 1900,[9] the building was extended, mirroring the original two wings to form a U-shape around a flat parade ground, and included a grand, three-storey face brick belltower. The building’s interior had rendered and whitewashed brick walls and the rooms were well lighted from high gable windows. Ventilation was via ceiling panels through iron tubing and Boyle’s [rooftop] ventilators.[10] It cost £2285/14s, bringing the total cost of the building so far to £4210, with one sixth of this to be paid for by the community, and was officially opened 13 October 1900. The extension increased the school’s capacity to 730 students. Total enrolments that year were 1277, with an average attendance of 756.[11]
\nThe school building was an ‘Urban Brick School’, a type built in Queensland from 1899 in response to the population explosion accompanying the post-1890s Depression recovery.[12] This type was constructed in prosperous urban or suburban areas with stable or rapidly increasing populations. They were each designed individually by the Department of Public Works (DPW),[13] with variations in style, size, and form, but generally followed the standardised classroom sizes, layouts, and window arrangements, with a focus on providing abundant natural light and ventilation of the classrooms.[14]
\nBy the end of 1905, a ‘very handsome honour board of artistic design’ had been erected by the committee in the school, ‘on which the names of pupils who gain scholarships and of the head boys and girls for each year are to be inscribed’.[15] The board was filled with names by 1914 and a second board was made, which in turn was filled by 1939 and was supplemented by wing panels attached to its side for further space. In 2023 these boards are hung in the main hall of Block A.
\nChanges to the school reserve occurred soon after its opening. The grounds were expanded to provide land for future school buildings in 1904, with the addition of 0.2ha to the north.[16] In 1905 the school building committee requested permission to plant trees along Stanley Street and also noted it ‘should be glad if some provision could be made towards … a gymnasium, as at present [the school has] no facilities for teaching physical culture’.[17]
\nGymnasiums were not typically built at Queensland state schools, and funds for such buildings had to be partially raised by the school and its community. They were designed by the DPW and were shed-like with high, vaulted ceilings and included equipment such as ropes and rings, parallel bars, horizontal and sloping ladders, wooden horses, and mats. Surviving pre-World War II (WWII) gymnasiums in Queensland state schools are extremely rare, with only two known examples.[18]
\nDue to the high cost of a gymnasium, a standard open playshed (not extant) was built first in 1906, in the northwest corner of the extended grounds. As a decision was made that only females could use this playshed, a second playshed was requested for the males. By February 1908, the gymnasium (also referred to as a playshed) was built in the school’s southwest corner, in part using funds the school raised itself. That year Thomas Pye of the Government Architect's Office said the school had ‘the best playshed accommodation in the state’.[19]
\nThe new gymnasium was a single-storey, timber-framed building with a raised timber floor set on low brick stumps. It accommodated a single, large room with a vaulted ceiling. It was fully enclosed by single-skin walls of vertical boards but had large sliding doors in its eastern side. It had a trussed hip roof with a central glazed hip lantern roof, and evenly-spaced banks of tall, narrow, centre-pivot windows in the north and west walls. Due to overcrowding at the school, the gymnasium was also used for classes, and for other community purposes.[20]
\nDuring World War I, East Brisbane State School raised funds from the surrounding community, particularly the parents of its students, to contribute to the Patriotic and Hospital Funds. At the breaking up day ceremony of 1915, a ‘roll of honour’ was unveiled, to list ‘past pupils of the school who had volunteered for the Front’,[21] which hangs in the main hall of Block A in 2023.
\nFrom the 1910s to the 1930s, East Brisbane grew gradually as a residential suburb. By 1909, average attendance at the school was 963, and classes were being held on the open verandahs and under the school. In 1910-11 a separate, single-storey timber Infants School building (not extant) was constructed north of Block A.[22] A contemporary school photograph shows a large fig tree standing in the school grounds on the corner of Wellington Road and Stanley Street and small, evenly-spaced fig trees planted along the Stanley Street boundary.[23] These small trees are considerably larger in a photograph of 1921.[24] By June 1918, enrolment had reached 1402, with an average attendance of about 1200.[25] In 1922, it was reported the school was ‘one of the largest schools in the State’.[26]
\nIn response to continued high enrolments in the interwar period, and changes in classroom standards, Block A was extended, and its older sections were modernised to create more classrooms within the single-classroom wings and improve natural light and ventilation.[27] Designed by the DPW, these changes reflected the evolution in state school design that it had implemented since the construction of Block A in 1899/1900. Prior to 1909, state school classrooms had an equal number of windows on the students’ left and right sides. From 1909, this was changed so that windows were concentrated on one wall only, to permit natural light from the left hand side of the student – the ‘correct’ side for enforced right-handed writing. Classroom sizes were reduced in 1914 to be a standard 21ft (6.4m) wide, accommodate a single class only, and multiple classrooms were separated by folding or fixed partitions.[28]
\nThe alterations to Block A, carried out between 1937 and 1939 and costing approximately £11,230, included extending the north and south wings eastwards by 40ft (12.2m), and adding a second storey to the central wing, accessed via a new stair in the central entrance hall.[29] Partitions were added into the four existing long classrooms (some partitions were folding) and in the new second floor to form a total of 20 classrooms (12 in the central wing, and four in each of the north and south wings) capable of accommodating 1000 students. New doors were added into each new classroom, and old high-level windows were altered, repositioned, and augmented by new windows to create larger areas of windows with lower sills on the students’ left hand side. The timber-framed western verandah and central hall were rebuilt in brick and concrete.[30] Some hatrooms were demolished, new teachers’ rooms were added to the western verandah, and timber verandah stairs were replaced by masonry ones in new locations.[31] The work was officially opened 29 September 1939.[32] Contemporary photographs show the front parade ground included large, brick-edged lawn areas near the building, lattice understorey screens, and circular garden beds with shrubs.[33]
\nLike many Queensland state schools, East Brisbane was affected by WWII. After Japan’s entry into WWII, in January 1942 the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools, and although most reopened 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war’s end.[34] East Brisbane State School resumed in 1942 with only 400 students (roughly half its 1930s enrolment), sharing the grounds until 1945 with Australian military training units, including the Royal Australian Air Force and Army clerks.[35]
\nAfter WWII, enrolments did not recover to pre-war levels due to declining inner-city populations, leaving the second floor of Block A vacant.[36] By 1946, the boundary fig trees were reaching maturity and included newer trees. The 1906 girls’ playshed was removed between by 1949,[37] when the school grounds were extended northwards by 0.6ha (for a total size of 1.5ha), acquiring the remaining drill shed reserve to form a large sport and playing field.[38] In 1950, the Infants School building was also removed from the grounds.[39]
\nIn 1951, a vocational training centre was established at East Brisbane State School, for boys and girls from 15 metropolitan state schools.[40] To accommodate woodworking classrooms, the gymnasium was remodelled by adding new partitions, windows, and doors. The original sliding doors were removed, replaced by French doors, casement windows, and a covered link to a new manual training building adjacent (Block C in 2023).[41]
\nFurther buildings and facilities were added to the school over time, including a highset brick classroom building extending off the rear of Block A (1954, demolished c2001); a swimming pool (1960, extant 2023) with grandstands and dressing shed (by 1966, extant); a small highset timber classroom building northwest of Block A (c1968, demolished c2001); and replacement of the old toilets with a new toilet block (1973, demolished c2001).[42]
\nOther changes have been made to the school grounds. During the 1990s, the school was impacted by the major redevelopment of the adjacent Brisbane Cricket Ground stadium, ‘The Gabba’. In the early 1990s an area of the school grounds was leased to the Brisbane Cricket Ground Trust to construct a light tower for the cricket grounds.[43] By 1997, when the school had 240 pupils, as part of the redevelopment of the stadium the school received $1.6 million in exchange for leases above part of the school grounds to allow the eastern stand to overhang the rear of the school’s grounds.[44] As a result, several school buildings were demolished, and by 2001 a new activities shelter and a toilet block had been constructed under the overhanging east stand, as well as a new building north of Block A. Around 2010, a new resource centre building was built to the west of the swimming pool.[45]
\nPost-WWII, there have been changes to Block A. Around 1961 external enclosed fire stairs were added to the central wing’s rear (west) verandahs (demolished c2001). In the mid-1970s administration was accommodated in the south wing’s classrooms, involving the addition of partitions and suspended ceilings. Enclosures have been made to the understorey, including adding storerooms, and tuckshop (by 1960, later replaced), and removing a teachers’ toilet. Lengths of verandah were enclosed over time. By 1981, classrooms in the north wing had been opened up into a single room by demolishing the 1930s partitions.[46] In the mid-1980s further partitions between classrooms were removed and verandahs enclosed, removing original balustrades. Further rear verandah fire stairs were added to the central wing around 1986. As part of the major redevelopment of the school in 1999, the former parade ground in front of Block A was remodelled to include garden beds, paving, and a curved brick entrance wall with a memorial plaque.[47]
\nChanges have also been made to the former gymnasium over time. The building was remodelled by 1981 to convert it to an assembly hall, which involved removing the partitions from the 1951 woodworking conversion. This reinstated its original large, single-room interior with a raised stage and small wings rooms added at one end. The work also involved extending the roofline on the north and east sides to form a verandah with a raised concrete floor. New French doors were added on these sides, replacing earlier windows and doors.[48]
\nFor almost 125 years East Brisbane State School has been the focus of community interest, with events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment. Beginning with contributing funds to establish the school in 1899, the East Brisbane and surrounding communities have supported the operation of the school through donations, organising and attending fetes, balls, and concerts, and organising and membership of the School Committee (est. 1890), and Parents & Citizens’ Association (est. 1960s), which assisted the school to operate through managing the school tuckshop and uniform shop, fundraising for school supplies, working bees to maintain the school grounds, and arranging student social and educational events.[49] Money raised from functions organised by the community went toward constructing school buildings, providing student sports equipment and learning resources, and annual student trips to Redcliffe on the SS Koopa. Milestones in the school’s history, including its 50th and 100th anniversary, were celebrated by the school with commemorative public events and through memorials built within the school grounds. The school has maintained a collection of its important historical school memorabilia within Block A and school histories were published in 1998 and 1999.[50]
\nIn early 2023, it was announced that East Brisbane State School would be closed at the end of 2025, to facilitate the redevelopment of the Gabba for the Olympic and Paralympic Games being held in Brisbane in 2032.[51] In 2023 the school continues to operate from its original site and retains its Urban Brick School Building (Block A), and Former Gymnasium, set in landscaped grounds with mature shade trees on the school boundaries.[52]
East Brisbane State School (established 1899) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains good, representative examples of government designs, which were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in generous, landscaped grounds with mature trees.
\nBlock A (built 1899 and extended 1900), the first of several Urban Brick School Buildings built in Queensland from 1899, represents a culmination of years of experimentation with natural light, classroom size, and ventilation by its designer, the Department of Public Works (DPW). It also demonstrates the increasing construction of brick school buildings at metropolitan schools in prosperous, developing areas.
\nThe former Gymnasium (1907), the earliest known surviving example of a pre-World War II gymnasium built for a Queensland state school, is important in demonstrating the early emphasis on sport and fitness at Queensland schools, and the early pattern of local communities raising funds to provide sport facilities for its schoolchildren.
\nDesigned by the DPW, the extensions and alterations to Block A (1939), and alterations to the Former Gymnasium (1951), including introduction of folding partitions to create smaller classrooms (Block A), and changes to earlier window and door arrangements to improve natural daylighting and ventilation of the classrooms (both), are good examples of the standard alterations made to older state school buildings to reflect evolving educational philosophies.
\nThe Former Parade Ground (1900) and the provision of outdoor and understorey play areas and mature trees, demonstrate the Queensland Government’s educational philosophies that promoted the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Highly intact, Block A is an outstanding example of an Urban Brick School Building (1899-1900) and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of this class of cultural places through its:
\nThe later complementary modifications and additions (1939) to Block A are important in demonstrating the evolution of state school design with its subsequent standard provision of smaller, single-class classrooms, and increase in classroom light and ventilation, particularly in providing ‘correct’ left hand light. This is demonstrated through Block A’s:
\nEast Brisbane State School is important for its aesthetic significance as it possesses beautiful attributes and landmark qualities, and for its streetscape contribution. These attributes are embodied in Block A’s outstanding quality of design and construction, open space on all its sides, mature boundary trees, and its Former Parade Ground forecourt.
\nHighly intact, Block A’s beautiful attributes are embodied in: the formal composition of its substantial, symmetrical, U-shaped form around an open forecourt; its rectangular wings of classrooms flanked by long, broad verandahs with projecting teacher’s rooms; its central, picturesque belltower; its use of superior quality materials and craftsmanship with decorative treatments such as polychromatic face brickwork, moulded timberwork, and exposed fretwork iron roof structure; and its lofty spacious interiors with abundant natural light and ventilation.
\nThe attractive form of Block A, set back from the street behind its large open forecourt, is conspicuous in its location with significant views of the place obtained from along Wellington Road and Stanley Street.
|East Brisbane State School has a strong and special association with past and present pupils, parents, staff members, and the surrounding community since its establishment in 1899. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Brisbane for almost 125 years, with generations of children taught at the school, and it has served as a venue for social interaction and community focus. Substantial contributions to its operations have been made by its local community, parents, and students through repeated local volunteer action, donations, and the school’s Parents and Citizens Association. This is evocatively demonstrated through the school’s collection of school community objects and memorabilia including: the donated school bell (1910); early framed photographs of teachers; honour boards (1905, 1914 extended 1939, 2000); Roll of Honour (1915); and timber cabinets and their historical contents including trophies, books, and certificates.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16262,"place_ref":601499,"name":"Musgrave House","alternate_name":"Lady Musgrave Sanitorium for Sick Children","street_address":"8 Allpass Parade","suburb":"SHORNCLIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-10-22","description":"Musgrave House is a low set timber building with a hipped, painted corrugated iron roof located on a corner block overlooking Cabbage Tree Creek and the foreshore reserve. The building faces south-east and the large block backs on to the Sandgate Golf Course. The building has a strong symmetry with a centrally located front verandah, central steps and extensions at each end.
Wide eaves overhang the verandah which has a delicately detailed timber valance, dowel balustrades and chamfered timber posts with moulded timber capitals. The verandah has three wide bays with steps centrally located in the middle bay. The wall areas either side of the verandah are clad with vertical tongue-and-groove timber boards and have small sections of exposed timber cross bracing tucked under the eaves. Each contains a double hung timber sash window. The extensions at each end have skillion roofs, are clad with horizontal weatherboards and each has a timber door and set of steps. At the southern corner, the building has sliding, timber framed, multi-paned windows with coloured glass that return around the corner and continue along the western wall. The eastern corner has a timber sill at the same level as the windows but the windows are along the eastern elevation only. The building is set on concrete stumps with timber batten infill.
The verandah is deep, with a tongue-and-groove ceiling and timber cornice. The walls are single skin timber with exposed cross bracing used to decorative purpose, painted in shades of aqua. The floor is covered with a black, bituminous sheet material. Four doorways lead off the verandah, including the entrance door into the central hall. Panelled timber doors with operable glass fanlights are located at each end of the verandah and lead to the former nurses' rooms. These rooms are lined with tongue-and-groove, have remnants of original ventilators and fretwork fanlights over blocked-in doorways that formerly led into the wards. The main entrance of the building is comprised of two timber doors with four upper panels of glass and a long glass fanlight.
The hallway is wide, has a high ceiling with pale yellow painted tongue-and-groove lining. A rendered brick chimney with a decorative cedar mantelpiece is located on the western wall. The large mirror panel of the mantel is decorated with a painting of birds and flowers. Basic timber bookshelves are mounted on the eastern wall in the space formerly occupied by another chimney. Timber, wall-mounted lockers are to be found either side of the wide doorway that leads into the back section of the building.
Panelled timber doors with fretwork fanlights are opposite each other at the back of the hall. They each lead into large rooms, formerly the wards of the sanatorium, now subdivided into four small rooms. These rooms do not have full height partitions and the space of the wards is discernible. The raked ceiling is lined with tongue-and-groove with two horizontal bracing members running across the room at the same level as the top of the walls. Light fittings and switches are suspended from these members. The northern face of the ceiling has a centrally located, timber framed, fixed glass skylight whilst on the western and eastern walls respectively, there are small corrugated fibreglass panels that also let in light. A section of rendered brick provides evidence of the chimney once located in the eastern ward. The chimney remains in the western ward, however, it has been blocked up and there is no fireplace. Evidence of windows is visible along the northern walls of both wards.
The side extensions are accessed via partially enclosed passageways at the back of the building. Between the wards and these passageways are lean-to additions with skillion roofs that each contain a further two rooms. At the western end of the building there is also a timber toilet block with terrazzo floors attached at the northern side of the passageway. The western extension contains four equal sized rooms, with three-quarter height, fibrous-cement partitions and lino floors, the eastern extension is divided into five small rooms. The perimeter walls have multi-paned, coloured glass sliding windows and timber sills with tongue and groove lining below. Many of the rooms are furnished with cast iron beds from the sanatorium. Original doors are located in the wall between the former ward and the eastern extension.
The kitchen and former maids' quarters are located at the end of the hallway in a small building semi-detached from the main building. There is a small north-facing verandah at the back of the kitchen with stairs to the garden that together with an adjacent bedroom forms an extension to the original kitchen. The kitchen building is single skin timber with exposed cross bracing, a hipped corrugated iron roof and a brick chimney on the western wall. The extension is clad with horizontal weatherboards and the verandah has a dowel balustrade and simple valance. The two sash windows have metal window hoods. The kitchen contains an operable, wood burning stove, sink and a large, old, compartmentalised fridge. There is an outdoor laundry located between the kitchen and toilet areas, adjacent to a septic tank.
A corrugated iron shed with lean-to garage and wood-chop area are to be found in the back section of the block. The garden has no mature vegetation.
","history":"Located on a spacious corner block facing Cabbage Tree Creek, Musgrave House is a low set timber building with a high pitched, hipped roof designed by renowned Brisbane architect Richard Gailey. Built in 1884 as a convalescent home for children from the Hospital for Sick Children, Musgrave House dates from the time when Sandgate and Shorncliffe were crowded with boarding houses and convalescent homes. Since 1939, Musgrave House has continuously operated as a boarding house for men.
In it's inception, the Lady Musgrave Sanatorium for Sick Children reflects prominent nineteenth century ideas about health and childhood. Providing health facilities was not a main concern for the colonial government of Queensland, caring for the sick was considered a task for voluntary groups and charitable organisations. The idea of hospitals specifically for children was itself a new idea and had evolved steadily throughout the nineteenth century. Children's hospitals were increasingly established throughout the world in the latter half of the century. The vivid impressions left by a visit to children accommodated in adult wards in Brisbane led Mrs David McConnel to launch the idea of a children's hospital for the colony. Indeed, at this time children under five years of age were denied treatment at the General Hospital. Thus, the Hospital for Sick Children in Brisbane was founded in 1878 and was the second in Australia.
Statistics from the 1860s and 70s show how perilous life was for the children of colonial Queensland. In 1866, the Queensland Registrar-General announced that the infant mortality rate was "out of all proportion great", 49.25% of all deaths in 1863 were of children under the age of five. Half the children born in 1877 died before reaching the age of five. Dysentery, diarrhoea and typhoid were rife, along with many other illnesses unknown to medical practitioners of the time. At the same time, there was growing recognition of childhood as a distinct stage of life and less acceptance of the moralistic view that providing facilities for children encouraged mothers to abdicate their maternal responsibilities.
Such was the prevailing attitude towards children when Lady Lucinda Musgrave became the first patroness of the Hospital for Sick Children. Lady Musgrave was an enthusiastic Patroness, attending monthly Hospital Committee meetings and "doing much by her loving example to interest others". The idea of a sanatorium was proposed in 1883 and she took up the scheme with energy, personally securing the land at Shorncliffe which was given in trust by the government. The choice of the Shorncliffe site for the sanatorium was in keeping with prevailing ideas about health. The widespread acceptance of the miasmic theory of disease meant that fresh air and well ventilated, well lit buildings were considered essential for recuperation and recovery from illness. Bayside suburbs which offered sea bathing and outdoor enjoyment in addition to fresh air, were considered ideal for therapeutic purposes.
The building was completed in 1884 at a cost of £400. The architect was Richard Gailey, the official architect for the Hospital for Sick Children. Gailey designed the original Children's hospital at Bowen Bridge in 1883, charging only half of his commission to support the establishment of the hospital. He went on to design the fever ward in 1884, the morgue in 1885, the Resident Surgeon's quarters in 1889 and the nurse's quarters in 1891. Other buildings in Sandgate designed by Gailey were the original Sandgate Municipal Chambers and Town Hall in Kate St in 1882 (destroyed by fire May 1910) and the second Baptist Church on Flinders Parade in 1887.
It is clear that Gailey had accepted current thinking about hospital design and had adopted the pavilion plan in his design for the main block of the Hospital for Sick Children. Elements of the pavilion plan as it was adapted for the Queensland context are plainly evident in the design of the Lady Musgrave Sanatorium. With it's centrally located entrance hall and wards to either side shaded by a deep verandah, the planning of the sanatorium has strong similarities to timber hospitals constructed throughout Queensland, albeit on a smaller scale. Kitchen and other service areas are located in a separate wing at the back of the building, enabling the wards to be ventilated with windows along two sides.
Although the building was completed in 1884 and the permanent reserve announced in 1885, it did not formally open until 1888. Committee meeting minutes indicate that the sanatorium was in operation by 1887 and that it was the committee's unwillingness to enter into debt that caused the delay in opening. The three years 1884-87 were spent fund raising and organising equipment and furniture for the sanatorium. Lady Musgrave furnished one ward herself and several other ladies "gave most timely gifts of the same kind", personally furnishing and equipping the other ward. Each ward initially accommodated six children in cots and beds.
An article in the Queenslander in May 1888 reporting on the formal opening of the building described it thus:
The building is a handsome and substantial wooden structure ...the entrance to the main portion of the home is from the shore. The centre is appropriated to the reception room, and on either side is a large ward; while the nurses' rooms occupy the ends of the verandah. The verandah, which has wide projecting eaves, formed to give the greatest possible protection from wind and rain, while at the same time affording splendid ventilation, will be used in the summertime as a residence and recreation ground for the children. From the reception-room a corridor runs to the kitchen and servants' rooms and on either side are the pantry, store and bathrooms and wc. There are fireplaces in the wards and the whole establishment is so arranged to afford the utmost comfort and convenience to the little patients and those attached to the institution.
The 1888 Annual Report of the Children's Hospital stated "The rapid improvement of the patients sent down is very marked, showing the institution to be salubrious; and the work being put in hand by the Sandgate Council - viz., forming the Esplanade (now Allpass Parade) in front and perfecting the drainage and levelling the sports ground at the back - will, when completed - make the sanatorium all that can be desired."
The sanatorium was also used as a place of rest and training for nurses from the Children's Hospital and respite for families who had "sickly" children. The yearly report of 1896-97 states that 87 children passed through the sanatorium. In 1923 the Brisbane Courier reports that the sanatorium committee met to discuss the disposal of the Agnes Thorn legacy. "The committee intends to lay out the legacy, which with the Government subsidy totals 450 pounds, in something of a permanent character, such as a memorial to the donor, who was well known to old Sandgate residents." It is unclear whether the plan for a memorial ever eventuated. We can assume, however, that some of the funds went towards extending the building. The Courier reported on a "novelty coin and jazz evening" held in aid of funds for the sanatorium later in 1923. In describing the evening, reference is made to the new wing "beautifully decorated with mauve and biscuit".
In 1920, the number of children passing through had increased to162 over the year. Matron Maude Flewell-Smith became Sister-in-charge of the children's sanatorium in 1921, a role she held until 1927 when she was transferred to Brisbane Hospital's Sandgate convalescent home and became Matron of both institutions. Her daughter, Mrs Win Jackman remembers that during this time there was an enclosed bathing area and shed across the road where her mother took children to swim on a daily basis during the summer months.
There was an on-going relationship between the people of the Sandgate district and the sanatorium. From as early as 1893, local fund raising events took place. Over the years these events included concerts, fish luncheons, dances and euchre parties and several of these were organised by local children. The children's sanatorium enjoyed a special relationship with members of the Toowong branch of the Ministering Children's League who organised a Christmas party at the sanatorium for over twenty years providing toys, Santa Claus and decorations which included the tradition of transforming one of the trees in the garden into a gift-laden Christmas tree.
In 1924, the Brisbane Hospital Board had taken over control of the Children's Hospital and in 1927, the training schools of both hospitals were amalgamated. This signalled the beginnings of changes in hospital administration and practices that would lead to the closure of the sanatorium by the Hospital Board in 1931. Children were then transferred to Brisbane Hospital's convalescent home located nearby in Flinders Parade which by this stage accommodated women only.
It appears the building remained vacant for several years, although local residents recall "state children" living there. Notification of land for sale by auction as a Perpetual Town Lease appeared on the 16 November 1939. James Brown took up the lease in perpetuity from the first of April 1940 at a yearly rent of five pounds, five shillings. The area of one rood ten perches was considerably smaller than the 2 roods 16 perches of the original Government reserve.
Sandgate District Historical Society's journal By the Seaside tells that James Brown started an old men's home and rental was five shillings per week, meals not included. In order to accommodate the tenants, Mr Brown carried out work subdividing the rooms. In 1946 the lease was transferred to William Austin Fitzgerald and Mary Violet Fitzgerald on 28 March. Fitzgerald was the local stationmaster and used Musgrave House as accommodation for railway workers. Mrs Norma Turbet took over the lease in September 1960, eventually purchased the land at a cost of $3000 in 1980 and then sold the property in August 1999.
","criteria":"Musgrave House is important in demonstrating the development of health services, specifically children's health services, in Queensland. The building demonstrates the growth of the Sandgate-Shorncliffe area as a popular nineteenth century watering place and the custom of going to the seaside for recuperation following illness. As a convalescent home for the children's hospital, Musgrave House is significant in demonstrating the establishment and development of health services by volunteer effort in early Queensland. It's subsequent use as a boarding house demonstrates the continuing appeal of Sandgate as a location for boarding houses and convalescent homes.
|Musgrave House has architectural and aesthetic significance as an example of the small scale work of architect Richard Gailey and in demonstrating the acceptance of the pavilion plan in hospital design in the 1870s and 80s, evident in the internal volumes and planning.
|The building's aesthetic qualities are exemplified by the high pitched roof, exposed cross bracing and carefully detailed verandah.
|Musgrave House has special associations with the Sandgate and Shorncliffe communities. For fifty years local people undertook fund-raising activities in aid of the sanatorium and visiting children and their families were welcomed as part of the wider community of the district.
|Musgrave House has a special association with the activities of prominent women of colonial Queensland. The Sanatorium was named for Lady Lucinda Musgrave, wife of Sir Anthony Musgrave, Governor of Queensland 1883-88 and first Patroness of the Hospital for Sick Children. There is also a close association with Mrs David McConnel, founder and Chair of the Committee of the Hospital Sick Children who was prominent in many aspects of life in early Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16269,"place_ref":601506,"name":"St John's Wood and Service Wing","alternate_name":"Granite House | St Johns Wood","street_address":"31-33 Piddington Street","suburb":"ASHGROVE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-06-23","description":"St John’s Wood and Service Wing comprises a lowset, single storey, masonry main house (c1865) and a lowset, single storey, brick and timber-framed service wing (c1870s, with pre-1895 addition) located in the residential pocket of St John’s Wood, a locality in the Brisbane suburb of Ashgrove. The service wing is free-standing from the main house through the demolition of the former linking rooms, and both structures function as separate residences.
\nThe main house, St John’s Wood (31 Piddington Street), faces east and stands on a 1432m2 lot at the highest point in the centre of a bend in Enoggera Creek. Access to the house is via Piddington Street to the south, and it is surrounded by residential properties to the east, north and west.
\nThe Service Wing (33 Piddington Street) stands to the west of St John’s Wood on an adjacent 933m2 lot. It now forms part of a larger house, due to extensions constructed in 1976-77.
\nBoth St John’s Wood and the Service Wing are set back from Piddington Street and fronted by gardens.
\nSt John’s Wood (c1865)
\nSt John's Wood comprises a symmetrical, U-shaped plan of seven rooms around a large ballroom. The house is encircled by verandahs, with doors opening onto the verandahs from all major rooms. From the main entrance door in the centre of the east facade, an entrance hall leads through an arched opening into the ballroom. On either side of the entrance hall are a living room (south) and a bedroom (north). Along the south side of the house are the dining room and the kitchen. Along the north side of the house are two more rooms, with a bathroom addition inserted into the large central room.
\nThe house features high-quality and finely-detailed materials and joinery.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance include: concrete verandah floors; lattice screens fixed to verandah posts; swimming pool between the north verandah space and northern boundary; ensuite addition between the northeastern verandah space and northeastern boundary; modern guttering and downpipes; kitchen and bathroom interiors; cork flooring; cellar below the ballroom; and all other buildings and structures.
\nSt John’s Wood garden
\nWithin the gardens of St John’s Wood are mature plantings, including a rare and very old specimen of camellia tree (Camellia japonica Anemonifloria), located near the southeast corner of the house.
\nService Wing (c1870s, with pre-1895 extension)
\nThe Service Wing forms the east end of the residence at 33 Piddington Street. It comprises two main rooms linked by enclosed verandahs on the north and south sides. It is timber-framed, with a thick brick wall and chimney forming the east end wall. The broken-back gable roof is clad in corrugated metal sheeting.
\nThe south verandah contains the main entrance to the residence and a store room at its east end. The east room (c1870s, former laundry) is used as a living room and features a fireplace in the brick east wall. The west room (pre-1895, former servants’ bedroom) is used as a dining room. The north verandah is divided by a timber partition aligned with the wall separating the living and dining rooms.
\nThe Service Wing bears evidence of changes over time, due to the variety of materials and traces of additions and alterations. It is likely that original or early fabric is concealed beneath later wall and ceiling linings. It is possible that some fabric and/or joinery has been recycled from the demolition of other rooms of the wing.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance include: concrete floor stumps; modern guttering and downpipes; louvres and external cladding to the north verandah; plaster walls and ceilings; timber mantelpiece and hearth floor tiles in the living room; flat internal wall linings with cover strips; modern plasterboard wall and ceiling linings; and modern doors.
","history":"St John's Wood, is a single storey villa residence, primarily built of local granite. It was constructed in the mid-1860s for Daniel Rowntree Somerset in the locality of St John’s Wood; part of the Brisbane suburb of Ashgrove, located approximately 6km northwest of the Brisbane CBD. In the 1870s, it was owned by Justice George Rogers (GR) Harding, who extended the house and grounds. Since the early 20th century, it has changed ownership a number of times and in 2018 remains a private residence in a garden setting.
\nOn a separate adjacent land parcel to the west of St John’s Wood, stands a surviving portion of its Service Wing (c 1870s, built in two stages) which now forms part of a 1970s residence.
\nBrisbane, the traditional country of the Yuggera and Turrbal people, was progressively surveyed and offered for private sale from 1842. Early occupation was largely focussed on town land on opposite sides of the river at North Brisbane and South Brisbane, while suburban areas developed more slowly. [1]
\nFrom at least the 1850s, the land on which St John’s Wood is built was part of a large pastoral lease holding: The Gap Station. In August 1865, part of the land, Portions 164 and 165 comprising just under 82 acres (33ha), was purchased by Daniel Rowntree Somerset, Chief Clerk of Customs and Shipping Master of the Port of Brisbane.[2] In September 1867, he acquired the adjoining property to the west, Portion 381, comprising 15 acres (6ha). These three land parcels formed the core of his St John’s Wood estate. [3]
\nThe first half of the 1860s was a period of strong growth for Brisbane in the newly established colony of Queensland. Immigration boosted the population dramatically (more than doubling between 1861 and 1864 to over 12,000) and many substantial public and private buildings were constructed during this time. Brisbane’s residential dwellings co-existed with industrial activity; characterised by congestion, noise, and poor sanitation.[4] During this period ‘villa estates’, located in the suburban periphery in then semi-rural settings, on elevated locations such as along ridgelines, some with river frontages, became an increasingly popular type of dwelling for Brisbane’s more affluent residents. This demographic included high ranking public servants, professionals and successful business people. The preference for residential villa estates by the well-to-do was an international development pattern during the Victorian-era. Key elements of villa estates included large and comfortable houses, associated outbuildings such as servant’s quarters and stabling, expansive garden settings, and a good road to town. [5]
\nIn March 1865, the Brisbane Courier noted, ‘substantial brick villas, instead of wooden houses are on the increase’. A later article in September stated, ‘numerous villa residences have been erected during the past 12 months in the suburbs of the town…No greater proof of the prosperity of a city as a whole can be afforded than that derived from the disposition of its citizens to plant and build on its' environs, and to make it their home socially as well as professionally…Scarcely a day passes but our advertising columns invite tenders for the erection of villa residences…’. In 2018, villas from this era are rare, and of the nine identified 1860s stone residences on state and local heritage registers in Brisbane, only four have retained their service wings. [6]
\nDaniel Somerset initiated the construction of a residence in 1865, in the centre of a pocket of land within a loop of Enoggera Creek. No designer or builder of the residence have been conclusively identified.[7] St John’s Wood, a single storey building with a formal ‘u-shaped’ symmetrical plan of seven rooms on an east-west axis with surrounding verandahs, features substantial walls constructed of Enoggera granite, quarried locally, with internal non-loadbearing walls of rendered brick. The house was located on the highest point of the land, affording views to and from the residence. Daniel Somerset and his wife Dora, occupied the house for only a short time. Dora Somerset died in February 1867. Her death notice indicated that the residence was known by this time as ‘St. John’s Wood’. The following month Daniel Somerset advertised the property for sale or let, describing the residence as ‘a substantial and well-finished Stone Dwelling House of eight rooms, and the necessary outbuildings, all in a state of thorough repair, and suitable for a respectable family’. The house had seven rooms and presumably the eighth was a kitchen. [8] Somerset remained at St John’s Wood until May 1868 when his eldest daughter Anna was married there. Shortly after, in June 1868, the house was leased to Justice George Rogers Harding. The lease agreement stipulated that no building work was to be done to the property. A photograph, possibly dating to 1868, shows a structure to the west of the house; the extent and function of which is not visible. [9]
\nGeorge Rogers Harding was born in 1838 at Ash Priors near Taunton, Somerset, England and undertook his legal training prior to immigrating to Australia. Harding and his wife Emily (nee Morris) arrived in Brisbane in 1866 with their three daughters and servant. Harding was admitted to the Bar shortly after arrival, as the first equity counsel in the colony. In July 1879 he became Senior Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland. Over the course of his career, Harding was respected for his ‘scrupulously fair’ judgements, except when his harsh sentences for unionists convicted during the conspiracy trial after the 1891 shearer’s strike made him unpopular. Author of six legal books and a noted bibliophile, Harding played a large part in the development of the Supreme Court’s library. [10]
\nIn January 1874, Harding became the owner of the property; his wife had delivered their ninth child in December 1873. This was six months prior to the expiration of his lease. The Harding family resided at St John’s Wood for another two decades. It was in 1874 that Ash-grove, the name of the future suburb, first appears as Harding’s address in the Post Office Directory. A keen property speculator, over time Harding acquired land from Glenquarie Place to Ashgrove Avenue on both sides of Waterworks Road. Harding donated two acres (0.81 hectares) of land on Waterworks Rd in 1876 to establish the Ashgrove State School [QHR 650058]. [11]
\nIn June 1877 architect Richard Gailey called tenders for alterations and additions to Harding’s residence. Part of the additions are thought to have included a ballroom, created by infilling the space between the two wings of the house, including the installation of a roof lantern, and the replacement of the verandah roof and the pediment over the front entrance. The need for extra space at St John’s Wood was influenced by the size of the Harding family; they had five children when their lease began, and 11 by mid-1877 when extensions were undertaken. To the north of the main house, another large 10 room cedar house was constructed, with a shingled roof. The designer and date of construction of this building is unknown; the first evidence of its existence is a 1880s photograph of St John’s Wood. [12]
\nIt is likely that the first phase of the service wing comprising two rooms (kitchen and laundry) either side of a brick chimney, was built in the 1870s, to the west of St John’s Wood. This wing was later extended to provide two servant’s bedrooms; referred to in the 1895 sale of the property. [13]
\nOver the course of the Harding family’s occupancy other improvements were made including an access road to the property and stabling. Part of the estate, on the other side of Waterworks Road, near the present Orchard Avenue, was the site of a citrus orchard. In 1877 Harding advertised for sale by auction the ‘Ashgrove Orangery’, a 37 ½ acre (15.18 ha) orchard featuring 900 citrus trees ‘just coming into fruit’. [14]
\nSt John’s Wood became renowned for its gatherings, with Harding ‘having taken a leading part in the social life of Brisbane’. [15] Events were often reported in the social columns of Brisbane’s newspapers and according to Sir Charles Lilley, the house was ‘always a popular place with the younger folk in the ordinary rounds of social entertainment’. The marriages of daughter Flora to Ronald McDougall, (son of the original owner of the land at St John’s Wood), in January 1866 and her sister Ada to Barrister W F Wilson (son of The Hon Walter Horatio Wilson MLC) in December 1886, were both celebrated with wedding receptions at home, with the ballroom used as a formal dining area; attended by the social elite of Brisbane including the Premier and Mrs SW Griffith. [16]
\nMrs Emily Harding died in May 1889, and Justice Harding remarried in December that year. Social events continued to be held at St John’s Wood, including an ‘At Home’ in 1892, when the ‘superb camellias’ growing in the garden were mentioned in a news article. [17]
\nGeorge Harding died in August 1895 in his chambers at the Supreme Court in Brisbane. He died intestate and had amassed considerable debt through his property speculation. It appears the Harding family were forced to leave St John’s Wood. In the months after his death, the household furniture and effects of St John’s Wood were sold off, ‘the result of good taste and the accumulation of a lifetime’. An auction catalogue of Harding’s effects described St John’s Wood as containing a drawing room, dining room, large hall, smaller hall, library, ‘best’ bedroom, dressing room, bachelor’s room, seven other bedrooms, pantry, lumber room, two servants rooms, kitchen, laundry and stables. This extensive list suggests the adjacent cedar house and service wing were included in this description. Much of Harding’s extensive personal library was acquired by the Public Library (State Library of Queensland) including his handwritten catalogue. [18]
\nSubsequent to Harding’s death, St John’s Wood was advertised to let in June 1896, promoted as ‘one of the most complete and best appointed properties in the colony’. In 1898 ownership of the land passed from administrators of Harding’s estate, the Union Trustee Company of Australia, to the Queensland National Bank. [19]
\nLittle is known about the occupancy of the place during the early 20th Century. Post Office Directories record James Pitkeathly at St John’s Wood from 1906 to 1910-11; operating a dairy. Francis Michael Anglim, who became owner of the property in 1917, was a thoroughbred horse breeder. [20]
\nIn the 1920s, Ashgrove underwent rapid development. Until this time, the area was still sparsely developed but the extension of the tramline in 1924 led to subdivisions of large landholdings for housing. This included Glen Lyon Gardens, Oakleigh and Graham estates, and St John’s Wood. St John’s Wood was advertised by Anglim as a housing estate from 1924, ‘good enough for His Majesty the King’, and was promoted as the Switzerland of Queensland. With 244 lots subdivided by 1926, the area surrounding St John’s Wood was reduced to just over 1.25 acres (0.51 ha). The cedar house adjacent to the main house was relocated to a new site in nearby Buckingham Street in 1926 and was destroyed by fire before it was fully established on the new site. A tennis court was then built on its site adjacent to St John’s Wood. [21]
\nFrom August 1927, Anglim promoted a further subdivision sale which he named Royal Park Estate and St John’s Wood Extension. It was during this time that Anglim leased St John’s Wood to the Kennedy family. Local girl Nancy Winn worked as a servant (1929-1931) and later recalled preparing meals in the kitchen, and serving them in the dining area at the western end of the ballroom. Washing-up was done in the scullery to the side of the kitchen. The weekly laundry was done in the large boiler and rinsed in tubs, with water on tap from tanks on the south side of the laundry. The yardman cut wood for the kitchen and the laundry. Washing was hung out to dry on lines on the north side of the service wing and ironed in the kitchen. Anglim died in mid-1931 and the Kennedys left. His estate, including the contents of St John’s Wood was offered for sale in April 1932, followed by the sale of 43 allotments in the St John’s Wood estate. [22]
\nIn 1934, the property was transferred to grazier Edward Albert Hawkins, who leased the house and the service wing separately. Hawkins built a new kitchen, bathroom and laundry onto the side verandah of St John’s Wood and a new kitchen and laundry on the southwest corner of the service wing in 1935 - leaving the old kitchen untouched. The service wing had been allowed to decay and by 1937 was described as being old and derelict by tenant Betty Daniell. In October 1936, Hawkins relocated the old timber West End State School building onto the property, standing to the north of the St John’s Wood for use as a community hall (a private home in 2018). In the late 1930s, St John’s Wood was converted into two flats, both accessible from the central ‘ballroom’. [23]
\nAlterations to the service wing during the 1940s included upgrading the interior and constructing a lean-to garage on the western corner. The laundry was converted to a living room. Around 1949, the original kitchen was demolished, separating the service wing from the main house by removing the structure beyond the kitchen brick chimney wall face. [24]
\nEdward Hawkins died in 1956 and the property was transferred to his nephew Mervyn Hawkins. In 1958 the lot was further subdivided, which reoriented St John’s Wood frontage and access from Laird St to Piddington St (previously King Street – renamed in 1939). The subdivision led to the removal of all existing vegetation along Laird Street and the removal of the driveway. It created separate allotments for the service wing and the old school building. When Jules Guerassimoff purchased St John’s Wood in 1968, the verandah had been partially enclosed and the former ballroom was in use as a workshop. During his ownership some restoration work occurred at the house, which included returning the place to a single residence. He installed a small cellar in the southwestern corner of the ballroom. Eric and Katherine Victor purchased St John’s Wood in 1987 and have maintained and conserved the property as responsible custodians; including a new iron roof, internal repairs to the ballroom ceilings, and sympathetic additions to the site. [25]
\nThe service wing was sold to George and Gertrude Smith in 1958, who leased the property until 1968, when Morris and Julia Moorhouse purchased it. After considering its poor condition, the service wing was converted into a house. This included: the retention of two original rooms as a living room (c1870s laundry, with a brick chimney and wall) and a dining room (pre-1895 servant’s bedroom); retention of the enclosed verandahs on the north and south sides; demolition of the western servant’s bedroom; and the construction of a two storey, brick and timber extension to the south and west sides. [27]
\nIn 2018, a mature camellia in the garden on the south eastern side of St John’s Wood, was identified by expert Dr Stephen Utick as a Camellia japonica of an estimated age in excess of 140 years. Dr Utick indicated that it is a cultivar ‘Anemoniflora’, thought to have been propagated at Macarthur’s Nursery, Camden Park, and available from the Darling Nursery, later Shepherd’s, in colonial NSW as early as 1851. [26]
\nIn 2018, St John’s Wood and its Service Wing remain private homes under separate ownership. [28]
","criteria":"St John’s Wood (c.1865) and its Service Wing (c.1870s, built in two stages) are important in demonstrating the pattern of residential development in mid-19th century Queensland where substantial villa residences were built on elevated sites in the semi-rural fringes of urban centres. Built in the 1860s and 1870s, St John’s Wood and Service Wing is an early, rare, and representative example of this pattern.
|St John's Wood and its Service Wing is a rare surviving intact example of a 1860s stone villa residence in Brisbane.
|An early and rare example of its type, St John’s Wood and Service Wing is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a mid-19th century villa residence in Queensland.
\nThe principal characteristics of this type include; a substantial villa in a prominent and elevated location; landscaped grounds of mature trees, lawns, and gardens; a formal floor plan layout with generous principal rooms, secondary rooms, with decorative detailing and finishes of high-quality design and execution. Its associated utilitarian Service Wing is comparatively modest.
|St John’s Wood has beautiful attributes due to its elegant symmetrical composition and high quality materials, details and finishes. Highly intact, it features Enoggera granite walls, cedar joinery, beech floors, pressed metal ceilings, a large roof lantern over the ballroom, and ornate marble fireplaces to its principal rooms.
\nThe established grounds provide an attractive garden setting which includes an early camellia cultivar.
|St John’s Wood has a special association with Justice George Rogers Harding, Senior Puisne Judge of the Queensland Supreme Court (1879 – 1895), as his place of residence for 27 years from 1868 until his death in 1895.
\nJudge Harding, a noted bibliophile, contributed to the development of Queensland’s Supreme Court Library. His substantial personal library, collected at St John’s Wood, augments the State Library of Queensland’s collection. Harding authored six books relating to aspects of Queensland law, and is a person of importance to Queensland history.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16274,"place_ref":601511,"name":"Brisbane City Council Carpark","alternate_name":"Wickham Terrace Carpark","street_address":"136 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-01-13","description":"The Brisbane City Council Carpark is a multi-storeyed reinforced concrete structure located on a steeply sloping site at the edge of the Central Business District. Occupying an elevated position between Wickham Terrace and Turbot Streets the building overlooks the Central Railway Station [600073] to which it is connected by a tunnel.
The entire structure , which has gently sloping floors, is a ramp which facilitates movement by cars upwards through the building. It originally consisted of seven levels at the Edward Street end and eight levels at the opposite end. Two more floors have been added to the top of the building. Due to the sloping site three floors are below the level of Wickham Terrace. Entry to the building is at the lowest level from Turbot Street. The main exit ramp, an addition, is roofed and leads to either Turbot Street or Wickham Terrace. The original entrance and exit ramps from Wickham Terrace remain but appear to be infrequently used.
An open structure, the carpark consists primarily of a grid of rectangular concrete columns with flared tops supporting waffle slabs which form the floors. Precast concrete panels with an exposed aggregate finish form the balustrades on the Turbot Street and Wickham Terrace elevations. Balustrading elsewhere consists of painted square sectioned steel posts attached to the outside face of the building which support steel pipe handrails. Horizontal steel rods secured with steel springs have been added as supplementary balustrading. The original security screen on the Wickham Terrace elevation is a series of vertical steel rods fixed to the floor slabs with springs.
Attached to the main structure near the Edward Street and Wickham Terrace corner is a lift tower and staircase. This vertical service structure incorporates rooms on a number of levels which were originally used for such purposes as kiosk, office and public toilets. It is connected at the lowest level to the tunnel, now lined with ceramic tiles, which links the carpark to the Central Railway Station [600073] and Anzac Square [600062]. The lift tower is clad with a concrete curtain wall decorated by a relief pattern. This concrete relief pattern consists of recessed abstract shapes laid out in a repetitive grid. The staircase, which juts out beyond the lift tower, is a prominent feature with sculptural supports and cantilevered semicircular landings. The staircase has a steel rod and pipe balustrade. The floor of the lift foyer and the staircase is tiled in green and white mosaic tiles.
Dominating the eastern end of the building is a dramatic semicircular ramp which is used by cars exiting the building. A concrete staircase, similar in style to the original stair on the western end now protrudes from the north east corner. A freestanding circular room, which originally acted as the main control point, is located between the two ramps from Wickham Street.
Concrete finishes throughout the building were originally off-form, an unrendered surface where the impressions left by the formwork provide decorative effect. Parts of the building have subsequently been painted. New galvanised steel balustrading and security grilles have been installed.
","history":"A multi-storeyed concrete structure , the Brisbane City Council Carpark was designed by James Birrell, the City Architect for the Brisbane City Council, and constructed during 1959 and 1960 by Theiss Brothers. The erection time for the complex was 14 months, at a cost of £535 000. It was the first parking station to be constructed by the Brisbane City Council and one of the first within the city area. The carpark was built on a site which formerly housed a Red Cross workshop and garages.
Car ownership in Australia increased dramatically in the 1950s. In the ten years to 1962, statistics show an increase of from one car per nine people to one car per three and a half, or per family. Prior to 1960, carpark requirements had mostly been met by metered parking in the streets. Funds from parking meters were directed towards the construction costs of the new carpark.
James Birrell was appointed Architect in charge of the Brisbane City Council Architectural Department at the age of 27 years and in this capacity oversaw more than 150 projects between 1955 and 1961. Preliminary sketches of the carpark project were published in the journal Architecture and Arts in January 1958 and revised versions of the design subsequently appeared in other architectural journals. The carpark was Birrell's largest, and one of his last, projects for the Brisbane City Council. It was one of the first major off-form concrete structures in Brisbane. Other buildings designed by Birrell for the Brisbane City Council included libraries at Annerley (1956-57), Chermside (1957-58) and Toowong (1959-60), and swimming pools including Toowong Swimming Pool (1957-59) and the Centenary Swimming Pool (1959) [601240] in Spring Hill. Birrell was appointed Architect to the University of Queensland from 1961-66, overseeing the university's second major phase of construction development. His most notable buildings from this period include Union College, the JD Story Administration Building, Staff House and the Agriculture and Entomology Building. In 1966 he entered private practice.
Theiss Brothers, the builders for the project, were a construction firm which had previously been known for building tunnels in the Snowy Mountains. A vitrolite lined concrete tunnel connected the carpark with the Central Railway Station [600073]. Structural design was carried out by the engineers Macdonald Wagner and Priddle. The concrete relief which decorates the lift tower at the southern end of the carpark was designed by Jim Meldrum.
Two more floors were later added to the top of the building to increase the capacity of the carpark. The height of the semicircular ramp was also increased to provide access to the additional floors. The original entry arrangements were altered to provide access from Turbot Street, with detail drawings of this dated 1975, and a new staircase was added to the north east corner of the building in 1992. Sections of the off-form concrete have been painted.
","criteria":"The Brisbane City Council Carpark, Wickham Terrace, is an important example of a late 1950s interpretation of the functionalist idiom in a carpark design.
The carpark is a powerful symbol of modernity and change. The prominence of the building and its assertive architectural style demonstrate the increased visibility and importance of the car in Australian culture during the 1950s.
|Under the direction of City Architect James Birrell, the carpark contributed to the tradition of high quality civic architecture established by the Brisbane City Council. Birrell, a leading modernist architect of the 1950s and 1960s, was responsible for many designs during his term of employment with the council. The carpark, his last major work for the council, is a significant example of his work.
|The building, through its dramatic sculptural forms and textured surfaces, introduced the aesthetic possibilities of off-form concrete construction to Brisbane.
|The building, through its dramatic sculptural forms and textured surfaces, introduced the aesthetic possibilities of off-form concrete construction to Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16278,"place_ref":601515,"name":"138 Flinders Parade, Sandgate","alternate_name":"Sandgate Home-Maternal and Child Welfare Service | Convalescent Home | Broadhurst","street_address":"138 Flinders Parade","suburb":"SANDGATE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-09-29","description":"138 Flinders Parade, located fronting Bramble Bay and a foreshore reserve to the northeast, is a single-storeyed timber building with a hipped corrugated iron roof. The building has timber and concrete stumps with timber batten infill and steel posts. Wide verandahs on three sides have been enclosed with fibrous cement sheeting and casement windows, and a projecting bay section is located on the northwest. Sections of original cast iron balustrade and chamfered timber posts are visible on the northwest.
The central northeast entry is surmounted by a small gable with a fretwork panel and is accessed via a twin stair to a landing. The rear of the building has an enclosed verandah on the southeast, which is narrower than the others, and a weatherboard enclosed landing, which is a later addition, at the rear of a brick chimney stack. The sub-floor space is mostly concreted, with a masonry room at the rear which is used as a workshop.
Internally, the building has a wider front section containing major rooms, with a narrower rear section containing service rooms with lower ceilings. A wide central hallway from the main entry to the rear has rooms opening to either side, with the rear section being slightly narrower and with lower ceilings and less detailing.
The main entry has a timber panelled door with sidelights and fanlight, some of which retain leadlight panels. The front hallway has vertical timber boarding with exposed framing which has shaped edge detailing, deep timber skirtings and boarded ceilings with timber frame patterning. A timber arch is located mid-way in the front section, and consists of two ionic timber columns on timber bases supporting an entablature with a deep cornice, above which springs an arch with timber batten infill with turned details. A second arch is located separating the front section of the hallway from the rear, and has pronounced timber imposts, extrados and keystone. The rear of the hallway has a panelled timber door with sidelights and fanlight with leadlight panels, leading to the rear landing.
In the front section, panelled timber doors with fanlights open off the hallway. The two main rooms on the northwest have bays with sash windows and are separated by a double sided fireplace with timber surrounds. Partition walls either side of the fireplace have been removed. These rooms have boarded ceilings with timber frame patterning, vertically boarded walls and timber skirtings. Step-out sash windows open to the northeast and french doors open to the southeast. The southeast side of the front section consists of one long room, the original dividing walls having been removed. A head height partition screen with fixed glazing and central doors divides the space, and a kitchenette is located in the southern corner. The verandah space has single-skin vertically boarded walls, and is lined with fibrous cement sheeting.
The rear section of the building has french doors and deep chamferboards to the southeast enclosed verandah. A former kitchen with masonry fireplace is located at the rear, and a room with built-in timber cupboards is adjacent. Store rooms and a kitchen are located across the hallway on the northwest.
The grounds contain a number of mature trees, including a group of three camphor laurels to the southwest, and an adjacent poinciana to the west.
","history":"This single-storeyed timber building was erected by the turn of the century, at which time it was known as "Broadhurst", and was the residence of Hugh McCall Hicks, and his wife Florence. Hicks was the General Manager of Perkins and Co. Ltd in Brisbane, and is recorded as living at Sandgate from the mid 1890s.
Sandgate began development in the 1860s, particularly for those who could afford private transport and holiday residences. With the extension of the railway from Brisbane to Sandgate in 1882, the permanent population grew, and weekend holiday-makers turned the township into a bustling seaside resort. The town of Sandgate was geographically divided into two areas, comprising the Upper Esplanade which included the area around Shorncliffe and Moora Park, and the Lower Esplanade which included Flinders Parade and Brighton. By the early twentieth century substantial buildings had been erected along the western (land) side of Flinders Parade, including Cremorne, built by the McCallum family, Meridian with its private bowling green, Broadhurst, and other substantial houses which overlooked the Bay.
The allotments on Section 5A in the town of Sandgate were auctioned in October 1882. Allotments 4 and 5, on which the building appears to have been erected, were acquired by William Stevens and Joseph Baynes respectively. In 1890, the two allotments were acquired by Brisbane builder and contractor, John Irwen Balls. As this was the first time that allotments 4 and 5 were jointly owned, it is likely that the building was erected after 1890.
Balls was declared insolvent in 1892, and his estate, which included the land at Sandgate as well as land at South Brisbane and Indooroopilly, was transferred to the Royal Bank of Queensland.
In early 1900, Hicks and his wife acquired half of allotment 4 adjacent to allotment 5, allotment 5, and land at the rear of the two allotments. A photograph of Broadhurst, the residence of Mr HM Hicks appeared in the Queenslander in May 1901.
In July 1901, members of the Brisbane Hospital Committee visited Hicks' residence, which was adjacent to the premises being rented for use as a convalescent home at that time. The Committee had maintained a convalescent home in rented premises at Sandgate from 1885. By 1901, the Committee were looking to acquire its own property, and in late 1901, Hicks' formal offer of the property for £1250 was accepted by the Committee. Alterations were undertaken to make the building suitable for use as a convalescent home, and the first transfer of convalescent patients to the home took place in December 1901. The alterations were designed by DF Brown, House Steward. James Stodart, a Brisbane businessman and politician, was chairman and treasurer of the Committee at this time.
An inspection of the new convalescent home by members of the Hospital Committee, politicians, the Mayor of Sandgate, the Medical Superintendent of the Brisbane General Hospital, Hicks and others, took place in March 1902. Speeches given as part of the inspection referred to the benefits, both medical and economic, of the Sandgate home, and unbounded satisfaction with the home was expressed by the Committee. In the Annual Report of the Brisbane Hospital for 1910, the home was described as a valuable outwork of the Hospital...providing rest, nourishment and comfort during the days of convalescence of many of the patients. Nurses worked at the convalescent home as part of their general hospital training, and the recollections of a former nurse record that as a first year trainee, she was the only nurse at the home together with the Matron, and that she was shown how to do dressings and other work which was not normally done until the second year of training.
The title for the land which had been transferred to Stodart, JD Campbell and SW Brooks in 1902, was subsequently transferred to the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board in 1924.
The convalescent home was closed in 1942, and in 1943 the property was transferred to the Crown for Maternal and Child Welfare purposes. Allotment 6, immediately to the north west of the convalescent home had remained in private ownership until 1918, at which time it was transferred to the Crown, and was later included in the Maternal and Child Welfare reserve. On subsequent plans, the building located on allotment 6 is indicated as a Nurses home.
In March 1944, the "Sandgate Home" was opened by the Maternal and Child Welfare Section of the Department of Health, as a home for the admission of children whose mothers have been taken seriously ill and for whose care no other suitable arrangements can be made. The opening of the Home represented an expansion of the work of the Section. It is also possible that the buildings were utilised for children as part of the scheme developed to assist "Bush Children".
Quarters for the nursing staff were altered and enlarged during the late 1940s, and new buildings added to the site during the mid 1950s included dining and recreation rooms, these buildings were demolished in June 1997.
From 1983 the property was used by the Intellectual Disability Services section, initially located within the Department of Health and later within the Department of Family Services. The Sandgate Centre provided both long and short term residential care for intellectually challenged children, and a family respite centre. By the early 1990s, the Centre was considered to be outdated in terms of its use as a residential facility, and was closed in April 1994.
The property was acquired by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Planning in July 1994.
","criteria":"Erected in the late nineteenth century for a Brisbane businessman, and as one of a number of substantial residences located at Sandgate overlooking Bramble Bay, the former residence demonstrates the desirability of Sandgate, in particular Flinders Parade, as a residential location from this time.
From its opening in 1901 as a convalescent home for the Brisbane Hospital, until its closure as a centre for intellectually challenged persons in 1994, by which time the centre was considered to provide an outdated form of institutional accommodation, the building is associated with the development of institutional residential care during the twentieth century.
|This substantial former residence contains large and highly decorative interior spaces which exhibit high quality of workmanship, materials and climatic design.
|This substantial former residence contains large and highly decorative interior spaces which exhibit high quality of workmanship, materials and climatic design. Although the verandahs have been enclosed, evidence of original detailing and materials exists which suggest the visual contribution this building once made to the Sandgate foreshore.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16286,"place_ref":601523,"name":"Bowen Park","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"3 Bowen Bridge Road","suburb":"BOWEN HILLS","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-02-26","description":"Located on a major arterial road linking Brisbane City with the northern suburbs and the Bruce Highway, Bowen Park occupies a prominent position on the northern edge of Brisbane's commercial centre. The Park is bounded by Bowen Bridge Road, O'Connell Terrace and the Royal National Association (RNA) showgrounds with pedestrian access from Bowen Bridge Road between the Park and the RNA Bowen Bridge Road entry gate.
\nA peaceful retreat in stark contrast to its surrounds and neighbours, it has undergone three distinct phases of development with evidence of each phase surviving. The Park retains trees considered to be part of the QAS major plantings from the 1860s to the 1890s, evidence of the extensive design work and extensive planting undertaken in 1914 to 1917 by Henry Moore for the Brisbane Municipal Council and work undertaken during the third phase of development by Harry Oakman for the Brisbane City Council from 1950 to 1959.
\nThe Bowen Bridge Road edge has survived over the history of the landholding and formed the boundary of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society's Gardens from 1863. The principal Park entries lie along this edge: to the south, marked by a mature Hoop Pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), a concrete and tuff stairway descends through beds edged with tuff; the arched entry; the entry at the circular annuals bed; and to the north, the tree canopy path between tuff garden walls. This edge of Bowen Park also contains simple, medium height planting of hedges and borders, beds of annuals, strips of lawn, the secondary paths installed by Oakman and the toilet block. The adjacent footpath has a clutter of tram/bus shelters. The openness of this edge affords passersby a view across the Park.
\nA decorative iron arch containing the words BOWEN PARK springs from freestanding painted concrete piers to form the main entrance to the Park. A freestanding pier to the north and south form narrower entrance ways.
\nThe toilet block on the Bowen Bridge Road boundary is a small single-storey loadbearing brick structure with a tiled roof with a timber battened soffit. It sits on a base of face brick finishing at a header course of dark bricks. The upper portion of the external walls is finished in a roughcast cement render. The entrance to the male section is to the north and to the female side is entered from the south.
\nThe tram/bus shelters are on the footpath adjacent to the Park and do not form part of the Park but do impact on the integrity of the garden edge and views across and into the Park. An early timer-framed tram shelter has been truncated to accommodate the widening of Bowen Bridge Road and recent steel framed bus shelters clutter along the Park edge.
\nO'Connell Terrace forms the northern edge of the Park and was part of the boundary of the QAS grounds. Two Bauhinias (Bauhinia sp) survive from an earlier row of street trees on the footpath. The Park edge is defined by low stone wall and hedges (Acalypha sp. and Spiraea sp.). Clumped palms (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens and Syagarus romanzoffiana) mark two pedestrian entries onto pathways through the Park.
\nThe Northern Lawns segment extends from the O'Connell Terrace edge across the Park to the impressive edge formed by the fig trees (Ficus benjamina) and associated exuberant planting and from Bowen Bridge Road to the eastern pedestrian entry. A set of Brisbane tuff stairs ascends from O'Connell Terrace at the north-west corner to a now open level lawn area which was the site of the Superintendent's cottage from 1914 to 1949. It was later established as a series of circular ornamental beds planted with annuals and surrounded by hedging under Oakman's management. The lawn area is edged by the early plantings of leopard (Caesalpinja ferrea), buahinia (Bauhinia hookeri), flame (Brachychiton acerifolium) and fig (Ficus microcarpa var. Hillii) trees with their associated underplanting that frame the north entrance off Bowen Bridge Road. The central sloping lawn is bisected by a path and planted randomly with a variety of palms. Many of the palms are plantings from the early twentieth century. This portion of the Park, formerly containing the glasshouse, cottage and associated nursery activities, served as a separate area to the primary display and recreation areas of the QAS Gardens and the Brisbane Municipal Council's 1914 redevelopment. The Figs (Ficus benjamina) and associated understorey planting may have served as a separation between the areas.
\nIn the Figs/Rockery central garden area the large fig trees (Ficus benjamina) form a massive canopy shading the pathway and tuff edged gardens planted with an understorey of subtropical foliage plants. These fig trees (Ficus benjamina) were in the Park prior to the Council's substantial works in 1914 and 1915 and may have been planted for the QAS Gardens.
\nA line of Chinese Celtis (Celtis sinensis) and trees and shrubs line the RNA/Bowen Park Boundary. The Cook pine (Araucaria columnaris) and coral tree (Erythrina hendersonii) are possibly remnants from QAS plantings.
\nThe trees and shrubs on the RNA northern boundary form a screen and edge to the eastern spaces of the Park. A gravel vehicle path from O'Connell Terrace to the Brisbane City Council depot runs beside the curved edge boundary bed which contains a mature rubber tree (Ficus elastica). The depot is housed in the space beneath the RNA grandstand built to this boundary. The curved bed and the kidney shaped beds in the area are planted with hedges (Acalypha sp.) and shrubs. Prominent trees include the English oak tree (Quercus robus), Phoenix palm (Phoenix sp.) and English elm (Ulmus sp.). A pair of ornamental beds planted with colourful cannas (Canna sp.) edges the lower path into the Park.
\nThe Rotunda lawns and beds, in association with the fig tree/rockery backdrop, are the primary focus and identity of the Park. The lawns slope down from the Bowen Bridge Road edge to the shrubbery border along the RNA showgrounds. The main path curves through the lower half from the southern corner at Bowen Bridge Road to the eastern corner at O'Connell Terrace. The bandstand rotunda and colourful central flower beds are the focal points of this area. This area contains evidence of the three major phases of garden development for the Park. The bunya (Araucaria bidwillii), hoop (Araucaria cunninghamii) and Cook (Araucaria columnaris) pines remain from the time of the QAS Gardens. The semi-circle of poinciana (Delonix regia) was established during the 1914 Council refurbishment and sits around an ornamental circular flower bed redesigned by Harry Oakman in the late 1950s.
\nThe free standing, octagonal, timber-framed rotunda stands on face brick piers with brick infill panels. Eight hardwood posts support a bell shaped roof clad with fibre cement shingles. The timber lined ceiling of eight triangular panels falls towards the centre of the rotunda. A decorative timber valance with a harp motif fringes the roof and the rotunda has a timber balustrade containing a tulip motif. The rotunda provides a shady retreat for garden visitors and an elegant platform for band concerts or other performances. The structure was erected in 1914 to a design by Alfred Foster, architectural assistant to the City Engineer. It is similar to the rotunda in New Farm Park also designed by Foster and constructed in 1915.
","history":"Bowen Park is a 1.774 hectare remnant of a parcel of land of almost forty acres bordered by O'Connell Terrace, Bowen Bridge Road, Gregory Terrace and Brooke Street. The Park is important for its survival and continued use since 1863 as a park for public pleasure in inner-city Brisbane, an area under pressure to accommodate increased urban development and consolidation. Granted to the Queensland Acclimatisation Society (QAS) in two parcels in 1863 and 1866, this site was then well out of town on the edge of development and had been worked as a brickfield. Part of this land lay along the watercourse of York's Hollow and the remainder was remnant bushland and brickworks. The site was not ideal for establishing a garden, the soil being of poor quality and rocky in parts, and required substantial reclamation work to form the gardens.
\nThe Bowen Park of 1862 consisted of a series of clay holes and rough bush with a wretched bush track leading from the city across the Fortitude Valley.The area became an attractive and popular recreational venue from 1863 when the QAS established its gardens which extended from the creek to Bowen Bridge Road. The gardens were named Bowen Park, Acclimatisation Society Gardens in honour of the first governor of Queensland and initial patron of the QAS, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, who was active in the establishment of the QAS.
\nThe QAS was formed in 1862 and was most active during its first thirty years introducing, testing, propagating and distributing new plant materials. From its gardens in Bowen Park, it played an important role in commercial agriculture in Queensland and introduced or trialed many crops including mango trees, ginger plants, sugar cane, olive trees and choko vines. There was also some experimental work with specialty crops including cocaine. The Society played an important role in the development of civic and domestic landscapes in Queensland through its concern with ornamental and garden trees and shrubs. From Bowen Park, the Society provided plants to towns, churches and cemeteries. The society also organised educational meetings on botanical subjects. Whereas the Acclimatisation Societies in New South Wales and Victoria placed a considerable emphasis on animals, the QAS focussed on plants though at various times deer, llamas, rabbits, Chinese sheep, Angora goats, pheasants, partridges and a variety of songbirds were on show at Bowen Park.
\nIt is not clear how the QAS used all parts of their land holding but it appears that the main display gardens visited by the public were on the northern and lower parts of their land. The northern portion is within the surviving remnant. The QAS used the site to grow and propagate plants and seeds obtained from other parts of the colony and around the world. They built an office and boardroom, bush-house and glasshouse and established an orchard and formed gardens with ornamental plants. Their plantings were extensive and by 1871 the gardens were recognised as a place of public instruction and recreation. William Soutter was overseer at Bowen Park from 1885 it 1898. Known for his scientific experimentation, horticultural skill and design sense, he was instrumental in Bowen Park achieving a reputation as both an experimental and a recreational/display garden.
\nThe other major botanical garden in Brisbane was the Brisbane City Botanical Gardens (BCBG) established in 1855. Both gardens shared common botanical interests but differed considerably in arrangement and visual character. Both were places for public use and enjoyment. The QAS Gardens were considered to eclipse the BCBG and English nurseryman, James Veitch, in 1880 claimed that the QAS Gardens contained the best collection of tropical trees outside the tropics.
\nAn early catalogue indicates an equal diversity of plants in the two gardens. At BCBG the design incorporated simple straight pathways, uninterrupted lines of single species of plants and elements of a gardenesque design approach which featured individual plants. In contrast, the character of the QAS Gardens was that of a picturesque and exuberant tropical garden. The many decorative features in the QAS Gardens vied with the special plantings for attention.
\nThese decorative elements included a four-metre high coral-stone grotto-like ornamental fountain encrusted with shells, ferns and lichen. ; four pieces of neo-classical statuary (the four seasons), urns and various planting pots; a whale jaw-bone archway; several giant clam shells; all complemented by complex carpet bedding displays on and around a quatrefoil-shaped island within a lagoon with a bamboo grove backdrop. The dense, exuberant Victorian planting was massed in shrubberies and borders interspersed with winding paths creating a wild woodland cum exotic jungle ambience.
\nThe Queensland National Agricultural an Industrial Association was formed in 1875 and seventeen acres of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society's land was leased to the National Association as a venue for exhibitions. In 1876 this exhibition area was fenced off, the first exhibition building erected and the first exhibition staged. In 1881, twelve acres were resumed from the Society's holding to construct the railway line from Brisbane to Sandgate. From 1879 twenty-three acres of land from the QAS holding was leased to the National Association for fifty years for use as a exhibition ground.
\nAs the National Association grew the QAS diminished. The former continued to acquire land until the QAS held only four acres. During its most vigorous period many prominent Queensland pastoralists, professional and business people were members of the QAS. As commercial plant nurseries grew and as a range of other public enterprises in horticulture and agriculture were established support for the QAS declined. The 1890s depression affected the maintenance of the QAS Gardens and many plants were sold or transferred to the BCBG.
\nRelations between the National Association and the QAS were not harmonious and their dealings were hampered by distrust and jealousy. The National Association had become the more important organisation with a considerable annual turnover and reluctantly remained a tenant of the QAS. These difficulties were resolved by the passage of the National Association and Acclimatisation Society Act of 1890 under which the Queensland Government resumed the land occupied by the National Association from the QAS and granted it to the Association. By 1906, the QAS was relocating its operations to Lawnton on the North Pine River and the Brisbane Municipal Council held the former Acclimatisation Gardens as a reserve for a public park under the Acclimatisation Act of 1907.
\nBy 1914 the QAS had removed its diminished operations to depots at Lawnton and Wellington Point. The Brisbane Municipal Council purchased the Society's remaining holding in Bowen Park and officially opened the gardens as a public recreational reserve on 11 June 1914. The Council regarded Bowen Park as both a public park for pleasure and recreation and as a nursery for their parks and reserves. Under the supervision of the Council's first Parks Superintendent, Henry Moore, substantial works and improvements were undertaken, including the erection of a bandstand rotunda, introduction of a water service, repair of the glass house and bush house, filling in of the lagoon and construction of new entrance gates. Landscaping work was undertaken including the establishment of eighteen flower beds, five of which formed a rondel around a palm tree on the southern sloping. A number of rose beds were planted out and four statues that had been part of the Acclimatisation Society gardens' fountain were relocated in open lawns. A cottage was erected on O'Connell Terrace for the Council's chauffer and in 1915 the public toilets on the Bowen Bridge Road boundary were constructed. The path configuration was consolidated during this period of work with secondary paths to the Bowen Bridge Road edge added later under Oakman.
\nFrom 1930 to 1950 further parcels of land were sold to the now Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association (RNA) and in 1940 the widening of Bowen Bridge Road reclaimed a further 13.3 perches. There was considerable opposition to attempts by the RNA to claim more land from Bowen Park during the 1950s but 8.9 perches was reclaimed for the wood chopping stadium in 1955.
\nDuring 1950 to 1959, Harry Oakman, Parks Superintendent for Brisbane City Council, prepared a plan for additional works in Bowen Park. His intention was to present colourful patterned displays on the lawns to passing traffic and tram passengers and to patients and staff in the Royal Brisbane Hospital (across Bowen Bridge Road). He retained most of the major trees planted during 1914-1917 and those remaining from the QAS period including fig trees (Ficus benjamina) in the centre, bunya (Araucaria bidwillii), hoop (Araucaria cunninghamii) and Cook (Araucaria columnaris) pines, phoenix palm (Phoenix sp.), an English oak (Quercus robus), a rubber tree (Ficus elastica), frangipanis (Plumeria obtusa) and poincianas (Delonix regia). He replaced the circular flower beds on the southern sloping lawn with decorative shaped colourful beds. On the cleared northern terrace he planted a large circular arrangement of flower beds surrounded by a hedge. He added paths and modified the Bowen Bridge Road edge to include extensive flower beds. A drinking fountain was included at the south entrance off Bowen Bridge Road. His plant vocabulary included Acalyhpas, Crotons, Plumbago, Belerperone and Ginger - plants used in many of his Brisbane park designs.
\nSince 1960 the Brisbane City Council park management has maintained the park structure and layout of paths and retained the trees. Many display beds for annuals have been removed. The large round bedding display in the north section has been removed and perennials planted in the central beds. The edge of the Park to Bowen Bridge Road has been altered with road widenings and the addition of a tram shelter (c.1920s) and bus shelters (c.1990s). The lower stone walls, Acalypha hedging and some flower displays remain.
","criteria":"Bowen Park survives as part of the site of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society's (QAS) grounds and gardens from 1863 to 1914. Remnant planting from this time is important in demonstrating the operations of the QAS and its contribution to the development of commercial agriculture and civic and domestic landscapes in Queensland.
As one of the first parks established by the Brisbane Municipal Council, Bowen Park demonstrates the importance the Council placed on the provision of recreational parks and gardens. The Park is important for its association with the Council nursery activities associated with the gardens and the contribution these activities made to the maintenance and improvement of Bowen Park and other parks and reserves under Council jurisdiction.
Bowen Park is an integral element within an historic precinct situated around York's Hollow and along Bowen Bridge Road between Gregory Terrace and Breakfast Creek, which has been important in the evolution of Brisbane's and Queensland's history. This area includes the residential, ecclesiastic and educational structures along Gregory Terrace overlooking Victoria Park, Bowen Park, an early tram shelter shed adjacent to Bowen Park along Bowen Bridge Road, the RNA Grounds, the former Exhibition Building at the northeast corner of Gregory Terrace and Bowen Bridge Road, the Exhibition Railway, Victoria Park, Centenary Pool, the Electricity Sub-station at the northwest corner of Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace, Victoria Park Golf Course, the former Victoria Park Golf Clubhouse, Royal Brisbane Hospital, and the Herston Medial School.
|Bowen Park is important for its various historical layers of design, demonstrating the development of garden design and the changes in focus and priorities of the garden activities. The Park is important for its design and aesthetic expression of the gardenesque, Edwardian and Modern park styles. The ornamental flower beds remaining from the 1914-1917 period designed by Henry Moore and the 1950s work by Harry Oakman are substantially intact and demonstrate the decorative features popular in garden and park development of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The location, style and planting of garden beds associated with shrubberies and hedges demonstrate the decorative Edwardian style and the Modern subtropical planting style of garden design.
|Bowen Park occupies a prominent gateway location to the inner-city. Its ornamental planting beds, stone walls and attractive entrance gates contribute a bold and colourful presence to the streetscape. Other elements contributing to the historical and aesthetic qualities of the place include a 1914 bandstand rotunda, 1915 toilet block [one of the earliest municipal toilet blocks surviving in Brisbane], stone stairs and the northern and southern ends of the park, and drinking fountains thought to date to the 1950s.
|Bowen Park is important as one of Brisbane's first public gardens and has been in continuous use as a cultural and recreational destination since 1863.
|Bowen Park is important for its association with Sir George Ferguson Bowen, the first governor of Queensland and first patron of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society.
Bowen Park is important for its association with William Soutter, overseer of the QAS gardens at Bowen Park from 1885 to 1898. Soutter influenced the development of horticulture in Queensland through his experimental work for the QAS, his contributions to shows and international exhibitions and his publications.
Bowen Park is important for its association with the professional landscape gardener and horticulturist, Henry Moore. His design work in Brisbane includes areas of New Farm Park and Newstead Park.
Bowen Park is important for its association with Harry Oakman, Parks Superintendent for the Brisbane City Council 1948-63. Oakman was the first purpose-trained landscape architect to be employed by a government in Queensland. His contribution to the form and character of tropical landscape has influenced the design of most of the established public parks in Brisbane as well as Queen's Park, Townsville. His design work is typified in Bowen Park.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16293,"place_ref":601530,"name":"Balmoral Fire Station","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"105 Pashen Street","suburb":"MORNINGSIDE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-11-26","description":"The Balmoral Fire station is located at Pashen Street, Balmoral. The site is comprised of the main fire station building, a grassed hose drying area, an old bomb shelter and clay base tennis court.
The station building is a single storey timber framed building approximately 12 metres long x 11metres wide. Constructed on concrete foundations and brick piers, the structure has a symmetrical appearance from the street with a simple gable roof extending the length of the building. The exterior walls are clad with timber weatherboards while the roof is sheeted with galvanised iron. Aluminium louvre shades have more recently been fitted to western windows.
The interior space is structured around a central engine room which basically gives rise to the building's form. This space creates the spine of the building and has direct access to Pashen street via a large automated, panel lift door. Set either side of the engine room are ancillary spaces including a watch room, dormitory, officer's room (formerly a workshop), kitchen, recreation room and toilet and shower facilities. These ancillary spaces are lined with tongue and groove boarding. Similarly, the floors are also said to be tongue and groove, pine floor boards however, more recent floor coverings now conceal the nature of the original floor. The central engine room is set approximately 200mm below the floor level of side ancillary spaces, and access into these spaces is via small concrete steps located outside each doorway. Built into the steps are a series of drainage pipes which allow the central area to drain freely. At the rear of the central engine room a small locker room has been constructed.
The area between the station and the front boundary is fully concreted. This hard stand area serves not only as the engine driveway into the station but also as a space for a couple of cars to park. Running around the perimeter of the station are a series of concrete paths and stormwater drains. Located to the west of the station building is a grassed area which is used for hose drying. This space is bounded by a simple concrete and steel fence to the Pashen Street boundary.
Constructed to the rear of the station building on the eastern side of the site is a brick walled and concrete roofed air raid shelter of the 'pill box' type. Apart from a more recent window which has been cut into one of the walls the structure is very intact and is now used as a storage space. Also located at the rear of the site on a higher level than the station building is a clay base tennis court. The original retaining walls to the court have been replaced by a system of interlocking landscape blocks which have been planted out with strawberry creepers. The court is surrounded by a combination of chain wire fencing and timber battens both set on a main timber frame. Located on the eastern side of the tennis court is a small timber framed and battened shelter shed. Generally the grounds are very well maintained.
","history":"The timber Balmoral Fire Station was opened on 15 March 1927 to the design of Atkinson and Conrad.
Between 1860 and 1868 there were five attempts to form a fire fighting service for Brisbane. Each brigade struggled to survive unable to attract a viable subscription base and hampered by inadequate equipment and an unreliable water supply. The establishment of an effective fire service did not enjoy a high priority among civic and government leaders.
A fifth brigade, the City Volunteer Fire Brigade, was established in 1868 under rules which provided for better financial control and management through the Fire Brigade Board. These arrangements were consolidated by the Fire Brigades Act of 1881 under which it was established that the Brigade was to be funded for fire services from contributions by the Queensland State Government, Brisbane Municipal Council, insurance companies and subscriptions. In 1889 the first full-time firemen were employed and a permanent fire brigade was established. A new headquarters, designed by H.W. Atkinson, was completed on the corner of Ann and Edwards Streets (on a corner of the Normal School site) in 1890. This began a long association between the Fire Brigade and the various architectural firms with whom he was associated.
The fire fighting needs of the city increased as Brisbane continued to develop. A number of fire brigades were formed early after The Fire Brigades Act Amendment Act of 1902 allowed local authorities to establish boards and brigades. Those formed were voluntary bodies with only the superintendent and immediate assistants receiving a salary. The Fire Brigades Act of 1920 rationalised the network of fire brigades in Brisbane and suburbs, centralising control under the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board in 1921.
The idea of constructing a fire station in Balmoral was first mooted in the early 1920s when a residents group approached the Chief Officer of the Fire Brigade, Hinton, to inquire about the cost of erecting and fitting a station. The proposal was initially rejected as being too expensive, however the growth of the suburb eventually made it a necessity. A block of land extending from Pashen Street to Stephens Street was acquired for the use of the fire station, where the existing house and outbuildings were utilised as a temporary station from 30 June 1925 until March 1927 when the purpose-built station was opened.
Plans and specifications for the new timber fire station were completed on 12 November 1926 by Atkinson and Conrad. Tenders were called on 10 November 1926, and the tender of W.B. Linsay of £850 was accepted. The design of the building incorporated a central engine room with a three feet, six inch deep pit and a ramp leading to it from the street. A watch room, dormitory, work shop. kitchen, recreation room and bathroom were provided. The building had concrete foundations up to the brick piers. The specification called for called for a six inch thick concrete foundation wall in the engine room and a five inch thick floor. The external walls and gables were to be sheeted with hardwood weather boards and all floors, except the engine room, were wrought and tongue and groove pine (T and G). The roof was galvanised iron. A timber earth closet building, with a galvanised iron roof was erected at the rear of the station.
The official opening of the Balmoral Fire Station was conducted by Mr A.H. Wright, MLA and member of the Fire Brigade Board on 15 March 1927. A number of local residents and members of the Fire Brigade attended the opening. The description of the building at this time was 'neat, built of wood with a concrete base, 42 feet long and 37 feet wide'. The final cost of construction was £900. Two permanent and four auxiliary staff were attached to the station.
Additions were made to the fire station in 1929 to the design of architect S.W. Prior. The tender of C. King was accepted.
A brick air raid shelter was constructed to the rear of the fire station during World War II. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 stunned the Australian populous, and in the weeks and months which followed fear of air raids and invasion dominated Australian society. On Christmas Eve, 1941, instructions were issued in each State by the State Emergency Committee for government, private employers and private households to immediately commence with the building of shelters. In Brisbane, three distinct categories of surface shelters were constructed: pill box, cantilever and special/site specific. Most of the shelters surviving today are of cantilever construction as these were purposely designed and located for conversion to public waiting sheds and shade structures after the war. The air raid shelter at the Balmoral Fire Station is of the pill box form, constructed by the State Government for the use of the firemen manning the Station. It was built to shelter approximately six adults.
A tennis court was constructed on the property, and was the site of some of the local Fireman's Recreation Club activities.
","criteria":"The Balmoral Fire Station is important in demonstrating the growth and development of the Balmoral area during the 1920s. The air raid shelter constructed to the rear of the station during World War II demonstrates Australia's involvement in that conflict, and is testimony to the fear of attack and invasion by enemy forces following the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 and the subsequent sweep of Japanese forces through Asia and into south-east Asia and the Pacific.
|The Balmoral Fire Station demonstrates a rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage as one of the only 1920s fire stations still in operation in Brisbane. Both the exterior and interior of the building are substantially intact. The air raid shelter to the rear of the station is rare as one of few surviving structures built in Brisbane during the war for war-time purposes. War memorials and commemorated public facilities, such as community halls and swimming pools, are dedicated after the event of war - air raid shelters are one of the few types of contemporary war-era structures surviving in Brisbane.
While war memorials and commemorated public facilities such as community halls and swimming pools were constructed in the years following the war, air raid shelters are one of the few remaining structures built during the war for war-time purposes. The air raid shelter is also a rare example of a Queensland Government-built air raid shelter.
|The Balmoral Fire Station demonstrates the principal characteristics of an early twentieth century suburban fire station.
|The Balmoral Fire Station has aesthetic and architectural significance as a modest, functional civic building, sympathetic to its residential surroundings.
|The Balmoral Fire Station is important for its association with the work of the architectural firm Atkinson and Conrad. Atkinson, through the firms he was associated with, sustained a long association with the Fire Services in Brisbane commencing in 1890 with his design for the new headquarters for the Brisbane Fire Brigade. His architectural practices were responsible for many of the fire stations throughout Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16307,"place_ref":602208,"name":"Fulton Residence","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"209 Indooroopilly Road","suburb":"TARINGA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-10-27","description":"The Fulton House is a modified example of the international style in the materials, detailing and asymmetrical massing. It is a two storey buff coloured brick house with contrasting red brick to the lower levels and a terra cotta tiled roof. A large box gutter is concealed behind a deep fascia board and this combined with the horizontal raked joints and the concrete balcony and steel balustrade serves to emphasise the horizontal lines. The chimney is built in a red brick emphasising the vertical line.
Internally the house is designed on three levels with an entrance stair hall leading down to an open planned living dining room opening onto a small kitchen. The open stair well leads to the upper level which contains two bedrooms, a study and a bathroom The main bedroom and study open onto the balcony. Internally the house is without decoration and is flooded with light from the large windows. The house is very intact and has many of the original light fittings and 'modern' features such as built in cupboards in the kitchen and bedrooms. Bookshelves in the living room and bed head units in the bedrooms were designed and built by Charles Fulton.
The house is set back on the site overlooking Indooroopilly Road with a large mature garden in front of the house. The garden has a stone flagged terrace, stone retaining walls and stepped garden terraces all of which were constructed by Charles Fulton and his family.
","history":"The Fulton Residence was designed in 1940 by Charles Fulton as his own home. The house was designed in a modified international style and won the 1948 Queensland Royal Australian Institute of Architects award for meritorious architecture.
\nCharles Fulton chose to build his home at a time when the inner western suburbs of St Lucia and Taringa were being opened up for development. This development was stimulated by the move of the University of Queensland to St Lucia. Architects were particularly attracted to these suburbs because of the topography and vegetation and the area developed a reputation for innovative and experimental domestic design. In the post-war period a number of architects settled in the St Lucia area, including of Karl Langer, EJ Hayes, CR Scott and V Gzell.
\nCharles Fulton was born in Sydney 1906 and received his architectural training as an articled pupil of FE Stowe, architect and civil engineer. He worked for Sydney architects, Rudder & Grout, before travelling to London, where he was employed by B George (1931-32).[1] During this period he travelled in Europe and made pilgrimages looking at buildings. He was particularly interested in the work of Dutch architect Willem Dudok, whose Hilverusm Town Hall was influential in Britain in the early thirties. In 1933 he returned to Australia and settled in Brisbane where he was employed by Hall and Cook (1933-34). In 1937 he entered into partnership as JP Donoghue and CWT Fulton. In the same year he also became lecturer in Charge of Architecture at the Brisbane Central Technical College and he taught in the architecture school for 33 years. He made a large contribution to architectural education throughout his whole career and the Queensland University of Technology named its architecture faculty the 'Charles Fulton School of Architecture' in his honour.
\nCharles Fulton was a key practitioner and teacher of the modern trends in architectural design in Queensland during the late thirties and forties. The Masel residence at Stanthorpe (1938), Nudgee Junior College Indooroopilly (1938) and his own residence all received meritorious architecture awards in the early Royal Australian Institute of Architects Queensland Awards Programs. Aside from their domestic work, the practice of Donoghue and Fulton were renowned as hospital architects who combined the latest ideas in hospital planning with recent developments in architectural design. The Townsville Hospital [601388] designed between 1935-39 (built 1951), the Kingaroy General Hospital and Nurses' Quarters 1936-38, Goondiwindi Hospital 1939, Roma Hospital 1940, Nurses' Quarters Nambour (601568) 1941-42 (demolished 1999) were all buildings designed in this period. After the Second World War the partnership of Donoghue and Fulton was dissolved and Fulton took a new partner JM Collin. During this period Charles Fulton designed a number of notable hospital buildings including, Barcaldine Hospital main block and Staff Quarters (1953), Clermont Hospital main block (1955), Aramac nurses quarters (1957). All these later buildings were characterised by low pitched roofs, linear planning, cross ventilation, wide eaves or awnings and the use of modern materials. The firm that he founded continues as Fulton Trotter.
\nThe Fulton family occupied the Fulton Residence for nearly 60 years with Charles Fulton dying in 1988 and his wife in 1999. Both Mr and Mrs Fulton were very attached to the house and garden and it remained virtually unaltered from when it was completed in 1940.
","criteria":"The house demonstrates how, in the interwar period, European architectural ideas were transferred to Australia and modified to local conditions. The Fulton Residence is an important building in the evolution of domestic architecture in Queensland. In the immediate post war period the western Brisbane suburbs of St Lucia, Taringa and Indooroopilly were the location of many experiments with modern domestic architecture and the Fulton Residence is part of this tradition.
|The Fulton Residence is an excellent intact Queensland example of the international style of architecture, with its use of modern materials, and the asymmetrical balance of horizontal and vertical elements.
|The design of the building with its interplay of horizontal and vertical elements and curved balcony has aesthetic value. Sited on a slope the house is enhanced by a large mature garden which contributes to the ambience of the surrounding suburb.
|The Fulton Residence is intimately associated with the esteemed architect Charles Fulton as the house he designed for his family. It displays many of the characteristics of his work including the use of face brickwork, the use of modern materials such as steel windows and stainless, corner windows, the eschewing of internal decoration and an interest in designing for a sub tropical climate.
Charles Fulton is an important figure in the development of architecture in Queensland both as an educator and a practitioner. He played an important role at the Brisbane Central Technical College (now the Queensland University of Technology) for over thirty years. He was one of the main architects responsible for introducing the international style to Queensland. He experimented with this style combining it with an interest in climatic design. Aside from his own home his key buildings include the Masel residence at Stanthorpe, Nudgee Junior College Indooroopilly, Kingaroy General Hospital, Barcaldine Hospital and Townsville Hospital.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16309,"place_ref":601547,"name":"Santa Barbara","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"209 Moray Street","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-01-28","description":"Santa Barbara, a low set, rendered masonry residence is located on the corner of Moray and Sydney Streets, New Farm. It has an expansive ground floor with a centrally-placed attic room above. The house is an unusual, asymmetrical composition of intersecting forms that together create a distinctive design. It is a substantial dwelling constructed in the Spanish Mission style and employs many of the features associated with this style, including suggestions of hand-crafted techniques reminiscent of adobe buildings.
The heavy, half-round terracotta tiled roof, together with the curvaceous, bell-like chimney that sits upon a large square base are dominant features of the exterior. The principal elevation has a projecting porch with a short arcade of three arched openings, decorative metalwork and twisted, "barley sugar" columns. Bay windows are located to either side of the porch, each has a tiled roof, planter boxes supported on corbels that sit at sill level and ornamental leadlight windows in an octagonal honeycomb pattern. A loggia with twisted columns and tile capping links the house and garage and has been enclosed by decorative screens with an arch motif. The garage has been extended with an open-sided canopy with a gently pitched roof and has been paved with brick pavers. The main door is located within a wall with a stepped, asymmetric parapet and has delicate concrete moulding around the opening. Circular moulded cartouches adorn the exterior in a number of places.
Reports of the interior highlight the use of hand-made flooring tiles, panelled ceilings and walls, gently arched openings and timber-framed glass doors with decorative tracery. The central fireplace is reputedly highly decorative with twisted columns and moulded plaster surrounds.
The house is painted in a pale tone of terracotta with details such as metalwork painted in blue. The exterior of the house appears to be very intact. The setting contributes to the overall design of the house and includes a low, rendered masonry perimeter wall with brick capping, "crazy" paved paths and mature, graceful poinciana trees on the street. The name Santa Barbara is inscribed on the wall close to the entrance to the property at the corner of Sydney and Moray Streets.
","history":"Santa Barbara, a rendered brick residence in the Spanish Mission style was erected in 1929-30 for Brisbane businesswoman Mrs Sarah Balls. The house was designed by Brisbane architect EP Trewern, and was constructed by builder DF Roberts.
The site was part of a much larger parcel of land - part of the New Farm of convict days - surveyed in 1843 as Eastern Suburban Allotment 19 [nearly 22 acres] and purchased in 1844 by John McConnel of Brisbane and Cressbrook. In 1863 it was transferred to, and immediately subdivided by, pastoralist and politician Robert Ramsay MacKenzie. In the 1870s Samuel Griffith acquired much of this land, including the site of Santa Barbara, on which he erected his home Merthyr.
The southwest corner of Moray and Sydney Streets remained part of the grounds of Merthyr until after the death of Sir Samuel Griffith in 1920. Early in 1929, resubdivision 37 of subdivision 17 of ESA 19, parish of North Brisbane [32 perches] was transferred from Edward Percival Thomson Griffith and George Frederick Doyle, trustees of Sir Samuel's estate, to Nola Eulis Wilkinson, the transfer being recorded in early May. In the same month, the property was transferred from Nola Wilkinson to Sarah Balls, widow.
Sarah Balls [neé Sarah Beatrix Meats Blasdale] was the widow of builder and later publican John Irwin Balls, who had immigrated from Scotland to Queensland in 1881. They were married in Brisbane in August 1881. In 1887 JI Balls went into partnership with Henry Smith as Smith and Balls, builders and contractors, Brisbane, and by 1889 had worked on warehouses for Finney, Isles & Co. and Watson Bros. (QHR 600126), and the Union and Empire Hotels. It appears that the partnership did not survive the economic depression of the early 1890s, and from 1892-1896 John and Sarah Balls ran the Queensland Hotel in Terrace Street, Ipswich. In 1896 the license to the Queensland Hotel was transferred from John Irwin Balls to Sarah Balls, and she held this until 1898. John died in Western Australia in mid-1898 and the following year his widow moved to Maryborough, where she held the license to the Queen's Hotel at the corner of Adelaide and Kent Streets. However, by 1902 Sarah Balls had returned to Brisbane, where she ran the Prince of Wales Hotel in Edward St, then the Stock Exchange Hotel in Queen Street from c1905-c1915.
In the early 1900s Sarah Balls appears to have diversified her business interests, as proprietor of refreshment rooms at Isis Junction from c1908, and Helidon from c1911. In the mid-1910s she also operated refreshment rooms in Edward Street, Brisbane. In 1912-13 she erected modest brick premises in Margaret Street for Smith & Balls' Acme Engineering Works (QHR 600125), and c1915 acquired an interest in the Commercial Hotel in Rockhampton. By 1917 Mrs Balls had retired from hotel work and moved to Hamilton, but appears to have maintained her business interests until her death in 1932.
In July 1929 Sarah Balls made application to the Brisbane City Council to erect a brick residence, to cost £4,000, at the corner of Moray and Sydney Streets, New Farm. Brisbane architect Eric Percival Trewern had called tenders through May and June 1929, and the contract had been let to Douglas F Roberts & Sons of Toorak Road, Hamilton.
EP Trewern's Brisbane architectural practice, established in 1920 and maintained until his death in 1959, proved highly successful. During the interwar years he was influential in popularising Georgian revival style in Brisbane commercial building and Spanish Mission and Old English/Tudor Revival style in Brisbane residential architecture. He designed residences throughout Brisbane with Santa Barbara at New Farm ranking amongst his best, and considered the finest example of Spanish Mission style in Brisbane. It was also one of the most expensive homes erected in Brisbane at this period. Trewern also designed the Spanish mission style residence at nearby 17 Griffith Street, New Farm, similar in materials and style to Santa Barbara, but on a smaller scale. Trewern's other interwar work included business premises, flats and office renovations, with some of his larger commissions including the Country Press Association Building at the corner of Elizabeth and Edward Streets [1924-25 - demolished]; Heindorff's Building in Queen Street [1926-28 - demolished]; Inchcolm Professional Chambers on Wickham Terrace [1929-30 - (QHR 600170); Turrawan Private Hospital at Clayfield [1932 with 1935 additions]; and the new Surfers Paradise Hotel [1936-37 - demolished].
Trewern was actively involved in furthering professional architectural standards in Queensland. He served as Vice-President of the Queensland Institute of Architects 1929-30, Member Board of Architects of Queensland 1929-35, Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects 1930, President Queensland Institute of Architects 1931-35, Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1931; Vice-President of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects 1932-33, and Federal Councillor 1932-35.
Santa Barbara, completed by May 1930, was much admired. Described in the Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland as a handsome Brisbane residence, it was noted for its unique mission style. The Cordova tile roof, manufactured, supplied and fixed by the Brisbane branch of Wunderlich Limited, was considered impressive. The Brisbane social magazine Steering Wheel and Society & Home devoted a whole-page pictorial spread to the building in August 1933, emphasising the Mediterranean elements in the design and the sub-tropical garden setting. In 1936, a photograph of Santa Barbara was included in a newspaper article on New Farm, captioned: This, one of the most admired homes of New Farm, combines with its settings to produce a romantic atmosphere. Here the Spanish influence in architecture has been happily employed.
Sarah Balls died on 13 June 1932, and in 1933 Santa Barbara was transferred to her daughter Eva Muriel Lissner of New Farm. Eva had married Ernest Henry Lissner, son of former Queensland MLA Isidore Siegfried Lissner, in Brisbane in 1904, and was widowed in 1927. She resided at Santa Barbara through the 1930s, but whether she continued to live at Santa Barbara after her marriage to Francis James Wilson in 1939, is not known. Following Mrs Wilson's death in 1954, Santa Barbara passed to her son, Jack Ernest Lissner, who transferred the property to Francis Louis John Stellmack in 1956. It remained in the Stellmack family until purchased by the Wigan family in 1969.
","criteria":"Santa Barbara is significant historically for its association with the interwar redevelopment of New Farm, in which, despite the subdivision of surviving 1880s estates and the construction of many purpose-designed blocks of flats, that part of New Farm south of Brunswick Street remained as middle-class as it had been when first subdivided in the 1860s.
|Santa Barbara is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type: a substantial masonry residence in the Spanish Mission style and is a key example of this genre in Brisbane.
|The place exhibits aesthetic qualities which are derived from a combination of its design, form, materials, setting and intactness. It makes an important contribution to the streetscapes of Sydney and Moray streets and to the New Farm townscape.
|The place has a special association with the work of influential Brisbane architect EP Trewern, and has been recognised as his best known residential work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16313,"place_ref":602211,"name":"Bulimba Ferry Terminal","alternate_name":"Bulimba Waiting shed and landing | Bulimba Ferry House","street_address":"Oxford Street","suburb":"BULIMBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-01-12","description":"The Bulimba Ferry House is a small picturesque structure on the bank of the Brisbane River at the end of Oxford Street, Bulimba. It is approached from the riverside by a pontoon and from the landward side by a pathway and entrance leading into a covered waiting area.
The ferry house is an open timber framed structure set on stumps and clad with weatherboards. It is rectangular in plan with a verandah running along the southern side. The roof is gabled and has an intersecting gable to the south, which forms a raised central feature dividing the verandah roof into three bays. These have shallow arched openings and timber balustrades. The roof is clad in terracotta tiles and the gable ends have decorative timberwork and paired brackets. At the crossing of the roof gables is a low octagonal tower with four clock faces topped by a metal cupola.
The interior has a timber floor and ceiling and there are timber bench seats against the walls and a storage locker.
","history":"The Bulimba ferry terminal was built in 1922 for the Balmoral Shire Council, then responsible for the efficient servicing of several ferry routes across the Brisbane River.
\nSince the days of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, when a punt was poled between the main settlement and the south bank of the Brisbane river, ferries have been a vital transport facility for Brisbane. The river twists and loops through the city and cross-river access is important in linking city and suburbs and greatly reducing travel time between them. Although the first bridge linked the city and South Brisbane in 1862, no other bridges were built for many years, public transport was limited and few people had private transport until after World War Two. People who needed to commute to work and to access shopping and entertainment facilities used cross-river ferries on a daily basis. Ferries were the only major transport service provided by metropolitan local authorities, as responsibility for care and management had been placed in their hands by the Municipalities Act of 1858.
\nIn November 1844 the first ferry service commenced between Customs House and Kangaroo Point and in 1850 Samuel and Matthew Buckley operated a rowing boat ferry service at Bulimba. In 1864, John Watson began a vehicular ferry at Bulimba under lease. He purchased the allotment at the terminal to build his house. The route was then serviced by the steam paddleboat 'Advance' until transferred to the city route in 1893 when floods destroyed the Victoria Bridge. It was replaced at Bulimba by a punt operated by winch and cable until a new ferry was obtained.
\nIn 1888 Bulimba and Hawthorne were included in the area for which the Balmoral Divisional Board was responsible. Balmoral Shire was created in 1901 and was responsible for Apollo, Bulimba, Norman Park and Hawthorne ferries. A special sub-committee was responsible for the provision of boats, buildings and landings and fixed fares. In 1921 the Balmoral council decided to replace the existing waiting sheds and landing at Bulimba with a substantial ferry house to shelter waiting passengers. In 1922 they commissioned a ferry house design from the prominent architectural firm of GMH Addison and Son. The tender of E Taylor was accepted for the construction in July 1922. By August the building was under construction and tenders for the construction of a pontoon were called in September 1922.
\nThe design for the proposed building appeared in the December 1922 edition of the Architects and Builders Journal of Queensland, however, as GHM Addison died in February 1922 following a protracted illness, the design is most likely by his son George Frederick Addison. The quality of the building and the choice of a noted firm of architects for the design attest to the importance of the ferry service in the life of the community.
\nGeorge Henry Male Addison was Welsh born and trained in England. He immigrated to Adelaide in 1883 and then moved Melbourne. He was an artist as well as an architect and was one of the founders of Melbourne Art Society. He moved to Brisbane in 1886 as local partner of Terry, Oakden and Addison. Addison won prizes for both architectural design and fine arts and served on a number of important committees and advisory panels connected with both. In late 1892 he set up in practice on his own, forming a partnership with LG Corrie in 1898. The firm designed many major buildings including churches, banks and commercial buildings. From 1919 he was in practice with his son, George Frederick Addison as G Addison and Son. GF Addison studied at Brisbane Central Technical College and was articled to his father. Apart from his military service in World War One, he practiced as an architect until 1940.
\nIn 1924 the Balmoral Council called tenders for a second ferry house, to a slightly modified version of the Bulimba design, to be erected at the Hawthorne ferry terminal. Both terminals can be seen at one time from the river. The steam ferry 'Hetherington' served the Bulimba route for many years, being estimated to have been responsible for over 10 million passenger and 2 million vehicle trips between 1928 and it's decommissioning in 1952. There was also a motor ferry on the route.
\nThe ferry connected Bulimba with Teneriffe, which was the site of many industrial and commercial enterprises, so that the ferry carried many people to and from work. It was also put to an unexpected community use as illustrated by the comment of the Sunday Mail of 3 March 1929 that the ferry house was being used informally as a dressing shed for local youths who were swimming in the river.
\nIn 1925 the various Brisbane district councils amalgamated into a single local government authority, the Brisbane City Council, and construction of ferry terminals became their responsibility. In October 1925 the contract for the new waiting shed at Hawthorne was let for the original design, though other Brisbane City Council terminal buildings were less ornamental. Of the other ferry terminal buildings on the Brisbane River, most were built much later and none are as ornate as the Bulimba and Hawthorne ferry houses.
\nIn 1985 extensive repairs and renovations were carried out to the Bulimba ferry house, which included replacing the clocks in the tower. It is still in use as a ferry terminal.
","criteria":"The Bulimba Ferry terminal is important as one of a pair of intact purpose-built ferry terminals from the first part of the 20th century. As with the Hawthorne Ferry Terminal, its quality of design and detail demonstrates the importance of ferries in the development of Brisbane before a network of bridges and public transport was fully developed and before many people owned cars. The ferry terminals are also evidence for the workings of the Balmoral Shire Council before the Brisbane suburban councils were amalgamated in 1925.
|The Hawthorne and Bulimba Ferry terminals were the largest ever built to service Brisbane ferries and are now rare as early examples of their type, as most Brisbane River ferry terminals are now served by modern buildings.
|The Bulimba Ferry terminal not only illustrates the architectural details of the Federation Queen Anne style as applied to a small scale building, but also those features typical of ferry terminals comprising a pontoon for river access, a landing area and covered waiting area for passengers. The clock faces placed in the tower helped people to be on time for ferries that ran to an accurate timetable.
The Bulimba Ferry terminal is significant as a creative example of the later work of the prominent Queensland architectural firm of GMH Addison and Son who are generally known for larger buildings.
|The Bulimba ferry house has considerable aesthetic significance as a small public building that exhibits a high standard of design. Domestic scale and details have been imaginatively applied to a wharf building of mundane function. The building is a landmark both from the water and from the landward side.
|The Bulimba Ferry terminal has a long association with the residents of the area as a building often used on a daily basis and as a local landmark that makes an important contribution to the character of the area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16325,"place_ref":601564,"name":"Mount Coot-tha Lookout & Kiosk","alternate_name":"One-Tree-Hill | Mt Coot-tha | Mt Cootha | Brisbane Lookout","street_address":"Sir Samuel Griffith Drive","suburb":"MOUNT COOT-THA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-01-13","description":"The Mt Coot-tha Lookout and Kiosk are located at the summit of Mt Coot-tha fronting Sir Samuel Griffith Drive to the southeast.
The Kiosk
The kiosk, located to the north of the lookout, is a single-storeyed timber building on a stone base with a terra-cotta tiled gable and half-gable roof. The roof has a prominent central fleche ventilator, terra-cotta finials and chimney pots, and half-timbered gables.
The building has evolved from an open sided kiosk, and the main section is formed by two adjoining similar kiosk structures, with a two-storeyed service wing to the rear and an addition to the northeast. The kiosk section has sliding multi-paned sash windows which can be concealed within the solid balustrade below, and multi-paned fanlight glazing above. The balustrade has fibrous cement panels with timber mouldings. The service wing and northeast addition have weatherboard cladding, with a brick base to the northeast.
A tall timber framed tankstand is located to the north of the building.
The Lookout
The lookout is located at southern and highest end of the site, with views from the south to the northeast. It consists of a large radiating lookout platform above a porphyry stone retaining wall, surrounded by metal balustrading with a raised viewing platform at the southern end.
The octagonal raised viewing platform is located on a stepped base of concentric paths and garden beds with porphyry stone retaining walls. The platform has a terrazzo floor with an inlaid brass star pattern and a concrete canopy supported on steel posts. A carpark is located to the west of the lookout.
","history":"Mt Coot-tha is part of the Taylor Range which forms a backdrop of hills to the City of Brisbane, and is the best known vantage point from which to view the city and surrounds. Mt Coot-tha was previously known as One-Tree-Hill, a reference to when the hill terminated in a bare knoll with a solitary large tree at the summit.
The Taylor Range was originally named Glenmorrison Range by the explorer John Oxley in 1823. In July 1828, this range was referred to as Glenmoriston's Range and Sir Herbert Taylor's Range by the colonial botanist Charles Fraser, and as Glenmorriston's Range by Captain Patrick Logan, Commandant of the penal settlement at Brisbane.
The first recorded ascent by European explorers was on 6 July 1828, with Fraser, Captain Logan and explorer Alan Cunningham. Fraser's journal describes in detail the species of trees found there, and that the view from the south-east to north-west was extensive and very grand, presenting an immense thinly wooded plain, whose surface was gently undulated, and clothed with luxuriant grass.
A request to purchase One-Tree-Hill in 1865 was refused, and the Surveyor-General replied that it will be required for trigonometrical purposes, and is moreover a point to which inhabitants of this city frequently repair for recreation on account of the extensive view and fresh air.
The Taylor Range provided a source of good timber and One-Tree-Hill was first proclaimed a reserve for railway purposes on 21 February 1873 in order that the source of timber could be secured for development of the railway from Ipswich to Brisbane. In 1880, One-Tree-Hill, together with the surrounding area of 1500 acres, was placed in charge of a body of Trustees as a reserve for public recreation. It was at this time that the name was changed to Mt Coot-tha. Mr HW Radford, Clerk of the Parliament, and Honorary Secretary to the Trustees of the Public Recreation Reserve, questioned a descendant of earlier members of the aboriginal tribe that frequented that area and discovered that the aboriginal name for the area was Coot-tha or Kuta, the aboriginal name for honey or the place of honey. Hence the name change to its official title of Mt Coot-tha.
The summit was accessed by walking tracks, and by the 1870s some visitors were driving up with horse and carriages. When Mt Coot-tha became a reserve for public recreation, the track was improved to become a steep and windy road. The surviving one-tree was surrounded by a protective fence and in 1886 a shelter shed and water tank was built. Mt Coot-tha was proclaimed a reserve for native birds on 20 December 1890.
The Saturday half-holiday was legislated for in Queensland as part of the 1900 Factory Act. The half-holiday was the beginning of the weekend as an institution, and together with public holidays the popularity of recreation areas and activities increased. With the advent of the motor car, motoring itself became a recreation activity. By 1918 it could be asserted that the steep rough bridle tracks of years ago were replaced with well-made roads and paths so that pedestrians and motorists could attain the highest points of Mt Coot-tha with the utmost ease. This road later became Sir Samuel Griffith Drive.
In 1918 the Trustees of the Reserve requested that the Greater Brisbane Council take over the administration of the area and at this time it is believed that a new kiosk was built next to the existing shelter shed.
The Kiosk
The first recorded shelter shed at Mt Coot-tha appears to have been an open sided timber structure and water tank. In May 1886, the Courier reported the completion of the shed, stating the site selected not being unduly exposed, whilst commanding the favourite outlook. Tables, forms, and tanks are all fixed up and the fireplaces are in progress, and as soon as a rainfall gives a supply of water, picnicking parties can avail themselves of all the conveniences provided. The wife of the caretaker of the reserve, who lived in a house about a quarter of a mile below the summit, operated a small kiosk where teas were served to visitors.
A small timber kitchen had been built adjacent to the shelter shed by c.1912. A larger open sided kiosk was constructed on the northeast side of the shelter shed c.1918, and this kiosk forms the basis of the present structure. A 1928 plan by AH Foster, Brisbane City Architect 1925-32, shows the position of the shelter shed and adjacent open sided kiosk, and indicates that the small kitchen may have been relocated to form a detached kitchen wing serving the kiosk.
A 1928 design signed by R Jameson, Brisbane City Assistant Architect 1926-29, repeated the plan form of the existing kiosk to double its size and provide for a two-storeyed timber extension to the northwest to accommodate living quarters. The shelter shed and small kitchen were demolished, the prominent fleche and chimney were added, and the roof resheeted with red fibro cement tiles. The open balustrade nature of the kiosk changed at this time, with the inclusion of sliding multi-paned timber sashes above hand rail level and a fibro cement balustrade below. The enlarged kiosk reflected the increasing popularity and visitor numbers to Mt Coot-tha, and the proliferation of motor transport.
A 1949 design by Brisbane City Architect FG Costello shows extensions and alterations to the kitchen and caretakers wing with the annotation town water supply to be extended to high level tank located in a suitable position having in mind the future development of this site. Further work was carried out in 1950, with a design by Costello in May showing a circular drive, new entrance, lounge and lavatories, and later that year extensions to the living quarters and the construction of a high-level timber tankstand. The present terra-cotta roof tiles date from post 1950. As City Architect, Costello also designed the adjoining lookout and raised viewing platform which are typical of the quality of his work for the council, which included the sub-stations at Hamilton, Ashgrove and Newmarket, and the Eagle Farm Pumping Station.
More recently, some internal partitioning has occurred and an entrance pergola and signage have been constructed.
The Lookout
Looking at the view has been the most popular and continuing form of recreation on Mt Coot-tha, and in 1882 the Duke of Clarence and Prince George (later King George V) commemorated their visit to Mt Coot-tha by planting two Moreton Bay figs on the summit. By 1902 the viewing spot had been formalised by the erection of a stone pillar topped with a metal plate engraved with directional lines pointing to distant landmarks and views. There were also protective railings and a pay-as-you-look telescope.
A small viewing gazebo with an ogee shaped roof, stone base, open balustrades, pergola entrance, and housing a telescope was constructed c.1918. In 1927 the Duke and Duchess of York were photographed visiting Mt Coot-tha standing at the direction finder.
A 1950 design by City Architect F Costello shows a raised viewing platform with a concrete canopy on a stone base, with a large radiating lookout platform above a stone retaining wall. The stand of trees at the summit were cleared for the construction of the lookout platform. The 1950 scheme showed a drinking fountain in place of the current direction finder, and a direction finder located on the raised viewing platform.
","criteria":"The Mt Coot-tha Lookout and Kiosk site has been recognised as the best vantage point from which to view the surrounding area since the first recorded European ascent in 1828. Since this time, the growing popularity of visiting the summit has reflected the emergence of leisure and recreation time for the general populace, and the advent and popularity of the motor car.
|The Kiosk is important as a building which has evolved to meet the changing requirements of use, but has retained the integrity and character of the original structure. The evolution of the Kiosk is displayed in its cohesive and legible form, with the c.1918 structure forming the basis of the present building.
The Lookout is representative of a 1950s interpretation of the functionalist idiom.
|Both structures are representative of the high quality of civic architecture produced by the Brisbane City Council Works Department and of the City Architect.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16326,"place_ref":601565,"name":"Wooloowin State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"663 Lutwyche Road","suburb":"LUTWYCHE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-01-13","description":"Wooloowin State School's 1914. 1918 and 1925 buildings form a coherent group of one and two-storeyed classroom blocks linked together by verandahs. The buildings are masonry constructed on brick piers, which form an undercroft play area. Most of the exterior of the buildings are roughcast render. Originally the roof was covered with red asbestos slates, which has been replaced with corrugated iron. Each of the individual pavilions has a separate roof, with ventilators and projecting gabled skylights.
The 1934 addition is a three-storeyed masonry building with face brick and roughcast render which complements the earlier blocks. The original red asbestos slate roof has been replaced with corrugated iron.
Apart from the re-roofing, the exterior of the complex is very intact.
","history":"Wooloowin State School was built in four stages. The first section was constructed in 1914, with additions in 1918, 1925 and 1934. In 1914, Wooloowin was considered a model school at the forefront of progressive education in Queensland, and this was reflected in the building, grounds, furniture, equipment, facilities, curriculum, and staff. It was a model school for a modern, rapidly expanding suburb.
Originally part of Lutwyche, Wooloowin was named after the railway station (on the line to Northgate Junction) which was opened in November 1889. The area had developed a suburban identity in the 1880s, when the larger estates were subdivided, but in the first half of the 20th century, particularly following the extension of the tramline along Lutwyche Road to Kedron in 1913-14, Wooloowin really boomed as a residential working class suburb.
In 1911, the Wooloowin Progress Association was formed. Its first secretary was Mr William Alfred Jolly, later Mayor of Windsor, and in 1925, first Lord Mayor of Greater Brisbane. It was largely due to the work of the Wooloowin Progress Association, who formed a school building committee in October 1911, that the Wooloowin State School was established. Prior to 1914, Wooloowin children attended the overcrowded state schools at Eagle Junction and Bowen Bridge Road.
The Department of Public Instruction purchased Nolan's Paddock, a three acre site on Lutwyche Road, for £1,200, and the design for a new school for this site was prepared in the Government Architect's Office of the Department of Public Works in 1913.
Alfred Barton Brady was employed with the Queensland Government as Government Architect from 1892-1922. Brady claimed that he always advised on arrangement, style and materials, but it appears that his senior assistant, Thomas Pye supervised much of the detailed design. During the 30 years they worked together in the Department, Brady and Pye assembled a talented group of architects and draftsmen who were considered the equal of any in Australia, including from 1893 to 1903 John Smith Murdoch, who was to become Commonwealth Director-General of Works in 1927. From the office of the Government Architect there developed a tradition of fine government buildings, including many post offices, customs houses and court houses throughout the State. The Department of Public Instruction had handled school design and construction between 1879 and 1893, following which responsibility was returned to the Government Architect's office. Some of the more significant early 20th century schools designed by the Government Architect's office include East Brisbane State School (1899-1900) [601476] and Windsor State School (1915-16) [600991], the latter, like Wooloowin State School, erected as a model schools.
At a cost of £3,901, Wooloowin State School was the sixth most expensive Queensland Public Works contract let during the 1913-14 financial year, and was intended as a model or 'show' school. The foundation stone was laid early in 1914 by the Secretary for Public Instruction, the Hon. J Blair (later Chief Justice Sir James Blair), and the school was opened on 15 September 1914 with 266 pupils. It comprised four large classrooms in two single-storeyed brick wings, with 10 feet wide verandahs front and back and head teachers' room and staff room attached to the front wing. The new classrooms were furnished with the most modern two-student desks with tip-up seats, providing considerably more elbow room than the old forms and desks, and with large green 'blackboards' rather than the old board and easel. The staff for this model school was specially chosen from amongst Queensland's finest state school teachers.
Wooloowin State School was constructed at a time of educational experimentation in Queensland. 1914 saw the establishment of the first teacher training college in Brisbane, and a reworking of the curriculum which had been experimented with since 1905. In 1915, a new syllabus was introduced to Brisbane state schools. Continuing the emphasis of the previous decade on correlation of subjects, practical application, self-activity of pupils and character development, the new syllabus now provided for 'kindergarten occupations' in infant grades; formally included school gardening in the curriculum - this could become a compulsory subject in schools where the teacher adopted it as a form of nature study; encouraged the extension of manual training and domestic science in primary schools - usually where teaching staff from technical colleges were available; and made needlework compulsory for girls. School inspectors continued to emphasise the importance of formal academic studies, but schools were broadening their outlook on what constituted useful, practical knowledge and character building activities, concentrating on the development of the whole child rather than on rote learning.
One aspect of modern progressive education was the encouragement of sports, particularly swimming. In 1908, a number of metropolitan teachers who were keen to encourage swimming amongst school children formed the State Schools Amateur Swimming Association. By 1914, 34 clubs had been formed. These clubs apparently catered only for boys, and in 1911 a State Schools Girls' Amateur Swimming Association was formed, with 28 schools affiliated by 1914. As well as swimming instruction, life-saving was taught in many schools. Keen to promote their school as one of the most modern in the state, the Wooloowin State School building committee financed construction of a swimming pool, 42 feet long, 16 feet wide and 5 feet deep at the deepest end, in 1916. This pool was enlarged to its present size in 1925.
In 1918, woodwork and domestic science were added to the school curriculum, although no classrooms appear to have been designated specifically for these subjects. It is understood that Wooloowin was the first primary school to introduce these subjects, as provided for under the new syllabus provisions of 1915.
The first addition to the school was constructed in 1918. It was a brick building, with 10ft wide verandahs; roughcast externally and roofed with asbestos slate, which mirrored the 1914 side wing. This brought the number of classrooms to six, and was opened in September 1918. By 1921, school enrolment had grown to over 800, and in 1923 plans were prepared for a second addition, a two-storeyed stuccoed brick building with an asbestos slate roof, containing four classrooms on each floor with hatrooms and a verandah and a balcony on the north side. This building was erected in 1925 at a cost of £6,233, and opened in July that year.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Wooloowin continued to expand as a working class residential suburb. By the early 1930s, population pressure again necessitated additions to the Wooloowin State School, and in 1934 a three-storeyed brick wing was constructed on the northern side of the site. It had a face brick and roughcast exterior, fibro cement slates to match existing buildings, and 10ft wide balconies on each floor. Each of the upper floors had four classrooms, and the lower storey contained purpose-equipped domestic science and manual training rooms. In the 1930s and 1940s, students from Windsor State School, further south along Lutwyche Road, attended woodwork and domestic science classes at Wooloowin State School's new facilities.
The 1934 building was the last of the additions. In the second half of the 20th century, Wooloowin State School enrolments steadily declined as the surrounding area changed demographically toward an older population.
","criteria":"Wooloowin State School is important for its association with progressive, early 20th century education in Queensland, being constructed in 1914 as a 'show' suburban primary school, the quality of the building, furnishings, equipment, facilities, curriculum and staff serving as a model for future state schools.
Wooloowin State School is evidence of the rapid growth of Wooloowin and adjacent areas which accompanied both the expansion of public transport in the area in the early 20th century, (especially the extension of the tramline to Kedron in 1913-14), and the success of the Workers' Dwelling Scheme (1909) which made home ownership accessible to the working class.
|Wooloowin State School is significant as an excellent example of a school building designed for the Queensland climate with wide verandahs and a ventilated roof, and follows a tradition of fine buildings erected by the Queensland Public Works Department. The use of brick and restrained detailing is typical for government buildings of the period.
|Wooloowin State School is significant also as an outstanding example of a school building designed by the office of the Queensland Government Architect, which at the time was the equal of any architectural office in Australia. It is exceptional in its quality and form and displays characteristics typical of its style through its simple massing, roughcast render and broad roof planes extending over verandahs with projecting gables and ventilators.
|(Criterion under review)
|(Criterion under review)
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16327,"place_ref":601566,"name":"Sandgate Town Hall","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"5 Brighton Road","suburb":"SANDGATE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-01-13","description":"Sandgate Town Hall is a single storeyed masonry building with a partial basement floor. The building has a gabled corrugated-iron roof and features a face brick plinth and rough cast stuccoed facade. It is L-shaped in plan with a prominent clock tower near the intersection of the two wings. The stuccoed tower has face brick corner pilasters and decorative mouldings. A bellcast roof sheeted with decorative pressed metal conceals the three bells and is surmounted by a weathervane.
The town hall has square-arched openings to the Brighton Street wing and round arched openings to the other. The principal entrance, at the corner of the site is defined by two massive ionic columns, behind which a recessed entrance porch is located. The entrance to the current library, on Seymour Street, is emphasised by a decorative parapeted section featuring art nouveau signage 'SANDGATE TOWN COUNCIL AD 1911' and a large round arched opening with floral leadlight window. Other decorative elements include face brick quoining, art nouveau signage, roughcast stucco render in some sections, and dormer windows.
Internally the building features a large hall and stage, a library chamber and various administrative offices. The hall has a mezzanine dress circle level, with early timber and iron row seating. The ceiling of the hall and the proscenium arch are sheeted with decorative pressed metal. The clock tower is accessed in the vestibule at the rear of the dress circle by a fixed timber ladder leading to three levels containing various clock workings, weights and bells.
The library features four different patterns of pressed metal on the ceiling, which indicate the original layout of the space. An early half glazed door in the library has an embossed pattern, featuring lettering 'THE MAYOR' in stylised art nouveau lettering.
","history":"The Sandgate Town Hall was constructed in 1911-12 when the previous chambers were destroyed by fire. The architect of the hall, which cost £5000, was Thomas Ramsay Hall, and the contractor J Gemmell.
Europeans first settled in Sandgate in the 1850s, and the area prospered into the following century as the principal sea-side resort in south east Queensland, encouraged by the introduction of the railway in May 1882. The Town of Sandgate was established in 1902, previously included as part of the Nundah Division from 1879, then established as a separate borough in April 1880.
The first Municipal Council meetings from 1880 until 1882 were held in a large room rented in a masonry building, thought to be the oldest building in Sandgate. The first official Sandgate Municipal Chambers and Town Hall was designed by Richard Gailey in 1882, and built in Kate Street near the popular pier and bathing area in what is now Shorncliffe. However as Sandgate progresses, the centre of development was nearer the railway station in Rainbow Street. Therefore when a fire in 1910 destroyed the chambers a site for the new Town Hall was chosen closer to the railway station and the 1887 post-office.
The foundation stone for the Sandgate Town Hall was laid by Sir William McGregor, Governor of Queensland, in October 1911. The building was constructed by J Gemmell, in eleven months, at a cost of £5000 including £300 for furnishing. Thomas Ramsay Hall, the architect, was then the Town Clerk of Sandgate. Later in his career, Hall went into partnership with GG Prentice (1919-29) and designed such buildings as the Brisbane City Hall and from 1929-48, he was in partnership with LB Phillips with whom he designed many buildings, including Ascot Chambers and the McWhirters corner block.
The Sandgate Town Hall was designed to sit on a prominent corner, and was therefore an L-shaped building with wings extending along both streets; the hall in the Brighton Road wing was accessed from the principal corner entrance and Council Chambers and various offices were accessed from a centrally located entrance on Seymour Street. The rear elevation featured a balcony opening from both the hall and the offices. The clock tower climbed three levels from the cloak room near the principal corner entrance, with room allocated for the clock on the second level and a bell on the third.
The Town Hall was opened in September 1912 by the Governor, at a ceremony attended by 500 people. A four dial clock, acquired from the Ipswich Town Hall by a Brisbane watchmaker, Mr Bright, was installed in the clocktower in 1923. The clock is reputedly one of the oldest working clocks in Brisbane, built by Gillet and Johnstone of Croydon, England in 1877.
Sandgate merged with 19 other local authorities to form the Brisbane City Council, under the requirements of the City of Brisbane Act of 1924, and the Sandgate Town Hall was retained by the new City Council for use as a community hall, variously acting as the library for the school of arts and a health clinic. The Main Hall is currently used for public meetings and other community gatherings the council library operates from the former Council Chambers and offices which were altered for this purpose.
","criteria":"The Sandgate Town Hall provides evidence of the Town of Sandgate in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
|Sandgate Town Hall, erected in 1911-12, is significant as an excellent example of a Federation style civic building in Queensland.
It is an intact example of the civic work of renowned Brisbane architect, Thomas Ramsay Hall.
|The building is a landmark on a prominent site in Sandgate, of particular note for its unusual clocktower, and as an integral element of the precinct including the Post Office and War Memorial Park.
|The building has a long association with the local community as a focal point for social and community functions.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16345,"place_ref":601584,"name":"Graceville Uniting Church Complex","alternate_name":"Graceville Methodist Church","street_address":"215 Oxley Road","suburb":"GRACEVILLE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-09-24","description":"The Graceville Uniting Church and Memorial Hall are sited on a block bounded by Oxley Road, Verney Road East and Addison Road. In addition to the church and hall, the site also contains the original timber church hall and tennis courts. Plantings exist along the Oxley Road elevation of the church.
THE CHURCH
The rendered concrete building is a modestly-sized church (nave approximately 15 metres by 10 metres) laid out with a T-shaped plan (St Anthony's cross) comprising a central nave, transepts and choir. The design of the building, like the adjacent hall, is influenced by an Inter-War Gothic style of architecture.
The front elevation of the church faces Verney Road East and comprises the gabled end of the church, flanked by a projecting octagonal vestry to the west and a projecting tower to the east. The elevation is asymmetrical with the tower dominating. The centre of the gabled end houses a large pointed arched window opening. Located above this is a lancet opening infilled with fixed louvred panels.
The octagonal vestry abuts the western side of the front façade. Supporting the vestry walls are six buttresses, each capped with a pinnacle. Between the buttresses are precast concrete panels with foiled heads. The central panel is infilled with leaded glass. The vestry roof has a central, raised pinnacle which also forms one end of the gable of the nave.
The bell tower, located on the Oxley Road side of the front elevation, is square in plan and capped with an eight-sided spire. The structure is supported by buttresses on the three external corners. The main doors to the church are located in the base of the bell tower. These are accessed via an arched opening on the southern side of the bell tower. This opening is surmounted by a decorative gable supported by paired columns on either side of the door. A ramp leads up to this opening where it is met by decorative timber gates. Tesselated tiles cover the floor of the bell tower. The doors to the church lie at right-angles to the arched opening and gates. Above the doorway on the ground floor are precast concrete panels with foiled heads, surmounted by a horizontal panel with recessed quatrefoil motif. Above this panel are chamfered columns supporting a foiled arcade. Above this is an area of pre-cast concrete tiled, centrally located on which is a lancet window. Surmounting the tower is an eight-side concrete spire.
The side walls of the church consist of a series of reinforced concrete buttresses surmounted by pinnacles. Between these buttresses are infill panels of pre-cast concrete which typically contain three leaded glass lancet windows per panel. These panels are surmounted by pre-cast concrete spandrels featuring a quatrefoil motif.
The transepts lie on the northern end of the building. External access to this portion of the church is via double doors on the truncated corners of both transepts. A six-panelled leaded window is located above each double door. All entrances to the church are flanked by columns either side which support a decorative gable.
The steeply-pitched roof of the church is clad with Wunderlich terracotta tiles. Along the ridge of the roof is a concrete crenellated ridge capping.
Internally, the nave is divided by a central aisle with original timber pews either side. Various memorials are located on the walls and in the leaded windows of the nave, including the windows on the southern wall of the church dedicated to Louisa and Walter Taylor.
The transepts are divided internally to form vestries. The southern portions of both transepts are integrated with the body of the church and contain pews, and a pipe organ is located in the eastern transept. The vestries contain stair access to the choir stalls.
The vestry located on the south-western corner of the church contains a ladder and doorway which provide access to the bell tower and spire.
The pulpit area is surrounded by a communion rail. Access to the pulpit is gained via a set of stairs which continue behind the pulpit to the tiered choir stalls.
The rendered concrete ceiling is suspended below timber roofing members and incorporates simplified Gothic-style tracery and V-shaped coffers.
The main church floor is now a raked concrete slab on ground, however timber flooring survives to the elevated choir.
Internal joinery is generally silky oak including an altered choir front and pulpit.
THE MEMORIAL HALL
The memorial hall is related in style and detailing to the church but is more restrained in its use of the Gothic style. It is also similar in construction to the church, although the hall employs slightly different pre-cast concrete units for the walls.
The main roof is a steeply-pitched timber-framed roof clad in Wunderlich terracotta tiles. A small gable roofed porch abuts the Oxley Road elevation of the building.
The hall is essentially a single large space with a mezzanine at the Oxley Road end. At the opposite end is a stage. Located to either side of the stage is a set of stairs and a doorway providing access to the stage. A kitchen and large kindergarten room forming the L-shaped plan are also located at his end of the hall. The kindergarten lies on the northern side of the stage area. Access to this room is via the stage and an external door in the south-eastern corner of the room. The floor of the kindergarten room is at the same height as the stage.
The front porch area contains World War II memorial elements, including memorial plaques and recent memorial stained glass windows. The windows lie either side of the main entry doors. A door in the southern wall of the hall provides access from the rear of the church directly into the main room of the hall. Windows are typically paired tracery windows with timber sashes. The main floor is timber-framed with a part-basement space underneath.
New brick toilets infill between the rear of the hall and tennis shelter shed.
THE ORIGINAL HALL
The original hall is sited west of the Memorial Hall. It is a timber construction with sash windows, a central gabled projection and a corrugated iron hipped roof. The hall is currently used as part of the tennis court complex.
","history":"The Graceville Uniting Church Complex site consists of the original church hall, erected in 1917; the church, opened in 1930; and the memorial hall, opened in 1951, all to the design of Walter Taylor. Repairs were made to the buildings from the mid-1950s onwards, with a jubilee restoration project to restore the church and memorial hall completed in 1965.
The Graceville Uniting Church (formerly Graceville Methodist Church) was originally part of the Sherwood circuit. In August 1914, it was deemed advisable to start a Sunday School in Graceville. The Sunday School was given the use of sheds on the Graceville recreation grounds, however, by 1917 the Sunday School had outgrown this accommodation. In January 1917, Messrs Taylor, Draper and Hedges were appointed to a committee to investigate a possible site for additional accommodation. Verney Road, east of Graceville Railway Station, was selected as the most central and appropriate site. Within a few days, Mr Taylor was approached by Mr Keid regarding eight allotments in Addison, Verney and Oxley Roads which were for sale for £135. Taylor paid a deposit of £10 to secure the property. In February 1917, the church decided to purchase three blocks - Allotments 299, 300 and 301 for £60, purchasing the other five allotments two years later for £75. The land was registered on 22 August 1917 as the property of the Methodist Church, with four nominated trustees. The new trustees agreed to secure a loan of £125 to build a new hall on the site. Taylor was appointed Honorary Architect and supervisor of the project and it was agreed that the hall was to be built by voluntary labour.
The new hall was opened on 3 November 1917 by the President of the Methodist Conference, Rev. W. Brown. Its construction was the result of community effort, built with the donation of various materials and voluntary labour. Taylor was heavily involved in the project - he drew the plans, prepared the specifications and supervised the work. The hall had the seating capacity of 120 people. While built for the Sunday School, the hall was also used for Sunday evening services, and for community events, such as community meetings, debating and concerts. At the end of 1917, the Graceville congregation became a separate entity from the Sherwood congregation. The Sunday School continued to grow, prompting a request for Taylor to prepare plans of an extension to the hall. Taylor volunteered to supervise the construction of the extensions and they were completed by his staff by 4 February 1924.
In 1928, the Church Trustees empowered Walter Taylor to devise plans for a new church on the corner of Verney and Oxley Roads. The foundation stone was laid on Saturday 2 March 1929 at a ceremony presided over by the President of the Queensland Methodist Conference. Like the hall, the construction of the church was a community effort, with the donation of labour, cash and much of the construction material including filling, fencing, concrete foundations, reinforcing steel, bearers, floor joists, timber for roof construction and cathedral glass for windows. The congregation had intended to complete the superstructure of the church without borrowing any money, however the economics of the time were against them. Being the time of the Depression, many of the men of the parish were unemployed, on relief work, and so were unable to give money as generously as they had done in the past. £500 was borrowed from the Methodist Loan Fund.
The church was opened by His Excellency the Governor, Sir John Goodwin, on 29 November 1930. Tribute was paid to the architect and builder of the church, Walter Taylor, with the congregation's appreciation expressed in the erection of a marble slab and framed photographs of Walter and Louisa Taylor in the church.
According to The Queensland Methodist Times, the use of the Perpendicular Gothic style was an innovation in Methodist architecture. The precast concrete parts were made in Walter Taylor's workshop, moved to the site and "placed in position like masonry". "They were laced together with steel and concrete providing a building of extra-ordinary strength, without in any way detracting from the gracefulness of design"... After the buttresses were erected, walls, panels and window jambs at the top and filled in with concrete slabs, formed a broken surface, "with a very pleasing effect". A parapet with a counterfoil design was mounted on top of the walls between the buttresses, and was broken by a pointed turret over each buttress. "Rapid hardening cement and reinforced concrete have made it possible to construct on a very modest scale a building containing all the essential features".
Cruciform in plan, the church was symbolic in its representation of part of the Scriptures - a parable in stone. The exterior walls were to be constructed from 34 buttresses which represent the 34 years of Christ's life on earth. Curiously, the building only has 33 buttresses. The walls between the buttresses were divided into seven - the perfect number in the Bible. There are three windows in each bay - a trinity of light. The building featured 1450 Gothic arches and 8000 panes of tinted Cathedral glass.
In November 1937, two trees were given to the church by Mrs Taylor and planted in the church grounds. Various other additions were made to the church, including a photograph frame containing pictures of past ministers, a baptismal font, a pulpit, and a memorial plaque to commemorate Brother James William Roberts.
At a Trustees Meeting on 15 November 1944, a letter from Taylor was read which stated that the time was opportune to launch a scheme to build a memorial hall and to simultaneously pay off the church debt. Plans proposed by Taylor were presented to the meeting and the committee agreed to go ahead with the construction of the hall which would be a memorial to those who served in World War Two and would be used by the Sunday School and church societies.
The foundation stone of the memorial hall was laid on 20 September 1947 by Mr W.H. Green. Taylor recommended that the front and side fence of the church be removed. The good portions were re-erected at the side of the hall and the broken pieces were used in the foundations. After delays caused by shortages of materials and Bureau of Industry concerns, the memorial hall was officially opened on 1 December 1951. Apart from the honour board remembering those who feel in World War Two, the memorial also contained many tributes to former church members.
From the 1950s, various renovations and modifications were carried out on the Graceville Uniting Church. In 1955 repairs were needed to the church floor and to the roof, and in November 1956 the vestry roof and floor of the tower were resurfaced. A new concrete sump was placed under the church and an automatic electric pump to remove water from the sump was installed. A 1957 report by architects Cook and Kerrison, found the church in serious need of repair. It was agreed to allow Cook and Kerrison to proceed with preparing specifications for renewing the floor and box guttering. The trustees approved that the new church floor should be concrete with a suitable covering. The £1972 tender of A.L. Paice was accepted. To complete the work, the existing pulpit and communion rail were removed and later re-installed to one side. In 1958 a new septic toilet block was constructed and a new memorial window was unveiled in the church. A new organ was donated in 1959. The interior of the church was also repainted by Ash and Nephew, and Brisbane Lead Light Service repaired and installed various windows. In 1960 new stairs from the Minister's Vestry to the choir stalls were constructed, and in 1962 a new pulpit chair was installed.
In about March 1962 Louisa Taylor died and in accordance with the will of Walter Taylor the overdraft and the balance owed to the Methodist Loan Fund were liquidated. The two large windows at the Verney Road end of the church were dedicated as memorial windows to Mr and Mrs Taylor.
In 1963 the original Trustee committee was replaced by the Property Board of Graceville Methodist Church who selected the restoration of the church and memorial hall as its jubilee project. The most important issues were the spalling of the concrete in the hall and church owing to the penetration of moisture which caused the steel reinforcing to rust, and damage and disfigurement caused by pigeon droppings. The restoration work was completed in 1965 by Building Plastics. The project involved cutting out loose concrete where spalling was evident, cleaning, treating the steel reinforcement and repairing the concrete. All loose paint and moss was removed, anti-mould solution was applied, a sealer coat was added as well as a coat of bitumen and woven fibreglass cloth was used to cover all the cracks and repairs. Finally two more coats of bitumen, two colour coats and two coats of clear plastic were applied. The new colour chosen was beige. In 1965 the tennis courts were also improved and the retired men of the parish gave up their Friday afternoons to improved the church grounds.
Throughout the late 1960s, several other additions and improvements were made. New carpet and linoleum was laid, three of the church windows were replaced, the church was rewired, lighting in the choir lofts was added and a beam under the Vestry floor was strengthened. A new organ was purchased, a memorial side pulpit was built, and three memorial chairs and a carved timber flower stand was installed. In the 1970s the hall was renovated as were the two tennis courts. In 1980 the choir vestry floor was repaired and tiled, and the tiles in the church were also cleaned. A concrete ramp to facilitate wheelchair access was installed, new stainless steel guttering was added to the church roof, and the old hall was renovated.
After the formation of the Uniting Church in 1977, the Graceville Parish remained a part of the Sherwood Parish until 1988. Since then Graceville has been a separate Uniting Church parish.
","criteria":"The church and hall are significant as good representative examples of the Inter-War Gothic Style of architecture. The church and hall are important for their aesthetic and architectural significance as well composed, unusual buildings and as important landmark elements of the streetscape. In particular, the church tower and spire is dominant in the streetscape and provides a local landmark.
The method of construction used on both the church and the hall was radically different to conventional construction techniques of the time, and as such demonstrate a high degree of technical achievement in the early use of pre-cast concrete in Queensland.
Since opening, the church and the hall have been in continuous use providing for the spiritual, recreational and social needs of the Graceville Community, creating a strong and special association with the site. The church and hall are significant for their strong association with prominent builder, Walter Taylor, who designed the buildings, devised their unusual construction method and supervised their construction. Taylor was also a major financial contributor to the construction of the complex, and included expressions of his faith in the design and layout of the church in which he worshipped for many years. Taylor was a major building contractor in Brisbane, known particularly for his reinforced concrete buildings and structures. His most famous work was the Walter Taylor bridge, constructed in 1935 as a toll bridge over the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly.
|The church and hall are significant as good representative examples of the Inter-War Gothic Style of architecture.
|The church and hall are important for their aesthetic and architectural significance as well composed, unusual buildings and as important landmark elements of the streetscape. In particular, the church tower and spire is dominant in the streetscape and provides a local landmark.
|The method of construction used on both the church and the hall was radically different to conventional construction techniques of the time, and as such demonstrate a high degree of technical achievement in the early use of pre-cast concrete in Queensland.
|Since opening, the church and the hall have been in continuous use providing for the spiritual, recreational and social needs of the Graceville Community, creating a strong and special association with the site.
|The church and hall are significant for their strong association with prominent builder, Walter Taylor, who designed the buildings, devised their unusual construction method and supervised their construction. Taylor was also a major financial contributor to the construction of the complex, and included expressions of his faith in the design and layout of the church in which he worshipped for many years. Taylor was a major building contractor in Brisbane, known particularly for his reinforced concrete buildings and structures. His most famous work was the Walter Taylor bridge, constructed in 1935 as a toll bridge over the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16346,"place_ref":601585,"name":"Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church","alternate_name":"White Temple of Peace | Our Lady of Victories Church","street_address":"29 Cintra Road","suburb":"BOWEN HILLS","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1996-11-11","description":"Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church is sited near the apex of Bowen Hill, overlooking the Brisbane River. It is on a large site incorporating a presbytery to the east and a school and scout hall to the west. The church addresses both Roche and Boyd Streets.
The building is essentially rectangular in plan, running east west, with shallow transepts toward the western end of the north and south facades. Semi-octagonal recesses are found as small entrance vestibules on the transept ends, as the sanctuary and vestry of the church, as altar recesses in the side chapels flanking the principal altar and in a Baptistry toward the eastern end of the southern façade. The burnt orange terracotta tiled roof is generally gabled with hips to the polygonal projections. The building is constructed from re-inforced concrete the exterior is rendered with textured stucco, except to mouldings which are smoothly rendered.
Dominating the building visually is a large square planned tower abutting the eastern end of the northern facade. The tower, which extends for 90 feet has long narrow rectangular openings on its shaft and shallow balcony-like sections of concreted balustrading supported on decorative moulded corbels. These balconies are found on each of the four sides and are accessible by door openings on the top level of the tower. Heavy mouldings define the upper limits of the tower above which is a bell shaped cupola roof clad with copper sheeting and surmounted by an illuminated Latin cross.
The principal eastern façade faces the Brisbane River, looking toward the bend where the Bulimba and Hamilton Reaches converge. The elevation is symmetrically composed and defined by a decorative parapeted gabled, where a moulded capping follows the curves and notches of a Cape Dutch gable outline. Featured on the elevation are several groups of round headed arched openings; a porch/loggia is formed by a recess separated from a wide concrete stairway by an arcade of three arched openings supported on large cast iron columns; centrally located on the façade above this is a doubled arched opening with a lightly framed Juliet balcony flanked by groups of three arched window openings. Centrally placed near the apex of the parapet is a large diamond mullioned 'rose' window. Surmounting the apex of the gable is a masonry Latin cross.
The north and south facades have five evenly spaced round headed arched openings separated by shallow smoothly rendered pilasters. The windows are composed from two strips of four top-hinged hoppers filled with diamond mullioned glass, above which is placed a semi circular window glazed with a leadlight panel depicting a rising sun. The transepts of the church, on the north and south façades feature similar, but smaller, versions of the eastern parapeted gable. Doorways are formed in the semi-octagonal recesses centrally located on the transepts. Long round-headed arched openings are found on the octagonal projection and flanking this, on the face of the transept end.
The western facade has two parapeted gable walls, one slightly smaller in front of a larger version, defining the chancel space. The smaller gabled wall is abutted by a single storeyed semi-octagonal projection housing the vestry.
The porch on the eastern façade houses a recessed porch and the walls of the porch have been smooth rendered and scribed with ashlar stonework joints. The double entrance door of timber is surmounted by a semi-circular fan light of leadlight depicting the rising sun and cross.
Internally, the church does not reflect the Spanish mission dictum influencing the design of the exterior. The interior has a concrete floor with sections of ceramic tile and carpeting added more recently, the internal walls are plaster rendered. The ceiling, which is diagonally timber boarded in alternating sections, rakes downward on the long sides of the building. The internal layout is very simple, with timber pews facing toward an altar area comprising a low marble platform on which a marble altar table. Behind this in the chancel with a marble high altar. The shallow chancel is side lit by long round-headed arched windows, and separated from the body of the church by a large round headed arched opening and smaller double arched openings separating the transepts.
To the north and south of the entrance doors are two small rooms, the southern one a former baptistery and to the north the base of the tower. Inside the tower is a steep open tread timber stair which leads to a top floor where four door openings give access to shallow balconies. The timber stair also gives access to a gallery, supported on cast iron columns, which lines the eastern, rear face of the interior of the Church. Provision is given off the gallery for access to the small Juliet balcony on the eastern façade of the building.
The arched window openings which line the north and south walls of the church are housed in arched recesses, in the spandrels of which sit the corbelled supports of the timber ceiling joists. The windows are glazed with diamond mullioned glass in varying shades of blue and green forming geometric patterns.
Notable fittings in the church include the marble high altar, confessional boxes, stations of the cross, a shrine to Our Lady of Czestochowa and statues in the side altar recesses. The high altar is of white marble with green marble detailing and is centrally placed within the chancel below a 'rose' window glazed with coloured glass depicting a crown and cross within a circle surmounted by a fleur-di-lis. Two timber confessional boxes are found at the rear of the church. These are separated into three small rooms with a small perforated timber panel with sliding closing panel in the two internal connecting walls. The timber framed stations of the cross are surmounted by a broken pedimented entablature similar to those which surmount the two confessional boxes.
","history":"Our Lady of Victories Church was constructed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane in 1924-5 as a Memorial to Roman Catholic soldiers and sailors who fell during World War I. The church was designed by prolific Brisbane architects Messrs TR Hall and GG Prentice.
\nOur Lady of Victories was the first Church built for the newly created Bowen Hills parish during a period of unprecedented growth in building stock of the Roman Catholic Church in Queensland after James Duhig was appointed as Archbishop in 1917. Duhig had served as Co-adjator Archbishop to his aging predecessor, Archbishop Dunne since 1912 and it was from this time that Duhig planned immense growth within the Church. This growth was manifest by the large number of churches, schools, convents and presbyteries built increasing the church's presence in Queensland. In the 16 years between 1912 and 1928 over 100 Roman Catholic churches were constructed in the Brisbane Archdiocese.
\nIn November 1917 Duhig purchased part of an old estate known as Folkstone belonging to William Perry. In 1866 Perry bought the property which contained an early 1860s timber bungalow thought to have been built for a Mr Keand. The property initially belonged to James Gibbon who acquired a deed of grant from the New South Wales Government over the land in 1857. After acquisition by the Perry family numerous changes were made to the bungalow and it was given the name Folkstone. The Perry family were well known in Brisbane as ironmongers since 1860 and a building, Perry House, at the corner of Albert and Elizabeth Streets in Brisbane still bears the family name. In about 1912 the bungalow was destroyed by fire and subsequently the block was sub-divided allowing the Archbishop to purchase the land and propose the construction of a church in the newly created parish.
\nThe foundation stone for the memorial church was laid on 24 August 1919 by the Apostolic Delegate, Bishop Cattaneo \"to the Glory of God and in memory of the Catholic Sailors and Soldiers of Queensland who fought and died in the Great European War 1914-1919\". A publication detailing the development of the Catholic Church in Queensland, Catholic Progress 1912-1919, contained a lengthy article on the Soldiers Memorial Church at Bowen Hills then in planning stages. The article was illustrated with plans and elevations of a large brick and cement Gothic church featuring an enormous tower and spire extending some 124 feet. The plans were drawn by Messrs Hall and Prentice. The reason for the alteration in building design is unknown; though obviously the Spanish mission building constructed was much less expensive than the elaborate and massive building initially intended for the site.
\nThe church which was eventually blessed and opened on 26 April of 1925 by Archbishop Duhig was constructed by H. Cheetham costing £9435, which included £400 for the architects, Messrs Hall and Prentice. The church, called Our Lady of Victories Church, was designed in a manner incorporating many Spanish mission elements, a style of influence and popularity in Australia during the inter-war period. Popularised by movies from Hollywood during the 1920s and 1930s, the Spanish mission style was inspired by picturesque Californian Spanish missions. Many of the external details on the Bowen Hills church suggest a strong influence of this style, most obviously in the baroque parapeted gables, groups of round-headed arched openings, textured stucco render and several semi-octagonal projections. The interior of the church does not exhibit the strong stylistic intention apparent externally.
\nHall and Prentice formed when TR Hall formed a partnership with GG Prentice in 1919. The partnership was responsible for several notable examples of Spanish mission inspired architecture in south-east Queensland. Examples include two bathing pavilions (1934) and a surf life saving club (1936) at Southport and Breffney, a large house in Clayfield (1929). The Spanish mission style was used for other Queensland churches, thought to be an appropriate style for sub-tropical weather and an appropriate use of what was an ecclesiastical inspired style. Churches with Spanish Mission features include St Peters Roman Catholic Church in Rockhampton (c1937); Our Lady of the Chain Roman Catholic Church, Mareeba (1936) designed by VM Brown; Holy Trinity Church at Woolloongabba (1930) designed by Chambers and Ford and St Anne's at Kalinga, designed in 1934 by Hennessey and Hennessey.
\nWhen the church was opened, Our Lady of Victories was regarded as quite unique. The report in a local Catholic newspaper, The Age, regarded \"its mission type of architecture...the first of its kind in Australia\". The report continued on to describe the large electrically illuminated cross which surmounted the tower, as a perpetual light commemorating the armed forces of World War I. Many other details in the church manifested its intention as the principal Roman Catholic war memorial in Brisbane; the coloured glass panels depicting the AIF symbol of the rising sun; and an honour roll at the base of the tower (since removed).
\nThe first parish priest appointed to Bowen Hills was Reverend Father ES Barry, a former Armed Forces chaplain. In 1920 land, also part of the Perry Estate, was purchased adjacent to the church block by James Duhig for the construction of a presbytery. A school was constructed to the north west of the church, the foundations stone for which was laid on 18 September 1921 by Duhig.
\nIt is suggested that the Bowen Hills parish was never particularly large and this was a principal reason explaining why Archbishop Duhig handed the church and parish over to the Polish Community in Brisbane in 1955. In October of that year Franciscan Brothers of the Capuchin Order in Australia were appointed to the parish of Bowen Hills and undertook to provide services in both English and Polish, a tradition which continues in 1996.
\nThe Polish community remain at the church and have made very little changes to the building fabric. A shrine to Our Lady of Czestochowa was erected near the altar in 1962 to commemorate 1000 years of Christianity in Poland (966-1966). A memorial plaque was attached to the eastern facade of the building in 1980 to honour the \"memory of 14 000 Polish Prisoners of War massacred by Soviet Forces at Katyn and elsewhere in USSR in 1940.\" Another cairn memorial was moved from the Polish Community Centre in Capalaba to the southern side of the building, commemorating Polish soldiers who fought during World War II.
","criteria":"Our Lady of Victories Church demonstrates the Catholic ethos of utilising prominent Brisbane sites with landmark buildings in a time of Church expansion during the early tenure of Archbishop Duhig who sought to increase the presence of the Catholic Church in Brisbane. The church is a memorial to Catholic soldiers and sailors and demonstrates the widespread construction of memorials after World War I. The building, which has been managed by the Polish community in Brisbane for many years, also demonstrates the influx of European migrants after the Second World War.
|The building is a rare example of a Catholic Church built as a war memorial to World War I. Many features of the church reflect this initial purpose including glazing, memorial plaques and an illuminated cross surmounting the tower.
|The building is a good example of a Catholic church built during the 'golden years' of the church in Brisbane as a prominent landmark. The church is a good and early Brisbane example of a Catholic Church designed within the stylistic canon of Spanish Mission architecture.
|Our Lady of Victories Church has aesthetic value; it is a well composed building with Spanish mission elements which contribute to its picturesqueness. It is a prominently sited landmark in Brisbane.
|The building, which has been managed by the Polish community in Brisbane for many years, also demonstrates the influx of European migrants after the Second World War.
The Church has strong associations with the Catholic Church community in Brisbane, particularly Polish Catholics who have managed the building for about 40 years.
|Our Lady of Victories Church demonstrates the Catholic ethos of utilising prominent Brisbane sites with landmark buildings in a time of Church expansion during the early tenure of Archbishop Duhig who sought to increase the presence of the Catholic Church in Brisbane. The church is a memorial to Catholic soldiers and sailors and demonstrates the widespread construction of memorials after World War I.
The church is strongly associated with Archbishop Duhig, who bought the site initially and planned the construction of a church in the newly created Bowen Hills parish.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16355,"place_ref":601594,"name":"Newstead Gasworks No.2 gasholder (remnants) and guide framing","alternate_name":"Brisbane Gas Company Gasworks","street_address":"70 Longland Street","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-06-24","description":"All items of gas manufacture, such as retort houses, exhausters, condensers, gasification plants, scrubbers, washers, purifiers, have been demolished. Most of these lay on the eastern side of the site. The weighbridge and the compressor house have also been demolished.
\nThe only remaining items of historical engineering interest remaining on site include the Newstead Gasworks No.2 gasholder (remnants) and guide framing. The facility originally had a double-lift 500,000 cu. ft. capacity and was re-crowned in 1937.
","history":"The Newstead Gasworks was established in 1887, as the second Brisbane gasworks. The surviving Newstead Gasworks No.2 gasholder (remnants) and guide framing was erected at that time and was probably moved from the original gas works site at Petrie Bight where it was erected in 1873.
\nFrom 1861 to 1864, Brisbane's population more than doubled, to 12,551. In the mid-1860s, Brisbane's infrastructure blossomed, with construction of the first cross-river bridge, a new Town Hall, a vastly improved water supply and its first gasworks. Commercial gas supply originated in London in 1812, Sydney in 1841 and Melbourne in 1856.
\nThe Brisbane Municipal Council was anxious to provide street lighting, for which gas was seen as the only feasible system. Earlier in the decade, the Colonial Government, supposedly for health reasons, refused permission for the Council to establish a gasworks on a site at Petrie's Bight. On the same site, however, in 1864, the Government authorised private enterprise to establish this new public utility. Central to these decisions was the Minister for Lands and Works, Arthur Macalister, then at the epicentre of friction between the Government and the Brisbane Council, friction which has erupted on several occasions ever since.
\nOne of the founding directors of the Company in 1864 was Lewis Adolphus Bernays, secretary for the first 37 years, and eventually a board member, of the (Brisbane) Board of Waterworks. Bernays, also listed in Who's Who from 1851-1905, was prominent in a number of Queensland organisations including the Acclimatisation Society, and held the position of clerk of the Legislative Assembly.
\nBrisbane Gas Company production started at Petrie Bight in November 1865. The streets of Brisbane were lit. Soon after, however, Council's arrears of payment resulted in its gas being turned off, with the streets plunged back into darkness. The streets remained unlit until the Council's (and the Colony's) financial situation had recovered sufficiently, in 1870. By 1873, the boot was on the other foot. The Council's cash flow had recovered, but gas flow could not satisfy demand. The Company duly solved the problem by installing another, larger (No.2) gasholder (probably known then as a gasometer).
\nThe 81 year long association of the Cowlishaw family with the board of the Company started in this same year of 1873. James Cowlishaw, later the Hon. James Cowlishaw, MLC, an architect, was Chairman for 41years. He served on the board for a total of 45 years. His brother George also served on the board for 28 years from 1884. James Cowlishaw was succeeded in the chair by his son Thomas O Cowlishaw, who served for 34 years until 1954. A fourth Cowlishaw, George O Cowlishaw, was involved with the Company in 1939.
\nThe main demand for gas during the 1870s was probably for lighting, and the Municipal Council was almost certainly the Brisbane Gas Company's biggest customer. After the financial woes of the later 1860s there followed two decades of steady growth in Brisbane, reflected in an increase of demand for gas, for both lighting and for domestic and industrial fuel. Supply was expanded to, among other places, South Brisbane. The Company had outgrown the Petrie's Bight site, and acquired 22 acres of suitable land at Newstead, in 1883. Further adjoining land was bought in 1885 to facilitate the Company's first major expansion.
\nThe Company's engineer for the shift from Petrie Bight to Newstead was JH Tomlinson, arriving in 1880 from a previous appointment in Birmingham. He presumably managed the design, supply and erection of the new gasworks. The equipment, much of it imported from England, was landed at the Company's wharf at the river frontage of the site. The Company first manufactured and stored town gas at Newstead in 1887 after a period of 22 years manufacture at Petrie Bight.
\nAs part of the shift to Newstead, the Petrie's Bight gasholder No.2, constructed in 1873 from puddled iron, was re-erected on the recently acquired land at Longland Street. No.1 gasholder remained at Petrie Bight. At this time, the first weight-controlled governor would have been installed in its governor house.
\nJust as had occurred in the early 1860s, the land boom of the 1880s was reflected in booming demand for gas. Events proved that there was room for a second gasworks. The South Brisbane Gas and Light Company Limited was formed in 1885, entered the market very aggressively, and produced its first gas at the end of 1886. By this time, gas was increasingly in use for domestic fuel as well as for lighting. A price-cutting war lasted until 1889 when the companies, without any concerns about restrictive trade practices, carved Brisbane up into north and south of the river as their respective marketing territories. It was not until the Gas Act of 1916 that the Government saw fit to look more closely at the cosy arrangements between gas companies, which by that stage included the Wynnum and Manly Gas and Lighting Company Limited, formed in 1912. The Act dealt with product quality and pressure, and provided for gas examiners. Price was also dealt with. (A later piece of legislation, the Profiteering Prevention Act, also encompassed gas).
\nA further consideration in the 1880s was the emergence in Brisbane of electricity generation for power and lighting. Eventually, as electricity technology advanced, gas lighting would literally fade into the background, the demand for gas as fuel outstripping the demand for use for lighting. Active defence was mounted to protect the gas companies' interests in lighting, and it was not until 1917 that the first permanent electric lighting took to the streets of Brisbane.
\nThe demise of gas lighting would not have been immediate, and the demand for gas continued to grow. In 1929, No.3 gasholder at Doggett Street was commissioned, a four-lift frame-guided steel tank gasholder, again made from puddled iron, with a capacity of 2,500,000 cu. ft. (70,800 m3), by far the largest in Brisbane.
\nIn 1937, gasholder No.2 was fitted with a new crown of riveted steel plate.
\nIn the post-W.W.II period, demand for gas again boomed, to such an extent that at one stage some 5000 newly constructed northside dwellings were completed without their gas having been connected. The core of the problem lay in English gasworks manufacturers' inability to deliver. A major retort augmentation planned for completion in 1950 finally came on stream in 1954, but not until an emergency measure had been taken to erect a Humphreys and Glasgow water-gas plant, for which coke was the feedstock. This came on stream just in time for the winter of 1953.
\nWhen dieselisation of the Queensland Railways took place in the 1960s, it was judged that there would be a risk of serious damage if a locomotive were to derail near No.2 gasholder. Accordingly, a reinforced concrete wall was built as a shield between the railway spur line and the gasholder. Diesel locomotives were seen as a greater risk than their apparently cuddly coal-fired steam counterparts that had used the same track, in the same proximity, for the previous half-century.
\nBy 1965, No.1 gasholder in Ann Street had been dismantled. In 1999, so had No.3, and No.2 has been disabled by splitting a hole in the crown plating, leaving the inside of the gasholder exposed to a moist oxidising atmosphere, ideal conditions for rapid rust.
\nGas manufacture
\nThe foregoing history has been compiled in the context of gas storage, with the emphasis on the remaining No.2 gasholder (remnants) and guide framing, which has stored and delivered both town gas and natural gas.
\nThe sources of gasholder feed have been a series of gas manufacturing plants on the site, of which there are none left. The size and programming of the manufacturing plants have been determined by several factors:
\n(i) Current technology, both of outlet appliances and gas manufacture technology;
\n(ii) Demand, always closely related to population growth and economic conditions;
\n(iii) Feedstock
\n(iv) Working conditions at the gasworks.
\nThe following is a brief history of the major manufacturing installations at Newstead since 1887.
\nThe first manufacture at Newstead in 1887 was in a retort house containing ten benches of manually operated horizontal retorts. Feedstock was Ipswich coking coal. Output was \"town\" gas.
\nA new 1,500,000 cu. ft. per day West's vertical retort house, embarked upon during World War I, was eventually completed in 1920, with six settings of eight 33\" (825mm) vertical retorts 20 ft long.
\nIn 1926, a Whessoe washer was imported, used to remove ammonia and naphthalene after completion of all other purification.
\nA further ten benches were added to the horizontal retort house in 1927 when the horizontal retort house was revamped to mechanical operation.
\nSeveral additions were made in 1947, in preparation for a major increase in plant capacity planned to be on stream by 1950. A Woodhall-Duckham electrostatic de-tarrer was imported from England, and a Livesay washer was constructed locally. These were of 4,000,000 cu. ft. per day capacity, matching the capacity of the proposed new Glover-West plant on order from England. Also, constructed locally to (English) Holmes design, multi-film washers. Additional Connersville meters were also installed.
\nThe new Glover-West vertical retort carbonising plant, with a capacity of 4,000,000 cu. ft. per day, was eventually opened in 1954. In view of delays in supply of specialised plant from post-war England, a Humphreys-Glasgow carburetted water-gas plant was installed as an emergency measure by MR Hornibrook Pty Ltd, prior to the winter of 1953. While less efficient than the carbonisation process, this process, one of several known as gasification, used coke as its feedstock and was more easily automated. It is probable that the Bryan-Donkin diaphragm-operated governors, housed immediately to the north of and in series with the original governor, were installed as part of the 1954 revamp.
\nWith the arrival of natural gas, the retort houses and the water-gas plant were duly retired from service, to be replaced, in 1968 with a Vickers-Zimmer plant, supplemented in 1973 by an Onia-Geigy plant ex Adelaide. These gasification plants synthesised town gas from oil refinery material and natural gas, until the eventual 1996 conversion of the older suburbs to natural gas.
\nThe older carbonisation plants were demolished in 1994, and the gasification plants in 1999, along with gasholder No.3 in Doggett Street. In 2002, approval was given to demolish the brick governor houses and to remove associated machinery and pipe work, to demolish the storage shed and concrete safety wall, and to construct new commercial buildings and an adjacent road surrounding the gasometer. Approval was also given to excavate the site and remove its crown and inner gaslifts.
","criteria":"The Newstead Gasworks No.2 gasholder (remnants) and guide framing demonstrates the growth and development pattern of the reticulation of a major public utility, the gas supply and its infrastructure, in Brisbane and northern Brisbane suburbs from the 1860s through to the 1990s. Town gas was among the earliest of innovations that significantly improved the quality of life in the burgeoning city of Brisbane, particularly in the boom periods of the 1860s and 1880s.
\n\n
|
The remnants of the gasholder and guide framing represents the last of the frame-guided type remaining in Brisbane, and possibly in Queensland. The Newstead No.2 gasholder (remnants) and guide framing, constructed in 1873 from puddled iron and part of the former Petrie Bight gasworks (1865-1887), is significant for its rarity, its robustness and its association with Queensland's first gasworks and a major public utility for 125 years.
|The place has the potential to yield information about the evolving technology of manufacture and distribution of town and natural gas in Brisbane and northern Brisbane suburbs over a period of 125 years.
|One of the principal characteristics of a gasworks was its gasholder storage and other necessarily robust but sensitive and reliable machinery and apparatus required for drawing from the storage. At the Newstead site, the remaining gasholder (remnants) and guide framing demonstrates some of these characteristics of the gasworks.
|Large round structures are unusual and attractive, particularly in areas of predominantly angular commercial and industrial construction such as Newstead. Aesthetically, the cylindrical gasholder with its spherical crown, even when empty, was both interesting and elegant. The aesthetic is further enhanced by the slightly ornate frame-guide structure.
|For over 100 years, passers-by along Breakfast Creek Road, Longland and Ann Streets, as well as residents of and workers in the area, would have seen No.2 gasholder in various states of filling, silently performing its important function of storing and feeding out the gas supply. For these communities, the gasholder (remnants) and guide framing was and is an important landmark. The material remaining on the site carries with it a strong association with these communities.
|The gasworks site has a special association with a vital public utility, Brisbane's gas supply, for over a century. Prominent figures with long and close associations with the gasworks included Lewis Adolphus Bernays (associated between 1864-1908) and the Hon James Cowlishaw (associated between 1873-1920).
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16356,"place_ref":601595,"name":"West End Gasworks Distribution Centre","alternate_name":"West End Gasworks | South Brisbane Gas and Light Company Works","street_address":"321 Montague Road","suburb":"WEST END","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-03-24","description":"All items of gas manufacture, such as retort houses, exhausters, condensers, scrubbers, washers, purifiers have been demolished. Most of these lay on the western side of the original site, which has now been redeveloped and is a separate parcel of land.
The following items of historic engineering interest remained at the place in September 1999; however were later demolished or removed and retained for use in redevelopment of the allotment.
No.1 four-lift spiral-guided riveted construction gasholder, built probably in the 1940s, empty and open to the atmosphere, sitting in a brick tank of approximately 38 metres diameter and approximately 6 metres deep, probably constructed as part of the 1930 revamp. Capacity 908,000 cu ft. Height when full: approximately 24 metres. The spherical crown of the bell is approximately 2 metres high.
No.2 gasholder brick tank, approximately 24 metres diameter, fenced off and containing contaminated water.
No.3 gasholder brick tank, approximately 24 metres diameter, filled with earth.
A dismantled weighbridge stowed remote from its original well, which remains beside the Beesley Street fence.
A governor, by W Parkinson of London, housed in a small brick stuccoed building, adjacent to No.1 gasholder. Date of manufacture and original installation estimated to be 1880s.
The laboratory and its apparatus contents, housed in a brick stuccoed building located on the northern boundary of the site.
The compressor house, a single storey gabled brick building measuring approximately 15m x 7m in plan, housing compressors in the compressor room as follows:
* No.1, Holmes (Huddersfield) Connersville Booster size 14" x 21" SHS, capacity 4250 m3 per hour at 520 rpm, date of manufacture 1949; driven by a Lancashire Dynamo and Crypto Ltd electric motor, 3 phase 440 volt, 103 amp 85 BHP at 1460 rpm, date of manufacture 1952.
* Nos. 2a and 2b, each 850 m3 per hour, Bryan Donkin Co Ltd, Chesterfield; driven by a Crompton Parkinson (Australia) Proprietary Limited electric motor, 3 phase continuous rating 400/440 volt, 36 amp 38 BHP at 1400 rpm, date of manufacture unknown. Reducing gears Radicon Redman by The Richardson Gears Pty Ltd, Victoria
* No.3, Holmes (Huddersfield) Connersville Booster size 12" x 18" SHS, capacity 2800 m3 per hour at 575 rpm, date of manufacture 1950; driven by a Vaskawa Electric (Japan) 67 kW 3-phase variable speed induction motor through a variable speed coupling, date of manufacture 1974.
The southern half of the building features a sunken area in which pipes are run to and from the compressors. Steel grating is laid over the pipe space, which is currently partly flooded.
The Engine Drivers Room, formerly a meter room, in a single storey gabled brick building, of proportions similar to but slightly larger than those of the compressor house.
The Standby Alternator House, containing
* Standby Brush alternator/generator, the DC element of 96 kW output, date of manufacture 1951, powered by a Type M4A5 gas engine of 137.5 maximum BHP at 1000 rpm.
* The switchboard, probably dating from about 1930. (Energised as at 22.9.99).
The cylindrical riveted receiver vessel, mounted on two concrete piers and located against the north fence near No.3 gasholder. This vessel would receive and store compressed material required to service the medium pressure mains, from about 1930. The receiver has inlet and outlet pipes of 12" (300mm) diameter at either end.
An Art Deco-inspired rendered masonry fence with gate posts, metal balustrade inserts and gates runs the length of the allotment boundary with Montague Road.
","history":"The West End Gasworks Distribution Centre was established in June 1885 to supplement the Brisbane supply of gas.
Commercial gas supply originated in London in 1812, Sydney in 1841, Melbourne in 1856 and Brisbane in 1865, at Petrie Bight. The Brisbane Gas Company's main market was north of the Brisbane River, but supply had extended across the river to South Brisbane by 30th June 1885 when The South Brisbane Gas and Light Company Limited was registered.
From 1861 to 1864, Brisbane's population more than doubled, to 12,551. In the mid-1860s, Brisbane's infrastructure blossomed, with construction of the first cross-river bridge, a new Town Hall, a vastly improved water supply and its first gasworks. Commercial gas supply originated in London in 1812, Sydney in 1841 and Melbourne in 1856.
The Brisbane Municipal Council was anxious to provide street lighting, for which gas was seen as the only feasible system. Earlier in the decade, the Colonial Government, supposedly for health reasons, refused permission for the Council to establish a gasworks on a site at Petrie's Bight. On the same site, however, in 1864, the Government authorised private enterprise to establish this new public utility. Central to these decisions was the Minister for Lands and Works, Arthur Macalister, then at the epicentre of friction between the Government and the Brisbane Council, friction which has erupted on several occasions ever since.
The main demand for gas during the 1870s was probably for lighting, and the Municipal Council was almost certainly the Brisbane Gas Company's biggest customer. After the financial woes of the later 1860s there followed two decades of steady growth in Brisbane, reflected in an increase of demand for gas, for both lighting and for domestic and industrial fuel. Supply was expanded to, among other places, South Brisbane.
Just as the Brisbane Gas Company entered the market on a boom in the 1860s, so did its southside competitor on the 1880s boom. At this stage, heedless of floods that had been recorded in the past, the vigorous south side 1880s development included the Orleigh Estate, the West End Estate, the Montague Estate, the Whynot Estate and the Dornoch Terrace Estate. The South Brisbane Gas and Light Company works was close to the centre of development of residences that would need gas, gas stoves and coke for their bed and sitting room fireplaces. The new Gas Company would supply all these necessities.
A remote parcel of land was acquired later that year at Hockings paddock adjacent to the Brisbane River, to be supplemented by a further acquisition in 1891.
The original gasworks was designed by John Davies, the Company's first Engineer and Manager, appointed on 16th June 1885. Construction was complete and mains were laid by 22nd December 1886, when the first gas was supplied. Reticulation materials were bought for use in crossing the Brisbane River and supplying outlets in Queen Street, already supplied by the Brisbane Gas Company from its Petrie Bight works. A price-cutting war lasted until 1889 when the companies, without any concerns about restrictive trade practices, carved Brisbane up into north and south of the river as their respective marketing territories. It was not until the Gas Act of 1916 that the Government saw fit to look more closely at the cosy arrangements between gas companies, which by that stage included the Wynnum and Manly Gas and Lighting Company Limited, formed in 1912. The Act dealt with product quality and pressure, and provided for gas inspectors. Price was also dealt with. (A later piece of legislation, the Profiteering Prevention Act, also encompassed gas).
An early map of the site shows two wharves in the river, one opposite the downstream end of the site and one a further short distance downstream of the site, apparently serving a neighbouring foundry. Early supplies of feedstock coal may have arrived by river. Later, coal was carted by lorries loaded from coal hoppers at the foot of the bank at the Albert Park side of Roma Street goods yards, c 1912. A weighbridge was constructed at the Beesley Street side of the site, presumably to measure incoming supplies of coal and outgoing sales of coke.
The gasworks was flooded but not seriously damaged by a river flood in 1890. At that time the gasholders were of the frame-guided type, one controlled by counterbalances. The 1893 floods wrought severe damage, including destruction of the counterbalance gasholder. Importantly, much documentation, including engineering drawings on linen, was also lost. Following the flood, the City Engineer for South Brisbane, JS Louttit, recommended to his Council that, in view of the proneness to flooding of the gasworks, the Council should use electricity to light its streets. The flood not only severely damaged the works, but also reduced the size of the Company's market base. Many houses on the river flood plain, particularly on the Orleigh Estate, were destroyed, most of them less than 15 years old.
By 1914, the Company's engineer was WS Moore. From 1903 until at least 1907, Moore was prominent in the Queensland Institute of Engineers, of which he was elected auditor in November 1905. Earlier that year, he presented a paper "An elevated inclined tramway" noted as a cheap method of handling coal. In October 1907, Moore presented a further paper, "Gas or internal combustion engines" in which he forecast the replacement by internal combustion of steam as a power source.
Following a visit by Moore to England to keep abreast of the latest developments in the gas industry, there was by 1914 a major revamp of the gasworks, of which there appear to be no technical details. However, there was a substantial increase in efficiency, the amount of gas per ton of coal increasing significantly during 1916-1918, and again in the years 1922-1924, with an overall improvement of 60%.
Moore's successor as Engineer and Manager, WH Shedden, designed the next revamp, brought on stream in June 1930. (Shedden was still employed by the Company in the 1950s). Work included a new Glover-West vertical retort house, the contractor being West's Gas Improvement Co. Ltd. of George Street, Sydney. There was again an improvement in efficiency, of about 13%.
As from 1930, the Company introduced high-pressure reticulation for all extensions in new areas. (With the introduction in the 1960s of natural gas, this 1930s innovation was assigned the name of Medium Pressure). This was effected by compressors, one of which, probably the first electric powered compressor used in the works, survives today as No.2 compressor.
In 1935, there were three gasholders on site, No.1 a triple or quadruple lift of the spiral guide type, No.2 a single lift frame-guided type and No.3 a double lift frame-guided type, all of which have since been retired or replaced. However, site inspection suggests that the same (brick) water tanks have been adapted and/or re-used for the later gasholders. Capacity in 1935 seems to have been 922,000 cu.ft., one of the holders probably being the same or of the same configuration (non-telescopic) as the one that survived the 1893 flood.
By 1948, capacities in the central and eastern gasholders had been significantly increased, to provide a total capacity of 1,517,000 cu.ft., and gasholders 1 and 3 had been re-numbered to 3 and 1 respectively. The 1912 cast iron scrubber, also known as the Stripping Tower, obsolete by 1948, was taken out of service at around this time, later to be re-located in nearby parkland.
The Company completed a further revamp during Shedden's management, in 1950, probably again to a Glover West design. At about this time, two new Holmes/Connersville compressors, No.1 and No.3, were installed in the compressor room on either side of a refurbished (No.2) Bryan Donkin compressor of about 1920s manufacture. All are still in the compressor room. No.3 is a variable speed unit, enabling accurate control of the pressurising function.
Also at about this time, a standby gas-engine powered alternator/generator was installed, along with a main switchboard of significant proportions. These are housed in a compartment attached to what was described in 1994 as the Engine Drivers Room. In 1948, meters and valves occupied this space, the building probably being known as the Meter House. Both the meters and the compressors were housed in gabled brick buildings with arched sash windows. The east fronts of these two buildings are aligned and form an elegant pair when viewed from the east.
With the advent in the late 1960s of natural gas, the South Brisbane Gas Company decided to move as soon as possible to the new feedstock. In December 1969, the old town gas plant was retired, and the retort house stood idle until it was demolished in 1974. In 1971, the Company name was changed to Allgas Energy Ltd.
The 1974 flood wrought further havoc with Company documentation, the rescue of which understandably held low priority in the flood aftermath. Both Stanley Street office and Montague Road works were flooded. Demolition of most of the manufacturing and purification plant proceeded in 1974 and 1975. There remains no evidence on the site of any part of the carbonisation process, nor of tar or ammonia production or storage.
In due course, the vacant part of the old site was disposed of and redeveloped as lot 1 on RP 141824. The remaining lot 2 was retained and part of the site was redeveloped as an outlet for natural gas for vehicles (NGV). However, all three of the gasholders were retained in service, along with the off-site 739,600 cu. ft. gasholder at Ekibin (Stephens Mountain). In 1992, all three at West End were of the spiral guide type and still in service.
By 1994, the site was described as the West End Distribution Centre. No.1 and Ekibin gasholders were both serviceable, the other two being out of service. No.1 is a 4-lift gasholder, Ekibin was a 3-lift. At that stage, No.1 was linked to the compressors to provide emergency service if required, such as during load shedding or maintenance work on the high-pressure natural gas feed to the site. The contents of the gasholder could only be fed into the medium pressure system with compressor assistance or directly to the low-pressure system if the holder were at least two lifts full. That facility is no longer available, the compressors and No.1 gasholder being more or less intact but out of service by September 1999. The Ekibin gasholder was dismantled earlier in 1999 allegedly to facilitate upgrading of the SE freeway.
The place was entered in the Queensland Heritage Register on 24 March 2000. In 2003 the Queensland Heritage Council approved demolition of what remained of the gasworks on condition that the place be photographically recorded prior to demolition; an interpretation plan be implemented; the gate, gateposts, fence and the governor be retained off-site; the gate, gateposts and fence be reinstated; and the governor be incorporated into the new development.
","criteria":"The place and the equipment installed on and in the West End Gasworks Distribution Centre demonstrate the growth and development pattern of the reticulation of a vital public utility, the gas supply and its infrastructure, in South Brisbane and southern Brisbane suburbs from the 1880s boom through to the 1990s. They reflect the economic and social development of South Brisbane and the southern suburbs of Brisbane.
|Large round structures are unusual and have aesthetic value, particularly in areas of predominantly angular commercial and industrial construction such as West End. Aesthetically, the cylindrical gasholder with its spherical crown, even when empty, is both interesting and elegant. Also, the adjoining circular brick tanks contribute positively to the aesthetics of the site. The two largest remaining brick buildings on the site, one housing the compressors (themselves visually interesting), are attractive, aesthetically pleasing, early industrial structures.
|As long ago as 1930, Engineer and Manager JH Shedden recommended introduction of high-pressure gas distribution. His recommendation was accepted, paving the way for future expansion of the area of supply from the gasworks. The receiver vessel at the northern boundary of the site was constructed to receive compressed gas from the compressor room, and remains as evidence of this development.
|One of the principal characteristics of early gasworks is the gasholder storage and compressor and other necessarily robust but sensitive and reliable machinery and apparatus required for filling and drawing from the storage. At the West End site, the remaining gasholder, the three brick gasholder tanks, the compressors, the compressor room/house, the receiver vessel and the governor clearly demonstrate these characteristics of the gasworks.
The gasholder brick tanks illustrate major industrial use of brickwork from the 1880s up to the 1930s; and the compressors are exemplary of the change from steam powered to electric motor powered gas pumps.
|The remaining gasholder is the last of the spiral guide type remaining in Brisbane, and probably in Queensland. Three of five remaining low-pressure gasholders used to store and deliver town gas in Brisbane have been dismantled within the last year. Since 1992, two gasholders at the site have been removed. The West End gasholder is now one of only two remaining in Brisbane, possibly in Queensland, and is unfortunately but unquestionably rare. The station governor is unique of its type in Brisbane, and probably in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion D | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16362,"place_ref":601601,"name":"Mount St Mary's Convent [Goldicott]","alternate_name":"Goldicott | Mount St Marys Catholic Convent","street_address":"65 Grove Street","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-11-26","description":"Mount St Mary's Convent [Goldicott] is a substantial one-storeyed concrete house situated on a prominent site in Grove Crescent, Toowong, overlooking the adjacent St Ignatius Catholic Church and with expansive views of Toowong and the Brisbane central business district.
\nThe house is sited on a ridge and the property is terraced and has established vegetation including a Hoop Pine, jacarandas, frangipannis, mango trees and assorted eucalyptus. Original concrete steps lead to the house on the eastern side.
\nThe house consists of the 1885 concrete section and a two-storey timber extension at the rear. The concrete section has a simple rectangular plan surrounded on three sides by a wide timber verandah, the soffit of which is clad with beaded boards and supported on pairs of square timber columns featuring large decorative timber sweeps. The high pitched double hipped roof of the early house, is clad with corrugated iron sheeting and abuts a smaller hipped section over the dining room. This principal roof is distinct from the hipped roof over the kitchen wing and later extensions.
\nThe early section of the house is constructed of mass concrete prepared in situ and cast with the specially devised movable formwork. The early concrete foundations have recently been underpinned. The external faces of the concrete walls on the verandah are rendered and scoured in imitation of ashlar stonework, whilst other external faces are plain rendered.
\nThe main entrance is on the north facade of the house, accessed by two tiers of recent concrete stairs. A large entrance door with side lights and a transom, is emphasised by a gable featuring a decorative timber fretwork panel. The doorway is flanked by two full length bay windows, of concrete construction, with full length sash walk through windows. A cavity above the window conceals the opened lower sash. The building features many timber framed vertical sash windows, with concrete sills. Several former walk-through windows have been shortened to form conventional sash windows, by introducing timber panels in the lower section of the original doorway.
\nThe interior is planned around a central entrance hall and adjoining L-shaped corridor, off which the major rooms are accessed. Though the wall finishes in the entrance hall are recent, beneath the wall-paper is a full length mural depicting flora and bird-life. The hall is fitted with an original gas light fitting. To the right of the entrance hall is the former parlour and community room which are separated by two full-height three-leaf timber folding doors, extending the width of the room. A white marble fireplace with early ceramic tiles is featured in the parlour, and an ebonised timber fireplace, featuring etched relief patterns, is in the rear community room. To the left of the entrance hall is the room formerly used as a prayer room, but originally likely to have been the main bedroom. A number of bedrooms open from the corridor beyond the entrance hall. These bedrooms also open onto a rear or side verandah, allowing access to the bathroom in the south-eastern corner. Early beaded board timber partitioning occurs in one of the bedrooms.
\nThe dining room adjoins the single storeyed early timber kitchen wing, onto which the double storeyed timber extension was constructed. The kitchen is partitioned, and an early external brick chimney shows the extent of the original room. This wing is connected to the main house by an open timber verandah walkway extending to the later timber addition.
\nThe interior walls of the house are generally of concrete, finished with wall-paper and featuring a reproduction cornice. The floor has been raised which has caused shallow skirting boards.
","history":"Mount St Mary's Convent [Goldicott], a substantial, single-storeyed concrete residence was erected in 1885 for engineer Charles Lambert Depree and his family, using a construction method patented by Depree in Queensland in November 1871.
\nDepree was born in London c1845, studied engineering at King's College 1861-63, and while articled (1864-67) worked on several railway engineering contracts in Britain. In 1868 he was working in France, and there acquired an interest in concrete construction. The following year, Depree and his wife emigrated to Queensland, settling in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane. In June 1870, Depree erected a small concrete building at Fortitude Valley to demonstrate the potential of this material for Queensland construction, as a result of which he acquired several Government contracts. In November 1871 he patented an improved method of building in concrete, a system of moveable formwork. From 1872 until 1890 he was employed by the Queensland Railways Department, and as resident engineer in charge of the Stanthorpe section of the Southern and Western Railway, 1875-77, initiated the first Queensland use of concrete for culverts and a tunnel. In 1878 Depree was appointed District Engineer for Railways Maryborough, returning to Brisbane in the mid-1880s, where he took up the position of Assistant Engineer-in-Charge of Surveys from September 1886.
\nIn mid-1885, following his return to Brisbane, Depree erected his family home, Goldicott, on land at Toowong to which he had acquired title in 1874. Depree's purchase extended from the southern side of the hill above Kensington Terrace down to Sherwood Road, and from the crest above Kensington Terrace, the site offered extensive views over Toowong, Auchenflower and Milton. It had been part of several larger parcels of land alienated separately by EJ Bennett and John Collings in the late 1850s. Toowong, a 'fashionable' suburb since the 1860s, developed rapidly after the opening of Toowong Railway Station (on the Brisbane to Ipswich line) in 1875. In the mid-1880s, Goldicott was in close proximity to bus and railway transport, School of Arts, state primary school and two private schools, and gas and water were laid along Sherwood Road.
\nGoldicott was Brisbane's first poured concrete house, constructed in the monolithic, or one stone, process, using Depree's patented system of movable formwork and apparently built to his design. Contractors Rose and James were employing the technique for the first time.
\nIn July 1885, this unique method of housing construction warranted an article in the Brisbane Courier. The house was described as a substantial residence, measuring 50 feet by 50 feet with 10 feet wide verandahs all around, and walls 15 feet high. All the walls and footings were constructed of concrete, the outer walls being 9 inches thick, and the inner walls 6 inches. The floors and roof were of timber, the latter being clad in slates. The stone used in the concrete mix came from the site, and was described as a kind of greenstone, strongly impregnated with quartz. The article listed several advantages of building in concrete (presumably supplied by Depree): construction was marginally cheaper than brick; concrete was superior to brick in imperviousness to heat, damp and sound; little skilled labour was required for the construction; stone or gravel for the concrete mix could be obtained on site; and concrete was white-ant resistant.
\nDespite the press coverage, concrete housing did not capture popular imagination in the 1880s. Goldicott was erected just as Queensland was entering the most significant economic boom of the 19th century, when the new middle class could afford housing built of brick and stone, the traditional symbols of wealth and prestige. No other concrete houses of this period have been recorded in this State, and Goldicott remains important as an early Queensland experiment in concrete housing. The place may also be significant on a national level.
\nThe Depree family resided at Goldicott from 1885 until 1890, when Charles Depree's failing health precipitated their return to England. He died there in August 1893, and although the family did not return to Queensland, Goldicott remained their property until 1902.
\nFollowing the Deprees' departure, Goldicott was let to Surveyor-General A McDowall, and then to William Lees. It remained vacant for some years in the mid-1890s, but by 1897 was occupied by contractor John McCormick, whose firm John McCormick & Son had erected the second Albert (Railway) Bridge at Indooroopilly in 1893-94, and won the contract for the ironwork on the second permanent Victoria Bridge, erected 1896-97.
\nIn May 1902, the Goldicott Estate was subdivided and offered for auction, at which time the whole of the property, including the unfurnished house, was purchased by the Sisters of Mercy. The Sisters were to staff a new parish school to be established in nearby Holland Street, Toowong, and were seeking conveniently located accommodation. They took up residence in Goldicott, which was renamed Mount St Mary's Convent, in 1903. At this time the front room at the northeast corner of the house (probably formerly a bedroom), was converted into a chapel.
\nIn 1916, Archbishop Duhig created the parish of Toowong by separating Toowong and Indooroopilly from Rosalie, and placed it under the charge of a group of newly arrived Jesuit Fathers. At Toowong, these fathers established the first permanent Jesuit presence in Queensland. However, the Sisters of Mercy continued to staff the parish school in Holland Street, and in the late 1920s gave to the parish just under 3/4 of an acre of land at the corner of Kensington Terrace and Grove Street, part of Mount St Mary's grounds, for the construction of a new church and school. St Ignatius Church, with the new school established in the undercroft, was opened and blessed on 18 May 1930. The Sisters continued to staff the parish school until the early 1980s.
\nA 1902 photograph of Goldicott reveals that the front terraces had been formed by this date, but many of the stone walls in the grounds of the convent may date to c1930, when the site for St Ignatius Church was being levelled and substantial quantities of stone would have become available. The eastern terrace, which contained an early tennis court, was most likely formed by 1902.
\nThe timber wing at the rear of the convent was erected c1918, as a dormitory for children who were accepted as boarders at St Michael's (later St Ignatius) School. From the early 1900s, the Sisters had accommodated a few boarders at Mount St Mary's, but in 1919, this number increased to 19, and it is likely the dormitory wing was completed about this time. It is understood that the Sisters ceased taking in student boarders in the 1940s.
\nDuring the Second World War, a new classroom block was erected behind St Ignatius Church and fronting Grove Street, at which time the Sisters of Mercy agreed that students could use part of the convent grounds (the terrace on the northern side of the house) as a playground. Later the eastern terrace was developed as a playing field with tennis and basketball courts. Sloping land at the rear of the convent was filled gradually, and levelled for a playing field in the 1980s.
\nAs well as teaching general subjects, the Sisters encouraged cultural pursuits such as music and speech lessons. Aerial images indicate that by 1936 a small weatherboard building was on the convent grounds on the entrance from Grove Crescent, which was used as a music room. This building was removed in 2021.
\nGoldicott remained in the ownership of the Sisters of Mercy and functioned as a convent. The building was refurbished in 1992, at which time a hand painted, full-length mural on the walls of the entrance hall was revealed and subsequently covered again with wallpaper. In 2018 the property was transferred to Goldicott Pty Ltd in trust.
","criteria":"Mount St Mary's Convent [Goldicott] was erected during the second phase of Toowong's development, following the opening of Toowong railway station in 1875, and is important in illustrating: 1. the retention of the ridge above Kensington Terrace and Sherwood Road as an area of substantial homes situated within extensive grounds, this pattern having been established in the early 1860s; 2. the emergence of ribbon development along Brisbane's late 19th century railways.
|Mount St Mary's Convent [Goldicott], erected in 1885, was the first poured concrete house in Brisbane, and probably in Queensland. It is significant as an early and very rare Queensland experiment in concrete housing, and is important in demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement. The concrete construction was innovative and remarkable for its time. The place is significant for its association with engineer Charles Lambert Depree, and his contribution to concrete construction implementation and technology in 19th century Queensland.
Mount St Mary's Convent [Goldicott] has retained a considerable proportion of its original grounds which allow the house to remain remote in the midst of extensive development. This is a rare example of an 1880s house in Toowong which has retained substantial grounds and outlook.
|It is significant as an early and very rare Queensland experiment in concrete housing, and is important in demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement. The concrete construction was innovative and remarkable for its time.
|Established trees and terraces contribute to its aesthetic significance by contributing to the building's picturesque qualities. The house has a number of early fittings, including the entrance hall light fitting and various joinery items.
|Mount St Mary's Convent [Goldicott], erected in 1885, was the first poured concrete house in Brisbane, and probably in Queensland. It is significant as an early and very rare Queensland experiment in concrete housing, and is important in demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement. The concrete construction was innovative and remarkable for its time. The place is significant for its association with engineer Charles Lambert Depree, and his contribution to concrete construction implementation and technology in 19th century Queensland.
|Mount St Mary's Convent [Goldicott] is significant also for its special association with the Sisters of Mercy and their important educational, cultural and pastoral work in Toowong parish for well over 90 years.
|Mount St Mary's Convent [Goldicott] is significant also for its special association with the Sisters of Mercy.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16411,"place_ref":601650,"name":"Cliffside Apartments","alternate_name":"Cliffiside Flats","street_address":"76 Lower River Terrace","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-02-27","description":"Cliffside Apartments is a five story, masonry building located on the cliff at Kangaroo Point overlooking Garden's Point and the Botanic Gardens. The building is of load-bearing cavity brick construction finished alternately in face brickwork and cement render. Concrete construction is used in retaining walls and carparking structures on the southern side of the building. The northern elevation facing the river is dominated by large hexagonal bay windows projecting from the corners of the building. This elevation also has a number of smaller, faceted bay windows and a central, decorated bay window spanning two floors and housing a large sign inscribed "Cliffside".
The large hipped roof is clad in terracotta tiles with a small brick chimney from the former incinerator. Timber casement windows with concrete sills are to be found throughout the building and many have concrete shades supported by concrete corbels projecting from the lintel. The main entrance to the building is from Lower River Terrace and is marked with an iron entry gate. Steps and paths edged with porphyry drawn from the site encircle the building and lead to the various front doors of individual flats. There are a number of types of stonework in the garden including low, coursed walls of squared rubble construction and random rubble walls as well as garden beds edged with shards of vertical stone. An expanse of lawn overlooks the river on the level of the first floor flats and laundry area and is retained with a large concrete and porphyry sloping wall. The lawn is fenced and has a flagpole, planting includes a jacaranda and mature frangipani.
The building contains seven flats, six of which were designed with two bedrooms and one single bedroom flat. The former caretaker's quarters is located under the garages, within a concrete framed building with tall concrete posts. Each of the flats have their own front doors. Entry doors are high mid-rail timber with decorative leadlight upper panels, some having complimentary windows located close by. Back doors are located on the southern elevation, accessed by landings off a central dogleg stair housed within a timber, fibro and lattice stairwell.
The interiors of the flats are characterised by dark, stained timber panelling, plate rails and joinery with white decorative plaster ceilings, ornate cornices and dark, polished hardwood floors. Features include a number of built-in storage units and a kitchen-dining room servery with leadlight windows. The kitchens have basic timber joinery and dining nooks of two bench seats and a table. Bathrooms have terrazzo floors and original tiling around the combined shower and bath.
A shared laundry area is situated on the ground floor towards the eastern end of the building. On the southern side of the building are two carparking structures. A timber and fibrous-cement shed is located above the caretakers flat on the western end of the site. On the eastern side, a concrete structure accommodates two carpark spaces with carparking above.
","history":"Cliffside Apartments, a five storey masonry building prominently located on the cliffs at Kangaroo Point, was built in 1936-37 to the design of architect and engineer R. Martin Wilson. The building is sited on two blocks originally part of an early land purchase by John and George Harris in 1855. The land passed through the hands of several owners until it was purchased by Mrs Doris R. Booth at the beginning of 1930. At the time that Mrs Booth bought the site it was a sheer cliff of solid porphyry with a railway and wharves at its base.
Mrs Booth was born in 1895 in a house named Cliffside next to the railway gates on the cliff at Kangaroo Point. She married Captain Charles Booth in 1919 and together they travelled to New Guinea in 1920. Mrs Booth distinguished herself by breaking convention and securing her own miner's right and then becoming a licensed recruiter of labour. She was the only resident white woman in the Bulolo Valley and stayed there alone (in her house, also named Cliffside) while her husband prospected at Edie Creek. From September 1926 to January 1927 she organized and managed a racially segregated bush hospital to control a dysentery epidemic. She received an O.B.E for this work in 1928. Later that year in London, she recorded these and other adventures in Mountains, Gold and Cannibals which was written with the assistance of M. O'Dwyer.
Mrs Booth returned to New Guinea in 1929 and gradually wrested control over the family business affairs from her husband, whom she left in 1932. The Booths became embroiled in an acrimonious court case when in 1933 Charles Booth sued in the Central Court of the Territory of New Guinea for restitution of property. The case was a test case as no Mandated Territory law explicitly safeguarded married women's property rights. Judge F. B Phillips held that British and Australian Acts passed before 1921 superseded the common law notion of male control of joint property and gave Mrs Booth the verdict. The judgement was upheld in a subsequent appeal in the High Court and territorial law was amended by the Status of Married Women Ordinance 1935-36. Booth returned to prospecting and Mrs Booth went on to become a successful mine manager and company director and amongst other achievements was appointed as the sole woman member of the first and second Legislative Councils of Papua New Guinea in 1951-57.
The construction of Cliffside in 1936-37 attested to Doris Booth's extraordinary independent effort and acumen. After securing the land adjacent to her childhood home, Mrs Booth granted power of attorney to her sister Mrs Selma Dore who took responsibility for supervising the design and construction of the building. Work on the ambitious project began in late 1935 when R. Martin Wilson began his first drawings. Wilson was both an architect and engineer and it is possible that he was commissioned on the basis of his engineering expertise, a skill that would obviously be required on this job. However, both Wilson and Doris Booth had close connections with the Burns Philp Company and it is possible that this connection brought them together. Burns Philp Ltd. had financed the Booths' first foray into the goldfields of New Guinea and Wilson and his father had provided extensive architectural services to the company.
A tender notice appeared in the Architects and Builders Journal of Queensland in June 1936, and George Mitchell's tender was accepted in July. A Special Note in the Bill of Quantities stated that "Contractors are advised to visit and inspect the site and satisfy themselves as to the nature of excavations to be carried out, as it is anticipated rock will be met with. No blasting will be allowed. All excavations in rock to be done by the use of an air compressor." Wilson went on to specify that all rock and fill from the excavations was to be re-used to form terraces, steps and paving.
Cliffside was considered the height of modernity when it was opened in June 1937. The Telegraph reported on June 7 that "Cliffside Flats at River Terrace, Kangaroo Point, have given Brisbane an example of the most advanced flat design in Australia." Although the practice of converting houses to flats was well established in Brisbane, the development of the purpose-designed flat was slower in Brisbane than in other parts of the country. The Telegraph described that "Until quite recently the flat-habit was looked on by Brisbane with mixed feelings of disfavour and doubt, but now the general desire for easier living, coupled with the acute problem of obtaining competent domestics, is spreading the flat-habit over a wider field." The article went on to expound the virtues of properly designed and planned flats, of which Cliffside was the foremost example.
Cliffside was equipped with all modern conveniences including built-in furniture, dining nooks and serverys, electric refrigerators, electric hot water, water softening and incinerator and laundry chutes. The design of the building maximised privacy, views, light and the flow of air. Each of the eight flats had their own private entrance and floors were sound-proofed. The slope of the site was used to advantage so that no more than one and a half flights of stairs had to be scaled to gain access to any one of them. Plumbing connections were housed in a special duct with access from outside the building so that maintenance and repairs could take place without bothering the tenants. A caretaker's quarters was part of the original design, as was the provision of lock-up garages. The building was designed in the popular interwar style of English Revival or Tudor Revival with elements such as eaves and bay windows having a half-timbered appearance. As the promotional literature stated, Cliffside was "the newest, the best and the most attractive offering in Brisbane".
At the opening of Cliffside on June 10, Alderman L.W Luckins announced that the Brisbane City Council was introducing new bylaws to regulate the standards of construction and design of flat buildings, emphasising, however, that not everyone would be able to achieve the "heights of quality embodied in Cliffside". These ordinances were ratified by the Executive Council of Brisbane City Council in August 1937 and dealt with issues such as plot ratios, sanitation and fire rating. 1936-37 was the peak time for interwar flat construction in Queensland. In the following years, construction decreased due to the uncertain investment climate created by the threat of war in Europe as well as the refusal of banking institutions to lend on flat constructions.
Cliffside is a fine example of the work of R. Martin Wilson and demonstrates his skill in the fields of both architecture and engineering. Born in Brisbane in 1886, he was the son of architect Alex B Wilson and studied and worked with his father from 1902-8. He received a Bachelor of Engineering at the University of Queensland in 1915 and won the Walter and Eliza Hill Travelling Fellowship allowing him to study architectural engineering in the United States from 1915 to 1917. He went on to London and studied at the Architectural Association as well as completing a town planning course at London University. From 1919, he lectured in engineering at University of Queensland and was the first person to gain a Masters in Engineering at that institution.
He practised with his father as Alex B. and R. Martin Wilson, Architects and Architectural Engineers, Brisbane from 1920, becoming a registered architect in 1929. He was active in professional bodies such as the Institute of Architects and the Town Planning Association. Alex Wilson retired in 1928 and R.M Wilson was later joined by his son, Blair in the firm of R.M Wilson and Son.
Mrs Booth retired to Brisbane in 1960. She sold Cliffside in 1966 to Guiseppe and Angelo Angelino, whose family company retain ownership of the building.
","criteria":"Cliffside Apartments is important for demonstrating the pattern of residential development in Brisbane during the interwar period when large numbers of flat buildings were constructed. The increase in the number of flats in the mid 1930s demonstrates the rapid growth of Brisbane's population and the subsequent high demand for accommodation due to a shortage of housing. It also reflects changing community attitudes towards new forms of housing. The principal investor in Cliffside was a woman, illustrative of the growing connection between women and property investment and flats in the interwar period.
|Cliffside Apartments demonstrates the principal characteristics of a substantial, architect-designed, interwar apartment building including features such as built-in storage, dining nooks, caretaker's quarters and lock-up garages that are particularly characteristic of early purpose-designed flats. Cliffside is a prominent and highly intact example of the domestic work of Brisbane architect RM Wilson.
|Cliffside has aesthetic and architectural significance. Occupying a dramatic and difficult site, Cliffside's superior standards of design and finish represent a highpoint in the quality and resolution of flat design in Brisbane. The building has strong landmark qualities deriving from its prominent siting at Kangaroo Point between the South Brisbane and Town Reaches of the Brisbane River overlooking the city and Botanic Gardens.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16415,"place_ref":601654,"name":"Paddington Antiques Centre","alternate_name":"Plaza Theatre","street_address":"163-169 Latrobe Terrace","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-03-28","description":"The former Plaza Theatre is a large and imposing shed-like building prominently located at a bend in the road on Latrobe Terrace in Paddington. Its end walls are constructed of load-bearing masonry that have been rendered in roughcast stucco and the gable roof is clad in corrugated galvanised iron. The gable ends and upper sections of the north wall are finished in fibro-cement sheeting with the lower north wall constructed of concrete with buttresses.
The street façade of the building is comprised of a series of shops with a deep awning supported by iron tie-back rods. This shopfront area incorporates the entry and foyer of the former theatre, now the entrance to the antique centre as well as six shops, including a jewellers, café, second-hand shop and clothing shop. The shopfronts are generally large glass windows framed in silky oak, pairs of recessed entry doors and lower wall sections tiled in glossy black tiles. The awning is lined with fibro-cement sheeting with a geometric pattern of timber strips that are painted black against the cream sheeting.
A parapet runs above the awning with an arched feature located above the theatre entry doors decorated with urns and displaying the words "Paddington Antique Centre". The former theatre entry has four pairs of unpainted, silky oak framed glass doors with decorative brass hardware. The foyer area has a floor of "chequerboard" grey and white concrete flagstones and an ornate plaster ceiling decorated with scrolls and deep, moulded cornices. Brass lettering, reading "Paddington Plaza 1929" has been recently inlaid in the floor in an area formerly occupied by the ticket office. An office has been inserted into the south-west corner of the foyer space and a large counter area is in line with this. The foyer is divided from the auditorium space by large glass display cases located between two columns.
The former auditorium is a large rectangular space with a vaulted plaster ceiling painted a vivid and intense blue, known as "Reckitt's Blue". The ceiling paint is patchy and deteriorating, although remnants of painted clouds are discernible. Five lattice ventilation panels are located on both the northern and southern sides of the ceiling and a number of surface-mounted vents are also located on the ceiling. Flourescent lights are suspended on chains from the ceiling and hang throughout the space, just above the level of the various wall dividers of the antique stalls.
The proscenium is located at the eastern end of the auditorium and has a sunken backstage area behind. The proscenium is ornately decorated, styled to give the appearance that it is part of the exterior of a building and is constructed of fibrous plaster. It has faceted columns to either side and is topped with a Spanish-style terracotta tiled roof supported on carved "corbels" with rosettes in between. The columns are painted in vibrant tones of orange, blue, red and yellow and decorated with moulded scrolls of foliage, flowers and urns. A multi-coloured cartouche is located in the centre of the proscenium arch and a velvet valance with gold fringing with the word "Plaza" in gold lettering in the centre hangs within the arch.
Angled, ornamental balconies are located either side of the proscenium. On the upper level these feature a balustrade, arches and "barley sugar" columns, at lower level there are arched niches alternating with more columns. All of these areas are decorated with moulded fibrous plaster decoration including egg and dart moulding and scrolls of leaves. These balcony areas have a colour scheme of pale green, white and a pale sandstone colour with touches of metallic bronze which is also incorporated into parts of the proscenium.
The rear wall of the auditorium has an upper section of timber lattice, also painted in "Reckitt's" blue and there is evidence of where the projection room was originally located, provided by the outline of the room painted in white. A recent exit and stair enclosed in fibro-cement sheeting is located on the north wall to the rear of the building, within the buttresses of the wall. The current timber floor is constructed above the original, raked floor and is supported on timber posts. The floor is at three levels. The rear of the auditorium is at the highest level, the largest middle section is three steps below this and then the backstage section is four steps below this. Toilets are located at a lower level in the backstage area and there is also a wings area on the southern side. A pair of twisted columns with moulded, fibrous plaster decoration is to be found in this area and the room is also painted in "Reckitt's" blue. A similar area that was located on the northern side of the proscenium and accommodated a public staircase has now been enclosed with fibro-cement sheeting. The staircase that formerly lead to the downstairs toilets has now been blocked off and the stairway is incomplete. The original toilets are located at the eastern end of the undercroft area but are no longer used.
The roof is carried by curved, laminated timber (possibly oregon) trusses. One of these has been supplemented with a steel truss due to extensive white ant and borer damage. The building is supported on large timber posts of varying heights reflecting the raked floor and the undercroft area has an earth floor. A galvanised iron duct system is located under the floor at the eastern end of the building. A small alleyway from Latrobe Terrace is to be found at the eastern end of the block and a small detached toilet block is located off this alleyway, connected to the building via a small area that has been enclosed with timber battens and fibro-cement sheeting.
","history":"The former Plaza Theatre at Paddington was erected c1929 by Brisbane contractor John Hutchinson [later J Hutchinson & Sons]. Originally commissioned for Greater Brisbane Motion Pictures Ltd and probably designed by Brisbane architect Richard Gailey jnr, the Plaza is a rare early 20th century 'atmospheric' theatre in Queensland. Shortly after construction commenced, the Hutchinson family acquired both the building and the land, commencing a long association with the theatre.
In 1929 application to Brisbane City Council was made by Greater Brisbane Motion Pictures Ltd of Brisbane for the construction of a new picture theatre at the corner of Collingwood Street and Latrobe Terrace, Paddington [allotments 9-13 of portion 757, parish of Enoggera], to cost £8,000. The architect was recorded as Richard Gailey jnr and the contractor was John Hutchinson. Plans were approved by 22 June 1929.
At the time of application, title to the land was still in the names of William Drynan [allots 9-10] and Georgina Blackwell [allots 11-13]. Drynan's land was transferred to Queensland Talkie Pictures Ltd in December 1931, and following Mrs Blackwell's death in August 1931, allots 11-13 passed to the same company in November 1932. Also in November 1932, Queensland Talkie Pictures Ltd took out mortgages on all four allotments from John Hutchinson, who ultimately gained title to allotments 11-13 in 1941, and to allotments 9-10 in 1955. The Hutchinson family understand that before construction was completed, the exhibition company [which they refer to as Associated Pictures] became insolvent and ownership of the building also passed to the contractors.
In 1929 the Plaza Theatre faced strong competition from at least two rival picture shows in the Paddington-Red Hill district: Stephens New Paddington Theatre on Given Terrace [c1924] and Red Hill Picture Pops on Enoggera Terrace [c1920]. Although the Plaza was by no means the first picture theatre in the Paddington district, it was the most ornate, erected in a third wave of picture theatre construction which swept Brisbane suburbs in the late 1920s and 1930s. The proliferation of small suburban picture shows through the 1920s, the introduction of the 'talkies' (which necessitated considerable capital investment to acquire sound projection equipment), and the effects of the depression, combined to produce keen competition in suburban film exhibition. Suburban theatres of this period could no longer survive as the open-air venues of the 1910s or the tin sheds of the early 1920s - they had to offer the public something more than just the films. Theatres all over Brisbane either closed, or were remodelled or rebuilt along more substantial, more comfortable and more decorative lines, with the object of capturing local imagination and loyal attendance. Few suburban picture exhibitors, however, could afford to match the opulence of the central city theatres, such as Birch, Carroll and Coyle's Wintergarden Theatre [1923-24], or Hoyt's Regent Theatre [1929]. Interestingly, at the time that Gailey is recorded in mid-1929 as the architect for the Plaza Theatre, he was also the Brisbane supervising architect for the opulent Regent Theatre in Queen Street, designed by Melbourne architect Charles N Hollinshed.
The Plaza at Paddington, with its painted blue ceiling resembling the night sky and side niches and painted barley-twist columns suggesting a Spanish courtyard, is the only Brisbane suburban picture theatre identified to date, which can be described as 'atmospheric'. The term denotes a picture theatre with an interior décor that simulated an exotic outdoor setting. Atmospheric cinemas were popularised in Australia in the late 1920s and early 1930s after the architect for Sydney-based Union Theatres, Henry White, travelled to the United States to study picture theatre design. He looked in particular at the work of American architect John Eberson, who specialised in atmospheric cinemas themed and appropriated from Byzantine, Persian, Spanish, Moorish and Egyptian architecture, which extended theatrical illusion from screen to venue. While the Paddington Plaza was not of the same scale and opulence as the great Australian atmospheric theatres such as Sydney's Capitol [1928 - seating capacity 2900], Perth's Ambassadors [1928 - seating 2000] and Melbourne's State [1929 - seating 3300], the design incorporated the essential elements of the 'atmospheric', in that the interior decoration simulated an outdoor venue.
It is understood that the Plaza Theatre was designed initially to screen only silent film, but in 1929 synchronised sound and film was introduced to Australia and the Plaza opened as a 'talkies' theatre. The seats [capacity 1250 in 1938] were arranged on a single-level raked floor. The Plaza Theatre came to be a popular meeting place for Paddington residents. It was open seven days a week, with serials shown on Monday and Tuesday nights, films and newsreels on other nights, and a matinee programme on Sunday afternoons. On Saturdays, trams reputedly would stop outside the theatre at opening time and wait until the film finished to take patrons home again. Popular films attracted audiences of around 1200, for the movies appealed to all ages. A special soundproofed glass room, called the 'cry room', was provided for young mothers and their babies.
The Plaza Theatre complex included a group of eight shops/offices fronting Latrobe Terrace either side of the entrance foyer. These premises were occupied soon after completion, and for many years lessees included Harold Louitt's chemist shop (1930-69), a dressmaker, a grocer and a milkbar. After the movies patrons congregated at the milkbar, which retained its original fittings until refurbished in 1994.
The theatre operated successfully until television was introduced to Brisbane in the late 1950s, by which time Plaza audiences were reduced to 20-30 patrons per screening, in an auditorium which by 1960 contained seating for 932 persons. In 1961 the Plaza Theatre ceased to operate as a cinema. A level floor was installed and the building was used for indoor basketball. In 1968 this activity ceased following a court case instigated by a neighbour who complained of the noise. The Plaza remained mostly vacant until 1974 when Hutchinsons moved their offices from West End into the foyer. In 1975 the company underwent a major restructure and moved to new premises. Hutchinsons sold the theatre in 1977 and it currently houses an antiques retailing centre. The shops fronting Latrobe Terrace are still occupied by a variety of tenants, and the complex is still the focus of a small nodal shopping centre.
","criteria":"The former Plaza Theatre at Paddington is important in illustrating the pattern of development of suburban cinemas in Brisbane, and in illustrating the evolution of cinemas in Queensland, during the interwar years of the 20th century. It is important also in illustrating the pattern of development of the Paddington district.
|It is a rare suburban 'atmospheric' cinema, and understood to be one of few such theatres constructed in Queensland.
|The theatre and associated shops, the shopfronts in particular, remain substantially intact in form, design, materials and in much of the detailing, from which can be gained an understanding of the expectations brought by interwar film audiences to the experience of cinema viewing.
|The former Plaza Theatre, located prominently on the high ridge of Latrobe Terrace, makes a major contribution to the local streetscape and to the Paddington townscape.
|The former Plaza Theatre has strong social significance in its association with the expansion of popular entertainment in the interwar period; in its association with the Paddington community; more recently in its association with the antiques industry in Brisbane; and as a landmark building in Brisbane's inner western suburbs.
|The place is important for its association with independent film exhibition in Brisbane, and for its long association with the Hutchinson family, who are more usually recognised for their contribution to the building industry in Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16422,"place_ref":601662,"name":"Foresters' Hall","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"16 Latrobe Terrace","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-04-18","description":"Foresters' Hall is located on the southern side of Latrobe Terrace near the intersection of Given Terrace. The single storeyed timber building abuts the street frontage and has an awning that extends over the footpath to the roadside kerbing. The land slopes steeply down towards the rear of the property allowing for a small residence to be constructed at basement level, beneath the main hall.
Foresters' Hall is basically a rectangular form building set on concrete stumps and clad mainly with chamfer boards, except at the rear where they have been replaced with weatherboards. The corrugated iron hipped roof is hidden from the street a pedimented parapet that extends across the building's front and partially to each side. The rear rooms of the building are roofed with a simple corrugated iron skillion. The front awning is constructed of timber with plain posts and a convex profiled corrugated iron roof. In contrast, the front entry to the building is embellished by a pair of ornamented timber pilasters and wide solid panelled door. At both sides of the door are small double-hung arched windows that are fitted with opaque wired glass. Above the awning but immediately below the parapet cornice there are also three small fixed paned windows. Large windows to both sides of the central hall consist of fixed and pivoting panes. These panes have recently been fitted with textured and coloured glass. External timber stairs and landings provide access to the building from the west side of the hall and to the basement level rooms.
At ground level Foresters' Hall internally consists of one large central hall with two rooms at the front and three rooms at the rear. The main entrance to the building is via a central vestibule that leads to a pair of original cedar panelled doors. Behind these doors is a second vestibule, formed by the recent installation of a pair of similar but partly glazed timber doors. On the west side of the original vestibule is a small room, currently accessible only from the hall. Evidence of a former doorway between this room and the vestibule still remains, however the entire wall has recently been glazed. On the east side of the vestibule, a slightly larger room has recently been created by the erection of a timber lined wall separating the area from the main hall. In this room is a small store and the original set of narrow timber stairs that lead up to a small two tiered gallery located above the front two rooms. Recently installed timber balustrading replaces the original simple balustrade at the front of the gallery.
The central hall is a large space with a stage area at the rear end. Full width timber arches separate the stage and gallery areas from the hall. Narrow timber steps lead up to the stage at both sides of the hall. Behind the stage are three rooms; a kitchen and two toilets. The wall dividing the stage area from the rear rooms is a single skinned timber lined wall with exposed cross bracing partially exposed in the kitchen area only. The toilet areas have been created by
the installation of partition walls lined with fibrous cement sheeting. Ceramic tiling has been used to cover the timber floors in the toilet areas. Fretted fanlights above the toilet and kitchen doors are recent installations.
The coved ceilings and walls throughout the building are internally lined with 4" pine boards fixed horizontally. Decorative fretwork ventilators are fitted into the central hall ceiling. Partition walls are constructed of timber frames, lined on one side only with vertically orientated lining boards. Floors throughout the central hall and the front rooms are 4" wide timber boards. Below these is the original floorboards which are 6" wide.
At the basement level there are four rooms forming a small residence. Access to the rooms is via a set of recently constructed timber stairs approached from the narrow footpath on the building's western boundary. Each room is lined in vertically fixed timber boards. One room is fitted as a bathroom and another as a kitchen. Exposed diagonal bracing is evident in the kitchen area.
","history":"This timber hall was built between June and September in 1888 for the Trustees of Court Foresters' Hope, number 6535 of the Ancient Order of Foresters' Friendly Society, United Brisbane District. The Paddington Foresters' Hall was designed by the Brisbane architect , Alexander Brown Wilson, and was built by W Taylor after his tender for £585 was accepted in May 1888. The hall was built on a subdivision of an estate originally purchased by Bennett Clay at a sale of crown land in 1861. The title deed was then transferred to John Robertson of Sydney in 1864. In 1885 Robertson subdivided his seventeen acre (6.9 hectare) estate when the trustees of Court Foresters' Hope purchased subdivision 22, apparently for £78 pounds.
Court Foresters' Hope was founded in Paddington in 1878 marking the beginning of expansion for the Ancient Order of Foresters in Queensland. Prior to the building of the Foresters' Hall in 1888, the court met at the former Methodist Church (no longer extant) at the corner of Given Terrace and Ranley Grove, Paddington.
The establishment of the Ancient Order of Foresters in Queensland dates from 1859 with the opening of Court Fortitude at Fortitude Valley. The Foresters' presence in Queensland was part of a social phenomenon which saw friendly societies become significant to the functioning of Australian society in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The friendly societies came to Australia as part of the British philosophy of self-help and mutual aid which became prevalent during the industrial revolution.
Friendly societies were voluntary associations that traditionally provided financial benefits to their members, usually working men and their families, in case of sickness, injury or death, by drawing on funds to which each member contributed. They were a response to the lack of social welfare in western societies during this period. The idea of fraternity and ritual formed an important element of the friendly societies as did the social activities that the individual branches provided for their members.
The Ancient Order of Foresters' was one of the largest affiliated orders of friendly societies which was governed by a district body and made up of local branches or 'courts'. It was established in Britain in 1834 as a splinter group of the Royal Foresters which dated from 1790. Its tradition is linked with the mythology of Robin Hood and this is reflected in the ritual, regalia, hierarchy and names of the individual courts.
The first Australian court of the Ancient Order of Foresters was established in New South Wales in 1843. By 1878 there were three successfully functioning courts in Queensland: Court Fortitude (1859), Court South Brisbane Hope (1878) and Court Foresters' Hope in Paddington (1878). In April 1881 the three pioneering courts of Brisbane took steps to form the United Brisbane District as the governing body for courts in Brisbane, Ipswich and Gympie. From 1878 to 1902, 57 new Foresters' courts were established throughout Queensland.
Foresters' Hall, which was established close to the junction of Given and Latrobe Terraces, commanded a prominent position within the growing township of Paddington. In the 1880s, land in Paddington was beginning to be subdivided and an increase in development was occurring at the time hall was built. Land sales were peaking and the foundations were being laid for Paddington to become a commuter suburb, transforming it from the sparsely populated semi-rural district of the 1860s and 70s. Foresters' Hall is a legacy of this development boom and its long established position has made it a feature of the Paddington townscape.
Court Foresters' Hope was one of the few courts in Queensland to possess its own hall. There are a number of examples of purpose built friendly society halls from this period, including the first Foresters' Hall in Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, but many local friendly society branches leased other societies' halls for their meeting places.
The Paddington Foresters' Hall had a seating capacity of 320 people and provided a thriving community service to the growing population of Paddington. The hall was designed with the intention of creating revenue with two rooms at the front to be used by rent-paying shopkeepers and another three rooms at the front to accommodate a rent-paying caretaker. Two private rooms at the back were also let to the public and the hall was leased on a regular basis to many local groups. In 1906 these included the local Rechabites, the Salvation Army, the Ithaca Ratepayers Association, the Women's Christian Charity and the Theodore Unmack Society of Masons.
The original building specifications make reference to a verandah at the back of the hall with a staircase which led to rooms underneath the stage. The hall was lit by kerosene pendant lamps which were replaced with gas lighting in late 1892 or early 1893, for which task the hall's architect AB Wilson was consulted. In about November 1894, alterations were made to the front of the hall, again to Wilson's specifications. The shop-front windows were removed and replaced with the present sash windows, the gallery floor was altered, a girder was placed at the front of the gallery platform and a new stairway to the gallery was constructed in the north-western corner of the hall of material from the previous gallery stairs. The internal walls under the gallery were altered suggesting a change in the configuration of the rooms at the front of the hall. The front and vestibule doors were rehung closer to the front wall. The caretakers' residence was eventually moved underneath the hall to a four-roomed basement apartment which still exists.
Throughout the twentieth century Foresters' Hall continued to serve the local community and was registered as a public hall in 1927. It continued to operate as Court Foresters' Hope meeting place and was also used for local Labour Party meetings, among other organisations. The shops functioned in the front of the hall until about the late 1940s or 50s and the hall was also used as an electoral polling booth.
In 1976, after 88 years of ownership, Court Foresters' Hope sold the hall to the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, a friendly society which had previously rented the hall from the Foresters. Court Foresters' Hope continues to meet at St Barnabas' Church, Red Hill. In 1996, the hall was purchased by the present owners.
","criteria":"Foresters' Hall, erected in 1888, demonstrates a way of life during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when friendly societies were a prominent and expanding part of Queensland society. The societies provided a welfare service by means of mutual aid and this hall provided a headquarters for Court Foresters' Hope of the Ancient Order of Foresters' Friendly Society. The building is also of interest for its role as part of the 1880's development boom which transformed Paddington from a semi-rural area into a commuter suburb of Brisbane.
|The building is a typical and substantially intact example of a small 19th century Queensland hall.
|The hall with its interesting architectural details, offers a strong aesthetic contribution to Latrobe Terrace and the suburb of Paddington as a dominant feature of the streetscape and townscape.
|Foresters' Hall possesses special association for the Paddington community as a local landmark which has provided a range of community services for the local people for over 100 years.
The hall has a strong and long association with the activities of Court Foresters' Hope established over an 88 year period. Despite a change of ownership to the Hamilton Lodge of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes in 1976, the hall had continuous use as a friendly society meeting place until 1996.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16427,"place_ref":601667,"name":"Stafford State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"314 Stafford Road","suburb":"STAFFORD","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-02-26","description":"Stafford State School is a substantial three storey brick building located on a 5.138 hectare site on the corner of Stafford and Webster Roads, facing Stafford Road. The site also includes substantial open spaces principally used as playing fields and located behind the complex of school buildings.
Stafford State School is a symmetrical U shaped building, with a linear plan on an east-west access. At the centre of the northern facade is the projecting bay of the main entry and near either end are two smaller breakfronts with secondary entries. The roof is hipped and clad in red ceramic tiles. The front or northern elevation also has two breakfronts near either end which mark the linear plan. The external walls of the two upper levels of the building are face brick with the classrooms indicated by grouped casement windows with awning lights above. The two upper levels sit on the rendered base of the Ground Floor which has arcades and smaller window openings. The three-storey height, and Georgian-style symmetry, proportion and massing make the building prominent from both Stafford and Webster Roads.
The central bay of the northern facade is emphasised as the main entry to the building by the triangular pedimented gable, the rendered entry door surround, the double stairway and projecting further than the end bays. Also mounted over the main entrance is a large arched window with 16 panes. The first and second floors contain a series of classrooms opening onto a corridor running the length of the building on the northern side. There are panelled doors with toplights and double-hung windows between the classrooms and the corridor. The east and west wings each house two classrooms and former cloakrooms. The high ceilings, regular external windows and internal windows and doors provide substantial natural light and cross ventilation. The two stairways, near either end of the building, have steel balustrades, cast newels and timber handrails. A third stairway is located in the centre of the building. The central projecting bay houses a number of smaller rooms that are used as administrative offices and staff facilities. The tuckshop, girls and boys toilets and maintenance storage areas are located in the undercroft of the building.
The foreground of Stafford State School building is lawn, pathways and established plantings. To the west of the main building is the tennis courts. A second school building is located behind the main building and is a two-storeyed timber and corrugated iron construction. Between the two buildings is bitumened parade ground that is marked for ball games and parade positions. Simple timber and iron covered walkways run between the two buildings and a covered eating area is located to the east of the two buildings.
Behind the building complex is a vegetated lot which includes a number of native plants enclosing smaller lawned areas with timber benches. A sign marks the area as Centenary Grove. The playing fields are located behind the Centenary Grove and consist of large levelled and lawned area, incorporating two cricket pitches and marked at the southern boundary of the school by a row of Radiata pine trees. The western boundary of the playing fields has a carpark and bitumened pick up area, constructed in 1998. The 25 metre pool and grandstand complex is located on the eastern boundary of the playing fields along with a small grove of plantings in the south eastern corner of the site.
","history":"Stafford State School is a substantial three storey brick building located on a 5.138 hectare site on the corner of Stafford and Webster Roads, facing Stafford Road. It was constructed in 1948-49 as the principal building of Stafford State School, providing primary education to children of the Stafford district. Stafford State School also incorporates formal gardens in the foreground of the school and large open playing feilds to the rear of the building, established at the same time as the principal school building.
Stafford's original name was Happy Valley until 1886, when a government administrator questioned whether such a name was dignified enough to grace a new school. It is one of the few places in Queensland which takes its suburban name from the school. Happy Valley incorporated the suburbs now known as Everton Park and Stafford, and remained a semi-rural area well into the twentieth century. Local industry included tanneries, fellmongers and dairy farms. In 1886, simple timber school building and teachers residence were constructed on the original Collier Street site, where the Stafford State Pre-school is now located.
In 1940 the tramline from Red Hill was extended to Stafford Road. Closer settlement was encouraged with the establishment of a housing commission estate during World War Two on the eastern side of Webster Road and the Somerset Hill subdivision was established after the war. The general changes in post war Australian society felt through the return of service personal, a baby boom and an influx of immigrants from Europe coincides with these infrastructural planning changes for the area.
In 1947, a 12 acre site was purchased for the new school from John Smith. During the second world war, substantial changes were made to the incorporation of physical education into the primary cirriculum. Specialised physical education teacher training had commenced in Queensland in 1941 with the first batch of graduates employed under the Organiser of Physical Education in 1944. In 1944, the Director General of Education called for the 'enlarging of existing school grounds or aquisition of new sites' to accomadate facilities for feild games. At this time organised games revolving around fair play and emphasising team work were included as part of the broader themes of educational philosophy. In order to accommodate such changes, the Department of Public Instruction began to purchase sites which allowed adequate space to be dedicated to physical education. Stafford State School had two full playing ovals accommodating, football, cricket, basketball, vigaro, hockey, and athletics with a swimming pool and grandstand complex added later.
The building was designed by Frederick Thomas Wylie Warren of the Architectural Branch of the Queensland Department of Public Works and construction of the first stage was completed in 1948. A second stage was completed in 1955 from the original design. The form and architectural style of building is more typical of interwar brick school buildings, particularly those constructed under the Unemployment Relief Scheme. As such it was criticised in the contemporary press, by teachers and architects, as severe and barrack like, and representing an outmoded style of school building. From the 1950s a change in architectural direction for the Departments of Public Works and Public Instruction can be seen in the introduction of organic planning for state schools.
The school was constructed of brick and concrete. It contained 16 classrooms situated on the first and second floors. A head teachers room; male and female teachers rooms; library; reading room; store and medical inspection room; and hat and cloak rooms were also provided. Some of the classrooms on the first and second floor had folding partitions and a kindergarten room was included on the first floor. Toilets were located on the ground floor, with the remainder of ground floor space dedicated to play areas.
An infants school consisting of three buildings was excised from the original site in 1953, this set of buildings is now redundant and unoccupied. The infants school was reincorporated into the main school after the demand on school facilities decreased. The school buildings continues to house the primary school for this area, although students enrolled in the school has decreased in recent years.
","criteria":"Stafford State School is a substantial 1948 three storey brick and tile building, associated playing fields and gardens which demonstrates the importance of the post war development of suburban Stafford. The impressive form and scale of Stafford State School is indicative of the governmental confidence in post war stability and economic growth in Queensland.
|The main building of Stafford State School is one of the final buildings of the design series which is represented by works under the Unemployment Relief Scheme of the interwar period and as such it demonstrates the characteristics of a particular type of Queensland school. The main school building is a well composed institutional building and is complemented by surrounding gardens and established plantings. The associated grounds and gardens of the school demonstrate the emphasis placed on physical education as a part of a holistic pedogological philosophy. Stafford State School's open playing fields, swimming pool and gardens demonstrate the importance of the introduction of specialist physical education into the primary school curriculum.
|The combination of imposing building and plentiful open spaces is a landmark in the suburban streetscape of the area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16428,"place_ref":601668,"name":"Grangehill","alternate_name":"St Teresa's Church Discalced Carmelite Priory and Retreat Centre | Grange Hill | St Teresas Church Discalced Carmelite Priory","street_address":"449 and 451 Gregory Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-09-06","description":"Grangehill, a two-storeyed Brisbane tuff and sandstone residence with a hipped corrugated iron roof, is located on an elevated position above Gregory Terrace to the northwest and has views over the surrounding suburbs of Fortitude Valley, Bowen Hills and Herston.
The roof, consisting of U-shaped hips with a central box gutter, has a raised central skylight and two rendered chimney stacks with cornice detailing. The building has verandahs to the northeast and southeast, with the ground floor of the southeast verandah having been removed during 1960s extensions (retreat centre), and northwest verandah having been removed for the 1950s extensions. The verandahs have cast iron balustrade panels with timber rails, chamfered timber verandah posts, and a rendered masonry base. The ground floor has an arched boarded timber valance with timber lattice panels above, which have been covered over with weatherboard, and the second floor has a raked ceiling lined with hardboard sheets with timber cover strips. The first floor of the southeast verandah has been enclosed with glass louvres.
The central entry projects slightly from the verandah and has paired corner posts, a timber arch to the ground floor, and sandstone steps, and was originally surmounted by a pediment which is no longer extant. The ground floor verandah walls are of coursed Brisbane tuff with dressed hammer-faced sandstone quoining to the main entry. The central entry, which has a panelled timber door with glass sidelights and fanlight assembly with the name GRANGEHILL in the fanlight, is surrounded by vermiculated sandstone quoining and is flanked by bay windows to either side which projects from the face of the wall. These bays have tall sash windows, with the southern bay incorporating a multi-paned glass door. The first floor verandah walls are finished in scribed render, and had similar early bays which have been removed, but evidence of their form can be seen in the verandah floor boards and ceiling sheeting The southern bay has been replaced with a sliding aluminium framed glass door, and the northern bay has been replaced with a pair of timber framed french doors.
The rear of the building has mostly coursed hammer-faced sandstone with quoining to the corners and an expressed band at first floor level. Windows are multi-paned sashes, with a tall arched sash window at mid-floor level to the stair landing. Striped metal awnings and a brick rear entry lean-to have been added recently.
The two-storeyed northwest extension replaced the original two-storeyed verandah and attached kitchen, and consists of a rendered masonry structure with a corrugated iron gable roof and a large crucifix in relief on the northwest wall. Windows are metal framed casements, and a crucifix is affixed to the gable apex.
The southeast extension (retreat centre) consists of a two-storeyed U-shaped brick structure with a flat ribbed sheet metal roof. One side of the U-shaped structure replaced the southeast ground floor verandah, with the central section spanning over a driveway, and the southern side incorporating a sub-floor level.
Internally, the building has plastered masonry walls, ceilings, cornices and picture rails, and cedar joinery (some of which is painted) including panelled doors, architraves, corniced panels above doorheads, skirtings and staircase. The ground floor of the building has a central entrance hall with a large room to either side. The entrance hall has an arch, leading to a wider rear hall, with plastered extrados and imposts and a glass panel with the word CLOISTER. The northern room has an ornate plaster ceiling pendant and pendant light fitting, and a marble fireplace surround with tile inserts and cast iron screen. The southern room has a plaster ceiling pendant and a wide arch dividing the room in two, with two side doorways (originally with french doors opening to a verandah) which have painted glass fanlights each consisting of landscape scenes in sepia tones. The room originally had a white marble fireplace surround which has been removed.
The rear hall has two rooms opening to either side, with the northwest room having undergone a number of changes and now has timber framed glass doors within an original archway, and a partition wall of arches forming a central hallway. The rear hall has a painted half-turn with landings staircase with turned balustrade and square newel posts.
The first floor has a central hall with an arch, which has plastered extrados and imposts, opening to three front rooms. The northern room has been partitioned to create two rooms with a corridor at the rear accessing the northwest extension. A bathroom, which has been recently refitted, is located centrally and is lit by a skylight. An early storage cupboard adjacent to the bathroom retains the only section of pressed metal ceiling to the first floor.
The northwest extension has a kitchen, laundry and bathroom to the ground floor, with a staircase accessing the first floor which houses bathrooms and bedrooms. The southeast extension (retreat centre) has a chapel, confessionals, seminar room and bedrooms to the first floor, bedrooms and garages to the ground floor, and bedrooms to the sub-floor level.
The building is accessed off Gregory Terrace via a curved driveway with turning circle. The grounds include two large Fig trees to the east of the driveway, and several substantial Umbrella and Camphor Laurel trees. A stone embankment wall is located along the Gregory Terrace alignment.
","history":"Grangehill is a substantial stone house which was constructed in the early 1860s, as the family home of Alexander Raff, a prominent member of Brisbane society and a later Member of the Legislative Council.
Alexander Raff was born in Forres, Elginshire, Scotland in July 1820, as the third son of James and Margaret Raff. Alexander arrived in New South Wales in 1845, following his eldest brother, George who had arrived in 1841. After first settling in Victoria pursuing pastoral interests, Alexander arrived in Brisbane, aboard the Souvenir schooner on April 9, 1851.
Alexander was an active member of various organisations and societies, including the School of Arts, where he was elected Treasurer in January 1854; the Pilot's Board; the Queensland Horticultural and Agricultural Society and the Queensland Philosophical Society, in both of which he acted as Treasurer during the 1860s. Raff was the first president of the Young Men's Christian Association in Queensland. Other organisations of which he was a member include the Queensland Steam Navigation Company; the Board of National Education pending the passing of the Education Act in 1860; and, later, the men's steering committee for the Children's Hospital established in 1878. Alexander was a director of the Scottish Mutual Land and Mortgage Company; the Agricultural Company; the Brisbane Gas Company and National Mutual Life Association. Alexander continued his pastoral interests in Queensland, on his property, Logie Plains on the Darling Downs.
For many years from the 1880s Alexander Raff was a partner of Smellie and Co, looking after the financial interests of the company. Raff was an elder in the Presbyterian Church.
In 1865 Alexander was appointed to the position of Official Assignee of Insolvent Estates and in 1868 he was promoted to the position of Curator of Intestate Estates. The Official Assignee was responsible for collecting the assets of an insolvent debtor and distributing them among the creditors; the Curator of Intestate Estates administered the estate of deceased persons, thought to have passed away intestate. In August 1884 Alexander Raff was appointed as a Member of the Legislative Council, a position he held until his resignation in June, 1910.
Raff married Elizabeth Millar Patterson, the elder daughter of a prominent Scottish medical family, in Sydney on June 5, 1862. The newly weds arrived in Brisbane aboard the Balclutha on June 13, 1862.
Alexander purchased two blocks of land on what was to become Gregory Terrace on May 14, 1860 for £312.4.3. A third adjacent block was subsequently bought by Raff in 1864 from the original 1860 purchaser, John Frederick McDougall.
The first reference found regarding the Raffs occupation of Grangehill, is upon the birth of their first child, Jessie Watson, on the 18th of April, 1863, where Grangehill is nominated as the family home. It is presumed that Alexander built the house after the purchase of land in 1860. Although the architect is unknown, a possible candidate would be James Cowlishaw, who designed a store for Alexander's brother's company, George Raff and Co in 1862 and later, in 1864, additions to Raff's Wharf in Brisbane. Cowlishaw is also thought to have been a personal friend of the Raffs.
During the late 1860s and early 1870s, Raff sold land on the Warry Street side of the block, and re-purchased it by 1874. In 1879 both John Petrie and Augustus Gregory built substantial family homes on property on Gregory Terrace previously purchased by them in the sale of 1860. By 1883 Warry Street had been extended north to Gregory Terrace, onto Raff's allotment 258.
Alexander and Elizabeth Raff had seven children, six of whom survived to adulthood. In August 1893, one of the daughters, Margaret Cumming Raff, married Mr T.C. Woolnough, in a ceremony held at Grangehill. It is thought that during the 1880s or 1890s a verandah was added to both stories of three sides of the house, and that bay windows were added to four of the principal entrance elevation.
On Alexander's death on January 26, 1914, the house was left in trust to his eldest son, James, who enabled the Red Cross to use it after the First World War as a convalescent home.
In 1924 Brisbane architects, Chambers and Ford, designed additions to Grangehill, converting the house into two flats, one of which James Raff moved into for a short time. These additions included a wing on the north west which housed a kitchen and laundry, and the closing of sections of the verandah for use as bathrooms. A new entrance to Grangehill was planned from Gregory Terrace, through the new wing.
By 1929, the Grangehill property was subdivided, when a Dr Henry J. Windsor is listed as living on the Warry Street corner of the property, in a timber house also designed by Chambers and Ford. On the Brunswick Street side of the property is a block of six flats which survive in 1995. From 1929, the two flats at Grangehill were let to a Mr Edward K Tully and a PJ Teeley, who remained there until Mrs Adele Magnum is listed as running a boarding house from Grangehill for about two years from 1939. According to family history, Grangehill was then used by American Soldiers in the Second World War. James Raff died in 1939, leaving the house in trust to his nephew, James Cluny Raff.
In 1949 the property was offered for sale by James Cluny Raff, and passed out of the family who had owned it since 1860. The auction notice for this sale notes a substantial wooden cottage on the block, no longer extant. The Disclaced Carmelite Fathers purchased Grangehill, and it has remained their headquarters and retreat centre until 1995. The Fathers made alterations to the house between 1965 and 1970. These included the demolition of the 1924 kitchen wing, and its replacement with another wing, the removal of the first floor bay windows, and the addition of some interior arch screens. A later addition saw the erection of a retreat centre abutting the south east side of the house.
","criteria":"Grangehill is illustrative of the residential development of Spring Hill during the nineteenth century.
|The house is one of the earliest surviving in Brisbane and as such a rare extant example of a substantial 1860s stone residence.
Internal fittings which are early and rare include the lower floor ceiling roses, the lower floor ceiling with associated cornice, the painted glass transom windows and timber joinery.
|Though it was extended at various times, the building retains a substantial amount of original fabric and is representative of a large early Victorian era residence.
|Located on an elevated position, the building and grounds, including the driveway, landscaped grounds and stone embankment wall, make a substantial contribution to the amenity of the Gregory Terrace streetscape and Spring Hill townscape.
|(Criteria under review)
|Grangehill, a two storied stone residence constructed in Spring Hill in the early 1860s by prominent Brisbane businessman and pastoralist, Alexander Raff, has associations with the Raff family, who were instrumental in establishing various Brisbane businesses and institutions.
Grangehill was purchased by the Discalced Carmelite Fathers in 1950, and retains important associations with the order as their Queensland headquarters and Retreat Centre.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16450,"place_ref":601694,"name":"William Jolly Bridge","alternate_name":"Grey Street Bridge","street_address":"Skew Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1996-08-06","description":"The William Jolly Bridge crosses the Brisbane River at the tip of the South Brisbane peninsula between Grey Street, South Brisbane, and the intersection of Skew and Saul Streets on the northern bank. The bridge carries four lanes of traffic with pedestrian paths to either side, and retaining walls return at right angles to the bridge at the northern end supporting North Quay above.
The bridge spans between ground level on the higher northern bank, ramping down to Grey Street inland from the southern bank. To achieve this, the bridge was constructed with three major spans of arched ribs across the river, with two smaller arches at the northern embankment and a single arch at the southern embankment, and a viaduct consisting of 16 spans ramping down to Grey Street to the south. The southern ramping section curves towards the southeast in plan, crossing Montague Road to align with Grey Street. The two smaller arches at the northern embankment are no longer extant, and have been replaced by precast, prestressed concrete deck units above Coronation Drive, which links onto the riverside expressway.
The bridge is constructed of concrete encased steel, with the three major spans of arched ribs rising through the deck. The roadway is partly supported by hangers from the arches which project above, and cross girders and stringers below. The ramping southern section roadway is supported by longitudinal broad flange beams supported by rows of piers, with the southern end abutment being earth filled between reinforced concrete retaining walls.
A misconception at the time of construction was that the concrete encasing was decorative and was only used to hide the structural steelwork of the bridge. This was incorrect as the bridge was designed as a reinforced concrete structure, with the steelwork acting as reinforcing and the concrete carrying a major part of the load. However, the concrete is also used in a decorative manner to represent oversized coursing on the main piers and voussoirs on the arched ribs.
Other decorative features include grotesques to the outer face of some balustrades, and a floral-like motif at either side of the top of the four ornamental tower-like elements. These four tower-like elements frame both entrances to the bridge, surmounting the end piers of the cross-river section, and each consists of an arched opening to a projecting balcony with a stepped crown surmounted by a metal spire. These were originally intended to have the functional purpose of supporting the overhead cables for the proposed electric tramway.
The bridge has cast concrete balustrades, and carefully detailed elements such as the curved ends to the concrete encased cross girders beneath the roadway, and the termination blocks for the upper portions of the arched ribs. Openings in the cross girders below the roadway, intended for a major water pipe which was not installed, are evident.
A pedestrian stair with iron balustrade is located on the southern side of Montague Road and rises through the southwestern footpath. A stair is also located within the North Quay retaining wall on the northeastern side of the bridge connecting North Quay and Coronation Drive. This stair has a solid concrete balustrade, and is no longer accessible from below.
Street lighting has been installed along the length of the bridge, and traffic lights are located at the northern end.
","history":"The William Jolly Bridge was constructed between 1928 and 1932 following the formation of Greater Brisbane in 1925, and was one of the first major capital works of the new city Council and bears the name of its first Mayor. At the time of construction, the only traffic bridge linking North and South Brisbane was the second Victoria Bridge, built in 1897 to replace an earlier bridge washed away in the flood of 1893. The William Jolly Bridge crosses the Brisbane River at the tip of the South Brisbane peninsula between Grey Street, South Brisbane, and the intersection of Skew and Saul Streets on the northern bank.
The tip of the South Brisbane peninsula is traditionally a point of crossing. A sandy beach marked the point of crossing for aboriginal tribes from the Moreton region, then later for Europeans who crossed the river near this point on the North Quay ferry, and then from the 1930s via the William Jolly Bridge. On the south bank, aboriginal and later European pathways and land use patterns formed the basis for subsequent traffic networks.
Prior to European settlement, the whole of the South Brisbane peninsula was known as Kurilpa, meaning the place of rats, due to the large number of bush rats to be found in the lush vegetation of the area. (The recently developed riverfront park adjacent to the bridge at South Brisbane is now called Kurilpa Point.). The first European use of the south bank occurred soon after the establishment of the Moreton Bay Penal settlement in 1825 when convicts cleared the flats across the river in order to grow grain to feed the settlement. In 1830 the cultivation of the flats on the south bank was ordered to cease by the Commandant, however throughout the 1830s timber was being exported to Sydney from the south bank. Those enroute to the outstations at Cowper's (Coopers) Plains, Limestone Hill and Cleveland crossed the area.
On 10 February 1842, Moreton Bay was declared open for free settlement. As the point of entry and exit, South Brisbane prospered in the 1840s. In 1846 Brisbane was brought within the provisions of the Police Towns Act of 1839, and boundaries to the town were set.
The first ferry to convey passengers, horses and carriages began operation from Russell Street c.1842. For over 30 years this was the only vehicular ferry crossing to North Brisbane in this area, except for a brief period from June 1865-November 1867 when a temporary timber bridge, which was rapidly destroyed by marine borer, spanned the river.
A burial ground had been established on the northern bank where Skew Street is now located, (later moved to Hale Street), and to the rear of the burial ground a new gaol was established by 1860 and military barracks in 1864. Farming was established along the banks of the river, and development concentrated on Petrie Terrace. Land between the new burial ground and barracks was put up for auction in 1861, and from 1863 the auctioning of suburban allotments (now Paddington) encouraged the spread of the settlement along the ridges.
The North Quay Ferry, a row boat, crossed the river where the bridge now stands, and the River Road (now Coronation Drive) was established as a track which serviced properties towards Toowong. The opening of the Brisbane-Ipswich railway in 1875 isolated the strip of riverfront residences from the working class houses in Milton and Paddington, and this contributed to the relative lack of development along the northern bank of the Milton Reach of the river in subsequent years.
The opening of the Victoria Bridge on 15 June 1874 provided an important transport and communications link between the north and south banks of the river, and provided further impetus to the development of the south bank. The Victoria Bridge was funded by the Brisbane Municipal Council and a toll was imposed to recover costs. Eventually, responsibility for the bridge was taken over by the Queensland Government.
In the 1880s, the south bank experienced a development boom. A dry dock was opened in 1881, coal wharves at Woolloongabba and associated rail links were established c.1885, and South Brisbane was established as the passenger terminus for suburban and country lines built during the 1880s. Industry and commerce was attracted to the area, and Stanley Street developed into a major retail centre and thoroughfare. The spread of housing included the development of large residences located along the ridges with views of the river, and industry developed along the southern bank of the Milton reach.
The establishment of the South Brisbane municipality occurred on 7 January 1888. The development of the civic centre focused on the Stanley and Vulture Street intersection, with the construction of the Town Hall, Fire Station, Post Office and Railway Station. The boom of the 1880s collapsed, followed by maritime and pastoral strikes in the early 1890s, and the collapse of banks in 1893. Land and rent values plummeted to their lowest levels and hundreds of home owners applied to the Council to work out their rates. A series of floods in 1893 resulted in the collapse of the Indooroopilly rail bridge in 1893, which diverted all rail traffic to South Brisbane, and the collapse of Victoria Bridge on 6 February 1893 which cut vital transport and communications links with the central city. A report in the Telegraph on 8 February 1893 described the event as What a terrible hiatus in the course of business alone has been caused by the collapse of Victoria Bridge. Once again, for practical purposes, the metropolis is divided into two separate towns. No bridge, no telephone, no telegraph, and vastly inadequate ferry accommodation.
Urban expansion on both sides of the river continued with the opening of the new Victoria Bridge in 1897 and the advent of electric trams. The first encroachment of industry into the residential enclave along the high northern embankment occurred above the North Quay ferry terminal in 1897 with the construction of the Helidon Spa Company's extensive works from the North Quay-River Road intersection. The residential enclave was further reduced when the Morrow-Rankin biscuit factory was established upstream from the Helidon Spa works in 1913.
On 3 October 1903, the Government gazetted the proclamation which constituted the City of South Brisbane. From 1908 the South Brisbane City Council tried to bring all the wharves in the South Brisbane Reach under its control and encouraged further commercial and industrial development along the river front. As finance permitted, provision of services such as gas, electricity, road sealing, water supply and an adequate system of drainage and sanitation improved the living and working conditions in the area and generated a demand for residential accommodation and improved cross river communication.
In the immediate post-war period, residential growth created continued demand for public transport, particularly through and from the South Brisbane peninsula. Land resumption for road widening was enacted in both Stanley and Melbourne Streets, and in September 1925, South Brisbane City Council is noted as having a population of 40,000 persons. The completion of the Sydney-Kyogle-South Brisbane interstate railway benefited the local economy with a demand for factory and manufacturing sites. Health factors, noise and nuisance associated with industry and proximity to wharves and docks all contributed to the changing perception of the area bounded by Grey and Boundary Streets, Montague Road and the river. As a result, when the time came to resume land in connection with the construction of the William Jolly Bridge, there was scant opposition.
By the time Greater Brisbane was formed in 1925, the need for further cross river links had been established. Traffic across the Victoria Bridge had increased 76% from 1912-1925, and in 1923 it was noted that traffic tonnage had increased 49.5% in 15 months. The 1897 Victoria Bridge had a paved deck with bituminous surfacing on wrought iron troughing. Between 1920-1922 this paving was replaced by concrete, causing traffic congestion. In 1922, the need for additional traffic on Victoria Bridge was identified, and the Mayor of Brisbane noted the need for cross river traffic as pressing and urgent. The Victoria Bridge structure was investigated in 1923 to determine its strength for further loading, and WJ Doak, Bridge Engineer of the Queensland Railways, noted that the bridge is now loaded to rather more than its orthodox capacity under live load, but it was considered that there was no immediate danger of collapse. His recommendations included various repairs, and that a second bridge should be built.
The first meeting of the Greater Brisbane Council in March 1925 passed a motion concerning the employment of experts to investigate what cross river facilities were required and their best locations. Mayor William Alfred Jolly was Chairman of the Bridges and Ferries Committee, and recommended that three experts be employed. A motion was passed on 20 May 1925 to appoint a Cross River Commission, which reported on 11 January 1926 (chairman RWH Hawken, Professor of Engineering at the University of Queensland, WN Nelson and R Martin Wilson). The report showed 11 proposed river crossings, and considered costs and savings made due to the reduction in haulage costs etc, and the need for a railway bridge was also discussed. A crossing at Kangaroo Point was estimated to cost 6 times the Grey Street crossing, and further reports were commissioned from WJ Earle, the City Planner, and EF Gilchrist, the City Engineer. These reports proposed the Grey Street bridge be two level for road and rail traffic, and a second bridge from Wellington Road to Sydney Street, New Farm, with a major ring road called the Main Parkway Boulevard, be constructed.
On 7 June 1926 Council decided to build a bridge from Grey Street, South Brisbane. However, it is interesting to note that Gilchrist Avenue (named after EF Gilchrist City Engineer), which is on the other side of the rail line to the proposed Main Parkway Boulevard, is in essence part of the proposed traffic system for the William Jolly Bridge as per Earle's recommended ring road system. The existing Gilchrist Avenue's original drawings are dated 25 June 1930.
The Council called applications for a bridge engineer to design a steel or reinforced concrete bridge on 10 July 1926. Alison Eavis Harding Frew (1883-1952) was appointed Engineer on 12 November 1926.
Problems were encountered with the design of the bridge due to the depth of rock below the river bed increasing from approximately 14m to 23m on the southern bank. Due to the costly foundation work, a bridge type with long spans was chosen. Harding Frew considered five bridge types, each a variation on a theme, stating in his report that it is frankly admitted that the purely economical aspect alone has not been given as much weight... as the consideration of utility, with good taste, combined with minimum maintenance cost....The maintenance requirements for, and performance of, steel bridges was also noted as a concern.
Harding Frew recommended bridge type A and the Council adopted his recommendation, of which some of the details of approaches etc changed from design to construction. The chosen bridge design was to be of concrete encased steel with arched ribs which rise through the deck. The final decision of the type of bridge, from the five under consideration, was essentially aesthetic, and was influenced by the so-called Rainbow Arch Bridge, carrying Robert Street, St Paul Minnesota across the Mississippi River. Harding Frew acknowledged this in his report, including photographs of the bridge, and stated that the time has come when some improvement in the appearance of our city bridges should be looked for in Queensland....The questions of utility and aesthetics should also be weighed carefully, especially in relation to a city's importance, its civic pride, and its future. The selected bridge design differed from the St Paul bridge in that it has three major spans whereas the St Paul bridge only has one, and this has been suggested as possibly making the William Jolly Bridge unique.
The Council resumed large areas of land bounded by Roma, Saul and Skew Streets, and between Skew Street, Eagle Terrace and North Quay on the northern side, and on the southern side, east of Grey Street between Montague Road and Melbourne Street. The final position of the bridge was determined by Harding Frew's recommendations (Earle and Gilchrist's were slightly upstream from the present site) and was accepted by Council in late 1926. The bridge was to have a North Quay underpass, and the estimated total cost was £700,000 including viaducts, resumptions, roadways, approaches and contingencies. This caused dismay, and the Commissioner for Main Roads considered that the cost should be contained to £500,000 by reducing the North Quay roadworks, minimising resumptions and building a different type of bridge.
Nevertheless, Council called tenders and MR Hornibrook Ltd submitted the lowest of £384,850 and this was accepted on 8 May 1928. Work commenced in August 1928 and was completed in March 1932.
An artist's impression at the time of construction shows trams crossing the bridge with overhead cables, a monument of some kind at the intersection of Skew and Saul Streets, and a different number of viaducts on southern side to those actually built.
An incident occurred on 17 February 1927 which highlighted the potentially disastrous situation of having only one bridge across the Brisbane River. The cargo steamer Chronos was taken upstream by a rising tide and the bow was wedged under the Victoria Bridge. Tugs managed to pull it out eventually, but the rising tide could have dislodged a span of the bridge and dumped it in the river, and this was highlighted in the Press at the time.
As mentioned, the depth to rock over much of the length of the William Jolly Bridge posed a major problem in the design of the foundations. The original design had the piers supported on timber piles, with inclined piles to resist the thrust from the small arch. Piles were driven immediately to the south of the pier, but it became impossible to drive them to rock and the design was changed to utilise reinforced concrete caissons (heavy, hollow, vertical reinforced concrete cylinders), and the contractor was noted as being completely in accord with this decision. The southern approach spans piers founded on timber piles all driven to rock, or to such depths as it was possible to drive them without damage, and the river piers are founded on reinforced concrete caissons. To achieve this the Sand Island method was invented by Manuel Hornibrook (1893-1970).
The Sand Island is an artificial island constructed by placing sand within a closed ring of sheet piles driven into the bed of the river. Two islands were constructed for each pier (one for each of the cylindrical caissons) with the caissons being 28 ft in diameter at the base. The pier on the sloping mud bank also used this method with rectangular caissons. Hornibrook is quoted as stating...as far as I am concerned the idea is an original one....The idea came to me one morning about 3 o'clock. I was so much taken up with it that I got out of bed and commenced to design a scheme to carry out the piers for the Grey Street Bridge. The use of Sand Islands was highly successful and very accurate, and overcame the problem of requiring the cutting edge to be placed directly on dry ground. The material was dredged out of the centre of the caisson and the cylinder progressively sank, however it was necessary to ensure that the caisson was fixed securely to rock and it was therefore essential to ensure man-access into the cylinder. This was achieved by using an air-lock system, but as the men worked under high pressure they could possibly suffer from the bends and an hospital air-lock was located at the surface for repressurisation if required. The foundations for the bridge were very deep, and the experience gained in the construction of this bridge, and later the Story Bridge, was considered of great value and to be a major achievement.
The steelwork was fabricated at the Evans Deakin and Co plant at Rocklea, and the arches had just been fixed in place when, on 5 February 1931 a major flood swept timber falsework away but fortunately the steelwork remained in place.
The steelwork was encased in Gunite, a sprayed dry mix concrete, the process of which was based on an invention in the United States at turn of century to spray plaster of paris in the reconstruction of skeletons of prehistoric animals. Between 1904-1909 this method was modified to spray sand and cement using a machine known as a Cement-Gun. Gunite was copyrighted in 1912 and continued as a proprietary trademark until 1967, when it became a generic term. The process involves a mixture of sand and cement which is loaded into one chamber, a stream of the dry mixture is forced along a delivery pipe to the gun, and on discharge is mixed with an annular jet of water. It was only in the 1920s that the process spread internationally, and it is difficult to ascertain whether other examples of bridges using the Gunite process, beside the St Paul Minnesota bridge, exist. It would appear that the use of Gunite in the arches, beams, deck members and hangers of the main spans, is a major early use of the process in Australia. The Opening Booklet for the bridge states The encasing of broad flange beams with concrete applied under pressure introduces new methods to Brisbane.
The southern approach of the bridge, to the south of Montague Road, was designed to have wider footpaths and roadway than the remainder of the bridge to conform with the decision of the Council to utilise this portion of the Approach, so that access might be had to abutting buildings (directly) from the bridge roadway.
The concrete balustrades were made by the Hume Pipe Co Ltd, and were centrifugally cast in their factory at West End. The Hume brothers invented the centrifugal casting method, for the casting of concrete pipes etc, and their firm was established in Adelaide in 1910. The mould for the grotesques, which decorate the bridge, was made by Karma Eklund, daughter of the State Manager, Hugo Eklund.
The structural steelwork including angles, plates, channels etc was almost wholly imported from Great Britain. Broad flange beams were supplied from Belgium, the largest being 30 x 12 inches which were larger than Australian rolled beams at the time. The use of large sections in the southern approaches allowed longer spans thereby reducing the number of piers. The cement and aggregate was supplied by the Queensland Cement and Lime Co.
Provision for a major water pipe never eventuated, and the closer spacing of stringers in the centre to support a tramway was not utilised. The decorative towers were intended to support overhead cables for the proposed tramway. The bridge originally crossed the North Quay underpass on two continuous, reinforced-concrete girder spans, each 33 ft with girders of variable depth. These have since been replaced by precast, prestressed concrete deck units above Coronation Drive, which links onto the riverside expressway, and in the process the footpath widths have been reduced.
The extent of work included in the bridge contract excluded some retaining walls, roadways etc on the northern side which were designed by the council. A statement was presented to the council on 14 November 1933 showing the official final cost as £688,387/12/5.
The bridge was officially opened on 30 March 1932, just eleven days after the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A large crowd gathered on both sides of the river and 600 invited guests were in attendance. The bridge was named the Grey Street Bridge.
There was great community interest in the massive public works under construction at the time. It was the era of the Great Depression and massive public works, and Vida Lahey, a distinguished Queensland artist, painted the bridge at least three times during its construction. She also painted other public works including Anzac Square [600062], the State Government Offices [600059], and the Central Railway Station [600073]. Although there was widespread public interest in the bridge, it was eclipsed within ten years by the much larger and more prominent Story Bridge [600240].
An unusual feature of the Bridge is that the arches rise through the deck. It is noted that those living in Brisbane tend to regard this as normal for a bridge of this type, however this is in fact most unusual and few bridges around the world, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge, have this feature. The problem confronting Harding Frew was not the span to rise ratio of the arch itself, but rather its effect on the design of the deep foundations required at the site.
The bridge was designed to alleviate the traffic on the Victoria Bridge, but by as early as 1939 it was carrying 45% of the cross river traffic and was effectively doing more than it was designed to achieve.
On 5 July 1955, the Council decided to rename the bridge the William Jolly Bridge, in honour of William Alfred Jolly (1881-1955). Jolly was Alderman of Windsor Town Council from 1912 to 1925, including 5 years as Mayor. On 21 February 1925 he was elected first Mayor (later Lord Mayor) of the Greater Brisbane Council for six years until his retirement in 1931. JW Greene was in office when the bridge was opened. Jolly had moved the motions which led to the construction of the bridge. The Greater Brisbane Act gave the Council a charter which vested in the Council the power to frame its own legislation and the Council proceeded with a bold policy of civic improvements, including the Grey Street (William Jolly) Bridge, the new City Hall [600065], Anzac Square [600062], the tramways, water supply and sewerage.
Originally the bridge, roadways and footpaths were illuminated by spherical glass light fittings on cast metal mountings on both sides of the arches and the decorative arches of the tower-like elements. These fittings were replaced by the present lighting in 1964.
Many of the balustrades have been replaced, and prior to 1972 the complete roadway was resurfaced with asphalt. The bridge was first painted in 1974. A cream colour was chosen to reflect the approximate colour of newly poured concrete. Floodlighting was also introduced in 1974.
The original two-span overpass over North Quay, later over Coronation Drive, was replaced by the present single-span structure using precast, prestressed concrete deck units in 1988.
","criteria":"The William Jolly Bridge was constructed between 1928 and 1932 following the formation of Greater Brisbane in 1925, and was one of the first major capital works of the new city Council being part of a bold policy of civic improvements under the provisions of the Greater Brisbane Act. The construction of the bridge was seen as a symbol of the unification of Greater Brisbane, and the bridge bears the name of the new city Council's first Mayor, and later Lord Mayor, William Alfred Jolly, who was Chairman of the Bridges and Ferries Committee and who had moved the motions which led to the construction of the bridge.
The William Jolly Bridge is located at the tip of the South Brisbane peninsula, a location which traditionally has been a point of crossing of the Brisbane River from pre-European settlement. Aboriginal and later European pathways and land use patterns formed the basis for subsequent traffic networks which are reflected in the location of the bridge and associated traffic systems. It was Brisbane's second traffic bridge and provided an important transport and communications link between both sides of the river, as well as further impetus for the development of the South Brisbane peninsula.
|The design of the bridge is unusual in its use of three major spans of arched ribs which rise through the deck, which give the bridge a distinctive appearance and a landmark quality.
|The design of the William Jolly Bridge was intended to reflect the city's importance and its civic pride. Constructed of concrete encased steel, the bridge has a monument-like quality, with grotesques and representations of oversized coursing on the main piers and voussoirs on the arched ribs.
The design of the bridge is unusual in its use of three major spans of arched ribs which rise through the deck, which give the bridge a distinctive appearance and a landmark quality.
|The William Jolly Bridge demonstrates a high degree of technical achievement in its design, its use of Gunite (sprayed dry mix concrete), and in the development of the Sand Island method used for the construction of its river piers.
|The William Jolly Bridge was designed by AE Harding Frew, a distinguished Brisbane engineer, and was a major work by Queensland contractors Evans Deakin and Co and MR Hornibrook Ltd.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16468,"place_ref":601728,"name":"Brisbane Central Technical College (former)","alternate_name":"Queensland University of Technology (QUT 1987 to present) | Queensland Institute of Technology (1965-1987) | Gardens Point campus - QUT","street_address":"2 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-08-27","description":"Overlooking the City Botanic Gardens [QHR 600067], the former Brisbane Central Technical College sits between Parliament House [QHR 600069] and Old Government House [QHR 600118] at the southeast end of George Street. From a group of nine purpose-built buildings designed and constructed for technical education classes between 1909 and 1956, six, bold, red face brick buildings remain from the 1909 master plan along with three extensions to the original Workshops block. A later addition, the imposing, two-storey, red face brick neo-Georgian former Library building faces the Main Drive adjacent to the kidney lawn of Old Government House.
\nBlocks A, E, F, G, H and J with its extensions Blocks K, R and W, are buildings of two to four storeys of an industrial character in a confident, restrained, simplified classicism characteristic of the Arts and Crafts idiom. The buildings are grouped around the original central courtyard now paved and landscaped with planted beds. A Block faces the Main Drive and is a landmark building at the main entrance gate to the campus. E, F, G and H blocks are grouped around the courtyard. J Block and extensions form a visual and physical close to the courtyard and are on the alignment of the roadway to the rear of the campus. U Block extends down the Main Drive preserving the alignment of the original master plan along this roadway.
\nBlocks A, E, F, G, H and J are unified in their general elevational treatment, materials and detailing. All are red face brick with contrasting features in dark red brick including relieved quoining, arched entrance porches, flat arched window heads and banding to floor levels. The original building department name appeared in metal lettering in an Art Nouveau style within a carved stone tablet above the entrance porch to each building. Only \"Chemistry\" on the east entrance to E Block survives.
\nThe central courtyard formed by the building group is a compact light, airy space. The pathways between the buildings provide visual and physical links with the courtyard and with the other buildings. The position of building entrances and corridors indicate the proposed circulation patterns that connect the buildings as a group.
\nThe buildings, courtyard and surviving paths between the buildings of the former Brisbane Central Technical College precinct are of cultural heritage significance. Building descriptions for Blocks A, E, F, G, H, J, K, R, W and U follow.
\nCommercial and Day School (Block A)
\nAdjacent to the Main Gate at the southeast end of George Street and on alignment with the Main Drive, the three-storey, face brick, hip-roofed former Commercial and Day School overlooks the City Botanic Gardens. Each elevation is composed of light red face brick with contrasting dark red face brick relieved quoining, flat window arches and banding marking the floor levels. Prominent metal rainwater heads and downpipes divide the elevations into bays. The main elevation to the city Botanic Gardens is symmetrical about a narrow pedimented breakfront of dressed stone enriched with stone carving. The flat arched, central entrance porch with a prominent keystone in stone is flanked by posts with decorative carved shields to the capitals beneath an open-bed segmental pediment with decorative carving to the tympanum. A decorative metal grille fanlight sits over the porch entranceway. An arched porch entrance to the south opens onto the central courtyard and the arched entrance to the west connects with the new D Block undercroft link to F Block. There is a new metal bridge link across to B Block from the second floor. There are double hung windows to the ground floor of the front elevation with multi-pane casements to the upper floors. The other elevations have both double hung and multi-pane casement windows to each level.
\nOriginally each floor accommodated classrooms and staff offices off a central corridor from east to west meeting a transverse corridor running along the rear wing from north to south connecting with the walkways which in the original master plan were to link with adjacent buildings. The internal spaces have been altered and are now organised off the original corridors as large studio spaces and smaller office spaces. Some original joinery remains, including six-pane glazed doors to the ground floor and nine-pane glazed doors to the first and second floors, skirtings to the corridors, high timber rails to A208, timber rails at two levels in A204. The original stair to the ground and first floors of polished concrete with exposed aggregate remains and continues in plain concrete to the c1924 extension second floor. A decorative steel balustrade with timber handrail runs along the whole stair.
\nChemistry and Geology Block E
\nBlock E is located to the south of the courtyard between Blocks B and G/H. Designed as a two-storey L-shaped building with a rectangular pavilion across a walkway to the south. Now four storeys, it has grown out of the former Chemistry and Geology building and is unified with the other buildings in the group in general elevational composition, detailing and materials. It is a plain building in light red face brick with contrasting dark red face brick to the relieved quoins, flat window arches and banding marking the interior floor levels. The only decoration is the Art Nouveau metal lettering \"Chemistry\" above the arched entrance porch to the east. The 1937 infill to the northeast continues the original elevational treatments and is well matched to the original while the 1960s addition to the southwest corner in light brick with no texturing or banding and smaller vertical fenestration is less sympathetic. The solid balustraded, setback upper-storey (1990) contrasts with the rest of the building and disturbs the building's cohesion with the group. A barrel-shaped, corrugated metal hood has been added over the steps to the east entrance porch.
\nThe interior has been altered and is now a range of laboratories, lecture theatres, staff offices and ancillary service/storage/work areas arranged off the main east-west corridor of the original master plan. There are concrete stairs at each end. Some early fabric survives including the concrete stair with plain metal balustrading to the east, some joinery and stop chamfered concrete beams and posts to the ground floor. The interior walls are painted or plastered brick, with plain plastered ceilings and concrete floors (some with vinyl and carpet floor coverings). Suspended ceilings conceal plaster ceilings.
\nWool-classing and Building Construction (Block F)
\nThe distinctive form of this building expresses the saw-toothed roof line in the north and south elevations. This two-storey building has a tough and distinctive industrial character. Unified with the other buildings in the group in scale, materials and detailing the elevational infill is in light red face brick contrasting with the dark red face brick of the flat arch window openings and the relieved quoining to the corners and pilasters which define the bays in the elevations. Prominent rainwater heads and downpipes contribute to the vertical rhythm. The arched entrance, now without the identifying building title within the tablet above, remains to the east and opens onto the undercroft of the new D Block which reinstates the link of the original master plan across to A Block. The timber entrance doors have been replaced with glass doors.
\nThe plan is organised about an L-shaped corridor off which studios, workshops, staff offices and storage/service areas open. Some internal spaces have been partitioned but the original internal spatial relations have been maintained though service ducts and lighting fixtures now intrude. Original fabric survives including the roof lights and pressed metal ceilings to the level two former woolclassing area now partitioned as F204 and F201; decorative pressed metal ceilings, concrete columns in a Tuscan order and dentilled plaster cornices with egg and dart mouldings to the ceilings and exposed beams in F101; decorative pressed metal ceilings with moulded \"acanthus\" pattern cornices to the corridors of level two; decorative pressed metal ceilings to the vestibule to the link across to J Block from level 2; decorative plaster cornice to the ceiling of the stairwell; doors and skirting boards to each floor; tiles to floor and walls of locker rooms on each level; and a polished concrete stair with plain metal balustrading.
\nPhysics and Electrical Engineering (Block G)
\nLying to the south of the courtyard, this is the smallest building in the group and is timber framed. A three-storey, hip-roofed, face brick pavilion with a service wing to the east expressed as two towers, this building is unified with the other buildings in scale, detail and materials. The regular rhythm of flat arched windows around the building and the relieved quoining in dark red brick contrast to the light red infill panels of the building. Now removed, the former single-storey toilet block is evident in the rendered and painted lower portion of the external east wall. The building title has been removed from stone tablet above the dark red brick, arched entrance porch to the west.
\nClassrooms and staff offices open off a central corridor within the pavilion section of the building. Early fabric survives including timber lined ceilings and the cedar main stair case. An infill link of glass and concrete to H Block has diminished the reading of these buildings as separate structures.
\nCivil and Mechanical Engineering (Block H)
\nA two-storey, hip-roofed, face brick square pavilion with a rectangular workshop wing stepping downhill to the west, this building is distinguished by its four-storey, rectangular tower. Elevational treatments and detailing are similar to those used in the other buildings in the group, including the relieved quoining, flat arched window openings and arched entrance porch in contrasting dark red brick. The machine room basement is distinguished by the semi-circular arched window openings in dark red brick to this level. A distinctive oriel window to the south contains the stair landing and links the pavilion wing to the rectangular west wing at first floor level. Hooks and other marks in the west exterior wall are evidence of the demolished Boiler Room and associated brick stack. Corrugated metal sheeting to the south wall covers the wall to the demolished south wing. Shadowing on the carved stone tablet above the arched entrance porch to the east indicates the original Art Nouveau style lettering \"Engineering\".
\nThe interior has been altered but original fabric remains. The plan is organised about a central corridor with a polished plain concrete stair with metal balustrade in the south corner. The basement machine room is intact, retains a workshop use and is notable for the exposed timber structure of the floor above, arched brickwork and steel lifting beams (plated \"Manchester 1912\"). The room may be viewed from the ground floor corridor above through arched brick windows. The ceiling to this corridor and through to 209A is sheeted with decorative pressed metal with stylised acanthus moulded cornices. Decorative pressed metal ceilings remain in several rooms and corridors. Room 306 retains exposed timber trusses and decorative pressed metal ceilings; room 405 remains as a galleried lecture theatre with decorative pressed metal ceilings; glazed timber partitions remain in room 202.
\nWorkshops (also known as Trades Building) (Block J)
\nDistinguished in plan form and massing from the other buildings in the group, J Block is a long, rectangular, two-storey, face brick building with a hip-roof drawn down over latticed lateral verandahs. The former Workshops building is sited west of F, G and H blocks and closes the courtyard visually to the west. The planning and siting of the building reflect the consideration given to massing and ventilation suitable for accommodating noisy and often hot workshops.
\nThough different in form, the building is unified with the other buildings in the group in scale, detailing and materials. It is distinguished by dark red face brick rusticated verandah columns which split to two thinner paired columns in the centre bay at first floor level. There also is contrasting dark red brick banding to sill levels, the flat arched double hung windows to the ground floor and segmental arched double hung windows with fanlights to the first floor. The building retains its general planning arrangement. Symmetrical about a central service/circulation core, there are four workshops opening to both verandahs on each level. A timber and steel mezzanine structure is inserted in the first floor workshop spaces while retaining the original planning arrangement. Original fabric survives including window and door joinery; exposed timber trusses to the first floor workshops; and decorative pressed metal ceilings to the west verandah, rooms J205, J210, J211, J215, J110 and the stairwell. The central plain polished concrete stair with plain metal balustrading and timber handrail remains from the ground floor to the intermediate landing.
\nExtensions to J Block
\nBlocks K, R and W have been erected to the west of J Block, all similar in style to the original group of buildings. A later infill link has been inserted between Blocks K and R.
\nK Block is a simple rectangular, hip-roofed, three-storey, face brick pavilion adjoining J block. Completed in 1920 it was designed to match and align with existing work. It features the regular fenestration rhythm of flat arched double hung windows of the earlier buildings in the group. The workshop spaces on each floor are now partitioned into smaller units.
\nErected in 1929 to house the Industrial High School, Block R is a simple rectangular, hip-roofed, three-storey, face brick pavilion linked to J Block by a gangway at the ground and first floor levels. Constructed on reinforced concrete piers and beam foundations, the basement floors are of concrete and the upper floors of timber. The planning of the building is altered from the original with workshops and classrooms now partitioned into smaller units. The stair to the west has been removed and vertical circulation for both K and R is now within the inserted link wing.
\nCompleted in 1956, W Block is a four-storey, hip-roofed, face brick building to the northwest of J Block. Of a similar character to the earlier building but only using light red brick, the W Block has a regular rhythm of paired double hung windows to the long elevations and incised brickwork to the corners. There have been alterations to the interiors but the general planning of workshops and teaching spaces remains. The concrete stair with metal balustrade to the west is intact.
\nUniversity of Queensland Library (Block U)
\nU Block, adjacent to Old Government House, is a long, imposing, three-storey, face brick building resting on a rusticated freestone base facing the Main Drive and overlooking the City Botanic Gardens. Symmetrical about a giant order Ionic portico entrance, the building is approached by a wide sweep of concrete stairs from the Main Drive. The main wing terminates in rectangular pavilions which extend to the west forming a courtyard to the rear of the building. Two sets of stairs parallel to the front elevation arrive at minor entrances to the front of each end pavilion. Giant order, rendered pilasters divide the front elevation into ten bays of flat arched, four-pane casement windows with fanlights. The other elevations have a similar rhythm of pilasters and fenestration and the blind west elevations of the pavilions are defined by paired rendered pilasters. The west elevation is symmetrical about a flat arched, freestone entrance porch below a double height vertical stairwell window.
\nA U-shape plan organised about a single-loaded corridor to the west of the main wing, the interior is now altered. The large open spaces in the pavilions have been partitioned and organised off a single loaded corridor to the courtyard side. Vertical circulation and services remain to the west of these pavilions. The gallery to the level two south pavilion has been removed. This area was refurbished into partitioned offices and meeting spaces for the QUT Chancellery in 1995/96. Internal fabric has been lost but early fabric remains including the casement windows to the perimeter of the building, front and rear entrance doors, doors to former seminar and storage rooms off the central circulation core, the columns in the entry vestibule and the sets of concrete stairs to the west of the main wing and to the pavilions. Decorative plaster flat arches remain to the central stairwell.
","history":"Originally a group of nine, free-standing, bold, red face brick buildings grouped around a central courtyard, the former Brisbane Central Technical College was designed in 1909 and opened for classes in 1915. Located at the southeast end of George Street, the former Brisbane Central Technical College occupies the northwest portion of the Gardens Point Campus of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), adjacent to Parliament House. The QUT Campus is located on a former government reserve which was worked as the government garden from 1825 and became the Government House Domain in 1860. In 1909 the Governor removed to Fernberg, Bardon (QHR 600275) and the Domain then accommodated the newly established institutions of the University of Queensland and the Brisbane Central Technical College. Old Government House (QHR 600118) became the main building of the University of Queensland and a group of nine purpose-built buildings was constructed to the northwest for the Brisbane Central Technical College.
\nIn nineteenth century Australia, technical colleges were established by Schools of Arts or Mechanics Institutes. Technical education classes commenced in Brisbane in the 1870s, administered by the Brisbane School of Arts which established the Brisbane Technical College in 1882. Classes were conducted in a purpose-built extension to Brisbane School of Arts (QHR 600072) in Ann Street and in various other rented premises throughout the city. From 1900 there was insufficient suitable accommodation available to cater for increasing student numbers. Though nominally private institutions, technical institutes received funding from the State Government and, as Government involvement in technical education increased in the early twentieth century, technical education was absorbed into the Department of Public Instruction. During 1907 the Department investigated the establishment of a central technical college, reviewing models for similar enterprises in America and Britain. Under the Technical Instruction Act 1908 the Brisbane Technical College, South Brisbane Technical College and West End Technical College were amalgamated to form the Brisbane Central Technical College.
\nThere was strong support for technical education in Queensland and this was the only Australian state to plan and construct a complex of buildings for a technical college. Sketch plans for nine two-storey buildings grouped around a central courtyard, linked with covered ways were prepared by the Department of Public Works in 1909. Designed as a cohesive group of similar scale and materials, eight buildings are arranged in a square with three facing the main drive to Old Government House. The ninth building, the Workshops block, is set back towards the river closing off the courtyard. Following an American model for technical education, the main departments of the college were assigned a dedicated building.
\nThe construction was undertaken in two sections. A tender for £64,060/16/3 from contractor James Mason was accepted in March 1911 for the six buildings included in Section One:
\nIn July 1912, James Mason successfully tendered £37,630/16/3 for Section Two which included the remaining three buildings of the campus:
\nA, B and C Blocks were designed as sentinel buildings to align with the Main Drive and to form the formal entrance to the Brisbane Central Technical College. A and C Blocks were almost mirror images and flanked the main building of the College, B Block. Block F, with the dedication of purpose-built wool classing facilities for the training of wool classers demonstrated the importance of the wool industry in Queensland.
\nAmendments were made to the original scheme during construction, including the addition of an extra storey to the Physics and Electrical Engineering building to accommodate the teaching of Biology; a toilet block to the north east of Block F which was demolished in the 1960s. There were also alterations to the plan of Block H to relocate the entrance to the southeast wing with changes to the elevations including an oriel window added to the south. The covered ways to the ground and first floor levels were not built. The corridors within the buildings and the location of the building entrances reflect the circulation and physical relationships proposed in the original master plan. Building progress was hampered by strikes and materials shortages but the Brisbane Central Technical College was finally opened for classes in February 1915.
\nIn response to increased demand for technical education following both World Wars, extensions to J Block Workshops were constructed. K Block, a three-storey extension to J Block Workshops was designed by A Irving and constructed in 1919 to accommodate returned soldier retraining classes. Responding to increasing apprenticeship enrolments a further three-storey extension, R Block designed by WH Gillies, was constructed in 1928 accommodating the Industrial High School. Later infill linked R and K Blocks. W Block, a four-storey addition to the J Block Workshops designed by MD Hamilton was completed in 1956, though planned forty years after the original Brisbane Central Technical College buildings is similar in materials and expression.
\nIn addition to the Workshop extensions other additions and alterations have occurred to the Brisbane Central Technical College. S Block, erected adjacent to F Block in 1921 as a College store and later incorporated into F Block, is now demolished. An additional storey was added to A Block to accommodate Art, Architecture and Building in about 1924. Throughout the 1920s enrolments at both the University of Queensland and the Brisbane Central Technical College steadily increased.
\nBlock E underwent alterations in 1932 for the commercial high school, which was also accommodated in Block A from 1933. Further alterations to Block E in 1937 added the northeast corner.
\nAlthough plans were underway to transfer the University of Queensland to the St Lucia campus, a building was constructed in 1935 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the University and was shared by both institutions. An imposing three-storey face brick building designed by NL Thomas in a restrained neo-Georgian idiom, the Library (U Block) faced the Main Drive between Old Government House and the Art School (C Block, demolished 1978-79). The building accommodated the Library of the University and various facilities for the Technical College including part of the Commercial High School after 1938. Classes for architecture and buildings construction were also conducted in the building.
\nAlthough altered and extended over the years, the Brisbane Central Technical College represents an important era in education in Queensland and is the most extensive group of technical college buildings of the period. A major undertaking for the Queensland Government, the construction of the Brisbane Central Technical College was the largest building project for the Department of Public Works (DPW) immediately prior to World War I. The architectural work of the DPW in the first decades of the twentieth century was of a high quality with many talented architects working in the office including Thomas Pye, Charles McLay, John Smith Murdoch, George Payne and Andrew Irving. Alfred Barton Brady was Government Architect and Thomas Pye, Deputy Government Architect. Brady administered the office and supervision of design was carried out by Pye. Pye was the driving force in developing and maintaining the office style after 1906 following the departure of Murdoch. Responsibility for individual projects within the DPW is seldom clear-cut but evidence in DPW files suggests that Pye had a major influence on the design of the Brisbane Central Technical College. The DPW was responsible for the plans, specifications and construction of other contemporary technical colleges including Rockhampton Blocks A and E (QHR 600789), Warwick, Mackay, Toowoomba (QHR 600851), Ipswich (QHR 600586) and Mount Morgan (QHR 650005) which were single buildings accommodating the whole college under one roof. All the technical colleges share stylistic details, construction and general architectural expression.
\nThe former Brisbane Central Technical College was absorbed into the Queensland Institute of Technology in 1965 which was reconstituted as the Queensland University of Technology in 1987.
\nIn 1966 the administration of the newly formed QIT occupied Block U. During the 1960s and 1970s classrooms, the optometry clinic and the printery also operated out of this building. Alterations to E block also occurred during the 1960s, which added a third storey and an additional corner to the southwest to accommodate classes for art and pharmacy. Block G accommodated the QIT library from the 1960s to 1977 and then housed the School of Nursing during the 1980s.
\nBlock H Boiler Room and associated stack were demolished in the early 1970s and lecture rooms and storage rooms in the south wing were demolished in the late 1970s.
\nBlocks B and C were demolished in 1978/79 and Block D was demolished in 1998. Replacement buildings have been inserted for the demolished B, C and D Blocks. A new B Block, a rectangular, four-storey concrete and brick building, was erected in 1981. Completed in 1998, a steel and concrete structure projects into the courtyard from the former D Block site. A rectangular concrete, steel and glass cafe kiosk has been inserted into the courtyard to the east of G Block in 1999. The 1981 B Block, the 1999 D Block and cafe kiosk are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
\nIn 1999 six buildings of the original group remain (A, E, F, G, H and J Blocks), along with the three extensions to the Workshops J Block (K, R, and W Blocks) and the later addition to the technical college campus, U Block. In 1990, a fourth storey was added to E Block and a glass and concrete infill between Blocks G and H was inserted.
\nIn the period 1995-1999 there has been extensive refurbishment undertaken to Blocks A, F, J and U. Alterations to J Block have added a mezzanine level and accommodation for architecture and interior design studios. The south wing of U Block was refurbished in 1995 and 1996 for the QUT Chancellery office. Walkway links envisaged in the original master plan were also established during this period. A Block now links with F Block at ground and first floor levels through the connecting gangways and passageways of the 1999 D Block.
","criteria":"The former Brisbane Central Technical College, erected 1911-1915, is important for its association with the development of education in Queensland. As the centre of technical education in Queensland, the place is important in demonstrating the development of technical education in the State. The place is important for demonstrating on one site, major changes to technical education from 1900. In particular, the place is important for demonstrating the expansion of technical education in response to retraining requirements for returned soldiers from both World Wars and in response to increases in trade apprenticeships from the 1920s.
The Main Drive, which runs from the George Street entrance of the campus and terminates at Old Government House, is a significant element of the site. The driveway maintains a strong association with Old Government House as the traditional link between it and Parliament House and the government precinct and the city beyond. The Driveway is significant as an element of the Central Technical College and later, Gardens Point Campus with the buildings of the campus designed to address the driveway.
|The former Brisbane Central Technical College is important for demonstrating changes in Government involvement in financing and controlling technical education from 1900. The former Brisbane Central Technical College is important as the only technical college in Queensland designed and constructed as a complex of buildings.
|The buildings are fine examples of technical college structures of the early twentieth century constructed in response to progressive thinking in the design and planning of educational institutions.
|The former Brisbane Central Technical College has aesthetic significance as a cohesive group of buildings unified by scale, design and materials. Landmark buildings at the southeast end of George Street, the group overlooks the City Botanic Gardens to the east and the Brisbane River to the west. Bold, facebrick structures with a tough industrial character enriched by discrete decorative stone carving, the buildings are characteristic of the Arts and Crafts idiom in form and detailing. The buildings are of considerable architectural merit and their form and fabric illustrate a skilled design approach. The buildings demonstrate a fine quality of workmanship in the detailing of materials and finishes.
The group is important for original fabric which survives, particularly F Block for its overall intactness and the machine room in H block for its intactness. A Block and U Block are important in preserving the campus alignment to the Main Drive. Both are important as landmark buildings defining the principle entry to the former Brisbane Technical College precinct. The courtyard and surviving pathways between the buildings are important in maintaining the integrity of the group of buildings. Further Block U provides evidence of the changing nature of the educational facility on the site.
|The former Brisbane Central Technical College is important for its association with students and teachers of the former Brisbane Central Technical College, the Industrial High School, the Commercial High School, the Queensland Institute of Technology and the Queensland University of Technology.
|The former Brisbane Central Technical College is important for its association with the Department of Public Works. In particular, with the work of architect Thomas Pye who was responsible for the design of the original complex of nine buildings. The former Brisbane Central Technical College is important for the ability to demonstrate the work of the Government Architect's Office in relation to the design of substantial educational buildings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16469,"place_ref":601729,"name":"Waterloo Bay Hotel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"75 Berrima Street","suburb":"WYNNUM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"The Waterloo Bay Hotel is located on a triangular piece of land at Wynnum, bounded by Berrima Street and Bay and Byrnside Terraces. A mature Moreton Bay Fig Tree is located in the eastern corner of the property.
The original section [1889] of the hotel is a two-storeyed masonry building with a hipped roof clad with corrugated iron. Two rendered chimneys with moulded detailing are located in the roof. The building has a ground floor verandah and first floor balcony with iron balustrading and chamfered timber posts and brackets. The timber posts on the ground floor have a recent concrete base. Paired timber doors with breezeway and fanlight assembly with leadlight detail are located in the entrance to the lounge bar area.
Internally, on the ground floor, the ceiling in the lounge bar area has plaster cornices with egg and dart motif decorative detail. An entrance in the eastern side of the original section leads to the beer garden area, which was added to the building in the 1980s. A doorway in what was the eastern wall of the original section leads to a passageway and an original turning timber staircase with decorative motifs on the newel. Four rooms open to the first floor balcony on the western side of the building. The rooms have double hung sash windows with timber architraves. The ceilings are pressed metal. Each room also has timber french doors opening to the balcony. Two austere rooms with timber french doors opening to the balcony are located in the centre of the floor. On the southern side of the timber staircase, more accommodation space is located and is currently occupied. Three sets of timber french doors open to the balcony from this area. A passage runs north south along the first floor, turning and leading to the 1918 extension. An entrance to the later extension has been closed over. A large window with timber architraves and frosted, decorative glass is located at the end of the southern wall. Toilet facilities with fittings c1950s, are located on the western side of the first floor.
The later extension (1918) is two-storeyed rendered brick with a hipped roof clad with corrugated iron. Internally, the bar is located along the eastern wall. A large window with timber architraves, and frosted glass featuring a lighthouse design, is located along the northern wall. The bar area is open plan with original plaster ceilings with decorative cornices. Toilet facilities are located in the western corner. The bar area opens to the gaming room, a 1960s addition to the hotel. The first floor of the 1918 extension is currently used for accommodation.
","history":"The original section of the Waterloo Bay Hotel was constructed in 1889 by George Gibbs. The hotel was extended in 1918, when work was undertaken by Brisbane architect, GHM Addison. Major refurbishments were also undertaken in the 1980s and in the late 1990s.
The bayside suburbs of Wynnum and Manly were known as Oyster Point and Wyvernleigh, after the first house in the area. The first land sales in the area took place in 1860 at Lytton and around the Waterloo Bay. In 1882, Manly Beach Estate was auctioned. Wynnum and Manly were the only bayside stations opened with the Cleveland branch on 1 November 1889. The completion of the railway led to a surge of growth in the district, and by the early years of the 20th century, it had become a popular seaside resort town, with many people travelling from Brisbane by train on the weekend. Wynnum had a siding, loading bank and goods shed by 1891 and it was the terminus for extra Sunday trains from 1889 and weekday services from 1 March 1892.
The Waterloo Bay Hotel was constructed by George Gibbs, a local stonemason, in 1889. Gibbs was born in Cornwall and sailed for Australia on board the Firey Star in 1863 with his wife and infant. After the birth of his second child and the death of his first, the Gibbs' returned to Cornwall. Two more children were born then his first wife died. In 1875, with a new wife and four children, Gibbs again left Cornwall for Australia on board the Great Queensland, landing at Maryborough and later residing in Gibbs Street, Kelvin Grove. Gibbs purchased land in Mary (later Berrima) Street in May 1889, and commenced construction of a hotel. He applied for, and was granted, a licence through the South Brisbane Licensing Courts. The Brisbane Courier reported on 7 November that '...the house was complete and ready for occupation.' The Waterloo Bay Hotel opened for business in 6 November 1889 - just five days after the opening of the Cleveland railway branch.
Gibbs owned the hotel until 1892 when, due to ill health, it was sold and the family moved to Gibbs Street, Wynnum. The hotel was sold to Sarah Jane King in March 1892. Title passed to William Morris in 1895 and later to Helen Rankin Turner from August 1896. The hotel was purchased by William Denis O'Connor in August 1898. He remained the owner until he died on 14 January 1950. O'Connor was the licensee from the date of purchase until October 1901 when he leased the building to Bernard Kennedy for ten years. In August 1907, Kennedy transferred the balance of the lease to Augustus Marshall who held it til May 1908.
Sarah Baird took up the lease of the hotel in May 1908. Initially, her husband, Robert, was the licensee, however, following his death in June 1910, Sarah took over as licensee. In January 1911, Baird made an application to the Licensing Court to have music at the hotel every Saturday. A new application had to be made every week. The South Brisbane Licence Register indicates that the Waterloo Bay Hotel was one of the first hotels on the south side of the river to have music each week. In October 1911, Amelia Connell took out a new lease, with her husband Robert as the licensee. By the end of that year music had ceased playing at the hotel. On 7 March 1918, the ten year lease was surrendered subsequent to the death of Amelia Connell on 19 October 1917. In February 1918, the Government Gazette advertised a Transmission by Death of Interest in Lease from Amelia Connell to Patrick Joseph O'Shea, and a Surrender of Lease from Patrick O'Shea to William Denis O'Connor. By February, 1918, O'Connor had commissioned architect, GHM Addison to undertake alterations to the hotel. The alterations included the construction of a new public bar on the ground floor and private accommodation on the first floor.
O'Connor's death was registered on 14 January 1950, at this time, the entire property passed to Douglas Wadley and Graham O'Connor as Trustees. In September 1956, the lease for hotel passed to Queensland Brewery Ltd. This lease was held until 1985 when it was transferred to Ashwick (Qld). The property passed to Moreton Bay Holdings in early 1987.
In November 1989, a week long celebration to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the hotel was organised by the then lessees. An article in the Bayside Bulletin dated 14 November 1989 states that '...the Waterloo Bay Hotel is serving the community as never before and looks set to take on its second hundred years with ease and equanimity.' Renovations undertaken in the 1980s, included the addition of a beer garden and restaurant. Towards the end of 1999, further renovation work was undertaken.
Still a focal point for the local and surrounding community, the Waterloo Bay Hotel has been identified as a Heritage Place within the Wynnum-Manly Local Area Plan.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1889, with a number of later extensions, the Waterloo Bay Hotel is most significant in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, being closely associated with the establishment of the railway to Wynnum and the subsequent evolution of Wynnum as a popular seaside resort in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Cleveland-Wynnum line was one of the railway lines constructed specifically for recreational purposes and is important in understanding the development of the railway in Queensland. With the opening up of the Cleveland-Wynnum area, an increase in the number of day trippers and holiday makers was possible, thus enabling the Waterloo Bay Hotel to capitalise on such a population increase. Further, the Waterloo Bay Hotel is significant as an example of a hotel that has functioned as such for over a century and is one of the few remaining buildings in Wynnum associated with the opening of the railway line.
|Built in a similar style to the Grandview [600771] at Cleveland, the Waterloo Bay Hotel is significant as a good example of a prominent, two-storeyed masonry hotel with substantial ground floor verandah and first floor balcony with timber posts and cast iron balusters and brackets.
|Forming a integral part of the Wynnum townscape for over 110 years, the Waterloo Bay Hotel is a well-known landmark in the area.
|It has played a major role in social activities of the Wynnum community throughout this period of time.
|The Waterloo Bay Hotel is significant for its association with George Gibbs, a local stonemason who constructed the hotel, later retiring and remaining in the Wynnum area. Gibbs Street, Wynnum is named for George Gibbs. The 1918 extension is associated with the work of well known Brisbane architect GHM Addison. Addison is known for such work as the Old Museum Building [600209], Somerville House [600305] and The Mansions [600119].
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16470,"place_ref":601730,"name":"Mount Carmel Convent","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"199 Bay Terrace","suburb":"WYNNUM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-08-27","description":"Mount Carmel Convent, a two storeyed brick building with a corrugated iron roof, is located in a prominent position in Bay Terrace, Wynnum. It is surrounded by minimal gardens and lawned areas which are enclosed by a recent metal fence incorporating an earlier wrought iron gate.
The building itself is asymmetrical in plan and is constructed of glazed face brick laid in English bond. The building comprises a main wing running parallel to Bay Terrace, with a transverse wing at the southeastern end. Verandahs encircle the entire building on both levels, with a combination of cast iron and timber balustrading and ripple iron sheeted ceilings. Windows are double hung with clear glass, apart from those in the chapel which feature leadlighting. French doors provide access to the verandahs from most rooms. A single storeyed building containing the kitchen and laundry is located at the rear of the main building, attached to it by breezeways which have been enclosed with aluminium framed windows.
The entry is centrally located within the main wing and is defined by a rendered archway rising through the two storeys. The entry door is located within a timber framed arch and leadlighting is featured in the side panels. A second rendered archway is located on the front elevation of the transverse wing, with a statue of Mary and Jesus featured in the gable above.
Internally the layout remains relatively intact, apart from the main dormitory for boarders on the upper level, which has been divided into smaller rooms. Two parlours (one now an office) open from the entry, and leadlight doors open onto a hallway which runs parallel to Bay Terrace. The dining room is located behind this and the hall terminates at the chapel which is located in the transverse wing.
The main stair is located between the dining room and the chapel. It comprises a half turn with two landings and features a simply designed dark stained timber balustrade. A secondary stair is located at the northwestern end of the building.
The upper level is also divided by a central hall, with cells opening from both sides. Two large rooms, now used as recreational rooms are located in the transverse wing. Bathrooms and toilets are located on the enclosed rear verandah and an external stair, enclosed by lattice is located on the southeastern verandah.
","history":"Mt Carmel Convent, a substantial two storey brick building with surrounding verandahs, was constructed in 1915 as a convent for the Sisters of Mercy. It was designed by the architectural partnership of Hall and Dods and constructed by Mr W R Juster at a cost of £8000.
A Catholic presence in Wynnum was prompted by the establishment of the area as a popular seaside resort. The opening of the Wynnum South Station in 1898 encouraged further development, and the demand for a religious presence in the area grew. In 1903, the first Catholic masses were held in the Shire Hall, and the Sisters of Mercy began visiting Wynnum to teach the children residing in the area.
Established primarily as a teaching order in 1831 in Ireland by Catherine McAuley, the first Sisters of Mercy arrived in Brisbane in 1861. Various orders were later established throughout Queensland to ensure children gained adequate education and religious instruction.
The first Catholic church in Wynnum, known as the Catholic Church of Guardian Angels was erected in 1905. Designed by architect Richard Gailey it was constructed on Bay Terrace on land donated by Archbishop Dunne. Following the formal establishment of the parish of Wynnum in 1913, a new school also designed by Gailey and located in Bay Terrace, was opened.
On the 8 August 1915 'the Convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was solemnly blessed and dedicated by His Grace, Archbishop Duhig.' A collection which realised £110 for the furnishing fund was taken up during the opening ceremony.
Designed by architects F R Hall and R S Dods, the convent was described in The Age as a 'handsome 2 storey brick building situated on a commanding eminence on the west side of Bay Terrace.' The article continues:
'The building is built of brick; wide verandahs and balconies extend round the main block. On the ground floor on both sides of the main entrance are parlours, the one on the right giving access to the music room, and the one on the left to the chapel through the sacristy. The children's study and refectory are entered from a corridor running at right angles on either side of the entrance hall. This corridor also gives direct access to the chapel, sister's dormitory, main staircase, music room and service passage and stairs. The sister's dormitory is connected with the chapel by sliding doors. The first floor is occupied with two large and five smaller cells, community room and children's dormitory. Spacious lavatory and bathroom accommodation on this floor completes the main block. A separate block comprises the kitchen, offices and laundry on the ground floor and a large dormitory and servants quarters on the first floor. This block is connected with the verandah and balcony of the main block by a covered way.'
The partnership of Hall and Dods was established in 1896 and continued until 1916. Dods was appointed architect to the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane and the firm oversaw the construction of St John's Cathedral [600076] in this capacity. They also designed many buildings for the Catholic Diocese, including St Brigids Catholic Church, Red Hill [600284] and the Mater Misericordiae Hospital.
In 1940, additions were made to the church by F C Cullen. Alterations and additions were also made to the convent, school and presbytery at this time, possibly by Cullen also.
In 1957, a secondary girls school was established at Mount Carmel and continued to operate until 1992 when it was closed due to the falling numbers of school aged children in the area. The Guardian Angels primary school remains operational.
The convent now houses only four Sisters permanently and is mainly used as a holiday centre for Sisters of Mercy in the Southern Qld Region.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1915, Mount Carmel Convent demonstrates the evolution of the Order of the Sisters of Mercy and the educational, religious and social practices they implemented throughout Queensland.
|The place demonstrates the principal characteristics of a convent building, including a two storeyed plan featuring a chapel, dining area, reception rooms and cells. Finishes are typical of the period and include pressed metal ceilings, dark stained timber detailing simple decorative features and cast iron balustrades to the exterior verandahs. Its prominent location on the rise of a hill overlooking Moreton Bay is also typical of convent buildings.
|Mount Carmel Convent is of aesthetic significance due to its well-composed design which, externally features a combination of decorative elements including cast iron and timber balustrades, glazed face brick walls with rendered sections, timber latticework and a statue of Mary and Jesus in the south eastern gable. Interior features including pressed metal ceilings, stained glass and leadlight windows, and arts and crafts style timber balustrades and joinery contribute to the aesthetic value of the place.
|The Convent has strong associations with the local community, and with the Sisters of Mercy, who use it as a holiday retreat during the summer months.
|It also has strong associations with the architectural partnership of Hall and Dods, who are highly regarded for their early 20th century ecclesiastical work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16478,"place_ref":601741,"name":"Musket Villa","alternate_name":"Lancaster Gables","street_address":"251 Lancaster Road","suburb":"ASCOT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"Musket Villa, a substantial, multi-gabled residence constructed of timber and rendered masonry in the interwar bungalow style, is located opposite the Eagle Farm Racecourse. It is surrounded by houses and flats of varying ages and styles.
The house is surrounded by a high, rough-rendered and brick wall and is accessed by a timber gate located on the corner of the property. A newly paved path follows the line of the original concrete path and new plantings surround the residence.
The residence is primarily constructed of timber with a terracotta tiled roof of Marseilles tiles. A wide verandah with Crow's Ash flooring and a substantial rendered brick and timber balustrade is located across the front elevation and returns halfway around both side elevations. Pairs of rectangular rendered brick piers with red brick detailing are located on either side of the central entrance and at each corner of the verandah. The structure is slightly raised on rendered brick posts and is accessed vis two steps which lead on to the verandah.
The front and side elevations have multiple gables with strapwork detail to the gable ends. Windows throughout are timber casements, each of which have three bands of coloured glass in the uppermost section.
Internally, the house has a centrally located entry hall with panelled walls that opens onto a large combined living and dining room. Bedrooms open from either side of the entry, the one on the western side features an ensuite and a five-sided corner bay. A secondary hall runs at the rear of the living/dining room, with additional bedrooms opening from it. The main bedroom and kitchen are located on the eastern side of the house.
Many original features survive throughout the residence, including ebonised timber detailing, leadlight doors, built-in leadlight display cabinets in the living/dining room and entry hall and timber panelling in the entry. Some tongue-and-groove ceilings have been replaced with decorative plaster ceilings and new fittings and fixtures have been installed in the bathrooms and kitchen. The guest rooms are air-conditioned.
","history":"Musket Villa, a single storey, stucco interwar bungalow and the adjoining stables were constructed in 1923 for well-known horse trainer and rider, William "Billy" Booth. Located opposite Eagle Farm Racecourse in Lancaster Road, Musket Villa was designed by prominent Brisbane architects Hall and Prentice and built by contractors Lee and Brickwood.
William Booth entered the horse training and racing industry in 1885 when he became an apprentice to john Stone, an early Brisbane horse trainer. During his nine years with Stone, Booth trained and rode many famous horses. His work included breaking-in Grey Gown and training Dundonald who went on to win the treble of St. Ledger, the Brisbane Cup and the Moreton Handicap in 1899.
Booth established his own training stables in 1893 and trained and rode horses for several prominent racing identities. He had up to twenty-one horses training at a time and among his successes was Bright Laddie who won the Brisbane 2000 and the Stradbroke Handicap. Booth was also known for his grey pony named Billy who won over 385 ribbons at the Brisbane Show.
In 1899 Booth trained and rode the winning horse, Musket, in the Queensland turf Club Derby. Shortly after, he married Lucy Adelaide and named their newly constructed home on Racecourse Road Musket, in honour of the winning horse. Booth retired from riding following his marriage but continued to train horses.
The Booths purchased the land on which the existing Musket stands in 1922. They commissioned architects Hall and Prentice to design a house, stables, garage and sand shed in a similar architectural style. The complex, also named Musket, was completed in 1923 and received high praise in the 1924 publication "Harking Back - the Turf, Its Men and Memories". Through this publication, Booth credited his wife "not only for the idea of it's architecture, but also for the tastefulness of its general furnishing". The article described the house as a "red tiled home with its beautiful gardens and lawns [and] every modern appointment and equipment."
The stables were designed to accommodate twelve horses and also included rooms, a shower, wash basin and ding room for employees. They were regarded as being amongst the most "up-to-date stables...to be found in Australia", with Booth paying the "fullest attention to the comfort of his employees and his equine charges".
The architectural firm of Hall and Prentice was established in 1919 with the partnership of Thomas Ramsay Hall and George Gray Prentice. Hall was one of Brisbane's "most successful architects of the early twentieth century" and the firm designed many prestigious buildings in Brisbane, including Brisbane City Hall [600065], Sandgate Town Hall [601566] and the Tattersall's Club [600093]. He was involved in racing through Tattersall's and the Queensland Turf clubs, his name is commemorated in the T.R Hall Handicap.
In 1927, William Booth died at the age of 54, leaving Musket to his wife. His death was mourned by the Queensland racing fraternity, members of the Queensland Turf Club, the Tattersall's Club and the Queensland Breeders, Owners and Traders Association. Following Booth's death, the stables were leased to WJ Shean until c1941 when they were converted into four two bedroom flats by Lucy Booth who continued to live in the villa. Lucy Booth died in 1958, leaving Musket to her surviving son, Norman, who lived in the house until his death in 1955. The house now operates as a Bed and Breakfast establishment called Lancaster Gables and the stables continue to function as flats. The garage has been demolished and the site on which it was located (between the house and the stables), has been subdivided with a new residence constructed upon it.
","criteria":"Musket Villa is important because of its aesthetic and architectural significance. Designed by prominent Brisbane architects Hall and Prentice in 1923, Musket is an important example of a well composed and skilfully detailed interwar bungalow. The residence retains many original features such as interior timber panelling, leadlight doors and built-in display cabinets, timber windows, light fittings and ebonised timber detailing. These and other features, such as the use of materials like terracotta roof tiles and rendered masonry, demonstrate the key features and principal characteristics of substantial interwar bungalows.
Musket Villa has social significance to the Queensland racing industry, being an example of a purpose-built stables, training establishment and residence, located in the hub of the racing district of Brisbane. Musket Villa has a special association with racing identity, trainer and jockey, William "Billy" Booth, for whom it was constructed, and with Brisbane architects Hall and Prentice as an example of their domestic work.
|Designed by prominent Brisbane architects Hall and Prentice in 1923, Musket is an important example of a well composed and skilfully detailed interwar bungalow. The residence retains many original features such as interior timber panelling, leadlight doors and built-in display cabinets, timber windows, light fittings and ebonised timber detailing. These and other features, such as the use of materials like terracotta roof tiles and rendered masonry, demonstrate the key features and principal characteristics of substantial interwar bungalows.
|Musket Villa is important because of its aesthetic and architectural significance.
|Musket Villa has social significance to the Queensland racing industry, being an example of a horse trainer's residence which had associated stables and ancillary facilities located in the hub of the racing district of Brisbane.
|Musket Villa has a special association with racing identity, trainer and jockey, William "Billy" Booth, for whom it was constructed, and with Brisbane architects Hall and Prentice as an example of their domestic work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16508,"place_ref":601771,"name":"St Joseph's Nudgee College","alternate_name":"Nudgee College | St Josephs College","street_address":"2199 Sandgate Road","suburb":"BOONDALL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-11-06","description":"Setting
Clustered on the highest part of a sprawling 148 hectare site, St Joseph's Nudgee College is a complex of educational and associated residential buildings constructed from the 1890s to the present. The extensive grounds are located in what is now the suburb of Boondall, a residential area fringed with light industrial and commercial development. The grounds contain, in addition to the school buildings, extensive areas of native wetlands, agricultural plots, pastures, playing fields and other sporting facilities. Despite the intensive development that has taken place around the school since it was first established, parts of the site retain the qualities of the earlier rural setting.
The school buildings are concentrated in the most elevated part of the site, an area bounded by Sandgate Road on the west and Northumbria Road to the north. In the most prominent position on the site, adjacent to the intersection, is a sporting field, Ross Oval. Mature trees, including a double row of camphor laurels along Sandgate Road, line the road frontages and contribute to the school's established garden setting. Located to the south of Ross Oval are the earliest college buildings including the Main Building, the Chapel and the Dunne Building. Substantial masonry edifices in an imposing Italianate style, these buildings are prominent landmarks and the most visible part of the school from the surrounding streets. Initially building work was concentrated in this area but over time has spread to the south and east of the main group of buildings.
Main Building (Cotter and O'Brien Residences)
Facing west towards Sandgate Road, the Main Building is a large three-storey rendered masonry building linked by a colonnade to the adjoining Chapel. Through its size, prominent position and imposing Renaissance Revival style architecture the Main Building dominates the built landscape of the school.
The formal entrance to the school, the TC Beirne Memorial Gate, is located directly in front of the Main Building. Consisting of stone pillars surmounted by crosses and fitted with wrought iron gates, it leads to a circular drive that divides the lawn in front of the Main Building. The fence adjoining the TC Beirne Memorial Gate has a stone base and wrought iron panels above. A stone statue of St Joseph is positioned in the lawn in front of the entrance to the Main Building.
Originally designed as a symmetrical building, U-shaped in plan and arranged around an east-facing courtyard, the Main Building was built in stages and has had several additions to the original design including the two-storey colonnade on the western front and a substantial L-shaped extension on the south side of the original building. The Main Building has a painted hipped corrugated iron roof with masonry chimneys projecting through the roof. Timber joinery is used throughout the building with the majority of the windows being large double-hung windows.
Western Façade
The original front façade is divided into five bays with the walls and roof of the central and end bays projecting beyond the line of the adjoining structure. The most striking feature of the façade is the two-storey masonry arcade with round arches and pilasters. The arcade elaborates the Renaissance theme of the original design, connects the Main Building to the chapel and protects it from the western sun. The roof of the arcade forms a terrace to the upper level of the Main Building and the parapet, which acts as a balustrade to the roof terrace, incorporates classical balusters.
The front entrance and the stair tower are located on the principal axis of the building, in the centre of the original façade. The entrance is emphasised by the projection of the central bay of the arcade, the use of arched and triangular pediments and a gable roof on the upper storey. The tower is situated on the eastern or rear side of the building but an ornamental belvedere on top of the tower is visible from Sandgate Road, above the roofline. The belvedere is an open observatory roofed by a dome on a square base and supported by columns. It now houses a marble statue.
The northern façade of the Main Building faces onto a small courtyard that overlooks Ross Oval. The major features of the northern façade are regular rows of double hung timber windows with arched pediments and decorative plaster friezes between each level. The brick-paved courtyard is bounded by the Chapel on the west and a modern classroom block on the east. Non-significant elements include the classroom block (Gallagher), which abuts the North Wing and a modern colonnade attached to the North Wing.
Rear Elevations
The rear of the main building faces onto the eastern courtyard. Heavy three storey concrete verandahs, built to replace the narrower original timber verandahs, incorporate the original cast iron panels. The contrasting style and proportion of the concrete verandahs detracts from the original architecture and blocks light out of the stairwell.
A two storey masonry block built in 1900, originally dormitories and now finance offices, adjoins the original southern wing and is connected to it by a two storey concrete verandah. An extension at the eastern end of the 1900 block serves as the infirmary.
The 1960s' extension at the southern end of the Main Building is the same height and materials as the original building but has fewer decorative features. Arched ornament similar to that used on the original building is found over the windows on one bay of the western façade and one bay of the southern facade. The ground floor of the southern extension contains kitchen and dining facilities.
Interior
The floor of the front entry porch, under the arcade, is raised several steps above the surrounding level. From the entry porch, a pair of timber panelled doors with a decorative glass and timber surround open into an entry vestibule. The vestibule is tiled with multi-coloured tessellated tiles and decorative mouldings including cornice, picture rail and skirting. A set of timber-framed doors at the rear of the vestibule has side panels and a fanlight, all of which are glazed with decorative leadlight. These doors open onto a corridor that runs north south through the building and a stairwell that leads to the upper floors. The corridor, which terminates at the entrance to the former senior classroom at the northern end and at the dining room in the southern extension, leads past a series of smaller rooms on either side of it, including former offices and parlours. In the stairwell opposite the vestibule is a grand marble and timber staircase, square in plan and wrapped around a central void.
The stairwell occupies the tower that terminates in the roof top belvedere. A primarily timber structure, the stair has ornamental balusters, carved stringers and marble treads and risers on the flights between ground and first floor. Painted cast iron panels are incorporated into the stair balustrade. Beyond the first floor the stair treads and risers are timber. A narrower stair connects the second floor to a room at the top of the tower under the belvedere.
The upper floor levels are similar in plan to the ground floor with rows of rooms accessed from a central corridor. Some larger rooms, such as a former library on the first floor level, occupy the full width of the building and open onto both the arcade on the western side and the eastern verandah. Interior walls are generally masonry with a plaster finish. Some ceilings in larger rooms are pressed metal. The first floor level of the arcade provides access to the choir loft of the Chapel.
Chapel
The Chapel, located adjacent to Ross Oval and abutting the northwest corner of the Main Building, is a rendered masonry structure, with a tiled gable roof. Positioned to the side and in front of the Main Building, the chapel is the closest, in the group of older buildings, to Sandgate Road. Designed in an Italianate style to complement the existing architecture, the Chapel is connected by the two-storey arcade to the Main Building.
The Chapel is basically rectangular in plan, with the long axis running east west. Projecting beyond the main walls are three bays, clustered around the western end of the Chapel. These bays consist of a single storey rectilinear bay on each side of the Chapel and a taller semicircular apse on the Sandgate Road or western end. The domed apse, the main decorative feature of the Sandgate Road façade, has a zinc roof incorporating ornamental vents and rendered and banded walls decorated with festoons.
Although the Chapel consists principally of a single large double height space, the facades are divided by the use of classical motifs into two levels. The ornament and detailing of the facades is based on the design of the arcade, which forms the east façade of the Chapel. On the lower level of the north and south facades is a blind arcade of round arches supported on pilasters. The upper level contains a row of tall narrow round arched windows separated by pilasters with Corinthian capitals. The parapet above repeats the classical balusters used on the arcade. An ornate cupola supported by diminutive columns and surmounted with an elaborate metal cross is located in the centre of the ridge of the tiled roof
The main entry to the Chapel, in the centre of the east front, is from the ground level of the arcade. Displayed in the arcade are several memorial plaques including an ornate marble WW1 honour tablet with marble pilasters, modillions, arched top and brass nameplates and a brass WW2 honour board.
The entry vestibule is single storey space located under the choir mezzanine. Small rooms, one of which functions as a vestry, open off either side of the vestibule. An arch supported on paired red marble ionic columns frames the opening from the entry vestibule into the main space of the chapel. A simple double-height space, the interior of the Chapel is symmetrical with a central aisle leading between rows of timber pews, to the high altar.
The double-height walls and coffered ceiling are decorated with classical motifs in plaster relief and a multi-coloured paint scheme. Pilasters on the lower part of the wall have ionic capitals while those on the upper part have Corinthian capitals. High leadlight windows, positioned between pilasters, light the space from above. The choir mezzanine, located at the eastern end overlooking the main space and accessed from the upper level of the arcade, is a curved cantilevered balcony with an ornate timber balustrade.
At the western end of the main space a chancel arch, similar to but grander than the entry arch, frames the high altar. The domed semi-circular niche which houses the marble high altar is painted various shades of blue. Single storey bays are attached to the sides of the main space adjacent to the western end. The northern bay contains a marble altar and opens onto the main space through two arches located between pilasters. The southern bay contains a room accessed via timber doors.
Former Dunne (Duhig) Building
The Former Dunne building, a rectangular masonry building with a tiled gable roof, consists of an undercroft with three storeys of classrooms above. Located to the east of, but in line with, the Chapel, it faces Northumbria Road across Ross Oval. Continuing the architectural style established by the Main Building and the Chapel, the Dunne Building has an arched arcade on either side of a projecting central bay and an attached semi-octagonal stair tower as the principal features of its main or northern façade.
The rendered masonry walls of the arcade are detailed with simple plaster mouldings. Classical balusters form the balustrade between the arches of the arcade. The base of the building is rendered in a banded pattern with arches opening to the undercroft. The bay in the centre of the symmetrical façade is ornamented with pilasters and narrow stained glass arched windows with decorative pediments. A large pediment with a cross mounted on its apex surmounts the central bay. Adjoining the pediment is a parapet with classical balusters that conceal the edge of the gable roof. The stair tower, which protrudes from the centre of the central bay, has an ornate zinc roof with small arched dormer windows and decorative round and arched stained glass windows. The symmetry of the façade is further emphasized by a set of wide masonry stairs positioned on axis with the stair tower that lead down to Ross Oval. .
The southern façade of the building is much plainer than the northern façade and overlooks the Former Quadrangle (Edmund Rice Mall), an extension of the courtyard space at the rear of the Main Building. With the exception of the banded base, the walls are simply rendered and painted. The original timber windows have been replaced with aluminium to suit the new floor levels. The gable roof has dormers on its southern face. The tall narrow eastern façade has arched openings and other arched motifs, two storey banded pilasters and a parapet, in the form of a pediment topped with urns and a cross, concealing the gable end. The western façade, which was probably similar to the eastern façade, has been completely obscured by the adjoining Gallagher building.
The undercroft can be entered from either the Quadrangle on the south or a terrace overlooking Ross Oval on the north. Toilets and service rooms are located at the eastern and western ends. The main stair is accessed from the undercroft. It has been modified to suit new internal levels but the lower flights remain substantially intact. Slate stair treads are worn and damaged in some areas.
The upper floors contain classrooms accessed via a concrete verandah. The interiors of this building, including the verandahs, have been largely rebuilt. Although much of the external wall remains intact, the original classrooms have been removed, floor levels altered and doors and windows replaced. The concrete verandah is set back behind the line of the colonnade with which it no longer aligns. The alterations are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
Former Quadrangle (Edmund Rice Mall) and Big Ben
The original east-facing courtyard created by the construction of the Main Building has been further enclosed and extended by later buildings constructed on its northern and southern sides. Surrounded by the Dunne (Duhig) Building and the Gallagher Building on the north, the Main Building on the west, the South Wing and the Infirmary (Health Centre) on the south and the single storey Administration Building on the east, the Edmund Rice Mall is a focus within the school. It is a heavily used and centrally located outdoor space. The irregular shape of the mall and the variety of buildings surrounding it, together with the mixed planting, brick paving and planter boxes and bitumen play areas create an informal atmosphere.
Located at the eastern end of the mall is a freestanding metal clock mounted on a pillar. Known as "Big Ben", the clock has a round face enclosed in a cylindrical case that rests on a fluted column with a Corinthian style capital. Elevated on a rectangular stone base, Big Ben is now situated on the lawn in front of the Administration Building.
Ross Oval
Ross Oval, the principal sporting field at the College occupies a very prominent position on the College site adjacent to the intersection of Sandgate Road and Northumbria Road. A single grassed football field, it forms the setting for the northern facades of the Chapel and the Duhig Buildings, which are set on an embankment above the level of the oval. Masonry stairs are set into the embankment in front of the Duhig Building and near the entrance to the Chapel. There is a row of palm trees along the top of the embankment in front of the buildings.
The oval is surrounded by a low timber picket fence. A small grandstand is located on the northern side of the oval. The grandstand is a simple timber framed structure with stepped timber seating and a corrugated iron roof.
Wilkes Oval
Wilkes Oval, located on the eastern slope below Ross Oval, is the second most important sporting field at Nudgee College. The original slope has been cut and filled and retaining walls constructed to create the level playing field. Overlooked by the Dunne Building and the Administration Building, Wilkes Oval is bounded by Northumbria Road on the north, various accommodation buildings on the east and a car park and classrooms on the south. A grassy expanse mostly used for playing soccer, it is rimmed by mature trees on the north, east and west.
Former Senior School (Hodda Building)
A predominantly three-storey brick and concrete building, the former Senior School is located to the southeast of the Main Building on a sloping site. Originally consisting of three connected blocks arranged in a zigzag pattern around two landscaped courtyards, the former Senior School was notable for its clear functional layout and abstract facades. The three original blocks consist of a northeast dormitory block, a central dormitory block and a southwest classroom block. Major alterations and additions including a substantial extension to the classroom wing and the addition of a dormitory wing for Year 11 students have obscured the original design.
The original facades of the building are composed of a rigorous arrangement of cream brick walls and piers, aluminium framed strip windows, exposed concrete floor structure and flat roofs.
The interiors of the building have also been extensively altered.
Spaces that retain their original architectural character include the entrance foyers and staircases. The stairs have polished concrete treads and wide timber handrails. The dormitory in the northeast wing retains original roomettes, individual cubicles for sleeping and studying, enclosed by door height brick partition walls.
Remainder of the college grounds
Various ancillary buildings including a library, a number of halls, and staff and maintenance facilities are located around the grounds. Sports facilities in addition to Ross and Wilkes ovals include several sports fields ("the Flats"), tennis and basketball courts, golf course, swimming pool, rifle range and athletics field.
Significant structures within heritage boundary include:
Former Main Building:
- Original 1890 building (south wing and central portion including tower)
- Extensions to South Wing including 1900 building (Finance Department) and 1937 link
- North Wing including Ryan Hall (1903-04)
- Southern extension
Chapel (1914-16)
Former Dunne Building (1917-19)
Former Quadrangle
'Big Ben' (1917)
Ross Oval and grandstand (1927)
Wilkes Oval (1934-35)
Places within the heritage boundary that are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance:
Gallagher Building (1973)
Infirmary (1975)
Administration Building (1986)
Kitchen extension to Main building (1950s)
","history":"St. Joseph's Nudgee College, was established in 1891 to serve the needs of rural Catholic boys. It was the first purpose-built boarding college erected in Queensland for the Christian Brothers, who were the first Catholic order to provide secondary education for boys in Queensland, decades before the Marists or the Jesuits. Offering affordable Catholic education through to senior and university entrance, St Joseph's Nudgee College has been important in fostering Catholic upward mobility (social, cultural, economic and political) in Queensland. During the 20th century St Joseph's Nudgee College developed into a large educational complex. Most of the major structures were designed by prominent Queensland architects and illustrate the evolution of Catholic educational architecture in Queensland. The College remains a boys-only school and the property of the Christian Brothers.
The former Main Building, containing the oldest structures on the site, remains the core of the college. From here radiate 20th century developments constructed in response to school growth. The College has rarely had the luxury of building in anticipation of growth; a policy of keeping fees affordable has meant that funds for extensions have seldom been easy to raise.
Although Roman Catholics comprised approximately 23.5% of the Queensland population in 1891 when St Joseph's College at Nudgee was opened, government policy disadvantaged Catholic schools. The Grammar Schools Act of 1860 provided government support to Grammar Schools, but not to denominational schools. Although the Education Act of 1860, which established a system of primary schools in Queensland, provided some assistance to non-vested schools, The Education Act (1875) halted government aid to denominational primary schools. Committed to providing access to a Catholic education for all Roman Catholic children in Queensland, the Catholic Church responded by accelerating the development of a network of parochial schools from the mid-1870s.
The Christian Brothers, a teaching order founded in Ireland by Edmund Ignatius Rice in the early 19th century, were invited to Queensland by Bishop O'Quinn of Brisbane, to assist in the development of Catholic secondary education in the colony. The Order had established a permanent presence in Australia when Brothers Treacy, Lynch and Bodkin immigrated to Melbourne in 1868. When Bishop O'Quinn's wrote of the urgent need for a teaching order of men in Queensland, Brother Patrick Ambrose Treacy, considered the founder of the Christian Brothers in Australia, responded by establishing a Christian Brothers school in Brisbane in 1875. The Brothers chose land on Gregory Terrace as the site for their school but while awaiting its construction, commenced teaching in 1875 at St Stephen's Catholic Church in Elizabeth Street. The St Stephen's school was moved to Gregory Terrace after the school there opened in 1880.
St Joseph's College on Gregory Terrace functioned initially as a day school, but Bishop O'Quinn successfully pressured the Brothers to admit boarders to Gregory Terrace. Archbishop Dunne, who succeeded O'Quinn in 1881, continued to press the Brothers to increase accommodation for boarders. The establishment of Catholic boarding schools was not traditional in Ireland, where boarding schools were seen as the province of the elite. In Queensland, O'Quinn and Dunne promoted boarding schools as a solution to the vastness of the colony, which had a small population scattered over huge areas far distant from principal urban centres. Boarding schools were a logical choice for rural Catholic boys but southern boarding schools (as in Sydney) were expensive and O'Quinn and Dunne wanted to reach the poorer rural Catholics who comprised the bulk of the Catholic congregation. It was essential that Catholic boarding schools with moderate fees be established in Queensland.
Despite the construction of a new dormitory wing at the Gregory Terrace school in 1888, accommodation proved inadequate for the increasing number of boarders. In response, Brother Treacy decided to establish a second school specifically to accommodate St Joseph's boarders, on land at Nudgee owned by the Order. The site comprised 258 acres situated between Nundah Creek and Cabbage Tree Creek, about 9 miles from the Brisbane central business district, accessed via Sandgate Road and the Sandgate Railway. In addition to this, Treacy purchased 50 acres of adjacent land from Reverend Holme, a Presbyterian minister, obtaining title in May 1890. This included the 'Nudgee Mound', which became the site of the Main Building at St Joseph's College. In the late 1880s Nudgee was a rural district, convenient to the city but sufficiently isolated and removed from the distractions of town. Proximity to the city had been one of the perceived problems with Gregory Terrace.
Main Building 1890
The oldest structure in the school is the southern half of the Main Building facing Sandgate Road. Construction commenced in 1890 and the first pupils occupied the building in February 1891.
Stombuco and Son were engaged as architects. Andrea Stombuco was a flamboyant Italian sculptor, monumental mason, builder and architect who had travelled extensively as a youth before settling in the Cape Colony, where he owned and operated a stone quarry. He joined briefly in the Victorian gold rush in 1851 before practising as a sculptor, contractor and architect in that colony. The Catholic Church became his principal patron. In 1869 he was appointed Diocesan Architect for Goulburn in New South Wales, then in 1875 moved to Queensland, possibly at the invitation of Bishop O'Quinn. His commissions for the Catholic Church in Queensland included St Joseph's Christian Brothers College on Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill (1875-76 with additions by Stombuco and Son in 1886-87); St Mary's Roman Catholic Presbytery, Ipswich (1876) [600577]; churches at Laidley (1878), Pine Mountain (1878), Goodna (1880-81) and Sandgate (1880-81); All Hallows' Convent School, Petrie Bight (1880-82) [600200]; St Patrick's Church, Fortitude Valley (1880-82) [600210]; and St Vincent's Convent and Church, Nudgee (1883-84). In 1886, he entered into partnership with his eldest son, Giovanni. Churches at Wooloowin (1886) and Kangaroo Point (1887-88) and a number of prominent private residences were among the buildings designed by the father and son partnership. St Joseph's College, Nudgee (1889-90) was amongst the last of their work in Brisbane. In 1891, experiencing financial difficulty, Andrea Stombuco moved to Perth, where he died in poverty in 1907. His family remained in Queensland. On Andrea's departure for Western Australia, Giovanni Stombuco took up farming at Kuraby, South of Brisbane.
Initially, only part of the building designed by Stombuco and Son, the tower and a section of the South Wing, were constructed. The ground floor contained a classroom and the upper two floors held a chapel and dormitories. A temporary galvanised iron building containing four classrooms was erected close to the Main Building, but was removed in 1904. The front grounds appear to have been laid out early in the history of the college. By 1897, and probably much earlier, the heart shaped lawn with its surrounding carriage way and statue of St Joseph had been established, ornamental trees had been planted and a picket fence had been erected along the Sandgate Road boundary in front of the Main Building.
The school accepted its first pupils - 41 junior school boarders relocated from Gregory Terrace - in February 1891. The first principal was Brother Bodkin who had come to Australia with Brother Treacy in 1868. Archbishop Dunne was overseas at the time, but after his return he officially opened the College on the 8th May 1891. By this time £12,776 had been spent on constructing and setting up the school.
1900 Dormitory Block
In 1892 the remaining Gregory Terrace boarders were moved to Nudgee. Enrolments grew rapidly and between 1895 and 1900 the school population almost doubled. To accommodate increasing enrolments a two-storeyed building was constructed behind the Main Building in 1900. This was aligned east-west behind the South Wing of the Main Building and was eventually joined to the South Wing in 1937. The new building provided dormitory accommodation, which then enabled an upper dormitory in the South Wing to be converted into a chapel.
By 1902 Treacy believed that Nudgee was "the largest boarding institution of its kind in the Commonwealth", evidence of a sizeable Catholic rural population that set Queensland apart from other Australian states.
Main Building 1904
The northern half of the Main Building, including a section of the North Wing, was finished in 1904. This completed Stombuco and Son's design and the symmetry of the Main Building around the central tower. An arcade across the front of the building, which faced west into the strong afternoon sun, was added to the initial design and the tower was heightened and topped with a dome. The architect for this work was James Percy Cowlishaw (1867-1925), son of one of Brisbane's earliest private architects, James Cowlishaw. The ground floor contained senior classrooms and a students' hall, now known as Ryan Hall. The first floor held a library and both the first and second floors contained dormitories with bathrooms. This wing was opened officially by Governor Sir Herbert Chermside on 24th June 1904.
In the early 20th century St Joseph's College continued to grow and by 1913 enrolments had reached 209. Overcrowding made further extensions a necessity but the College remained heavily in debt. In 1911, the Golden Jubilee celebration for Brother Barrett, a longstanding Christian Brother who had taught for many years at both Gregory Terrace and Nudgee, was made the occasion for the beginning of a fundraising campaign. An appeal was made to the Queensland Catholic community and funds raised by this campaign made it possible to commence work on further extensions including the present chapel, new servants' quarters, laundry, kitchen, storerooms and infirmary, as well as the fitting up of science rooms. The new buildings, with the exception of the chapel, were probably located immediately to the south of the Main Building.
Chapel (1914-16)
Archbishop James Duhig of Brisbane laid the foundation stone for a new chapel on 5th October 1913 as part of the fund raising campaign. Construction commenced late in 1914 and the building was dedicated by Duhig on 25th March 1916.
Prominent Catholic architect Thomas Ramsay Hall (later one of the designers of Brisbane City Hall in 1919) was commissioned to design the new chapel. Hall was a Queensland-trained architect, a cadet in the Queensland Public Works Department before joining the architectural firm of FR Hall and RS Dods c1904 and then establishing his own practice in 1907. Hall was one of Brisbane's most successful architects of the early 20th century. His collaborations with GG Prentice as Hall and Prentice (1919-1929) and with LB Phillips as Hall and Phillips (from 1929-1948) produced some of Queensland's most important commercial buildings of the first half of the 20th century. His early work included Sandgate Town Hall (1911) and numerous public works designs.
Hall designed the new chapel at St Joseph's College in the Renaissance revival style, to harmonise with the Main Building. Internally he created a light and airy space, with white walls and light stained woodwork. The sanctuary was flanked by Ionic columns of dark red marble and the altar was of grey marble.
Additions 1917-1919: extension to 1900 Block; Dunne Memorial Block; 'Big Ben'
With the death of Archbishop Dunne in 1917, St Joseph's College received an unexpected windfall. Dunne bequeathed £30,000 of Church funds to the Brothers, of which £15,000 was allocated to Nudgee. This financed further building, again made necessary by overcrowding: 285 boys were enrolled in 1917 and even the library was being used as a dormitory. The block constructed in 1900 was extended to include 12 music rooms, teachers' rooms, a dentist's room, a men's dining room, and a new toilet block. The Dunne Memorial Block (later the Duhig Building) was a substantial two-storeyed structure containing 8 classrooms. Located close to the North Wing of the Main Building, it remained detached until 1975. TR Hall was again engaged as architect. The block was completed in 1919 but no public opening was held due to an influenza epidemic.
"Big Ben" is the name applied to a College icon, a large freestanding clock of English manufacture located in a lawn to the east of the Quadrangle. It was reputedly obtained by the Queensland government in 1895 and exhibited in Brisbane at the Queensland International Exhibition of 1897. Heindorff and Company of Queen Street then purchased the clock, which stood on the Queen Street footpath until the College acquired it in 1917.
Front wall (1930)
In 1930 a substantial front wall with imposing entrance gates was constructed, funded by Brisbane Catholic businessman TC Beirne.
1937 extensions to the South Wing
In 1937 the Main Building was linked to the dormitory block constructed in 1900, by three-storeyed extensions to the South Wing. The extension was principally a service block, providing two new locker rooms, new bathroom and lavatory accommodation and on the ground floor, serveries and an extension to the kitchen.
Late 1950s extensions
By the late 1950s, overcrowding yet again led to a renewed building program. Contributing to the overcrowding was the increased numbers of boys who were returning after Junior - a reflection of changed social expectations and economic circumstances. Expansion in the senior school was accommodated by further extensions to the Main Building. Two dormitories with shower blocks and new Brothers' rooms were constructed over pre-existing refectory extensions. In addition to these extensions, three new classrooms to the rear of the tennis courts were constructed.
The architect for this work was Frank Cullen, a nephew of Archbishop Duhig, who had commenced his career in 1928 as an articled pupil of Hennessy, Hennessy and Co., Brisbane. He established his own practice in 1936. Cullen undertook many works for the Catholic Church in Queensland.
New Senior Secondary School (1965-67)
The largest and most significant structure away from the Main Building is the Senior Secondary School, erected in the mid-1960s. Its construction reflected a state-wide rise in secondary school attendance combined with educational reform. In the 1950s Queensland had experienced a rapid growth in secondary student numbers, the outcome of the post-war 'baby boom' and increased immigration (including significant numbers of Catholics) combined with national economic growth. These changes together with the educational reforms brought about by the Committee of Inquiry on Secondary Education in 1961, led to increased numbers in the Senior School at St Joseph's Nudgee College and pressures on the senior curriculum. Improved funding for Catholic Schools from the Federal Government aided the expansion necessary to accommodate these changes.
As early as 1959 it was clear that better senior facilities would be needed. Plans for a self-contained complex for the senior school were completed in 1964. It was the largest single building project since construction of the Main Building in 1890 and was estimated to cost £1,000,000. Construction commenced in August 1965. The complex was opened and blessed on the 21 May 1967 and the accommodation section was occupied in July 1967.
The original building included the Senior Residence and School but not the Year Eleven Residence. Designed to provide for all senior school requirements, it included accommodation, laundries, classrooms, science laboratories and refreshment facilities. Professor Neville Anderson of the School of Architecture of the University of New South Wales was asked to consult on the project. He had worked for the Christian Brothers at Waverley College in Sydney and spent several days at the school developing the brief. Designing architects were Cullen, Fagg, Hargraves and Mooney, a practice that had carried out many commissions for the Catholic Church. The new Senior School, although similar in scale to the older buildings, was the first major building in the College grounds to depart from the Italianate architectural style adopted by Stombuco and Son in the late 1880s.
Mid-1970s extensions and alterations
During a mid-1970s building program the Dunne Memorial Block was joined to the North Wing by the construction of the Junior Sciences Block (now the Gallagher Building) in 1975. The original wooden verandahs on the northern facade of the 1900 South Wing were replaced in concrete and the South Wing was extended east to provide a new infirmary. Construction was plagued by industrial unrest and the main contractor went into liquidation.
Mid-1980s extensions
The Main Building reached its current form during a development program that commenced in the mid-1980s. At the beginning of the 1980s, the ever-increasing size of the school and the perennial problem of inadequate funding led to the remodelling of the administration of the school. A business manager was appointed and an Advisory Board established. In 1984, Civil and Civic Pty Ltd commenced work on a Campus Development Strategy and a Foundation was established to raise funds for the proposed developments.
Work began on implementing this strategy in 1985. The Quadrangle was refurbished and the following year an administration block was erected to the east of the Dunne Memorial Block. A Manual Arts Block was built in 1987 south of the South Wing. During the summer vacation of 1988-89 the Dunne Memorial Block was converted from two storeys to its present three storeys. The interior was gutted, but the form of the building and the principal façades were retained. A year eleven dormitory designed by Queensland architect Ian Ferrier was added to the Senior School during 1986.
Ancillary Buildings
Most of the ancillary buildings at the college post-date 1975. A range of smaller buildings such as the laundry, storerooms, boiler house and servants quarters were constructed, probably to the south of the Main Building, in the early days of the college. These have been removed or absorbed into the South Wing extensions. The largest and most significant ancillary buildings presently occupying the site include the Library, Tierney Hall, the McKennariey Centre, the Parents and Friends Multipurpose Hall and the Junior Residence.
Tierney Hall was constructed in 1975 in response to the need for a gymnasium and large hall in which to hold school functions. The architect for this work was William Douglas and the engineer was John Cavanagh.
The Library, named after Monsignor Vincent Cleary, was also built at this time. Monsignor Cleary was an old boy of the college and foundation director of nearby Pius XII Seminary. He died on 8th August 1975, a few days after the library designed by Ian Ferrier was opened.
The McKennariey Centre, opened in 1990, contained a range of indoor sporting facilities, health and physical education classrooms, a manager's office and a canteen. The Centre was named after Brother Leonard Bede McKennariey, son of the College's first pupil and a Christian Brother who had spent many years teaching at Nudgee.
The Parents and Friends Multipurpose Hall and the Junior Residence designed by architect Laurie Bertoldi, were opened in February 1995 by Archbishop Bathersby.
Sporting Facilities
Sport has been a significant focus in St Joseph's curriculum from its establishment. The College prospectus for 1890 made reference to play-grounds and a gymnasium and by 1896 the main sports field contained about ten acres, with football facilities and cricket pitch. One of the original sports areas was located in the northwest corner of the grounds, north of the Main Building and adjacent to the 1914-16 chapel, in the area now occupied by Ross Oval. A second playing area, down on the flat, was in use by 1927, although it was some distance from the main buildings and flooded during the rainy season.
In 1927 the Main Oval near the chapel was levelled, a grandstand was erected and the concrete wicket was replaced by two turf pitches. The name of the oval was changed from Main Oval to Ross Oval in 1978 at the request of the Old Boys Association. John (Jack) Ross (1894-1973) was a prominent and much loved sportsman who had attended Nudgee as a student from 1908 to 1912 and had then taught at the college from 1914 almost to his death.
The College's second oval, Wilkes Oval, located to the east of Ross Oval, was developed between 1934 and 1935 under the State government's Unemployment Relief Scheme implemented during the 1930s' economic depression, to provide day work for the long-term unemployed.
A swimming pool was also constructed under this scheme. For many years Nudgee Creek had served as the College swimming facility, with a corrugated iron shed and diving platform erected there. In 1935 a 25 metre swimming pool was built in the grounds, close to the southeast corner of Wilkes Oval. The pool remained in use until 1981 when deterioration forced its closure. The present 50 metre McKennariey pool was opened in 1982.
The school's first tennis courts were built in 1907, on the site of the present Edmund Rice Mall. They were dismantled in 1918 and four new courts were erected in 1922 some distance behind the South Wing, in the location of what is now a car park. These were removed in 1991 when the present courts were built.
","criteria":"St Joseph's Nudgee College, opened in 1891, is the oldest purpose-built Catholic boys' boarding school in Queensland. Initially established to accommodate the increasing number of boarders enrolling at St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace, the school provides important evidence of the development of residential education in Queensland. The emergence of Nudgee College as a boarding school in the late 19th century is evidence of the size and character of the rural Catholic population of the time. The College remains the premier Catholic boys' boarding school in Queensland and is significant for its important contribution to the upward social, cultural, economic and political mobility of Catholics in the Queensland community during the 20th century.The imposing and coherent architectural vision is part of a recognisable style of building (Italianate architecture in an elevated setting) favoured by the Catholic Church in Queensland, especially under Archbishops Robert Dunne and James Duhig, as an expression of Catholic aspirations in an Anglican and Protestant dominated society. Historically, St Joseph's Nudgee College belongs to a period of major Catholic building with widespread effects on the Queensland landscape and the Brisbane townscape in particular, and is important in illustrating this trend.
|St Joseph's Nudgee College has developed continuously on a large site and retains most of the original permanent buildings including the former Main Building. The imposing facades, prominent chapel, wide variety of classroom and residential buildings and significant outdoor areas such as the former Quadrangle and Ross and Wilkes ovals are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a large denominational boarding school in Queensland. The complex is an excellent representation of the evolution of Catholic educational architecture in Queensland over a period of almost one hundred years. The historic core contains the work of several prominent Queensland architects including Andrea Stombuco, James Percy Cowlishaw and Thomas Ramsay Hall, yet remains remarkably cohesive in form, style, materials and scale.
|Situated on the 'Nudgee Mound', the most prominent and elevated part of the site, the older buildings of the College with their sweeping facades and architecturally cohesive design form a landmark in the northeastern suburbs of Brisbane. The rendered Renaissance revival architecture set in extensive grounds and bounded by established trees is valued for its aesthetic qualities and contribution to the historical character of the area. Ross Oval has been used for sport and recreation from the earliest days of the College and became the primary sports ground for the College after it was leveled and the grandstand built in 1927. The oval is an integral part of the main building complex and makes a significant contribution to its aesthetic appeal.
|St Joseph's Nudgee College, has a special association for generations of Catholic families who have sent their sons to this school since 1891. The college is considered the premier Catholic boys' boarding school in Queensland, and has a special role in Catholic education in this state.
|The College has a strong and special association with the Christian Brothers, the order which founded the College in the late 1880s and who continue their association with the school. Prominent Queensland Catholic churchmen including Brisbane archbishops have had a special association with the development of the College. The Dunne Memorial Block (now Duhig Building) was built from funds bequeathed by Robert Dunne, Brisbane's first Archbishop. Brisbane Archbishop Bathersby is a graduate of the College.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16510,"place_ref":601773,"name":"Toowong Cemetery","alternate_name":"Brisbane General Cemetery","street_address":"cnr Mount Coot-tha Road and Frederick Street","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2002-12-31","description":"The Brisbane General Cemetery at Toowong is located approximately 4 ½ kilometres west of the City on 43.73 hectares (108acres 1.6perches) bounded on all sides by public roads. The undulating and rugged terrain of the Cemetery falls steeply away from its northern boundary, Birdwood Terrace, which traces the ridge from the north-east corner of the site to Richer Street which forms the western boundary of the Cemetery proper. Mt Coot-tha Road forms the southern boundary and Frederick Street, provides the north-south line of the eastern boundary.
The shoulder to Mt Coot-tha Road, west of Richer Street, comprises an area of 1.116 hectares of Cemetery land that is utilised as supplementary carparking for the Botanical Gardens. The Brisbane City Council Bus Depot, Anzac Park, the Botanical Gardens and the northern end of the western freeway now occupy land that was originally part of the 250 acre 1 rood Cemetery Reserve.
Approach from the City along Milton or Sylvan Road to the Cemetery is impeded by the overpass and roundabout at the intersection of Frederick and Miskin Streets and Sylvan, Milton and Mt Coot-tha Roads Direct access through and views of the main entry have been severed and access through the main gates can only be made from a slip road approach from the west.
The main entrance to the Cemetery at the south-east corner of the site is through a semi circular gateway comprising stone gate posts and a cast iron fence on a brick masonry base with stone coping. constructed c1915. The gate posts are a simplified version of those to the design by Colonial Architect, FDG Stanley erected in 1873-74. The fence extends past Valentine Street on the Frederick Street boundary but is not continuous - a length of fence has been removed. To the west the fence extends more than a hundred metres and includes a narrow gate opening. The remainder of the site is unfenced but the topography to the northern, western and southern boundaries and the line of eucalypt trees along the Frederick Street form a natural boundary to the site.
The large site is elevated and has views to the City and surrounding suburbs. It is divided by a series of bitumen lined, serpentine roads between which portions of land for burial purposes have been overlaid with regularly shaped sections at varying orientations. A creek runs diagonally through the site from the north-west to the south east between two ridges. Through Portion 10, the creek is formed by an open concrete lined drain passing under the road to Portion 6 from where it exits the site under Mt Coot-tha Road.
Throughout the cemetery, the topography provides the social division of the cemetery with private graves occupying the highest ground in each portion, public graves along the lower sections and paupers and criminals occupying the low-lying, water logged ground along the creek. The contrast is stark between elaborate monuments built by the elite on the highest ground in an attempt to cheat death through immortality, when compared to the unmarked graves of anonymous paupers on low lying water logged ground. With two exceptions, the Presbyterians in Portion 24 and the Primitive Methodists mostly in Portion 6, the creek serves to separate the general ground to the south from the ground occupied by religious denominations to the north.
Portion 1 contains the Church of England graves with still born babies occupying the northern area of this Portion. Portion 2 which was originally allocated to the Wesleyan Methodists (2A) also contains the graves of more than 10,000 still born babies and other hospital burials. Portion 3 contains the Jewish Section, Portion 4 appears to be a general area and contains the Temple of Peace and the Caskey Memorial. Portion 5 contains public ground. Portion 6 contains Primitive Methodists and also a substantial number of the reinterments from the old Milton/Paddington Cemetery. Portion 7 contains Irish Catholics and 7A, the Roman Catholics. The small subdivision of 7A to the west of Portion 7 contains the early Roman Catholic graves. Portion 8 once contained Chinese graves (relocated to portion 2 and then 7 before being re-interred to 19). Most of the early Chinese graves were exhumed and removed to China. Portion 8 and 18 contain general ground with Greek and Russian Orthodox at the western ends of both.
Portions 9, 11, 12, 13 and 14 surround the Blackall Monument located on the highest knoll in the Cemetery. The upper reaches of these portions contain Queensland's most prominent political, legal, arts, religious and business figures. Portions 15 and 15 A contain public Catholic graves. Part of 15 was originally allocated to the burial of criminals and was later resold as Catholic ground. The pauper grounds were located in the low-lying area in Portion 16. The top dressing in this area has been stripped and the area is presently used for the dumping of tree trimmings and other rubbish.
Portion 10 contains the administrative buildings for the site - the Sexton's office, the Museum (former Sexton's office) and storage shed spanning the open drain, the Amenities block with a storage and workshop adjacent. The Shrine of Remembrance and Cross of Sacrifice occupy the southern end of this Portion and are prominently centred on an axis from the main entry gates. Portions 20, 21, 22, 23, 29 and 29A in the northern corner of the Cemetery were laid out after the turn of the century. Part of Portions 21and 22 contain hospital and Department of Native Affairs graves. Portion 22 contains Italian graves and also the grave of former Prime Minister Forde.
Portions 25, 26 and 27 laid out in the western corner of the site contain Catholic graves and occupy the land purchased in 1916 from Ned Alexander (Portion 872). Portion 30 was the last ground to be laid out in 1930 and contains, amongst others, graves for Dunwich and Goodna Asylum patients in its south-eastern corner. An avenue of oleanders marks the boundary between portions 29 and 30.
A survey of the layout of graves, reveal differences between many of the portions with some aligned to magnetic north, some to true north and others at varying degrees from North. The sections in the Church of England section are laid out at 45 degrees east of true north. (In August 1875, the Church of England requested that graves be laid east-west).
Framing the entrance to the Cemetery, are an imposing grouping of mature trees including Weeping Banyan (Ficus benjamina), Camphor Laurels (Cinnamomum camphora) and Bangalow Palm trees (Archontophoenix cunninghamia). Bamboo was originally planted to frame the entrance. A line of mature Cypress Pine (Callitris cupressiformis) behind the Cross of Sacrifice and Shrine of Remembrance serve to obscure the view to the Amenities Building. Hedges providing a screen to obscure views of the turn of the century Sexton's office have been removed. Substantial fig trees mark many of the roadway intersections over the site and an irregular arrangement of Cypress Pines, (Callistris cupressiformis), Bunya Pines, (Araucaria bidwillii) Camphor Laurels (Cinnamonum camphora), Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia) as well as Eucalypts and several other plant species over the entire site provide a natural appearance.
There are several small avenues of trees throughout the Cemetery including one of mature Camphor Laurels between portions 6 and 9 and another of an unidentified species along the approach to the Blackall Monument which provides an intimate canopy that belies and enhances the impact of the memorial and its end. A large banyan fig tree and a maple tree form the backdrop to the monument at the top of the hill.
There are approximately 117,000 people buried at Toowong and the variation of headstones and memorials is vast. The imposing Blackall Memorial forms the most dominant feature in the southern part of the cemetery, and long views of memorial are afforded for some distance along western freeway well before the approach to the cemetery is reached. Less prominent, but equally impressive is the craftsmanship attached to many of the individual graves. Sculpture, tiling, edging, cast ironwork, plantings and the like all contribute to the character of the site as a whole.
With the exception of the shelter sheds in various locations within the grounds, the structures associated with the administration and maintenance of the Cemetery grounds are confined to Portion 10. The Museum building, located over the open drain, was formerly the Sexton's office and was built at the turn of the century. It is a single storey, single skin timber framed building with terracotta tile roof. The two room structure is located above the floor of an earlier structure identified as the flower shed which was associated with the cultivation and selling of flowers from Portion 10. The internal partition wall was reconstructed, windows replaced and an adjoining store room was demolished as part of the museum conversion project carried out by the Brisbane City Council Heritage Unit in 1991. Adjacent to the former Sexton's office, also straddling the open drain is a storage shed of substantial construction. It has a concrete floor, insitu concrete walls with large, roughly sawn hardwood roof framing and lining.
The 1924 Sanitary Block or Amenities Building is a substantially intact, single storey masonry building with terracotta tile roof. The building has a symmetrical layout and is accessible from the east or west. The four corners of the building contain rest areas with battened openings and bench seating and provide access to the lavatories and retiring rooms, the men's on the south of the building and the women's on the north. Entry to the central dining room is via an ancillary space on the east containing showers (a later addition or modification?) and on the west containing a kitchen. The masonry internal walls are glazed face bricks in the ancillary spaces with painted brickwork the main central space. Tiles line the masonry walls to the lavatories, retiring rooms and associated corridors.
Other buildings on Portion 10 include the new Sexton's office, a single storey cavity brick building with terracotta tile roof erected in 1989 and a single storey masonry storage and work shed with metal roof of recent construction. This shed is located adjacent to the southern end of the amenities building.
","history":"Bureaucratic procrastination, manoeuvring and public discontent colour the early history of the Brisbane General Cemetery at Toowong and contributed to the decades of delay in providing a new General Cemetery for Brisbane in the second half of the nineteenth century.
The first cemetery serving the small penal settlement that was Brisbane between 1825 and 1842 was located near Skew Street, the northern approach to the William Jolly Bridge. It was here that soldiers and convicts were interred but was considered unfit for the burial of children. One soldier's four children were buried in a brick crypt in an area at North Quay near Herschel Street.
The concept of a rural cemetery located outside the bounds of town limits emerged as a major transformation in burial practices in the late 18th century in Britain and Europe and was well established by the time towns and settlements were being formed in Queensland. The new burial grounds surveyed at North and South Brisbane in 1844, just beyond the western boundary of the municipality, proved however, not to be sufficiently removed from the settlement. Whilst the proximity of both grounds allowed customary procession on foot, and natural drainage away from the early settlement served to allay sanitary concerns, as early as 1851, the public were petitioning the Government of NSW to relocate the North Brisbane Burial Grounds known as the Milton/Paddington Cemetery. Brisbane's rapid expansion following its opening to free settlement in 1842 was such that the Paddington Cemetery, was now in the heart of a prime inner residential area and was being challenged by the residents who feared for their health.
The first progress to establish a new cemetery were made in 1861 when 200 acres was set aside for cemetery purposes, 2 miles south west of the Milton Cemetery at Toowong. The land however, was chosen by default rather than by design. Augustus Gregory, the Surveyor -General had not favoured the Toowong site but found it to be the only locality to present the requisite requirements. The appropriateness of the site at Toowong for the purpose of a General Cemetery was an issue contested for the next two decades. The isolation and suitability of the Toowong site with its lack of access and public transport fuelled dissent and debate and the public continued to use the cheaper, more accessible familial grounds at Milton.
Although the Cemetery Act was passed in 1866 providing the means to establish general cemeteries under the control of government appointed trustees, it was another decade before the Cemetery was officially opened. In 1868, a further portion of Crown land, 53 acres in area, north of the cemetery reserve was added to fulfil of the Trustee's requirement for the entire cemetery to be surrounded with public roads.
The reserve of 250 acres 1 rood was gazetted and the Cemetery Trust established in October 1870 and its honorary trustees were amongst Brisbane's most prominent political and business figures - James Cowlishaw, John Hardgrave, William Pettigrew, Samuel Walker Griffith, George Edmonstone, Alexander Raff, John Petrie (Chairman), Michael Quinlan and Nathaniel Lade.
Trial sinkings at Toowong in December 1870 found the ground to be unsuitable, but this knowledge did not prompt the government to secure a more appropriate location. Queensland's second governor, Samuel Wensley Blackall had been a supporter of the Toowong site and in his ill health indicated his desire to be buried there. He was buried on the highest knoll on 3 January 1871 and his memorial is the largest and most prominent in the cemetery with commanding views of the city and surrounds.
The Surveyor General, the Trustees and the Colonial Secretary had not favoured the Toowong Site and even after the burial of Governor Blackall on its most prominent peak, the Trustees were still pursuing other more suitable prospects for a cemetery site. Three private properties had been offered for sale for cemetery purposes. Of these, Trustee George Edmondstone's property on Enoggera Creek was identified as being most suitable, however the Colonial Treasurer could not reach an agreement on price and the Toowong site came to be accepted as the Brisbane General Cemetery grounds.
In June 1871, Petrie, Pettigrew and Perry were nominated to chose a suitable 40 acres for clearing for the general cemetery. In 1872, ground lying north of the road and east of the western boundary of the 53 acre portion was cleared and enclosed by 540 rods of good quality pig fencing (a four rail fence) with two entrances not more than 4 rods on each side of the main entrance erected by John Ballard.
A Keeper's Lodge was built by E Lewis and gates and ornamental fencing at the main entrance, designed by the Colonial Architect, FDG Stanley, were erected in 1873-74.
Between Governor Blackall's burial and the official opening of the Cemetery, there were six burials. The next interment was Ann Hill, wife of Walter Hill, superintendent of the Botanical Gardens on 2 November 1871. Thomas and Martha McCulloch were buried in November 1873, Teresa Maria Love on 16 March 1875 and Florence and Ethel Gordon on 4 July 1875.
The Trustees received numerous requests for separate burial sections from churches and other like minded group to ensure that religious and social class distinctions within society were perpetuated in mortality. Between November 1874 and August 1875 portions were allocated by the Trustees upon request. Portion No 1, was allocated to the Church of England, Portion No 2 to the Wesleyans, Portion No 3 to the Hebrews, Portion No 7 to the Roman Catholics, Portion No 16 to paupers and No 17 and parts of No 1 and 7 to public graves, Portion No 15 to criminals. In 1879, the Chinese were allocated part of Portion 2, then relocated in January 1884 to the ground below 7 and then again in April of that year to Portion No 8. The various cultural and religious groups were separated and boundaries clearly formed by winding roads. There is a strong showing of the Christian section of the graves, supporting the demographic dominance of Anglo-Saxons in Brisbane and the relocation of the Chinese several times (now in Portion 19) demonstrates the disregard afforded to this section of the community, which exhumed many of its dead for reinterment in China.
The lack of public transportation for funeral processions was one of the perceived shortfalls of the Toowong site, so the extension of the railway line through the western suburbs to Toowong in 1875 with the promise of a mortuary rail service provided the catalyst for the opening of the cemetery.
The grounds at the Cemetery were laid out by the prominent surveyor, George Phillips and a set of books drawn up by the Government Printer. The Cemetery was officially opened on 5 July 1875.
Controversy was quelled for a time but the respite was short lived and the Cemetery was subjected to a parliamentary inquiry in 1877 where public health issues, the steep and rocky terrain, the distance and inconvenience for mourners and the cost in relation to other alternatives including mortuary trains to Toowong were considered. No further meetings were held by the Trustees until March 1878.
The Cemetery had come to be valued for not only its heritage as the resting place of Governor Blackall but as a place for recreation and repose. Had the government decided from its inquiry to abandon the Toowong Cemetery in favour of another proposed site at Woogaroo, the Trustees wanted to retain the management of the Toowong site and for it to be maintained in an ornamental way as a place of resort for the people of Brisbane.
Community health concerns relating to the Cemetery began to dissipate in the second half of the 1880s. Whilst a public meeting of concerned residents discussed the closure of the cemetery in July 1885, within six months the local community was petitioning the Trustees to endorse the opening of a road through the cemetery reserve. Approval for the public thoroughfare through the cemetery was given in July 1886. The approval renewed concern in some quarters for the health risks associated with the increase in public activity at the Cemetery and the planting of trees amongst the graves especially of those dying of virulent diseases was advocated.
The cemetery was however, well established with trees by this time. From 1876, one year after its official opening, many plants and young trees had been supplied to the Cemetery from the Botanical Gardens and Acclimatisation Society. Initially, Walter Hill, the Botanical Gardens superintendent donated 38 shade and ornamental trees to the Cemetery and Mr Bernays of the Acclimatisation Society offered 50 trees in exchange for a subscription from the Trustees.
From 1878, the Cemetery gardens were attended by dresser, William Melville, a position he held for 38 years. Flowers, shrubs and plants were cultivated on the site on Portion 10 and sold to meet the needs of the site's visitors from a flower shed that straddled the creek. Mature camellias at the Cemetery, located in Portion 4 and 13 may be the first planted in Queensland from cuttings from Camden Park, the home of John McCarthur, who may have been the first to import them into Australia. A dam on Portion 16 was used for irrigation until 1905 when water taps were installed.
In 1886, the Defence Force leased the largely unused area of the cemetery, now occupied by Anzac Park, as a Rifle Range and the whole paddock and the Cemetery Overseer's cottage designed by Trustee, James Cowlishaw and built by E Bishop in 1877 came under the control of the Brigade Officer in charge of the Range. In exchange, the Government built another cottage in 1887 for the overseer at a cost of £250. A pavilion, also designed by Cowlishaw was built in 1885 at the northern end of Portion 10.
In 1891, extensive public usage of the cemetery land spurred the newly formed Toowong Shire Council to seek an arrangement with the Trustees to utilise some of the land for the purpose of public recreation. Whilst initially reluctant, the Trustees came to support the idea. In 1915, the Toowong Park Act was passed providing the Trustees with the means to transfer 132 acres 2 roods 18 perches to the Toowong Town Council for Park and Recreation purposes known in part as the Old Rifle Range for the sum of £1,000. This revenue was used to finance the construction of new gates and fencing and the purchase in 1916, of Portion 872, the sole adjoining private property, to satisfy the Trustees preference for completely surrounding the cemetery with public roads.
Agitation for public transport within close proximity of the cemetery was finally achieved with the extension of the tramway to the cemetery in 1901. A shelter shed was erected by the Brisbane Tramways Co in 1916.
The Paddington Cemeteries Act of 1911, authorised the Government to resume the several cemeteries at Milton and, upon the request of any relative of any person buried therein within 12 months, to disinter the remains of the deceased. The remains were removed together with any memorials to any cemetery agreed upon with associated costs borne by the Government. Of the 4,643 identifiable graves at Milton, there were 178 applications made. 139 remains and 105 memorials were relocated from Milton to Toowong throughout the site, with the greatest concentration to be found in Portion 6.
Tenders for a sanitary block were called by Trustee and architect, Edward Myer Myers in November 1923. The successful tenderer was Marberete Co and the construction was completed prior to Anzac Day 1924 when the Shrine of Remembrance and Cross of Sacrifice were unveiled. A report of the ceremony in the Sydney Mail incorrectly refers to the building as a mortuary chapel and flags of the Union Jack were hung over the entries to the men's and ladies' toilets to disguise the signage.
On 1 August 1930, Toowong Cemetery and all others with the Brisbane City Council municipality were placed under the management and control of the Council. The following year, the area of the Toowong Cemetery bounded by Mt Coot-tha Road and Miskin and Dean Streets was used by the Australian Military Forces for training and later was transferred to the Brisbane City Council and was developed as a Bus Depot. A substation was erected in the south-east corner of this site in 1935.
Flowers were cultivated and sold at the Cemetery from Portion 10 until the 1930s. In 1934 the area set apart for soldier's graves within Portion 10 was extended and incorporated the flower gardens and the octagonal pavilion was probably demolished at this time. Other shelter sheds were erected and six, including two with toilets, are dotted over the site. In 1936 the last available block, Portion 30, was laid out for burial purposes. To allow for more burials, the plot sizes were reduced from 9'x5'to 8'x4'.
By April 1975, all burial plots in the Cemetery had been sold and the Cemetery was closed with the exception of burials in family graves. That same year, hundreds of worn, forgotten headstones in three major city cemeteries were removed by Brisbane City Council workmen employed under the Regional Employment Development Scheme. Old, neglected monuments were removed from Toowong, Lutwyche and South Brisbane cemeteries and trees and shrubs planted. The long term aim of the scheme was to return the cemeteries to open space with a parkland atmosphere. It is thought approximately 1,000 memorials were removed from Toowong.
In the early 1980s, footpath clearances were substantially reduced along the Frederick Street and Mt Coot-tha Road boundaries and the tram shelter and tram lines were removed as part of the Route 20 overpass and roundabout development. As a result of this work, direct access through the main gates of the Cemetery from all directions but the west has been disconnected.
The Sexton's office, built around the turn of the century on Portion 10 above the floor of the flower shed, fell into disuse once the new Sexton's office was built in 1989. Restoration work to repair and reconstruct the former Sexton's office and its conversion to a museum was initiated by the Brisbane City Council Heritage Advisory Committee and the work carried out by the Heritage Unit in 1991. Another initiative by the Brisbane City Council Heritage Unit, also undertaken in 1991, was the establishment of the Toowong Cemetery Heritage Trail together with the Adopt-a-Pioneer program for plots in need of maintenance and to raise public awareness of the invaluable resource that the cemetery provides.
In 1992, steel boom gates were erected at the Birdwood Terrace and Frederick Street entrances of the Cemetery to deter vandalism, theft and drag racing. The same year, a group of volunteers formed The Friends of Toowong Cemetery and their activities include tending to neglected gravesites and organising tours of the Cemetery for interested parties. They have also produced several booklets including the Toowong Cemetery Resource Manual and Extraordinary Lives of Ordinary People.
The Cemetery was reopened in 1998 with approximately 450 plots available for sale.
","criteria":"The Brisbane General Cemetery at Toowong, established in 1866 and formally opened in 1875, is Queensland's largest cemetery. It is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland history, as it provides evidence, through the division of its portions and the headstones and memorials they contain, of the history and the demography of Brisbane and the diversity of its cultural, religious and ethnic groups and districts. The layout of burial sites at the Cemetery is indicative of 19th century social and religious stratification and the progressive layering, development and diversity of styles of memorialisation contained within the Cemetery document changing attitudes to death and fashions in funerary ornamentation since the 1870s.
|The Toowong Cemetery is a rare example of the Victorian concept of a mortuary park and the collection of memorials and gravestones record unique documentary information that is of interest to art, military, local history, architectural and sculptural historians, students of typography and demography, genealogists and relatives of the deceased.
|Within its layout and location of structures including the former Sexton's office and storage shed constructed over the drain, the Toowong Cemetery has the potential to reveal further information about 19th and 20th century burial practices generally and specific cemetery systems.
|At the base of Mt Coot-tha, with the Botanical Gardens and Anzac Park opposite, and with the Brisbane Forest Park as its backdrop, the Toowong Cemetery's picturesque setting maintains the visual allusion of the Victorian concept of a mortuary park on the outskirts of the city. Its elevated location to minimise health risks and its inclusion of all denominations typify the characteristics of late nineteenth century cemeteries.
|Together with its man-made aesthetic attributes, such as fences, gates, pavilions, memorials and landscaping, an atmosphere conducive to repose and reflection that was an essential part of the ritual of honouring and remembering the dead was created and continues to be valued by the community.
|Many of the monuments display a high level of creative endeavour and are important for their excellence of design and craftsmanship, outstanding material splendour and dramatic physical impact. The Temple of Peace, Trooper Cobb's Grave and the Caskey Memorial have been previously listed individually for their significance on the Queensland and National heritage registers. The memorial to Governor Blackall Memorial is an imposing, tall, slender column of stone and has value as a landmark, dominating the southern section of the cemetery and the approach to Toowong along the western freeway. As a group, all the memorials both modest and grand, are enhanced by their collective location, range of types and infinite variations.
|As Brisbane's foremost public cemetery, the Toowong Cemetery was the focus of public ritual and sentiment and its association with the Brisbane and wider community continues. It is the burial place of individuals from all walks of life. The place has a special association with persons of importance in local, regional and Queensland history. Some noteworthy individuals buried at Toowong include but are not limited to a Prime Minister, two Queensland Governors, 13 Queensland Premiers, 11 Queensland Labor leaders, at least 15 Brisbane Mayors and many other prominent political, religious, sports, arts and business figures.
|The place has a strong association with Governor Samuel Wensley Blackall and the prominence of the site selected for his huge monument indicates the prestige allotted to him and remains as a legacy of his influence and popularity. The Cemetery also has a special association with the life and work of its Trustees - those responsible for its the development and maintenance, most of whom are interred within the grounds. As a foundation Trustee, architect James Cowlishaw's (1834-1929) association spanned 59 years. John Petrie (1822-1892), builder, monumental mason and Brisbane's first Lord Mayor was also a foundation Trustee and his monumental masonry business located opposite the main entry to the cemetery for 100 years produced a large proportion of the memorials and headstones in the cemetery. Architect Edward Myer Myers (1864-1926) was a Trustee from 1920 until his death and was responsible for the design of the Amenities Building. The monuments and gravestones provide evidence of the practice of monumental masonry and art metalwork in Queensland and of the work of notable architects, sculptors, artists and other craftsmen.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16513,"place_ref":601776,"name":"United Service Club Premises","alternate_name":"The Green House | Montpelier","street_address":"183 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-04-28","description":"The United Service Club is located at 173-183 Wickham Terrace, Brisbane. The premises consists of a c1907 timber building, the Green House and a c1910 masonry building, Montpelier. A narrow laneway separates the Green House from the Baptist City Tabernacle [600175] to the east, while Montpelier abuts the neighbouring property to the west. There are plantings in front of both buildings, and substantial jacaranda trees to the rear.
\nMONTPELIER
\nMontpelier is elevated above, and set back from Wickham Terrace. It is a three-storey building with a basement, and is constructed of stone and brick, with a gabled corrugated iron roof. The front elevation faces south and addresses Wickham Terrace. The façade combines face brickwork and stucco finish, with brick piers dividing the elevation into seven sections. The façade returns a bay-width around the building. The piers at the central section and at either end of the façade rise above the roof line forming a parapet. The verandahs on the two upper levels are enclosed with windows and there are rendered masonry spandrels on each level. The back portion of the building is finished in smooth stucco and has many original sash windows. A wing continues from the north east corner of the building, while a separate, small service building is located on the north-west corner of Montpelier.
\nThe front entry to Montpelier is accessed via a set of masonry stairs and a ground floor verandah. This verandah has an ochre, yellow and grey terrazzo floor with brass strips and the lettering \"USC\". The centrally-located entrance lobby opens to lounge areas on the west and east sides of the building. These lounges have bay windows overlooking the front verandah, and fireplaces located on the extreme east and west walls. The hall leads to another lounge area and through to the dining room. The dining room extends east behind the Green House. Pressed metal ceilings are located in the lounges and the dining room. A kitchen and offices are located to the rear of Montpelier on this level. Four sets of stairs provide access to the basement level, and/or the level above. The main stair, located behind the front, western lounge, is decorated with a leadlight window. Bathroom facilities, containing early fittings, are located along the western side of this level. Access to the Green House is gained via two lounge areas on the eastern side of Montpelier.
\nLevel two of Montpelier contains the billiard room and accommodation facilities. Many of the accommodation rooms are fitted with ensuites, although original bathroom facilities remain on the western side of this level. A large patio area to the rear of this level overlooks Spring Hill to the north-west.
\nLevel three of Montpelier consists of function rooms to the front of the building, a reading lounge, and accommodation throughout the remainder of the floor. There is also a patio of the same dimensions and location as that on the level below.
\nThe basement in Montpelier is brick. Arches extend along the length of part of the basement, some of which are infilled. The basement houses cellars, bottle shop, offices and store rooms. A rear entry and formal stair case provide access to the ground level.
\nA small service building is located on the north-west corner of Montpelier. This is a stone building with a stucco finish marked to resemble ashlar. It is currently used as offices and storage rooms.
\nTHE GREEN HOUSE
\nThe Green House is located to the east of Montpelier and shares a similar setback from Wickham Terrace. A tall brick retaining wall with expressed piers and topped with a decorative cast iron fence, extends along the front of both buildings, and is higher in front of the Green House due to the slope of Wickham Terrace. A masonry set of stairs gives access to the Green House from the Wickham Terrace footpath.
\nThe Green House is an ornate two-storey timber and brick building with an asymmetrical façade and a multi-gabled roof in painted corrugated iron, facing south across Wickham Terrace. The Green House has a projecting gable and faceted bay with an octagonal domed roof on the southern elevation and a second projecting bay along the eastern elevation. Both bays have decorative timber bargeboards. To the rear of the building is a carpark area and later extensions by the United Service Club which connect the Green House to Montpelier.
\nThe Green House has first and second floor verandahs with narrow timber columns, stilted arches between the columns, decorative capitals, and timber balusters. There are also verandahs to both levels on the rear, northern elevation. Windows located on both the first and second levels are elongated with twelve to sixteen panes of glass in the frame, fairly typical of the Anglo-Dutch elements that are evident in the design of the building. A staircase is located in the eastern elevation of the building. The Green House is joined to Montpelier, and a door, accessed from the joined ground level verandahs of the buildings, provides an entry to both Montpelier and the Green House.
\nConcrete stairs in the southern, front elevation lead to the ground floor verandah which, like the first floor balcony, extends from the southern elevation around and along the eastern elevation. The front, main entrance is a panelled timber door with moulded architrave. The words \"GREEN HOUSE\" appear on the architrave.
\nInternally, the Green House is lined in tongue-in-groove timber panelling, with a picture rail. The ground floor of the Green House contains the 'Military Bar', the 'Moreton Room' and the 'Norman Pixley Room'. The Military Bar is located at the front, western side of the building and features a bay window. It has a panelled, timber door with decorative coloured glass fanlight and breezeway assembly. The double hung sash windows have a single large pane of glass at the base of the window frame and twelve panes of small glass in the upper section of the frame. The Moreton Room occupies most of the remaining floor space, and features pressed metal cornices and ceilings. Part of the ceiling has been lowered to house air conditioning ducts. A timber panelled door with fanlight assembly of recent origin opens to the verandah running along the eastern elevation. An early fireplace is located on the northern wall of the room. Opening off the Moreton Room is the 'Norman Pixley Room' which forms part of the faceted bay that projects out at the corner of the southern and eastern elevations. This room also has a pressed metal ceiling and a fireplace in its northern wall.
\nA dogleg timber staircase with half landing is located at the front of the Green House. A prominent feature of this staircase is the large arched window, with decorative coloured glass, located in the western elevation. The window has three rectangular sections at its base and three sections forming the arch of the window. The window frame and keystone are timber. The stairs lead to a hallway, from which open a series of offices. The office doorways are surmounted by glass fanlights, and one office has a pressed metal ceiling. One of the doorways is surmounted with a timber arch with exaggerated keystone and glass fanlight. Fireplaces exist in two rooms, and align with those found on the ground floor. Another staircase, of recent construction, is located in the northern elevation of the building.
\nAt the basement level of the Green House, is a recent plant room.
\nShrubs and other plantings are located in front of both Montpelier and the Green House, while large jacaranda trees dominate gardens to the rear of the United Service Club. The jacaranda trees are not located within the heritage boundary.
","history":"The United Service Club consists of two buildings, a 1907 timber house known as the Green House, and a masonry structure known as Montpelier, built 1910 on the site of an earlier three-storey masonry building, also known as Montpelier. Claude William Chambers was the architect of both the Green House and Montpelier. The buildings became the United Service Club premises in 1947. Prior to this date, both the existing and earlier Montpelier, and later the Green House, functioned primarily as residences and boarding houses.
\nThe settlement of Brisbane was established as a penal colony in 1825, and while it remained as such for less than twenty years, no land was alienated from the Crown until 1856. In this year, portions of Spring Hill were sold in one acre lots. The Deed of Grant for the land on which Montpelier and the Green House were to be built was issued to William Wilson on 29 January 1856. Title to the property subsequently transferred to Anglican Archbishop Edward Tufnell in February 1864, coinciding with the construction of the original Montpelier. William Davies, one of the most successful investors in the Gympie goldfield, purchased the property in 1897 and it remained in the Davies family until purchased by the United Service Club in 1946.
\nWickham Terrace, with its elevated position close to the city, quickly became popular with aspiring professional and business families following the sale of land in the 1850s. During the 1860s and 1870s Wickham Terrace was evolving into an area of boarding houses and homes, schools, clubs and medical rooms. Entrepreneurs built houses for rental and as lodging-houses, including Montpelier, built in 1864 as a pair of large semi-detached villas beside the Albert Street Wesleyan Methodist minister's home. Designed by Benjamin Joseph Backhouse, the two storey house with a hip roof and no verandahs soon became a lodging house. On 1 April 1865, an advertisement for the lease of a, \"highly eligible and pleasantly situated two-storey BRICK HOUSE, situated on Wickham Terrace, near the Observatory\", was included in the Brisbane Courier. It is likely that Montpelier is the building being described in the advertisement.
\nThe Green House was completed in 1907 on vacant land between Montpelier and the Baptist Tabernacle. Approval was given in October 1906 for a new building on Wickham Terrace, to be made of 'wood', for William Davies. The building was designed by Claude William Chambers and constructed by A Anderson. The first occupant of the Green House, originally known as Milford, was Dr Thomas Howard Morgan who became the registered lessee in July 1907 and remained at 173 Wickham Terrace until 1913. From 1913, the building was incorporated into Montpelier, substantially increasing the accommodation available. By 1928-29, Mrs Anne Mary Whyte was the proprietor of Montpelier.
\nMontpelier was replaced in 1910 with the existing three-storey masonry building which continued the name. Montpelier advertised by the proprietor Annie Forsyth in December 1910 as 'a magnificent mansion - conducted on the lines of leading Southern Hotels'. William Davies again engaged Claude Chambers as architect for the new brick boarding house. It is possible that a portion of the 1864 villa was retained and incorporated into the new Montpelier.
\nUntil the United Service Club obtained the Wickham Terrace property in 1947, Montpelier was used almost continuously for the provision of boarding house style accommodation. During Tufnell's ownership of the house, Lady Musgrave Lodge, founded in 1885 by the wife of Governor Sir Anthony Musgrave, used the boarding house to provide accommodation for young women from 1888 until moving to the rear of 121 Wickham Terrace in 1892. Annie Mabel Forsyth leased Monpelier in 1910. These leased premises were used as a first-class private gentleman's hotel, and were so exclusive that applicants required references to obtain lodgings.
\nIn 1940, the lease was purchased by Molly Sheehan, a former private secretary to politician RM King, Minister for Public Works and Public Construction in the Queensland Parliament from 1929 to 1932. Ms Sheehan remained as manager during World War II when the building was commandeered as accommodation for officers of field rank. One of the long-term residents of this period was Colonel Johnston, personal physician to General Douglas MacArthur.
\nOwnership of the site was transferred to the United Service Club in November 1946, and the Club relocated to its new headquarters in 1947. Founded in 1892, the United Service Club had occupied several premises before moving to the Wickham Terrace site. The last relocation was precipitated by Australia's involvement in World War II, when Club membership increased to 1200 so that new premises were needed urgently. In a near-city location, with a tram stop close-by, and provisions for ample parking, Montpelier and the Green House, with on-site tennis courts were ideal.
\nImmediately following the Club's acquisition of the site, conversions teams of carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, refrigeration experts and others began on a refurbishment of the two boarding houses. The ground floor of Montpelier was used for two lounges, a dining room, library, bar and kitchen, the second floor for residential rooms, and the third floor for three billiard rooms, card room and bathing facilities. All levels had wide verandahs facing the city that provided pleasant places to sit on hot summer evenings. The verandahs were later enclosed on the two upper levels.
\nThe Green House was not utilised at this time. Although valued at £5000, money was scarce immediately after the war, so various uses were considered such as providing a venue for entertaining women or renting rooms out to medical people. Although ladies were not admitted to the Club, the Green House was rented to an exclusive ladies group, the Moreton Club. They remained tenants in the Green House until 1959 when the building was converted to professional rooms and offices to raise revenue for the United Service Club.
\nWhile a Ladies Night on Thursdays was introduced in the 1940s, it was not until 1966 that women were permitted to join as associate members and the Green House refurbished. Club membership, once exclusively for serving and retired officers, was opened to nominated civilians about 1990 when both buildings were again refurbished. Further work, completed in 1996, included converting the brick building's 22 bedrooms to 16 units and enlarging the dining room. Refurbishment works were also completed on the Green House lounges, meeting rooms and top bar. In 2021, the place remains in use as the United Service Club welcoming male and female military and civilian members.
","criteria":"The United Service Club Premises, comprising the Green House (1906-07) and Montpelier (1910), are important in demonstrating the evolution of Wickham Terrace as an elite street of middle class boarding houses and residences, schools, clubs, medical rooms and private hospitals, a pattern of development which commenced in the 1860s and was sustained well into the 20th century. They are part of a tradition of use of the site and of Wickham Terrace, which is one of Brisbane's most prestigious streets.
The Green House, erected 1906-07 as residence-cum-professional rooms and first let to a medical practitioner, illustrates a pattern established in the 1860s whereby Wickham Terrace was a popular location for medical men, who generally practised from their own home. The association of the Terrace with the medical and allied professions is sustained to this day. Montpelier, purpose-built in 1910 as a large boarding/guest house or private hotel, demonstrates the continued popularity of Wickham Terrace with the affluent middle-classes as a residential location. The building's continued use as accommodation is important in illustrating this aspect of the history of Wickham Terrace.
|Both buildings are important in illustrating the principal characteristics of a type of design and/or of a class of place. The Green House is a Federation-era timber residence which is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of a distinctly regional, climate-responsive style of architecture with polygonal bays and widened verandahs, abundant carpenter decoration, and beautiful and unusual flying gables. It is important also in illustrating a class of place [residence-cum-professional rooms] once common along Wickham Terrace. Montpelier demonstrates stylistic elements of Federation Arts and Crafts architectural style, and has some handsome interior details such as beam-and-column ensembles, well-detailed joinery, fireplaces, and Art Nouveau pressed metal ceilings, cornices and leaded glass. Importantly, Montpelier is significant in illustrating a now rare example of its type: an early 20th century purpose-built, middle-class private hotel or boarding/guest house.
Both buildings are significant also in illustrating the principal characteristics of the work of respected architect Claude William Chambers, who had one of Brisbane's largest architectural practices in the early 20th century. The Green House is a fine example of his domestic work, and Montpelier, the former private hotel/boarding house, is important in illustrating the skill and breadth of Chambers' commercial work.
|In both buildings aesthetic value is engendered by the quality of design, materials, detailing and workmanship. The aesthetic appeal of the buildings is enhanced by mature planting, including jacaranda trees at the rear of the buildings.
Montpelier and the Green House are significant for their contribution to the Wickham Terrace streetscape, with its range of important building types dating from the 1860s to the 1930s and the fine adjacent parklands. The Terrace contributes significantly to the Brisbane townscape, and the United Service Club Premises, so prominently located near the intersection of Wickham Terrace and Upper Edward Street and adjacently to the dramatically designed Baptist City Tabernacle [QHR 600175], and visible from well along Edward Street, are important elements in the streetscape and contribute significantly to Brisbane's townscape.
|The buildings have a special association with the United Service Club of Queensland for social and cultural reasons, having been the home of the club since 1947, and with the Moreton Club, which occupied the Green Room from 1947 to 1959.
|The buildings have a special association with the United Service Club of Queensland for social and cultural reasons, having been the home of the club since 1947, and with the Moreton Club, which occupied the Green Room from 1947 to 1959.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16515,"place_ref":601778,"name":"Wynnum Ambulance Station (former)","alternate_name":"QATB Station","street_address":"33 Tingal Road","suburb":"WYNNUM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-03-26","description":"A two-storeyed red face brick building, the former Wynnum Ambulance Station occupies a prominent site on the corner of Tingal Road and Cedar Street, Wynnum with the main elevation to Tingal Road. The building is positioned to the front of the allotment and is highly visible in the streetscape.
Sitting on a plinth of blue bricks, the building is symmetrical about a parapeted projecting breakfront. The breakfront has two wide doorways with bifold doors for vehicle access at ground level and two large recessed arched windows at the upper level. The bifold doors to the right hand side doorway have been replaced with aluminium framed glass sliding doors. Prominent cream rendered banding wraps the building and gives emphasis to the corners and the breakfront. The double doorway main entrance is defined by a plain projecting cornice sitting on three heavy brackets. Plain rendered arches with prominent keystones frame the central upper level windows. The letters QATB sit at the top of the parapet below an entablature composed of a plain cornice and chunky dentils. The spandrels below the arched windows contain the words Wynnum Centre. The breakfront is flanked by bays framed by pilasters. At ground level each bay has a single doorway defined by a small plain projecting canopy. The building is crowned by a gambrel tiled roof. A flagpole rises above the parapet.
The elevation to Cedar Street is less grand than the main elevation to Tingal Road. As the residential entrance to the superintendent's living quarters it is of a domestic scale appropriate to the streetscape. Corner pilasters emphasised by vertical rendered banding define the brick portion of this elevation. A timber framed annexe attaches to the right hand side and is clad with weatherboards. An external concrete stair, parallel to the elevation, arrives at the central entrance to the living quarters on the upper level. This entrance has a bifold timber door and is marked by a small bracketed overhang.
The rear elevation is obscured by four garage bays each enclosed by a tilt-up door. The corner bays of the Station building are clad with weather boards. The timber upper level verandah has been enclosed with casement windows at a later date.
The elevation to the north has corner pilasters emphasised by vertical rendered banding. At ground level the elevation is divided into two equal bays by a pilaster which finishes in a plain cornice separating the upper and lower levels of the elevation. Each lower bay has a sash window.
The operational areas of the Station are housed at ground level and the living quarters for the superintendent occupy the upper level. At the ground floor the large entry doorways open into a drive through plant room surrounded by subsidiary spaces including a committee room, office, bathroom, bearers' bedroom, bearers' dayroom and casualty room. The minor front entrances open into the committee room to the left and the casualty room to the right. A timber platform has been built over the concrete floor to the plant room. The loggia to the rear of the building accommodating a car washing space and laundry has been enclosed with weatherboards and the former rear door to the plant room relocated to the centre of this outer wall. The garages constructed immediately to the rear on a raised concrete plinth have blocked the drive through route of the plant room. Internal stairs in the laundry connect to the residence in the upper level.
The residence on the upper level is arranged about a north/south corridor with three bedrooms and dining room fronting Tingal Road and kitchen, sitting room and a bedroom opening to a verandah facing north-east. Rear stairs adjacent to the kitchen give direct access to the ground floor laundry and provide a rear door for the residence. Entrance is gained from Cedar Street via an external concrete staircase arriving at the central organising corridor. A number of partitions and door leafs have been removed. The rear verandah has been enclosed with casement windows. A toilet and laundry and associated rooftop drying area have been added off the north-east corner of the verandah.
A garage which was constructed to the rear of the site off Cedar Street has been demolished. Additional vehicle accommodation and workshop space has been constructed to the rear of the Station. Parallel to Cedar Street six bays of garages and workshops in brick and timber stretch from the rear of the Station building to the rear boundary. Four bays lie adjacent and parallel to the rear of the Station.
The adjacent timber framed cottage is clad with chamferboards, sits on short timber stumps and is covered by a pyramid roof. The cottage has four rooms organised off a central corridor, an attached kitchen wing and front and rear verandahs. The front steps have been removed and the front verandah balustrades sheeted with fibro. The rear verandah is enclosed and accommodates a small porch and toilet. Within the cottage, several partitions have been removed and new openings made. Some stumps have been replaced with steel columns.
","history":"A landmark building within the streetscape of Wynnum, the former Wynnum Ambulance Centre is a testament to the considerable community support for the ambulance service. The building is tangible evidence of the reliance of the ambulance service on community goodwill, community financial support, volunteer labour and dedication of ambulance service employees.
\nDuring the early days of settlement in Brisbane the police assumed responsibility for treating accident victims and from 1884 the Defence Ambulance Corps of the Moreton Regiment shared some of this responsibility.
\nThe City Ambulance Transport Brigade (CATB) was formed at a meeting of concerned citizens in September 1892 following the unsatisfactory management of an accident at a horse racing meeting. It was established that the principal object of the Brigade was to render first aid to the wounded and transport the sick and injured to hospital. Headquarters were established in the Courier Building (cnr Queen and Edward Streets, Brisbane). This was the first ambulance service in the world to employ paid staff.
\nPublic use of the ambulance service steadily increased and voluntary subscriptions proved insufficient to meet associated outlays. In 1895 the CATB secured supplementary funding with the Queensland State Government agreeing to provide a 1:1 subsidy against subscriptions.
\nThe first purpose-built ambulance building for Queensland was constructed in 1897 in Wharf Street, Brisbane. This building established the precedent for subsequent ambulance station designs. The design incorporated a two-storeyed building housing plant and staff facilities at ground level and a residence on the upper level. Large ground floor openings with bi-fold doors allowed ready access directly to the street for quick exit of horse and sulky.
\nDuring the late 1890s and early 1900s the ambulance service expanded establishing a number of centres throughout Queensland including Charters Towers (1900), Townsville (1900), Rockhampton (1901), Warwick (1901), Ipswich (1901), Toowoomba (1902), Mackay (1903), Ravenswood (1904) [entry in the Heritage Register 600445], Cairns (1904) and Bundaberg (1907).
\nIn 1902 the Brigade was restructured to better manage the rapidly expanding operations and to recognise the importance and contribution of regional ambulance centres. The reorganised entity became known as the Queensland Ambulance Transport Brigade (QATB). New headquarters were established in Ann Street, Brisbane in 1910.
\nBy 1921, the earlier 1897 ambulance station model had developed and refined to become formally accepted as the preferred planning strategy for residential ambulance stations. Station buildings were to be two-storeyed with facilities for garaging, casualty treatment, first aid, sleeping quarters for ambulance bearers and a committee meeting room at ground level; superintendent's accommodation was provided at the upper level. This two level arrangement was preferred because it allowed the superintendent direct access to his work and as it housed the operations and the residence in one building under one roof it was considered to be more economical than constructing two separate buildings. In larger centres recreational facilities were also provided as well as accommodation for additional staff who slept on the premises. Ambulance stations of substantial scale and street presence were constructed throughout Queensland as a consequence of this policy.
\nGovernment assistance to QATB continued through direct subsidy and the Department of Public Works was responsible for the design and construction of the ambulance station buildings. From 1927 there were a number of legislative changes culminating in 1991 when the QATB was disbanded and the Queensland Transport Ambulance Service (QAS) was established as a division of the Bureau of Emergency Services.
\nThis comment appearing in the Brisbane Telegraph in 1902 offers an indication of the community perception of the ambulance service at the time and it may be argued still holds true today.
\nThere are certain established associations working for the benefit of humanity at large. Of such associations the Ambulance Brigade has now become probably one of the most familiar and important. We can scarcely bring ourselves to believe that it has not existed forever. When any association holds this position in the mind, it may be ranked amongst the permanent institutions of society.
\nThe ambulance service in Wynnum
\nIn the south-east of Brisbane, Wynnum is part of a foreshore along Moreton Bay. From the 1840s, this area became a popular fishing location and many early non-indigenous settlers established farms in the area. The first land sales were conducted in 1860 at Lytton and around Waterloo Bay. The railway link to Cleveland via Wynnum in 1888 was a major impetus to closer settlement with large areas of land being taken up soon after. The district expanded rapidly over the next twenty years until in 1913 the Town Council of Wynnum was constituted. The area became known as a seaside resort and the Wynnum and Manly foreshore area became increasingly popular with day visitors and holiday-makers.
\nWynnum was perceived to be a \"healthy\" place to live with its sea breezes, protected beaches, vistas to Moreton Bay, fishing and availability of fresh local produce. The district continued to expand as the number of permanent residents increased; services and infrastructure were introduced; building activity expanded; and civic and community associations were established.
\nThe Wynnum ambulance service was an important civic and community association to emerge in response to the expansion of the district. It had it beginnings in 1915 when a first aid post was established in a tent on the beach at Wynnum to serve holiday makers visiting the area during Easter and Christmas holidays.
\nAs the catchment area serviced by the Ann Street Ambulance Station of the QATB expanded, sub-branches were established in satellite areas and adjoining municipalities. These were strategically located to link with existing rail infrastructure to provide connections to major hospitals in the Brisbane City centre. Wynnum was a suitable location for establishing an ambulance station being the centre of a thriving district and on the rail link to Brisbane. The Wynnum sub-branch was formed in 1919 at a public meeting took temporary accommodation in a cottage at 92 or 95 Tingal Road, Wynnum. The Wynnum Ambulance Station covers the area from Lytton to Redland Bay bordered by Doughboy Creek. Sub-committees were formed for areas within the district: Hemmant, Lindum and Tingalpa; Wynnum and Wynnum South; Manly; Birkdale; Wellington Point; Victoria Point; Redland Bay; Ormiston and Cleveland.
\nIn 1920 the Wynnum Ambulance Committee acquired lots 248 and 249 on the corner of Tingal Road and Cedar Street, Wynnum. This site was well located; close to the railway, on the main road and close to the service district of Wynnum. This was to become the site for the 1927 ambulance station. By 1921 Wynnum was gazetted as a self-governing ambulance centre. Lot 247 was acquired in 1922 and ambulance operations and superintendent's accommodation transferred to the cottage at 35 Tingal Road, Wynnum. The front verandah functioned as a storage area and casualty room for the fledgling ambulance service until the new purpose-built station opened in 1927. A garage for the ambulance vehicle was constructed at the rear of Lots 248 and 249.
\nIn the early days many ambulance volunteers were school teachers. Stretchers were housed at Wynnum Central School and calls for ambulance assistance were directed to the school. The teacher/teachers would place the patient on a train that was met by Brisbane Ambulance bearers at South Brisbane Station
\nWynnum was a rapidly growing district and accommodation and equipment for the ambulance service soon proved to be inadequate in the face of this expansion. During 1923, the Wynnum community began fundraising for a new purpose-built Wynnum Ambulance Station to be located on the Tingal Road/Cedar Street corner. The enthusiasm of the local community for the new building and the work of the ambulance brigade was evident in the parade of floats, processions and carnival led by mounted police and the South Brisbane Scottish Pipe Band on the day of the laying of the foundation stone. Community support was evident also in their fundraising efforts for the building. By day of the laying of the foundation stone the community had raised £1384/4/5 towards the estimated £4200 construction cost of the proposed building.
\nThe foundation stone was laid by Mrs A.Thynne, standing in for her ill husband, Colonel A.J.Thynne (first President of the QATB Central Executive). At this ceremony on 26 January 1926 she commented that an ambulance has now become an indisputable part of every town in Queensland. That is a peculiarly Queensland characteristic, and the people are proud of the efficient service... The establishment of a centre is beneficial to any district, not only because of its evidence of one of the highest forms of civic spirit in making provision for the quick and efficient first aid to the sick and injured. It is an effort towards fulfilling one of the noblest principles of Christianity, the love of one's neighbour.
\nOn this occasion the Hon. W.H. Barnes, MLA for the district observed that if any one wants to find practical Christianity he could find it among those doing ambulance work. The new, up-to-date premises would be a splendid advertisement for the growing district
\nThe new ambulance station, constructed at a cost of £3284/19/1, was opened in November 1927. The Department of Public Works contributed £750 towards the construction costs with the balance being raised by the Wynnum community. The Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland commented that the Wynnum Ambulance Brigade opened its \"commodious premises\" on Tingal Road and that \"the design is pleasing in effect and marks a valuable step in the march of progress in the Wynnum District.\" The drawings were prepared by the Department of Public Works and the design is attributed to Leonard Kempster. The contractor was Mr C.R. Schriver.
\nLeonard James Kempster was employed as an architect in the War Office and in private practice in London in 1890s to 1911. From 1911 to 1946 he was employed in the architectural office of the Department of Public Works (Queensland). Kempster's other ambulance work includes the design and documentation of the Childers QATB station in 1924. The Wynnum Ambulance Station building design reflected contemporary thinking for ambulance stations in regional centres. It is a two-storeyed building with the superintendent's residence occupying the upper level connected by rear stairs to the lower level. Accommodation for the superintendent was provided upstairs to give the superintendent a better opportunity to attend to the work of the station. The lower level houses the ambulance plant room, office, committee room, bearers' dayroom and bedroom, casualty room and bathroom.
\nA QATB subcentre was established in Cleveland in 1946. As this and other subcentres were established the demand on the Wynnum Ambulance Station eased.
\nFrom 1940 to 1995 various alterations and additions were made to the sheds, garages and cottages on the property. In the 1940s a garage (2 cars), workshop and store were constructed to the rear of the station on the boundary In 1995 the superintendent vacated the upper level of the Ambulance Station building. The Tingal Road Ambulance Station ceased operation in 1996 when it was replaced by a new ambulance centre adjacent to Wynnum Hospital, Whites Road, Wynnum.
\nThe upper level of the former Wynnum Ambulance Station is presently occupied by the Community Education Unit for the Greater Brisbane Region of the QAS and the lower level houses the Queensland Ambulance Service Historical Society (QASHS) and the Wynnum Historical Society.
","criteria":"With the associated cottage and garages/workshops, the former Ambulance Station demonstrates the evolution of the site and the development of ambulance services in the Wynnum district in response to changes in technology and increased demand for the services. As the earlier ambulance station, the adjacent cottage is important as part of the complex showing the progress of the ambulance service from temporary accommodation to a purpose-built building. The location of the Station demonstrates the importance of the railway link to Wynnum which facilitated the transfer of patients to the hospitals in Brisbane City.
The Wynnum ambulance service was an important civic and community association that emerged in response to the expansion of the Wynnum district during the early decades of the twentieth century.
|The former Wynnum Ambulance Station survives as the only known example of an early masonry residential ambulance station for Queensland.
|The former Wynnum Ambulance Station is an important example of the early design for residential ambulance stations in Queensland, a two-storeyed building incorporating ambulance service facilities at ground level and living quarters at the upper level, developed and refined from the first purpose-built headquarters in Wharf Street, Brisbane (1897).
The building is substantially intact and is important for demonstrating the principal characteristics of early residential ambulance stations.
|The former Wynnum Ambulance Station makes a substantial contribution to the streetscape. This building belongs within the tradition of well composed civic buildings, including police stations, courthouses and schools, designed by the Department of Public Works prior to World War II.
|The Wynnum Ambulance Station building is important for its association with the Queensland Ambulance Service (formerly QATB) during its phase of expansion into outer Brisbane and Queensland regional areas.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16518,"place_ref":601781,"name":"Howard Smith Wharves","alternate_name":"Brisbane Central Wharves","street_address":"Boundary Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-02-04","description":"The Howard Smith Wharves site is located on the northern bank of the Brisbane River at Petrie Bight, between the Town and Shafston Reaches. The boundary of the site is formed by cliffs along the northern, eastern and southeastern perimeter, which in turn are bounded by Bowen Terrace and Moray Street, with Wilson's Outlook overlooking the site from the southeast. The site is entered from the west off Boundary Street, and passes under the northern section of the Story Bridge [600240], with the northern pylons of the bridge located within the Howard Smith Wharves site.
The site contains a series of buildings with surviving sections of wharfage located along the riverfront. These buildings include a two storeyed reinforced concrete office building, currently occupied by the Water Police, near the western entrance to the site; the No.2 shed located between the Water Police offices and the northern pylons of the Story Bridge; the No.3 shed located to the east of the bridge pylons; the No.4 shed located to the southeast; and the No.5 shed which is at the end of the group towards the southeast. There are a number of other smaller structures, which include four former air-raid shelters located along the base of the cliffs, numerous concrete slabs, and a former air-raid shelter and lavatory block adjacent to the western entrance to the site.
Water Police Offices and Wharves
The Water Police office building is a two-storeyed reinforced concrete structure with a hipped tiled roof and deep eaves. The building faces the Brisbane River to the south, with a rear street entrance from the north. The building has large sash windows with expressed sills and window surrounds, and long tiled sunhoods to the ground floor windows along the east, north and west elevations. The southern elevation has a cantilevered verandah to the first floor, with tiled awning, timber posts, batten balustrade and handrail, and corner lamps supported by curved metal brackets. French doors with fanlights open from the ground floor to the south, and onto the verandah from the first floor. The northern entrance has paired timber framed glass doors with wide sidelights, and louvred lavatory windows are located at the eastern end of the first floor. Evidence of early door openings which have been enclosed to house sash windows are visible.
Internally, the ground floor has a central entrance from the north with offices either side, and a large office area on the south overlooking the river. A concrete stair with metal balustrade and timber handrail is located in the southwest corner, and the building's reinforced concrete post and beam construction is evident. The first floor has a large office area opening onto the verandah overlooking the river to the south, with a central corridor accessing a lunch room, kitchen and lavatories on the northern side at the rear. The building has timber panelled internal doors with fanlights, and decorative ceiling cornices to the first floor.
A concrete edged, curved garden bed with a small cannon positioned centrally is located against the southern wall of the building, and decorative timber gates enclose the passageway between the office building and No. 2 shed to the east. A timber wharf extends from the southern elevation of the office building, and extends along the southern frontage of No. 2 shed with timber post and rail balustrade chain balustrade. This wharf has non-slip compressed sheeting fixed to the upper decking in traffic areas. A section of the wharf in front of the office building is recessed, with stairs down to a lower deck for smaller craft to berth.
The Sheds (Nos 2, 3, 4 and 5)
The sheds are single storeyed timber framed structures with corrugated steel gable roofs with deep eave overhangs on the northern and northeastern sides. The No. 4 shed has a double gable roof, and is the longest of the group. The sheds have corrugated steel cladding to walls, with large sliding timber doors to the ends of some of the sheds, and openings facing the river which originally provided access from the wharves.
Remains of timber piles from the earlier wharves are evident in front of No.3 and No.4 sheds. Internally, most of the sheds have timber floors, with No.5 having a concrete floor. Approximately half of the No.4 shed is built over the river. A concrete roadway runs behind the sheds, with concrete ramps accessing the ends of the sheds.
Former Air-Raid Shelters
A series of former air-raid shelters are located along the base of the cliffs, with one located near the western entrance to the site.
Two sets of shelters are constructed of large concrete pipes with entrances at either end. One shelter, approximately opposite the junction between No. 3 and No. 4 sheds, is four bays in length. The other shelter, approximately opposite the junction between No. 4 and No. 5 sheds, is two bays in length.
The other shelters, rectangular concrete structures, have been converted for use as storage facilities and have had window openings introduced. Two are located in a fenced enclosure opposite No. 4 shed, and the other is near the western entrance to the site.
Cliffs and surrounds
The cliffs extend from near the western entrance to the site to the southeastern boundary adjoining the Brisbane River. The cliff faces consist of overgrown sections in contrast to areas of exposed rock, and act as the support for the northern end of the Story Bridge. A large area of the site at the southeastern end is used to store stone blocks. This area also has two concrete slabs.
","history":"The Howard Smith Wharves were constructed 1934-early 1940s by the Queensland government to provide relief work during the depression years of the 1930s. Initially known as the Brisbane Central Wharves, the project was undertaken in conjunction with the construction of the Story Bridge, one of the Forgan-Smith government's principal employment-generating projects. Like other such schemes, the Brisbane Central Wharves not only provided employment, but established important infrastructure for Queensland's future development. Brisbane Central Wharves were leased by the Australian coastal shipping company Howard Smith Co. Ltd from the mid-1930s until the early 1960s, and are more usually referred to as the Howard Smith Wharves.
The site had an even earlier connection with Howard Smith, as the Brisbane Central Wharves replaced smaller wharves constructed in the early years of the 20th century by Brisbane Wharves Ltd, for lease by William Howard Smith & Sons Ltd [later Howard Smith Co. Ltd].
The construction of wharves beyond Circular Quay was part of the gradual move downstream of port facilities at Brisbane, in a process which began in the 1840s. Following the opening of Moreton Bay to free settlement in 1842, commercial wharf facilities were erected at South Brisbane, which offered more direct access for Darling Downs and Ipswich commodities than the north bank of the river where the government wharf [Queen's Wharf] was located. By 1850 there were 5 commercial wharves on the south side of the Brisbane River.
However, following the declaration of Brisbane as a port of entry in 1846, a customs house was built in Queen Street near the Town Reach of the Brisbane River, on the north side of the river at Petrie Bight. From this time, the Town Reach rivalled South Brisbane in terms of shipping activity. In the late 1840s, 1850s and 1860s, a number of shipping companies and private investors constructed wharves and warehouses between Petrie Bight and Alice Street, near the botanic gardens. To encourage private business activity the colonial government and Brisbane Municipal Council also built wharves along Petrie Bight in the 1870s and leased them to shipping companies. By 1900 the Brisbane Municipal Council owned a string of wharves from the custom's house to Boundary Street.
Private companies constructed wharves further downstream at New Farm, Teneriffe and Newstead from the early 1900s. In the 1920s-30s the government built railway wharves at Pinkenba, branch rail lines to Teneriffe and Hamilton, and the state cold stores and reinforced concrete wharves at Hamilton. After the Story Bridge was opened in 1940 most large overseas and interstate vessels did not use the wharves at the Town Reach. Hamilton became the heart of Brisbane's port, and the part of the river from the South Brisbane Reach, round the Town Reach to Petrie Bight lost the ascendancy it had around the turn of the century. Since the 1960s, most of Brisbane's port activity has relocated to the mouth of the river.
In the 1880s William Howard Smith & Sons Ltd [later Howard Smith Co. Ltd] leased the Commercial Wharf on the Town Reach from the Brisbane Municipal Council. Howard Smith was one of several important shipping companies which traded on the Australian coast from the mid-19th century, and was one of the earliest. The business was established in Melbourne in 1854 by Captain William Howard Smith, and in the second half of the 19th century developed as one of the dominant companies in the Australian coastal shipping trade. Initially the firm traded between Melbourne and England, but in 1860 entered the inter-colonial trade, and from 1864 concentrated solely on this. Howard Smith was trading in central Queensland by the early 1870s, and in the 1880s extended its operations to northern Queensland. In the 1890s, the firm entered into a strong rivalry with other coastal shipping companies for the lucrative intra- and inter-colonial passenger trade.
In the late 1890s, Howard Smith moved downstream from the Commercial Wharves to the Brisbane City Council's Boundary Street Wharf at Petrie Bight, and in the early years of the 20th century leased adjacent new wharves constructed by Brisbane Wharves Limited at the base of the New Farm cliffs. These wharves were extended c1912 and in the 1920s, and in the 1930s were resumed by the Queensland government and rebuilt as the Brisbane Central Wharves.
The resumption and rebuilding of the Brisbane Central Wharves was an adjunct to the construction of the Story Bridge between Kangaroo Point and Fortitude Valley. As part of the bridge project the state government had resolved to improve the Brisbane River at Petrie Bight, by widening it to a uniform width of 800 feet (240 m), deepening the draught to about 26 feet (8 m), and improving the river approaches. This necessitated demolishing the existing wharves and sheds at the Brisbane Central Wharves, excavating the cliff below Bowen Terrace, and widening the river at this point by up to 70 feet (21 metres). The path of the river was cut back and made smoother. Three chords were planned around the bend in the river, each providing a berth of about 500 feet (152 m). The total work, described in the 1935 Annual Report of the Bureau of Industry (the government body in charge of the project), was estimated to cost in excess of £400,000.
Work on the scheme commenced in 1934 and continued into the early 1940s. In January 1935 the existing wharf facilities occupied by Howard Smith Co. Ltd were resumed, along with a disused wharf upstream owned by the Brisbane City Council. The construction of the wharves was undertaken using day labour, and was staged over several years so that port activity could continue.
The first of the new structures erected was a two-storeyed reinforced concrete building completed by 1936 as offices for Howard Smith Co. Ltd. It was located on the waterfront, and commanded excellent views of the Town and Shafton Reaches of the Brisbane River.
Three berths with five new storage sheds were planned. Each of the gabled sheds was constructed primarily of hardwood timber, and sheeted and roofed with timber boards and corrugated iron. Sliding doors within these sheds opened towards the river for the handling of cargo. Sheds nos.1-3 were located at the upper berth under the Story Bridge, the middle berth accommodated the large no.4 shed [double-gabled , twice as wide as the others, and much longer], and no.5 shed was located at the lower berth downstream. No.5 shed was the first to be erected and a temporary wharf constructed. The middle berth with no.4 shed was almost completed by 1937, then work commenced on the upper berth, which was to contain sheds 1-3. This was completed in 1939.
For the wharves, a reinforced concrete base was laid on the rock at the river's edge, with timber piles rammed into the riverbed. Large hardwood timbers were used for the walings and decking, which extended about 24 feet (8 metres) out over the river. Hundreds of thousands of feet of timber - mostly hardwoods such as ironbark, blue gum, yellow stringybark, spotted gum and messmate - were required to build the berths.
The road widening behind the sheds, which necessitated the cutting back of the New Farm cliffs, was completed by 1938.
As work continued on the lower berth into 1940, the Second World War intervened. By 1942 the men working on the Petrie Bight works were transferred to other projects more directly connected with the war effort, and work on the wharves was closed down. The third berth appears never to have been completed. A 1945 plan of the site shows the upper and middle berths complete but the lower berth still without any timber decking for wharfage.
In 1941-42 the Brisbane City Council constructed five air-raid shelters near the Howard Smith Wharves below the cliff face, for the Bureau of Industry. The threat of invasion by Japan appeared very real at the time, there was a substantial workforce employed at the wharves, and the site was located adjacent to the Story Bridge - a prime target in wartime. Three of the shelters were the usual 'pillbox' style built by the City Council at many places in the inner city and in the suburbs. This was a standard type, rectangular in plan and constructed of concrete. However, the other two shelters at the Howard Smith Wharves were constructed of large stormwater pipes with multiple entrances. The Brisbane City Council used concrete stormwater pipes to cover the slit trenches in the Botanic Gardens and Victoria Park, but no other air raid shelters of the 'pipe' type have been identified in Brisbane. It is not known why the two different types of shelters were constructed at the Howard Smith Wharves.
Howard Smith signed a 21 year lease over the Brisbane Central Wharves site in 1936. After this lease expired the company made the inevitable move in the early 1960s to better facilities downstream at the mouth of the Brisbane River. The Water Police then occupied part of the site [the office building and several sheds], and Queensland Works Department has used the site for storage for many years. Vehicles impounded by the police were stored here as well.
A large part of the timber decking from both the upper and middle berths was washed away during the 1974 floods.
Most of the wharves which were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the central city have been demolished in the riverside re-developments of the last 20 years. The former Howard Smith Wharves remain one of the few surviving, and the most intact, with office, sheds and wharfage.
","criteria":"The Howard Smith Wharves, constructed in the 1930s, are important in illustrating the evolution and development of Queensland history, providing rare surviving evidence of the port of Brisbane in the central city. Brisbane was and remains Queensland's premier port, and until the 1940s, the bulk of shipping facilities were located upstream from Hamilton. The Howard Smith Wharves are also important in demonstrating the range of employment-generating and infrastructure-building projects undertaken by the Forgan-Smith government during the 1930s Depression.
The Second World War air-raid shelters on the site are important as the most intact group of shelters surviving in Brisbane. The 'pillbox' shelters survive as excellent examples of their type, and the 'pipe' shelters are significant for their rarity value, being unlike any other known surviving air-raid shelters in Brisbane. The location of these shelters adjacent to the Howard Smith Wharves and Story Bridge illustrates the strategic importance of the wharves and bridge in 1941-42, and survive as an evocative illustration of how closely the war impacted upon Brisbane workers.
|As the last surviving wharfage in the central city the Howard Smith Wharves provide rare evidence of the pre-1940 port of Brisbane. The site is important also in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a 1930s port facility containing office building, sheds, roadway and wharfage.
|As Howard Smith Wharves it was one of the largest single wharf leases in central Brisbane, and the extent of the site remains intact to illustrate this.
The series of sheds, and former air-raid shelters, are expressive of their utilitarian function, and the office building is a well-mannered structure which is suggestive of its former use as the Howard Smith Company offices in the hierarchy of structures on the site.
|The Howard Smith Wharves provide a setting for an appreciation of the views of the Story Bridge [600240], and through the scale and form of the various structures and the surrounding cliffs, the site has visual qualities which have considerable aesthetic value. The Howard Smith Wharves site is recognised as a Brisbane landmark, and makes a significant contribution to the Brisbane riverscape.
Individually, the various structures are of aesthetic significance as well as contributing to the aesthetic significance of the site as a whole. The surviving sections of wharves, constructed of large timber members, have a well-used and weathered aesthetic quality suggestive of former heavy usage.
The cliff faces, consisting of overgrown sections in contrast to areas of exposed rock, provide a dramatic visual backdrop to the low scale waterfront structures as well as acting as the support for the northern end of the Story Bridge.
|The site is significant also for its close association for over 6 decades with the work of the Howard Smith Co. Ltd, one of Australia's principal 19th and early 20th century coastal shipping companies.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16523,"place_ref":601786,"name":"Bedford Playground","alternate_name":"Spring Hill Playground | Bedford Park","street_address":"8 Love Street","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-05-09","description":"Bedford Playground comprises a large area of open space incorporating tennis courts, play equipment, an old steam locomotive, an elevated timber hall, a number of established trees and a large outcrop of porphyry formerly used as a quarry. The reserve is bounded on three sides by Water, Love and Quarry Streets and on the fourth side by dense vegetation concealing development beyond to the south east. At the corner of Quarry and Waters, on excised land, is a fenced timber building used as the Lady Gowrie Occasional Child Care Centre.
Entrance to the playground is via a driveway and pathway from Love Street. A high chain link fence surrounds the site. Where the ground is cut down for a road at the corner of Love and Water Streets, a retaining wall is clad with rubble stonework featuring recessed panels surrounded by concrete mouldings. A steel sign 'BEDFORD PLAYGROUND' is adjacent to the entrance to the site.
Within the playground, near the entrance of the playground is a large elevated hall with a substantially infilled undercroft. The building which has a rectangular plan running parallel to the Love Street boundary, has a gabled roof clad with 'super six' corrugated fibrous cement sheeting. Strip windows line the long sides of the building and smaller individual windows are found on the shorter ends. Entrance to the building is via a straight timber stair on the north eastern façade.
The most prominent feature of the playground is the large porphyry outcrop which is in the southern corner of the site. Partially concealing the outcrop are a large number of trees and plantings, growing around the base and on the stone itself. The outcrop has evidence of cutting on its north eastern face and varies in height from about 2 to 10 metres. Also on this face of the outcrop is a plaque cut from the stone with lettering "BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL: THIS QUARRY IS PRESERVED FOR ITS GREAT GEOLOGICAL INTEREST". Cut into the north western side of the outcrop is a winding and uneven concrete stair, the dimensions of which suggest that it was built for the use of children. The stair leads to a path which winds north east through the vegetation on the top of the outcrop, leading to a now overgrown lookout.
Recent metal, plastic and timber play equipment is found in the central part of the playground. Situated among the new equipment is a small play house known as the Betty Mansion, from the sign on the front of the structure. This is a model play version of a two storeyed interwar house, built on a concrete slab with reinforced concrete walls and finely detailed openings including a moulded and panelled front door. The entrance door is in a bay projecting from the front, north eastern façade. The bay terminates in a stepped parapet decorated with three vertical fins and the signage panel. Aside from this structure the early playground equipment has been replaced, although remnants of an Aladdin's Cave remain in the north western side of the outcrop and partially embedded concrete slabs provide evidence of earlier equipment.
A tennis court is found on a raised terrace on the south eastern border of the playground, adjacent to the outcrop. A steam locomotive is located in the north western corner of the site and is surrounded by a large steel fence.
One of the features of the playgrounds is the large number of established trees. Along the Water Street boundary are large shade trees providing privacy to the playground. Large trees are also found on the other boundaries and within the playground.
","history":"The Bedford Playground was established in 1927 as the third children's playground of the Playground Association of Queensland. The Park was officially named in 1959 in commemoration of Ms Josephine Mary Bedford, an early Brisbane philanthropist who was involved with the progress of family welfare and an integral and prolific member of the Playground Association.
The Playground Association of Queensland held their first meeting in 1913 and was formed to introduce concepts emanating from the United States movement toward providing public recreation parks and playgrounds. A comprehensive guide to the design and management of these new parks, written by landscape architects and social planners, Arthur and Lorna Leland was published in 1909 and many of the themes of this book were adopted by the Playground Association of Queensland in their mission statements. In a time of serious epidemics the Leland book, Playground Technique and Playcraft, promoted a revised level of care and protection of children, allowing them a better chance at success in life. The basic requirements advocated for the mental and physical well being of children were good food, air, sunshine and exercise. Of these basic requirements, the playgrounds provided for three, and were also thought to instil a love of nature and an appreciation of beautiful environments. The first playgrounds in America developed as part of this movement were in Charlesbank, Boston; Boone Park Louisville and many examples in Chicago all planned in the late nineteenth century. Many of these early playgrounds were designed by important landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted who was earlier involved with the highly influential design of Central Park, New York. Generally these American playgrounds were incorporated in large public recreation parks, usually with elements such as playgrounds, open air gymnasiums, running tracks and field houses, which provided covered accommodation for halls, administrative offices, libraries and club rooms.
Unlike the large recreation parks constructed in the United States for the whole community, the playgrounds established in Queensland by the Playground Association were planned on a smaller scale, focussing solely on children and providing a playground and usually a field house. Usually the playgrounds were associated with an adjacent kindergarten or creche, and this is thought to have been due to Mary Josephine Bedford's involvement with the Creche and Kindergarten Association. This group formed in 1907 with the purpose of instituting and maintaining day nurseries and free kindergartens for the children of the poor in Brisbane. Like the Playground Association, the Creche and Kindergarten Association were successful in achieving local and state government sponsorship and funding as well as funding from various national philanthropic trust funds. The success of these two organisations can be rightly said to be due to the tireless and strategic work of Mary Josephine Bedford. Throughout her life Bedford, who is perhaps best remembered as the life long companion of Dr Lillian Violet Cooper, worked toward alleviating the stress and poverty afflicting urban dwellers. On her many study tours with Cooper, Bedford researched successful methods and programmes on the provision of family welfare in America and Europe and she is known to have attended lectures at Berkeley University on public recreation parks in about 1911, just two years before the Playground Association was established. Ms Bedford was associated with many of the early efforts in Brisbane to establish welfare; she was instrumental in increasing the scope of the Children's Hospital in 1905, she was involved with the establishment of the Queensland branch of the National Council of Women also in 1905; she and Cooper were delegates at the International Council of Women in Stockhlm in 1912, and in 1916 both Bedford and Cooper served in Serbia during World War I, Bedford as an ambulance driver for which she received the 5th Order of St Sava. Ms Bedford remained an active participant of both the Creche and Kindergarten Association and the Playground Association until her death in December 1955. It is clearly through her extensive letter writing, evident in archival files on both organisations, that they achieved their successes.
The Playground Association in Queensland was formed with the practical intention of promoting the establishment of children's playgrounds and recreation centres in districts of poverty and high density. Also the Association worked towards assuming the administration of the parks and providing trained supervisors who were to direct play and, through this, to instil the values of courage, honesty and consideration in the children. The supervisors were also to look after the playground libraries, teach hand work and also to liaise with the children's homes. The Association was interested in the full social development of the child and saw the lessons learnt during play as an adjunct to the lessons the children studied in their classrooms.
The sites chosen for the three playgrounds managed by the Playground Association in their formative years were at Paddington, established 1918; East Street Fortitude Valley, 1922 and Spring Hill established 1927. All three were places of high density low cost housing. The characteristics of the sites were similar as well; the site was usually undeveloped and lying stagnant for various reasons, at Paddington the playground was part of a former cemetery and the Spring Hill playground was constructed on a former quarry site. The playgrounds were planned within a short distance of the local state school, usually near swimming baths and central to the density of housing surrounding the playground. They were planned with several mandatory features; a boundary fence to aid supervision and protection of the child, borders within the playground separating girls, boys and toddlers, a field house and a well considered plan incorporating play equipment and open space. The playgrounds were planned as model examples of recreational facilities for children, to be copied in both management and planning by schools and local councils across Queensland. Certainly the playgrounds established by the Playground Association foreshadowed a period of intense playground development in suburban Brisbane when a number were established by various groups, usually the city council or a local progress association. In 1938 a list was made of eight playgrounds managed or funded through the Brisbane City Council but not including those in which the Playground Association was involved. Like the three model playgrounds, the Brisbane City Council playgrounds were found in high density, inner city areas and included one in the Domain of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. Over the next ten years the Council continued to acquire sites for playgrounds, although it should be noted that only those playgrounds managed by the Playground Association were supervised, a practice which continues to this day
The playground created in Water Street, Spring Hill utilised the site of an early Brisbane quarry which had closed. From the 1860s until its closure in the early twentieth century the Spring Hill porphyry quarry was one of a series of quarries stretching along a porphyry seam extending north and south from the city. Porphyry is formed from volcanic ash, consolidated and hardened in the presence of solutions containing silica. The presence of various iron and manganese oxides results in a range of possible colours. Given the variance in strength through the stone, porphyry is not usually cut into ashlar blocks but often left rockfaced to minimise disturbance. Stone from the Spring Hill quarry was thought to be used in construction of the early Brisbane Normal School and other early Brisbane buildings. The quarry was closed by the early twentieth century.
On 22 January 1918 the land around the quarry was divided into twelve allotments and offered for sale. Only one portion of this subdivision was sold, that on the corner of Water and Love Streets to a Mrs Kate Downey. The twelve allotments remained undeveloped until 1924 when the Brisbane City Council were granted the land by the state government for use as a park on behalf of the Playground Association who offered to undertake supervision and management on their third Brisbane project after Paddington and Fortitude Valley.
The Spring Hill Playground was officially gazetted as a reserve for a Children's Playground on 20 March 1924. Mrs Downey surrendered her lot in the following year and the entire reserve was re-gazetted on 12 November 1925, measuring 1 acre and 36 perches. The early playground on the site was along the Water Street boundary, another park reserve was gazetted around the former quarry site, which the Playground Association assumed in recent years, increasing the size of the original playground.
Few early plans of the Spring Hill playground have been located, it seems, however, that it was originally planned with three principal sections divided by fences; the boys were closest to the Love Street end of the site and the girls at the Quarry Street end, divided by the infants section which was centrally located. A field house, or supervisor's cottage with a free library was located to the north of the girls section and toilets were provided for the girls and infants within the field house. The boys' toilets were in the northern eastern corner of their section. The field house was an early timber cottage moved to the playground from another site. Re-fencing in chain link occurred in 1935, further increasing security.
In 1945 a war memorial hall was opened at the playground, designed by the City Architect and funded by public appeal supplemented by the state and local council. The tender was awarded to MR Hornibrook who completed the work for £2517. The building was constructed to commemorate those from Paddington, Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley who served during WWII. The original supervisor's cottage was burnt down in 1959 and the Brisbane City Council donated the insurance money to the Playground Association to allow them to infill the undercroft of the Memorial Hall for use as a library.
Mary Josephine Bedford died on 22 December 1955 and to commemorate her instrumental role in the provision of playgrounds in Queensland a memorial tree was planted on 22 March 1956 at the Spring Hill Playground by Lady Lavarck, wife of Lieutenant-General Sir John Dudley Lavarack, Governor of Queensland. In 1959 the Brisbane City Council agreed to the suggestion of the Playground and Recreation Association to rename the park, the Bedford Playground in memory of Ms Bedford.
In December 1971 an area of land on the Quarry Street side of the park was excised for Health Purposes and this became the home of the Shaftsbury Citizenship Centre. Again, in March 1989 land at the corner of Quarry and Water Streets was excised for Local Government Purposes and this block of land is now the Lady Gowrie Occasional Child Care Centre, providing an additional service to the Lady Gowrie Child Care Centre which is at the St Paul's Terrace end of Love Street.
","criteria":"Bedford Playground which was established in 1927 is important in demonstrating the pattern of growth of the working class suburbs of inner city Brisbane, particularly Spring Hill. The playgrounds demonstrate early twentieth century philosophies of child care, particularly in relation to the importance of adequately providing for children in poorer communities to provide a better chance of their future success. The playground contains a substantial porphyry outcrop, remnant from an early quarry which was established in the 1860s, providing evidence of the early construction industry of Brisbane and a rare example of 'untamed' landscape in inner city Brisbane. The park is important as an integral example of the small number of open parks in the CBD and Spring Hill area.
|A rare example of 'untamed' landscape in inner city Brisbane.
|The playground demonstrates the principal characteristics of early model playgrounds formed by the Playground Association of Queensland and influenced by similar American models. This is particularly evident in the siting, and elements such as the memorial hall, the Betty Mansion (an early play fixture) and established plantings.
|The site has aesthetic significance as a public open space with established plantings forming a substantial element of the Spring Hill townscape. The former quarry is of particular aesthetic interest as a bold, natural form visibly contrasting with its immediate surrounds and visually linked to the large outcrops on St Paul's Terrace.
|The playground has special associations with the surrounding community as well known public recreation reserve and supervised children's playground.
|Bedford Playground has a special association with Ms Mary Josephine Bedford, an early Brisbane philanthropist who successfully instigated many elements of family welfare in working class suburbs of Brisbane through her involvement with both the Playground Association and the Creche and Kindergarten Association.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16524,"place_ref":601787,"name":"Neal Macrossan Playground","alternate_name":"Ithaca Playground","street_address":"14 Caroline Street","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-05-09","description":"The Neal Macrossan Playground is an open space of inverted T-shape plan, bounded by Caxton Street to the south, Hale and Chrystal Streets to the east, Moreton Street to the west and the children's kindergarten and toy library to the north. The site comprises is bordered by large prominent fig trees along Caxton Street and on the Moreton Street boundary. Two large fig trees, thought to be part of the original scheme, are on the intersection of Moreton and Dowles Street. Centrally located along the Caxton Street boundary of the playground, but excluded from this listing, is the Ithaca Swimming Pool.
The playground comprises three buildings along the northern boundary, adjacent to the kindergarten; a tennis court in the north eastern along Caroline Street; a skate bowl, known as Father Perry Place on the eastern side of the swimming pool; a large oval on the western side of the swimming pool and terraced playground space in the central area. The three buildings at the Neal Macrossan Playground are a large public hall facing Moreton Street, a small former free library to the east of this, and abutting this on the eastern side is a covered play area.
The public hall is an elevated timber building with a gabled roof clad with corrugated iron. The building is clad externally with horizontal weatherboard. The western façade, facing the street, is lined with a verandah awning supported on simple stop chamfered columns. Between the columns is weatherboard panel balustrade which conceals timber stairs recessed in the verandah space. A large double timber boarded door, surrounded by lights and flanked by sash windows, is centrally located on this face of the building and provides access to a hall. The hall is lined on the southern side with an infilled verandah, and is lined internally with timber boarding and fibrous cement sheeting. At the front, eastern end of the hall is an elevated stage area, divided from the body of the hall by a timber arched proscenium.
The small square planned building on the eastern side of the hall, has a steeply pitched pyramidal roof clad with terracotta tiles. This is a simple elevated timber building with horizontal weatherboard external cladding and a large central window on the southern face. Abutting the east of this is a low set concrete block building constructed on a concrete slab and with a skillion roof clad with galvanised sheeting.
Neal Macrossan Playground is divided into sections by terracing of the land which falls away to the south. To the south of the buildings, which being at the northern end are on the highest ground, is the highest terrace. Below which are several terraced area, and a substantial embankment bordered the oval in the south western corner.
Established trees dominate the playground, particularly the aforementioned figs. Palms trees line the crystal street boundary, where the principal entrance to the playground is found through a chain link gate in a chain link fence. To the south of the buildings are several established shade trees. A tall hoop pine is planted at the eastern end of the playground, between the playground and the skate bowl.
","history":"The Neal Macrossan Park, Paddington was designed as a model playground by the Playground Association in 1918. This was the first of the three early playgrounds organised by the Playground Association and was on the site of a former cemetery.
The Playground Association of Queensland held their first meeting in 1913 and was formed to introduce concepts emanating from the United States movement toward providing public recreation parks and playgrounds. A comprehensive guide to the design and management of these new parks, written by landscape architects and social planners, Arthur and Lorna Leland was published in 1909 and many of the themes of this book were adopted by the Playground Association of Queensland in their mission statements. In a time of serious epidemics the Leland book, Playground Technique and Playcraft, promoted a revised level of care and protection of children, allowing them a better chance at success in life. The basic requirements advocated for the mental and physical well being of children were good food, air, sunshine and exercise. Of these basic requirements, the playgrounds provided for three, and were also thought to instil a love of nature and an appreciation of beautiful environments. The first playgrounds in America developed as part of this movement were in Charlesbank, Boston; Boone Park Louisville and many examples in Chicago all planned in the late nineteenth century. Many of these early playgrounds were designed by prolific and highly skilled landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted who was earlier involved with the highly influential design of Central Park, New York. Generally these American playgrounds were incorporated in large public recreation parks, usually with elements such as playgrounds, open air gymnasiums, running tracks and field houses, which provided covered accommodation for halls, administrative offices, libraries and club rooms.
Unlike the large recreation parks constructed in the United States for the whole community, the playgrounds established in Queensland by the Playground Association were planned on a smaller scale, focussing solely on children and providing a playground and usually a field house. Usually the playgrounds were associated with an adjacent kindergarten or creche, and this is thought to have been due to Mary Josephine Bedford's involvement with the Creche and Kindergarten Association. This group formed in 1907 with the purpose of instituting and maintaining day nurseries and free kindergartens for the children of the poor in Brisbane. Like the Playground Association, the Creche and Kindergarten Association were successful in achieving local and state government sponsorship and funding as well as funding from various national philanthropic trust funds. The success of these two organisations can be rightly said to be due to the tireless and strategic work of Mary Josephine Bedford. Throughout her life Bedford, who is perhaps best remembered as the life long companion of Dr Lillian Violet Cooper, worked toward alleviating the stress and poverty afflicting urban dwellers. On her many study tours with Cooper, Bedford researched successful methods and programmes on the provision of family welfare in America and Europe and she is known to have attended lectures at Berkeley University on public recreation parks in about 1911, just two years before the Playground Association was established. Ms Bedford was associated with many of the early efforts in Brisbane to establish welfare; she was instrumental in increasing the scope of the Children's Hospital in 1905, she was involved with the establishment of the Queensland branch of the National Council of Women also in 1905; she and Cooper were delegates at the International Council of Women in Stockhlm in 1912, and in 1916 both Bedford and Cooper served in Serbia during World War I, Bedford as an ambulance driver for which she received the 5th Order of St Sava. Ms Bedford remained an active participant of both the Creche and Kindergarten Association and the Playground Association until her death in December 1955. It is clearly through her extensive letter writing, evident in archival files on both organisations, that they achieved their successes.
The Playground Association in Queensland was formed with the practical intention of promoting the establishment of children's playgrounds and recreation centres in districts of poverty and high density. Also the Association worked towards assuming the administration of the parks and providing trained supervisors who were to direct play and, through this, to instil the values of courage, honesty and consideration in the children. The supervisors were also to look after the playground libraries, teach hand work and also to liaise with the children's homes. The Association was interested in the full social development of the child and saw the lessons learnt during play as an adjunct to the lessons the children studied in their classrooms.
The sites chosen for the three playgrounds managed by the Playground Association in their formative years were at Paddington, established 1918; East Street Fortitude Valley, 1922 and Spring Hill established 1927. All three places of high density low cost housing. The characteristics of the sites were similar as well; the site was usually undeveloped and lying stagnant for various reasons, at Paddington the playground was part of a former cemetery and the Spring Hill playground was constructed on a former quarry site. The playgrounds were planned within a short distance of the local state school, usually near swimming baths and central to the density of housing surrounding the playground. They were planned with several mandatory features; a boundary fence to aid supervision and protection of the child, borders within the playground separating girls, boys and toddlers, a field house and a well considered plan incorporating play equipment and open space. The playgrounds were planned as model examples of recreational facilities for children, to be copied in both management and planning by schools and local councils across Queensland. Certainly the playgrounds established by the Playground Association foreshadowed a period of intense playground development in suburban Brisbane when a number were established by various groups, usually the city council or a local progress association. In 1938 a list was made of eight playgrounds managed or funded through the Brisbane City Council but not including those in which the Playground Association was involved. Like the three model playgrounds, the Brisbane City Council playgrounds were found in high density, inner city areas and included one in the Domain of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. Over the next ten years the Council continued to acquire sites for playgrounds, although it should be noted that only those playgrounds managed by the Playground Association were supervised, a practice which continues to this day
The playground created in Paddington utilised the site of an early Brisbane cemetery which served the free settlers here from 1843 until 1875. The Paddington Cemeteries Act 1911 was passed to allow the land to be used for recreation purposes. The land on the southern side of Caxton Street became Lang Park and the land on the northern side was set aside as a reserve for the Ithaca Baths. On 13 June 1914 the remaining land on the northern side of Caxton Street was reserved for use as a children's playground. The original trusteeship lay with the Ithaca Shire Council, although the Brisbane City Council assumed the role on 15 April 1922. The land comprising the playground was twice increased in size; firstly in 1921 when the southern part of Moreton Street was closed and incorporated into the playground and secondly in 1934 when further land was adjacent to the first resumption was acquired for the playground. When the Inner North-West Ring Road (Hale Street Ring Road) development occurred in the early 1990s further land, previously unallocated state land, was given to the playground.
The Ithaca Playground, as the Neal Macrossan Playground was first known, was the first playground with which the Playground Association of Queensland was involved. The siting of the Ithaca Playground in the midst of a dense working class suburb on a previously disused publicly owned site reflects one of the fundamental aims of the Playground Association - to facilitate the full development of all children and to provide aid to those children who may not otherwise fulfil their potential. The designer of the Ithaca Playground is thought to have been Robert Black, an authorised surveyor and town engineer whose name appears on plans of the original planned site. The official catalogue of the Second Annual Town Planning Conference and Exhibition in 1918 included this plan which was titled, 'Plan of Children's Playground together with the Creche Kindergarten Free Library and Swimming Baths, Town of Ithaca' dated July 1918. It is interesting that the plan incorporates all of these elements which, though run by different organisations, were obviously components of a large public facility aimed at family welfare. The plan of the playground was not realised as fully as the drawing suggests. The proposed plan incorporated many elements formally laid out using axial lines, symmetry and focal points. Included on the lower terrace of the plan, allocated for boys' play was an oval for Football, Cricket and Sports; a giant stride, open space, shelter shed with storage and an area for playing marbles and tops, appliances (equipment) for senior boys, appliance for junior boys; playing area for junior boys, a wading pool and a sand pit. The upper terrace, closer to the Creche and Kindergarten and allocated for the play of girls and infants, was a children's free library, appliances for senior girls, games area, appliances for junior girls, sand pit, concreted area for ball games, basket ball court, central shelter, and appliances for kindergarten children with separate sand pit and wading pool. The plan suggests that these elements should all be divided, by garden beds, pathways and screens. The Ithaca Swimming Pool was at the southern end of the site near adjacent to the boys playing area. The land tapered toward the south, meaning supervisors housed in the administrative room provided in the free library would have all areas of the playground in view. The playground resulting from this planning was apparently less substantially built up, but the zoning and terracing was recognisable.
One of the key elements of the plan was the children's free library and supervisor's cottage which was constructed as a simple timber building with tiled pyramidal roof. The library was funded and built by Miss Marcella R Clark on behalf of the Order of the Round Table. Construction of the building was supervised by town engineer, Robert Black and the building was officially opened by Lady Gould Adams on 15 June 1917. This building which was originally on Moreton Street and known as a field house from the American models, was moved in about 1924, replaced by a large timber building housing the library, supervisor's cottage and a community hall. The orignal field house was moved to the east of the hall and remains in this place in 1998.
In 1959 the Brisbane City Council agreed to the suggestion of the Playground and Recreation Association to rename the park, the Neal Macrossan Playground in memory of Justice Neal Macrossan who had served about twenty years as the president of the Playground Association before his death in 1955. A locomotive was added to the playground on 20 March 1973 but this was removed in 1995. More recently the far south eastern corner of the site was dedicated as a skateboard/rollerblade facility and dedicated to Father Perry, a local Anglican minister who advocated strongly against the ring road. A naming ceremony was held on 25 September 1994.
","criteria":"The Neal Macrossan Playground which was established in 1918 is important in demonstrating the pattern of growth of the working class suburbs of inner city Brisbane, particularly Paddington. The playgrounds demonstrate early twentieth century philosophies of child care, particularly in relation to the importance of adequately providing for children in poorer communities to provide a better chance of their future success.
|The playground demonstrates the principal characteristics of early playgrounds formed by the Playground Association of Queensland, influenced by similar American models and designed as the model for all Queensland playgrounds. This is particularly evident in the siting, early land formation, early hall and established plantings.
|The site has aesthetic significance as a public open space with established plantings forming a substantial element of the Paddington townscape, in particular the large Moreton Bay fig trees which line Caxton Street and Moreton Street are significant landmark elements. The hall is a well composed building which contributes markedly to the streetscape.
|The playground has special associations with the surrounding community as well known public recreation reserve and supervised children's playground.
|Neal Macrossan Playground has a special association with Ms Mary Josephine Bedford, an early Brisbane philanthropist who successfully instigated elements of family welfare in working class suburbs of Brisbane through her involvement with both the Playground Association and the Creche and Kindergarten Association. This was the first playground planned by the Playground Association and has importance to this group which continues its supervision to this day. The playground was named for Justice Neal Macrossan who was a long time president of the Playground Association and has special associations with him.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16535,"place_ref":601798,"name":"Lady Bowen Hospital Complex (former)","alternate_name":"Queensland Lying-In Hospital | Lady Bowen Hostel | Anzac House and Club | Roma House","street_address":"497-535 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-04-23","description":"The Lady Bowen Hospital complex comprises three buildings, situated on the northern side of Wickham Terrace, overlooking Albert Park. The central building is the 1890 hospital, the oldest on the site and the original two storeyed brick Lady Bowen Hospital. To the west is a 1923 two storeyed brick Nurses' Quarters and to the east of the 1890 building is a c1943 timber framed and fibrous sheeting clad building constructed for use as a serviceman's club.
Original Hospital
The 1890 building has a complex plan which essentially comprises a front section which addresses Wickham Terrace and a long rectangular rear ward section running east west and connected to the front via common verandahs and the centrally located internal stair. The division of the two parts of the building indicates the original division between the front-of-house public areas of the hospital and the rear private ward section. The separation of these two sections reflects the fear of the spread of airborne germs.
The hospital is a load bearing structure of rendered brick, with enclosed verandahs of fibrous cement sheeting and glass louvres changing the nature of the façades which assume a less articulated appearance. The building is two storeyed with a basement beneath the rear wing. The corrugated iron clad roof is complex with a series of hips, half hips and tapering hipped projections above the bay windows.
The front wing of the building was constructed as the entrance and to house the public areas of the hospital. This section has a square plan with two double storeyed bay windows articulating the façades. The principal entrance to the building is centrally located on the ground floor of the southern façade of the front wing. The entrance is flanked by segmental arched window openings glazed with three hopper panels. The rear wing is rectangular planned, as expected of early hosptial ward planning with cross ventilation allowed through all intenral rooms.
The northern, rear facade of the building, is lined with a modern steel framed verandah which is linked to the rear verandahs of the adjacent buildings on the site. This facade is lined with early timber framed window openings and early doors, with some more recent penetrations.
Internally, the original hospital retains much of its 1890s character, with plaster rendered walls, plaster detailing, timber boarded floors and plaster rendered ceilings concealed by a suspended grid ceiling system. The basement floor of the building has concrete floors, rendered brick walls and, in some rooms, ripple iron clad ceilings. The internal stair is located between the front core of the building and the rear wing and is a substantial nineteenth century concrete structure with extant stair window and balustrading.
Former Nurses' Quarters
The 1923 Nurses' Quarters is a substantial two storeyed building comprising a rendered brick wing facing Wickham Terrace from the rear of which runs a long rectangular planned wing, flanked by verandahs to the east and west. The building is designed in the Arts and Crafts idiom with overscaled classical features.
The front wing is constructed to the line of the Wickham Terrace footpath and has a hipped roof clad with corrugated iron. On the ridge line of this section of the roof is a substantial eight sided timber framed fleche with pyramidal roof. The eaves of the roof overhang the walls and are lined with timber boards.
This front section of the building is constructed from brick on reinforced concrete foundations. The external elevations of this section of the building are divided into two sections, giving external expression to the internal floor levels. The lower part of the elevation, originally face brick and now painted is capped with a ceramic tiled string course. The upper section is rendered with roughcast stucco. The façade of the building is symmetrically composed around a central round arched opening giving access to a recessed porch. The arch is surrounded by brick voussoirs, a large rendered keystone and several more regularly spaced overscaled rendered voussoirs. Flanking the archway on the ground floor are two vertical hung sash windows with timber framed and mullioned glass panels. These openings are surmounted by a brick header and rendered keystone and have concrete rendered sills. Similar openings line the eastern and western side walls of this section of the building. The upper level of the front façade of the building is lined with three window openings, which are also repeated on the side walls. These openings are fitted with vertical hung sash windows and sit on the line of the first floor string course, and have no decorative mouldings. The rear of the building has a discrete hipped roof, also clad with corrugated iron sheeting, the verandahs to the east and west are infilled.
General the interior comprises concrete slab floor, rendered brick walls and partitions and fibrous sheeted ceilings housed in a decorative timber grid like system. The skirtings and cornices throughout the buildings are rendered concrete and simple in execution.
C1943 Building
This two storeyed buildings sits on the corner of Wickham Terrace and Robert Street and has an T shaped plan. The building is timber framed and clad with fibrous-sheeting, which in some areas has been vandalised creating holes. The shallow pitched, half-hipped roof is clad with corrugated iron. The building is lined with discrete timber framed windows glazed with arctic glass.
The principal entrance to this building on the western end of the southern facade and is through a single half glazed door. This entrance is emphasised externally by a panel of glazing which extends upward over the two storeys of the building and also serves to light the internal stair well which is positioned here. To the north , rear of the building is a brick service wing which houses bathroom and kitchen facilities internally.
Internally this building is lined with fibrous cement sheeting on the walls and ceilings throughout. The outer edges of the ceilings taper downwards creating a substantial cornice feature. The proliferation of windows throughout the building contribute to naturally well lit and ventilated interior spaces. The stair hall is a dog leg timber stair with balustrade clad with fibrous sheeting.
","history":"The former Lady Bowen Hospital, on Wickham Terrace is a complex of three buildings, the earliest of which was constructed as the second purpose built home of the Brisbane Lying-In Hospital in 1889-90. In 1938 the Lady Bowen Hospital was superseded by the Brisbane Women's Hospital and the site on Wickham Terrace was leased for a variety of purposes. The buildings are currently occupied by various arts related organisations.
\nDuring the nineteenth century childbirth frequently resulted in the death of mother and or baby. Usually, babies were delivered in the family home with the assistance of midwives, of varying degrees of experience and training. During the time of the penal settlement, care for those women who could not afford the expense of a midwife, was available from the female prison, firstly located in Queen Street and later at Eagle Farm. Following the closure of this, destitute women were unable to find medical attention during childbirth until the formation of the Queensland Lying-In Hospital in 1864.
\nA committee was formed for the establishment of a lying-in hospital following a report in The Brisbane Courier of 16 August 1864 requesting those interested in the establishment of such an institution to attend a meeting at the Armoury on 19 August at 4.00pm. The committee formed as a result of this meeting lobbied the colonial government of the time for partial funding, under the provisions Hospitals Act 1862 which allowed funding to be used to assist the establishment of hospitals. Previously Queensland hospitals were established solely by public donation. The colonial government, under Governor Bowen allocated £500 toward the establishment of the first public lying-in hospital.
\nFrom the outset, the Ladies' Committee of the Lying-In Hospital sought to achieve three aims: firstly to improve midwifery standards in the state, secondly to change community attitudes toward accepting childbirth in hospitals and thirdly to promote moral reform in unwed mothers. To achieve the first aim, the training of midwives was conducted from the earliest days of the hospital in the 1860s.
\nOn 1 September 1864, a joint committee of ladies and gentlemen or the proposed Lying-In Hospital was held to consider the objectives of the new hospital. At this meeting a Ladies' Committee was appointed in which the management of the institution was vested and comprising the wives of many early prominent Brisbane citizens. The Ladies Committee were supported by a men's committee who provided advice and reference as required. The hospital, officially called, the Queensland Lying-In Hospital was, opened on 2 November 1864 in a house, Fairview, in Leichhardt Street, Spring Hill. This was described in an advertisement in the Brisbane Courier as having six large rooms, detached kitchen and servant's room, with tank and yard. The Ladies' Committee rented Fairview for £120 per annum.
\nThe hospital remained in this rented accommodation in Leichhardt Street until 1866 when the Lying-In Hospital was moved to a new purpose designed building in Ann Street, between Edward and Albert Street and adjacent to the Servants' Home (now known as the School of Arts). This was an eight roomed building with beds for twelve patients and ancillary rooms. In late 1867, this building was renamed the Lady Bowen Lying-In Hospital in recognition of the wife of Governor George Bowen, Lady Diamantina Roma Bowen. During her life in Queensland, Lady Bowen was an avid participant and organiser of charitable and social activities.
\nThe Lady Bowen Lying-In Hospital remained in Ann Street for about twenty-five years until 1889 when a larger hospital was built, on the outskirts of the central business area of Brisbane and overlooking Albert Park. A bill was passed in parliament to allow for the sale of the hospital in Ann Street to allow the Ladies' Committee to procure land elsewhere for reasons that:
\nThe situation is not by any means healthy, as the aspect is wrong for both breeze and sun; the situation is noisy; the present institution cannot be thoroughly cleaned without closing; and it is quite impossible to separate married women from single women, which separation is of course most desirable.
\nThe Ann Street property was sold for £6000 and patients were transferred to a property in Wharf Street, awaiting the opening of the Wickham Terrace Hospital. In October 1888 the Ladies Committee acquired the Wickham Terrace property, where formerly the house of Reginald H Roe, Head Master of Brisbane Grammar School was stied. Roe moved from his Wickham Terrace residence, known as Winholm, to a boarding house on the Brisbane Grammar site. Winholm is thought to have been demolished to make way for the lying-in hospital, certainly neither documentary or physical evidence suggests that the house has been retained within the hospital complex.
\nFollowing the acquisition of the land, the Ladies' Committee commissioned Brisbane architect, John Hingestone Buckeridge to design the new two storeyed hospital. Buckeridge arrived in Brisbane in February 1887 to take up his appointment as the Diocesan architect for the Bishop of Brisbane, Dr Webber. Previously, Buckeridge worked in London as an architect following his training with prominent British ecclesiastical architect, John Loughborough Pearson and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Architectural Association. His appointment to the Diocese of Brisbane was to assist Webber on an ambitious church building program. Following the death of his wife, Buckeridge accepted the position in Queensland where one of his principal jobs was the supervision of the Church of England Cathedral, St John's, designed by his former principal, JL Pearson. Buckeridge worked in the position of Diocesan Architect officially until 1902 although for many of the later years he lived in Sydney. He designed about 60 timber churches throughout south east Queensland, including Christ Church, Milton (1891); along with a number of public and commercial buildings including the Gresham Hotel.
\nThe design Buckeridge provided for the Lady Bowen Hospital was for a two storeyed brick building with substantial basement level and with capacity for fifty patients. The building was constructed by local contractor, John Quinn who won the tender for construction of the building for £6200. The ground floor of the building housed an entrance hall, a sewing room for nurses and wards with bathrooms and linen rooms, Above on the first floor, were a number of wards, and below in the basement were the nurses' dining room and kitchens. A separate building to the rear of the hospital was used for septic cases.
\nThe foundation stone of the new hospital was laid by Lady Alice Norman on 29 May 1889 and the first patients were admitted to the hospital on 1 January 1890. No major additions or alterations were made to the complex until 1923 when the government approved the expenditure of £15 000 for the construction of a Nurses' Quarters to the west of the original building.
\nThe introduction of the Hospitals Act 1923 established an alternate structure with regional hospital boards for the management of Queensland hospitals. The management of the Lady Bowen Lying-In Hospital was vested in the Brisbane and South Coast Hospital Board from 1924. This brought about standardised practice throughout Queensland hospitals and official government contributions to the funding of hospitals. The State government took over full responsibility for the running of hospitals in 1945. The Ladies' Committee officially disbanded in 1924, although they retained an advisory role on the new board of management.
\nBy the 1920s, the Lady Bowen Hospital was seen to require upgrading and repairs. With growing concern over the high incidence of infant mortality, legislation was passed in the form of the Maternity Act 1922 to provide support and care for children and mothers. The Hospitals Board commissioned a report from the Professor of Obstetrics at the University of Sydney who recommended the construction of a new obstetrics hospital in the grounds of the Brisbane Hospital at Herston. The Hospitals Board were given government approval and funding in line with government platform, increasing support for women's and children's healthcare. The construction of a new obstetrics hospital, known as the Brisbane Women's Hospital was approved in 1929 and was opened in 1938. During this period Lady Bowen continued to operate and an operating theatre was constructed and sewerage system installed.
\nThe Lady Bowen Hospital was closed and staff and patients were transferred to the new women's hospital which opened on 26 March 1938. This heralded an era of short term leasees and alterations to the buildings of the former Lady Bowen Hospital which continues to the present day. The many tenants who have occupied the buildings since 1938 include the Bridge Board, the Social Service League, Essential and Emergency Services of the Civil Defence Organisation, the Australian Army Canteen Services, the Stanley River Works Board, the Returned Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen's Imperial League of Australia, the Queensland State Archives, Agricultural Project (later the Agricultural and Environmental Education Branch and later, the Brisbane Urban Environmental Education Centre), the Australian Music Examination Board, Apprenticeship Board of Queensland, Department of Health (Chest Clinic for the Division of Health and Medical Physics) and the Queensland Writers Centre.
\nOf the tenants who have occupied the buildings since the relocation of the hospital, the various Army related tenants during World War II were most significant. The obvious impact of this tenancy was the construction of the two storeyed timber framed and fibrous-sheeting clad building on the corner of Wickham Terrace and Robert Street. In the early stages of the War the site was occupied by the Air Raid Warden's Organisation which became later the Civil Defence Organisation. In 1943 the site was acquired for use as a serviceman's club, known as Anzac House. During this occupation the Royal Australian Engineers Unit were responsible for the conversion of the hospital into a hostel with dining and other recreational facilities. Across Wickham Terrace, in Albert Park, a related dance pavilion was constructed. This has since been demolished.
","criteria":"The former Lady Bowen Hospital, Wickham Terrace was constructed in 1890 as the second purpose built home of the Brisbane Lying-In Hospital, established to provide health care and support to pregnant women who would otherwise not receive medical care during pregnancy or at childbirth. The Ladies Committee who established and managed the hospital from its inception in 1864 to its takeover by the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board in 1924, worked toward achieving major advances in the field of obstetrics in Queensland, and the Lady Bowen Hospital was the precursor of the 1938 Brisbane Women's Hospital. The place demonstrates the evolution of health care, particularly obstetrics in Queensland, beginning as a nineteenth century charitable institution and became a core government funded service.
|The place is a rare surviving nineteenth century Queensland hospital and a unique nineteenth century lying-in or maternity hospital.
|The place demonstrates the principle characteristics of the nineteenth century pavilion planned hospital in its location on the outskirts of the central business area, situated on an elevated site overlooking a park and also with its internal planning creating well ventilated and naturally lit wards.
|The former Lady Bowen Hospital is a Brisbane landmark. The place is a large complex of sympathetically designed buildings, which despite more recent renovations, are of architectural merit, for their composition and detailing.
|The former Lady Bowen Hospital has strong associations with the Ladies Committee who were critical in the early provision of obstetric services and the place has a special association with early patron, Lady Diamantina Roma Bowen, for whom the hospital was named.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16536,"place_ref":601799,"name":"Christ Church Tingalpa and Burial Ground","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"1341 Wynnum Road","suburb":"TINGALPA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-02-02","description":"Christ Church Tingalpa is a small, single-storeyed timber structure set well back from busy Wynnum Road at Tingalpa, on one acre of rising ground just east of the bridge over Bulimba Creek. The site fronts a major arterial road to the north, with light industrial development to the west, south and east. The church is aligned roughly east-west on the site, presenting a side wall to the street, but the entrance in the western facade is visible from the road on the approach from Brisbane city.
The building has a high pitched gabled roof clad with corrugated iron. The external walls which are clad with weatherboard sheeting, sit on a concrete base. The church has a simple rectangular plan, with a chancel alcove at the eastern end. To the south of the chancel is a small vestry, accessed both from the nave and from an external door in the western wall of the vestry. The chancel has a separate gabled roof, much lower than that of the nave but of the same pitch. The vestry at the southeast corner of the building also has a separate roof, the gable running at right angles to that of the chancel.
A small entrance portico is centrally located in the western facade of the building, and above this is a pointed arched vent with sloping timber louvres. There are large timber finials to the western end of the main gabled roof and to the gabled roof of the portico, and a timber cross at the eastern end of the main roof. The main entrance is a pointed arched double timber door which is flanked by three-paned patterned glass windows with timber trefoils. Three such windows are found on each of the two longer sides of the church, one in the eastern end of the chancel wall, and one in the southern wall of the vestry.
Internally, most of the walls and the ceilings are lined with fibrous cement sheeting, braced with timber strips. The chancel walls are clad with vertically-jointed tongue and groove timber boards. A hardwood floor has been superimposed above the original concrete flooring. None of the church furniture, decorations and plaques remains.
The site contains a burial ground, with graves mostly to the west and south of the church, although the Coxen family grave is located in the area between the church and the street frontage to the north. All the graves are aligned to the east or southeast. The earliest headstone dates to 1868, the most recent to 1993, with burials in every decade in between. Some of the earlier graves retain their elegant wrought iron surrounds, and there are a number of substantial monuments and headstones illustrative of a variety of periods and styles. Unevenness of the ground in some parts is a fair indication that the site contains a number of unmarked graves as well.
The site is bordered by substantial trees, mostly Norfolk Island pines. At the front northeast corner of the allotment are two large fig trees which appear to flank the original entrance to the grounds.
","history":"The present Christ Church Tingalpa was erected in 1886 for the Anglican parish of Tingalpa, replacing an 1868 church designed by Brisbane architect RG Suter and demolished during the cyclone of 5 December 1885. It is understood that materials salvaged from the wreckage of the 1868 church were used to construct the second, smaller building.
Built and consecrated in 1868, the original Christ Church at Tingalpa was the first Anglican Church established between Kangaroo Point and Moreton Bay, pre-dating St Paul's at Cleveland (1873-74) [600769], Bulimba's St John the Baptist (1888) and St Peter's at Wynnum (1898). Initially part of St Mary's Kangaroo Point parish, the parish of Tingalpa was established by 1886.
The Tingalpa site, one acre of high ground fronting the road to Lytton [now Wynnum Road] about 6 miles beyond Kangaroo Point, was transferred early in 1868 from Joseph Berry to the Church Trustees [Bishop Edward Wyndham Tufnell and Tingalpa farmers Charles Coxen, John Mackenzie Shaw, Richard Warren Weedon and William Roach Wood]. Importantly, the site was central to the small but scattered farming community of the Bulimba-Tingalpa district [which in 1868 encompassed Wynnum-Manly-Lota as well]. The ground was cleared by voluntary labour and funds were raised through local and British subscription.
The church was free of debt almost immediately it was completed, and consequently was among the earliest Anglican churches in the Brisbane district to be consecrated, pre-dating All Saints on Wickham Terrace [600168], St Mary's at Kangaroo Point [600244], and possibly St Thomas' at South Brisbane (erected 1855), but post-dating the first St John's Church, consecrated in 1854. Guests at the Christ Church consecration ceremony of 27 October 1868, to which 400 persons were invited, included the newly appointed Governor of Queensland, Col. Samuel Blackall; the President of the Legislative Council, Sir Maurice O'Connell; the Chief Justice of Queensland, James Cockle; and the Mayor of Brisbane, Alderman Hardgrave.
The first Christ Church Tingalpa was a picturesque building and a landmark on the road from Brisbane to the southern end of Moreton Bay. Substantial stables were constructed in the grounds, but no parsonage or church hall was erected. On the same allotment a small burial ground was established. The first recorded burial was that of Susannah Weedon of Cannon Hill, on 12 July 1868. This was prior to completion of the church, constructed April-August 1868. Later burials included the Hon. William Duckett White MLC of Lota House [600247] and his family; Richard Thomas Jefferies [founder of the Queensland Musical Union - now the Queensland State and Municipal Choir - and of Palings Music Stores]; and members of many of the early farming families of the Tingalpa-Wynnum district, including the Coxen family. The most recent interment was in 1993.
In 1873 the Church trustees acquired from Joseph Berry an additional one acre block adjoining the eastern boundary of the original allotment. In late 1874 both parcels of land were transferred from the Church Trustees to the Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane.
Through the 1870s and 1880s Christ Church Tingalpa continued to serve a small, scattered rural community of approximately 50 square miles on the southeastern outskirts of Brisbane. In the early 1870s the principal cash crop in the district was sugar, but by the 1880s, changes in technology and the expansion of the sugar industry north of Brisbane had forced Tingalpa farmers into mixed farming and dairying, with some grape and wine production.
Following the cyclone of 5 December 1885 which destroyed the 1868 Tingalpa church the local Anglican community, not prosperous but determined to rebuild, reconstructed their church using timbers salvaged from the original building. The second and present Christ Church Tingalpa was re-consecrated on 25 July 1886, smaller and less decorative than the first building, but still of weatherboard construction with a shingled roof. A concrete floor was laid this time, to give the building additional stability in strong winds. An early, undated photograph shows a detached, timber-framed bell tower with double cross-bracing and a pyramid-shaped shingled roof, to the east of the chancel.
By the late 1880s Bulimba had become more densely settled and Wynnum-Lota-Manly boomed following the opening of the Cleveland branch railway [via Wynnum] in November 1889. By the mid-1890s the Anglican parish of Tingalpa, still approximately 50 square miles, had a population of well over 6,000. St Peter's Anglican Church was erected at Wynnum in 1898. By 1899 the Bulimba church held 260 seats; St Peter's held 120; and Christ Church, with its 50 seats, was clearly no longer the focus of Tingalpa parish. In 1900 St John the Baptist Church was removed from the Tingalpa parish, and the Tingalpa rector concentrated his efforts on the booming Wynnum-Manly district.
In 1906 Rev. JH Whitehead was appointed rector of Tingalpa parish, and due to his enthusiastic parish work Christ Church was renovated in 1907 and acetylene gas lamps installed. However, Rev. Whitehead resigned in 1910 due to ill health, and during the 1910s Christ Church was neglected.
In 1923 St Peter's at Wynnum became a parish in its own right and Christ Church Tingalpa was declared to be extra-parochial and placed under the control and care of the Order of Witness. Founded by Bishop Halford, who had resigned the Rockhampton Bishopric in 1920 to establish this work, the Order of Witness was a radical experiment within the Anglican church extension movement of the interwar period. Seeking to reach the men in the railway construction camps and mining camps, and the struggling families in the new soldier and immigrant settlements, Bishop Halford established an order of priests who lived very simply and were prepared to be sent anywhere a parish priest could not normally minister, living in the mining and construction camps, and bearing personal witness to their faith. To support their work, the Order obtained in 1922-23 a small farm adjoining Christ Church Tingalpa. The farmhouse became their Priory, and the ancient and historic little Tingalpa Church became their chapel.
The priory, grounds and chapel of the Order of Witness were blessed by the Archbishop of the Brisbane Diocese on 22 February 1923. The Church Chronicle of 1 March 1923:53 reported:
The old Church has been restored and enriched by additional ornaments and furniture. A painted figure of out Lord on the Cross hangs from the roof and the Altar is backed by dorsals and flanked by riddels of blue material. The cross and candlesticks are of silver. The whole effect is beautiful and devotional, and shows how even a little plain wooden Church can be transformed into a thing of beauty and joy. Local parishioners were encouraged to attend the Chapel services, and a call was made for funds to restore the building and cemetery.
Early in 1927 Bishop Halford left the Diocese of Brisbane, where he had been working in the Eidsvold and Burnett districts, to carry out similar missionary work in the Diocese of Rockhampton. It appears that the Tingalpa priory closed soon after and by September 1929 Christ Church Tingalpa, considered one of the historic churches of Queensland, was part of Morningside parish. Services in the Tingalpa church continued for some years, but the building once again fell into disrepair. By the mid-1930s the church was no longer attached to a parish, and demolition was proposed.
Once again the Tingalpa church was saved by an enthusiastic local priest. Rev. EJV Cavey, appointed to the Manly parochial district in 1938, took charge of Christ Church and organised a loan to renovate the building. The shingled roof was replaced with corrugated iron, the deteriorating concrete floor was replaced with hardwood, and the free-standing belfry was removed and replaced with a single cross-braced timber structure with a 4-gabled roof of corrugated iron, erected and dedicated to the memory of Miss Court, daughter of the first rector. The church was re-dedicated on 30 April 1939, and by November 1940 the debt had been cleared.
In the post-Second World War period much of the farming land in the Tingalpa district was subdivided for suburban and industrial purposes, and the population expanded rapidly through the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1950s Christ Church Tingalpa was painted and re-lined and in 1964 a church hall was erected on the land acquired in 1873. By 1968, the centenary of its establishment, the future for Christ Church looked promising.
However, with the decline in social relevance of established religions in the last quarter of the 20th century, has come yet another decline in the fortunes of Christ Church Tingalpa. Once again the Anglican authorities have called for its demolition. The belfry was removed in 1996, and all internal fittings, including a plaque erected to honour parishioners Stan Porter and his son Keith, who died in a Tingalpa plane crash in 1954, have been removed. The church hall and the block of land acquired in 1873 have been sold.
","criteria":"Christ Church Tingalpa and Burial Ground, established 1868 with the church re-constructed in 1886, is important in illustrating the pattern of development of Queensland history. In particular it illustrates the development of the Tingalpa-Wynnum district from the mid-19th century. The establishment of Christ Church Tingalpa is important in illustrating the determination of early immigrants to transplant to Queensland the culture and religion of their homeland. Historically, the place is significant as one of the earliest consecrated Anglican churches in Queensland.
|The burial ground is of particular importance. It is very early, pre-dating the general cemeteries established at Dutton Park [South Brisbane], Toowong, Kangaroo Point [Bulimba], Hemmant, Bald Hills and Lutwyche in the 1870s. It is rare as one of only a handful of Anglican church burial grounds surviving in Brisbane, with others located at Milton [Christ Church], Sherwood and Grovely [St Matthew's].
|It is important for its potential to reveal information about the pattern of early settlement of Tingalpa and adjoining suburbs and of early social and living conditions.
|With headstones dating from 1868 to 1993, the burial ground contains monuments and headstones illustrative of a variety of periods and styles. It survives in reasonable order, and is a good example of a small church burial ground established in what was initially a rural district.
Despite some white ant damage, the church remains a good example of its type - the simple, rectangular, pragmatic, ubiquitous Queensland weatherboard church - but appears to have retained some of the decorative elements of the first architect-designed building, including the timber trefoils to the windows, a trefoil arch in the portico, and the substantial pointed arched timber entrance doors.
|The building retains a picturesque setting, with tall perimeter planting and some of the earlier graves retaining their elegant wrought iron surrounds, and the whole makes a substantial aesthetic contribution to the Tingalpa townscape.
|Both church and burial ground are of special significance to the local community, with several generations of Tingalpa and district families having worshipped and been buried there. It has been significant as a centre for Anglican worship, observance and education since 1868.
|The place has a particular association with the work of the early settler families of the district, including the Weedon, Coxen, Stanton and White families, and is significant also for its association in the 1920s with the work of the experimental Order of Witness in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16547,"place_ref":601810,"name":"Sunnyside","alternate_name":"Dr Wright's House","street_address":"255 Main Street","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"Sunnyside is a substantial, single-storeyed masonry residence located in Main Street, Kangaroo Point, on a sloping block overlooking the Brisbane River and the Brisbane central business district. While the property does not extend to the riverbank, the house behind is at a much lower level and the land on the river bank below is now part of a Brisbane City Council-owned public park, hence the views of the city have not been built out. Immediately adjacent to Sunnyside on the south boundary is State heritage listed Silverwells [600243].
The house is of face brick work, but only the north side wall remains unpainted. It has a rectangular core with a projecting gable with a decorative bay window in the front [eastern] elevation. There is a verandah across the remainder of the front façade and returning along the south side of the house. The verandah posts, aluminium 'lace' valances, and tiled concrete verandah floors, are much later than the core. There is a formerly detached brick kitchen house at the rear, with a brick croft or cellar below, where the land slopes to the river. Also at the rear, opening off both the kitchen house and the core, is a large timber pavilion dating probably to the 1910s or 1920s, and since enclosed. The core, kitchen house and pavilion roof each has a separate, hipped roof of corrugated iron. The whole, including the timber extension, rests on brick piers.
The interior has plastered masonry walls; high ceilings with decorative pressed metal panelling; well-detailed joinery [all now painted]; and timber flooring [recently coated with a polyurethane finish]. Many of the walls have been wallpapered [much appears to date from the 1960s or 1970s] and in some rooms paint has been applied over the wallpaper.
The interior is that of a solid middle-class rental property, well-detailed, nicely finished, with generously-sized rooms and high ceilings, but without the ornate entrance vestibule common to more flamboyant owner-occupier, late 19th century residences. The front door opens directly into the main hallway, which runs east-west, off which are the former front parlour and dining room to the right. These rooms do not open into each other, but have back-to-back fireplaces which share a double chimney. The parlour has an early grey marble fireplace surround, but that in the dining room is a later and unsympathetic brick surround. A door in the rear [west] wall of the dining room opens onto a service passageway which leads to the kitchen house at the rear, and off which, to the right, are a small china pantry adjacent to the dining room, and a maid's room beyond this.
The service passageway, which also runs east-west, leads to the now enclosed verandah which ran east-west beside the detached kitchen house. It is not clear whether a rear verandah initially ran the width [north-south] of the main building, but there is evidence of a former verandah between the maid's room in the core and the kitchen. This space has been enclosed as a bathroom; it has weatherboards externally on the north side and a c1960s interior.
Off the main hallway to the left are two bedrooms, but the doorways which once would have led from the hall into each bedroom have been bricked in and plastered [probably during the c1960 conversion to two flats], and there is no longer any evidence in the skirting boards of where these doorways were located. At its western end the main hallway opens into a cross-passage which leads on the right to the service passage and on the left originally to a bedroom door - this also has been bricked-in and plastered.
In-filling the L-shape formed by the main building and the kitchen house is one large room which appears to have been a former semi-open pavilion. This extension is clad externally with wide weatherboards to sill height. Above the sill the weatherboards are narrower and likely to be later in-fill, and in this are several aluminium-framed windows which are understood to have replaced earlier casements. The narrow hardwood floorboards of this room are arranged in a pattern which reputedly mirrored the original lattice ceiling above, extant but now covered with a recent plaster ceiling. Opening into this room is an external entrance accessed from the south side verandah.
The southern side of the house, the original bedroom wing, shows the greatest evidence of the c1960 alterations to form two flats. Access to the southern flat is now via the side entrance into the rear pavilion room. The third bedroom, formerly at the rear of the house, has been partitioned to form a bathroom, toilet and passageway leading from the pavilion room to the two front bedrooms, which are connected via an original doorway. In other words, the front bedroom can now only be accessed by passing through the second bedroom. The front bedroom has two step-out or telescopic windows opening onto the front verandah, and the second bedroom has a double sliding glass door of c1960 vintage opening onto the southern verandah, in the place of a former window. The single window to the third bedroom has been replaced by small, high windows to the bathroom and toilet. Another room, possibly a small fourth bedroom or servant's bedroom at the rear of the main building, has been converted into a kitchen. The wall between this room and the pavilion room [which currently functions as a combined dining and living room] has been almost totally removed, and it is no longer clear whether this room was accessed originally from a rear verandah, or from the cross or service passages in the middle of the house.
Attached to the kitchen house at the rear is a single-storeyed, skillion-roofed extension with a brick north wall, but open on the south side. Beside this is a larger skillion-roofed, weatherboard-clad double garage, again, open on the south side. Both these structures have concrete flooring. A concreted driveway leads from the street along the southern side of the property to the garages at the rear.
The front garden has an early path layout [extant by 1923] but c1970s planting and garden elements, including a stone water fountain, stone-edged garden beds, concrete blockwork front fence, and perimeter bamboo planting which acts as a screen to Main Street and to neighbouring properties.
","history":"
Sunnyside was constructed in the mid-1890s, on land owned by Joseph Thompson, a Sydney businessman who held substantial property assets on Kangaroo Point. The house functioned as a rental property until acquired by Dr Robert Wright, a Brisbane dentist, in 1920.
The site was part of a larger parcel of land [3 acres 2 roods 39 perches] acquired in three allotments [1-3] by Thomas Adams, a North Brisbane solicitor, at the first sale of Brisbane suburban allotments [at Kangaroo Point] held in December 1843. The purchased blocks were on the western side of Main Street, extending from the road to the Brisbane River. Kangaroo Point at this period was emerging not only as Brisbane's first suburb, but also as a rival to South Brisbane, attracting industry [a boiling down works and wool store] and shipping. All of the 1843 allotments were located near the wharf reserve, and were offered at a premium upset price of £5 per acre. Most had been cleared by 1837 as part of a former convict farm, but suburban allotments 1 and 2 were still covered in brush.
Adams' land passed to a trustee in March 1846, and in March 1861 two of the subdivisions [suburban allotments 1 and 2 - comprising 2 acres 1 rood 33 perches] were conveyed to Sydney businessman Joseph Thompson. Thompson held this and [reputedly] other Kangaroo Point property, until his death in 1902, but did not reside there. He developed the eastern half of the site, fronting Main Street, with investment houses, including an 1860s duplex [Mornington-Silverwells 600234] and Sunnyside [1890s]. From mid-1891 Thompson leased the western half of the land, with its river frontages, to the Australasian United Steam Navigation Company Limited [initially held on a 25 year lease]. The AUSN Co. established their workshops here and erected a wharf on the riverbank, directly opposite their Mary Street wharf, on the city side of the Brisbane River.
From photographic evidence and Queensland Post Office Directories, it appears that the house known by 1904 as Sunnyside, and later as Dr Wright's House, was erected in the mid-1890s, possibly occupied by 1896. It is not known who designed the house, but the style and materials suggest perhaps a Sydney architect. By the late 19th century, Kangaroo Point, with its ferry access to the adjacent Brisbane central business district, had become a fashionable residential address, particularly with central city business persons. A number of substantial homes were erected here in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, including Leckhampton [c1889 for Brisbane jeweller Charles Snow (600246)] and Home [c1902 for Brisbane draper John Lamb (600242)]. The construction of Sunnyside in the mid-1890s, so much later than the adjacent 1860s residence, illustrates the continued popularity of Kangaroo Point with middle class residents. From c1897 until c1903, 255 Main Street was tenanted by Charles M Foster of Foster and Foster, ironmongers - Foster had moved here from Shafston House [600241] at Kangaroo Point, which he apparently still owned. The Schureck family occupied the house from c1906 to c1920 [Julius Schureck was an Adelaide Street retailer].
Following Joseph Thompson's death at Wooloomooloo in Sydney in May 1902, his Kangaroo Point property passed to his son, civil engineer William Mann Thompson of Sydney. In 1920 WM Thompson subdivided and sold the property. Title to 255 Main Street [subdivision 3 of suburban allotments 1 & 2, par South Brisbane (38.3 perches)] was transferred from Thompson to Robert Wright, a Fortitude Valley dentist, in October 1920. Wright undertook some small alterations to the place, and c1923 erected a garage in the grounds. He may also have been responsible for the addition of the large pavilion room [originally perhaps a sleeping verandah] at the rear of the house.
The house has remained in the Wright family since. Title was transferred from Robert Wright to Wright and his three surviving children [Robert James, Edgar David and Eveline Violet] in 1945. Following the death of Robert Wright in 1952, Robert James Wright [the eldest son, who had followed his father into dentistry] applied to the Brisbane City Council in 1957-58 to convert the house into two flats. It is understood he occupied one half of the house, and later his sister-in-law took the other. From 1964, title was held solely by Dr RJ Wright, who died in the early 1990s. RJ Wright was the Chilean Consul in Brisbane, possibly from just after the Second World War until his death. He resided most of his life at Sunnyside, which served as the Chilean Consulate in Brisbane for over 40 years.
Sunnyside is once again a single home, currently occupied by a grand-niece of RJ Wright.
","criteria":"Sunnyside, Kangaroo Point, is important in illustrating the pattern of development of Kangaroo Point, Brisbane's first suburb, which from the 1850s attracted middle class residents who erected substantial homes overlooking the Brisbane River. The construction of Sunnyside in the 1890s illustrates the continued attraction of this quiet but centrally located suburb for the middle classes - a trend which was sustained into the 1920s. It is important also in illustrating the role of southern capital in developing Queensland from an early period. The place also has historical and social significance as the Chilean Consulate in Brisbane during the second half of the 20th century.
|The place is significant as a rare, late 19th century, single-storeyed brick residence in Brisbane, of a design and materials more commonly found in Sydney at this period. The place also is now rare as one of few 19th century residences surviving in Kangaroo Point, which has undergone enormous change since the construction of the Story Bridge and viaduct in the 1930s, the expansion of the shipbuilding industry on the point from the 1940s to the 1960s, and rapid and substantial residential re-development since the 1980s. Sunnyside and an adjacent 1860s brick duplex [Silverwells - 600243], are the last remaining 19th century residences in the block between Bright and Scott Streets, and together with the nearby Story Bridge Hotel (erected c1885) make an important historical contribution to the character of Kangaroo Point.
|Sunnyside is a substantial, well-detailed, late 19th century brick residence with aesthetic appeal, and is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of its type.
|Sunnyside is a substantial, well-detailed, late 19th century brick residence with aesthetic appeal, and is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of its type. Although the house, behind its garden screen of trees and bamboo, is scarcely visible from the street, the grounds, along with adjacent mature trees, make an important aesthetic contribution to Main Street.
|The place also has historical and social significance as the Chilean Consulate in Brisbane during the second half of the 20th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16562,"place_ref":601825,"name":"BAFS Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"331 & 333 George Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2002-02-22","description":"The BAFS Building is a three storey building with basement, constructed of load-bearing masonry that accommodates a pharmacy and offices. The building has sculptured, parapetted facades to both George and Turbot Streets which feature carefully detailed Classical and Art Deco-style decorative elements. The bottom half of the building is smooth-rendered and painted in a cream colour, which is also used on the mouldings around the windows and in bands on the corners of the building to simulate quoining. The first floor windows are set within wide arched openings which have exaggerated moulded keystones that connect to the sills of the upper floor windows. The upper floor windows have moulded surrounds with Art Deco-style decoration at the top that comprises of a stepped pattern around a central keystone. The first floor windows are multi-paned casements with arched heads and at upper level are multi-paned sashes, all have deep sills. Air conditioning units have been inserted into some of the first floor windows.
The George Street façade is symmetrically composed, with a central feature at upper level of a small balcony supported on corbels with a wrought iron balustrade. A pair of French doors, surmounted by a fanlight, open out on to this balcony. A round window decorated with festoons is directly below the balcony, followed by another small square window directly below this. A sign is located at the top of the façade, with the raised lettering "B.A.F.S Dispensary 1885-1915" The sign sits upon a short and simple entablature with prominent dentils. Mortar and pestles are mounted at each corner of the façade.
The Turbot Street elevation is more simple but also has a high degree of symmetry. The corners of the parapet are stepped and scalloped and there is a central semi-circular cut-out in the centre of the parapet. There are three horizontal bands of five windows, at street level they are high level narrow horizontal windows. Two downpipes with prominent rainwater heads are located either side of the central window and the entrance door is located off-centre beneath the second last line of windows, towards the back lane.
The pharmacy is located at street level with a recent shopfront of sliding glass doors to George Street. A deep awning returns around the corner a short distance into Turbot Street and is supported by iron tie-back rods. A doorway situated within the chamfered corner at street level, is no longer used. The Turbot Street elevation follows the slope of the street and a service laneway is located at the rear of the building. The slightly recessed entrance to the offices (BAFS Chambers) leads to a small vestibule and concrete stairwell providing access to the upper floors. The open well stair with two quarter landings has cast iron newel posts, timber balusters and a curved timber hand rail. A doorway from the back of the pharmacy also opens into the stairwell.
The enlarged landing of the staircase serves as an anteroom for the first floor offices, adjacent to this is an external light well. An arched doorway leads to a hallway on the left that provides access to the BAFS offices and a small barbershop. The hallway terminates in large double doors that facilitate loading from the rear laneway, a similar loading area is also located at the top floor. A kitchenette and toilets are located in the north-east corner of the building and have some original fittings. The hallway to the right leads to the BAFS Boardroom and several offices, some of which are occupied by doctors and others which are vacant. Partitions in this area are generally fibro-cement sheeting with simple timber joinery and glass in the upper third section of wall There are some suspended tiled ceilings and timber floors are carpeted throughout.
The northern end of the upper floor of the building has a similar floor plan to the first floor and contains offices and toilet and kitchen facilities. The former hall is located at the southern end. This is a large, well-lit, uncluttered space with an open ceiling with timber trusses and polished timber floorboards. French doors lead to the small balcony overlooking George Street. The upper floor is currently leased by a modelling agency who have fitted a reception area at the top of the stairwell.
The basement is accessed from an area at the back of the pharmacy which also contains an office, kitchenette, loading dock and large general storage area. The basement occupies the entire space of the ground floor and is partially subterranean. There is a regular pattern of columns and rows of storage shelves. A vault where medicines and pharmaceutical materials were previously stored is located in the space underneath the upper stairwell. Toilets are located in the north-east corner with a loading area adjacent.
","history":"The Brisbane Associated Friendly Societies' (BAFS) Building was officially opened in 1916 as a pharmaceutical dispensary and headquarters of the Brisbane Associated Friendly Societies. The building is located on the corner of George and Turbot Streets in Brisbane city and was designed by the notable local architectural firm, Chambers and Powell. It was the fourth city building occupied by the BAFS and the first that the society constructed themselves. The BAFS has had a presence in Brisbane city since 1885. A focal point for friendly societies throughout Queensland and the thousands of members they served, BAFS was an important force in health care in Queensland up to the mid twentieth century.
Queensland's first friendly society was established in 1843, members paid a monthly fee and were then entitled to claim sick and funeral benefits as necessary. Friendly Societies had emerged in Britain in the late eighteenth century as the country industrialised and a new class of urban worker emerged. Originally formed with the purpose of organising recreational activities for city workers, Friendly Societies soon grew into self-help organisations where members pooled their resources and helped each other out in times of need.
During the 1860s, membership of Friendly Societies flourished in Australia and the Societies expanded their services, contracting doctors to provide consultations to their members and beginning to provide free medicines. The medical fraternity became increasingly alarmed at the expansion of Friendly Societies and the threat they perceived to their profession. In response, the Societies amalgamated further, with the aim of providing even more comprehensive services. They aimed to offer greater choice of doctors and services, in premises they owned themselves. Pharmacists were less "protectionist" than doctors and Associated Friendly Societies (AFS) dispensaries were established throughout the capital cities of Australia.
The first BAFS dispensary was set up on 1st January 1885 in a small room in the Oddfellows Hall in Charlotte Street. At this time, the BAFS had 1200 members and incorporated nineteen Lodges. In 1893, a South Brisbane dispensary was opened by the BAFS. The next year the city dispensary moved to designated premises at 217 Queen Street. The dispensary stayed there until 1905 when it moved again to 344 Queen Street, in one of the premier retail blocks in the city.
In 1909, the BAFS celebrated its Silver Jubilee, its membership was 7185 and it now incorporated 100 Lodges. The same year, they established their third dispensary in Fortitude Valley. At the Annual Meeting in February 1915, it was reported that the membership had reached a total of 13 000 and that the property on George Street had been secured at the cost of £4080 for the purposes of building their own premises. A prospectus was prepared and sent out to all member Lodges, inviting them to support the building project through a debenture scheme. Debentures worth £12 000 were issued, the response from the Lodges was overwhelming and the amount was oversubscribed. Chambers and Powell Architects were commissioned to design the building and the Foundation Stone was laid on the 4th September 1915.
Lange Powell was the designer of the building as his partner Claude Chambers had moved to Sydney in 1915. Powell responded to the toast to "The Architects and Builders" at the opening ceremony. Powell went on to do further architectural work for the BAFS, such as re-furbishing the building they purchased in 1919 at 146 Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley. Powell was an eclectic architect who understood well the design canons of the styles of the Interwar period. The best known of his surviving city buildings demonstrate considerable stylistic literacy, for example, the Ann Street Masonic Temple in Ancient Classical style and St. Martins Hospital in Arts and Crafts style. The design of the BAFS Building has stylistic similarities, albeit on a smaller scale, with other examples of his commercial work in the city, such as Perry House, Preston House and Exton House.
The George Street building was designed as a "head dispensary", intended to showcase the success and progress of the BAFS. The inscription of "1885-1916" on the George Street façade clearly reflected the Society's desire to maintain links with their history in Brisbane. A souvenir booklet written in 1916 claimed "it stands as a monument to the enterprise and progressiveness of the Associated Friendly Societies and is an acquisition to the architecture of George Street and the city, generally". The building had three floors and a basement, the whole of the ground floor, at street level, was occupied by the dispensary, the first floor accommodated offices for lease and the third floor contained two large rooms for use for meetings by the Board of Management and Lodges. The building, constructed by B Cunningham, had been completed at a cost of £11 707 15s 7d.
By the 1920s, the battle that had been raging between doctors and Lodges over who should control medical care had been largely won by the doctors due to the formidable fight waged by the British Medical Association - a dispute that had consequences across Australia. The BAFS Medical Institute, a collection of doctors who worked for the BAFS management committee considered amalgamating with the dispensaries but did not, effectively ending the connection doctors had with the BAFS.
Dispensaries, however, continued to flourish and the 1920s was characterised by strong growth. BAFS purchased their own premises in Fortitude Valley and South Brisbane, however George Street attracted over half of the total sales and over 60% of the total number of prescriptions for most of the decade. The interwar years were the "golden age" for the BAFS. The building was a hub of Lodge activity, the shops and offices of the "BAFS Chambers" were constantly let and included tenants such as a milliner, a masseuse and a car hire firm. There was also an Honorary Dentist and Honorary Optician who were paid a salary by BAFS and provided free services to members until at least 1940. One half of the top floor was used as a hall by Lodges who did not have their own premises, as well as for BAFS annual and quarterly meetings and a variety of social events such as smoke concerts.
The BAFS is now known as Friendly Care Chemists and has pharmacies in six locations across Brisbane, including George Street. The head office of the Society is still at George Street, however, both the Fortitude Valley and Woolloongabba premises have been sold. Only a small number of the offices are used and tenants include a barber, doctor and modelling agency.
","criteria":"The BAFS Building is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, representing the development of and changes in, the provision of health care in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Queensland. It demonstrates the growth and popularity of Friendly Societies as a means for working class people to provide for their health needs, prior to the development of Government welfare and health care.
|The BAFS Building demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage, being surviving purpose-built premises constructed by an association of Friendly Societies to accommodate a diverse range of their activities.
|The BAFS Building is important because of its aesthetic significance, designed by prominent interwar Brisbane architect Lange Powell and demonstrating a high degree of design accomplishment. The building's carefully designed facades make a contribution to the streetscapes of both George and Turbot Streets.
|The BAFS Building has a strong and special association with Brisbane Associated Friendly Societies for social and cultural reasons. The construction of the building represented a high point in the efforts and success of the BAFS and it was a civic icon in Brisbane for many years, renowned in Queensland as a source of competitively priced and high quality drugs. The building was a focus and gathering point for a large number of Friendly Societies and their members, used for meetings and social occasions.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16563,"place_ref":602406,"name":"South Brisbane Cemetery","alternate_name":"Dutton Park Cemetery","street_address":"21 Fairfield Road","suburb":"DUTTON PARK","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-10-01","description":"The South Brisbane Cemetery occupies a large area of undulating land sloping from the ridge at Annerley Road, Dutton Park to T J Doyle Memorial Drive on the edge of the Brisbane River. It has gullies in the central section and the layout of graves and plantings is dictated to a large extent by this undulating quality of the land.
The cemetery, as a special memorial area, is bounded by walls and fences. The main entrance is on Annerley Road and has formal gates flanked by iron railings in the form of spears set into a low sandstone wall. The entrance is formed by a pair of wrought iron gates set between decorative sandstone pillars across the carriage way and a pedestrian gate. The gates match the railings and are composed of iron spears overlaid with a sinuous vine-like decoration. The entrance at Princess Street is not marked by special plantings.
Dividing left and right from the main drive are two curving drives. Although there is a formalised area of planting near the main entrance, the plantings are generally informal in layout, conforming to the terrain, and contain a great diversity of species, both indigenous and exotic. The burials are less informally arranged and are set closely in rows, as the land allows, with an east-west orientation. There are concrete paths between them and memorials of a wide variety of type, quality and age mark them. A number of the oldest memorials are large and elaborate displaying Victorian symbolism connected with death, such as broken columns, angels and vine leaves. Jane Hocking's burial, the oldest in the cemetery, is marked by the caved figure of an angel clinging to a cross atop a tapered column.
Service buildings constructed in the 1940s building programme survive. They comprise small brick toilet blocks, a brick building incorporating the walls and floor slab of a 1958 building, which was used as an office, store and garage, and a staff amenities block.
The cemetery contains a Trig marker, which was part of a triangulation survey of the South East region carried out by the government in 1883. This is located on the cemetery hill and is a sandstone block inscribed on top, which is now covered by a concrete path.
","history":"The South Brisbane Cemetery was established in 1866 as a general cemetery and occupies an area of land on the Brisbane River adjoining Dutton Park.
Although Christian burials in Europe were traditionally clustered around churches, following the rise of urban populations in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, churchyards became inadequate for the numbers of burials required. After the example set by France, towns in Britain, and in Australia, set aside land on the outskirts of settlement as public cemeteries. This was thought to be healthier and provided a spacious, landscaped environment where monuments and plantings could be attractively set out. Brisbane's first public cemetery of this type was established at Milton in the 1840s though it has since been built over. Nundah cemetery was established in 1846 and Moggill in 1855.
The area now that is now known as Dutton Park was originally called Bloggo or Boggo. It was thickly timbered and cut by steep gullies. A rough track from Woolloongabba to Ipswich passed through it. Some farms were established in the 1840s, the road was surveyed and a bridge across the river was built in the 1860s, but there were few houses.
In 1863 the area around Dutton Park was surveyed. A large recreation reserve was set aside, and then divided into recreation and cemeteries reserves by a later survey. The Cemetery Act of 1865 provided for the government to set up general cemeteries under the control of local trustees and South Brisbane Cemetery was established in 1866 under Trustees T B Stephens, A J Hocking, W T Blakeney, W M Baynes and J Mooney. The first burial took place in July 1870 and was that of Jane Hocking.
The South Brisbane Cemetery was one of several government reserves in the area. A public park runs along its northern boundary and there were reserves for a pound, a gaol, an asylum and an orphanage in the vicinity. As public transport became available more people moved to the area. A railway station was opened at Boggo Junction in 1884 and the first horse drawn bus service linking the area with the city began in 1890. The main road and the railway pass close to the cemetery, which was important in providing access for funeral corteges and for those visiting graves before private transport was common.
A Caretakers Cottage was built in 1881 and in 1888 handsome entrance gates, railings and a boundary wall were designed by the noted architect AB Wilson and were built by W Reid at a cost of £662. In 1891 R Wilcock carried out additions to the wall to Wilson's design. l.
In 1904 permission was given to add an area of 7 acres on the south side of Cornwall Street to the cemetery reserve. This was an area that had been surveyed for residential subdivision and adding it to the reserve effectively closed a section of Cornwall Street.
In 1908 a tramline reached the area with a terminus close to the cemetery at the corner of Gladstone and Cornwall Roads. The area developed rapidly in the 1900s and in 1914 it was renamed Dutton Park in honour of C B Dutton, Secretary of Public Lands between 1883 and 1887. By the late 1920s, the suburb was considered fashionable.
The Greater Brisbane Council was created in 1925 by amalgamating the metropolitan councils. The Brisbane City Council assumed the management of public cemeteries in the metropolitan area from this time and took control of the South Brisbane Cemetery in 1928. In 1930 the portion of Cornwall Street between the two sections of the cemetery was officially closed.
In 1939 the Brisbane City Council embarked on an extensive programme of works at the cemetery. Over the next few years, concrete paths were laid, internal roads upgraded and kerbing installed. 60 feet of stone wall was constructed within the cemetery and a new chain wire fence erected from the existing iron railings in Cornwall Street to the cemetery corner. Two modern brick toilet blocks were constructed in 1941 at a cost of £500. Frank Costello, City Architect between 1941 and 1952, probably designed these. Alterations and repairs were also carried out to the Sexton's cottage and waiting shed. The landscaping at the cemetery was improved with the planting of many trees and shrubs, including cypress pines and blue gums along the Brisbane River.
Work on the cemetery was halted by wartime shortages of labour and materials, but recommenced in 1945 when a survey of the cemetery noted lavatory blocks for men and women, two shelter sheds, a timber sexton's cottage, a timber tool room, motor shed and men's room. A brick staff amenities block was constructed in 1954.
The memorials in the cemetery range from those of prominent early residents, displaying fine examples of the mason's skill, to those of prisoners from nearby Brisbane Gaol, including that of bushranger Patrick Kenniff, who was hanged in 1902. The memorials in the cemetery reflect post World War II immigration and the cultural mix of the South Brisbane area in the second half of the 20th century. These include Greek and Italian graves and those of the many Russians who first settled around Woolloongabba and South Brisbane in the 1920s, following the Communist takeover in Russia. The cemetery also contains the graves of 50 soldiers who died in World War II.
Regular visiting of graves to tend them has become less common in our society, as has burial itself. In the 19th century cremation was rare, but through the 20th century is has become steadily more common. Cemeteries established since 1950 have been of the lawn cemetery type with plaques laid flush with the ground, precluding the wide variety of memorials in earlier cemeteries such as that at South Brisbane. The cemetery was closed to new burials in 1961-2, but continuing use of family plots is permitted and a small number of new plots were released in 1998-9. In 1996 the Sexton's cottage burned down and the shelter sheds have not survived.
","criteria":"South Brisbane Cemetery is one of the earliest cemeteries in Queensland. It was established in 1866 and has been in use since 1870. In its form, memorials and plantings it provides evidence for the history of Brisbane and of European burial customs in Queensland.
|South Brisbane Cemetery has the potential to reveal information on changes in burial customs of the 19th and 20th centuries and on the social fabric of the area it serves from evidence provided by the memorials and inscriptions it contains.
|South Brisbane Cemetery is a fine example of a public cemetery in use since 1870 and includes memorials ranging from those of prominent early residents to prisoners of Brisbane Gaol. The parklike setting of the cemetery, its elevated location to minimize health risk and its inclusion of all religious denominations are typical of late 19th century cemeteries.
|South Brisbane Cemetery has aesthetic value as a picturesque public area comprising elements of landscape, mature trees, plantings, built structures and memorials. Many of the monuments in South Brisbane Cemetery have aesthetic significance due to the high quality of workmanship and design used in their construction.
|South Brisbane Cemetery has a special association with the community of Brisbane for social and spiritual reasons. It forms an essential component of the ritual of honouring and remembering the dead which continues to be important to the community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16567,"place_ref":601830,"name":"Skilmorlie","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"16 Bryden Street","suburb":"WINDSOR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-10-15","description":"Skilmorlie occupies a high block, one allotment east of Lutwyche Road, with extensive views over Windsor, Herston, Fortitude Valley and Bowen Hills. The building fronted Lutwyche Road to the west, but has been extended and now addresses Bryden Street [off Lutwyche Road] to the south.
The building comprises a two-storeyed brick core c1873, with a c1923 weatherboard extension and verandah enclosures. The brick section is built on a stone [porphyry] base and has a rectangular plan form and a central tripled-flued chimney stack. It has a steeply-pitched roof clad with galvanised iron, probably replacing earlier shingles, with the end north and south brick walls each culminating in a gable. Almost all the exterior walls have been painted, but a small uncovered section on the east wall shows the dark reddish-brown facebricks and early tuckpointing. The brickwork is a variation of English bond. All the window openings, with their arched lintels, survive, as do the early sash windows. Verandahs on both levels along the western side of the brick core have been enclosed [c1923] with weatherboards and windows. There is evidence on the external east wall of a single-storeyed skillion having been attached to the building at an early stage, but this has been replaced with a c1923 weatherboard extension with a less steeply pitched skillion roof.
The internal walls of the c1873 section are of brick also. Ceilings are high and are plastered throughout, as are the walls. It is not clear whether early lath and plaster work survives in the ceilings, but the plaster on the walls appears to be mostly original. Floors upstairs and in the two main downstairs rooms are of wide boards. The downstairs front and back verandahs and hallway have early concrete floors resting on a stone [porphyry] base. There are deep timber skirting boards and architraves throughout. The fanlights to the doorways remain, but most of the internal doors, and the timber fireplace surrounds, have been removed.
The brick core comprises two rooms up and two down, with a hallway along the southern end of the ground floor leading from what was originally the front door in the western wall to a small stair hall in the SE corner of the building. There is an original arch between the hallway and the stair hall, and an early back door in the eastern external wall below the staircase. The lack of a central hallway is unusual in a house of this period, suggesting the design was the work of a competent architect who maximised the size and functionality of the rooms by offsetting the hallway.
The western downstairs room opens off the hallway, and the eastern off the stair hall. There is a doorway in the wall between these two rooms, which also have back-to-back fireplaces. The fireplace in the eastern room is much larger than its twin, and it is likely that originally the eastern room was a kitchen with a connecting door to the western room, which was probably a dining room. There is a door in the eastern external wall of the former kitchen, leading to the rear verandah. A door in the north wall of the former kitchen leads to what is now the backyard.
Upstairs, there is no hallway, and both rooms open off the stair landing. The western room is the most spacious in the building and opens onto the upstairs verandah. There is a fireplace in this room, but not in the room behind it.
During the c1923 renovations, two additional doors, one on each floor, were cut in the southern end wall of the brick core, giving access to the weatherboard extension. Apart from this modification, the brick core survives substantially intact and sound.
","history":"Skilmorlie, a small, two-storeyed brick residence, is believed to have been erected c1873 for John Bryden, an Irish immigrant cabinet maker and later property owner who arrived in Brisbane c1843. The house is one of the earliest surviving in the Windsor-Lutwyche district.
During the 1850s the land along Breakfast [Enoggera] Creek in the Windsor area was surveyed into farms, but by the end of the decade, most had been alienated by property speculators, and in the 1860s these were sold to Brisbane gentlemen seeking a semi-rural domestic retreat. By 1860 Daniel Rowntree Somerset had built the first section of Rosemount [next to Skilmorlie] and the first Oakwal on the hill opposite, but an important early impetus to Windsor's development was the construction of Bowen Bridge across Breakfast Creek in 1861. In 1864 the Chief Justice of Queensland, Sir James Cockle, commissioned a grand new Oakwal on the site of the old, and in the area west of the main northern road [now Lutwyche Road] and south of what is now Newmarket Road down to Breakfast Creek, merchant David L Brown, colonial architect Charles Tiffin, and newspaper proprietor James Swan took up residence in the 1860s. South of the creek, Bramston had built Herston in 1861 and further upstream, Ballymore was constructed in 1864 for Lieutenant DJ Seymour. When Skilmorlie and its sister house Fernfield were erected in 1873, there appear to have been two other early residences to the south of them, on the eastern side of Bowen Bridge Road [now Lutwyche Road]. Of these mid-19th century Windsor/Herston residences, only Oakwal and the two Bryden homes survive. [The present Rosemount was constructed in the 1890s.] In terms of surviving 1860s/1870s buildings in the Windsor district [and for that matter Brisbane], Skilmorlie and Fernfield are very significant.
In the mid-19th century, the Skilmorlie site was part of a block of just under 21 acres fronting Breakfast Creek to the east and the main northern road to the west, alienated in 1856 by Brisbane businessman George Byrne. In February 1873, surveyor, architect and civil engineer John Hall surveyed the land into three subdivisions, each with a frontage to Bowen Bridge Road. The northernmost allotment [sub 1 : 4 acres 3 roods 11 perches] was transferred to John Bryden in May 1873; the middle allotment [sub 2 : 4 acres 3 roods] was transferred at the same time to Bryden's younger brother James, a successful Brisbane cabinetmaker and upholsterer; and sub 3 [11 acres 1 rood], closest to Bowen Bridge, was retained by the Byrne family. The 1873 survey does not indicate any building extant on subdivisions 1 and 2.
On his Windsor land, James Bryden erected his new residence, Fernfield, designed by architect John Hall, who called tenders in March 1873. The residence was under construction by May 1873, and was to cost £700. Whether Skilmorlie also was designed by Hall is not known, but the materials and brickwork in the two buildings are remarkably similar, which suggests that the two residences were constructed about the same time. The skirting boards in both buildings are of the same profile, and the bricks used in both buildings are a dark reddish-brown, similar to those used in the 1874 Government Printing Office in William Street. The latter were supplied from William Williams' Lutwyche brickworks, and Williams could well have supplied the bricks for the Bryden residences at nearby Windsor. The Enoggera electoral roll dated 13 January 1875 records both John and James Bryden as resident on Bowen Bridge Road.
The Bryden brothers were the sons of an Irish Protestant cabinetmaker, James Bryden, of Newry, co Down. John, also a cabinetmaker by trade, had arrived in Sydney in March 1841, aged 30 years and single. He was still resident in Sydney in September 1842 when he purchased an allotment at South Brisbane, at an early sale of Brisbane Crown land held in Sydney, but is understood to have moved to Brisbane shortly after. During the 1840s and 1850s John Bryden acquired a number of allotments at north and south Brisbane, and appears to have been associated with contractor John Petrie. He married Susanna Trevethan in Brisbane in 1861, but there were no children from this marriage.
In the mid-1850s, James Bryden, his sister Isabella, and their niece Martha Jane Brennan, emigrated to the Australian colonies. They were in Victoria for about 3 years prior to joining John in Brisbane. By 1863 James had established a cabinetmaking and upholstery business on an allotment on the west side of Queen Street between Creek and Wharf Streets, Brisbane - probably that acquired by John Bryden at a sale of Crown land in 1852.
At Windsor, James and Isabella Bryden and Martha Brennan resided at Fernfield, and James and his wife Susanna lived at Skilmorlie. The two residences stand less than 50 metres apart. A Brennan descendant recorded that one access drive from Bowen Bridge Road serviced both houses, and that Skilmorlie was almost hidden behind trees.
John's wife Susanna died in 1881, and following John's death in 1890, aged 80, title to Skilmorlie passed to trustees. The Brennan family understands that Martha Brennan, who by April 1890 owned Fernfield [James Bryden had died in 1888 and Isabella in 1889], encouraged her brother David, an Irish master mariner, to emigrate to Brisbane with his family about this time, and to make Skilmorlie their home. David Brennan was resident at Bowen Bridge Road in March 1890 when he certified the death of his uncle John Bryden, and is identified in the 1893 Queensland Post Office Directory as resident at Skilmorley house, Bowen Bridge-road. This is the first known recorded reference to the name of the house. From the early 1900s it was spelt Skilmorlie in the directories.
The Brennans occupied Skilmorlie until the early 1920s. In July 1923 title to Skilmorlie, on a reduced site of just over an acre, was transferred from Queensland Trustees to Annabella Catherine Brennan, widow of David Brennan. Almost immediately this property was subdivided into 6 residential allotments - three fronting Lutwyche Road and three fronting Bryden Street, the western end of which was surveyed at this time from Skilmorlie land. Rental houses [occupied by c1924] were erected on each of the vacant allotments, and Skilmorlie was converted into flats with a weatherboard extension on the southern end and the western verandahs enclosed so that the house now addresses Bryden Street rather than Lutwyche Road. Skilmorlie stayed within the Brennan family as a rental property until mid-1996.
","criteria":"Skilmorlie, erected c1873, is significant for its close association with the development of Windsor in the mid-19th century as a middle-class suburb, and with the development of nearby Lutwyche as Brisbane's principal brick-making district late 1860s-1890s. It is one of the earliest surviving residences in the Windsor-Lutwyche district, contemporaneous with adjacent Fernfield, and with brick-maker William Williams' own residence [now known as The Grange (600347)] at Lutwyche.
|It is a rare surviving 1870s brick, two-storeyed, gable-styled dwelling in Brisbane, and offers a rare and valuable contribution to present knowledge of 1870s brick construction and design in Brisbane. Queensland-wide, buildings of this type and materials are rare.
|The potential contribution of this building to further research on 1870s building techniques, materials and design, on the development of early brick-making in Brisbane, and on the evolution of Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, cannot be underestimated.
|Skilmorlie is significant also as a substantially intact example of a modest but well built, detailed and designed, two-storeyed 1870s brick residence in Brisbane. A few brick, two-storeyed terrace houses and shop houses from the 1860s and 1870s survive in Brisbane, but there are even fewer detached brick residences of this type and period surviving, and large homes such as Glen Lyon (1876) [600049] at Ashgrove are of a grander scale than Skilmorlie.
|Despite the unsympathetic c1923 renovations, Skilmorlie retains an innate aesthetic quality and significance, a combination of the scale, form, design and materials of the early brick core. Behind the weatherboard extension and enclosed verandahs remains a well-proportioned Georgian-styled building of some considerable charm.
|The place is valued by the local community, who regard Skilmorlie, and adjacent Fernfield, as part of the unique heritage of Windsor.
|It is significant for its close association with the Bryden-Brennan families, who occupied the house for 50 years and retained it as a rental property for another 70. In particular, it has a close association with John Bryden, who participated in the first wave of free settlement in Brisbane in the early 1840s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16568,"place_ref":601831,"name":"Paddington Water Tower","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"16 Garfield Drive","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-06-23","description":"Paddington Water Tower is located on a 529m2 allotment on Archibald's Hill. The site slopes westward away from Garfield Terrace down to Tooth Avenue. The Tower is located adjacent to the Garfield Terrace boundary with the pump house adjacent to its western side.
Paddington Water Tower is surplus to water supply requirements and is no longer in use. It is essentially unaltered from its original appearance. Located on Archibald's Hill, it is one of Brisbane's oldest and most prominent landmarks. It is probably the only one of its type in Queensland being a reinforced concrete tank elevated on concrete columns.
Of the other service reservoirs erected in Brisbane, Wickham Terrace (1870 &1882), Mount Crosby High Level (1891), Holt's Hill (1919)Bulimba (1940) are also now surplus to requirements and not in use.
The Paddington tank and its tower are of reinforced concrete construction The circular tank is supported on a structural framework of twelve columns and octagonal grids of haunched beams.
The water tower is 70 feet (21.34 metres) high and the tank has a capacity of 100,000 gallons (.38 megalitre) and the top water level is 335 feet (102.1 metres) AHD.
The tower is a prominent Brisbane landmark in the north western suburbs. It is visible from miles around and most vantage points and is readily recognisable.
","history":"By the beginning of the 20th century, Brisbane was drawing most of its water from the Brisbane River at Mount Crosby. Enoggera and Gold Creek Dams were also feeding into the system. At this stage none of the supplies were filtered and Brisbane's water supply was neither treated nor tested until the first decade of the twentieth century.
In 1907, American hydraulic engineer, Allen Hazen, was engaged by the Brisbane Board of Waterworks to report on the amplification of Brisbane's supply. He recommended against the construction of a dam on the Brisbane River in its middle catchment because of his perception of the danger of rapid loss of storage capacity because of siltation. He recommended storage on Cabbage Tree Creek, a tributary of the Brisbane River, some 19 kilometres upstream of Mount Crosby and further recommended the site of the Somerset Dam on the Stanley River for future amplification of storage.
From about 1916, the shape of Mount Crosby and nearby Holt's Hill underwent a series of changes with structures erected, extended and demolished in response to the water quality demands of Brisbane, and after 1922, of Ipswich.
To provide facilities to residents on elevated land for a full water supply, service reservoirs were constructed at Bartley's Hill in 1907 and 1919, Enoggera in 1912, Holt's Hill in 1919, Tarragindi in 1923, Paddington in 1927, Roles Hill in 1928, Eildon Hill in 1930, Bulimba in 1940, Sparkes Hill in1941 and Bracken Ridge in 1944. Previous service reservoirs had been constructed at Wickham Terrace in 1870 and1882, Highgate Hill in 1889 and the Mount Crosby High Level in1891.
Supplying water to the higher parts of Paddington had always been difficult, so it was a great benefit to residents when the Water Board opened this tower in 1927 which was fed from Enoggera Dam.. The Board had striven for 12 years to obtain the £12,000 necessary to build the Paddington Tower. The Tower was dedicated on 4 March 1927 and was officially opened by Mr EJT Manchester, President of the Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, with members of the board and local residents in attendance. The tower was described as the finest piece of work constructed by any authority and at the time was the most expensive single structure ever to have been constructed in the town of Ithaca.
At the opening the President said it had always been the aim of the Water Board to afford facilities to provide a full water supply to all residents on elevated land and that in time he hoped to see all elevated lands graced by water towers. The power for the motor which hoisted the water into the tank was switched on by Mr J J Roberts who referred to Paddington Heights as the Dress Circle of Brisbane.
The structure was designed by the Board's engineer and erected by the board's staff with day labour on a site 335 feet above sea level. The tank is composed of reinforced concrete and the height from the highest point is 70 feet. It is capable of holding 100,000 gallons. The Tramway Department provided the electricity required for the centrifugal pump which propelled water from the tank below
A cottage was erected alongside the tank on the vacant piece of ground shortly after the tower was opened so that the turncock would live on the premises and give every attention to see that the tank was constantly well filled with water.
","criteria":"Paddington Water Tower is important in demonstrating a phase in the history of Brisbane's water supply and the technological difficulties of providing reticulated water to elevated sites.
|The Paddington Water Tower is a rare example of an elevated reinforced concrete water tank. It is probably the only one of its type in Queensland being a reinforced concrete tank elevated on concrete columns.
|The Paddington Water Tower is important for its aesthetic qualities as a readily recognisable landmark. It is one of Brisbane's most prominent landmarks.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16571,"place_ref":601834,"name":"Bess Street Brick Cottages","alternate_name":"Hedge's Buildings","street_address":"22, 25-27 Bess Street","suburb":"WINDSOR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-12-15","description":"The Bess Street Cottages are located on opposite sides of the eastern end of Bess Street, Windsor. 25-27 Bess Street, on the north side of the street and facing south, is a duplex - two c1880 brick cottages sharing a party wall along the boundary between lots 13 & 14 on RP 19286, parish of Enoggera. Diagonally opposite 25 Bess Street, on the southern side of the street and facing north, is 22 Bess Street, a c1880 brick cottage with a c1920s timber and fibrous-cement extension on the western side. To the east of 22 Bess Street is 20 Bess Street, a brick cottage of similar vintage but different form. This originally was a duplex, but has been substantially modified and converted into a single residence. This building is not included in the heritage listing. All the cottages are built close to the street, with narrow front yards.
22 Bess Street:
This is a small, 4-roomed brick cottage with later extensions and a c1920s reburbishment. The brick core rests on stone foundations and has a short-ridged iron roof with close eaves. There is a recent front verandah which replaces an earlier front verandah, which possibly did not extend across the extension on the western side. The external brick walls are rendered to resemble ashlar. Along the east wall, which is built to the property line, are two chimneys, both of which are constructed internally, suggesting that the original intention may have been to create a duplex as at 25-27 Bess Street, with the party wall along the property line. At the rear, a late 20th century extension containing kitchen and dining room replaces an earlier back verandah and kitchen house. On the western side of the cottage is a c1920s sleeping verandah, timber-framed with fibrous cement sheeting externally, clad with a pebble-dash render. The western extension has a geometrically patterned parapet [vaguely Art Deco in inspiration] and several sets of casement windows. It is high set, as the ground slopes slightly to the west, but the rendered front and side walls extend almost to ground level.
Internally, the house retains its original layout, with the c1920s extension and later rear additions clearly evident. The early core comprises four rooms. The front door opens directly into the parlour, off which, to the right, is the front bedroom. A door from the parlour leads into the former dining room, off which, to the right, is the second bedroom. The parlour and dining room each have a fireplace in the east wall. The parlour has one window opening onto the front verandah, with c1920s casements replacing earlier sashes. The dining room window in the rear wall has been bricked in and two small windows, one either side of the chimney in that room, appear to date from the c1920s refurbishment. French doors, possibly replacing earlier double-sash windows, open from both bedrooms onto the c1920s sleeping verandah on the western side of the house. At the southern end of the c1920s extension is a bathroom. Most of this has been modernised, but a section of c1920s terrazzo flooring remains.
The internal walls of the brick core are plastered and the rooms have highly decorative c1920s plaster ceilings, ceiling panels and cornices. It is understood that the ceilings were timber-boarded originally, and that these boards survive above the plaster. Flooring throughout is of timber. That in the parlour and dining room is later, narrow hardwood boards, but the front bedroom has earlier wide boards, possibly pine.
25-27 Bess Street:
25-27 Bess Street is a brick duplex, each house similar in form to 22 Bess Street across the road. Each has the same 4-roomed core resting on a stone foundation, and has a short-ridged iron roof with close eaves - although in these instances, the ridges run front to back rather than side to side. Each has an enclosed front verandah [not identical] and both have formerly detached timber kitchen houses [which may be of later date than the core] and an enclosed rear verandah and rear verandah extensions. These have evolved idiosyncratically. The side external walls are rendered, but the original front and rear external walls of both cottages are of face brickwork, now painted.
Other than in the positioning of the kitchen houses, the cottages are not mirrored in plan, as might be expected, but are replicated.
Internally, both cottages have plastered walls and mostly early timber flooring, although the dining room of 27 Bess Street has a later concrete floor, apparently laid on top of the timber floor. Both cottages have the same varying floor levels: in each there is a step down from front parlour to dining room, then another step down from the dining room to the rear enclosed verandah. The ceilings in most rooms of both cottages are of later fibrous cement sheeting and timber cover strips, possibly covering earlier timber boards. The second bedroom in 27 Bess Street has its original wide, beaded, tongue-and-groove ceiling boards. Each cottage has a fireplace in the dining room, but the chimneys have been removed.
","history":"These small brick cottages were erected in the late 1870s or early 1880s, most likely by or for Samuel Hedge, a Lutwyche brickyard proprietor.
The Lutwyche district was first surveyed in 1858 as farm portions, several of which were alienated by Sarah Sophia Bartley, wife of Nehemiah Bartley, in 1859. In 1865 part of the Bartley's land was subdivided and in October 1870, title to 4 acres [subdivisions 29A & 32 of portions 189 & 190, parish of Enoggera], passed to Samuel Hedge of Enoggera.
Samuel Hedge and Son were brickmakers at Lutwyche from at least 1878 [likely much earlier] until the early 1890s. The son referred to was Francis John Hedge, and by 1889 they had been joined in the business by Samuel Hedge junior. Samuel Hedge senior appears to have retired from brickmaking c1890. He resided in Bess Street during the 1880s, and returned there c1900, prior to his death in 1903. FJ Hedge continued as a brickmaker into the early 1890s, but by 1896 FJ Hedge and Samuel Hedge [junior?] were farming at Westhaldon, south of Gatton.
It is not clear whether Samuel Hedge's brickyard was located on the land he acquired in 1870. Being resident in the Enoggera district already, he may have established a brickyard elsewhere, or have been leasing from the Bartleys prior to purchase. The Windsor and Districts Historical Society suggests that Hedge's brickyards extended from Bess Street to Fuller Street and north to Kedron Brook.
Brickmaking was one of the earliest manufacturing enterprises in Brisbane, and in the 1870s and 1880s was concentrated principally in the Lutwyche-Kedron district [which then included parts of Windsor]. Well-known Lutwyche brickmakers of this period included William Anderson, Samuel Hedge and Son, John Salt, George and Charles Starkey, and William Williams. Fuller Street at Lutwyche was originally named William Street, possibly after early brickmaker William Williams, and nearby Brickfield Street recalls the brickmaking enterprise which Williams established at Lutwyche in the 1870s.
In August 1877 Hedge subdivided the 4 acres acquired in 1870, into 20 residential allotments and a dead-end street off Brook Street, variously known as Best or Bess Street in the early years. Later, Bess Street was extended east to meet McKenzie Street. The blocks at each end of Bess Street averaged close to 1 rood each in size; those in-between were surveyed as 27 perches each on the north side of the road and 23.4 perches each on the south side. The survey plan does not indicate any extant dwellings, but shows a perimeter fence around the 4-acre property.
Samuel Hedge sold the bulk of the re-subdivisions between 1878 and 1886, but retained title to 20 Bess Street [resub 9] and 25-27 Bess Street [resubs 13-14] until 1899. He also retained title to the block on the southern corner of Bess and Brook streets, which contained a duplex similar in form to what is now 20 Bess Street, but fronting Brook Street. This building is no longer extant.
As there was not yet a railway in the district, and nearby Lutwyche village was scarcely developed at this period, it appears that Hedge subdivided the land to service workers in his and other nearby brickyards. By 1885, the residents of Bess Street were mostly working class, many associated with brickmaking, and included: Frederick C Butler, drayman [FC Butler acquired re-subdivisions 3 and 4 in 1879 and 1881 respectively]; Charles Hawkwood, busdriver and George Perkins, brickmaker, both of whom lived in Edges Buildings [this is likely Hedges Buildings, and may refer either to what is now 20 Bess Street, or to 25-27 Bess Street]; John Hopkinson, gardener; James Morgan, brickmaker [Bridget Morgan acquired resubdivision 2 in 1882]; Mary Saxby; Joseph Sibthorpe, drayman [Samuel Hedge's daughter Caroline married Joseph Sibthorpe in 1876 and in 1884 acquired title to re-subdivisions 15 and 16]; and Edward Usher, brickmaker. By 1887, James Watterson, carpenter, also resided in the street [Watterson acquired re-subdivisions 5-7 in 1886]. Samuel Hedge is listed as resident in Bess Street by 1888. In 1890, the residents of Bess Street were mostly owner-occupiers: D Good, broker; J Morgan, brickmaker; S Hedge, snr; S Hedge, jnr, brickmaker; Mrs C Sibthorpe; Mrs MA Saxby; FC Bulter, drayman; and J Waterson (sic), joiner.
In 1998, both 22 and 25-27 Bess Street, Windsor were identified as places of heritage significance in the Grange District Heritage and Character Study prepared by the Brisbane City Council's Heritage Unit.
22 Bess Street:
Re-subdivision 8 [22 Bess Street] was transferred from Hedge to Henry Day in November 1881. The brick cottage on this property is built to the eastern boundary, suggesting that it also was built after the 1877 re-subdivision. The position of the house and the internal chimneys along the eastern wall suggests also that it was Hedge who erected the building, intending to construct a duplex similar to 25-27 Bess Street across the road, but that before this was accomplished, he sold the property to Day. Henry Day is listed as a Lutwyche butcher and blacksmith in the 1878-79 Post Office Directory, but does not appear in the district again until 1891, when he is recorded as H Day, builder, resident in Bess St. However, by this time title to 22 Bess Street had been transferred in 1889 from Day to Walter Henry Qualtrough. The property remained in the Qualtrough family, apparently as a rental investment, for about 3 decades, until transferred to Janet Watters, widow, of Brisbane, in August 1920. Mrs Watters resided at 22 Bess Street through the 1920s, until her death in 1931. It would appear that she was responsible for the refurbishment of the cottage, with the construction of a western sleeping verandah and bathroom, and decorative plasterwork throughout.
25-27 Bess Street:
Samuel Hedge retained title to 25-27 Bess Street until it was transferred in May 1899 to his daughter Caroline Aspinall [formerly Caroline Sibthorpe], who had married George Valentine Aspinall in New South Wales in 1895. The Aspinalls did not reside in Bess Street, but Mrs Aspinall retained 25-27 Bess Street as a rental property until her death in 1935. In 1944 Queensland Trustees transferred title to Sophia Mitchell Henzell, widow, who also appears to have bought the place as a rental investment. Through most of the 1920s and 1930s, 27 Bess Street was tenanted by Michael J O'Connor. The Richard Imrie family rented 25 Bess Street from c1919 until 1950, when Richard and Ethel Imrie purchased 25-27 Bess Street as joint tenants with Herbert and Irene Perry, who by then occupied 27 Bess Street. The two families apparently were not related. The Perrys gained Council approved for additions and alterations to 27 Bess Street, including the enclosing of the front verandah, in March 1955, and in 1962 approval was given for the construction of a garage. In 1984, title to 25-27 Bess Street passed to Gregory John Perry.
","criteria":"The Bess Street Brick Cottages, Windsor, erected c1880, are important evidence of the development of Kedron/Lutwyche/Windsor as Brisbane's principal brickmaking district in the 1870s and 1880s. Likely erected by brickmaker Samuel Hedge on land he owned and subdivided in the late 1870s, and occupied by brickmakers and others associated with the brickmaking industry, these cottages have a close association with this important early manufacturing industry in Brisbane.
|The cottages form an historically and spatially cohesive grouping of rare surviving, working class, 19th century brick cottages in Queensland.
25-27 Bess Street is significant in addition as a rare, single-storeyed, c1880 brick duplex, there being only a few of this type of dwelling extant in Brisbane.
|22 and 25-27 Bess Street remain substantially intact and are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of their type.
|22 Bess Street makes an aesthetic contribution to the streetscape, and 25-27 Bess Street has the potential to do so. The c1920s Art Deco-inspired internal renovation of 22 Bess Street has strong aesthetic value, the plaster work being an excellent example of its type.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16576,"place_ref":601839,"name":"Old Cleveland Road Tramway Tracks","alternate_name":"Belmont Electric Tramway","street_address":"Old Cleveland Road","suburb":"CARINA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-03-24","description":"The Old Cleveland Road Tramway Tracks stretch for a distance of approximately 625 metres along the centre of Old Cleveland Road, from Jones Road to Orwell Street. They are a double line set in a concrete 'pavement' approximately four metres wide. A grassed verge follows both sides of the concrete pavement for most of the tracks' distance. Shrubs and small trees are sparsely scattered along the grassed areas.
The tramway tracks are standard gauge, with a width of 1435 millimetres, and are laid using 80 pound rails (except on curves). The curves near Orwell and Wonersh Streets are a heavier grooved, or guarded rail.
Near the Jones Road end of the tramway tracks, a section of the concrete and steel tramway is used for parking. The tramway tracks are clearly visible in this section and the creation and use of the parking facilities have had little impact on the tramway. Small traffic islands have been constructed over the tram lines at two intervals along the remainder of the tramway tracks where streets intersect with Old Cleveland Road.
","history":"The Old Cleveland Road tramway tracks were laid in 1948 by Brisbane City Council as part of Brisbane's tramway system. They replaced earlier tracks belonging to the Belmont (steam) Tramway, constructed in 1912 by the Belmont Shire Council. The line ceased operation in 1969 when the entire Brisbane tramway system was closed by the Brisbane City Council.
Trams were a feature of the Brisbane cityscape for over eighty years. The first, horse-drawn trams plied their way from North Quay to Breakfast Creek and the exhibition building in 1885. Until 1922 the tramway was operated by private companies who saw the potential of a tramway to aid the sale of land. During this period, trams were changed from horse-powered, to electric, and the tramway network grew from 20 cars servicing 24 kilometres of tramway lines, to 181 cars travelling along 68 kilometres of double track. One extension of the period was that which stretched from Stones Corner to Coorparoo, and which, when opened in 1909, formed the nucleus of later extensions to Camp Hill and Belmont (now Carina).
Early in the twentieth century, Belmont was a sparsely populated, 'outer' suburb of Brisbane, under the control of the Belmont Shire Council. The area did not enjoy the services of the Brisbane tramway network, to which the Belmont Council responded with the construction of the Belmont (steam) Tramway, opened in May 1912. It was a narrow-gauge tramway track of 1067 mm, laid with 42 pound rails on timber sleepers. The line was operated by the Railway Department with two return trips each day except Sundays. This was later increased to three and four trains per day to attract suburban growth. In 1922, the Belmont Shire Council lobbied for a railway to Redland Bay to extend the Belmont Tramway. The suggestion was rejected however, and the line was constructed via Cleveland instead. The Belmont Shire Council did not have the resources to continue the operation of the tramway, and the line closed on 16 April 1924.
From 1 January 1923, Brisbane's tramways passed into government ownership. The Brisbane Tramway Trust, under the authority of the State Government, controlled the tramways until the creation of Greater Brisbane in 1925. During this time, the Trust was very active in acquiring new tram cars, and making an extension of 11 kilometres to the city's track network. One extension, completed in January 1925, was along the Coorparoo line to Camp Hill, from Cavendish Road to Bruce Street.
In December 1925, the Brisbane City Council inherited the 80 kilometre Brisbane tramway network, as well as the former Belmont Shire Council's Tramway. The Belmont Tramway had reopened in April 1925, however this proved to be a temporary arrangement. The losses incurred in the running of the line led to its second and final closure in October 1926. Belmont residents were linked by private feeder bus to the Brisbane electric tramway network, and the rails of the Belmont Tramway were removed in 1935.
With the Brisbane City Council's acquisition of the Brisbane tramway network, the upgrading and extension of the system continued. Large numbers of new trams were built and in 1933-34 the Council's distinctive technique of mass concrete tram tracks were first used extensively in Queen Street. Steel ties were used instead of sleepers, with the whole of the track, except on curves, set in solid concrete. Standard railway rails were used with a groove in the concrete for the wheel flange, and guard plates were bolted to the rails on curves to form a groove. These concrete tracks required less maintenance, and formed an excellent road surface for other vehicles.
In the years following the Second World War, Brisbane experienced a housing boom which induced the Brisbane City Council to extend its electric tramway network. Belmont (now Carina) was one of the new housing areas to be serviced by an extension to the Coorparoo tramline, opened in July 1948. The new portion of the line ran from Bruce Street to Mayfield Road, and constituted a double-track route extension of 1550 metres. The remnant surviving along Old Cleveland Road forms part of the 1948 line extension. This track was a standard-gauge track (1435 mm) consisting of steel sleepers and 80 pound rail set in mass concrete. Of the 1550 metre extension, 664 metres utilised the road-bed of the former Belmont Tramway, between Orwell Street and Mayfield Road.
Extension of the tramway network continued throughout the 1950s. By 1959 more than 140 kilometres were laid in mass concrete. Mondays to Fridays, a total of 246 trams provided morning peak services, while evening peak traffic requirements needed 296 cars. Throughout the day, each route was serviced by a tram every ten minutes. During the following decade, however, various influences led to the eventual closure of Brisbane's tram system in April 1969. In September 1962, the Paddington tram depot was burnt to the ground with the loss of 65 trams, or twenty per cent of the council fleet. Three years later, a report on the future transport and traffic requirements of Brisbane, the Wilbur Smith Plan, was released. The report recommended the closure of the tramway system via a tram to bus conversion program. To this end, express buses were introduced along the Belmont and Mt Gravatt tram routes as supplementary services in 1966, followed by the addition of express buses to four more tram routes in 1967. In this year, an order for 204 rear engine diesel buses was increased to 340. In 1967-68, the Belmont route was cut back forty metres along Old Cavendish Road, to Jones Road. On 21 June 1968, Lord Mayor Clem Jones officially announced the conversion of all tramway routes to diesel bus operation, to be effected during the 1968-69 financial year.
Brisbane's tramway system closed on 13 April 1969. The final day had a carnival atmosphere, and an estimated 73 000 people used the tramway on the last day. The Paddington depot fire and the Wilbur Smith Plan were important influences on the City Council's decision to abandon tram services, however other trends also contributed to its demise. The increasing ownership of the private motor car; urban sprawl which saw more and more families move to outer suburbs not connected to the tram system, and lack of investment in the technological development of trams compared with diesel buses, all contributed to the conversion of Brisbane's trams to buses. With the closure of the Brisbane trams, Melbourne became the only Australian capital with a large scale tramway system.
","criteria":"Old Cleveland Road Tramway Tracks are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as this portion of the tramway utilised the road bed of the earlier Belmont Tramway, established in 1912 by the Belmont Shire Council. Throughout Queensland, various Shire Councils undertook the construction of tramways which often represented a significant capital investment for relatively small communities. The tramway tracks also demonstrate the pattern of Queensland's history as an example of the Brisbane tramway system which operated from 1885 until 1969. The tramway tracks also demonstrate the expansion of the system into new residential suburbs in the post World War II era. The eventual closure of the tramway system further demonstrates the evolution of Queensland's history, as the forces of urban sprawl, the predominance of the motor car, and the perceived future transport needs of Brisbane city influenced the decision to close the tramway.
|Old Cleveland Road Tramway Tracks demonstrate rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage as some of the last visible remnant tramway tracks in Brisbane. Other tracks have been removed, or covered over with bitumen road surfacing.
|Old Cleveland Road Tramway Tracks have the potential to yield information about the construction of mass concrete tramway tracks.
|Old Cleveland Road Tramway Tracks are important in demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement. Brisbane City Council pioneered the use of mass concrete tram tracks; in other cities concrete had been used as a foundation only.
|Old Cleveland Road Tramway Tracks have a special association with the work of the Brisbane City Council's Transport Department who were responsible for the operation of the tramway from 1925 to 1969.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16611,"place_ref":601874,"name":"Bulimba State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"261 Oxford Street","suburb":"BULIMBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-11-26","description":"Bulimba State School is located on a 1.88 hectare site and is bound by Oxford Street to the north, Wentworth parade to the East, Riding Road to the West and by Barton Parade and freehold property to the South. It is a steeply sloping west facing site with levelled areas occupied by school buildings and parade and play areas at the top of the site. Pathways west of Block B and south of Block C wind down the steep embankment to the netball courts, cricket facilities and bottom oval on more level ground at the Riding Road and Barton Parade boundaries to the site.
The school buildings and structures comprise Block A, B, C and D (a demountable classroom), a new administration and resource centre and a timber framed classroom block under construction. Concrete walls retain both Wentworth Parade and Oxford Street (from the corner to the swimming pool) boundaries. A tennis court is located on the north-eastern corner, several metres above street level. Between the tennis court and the swimming pool, the demountable building -Block D, a shelter shed and the adventure playground are located.
Block A and B form the eastern and northern boundaries to the parade area, part of which is now occupied by the new outdoor learning area and verandahs of the new resource and administration building. A new classroom building is located to the west of Block B.
The in ground concrete swimming pool has covered seating and changing rooms enclosing it to the north, east and west. Block C, the former infant school and now used as the Preschool, is located to the west of the swimming pool and faces Oxford Street.
Block A is a symmetrical two storey load bearing brick building with basement and hipped terracotta tiled roof. The primary and secondary entrances to the building are expressed by a projected pedimented gable wing to the west and a pair of breakfronts to the east. A prominent fleche is centrally located.
The treatment of the elevations creates a basement level distinct from the two floors of the school proper above. The load bearing brick work to the basement is rendered and ruled to form a plinth upon which bays of stretcher bond red brickwork are relieved with pilasters of contrasting flemish bond dark glazed brickwork shafts with cement rendered bases and capitals of restrained detail. The horizontal banding of the frieze to the pedimented gable and breakfronts continues below the eaves around the perimeter of the building. The main entry is expressed by a pedimented doorway and the symmetry reinforced by two straight flight of stairs with half landing from the north and south.
At basement level, a play space occupies the area between the north and south stairwells with boys' lavatories at the southern end of the building and girls lavatories to the north. Separate facilities were provided for infants, older children and teachers and have now been altered to include a parents' room and storage areas. Seats to curtain walls, drinking taps and troughs, and store areas under main entry stair are also located in the basement which has a low floor to floor height compared to the floors above. Detailing in the play area includes bullnose brickwork on freestanding and engaged piers, eliminating right angle corners to reduce injury.
The classrooms have timber floors supported on a series of articulated steel beams expressed in the ceiling detailing and stairwells; corridors and utility areas have suspended concrete floors. Downpipes are located within the walls. Four four-light casement windows with fanlights above provide ventilation to the corridor and into the classroom through double hung windows
On the ground floor the main entry hall separates the office and head teacher's rooms. The hall leads to the centre of a north-south corridor which provides access to five classrooms between the north and south stair halls. The central three classrooms are divided by folding partition doors. A cloak room and cleaner's sink are provided at the eastern end of each stairwell. Another classroom and cloak room is located in the end bay at the southern end of the building. A similar layout exists on the first floor.
Block B is a high set timber framed building supported on steel open web joists with a cantilevered portion supporting the verandah. Stairs at the eastern and western ends provide access to a narrow verandah on the northern side of the building which contains a continuous hat and bag rack and provides access to the three classrooms. This building is of a type of which there are numerous examples, several of which are more comparatively intact and which represent a more extensive use of this type of structure.
Block C is a high set timber framed structure on concrete stumps. Three classrooms have been made into two and folding partitions have been removed as well as large sections of walls to the verandahs. The verandahs have been enclosed and stairs have been altered. The roof sheeting has been more recently replaced with corrugated iron and the roof fleche removed. Ceilings are coved and lined with tongue and groove V jointed boards verandahs enclosed stair altered, windows altered etc. This building is also of a type where there are many more intact and representative examples throughout Queensland.
","history":"Bulimba State School was first established in 1866 and contains several generations of buildings and structures that have been erected by the Department of Public Works to meet the growing needs of the community and are representative of some of the developments in education policy in Queensland since that time.
Prior to the establishment of the Bulimba State School, classes were held initially at Bulimba House, the home of DC McConnell, and then at the Baptist Church. In April 1866, a public meeting was held in the Bulimba Ferry Hotel with a view to raising funds for the construction of a National School. As the first settled agricultural district in the colony, the need for such a school had been felt for some time, but had been prevented by limited funds. Subscriptions of £61 were made at the meeting and through submissions from the meeting and the subsequent actions of a building committee, an agreement was reached by the Government to establish the school.
Michael Robinson's tender of £230 for a 18 foot x14 foot school building and a residence was accepted in June 1866 and due for completion by the following October. In the interim, the school opened on 16 July 1866 in the Wesleyan Chapel.
The first school building and residence were aligned and located at the top of the site in the south east corner facing south-west. As the district prospered and enrolments grew, extra classrooms were required and two additional timber wings were added to the school which was raised at the turn of the century to allow for eight teaching rooms at ground level.
Further additions were required within a decade and in 1915 a separate infants building was erected facing Oxford Street. It was a highset timber framed building erected on timber stumps to provide toilets and a play space underneath the building. It was clad in weatherboards with an asbestos cement slate roof and was lined internally with tongue and groove v-jointed boards to the walls and coved ceiling. The hat rooms at each end of the verandah were unlined internally and the remainder of the verandah had vertical balustrading. Two flights of uncovered external timber stairs provided access to the verandah between which the teachers' room was attached. The building comprised three classrooms with southern lighting and ventilation provided by a large bank of windows comprising casements, centre pivoting sashes and hoppers at the top to provide a variety of ventilation options. This arrangement was repeated, at the eastern and western ends of the building, both of which were protected by sunshades.
There were many representations made by the staff, the Parents and Citizen's Association, school committees and local politicians during the late twenties and thirties to accommodate the ever growing school population. In the early thirties, enrolments exceeded 520, of which over 150 were infants and it was resolved that the group of older timber classrooms should be replaced with a new building to accommodate 400, allowing the infants annexe, which was in good condition to remain.
The effects of the economic depression on building work in Queensland in the 1930s was dramatic and building work came to a standstill. The Queensland Government committed to providing impetus to the economy by embarking on capital works and relief works building programs from the early thirties until the late forties.
The relief works program favoured works involving local manual labour. It was through this scheme that the Bulimba State School's site was levelled off and tennis and basketball courts were built in 1935 followed by the erection of retaining walls to two frontages and to the tennis court which were completed in 1937 to drawings prepared by Gilbert Robert Beveridge.
Gilbert Robert Beveridge was born in Brisbane in c1904. He studied at the Brisbane Central Technical College and received his Diploma of Architecture from the Architectural Association in London and was awarded the Archibald Dawnay scholarship in 1927. He had a practice at Ascot from 1931-35 after which time he was employed first as an Assistant Architect then in 1938 as an Architect by the Queensland Works Department Architectural Branch. Beveridge's work in private practice included residential and small commercial projects.
Beveridge also prepared the plans for the new school building which was one of many substantial two and three storey schools built during this time, providing tangible proof of the Government's commitment to remedy the unemployment situation.
The brick Bulimba State School building was completed in 1938 and cost £21,965. The building comprised two storeys and a basement constructed of brick and concrete with a tile roof. The Ground floor was to provide for six class rooms (240 pupils) two teacher's rooms and a clerk rooms. The first floor was to provide for seven classrooms (272 pupils), one teacher's room and a cloak room, a total accommodation of 512 pupils. The Basement contained play areas and lavatories for teachers and pupils and a complete drainage system was provided with septic tank.
The next phase of major building activity occurred in the fifties. Around 1952, the Infant School must have suffered from some form of subsidence, as a program of works was initiated to include rectification work, general plumbing and straightening of the building and strengthening of the roof. Southern windows to the end classrooms were replaced with hoppers at this time and other general improvements were made.
The swimming pool and dressing sheds were erected in 1955 in the location of a disused tennis court with funds raised from parents and supporters during 1953-55 and subsidised by the State Government.
In 1957, a new two-storey classroom addition at the northern end of the building above the single storey female toilets provided the building with its present symmetrical form.
Plans for future extensions, to this building with wings on the western face at the northern and southern ends were not proceeded with and in 1959 a highset timber framed building supported on an open web truss system on concrete stumps was erected
More recently, a demountable building has been erected facing Oxford Street between the tennis court and swimming pool. An administration and resource centre has just been completed and additions to Block B and a new classroom block west of this building are under construction.
After peaking in the early sixties to in excess of 950 students, enrolments gradually declined to 242 in 1988. With the redevelopment of the area in the decade following, younger families have moved back into the area and the school enrolments are presently in excess of 450.
","criteria":"At Bulimba State School, established in 1866, the variety of building types and structures from different periods are representative of some of the many developments in education policy in Queensland and demonstrate the evolution of the school and the community.
The brick Bulimba State School building and the concrete retaining walls and associated fences and gates constructed in 1937-1938 are significant as a tangible demonstration of the Queensland Government's commitment to providing impetus to an economy and building industry reeling from the effects of the 1930s depression. The retaining walls, fences, gates and courts also have special significance for the local community as the work relief scheme employed local workers.
The main building, Block A erected in1937-38 is significant as a substantial interwar building which reflects the growth and stability of the population of Bulimba.
|Bulimba State School demonstrates the principle characteristics of a primary school precinct with a hierarchy of structures and open spaces built over several generations for educational purposes by the Department of Education. The school's structures and grounds provide a series of formal and informal spaces including open playground spaces, a formal parade ground, pathways, sports areas, swimming pool and tennis court facilities as well as undercroft and verandah areas.
It is an excellent and intact urban example of a substantial interwar building and displays the particular characteristics of this school building type. The use of brick and restrained detailing is typical for government buildings of the period, and Bulimba State School principal building follows in the tradition of fine buildings erected by the Queensland Public Works Department.
|It is a fine example of a school building designed by the office of the Queensland Government Architect and has aesthetic significance brought about by its massing and restrained classical detailing.
Bulimba State School and grounds is also significant for the landmark value of its principal building and setting which provides a reference point in the community. The imposing massing and scale of the brick building looms high atop Carlton Hill above surrounding suburban development with commanding views afforded both to and from the site to Moreton Bay, Hamilton and New Farm.
|Bulimba State School is valued by its community for the essential community function it provides and as a link between the past and present through its long traditional connection with the area.
|Bulimba State School principal building follows in the tradition of fine buildings erected by the Queensland Public Works Department.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16612,"place_ref":601875,"name":"Holy Trinity Anglican Church","alternate_name":"Holy Trinity Church of England","street_address":"68 Hawthorne Street","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-05-09","description":"The Holy Trinity Church is a substantial, prominently sited building located on the crest of a hill in Hawthorne Street, Woolloongabba. The church complex, which now houses only a church surrounded by landscaping has expansive views in all directions of the surrounding suburbs. The building is a landmark on a relatively undeveloped hillside position in Brisbane and is visible most many suburbs of inner city Brisbane.
The church is a brick structure with all external surfaces rendered with a roughcast concrete stucco. The principal roof is clad with terracotta cordova tiles. The design of the building is strongly influenced by the popular Spanish Mission style of the inter-war period manifest both externally and internally in the textured render, barley twist columns, heavy timber joinery and cordova roofing tiles. Combined with this obvious influence is Romanesque detailing including the raked arch motif on the parapets, domed roofs, tower and round arched openings embellished with Norman detailing.
The church has a traditional cruciform floor plan, with shallow transepts, an octagonal chancel at the eastern end and a dominant tower projecting from the north western corner. The body of the church is divided into a nave with a gabled roof abutted on the northern and southern sides by skillion roofed aisles, creating a high level clerestory. The transepts are formed by gabled abutments to the principal roof and the eastern end of the roof is separated from the principal by a secondary gabled parapet from which an octagonal hipped section roofs the chancel.
The corner tower stands about three storeys or 75 feet above ground level and has a square plan through to the second floor level where it tapers inward to form a platform which is surmounted by a circular planned lantern. Surrounding the lantern is an elaborate concrete balustrade featuring large flames at the four corners. Original floodlighting, concealed by the balustrade, illuminates the lantern at night. The lantern comprises a colonnaded exterior which supports a pointed dome roof clad with copper tiles and surmounted by a Latin cross. At the base of the tower, on the northern face is a one storeyed semicircular projection, with a half dome roof clad with painted copper tiles. The principal entrance to the tower is from the western face, through a double timber door, flanked by twisted columns and surrounded by an archway in relief plasterwork featuring moulded panels of two alternating types of crosses. Within the base of the tower is a curved cantilevered concrete stair which winds up inside the tower to give access to the upper levels. The faces of the tower feature double round arched openings separated by twisted columns on the first floor and thin slit windows on the floor above. A repeated arched moulding forms a cornice mould around the top of the second floor of the tower.
The western façade of the church houses two entrances, the principal entrance to the body of the church and the already mentioned entrance to the base of the tower. The principal entrance to the church is via a centrally located double timber door with circular motifs on each of five panels lining the exterior of the door. The door is protected by a small open porch, which has a gabled awning clad with cordova tiles and a vaulted concrete soffit supported on substantial columns with Composite order capitals. On the fascia and surrounding the round archway is a relief moulding featuring square panels of moulded panels featuring crosses. Flanking the entrance are two shallow pilasters which divide the façade into three bays. Within the central bay, above the entrance, is a row of six round arched window openings divided by thin twisted columns and glazed with coloured glass leadlights. Above this is a large wheel window again featuring brightly coloured glazing. The parapeted gable is lined at cornice level with a repeated arch moulding aligned with the taper of the gable. Surmounting the apex of the gable is a cross.
The side aisles of the northern and southern façades of the building are lined with paired round arched openings divided by twisted columns with Composite order capitals and flanked by panels with dog tooth mouldings. These openings define the internal bays of the nave and are glazed with figured stained glass panels. The windows throughout the church are steel casements. Above the height of the side aisles are taller paired round arched openings aligned with the lower windows, but glazed with two tones of green leadlighting. Above the windows is a cornice formed by the repeated arch moulding. The eastern end of the church features a number of single round arched openings glazed with stained glass panels. The repeated arch moulding is used as a cornice moulding on the octagonal chancel and raked on the two parapeted gables. A freestanding copper crucifix, with memorial tablet, is found adjacent to the western end of the southern elevation of the church. Adjacent to the south western corner of the building is a small rustic stone font which is thought to have a long association with the parish. Also apparent on the southern elevation is the semi basement under the southern transept.
Internally the body of the church is divided into a nave and side aisles with two heavy face brick arcades, comprising compound columns supporting round arched openings and forming a six bay nave. The compound columns are capped with white painted concrete capitals embellished with mouldings of foliage. The side aisles are further divided by round archways defining each of the bays of the nave and springing from the compound columns of the principal arcades. Also demarcating the internal bays are a number of heavy dark stained timber scissor roof trusses supported on white painted concrete corbels with simple mouldings. The ceiling of the church is lined with stained pine rafters between which are infill panels of timber based board, like an early coarse particle board. The internal walls of the Holy Trinity Church are all dark face brickwork with black pointing. The flooring throughout the interior is concrete which has been scoured to resemble flagging stones and treated with a light buff colour in areas to form patterns. Symbols, ? and ?, are inscribed in the concrete floor in the steps to the sanctuary area.
The transepts of the church are formed by projections aligned with the two most easterly bays of the nave. Housed in the northern facing chancel is a memorial chapel separated from the church by a face brick balustrade. Featured in this chapel are early stained glass panels commemorating Mr and Mrs Thomas Weedon, long time parishioners of the church. Housed in the chancel on the southern side of the church is a vestry and organ case. The vestry is formed by dark stained timber panelling with feature panels of timber cross bracing. Aligned with the transepts in the nave is a choir area, separated from the body of the church by stepped platforms.
The sanctuary in the chancel is demarcated by two adjacent round chancel arches, defined externally by the two parapeted gable ends and separated from one another by a recessed bay housing round arched openings. Altar rails are aligned with the forward chancel arch. The ceiling of the chancel follows the hipped roof line and is clad with a concrete render. The sanctuary has a number of stepped platforms, and on the uppermost platform is a timber altar. Also in the sanctuary area are two early patterned stained glass panels in round arched openings within the raked walls behind the altar. A large concrete pulpit, to which access is provided by three steps, is found in the choir section of the church and is decorated in the manner of the exterior of the building, painted white and featuring the repeated arch moulding as a cornice.
Generally the interior of the church is quite dark and heavy, as a result of the dark finishes, heavy joinery and small openings, mostly glazed with coloured glass. There is early electrical lighting within the church in the form of pendants in the nave and wall brackets along the walls of the side aisles. The pews and other furniture and fittings including the organ, altar furniture, lectern and altar candles are also early features of the church. An early sandstone baptismal font is elevated on small platforms in the south western corner of the church.
","history":"The Holy Trinity Church of England at Woolloongabba was constructed in 1930 to the design of Brisbane architect Eric Ford of the partnership, Chambers and Ford. The building was the third church on the site and replaced a timber church constructed in 1875.
Woolloongabba grew from a small settlement in the early 1860s to a major centre in the late nineteenth century. In the early 1860s Woolloongabba was known as One-Mile Swamp and was developing following diversion of the Toowoomba mail from South Brisbane to Kangaroo Point, the formation of the New Ipswich Road and the opening of Brisbane's first cross river bridge at South Brisbane in June 1865. These developments stimulated land investment at One-mile Swamp, and in 1864 the Clarence Town Estate was offered for sale. This parcel of land was sold to publican Thomas Hayselden in 1863, and the first Clarence Hotel, at the corner of Stanley Street and Boggo Road, was opened by him in January 1864. When Hayselden's Clarence Estate and neighbouring One-mile Swamp or Woolloongabba allotments were being advertised for auction or sale in 1864-65, the potential of the area for both small business and residential purposes was emphasised. Suddenly, in the mid-1860s, an area which previously had been defined by little other than hotels acquired a string of small businesses fronting the new Ipswich Road beyond Boggo Road.
The population of Woolloongabba, which had grown steadily between the 1860s and 1880s, increased rapidly following the expansion of the railway line to Woolloongabba in 1884, and the extension of the electric tramway to Woolloongabba/East Brisbane in 1897. During the 1880s and 1890s Woolloongabba developed as Brisbane's fourth major shopping centre, the others being central Brisbane, Fortitude Valley and Stanley Street at South Brisbane. By the turn of the century, most of the allotments facing Stanley Street, Logan Road and Ipswich Road at the Fiveways were fully developed commercial sites.
As the population grew, a Church of England congregation was formed and a church was constructed on land in Hawthorne Street, Woolloongabba. This land was acquired in March 1864 by Robert Creyke from Mary Ann Peterson who was granted the original Deed in 1861. Robert Creyke was the son of a Church of England Minister and following Robert's death in 1869, Reverend Creyke donated the land to the Diocese for the newly formed Holy Trinity congregation for construction of a church. The congregation was formed in 1869 and meetings and services were held in local buildings. In 1870 a simple church was designed by prolific architect, Richard Gailey and this remained the parish church for about four years before being destroyed in a wind storm in October 1874. Another church was dedicated for service on 23 May 1875 and photographs of this second building indicate that it was a rudimentary timber framed and clad structure with a rectangular plan and a steeply pitched gabled roof clad with shingles.
At the construction of their first church the Holy Trinity congregation were part of the South Brisbane parish, and after 1886 when Reverend HT Molesworth was appointed Curate-in-charge of the church a movement started toward the formation of a separate Holy Trinity parish. The parish was constituted by the Diocesan Council on 19 January 1888 and Reverend D Ruddock was appointed as the first Rector. In the following year, Brisbane architect, John Henry Burley designed a substantial church hall for the Parish which remained in use until 1998 when it was demolished. By 1890 a rectory also was constructed on the site to the design of diocesan architect, John Hingestone Buckeridge. This was in use until destroyed by fire in 1956.
In 1915 the rector of Holy Trinity Parish, CH Edwards, temporarily left the parish to serve in World War I and after a brief return in 1916 did not return to the parish until 1920, where he remained until 1925. It is thought that he instigated a movement to construct another church because the timber church, despite the premier hilltop site, remained relatively inconspicuous, particularly compared with those Roman Catholic churches being constructed on elevated Brisbane sites by Archbishop Duhig. In about 1916 a subscription scheme was devised to allow parishioners to donate a sum of money over a lengthy period which finally contributed to the construction of a substantial church in 1930. The 1920s was a period of expansion for the Church of England in Queensland and during this time many older churches were rebuilt and new churches constructed. Typically these new buildings were unpretentious, retaining influence from the nineteenth century Gothic revival but with more awareness of the Queensland sub tropical climate. In the late 1920s experimentation with derivatives of a hybrid of Romanesque and Spanish Mission architecture are apparent in both the Holy Trinity Church at Woolloongabba and at another Holy Trinity Church in Mackay designed by Lange Powell. Earlier in 1924, a Roman Catholic Church at Bowen Hills was constructed using Spanish Mission influences but few other churches display the hybrid style developed by the architect Eric Ford at Woolloongabba.
The architectural firm, Chambers and Ford who designed the Woolloongabba Church of England, was a partnership of Claude William Chambers and Eric Marshall Ford. Chambers and Ford remained in practise in Brisbane from 1920 until 1951, although Chambers was largely not involved and moved permanently to Sydney in about 1935. Chambers was a highly experienced and notable architect, who worked for a number of prominent Brisbane firms during the nineteenth century and formed several partnerships in the twentieth century, including Chambers and Powell (where EM Ford was office manager); Chambers and Ford and Chambers and Hutton. The partnership of Chambers and Ford designed several Brisbane churches notably St Margaret's Church of England, Sandgate (1927) and St James' Church, Kelvin Grove (1943).
Plans, prepared by Ford, for the erection of a new church at Woolloongabba were ready by the end of the 1920s and it is thought that the design was chosen from a limited competition. The parish was saved the expense of the demolition of the earlier church which was blazed to the ground in a fire on 11 December 1929.
The foundation stone was laid on 3 March, 1930 by Archbishop Gerald Sharp. A description rendered by the Buildings and Real Estate writer of the Brisbane Courier, talked of the building designed in the Italian Romanesque style of the eleventh century, "slightly modified to suit local conditions". The plan comprised a prominent tower, vestry, entrance porch and nave with side aisles and octagonal chancel. A basement was to provide access for a further two vestries. Finishes throughout the church included face brick internal walls with black tuckpointing, timber panelled ceilings and external roughcast render. A red tiled roof was to provide a contrast with the whitewashed external walls.
Tenders were called by Chambers and Ford for the Holy Trinity Church in the February edition of the Architects and Builder's Journal of Queensland and in the May edition of the journal the tender of JH Davis was accepted. The final cost of the church was about £9800.
The Holy Trinity Church was dedicated on 4 October 1930 by the Coadjutor Bishop of Brisbane, the Right Reverend Francis de Witt Batty. Most of the descriptions of the building on the day of its dedication focussed on its extraordinary site which crowned the highest part of Hawthorne Street and commanded a view of the entire parish. The completed building housed an organ by Messrs Whitehouse costing £560, electric lighting installed by Mr Dudley Winterford, plasterwork by James Bain & Son, glazing by Decorative Art Company and leadlights by Exton & Company. The garden and landscaping was set out by Mr H Stokes. Many of the internal fittings were donated by parishioners and much of the fitted and loose furniture, including the altar furniture and pews was designed by the architect, Eric Ford.
The church has remained as it was constructed with very few apparent alterations. The organ pipes have been painted, carpet runners and squares have been laid, commemorative stained glass windows have been added to the side aisles and work appears to have been undertaken on the reredos screen which is now concealed by a heavy curtain. The exterior of the church has been painted but retains a whitewashed appearance.
Alterations to the site include the 1938 renovation of an sub-basement area in the church for a Columbarium, or a place to hold funerary vases and the erection of a freestanding bell tower in 1949 to commemorate those soldiers who were killed during WWII. Landscaping around the building has been continually upgraded and many established trees remain on the site. In 1956 after the original rectory was destroyed the church acquired an adjoining property with an early house from the Sawyer family. This building became the rectory. In 1971 a freestanding crucifix was erected on the southern side of the church commemorating Eric Johnstone. The most substantial changes to the church complex occurred in late 1997 to early 1998 when the church hall and rectory were demolished.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1930 as the third Holy Trinity Church of England on the site, the building demonstrates the development of the Woolloongabba area from the nineteenth century when the original church was constructed and also reflects the expansion of the Church of England in Queensland during the 1920s when many parish churches were constructed or upgraded increasing the presence of the church in the state.
|The building demonstrates the principal characteristics of inter-war church architecture, with traditional cruciform plan including prominent tower, Romanesque detailing, internal layout and furniture and stained glass panels in traceried surrounds.
|The outstanding landmark qualities of the Holy Trinity Church contribute to the aesthetic significance of the place; it is a well composed and dramatic building on a prominent site. The design of the building is significant as a good intact example of a blend of architectural influences, most apparently inter-war Spanish Mission and ecclesiastical Romanesque. Elements of the building have aesthetic merit as well designed features which complement the design of the place, such features include the artificial lighting both internal and external; internal furniture and fittings, most significantly the pews, choir seating, two altars and altar furniture, lectern, pulpit, organ and font; as well as the early stained glass panels in the memorial chapel, on the western façade and in the sanctuary.
|The church has special associations with the Holy Trinity parish and with the Church of England in Queensland as the site of a Church of England for nearly 130 years and as the parish church for sixty eight years.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16621,"place_ref":601885,"name":"Remains of the Langshaw Marble Lime Works","alternate_name":"Langshaw Marble Lime Works","street_address":"12 Julius Street","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-10-13","description":"The remains of the Langshaw Marble Lime Works' lime kilns are located on a level site fronting the Brisbane River to the west, at the base of a steep embankment below Pine Lodge [601895f]. The site contains the remains of two lime kilns built into the steep embankment, with a level area extending to the river bank and remnants of a timber wharf adjacent.
The remains of the kilns, consisting of masonry walls and hearths, are constructed abutting each other forming a D-shaped plan, with the northern kiln constructed of porphyry and the southern of brick. The Pine Lodge garage has been constructed at the top of the embankment, with the rear of the structure surmounting the kilns.
The porphyry kiln has squared rubble coursing, with an arched hearth with three layers of bricks forming the extrados, and is currently used as an outdoor fireplace. The second kiln is constructed of English bond brickwork, and is mainly overgrown. The site also contains a number of mature trees.
A recently constructed tiered stone retaining wall is located at the river bank, and the remains of a number of timber piles from an early wharf are located adjacent.
","history":"The lime kilns on the banks of the Brisbane River at New Farm, below Julius Street, appear to have been established in the late 1870s by Brisbane merchant James Campbell, who traded as James Campbell and Sons from 1882 and James Campbell and Sons Ltd from 1896, and who had established the Langshaw Marble Lime Works on the New Farm site by 1881.
The firm of James Campbell and Sons was one of Brisbane's earliest and longest established suppliers of building materials, which in the second half of the 19th century specialised in the retailing of lime, cement, plaster, paints and timber, and operated saw and planing mills, plantations, lime works and pottery kilns in a number of locations in southeast Queensland, as well as Campbell's wharf and warehouse at Creek Street, Brisbane, and a substantial fleet of freight vessels.
James Campbell was born in 1830 in Perthshire, Scotland, and in his youth was apprenticed as a plasterer. He married Isabella Mitchell in February 1853 shortly before emigrating to Moreton Bay, where they arrived in June that year. Finding little employment in Brisbane for a plasterer, James opened a small store in George Street, retailing building materials obtained from Sydney. Moreton Bay was passing through a recession at this period, and Campbell's first venture failed. He took odd jobs - timbergetting, fencing, carpentering, painting, bricklaying - until in 1854 he was able to acquire land in Creek Street, at the corner of Charlotte Street, where he erected a single-storeyed building and commenced business as City Lime, Cement and Plaster Stores - the business which ultimately became James Campbell and Sons.
Campbell's business prospered steadily through the 1850s and 1860s. In 1857 he bought additional land in Charlotte Street and in 1864 purchased 36 perches in Creek Street, opposite the city wharves, where he erected a 2-storeyed timber store and residence which remained the firm's headquarters until replaced in 1909 by an imposing five-storeyed brick warehouse. From the early 1860s, Campbell is understood to have operated lime kilns at Breakfast Creek and Lytton, supplied with shell and coral collected from Moreton Bay by sub-contractors.
In the 1870s James Campbell entered the timber trade, and from this point the business prospered rapidly, particularly after his two eldest sons, John Dunmore Campbell [born 1854] and James Mitchell Campbell [born 1860], entered the family business. In the mid-1870s, Campbell established his own fleet of ships and acquired his first sawmill, at Capalaba Creek, in 1876. This was closed in 1881 when his Coochin Creek Sawmill [Campbellville] was established. Between 1876 and 1936 the firm bought and sold at least 11 sawmills in southeast Queensland.
The New Farm riverbank on which Campbell's lime kilns were established in the late 1870s was part of a larger parcel of land alienated in 1845 by John McConnel [of Cressbrook and later Durundur], who acquired most of the land south of Brunswick Street to the river, between Kent and Sydney Streets - an area of almost 113 acres. In the mid-1870s part of this land, Eastern Suburban Allotments 14 and 15 [by then owned by Frederick Hamilton Hart and William Henry Barker] were subdivided as the Langshaw Estate - marketed as prime residential real estate with frontages to the Brisbane River, Bowen Terrace and the New Farm Road [Brunswick Street], suitable for gentlemen's villa residences. It appears that Langshaw, Barker and Moray Streets were surveyed at this time, but they are not listed in the Brisbane Post Office Directories until 1883-84.
Between June 1876 and December 1878 James Campbell acquired title to subdivisions 47-50 of ESA 15 and subdivision 51 of ESA 15A, on the Langshaw Estate, all of which had frontages to the Brisbane River and Moray Street, below Langshaw Street. It is not known if any structures existed on these blocks at the time of purchase. In February 1877 Campbell wrote to the Brisbane Municipal Council, requesting permission to erect a lime kiln at Bowen Terrace, on the Langshaw Estate, and a year later raised a mortgage of £1,500 on the property from James Gibbon. He advertised the Langshaw Marble Lime Works in Pugh's Almanac of 1881, for the first time.
A c1890 sketch and an 1896 survey plan indicate that two D-shaped sets of kilns were constructed, but only the southern 'D', comprising two kilns, currently survives. The two kilns comprising this southern set are constructed of different materials, with the stone kiln likely to pre-date the brick kiln. They may have functioned together as a pair of intermittent-firing kilns - one cooling and being drawn while the other was being charged and burnt. This was a simple and common form of burning lime, practised throughout the Australian colonies in the 19th century. Built into the side of the river embankment, limestone and fuel were layered alternately into each kiln from above, burnt for 3 days at 1,000 degrees Celsius, then allowed to cool ready for the drawing of the lime - a cycle of 6 or 7 days for each kiln in alternation.
In addition to the kilns, Campbell built a small wharf at the New Farm site, to which his ships transported limestone, and later timber, following the establishment of the Langshaw Planing Mills and Joinery Works on the property in 1882. These latter shipments included New Zealand White Pine from 1885 and Oregon Pine from 1887. A c1881 photograph shows the wharf extant.
In 1882 Campbell took his two eldest sons [John Dunmore and James Mitchell] into partnership as James Campbell and Sons. JD Campbell, [who from 1896 was chairman and managing director of James Campbell and Sons Ltd], supervised the Langshaw planing mills and lime works, and from at least 1883 he and his young family resided at Rocky Bank, overlooking the Brisbane River at New Farm, adjoining the mill and lime works on part of the land acquired by his father in the 1870s.
By the late 1880s, James Campbell and Sons had developed an extensive building supplies business which embraced timber, lime, brick, stone, asphalt, and hardware. In September 1883 they had acquired a half interest in George Fischer's Pottery at Albion [established c1861], the new firm being styled George Fischer & Co. - two years later they bought out Fischer and renamed the business the Albion Brick and Pottery Works. This was the start of Campbell's focus on Albion. In 1890, their Coochin Creek Sawmills were closed and an extensive new sawmill was opened at Albion, which became the focus of Campbell's sawmilling interests in Brisbane until the middle of the 20th century. The establishment of the Albion works, combined with the Australia-wide depression of the early 1890s and severe flooding of the Brisbane River in 1890 and 1893 - which caused extensive damage at Campbell's Creek Street warehouse and is likely to have inundated the New Farm lime kilns - resulted in the firm relinquishing the Langshaw property in the early 1890s. In June 1894 title passed to the Queensland National Bank Ltd, and three years later to Thomas William Hanmer, who held the interest in a £7,000 mortgage on the property taken out by James Campbell in 1886.
A search of the Brisbane Post Office Directories indicates that following James Campbell and Sons' removal c1894, the site of the former Langshaw mills and lime works remained unoccupied for about 20 years. A plan of Campbell's Wharf New Farm, thought to date to 1904, shows lime kiln ruins with an adjoining iron shed, a retaining wall at the high water mark with a short wharf, and remnants of the Langshaw Sawmill. In 1914 title passed to James Green, a Brisbane timber merchant, who had moved his Wickham Street business to the New Farm site by 1916. By 1921, Rosenfeld & Co. (Qld) Ltd, timber merchants, were operating a saw mill from this location, and title to the property passed to Julius Rosenfeld in January 1924. A disastrous fire in February 1931 destroyed the mill, and in 1933 Rosenfeld subdivided the land into residential allotments around a short cul-de-sac, Julius Street, which was dedicated by the Brisbane City Council in 1934. In 1935 a set of flats [Aloha Court - later renamed Pine Lodge] was erected on the subdivision containing the kilns, and at this time a garage associated with the flats was erected at the edge of the cliff, in part resting on the lime kiln remains.
James Campbell and Sons Ltd became one of the great success stories of locally-derived Queensland commerce/industry. James Campbell died in 1904, James Mitchell Campbell in 1906 and John Dunmore Campbell in 1909, but the business was sustained and flourished through the first half of the 20th century by three generations of the Campbell family. In 1951 it became part of the Carrick group of companies, but retained the name of James Campbell and Sons. In 1954 the firm celebrated 100 years of trading, and survived into the 1990s as Campbell's Timber and Hardware, until absorbed into the BBC Hardware chain c1995.
","criteria":"The remains of these late 1870s lime kilns survive as important evidence of lime manufacture in 19th century Queensland, illustrating the establishment and development of local industry, particularly that related to the building trade.
|Although by no means evidence of the earliest lime burning undertaken at Moreton Bay, they are rare surviving 19th century lime kiln remains which provide important information about the process and role of lime manufacture in Queensland, and have the potential to contribute to more exhaustive studies on these topics, to the analysis of kiln type, and to our general understanding of Queensland history.
|Although by no means evidence of the earliest lime burning undertaken at Moreton Bay, they are rare surviving 19th century lime kiln remains which provide important information about the process and role of lime manufacture in Queensland, and have the potential to contribute to more exhaustive studies on these topics, to the analysis of kiln type, and to our general understanding of Queensland history.
|The lime kiln remains are significant for their association with the work of the important early Queensland firm of James Campbell and Sons, whose building supplies business, established in 1854, survived into the late 20th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16624,"place_ref":601888,"name":"Victoria Flats","alternate_name":"Morella, Carinyah, Lumtah and Neerim | Kilroe's Flats","street_address":"369 Gregory Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-03-30","description":"Victoria Flats are situated at the corner of Gregory Terrace and Kinross Street, Spring Hill, on the highest part of the ridge overlooking Victoria Park to the north and west. The principal elevation is to Gregory Terrace, to which the flats make a prominent streetscape contribution.
The building is domestic in scale and form. It is a two-storeyed brick building with 2 flats on each floor, each with a frontage to Gregory Terrace, and a sub-floor at the rear where the land slopes away toward Water Street The whole has a single, bungalow-style roof clad in terracotta tiles, with a short ridge and gablets at the apex, reminiscent of early 1900s houses, which unifies the building. Each flat has a separate front and rear entrance. Two symmetrically positioned, gable-roofed, external brick staircases at the front of the building give access to the two upper floor flats. At the rear, two separate external staircases also give access to the top two flats, but the original staircases have been replace with steel framing and concrete treads. The exterior walls are finished in stucco with decorative brickwork to the window sills. Windows on the ground floor have window hoods clad with terracotta tiles.
Each flat has a separate wrought-iron entrance gate on Gregory Terrace, with individual name plate in the gate: Morella, Carinyah, Lumtah and Neerim.
Internally, each flat is identical in arrangement, other than that the two flats on each floor are mirrored in plan. Although the two upper floor flats were initially designed with a different floor plan to the lower floor flats, all have been constructed to the ground floor pattern. In each flat, a small entrance hall leads into the public spaces - a living room and dining room with windows along the side of the building, and separated by a timber arch. A bedroom opens off each of these rooms on the party-wall side. The front bedroom has a small enclosed front balcony, and off the rear bedroom, through wide french doors, is a larger enclosed sleeping verandah. Originally the kitchen was located at the front of each flat, beside the front entrance hall, and accessed from what is now the living room [formerly the dining room]. At an early date, in each flat, the kitchen has been converted to a bathroom, and the bathroom, which opened off the sleeping verandah at the back, was converted to a kitchen. The present 'kitchens' retain the original wall and floor tiling associated with their former function as bathrooms: black and white patterned mosaic tiles on the floor and rectangular, white ceramic tiles finished with similar listello tiles, on the walls. Next to the original bathroom [now kitchen] and also accessed from the sleeping verandah is a toilet. In each flat, a rear door opens from the sleeping verandah onto a landing, off which is a separate, externally-accessed laundry.
The floors are of extremely narrow timber boards, possibly 'japanned' originally. The public rooms have early timber panelling, and plate and picture rails with decorative timber brackets, all of which has been painted. The ceilings retain their original fibrous-cement sheeting and timber battening arranged in decorative patterns. In at least one flat, the timber battening on the ceiling retains its dark staining, but most ceilings have been repainted. In each flat, there is a small triangular coat-cupboard in the entrance hall, and early built-in cupboards in the bathroom and kitchen. There is also an early, but not original, serving hatch between what is now the dining room [formerly the living room] and what is now the kitchen [formerly the bathroom]. Windows throughout are timber-framed casements, most retaining their original patterned, opaque glass. The front door to each flat has a decorative oval leadlight window.
The front garden is enclosed along Gregory Terrace by the original fence of rendered brick, but the retaining wall and fence along Kinross Street has been replaced [late 1990s] with a cement block and picket fence. In the backyard is a mature Jacaranda tree and a set of three timber-framed, weatherboard-clad garages with a skillion roof, recently reclad. These are accessed from Kinross Street.
","history":"Victoria Flats are understood to have been known initially as Kilroe's Flats, erected c1923 for Mrs Fanny [Frances] Kilroe. Designed by influential Brisbane architect TBM Wightman, they were amongst the first purpose-designed flats constructed in Brisbane.
This part of Spring Hill had been surveyed into 2 acre suburban allotments in 1860. Allotment 253, which ran between Gregory Terrace [which at the time formed the town boundary] and Water Street, and included the site of the later flats, was purchased in May 1860 by William Gray of Brisbane for the sum of £62. In 1863 Gray subdivided the land into 12 smaller residential subdivisions and William [later Kinross] Street. Most of the blocks lower down the hill in Spring Hollow sold quickly, but Gray retained the blocks fronting Gregory Terrace [subs 1-3 of allotment 253 -1 rood 37.6 perches]. This land remained vacant until Frances Kilroe, wife of Joseph Kilroe, acquired title in September 1918. The Kilroes erected a residence, Mirrunya, on subdivision 2, and were listed as resident there in the 1919-1920 Post Office Directory. Joseph Kilroe was associated with the drapery and haberdashery firm of Finney Isles & Co., and had married Fanny Elliott in Brisbane in 1895.
In 1922, Mrs Kilroe made application to the Brisbane Municipal Council to erect a block of flats on Gregory Terrace, with the plans approved in November. The architect was listed as TBM Wightman, and the contractors as Cheesman & Bull of Charlotte Street. The flats were erected on subdivision 1 of allotment 253, adjacent to Mirrunya, with frontages to Gregory Terrace and Kinross Street. Plans published in the Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland in June 1923 show a two-storeyed block of four flats [2 on each level], each with separate entrance, front verandah, vestibule, living room, dining room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, rear sleeping verandah, bathroom, laundry and toilet. Details of the street fencing were also included. The flats were completed by mid-1924, and were known initially as Kilroe's Flats. Each of the four flats also had an individual name: Morella, Carinyah, Lumtah and Neerim. The name Victoria Flats may be a later descriptor.
The purpose designed flat or apartment building emerged as a new form of residential accommodation in Brisbane during the 1920s, and Kilroe's Flats on Gregory Terrace were amongst the earliest purpose-designed flats erected in the city, and certainly the first on Gregory Terrace, which became a popular location for blocks of flats in the later 1920s and 1930s. Brisbane, in comparison to Sydney where flat buildings were being erected from the early 1900s, was relatively slow to adopt this new form of domestic dwelling. Like most of Brisbane's purpose-designed flats, and similar to Melbourne rather than Sydney flats, Kilroe's Flats on Gregory Terrace were essentially suburban in nature: domestic in scale and design and located within a garden setting. They were unusual in that each flat had an entrance directly accessible from the street, rather than accessed from a common stairwell.
Three main types of purpose-designed flats evolved in Brisbane in the interwar period: moderate-rental blocks; prestigious and luxury flats or apartments; and the bachelor flat. Sometimes these were combined with professional chambers or shops. Kilroe's Flats, with their attractive street facades, private entrances, generously-proportioned rooms, and up-to-date facilities [including built-in cupboards in the entrance, kitchen and bathroom], were clearly aimed at the higher income, long-term rental market. The location was prestigious - situated on the high land along Gregory Terrace overlooking Victoria Park - and convenient to the central city.
The bulk of purpose-designed blocks of flats erected in Brisbane in the interwar period were intended as rental investments, rather than for immediate re-sale, as strata title was not available. Investors favoured centrally located positions, close to workplaces, shopping facilities, entertainment and schools, with easy access to public transport. Corner positions, which permitted plenty of opportunity to ensure flats were well lit and ventilated, were also favoured. Kilroe's Flats are early and important evidence of these considerations.
The designer of Kilroe's Flats, Scottish-trained architect Thomas Blair Moncrieff Wightman, arrived in Brisbane c1910 at the age of 26. He first lectured in architecture at the Brisbane Central Technical College, then was employed by architects Atkinson and McLay in 1912, and was in private practice in Brisbane by 1913 - firstly on his own, then as Wightman and Phillips from 1914 to 1918. From 1919 he practised alone until his retirement and subsequent early death c1933. He was a fellow of the Royal British Institute of Architects, and a councillor of the Queensland Institute of Architects (President in 1923-24, about the time he designed Kilroe's Flats).
Wightman's work was well received in Brisbane, and his residential work is considered to be important in the development of interwar domestic architecture in Queensland. He established a substantial residential practice, and attracted prestigious commissions which permitted design experimentation in adapting the traditional Queensland timber house to meet changing social and functional requirements.
Kilroe's Flats are the only purpose-built flats in Brisbane identified to date as designed by Wightman. In these flats, Wightman employed elements of domestic bungalow style in the tradition of the Queensland high-set house. The verandah spaces in particular are illustrative of changing lifestyles in Brisbane during the interwar period, when verandah widths and designs were being experimented with to permit their use as outdoor living and sleeping 'rooms'.
The Kilroes did not reside in their Gregory Terrace flats, and by c1925 had left Mirrunya, which from March 1928 they let to Lillian Leitch as a private hospital. By 1942 Mrs Kilroe had been widowed. In that year she sold Mirrunya, but retained the flats on an enlarged subdivision [resub 2 of subs 1-3 of allotment 253 - 1 rood 4.2 perches]. Following Fanny Kilroe's death in 1948, the flats [building and land] were sold to Edward and Bridie Lynch in 1949. They remain with descendants of the Lynch family, and unlike many of Brisbane's interwar flats which have since been converted to strata title, are retained on a single title.
","criteria":"Victoria Flats [Kilroe's Flats], erected c1923, is important in demonstrating the pattern of residential development in Brisbane during the interwar years, being among the earliest purpose-designed suburban flats constructed in Brisbane.
|As early surviving purpose-designed flats in Brisbane, the place is rare, and important in illustrating changing community attitudes to desirable and acceptable forms of housing. The incorporation of separate street entrances for each flat also is comparatively rare among Brisbane interwar flats.
|The place remains highly intact externally and substantially intact internally, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of early, purpose-designed, middle-class flats in Brisbane - including the domestic scale, design and layout; the garden setting; the inclusion of separate entrances and separate laundries; and the attention to aesthetic detail [including leadlights in the front entrance doors, decorative timber brackets to the internal picture and plate rails in the living and dining rooms, and early decorative wall and floor tiling to the original bathrooms]. In addition, the location is illustrative of many of the principal concerns of investors in up-market flats, including: accessibility to public transport, workplaces, shops, schools and entertainment; aesthetics; and good light and ventilation.
|The place has aesthetic value, and makes an important contribution to the Gregory Terrace streetscape.
|The place has an important association with the work of Brisbane architect TBM Wightman, who was influential in the development of domestic architecture in Brisbane during the interwar years, and is the only purpose-designed block of flats identified to date as having been designed by him.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16626,"place_ref":601890,"name":"Woodlands","alternate_name":"Glen Urquhart | Clarke's Farm","street_address":"24 Woodland Street","suburb":"ASHGROVE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-08-04","description":"Woodlands is situated on half an acre of land (0.2 ha). The garden contains large mature trees, including a weeping fig, silky oaks, jacarandas, poincianas, Moreton Bay chestnuts, casuarinas, pines, flame trees and an albizia. It has a privet hedge along the front fence dating from at least the 1920s. A decorative wrought iron fence, gates and matching tree guards, constructed of Lowmoor iron and marked Baleys Patent Albion, survive from Charles Plant's time.
\nThe house is a single storey, timber building on stumps, low set at the front and high at the back where the land falls away to the former mining gully. The main, 1883 section is roughly square in plan, with walls of single skin, vertical beaded tongue and groove boards on a hardwood frame that has pegged tenoned joints visible at external door heads and windows. The roof is clad with corrugated iron. It has six main rooms with front and back hallways leading into the dining room. The joinery is cedar and the large cedar fireplace remains in the dining room. There are timber fretwork roses in the twelve foot ceilings. Cedar french doors with fanlights open onto the formerly encircling verandahs. The hall/dining room doors have etched and coloured glass panels in the upper sections. The leadlights believed to have been transferred from Ferndale have distinctive geometric patterns and have been incorporated as decorative features in internal and external walls and some fanlights. Wall panels are generally accompanied by elaborately carved cedar shelf/brackets, believed also to come from Ferndale.
\nExternally, the 'new room' added in 1933 sits comfortably at the corner of the house but has some distinctive details, in particular the concave sweep between the upper eaves and verandah roof levels of the original house, the sweep being clad with cedar shingles. Internally it has a plaster 'art deco' ceiling, silky oak joinery and panelling, including panelled doors with crossed diagonal decorative mouldings. The diagonal cross design is repeated in the casement windows and in the fixed and sliding leadlight panels that replaced the wall dividing this room from the drawing room. The adjoining verandah, now a breakfast room has cedar bi-fold windows that match the design of the casements in the 'new room'. There is a fireplace for an electric fire that survives. Some modernisation also carried out in other rooms at the time, includes the installation of a matching fireplace in the drawing room and its Art Deco green tiling, a terrazzo hearth and a green enamel stove in the original brick stove recess of the kitchen.
\nThe house retains its 1930s form, together with a high degree of intact detail, including door furniture and the remains of gas lighting in the bedrooms. The bedrooms also have built-in hand basins set in timber beaded cupboards.
","history":"Woodlands is situated on part of the 30 acres of land (12.14 ha) originally purchased in 1868 by James Clarke and known as Clarke's Farm. From at least 1882 Clarke and a William Reinhold prospected for gold on the property. In 1883, the land, together with a small house and outbuildings, was sold to William Widdop, although Clarke and Reinhold continued their activities. In the same year, Professor John Pepper leased the property for himself and his family. Pepper, an analytical chemist, also had an interest in other branches of the sciences, particularly the application of electricity. He had arrived in Brisbane in 1881 after gaining a name in his native England and abroad as an educator and populariser of science and for introducing evening classes to the London Polytechnic. He gave lectures and staged entertaining demonstrations including the famous illusion named 'Pepper's Ghost'. In Brisbane, he gave early demonstrations of electric light and of the gramophone as well as setting up courses in science at schools and introducing chemistry classes at the School of Arts. He also opened a laboratory in Queen Street as a consulting analytical chemist. He is credited with the first formal teaching of chemistry in Queensland.
\nFollowing an agreement made in 1883 with Widdop, who agreed to sell the property to Pepper if no payable gold was found, Pepper erected a house on the property, which is now known as 'Woodlands'. In 1886 this agreement became the subject of a legal dispute that was settled in favour of Pepper, who then purchased the land. In 1889 he sold the property to Charles Plant and returned to England.
\nPlant, who had extensive gold mining interests in north Queensland, including the Venus Battery, used the property to stay at when in Brisbane until he retired there in 1897/8 for the benefit of his children's education. About this time he erected a grand house for himself, adjacent to Pepper's house, which he named 'Ferndale' and erected a decorative wrought iron fence along Woodland Street that enclosed both houses.
\nPepper's former house was rented out until 1922, when the land was subdivided in anticipation of the marriage of Plant's elder daughter, Hilda. The house and land were placed in the name of her fiance, John MacDonald Grant, who had been in military service at Gallipoli and in France with Eric and Reg Plant, two of Hilda's brothers.
\nIn the same year, Plant made a similar provision for his other daughter, Oenone, transferring land between the former Pepper house and Ferndale to her future husband, John Finlay. This land was not built on however, and was used until the 1950s as an extension to the garden of the Grant's home, which they called Glen Urquhart. In 1933 a new room in the current, Art Deco style was added to the south east corner of the house by architects Addison and MacDonald.
\nIn 1932 Charles Plant died and in 1936 the land on which Ferndale stood was subdivided and the house was demolished. It had featured handsome carved cedar joinery and a ballroom surmounted by a lantern decorated with leadlight panels. These panels and some decorative joinery were then incorporated into the Grant home.
\nHilda Grant died in 1943 after prolonged ill health. She had been deeply involved with the Red Cross in both World Wars, being President of the Ashgrove Branch in WWII and Convenor of the Ithaca Branch of the Australian Comforts Fund. She was also commissioner for Girl Guides in the 1930s. John Grant lived until the age of 94, dying in 1977. Although he was trained as an engineer, becoming Chief Assistant Engineer for Brisbane Tramways, he retained his military associations after WWI. In 1938 he was appointed to command and raise the 61st Battalion of the Queensland Cameron Highlanders, which he did with notable success. They were later to play a significant role in the Battle for Milne Bay in 1942. Grant was also inaugural president of the Ashgrove RSL. During his presidency between 1932-35, committee meetings were held at his home. Woodland Street remains the official Ashgrove marshalling area on Anzac Day, a reminder of Grant's early role in organising Anzac Day observances in the area. Following his death, the land accompanying the house was subdivided into two blocks. Lot No. 2 on which the house is located was purchased by Mrs Janet and Major Austin Hogan in 1979 and named 'Woodlands', the house having no name.
\nMrs Janet Hogan is a recognised author on Queensland's heritage and is well known for her work in furthering an awareness of the State's heritage, especially the built environment. In co-operation with newspapers, magazines and television stations, she has worked on the production of many educational programmes. Mrs Janet and Major Austin have both played integral roles in the National Trust of Queensland and in recognition of their work, they have both been awarded Honorary Life Membership of the National Trust.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1883, Woodlands and its grounds are important for the evidence they provide of the way of life of prosperous citizens in the outer reaches of Brisbane in the late nineteenth century.
|The house is important as an example of a fine quality 1880's residence that is substantially intact, both internally and externally. The grounds and gardens, which contain mature plantings including several specimen trees, an early privet hedge and rare surviving ironwork fence and gates, contribute to the overall integrity of the property.
|The fine quality of interior finishes and fixtures, which include extensive decorative cedar joinery and leadlight panels give Woodlands considerable aesthetic significance. The large room, which was added in 1933, is of interest as an unusual and intact example of an Art Deco style interior incorporating extensive timber panelling and strong diagonal cross designs for the windows, doors and screens.
|(Criterion under review)
|Woodlands, is important for its association with several notable owners who have contributed to the development of Queensland in the fields of education, mining, defence, community service and the heritage conservation movement. For their work in furthering an awareness of the State's heritage, Mrs Janet and Major Austin Hogan are particularly noted.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16630,"place_ref":601894,"name":"Petrie Terrace Police Depot (former)","alternate_name":"Underground Night Club | Former Police Barracks | The Barracks","street_address":"25-61 Petrie Terrace","suburb":"PETRIE TERRACE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-12-14","description":"The Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot occupies the southwest edge of a ridge which overlooks the former Roma Street railway yards and the Brisbane central business district. It is bounded on the southeast by the Brisbane-Ipswich railway, on the southwest by Upper Roma Street, on the northwest by Petrie Terrace, and on the northeast by Victoria Barracks military reserve. It contains a number of significant elements, including:
The Former Petrie Terrace Police Barracks
Highly visible from a number of vantage points around Brisbane City, the former Petrie Terrace Police Barracks is a prominent landmark on a ridge overlooking the Roma Street Railway Yards and provides an impressive presence to Petrie Terrace. The place is important for views to and from the site including to/from Upper Roma Street, William Jolly Bridge and the Brisbane River, the riverside expressway, the Brisbane CBD, inner western suburbs such as from Cairns Terrace, Red Hill and from Petrie Terrace, Milton Road, Caxton Street and Victoria Barracks.
Opened in 1939, the former Petrie Terrace Police Barracks is a three-storey brick and concrete building in red face brick with contrasting horizontal banding in rendered concrete. The roof is sheeted with corrugated fibro cement tiles. The main elevation to the southeast is a single range, symmetrical about a narrow, faceted projecting parapeted central entrance. The modest entrance to the ground floor is approached by a set of concrete stairs to a covered entry porch opening into the main entrance lobby ahead. The central block is flanked to each side by verandahs to each floor. The elevation to Petrie Terrace is symmetrical about a hip-roofed projecting and faceted central bay flanked by verandahed wings which terminate in prominent hip-roofed blank end pavilions. The blank ends contain recessed rectangular panels to each floor level giving shadow and texture to the exterior walls. The faceting of the central bay forms a full length oriel-like window-bay suggestive of defensiveness. A prominent roof ventilator is located to the centre of the main roof. The second floor verandahs to both elevations are punctuated by pairs of Doric columns with battened timber balustrading with decorative criss-cross central panels. The verandahs to the ground and first floors have similar balustrading punctuated by solid brick piers. The projecting eaves around the building are timber lined. Other detailing includes decorative terracotta tile panels to the projecting parapet fronts to each elevation and vertical bands of incised arrows to the concrete door surrounds to the north, south and east entrances.
The southwest and northeast elevations are symmetrical about faceted parapeted blocks flanked by two bays of timber sash windows with the verandah ends and the fire escape stair block to the corners.
The central projecting parapets to each elevation contain panels of terracotta tiles with a stylised diamond pattern to each tile. The moulded concrete door surrounds to the north, south and east entrances have vertical bands of an arrow pattern to the upper corners.
The building is planned about a central staircase opening off the main entrance hall. The entrance and stair treads are finished in different shades of terrazzo. The stair has a moulded timber handrail, decorative timber newels and decorative wrought iron balustrading. The openings to the main stairwell on each level have large decorative consoles. The walls and partitions are of brick; the verandah floors, corridors and staircases are of concrete; and the roof is sheeted with corrugated fibro cement tiles. Internal walls are rendered and painted. Ceilings to corridors and ground and first floor verandahs are concrete. Ceilings to internal spaces on each floor, stairwells and the second floor verandahs are lined with fibro cement sheeting with timber cover strips. On the ground floor, offices and storage open off a central corridor to the northeast, former mess and kitchen area open off a small corridor to the south west and toilet blocks are positioned at each end of the building. The lecture theatre is accommodated in the projecting wing to the northwest opening off the verandah. This room retains the original timber folding doors. The first and second floors are organised about a central corridor off the central staircase. Bedrooms open off the central corridor and have doors with tilting glass fanlights opening to the verandahs. Toilets, bathrooms and drying rooms are located at each end of the building on both floors. On the first floor the projecting northwest wing accommodates the recreation room and on the second floor additional bedrooms.
The building is not secured and has been subject to continual vandalism and many of the windows and doors have been damaged or removed as have a large percentage of the ceiling linings. The internal spatial relations remain substantially intact including the configuration of the bedrooms, lecture theatre, recreation room, bathrooms and drying rooms, kitchen and office spaces. The plain concrete escape stairs and main terrazzo stair remain intact. The verandah posts and balustrading are substantially intact.
The Former Stables
The former stables at the Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot are located on the north-western site boundary line opposite Caxton Street. The building is constructed of single storey brick masonry with a hipped corrugated red Colorbond roof with ventilated ridges.
The building, which was partly converted into garage accommodation in the late 1920s and fully in 1941-42, has been more recently refurbished as a night club. The floor now has several different level changes and the original floor finish is not evident. The render to the interior walls has been largely removed and there have been several partition walls, bar areas, stage areas and toilet facilities constructed within the building. The south western wing of the former E shaped building was demolished prior to the night club refurbishment with the exception of a section of the projecting eastern wall which survives and contains an early timber framed and clad pair of doors. The voids which housed horse then car washing areas between the wings of the E shaped building have been enclosed together with the area to the south east between the stables building and the former police garage and workshop constructed in 1936.
At the north western corner of the building a basement level has been more recently added through the underpinning of the original walls and the addition of a new end wall and contains several different floor levels.
Early fabric that survives include the majority of the perimeter walls which are constructed of English bonded brickwork. These walls have arrised corners to openings and engaged piers in the form of bull nosed brickwork to prevent injury. Several of the original openings in external walls are apparent including the bricked in windows to the Petrie Terrace elevation which correspond and provide evidence of the location of the stalls and loose boxes that were positioned along that elevation. Other elements include the roof structure of substantial timber trusses and large timber framed louvred ventilators to each of the ridges. The timber posts supporting the trusses to the central wing demonstrate where the former stalls and timber partition walls were located.
The Former Garage and Workshop
The former garage and workshop constructed adjacent to the Stables building in 1936 is a single storey brick masonry structure with a corrugated red Colorbond gambrel roof with timber lined eaves. It has also been refurbished as part of the nightclub. The floor and ceiling has been relined, the internal render largely removed and window openings in the north western wall have been converted to door openings. The openings in the other perimeter walls survive intact. Remnant masonry internal partition walls to the former office area survive. The building has an infill of bar and food preparation areas, cold rooms and stores.
The Former Police Wireless Transmission Station VKR
The former police wireless transmission station is a brick masonry building with metal roof constructed adjacent to the Petrie Terrace boundary near the intersection of Milton Road. It currently houses the Hog's Breath Café and has a large addition of recent construction along its north-eastern side. The interior and much of the exterior have been highly modified. This building is not included within the heritage listing boundary for the entry in the Queensland Heritage Register for the Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot.
Other site elements
A wrought iron fence on a stone base runs along the boundary to Petrie Terrace. A gate post remains to the former vehicle entrance to the Barracks from Petrie Terrace with evidence of gate hinges. There is a retaining wall of roughly dressed sandstone, laid in courses, along the boundary between the former police and military reserves, at the northeast end of the site. The former square to the southeast now contains a bitumened open carpark.
","history":"The site of the Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot occupies the southwest edge of a ridge formerly known as Green Hills, which overlooks the former Roma Street railway yards and the Brisbane central business district. The place has been associated with penal and police activity in Queensland since the 1850s. The site was occupied by the second purpose-built Brisbane Gaol from November 1860 until July 1883, and functioned as a police barracks from 1885 until the mid-1980s. Within the former Petrie Terrace Police Depot, the former Police Barracks, opened in September 1939, is a highly visible and prominent landmark in Brisbane.
The site was early associated with a penal facility. When Moreton Bay was opened to free settlement in February 1842, the only prison accommodation available was at one end of the former military barracks in Queen Street - the remainder of the building was occupied by storekeepers. In the second half of 1847 the former female factory in Queen Street, which had served as an immigration barracks for some years, was refurbished as a gaol. This was a temporary measure until Brisbane's first purpose-built gaol was erected in 1848-49. However, within a few years the construction of a larger gaol complex was considered necessary.
By 1856, a gaol reserve had been proposed in the vicinity of what is now Petrie Terrace - the area known in the 1850s as Green Hills. The site was considered remote, well-drained, healthy and extendable. In 1857 the NSW colonial architect provided plans for a gaol to accommodate nearly 100 prisoners at Green Hills. The contract was let in mid-1858 to Andrew and John Petrie of Brisbane - their name being commemorated in Petrie Terrace - who submitted a tender of £25,000. Construction commenced in October 1858, and was completed by September 1860, when the complex was proclaimed as the Brisbane Gaol. The buildings were masonry, and included 2 two-storeyed cell blocks; 2 two-storeyed guard houses containing offices, warders' room and store rooms, flanking the main entrance to the gaol [which faced southeast, overlooking the town of Brisbane]; kitchen block; washhouses; and lavatory blocks. The gaol reserve was enclosed by a wooden fence, which was replaced in 1862 by a 20 feet high stone wall, constructed by contractor Joshua Jeays of Brisbane. Stone for the gaol wall was obtained from the Woogaroo Quarry.
Almost from its inception, the Brisbane Gaol on Petrie Terrace was overcrowded. By 1865, overflow prisoners were being accommodated on the hulk Proserpine, anchored at the mouth of the Brisbane River, and in 1867 the decision was taken to convert the quarantine buildings then under construction on St Helena Island, in Moreton Bay, into gaol buildings. St Helena was gazetted as a prison in the same year, and operated in tandem with the Brisbane Gaol on Petrie Terrace. In 1870 the female prisoners at Petrie Terrace were relocated to the Toowoomba Gaol. These measures afforded only temporary solutions to the overcrowding at the Brisbane Gaol, and in the late 1870s plans for a new gaol at Boggo Road, South Brisbane, were prepared. This complex was constructed in the early 1880s and completed in 1883, with the goal on Petrie Terrace closing on 2 July 1883.
The colonial government initially intended that the Queensland Defence Force, which was reorganised and expanded in the mid-1880s following the 'Russian scare' of 1883, should occupy the former Petrie Terrace gaol reserve, along with the adjacent former military barracks, which had been established in 1864 to accommodate a small contingent of Imperial troops, but which had been occupied since 1874 by the Queensland Police Force.
However, in 1885 the gaol reserve on Petrie Terrace was divided between the newly established permanent Queensland Defence Force and the Queensland Police Force. The QDF occupied the 1864 military reserve and the northern end of the gaol reserve, the whole of which was renamed Victoria Barracks (QHR 600279) by mid-1885. The Queensland Police Force occupied the remainder of the gaol reserve on Petrie Terrace, as a police depot and training centre. At this time the former guard houses and a block which contained the chapel, kitchen and workshop, were renovated as quarters and offices for the police, but the former cell blocks were demolished. The police occupied the former gaol reserve for a century, from 1885 until the mid-1980s, although the site was not officially gazetted as a reserve for police purposes until 1901.
The re-use of the gaol reserve for police and military purposes necessitated the demolition of the surrounding stone wall, most of which was removed in 1885, although the arched stone entrance gate on the southeastern perimeter remained until the mid-20th century. The stone was recycled and used on various government projects in Brisbane, including the foundations supporting the iron palisade separating Queen's Park (QHR 600067) from Alice Street. It is understood that the stone base to the surviving fence along Petrie Terrace at the Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot, and the stone retaining wall between the Defence and Police Reserves, are constructed from fabric from the 1862 wall.
In the 1880s, as the Queensland economy boomed and new districts were opened to settlement, the number of men recruited into the Queensland police force increased significantly. Recruits received a brief period of training at the Petrie Terrace Police Depot, where facilities were strained. Along with recruits, the depot accommodated probationary officers and unmarried officers serving in the Brisbane area. In 1889, the police barracks at Petrie Terrace was described as a very bad barracks, damp in wet weather, without a washhouse or proper earth closets, and overcrowded. Despite the poor conditions, prior to 1901 only minor alterations and additions were made to the depot buildings.
In the period 1895 to 1925 the Queensland population almost doubled. The Queensland Police Force, while not quite matching this growth rate, increased by one third, especially after 1910, when pay and conditions for police officers improved. In the first two decades of the 20th century a number of new structures were erected at the Petrie Terrace Police Depot to accommodate the increase. These included: a washhouse near the southern boundary of the reserve [timber, 1901, since demolished]; a residence for the Police Drill Instructor at the southwest corner of the reserve near the junction of Roma Street and Petrie Terrace [timber, 1907, demolished]; a dormitory block at the northeastern end of the reserve, near the Victoria Barracks boundary [2-storeyed, timber, 1907, demolished]; a stables building in the northern corner of the reserve, abutting Petrie Terrace and the boundary with Victoria Barracks [brick, 1912, extant]; and extensive additions to No.2 dormitory block (the former gaol kitchen and chapel building) at the southern end of the reserve [1914-15, since demolished].
The 1912 brick stables building contained stables for 40 horses, harness room and feed room. The building was E-shaped with external dimensions of 40m by 26m. As motor vehicles gradually replaced horses in police work, alterations to the stables building were undertaken in 1927 to provide some garage accommodation, and in 1936 a substantial brick garage and workshop was erected between the 1912 brick stables building and the 1907 timber dormitory block. At this period the 1912 stables still contained 15 loose boxes and 16 stalls.
In the late 1930s, following decades of police complaint that the buildings at Petrie Terrace were totally unsuitable for police purposes, the Queensland Government finally resolved to address police accommodation at both the Petrie Terrace Police Depot and the Roma Street Police Station and Barracks - the latter erected in 1879, and by 1899 considered inadequate. Early in 1938, work commenced on construction of a new three-storeyed, brick and concrete police barracks at the Petrie Terrace Police Depot, on land formerly utilised as a parade and drill ground. It was intended to accommodate recruits, probationers and single officers stationed at Petrie Terrace, Roma Street, and the Traffic and Criminal Investigation branches in Brisbane. At this period, single officers still were obliged to reside in barracks. When the new barracks were completed in 1939, however, it was occupied only by probationers and single officers - recruits were accommodated in the 1907 timber barracks.
The design for the new barracks was developed after extensive consultation with officers of the Queensland Police Force, with consideration given to providing commodious quarters for unmarried men, and taking advantage of the prominent ridge site to establish a distinctive and forceful presence as a sentinel building overlooking the centre of Brisbane and to the major arterial road of Petrie Terrace. The ground floor comprised offices, store, armoury, guard room, lecture theatre with folding partitions, kitchen and mess. The second and third floors contained bedrooms, bathrooms, drying rooms, and recreation rooms, and accommodated 100 unmarried officers. The first floor contained 18 two-men bedrooms and 4 three-men bedrooms and the second floor accommodated 18 two-men bedrooms and 8 three-men rooms. Every effort was made to provide maximum privacy for the occupants, and to admit as much light and air as possible. The warm Brisbane climate was accommodated with verandahs and balconies on each floor. The building was constructed largely of fire-proof materials [brick and cement and fibrous-cement roofing tiles], and enclosed escape stairs were provided at each end of the building.
When the barracks was officially opened on 29 September 1939, it was considered one of the best investments that the Government had made; it would enhance the reputation of the force and give dividends daily in efficient service. The Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland considered that the new barracks represented the new idea in the construction of public buildings, that they were not 'institutional' in their appearance, and that they were impressive in their architectural line and mass of brickwork, and the tiled roof makes the building a prominent landmark.
The Police Commissioner, in his report for the year ended 30 June 1939, stated of the new depot barracks: It is at this centre that a member of the Police force receives his early training prior to his admission as a constable, as well as his accommodation in the early years of his official life. Environment has a great influence on the future career of any person, and it is felt that the change in accommodation as well as the increased facilities for training will benefit both the public and the administration.
Design responsibility for the new Petrie Terrace Police Barracks was assigned to Raymond Clare Nowland, an architect in the Department of Public Works. Nowland had joined the architectural office of the Department of Public Works in November 1932, and was appointed a senior architect in this office in 1938. He produced the most significant buildings of his career between 1932 and 1942, including the Petrie Terrace Police Barracks (1939); University of Queensland Medical School (1939) (QHR 601167); Brisbane Dental Hospital and College (1941) (QHR 601909); Cairns Government Offices (1935) (QHR 600376); Rockhampton Police Court (1935) (QHR 600795); Fortitude Valley Police Station (1935) (QHR 601168); and Toowoomba Police Station (1935) (QHR 601710).
Construction of the barracks was the first stage of a planned remodelling of the whole of the Petrie Terrace Police Depot and grounds. The scheme provided for a square to the east and southeast of the barracks to incorporate formal gardens, tennis court, residences for senior officers and garaging for cars. In the early 1940s the former Brisbane Gaol buildings on the site, which the police had occupied since 1885, were demolished, the ground filled in and levelled, and a parade ground formed. New garaging was erected at the northeastern end of the site in the early 1950s, but not on the site of the former gaol buildings demolished c1940. It appears that no further structures were erected on this part of the site.
The new Petrie Terrace Police Barracks was constructed during an intensive public works building programme undertaken by the Forgan-Smith Labor Government in Queensland during the 1930s, to counter the effects of the economic depression. It was also the first stage of an ambitious building scheme proposed for the Queensland Police Force, which included the demolition of the Roma Street Police Station and Barracks and the transformation of the site into a public square as an extension of King George Square; and new police watchhouse, courthouse and centralised police headquarters buildings in William Street adjoining and incorporating the Public Library (the Library was to be relocated to a proposed new Public Library in Turbot Street). While the Petrie Terrace Police Barracks was erected in 1938-39, the advent of the Second World War diverted resources, and the remainder of the scheme did not come to fruition.
In 1941, just prior to the outbreak of war in the Pacific, a brick building to house the Police Wireless Transmission Station VKR was erected in the southwest corner of the police reserve, on the site of the 1907 Drill Instructor's Residence, which was removed. In conjunction with the wireless station, an aerial was erected at the top of the southern end of the 1938-39 police barracks. Two-way radio communication with wireless patrol vehicles had been established, and the station was linked to the interstate wireless police telegraphy service. Mechanised transportation and radio communication revolutionised Queensland police practices.
During the Second World War, military police attached to the Australian Army, Royal Australian Navy, Royal Australian Air Force, United States Army, United States Shore Patrol, and the Royal Navy, also utilised the police wireless transmission station at Petrie Terrace. The Australian Army and the Royal Australian Navy continued to operated wireless patrol vehicles from this station for some years after the cessation of hostilities in the Pacific.
The war created other impacts on the Petrie Terrace Police Depot. In March 1942 an observation post was established at the depot, manned by members of the Volunteer Air Observers' Corps, who occupied the billiards room on the ground floor of the police barracks. A Royal Australian Air Force hut was erected in the depot grounds to house the office staff attached to this corps. This structure was taken over by the Police in 1946-47, principally to house records and stores, but has been removed since. Also in 1941-42, the surviving stalls in the 1912 stables were removed and the place was converted into a garage.
In the immediate post-war years, Queensland Police acquired wireless equipment from the Civil Defence Organisation, which was installed in a number of suburban police stations to receive broadcasts from station VKR. Improvements to the two-way transmission system in 1946-47 increased the coverage to a 60 miles radius of Police Wireless Station VKR. In the late 1940s a 70 foot aerial pole was erected in the Petrie Terrace Police Depot grounds to support transmitting aerials for the interstate police wireless service, which became increasingly important as a police tool.
By 1945, the Police were experiencing difficulty in accommodating cadets [recruits], probationers and single officers at the Petrie Terrace Depot. Both cadets and probationers were quartered in the 1907 barracks, and in 1949-50 this building was refurbished and a separate laundry building was erected for the use of cadets and probationers.
A number of alterations were made to the Petrie Terrace Depot in the 1950s, reflecting the advent of new technologies and changes in policing practices.
In 1951 Brisbane's Central Communications Room at the Criminal Investigations Branch came into operation, taking over the handling of police radio communications from the control room at station VKR, Petrie Terrace. The new facility, which was intended as the 'nerve-centre' of police communications in Queensland, was linked to the technical services of station VKR by land lines, and staffed by junior wireless operators. Senior staff supervised all transmissions and reception at the VKR control rooms, and operated the interstate radio telegraphy services.
In 1953 two tennis courts near the 1907 timber barracks were demolished to make way for a large garage which housed 30 vehicles.
In 1956 the bedrooms on the second and third floors of the 1938-39 police barracks were converted into new office accommodation for the Commissioner of Police and Licensing and Special branches. Cadets and single probationers were still housed in the 1907 timber barracks, but single officers were no longer accommodated at the Depot. Also in 1956 the engine room at the rear of the wireless transmission station was enlarged to house a larger emergency power plant for the station. From 1956 a number of structures at the southern end of the site were demolished to create a large open space which was developed as a parade ground.
In the early 1960s the Police Commissioner's and several other offices accommodated at Petrie Terrace moved into the newly opened Police Headquarters Building at North Quay. At Petrie Terrace, the 1938-39 building was re-converted into barracks, necessitating only minor alterations, and the 1907 barracks was removed. By 1964 the 1938-39 building contained accommodation for probationers and cadets on the first and second floors, and offices [including Inspector and Sub-Inspector of Police], class rooms and mess on the ground floor. Also by 1964, the transmission and reception of police messages had been transferred from Petrie Terrace to the North Quay building, and the Petrie Terrace wireless transmission station was being used principally for the housing of equipment and for workshop repair rooms.
Use of the Petrie Terrace Police Depot as a training facility ceased in 1973 when this function was removed to the Oxley Police Academy, but the Depot continued to serve other police purposes until the mid-1980s. In 1987 the State Government sold the former police reserve and buildings to private enterprise, and approval for re-zoning was gazetted in September 1990. A number of structures have been removed from the site, including the 1953 garage building and several structures at the northeastern end of the site; the Former Police Stables functioned as a nightclub through the 1990s, and is now vacant; and the Former Police Wireless Transmission Station was converted into a restaurant. The Former Police Barracks remains vacant and has suffered a high level of vandalism. The open area to the east and southeast of the Former Police Barracks, which contains significant sub-surface material associated with the former Brisbane Gaol (1860-1883), is now a carpark.
","criteria":"The Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot is important historically for its long association with penal and police activity in Brisbane, and is an important component of a precinct of penal, military, and police buildings established from 1860.
Within the Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot there are elements with specific cultural heritage significance. These include:
> sub-surface remnants of the former Brisbane Gaol [1860-1883], which have strong historical, social and archaeological significance.
> the stone retaining wall between the police and military reserves, which has aesthetic value engendered by the rustic material, and is important historically as remnant stone from the wall of the former Brisbane Gaol on this site.
> the wrought iron and stone fence to the Petrie Terrace street frontage, which is important as remains of the stone walling of the second Brisbane Gaol perimeter, and for its aesthetic contribution to the Petrie Terrace streetscape.
> the 1912 police stables which, despite late 20th century modification, is still illustrative of its type, has a strong aesthetic appeal engendered by the materials, forms and the interior spaces, and remains important surviving evidence of the nature of police work in Queensland prior to the introduction of mechanised transportation.
> the 1936 police garage and workshop, which, despite late 20th century modification, is still illustrative of its type, and remains important in illustrating early adaptations to mechanised transportation in the interwar years of the 20th century, along with the impact of mechanised transportation on the nature of policing in Queensland at this period.
|Within the Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot there are elements with specific cultural heritage significance. These include:
> the 1938-39 police barracks, which is important as a rare example of urban residential accommodation provided for unmarried police officers in the first half of the 20th century.
|As the site of the second Brisbane Gaol, the place has the potential to yield information from archaeological deposits that would contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history, particularly aspects of the history of punishment and prisons in colonial Queensland. The now open area to the east and southeast is important as the site of many of the Gaol structures and yards. This area is also important as the grounds associated with the Former Police Barracks, accommodating residences for senior officers, garaging, parade areas and tennis courts.
Within the Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot there are elements with specific cultural heritage significance. These include:
> sub-surface remnants of the former Brisbane Gaol [1860-1883], which have strong historical, social and archaeological significance.
|The former Police Stables, former Police Garage and Workshop, former Police Barracks, former Police Wireless Transmission Station VKR, the perimeter stone and wrought iron wall along the Petrie Terrace frontage to the former Petrie Terrace Police Depot, and the stone retaining wall between the military and police reserves at the northern end of the site, form a cohesive group of buildings and structures, which together contribute to our understanding of the nature of police training and administration in Queensland in the first half of the 20th century.
Within the Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot there are elements with specific cultural heritage significance. These include:
> the 1912 police stables which, despite late 20th century modification, is still illustrative of its type, has a strong aesthetic appeal engendered by the materials, forms and the interior spaces, and remains important surviving evidence of the nature of police work in Queensland prior to the introduction of mechanised transportation.
> the 1936 police garage and workshop, which, despite late 20th century modification, is still illustrative of its type, and remains important in illustrating early adaptations to mechanised transportation in the interwar years of the 20th century, along with the impact of mechanised transportation on the nature of policing in Queensland at this period.
|The former Police Stables, former Police Garage and Workshop, former Police Barracks, former Police Wireless Transmission Station VKR, the perimeter stone and wrought iron wall along the Petrie Terrace frontage to the former Petrie Terrace Police Depot, and the stone retaining wall between the military and police reserves at the northern end of the site, form a cohesive group of buildings and structures, which together contribute to our understanding of the nature of police training and administration in Queensland in the first half of the 20th century. They have aesthetic value, and make an important contribution to the streetscape of Petrie Terrace.
Within the Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot there are elements with specific cultural heritage significance. These include:
> the stone retaining wall between the police and military reserves, which has aesthetic value engendered by the rustic material, and is important historically as remnant stone from the wall of the former Brisbane Gaol on this site.
> the wrought iron and stone fence to the Petrie Terrace street frontage, which is important as remains of the stone walling of the second Brisbane Gaol perimeter, and for its aesthetic contribution to the Petrie Terrace streetscape.
> the 1912 police stables which, despite late 20th century modification, is still illustrative of its type, has a strong aesthetic appeal engendered by the materials, forms and the interior spaces, and remains important surviving evidence of the nature of police work in Queensland prior to the introduction of mechanised transportation.
The 1938-39 police barracks place has aesthetic value. The patterning of the façades in bands of red facebrick and imitation stone render give the building a lively, defensive quality in a style reminiscent of the Arts and Crafts movement. The detailing includes decorative terracotta tile panels to the projecting parapet fronts to each elevation and vertical bands of incised arrows to the concrete door surrounds to the north, south and east entrances.
Highly visible from a number of vantage points around Brisbane City, the 1938-39 police barracks is a prominent landmark on a ridge overlooking the Brisbane central business district and former Roma Street Railway Yards, and is an impressive presence in Petrie Terrace. The place is important for views to and from the site including to/from Upper Roma Street, William Jolly Bridge and the Brisbane River, the Riverside Expressway, the Brisbane CBD, the inner western suburbs [such as from Cairns Terrace, Red Hill], and from Petrie Terrace, Milton Road, Caxton Street and Victoria Barracks.
|Within the Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot there are elements with specific cultural heritage significance. These include:
> sub-surface remnants of the former Brisbane Gaol [1860-1883], which have strong historical, social and archaeological significance.
|The Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot is important for its association with the Queensland Police Force, demonstrating the evolution of work practices and the changing nature of the lifestyle associated with police force employment in a major urban centre.
Within the Former Petrie Terrace Police Depot there are elements with specific cultural heritage significance. These include:
> the 1938-39 police barracks, which is important as as the only building to be realised from an ambitious building program of prestigious police buildings proposed for Brisbane City under the extensive public works building programme of the Forgan-Smith government of the 1930s.
The 1938-39 police barracks is important also for its association with the work of the Department of Public Works, and in particular for its association with the work of architect Raymond Clare Nowland. It is one of the most notable buildings designed by Nowland, an architect of considerable talent working in the Department of Public Works during the period of extensive public works building in the 1930s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16631,"place_ref":601895,"name":"Julius Street Flats New Farm","alternate_name":"Julius Lodge | Green Gables | Ardrossan","street_address":"15 Julius Street","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-08-04","description":"Ardrossan (601895a)
Ardrossan, a decorative three-storeyed rendered masonry structure with strong Spanish Mission/Mediterranean architectural styling references, is prominently located on the northern corner of Julius and Moray Streets, opposite Green Gables. The building has a hipped, corrugated fibrous cement roof, and face brickwork to ground floor sill height with stucco above. Most windows are multi-paned casements with face brick sills.
The building has a symmetrical elevation facing Julius Street to the southeast, which consists of a central section surmounted by a decorative shaped gable parapet, with projecting enclosed sleep-outs to either side. The sleep-outs have casement windows above balustrade height, and different overall detailing to each floor; the ground floor has recessed arches to the front and side; the first floor has a rectangular moulding to the balustrade section; and the second floor has an infilled lattice pattern to the balustrade section.
A recessed, covered entry is located centrally, and consists of paired timber panelled doors and sidelights with glass panels to the upper section. The glass panels to the doors have ogee shaped framing to the outer, upper corners. The entrance has a shaped arch, stylistically similar to the shaped gable to the parapet above, and is accessed via a flight of three brick steps. The entrance is surmounted by a rectangular shaped relief moulding, with a central diamond pattern and a cornice base. Above this, a central stair-light extends from the first to second floor, and contains a series of tangential arc mouldings along its length, with moulded glass panels. A narrow slit, possibly for ventilation, is located centrally in the gable parapet above. A three panel casement window is located on each floor either side of the central entrance feature.
The northeast elevation to Moray Street has an offset narrow projecting gable, surmounted by a shaped parapet, with a hipped section to the first floor, and a lower hipped section to the ground floor. The ground floor hipped section has paired arched casement windows, and the second floor hipped section has a narrow casement window to both floors.
The southwest and northwest elevations have corrugated fibrous cement sunhoods to bedroom windows. The rear verandahs are enclosed with casement windows above fibrous cement sheeted balustrades. A metal stair is located centrally at the rear accessing back landings.
The building contains two flats per floor, each accessed from a central internal staircase at the front, and an external staircase and back landing at the rear. Each flat contains two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, bathroom, an enclosed front sleep-out, and an enclosed rear verandah.
The entrance staircase is constructed of varnished timber with slim balusters and square newel posts. The timber entrance doors and sidelights are also varnished, as are panelled timber front doors to each flat. Stairs and landing are also of timber. The stair-light extends from the first to the second floor. Walls are rendered masonry, and ceilings have plaster mouldings.
Each flat has decorative plaster ceilings to most rooms, and multi-paned French doors open from the main bedroom to the enclosed sleep-out. Doors, architraves and skirtings are finished in varnished timber, with plate rails to the living room. Internal walls are plastered, with paint or paper finish, and the kitchen has been refitted.
A detached single garage is located on the northern side of the building fronting Moray Street. This structure is constructed of rendered masonry, with a hipped corrugated fibrous cement roof and paired timber garage doors. Timber framed and fibrous cement sheeted garages are located adjacent to the building on the southwest. A low rendered masonry wall, with squat pillars and face brick cappings, is located along the Moray and Julius Street frontages, with metal gates to the southern driveway.
Green Gables (601895b)
Green Gables, a three-storeyed structure with a masonry ground level and timber framed and fibrous cement first and second levels, is prominently located on the southern corner of Julius Street and Moray Street, opposite Ardrossan. The building has a tiled multi-gable roof and Old English architectural styling references, and soon after construction, the building was described as containing '6 flats, each flat contains 2 bedrooms, lounge and sleeping-out verandah, smoker's balcony, kitchen and bathroom.... and four garages.' When constructed, the building had a rendered masonry ground floor on a face-brick base, the first and second storeys featured imitation half-timbering, and the sleep-outs and smoker's balconies had roll down slat blinds. Stucco has been applied to the exterior of the building covering the imitation half-timbering.
The building has a symmetrical elevation facing Julius Street to the northwest. This comprises a central recessed section containing the entrance stair and landings, with projecting wings, stepped in plan, to both sides. Either side of the entrance section, diamond paned corner windows step out to a small room with a chamfered outside corner, formerly the 'smoker's balcony', which has been enclosed with aluminium framed sliding windows. Each wing culminates in a projecting gable section, jettied at the first floor, with central diamond paned casement windows and cantilevered sunhoods, with timber shutters to the ground level. Both ends of the building have sleep-outs enclosed with aluminium sliding windows. The ground floor entrance has a screen wall with paired arched openings and a stepped, tiled parapet, with the name 'GREEN GABLES' in relief. The glass entrance door, with narrow timber mullions, is offset to the right, and two small diamond paned casement windows step up following the line of the stair, with a tall narrow diamond paned stair-light between the first and second floors.
Each end of the building has a single diamond paned casement window on the southern side, with the enclosed sleep-outs to the northern side. The ground level window has an recessed arched header. The rear of the building has a recessed central timber staircase, with projecting timber lattice screening, flanked by gable sections with aluminium framed sliding windows. A small projecting gable section, jettied at the first floor, with central casement windows and sunhoods, is located at either end.
The building contains two flats per floor, each accessed from a central internal staircase at the front, and a screened external staircase and back landing at the rear. Each flat contains two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, bathroom, separate toilet, an enclosed sleep-out, and an enclosed 'smoker's balcony'.
The entrance has a timber open well staircase with winders, and square balusters and newel posts. Ground floor internal walls are rendered masonry, and first and second floor walls are timber framed with recessed fibrous cement panels.
Each flat has decorative plaster ceilings to most rooms, multi-paned French doors open from the main bedroom to the enclosed sleep-out, and multi-paned single doors open to the enclosed 'smoker's balcony'. Internal doors, architraves and skirtings are finished in painted timber, and the rear kitchen doors have glass panes to the upper section. Kitchens and bathrooms have been refitted, and timber 'tradesman's cupboards' are located outside the rear door to each flat.
Four timber framed and fibrous cement sheeted garages are located adjacent to the building on the southwest. A low brick wall, with squat pillars and a low hedge, is located along the Moray and Julius Street frontages, with a timber gate to the Moray Street entrance on the southern side. The Julius Street frontage has rows of ornamental planting.
5 Julius Street (601895c)
Lot 9 on RP 50498. The existing structures on this site are not included in the heritage listing for the Julius Street Flats.
Syncarpia (601895d)
Syncarpia, a two-storeyed structure finished in imitation half-timbering, has a tiled hipped roof and concrete stumps. The building, located between Green Gables and Ainslie, has Old English architectural styling references, and fronts Julius Street to the southeast.
The building has a symmetrical elevation to Julius Street, with a recessed central section comprising a ground floor verandah, and multi-paned casement windows with tiled hipped window hoods to the first floor. The verandah has a tiled skillion roof, timber floor, central square timber posts, and corner columns composed of chamfered posts with stucco infill panels. The multi-paned glass entrance door is located centrally, and is accessed via timber steps to the verandah. The name SYNCARPIA is painted on the fascia above the entrance steps. Timber screens divide off either end of the verandah for the private use of the adjoining flats. These have multi-paned French doors opening onto the verandah. The southeast and northeast elevations have rough-cast stucco finish to the imitation half-timbering, whereas the other elevations have a flat painted finish.
The central section is flanked by projecting end sections with central multi-paned casement windows, with tiled hipped window hoods, surmounting feature panels of diagonal half-timbering. The side elevations have multi-paned casement windows, with sunhoods on the southwest side. A single-storeyed wing, which has been added to the rear of the building to the northwest, has a tiled gable roof, concrete stumps, multi-paned casement windows, and glass louvred panels which enclose what appears to have been an open side verandah. The northwest rear elevation has multi-paned casement windows with window hoods, and a metal framed stair to a first floor landing.
When constructed, the building appears to have contained seven flats with a shared bathroom. It currently contains five self-contained flats; two ground floor and three first floor flats containing one, two and three bedrooms. Access is via a central ground floor hallway to an internal quarter turn stair with winders. The stair has a timber balustrade to the first floor, and internal walls are mostly timber framed with fibrous cement sheeting. Some rooms have decorative plaster ceilings, and kitchens and bathrooms have been refitted.
A garden area, with some established trees, is located to the north of the building, and a carport and shed are located to the northwest adjoining the rear boundary. The Julius Street frontage has a timber paling fence on a brick base enclosing two front garden areas, containing large Palm trees, separated by a central entrance pathway.
Ainslie (601895e)
Ainslie is a two-storeyed masonry structure with a tiled hipped roof with projecting gables to the southwest. The building has Old English architectural styling references, and is located between Syncarpia and Pine Lodge fronting Julius Street to the southeast. The building has stretcher bond face brickwork, with regularly spaced darker bricks giving a patterned finish, and expressed coursing at sill height.
The building has a symmetrical entrance elevation facing southwest, which consists of a central section with a ground floor verandah, with projecting enclosed sleep-outs to either side. The sleep-outs have leaded, diamond paned casement windows, and are surmounted by a gable with stucco infill. The verandah has a tiled skillion roof supported by short, paired timber posts on brick piers, and a timber balustrade with crossed central balusters, and a curved timber valance. The verandah also has a concrete floor on a brick base, with a quarter turn stair at either end with a low brick balustrade with a curved parapet. Four central entrance doors, accessing each of the flats, open off the verandah, and are flanked by leaded, diamond paned casement windows with face brick to sill height and stucco above. The first floor has stucco finish, and centrally positioned paired, arched, diamond paned windows above a basketweave patterned feature brickwork panel.
Either end of the building has multi-paned casement windows, with tiled window hoods to the ground level. The northwest end has a basement laundry, and an awning linking an adjacent single-storeyed brick residence to the northwest. The northeast rear elevation has centrally positioned enclosed verandahs to both levels, with stucco finish, casement windows, and window hoods to the ground level. The enclosed verandahs are accessed from either end by metal framed stairs.
The building contains four two bedroom flats, each with a living room, kitchen, bathroom, enclosed front sleep-out, and enclosed rear verandah. Each flat has decorative plaster ceilings to most rooms, and French doors open from the bedrooms to the enclosed sleep-out and enclosed verandah. Doors (some with upper glass panels), architraves and skirtings are finished in painted timber, with plate rails to the living room. Internal walls are plastered, with paint finish, and the kitchens and bathrooms have non-original fixtures. The southwest paired, arched, diamond paned windows light the living rooms in the two first floor flats.
Skillion roofed carports are located to the north of the building at the rear of the site.
Pine Lodge (601895f)
Pine Lodge, a two-storeyed rendered reinforced concrete structure with a tiled multi-gable roof, is located between Ainslie and Evelyn Court, fronting Julius Street to the east and overlooking the Brisbane River to the west. The building has Old English architectural styling references, quite different from the adjacent Art Deco styling of Evelyn Court which shares a very similar floor plan and similar details. The riverfront part of the site contains the remains of lime kilns [601885], which are located below a steep embankment to the west of Pine Lodge.
The symmetrical Julius Street elevation comprises two gable end sections flanking a lower central entry. The end sections have paired casement windows with concrete window hoods to both floors, and the gables have boarded ends. The entry court is recessed, with a central multi-paned French door with concrete nib and hood surround, flanked by leaded, diamond paned sash windows. The first floor projects above the entry (possibly an enclosed verandah), and has a long leaded, diamond paned casement window, and the name PINE LODGE in relief.
The end elevations are gabled and stepped in plan, culminating in a gable section with a central bay window to each floor. Each bay has leaded diamond paned casement windows, with concrete brackets, nib and hood surrounds. Both elevations have a concrete quarter-turn stair with landing at the eastern end, with a porch at the landing level, leading to the rear doors of the upper flats. The porch has chamfered upper corners and a square concrete corner post, and the stair has a solid concrete balustrade. The northern end has a basement laundry, and the southern end has two basement garages, with a small terrace area above.
The symmetrical western elevation consists of a recessed, central entrance, with bay windows to either side, flanked by projecting enclosed sleep-outs. The bay windows have leaded diamond paned casement windows (some of which have been replaced with aluminium framed sliding units), concrete brackets, nib and hood surrounds, and are surmounted by gables to the roof. The sleep-outs have leaded diamond paned casement windows above balustrade height (some of which have also been replaced with sliding aluminium framed units), with chamfered upper corners and non-original window hoods. The design and detailing of the sleep-outs indicate that they may have been enclosed after construction. The central entrance has multi-paned French doors accessed via concrete steps. A concrete path, which is located along the front of the western elevation, is bordered by a fence with concrete piers and a metal railing above a steep embankment.
Pine Lodge contains four two bedroom flats, each with a kitchen, bathroom, living room, dining room and enclosed sleep-out. Each flat is accessed via a central hall and stair, and also a rear entry. The central stair is constructed of concrete with terrazzo treads and a concrete balustrade. Each flat has decorative plaster ceilings to most rooms, and multi-paned French doors open from the main bedroom to the enclosed sleep-out. Doors, architraves and skirtings are finished in painted timber, with plate rails to the living and dining rooms. Leaded diamond paned swing doors separate the living and dining rooms. Internal walls are plastered with paint or paper finish, and the kitchens have been refitted.
A single-storeyed concrete double garage, with a tiled gable roof, is located to the southeast of the building, with its rear wall built on top of the remains of the lime kilns below. The driveway, which is shared with the adjoining Evelyn Court, is located to the south of the building. The Julius Street frontage has a concrete fence with a central metal gate. A garden area is located to the north of the building, with access to stairs which lead down to the riverbank below. A disused single-storeyed rendered masonry boat shed, with a corrugated fibrous cement gable roof, is located on the riverbank to the west of Pine Lodge. The boat shed has scribed render to imitate ashlar, casement windows and a rear timber door. The site contains established trees and plantings.
Evelyn Court (601895g)
Evelyn Court, a three-storeyed rendered masonry structure with a trafficable flat roof, is located between Pine Lodge and Julius Lodge, fronting Julius Street to the northeast and overlooking the Brisbane River to the west. The building has Art Deco architectural styling references, quite different from the adjacent Old English styling of Pine Lodge which shares a very similar floor plan and similar details.
The building was originally designed with a hipped roof, similar to Pine Lodge, but at some stage of construction the design was altered to accommodate a flat roof. The exterior treatment of the building was also altered, with Art Deco styling emphasising vertical elements and a stepped parapet.
The symmetrical western elevation consists of a recessed central entrance, with bay windows to either side, flanked by projecting enclosed sleep-outs. The recessed central entrance, accessed via a quarter-turn concrete stair with landing, has a concrete canopy supported by stylised columns, and a metal balustrade. Each level above has a casement window, and the roof has a large curved parapet, higher than the adjacent parapet. The bays have mostly leaded diamond paned casement windows, concrete brackets, nib and hood surrounds. The sleep-outs have mostly leaded diamond paned casement windows above balustrade height, continuous concrete window hoods which wrap around onto the side elevation, and a diamond pattern in relief to the corner wall sections.
The end elevations are stepped in plan, culminating in a projecting section with a bay window to each floor. Each bay has mostly leaded diamond paned casement windows, with concrete brackets, nib and hood surrounds. The northern end of the building has the name EVELYN COURT in relief on the parapet above the bay section. Both elevations have concrete quarter-turn stairs with landings at the eastern end, with a porch at the landing level, leading to the rear doors of the first and second floor flats (the stairs to the second floor flats have more flights). The porches have chamfered upper corners and square concrete corner posts, and the stairs have metal rail balustrade with a circular pattern. A disused garbage chute is adjacent to each porch. The below floor area of the southern end of the building has been enclosed to form a small, one bedroom flat.
The symmetrical northeast rear elevation comprises two end sections flanking a recessed central entry. The end sections have paired, mostly leaded diamond paned casement windows with concrete window hoods to each floor. The entry is recessed, with a central door flanked by diamond paned casement windows. A doorway from the landing between the first and second floors opens to an external cantilevered concrete stair with a metal balustrade which accesses the roof.
Evelyn Court contains six two bedroom flats, each with a kitchen, bathroom, living room, dining room and enclosed sleep-out. Each flat is accessed via a central hall and stair, and also a rear entry. The central stair is constructed of concrete with a metal balustrade, and the hall has a terrazzo floor. Each flat has decorative plaster ceilings to most rooms, and French doors with leaded glass panels open from the main bedroom to the enclosed sleep-out. Joinery is stained or painted, and leaded diamond paned swing doors separate the living and dining rooms in most flats. Internal walls are plastered, kitchens have been refitted, and bathrooms retain original black and white tiling. The roof has been covered in layers or bitumen in an attempt to correct waterproofing problems.
A row of garages, located along the southern boundary of the site, is accessed via a concrete driveway along the western side of Evelyn Court. The riverbank contains some established trees and plantings.
Julius Street (601895h)
Julius Street, a short and narrow cul-de-sac, is surrounded by a highly intact group of 1930s flat buildings, and as such is recognised by the local community as a distinct place.
","history":"Julius Street Flats, consisting of seven properties comprising Ardrossan, Green Gables, 5 Julius Street, Syncarpia, Ainslie, Pine Lodge, and Evelyn Court, are located fronting Julius Street, a short cul-de-sac off Moray Street, New Farm. Two of the properties, Evelyn Court and Pine Lodge, have frontage to the Brisbane River. The seven properties were constructed between 1934 and 1938 on a parcel of land subdivided in 1933 by Julius Rosenfeld, who had operated Rosenfeld's Sawmill on the site from c.1924.
The land on which the properties are located was originally part of a larger parcel for which a Deed of Grant was issued to John McConnel in January 1845. Part of this land, eastern suburban allotments 14 and 15, was later transferred to his brother David Cannon McConnel (1818-1885), an early Queensland pastoralist who in 1841 had established Cressbrook [600503] in the Brisbane River Valley, the second run in the Moreton Bay district of New South Wales.
In 1876, the land on which the Julius Street properties are located was transferred to William Henry Barker and Frederick Hamilton Hart, and a Certificate of Title was issued in February of that year.
From June 1876 to December 1878, businessman James Campbell acquired subs 48, 49 and 50 of ESA 15 and sub 51 of ESA 15A. The firm of James Campbell and Sons specialised in building materials including lime, cement, plaster and timber, and operated timber mills, plantations, lime works and pottery kilns in a number of locations in south east Queensland, as well as Campbell's wharf and warehouse at Creek Street, Brisbane. The firm also established a thriving shipping trade with a substantial fleet of freight vessels.
The area surrounding subs 48-51 of ESA 15 and 15A was still largely undeveloped when James Campbell applied to the Brisbane Municipal Council for permission to establish a lime kiln on Bowen Terrace, below Langshaw Street, in 1878. In addition to the kiln, Campbell built a wharf and transported limestone, and later timber, to the site. In 1882 Campbell opened the Langshaw Planing Mills and Joinery Works on the property, and later a second lime kiln was constructed. The remains of lime kilns [601885] are located near the river bank below Pine Lodge.
In July 1897 the property was transferred to Thomas Hanmer, who retained it until August 1914, when it was transferred to James Green. A plan titled Campbell's Wharf New Farm, thought to date from 1904, shows lime kilns in ruins with an adjoining iron shed, a retaining wall at the high water mark with a short wharf, and the location of remnants of Campbell's Sawmill.
In January 1924, the property was acquired by Julius Rosenfeld who resumed timber milling on the site. Julius Rosenfeld operated Rosenfeld & Sons saw and planning mills, a subsidiary of Rosenfeld & Company Ltd which was based in Sydney.
A disastrous fire in February 1931 destroyed the mill, and in 1933 Rosenfeld subdivided the land into seven residential allotments surrounding a short cul-de-sac, and two allotments fronting Moray Street. This cul-de-sac was named Julius Street, and was dedicated by the Brisbane City Council in February 1934.
The seven properties fronting Julius Street, and two fronting Moray Street, were transferred as follows:
November 1933, resub 4 of sub 50 to Edmund Christian Hay Dixon and Ernestine Gertrude Mary Symons Dixon (site adjacent to Green Gables)
February 1934, resub 6 of subs 47 and 48 to Fred and Ethel Havill (Ainslie site)
February 1934, resub 5 of subs 47 and 48 to Geraldine Letitia Walsh (Syncarpia site)
March 1934, resub 2 of subs 47 and 48 to Mary and Maud Molloy (Ardrossan site)
July 1934, resub 9 of subs 49 and 50 to Jack Massie Garnett-Botfield (5 Julius Street site)
May 1935, resub 1 of sub 47 (site adjacent to Ardrossan), resub 3 of subs 49 and 50 (Green Gables site), resub 7 of subs 47 and 48 (Pine Lodge site), and resub 8 of subs 49 and 50 (Evelyn Court site) to Ernest William Mazlin.
Seven blocks of flats surrounding Julius Street were constructed between 1934-1938. This group of 1930s flat buildings is quite rare in Brisbane. This may be due to changes in Brisbane City Council ordinances regulating flat development which effectively precluded this type of development occurring after 1936-37.
Development of the flat or apartment building in Brisbane during the interwar period.
The purpose designed flat/apartment building emerged as a new form of residential accommodation in Brisbane during the 1920s. Brisbane, in comparison to Sydney and Melbourne, was slow to adopt this form of flat development, but the practice of converting old houses to flats was well established.
By at least the 1910s, Brisbane was following an Australia wide trend of converting larger houses to flats. The incidence of house conversions to flats grew dramatically during the 1920s and 1930s, a period of severe housing shortage in Brisbane. It was not unusual for a single-family dwelling to be converted to a two-family residence, or for a flat to be created underneath a high-set house by filling in between the stumps. Some of these conversions were architect planned, and had Brisbane City Council approval, but many were not, and provided a constant source of concern for the authorities who feared the creation of slum suburbs. The interwar growth of flats of all types in Brisbane posed a major dilemma for local government and for the construction industry.
The severe housing shortage was due mainly to an increasingly buoyant Queensland economy and substantial population growth, as a result of both natural increase and immigration. A rising Brisbane population combined with a substantial fall in the numbers of workers cottages being constructed, created a severe housing shortage. Also, rising rates, maintenance and related costs forced many owners to convert larger houses in flats and to subdivide large parcels of land.
The second form of flat development in the interwar years was the purpose-designed flat or apartment building. Such structures varied considerably in quality and amenity. There were three main types: moderate-rental blocks; more prestigious and luxury flats or apartments; and the bachelor flat. Sometimes these were combined with professional chambers or shops.
The most prominent of the interwar flat building were the substantial, architect-designed blocks aimed at the higher and more long-term rental market. In general, these flats were erected in single blocks usually two or three stories, masonry or a combination of masonry, timber and fibrous cement, and on average comprised six to eight flats. Up to date facilities, including built-ins in the kitchen and bathroom, a refrigerator, hot water system, and telephone, were important selling features. By the 1930s, some were providing facilities such as garbage chutes to a basement incinerator, and garage accommodation. In the most prestigious blocks, a maids bedroom was included with each self-contained apartment. Mostly, the blocks presented handsome street facades, predominantly in the fashionable Old English, Spanish Mission or Mediterranean architectural styles favoured by architects of much of the more prestigious domestic housing in Brisbane during the interwar period. Flats designed in the modernist, Art Deco and Functionalist schools were much rarer.
The single bedroom-cum-sitting room was the precursor to the bachelor flat. The construction of single-sex bachelor flats was a reflection of contemporary Brisbane attitudes which considered flats inappropriate places in which to raise a family, and the mixing of single persons of both sexes in flat buildings was viewed as undesirable and conducive to immoral behaviour. Flats were largely thought of as catering to a floating population and, along with the lifestyle changes necessitated when living beyond the detached house and garden, were yet to be accepted as permanent homes.
In August 1933, a contributor to the Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland envisaged Brisbane developing 'a district largely composed of flat dwellings, similar to Darlinghurst in Sydney or St Kilda in Melbourne', which many had thought unlikely. In September 1933, the Courier Mail approached a 'prominent Brisbane architect' to comment on the sudden boom in flat construction in Brisbane. A strong trend toward preferences for flat life over suburban housing was identified, the reduction in the size of the average family being considered an important contributing factor. Another rationale may have been economic reasons accounting for the popularity in flat buildings; many working people found that the costs of land, finance, utilities etc were too expensive and they were turning to rented accommodation in the new well appointed flat and apartment buildings, which in turn created a strong environment for further investment in flat buildings.
Few blocks of flats appear to have been constructed in Brisbane prior to the early to mid-1920s. Suburbs like New Farm were scarcely touched by flat development until the 1930s when substantial numbers of new apartment buildings were constructed. The construction of flat buildings in Brisbane peaked in 1936-37, with a decline in 1938-39 partly due to the uncertain investment climate generated by threats of war in Europe, and partly due to the refusal of banking and financial institutions to lend on flat constructions.
The up-turn in flat construction in the mid-1930s echoed a strong improvement in the Brisbane building industry as a whole, which in 1935 had seen a 67.2% increase in expenditure. The most substantial growth was in the residential sector, with a boom in house building and 'phenomenal activity' in flat construction; the number in 1935 exceeding the combined totals of the previous two years. In 1935, 121 flat projects including house conversions were approved by the BCC. Brisbane's housing shortage was acute, and flat buildings were filling a gap in the rental market. Housing shortages continued into 1937, with rents increasing 10% on the previous year. Surprisingly, flat construction declined around this period due to the 'stringency of finance' for flat construction.
Ownership laws also contributed to the type of flats which were constructed during the interwar period. In Brisbane, terrace houses were usually intended as rental investments rather than for resale, and the flat buildings of the 1920s and 1930s appear to have been constructed under similar laws relating to tenement buildings. Strata Title was not available in Queensland until 1965, with the introduction of the Building Units Titles Act.
Company Title, in which the land and the building are owned by shareholders who have rights to exclusive use of flats within the building, and areas not allocated for exclusive use (common areas) is understood to have been first employed in Brisbane with the construction of Torbreck Home Units 1958-59. Lease schemes, whereby a developer owns the land and building and leases individual flats to the 'owners' may have been in operation much earlier. The leases are long term (eg 99 years) and contain covenants to regulate the management of the scheme. Tenancy in common schemes, a form of cooperative ownership in which a group of people own the land and building as tenants in common in agreed shares, may have been employed in Brisbane in the 1930s, when the cooperative housing model based on American systems of cooperative apartment houses first was being promoted in Australia.
It would appear however that the bulk of the flats erected in Brisbane in the interwar period were rental investments.
Investors favoured centrally located positions, close to workplaces, shopping facilities, entertainment and schools, with easy access to public transport. Proximity to a tramline was particularly important, and when the Julius Street flats were constructed, trams ran up Moray Street past Julius Street. This lead to a concentration of flat buildings around the principal tramlines running along Brunswick and Moray Streets in New Farm; Hamilton and Sandgate Roads in Hamilton, Ascot, and Clayfield area; Petrie Terrace; Leichhardt Street and St Paul's Terrace in Spring Hill; Grey, Vulture, Melbourne and Stanley Streets in South Brisbane; and Gladstone Road through to Dutton Park. Gregory Terrace, with access to tramlines within easy walking distance, and Wickham Terrace virtually in the Central Business District, were also favoured locations. Kangaroo Point, whilst devoid of a tramline or railway, was close to the CBD, which could be accessed by ferry.
Level sites were popular, and corner blocks were particularly sought after, as they provided each flat with greater access to light and ventilation.
To some extent, flats were viewed as an unavoidable outcome of modern life, and a certain amount of government and industry quality control was enforced. The underlying fear amongst all groups was that indiscriminate and uncontrolled flat development would lead to the creation of city slums.
BCC ordinances, adopted in 1926, included controls over flat developments; both new construction and house conversions. These controls regulated the percentage of the site which could be covered by a flat development; boundary and street alignment setbacks; the provision of separate facilities; soundproofing and privacy. Perhaps the most significant of the ordinances that controlled the flat developments stated that 'tenements shall not occupy more than 50% of the allotment of land on which it stands, but when the building is not more than three stories in height it may occupy two-thirds of the allotment'. As a result, Brisbane's interwar flats rarely exceeded three storeys.
Zoning was a new concept for Brisbane, and one which was being promoted heavily by the Town Planning Association and the Queensland Institute of Architects during the interwar years. A zoning map had been prepared by previous councils, and in 1935 the BCC appointed a town planning committee. In 1936, the BCC prepared amended regulations to further control the development of flats, which included; no flats permitted on land with a road of less than 50 links in width; no multiple-family building to cover a greater ground area than half the land upon which it is built; multiple-family dwellings to be restricted to two-storeys in height, unless constructed of brick, concrete, or other similar fire-resisting material where height may be increased to three stories (possibly further in exceptional cases). More regulations controlling house conversions, which were seen as developing slum areas, were introduced by the BCC in 1937.
Development of each of the seven Julius Street flat buildings
Ardrossan (601895a)
In March 1934, resub 2 of subs 47 and 48 was transferred to sisters Mary and Maud Molloy (spinsters) of Bowen Terrace, New Farm. In September 1936, the adjacent allotment, resub 1 of sub 47, was transferred to Mary and Maud Molloy from Ernest William Mazlin.
Ardrossan was designed by prominent Brisbane architects Chambers and Ford in 1934. The contractor was F Lee of Albion, and tender price was £3,500. Chambers and Ford practised in Brisbane from 1920 to 1951, and were responsible for the design of a number of apartment buildings in Brisbane during the interwar period.
The building, a decorative three-storeyed rendered masonry structure with strong Spanish Mission/Mediterranean architectural styling references, is prominently located on the corner of Julius and Moray Streets. The building retains most of its original fabric and contains six flats, each accessed from a central staircase and containing two bedrooms, living room, kitchen, bathroom, an enclosed front sleep-out, and an enclosed rear verandah. When built, the front sleep-outs had roll down slat blinds.
When completed, Miss Mary Molloy resided in apartment no. 4, letting the remainder out. Soon after it was completed, a photograph of Ardrossan was featured in the Queenslander in February 1935 with the caption 'The latest in flats- This block of six flats....indicates the latest trend in flat building in Brisbane.' During the Second World War, the owners/residents of the Julius Street flats constructed a dug-out air raid shelter in the grounds behind Ardrossan.
Mary Molloy died in February 1957, and the property was transferred to Donald James Shaw in November of that year. The property was transferred to the current owner in October 1967.
Green Gables (601895b)
In May 1935, resub 3 of subs 49 and 50 was transferred to Ernest William Mazlin. This land was then transferred to Charles Robinson, of Kingaroy, in July 1935. At this time, EW Mazlin had acquired the sites for Evelyn Court (resub 8 of subs 49 and 50), Pine Lodge (resub 7 of subs 47 and 48) and the land adjacent to Ardrossan, (resub 1 of sub 47). Refer to Evelyn Court history for details concerning EW Mazlin.
It appears that Green Gables was constructed by Charles Robinson in 1935, but as yet no architect or contractor has been identified. It is possible that Robinson had a connection with EW Mazlin, as at this time EW Mazlin had been residing at his fathers home at 16 Dublin Street, Clayfield, and a Charles Robinson is first listed in the Post Office Directory as residing at 5 Dublin Street, Clayfield in 1934. EW Mazlin then moved to Sandgate Road, Clayfield. The Mazlin family were involved in building construction, and Robinson had purchased the site from Mazlin in July 1935 and Green Gables was being tenanted by August 1935, though it is certain if it was actually completed by this date. This may suggest that the design of the building was in place at purchase, and that Mazlin was involved in the construction. However, this connection has not been confirmed.
The property was sold to Anastasia Weitemeyer in February 1936 for £4750. Anastasia Weitemeyer (nee Gorey) and her husband Christian Ernest owned the Gympie Hotel, Bundaberg, and moved to Brisbane c.1936. Anastasia's parents had owned hotels, and she inherited various properties in areas such as Bundaberg, Maryborough, Gympie and Kalbar. They lived for a few years at 'Infracombe', Bonney Avenue, Clayfield, before moving into flat no. 4, Green Gables c.1940. They had a daughter, Doris, who later inherited the property, and two sons who were killed during the Second World War. Christian Ernest Weitemeyer's parents were Danish settlers who had pioneered the Maleny/Montville region.
Green Gables, a three-storeyed structure with a masonry ground level and timber framed and fibrous cement first and second levels, is prominently located on the corner of Julius Street and Moray Street, opposite Ardrossan. The building has Old English architectural styling references, and at the time of sale, the building was described as containing '6 flats, each flat contains 2 bedrooms, lounge and sleeping-out verandah, smoker's balcony, kitchen and bathroom.... and four garages.' The upper four flats were tenanted at £2/5/- per week, and the ground floor at £2/-/-. When constructed, the building had a rendered masonry ground floor, with the first and second storeys featuring imitation half-timbering, and some ground floor windows had timber shutters. The sleep-outs and smoker's balconies had roll down slat blinds, and a generator to power the refrigerators was located behind the rear stair. The first and second floors were painted pale green, with the ground floor a darker shade of green.
Stucco was applied to the exterior of the building c.1941. It is thought that this was done to make the building appear as if it were constructed of masonry, and this may have been a reaction to the BCC ordinances, introduced soon after the building's construction, concerning fire-resistant construction. The rear stair was also enclosed with timber lattice at this time.
The open sleep-outs and smoker's balconies were gradually enclosed, from the late 1940s to early 1950s. The southwest flats were completed first, with louvred timber panels initially, and later casement windows, and more recently aluminium framed sliding windows.
Anastasia Weitemeyer lived at Green Gables until her death in September 1969, when the property was transferred to her daughter Doris McDonald who, with her husband John and family, resided at the property until it was sold to the current owners in 1984. Green Gables was Strata Titled in September 1992.
Green Gables has had several long term tenants, an example of whom was Douglas Charles Lohrey Smith, a statistician, and his wife, who first rented a flat from Charles Robinson in August 1935. Douglas Smith lived there until his death in 1979.
5 Julius Street (Julius Lodge, formerly Nanmara) (601895c)
In July 1934, resub 9 of subs 49 and 50 was transferred to Jack Massie Garnett-Botfield, who transferred the property to Sydney Morey in November of that year. In December 1934, the property was transferred to Beatrice Ellen Nichols (spinster) and Robert Sydney Melloy. In the 1938-39 rates details, RS Melloy is recorded as working in the AMP Building, Queen Street.
Julius Lodge, originally named Nanmara, was built for Mr RS Melloy and Miss BE Nichols, and plans were approved by the BCC in November 1934. The building was described at the time of construction as being two-storeyed of brick and fibro construction with a tile roof. The building contained eight flats, four flats per floor, and each flat contained one bedroom, a living room, kitchen, bathroom and verandah. The contractor was Mr S Conwell of Holland Park, and the building was constructed at a cost of £2420. No architect has been identified. Each flat has a front entrance, with rear access from a central corridor, and reports indicate that the exterior of the building originally had imitation half-timbering.
The building has had a second bedroom added to each flat, to each of the four corners of the structure. These additions are constructed of masonry, and the verandahs have been enclosed. Stucco has been applied to the exterior of the building.
In May 1959, the property was transferred to Oswald and Emily Grant. In March 1960, the property was transferred to John Dennis Collins, who may have changed its name from Nanmara to Julius Lodge. Collins retained it until his death in July 1976, when it was transferred to Patrick James Collins and Maxine Hefferman. Julius Lodge was transferred to the current owners in September 1986.
Syncarpia (601895d)
In February 1934, resub 5 of subs 47 and 48 was transferred to Mrs Geraldine Letitia Walsh, for whom Syncarpia was built. The building was designed as an 'apartment house' by Brisbane architects Addison and Macdonald in 1934. The contractor was JR Holmes of Mt Tamborine, and the tender price was £1665. Addison and Macdonald practised in Brisbane from 1928 to 1940.
The building is a two storeyed timber framed structure with imitation half-timbering and stucco infill panels. The name of the building, Syncarpia, is the generic name for Turpentine which is a type of timber used in ship building and in marine environments. The name may have been chosen in connection to the site's former use as a sawmill.
When completed, Mrs GL Walsh resided in apartment no. 1, letting the remainder out. The building appears to have contained seven flats when constructed, with a shared bathroom. A single-storeyed rear wing was added sometime after 1937. Initially, the building was rented only to males, but later reports suggest that Syncarpia became a boarding house for single females.
Syncarpia remained in the ownership of the Walsh family, transferring to Peter Joseph Walsh and Patrick Leonard Vincent Walsh in December 1963, until March 1980 when it was transferred to William Valmond. The property was transferred to Michael Bunder in June 1984, and later the building was converted into five flats which were Strata Titled in June 1994 and transferred to the current owners.
Ainslie (601895e)
In February 1934, resub 6 of subs 47 and 48 was transferred to Fred and Ethel Havill.
Ainslie was built in 1934-35 by Fred and Ethel Havill, owners and contractors, who resided at Merthyr Road, New Farm. It appears that the property may have been a speculative venture, as it was transferred John Stapleton in August 1935. The Havill family were involved in a number of flat/apartment building developments during that period of the 1930s in Brisbane, and in particular New Farm. H Havill had also been involved in the construction of Pine Lodge, and had also submitted a tender for Ardrossan.
Ainslie is a two storeyed masonry structure and contains four two bedroom flats, with a kitchen, bathroom, front sleep-out (enclosed), and rear verandah (enclosed). Each apartment has front and rear access, with an entry porch on the southwest side and, similar to a number of the other Julius Street flat/apartment buildings, Ainslie has Old English architectural styling references.
John Stapleton died in April 1941, and the property was transferred to trustees until December 1953 when it was transferred to Herbert Antcliff. In December 1958, the site was amalgamated with the rear allotment, and a masonry residence was later constructed across the allotment boundary. Antcliff died in July 1964, since which time the property has had several owners. The property was transferred to the current owners in December 1984.
Pine Lodge (formerly Aloha Court) (601895f)
In May 1935, resub 7 of subs 47 and 48 was transferred to Ernest William Mazlin. At this time, EW Mazlin also acquired the site for Evelyn Court (resub 8 of subs 49 and 50), as well as the site for Green Gables (resub 3 of subs 49 and 50) and the land adjacent to Ardrossan (resub 1 of sub 47), both of which were sold soon after.
Pine Lodge, originally named Aloha Court, was constructed by owner contractor Ernest William Mazlin of Sandgate Road, Clayfield.
EW Mazlin's father William Mazlin was one of four brothers who pioneered the Atherton Tableland in 1880. Thomas, James and John were interested in procuring cedar and in 1881 their youngest brother William located a vast stand at a place he named Cedar Creek, now Ravenshoe. The Mazlin brothers were also heavily involved in mining. William Mazlin married Isabella Pasley and in March 1883 became the first selector on the Evelyn Tableland, not far from Herberton. His house, Orange Grove, still stands, and Ernest William was the eldest of eleven children born at Evelyn. Ernest was born on 9 September 1884, and known as Will, was educated at Evelyn and Herberton State Schools and later gained a Diploma in Engineering as an external student of the University of Queensland. He became a builder, cabinet maker and contractor, but was best known as the proprietor of a large sawmill in Ravenshoe. He also played a prominent role in the civic affairs of Ravenshoe and the surrounding district. Ernest married Ann White in 1912, and they had no children.
Ernest's father William moved his family to Brisbane c.1918. He built a house at 16 Dublin Street, Clayfield (extant) which he named 'Evelyn' in memory of his years pioneering on the Atherton and Evelyn Tablelands. Ernest Mazlin and his wife moved to Brisbane c.1934 and initially resided at his fathers house at 16 Dublin Street, Clayfield. They moved to 842-854 New Sandgate Road, Clayfield in 1935, with a George Oxnam at a property later named Ivondale Flats. Ernest and his brother Herbert appear to have purchased land and built speculative houses in Brisbane, and Ernest was involved in sawmills with his brother Percy. Ernest died on 5 June 1968 in Brisbane.
EW Mazlin and Julius Rosenfeld had an agreement concerning Mazlin's Ravenshoe mill and the land at Julius Street, New Farm. The details of the agreement are not known, but included the transfer of the Julius Street allotments to EW Mazlin in May 1935, and the Ravenshoe mill to Rosenfeld in 1934 which, by this time was operating as the Rosenfeld & Sons saw and planning mills. The agreement appears to have included options over other land, which Rosenfeld could exercise, for logging purposes and the use of the subsequent cleared land. Eric Rosenfeld, who operated Rosenfeld's Ravenshoe mill, was also a Cairns merchant who was involved in exporting timber from other sawmills, such as Pearson Brothers sawmill, Evelyn Tablelands, to London.
Initially, four of the nine allotments were transferred to EW Mazlin; two river front, one corner and one fronting Moray Street. It appears that RV Brady, builder of Ashgrove, who was also involved in the construction of Evelyn Court, was involved in the construction of Pine Lodge, however invoices indicate that Mazlin paid for materials, subcontractor's wages and sundries. The building was constructed in 1935, and records indicate that the total cost of the building was £4402, but in comparison to the relative costs of the other apartment buildings in Julius Street, this figure seems excessive. Pine Lodge shares the same floor plan as Evelyn Court adjacent, and it appears that both buildings were planned by June 1935 when both allotments were subdivided to allow for driveway access. No architect has been identified, however RV Brady was the author of the plans for the adjacent Evelyn Court, which shares the same floor plan, and the Mazlin family were involved in several building projects in Brisbane. Pine Lodge (Aloha Court) was first registered with the BCC as a 'flat building' in March 1936.
Pine Lodge is a two-storeyed reinforced concrete structure containing four two bedroom flats with a kitchen, bathroom, living room, dining room and enclosed sleep-out. Each unit is accessed via a central hall and stair, and also a rear entry. The building has projecting window bays, with a similar floor plan and detailing to the adjoining Evelyn Court. The building has Old English architectural styling references, quite different to the adjacent Art Deco styling of Evelyn Court. The building is built near the edge of a steep embankment/cutting above the remains of two lime kilns [601885], and overlooking the Brisbane River.
In 1941, the property was transferred to Ralph David Sigmund Schureck who worked for Austral Lighting Co in Elizabeth Street, Brisbane. Since that time, the property has had a number of changes of ownership, and was transferred to the current owners in July 1989.
Evelyn Court (601895g)
In May 1935, resub 8 of subs 49 and 50 was transferred to Ernest William Mazlin. At this time, EW Mazlin also acquired the site for Pine Lodge (resub 7 of subs 47 and 48), as well as the site for Green Gables (resub 3 of subs 49 and 50) and the land adjacent to Ardrossan (resub 1 of sub 47), both of which were sold soon after.
Evelyn Court was constructed by owner contractor Ernest William Mazlin of Sandgate Road, Clayfield. (Refer to the Pine Lodge History for details)
The site plan for Evelyn Court appears to have been determined, along with Pine Lodge, by June 1935 when both allotments were subdivided to allow for driveway access. The building is shown on a BCC sewerage detail plan dated 1937, however construction was not completed until 1938. The plans for the building are signed by RV Brady, builder of Ashgrove, who may also have been the contractor, or worked for EW Mazlin in a supervisory capacity, as in some instances invoices were addressed to both Mazlin and Brady.
The building was originally designed with a hipped roof, similar to Pine Lodge, but at some stage of construction the design was altered to accommodate a flat roof. The specification for the building specifies a hipped roof. A flat roof, as detailed in Australian Gypsum Products Pty Ltd technical brochures, was constructed. The roof had waterproofing problems, and was resealed several times throughout the 1940s. Since that time, bituminous material has been applied to the roof several times. The exterior treatment of the building was also altered with Art Deco styling emphasising vertical elements and a stepped parapet.
The building was tenanted in December 1938 at £2/15/- per week, however work was being completed in early 1939. BCC files indicate that the building was first registered as a 'flat building' in 1939.
Evelyn Court is a three storeyed masonry structure containing six two bedroom flats with a kitchen, bathroom, living room, dining room and enclosed sleep-out. Each unit is accessed via a central hall and stair, and a rear entry. The building has projecting window bays, with a similar floor plan and detailing to the adjoining Pine Lodge. The building has Art Deco architectural styling references, quite different to the adjacent Old English styling of Pine Lodge. The building also has a one bedroom flat underneath, which appears to have been enclosed at a later date. The building has garbage chutes to an incinerator (no longer in use), and a flat roof with stair access from the top foyer.
Evelyn Court shares the same name as Ernest's father's house 'Evelyn', 16 Dublin Street, Clayfield, and 'Evelyn' the family property near the Evelyn Tablelands in Far North Queensland.
In January 1951, Evelyn Court was transferred to Doris Margaret Back, Joan Cosby Back, Victor Merfyn Houseman, and Gloria Elaine Houseman. Since that time, the property has had a number of different owners, and was transferred to the current owners in March 1996.
Julius Street (601895h)
Julius Street was dedicated by the Brisbane City Council in February 1934, and was named after Julius Rosenfeld. Reports indicate that the Julius Street flat buildings originally had well maintained gardens, which existed well into the 1960s, and remnants of which survive.
Julius Street, a short and narrow cul-de-sac, is surrounded by a highly intact group of 1930s flat buildings, and as such is recognised by the local community as having a distinct sense of place. This sense of place is reflected in the diverse social history associated with the place. This perception has also been reinforced by the identification of all of the Julius Street properties in the New Farm and Teneriffe Hill Development Control Plan as places of cultural heritage significance, and the recent actions of resident groups.
","criteria":"The Julius Street Flats, consisting of seven properties comprising Ardrossan, Green Gables, 5 Julius Street, Syncarpia, Ainslie, Pine Lodge, and Evelyn Court, are located fronting Julius Street, a short cul-de-sac off Moray Street, New Farm. The seven properties were constructed between 1934 and 1938 on a parcel of land subdivided in 1933 by Julius Rosenfeld, who had operated Rosenfeld's Sawmill on the site from c.1924. The place is important in demonstrating the pattern of residential development in Brisbane, and in particular New Farm, during the interwar period when substantial numbers of flat/apartment buildings were constructed. The increase in the number of flat/apartment buildings being constructed during this period, particularly the mid 1930s, demonstrates the increase in Brisbane's population and the subsequent high demand for accommodation due to a shortage of housing. It also reflects changing community attitudes to desirable and acceptable forms of housing. The place, together with the associated remnant lime kilns [601885], is also important in demonstrating the former semi-industrial usage of the New Farm riverfront.
|The place is important as a rare example of a group of highly intact 1930s flat/apartment buildings. This rarity is partly the result of Brisbane City Council ordinances changing in 1936-37, which effectively precluded this type of development occurring after that time. The subdivision and subsequent development of the former Rosenfeld Sawmill site occurred over a short period of time, with all of the flat/apartment buildings having been designed, and most built, from c.1934-35.
|The place demonstrates the three main types of purpose designed flat buildings being designed and constructed in Brisbane during the interwar period. These include the bachelor flat, the moderate rental blocks, and the more prestigious architect designed blocks. The Julius Street Flats also demonstrate the fashionable styles, including Old English, Spanish Mission or Mediterranean, favoured by architects of much of the more prestigious domestic housing in Brisbane during the interwar period. Flats designed in the modernist, Art Deco and Functionalist schools were much rarer. The place is also important as it includes Ardrossan, an important example of a flat/apartment building designed by prominent Brisbane architects Chambers and Ford.
|Julius Street, a short and narrow cul-de-sac, is surrounded by a highly intact group of 1930s flat buildings, and as such is recognised as having a distinct sense of place. The Julius Street Flats have considerable aesthetic significance as a highly intact group of 1930s flat buildings, designed in a range of fashionable styles favoured by architects of much of the more prestigious domestic housing in Brisbane during the interwar period. The place is important as it contains some examples of particular architectural merit, and through its massing, scale, form, materials and detailing, makes an important contribution to the Moray Street streetscape, and to the urban fabric of New Farm. The place also makes an important aesthetic contribution to the Brisbane River.
|The place has strong associations with the local community, which is reflected in its diverse social history, and its importance is demonstrated through recent resident action to ensure its conservation.
|The place is important because, through its former use as a site for a sawmill, its subdivision and subsequent development, it has a special association with Julius Rosenfeld and Ernest Mazlin, and their contribution to the timber milling industry in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16639,"place_ref":601903,"name":"Brisbane General Hospital Precinct","alternate_name":"Royal Brisbane Hospital | Royal Women's Hospital | Royal Children's Hospital | Herston Hospitals Complex (current name) | RBH | Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital | RBWH","street_address":"40 Bowen Bridge Road","suburb":"HERSTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-03-28","description":"The Brisbane General Hospital Precinct comprises a collection of buildings and landscape features dating from the 1860s to the 1940s within The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH); itself a substantial complex bounded by Bowen Bridge Road (east), Herston Road (south), Bramston Terrace (west) and Butterfield Street (north), and situated in the inner northern Brisbane suburb of Herston. Significant buildings include the: former Fever Ward (1875); former Female Ward (1885); Lady Norman Wing (1895); Nurses’ Homes (Lady Lamington, 1897, 1914 and 1931; Block 1, north, 1936; and Block 2, south, 1939); former Mental Ward (1918); Edith Cavell Block (1922); former Superintendents’ Residence (1941); a Brisbane Tuff Wall (c1866) associated with the early entrance road from Herston Road; and a substantial Brisbane Tuff retaining wall (late 1930s / early 1940s) along Bowen Bridge Road.
\nThe prominent Nurses’ Homes and Edith Cavell Block are situated on the highest point of the Hospital site and visible from vantage points across the northern suburbs of Brisbane. These buildings, along with the former Superintendent’s Residence and former Mental Ward, are set amongst landscaped grounds with pathways, stone and brick walls, gardens and mature trees.
\nFormer Pavilion Wards: Fever Ward and Female Ward
\nThe former Fever Ward is a single-storey, brick building located to the east of the former Mental Ward, about halfway between it and Bowen Bridge Road. Aligned approximately north-south, the building contains a single open ward with timber verandahs to the north, east and west (now enclosed). The southern end of the building is clad with timber weatherboards. A timber pedimented former entrance is centred on the northern verandah, which retains stop-chamfered timber posts with moulded capitals. The hipped roof is clad in corrugated metal and has boarded eaves and a clerestory, which along with the early verandah doors and windows demonstrate the building’s previous form as a pavilion ward. The interior has been altered but the original queen post trusses and timber ceiling remain intact above a suspended plasterboard ceiling. A covered link connects the northeast verandah with the adjoining Female Ward to the north.
\nThe former Female Ward is a single-storey, brick building overlooking a portion of former O’Connell Terrace within the Hospital complex. The building, on a Brisbane Tuff base constructed from stone quarried at the Hospital site, is distinguished by two prominent roof ventilators and a central flue. Rows of early double-hung sash windows, with fanlights set above the level of the now demolished verandahs, are retained along the east and west walls. The north and south elevations are symmetrically arranged, with double-hung sashes flanking centred French doors. Original verandahs have been removed and the north-facing deck is modern and not of cultural heritage significance.
\nLady Norman Wing
\nThe Lady Norman Wing is located to the south of the Edith Cavill Block, on elevated ground at the western end of the precinct. Designed according to 19th century pavilion plan principles and incorporating the requirements of a children’s hospital with operating theatre, it is highly intact and retains evidence of its original planning, fenestration and other features for the provision of natural light and ventilation.
\nAn L-shaped, two-storey brick building (with basement) designed to the pavilion plan, each floor consists of a large ward (McConnel ground floor, Raff first floor) and a smaller ward (Gray ground floor, Cowlishaw first floor) opening onto wide verandahs. Set at right angles, the wards are connected by a two-storey brick core that contains a large central staircase and various ancillary rooms along a central corridor, including staff and patient rooms and a rare naturally lit 19th century operating theatre on the first floor. Two brick towers attach to the western side of the building accommodating ablutions facilities and a third tower in the form of a faceted bay projects from the northeast corner of the core.
\nThe intersecting hipped roof is clad in corrugated metal and features six corbelled brick chimneys with flat arched caps. The eaves are lined with timber boards and the separate timber-framed verandah roofs are unlined. A gable-roofed lantern centred over the core and the remains of a lantern over the former operating theatre (originally pyramidal with an apex ventilator, modified early to mid 20th century) facilitate natural light and ventilation to the interior. The three brick ablutions towers have pyramidal roofs.
\nThe exterior walls are face brick with rendered string courses, and the basement walls incorporate Brisbane Tuff. Window openings have contrasting face brick flat arch heads and rendered sills. Early timber joinery is retained throughout, including: narrow double-hung sash windows (core); narrow top-hung awning windows (towers); a bank of three tall double-hung sash windows (operating theatre); and alternating casement windows and French doors, with fanlights (wards). The verandahs have stop-chamfered timber posts with moulded capitals and decorative cast iron balustrades (first floor) with timber top-rails. Some verandahs on the northern side are enclosed and doors modern replacements.
\nThe building retains the principal spaces and planning, some of the wards have been partitioned for offices but the ward spaces are discernible. Many original internal features remain including: the decorative staircase with stop-chamfered timber posts that have moulded capitals and brackets; timber-framed skylights below the lanterns; skirtings, architraves and original doors to the ancillary rooms; and numerous fireplaces, some retaining decorative mantles and others enclosed, that illustrate the provision of heating prior to electricity. Many internal finishes are intact. The ripple iron ceiling to part of the upper floor remains, along with several fretwork ceiling vents. In the entrance foyer is a bronze plaque in memory of Mary McConnel, the founder of the Hospital for Sick Children.
\nNurses’ Home (Lady Lamington, Blocks 1 and 2)
\nThe Nurses' Homes consist of three linked buildings which form an integrated complex organised around a series of courtyards. The Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home is a brick building, E-shaped in plan, with timber verandahs and Marseille tiled roofs. It is situated on the crest of the hill on a steeply sloping site, and has walled courtyards facing east which contain established gardens. Attached to the western side of the Lady Lamington are two eight-storey towers (Blocks 1, north; and 2, south) of masonry construction. These towers are positioned opposite the southernmost and central wings of the Lady Lamington. All three buildings have sweeping views of Brisbane; to the north and east from the verandahs of the Lady Lamington and in all directions from Blocks 1 and 2.
\nLady Lamington
\nBuilt in three stages (1897, southern wing; 1914, central wing; 1931, northern wing) the Lady Lamington Nurses Home is two storeys with a basement in the older southernmost part. At the north eastern corner, the building perching dramatically on a steep slope is, due to the sudden fall in the land, five storeys tall. The courtyard gardens, are accessed from the verandahs via sweeping concrete stairs that are ornamented with concrete spheres mounted on low pillars.
\nThe verandahs have simple timber balustrades constructed of square dowels and arched timber valances between the verandah posts at the second top level; the ground floor level at the southernmost end. Below this level the verandah posts are mostly brick forming a screen wall with arched openings. The verandah floors, timber in the first stage, are concrete in stage two and three. The continuous verandahs are connected vertically by a series of external fire escape stairs and ladders.
\nThe building has a gambrel roof, which also covers the verandahs, and a number of brick chimneys. The chimney nearest the north eastern corner is brick with cement render bands. The English bond brickwork in the first section has been coated with a red pigment, and a cement-lime mixture has been painted on to resemble stretcher bond; and the basement brickwork is dark brown, contrasting with the red brick used elsewhere.
\nAll the wings are connected by long central corridors which have rows of identical cell-like rooms on either side; some larger rooms, with fireplaces, are located at the northern end of stage one. Each room opens onto the verandah via large double hung windows with sills at floor level (stage one and two) or French doors (stage three), with fanlights; the spaces between the interior partitions and the ceilings have been in-filled, mostly with glass louvres and flat sheeting. Large sitting rooms, with fireplaces, are positioned at the eastern end of the north and south wings, and the ground floor of the southern wing contains a main entrance, lobby area and large open space. Internal staircases and bathrooms are positioned adjacent to the western end of the central and northern wings.
\nEarly interior joinery, finishes, linings and fixtures are retained throughout, including: panelled doors, with fanlights; moulded archways, architraves, skirtings and picture rails; decorative fireplace hearths and surrounds; plastered walls, V-jointed (vj) tongue and groove (T&G), pressed metal and galvanised ripple iron ceilings (some concealed by later flat sheeting); door and window hardware; internal staircase balustrades; and functional features such wall-mounted bin frames and laundry chutes.
\nThe building’s climate-responsive features include: its ridge-top location; nine feet (2.7m) wide verandahs to all sides; verandah windows and doors; and vj T&G interior partitions designed to assist cross ventilation by originally stopping four feet (1.2m) short of the 13 feet high (4m) ceilings.
\nBlocks 1 and 2
\nThe eight-storey Blocks 1 and 2, similar in appearance and organisation, form two sides of a bitumen surfaced yard which is open at the western end. The lower two storeys, one of which is partly below ground level, have external walls of face brickwork while the upper six storeys are finished with white-painted cement render. Arcaded verandahs run along the northern and southern elevations. Both buildings have a number of decorative features that connect them to the Spanish Mission style such as textured render, arched openings, ornate columns at the uppermost level and decorative brackets and awnings at the ground level. Windows are metal-framed with smallish panes. Both buildings have flat roofs with sloped tiled parapets. The lift motor rooms which protrude above the parapet level have Marseille tiled external walls and castellated parapets.
\nA lift and staircase is located at the eastern ends of the blocks, with a concrete staircase with metal balustrade at the western ends. The lift shaft in Block 1 is partly enclosed by a decorative screen. The eastern and western ends of the buildings are connected on almost every level by a central corridor off which open a row of identical, cell-like rooms on both sides. Each room opens onto the verandah via timber French doors. On the lowest floor of the southern building (Block 2) is a large recreation room containing a stage.
\nEarly interior joinery, linings and fixtures include: plastered walls and columns with recessed dado and picture rails (ground floor); moulded architraves, skirting and cornices; and decorative glass light fittings.
\nFormer Mental Ward
\nLocated within the garden setting adjacent to the residential core of the Hospital, the former Mental Ward is a single-storey, U-shaped building to the northeast of the Lady Lamington Nurses' Home. Residential in scale, the detailing and massing of the ward building show influences of the Arts and Crafts movement. Symmetrical about a rectangular central wing which terminates in wings to the north and south, the building is distinguished by its steeply pitched roofs covered with terracotta tiles and three large roof ventilators. Approached from the east up a flight of concrete steps from the garden below, the central arched entrance of the main wing sits beneath a bell-shaped parapet, which has a decorative concrete capping and a bulls-eye vent. The verandahs flanking the main entrance have been enclosed with glazing. The parapets to the north and south wings have been removed and are now sheeted with fibrous cement. Verandahs to the north and south wings have been enclosed.
\nEdith Cavell Block
\nDramatically posed on the western ridge at the summit of the steeply sloping Hospital site, the Edith Cavell Block affords sweeping views across to the north of Brisbane. The building is H-shaped in plan, three-storeys with a basement, and clad in face brick. The south elevation is symmetrical about a projecting central bay with a polychrome arched loggia entrance at ground level. This bay is divided by brick piers between which there are concrete spandrel in-fills and sash windows. The central wing terminates in pavilions to the east and west. The external walls are faced at ground and first floor level with glazed brown bricks and above with a rough-cast finish. The south elevation has a regular rhythm of flat arched window openings with prominent rendered keystones and rendered sills. The striking north elevation consists of a polychrome arched loggia to the ground level opening from the building to the garden and swimming pool area. Verandahs to the first and second floors are divided into bays by brick piers and in-filled with painted timber slatted balustrading. These verandahs overlook the garden and swimming pool with change shed.
\nFormer Superintendent's Residence
\nSituated to the east of the Lady Lamington Nurses' Home and southwest of the former Mental Ward, the building forms part of a well-defined group of residential buildings in the centre of the Hospital complex. Residential in scale and materials, the building was skilfully designed and detailed with reference to the inter-war ‘Old English’ style by architects Conrad and Atkinson. A two-storey building, the lower floor is constructed in cavity brickwork and the upper floor is stucco over a timber stud frame. The house has a tiled roof and a distinctive asymmetrical front elevation to the east. There is a distinctive decorative bargeboard above a large bay window to the north of the arched entrance.
\nGrounds, Landscape and Views
\nThe Brisbane General Hospital Precinct grounds are well established, retaining a range of landscape elements and plantings from various phases of the hospital’s development. The site slopes upwards to the east from Bowen Bridge Road and to the west from Bramston Terrace, and is terraced with stone and brick retaining walls, for buildings, roads and garden areas.
\nA large Brisbane Tuff wall runs along Bowen Bridge Road and defines the eastern boundary of the Hospital site. Brisbane Tuff features extensively in landscape across the site, including a two metre high Brisbane Tuff wall to the rear of Block 7 that is associated with the early Hospital entrance road from Herston Road. Any modern surfaces within the boundaries for each Tuff wall are not of cultural heritage significance. Former quarry extraction sites are evident on the northern (former O’Connell Terrace) and southern edges of the precinct, forming steep rock-faced cliffs.
\nThe precinct is accessed from the north by part of former O’Connell Terrace that runs through the Hospital, and from the east by the roadway from Bramston Terrace running between the Lady Norman Wing and the Edith Cavell Block that was the main entrance to the Children's Hospital and offers a view to the Nurses’ Homes above. An additional roadway from Bramston Terrace to the north of the Edith Cavell Block is framed by poincianas (Delonix spp.) and Brisbane Tuff retaining walls.
\nThe associated grounds of the Edith Cavell Block, former Superintendent's Residence, and the Nurses' Homes form a residential core—in scale and character—within the Hospital site, which along with the gardens surrounding the former Mental Ward is the most extensive area of landscape on the site.
\nCourtyard gardens on the eastern side of the Lady Lamington include lawns, stone and brick-edged garden beds, concrete pathways, mature palms and hedges, and are enclosed by brick (south) and stone (north) walls ornamented with concrete spheres mounted on pillars adjacent to the entrance gateways. The brick wall to the southernmost courtyard sits on a battered stone retaining wall. An early concrete pathway and steps connects the Lady Lamington to the main Hospital complex, revealing views of the elevated Nurses’ Homes through the surrounding trees. A level area to the south of the Lady Lamington containing two poincianas is terraced by a brick wall and overlooks a steep, vegetated drop formed by the upper face of a former quarry and a rock wall excavated when the former Children’s Hospital was constructed. The modern pathways, services trench and shade structure in this area are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nOn the northern side of the Lady Lamington, a mature Bribie Island pine (western end, Callitris columellaris) and row of mature camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora) and the remnants of brick fence piers overlook the former quarry cutting along O’Connell Terrace. A line of short brick pier remnants runs adjacent to the northern elevation of the Lady Lamington, beyond which is a concrete path. Any modern fabric associated with O’Connell Terrace that is at the base of the quarry face and within the heritage boundary is not of cultural heritage significance.
\nOther mature trees include a camphor laurel and leopard tree (Libidibia ferrea) on the eastern side of the Lady Lamington, and a hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), poinciana and frangipani (Plumeria spp.) to the northwest. The elevated Nurses’ Homes are a prominent feature of the Hospital, offering panoramic views of the site and surrounds from their numerous verandahs, and highly visible (particularly Blocks 1 and 2) from vantage points and major roads across the surrounding suburbs.
\nGrounds surrounding the former Superintendents Residence and Mental Ward comprise a series of contoured terraces with roads, pathways, walls, gardens and lawn areas, and mature plantings. To the northwest of the residence stands the memorial gardens commemorating early pregnancy termination and loss. The fabric of this garden is not of cultural heritage significance. Garden beds to the front (east) of the former Residence have stone retaining walls and lawns to the north and south are surrounded by jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia), palms, poinciana and stone-edged garden beds containing various shrubs. A lawn area between the former Residence and Mental Ward is framed by stone-edged garden beds and contains a mature hoop pine and leopard tree.
\nThe northeast corner of the Mental Ward terrace features a mature poinciana surrounded by garden beds, in the shade of which stands the memorial statue of Edward (Ned) Michael Hanlon (shifted to this location in 2000). The cast bronze sculpture stands on a cantilevered bronze plinth the front face of which is cast with the words ‘Rich in Good Works’. The plinth rests on a Brisbane Tuff retaining wall on which the original bronze plaque and a newer one explaining the shift are fixed. Concrete stairs and pathways flanked by garden beds give access to the front of the building. Areas of lawn and stone-edged garden beds extend to the southeast, with concrete pathways, stone curved steps, a stone spoon drain, a palm and a mature hoop pine. In the treed area on its western side is a cut along which stand a number of brick piers similar to those on the northern side of Lady Lamington.
\nThe grounds associated with the Edith Cavell Block are one of the few open spaces remaining on the site and provide the building with a pleasant garden setting and opportunities for sweeping views to and from the north and west. The garden area contains a fenced swimming pool area with change shed, garden seats, mature plantings and a stone edged garden beds.
\nThe area to the east of the Fever and Female wards is landscaped with lawn and recent plantings, with a terrace formed at the northern end by a modern brick wall. All modern landscape, road and pathway features within the ward buildings boundary are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nOther Structures
\nOther buildings, structures, sheds, footpath and roads within the cultural heritage boundary, as well as modern partitions, joinery and suspended ceilings within the significant buildings, are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The Brisbane General Hospital was opened at the Herston site in January 1867, with the earliest buildings gathered around the corner of Bowen Bridge and Herston roads. This was followed by the Hospital for Sick Children (1883) erected on an adjoining site to the west, the Wattlebrae Infectious Disease Hospital (1902) to the north of O’Connell Terrace, and the Brisbane Women's Hospital (1938) on Bowen Bridge Road. At the beginning of the 21st century the hospital complex, known as The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH), is one of the largest in Australia and provides an extensive range of general and specialist services. It is a major teaching facility for medical, nursing and paramedical training, and a major medical research facility for Queensland.
\nAn integral part of the RBWH, the Brisbane General Hospital Precinct comprises a collection of buildings and landscape features dating from the 1860s to the 1940s including the: former Fever Ward (1875); former Female Ward (1885); Lady Norman Wing (1895); Nurses’ Homes (Lady Lamington, 1897, 1914 and 1931; Block 1, north, 1936; and Block 2, south, 1939); former Mental Ward (1918); Edith Cavell Block (1922); former Superintendents Residence (1941); a Brisbane Tuff Wall (c1866) associated with the early entrance road from Herston Road; and a substantial Brisbane Tuff retaining wall dating from the late 1930s / early 1940s along Bowen Bridge Road.[1] Positioned on the highest point of the hospital site, the Nurses’ Homes and Edith Cavell Block are visible from across the northern suburbs of Brisbane and, along with the former Superintendent’s Residence, are set amongst landscaped grounds with pathways, stone and brick walls, gardens and mature trees; forming the residential core, a central component to the functioning of the hospital from the 1890s until recent times.
\nInitially, the Brisbane General Hospital was managed by a voluntary committee and funded by public subscriptions and government subsidies. In 1863, the Queensland Government established a hospital reserve of 15 acres on Bowen Bridge Road which the Hospital Committee reluctantly accepted, expressing concern that it was an inconvenient site for the residents of Brisbane. The site, known as ‘The Quarries’, was bounded by Bowen Bridge Road to the east, O'Connell Terrace to the north and the open space of Victoria Park to the west and south. The General Hospital opened in January 1867 in an impressive two-storeyed, masonry building with a central tower designed by the Government Architect, Charles Tiffin.
\nBy the early 1900s the Hospital Committee faced a severe financial crisis. The growth in Brisbane’s population was not matched by increases in voluntary contributions and new facilities and upgraded existing facilities were necessary. Considerable construction work was undertaken between 1909 and 1920 including open air pavilions, a new operating theatre, outpatients building, mental ward and extensions to the Lady Lamington Nurses' Quarters.
\nThe Queensland Government assumed control of the Hospital in 1917 after the committee experienced severe financial difficulties in operating the hospital’s facilities. The Hospitals Act of 1923 signalled the transition from hospitals operating as charitable institutions to being regarded as essential public community services funded and maintained by government. Developments in medicine, increasing population and changing social conditions and attitudes to health care resulted in increasing numbers of people seeking treatment at the Hospital. The Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board was established in 1924 and assumed responsibility for the General Hospital and Hospital for Sick Children.
\nThe 19th century British convention of local authorities administering isolation or infectious diseases hospitals was adopted in Queensland with the Health Act of 1900. Responding to this legislation, the Metropolitan Joint Board for Infectious Diseases was formed in Brisbane and in 1902 the Wattlebrae Infectious Disease Hospital was established on property adjacent to the Hospital for Sick Children. Substantial buildings for the Wattlebrae Hospital were designed by the architectural firm Hall and Dods. Constructed in 1911, the complex included four open air pavilions with a small central brick building for ablutions and a two-storey timber administration block. Three open air pavilions and the administration block were demolished in 1999.
\n1866-1923
\nFrom 1866 to 1923 an intense building program was undertaken at the site in response to increasing demands for health care from a growing population. Buildings constructed during this time include the General Hospital Tower Block (1866), Nurses' Quarters (1866), Surgeon's Cottage (1866), Fever Ward (1875), Male and Female Fever Wards (1880), Hospital for Sick Children (1884), Children's Fever Ward (1884), Outpatients Building (1885), Operating Theatre (1887), two Female Wards (1885), Lady Norman Wing (1895), Lady Lamington Nurses' Home (1897 & 1914), O'Connell Block (1899), Courier Building (1908), Wattlebrae Infectious Diseases Hospital Open Air Pavilions (1911), Wattlebrae Administration Block (1911), Outpatients Department (1916), Mental Ward (1918), Mortuary Chapel (1918), Edith Cavell Block (1922) and a number of ancillary buildings and structures. The buildings described in the following paragraphs were constructed during this period and remain on the RBWH site:
\nFever Ward (1875) and Female Ward (1885)
\nA single storey brick building for the treatment of fever cases was erected in 1875, to the north of the site overlooking O'Connell Terrace. Modelled on the pavilion plan, which was based on contemporary ideas about the importance to healing of a healthy environment created with natural ventilation and efficient sanitation, this building contained a single open ward surrounded by verandahs providing accommodation for 25 patients. The Fever Ward (Ward 6) was converted to a gynaecological ward in 1890 and along with two adjacent Female Wards (Wards 5 & 7) constructed in 1885, became the focus of female health care in the Hospital. The Female Wards, distinguished by prominent roof ventilators, were also based on the pavilion plan and constructed on a base of Brisbane Tuff quarried from the site. In the 1930s, the former Female Ward accommodated a clinic for the treatment of poliomyelitis under the direction of Sister Elizabeth Kenny.
\nIn 2024 the former Fever Ward houses The Museum of Nursing History and the remaining adjacent Female Ward building has been adapted for use as offices. Despite demolition of part of the former Fever Ward and the enclosure of verandahs, the remaining fabric including the verandahs, doors, windows and clerestory, demonstrates its previous form as a pavilion ward. The verandahs of the Female Ward have been removed; however, the building is substantially intact, including a central ridge light. Also the integrity of the pavilion ward plan remains. A skillion roof has been constructed to the north covering a timber deck, structures which are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nLady Norman Wing (1895)
\nThe Hospital for Sick Children was established in 1883 in a two-storeyed timber building to the western end of the site. Responding to the constant problem of overcrowding in the Children's Hospital, a two-storeyed brick building was constructed in 1895 to the pavilion plan. It was named the Lady Norman Wing, in honour of the wife of then Queensland Governor Sir Henry Norman who opened the building and had an active interest in the hospital. The building was designed by John James (JJ) Clark and Charles McLay, who both made important contributions to Queensland architecture including with the Treasury Building, Brisbane [designed by Clark, QHR 600143] and the Brisbane Customs House [designed by McLay[2], QHR 600156].
\nThe Lady Norman Wing contained four wards, two on each level positioned at right angles off a connecting corridor, as well as accommodation for nurses, a consulting room, lavatories and conveniences. The wards, each named after a woman who had made a significant contribution to the hospital (Cowlishaw, McConnel, Gray and Raff), were ventilated by opposite rows of windows and doors that opened onto verandahs, some of which were later utilised to accommodate patients during times of overcrowding.
\nThe operating theatre on the first floor is the oldest known surviving operating theatre in Queensland.[3] During the 19th century, few Queensland hospitals had an operating theatre. Surgical procedures were limited and often rudimentary, and operating theatres did not become standard in hospitals until the 1920s.[4]
\nInternationally, the oldest surviving operating theatres date to the early 19th century, including the oldest existing surgical amphitheatre in the United States at Pennsylvania Hospital (1804),[5] and the oldest in Europe at St Thomas’s Hospital in Southwark, England (1822),[6] both featuring skylights. An 18th century operating theatre in London hospital no longer exists, but featured a large skylight capturing as much daylight as possible, supplemented by gas light.[7] A sunlit operating theatre was built at Sydney Hospital in 1855, but it is unclear if the skylight survives.[8]
\nThe layout of 19th century operating theatre rooms was simple: a theatre with white walls, large window with skylight, and inside scrub up basins.[9] A skylight or lantern and large windows were common to 19th century operating theatres, providing crucial amounts of natural lighting and overhead lighting for surgeons before the advent of electricity.[10] Skylit operating theatres were installed in Brisbane (1867),[11] Clermont (1876),[12] Maryborough (1886),[13] Brisbane’s Lady Norman Wing (1895), Rockhampton’s Lady Norman Hospital (1897),[14] and Charters Towers (1899),[15] but only the Charters Towers and Brisbane Lady Norman operating theatre and skylight are known to survive.[16]
\nOn its opening in October 1895, the Lady Norman operating theatre was described as ‘a fine, lofty apartment, well lighted from the top and sides’,[17] with a black and white linoleum floor that looked ‘the very ideal of cleanliness’,[18] and featuring ‘the latest improvements in tip-up basins and sinks.’[19]
\nThe roof of the Lady Norman wing was damaged in a storm in 1903, but repaired with funding donated from patron Mrs Raff.[20] The lantern roof in the operating theatre was altered from a pyramid roof to a gable roof form at some point in the early to mid-20th century.[21]
\nSubsequent additions to the Lady Norman Wing included a milk kitchen, treatment rooms and lavatories in the 1950s, and the remodelling of wards in the 1960s and 1970s, including one for use as nursing tutorial and lecture rooms. The building was adapted for use as offices in the 1990s but retains its principal spaces and planning, and is substantially intact.
\nNurses’ Homes (Lady Lamington; 1897 and 1914)
\nPressure for improved nurses’ accommodation finally came to fruition when what was to be the first stage of the Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home was erected in 1896-7 on the crest of the hill overlooking the hospital. The L-shaped building selected by the Hospital Committee from a number of competition designs was submitted by architect RS (Robin) Dods. It included accommodation for some 50 nurses in cubicles partitioned to below ceiling height for better ventilation; a sitting room with fire place on each floor; servants' quarters at basement level; and a two-storeyed semi-detached toilet block (since demolished). Built of brick with a Marseilles tiled roof (believed to be one of the earliest uses of the material in Queensland), it was enclosed by verandahs; the semicircular steps to the courtyard garden became a popular posing place for nurses’ photographs. Although the competition brief called for a kitchen and dining room, these were not included.
\nIn 1914, Hall & Dods called tenders for additions forming the building into a ‘U’ shape in plan; the contract being let to Brisbane builder George Day at a price of £11,889.
\nLady Lamington Nurses’ Home (named for the wife of the then Queensland Governor) was the first of Dods' Queensland buildings and established the practice of Hall & Dods (1896-1916), which quickly became the leading architectural firm in Queensland undertaking numerous residential, commercial, ecclesiastical, and hospital works. The firm’s hospital work included the Mater Misericordia Hospital’s Private (1908-10) and Public (1909-11, extended 1913) components and its Nurses’ Quarters and Kitchen (1913). Dods has been acknowledged as ‘one of the most significant early 20th century Australian architects'[22] and one of few Arts and Crafts-influenced practitioners in Queensland.
\nArts and Crafts was an international design movement that flourished between 1860 and 1910, its influence continuing into the 1930s. The movement championed traditional craftsmanship using simple forms and drew from an eclectic range of stylistic elements and details. Importantly, it valued local variations in traditions so that good design would have relevance within its context. For Dods this translated into designs that were climatically responsive, paying attention to aspect and ventilation,[23] with well-proportioned solid forms, wide porches or verandahs, and prominent steep roofs.
\nLady Lamington was to form the first part of what became the residential precinct for the Hospital site which stretched from the top of the hill down towards Bowen Bridge Road. It included the Edith Cavell Memorial Block for Nurses (1922), Medical Officers Quarters (1934; 1939; demolished 1994), Medical Superintendent's Residence (1941; now offices), and two other residences (erected 1941, since demolished).
\nEdith Cavell Block (1922)
\nBetween 1908 and 1923, major development of the Children's Hospital was undertaken in response to the increasing population and advances in medicine and surgery. The Hospital Committee purchased a portion of the Herston Estate and erected the Edith Cavell Nurses' Home to accommodate the increasing numbers of nurses required for the expanding Children's Hospital. Designed by the Department of Public Works in an Arts and Crafts-influenced style, the building was completed in 1922. The building was named in honour of Edith Cavell, a British nurse executed for helping refugees escape in Brussels during World War I. A swimming pool with associated landscape was constructed to the north of the building in 1958 and the area remains one of the few extensive open spaces on the site.
\nMental Ward (1918, extended 1948)
\nIn 1918 a single-storey, brick building was constructed to accommodate patients suffering from mild psychiatric illness. It heralded a new approach in the treatment of mental illness. Previously patients requiring psychiatric treatment could only be admitted to hospitals for the insane at Goodna, Ipswich and Toowoomba. This was the first ward in a general hospital in Queensland to provide treatment for the mentally ill. Initiative for constructing this ward came from Dr Henry Byam (HB) Ellerton, Inspector of Hospitals for the Insane, who was closely involved in the design with the Department of Public Works. Responsibility for individual projects within the Department of Public Works is seldom clear-cut but departmental files suggest that Thomas Pye had a major influence on the design of projects in the office during this time.
\nResidential in scale and influenced by the Arts and Crafts architectural movement, the U-shaped building accommodated male and female patients in separate wings divided into cells, a marked difference from the dormitory type buildings at contemporary mental hospitals. The garden was an important element of the setting of the building with grassed areas to the front planted with trees. Following increased demand to accommodate acute alcoholics and prisoners requiring medical treatment, locked cells were erected to the rear in 1948. The rear portion was known as Ward 14 while the front became known as Ward 16. In 1958 the former Wattlebrae Infectious Diseases Hospital (1930) was converted into a psychiatric unit and named Lowson House and Ward 16 became known as Ward 15. In 2017, the building houses offices for the Hospital’s Safety and Security Services Department. Externally, the building retains its original form except: the front parapets have been removed from the north and south wings and in-filled with fibrous cement sheeting, the front verandahs to the main wing have been enclosed with glass and metal louvres and the verandahs to the north and south wings have been enclosed with timber and glass. The building’s interior has been altered but the integrity of its form and plan remains.
\n1923-1945
\nThe 1920s and 1930s was a period of great expansion for the Hospital, with a major building program announced in 1925 following the introduction of the Health Act of 1923 by Edward Granville Theodore's Labor government, which saw the state government accept financial and administrative responsibility for the provision of health services in Queensland.
\nAtkinson and Conrad (also known as Atkinson Powell and Conrad and later Conrad and Gargett) were appointed Hospital architects in the mid-1920s. They were the pre-eminent interwar architectural firm in Queensland, particularly known for their use of the Spanish Mission style. Examples of the firm’s work include: Tristram's Factory, West End (1930); Brisbane Boys College, Toowong (1930, QHR 600337); and Craigston (1926, QHR 600165). As a high rise apartment block (albeit non-institutional), Craigston may be seen as having influenced Blocks 1 and 2 at the Brisbane Hospital site. The firm's work there included General Blocks 3 & 4 (late 1930s), Medical Officers Quarters (1934; 1939), and the Brisbane Women's Hospital (1938, in association with the Department of Public Works). All these buildings have since been demolished.
\nDevelopment at the Hospital site between 1926 and 1938 included the construction of Blocks 1 (1928), 2 (1930), 3 (1938) and 4 (1937); service buildings including the laundry (1926), kitchen (1935) and boiler house (1935); and additional staff accommodation including major extensions to the Lady Lamington Nurses' Home.
\nNurses’ Homes (Lady Lamington, Block 1 and 2) (1931, 1936 and 1939)
\nWith a dramatic increase in nursing staff in the 1930s, further accommodation was required. In 1931, Atkinson and Conrad in association with Lange Powell added a third wing to Lady Lamington creating the E-shaped plan of today.
\nIn 1936, the first of the two tower blocks, Block 1 (north), was completed; the second, Block 2 (south), in 1939. Both were joined to the first and second floors of Lady Lamington. They were planned in a similar way to the earlier quarters with a central corridor flanked by small rooms opening onto verandahs. The architectural vocabulary employed was, however, very different, using the contemporary Spanish Mission style favoured by Conrad and at this time established as the hospital’s house style. Accommodation was also provided for nursing training. A small single-storeyed library was built between the Blocks 1 and 2 in the 1950s. The roof on the northern block was rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 1993, and the Marseilles tiles on the Lady Lamington roof were replaced in 2012.
\nSuperintendent's Residence (Pye House, 1941)
\nLocated to the east of the Lady Lamington Nurses' Home, the Residence for the Medical Superintendent designed by Conrad and Atkinson was completed in 1941. With its asymmetrical composition, and combination of face brickwork, imitation half-timbering and textured render, it reflected the nostalgia and quaintness expressed in the inter-war ‘Old English’ style.[24] The lower level provided a kitchen and living rooms, and the upper floor provided bedrooms. Maids’ quarters were provided in a single-storey semi-detached portion to the rear. Dr Aubrey Pye was the first Superintendent to occupy this residence. In office from 1935 to 1967, Pye was the longest serving Superintendent of the Hospital, presiding over a period of extraordinary development and dramatic change. Pye exercised significant influence over the administration of the Hospital and oversaw major changes and expansion to all facets of its activities. The building was refurbished in 1966. Known in 2017 as Pye House, the building is now used as offices. Few changes have been made to the building.
\n1945 to 2017
\nBy the end of the 1930s the site had become the largest hospital complex in Australia and has continued to expand, except for disruptions caused by World War II. During the 1950s new buildings included the Lady Ramsey Wing, a nurses’ home for the Women's Hospital. From the mid-1950s an increasing proportion of the capital works budget was devoted to facilities and equipment for support services. The first major building on the site to specifically accommodate specialist services, Block 8 commenced in 1956 and was built in three stages over 14 years, accommodating the pathology department and the Queensland Radium Institute. The hospital’s continuing role in medical education was reflected in the construction of the Edwin Tooth Lecture Theatre (1957) and the Clinical Sciences building (1966). During the 1970s, the major building project was the 14-storey Block 7 completed in 1977 with accommodation for casualty and outpatients, general wards and administration.
\nRedevelopment and expansion of the Hospital has continued from the 1970s with demolition of existing buildings, construction of new buildings, additions and renovations to existing stock and acquisition of additional property. More recent developments include new blocks for the former Children's Hospital and the Queensland Institute for Medical Research, and extensive redevelopment across the northern half of the site, including a station for the Northern Busway along Bowen Bridge Road. These modern developments on the Hospital site do not form part of this Queensland heritage register entry.
\nHistorically, on-site accommodation for the (female) nursing staff was seen as an integral part of both hospital efficiency and the propagation and maintenance of the nursing code. Recent social and educational changes have meant that the requirement for on-site nursing accommodation has greatly diminished, meaning adaptation of the Nurses’ accommodation buildings is required.
\nIn 2000, a statue of Edward Michael Hanlon was relocated to the northernmost part of the garden area in front of the former Mental Ward. Completed by Brisbane sculptress, Maria Kuhn, it had originally been unveiled in the forecourt to the Women’s Hospital in 1955. Its commissioning and placement acknowledged the instrumental role played by Hanlon in the development of the Hospital and in particular maternity facilities throughout Queensland.
\nThe grounds and landscape
\nThe grounds contain strong evidence of the layering and close conjunction of garden areas or elements from different periods of the hospital’s development. The steepness of the site has required terracing and stone retaining walls for major buildings and roads. The use of Brisbane Tuff, obtained from quarries on site, is a major landscape element. One of the most striking walls is the substantial Brisbane Tuff wall along Bowen Bridge Road constructed in the late 1930s / early 1940s as a result of a road widening.
\nRoads, pathways and walls throughout the site demonstrate the early planning and subsequent development of the site. The road to the rear of Block 7 is a remnant of the original planning of the Hospital. When it was established, the hospital’s main entrance was from Herston Road and this road was the principal thoroughfare on the site. The road has influenced the development of the site since its inception and was part of the master plan devised by Conrad, Atkinson and Powell in the 1930s. It remains a prominent roadway within the site. This road is separated from Block 7 by a generally 2m high Brisbane Tuff wall. Photographic evidence suggests this was part of the first building on site constructed in 1866 and has helped define the road since that time.
\nThe roadway from Bramston Terrace running between the Lady Norman Wing and the Edith Cavell Block was formerly part of O'Connell Terrace and was the main entrance to the Children's Hospital. Also, the pathway connecting the Lady Lamington Nurses' Home to the main Hospital complex is an integral element of the site.
\nThe Hospital grounds have two distinct garden styles: the 1930s hybrid character of picturesque garden beds and stone work, and the more recent style of mixed shrubbery of native and exotic plants. Distinctive features of the grounds include the planting of large flowering trees (in particular poinciana and jacaranda); palms; large shade trees (ficus and camphor laurel) and pines (hoop (Araucaria cunninghamii), bunya (Araucaria bidwillii), Bribie Island (Callitris columellaris) and kauri (Agathis robusta)).
\nThe landscaped grounds surrounding the Lady Lamington Nurses' Home, Edith Cavell Block and former Superintendent's Residence have developed to form a green, residential core within the Hospital site.
\nIn recent times, a memorial garden has been established in the landscaped area to the east of the Lady Lamington Nurses' Home (adjacent to the northwest of Pye House) to commemorate early pregnancy termination and loss. The garden provides a place for grieving family to place cremated remains in memoriam of their loss. A consecrated memorial wall has also been established in the garden upon which families are able to place plaques. The use of the area has important community value. Its placement within the landscape setting that has developed around the Nurses’ Homes and Pye House reflects how this differs in character from other parts of the RBWH site.
","criteria":"The Brisbane General Hospital Precinct is important in demonstrating the development of hospital health care in Queensland since the 1860s and changes in government involvement in the financing and control of the state’s health services from the mid-19th century. The place is also important for its association with the development of nursing training and medical education and research in Queensland.
\nThe former Fever Ward (1875) is the oldest building to remain on the site and, along with the adjacent Female Ward (1885), demonstrates the early development of the Hospital.
\nThe Nurses’ Homes (Lady Lamington: 1897, 1914, 1931; Block 1, 1936; and Block 2, 1939) demonstrate the important role of the nursing profession in the provision of health care in Queensland, which for many years was exclusively female. Nurses’ quarters were an essential part of a hospital complex in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, providing on-site accommodation for nursing and training staff, and regulating nurses’ behaviour and lifestyle. The two tower blocks demonstrate the significant growth of the state's premier hospital during the 1930s and correspondingly the implementation of the state Labor government's new health policies.
\nBuilt in response to problems of overcrowding, the Lady Norman Wing (1895) is the only building surviving from the pre-1920 era of the Children's Hospital complex. Constructed to accommodate the increasing numbers of nurses required during a time of expansion, the Edith Cavell Block (1922) demonstrates the early 20th century development of the Children’s Hospital.
\nThe former Mental Ward (1918) was the first attached to a general hospital in Queensland for patients being treated for mild psychiatric disorders and demonstrates changing attitudes in the treatment of patients with mental illnesses in Queensland. Extended in 1948, the building is also important for its later use as a hospital for the treatment of prisoners and acute alcoholics.
\nThe former Superintendent's Residence (1941) demonstrates the practice (since 1866) of accommodating the medical superintendent on the Hospital site.
\nThe Nurses’ Homes, Edith Cavell Block, Superintendent’s Residence, and associated garden setting, have developed to form a residential core, a central component of the functioning of the Hospital from the 1890s until recent times.
\nThe mature plantings, gardens, pathways, walls and select designated roads are important in demonstrating early planning and subsequent development of the Hospital site, and contribute to the settings of the place’s buildings.
|The former Fever and Female wards are important as rare surviving examples of single-storey pavilion plan ward buildings, following a scheme employed universally from the 1860s to the 1940s in Queensland hospitals and aimed at healing patients by promoting natural ventilation and good sanitation.
\nThe former operating theatre on the first floor of the Lady Norman Wing (1895) is a rare example of an operating theatre from the late 19th century in a Queensland hospital. Featuring the remains of a large lantern and large windows designed to provide natural light, it is the oldest, and one of two known surviving examples of a 19th century operating theatre in Queensland.
|With its collection of residential and ward buildings, set in landscaped grounds, the Brisbane General Hospital Precinct is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a late 19th and early 20th century hospital complex.
\nThe former Fever and Female wards, with their single open ward space and roof ventilation features, demonstrate the principal characteristics of single-storey 19th century pavilion wards.
\nThe Lady Norman Wing is a fine example of a two-storey late Victorian-era hospital block designed to a pavilion plan. The building was designed by architects John James (JJ) Clark and Charles McLay, both of whom made important contributions to Queensland architecture.
\nThe Nurses’ Homes and Edith Cavell Block are planned in a similar way: over a number of levels small accommodation rooms or cells are accessed off a central corridor and open to verandahs. This layout typifies institutional residential buildings erected during this time; as does the Lady Lamington, being planned around courtyards and gardens to create residential amenity and seclusion within the Hospital complex.
\nLady Lamington is highly intact and the earliest surviving nurses’ quarters in Queensland. A fine building in an Arts and Crafts-influenced style, it is an excellent example of the work of RS (Robin) Dods, one of Queensland's pre-eminent architects. Influenced by the Spanish Mission style, established by architectural firm Conrad and Atkinson from the 1920s as the Brisbane General Hospital’s house style, Blocks 1 and 2 echo some of the motifs of Lady Lamington.
\nThe Edith Cavell Block, designed by the Department of Public Works, is a good example of a public building in an Arts and Crafts-influenced style.
\nThe former Mental Ward was the first in Queensland attached to a general hospital for the treatment of patients with acute psychiatric disorders and served as a model for other psychiatric wards within a general hospital.
|The Brisbane General Hospital Precinct is notable for the collective quality of its groups of buildings and landscape elements, and is important for the range of building types and architectural stylistic influences employed there. Occupying a prominent hilltop off Bowen Bridge Road, a major arterial road for Brisbane, the Hospital is a major city landmark. The dramatic siting of some its buildings is made possible by the steeply sloping site.
\nVisible both from within the Hospital and from surrounding suburbs, the Nurses' Homes symbolise the significant contribution made by the nursing profession to the provision of health care in Queensland. The dramatic views uphill towards the Nurses’ Homes contrasts with the repose of the picturesque garden setting the Lady Lamington shares with the former Superintendent's Residence and Mental Ward below. Lady Lamington is a fine building; the quality and inventiveness of its design, construction and detailing, enhancing the site with its views, elevation, and sudden falls.
\nSited on the western ridge of the steeply sloping site, the Edith Cavell Block commands a dramatic view to the north and its striking northern elevation is enhanced by the open space and mature plantings around it.
\nDiscrete in scale and materials, the former Superintendent’s Residence belongs to a cohesive group of residential buildings within a garden setting in the centre of the Hospital site.
\nThe Brisbane Tuff wall to Bowen Bridge Road is an imposing presence on this major city arterial road and is synonymous with the Hospital.
|The Lady Lamington Nurses' Home evidences the early development of architectural interest in refining elements associated with domestic buildings and climate control. The building’s design uses devices such as awnings, verandahs, building orientation, cross ventilation achieved with partitions instead of walls, and large well-placed openings reworked for a different scale of building. These were to be abiding interests of Robin Dods in his reworking of the Queensland architectural idiom.
|The Brisbane General Hospital Precinct has a special association with the Brisbane community in being its principal hospital complex since 1867.
|The Brisbane General Hospital Precinct is important for its association with major figures in the development of medicine and health services in Queensland, and for its strong association with the work of influential Queensland architects.
\nThe 1918 component of the former Mental Health Ward is important for its association with Dr HB Ellerton who influenced its design and was instrumental in improving the treatment of the mentally ill in Queensland and establishing facilities for it in a hospital setting.
\nThe former Superintendent’s Residence is important for its association with Dr Aubrey Pye, medical superintendent from 1933 to 1967 and the first to occupy it.
\nLady Lamington is the first Queensland building designed by Robin Dods and marks the beginning of a long association between the Hospital and the firm he established with Francis Hall.
\nThe pre-eminent interwar architectural firm Conrad and Atkinson were important hospital architects from the 1920s and architects to the Brisbane Hospital from then until the 1980s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16640,"place_ref":601904,"name":"Residence, 150 Kingsley Terrace (c1888)","alternate_name":"Michael Gannon Residence","street_address":"150 Kingsley Terrace","suburb":"MANLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-10-27","description":"The residence located at 150 Kingsley Terrace is sited on three parcels of land that fall gently from the western street frontage toward the rear eastern boundary of the site. The residence is sited close to the street frontage of the property meaning the backyard is quite expansive. Vegetation to the site is quite minimal with only a few mature plantings contained to the boundaries of the site.
The residence itself is a two storey structure of timber construction, elevated well above the ground on a combination of timber and concrete stumps, as well as sections of concrete block wall under the front western verandah. The house is clad with a combination of timber chamfer boards to exposed external walls and VJ linings to external walls sheltered by verandahs. A central hip roof covers the core of the house as well as extending over the verandahs to the north, south and west. A separate skillion and hip roof cover the rear verandah and associated rear structure assumed to have once been the kitchen. All roof planes are sheeted with corrugated iron.
Enclosed verandahs surround the central core of the house. These enclosures are externally clad with asbestos cement sheeting and include a combination of louvred and awning sash windows. Recent renovation work has revealed that much of the original verandah structure remains intact, simply covered by more recent alterations and additions.
Entry to the house is via a central timber stair which leads to the verandah and original front door of the house which is surrounded by patterned coloured glass. Internally a central hall extends from the entry to the rear verandah. This hall is divided centrally by a doorway, creating a formal entry portion and informal rear. Flanking the entry hall is a main bedroom to the north and a formal dining room to the south. These rooms include central bay windows with floor to ceiling double hung windows. In the hallway and the dining room the ceilings are pressed metal reinforcing the formal nature of these entry spaces. Flanking the rear section of the hallway is the billiard room to the south and a store room and bedroom to the north. All rooms, have with the exception of the store room, open onto the verandahs through French doors.
The enclosed rear verandah of the house is now used as the main living area. A kitchen is located at the northern end of this verandah and a bathroom at the southern end. The structure adjoining the southern end of the verandah is thought to have once been the kitchen of the house but is now used as a bedroom. Evidence exists within this room and at the ground level to indicate that a fireplace may have once serviced these spaces. More recent additions to the rear of the house include a laundry and deck adjoining the original kitchen and rear verandah.
Internally the original pine floors still exist within the core of the house while hardwood flooring lines the verandahs. The walls and ceilings are generally clad with timber tongue and groove boards and the timber joinery to the doors and windows and associated architraves is still intact. Much of the glass within the widows is original as is the door and window hardware, including turned wooden door handles. Other original elements that survive within the house are a claw foot bath and gas lighting pipes within the ceiling cavity.
The area under the house is generally enclosed with a combination of timber battens, asbestos cement sheeting and concrete block work. This area serves as a garage and storage area and includes the enclosure to the original earth closet.
","history":"The residence, 150 Kingsley Terrace, Manly was constructed c1888 for Michael and Amy Gannon.
The first European settlement of the Wynnum Manly area of Moreton Bay occurred in the 1860s when two sugar mills, Lota and Wyvernleigh were established. The area soon became popular with holiday makers, and holiday homes were constructed along the bay. In 1882 land sales of the Manly Beach Estate (named after the coastal Sydney suburb) were held, giving the area its present name. The completion of the railway in 1889 provided further impetus for the development of the area as a seaside resort especially as Wynnum and Manly were the only bayside stations opened with the Cleveland branch on 1 November 1889.
In February 1888, Michael Brennan Gannon, Member of the Legislative Assembly for Toombul, Government Auctioneer and valuator (owner of Arthur Martin & Co), purchased a large portion of land in the Wynnum Manly area formerly part of Portion 57. Gannon sold off a considerable acreage of land, but retained ownership of that portion on which the residence was to be constructed.
It is likely that the house was constructed c1888 as, on 30 April of that year, a Bill of Mortgage was registered from Michael Brennan Gannon to the Royal Bank of Queensland Limited. The release for the mortgage was signed in September 1889. The house became the family's holiday home. The Gannon's permanent residence was at 'Waratah', Toorak Road, Breakfast Creek. Gannon's private residence (1885) as well as a villa at Hawthorne (1887-88) were designed by architects John Hall and Son. While the architect of the residence at Manly is not known, given Gannon's prior history with the firm, it is possible that John Hall and Son were the architects for the residence at Manly.
Besides his political endeavours, Gannon was actively involved in Brisbane's social and sporting society. In 1888, Gannon was Vice-President of the Albert Cricket Club, Governor Anthony Musgrave was President; he was involved with the Queensland Rifle Association; the Brisbane Bicycling Club; the Breakfast Creek Rowing Club; a Director of the Federal Building, Land Investors Society Pty Ltd and Deposit Bank and a Justice of the Peace.
During the early 1890s Gannon's speculative ventures began to fail. The Land Bank of Queensland was in possession of the land by the early 1890s and sold off smaller allotments from the block. Gannon was eventually declared bankrupt in 1895 with liabilities in excess of £97,000. He died in April 1898, aged 48 years. At the time of his death, his widow's place of residence was listed as 'Manly'.
Later owners continued to use the house as a seaside home. Over the years various portions of the remainder of the estate were sold. In 1927 Thomas and Elizabeth Goodman purchased the property and, for the first time, the house was used as a principal place of residence. The Goodmans remained there until the death of Elizabeth in 1953.
The property was vacant until 1955 when the public trustee sold it to an investor who had the house converted into three flats. The house remained as flats until June 1999 when the property was purchased by the current owners. The residence has been identified as a character building in the Wynnum-Manly Local Area Plan.
","criteria":"Constructed c1888, the residence, Kingsley Terrace, Manly, is significant in demonstrating the continued growth of the Wynnum/Manly area in the latter part of the 19th century. It is particularly significant for its association with the growth of Manly as a popular seaside resort following the extension of the railway line to the area in 1889.
|Substantial seaside houses still remaining on large areas of land are now uncommon, contributing to the significance of the place.
|As a substantial, two-storeyed timber building with wide verandahs, incorporating decorative timber balustrading and brackets, set on a large block of land with views towards Moreton Bay, the residence is significant as a good example of a late 19th century seaside house.
|Constructed for Michael Brennan Gannon, Member of the Legislative Assembly for Toombul and Government Auctioneer and Valuator, the residence is significant for its association with this prominent Brisbane identity.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16645,"place_ref":601909,"name":"Brisbane Dental Hospital and College","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"168 Turbot Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-04-23","description":"Approached by a monumental sweep of wide concrete stairs from Turbot Street, the Brisbane Dental Hospital and College is an imposing, neo-Georgian, two-storey, rendered masonry building on the corner of Albert and Turbot Streets, Brisbane. The building has a steel frame, concrete floors, stands on a rusticated granite base and has rendered facings to all elevations. A balustraded parapet provides a partial screen to roof top structures.
The Dental Hospital occupies the ground floor while the first floor and roof level house the Dental College of the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Queensland.
The main elevation to Turbot Street is symmetrical about a projecting entrance porch terminated at each side by slightly projecting wings. Ornamental standard lamps flank the main stairway at the base and at the summit. The entrance porch is defined by fluted Ionic columns and framed by the rusticated pilasters of the enclosing side walls. The internal spatial relationships within the building are expressed by the size and placement of the windows in the elevations. The service mezzanine floor is reflected in the row of small squat timber awning windows between the timber casement windows with arched fanlights of the ground floor and the large rectangular timber casement windows marking the College level on the first floor. A giant order is implied by the rusticated base and the heavy mutuled cornice and imparts a strong and unified character to the building.
The other elevations to the building contain a pattern of windows similar to that of the front elevation. The elevation to Albert Street is a single range terminated by slightly projecting wings; the northeast elevation contains a substantial entry stair and doorway to the Wickham Park wing and a service entry to the basement; and the rear elevation contains a subsidiary entrance to the Albert Street wing.
The building is organised as perimeter wings about a central square courtyard. Within the main entry porch, there is fine decorated timber panel work to the surrounds of the entry doors and restrained decorative plaster work within the porch. The porch opens on to the main vestibule and into the former waiting room overlooking the internal courtyard. Large surgery spaces and smaller rooms for teaching, service spaces and staff offices are organised about central corridors through each wing. Rooms open off the corridors and have views to the surrounding streets or the inner courtyard. There are stairwells off the corridors to each corner of the building. The stairwells contain terrazzo stairs, terrazzo panelling to dado level, plain and twisted steel balustrading and moulded timber handrails and are top-lit by roof lanterns. The stair to the east corner is now enclosed at ground floor level. The stairwell to the north corner travels from the first floor to the roof level only, does not have terrazzo dado panelling and has sheeting to the balustrade of the top flight of the dogleg stair. A dumb waiter in the north corner services each level but is presently sealed over at ground level.
The ground floor and some of the first floor have recently undergone an aggressive refurbishment but the logic of the circulation and the internal spaces remains though fabric has been lost. The former ground floor waiting room, now the reception and administration area, is lit from the courtyard by a bank of full height plain leadlight awning and fixed glass windows which are operated by a manual turning device. The mezzanine between the ground and first floor does not continue over this reception area where the ceiling height is to the level of the mezzanine storey ceiling. The present waiting room occupies the former office suite adjacent to the vestibule. Both the Hospital and College levels have surgeries in the northeast and southwest wings. These are long open rooms subdivided by head height partitioning. The recent refurbishment has removed earlier partitions, equipment, finishes, floor coverings and joinery but the integrity of the spaces has survived. The large timber casement windows with semi-circular fanlights and terrazzo sills remain in the surgeries at the Hospital level and the rectangular timber casement windows survive on the College level. The decorative timber and metal flat arch to the former waiting room and some timber doors remain to the ground floor.
The building was finished throughout with decorative plaster ceilings, Queensland maple joinery and panelling, and purpose-built timber furniture. Original fabric survives, particularly on the first floor where the waiting room and the Professor's room contain fine examples of discreet panelling, joinery and shelving in Queensland maple. The waiting room has four sets of fine Queensland maple doors with discreet plain leadlight glass panels and carved Queensland maple architraves beneath a decorative plaster ceiling coffered by ceiling beams. Purpose-built silky oak furniture remains in use in this area. The galleried lecture theatre has been gutted and is now subdivided into two seminar rooms. The smaller lecture theatre has been partitioned into offices and the museum is now a seminar room. Original finishes, floor coverings and joinery to staff offices and corridors is found on this floor.
The library on the roof is now a seminar room and contains timber shelving to the long sides of the room. The 1949 timber and fibro clad roof buildings continue to accommodate laboratories, staff offices, staff and student common rooms. Additional airconditioning plant has been located on the roof. Roofing to the south stairwell lantern has rolled ridge flashing.
There is a commemorative plaque in the external wall to the east corner of the Turbot Street elevation recording the laying of the foundation stone and a plaque commemorating the opening of the building in the southwest wall of the main entry porch.
The concreted courtyard in the centre of the building was to be laid out with gardens and a central fountain and acts as a light well for the building which encircles it. It was accessed from the main waiting room in the Turbot Street wing, the extraction waiting room in the northeast wing and the Junior Common Room in the Wickham Park wing. It is no longer accessed from the northeast wing and the 1985 brick extension projects from the Wickham Park wing at ground level. Air-conditioning and laboratory extraction ducts now encroach into the courtyard area.
From a masonry wall at street level, steep, grassed, battered banks rise up to two terraced levels to the Albert and Turbot Streets sides of the building. The upper level terrace has a concrete path and a row of pines marching around the building to the Albert and Turbot Streets elevations. A service lane to the northeast of the building off Turbot Street allows ambulance access to the rear and side. A set of concrete steps from Albert Street arrives to the rear of the building.
","history":"Opened in 1941, the Brisbane Dental Hospital and College is an imposing two-storey, rendered masonry, neo-Georgian building looming above the corner to Turbot and Albert Streets and surrounded by terraced gardens. The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College was designed to be an integral component of an urban design proposal, The Turbot Street Development Scheme, for the city block bounded by Albert and Turbot Streets, Jacob's Ladder and Wickham Terrace. The Scheme, designed by Raymond Clare Nowland, senior architect in the Queensland Department of Public Works, included a Public Art Gallery, Public Library, the Dental Hospital and College and a beautifying of Wickham Park. The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College was the only part of the scheme to be realised. The site was part of an earlier Brisbane City Council reserve within Wickham Park which was exchanged in the 1930s for State owned land in Adelaide Street, adjacent to the former Supreme Court, enabling Adelaide Street to continue through to North Quay.
From the early twentieth century, there was a general enthusiasm for town planning throughout the British Empire, America, Europe and Australia. Nowland was one of a number of town planning activists in Brisbane advocating the development of a town planning strategy for Brisbane during the 1920s and 1930s. The Turbot Street Development Scheme is one of a number of urban design proposals for Brisbane reflecting this concern. Wickham Park was chosen from among a number of sites as the site for the project. The Scheme excited considerable public interest and comment and there was much discussion about the suitability of the site. It was considered that its central location gave it the advantage of convenience of access to public transport; that the siting of the buildings at a higher level and in a park would ensure a quiet environment and ample natural lighting to the buildings; that it was unlikely that the site would be hemmed in or overshadowed by further development; and that the site lent itself "to artistic approaches and aesthetic surroundings".
The monumentality and civic grandeur given to the Brisbane Dental Hospital and College through its association with a larger urban design proposal in a commanding, inner-city position reflect the importance of the building for the State Government and for the University of Queensland. Speaking at the laying of the foundation stone for the building on 20 March 1938 the Minister for Health and Home Affairs, Edward Hanlon, observed that the building was to harmonise architecturally with its near neighbour, the Brisbane City Hall, making "Turbot Street one of the most beautiful streets in any city in the Commonwealth".
When a Faculty of Dentistry was formed within the University of Queensland in 1935, the Queensland State Government agreed to fund and build a new dental hospital and college. The first public Dental Clinic in Queensland had been established in Brisbane in 1908 and by 1926 the Clinic had been taken over by the Department of Home Affairs and was known as the Brisbane Dental Hospital. The proposed new Dental Hospital was to be the base for the dental services provided by the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board and was part of an overall Government policy to provide public dental services throughout Queensland.
In June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The Forgan Smith Government embarked on a large public works building program designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the State. This building program included: government offices; schools and colleges; university buildings; court houses and police stations; hospitals and asylums; and gaols.
Many of the programs have had lasting beneficial effects for the citizens of Queensland including the establishment of a system of public health care administered through a range of new hospitals and clinics. Notable projects undertaken include the University of Queensland Medical School, Herston; the Women's Hospital at the Brisbane General Hospital; the Brisbane Dental Hospital and College; and the Wilson Ophthalmic Hostel.
The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College was a building of major importance to Queensland and among the most ambitious projects within the Forgan Smith Government's building program. Construction commenced in September 1938 and the building was opened 6 July 1941 with Edward Hanlon declaring that the building was "better equipped and finished than any other dental hospital in Australia". The building is important in the overall development of the University of Queensland and the development of facilities for the training of medical and dental practitioners. The University embraced the model for training health practitioners promoted by the American Medical Association which advocated increased laboratory training in basic medical sciences and the use of hospitals for clinical training. The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College reflects this approach to health care training in its provision of specialist laboratories and a training hospital. During this time the architect responsible for the design of the Hospital and College, Raymond Clare Nowland, was also designing the University of Queensland Medical School which also reflects the adoption of this teaching model.
Raymond Clare Nowland joined the architectural office of the DPW in November 1932 where he became a senior architect in 1938. He produced the most significant buildings of his career between 1932 and 1942 including the University of Queensland Medical School, Herston (1939); Brisbane Dental Hospital and College (1941); Police Barracks, Petrie Terrace (1942) and the Cairns Government Offices (1935) (QHR 600376). Nowland undertook architectural studies at the Sydney Technical College (1911-14) and the Architectural Association School London (1919). In private practice from 1926-32, he undertook a range of domestic and commercial commissions including the Brisbane Clinic, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane (1930) (QHR 600171). The design of the Brisbane Clinic was influenced by an American medical model, the Mayo Clinic. His preference for designing within a restrained classicism reflects his architectural training, the prevailing professional architectural attitudes and the design direction given by the Chief Architect, A.B. Leven. Along with many British Empire architects of the 1930s both Leven and Nowland shared a respect for simplicity, order and rational planning which in his public work enabled Nowland to make a notable contribution to the architectural fabric of Queensland towns and cities.
In an earlier sketch design vertical emphasis was given to the building by recessed spandrels below the windows at each level. The monumental presence of the building was emphasised by rusticated quoins and pilasters framing the end wings. Changes to the building program, availability of materials, budget restrictions and an augmentation of the program to include servicing and air-conditioning resulted in alterations to the earlier sketch design proposal. The building was to have been constructed of sandstone but difficulties with supply and additional budget restrictions resulted in a substitution of brick and cement render and a reduction in the texture and decoration of the elevations. Considerable foundation work was undertaken to bridge the railway tunnel beneath the site to avoid vibration in the building.
The ground floor accommodated the Dental Hospital and the first floor and roof housed the Dental College. The ground floor provided offices for the Director and support staff, surgeries and associated facilities, and a reception/waiting room. The first floor provided a waiting room, surgeries and associated facilities, staff offices, two lecture theatres and a museum. The flat roof housed the library, upper part of the large lecture theatre and air-conditioning plant. The building program was augmented to include additional servicing so a mezzanine floor was inserted between the ground and first floors to accommodate air-conditioning and servicing to the College level surgeries. The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College was the first public building in Queensland to install air-conditioning. Rubber floors were provided in the surgeries and corridors on each floor, terrazzo was applied to the ground floor entrance and waiting room and other floors were linoleum. The waiting rooms featured Queensland maple panelling and purpose built silky oak furniture.
Additional roof-top accommodation for laboratories and staff, and staff and student common rooms was constructed in 1949. In the 1960s the University of Queensland erected a freestanding building (design by James Birrell) to the northeast, connecting with a walkway to the College level of the earlier building. A small brick extension was erected in the courtyard in 1985. Aggressive refurbishment of the fabric, furniture, fittings and equipment of the Hospital facilities and College surgeries and teaching areas was undertaken from 1997 to 1999. The integrity of the planning has survived along with some internal fabric including the entrance doors and surrounding panelling, timber casement windows, sills, doors, shelving, corridor finishes and three sets of terrazzo stairs. Servicing of surgeries and work areas continues to be facilitated by the mezzanine service floor.
","criteria":"The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College is important in demonstrating the development of public dental services and the training of dental practitioners in Queensland. The Dental Hospital is an important component in the development of the public health scheme for Queensland initiated by the Forgan Smith Government in the 1930s and continues to provide public dental services. As the first College for the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Queensland, the building is important in demonstrating the development of the University and the training of dentists in Queensland.
The Dental Hospital and College is important in the development of the University of Queensland and in the training of medical and dental practitioners. The planning of the Brisbane Dental Hospital and College, with the inclusion of specialist laboratories for teaching and research and proximity to a hospital, is important for demonstrating the adoption of the American teaching model which advocated increased laboratory training in basic medical sciences and the use of hospitals for clinical training.
|The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College is important as the only Dental Hospital and College in Queensland.
|The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College is a fine example of a building planned to accommodate highly serviced medical facilities. The layout and commodity of the spaces survives having accommodated the late 1990s aggressive refurbishment work undertaken to comply with contemporary health regulations and advances in technology.
The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College is an important building in the body of public buildings designed by the Department of Public Works in Queensland. The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College is one of an impressive suite of important government buildings erected throughout Queensland designed in a classical idiom during the 1930s.
|In a restrained neo-Georgian idiom, the Brisbane Dental Hospital and College has aesthetic and architectural significance. With planar crispness and subtle detailing, it is a robust public building with a monumental street presence. An important component in an unrealised urban design scheme planned for Turbot Street and Wickham Park in the 1930s, The Turbot Street Development Scheme, the Brisbane Dental Hospital and College is a landmark building occupying a busy city corner. The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College is important as the only built work in this ambitious scheme of public buildings.
The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College is important for its fine rare interiors including the entrance porch and decorative timber surrounds and timber doors to the main entrance; the stairwells and roof lanterns; the waiting room and associated furniture on the first floor; the Professor's room on the first floor; corridors and staff offices on the first floor; surviving joinery to the ground floor. The integrity of the spatial relationships within the building are important including the volume of the former ground floor waiting room with the accompanying bank of windows to the courtyard. The courtyard is important to the building. The associated grounds are important to the building including the impressive sweep of concrete stairs with flanking standard lamps from Turbot Street.
|A highly serviced building, the design of the Brisbane Dental Hospital and College demonstrates the focus on the application of technological advances in the delivery of health care prevailing in the 1930s and incorporates innovative technical features. The building is important as the first public building in Brisbane to install a fully integrated air conditioning system. The insertion of a mezzanine floor to accommodate air-conditioning and servicing of surgeries and work areas enabled the Hospital and College to incorporate technological developments and service the building efficiently and effectively. Inclusion of these extensive servicing features has facilitated the incorporation of late twentieth century technological advances introduced in the late 1990s refurbishment.
|(Criterion under review)
|The Brisbane Dental Hospital and College is important for its association with the architect Raymond Clare Nowland. The building is one of the most notable structures designed by Nowland, an architect of considerable talent working in the Department of Public Works during the period of extensive public works building in the 1930s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16662,"place_ref":601926,"name":"First Free Settlers Monument","alternate_name":"First Free Settlers of Queensland Memorial Cairn","street_address":"Sandgate Road","suburb":"NUNDAH","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-06-26","description":"The First Free Settlers Monument is located at the corner of Sandgate Road and Bage Street in Nundah. It stands within a small park dedicated to the first free settlement in Queensland.
The monument itself consists of a simple, blunt octagonal cairn which tapers towards the top and rises without step or platform from the surrounding grass. It is constructed from rusticated sandstone blocks and on four faces are fixed bronze plaques explaining the purpose of the dedication and the occasion which it celebrates. The southern plaque lists the names of the original (male) settlers, the eastern plaque indicates that the memorial was dedicated by the people of Queensland on the occasion of the centenary of free European settlement in Queensland. The northern plaque refers to the work of Dunmore Lang and Goszner and the western refers to the past and present British rulers. The penultimate course of stonework has a sawn face which contains incised lettering, gilded, which reads "Queensland's First Free Settlers". The word 'free' is placed above the plaque naming the settlers.
The park is well-maintained and stands surrounded by streets. Sandgate Road passes along the straight side of the park to the north-east, while Bage Street passes on the south-western side. The remaining side is flanked by a short divided road (un-named) which provides access to Bage Street from Sandgate Road. The park is arcuate in form with a low, clipped plumbago hedge surrounding it. A low curved garden edge constructed from concrete embedded with a variety of small stones surrounds the hedge, of which that on the Bage Street side is more recently planted than that on the opposite side. Two poinciana trees flank the memorial and a bench is located under the south-eastern tree, which is a replacement of the originally planted tree. A cast iron drinking fountain is located in front of the bench. Entrance is gained through two breaks in the hedge which are placed on the central axis opposite the memorial. To the left of the entry on the curved side a low stone tablet was placed in 1988 marking the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of free settlement which coincided with Australia's Bicentenary. The plaque re-confirms German-Australian friendship.
Three flagpoles are placed at regular intervals along the northern side of the park and a timber sign of more recent origin is placed to the western side of the northern entrance to clearly identify the monument to the passing traffic on Sandgate Road.
Tablet 1:\tPastor Eipper, Pastor W Schmidt, Lay Missionaries, L Doege, F T Franz, A T W Hartenstein, G Hauszmann, P Niquet, A Olbrecht, A Rode. G Wagner, J L Zillmann.
Tablet 2:\tThese missionaries with their families, settled at Zion's Hill near this spot in the year 1838. This monument was erected by the People of Queensland, The Hon W Forgan-Smith LL.D. M.L.A Premier, Ald. The Hon. A J Jones, Lord Mayor, Brisbane.
Tablet 3:\tThis settlement was inspired by John Dunmore Lang and Johannes Goszner.
Tablet 4:\t1838 H.M. Queen Victoria, H.E. Sir George Gipps Governor of New South Wales. 1938 H.M. King George VI, H.E. Colonel the Right Honourable Sir Leslie Orme Wilson GCS GCMG GCIE, DSO LL.D Governor of Queensland.
German Australian Friendship Plaque unveiled during the German Australian Pioneer Week (QLD) on the 15th of October 1988 by the Hon. W. A. (Bill) Gunn, Deputy Premier, Minister for Public Works,, Main Roads and Expo and Police and Dr Karl-Heinz Berninger Consul-General for the Federal Republic of Germany in commemoration of 150 years first free settlement in Queensland by German Missionaries who settled in 1838 at Walkers Way, Nundah.
","history":"The First Free Settlers Monument at Nundah, a blunt tapered octagon of rusticated sandstone blocks, commemorates the centenary of the arrival of free settlers in the Moreton Bay district which was later to become a part of Queensland. It was unveiled on Easter Saturday, April 23, 1938 as a part of Nundah's celebration of the centenary of Queensland's free settlement.
The original group of settlers were recruited for the colony by the Rev. John Dunmore Lang who had heard of the works of their leader, Pastor Johannes Evangelista Goszner during his journey to England to recruit free settlers. Lang had a vision for improving the calibre of Australia's settlers by encouraging people of good Protestant stock to emigrate. Goszner had established a community in Germany where he trained lay people for missionary work. These people eminently filled the requirements that Dunmore Lang had established for his free settlers and he encourage Goszner to prepare a group for travel to Moreton Bay.
In 1837, ten men volunteered to travel to Moreton Bay which was, at the time a convict settlement based at Brisbane. The men, inspired by Lang's descriptions, intended to establish a mission for the Aborigines living in the vicinity of the convict settlement. Several of the men brought their wives and families with them. Two clergymen joined the group to provide pastoral care and guidance to the mission. Each of the lay men had practical skills with trades such as shoemaking, farming, brickmaking, tailoring, blacksmithing and medicine which would assist in the establishment of the proposed missionary colony. Schneider, the medical student, died of typhus at the quarantine station in Sydney on his arrival in the new country. Four more men arrived in 1844 to further the work of the mission, however although accepted by the local Aborigines, the settlers were unsuccessful in their efforts to convert them to Christianity.
The original settlement of Zion was located on the rise behind Toombul Shopping Centre in the vicinity of the street now known as Walkers Way. It was watered by Kedron Brook, now contained within an artificial canal. The mission itself was unsuccessful in converting any of the local Aborigines, but when, in 1848, the Government surveyed the land into blocks, many of the original settlers and their families chose to remain and purchase the land for their own use. The area became known as German Station as a consequence of their presence and was later re-named Nundah, as the suburb is now known. Many of the first free settlers are buried in Nundah Cemetery [600271] established in the 1840s.
The monument was erected as a consequence of the suggestion of George Joy Walker, born 1852 who, as an infant in arms had travelled with his family to the settlement at Zion when his father was appointed as tutor to the families of the first settlers. Walker died in 1933 and never saw the monument, although he would have been aware of the activities of the First Free Settlers Committee which took up the challenge with which he had presented them.
The location of the monument was described as the intersection of new and old Sandgate Roads and the original setting of the cairn is shown in early photographs as being a broad swathe of mown grass which has subsequently been formalised into the clearly defined space evident today. The monument was designed to 'rise from the turf without step or platform, symbolising the growth of European civilisation in Queensland out of the soil of Nundah.' It was unveiled by His Excellency the Governor, Sir Leslie Orme Wilson, under the auspices of the First Free Settlers Committee. The unveiling ceremony was broadcast by radio station 4QG and a celebration ball was held in the evening.
Each year, in October, a ceremony is held at the memorial to commemorate the arrival of the first free settlers. The ceremony is generally attended by representatives of both State and Local government, diplomats, as well as local residents and others who are descended from the first missionary settlers.
","criteria":"The First Free Settlers Monument, Nundah, was erected in 1938 to commemorate the first free settlement within the area of Moreton Bay, later to become Queensland. The first settlers were German Protestant families who were recruited by the Rev. John Dunmore Lang. The monument is significant as it commemorates an important part of the evolution of Queensland's history, of which little physical evidence remains.
|The place demonstrates the principal characteristics of a memorial structure, by the use of materials and forms commonly associated with memorials and the formal layout of the surrounding park.
|It is also of aesthetic significance due to its design qualities and landmark presence within the streetscape.
|The place has strong associations with the Nundah and German communities, and others who attend the annual ceremony to commemorate the arrival of the first group of free settlers who established a community based on religious faith and hard work.
|The place also has a special association with the life and work of John Dunmore Lang, as it commemorates the initiatives provided by him for the establishment in Australia of a community of people with strong religious beliefs and pioneer spirit.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16665,"place_ref":601929,"name":"Villa Maria Hostel","alternate_name":"Villa Maria Catholic Hostel","street_address":"167-173 Saint Paul's Terrace","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-09-18","description":"This assessment deals only with the E-shaped building constructed between 1927 and 1968 and bounded by Gotha Street, St Paul's Terrace and Warren Street. The later buildings to the southeast of the Villa Maria Centre site were not inspected and do not form part of the culturally significant fabric of the complex.
Boldly occupying most of the sloping city block bounded by Gotha Street, St Paul's Terrace and Warren Street, Villa Maria convent and hostel dominates the streetscape of St Paul's Terrace, Fortitude Valley. Major alterations to the fabric of the interior have been made to accommodate contemporary expectations for hostel and aged care facilities. The building has changed little in external form and expression, although many of the external openings have been glazed with the enclosure of the verandahs.
The three-, four- and five-storeyed, polychromatic facebrick building designed in a Romanesque idiom, has its principal elevations to St Paul's Terrace and Warren Street. The E-shape building is sheltered by terracotta tiled roofs and celtic crosses crown all the gable parapets. The massive quality of the exterior is relieved by a regular rhythm of round and flat arches to the verandah openings and characterised by bands of geometric patterning, light coloured brickwork to sills and arches, decorative arcading and scalloped corbelling. The corners of the building are defined by towers with gabled parapets and the north-west and south-east wings are punctuated by narrow central towers incorporating minor entrances. These entrances are defined by short white-painted columns with decorative composite capitals supporting an embellished semi-circular arch. The tower facades are enlivened with decorative arcades to the upper levels.
The former main entrance to the complex is to the centre of the Warren Street frontage which is asymmetrical around a wider central tower than that of the other elevations. This entrance is approached by a set of brick stairs from street level and is sheltered by a projecting, white-painted concrete porch with a vaulted ceiling and a gable roof surmounted by a celtic cross and supported by four columns with decorative composite capitals. A narrow, square tower rises adjacent to the south-east and is distinguished by the geometric patterning and decorative corbelling characteristic of the building. The entrance to the complex is now in the middle of the southern section of the Warren Street wing.
The ends of the north-west and south-east corner towers and the exterior of the chapel are visible from Gotha Street. The chapel is a three-storey volume characterised by a blind, semi-circular apse and tall narrow arched window openings between flat buttresses to the sides. The fine polychromatic brickwork includes light brick banding defining the arches and bases of the long windows and eaves decorated with corbelling in a machicolation motif.
The earlier stages of the building (Warren Street wing and half the St Paul's Terrace wing) have internal load bearing masonry walls with timber and reinforced concrete floors and the later 1960s wings are of concrete column and beam construction with concrete slabs.
The plan is arranged as a cloister treatment around central courtyards with external verandahs and colonnades, the chapel dividing the cloister into two. The planning remains largely as designed in the 1920s - with double loaded corridors internally accommodating rooms for residents opening onto verandahs and provision of communal living and working spaces in various parts of the building.
The south-east wing and the south half of the Warren Street wing have been refurbished and now accommodate ensuited bedrooms off double loaded corridors. Most original wall, ceiling and floor finishes have been lost, bedrooms enlarged and ensuites added. The special purpose rooms (including the bakery) in the former convent area are replaced with other room configurations. Some of the communal dining/living spaces remain. Verandahs are enclosed or subsumed and most of the verandah openings are now glazed. Verandahs to the south-east wing have been subsumed by the larger bedrooms but retain unglazed verandah openings. Verandahs to Warren Street are subdivided into rooms. At the time of inspection (June 2008), the other wings were being dismantled in preparation for a similar refurbishment.
The former main entrance opens onto an inner porch and then into the vestibule to the chapel. These areas are notable for the fine timber panelled doors surmounted by semi-circular lights or painted tympanum murals, decorative architraves and coloured glass windows matching those in the chapel. Some silky oak and other joinery survives throughout the building including cupboards, windows and doors. South of the chapel, the handsome terrazzo stair with elegant turned timber posts and austere decorative iron balustrading remains.
Chapel
A splendid three-storey rectangular volume with a towering vaulted ceiling, the chapel has a projecting apse to the east, a mezzanine gallery to the west and holds a congregation of over 350 persons. Lit to each side by five, tall, narrow, coloured glass windows with decorative geometric grids featuring crosses and arcade motifs, the interior is finished in white painted plaster with ribs, compound columns and decorative features picked out in gold. Latticed ceiling roses vent the space. The sanctuary is within the projecting apse, lit by a small narrow light to each side and encircled by a blind arcade. It accommodates the original decorated marble reredos and altar with flanking angels on marble plinths on the rear elevated platform and a plainer freestanding marble altar to the lower front platform. The chapel houses a number of statues including those of the Sacred Heart, Our Lady, St Patrick, St Joseph, St Theresa and St Francis. A fine set of painted stations of the cross in carved timber frames hang on the walls. The sanctuary floor is carpeted (the original mosaic marble finish may survive under) and floors to the nave are parquetry. The gallery has a decorative timber panelled front of silky oak and is supported by handsome columns with a marble treatment.
Side doors open onto the colonnades of the flanking cloisters. The colonnade to the southeast is now enclosed and overlooks the courtyard a level below. The roof of the chapel colonnade to northeast is supported by white-painted concrete columns with cushion capitals and forms part of the encircling colonnade to the courtyard.
Courtyards
The north courtyard is an open space with some moveable tables, chairs and umbrellas. The south courtyard accommodates recent raised garden beds and a shade structure. A number of recent extensions and a freestanding rectangular building, none of which are considered to be of cultural heritage significance, intrude into the courtyard space and along the northeast side of the chapel.
Lift and lift tower
The external form of the lift tower to Warren Street survives and accommodates a modern lift.
Fence and entrance gates
A perimeter fence around the three street frontages comprises brick piers punctuating brick infill panels with decorative centres in a geometric pattern. A handsome white-painted concrete gateway embellished to match the front entrance porch houses a decorative solid metal double gate opening to the corner of St Paul's Terrace and Warren Street. A similar gate constructed to match this earliest gate also stands to the other St Paul's Terrace corner.
Views
The complex affords sweeping views across the CBD of Brisbane, Fortitude Valley and over to the Story Bridge.
","history":"The Villa Maria Centre is a large complex occupying most of the Spring Hill block bounded by Gotha Street, St Paul's Terrace, Warren Street and Barry Parade. Villa Maria was established by the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, a religious order which has cared for the poor, aged and needy in Queensland since 1874. The Villa Maria Hostel, the subject of this assessment, comprises about two-thirds of the Villa Maria Centre as it stands today. It incorporates the original convent and chapel, and was constructed in stages between 1927 and 1968.
Catholic priest, scientist and author Father Julian Tenison Woods, co-founder with Mother Mary MacKillop of the Sisters of St Joseph, established a foundation of Perpetual Adoration in Brisbane in the early 1870s and formed the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in 1874. A primary objective of the order is the practice of perpetual adoration - there is always one of their number in prayer. Led by Catherine Gaffney (Mother Stanislaus) the first Mother Superior, the first Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (a group of six) rented a house in South Brisbane. They lived extremely frugally, supporting themselves doing needlework, and assisted the poor and needy around them
In 1881 the Sisters moved to Spring Hill where, in 1900, they purchased two cottages in Leichhardt Street (now St Paul's Terrace) at the corner of Warren Street, now part of the current site of the Villa Maria Centre. They became known in Spring Hill as the Black Sisters because they wore long black dresses and bonnets. Though needlework continued to be their main source of income (they were well known for making priests' vestments and supplying Brisbane emporiums with bridal trousseaus), the Sisters were unable to support themselves solely from needlework and began taking in boarders who paid a weekly rental for the rooms. In 1902 they began caring for elderly ladies. Further houses were acquired and the land used for vegetables, flowers, fowls and a cow. In 1912 the Sisters began making altar breads for the archdiocese of Brisbane.
The largest period of growth for the Institute of Perpetual Adoration took place under the guidance of Archbishop James Duhig. Upon succeeding to the See of Brisbane in 1917, one of Duhig's earliest works was to give formal approval to the work of the Sisters. In 1920, Archbishop James Duhig gave diocesan approbation to the Institute and granted the Sisters their distinctive dress of a black habit and black scapular covered with a white mantle. Up to that time, the Sisters had had no legal security as a religious institute and had worn no strictly religious dress.
James Duhig, Archbishop of Brisbane, took a great interest in the work of the Sisters and encouraged them to build a new facility on their Spring Hill site. Villa Maria was also part of Duhig's larger urban design and town planning initiatives, which included the grand scheme for the Holy Name Cathedral. He saw Villa Maria as an integral component of a vision of Brisbane as a city of grand buildings and boulevards, with Leichhardt Street (now St Paul's Terrace) as a tree lined boulevard with tall government buildings and stately mansions on one side and to the other, Victoria Park, plunging into a valley and climbing to the Herston slopes which was to be a future University site.
The design of the new building - a convent and hostel - was given to Hennessy, Hennessy, Keesing and Co. and J.P. Donoghue, a Sydney firm of architects. The firm was commissioned by the archdiocese to design several churches, schools, convents, monasteries, hospitals and charitable institutions. Its work culminated in the proposed scheme for the Holy Name Cathedral. Amongst the other ecclesiastical buildings they designed were St Joseph's Dalby (1921), St Agatha's Clayfield (1925), St Augustine's Coolangatta (1926) and St Ignatius Toowong (1930) [602532].
The convent and hostel of Villa Maria was built in four stages - 1927-1928, 1940, 1965 and 1968. On 6 December 1925 Duhig laid the foundation stone of the first stage of the building, comprising the hostel and chapel. The chapel opened in 1927 and the hostel in 1928.
By 1938, the Sisters were ready to build the next stage of the complex and commissioned Brisbane architects, Cullen and Egan, to complete the project. Cullen was a former articled pupil and draftsman at Hennessy, Hennessy and Co. and nephew of Archbishop Duhig. Cullen and Egan prepared the working drawings and supervised the construction of the later stages continuing the original concept of the Hennessy scheme with the same architectural form, expression and detailing with some variation in the internal planning. In 1940 the second section of Villa Maria, the convent wing which included facilities for bread making, ironing and laundry work, was completed. A lift tower was incorporated into the 1928 portion of the building adjacent to the main entrance on Warren Street at the junction of these two stages of the building. In the following year, the basement of the new convent building was converted into dormitories for country girls.
It was not until the early 1960s that plans were prepared to complete the building. In 1963 further cottages were demolished to make way for a new wing along St Paul's Terrace. On 17 July 1965 Archbishop O'Donnell opened this wing, which provided additional accommodation for 38 women. Built by MJ O'Leary and designed by the architects Frank L Cullen, Fagg, Hargreaves and Mooney, the building cost more than £100,000. The wing was named the St Stanislaus wing in honour of Catherine Gaffney (Mother Stanislaus) the first Mother Superior of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.
In 1968 the final stage, St Gabriel's Wing, was constructed. Honouring Mother Mary Gabriel Moloney, Mother-General from 1955-1967, the wing ran from Warren Street to Gotha Street along the southeast of the site. Opened on 7 April 1968 by Archbishop O'Donnell, the new wing was designed by architects Frank L Cullen, Fagg, Hargraves and Moony and built by J O'Leary. It provided 48 bedrooms for aged ladies, 22 private rooms for the Sisters, a spacious reception lounge and laundry. With the completion of St Gabriel's Wing, the capacity of the hostel was increased to 134.
In the 1990s further buildings were constructed to the southeast to provide additional care facilities, a new chapel and convent. This part of the complex links with the earlier hostel and chapel by a covered link at ground floor level.
In 2008, the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration continue to care for elderly women and the Villa Maria complex remains the centre of their work in Brisbane. The early convent/hostel building has changed little in external form and expression, however external openings have been glazed with the enclosure of the verandahs. The interior of the building has been extensively altered in the first decade of the 21st century to accommodate contemporary expectations for hostel and aged care facilities. The planning remains largely as designed in the 1920s with double loaded corridors internally accommodating rooms for residents opening onto verandahs and the provision of communal living and workings spaces. The building now accommodates only the hostel/aged care facilities and the convent is housed within the adjacent later buildings. The chapel continues to be used for worship by the residents but not as the chapel for perpetual adoration.
","criteria":"A prominent landmark on the elevated ridge of St Paul's Terrace, Spring Hill and visible from many parts of the immediate neighbourhoods of Fortitude Valley and the Brisbane CBD, Villa Maria is distinguished by its distinctive picturesque massing and fine polychromatic brickwork. It is distinguished by restrained embellishment including geometric patterning in the brickwork, decorative entrance porches and decorative corbelling.
Surviving original fine joinery and finishes, particularly within the main entrance porch, chapel vestibule and chapel including fine timber panelled doors, glazed fanlights, coloured glass windows with cross and arcade motifs, painted decorative murals are a delight. The chapel provides a contemplative haven with its towering vaulted ceiling, narrow coloured glass windows and fine quality furniture and finishes including polished timber pews, parquetry flooring, timber panelling to the galley and handsome marble treated columns.
Villa Maria is notable for the expansive views it affords across Brisbane CBD, Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley.
|Opened in 1928, Villa Maria is significant as the first permanent home of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Queensland and has remained a focal point for their activities until the present day. Villa Maria provides evidence of the development of the order in Queensland and the religious and social practices they implemented. Villa Maria is significant for its association with the social welfare program of the Catholic Church in the establishment of hostels and hospices, particularly for women.
Villa Maria is important as evidence for the period of expansion of the Catholic Church in Queensland during the 1920s and 1930s under the leadership of Archbishop James Duhig. Known for his particular interest in urban design and town planning, Villa Maria is an important component of Duhig's vision for Brisbane as a city of boulevards and fine buildings. The establishment of the convent and hostel reflects the active interest of Archbishop Duhig in the work of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and his confident building program which saw the establishment of many of the Catholic church's prominent buildings including St Ignatius Church Toowong [602532], Corpus Christi Church Nundah [601460], part of All Hallows' School [600200] and Nazareth House [601391].
|Villa Maria is significant for its considerable architectural merit, particularly the well-composed exterior and chapel, and is a fine example of the work of Hennessy & Hennessy, Keesing and Co and J.P. Donoghue, prominent architects in Brisbane and Sydney who undertook many projects for the Catholic church during Archbishop Duhig's time.
With is picturesque massing and finely crafted polychromatic brickwork, distinctive round arches, arcading, prominent tower, restrained ornamentation, geometric patterning in the brickwork and use of corbelling in a machicolation motif, Villa Maria is a fine example of a building in the Romanesque idiom, a style commonly employed in the design of religious places during the inter-war period.
The principal architectural component of the Villa Maria complex, the chapel, incorporates defining elements of the Romanesque most notably masonry construction, round arched windows, patterned brickwork, brick detailing including the machicolation motif; and within a towering vaulted ceiling, restrained embellishment and narrow coloured glass windows. It comprises the essential elements of a typical 20th century Catholic church including a collection of religious furniture and icons, in particular altars, statues and stations of the cross.
|Villa Maria is important for its association with the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, who have maintained a presence on this site since 1900. The place has been associated with the work of the Sisters in caring for the aged and infirm for over 70 years, and for a time, in offering accommodation for young women working in Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion E | Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16701,"place_ref":601965,"name":"Lochiel","alternate_name":"Runnymeade | Langley Grove? | Balmoral?","street_address":"6 Hillside Crescent","suburb":"HAMILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-05-28","description":"Lochiel is a two-storeyed with basement timber structure with a masonry core and a corrugated iron gable roof. It is located on the northeastern corner of Toorak Road and Hillside Crescent, on the south facing slope of Toorak Hill overlooking the Hamilton Reach of the Brisbane River to the south. Lochiel has substantial gardens/plantings, and ancillary structures including garages (former stables), shed, and lych gate.
Lochiel was constructed as a private residence and underwent two major extensions before its conversion into six flats. The earliest section of the building consisted of the existing masonry core, which comprises a south facing wing with basement rooms, and a wing at the rear forming an L-shaped plan. A large timber 'museum' wing was added to the western end of the building forming a U-shaped plan. This wing is high-set with a recessed masonry enclosed room below. The rear wing was extended to the north and a second storey added, and later the courtyard space at the rear was enclosed. The building was subsequently converted into flats.
The main entrance to Lochiel, when still a single residence, was from the south fronting Hillside Crescent. The southern elevation is high-set and consists of the 'museum' wing at the western end, with an enclosed verandah with a corrugated iron skillion roof and brick piers which returns along the eastern side of the building.
A wide entrance stair, with rendered masonry upstands to either side, is located centrally. Non-original timber framed french doors with obscured glass panes and sidelights are located at the top of the stair, the verandah has been enclosed with glass louvres and compressed sheeting, and latticed timber panels are located between the brick piers supporting the verandah. The eastern gable end of the roof has decorative timber bargeboards, and a deck opening from the first floor of the rear wing is located adjacent to the gable end and is supported by timber posts above the enclosed eastern verandah.
The deck has cross-braced timber balustrades and a decorative porch/aedicule forming the entrance to the first floor. The porch/aedicule has paired timber posts with cross-bracing, latticed timber valance, louvred timber shutters above balustrade height, and decorative timber gable with battens and curved timber elements. The decorative southern gable of the first floor is located above the porch/aedicule, and has a battened timber screen with an arched central section and curved timber trim. A sash window with corrugated iron sunhood is located adjacent to the porch/aedicule.
The two-storeyed rear wing is constructed of chamferboard, and overhangs the ground floor of the early rear wing on the eastern and northern sides and is supported by timber posts with curved brackets. The eastern elevation of the first floor has centrally located french doors accessed via an external timber stair, and flanked by sash windows with timber shutters to either side. A continuous corrugated iron sunhood supported by curved timber brackets shades the first floor windows and doors. The northern elevation has a large L-shaped timber stair, which bridges a driveway, accessing a central first floor porch. The porch has paired timber posts with cross-bracing, cross-braced balustrades, and non-original french doors with obscured glass panes. The porch is flanked by sash windows, and a continuous corrugated iron sunhood supported by curved timber brackets shades the windows and porch. The stair has a stepped battened timber balustrade, and the southern gable has a battened timber screen with an arched central section at the base.
The western elevation of the first floor has sash windows with timber shutters flanking a smaller non-original casement window. A continuous corrugated iron sunhood supported by curved timber brackets shades these windows.
The northern rear side of Lochiel consists of the enclosed courtyard flanked by the two-storeyed rear wing to the east, and the 'museum' wing to the west. The enclosed courtyard has a corrugated iron skillion roof supported by timber posts, with louvred glass panels and compressed sheeting forming the exterior wall. A recessed entrance is located centrally, with multi-paned bifolding timber doors. A rendered masonry chimney is located at the rear of the original section of the building adjacent to the enclosed courtyard.
The 'museum' wing is constructed of chamferboard and has a corrugated iron gable roof and is supported by brick piers with latticed timber infill panels. The southern elevation is highly decorative, with a central bay window flanked by non-original casement windows (with a corner window unit to the southwest corner) and surmounted by timber detailing to the gable. The bay has narrow sash windows with etched and coloured glass panes and timber shutters. The bay is crowned by a timber valance consisting of triple curved sections, and paired lancet windows with leadlight panels are located in the gable above. The gable has a metal finial, and a battened timber screen with an arched central section and curved timber trim supported by curved timber brackets. A non original door is located on the eastern side of the bay and is accessed via a timber stair.
The rear elevation of the 'museum' wing has a metal finial and a battened timber screen to the gable, similar to the front elevation however without any of the decorative timber detailing and trim. Paired lancet windows with leadlight panels are located in the gable above a lean-to addition, which consists of an early section at the western end (possibly part of the original 'museum' wing), and later enclosures at the eastern end. The lean-to has louvred glass windows as well as a row of fixed glass high level windows.
An entrance to the rear lean-to, with a corrugated iron hood with curved timber brackets, is located on the western side. A porch with decorative timber detailing protects a second entrance located mid-way along the western elevation (this entrance was possibly originally a bay window). The porch has a gable roof with latticed timber gable panel and balustrade, curved valance and paired timber posts with cross-bracing. A continuous window hood surmounts several non-original casement windows, and two dormer windows with arched leadlight panels are located on the western side of the roof.
An internal lightwell, created during the conversion of the building to flats, is located on the eastern side of the 'museum' wing.
Internally, the earliest section of the building is of rendered masonry construction and comprises two large rooms either side of a wide central hall fronting the southern verandah. Both rooms have wide timber architraves and skirtings, french doors opening to the verandah, a panelled timber door with deep reveals opening into the central hall, and a fireplace with marble surround flanked by narrow windows (now closed over but originally opened to the rear courtyard) either side. The western room has an infilled opening on the western side and a coffered ceiling with timber beams and cornice, and the eastern room has a plaster ceiling and cornice. The central hall has a plaster ceiling and cornice, and the end has been partitioned off to create a storage cupboard and the original opening to the rear has been infilled, but its form is still visible from the rear. The enclosed verandah has a raked boarded ceiling, and the western end has been partitioned off with french doors accessing a bathroom with terrazzo floor. The enclosed eastern verandah houses a kitchen area at the northern end.
Internally, the rear wing is also of rendered masonry construction and comprises two large rooms with plaster ceilings and cornices, and deep timber skirtings and a timber fireplace surround to the central room. Both rooms have non-original multi-paned doors opening onto the enclosed verandah/undercroft space of the two-storeyed rear wing. The northern end of this space houses a bathroom, and the northern end of the masonry rear wing has been extended with the addition of a kitchen (possibly a free-standing structure added prior to the construction of the second storey). This kitchen structure has a raked ceiling on either side to the underside of the collar-beam, two small centrally pivoted windows which open against the rear of the end wall of the masonry wing, and a door and sash window opening to the rear.
The enclosed courtyard has been partitioned into several rooms, and has raked boarded ceilings and timber floors. The posts supporting the skillion roof have chamfered corners and are set back in line with the rear of the 'museum' wing.
Internally, the 'museum' wing currently houses two flats, but originally consisted of predominantly one large room with exposed tie-beams and hammer-posts with decorative curved timber brackets and raked boarded ceiling. A non-original ceiling has been installed to the underside of the tie-beams, and the space above, which is lit by the leadlight gable and dormer windows, remains intact with evidence of the original location of exhibits being visible. The original timber floor, consisting of alternately dark and light timber boards giving a striped appearance remains intact.
The 'museum' has been partitioned into several rooms, with plaster ceilings and cornices, timber architraves and skirtings, and casement windows. A boarded ceiling with deep cornices and high level windows is located in the rear northeast room, which is the location of the maid's dining room and scullery prior to the building's conversion into flats. The rear room (within the lean-to) has boarded walls and raked ceiling, and was used as a work room at the rear of the museum prior to the conversion into flats. A lightwell has been inserted into the eastern side of the 'museum' wing adjacent to the early section of the structure (in place of the original openings into the museum from the former dining room and courtyard), and provides light and ventilation to internal rooms adjacent.
The basement of the early masonry core is constructed of painted stone with brick quoining, and comprises two large rooms either side of a narrow central room. The floor of the western room is below the adjacent ground level, and a doorway to the west is accessed via stone steps. A barred window with arched header opens to the south below the verandah, and a fireplace is located against the northern wall with a narrow window adjacent. The narrow central room opens off the western room via an adjoining doorway, and has a barred window with arched header to the south. The floor of the eastern room is at the adjacent ground level, and the room is accessed via a low opening to the east, with a window with arched header to the south. A flight of stone steps is located against the northern wall at the rear of the western room, and leads to the underside of the enclosed courtyard floor.
A masonry room is located below the 'museum' wing. This room is constructed of mostly unpainted brickwork, with some rendered brickwork at the front, and has tall sash windows opening to the surrounding below floor space. The room is accessed via a door in the eastern wall (adjacent to the door accessing the basement of the early masonry core) and a door in the western wall fronting the adjacent garden. A concrete path with brick retaining wall wraps around the rear of this room with a gate accessing the adjacent garden. Internally, this room has a ripple-iron ceiling and timber architraves.
Lochiel has extensive gardens, particularly to the southern part of the property. A decorative lych gate is located at the southeast of the garden, on the corner of Toorak Road and Hillside Crescent. The lych gate has brick piers surmounting rendered retaining walls either side of a flight of concrete steps. The piers support a decorative hipped gable shingle roof, which has terracotta finials at the corners, and curved projecting rafters with shaped ends. Steel gates with a concave top edge are fixed to the garden side of the lych gate. The gates access a gravel path which leads to the southern entrance to Lochiel. Both Toorak Road and Hillside Crescent frontages have rendered brick retaining walls/fences, with a driveway gate at the northern end of the property.
The gravel path from the lych gate leads to a circular area with a central tree. From this area, a set of concrete steps accesses a path/terrace surmounting an embankment, with a second set of concrete steps leading to the southern entrance to Lochiel. The circular area has a stone threshold and stone pillar, and the gravel path has stone edgings and stone garden features.
The southwest section of the garden consists of a grove of mature trees with a wide terrace below a dry-stone embankment. A masonry retaining wall separates this area from a raised lawn and garden on the western side of the structure. The southeast section of the garden has an open lawn bordered by mature trees and shrubs. A masonry retaining wall separates this area from a raised lawn and garden on the eastern side of Lochiel.
A storage shed is located to the east of Lochiel at the northern end of the lawn. The shed has a gable roof with ribbed pan and corrugated iron sheeting and chamferboard walls. The southern gable has decorative timber bargeboards surmounting a gabled porch with latticed timber gable panel and decorative timber detailing. Lean-to structures have been added to the sides and rear of this building.
The rear of the property comprises an area of lawn with stone retaining walls to the rear boundary. Garages are located at the northwest corner of the property. The garages have a corrugated iron skillion roof supported by timber posts, with a weatherboard wall at the eastern end and timber garage doors. The garages contain part of the squared rubble-coursed sandstone structure of the original stables. The sandstone forms the rear wall of the structure, with three transverse wall sections, and the western end wall has a raked parapet. Brickwork surmounts the rear sandstone wall forming a parapet, and an early set of steps is located adjacent to the western end wall. The floor of the garage is concrete.
","history":"Lochiel comprises a substantial timber and masonry residence together with associated outbuildings (the former stables, shed, and lych gate) set within substantial grounds on the lower reaches of Toorak Hill overlooking the Hamilton reach of the Brisbane River. The house has evolved over several stages: its genesis is believed to be a two story masonry house erected by JF Buckland in the 1860s. After the house was purchased by John Samuel Cameron (the younger) in 1899 two timber additions were undertaken: a museum wing by 1906 and a first floor addition over the eastern wing by 1927. The layout of the garden is also believed to date from Cameron's ownership. Lochiel remains in the ownership of the Cameron family; the house having being converted into flats after World War II. This history is based entirely on publicly held records. It is believed that further information is held by the Cameron family, which may well contribute further to its understanding.
The land on which Lochiel stands forms part of an original deed of grant of 5 acres (described as allotment 5 of portion 1) made in April 1855 to John James Perry and William Anthony Brown both of Brisbane. It is not known whether the land was occupied at this time, however Nehemiah Bartley writing in 1854 describes a foot track over Toorak Hill (then called Gage's Hill) to German Station at Nundah so avoiding the longer route by the river bank. Prior to 1845 squatting licences were known to have been granted in this vicinity (including to Gage who cleared land, and planted maize and vegetables). On the other side of Breakfast Creek, just three years after the declaration of free settlement and the first Brisbane land sales, land was offered for sale including the Newstead House (QHR 600265) parcel (house erected 1845/6).
The value of the Breakfast Creek / Hamilton district had been recognised from the earliest settlement of Brisbane. In 1824, prior to the resiting of the Moreton Bay penal colony from Redcliffe to Brisbane, it was Breakfast Creek which was nominated by Governor Brisbane and John Oxley as a more suitable place for settlement with the rocky point now known as Cameron Rocks identified as having good anchorage and a natural wharf. The first known settlement in the district however came with the establishment in 1829 of Eagle Farm as an annexe to the penal colony. The construction of the Eagle Farm Road by convicts (later also called Breakfast Creek Road and Hamilton Road, now Kingsford Smith Drive) and a bridge across Breakfast Creek later providing impetus for the early development of the area.
In 1865 allotment 5 was transferred to Peter Nicol Russell described on the title as of London but according to electoral records resident at New Farm. In the same year this was subdivided into 15 lots. An 1864 advertisement for sale of nearby lands describes the area along the Eagle Farm Road as at all times the most favourite direction for suburban residence, it has of late been even more enquired after for similar purposes ... Very great improvements have attended the progress of this locality during the last twelve months.
According to title's information, on 21 September 1867 (but possibly some two years earlier), three of the subdivided parcels of allotment 5 (subs 11, 12, and 13) containing 2 roods and 16 perches were transferred to Ellen Gertrude Buckland. EG Buckland (?-1911) was the wife of John Francis Buckland (1832-1910). JF Buckland arrived in Queensland in 1862 from England establishing an auctioneering partnership with Simon Fraser (Fraser & Buckland 1863-1873); later in business on his own account as an auctioneer and broker. He was an original member of the Nundah Divisional Board (created 1880/1) until 1883 when he became the first Chairman of the new Toombul Divisional Board of which he remained a member until the late 1880s when, with the creation of the new Hamilton Divisional Board, he no longer resided within the boundaries of Toombul. From 1882-1892 he was the MLA for Bulimba.
The first Post Office Directories (1868) record Buckland as residing at Breakfast Creek (which the area was known as). Based on a combination of the Post Office Directories and photographic evidence, it is the Bucklands who are believed to have erected what was to become the first stage of Lochiel. A photograph dated 1868 shows the house at this stage believed to have comprised 2 rooms upstairs with kitchen area below fronting what is now known as Hillside Crescent. No architect or builder has to date been identified although in 1864 Brisbane architect WH Chambers erected the Queen Street premises of Fraser and Buckland. During the Buckland's residency the house appears to have been known firstly as Balmoral Cottage and from 1885-6 as Runnymeade.
The Bucklands' Toorak Hill neighbours at this time included several substantial residences: James Dickson's 'Toorak' (QHR 600216) erected c1865, 'Eldernell' (1869), 'Waterview' (later 'Camden House'; demolished), and 'Mt Pleasant' (on the western side of Toorak Rd).
In 1889 a further 2 roods 16 perches was added to the Runnymeade holding with resubs 11-16 of subs 6, 7, and 8 (with frontage to Dickson Terrace) being acquired again in the name of Ellen Gertrude Buckland. (This land is no longer part of the Lochiel holding and does not form part of the entry in the Heritage Register). A photograph dating from this time shows Runneymede as a masonry house in cottage orne style comprising a simple gabled front section with verandahs facing south and a gabled brick wing to the northeast, which has apparently been added by this time. The house and extension have distinctive bargeboards with wavy edges. The photograph also shows a roof in the location of the existing small shed located to the east of the house and a mature garden. In the same year the Bucklands acquired a near neighbour to the east when Kate Quinlan erected 'Maria Ville' (later called 'Eltham').
In 1892, Buckland became insolvent although according to the Post Office Directories he remains at Runnymeade until the mid 1890s. From 1895-97 the house is listed as vacant, but was apparently occupied for a short time thereafter by Fred Lawson (of Lawson and Johnson fancy goods dealers) and renamed Langley Grove.
In 1899 the property was transferred by the mortgagee to John Samuel Cameron who renamed the house Lochiel. Cameron (1868-1917), son of John Samuel Cameron (1834-1902) and Frances Spencer Cameron was a partner in the Brisbane auctioneering firm established by his father, (John Cameron & Sons, which remains a family firm). JS Cameron Snr and his family are believed to have resided nearby to Lochiel (then Runnymeade) in the 1880s at Greenbank. In 1884 the family moved to Doowabah at Ormiston. In a manuscript held by the John Oxley Library, one of John Samuel Cameron's three sisters recalls that the Camerons were very keen gardeners, and with the help of John Neish, the Scottish gardener Captain Hope [of 'Ormiston House'] had brought out with him, we soon had a wonderful flower and fruit garden which was greatly helped by the many Sharks that were buried for fertilising purposes.
In 1900 John Cameron jnr married Etty Florence Griffiths Higgins. The Lochiel household also included Marian Griffiths Higgins (later Brown; Etty's daughter from her first marriage to Ernest Higgins) and two sons John Griffiths Cameron (b1903) and Stuart Francis Griffiths Cameron (b1904). Photographs show the house and grounds prior to the erection of the museum c1906. The studio photographs which appear to be contemporaneous are taken from the south east and north east. They show the house prior to the enclosing of the verandahs as well as a good view of the eastern wing of the house (including a small separately roofed timber addition) prior to the addition of the upper story. The roofed area to the rear of the house is also shown. Garden structures including post and rail fences, trellises and a small building on the eastern boundary are visible.
According to his sister Cameron was a keen collector, when young of Shells and Birds' Eggs and Native Weapons of all sorts but later became very interested in good China and Glass, particularly Bohemian and Venetian Glass, and his large collection contained many very beautiful specimens. Apparently to house his collection, by 1906, Cameron had added the museum to the western side of the house.
Built of timber, the museum interior is shown in photographs as having decorative tie beams and hangers, high level windows, and a striped timber floor. The collection appears to have been highly personal and eclectic with aboriginal artefacts, oriental furniture, porcelain paintings, and sculptures filling the space. The purpose built museum is believed to be rare. To date only one other purpose built private museum has been identified: at 'Beaufort Hill' Clayfield where in the 1920s Edward Hawkins had a museum room incorporated as part of a tower addition to an existing house.
By 1906 the lychgate at the corner of Toorak Road and Hillside Crescent had also been erected. By this time Hamilton was well established as a suburb of Brisbane. In 1899 the electric tram service to Ascot commenced; subdivisions continued including that of the nearby Toorak Estate (following the death of James Dixon in 1901); in 1904 the town of Hamilton succeeded the Shire of Hamilton as the local authority area; and 'the Rocky Wharf' (later called Cameron Rocks apparently in honour of JS Cameron), once described as the perfect landing place for a fledgling penal colony, was now a place for couples to "spoon" away the evening hours. A contemporary newspaper article describes the Hamilton township:
The mansions and villas of many of Brisbane's commercial men crown every green knoll, inviting the cool breezes of the eastern ocean ... Hamilton Road is a well-kept thoroughfare, and provides a much frequented drive, whilst the electric tramcars which traverse it are invariably filled on summer afternoons and evenings ... At the present time there are about 5,000 souls resident in Hamilton.
In 1916 Cameron appointed his brothers Waverley Fletcher Cameron, Stuart William Cameron, and his wife Etty Florence Cameron as trustees. They remained as trustees administering his estate after his death in the following year on 26 April 1917. Under the terms of Cameron's will, his wife continued to reside at Lochiel (including the enjoyment of the museum) until her death in August 1945 when Lochiel passed to their two sons.
The BCC Sewerage Detail Plan records that by 1927 an upper story had been added to Lochiel positioned over the early brick eastern wing, although based on photographic evidence this may have been as early as 1912. An undated photograph shows Lochiel after this addition which was detailed to match the museum wing. To date it has not been possible to identify who was responsible for this work. Based on drawings prepared by architects Job & Collins c1945 the upper floor was accessed by an internal stairwell from the existing eastern wing of the house.
The 1927 sewerage plan shows Lochiel much as it is today although at this time the land holding still extended through to Dickson Terrace. The plan shows the small shed, garages (believed to be former stables) to the north west of the site, lychgate, and several other unidentified structures. In the 1930s half of the land holding (fronting Dickson Terrace) was reconfigured into three blocks - subs 1 and 2 with frontage to Dickson Terrace; sub 3 with a narrow frontage to Toorak Road. None of these blocks were sold but remained (as required by Cameron's will) as part of the administered estate of John Samuel Cameron although sub 1 was leased from 1936 to one of the Cameron sons, John Griffiths Cameron. A house may have been erected on this site at this time.
Following the death of Etty Florence Cameron in 1945, her two sons inherited the property as provided for under their father's will. At this time the contents of the museum were apparently dispersed and architects Job & Collins prepared drawings for the conversion of the house into flats. One drawing also shows the pre-flat layout of the ground floor: the early masonry core of the house contains the dining room and a bedroom; the eastern wing, a bedroom, stairwell to upper level, maid's room (in the timber portion), and bathroom on the verandah; to the rear of the house is the living room with stairs to basement level marked; kitchen, scullery, and associated service rooms to the west of the living room; the museum is shown with several entrances marked to other parts of the house. It is not known what use if any was made of the basement rooms (which in addition to the original kitchen rooms also includes a room under the museum). The second drawing documents the conversion of the house into the 6 existing flats.
From 1947, the two Dickson Terrace blocks are separated from the main house block subs 11,12, and 13 and sub 3 (containing the house Lochiel) - each son acquiring a block with the house block being held in joint ownership. After the death of Stuart Cameron in 1972, the whole of what is now considered the Lochiel house block is acquired by John Griffiths Cameron. Lochiel was acquired by the present owners following the death of their father in 1976. A 1997 application for demolition which was refused by the Brisbane City Council attracted a considerable number of objections. Lochiel remains on the market. A feasibility study for its reuse commissioned on behalf of the Queensland Heritage Council in 1998 has identified several potential uses.
","criteria":"Arguably unique and indeed highly idiosyncratic Lochiel comprises a substantial house, outbuildings, and large established garden situated on the lower slopes of Toorak Hill overlooking the Brisbane River. It is a rare, intact, and fine example of a suburban estate; its evolution over several stages (the earliest believed to date from the 1860s) well illustrating the development of Brisbane and one of its earliest suburbs, Hamilton.
|Arguably unique and indeed highly idiosyncratic Lochiel comprises a substantial house, outbuildings, and large established garden situated on the lower slopes of Toorak Hill overlooking the Brisbane River. It is a rare, intact, and fine example of a suburban estate; its evolution over several stages (the earliest believed to date from the 1860s) well illustrating the development of Brisbane and one of its earliest suburbs, Hamilton. The early masonry core of the house, with surviving lower service area, is both a fine and rare surviving example of its type. The more idiosyncratic nature of Lochiel is more particularly found however in the form, placement, and exuberant detailing of the substantial timber additions (museum c1906 and upper eastern wing by 1927) and in the very building of the museum room as a purpose built private exhibition space. The garden including structural elements (such as paths, steps, walls, and decorative features) and mature plantings is also considered a rare and intact example of a pre World War II garden.
|An investigation of the fabric of the house and garden and the publication of information believed held by the Cameron family have the potential to substantially contribute to the further understanding of the history of Lochiel.
|It is a rare, intact, and fine example of a suburban estate; its evolution over several stages (the earliest believed to date from the 1860s) well illustrating the development of Brisbane and one of its earliest suburbs, Hamilton. The early masonry core of the house, with surviving lower service area, is both a fine and rare surviving example of its type.
The garden including structural elements (such as paths, steps, walls, and decorative features) and mature plantings is also considered a rare and intact example of a pre World War II garden
|Lochiel has considerable aesthetic qualities including the picturesque qualities of the house and garden (including garden structures) and the site itself with its views to the river
|Lochiel has a long association with JF Buckland, who was prominent in Brisbane's civic affairs. For over a century it has remained in the ownership of the Cameron family, a testament to the particular vision of JS Cameron.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16702,"place_ref":601966,"name":"Gona Barracks","alternate_name":"Kelvin Grove Training Area | Kelvin Grove Military Reserve","street_address":"3,7,12, 25 & 26 Gona Parade","suburb":"KELVIN GROVE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"Gona Barracks occupies a site of almost seven hectares in the inner northern Brisbane suburb of Kelvin Grove. The complex is comprised of approximately 70 individual buildings, located in two fairly evenly divided areas known as the 'upper barracks', accessed via Kelvin Grove Road, and the 'lower arracks' entered from Sylvan Road. The upper barracks area features an expansive central parade ground area, around which a group of buildings is arranged. The lower barracks feature two main groups of buildings set within grassed and bituminised areas.
THE UPPER BARRACKS
GUN PARK SHED 1
The upper barracks area contains two gun park sheds. The first of these is located to the north west of the Kelvin Grove Road entry to the site. The building is a long single storey timber structure, set on a concrete base, with a gabled roof sheeted in corrugated steel. Original timber doors to the elevation facing the parade ground have been replaced with roller and tilting metal doors. The end rooms contain their original doors and windows. A series of horse hitching rails are located along the length of the western side of this building.
GUN PARK SHED 2
The second gun park shed located on the barracks site mirrors the other gun park shed in construction materials and design. It also contains some early VJ timber linings and early room divisions, although the main gun park space has been subdivided. A ceramic drinking fountain situated on the edge of the parade ground outside this building may be original to its construction. This shed also features a series of horse hitching rails on the western elevation.
ARTIFICERS WORKSHOP (STORE)
West of gun park shed 2 is the artificers workshop. It is a small single storey building on a concrete base with a timber frame clad in ribbed steel sheeting with a gabled roof sheeted in the same material. Internally, the building has two main rooms, one set at a slightly lower level than the other. The building may have been built in two stages. One section appears to be of early construction, and modern cladding has been applied to the outside. This building has been extensively reworked over the years.
STOREROOM
Adjacent to the artificers workshop. on the western extreme of the site, is a c1950s storeroom. It is a small single storey building constructed of a timber frame with part height corrugated iron sheeting roughly applied, and steel mesh to the upper portions with an earth floor. The shallow pitch gabled roof is sheeted with corrugated iron. A timber door is centrally located.
ARTILLERY DRILL HALL (ADMIN)
The 1915 Artillery drill hall is positioned at right angles to the number 2 gun park shed, on a north-east - south-west axis, near the western boundary of the site. The building addresses the central parade ground area. The hall is a long, predominantly single storey building constructed of timber weatherboards, with a two storey section at the western end, reflecting its original construction as two separate buildings. Roofs to both buildings are gabled and sheeted with corrugated steel.
The two storey section of the building to the west features original flanking single storey wings. Some original timber double doors on the ground floor of this building remain, while weatherboards and roller doors have been inserted where other timber double doors once existed. One of two original flights of stairs to the building remain. The lecture room on the first floor exists in its original configuration.
In the eastern section of the building, some original timber double doors are infilled with weatherboards, louvre windows and single doors. To the northern elevation, aluminium framed windows and doors are positioned in many original door openings.
Internally, there are a number of original VJ walls and ceiling linings, while the large central hall has a more recent suspended ceiling. The hall is subdivided into two smaller areas, one of which is further subdivided by part-height partitions.
SANITATION, ABLUTIONS AND LATRINE BLOCKS
Two sanitation, ablutions and latrine blocks are located to the north-east of the Artillery drill hall. The block closest the hall is currently a female toilet, and appears to have been constructed as an earth closet in association with the Artillery drill hall. It is a small single storey weatherboard building sitting on a concrete base, with a gabled roof sheeted in corrugated iron. A corrugated iron screen shields the entrance to the toilet from the parade ground.
The neighbouring circa World War II toilet block is a small single storey structure, clad in weatherboards on a concrete base, with a skillion roof sheeted in corrugated steel. It appears to have been built on the site of an earlier wireless hut.
To the north of the ablution blocks are two c1980s buildings, an armoury and lecture room. The armoury is a small single storey masonry building on a concrete base sheeted in corrugated steel and skillion roof. The lecture room is a portable metal clad building set on low stumps.
ENGINEER'S (RAE) DEPOT (ADMIN)
The 1915 Engineer's (RAE) depot is located east of the Artillery drill hall, and sits at right angles to this building. It is a two storey timber framed weatherboard building with an additional two storey wing at the southern end constructed at right angles to the original building. The gabled roof is sheeted with corrugated steel. Access to the building from the parade ground is gained to the upper floor via four bridges. The site drops away dramatically around this building and to the east access to the building is made to the lower floor.
Internally, full height partitions divide the central space, creating individual offices, while the lower floor features messes. Early VJ linings to the perimeter walls on the upper level exist, while the lower level has mostly recent linings and finishes although the timber post and beam structure remains visible. A face brick wall lines a large part of the lower level on the parade ground side. An original timber door to the waggon shed on the lower level exist, while timber infill and new doors and windows are in place where other timber doors were once located.
The later wing contains several rooms on the upper level and a large modern kitchen below.
A tennis court is located to the east of the Engineer's depot, and a flag pole is located in the parade ground area to the west.
PARADE GROUND STRUCTURES
The central parade ground area is located to the south of the structures noted above. It is a bitumenised area with storage compounds and small shelter sheds located on its eastern elevation. The most substantial structure in this area is a c1980s single storey building set on a concrete base covered with steel sheeting, comprising seven bays with roller shutters.
TOOWONG DRILL HALL (ADMIN)
The 1915 Toowong drill hall is located to the east of the central parade ground area. The hall is a large timber framed building sheeted in corrugated iron. It sits on concrete stumps and bearers with infill of corrugated iron sheeting, forming a basement level.
South of the Toowong drill hall is a c1980s armoury. It is a single storey building on a concrete base sheeted with corrugated steel, with a skillion roof. This building is not of cultural heritage significance.
AUSTRALIAN ARMY SERVICE CORPS (AASC) DRILL HALL
The AASC drill hall is located south of the Toowong drill hall, in the eastern corner of the upper barracks site. It is a long single storey timber building set on a concrete base. A centrally located double storey height section is flanked by lower, single storey wings. The gabled roof is sheeted with corrugated steel. Some original windows and doors survive, while others have been replaced with steel tilting doors. The building also features aluminium awnings. Internally, the original drill room space contains a series of offices with part height partitioning and suspended ceilings. Some early VJ timber partitions and linings remain and the timber roof trusses exist above the suspended ceilings. The eastern end of the building contains a bar and mess area.
To the rear of the AASC drill hall, on the south-western corner of the building, is a timber toilet block set on a concrete base, with a skillion roof sheeted with corrugated iron. It is joined to the drill hall via an attached shower block.
A c1970s toilet block, and c1980s shelter are also located to the rear of the AASC drill, at the eastern end of the building. These structures are not of cultural heritage significance.
FRANK MORAN MEMORIAL HALL
The Frank Moran Memorial Hall is located south-west of the AASC drill hall. It is a single storey timber building sited on low concrete stumps, with a gabled roof sheeted with corrugated steel. A skillion roofed addition is located to the rear of the building to the south. The interior features VJ timber walls and original ceiling lining.
Located adjacent to the memorial hall is a concrete slab which originally supported a post World War II Petrol, Oil and Lubricant store.
INFANTRY DRILL HALL
The 1914 Infantry drill hall is located in the southern corner of the upper barracks site. It is a large single storey building, timber framed and sheeted in corrugated iron, with a gabled roof also sheeted in corrugated iron. The building has a concrete floor that is not original. A 1939 skillion roofed addition is located to the northern end of the building, and another addition exists to the south. Internally, most of the drill room space is intact with exposed roofing. There are offices with original timber linings and doors, located along the western elevation.
On the south-western corner of the building is a 1914 latrine building. It is a small timber framed building sheeted with corrugated iron, and has a simple gable roof with a skillion attached and sits on a concrete base.
A 1930s fire hut is also sited on this corner of the drill hall. It is a single storey building on a concrete base, timber framed and sheeted in corrugated iron with a corrugated iron roof.*
A small metal clad storage shed built on a concrete base is located to the west of the drill hall, along the property boundary on Kelvin Grove Road. This structure is not of cultural heritage significance.
GARAGE AND WORKSHOP
The 1941-42 garage and workshop building is sited adjacent to the Infantry drill hall, along the western elevation of the central parade area. It is a large single storey building set on a concrete base, sheeted and roofed in corrugated iron. The roof has a saw tooth profile. Internally, the building is divided into various rooms, some with suspended ceilings. The steel structure remains and is visible through most of the building.
Three small structures are located north-west of the garage and workshop. One is a c1940s bowser store, consisting of a timber frame supporting a corrugated iron roof, sheltering two petrol bowsers. Another is a c1950s-60s small single storey storeroom set on a concrete base, timber framed and sheeted with corrugated iron, with a gabled, corrugated iron roof. The third building is a c1980s latrine. It is a demountable or pre-fabricated type amenities block and is not of cultural heritage significance.
ARMY RESERVE RECRUITING COMPONENT
This building is located on the western side of the main entry to the site from Kelvin Grove Road. The c1930s structure is a single storey timber building on low concrete and steel stumps. The building has a gabled roof sheeted in corrugated iron. Two building wings extend to the east and west of the main part of the structure. Internally, the building comprises a number of rooms to the north and a large room to the east. Opening off this large room is a kitchen containing some early windows and doors. Other windows are of more recent installation, as are wall linings, ceilings and floor coverings. The building has early loft storage areas accessed by ladder at each end of the main section.
A flag pole is located to the north of this building, in the centre of the main entry to the site.
THE LOWER BARRACKS
The lower barracks area is located to the north-east of the upper barracks area. A driveway joining the two barracks areas runs from the north-western elevation of the Engineer's depot to the eastern elevation of the Quartermasters store in the lower barracks area. External access to the lower barracks area is gained via Blamey Street and Kelvin Grove Road, through the upper barracks. The area developed for Engineers is located in the northern portion of the lower barracks, while the area for Signals is positioned in the southern portion of the site.
The Engineers area is reached immediately upon entering the lower barracks from Blamey Street. A group of seven buildings are loosely organised around a bitumen area, and include administration buildings, a bridging store, an armoury and quartermasters store, an RAE training assembly hall and a 1970s prefabricated lecture room. The bridging store is a timber-framed shed building, while the other structures in the Engineers area are timber or steel framed buildings, set on concrete stumps and featuring weatherboard cladding and corrugated iron or steel roofs. The Engineers buildings are a mixture of structures built both on-site, and relocated from Wacol Army Barracks in 1953.
South of the Engineers area is a group of buildings established in an 'L' configuration around a bitumen area for Signals men and women. Some of the structures, including a battery room, Signals Corps Area Assembly Hall, a latrine, an administration building, a lecture room and a c1970s shelter shed were constructed on-site, while other administration buildings, a canteen and a surgery were relocated to the site from the Wacol Army Barracks in 1953. The buildings are generally timber or steel framed with weatherboard cladding and corrugated iron and steel roofs, set on concrete stumps. The 1970s shelter shed is a concrete block building.
Located between the Engineers and Signals areas, on the eastern border of the site, is the PMG School for Linesmen in Training building. It is a two storey timber-framed building sheeted in fibrous cement panelling. c1970s 'wash point' is cited south of the School for Linesmen building, across a roadway and open area. It is a concrete parking area with storage sheds at one end used for the washing down of vehicles.
THE LANDSCAPE
The Gona Barracks site contains a variety of trees and shrubs, endemic, planted and self-seeded, that have developed over time with the development of the site. The trees can be broadly classified according to the period of planting as indicated by their size, species and location.
VEGETATION WHICH PREDATES ARMY OCCUPATION
One Ficus platypoda along the Kelvin Grove alignment appears to be the only remnant vegetation on site.
INTERWAR VEGETATION
A significant stand of stately Jacaranda acutifolia and Grevillea robusta trees planted as an avenue along the roadway between the Engineers' depot and the Toowong drill hall in the upper barracks area, forms the most significant stand of vegetation on the site. It appears the embankment and roadway on which these tress stand was in existence by 1925. Within this group are a number of Phytolaccia dioica which are possibly of a similar age.
POSTWAR VEGETATION
A group of assorted trees including exotic species and some Queensland rainforest trees are to be found on the embankment below the parade ground area.
SELF SOWN TREES
Numerous isolated trees have seeded themselves throughout the site and in particular on batters created during earthworks in the 1920s on the upper barracks and in 1953 on the lower barracks. Several isolated Ficus platypoda occur is scattered locations on the lower barracks. These specimens are of a moderate size and may have self sown, planted or may be remnant.
","history":"The Gona Barracks site was established just prior to World War I in the 1910s, for the purpose of military training for specialist units of compulsory militia forces. The site continued to develop and became a Citizens Militia Forces training complex in the 1950s, and later an Army Reserve recruitment centre.
The settlement of Brisbane began in 1825 with the establishment of a penal colony along that part of the Brisbane River that was later to become the town's central business district. Transportation ceased less than twenty years later in 1842, and Brisbane was opened to free settlement. The town was surveyed, and land to the north and west of Spring Hill, an area of early settlement, was made into park land. West of Victoria Park, the largest of the government reserves, the area now known as Kelvin Grove was cleared, and subdivided and offered for sale by the 1860s. The site that was eventually to become Gona Barracks was listed as Portion 322, Parish of North Brisbane, County of Stanley.
On 28 March 1879, Portion 322 was granted by the colonial government to the Brisbane Grammar School as an endowment. The school retained the endowment until 1911, leasing grazing rights to the holding as a means of raising funds for the school. No buildings were thought to have been constructed on the site throughout this period, and the only improvement to the endowment was the construction of a number of fences.
In May 1911, the Commonwealth acquired the Brisbane Grammar School endowment, and renamed the site the Kelvin Grove Defence Reserve. Acquisition of the property was a response to the need for training facilities for Australia's expanding military forces. Forces of a voluntary nature, supported by a small number of permanent forces, had been in place in most of the Australian colonies by the late nineteenth century. With the Federation of Australia's six colonies on 1 January 1901, defence became the responsibility of the new Commonwealth Government, and a Department of Defence was established in March 1901. The department took over control of the various colonial volunteer forces which, together with 1500 full-time soldiers, numbered almost 30,000. An external report completed in 1909 suggested the volunteer militia forces needed to be increased to number 80,000 soldiers and led to the establishment of the Army's Royal Military College at Duntroon in 1911. The Federal Government's response to the report was to introduce compulsory military training for both men and boys. The bulk of the Army's officers and troops were to serve on a part-time basis in the Australian Military Forces (AMF or militia), attending training one night per week and participating in some weekend camps and an annual encampment.
By 1911, some 90,000 men and boys had registered for military training Australia-wide, a number which expanded to over 130,000 two years later. Facilities for training in Brisbane included drill halls in Alice and Adelaide Streets in the city, and in Boundary Street in Spring Hill. The increase in numbers placed pressure on these facilities, none of which had room for expansion as each was located in a built-up area. The Department of Defence decided it would solve the problem by swapping the three inner Brisbane drill hall sites with the State Government for more adequate land, specifying that the site be close to a tram line. The Survey Officer of Engineers, Captain Good, identified three possible sites to replace the inner city drill halls. The Grammar School Endowment was favoured in assessments of the sites, and in November 1910 the trustees of the endowment accepted an offer of £8000, and the deed of title for the "Kelvin Grove Defence Reserve" was transferred to the Commonwealth in May 1911.
THE KELVIN GROVE DEFENCE RESERVE
The first buildings to be constructed on the Kelvin Grove Defence Reserve were an Infantry drill hall, consisting of a large drill space with eight offices along one side of the building, an associated toilet building, and an artificers workshop for Army mechanics, completed in 1914. This began an era of intense building activity at the site, precipitated by Australia's entry into World War I in August 1914. To enable the construction of further buildings, the site had to be made level, an activity costing over £3000. By October 1915, the levelling had been finished, and another building, the Engineer's depot, had been added to the site. This two-storey timber building was rectangular in shape, and was constructed to the design of Queensland Public Works Department architects. This building was completed at a cost of just over £1500 for the 23rd and 15th Engineer Companies, and included two wagon sheds and two harness rooms.
An Artillery drill hall, Brigade office and two gun parks for the Artillery units were the next additions to the site, constructed at the end of 1915. The Artillery drill hall was a rectangular, single storey building with offices and wagon sheds at each end of a centrally located drill hall. The Brigade hall was a two storey building, located to the west of the drill hall. The two gun park buildings were built at right angles to the Brigade hall, along the Kelvin Grove Road alignment. Each of the buildings featured a large room for the storage of 13 pounder artillery pieces, harness and cleaning rooms, and an office and commanding officer's room. These artillery buildings were designed by the Queensland branch of the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs, and are among the earliest Commonwealth designs in Queensland. Most Commonwealth buildings at this time were being designed and constructed by the various state's public works departments as it was some time before the Commonwealth established its own department with its own employees.
A drill hall for the Australian Army Service Corps (AASC) was added at the same time the Artillery buildings were constructed. This hall was built near the 1914 drill hall, at the opposite end of the site from the Artillery drill hall. The single storey timber building was constructed to the plans of Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs architects, whose drawings were more detailed copies of plans prepared by the state government. Some other ancillary buildings were added to the Kelvin Grove site by the end of World War I. These included a military laundry with an attached engine house, and a 'disinfector' building.
The First World War came to an end on 11 November 1918, and Australian troops returned home. Despite a lack of interest in matters military among the Australian government and people, military training continued at Kelvin Grove throughout the 1920s. By 1921, the Kelvin Grove site had become the training centre for the AASC, Signallers, Engineers and Artillerymen. The reserve was also used by the 11th Mixed Brigade for large training exercises, to which the specialist units based at Kelvin Grove were attached. On one occasion in 1923, the Kelvin Grove Engineers, Artillery, Signals and AASC units, together with Infantry, Australian Light Horse and Australian Army Medical Corps from elsewhere, combined for a training exercise at the site.
The use of some of the Kelvin Grove Defence Reserve buildings changed during the 1920s. The AASC moved out of its drill hall, which thereafter became ordnance offices and stores, while one of the gun parks was converted to an ordnance store, and the 1914 drill hall was converted to an ordnance lecture room.
The interwar period from 1919 to 1939 was an era of gradual expansion on the Reserve site. The first building to be constructed after the war was a corrugated iron remount depot. This building was dismantled and re-erected in 1933, and together with two riding yards and a manure pit, became the riding school. Many of the subsequent buildings to appear on the site throughout the Depression years of the 1930s were structures relocated from other locations. In 1934, the Royal Australian Engineers (RAE) drill hall was relocated to Kelvin Grove from Toowong, at a cost of £1620. The hall was located on sloping land near the AASC drill hall at the southern end of the site. It was positioned on reinforced concrete stumps and converted into a two storey building. A Belgian 5.9 inch gun, captured from the Germans at Pozieres in France during World War I by the Queensland 9th Battalion, was mounted on the grass outside the building. Living quarters for an Army staff officer were also added in 1934. The three bedroom timber house was constructed along Sylvan Road by builders NT Stansfield and Thomas Foster at a quoted price of £1500. The following year, a Field Artillery officer's mess was constructed between the Artillery drill hall and brigade office, thereby converting the two separate buildings into a single structure.
The Frank Moran Memorial Hall was another building to be added to the Kelvin Grove site in the interwar period. Frank Moran was a cadet officer prior to World War I, involved the training of Brisbane Grammar School military cadets. When Australia entered the war, Moran enlisted in the 1st AIF and left Australia in November 1914. He fought at Gallopoli and died of wounds on board ship in August 1915. The Hall was one of three memorials erected in his memory, the others being a Memorial Cross at St Brigid's Catholic Church in Red Hill (dismantled in the 1930s); and a stained glass window in the Brisbane Grammar School War Memorial Library. Capital for the construction of the hall came from funds raised by Moran in 1913 and 1914, intended for the construction of a recreation building for cadets at Red Hill. Some £400 were raised, but lay forgotten until 1920. In 1925, the trustees of the fund decided to donate the money to the Army, provided the funds were used in a project that reflected the intentions of Moran more than ten years earlier. The following March, it was proposed the money be used for the construction of a recreation hut at Kelvin Grove which was to bear Moran's name. The Commonwealth Department of Works and Railways prepared plans for the Frank Moran Memorial Hall in 1928, and in November 1929 the hall was completed at a cost of £461. The simple timber building was sited between the AASC drill hall and the 1914 Infantry drill hall. Left over funds were used to purchase furniture, and a bathroom extension was added in 1933. In 1937 ownership and control of the hall was signed over to the Defence Department.
Throughout the interwar period, the northern portion of the Kelvin Grove Defence Reserve, the 'lower barracks', remained undeveloped by the Defence Department, who leased the land to private individuals for grazing purposes from the 1920s. The department resumed control of this area for the riding school in late 1934.
As the 1930s progressed, it became increasingly evident that another war was approaching. In February 1938 further additions were made to the site following a reorganisation of the existing buildings. The Engineers had moved from their 1915 depot building to the relocated Toowong drill hall, and the Army Signals Corps moved into the former Engineer's depot, renamed the Kelvin Grove Signals Corps depot. The southern side of the building was extended with a two storey wing, positioned at right angles to the original structure. This area housed a drill space and various stores and messes. In May 1939, the original 1914 drill hall was also altered with the construction of a skillion-roofed extension to the north. A fire hut was relocated to the rear of this drill hall. The Queensland 61st (Infantry) Battalion occupied the building at this time. Finally, in May 1939, a new lavatory block featuring a female toilet was erected under the Signals Corps depot; a closet building behind the AASC building was converted into a cookhouse; and a wireless hut located to the north of the Signals Corps depot, and a combined social and lecture hall were added to the Reserve.
WORLD WAR II
Australia entered the Second World War on 3 September 1939 with a declaration of war on Germany. Within the month of September, the 5th Field Artillery Regiment; the 42nd and 43rd Artillery Batteries; the 105th and 111th Artillery Batteries; and the first motor transport for the Batteries' 18 pounder guns and 4.5 inch howitzers, had assembled at the site. The militia troops from the Signals Corps, the RAE and the AASC were also located at the Kelvin Grove Mobilisation Stores, and the 9/49th Signals Unit and the 61st Battalion were operating out of the 1914 infantry drill hall.
During World War II there were two permanent additions to the Kelvin Grove site. One was a garage and workshops building for servicing AASC vehicles, made necessary by the Army's process of converting from horse transport to motorised. Plans for the building were prepared in November 1939 and it is thought construction of the building was completed around 1942. The other permanent construction was the School for Linesmen-in-Training building, a two storey, timber framed and sheeted with fibrous cement building, finished by July 1941. The still undeveloped lower barracks area was the location of the building, constructed at a price of £2961 by PR Ayre. The building was constructed for the Post Master General's Department, who agreed to train militia forces at the facility.
Besides the permanent additions to the barracks site, a number of temporary structures were added to accommodate some of the troops mobilised for the war effort. By the end of the war in 1945, temporary and permanent buildings of various shapes and sizes had spread throughout the Military Reserve. An area of notable development occurred around the staff officers quarters at the lower barracks. Here, 27 buildings formed the 2nd Australian Commander Royal Engineers camp. The buildings were likely to have been standard prefabricated structures of the World War II period, consisting of timber and masonite with fibro sheeting. A sloping dirt road connected the upper and lower barracks areas at this time, as did a long line of steep steps.
The US Army were also involved with the Kelvin Grove site during World War II. The parade ground area at the upper barracks site was made level by the US Army, whose alterations created the sunken road that runs past the relocated Toowong drill hall.
POST WAR YEARS
The Second World War ended in August 1945, and in the months to followed, Kelvin Grove Military Reserve saw the demobilisation of returning soldiers, and the disposal of surplus stores. In 1947, 48 buildings consisting mainly of the RAE Maintenance Company and Signals Camps in the Lower Barracks area, were designated as surplus to Army requirements and sold.
The post-war era was also a period of major reshaping of the Australian Army. The defence force was no longer to consist of a small core of professional offices, supported by a part-time army. To this end, the Australian Regular Army was created in September 1947, in which it was planned to have 19 000 full-time soldiers. The Australian Military Forces (militia) were renamed the Citizens Military Forces (CMF) in 1948, and in 1951 the Commonwealth introduced the National Service Scheme which required all 18 year old Australian males to register for six months compulsory full-time military training, followed by a period of part-time service. The Kelvin Grove site, which became known as the Kelvin Grove Training Area in 1948, was to be used in the National Service Scheme as a major CMF training centre in Brisbane.
In 1952 the Defence Department decided to construct a new CMF complex for the training of Engineers and Signals at the Kelvin Grove site. The complex required many buildings, some of which were new buildings constructed at the site, and others were relocated from elsewhere. In establishing the CMF facility, CMF Engineers dug the initial earthworks, and the old riding school was demolished. Twenty-one World War II era buildings were relocated to the lower barracks area from the Wacol Army Camp, and a weatherboard assembly hall was built for both the Engineers and Signals. The depots for both groups were completed in 1953 and the engineers buildings were painted blue and the Signals buildings painted brown to distinguish between the two Depot areas. Authorisation for sealing the road linking the upper and lower barracks areas was also given in 1953. During the 1950s the School for Linesmen Building became the headquarters of the 5th Cadet Brigade which controlled all the school cadet units located in Brisbane and surrounding districts. The 5th Cadet Brigade remained in the building throughout the 1960s.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the upper barracks continued its links with the Artillery. A 6 inch gun, reported to be from the HMAS Sydney, was located behind the 1915 Engineers depot. The gun was later removed to the Queensland Maritime Museum, although the 'H' frame steel base remained.
The boundary of the Kelvin Grove training area altered somewhat throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s. In the lower barracks area, two acres were purchased from the Queensland Government in 1953, and in subsequent years, the Army exchanged some of its land for privately owned land to make the Barracks site more symmetrical and to accommodate the expansion of the Signals depot. A portion of a State Government road reserve was also purchased at a cost of £1000 in 1961. While the lower barracks area was expanding in this period, the upper barracks area was reduced in size. The laundry site had been privately leased since the 1920s, and in 1954 the building and equipment was sold to the company, Bishops Laundry and Dry Cleaners, and thereby excised from the barracks site.
GONA BARRACKS
During the 1960s the Australian Army began renaming their barracks sites, drawing on prominent battles for the names. The Kelvin Grove site became 'Gona Barracks', derived from the Battle of Gona, fought between Japanese and Australian troops on the north coast of Papua between 16 November and 9 December 1942. The barracks continued to evolve and new military units moved to the site. In 1965 five brick houses were built along Blamey Street at a cost of £30,000 for use as married quarters. Two of the houses were later removed from Blamey Street, and the remaining three were excised from the barracks site. In 1966 the parade ground area was resealed in order to install two helicopter landing pads, while by the 1980s, a new steel demountable lecture room was constructed where the former riding school once stood. Another building, the 1934 staff officers quarters, was removed and relocated to Witton Barracks at Indooroopilly in 1974. In the 1970s portions of army land were acquired by the Main Roads Department for various road works adjoining the site, while another portion was sold and became part of the QUT Kelvin Grove Campus.
In recent years, Army recruitment in south-east Queensland became centred at the Gona Barracks site. Over the years, the use of many buildings changed and alterations to the buildings were made, especially in the upper barracks area. The former Artillery drill hall, former Engineers depot and the former AASC drill hall have been particularly altered internally.
In October 1998, following a period of scaling down of activity at the site, Gona Barracks officially closed. Units based at the barracks were dispersed to other Army bases, the museum shifted to Enoggera and a war memorial flagpole sent out to the Royal Australian Regiment Memorial Walk and Contemplation Building at Enoggera.
","criteria":"The former Gona Barracks is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as evidence of Queensland's preparations for military involvement in various world conflicts. Specifically, Gona Barracks is associated with the expansion of military training for militia forces after the introduction of compulsory military training in 1911, the provision of facilities for specialist militia units, and the continuation of voluntary military forces until 1998. The place contains World War I drill halls built for militia units of infantry, and more specialised groups such as the artillery, engineers and service corps, and as such demonstrates the extent of the various sections of the armed forces at the time and the commitment of the citizen soldiers who comprised these units. The general size of the barracks site also demonstrates the site's early history as the Brisbane Grammar School endowment, from 1879 to 1911.
|The World War I era buildings in the upper barracks area of Gona Barracks demonstrate rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage as a surviving precinct of buildings from this period, and as examples of the early design of buildings by the Commonwealth. The concentration of drill halls, and the number of different types of drill halls for the various services sited at one location was not a common military practice at the time. The gun park, services, artillery and engineers drill halls are rare surviving examples of their type.
|Gona Barracks has the potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history as the World War I buildings in the upper barracks demonstrate the development of military technology. The buildings constructed for the artillery, service corps and engineers demonstrate in their form and room layouts the important role played by horses in military activity at that time, which was later supersede by motorised transportation.
|Gona Barracks is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places, as the layout of the World War I buildings illustrate the military use of the site. This group of buildings was carefully and deliberately placed around a central parade ground area, a practice which was followed in other parts of Australia. The World War II buildings also demonstrate the principal characteristics of this type of building, constructed of timber with corrugated iron roofs, elevated on low stumps.
|Gona Barracks is important because of its aesthetic significance. The World War I buildings in the upper barracks area are of aesthetic significance as a group of similarly scaled buildings constructed of timber, positioned around a central open space or parade ground area. These qualities are enhanced by the overall intactness of the exteriors of most of these buildings.
|Gona Barracks has a special association with a substantial part of Queensland's military community. As a military training ground since the early years of World War I until 1998, thousands of servicemen and women have an association with the site which has played an active role during the major periods of defence organisation in this country. In more recent years, it has functioned as an Army recruiting centre, particularly for the Army Reserve who were based at the site.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16731,"place_ref":601995,"name":"Monier Ventilation Shafts, Wickham Terrace","alternate_name":"Monier Stormwater Ventilation Shafts | Monier Sewer Ventilation Shafts","street_address":"500 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-08-04","description":"Two Monier ventilation shafts (Monier vents) are located adjacent to Wickham Terrace in Brisbane City, just outside the boundary of the suburb of Spring Hill. The southernmost of these two vents (c1904) is located on the footpath outside Roma Street Parkland within the Wickham Terrace road reserve, just north of Twine Street, while the northernmost vent (c1905) is located in a garden bed just inside the Parkland, west of Dark Street. The vents were placed at the heads of two separate stormwater drainage systems for Spring Hill (Hanley’s Valley and Spring Hollow respectively), to vent the sewer gases produced at a time when Brisbane’s stormwater drains also carried household greywater.
\nBoth ventilators are constructed of smooth reinforced concrete, pre-cast in a hexagonal shape, with simple ornamentation, and archival plans indicate they may have up to 1m of their structure underground. The vent set into the footpath near Twine Street, c1904, has a regular hexagonal shape, with base dimensions of approximately 65cm parallel to the road, from face to face (referred to as the ‘height’ of the hexagon); and about 75cm across the path, from point to point (referred to as the ‘width’ of the hexagon).[45] Twin ornamental bands are set about halfway up the shaft, which has an estimated height above ground level of around 9m. There is a cornice just below the mouth of the shaft.
\nThe vent in the Roma Street Parkland near Dark Street, c1905, has an irregular hexagonal shape, being approximately 55cm across the garden bed, face to face (height); and about 85cm parallel to the road, from point to point (width). It stands on a rough concrete base slab (160cm long parallel to the road), inside a garden bed retained by a low stone wall. Twin ornamental bands are set over halfway up the shaft, which has an estimated height above ground level of around 9m. There is a cornice just below the mouth of the shaft.
\nThe thickness of the two vents’ concrete walls is unknown. Plans of a 30ft (9.1m) tall Monier vent (1901, not extant) in Thorn Street, Kangaroo Point, show a regular hexagonal base with an adjusted dimension of 2ft 9 inches (84cm) from face to face, with c1m of the shaft set underground.[46] A wall thickness of around 3 inches (7.5cm) at the base, reducing to about 2 inches (5cm) at the top of the shaft, can be estimated from this plan.
\nFeatures of the Monier vents of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Monier vents not of State level cultural heritage significance:
\nAny other modern elements present within the heritage boundaries of the Monier vents.
Two Monier ventilation shafts (Monier vents) are located on Wickham Terrace in central Brisbane.[1] The vents, which resemble tall, thin chimneys, are hexagonal in section, pre-cast reinforced concrete structures. One (c1904) is set into the footpath outside Roma Street Parkland, just north of Twine Street; while another (c1905) stands in a garden bed just inside the Parkland, west of Dark Street. They are associated with the first Spring Hill stormwater drainage systems, laid c1879-86.
\nAt the time the vents were constructed, Brisbane’s stormwater drains were called ‘sewers’, as they also carried household sullage (greywater), and this arrangement produced noxious gases which had to be vented from the highest points in the stormwater/sewerage system. The term ‘Monier’ refers to the reinforced concrete system patented by the French gardener Joseph Monier in 1867 and introduced into Australia in the early 1890s. The Monier vents, now decommissioned as Brisbane’s stormwater drains no longer carry greywater, have always been rare in Queensland, and represent one of the earliest known uses of pre-cast reinforced concrete in Queensland.[2] In 2023, two other Monier stormwater vents are known to survive: one near the east end of the south side of Florence Street, Teneriffe (1904) [QHR 602068], and one on St Pauls Terrace, Spring Hill, opposite Gloucester Street (1905) [QHR 602067].
\nThe two Wickham Terrace Monier vents were located at the heads of two separate stormwater drainage systems for the early Brisbane suburb of Spring Hill. The vent on the footpath near Twine Street was at the head of the system for ‘Hanley’s Valley’, located between Leichhardt Street and Wickham Terrace. The vent in the Parkland near Dark Street was at the head of the system for ‘Spring Hollow’, located between Leichhardt Street and Gregory Terrace.[3]
\nSpring Hill is part of the traditional land of the Turrbal and Jagera peoples.[4] The suburb was surveyed into suburban ‘villa’ allotments from 1856, which were soon subdivided into smaller allotments by speculative landowners. Along with Kangaroo Point and Petrie Terrace, Spring Hill was among the earliest of Brisbane's dormitory suburbs, attracting residents from the middle classes to the high land along the ridges, and the working classes to the valleys in between.[5] Trustees were appointed for the Albert Park and Recreation Ground Reserve, just to the west of Spring Hill, in September 1877. This initially had a size of 25 acres, 1 rood and 30 perches (10.3ha), although a much larger area of parkland, reaching to Countess Street and Roma Street, had existed in 1865. Albert Park was eventually incorporated into Roma Street Parkland in 2001.[6]
\nWhen Brisbane acquired municipal status in late 1859, there was no system of drainage or sewerage in the town, and the creeks running through the inner city periodically flooded during the 1860s. Brisbane’s first drain (1860) was an ovoid stone drain, running down Albert Street from Elizabeth Street to the creek that ran northeast along Margaret Street. Most people dumped refuse in creeks and channels, trusting that stormwater would carry it away to the river, and for some years drainage and sewerage were viewed as the same thing. However, from c1868 the Brisbane Municipal Council developed a policy of 'rainfall to the river' and 'sewerage to the land'. Drainage systems (then called ‘sewers’) were constructed to carry off stormwater and household greywater; while a sanitary service, based on earth closets, was used for human excreta (nightsoil). The nightsoil was initially collected for burying or burning at a depot (such as the later site of Ballymore Stadium in Herston), and later dumped at sea. A sewage treatment system for Brisbane was finally completed at Luggage Point, Pinkenba in 1923.[7]
\nThe Brisbane Drainage Act 1875, under which the colonial government agreed to set aside crown land for sale to finance Brisbane's drainage scheme, provided the impetus for construction of Brisbane's early arterial stormwater drains. These systems were designed by the colonial government's Engineer for Harbours and Rivers, William David Nisbet (1837 – 1897), and carried out by government contractors under government supervision. Upon completion they became the property and responsibility of the Brisbane Municipal Council, which was also responsible for building subsidiary drains.[8]
\nBy 1878, the inner city was drained by three separate systems: the Frog's Hollow system – a main drain down Albert and Margaret Streets with branches laid by the Brisbane Municipal Council; the Adelaide-Creek Street system, which drained the centre of the town from Makerston Street to Queen Street and the lower sections of Elizabeth and Charlotte Streets; and the Makerston Street system, which served the area between Makerston Street and Petrie Terrace, and between Wickham Terrace and College Road and the Brisbane River.[9]
\nBetween 1879 and 1886 the Brisbane Municipal Council, using government loans, developed an arterial drainage system, again designed by Nisbet, for the densely populated suburbs of Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley, even though part of the Valley then lay outside the Brisbane municipal boundary. These drains, built at a cost of £36,000, carried off both stormwater and household greywater – and relied on rainwater to flush the system into a natural watercourse. Most of this system of ‘sanitary engineering’ (engineering of waste disposal to preserve human health) initially consisted of open stone drains, until they were covered in the late 1890s.[10]
\nThe drainage of Spring Hill, as envisaged by Nisbet, used the two existing valleys. The southernmost arterial drain, servicing an area of about 83 acres (33.6ha), headed east down Hanley’s Valley, following an existing watercourse, crossed Wharf Street near its intersection with today’s Turbot Street, and reached Boundary Street near its intersection with Wickham Street. A brick culvert then carried the runoff down Boundary Street to discharge into the Brisbane River at Petrie’s Bight. This culvert was meant to prevent water from Spring Hill pooling and stagnating in Fortitude Valley – long a source of complaint from Valley residents. A drain then followed the watercourse as it continued northeast from Boundary Street, alongside Wickham Street, to the foot of the Fortitude Valley near the town’s boundary with the Booroodabin Division (which then bordered Brisbane along Gregory Terrace and James Street). The Wickham Street drain then fed into the larger watercourse which flowed southeast from near today’s Exhibition show ring, and along today’s East Street, before crossing Ann Street and turning to the northeast, past James Street to discharge into the Brisbane River at Child’s Creek in Newstead (roughly in a line with the northeast end of today’s Waterloo Street).[11]
\nThe northern Spring Hill arterial drain, servicing 205 acres (83ha) of land, ran northeast down Spring Hollow, including along the course of today’s Water Street, until it also met the watercourse flowing southeast from the future show ring site, near the northeast end of today’s Machinery Street. The Spring Hill Municipal Baths, on Torrington Street, Spring Hill, were opened in 1886 directly above the upper section of the Spring Hollow drain, and the water pumped up to the baths from the Brisbane River was released each evening, to flush the Spring Hollow drain, for the next 75 years.[12]
\nBy 1890, the Brisbane Municipal Council had completed an arterial drainage scheme for the city core, at a total cost of nearly £130,000.[13] The Booroodabin Division was annexed by the Brisbane Municipal Council in January 1903, and in 1908 a loan of £18,500 was secured to enable the Council to complete the drainage of Merthyr, New Farm, Teneriffe, Bowen Hills, Mayne and Newstead by the end of 1909.[14]
\nWithout a proper sewerage system, Brisbane residents still disposed of household and trade waste into the stormwater drainage systems. This led to solid material blocking street channels and gully-holes (especially in dry weather); foul smells emanating from the stormwater drains; and the chronic pollution of local creeks, which became open sewers.[15] Prior to bacterial theory being widely accepted, the resulting ‘miasma’ (unpleasant smell or vapour) was thought to cause disease.[16]
\nThe situation was compounded in 1900 with the arrival of bubonic plague in Australia, carried by rats aboard ships arriving from foreign ports. The first case of human plague in Sydney was reported in January 1900, and in Brisbane (a day and a half away by steamer) on 27 April 1900. Between 1900 and 1909, plague broke out in most of Queensland's ports, galvanising the State into developing tighter controls over public health and sanitation.[17]
\nWhere house drains into Brisbane’s stormwater drains were not ‘trapped’ (provided with a water seal to prevent gases escaping from the sewer), rats with plague-carrying fleas could travel from the sewers into peoples’ yards or houses.[18] Untrapped drains also created an olfactory hazard. On 18 February 1901, a motion at a Council meeting called for all gully holes (street entrances into the sewer) to be trapped, to prevent noxious smells arising.[19] In addition, in March 1901, Queensland’s first Commissioner of Public Health, Dr Nathaniel Burnett Ham, using the strong coercive powers given to him under the provisions of the Health Act 1900, called for the drains in Spring Hill and other districts to be properly trapped.[20]
\nDr Ham also requested that the Brisbane Municipal Council erect sewer vents in city streets.[21] Once drains or gully holes into the main sewers were trapped, the sewers themselves had to be adequately ventilated to remove the smell, usually at the highest point of the system.[22]
\nSewer ventilation shafts were usually built in iron or steel;[23] and the first Monier (reinforced concrete) vent was not constructed in Brisbane until the early 20th century. Concrete was used prior to, and by, the Romans, but after the fall of the Western Roman Empire its use in Western Europe was fairly limited until the development of Portland cement by Joseph Aplin in Leeds in 1824. Concrete was used in construction in Queensland from Separation, including for the residence ‘Goldicott’ [QHR 601601] in Toowong in 1885; but it was the invention of reinforced concrete in the late 19th century which led to a building revolution. Embedding iron or steel rods in concrete meant that the concrete, which was strong under compression but weak under tension (bending and twisting), benefited from the tensile strength of the steel; while the steel was protected from fire and rusting by the concrete. Reinforced concrete was touted for its strength, durability, fire-resistant properties, ease of use and its ability to be shaped for a wide variety of uses, including complex, large-scale structures.[24]
\nPre-cast concrete, also used by the Romans, added its own advantages to construction. The ability to manufacture concrete components in moulds, at a distance from their final position in a structure, be it nearby or in a distant factory, led to better quality control and consistency of product, a wider range of options, fewer delays due to bad weather, and less formwork clutter on building sites.[25]
\nThe Monier system of reinforced concrete was invented by Frenchman Joseph Monier (1823-1906), a commercial gardener who decided to replace fragile clay flowerpots with concrete pots reinforced with iron mesh. His system was first patented, for horticultural troughs, in 1867, and he later applied for more patents for other uses–including for reinforced concrete pipes in 1868. Monier's was the first true reinforced concrete, based on calculations which ensured that the steel was dispersed so as to take tension and shear forces. Monier sold his rights outside France to local businessmen and engineers for lump sum payments. The German engineer Gustav Adolf Wayss purchased Monier’s patent in the mid-1880s and developed it further. Other reinforced concrete systems included those of the French engineer Francois Hennebique (patented 1892), or the American Engineer Julius Kahn (patented 1903).[26]
\nThe Monier system was introduced to Australia in the early 1890s by William Julius Baltzer, a New South Wales (NSW) engineer. Baltzer, in association with contracting engineers Carter Gummow and Co. of Sydney, gained the Australian rights to the Monier system.[27] The company constructed the first Monier structure (a small arch for a stormwater culvert) in Burwood, New South Wales, in 1894; and a sewer aqueduct linking the Sydney suburbs of Annandale and Balmain soon followed. Carter Gummow & Co (later Gummow Forrest & Company, c1898) also introduced the Monier system to Victoria in 1897, building the Anderson Street Bridge over the Yarra River. Baltzer brought the first Monier pipe-making machine into Australia in 1896, for Carter Gummow & Co, which began making pipes on a small scale near Darling Harbour in Sydney in 1897. The company found that the European system of embedding wire netting in the pipes did not greatly increase its strength, so it tested alternative systems and took out fresh patents. Gummow Forrest & Co was acquired by the NSW government in 1915, which started the State Monier Pipe and Reinforced Concrete Works.[28]
\nAnother company involved in manufacturing Monier pipes, from 1901, was the Monier Pipe Company of Victoria. This was formed by the firm of Monash & Anderson, which had become the Victorian agents for Monier reinforced concrete in 1897. In 1905 the Monash and Anderson partnership was dissolved and a new company, the Reinforced Concrete & Monier Pipe Construction Co. Pty. Ltd, was created.[29]
\nThe first building in Queensland to use the Monier system of reinforced concrete was the Rockhampton Customs House, constructed 1899-1901, where the interior of the dome was constructed of reinforced concrete.[30]
\nIn late 1900, the Brisbane Municipal Council called tenders for the construction and erection of an iron ventilating shaft at Thorn Street, Kangaroo Point, before asking the successful tenderer (Finlayson Bros, the Queensland agents for the Monier system from 1899) to then quote for a Monier vent. Plans of the Monier vent for Thorn Street, costing £55 and signed by Finlayson Bros on 9 January 1901, show a tapering, regular hexagonal shaft, probably pre-cast in a mould. It was 30ft (9.1m) high (with about a metre buried in the ground), and 2ft 9 inches (84cm) wide at the outside of its base. Wall thickness, estimated off this plan, varied from about 3 inches (7.5cm) of reinforced concrete at the base, to two inches (5cm) at the top.[31] No trace remains of this first known Monier vent in Queensland.[32]
\nFurther Monier vents, along with steel vents, were soon built in Brisbane for sewer ventilation purposes. In February 1902, City Alderman (1901–04, North Ward) Richard Gailey (1834 – 1924), a well-known architect, stated that the City Engineer needed to report on providing ventilators ‘at the upper or higher ends of all the existing storm and house sewage drains in the city, beginning with the drains behind Wickham Terrace, and in Spring Hollow, George Street, Merthyr Road, and Bowen Terrace and Clay Street, and afterwards the drains between Main Street and Wellington Road, and at the Woolloongabba railway station’.[33]
\nThe Brisbane Municipal Council (Brisbane City Council from March 1903) responded to such demands for sewer ventilation, and on 30 April 1903, the Works Committee recommended that the City Engineer be authorised to erect sewer ventilating shafts wherever they were urgently required, with an estimated cost of £1,537.[34]
\nA ventilating shaft for the Florence Street drain in Teneriffe was authorised by the City Council in July 1904, with an estimated cost of £30, which may give a date for the Monier vent on Florence Street.[35] This vent, located at the south side of Florence Street near its eastern end, was placed at the head of a drainage system, begun in the 1880s, which discharged into the Brisbane River downstream from the Bulimba Ferry wharf.[36]
\nIt is also likely that the Monier vent on Wickham Terrace near Twine Street dates from 1904. A Brisbane City Council key plan, 4 chains to an inch (undated), shows two ‘Monier shafts’ on Wickham Terrace, near Twine Street and Lilley Street (latter not extant in 2023), both venting the Hanley’s Valley drainage system. The Monier vent at the head of the Spring Hollow system, inside the Roma Street Parkland near Dark Street, is not yet present on this plan.[37]
\nThe Monier vent near Dark Street appears to postdate March 1905, when Richard Gailey blamed the absence of proper ventilation of the Spring Hollow sewer for cases of dengue fever (actually spread by mosquitos) in Spring Hill. He noted that sewer gases were escaping from gully-gratings along the sewer’s route, and people were having to add ventilation pipes to their houses, to draw off sewer gases from their connecting drains.[38]
\nIn response to complaints about a lack of vents in the North Ward (Spring Hill) the City Council authorised £150 for the erection of sewer ventilation shafts in May 1905. In July 1905 authority was given for the erection of a ventilation shaft in Leichardt Street (now St Pauls Terrace in this location) near Gloucester Street.[39]
\nThis Monier vent, located on the footpath on the north side of St Pauls Terrace outside Brisbane Central State School, is on a ridgeline, and could have been at the head of a sewer running either northwest, towards the Spring Hollow drain, or southeast towards the Wickham Street drain (north of Boundary Street), although the latter is more likely, as a drain was constructed down Gloucester Street c1886.[40]
\nThe Monier vent for Spring Hollow may have also resulted from the 1905 funding. It was extant by January 1907, when it was reported that ‘the ventilating shaft erected at the upper end of this particular sewer [Spring Hollow] was devised to meet this evil [escape of sewer gas through back pressure through the water in traps]’.[41]
\nNo other Monier vents related to Brisbane’s stormwater system are known to have been built, although a smaller, octagonal version (extant, about 3m high, with an attached metal lamp bracket) was constructed in the early 1930s to vent a men’s public toilet located in the Williams Street retaining wall [QHR 600135].[42]
\nThe surviving Monier vents in Brisbane are no longer used to vent stormwater drains. Once new sewerage systems, which carried both human waste from water-flushed toilets and household greywater, were installed, Brisbane’s stormwater drains no longer required ventilation. The separation of the sewerage system from the stormwater drainage system also solved the dilemma of Queensland’s downpours overloading the sewerage system; sewer pipes no longer needed to be large enough to carry stormwater, while stormwater drains could be discharged into waterways with less pollution.[43] In 2023, the four surviving Monier vents (of the six known to have been constructed) are decommissioned, and no longer appear to be connected to active stormwater drains.[44] They survive as remnants of an important improvement to Brisbane’s sanitary engineering in the early 20th century.
The Monier Ventilation Shafts, Wickham Terrace (c1904-5), are important as rare and early evidence of urban sanitary engineering in Queensland, in particular the need to ventilate gases from stormwater drainage systems at a time when such drains also carried household greywater.
\nBrisbane’s Monier vents are early and intact examples of the use of the Monier system of reinforced concrete in Queensland; and are amongst the earliest known pre-cast reinforced concrete structures in the state.
|The Monier Ventilation Shafts, Wickham Terrace, which are tall, reinforced concrete shafts installed to vent gases from stormwater drains, are a type of vent that has always been rare in Queensland. Of the six Monier vents known to have been constructed in Queensland, four survive in 2024.
|The Monier Ventilation Shafts, Wickham Terrace, have the potential to contribute to our understanding of Brisbane’s early urban stormwater drainage schemes, and early pre-cast reinforced concrete technology in Queensland.
|The Monier Ventilation Shafts, Wickham Terrace, are highly intact examples of reinforced concrete ventilation shafts for stormwater drains. They retain their original location, hexagonal shape, concrete construction, twin ornamental bands on the shaft and cornice near the mouth of the shaft, and their full height, which expelled noxious gases well above the heads of pedestrians.
\nTheir location, at the highest points of the early stormwater drainage systems of Spring Hill, is also important in demonstrating the past extent of those systems, and the principles of their ventilation.
|The Monier Ventilation Shafts, Wickham Terrace, are intact surviving examples of one of the earliest known uses of pre-cast reinforced concrete in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16747,"place_ref":602011,"name":"Toowong Municipal Library (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"579 - 583 Coronation Drive","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-08-28","description":"The Toowong Municipal Library (former) is located on the western side of Coronation Drive in Toowong. The library site comprises a two storeyed building sited amid dense vegetation on a corner site, with open air carparking facilities off Booth Street and a terraced area with seating and a playground.
The library comprises a cavity brick lower floor, the plan of which is formed by three intersecting circles. Above this base floor is a 'floating' crystalline form with 12 sided polygon (dodecagon) floor plan whose external walls taper outward as they rise and which houses the principal public floor of the library. The external steel wall framing of the upper floor is diagonally crossed, or braced, and sheeted with plywood panels set within the structural framing and framed with silky oak beading. The upper two rows of steel framing are infilled with glazed panels, the top level of which are operable windows.
The first floor is a suspended reinforced concrete slab spanning from the brick base of the building to an outer steel channel welded to twelve 6 inch diameter steel columns, coincident with the twelve edges of the building. The roof, supported on RSJ purlins is pitched upward toward the centre of the building where a large, recently constructed, funnel shaped form houses an air conditioning plant. The roof has been clad with metal decking.
The principal entrance to the library floor is via wide concrete steps extending along one of the sides to the east of the building, off Coronation Drive. The entrance comprises a recessed portico from which electronic glass doors give access to the library. Access is provided to the lower floor from a doorway in the rear of the building and via an internal stair. The lower floor of the building is of glazed face brick and contains a number of irregularly but well proportioned timber framed window openings and small concrete panels reflecting the placement and layout of the internal stair.
The internal layout of the library floor is essentially open plan, with part-height partitions allowing space to continue beyond room divisions. Central on the floor is a large symmetrically arranged, circular counter and workspace area. The curved counter is lined on the front face with vertical strip timber boarding and this also lines the partitioning on this floor which form the workspace and office beyond the counter. The workspace is a circular semi open room adjacent to the counter. This floor plan of this space is reflected on the lower ground floor as one of the intersecting circles forming the floor plan. On the western side of the workspace is a small office which is formed with 1/2 glazed full height partitioning screens, maintaining the feeling of space in confined areas. Between the workspace and the office is a spiralling cantilevered concrete stair. The interior of the lower floor of the library has a concrete floor and glazed brick walls. Built along the walls of the major work area are original timber cupboards, shelving and counter units. Within a small pod to the north of this workspace is a toilet and bathroom. The other large space on the lower floor accessed via a door at the west of the building houses a reception area, office, and bathroom and storage facilities.
","history":"The former Toowong Municipal Library is prominently located on Coronation Drive and was opened in April 1961, built to the design of Chief Architect at the Brisbane City Council, James Birrell. It provides evidence of the City Council's expansion of public facilities in the post war period.
Following World War II, when shortage of both labour and materials restricted building work to essentials, the Brisbane City Council embarked on a capital works programme which provided the city with a substantial number of upgraded and new recreational and educational facilities. During the period from 1945 to the early 1960s about ten libraries were constructed and two renovated and redevelopment and construction occurred at five major pool complexes. From the period 1955 until 1960, when most of this vast programme was realised, the Chief Architect with the Brisbane City Council was James Birrell. He was responsible for the design of about 150 sites ranging from his two major projects - the Centenary Pool Complex and the Wickham Terrace Carpark to a number of bus shelters, park entrances, public toilets, cemeteries, sewerage depots and a bus depot. Included in his work of this time was the redevelopment of the Toowong Baths and the construction of a major municipal library at Toowong.
Birrell graduated from architecture at the University of Melbourne in 1951, where he was much influenced by one of his teachers, Melbourne architect Roy Grounds. It was Grounds' use of strong primary forms which influenced Birrell's early work, including that work for the Brisbane City Council. Like Grounds, Birrell used highly identifiable forms sited in landscapes which, apart from a reality associated with their function have an abstract reality or quality which relies solely on their form and siting. The Toowong Library characterises this aspect of his work:
The library is a twelve-sided figure where the geometry is made more insistent by the walls sloping outward with diagonal external framing. The derivation of the library's form can be explained by book-shelving arrangements and its ring-beam construction, but if it has any meaning in itself this is in having the appearance of a flying-saucer and being easily identifiable at 300 metres on a busy road.
In 1952, Birrell expressed aspects of his architectural philosophy in the Melbourne journal Architecture and the Arts, with which he was much involved. These ideas are manifest in many of his Queensland buildings, including those constructed for the Brisbane City Council. This philosophy described the primacy of material and structural integrity, advocating a new engineering dynamism imbued by the materials, technical knowledge and industrial procedures of contemporary culture. This is certainly one of the enduring forces in his work. Following World War II rapid progress was made in the technology of building materials, particularly in the Brisbane steelworks industry. The new and developed materials and products which Birrell used frequently include acrylics and plastics; concrete screen blocks; and timber based boards significantly plywood. Using expertise gained during the war years, Evans Deakin, local ship builders were instrumental in solving complex geometrics in steel work often required on the projects of Birrell.
Of the work James Birrell designed for the Brisbane City Council, very few buildings remain substantially unaltered. Several toilet blocks survive - at Nundah Cemetery, Victoria Park, Mt Coot-tha; two libraries at Annerley and Chermside survive although both have been substantially altered; an entrance feature at Albert Park survives; several buildings in the Abbotsford Road Workshops and the Ann Street Bus Depot survive; two buildings at the Wynnum Civic Centre survive although they have been dramatically altered; buildings survive at the Pinnaroo Lawn Cemetery although later unsympathetic buildings significantly alter the original context; a number of pool complexes survive although many of these have been redeveloped; an electrical substation at Stafford survives and the much altered Centenary Pool and Wickham Terrace Carpark. Many of Birrell's council projects were illustrated in national design journals including the Chermside, Annerley and Toowong municipal libraries, the Stafford substation; the Langland Park pool complex and the Toowong Baths redevelopment; toilets at Mt Coot-tha; Centenary Pool, Wickham Terrace Carpark and a works depot at Mt Gravatt.
Following his years at the Brisbane City Council, Birrell moved on to firstly, the University of Queensland and after to the James Cook University where he was involved in master planning the site, and, from there, to Papua New Guinea where he designed many substantial buildings, before returning to private practice in Australia. The work of James Birrell, particularly during his time at the Brisbane City Council and after, as the architect to the University of Queensland is widely held to be influential, innovative and excellent.
The Toowong Municipal Library was opened in April 1961 as the largest suburban library in Brisbane and designed to service the western suburbs. The design of the timber, glass and steel framed building, a twelve sided externally framed form floating on an organic brick base, was controversial and received much attention when completed.
The library was constructed on three allotments which were part of a New South Wales Land Purchase by Robert Towns and George Christie. The site was also part of the 1889 Moore subdivision of this area of land and changed hands a number of times before one of the lots was acquired by the Council of the Town of Toowong on 1 September 1903. This lot remained in the Council's use as a storage facility until the decision to build the library was made in 1959. At this time the two other allotments, closer to Booth Street were also acquired. Houses had been constructed on these blocks and these were demolished to accommodate the library.
The provision of libraries by municipal councils in Queensland is a relatively new phenomena, with most libraries currently operating established since the late 1940s. Previously, Schools of Arts and privately owned Reading Rooms provided a similar service and these were often run by local committees and subsidised by local councils. Local councils were granted authority in the Local Government Act 1878 to establish and operate libraries, although this was very uncommon until the twentieth century. The first publicly funded municipal library was opened in Kurilpa (West End) in 1929 and a similar library was operating in South Brisbane soon after. Local councils became seriously involved in the construction of libraries in Queensland after the Libraries Act 1943 was passed which provided for the establishment of a State Library Board which was to provide for the improvement of library services throughout the state. By 1950 seven libraries were operating throughout Brisbane and by April 1961 when Toowong Library was opened the Council was operating twelve libraries.
Prior to the construction of the Toowong Library, James Birrell designed two other libraries for the Council at Chermside (1957-8) and Annerley (1956-7). The design of these buildings, although modern, were more conventional than the design of the Toowong Library. In 2014 the Annerley Library (with substantial additions) still operates as a municipal library. The much altered Chermside Library was sold in November 1997.
Discussions concerning the provision of a municipal library at Toowong started in 1956 when the Council set aside £4000 for the construction of a district library to service the western suburbs of Brisbane. Over the next few years several properties near the Toowong Railway Station were investigated as potential library sites. It was not until March 1959 that firm plans were made to use the Council storage facility at the end of Coronation Drive. Alderman Ord, the local councillor, announced to the press in March 1959 that 'a library of brick, glass and steel would be the biggest municipal library in the suburbs and the first in the western suburbs. It would serve the people of St Lucia, Indooroopilly, Toowong, Auchenflower, Taringa, Brookfield and Kenmore'. Ord went on to say that the library would form a civic block with the recently redeveloped Toowong Baths site.
The design of the Toowong Library was innovative and controversial. From the earliest reports of the unusual 12 sided library in 1959, the press covered the story of the planning and growing controversy over the design of the building. The City Librarian lodged a formal complaint over the design of the building with the City Council's Manager of Planning and Building, detailing criticism of the shape, internal layout and lack of consultation with librarians through the design process. In reply to this James Birrell prepared a memorandum addressing the complaints:
The City Librarian has criticised the circular shape of the building, stating that most library authorities favour the more conventional rectangular or square buildings as being more economical of shelf space...his opinion is correct that square buildings have more perimeter than round buildings. However shelf space is not the only criterion upon which the circular plans have been adopted...a circular building form is the most economical for the structural enclosure of a large open space and results in functional arrangements for the provision of natural light and ventilation and circulation within the reading room...Criticisms have been levelled at libraries of all shapes and sizes. Each should be treated on its own merits.
Criticism continued until the opening of the building on 13 April 1961 and it is thought that the reason the project was realised substantially unaltered from the first plans of 1959 and amid the controversy was that the Lord Mayor, Alderman TR Groom and local councillor, Alderman Ord's interest in, and fostering of, modern architecture. An article in the Courier Mail quoting Alderman Ord suggested that the controversy surrounding the building was a sign of vigour in the local architecture scene.
The building was constructed for about £26 000 by local contractors Stuart Brothers, using innovative construction techniques and materials, with the design involvement of the Engineering Branch of the Council's Department of Works. Many architectural and building journals featured the building following its opening. As early as August 1959 a photograph of a model of the library appeared in Cross-section. In December 1961 an article about the library with photographs appeared in the RAIA journal, Architecture in Australia.
New materials used on the library were detailed in the May/June 1961 issue of Building Materials, which featured the building. Such materials included Rotary Red Cedar Exterior plywood panelling, also featured in the Plywood and Plywood Products journal of September 1961. The roof membrane of the library was formed with 2 inch thick laminated fibre board clad with bituminous felt and finished with white grain render and a copper fascia. When completed, the centre point of the roof of the building was finished with an amber acrylic light dome, apparently the largest acrylic dome produced in Australia at the time. Machinery connected to the upper most level of glazing surrounding the building allowed the windows to be mechanically opened. Installed in the ceiling of the library were two concentric light troughs formed with fluorescent tubes between purlins concealed with a translucent acrylic sheeting, operating in much the same way internal lighting operates with most current suspended ceiling systems. As well there were a number of suspended lighting features of circular fluorescent tubes fixed together on a light framework.
The careful placement of the Toowong Library on its site, likened to the work of Birrell's great and abiding influence, Walter Burley Griffin, allows it to be viewed from the street as a one storeyed structure floating amid surrounding vegetation. The rear of the building reveals its true two storeyed nature, but even this view reinforces its floating quality, as the base is an organic form of dark face brick. The skilful manipulation of the site allowed the original entrance to the base and to the library level to remain segregated. The considered landscape design by the Brisbane City Council's parks section includes the use of succulents, rocks and palms and is credited to the talented landscape architect, Harry Oakman.
During the 1960s, following Birrell's' departure from the Council, alterations were made to the library including the replacement of the light troughs and suspended lighting features. The library was threatened for closure in 1982 following the opening of a new municipal library at Indooroopilly in 1981. The Toowong Library did in fact close but local residents' action saw it re-opened in 1983. Alterations were made to the building in 1983 when one of the rooms on the lower floor was acquired for use by the local councillor as a ward office. This room which was originally planned as an auditorium was used by the library as a workroom and to accommodate the councillor was partitioned to form a reception, office and storage space.
By 2001 the building had been painted externally and the amber plastic roof dome was replaced with a large funnel shaped object concealing an air conditioning plant. The interior of the building remains substantially intact with original unpainted internal timberwork, glazed brickwork on the lower floor and original furniture and fittings including the counter, some perimeter shelving and other shelving units. The building ceased operating as the Toowong Library in 2001 and is privately owned.
","criteria":"Toowong Municipal Library is important in demonstrating the provision and upgrading of public facilities by the Brisbane City Council in the post war years. The Toowong Municipal Library, opened in 1961 as a district library for the western suburbs of Brisbane, demonstrates the accelerated provision of municipal public libraries following the introduction of the Libraries Act 1943 and the consequent establishment of a State Library Board.
|The library is a rare surviving and substantially intact example of the architecture and planning of James Birrell. Birrell is an architect of national stature and repute and the place is significant as evidence of Birrell's thought and practice. Birrell was Chief Architect of the Brisbane City Council in the period from 1955 to 1960. James Birrell was responsible for the design of more than 150 projects during his six years as the Chief Architect, of these projects only a few survive intact.
|It is a good representative example of one of the most important schools of thought on architecture in Australia in the post war period; that of the Melbourne School of Roy Grounds and Robin Boyd.
|The library has aesthetic and architectural significance as a civic landmark designed, in conjunction with the Toowong Pool, to herald the suburb of Toowong and the western suburbs beyond. The place is a fine example of Birrell's considered approach to siting strong forms within landscapes. The scale, texture, mass, proportions, juxtaposition of elements and siting has produced a fine, well composed building of significant architectural quality. The Toowong Library is an exceptionally fine architectural accomplishment and one of the finest examples of post war architecture in the state.
|As well the building demonstrate Birrell's preoccupation with structural integrity and his use of innovative building materials and techniques which reflected the culture of the time. This was particularly apparent in post war society when many new and innovative building materials and techniques were developed using expertise gained in various industries during the war years.
The building was designed to incorporate many innovative building techniques and products and are creative works of the period. The project received considerable attention in national building and architecture journals.
|The building has social significance and has strong associations with the Toowong and wider Brisbane community as an important public facility of considerable usage and prominence.
|The building has strong associations with the architect, James Birrell, as a fine examples of his prolific and influential Council work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16760,"place_ref":602024,"name":"Drew Residence (former)","alternate_name":"Samuel Drew's House","street_address":"20 Wharf Street","suburb":"SHORNCLIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-11-24","description":"The Former Drew Residence at 20 Wharf Street, Shorncliffe, is a substantial, high-set, single-storeyed timber residence with enclosed brick undercroft, attic and viewing tower. It is located at the southern end of Shorncliffe, on a property of over 60 perches which slopes to Cabbage Tree Creek, providing boat access.
The core of the house is rectangular in form, with gabled transverse wings at each end. There is a substantial brick chimney rising above the main roof, and the roofs of the side wings have galvanised iron ridge ventilators. Its most distinctive characteristic is a centrally-positioned Mansard tower over dormer rooms in the main roof, providing a central focus to the front elevation and a viewing room with vistas over Cabbage Tree Creek to Moreton Bay. Across the front of the main body of the building is a deep verandah.
The Wharf Street elevation is particularly decorative, with paired, chamfered verandah posts with timber capitals and brackets; a decorative timber balustrade across the front verandah; decorative timber bargeboards and gable infills; an attic room with large dormer window over the front entrance and vestibule; and the elaborate timber viewing tower above this, complete with decorative bargeboards, spandrels beneath the guttering and acroteria.
The rear elevation also has a central, decorative focus, where a dormer window and a room beneath this project from the core of the house, overlooking Cabbage Tree Creek. There are some later additions at the rear, and the undercroft has been enclosed with brick, which is screened from the front street by timber battens.
Most of the windows are tripartite sashes, and have window hoods. Those facing the street incorporate a small gable in the window hood.
The interior also has ornate decorative elements and fine joinery. These include a narrow staircase in the vestibule with turned timber balustrades and an ornate, carved newel post. The interior is lined throughout with wide tongue and groove boards. To dado height throughout most of the house the boards are diagonally placed, contrasting with the vertical boarding above. Architraves around all windows and doors have a carved quatrefoil detail to the corners, and doors throughout are timber panelled. The interior is painted throughout.
In plan, the building is largely symmetrical. The centrally-positioned front door with side and fan lights opens into a wide vestibule, off which a large room opens either side. That on the western side is the lounge room, which has an early timber fireplace surround incorporating an over mantle and a cabinet. The eastern room was formerly a dining room, and has ornate, hand-crafted timber architraves.
Each of the side wings contains two rooms. Those in the western wing are separated by pairs of folding, panelled timber doors. Those in the eastern wing function as bedrooms and do not have connecting access. The side rooms which face Wharf Street are accessed both from the front verandah and from the large rooms which open off the vestibule. The two rooms which face the creek are accessed from rooms at the rear of the house.
Beyond the vestibule a door opens into a room at the rear of the house which overlooks Cabbage Tree Creek, and from which two small rooms open, one either side, entered via arches, one of which is an early arch. These are the rooms which give access to the rear rooms in the side wings. The back room on the western side also has access to an external set of stairs, but the stair to the room on the eastern side has been removed. Later bathroom extensions at the rear are accessed from these rooms also.
A narrow stair in the vestibule leads to two small attic bedrooms with arched doorways. From the front attic room another narrow stair leads to the tower viewing room.
The enclosed undercroft, which is accessed via a recent stair in the room behind the vestibule, contains an living space, dining area and kitchen. The chimney at this level has a double fireplace, which is of recent construction, but utilising the base of the original chimney. A recent galvanised iron awning extends from the rear of the undercroft.
The grounds have been altered, and the only evidence of the boatshed are two slipways, now covered by rapid mangrove re-growth. A recent timber jetty extends from the rear of the property into Cabbage Tree Creek, and later sheds replace the stables along the northwestern boundary of the property. A tennis court has been constructed in the southeast corner of the block along the creek frontage, and gardens have been built up in front of the house. Paved paths have been added and the driveway cemented. The front fence along Wharf Street has three ornate timber gates, one situated in front of the stairs leading to the front entrance, and the other two on the eastern side of the property which give vehicle access. These are 1947 replicas of the original timber gates.
","history":"This substantial timber residence with sub-floor, attic and tower, is understood to have been constructed in the 1890s, possibly in three stages, by American carpenters and boat-builders Samuel Drew and his sons Albert Edward and Frederick William, as their family home. As builders, the Drews erected many houses in the Sandgate/Shorncliffe district in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during the peak of Sandgate/Shorncliffe's popularity as a seaside resort. They established a boat-building enterprise [constructing mostly pleasure craft] on Cabbage Tree Creek behind 20 Wharf Street, and were well known in local sailing circles.
In the early 1850s, Brisbane commercial interests headed by Thomas Dowse and Brisbane Valley squatters John and David McConnel, promoted the establishment of a shipping centre at the head of Cabbage Tree Creek. They were in competition with rival claims for Brisbane and Cleveland as the principal port for Moreton Bay. The Village of Sandgate was officially surveyed in 1852, with the first sale of Sandgate town lots held at Brisbane in November 1853. Most of the land sold was purchased by the speculative investors behind the move to create a port at Sandgate. However, with Brisbane subsequently consolidating its position as the port for Moreton Bay, Sandgate languished. Landowner inaction, poor communication and strong Aboriginal resistance further retarded its development.
Native police were stationed at Sandgate from late 1852 until 1862 to 'disperse' the Bribie Island and Ningy-Ningy people, and facilitate non-indigenous occupation of the land in the Cabbage Tree Creek and Pine Rivers districts. With the removal of hostile indigenes, Sandgate/Shorncliffe developed slowly from the 1860s as a seaside excursion venue. By 1868, Cobb and Co. was operating a twice-weekly service to Sandgate, and by the mid-1870s, three coach companies were offering services to the bayside resort. In the 1860s six hotels were established at Sandgate, although only two, the Sandgate and the Osborne, survived the decade. Also from the 1860s, a number of summer seaside residences and boarding or guest houses were erected, mostly along Eagle Terrace and at Shorncliffe. In the 1870s the permanent population increased, agitation for a rail link with Brisbane emerged, and municipal status was granted to the Borough of Sandgate in April 1880. With the opening of the extension of the railway from Brisbane to Sandgate in 1882 the permanent population grew rapidly, settlement spread along the flats, and weekend holiday-makers turned the township into a bustling seaside resort. The popularity of Sandgate/Shorncliffe as a seaside resort attracted day-trippers, seasonal holiday-makers and the Moreton Bay sailing fraternity, well into the 20th century.
Samuel Drew, his wife Jane Harris and family emigrated to Australia from the United States of America in the mid-1880s, and by 1887 were resident in Sandgate. They had arrived during a colonial-wide economic boom and the local flurry of development which followed the opening of the railway line to Sandgate. Drew, who was a carpenter and boat-builder by trade, gained employment as foreman/carpenter at William Street's joinery works in Creek Street [now Palm Avenue], Sandgate, and in 1888 erected a house there, at the corner of Creek and Wharf Streets.
William Street, reputedly formerly employed by Samuel Drew in America, was by this time a prominent Sandgate builder and contractor, who erected the Sandgate Post Office [600290] in 1886-87 and the Sandgate Baptist Church in 1887, as well as many houses in the Sandgate/Shorncliffe area. Early in 1886, he had purchased over an acre of land at the southern end of Creek Street [present Palm Avenue] on the western side of the street, adjoining Cabbage Tree Creek, where his joinery works were established. Street was a Justice of the Peace, a trustee of the local cemetery, and along with EB Southerden [first mayor of Sandgate], was joint treasurer of the Sandgate School of Arts. By 1890 William Street was in partnership with W Krimmer as proprietors of the local skating rink in Sunday Street, Shorncliffe, erected 1888-89, and Samuel Drew was manager of the rink.
During the widespread economic depression of the early 1890s, William Street was forced to liquidate his business affairs, his Creek Street property passing to his mortgagor, the Queensland National Bank, in 1893. The Drew family's 1888 house was located on this property, which in 1904 Albert Edward Drew, Samuel Drew's son, purchased from the bank.
From 1889 the land west of Street's Joinery Works, along Wharf Street, was made available as residential allotments. Samuel Drew acquired title to 1 rood 22.4 perches [resubdivisions 96-98 of subdivision A of allotment 3 of section 15, Village of Sandgate] of unimproved land backing onto Cabbage Tree Creek and fronting Wharf Street, in May-June 1890. The eastern boundary of this land abutted William Street's Creek Street property. According to Samuel Drew's descendants, over the next decade the Drews built their family home here in several stages: firstly the main bedrooms and sewing room, then the central section [including the tower]. A stables, complete with bell tower, and a large boatshed which housed the family's boat building business, were erected prior to the construction of the third stage of the house.
It is not clear whether Samuel Drew actually lived in the Wharf Street house, as through the 1890s and early 1900s he was listed in the Queensland Post Office Directories at Creek Street, Sandgate. His Wharf Street property was transferred to four of his children in 1895: Mary Ellen, Elizabeth Jane, Albert Edward and Frederick William, then in 1905 [perhaps following Albert's purchase of the Creek Street property in 1904] back to Samuel, who on the same date nominated Mary Ellen and Elizabeth Jane Drew as trustees. When Samuel Drew died in April 1907, the funeral party left from his late residence, Creek-street, Sandgate [Brisbane Courier 26 April 1907:4:3]. However, by 1911 his widow, Jane, was resident in the Wharf Street house, and his unmarried daughters remained there until their deaths in the mid-20th century.
The family understands that the sisters conducted a sewing and sail-making business from 20 Wharf Street for many years. An intriguing reference in the Queensland Post Office Directory of 1910-11 lists 'Drews Sanatorium Home for Infants' at Sandgate - whether the Drew daughters ever used their home for this purpose has not been established. In 1918-19 Samuel John Drew [Sameul Drew's youngest son] built a house for himself at 19 Wharf Street. He and his brother Albert Edward, who continued to live in the 1888 house at the corner of Wharf Street and Palm Avenue [formerly Creek Street], maintained the family boat-building business from the boatshed at the rear of 20 Wharf Street until the 1930's depression, when Samuel leased his house and moved to Toowoomba. Albert and fellow boat builder and relative, Theo Woodhead, constructed the last boat in 1948, the year in which Albert died. Albert Drew, known locally as 'Skipper' Drew, was a foundation member of the Sandgate Yacht Club, established in 1912, and was well-known in local sailing circles. He won many sailing titles on Moreton Bay, in craft he had built himself.
In 1947, prior to Elizabeth's death in 1950, Samuel John Drew and his son Oliver, also a builder, repaired and repainted 20 Wharf Street in white and several different shades of grey, believed to be the original colours. At this time they removed an early hedge and fence, replacing them with a smaller wrought iron fence. As the original timber gates were in poor condition, replicas were constructed in their place. In 1952, 20 Wharf Street suffered slight damage by a cyclone, and decorative fretwork across the ridge of the tower was blown away.
Following Elizabeth Drew's death in 1957, the residence was transferred to Samuel John Drew and William Roy Drew [son of Frederick William Drew and Samuel Drew's grandson]. As both had homes elsewhere, it was decided to convert the house into two flats to provide an income sufficient to pay the rates on what was effectively three blocks of land. In 1966 the flats were reconverted to a single house and offered for sale, passing out of the Drew family in 1967. The large boatshed on Cabbage Tree Creek and the stables were demolished subsequently. In 1987-88 the house was raised slightly and the undercroft, which previously housed a bathroom, laundry, and two water tanks, was converted into a lounge/dining room area. The place remains a private residence.
","criteria":"Constructed in the 1890s by American carpenters and boat-builders Samuel Drew and his sons as their family home, the place is important in illustrating the expansion of Sandgate as a town and seaside resort in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The place is closely associated with the Drew family and their contribution to local pleasure-craft construction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, further illustrating the nature of Sandgate as a bayside community.
|The Former Drew Residence is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial, late 19th century artisan's residence designed to impress, and of large timber sea-side homes in the Sandgate/Shorncliffe area in general, including in the design a tower room with views over Cabbage Tree Creek to Moreton Bay.
|The place exhibits a range of aesthetic characteristics, including the setting of the house adjacent to Cabbage Tree Creek; the scale, form, and materials employed; the decorative external timberwork; and the quality of the interior detailing, particularly the well-crafted joinery. The place makes a significant contribution to the streetscape, and is a local landmark.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16770,"place_ref":602034,"name":"Victoria Park Golf Clubhouse (former)","alternate_name":"Lone Parents Club","street_address":"309 Herston Road","suburb":"HERSTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-12-17","description":"The former Victoria Park Golf Clubhouse is a large, freestanding, two-storeyed brick building rendered with a rough cast finish, located in the north-east corner of the Victoria Park Golf Course bounded by Gilchrist Avenue and Herston Road, Herston. The main entrance towards Gilchrist Avenue overlooks Victoria Park below and a bitumen carpark occupies the former putting green terrace between the building and the road.
\nThe main elevation is symmetrical about a centrally projecting gabled entry porch which was the core of the 1931 building. The 1939 alterations and additions are in the non-identical wings flanking the central bay and the terminating pavilions to the east and west. The building conveys the impression of a Spanish-Mission or Mediterranean character established in the 1931 design but the overall impact is of thoughtful classicism within a restrained use of Spanish references.
\nThe three bays of the main entrance porch, now glazed to form an enclosed entry vestibule, are punctuated by square columns with rounded concrete brackets. The balcony above the entrance porch has three round arched openings with decorative concrete balustrade panels. The glazing to these openings was a later addition. A gable vent of curved tiles sits below the low pitched gable roof clad with Marseilles tiles.
\nWithin the west loggia, a stairtower sits between the formal entrance and the minor entry porch which has a decorative roof edge capping of round tiles. The upper loggia has two sets of paired open round arches screened with timber blinds.
\nAt ground level in each of the end pavilions, a projecting central bay capped with round roof tiles is flanked by pairs of casement windows decorated with wrought-iron window grilles. Slender half columns in a stylised Corinthian order define the corners of the bay and casement windows with a scalloped fringed sill are recessed within the bay. At the upper level of each pavilion a continuous sill wraps around the corners below three generous window bays which in the west wing are filled with sets of casement windows and in the east with louvres. The wings have Marseilles-tiled hipped roofs with bracketed eaves.
\nFrom Herston Road the tiled roof and upper level of the building peep through the vegetation around the perimeter of the property. This elevation is asymmetrical about a central gabled bay. Three separate pedestrian bridges cross from Herston Road to the upper level connecting with the latticed porch entrance to the living quarters and the dining room.
\nThe south-west and south-east corners continue as wrap-arounds from the main elevation. A plain pilaster with a round tile decorative coping above the capital is located one-third the way along each side elevation and finishes the corner. To the west four bays of metal framed casement windows at the upper level afford views across the Golf Course.
\nThe building plan accommodates access and vertical circulation within the loggias to the front of the building and services and storage along the rear. At ground level the pavilions contain the former locker/changing areas. The upper level contains the former large dining room, ancillary service areas, meeting spaces and the living quarters in the east pavilion.
\nFrom the reception vestibule a metal staircase to the right arrives at the upper level loggia. The reception vestibule opens into the former main bar area. Evidence suggests that later openings have been made in the wall between the main bar area and the west pavilion. The stair from here arrives at the upper loggia which connects to the former dining area. At ground level, the east wing houses a former billiard room and toilet/shower facilities. An acoustic tile ceiling has been inserted in the new reception and main bar areas. Plain plaster ceilings are found elsewhere throughout the ground floor. The toilets in the west wing retain original finishes and the former women's shower area has been altered to accommodate toilets. The men's shower, change and toilet facilities were accommodated in the east wing.
\nThe upper floor contains the former spacious lounge and dining area, kitchen, bar, storage, meeting room and living quarters. Windows to the west offer an extended view across the Golf Course. The low-ceiling of the former dining space is punctuated by plain plaster rendered ceiling beams finished with decorative corbels at the wall junctions. An extensive hardwood dance floor survives. The former dining area and the meeting room open to the front balcony and east loggia which provides views towards the old Exhibition Building, the RNA showgrounds and lower Victoria Park. The former living quarters of the east pavilion are accessed from the east loggia and included a bathroom, kitchen, living room, bedroom, storage area, balcony and rear verandah entrance to Herston Road. In contrast to the restrained decoration of the public areas the living quarters has a number of decorative cornices in an Art Deco style.
\nSome mature trees from the original landscaped setting remain around the former Clubhouse. A chain wire fence on a tuff base sits on the retaining wall to the rear. Housings in the tuff base suggest that this was formally a timber fence. A section of steps and buggy ramp is located on the western edge of the car park.
\nThe former clubhouse building and its immediate surrounds have been altered since the place was entered in the Queensland heritage register, to accommodate adaptive reuse works carried out in the 2010s.
","history":"The Victoria Park Golf Clubhouse was constructed in two stages, 1931 and 1939, as the clubhouse for Brisbane's first municipal golf links, established in Victoria Park in 1930-31.
\nThe modern game of golf originated in Scotland in the 18th century. By the late 19th century it was popular throughout Britain, and in the 1880s and 1890s, British immigrants established golf clubs throughout the British Empire.
\nGolf was introduced to Queensland in the 1880s by two Scots, the Ivory brothers, who laid out a six-hole course on Eidsvold cattle station, near Gayndah. Golf courses at Ravenshoe and Townsville [1893] are the first recorded Queensland courses. The Brisbane Golf Club, formed in 1890, was the first organised golf club in Queensland, but did not establish a course [at Chelmer] until 1896. It was a private club, attracted the patronage of Lord Lamington [Governor of Queensland 1896-1901], and until 1920 was the only golf club in Brisbane. The Toowoomba Golf Club was formed in 1896 with a nine-hole course on Drayton Road and the Ipswich Golf Club was established in 1897.
\nHowever, golfing was not widespread in Queensland by the turn of the century. The game was the preserve of the affluent, with founders and club members mostly from professional and business sectors. High membership fees and the cost of golfing equipment often excluded the less well-to-do from the sport.
\nQueensland entered a period of prosperity in the 1920s, which engendered a new enthusiasm for public sport and recreation. Bowling and golfing in particularly became very popular. Many new players were women, who had gained a greater social freedom during the war, although generally in golf clubs they were admitted as associates rather than as full members.
\nSeveral new private golf clubs were established in Brisbane in the 1920s: the [Royal] Queensland Golf Club at Hamilton in 1920, followed by clubs at Sandgate [1921], Wynnum [1923], Goodna [Gailes] [1924], Indooroopilly [1926], Oxley [1928] and Nudgee [1929]. A round of golf was considered to be eighteen holes but by 1929 there were only three eighteen-hole courses in Brisbane: Brisbane, Royal Queensland and Indooroopilly. The other Brisbane courses were nine-hole courses played twice to achieve the stipulated round.
\nIn the 1920s, municipal golf courses were established throughout Australia, enabling broader social access to the game. Successful municipal courses established in Sydney [1920] and Adelaide [1922], which provided the public with affordable facilities and at the same time generated municipal revenue, stimulated moves for the creation of Queensland municipal courses. The Queensland Golfing Association, eager to foster golf in Queensland, first approached the Mayor of Brisbane in 1922 with a proposal for a nine-hole municipal course at Victoria Park. In 1924 the Toowong Town Council investigated the possibility of establishing a municipal course on One Tree Hill [Mt Coot-tha] and Taringa Shire Council also investigated developing a course. Both proposals were abandoned. In 1923 the Ipswich City Council took over the Ipswich Golf Club and established the first municipal course in Queensland, with public play commencing in 1924.
\nFollowing the formation of Greater Brisbane in 1925, the Brisbane City Council prioritised the provision of parks and public reserves, and the establishment of sport and recreation facilities within these areas. A large section of Victoria Park - established in York's Hollow in 1865 - had been reserved as the site for a new University of Queensland since c1906, and had lain largely undeveloped. When the University announced in 1926 its decision to build at St Lucia instead, the Queensland Golf Association again raised the issue of establishing municipal golf links at Victoria Park. This time the proposal was greeted with enthusiasm by the Council. Both the first Lord Mayor of Greater Brisbane, Alderman WA Jolly, and the Town Clerk, SE Travill, were tireless supporters for the establishment and development of the municipal golf course at Victoria Park. Jolly became the inaugural president of the Victoria Park Golf Club and remained in this office until 1934. He was made a life member in 1935 in recognition of his services to the Club. The proposal was supported also by Parks Superintendent Harry Moore, who estimated that the cost of developing the land as a park would be £50,000 to £60,000 - far in excess of the cost of establishing a golf links.
\nSome delay in implementation was experienced due to the slow process of transferring much of Victoria Park back to the City Council. A course was designed by Stan Francis, who laid plans before the Council in February 1930 and who supervised the laying out. Much of the work on the course was completed under the Intermittent Relief Scheme, and was well in hand by September 1930 when the council put out tenders for the construction of the clubhouse. This building was situated at the northeast corner of the course because it allowed players to return in an easterly direction, as advised by Francis. It was also close to the tram along Bowen Bridge Road, which was convenient for players. The clubhouse was designed in the office of the City Architect, AH Foster, with plans drawn by Assistant Architect Reyburn Jameson. The building was in the Spanish Mission style, popular for recreational interwar buildings such as bathing pavilions and picture theatres, and which had been used in the design of the Council's Moora Park Kiosk at Sandgate [erected 1928].
\nWork on the clubhouse commenced early in 1931, and it was ready for occupation in September. The links were completed a couple of months later, and the Victoria Park Golf Course was opened officially on 20 November 1931. Final construction cost for the course and clubhouse was £13,919 [course £9,794; clubhouse £4,125].
\nTo ensure the successful functioning of the new course, the Victoria Park Golf Club was formed at a public meeting on 20 March 1931, at which it was confirmed that the Council provided the course, clubhouse, the salaries of a Club Secretary and Club Professional, and assumed responsibility for the upkeep of the course, while the Club members were responsible for the operations of the Club. Any casual player was entitled to play the course without joining the Club, on payment of the appropriate green fees.
\nThe Victoria Park Golf Clubhouse boasted every modern facility, but no bar, as many members of the Council were not in favour of making alcohol available. There were protests about this lack, both as a facility to members and as a revenue-earner. The Council eventually gave permission for a bar, which was opened on New Year's Day, 1935.
\nDuring the depression years of the 1930s many private golf clubs lost membership, but that of the Victoria Park Golf Club doubled between 1933 and 1937. In response to this expansion and to be able to continue to attract membership, the clubhouse was extended and remodelled in 1939 by City Architect, Harold Erwood. Wings were added to either side of the existing building, with the additions and alterations focussing on improved member and associate services and facilities, including new lounge and dining room areas with a timber dance floor upstairs; a doubling of locker space, toilet and shower facilities; private rooms; modern kitchen; independent access for women; and new exterior lighting. The upper floor also provided new living accommodation for the club secretary, in the eastern wing. The layout, incorporating facilities for women in the west wing and those for men in the east wing, reflected a marked social separation between the sexes. The extended building opened on 26 October 1939 and continued in use throughout the Second World War, despite the original 17th and 18th fairways being occupied as a military encampment. The lounge area of the clubhouse was extended in 1948 and the ground floor was refurbished in 1963.
\nThe Victoria Park Golf Clubhouse was one of the larger public buildings erected by the Greater Brisbane Council, and the golf links remained the only municipal course in Brisbane until the establishment of the St Lucia Golf Course in 1985. Other civic work produced by the Brisbane City Architect's office during the interwar period included bandstand rotundas, kiosks, dressing sheds and toilet blocks. This work ranged across a number of styles and generally care was given to their design. Tramway substations and the New Farm Powerhouse were designed by engineers in the Council's Tramways Department.
\nThe course was considered to be one of the finest municipal golf courses in Australia and has been described as the cradle of golf in Brisbane. Under the tutelage of AE Gazzard, foundation professional 1931-72, some players went on to become professional golfers in the Queensland and Australian arenas.
\nIn the mid-1970s a new clubhouse was constructed on the brow of the hill between Herston Road and Gilchrist Avenue, and was opened on 14 December 1975. The links were altered so that the ninth and eighteenth holes were near the new clubhouse, changing Francis' orientation of the course. The 1930s clubhouse was vacated at this time, and from 1978 was tenanted by the Lone Parent Club of Queensland. During the 1980s the building was used as a nightclub but was soon after abandoned and occupied by squatters. After a period of vacancy, it was leased to the Mental Illness Fellowship Queensland in 2010 and works to repair and adaptively reuse the building followed.
","criteria":"The former Victoria Park Golf Clubhouse, erected in the 1930s, is important for its association with the development of golf as a popular recreational sport in Queensland. The establishment of the Victoria Park Golf Course in 1930-31 as Brisbane's first municipal golf links, along with the formation of the Victoria Park Golf Club and the construction of a purpose-designed clubhouse, illustrates the Greater Brisbane City Council's strong commitment to the development of public recreational facilities during the interwar period.
The former Victoria Park Golf Clubhouse is an integral element within an historic precinct situated around York's Hollow and along Bowen Bridge Road between Gregory Terrace and Breakfast Creek, which has been important in the evolution of Brisbane's and Queensland's history. This area includes the residential, ecclesiastic and educational structures along Gregory Terrace overlooking Victoria Park, Bowen Park, an early tram shelter shed adjacent to Bowen Park along Bowen Bridge Road, the RNA Grounds, the former Exhibition Building at the northeast corner of Gregory Terrace and Bowen Bridge Road, the Exhibition Railway, Victoria Park, Centenary Pool, the Electricity Sub-station at the northwest corner of Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace, Victoria Park Golf Course, the former Victoria Park Golf Clubhouse, Royal Brisbane Hospital, and the Herston Medical School.
|It is both a good example of Brisbane City Council civic architecture of the period, and a rare interwar recreational building designed and constructed by the Brisbane City Council.
|The former Victoria Park Golf Clubhouse is a substantial interwar civic building in Brisbane. It is both a good example of Brisbane City Council civic architecture of the period, and a rare interwar recreational building designed and constructed by the Brisbane City Council. In its Spanish Mission references, the building embodies the then popular association of this style - often employed in designs for picture theatres and bathing pavilions - with recreational activity. The more formal neo-Georgian 1939 extensions are mindful of its civic presence, reflecting the success of the municipal golf links as a Council venture in the 1930s.
The former Victoria Park Golf Clubhouse is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an interwar clubhouse, accommodating the principal elements necessary to the successful functioning of a golf clubhouse of this era, including locker and associated ablutions areas for members and associates, segregated by gender; a separate entrance and lounge area for female players; an administrative station; living quarters for the Club Secretary; and clear physical and visual links with the golf course proper. The building retains clear evidence of the 1939 gender segregation in the arrangement of internal spaces and circulation patterns.
|Despite having lost much of its park setting, the building retains an aesthetic value: the exotic suggestion of the Spanish Mission references, tempered by the neo-Georgian restraint, combine to create a robust, elegant sports pavilion.
|The place has social significance for its close association with the popularisation of golfing in Brisbane and in Queensland for over four decades. It also has one of the last large timber dance floors in Brisbane, and has been associated with Brisbane social functions such as balls, dinners, and receptions for many decades.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16775,"place_ref":602039,"name":"Manly Retaining Wall","alternate_name":"The Great Wall of Manly","street_address":"Falcon Street","suburb":"MANLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-10-05","description":"The Manly Retaining Wall is located at the corner of Wellington and Falcon Streets and divides both streets down the centre, forming two levels of access. At the intersection of the two streets the wall is approximately 7 metres high. It extends approximately 100 metres along both streets, tapering towards the ends to follow the incline of each street. Concrete steps are located at the end of the wall on Wellington Street, providing access to the upper level.
The wall sits on a concrete base, 3 foot (914mm) high and is constructed of basalt blue metal stone which was quarried at nearby Lytton. The wall has a backing of 9 inches (228mm) of dry stone packing behind the rear face (embedded in the cutting) which steps from 8 foot 3 inches (2.51 metres) at the widest part of the base to 12 inches (304mm) at the top. The front face is straight and is capped with a cement coping, 12 inches (304mm) wide.
The individual stones are irregular in form and size and are laid in a random pattern. Each block is bedded in concrete and the joints are heavily pointed with cement plaster. In various places, the plaster has been formed into shapes depicting Australian native animals, including kangaroos, emus, goannas, and also human heads and boomerangs.
","history":"The Manly Retaining Wall is located at the corner of Falcon (formerly know as Spring) and Wellington Streets, forming a cutting in the centre of each road. It was constructed in 1933 and comprises irregularly shaped stones which were quarried at Lytton, bedded in concrete.
The first European settlement of the Wynnum Manly area of Moreton Bay occurred in the 1860s when two sugar mills, Lota and Wyvernleigh were established. The area soon became popular with holiday makers, and holiday homes were constructed along the bay. In 1882 land sales of the Manly Beach Estate (named after the coastal Sydney suburb) were held, giving the area its present name. The completion of the railway in 1889 provided further impetus for the development of the area as a seaside resort, although the area maintained its connections with the fishing industry. By the late 1920s, access to the area was possible by rail, bus or road, further increasing its popularity as a resort and also as a permanent place of residence for Brisbane businessmen and their families.
Street layouts in the area of the retaining wall form a meandering pattern due to the original estate surveys and also the irregular topography. In some places, the slope to the bay was so steep that the road was divided in two to allow access to houses located on either side of the road.
Falcon Street is an example of this. It was originally divided by an embankment which was so high and wide that it restricted access for two way traffic. A retaining wall to replace the embankment was much needed, however the cost of construction would have been more than the surrounding properties were worth. The initiative of the Brisbane City Council District Engineer for Wynnum in applying for relief labour made the wall a financial possibility.
The Unemployment Relief Scheme was introduced by the State Government in 1932 as a means of providing work projects for the unemployed during the Depression of the 1930s. The Brisbane City Council took advantage of this scheme to construct the retaining wall, providing tools and materials whilst the state government provided the labour. Other structures in the area, including similar retaining walls and the Wynnum Wading Pool Reserve [602039] were also constructed under the relief scheme.
The wall was an ambitious project. It is approximately 200 metres long and meets foundation pressures ranging from 1.5 tons (48.75 kPa) per square foot to 4 tons per square foot (130 kPa). Because of the clay formation of the soil, the foundations of the wall were critical. A plan for the wall was produced by the City Engineer's office in February 1933, and is signed by the Designing Engineer and the City Engineer, Mr Gilchrist. On site calculations are said to have been made 'with the aid of a piece of 4 x 4 placed on end in the clay and loaded with concrete blocks'.
Due to the labour being supplied by the relief scheme, a variety of workers were employed on the project, including an unknown artists who formed figures within the concrete plaster pointing. These figures include kangaroos, emus, boomerangs and human heads, one of which is apparently a likeness of the District Engineer in charge of works.
The wall is a locally well-known feature of the area and is included in the Brisbane City Council's heritage walk booklet under the local name of 'the Great Wall of Manly'.
","criteria":"The Manly Retaining Wall is demonstrative of a government scheme which was implemented to assist the unemployed throughout Queensland. It was constructed in 1933 under the Unemployment Relief Scheme which was implemented in the previous year as a means of generating work projects for the unemployed during the Depression of the 1930s.
|(Criterion under review)
|Due to its size, the Manly Retaining Wall is a prominent landmark in the area. The random pattern of the stonework and the substantial concrete pointing which includes animal figures such as a kangaroo, emu and goanna also contributes to the aesthetic significance of the place.
|The Manly Retaining Wall demonstrates technical achievement and is a notable engineering accomplishment incorporating high quality of workmanship.
|Known locally as 'The Great Wall of Manly', and included in the Brisbane City Council's Heritage Trail for Wynnum-Manly, the place has strong associations with the local community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16776,"place_ref":602040,"name":"Wynnum Wading Pool Reserve","alternate_name":"Manly Wading Pool","street_address":"The Esplanade","suburb":"WYNNUM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-10-05","description":"The Wynnum Wading Pool Reserve is located in a recreational reserve on the foreshore of Moreton Bay. The Manly jetty extends into the bay to the north of the pool and barbecue areas are located at either end of the pool. The area at the northern end has been refurbished to include showers, change rooms, toilets, a play area and a man-made white sandy beach known as 'Pandanus Beach'. Trees are planted along the foreshore and at either end of the pool and include pines, bauhinia and figs. A memorial to W H Barnes, MLA for Bulimba and Wynnum, in the form of a sandstone drinking fountain is also located at the northern end of the pool.
The pool is a large oval shape measuring 128 metres x 54 metres, with a depth at the centre of approximately 750mm. Separated from the bay by a narrow concrete path, it is constructed of concrete with a natural compacted clay base which is covered with fresh sand fortnightly. It has five shallow steps surrounding the edges on all sides except that closest to the road. A concrete ramp provides additional access at the south-western corner of the pool and a slippery slide is located in the northern end of the pool. Two depth indicators are located at either end of the pool.
The pool contains salt water which enters the pool through three concrete pipes at high tide when flood gates retain the water. The pipes have mesh across them to prevent sea life entering the pool.
Vegetation in the surrounding park area includes pine, bauhinia and fig trees.
","history":"The Wynnum Wading Pool Reserve was constructed in 1932 by relief workers and is a shallow tidal pool with concrete walls and a sandy bottom.
The first European settlement of the Wynnum Manly area of Moreton Bay occurred in the 1860s when two sugar mills, Lota and Wyvernleigh were established. The area soon became popular with holiday makers, and holiday homes were constructed along the bay. In 1882 land sales of the Manly Beach Estate (named after the coastal Sydney suburb) were held, giving the area its present name. The completion of the railway in 1889 provided further impetus for the development of the area as a seaside resort, although the area maintained its connections with the fishing industry. By the late 1920s, access to the area was possible by rail, bus or road, further increasing its popularity as a resort and also as a permanent place of residence for Brisbane businessmen and their families.
The Wynnum Wading Pool Reserve was constructed by the Brisbane City Council, as part of the Unemployment Relief System which was established to provide work projects for the unemployed during the Depression of the 1930s. The Council took advantage of this scheme to complete a number of projects in the Wynnum Manly area, including the Manly Retaining Wall [602039] providing tools and materials for each project, whilst the state government provided the labour.
The pool was created by the construction of a concrete sea wall beyond the high water mark, with little excavation required. This wall creates a barrier between the pool and Moreton Bay and also provides a promenade along the foreshore of the Bay. Three pipes are located along the length of the wall, through which water flows at high tide. Flood gates are then closed to prevent the water from receding at low tide. This process is carried out fortnightly and the bottom is cleared of any build up of silt at the same time.
It seems that few alterations have been made to the pool since its original construction, although alterations have recently been carried out on the surrounding area to provide change rooms and a barbecue area, as well as a white sandy beach. Installation of flood lighting also occurred before the summer season of 1933, presumably to allow for night time use.
The pool has been popular with both locals and visitors since its inception in 1932. It remains in use for most of the year, by swimmers in the summer months and by model boat enthusiasts during winter.
","criteria":"The Wynnum Wading Pool Reserve is demonstrative of a government scheme which was implemented to assist the unemployed throughout Queensland. It was constructed in 1932 under the Unemployment Relief Scheme which was implemented in the same year as a means of generating work projects for the unemployed during the Depression of the 1930s.
|The Wynnum Wading Pool Reserve is a rare example of early wading pool technology of this type in Queensland.
|The Wynnum Wading Pool Reserve is a rare example of early wading pool technology of this type in Queensland.
|It is also of aesthetic significance due to the surrounding landscape and its siting adjacent to Moreton Bay.
|The Wynnum Wading Pool Reserve is a rare example of early wading pool technology of this type in Queensland.
|Well known and utilised by local residents and visitors, the place has strong association with many community groups and is significant as a park complex and for its social history.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16790,"place_ref":602054,"name":"Coorparoo School of Arts and RSL Memorial Hall","alternate_name":"Coorparoo Shire Hall | Coorparoo School of Arts","street_address":"208 Cavendish Road","suburb":"COORPAROO","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-01-06","description":"The Coorparoo School of Arts and RSL Memorial Hall is a single storey timber building, with concrete stumps and a corrugated iron roof, located on the corner of Cavendish Road and Halstead Street, Coorparoo.
The form of the 1892 Hall is still intact with the main hall to the rear of the building and administration rooms to the front. Later additions and extensions include the building of the verandah in the 1930s, extensions to the eastern, or rear facade in 1938, the brick addition to the front facade in the 1950s and the strong room extension to the southern facade.
The Cavendish Road, or western elevation, is symmetrical with projecting porches under separate gabled roofs. Double hung sash windows with window hoods are located along the elevation. Decorative timber brackets form part of the window hoods. The 1950s brick extension is centrally located between the two projecting porches. At the top of the brick facade an inscription reads 'Coorparoo School of Arts & R.S.L. Memorial Hall'. A doorway and two windows are located at the northern end of the western facade. The doorway provides the entrance to the kitchen which forms part of the 1930s verandah extension.
The masonry strong room is located at the corner of the western and southern elevations. The timber remainder of the southern elevation has narrow windows along the length of the elevation and a doorway located at the eastern end of the building. Located along the roof are two ridge ventilators.
The rear of the Hall, the eastern elevation, is in two sections. The extensions are in timber with a separate corrugated iron roof. The larger section, now housing the stage, has two windows located high in the facade. The second, smaller section, houses a dressing room and has a window located along the eastern elevation.
The northern elevation comprises a verandah, built during the 1930s. A set of stairs leading to the verandah is located in the eastern end of the elevation. Louvred windows are located along most of the facade with a set of three windows at the western end.
Further along the western end of the northern elevation, which forms part of the front section of the Hall, are two windows located beneath a gable with a decorative timber bargeboard. One comprises a set of two windows with a window hood, and a second set of three double hung sash windows, also with a window hood. The window hood which covers the set of three windows includes decorative timber brackets.
Internally, the front foyer opens to two rooms on the northern and southern sides. A vent with decorative fretwork is located in the room at the southern end of the. The strong room is accessed from this room.
Paired timber doors with a breezeway open to a small hall. The timber within the doors' framework has been angled to create an decorative effect. The Hall's street numbers 208 and 210, are located on small oval metal plates on the architrave. Female and male toilets are located to the northern and southern ends of the Hall. The toilets, installed in the 1950s, have terrazzo floors and skylights.
Paired, panelled timber doors, with a breezeway, lead to the main hall. The main hall has a timber floor and the raised stage is located at the eastern end of the room. The stage is accessed via a set of timber stairs. Timber vents with decorative fretwork are located along the length of the ceiling. The central section of the timber ceiling is flat and the sides and ends are angled. Two doors, leading to the verandah, are located in the northern elevation. Three narrow windows are located along the northern elevation.
Also located along the northern elevation is the Coorparoo Roll of Honour and the first telephone in the district. The Honour Board is a copper board mounted on a timber base. Names are applied on individual brass strips. The Board displays ornament relief such as scrolls, flowers and cannons. The wooden telephone is framed within a timber box with glass front.
The verandah, or northern elevation houses kitchen facilities at the western end and a small storage area, with a doorway to another smaller room, is located at the eastern end. From the storage area some evidence of window infill is located. The window still exists but has been boarded up at some stage.
The property is surrounded by a low wire fence and a car park is situated at the rear of the building. A picket fence is located at the base of the building at the corner of the western and northern elevations.
","history":"The Coorparoo School of Arts and RSL Memorial Hall was constructed in 1892 for the Coorparoo Shire Council. The Council remained in the building until October 1925, when amalgamation of local governments occurred and Greater Brisbane was created. Since 1925, it has been used as a School of Arts.
The Divisional Boards Act 1879 established 74 local authorities in Queensland with Coorparoo administered as Subdivision 3 of the Bulimba Divisional Board. Primary concerns of the board included the maintenance and improvement of roads and bridges, the Bulimba ferry and water supply to river villages. In 1888 Coorparoo was represented on the Bulimba Divisional Board by Frederick Thomas Brentnall, Frederick Wecker and John Douglas. These men, along with other Coorparoo residents, claimed that more could be accomplished for the locality. They resigned from the Board and led demands for the creation of the Coorparoo Shire. The Shire of Coorparoo was proclaimed on 27 October 1888.
By 1892 the Councillors decided that a Shire Hall was a necessity. Two allotments on the corner of Cavendish Road and Council (now Halstead) streets were purchased. Henry Wallace Atkinson, a local architect, designed the Hall and it was built by a Mr Allibone at a cost of £514, plus £78 for architect's fees and £14 for seating. The Council moved in on 7 October 1892.
Constructed with gas fittings for six lamps, the Hall was the first gas lit building in the Shire, further, the first telephone in the district was installed on 1 November 1892. The Hall was hired out as a social club and played an important role in the social life of the district. The Roll of Honour was unveiled by James Stodart, MLA on 24 June 1916. The honour board is dedicated to the men and women of the District who served in the Great War.
With the amalgamation of local government authorities and the establishment of Greater Brisbane in 1925, a new use was sought for the shire hall. Local residents organised to form a School of Arts committee and, in 1928, the Trustees of the School of Arts contracted to pay the Greater Brisbane City Council £1000.
In 1930 the Trustees accepted the offer of the Avondale Lodge to build a side verandah on the north-west elevation. The Trustees paid £200 for the fabric. The new wing was officially opened by Trustee and politician RM King on 19 July 1930. In 1938, the stage was removed providing more space in the Hall and a small stage was constructed at the rear.
In 1946, the Brisbane City Council began asking for payment of £750 which was owing on the purchase price of the hall, the alternative was to hand in the Hall's keys. Revenue was raised through a variety of activities, including renting the hall to the Coorparoo Kindergarten, and by 1948 the fund stood at over £550. It was also at this time that the Coorparoo RSSAILA suggested that they take over the Hall and it debts. Solicitor King drew up a new constitution for the two groups and in April 1956, the Minister of Public Lands and Crown Law Office approved the amalgamation and constitution. The Hall was subsequently renamed the Coorparoo School of Arts and RSL Memorial Hall.
The brick and stucco additions as the front of the Hall were initially rejected at a meeting of the School of Arts committee in December 1951, however, by July 1953, the Trustees' honorary architect, EP Trewern, had drawn up plans and specifications and called for tenders. Builder AA Lock's tender for £777 was accepted.
Coorparoo School of Arts and RSL Memorial Hall continues to be used extensively by the community.
","criteria":"The Coorparoo School of Arts and RSL Memorial Hall is significant as it demonstrates the development of the institution of local government in Coorparoo.
The Coorparoo School of Arts and RSL Memorial Hall is significant as the first gas lit building in the Shire and also housed the first telephone in the district.
|In its relatively unchanged state, the Coorparoo School of Arts and RSL Memorial Hall demonstrates the principal characteristics of a late nineteenth century local shire hall.
|Located at the corner of Cavendish Road and Halstead Street, the Coorparoo School of Arts and RSL Memorial Hall is important for its aesthetic significance and its contribution to the streetscape.
|The Hall has a special association with the people of Coorparoo and continues to be a focal point for social and community functions.
|The Coorparoo School of Arts and RSL Memorial Hall is significant for its association with architect Henry Wallace Atkinson, who designed the building in 1892.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16793,"place_ref":602057,"name":"Keating Residence, Indooroopilly","alternate_name":"Residence, 8 Westminster Street (1890s) | Keating House | Louis Stamm residence","street_address":"10-12 Westminster Road","suburb":"INDOOROOPILLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-05-28","description":"The Keating Residence, Indooroopilly, is a substantial rendered brick two-storeyed house, prominently sited on a principal thoroughfare from Indooroopilly Railway Station to the Indooroopilly Shopping Centre. The building is apparent from many surrounding streets and is distinguished from other development in the area by its age and unusual architectural treatment.
The residence is a two-storeyed building, with unusual external features such as a pyramidal roofed tower on the principal elevation and extending its octagonal plan form down through the corner of the building. The building is essentially rectangular in plan with one of the short faces of the plan from facing Westminster Road being the principal façade of the building. The octagonal tower element projects from the south eastern corner of the plan.
The building has a complex roof structure, dominated by the tower element which is higher that the other roof elements. The entire roof and the awnings which line the faces of the building are clad with corrugated iron sheeting. A number of gabled projections extend from the face of the building. The gable ends are treated with diagonally battened panels incorporated into which are fine finials and drop mouldings. Variously sized gabled projections occur on each of the four faces of the building, from various points. This asymmetrical massing contributes to the overall picturesqueness of the structure.
Access is provided to the building from a two part stair extending from the Westminster Road footpath to the entrance door. The Westminster Road boundary of the property is bordered by a large rendered masonry fence which acts as a retaining wall, braced by a number of piers. The fence is capped with a row of face bricks. Centrally positioned in this fence is a wrought iron gate providing access to a series of concrete stair rendered with a red colouring. These stair reach a concrete landing level with the surrounding landform and from here a second series of concrete steps lead to the front door. This second series are flanked by a short rendered masonry wall with face brick capping.
The southern elevation which is the principal façade, has a central entrance bay, with the tower element to the east and a gabled projection to the west. The central entrance, to which access is provided via the already mentioned stairs, is a single timber framed and glazed door with a elliptical fanlight above. The glazing in these features and in most other openings throughout the building is arctic glass. The tower element is lined on both storeys with round arched window openings fitted with casements and a round arched transom above. Below the windows, which are separated by simple moulded pier-like elements is a concrete panel with six rectangular perforations, filled with glass bricks on the inside face. The ground floor of tower windows are shaded by an awning supported on oversized brackets and extending from the front door around to the eastern facade of the building. The gabled projection on the southern face of the building features a ground floor bay window which has a steeply pitched hipped awning supported in similarly oversized brackets. The upper floor of the gabled element features a central three part window opening, again shaded by an awning.
The entire building is lined with a series of concrete rendered mouldings, at base level forming a plinth; at the level of the sill of the ground floor windows; at the level of the base of the round arched windows above the ground floor windows; at the line of the first floor; at the line of the sills of the first floor windows and, again, at the top of these windows, below the arched transoms. This banding is variously smooth rendered and moulded. The western, eastern and northern faces of the building, continue the banded mouldings, fenestration patterns and gable detailing.
Internally, the two floors of the building are arranged around a central hall which continues northward from the position of the front door to the rear of the building. On the ground floor the front door provide access to a large porch area which incorporates the area of the tower element. The large proportion of window openings in the walls ensure that this porch area and a similar area on the first floor are naturally lit and ventilated. The flooring in the porch is of terrazzo tiles which have been formed into patterns reflecting the unusual planform of the spaces. French doors open onto the porches from internal rooms.
A large nineteenth century doorway opens from the ground floor porch to the hallway of the house. It is thought that this was the original entrance to the building when the porches were only semi-enclosed prior to the renovations of 1920s. This doorway comprises a single timber panelled and moulded door flanked by sidelights and a transom panel above. The sidelights and transom feature leadlight panels. This door leads onto the hall, in the vicinity of the timber dog-leg stair. The stair features turned newel and balusters and is clad with stained timber boarding on the underside.
The hall of the ground floor, like most of the rooms on this floor is lined with timber panelling to a height of about 2500mm. The hall features a number of plaster rendered archways supported on piers. The ceiling of the hall is plastered and without cornices.
The first room on the west of the hall from the doorway is a study, which has a large bay window into which is fitted a window seat. The three windows within the bay are fitted with leadlight panels. The walls of the study are lined with timber panelling surmounted by a plate rail supported on timber brackets aligned with the framing of the wall panelling. The ceiling of this room is lined with pressed metal, with a central panel, borders and cornices. Like this room the drawing room on the ground floor is lined with timber panelling with a plate rail and has elaborate pressed metal ceilings. A white marble fire place and a large three part window opening with leadlight panels are features of this room. The dining room on the ground floor, which is in the north eastern corner of the building, is the only room on the ground floor which survives with a nineteenth century interior. The room has plaster walls, a plaster moulded cornice, a white marble fire place with cast iron grate and surrounds and a tiled hearth.
The rooms on the upper floor have been more recently renovated, with c1950s wall veneer panelling on all walls and plaster walls and ceilings. The windows are framed in original moulded timber framing. The ceiling of the first floor hall has been recently repaired with plasterboard.
","history":"This residence on Westminster Road, Indooroopilly, was constructed in about the 1890s as the home of Louis Stamm, a Brisbane based business man. The building is thought to have been designed by prominent local architect, Richard Gailey. The building was last occupied as a residence in c.1999.
During the 1880s and 1890s Indooroopilly developed as a fashionable suburb with the construction of a number of substantial residences. Louis Stamm, who later built the residence on Westminster Road, purchased a 42 acre block at Indooroopilly on 21 April 1873 only two years before the opening of a railway station at Indooroopilly. The coming of the railway provided the major impetus to the development of the suburb. By the late 1880s government and social facilities, including a school, an hotel, shops and a carpenter were established in Indooroopilly.
Louis Stamm is variously described in sources as a merchant, newspaper proprietor and brewery owner in Queensland. He is listed in the Queensland Post Office Directories simply as a Justice of the Peace. Stamm subdivided the Indooroopilly property which included land adjacent to the railway station in 1875, the year that train services were established, and land was sold from this original allotment during the next twenty years encouraging further growth of the suburb. Major suburban residences including Ross Roy, Claude Chambers' own house dating from 1897; Henry Hunter's own house designed by him on Clarence Road in 1888; William Archdall's house on Station Road by Hunter and Corrie of 1891; Warwillah (Glencairn) for FC Bolton designed by Charles McLay in 1892; Riverton for James Cannan and Tighnabruaich for HC Stanley both designed by FDG Stanley in the late 1880s; Newlands for Newman Wilson designed by Alexander Wilson in 1889 and a number of houses designed by Oakden, Addison and Kemp including Warranoke for Gilson Foxton, Robert Rendle's house and Addison's own house, Fernbrook, all dating from the late 1880s-early 1890s.
This residence, which Louis Stamm constructed for his own use in the 1890s belongs to the tradition of these other houses. Louis Stamm is thought to have commissioned local architect, Richard Gailey to design the building. Gailey was commissioned for the design of a number of substantial residences in the late nineteenth century, including Moorlands, Glen Olive (his own house) and Verney. A description of early large homes in Indooroopilly appeared in The Brisbane Courier of 15 August 1931 which after listing a number of the houses mentioned above describes the house of Louis Stamm:
"...while the home of Mr LJ Keating, on Westminster-road was constructed to the design of the late Mr Richard Gailey and is considered to be one of the outstanding examples of residential architecture in Brisbane. It was built by Mr Keating's grandfather, the late Mr L. Stamm about 35 years ago and used to be occupied by the late Dr Hawkes, Mr HR Boer (at one time Attorney General), Mr T Daley, solicitor and other prominent citizens."
It seems that Louis Stamm may never have lived in this house, as his residence is listed most often as at 25 Herbert Street, Spring Hill. Stamm was an early Chairman of the Indooroopilly Divisional Board when it separated from Taringa and Toowong. By 1885 Stamm retained only 10 acres of his original Indooroopilly allotment and this was mortgaged to Henry Love who subdivided it in the late 1880s. Stamm retained lots 71, 72 and 73 of Portion 46 and this transfer from Love was recorded in 1898. Stamm is thought to have built the house at about this time. The residence appears to have been leased to a number of people during the years from its construction to the 1920s when the Keating family moved there.
Stamm died in 1903 and the house and land were passed to his daughter Mary Louisa Keating, who had married Andrew Keating in 1884. Mary Louisa and Andrew had two children, Louis Joseph and Margaret Francis. Louis Keating and his wife, Eileen Matilda, moved into the residence on Westminster Road in 1924. Eileen Matilda died and Louis remarried, Eileen Phillis. Following the death of Louis Keating, Eileen Phillis Keating remained at the residence until early 1999.
During the 1920s or 1930s the house seems to have been extensively renovated. Much of the interior fittings and finishing of the present building, particularly on the ground floor, along with some external detailing, appear to date from this period rather than from the late 1900s from which the shell of the house dates.
","criteria":"The residence at 10-12 Westminster Road was constructed in the late 1890s and demonstrates the development of Indooroopilly at this time when a number of substantial, architect designed residences were built on large allotments.
|The building is an outstanding example of late nineteenth century architecture in its picturesque massing, unusual detailing and garden setting. The interiors of the house are of particular significance, with intact fittings and fixtures dating from the 1920s. In particular the timber wall panelling, pressed metal ceilings, carpeting, fixed furnishing and other fittings on the ground floor of the residence are of particular interest.
|The residence has aesthetic and social value as a local landmark. The building is prominently sited on a principal thoroughfare and is distinguished by its unusual architectural treatment and age from the surrounding development.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16794,"place_ref":602058,"name":"Ithaca Town Council Chambers and Red Hill Kindergarten (former)","alternate_name":"Ithaca Library","street_address":"99 Enoggera Terrace","suburb":"RED HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-03-24","description":"Prominently located at the corner of Enoggera Terrace and Kennedy Terrace, the Former Ithaca Town Council Chambers and Red Hill Kindergarten comprises the original single storey brick Council Chambers and a two storeyed timber extension attached to the south west corner of the Council Chambers. The extension, which fronts Kennedy Terrace, is generally obscured from view by several mature trees in the grounds. With the exception of two rooms, the former Council Chambers are presently used as a community hall. The former Clerk's room and the former Accountant's room, together with the extension, comprise the Red Hill Kindergarten. A shelter shed, is situated adjacent to the southern end of the Council Chambers, and fronts Enoggera Terrace.
The former Council Chambers is a single storeyed, hip roofed building with a basement. The external walls are brick with contrasting rendered elements including linear banding and ornamental framing around openings. Two entry porches of different design and materials to distinguish the former public entry and the former main entry, are located at the northern and southern ends of the building respectively.
The timber framed shelter shed includes a diamond pattern shingle roof and terracotta ornaments. The shelter shed is open on all sides, and is divided lengthways by a lattice panel which separates the public seating on the street side from the kindergarten entrance at the rear of the structure.
Generally rectangular in plan, the former Council Chambers is accessed via a decorative timber and brick entry porch at the northern end of the building, which leads into the original chamber space. The southern wall of the chamber has been partially removed, and the removal of the wall between the Mayor's room and the Engineer's room creates a large open space approximately twice the size of the original chamber, now a community hall. The original pressed metal ceilings are generally intact and this, together with evidence of former openings, indicates the original organisation of the rooms. Modern fluorescent lighting is suspended from the ceilings of the Mayor's room and the former Engineer's room.
A small kitchen is located in a separate room on the northern side of the hall. A door at the rear of the hall leads to a verandah, the northern end of which is enclosed as a toilet and bathroom, whilst the southern end leads to the kindergarten extension.
Formerly the main entrance to the building, the southern entry porch includes a single rendered column. A sign above the porch identifies the building as "Ithaca Hall". A set of double doors with coloured glass panels opens into a hallway, and a staircase at the end of the hallway leads down to the basement. The basement generally comprises a series of storage and amenities spaces. The hallway also provides access from the hall into the Clerk's room and the Accountant's room which are now used as part of the kindergarten space.
The Red Hill Kindergarten is accessed via a separate entry off Kennedy Terrace, through the space behind the shelter shed. This entry space is paved, and has been covered with a pergola type structure and enclosed by a high timber fence. The former Clerk's room is presently used as the kindergarten Director's office, whilst the former Accountant's room is used as the kindergarten kitchen. The original Council vault and vault door remain intact in the kitchen. A skylight has been inserted through the ceiling of the kitchen.
The two storeyed timber extension which adjoins the south west corner of the original building provides classroom space for the kindergarten on both levels. An area on the south eastern side of the extension has recently been converted to provide an adult toilet and bathroom.
","history":"Prominently situated on Enoggera Terrace, the former Ithaca Town Council Chambers presently comprises the Ithaca Library and Red Hill Kindergarten. Completed in 1910, the former Chambers were designed by Brisbane architects Henry Wallace Atkinson and Charles McLay, and built by Charles Thomas Hall and Francis Joseph Mayer.
The Municipality of Brisbane was proclaimed on 7 September 1859, shortly before the Separation of Queensland from New South Wales in December of that year. Although individual settlements such as Fortitude Valley, Kangaroo Point and South Brisbane agitated for separate municipality status, it was not until the Local Government Authorities Act of 1878 and the Divisional Boards Act of 1879 that a series of local authorities were created in the Brisbane Metropolitan area.
The Division of Ithaca was proclaimed in 1879, and was named after the birthplace of Lady Roma Diamantina Bowen, wife of Queensland's first Governor, George Bowen. Ithaca was one of eight divisions within the Municipality of Brisbane, and comprised most of the western suburbs of Brisbane from Kelvin Grove Road to Mt Coot-tha and the head of Kelvin Grove Brook. An area just before the junction of Waterworks Road and Kelvin Grove Road formed the southeastern extremity of the Division.
The Division of Ithaca was proclaimed a Shire in 1887, and eventually a Town on 19 August 1903. In 1900 the Council purchased subdivisions 131 to 133 on Enoggera Terrace, at the corner of Kennedy Terrace, considered by the Council to be a central location within the Town area. Although plans had previously been drawn up, Atkinson and McLay were commissioned to prepare plans for a suitable hall in brick and in wood in 1909. Tenders for the new Council Chambers (brick) for the Ithaca Town Council were invited in October 1909; that of Hall and Mayes for £1149 was accepted, but reduced to £1100 with the removal of certain embellishments from the plans.
Atkinson and McLay practiced in partnership from 1907 until McLay's death in 1918. Prior to working in private practice, both Atkinson and McLay worked for the Department of Public Works during the late nineteenth century.
The Council Chambers fronted Enoggera Terrace, with the main entrance at the southern end of the building. In addition to the Council Chamber, the building provided offices for the Town Clerk, Accountant, Mayor and Engineer, and included a strongroom. A second entrance was provided at the northern end of the building. An internal staircase led to an Earth Closet, lavatory and tool store downstairs. The plans indicated a future extension of the building along the Kennedy Terrace frontage; a modified version of which appears to have been carried out with the extension of the building to accommodate the Kindergarten during the 1950s. The Council Chambers were completed in 1910. Signage on the building and a flagpole had been added to the building by 1919.
Enoggera Terrace was also used by trams. The tram line extended along Enoggera Terrace to the terminus at the corner of Kennedy Terrace in 1902, and was subsequently extended to its terminus at Federal Street in 1904. During the 1920s/30s a tram shelter was erected adjacent to the front of the former Council Chambers, to a standard Brisbane City Council design.
The Town of Ithaca was absorbed into Greater Brisbane in 1925. Part of the building and the grounds were subsequently used as a Council depot until 1961.
During the 1940s the Red Hill Community Centre was established in the former Council Chambers by TR Groom (later Lord Mayor of Brisbane from 1955 to 1961) and other community members. The Centre included a library in the former offices of the Mayor and Engineer, and a kindergarten established in 1947 made use of the former Chamber. The former Chamber was also hired out for various community activities such as dancing classes, wedding receptions and Liberal Party meetings.
The library was taken over by the Council in 1946/47 by which time it occupied the former Chamber, and was renamed the Ithaca District Municipal Library. Although plans were prepared c1946 for a proposed gymnasium and club room at the rear of the building, these additions did not eventuate.
Additional space in the building was required by the early 1950s; a large extension to the west of the building was completed by 1954 and used for kindergarten classrooms. In 1959 the Kindergarten was formally inaugurated as the Enoggera Terrace Community Association - Kindergarten. Further need for space during the early 1960s resulted in the Kindergarten taking over the former Council Works Department sheds in the grounds, and the space underneath the building whilst the Library took over some of the Kindergarten space. Successive leases have required the occupants of the building to carry out improvements; consequently the building has undergone a series of minor changes and alterations.
The Library closed in 1998, and the former library space is now used as a venue for community groups and community meetings. The toilets at the rear of the former Chambers have been altered, and a new adult toilet provided in the Kindergarten. The former Works Department sheds and the flagpole at the front of the building are no longer extant (February 2000).
Only eight of the twenty town halls that existed at the time of Greater Brisbane in 1925 are still extant (December 1999); six of which remain in Council ownership including the former Ithaca Town Council Chambers, Brisbane City Hall [600065], Sandgate Town Hall [601566], Toombul Shire Hall [600272], Windsor Shire Chambers [600349] and Hamilton Town Hall. Coorparoo Shire Hall and the South Brisbane Municipal Chambers [600306] are no longer owned by the Brisbane City Council.
","criteria":"The former Ithaca Town Council Chambers provides evidence of the growth and development of Ithaca during the early twentieth century. Owned by the Brisbane City Council following the formation of Greater Brisbane in 1925, the former Ithaca Town Council Chambers is also important in demonstrating the development of local government in Brisbane. The tram shelter shed adjacent to the former Ithaca Town Council Chambers provides evidence of the extension of public transport services through Ithaca during the early twentieth century.
|With its prominent location at the corner of Enoggera and Kennedy Terraces and its clearly articulated facades with modest decorative detailing, the former Ithaca Town Council Chambers, and adjacent tram shelter, makes an important contribution to the Enoggera Terrace streetscape.
|Erected in 1910 for the Ithaca Town Council, and extended in the 1950s, the former Ithaca Town Council Chambers and kindergarten extension continue to have a strong association with the Red Hill/Paddington community as a focal point for social and community functions.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16800,"place_ref":602064,"name":"Strathearn","alternate_name":"Anzac Cottage (no.37)","street_address":"16 Quarry Road","suburb":"ALDERLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-02-05","description":"This house is a single storey, timber weatherboard house with a short ridge corrugated iron roof. It occupies an elevated position with the back windows looking out towards Enoggera Army Barracks and the hills.
The front elevation of the cottage features a verandah which has been enclosed with fibro sheeting. A centrally-located entry is accessed via two timber steps and features side-hung casement doors. Abutting the casement doors on either side is a louvred opening, extending half-way down the front façade from the front eave. A casement window is located either side of the central entry. The side walls of the enclosed verandah contain louvred openings.
The side elevations of the cottage feature two, two-paned sash windows, surmounted by metal shades. A metal shade also covers the rear kitchen window.
The cottage is located on a sloping block, resulting in the building being high-set at the back. It is supported on capped concrete posts, infilled with timber slats. A timber staircase provides access to the rear of the house. Positioned above the stairs in the rear wall are three casement windows.
Typical of pyramidal and short ridge houses with a front verandah the front door opens onto a passageway that separates the two front bedrooms and leads into the sitting room. The kitchen and dining room are at the back of the house.
While the house originally had a third bedroom, this has been converted into a bathroom.
Substantial plantings are located to the rear (western) and side (southern) elevations of the cottage.
","history":"This small timber weatherboard house was built as an Anzac Cottage Trust home in 1920, and was occupied by members of the same family until 1998.
With the many casualties and deaths suffered by Australians during World War I, the public reacted by building war memorials and providing homes for wounded veterans and families of those killed. One remarkable scheme was Anzac Cottages. Many of the cottages were built on donated land, volunteers supplied most of the labour, and they were built in many Australian states. Probably the first one was erected in Western Australia by volunteer labour, and officially opened on 15 April 1916.
In Queensland the initial Anzac Cottage Trust, a sub-committee of the Queensland War Council established 25 September 1915, met weekly at the Commercial Travellers Sample Rooms in Charlotte Street. The objectives of this committee were to acquire land for the erection of homes for homeless widows, or other female dependents, and descendants of deceased men who had enlisted in Queensland for military or naval service during World War I. The committee was also responsible for the nominating those who would occupy the cottage. While rental was small, 1/6 a week, the widow had to be of "good character", remain single, not be seen drinking publicly nor have male callers. She was also required to pay all the rates, any other local government charges, fire insurance and maintain the house in good order. From the outset, the land was to be vested in the Public Curator upon trust in perpetuity and the widow or female descendant was required to sign a lease with the Public Curator. The rental was intended to fund the maintenance of these cottages. An occupier could apply to this fund for assistance with maintaining their house in good repair. The Public Trustee, with agreement from the Committee, had the right to raise revenue for the repairing, maintaining and/or rebuilding of such cottages.
The conditions of tenancy for the Anzac Cottages also stated that any child, descendant or widow who married had immediately to vacate the property. They were allowed to reside or share the occupancy only with the approval of the Committee. On the death of the widow, a descendant capable of caring for the remaining family could, at the discretion of the Committee, be allowed to remain on signing of a lease. Alternately, the house could be re-let to a person who fitted the Trust's conditions and on similar terms.
The first Anzac cottage built in Queensland was at Wynnum, opened by the Governor on 12 August 1917. Many of the Anzac Cottages constructed in Queensland were funded from profits of "Golden Caskets", the Queensland lottery, numbers three, four and five. This was an initiative of John (Harry) Coyne, chairman of the Anzac Cottage Committee, subcommittee to the Queensland War Council. The prizes awarded in these lotteries were very large. First, second and third prizes were £5 000, £1 000 and £500 respectively and the total prize pool was £10 000.
Golden Casket number three went on sale on 2 March 1918 and was drawn at the Brisbane Stadium on 23 August 1918. The forth Golden Casket sold out in less than five months and was drawn 14 May 1919, while the fifth was drawn on 13 November 1919. Harry Coyne MP, still Chairman of the Anzac Cottage Committee, was again at the Brisbane Stadium to conduct the draw and told the large crowd that profits from the three Golden Caskets would allow for between 60 and 80 homes to be built for war widows.
Thirty-eight cottages were built in Brisbane, and most had a name reflecting the Anzac theme; names such as Kitchener, Haig, Monash, Hopetown and Chauvel. The second last cottage to be built, number 37 was called Strathearn and was erected at 16 Quarry Road, Alderley. It was occupied by the Warner family.
English born John Thomas Warner was 42 when he enrolled at Enoggera, although he gave his age as 38 years old. Private Warner was buried in a shell explosion at Ypres in 1917. Rescued the following day he was sent home. He died during March 1920 and was buried in a war grave in Toowong. The newly widowed Mrs Mary Ann Warner and five children moved into their new Anzac Cottage, Strathearn in July 1920, and a son Jack was born soon after. Her daughter Mrs Florence Richardson Handley, who was ten when the family moved into Strathearn, moved back into the family home following the death of her husband. As a World War II Prisoner of War he worked on the Burma railway and died when his Japanese transport was torpedoed.
Mrs Warner was a keen gardener and a family tradition was the adding of a piece of a sacred bamboo planted by Mrs Warner to wedding bouquets and the giving of each family member a cutting for planting when they moved into a new home. Mrs Warner was working in her garden when she died in 1955, and the Public Curator permitted Mrs Florence Richardson Handley to remain in the house.
This Anzac Cottage remained the venue for family activities such as Christmas Day, until Florence Handley died on 10 February 1998. Since then, the house has remained vacant. The wooden fence which was supported by stones from the nearby quarry has been recently removed, as have some of the trees and shrubs.
The Anzac Trust Committee was disbanded in 1932 with all responsibility passing to the Public Curator (renamed Public Trustee in 1978). By 1956 the number of World War I widows and dependents requiring housing had decreased and most of the cottages were rented to non-Anzac families. Also, the maintenance fund was in financial straits so that it was suggested by the Public Curator to the Attorney General that some of the vacant dwellings be sold to fund repairs to tenanted cottages and consideration be given to winding up the Trust. The Anzac Cottages & TB Homes Act of 1960 was subsequently passed, enabling the sale of Anzac Cottages. Thirteen were sold by 6 April 1963 and Strathearn was the only remaining Anzac Cottage the Public Trustee was still responsible for in 1999.
","criteria":"Strathearn is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, built under the Anzac Cottage Scheme to provide accommodation for the families of Queensland enlisted soldiers or sailers who died during World War I. These houses were funded with the proceeds of the Queensland lottery, draws three, four and five.
|Strathearn is a rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage as one of the last Anzac Cottages, built under the Anzac Cottage Scheme, to be held by the Public Trustee.
|Strathearn is intact and in original condition, and as such is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an Anzac Cottage.
|Strathearn is of aesthetic significance, adding to the streetscape of Quarry Road.
|The place has a special association with the Queensland community as evidence of the community's response of support for the families of those killed during World War I.
|The place has a special association with the work of the Anzac Cottage Trust, a sub-committee of the Queensland War Council. Strathearn also has a special association with the Queensland lottery. The Trust constructed many cottages with funds raised in Queensland lottery, draws three, four and five.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16803,"place_ref":602067,"name":"Monier Ventilation Shaft 2 (Spring Hill)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"134 St Paul's Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-08-04","description":"The three surviving concrete ventilation shafts are located in Brisbane's inner city suburbs of Spring Hill and Teneriffe. Two are in Spring Hill - one at the eastern end of Albert Park, on the footpath on Wickham Terrace opposite Twine Street; another on the footpath on St Paul's Terrace, opposite Gloucester Sreet. A third is located on the footpath in Florence Street, Teneriffe, west of the intersection with Macquarie Street. They ventilate stormwater drains rather than sewers.
The Spring Hill ventilators are located on ridges, but the Teneriffe ventilator is on low ground near the Brisbane River. It is not known what rationale was adopted in deciding where the vents were to be placed.
The ventilators are constructed of reinforced concrete, hexagonal in shape, with simple ornamentation at half height and apex. The Spring Hill ventilators are 30 feet tall [approximately 9 metres] with a base width of 21 inches [about 52cm]. They have a wall thickness of 4.5 inches [11.5cm] at the base, tapering to 3 inches [7.8cm] at the top. The Teneriffe ventilator is of slightly smaller dimensions.
All three ventilators are thought to have been constructed in accordance with the patented Monier ventilation system for venting public sewers and drains, and probably pre-cast in an hexagonal mould, with the top face open.
","history":"The Monier Ventilation Shafts are thought to have been constructed c1904, as part of a system of ventilation shafts [either concrete or steel/iron] located at intervals along some of Brisbane's inner city arterial stormwater drains. Three concrete shafts survive [of at least five erected] and may be the first pre-cast reinforced concrete structures in Queensland.
The Wickham Terrace shaft, on the footpath at the eastern end of Albert Park, opposite Twine Street, was one of a pair, the other having been erected just inside the park, opposite Lilley Street, but since removed. A concrete shaft of identical dimensions exists on the footpath of St Paul's Terrace, opposite Gloucester Street. Both the Wickham Terrace and St Paul's Terrace shafts appear to have been associated with the first Spring Hill stormwater drainage system, laid in the 1880s. A third shaft, of similar but smaller dimensions, exists on the footpath near the former Queensland Primary Producers' Woolstore No.8, in Florence Street, Teneriffe. Stormwater drains were laid in Florence and Ethel streets in mid-1904, and the concrete ventilation shaft at the east end of the Florence Street drain may have been constructed shortly afterwards.
In the 19th century, the distinction between drainage and sewerage was not well defined. Drains were described as sewers and they received a combination of sullage, roof and surface run-off. They relied on rainwater for flushing, and discharged to the nearest watercourse.
When Brisbane acquired municipal status in late 1859, there was no system of drainage or sewerage in the town. Most people dumped refuse in the creeks and channels, trusting that stormwater would carry it away to the river, and for some years the Municipal Council considered drainage and sewerage as one and the same thing. However, from about 1868 the Council adopted the policy of 'rainfall to the river' and 'sewerage to the land', developing a city drainage scheme to carry off stormwater and an earth closet sanitary service.
The Brisbane Drainage Act of 1875, under which the colonial government agreed to set aside crown land for sale to finance Brisbane's drainage scheme, provided the impetus for construction of Brisbane's early arterial stormwater drains. The systems were designed by the colonial government's Engineer for Harbours and Rivers, WD Nisbet, and carried out by government contractors under government supervision. Upon completion they became the property and responsibility of the Brisbane Municipal Council, which was responsible also for laying branch drains.
By 1878, the inner city was drained by three separate systems: the Frog's Hollow system - a main drain down Albert and Margaret Streets with branches laid by the Brisbane Municipal Council; the Adelaide-Creek Street system, which drained the centre of the town from Makerston Street to Queen Street and the lower sections of Elizabeth and Charlotte Streets; and the Makerston Street system, which served the area between Makerston Street and Petrie Terrace, and between Wickham Terrace and College Road and the Brisbane River.
Between 1879 and 1886 the Brisbane Municipal Council, with government loans, developed an arterial drainage system for the densely populated suburbs of Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley [even though the Valley lay outside the Brisbane town boundary]. Much of this work comprised open drains, which were covered in the late 1890s. South Brisbane and Kangaroo Point drainage systems were constructed in 1885-86. In the late 1880s, the Brisbane Municipal Council drained parts of New Farm, and a drainage system for Petrie Terrace, begun in 1883, was completed in the late 1880s. By 1890, the Brisbane Municipal Council had completed an arterial drainage scheme for the city core, at a total cost of nearly £130,000.
The densely populated Division of Booradabin was annexed to the Municipality of Brisbane in 1903, and in 1908 a loan was secured to enable the Council to complete the drainage of Merthyr, New Farm, Teneriffe, Bowen Hills, Mayne and Newstead by the end of 1909.
Without a proper sewerage system, Brisbane residents still tended to dispose of household and trade waste into the stormwater drainage systems. This led to the chronic pollution of local creeks, and foul smells emanating from the stormwater drains. Prior to bacterial theory being widely accepted, such miasma was thought to cause disease.
The situation was compounded in 1900 with the arrival of bubonic plague in Australia, carried by rats aboard ships arriving from foreign ports. The first case of human plague in Sydney was reported in January 1900, and in Brisbane [a day and a half away by steamer] on 27 April 1900. Between 1900 and 1909, plague broke out in most of Queensland's ports, galvanising the State into developing tighter controls over public health and sanitation.
In the early 20th century, the Commissioner of Public Health, using the strong coercive powers given to him under the provisions of the Health Act of 1900, required the Brisbane Municipal Council to erect ventilators in city streets to remove foul and unhealthy smells from the drainage systems. In 1900, the Council called tenders for the construction and erection of a ventilating shaft at Thorn Street, Kangaroo Point. No trace remains of this vent, except for its design, which was in the Monier system of re-inforced concrete, and identical with that of the vents that have survived on Wickham Terrace and St Paul's Terrace.
The Monier system of reinforced concrete [invented by Frenchman Joseph Monier and patented in 1867] was introduced to Australia in the early 1890s by WJ Baltzer, a New South Wales engineer. Monier's was the first true reinforced concrete, based on calculations which ensured that the steel was dispersed so as to take tension and shear forces. Baltzer, in association with contracting engineers Carter Gummow and Co. of Sydney, gained the Australian rights to this innovative fabric. The company constructed the first Monier system structure [a small arch for a storm water culvert] in Burwood, New South Wales, in 1894 and a sewer aqueduct linking the Sydney suburbs of Annandale and Balmain in 1895. The first use of the Monier system in Victoria was in 1897 with the Anderson Street Bridge over the Yarra, designed and constructed by Carter Gummow & Co.
Carter Gummow and Co. began manufacture of Monier pipes in Sydney in 1897, and John Monash's Reinforced Concrete & Monier Pipe Construction Co. commenced production in Melbourne in 1903.
During the financial year 1903-04, the Brisbane Municipal Council authorised the spending of £1,537 on erecting sewer [drain] ventilating shafts wherever they were urgently needed. It is thought that the surviving concrete ventilation shafts were constructed in consequence.
","criteria":"The Monier Ventilation Shafts, constructed c1904, are important in illustrating late 19th/early 20th century attitudes toward public health and sanitation, and survive as visible evidence of Brisbane's early and extensive stormwater drainage scheme and venting system. The three surviving concrete shafts are thought to be the first pre-cast reinforced concrete structures in Queensland, and examples of the earliest application of the Monier system of reinforced concrete construction in Queensland.
|They provide rare surviving evidence of this early use of true reinforced concrete, and are significant as indicators of the technically advanced state of municipal engineering and construction in Brisbane at the turn of the 20th century.
|They have the potential to contribute further to our understanding of: i. community attitudes toward public health in the late 19th/early 20th centuries; ii. Brisbane's early stormwater drainage scheme; and iii. early pre-cast reinforced concrete technology in Queensland.
|They remain highly intact examples of their type and demonstrate engineering skill and involvement in creating aesthetically pleasing but functional structures.
|They remain highly intact examples of their type and demonstrate engineering skill and involvement in creating aesthetically pleasing but functional structures.
|They provide rare surviving evidence of this early use of true reinforced concrete, and are significant as indicators of the technically advanced state of municipal engineering and construction in Brisbane at the turn of the 20th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16804,"place_ref":602068,"name":"Monier Ventilation Shaft 3 (Teneriffe)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Florence Street","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-08-04","description":"The three surviving concrete ventilation shafts are located in Brisbane's inner city suburbs of Spring Hill and Teneriffe. Two are in Spring Hill - one at the eastern end of Albert Park, on the footpath on Wickham Terrace opposite Twine Street; another on the footpath on St Paul's Terrace, opposite Gloucester Sreet. A third is located on the footpath in Florence Street, Teneriffe, west of the intersection with Macquarie Street. They ventilate stormwater drains rather than sewers.
The Spring Hill ventilators are located on ridges, but the Teneriffe ventilator is on low ground near the Brisbane River. It is not known what rationale was adopted in deciding where the vents were to be placed.
The ventilators are constructed of reinforced concrete, hexagonal in shape, with simple ornamentation at half height and apex. The Spring Hill ventilators are 30 feet tall [approximately 9 metres] with a base width of 21 inches [about 52cm]. They have a wall thickness of 4.5 inches [11.5cm] at the base, tapering to 3 inches [7.8cm] at the top. The Teneriffe ventilator is of slightly smaller dimensions.
All three ventilators are thought to have been constructed in accordance with the patented Monier ventilation system for venting public sewers and drains, and probably pre-cast in an hexagonal mould, with the top face open.
","history":"The Monier Ventilation Shafts are thought to have been constructed c1904, as part of a system of ventilation shafts [either concrete or steel/iron] located at intervals along some of Brisbane's inner city arterial stormwater drains. Three concrete shafts survive [of at least five erected] and may be the first pre-cast reinforced concrete structures in Queensland.
The Wickham Terrace shaft, on the footpath at the eastern end of Albert Park, opposite Twine Street, was one of a pair, the other having been erected just inside the park, opposite Lilley Street, but since removed. A concrete shaft of identical dimensions exists on the footpath of St Paul's Terrace, opposite Gloucester Street. Both the Wickham Terrace and St Paul's Terrace shafts appear to have been associated with the first Spring Hill stormwater drainage system, laid in the 1880s. A third shaft, of similar but smaller dimensions, exists on the footpath near the former Queensland Primary Producers' Woolstore No.8, in Florence Street, Teneriffe. Stormwater drains were laid in Florence and Ethel streets in mid-1904, and the concrete ventilation shaft at the east end of the Florence Street drain may have been constructed shortly afterwards.
In the 19th century, the distinction between drainage and sewerage was not well defined. Drains were described as sewers and they received a combination of sullage, roof and surface run-off. They relied on rainwater for flushing, and discharged to the nearest watercourse.
When Brisbane acquired municipal status in late 1859, there was no system of drainage or sewerage in the town. Most people dumped refuse in the creeks and channels, trusting that stormwater would carry it away to the river, and for some years the Municipal Council considered drainage and sewerage as one and the same thing. However, from about 1868 the Council adopted the policy of 'rainfall to the river' and 'sewerage to the land', developing a city drainage scheme to carry off stormwater and an earth closet sanitary service.
The Brisbane Drainage Act of 1875, under which the colonial government agreed to set aside crown land for sale to finance Brisbane's drainage scheme, provided the impetus for construction of Brisbane's early arterial stormwater drains. The systems were designed by the colonial government's Engineer for Harbours and Rivers, WD Nisbet, and carried out by government contractors under government supervision. Upon completion they became the property and responsibility of the Brisbane Municipal Council, which was responsible also for laying branch drains.
By 1878, the inner city was drained by three separate systems: the Frog's Hollow system - a main drain down Albert and Margaret Streets with branches laid by the Brisbane Municipal Council; the Adelaide-Creek Street system, which drained the centre of the town from Makerston Street to Queen Street and the lower sections of Elizabeth and Charlotte Streets; and the Makerston Street system, which served the area between Makerston Street and Petrie Terrace, and between Wickham Terrace and College Road and the Brisbane River.
Between 1879 and 1886 the Brisbane Municipal Council, with government loans, developed an arterial drainage system for the densely populated suburbs of Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley [even though the Valley lay outside the Brisbane town boundary]. Much of this work comprised open drains, which were covered in the late 1890s. South Brisbane and Kangaroo Point drainage systems were constructed in 1885-86. In the late 1880s, the Brisbane Municipal Council drained parts of New Farm, and a drainage system for Petrie Terrace, begun in 1883, was completed in the late 1880s. By 1890, the Brisbane Municipal Council had completed an arterial drainage scheme for the city core, at a total cost of nearly £130,000.
The densely populated Division of Booradabin was annexed to the Municipality of Brisbane in 1903, and in 1908 a loan was secured to enable the Council to complete the drainage of Merthyr, New Farm, Teneriffe, Bowen Hills, Mayne and Newstead by the end of 1909.
Without a proper sewerage system, Brisbane residents still tended to dispose of household and trade waste into the stormwater drainage systems. This led to the chronic pollution of local creeks, and foul smells emanating from the stormwater drains. Prior to bacterial theory being widely accepted, such miasma was thought to cause disease.
The situation was compounded in 1900 with the arrival of bubonic plague in Australia, carried by rats aboard ships arriving from foreign ports. The first case of human plague in Sydney was reported in January 1900, and in Brisbane [a day and a half away by steamer] on 27 April 1900. Between 1900 and 1909, plague broke out in most of Queensland's ports, galvanising the State into developing tighter controls over public health and sanitation.
In the early 20th century, the Commissioner of Public Health, using the strong coercive powers given to him under the provisions of the Health Act of 1900, required the Brisbane Municipal Council to erect ventilators in city streets to remove foul and unhealthy smells from the drainage systems. In 1900, the Council called tenders for the construction and erection of a ventilating shaft at Thorn Street, Kangaroo Point. No trace remains of this vent, except for its design, which was in the Monier system of re-inforced concrete, and identical with that of the vents that have survived on Wickham Terrace and St Paul's Terrace.
The Monier system of reinforced concrete [invented by Frenchman Joseph Monier and patented in 1867] was introduced to Australia in the early 1890s by WJ Baltzer, a New South Wales engineer. Monier's was the first true reinforced concrete, based on calculations which ensured that the steel was dispersed so as to take tension and shear forces. Baltzer, in association with contracting engineers Carter Gummow and Co. of Sydney, gained the Australian rights to this innovative fabric. The company constructed the first Monier system structure [a small arch for a storm water culvert] in Burwood, New South Wales, in 1894 and a sewer aqueduct linking the Sydney suburbs of Annandale and Balmain in 1895. The first use of the Monier system in Victoria was in 1897 with the Anderson Street Bridge over the Yarra, designed and constructed by Carter Gummow & Co.
Carter Gummow and Co. began manufacture of Monier pipes in Sydney in 1897, and John Monash's Reinforced Concrete & Monier Pipe Construction Co. commenced production in Melbourne in 1903.
During the financial year 1903-04, the Brisbane Municipal Council authorised the spending of £1,537 on erecting sewer [drain] ventilating shafts wherever they were urgently needed. It is thought that the surviving concrete ventilation shafts were constructed in consequence.
","criteria":"The Monier Ventilation Shafts, constructed c1904, are important in illustrating late 19th/early 20th century attitudes toward public health and sanitation, and survive as visible evidence of Brisbane's early and extensive stormwater drainage scheme and venting system. The three surviving concrete shafts are thought to be the first pre-cast reinforced concrete structures in Queensland, and examples of the earliest application of the Monier system of reinforced concrete construction in Queensland.
|They provide rare surviving evidence of this early use of true reinforced concrete, and are significant as indicators of the technically advanced state of municipal engineering and construction in Brisbane at the turn of the 20th century.
|They have the potential to contribute further to our understanding of: i. community attitudes toward public health in the late 19th/early 20th centuries; ii. Brisbane's early stormwater drainage scheme; and iii. early pre-cast reinforced concrete technology in Queensland.
|They remain highly intact examples of their type and demonstrate engineering skill and involvement in creating aesthetically pleasing but functional structures.
|They remain highly intact examples of their type and demonstrate engineering skill and involvement in creating aesthetically pleasing but functional structures.
|They provide rare surviving evidence of this early use of true reinforced concrete, and are significant as indicators of the technically advanced state of municipal engineering and construction in Brisbane at the turn of the 20th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16806,"place_ref":602070,"name":"Killila","alternate_name":"Killila Cottage","street_address":"100 Stoneleigh","suburb":"LUTWYCHE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-10-01","description":"Killila is located on two allotments at 100 Stoneleigh Street, Windsor, north of the Brisbane city centre. They are each 405 m2 with the rear of the allotments also accessed from Salt Street. The property is located amidst a number of late 20th century brick unit blocks in this part of Stoneleigh Street.
The single-storey, high-set timber residence is sited close to the Stoneleigh Street boundary and the entire property perimeter is enclosed with a wire fence. There is vehicular access to the site from both Stoneleigh and Salt streets, however only the Stoneleigh Street entrance gives access to a driveway leading to the garage situated on the eastern side of the property.
The timber-framed house appears to have been constructed or reconstructed in at least three stages. A hipped-roof attached kitchen wing at the rear appears to be the oldest section of the house, likely part of the c1885 cottage. The core of the residence, which appears to be of mostly early 20th century fabric, has a short-ridged hipped roof of corrugated iron, and possibly replaces the earlier cottage core. It has early 20th century additions, comprising a gabled, east-facing projecting at the front, and enlarged eastern side verandah, and rear additions. There are stepped verandahs with a skillion roof on three sides. All roofs are clad in corrugated iron and a corbelled brick chimneystack protrudes from above the kitchen.
The front verandah has been enclosed with timber louvres and the original dowel balustrading is covered by fibrous cement panels. The original square verandah posts with tapered chamfers, have simple capital and astragal embellishments, and are visible in the front façade. Entry to the front verandah is gained via a short flight of later concrete stairs and through a single lattice door. A flying gable above the entry has decorative fretwork fronted by a simple slat infill and bargeboard. The side verandahs have also been enclosed with hinged windows. The formerly exposed face of the eastern gable, now hidden by the side verandah in-fill, has 8 inch deep chamferboards, which may have been recycled from elsewhere in the house.
The exposed faces of the rear extension are clad in chamferboards with some sections in vertically-jointed tongue and groove boarding. A flight of timber stairs to the rear wing of the house is sheltered by a corrugated iron roof. All windows in the rear extension are hinged and those facing south from the dining room feature coloured glass inserts. The majority of rooms with windows to the rear of the house are protected by hoods. Two distinct styles of hood are present, with some featuring galvanised skillion roofs and timber batten sides and other hoods featuring a convex profile with star motif on the sides typical of inter-war sunhood design.
The original timber stumps of the house have been replaced with concrete and the sub-floor has been enclosed with timber battens. The area directly beneath the kitchen wing currently functions as a storage area and has an early brick fireplace which shares a chimney with the kitchen fireplace above.
The early front door is centrally positioned in the front façade of what appears to be the first stage of the core. It has a cast iron knocker, central door knob, fielded panels and bolection moulds, and opens to a wide hallway which extends the length of the core. It is divided about mid-way along by a slatted timber arch. Six rooms open off this hallway, three to the left and two to the right. Above each doorway is a pivoted fanlight with waxed paper inserts. The first room to the left is the main bedroom, formerly a parlour, with a large double-hung sash window opening to the front verandah. It has a very fine pressed metal ceiling in Art Nouveau pattern. The second and third rooms on the left are currently used as bedrooms with French doors opening to the eastern side verandah. The front room on the right hand side has a bay window with double-hung windows to the front façade and French doors opening to the side verandah. The partition between the second and third rooms on the right has been removed to create one large living room, divided by a timber screen. This area has a fireplace with a fine timber surround in the southern wall, which backs onto the fireplace the adjoining kitchen. What was formerly the third room on this side of the hallway has also been extended onto what was formerly part of the western side verandah. The door opening into this room has early glass paneling.
The far end of the hallway opens into an enclosed and extended former verandah area at the rear of the house, which is now used as a dining room and which appears to be an early 1900s extension. To the left is a bathroom and to the right is the kitchen and pantry. The kitchen retains the original wood oven and the former external walls of the kitchen wing are clad in a wider timber profile than the other walls in the house. Beside the pantry is a toilet, and adjacent to this a flight of timber stairs leading to the backyard.
The walls in the core are mainly single-skin, constructed of narrow, vertically-jointed tongue and groove boarding. The ceilings, with the exclusion of the pressed metal ceiling in the front northeastern room, are lined with the same boarding. The cornices are All rooms off the hallway have high picture rails and lambs tongue skirting boards. Joinery in the hallway, including the doors, is decorated with an early timber graining effect.
","history":"Killila is a timber house, erected as a working class cottage c1885, with extensive early 20th century alterations to convert it into a substantial middle-class home.
The allotment on which this residence is situated was first alienated in 1858 as Portion 155, parish of Enoggera, county of Stanley [20 acres], by James Baker, a compositor of Brisbane, at a cost of £79. Five years later, the title was transferred to Robert Cribb, a Brisbane broker. Cribb immediately set about subdividing the land and in November 1880 title to subdivisions 11-22 and 51-56 of portion 155, comprising just over 7 acres, was registered in the name of John Lloyd Bale.
Bale was an accountant, agent and broker, and at the time of purchasing these Albion subdivisions was serving as Chairman of the Ithaca Divisional Board. He was elected a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1883 and remained in that position until his death in 1885. He resided in an 1860s house at the corner of Albion and Bowen Bridge (Lutwyche) Roads named Stoneleigh, which gave its name to Stoneleigh Street. Most of Bale's land in the Albion/Windsor area remained unimproved, and between 1882 and 1884 he re-subdivided the property as the Stoneleigh Estate.
In May 1883, title to re-subdivisions 56 and 57 of subdivision 56, comprising an area of 32 perches [the site of Killila Cottage] was transferred to Elizabeth Parsons, the wife of George Alfred Parsons, brickmaker. Parsons was based at Lutwyche at this period, and it is unlikely that he lived in Stoneleigh Street, Albion. However, the Post Office Directories record Robert Parsons, brickmaker, as resident in Albion in the period 1885 to 1887, and it is possible that a cottage had been erected at 100 Stoneleigh Street by 1885, perhaps occupied by Robert Parsons. Certainly the cottage was constructed before the property was sold early in 1888 to the next owner, Mrs Margaret Duhig, widow and mother of James Duhig [1871-1965], the prominent Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane between 1917 and 1965.
Margaret Duhig emigrated from Ireland to Brisbane, following a sojourn in England, with James and two of her other children on 8 April 1885, aboard the Mackara. Two other children followed later. For 3 years the Duhigs were unable to afford to purchase their own house in Brisbane and resided in rental properties in Paddington, Spring Hill and Petrie Terrace before purchasing the cottage at 100 Stoneleigh Street. When James Duhig joined the work force in 1885, aged nearly 14, his weekly wage was one of the solid bases of the family economy and his support contributed to the deposit paid on the Stoneleigh Street cottage.
Although title to the Stoneleigh Street property was not registered in the name of Margaret Duhig until February 1889, and the Post Office Directories first record her as resident in Albion in that year, personal letters in the Brisbane Catholic Archdiocesan Archives indicate that the Duhigs were residing at Albion by early 1888. On 26 April of that year, James Duhig wrote to his brother, Martin, announcing the family's purchase of the property for £250 and expressing a hope that it "could double our money at any time". Three months later, Margaret Duhig wrote to Martin explaining that she was paying 8% interest and that extensions were carried out to the house for a sum of £40. For the Duhigs, it was a modest family house, affectionately named Killila Cottage after their home in Co. Limerick, Ireland.
By the mid-1880s Windsor shire was an ideal suburban location, being within a stone's throw of the city yet enjoying all the attributes of the country. The Duhigs' neighbours in Stoneleigh Street, who in 1892 included a prominent draper, 2 accountants, an auctioneer, an engineer, several clerical workers, and numerous tradesmen and semi-skilled workers, reflected the growing eclectic social milieu of the Albion/Windsor area in the late 19th century, with more affluent residents building substantial homes on the higher ground and the working class in the valleys in between.
It was during his residence at Killara Cottage that James Duhig began thinking seriously about a theological career. In 1890, after nearly five years of clerical work for the Co-operative Butchery Company, he returned to the Christian Brothers' Gregory Terrace School as a day student to study Latin and French with a view to furthering his theological interests. He also became an active member of the Catholic community, joining the Catholic Young Men's Society and serving as a parish catechist in Wooloowin. After 5 years of religious study in Rome, Duhig was ordained a priest in 1896 and returned to Brisbane the following year. Rising through the ranks of the Catholic Church, he succeeded Robert Dunne as Archbishop of Brisbane in 1917. Duhig's commitment helped raise the profile and status of Catholicism in Queensland, but he was also an influential figure in the State's social, political and economic activites. Duhig used his public profile to advance issues such as education, urban development, artistic development, justice and land settlement. As the driving force behind some 400 major buildings, including religious, educational, medical and charitable institutions, 'James the Builder' also left his mark on the physical structure of Brisbane.
When James Duhig embarked for Rome in 1891 to study for the priesthood, the family faced precarious financial circumstances. In the early 1890s, the mortgage repayments on Killara Cottage had stretched the family's budget and when Margaret Duhig contemplated selling she was reputedly unable to find a buyer, ironically having passed up an offer in 1889 from the Windsor Shire Council to purchase and resume the property to open up Salt Street.
Despite the financial difficulties, Margaret Duhig retained ownership of the property until her death in 1902. It was then transferred to her daughters, Mary and Ellen Duhig, before it was registered in 1908 solely in the name of Mary Duhig, who retained title to the property for the next 29 years. Ellen joined the Order of the Good Samaritans, and Mary never married. By 1904 their sister Elizabeth and her husband Francis Joseph Cullen, had moved into Killila Cottage, where they raised their family. The Cullens resided here until 1937, and reputedly it was during their occupancy that substantial additions and renovations were made to the house. Mortgages on the property taken out in 1903 for £300 and in 1913 for £500 may be an indication of the date/s of the alterations, but this has yet to be confirmed. The Cullen and Duhig families appear to have been very close. One of James Duhig's nephews, Frank Lee Cullen, became a well-known Brisbane architect in the late 1930s, and undertook a number of commissions for the Catholic Church.
In 1937, title to the property was transferred to Edgar Luke Samuel Pilkington, and it has remained in the Pilkington family since. Brisbane City Council records indicate that the house has not been substantially altered since at least 1946, with additions limited to construction of a single detached garage in 1961 and a tennis court on what is now a separate property at 98 Stoneleigh Street.
","criteria":"Killila was constructed c1885 as a much smaller cottage, which was substantially refurbished and extended early in the 20th century. It is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history, illustrating in its fabric the pattern of upward social mobility from worker's cottage to middle-class residence, which characterized the struggle of Irish immigrants in Queensland to succeed in their new country and to raise the status of Catholics in an Anglican-dominated society.
|The house is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of a generously-sized middle-class residence of the early 20th century. The interior in particular is remarkably intact, including the internal layout, fabric, and finishes - such as early graining to the joinery and wall and floor finishes, patterned wax papers on the transom lights over the internal doors, and c1920s electric light shades.
|The place makes an important aesthetic contribution to the historical townscape of Windsor, which abounds in 19th and early 20th century residences, and contributes significantly to the historical character of the local area.
|The house is also significant for its association with James Duhig [1871-1965], the prominent Queensland Catholic Archbishop from 1917 to 1965. During his religious career, Duhig helped raise the status of Catholicism in Queensland and played an influential role in the social, economic and political issues facing the State from the 1920s to the 1950s. As a youth, Duhig resided at Killila Cottage at Stoneleigh Street for several years before embarking for Rome to study for the priesthood. It was during his time at the Windsor residence that he first became actively involved in the Brisbane Catholic community. The house remained in the Duhig family for close to 50 years, during which time it was transformed into a middle-class residence.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16810,"place_ref":602074,"name":"Oogarding","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"100 Simpsons Road","suburb":"BARDON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-06-23","description":"Oogarding is a substantial two story residence with basement designed in the Mediterranean Style. It is constructed of load-bearing masonry that has been smooth rendered, recently re-rendered and painted in a creamy tone. The medium-pitched roof is clad in glazed terracotta Marseilles pattern tiles and has exposed rafter ends that are decoratively shaped on the front elevation and agricultural pipe vents set in a diamond pattern in the gable ends. The entrance door is a significant feature and is strongly expressed with raised rendered decoration to resemble substantial masonry surrounding the panelled door. The door, designed by Rylance, has eight square panels which are repeated in the form of a vertical strip of four square windows on either side of the door. The door is surmounted by a leadlight fanlight with the name of the house incorporated into the design.
In plan, the house has an offset cruciform shape with the entry positioned at the core of the house on the Western side. A sunken passageway leads from the front door to a hall that leads, through large openings, to the dining room, lounge room and terrace as well as to the stairs to the upper floor. Each of these major public rooms occupy an arm of the cross in plan and the lounge in particular is generously proportioned. The dining room and lounge room are linked by timber and glass sliding doors with arched heads. An ornate fireplace with a faux stone finish and moulded decoration is a prominent feature of the lounge room, as are the decorative plaster ceilings of both public rooms. The terrace is a semi-enclosed room with a short arcade of three arched openings on the northern wall and single arches on the eastern and western walls. The suspended timber floors are red stringybark and covering tiles have recently been removed from several areas. All joinery and mouldings in the house are silky oak, apart from the handrail which is maple.
The house was originally designed to cater for a family served by a maid and a secondary circulation route links the main public rooms with the kitchen and laundry areas. A bathroom is located between these utility areas and public areas and has a small antechamber adjacent to it. Renovations in the 1960s relocated the kitchen further to the south-east edge of the house, in the position formerly occupied by the maid's room. A round-arched loggia links the utility areas to the garage which provides accommodation for three cars.
The second story accommodates four bedrooms, a bathroom and a sleepout. The expansive main bedroom is located directly above the lounge room in the north-east corner and has several built-in cupboards. The highly detailed bathroom has an alcove bath, a built-in shower recess, a decorative sandblasted mirror designed by the architect and a strong single colour scheme of carefully detailed blue tiles.
On the exterior, the main bedroom projects slightly and is supported by corbels. On the northern wall, multi-paned French doors open out to a small semi-circular "Juliet" balcony. These doors are surrounded with raised rendered decoration similar to that around the front entry door. Windows throughout the house are generally multi-paned timber sash and casement windows and most have external timber louvre shutters.
N.B This description was prepared on the basis of documentary evidence only, the place was not inspected.
","history":"Oogarding, a two storey, rendered masonry house in the Mediterranean style was built in 1940-41 to the design of architect Mervyn Rylance. The house is prominently located on a sharp bend in Simpsons Road in the Brisbane suburb of Bardon and is set on a large block of land, against a stand of tall gum trees.
In 1940, Rylance was commissioned by Mr James Gervase (Gerb) Joyce and Mrs Edith Joyce to design a house for them on a one acre allotment which had been subdivided from the Joyce family property in Bardon. Gerb Joyce was a well known Brisbane business identity and owner of the Helidon Spa soft drink company. The Joyces named their new house Oogarding, the Aboriginal name for the spa to which they owed their fortune. It appears that the Joyces commissioned Rylance on the recommendation of the builder Mr Jan Cupka. Cupka had constructed at least three other buildings designed by Rylance around this time.
Rylance opened his architectural practice in Brisbane in 1933 and domestic commissions formed the basis of his practice. In the period up until World War II, he designed a number of relatively expensive and substantial homes in both the English and Mediterranean styles. The Mediterranean style established itself strongly in the temperate parts of Australia in the interwar period. This was largely due to the efforts of it's central proponent, Professor Leslie Wilkinson and through his position as the first chair of architecture at an Australian university. Wilkinson was able to influence many architects with his ideas about the suitability of Mediterranean styled architecture for the Australian climate. In effect, the style was a regionalisation of Georgian domestic architecture and avoided blatant Mediterranean features such as those adopted in Spanish Mission architecture, preferring classical details, smooth render, soft tones and round arches that simply evoked a Mediterranean feeling.
Mervyn Rylance was one of these young architects influenced by Wilkinson's ideas. Although he was born in Brisbane, Rylance was educated in Sydney and England and was an articled pupil with Joseland and Gilling Architects in Sydney. F Glynn Gilling was recognised as a leading practitioner of the Mediterranean Style and his Woolcock Forbes house was to have a lasting influence on Rylance. Very few pure Mediterranean Style houses were built in Brisbane and Rylance was responsible for the design of a number of key examples including the Blanchard House at 43 Maxwell Street, New Farm, the Bartlett House at 390 Swann Road, St. Lucia and Oogarding.
The house was constructed by Mr Jan Cupka and it appears to have been built on the basis of a negotiated contract as no tender was advertised. When interviewed in 1995, Mrs Joyce remembered Rylance as "a dedicated professional", attending the site every couple of days during the nine month construction period. He personally applied the faux stone finish to the fireplace, throwing sand at the wet render and ruling in the joints with his pencil.
In 1964, a new family room was added to the south-east corner of the house, to the specification of Terrence Reid. Later in 1965, Hayes, Scott and Henderson Architects designed a new garage, front terrace and other landscape works and re-modelled the kitchen. The Joyce family lived in the house from its construction until 1999 when the house was bought by the Gasteen family.
","criteria":"Oogarding demonstrates the principal characteristic of a substantial, interwar Mediterranean Style residence with important style indicators such as asymmetrical massing, cement rendered masonry construction and Marseilles tiled roof, strongly expressed main entry door, round arched and arcaded loggia, "Juliet" balcony and multi-paned, double hung windows with louvred timber shutters.
Oogarding is important because of its aesthetic significance, due to its fine and restrained design, careful detailing, high quality and distinctive interior fittings and garden setting. The house has significance as a surviving intact example of the work of important interwar Queensland architect, Mervyn Rylance and is considered among the best examples of his work and a key example of Mediterranean Style architecture in Queensland.
|Oogarding demonstrates the principal characteristic of a substantial, interwar Mediterranean Style residence with important style indicators such as asymmetrical massing, cement rendered masonry construction and Marseilles tiled roof, strongly expressed main entry door, round arched and arcaded loggia, "Juliet" balcony and multi-paned, double hung windows with louvred timber shutters.
|Oogarding is important because of its aesthetic significance, due to its fine and restrained design, careful detailing, high quality and distinctive interior fittings and garden setting.
|The house has significance as a surviving intact example of the work of important interwar Queensland architect, Mervyn Rylance and is considered among the best examples of his work and a key example of Mediterranean Style architecture in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16837,"place_ref":602101,"name":"Village Twin Cinemas","alternate_name":"Village Twin Cinema Complex | Merthyr Picture Palace | Astor Theatre","street_address":"701 Brunswick Street","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-03-24","description":"The Village Twin is located on the corner of Brunswick and Barker Streets, New Farm and bordered by Oxley Lane at the rear. The exterior form is largely that of the former Astor Theatre and comprises rendered masonry walls with a large gabled roof sheeted in corrugated iron. Entry to the cinema is from Brunswick Street, with fire exits to the lane and Barker Street.
The upper part of the front façade has been painted black and screened with white aluminium strips fixed horizontally to a supporting framework which is attached to the original façade. Large orange lettering designed in the style of the Village corporate logo from the 1970s is affixed to the upper right hand corner. The top of the gable is visible behind this later façade.
The lower portion of the front wall is tiled with deep-green enamel finish ceramic tiles, which also wrap around the Barker Street corner. The profile of the tiled section is such that the engaged piers of the original façade are distinguishable. Five double glass doors lead into a wide set of stairs up to the foyer. The opening, which is the same proportions as that of the Astor, is surmounted by a timber panelled bulkhead with downlighting. On each side of the entry doors, three glass display cabinets are set into the tiled walls with posters of current and forthcoming attractions. A cantilevered awning lined alternately with aluminium strips and fluorescent lighting projects over the street. This lighting effect was intended to assist the transition from the dark interior of the foyer to the brightness of the street.
The Barker Street façade is blank and painted in two tone olive green paint, in line with the upward slope of the street. There is evidence of an early concrete wall, the silhouette of panelled areas is discernible in the upper section of the wall and the configuration of the downpipes appears to be the same as for the Astor.
As a whole, the interior is extremely intact and remarkably demonstrative of the early 1970s, the period in which the cinema was refurbished as a twin complex. The foyer is stepped, not unlike the grand picture palaces of the interwar period where entry into the cinema was staged to heighten the experience of arrival. The foyer has upper and lower areas with a consistent decorative scheme throughout. The cinemas are located above the foyers and are arranged back-to back with a shared projection room between them.
The lower foyer is extensive, with interior finishes of dark brown brick and horizontal timber panelling stained dark brown, the ceiling is also lined with the same dark timber. This theme is continued through to rubbish bins, ashtrays and display units which are made of the same timber with strong horizontal design elements and aluminium details. Boxed, timber pelmet lighting runs along the walls throughout both the upper and lower foyers and the stairs. The foyer space is arranged symmetrically with staircases of identical detailing on either side of the centrally located ticket office. The ticket office is located in the space beneath the stairs to Cinema Two which was previously occupied by a fountain and decorative light fitting. Bold geometric carpet with a pattern of purple, green and blue circles and ellipses in a black background covers the floor throughout the entire foyer area, including the stairs.
A large alcove that once housed a coffee shop and art gallery runs along the right hand side of the lower foyer. A servery area with kitchen remains but is no longer used. A long banquette upholstered in bright blue vinyl and wool runs along the Barker Street wall and a number of chairs and tables are positioned here. On the opposite side of the foyer there is a door which leads to the manager's office and store room. Adjacent to this is the space where the ticket office was formerly located and is now panelled with horizontal timber, consistent with the rest of the interior. Signage throughout the foyer is composed of bronze, metallic lettering mounted directly onto timber elements such as doors.
The stairs to the upper foyer have solid, rectangular wall mounted timber handrails cut at an angle at each end. The central handrail has minimal balusters, again emphasising the horizontality of the timber detailing throughout the interior. Entrances to the cinemas are located opposite each other in the upper foyer. Each entrance has a pair of heavy timber double doors recessed into vestibule spaces for the stairs leading up into the auditoria. Bronze, metallic lettering announcing Cinema One The Blue Room and Cinema Two The Purple Room are situated above the doors, mirroring each other. The upper foyer is dominated by a large but delicate, crystalline hanging light fitting located in the centre of the ceiling. Two purple vinyl benches and two small café tables with chairs are located in the upper foyer.
The candy bar is located on the Barker Street side of the foyer. An office, which was previously part of the coffee shop, is next to the candy bar at a level between the upper and lower foyers with small sets of steps between the two. Doors to both male and female toilets are to be found opposite the candy bar. The doors are timber panelled consistent with the rest of the interior and have the same style signage. The female toilets retain a separate powder room area with a small vinyl covered bench and large mirrors on the far wall. Toilet cubicles and benchtops are terrazzo of a neutral colour. The male toilets have a large vestibule with a wall mounted copper sculpture hung against a bright yellow wall. The toilet partitions are also terrazzo.
Steep stairs lead to the cinema auditoria. The contrast between the sleek, dark style of the foyers and the vivid profusion of light and colour in the cinemas intensifies the sense of escapism and fantasy common to much cinema design. The Blue Room is the larger and more ornate of the two cinemas. The most obvious feature is the vaulted ceiling, a plaster moonscape with craters of varying depths which conceal red, blue and green lights. Larger, shallower craters are interspersed with the light craters creating a rich and complex surface. There are 294 light globes on three circuits, two of which are currently used. A variety of lighting effects can be achieved using these different circuits and the coloured globes. A pelmet which conceals recessed lighting covers the intersection between ceiling and wall and turquoise woollen drapes fall to meet the carpet which comes about one metre up the wall. The original carpet with an op-art, circular dot pattern of blue and brown remains throughout the cinema. The curve of the vault frames the screen which has several layers of turquoise wool drapes forming the curtain and surrounds. Architectural drawings from the 1970s refurbishment reveal that the plaster ceilings are attached to the bottom chord of the existing curved timber truss.
The auditorium has two distinct levels of seating, the floor of the front section gently slopes towards the screen whilst the floor of the back section is steeply raked. The seating throughout the cinema is upholstered in blue vinyl and seating in the back section has circular drink holders integrated into the armrests. Timber screens of horizontal panelling divide areas of seating and a solid balustrade of similar detailing runs along the edge of the void at the top of the entry stairs. A small niche containing a seat for the usher is located within this, a reminder of that period when cinemas employed ushers to show people to their seats and keep an eye on them throughout the show. An intercom in this niche is still used to enable communication between staff members.
The Purple Room has a more gentle ambience, however, the ceiling is also a significant feature. The ceiling is vaulted with floating, sprayed vermiculite, square panels over concealed purple lighting, translucent purple resin light boxes and square air conditioning vents arranged in an irregular pattern. Carpet of the same design as the Blue Room but in shades of purple and mauve is intact in the front half of the auditorium, however the foyer carpet now covers stairs and passageways and a purple version of the foyer carpet is in the back section. The cinema has the same seating configuration as Cinema One but with a smaller number of seats. Seats are upholstered in purple vinyl and the walls are covered with purple wool drapes. Timber detailing is the same as Cinema One and also includes an usher's seat. Wall lighting is concealed under pelmets at the top of the walls. A fire escape stair is located to the right of the screen.
The shared projection room is located at the back of each auditoria and is accessed from both cinemas.
","history":"The Village Twin at New Farm opened in late 1970, was the first twin cinema complex in Queensland and one of the earliest multi-screen cinemas in Australia. It was a renovation of the popular Astor Theatre, established as the Merthyr Picture Palace c1921, on the same site at the corner of Brunswick and Barker Streets.
The site - part of a larger parcel of land alienated in 1845 - had been subdivided by 1880 as a residential allotment of 44 perches, and a cottage, fronting Barker Street and Oxley Lane, appears to have been extant by 1883. There does not appear to have been any development of the northern end of this block prior to approval being granted by the Brisbane City Council in September 1921, for Mousley & Halliday of New Farm to erect a picture show with concrete and iron walls at the corner of Barker and Brunswick Streets. Known as the Merthyr Picture Palace, the theatre was functioning by 1923 at least, and probably opened in late 1921.
The Merthyr Picture Palace was the third picture theatre established in New Farm, which in the early 20th century was one of Brisbane's most closely settled suburbs, particularly north of Brunswick Street. The Earls Court Picture Theatre, one of the earliest picture shows in Brisbane, operated at the corner of Brunswick and Kent Streets from c1912 and was renovated as the Rivoli Picture Theatre c1920. The Colosseum Picture Theatre was established c1918 at 528 Brunswick Street [near the corner of Harcourt Street], but appears to have folded in the early 1920s. All three theatres were established along the principal street of New Farm, in close proximity to each other in the heart of the suburb. Competition amongst early suburban picture show exhibitors was strong, and despite the enormous popularity of moving pictures, only the Merthyr Picture Palace [remodelled as the Astor Theatre in 1924] survived the introduction of sound films in the late 1920s and the economic depression of the early 1930s.
Richard Francis Stephens and Charles Eric Munro, who established one of Brisbane's most successful suburban interwar picture theatre chains, had acquired an interest in the Merthyr Picture Palace by at least 1924, when they commissioned Brisbane architect Claude E Humphreys to design additions and alterations to the theatre. Humphreys undertook a number of picture theatre commissions around this time, including theatres at Toowong and Kelvin Grove, and the front facades he designed were ornate fantasies in vaguely 'Mediterranean' style. Brisbane City Council approval for the renovations to the Merthyr Picture Palace was gained in September 1924, and it is likely the alterations had been completed by the end of the year. The 1924 façade to the Astor Theatre changed little until the 1970 reconstruction, despite an impressive £7,000 renovation of the theatre undertaken in 1937 to the design of architect George Rae, which provided a seating capacity of 1,145.
Stephens & Munro, exhibiting at the Astor as Merthyr Theatres [Pty] Ltd for over 45 years, developed the Astor as one of the most successful suburban picture theatres in Brisbane. From the 1920s to the 1950s, moving-going was a popular recreational pastime. Suburban picture theatres, many of which had elaborate street facades, were local landmarks and provided a focus for local social activity. Theatre proprietors were local identities, and knew their patrons by name. Their audiences, most of whom lived within walking distance, dressed for the occasion and made regular bookings to ensure good seats.
Following the introduction of television to Brisbane in the late 1950s, cinema attendance declined steadily. The introduction of wide screens, technicolour and superior sound systems failed to halt this world-wide trend, and many of Brisbane's suburban theatres closed in the 1960s and 1970s. From the 1950s, the larger exhibition chains countered the loss of 'hardtop' audiences with the construction of drive-in movie theatres. Another approach, pioneered in Australia in Melbourne in the 1960s, was to create multi-screen cinemas within the shells of existing single auditorium theatres. The first of these multi-screen adaptations appears to have been the State Theatre in Melbourne, which was remodelled into two separate theatres, the Forum and the Rapallo, in the early 1960s. Later in the decade, Village Theatres commissioned Melbourne architects Ron G Monsborough and Associates to convert the former Rivoli Cinema at Camberwell into the Rivoli Twin Cinemas.
In mid-1969, Verdun Richard Stephens and Douglas Francis Stephens, took out a 10 year lease on the Astor Theatre from Merthyr Theatres Pty Ltd, but it appears that the following year the cinema was sold to Village Theatres (Brisbane) Proprietary Limited, a Melbourne-based exhibition company, with both the lease of the theatre and title to the site transferred to the new owners in 1971.
In 1970, Village Theatres commissioned Ron G Monsborough and Associates to design a twin cinema complex within the existing space of the Astor Theatre. Administration of the contract was handled by the Brisbane architectural firm of Briggs, Petersen & Burdett. The Astor Theatre remodelling was Village Theatres' first Queensland venture and second twin cinema complex, and possibly the third multi-screen cinema to be constructed in Australia. In the conversion, Monsborough economically adapted the existing volume of the early cinema to create two smaller yet spacious theatres under the one roof. The cinemas are located back-to-back with a shared projection box between them. Drawings from the 1970 conversion indicate that the new ceilings were fixed to the existing curved, timber truss. These trusses were distinctive to Queensland theatre design and it is understood that few remain in Brisbane.
The Telegraph described Ron Monsborough as "acknowledged as a leading Australian cinema design architect" and that the Village Twin "is the best example of his outstanding ability in this field." In the late 1960s, Monsborough had travelled to the USA, Canada, Europe and the Far East to study cinema design. He was the architect for the Village Theatres Group and still practices as a consultant in cinema design. Monsborough also designed the conversion of the former Metro Theatre in Albert Street in 1973 into the three screen Albert Cinemas.
Promoted as "a new concept in cinema entertainment", the Village Twin opened on 26 December 1970. Cinema One [The Blue Room] had a seating capacity of 555, and Cinema Two [The Purple Room] could seat 352. The complex included a coffee lounge and mini art gallery, and the whole was considered ultra-modern in both design and decoration. Of particular note was Cinema One, described by one movie reviewer of the day as "a beautiful sea-blue auditorium, with a roof which makes one think of white coral ..." It was the first cinema to have wall-to-wall carpeting and the luxurious qualities of the complex were strongly emphasised in the press at the time. Special features in the foyer included a fountain and wall-mounted, beaten copper Gemini figures which symbolised the twin aspects of the complex.
The re-modelling of the cinema also reflected current concepts in cinema programming and marketing. The intention at the time of opening was that the larger Cinema One would feature popular, box office successes with wide audience appeal whilst the smaller Cinema Two would screen contemporary films with a more limited public appeal. The then general manger Mr Bruce Simpson said that the "complex is directed at the sophisticated young people of the city ... but would not alienate those of a more conservative outlook." The Village Twin has maintained a reputation for screening quality and art-house films. In the early 1980s Cinema Two was leased by the Valhalla group, which operated cinemas in Melbourne and Sydney and screened principally revivals and non-mainstream film.
Since at least 1984, Edenfile Pty Ltd has held a half interest with Village Theatres in the Village Twin Cinemas. In August 1999, Melbourne-based Palace Cinemas bought Edenfile's 50% shareholding, thus completing a Palace cinema network in all Australian capitals.
","criteria":"The Village Twin Cinema Complex is significant for its continuous use as a cinema and its association with moving picture exhibition in New Farm since the early 1920s. Completed in 1970, the cinema is significant as the first twin cinema complex in Queensland, and one of the earliest multi-screen cinemas in Australia.
|It is a rare surviving and remarkably intact example of its type.
|Being a renovation of an existing picture theatre, the place also has the potential to reveal important information about the earlier structure on the site and thus contribute to our knowledge of 1920s and 1930s picture theatre design in Queensland. In particular the remaining curved timber truss which is unique to Queensland cinema design and the 1920s façade and exterior form of the former Astor, are important.
|The Village Twin Cinema Complex is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of cinema décor, in particular, the distinctiveness of late 1960s/early 1970s design.
|The interior in particular has strong aesthetic value. The highly decorative moulded ceilings of the cinema auditoria, the timber panelling, brick facing, carpeting and fittings in the foyers and the original and surviving internal colour schemes all contribute to the aesthetic and architectural significance of the building. The design exemplifies the sense of escapism and fantasy which is central to the tradition of cinema and theatre design.
|Located on a slight rise on busy Brunswick Street, the place is a well-known New Farm landmark and a theatre on this site has been the focus of social activity and popular culture in the suburb for over seventy years. It has a special association for Brisbane cinema audiences as an early alternative or art house cinema. As such, the Village Twin is important in demonstrating the evolution and specialisation of cinema audiences.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16855,"place_ref":602119,"name":"Nundah Fire Station (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"7 Union Street","suburb":"NUNDAH","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-03-26","description":"The Nundah Fire Station is a two storey, symmetrical timber framed building at the north end of Union Street off Buckland Road and backing onto the railway line. The building is clad with fibrous cement sheeting to the first storey, has timber weatherboards to the lower storey and a terracotta tiled hip roof. On the first floor a central, open verandah balcony projects over the engine room entrance with "Nundah Fire Station" painted in red across the sheeting to the lower part of the balcony. The black painted horizontal cover battens against the white painted sheeting to the first storey give the building a striking street presence.
The ground floor of the Fire Station accommodates the engine room, watch office, locker room and ablutions area, dormitory, kitchen, laundry and duty officer bedroom. The timber pole connecting the residence to the engine room has been sawn off at the first floor level and the pole cupboard is now used for storage at ground level. The locker room contains intact purpose built lockers for the firemen's uniforms and personal effects. The concrete floor to the engine room is marked with red wheel tracks and a concrete footpath crossing connects to the street. The interiors are lined with tongue and groove boarding and the ceilings are sheeted and battened, except the watchroom which is plastered. A brass plaque commemorating the opening of the station is on the engine room wall outside the watch office. The rear external timber stairs have been replaced with metal stairs and the laundry now accommodates an additional shower. Windows to the ground level are shaded by horizontal timber hoods on cantilevered timber brackets and fixed aluminium louvre screens have been added around the windows.
The residence on the first floor has a kitchen, living room, dining room, an open verandah balcony, three bedrooms and a bathroom. The living and dining rooms and main bedroom open by french doors onto the verandah balcony. There are glazed fanlights above these french doors and side lights to the those off the dining room. The pole connecting the residence and the station below is housed in a cupboard adjacent to the bathroom. The interiors are clad with tongue and groove boarding and the ceilings sheeted and battened. The kitchen cupboards, linen cupboard, dining room cupboard and main bedroom wardrobe remain. The terrazzo floor to the bathroom survives.
The grassed and concreted grounds are well maintained. A concrete path leads from a chain and rail gate in the north east corner to the rear stairs to the residence. A concrete driveway to the south east arrives at the hose drying area and shed to the rear of the station. Recently planted palms (Archontophoenix sp.) are to the north and south boundaries and to front of the station.
","history":"A modest, functional civic building, the Nundah Fire Station has been the operational centre for fire services in Nundah since 1936.
Between 1860 and 1868 there were five attempts to form a fire fighting service for Brisbane. Each brigade struggled to survive unable to attract a viable subscription base and hampered by inadequate equipment and an unreliable water supply. The establishment of an effective fire service did not enjoy a high priority among civic and government leaders.
A fifth brigade, the City Volunteer Fire Brigade, was established in 1868. New rules provided for better financial control and balanced representation through the Fire Brigade Board with membership from the Brisbane Municipal Council and insurance companies. These arrangements were consolidated by the Fire Brigades Act of 1881. Funding for fire serivces came from contributions by Queensland State Government, Brisbane Municipal Council, insurance companies and subscriptions. In 1889 the first full-time firemen were employed and a permanent fire brigade was established. A new headquarters, designed by HW Atkinson, was completed on the corner of Ann and Edwards Streets (on a corner of the Normal School site) in 1890. This began a long association between the Fire Brigade and the various architectural firms with whom he was associated.
The fire fighting needs of the city increased as Brisbane continued to develop. Nundah Fire Brigade was formed by volunteer local residents in 1916 after The Fire Brigades Act Amendment Act of 1902 allowed local authorities to establish independent boards and brigades. Brigades were formed in Hamilton (1917), Windsor 1917, Ithaca 1918 (QHR 601199), Toowong 1918, Taringa 1919, Wynnum 1921 and Sandgate 1923. These were voluntary bodies with only the superintendent and immediate assistants receiving a salary. The Fire Brigades Act of 1920 rationalised the network of fire brigades in Brisbane and suburbs, centralising control under the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board in 1921.
The Nundah Fire Brigade stored its equipment at the Royal Hotel until a shed and bell tower were erected in Union Street, Nundah in 1917. This shed functioned as the Nundah Fire Station until 1936 when the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Board was resiting old fire stations and erecting new stations, funded by the State Government, as part of an upgrading of fire services under the Minister for Health and Home Affairs, Edward Hanlon. Under this program, the early fire station at Nundah was demolished and a new purpose-built two storey station was constructed to a design by HW Atkinson and AH Conrad by the contractor TF Woollam. The station was opened by Hanlon on 11 December 1936. Other stations built under this policy include Coorparoo, Wynnum, Hamilton, Sherwood, Sandgate and Toowong.
The new building housed the station facilities on the ground floor and a residence for the superintendent on the first floor. This combination of station and residence was common in fire stations and this plan was duplicated at Wynnum and Coorparoo.
In 1990 the Metropolitan Fire Brigade became a division of the Bureau of Emergency Services. The Nundah Fire Station will be decommissioned in 1999 and operations transferred to a new station at Hendra.
","criteria":"Nundah Fire Station is an important example of the upgrading of fire stations undertaken in Brisbane suburbs by the Queensland Government through the Metropolitan Fire Board during the 1930s. The building has been in continual use as a fire station from 1936 to 1999.
|Nundah Fire Station is an intact example of the work of the architectural firm Atkinson and Conrad.
Nundah Fire Station is a fine intact example of the architecture and planning of Brisbane suburban fire stations of the 1930s incorporating offices and engine room to the ground floor and a residence to the first floor. The interiors in both the operational and domestic areas are intact interiors and reflect the operation of 1930s fire stations. The kitchen is a fine example of an intact domestic interior.
|Nundah Fire Station, with its associated grounds, has aesthetic and architectural significance as a modest, functional civic building. Robust and austere, with its simple but striking horizontal banding and use of readily available materials, it is easily identified in the streetscape.
|Nundah Fire Station is important for the continuing association of the Fire Brigade with the community of Nundah since the establishment of fire fighting services for the area by local resident volunteers in 1916.
|Atkinson, through the firms he was associated with, sustained a long association with the Fire Services in Brisbane commencing in 1890 with his design for the new headquarters for the Brisbane Fire Brigade. His architectural practices were responsible for many of the fire stations throughout Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16858,"place_ref":602122,"name":"Orient Hotel","alternate_name":"Excelsior Hotel","street_address":"560 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-04-23","description":"The Hotel Orient, a three-storeyed rendered masonry structure with a hipped corrugated iron roof, is located on an acute corner site at the intersection of Queen and Ann Streets, a major intersection on the edge of the central business district. The building's highly visible location and expressive form make it a city landmark.
The building is located on a triangular site, with the earliest section at the northern end of the site fronting Queen and Ann Streets, and the later addition forming a wing across the southern part of the site linking both street frontages. A small service yard with some later infill is located on the northwest fronting Ann Street, and the wedge-shaped corner of the building fronting Queen and Ann Streets is rounded to form a sharp curve.
The ground floor has an awning to the Queen Street frontage and to the northern end of the Ann Street frontage. The awning is supported by steel tie-rods fixed to the exterior of the first floor, and has decorative pressed metal soffit and fascia, with the name HOTEL ORIENT in relief. The Queen Street frontage has an entrance at the southern end, with regularly spaced sash windows fronting the street and returning along the Ann Street frontage. The entrance is accessed via a flight of steps to recessed doors which have a leadlight fanlight panel. A metal grille above the entrance has the letters H and O intertwined, and the side walls are finished with glazed ceramic tiles with a decorative frieze and trims. The glazed ceramic tiles continue along the street frontage, however they have been covered with a textured coating with only the frieze being left exposed. The windows along the Queen Street frontage dating from the interwar refurbishment have decorative leadlight panes, and later sash windows retain evidence of being adapted from earlier doorways. The corner has evidence of earlier doorways, and currently has paired non-original timber framed glass doors with a raised threshold which aligns with an internal stage area. The windows to the Ann Street frontage have their sill heights at footpath level, with a cast iron palisade set in the sill to each window. An entrance to the bar is located at the western end of the original section of the Ann Street elevation.
The first and second floors have regularly spaced sash windows with decorative leadlight panes fronting Queen Street and returning along the Ann Street frontage. The windows have continuous window hoods to both levels supported by shaped timber members and clad with shingles. The walls are finished with a textured render.
The remainder of the Ann Street frontage consists of the end elevation of the southern wing, which has textured render and two sash windows per floor. Verandahs enclosed with fibrous cement sheeting and sliding window units are located on the northern side of the southern wing, and return along the western side of the main section. The entrance to the small service yard is located adjacent to the enclosed verandah, and has lattice screening and a skillion roof. Later infill also fronts Ann Street between the small service yard and the central section of the building, and consists of an early section to the ground level finished with textured render, and a later brick first floor section with skillion roof. The building has several rendered chimney stacks, a large billboard is mounted on the roof fronting the intersection, and a deck has been constructed over the small service yard at the level of the second floor.
Internally, the building has a cellar at the southern end, mostly located under the Queen Street end of the southern wing. The cellar has both face brick and squared rubble-coursed porphyry walls, and two brick arched alcoves are located on the western side. The cellar is accessed via concrete steps from the enclosed service yard area, which is split-level and located between the ground and first floors.
The ground floor has a large bar area at the northern end fronting both streets. The corner contains a non-original raised stage area, and the ceiling is coffered with beams possibly indicating the locations of original load bearing walls and central corridor. Two cast iron columns are located towards the stage end of the bar area, and correspond to a change in direction of the central corridor to both upper floors. The bar fit-out is non-original, and toilets are located behind the bar area fronting Ann Street. An entrance foyer with reception/office is located at the southern end fronting Queen Street, with a stair accessing the upper floors. The foyer has pressed metal ceilings, and decorative leadlight doors and fanlight separate a second smaller bar at the rear. This bar has pressed metal ceilings, and timber wall panelling to door head height. Toilets are located at the rear of the bar, and early windows with leadlight panes open to the adjacent service yard.
The first floor is entered via a stair at the southern end which access a central lobby. This lobby is located at the western corner of the intersection of the main section of the building and the southern wing. A second dogleg stair, located on the eastern side of this lobby, accesses the second floor and has turned timber balusters and timber handrail. Paired timber doors open either side of the stair, with an arched leadlight fanlight to the southern door. The northern end of the first floor has been fitted out as a nightclub, and the majority of the internal walls have been demolished and render has been removed exposing the brickwork. The form of the early corner lounge with fireplace is still visible, and window architraves and sills survive. A small bar separates this area from a pool room at the southern end of the floor, which has rendered masonry walls and fireplace. A kitchen is located on the western side of the nightclub, in an addition fronting Ann Street.
Steps to the side of the first floor central lobby access the enclosed verandah to the southern wing. A narrow timber stair, with timber balustrade and handrail, is located within the verandah and accesses the second floor, and evidence remains of it originally accessing the ground floor. The verandah detailing includes dowel balustrades, narrow louvred timber panels, and an arched timber boarded valance with rounded ends. The verandah walls to the southern wing are of painted brickwork, and have flat-arched sash windows and doors with fanlights which access store rooms and toilets.
The second floor retains the early layout of a central corridor, with rooms opening to either side, which returns to connect with the enclosed verandah to the southern wing. At this level, the enclosed verandah returns along the western side of the main section of the building. Ensuite bathrooms have been added to the rooms, by either converting an existing room into two ensuites or by constructing an ensuite in part of an existing room. Arches are located in transverse corridor walls, and some early detailing survives including doors and fanlights, architraves, shirtings and arch mouldings. The deck over the small service yard is accessed from the enclosed verandah.
","history":"The Hotel Orient, a three-storeyed brick building erected for Brisbane publican John Morse as the Excelsior Hotel, was constructed in two stages: a two-storeyed building with cellar in 1875, with a third floor and southern extension in 1884. Both stages were designed by Brisbane architect Richard Gailey. Occupying an early Queen Street subdivision, the hotel illustrates the northern extension of the Brisbane central business district around Petrie's Bight in the last quarter of the 19th century.
John Morse emigrated from England to Queensland in 1862. He held the licence to the Assembly Hotel at the corner of Edward and Margaret streets, Brisbane, from 1865 to 1868, then followed the gold rush to Gympie, where he was licensee of the Bendigo Hotel until returning to Brisbane in 1873, taking up the licence to the Union Hotel at the corner of Ann and Wickham streets [now Centenary Place], which he held until 1875. By 1875 he was married with a young family.
In 1874 Morse purchased in two parcels a small, triangular block diagonally opposite the Union Hotel - 15.4 perches of land at the intersection of Queen and Ann streets, Petrie's Bight. The subdivisions were part of an early town allotment alienated in 1864 by William Hobbs, and subdivided by Josiah Young in 1874. The site was strategically located along Queen Street, the principal thoroughfare between Brisbane Town and Fortitude Valley, and was close to the Union Hotel and Morse's regular client base. Petrie's Bight was then developing rapidly, stimulated by construction of municipal wharves downstream from the Customs House in 1875-77.
Brisbane architect Richard Gailey called tenders for the construction of a hotel at the corner of Queen and Ann streets in November 1874, the same month that Morse gained title to the property. Gailey was a Londonderry architect who had settled in Brisbane in 1864. He established his own practice here in 1865, and over the next 60 years built up a thriving business, working until his death in 1924. Hotels were Gailey's speciality. He designed over 30 hotels or modifications to existing hotels in Brisbane alone in the period 1869-1895, with hotel work elsewhere throughout the colony. The largest and most opulent of the Gailey-designed hotels were erected during the 1880s, reflecting the general building boom in Queensland during a period of unprecedented economic growth. His impressive surviving boom era hotels include the Regatta [1886] (600331) at Toowong, and in Fortitude Valley the Wickham [1884-85] (600213), Prince Consort [1887-88] (600212), Jubilee [1887-88] (600211), and Empire [1887-89] (600199). The Hotel Orient is his earliest surviving, still operating Brisbane hotel, and contributes significantly to our understanding of his work.
In mid-1875 Morse registered a £2,000 mortgage on the Queen and Ann streets corner site, which is likely to have financed construction of the hotel. The building was completed by June 1875, when he applied for a license to operate the place as the Excelsior Hotel. At that time the building was his own property, unoccupied, yet to be licensed, and containing more than the necessary accommodation as required by the Publican's Act. An 1881 bird's-eye sketch of Brisbane shows the early Excelsior Hotel as a two-storeyed building with a cantilevered first floor verandah.
The hotel appears to have prospered with the growth in trade centred around Petrie's Bight. In September 1884 Gailey called tenders for additions to the Excelsior Hotel, consisting of an additional Story on the present Building, and a Three-story Building at the Southern end, extending from Queen to Ann streets. This established the present form of the building.
About 1888 the remodelled hotel was advertised as one of the architectural features of the city - fitted up with every appliance and found with every convenience necessary to the carrying on of a large business, and the comfortable accommodation of the public. The house is situated in one of the most charming parts of the city, and from it may be gained a panoramic view of the river and the surrounding suburbs. Balconies extend round the hotel, and on these open large and comfortably-furnished rooms, thus securing to the visitor plenty of fresh air during the hot months. A sketch of the hotel which appeared in The Queensland Figaro of 20 April 1889, shows a three-storeyed building with encircling verandahs and french-doors on the upper two levels, opening onto the verandahs, with a wider curved street awning at ground level supported by double timber posts. The place was advertised as a family hotel, of first-class standard.
Two decorative iron pillars in the main bar on the ground floor, bearing the lettering A Sargeant & Co., may replace earlier masonry walls. Their style suggests they were installed c1890s, which may indicate another period of renovation of the hotel.
John Morse held the licence to the Excelsior Hotel from 1875 until 1906, with one short-term transfer of the license to George Boreham in 1889-90. In March 1906 Morse retired from the hotel business, moving to Dornoch Terrace in Highgate Hill, and leasing his hotel to publican John Brosnan, who renamed it the Hotel Orient. A year later Brosnan transferred the lease to Isaac Francis, and throughout most of the 20th century there has been a rapid turnover in lessees and licensees of the place. One of the longest-serving licensees was Joseph Thomas Kelly, who held the license throughout the 1930s and to at least the early 1940s.
Morse's wife, Wilhelmina, died in September 1909, and John in December the same year. The Hotel Orient passed to their daughter, Mary Ann Durham, who retained title to the property until August 1912, when it was transferred to Perkins & Co. Ltd, established Brisbane brewers and hotel owners, which became Castlemaine Perkins Limited in 1928. The Orient remained the property of this company until 1980. There have been a number of owners since.
In the 1920s and 1930s the Hotel Orient was modernised, during a period of substantial hotel renovation throughout Brisbane. Sewerage was connected in 1925, and in 1930 the Marberete Co. installed a cold room and builder SS Carrick carried out alterations, both jobs to designs by Castlemaine Perkins' architects George Henry Addison and Herbert Stanley MacDonald. In 1935 Marberete Co. carried out further alterations to the Orient, again to the design of Addison and MacDonald. The 1930s renovations included much use of leadlights and pressed metal ceilings, the remodelling of the ground floor private bar and entrance at the southern end of the building on the Queen Street side, and streamlining of the exterior. A photograph of the renovated Orient Hotel, published in The Sunday Truth of 20 February 1936, shows the 1880s ground level posts and awning replaced with a cantilevered flat awning, the first and second floor verandahs removed, the french doors on these levels converted to windows with narrow encircling roofs over, and a large neon sign above the main roof, displaying CASTLEMAINE XXXX. In April 1936, the Orient Hotel was valued at £16,000. Facilities at this time included 2 bars, 3 sitting rooms, 1 dining room, 4 double guest rooms, 15 single guest rooms, 6 sleeping rooms for licensee, family and staff, 4 bathrooms, 9 waterclosets, 2 urinals. Although located approximately half a mile from both the Central Railway Station and the AUSN Wharf, the place was used extensively by the travelling public, and averaged 15 guests per week.
Another significant refurbishment of the Orient Hotel was undertaken c1956. By this time the corner entrance was no longer in use, and the public bar was accessed from Queen Street. The 1956 renovations included changes to the public bar, and the rearrangement of guest lounge, dining room and kitchen facilities on the first floor, to permit increased accommodation for the licensee and staff.
In the early 1980s further substantial refurbishments included the gutting of much of the first floor for a new dining room, bar and kitchen, and changes to the public bar on the ground floor. In 1990 the public bar acquired its present configuration, and in 1995 the premises were converted to budget accommodation, with ensuite bathrooms installed on the top floor.
Despite the on-going refurbishments, the Orient retains its 1880s form, and remains one of few 19th century hotels to survive in the Brisbane central business district, where once there were many. It continues to trade as an hotel, and is one of the longest licensed hotels in inner Brisbane, pre-dated only by the Victory [on the northeast corner of Edward and Charlotte streets - originally the Prince of Wales, established 1855], Exchange [northwest corner of Edward and Charlotte streets, from 1863], Port Office [southeast corner of Edward and Margaret streets - initially the Shamrock, from 1864], and the Treasury [northwest corner of George and Elizabeth streets - originally the Dunmore Arms, from 1865]. Social change and renovation of the central business district with high-rise office and apartment blocks, has seen the demolition of 19 major city hotels since 1970 - particularly those which occupied strategic corner positions on principal thoroughfares, as was typical of Brisbane's 19th century hotels.
The Hotel Orient demarks the juncture between Brisbane City and Fortitude Valley along a major inner city thoroughfare. It's landmark value is particularly noticeable since the late 20th century demolition of the nearby National Hotel, a late 1880s hotel which occupied a similar triangular-shaped corner site one block to the east, at the intersection of Queen and Adelaide streets.
","criteria":"The Hotel Orient, erected as the Excelsior Hotel in two stages, 1875 and 1884, is important in illustrating the pattern of settlement in Brisbane. The 1884 additions in particular are illustrative of the growing economic and social sophistication of colonial Brisbane.
|The Orient is one of a handful of surviving 19th century hotels in central Brisbane, and is important for its rarity.
|It is important in illustrating the evolving nature of inner city hotels, and has the potential to reveal further information about 19th and 20th century hotel design and evolution.
|Despite numerous refurbishments, the place retains its 1870s-80s footprint, form, streetscape presence, and much early fabric, illustrating some of the principal characteristics of a 19th century three-storeyed, masonry, first-class hotel, including the corner siting and clear evidence of a former corner entrance, a footprint which follows the shape of the land subdivision, provision of ample accommodation on the top floor, a rear service wing, and stone cellar.
|Much of the fine 1930s refurbishment survives, including the street awning and continuous window hoods, internal and external finishes, highly decorative leadlights, and pressed metal ceilings and cornices. These elements, together with the building's expressive form and highly visible location, contribute to its considerable aesthetic and architectural significance.
|The Hotel Orient demarks the juncture of the Brisbane Central Business District and Fortitude Valley along a major inner city thoroughfare, and as such has landmark significance with strong social value.
|The place is important for its association with the work of architects Richard Gailey, George Frederick Addison and Herbert Stanley MacDonald.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16870,"place_ref":602134,"name":"Queensland National Bank (former), South Brisbane Branch","alternate_name":"Ng House","street_address":"39 Melbourne Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-05-26","description":"The former Queensland National Bank, South Brisbane Branch is a two storey rendered brick building with a corrugated iron roof partly concealed by a decorative, moulded parapet with a dentilled cornice.
The building turns the corner between Melbourne and Grey Streets in three stages. Every change in angle occurs between a pair of pilasters. The eastern façade, along Grey Street, is divided into five bays by paired giant order pilasters. A paired, copper door is located along Grey Street topped by a classical entablature with a row of dentils. A similar entablature can be seen over a second entry at the right hand bay of the Grey Street frontage. The southern façade, along Melbourne Street is divided into two bays by pilasters. Double hung sash windows are located on both the ground and first floors. Recessed, square copper panels are placed between the upper and lower windows.
Internally, the building has undergone refurbishments on both the ground and first floors. The entrance foyer has a decorative plaster ceiling and cornices. A archway with recent decorative timber work opens to a hallway from which offices open on each side. Original timber doors, with breezeway assembly, remain in offices along the eastern wall. The original strong room is located in the northwestern corner of the ground floor.
A staircase, with a copper handrail, leads to the first floor landing which has an original cast iron railing. A downpipe has been retained in the southwestern wall on the first floor. The first floor offices are currently unoccupied.
","history":"The building was originally constructed as the South Brisbane branch of the Queensland National Bank. Constructed by local builders, A Stonadge and Son, to a design by Addison and McDonald, the new premises at 39 Melbourne Street was opened for business on 31 July 1929.
The land on which the building was to be constructed was one of thirty allotments sold in the Brisbane land boom of 1854. The Deed of Grant for the land was acquired on 11 May 1854 by William John Loudon. As it was situated within the town limits drawn up in 1846, the allotment was affected by each of the major urban developments on the South Brisbane peninsula such as the development of the public transport systems, the declaration of the first-class urban areas and the widening of the major arterial roads [Melbourne and Grey Streets]. It was also one of the many areas inundated by the floods of the 1890s. Subdivision of the original blocks was underway by 1870 and allotment 1 section 15, of which this site is a part, was acquired by Patrick Maunsell on 3 March 1871. It was sold by Maunsell's widow in 1897 and passed through several hands until the site was acquired by Janet Mearns Pike and Richard Pike in 1912.
The economic development of South Brisbane was reflected in the various properties which occupied the site prior to the construction of the bank in the late 1920s. These included boarding establishments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries which served the needs of workers and visitors to the city until 1917. The more diversified nature of commerce in the area from that time is reflected in the tenancy of the Pikes Building which was constructed by 1917. The State Department of Works leased the site in 1917 and various state offices including the Chief Protector of Aboriginals and the Department of Water Supply were situated there. In 1925, the whole of the site was resumed by the South Brisbane City Council. It passed to the Brisbane Municipal Council and, in 1927, part of the land was dedicated for road purposes. Resubdivision of the land followed and sub 3 of allotment 1 of section 15 was sold to the Queensland National Bank in September 1927. The A & B Journal of Queensland in July 1927 describes the '...corner purchased by the Queensland National Bank as one of the gem positions of the whole business thoroughfare ...'
Brisbane City Council approved a new building for the Queensland National Bank Ltd, Queen Street, Brisbane in October 1928. Architects advertised for tenders and in the A & B Journal of Queensland, November 19, 1928, advertised that A Stonadge and Son's tender had been successful. The building cost just over £339. From 22 May 1928, the bank had occupied temporary premises in the adjacent Trocadero Building in Melbourne Street.
Situated on the corner of one of the three distinct shopping centres which developed in South Brisbane in the early twentieth century, Baynard's Corner Melbourne Street, the Queensland National Bank was ideally placed to capitalise on the industrial and commercial development on the South Brisbane Peninsula. The construction of the South Brisbane Branch of the Queensland National Bank may have reflected the determined drive by the Bank to increase its market share in Queensland and to acquire the custom of the importers and merchants of the cities.
The business potential of the Queensland National Bank many not have benefited to the same extent as that of its rival from the major developments in transport in the area, however, its drive to acquire the business of merchants and importers may well have been served by the up-grading of transport facilities in the area. These included the relocation of the in-bound lane of the tramway from Stanley Street to Grey Street in 1918. From that time, all in-bound trams from West End, Dutton Park, Ipswich Road, Coorparoo, Greenslopes and Balmoral stopped at the Bayards corner intersection where the bank was situated. When the Melbourne Street Railway Station became the terminus for both the interstate line through Kyogle as well as the southside commuter services, access to potential clients would have been increased considerably.
The South Brisbane branch was one of a number of suburban branches established in the 1920s. Its move into the area reflects the bank's optimism and confidence in the potential of the locale and its desire to capture a large slice of Queensland's financial markets - a confidence and desire which it apparently shared with its counterpart and rival, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia whose banking chambers adjoined. The building in both its aspect and architecture reflects both the optimism for the future and the competitive drive which several of the banks were exhibiting at this time.
In July 1949, title passed from the Queensland National Bank Ltd to the National Bank of Australasia, who held the property until 1978, when the branch was closed. Title to the land changed several times until the property was purchased by the current owners in 1983.
The former Queensland National Bank, South Brisbane Branch was identified as a Place of Contributory Significance in Brisbane City Council's 1993 Heritage Study of the South Brisbane, West End and Mater Hill areas. The Heritage Study was prepared as part of the South Brisbane Development Control Plan.
","criteria":"The former Queensland National Bank, South Brisbane Branch is significant as it provides evidence of the contribution made by the building program of Queensland banks in the late 1920s, to the Queensland economy, reflecting the strength and solidity associated with the bank it represented.
|As a surviving remnant of the former scale of the South Brisbane area, which has been substantially altered due to development, the former Queensland National Bank, South Brisbane Branch is significant for its rarity.
|(Criterion under review)
|Aesthetically significant, the former Queensland National Bank, South Brisbane Branch, along with the adjacent former Commonwealth Bank building, contributes to the Grey Street streetscape. Situated on the corner of Melbourne and Grey Streets, the former Queensland National Bank, South Brisbane Branch is a prominent landmark in the South Brisbane area, reflected in its inclusion in the Brisbane City Council's Heritage Study of the South Brisbane, West End and Mater Hill areas.
|A purpose-built bank, constructed as the South Brisbane branch of the Queensland National Bank, the building is significant for its association with past and present clients of this major Queensland and Australian banking institution.
|The former Queensland National Bank, South Brisbane Branch significant for its association with Brisbane architectural firm Addison and McDonald who designed the building and with local building firm A Stondage and Son.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16872,"place_ref":602136,"name":"Fortitude Valley State School (former)","alternate_name":"former Fortitude Valley Boys School and former Fortitude Valley Girls and Infants School | State Emergency Services State Headquarters","street_address":"95 Brookes Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-03-26","description":"Two distinctive and substantial brick buildings on the south side of Brookes Street, Fortitude Valley, between the Fortitude Valley Police Station and the railway line were the core buildings of the former Fortitude Valley State School. Their decoration and construction details are reminiscent of the Gothic Revival style favoured for ecclesiastical and educational buildings of the time. Within this idiom, these buildings give expression to a more restrained Gothic, displaying a sense of mass solidity and simplicity. Both are lively compositions with decorative textured surfaces and discrete detailing.
Former Girls and Infants School (Benjamin Backhouse 1867):
This free-standing two-storey red face brick building sits on a rusticated tuff base. The exterior is now painted. Though asymmetrical, the school is designed to a basilica-like plan with the narthex and nave expressed externally by steeply pitched intersecting gable roofs. The main entrance is from a five-sided apse porch to the east. To the north, a timber single-storey room with gable roof and decorative paired brackets projects from the middle of the nave. The passage between this room and the main building is now enclosed. The verandah to the south is now enclosed and a single storey brick extension has been constructed to the southeast corner off the apse porch and south verandah.
The building has battered, banded corners and two horizontal stringcourses to the upper level. The north and south gable fronts have three lancet windows to the upper level each with a plain head-mould. Beneath the eaves, both gable fronts are decorated with crow gable corbelling and three blank bullseye windows. A vertical rectangular louvred vent to the east gable sits above the apse porch. The eaves are supported by plain corbelled brackets and the underside is lined with tongue and groove boards. The words "primary school" are spelt out in projecting brick on the north side of the nave at the upper floor level. Curved sunhoods with bold brackets and lattice spandrel screens shelter the windows of the ground floor to the west and southwest.
The entry and circulation apse opens into a large school room from which two smaller teaching rooms open to the west. The ground and first floor plans are identical. These rooms are now partitioned into office workspaces and meeting rooms. The interiors are plain with stop-chamfering to doors and window frames. The apse stair has stop-chamfered newell posts with ball and half-ball tops and plain rectangular timber post balustrading. Much of the joinery survives. The ceiling to roof of the large school room at the upper level is presently covered by a suspended ceiling of acoustic tiles but a preliminary investigation reveals that the roof is supported by four collar-braced king-post trusses within a lofty timber lined roof space. The arched pendant posts with decorative corbels survive and are visible beneath the suspended ceiling. A dog leg stair with half landing has been inserted from the south-west teaching room to the teaching room directly above. In the large school rooms, high set windows to the south and larger lower windows to the north accommodated galleried classes. High set windows to the south and west of the small teaching rooms also accommodated galleried classes. The south verandah is enclosed with weatherboards and louvres and partitioned into toilets. A timber louvre to the former southwest lavatory on the south verandah survives. There are hat/coat hooks along the masonry wall to the verandah. The pavilion extension to the south of the apse is entered from the south verandah. A light and airy room, with a mansard profile sheeted and battened ceiling, it is lit by a bank of south facing windows.
Former Boys School (Richard Suter 1874):
This axially-planned, symmetrical one-storey brick building is east of the former Girls and Infants School and also conforms to a basilica-like plan. Separate, steeply pitched gabled roofs express the narthex and nave and the main entrance is from a five-sided apse porch to the north. The building sits on stone foundations and the verandahs to the east and west rest on low brick piers. The verandahs have been enclosed. The beehive-like corbelling to the eaves of the nave and north gable front is more elaborate than the corbelling on the Girls and Infants School.
The apse entry, with a narrow tongue and groove board lined ceiling, opens into the high ceilinged large school room from which two small teaching rooms open to the south. The large school room has been subdivided into two spaces by a vertical tongue and groove lined post and rail framed partition. Both partitioned spaces have a tongue and groove lined ceiling with a plain cornice. There are timber floors throughout. Cambered arched window openings are a feature throughout the building and double arched doors open from the large school room to both verandahs. Windows to the south portion of the large school room are sheeted over and could not be inspected. Windows to the west wall of the north portion have been clumsily replaced but a window to the north east survives. The two small teaching rooms are lit from the south by a bank of casement windows and each opens to its adjacent verandah. The flat sheeted and battened ceiling across these rooms falls with the gable roof slope near the edges of the rooms. Throughout the building door mouldings, window frames, verandah posts and verandah rails are stop-chamfered. Many verandah posts survive within the enclosing boarding, some with capitals intact. There is evidence that there were handrails and balustrading to the verandahs.
Grounds:
The former Opportunity School, a number of sheds, masts and a lookout are scattered to the south of the site.
Bitumen paths have been laid throughout the site. A bitumen carpark and a gravel parking lot lie to the north of the site. There is haphazard planting to the Brookes Street boundary and close to the buildings.
These incidental buildings and plantings are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Two substantial brick buildings form the former Fortitude Valley State School in Brookes Street Fortitude Valley. The two-storeyed brick building designed by Benjamin Backhouse in 1867 was the former Girls and Infants School. The adjacent single-storey designed by Richard Suter in 1874 was the former Boys School.
Fortitude Valley was settled throughout the 1850s, with a boost to immigrants with the arrival of John Dunmore Lang's free settlers on the ship Fortitude. Denied promised land grants this group moved from York's Hollow, near Wickham Terrace, to what became known as Fortitude Valley. A government census in 1861 showed that there was a total population of over 1300 people in the district by that year.
The Fortitude Valley School opened in rented premises in 1861 in Ann Street near Brunswick Street with an average attendance of 140 boys. A girls school joined the boys in 1864. As attendance continued to rise in this flourishing village, the need for a more permanent educational facility ensued. The site in Brookes Street was selected and the students took up residence in the 1867 two-storeyed building designed by Benjamin Backhouse. As enrolments continued to grow the need to provide additional facilities saw a second building designed by Richard Suter constructed in 1874. The Girls and Infants school were located in the original building and the Boys occupied the new building. The schools were considered separate entities.
Both Backhouse and Suter's designs were modelled on the Lancastrian system. This system combined galleried schoolrooms and smaller classrooms for use in conjunction with monitors and pupil teachers. Monitors and pupil teachers used the classrooms for drill learning with small groups while the teacher conducted the main class in the schoolroom. The arrangement of the rooms allowed the school to cope with very large numbers of children in ratio to small numbers of teachers. The 1867 Fortitude Valley School was designed to accommodate 300 children.
Benjamin Backhouse was born in Ipswich, England and migrated to Queensland in 1861 after a sojourn to the Victorian goldfields between 1852 and 1860. During his eight years in Brisbane he was to erect more than 100 buildings, drawing from a wide range of public, commercial and private clients. He was architect to the Board of General Education between 1863 and 1868. He designed brick schools for Warwick, 1864 [600947], Maryborough, 1866, and Bowen, 1866 supervised the construction of South Brisbane, 1864 and extended the Normal School. He also designed a number of timber schools in the southern part of the Colony before moving south to Sydney in 1869.
Richard George Suter was born in London and migrated in 1853. By 1865 Suter was working with Backhouse whilst establishing his own practice. After Backhouse left Queensland in 1868, Suter was offered independent commissions from the Queensland Board of Education. Suter was to develop the use of exposed external studding on timber buildings which was particularly popular in school building constrained by cost and availability of materials.
","criteria":"Two distinctive and substantial brick buildings on the south side of Brookes Street, Fortitude Valley, between the Fortitude Valley Police Station and the railway line were the core buildings of the Fortitude Valley State School. The two buildings are early examples of Queensland public school buildings, demonstrating the evolution of settlement in Brisbane.
The 1913 extension to the former Girls' and Infants' School and the dividing partition of the former Boys School are important for demonstrating architectural responses to changes in educational theory. Other alterations indicate architectural responses to the evolution of the operational activities of the Fortitude Valley State School.
|They are rare examples of the Gothic Revival style favoured for ecclesiastical and educational buildings in the nineteenth century. The two buildings are important for their intact interiors including; roof trusses, timber lined ceilings, joinery, and apse stair. The design allowed for large schoolrooms combined with small classrooms that accommodated galleried seating, features essential to the nineteenth century Lancastrian teaching system. They are rare surviving Queensland examples of schools designed to accommodate this system of education.
|The two buildings contribute to the Brookes Street streetscape aesthetic, which includes the Holy Trinity Church and Rectory, the Fortitude Valley Police Station and the 1948 Fortitude Valley State School.
|The 1867 two-storeyed former Girls' and Infants' School designed by important Queensland architect Benjamin Backhouse, and the 1874 single-storeyed former Boys' School designed by another important Queensland architect Richard George Suter are outstanding examples of their educational work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16879,"place_ref":602143,"name":"Wynnum Fire Station (former)","alternate_name":"Wynnum Fire Station","street_address":"39 Mountjoy Terrace","suburb":"WYNNUM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-05-28","description":"The former Wynnum Fire Station is a two-storey, symmetrical timber-framed building in Mountjoy Terrace opposite the south-western end of Wolsey Parade. The building is clad with fibrous cement sheeting to the first storey, has timber weatherboards to the lower storey and a corrugated, fibro-cement sheeted hip roof. On the first floor a central, open verandah balcony projects over the engine room entrance with "Wynnum Fire Station" painted in red across the sheeting to the lower part of the balcony.
The ground floor of the former fire station accommodates the engine room, watch office, locker room and ablutions area, dormitory, kitchen, laundry and duty officer bedroom. The timber pole connecting the residence to the engine room has been removed and the pole cupboard is now used for storage at ground level. The locker room contains intact purpose-built lockers for the firemen's uniforms and personal effects. The concrete floor to the engine room is marked with red wheel tracks and a concrete footpath crossing connects to the street. The interiors are lined with tongue and groove boarding and the ceilings are sheeted and battened. The laundry now accommodates additional lockers and storage. Windows to the ground level are shaded by horizontal timber hoods on decorative, cantilevered timber brackets.
An extension has been inserted between the laundry and the duty officer's bedroom to accommodate a shower to the bedroom and provide additional storage area. A shower has also been added to the ablutions area of the locker room.
The rear external timber stairs connect to the former residence above. The residence has a kitchen, living room, dining room, an open verandah balcony, three bedrooms and a bathroom. The living room, dining room and main bedroom open by french doors onto the verandah balcony. There are glazed fanlights above these french doors and side lights to the those off the dining room. The pole cupboard housing the pole that connected the residence and the station below is adjacent to the bathroom. The interiors are clad with tongue and groove boarding and the ceilings sheeted and battened. Original fabric remains including kitchen cupboards, linen cupboard, dining room cupboard and main bedroom wardrobe. The bathroom is substantially intact with the terrazzo floor, pressed metal wall sheeting and the original hot water heater remaining. A carved keystone timber archway separates the dining room from the bathroom/bedroom area.
There is a gable-roofed timber shed in the south-west corner of the site. Clad in weatherboards and flat sheets at the gable ends, internally the shed is partitioned into two spaces.
The grassed and concreted grounds are well maintained. A concrete driveway along the western boundary arrives at the hose drying area and shed to the side and rear of the station. Recently planted palms (Archontophoenix sp.) stand to the front of the station.
","history":"A modest, functional civic building, the former Wynnum Fire Station is a prominent landmark on Mountjoy Terrace in Wynnum.
Between 1860 and 1868 there were five attempts to form a fire fighting service for Brisbane. Each brigade struggled to survive, unable to attract a viable subscription base and hampered by inadequate equipment and an unreliable water supply. The establishment of an effective fire service did not enjoy a high priority among civic and government leaders.
A fifth brigade, the City Volunteer Fire Brigade, was established in 1868 under rules which provided for better financial control and management through the Fire Brigade Board. These arrangements were consolidated by the Fire Brigades Act 1881 under which it was established that the Brigade was to be funded for fire services from contributions by the Queensland State Government, Brisbane Municipal Council, insurance companies and subscriptions. In 1889 the first full-time firemen were employed and a permanent fire brigade was established. A new headquarters, designed by HW Atkinson, was completed on the corner of Ann and Edwards streets (on a corner of the Normal School site) in 1890. This began a long association between the Fire Brigade and the various architectural firms with whom he was associated.
Fire Services in Wynnum
In the south-east of Brisbane, Wynnum sits on Moreton Bay. The railway link to Cleveland via Wynnum in 1888 was a major impetus to closer settlement with large areas of land being taken up soon after. The district expanded rapidly over the next twenty years until in 1913 the Town Council of Wynnum was constituted. The area became known as a seaside resort and the Wynnum and Manly foreshore area became increasingly popular with day visitors and holiday-makers. Since that time it has developed as a dormitory suburb of Brisbane, conveniently linked to the city.
Wynnum was perceived to be a 'healthy' place to live with its sea breezes, protected beaches, vistas to Moreton Bay, fishing and the availability of fresh local produce. The district continued to expand as the number of permanent residents increased; services and infrastructure were introduced; building activity expanded; and civic and community associations were established.
The first fire brigade was established in Wynnum in 1921. Three blocks of land were purchased in Mountjoy Terrace, opposite Wolsey Parade, and a temporary building erected to serve as the fire station and residence. The Wynnum District was included in the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Board's District in 1928 and the brigade continued to operate from this station until the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Board replaced it with a new station under a fire services upgrading program funded by the Queensland Government and instigated by the Minister for Health and Home Affairs, Edward Hanlon. The Wynnum Fire Station was opened by Hanlon on 25 May 1938. The new building housed the station facilities on the ground floor and a residence for the superintendent on the first floor. This combination of station and residence was the typical design for fire stations in Brisbane at this time. Similar residential fire stations were built at Yeronga (1934) [QHR 602144], Coorparoo (1935) [QHR 600569], Nundah (1936) [QHR 602119] and Hamilton (1941). A weatherboard-clad, gabled shed was constructed at some time shortly after the new fire station, being visible in a 1943 aerial.
The 1938 building continued to operate as a fire station until 2004 when a new facility for the service was built elsewhere and this property was sold into private ownership. Since that time it has served as a residence.
","criteria":"The Wynnum Fire Station (former) is an important example of the upgrading of fire stations undertaken in Brisbane suburbs by the Queensland Government through the Metropolitan Fire Board during the 1930s.
The former Wynnum Fire Station is important in demonstrating the growth of Wynnum during the early twentieth century and into the 1930s.
|The Wynnum Fire Station (former) is a rare and intact example of the architecture and planning of Brisbane suburban fire stations of the 1930s. The station remains as the only operational fire station from the 1930s. The interiors in both the operational and domestic areas are substantially intact. The place is rare in demonstrating the development of the fire service in Wynnum with both fire station buildings remaining on the one site.
|The Wynnum Fire Station (former) is a rare and intact example of the architecture and planning of Brisbane suburban fire stations of the 1930s. The Station remains as the only operational fire station from the 1930s. The interiors in both the operational and domestic areas are substantially intact.
|The Wynnum Fire Station (former) has aesthetic and architectural significance as a modest, functional civic building. Robust and austere, it is a landmark on Mountjoy Terrace within Wynnum.
|(Criterion under review)
|The Wynnum Fire Station (former) is important for its association with the work of the architectural firm Atkinson and Conrad. Atkinson, through the firms he was associated with, sustained a long association with the Fire Services in Brisbane commencing in 1890 with his design for the new headquarters for the Brisbane Fire Brigade. His architectural practices were responsible for many of the fire stations throughout Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16880,"place_ref":602144,"name":"Yeronga Fire Station (former)","alternate_name":"Queensland State Emergency Service Office","street_address":"785 Ipswich Road","suburb":"YERONGA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-04-23","description":"On the southeast corner of Yeronga Park, the former Yeronga Fire Station is a two-storey timber framed structure, clad with weatherboards to the lower level and battened fibro sheeting to the upper level, beneath a red terracotta tiled gabled roof. A discreet awning with a pressed metal edging decorated with pateras and fluting shelters the engine room entrance to the School Road frontage and is supported by steel tie-rods fixed to the exterior of the first floor.
Rectangular in plan, the ground floor contains an engine room, watchroom, dormitory, kitchen, bathroom and recreation room. Tall, vertical, timber, bifold, counterweighted doors to School Road open into the engine room around which the other rooms are arranged in an L-shape. The concrete floor to the engine room has been painted green but the red fire engine guide tracks are evident in areas where the paint has worn. The watchroom is at the front of the Station off the engine room and opens into the adjacent dormitory. The fireman's pole terminated in a small hall in the centre of the building to the rear of the engine room. The pole has been removed. The kitchen, bathroom and dormitory open off this hall. The recreation room is to the rear of the Station off the engine room and opening to the rear yard. All ground floor rooms are lined with tongue and groove boarding and have fibro sheeted battened ceilings. The dormitory contains built-in timber cupboards and tilting fanlights to the engine room wall. The bathroom could not be unlocked but a terrazzo floor was evident under the closed door. A serving hatch has been cut into the wall between the kitchen and the recreation room.
A dog-leg timber stair at the rear of the Station connects to entrance to the residential accommodation for the station superintendent above which contains three bedrooms, living room, kitchen, bathroom and hall. A laundry, on a suspended concrete slab supported by concrete piers, is off the landing of the dog-leg stair. The laundry was not able to be unlocked. The entrance to the residence opens off a small sheltered porch at the top of the stair through an arched doorway into a central hall. The smaller bedrooms and bathroom are through an arched opening to the west of the hall and the kitchen and living room open to the east and south of the hall. The cupboard to the east of the hall that housed the fireman's pole is now used for storage. The kitchen no longer functions as a kitchen but cupboards to the west and an arched recess and broom cupboard to the south remain. The bedroom to the northwest and the bathroom have been converted to toilets. The living room has an arched recess and opens to an enclosed verandah to the southeast. The wall separating bedrooms one and two has been removed. All rooms are lined with tongue and groove boarding and have fibro sheeted and battened ceilings. The battening to the ceiling in bedroom one forms a lozenge-like pattern.
A small, tubular-steel and chain wire gate to the west of the Station opens to a drained, concrete path continuous about the west, north and east of the Station. A battered bank rises up on each side of the concrete path to the level of the park behind. Concrete vehicle tracks from Ipswich Road gateway finish at the rear of the Station. Repairs to the northeast corner of the concrete path indicate the location of an earlier tank stand. Two timber sheds have been erected to the rear of the station for storage and additional office accommodation.
","history":"A modest, functional civic building, the former Yeronga Fire Station on the corner of School Road and Ipswich Road within Yeronga Park, is a prominent landmark on the busy Brisbane arterial, Ipswich Road,
Between 1860 and 1868 there were five attempts to form a fire fighting service for Brisbane. Each brigade struggled to survive unable to attract a viable subscription base and hampered by inadequate equipment and an unreliable water supply. The establishment of an effective fire service did not enjoy a high priority among civic and government leaders.
A fifth brigade, the City Volunteer Fire Brigade, was established in 1868 under rules which provided for better financial control and management through the Fire Brigade Board. These arrangements were consolidated by the Fire Brigades Act of 1881 under which it was established that the Brigade was to be funded for fire services from contributions by the Queensland State Government, Brisbane Municipal Council, insurance companies and subscriptions. In 1889 the first full-time firemen were employed and a permanent fire brigade was established. A new headquarters, designed by H.W.Atkinson, was completed on the corner of Ann and Edwards Streets (on a corner of the Normal School site) in 1890. This began a long association between the Fire Brigade and the various architectural firms with whom he was associated.
Fire Services in Yeronga:
With the establishment of the South Coast railway in 1884, Yeronga was recognised as a desirable commuter suburb. Settlement of the suburb remained subdued until the interwar years when residential building activity increased dramatically, with the number of residences in Yeronga doubling. At this time, the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board was attempting to respond to the increased fire fighting needs of the expanding Brisbane suburbs. In the 1930s, the Board was resiting old stations and erecting new stations under a program funded by the Queensland Government, instigated by the Minister for Health and Home Affairs, Edward Hanlon. The former Yeronga Fire Station, the first fire station in Yeronga, was erected under this program by contractor William Allen Miller and opened by Mr W.B. Denmead on 18 April 1934. The new building housed the station facilities on the ground floor and a residence for the superintendent on the first floor. This combination of station and residence was the typical design for fire stations in Brisbane at this time. Similar, though larger, residential fire stations were built at Coorparoo 1935 (QHR 600569); Nundah 1936 (QHR 602119); Wynnum 1938 (QHR 602143) and Hamilton 1941.
The Yeronga Fire Station was decommissioned in 1974 when operations were relocated to the new Acacia Ridge Station. The former Yeronga Fire Station has since been a Queensland State Emergency Services office.
Queensland State Emergency Services has deemed the former Yeronga Fire Station to be surplus to requirements and the Department of Natural Resources is currently handling the disposal of the property. The former Yeronga Fire Station is to go to auction on 19 May 1999.
","criteria":"The former Yeronga Fire Station is an important example of the upgrading of fire stations undertaken in Brisbane suburbs by the Queensland Government through the Metropolitan Fire Board during the 1930s.
The former Yeronga Fire Station is important in demonstrating the growth of Yeronga during the 1930s.
|The former Yeronga Fire Station is an important example of the architecture and planning of Brisbane suburban fire stations of the 1930s. The interiors in both the operational and domestic areas are substantially intact.
|The former Yeronga Fire Station has aesthetic and architectural significance as a modest, functional civic building. Robust and austere, it is a landmark on Ipswich Road, a busy Brisbane arterial.
|The former Yeronga Fire Station is important as one of a number of civic and community service buildings located within Yeronga Park.
|The former Yeronga Fire Station is an important example of the work of the architectural firm Atkinson and Conrad. Atkinson, through the firms he was associated with, sustained a long association with the Fire Services in Brisbane commencing in 1890 with his design for the new headquarters for the Brisbane Fire Brigade. His architectural practices were responsible for many of the fire stations throughout Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16881,"place_ref":602145,"name":"Rosemount Hospital","alternate_name":"Rosemount Repatriation General Hospital | Rosemount Military Hospital | Rosemount","street_address":"189 Lutwyche Road","suburb":"WINDSOR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-09-24","description":"Rosemount Hospital occupies 2.422 hectare site on an east facing slope overlooking Breakfast Creek at Windsor. It comprises a variety of buildings, structures and gardens and includes a former 1880s brick residence set amongst a collection of WWI, interwar and WWII timber wards and ancillary buildings and a recent masonry complex for geriatric patients.
The site is divided by the large two storey masonry complex constructed in the late 1980s. To the west are the former Medical Officer's Quarters facing Lutwyche Road, a single storey timber framed building elevated on concrete stumps with a hipped corrugated iron roof and walls clad in pine chamfer boards. It contains two bedrooms, a kitchenette, lounge, entrance porch and verandah which has been enclosed. The building is presently unoccupied.
Also located on Lutwyche Road is the former dental hut, a single storey timber framed building clad in timber chamferboards with a terracotta tile gambrel roof and finials. It is elevated on timber stumps and was converted to several different uses including an assistant officer's quarters and later as an orderlies' hut.
The remainder of the surviving buildings are located to the east of the masonry complex.
Wards 1-5 are located within the southern portion of the site. Each has had stumps and roofing replaced, ventilated ridges removed and verandahs enclosed with casement windows and metal louvres. The interiors of the dormitory have been lined with fibrous cement sheeting . At the northern end of each of the wards an addition which may incorporate the frame of the early walkway has been lined externally with small timber chamferboards. A steel framed covered connecting walkway links the buildings. Ward 1 is now occupied by the GARU and Karuna. Part of Ward 2 is also occupied by Karuna. Wards 3 contains the Red Cross canteen and the University of Queensland have research units in part of Ward 3 and in Ward 4. Ward 5 is unoccupied.
Wards 6 and 7, constructed c1939, are single storey timber framed buildings elevated on concrete stumps and beams with a fibro cement roof and walls lined in FAC board. They were built with 11' wide verandahs to the north and south sides with canvas roller blinds which have been enclosed. Self contained ablutions located in an annexe at the eastern end of each building have been altered.
The buildings are highset at their eastern end and the subfloor area has been enclosed with fibrous cement sheeting. Ward 6 is presently used for storage of bulk medical stores and Ward 7 has been recently refurbished as offices for its present tenants, Home and Community Care (HACC). The interiors have been lined, some partitions installed and the building has been painted internally and externally.
The Matron's flat and household workers' quarters is a timber framed building lined with tongue and grooved pine elevated on timber stumps. The verandahs are lined with fibrous cement sheeting to sill height with venetian blinds above. The Matron's flat, contained a verandah, office, bedroom, lounge, vestibule, front hall and bathroom. The Household workers' quarters contained a hallway, bedroom, sewing room, dining room, lounge, and back and side verandahs. All internal partition walls have been removed and the building was used as a kitchen until recently and is now unoccupied.
The Rosemount residence has a western wing constructed of English bond red facebrick relieved with stone sills and window dressings, multipaned leadlight windows and a dark facebrick base. It has a corrugated iron roof and bay windows to the north and to the west with battened and bracketed eaves and an elaborate timber entrance porch with seating to the north. The western bay window is protected by a narrow porch which provides entry to the semi detached kitchen. An early stone retaining wall frames the walkway at the end of the building.
The 1880s brick wing of the early Rosemount residence and the adjoining kitchen is of the same layout that appears on the 1916 plan and contained bedrooms, bathroom, large dining room, kitchen scullery, larder and cook's room. Timber detailing throughout is substantial and elaborate and includes ceilings, architraves, skirtings, dados, dining room mantel piece and door and window joinery. The dining room and hall have elaborate coffered ceilings and the floor to the halls has tessellated tiles. The lower level of the house to the east of the main hall was replaced sometime after WWI. This timber wing replaced a masonry portion in a similar configuration and early windows and doors have been incorporated into timber framed walls. The rear verandah and viewing platform was enclosed and roofed and the spiral stair removed. The posts, ripple iron ceiling and other details of the early verandah survive and have been clad with timber chamferboards and casement windows. The massage room was located on the eastern verandah , and an ionisation room and orthopaedic room were contained within the house during WWI. It was later adapted for use as the Sister's quarters.
The former Sisters' Quarters No 1 (day nurses quarters) is a single storey timber framed building elevated on concrete stumps with pine chamfer board cladding and a corrugated iron gambrel roof. Its linear plan contains what were formerly thirteen bedrooms, an entrance lounge, hall and a bathroom and shower room opening off a central hall. The western end of the building is in contact with the ground and the walls and floor at this end of the building demonstrate some signs of failure, the extent of which is unknown. The building is presently unoccupied.
The Operating Theatre is a single storey timber framed building lined with vertical tongue and groove pine boards and six-light sash and frame windows. It is elevated on concrete stumps and has a corrugated iron gable roof with ventilated ridge. Entry is gained via a series of ramps to a porch on the western elevation. A pair of six-light timber panel entrance doors with matching sidelights and fanlights provide the main entry to a large foyer with a staff entry to an office through a four panel timber door. The interior comprises a theatre, offices and ancillary spaces with floors and coved skirtings finished with terrazzo.
The former lavatory block is a timber framed building with a concrete floor and corrugated iron gambrel roof. Its walls originally lined with tongue and grooved pine boards have been sheeted on the exterior with fibrous cement sheeting. The building is presently divided with a central timber partition and is unoccupied.
The former Recreation Hall is a single storey timber framed building, lined with vertical tongue and groove pine boards and is elevated on concrete stumps with a corrugated iron gable roof. The roof structure incorporates iron tie rods below a coved timber boarded ceiling. Natural light and ventilation are provided by a combination of sash and frame windows divided by pairs of top hinged sashes to the east and west elevations. Entry to the building is gained at the southern end via a ramp or short flight of stairs and the building is connected to the eastern and southern wards by a timber framed covered walkway.
The former mortuary building is a simple single storey brick building with concrete floor and corrugated iron roof. Access to the interior was not available.
Indigenous Health occupy a highset single storey timber framed building with corrugated iron roof in the north east corner of the site. This building was removed to this location after 1966. Another highset single storey timber framed building with corrugated iron roof lined in vertical tongue and groove boards with sash and frame windows was also removed to the south eastern corner of the site after 1966 and may have been relocated from somewhere within the hospital complex.
","history":"The former residence of Rosemount and its grounds on Lutwyche Road at Windsor have served several different functions over more than a century. Originally a home to several notable Brisbane identities, the site was transformed into a military hospital during World War I and has also served as a repatriation hospital, psychiatric facility and as a centre for rehabilitation.
Allotment 13 on which the original Rosemount residence was built was granted to Charles Windmell in March 1855. Daniel Rowntree Somerset, purchased this allotment (and allotments 11 and 12) in August 1855 and built a lofty house of stone containing drawing room, dining room, four bedrooms and hall with marble chimney pieces, enriched cornices and centres which he offered for sale in 1858-59. The property on 77 acres, also included a detached kitchen built of stone containing a pantry store room and two servant's rooms; a coach house and stable built of hardwood slabs and an acre of garden well stocked with flowers, shrubs and fruit trees. The property was first leased and then purchased in July 1865 by Maurice O'Connell. Sir O'Connell and his wife Eliza Emmaline came to Brisbane in 1860 after a six year term as Government Resident at Port Curtis. He was a grandson of Governor Bligh, and was very prominent in the affairs of the colony of New South Wales. He was a founding member of the Queensland Legislative Council and its president until 1879. A highly respected and involved public figure, O'Connell was appointed Administrator of the Colony in the absence of the Governor on four occasions. A locality in Windsor was named O'Connelltown in his families' honour and Le Geyt Street was named after Lady O'Connell's maiden name.
O'Connell immediately began subdividing and selling allotments 11 and 12 as smaller building sites. He took out three mortgages of £1500 in July 1865, £605 in August and £367/5 in September 1866 on Allotment 13. It is not certain what he did with the loans but in 1872, O'Connell lost the property comprising the house and 24 acres 36 perches to Mary Jones after she exercised her power of sale when the O'Connells defaulted on repaying the £1500 loan. Jones transferred the property to Francis Sophia Jones , wife of the Reverend Thomas Jones of All Saints Church, Wickham Terrace and the property was then offered for sale or to let in May 1872. The description of the house at this time closely matches that when the house was sold by Somerset, suggesting that no major construction work had been undertaken. The property was described as being built of stone, consisting of six rooms with detached kitchen, storeroom and larder. There were also wooden stables, with stalls for five horses, coach house and loft and a room for a groom. The grounds surrounding this residence comprised about 22 acres including flower and kitchen garden, a cultivation paddock of five acres and a pasture for five or six cows.
Maurice Lyons, solicitor leased the property in October 1872 for a term of three years and continued the lease after the property was purchased by his wife, Matilda in September 1873. Lyons kept racehorses and nearby Lyons Parade and Lyons Terrace are named after the family.
In February 1880, stock and station agent, James Hamilton Scott purchased the house on 6 acres 4 perches and soon after nominated Henry Vyvyan Hassell and Samuel McGregor as trustees for purposes unidentified. The remainder of allotment 13 was offered for sale as Rosemount Estate by Lyons, subdivided into 90 'villa sites'.
Trustees, Hassell and McGregor took out a mortgage for £1,500 from Richard Cruise in December 1882 and Scott appears in the Post Office Directories for 1883-4 as residing at Rosemount. Scott may have been responsible for the additional stone house that was believed to have been added to the original building and connected by a timber walkway.
In 1885, the property was purchased by Alfred Jones, the manager and one of the founders of the firm, Gordon and Gotch. It is believed that the original stone house began to fail and Jones demolished and replaced it with the brick wing and porch to form one long residence. Jones is also believed to have added the look-out across the eastern verandah of the building accessed by a spiral stair. The design of the brick addition has been attributed to prominent architect GHM Addison.
In 1901, Jones purchased an adjoining 2 acres, 1 rood 34 perches, a subdivision of allotment 14. Alfred Jones resided at Rosemount until his death in 1912 when the property was inherited by his sons, Sydney William and Herbert Alfred. The following year, the sons left the house to live in Ascot.
The property was lent to the military authorities for the term of World War I and was not formally acquired from the Jones' family until 1926 along with an additional 1 acre 1 rood 27 perches in the southwest corner. Rosemount was initially used as a hospital for massage and ionisation cases but the existing buildings soon proved to be insufficient for the increasing number of soldiers requiring hospital care. In 1916, eight open air style wards with semi-detached general areas and bathrooms and central kitchen area were constructed in the grounds between the house and Breakfast Creek by the Department of Home Affairs. Existing outbuildings such as the coach house, laundry and stables were adapted for use as orderlies' quarters and for other auxiliary uses.
Construction on a second phase of buildings commenced in December 1918 and was substantially complete by the end of 1919 at which time the hospital complex comprised a total of 13 wards, five huts, a dining hall and kitchen, theatre block, two buildings for staff quarters, sisters quarters, administration block, massage block, stores, dispensary, curative metal workshop, curative boot repairing workshops, boiler house, mortuary, motor shed, oil shed, dental buildings, eight fire boxes and a gymnasium.
The design of the new wards was adapted from the standard pavilion plan of the time and like the open air wards were designed to provide for the maximum circulation of fresh air. Patients were ideally situated in close proximity to a door or window without the distinct disadvantages of having no walls, particularly in winter months and with the opportunity of respite on open verandahs.
Initial plans provided 10' verandahs to enable patients to sleep out and to increase accommodation in the wards. The Chairman of the Board argued that patients everywhere prefer sleeping on the verandah and it was thought that this would especially be the case in Queensland. However, the Principal Medical Officer disagreed with this deviation from the standard design and insisted that the five wards be constructed with standard 5' verandahs.
A compromise was reached and the five identical timber pavilion plan single storey wards elevated on timber stumps with corrugated iron roof and ventilated ridge, measuring 80 ft by 17 ft, were erected with 8' verandahs. Each ward included a dormitory, two cubicles, a Sister's office, servery and an annexe sterilizer room and self contained ablutions block at the southern end. The ward buildings were stepped down the gentle east facing slope and were connected by a timber framed walkway with corrugated iron roof. Wards 1 and 2 were constructed as a 20 and 22 bed ward respectively. Wards 3,4 and 5 were 30 bed wards.
In April 1921 Rosemount Hospital was taken over by the Department of Repatriation from the Department of Defence. The Repatriation Department immediately began a building program which included the erection of a new residence for the medical officers at a cost of £950, alterations and conversion of the Administration block to nurses quarters and single officers quarters. A detached room was constructed for sterilising which adjoined the existing scientific block. The Dental hut was altered for research work and the tinsmith's shop became a pharmacy. Alterations were made to the existing mortuary and a hut was altered for office accommodation.
Alterations were made to the administration building to provide office accommodation for the medical superintendent and an out-patients department. The Red Cross Buildings were altered as accommodation for the resident Medical Officer and pharmacist and a lavatory and bathroom were added. A lavatory was moved 15' from the front gate to the right, to provide a gate keepers cottage. The dental hut was converted to be used for pathological examinations. The 1916 open air wards and associated outbuildings were demolished prior to 1935.
In December 1939, approval was granted for the construction of new wards by the Department of the Interior, for the accommodation of service personnel. The construction of similar wards in Sydney and Melbourne were also approved. In February 1940,the Major General reported that while there were a small number of army patients at Rosemount it was expected that the numbers would increase before June with the establishment of larger Militia Camps and the involvement of the Australian personnel in the Middle East.
Plans were prepared by the Department of Works after consultation with the Departments of Repatriation and Defence. Initially thirty beds were to be provided but with the escalation of the war, this requirement was increased to a total of 82 beds available for defence patients. To cope with the extra patients and resultant staff increase, additions were also made to the kitchen and boiler house, nurses quarters, orderlies and maids changing rooms and stores.
Following World War 2, the Department of Repatriation rationalised and reorganised its facilities for service personnel. The Greenslopes Repatriation Hospital became the principal acute care facility and as a consequence the Rosemount complex was transferred to the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board in the early 1950s. The Board was experiencing major problems with overcrowding and the Rosemount site was used to alleviate some of those difficulties and was used for a variety of purposes, principally the care of long term patients. Minimal improvements were made at Rosemount as the Board's capital funds were needed for the expansion on the Herston site. In 1951, over three acres on the banks of Breakfast Creek was sold to the Brisbane City Council and is presently open space used as parkland.
In the 1980s the Rosemount site was used as a psychiatric facility for the nearby Royal Brisbane Hospital. During this period the operating theatre was used to administer electroconvulsant therapy (ECT or 'electric shock treatment). The adjacent Ward 6 functioned as an intensive care unit, Ward 7 was the lock ward and the former nurses quarters were used as accommodation for medical staff..
In the late 1980s a new two storey masonry complex to accommodate the geriatric services divisions was erected to the west of the Rosemount residence and part of this building is now used as a day hospital. This project necessitated the demolition of some the massage block, X-ray building, garage, male staff hut, workshop and stores.
At the present time the Rosemount complex remains part of the Royal Brisbane Hospital and fulfils a number of functions. These include: geriatric rehabilitation, an Aged Care Assessment Team, Indigenous Health, palliative care (Karuna) and home and community care (HACC).
","criteria":"Rosemount Hospital is significant as a military hospital developed as a result of World War I. It demonstrates the development of facilities required to treat the extensive number of service personnel injured in World Wars I and II. The extent of war injuries is an aspect of the war that tends to be overshadowed by the number of fatalities as recognised by war memorials. These buildings are a testament to those who survived but nevertheless suffered as a result of the conflict.
It (former Rosemount residence) also demonstrates the type of residential development that occurred along the northern bank of Breakfast Creek from the 1860s and is important for its association with early European Settlers in this area. It is also significant for the evidence it provides of changing trends in psychiatric and general nursing and medical care.
|This is the only such facility surviving in Queensland and one of the few from this period in Australia.
The five timber ward buildings have added significance as a rare surviving example of a set of timber pavilion ward from World War I.
|(Criterion under review)
|The former Rosemount residence is significant as an example of an 1880s residence by prominent nineteenth century architect, G H M Addison, and has added significance for the intactness of its 1880s brick wing including the interior of its rooms.
Significant buildings include the former Rosemount residence, the Medical Officer's quarters, Dental Hut, the five timber pavilion wards constructed in 1918, the former lavatory building and operating theatre, the timber pavilion buildings constructed c1939, the former Matron's quarters, the Sister's Quarters, the former Red Cross Hut and the Morgue. Other significant features include the connecting walkways, stone retaining walls and mature trees.
|(Criterion under review)
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16887,"place_ref":602150,"name":"Archerfield Second World War Igloos Complex","alternate_name":"Thiess Contractors Pty Ltd premises | Hasting Deering (Australia) Ltd premises","street_address":"98-138 Kerry Road","suburb":"ARCHERFIELD","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-08-27","description":"The site comprises four timber framed igloos with corrugated iron and ribbed metal sheet cladding. Numbered from the eastern end of the site, the igloos are identified by a number from 1 to 4. The site fronts Kerry Road to the north, with a recreation reserve to the south fronting Mortimer Road.
All four igloos are of similar construction, and utilise nailed timber arch construction, where each arm is made up of two half arches pinned at two abutments close to the ground level, and at a central or crown pin. Each half arch consists of two adjacent trusses laced together at top and bottom chord level and each truss consists of a top and bottom chord laced together in arch form. Each truss is therefore made up of four main timber chords sprung into arch form, and light timber bracing nailed into position to form a curved open-latticed box truss.
The structures were originally sheeted in corrugated iron, however igloos nos. 1-3 have been re-sheeted with ribbed metal sheeting. The structures also have translucent sheeting at regular intervals, approximately located between each box truss, which provide adequate lighting levels. The igloos have ridge ventilators, concrete floors, and the abutments are fixed by timber plates into concrete footings. Original external stormwater drains along the side of each igloo are still in use, some with grates known as 'Bailey's matting'. Internally, the igloos are used for a range purposes including storage and manufacturing, and consequently have various free-standing structures.
Igloo no. 1 is the former store, and is the smallest of the four igloos. It is located closer to Kerry Road than the remaining three igloos which are in alignment facing north-south. When constructed, it was described as being 255 feet long and 170 feet span and of Oregon construction, and currently has skillion roofed side annexes.
Igloo nos. 2 is of similar size and is the largest of the four igloos, and when constructed was described as being 353 feet long and 188 feet 6 inches span and of hardwood construction. It has an overhead walkway near the ridge, and its abutment pins are raised a few metres above the ground on timber frames which result in much greater clearance.
Igloo no. 2 has a large single-storeyed administration building added to the northern end, and large additions have also been made to the southern end including a paint booth and engine testing room. This igloo has skillion roofed side annexes, and large louvres have been installed in the northern wall above the administration building.
Igloos nos. 3 and 4 are of similar size, and when constructed were described as being 353 feet long and 170 feet span and constructed of hardwood timber. Igloo no. 3 has skillion roofed side annexes and the name HASTINGS DEERING on the northern wall above the entrance which has evidence of early sliding door mechanisms. Internally this igloo shows some signs of structural movement, with the cracking of some narrow timber members and cracking of concrete surrounds to abutments. Igloo no. 4 has original gable roofed side entrances, and has been enclosed at the southern end with several demountable structures, and a fence separates it from the surrounding Thiess Contractors site.
Large carparks are located to the north of igloos along the Kerry Road frontage, and several demountable and ancillary structures are located around the igloos and the site in general. An original concrete drainage channel is located along the northern part of the site parallel to Kerry Road, with an original bridge north of igloo no. 3. This drainage channel turns southwards between igloos nos. 1 and 2 and runs to the rear of the property.
","history":"The Archerfield Second World War Igloos Complex is comprised of 3 former igloo hangars and one associated igloo store. These structures are located on a site which had been part of the Archerfield Aerodrome during the Second World War, and each is a timber truss igloo structure with corrugated iron or ribbed metal sheet cladding. The igloos were constructed in 1943-44 by the Allied Works Council for the Department of Aircraft Production. The complex was used for military aircraft maintenance and repair under the control of the US 81st Air Depot Group, and under the U.S. 5th Air Force under the command of General Douglas MacArthur's Supreme Headquarters of the South West Pacific Area. It has been noted in a study of prefabricated Second World War structures that the Archerfield Second World War Igloos are among 'the longest clear span buildings existing in Australia.'
1. History of the Site, and aviation in Brisbane, to the Second World War
The area immediately surrounding the Archerfield Second World War Igloos Complex has been known as Archerfield only since 1929. As early as 1826 the wider area was known as Cowper's [later Cooper's] Plains, named after the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement's first medical officer, Dr Henry Cowper, who, during his regular visits to Limestone Hill [Ipswich], camped overnight on the government cattle run established on the grassy plains east of Oxley Creek, about 7 miles south of the main Brisbane River settlement.
The first freehold land in the district was made available in the 1850s, and most of the remaining land was taken up in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1855 Thomas Grenier purchased from the New South Wales Government 640 acres, much of which is now part of Archerfield Aerodrome. The land on which the igloo structures are located was granted by Deed of Grant in July 1856 to John and Isaac Markwell. The land was transferred in December 1878 to George and Samuel Grimes, and later to Annie and Martin Finucane in March 1901 who subdivided the property. The land surrounding the igloos was transferred to the members of Spring and Sims families in the 1910s and 1920s, and this land was acquired by the Crown in February 1945 pursuant to the provisions of the Lands Acquisition Act 1906 and The Real Property (Commonwealth Titles) Act of 1924.
The first aerodrome in Brisbane was established on a site at Eagle Farm which had been inspected in February 1922 by Captain EC Johnston, Superintendent of Aerodromes, Civil Aviation Department, as a site for a civil aerodrome. A grass airstrip was formed in 1923, and a layout for hangar blocks with a caretaker's cottage was prepared in February 1924. The Brisbane Civil Aviation hangar was constructed at the site c.1925, and the first commercial operations were commenced by QANTAS in 1926, which formed the Brisbane Flying Training School in 1927. By August 1928 a second hangar housing QANTAS was located adjacent to the north of the Brisbane Civil Aviation hangar, with a caretakers cottage to the south. However, the aerodrome suffered from poor drainage and flooding.
Significant aviation events during this period included the landing of the Southern Cross in June 1928. Squadron Leader Charles Kingsford-Smith and CTP Ulm completed the first trans-Pacific flight from California to Brisbane, landing at Eagle Farm. Kingsford-Smith and Ulm formed Australian National Airlines in 1929 and initiated scheduled services between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Also of note in 1928, Squadron Leader HJL Hinkler AFC completed the first solo flight from England to Australia in 16 days in a light aeroplane. On 10 April 1933, Queensland aviator Mrs Lores Bonney left Archerfield on the start of her solo flight to England.
In September 1928 the Brisbane City Council approved of about 228 acres of farm land at Cooper's Plains (renamed Archerfield July 1929), near Oxley - part of the 640 acres first alienated by Thomas Grenier in 1855 - as the site for a new Brisbane aerodrome. This site was intended to replace the Eagle Farm Aerodrome, which had suffered substantial flooding. In 1929 the Commonwealth Government resumed the bulk of the present airfield, with frontages to Beatty, Mortimer and Boundary Roads, and additional land was acquired in 1930, 1936 and 1942. In August 1929 it was stated that as soon as the aerodrome at Archerfield was acquired and prepared, flying activities would be transferred from Eagle Farm which would then be available for disposal, and that the two existing hangars would be moved to Archerfield, but that the caretakers cottage on the site would remain. Eagle Farm continued to operate until 1931 when it was closed after heavy rains. The first hangars were erected or moved to Archerfield in 1930-31. The Queensland Aero Club, which had been established in 1919, was based at Eagle Farm during the 1920s and moved to Archerfield 1931.
In 1929 the Eagle Farm site was placed with the Department of the Interior for sale, and several options for disposal of the property were considered, including industrial sites or to the general public in broad acre lots or by subdivision. In 1931 it was assessed as having a poor prospect of sale, and it was recommended to lease the land until the real estate market improved.
Until 1939, Archerfield Aerodrome comprised one large, grassy field of nearly 300 acres, several hangars located along the Beatty Road side of the airfield just north of the earlier cemetery [601968], and the Queensland Aero Club's facilities at the northern end of the field along Boundary Road. There was no tarmac, and the roads in and out of the airfield and to the buildings were unsealed. The first control tower was a small timber structure on steel posts, which was replaced by a new Archerfield Administration, Passenger Terminal and Control Tower Building [601140] erected in 1941. Preliminary plans for a control and administrative building were prepared in 1936 as part of the Commonwealth Department of Civil Aviation's commitment to improve facilities at a number of strategic airfields around the country. From 1935-36, it was reported that the number of passengers travelling through Archerfield had doubled, and that Brisbane's position as a strategic centre in the Empire Air Mail scheme had been enhanced by QANTAS Empire Airways duplication of the English mail service.
In June 1939 the Eagle Farm Aerodrome site was still being considered for sale, however by early 1940 the Minister for Civil Aviation, the Honourable JV Fairbairn, stated that the Eagle Farm Aerodrome site was very suitable for training purposes, and directed that it be retained. This was supported by Captain Johnston, who originally selected the site. This decision is likely related to Fairbairn's attendance at a meeting in Ottawa in December 1939 in which the details of the Empire Air Training Scheme were concluded. Australia had declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, and the importance placed on the retention of Eagle Farm in concert with Archerfield is reflected in Fairbairn's report to Prime Minister Menzies that the only activity that we have undertaken which could lead to the winning or losing of the war by our failure or success in carrying out our undertaking is the Empire Air Training Scheme.
After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Archerfield Aerodrome assumed a new strategic importance as it provided a base for Australian, American, British, and Dutch air squadrons, was used for the maintenance and repair of military aircraft, and for training purposes. Archerfield Aerodrome played an important role in the Allied war effort, particularly following the entry of Japan into the war with the bombing of Pearl Harbour on 9 December 1941. Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbour, Archerfield Aerodrome was placed on "war alert". The aircraft were dispersed around the boundary of the airfield to minimise damage in case of attack and duty crews were on immediate standby at all times. Other precautions at Archerfield in case of air attack included slit trenches, introduction of camouflage, and the use of decoy aircraft.
2. Military Aviation in Australia, and Events Leading to the Second World War
The Australian Flying Corps were involved in the First World War as part of the Army. Following the establishment of the RAF in 1918, Australia's Minister for Defence, Senator GF Pearce, appointed the Swinburne Committee to report on the needs of military aviation. Australia's involvement in the Imperial defence strategy inevitably placed its senior military commanders in a position subordinate to their British counterparts, and as its starting point the Committee accepted the strategy's basis that Australia's security would continue to be based on sea power. The committee found that while they supported the establishment of an air service, they rejected any suggestion that it should have an independent role. Any Australian air force would exist solely to support the sea and land forces.
The Committee recommended the formation of a single, separate air corps, which would be administered by an Air Board comprised of members of the Naval and Military Boards, while the wings of the corps allotted to the Navy and Army were to be controlled by the Naval and Military Boards respectively. Cabinet approved the proposal on 18 February 1919, and the Air Board was formed with the Air Corps key role determined as surveillance. The Navy and Army had their own tasks for the air service, and in April 1920 put forward a proposal for the formation of an air force to meet certain fundamental needs of the Navy and Army, which included torpedo bombers, patrol planes, flying boats and seaplanes, fighting planes, reconnaissance planes and bombers. The Air Corps became the Royal Australian Air Force on 31 March 1921 with a total complement of 21 officers, and the bulk of its aircraft came as a gift from the Imperial government and consisted of essentially obsolete machines left over from the First World War.
The RAAF came into being as the worlds second separate air force, and its establishment coincided with the decision to place defence spending on a peacetime basis for the first time since the First World War. In 1924, the Air Board described the RAAF's condition as most unsatisfactory and that it survived on a hand to mouth existence, with 65 officers and 300 men and only two machines fit for war. Defence funding became even tighter in the Depression years, and the situation did not improve until the mid-1930s with the growing threat of war and easing of the Depression.
A particularly strong anti-RAAF move emerged in 1929 when there was a possibility that the Air Force would be dismembered and split between the other two forces, a threat which was apparent until after the mid-1930s. This coincided with Salmond Report of 1928 which recommended that Australia substitute air power (due to its speed, mobility, flexibility and offensive striking power) for sea and land power. As the Air Force entered the 1930s, it was still equipped with 1916-17 types of machines, although the growing threat of the Japanese air force had been recognised as early as 1925 in the Memorandum Regarding the Air Defence of Australia by Air Commodore Williams.
The 1920s had seen a vast improvement across the spectrum of aircraft performance, particularly in range and reliability. This was highlighted in 1928 when Squadron Leader Charles Kingsford-Smith and CTP Ulm completed the first trans-Pacific flight from California to Brisbane landing at Eagle Farm, and Squadron Leader HJL Hinkler AFC completed the first solo flight from England to Australia in 16 days in a light aeroplane. The capability now existed for long range strike operations against enemy shipping.
Australia's defence independence was constrained by the commitment to the Imperial strategy and the British connection. The Imperial Conference of 1923 declared that the basis of the Empire's security was the sheltering screen provided by the Royal Navy, a judgement which was confirmed at subsequent conferences until 1937. Twice during the interwar period, a review of the RAAF was thought necessary, but in each occasion the government turned to an RAF officer, resulting in the Salmond Report of 1928 and the Ellington Report of 1938.
Germany had invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and on 3 September 1939 Australia declared war on Germany. The RAF realised that if massive expansion were necessary, Britain had the industrial capacity to increase aircraft production but it would not be able to train enough aircrew from British sources. Through Australia's commitment to the defence of Britain, agreement was reached that Australia and other Dominions would participate in a massive training program, subsequently known as the Empire Air Training Scheme, the details of which were concluded at a meeting in Ottawa in December 1939. Australia contributed over 27,000 men to the scheme throughout the Second World War. The RAAF's involvement in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) was more complex than in Europe.
At this time, there were 12 RAAF squadrons, of which two existed in nucleus only and four were citizen force. The aircraft inventory consisted entirely of obsolescent machines. In Brisbane, aviation activities centred on Archerfield (including civil aviation) and Amberley which was under construction. The former Eagle Farm Aerodrome site was taken over by the RAAF for Flying Training purposes on 8 March 1940.
On 7 December 1941 the US Navy Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour was attacked by the Japanese. The US Pensacola convoy bound for the Philippines was redirected to Brisbane, arriving on 22 December 1941. Most of the Convoys seventy crated A-24s and P-40s were trucked to Amberley for erection and then for flying to their Clark Field destination in the Philippines, but Archerfield also shared in the erection of both fully crated and deck cargo delivered aircraft. A decision was made in January 1942 to develop Eagle Farm as a major aircraft erection depot and aerodrome from which the planes could proceed. Initial works were delayed by heavy rain for three weeks converting the ground to a quagmire, and as a result thousands of feet of ashes and coke breeze were carted from the gasworks and deposited in order to keep trucks moving with borrow material from Nudgee. Shiploads of aircraft components were arriving at the port and had to be transported to Amberley, and some to Archerfield, for assembly until Eagle Farm was ready. The Americans advised that the runways were urgently needed for the fighter plane protection of Brisbane, and on 29 March 1942 a squadron of P-39 aircraft landed. Archerfield Aerodrome would assume a new strategic importance as it would provided a base for Australian, American, British, and Dutch air squadrons, would be used for the maintenance and repair of military aircraft, and for training purposes, while maintaining its civil aviation functions and well established repair and maintenance facilities.
Shortly after the entry of Japan into the War, Australian foreign policy appeared to make its most dramatic shift since Federation. On 27 December 1941 Prime Minister Curtin stated that Australia now looked to America free from any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom...we shall exert all our energies toward the shaping of a plan, with the United States as its cornerstone. At this time, the RAAF did not have a fighter remotely capable of combating the Japanese Zero, which served the Japanese Naval units.
By February 1942 Japanese forces had gained footholds in territories adjoining northern Australia which made it seem probable that the advance southwards would continue, culminating in the invasion of Australia. This threat of invasion in 1942 is summarised in a statement made by Prime Minister Curtin in 1944, in which he said now that Singapore was lost and we were unable to concentrate a superior fleet, the strength of our defences was inadequate to defend Australia...against an enemy with command of the sea and air. We lacked air support, possessing no fighters whatsoever, and our bomber and reconnaissance planes had been reduced to about 50 machines. No country faced a greater danger with less resources than Australia.
The RAAF had not performed well up until this time, with their involvement in the Far East campaign consisting of a series of devastatingly quick defeats, and a humiliating flight down the Malay Peninsula to Singapore and the Netherlands East Indies before final defeat or capture. On the 19 February 1942 the Japanese bombed Darwin, and the Darwin Air Station was not well prepared. Several Australian and American aircraft were destroyed on the ground or shot down, and large numbers of the RAAF deserted their posts with 278 personnel still missing four days after the attack.
It was against this background that the decision to place the RAAF under General Douglas MacArthur was made on 18 April 1942. The directive appointing General MacArthur as Supreme Commander of the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) placed under his control all armed forces which the governments concerned have assigned, or may assign, to this area. The Supreme Headquarters was based in Brisbane in the AMP Building [600147]. Tenants were compulsorily evacuated under military orders from 21 July 1942 until 14 June 1945.
Recognising the need for a coordinating agency for all Australian construction of a military nature, an Allied Works Council (AWC) was formed in February 1942, and the works were mainly carried out by the Civil Construction Corps, into which labour and manpower could be drafted. The Civil Construction Corps, a labour force of more than 50 000 people was set up in April of the same year. While some of these people were volunteers, the majority were drafted. The AWC was disbanded in September 1945.
3. Second World War Construction Work at Archerfield
In November 1939 defence works tenders were announced by the Department of the Interior, including £8,583 for the erection of an Elementary Flying Training School at Archerfield. This was initially named the 3 Flying Training School (FTS), but was soon renamed 2 EFTS, and was based at Archerfield from November 1939 until it was disbanded late April 1942.
In June 1941, it was reported that contracts for 49 buildings at Archerfield for the RAAF had been accepted by Senator Foll, Minister for the Interior. These buildings were constructed by contractor H Trelour and were located at the southeast of the aerodrome at the corner of Mortimer and Beatty Roads. The RAAF 23rd Squadron was based at Archerfield from 30 August 1939 to 6 May 1942, while the RAAF airfield at Amberley was under construction.
On 1 July 1942 the RAAF closed down its Station and Archerfield was then given over entirely to the U.S. operations in July 1942, in concert with the ongoing civil aviation operations and the well established repair and maintenance facilities. Under U.S. Lt. General George C. Kenney, a Central Command Base for the 5th Airforce was established. Planes flown in and out of Archerfield by the U.S. Air Force included B-17 Flying Fortresses, Liberators, Kittyhawks, Dakotas, and B-26 Marauders. The embryo U.S. camp, named 'Camp Muckley', was developed to the southeast of the Archerfield Aerodrome.
The construction of anti-aircraft gun emplacements at Archerfield was proposed in July 1941, however following the bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941, the excavation of slit trenches and air-raid shelter construction proceeded swiftly. While Amberley had paved runways, Archerfield still had grass runways. Initially Archerfield was too small, and the runway too short. Extensions to the landing area to the northeastern corner were approved in March 1942 which involved severing Boundary Road, and the existing Queensland Aero Club buildings fronting Boundary Road were moved. March 1942 saw the strengthening of anti-aircraft defences in Brisbane at Archerfield and Eagle Farm, and other locations. Camouflage work at Archerfield was underway from April 1942.
In 1943, a site on nearby Kerry Road was chosen for the erection of 5 large span nailed timber arch igloos. The five Kerry Road igloos were constructed on this site by the Allied Works Council for the Department of Aircraft Production in 1943-44. The igloos were situated near the Archerfield Aerodrome but separated by Beatty Road. A taxiway between the aerodrome and the igloos allowed the structures to be used for the servicing and repair of military aircraft. Four of these igloos were used as hangars and the fifth as a store.
A December 1942 camouflage report for the Department of Aircraft Production indicated that while looking at sites for additional hangars it was noted that the Department of Civil Aviation contemplated extensions of runways east of Beatty Road, and that action was being taken to acquire a strip of land 15 chains deep parallel with Kerry Road which was intended to become the main access road to the aerodrome. It was noted that at some future date it was intended to remove some of the existing hangars at Archerfield and place them along Kerry Road, and this may account for the location of the existing igloos well back from the road. Eventually five large igloos with ancillary buildings were constructed. Work on the first of the five igloos (either no.3 or no.4) and ancillary buildings was commenced around February 1943 by contractor William Hughes and Co Pty Ltd. It has been noted that 'The igloos are a testament to the then Commonwealth Government's philosophy of dual purpose planning, of high cost projects for wartime and post-war'. This 'dual purpose planning' would provide for continuing industrial and infrastructure development in the post-war period.
A camouflage report of March 1943 noted the siting of a Civil Construction Corps camp for the 'new hangar work' on Kerry Road, and suggests anti-aircraft guns were located there. By March 1943 the initial pair (nos. 3 and 4) of Kerry Road igloo hangars were under construction, and these were noted as being 353 feet long and 170 feet span and of hardwood construction. The valuable maintenance and airframe repair resources of civilian organisations such as QANTAS and AOA/ANA continued to operate and were much in demand at Archerfield, and QANTAS was at work in the second igloo hangar to be constructed (no.3 or no.4) before construction works were complete in August 1943.
The second pair of igloo hangars to be erected (nos. 2 and 5) featured their abutment pins raised a few metres above the ground on sturdy timber frames, resulting in much greater clearance, and drawings of these two igloos are dated October 1943. These igloos were noted as being 353 feet long and 188 feet 6 inches span and of hardwood construction. By January 1944 the middle two igloo hangars were complete, with the eastern igloo hangar half built and the western igloo hangar not yet erected. By April 1944, all five igloos were almost complete, with the western igloo hangar underway. The fifth igloo functioned as the store, and was noted as being 255 feet long and 170 feet span and of Oregon construction, and the four igloo hangars were surrounded by hardstand. Taxiways lead to the south of the igloos and then to the west of the site crossing Beatty Road. A photograph dated c.1945 shows the western igloo with a large concrete storm water drain running under the site. A total of 35 buildings including ancillary structures such as administration buildings, lavatories and guard houses were also erected.
The Kerry Road igloos were shared initially by ANA and QANTAS, in the repair and maintenance of military aircraft for the Department of Aircraft Production. One of the middle two igloo hangars was reportedly used to remove planes' engines which were then sent to nearby Salisbury for testing. The larger igloo hangars (nos. 2 and 5) had walkways near the ridge which enabled overhead access of the planes. When U.S. forces reached the Philippines, their activities at the Kerry Road igloos ceased. From February 1945 the middle two igloo hangars were given over to the U.K.'s Royal Naval Air Service. Their transportable Aircraft Maintenance Yard No. 1, referred to as TAMY 1, assembled, repaired and flight tested aircraft for the Fleet Carrier force sent to the Pacific after Victory in Europe. Accounts of large scale dumping at sea of much of the 'Lease-Lend' equipment from the decks of carriers, fifty miles plus off the east coast of Australia, were reported. The RAF and the Netherlands East Indies Air Force were also stationed at Archerfield from mid-1945.
Development of the Igloo
Faced with wartime manpower shortages as well as a lack of building materials, particularly steel and timber, it was necessary for the authorities to find a method for constructing large, easily assembled structures suitable for such functions as hangars, stores and shelters. Prefabrication provided part of the solution, particularly in Queensland where there was less building infrastructure and equipment, (partially due to fears of bombing raids). Although prefabricated buildings had been in use in Australia from the beginnings of European settlement and World War I saw the development of the Nissen Hut, the prefabricated structures used during the Second World War differed in terms of their production line technique, span and sheer size.
American designs and technologies for building large span timber structures were introduced to Australia for this purpose, although it has been suggested that a French engineer employed at Hornibrooks, Breakfast Creek, may have been responsible for the innovative design of the type of timber arched hangar built at Archerfield. These large igloos used small pieces of timber (sometimes green, unseasoned timber) nailed together to form a trussed framework roofed with corrugated iron. The igloo is a light nailed hardwood timber arch construction, where each arm is made up of two half arches more or less freely pinned at two abutments close to the ground level, and at a central or crown pin. Each half arch consists of two adjacent trusses laced together at top and bottom chord level and each truss consists of a top and bottom chord laced together in arch form. As a result, each truss is made up of four main timber chords sprung into arch form, and light timber bracing nailed into position to form a curved open-latticed box truss.
These igloos were designed to have the half arches raised by ropes and pulleys before being pinned together at the centre. The igloos at Archerfield were one of several designs for lightweight long span structures which utilised timber in small sectional sizes of chords to enable the lattice trusses to be hand nailed in jigs on site and speedily erected at low cost. As previously stated, it has been noted in a study of prefabricated Second World War structures that the Archerfield Second World War Igloos are among 'the longest clear span buildings existing in Australia.'
Post War
The land surrounding the igloos was acquired by the Crown in February 1945 pursuant to the provisions of the Lands Acquisition Act 1906 and The Real Property (Commonwealth Titles) Act of 1924. The RAAF and the RAF had a presence at Archerfield Aerodrome until 1946. The RAAF 23rd Squadron returned to Archerfield in 1948, and remained there until 1955. After the conclusion of the Second World War, Eagle Farm was re-established as Brisbane's principal airport by the Department of Civil Aviation with operations commencing in 1949, and Archerfield became Brisbane's secondary airport, catering for general aviation and flying schools. Archerfield Aerodrome is still government owned, and managed by the Federal Airports Corporation.
All five igloos are now in private ownership and one (No. 5) is no longer within the heritage register boundary.
Thiess Contractors Pty Ltd occupied the site in 1962, which was purchased from the Commonwealth for £20,000 and transferred in June 1965. Thiess Contractors Pty Ltd still own the site on which No. 4 igloo is located, and only minor changes to its structure has occurred. Other changes to the Thiess Contractors site include the demolition of a house at the front of the site in 1991. This house was originally used as an office, and has been replaced by an administration building. The other three igloos are now owned by Hastings Deering (Australia) Ltd. Other remnants from the Second World War period on the Hastings Deering property include a drainage channel running through the carpark at the front of the site and a bridge across the drain.
Originally a supplier of milking machinery and tractors, Hastings Diesels Ltd moved from their Melbourne Street premises at South Brisbane to Kerry Road, Archerfield in 1957. The property was transferred in April 1968. Currently named Hastings Deering, the company operates large scale sale and servicing of earthmoving equipment. There have been a few major changes to the Hastings Deering site, including the addition of a single-storeyed administration building to the end of igloo no.2, the construction of additions for such purposes as painting and engine testing, and the re-roofing of the igloos.
","criteria":"Archerfield Second World War Igloos Complex is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland's history, and is comprised of 3 former igloo hangars and one associated igloo store. These structures are located on a site which had been part of the Archerfield Aerodrome during the Second World War, and were constructed in 1943-44 by the Allied Works Council for the Department of Aircraft Production. The igloo complex was used for military aircraft maintenance and repair under the control of the U.S. 81st Air Depot Group, and under the U.S. 5th Air Force under the command of General Douglas MacArthur's Supreme Headquarters of the South West Pacific Area. The igloos complex is important in demonstrating the strategic role of Archerfield Aerodrome in the maintenance and repair of military aircraft, and the significant contribution to the Allied war effort made by the well established civil aviation repair and maintenance facilities at Archerfield Aerodrome.
The development of the igloo complex, and Archerfield Aerodrome as a strategic facility for the repair and maintenance of military aircraft, is a result of a shift in Australian foreign policy in December 1941, when Prime Minister Curtin announced that Australia now looked to America free of the United Kingdom to shape a plan with the United States as its cornerstone. As a result, all Allied forces were placed under the control of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1942, and under U.S. Lt. General George C. Kenney, a Central Command Base for the 5th Airforce was established at Archerfield. This contrasts with Archerfield's previous role as Brisbane's airport, and later as a base for the RAAF 23rd Squadron, and a location for the RAAF Elementary Flying Training School which serviced the Empire Air Training Scheme to provide airmen for the defence of Britain, from late 1939.
The igloo complex is representative of the massive wartime infrastructure constructed at and around sites such as Archerfield Aerodrome, and has been noted as being a testament to the then Commonwealth Government's philosophy of 'dual purpose planning'. This philosophy applied to high cost projects for both wartime and post-war use, and would provide for continuing industrial and infrastructure development in the post-war period. Since the late 1950's, the igloo complex has been continually associated with the industrial development of the surrounding area.
The location of the igloos well back from Kerry Road also demonstrates the intention of the Department of Civil Aviation at the time for this to be the principal entrance to Archerfield Aerodrome, which had been Brisbane's principal airport prior to the Second World War. As a result of the massive infrastructure works during the war, Eagle Farm was re-established as Brisbane's principal airport with operations commencing in 1949, and Archerfield became Brisbane's secondary airport.
The igloo complex is a significant example of the work of the Allied Works Council, and as such, is a testament to its ability to meet emergency demands for the construction of Allied defence works during the Second World War.
|The igloo complex is one of the few highly intact Second World War sites which clearly demonstrates the site's original function, in this case as a major military aircraft repair and maintenance facility, and the important role this played in the defence of the South West Pacific Area. It also has the potential to reveal further information concerning the function of, and activities which occurred at, the site during the Second World War.
The igloo complex is also a highly intact group of timber truss igloo structures, which demonstrate the principal characteristics of this type of structure, and represent a significant advancement in timber technology and construction achieved during the Second World War which enabled long span lightweight structures utilising hand nailed timber in small sectional chord sizes to be erected quickly and at low cost. It has been noted in a study of prefabricated Second World War structures that the Archerfield Second World War Igloos are among the longest clear span buildings existing in Australia.
|The igloos are substantial structures in a relatively flat landscape, and through their bulk and simple form make a considerable aesthetic and architectural contribution to the surrounding area, and are recognised as local landmarks. Internally, the innovative timber structure is clearly expressed, and the expansive interiors and quality of natural light contribute to the aesthetic significance of the structures.
|The igloo complex is also a highly intact group of timber truss igloo structures, which demonstrate the principal characteristics of this type of structure, and represent a significant advancement in timber technology and construction achieved during the Second World War which enabled long span lightweight structures utilising hand nailed timber in small sectional chord sizes to be erected quickly and at low cost. It has been noted in a study of prefabricated Second World War structures that the Archerfield Second World War Igloos are among the longest clear span buildings existing in Australia.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16888,"place_ref":601159,"name":"Lonsdale House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"283 Boundary Street","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-08-27","description":"Lonsdale House is located in Boundary Street, Spring Hill, close to the intersection with St Paul's Terrace, on a small elevated block overlooking central Brisbane. It is a two-storeyed timber house with attic rooms, with double-storey verandahs to front [south] and back [north] elevations, and single-storey extensions to the rear. The exterior is clad with 12" deep pine chamfer boards. Built on a slope running west-east, the house is partly high-set on timber stumps or replacement concrete stumps. Because of the slope of the land, there are stairs on the western side leading from the street to the 'ground' level front verandah.
The main house has a steeply-pitched gabled roof covered in galvanised corrugated iron. There are early hipped, concave, corrugated-iron verandah roofs to the upper level verandahs. The single-storey rear extension on the west side has a hipped roof, and the single-storey extension to the east side has a mono-pitch roof, both covered in corrugated galvanised iron. There is a central brick chimney rising above the main roof, and resting on stone foundations.
The front verandahs have timber posts with decorative capitals and fretwork brackets. On the lower level the timber balustrade has simple timber dowel in-fill and there is a timber lattice valance. Two of the bays are in-filled with timber lattice privacy screens. The first floor has a cast iron balustrade.
The front elevation at ground level has a more recent timber-framed, glass entrance door with fanlight over on the west side, and a pair of 6 over 6 timber vertical sash windows. These have narrow glazing bars with no horn to the top sash, and the glass appears original or early. To the first floor there are three early double casement doors with glazed fanlights over, opening onto the front upper-level verandah. The front gable has a centrally placed 6 over 6 timber vertical sash window, over which is a convex curved corrugated iron window hood, supported on curved timber brackets with decorative pendants, in-filled with a cross lattice.
The east side elevation of the main house has a pair of 6 over 6 timber vertical sash windows to the ground floor and first floor, with the same materials and detailing as those at the front. All have convex corrugated iron window hoods, supported on curved timber brackets with decorative pendants, in-filled with a cross lattice. There are no windows on the west side.
The rear elevation of the main house is obscured by the double-storey verandah which is in filled and the two single-story ground-level extensions. The gable has a centrally placed 6 over 6 timber vertical sash window, over which is a hood of the same design as the front and side elevations.
The single storey western extension at the rear is rectangular, with a corrugated iron stove recess at the north end, with an iron stove chimney. There is a door in the north elevation and a timber-framed window in the west side elevation. It is clad with 8" deep chamferboards and has a galvanised corrugated iron hipped roof. It appears to be of an early date.
The rear extension on the east side is elongated with two windows in the east side elevation. It is clad with fibrous-cement sheeting, with a galvanised corrugated iron mono-pitch roof running down to form a valley gutter with the extension on the west side. There is a small lean-to extension at the northern end of this extension, also clad in fibrous-cement sheeting, with a window in the western side wall. There are two lean-to corrugated iron roofs running off these two single-storey extensions at the rear.
The rear yard has a corrugated iron roof structure in the north west corner under which is a small, brick WC outbuilding. In the north east corner is a timber-framed carport. The front boundary has a brick wall with brick piers, painted and in-filled with vertical timber picket fencing.
Internally, the ground floor has a full-length hall on the west side with a steep timber staircase running up the side wall. The single-flight staircase has four stairs turning onto the first floor landing, and has a turned newel post and simple stick balusters. The hall has a timber arch with decorative brackets separating vestibule from stairwell. The vestibule has a c1940s decorative plaster ceiling; the remainder of the hall [ceiling and walls]is covered in fibrous-cement or ply-wood sheeting with timber battens. Two rooms, one front and one back, open off the hall on the ground floor. The front room has two timber 6 over 6 timber vertical sliding sash windows to the front [south] elevation and 1 to the side elevation. The ceiling is lined in jointed timber boarding with a decorative timber (gas) vent. The walls are lined with ply-wood timber sheeting with battens. The north dividing wall has double and single leaf 4 panel timber doors leading to the room at the rear.
The rear room has a single 6:6 timber vertical sliding sash window to the side elevation, and a blocked window to the rear [north] elevation. There is a fireplace with early timber fire surround. The ceiling is lined with timber boarding with central timber decorative (gas) vent. The walls are lined with plywood sheeting with timber battens.
A door with fanlight over, leads from the hall out onto the rear verandah, which has been in-filled. On the west side is a small store room, while on the east side the verandah has been incorporated into a later kitchen extension. This extension is lined [walls and ceiling] with what appears to be compressed timber sheeting and has c1950s detailing and fittings.
On the west side the single-storey rear extension, an early service wing formerly detached from the main house, has walls and coved ceiling lined with timber tongue and groove boarding with a narrow beading. This wing is divided into two rooms by a wall of vertically jointed tongue and groove timber. Access to the southern room [possibly a former servant's room] is off the verandah. It has timber small-pane sash windows to the east and west side elevations. The rear room [early kitchen] has a corrugated iron stove recess in the rear [north] wall and a door to the rear yard area. A narrow enclosed corridor runs between the two extensions to the rear yard area.
The first floor has a generous landing providing access to 3 rooms and the rear verandah, and staircase access to the roof space. To the rear [north] elevation is a blocked window, and a narrow timber 8 panel door leading out onto the enclosed verandah. There are two rooms to the front [south] side of the house and one to the rear. The front room on the west side has a double casement timber and glazed door, with fanlight over, leading out onto the verandah. The doors have a single timber panel to the bottom, and 4 horizontal panes over with a marginal glazing bar detail, and margins in-filled with coloured glass. Walls and ceiling are lined with timber boarding. The front room on the east side has two double casement doors, with fanlights over, leading onto the verandah, of the same design as the adjoining room. There is a 6:6 timber vertical sash window to the side elevation. Walls and ceiling lined with timber boards. The room to the rear has a fireplace with early timber fire place surround. There is a single 6:6 timber vertical sash window to the side elevation, and a blocked door opening onto the rear the verandah. Walls and ceiling are lined with timber boards.
The rear verandah is fully enclosed, and partly extended on the west side. A narrow corridor runs from the landing access door onto the verandah to a window and a fire escape door. On the west side are two small rooms, the first containing a shower and basin, the second a toilet. The enclosed verandah on the east side is lined with ripple iron. It has a window to the east side elevation and rear elevation. Timber decking runs from the fire escape door across the roofs of the single story ground-level extensions.
A narrow straight flight of stairs runs from the first floor landing to a small landing in the roof area which is lit by a small skylight.. It provides access to two rooms, one to the front [south] side and one to the rear [north] side. The room to the front is lined with wide timber boarding, and has a centrally placed 6 over 6 timber vertical sash window in the gable end. A small access door to the roof space reveals closely spaced battens to the rafters, providing clear evidence that the roof originally had timber shingles. The room to the rear is L-shaped. It has a chimney, but no fireplace, and a single timber sash window to the gable. Walls and ceiling are lined with timber boarding.
Floors throughout are of timber.
","history":"This two-storeyed timber residence with attic was constructed by 1879, and possibly dates to the 1860s. It is located in the heart of Spring Hill in inner Brisbane, and is associated with the mid-19th century development of this area as one of the city's earliest dormitory suburbs.
Land in Spring Hill, much of it located within the original Brisbane town boundaries, was alienated in the 1850s and 1860s as large suburban allotments. Blocks along the ridge roads which became known as Wickham Terrace and Leichhardt Street, were the first to be taken up, followed by the area between Boundary Street [which formed the old northern limit to Brisbane Town] and Gregory Terrace. Subdivision of these allotments commenced from the 1850s, and Spring Hill, within easy walking distance of Queen Street, rapidly emerged as North Brisbane's first dormitory suburb, with little commercial or industrial base of its own. More affluent residents occupied the larger allotments and houses along the ridges, and the working classes occupied the valleys in between [Hanly's Valley and Spring Hollow].
Subdivision accelerated during the 1870s and 1880s, and by 1900 Spring Hill was Brisbane's most densely populated suburb. From the 1860s a row of small shops was established along Leichhardt Street between Fortescue and Rogers Streets, with other shops congregated around the hotels at the intersections of Leichhardt Street with Edward, Wharf and Boundary Streets. In the 1870s and 1880s churches, schools, hospitals, a mechanics' institute and a tram service were established along Leichhardt Street, which became the hub of Spring Hill.
Boundary Street, running from the river west to Gregory Terrace, attracted a mainly working class population, including artisans, trades persons and labourers, with middle class residents occupying the higher blocks near Leichhardt Street and Gregory Terrace.
Lonsdale House, fronting Boundary Street close to the intersection with Leichhardt Street, was erected on part of Northern Suburban Allotment 97, an area of just under 3 acres alienated in 1853 by pastoralist David Cannon McConnel, and subdivided the same year. In December 1853 subdivision 16 of NSA 97 [22.5 perches] was re-subdivided into two blocks, 283 Boundary Street [12.5 perches - site of Lonsdale House] and 277 Boundary Street [10 perches]. An 1856 map of Brisbane shows two structures fronting Boundary Street, between what became Leichhardt and Phillips streets - the westernmost of these may have been located at 283 or 277 Boundary Street, but this is not clear.
In 1862 Robert Bourne of Brisbane acquired title to the 12.5 perches re-subdivision fronting Boundary Street, and to the adjacent 10 perches in 1864, by which time he was living in Spring Hill. Whether he erected Lonsdale House after obtaining title to the land, or whether it was already extant, is not known. Nor is it known whether he ever occupied the house. Robert Bourne and his wife Anne Butler were retired missionaries [associated with the London Missionary Society in Tahiti 1817-1827]. They had business interests in Sydney and in Victoria in the 1830s and 1840s, and c1852 moved to Brisbane following the move there from Sydney in 1851 of their daughter and son-in-law, Harriet and George Raff. Bourne acquired a number of Brisbane properties, including 1a 20p of NSA 97 between Leichhardt and Phillips streets from DC McConnel in February 1856, and portion 192 [1a 3r 36p] on the southern side of Boundary Street in November 1856. He was resident in Leichhardt Street, Spring Hill by 1868, possibly in the two-storeyed brick residence he appears to have erected on the land he purchased from McConnel in 1856, adjoining the northern boundary of Lonsdale House. Bourne was Secretary to the Queensland Board of General Education from June 1860 to January 1870. He died at his home in Leichhardt Street in 1871, aged 78. His death was certified by his son Joseph Bourne of Boundary Street, Brisbane.
Following Bourne's death his Spring Hill properties were transferred to executors [sons-in-law George Raff of Brisbane and Stewart Murray of Sydney], and after Anne's death in December 1878, Raff offered the Spring Hill properties for sale by auction in August 1879. By this date, 4 houses had been erected on the property: Lonsdale House [a two-storeyed timber building with verandah and balcony front and back, containing seven rooms, with detached kitchen]; a four-roomed timber cottage adjacent ; the two-storeyed brick house behind ; and Strathmore Cottage fronting Boundary Street opposite Lonsdale House. They were located close to the heart of Brisbane, on a rise, with breezes and fine views over the town and river.
Lonsdale House on 14.2 perches [comprising the original 12.5 perches re-subdivision plus extended northern and eastern boundaries] was purchased by Henry Lander Pethebridge for £350, with title transferred in March 1880.
Pethebridge, a carpenter and joiner and government Inspector of Works in the Portmaster's Office, was resident in Brisbane from at least April 1860, when he married Elizabeth Mary Symons. The family lived at various addresses in Spring Hill until the mid-1870s, when they left Brisbane briefly, but had returned by May 1877. Pethebridge was employed in the Department of Harbours, Lighthouses and Pilots, and supervised construction of Cape Bowling Green Lighthouse in the early 1870s. In August 1874 he was appointed Inspector of Works [Class IV] in the Department, a position he held until 1900. The Pethebridges occupied Lonsdale House after their purchase of the property. Mrs Pethebridge died in 1894, but Henry remained at 283 Boundary Street until his death in 1910, after which the property passed to his son, Samuel Augustus Pethebridge of Melbourne, and son-in-law Edward J Atkinson of Brisbane, as trustees. Lonsdale House then was rented out to a series of tenants who used the place as a boarding house.
Sir Samuel Augustus Pethebridge died in January 1918 and in August that year, 283 Boundary Street was transferred to Bridget Kenny of Spring Hill. The property changed hands several times in the 1920s, and from c1934 was occupied by the Hough family. Herbert Hough obtained title to the property in 1946, ane retained this until 1956. From the 1950s, if not earlier, the house was utilised as a boarding house of 9 rooms, [1 room enclosed on the first floor rear verandah and 1 room in the kitchen wing, in addition to the 7 rooms in the core of the house], and a second ground-level kitchen was constructed at the rear, c1950s. Title was transferred to the present owners in 1966.
Lonsdale House is a rare surviving early inner-city residence, and was identified in the Brisbane History Group's 1993 Spring Hill Heritage Tour as a place of cultural heritage interest.
","criteria":"Lonsdale House, erected by 1879, provides important surviving evidence of the development of Spring Hill as an early dormitory suburb of Brisbane.
|It is a rare surviving building of its type [a mid-19th century, 3-level, Georgian-style, detached timber town-house] in Brisbane, and is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of its type, including the town-house form with the entrance set to one side of the house; attic rooms with dormers; wide vestibule and narrow, steep internal staircases; early joinery [french doors, narrow-mullioned windows, simple stick balustrading to the staircases]; early exterior decorative detailing; and early, formerly detached, kitchen wing.
|It is a rare surviving building of its type [a mid-19th century, 3-level, Georgian-style, detached timber town-house] in Brisbane, and is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of its type, including the town-house form with the entrance set to one side of the house; attic rooms with dormers; wide vestibule and narrow, steep internal staircases; early joinery [french doors, narrow-mullioned windows, simple stick balustrading to the staircases]; early exterior decorative detailing; and early, formerly detached, kitchen wing.
|The building is significant for its aesthetic quality and contribution to the streetscape of Boundary Street and to the Spring Hill townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16890,"place_ref":601078,"name":"St Brigid's Convent (former)","alternate_name":"St Brigid's Convent | Convent of the Annuciation | St Brigids Convent (former) | St Brigids Convent","street_address":"9-17 Upper Clifton Terrace","suburb":"RED HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-03-28","description":"The St Brigid's Convent (former) is located on the crest of Red Hill, a residential suburb of inner-northwest Brisbane. Fronting Upper Clifton Terrace to the west, the 0.17 ha, sloping site is bounded on all other sides by residential properties. The masonry former convent building is a landmark in its setting and is a prominent element of the Red Hill skyline, particularly from the east. It retains a visual connection to the southwest with St Brigid’s Church and Musgrave Road (a major arterial road through Red Hill); and panoramic vistas over Brisbane CBD are available from the eastern (rear) and southern verandahs.
\nConvent Building (former), 1902-03
\nThe Convent Building (former) is a two-storey structure, with an additional basement at the rear that is cut into the sloping terrain of the site. It is rendered externally and has a corrugated metal-clad, steeply-pitched hip and gable roof, which features small ventilation gablets and reconstructed decorative cresting and finials. Verandahs on the ground and first floors wrap the perimeter of the building and are sheltered by skillion roofs of corrugated metal sheeting.
\nThe former public and communal spaces (including former chapel, vestry, refectory, parlour and foyer) are located on the ground floor, private spaces (including sleeping areas) are on the first floor, and former service spaces (including former kitchen and laundry) are within the basement. A gabled projection protruding from the front (west) and rear (east) elevations punctuates the perimeter verandahs, and features a further front projection at ground floor level which reflects the location of the former chapel sanctuary.
\nThe ground floor is accessed via a foyer at the northwestern end of the building, and its planning arrangement is orientated around a central hallway (running north-south). Most rooms were historically accessed from this hallway, with the exception of the former front parlour, which was only accessed from the foyer (an additional door now connects to the hall). The southern end of the hallway is terminated by the former chapel (southwest) with southern former vestry, and the former rear parlour (southeast). A former dining room, standing between the rear parlour and northeastern stairwell (which is opposite the foyer and accesses the first floor), is fitted-out with a recent kitchen (the fit-out is not of significance).
\nThe plan form of the first floor is similar to that of the ground floor, with rooms flanking a central hallway. The first floor contains four bedrooms, a bathroom and an ensuite. Room partitions that formerly created smaller bedrooms (cells) are no longer discernible. The northern verandah is enclosed (c1920s addition) to form an additional living space.
\nThe interior walls of the ground and first floor are of load-bearing brick, and are plastered and painted. The ground floor ceilings have pressed metal finishes, which vary in pattern from room to room, and the first floor ceilings are lined with narrow tongue and groove (T&G) boards. The skirtings are of wide timber and the architraves are of timber (the skirtings and architraves on the first floor have been painted).
\nJoinery throughout is generally of cedar (some of which has been painted). The front entrance has surrounding leadlights and cedar panelling, and the projection to the western (front) elevation has a bank of three lancet windows on the upper level. The rear projection has a bank of three lancet windows on both the ground and first levels. The ground floor chapel has leadlight lancet windows, and a lancet-shaped timber-panelled door opening into a small former vestry at the southwestern end. The front parlours on the ground floor have step-out sash windows, and folding timber cedar doors separate the former chapel and former dining room on the ground floor. Most other windows are timber double-hung sashes with rounded heads. Three-light timber casement windows, located in the northern wall of the enclosed verandah, are an early addition. A tall arched opening leading from the first floor hallway to northern verandah enclosure indicates the former location of a window.
\nMost doors are timber, of a low-waisted design, and have centre-pivoting fanlights. A rounded arch infilled with a glass and timber screen and door separates the hallway from the foyer on the ground level, and features a metal base plate with an engraving marking ‘SMITHS SPRING’.
\nThe stairs connecting the ground and first floors are of timber, with a decorative timber balustrade and timber panelled to dado height; and painted timber panelling forming the underside of the stair.
\nVarious early fireplaces, with early fine timber and marble mantlepieces, tiles, heaths and grates, have been retained. These are located in the former rear parlour and dining room on the ground floor, and the eastern bedroom of the first floor.
\nThe verandahs generally have timber floors, decorative cast iron columns (except for those to the northern verandahs, which are square timber), and balustrades and valances which feature ecclesiastical motifs of lancet and rose windows. Most verandah ceilings on the ground floor are flat and lined with corrugated metal sheeting; and most of the verandah ceilings on the first floor are raked and lined with V-jointed timber boards. Those on the southern first floor verandah are unlined and feature stop-chamfered rafters and purlins. The first floor of the northern verandah is an early c1920s addition, externally enclosed with timber weatherboards and three-light timber casement windows, and internally lined and ceiled with VJ timber boards. Northern, eastern and southern sides of the basement feature a colonnade of lancet-shaped masonry arches.
\nA narrow timber service staircase in the northeast corner of the verandah links the ground floor to the basement, which contains the former kitchen and pantry spaces. The basement plan is organised around a central hallway (former main pantry), running north-south, with the former kitchen to the east, and excavated rooms to the west (the excavated rooms are not significant). An opening in the southern wall of the former kitchen features a large fireplace opening and the adjacent, eastern wall features an opening that is now infilled with brick. The hallway and former kitchen are terminated to the south by store rooms. Part of the understorey colonnade at the southeast corner of the building has been enclosed. A small store room, located in the southwest corner of the building, is only accessed from the south. This store room also features an unlined ceiling, with various names and dates painted onto the underside of the timber floorboards of the chapel. All other brick walls to the understorey have been painted, and some of the arches within the colonnade have been enclosed with glass and metal grates.
\nGrounds
\nThe building sits on the high ground of a sloping block, with a small front garden adjacent to Upper Clifton Terrace, and some perimeter planting along the southern side of the block. A timber picket fence runs along the Upper Clifton Terrace frontage and is a reconstruction of an earlier design (although stands at a reduced length). The footpath leading from Upper Clifton Terrace to the front building entrance, and the pine tree planted to the northeast of the building are also reconstructions of early features.
\nNon-significant features
\nRecent additions that are not of cultural heritage significance include: aluminium-framed window sashes; the southern driveway; the eastern pool, garage and associated structure; recent kitchen and bathroom fitouts; clear acrylic attached to the eastern verandah and lattice attached to the northern verandah; recent linoleum and carpet floor linings, plywood ceilings and recently excavated western rooms to the basement; interior painting; and chandeliers.
\n\n
","history":"
St Brigid's Convent (former) at Red Hill, was erected in 1902-03 for the Order of the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland to a design of the Queensland-based architectural firm, Eaton and Bates. The building is located on a sloping site, fronting Upper Clifton Terrace, and is in close proximity to St Brigid’s Church [QHR 600284] on Musgrave Road. The site comprises a rendered masonry former convent building, which overlooks Brisbane central business district (CBD) and is a landmark in the Red Hill skyline, and associated grounds. It has a long and special association with the Sisters of Mercy and remains an excellent example of a Catholic convent of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
\nThe residential suburb of Red Hill is located approximately 3.5 km northwest of Brisbane CBD, and the area was first subdivided for semi-rural estates in the 1860s. The land on which the former convent is situated was surveyed and alienated in 1865 as portions 608 and 609, parish of North Brisbane.[1] At this time Red Hill was sparsely populated, with the steepness of the hills deterring settlement initially; but from the 1870s, its proximity to the town centre, the availability of cheap residential allotments in the valleys and the later provision of a tram service through the district (opened along Musgrave Road, 1897-98), encouraged residential and corresponding religious development of the area.[2]
\nCatholicism, a major branch of Christianity, arrived in Queensland with the establishment of the Moreton Bay penal colony in 1824, and in 1959 the Diocese of Brisbane covered the entire colony of Queensland. The first mass celebrated in Queensland was in May 1843 in a temporary chapel in Elizabeth Street, Brisbane, and St Stephen’s Church, the first Catholic church constructed in Queensland, was consecrated in 1858. The first Catholic parishes in Brisbane were established in Coorparoo, South Brisbane, Kangaroo Point, Red Hill and Rosalie.[3]
\nOn 10 May 1861, the Sisters of Mercy, headed by Ellen Whitty (Mother Vincent Whitty), arrived in Brisbane at the invitation of Bishop James Quinn, and established their Mother House at All Hallows (Fortitude Valley, Brisbane). At the time of the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy in the Colony of Queensland, the colony’s population was 30 059, with 7 696 (39%) of these being Catholics.[4]
\nInitially founded in Ireland by Mother Catherine McAuley in 1831, the Sisters of Mercy congregation was uncloistered, and developed primarily with a mission to improve social justice through educational, religious and social services for women and children at risk of homelessness, exploitation and entrenched poverty. The first Australian Sisters of Mercy foundation was established in Perth and Victoria in 1957, and then subsequently in New South Wales (1859), Queensland (1861), South Australia (1880) and Tasmania (1892).[5] By 1863, three schools had been established by the Sisters in the Brisbane / Ipswich area; and in the years following, orphanages, benevolent women’s and children’s institutions and hospitals were also established.[6]
\nIn 1877, the first St Brigid's Church was erected on the site of the present church on Musgrave Road, Red Hill, and in 1881, the Sisters of Mercy from All Hallow's Convent, Fortitude Valley, established a school at St Brigid's Church, travelling daily to Red Hill. The Sisters also undertook pastoral work in the Petrie Terrace-Red Hill district. On 9 June 1901, a new St Brigid's School was opened and blessed at Red Hill, adjacent to the Church, reflecting the expansion of residential settlement in the Red Hill district around the turn of the century.
\nAlmost immediately after being purchased from the crown in 1865, portions 608 and 609 (the site on which St Brigid’s Convent was later constructed) were subdivided. These portions changed tenure from 1866; and in 1873, the six subdivisions of portion 608 (fronting both Upper and Lower Clifton Terrace) were acquired by Lydia Pigott, widow of Gayndah grazier, Peter John Pigott. It is likely that the first development on the site, the construction of the residence Kenilworth, occurred after this acquisition. In December 1874 Lydia Pigott married Brisbane broker and merchant, William Horsley, and they appear to have been resident at Kenilworth by 1876, when the residence was first listed in the Post Office Directory. Extensive terracing on portion 608 is likely to have been developed as part of the grounds of Kenilworth (removed between 2000 and 2004), as well as several large pine trees along the Upper Clifton Terrace frontage (removed).[7] In 1889 Lydia Horsley (formerly Piggott) acquired title to an adjacent block, subdivision 11 of portion 609, and the Horsleys resided at Kenilworth until c1900. The house appears to have been rented out for several years prior to its acquisition by the Sisters of Mercy.
\nThe early 1900s saw considerable growth for the Catholic parish at Red Hill, with a building program including: the construction of a school (1901), a convent (1902-03) and a church (dedicated 1914). [8] The convent site (subdivision 3-8 of portion 608 and subdivision 11 of portion 609) was acquired by the Sisters of Mercy in May 1902 for the sum of £1610; with the title registered under the names of Archbishop Robert Dunne, and Sisters Emily Mary Conlan, Bridget Murphy, Honoria Griffin and Mary Potter.[9]
\nThe acquisition of this convent site on the crest of Red Hill aligned with a pattern of constructing of substantial Catholic buildings on prominent hilltop locations during the 19th and 20th centuries. The visibility and image of the Church was considered a source of enormous pride for the Catholic congregation and clergy, and hilltop sites tended to be deemed the most suitable for church, school, convent and monastery buildings. The construction of these prominent buildings was intended to create an impressive and assertive public presence and demonstrate the strength of the Catholic Church. An article in the Catholic Leader in 1955 later noted the outcome of this practice, stating, ‘It is impossible to go any distance in city or suburbs without the eye catching one of those glorious sites for the acquiring of which the Catholic Church is now famous.’ [10]
\nThe Sisters at Red Hill commissioned architectural firm Eaton and Bates, of Brisbane, Rockhampton and Townsville, one of the more fashionable and prolific firms of the day, to design their new convent. Sydney-trained architects George T Eaton and Albert E Bates had formed a partnership in Rockhampton c1894 and developed a successful Central Queensland practice in the late 19th century, with branch offices established at Mount Morgan and Longreach by 1898, Clermont in 1900, Gladstone in 1901, Maryborough in 1902, and Townsville by 1902. Arthur B Polin of Sydney joined the partnership in Townsville c1901, as Eaton, Bates & Polin. Early in 1902 their head office was moved to Brisbane, with branches retained at Rockhampton and Townsville. A branch also operated briefly at Toowoomba in the early 1900s. They entered and won many architectural competitions around the turn of the century, and undertook a wide variety of work, from hotels and commercial buildings to residences, hospitals and masonic halls. One of their most notable commissions was for the new Queen's Hotel (1901-04) [600936] at Townsville, won in competition. Eaton and Bates received many commissions from the Catholic Church, including churches at Barcaldine, Gladstone and Donnybrook, convents and schools at Mount Morgan, Gladstone and Geraldton and a school at Toowong. The firm also supervised construction of St Joseph's Cathedral, Rockhampton and the Church [later Cathedral] of the Sacred Heart, Townsville (1896-1902) [600939]. Their style was eclectic, drawing upon both eastern and western classical traditions, with a particular emphasis on verandahs and pavilions - both as a decorative device and as a response to the warm Queensland climate.
\nIn mid-1902, Eaton and Bates called tenders for the erection and completion of a brick convent building at Red Hill. The construction of St Brigid’s Convent (initially also referred to as the Convent of the Annunciation and St Bridget’s Convent) was completed and occupied in 1903, with Sister M Thecla Kelleher, Head Teacher at St Brigid's School, as the first Superior. The building cost over £3100 to construct, and it was furnished in 1903 for a little over £500. At this time, the north verandah was single-storeyed, with bold and ornate ecclesiastical motifs incorporated into the iron valances and balustrades. A decorative picket fence defined the frontage of the property to Upper Clifton Terrace, and the grounds along Upper Clifton Terrace contained several mature pines trees.
\nThe organisational layout of the convent’s plan included main living rooms on the ground floor, sleeping quarters on the first floor, and servicing rooms to the understorey. The main living areas comprised: a small parlour adjacent the main, northern entrance; a chapel with adjoining vestry to the south; a lounge room (divided from the chapel with folding doors); and a dining room. The first floor was divided into various sections: a space for the Mother Superior for a bedroom or private office; and southern and western areas for bedrooms (cells). The understorey level included a kitchen (with a working fireplace), a pantry and store rooms, and was accessed via a small stair at the rear of the building, on the eastern verandah. It is thought that a small bedroom and anteroom in the southeast corner of the understorey may have been a later addition.[11]
\nIn mid-1906, the Sisters acquired title to several blocks adjacent to St Brigid's Convent: subdivision 10 of portions 615 & 616 [20.6 perches, (521 square metres)] and subdivisions 12 & 13 of por 609 [36.2 perches, (915 square metres)], parish of North Brisbane, county of Stanley, from the estate of Alexander Fraser. Subdivisions 12 and 13 extended the convent grounds along Lower Clifton Terrace.
\nVarious newspaper articles dated from 1909 to 1939 indicate the use of the convent grounds as a venue for fundraising fetes. The fetes were generally run by a committee who organised entertainment, and stalls were set up in the grounds by members of the community. Reports of these fetes describe the grounds of the convent as having ‘pretty green lawns,’ garden beds with ‘many blooms of snapdragons, zinnias, lilies, and geraniums,’ and tall shady trees.[12]
\nThe northern upper floor verandah of the convent may have been added in 1923, when additions to the convent costing £1140 were carried out by the builder Corbett. This verandah was most likely immediately enclosed with weatherboards and timber casement windows (possibly from the original building fabric) to accommodate orphans from St Vincent’s Nudgee while they looked for employment in the city. This addition coincided with the replacement of an external window to the verandah with a doorway. [13]
\nSince this addition, other alterations have been made to the building and the site. Some partitions on the first floor have been removed and modifications have been made to the windows in the western wing. The kitchen has been removed from the understorey; and a new kitchen has been installed on the ground floor (the eastern verandah was enclosed to accommodate this installation, but the enclosure has since been removed). The stair at the rear of the building has also been extended to service the first floor.[14]
\nAt its peak, St Brigid's Convent is likely to have accommodated 8 or 9 sisters, but no pupil boarders. The Sisters continued their pastoral work in the district, and in later years, several basement rooms and a small cottage in the backyard (since demolished) are understood to have been used as refuges or temporary accommodation for the homeless. Although St Brigid's School was officially closed in October 1989, several Sisters remained at St Brigid's Convent until the building was sold and vacated by the Order in late 1999.[15]
\nThe closure of the school and convent coincided with the dramatic fall in the number of religious staff in Catholic organisations during the late twentieth century. Numbers of nuns in Australia dropped from 14,622 in 1966 to 5,927 in 2009; and their average age considerably increased during the same period, with the percentage of nuns 60 years or older rising from 36.5 percent in 1976 to 85.6 percent in 2009.[16]
\nOn sale of the property in c2004, the statue of Mary of the Assumption housed in the front elevation of the convent’s chapel was removed by the Sisters of Mercy. A sculpture representing the wings of St Brigid replaced the statue after 2013.[17] Steps associated with the terracing were removed from the site in 2003; and the terracing of the grounds was also razed at this time. The convent was renovated to accommodate the changed use of the building as a private residence after its sale in early 2005.[18] A timber fence running along the Upper Clifton Terrace boundary was replaced by a brick fence, but was partially reconstructed in 2009 to match the early design. At this time, a fence was also constructed along the northern boundary of the site, separating the convent from the northern lot (Lot 6 RP99989).[19]
\nAfter the ownership of the northern allotment (Lot 6 RP99989) and the eastern allotments fronting Lower Clifton Terrace were separated in c2004, a multi-unit dwelling was constructed to the east of the former convent in c2010, and a residential dwelling was constructed on Lot 6 to the north of the former convent in 2016.[20]
\nIn 2017, the place retains its Convent Building (former) with some of its associated grounds. It is a good example of a late 19th / early 20th century convent building, demonstrating the principal characteristics of the type of place, and remains representative of the ecclesiastical work of Eaton and Bates architects. While now in use as a residential property, the place demonstrates the growth of the Catholic parish to the fringe areas of Brisbane CBD and is important for its association with Sisters of Mercy. The building continues to be a landmark in its setting.
","criteria":"St Brigid’s Convent (1902-03), occupied by the Sisters of Mercy in Red Hill from 1902 to 1999, is important in demonstrating a way of life of a religious Order that has made a significant contribution to the state of Queensland. The place is a good example of a purpose-built convent building, which illustrates the educational, religious and social practices the Order of the Sisters of Mercy implemented throughout the state in the early 20th century.
\nThe place is a distinctive representation of a body of substantial Catholic buildings erected on prominent hilltop locations in Brisbane in the first half of the 20th century.
|St Brigid's Convent is a well-executed and largely intact example of a purpose-built masonry Catholic convent of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries, and demonstrates the principal characteristics of its type, including:
\nThe convent is a fine example of the ecclesiastical work of the architectural firm Eaton and Bates, who made a significant contribution to Queensland architecture in the late 1890s and early 1900s.
|St Brigid’s Convent is important for its aesthetic significance due to its landmark qualities, expressive architectural attributes, panoramic views and streetscape presence.
\nSet on a prominent hilltop location, the place has been a distinctive element of the Red Hill skyline for over a century. It is a highly visible landmark when viewed from the east, particularly from the Inner City Bypass, Musgrave Road and Kelvin Grove Road; and it retains panoramic vistas of Brisbane CBD to the southeast, an important southwestern visual connection to St Brigid’s Church [QHR 600284] on Musgrave Road, and a strong streetscape presence to Upper Clifton Terrace. The place’s hilltop siting expresses an identifiably assertive and impressive public image articulated by the Catholic Church in the 19th and 20th centuries.
\nSt Brigid’s Convent has well-composed elevations, and features intact, fine detailing including: cedar joinery, lancet and leadlight windows, pressed metal ceilings, decorative fireplace mantelpieces, and decorative balustrades and valances. Ecclesiastical motifs throughout the building express the former life of the building as a place of religious living and worship.
|The place is significant for its long and special association with the work of the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland, in particular their important educational and pastoral work in the Red Hill-Petrie Terrace district from the early 1880s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16893,"place_ref":601156,"name":"Uanda","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"27 Clifton Street","suburb":"WILSTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-03-24","description":"Constructed in 1928 across two blocks of land, Uanda is a low-set, hip-roofed, single-storey timber cottage set in a leafy street among timber houses of the same era. Rectangular in plan with a central projecting front porch flanked by bay windows, the house is clad with weatherboards and has a simple valance of timber palings to the lower level. The bay windows have bell-curved, shingle-clad skirts and multi-paned sash windows below flat projecting roofs and are supported on exposed timbers with a bird-mouth detail to the ends. The roof is tiled and has short projecting eaves with v-j boarded soffit. The house is elevated on concrete stumps, approximately one metre above the ground at the front and higher at the back as the ground slopes away.
The porch is now enclosed with weatherboards, glass louvres and casement windows and contains two entrance doors, each with a concrete stair with steel balustrade. Internally, there is evidence of the original pair of timber framed doors in the southern wall. On the exterior, there is evidence of twin corner verandah posts with decorative cappings. The porch is generously proportioned and has had an internal dividing wall recently removed. The floors are covered with linoleum and the ceiling is timber v-j boarding.
The original planning of the house is clearly discernible; public rooms with decorative details are located towards the front of the house and service rooms are at the back, although there are now two kitchens and two bathrooms dating from when the house was converted to a duplex. The principal rooms at the front of the house are lined in a compressed timber-fibre sheet material (known commercially as "beaver board") with decorative joinery, in particular, ornate cornices and architraves and a plate rail in the former living room, now divided into two smaller rooms. The ceilings have a grid-like pattern of timber strips and floors are timber boarding. Several of the interior doors are timber with four horizontal panels and some original hardware and there is also a multi-paned, timber and glass door between the front bedroom and hall.
The original kitchen is located in the north-west corner of the house, is lined vertical timber v-j boarding and contains some of the original joinery, including a set of tall cupboards. There is a set of three casement windows over the sink and a small timber sash window next to the back door. A toilet is located on the landing outside the backdoor of the kitchen next to a set of timber steps. The second kitchen is located in the north-east corner in the former sleep-out. This room has a door and stairs to the back garden. On the exterior of this room there are several timber decorative details including timber capitals and panels of early, painted timber slatted blinds. The two bathrooms are located between the kitchens. Both have terrazzo floors, baths and small cabinets. The top of the laundry chute remains in one of the bathrooms, however, the chute itself and cupboard in the laundry on the ground floor have been removed.
Two laundry hoists are located on a concrete slab in the back garden. A timber framed and fibro garage is located on the western side of the site.
","history":"Uanda, a low-set timber cottage built in 1928, is situated on two blocks originally part of Suburban Allotment No. 21 granted to Michael O'Neill in 1855. The Allotment slopes down from Newmarket Road to Enoggera Creek. The land subsequently passed through the hands of several owners until the boom in residential development in the area during the 1920s and 1930s following the extension of the electric tramline to Windsor in 1914 and the Grange in 1928. The area became known as the Langley Bank Estate and the portion of the Estate between Vardon and Granville Streets was re-subdivided and additional streets added, including Clifton Street, before being offered for sale again as the "model Darrima Estate" in 1928.
In April 1928, re-subdivisions 47 and 48 were purchased by Richard Jack, a young wool classer of Brisbane. By this time about 20 homes had been built in Clifton Street. The Brisbane City Council Building Application Register for 26 April 1928 records Jack's application for construction of the house at a cost of £799. The entry records that the architect was N. McCredie and the builder HW Dillecate of Milton. The house was constructed promptly and Richard Jack and his family were living in the house by October 1928. The house is named on the 1934 detail plan for the Brisbane City Council Water Supply and Sewerage Department as Uanda. The name is thought to have an association with a property near Hughenden which had some special attachment for the Jacks. The Jacks remained in the house until 1960 when the property was sold. It was sold again in 1966 when it was converted to a duplex. The property has since changed hands several times.
When constructed the house was rectangular in plan with a central projecting open front porch containing the entry steps and door to the south. The porch was flanked by bay windows and the house contained an entry hall, two bedrooms, kitchen, dining nook, living room, bathroom, sleepout verandah to the south east and laundry under. The kitchen had built-in cupboards; the bathroom had a laundry chute connecting to a cupboard in the laundry beneath the house; the lounge opened onto the entry hall through 4 large glass paneled doors; the lounge and main bedroom were wallpapered; other walls throughout the house were lined with vertical tongue and groove boards; and the living room had a plate rail. The house was originally painted cream with dark green to the bay windows.
Uanda is currently the only identified work of architect and potter Nellie McCredie. The career of Nellie McCredie is typical of the careers of women who entered the architectural profession prior to World War Two. These early women architects were rarely able to sustain their careers and as a result, examples of their work are extremely rare. Only three Brisbane buildings, including Uanda, have been identified. The other two were designed by Elina Mottram who practiced in Brisbane from 1924 to 1926.
Nellie McCredie was a member of a leading architectural family with associations with Queensland as well as New South Wales. She was the niece of well-known Sydney architects Arthur Latimer and George McCredie who from 1889 to 1893 opened a Brisbane office, as McCredie Brothers and Chambers. Nellie McCredie's cousin, Leith C. McCredie, was also an architect and worked in the 1920s in the Sydney firm of Robertson and Marks.
Nellie McCredie graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney in 1923, one of Australia's earliest architectural graduates. After graduating, she worked briefly for Dorman, Long and Company, contractors for the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Later she worked with several unidentified architects in Cairns for about 10 months, then came south to Brisbane where she was employed from November 1925 to early 1929 as a Draftswoman in the Workers' Dwellings Branch of the State Advances Corporation. It has not been possible to identify any of the work produced by the Workers' Dwellings Branch as work by McCredie as government drawings of the period were rarely signed by their designers. It was during this time that she designed Uanda as a private commission.
Nellie McCredie was concerned with improving the quality of life of the average Australian. In her Bachelor of Architecture thesis she advocates simple, chaste buildings in "appropriate" settings generously planted with trees, illustrating her ideas with "a pretty suburban cottage" not unlike Uanda in its symmetry, central entrance porch and simple hipped roof. In her preference for simple, classic buildings McCredie reflects the ideals of her university teachers, including Professor Leslie Wilkinson.
Like many of her women contemporaries, her practice of architecture was not to be sustained. Having studied pottery in Brisbane under the master craftsman, LJ Harvey, McCredie returned to Sydney in 1932 where she became a professional potter, setting up a commercial pottery at Epping in partnership with her younger brother Robert Reginald (Bob) McCredie. She exhibited actively with the New South Wales Society of Arts and Crafts into the 1950s and in 1951 won the Society's Elizabeth Soderberg Memorial Award for pottery. Pottery by the McCredies is well regarded for its simplicity and craftsmanship. It is represented in five public collections in Australia: National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Art Gallery of South Australia and Shepparton Art Gallery.
","criteria":"Uanda, a low set, single storey timber house built in 1928, is historically important for its association with the entry of women into the professions in Queensland, particularly into the architectural profession.
|As one of a small number of surviving intact examples of the work of pioneer women architects in Queensland and the only remaining architectural work of Nellie McCredie, Uanda demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|Uanda has aesthetic significance derived from it's careful, symmetrical composition, interior detailing and its contribution to the streetscape - in form and massing sympathetic to its neighbours and contributing a modest presence to a leafy suburban street.
|Uanda has a strong and special association with the work of Nellie McCredie, an important pioneer woman architect, potter and member of a leading architectural family with associations with Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16920,"place_ref":601142,"name":"Former RS Exton and Co Building (Part)","alternate_name":"Ace House","street_address":"333 Ann Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-12-17","description":"The RS Exton and Co Building (part) is situated on the south eastern side of Ann Street within a precinct of early low scale buildings, including the Masonic Hall, CPS House and St Andrew's Uniting Church. The façade continues the scale of these buildings. The remnants of the building include the north western façade addressing Ann Street and remnant walls returning from this.
The façade is supported by a metal frame and hording and is, therefore, concealed from Ann Street. The reminder of the land is undeveloped and is flanked by laneways on either side with access form Ann Street.
The façade is a symmetrical composition of face brick construction laid in English bond with rendered detailing. The facade is surmounted by a parapet with a projecting stepped up central bay housing a pediment. A rendered cornice runs the length of the parapet and stepped section. The pediment detail is embellished with dentilling and with the date A. 1907. D in relief lettering. Flanking the pediment is lettering repeated on each side, RS Exton and Co. The façade comprises a central round arched recess extending from ground floor level to just below the parapet. This central recess is flanked by narrower paired round arched recesses. The arched recesses of the façade are ornamented with rendered keystone and string courses.
","history":"The former RS Exton and Co Building was constructed in 1907 as the premises of the renowned painters and decorators, RS Exton and Co. The warehouse was designed by Brisbane architect, Claude W Chambers. Recently, the building was partially demolished and the façade only survives.
Robert Skerrett Exton was a prolific painter, decorator and glazier who practiced in Brisbane from 1882 until 1921. In 1882 Robert Skerrit Exton established a painting and decorating partnership with George Gough. Both men were from Lincolnshire, England. Exton arrived in Brisbane and in the 1870s established himself as a glazier in Harcourt Street, Fortitude Valley. By 1880 Exton had moved to premises at 337-9 Queen Street, Brisbane.
In 1882 the partnership of Exton and Gough allowed an expansion of Exton's solo concern. George Gough was a painter and decorator of many years experience. In 1883 the partnership moved from Exton's earlier premises to 526 Queen Street, opposite Petrie Bight. The partnership continued here and with branches in Toowoomba and Rockhampton until 1907 when it dissolved.
Typical of most painters and decorators of the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries, Exton and Gough and their employees provided a wide range of services for the householder or business person building or improving their premises. Services included painting and decorating, and signwriting. Exton and Gough also provided paint supplies for tradesmen and were agents for embossed metal ceilings and importers of art glass and wallpapers of the latest European design. During the 1880s Exton and Gough expanded their business to incorporate a department for the manufacture of stained glass, the only of its kind in Queensland.
Exton and Gough quickly assumed a reputation for high quality work and were commissioned for prestigious projects including Government House (George Street), the Treasury Buildings, Customs House, the Smellie and Co Warehouse, the Wesleyan Methodist Churches in Brisbane and the Valley. Exton and Gough provided stained glass windows for St Stephen's Cathedral and St Patrick's Church in the Valley. During the 20th century, Exton worked on the Brisbane City Hall and the Regent Theatre.
Following the dissolution of the Exton and Gough partnership, RS Exton and Co was formed and George Gough established a separate painting and decorating business in Albert Street. RS Exton constructed a building at 333 Ann Street to continue business. Robert Skerrett Exton acquired the title for the land on 17 April 1907. Exton and Arthur Hatton, an associate, obtained a mortgage on the property in December of 1907 for $1000 with a time frame of just over 2 years to repay the loan. The Ann Street property was transferred to RS Exton and Co on 5 December 1910 when RS Exton and Co became a limited company and Robert Skerrett Exton, Arthur Joseph Hatton, William Exton and Robert Harold Exton were appointed as the directors.
The warehouse is thought to be designed by Brisbane architect Claude W Chambers, as the RS Exton and Co Warehouse appears in the list of completed buildings in an advertisement for Chambers in Queenslanders As We See 'Em of 1915. When constructed the building's face brick façade was symmetrically arranged around a central round arched full length recess flanked by narrower double arched recesses. Greek key relief moulding on cement panels, signage and other classical motifs decorated the façade.
The choice of Ann Street, as the site of the RS Exton and Co Warehouse was in accord with other early twentieth century business who maintained businesses in the Street. At the time RS Exton and Co constructed its warehouse, this area of Ann Street had been transformed with the construction of the Central Railway Station in the late 1880s; a number of hotels including the Canberra Hotel and the Oxford Hotel were established nearby along with a number of businesses and churches. Immediately adjacent to the RS Exton and Co Warehouse was J Simmonds Monumental Works, located adjacent to St Andrews Presbyterian Church on the corner of Creek and Ann Streets. Subsequent to the construction of the RS Exton and Co Warehouse, the Masonic Temple, Shell House, the Government ANZAC Square Offices, the People's Palace, the City Hall and other hotels and businesses were constructed in Ann Street. Ann Street, a series of two to four storeyed buildings built to the footpath and punctuated occasionally with towers became a significant promenade through Brisbane. Since the 1960s, many of these earlier buildings have been demolished and replaced with multi storeyed office buildings.
RS Exton and Co continued to offer painting and decorating services and expanded the stained and leaded glass aspect of the business. In 1913, The Salon reported that the leadlight department of RS Exton and Co was under the management of a Mr Smyrk who for many years was one of the principal artists in the studio of Messrs William Morris and Co, Ruskin House, London. The windows produced by the RS Exton and Co are of very quality and are clearly influenced by the work of the English Arts and Crafts movement, particularly the stained glass work of Edward Burne-Jones. RS Exton and Co began to concentrate more fully on the design and manufacture of ecclesiastical and domestic glass.
To this end, RS Exton and Co employed several young artists to design the stained glass work. The most prolific and renowned of these designers was William Bustard who was employed in 1921 on commission as a stained glass designer. Bustard remained an employee on this basis with RS Exton and Co until the closure of the glass studio in 1958 with the demise of interest in decorative glass. Bustard was a prolific producer of fine stained glass which was used throughout Queensland, fine examples being in St Mark's Church, Warwick; St Paul's Presbyterian Church, St Paul's Terrace, Spring Hall; St Thomas' Anglican Church, Toowong; and St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, Rockhampton.
Other significant designers included Charles Lancaster, whose work survives at Hampton Court, Bowen Terrace, New Farm and George Oxlade who later formed his own painting and decorating business, Oxlade Brothers, who are operating to this day at art suppliers.
The company expanded in the 1910s or 1920s and another building was constructed adjacent to the western side of the 1907-8 warehouse. This building has since been demolished. RS Exton died in 1921 and the company was compromised by the effects of the early 1930s Depression and by World War II. The business contracted through the 1940s and the glass department closed in 1958. In the early 1940s the Ann Street Warehouse of RS Exton and Co, was used by EJ Lynch Motor Body Repairs Hoods and Upholstery.
","criteria":"As the only known premises of the RS Exton and Co business, or its predecessors, to survive, the building façade at 333 Ann Street has important and rare associations with a prolific and well known painting, decorating and stained glass business who were responsible for work to many of Queensland's outstanding nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings.
|The RS Exton and Co Building (Part) comprises a well designed warehouse façade of aesthetic and architectural value which contributes to the scale and architectural quality of this area of Ann Street.
|Through its position on Ann Street and the quality of the external detailing, the remnant building demonstrates the ethos and significance of the RS Exton and Co firm.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16922,"place_ref":601170,"name":"Monkton","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"7 Ardoyne Road","suburb":"CORINDA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-07-31","description":"A timber-framed dwelling, Monkton is located at the northern end of Ardoyne Road at Corinda. It has a symmetrical front comprising double street-facing gables either side of a projecting porch. Bay windows are located in the walls on each side of the porch. The main roof of the house is hipped and the external walls are clad with weatherboards.
The front of the house sits at ground level and the protruding front porch is accessed by a single concrete step. The porch has double tapered posts above sill height with Georgian style mouldings supporting thick verandah plates above. Weatherboard clad piers rise at each corner with thick sills from which extend the verandah posts. Lattice in fill panels are fixed in between the posts below arched valences.
The main roof is clad in Marseilles pattern terracotta tiles. Gabled fascias are narrow in width and are formed from moulded timber. The chimney has a flat cap and two flue openings and is finished with rough cast render which is painted. It has lead flashing to the tiles. Soffits to the main roof are supported by long shaped soffit brackets and are lined with spaced pine battens.
The low pitched roofs to the bay windows and porches are clad in roll and pan profile galvanised iron sheeting. All gutters are quad profile. Soffits to the porches and bay windows are supported on small shaped soffit brackets and are lined with fc sheeting. Each of the gables to the street is formed with fibre cement sheeting with vertical batten cover strips. In the centre of each gable is a lattice-formed roof ventilation grill.
The side porch has similar details to front porch but has timber slatted balustrades. A recent landing and timber framed stairs have been added to the side porch.
The bay windows to the street and to the south have casement windows with a central fixed bay with curved glazing bars. The bay window to the north-west has casement windows only. All other windows in the house are multi-paned timber casement windows. Porthole windows are located on the front porch, north elevation and south elevations of the house. External doors to the house (located at the side porch and on the front porch) are panelled timber doors with multi-paned glazing at the top. French light doors open onto the front porch.
The house becomes high-set at the rear where the land slopes down to a levelled yard. It is supported on brick piers at the rear and the under-storey area is open.
The house consists of two bedrooms (a main bedroom in the south-east corner and a second bedroom to the south), a sleep-out known as "the new room" (c.1930s-1940s) to the west, a kitchen in the north-east corner, two bathrooms, a hall, a sitting room and a parlour. A side porch off the kitchen provides access to the lower garden to the north via recent stairs.
The front porch provides entry to the parlour which features built-in early cabinets with leadlight glazed doors and recessed bookcases surrounding a face-brick fireplace with concrete hearth. The fireplace projects into the adjacent kitchen where the surface is smooth rendered and painted.
The sitting room features a bay window overlooking the river to the north-west, with a built-in solid timber window seat. Walls are lined with clear-finished timber v-jointed boards to picture rail height. Clear-finished timber panelled doors with cathedral patterned glazing provide access to the hall from the sitting room. A pair of bi-folding doors provides access to the new room to the west.
Early built-in joinery cabinets are located throughout the house including a linen press extending to the ceiling in the hallway, a former servery, cupboards and a pantry/broom cupboard extending to the ceiling in the kitchen, a wardrobe with storage cupboards extending to the ceiling in the main bedroom and a cupboard in the parlour.
All rooms have walls lined with v-jointed boards and ceilings of fibre-cement with cover strips. The main bedroom, parlour and sitting room have plaque rails and cornices are of a similar design. Other rooms have simpler picture rails. Skirtings are clear-finished timber in the parlour, sitting room, new room and main bedroom with simpler beaded skirtings in other rooms.
Floors throughout the house are hardwood except for the hall and the second bedroom, which are pine. The floor to the kitchen is finished with recent ceramic tiles. The flooring in the bathroom to the west is green terrazzo with a black terrazzo border. Many early light fittings and bakelite powerpoints and light switches remain throughout the house.
Additions to the place include a security grille to the front porch, some new kitchen cabinets, a bookcase in the hall and new bathroom fixtures. Recent leadlight windows are located in the internal bathroom.
Other structures on the site include a recent carport on the street boundary to the south-east, a shed to the south, a recent pool fence and a recent rainwater tank in the south-west corner. A recent shade structure is located over the driveway immediately in front of the house. These other structures are not considered of cultural heritage significance.
An early concrete fish pond sits within the pool fence at the rear of the house.
There are views from the rear of the property along the Brisbane River to the west towards Seventeen Mile Rocks and across to Fig Tree Pocket. Mature trees provide a foreground to the house along Ardoyne Road and a mature jacaranda shades the garden to the south-west. There are several garden beds and other plantings throughout the garden.
","history":"Monkton is a timber-framed house of modest proportions located in Brisbane's leafy south-west suburbs. It was designed in 1925 by Elina Mottram, Queensland's longest practising early female architect. Of all the buildings designed by early women architects in Brisbane, Monkton is one of only three that remain. It has a symmetrical street-facing façade, carefully detailed interiors and overlooks the Brisbane River to Fig Tree Pocket.
Women gradually entered the architectural profession in the early twentieth century. Architectural training was not easily accessible and women were not readily accepted into the profession. The first woman architect in Australia was Florence Taylor (1879-1969) who, despite applying for admittance to the Institute of Architects of New South Wales in 1907, was denied acceptance until 1920 due to her gender. Women such as Taylor generally came from relatively privileged backgrounds and were often exposed to the profession by male relatives in architectural practice or in related occupations such as builders or surveyors. In Queensland, though the Brisbane Central Technical College offered some architectural and building subjects and a Diploma in Architecture by 1918, it was not until 1949 that the University of Queensland offered a degree course admitting both men and women.
Prior to this time several women made notable contributions to the architectural profession in Queensland, including Lily Addison (c1885-1968), daughter of architect GHM Addison; and Beatrice Hutton, daughter of a surveyor from Rockhampton. Hutton was the first woman to be admitted to an architectural institute in Australia when her application to become an Associate of the Queensland Institute of Architects was accepted in 1916.
It was not until April 1924 that a woman architect opened her own practice in Brisbane, when Elina Mottram established her office in the T&G Building on the corner of Queen and Albert Streets. The Architectural Building Journal of Queensland announced that "Brisbane has at last a lady architect...we trust that she will get her fair share of public support". Today, Elina Mottram is considered the most successful of Queensland's early women architects.
Elina Emily Mottram (1903-1996) was born in Sheffield, England, the only child of Arthur Mottram, a building contractor and stonemason. She came to Brisbane in 1906 with her parents, attending Nundah State School, and later undertook studies in Architecture at the Brisbane Central Technical College while employed by architect FR Hall of Brisbane during the city's 1920s construction boom. She received a Diploma in Architecture in 1925.
Mottram taught building construction at the Brisbane Central Technical College between 1926 and 1928. During this time she also worked as an architect in Longreach (1926-1928) and in Rockhampton (1928-1929). In Longreach she designed public and commercial buildings, including the Masonic Temple, Longreach Motors and the office of Winchcombe Carson Ltd. She also remodelled the AWU building and the School of Arts.
Mottram registered as an architect with the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 1930. During the 1930s depression, when work was scarce, she was a postmistress at Raglan via Rockhampton from 1930-1936. In partnership with her father as A and E Mottram, she worked in Rockhampton in 1937 and later in Longreach 1938-1941, where she was foreman of works for her father for the first stage of construction of the Longreach Hospital (1940). She was employed as a draftswoman with the American Army Engineering Office in North Rockhampton in the Second World War. She later worked with the Queensland Railways and designed Eagle Junction Station.
Other residential commissions by Mottram, included a two-storeyed block of flats in Scott Street at Kangaroo Point c1925 (QHR 601171), a Tudor revival residence for Zina Cumbrae-Stewart overlooking the river, and a residence for Mrs Thurlby on the corner of Winchester and Hants Roads Ascot (now demolished). Of all the buildings designed by early women architects in Queensland (ie those practising before World War II) only three survive in Brisbane - Nellie McCredie¿s house at Wilston (QHR 601156), the Scott Street Flats and Monkton. In her article, 'Designing Women: pioneer architects', historian Judith McKay discusses the manner in which these women designed their buildings. She quotes Florence Taylor as saying "Men build houses but women build homes", and Beatrice Hutton as stating that:
"Men don't know how to build houses for women. Think of the cupboards that are either left out or put in the wrong place! And there are many details that only a woman can understand."
McKay describes a focus on comfort, simplicity and utility with attractive bay windows and ample storage, as attributes of Mottram's early work, including Monkton.
Monkton was built in 1925 on Ardoyne Road to the west of Oxley Road at Corinda for William and Margaret Dunlop who were then only recently married. It was named to commemorate Monkton Farm, William Dunlop¿s parents' farm which was to the east of Oxley Road.
Margaret Dunlop (nee Berrie) grew up across the road from the land on which the house was built. The land belonged to Margaret's parents and was given to the young couple as a wedding gift. The Dunlops commissioned Elina Mottram to design a house for the site. Elina, one of only a handful of women practising at the time, had been recommended to them though apparently they did not choose her particularly because she was a woman. Elina described Margaret Dunlop, who was 19 at the time, as an "exemplary client, intelligent and interested." Mrs Dunlop chose the fittings and hardware and specified that the kitchen be on the north-east. Mottram's original specification of works and materials for Monkton survives, providing a valuable insight into domestic construction practices at the time and Mottram's (and her clients') specific architectural detail requirements.
William and Margaret Dunlop lived at Monkton their whole lives and raised four boys there. When they died the house was left to their son Robert and in 2008 the dwelling remains in the family's possession.
During this time some changes have been made to the property. Between the late 1930s and the mid-1940s the addition of a rear bedroom was made to the house; this is still known as the "the new room". Portions of the land were excised, one to the north and one to the west reducing the property to its current size. New kitchen cabinets were added and an internal room was made into a bathroom in the mid-1990s. A built-in bookcase was installed after 2005 along with half-height partition walls in the parlour and main bedroom. A recent timber-framed staircase has been added to the side porch. A recent shade structure has been erected over the front driveway in front of the house.
","criteria":"Monkton, a timber-framed dwelling constructed in 1925, is significant for its association with the entry of women into the professions in Queensland, particularly into the architectural profession. Women began to establish careers in architecture in Queensland from the early 1900s, initially working in male-owned practices. In 1924 Elina Mottram, the designer of Monkton, became the first woman in Queensland to establish her own architectural practice.
|Monkton has a special association with the work of Elina Mottram, the first woman to open her own architectural practice in Brisbane and Queensland's most successful and longest practising early female architect. The survival of the 1925 specification of works and materials for Monkton, combined with the intactness of the place, makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Ms Mottram's work. The detailing of the interior joinery is highly characteristic of her domestic work.
|Monkton is significant for its aesthetic and architectural qualities as a highly intact, well composed and refined example of a timber residence. These qualities are reflected in its symmetrical street frontage and distinctive exterior and interior detailing. Monkton's elevated situation overlooking the Brisbane River through mature trees creates an idyllic setting and the large garden surrounding the house adds to its picturesque character.
|Monkton remains substantially intact in form and detailing. It is rare as one of only a few surviving examples of the work of early women architects in Queensland and one of only three in Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion H | Criterion E | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16923,"place_ref":601174,"name":"St John the Baptist Anglican Church","alternate_name":"St John the Baptist Church","street_address":"171 Oxford Street","suburb":"BULIMBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-07-09","description":"The church is a landmark in Bulimba and occupies a level site on a prominent corner on the main street.
St John the Baptist church is a timber building with a corrugated iron roof. It is set on low brick piers and has a nave with side aisles open to the main body of the church. The nave is divided into seven bays by scissor trusses supported by stop-chamfered posts. A porch protects the main entrance at western end of the church and faces the street. Further entrances to the west, north and south sides are less prominent and all are accessed by low flights of steps. There is a car park on the southern side of the church.
The interior of the church has silky oak panelling and there is a timber chancel screen of a light and open design, which is now at the western end of the church. The interior is lit by lancet windows fitted with coloured glass and by small round windows set high in the wall on both sides of the nave.
","history":"St John the Baptist Anglican Church is a timber church constructed in 1888 and is prominently sited at an intersection of the main street of Bulimba.
European settlement of Bulimba began in the early 1850s with farming of small crops and fishing along the river. David McConnel built 'Bulimba House' there, keeping cattle to acclimatize them before moving them to his pastoral property, 'Cressbrook', and growing maize and oats to feed them. In 1864 a large part of the Bulimba House land was subdivided into residential blocks. A ferry operated between Bulimba and the city from 1864 and, as the river provided the easiest route to Brisbane, it seems a natural progression that boat building began to develop as an industry in the area.
Initially the Anglican residents of Bulimba were members of St Andrews parish at South Brisbane and in October1868 an Anglican church at Tingalpa was dedicated after a committee of local residents, chaired by Charles Coxon, raised funds to erect a church to serve the Bulimba and Tingalpa areas.
By 1872 Bulimba was a postal township and from the 1870s the area gradually became more densely populated as it shared in the development boom of the 1880s. In 1881 the Presbyterians erected a church at Bulimba. In 1887 a grant of £25 was made toward building an Anglican church and Mrs Coxen put up a notice near the Bulimba ferry in 1887 calling a public meeting to seek support for the provision of regular local Anglican Services. As a result of the meeting, the Reverend H M Bannister commenced the Bulimba Mission. Religious services and a Sunday school were conducted in the local School of Arts.
Mrs Coxen donated land for a church in what is now Birkalla Street and also made a donation of £100 to the building fund. In 1888, this land was sold and the current, more central, site was purchased. Mrs Coxon died in 1906 and the church contains a memorial plaque and lectern commemorating this major benefactor.
John Hingeston Buckeridge, appointed Diocesan Architect in 1887, designed the new church. Buckeridge was born in England as the son of an ecclesiastical architect and was articled to leading ecclesiastical architect John Loughborough Pearson between 1874 and 1879, studying at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Architectural Association in London. He undertook important works for the Church in England before moving to Queensland for personal reasons and to supervise the proposed new Anglican cathedral to Pearson's design. Although work on the cathedral did not commence until after 1900, Dr William Webber, the Bishop of Brisbane, needed an architect to take charge of an ambitious building programme. It was intended to provide a series of 'substantial and permanent churches in Queensland' to serve an expanding population. Although many of these churches could not be expensive, Buckeridge lifted them above the ordinary by quality of design and materials.
Lady Musgrave, wife of the Governor, capped the first stump of the new church at Bulimba on 23 June 1888. T Whitty constructed it at a cost of £700 and the first service was held there on 29 September 1888 on St Michael and All Angels Day. As Bishop Webber was then overseas, the dedication service did not take place until 2 June 1889.
In 1893 the Bulimba Mission became part of Tingalpa parish and between 1900 and 1915 was under the direction of the Cathedral. In 1895, a Sunday school hall was built parallel to the church and behind it as seen from Oxford Street. This hall does not survive.
Many of the decorations and furnishings in the church were memorial gifts. They include the bell turret, constructed in 1915 in memory of Samuel and Mary Woodland and the pulpit given in memory of Corporal Frederick Storey who died at Gallipolli, which was installed in the same year. A small organ of unknown make was purchased from Lutwyche Park and installed in 1916.
Considerable works were carried out on the church in the 1930s, despite the straightened financial circumstances of the community in this period. A retaining wall was needed on the Oxford Street side of the site because the street level had been raised. This was constructed using Depression Relief labour. In 1936, the Reverend Tomlinson acquired a bell from the wrecked ship Maheno, which was installed in the belfry. A reredos and timber panelling were installed in the church in 1937, in time for its golden jubilee in the following year.
In the early 1950s, the timber screen was relocated from the chancel to the nave of the church and work was carried out on the organ, which was moved from the north to the south side of the building and converted to electricity. H W Jarrett carried out restoration work on the organ in 1978.
A brick parish hall was erected on land acquired further along Oxford Street in 1965 and was extended in 1986. The site of the original hall next to the church became a car park area.
","criteria":"As one of a series of churches designed by J H Buckeridge for the building programme instituted in the 1880s by Thomas Webber, Bishop of Brisbane, St John the Baptist church is evidence for the way in which the Anglican Church developed in Queensland during the nineteenth century. As the first Anglican church in the area it also reflects the development of Bulimba.
|St John the Baptist Anglican Church is a good and intact example of a timber church of its era.
|In its form, scale and detail it makes a substantial visual contribution to the built character of Bulimba.
|St John the Baptist Anglican Church has served Bulimba and the surrounding area since 1888 and continues to play an important role in the life of the community as the venue for shared religious and social experiences.
|St John the Baptist Anglican Church has a special association with the life and work of the Diocesan Architect, J H Buckeridge, and Bishop Webber, whose vision for the developing Church in Queensland encompassed the construction of new buildings of substance and quality.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16991,"place_ref":602170,"name":"St Andrews War Memorial Hospital Administration Building","alternate_name":"Emmanuel College | St Andrew's War Memorial Hospital Administration Building","street_address":"465 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-03-24","description":"St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital Administration Block is a two storey, rendered masonry building located on Wickham Terrace, opposite Albert Park. A brick retaining wall with two entrances fronts Wickham Terrace, together with a small garden area with two flagpoles. The building is rectangular in form and is comprised of three sections which present a symmetrical façade to the street. A central section with a pyramidal roof of corrugated steel is flanked by two wings with hip roofs clad in half-round, terracotta tiles. The roofs have deep, boxed eaves with decorative brackets and timber panelled soffit.
The lower section of the ground floor is strongly expressed as a base with a rusticated ashlar-like finish to the render. The upper part of the façade is subdivided by a string course at the sill level of the upper floor windows. The exterior of the building features regularly placed rectangular windows, taller on the ground floor and smaller at the upper level with rectangular moulded panels between them. A number of timber, multi-paned casement windows and fanlights survive although many others have been replaced with aluminium framed windows in order to accommodate air conditioners. The main entrance is located to one side of the central section and has a concrete awning with recent automatic door. An ornate, arched doorway recessed into the wall is found at the western end of the Wickham Terrace façade. The door itself has five raised horizontal timber panels with an arched timber fanlight and is richly ornamented with a cartouche above the fanlight.
At the rear of the building, evidence of the 1860s house is apparent. The central section is painted sandstone ashlar with several original window openings and a sandstone chimney. In the interior of this section some of the planning of the former residence is discernible and several door openings, mouldings and sections of timber floor remain. The chimney-breast can be seen at both ground and first floor levels and an early dog-leg staircase with balustrade and curved handrail remain. This section of the building has been altered over time. Many of the rooms have decorated plaster ceilings and deep cornices with Art Nouveau inspired ornamentation. The front entrance to the building opens into a hallway space and reception area that has a recent, low ceiling of acoustic tiles and a timber reception desk. Central hallways run from the entry area through both the western and eastern wings.
On both levels of these wings the planning is essentially that of the former Emmanuel College with rows of equal-sized, small rooms located either side of the hallway. Most of these have decorative plaster ceilings and cornices. The far western end of the building departs from this pattern. On the ground floor, a board room is located in the north-western corner, the room has been recently decorated and has padded wall panelling up to picture rail height. A dog-leg staircase is located outside the board room and has curvilinear, wrought iron balusters and a curved timber handrail.
At the top of this staircase is an entrance doorway to a suite of rooms, articulated as a separate apartment. The entrance door has the stylised appearance of an external door with large hammered-finish, decorative copper hinges, leadlight window and wrought iron door knocker and peephole. A small vestibule is separated from the main rooms of the apartment by a pair of swinging leadlight doors with an Art Deco influence. The main two rooms are panelled in two toned timber with a plate rail and highly decorative ceiling edges and cornice. A recent partition has been inserted into this area dividing it into three small rooms. A brick fireplace is located in the north-west corner. The other two rooms of the apartment are finished in smooth render with decorative ceilings. A bathroom is located at the end of the hall at the west end of the building and appears to have been part of the apartment. The walls are tiled in white, oblong ceramic tiles with a black tiled edge and a random placement of richly coloured Art Deco style tiles. The floor is finished in black and white tiles with a Greek key patterned edge.
","history":"St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital Administration Building is a two storey rendered masonry building, the greater part of which was constructed in 1931 and 1936, and that also encompasses sections of a residence owned by Sir Charles Lilley dating from the late 1860s. From 1912 to 1954, the building was occupied by Emmanuel College, the Presbyterian college of residence of the University of Queensland. From 1954, it has been part of St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital.
Crown land along Leichardt Street and Wickham Terrace was sold from 1856 marking the beginning of the development of Spring Hill, the "second northside suburb within the old town boundary of Brisbane". The meandering ridge roads of Wickham and Gregory Terrace were cleared of eucalyptus forest and indigenous communities in the late 1850s to 1870s to make way for the residences of the Brisbane elite. One of these was judge and politician, Sir Charles Lilley. Between 1863 and 1889, several parcels of land in the block now bounded by Bradley Street, Boundary Street, Wickham Terrace and North Street were purchased by Lilley or his trustees.
An article in the Queenslander, 29 May 1930, claims that Lilley built Jesmond Cottage, a "one storeyed stone dwelling with slate roof" in Spring Hill around the time of his premiership in the late 1860s. As his family grew, it is believed that he added a two storey stone extension and acquired or built an adjacent cottage which was used as accommodation for his sons.
Lilley emigrated to Sydney in 1856 but soon moved to Brisbane where he worked in the law and as an editor for the Moreton Bay Courier. In 1858, he married Sarah Jane Jeays, the daughter of Brisbane architect Joshua Jeays. Lilley's legal and political career advanced during the 1860s and 1870s. In 1860, he was elected MLA for Fortitude Valley and became Attorney-General in Macalister's ministry in 1866 and 1867. He was Premier of Queensland from 1868-1870, appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1879 and received a knighthood in 1881. He is best remembered as a champion of free education as his 1870 Act introduced free primary education in Queensland. Sir Charles Lilley died in 1897, leaving a widow and thirteen children. The site in Spring Hill remained in the hands of his trustees until the death of his son, Edwyn Mitford Lilley in 1911, at which point the land was subdivided and sold.
Following the opening of the University of Queensland at Garden's Point in March 1911, Emmanuel College purchased over an acre of land on Wickham Terrace towards the end of the year. Emmanuel College was the Presbyterian Church's residential college and Theological Hall and was one of the first residential colleges to be established, along with St. John's and King's Colleges in Kangaroo Point in 1912, Women's College also at Kangaroo Point in 1914 and St. Leo's also on Wickham Terrace in 1918. None of these other early college buildings have survived.
The Presbyterian College Committee was formed in 1910 and £856 was subscribed towards the costs of buying suitable premises for a college by a large number of Brisbane residents. The decision was made to purchase the former Lilley residence, then being used as a boarding house, and the college opened with five students on 15 May, 1912. For twelve years this remained the principal building of the College. Also on the site were a separate kitchen block and three cottages. The cottage on the block of land bordered by Bradley and Boundary Streets was pulled down and the land sold within a few years of the establishment of the College. The timber cottage to the West and facing Wickham Terrace was used as the Principal's residence and demolished in 1936 and another facing Bradley Street provided quarters for the domestic staff.
A two storey fibro-cement building, at the eastern end and perpendicular to the buildings facing Wickham Terrace, was completed in 1923. Initially this building had twelve students' rooms on the top floor and a dining room and billiard room on the first floor with showers and bathrooms in a basement at the north end of the building. In 1927, a three storey brick building comprising a new dining hall, kitchen and student rooms was completed at a cost of £5000. The old kitchen block was also demolished at this time. In 1931, the stone house was extensively remodelled with the addition of a two storey cement wing on the eastern side, the rendering of the original stonework and changes to window openings. These alterations were designed by Brisbane architect D.F.W Roberts and cost £2750. A western wing was constructed in 1936 to a cost of £6500. The detailing is the similar to the earlier alterations but it is not known whether Roberts was also involved in this extension.
After World War Two the University re-located from Garden's Point to St. Lucia and Emmanuel College moved to new premises at the same time. In 1954, the old Emmanuel College was purchased by the Presbyterian Church of Queensland for the establishment of a private hospital. In May 1958, the St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital opened with a surgical ward, medical ward and a small children's ward. The church bought most of the remaining land on the block bounded by Wickham Terrace, Boundary, North and Bradley Streets during the 1950s and 60s and the hospital has continued to develop the site in succeeding decades. The main building of the former Emmanuel College has become the front of the hospital and has been used variously for administrative purposes, nurses' accommodation and the children's ward. The building is currently used as offices by the hospital administration.
","criteria":"St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital Administration Building is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, representing the development of the Spring Hill area from it's earliest residential development through to institutional uses across the twentieth century.
From 1954, the administration building has been associated with St. Andrew's Hospital, demonstrating changes in nursing and health practices.
|As the last remaining example of an early residential college in Brisbane city, dating from the time that the University of Queensland was located in the city, St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital Administration Building demonstrates rare and uncommon aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital Administration Building has the potential to yield information about 1860s houses in Brisbane.
|It has aesthetic significance due to the quality of it's design and decorative details. In particular, the building makes an important contribution to the Wickham Terrace streetscape.
|From 1912 until the College re-located to St. Lucia after World War Two, the Wickham Terrace college building was a hub of student life and the Theological Hall of the Presbyterian church.
|The place has a strong association with Emmanuel College, the Presbyterian Church and with St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital.
St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital Administration Building has a special association with Sir Charles Lilley, a former Premier and Chief Justice of Queensland and campaigner for free education in the state, as it encompasses sections of his residence dating from the 1860s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16992,"place_ref":602171,"name":"La Boite Theatre","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"69 Hale Street","suburb":"PETRIE TERRACE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-01-30","description":"La Boite Theatre illustrates its name, being literally a box-shaped brick building with rounded corners. It is constructed of dark reject bricks with texture created by variations in the way in which the bricks are laid in the lower section. The roof is metal clad and low pitched.
The building is designed over three levels. On the ground floor is the foyer, flanked by small lobbies and a ticket office with the auditorium seating 200 behind it. This contains a central acting space with seating around it. Tunnels are located under the raked seating and provide access for the actors to different parts of the stage.
There is rehearsal space, a workshop, storage, office and dressing rooms in a basement area below the stage and a gallery above. A brick-paved courtyard opens off the foyer.
","history":"La Boite Theatre was built in 1972 to the design of Brisbane architect Blair Wilson for the Brisbane Repertory Theatre Company.
The Brisbane Repertory Theatre Society was founded in 1925 by a group of local theatre enthusiasts led by Barbara Sisley and Professor J J Stable. Their stated object was 'to stimulate public interest and to promote public education in the drama and to promote and encourage the study and development of the best in dramatic literature and art.' Their first play was 'The Dover Road' by AA Milne and in 1926 they performed an Australian play and decided that they would in future include at least one Australian play in each year's programme. In 1931 they held their inaugural Australian Playwriting Competition, the winning play causing controversy when it was performed because of its realistic subject matter and coarse language. It was a sign of things to come. The theatre company became known for its production of modern and innovative theatre. They are now Australia's oldest continuously running theatre company.
The group has performed in many theatres including Her Majesty's, the Bohemia, Cremorne, Theatre Royal, Rialto, Old and New Albert Halls and held a lease on the Princess Theatre in South Brisbane for several years. However, one by one theatres closed and with the demolition of the Albert Hall in 1967, the last available and affordable venue for productions in the central city area was lost. The society looked for a way to continue productions and decided to establish a permanent home 'where the theatre's image could flourish and members would be welcome at all times'.
The society had acquired two timber cottages on the corner of Hale and Sexton Streets, Petrie Terrace in the late 1950s for use as clubrooms. They then purchased adjoining properties and decided to convert one of the houses into a theatre-in-the-round. There were several reasons for this decision. To begin with, there was no existing theatre in the round in Brisbane, even though some experimental productions in this style had been well received. In 1965 an experimental in the round performance was held in the converted house in Sexton Street.
Theatre in the round would extend the range of theatrical experience available to the Brisbane public and allow actors and directors to employ new techniques. There was an increasing overseas trend for more flexible performance space and a theatre in the round offered the simplest and cheapest way of achieving this. The equipment and scenery needed was not as elaborate as that required for a conventional theatre and seating capacity could be smaller so that an existing building could be utilised.
The converted cottage seated 65 people and opened for performances in June 1967. In spite of the small space and limited technical facilities, a lack of proper seating and air conditioning, the new theatre was an artistic success. It was named La Boite (The Box) to acknowledge its box-like shape.
Theatre-in-the-round, where the audience surrounds the players, is an ancient way of presenting performances but was new as a 20th century theatrical form. It was an outcome of ideas developed in the first decades of the century in reaction to the restrictions of traditional theatre. At the time, theatres provided elaborate settings were the audience went to see and be seen and were seated on the ground floor and in rows of tiers and boxes facing a picture frame stage. Scenery and costumes were elaborate; acting was exaggerated in style and productions expensive to mount. Changes included simplification of settings and the use of lighting as an integral part of the performance, rather than just as means of illuminating the players.
In a reaction to the proscenium stage, a movement began in the mid-20th century to design theatres with the performing area placed centrally in the auditorium. The placing of the audience around the performers rather than in front of them permitted a much closer relationship between actors and audience to develop. Margo Jones in Dallas, Texas, who studied this concept and used it for productions, wrote an influential book on her work, Theater-in-the-Round (1951). Notable examples of theatres associated with developing this concept are the Arena Stage in Washington, DC, USA (1961) and the Royal Exchange in Manchester, England (1976).
The remaining cottages at Milton were used as studio, workshop and storage areas. Brisbane Repertory Theatre mounted more than forty productions over the next four years and their space needs became pressing. Brisbane City Council approval for a new theatre replacing the converted house was granted in 1971. It was also to be a theatre in the round, though this time designed and built for the purpose. Blair Wilson of Brisbane firm R Martin Wilson & Sons created the design with input from the theatre's Artistic Director, Jennifer Blocksidge. It was the first purpose built arena theatre in Australia, the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney using a converted space for its performances.
The building construction was financed by a dollar-for-dollar grant of $40 000 from the State Government in November 1971. The 'dream theatre' designed by Blair Wilson was originally costed at $100,000, but it was found possible to reduce this to the available budget of $80,000 and retain the original design. This was done by modifying some details, reusing lighting and sound equipment from the old building and reducing costs for materials and finishes. The Governor, Sir Alan Mansfield, planted a time capsule in the foundations on 28 November 1971.
Utilising reject bricks that had chipped corners or minor irregularities of shape effected a major saving. Blair Wilson subsequently won the Industry Clay Brick Award for creative use of brick and the distinctive dark bricks forming a curvaceous box are a strong feature of the design. It was felt by a number of people visiting the theatre that the slight irregularities of the bricks imparted character and a demand for similar bricks were experienced by the supplier. Externally a small courtyard leading off the foyer proved a pleasant social space for use at intermission. The interior had tiers of seating on all four sides of the building surrounding a central stage. One bank of seats was made removable. The finish was simple and modern with a suspended black ceiling and exposed brick walls. Tunnels under the seating tiers allowed performers to move around the theatre without being visible.
The succeeding Governor, Sir Colin Hannah, officially opened the theatre on 11 June 1972. The Courier Mail noted at the time that the Brisbane Repertory Theatre had made Australian theatre history by owning the first theatre in the country to be designed and built 'in the round', a significant departure from traditional theatre design. Internal changes have occurred to the theatre since, but the essential design elements remain. In 1988 seats from the Expo 88 Russian Pavilion replaced the original seating.
Brisbane Repertory Theatre continued to be innovative and established the Early Childhood Drama Project in 1975 and held its first season of all Australian plays in 1980. In 1993 it became a professional company. As such, its needs were somewhat different than those of the amateur company for which the theatre was designed. A need for more space and the development of nearby Lang Park stadium prompted consideration of a move. In 1996 La Boite incorporated as a non-profit organization.
The theatre was used as a venue by the Queensland Theatre Company in the 1970s and continues to be used by a variety of local occasional companies, as well as presenting an annual season of productions by La Boite Theatre Inc. Since 2000 the Company has also been using the Powerhouse theatre for performances.
On 23 December 2001 it was announced that the theatre company would move to the new Creative Industries Complex at Kelvin Grove and administrative and rehearsal functions moved to the Dixon Centre at West End. Work began on the new theatre in 2002 and the Company plans to open in the new location in 2004.
","criteria":"La Boite Theatre illustrates the development of theatre in Queensland, as an arena theatre, which allowed the presentation of modern, flexible and intimate performances, reflecting trends in Europe and America, and rejuvenating amateur theatre in Queensland. It is also important as a purpose designed building for a longstanding and popular theatre company who have played an important role in the arts in Queensland.
|La Boite Theatre is rare as the first purpose designed theatre-in-the-round in Queensland.
|The design for La Boite Theatre won a building industry award for the innovative use of material and is also innovative in form, the exterior expressing the name, which means 'The Box' and was carried forward from the earlier theatre, converted from a cottage.
|La Boite Theatre is strongly connected with the development of the Brisbane Repertory Theatre Company, for which it was specifically designed and which has housed it for 30 years. The company took its name from the building when incorporated.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17005,"place_ref":602186,"name":"Cliveden Mansions","alternate_name":"Chippendale","street_address":"17 Gregory Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-04-29","description":"Cliveden Mansions consists of two main portions, the 1888-89 house fronting Gregory Terrace, and the 1915 boarding house extension to the rear.
The 1888-89 section of Cliveden Mansions is a two-storey rendered brick building, featuring timber-framed floors and roof, and corrugated iron roof cladding. Two original chimneys are visible above the roof line. A series of timber-framed additions exist to the northern and eastern sides of the masonry core. The northern addition has chamferboard external cladding which has been rendered. Timber-framed verandahs to two sides have also been enclosed.
Internally, the 1888-89 section consists of a series of major and minor rooms opening on to a central stairway and passage. A full room bay arrangement punctuates the otherwise rectilinear plan form and is surmounted by a distinctive octastyle roof. Most rooms have access to either the western or southern verandah. Much of the timber door and window joinery survives intact, including a coloured leaded glass main entry and coloured patterned glass stairwell window. The original timber internal staircase has been painted. Some original internal decorative finishes survive including moulded plaster cornices and ornate plaster ceiling roses.
The 1915 boarding house addition is a 2-3 storey timber-framed structure with a corrugated iron hip roof. The plan form is a simple series of single rooms accessed by a central corridor and opening out on to a narrow perimeter verandah. The eastern and southern external walls are clad with chamferboards while the northern external wall is of single-skin VJ construction.
The verandahs are simply detailed with timber dowel balustrades and timber french doors with fanlights opening out from the rooms. The verandah posts are stop chamfered. A modern steel stair is visible at the eastern end of the verandah.
Internally, the rooms are divided by single-skin VJ walls, interior ceilings and corridor walls are lined with VJ timber. Bathrooms are fitted with post-World War II fittings of varying styles and standards.
The existing brick and cast iron fence to Gregory Terrace is thought to be the original 1888-89 fence. Evidence of the front stairs and path with a distinctive 45 degree turn also survives.
","history":"The first structure to be built at 17 Gregory Terrace was "Chippendale", a detached house designed by George Addison for Selina Forth. A purpose-built boarding house was added in 1915 for Pauline Eschenhagan, also to the design of George Addison. Both the house and rear addition have continued to be used as boarding house accommodation since this time, and are currently known as "Cliveden Mansions".
Land in the settlement of Brisbane was first alienated from the Crown in 1856. Some of the earliest land purchases were made in the Spring Hill area, including lots along Wickham and Gregory Terraces. The site of Cliveden Mansions, described as portion 216, county of Stanley, parish of Brisbane, was originally granted to Patrick Bradley in 1861. The holding was later subdivided, and subdivisions 3 and 4 were acquired by the Crowther family in 1872. The Crowthers sold the property ten years later to Moses Ward, a Fortitude Valley chemist. Throughout this time, Post Office Directories indicate the property was vacant. Selina Forth became the owner of the property in 1888, and retained the title until her death in 1911. It was during Ms Forth's ownership of the property that Chippendale was built.
The construction of Chippendale was the result of human tragedy in the Forth family. Selina Forth was the wife of John William Forth, an alderman for the east ward in 1882 and 1883, and the owner of a large wholesale and retail produce business located in Elizabeth Street. The Forths, together with their ten children, were residents of Wickham Terrace in the early 1880s, before moving to "Stanley Hall" at Clayfield, built for the Forths in 1885-86. The Forths resided only a short time at Stanley Hall. Clara Forth, their 20 year old daughter, died there in 1886, and shortly after the family returned from a visit to Europe toward the end of the year, John Forth was killed while helping transplant trees in a paddock near his home, on 28 December 1886. Selina Forth subsequently sold Stanley Hall in 1888, and purchased the Gregory Terrace property in the same year. She had George Addison of Oakden Addison and Kemp design her house in 1888-89, and in 1890 she took up residence there, naming the house Chippendale. Ms Forth lived in the house with her son William Forth, and, on occasion, two other women.
Following the death of Selina Forth in 1911, the beneficiaries of her will sold Chippendale to Pauline Emma Eschenhagen in 1913. Pauline Eschenhagen, together with her husband Carl, and later her son Edward, ran a very successful restaurant and catering business in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Anti-German sentiment during World War I forced the sale of the business in 1915 however, and Ms Eschenhagen mortgaged Chippendale and had the architect of the original house, GMH Addison, design the large boarding house extension to the rear of the property. It is thought the front northern addition to the house was also completed at this time. In 1915 the property was leased to Grace Tate who ran the property as a boarding house. Ms Tate held a lease on Chippendale, including the boarding house extension, until at least 1929. In the same year the boarding house extensions were added, Ms Eschenhagen also had architect TR Hall design a new villa residence further along Gregory Terrace next to St Joseph's College and lived in this house with her family until her death in 1921.
As proprietor of the boarding house establishment, Grace Tate represented a common practice whereby many of Brisbane's boarding houses were run by women. The 1916 listing of boarding houses in Pugh's Almanac noted 54 such establishments, of which 40 were run by women. The figures for 1918 show a similar pattern: 46 of the 66 boarding houses listed in Brisbane were operated by women. What was unusual about the Gregory Terrace boarding house was the purpose-built nature of the rear portion. It was a more common practice for boarding houses to be larger houses subdivided into smaller dwellings.
The construction and operation of the Gregory Terrace boarding house from 1915 reflects the popularity of Spring Hill and other inner-Brisbane suburbs as locations of boarding house accommodation at that time. Boarding houses existed in Brisbane from the earliest years of free settlement in the 1840s. From this era until the 1890s, boarding houses were particularly well established in the South Brisbane/West End/Woolloongabba, and Teneriffe/Newstead areas. The Brisbane floods of 1890 and 1893 adversely affected the popularity of South Brisbane however, and the population drifted to the north side of the river. Further impetus towards the establishment of boarding house accommodation in the inner-city suburbs occurred in the 1910s when the cost of living outgrow the rise in wages, a situation worsened by the outbreak of World War I in 1914. This economic pattern may have forced many into boarding house accommodation. The Depression of the 1930s certainly had this effect with an influx of labour into the cities in search of work.
Pugh's Almanac and the Post Office Directories from the 1910s indicate the saturation of lodging houses in Wickham Terrace and Boundary Street alone. Pugh's Almanac for the years 1916 and 1918 list 18 and 15 boarding houses in Wickham Terrace respectively, while in South Brisbane only seven are recorded for both years. The Post Office Directories for 1915-16 included listings for 195 boarding houses in Brisbane, of which six were listed in Boundary Street. While neither listing is conclusive, they do illustrate the importance of Spring Hill as a location of boarding houses.
During the 1930s Spring Hill and other inner-city suburbs waned in their popularity as a "desirable address", and they remained unpopular for much of the remainder of the twentieth century. Wealthy residents increasingly relocated from their inner city dwellings to the suburbs, and the inner-city area was increasingly known as an industrial and working class area. These areas continued to be considered "undesirable" in the 1970s and early 1980s when there was a decline in the number of families with young children, and an increase in elderly and single people, migrants from non English speaking backgrounds and Indigenous Australians residing in the area. Significant numbers of former residents of psychiatric institutions also began relocating to boarding house and hostel accommodation within inner Brisbane. Attitudes began to change in the mid to late 1980s and 1990s however, as inner-city gentrification occurred. Properties were increasingly acquired for middle-class residential, commercial, recreational and cultural uses, including many boarding houses. Between 1987 and 1996, 37 per cent of all boarding house premises in inner north Brisbane suburbs closed, and pressure of redevelopment of these places continues.
The Gregory Terrace boarding house remained in the Eschenhagen family until 1949, and was renamed "Cliveden Mansions" during the family's ownership, in 1941. The Canadian Pacific Tobacco Company Ltd purchased the property in 1949, and the property was owned by four different owners during the 1950s before being bought by Salem Tamer in 1958. Hunsoomie Tamer became a joint owner in 1967, and Salem and Hunsoomie retained the property until 1979 when it was purchased by Neil Gibbins and Elaine Katte. The current owners, Treklodge Pty Ltd, purchased the property in 1992, and continue to operate Cliveden Mansions as a boarding house.
Brisbane City Council building records indicate approval for alterations to the building was given in 1957. It is not certain what this work was, however it may have included various verandah enclosures and internal planning changes that currently exist.
","criteria":"Cliveden Mansions is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history as an illustration of late nineteenth and twentieth century housing patterns in inner Brisbane. The 1888-89 section demonstrates a characteristic of Brisbane residential development whereby the wealthy built along hilltops and ridgelines, surrounded on the lower slopes and hollows by the less wealthy members of the community. It also demonstrates the expansion of residential development beyond the city centre in the later nineteenth century. The 1915 boarding house extension illustrates another housing pattern whereby inner-city suburbs such as Spring Hill had the highest concentrations of Brisbane boarding houses in the early twentieth century.
|The 1915 boarding house addition demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage as a purpose-built boarding house. Most boarding houses were larger houses subdivided into smaller dwellings. The 1915 extension is also rare as a three-storey building constructed in light-weight timber framing.
|The original 1888-89 house is important because of its aesthetic significance as a competent example of late nineteenth century Victorian domestic style architecture.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17007,"place_ref":602187,"name":"St Mary's Catholic Church","alternate_name":"St Marys Catholic Church","street_address":"20 Merivale Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-12-03","description":"St Mary's Catholic Church is situated on a large corner block at the intersection of Merivale and Peel Streets in a light industrial and commercial area of the inner Brisbane suburb of South Brisbane. An imposing rendered masonry building with corrugated iron roofs the church is located on the highest part of the site near the western corner. The front of the church faces northwest onto Peel Street. Formerly occupied by an earlier church, the northern portion of the site adjacent to the church and closest to the street intersection is now a car park with some landscaping. In the eastern part of the site facing onto Merivale Street is the Former Presbytery, a timber building on stumps with corrugated iron hip roofs. The former presbytery is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
St Mary's Catholic Church consists of a wide high central space or nave, narrower aisles on each side of the nave, and a semicircular chancel. A proposed bell tower and transepts were never built. The nave, a double height space with a clerestory, projects forward of the single storey side aisles to form the main façade or liturgical west front of the church. Terminating the longitudinal axis of the nave at the liturgical eastern end is the projecting semicircular chancel. Small rooms, the sacristy and vestry, flank the chancel on the north and south. The nave is roofed by a simple timber framed gable roof with gabled ventilators and the aisles by lean to roofs. The chancel, sacristy and vestry, all additions at the rear of the church, have smaller separate roofs that are largely concealed by parapet walls. The arrangement and form of the church is based on the traditional model of the basilica, originally a type of Roman public building that early Christians adapted for worship.
Described at the time of its completion as being built in a style of architecture based on early Italian, the church has a form and architectural features that are associated with the Romanesque revival but includes a variety of details drawn from other styles. The most characteristic feature of Romanesque architecture is the use of the round arch. Other distinguishing motifs that are used at St Mary's include the wheel or rose window, a frieze that contains a blind arcade, stringcourses and a type of arched corbel motif known as mock machicolation.
The liturgical west front of the church, which actually faces northwest, is simple in form but richly embellished with architectural detail. A two storey structure, taller than it is wide, the symmetrical west front is divided into three bays and surmounted by a parapeted gable in the form of a broken bed pediment. The central bay of the façade contains the main entrance to the church, an imposing arched opening with a shafted jamb framing a recessed doorway. Over the timber panelled doors is a semicircular tympanum containing three arched windows and above the tympanum, a blind arcade of colonettes. The main feature of the gable is a wheel window centred in the gap created by the broken base of the pediment. Raked corbelling over the wheel window supports the projecting edge of the pediment. A cross is situated at the pinnacle of the pediment and at the other end of the ridge of the nave roof.
The bays on either side of the entrance bay consist of pairs of pilasters on a banded base that appear to support the pediment. Between each set of pilasters are two narrow rectangular windows separated by a half or engaged column. A small square window centred in the base of each bay has unusual moulded surrounds including jambs terminated by a stylised volute and a coved cornice with a leaf pattern. Other facade details include rosettes, dogtooth banding, acanthus leaf capitals to pilasters and arabesque ornamentation on the pediment.
The northeast and southwest side elevations are similar. The aisles consist of four bays delineated by engaged piers with an ornamental top. Tall narrow windows with round arched tops are arranged in pairs in each bay with the exception of the bay second from the front that contains the side entrance doors. Each side entrance is an arched opening further emphasised by a shallow decorative gable. Masonry stairs lead up to the entrance into the north aisle while the south aisle is level with the ground outside. The main decorative detail on the side elevations is a double-layered arched corbel table running along the top of the aisle walls between the engaged piers. Above the roof of the aisles the clerestory portion of the nave wall is visible. The wall treatment is similar to the aisle walls including engaged piers and the same pairs of arched windows. The walls are blank at the northern corner of the building where the bell tower was originally proposed.
The chancel, sacristy and vestry, additions to the rear of church were built using similar materials and details to the original part of the building. Three sets of external masonry stairs lead to timber entrance doors that open directly into each of these three spaces, the stairs on the eastern corner being the tallest due to the slope in the land. The curved walls of the chancel are distinguished by a high row of quatrefoil stained glass windows. All of the entries into the church are marked with a cross, situated at the apex of the roof over.
The interior of the church, well lit by natural daylight, has rendered white painted walls, dark stained timber ceilings and choir mezzanine and a concrete floor. The main entrance to the church, located under the mezzanine, has a low raked plaster ceiling. A decorative timber canopy and posts further differentiates the entrance. Quarter turn timber stairs with winders in the northern corner of the west front lead up to the stepped choir platform, a balcony like space housing the organ and overlooking the nave.
A colonnade of four round arches supported by stumpy columns on tall pedestals runs along the north and south edges of the nave separating it from the aisles. Above the colonnade is the clerestory with arched windows that let light directly into the double height space of the nave. The ceiling of the nave is lined on the rake and exposed timber trusses, a variant of a queen post truss with arched braces, span across nave.
The skillion-roofed aisles also have raked clear finished timber boarded ceilings supported by exposed timber trusses. Narrow round arched windows illuminate the aisles and a set of timber doors with fanlight over open to the exterior. Shrines dedicated to Jesus and Mary are located at the southeast ends of the aisles.
The sanctuary is located at the eastern end of the nave. A Chancel arch flanked by decorative niches separates the chancel from the nave. A change in floor finish and level defined by a marble altar rail also mark the sanctuary as a different kind of space. The chancel, roofed by a dome, is more richly finished than the rest of the church. It has a mosaic tiled and marble floor, quatrefoil stained glass windows over pilasters surmounted by arches in low relief. The lower part of the curved chancel walls are lined in marble panelling. Located in the centre of the space under the dome is the high altar, an elaborate gothic structure in various coloured marbles. Small rooms located on either side of the chancel are the vestry and sacristy. The room on the southern corner retains built in timber wardrobes and cupboards.
Externally the church is surrounded by hard paved surfaces except for lawns near the main entrance and gardens on the northeast side of the church. The original front fence and gates have been replaced but masonry piers on either side of the gates remain. A stone grotto is situated to the west of the main entrance.
The former presbytery, now known as the Parish House, and various sheds and utility buildings at the rear of the church are not of cultural heritage significance. The St Vincent de Paul Centre, to the southwest of the church on the neighbouring block, is not included in the listing.
","history":"St Mary's Catholic Church, South Brisbane, is a late nineteenth century rendered brick church designed by Brisbane architects, Simkin and Ibler and constructed by Woollam and Norman in 1892-1893. At the time of its opening on the 2nd July 1893 construction of the church was not finalised. The proposed tower, transepts and chancel were never built and it was not until 1929 a permanent sanctuary was added to the eastern end of the church to the design of architects Cavanagh and Cavanagh. The former Presbytery (now parish house), built at about the same time as the church, was completed by February 1893.
St Mary's was the second Catholic Church to be built in South Brisbane and was built adjacent to the first church, a small wooden chapel erected in 1865. The chapel was expanded in 1868 when two aisles were added almost doubling its size. Sparsely inhabited in 1861, the population was only 1080, South Brisbane was a small but growing residential suburb. By 1871 the number of inhabitants had increased to 4222.
In the 1880s, Brisbane experienced an economic and building boom and South Brisbane's population trebled, reaching 22 849 in 1891. The connection of the rail network and the development of commercial, industrial and dockside activities on the southern banks of the river further contributed to South Brisbane's growth. The Municipality of South Brisbane was declared in 1888. As residential suburbs expanded the population of the old municipality of Brisbane decreased, by more than 2000 between 1886 and 1891.
The expansion of the population meant that the chapel was no longer adequate to the needs of the South Brisbane congregation and a meeting was held in August 1889 to discuss the construction of a new and larger church. The Catholic Church had begun acquiring allotments adjoining the original church reserve in 1884 and by 1889 it had amassed considerable land at the northwest end of the block bounded by Cordelia, Peel and Merivale Streets. Fund raising for the construction of a new church commenced in 1890 and by the end of 1891 half the cost of the building had been collected. Architects Simkin and Ibler produced drawings of the proposed church. An imposing edifice with Italianate and Romanesque revival details, it was designed to accommodate a congregation of 800 people.
George Simkin and John Ibler were architects practising in Brisbane in the 1880s who joined in partnership from 1889 to 1894. One of their early projects, the Breakfast Creek Hotel (600057), is a well-known Brisbane landmark. Much of their work together was for the Roman Catholic Church and included important commissions such as Dara, Archbishop Dunne's residence at Petrie Bight, St Stephen's Roman Catholic Girls School, Charlotte Street, Brisbane (600106) and a convent for the Sisters of Mercy, now known as Cloisters (600953), at Warwick. Simkin and Ibler worked in a variety of architectural styles and their designs are noted for an eclectic, sometimes flamboyant, use of ornament. At St Mary's, described at the time of opening as having the Basilica form of plan and an architectural style derived from "a phase of early Italian", ornamental details drawn from a variety of sources are elegantly combined to enliven a traditional plan and arrangement. The style of the church, which combines Romanesque and Renaissance revival elements, was not common at the time as most nineteenth century churches were designed in the Gothic revival style.
Cardinal Moran laid the foundation stone of the new church on the 25th September 1892 in a ceremony attended by Archbishop Dunne, Archbishop Carr and other high-ranking clergy. Blessed and opened by Archbishop Dunne on 2nd July 1893, St Mary's cost £2 150 to build. Despite the economic crisis and devastating floods of the early 1890s £1473 had already been raised for the project and a further £400 was collected at the opening. Due to the limited funds only part of the proposed church was built, the nave and aisles. The concrete rendering was postponed and several parts of the building including the eastern end and the rose window were temporarily constructed from timber. A description of the church as it appeared at its opening, noted the ample provision made for ventilation and the high altar installed in the new church that had previously been used at St Stephen's Cathedral.
The presence of St Mary's in South Brisbane in the 1890s reflects to some extent the character of South Brisbane at the time. The Roman Catholic Church drew much of its membership from the Irish and the proletariat, and it was linked to the labour movement. Though South Brisbane attracted some of Brisbane's elite because of its proximity to the city and elevated home sites, South Brisbane in the 1890s had a reputation as a "workingman's suburb". Most of the names on St. Mary's baptism register at the turn of the century were Irish.
From 1866 the original chapel had been a dual-purpose building also functioning as a school. After the opening of the new church it continued to be used as a school until 1909 when substantial new school buildings were built on the southwest portion of the site. The chapel then served as the infant's school until 1926 when extensions to the school incorporated rooms for infants. A substantial bell housed in a timber belfry was erected in 1914 adjacent to the church and in 1915 a convent for the Sisters of Mercy was constructed, diagonally opposite the school on the corner of Cordelia and Peel Streets.
The most significant change to the church since its construction in 1893 was the completion of the sanctuary, including vestry and sacristy, in December 1929. Designed by Cavanagh and Cavanagh Architects in a similar manner to the original building, the sanctuary was constructed of reinforced concrete and brick by B Robinson. The third Archbishop of Brisbane, James Duhig, officially opened the additions. The interior of the chancel with its marble wall linings and altar rails, terrazzo floors, domed plaster ceiling and stained glass windows was more ornate than the rest of the church. A new marble altar by sculptor and monumental mason, Frank Williams of Ipswich, who carried out all the marble work, was installed. The original chapel, no longer required for school purposes, was demolished at this time.
In 1938, the presbytery was completely renovated. Mr. F. Chamberlain of Toowoomba was appointed as architect. The renovations were blessed by the Rev. Dr. J. English. The appearance of the building must have been altered quite dramatically. The Archbishop expressed amazement at the alteration and the current building bears little resemblance to the original. The original gabled roof appears to have been altered to a hipped roof.
With the influx of Catholic immigrants into the area after World War Two, St Mary's became an important gathering place for a number of ethnic groups. Prior to the war the Lebanese community had used the church for Mass, which was said by their own priest, until their church in Ernest Street was constructed. A variety of Catholic communities, who lived initially in South Brisbane after emigrating, were invited to use the church. Italian, Dutch, Polish, Lithuanian and Slovenian people attended St Mary's for services conducted by their own priests. The Dutch Men's Choir performed at the church during the 1950s and 1960s. As late as 1993, the Lithuanian and Slovenian communities regularly met at the church. The Lithuanians conducted a regular Sunday Mass. The Slovenians, whose priest lived in Sydney, used the church less frequently. A plaque in Lithuanian is mounted on a wall at St Mary's.
The school closed in 1964 and the school, convent and belfry have since been demolished. The St Vincent de Paul centre now occupies the site of the school. Of the original complex of buildings at St Mary's only the church and presbytery, which has been substantially altered, remain. The former presbytery is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
","criteria":"St Mary's Catholic Church demonstrates the pattern of development in Brisbane that resulted from the economic boom of the 1880s, in particular the development of South Brisbane at a time when rapid expansion of riverside industry and the adjoining residential suburb created the need for more substantial buildings to service an increased population. Surviving evidence of South Brisbane's former character as a predominantly working class suburb, the church reflects the Irish and proletariat origins of the congregation. Built without the proposed belltower and transepts and not completed at its opening, the church also shows the impact of economic hardships experienced in the 1890s.
|Most 19th century churches were built in the Gothic Revival style. St Mary's is an early example of a church built in a style derived from Italian Romanesque and Renaissance architecture. Modelled on the basilica, St Mary's was designed in an eclectic manner typical of late 19th century architecture but in a style that was then unusual for churches in Queensland.
|An excellent example of a substantial late 19th century masonry church, St Mary's demonstrates the principal characteristics of second or permanent churches that were built in established parishes to replace earlier temporary and often dual-purpose structures.
|St Mary's is an important landmark in Peel Street. Simple in overall form and finishes, the church is elegantly detailed with a spacious well-lit interior.
|The site of the first Catholic church built in South Brisbane in 1865 and used continuously for both worship and Catholic social services ever since, the place has a strong association with the Roman Catholic Church of Queensland. In particular St Mary's has a special association with the migrant Catholic communities that developed in South Brisbane after the Second World War.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17008,"place_ref":602188,"name":"Bulolo Flats","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"9 McLachlan Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-11-13","description":"Bulolo Flats occupies most of a narrow, slightly sloping site at the southern end of busy McLachlan Street, Fortitude Valley, on the eastern side of the street, close to the northern exit from the Story Bridge, and one allotment south of the intersection of McLachLan and Brunswick streets.
It is a two-storeyed brick building comprising eight one-bedroom brick flats, four flats per floor, accessed via a central entrance from McLachlan Street. The roof is hidden behind front and side parapets. A laundry block is accommodated on the roof, at the rear. This has a flat roof behind its own parapet. On each side elevation, a centrally-positioned recess accommodates timber stairs and landings that once functioned as the service stairs, and now serve as fire-escapes only. The upper floor flats and front ground-floor flats each have a door opening onto the service stair. The two rear ground-floor flats have a back door opening to the narrow spaces along the sides of the building. At each side of the building three brick steps lead from the street to these side spaces, which once provided side access to the service door of each flat. This access is now gated. There is a brick planter box each side of the front entrance, occupying a narrow space between the front wall of the building and the street boundary.
It is a well-executed building in both design and workmanship, with brickwork used for simple decorative effect in the exterior elevations. The exterior walls are of face-brick, of a flecked, mostly red-orange hue. The plinth, which is deeper at the front where the ground slopes to McLachlan Street, is of cream brick. Exterior decorative detailing - such as to window sills, around the top of the planter boxes, and along the top of the parapet to the side and front elevations - is in dark brown, salt-glazed brick.
The front elevation to McLachlan Street is divided into three bays, delineated by simple brick pilasters which rise above the level of the parapet. In the two front side bays, on each level, former sleep-outs have been enclosed with fixed glass panels in aluminium frames. In the central bay, on the upper level, there is a fixed glass window with an aluminium frame; on the lower level a central entrance porch has been constructed over the original stairs. Above the porch is a rendered panel with the name of the building, BULOLO, in low relief 'Art Deco' style lettering.
The decorative detailing in the front elevation is simple but effective, and includes: the use of polychromatic brickwork in the parapet; the use of multiple brick pilasters at the corners of the building; the creation of textured effects using expressed brickwork; and the incorporation of six small 'grotesques', two in each of the front bays, at about the height of the upper floor.
","history":"Bulolo Flats, a two-storeyed block of eight self-contained brick flats, was erected in 1934 for Brisbane businessman and politician Thomas Charles Beirne as purpose-designed residential flats for young women working in his Fortitude Valley department store. The building was designed by the prominent architectural firm of Hennessy, Hennessy and Co. of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Thomas Charles Beirne (1860-1949) had a strong association with the development of retailing in Queensland and with the expansion of Fortitude Valley as a major Brisbane retail centre. Like his contemporaries MD Piggott, J McWhirter and FJ McDonnell, Beirne founded a fortune based on the burgeoning retail trade and the transformation of nineteenth century drapery stores into large twentieth century department stores.
After having trained as a draper in Ireland Beirne had emigrated to Victoria in 1884, where he was employed in a Melbourne drapery store. In 1886 he joined fellow Irishman MD Piggott in partnership in a small retail drapery in South Brisbane. A disastrous fire in the store in 1889 and the dissolution of the partnership in August 1891 resulted in Beirne establishing his own store in Fortitude Valley, which was emerging as a retail centre to rival North and South Brisbane. His business expanded over the succeeding decades to become one of Queensland's leading department stores, with branch stores established at Ipswich (1892) and Mackay (1902). In 1894 James McWhirter was employed as Beirne's manager for one year, became his partner for another three years, then opened his own establishment on the other side of Brunswick Street in Fortitude Valley, in competition to Beirne. The strong rivalry between the Beirne and McWhirter drapery shops and their evolution into large department stores was one of the principal factors in establishing Fortitude Valley as an important retail centre, dominated for the first half of the twentieth century by the two 'big' stores.
From 1898 Beirne was an active member of the Brisbane Traders' Association. He was a supporter of the Labor Party from its infancy, but would not be tied to Party policy. In 1905 he was appointed to the Queensland Legislative Council, remaining a member until the Council was abolished in 1922. He was a successful business person and sat on a number of company boards, including those of the Brisbane Tramway Co., the Queensland Board of the Australian Mutual Provident Society, Queensland Trustees, the Atlas Assurance Co., and the British Australian Cotton Association. In 1927 he was elected to the Council of the University of Queensland and served as warden of the University from 1928 to 1941. In 1935 he donated £20,000 to the University to establish the TC Beirne School of Law.
A devout Roman Catholic and close friend and confidant of Archbishop James Duhig (1871-1965), Beirne was a prominent benefactor of the church. In July 1929 he was awarded a papal knighthood of the Order of St Gregory in recognition of his work for the Church, especially in connection with Duhig's planned Holy Name Cathedral [QHR 600208] in Fortitude Valley. On his death in 1949 the Courier-Mail commented that 'Brisbane has lost a personality whose life has been woven strongly into its own progress and development for half a century.'
Beirne was regarded as a good employer and in erecting Bulolo Flats he appears to have had the welfare of his female employees at heart, the flats being intended for the use of girls who came from the country to work at his Fortitude Valley department store. Many of Beirne's young female employees were experiencing city life for the first time, and he took a paternal interest in their moral welfare. Located in McLachlan Street close to Brunswick Street, Bulolo was conveniently situated within easy walking distance of the main Fortitude Valley shopping centre and the TC Beirne emporium. The building accommodated eight flats, each comprising a large bed-sitting room with adjoining sleep-out balcony, a kitchenette with built-in cupboards, and tiled bathroom with built-in bath, hot water geyser and built-in cupboards. Each flat had both a private entrance and a service entrance with a trades hatch to receive deliveries (such as milk, bread, meat and vegetables). Shared laundry facilities were provided on the rooftop. The flats offered girls the privacy of a home of their own, as an alternative to shared accommodation in hostels, boarding houses, guest houses, private hotels and tenement or apartment buildings.
The construction of Bulolo Flats was an indication of changing social attitudes toward the role of women in the workplace and of community expectations about the behaviour of women in society. Designed as private homes for young women earning their own income, they were symbolic of contemporary community recognition that many young, unmarried women of this era could support themselves financially and were no longer content to live in the family home, or in supervised accommodation such as hostels, or in other forms of communal dwellings. At the same time, the intention to attract only female occupants allayed traditional community suspicions about the immorality of single men and women inhabiting shared residential accommodation. By insisting that Bulolo Flats were designed for women only, the stigma of 'fast' or 'loose' being applied to the young unmarried female occupants was removed.
Although quite fashionable in Sydney and in London, flats designed especially for single women were uncommon in Queensland, and no other self-contained block for this purpose is known to have been purpose-constructed in Brisbane in the interwar period. Sometimes referred to as 'bachelor flats', they were distinguished from one-bedroom flats in that the bedroom and sitting room were combined, with a small kitchenette attached (sometimes just an alcove with a sink and single gas burner). Bachelor flats often had shared bathrooms, water closets and laundries, and were in reality tenements, not self-contained flats. For example, the only other identified, purpose-built interwar flat/tenement building in Brisbane designed expressly to accommodate single girls was St Helier, a block of six brick tenements erected in 1930 in Grey St, South Brisbane (no longer extant). Each apartment comprised a bed-sitting room with kitchenette. Bathrooms and water closets were shared - one bath per three persons - and there was a common laundry. In 1932 a second storey was added, comprising three tenements and an owner's flat of six rooms. Similarly, a few blocks of 'bachelor flats' or tenements were erected in Brisbane for single men - such as Donegal (1934 and 1936) on St Paul's Terrace in Fortitude Valley. Bulolo was unusual in that, although designed along the lines of 'bachelor flats', the apartments were self-contained with private bathrooms and water closets.
Bulolo was erected in the vanguard of the revival in Brisbane residential construction following the economic depression of the early 1930s. A chronic housing shortage in Brisbane had been exacerbated by the depression and the collapsed of the residential construction industry. With many young couples unable to afford to purchase land and take on house repayments the demand for rental accommodation intensified, and in this environment small flat developments, both purpose-designed and house conversions, were proving attractive investments for small-scale developers. For a large enterprise such as TC Beirne (Pty) Ltd, however, the construction of Bulolo Flats was a philanthropic gesture rather than an investment opportunity, providing employment during construction and much-needed residential accommodation for young women during an accommodation shortage.
Title to the site of Bulolo Flats was acquired by TC Beirne (Pty) Ltd early in 1934; in July that year Council building approval was obtained to erect a block of flats to cost £4,500 and work commenced the same month. The contractor was PH Turner & Co. and the building was designed by architects Hennessy, Hennessy and Co.
Hennessy, Hennessy and Co. was a Sydney-based architectural firm with branch offices in Brisbane and Melbourne. The firm had been established in Sydney in 1884 by John Francis Hennessy and Joseph I Sheerin as Hennessy and Sheerin. Both were devout Catholics and friends of Archibishop (Cardinal) Moran, and their firm designed extensively for the Catholic Church in New South Wales. In 1912 Sheerin left the practice; his place was taken by Hennessy¿s son Jack Francis Hennessy jnr and the firm was re-named Hennessy and Hennessy. The Brisbane office was established in 1916 in association with Brisbane architect Francis Hall (Hennessy and Hennessy and FR Hall). In 1925 Jack Donoghue was the Brisbane partner (Hennessy, Hennessy, Keesing and Co. and JP Donoghue). Leo Joseph Drinan was manager of the Brisbane office 1924-1927 and Brisbane partner/manager from 1928 to 1967. Like the Hennessys, Hall, Donoghue and Drinan were all Catholics with close connections to the Church in Queensland. Jack Francis Hennessy, the principal of this firm in the interwar period, was TC Beirne's son-in-law, having married Stella Beirne in 1922.
Hennessy, Hennessy and Co.'s work for the Catholic Church in Queensland included Villa Maria Convent on St Paul's Terrace, Fortitude Valley and plans for the Holy Name Cathedral, also in Fortitude Valley, which did not come to fruition. Hennessy, Hennessy and Co. were leading practitioners of mainstream interwar styles such as Spanish Mission and Romanesque and many of their buildings featured textured face brickwork, as in Bulolo Flats.
The name of the flats appears to have been derived from the Bulolo goldfield in the Central Highlands of Papua New Guinea, southwest of Lae. The site of a rush in 1934 when these flats were constructed, the Bulolo field was attracting much Australian interest and investment.
Bulolo Flats remained the property of TC Beirne (Pty) Ltd / TC Beirne Ltd / Duncan Street Properties (Pty) Ltd until 1955. The flats remain in single ownership and have not been strata-titled.
","criteria":"The place has a special association with TC Beirne, a prominent Queensland businessman and politician, for whom the flats were erected. It remains strong evidence of his compassion as an employer and as a committed Catholic and humanitarian, which earned him the respect of his staff and of the Queensland community generally.
|Bulolo Flats, constructed in 1934, is important for its association with the provision of residential accommodation for women in Brisbane during a period of chronic, bordering on acute, housing shortage. It was one of the few residential establishments of its type constructed in Brisbane at this period, and was an attempt to address contemporary community concerns about the moral 'evils' of single men and women together in other forms of shared residential accommodation of the period, such as boarding houses, guest houses, and private hotels. The place also demonstrates contemporary community recognition that modern young women were seeking an independent lifestyle outside the family home.
Brisbane attracted the greatest percentage of residential flat developments in the State during the interwar years, and from late 1933 the erection of purpose-designed, purpose-built blocks of residential flats led the recovery in Brisbane residential construction following the severe and widespread economic depression of the early 1930s. Construction of Bulolo Flats in 1934 was in the vanguard of this activity.
|Bulolo Flats remains highly intact. As an excellent example of its type it is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a well-designed, well-constructed, domestic-scale block of self-contained residential flats for single women. Each small flat contains a bed-sitting room, sleep-out, kitchenette, bathroom, water closet, built-in cupboards, and front and rear (trades) entrances. Common areas include the central street entrance, halls, stairwells and the former shared laundry facilities on the rooftop. The lack of provision of garaging is consistent with its interwar purpose as flats for young women residing within easy walking distance of their place of work. Decorative details such as the planter boxes at the front, either side of the entrance stairs; the stylistic concerns with utilising brickwork for decorative purposes (including salt-glazed highlights and patterns in a darker colour brick and the incorporation of dramatic pilasters to the exterior); and the incorporation of small 'grotesques' in the front elevation; remain intact.
The place is an excellent example of the domestic work of the architectural firm of Hennessy, Hennessy and Co. in Queensland. The firm received a large number of commissions from the Catholic church in Queensland, and they are better known for their design work in convents, church schools, churches and presbyteries throughout the south-east of the State. In Bulolo, their concern with Romanesque stylistic influences so often found in their institutional work and of which they were leading practitioners, is apparent in their domestic design work as well.
|Bulolo Flats is an uncommon Queensland example of purpose-built residential flats of the interwar period intended to accommodate single women only. Unlike some other 'bachelor flats' or 'flats for business girls' of this period, in which bathrooms and lavatories were shared, the Bulolo Flats, although essentially bed-sits, were self-contained, with private bathroom, water closet and kitchenette.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion H | Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17010,"place_ref":602190,"name":"Taylor-Heaslop Building (former)","alternate_name":"People's Cash Store; grocers; JR Blane, grocer & hardware merchant; Moreton Rubber Works | John Evan's Cash Draper; George Logan Draper; Johns & Co Draper | Ernest Reid, Draper","street_address":"10-14 Logan Road","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-02-06","description":"The former Taylor-Heaslop Building is an imposing three-storey masonry building located in the commercial precinct known as the Woolloongabba Fiveways. Centred around the intersection of Stanley Street East, Main Street and the northern end of Logan Road, the Fiveways is now divided by heavily trafficked roads and freeways. The Taylor-Heaslop Building is set in the most intact part of the Fiveways precinct at the northern end of Logan Road. Now blocked off from Stanley and Main Streets, this part of Logan Road retains many 19th and early 20th century buildings.
Situated in the middle of a truncated block formed by the convergence of Logan Road and Stanley Street East, the former Taylor-Heaslop Building is built to the property alignments and fully occupies several parcels of land. It is the tallest building in the predominantly two-storey streetscape and consists of a basement, shops at street level and two upper storeys, now mostly used as offices. The former Taylor-Heaslop Building has two street facades, the southwest façade facing Logan Road and the northern façade facing Stanley Street East. Hidden from view behind parapets is a corrugated metal roof that has three ridges running the length of each shop. Metal ventilators and brick chimneys are visible above the parapet. Original light wells have been covered up with either transparent or metal roof sheeting.
A row or terrace type structure originally built as three shops, the Taylor-Heaslop building is comprised of three long narrow adjoining buildings on separate titles; 10, 12 and 14 Logan Road. 14 Logan Road is bigger than the other two shops, having a wider frontage and a greater depth of plan due to the truncated shape of the site. The facades of 14 Logan Road are distinguished from the façades of 10-12 Logan Road by the use of a different fenestration pattern and a more ornate style.
The masonry street facades are finished with render and paint and decorated with a variety of ornament in a predominantly classical style. At the street level glazed shopfronts are covered by footpath awnings. Pilasters with fluting on the first level and twisted rope detail or scrollwork on the second level mark the corners of the building and the junctions between 10-12 and 14 Logan Road.
The curved corrugated iron awnings over the footpath and the parapet with frieze and cornice supported on modillions are continuous elements across the street façades. Mounted on top of the parapet are masonry balls on the Logan Road façade and a fan type ornament on the Stanley Street façade. These parapet ornaments mark the position of the party walls that separate the three tenancies. Two of the original cast iron columns supporting the footpath awning remain on Logan Road. The remainder of the posts have been replaced with timber. The Stanley Street East awning has been recently rebuilt in timber.
The facades of 10-12 Logan Road are restrained with openings defined by simple architraves. The original cantilevered verandahs on the two upper levels have been removed and some of the french doors replaced with casement windows. Six pairs of the original doors remain on the Stanley Street façade but all have been replaced on the Logan Road façade. The original transom lights and cast iron vents remain.
The façade of 14 Logan Road, designed without a verandah, is in a more ornate eclectic style with swirling plant motifs in panels breaking up the expanse of wall. Windows are double hung sashes separated by square columns with bulging capitals. The windows on the first floor have stylized ogee-arched tops.
The sidewalls are predominantly painted brick and abut the walls of the neighbouring buildings, a two-storey former bank built in the mid twentieth century to the northwest and a modest single storey commercial building and timber sheds on the southeast. The northwest sidewall is notable for a painted Moreton Rubber sign, a local landmark.
Most of the shopfronts have been rebuilt over time. On Logan Road the street level shop fronts retain their c1920s remodeling, with leadlights above plate glass display windows and recessed doorways. On Stanley Street the two shops on the perimeter of the building have glazed shop windows while the middle shop retains the original wall, entry door and window.
Similar materials and finishes can be found throughout the Taylor-Heaslop Building. Party walls are mostly rendered brickwork, original internal walls and ceilings are lathe and plaster, and floors are concrete or timber on the upper levels. However interiors in each of the three buildings vary considerably. 10 and 12 Logan Road are similar in design but 12 Logan Road is in an advanced state of disrepair while 10 Logan Road has been renovated. The larger spaces of 14 Logan Road have been renovated and new office partitions inserted.
The basic layout of each building is similar. The main shopfronts face Logan Road while entries to the upper floor offices and other shop windows face Stanley Street. Hallways or vestibules from Stanley Street lead to a timber staircase, located along the northwest party wall half way between the two street frontages. A light well is located adjacent to the stair in 10 and 12 Logan Road. The stairs to the upper levels of 10 and 12 Logan Road retain or have had reinstated the original turned timber balustrade. The flight of stairs between the ground floor and the first floor of 12 Logan Road has been removed. The stair in 14 Logan Road has been largely rebuilt. Doors located in the masonry party walls connect the adjoining buildings.
The only basement inspected was 10 Logan Road, a large space with a concrete floor, painted brick walls and the remnants of two brick fireplaces. A smaller space opens off the main space and some toilets, accessed from this smaller space, are built under the footpath. The basement has no ceilings and the timber framing of the floor above is clearly visible.
At the ground floor level, a portion of the party wall between 10 and 12 Logan Road has been removed, to form a single shop on the Logan Road frontage. The glazed entry vestibule and display window which fronts Stanley Street is built at a lower level to the main floor and has very tall ceilings. External masonry walls and timber windows open into this space suggesting it may once have been more open. The upper levels consist of two floors of office space, divided into smaller rooms arranged around the central stair and light well. These levels have been renovated retaining original rooms, timber flooring and internal door and window joinery. The first floor has marble fireplaces.
The upper levels of 12 Logan Road retain original lathe and plaster walls, ceiling roses, timber stairs and fireplaces with timber mantelpieces. Much of the internal fabric in this part of the building is decayed and plasterwork has fallen off walls and ceilings. The first floor is a single open space with metal storage racks suspended from the framing of the floor above. The second floor is similar in layout to the office levels of 10 Logan Road.
Shops occupy the ground floor of 14 Logan Road. The first floor is divided into tenancies by recently constructed timber and glass partitions. Exposed steel beams supported on concrete blocks set into the walls hold up the floor above. Casement windows have been added to the eastern sidewall. The second floor is a single open space with new glass and timber partitions built around the stair. The ceiling is lined with timber boards at the southern end and flat sheeting at the northern end. A large skylight sheeted in green fibreglass illuminates the northwest end of the space.
Because of its height and double street frontage the building is visible from the surrounding area and contributes to its historic character. Although the scale and urban fabric of the Wooloongabba Fiveways has altered dramatically over time, it retains a significant group of historic buildings many of which can be seen from and form the setting for the Taylor -Heaslop Building.
","history":"A substantial brick commercial premises of three storeys and basement, the Former Taylor Heaslop Building was erected in 1889-90 as a set of three attached shops. The northwest and middle shops were built for Brisbane chemist Walter Taylor, as an investment. The southeast shop, which is larger than the other two, was built for South Brisbane grocers James and Thomas Heaslop and was a branch of their highly successful People's Cash Store. The three shops were designed by Brisbane architect John Beauchamp Nicholson and were erected as one building, with the street façades of Heaslop's shop distinguished from those of Taylor's two shops.
The land on which the building is located was originally part of a suburban block of just over 16 acres, located at the intersection of the roads to the Logan and to Ipswich [later known as the Woolloongabba Fiveways]. This parcel [suburban portion 165, parish of South Brisbane] was alienated by James Gibbon in 1857, and was subdivided into commercial and residential allotments by the late 1870s.
In the 1880s Woolloongabba boomed as both a working class residential district and as a commercial centre, due principally to construction of the rail link from the Ipswich line at Corinda [South Brisbane Junction] to South Brisbane, which opened in June 1884. The main purpose of this line was to bring coal from West Moreton to the ships at South Brisbane, terminating, via a tunnel at Lower River Terrace, in Stanley Street, near the dry dock. However, the main goods yard and passenger terminus was at the western end of the former water reserve at One Mile Swamp, near Main Street between Stanley Street East and Vulture Street [now the site of the Woolloongabba Busway Station]. The railway looped across Logan Road through suburban portion 165 to reach the goods yards and passenger station.
In addition, from 1887 a horse-drawn tram service linked South Brisbane to Mount Gravatt via Logan Road and the Woolloongabba Fiveways, and from 1 November 1889 the newly opened Cleveland Railway terminated at Woolloongabba. From here passengers continuing on to North and South Brisbane transferred to horse trams.
These improvements to passenger and goods transportation stimulated commercial development at the Woolloongabba Fiveways. In January 1886, title to a small, triangular parcel of land between Logan Road and Stanley Street East, at the Fiveways Corner [subs 1 & 2 of section 1 of suburban portion 165, containing 30 perches] was transferred to South Brisbane chemist and dentist Thomas Watson Thomason. Within a few months, Thomason had subdivided this land into eight smaller commercial re-subdivisions, each with a frontage to both Logan Road and Stanley Street East. At the Fiveways Corner, Thomason established The Five Ways Pharmacy in a two-storeyed timber building. The other seven re-subdivisions were sold by the end of 1886.
In August 1886, Henry Willoughby acquired title to re-subdivision 8 [9.3 perches], and in December 1886 Catherine Taylor, wife of Walter Taylor of Brisbane [likely the Queen-street wholesale chemist, dentist and property investor], acquired title to re-subdivisions 6 & 7 [8.7 perches]. In December 1887, title to Willoughby's allotment was transferred to South Brisbane grocer Thomas Heaslop, and in May-June 1889 Brisbane architect John Beauchamp Nicholson called tenders for the construction of substantial brick buildings at the Woolloongabba Fiveways, for Walter Taylor and J & T Heaslop. This appears to refer to the large, three-storeyed brick building at 10-14 Logan Road, Woolloongabba which, when completed, dominated the Fiveways Junction.
Early photographs reveal that at street level on both street facades, the three shops shared a common convex iron awning supported on posts with decorative cast iron bracketing. The middle and northwest shops had cantilevered verandahs on the upper floors, onto which french doors opened. The verandahs had elaborately decorative cast iron balustrading, valances and brackets. By 1955 these verandahs were removed. Designed without verandahs, the façade of the southeast shop was distinguished by arched windows and greater use of render ornament.
Nicholson developed a successful architectural practice in Brisbane in the 1880s. His notable commissions include: the Princess Theatre (1888-89) [600353] at nearby Clarence Corner; the Norman Hotel (1889) on Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba and the Shaftson Hotel (1889-90) at East Brisbane [both hotels possibly erected for members of the Heaslop family]; and, in partnership with architect ARL Wright: the Normanby Hotel (1889-90) [600283] at Red Hill; Parbury, Lamb & Co.'s Warehouse in Eagle Street (1890) [demolished]; Lady Musgrave Lodge, Astor Terrace, Spring Hill (1891-92) [demolished]; and Chardon's Hotel, Ipswich Road, Annerley (1891-92) [demolished]. Nicholson had designed J & T Heaslop's shop and store in Stanley Street, South Brisbane, erected 1885-87, and later their shop in Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, erected in 1891. Despite his varied architectural commissions and development interests, Nicholson was declared insolvent in 1891 as a result of the prevailing economic depression.
The Taylor-Heaslop building at the Woolloongabba Fiveways was under construction by August-September 1889, when Catherine Taylor and Thomas Heaslop registered easements and encumbrances over a party wall now erected on their Woolloongabba property. At this time, part of Heaslop's allotment was effectively made the property of Catherine Taylor, to accommodate the whole of the middle shop. The building was likely completed in 1890.
The timing was unfortunate. In 1890 the economic boom of the 1880s burst and Queensland, along with the rest of the world, entered a period of widespread economic depression. In addition, the extension of the railway to Melbourne Street, which opened on 1 December 1891, by-passed Woolloongabba station, diverting passenger traffic on the South Coast, Cleveland and South Brisbane Junction lines to South Brisbane. The Woolloongabba passenger station closed, but the railyard remained the south side's principal goods yard and locomotive depot until the line was closed in 1969.
J & T Heaslop's People's Cash Store had opened in the southeast shop [14 Logan Road] by 1891, but the Taylor's two shops, at 10-12 Logan Road, may have been unoccupied until at least one was tenanted by SH Rawlings, boot importer, from c1892. In October 1893, Catherine Taylor transferred her interest in the two northern shops to James Heaslop, who maintained these as rental propositions. By the late 1890s, Albert M Goodall appears to have taken over Rawlings boot importing business in the building.
Brisbane in the 1890s supported four principal shopping centres: North Brisbane [along Queen, George, and Adelaide Streets]; Fortitude Valley [along Brunswick, Ann and Wickham Streets]; Stanley Street, South Brisbane; and the Woolloongabba Fiveways. Branches of J & T Heaslop's People's Cash Store were opened in each of these centres, and their building at 10-14 Logan Road, Woolloongabba, dominated the Fiveways commercial district.
Irish brothers James and Thomas Heaslop had arrived in Queensland in 1863 with their parents, Samuel and Mary Heaslop, and brothers Samuel, Robert, John, George and William. In 1865, James and Thomas established a small retail grocery business at One-Mile Swamp [near Clarence Corner, South Brisbane] and by 1900 had created a chain of 'direct importing' stores known as the People's Cash Store. The principal wholesale and retail stores were at Stanley Street, Clarence Corner, and branch stores had been established at the Woolloongabba Fiveways; Melbourne Street, South Brisbane [at the southern end of Victoria Bridge]; Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley; Rockhampton; and Charters Towers.
The Heaslops were well known and respected in Brisbane business circles, and were staunch supporters of the Catholic Church. Thomas Heaslop served on the South Brisbane Municipal Council 1888-1895, from the inception of the Borough of South Brisbane, and was Mayor of South Brisbane for three terms, 1891-1893. He was involved with the commissioning of the South Brisbane Municipal Council Chambers, paid the workmen on the site nearly £500 out of his own pocket when the contractor, Abraham James, absconded in 1891, and officiated at its formal opening on 1 July 1892. His term as mayor also encompassed the great floods of 1893, which decimated large sections of South Brisbane, West End and Woolloongabba.
In 1901 James and Thomas dissolved their partnership. At this time, title to 14 Logan Road [the southeast shop] was transferred from Thomas Heaslop to James Heaslop, giving the latter ownership of the 3 shops at 10-14 Logan Road. James leased 14 Logan Road to Thomas Heaslop [Thomas Heaslop & Co. Limited by 1911]. Thomas died in 1911, but his Company continued to operate a branch of the People's Cash Store from James Heaslop's Woollongabba Fiveways building until the early 1920s.
From 1 May 1902, Fiveways draper John Edwin Sheppard Evans took up the lease of the middle shop [12 Logan Road] from James Heaslop, and from the 1 February 1903 he also took up the lease of the northwest shop [10 Logan Road]. Evans was no stranger to the locality. In February 1888 he had established a drapery business next door at 8 Logan Road, in premises owned by AR McLeod. By 1900 he was occupying 6-8 Logan Road, and in 1902-03 expanded into Heaslop's building. Together, John Evans Cash Draper and Heaslop's People's Cash Store dominated the shopping centre at the Woolloongabba Fiveways in the early 1900s.
Evans died in 1907, and for some years the business was conducted by his widow, Margaret Anne Higgins Evans, until she sold to George Logan in 1910. As George Logan, Draper, the business was sustained into the early 1920s.
James Heaslop died in 1922, following which his estate passed to his widow, Clara Ellen Heaslop, who from February 1923 leased 14 Logan Road to grocer and hardware merchant John Robertson Blane. Also in 1923, George Logan apparently sold his drapery business to William Johns, who took a lease of 10-12 Logan Road from Mrs Heaslop in March 1923.
In the 1920s, Woolloongabba flourished as a shopping centre, servicing the rapidly expanding eastern and southern suburbs of Balmoral, Hawthorne, East Brisbane, Coorparoo, Stone's Corner, Greenslopes, Holland Park and Annerley, all of which had electric tram access to North and South Brisbane via the Woolloongabba Fiveways. Many of the earlier shops around the Fiveways were re-developed at this period, including the block opposite Mrs Heaslop's building in Logan Road, but her building continued to dominate, in scale and landmark value, the Fiveways Junction. It appears that the street level shop facades of Mrs Heaslop's building were remodelled at this period.
In terms of height and street presence, the only building to rival Mrs Heaslop's building at the Woollongabba Fiveways was the Broadway Theatre, a three-storey high brick picture theatre fronting Ipswich Road, just past the intersection with Logan Road, erected in 1923 but destroyed by fire in June 1962.
JR Blane, grocer & hardware merchant, occupied 14 Logan Road until c1928, and Johns & Co., Drapers, occupied 10-12 Logan Road until c1930. Ernest Reid acquired John's drapery business about this time, and also expanded into 14 Logan Road [the southeast shop, formerly Blane's], occupying all three of Mrs Heaslop's shops until c1932. In the midst of the depression of the early 1930s, Mrs Heaslop found it difficult to attract tenants for the Woolloongabba premises following Reid's departure. The shops remained vacant until c1936, when the Moreton Rubber Works, motor tyre retailers who had premises further south along Logan Road, occupied 14 Logan Road as their offices. In the late 1930s, 10-12 Logan Road was occupied by estate agents Five Ways Real Estate & Auctioneers.
Mrs Heaslop died in 1944, and the building passed out of her estate in 1950, when 14 Logan Road was acquired by Frederick Pratt and 10-12 Logan Road was transferred to Mrs Ruby Richards, then to Andrew Lowreys in 1951. In 1953, Pratt also acquired title to 10-12 Logan Road, and the property remained in his estate until 1989.
From the 1950s, the expansion of outer suburban shopping centres had a negative impact on older, inner city shopping districts such as the Woolloongabba Fiveways. The closure of the Woolloongabba Railyards and the cessation of Brisbane's tram services in 1969, and the construction of the Southeast Freeway through Woolloongabba in the early 1970s - which effectively cut the suburb's commercial heart in half - further contributed to the decline of Woolloongabba as a shopping centre. The northern end of Logan Road, where the Former Taylor-Heaslop Building is located, is no longer directly accessible from the Fiveways Junction. However, in the last two decades of the 20th century, this section of Logan Road, which is now virtually a cul-de-sac, was rejuvenated as an antiques, secondhand goods, and gallery precinct. The ground floor of the shop at 10-12 Logan Road, for example, is occupied by a furniture restoration business.
","criteria":"The Former Taylor-Heaslop Building, erected in 1889-90, is important as surviving evidence of the Woolloongabba Fiveways, one of Brisbane's principal shopping centres in the latter part of the 19th century, and for demonstrating the impact of the economic boom of the 1880s on metropolitan Brisbane. Heaslop's People's Cash Store at 14 Logan Road, and a sequence of drapery establishments [principally John Evans', George Logan, John's & Co. and Ernest Reid] at 10-12 Logan Road, were amongst Woolloongabba's leading retailers prior to the 1930s depression.
|While a number of similar buildings of this era were erected at South Brisbane, Fortitude Valley and in the Brisbane central business district, comparatively few have survived as intact as this building.
|The place is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of a boom-era commercial premises. A four-storey masonry building with decorative street facades, glazed shop fronts at ground level and footpath awnings, it is a row or terrace type structure that was originally divided into three shops. The building is unusual in that each shop has two street frontages, and the southeast shop, although constructed at the same time as the rest of the building has more ornamental façades. A fine example of the commercial work of Brisbane architect John Beauchamp Nicholson, the place is important in contributing to our understanding of his work.
|The former Taylor-Heaslop Building, a landmark in Woolloongabba since 1889, has aesthetic value due to its prominent location, imposing size and idiosyncratic design. It is an integral part of the townscape of a distinctive locality and remains a key element in establishing the character of the Fiveways Junction, especially the northern end of Logan Road.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17013,"place_ref":602212,"name":"Hawthorne Ferry Terminal & Hardcastle Park","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"28 Gordon Street","suburb":"HAWTHORNE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-01-24","description":"The Hawthorne Ferry House is on the bank of the Brisbane River in Hardcastle Park facing the former wool store complex at Teneriffe across the river. It is approached from the riverside by a pontoon and from the landward side by a pathway and entrance leading into a covered waiting area.
Hardcastle Park is a level open area running along the riverbank at Gordon Street, Hawthorne. The park is lightly treed so that the ferry house is visually prominent from the road. The park is entered through an archway composed of two stone pillars supporting a metal arch forming the name of the park. A path edged with Brisbane Tuff (porphyry) kerbstones leads from the entrance to the ferry house. This, is an open timber framed structure set on stumps and clad with weatherboards. It is cruciform in plan and the crossing of the intersecting gables of the terracotta-tiled roof is topped with a low tower and cupola clad in flat sheet metal. The gable ends have decorative timberwork and paired brackets.
The sides of the building to the river and land entry are open and have timber balustrades and corner posts. Those to the north and south have small rooms set on either side of the central passage way.
The interior has a timber floor and ceiling and there are timber bench seats against the walls.
","history":"The Hawthorne was built in 1925 by the Brisbane City Council to a design prepared earlier for the Balmoral Shire Council previously responsible for the efficient servicing of several ferry routes across the Brisbane River.
Since the days of the convict settlement at Moreton Bay when a punt was poled between the main settlement and the south bank of the river, ferries have been a vital transport facility for Brisbane. The river twists and loops through the city and cross-river access is important in linking city and suburbs and greatly reducing travel time between them. Although the first bridge linked the city and South Brisbane in 1862, no other bridges were built for many years, public transport was limited and few people had private transport until after WWII. People who needed to commute to work and to access shopping and entertainment facilities used cross-river ferries on a daily basis. Ferries were the only major transport service provided by metropolitan local authorities as responsibility for care and management had been placed in their hands by an 1858 Act.
In November 1844 the first ferry service commenced between Customs House and Kangaroo Point and in 1850 Samuel and Matthew Buckley operated a rowing boat ferry service at Bulimba. In 1888 Bulimba and Hawthorne were included in the area for which the Balmoral Divisional Board was responsible. Balmoral Shire was created in 1901 and was responsible for Apollo, Bulimba, Norman Park and Hawthorne ferries. A special sub-committee was responsible for the provision of boats, buildings and landings and fixed fares. In 1921 the Balmoral council decided to replace the existing waiting sheds and landing at Bulimba with a substantial ferry house to shelter waiting passengers. In 1922 they commissioned a ferry house design from the prominent architectural firm of GMH Addison and Son. Construction was underway by August 1922.
The design for the proposed Bulimba building appeared in the December 1922 edition of the Architects and Builders Journal of Queensland, however, as GHM Addison died in February 1922 following a protracted illness, the design was most likely by George Frederick Addison. The quality of the building and the choice of a noted firm of architects for the design attest to the importance of the ferry in the life of the community.
George Henry Male Addison was Welsh born and trained in England. He immigrated to Adelaide in 1883 and then moved Melbourne. He was an artist as well as an architect and was one of the founders of Melbourne Art Society. He moved to Brisbane in 1886 as local partner of Terry, Oakden and Addison. Addison won prizes for both architectural design and fine arts and served on a number of important committees and advisory panels connected with both. In late 1892 he set up in practice on his own, forming a partnership with L G Corrie in 1898. The firm designed many major buildings including churches, banks and commercial buildings. From 1919 he was in practice with his son, George Frederick Addison as G Addison and Son. G F Addison studied at Brisbane Central Technical College and was articled to his father. Apart from his military service in WWI, he practiced as an architect until 1940.
In 1924 the Balmoral Council called tenders for a second ferry house, to a slightly modified version of the Bulimba design, to be erected at the Hawthorne ferry terminal. The original design was rotated and a central gabled entry added on the river side, making the building cruciform in plan and accommodating two small rooms in the arms of the structure. The modification follows the style of the original and allows the two terminals to be seen from the river as a pair. It is not known if Hawthorne ferry terminal was designed by Addison or adapted from the plan for Bulimba by others. The ferry terminal is directly opposite the large complex of wool stores and wharves at Teneriffe, so that the ferry carried many people to and from work.
In 1925 the various Brisbane district councils amalgamated into a single local government authority, the Brisbane City Council, and construction of ferry terminals because their responsibility. In October 1925 the contract for the new waiting shed at Hawthorne was let for the original design, though other Brisbane City Council terminal buildings were less ornamental. Of the other ferry terminal buildings on the Brisbane River, most were built much later and none are as ornate as the Brisbane and Hawthorne ferry houses.
In 1939 the area around the Hawthorne ferry terminal was generally known as Hawthorne Ferry Park, but the local residents applied to the Brisbane City Council to have it named in memory of SWB Hardcastle, a well-known and highly regarded Hawthorne resident who had lived near the park. It was suggested that if Council supplied the stone, the residents would pay for a memorial in the form of an entrance arch. An area of over an acre was converted from freehold land for this purpose and a stone and metal arch bearing the name of the park was erected at its entrance.
The ferry terminal retains its original function and is generally very intact, although alterations to the tower included removal of clock faces set on the north and west.
","criteria":"The Hawthorne Ferry terminal is important as one of a pair of intact purpose-built ferry terminals from the first part of the 20th century. As with the Bulimba Ferry Terminal, its quality of design and detail demonstrates the importance of ferries in the development of Brisbane before a network of bridges and public transport was fully developed and before many people owned cars. The ferry terminals are also evidence for the workings of the Balmoral Shire Council before the Brisbane suburban councils were amalgamated in 1925.
|The Hawthorne and Bulimba Ferry terminals were the largest ever built to service Brisbane ferries and are now rare as early examples of their type, as most Brisbane River ferry terminals are now served by modern buildings.
|The Hawthorne Ferry terminal not only illustrates the architectural details of the Federation Queen Anne style as applied to a small scale building, but also those features typical of ferry terminals comprising a pontoon for river access, a landing area and covered waiting area for passengers.
The Hawthorne Ferry terminal is significant as a creative example of the later work of the prominent Queensland architectural firm of GMH Addison and Son who are generally known for larger buildings.
|The Hawthorne ferry house has considerable aesthetic significance as a small timber public building that exhibits a high standard of design. Domestic scale and details have been imaginatively applied to a wharf building of mundane function. The aesthetic qualities of the ferry house are greatly enhanced by the trees and open green space of Hardcastle Park in which it is set. The park with its ferry house and entrance archway building is a landmark both from the water and from the landward side.
|The Hawthorne Ferry terminal in its park setting has a long association with the residents of the area as a building often used on a daily basis and as a local landmark that makes an important contribution to the character of the area. The commemorative archway to Hardcastle Park was erected at the behest of Hawthorne residents.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17016,"place_ref":602195,"name":"Eagle Farm Racecourse and Ascot Railway Station","alternate_name":"Racecourse Railway Station | Brisbane Racecourse | Ascot Racecourse","street_address":"230 Lancaster Road","suburb":"ASCOT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-06-25","description":"Eagle Farm Racecourse and Ascot Railway Station occupies an almost 50ha flat site in the Brisbane suburb of Ascot, approximately 6km northeast of Brisbane CBD. The site is bounded by Lancaster Road (south); McGill Avenue (southwest); Kitchener Road (west); Mein Street, Gordon Street and residential properties (north); Nudgee Road (east); and mixed-use development (east and southeast). The public entrance to the racetrack is at the south end of the site via Lancaster Road, at Racecourse Road’s north termination, and a secondary entrance is from the northeast.
\nThe place encompasses two sections: a Racecourse Complex, and a Railway Station Complex to the southwest.
\nRacecourse Complex
\nThe Racecourse Complex comprises a turf racetrack, with a range of grandstands, betting facilities, ticket offices, turnstiles, toilets and associated structures. Most of these buildings are located at the southwest edge of the track, adjacent to the main straight and the public entrance.
\nThe grandstands and associated structures retain a strong visual connection to and expansive views of the racetrack. From east to west, these buildings comprise: St Leger Stand, Totalisator Building, Paddock Stand, Members’ Grandstand and John Power Stand. To the south of the grandstands is a public concourse, a Stable (former) and a Sydney Tote Office (former). Race Day Stalls are at the far west end of the track.
\nRacetrack
\nThe oval-shaped, turf racetrack has a circumference of 2,027m and a main straight of 434m. The configuration of the northeast chute has been altered to wrap closer to the track, various training tracks have been added on the inner side of the track, and the track has been re-turfed.
\nEntrance Gates (1913)
\nThe Entrance Gates fronting Lancaster Road comprise two sets of paired, wrought iron gates, hung between three masonry piers that are bookended by two ticket offices. The offices have gable roofs with large eaves and are accessed by operators from the north, with openings to the south for ticket sales.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nExtending north of the Entrance Gates is a bitumen access road, bridged over by the railway and lined with established gardens. The road leads to the grandstand entrances, public concourse and Race Day Stalls.
\nMembers’ Entrance (c1914), Paddock Entrance (c1914) & St Leger Entrance (c1913)
\nEntered from the access road are three ticket offices, which formerly provided separated access to racecourse grandstands and viewing areas (depending on the ticket purchased): the Members’ Entrance (west), Paddock Entrance (centre), and St Leger Entrance (east).
\nThe ticket offices are single-storey brick buildings. The Members’ Entrance and Paddock Entrance have gable roofs with transverse gables at each end, and the St Leger Entrance has a Dutch gable roof. Access to the public concourse is from the south (Members’ Entrance and Paddock Entrance) and southeast (St Leger Entrance). The Members’ Entrance has central turnstiles, south-facing arched ticket windows (west end) and an entrance gate (east end). The Paddock Entrance has turnstiles (eastern end) and south-facing ticket windows. The St Leger Entrance has turnstiles and ticket windows alternating along the length of the southwestern elevation.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nRacecourse Forecourt
\nAn open forecourt lawn at the southwestern edge of the racetrack allows unimpeded views of all areas of the racetrack from all of the grandstands.
\nSt Leger Stand (1913, extended 1938)
\nThe St Leger Stand is a brick grandstand, with north-facing tiered seating overlooking the racetrack. The original section (1913) stands to the west and the four easternmost seating bays are an early extension (1938) – both sections are of a similar form and detailing. The building has a Dutch gable roof, with transverse gables over entry bays to the south, and rounded transverse gablets to the north.
\nThe tiered seating area is accessed from the Racecourse Forecourt and via rear concrete stairs (located in the entry bays). The base of the grandstand houses toilets, refreshment rooms, a cafe, a commercial kitchen and other facilities.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nTotalisator (Tote) Building (1913, extended 1917, 1923 and c1950s)
\nThe Totalisator Building is a timber and brick structure with a hip roof. The building has a long and narrow plan, with long sides facing north and south (1913), and an L-shaped extension with a Dutch-gable roof at the southern end (1928). The ground floor has had partitions removed to create a single open space.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nPaddock Stand (1890, extended 1921-22)
\nThe Paddock Stand is a brick grandstand with tiered seating facing north to the racetrack. It is comprised of two sections – the original section (1890) to the east and the early extension (1921-22) to the west – which are discernible in form and fabric. The original section has a vaulted roof with a gabled ridge ventilator, and the early extension has a gable roof. A sunken walkway connects the two sections, extending under the Racecourse Forecourt.
\nThe base of the stand accommodates bars, jockey change rooms, weighing rooms and stewards’ rooms to the ground floor, and offices to the first floor.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nMembers’ Stand (1904, extended 1925)
\nThe Members' Stand is a three storey brick grandstand, with gable and hip roofs. The stucco walls are rough-cast to the first floor. The base of the stand comprises a Committee Bar, Members’ Bar and toilets on the ground floor; a Members’ Dining Room, kitchen and toilets on the first floor; and private boxes, press boxes and a kitchen on the second floor.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nJohn Power Stand (1957-1958)
\nThe John Power Stand is a concrete and brick grandstand, with two levels of tiered seating facing northeast and overlooking the racetrack (the second level is no longer in use and has been replaced with roof sheeting at the original seating pitch). The base of the stand accommodates ticketing booths, bars, restaurants, toilets, public seating and open space for bookmakers.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nTurnstiles (c1936-1945)
\nThe Turnstiles building stands to the east of the St Leger Stand. It is a single-storey building with a terracotta-tiled Dutch-gable roof. It features timber cladding to the gablets, and face brick walls with a stucco-finished base.
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nToilet Block (by 1936)
\nThe Toilet Block stands to the south of the Totalisator Building and St Leger Stand. It is a single-storey amenities building with a terracotta-tiled, Dutch-gable roof and timbering to the gablets. The walls are stucco – scored to mimic ashlar jointing below sill-height and rough-cast above sill height. Some toilet partitions are of VJ timber.
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nStable (former, c1928)
\nThe Stable (former) forms part of the southwest boundary of the public concourse. It is a long, masonry horse-stabling building with a gable roof and face brick walls. The west end is partially open and divided into individual stalls. The east end is enclosed for offices and store rooms.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nA replica race day stall building (2012) to the north of the c1928 structure.
\nRace Day Stalls (c1951-58)
\nThe Race Day Stalls comprise five stall buildings to house horses on race days. The entrance to this area of the site is via Gordon Street and is marked by stucco-finished masonry pillars. The buildings are partially open, timber structures with gable roofs clad in corrugated cement sheets.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nParade Ring Monument (by 1919)
\nA concrete monument stands in the centre of the parade ring / mounting yard, to the south of the Paddock Stand (it has been moved from its original location). It is of an Art-Deco style, with a large circular plinth (shaped to hold water) and a central stepped pillar that features a clock and two painted plaster motifs of a leaf centred within a wreath. The upper section of the monument has been removed.
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nSydney Tote Office (former, by 1965)
\nThe Sydney Tote Office is a timber betting office with hip roofs, which has been moved from its original location and orientation. It currently stands to the south of the Totalisator Building. The office is mostly single-storey, with a small section protruding from the centre of the building and forming a second storey. The interior was not inspected.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance include:
\nCamera Tower (c1948)
\nA metal Camera Tower, supported by metal cross-braced framing, is attached to the northwest side of the Members’ Stand.
\nJudge’s Box (1963)
\nThe Judge’s Box is located between the Members’ Stand and John Power Stand. It is a skillion roofed tower standing on a tall concrete pier. A small room at the top of the tower has stucco walls, and is accessed from the ground via a metal stair that spirals around the pier. A window runs the length of the racetrack-facing (northern) elevation and its view aligns with the racetrack winning post (finish line).
\nOther Features
\nTo the south of the grandstands and along the southwest boundary of the public concourse are a collection of single-storey buildings with face brick walls and terracotta tile roofs. These include: toilet blocks (c1910-20), refreshment stands and turnstile buildings.
\nThe ground surface surrounding these structures is of concrete, paved and lawn, and features mature shade trees.
\nLandscape Features
\nThe grounds of the racecourse create a parkland setting and include well-maintained gardens, specimen trees, avenues of trees, flower beds (including seasonal bedding out schemes) and expanses of lawn.
\nThe south public concourse between the grandstands and ticket offices is shaded by mature trees, including: figs (Ficus sp.), Camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora), and Poincianas (Delonix regia). Other rows of trees located around the racetrack and public concourse are indicative of formal planting schemes undertaken at the site.
\nRailway Station Complex
\nThe Ascot Railway Station on the Doomben Line is the eighth rail station northeast of Brisbane Central Station. It comprises: two station buildings and platforms on opposite sides of the rail tracks (an 1882 timber-framed building is to the northeast, and a 1914 precast concrete building is to the southwest); a timber footbridge (c1911; southeast of the station buildings); a concrete toilet block (southwest of the 1914 station building and adjacent McGill Road); a concrete platform and mechanical interlocking signal system. A second timber footbridge (c1914) is located at the northwestern end of the heritage boundary (over the rail tracks between Ascot and Hendra railway stations), providing access between Kitchener Road and a laneway to Gordon Street.
\nTimber Station Building (1882, extended c1883 and c1911; re-roofed 1914)
\nThe Timber Station Building is a single-storey, timber-framed building with a gable roof and short timber and concrete stumps. The roof extends over the southwest platform. A northeast verandah (c1911) runs half the length of this elevation and is accessed via timber stairs at each end.
\nThe building has a central waiting area opening onto the platform and flanked by a booking office to the southeast (extended toward the southeast c1911), and a ladies’ room and toilet to the northwest (c1883). The ladies’ room is entered from the platform and provides access to the toilet, which is recessed toward the north.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nConcrete Station Building (1914)
\nThe Concrete Station Building is a single-storey, concrete building with a gable roof, and standing on concrete dwarf walls. The building has a central waiting area, a southeast ‘ladies’ room’ and toilet, and a northwest booking office. The waiting area is open to the northeast platform. A semi-enclosed waiting area along the southwest side of the building is accessed via a small stair.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nPlatforms (c1882 and c1914)
\nThe raised platforms are adjacent to each station building and are of brick and concrete. Both platforms have been resurfaced with bitumen. The passenger platform adjacent to the Concrete Station Building and extending inbound to the northwest is currently in use.
\nMechanically Interlocked Signalling System (1914)
\nThe Mechanically Interlocked Signalling System comprises:
\nTimber Footbridges (1911 and c1914)
\nThe Timber Footbridges are built to a standard Queensland Railways design, with timber-framed painted trusses that span over the railway line. One footbridge is to the south of the station buildings and links the two platforms. The other footbridge is located inbound from the station buildings and provides access between Kitchener Road and a laneway to Gordon Street.
\nToilet Block (by 1934)
\nThe toilet block is a single storey, precast concrete structure with a corrugated metal-clad, hip roof. The concrete structure is exposed and has a painted, rough finish. The building is accessed from an entrance on the southwest elevation via a VJ-lined timber door.
\nThe interior was not inspected.
\nFeatures Not of State-level Heritage Significance
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance within the Racecourse Complex include:
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance within the Railway Complex include:
\nThe Eagle Farm Racecourse, located in the Brisbane suburb of Ascot approximately 6km northeast of Brisbane CBD, was established in 1863 and continues to operate as Queensland's premier racecourse. It includes Ascot station and railway line (1882); the Paddock Stand (1889); the Members' Stand (1904, extended 1925); the St Leger Stand (1913, extended 1938); the Totalisator Building (1913, extended 1917, 1923 and c1950s); the entrance gates (1913); ticket boxes (1914); the John Power Stand (1958); and timber and brick buildings and timber stabling areas.
\nHorse racing was one of the first sports conducted in Queensland following the opening of the Moreton Bay district to free settlement in 1842. Organised by the Moreton Bay Racing Club, the first recorded horse races in Brisbane were held at Coopers Plains on 17 July 1843. A racecourse at New Farm was established by May 1846 and operated until the early 1860s.[1]
\nEagle Farm Racecourse was established in 1863 when a grant of 320 acres (129.5ha) was approved and the site named the ‘Brisbane Racecourse'. The Deed of Grant for the racecourse land, signed by Governor Bowen on 12 October 1863, stipulated that ‘the appropriation thereof [was] as a racecourse and for no other purpose whatsoever'. The land was placed under the trusteeship of the Hon Maurice C O'Connell MLC (president of the Queensland Legislative Assembly 1860-79), the Hon John F McDougall MLC, and the Hon George Harris MLC, who were members of the Queensland Turf Club (QTC).[2] A grandstand capable of seating 350 people and a saddling paddock were constructed before the first three-day meeting took place on 14-16 August 1865. Attended by about 3000-5000 people each day, the races took place in a thickly forested area, and race-goers saw only occasional glimpses of the horses.[3]
\nBefore horse racing gained widespread popularity in Queensland in the 1880s, the QTC employed a number of fundraising strategies to improve its cash flow to overcome economic downturns and to repay the cost of improvements. The QTC organised the Brisbane Hunt Club in the late 1860s, which hunted in the district with a hound pack; and charged each rider 1 shilling per event. Starting in 1870 and continuing into the 1880s, the Club divested itself of land to the north of the present day race track, to pay off the considerable mortgage its earlier borrowing had necessitated.[4] The racecourse was also used for diverse purposes to generate income, such as polo matches from 1877-c1900, cricket matches, ladies croquet, night athletics, shooting competitions run by the Brisbane Gun Club (1879), and the Queensland Volunteer Force’s encampment in 1879.[5]
\nBy the end of the 1880s, the QTC had assumed a leadership role in the state's racing industry. A new code of rules modelled on those of the English Jockey Club was adopted in 1885 and a system of registration of all racing clubs under the QTC rules was instituted. The QTC thereby constituted itself the supreme racing authority in the colony and the ultimate court of appeal. Another significant step undertaken during the 1880s was the publication of the first edition of The Queensland Racing Calendar in 1886.[6]
\nA boom in horse racing at the end of the 1880s led to more clubs and meetings. The QTC staged four, two to three day meetings per year at Eagle Farm, coinciding with the main public holidays of: Christmas-New Year, the Queen's Birthday, the Royal National Association’s Exhibition and the Prince of Wales' birthday. With several clubs and courses in operation in Brisbane, meetings often clashed; consequently, in May 1890 the leading racing clubs agreed to empower the QTC to allot dates for meetings, thereby confirming it as the premier club. The second major metropolitan club was the Tattersall's Club, which did not have its own track and preferred to hire the Eagle Farm course for its meetings. The Tattersall's Club held its first meeting at Eagle Farm Racecourse on 10 December 1884.[7]
\nIn the early years, race-goers drove their buggies or rode their horses to the track. Others arrived by a small steamer known as the ‘shuttlecock boat'.[8] A major achievement for the QTC was the opening of the Brisbane and South East Railway Line extension from Eagle Junction to Ascot on 3 September 1882. Although the population of Brisbane was too small to justify building railways just for commuting between the city and its suburbs, some rail lines, such as the seaside line to Sandgate and the branch line to Eagle Farm Racecourse, were built solely to benefit Brisbane residents.[9]
\nThe railway enabled access to the racecourse by a larger racing public. By 1885, a fork siding for turning engines had been laid adjacent to the grounds, in what is now the members' car park at the corner of Lancaster and Kitchener roads. The timber station was built on the racecourse side of the single rail line in 1882, to a floorplan designed in 1881. [10] A ladies waiting room was added in c1883 to the north west of the station building.[11] The building is the earliest surviving example of a timber passenger station in metropolitan Brisbane.[12]
\nWhile horse racing was controlled and patronised by Queensland’s colonial elite, large numbers of people from all strata regularly attended race meetings. The spatial organisation of the Eagle Farm Racecourse reflected class hierarchies. All non-members paid to enter the racecourse and once inside, patrons, if they wished to pay more, were separated according to the additional price for certain areas. Entrance to the St Leger Stand cost less than the entrance to the Paddock Stand and saddling area, while members were located in their own stand. The area around the totalisator (introduced in 1879) was one space that was less defined, where punters of all classes placed bets. [13] Working class people tended to gather in the ‘outer', an area in the middle of the racetrack. This space was especially popular during major race programmes, with all manner of entertainment including boxing tents, sideshows and drinking booths, competing with the bookies’ stands.[14]
\nIn September 1889, tenders were called by joint architects, Hunter and Corrie, and J H Buckeridge, for the construction of a brick and iron grandstand.[15] Constructed in the Paddock area, the grandstand became known as the Paddock Stand after it was completed in 1890.[16] A photo dated c1914 shows the Paddock Stand as having a vaulted roof with a vented and gabled ridge ventilator, timber-clad gable ends, and large supporting columns. The stand featured a tiered base for seating that faced the racetrack, and decorative cast iron balustrades. A large open area in front of the stand facilitated the viewing of races and socialising.[17]
\nThe economic depression of the 1890s severely affected racing, with all the main clubs experiencing financial difficulties. Attendances dropped considerably and prize monies fell. At Eagle Farm, all proposed capital works were suspended.[18]
\nIn 1897 the Racecourse Railway Station was renamed Ascot Railway Station (after the famous racecourse in England), and in the same year the line was extended to Pinkenba. From December 1899, the advent of the electric tram along Racecourse Road provided an alternative means of transport for patrons.[19]
\nFrom the late 1880s, conferences between the major racing clubs of Australia had been held to formulate uniform rules of racing. On 14 October 1912, Queensland accepted the final draft of the Australian Rules of Racing, and from that time, the Club progressed with new building works.[20]
\nThe early 20th century brought further improvements to the Eagle Farm Racecourse grounds and facilities. The three-storey Members’ Stand was designed by Hall & Dods, architects and tenders invited by 1 August 1904. The committee of the QTC later accepted a tender for £1200 for the erection of the new stand by a Mr Carrick.[21]
\nHall and Dods, architects were also the designers of a new grandstand at Ascot Racecourse, the tender for which was advertised in January 1913.[22] This St Leger Stand was in use from November 1913.[23] A 1919 photograph of the St Leger Stand shows it as having a gabled roof, supported by bracketed columns, with dentil details at gable ends and a rounded north-facing gablet. The grandstand had sheltered tiered seating which faced the racecourse, and ornamental balustrades.[24]
\nTenders for the construction of entrance gates to the Eagle Farm Racecourse were called on 11 January 1913. Designed by architects Chambers and Powell, the gates were built by A Gillespie at a cost of £1120.[25] Photographs from the 1940s depict the entrance gates as constructed of metal and featuring the QTC logo. The gates stood between masonry piers that had a face brick base and were topped with ornamental urns. To either side of the piers were brick ticket offices that featured stucco accent bands, ticket windows facing the street, and tiled roofs with tall ventilation fleches.[26]
\nAlso in January 1913, tenders were called for the construction of a new totalisator building (Tote Building) designed by architect, GHM Addison, after the previous one burnt down.[27] The new single-storey building was of brick and served both the Paddock and St Leger reserves.[28] It had a tiled Dutch-gable roof with a central ventilation fleche and verandahs to the long sides (east and west).[29] In 1917, improvements were made to the Totalisator building to include a Julius Premier totalisator machine. The building was extended to the north, with the two-storey extension comprising a face brick base and numbered board facing the track. The roof was raised in height and altered to include a transverse Dutch-gable and more impressive roof fleche.[30]
\nIn 1914, Addison supervised two further building projects for Eagle Farm Racecourse. In January 1914, he called for tenders for the construction of latrines at the racecourse, which were constructed by Hornibrook at a cost of £1335. Addison also designed the ticket boxes at Eagle Farm Racecourse, for which tenders were called in April 1914, with the successful builder being James Malskrey with his quote of £915.[31]
\nOn 17 March 1916, W Lindsay's tender of £151.5s for the construction of a bandstand (demolished between November and December 2014)[32] at Eagle Farm Racecourse, designed by Atkinson and McLay, was accepted.[33]
\nDuring this period of development at the Eagle Farm Racecourse, railway facilities were also improved. An overbridge adjacent to the Ascot Railway Station was completed in October 1911, and in 1912 a new siding was constructed at the Hendra (north) end of the platform, to store trains on race days. At this time, the 1880s fork siding was removed. Between August 1911 and January 1914, the timber station building was extended a third time, providing additional office space and a verandah extension to its southeast end.[34]
\nFollowing lobbying from the Hamilton Town Council, a second railway station building was constructed on the western side of the line in 1913-14, opening on 20 February 1914.[35] This was a pre-cast concrete building, with ticket office, passenger waiting room, toilet, and a signal cabin spanned by a terracotta tile roof. The signal cabin housed the lever frame of an interlocking signal system and with extensive window openings overlooking the rail line. This station was constructed using a technique of pre-cast concrete panels stacked vertically within a concrete frame to form a wall. Queensland was the first state to experiment with this method, making the Ascot Station one of the earliest pre-cast station buildings built in Australia. It is now the oldest surviving pre-cast concrete railway station still in operation on the Queensland Rail network. Earlier (now demolished) examples were Northgate (1911-12) and Chelmer (1913), while Kuranda (opened September 1914) is the next oldest surviving.[36] Precast concrete structures became the new standard for Queensland Rail buildings, often replacing earlier timber structures on the site. The prefabricated concrete system was later adopted and used extensively on NSW railway structures.[37] The roof of Ascot’s timber station building was changed to Marseilles tiles, to match the new station building, after plans for this alteration were drawn on 24 January 1914.[38]
\nCongestion on race days at the racecourse station resulted in further improvements during the first decades of the 20th century. The QTC had found that the level crossing gates, inserted when the rail line was extended to Pinkenba, obstructed access to the course. In 1914 the Club agreed to pay the cost of building a subway underneath the railway embankment. Wartime delays hindered its completion until April 1916. In 1920, plans were devised to duplicate the railway line to cater for the ever-increasing number of patrons, but did not come to fruition.
\nAfter World War I, further development of the racecourse took place. A major addition to the Paddock Stand was constructed in 1922. Designed by H W Atkinson & A H Conrad, and Francis R Hall, the grandstand extension was constructed by J G Hobbs for £23,000.[39] Architects Atkinson & Conrad were in partnership in Brisbane from 1918 to 1927. Between 1916 and 1924 Francis Richard Hall worked in association as Hennessy and Hennessy and F R Hall, Architects.[40]
\nIn November 1924, a tender was advertised for extensive additions to the Members' Stand, designed by Hall and Prentice. The architectural firm of Hall and Prentice was established in 1919 when Thomas Ramsay Hall entered into partnership with George Gray Prentice. Hall was one of Brisbane's most successful architects of the early 20th century and the firm designed many prestigious buildings in Brisbane, including Brisbane City Hall (QHR 600065), Sandgate Town Hall (QHR 601566) and the Tattersall's Club (QHR 600093). He was involved in racing through the Tattersall's Club and the QTC, and his name is commemorated in the T R Hall Handicap.[41] In December 1924, the Daily Standard newspaper described the planned alterations to the Members’ Stand as having a terracotta tiled, gable roof, white exterior stucco walls with cherry-red face brick window and void trims, and dark brown timberwork. The interior included a spacious lounge 85ft (25.91m) in length, with polished Queensland hardwood timber floors, heavy mock oak beams, and plastered walls and ceilings. The fittings, counters and wall details were finished in dark polished oak. The lounge featured a main wall of glass and an observatory window, ‘which will assure a perfect, unobstructed vista of the lawns and horse quarters’.[42] The base of the stand comprised general offices, a weighing room, inquiry room, committee’s dining room and bar, official’s dining room, kitchen, stores, lavatories and members’ cloak rooms. The building work for the Members’ Stand was let to SS Carrick.[43]
\nOther additions by Hall and Prentice included alterations to the main and ‘flat' totalisators, as well as a new lavatory block in April 1923. Alterations to the Totalisator building recorded in May 1923 included an increase in payout windows from 26 to 43, and the provision of additional space in the main enclosure by making a bay window on the northern side of the building. By May 1924, however, the Telegraph newspaper reported the intention to lower the roof of the building to enable uninterrupted views for patrons from the adjacent areas and grandstands.[44]
\nIn May 1938, Hall and Cook, architects, called tenders for extensions to the St Leger Stand.[45] Harold Morton Cook (1901-68), employed by F R Hall in Brisbane between c1924 and 1930, later formed a partnership with Hall as F R Hall and Cook Architects, Brisbane, which operated from 1930 to 1939.[46] The extensions to the St Leger Stand were contracted to Blair Cunningham and Sons, builders, and were reported as adding 80ft (24.38m) to the length of the stand. The extension increased the accommodation of the stand to 3000 people, and included the addition of a ladies’ rest room. It cost approximately £9000. Simultaneously, new turnstile buildings were constructed by G Day and Son, builders, for approximately £1500.[47]
\nThe QTC’s regular race meetings continued until December 1941 when Australia faced the threat of invasion by Japan. Military authorities took over the racecourse on 19 December. From then until 1946, Eagle Farm Racecourse was known as Camp Ascot and accommodated thousands of Americans. The first contingents of American servicemen from the Pensacola convoy marched from Bretts Wharves down Racecourse Road and through what has since been termed ‘The Gateway to Victory', in December 1941.[48] In the early 1940s, eight ‘igloo' stores were erected at Eagle Farm Racecourse for the Australian and United States Armies. Throughout World War II, the QTC conducted races at Albion Park, with the Victory Cup Meeting in May 1946 marking the return of racing to the Eagle Farm Racecourse.[49]
\nIn the 1950s two major building works were undertaken. The Totalisator building, which straddled the Paddock/St Leger boundary, was extended and the John Power Stand was built in 1958 by KD Morris & Sons, Pty Ltd, at a cost of £450,000. Designed by architect Martin Conrad, the grandstand was named after Dr John Power, President of the QTC from 1947 to 1965.[50] This stand originally featured two levels of tiered seating stacked one above the other, however, the upper level of seating was later replaced with roof sheeting due to issues with concrete deterioration.[51] Conrad designed a number of other buildings at the racecourse in following years, including the Judge's Box (1963) and a ladies toilet (1966).[52]
\nThe QTC celebrated its centenary year in 1963 with social events, exhibitions of memorabilia and with a carnival held from 8-15 June 1963. However, the previous year marked the establishment of the off-course TAB, which ‘cost race clubs a lot of patrons with punters electing to have their bets legally at a local agency’.[53]
\nRacecourse improvements since 1963 have taken several forms. In 1969 a new kikuyu grass training track, aluminium running rails, a horses' swimming pool, a state-of-the-art testing facilities for the Laboratory, and a covered betting ring were added.[54] In 1990 there was major track extension between the 1600 metres and the 1200 metres and the QTC acquired several properties bordering the 1600 metres up to the 1400 metres starts. The new 1600 metres start was used for the first time in February 1991. In 2005 refurbishment of the St Leger Stand was undertaken. Restoration of the old Totalisater building occurred in 2006, followed by relocation of the Racing Museum into its upper floor. Prolonged drought led to expansion of the existing infield dam, excavation of a new dam, and the installation of underground water tanks in 2008.[55]
\nChanges to the management of the Eagle Farm Racecourse have also taken place. At the QTC's Annual General Meeting on 9 September 1997, the membership unanimously voted for incorporation from 31 March 1998, to allow the Club to hold freehold title of Eagle Farm Racecourse in its own name. Circa 2002 there was an in-principle agreement by the QTC Board to merge the QTC and the Brisbane Turf Club (which managed Doomben Racecourse) to form one entity.[56] The merger to form the Brisbane Racing Club (BRC) subsequently took place on 8 August 2008 and became operational on 1 July 2009.[57] At this time, a history of the QTC was published and a conservation management plan for the complex was created.[58]
\nOne of the first objectives of the Board of the BRC was the creation of a Master Plan to develop Eagle Farm and Doomben Racecourses, which was announced in April 2009. [59] It proposed a ‘world class racing facilities in a precinct … [with] a variety of lifestyle, residential, retail and commercial developments…. infield stabling and a dedicated veterinary clinic…extensive landscaping ... and 16.5ha of open leisure space and parklands … for use by the community'.[60] As part of this initiative, another Conservation Management Plan was prepared in 2011 to inform development plans.[61]
\nIn 2012 the mounting yard and the race-day tie-up stalls, previously sited at the western end of the John Power (Members) Stand, were returned to their pre-1946 location behind the public grandstand.[62]
\nRedevelopment of Eagle Farm and Doomben Racecourses into a range of residential, commercial and recreational land uses, in accordance with an approved Master Plan commenced in 2013.[63] The development included: upgrading both racetracks and associated facilities; introduction of non-racing (residential, commercial and retail) and the continued operation of the racing facilities; bikeways and pedestrian paths as well as private open space areas; parking and stabling areas in the centre of the racecourse; and enhancement of existing buildings and structures on site.[64] To enable development, the large land parcel that predominantly comprised the Eagle Farm Racecourse was reconfigured in October 2015 to create five separate allotments.[65]
\nIn 2017, the stables complex (a series of early horse stables, sand rolls and other buildings associated with horse stabling); workshops and sheds associated with the maintenance and operation of the racecourse, located to the north and west of the stables complex; and a house accessible from Nudgee Road, located north of the stables complex were demolished.
\nIn their place, a new access road and a residential tower were completed in 2018, and site preparation for a second tower commenced.[66] A supermarket with related retail and commercial facilities in the northeast corner of the racecourse site, on Lot 804 SP292903, is under construction in 2018 and scheduled to be officially opened on 31 July 2018.[67]
\nIn 2018, Ascot Railway Station retains most of its mechanically interlocked signal system, however, the semaphore signalling posts have been disconnected with some rods, links and cables removed.
\nBefore railway ‘safeworking’ systems were computerised and centralised in Queensland, mechanical signals were controlled from signal cabins, which dealt with the traffic on a particular block of railway line. Signal cabins coordinated signals that indicated whether or not a section of track was clear of other traffic. Early signals were mechanical, while later signals were operated electrically.[68]The interlocking control system comprised: points: (movable sections of railway line that enable trains to move from one line to an adjacent line); semaphores or signal arms (red and white or black and white levers on posts, which indicate which sections of line are open and which are closed); a lever frame (a number of levers that operate the points and semaphores); a signal cabin (a room where the lever frame is located); and the interlocking mechanical system that prevents points and signals from being in conflicting positions, which could lead to derailments or worse. Ninety percent of the interlocking is done by a complex mechanism under the levers in the signal cabin. Some interlocking is done at the points themselves and on the semaphore arms. Every interlocking installation is individual and unique to the location controlled. At Ascot Railway Station, the signal cabin adjoins the main concrete passenger station on the northern end of the western platform.[69]
\nAscot Railway Station is the last station in metropolitan Brisbane to retain semaphore signalling and a mechanically interlocked cabin.[70] It is one of only seven such systems intact in Queensland, with Kuranda Station using the only operational mechanically interlocked signal system.[71] This is a reduction since 2008 when there were seven mechanically interlocked signal cabins still commissioned in Queensland: Ascot (not used), Charters Towers, Ingham, Innisfail, Kuranda, Laidley (rarely used) and Mackay. At this time, there were about 19 surviving decommissioned interlocked signal cabins complete with their frames in Queensland (six had been relocated), along with 36 signal cabins minus their signal frames, and 10 known signal frames in various states of intactness. Approximately 100 mechanically interlocked signal cabins had been demolished at stations around Queensland.[72]
\nSince 1863, Eagle Farm Racecourse has been a centre for horse racing, attracting a wide cross-section of the community to its events. During its stewardship of the site, the QTC commissioned an array of facilities designed by noted Queensland architects and set them within landscaped grounds with mature trees and gardens, to create a popular gathering place for the valued customary experience of horse racing. Many of its patrons were delivered to the racecourse via the purpose-built branch railway line to the adjacent Ascot station, provided by the Queensland Government.
","criteria":"One of Queensland’s earliest racing venues, Eagle Farm Racecourse (1863), with the associated Ascot Railway Station (1882), is important in demonstrating the development of horse racing into a major sport and industry in Queensland. The place has state-wide importance through its evolution and development into Queensland’s premier racing venue.
\nThe provision of a suburban branch railway line and station to serve the racecourse from 1882 demonstrates the importance of horse racing from early in Queensland's history.
|The Ascot Railway Station is the last station in metropolitan Brisbane and one of only seven in Queensland that retains a once-common, now uncommon, mechanically interlocked signalling system, which is highly intact.
|Eagle Farm Racecourse and Ascot Railway Station is important as an excellent early and intact example of a large operating racecourse; demonstrating the principal characteristics including: a track; stables; race day stalls; mounting yard; starting gates; fencing; grandstands with extensive views of the racetrack; betting facilities; ticket offices; structures associated with the calling and broadcasting of races; amenities; sheds and garages for grounds equipment; entertainment facilities; open spaces for the gathering of crowds; and landscaped grounds. The layout of and interrelationships between these features demonstrate how the racecourse operated and evolved over time in response to changing needs, crowd numbers and technology.
\nThe collection of late 19th and early 20th century structures and buildings at Eagle Farm Racecourse and Ascot Railway Station are good, intact examples of Queensland architecture from the Federation period. This collection of buildings demonstrate the principal characteristics of this type including: the use of relaxed, romantic and picturesque composition, scale, and forms; terracotta tiled, hipped and gabled roofs with timbered gables; decorative brick and / or roughcast stucco walls; elaborate timberwork; leadlight windows; and high quality materials and workmanship. The buildings forming this group comprise: Entrance Gates (1913); St Leger Stand (1913, extended 1938); Members’ Stand (1904, extended 1925); Paddock Stand (1890, extended 1921-22); Totalisator Building (1913, extended 1917, 1923 and c1950s); railway station buildings (1882 and 1914); ticket offices (c1913-14); and toilet blocks (c1910-20). The collection also includes later buildings designed with similar architectural features, including: Stable (former, c1928); Toilet Block (by 1936); and Turnstiles (c1936-45).
\nAs the prestige of Queensland’s premier racecourse attracted a variety of architects to design for the Queensland Turf Club (QTC, Brisbane Racing Club since 2009), Eagle Farm Racecourse is an important representation of the intact, unique and exceptional work of a number of prominent architects who made an important contribution to Queensland’s built environment. These works include:
\nThe St Leger Stand, Paddock Stand, Members Stand and John Power Stand are important as intact examples of sporting grandstands of a representative range of eras, demonstrating the principal characteristics of their type including: their location on the edge of and overlooking a sporting ground; substantial and open forms, with large roofs to shelter spectators; elevated and tiered seating for optimal and expansive views of the grounds; a base below the seating, with associated facilities, services and amenities; and durable materials to facilitate large crowds.
\nAs the third of its type in the world, the Totalisator is an early example of a totalisator building with automatic totalisator, demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, with later improvements, including: its substantial size; location within a racecourse; large tote boards with numeric and alphanumeric characters displaying race odds and / or dividends; large room housing the totalisator apparatus; and betting windows accessed by punters on one side and bookmakers on the other.
\nAscot Railway Station is an excellent, intact example of a Queensland railway station complex from the late 19th and early 20th century; demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, including: station buildings, platforms, railway tracks, mechanical signalling systems with signal control room, footbridges and amenities.
\nThe Timber Station Building (1882) is an intact, excellent and early example of a timber railway passenger building, demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type including: its timber construction, gable roof, platform-facing waiting area, ticket sales office and ladies’ room with amenities. It is the earliest known surviving example of a timber passenger station in metropolitan Brisbane.
\nThe Concrete Station Building (1914) is an intact, excellent and early example of a concrete railway passenger station building, demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type including: its precast concrete construction with ornamental timber detailing, gable roof, platform-facing waiting area, ladies waiting room, lavatories and offices. It the earliest known surviving example of its type in the Queensland Rail (QR) network and in Australia.
|Eagle Farm Racecourse and Ascot Railway Station is of exceptional aesthetic significance to the State for its intact expressive architectural attributes, evocative qualities, and streetscape and visual merit that are complemented by its built and landscaped setting.
\nAs Queensland’s premier racecourse, the place expresses its prestige and notable standing through its high quality architectural design and elegantly composed and scaled buildings, finely crafted interiors, excellent craftsmanship, detailed ornamentation, and character of its established landscape setting.
\nThe place is also important for its beautiful attributes, embodied in the balanced architectural uniformity of scale and materiality, and the established landscaped setting. As a cohesive set of structures utilising common materials such as brick, terracotta, cast iron and timber detailing, the beauty of the complex is reinforced and harmonised by its setting of mature trees, formal gardens and open space. The grandstands offer extensive views of the racetrack, with view corridors from each facilitating spectators’ views of races.
\nThe elegant and well-composed Entrance Gates contribute to the streetscapes of Lancaster and Racecourse roads as the prominent and distinctive public face of the Eagle Farm Racecourse.
\nApproached via the little-altered Doomben railway line, with its remnant mechanical signalling system, the early station buildings and timber footbridge of Ascot Railway Station, framed by a park-like setting, evoke a sense of nostalgia for the past when race-goers arrived at Eagle Farm Racecourse in this manner, ready for the excitement of a day at the races.
|Eagle Farm Racecourse and Ascot Railway Station has a special association with QTC members, officials, owners, trainers, jockeys and with generations of race-goers from all strata of Queensland society, who have attended the Eagle Farm Racecourse for social interaction, recreation and the enjoyment of this popular sport. Since 1863, the Eagle Farm Racecourse has been the setting for popular customary experiences, as demonstrated by photographic and documentary records.
|Eagle Farm Racecourse and Ascot Railway Station has a special association with the Queensland Turf Club (QTC; Brisbane Racing Club from 1 July 2009). Since 1863, this organisation has made an important contribution to the development of horse racing in Queensland, a major sport and industry. From early in the club's history the QTC undertook a leadership role in the industry and in operating the Eagle Farm Racecourse as Queensland's premier racecourse.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17017,"place_ref":602196,"name":"Kelvin Grove Fig Trees and Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"104A Kelvin Grove Road","suburb":"KELVIN GROVE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-05-31","description":"The Fig Trees are growing in three separate but linked locations within a length of one kilometre along Kelvin Grove Road, from the Normanby Fiveways to Prospect Terrace. They create an important sense of approach to the Brisbane central business district along Kelvin Grove, which is one of the city's major arterial roads.
The Normanby grouping comprises five (5) mature Weeping Figs (Ficus benjamina) on a median strip between the inward and outbound lanes of Kelvin Grove Road. Despite road widening and the new fly-over Inner City Bypass, the trees still dominate the local streetscape. A turning lane divides the group into two sections comprising two trees nearest the Normanby and another three to the north.
At Marshall Park - a narrow island of parkland along the western side of Kelvin Grove Road, north of the Victoria Street intersection - seven (7) Hill's Fig Trees (Ficus macrocarpa var. hillii) line the eastern side of the reserve bordering Kelvin Grove Road. Prior to 1978, when the reserve was proclaimed, the trees on part of the Kelvin Grove Road reserve. Beneath these figs are grassed areas with playground equipment. The trees provide a barrier between the busy road and the residences to the west, as well as greatly enhancing the character and visual amenity of this area.
The Prospect Terrace grouping comprises three (3) Weeping Figs (Ficus benjamina) on the road reserve at the corner of Prospect Terrace and Kelvin Grove Road. This triangular plot also hosts several other species including palms, and the air raid shelter, now used as a bus shelter.
The shelter is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab and a flat roof supported by four concrete piers. A fig tree branch has grown down onto, and then along, the top of the roof slab. It accommodates two freestanding seats, bolted to the floor, in each end bay. Paving abuts the floor slab to the south and west.
","history":"The fig trees along Kelvin Grove Road at the Normanby Fiveways, Marshall Park and Prospect Terrace, were planted either during the late 19th or early 20th centuries. It is possible that some may be associated with the work of Ithaca Divisional Board and Shire Councillor Silvanus White, who reputedly planted many trees in the Ithaca district in the late 19th century. However, they are more likely to be associated with the Ithaca Town Council's extensive programme of town improvement and beautification in the early 20th century.
During the 1850s a track passing through Kelvin Grove northwards to Newmarket, Enoggera and Cash's Crossing was known as the Northern Road, and remained the major route northwards from Brisbane until Bowen Bridge was constructed in the early 1860s. By 1881 the 'track' was known as the Kelvin Grove Road.
On survey plans of the 1860s, the Kelvin Grove area was marked as the 'Three Mile Scrub'. In February 1865 forty portions of one to two acres were surveyed between Kelvin Grove and Waterworks Roads, stretching from the Normanby to Enoggera Creek. By the end of August that year some of these portions along Kelvin Grove Road had been subdivided into residential allotments ranging in size from twenty to thirty perches, up to a half acre or so. Local subdivision into small housing lots continued for decades, resulting in an early 20th century townscape denuded of vegetation.
By 1881 the urban population within suburbs such as Kelvin Grove had grown so much that Queensland's Registrar-General was referring to the city centre and its surrounding suburbs as the metropolitan city of Brisbane. Despite this population growth, the Municipality of Brisbane had annexed no suburban land. Nor had any of the suburban communities surrounding the city centre sought incorporation under Queensland's existing municipal provisions. Therefore the Queensland Government imposed local government, creating during late 1879 and early 1880 a number of Divisions ringing the city centre.
Ithaca Division, which included the districts of Windsor and Enoggera as well as Kelvin Grove, Red Hill, Paddington and Milton, was created in November 1879, Kelvin Grove Road forming the eastern boundary with Booroodabbin Division. In September 1887 Ithaca Division was subdivided into Ithaca, Windsor and Enoggera Shires, with Kelvin Grove remaining within Ithaca Shire.
During the second half of the 1880s a more crowded urban core and a developing public transport system encouraged land subdivision and suburban expansion in Brisbane, including northwest to Kelvin Grove. By 1888 the Normanby Fiveways had become a busy centre. Tramlines were laid along Kelvin Grove Road during 1897 to 1901, and by the end of 1903 the tram service extended along Kelvin Grove as far as the corner of Edmonstone Road, handy to the Newmarket Hotel.
Ithaca Shire was proclaimed a town in 1902. For virtually its entire existence, Ithaca Town Council pursued a policy of creating a distinctive and aesthetically pleasing environment, and of providing civic amenities such as parks and playgrounds. The Council's street beautification strategy is probably best known for the creation of embankment gardens during the 1910s and 1920s, some of which remain along thoroughfares such as Musgrave and Windsor Roads. However, the planting of street trees by the Council, community organisations and individual residents also featured in many annual Mayoral reports.
Ithaca Town Council minutes for December 1908 referred to suggestions from trustees of the sports ground now known as EE McCaskie Park, on the eastern side of Kelvin Grove Road, for the planting of trees. In July 1909 the minutes recorded an offer by the proprietor of the Normanby Hotel to contribute £10 towards tree planting at the Normanby Fiveways. The fig trees on Kelvin Grove Road at the Normanby appear to have been planted around this time, judging from subsequent Mayoral reports.
Reporting for 1909, Ithaca Mayor George Hall outlined how Shade trees have been planted at the Normanby, along the Kelvin Grove Road ... Alterations were made to a number of tree guards to prevent the continual destruction of young growing trees. The cost of planting and protecting the trees at the Normanby is shared by the ratepayer whose property they will most improve. The Mayor did not specify whether the damage was wreaked by people, horses, vehicles, or the plentiful goats.
The widened road reserve now known as Marshall Park existed by 1893. Named for local Alderman H. Marshall and formerly known as the Kelvin Grove Playground, Marshall Park has long been used for children's recreation, although not officially reserved as a park and named, until 1978. An unsourced newspaper clipping held by John Oxley Library, dated 9 September 1922, includes a photograph which seems to show the fig trees in Marshall Park. A line of eight trees is already well-grown, reaching a height approximately three times that of a passing vehicle. Brisbane City Council plans for McCaskie Oval drawn in 1949 represent nine trees along the western side of Kelvin Grove Road. Photographs taken in 1958 confirm their large size by the middle of the 20th century.
The Prospect Terrace triangular section of road reserve was marked on the 1901 Musgrave Road Tramway Estate map. At the instigation of the Brisbane City Council efforts were made c1996 to close the road reserve at the corner of Prospect Terrace and declare it a reserve for park purposes, but negotiations have not been concluded.
The urban improvement works carried out by Ithaca Town Council extended over two decades. They included the planting of street trees by the Council itself, sealing of roads and improvements to footpaths and drainage. More mundane works such as forming and metalling, laying concrete kerbing and channelling, and footpath widening along Kelvin Grove Road were carried out over a number of years. The road featured in the surviving Mayoral reports for 1917, 1918 and 1921. The report of 1917 had commented that Kelvin Grove Road was very rough in places. By 1921 Mayor John Tait could report that Kelvin Grove Road had been metalled to the Town boundary.
During the decade after the planting of the Normanby trees, Council continued to report the encouragement, and practical assistance, given to individuals and community organisations wanting to plant more street trees. In 1917 the Milton and Rosalie Improvement Association had submitted a request to Council for the planting of avenues of trees along Baroona Road and Nash Street. During 1921, the Town Council reported planting 147 trees. Furthermore, Tait reported that the residents are taking much more interest in the beautification of the Town, and already we have two streets in which trees are to be planted by the residents themselves. And for 1923, Tait reported that the many small reserves and little gardens about the Town are looking well and do credit to our gardener, Mr Jolly. During 1924 the community planted trees along Mary, Moreton and Castlemaine Streets.
On the basis of the interest taken by the former Ithaca Town Council in landscaping and town beautification projects during the period 1902-1925, and available photographic evidence, it seems most likely that the fig trees which survive along Kelvin Grove Road between the Normanby Fiveways and Prospect Terrace, were planted during this period.
The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Kelvin Grove as an air raid shelter in 1942. On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war. Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The blast walls of the air raid shelter at Kelvin Grove were removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the walls is still visible. The shelter piers have been painted and seating has been introduced.
","criteria":"The fig trees are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland history, specifically several decades of continuing commitment by the Ithaca Town Council to municipal development, urban improvement and beautification, and the encouragement offered by the Council to local residents for the greening of Ithaca which had been denuded during five decades of intensive subdivision and building. The Kelvin Grove air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located at the corner of Kelvin Grove Road and Prospect Terrace is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
|The trees are important because of their aesthetic significance. Lining a major arterial road, these large and mature fig trees are significant as defining one of the gateways to the centre of Brisbane. Despite recent major road construction, the fig trees still dominate the streetscape in their respective locations, providing welcome shade with a distinctly subtropical atmosphere.
|The Kelvin Grove air raid shelter, now used as a bus shelter, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The trees are valued by the modern community for their streetscape value, as was demonstrated by extensive community protest in 1996 when the Brisbane City Council proposed cutting down two adjacent fig trees for street widening.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17027,"place_ref":602214,"name":"Classic Cinema","alternate_name":"Triumph Cinema | Elite Cinema | East Brisbane Picture Theatre","street_address":"963 Stanley Street","suburb":"EAST BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-07-27","description":"The Former Classic Cinema occupies a site at the southeast corner of Stanley Street East and Withington Street, East Brisbane. The façade fronts Stanley Street East, which is a major arterial road. The surrounding streets are mostly residential, but there is a small commercial node either side of Stanley Street East, where the cinema is located. Diagonally opposite, on the northeast corner of Stanley Street East and Didsbury Street, is the East Brisbane Hotel, erected in 1889.
The theatre is built to the street alignments and occupies the whole of the site. The front façade is two storeys in height, of rendered brick, and decorative, with strong streetscape presence. In an extraordinarily eclectic metaphorical mix typical of 1920s picture theatre architecture, the facade combines a mix of 'Classical' and 'Mediterranean' decorative and design elements. There are five bays, not of equal width, defined by pilasters, at the top of which are decorative concrete urns. A balustraded concrete pediment unites the two bays either side of the central bay. This middle bay is wider and taller, with a high pediment with the name TRIUMPH in rendered block lettering. Below the theatre name is a cantilevered tiled window hood above a bank of five-paned casement windows with opaque, green and amber Arctic glass. Behind these windows is the original bio-box. In the bays either side are pairs of similar casement windows, with similar window hoods above.
At street level there is a centrally placed wide, low-arched entrance, defined by half pillars on each side, with concrete steps leading to what was formerly a semi-open foyer. This has been partly enclosed with later timber-framed glass doors, recessed from the arch entrance. To either side of this arched entrance is a billboard case, and in the end bays are small 'porthole' windows with a square leadlight panel in each, now enclosed with timber lattice.
As was typical of suburban picture theatre construction of this period, the masonry façade returns along the sides only one narrow bay in depth. What the elegant façade was intended to obscure is that the main part of the structure, housing the auditorium, is a large, timber-framed space with a steep, gabled, galvanised iron roof. The side walls of the auditorium are clad externally with later cement sheeting. At the rear [southern] end of the main building the gable is in-filled with weatherboards and there is a lower, hipped roof extension over the stage area.
The main change to the building is that the foyer has been expanded and pushed back into the auditorium, c1970s. This space has a low, false ceiling of acoustic tiles, and the floor, which was formerly raked and part of the auditorium, has been raised and levelled. A ticket box and candy-bar are located on the western side of the foyer, and there are toilets on the eastern side. The auditorium is accessed from doorways at either side of the rear wall of the foyer. Above the renovated foyer is the projection booth, which is the original bio-box, accessed from steep, narrow timber stairs behind the ticket box on the western side, and near the men's toilets on the eastern side.
The auditorium remains remarkably intact and retains much of its early decorative finishes. It is a large space, with the roof supported by unboxed laminated timber arches, and has an early lattice ceiling with hessian or canvas backing which follows the curve of the arches. There are three decorative light panels in the centre of this ceiling. There is a raked timber floor, sloped more steeply at the northern end of the building. The side walls are lined internally with vertically-jointed tongue and groove timber boards to dado height, and above this have early plasterboard panels with decorative 'classical' mouldings between the timber arches.
There is a small stage the southern end of the auditorium, with a proscenium arch in plasterwork with 'classical' motifs. On either side of the stage, angled to direct focus to the rear wall, are large, early plasterboard panels with decorative 'classical' mouldings. The rear wall is constructed of galvanised iron sheeting, on which is painted an early 'screen'. A later cinema screen which once filled the proscenium arch has been removed. There are two early sound horns which hang above the stage. There is off-stage space either side of the stage, which suggests that it may have been used for performance purposes as well.
","history":"The site of the Classic Cinema, East Brisbane, has been associated with film exhibition since 1921. The building itself dates to 1927, with minor modifications probably c1970.
The site was earlier part of a much larger parcel of land purchased from the Crown in 1855 by Joseph Darragh of Brisbane. Darragh held the land, unsubdivided, for nearly 30 years, and it was the eventual subdivision of this property into residential allotments [mostly 16 perches] in the mid-1880s, which established East Brisbane as a dormitory suburb. Prior to this, East Brisbane was semi-rural in character, with a few isolated families scattered through the bush, and a number of elite estates [such as Mowbray's and Heath's] along the riverbank.
In June 1885 Mrs Annie Elizabeth Cocks gained title to subdivisions 112 and 113 of eastern allotment 128, parish of South Brisbane, county of Stanley [32 perches - later the site of the picture theatre]. Mrs Cocks owned this land for over 20 years. About 1906 she sold it to Brisbane real estate agent George Henry Blocksidge, who in 1907 transferred the property to Henry William Robinson, who established a fuel depot here.
On 1 July 1921 the property was transferred from Robinson to Frederick Carl Christian Olsen, who established an open-air picture show on the site that year. A sewerage detail plan dated 1919 shows a picture theatre, partly roofed, occupying the whole of the site. The date may be misleading. It is not unusual for alterations to be made to original detail plans, and in this instance, the theatre as shown on the site is more likely to date to between 1921 and 1927. Oral history reveals that the facade of this theatre was timber, and that about one-third of the seating area was roofed in flat galvanised iron, which on rainy days could be manually extended over about half the seating. The Olsens reputedly were very proud of this technological feat. Around the perimeter of the site were fences of flat iron.
Frederick Olsen died in January 1926. The Stanley Street East property passed to his widow, Maria Gustava Olsen, a year later, and then to Vigo Gustav Olsen [her son] in June 1927. Around the same time Vigo Olsen raised a mortgage on the property from Ernest Adolph Burmester, which is likely to have financed the construction of a new picture theatre to cost £2,000, for which Vigo Olsen already had permission from the Brisbane City Council to erect. Olsen, who lived nearby at Didsbury Street, East Brisbane, had let the contract to construct the theatre to Corinda contractor and architect Arthur Robson. It is highly likely Robson also prepared the design. He had worked for the Workers' Dwellings Board in Townsville as an inspector and as an architect in Rockhampton in the early 1920s. From 1923 he was resident in Corinda and practised as an architect and builder in Brisbane and other centres throughout Queensland. Robson both constructed and/or designed picture theatres throughout Queensland in the 1920s, including the Indooroopilly Picture Theatre [later the El Dorado], and the Paragon Theatre at Childers. By August 1928, he had erected 23 picture theatres in Queensland.
The picture theatre at Stanley Street East is listed as the Triumph in 1927 licensing records, but there is some suggestion that the place was known initially as the East Brisbane Picture Theatre. It is possible that the name was changed when the new picture theatre was built in 1927, and this is the name which still appears in relief on the façade of the building.
Vigo Olsen died in August 1929, and the property passed to his widow, Ida Elizabeth Olsen, in April 1931. Around this time Mrs Olsen raised a further mortgage on the property from EA Burmester, possibly to purchase sound equipment for the theatre. Sound movies were introduced in 1927 with Warner Brothers' production of The Jazz Singer, and over the next few years motion picture exhibitors either converted their theatres to sound or went out of business, as demand for the 'talkies' swept the world.
In mid-1934 title to the property was transferred to accountant Albert Frederick Stoddart of East Brisbane, and Alma Jones, wife of Sylvester Stephen Jones of Mount Gravatt, as tenants in common. The Jones were related to the Olsens. Gordon Jones took over the management of the Triumph in 1934, when he was only 17 years old. In 1943, AF Stoddart transferred his interest in the property to Gordon, who managed the theatre until c1970, exhibiting (from at least 1938, and likely earlier) as the Triumph Theatre Company.
A 1940 photograph of the theatre shows a façade remarkably similar to that which survives today. The foyer was reached via concrete steps from the street, but had not yet been enclosed with glass doors. Folding iron gates still secured the foyer, and these were at the front of the building, on the footpath. The interior of the foyer was lined with fibrous sheeting and dark-stained timber cover-strips; there was a centrally located ticket-box at the back of the foyer; and doors to the auditorium were located either side of the ticket box. The terrazzo flooring in the present entrance is likely to date to 1927.
In the 1930s, there were approximately 200 picture theatres operating in Queensland, of which about 25% were located in Brisbane. This was the period when most Brisbane suburbs had at least one picture theatre, if not more, and encouraged local allegiances. Theatre staff - owners, management and other employees [such as projectionists, organ or piano players, ticket sellers and ushers] - generally lived in the district, and the theatre offered a local community focus and sense of local identity. Competition for audiences was strong. The Triumph's closest contemporary competitors were the Broadway at the Woolloongabba Fiveways; the Mowbray Park Picture Theatre on Shafston Road; the Allahmbra at Stones Corner; the Roxy (Gaiety) at Coorparoo; and the Norman Park Picture Theatre near the Norman Park Railway Station. Of these, only the Triumph survives.
Following the introduction of television to Brisbane in the late 1950s, Brisbane cinema audiences declined rapidly. Suburban cinemas struggled to continue screening films and in the 1960s and 1970s many closed, the buildings converted into alternative uses or the sites redeveloped. By the 1980s, only a handful of single-screen interwar suburban cinemas survived in Brisbane.
In 1960-61 the Triumph had a seating capacity of 800, suggesting that some seating refurbishment had occurred since 1938, when the theatre seated 950.
By January 1970 the property had been acquired by Ray Arthur Chesterman and Merle Audrey Chesterman, and was transferred in February 1970 to Eric Dare, who owned the place for over three decades. The changes in ownership c1970 correspond with a transformation of the theatre. By 1970 the Triumph had been re-named the Capri East Brisbane and was operated by the Capri Theatre Company, which screened mostly R-rated sex films. In 1971 the capacity of the theatre was listed as 510, indicating that seating and/or possibly foyer refurbishment had taken place.
The cinema is believed to have closed for a short period in the 1980s, but by 1988 had re-opened as the Classic Cinema, an art-house screening alternative and revival films, and the venue for film festivals and the annual Brisbane screening of Australian Film, Television and Radio School productions. The theatre functioned as an art-house until closed in mid-2000.
","criteria":"The former Classic Cinema, East Brisbane, constructed in 1927 as the Triumph Theatre, a suburban family cinema, is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland's history. The site has been associated with film exhibition - arguably the most significant form of 20th century popular culture/entertainment - since 1921, and until its closure in mid 2000, was amongst the longest operating of Queensland's picture theatres. The place is important in illustrating the nature of Queensland film exhibition, in particular the contribution of family-owned enterprises to this industry.
|The former Classic Cinema is a rare, substantially intact, surviving 1920s Queensland picture theatre, and one of only three substantially intact, single-auditorium, interwar picture theatres remaining in Brisbane [the others being the Dawn (1928) at Chermside and the Gaythorne (1938-39) at Gaythorne]. Of these, the Classic is the earliest and most ornate. In particular it retains a remarkably intact and highly decorative 1927 façade of 'classic' picture theatre design now rare in Queensland.
|The place is, and always was, a very fine example of the 1920s suburban 'picture palace': a large auditorium built to a modest budget, with a more glamorous street façade to attract patrons, and remains important in illustrating the principal characteristics of this class of building and of this genre of picture theatre design. These characteristics include: an imposing façade incorporating an eclectic mix of 'Classical' and 'Mediterranean' decorative and design elements, in substantial materials, in a deliberate attempt to impress and create streetscape and townscape presence; a large, gable-roofed, single-span auditorium supported by laminated timber arches; a central arched entrance; a bio-box located above the entrance; early lattice ceiling to the auditorium interior; a raked timber floor; decorative plasterboard panelling along the auditorium walls; a decorative proscenium arch; a small performance stage with decorative plasterboard panels either side; and a 'screen' painted onto the sheet metal rear wall. The aesthetic hierarchy of materials and details established between façade and main structure is particularly illustrative of this type of building.
The place is important also in illustrating the principal characteristics of the work of Brisbane architect/builder Arthur Robson, who specialised in theatre construction and erected and/or designed dozens of suburban and regional theatres in Queensland in the interwar period.
|The place has aesthetic value engendered by the well-proportioned decorative façade, the building's imposing presence in a suburban landscape; and the imposing space of the large arched auditorium with its decorative wall finishes, proscenium arch and lattice ceiling.
|The place has been identified with the townscape and social character of East Brisbane since the 1920s; in the past has generated a strong sense of community focus, being a venue for local social activity and popular culture since 1921; and for well over a decade in recent years was associated with Brisbane's art-house movie circuit, being well-known to thousands of Queensland 'film-buffs', and the venue for film festivals and screenings of film-school productions.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17029,"place_ref":602216,"name":"Annerley Army Reserve Depot (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"158 Dudley Street","suburb":"ANNERLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"The rectangular site has a long frontage to Dudley Street to the south, with a wide, gated entrance through the galvanised pipe and chain wire fence. To the east the site is bounded by Linville Lane. The principal buildings on the site are the two drill halls - constructed in 1914 and 1954.
The 1914 drill hall is generally similar to others built around the same time in Queensland, such as those at Roma and Ayr. It is a simple gable roofed building enclosing a single large space. Small offices are ranged along the east of the large space.
The building is framed with timber, with corrugated galvanised iron sheeting and timber boarded lining. The corrugated iron roof is supported by timber and angled steel trusses. A ventilator, covered with curved corrugated sheeting, runs the full length of the ridge. The timber floor is raised a short distance from the ground. The windows are predominantly double hung timber sashes.
The standard plan of the drill hall has only been slightly modified. The principal alterations to the building include the addition of a verandah with flanking enclosures at the south end, forming an entrance porch facing Dudley Street. This addition was placed by 1935. A small skillion roofed annexe in the middle of the west wall after 1935.
The 1954 drill hall building consists of two sections - the drill hall to the north and a wing to the south containing bathrooms, toilets and stores, including the armoury, located in the south east corner of the building. In place above some doors in the southern section of the building are original timber signage. A substantial brick-walled foyer links the two sections. Double timber glazed doors are located at either end of the foyer. The floor is timber laid over concrete - a standard feature of drill hall design during the period. Along the western elevation (rear) of the building, the joinery is steel and in the eastern elevation, facing the parade ground, the joinery is timber.
The northern section, as first built, contained a large tall space about 37 metres long and 15 metres wide. Six large roller doors open out on the eastern side onto the parade ground. Smaller offices range along the north and west of the hall. In 1964, a mezzanine floor, covering more than half the floor area of the drill hall, was added. On the mezzanine are former offices, messes, a lecture room and a theatrette.
Other buildings on the site include the a toilet block (1913) with a gable roof and clad with corrugated iron. A second brick toilet block, kitchen and shower block is located along the Linville Lane side of the property. Also located in the north-eastern corner of the site include a small brick building which originally stored inflammable liquid and a demountable building. A large skillion roofed shed sheeted with ribbed colourbond metal, with a roller shutter door is located along the Waldheim Street side to the north of the parade ground.
An open bitumen sealed parade ground is in the centre of the site, with the various buildings arranged around three of its perimeters. On the south, the parade ground is separated from the street by a belt of mature camphor laurel trees. Other mature trees include a mango in the north east corner and a jacaranda in the south east. The site has been cut to form the level parade ground, and there are battered retaining walls to the north and east.
","history":"The drill halls at Annerley were constructed in 1914 and 1954 to designs prepared by the Office of the Government Architect, Department of Public Works.
Volunteer military forces have played a central role in the organisation of the defence of Queensland. Volunteer units were formed from 1860 onwards and regular training camps were organised as citizen soldiers became the foundation of the State's defence. The first Easter encampment of the Queensland Volunteer Force was held at Toowoomba in 1875. These camps were held so that the various individual groups could train in larger numbers, a necessary requirement if they were to be an effective fighting force in the event of war.
A series of war scares in the late 1870s and an official survey of the colony's defences prepared by two military officers from England forced changes to Queensland's colonial defences. In 1884, the Defence Act was passed, completely reorganising the defence of the colony. The volunteer system was continued but augmented, with the establishment of the first permanent local force in Queensland. The permanent force included paid militia and volunteer units forces, as well as members of the Police Force Rifle Clubs. After the passing of the 1884 defence act the government authorised the construction of a large number of drill halls around the colony. Many were built in the suburbs of Brisbane, and in the major towns such as Ipswich, Warwick, Gympie, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns. Approximately 30 halls were constructed after 1884 and towards the turn of the century for the militia units.
In 1901, the new Commonwealth Of Australia was formed. The Commonwealth government thereafter assumed control of a number of formerly colonial responsibilities, including defence. An amendment to the Defence Act provided for compulsory drilling for boys aged twelve to eighteen and annual training for youths aged eighteen to twenty. The amendment was implemented in 1911 The initial training groups in 1911 numbered over 90 000 youths and the size of the defence grew from 23,506 in 1910 to 60,972 in 1915.
The Department of the Army responded to these changes by providing appropriate facilities for the compulsory militia force. Drill halls had been built in Brisbane in the late 19th century, including one in Alice Street and another in Adelaide Street. Following the national growth, drill halls and parade grounds were built all over Queensland. Drill Halls were built to a standard design in central locations to provide the organisational structure and all weather sites for militia and cadet training. The Commonwealth entered into an arrangement with the states in this early period of Federation whereby the Commonwealth paid for the construction and maintenance of their buildings but the state's architects did the work.
In Queensland, the design and construction of this new batch of drill halls was undertaken by the Department of Public Works. This generation of drill halls followed the basic form of those constructed in the 19th century period. Most known examples are timber framed and sheeted with corrugated iron. Most 19th century drill halls had curved, iron framed roofs, a design unique to Queensland. Those constructed for World War I broke with this tradition, with timber framed gabled roofs and were constructed of corrugated iron. Head Commonwealth architect, John Smith Murdoch observed in 1915:
\t'... the Minister of Defence laid down the principle that we were to put the cost of
\tdrill halls down to bedrock, there being so many required; and those drill halls are
\tmade of wood and iron and are found good enough...'
The Commandant of the first military district applied for suitable land to the Stephens Shire Council from late 1912 to early 1913, but was rejected on both occasions. William Stephens, son of Thomas Blackett Stephens, a Councillor with the Stephens Shire Council, offered 2.7 acres of his own land in Dudley Street for the purpose. When it was inspected, the land was found to be in a well-elevated position within easy distance of the Ipswich Road Tramway Terminus. The land was a treeless, grassed slope, without any improvements apart from a barbed wire fence around the perimeter. The Commandant recommended the land for purchase and a price of £519 was settled between the vendor and the commonwealth.
The first drill hall constructed on the Annerley site, known as the Junction Park Drill Hall, was constructed in 1914 to a design by the Office of Public Works signed by AB Brady. Tenders were called on 24 February 1914. The cost of construction was £1625. In the Annual Report for the Public Works Department for 1915-16, works conducted to the Junction Park Drill Hall included the addition of drainage and furniture at a cost of £35/5/0. The drill hall was built in the south eastern corner of the site facing Dudley Street. Typical of drill halls at the time, the Annerley building was simple in form. It comprised a meeting hall, covered so that night time drilling could occur, with offices for each of the companies assigned to Annerley.
The site became the headquarters and offices of the 2nd Brigade Area and Machine Gun Section 2nd Light Horse, Headquarters Machine Gun Section and two companies of the Ninth Infantry, area office and store 9A and for two companies of cadets. In addition to these companies, the 3rd AMC (Field Ambulance) and the 34th AMC (Company) were also placed at the site.
By 1947, a number of outbuildings had been added to the site including, toilets and showers, a kitchen and an officer's mess. During World War II, encampments for personnel of the Australian and United States armed forces were placed wherever space could be provided. Training depots like the one at Annerley provided a range of facilities for the garrison troops.
Construction of drill halls ceased at the end of World War I. By the mid-1930s, the political situation in Europe began to worsen and there was a revival of citizen forces.
Following the Second World War, the Australian defence forces had a major overhaul. The existing situation, where a small core of professional officers was supplemented by a volunteer force, was deemed unsatisfactory for the national force. In September 1947, the Australian Regular Army was created as a body of full time professional soldiers. The Australian Military Forces, the existing organisation of part time soldiers, was retained but renamed the Citizens Military Forces (CMF). The National Service Scheme, requiring all 18 year old males to register for one year of military service and further part time service, was introduced in 1951. This ensured that the number of participants in the CMF would grow. At this time, the Annerley site was renamed the Annerley CMF Training Depot. The army needed new or upgraded facilities to cater for these major changes. Resources were generally directed to facilities for the regular army and very few drill halls were constructed in the 1950s. Only six were built in Queensland at this time, one of which was the drill hall at Annerley (1954).
Plans to upgrade the Annerley facility were drawn up in 1953. The 1952-53 Works Program allocated £20,000 for the first phase of redevelopment of the CMF training depot at Annerley. Plans included designs for a multi-purpose drill hall with company stores and offices and an attached annexe for showers and latrines and quartermaster's store. The siting of the building on the western boundary of the land allowed a metalled parade ground to be prepared between the original drill hall and the modern one. In 1964, additional accommodation for officers was added by creating a mezzanine floor in the drill hall space. The mezzanine floor included extra offices, a theatrette, a lecture room and officers' and sergeants' messes.
The place is no longer owned by the Department of Defence. In 2004 the Queensland Heritage Council approved the adaptive reuse of the place for residential purposes, including subdivision, constructions of new dwellings and demolition of ancillary structures. No work had commenced on site as of November 2004.
","criteria":"The former Annerley Army Reserve Depot is significant in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as the drill halls (1914 and 1954) located on the site are good, intact, surviving examples of their respective type and period and demonstrate the development of the site as a militia training depot, following the amendments to the Defence Act. A number of drill halls were built in Queensland, and around Australia in the period 1911-1916, in order to provide facilities for the increased number of new conscripts. The original drill hall (1914), which retains its early form, demonstrates the establishment of compulsory militia force in Australia in 1911. This scheme is visible in the fabric and layout of the drill hall and the parade ground.
Construction of the second drill hall in 1954 is associated with the reorganisation of Australian voluntary forces into the Citizen Military Forces (CMF), following World War II, and demonstrates the reaction of the Australian Department of Defence to the Cold War of the early 1950s.
|The Annerley Army Reserve Depot is significant in that the place demonstrates a continuity of military use from pre-World War I to the late 1990s. The combination of World War I and post-World War II drill halls located at the same site is significant for its rarity in Australia and particularly in Queensland. Together, the 1914 and the 1954 drill halls demonstrate the continued use of a standard drill hall design in Australia, often modified only slightly, for over 100 years.
|The two main buildings on the site are significant as good, intact examples of the types of drill halls built by the commonwealth government during their respective periods of construction. In the 1914 drill hall, the use of corrugated iron and timber was in response to a need for the buildings to be constructed efficiently and economically. Two standard designs were used, only varying in size.
The 1914 building is one of six that survive in Queensland, the others being located at Toowoomba (relocated), Albion, Kelvin Grove (ex-Toowong), Maryborough and Rockhampton (ex-Mt Morgan). These buildings were all to a standard design with offices running down one side, clad in corrugated galvanised iron with open angle steel roof trusses and pivoting timber windows and timber floors.
The Annerley building is unusual as it has eight bays. It is significant as an example of one of the larger types of drill halls found in Australia. Drill halls from the mid-1950s period were constructed to a standard design with some variations in each state relating to configuration and materials.
The associated outbuildings on the site, including a kitchen, showers and latrines and various storage facilities provide further evidence of the use of the site and the manner in which the participants spent time in the compound.
|Until recently, the Australian Army has continuously used the site since the early 20th century. Whilst the numbers of servicemen and women who may have visited and trained at the site cannot be ascertained, their association with the depot is certain.
|Until recently, the Australian Army has continuously used the site since the early 20th century. Whilst the numbers of servicemen and women who may have visited and trained at the site cannot be ascertained, their association with the depot is certain.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17047,"place_ref":602235,"name":"Student Residences, QUT Kelvin Grove Campus","alternate_name":"Hall of Residence, TAFE Queensland","street_address":"95-107 Musk Avenue","suburb":"KELVIN GROVE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-02-25","description":"Unlike earlier halls of residence, the accommodation at Kelvin Grove is provided in small domestic-scaled buildings. These are dispersed on the steeply sloping southern sides of a southward sloping valley at the corner of Blamey Street and Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove. The accommodation units with south-east to north-east orientation are clustered in two groups together with accommodation for tutors and laundry facilities. These groups are arranged informally around the community services building which is a focus of the complex. This central core is sited at the top of the complex which steps to suit the topography and is interconnected with the accommodation by pathways.
The overall impression is of a hillside village with a high degree of unity resulting from the repetitive use of pitched metal deck roofs, walls of white painted bagged cavity brick masonry and timber elements - pergolas, balustrades and lattice screens all stained dark brown. The broken profile of roofs scattered and staggered over the steep slope and the consequent changing perspective together with the remnant regrowth eucalypt vegetation reinforced by landscaping based on Australian native species providing shade and shadow to white washed walls all serve to visually enliven the courtyard spaces and pathways on the site.
Community Services Building
The community services building is a two storey building which steps down the site and houses a communal dining room, recreation areas and support facilities on the upper level with store rooms and more recently enclosed areas on the lower level to house student counselling services. The building has a large open timber trussed roof and sloping ceilings lined with straw board panels. Pergolas provide shade to several outdoor areas.
Residences
The residences are divided into two clusters. One cluster comprises four two-storey 4-person maisonettes and one single storey 4-person tutorial unit, while the second cluster contains five two storey 4-person maisonettes and one single storey 4-person tutorial unit. Both clusters have their own laundry and one of the maisonettes in the first cluster had a paraplegic unit.
Each maisonette has two bedrooms per floor with the entry, kitchenette and bathroom adjacent to the half landing of a dogleg stair. A timber framed cantilevered verandah with lattice panelled end walls is provided to the upper bedrooms with a corresponding paved area to the lower floor bedrooms. Additional natural light is provided to the common areas and upper bedrooms through clerestory lighting.
The tutorial units comprise four sleeping areas, a bathroom, kitchenette and study and tutorial areas on one level with timber pergolas providing shade to openings.
","history":"A Cabinet decision of May 1973 established a policy of providing Halls of Residence for young people who were obliged to live away from home to attend classes. The Halls of Residence at Kelvin Grove were designed for short-term accommodation for country students undertaking TAFE block release apprenticeship courses (of 6-7 weeks duration) which were not available regionally.
\nA site at Chelmer was proposed but after it was inundated in the 1974 Brisbane floods an alternative site at Kelvin Grove (originally part of Gona Barracks) was selected. This land had been excised from the Barracks site in the early 1970s when a right-of-way was created for a proposed North-Western freeway. The bulk of the Barracks site was on the western side of the proposed freeway, fronting Kelvin Grove Road. Land on the eastern side of the freeway alignment, with frontages to Victoria Park Road on either side of Blamey Street, was gazetted as a Reserve for a Technical College. The land on the northern side of Blamey Street was intended as the site for a new Technical Correspondence School. The proposed freeway did not go ahead after the Commonwealth government withdrew funds for urban freeways, and by mid-1975 that land on the southern side of Blamey Street was selected for the first Brisbane Hall of Residence.
\nAgainst a background of criticism by the Commonwealth of the standard of recent Brisbane buildings for TAFE the Brisbane architect, John Dalton, was commissioned to design the hall of residence in mid-1975. The building was to be staged with accommodation in Stage 1 for 120 students, 6 tutors and a warden and with provision for a future Stage 2 for a further 120 students and another 6 tutors. The design and documentation phases were accelerated so that construction would commence before a 30 June 1976 funding deadline.
\nAn initial design based on higher densities with self-contained groups of four students with kitchenette and bath room was revised in October 1975 to one of more domestic scale with a centralised dining/common room, to bring the project within a cost limit of $10,000 per student. The successful tender for $1,254,561 (slightly over budget) was received from Hornick Constructions and the completed complex was handed over on 13 December 1978. The building won awards from the RAIA for meritorious architecture in 1979 and for civic design in 1982.
\nThe design of the accommodation at the former Hall of Residence, Kelvin Grove was a departure from earlier halls of residence and illustrates the changing ideological and utilitarian needs of students at the time as well as the particular needs of short term occupants.
\nThere was a global shift that began in the 1960s in response to changing student needs brought about by sweeping social change, growing student numbers and economic constraints. Accommodation which was institutional and formal, where student movements could be more easily monitored and regulated was being replaced with that which provided students with more independence and a more informal living environment.
\nThis departure in approach to student accommodation is clearly demonstrated in the design of the Hall of Residence at Kelvin Grove through the scale and informal clustering of buildings and entwining paths which, on the steep topography, provide a measure of privacy without fully divorcing the activities in the dwellings from passing pedestrians, thus maintaining a sense of community.
\nJohn Dalton (1927- ) was born in Yorkshire, England and came to Queensland in 1950. While training at the Central Technical College and the University of Queensland, he was employed in the offices of Theo Thynne and Hayes and Scott. Soon after he graduated in 1956 with a Diploma of Architecture he commenced private practice and quickly established a reputation for high quality design:
\nHe became well known through his domestic work which included houses he designed for himself in 1952 and 1960. Through the 1960s his reputation was further enhanced by his success in the Institute of Architect's awards programs, through his innovation in climatic design, through writing and publication of his work and through teaching. His early advocacy for reintroduction of vernacular elements such as verandahs, high-set houses, roof ventilation and climatic design generally was notable and influential and led to international exhibition of his work in Australian pavilions at Expositions in Montreal and Osaka.
\nDalton's success in the 1960s was a prelude for larger public and award winning commissions in the 1970s which included:
\nOf these works, the Hall of Residence, Kelvin Grove is the only extant project which has a residential component.
\nEarly in the 1980s, Dalton largely closed down his Brisbane practice and moved to Allora.
\nDalton's work has international recognition, is widely published and is included in key texts on the history of architecture, including Banister Fletcher, A History of Architecture; J.M. Freeland, 'Architecture in Australia: A History' Richard Apperly, et.al 'A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture' and many others.
\nThe project was commissioned by the Queensland Works Department on behalf of the Education Department. Within the Queensland Department of Public Works the project was overseen by the Ukrainian-born architect Peter Prystupa (1920-1989) who trained in Vienna during and after World War II. In 1949 he emigrated to Queensland where he upgraded his European training to meet local practice requirements at the University of Queensland, joining the Works Department in 1953. In the 1970s Prystupa was responsible for commissioning architects with established reputations for good design, including John Dalton, Robin Gibson, James Birrell and Darvall Miller. Prystupa is said to have countered the opposition of the conservative (Country Party) Queensland Government of that time, to the Kelvin Grove project by emphasising that the housing was primarily intended for country students.
\nIn 1987, the responsibility for Technical and Further Education was transferred from the Department of Education to the Department of Employment, Vocational Education and Training. In the 1990s, approaches were made by the Queensland University of Technology to purchase the complex. These were initially rejected but in September 1993, the complex was transferred for $4 million -considerably less than the replacement cost.
\nIn the original scheme, five clusters of residential units were constructed around the community building. Three of these clusters were demolished in 2002 as part of the redevelopment of the site for the Kelvin Grove Urban Village.
","criteria":"The former Hall of Residence at the QUT Campus at Kelvin Grove demonstrates the pattern of development of the provision of improved facilities for Technical and Further Education in Queensland. It also provides evidence of the development of a climatically responsive architecture.
|The project is an uncommon and intact example of a public commission by the architect John Dalton. It exhibits the principal characteristics of his work in the 1970s and demonstrates the successful adaptation and continuity of the themes that he had developed in his body of residential work into the public realm - the marked differentiation between the contained and more open parts of buildings achieved by changes in materials and contrasts between solid core of white painted masonry and the brown stained timbers of verandahs and pergolas, and angled white walls and pitched roof forms projected at various angles in a distinctive response to the Queensland climate.
|The former Hall of Residence at Kelvin Grove is an innovative example of student residential accommodation with a distinctive, relaxed and informal composition, and the complex is of recognised quality and interest which has won architectural awards, been widely published and exhibited internationally.
|The former Hall of Residence at Kelvin Grove is an innovative example of student residential accommodation with a distinctive, relaxed and informal composition, and the complex is of recognised quality and interest which has won architectural awards, been widely published and exhibited internationally.
|The complex is an important example of a public commission by the Queensland architect John Dalton who was a pre-eminent Australian architect of the 1960s and 1970s renowned for his residential work and innovation in climatic design.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17052,"place_ref":602246,"name":"Albion Fire Station (former)","alternate_name":"Albion Fire Station","street_address":"40-46 Bridge Street","suburb":"WOOLOOWIN","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-02-28","description":"A substantial two-storey red and orange face brick building, the former Albion Fire Station stands in a suburban garden setting south of the corner of Bridge and Merehaye Streets, Albion overlooking the Brisbane-Sandgate railway line and directly opposite the road overbridge connecting Hudson Road and Bridge Street. The ground floor and the upper floor accommodate separate commercial offices.
\nThe main elevation faces east onto Bridge Street and is symmetrical about a recessed parapeted central bay that contains two large arched entrances to the ground floor distinguished by decorative surrounds and infilled with glazing and two deep open porches to the upper level. A plain cream stepped cornice runs around the top of the east, north and south elevations. The central parapet contains the words 'ALBION FIRE STATION'. The flanking projecting bays are defined by rusticated pilasters to the corners and accommodate a bay of casement windows with fanlights to the each of the ground and upper levels. The ground floor window surrounds are distinguished by decorative brickwork matching the main entrance surrounds. The sills to the upper windows are painted cream. A low brick wall to the south accommodates an arched gated entrance to the side entrance to the south side of the upper level. The words 'Albion Lodge' are lettered above the gate. A timber fence post stands south of the brick wall. The base of a brick wall stands to the north side of the building.
\nA foundation stone recording the dedication of the building is set into the plinth of the south bay of the main elevation. Under the inscription \"READY AYE READY\" it is recorded that the stone was laid on 1 December 1925 by the Chairman of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Board and lists members of the Board.
\nThe asymmetrical south elevation contains three bays of casement windows and a loggia to the ground floor and a verandah enclosed with casement and louvre windows to the upper level. The lintels of the windows are picked out in cream. The pillared loggia is reached by a flight of wide concrete steps from the garden and forms the main entrance to the south side of the upper level. The north elevation has a plain porch entrance approximately half way along the building. The porch has been enclosed with sheeting and louvres. The bays of windows to the north and west at the northwest corner are sheltered by plain timber framed hoods. The rear elevation contains a set of central bifold doors to the ground floor and a flight of timber stairs rises to a timber landing accessing the rear of the upper level.
\nThe main entrance to the ground floor opens into a large central space which continues through a narrowed corridor to the rear timber bi-fold doors. Discrete rooms to the sides and rear open off the central space. Two large rectangular rooms occupy the northwest and southwest corners and are lit by banks of casement windows to each side of the room. The south side contains a stairwell and a large meeting room with a small store room. The north side contains a stairwell and two smaller interconnected rooms with a store room and toilet beyond. A tea room and toilet occupy the rear to the north of the narrow corridor space. The interior walls are painted and plastered masonry and the ceilings are rendered with a textured finish. The side rooms are a step above the central space. Doors to each side of the central space open to the stairwells that rise to the upper level. The rear toilet contains an intact early urinal.
\nStairwells to the north and south arrive at the upper level that is a mirror image of spaces about a central dividing wall running east-west. In each half the rooms work off a central corridor. This main dividing wall is cut through at its east and west ends to provide access between the two halves of the floor. In each half, the outer corner rooms open to the enclosed verandahs that run the length of the north and south sides; a large central room to the east opens onto the open porch and the central room to the west is partitioned into a number of small spaces and opens out to the rear landing. The deep open porches to the centre of the east side offer a prospect over the railway line to the suburb of Albion beyond. Tilting fanlights to the central north-south partition facilitate ventilation through the rooms. Throughout the walls and ceilings are painted and plastered masonry. Each stairwell is lit by a large window and contains a flight of timber stairs with a substantial timber handrail and decorative metal balustrade.
\nThe verandah roofs are clad with terracotta tiles and the main hipped roof is clad with corrugated metal sheeting.
\nThe building is set in a suburban yard with grassed and treed areas to the south and west. A timber shed with gable roof stands in the centre of the backyard to the west of the building. A freestanding brick chimney stands south of the shed. Narrow concrete paths run along the north and south sides of the building. There are flights of concrete stairs at each end of the north path. A chain wire fence runs along the south boundary and a timber fence runs along the west boundary. The north and east boundaries are not fenced. The adjacent property to the corner of Merehaye and Bridge Streets accommodates a dirt carpark used by the tenants of the building. Shaded by luxurious mature mango trees, the carpark provides a lush garden setting for the building and affords opportunities for views of the former fire station building.
","history":"A substantial two-storey red brick building standing prominently on Bridge Street, Albion, the former Albion Fire Station was opened on 17 January 1927. Designed by the Department of Public Works, the building was the major and coordinating fire station for the Brisbane northside area. Its sister station at South Brisbane (corner Main and Vulture Streets, Woolloongabba), opened in September 1927 and also designed by the Department of Public Works, was the major and coordinating fire station for Brisbane southside area. Prior to this, the only other substantial brick fire station buildings were the two buildings constructed as Brisbane Fire Brigade Headquarters - firstly to the corner Ann and Edward Streets (architect HW Atkinson, 1890) which was replaced by a new building further north in Ann Street (architect HW Atkinson and C McLay, 1908). Generally fire stations were small timber buildings, often only sheds or garages. The former Albion Fire Station is the only survivor from this group of substantial brick buildings. The first Brisbane Headquarters was demolished in 1951 and the second in the mid-1980s to make way for Cathedral Square. The South Brisbane Fire Station was decommissioned in 1971 and demolished in the mid-1980s.
\nFrom 1860 a number of attempts were made to establish a fire brigade for Brisbane but it was not until 1889 that a permanent fire brigade was established. To cope with the fire fighting needs of the expanding city, The Fire Brigades Act Amendment Act of 1902 allowed local authorities to establish independent boards and brigades. Brigades were formed in Hamilton (1917), Windsor (1917), Ithaca (1918), Toowong (1918), Taringa (1919), Wynnum (1921) and Sandgate (1923). These were voluntary bodies with only the superintendent and immediate assistants receiving a salary. The Fire Brigades Act of 1920 rationalised the network of fire brigades in Brisbane city and suburbs, centralising control under the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board in 1921.
\nThe former Albion Fire Station replaced the Windsor Fire Station which was established under The Fire Brigades Act Amendment Act of 1902 in 1917 and located on land that is now an extension of Truro Street, Windsor. Following the amalgamation of fire brigades in 1921, the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board purchased the Bridge Street site for a new Windsor Fire Station. When constructed it became known as the Albion Fire Station and remained in operation until 1961 when it was replaced by a new Windsor Fire Station to the corner of Fosbery and Truro Streets, Windsor.
\nThe costs of the construction of the fire stations at Albion and South Brisbane was unable to be funded by the State Treasury and a loan from the Commonwealth Bank was negotiated. The loan for £35,000 over 25 years was covered by debentures bearing interest at 6% government guaranteed. The Albion Fire Station was the smaller station and cost £9,978.
\nThe original drawings for the former Albion Fire Station have not been located, but the annual report for the Department of Public Works (year ended 1926) recorded that the building was to be constructed of brick and concrete and accommodate the brigade facilities on the ground floor. These facilities included garage space for two fire engines with a repair shop and pit at the rear and an access yard at the back. There was a rest room or dormitory for nine persons and a billiard room taking a full-sized table. Other rooms on the ground floor included a mess room, kitchen, pantry, locker room, watch room, battery room, equipment store and district officer's room with private bathroom and lavatory. A flat concrete roof was to cover the whole building and accommodate laundries.
\nA later drawing (1960) shows two flats (one to the north, one to the south) for brigade officers occupied the upper storey. Each flat had an entrance porch at ground level, internal access to the ground floor station and provided front and side verandahs, kitchen, pantry, bathroom, living room and bedrooms.
\nIn 2016 the ground floor accommodates the office of an architectural firm and the upper floor is also used for office purposes. The fabric of the building has been altered to accommodate these uses but the earlier arrangement of spaces as a fire station can be clearly read and appreciated.
","criteria":"The former Albion Fire Station, constructed as part of the rationalisation of the network of fire brigades in Brisbane undertaken by the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board after 1921, is important in demonstrating the development of fire fighting services in Brisbane.
|The former Albion Fire Station, a rare example of a substantial early twentieth century fire station, is important in demonstrating the architecture and planning of fire stations at that time, accommodating brigade facilities to the ground floor and residential quarters to the upper level. The former Albion Fire Station is important as the sole survivor of only four substantial brick fire stations constructed during this time.
|The former Albion Fire Station, a rare example of a substantial early twentieth century fire station, is important in demonstrating the architecture and planning of fire stations at that time, accommodating brigade facilities to the ground floor and residential quarters to the upper level. The former Albion Fire Station is important as the sole survivor of only four substantial brick fire stations constructed during this time.
|The former Albion Fire Station, with its associated grounds, has aesthetic and architectural significance as a substantial, robust civic building. A landmark building, thoughtfully designed and distinguished by finely detailed brickwork, it has a dramatic presence on Bridge Street, a busy thoroughfare through the northside of Brisbane.
|The former Albion Fire Station is important for its association with the work of the Department of Public Works and is a fine example of work produced by the Department during the early decades of the twentieth century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17053,"place_ref":602248,"name":"McWhinneys Brick Cottage","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"47-55 Birley Street","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-02-23","description":"59 Birley Street is located on the western side of Birley Street, about two-thirds of the way down toward the hollow which runs between Leichhardt Street and Wickham Terrace [Hanly's Hollow].
It contains two principal structures: a c1900 high-set timber residence at the front of the block, attached via an enclosed c1900 timber verandah to a c1860s brick cottage at the rear.
The c1860s cottage is a small, rectangular, two-roomed brick structure with gabled-roof and close eaves. It rests on stone [porphyry or Brisbane tuff] foundations, low at the back and approximately 90cms above ground at the front, where the land slopes. The stone blocks are roughly dressed and laid in courses, the more regular blocks placed along the exposed southern side. The roof is clad with corrugated iron, with the original shingle battens surviving beneath this.
The red face brick is laid in Flemish bond but brick-on-edge ['rat-trap' bond] - a faster and cheaper method of construction often used for working-class construction in Brisbane in the 1860s and 1870s. There are remnants of white tuck-pointing on the bricks closest to the eaves, but the lower sections of the western and southern external walls have been badly repaired with later cement grouting. The northern external wall has been clad with a recent 'pebble-dash' render. The front [eastern] wall was been painted and with the enclosing of the front verandah, is no longer exposed to the elements. It has two window openings symmetrically positioned either side of a central doorway. The western wall, built almost on the boundary of the allotment, has no fenestration. A chimney top, nicely detailed with decorative brickwork, rises above the roof at the southern end, but the main shaft of the chimney is internal.
The interior of the cottage comprises two small rooms. The former front entrance [the door has been removed] opens from a now enclosed timber verandah into the southern room, which is larger than the northern room and contains a fire place and chimney. It is likely this room functioned as kitchen, living room and dining room. There are two windows to this room - one opening onto the front [eastern] verandah and retaining its original double-hung sash window, and the other a later opening in the southern wall beside the fireplace. The northern room is accessed from the southern room and has no external access. It originally had two windows, one in the north wall and the other in the eastern wall opening onto the verandah. The original sash window in the north wall has been replaced with louvres, and the window in the eastern wall has been in-filled with fibrous cement sheeting.
Both rooms retain their early skirting boards and the interior of the cottage is lined with plaster - walls, ceilings, partitioning wall and chimney. Much of this is early lathe and plaster work and early cement render, but sections of the ceilings have been replaced with recent plasterboard sheeting.
The floor boards are of pine, some of this early and secured with hand made nails. The floor in the northern room has been replaced.
The front verandah was likely replaced c1900 with the construction of the attached timber house, and is now enclosed. The northern section of this verandah has been partitioned and enclosed as a bathroom. The southern section is now an internal passageway with an external door at the southern end. This verandah links the brick cottage to the timber house.
The c1900 house is a high-set, timber-framed, weatherboard clad structure with a corrugated iron hipped and gabled roof. It has a front extended gable and small front verandah which has since been enclosed.
In plan, the timber house has a central corridor opening off the enclosed front verandah. On the northern side of the corridor are three rooms. On the southern side there are two. The room at the rear on the southern side appears to have been partitioned to create a corridor through to the back door which opens onto the enclosed front verandah of the brick cottage. Floorboards throughout are the original, likely pine. Rooms throughout are lined with vertically-jointed tongue and groove boards and the ceilings are also tongue and groove. The house retains its original joinery, including doors and window frames, some of which are sash and some casements. All the internal doors have fanlights above. The place is remarkably intact considering that it has been occupied as a rental property for approximately a century.
A yard adjoining the cottage on the southern side contains a number of archaeological deposits - horse shoes, bottles, coins, broken pottery, shells and handmade nails have been found here - and there is sub-strata evidence of an early brick pathway to the cottage.
","history":"The brick cottage at 59 Birley Street, Spring Hill, was likely erected in the mid-1860s for Thomas McWhinney, plasterer.
This part of Spring Hill was surveyed officially into suburban allotments in 1856, and was soon subdivided for closer residential settlement by speculative land owners. Along with Kangaroo Point and Petrie Terrace, Spring Hill was among the earliest of Brisbane's dormitory suburbs, attracting middle class residents to the high land along the ridges, and the working class to the hollows in between: Hanly's Hollow [between Wickham Terrace and Leichhardt Street], Spring Hollow [between Leichhardt Street and Gregory Terrace], and York's Hollow [to the north of Gregory Terrace - an area occupied by a number of brick-makers in the 1850s and 1860s].
The site on which the brick cottage is located was part of a larger parcel of land [1 acre 3 roods 8 perches - suburban portion 179, parish of North Brisbane] with a frontage to Leichhardt Street, purchased from the Crown in May 1860 by Patrick Byrne of Brisbane for the sum of £216. Almost immediately Byrne subdivided this portion into 10 subdivisions around a central access road [Birley Street] off Leichhardt Street. At this period, Birley Street did not extend through to Wickham Terrace. The two subdivisions at the top of the hill, with frontages to Leichhardt Street, comprised 39 perches each, but the remainder, running down the hill each side of Birley Street into Hanly's Hollow, were each just under 20 perches. The first transfer was recorded in August 1861 and all but one of the subdivisions sold in the period 1861-65. By the census of September 1871, there were 12 houses in Birley Street, all inhabited, accommodating 58 persons. Many of these houses appear to have been rental properties, and attracted mostly working class tenants such as bootmakers, carpenters, labourers, mariners, plasterers, printers, storemen and a number of widows, who were likely existing on modest incomes.
In September 1865, Patrick Byrne sold subdivision 3 of suburban portion 179 [19.4 perches] to Thomas McWhinney [sometimes McWhinny or McWhinnie] of Brisbane, for the sum of £63. This is the site of the present brick cottage. It is not known if a house was extant on the land at the time of sale, but the price suggests not.
In April 1866 McWhinney took out a mortgage of £25 on his Birley Street property from the Queensland Building Society No.2, of which he was a member. The timing, within a year of acquiring the land, suggests that the mortgage was used to help finance construction of the brick cottage. McWhinney was occupying the land in October 1872, when he applied to bring his property under the provisions of the Real Property Act of 1861, and is listed in the 1874 Post Office Directory as resident in Birley Street.
McWhinney and his wife Isabella Todd and family had arrived in New South Wales by 1858, and moved to Brisbane in the early 1860s, where Thomas, who was a plasterer by trade, gained employment with James Campbell. He worked for Campbell for 26 years until his retirement c1888, for most of that time as a foreman, supervising the plastering and designing the mouldings for most of the principal construction work undertaken by Campbell during that period.
The cottage at 59 Birley Street is constructed in Flemish bond brick-on-edge ['rat-trap' bond], a form of construction used in other Spring Hill buildings of the 1860s and 1870s [such as Moody's Cottages in Rogers Street (600314, 601065)]. It was a faster and cheaper form of construction, usually restricted to working class homes and small workshops and stores. At 59 Birley Street the exterior brick work was finished with tuckpointing and the internal fireplace was plastered, which may be explained by the connection with McWhinney.
By 1883 the McWhinneys had left Birley Street and had moved to Arthur Street in Fortitude Valley by 1885, but McWhinney retained his Birley Street land, likely renting out the brick cottage. In 1885, McWhinney also gained title the adjacent subdivision 6 on the northern side of his Birley Street allotment. In the 1880s there were only four or five houses along this side of Birley Street [which did not extend past Lilley Street at that stage], and it is possible [but not confirmed] that in the late 1880s, 59 Birley Street was known as Jireh Cottage, occupied by compositor Thomas Wright. In May 1894, title to subdivisions 3 and 6 was transferred to Mary Ann McWhinney of Brisbane, spinster, and in August 1896 Thomas McWhinney, aged nearly 77, died.
In the mid-1890s Birley Street was extended through to Wickham Terrace and in May 1900 subdivisions 3 and 6 of suburban portion 179 were transferred from Mary Ann McWhinney to Richard Gailey, the well-known Brisbane architect, who is appears to have developed these two blocks with the construction of four timber houses for rental purposes. The existing houses on this land, one of which is now connected via an enclosed verandah to the front of the brick cottage at 59 Birley Street, appear to date from this period.
By 1913, 59 Birley Street was occupied by Mrs Jane Collins. A Brisbane City Council Water Supply and Sewerage Detail Plan dated 1914 indicates a structure at 59 Birley Street which correlates with the present c1900 timber house attached to the brick cottage at the rear.
In June 1916, title to subdivisions 3 and 6 of suburban portion 179 was transferred from Richard Gailey to his daughter, Evadne Jane Gailey of Brisbane. The houses on these blocks remained rental properties, 59 Birley Street attracting mainly widows. In 1952 both subdivisions passed to Alfred Roberts, and following his death in 1979, was sold in 1983 to the Queensland Master Builders Association (Union of Employers), who have retained them since as rental properties.
","criteria":"McWhinney's Brick Cottage at 59 Birley Street, Spring Hill, erected probably in the mid-1860s, has high historical significance and is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland's history. It is associated with the mid-19th century settlement of Spring Hill as one of Brisbane's earliest dormitory suburbs, and illustrates the nature of residential subdivisions and construction in Brisbane at this period - particularly the use of brick and stone as distinct from timber.
|The brick cottage is a rare surviving example of its type and age in Brisbane, and is particularly significant for its brick-on-edge construction, for the intactness of many of the finishes, and for what it reveals of mid-19th century working-class living conditions.
|Archaeological deposits in the grounds have the potential to reveal information since its non-indigenous occupation in the 1860s.
|The brick cottage is a rare surviving example of its type and age in Brisbane, and is particularly significant for its brick-on-edge construction, for the intactness of many of the finishes, and for what it reveals of mid-19th century working-class living conditions.
|The place has aesthetic value engendered by the materials, form, scale and setting of the brick cottage.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17059,"place_ref":601709,"name":"Brisbane Exhibition Grounds","alternate_name":"RNA Showgrounds | Royal Queensland Showgrounds | Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland Exhibition Grounds/Show Grounds | National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland Exhibition Grounds","street_address":"574 Gregory Terrace","suburb":"BOWEN HILLS","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-07-25","description":"The Brisbane Exhibition Grounds are in the inner-city suburb of Bowen Hills, about 2km from Brisbane’s central business district. The place consists of a large complex of buildings and open spaces set on a sloping site, generally bounded by Bowen Bridge Road to the west, Brookes Street to the east, and O’Connell Terrace to the north.
\nThe North Coast Railway Line and Gregory Terrace cross the showgrounds approximately east-west, splitting the place into three areas: the Main Showgrounds Area, between the railway and Gregory Terrace, with the show ring at its centre; the Sideshow Alley Area, northwest of the rail line; and the Petty’s Paddock Area, southeast of Gregory Terrace.
\nFeatures of the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds of State-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nMain Showgrounds Area
\nThe Main Showgrounds Area is the central portion of the Brisbane showgrounds with the No. 1 Show Ring at its centre. The area is bounded to the north by the railway line, to the south by Gregory Terrace, the Old Museum Building (original 1890s Exhibition Building) [QHR600209] to the west, and O’Connell Terrace and Brookes Street to the east. The No.1 Show Ring and its encircling stands and buildings are the central feature of the area, splitting the remainder into western and eastern halves. The western part of the Main Showgrounds Area contains the former Industrial Pavilion Façade, and the Gregory Terrace Entry Building. The eastern portion of the Main Showgrounds Area provides facilities primarily for exhibitors and animals including animal stabling, sleeping quarters, a bar and restaurant, and outdoor spaces.
\nFeatures of the Main Showgrounds Area also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nNo. 1 Show Ring
\nThe No.1 Show Ring consists of an expanse of flat lawn with a gravel track circling its perimeter. It is oval in plan, narrower at its southwestern end. Located at the centre of the showgrounds, it is surrounded by open air seating and lawns, with buildings arranged in an arc from its southwestern to eastern ends including stand buildings, Ring Control and Broadcast Buildings, and the former Commonwealth Bank Building (now Governor’s Pavilion).
\nFeatures of the No.1 Show Ring also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nJohn MacDonald Stand
\nLocated on the northwest side of No.1 Show Ring, the John Macdonald Stand is a substantial brick grandstand structure with a Dutch gable roof. At the centre of the roof is a large ridge turret with four-faced clock which can be seen throughout the showground. Three sets of stairs provide access to the terraced timber seating. Below the stand is an arcaded walkway and a series of rooms.
\nFeatures of the John McDonald Stand of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nMember’s Stand
\nThe Member’s Stand is located on the western side of No.1 Show Ring, between the John MacDonald Stand and the Ernest Baynes Stand. The stand is a concrete stand structure with brick walls and a skillion roof. The terraced seating of the stand is accessed internally from a member’s bar located below the stand.
\nFeatures of the Member’s Stand of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nErnest Baynes Stand
\nThe Ernest Baynes Stand is a brick stand between the RNA Council stand and the John Macdonald Stand. It has tiered timber seating arranged in four sections overlooking No.1 Show Ring, with a skillion roof (once part of an earlier upper seating tier).
\nThe seating area is accessed from ringside via three sets of brick and concrete stairs with two sets of non-original stairs providing access to the upper levels of the stand from the rear. The sub-floor houses a dining room, commercial kitchen, offices, toilets, and other service areas. Access is via two sets of concrete stairs and a sunken walkway, which separates the main stairs to the seating area and the brick pilastered wall of the stand.
\nFeatures of the Ernest Baynes Stand of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nRNA Council Stand
\nThe RNA Council Stand is located at the southwest side of No.1 Show Ring, between the Ernest Baynes Stand and the former Commonwealth Bank Building, overlooking the show ring. It is a three-storeyed brick building with a hip roof and a small tower at the southeast corner of the building.
\nThe building accommodates offices, meeting rooms, and Councillors' seating stand which is accessed through the building. The RNA Council Stand features high quality materials and fittings throughout. The building has been extended at several stages since construction to include an internal staircase at the northwest side, a new entrance and offices at the southwest side, and additional seating and office space on the northeast.
\nFeatures of the RNA Council Stand of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nThe Former Commonwealth Bank Building (now Governor’s Pavilion)
\nThe Governor’s Pavilion is located to the south of No.1 Show Ring, adjacent to the RNA Council Stand. It is a single-storeyed rendered brick building with a hipped, terracotta-tiled roof. An arched entry door is located on the eastern side, and tall, arched windows with decorative keystones and false balustrades line the other walls.
\nFeatures of the Governor’s Pavilion (Former Commonwealth Bank) of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nMachinery Hill Stands
\nMachinery Hill Stands are a series of uncovered stands, curved around the north-northeastern perimeter of No.1 Show Ring, between the northeast end of the John MacDonald Stand and the Marshalling Yard Stand. They are of concrete construction with brick and concrete walls. Simple seating is provided on either bare concrete terraces or slatted timber benches and is accessed from the rear via vomitorium and stairs. Below the stands are kiosks and a bar facing the arrivals railway station and plaza. There is a large sign at the back of the northern stand, with the lettering: MACHINERY HILL.
\nFeatures of Machinery Hill Stands of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFormer Industrial Pavilion Façade
\nThe façade of the former Industrial Pavilion is a decorative face-brick wall facing Gregory Terrace and ‘The Plaza’. The wall steps down in sections along the slope of Gregory terrace, transitioning from single to double-storey in height. Arched windows and large doorways are regularly spaced along the façade. The Royal International Convention Centre has been built behind the façade and is not of State-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of Former Industrial Pavilion Façade of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nGregory Terrace Entry Building
\nThe entry building is a raised timber building fronting Gregory Terrace, with a verandah fronting No.1 Show Ring and an under-croft at ground level. The building has been relocated.
\nFeatures of the Entrance building of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nStockman’s Rest
\nStockman’s Rest is a grassed open space area, formed as a level terrace on a gentle slope in the grounds. Positioned between the Stockman’s Bar and the Stock Pavilion, it is lined by mature fig tree planting and contains a small pavilion and a mature fig with an early stone garden wall towards the middle of the park.
\nFeatures of Stockman’s Rest of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nStock Agent’s Offices
\nThe Stock Agents' Office is located centrally to the animal enclosure buildings, immediately southeast of Stockman’s Rest. The structure is a single-storeyed masonry building, with basement. Rectangular in plan, it is constructed in dark face-brick with decorative details such as soldier courses. Its stepped parapets conceal a hip roof clad in corrugated metal sheets. The interior has a timber floor with rooms arranged either side of a central hall. The basement’s interior has toilets and a storeroom with brick walls, a concrete floor and some early timber columns.
\nFeatures of the Stock Agent’s Offices of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nStockman’s Bar and Grill
\nThe Stockman's Bar and Grill abuts the Stock Agents' Offices to its northeast side. It is a timber framed building, rectangular in plan, with saw-tooth roof in three bays. Its northwest elevation is brick with a stepped parapet. Internally the building consists of a large hall with concrete floors, a modern bar and kitchen is located at the northeast side and the southwest side opens to a large outdoor terrace and garden with large weeping fig trees. There is a timber verandah to the southeast side, and a large concrete and metal framed roof over the terrace.
\nFeatures of the Stockman’s Bar and Grill of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nHorse Stalls & Sale Ring
\nLocated at the southeastern corner of the main showgrounds, the Horse Stalls are a group of stable buildings and a sale ring building arranged either side of a laneway. The stalls and sale ring are of timber-frame construction with weatherboard, flat sheet, or corrugated metal sheet cladding and saw-tooth roofs.
\nThe stable buildings along the Gregory Terrace side of the laneway stalls are built to the boundary, forming a wall, stepping down the slope of the street, each stable painted with a different mural. The stable buildings north of the laneway are arranged in an L-shape plan around the sale ring building. The stable buildings contain stalls with sleeping quarters above.
\nThe Sale Ring building is single storey with stalls in a subfloor area at the southern corner. The sale ring consists of covered stands arranged in a U-shape plan around a dirt-floor sale ring at the centre.
\nFeatures of the Horse Stalls & Sale Ring of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nStock Pavilion (former Pig Pavilion)
\nThe Stock Pavilion is located north of Stockman’s Rest and abuts the eastern side of the Beef Cattle Pavilion. It is a timber framed and clad building with a saw-tooth roof clad in corrugated metal sheets. The upper sections of most walls are open or enclosed with timber lattice or metal wire mesh. The concrete boundary wall to O’Connell Terrace forms the northern wall of the building. Internally, the floors are concrete, and many walls are unlined. Animal stalls occupy most of the building, comprising low walls with steel rings for tethering animals and hay racks above. Along the northern perimeter of the building are sleeping quarters, with hatches to more accommodation above, of timber framed and board lined partitions, with lockers on the opposite wall of a narrow corridor. These walls feature graffiti made by the occupants of the sleeping quarters over many decades. A dining hall, storage room, and cattle wash area occupy the three extensions to the southern side of the building.
\nFeatures of the Stock Pavilion of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nBeef Cattle Pavilion
\nThe Beef Cattle Pavilion is located at the northern corner of the main showgrounds area, north of the Machinery Hill Stands. The building is a large, rectangular, double-storeyed concrete structure with face-brick wall and a saw-tooth roof. Its northern wall is built to the O’Connell Terrace boundary. The main entrances are located on the southern side, a large door at ground level is located below a double staircase providing access to the first-floor entrance. Large, sliding timber doors at ground level and a ramp to the first floor on the western side as well as roller doors on the northern side provide access for cattle and vehicles to both levels of the building. Internally, both levels are large, open spaces with exposed concrete columns and beams, and accommodation for cattle and their owners.
\nFeatures of the Beef Cattle Pavilion of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nO’Connell Terrace Gate Buildings
\nAt the eastern end of O'Connell Terrace is a large vehicle gate. To the western side of the gate is a toilet block constructed of masonry with roughcast render finish and a gable roof clad in corrugated metal sheets. To the eastern side is a timber framed and clad pedestrian gate.
\nFeatures of the Toilet Block of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nSideshow Alley Area
\nThe Sideshow Alley Area of the Brisbane Showgrounds is located on the northwestern side of the railway line, bounded on its other sides by Bowen Bridge Road, Bowen Park, and ’The Pavilion’ building at its northeast. The Sideshow Alley Area contains mostly open spaces used for various activities and temporary attractions during the Royal Queensland Show and other events.
\nNo.2 Show Ring
\nNo.2 Show Ring is located at the northeastern end of the area, between both passageways under the railway. It is an open, grassed area. Three large weeping fig trees line the southwest boundary of the show ring.
\nFeatures of No 2 Show Ring of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nSideshow Alley
\nSideshow Alley is located in the northwest end of the exhibition grounds and is bounded by Bowen Bridge Road on the west, Bowen Park on the northwest, No.2 Show Ring to the northeast, and the railway line to the southeast. Entry to Sideshow Alley is via the 1930s gates from Bowen Bridge Road or through the two passageways below the railway line. Sideshow Alley is a large expanse of open, level bitumen pavement, accommodating temporary attractions and events during the Royal Queensland Show and other events.
\nFeatures of Sideshow Alley of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nSideshow Alley Gates on Bowen Bridge Road
\nLocated in the western corner of Sideshow Alley, adjacent to Bowen Park, the Sideshow Alley gates are a pair of single-storeyed brick structures either side of a large vehicle gate. Each building has a decorative façade facing Bowen Bridge Road, with prominent stepped parapet, pilasters, and face-brick diamonds. Each building has ticket windows and a pedestrian gate under a small, cantilevered awning. A large metal gate closes the driveway located between both buildings.
\nFeatures of the Sideshow Alley Gates of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nPetty’s Paddock Area
\nThe Petty’s Paddock area consists of buildings, open spaces, and plantings south of Gregory Terrace. These include Dairy Industry Hall, Sugar Hall, John Reid Pavilion, Former Wool Hall (Building 8) fronting Gregory Terrace and open spaces and plantings such as Gregory Rest at the corner of King Street and Gregory terrace, and large weeping fig trees.
\nFeatures of Petty’s Paddock Area also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nJohn Reid Pavilion
\nThe John Reid Pavilion is located at the corner of Gregory Terrace and Alexandria Terrace, abutting the Dairy Industry Hall and Sugar Hall on its southwestern side. The pavilion is a large hall structure with a gable roof and lower skillion roofs around three sides. The exterior walls are clad in timber weatherboard. The interior consists of a single large hall with exposed metal frame structure. The front wall to Gregory Terrace has been replaced in concrete.
\nFeatures of John Reid Pavilion of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFormer Wool Hall (Building 8)
\nThe Former Wool Hall is located at the corner of Alexandria Street and Gregory Terrace, occupying the northern end of Alexandria Park. The building is a large pavilion with a central gable roof and skillion roofs either side. The structure’s metal columns and timber roof framing are exposed to the interior and clad on the exterior with corrugated metal sheets. One face-brick wall remains at the Alexandria Street side of the pavilion. It has large window openings and doorway, and fixed louvre vents are located at each end of the wall.
\nFeatures of Former Wool Hall (Building 8) of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nDairy Industry Hall
\nThe Dairy Industry Hall is a long, narrow, two-storey building abutting the southwest side of the John Reid Pavilion. The building is of concrete and metal frame construction with face-brick walls, a sign on the Gregory Terrace side spells the words \"Dairy Industry Hall\" in steel lettering. The building has a saw-tooth roof. The building’s western wall is glazed, open to Gregory Rest and ‘Primary Street’ laneway.
\nFeatures of the Dairy Industry Hall of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nSugar Hall
\nThe Sugar Hall abuts the southern end of the Dairy Industry Hall, facing on to ‘Primary Street’ laneway. The hall is a small brick structure, its rendered front elevation has a pediment concealing a gable roof clad in corrugated metal sheets. An awning on the front elevation shelters two large doorways either side of a central servery. Internally, the hall is one space with concrete floors and timber roof trusses exposed to the interior.
\nFeatures of the Sugar Hall of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nGregory Rest
\nGergory Rest is an area of open space along the southern side of Gregory terrace, across from the showgrounds main entrance. The area is bounded on its southeast by the Kings Co-op buildings, and the to the southwest by the Rydges Hotel. The open space is shaded by two large weeping fig trees and contains recent plantings, retaining walls, seating and decks.
\nFeatures of Gergory’s Rest of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\n","history":"
The history of the annual Brisbane Exhibition (the ‘Ekka’, also known as the Royal Queensland Show), held at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds (Royal National Association (RNA) Showgrounds), starts with the staging of the first Queensland Intercolonial Exhibition in August 1876. The site has been the venue for Queensland's principal agricultural, pastoral and industrial exhibitions since that time, with new buildings and facilities added and old ones replaced as circumstances required. Attendees have formed fond memories of various aspects of the Ekka, from Sideshow Alley to the exhibits, baby animals to showbags, competing at the show, and events such as the Grand Parade and fireworks displays in the main show ring. The Exhibition Grounds remain Queensland's premier showgrounds and retain a variety of structures and facilities dating from 1887 (No.1 Show Ring) onwards.
\nOrigins of the Brisbane Exhibition
\nThe site of the Exhibition Grounds is part of the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Jagera peoples and their York’s Hollow (Barrambin) campground,[1] and includes most of the land originally granted by the Queensland Government to the Queensland Acclimatisation Society (the Acclimatisation Society). This organisation was established in 1862 to promote the introduction, acclimatization, propagation and distribution in Queensland of economically useful plants and animals. In 1863 and 1866 it was given a total of 44.5 acres (18ha) of land, through which ran a creek, east of Bowen Bridge Road. The Acclimatisation Society established a public exhibition garden [Bowen Park, QHR 601523] at the northwest corner of the site, fronting Bowen Bridge Road and O'Connell Terrace, while the rest of the site was used for experimentation purposes.[2]
\nThe southwest corner of the Acclimatisation Society’s grounds, within the bend of the creek and fronting Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace, later became the site of Queensland's 1876 Intercolonial Exhibition.[3] Such events, like the ‘Great Exhibition’ in London in 1851, were designed to display the products of the industrial age. Similar exhibitions occurred throughout Australia, to promote trade between the colonies and attract international investment, but these were ‘one off’ events. The concept of holding annual exhibitions to demonstrate the products of the colonies was promoted by agricultural societies.[4]
\nThe 1876 exhibition in Brisbane was not the first competitive demonstration of agricultural and industrial progress in Queensland. In 1854, prior to Separation, squatters from the Darling Downs and Moreton Bay districts of New South Wales established an agricultural and pastoral association to hold exhibitions of produce. In the 1860s and 1870s other regional agricultural and pastoral associations were formed, among the earliest being the Darling Downs Agricultural Society (based at Toowoomba) in 1860.[5] These Associations conducted annual exhibitions of agricultural, horticultural, and pastoral produce and farm machinery. Prizes were awarded for best exhibits. The object was to encourage the exchange of knowledge and to foster better farm practices. Associations such as these proliferated in Queensland during the second half of the 19th century, and each held an annual 'show'.
\nIn 1874, Queensland's Chief Inspector of Stock, Patrick Robertson Gordon, initiated the establishment of a national agricultural society, to plan Brisbane's first Intercolonial Exhibition. In May 1875 an inaugural meeting was held to form the National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland (the Association). The first meeting of the Association was held on 13 August 1875. At this meeting, use of part of the Acclimatisation Society's grounds was discussed, and subsequently a lease of about 12 acres (4.9ha) was arranged.[6]
\nThe Intercolonial Exhibition was intended to promote and showcase the agricultural, pastoral and industrial resources of the whole of Queensland. The Association sought to encourage regional agricultural societies and associations by holding a grand central exhibition for competitions between winners from the regional shows. To avoid clashing with the latter, and in order to hold the Exhibition during fine weather, before the shearing season, and when good feed would be found along the roads, it was decided to stage the Exhibition in August 1876.[7]
\nThe 1876 Exhibition
\nThe first Exhibition Building, a large timber hall with side aisles, a central clerestory and two annexes, was erected in 1876 on Gregory Terrace near the corner of Bowen Bridge Road. The first Queensland Intercolonial Exhibition was opened by the Governor, Sir William Wellington Cairns, on Tuesday 22 August 1876, a day which was declared a public holiday, with the Exhibition running until 28 August. Exhibits in the Exhibition Building included plants, furniture, wines, jewellery, minerals, embroidery, fine arts and clothes, fruit, and other produce and technology. Two show rings were located north of the Exhibition Building, along with cattle, sheep and horse stalls. Dogs and poultry were on display, as well as farm machinery, a windmill, steam engines, a stamper battery, and a timber cottage erected by sawmiller William Pettigrew. Judging of exhibits and displays took place, along with sales of livestock and machinery. Beginning a long tradition, there was also a bar at the first exhibition – although aerated waters and fruit were offered at the Temperance booth. [8]
\nThe Exhibition proved immensely popular, with 15,000 people attending on the opening day (Brisbane’s population then being 22,000). On the start of the first day, the crush of the crowd overwhelmed the inadequate turnstiles, and mounted troopers had to drive back people pressing from the outside. Due to the successful turnout, the Exhibition became an annual event, including a public holiday in Brisbane and other areas – the holiday in Brisbane now being known as ‘People’s Day’ and usually occurring on the sixth day of the show. [9]
\nThe show continues, 1870s-1890s
\nDisplays and competitions related to animals, horticulture, rural produce, products and technology continued to be important aspects of the show experience, as did competitions demonstrating rural skills, handicrafts, fine arts, cooking, and fashion.[10] As time passed, pavilions were constructed for specific animals, produce, technologies and industries.
\nThe area taken up by the Exhibition also changed over the years. In 1879, the Association was awarded a lease of around 18.5 acres (7.5ha) of the Acclimatisation Society’s grounds for a period of 50 years.[11] In 1881 the railway to Sandgate was constructed through Acclimatisation Society’s grounds, including the area leased by the Association, and in compensation the Association was given more of the Acclimatisation Society’s land ‘across the creek’ (to the northeast).[12] After this the Exhibition Grounds comprised all the land southeast of the railway line, bounded by Bowen Bridge Road, Gregory Terrace, Brookes Street and O'Connell Terrace; while the Acclimatisation Society retained the land (Bowen Park) northwest of the railway.[13]
\nThe Association continued to improve its facilities during the 1880s, erecting a grandstand in 1885.[14] As the show ring was inadequate, in 1886 the Association decided to form a new cricket ground and cycling track, in the hope that sporting events could bring in a permanent income.[15] This new show ring (the current No.1 Show Ring), formed by reclaiming a section of the creek north of Gregory Terrace, was ready for the 1887 show. The 1885 grandstand was relocated to the west side of the new show ring.[16]
\nIn June 1888 the original Exhibition Building was destroyed by fire.[17] in July 1888 the Association called for competitive designs for a permanent Exhibition Building, while a temporary Exhibition Building – a galvanised iron shed erected at the back of the grandstand – was used for that year’s show.[18]
\nBefore committing to a new Exhibition Building, the Association needed security of land tenure. Under the provisions of the National Association and Acclimatisation Society Act 1890, 23 acres, 1 rood and 32.5 perches (9.5ha) of land leased from the Acclimatisation Society for an exhibition ground was resumed and granted to the Association as Trustees, who were also empowered under this act to borrow money from the Queensland Government for construction.[19]
\nThe design competition was won by the accomplished Brisbane architect George Henry Male Addison. The foundation stone was laid on 25 April 1891 and the builder, John Quinn, was required to have a section of the building completed for the August 1891 exhibition, and the whole of the building completed within 12 months.[20] The Exhibition Building [QHR 600209] was completed for the 1892 Exhibition, which 45,000 people attended despite the economic depression occurring at that time. [21]
\nHowever, the Association could not escape the effects of the 1890s depression and struggled to repay the government loan on the Exhibition Building. As a result, the colonial government resumed the building and liquidated the Association's debts in December 1897. Prior to this, from May to August 1897 an International Exhibition was held. As well as using the Exhibition Building, a large, covered annexe was constructed just to the rear/northeast. Due to the Government’s resumption of the Exhibition Building, the covered annexe housed the 1898 exhibition.[22]
\nImprovements, 1900-1914
\nThe Association struggled to maintain the viability of the remaining Exhibition Grounds until 1902-03, when the Queensland government took control of the Association's assets, leasing the Exhibition Annexe back to the Association during the annual exhibition, and charging an annual rental for the grounds and other buildings.[23]
\nIn the early 1900s the Queensland economy revived, and the Association's financial position improved, allowing substantial improvements of the Exhibition Grounds. A two-storey building for the Secretary’s office, council room and a post office, located next to the Exhibition Annexe, was constructed in 1905.[24] Next, a new grandstand, designed by Brisbane architect Claude William Chambers to seat 2500 people, was erected for the 1906 Exhibition at a cost of £6248, with its easternmost bay completed in 1909. In 1923, this stand was re-named the John MacDonald Stand (extant 2023) in honour of a long-serving Association councillor.[25]
\nOther improvements and changes occurred in time for the 1906 exhibition. The side show booths, which had been located on the hill to the northeast of the ring, were moved onto the Acclimatisation Society’s grounds on the northwest side of the railway, their place being taken by machinery exhibits. The hill has since become known as Machinery Hill, and the valley northwest of the railway as Sideshow Alley. [26]
\nAnother extension to the Exhibition Grounds occurred in 1909, when an adjacent 6 acres (2.4ha) of land called ‘Petty’s Paddock’, south of Gregory Terrace and southwest of Alexandria Street, was acquired.[27] Also in 1909, a council room (later known as the Gregory Terrace Entry Building, extant in 2023), with a prominent roof fleche (since removed) and a verandah on the inner side, was erected over the turnstiles from Gregory Terrace, near the 1905 office building.[28]
\nIn the 1910s the Association established a relationship with Brisbane architects Richard Gailey Snr and Richard Gailey Jnr. In early 1914, Richard Gailey Architects called for tenders for a Sheep, Pig and Poultry Pavilion, and this long open shed, (progressively demolished from the 1960s), was constructed along the southwest side of Petty’s Paddock in time for the 1914 show – the first year that land south of Gregory Terrace was used for the Exhibition. Other improvements for the 1914 show included: the conversion of sheep sheds east of the No.1 Show Ring into a dining hall; six grassed terraces on the Machinery Hill side of the ring; and a small show ring (not the later No.2 Show Ring) for dairy cattle, located northwest of the railway, with dairy cattle stalls nearby.[29] By the 1910s a tram loop also existed from Bowen Bridge Road, along Gregory Terrace, and back to St Pauls Terrace via Alexandria Street/Sutton Street.[30]
\nWorld War I and the 1919 influenza pandemic
\nAlthough a military enlistment depot was established at the Exhibition Grounds during World War I (WWI, 1914-18), this did not prevent the annual Exhibition from proceeding or inhibit the expansion of the Exhibition’s facilities.[31] Affleck House, on the southeast side of the railway line, was completed by August 1918 for the use of Stock Breeders' Association delegates during the show. This timber building burnt down in 1969 and was rebuilt in masonry (extant in 2023).[32]
\nAn important wartime addition to the grounds was Austral Hall, designed by architect William Hodgen and erected in 1904 as a Boer War memorial concert hall in Toowoomba. This was purchased by the Association for £1500 in 1917 and re-erected in the northeast corner of Petty’s Paddock for the 1918 show.[33] Reflecting the growing popularity of the motor car, the building became the first Brisbane Exhibition pavilion to be dedicated solely to motor vehicle displays (previously located on Machinery Hill). In 1919 Austral Hall was renamed the John Reid Pavilion (extant in 2023) following the death that year of Brisbane merchant John Reid, a long-time supporter of the Association.[34]
\nFrom May 1919 the showgrounds were used as an isolation hospital during the influenza pandemic which swept Australia following the return of service personnel from overseas at the end of WWI. Huts were erected as isolation wards for the nearby Brisbane General Hospital, and dining rooms were set up for the expected influx of seriously ill patients. The Exhibition Annexe, previously in use as a wool store, was also utilised as a hospital. Due to the threat of contagion, and to save disturbing patients in the isolation wards, the Exhibition was cancelled that year.[35]
\nInterwar growth, 1920s
\nFollowing the visit of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) to the Exhibition in 1920, the Association moved to incorporate the word 'Royal' into its name as the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland, which over the years has been reduced, unofficially, to the Royal National Association (RNA). The RNA also registered as its trademark the word 'Ekka' (a colloquial shortening of the word 'Exhibition').[36]
\nA number of improvements were made to the Exhibition Grounds in the early 1920s.[37] By 1923 the 1885 grandstand had been moved from the main show ring to overlook a new dairy show ring (No.2 Show Ring, part extant in 2023), formed on a reclaimed section of creek northwest of the railway line. This new ring was also used for wood chopping competitions. The 1885 grandstand was replaced at the No.1 Show Ring by the Ernest Baynes Stand (extant 2023). Designed by architect Richard Gailey Jnr and constructed by John Hutchinson, it had two tiers of seating, with a seating capacity of 5000 and a total capacity of 7000. It was constructed with a steel frame faced with brick, the larger steel sections being imported from Britain and the smaller sections made in Australia. The foundation stone of the new grandstand was laid by the Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan, in November 1922, and the stand was completed in time for the August 1923 Exhibition, at a cost of £26,884. The sub-floor contained a dining room that accommodated 600 people, and a row of shops facing the lane at the rear (southwest side) of the structure.[38]
\nAnother early 1920s addition was the RNA Council Stand (extant in 2023), located adjacent to the south end of the Ernest Baynes Stand, which was also constructed in time for the 1923 show. Originally two storeys, it included a council room, the Secretary’s office and a press room. At some early period, the northern end of the building was extended to incorporate an entrance to the seating in front of the stand. In 1930 a third storey was added to the building, and in 1958 a two-storeyed extension was constructed at the rear (southwest), with a new roof constructed over the seating in 1959.[39]
\nAdditional buildings were constructed on the Exhibition Grounds during the late 1920s. In 1928 new Horse Stalls (extant 2023) were built along Gregory Terrace, as well as a series of new dairy cattle pavilions along O’Connell Terrace northwest of the railway line.[40] A Sheep and Wool Pavilion was also built on O’Connell Terrace southeast of the railway line in 1928. A toilet block was added behind this pavilion (next to Gate 4 on O’Connell Terrace) by 1933 and was extended to the east c1946-51 (extant 2023).[41]
\nOther improvements in the late 1920s included the Lady Forster Creche, which was opened in Costin Street near the main entrance to the Exhibition Grounds in time for the 1928 show and later moved to northeast of No.1 Show Ring in 1939.[42] In 1929 the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which since 1923 had conducted a bank at the Exhibition Grounds during the annual show, constructed a purpose-designed bank building (extant 2023 as the Governor’s Pavilion), just to the south of the Council Stand. The northeast end of the building was extended in 1947.[43]
\nDuring the 1920s, the RNA also sought to make the Exhibition Grounds a first-class venue for cricket, football and other sports, although it had limited success. The year 1928 was a high point for the Association's sporting ambitions, with the showground hosting the first England versus Australia cricket test of the 1928-29 series. Legendary Australian cricketer Donald Bradman made his Test debut at this event. More successful than cricket or football was Exhibition Speedway, on the dirt track around No.1 Show Ring, established in 1926.[44]
\nInterwar growth, 1930s
\nDespite severe economic depression in the early 1930s, the Exhibition continued to attract its strong annual attendance during the 1930s, with total show attendance rising from 263,702 in 1932, to 361,677 in 1938.[45] In 1932, more land was acquired from Bowen Park, bringing the total area of the Exhibition Grounds to about 40 acres (16ha).[46] In the same year, a Beef Cattle Pavilion was constructed on O'Connell Terrace just southeast of the railway line, while a Pig Pavilion was added between the Beef Cattle Pavilion and Sheep and Wool Pavilion by 1933. At this time, machinery was on display northwest of the railway line, south of the dairy cattle pavilions. Also in 1933, a dairy produce hall was built alongside the southwest side of the John Reid Pavilion.[47]
\nBy 1933, the RNA was using part of Alexandria Park as a car park. Located south of Gregory Terrace between Exhibition Street and Alexandria Street/Sutton Street (latter no longer extant), this park was gazetted in 1888 and had been the site of a quarry. The northern two thirds of Alexandria Park was leased from the Brisbane City Council (BCC) by the RNA c1929-30; and the southern third of the park was leased from January 1937.The whole park was still leased by the RNA in 1954.[48]
\nAs the economy recovered during the second half of the 1930s, a number of substantial improvements were made, with £17,000 spent between 1935 and 1936 alone.[49] A show camp building, to accommodate visiting ‘farm boys’, was built in 1935 on the western side of Alexandria Street, but this was relocated to the southeast side of Alexandria Park in 1948.[50] In 1936, Richard Gailey Jnr called tenders for: a Wool Hall (extant as ‘Building 8’ 2023), which was built in the northwest corner of Alexandria Park; a new Pig Pavilion (later called the Stock Pavilion, extant 2023), which was built on the site of the earlier pig and sheep pavilions on O’Connell Terrace; and additional horse stalls (extant 2023), located adjacent to Brooke Street north of the 1928 Horse Stalls. Gailey also designed a new brick and concrete Stock & Station Agents' offices (extant 2023); and an adjacent Anglican Church Mission dining hall (later the Stockman’s Bar and Grill and the Bushman’s Trading Post, extant 2023), located just northeast of the site of the previous dining hall. Both buildings were ready for the 1936 show. Also completed in 1936 were new concrete roads in Sideshow Alley; two masonry turnstile entrance buildings (extant 2023) on Bowen Bridge Road; and fat cattle pens in the northeast corner of Alexandria Park.[51]
\nOther improvements in the late 1930s included the Sugar Hall, a small masonry building next to the Diary Hall, opened in 1937 (extant 2023).[52] A new Industrial Pavilion (two facades extant 2023), designed by Richard Gailey Jnr, was also constructed on Gregory Terrace, and covered 3.5 acres (1.4ha). The two-storey brick entrance building on the east side of this pavilion opened in 1937, and the rest was completed in June 1939 at a total cost of £52,558. The earlier Exhibition Annexe (called the Industrial Pavilion by 1933) was demolished during 1938. A new Electricity Hall (later called the Hall of Science, demolished 1986), located at the corner of Gregory Terrace and Costin Street, was completed for the 1939 show – reputedly the first show pavilion in Australia dedicated entirely to electricity exhibits.[53]
\nWorld War II and the immediate post-war period
\nDuring World War II (WWII, 1939-45), the Exhibition Grounds were occupied by military authorities as a venue for training, accommodation and embarkation of troops, which interrupted some shows. In 1940 and again in 1941, the military vacated the grounds temporarily for the August Exhibition. Following the entry of Japan and the United States of America into the war in December 1941, American troops were stationed at the showgrounds. The Exhibition of 1942 was cancelled but was renewed in a limited fashion in 1943 and 1944. A large rodeo was also held at the Exhibition Grounds in late 1943, involving American and Australian troops.[54]
\nIn the immediate post-war period, further expansion of the Exhibition Grounds’ facilities occurred, and the show’s popularity continued. Attendance at the Brisbane Exhibition rose from 509,131 in 1946, to 655,948 in 1949.[55] The RNA redeveloped Alexandria Park in 1948, after acquiring the two wartime buildings erected on the park to the south of the 1936 Wool Hall – a food store and a canteen services store (later the Horticulture Pavilion and the Poultry Pavilion respectively). A Caged Birds Pavilion was added between the horticulture and poultry pavilions in 1949, and a Fruit Pavilion was added between the horticulture and wool pavilions in 1951. A concrete viaduct (Marshalling Yard Stand, extant 2023), on the east side of the No.1 Show Ring, was constructed c1948, to allow animals to pass underneath into the ring and for the public to access Machinery Hill from Gregory Terrace. Around this time, a single-storey hipped-roof building was constructed at the south end of the Marshalling Yard Stand, and two-storey brick Lady Competitor’s Box (extant 2023) was built immediately behind the same stand.[56]
\nBy 1946, mature shade trees, mostly weeping figs (Ficus benjamina), were growing throughout the Exhibition Grounds. These were a result of pre-WWII planting efforts, with trees sometimes relocated within the grounds as new facilities were created.[57] The weeping figs at Gregory Rest, on the south side of Gregory Terrace, existed by at least 1923.[58] Most of the other surviving fig trees on the Exhibition Grounds, and around the former perimeter of Alexandria Park, appear to have been planted during the burst of improvements during the 1930s. By 1936, plantings of weeping figs included those: around the No.2 Show Ring; south of the beef and pig pavilions on O’Connell Terrace (including those in what is now Stockman’s Rest); a newly formed picnic area on the old dining hall site between No.1 Show Ring and the 1936 dining hall (trees were transferred to this site); and along Alexandria Street in the northern part of Alexandria Park by then leased by the RNA.[59] Plantings of weeping figs also occurred around the southern section of Alexandria Park, including on St Pauls Terrace, between 1936 and 1946 (most likely soon after the 1937 RNA lease of this end of the park). More weeping figs were planted along the eastern half of the Gregory Terrace frontage of Alexandria Park between 1951 and 1960.[60]
\n1950s-1970s
\nThe 1950s saw further improvements and works to the grounds, with the addition of concrete open seating for No.1 Show Ring near Machinery Hill in 1950 (extant 2023), and construction of a new Beef Cattle Pavilion on the site of the old one on O’Connell Terrace in 1950-1 (extant 2023). By 1951 another stable was added adjacent to the new horse exercise yard in the northeast corner of the showgrounds. Additional land, between Water Street and St Paul’s Terrace, was also acquired in the 1950s, followed by the removal of the existing houses. Improvements in 1958 included more seating on the northeast side of No.1 Show Ring (extant 2023), along with a concrete wood chopping arena on the west side of No.2 Show Ring. The demolition of 1885 grandstand occurred around this time. [61]
\nThe popularity of the Exhibition continued to rise. A major event in the 1950s was the visit of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, during the 1954 Exhibition. In 1958, 733,000 people attended the show.[62]
\nIn the following decade, improvements continued within the Exhibition Grounds. By 1965, all of Alexandria Park was officially owned by the RNA, and the Exhibition Grounds now covered 49 acres, 3 roods and 1.1 perches (20.1ha).[63] In 1962 the RNA moved its offices from the Queensland Primary Producers Association building in Adelaide Street to the Exhibition Grounds, and in 1964 a double pavilion, known as the Agricultural Hall and Douglas Wadley Pavilion, opened on land acquired along Constance Street. The Agricultural Hall housed district and junior farmer exhibits, while the Douglas Wadley Pavilion, housed dogs. A new Dairy Industry Hall (extant 2023) was erected in 1964, on the site of the 1933 Dairy Hall adjacent to the John Reid Pavilion, to coincide with a 1964 dairy industry symposium. By 1969 the building at the south end of the Marshalling Yard Stand had been replaced with a two-storey brick Ring Control and Broadcast Building (extant 2023). Money was borrowed to build the two-storey Frank Nicklin Pavilion, northwest of the Agricultural Hall, to accommodate government departments, which had long been involved with displays at the show.[64]
\nA popular and enduring aspect of the Exhibition – the animal nursery – was established in 1964 by RNA councillor Frank Robertson. At the 1972 Exhibition a purpose-built facility for the animal nursery was opened, in the easternmost of the dairy cattle pavilions, and named in honour of Robertson.[65]
\nAnother perennial favourite has been Sideshow Alley. In the post-WWII period, the face of Sideshow Alley, traditionally home to the weird and wonderful, began to change. The tents and booths that promised bizarre wonders and exotica, ‘freak’ and peep shows, largely disappeared due to the age of television, to be replaced with high technology rides, tests of skill, and popular music entertainment.[66]
\nMore facilities were added during the 1970s, including a chairlift between St Pauls Terrace and the wood chopping arena in 1970. A new Members Stand was constructed in 1972 (extant 2023), between the Ernest Baynes Stand and the John Macdonald Stand.[67]
\nSome controversy came to the Exhibition Grounds in 1971, during the South African Springbok Rugby team tour, as demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa were held in Brisbane and throughout Australia. No.1 Show Ring at the Exhibition Ground was commandeered to host test matches, as a safe distance could be maintained between spectators and would-be protesters. A two-metre-high chain wire fence was erected to separate spectators from players, and the Queensland Government declared a state of emergency from 13 July to 2 August.[68]
\n1980s-2000s
\nThe Exhibition continued its popularity during the 1980s and 1990s, with further investment in infrastructure, and a record attendance of 891,232 in 1981.[69] Improvements and new buildings included the refurbishment of the John MacDonald Stand in 1985; the construction of a new Exhibition Building (extant 2023) on the site of the Hall of Science building in 1986; and the opening on 28 November 1988 of the Walter Burnett Building, adjacent to the Frank Nicklin Pavilion. Structures from the World Expo (1988) Fun Park were relocated to the fat cattle yards site in Alexandria Park (‘Expo Place’, extant in 2023) in 1991; and a new Dairy Goat Pavilion was built south of the easternmost dairy cattle pavilion in 1992.[70] The top seating tier of the Ernest Baynes Stand was removed in the early 1990s, while the wood chopping arena and the westernmost 1920s dairy cattle pavilion was demolished in the early 2000s, during construction of the Inner City Bypass.[71]
\nSince 2008
\nIn 2008, Bowen Hills – including the area of the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds – was declared an Urban Development Area (later a Priority Development Area). In 2010 the RNA and the property and infrastructure company Lend Lease unveiled plans for the ‘Brisbane Showgrounds Regeneration Project’, a redevelopment of around one quarter of the site, comprising an upgrade to the showgrounds’ facilities and the inclusion of new office, retail and residential spaces. This involved the demolition and clearing of various buildings and areas – mostly concentrated south of Gregory Terrace.[72]
\nRedevelopment work began in April 2011. As a result, the 1937-9 Industrial Pavilion was extensively rebuilt as the Royal International Convention Centre, retaining only its northeast and southeast facades, while the 1909 Gregory Terrace Entry Building was moved further northeast along Gregory Terrace. A new dual-use multi-level carpark/animal pavilion (The Pavilion) was constructed northwest of the railway line, and the railway station was upgraded for regular use as part of the Cross River Rail project.
\nThe site continues to host an annual Exhibition with a rural emphasis, and in 2016 the 1892 Exhibition Building was once more used for Exhibition displays – for the first time in 119 years.[73] Outside the Ekka period, the No.1 Show Ring, Royal International Convention Centre, 1986 Exhibition Building and John Reid Pavilion, and other RNA facilities, are used for a wide variety of events.
\nThe continued popularity of the Royal Queensland Show is evidenced by: its ongoing operation since 1876 (only four annual exhibitions on this site have been cancelled: the 1919 Exhibition due to the influenza pandemic; in 1942, when the grounds were occupied by military personnel; and in 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic); its recognition as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland (under the ‘event and festival’ category) as part of the state’s Q150 celebrations in 2009; and its sustained high attendance figures (400,000 people in 2023).[74]
\nIn 2023, the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds retain a variety of show facilities from different periods, open spaces, and mature weeping fig shade trees. The site is a living legacy to decades of showcasing the best of Queensland’s primary and secondary industries, and entertaining Queenslanders. Over the years, generations of attendees and competitors have formed fond memories of various aspects of the event.[75]
","criteria":"The Brisbane Exhibition Grounds is important in demonstrating the development of Queensland’s primary and secondary industries through an annual Exhibition, or ‘Ekka’, organised by the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland (RNA). Held in August since 1876, the Ekka, also known as the Royal Queensland Show, brings rural activities to an urban setting and has become a major event in the lives of Queenslanders.
\nThrough its provision of facilities such as a primary show ring; public stands; exhibition pavilions; buildings for animal and exhibitor accommodation; offices for organisations; and open and green spaces with trees for events, side shows and crowd movement, the Ekka has encouraged excellence in Queensland's agricultural, horticultural, pastoral and industrial sectors through competitions and the display of animals, produce, products and technology.
|The Brisbane Exhibition Grounds are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a show ground in a capital city. Exceptional as Queensland's premier show ground, the place retains purpose-built buildings and open spaces from a range of eras that reflect the place's evolution over time. Principal characteristics of the place include its central, accessible location, adjacent to a railway; generous grounds; primary show ring with public stands; exhibition pavilions; buildings for animal and exhibitor accommodation; open and green spaces with trees for Sideshow Alley, movement of crowds, and events; and offices for the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland.
|The Brisbane Exhibition Grounds is important for its aesthetic significance brought about by its individually prominent, intact buildings, and collectively as an expansive show ground with beautiful and evocative attributes, and landmark qualities.
\nThe No.1 Show Ring and its stand buildings evoke a strong sense of the excitement and spectacle of the show through their grand scale, and the form of a show ring partially encircled by large stand buildings. The John Macdonald stand is particularly important as a landmark, with its prominent clock tower visible from within the showgrounds and the surrounding area.
\nThe eastern part of the Main Showground Area, including the Horse Stalls, Stock Pavilion, and Stockman’s Rest, through their utilitarian forms, simple materials, and large trees are highly evocative of the rural nature of the Royal Queensland Show.
\nThe former Industrial Pavilion Façade, John MacDonald Stand, and Stock Agent's Offices are intact and are important for their individual beautiful attributes brought about by their: prominent siting in their areas, cohesive architectural designs, high quality construction, robust materials, and well-composed facades.
|The place has a strong association with generations of Queenslanders who have attended and participated in the annual exhibition, known as the 'Ekka', since its inaugural event in 1876, and the many other events that have taken place at the Exhibition Grounds. The Ekka brings together Queenslanders from throughout the state and from various groups, year after year, to participate in various ways in the show, with a public holiday show day occurring in Brisbane and many other Queensland regions, towns and local government areas during the event.
\nEkka experiences—that include co-ordinating, competing in, or watching events in the show ring, participating in or judging competitions, staying with or visiting animals in their stalls, organising or viewing exhibits, running or visiting Sideshow Alley attractions, buying showbags and eating Ekka-related foods—have become embedded in the memory of many Queenslanders.
|The Brisbane Exhibition Grounds is significant for its long and close association with the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland (RNA), an organisation of importance in Queensland’s history. Through its creation and ongoing organisation of an annual event for State-level competitions between winners of local Queensland shows, and its provision and maintenance of suitable facilities, the RNA has been important in promoting excellence in Queensland’s primary and secondary industries. The Brisbane Exhibition Grounds have been the home of the RNA’s annual show since the first exhibition in 1876; the site of the Association Secretary’s office and Council room since 1905; and the location of the RNA’s offices since 1962.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17124,"place_ref":602317,"name":"Mountview House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"37 Leichhardt Street","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-05-13","description":"Located on a prominent ridge in Spring Hill, one of Brisbane's oldest residential suburbs, Mountview house is a two-storeyed stone and brick building with two-storeyed verandahs on three sides. Situated on a corner, facing Leichhardt Street to the north with Downing Street to the west, it is built up to the Leichhardt Street alignment. Side gardens separate the house from Downing Street and the eastern neighbour.
The house is raised half a level above Leichhardt Street on a masonry base. It consists of two major parts, the original rectangular planned stone core on the east, abutting a brick extension on the west. A smaller brick wing and other more recent extensions are located on the south side of the building. Due to the angle at which the building faces the Leichardt Street alignment, the front façade steps back at the junction between the stone and brick sections. The stone used appears to be local porphyry, squared and laid in rough courses. The brickwork has been painted.
The stone core and western brick extension have separately framed hip roofs clad in painted corrugated iron. A box gutter runs between the two main roofs. A rendered masonry chimney emerges from both roofs. The chimney on the stone core is larger, having multiple flues.
The verandahs on the front façade are not continuous due to the stepping back of the western brick wing. The verandah, which wraps around the northern, eastern and southern sides of the stone core, is enclosed with cement sheeting and louvres. An open verandah on the front of the western brick wing is set back from the enclosed verandah, running into the sidewall of the stone core. It has cast iron balustrades, timber posts and a shingle valence between the upper and lower levels. The shingle valence can also be seen built into the enclosed verandah. The verandahs have skill ion roofs that are hipped at the corners and ends. The overhangs on the verandah roofs are wider than those on the main part of the house.
Located in the space created by the setback of the brick wing, the front entry stairs are built into the masonry base. The stairs terminate in a small entry porch, a timber framed, flat roofed structure with a timber-battened valence that is attached to the western end of the enclosed verandah. A door opens off the entry porch directly into the stone core of the building. A steel framed stair links the lower level of the open front verandah with the side garden.
The brick wall on the western side of the building, the only side without a verandah, has five double hung timber framed windows with six paned sashes. A single storey extension with a brick parapet wall and shallow pitched roof has been built on the southwestern corner of the building. This relatively recent extension abuts an older southern brick wing with a low-pitched hipped roof and projecting corbelled brick bay. An open timber staircase connects the eastern garden with the upper level of the southern verandah.
From the entry porch, the front door opens into a wide hallway. The hallway, located in the stone section of the building, contains a staircase that leads to the upper level. In addition to the hallway space, the stone core has two rooms on each level, all containing fireplaces with timber mantelpieces and opening onto the enclosed verandahs. Openings in the thick masonry walls have deep timber reveals and timber architraves. Some timber paneled doors remain but French doors from the openings onto the enclosed verandahs have been removed. The enclosed verandahs have been partly lined with cement sheeting and the stonework walls facing onto the enclosed verandahs have been painted.
Access to the western brick extension is directly from the entrance hall. This section of the house consists of a single large room on each level. A fireplace, flanked by double hung windows, is positioned in the centre of the western wall on the lower level. On both levels, a door in the north wall leads to the open north verandahs. Bathroom and laundry facilities have been built into the upper level of the southern verandah.
Windows throughout the older part of the building are generally timber framed double hung sashes. Internal walls and ceilings are plastered and painted and floors are generally timber.
The brick wing at the rear of Mountview house is accessed from the lower level of the southern verandah. It consists of a single room and contains remnants of a former fireplace. The other additions to the rear of Mountview House include a large kitchen area and storeroom and are of relatively recent construction.
","history":"The earliest section of Mountview House, a two-storeyed stone residence, is believed to have been erected in the 1860s for Brisbane foreman carpenter Daniel McNaught. A two-storeyed brick wing designed by architect Andrea Stombucco was added in 1882, when the house was converted into a preparatory school for boys.
This part of Spring Hill was surveyed officially into suburban allotments in 1856, but was soon subdivided for closer residential settlement by speculative landowners. Along with Kangaroo Point and Petrie Terrace, Spring Hill was among the earliest of Brisbane's dormitory suburbs, attracting wealthier residents to the high land along the ridges, and the less affluent to the hollows in between: Hanly's Hollow [between Wickham Terrace and Leichhardt Street], Spring Hollow [between Leichhardt Street and Gregory Terrace], and York's Hollow [to the north of Gregory Terrace - an area occupied by a number of brick-makers in the 1850s and 1860s].
The site on which Mountview House is located was part of a larger parcel of land [suburban portions 177 and 178, parish of North Brisbane - totalling just over 2 acres] with a frontage to Leichhardt Street, purchased from the Crown by Brisbane draper RA Kingsford in November 1856 at a sale of Villa Allotments at Hanley's Valley, Brisbane. In the early 1860s this property was surveyed into 18 residential allotments and a 40 feet wide road, later known as Downing Street.
In January 1863, Daniel McNaught of Brisbane purchased from Kingsford subdivisions 1 & 2 of suburban portion 178 [37.3 perches], at the corner of Leichhardt and Downing streets, located on the highest ground in Spring Hill. By September that year, McNaught had taken out a £450 mortgage on this property, from fellow Spring Hill resident, Robert Bourne. It is possible this helped finance the construction of Mountview House.
Daniel McNaught, a Dumbarton and Glasgow trained carpenter, and his wife Barbara Ure, were amongst the first wave of Scottish immigrants to Queensland, arriving at Moreton Bay via the immigrant ship Artemisia in late 1848. For three years in the early 1850s Daniel prospected on the New South Wales goldfields, but in 1855 returned to Brisbane where he worked for his brother-in-law, businessman and contractor John Petrie [his sister, Jane Keith McNaught, had married John Petrie in Queensland in 1850]. From the early 1860s McNaught was manager of Petrie's joinery works, and as foreman carpenter supervised the finishing of many of Petrie's most significant construction projects, including Parliament House, the Supreme Court, the Brisbane Hospital and the Brisbane Gaol on Petrie Terrace. Like many of the early Scottish immigrants, Daniel McNaught was active in local politics in the 1850s, opposing the re-introduction of convict labour and working for the separation of Queensland from New South Wales. He was a prominent and long-term member of the Wharf Street Congregational Church, a director of the City and Suburban Building Society from its inception, and a Magistrate of the colony.
It is thought that John Petrie constructed and/or designed Mountview House for the McNaughts in the 1860s, possibly initially as an investment rather than as their home, as Daniel McNaught, carpenter, is recorded as resident in Creek Street in the 1868 and 1874 Post Office Directories. However, the McNaugths were resident at their Leichhardt Street property in 1876, the year in which Mrs McNaught died. By this year also a small timber cottage had been erected at the rear of Mountview House, fronting Downing Street [No.8], which was occupied by their son John Ure McNaught, a Queen Street bookseller and stationer. By 1878 Daniel McNaught had moved into the cottage, and Mountview House was occupied by Presbyterian minister Rev. JF McSwaine.
In 1880 Daniel McNaught took out two mortgages on his Spring Hill property, totalling £1850, and from 1 August 1881 Sarah Cargill held a five-year lease on Mountview House, which she ran as a boys' preparatory school. In January 1882, title to the property [which included both Mountview House and 8 Downing Street] was transferred from McNaught to Mrs Rebecca Thorn, who honoured the lease with Sarah Cargill. It is likely Mrs Thorn commissioned the 1882 additions to Mountview House, designed by Brisbane architect Andrea Stombucco, for Sarah Cargill's Boys' Preparatory School.
By 1883, Daniel McNaught had left Downing Street, and at his death in 1891, aged 67 years, was resident at Edgar Cottage in Amelia Street, Fortitude Valley.
In 1890 Rebecca Thorn sold off 16 perches at the rear of Mountview House, containing No.8 Downing Street, retaining Mountview House on 20.7 perches. By this year, Mrs Mary Glandford was utilising Mountview House as a boarding-house, and the building continued in this function for several decades.
Following Rebecca Thorn's death in 1916, Mountview House was transferred by her devisees to Joseph O'Donnell of Brisbane, who established a motor garage at the corner of Leichhardt and Downing streets [33 Leichhardt Street], and occupied Mountview House as his private residence. He may also have continued to operate the place as a boarding house.
In 1937 O'Donnell sold the property to James Walter Cloughley and Miss Annie Ellen Cloughley, both of whom in 1938 also acquired title to 8 Downing Street - the 16 perch subdivision from the Mountview House grounds sold by Mrs Thorn in 1890. Under the Cloughleys, Mountview House functioned as a tenement building. In 1954 they sold 8 Downing Street and in late 1955 transferred Mountview House to the principal partners in the Brisbane architectural firm of Ford Hutton and Newell - Peter Edward Newell, Theodore Bernhard Hutton, Neville Henry Lund and Bruce Donald Paulsen - who refurbished the building as offices. Since the 1970s the building has served as both residence and professional offices.
","criteria":"Mountview House, a c1860s two-storeyed stone residence with 1882 additions, is important in illustrating the evolution of Queensland's history, in particular the pattern of residential settlement in the capital city, Brisbane, in the mid-19th century. It is also important historically for its association with the first wave of Scottish immigrants to Queensland, including the McNaught and Petrie families, and their contribution to the expansion of the colony.
|The place has rarity value as one of comparatively few c1860s stone buildings to survive in Queensland and is important in illustrating features of an 1860s residence, including two-storeyed construction in stone, verandahs, fireplaces, a chimney and a hipped roof.
|The place has rarity value as one of comparatively few c1860s stone buildings to survive in Queensland and is important in illustrating features of an 1860s residence, including two-storeyed construction in stone, verandahs, fireplaces, a chimney and a hipped roof.
|Located high on one of the principal ridges through Spring Hill, the place has landmark value and maintains an important contribution to the streetscape of Leichhardt Street. Additions to the original 1860s core, including the brick wing added by Andrea Stombucco and the entry porch, have been well designed and enhance the aesthetic appeal of Mountview house.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17144,"place_ref":602329,"name":"Allison Testing Stands (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"116 Lamington Avenue","suburb":"EAGLE FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-08-05","description":"The site comprises four sections, six open engine testing stands constructed in 1942, two enclosed testing stands constructed in 1943, two open stands constructed in 1943 and the concrete flooring and footings of a hut and warehouse. The chief characteristic of the site is the functional nature of the design of each section.
\nThe most prominent features of the six open engine testing stands constructed in 1942 are the six reinforced concrete walls which separated the testing stands and provided a degree of protection against excessive noise or a propeller malfunction. Stands 1 to 4, numbered from the north, have been constructed on a raised concrete platform 40 cms above ground level. Parts of its flooring have been raised higher above the general level of the platform. They indicate the positions where each engine stand and its respective control cabin would have stood.
\nMost of the remaining evidence of the purpose and working life of the site is on the platform. Of the monorail above each engine, only the vertical I-beams, cut off at their base, indicate where they were situated. Engines and propellers were manoeuvred into position using a block and tackle which ran along this monorail. Four steel circles set in the concrete, the legs of the barrel-type engine stands cut off at their base, show the engine stand position. What remains of the timber sleeper and bitumen floor along the frontal width of stands 1 to 4 delineates the position of the propeller arc. Drum caps, steel plates and pieces of cloth are embedded in the bitumen.
\nThe two enclosed stands from 1943 have been constructed using brick walls set on a concrete foundation. The pattern of the 35 centimetre thick walls is a variation of English bond. The roof of each is reinforced concrete and features eight vertical fins. The southern enclosed stand is open at both its eastern and western ends and has a concrete floor. Two doors and two windows open towards the central area in which a brick control cabin with a reinforced concrete roof is located.
\nThe design and construction of the northern enclosed stand mirrors that of the southern one. The horizontal I-beam section of a monorail, rated for a maximum loading of 2 tons, is positioned close to the ceiling at the eastern end of this stand.
\nOf the two walls built to protect workers in the two open testing stands constructed in 1943, only one remains standing. The control cabin that served both stands is built of concrete, while two distinct, raised platforms on each side of the control cabin, both with the circular footprints of the barrel-type stands, attest to the position of the test engines. Oil residue indicates the position of the propeller arc.
\nTo the north-west of the enclosed test stands are the concrete footings of a hut constructed in 1942. Immediately north of this are the footings and concrete floor of a warehouse constructed in 1943. Both are surrounded by concrete pavement.
\nMost sections of the stands site have altered little since the fixtures used for engine testing were removed, however modern concrete block walls constructed to ceiling height in the northern enclosed testing stand have created a secure room occupying approximately one third of the structure.
","history":"The Allison Testing Stands (former) was an aero engine testing facility constructed in three stages during 1942-43 for the purpose of static testing of engines from the General Motors-Holden's Ltd overhaul plant at Breakfast Creek, Brisbane. Simple and functional in design, the site encompasses six open stands constructed by servicemen of the 81st Air Defence Group of the 44th Depot Repair Squadron; two enclosed engine stands constructed by the Allied Works Council; two open stands of unknown construction; and a concrete pavement area which is the site of former associated buildings.
The first Allison Testing Stands were constructed on the eastern side Schneider Road and the Eagle Farm Aerodrome in November-December 1942 as a consequence of arrangements made for Australia to serve as a stronghold for United States (US) operations in the Pacific during World War II (WWII). The area, however, had previous links with aviation.
The original Eagle Farm Aerodrome, west of Schneider Road, was established by the Civil Aviation Branch of the Department of Defence in 1922 as the civilian landing ground for the city of Brisbane. Prior to this the 34 hectare site had been used for dairying by previous owners, David Wilson and William Lynn. Other dairy farms continued to operate nearby, most significantly that on the eastern side of Schneider Road on sub A allotment 4 portion 3, Parish of Toombul, County of Stanley which from 1922 was owned by George Franklin.
To foster the development of civil aviation at Eagle Farm the Civil Aviation Branch constructed a government hangar (1924) and a caretaker's cottage (1925). In 1927, in its first expansive step away from Longreach, Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited or QANTAS, erected a hangar and commenced operations there of the Brisbane Flying School. By late 1930 Queensland Air Navigation Ltd operated scheduled services north to Townsville from Eagle Farm Aerodrome, while Australian National Airways Ltd flew passengers south to Sydney.
The effects of years of above-average rainfall on the low-lying estuarine land forced the Civil Aviation Branch in 1928 to establish an alternate site where future expansion would not be restricted. In 1931 Archerfield Aerodrome, to the south of the city, was designated Brisbane's aerodrome. Both the government and QANTAS hangars were reconstructed there that year. The Eagle Farm site reverted to grazing land leased by Margaret Wilson and David Campbell. By arrangement, on weekends members of the Brisbane Gliding Club conducted flights using a winch launch.
Not until the first half of 1940 was the Eagle Farm site reconsidered as a landing ground for powered aircraft. It served as a relief landing ground for pilots from the Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF) No. 2 Empire Flying Training School based at Archerfield Aerodrome until late 1941.
The attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 hastened the strategic role Australia played in providing the bases and armaments needed to fight the war in the Pacific. Well placed to the south of battle lines and with resources of labour that could be allocated to the purpose, Brisbane played a primary role. At Archerfield companies such as Aircraft Pty Ltd, Australian National Airways Pty Ltd, and QANTAS commenced the repair and maintenance of aircraft, including engine overhaul, for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF).
From mid-January 1942 an Aircraft Erection Depot was established for the USAAF on the Eagle Farm aerodrome site. Constructed at an eventual cost of over £250,000, it served initially as an aerodrome where aircraft shipped to Australia could be reassembled. Later, captured enemy aircraft were test-flown and assessed by the Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit based in Hangar No. 7 (Second World War Hangar No. 7, QHR 601007).
The Queensland Main Roads Commission and its contractors extended the original Eagle Farm aerodrome to accommodate three runways and eight hangars. Such was the pressing need for these facilities that, where necessary, American service personnel participated in the construction.
The repair and maintenance of aircraft was another matter. From 1939, companies in other Australian states had been involved in manufacturing aircraft engines for the RAAF, notably the Gipsy Major engines for DH82 Tiger Moths and single-row Wasp radial engines for the Wirraway fighter. From the beginning of 1942, as part of the general gearing up of industry in Queensland, aviation companies commenced the overhaul of aircraft engine for the USAAF. Australian National Airways Pty Ltd at Archerfield Aerodrome produced its first two reconditioned radial engines in May 1942. Initially their mobile engine testing facility, consisting of an engine mount framework and control cabin on the chassis of a truck, was sufficient.
The Allison engine was, however, an in-line, liquid-cooled, V12 engine. The Allison company operated in the United States from the 1920s. In 1935 it was taken over by General Motors. To overhaul the numbers of Allison in-line engines needed for aircraft such as the Kittyhawk fighter, the Australian subsidiary of this company, General Motors-Holden's Ltd, was contracted in the latter half of 1942 to establish an overhaul and assembly plant in an igloo warehouse at Breakfast Creek. At its peak, this dedicated facility was capable of overhauling ten engines per day. Initially 180 men and women were employed. The site later doubled in size and approximately 530 workers were employed there. As in the other aircraft repair workshop, many were women who had had no previous experience with aircraft components.
From a monthly output of three engines in December 1942, the Breakfast Creek plant increased to a peak of 116 engines per month in April 1943. Subsidiary contractors such as the Toowoomba Foundry Pty Ltd were involved in the re-boring of engine block components.
All reconditioned engines had to be tested. Supplied by the USAAF for this purpose were field units believed to be of the 'Jacobsen' brand. Each comprised one fully equipped control cabin and two barrel type engine stands on four circular legs. Above the control cabin were the reservoirs of fuel and oil needed to 'run-in' and test the new engines. Inside the control cabin an operative monitored a series of instruments, keeping a log of temperatures and pressures as each unit was brought gradually up to maximum rpm and run at this 'red-line' speed for five minutes. The test schedule for each engine involved up to an hour to set up, then several hours to test-run and de-rig.
From June 1942 Commonwealth representatives processed the compulsory acquisition of land encompassed by the first extension to Eagle Farm Aerodrome. Included was the dairy on sub A allotment 4 portion 3 on the eastern side of Schneider Road operated in 1942 by Clara M. Franklin and her son. Here the fixed testing stands for the planned output of Allison engines were constructed. All buildings, other than the original farmhouse, were demolished.
Members of the USAAF 81st Air Depot Group, a unit formed in May 1942 and based at Eagle Farm, erected the first six stands in October-November 1942. Around this time a system of connecting roadways were constructed around the stands and adjacent to the north, a hut. Only men were employed here in the round-the-clock shifts of Australian civilians and American servicemen. On 13 August 1943 a reporter for the Courier-Mail described the work as the 'noisiest war job' (p4).
Complaints about the noise by Brisbane residents possibly influenced the design of the next two enclosed testing stands, plans for which were drawn up in March 1943. Including contingencies, their estimated cost was £12,254. As these two brick sound-proofed stands, a slab for a warehouse to the immediate north of the earlier hut, and the additional two open stands also erected in 1943 were to the north of the original row of six, more land was required.
For the purpose of this 1943 extension to the testing stands, resubdivisions 1-30 of sub C of allotment 4 of portion 3 of Parish of Toombul County of Stanley initially were hired through the RAAF. Not all the land was needed though. Resubdivisions 1-6, upon which most of the extension's buildings were constructed, belonged to Christopher Gills.
Also influencing the construction of this extension was a May 1943 request by General Douglas MacArthur for an engine overhaul capacity within Australia of 1,950 engines per month, 600 per month of which would be Allison engines. To cope with these projected numbers, several buildings within the former Rocklea Munitions Works were converted for aircraft engine overhaul.
Such a large output required a new testing facility, planned for construction in a Rocklea quarry. Originally 42 test cells with 21 control cabins were envisaged. It was hoped these especially designed brick structures would reduce the noise level of continuous testing to the point where it did not affect the health of operators, or be a nuisance to nearby residents. Following progressive downgrading of overhaul operations in Brisbane from July 1944, only eight of the Rocklea engine test cells were completed.
Priorities changed as the Pacific war moved further away from Australia. Fewer aircraft engines were overhauled in Brisbane. The departure for New Guinea in April 1944 of the 81st Air Depot Group added imeptus to the discontinuation of operations. The field units of control cabins and engines stands were removed. The permanent testing stands at Eagle Farm were described as not having been in use for some months by late December 1944.
When the Eagle Farm airfield was returned to civilian use after the war, the Allison Testing Stands were simply left standing. Aerials and historic photos indicate that sometime between 1944 and 1946 the hut to the north of the stands was removed. Part of the northernmost enclosed testing stands was converted for storage with the installation of two concrete block walls. Aerial photographs from the period indicate that between 1974 and 1978 the warehouse was removed or demolished.
Eagle Farm airport was closed in 1988 when a new airport was constructed to the north. In 2002 the Brisbane City Council acquired the airport site from the Commonwealth. The land was transferred to TradeCoast Land Pty Ltd in 2005 and a master plan was prepared to guide its development as an office park and for warehousing. The testing stands along with Hangar No. 7 (QHR 601700) are now the only structures remaining from the use of the site as a major airfield during WWII.
","criteria":"The Allison Testing Stands site is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the period of rapid mobilization of available resources in Queensland in 1942-43 for the Pacific theatre of war during World War II.
|The site demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's history. Until the mass overhaul of engines during World War II necessitated fixed testing sites, the task of engine testing was a mobile activity. Of the two fixed testing facilities constructed in Brisbane during the war, only this site, which incorporates three different designs of testing stand, has survived.
|Because of its position in the aero engine overhaul process, the Allison Testing Stands site has a special association with the group of Queensland civilians whose labour for the Aircraft Production Commission contributed to the war effort. Most had no previous experience with the engineering aspects of aircraft engine overhaul.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17156,"place_ref":602340,"name":"Chelmer Police College (former)","alternate_name":"Waterton | The Lady Wilson Red Cross Convalescent Home | 10 WRAAC Barracks","street_address":"17 Laurel Avenue","suburb":"CHELMER","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-10-01","description":"This place is a memorable element of the Laurel Avenue streetscape, presenting as a large, Federation era house with prominent gable and sweeping verandahs, a big pitched metal roof and chimney, set well back behind an established garden and enhanced with mature fig trees in the street, flanking the entrance path.
The entrance path divides around a large circular garden bed before leading to the front stairs beside the prominent verandah gable. The front section of the house consists of formal rooms, along the lines of former drawing and dining rooms, a sitting room and lounge. A bay-fronted room is positioned behind the front gable and is of the same width, projecting a metre or so across the front verandah. The front verandah turns around this room forming the southern edge of the house. Immediately to the northern side of this front formal room is the entrance hall, and to the north of this again are two rooms back to back around a double-sided fireplace. The position of this fireplace is conveyed by the chimney in the views of the building from the front. The verandah turns around this pair of rooms, forming what was the northern side of the original house. The verandah edge details are still intact along this northern side verandah, indicating that c1941 northern addition to the original house was built immediately adjacent to the original house rather than cut into it.
The entrance hall leads to a north-south connecting hall with a formal room at its southern end. This formal room is identified by its own gable on the southern side of the house and a projecting bay window. The connecting hall runs past what is now a Bar and leads to the stairs connecting the lower and upper floors of the c1941 northern addition to the original house.
The next layer of rooms consists of an institutional dining room and kitchen connected via an original rear verandah to a toilet and shower room wing. Three storerooms/offices in an enclosed verandah exist opposite the toilets/shower rooms. These rooms appear original. As this amenities wing has an external chimney on its rear wall it is likely that this was the original kitchen/servants' wing. The main building is connected via an elevated covered walkway to the dormitory building running along what is now the rear boundary of the property.
The dormitory building consists of front and rear verandahs, in various degrees of enclosure, and internally is planned around a central corridor accessing small, simple bedrooms and shared amenities rooms. It is highset with a largely open undercroft, and some simply enclosed rooms which could serve as store rooms or workshops etc.
The c1941 addition to the north of the old house is of two storeys. The upper floor consists of a lecture room to the front, a covered verandah space in the middle and two office rooms to the rear. The lower floor has two rooms to either side of the central covered space. A staircase connects both central verandahs and another stair connects the addition to the original building.
Internally, the joinery and fittings in the c1900 house are of good quality, consistent with the Federation-era styling of the exterior, without being excessively lavish. Skirtings and architraves in particular are simple but generously proportioned. It is possible that some of the joinery and mouldings currently painted were originally clear finished red cedar, or similar, which if re-instated would increase the visual richness of the interiors considerably. The walls and ceilings generally are lined with painted, tongue-and-groove, vertically-jointed timber, with either elaborate ceiling roses or coffers, bay windows, or decorative fireplaces used to elevate the character of the formal rooms. More simply treated rooms such as bedrooms and service rooms have been largely removed or remodelled. The later additions are altogether more pragmatic and possibly more altered to suit changing needs than the original sections of the building. The internal linings in the two storeyed c1941 addition and the c1941 dormitory building are generally a combination of tongue-and-groove walling and battened, smooth sheeted ceilings with simple, largely traditional joinery and detailing.
The lowest, former house with its generous, pitched roof relates well to its front yard and the Laurel Avenue street trees. It is set well back behind an established garden and enhanced by mature fig trees [Ficus benjamina] in the street, flanking the entrance path. The entrance path divides around a circular garden bed which may be an original garden design feature. Mature trees such as a jacaranda [Jacaranda mimosaefolia], palms and mango [Mangifera indica] in the front yard, and the Camphor Laurel [Cinnamomum camphora] in the street to the south of the figs, contribute significantly to the aesthetics of the setting. The Federation-era detailing and decoration of the old house, as seen from the front yard, is strong, well balanced and effective. The battened front gable and heavily shaped verandah posts with decorative sweeps and frieze in particular provide a strong visual appeal. The c1941 addition to the north of the original building is discernably different from the earlier building but arguably sympathetic in roof line and joinery. The c1941 dormitory building to the rear of the property and the other substantial changes to the house are contained at the rear of the original building, without detracting from the presentation to the street.
Despite many years of pragmatic institutional maintenance and incremental change to suit changing functions, each historical layer of building work is clearly articulated, with limited impact on earlier fabric. The buildings in their front garden setting present a cohesive, substantially intact group demonstrating the principal characteristics of both a substantial, c1900 middle-class residence and a c1941 convalescent home.
","history":"The place which functioned as the Queensland Police College until 2012 at Chelmer, was established c1900 as a private residence, with additions in the form of staff quarters and a ward block constructed in 1941-42 when the house was converted into a convalescent hospital for the Australian Red Cross Society.
The substantial, middle-class residence is thought to have been erected c1900 for Thomas Beevor Steele, a Brisbane insurance agent. Steele acquired title to the Laurel Avenue site in March 1900. At this time the property comprised two blocks totalling nearly one and a half acres, stretching from what is now Laurel Avenue to the Brisbane River. A £950 mortgage on the property taken out in September 1900 may have helped finance construction of the house, which was named Waterton. Steele, who previously resided at Indooroopilly, is first listed as resident at Chelmer in the 1901 Queensland Post Office Directory, suggesting that the house was constructed by this date. In February 1901 a Brisbane Courier article identified the Steele family as residing at 'Waterton', Chelmer, a name that remained in use during its earliest years. In design and decorative elements, the house also suggests an early 20th century date of construction.
Title to the property passed in September 1913 to Alison Eavis Harding Frew (1883-1952), a prominent Queensland civil engineer, who resided there until c1940. AE Harding Frew specialized in bridge design, his work including approximately 80 bridges throughout Queensland during his career. He was a consulting engineer in Melbourne during the 1920s and on the Pyrmont Power House at Sydney in the early 1940s. He was a consultant on the 1926 Brisbane Cross River Commission and was the designing engineer for the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane, from 12 November 1926 to 1932. From 1932-1935 he was the Engineer for Bridge Construction on the Hornibrook Highway project, the bridge linking Sandgate and Redcliffe. Much of this work was carried out during the period in which he and his family were based at 17 Laurel Avenue, Chelmer.
In 1938 Harding Frew acquired two blocks of land adjacent to the southern border of his Laurel Avenue property, creating an estate of approximately 3.75 acres with a long river frontage. However, he appears to have encountered financial difficulties about this time, taking out a number of mortgages on the property, and reputedly was bankrupted. In January 1939 Queensland Trustees Limited, as mortgagees in possession, offered 17 Laurel Avenue for sale at auction. At this time the dwelling comprised 4 bedrooms, large dressing room, drawing and dining rooms, sitting rooms, lounge, spacious front and side verandahs and sleep-out, and well-appointed kitchen and bathroom. There is a suggestion that Frew had made extensions to the c1900 house, but this has not been confirmed.
The property did not sell in January 1939. In July 1940 title to just over 1 rood near the southeast corner of the site was transferred as a residential subdivision block, and in December 1940, the house and the remaining land, nearly 3.5 acres, was transferred to the Australian Red Cross Society for use as a convalescent home for Australian servicemen returning from the battlefields of the Second World War. The purchase price was £2,000, which scarcely reflected the value of one of the oldest and largest family homes in the Chelmer district. Title was transferred to Red Cross trustees Edith Wassell and George Rees in 1941, and to the Australian Red Cross Society in 1947. The Society converted the house into the Lady Wilson Red Cross Convalescent Home, providing for the rehabilitation of convalescent Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen. The home was named in honour of Lady Wilson, President of the Queensland Division of the Australian Red Cross at this time, and wife of His Excellency Sir Leslie Orme Wilson, Governor of Queensland.
Conversion of the house into a convalescent home required additions to, and some alteration to internal partitions in, the main residence, and construction of a substantial dormitory block behind and parallel to the main house. In 1941 Brisbane architects RW Voller, RM Wilson, and EJA Weller, as Honorary Architects to the Australian Red Cross Society, jointly called tenders for a new dormitory and officers' quarters for the Red Cross Society's Lady Wilson Convalescent Home at Chelmer. A contract for construction of the dormitory was let to contractor AS Taylor by June 1941, and tenders for 'officers' quarters' [staff quarters] opened about August 1941. Minor works were still being carried out early in 1942. Photographs of the 'Chelmer Convalescent Home', taken in August 1944, reveal that the northern addition to the house, which comprised the staff quarters, was constructed by this date. The place reputedly accommodated 73 patients. It is also likely that during the 1941-42 extensions an institutional kitchen and dining room was constructed, and the former kitchen was refitted as toilets and shower rooms. A 1944 photograph of the front of the building shows cast iron balustrading to the verandahs, which has been replaced since with simple timber rails.
In the early 1950s the convalescent hospital was closed and the property was leased to the Australian Military Forces from 1 April 1953 for use as a Women's Royal Australian Army Corps Barracks, occupied by the 10 WRAAC. The WRAAC had been established in 1951 in response to a severe manpower shortage created by the demands of the Korean War and national service in a time of full employment. In the late 1970s female soldiers began to be integrated into the Army at large and in early 1984, the WRAAC was disbanded. In its 33 years of existence, the Corps played an important role in the evolution of Australia's armed forces and the acceptance of women into this field.
A valuation inspection of the Laurel Avenue property made in January 1953, prior to the military authorities taking up the lease, provided a thorough description [accompanied by plans] of the Red Cross structures on the property, and show how the buildings had functioned as a convalescent hospital. The core of the house contained recreational and office spaces, and a large dining room and kitchen extension at the rear. The northern addition to the main house served as staff quarters. To the rear of the main house and parallel to it, was a high-set, timber framed, fibrous-cement clad dormitory building.
The main building [the c1900 house] was described as approximately 50 years old, timber-framed, with 8" chamferboard cladding to the exterior walls, and set on hardwood stumps which varied from 4'6" to 6' in height. The roof retained its original corrugated galvanized iron. The house was surrounded by extensive verandahs, by that date mostly enclosed, and the verandah roofs were lined with 6" vertically jointed pine boards. Flooring to the verandahs and much of the interior was 4" x 1" hardwood, with some 6" x 1" pine. The interior walls and ceilings were lined with 4" vertically-jointed pine. Most of the joinery, including early doors, fireplace surrounds and palm stands, were cedar. There was a front bay window with 6' 'colonial sashes', and French doors opening onto the verandahs. The main entrance door had leadlight surrounds. The dining room on the southwest corner of the main building had been extended as a dining hall, clad externally and lined internally with fibrous cement sheeting. Adjacent to this was an institutional-size kitchen. Bathrooms and toilets [which appear to have occupied an earlier kitchen wing] had vertically-jointed timber ceilings, fibrous-cement sheeting on the walls, and terrazzo floors. There was a laundry under the main building.
At the northern end of the main building was the two-storeyed addition erected as staff quarters. This was timber-framed and clad externally with fibrous-cement sheeting. The ground floor contained an open lounge with a cement floor; an interior lounge with fibrous cement sheeting to ceiling and walls and hardwood floor; a dormitory, lined and ceiling in vertically-jointed timber, with polished timber floor; and a bathroom/toilet. A covered stairway led to the upper level, which had a hardwood timber floor, and was lined with vertically-jointed timber in the central room and fibrous-cement sheeting in the bedrooms (2) and dormitories (2).
At the rear of the main building was the dormitory or ward block, containing two wards separated by a central ablutions area, and a doctor's room, sister's room, and store room at the far northern end. Floors throughout were of hardwood and the ceilings of Caneite. The ablutions area had terrazzo flooring and contained toilets, showers and locker rooms arranged around a central passage-way running north-south, servicing both wards. French doors opened from the wards onto verandahs along both sides, which were screened with Aerolax blinds. A sub-floor extended the entire length of the building. It had concrete flooring and had been used principally as workshops. It was also part-enclosed as library headquarters for the Red Cross in Queensland [a large room at the southern end]; store rooms; ablution blocks; laundry; boiler room; and French polishing room. On the western side of the library was an extension which housed the handicraft section.
Beyond the dormitory building, to the west, was a detached, single-storey structure, timber framed, double-sheeted with fibrous-cement, and divided into two rooms, which were utilized as male staff quarters. This building had a 'Super 6' roof of corrugated fibrous-cement sheeting.
Close to the northern boundary, midway along the depth of the property, was a single garage which appears to have been constructed during the period when the place functioned as a private residence. It was hardwood framed and floored, clad in 6" timber chamferboards, and had a tiled roof. Beyond the garage the ground flattened out to a level floodplain, before dropping steeply to the Brisbane river.
Comparatively few changes were required for occupation by the 10 WRAAC from 1953 to 1969, and during this period the Red Cross continued to maintain its library headquarters in the sub-floor of the dormitory block. About 1964-65, the Red Cross subdivided the land into smaller residential allotments around an extension of Sutton Street, leaving the buildings leased by the armed forces on a much smaller parcel of land. At this period the house lost its river access.
In the late 1960s a new facility for the WRAAC was constructed at Kelvin Grove. 10 WRAAC vacated 17 Laurel Avenue early in February 1969, although the Army's lease didn't expire until 31 October 1969. The Red Cross failed to sell the property at auction in May 1969, but toward the end of the year it was purchased by the Queensland Police Department for use as an in-service training centre. In January 1970 the Queensland Police College opened at 17 Laurel Avenue, offering a wide variety of specialist and qualifying courses. This function ceased in 2012. The main change to the grounds since 1970 has been the construction of a car park along the southern boundary of the property from Laurel Avenue to the former dormitory block.
","criteria":"The Queensland Police College (former) at 17 Laurel Avenue, Chelmer, was constructed c1900 as a private residence, Waterton, for Brisbane insurance agent Thomas Beevor Steele. From c1913 to c1940 it was occupied by AE Harding Frew, a prominent Queensland civil engineer. The place demonstrates the pattern of Queensland's history, being evidence of the early 20th century suburban occupation of the Chelmer district by upper middle class residents, who constructed large family homes in spacious grounds, many of which had river frontages. As the Lady Wilson Red Cross Convalescent Home for returned members of the Australian armed services from c1941 to c1953, the place provides evidence in the fabric of the building of a Queensland response to the impact of the Second World War. Changes made to the building and grounds to accommodate the hospital have not obliterated evidence of the earlier function as a private residence. Following the close of the convalescent home, the place served as a Women's Royal Australian Army Barracks from 1953-1969, and as a Queensland Police College from 1970-2012, maintaining an institutional use which had little impact on the predominantly residential character of Laurel Avenue. Evidence of these uses is readily apparent in the fabric of the building.
|The former residence in its garden setting is of strong architectural merit, exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community and demonstrates the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural place. This building is a memorable element of the Laurel Avenue streetscape, presenting as a large Federation-era house with prominent gable and sweeping verandahs, a big pitched metal roof and chimney, set well back behind an established garden and enhanced with mature fig trees [Ficus benjamina] in the street, flanking the entrance path. The c1941 northern addition to the house to accommodate the convalescent hospital staff is of interest in the sensitive placement beside or behind the original building, indicating that the appearance of the buildings from the street was of importance at the time. The c1941 addition to the north of the original house has a similarity of form with the original, and has been distinguished from the original in its use of fibrous-cement cladding consistent with architectural thinking at the time regarding its construction and the character of its use. The c1941 dormitory building is also fibrous-cement clad and this is consistent with its institutional use and pragmatic character.
As a formerly residential building converted to an institutional use the place provides evidence of the impact of the Second World War on Queensland and is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of its type, namely a c1941 convalescent hospital. The c1941 dormitory to the rear of the site has been carefully sited to minimise impacts on the appearance of the original building from the street, while achieving a close link with the necessary service spaces such as kitchen and dining room inserted in the original building. The form of the dormitory building is of note - the central enclosed space functioning as either a single space or (as currently) a series of rooms off a central corridor, flanked by verandahs which can be either open or enclosed, is a generic form similar to other Second World War hospital buildings, such as formerly at Rhyndarra in Yeronga [now demolished], but is not a standard public works design. Again, the c1941 addition to the north of the house was custom-designed for this site and its particular use.
|The former residence in its garden setting is of strong architectural merit, exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community and demonstrates the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural place. This building is a memorable element of the Laurel Avenue streetscape, presenting as a large Federation-era house with prominent gable and sweeping verandahs, a big pitched metal roof and chimney, set well back behind an established garden and enhanced with mature fig trees [Ficus benjamina] in the street, flanking the entrance path. The c1941 northern addition to the house to accommodate the convalescent hospital staff is of interest in the sensitive placement beside or behind the original building, indicating that the appearance of the buildings from the street was of importance at the time. The c1941 addition to the north of the original house has a similarity of form with the original, and has been distinguished from the original in its use of fibrous-cement cladding consistent with architectural thinking at the time regarding its construction and the character of its use. The c1941 dormitory building is also fibrous-cement clad and this is consistent with its institutional use and pragmatic character.
|The place has had a special association with the work of the Australian Red Cross as a Convalescent Home, with the Australian Army as a Women's Royal Australian Army Corps [WRAAC] barracks, and with the Queensland Police Service as a training college. The combination of these associations, demonstrated in this one building, gives the place significance in Queensland's history.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19465,"place_ref":602346,"name":"Hoop Pines","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"34 Strathpine Road","suburb":"BALD HILLS","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2002-02-22","description":"The two Hoop Pines (Araucaria cunninghamii) are located within the grounds of St Paul's Anglican School, Strathpine Road, Bald Hills. They are situated at the end of the school's main driveway, framing the entrance to the school's Administration Building, which is a late 19th/early 20th century former farmhouse.
The older tree is approximately 25m high with a canopy diameter of approximately 27m. The younger tree is approximately 18 metres high with a canopy diameter of approximately 22m. Both trees have lost the upper trunk and canopy as a result of storm damage in the mid-1980s.
","history":"The two mature Hoop Pines situated in front of the Administration Building of St Paul's Anglican School, Bald Hills, are believed to mark the location of the original Stewart Farmhouse at Bald Hills. The Stewart family, along with their relatives the Duncans, were the earliest non-indigenous settlers in the Bald Hills area (known to Aboriginal people as Wyampa) and later established one of the district's most successful dairy farms. The taller of the Hoop Pines may be remnant old growth vegetation, approximately 190 years old. The smaller Hoop Pine may be approximately 140 years old - either planted or a seedling from the older tree.
The prevalence of valuable logging trees such as hoop and bunya pines and red cedar was one of the principal attractions for the establishment of a penal settlement at Moreton Bay in the 1820s. Historian JD Steele suggests that "Brisbane owes its foundations to Oxley's enthusiasm for its river and its indigenous pine tree, Araucaria cunninghamii, usually known as the hoop pine. The tree was first observed by Oxley on 1 December 1823, on the banks of the Pine River near Petrie . . ." [JD Steele The Explorers of the Moreton Bay District 1770-1830 1972:90]. Within 50 years, most of the hoop pine had been extracted from the Moreton Bay region.
The establishment of Bald Hills as a farming community in the late 1850s was closely linked to the move by Scottish squatters John and David McConnel of Durundur on the Upper Stanley River [south of the Conondale Range and west of the Glass House Mountains], and their pro-Brisbane, pro-JD Lang associates, to establish a port at Cabbage Tree Creek [Sandgate] in the 1850s. The move was given impetus with the reinstatement of the northern passage to Moreton Bay, around the northern end of Moreton Island and south past Redcliffe and Cabbage Tree Creek, as the principal shipping passage in 1848, following the wreck of the Sovereign in the south passage in March 1847. In the early 1850s the McConnels and their associates, who supported JD Lang's vision of the development of a 'cotton colony' north of Brisbane between Cabbage Tree Creek and South Pine River, lobbied for the establishment of a port at Cabbage Tree Creek, which they claimed was more convenient for shipping than the Brisbane River, offered safe berths for larger vessels, and in particular, would give more direct port access to the Stanley River squatters, who could travel via North Pine through Bald Hills to Cabbage Tree Creek. The McConnels were joined by a number of prominent Brisbane businessmen, including John Richardson, Thomas Dowse, Robert Davidson and George Raff, who in 1852 called for a port to rival Cleveland, and the development of a resort suburb, at Bramble Bay. The New South Wales government had already set aside a village reserve at the head of Cabbage Tree Creek, and now the Scottish connection was pushing for its survey and the survey of a road from Brisbane. The village was surveyed in 1852 and in November 1853 the first Sandgate town lots were offered at public auction. There was much interest, and high prices were obtained, with the McConnels, Dowse and Robert Davidson purchasing heavily.
Sandgate never did develop as a port, development being retarded by government decisions, the inaction of early speculative landowners, poor communication with Brisbane, and strong Aboriginal resistance to European settlement. However, the lobby group did not give up hope through the 1850s, and the enticement of agricultural settlers to the Bald Hills area behind Sandgate in the mid-1850s may have been connected with move to develop a port at Cabbage Tree Creek. The link is Thomas Gray, who was responsible for encouraging the Stewart and Duncan families to take up land at Bald Hills, and who was connected with the McConnels; and the fact that both he and WJ Loudon, who had invested heavily at the first sale of Sandgate allotments, both purchased allotments at the first sale of Bald Hills land.
Thomas Gray, a Brisbane bootmaker, had emigrated to New South Wales in 1841/42 from the Black Isle, Scotland, to work for fellow highlanders the McConnels at Moreton Bay. During the voyage Gray befriended fellow Scots John Stewart and his sisters Jessie [Janet] and Margaret, and the Duncan brothers and their families. In 1845 Gray married Janet Stewart and John Stewart married the Duncan's sister, Jane. Stewart and the Duncans eventually settled on the Hunter River, while Gray established a bootmaking business in Brisbane in 1844. In the mid-1850s Gray convinced the Stewarts and Duncans to leave the flood-stricken Hunter River district and move to the South Pine River north of Brisbane, to the area now known as Bald Hills. Stewart made a preliminary trip to the district c1855 to select suitable land, not just for himself and the Duncans, but also for a large number of Hunter River settlers who were equally interested. Stewart immediately applied to the New South Wales survey office to have the land surveyed, but it was not proclaimed available for sale until December 1856, with Stewart finally purchasing land in February 1857. Due to the delay in survey, most of the interested Hunter River settlers meanwhile had moved to the Clarence where new land was available. Only Stewart and the Duncans and their families from the Hunter took up land at Bald Hills, moving onto their selections in early October 1857. They are generally acknowledged as the first non-indigenous settlers at Bald Hills.
After their experiences on the Hunter River, the settlers selected the higher ground for their farms, erecting their first houses [apparently slab and bark] on the low ridge above the South Pine River where St Peter's Anglican School is now situated. Fearing attack from Aborigines, their houses were loop-holed for rifles and located within sight of each other. These precautions proved unnecessary, for at the request of Thomas Gray and other settlers in the area between Cabbage Tree Creek and Caboolture, a detachment of Native Police was stationed at Sandgate from 1858 to 1862. Under the command of Lieutenant Frederick Wheeler, the Native Police eliminated Aboriginal resistance to white settlement in the Pine Rivers, Cabbage Tree Creek and Caboolture districts by the early 1860s.
The Stewart and Duncan families cleared the gentle slopes along the South Pine River for their crops. By the end of the 1860s most of the valuable stands of red cedar and hoop pine in the Bald Hills district had been removed, although much scrub remained. Through the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s maize, potatoes and some oaten and wheaten hay were the principal cash crops, and John Stewart had early experimented with arrowroot and cotton, for which he won bronze and silver medals at the London International Exhibition of 1862. Following the opening of a railway to Bald Hills in 1888, dairying became the principal economic activity in the district. By 1929, dairy farmers at Bald Hills were supplying up to 1000 gallons of milk daily to Brisbane and Sandgate.
John Stewart and his family were well respected in the Bald Hills community and active members of the local Presbyterian church, John serving as an Elder for nearly 40 years. The earliest Presbyterian services in the Bald Hills district were conducted at the Stewart home until a small slab and shingled church was erected in 1863 at the corner of the Strathpine and Bald Hills roads. In 1889 the slab church was replaced by a milled-timber building erected on land donated by John Stewart in 1887, further west along Strathpine Road. [This building was destroyed by fire in 1909, and replaced with the present building in 1911.] Two of Stewart's sons, James and Charles, became Presbyterian ministers. Rev. James Stewart was the founder of the Brisbane City Mission.
Many local events also were celebrated at the Stewart home, including the opening of the bridge over the South Pine River in May 1865, when a ball was held in the Stewart barn.
In 1890 John Stewart took out a £600 mortgage from the Brisbane Permanent Building and Banking Company Ltd, which may have financed construction of a new residence. If he did, the Stewarts occupied their new house for only a few years, for in 1895 the main portion of the farm - nearly 67 acres, including what is understood to be the site of the Stewart family's first residence and the possibly c1890 house - was transferred to William Thomas Taylor. The remaining Stewart property was developed as the Woodlawn dairy farm, managed by Alexander Caldwell Stewart until his accidental death in 1900. The Woodlawn Farmhouse survives at 15 Listowel Street, Bald Hills. Jane Stewart died in 1898, and her husband John in 1905, but at least one son continued to dairy farm at Bald Hills for many years.
Taylor held the original Stewart property for only a few years, transferring it in February 1898 to Samuel Unwin of Eagle Farm, who in November 1905 took out a £600 mortgage on the property. The residence located on this property and which now functions as the Administration Building at St Paul's Anglican School, appears to date to the 1890s or very early 1900s, but it has not been established whether it was erected by Stewart c1890 or a later owner. A photograph dated 1906 shows the house prior to additions and verandah enclosures, with the two already mature hoop pines forming a natural frame to the front entrance. From this evidence it is clear that the trees were not late 19th or early 20th century plantings, and it would have been unusual for them to have survived to the 20th century, were they not incorporated within the earlier Stewart house garden.
The property continued to be worked as a dairy farm, changing hands again in 1907 and also in 1910. In 1921 it was acquired by William John Hawkins of Bald Hills, who was a leader in Queensland dairying, credited with being instrumental in the establishment of the first milk supply cold store in Brisbane, at the Roma-street Railway Station, c1898. In 1929 a Brisbane newspaper described WJ Hawkins as "a successful settler, possessing a fine property and picturesque homestead" [Brisbane Courier 14 December 1929].
Further ownership changes were registered in 1934/35 and 1940, then in 1954 the property passed to John Joseph Murray Redmond and Dorothy Eliza Redmond. It was the Redmonds who transferred the land to the Anglican Church in 1958, to develop as a boys' Church of England School, thus ending over a century of agricultural activity on this land.
Bald Hills remained predominantly a farming community until the second half of the 20th century, when many of the early farms were subdivided for residential settlement. Few 19th century farmhouses have survived, and of those which remain most have been substantially altered. The former farmhouse which is now used as the Administration Building of St Paul's Anglican School, is a rare surviving late 19th/early 20th century farmhouse in the Bald Hills district, and its site is associated with the earliest phase of non-indigenous settlement in the district. A tangible link with the early farm remains in the unsubdivided school grounds and its two early hoop pines.
","criteria":"The Hoop Pines at St Paul's Anglican School, Bald Hills are indicative of the pattern of Queensland settlement, being associated with the evolution of non-indigenous settlement in the Moreton Bay district in the 1850s, and with the earliest development of the Bald Hills district in particular
|The larger of the two Hoop Pines is likely to pre-date non-indigenous settlement, and as remnant forest growth is rare surviving evidence of the valuable stands of Hoop Pine which made the Moreton Bay district so attractive for early colonial settlement, and which had been virtually removed from the Bald Hills district by the late 1860s. The two early Hoop Pines at St Paul's Anglican School are of horticultural interest and are rare specimens of trees of this age surviving in the Brisbane area.
|The Hoop Pines have aesthetic significance for their landmark value on the ridge at Bald Hills.
|They also have a special association for the community of Bald Hills as evidence of the work of the Stewart family, who, together with their relatives the Duncans, were the first non-indigenous settlers in the area, and were instrumental in developing Bald Hills as an agricultural district supplying Brisbane and Sandgate; and for the community of St Paul's Anglican School as marking the administrative centre of the school.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19501,"place_ref":602380,"name":"Rosalie Community Kindergarten and Preschool","alternate_name":"The Little Citizens Free Kindergarten | Rosalie Kindergarten","street_address":"57 Elizabeth Street","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2002-09-27","description":"The Rosalie Community Kindergarten and Preschool is situated on a triangular site with elevations to Elizabeth and Nash Streets, Rosalie. It is constructed of hardwood weatherboards slightly bellcast over the supporting brick piers and has a central two-storey section flanked by single storey pavilions.
The terracotta tiled roof is complex in form and the most striking feature of the main, Elizabeth Street elevation, is two storey porch forming an entrance on the ground floor and a small balcony above. Multiple paned sash windows echo the Georgian influence displayed in the symmetrical pavilion form.
The building is divided into public, private and services zones. The upper storey of the central section is reached by a timber staircase and contains a flat, originally the caretaker's residence, complete with laundry and bathroom with original fittings. This floor is currently used for storage.
The ground floor contains the entry and service areas that are divided from the main teaching and play zones by a waiting area. The teaching area is large and airy and can be divided by folding doors. The toilet rooms are situated at each end of the building and contain early timber partitions and cabinets. A wide verandah flanks two sides of the playrooms and has timber balustrades with metal diamond mesh above. Stairs from the verandah lead down to a play area beneath the building.
The interior is lined with boards to dado height with fibrous cement sheeting above. The rooms are ceiled with fibrous cement sheeting and timber battens. The building contains some fine detailing including mitred corners and bellcast bases to the weatherboard walls and well-executed timber balustrading and details to the verandahs. Such details as fittings and door furniture are preserved and reflect the quality of design and construction in this building.
On the Nash Street side of the building is a playground with mature trees.
","history":"The Rosalie Community Kindergarten and Preschool is a two-storey timber building that was built in 1935 for the Crèche and Kindergarten Association to the design of A E Brooks.
The development of kindergartens was an outcome of a movement that developed in the Western world in the late 19th century in response to new knowledge about the role of diet, hygiene and exercise in the health of children. The Infant Welfare movement in Australia began around 1904 and aimed both to improve the health of children and to educate their mothers. In the early 20th century, approaches to running a household and bringing up children became more 'scientific' and this was reflected in the design of buildings, domestic science classes in schools and specialized training for early childhood teachers. The new direction in rearing children was towards active play and planned nutrition within a light, clean and airy environment, a very different approach to the structures of a Victorian childhood.
The Crèche and Kindergarten Association of Queensland was formed in 1907 as a function of the Institute of Social Services in Fortitude Valley. A second branch was established in January 1911 and was called the Ithaca Crèche and Kindergarten. They cared for babies and children up to five years of age in two cottages at Herbert Street, Rosalie. The earliest childcare building in Brisbane, probably in Queensland, was Paddington Kindergarten, which was built in Charlotte Street in 1916 and included a crèche from 1917. The Ithaca crèche then closed, but the kindergarten remained in operation after lobbying by parents.
In 1922 the Maternity Act provided for the establishment of maternity hospitals and baby clinics in Queensland to improve the health of mothers and children. This was a Labor government initiative as fostering a healthy population and boosting the birthrate was thought to be essential to the development of the state. Funds from the proceeds of the Golden Casket Lottery were used to implement this. The Golden Casket lottery was introduced in 1916, initially to assist the Australian Soldiers' Repatriation Fund and Anzac Cottages Scheme. In 1920, the operation of the lottery was taken over by the Queensland government and the main recipient of proceeds became the Motherhood, Child Welfare and Hospital Fund.
The Crèche and Kindergarten Association had leased various premises in the 1920s and in 1933; a Mother's Club was formed to raise funds for a permanent building. By 1934 they had raised £150. They also ran a street carnival at Roma Street for two months, which raised £791/18/4. The association approached H E Hanlon, the Home Secretary and husband of the Rosalie committee chairwoman, who promised assistance. This took the form of a government subsidy for the construction of a new kindergarten on a pound for pound basis from Golden Casket funds. The Home Department also provided £600 to buy land. In 1935, this site on the corner of Elizabeth and Nash Streets was purchased for the construction of a kindergarten. Even with the subsidy, the amount collected fell short of the cost and a government loan of £946/8/5 was provided to bridge the gap.
Arnold Brooks, architect for the Canberra Hotel and for various social welfare facilities, designed the new building. Brooks had worked in the offices of a number of distinguished architectural firms. Between 1888 and 1892 he was articled to Oakden, Addison and Kemp, remaining with their office as an assistant until 1901, when he joined the Telegraph newspaper. In 1908 he became an assistant to architect JPO Cowlishaw and then chief assistant at the architectural firm of Hall and Dods, acting as manager when Dods moved to Sydney in 1913. Brooks was a correspondent on architectural matters for various journals and served on planning and Ideal Home committees. He was appointed architect to Brisbane Grammar Schools in 1921 and in 1922 established his own practice. In 1929 he designed what was his best-known building (now demolished), the Canberra Hotel. In 1929 he also became associate architect for the Queensland Crèche and Kindergarten Association. In 1935 he assumed the same role for the Queensland Society for Crippled Children.
R A Lind & Sons of Manly built the kindergarten at a cost of £3791. Work began on 1 April 1935 and the Hon. H E Hanlon, Minister for Health and Home Affairs, opened the new facility on 23 November 1935 as 'The Little Citizen's Free Kindergarten'. At the time it was considered to be the best-designed kindergarten in the Commonwealth. A number of features were thought innovative including a caretaker's residence on the upper floor; separate play areas for toddlers and older children, an undercover play area and large teaching areas divided by folding doors.
Rosalie Kindergarten was involved in the practical training of early childhood teachers since the inception of the Brisbane Kindergarten Training College in 1911. In 1940, it was one of two branch kindergartens that undertook a trial of the Nursery School program, teaching children between 2 and five years old. The Kindergarten Director, Miss Edna Hill, went to Melbourne for a year's training in this program at the Melbourne Kindergarten Teacher's College.
Because it was originally a function of the Social Services Dept, the work of the kindergarten was aligned to the social needs of the area, caring for large groups of children for up to five days a week, providing hot meals mid-day and opening for hours that allowed mothers to work. During the Depression the hours were extended to allow mothers to maximize any available income. In 1942 although kindergartens in Brisbane were closed for a time they soon reopened as they made it possible for mothers to contribute to war work.
The Kindergarten is till operating as a childcare facility and the suitability of its design for this purpose is demonstrated by the very minor nature of modifications made to the fabric since its inception.
","criteria":"The Rosalie Community Kindergarten and Preschool is important in illustrating the growth of the Infant Welfare movement and changing attitudes to health, education and child care in Queensland during the early 20th century. The size and quality of the building demonstrates the commitment of the Labor government of the period to initiatives promoting maternal and child welfare as part of the development of the state. The contemporary ideals of light, space and airiness for children's facilities are well expressed in the design of the building.
|The Rosalie Community Kindergarten and Preschool is rare in Queensland as a purpose built kindergarten built before World War Two.
|It demonstrates the distinct function and design of a purpose built kindergarten of the era and was considered to be particularly well-designed example when it was built. The suitability of its design for this purpose is demonstrated by the minor nature of modifications made to the fabric since its inception, resulting in a high degree of intactness.
|The kindergarten building has aesthetic significance as a well executed building in the Georgian revival style with references to the Queensland vernacular. It is a local landmark.
|(Criterion under review)
|The Rosalie Community Kindergarten and Preschool has an association with the local community over several generations as a community service providing education and recreation for children, training for early childhood teachers and assistance for mothers.
|The Rosalie Community Kindergarten and Preschool is an important example of the work of architect Arnold E Brooks who was considered to be an innovative designer of child and aged care facilities.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19503,"place_ref":602382,"name":"Hemmant State School and Dumbarton","alternate_name":"Doughboy Creek Mixed School | Bulimba Creek School | Ashcroft House, Gibson House","street_address":"56 Hemmant-Tingalpa Road","suburb":"HEMMANT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-09-04","description":"Hemmant State School is situated on a four-hectare site facing Hemmant-Tingalpa Road. The school uses only the northern third of the block. The remainder is separated by a fence and provides grazing for horses. The occupied portion is roughly equivalent to the original two acre site. The site slopes west/east and is partially levelled with a retaining wall above the playground. All principal area of heritage significance on this site is to the west, ie above, this retaining wall. This area includes the 1876 school, the 1915 open-air annexe and its extension, the 1931 teachers' room, the 1884 playshed, and Dumbarton House. These buildings and structures are arranged around a bitumened play area. To the west of the playshed is the toilet block, which is relatively recent and not of significance. To the east of the retaining wall and not included in the heritage register boundary are the preschool, playground and shade cover, tennis courts and shelter sheds, a shade house, and three sheds.
The 1876 school is the building closest to Hemmant-Tingalpa Road. It is an asymmetrical, low-set, rectangular, timber framed structure, 8.5m by 12m., which has been divided into two classrooms. An enclosed verandah extends along the western side and into a walkway to the other school buildings. The walls are weatherboard except on the eastern wall where it is weatherboard on the southern section with more recent aluminium siding for the remainder. The stumps are concrete and the floor timber, although internally it is covered with carpet and linoleum. The roof is corrugated iron, slightly hipped and broader on the eastern side to cover the enclosed verandah section. The roof is straight on the western side but protrudes beyond the line of the building to shade the windows. There are two whirlybirds on the verandah portion of the roof. Each classroom has four banks of three hopper windows on the western side. On the southern wall there is a row of four casement windows topped by hoppers and protected by an awning in the classroom, and a hopper window on the enclosed verandah section. There is also a ventilation window into the ceiling space in the southern wall. On the eastern wall there are aluminium framed sliding windows above the aluminium cladding sections of the wall. Access to the building is via a parallel staircase, railed and posted, on the eastern wall, which leads to a landing which goes to an ante-room on the enclosed verandah. Internally the walls are primarily tongue and groove, vertically jointed boards, with fibrous cement ceilings - flat in the classroom and sloped in the verandah. The classrooms are divided by a wall with a sloping blackboard and white board on either side of French doors. Cupboards run under the black/white boards. The northern end of the enclosed verandah has a stove and sink fitted on the eastern wall. The northern end of the verandah leads to an enclosed walkway through to the other school buildings.
The 1915 open-air annexe and its extension are to the north of the 1876 school building. It has been modified and extended. It is a highset timber building, approximately 21.5m by 11m, with concrete stumps, partially enclosed under. The roof is corrugated iron and has two ventilators on the southern portion. To the north and west it is hipped to accommodate now enclosed verandahs. The external walls are clad with chamferboards except on the walkway from the other buildings, which is weatherboard, and the enclosed northern verandah section, which is clad with aluminium siding. Above the aluminium are aluminium framed sliding windows. Access to the building is via the walkway from the 1876 school building, perpendicular stairs from the west, and stairs on the northern side. Internally the building is divided into nine sections. On the western section there is an enclosed verandah which has been converted into a computer room. This room is lined with fibrous cement sheeting and has a timber, tongue and groove ceiling. There is access to the walkway from the 1876 school building and from the teachers' room. Double timber doors lead onto the front steps and there is a double hopper window adjoining. An arch leads into a small room, which, with its neighbour, has been divided from the original open-air annexe classroom. Each has a false ceiling. The southern one has a pair of double casement windows, each topped by a hopper. A door leads into the original annexe schoolroom. This is a large (7200 by 7700) room with tongue and groove timber walls and a pressed metal ceiling, flat in the middle and sloped towards the sides and ends. The western end of the ceiling is obscured by the false ceilings in the adjoining subdivided rooms. There are metal stringers between the walls. Three sets of the windows consisting of a double casement topped by a hopper are on the southern wall. A large archway leads onto the enclosed northern verandah.
East of this is another large classroom, 6210 by 7700, with board lining. Five triple hopper windows cover the whole of the upper part of the southern wall and the northern wall is occupied by a door and louvres onto the enclosed verandah. The verandah runs most of the length of the building with tongue and groove vertically-jointed walls onto the classrooms and a tongue and groove sloping ceiling. It is 3100 mm wide along the original annexe room and then splits to 1900 mm while the remainder is occupied by a stairway. At the eastern end of the building are three small offices. Two continue the line of the original walls and are fitted with casement windows topped by hoppers. The third continues the verandah and has aluminium framed sliding windows. The sub-floor is partially enclosed and the remainder is concreted or bitumened and fitted with fixed timber seats between the stumps. The land slopes and the area is divided by a small retaining wall with steps across it. The western end is enclosed with corrugated iron into a storage room and the eastern end is enclosed with chamferboards to form a tuckshop and small additional room. The tuckshop has three sets of double casement windows on the eastern end. There are tin and chamferboard walls along some sections of the southern wall and a drinking trough and bubblers along one.
The other teaching building is the 1931 teachers' room, which is to the north of the 1876 school building and to the west of the 1915 open-air annexe. It adjoins the latter and is connected to it by a doorway onto the western verandah. It is a small, lowset weatherboard building with casement windows with awnings on all three exposed sides. Internally walls and ceiling are lined with tongue and groove vertically jointed timber boards.
The 1884 playshed is on the eastern side of the bitumened area. It is an open timber framed structure, 12550 by 7200 mm. The roof is corrugated iron supported by timber posts with angled bracing. It is partially enclosed on the eastern side with corrugated iron which has a blackboard along it. The floor is bitumen and there are fixed timber seats between the posts. Large hooks are screwed into the beams at two places.
Dumbarton is situated on the southern side of the school complex. It is a high-set, single-storey dwelling with exposed cross brace stud framing. It has a transverse gabled roof with colourbond sheeting , a roof light over the stairwell, finials on the gables and a weathercock on the chimney of the double fireplace. The verandah roof is curved and separate from the house. The verandah surrounds the basically square core of the house and in the southeastern portions it is enclosed with chamferboards and fibrous cement sheeting. The open portions have timber handrails and dowelled balustrading. The posts are moulded and have decorative brackets. Access to the verandah is by steps or a ramp, both recent, on the western side of the house. Another set of steps leads from the south (rear) of the house. All windows and doors onto the verandah are covered with security mesh.
Internally the house has a central hall, with rooms leading off on either side. At the front are two rooms now converted to offices. Each room has vertically jointed walls and tongue and groove ceilings, French doors leading onto the front (northern) side and a double hung window on the other external side. The room on the east has access to a small modern en suite bathroom. The room on the right has a fireplace with timber surrounds and shelf. The next door on the left is another modern bathroom with pine ceiling and a dividing wall with leadlight through to the en suite bathroom. The hall enters a larger back room on the right with vertically jointed walls and ceiling, the second half of the double fireplace, a double hung window onto the west and French doors onto the verandah at the south. The remaining quarter of the floor is occupied by a kitchen that opens into the enclosed sections of the verandah. All the fittings are modern, including the sloping clear sealed pine tongue and groove ceiling on the verandah portion and the three double hung windows in the new section. Early double hung windows and French doors open onto the verandah, presumably from the original room. Narrow stairs lead to the attic which consists of two rooms. These are carpeted and lined with vertically jointed timber boards except on two walls which have horizontal beaded boards. The ceilings are recent with clear finished tongue and groove boards. The eastern room has two double hung sash windows with timber framed hoods. The western room has the chimney through it and leads onto a balcony with timber railings and cross balustrading. There is a recent door into the roof space at the front of the building.
","history":"Hemmant State School was established in 1864 as the Bulimba Creek School [non-vested]. It contains several generations of public works buildings that were built as the community at Hemmant expanded and developed. The oldest remaining building was erected in 1876, to a design by Colonial Architect, FDG Stanley. The Playshed was added in 1884. The house known as Dumbarton, which was relocated from another Hemmant location to the school site in 2001, was built probably in the 1870s or early 1880s and local opinion attributes its construction and occupation to the Uhlmann and Gibson families - the former significant in the area as local butchers, milkmen and storekeepers, and the latter significant in the development of the sugar industry in Queensland.
Hemmant was originally known as Doughboy Creek and the first land sales took place in 1858. Non-indigenous settlement in the area commenced the following year when the Franklin and Popham families migrated in the same ship and took up adjacent pieces of land at Hemmant. English, Scottish, Dutch and German migrants followed and established farms. The soil was easy to clear and fertile, and the first crops were vegetables and fruit, which were transported up the river to Brisbane until the construction of the bridge over Bulimba Creek in 1870 made road transport possible.
In 1863 William Gibson and his son Angus arrived in Moreton Bay and settled at Hemmant. The remainder of the family followed in 1864. In 1866 William Gibson obtained cane cuttings from Louis Hope at Ormiston, which he planted at Hemmant, on a farm he called Clydesdale. Other farmers in the district also switched to sugar production. In 1868 William Gibson and Sons established the Clydesdale Sugar Mill, and by 1871 there were seven mills in the area. In the second half of the 1870s, however, drought and disease destroyed the crops repeatedly and sugar farming was moved further north. In 1883, the Clydesdale Mill was sold and the Gibson family began the move to Bingera at Bundaberg. The mill closed down the following year, and Hemmant returned to vegetable and dairy production.
Hemmant State School was opened on 9 May 1864 as Bulimba Creek School on a two acre site. It was a non-vested school - the Department of Public Instruction supplied the teacher, Frederick Ffoulkes Swanwick, and the parents paid for the construction of the school, a shingled, weatherboard building, 15 foot by 30 foot. Eighteen children enrolled during the first week and 74 by the following year, although the average attendance was only 32. By 1866 three classes were required. In 1866 the name was changed to Doughboy Creek Mixed School, to avoid confusion with the newly established Bulimba State School. It then became the Doughboy Creek Primary School (1869), Doughboy Primary School (1870) and Hemmant Primary School (1876). In 1873 a new teacher's residence was built.
Complaints by the teacher and parents about the condition of the school, which had been built entirely of pine and was now a dangerous, white ant-eaten shell, resulted in a detailed inspection by David Ewart in 1876. He recommended that a new school be built - with the residents again contributing to its construction. The building was a standard Public Works school design [Burmester, Pullar & Kennedy 1996 classification: B/T2], 40' by 20' with 8' verandahs on both front and back, designed by FDG Stanley, the Colonial Architect. In 1884, a large open playshed was built to another standard Public Works design [Burmester, Pullar & Kennedy 1996 classification: B/T5]. In 1897 the shingles on the school building were replaced with iron and in 1899 two new rooms and other improvements were made to the teacher's residence. In 1889, 5.3 perches were transferred to the Railway Department to enable the construction of the Cleveland Railway line, and in 1912 the Headteacher's residence was moved to the north of the railway line and more land was resumed to make an island platform closer to Hemmant Village. During the flood of 1893, much of Hemmant was submerged, including a popular tourist attraction known as The Aquarium. During the flood the men took refuge in the school while women and children were lodged in nearby buildings.
An open-air annexe [Burmester, Pullar & Kennedy 1996 classification: C/T9], 32'6" by 25' with 10' verandahs on two sides, was built by AG Temperley for £439/16/8 in 1915. It was equipped with canvas blinds to offer some protection from the weather. This was built with its front verandah adjoining and connected to the rear verandah of the existing building. In 1922 sash windows were installed to replace the blinds and the building was enclosed. In 1931 Mr AC Weedon was contracted to improve the residence, construct a teachers' room and install new earth closets for £152.0.0. The Teachers' Room was built on the front of the verandah of the previously open-air annexe. In 1939 the school residence was sold and a tennis court built on the site. An additional 5 acres 3 roods 29.6 perches which adjoined the original school site was added to the school in 1951 to make a total of 7 acres 3 roods 0.4 perches. In 1955 the schoolrooms were remodelled and a new classroom was built at the rear of the previous annexe. In 1961 major remodelling and additions took place at a cost of £55,000. Major changes which took place in these 1955 and 1961 remodellings included enclosing the verandahs, removing the front verandah of the original school, and dividing its large classroom into two. In 1980 the preschool was opened and in 1988 the tennis courts were cleared.
In 2001 a nearby house now known as Dumbarton was moved from 41 Hemmant-Tingalpa Rd, corner of Brand Street, onto the school site. Dumbarton was associated with the development of Hemmant as a farming community in the last quarter of the 19th century. Its original site was part of a 29 acre property alienated from the Crown by Friedrich Uhlmann and F Harz in 1859. In 1869 the land was subdivided and the Dumbarton site was transferred to Friedrich Uhlmann. In 1873 this land was further subdivided and one acre [including the Dumbarton site] was transferred to the Doughboy Sugar Company. In 1880 a mortgage was taken out against the property - possibly for improvements, which may have included construction of the house. In 1885 title to this property was transferred to Angus Gibson, then to Christof Uhlmann in 1888, thus returning to the Uhlmann family.
The Gibson and Uhlmann families were connected by marriage, William Gibson's daughter Margaret having married Frederick Uhlmann's son Christopher Frederick in 1876. Local sources, and descendants of the Gibson family claim that the house was built by Friedrich Uhlmann for the Gibson family, possibly as early as 1864. The first definite evidence of the house is in 1887, when it is marked on a Railways survey of the proposed route of the Cleveland Railway Line. In 1911 the house and land were bought by Henry Skiller who lived there until his death in 1955 when it was transferred to Alan Skinner, subdivided and sold to William and Elizabeth Ashcroft. The house fell into disrepair but was renovated in the 1990s.
In 2000 the Main Roads Department acquired the land to build a new road to the Port of Brisbane. Following representation from local residents, members of the Gibson and Uhlmann families and local historical organisations, the house was moved to the Hemmant State School site in April 2001. The name 'Dumbarton' has been applied to the house only recently. Previously it was known as the Gibson House or the Ashcroft House. 'Dumbarton' was named after the original home in Scotland of the Ashcroft family.
","criteria":"Hemmant State School was established in 1864 and is one of the oldest still-operating State schools in Queensland. The earliest surviving building on the site dates to 1876. The school is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland history. Established shortly after the subdivision of the Doughboy Creek area into farms, the school illustrates the expansion of agriculture [initially small cropping and dairying] on the outskirts of Brisbane during the late 1850s and 1860s, during the period when Brisbane was consolidating its position as the principal town and capital of Queensland. In the 1870s the school population expanded with the introduction of sugar cultivation into the Doughboy Creek area, and expanded again in the 1920s and 1930s when meatworks were established in adjoining suburbs, employing Hemmant residents.
|Hemmant State School was established in 1864 and is one of the oldest still-operating State schools in Queensland.
|The Hemmant State School group comprises school buildings from the 1870s, 1880s, 1910s and 1930s and are significant in representing changing trends in school architecture, which were themselves representative of developments in education policy and practices. The 1876 building is considerably modified but a rare survival. The 1884 playshed is intact, including hooks which may have been used for hanging gym equipment, and relatively rare. The 1915 open-air annexe is considerably modified but many of the modifications are cosmetic and reversible. Major changes, such as the addition of another classroom and the substitution of windows for canvas blinds, are themselves representative of changes in the school population and education policies and practices.
Dumbarton, although considerably modified, provides evidence of c1880 single-skin and cross-bracing construction and is one of few remaining buildings in the Hemmant area which illustrates domestic architectural style and form of its era.
|Hemmant State School has a particular significance for the people of the small rural community of Hemmant. The school developed as the district grew and was a meeting place and community centre for many years.
Like Hemmant State School, it has strong community importance. When it was threatened with demolition in 2000, local action resulted in government intercession and the removal of the house to the local school site.
|It is also associated with the locally prominent Gibson and Uhlmann families, who were among the first settlers in the Doughboy Creek [Hemmant] area. The Gibson family was also important in the development of the Queensland sugar industry, and Angus Gibson, who held title to Dumbarton from 1885 to1888, was active in local government in the early 1880s and was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Council 1899-1920.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19510,"place_ref":602390,"name":"El Nido","alternate_name":"Cassa Anna","street_address":"194 Kingsford Smith Drive","suburb":"HAMILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-02-28","description":"El Nido is a large, Spanish Mission style residence situated prominently on the steep southern slope of Hamilton Hill, overlooking the Hamilton and Bulimba reaches of the Brisbane River, with views south/southwest across the city centre and east toward the mouth of the river. The house is accessed both from Hillside Crescent and from Kingsford Smith Drive, but sits well above Kingsford Smith Drive. It is a landmark building, seen from the river, from the Bulimba and Newstead areas, and from along Kingsford Smith Drive.
The house is a substantial, roughcast rendered brick building of two storeys with a sub-floor, taking advantage of the slope of the site. Elements of the Spanish Mission style include: a complex main hipped roof and small ancillary skillion roofs at various heights, all clad in Cordova style terracotta tiles; the use of colonnaded verandahs with semi-circular arches, barley twist columns and wrought iron balustrades; and the white roughcast exterior.
The entrance is from the western side of the building; the southern elevation, overlooking the river, is considered the 'front'. The originally open verandahs on the southern elevation have been enclosed with glazing, but the colonnade effect has been preserved.
Internally, the house remains substantially intact, with original timber wall panelling in the public rooms, and decorative leadlight windows throughout. Extensive views are obtained from the dining and living rooms on the eastern side of the house.
At the southern end of the block is a garage, accessed off Kingsford Smith Drive. This building is similarly designed with a Spanish Mission feel, with its roughcast rendered exterior walls and Cordova tiled roof. The grounds also contain stone terracing [which may be remnants of the Braeside garden]; concrete paving and stairs, and a private air-raid shelter of concrete construction at the northern end of the block, erected during the Second World War. This structure has been rendered to resemble the finish to the house.
","history":"Originally known as Cassa Anna, this early Brisbane Spanish Mission style house was constructed c1928 for Mr and Mrs EF Powers. It was designed in 1927 by important Brisbane architect Eric Percival Trewern, who was instrumental in popularising the Spanish Mission style for domestic architecture in Brisbane. The builder was B Hollingsworth of Coorparoo, who constructed many of Trewern's residential designs.
The site was first alienated from the Crown in 1853/54 by William Robert Howe Weekes of Brisbane, as part of a parcel of land which comprised the whole of Hamilton Hill through to what is now Crescent Road, and down to Eagle Farm Road [later Hamilton Road, then Kingsford Smith Drive] along the river. In the 1860s Weekes sold much of this land to Brisbane auctioneer and politician James Robert Dickson, who erected Toorak House at the top of Hamilton Hill. By the mid-1870s Hillside Crescent had been formed, and the subdivision which was later the site of El Nido [subdivision 1 of allotment 6 of portion 1] had been created, with title held by Dickson.
In late 1878 Dickson transferred title to subdivisions 1-3 of allotment 6 of portion 1 [three blocks between Hillside Crescent and Hamilton Road] to another Brisbane auctioneer and politician, John Francis Buckland, and an adjacent two blocks, also fronting Hamilton Road, [subdivisions 4and 5] to dentist David Ralph Eden. Braeside House, a substantial two-storeyed residence, appears to have been erected c1880 on subdivisions 4 and 5, and was occupied by solicitor John Robb Baxter Bruce by 1883. In the early 1890s Bruce acquired title to all five subdivisions and part of the adjacent subdivision 6. The house stood about two-thirds of the way along the site, overlooking the Brisbane River.
Braeside changed hands a number of times between 1902 and the 1920s, but remained on one title until the late 1920s. An aerial photograph of Hamilton Hill dated c1925 shows Braeside and its grounds very clearly. The main carriage drive led from a surveyed road [later closed] along the western boundary of subdivision 1 (near its intersection with Hillside Crescent), eastward across subdivisions 1-3 and parallel to Hillside Crescent, until it reached the house on subdivisions 4 and 5. Also evident in the photograph is a set of stairs leading south from the main carriage drive down the steep slope to another carriage drive running parallel to Hamilton Road. This second carriage drive led to two structures in the southwest corner of the estate [on subdivision 1], close to Hamilton Road, which may have been stables or garages. The stairs appear to be those shared by 'gentleman's agreement' with the occupants of 19 Hillside Crescent, since the late 1920s (since removed).
The Braeside Estate was subdivided during the 1920s economic boom, when rising Council rates combined with the lure of attractively increasing prices obtained for inner city suburban blocks in good locations, led to the subdivision of most of the remaining large suburban estates at New Farm, Hamilton, Ascot and Clayfield. Edward Ferdinand Powers acquired title to subdivision 1 in September 1927; title to subdivision 2 was transferred in 1928, as was that to Braeside on subdivisions 4 and 5 and re-subdivision 1 of subdivision 6; and subdivision 3 was transferred in 1932, although possibly sold in 1927-28. New houses on subdivisions 1-3 were erected and occupied by 1929.
The block which Powers acquired in 1927 comprised 30.8 perches of steeply sloping land with spectacular views over the Hamilton and Bulimba reaches of the Brisbane River, and east toward the mouth of the river. The site may also have contained the buildings associated with Braeside House, evident in the c1925 aerial photograph.
In mid-1927 Powers commissioned architect EP Trewern to design a substantial Spanish Mission styled residence for this site, to take advantage of the views. The design was well publicised [likely by its architect] and attracted considerable interest at the time, being heralded in the Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland of 11 July 1927 as:
The Spanish House Introduced to Brisbane
Spanish architecture is to be introduced to Brisbane in home designing. Mr EP Trewern, architect, has received from a local medico a commission to erect a residence for him of this type, and, as the location is on the Hamilton Heights, it will be seen to advantage. . ..
A similar claim that Spanish Mission design was being introduced to Brisbane was repeated in the Daily Mail newspaper of 28 October 1927:20, which published a sketch of the principal elevations. The same sketch also appeared in the Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland of 10 November 1927:54. Of particular interest were the Cordova-style roofing tiles, manufactured by the Shannon Brick and Tile Company [of Sydney and Brisbane] and reputedly used for the first time in Brisbane.
Elements of Spanish Mission style were not new to Brisbane in 1927, having been used on picture theatre facades since the 1910s. Craigston Flats on Wickham Terrace, erected in 1927, employed elements of the Spanish Mission and/or Mediterranean styles. However, El Nido was the earliest or one of the earliest Spanish Mission style houses in Brisbane, and was designed by a prominent architect who subsequently popularised this style for domestic housing in Brisbane. Other important Spanish Mission style houses designed by Trewern include Santa Barbara at 209 Moray Street, New Farm [1929-30, cost £4,000 - (QHR 601547)] and 17 Griffith Street, New Farm.
EP Trewern's Brisbane architectural practice, established in 1920 and maintained until his death in 1959, proved highly successful. During the interwar years he was influential in popularising Georgian revival style in Brisbane commercial building, and Spanish Mission style in Brisbane residential architecture. He designed residences throughout Brisbane, and his interwar commercial work included business premises, flats and office renovations. His larger commissions included the Country Press Association Building at the corner of Elizabeth and Edward Streets [1924-25 - demolished]; Heindorff's Building in Queen Street [1926-28 - demolished]; Inchcolm Professional Chambers on Wickham Terrace [1929-30 - (QHR 600170)]; Turrawan Private Hospital at Clayfield [1932 with 1935 additions]; and the new Surfers Paradise Hotel [1936-37 - demolished].
Trewern was actively involved in furthering professional architectural standards in Queensland. He served as Vice-President of the Queensland Institute of Architects 1929-30, Member Board of Architects of Queensland 1929-35, Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects 1930, President Queensland Institute of Architects 1931-35, Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1931; Vice-President of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects 1932-33, and Federal Councillor 1932-35.
City Council building approval for El Nido was granted in November 1927. Expected to cost £3,500, the brick and stucco residence was one of the most expensive houses erected in Brisbane in the late 1920s. In 1927 Brisbane was experiencing 'boom' economic conditions; even so, most houses were erected in timber, and in the financial year 1927-28, the average cost of an average 4-roomed timber house with kitchen and front and back verandahs was £558. In 1927-28 a very comfortable timber residence could be erected for between £1,000 and £1,500, and more elaborate and stylish timber homes averaged between £1500 and £2000. The 20th century construction of domestic dwellings in brick or concrete was still in its infancy in Brisbane, and El Nido was at the cutting edge of this movement. In the twelve months from November 1927 to October 1928, approvals were given for only four homes of greater cost than El Nido: a brick and stone house at Ascot to cost £4,200; two brick houses at Clayfield priced at £7,000 and £3,700 respectively, and a timber residence at Clayfield costing £4,000. El Nido and its middle class contemporaries were as close to mansion status as Brisbane generated in this era.
In February 1928 EF Powers took out a mortgage on his Hamilton Road property, which may have helped finance the construction of Cassa Anna. On 1 November 1928, the Brisbane Courier reported Mrs EF Powers entertained a few guests at luncheon at Cassa Anna, indicating the building was completed by this time. The house and its garage, the latter accessed off Hamilton Road, figure prominently in an aerial photograph of Hamilton published in The Queenslander of 19 March 1931.
Cassa Anna was considered one of Brisbane's most beautiful homes, and was featured in the January 1933 issue of the Brisbane society publication Steering Wheel and Society and Home, reflecting the social status of its owners. It is not clear whether Powers was a medical practitioner as reported in the Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland in 1927. He appears to be the Edward F Powers who married Olive MacDermott in Sydney in 1927, suggesting that Brisbane was not their home city. They did not occupy the building for any length of time. They undertook a world tour in 1932, during which time they lent the house to Sydney friends. Then in April 1933 title was transferred to medical practitioner Robert Graham Brown.
In January 1937 Brown transferred the property to Norman Edward Gow of Brisbane, who retained the house for nearly 20 years. Gow also appears to have leased the house to other occupants for some years, possibly even to the former owner, Dr Brown, who remains listed in the Post Office Directories as resident here until at least 1940. By at least September 1935 the house was known as El Nido [meaning 'the nest' or 'the home' in Spanish]. It was occupied at the time by JP Ragland, consul for the United States of America, and was a focus for 'society' functions in Brisbane.
During the Second World War [1939-45] a concrete air-raid shelter was erected along the northern boundary of the property.
In honour of the visit of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh to Brisbane in 1954, the occupants of prominently-positioned El Nido decorated the front elevation of their house with the British Coat of Arms and the lettering 'God Save the Queen'. The elaborate decoration would have been seen from the river and from the Brisbane Airport approach to the city, along Hamilton Road [Kingsford Smith Drive].
Since 1957 the property has changed hands a number of times. It remains a private residence, and retains its views over the Brisbane River and eastward toward the river entrance.
","criteria":"El Nido, erected in 1928, was an important and expensive house of its era, which remains important in illustrating the pattern of Brisbane suburban infill in the 1920s and 1930s, when the large suburban estates of the 1880s and 1890s were subdivided for closer density middle class housing. The extent of this infill was not rivalled until the late 20th century. The house is illustrative of the new trend toward brick construction for Brisbane's more expensive homes, a reflection of a booming economy. Its design is credited with being instrumental in popularising Spanish Mission residences in Brisbane in the interwar period, and reputedly its construction introduced the Cordova tile to Brisbane. The grounds retain the original garage, a private Second World War air-raid shelter, and early terracing.
|El Nido is one of the earliest and best conceived of the interwar Spanish Mission style houses erected in Brisbane, important in illustrating the principal characteristics of its type: a substantial, decorative, middle-class residence designed in the Spanish Mission style to take advantage of a steeply sloping block with extensive views across Brisbane and along the Brisbane River.
|Situated prominently along a major arterial road, the building was designed to be viewed and to impress. Building and grounds retain strong aesthetic value, and are significant for their landmark quality.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19520,"place_ref":602400,"name":"Kangaroo Point Cliffs","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Lower River Terrace","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-02-28","description":"The Kangaroo Point Cliffs extend south from just north of the former Naval Brigade Depot to the former South Brisbane Dry Dock, west of the Captain Cook Bridge. After 150 years of quarrying the site now comprises a vertical rock face approximately 25m high which extends most of the length of the site. The base of the cliffs and quarry floor are accessible to pedestrians via steps leading down from Scout Place on River Terrace and vehicular and pedestrian access is provided along Lower River Terrace.
Floodlit by night, the rock faces are a spectacular backdrop to the City Botanic Gardens and are a distinctive feature in the riverscape and in the townscape.
The cliffs expose an ancient bed of Brisbane tuff, known locally also as porphyry. The stone outcrop at Kangaroo Point is part of a belt of Brisbane Tuff generally less than one kilometre wide, extending from Chermside to Dutton Park, with a branch through New Farm and Norman Park towards Belmont. The distribution of Brisbane tuff is very sporadic, for it is underlain by the old metamorphic rocks which underlie the central business district and form many of Brisbane's hills. Other tuff quarries were located at Leichhardt Street [now St Paul's Terrace], Spring Hill; Skyring's quarry near All Hallows' Convent, Fortitude Valley; and at O'Connelltown, but the Kangaroo Point Quarry is the most extensive and most illustrative of this rock formation.
The Kangaroo Point Cliffs show continuous thick exposure of massive welded tuff, the major rock type of the Brisbane Tuff. At the northern end of the former quarry, a dyke-like structure occurs in a zone of alteration, and may represent a former vent or site of escape of fumerole gases. The 'dyke' is an uncommon feature and the only one so far recorded from the tuff.
The ridge of the cliff along River Terrace is an open grassed terrace with a stone retaining wall to the cliff edge. A lookout shelter, Scout Place, stands within the terrace and overlooks the City Botanic Gardens and offers expansive views across Brisbane City, Southbank, up and downstream of the Brisbane River and beyond to Mt Coot-tha.
The quarry floor varies in width and accommodates a range of facilities and vegetation. A pedestrian walkway and bicycle path threads along the length of the site sometimes to the water's edge and at times winding closer to the cliff face. There are a number of platforms projecting over the river providing resting and viewing opportunities. Open grassed and landscaped picnic areas are scattered along the way and accommodate tables, benches and BBQ facilities. The site is dotted with colourful and distinctive sculptures, follies and pavilion shelters. A number of the sculptures contain elements associated with the various activities that have occurred along the river. In particular, sculptures adjacent to the former South Brisbane Dry Dock incorporate items of ship fabric and a series of river buoys stands beside the former Naval Stores.
Along the site there is remnant fabric from the various former activities associated with the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, including timbers from the former coal wharves and, near the Captain Cook Bridge, a number of concrete piers, some with metal casings, which supported the cranes that hoisted coal from the wharves.
The cliff face has dense vegetation in parts including the area northeast of the Captain Cook Bridge. The quarry floor below the Kangaroo Point TAFE College accommodates a small inlet with distinctive rough hewn rock edges and a dense mangrove clump with a timber boardwalk winding through. There are a number of old timber piles with copper bands scattered through the garden beds in this area. There is also a distinctive lower ledge of rock along the cliff base at this point.
The river edge varies; at times it is a battered stone retaining wall, at others a rocky edge with mangrove clumps. There is a range of debris caught up along the edge including chunks of concrete, pieces of steel and lengths of timber.
The northern end of the cliff base accommodates the former Naval Brigade Depot. Surviving elements include No.2 Store [a timber building recently refurbished as the Naval Stores Museum]; the wharf; the concrete boatslip; and the timber stairs [now closed] leading up the cliff face to St Mary's Church.
","history":"The Kangaroo Point Cliffs below Main Street, River Terrace and Lower River Terrace, Kangaroo Point, are the remnant evidence of extensive non-indigenous quarrying over 150 years [c1826-1976]. They have played a significant role in the development of the city and port of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, since the 1820s. They are a distinctive landscape feature which, along with the Story Bridge and the Brisbane City Hall, has acquired iconoclastic status in the Brisbane townscape. The cliffs contain the best known outcrop of Brisbane Tuff, the distinctive pink and green building stone used in some of Brisbane's earliest [1820s and 1830s] public buildings; in base courses, retaining walls, side walls and cellars of 19th century free settlement buildings; and in later municipal and government works such as roadmaking, kerbing, wharfs and marine walls.
The Kangaroo Point 'Cliffs' which Aborigines knew prior to European settlement, were steep rocky slopes with boulder outcrops and vegetation. The earliest identified historical reference to the Kangaroo Point Cliffs was made by NSW Surveyor-General John Oxley, during his exploration of the Brisbane River in early December 1823, when he noted in his field book a "high, rocky bank" below what is now River Terrace, Kangaroo Point. On 1844 survey plans prepared by surveyor James Warner, the high ground of Kangaroo Point was described as a "bold rocky ridge", much of which is still evident in late 19th century photographs of Kangaroo Point.
Following the removal of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement from Red Cliff Point to the Brisbane River [North Brisbane] around May 1825, the river flats at the northern end of Kangaroo Point were cleared and planted with wheat and maize to supply food for the new settlement, and c1826 Commandant Logan opened a quarry at the base of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, to supply stone for his building works at North Brisbane. According to Allan Cunningham's August 1829 survey of Brisbane Town, this early quarry was located opposite the Botanical Gardens, at the "highest point of a wooded ridge", in the vicinity of the later Naval Stores. The rock was punted across the river to Stone Wharf, about 150 metres upstream from the present Edward Street ferry landing.
The stone quarried from the Kangaroo Point Cliffs was known as 'phorphyry' [later Brisbane Tuff], a consolidated volcanic ash or rhyolitic ignimbrite deposited during the late Triassic age following a Nuee Ardent (glowing cloud) eruption. These eruptions are generally violent and voluminous and the erupted body moves with great speed for long distances, up to 100km if the relief is sufficient. The Kangaroo Point Cliffs are made up of such a flow or of two almost consecutive flows. These volcanic rocks are of the same age and chemical composition as the more coarsely crystallized Enoggera Granite and other granite bodies north-west of Brisbane. All may have originated from the same parent meltrock and magma in the final stages of consolidation of the eastern Australian mountain belt, 230-220 million years ago.
During the 1820s and 1830s stone from the Kangaroo Point quarry was used to construct a number of government buildings at the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, including the Commissariat Store (1828-1829) and its William Street retaining wall.
Following the closure of the penal colony and the opening of Moreton Bay to free settlement in February 1842, Brisbane's earliest suburb, Kangaroo Point, was surveyed into suburban allotments, auctioned in December 1843. The lower areas of the Point, which had been cleared during the convict era for cropping purposes, and which had easy access to the river, attracted various early industries, including a boiling down works, a soap and candle factory, ship building, foundries and sawmills. By the 1850s, there were some 80 to 90 houses on the peninsula, including several fine residences along Main Street.
From 1842 the Kangaroo Point Quarry was rented to private builders, including John Petrie, until placed under the control of the newly established [September 1859] Brisbane Municipal Council in 1860. By this date, however, only two small quarry faces had been opened - one below St Mary's Church and the other below the later TAFE college. The Municipal Council continued to sub-lease the quarry to private builders, under whom the quarry mainly supplied stone ballast to ships. This wasteful use of the stone and the manner in which it was quarried was of particular concern to the Rector of St Mary's Church located on the cliff above, resulting in the Colonial Government resuming control of the quarry in 1864. By the mid-1880s the quarry face extended a little over 100 metres, or about one-eighth the length of the present worked-out quarry face.
In 1880 the entire length of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs below River Terrace from Leopard Street to St Mary's Church was placed under control of the Brisbane Municipal Council as a Temporary Reserve for Public Purposes subject to the right of the Government to use it for works in progress and to resume any land it might require for wharfage, railway and quarrying purposes (QGG 26 June 1880). This heralded Government construction in the early 1880s of new coal wharves at the foot of the southern end of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, adjacent to the South Brisbane Dry Dock. The new wharves were serviced by a branch rail line and siding, which necessitated the cutting back of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs below Lower River Terrace.
Until the mid-1880s the export of coal from the West Moreton district was frustrated by a lack of direct access to deep water wharves for bunkering of coal onto ships for export from Brisbane. Coal came into Brisbane and was loaded onto drays for transport to the wharves. To facilitate the more efficient handling of coal for export, various extensions to the railway system were proposed and in 1880 an extension to the Ipswich-Brisbane lin,e branching off at South Brisbane Junction [later known as Corinda] between Sherwood and Oxley, and coming around to Woolloongabba and South Brisbane via Yeerongpilly, was approved. The project included a sidings branch to new coal wharves adjacent to the Dry Dock at South Brisbane. The contract for the wharves and sidings branch was awarded to Acheson Overend & Co. After a number of delays, the line was finally opened in 1884.
After construction of the wharf, it was found necessary to remove a bar of rock in the river which prevented the proper use of the two 4.5 tonne (10-ton) steam cranes installed on the wharf. Overend & Co. undertook the removal of the rock bar and constructed an additional 18mx12m (60ft x 40ft) jetty with a 6.8 tonne (15-ton) steam crane for coaling large ocean vessels. Coal traffic from the wharf at South Brisbane flourished and in 1900 additional siding accommodation was constructed and a travelling crane installed replacing crane number 4. This travelling crane dominated the South Brisbane vista along the river for many years. By the mid-20th century oil fuel was replacing coal and the bunkering of coal declined. In 1960 the rails were removed from the wharf and the wharf was demolished in 1974.
In 1886-88, as part of Queensland's marine defence strategy, the Colonial Government constructed a depot for the Queensland Marine Defence Force at the foot of the northern end of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, on the floor of the earlier Kangaroo Point Quarry. Established to provide storage, repair and training facilities for the colony's modest but growing fleet of marine defence vessels and newly established Naval Brigade, the Depot originally comprised two two-storeyed timber buildings roofed with galvanized corrugated iron and resting on stone foundation walls with concrete footings. These buildings contained lecture rooms; a gun battery for training; store rooms; carpenters' shops; workshops for ship repairs; and a torpedo storeroom/workshop. A wharf was erected in 1887-88, and a flight of timber stairs was constructed c1890 to provide access up the cliff to Amesbury Street and St Mary's Church, which served as the Naval Chapel for many years. A concrete boatslip was constructed c1900.
The Depot remained the operational base of the Queensland Marine Defence Force until the formation of the Royal Australian Navy [RAN] after Federation in 1901. The Kangaroo Point Depot remained the principal training facililty for Queensland naval reservists until the construction of a depot at Alice Street in the 1920s. On 31 October 1959 the RAN handed over the Kangaroo Point Depot to the Australian Army, which used it to accommodate its 32nd Small Ships Squadron. In 1984 the Army removed its Small Ships Squadron to Bulimba, and the Kangaroo Point Depot was vacated. In 1986/87 the site was transferred to the Brisbane City Council.
Only one of the former Naval Depot buildings [No.2 Store] survives and this now accommodates the Naval Stores Museum, a Brisbane City Council Social History Strategy initiative developed to allow visitors to gain an understanding of the histories of Brisbane's naval defences, the Brisbane River, Kangaroo Point and Australian Federation. The former Naval Brigade Depot was entered permanently in the Queensland Heritage Register in October 1992 (QHR 600239).
In 1898 the Marine Department opened a new quarry south of the Naval Depot, about halfway along River Terrace, to supply rock for river walls at Hamilton. This was the start of the scheme of dredging and training walls devised by EA Cullen, appointed Engineer of Harbours and Rivers in 1902, to complete the development of the river port of Brisbane. The Department of Harbours and Rivers (later the Department of Harbours and Marine) used the Kangaroo Point Cliffs quarry for marine work until 1976. In the period 1898 to 1919, this work included: the training walls or revetments which contain the dredgings of the reclamation of the tidal flats for industry at Hamilton [1898-1900], Doughboy [1900], Coxen Point, and Lytton; the training walls which regulate tidal flow and link Parker, Bulwer, Gibson and other estuarine islands with the mainland; and the stone pitching of the river banks at the City Botanic Gardens. By 1919, more than half a million tones of stone for these walls had been removed from the Kangaroo Point Quarry. In 1928, stone from the Kangaroo Point Quarry was used to double the height of the Lytton training wall and to shape and maintain other early 20th century training walls. Other Harbours and Marine projects utilising stone from Kangaroo Point included the Manly Boat Harbour and the new port at Fisherman Islands in the 1970s.
The rock for these projects was loaded onto punts at the quarry and towed to the work sites. Extensive quarrying by the Marine Department opened the rock face of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs between the Naval Stores at the northern end of the site and the coal wharves at the southern end, creating the dramatic length of perpendicular drop that distinguishes the Kangaroo Point Cliffs today. By 1976, when control of the Brisbane River passed to the Port of Brisbane Authority, most of the available Kangaroo Point rock had been exploited and the quarry was closed.
Brisbane Tuff is now exposed along the cliff face, providing an important source of geological information. The quarry floors and ridge of the cliffs are now important public park reserves and enjoyed as places of informal recreation. The cliffs are popular for abseiling and rock climbing, and are valued as a riverside walkway, picnic area and vantage point - especially for Brisbane River and Southbank festivities.
Scout Place, the lookout on the top of the cliffs adjacent to River Terrace, between Llewellyn and Bell Streets, was erected in 1982 to designs prepared by the Brisbane City Council's Landscape Architecture Section, to commemorate seventy-five years of scouting in Queensland.
","criteria":"The Kangaroo Point Cliffs are important in demonstrating the pattern and evolution of Queensland's history, in particular for their association with the development of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. The cliffs were a major source of stone for Brisbane buildings, roadworks, wharfage and marine walls for a period of 150 years from the commencement of the penal colony at Moreton Bay in the mid-1820s.
Accommodating important coal wharves from 1884 to 1960, the Kangaroo Point Cliffs are significant in the development of Brisbane as the principal port of Queensland.
|As a rare resource of Ignimbrite and containing an unusual dyke-like structure, the cliffs of the former quarry have the potential to yield technical information that will contribute to an understanding of the geological development of the Queensland landscape.
|As a rare resource of Ignimbrite and containing an unusual dyke-like structure, the cliffs of the former quarry have the potential to yield technical information that will contribute to an understanding of the geological development of the Queensland landscape.
|A dramatic presence in the riverscape and townscape, floodlit at night, the Kangaroo Point Cliffs are an important visual landmark forming a backdrop to many views and vistas of the City.
|The Cliffs are valued as a public vantage point offering expansive views north and west over Brisbane. The park reserve to the river edge and ridge of the cliffs is important as a place of informal recreation, a sheer hewn cliff face accommodating a vantage point to its ridge and a landscaped public recreation reserve incorporating lush vegetation, sculptures, follies and a walking path. The cliffs are particularly popular for abseiling and rock climbing. The cliffs are valued as a riverside walkway, picnic area and vantage point. Scout Place on River Terrace is important in commemorating the contribution of the Scouting movement to the local and wider community.
|Accommodating an early naval defence station and other defence force activities from 1888 to 1984, the Kangaroo Point Cliffs are important for their association with Queensland colonial defences and with the Australian Defence Forces.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19521,"place_ref":602401,"name":"Riverside Centre","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"123 Eagle Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2023-12-01","description":"Riverside Centre (completed 1986) is an office tower complex located at the northeastern edge of Brisbane Central Business District (CBD). It includes an Office Tower, public Plaza, Plaza Buildings, and a section of a riverside promenade known as the Riverwalk. The 1.35ha site fronts Eagle Street to its northwest and the Brisbane River to its southeast, and its other (northeast and southwest) sides are bounded by high-rise commercial and mixed-use buildings. Standing within Brisbane’s Golden Triangle precinct, the complex employs cohesive Modernist design principles and makes a notable contribution to the cityscape.
\nThe complex is laid out with the 40-storey Office Tower standing centrally on the site’s western (Eagle Street) edge, with a low-rise, mixed-use Plaza Building (fronting the Brisbane River to the south of the Office Tower) and a public Plaza that steps down towards the river. The Office Tower’s triangular form maximises views out to the river. The Riverwalk runs along the length of the site’s river edge and extends over the water. Under the Plaza are two levels of underground car parking and service areas.
\nRiverside Centre contributes to the vista of the Brisbane CBD skyline from the Brisbane River (Town Reach), Kangaroo Point and the Story Bridge (QHR 600240). Its riverfront siting, distinctive forms and surrounding open and low-rise plaza setting accentuate the place within this view.
\nFeatures of Riverside Centre of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of Riverside Centre not of State-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nOffice Tower
\nThe Office Tower’s triangular plan form with rounded corners is orientated so that one side of the building faces Eagle Street to the northwest, and two sides face northeast and southeast to largely unobscured views up and down the Brisbane River. The 40-storey concrete structure has two basement levels and a tall foyer occupying the entire ground floor at the Plaza level.
\nThe Office Tower’s exterior is a grid of grey granite stone cladding and large banks of fixed windows shielded on the northeast and northwest sides by external metal sunshades. The grid is interrupted by ‘sky terraces’ (recessed open-air balconies) at various locations on the river-fronting (south and northeast) elevations of the building, accessed via some offices. The building has a flat roof, with the top storey externally expressed by having fewer windows and housing the largest ‘sky terrace’, expanding along the eastern corner. The Office Tower exterior has a strong, clear form and a graphic aesthetic quality depicting Modernist principles.
\nThe base of the building (formed by the foyer level and two mezzanine levels above (known as levels 5 and 6; former Brisbane Stock Exchange)) has a solid and heavy exterior appearance. Clad with polished granite stone, this solid form melds at the ground level into two massive hyperboloid columns at either end of the Eagle Street elevation. These columns frame the building’s entrance, which is further emphasised by an undulating, metal-framed glass canopy. The base’s other sides have regularly-spaced columns, between which are enclosures of tall, frameless glass.
\nThe exterior of the building is highly intact, with minor changes including: windows cut into the eastern corner of levels 5 and 6, the removal of the original main entrance doors and replacement in the same location to a larger design, and the removal and replacement of secondary access doors. Tenancy branding, including at the top of the building and at the front entrance, are regularly updated.
\nThe building’s main entrance is from the Plaza from Eagle Street, with secondary entrances from the Plaza on the other sides. The foyer is approximately 15m in height and wraps around the central, triangular, structural service core. Its off-form concrete ceiling features a pattern of exposed radiating and concentric-curved rib beams. The glass foyer walls undulate inwards at the eastern end of the building to accommodate and overlook an exterior water feature in the Plaza. The foyer ceiling lowers on the northeast and south sides of the building, under the former Brisbane Stock Exchange. Between these levels, a cantilevered concrete stair with travertine stone-lined balustrades overlooks the foyer below. The former Brisbane Stock Exchange has been converted to open-plan office tenancies and the originally open mezzanines at the northwest end have been enclosed with glass.
\nAbove the base of the building, repeated concrete floor plates feature open-plan office spaces, supported on a central, triangular, structural service core, with concrete columns at the building’s outer edges. The structural service core contains services such as banks of lifts, fire stairs, services ducts and toilets. The lift heights are staggered, culminating at low, mid and high levels with crossover lift lobbies. Plant rooms are on levels 16, 17, 40 and the rooftop, containing modern equipment. To each level, the central structural service core is surrounded by an approximately 12.5m wide ring of open-plan office space, unimpeded by columns. Tenancy fit-outs (such as partitions, floor surfaces, lighting, furniture, fixtures and fittings) are non-structural and were designed to be changed by respective tenants. No substantial original interior fit-outs to these levels survive. Some alterations to the floor plates have been made to connect and disconnect multi-floor tenancies via stairs, voids and enclosures.
\nPanoramic views up and down the river are available from all levels of the triangular Office Tower as a result of its form, the surrounding open space Plaza, and the lowset nature of the Plaza Buildings.
\nFeatures of the Office Tower of State-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Office Tower not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nPlaza
\nThe Plaza surrounding the Office Tower provides a pedestrian thoroughfare from Eagle Street at the west end of the site, stepping down to the Riverwalk and Brisbane River at the east. The Plaza is an open, largely uncovered space, providing for a public thoroughfare across the site, and for access into the Office Tower and three Plaza Buildings. The open space of the Plaza allows for views of the Office Tower from the ground plane, and for the Office Tower to access light and air. While new landscaping has been added, some original plants and planter beds have been retained and / or remain in early locations.
\nAt its east end, the Plaza features a curved walkway canopy supported by round columns. A water feature extends into the east corner of the Office Tower, and cascades down to a pond at the Riverwalk level, following the steps of the adjacent curved stairs and stair / ramp (referred to as a stramp). It has a row of fountains in the upper pond (adjacent to the Office Tower) and is crossed by the Plaza flooring at this level (the crossing has been widened). Views of the river, framed by a raised curvilinear beam, become apparent at this side of the Plaza.
\nFeatures of the Plaza of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Plaza not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nSouth Plaza Building
\nThe low-rise South Plaza Building stands within the Plaza at the southeast end of the site. It features curved wall forms and a flat roof. Views of the river are obtained from its balconies / terraces and large window openings.
\nThe three storey building features a food court on the central/ground floor (aligned with and accessed via the upper plaza level), and a restaurant / bar on the first floor. Its length has been reduced, with the western portion of the building removed to accommodate 111 Eagle Street (c2007-09). An external northeastern stair and an internal north-western stair provide access between the ground and first floors. Each level features unroofed balconies / terraces and large glass openings to the east and southeast sides, overlooking the Plaza, river and Story Bridge. A semi-circular plant room extends above the first floor.
\nLarge circular planter beds on the northwest side of the building have low concrete walls with polished grey granite caps. A circular floor opening with concrete walls to the upper level is vertically aligned with the ground floor planter bed, providing light and growth-space to the plants below.
\nThe lower (Riverwalk) level’s former void space enclosure for a proposed river road has been opened for a restaurant fit-out (not of State-level cultural heritage significance).
\nFeatures of the South Plaza Building of State-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Plaza Buildings not of State-Level cultural heritage significance include:
\nRiverwalk
\nThe Riverwalk is a mostly uncovered footpath that extends over the river along the southeast side of the site. Originally terminating at the allotment boundaries, the footpath now connects into a wider route along the river. It has a paved floor finish, and concrete bollards with large metal chains along the water’s edge.
\nFeatures of the Riverwalk of State-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Riverwalk not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nViews
\nThe complex forms part of the recognisable cityscape vista of Brisbane CBD that can be viewed from the Story Bridge, Kangaroo Point and the up and down the Town Reach stretch of the Brisbane River.
\nViews of State-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nCompleted in 1986, Riverside Centre was designed as development company Lend Lease’s principal project for the 1980s. It was built during a boom in office tower construction in Brisbane, including the emerging heart of the financial district between Queen and Edward streets. Designed by internationally renowned architect Harry Seidler in 1983, the $200-plus million development included a 40-storey office tower, a plaza providing open-air public space with access to the Brisbane River, and entertainment, food and transport facilities. Riverside Centre became home of the Brisbane Stock Exchange, with a purpose-built bourse on the lower office levels. It also became a popular centre for recreation, as Brisbane’s social focus was increasingly oriented towards the outdoors and the river.
\nGrowth of the Brisbane Central Business District
\nPart of the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Yuggerah people, the non-indigenous occupation of Brisbane began with the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement (1824), before the area was opened for non-indigenous settlement in 1842. Established on the site of the former penal colony, Brisbane then was encircled by two reaches of the Brisbane River, and was declared a port of entry in 1846. It became the capital of the colony of Queensland in 1859, and was proclaimed a city in 1902.
\nThe expansion of the colonial economy and related shipping activity from the 1840s shaped the need for buildings in Brisbane to house office-based work, banking, and insurance.[1] Brisbane developed as Queensland’s commercial and financial centre and its major port, hosting the headquarters for the colony’s principal businesses, financial institutions, shipping companies and government. Its buildings were erected largely in economic boom periods in the central business district (CBD) in the 1860s, the 1880s and the 1920s. These were clustered into precincts, with most of the government buildings erected along George Street, the retail and financial district stretching down Queen Street, and a shipping, wharf, and warehouse precinct along the Town Reach, the riverfront between the Botanic Gardens and the Kangaroo Point bend.[2]
\nIn the early 1920s, most of the Brisbane CBD’s buildings reached only one or two storeys (including residences), with warehouses up to three and four storeys, and a small number of commercial buildings extending up to eight storeys (such as Perry House, built in 1910).[3] The 1920s boom brought taller buildings, but in 1926, building heights were restricted to a maximum of 132ft (40.23m), or eleven storeys.[4] Accordingly, financial buildings along Queen Street were erected up to ten storeys during the 1920s and 1930s, but much of the CBD’s built stock remained lower scaled[5] By the time construction work was halted for the outbreak of World War II, the Brisbane City Hall clock tower (278ft) was the tallest structure in the CBD.[6]
\nThe rise of the office tower
\nThe second half of the twentieth century brought considerable change to the Brisbane CBD. Brisbane’s population climbed to half a million in the late 1940s, overtaking Adelaide as Australia’s third largest city.[7] The CBD’s first postwar office building, an eleven-storey curtain wall modern office block for MLC, was completed in 1956, though a credit squeeze limited further construction for the next several years.[8] Shopping centres were built in the suburbs and shipping facilities moved further downstream towards the river mouth, leaving the CBD’s traditional retail and wharfing precincts in decline.[9] However, Queensland’s mining and property industries boomed in the 1960s and 1980s, encouraging investment into the state. This, accompanied by governmental encouragement of private enterprise, favourable development policies and the removal of building height restrictions under Brisbane’s first Town Plan in 1965, increased business in Brisbane’s CBD.[10] High-rise offices were constructed across the CBD to meet demand from Queensland’s growing tertiary industries, particularly finance (including banking, insurance and assurance, and merchant banking); government; and to serve as state headquarters for Queensland’s agricultural, pastoral and mining companies.[11]
\nThe high-rise office tower emerged as a building typology during the late 19th century in Chicago and New York in the United States of America, where architects and engineers manipulated the metal frame, electric lift, and air-conditioning systems to establish tall buildings for work spaces.[12] During the mid-to-late 20th century this building type was increasingly constructed in Australian cities and continuously evolved with the established building tradition.[13] While there are numerous descriptions of the height associated with the term ‘high-rise’ worldwide, it is most often based on building codes and fire regulation applicable in individual geographical locations.[14] With the removal of height limits in the 1965 town plan, Brisbane’s high-rises rose above 132ft (40.23m; approximately 11 storeys).[15]
\nHigh-rise office towers from the late 20th century typically featured a structural frame of metal, reinforced concrete or pre-stressed concrete; repeated floor plates with spaces for desk work; entrance foyers for centralised access; and vertical cores that usually assisted in withstanding lateral forces such as wind and included: lifts, stairs (for fire egress), toilets and service ducts.[16] Most buildings of this type adopted the ‘shell and core’ concept, where the exterior design of the building was highly-specified, and the interior spaces were standardised and flexible (largely open-plan), allowing for tenant-specified individual fit-outs and periodic refitting.[17] Semi-public spaces that were at the forefront of user-experience, such as entrance foyers, lifts, boardrooms and restaurants, were often of a more refined architectural finish.[18] During the 1960s and 1970s, heavy concrete curtain wall cladding was popular, and from the late 1970s, building designs increasingly featured flat, sleek and reflective surfaces, including all-glass facades or polished marble or granite.[19] The curtain wall cladding was often modular and prefabricated.[20] Sun control was handled in various and evolving ways, such as structural frame projections, external shading devices (including external hoods, screens, egg-crate sun breakers (horizontal and vertical flanges positioned in a square grid), or sun-blades), reflective glass, or interior blinds.[21]
\nBetween ninety and one hundred high-rise offices were constructed in the Brisbane CBD between 1965 and 2000, with more in near-city suburbs.[22] The first building to claim a height over eleven storeys, the 16-storey Pearl Assurance office, was completed in 1966. The next several years brought a series of ever-taller buildings, from the 20-storey Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Building (1967);[23] to the 23-storey Bank of New South Wales (1970); the State Government Insurance Office (1971); the first building over 60 metres, 167 Eagle Street (1973); and a series of high-rise towers for government, mining, investment, financial and insurance groups completed by 1976, mostly designed in the ‘international modern’ style which dominated high-rise office design in Australia.[24] The most intense growth in the CBD occurred in a five year period in the mid-1980s, when development underpinned by a resources boom triggered extensive office building construction.[25] Almost one million square metres of floorspace was constructed in Brisbane during this time, significantly reshaping the city’s appearance.[26]
\nThe former wharf and warehouse precinct along Town Reach was a focus for high-rise office development. It held the city’s first high-rise and two of the tallest buildings (167 Eagle Street, 1973; and AMP Gold Tower, 1978), as well as several more modest high-rise offices. The construction of the city’s first fully glass-clad ‘Gold Tower’ for AMP in 1978 gave rise to the precinct being called the ‘Golden Triangle’, and its reputation as a desirable office location.[27] Office towers were erected in the Golden Triangle and named for the highest-paying lessee, ranging in scale from the 18-storey, $9 million GWA House on Market Street (1982), to the record-setting $60 million AMP Blue Tower (1984), a 35-storey ‘technologically-advanced marvel’.[28] The Golden Triangle became the CBD’s acknowledged financial heart[29] as the precinct became home to a series of ‘gleaming office towers’.[30]
\nThe 1980s also saw the emergence of office towers described in real estate parlance as ‘blue chip’, ‘premium’ or ‘prime’, responding to demands from the financial and professional sectors.[31] Notable amongst these were the Gold Tower, its twin ‘Blue Tower’ (1984), the CML building on Queen Street (1984), Capital Centre on Adelaide Street (1984), Central Plaza One and Two (1987-88), and Waterfront Place (1990).[32] In a single decade (1979-1989), Brisbane climbed from one of the least expensive cities for office rentals in the world, to 15th in the world for premium office buildings, and 24th in the world for office rentals overall.[33]
\nThe long boom of Brisbane’s office towers ended abruptly in 1990. Projects were put on hold as the Queensland economy began a downward turn, and Australia entered a recession. Several proposed major office towers projects were postponed or abandoned. Strong building activity did not recommence for another decade.[34]
\nLend Lease, Harry Seidler and Associates, and Riverside
\nIn 1979, development company Lend Lease began investigating sites for a landmark project.[35] Lend Lease, established in 1958 by Dick Dusseldorp, was one of Australia’s largest development construction companies,[36] responsible for housing, retail, and commercial construction across Australia in the second half of the 20th century. The company formed a development triumvirate with construction and engineering business, Civil and Civic, and financial enterprise, General Property Trust (GPT),[37] allowing it to undertake significant projects.[38] The company had built two ‘landmark’ or statement high-rise projects in Sydney: Australia Square (1968) and the MLC Centre (1976), both designed by architectural firm Harry Seidler and Associates.[39]
\nEncouraged by Queensland’s economic progress and forecasts for further growth, the company focused on the Brisbane CBD for its 1980s landmark.[40] The company’s attention was drawn to the burgeoning financial centre, where, by 1979, office towers lined the streets between remnant shipping company and government maritime buildings. Though construction had shifted towards the river, development on riverfront sites had been limited by a proposed riverfront road.[41] The disused wharves of the Australasian United Steam Navigation Company (AUSN), Thomas Brown and Son, and Nixon Smith remained in situ, used for carparking.[42]
\nA Lend Lease subsidiary, Lend Lease Developments, began to acquire multiple sites fronting Eagle Street and the river.[43] In June 1981, the company announced that it had received approval in principle for a multi-million dollar riverfront development project.[44] After a year of planning, revisions, and land purchases, in August 1982 the Courier Mail published plans for ‘Riverside Brisbane’, Lend Lease’s $200 million development for its 1.4 hectare Eagle Street site.[45] ‘Riverside Brisbane’ was proposed to include an office tower, shops, residential apartments, plazas, promenades, a marina, an ‘historic precinct’ for the soon-to-be-demolished Wool Exchange, and a section of the riverfront road, a condition of the development’s approval.[46] The company highlighted its desire to create a ‘total pedestrian environment’ with tourist facilities including restaurants, taverns and bistros ‘to give the complex life after business hours’.[47]
\nOver the following year, Lend Lease continued to accumulate land, as well as leasehold over a laneway (Parbury Lane), and the AUSN’s No. 11 and No. 13 wharves within the river.[48] Having acquired control over a 2ha site, Lend Lease engaged architect Harry Seidler to redesign the Riverside project in August 1983. Austrian-born Seidler had already achieved significant renown as an architect in residential and commercial designs, including the award-winning Rose Seidler house (1950),[49] Australia Square,[50] MLC Centre, the Australian Embassy in Paris (1977), and the soon-to-be-completed Hong Kong Club Building (1984). He had received multiple awards from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, including its highest honour, the Gold Medal, in 1976, for outstanding achievement in architectural design and the promotion of architecture and the profession; and received an OBE for his services to architecture in 1972.[51] His firm, Harry Seidler and Associates (established 1960), had been working with Lend Lease almost since its inception, designing apartment buildings (Ithaca Gardens (1960) and the controversial Blues Point Tower (1961)),[52] recreational facilities (Thredbo Ski Lodge (1962)) and commercial buildings (Australia Square and MLC Centre, the former of which was considered ‘one of Australia’s most important works of the postwar period’).[53]
\nInfluenced by international architects, artists and designers Walter Gropius, Oscar Neimeyer, Marcel Breuer and Josef Albers, Seidler’s designs strongly adhered to principles of modernist architecture. Modernist architecture developed in pre-World War I Europe and gained popularity in Australia after WWII. Notable for a rationalisation of planning, emphasising clarity and simplicity of form and detailing,[54] the style had been adopted in Queensland in a variety of residential, religious, public, and commercial buildings.[55] Seidler was one of the country’s foremost postwar architects to design in the modernist style.[56]
\nAs in earlier projects, Lend Lease allowed Seidler creative freedom to achieve the design requirements.[57] While the facilities remained relatively consistent with the earlier design, Seidler’s design for Riverside reenvisaged them into an integrated plan adopting his architectural philosophies,[58] similar to his designs for Australia Square and MLC Centre.[59] At the centre of the site was a triangular-shaped office tower, set in an open-air plaza, with surrounding low-rise retail, entertainment, and commercial facilities. The buildings featured clean lines and limited ornamentation. The positioning of the office tower, set back on its plaza, was in accordance with modernist design principles,[60] while the curved form and position of the low-rise buildings within the plaza provided an organic-shaped contrast to the geometry of the tower.
\nThe office tower was 40 storeys, including two basements for carparking.[61] It was positioned in line with the city street grid, providing views along Eagle Street and down Elizabeth Street, while its triangular shape allowed two-thirds of the office’s full height glass windows to face the Brisbane River. Aluminium sunshades, fitted on two sides of the building, were designed to address the different angle of the sun on each elevation, but minimise disruption to the views. Recessed sky terraces interspersed across two sides of the building broke up any repetition. The tower was to be clad in a cool pearl-coloured granite, providing a contrast to the glass towers emerging along Brisbane’s skyline.[62]
\nThe main entrance to the tower building, from Eagle Street, was covered by a glass canopy with gathered columns.[63] These were braced by radiating concentric floor ribs, providing ornament as well as being a structural necessity. This led into a four-storey (15m), glass-walled foyer, with exfoliated black granite-lined floor with strips of travertine.[64] The foyer was ceiled by external support concrete beams brought together in a decorative web pattern, designed by Mario Desideri, successor to renowned Italian engineer Pier Luigi Nervi.[65] Services were located in the building’s core.[66] The height of the building required three banks of lifts, with changeover levels, and a separate lift to the two basement carpark levels. The tower contained 36 levels[67] of offices to be leased to commercial tenants. The column-free, open floor plates allowed for fit-outs to be adapted to a tenant’s preferences, and easily altered when turnover occurred. The tower’s floor size (1,500m2) was unusually large, allowing larger firms and businesses to consolidate their operations into a smaller area, providing advantages in improving communications and reducing costs.[68]
\nPlans for the plaza changed slightly after an additional land purchase was settled in 1984.[69] A 350-room hotel building was postponed for a later stage,[70] while a six-storey office building morphed into a single-storey commercial structure; and a low-rise riverfront residential apartment building was removed.[71] The latter provided additional space for the open plaza, which occupied over half of the site,[72] providing unimpeded views and direct public access to the river. It was enhanced by landscaped gardens, trees, and a jet fountain water feature which pooled on each side of the triangular building’s riverside face, and cascaded down the terraced plaza towards the river.[73] Stairs and ramps (called by Seidler, stramps) carried pedestrians down to the riverfront, where a promenade extended along the site’s 180m river frontage, lined with bollards linked by nautical chains, purpose-designed by the architectural team.[74] A ferry terminal and marina, which led off the promenade, provided public and private access to the site from the river.[75] Views from the plaza took in the sweep of the Town Reach, Kangaroo Point Cliffs and Story Bridge, framed by a curvilinear beam across the step-ramp and cascading fountain.[76]
\nThe public plaza was of particular significance to both Seidler and Lend Lease. Lend Lease had long envisaged the waterfront public space as an important part of the landmark project, while for Seidler, the provision of public space in the creation of an urban environment[77] was an essential part of his design.[78] Above all, Seidler was quoted as saying, Riverside would be a place for people: ‘“It’ll be a meeting place, a shopping place, an eating place – a landmark for decades to come.”’[79]
\nConstruction of the Riverside Centre
\nSite work was underway on the project by April 1984, when the name ‘Riverside Centre’ was publicly used.[80] Construction work officially began in June 1984, and was launched with a flag-raising ceremony featuring the Queensland Theatre Orchestra, two tonnes of fireworks, a 400-person cocktail party, and a two-hour riverboat dinner cruise for one hundred children from the St Vincent’s Home for Children.[81] In accordance with its intention for Riverside Centre to be its landmark development of the decade, Lend Lease promoted the building project heavily, including addressing any potential issues with an immediate public relations campaign. When a series of blackouts affected CBD buildings in March 1985, Lend Lease advertised Riverside as ‘Brisbane’s Most Prestigious Powerhouse’, promoting it as ‘the only major centre with 4 generators capable of supplying 100% power to the whole building… a technological masterpiece’.[82]
\nCivil and Civic began construction of the office tower in 1985, progressing at an average of one floor every four days.[83] The core was built first using a jump-form technique, and the concrete tower was poured in place, with prestressing occurring on site.[84] Economic considerations built into the design helped to speed construction and minimise costs; the corners of the tower’s triangular shape were rounded to simplify the design, and repetition of elements allowed for uniformity of structural beams.[85] Pylons were laid into the river in March 1985 for the riverfront road, which was to run under the development, but within months, the requirement for the road had been scrapped.[86] The topping off was celebrated in October 1985 with full-page newspaper advertisements congratulating the workers, and a large party was held.[87] The following twelve months was spent finishing the building, plaza and low-rise buildings, installing office fit-outs, landscaping, and trees on the terrace gardens.[88]
\nThe cost of the project allowed for high-quality materials, finishes, sculptures, and artwork. A sculpture by artist Norman Carlberg, ‘Winter Wind’, a 10m repetition of a single quadrant shape in white-painted steel was commissioned and installed in the main section of the foyer (from the Eagle Street entrance), and tapestry artwork by Alexander Calder (a favourite artist of Seidler, whose work had been used in earlier Lend Lease developments) along the travertine walls of the lift core on the north and southern sides of the foyer.[89] The architectural team from Harry Seidler and Associates, including Harry Seidler, Henry Feiner, and Greg Holman, designed minutely detailed interior fittings in what was referred to as ‘a “ridiculous amount” of design creativity’, including purpose-designed light-up elevator buttons, ashtrays, and skirting ducts.[90]
\nAround $15 million was reportedly to be spent on interior fit-outs for tenants in the four month period leading up the building’s opening, ‘the same efforts needed to build a small city high-rise’.[91] The initial fit-out included a purpose-designed facility on the fifth and sixth floors for the Brisbane Stock Exchange, the building’s anchor tenant, featuring a trading floor, theatre and a mezzanine over the foyer, and no external windows. Pre-commitment tenants were able to specify their own fit-outs from the outset, including stairs between levels. By its opening Riverside Centre had over 75% pre-committed tenants (a high figure for the time).[92]
\nThe plaza was also minutely detailed, with granite seating, signs, waste bins; porfido (porphyry) plaza paving; and the Riverside Centre name and logo across the site.[93] The plaza buildings included a single storey commercial building on the northern side close to Eagle Street (‘North Court’ or Northwest Plaza), and Michael’s Riverside Restaurant on the riverside, cantilevered over the river (Northeast Plaza). On the southern side, a single-storey retail court near Eagle Street flowed into a two-storey building fronting the river promenade (South Plaza). The lower floor held ‘On the Deck’ eateries and shops, while on the upper floor was ‘Friday’s’, with outdoor bar terraces featuring finishes in imported granite and overlooking the plaza and river.[94] The plaza buildings’ financial, retail, care services and eateries would not only serve Riverside Centre workers, but also the 14,000 to 20,000 office workers employed throughout the Golden Triangle, where these services were limited.[95] Lend Lease aimed to provide a range of eateries, from restaurants for business lunches to quick dine-in or casual takeaway, to Friday’s, catering for after work crowds.[96] Retail fit-outs were by Aspid International.[97]
\nClimatic considerations had been woven through the design, and were implemented during the construction. The use of sunshades (installed in 1986 as the building’s ‘eyelids’) and granite facing, instead of a glass-faced facade, reduced heat load on the building.[98] Hailstorms in January 1985 led to extensive testing to ensure the sunshades would withstand future storms, and a year-long study was undertaken to determine individual angles of installation.[99] The glass canopy over the main entrance and a wavy canopy connecting the tower’s north-eastern entrance to the northern plaza buildings provided shelter from subtropical downpours.[100] The length of the project allowed time to study and eliminate wind tunnels in the plaza, and to best position outdoor eating areas for summer shade and winter sun. This, Lend Lease Development hoped, ‘would ensure that people would be drawn to the plaza not only because of its facilities and views, but because it offered the right atmosphere at the right time of year.’[101]
\nTenants moved into Riverside in September, before celebrations to mark the building’s opening began on 1 October 1986.[102] The fireworks displays, hot-air balloon launches and parachutist drops were covered in newspapers and on the evening television news.[103] Ten days of celebrations followed.[104] The tower was intended as an ‘intelligent building’, with advanced technology installed.[105] On completion, the building was transferred to GPT. The official handover ceremony included using the tower’s advanced technology to turn on the top floor air-conditioning from Sydney. [106]
\nArchitectural recognition
\nRiverside Centre drew immediate acclaim from the architectural world. Covered in Australian and international architectural publications,[107] it was awarded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects’ (Queensland Chapter) best building award in 1987 (joint winner with the State Works Centre (no longer extant)), which acknowledged the ‘superbly detailed, sophisticated’ tower as ‘the central focus of a well ordered urban precinct which provides the city with a fine example of the potential to be gained from positively relating development to the river.’ While the entrance lobby was ‘somewhat overwhelming, but impressive,’[108] the incorporation of water in the pedestrian concourse, art works in the lobby and well selected furniture contribute to an overall feeling of good taste’.[109]
\nThe national architectural body, the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, awarded Riverside Centre the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for non-residential works in 1987.[110] The Sir Zelman Cowen award was generally awarded for public architecture, but Riverside Centre’s public pedestrian plaza set it apart from other private developments. As the jury noted, Riverside Centre reflected Seidler’s approach to high-rise projects, where ‘the use of a high-rise solution justified by the provision of open space for people at the foot of his buildings…providing a community attraction for all those who do not directly use his building, but seek shelter in the city oasis he creates’.[111] While the project was not ‘anything radically new’ for Seidler and his ‘already well-honed skills’, the project’s scope and size ‘allows his very simple clean cut design approach to make an impact by its repetition over a large area and a number of small buildings at the concourse level’.[112] In addition to the ‘interesting architectural solutions’ of the building itself (including its triangular shape, clean building lines, the texture provided by the aluminium sunscreens, and the ‘imagination and attention to engineering detail’[113] expressed in the foyer’s ceiling), the ‘impressed jury’ noted Riverside Centre’s ‘unique relationship to the Brisbane River’, linking the tower to the river and making the river ‘not only part of the building, but a focal point.’[114]
\nRenowned British historian of modernist and contemporary architecture, Kenneth Frampton, authored a publication on Riverside Centre in 1988. ‘In many respects Riverside Centre represents a consummate synthesis of everything that Seidler has projected and realised over the past twenty years’,[115] Frampton wrote, marvelling at the ‘straight-forward logic with which Seidler has arrived at the parti for Riverside Centre.’[116]
\nA balance is established between the twin dialogical themes that inform the entire work; on the one hand, the opposition between tectonic and organic morphologies, on the other, the play between symmetry and asymmetry, which permeates the entire site and which will be so much more dynamic as a dialogue, once the project is complete.[117]
\nIn a later publication, Frampton highlighted the vertical juxtaposition of the tower against its horizontal length; the play between symmetry and asymmetry of the structures across the site, and ‘the contrast between the tectonic logic of the skeleton structure and its plastic amplification as an isostatic form.’[118]
\nMonths after the completion of Riverside Centre, Seidler was named a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for the advancement of architecture.[119] He and the architectural firm went on to design a number of office towers around Australia, including Grosvenor Place, Sydney (1988); Shell House, Melbourne (1989); Capita Centre, Sydney (1989); and QV1, Perth (1991).[120] Frampton and some later commentators, including Australian architect, academic and author, Jennifer Taylor, considered Riverside Centre a standout amongst Seidler’s later office tower developments: an evolution in Seidler’s work incorporating the landscape concepts of South American architects Burle Marx and Niemeyer and notions of ‘isostasis’;[121] Seidler’s solution to the problems of urban space in Australian architecture;[122] a demonstration that it was ‘still possible to continue with a viable culture of modern architecture’;[123] and ‘a notable urban achievement, which, besides being an accomplished work of architecture, regenerated an entire urban precinct and turned the focus of a city towards its river with unprecedented generous riverside plazas.’[124] In 1996, the Royal Institute of British Architects awarded Seidler the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, one of the highest honours for architects in the world, for his body of work. In his accompanying speech, Seidler referenced Riverside Centre (alongside other projects).[125]
\nIn 1988, Riverside Centre received further recognition as the joint winner of the Robin Dods award (a triennial award by the RAIA Queensland Chapter for excellence over a three-year period), as, according to the judging panel, it ‘sets an incredibly high standard as well as giving Brisbane a magnificent riverfront public space.’[126] The building received first prize in the 1989 Marble Architectural Awards in Carrara, Italy.[127] In 2011, the Queensland Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) awarded Riverside Centre its Enduring Architecture award. This award is given to a structure at least 25 years old, of outstanding merit that, considered in a contemporary context, remains important as a high quality work of architecture.[128] Riverside Centre was also recognised as significant 20th century architecture by the AIA at both State and National levels.[129]
\nOffice impact
\nRiverside Centre’s opening had an immediate impact on Brisbane’s commercial office market. Thanks to the availability of river views across two-thirds of the tower,[130] Riverside commanded some of the highest rents in Queensland – $444 per square metre in 1988 – and was credited with increasing rental levels in prime office market from 15% to 20%.[131] The presence of the Brisbane Stock Exchange in the tower encouraged legal, accounting and stockbroking firms, including some establishing Queensland offices for the first time.[132] The prestige of the building was also acknowledged as a draw for some tenants. The Queensland Division of the Building Owners and Managers Association awarded Riverside Centre a special citation for its ‘outstanding contribution to the city by establishing Brisbane as a mature commercial centre and for its civic and environmental design’.[133] Developers undertaking other large office tower developments in the Golden Triangle acknowledged the new standard the project had set for the ‘top end of the market’,[134] while the Queensland Governor stated in 1988 that Riverside Centre ‘has brought a whole new dimension to the standard of accommodation to which professional and commercial organisations may aspire.’[135]
\nThough a private development, Riverside Centre was highlighted by state and local governments as evidence of the city and Queensland’s growth and development. It was promoted by successive Brisbane Lord Mayors as part of Brisbane’s diamond jubilee and the Shine On Brisbane campaign;[136] in the United States as a technologically ‘intelligent’ building;[137] and was featured in a Queensland Government television programme in the late 1980s.[138] Its completion, alongside that of the Brisbane Transit Centre in Roma Street, prompted ‘a school of thought… that Brisbane is capable of being the business capital of the southwest Pacific by the year 2000.’[139]
\nThe scope and cost of the office tower development project was significant. The size of the site – 1.4ha – dwarfed most of the sites on which Brisbane’s other office towers were erected,[140] and for a brief time it was the tallest building in Brisbane (though its successor was under construction when Riverside opened). At a reported cost of $200 million, Riverside Centre was the first office tower development in the CBD to cost over $100 million, and was significantly more expensive than the record-setting AMP Blue Tower, constructed two years earlier for $60 million.[141] Riverside Centre remained one of the few 20th century office tower developments in the Brisbane CBD to cost over $100 million, with only two further projects, both neighbours to Riverside Centre, before the economic recession of the 1990s: the two-tower Central Plaza complex designed by Japanese architect, Kisho Kurokawa, and Queensland architectural firm, Peddle Thorp, opening in two stages; and Waterfront Place, designed by Perth architectural firm Cameron Chisholm Nichol, and also opened in two stages (Eagle Street Pier, 1989; Waterfront Place, 1990).[142]
\n\n
Public impact
\nThe public aspects of the development were also quickly appreciated, as Riverside Centre began to draw people to the city after working hours. Ferry services started at the Riverside terminus, which replaced the Creek Street ferry stop, in October 1986, bringing city workers and visitors to and through the site. A high-speed service running to the University of Queensland started the following year, and City Cats served the terminal from 1996.[143] By 2003, Riverside was Brisbane’s busiest ferry terminal, serving 400,000 passengers annually.[144] The riverfront promenade was incorporated into a bikeway that was extended along the riverfront in the mid-1990s, providing riverfront access to the site for pedestrians, cyclists, and commuters.[145]
\nThe South Plaza eateries were advertised to the public to ‘come and enjoy’ while ‘soak[ing] up the feel of the tropics under the sun and the palms, beside the river.’[146] Friday’s and Michael’s became popular venues for Brisbane residents – students, those celebrating special events, and office workers – over the following years.[147] Building management and tenants hosted art displays, showcase exhibitions,[148] and fundraising events in the foyer;[149] and a viewing gallery in the Stock Exchange fit-out was open to the public.[150] In May 1987, the recently-formed ‘Cats Tango’ craft markets were moved to the Riverside Centre plaza. Renamed the Riverside Markets, the Sunday event proved a huge attraction, bringing large numbers of suburban residents and international tourists to the site on a weekend for the next 22 years.[151]
\nRiverside’s development, and the intense change in the CBD’s physical fabric, was accompanied by significant social and cultural change.[152] As Brisbane’s population reached over one million people in the early 1980s,[153] the city prepared to host two major international events: the Commonwealth Games (1982) and the World Exposition 1988 (colloquially Expo 88). ‘Shine on Brisbane’, ‘Image ‘82’ and ‘Image ‘88’ campaigns encouraged beautification in and around the city, and the city was promoted internationally (particularly in the United States) amidst a push to encourage international tourism.[154] Pedestrianism was improved in the city centre with the construction of pedestrian bridges crossing Anzac Square (1982) and the opening of Post Office Square (1984).[155] The Queen Street Mall, opened in two stages (1982 and 1987) both improved pedestrianism and enticed shoppers to return to the city. Legislative change in the late 1970s provided for Friday night shopping in the city and Sunday trading in hotels. Riverside Centre was part of Brisbane’s identity shift in the 1980s, providing facilities for al fresco dining before it was incorporated into the Town Plan in the 1990s; and popularising open, riverfront gathering space with markets and promenades in the leadup to Expo 88.[156]
\nRiverside’s opening also coincided with renewed public interest in the Brisbane River. A hub for commerce, transport and recreation from the mid-19th century, the Town Reach of the river had fallen out of favour in the second half of the 20th century, as wharves and bathing facilities were removed, and the Riverside Expressway cut off public connection to the riverbanks. Only a promenade through the Botanic Gardens provided unimpeded access to the river. From the late 1970s, river management, development and clean-up committees had emerged, urging an end to dredging, cleaning up the river, beautifying and managing development on riverbanks. Brisbane City Council declared 1987 the ‘year of the river’, creating river management studies and strategies, and a riverfront walk was opened through the mangroves. Increasingly, images of Brisbane portrayed the river from the Story Bridge or Kangaroo Point, with Riverside Centre at their centre. The relocation of the Customs House ferry terminal to Riverside Centre placed the new office tower at the heart of river transport into and out of the city. In coming years, as Brisbane’s ‘River City’ identity emerged, Riverside Centre’s restaurants and terraces became a popular gathering space for New Years’ Eve fireworks, special events such as the arrival of the ‘tall ships’ in 1987 and 2001, the docking of the Endeavour replica in 2011,[157] and the annual Riverfire festival fireworks displays.[158]
\nRiverside Centre in the 21st century
\nRiverside Centre has continued to attract and retain high-profile tenants to its office tower, including stockbroking firms, banks, accountants, legal firms and in 2023, the organisers of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.[159] The tower’s anchor tenant, the Brisbane Stock Exchange, was replaced by the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in 1990, remaining a significant financial centre in Brisbane until 2005.[160] As home of the ASX, the building was a target for protests in 2001,[161] and Richard Branson launched Virgin Blue onto the ASX from the building’s foyer in December 2003.[162] In 2006, the twenty-year old office tower was fully leased, and was still referenced as a benchmark by developers.[163]
\nIn 1999, a section of Riverside Centre’s 2ha site was sold to Singaporean development company Bloomberg. Bloomberg and its subsidiary, Riverside Developments, engaged Harry Seidler and Associates to design a new mixed-use (residential, retail and commercial) tower for the site, to be called Riparian Plaza.[164] Designed to complement Riverside Centre,[165] and opened in 2005, Riparian Plaza received the AIA’s National Award for Commercial Architecture in 2007.[166]
\nIn 2007, approval was given for the construction of a new high-rise office tower at 111 Eagle Street. The development involved the removal of part of the South Plaza building, containing retail on the ground floor and an opening to Friday’s.[167] ‘One One One Eagle Street’ opened in 2012, receiving national commendations for Commercial Architecture and Sustainable Architecture from the AIA in 2013.[168]
\nChanges have been made to Riverside Centre to adapt to changing business needs.[169] Such changes have generally been sympathetic to the original design and of a high quality, frequently undertaken with the assistance of Harry Seidler and Associates.[170] Fit-outs in the office tower and plaza buildings have regularly changed to suit new tenants, including remodelling of the ASX floors and the installation of river-facing windows in the formerly windowless lower levels.[171] A coffee shop was added to the foyer in 2007,[172] while the Calder tapestries were replaced by a Robert Owen piece, HAZE (Spectrum Shift), in 2008 and Sydney Ball’s October Fields in 2016 (commissioned by Harry Seidler and Associates, selected by Penelope Seidler and recommended by Greg Holman). Seidler was an admirer of Owen,[173] and Ball’s works had been used in other Seidler towers.[174] The foyer was refurbished in 2016, including new entry doors, café fit-out, reception desk and new furniture and digital tenancy directory installed.[175] The Eagle Street canopy was reglazed, with advice and guidance from Harry Seidler and Associates.[176] The office elevators were remodelled and modernised in 2016-2018, receiving an international award in 2019.[177]
\nFit-outs in the plaza eateries were also changed for new occupants in the 21st century, and the Northwest Plaza was converted to a tavern in 2003.[178] Riverfront restaurants, fronting the boardwalk, were opened in 2008 in the space set aside for the riverfront road (The Groove Train in the Northeast Plaza and Jellyfish in the South Plaza).[179] New glass awnings were installed on the plaza buildings in 2006, and a second storey was added to the Northeast Plaza in 2008, both designed by Harry Seidler and Associates’ Greg Holman.[180] The plaza was relandscaped in 2016, receiving an award from the Australia Institute of Landscape Architects Queensland for its ‘respectful’ but not ‘subservient’ response to the ‘iconic building’ in 2018.[181]
\nThe ferry terminal fabric was replaced in 2003,[182] though original fabric was left in the waiting area, including a granite seat and sign, and remains in use in 2023. The marina was reduced at the same time and removed in 2017.[183] The ferry terminal fabric which was replaced is not of State-level cultural heritage significance and is outside the heritage boundary.
\nThe complex was evacuated during the January 2011 floods.[184] The carpark remained closed for a month, and the two boardwalk restaurants were refitted.[185] The boardwalk restaurants were again inundated in February 2022 and refitted.[186]
\nOn 28 July 2023, the place's owner received development approval for the partial demolition of two levels of existing basement car park and full demolition of the existing low-scale buildings located at the northern end of the site to facilitate the reconfiguration of the basement car parking areas and additional bicycle parking and servicing areas and the construction of a 26-storey office building with retail uses provided at the lower levels.[187] The area affected by the development approval is largely outside the heritage boundary.
","criteria":"Riverside Centre (1986) is important in demonstrating the evolution of the built environment of the central business district (CBD) of Queensland’s capital, Brisbane, in the late 20th century. Created as development company Lend Lease’s principal commercial development project for Australia in the 1980s, and designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler AC OBE (1923-2006) of Harry Seidler and Associates, the multi-award winning, nationally recognised Riverside Centre is an exceptional example of a high-quality office tower development undertaken during that period in Queensland. Built at the peak of a boom in office tower construction in Brisbane; designed by one of Australia’s most renowned architects; and incorporating an office tower integrated with a generous, publicly-oriented plaza, and recreational and entertainment facilities, in a riverfront setting, Riverside Centre in its form, fabric and accomplished architectural design, is a distinctive example of a high-rise office tower development from this period in Queensland.
|Riverside Centre’s office tower is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a high-rise office tower built in the late 20th century in Queensland, being an exceptional example of this class of place. This exceptionality is evident in its high-quality, awarded and architecturally recognised design by a renowned architect for one of Australia’s largest development construction companies. The principal characteristics demonstrated at the place are its: prestressed concrete structure, multistorey construction (over 11 storeys) comprising repeated floor plates and a structural service core; modular exterior cladding and glazing; foyer providing centralised access; internal public spaces and surfaces finished with high quality materials, and flexible office floor plates designed to allow for individual tenancy fit-outs. While the tower’s tenancy fit-outs have changed, as designed for in a commercial building of this type, the building retains a high degree of architectural integrity. Designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler AC OBE of Harry Seidler and Associates, the latter of which has remained involved with changes to the place since its completion, and as property developer Lend Lease’s principal commercial development project in Australia during the 1980s, the tower’s outstanding design quality has been widely recognised in Queensland and Australia through ongoing acknowledgement in publications and through accolades given by the architectural profession.
|Riverside Centre, a highly regarded, accomplished development that exhibits cohesive Modernist design principles, is aesthetically important for its high architectural quality.
\nThe visually striking office tower’s beautiful attributes are demonstrated through its well-composed symmetrical and sculptural triangular form, repetitive façade treatments of uniform dimensions, and impressive foyer incorporating modern artwork. The office tower’s centrality to and cohesiveness with the remainder of the place, in particular the surrounding plaza space, is emphasised by the well detailed, high-quality materials throughout (including large expanses of glass and stone), the floor strip finishes that radiate from the office tower’s foyer out through the plaza, and the open setting established by the plaza and low-rise south plaza building. The design, forms and layout of the Riverside Centre have impressive aesthetic qualities, notably through the juxtaposition between the office tower’s form and the expressive curvilinear forms of the cantilevered entrance canopy, south plaza building, and landscaped plaza (including stairs, sinuous walkway canopy, water feature that provides a visual link between the office tower and river, and curvilinear beam), and through the place’s strong visual and physical connection with the Brisbane River.
\nThrough the office tower’s riverfront siting, distinctive form and surrounding open plaza and low-rise plaza buildings, its beautiful attributes make a notable contribution to the cityscape vista of Brisbane CBD along the Town Reach of the Brisbane River, and from Kangaroo Point and the Story Bridge (QHR 600240).
|Riverside Centre, through its outstanding architectural excellence, is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative achievement in the late 20th century. Designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler AC OBE of Harry Seidler and Associates, the qualities of the place have been repeatedly recognised in architectural publications, critique and awards since its construction; most notably with the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) (Qld)’s award for Best Building in 1987, the RAIA’s national Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture in 1987, the RAIA (Qld)’s Robin Dods Triennial Medal in 1989, the First Prize in the Marble Architecture Awards (Carrara, Italy) in 1989, and the Australian Institute of Architecture (AIA) Queensland Chapter’s ‘25 Year Award for Enduring Architecture’ in 2011. These awards acclaim the Riverside Centre's: outstanding architectural quality; the office tower’s refined and rational design (including its form, scale, size, materials and structural system); impressive foyer with quality materials; considered responses to climate (including exterior sunshades tailored to orientation, and sky gardens); well-ordered urban design and the generous, open space of the plaza layout; and the highly-regarded physical and visual connection of the place to the Brisbane River.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19522,"place_ref":602402,"name":"New Farm Park","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"137 Sydney Street","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"The basic Edwardian layout of the park, designed by Henry Moore, remains largely intact today, along with remnants from the late 1940s/early 1950s garden redesign undertaken by Harry Oakman. Various structures and rose gardens have also come and gone, but many of the earlier tree plantings remain.
New Farm Park's 15.0076 hectares currently contains a wide variety of trees, both mature and recent plantings, including jacarandas, poincianas, figs, palms, and coral trees. The central lawn within the jacaranda drive contains the remnants of the post-1948 rose garden arrangements, and an area of rainforest has been planted behind the library. In the shade of the trees near the kiosk site is an understorey of tropical plants, a character of park planting that is a distinct aspect of Brisbane's historic parks and large gardens.
Vehicle access occurs at the Oxlade Drive entrance, and the Library carpark. The main pedestrian entrances are at Dixon Street, the corner of Sydney Street and Brunswick Street, the old vehicle entrance on Brunswick Street between Sydney Street and Elystan Street, a path opposite Elystan Street, and a path running from the site of the old ferry terminal at the end of Brunswick Street. The jacaranda drive still follows its original course, and two of the original footpath routes within the drive still exist, radiating out from near the Oxlade Drive vehicle entrance. A new path runs between the kiosk site and the playground, and another new path links New Farm Park to the Brisbane Powerhouse.
Facilities include a sports oval, a playground surrounded by mature banyan trees, picnic and barbeque areas near the river, a croquet lawn and two tennis courts, a library, a half basketball court, and a canoe and boat ramp on the river.
Other structures include three toilets, three small shade shelters near the oval, a post-World War Two shed south of the kiosk site, a croquet clubroom, small shelters around the croquet lawn, a tennis court shelter, soccer clubroom, gardener's depot, bandstand, shelters in the playground, a large Marquee south of the kiosk site, interpretative history signs, and a concrete stairway near the river (1915). Sculptures have also been commissioned for the park, and the Sandakan Memorial has been built recently. A new ferry terminal has also been built adjacent to the park.
The main features of historical interest from the 1914 to 1939 period include the remaining half of the croquet lawn, the concrete stairway near the river, the sports oval near Sydney Street, the jacaranda drive, and the two remaining paved paths within the drive loop. The Federation Queen Anne style bandstand, with tiled bell-cast hip roof, is of particular interest.
Post World War Two features of interest include the remnants of Oakman's rose gardens design, the rectangular, hip-roofed masonry croquet clubhouse, and the post-war shed with tiled roof, which lies to the south of the kiosk site. This shed was an open picnic shelter until recently. The soccer clubroom by the sports oval also has an interesting mosaic mural on its northern side.
Besides the mature jacarandas and fig trees around the loop drive, other mature tree plantings of note include the various lines of palms, the weeping figs near the river, the banyan figs incorporated in the playground, the Queensland bottle trees shading the Brunswick Street barbeque area, poincianas along Brunswick Street and elsewhere, and remnants of Oakman's massed plantings of franpanis and bauhinias to form groves in a 'wild woodland' manner.
","history":"New Farm Park, created in 1914, currently covers 15.0076 hectares of land, and is bounded by Brunswick Street and Sydney Street, New Farm. It adjoins the Brisbane Powerhouse arts precinct and the Brisbane River.
Prior to European settlement, the New Farm area was covered with bush and dotted with shallow lagoons. It supported a variety of wildlife and proved a bountiful resource to local Aborigines. The area was called "Binkin-ba", or place of the land tortoise.
After a penal settlement was founded in 1825 at the location of the current Brisbane Central Business District, food was grown on cleared land in South Brisbane and the Botanical Gardens. In 1827 Captain Logan ordered the clearing of a new farm between the present day Merthyr Road and the river; drainage canals were dug, and convict labourers grew maize, potatoes, pumpkin, and corn. The convicts were marched to work each day from their main barracks in town, following a track on high ground that later became Moray Street. Due to the decline of the penal settlement following changes in British policy, free settlement began in Brisbane in 1842. A farmer named Prendegast appears to have planted maize at the new farm in 1842, although he was only leasing the land.
Speculators in 1844 purchased the new farm's lowlands, and tenant farming followed, with dairying and small crops. Early resident Richard Jones, later the first Brisbane Member in the New South Wales Parliament, acquired 93 acres in 1847, and called it "New Farm".
In 1846 the Moreton Bay Jockey Club moved its annual race from Coopers Plains to land at New Farm owned by Thomas Adams. This land included Eastern Suburban Allotments 22, 28, 29 and 30, located at the south-eastern corner of the New Farm peninsula. The first (members only) meeting was held in May 1846, and public attendance began at the 1848 three-day race meeting. By 1849 the "Brisbane Races" were being held over the Christmas-New Year's period. The race meetings moved to Eagle Farm in 1861.
Opinions vary as to the exact location of the racetrack itself. During the 1880s the land once owned by Thomas Adams was marketed for subdivision as the "Old Racecourse Estate", but allotments 28 to 30 included both the site of New Farm Park, as well as the land to the north of the small creek that formed the park's north-eastern boundary. In 1895, Merthyr Road was known as "Old Racecourse Road", and in 1913 the annual report of Henry Moore referred to the "old racecourse paddock" that was to become "New Farm Park". A 1925 aerial photo (John Oxley Library) appears to show the remains of the track on CSR land and the site of the Powerhouse, intersected by Lamington Street near the river.
As horse racing disappeared from the area, suburban Brisbane was growing. The Municipality of Brisbane was formed in 1859, and the small farms of New Farm gave way in the 1870s to the residences of Brisbane's elite. Sir Samuel Griffith purchased 80 acres bounded by Sydney Street and Moray Street in 1870, and built his residence "Merthyr" in 1881. Low-density residential development was also occurring in James Street, Brunswick Street, and Bowen Terrace by 1879. In 1884, suburban development was mainly contained within the Moray Street, Merthyr Road, and James Street area. Many estates were subdivided during the 1880s speculative boom, but they were not necessarily built on. This included the old racecourse lands, which had been resumed by the Australian Bank of Commerce. They were marketed as the "Russell Association Lands" in 1887, and the remaining subdivisions were offered for sale as the "Old Racecourse Estate" in 1888-89. The Colonial Sugar Refinery was built on part of this land in 1893.
Horse-drawn trams had extended their run along Brunswick Street to Langshaw Street by December 1885, the electrification of trams occurred after 1895, and the trams reached New Farm Park in 1926. Portions of New Farm's swamps were drained between 1884 and 1887, and open stone drains were built on the eastern side of the peninsula, being diverted along Merthyr Road to the river. The City of Brisbane absorbed the Booroodabin Shire in 1903, and finished the job of draining the area between 1903 and 1909.
In 1884 Nehemiah Bartley wrote a letter to the Brisbane Courier on the need for a recreation reserve for New Farm's growing population, but negotiations for a park at New Farm did not begin until 1911. By 1912, about 15 hectares (37 acres, 1 rood, 8 perches) of the Old Racecourse Estate remained unsold, the land lying to the south west of the small creek that entered the river at Norris Point. In June 1913 the Australian Bank of Commerce accepted the City's offer of £25,800 for the land.
The Brisbane City Council had been seeking control of the parks within its area, as trustees, who answered only to the Governor, usually administered the parks. Between 1887 and 1913 it gained full control of Wickham, Observatory, Hardgrave, Babbage, Albert, Alexandra and Victoria Parks. The International Town Planning movement that existed at the time also helped to put city planning and beautification programmes on the city's agenda. Between 1913 and 1925, Bowen, New Farm, Raymond, Newstead, Perry, Centenary and Teneriffe Parks were created.
In his Annual Report for 1914, City Parks Superintendent Henry Moore noted that work had begun at New Farm Park on the 18 May 1914. According to Moore, a main drive, over 1000 yards in length and varying from 33 to 60 ft wide, had been formed and prepared for gravelling, as had 950 yards of pedestrian walks, at 9 feet wide. The drive and walks were later laid with white Nundah gravel. Two lagoons, one with 2 islands and one with three islands, had been dug to a depth of 2 feet 6 inches, with 800 cubic yards of earth being removed and used to fill in an offset from the river that extended 200 yards into the park. Two acres had been trenched throughout to a depth from 1-2 feet for an ornamental flower garden, and 14 circular beds from 50-60 ft in diameter had been trenched to 2 feet deep, ready to plant. 386ft of earthenware pipes had been laid to drain the lower lagoon into an offset from the river, and 500 holes for trees, plants, shrubs, had been prepared. 650 trees, plants, shrubs had been planted, and 3 acres of low-lying and swampy ground filled to a depth of 18 inches and grassed. Five and a half acres of undulating ground had been graded in readiness for rolling out a sports ground. Over 100 jacarandas had been planted around the drive, and poincianas had been planted in a continuous line from Sydney Street along Brunswick Street to the river. Flame trees were to have been planted behind the jacarandas, for a colour contrast, but these do not seem to have eventuated.
Poinsettias had been planted in three circular beds, and bougainvilleas had been planted on both sides of a 160-yard walk, which may have been the path seen running East-West across the centre of the park within the jacaranda drive in a 1925 aerial photograph. 100 palms and been planted, most transplanted from other parks. The main clusters of these palms lie to the south of the Kiosk site; near the Powerhouse; along Brunswick Street between the poincianas; and either side of the two original pedestrian entrances from Brunswick Street, one opposite Elystan Street, and the other opposite Oxlade Drive. A double row of palms was also planted to the southeast of the original vehicle entrance for the drive, half way between Sydney Street and Elystan Street, and which is currently closed to vehicles. The concrete stairway near the river was probably built around this time.
Negotiations occurred in September 1914 with Mr and Mrs Pemberthy, who agreed to closure of Russell Street (now Alford) between Sydney Street and Dixon Street, and inclusion of this land in the park, on the condition that an entrance was formed at the end of Dixon Street.
In 1915 a kiosk and bandstand were constructed in the park. Albert Herbert Foster, who became City Architect in 1913, designed both. Built in the Federation Queen Anne style, of timber with a Marseilles terracotta-tiled, bell-cast hip roof, the kiosk included accommodation for a lessee. The tender price of £598, from Tealby and Leitch, was accepted in September 1915, with the contract to be carried out within 10 weeks. Located between the tennis courts and croquet lawns, it addressed the circular drive and the central pleasure gardens.
The bandstand was also built in the Federation Queen Anne style. In July 1915 the £359 tender of Legge, Gladwin and Co was accepted, construction to take 6 weeks. Until the Kiosk burnt down in 2000, it was one half of the last surviving kiosk-bandstand related group in Queensland. A kiosk and bandstand were built in Albert Park in 1911, a bandstand at Bowen Park (1914), and kiosks were built in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Moora Park (Sandgate) and Mt Coot-tha.
In 1916 two concrete cricket wickets and 2 football grounds were completed at the north-western side of New Farm Park, and a croquet site was selected in the northeast. The Croquet lawns were to form a break in the belt of trees on the park's north-eastern boundary, and until recently hedges always screened the lawns. Seven tennis courts were completed in 1917. However, World War One delayed an official opening for the park. At the opening of 20 July 1919, conducted by Governor Gould-Adams, Mayor Buchanan noted that the park had been created because the city was deficient in "lungs". 800 rose bushes had been planted, as well as fig trees and Chinese elms along the northern boundary and the river. Some figs were also planted around the drive, mainly on its southern side.
In 1920 the Prince of Wales visited the park, and the Bougainvillea Avenue was renamed the "Prince's Walk". In August 1922 two war trophies were added to the park: a 5.9" German howitzer, captured by the 26th Battalion east of Amiens in 1918, and a Albatross aircraft, one of the many German aircraft surrendered to Britain at the end of the war. The howitzer was mounted in the south-western corner of the park, between the concrete steps and the powerhouse, until its removal to the Crosby nursery in 1955 due the deterioration of its wheels. The Albatross was kept in a shelter nearby, and was removed in 1931. The shelter appears to have still existed in 1955.
The small creek that formed the park's original north-eastern boundary was filled in over time. In 1917 a Brisbane City Council minute called for it to be filled as far as the drain from the kiosk. The creek was still present on a 1921 map, but in January 1922 a Brisbane City Council minute noted that the watercourse on the park's northern boundary had been reclaimed, and that a new boundary fence was required due to the addition of CSR land to the park. In September 1921 the CSR Refinery planned to extend Lamington Street to the river, which would cut off part of New Farm Park, but the company offered allotments in Richardson Street and Cowley Street, where the playground is today, as compensation. When the Brisbane Tramway Powerhouse (decommissioned in 1971) was built in 1927-28 straddling the site of the creek, it occupied some undeveloped parkland, and the present boundary of New Farm Park was thus set by 1927. To screen the Powerhouse, some trees were planted in the 1930s, but they have since been removed.
In 1935 the main drive was sealed with bitumen to reduce the dust problem, but a shelter for a visitor's book that was proposed the same year did not eventuate. In 1938 it was decided to create a proper cricket oval, with land filling to the level of Sydney Street, although this would only contain one football field. Two dressing sheds were built near the oval in 1938, and basketball courts were constructed 1938-39, around the tennis courts that existed in the northern corner of the park- currently the library's carpark. In 1940 it was proposed to remove the bougainvillea hedge (visible in a 1937 aerial photo) from around the rose gardens, and to plant more jacarandas around the drive. There were supposedly 20,000 rose bushes in the park by 1940, according to the Queensland Government Tourist Bureau. The old rose bed design of Moore's can be clearly seen in a 1937 aerial photograph, but by 1946 this design was a ghost of its former self.
Harry Oakman (1906-2002) conducted the first major redesign of the park from 1948 onwards, with a new rose garden layout being developed by 1953. Oakman had been Head Gardener, Department of Parks, for Newcastle City Council from 1940 to1946, and was Manager of Parks and Gardens for the Brisbane City Council from 1946 to1963. He later worked in Canberra, and wrote seven books on tropical and sub-tropical gardening.
Oakman added new pedestrian paths in a loop inside the main drive, lookouts over the rose gardens, and planted new trees and shrubs, while maintaining most of the original tree plantings. A rose pergola was built in 1954, between the Oxlade Drive entrance and the bandstand, a children's playground was constructed in 1955 (later upgraded in 1962 and 1987). A new vehicle entrance was formed opposite Oxlade Drive in 1958-59. A new croquet clubhouse appears to have been built between 1952 and 1955, along with new toilets. A shed was also constructed south of the kiosk by 1951. A Memorial drinking fountain honouring Mrs Henry Robertson, founder of Junior Red Cross, was built in 1948. It was later damaged and was removed, being replaced in 1968 at Mrs Robertson's request.
However, Oakman's main triumph was his redesign of the rose beds. He believed that the roses should be organised by variety and colour, so that the public could be educated on the subject. In 1953 Henry Moore criticized Oakman's approach, but Oakman responded that the "loss" of roses that Moore was concerned about was simply an ongoing process of replacing old bushes with new plantings, better organised. Oakman also noted that 30-odd years of incompetent management had led Brisbane's parks to their current state of "dereliction". In October 1947 Oakman had been critical of the Brisbane City Council's practice of cutting roses to supply council offices, pointing out that 5656 dozen blooms had been appropriated over the previous year.
A 1950 planting list included 2,500 rose plants, and by September 1953 a total stock of 5,325 bushes is listed in Brisbane City Council reports. This figure increased to 10,227 by 1957. Some Brisbane City Council sources claim that 11,000 bushes of 300 varieties were planted in 1962, although another Brisbane City Council source claims that this was the total stock at the time. An article in the Telegraph, 6 March 1965, claimed that there were 40,000 roses bushes in New Farm Park, which made it one of Australia's top three rose gardens. After the 1974 flood covered the rose beds in up to 5cm of toxic silt, 4,000 new rose bushes were ordered in 1974, and 3,000 more in 1975.
A library was also built in the Park in 1975, despite local opposition to the loss of open space. A Report by the Queensland Conservation Council released that year claimed that Brisbane's parks were, in general, often flat, lacking in trees and natural water features, and had too much emphasis on built-recreation facilities. The report argued that too many buildings, sports clubs, car parks, and roads all defeated the purpose of parks as open spaces.
In 1969 a new sports clubhouse was built, and in 1979 a clock tower and time capsule, for Rotary International's 75th anniversary, was installed near the Oxlade Drive vehicle entrance. In 1984, a light German field gun was removed from the playground to go to the 2/14 Light Horse Regiment's museum. Captured by the Light Horse in Palestine in World War One, the gun had been sited by the Sandgate pier from 1923 onwards. At some point it had come to rest in New Farm Park.
A 1991 study by R.J. Dobbs (Brisbane City Council parks management officer) found that the most popular areas of the park were the playground, barbeques, oval and bandstand. The main usage groups in 1991, according to Dobbs, included mothers and children, the handicapped and elderly, joggers and exercisers, tourists, picnic groups, wedding parties, social functions, and sports groups.
Since a 1991 concept plan was developed for the park, jacarandas have been planted around the oval, a rainforest walk and a half basketball court has been established behind the library, and more picnic tables and barbeques have been added near the river. A path has been built between the kiosk site and the playground, running between the croquet lawns and the drive; the park has been linked to the Brisbane Powerhouse arts precinct, the Oxlade Drive entry has been upgraded, and a new pedestrian entry has been created at the corner of Sydney Street and Brunswick Street. Interpretive history signs have also been added at places in the park. Two tennis courts and a shelter were built on one half of the croquet lawns after 2001. A new ferry terminal has been built recently, and in 2004 controversy has surrounded plans to build a new, larger kiosk to replace the 1915 kiosk destroyed in 2000.
Features that have been lost over time include the bougainvillaea planted around the rose gardens (gone between 1940-1946); the two lagoons, and the east-west pedestrian path through the centre of the park (gone by 1937); the tennis courts and basketball courts lost when the library was built in 1975; two old dressing sheds near the oval; sightboards at the north-east and south-west sides of the oval; an iron gateway on the south-eastern side of the oval; two old toilets between the Dixon Street entrance and the croquet lawns, and the 1954 rose pergola. An arbour that replaced the latter has also been removed since 2001. The 5.9" memorial gun, the Albatross aircraft and its shelter, and a caretaker's cottage that once stood on the north-east boundary, north-west of the gardeners' depot, have also departed. In addition, the Oakman-era oval pathway inside the jacaranda drive, marked by the surviving mature poincianas, and most of Oakman's 1948-1953 rose gardens design, which was laid out within the circuit of the jacaranda drive, has disappeared. There was also a shelter just inside the loop road, on its northern side. The part of the surviving rose gardens that most closely resembles Oakman's original design is the large spiral near the bandstand. The original vehicle entrance is currently blocked to cars. In 2000, a four-month trial by the Brisbane City Council of an Aboriginal homeless shelter near the playground was ended by the State of Queensland. Dog toilets have also come and gone recently.
Current park use includes both active and passive use. Active use ranges from sports use, such as soccer, football, croquet, tennis, basketball and boule, to social events and festivals, playground use, weddings, and cycling and jogging. More passive uses include picnics, strolls through the gardens, listening to brass bands every second Sunday, and tourists visiting to witness the jacarandas bloom.
","criteria":"The changing land use in and around New Farm Park, from Aboriginal resource, to convict farm, from tenant farming to racecourse, from elite residences to suburban subdivision, and finally to parkland, demonstrates the evolution of Queensland's history, and the process of the creation of open spaces as an area's population grew. The Brisbane City Council's purchase of the land at New Farm reflected its interest in the international Town Planning movement of the time. Redesigns of the park also demonstrate changes in parks philosophy and use over time, with a shift in emphasis from genteel Edwardian ornamental gardens and leisure activities, to barbeques and jogging.
|The Edwardian 1915 bandstand is rare. The park itself can also be considered as a rare example of a new park being designed by Henry Moore, as his other projects involved redeveloping existing parkland (including Bowen and Newstead Parks). The remaining croquet lawn is also uncommon in Queensland.
|The Edwardian bandstand is a very fine example of its type.
|The park's vistas, jacaranda drive, river frontage, rose gardens, subtropical shrubberies and mature trees including palms, figs and poincianas, demonstrate an established subtropical garden character and are well appreciated by the public.
|The first Brisbane City Parks Superintendent (from 1912), Henry Moore, horticulturalist and landscape gardener, displayed a high degree of creativity in his initial design of New Farm Park. Features such as the jacaranda drive continue to impress the public. Harry Oakman, landscape architect, also displayed creativity in his post-1948 re-design of the park including the rose beds, although only a remnant of this rose garden design remains. Both men were also innovators in the field of tropical garden design.
|The park has a long-standing and strong association with the local community, including the post-war Italian community. The playground is very popular with local mothers and children, and festival organisers, wedding parties, sportspeople, the elderly, and picnickers use other parts of the park.
|New Farm Park also has an association with the life and work of people of importance: Henry Moore, Harry Oakman, and Albert Herbert Foster, Brisbane's City Architect from 1913 to 1932.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19529,"place_ref":602410,"name":"Brisbane City Council Tramway Substation No 9 (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"97 Wynnum Road","suburb":"NORMAN PARK","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-08-05","description":"The former substation is a two-storey building of austere appearance and is constructed of dark, glazed brick. It occupies most of the block at the corner of Wynnum Road and Norman Avenue with its long axis at right angles to Wynnum Road to the north.
The metal clad roof is concealed by a stepped parapet and engaged piers form shallow decorative panels in the brickwork. The building is placed on a flush rendered plinth and the high window openings have heads and sills of concrete render. Finely detailed sheet metal rainwater heads and downpipes are prominently placed on the north and south elevations and contribute to the verticality of the design. The western side, facing Norman Avenue, features a large steel roller shutter protected by a curved metal hood.
The southern end of the building has been extended to accommodate a toilet. This single storey extension features panels of English bond and garden bond brickwork formed between engaged corner piers. Remnant concrete slabs and brick walls provide evidence of previous structures near this extension.
The interior has been modified to accommodate State Emergency Service use. A steel and timber framed floor has been inserted into the main volume of the building and the ceiling formed is lined with fibrous cement sheeting finished with timber cover strips. The lower level of the original floor is used to park a rescue boat and accommodates a secure mesh enclosure. A kitchen and dining area occupy the upper level of this floor. The original travelling crane remains, running north south for the entire length of the building and supported on steel rails resting on corbelled brickwork. All of the internal brickwork has been painted white.
A sheet metal and concrete block garage has been erected between the former substation and Wynnum Road.
","history":"The former Brisbane City Council Tramway substation no 9 was built to the design of Brisbane City Council Tramways architect Roy Rusden Ogg around 1935 during a period of tramways expansion.
Horse-drawn trams operated in Brisbane from August 1885, operated by an English company, Metropolitan Tramway and Investment Co. Ltd. The first public supply of electricity in Brisbane was from a generator in Edison Lane, which supplied the General Post Office in 1888. Early development in the industry was in the hands of a number of private companies and the situation was complex because the metropolitan area comprised fourteen separate local authorities. After various liquidations and restructurings the City Electric Light Company Limited (CEL) was established in 1904. Parallel development took place in electric traction. The Brisbane Tramways Company, a private enterprise formed in 1895, introduced the first electric trams to Brisbane in 1897 after purchasing the early horse car system, converting it to electric operation and expanding and extending the routes. A power station to supply current to the electric trams was constructed in Countess Street in 1897.
The tramway system extended out into the suburbs, the Countess Street power station was unable to supply all the energy requirements. Two engine sets from Countess Street were transferred to a building in Logan Road to provide for a feeding point for the system on the south side of the river. Supply was also fed from the tramway 550-volt DC mains to a number of establishments along the tramway routes, such as butcher shops, sawmills and factories. By 1918, the whole of the tramways public power supply equipment in South Brisbane was sold to the City Electric Light Company, which developed a supply for South Brisbane from its power station in William Street. At the conclusion of the First World War there was general support for the notion that the tramway system be owned and operated by a public authority rather than a private company. In 1922, an Act of Parliament inaugurated the Brisbane Tramway Trust.
The establishment in 1925 of the Brisbane City Council created a single public authority that could plan for the provision of electrical services throughout the entire city. Expansion of electricity supply and the development of better public transport networks were important issues for the Greater Brisbane City Council and were closely linked to suburban development. At this time the situation of energy generation and supply was chaotic. Three small obsolete power stations generated energy for trams and electricity for Ithaca and Toowong and the supply for all other suburbs was purchased in bulk from CEL under 10 year agreements.
The 1920s and 1930s was a period of tramways expansion following the BCC acquisition of the tramways system from the Brisbane Tramways Trust in 1925. In 1926 the Greater Brisbane Council, anxious to control the city's electricity supply, decided to build its own powerhouse at New Farm, under the supervision of the BCC Tramways Department. Opened on 28 June 1928, New Farm Power Station distributed 1100 kW AC power to a network of 11 suburban tramways substations erected in the 1920s and 1930s. The substations were located at strategic points throughout the system - substations No. 2 (Russell Street) and No. 6 (Windsor) came into service in 1927, No. 4 (Petrie Terrace) and No. 5 (Newstead) in 1928; Substation No. 9 (Norman Park) came on line in 1935.
Considerable attention was given to the design of the substations serving the tramway system. The architecture was marked by the stylistic preferences of individual architects particularly the Brisbane City Architects AH Foster and FG Costello and the BCC Tramways architect RR Ogg. Although they were robust utility buildings, generally small in scale, elegant proportions and such details as finely crafted brickwork distinguished them.
Prior to 1940, their design was the responsibility of BCC Tramways Department architect and construction engineer, Roy Rusden Ogg. In conjunction with the tramway's chief engineers Nelson and Arundell, he designed at least 10 Brisbane substations between 1926 and 1936 and the first two stages of the New Farm powerhouse. Ogg also designed the Tramways Departments Head Office building on Coronation Drive in 1929.
The Norman Park substation remained in service until the phasing out of Brisbane's trams in the late 1960s. In 1969 the line was closed and the substation's electrical equipment was removed, though the travelling crane remains. The building became a State Emergency Services Depot and changes were made to the interior to accommodate this use. The lower level of the original two level floor has been extended to park a rescue boat and a steel and timber framed mezzanine floor has been inserted in the main building space. A single storey garage was added on the northern side
","criteria":"The former tramway substation is important in demonstrating an important aspect of Queensland's industrial development and is closely linked to Brisbane's suburban expansion in the 1920s and 30s and with the development of the electricity supply system.
|The former substation is now uncommon evidence for an important mode of transport, which was discontinued in Brisbane in 1969 and for which much of the infrastructure has since been removed.
|In design, scale and materials, the former substation is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the Brisbane tramways substations.
As a well-conceived utility structure, it is important as a fine example of the municipal work of tramways architect Roy Rusden Ogg.
|The former substation contributes to the streetscape, its quality of design and materials enabling the prominently placed building to successfully combine function and a pleasing appearance.
|As a well-conceived utility structure, it is important as a fine example of the municipal work of tramways architect Roy Rusden Ogg.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19530,"place_ref":602411,"name":"Brisbane City Council Tramways Substation No. 8 (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"134 Kedron Park Road","suburb":"WOOLOOWIN","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-08-05","description":"The former substation is a two-storey building of austere appearance and is constructed of dark, glazed bricks laid in English bond.
It has a metal clad gabled roof concealed by a brick parapet at the front and sides. The parapet on the front and western sides is decorated with a moulded brickwork stringcourse and a decorative band comprising three-course corbelling, brick dentils and a cornice. The sheet metal rainwater heads and downpipes are also finely detailed. The window openings have flush concrete render heads and sills, although a projecting concrete sill spans the row of three windows high on the Kedron Park Road elevation. A large galvanised sheet steel roller shutter is fitted to the opening below these windows.
The lower part of the main building is spare in detail. Entry is by a concrete and steel stair supported on brick piers. The exterior reveals a series of changes to the building, with openings variously enlarged, added and filled in. The rear wall is clad in colour-finished corrugated iron. There is a single storey garage of stretcher bond brick at the southwest corner and a shipping container has been positioned immediately to the south of the main building.
The interior has a steel and timber mezzanine floor and the ceiling is lined with fibrous cement sheeting and timber cover strips. The travelling crane survives complete with ropes and pulleys. It runs north to south on steel rails supported on corbelled brickwork and intermittently by a series of engaged piers. The face brickwork is variously painted and unpainted and a number of remnant openings and brackets provide evidence of the building's previous function.
Adjoining the main space is a kitchen area, leading to a toilet and storage area. The external areas of the site are paved in bitumen and flow into the car park of the adjoining hotel.
","history":"The former Brisbane City Council Tramway substation no 8 is a two storey building of dark brick built to the design of Brisbane City Council Tramways architect R R Ogg between 1934-37.
Horse-drawn trams operated in Brisbane from August 1885, operated by an English company, Metropolitan Tramway and Investment Co. Ltd. The first public supply of electricity in Brisbane was from a generator in Edison Lane, which supplied the General Post Office in 1888. Early development in the industry was in the hands of a number of private companies and the situation was complex because the metropolitan area comprised fourteen separate local authorities. After various liquidations and restructurings the City Electric Light Company Limited (CEL) was established in 1904. Parallel development took place in electric traction. The Brisbane Tramways Company, a private enterprise formed in 1895, introduced the first electric trams to Brisbane in 1897 after purchasing the early horse car system, converting it to electric operation and expanding and extending the routes. A power station to supply current to the electric trams was constructed in Countess Street in 1897.
As the tramway system extended out into the suburbs, the Countess Street power station was unable to supply all the energy requirements. Two engine sets from Countess Street were transferred to a building in Logan Road to provide for a feeding point for the system on the south side of the river. Supply was also fed from the tramway 550-volt DC mains to a number of establishments along the tramway routes, such as butcher shops, sawmills and factories. By 1918, the whole of the tramways public power supply equipment in South Brisbane was sold to the City Electric Light Company, which developed a supply for South Brisbane from its power station in William Street. At the conclusion of World War I there was general support for the notion that the tramway system should be owned and operated by a public authority rather than a private company. In 1922, an Act of Parliament inaugurated the Brisbane Tramway Trust.
The establishment in 1925 of the Brisbane City Council created a single public authority that could plan for the provision of electrical services throughout the entire city. Expansion of electricity supply and the development of better public transport networks were important issues for the Greater Brisbane City Council and were closely linked to the spread of suburban development. At a time when few working people owned their own transport, a reliable public transport system was essential to link people with their work and with schools, shops and services. However, the situation of energy generation and supply was chaotic. Three small obsolete power stations generated energy for trams and electricity for Ithaca and Toowong and the supply for all other suburbs was purchased in bulk from CEL under 10 year agreements.
The 1920s and 1930s was a period of tramways expansion following the BCC acquisition of the tramways system from the Brisbane Tramways Trust in 1925. In 1926 the Greater Brisbane Council, anxious to control the city's electricity supply, decided to build its own powerhouse at New Farm, under the supervision of the BCC Tramways Department. Opened on 28 June 1928, New Farm Power Station distributed 1100 kW AC power to a network of 11 suburban tramways substations erected in the 1920s and 1930s. The substations were located at strategic points throughout the system - substations No. 2 (Russell Street) and No. 6 (Windsor) came into service in 1927, No. 4 (Petrie Terrace) and No. 5 (Newstead) in 1928; Substation No. 9 (Norman Park) came on line in 1935.
Considerable attention was given to the design of the substations serving the tramway system. The architecture was marked by the stylistic preferences of individual architects particularly the Brisbane City Architects AH Foster and FG Costello and the BCC Tramways architect RR Ogg. Although they were robust utility buildings, generally small in scale, elegant proportions and such details as finely crafted brickwork distinguished them.
By 1933 an additional substation was urgently required at Kedron in order to relieve a serious overload being carried every afternoon by the substation at Windsor, where the 500kW mercury arc rectifier plant was carrying 700 volts. Council minutes suggest that provision for this new substation should have been made two or three years prior to 1933, but that the expenditure was delayed for financial reasons until it became essential for safety.
On 29 May 1934 the council authorised purchase of an allotment facing Kedron Brook Road and adjoining the Kedron Park Hotel for the purpose of constructing a tramway substation. Tenders were received on 8 June 1934 and that of General Electric Industries Limited Brisbane was accepted using materials supplied by British Thomson Houston Ltd of Rugby. A further portion of land to be used as an easement was purchased in August 1934.
Prior to 1940, the design of substations was the responsibility of BCC Tramways Department architect and construction engineer, Roy Rusden Ogg. In conjunction with the tramway's chief engineers Nelson and Arundell, he designed at least 10 Brisbane substations between 1926 and 1936 and the first two stages of the New Farm powerhouse. Ogg also designed the Tramways Departments Head Office building on Coronation Drive in 1929.
The Kedron substation remained in service until the phasing out of Brisbane's trams in the late 1960s. In 1969 the line was closed and the substation's electrical equipment was removed, though the travelling crane remained. The building became a State Emergency Services Depot and changes were made to the interior to accommodate this use. The lower level of the original two level floor has been extended to park a rescue boat and a mezzanine level was inserted in the mid 1980s. A single storey brick garage has been added.
","criteria":"The former tramway substation is important in demonstrating an important aspect of Queensland's industrial development and is closely linked to Brisbane's suburban expansion in the 1920s and 30s and with the development of the electricity supply system.
|The former substation is now uncommon evidence for an important mode of transport, which was discontinued in Brisbane in 1969 and for which much of the infrastructure has since been removed.
|In design, scale and materials, the former substation is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the Brisbane tramways substations.
As a well-conceived utility structure, it is important as a fine example of the municipal work of tramways architect Roy Rusden Ogg.
|The former substation contributes to the streetscape, its quality of design and materials enabling the prominently placed building to successfully combine function and a pleasing appearance.
|As a well-conceived utility structure, it is important as a fine example of the municipal work of tramways architect Roy Rusden Ogg.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19546,"place_ref":602427,"name":"Swain House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"139 Laurel Avenue","suburb":"CHELMER","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-12-12","description":"The Swain house is a single storey timber dwelling with a triple gabled front elevation. It has a hipped roof clad in terracotta tiles.
The interior is substantially intact and has a sunroom at the front of the house. The dining and living areas are linked and there is a large sandstone fireplace in the living room. The dining room is lined with timber and a two-way, lead-lighted cupboard, previously linking the dining room and kitchen, now links the kitchen and former breakfast room. At the right hand side of the house are bedrooms and at the rear there is a bathroom, sitting room and maid's room. Part of the rear verandah has been enclosed to form a bedroom. An open deck has been added to the rear and left-hand side of the house.
The house is set in an extensive and intact 1920s garden that includes a grass tennis court. The garden contains most of the native and exotic trees planted by Swain in the 1920s and many fruit and rainforest trees. The grounds contain a large plantation of hoop and kauri pine trees near the bank of Brisbane River and a number of mature cedar trees. A row of mature kauri trees lines the southern boundary of the land and tallow wood, crows ash, satinay and yellow pine trees are found in a group to the right of the site behind the tennis court. On a slope to the rear of the house are fruit trees including a loquat, mulberry and mandarin and two eucalyptus trees.
","history":"Edward Swain purchased the 1.5 acres of riverfront land for this house in 1920 when he was Director of Forests in Queensland. He took out a mortgage for £1300 and constructed a California Bungalow style home in which he was living by 1925. He surrounded the house with extensive plantings of native and exotic trees reflecting his life's work in forestry.
Edward Harold Fulcher Swain was born in Sydney in 1883 and was the first Cadet Forester in the New South Wales Forestry Branch in 1899. He studied forestry in Montana, USA in 1915 and on his return became a District Forest Inspector in Queensland. Between 1918 and 1924 he was Director of Forests in Queensland. During this time he set aside large tracts of hoop pine forest in the Brisbane and Mary Valleys and planted areas of introduced species. On the abolition of the office of Director in 1924, he became inaugural Chairman of the Queensland Forestry Board until 1932. This Board was responsible for the management and control of the State Forests and National Parks.
Swain laid the foundations of modern forestry economics in Queensland. His new ideas and strong personality frequently brought him into conflict with others and he was often a controversial figure in an industry deeply rooted in traditional practice. Amongst other achievements, he pioneered forest assessment surveys, promoted the permanent reservation of good forests and forest land, improved pricing policies which led to a better use of timber resources and expanded staff training and the activities of his department. He wrote a number of books on forestry, was a founder of the Australian Forestry School at the Australian National University and supported community interest in trees. In 1924 he was instrumental in establishing the Sherwood Arboretum, a park on the Brisbane River, which is dedicated to the growth of indigenous trees.
In 1932 Swain publicly campaigned against the indiscriminate allocation of forested land as land grants, at the time a policy of the incumbent National Party Government. Although the Labor Party won the election, in the controversy and inquiries which followed Swain lost his job. He became a research consultant for Australian Paper Manufacturers in South Australia before becoming Commissioner for Forests in New South Wales until his official retirement in 1948. Between 1951 and 1955 he was United Nations Forestry Consultant in Ethiopia. Swain died in Brisbane in July 1970.
His daughter Nancy and her husband occupied the family home from 1946. She shared her father's interest in indigenous species and planted rainforest trees in the grounds.
The house itself reflects Swain's obsession with exploring the potential of Australian timbers. It was constructed of rosewood with the intention of proving that this timber, then not well regarded for the purpose, was suitable for building. The house also displays Queensland timbers to advantage, the joinery including panelling in pine and kauri.
Most of the trees planted by Swain and his family survive and are now large trees that make a major contribution to the landscape of the area. The Alan Fletcher Research Station of the Department of Primary Industries nearby uses the hoop pine plantation for research into forestry practices.
","criteria":"The Swain house was built in the early 1920s on a 1.5-acre block of land fronting the Brisbane River at Chelmer. The land has not been subdivided since the house was built and as a comparatively modest family home in grounds of this size and location, it illustrates and early phase in the development of Brisbane.
|The house is a good example its type and era, being substantially intact in both form and internal features. It is rare in retaining its original setting in extensive grounds with mature indigenous trees on the bank of the Brisbane River. Such features as the maid's room and grass tennis court, which illustrate a way of life now passed, are uncommon.
|The house and its setting, particularly the stands of mature trees planted by EHF Swain, have aesthetic value and make an important contribution to the streetscape.
|EHF Swain was a nationally significant figure in the development of the forestry industry in Australia and his house and tree plantings have a strong association with his life and work, illustrating his interest in timber and forestry research. The hoop pine plantation continues to be of value for research purposes.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19548,"place_ref":601841,"name":"Lyndhurst","alternate_name":"The Reid House","street_address":"3 London Road","suburb":"CLAYFIELD","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-12-12","description":"'Lyndhurst' is not visible from the street and is located on a sloping site set well back from London Road. It is reached via a long concrete drive in the same location as the original gravel driveway.
The large, single-storey house has a timber frame elevated on timber stumps at the front and set close to the ground at the rear. The area beneath the house is enclosed with concrete blocks that have been rendered to match the exterior fibrous cement sheeting. A pair of narrow concrete stairs leads up to the two doors at the front of the house.
The roof is steeply pitched and composed of two large hips that are symmetrically arranged around a central axis through the front elevation and are clad in terracotta Marseilles pattern tiles. Twin gables, of a uniform roof pitch, project from the building's front elevation. The pediments of the gables are clad with fibrous cement sheeting and are decorated with wide timber battens. Two tall rendered chimneys with concrete caps are the only other visible elements on the vast roof. Part of the verandah roof on the eastern side of the house has been replaced with corrugated iron.
The existing external walls of the house are clad with fibrous cement sheeting fitted to a timber frame that incorporates the original verandah posts. The original external walls, which are presently part of the buildings' interior, are also clad with fibrous cement sheeting that may possibly be covering the original chamferboard. Where the verandah has been enclosed, a variety of windows have been installed.
Although alterations have been made, the original plan of the house can still be read and the form of most rooms remains substantially intact despite the introduction or alteration of door and window openings. Internally, most of the original rooms are lined in narrow vertically jointed pine boards, though some are clad in fibrous cement sheeting. The former drawing and dining rooms have picture rail and dado mouldings. In part of the former kitchen wing, narrow lining boards have only been used on one side of the wall, leaving the timber frame exposed. The ceilings in the former drawing and dining rooms are pressed metal, exhibiting rich designs together with a perimeter border. The ceilings to most of the other original rooms are also pressed metal, though simpler in design. The former timber lined soffits to the original verandah remain despite the enclosure of the verandah and the introduction of kitchen and bathroom facilities for the various flats. The former kitchen wing has painted pine ceiling boards. Timber floorboards exist throughout the house, which contains three open fireplaces, of which only those in the former dining and morning rooms have chimneypieces. The two simply moulded timber surrounds, which are presently painted, are similar in design although that in the dining room is larger.
Most of the original doors, many of which were French doors, have been removed with their hinges leaving open doorways. The original interior doors are of panelled timber with pressed metal push plates. Evidence of the original dark stained finish is evident under layers of paint. The bay windows are substantially intact despite having been relocated from the corner of both front rooms. A decorative internal timber fretwork grille is fitted to both of them.
A large two storeyed addition, which is not considered significant, has been constructed at the rear of the original house.
","history":"Lyndhurst is a timber residence erected in 1896 for John Reid, principal of J C Hutton & Co., ham and bacon processors. It was the first substantial house designed by R S (Robin) Dods after his commencement in the Brisbane partnership of Hall and Dods from August 1896. Dods was a prolific, innovative and highly skilled architect whose work moved the Queensland timber house tradition forward. His work was influential and during his lifetime, the 'Lyndhurst' design was published more often than any other of his domestic works.
In the mid 19th century the 'Lyndhurst' site was included in a parcel of just under 30 acres alienated in 1858 by Theodore Franz of Kedron Brook. This land was subdivided in the late 1870s and again in the mid 1890s and following the second subdivision, John Reid acquired title in September 1896 to a block of 3 acres 18.8 perches with a frontage to London Road. Reid had come to Queensland from Victoria in 1882 and established the Zillmere bacon curing works north of Brisbane for JC Hutton & Co in about 1890. This facility was then the largest of its type in Australia. Reid was also associated with the Yangan cheese factory near Warwick (established 1893) and was Chairman of Directors of the Nambour sugar mill.
Robert Smith (Robin) Dods (1868-1920) was born in New Zealand. After living in Scotland in the early 1870s, the family moved to Brisbane after his father's death. From the age of 11 he lived with his mother and stepfather, Dr C F Marks, on Wickham Terrace. In 1886 he returned to Scotland to study architecture, where he was articled with Hay and Henderson in Edinburgh. Completing his articles, Dods moved to London in 1890, where he worked for a number of architects, including the prestigious firm of Aston Webb and Ingress Bell. Dods' training in London placed him amongst the third generation of Arts and Crafts based architects, contemporary with Edwin Lutyens, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright. Central to his philosophy was a belief in developing a new architecture based on regional tradition, clearly expressed in his subsequent domestic work in Brisbane.
In 1894 he returned to Brisbane for a year's visit, during which time he and architect Francis Hall submitted a successful competition entry for the nurses' home at the Brisbane Hospital. He returned to London, but came back to Brisbane in August 1896 to set up in partnership as Hall and Dods. Within the partnership, Dods was responsible for most of the design, while Hall concentrated on management. The practice was the most influential source of modern design in Brisbane, producing a wide range of accomplished buildings and was credited with achieving an 'architectural revolution in Brisbane.' Dods was able to integrate contemporary British design philosophies with the traditions of Queensland housing and the requirements of a subtropical climate, producing practical and attractive houses that were finely detailed and widely copied. The partnership was sustained until 1913, when Dods left to practice in Sydney. Soon after his move to Sydney World War I virtually stopped all building and Dods died prematurely in 1920.
John Reid commissioned Hall and Dods to design his Clayfield residence soon after the partnership was formed in August 1896, following earlier commissions with John Hall and Son to design Hutton's Zillmere works and the Yangan cheese factory. Lyndhurst was Dods' seventh domestic commission in Brisbane. Tenders were called on 5 September 1896 and the contract was let to Walls and Huster with a tender price of £1,007.
When completed, the Reid house faced northeast and was set well back from London Road with a gravel drive on the western side terminating in front of the house and sloping down to the road. Although it was unusual in Brisbane to do so, Dods also designed the front garden of the house. It was set out in three formal terraces and had garden stairs that led across a formal parterre to the lawn tennis court beyond. Hedges with topiary features were planted around the perimeter. Queen palms were planted either side of the entrance and weeping fig trees to the east side and rear. This garden was lost when the property was subdivided in 1945.
The timber-framed house, although derived from Queensland tradition, incorporated some important differences in planning, details and materials. The design was plain and the decoration, although sparingly used, was classically derived. An extreme roof pitch ensured that the roof was dominant, and the roof geometry was symmetrically arranged around a central axis. It was clad with terracotta Marseilles roofing tiles - an early use of this material in Queensland. However, the 'symmetry' of the house was only implied, for in plan the central corridor was moved to one side to favour rooms with wider verandahs on the western side. The front verandah broke forward as a porch with a pedimented gable, giving protection to the stair. The pediment itself was cranked along the sides, reflecting a subtle change in pitch as the steep roof flattened out slightly over the verandahs. The verandah had turned balusters and 8" x 3" timber verandah posts with the wide face to the outside, subtle but unusual embellishments in Queensland. The design of the front stair was similarly unconventional, with an awning supported on verandah posts, and narrow projecting verandah elements flanking the stair, all of which were covered. The house had two tall rendered chimneys with concrete caps.
The whole house was raised on wooden stumps in the traditional Queensland fashion, but instead of a vertical batten skirt around the perimeter, the base was sheeted with hardwood weatherboards, relieved only by small vertical slits, with a gap for the ant caps just below floor bearer level. The effect was of a solid house firmly tied to the ground. Solidity was to become an identifying characteristic of all Dods' buildings. The house design was published in the premier London architectural journal The Builder in 1906 and in Domestic Architecture in Australia by W Hardy Wilson in 1919.
The external sheeting of the front wall was of pine chamferboards, in conventional fashion, but the wall itself was unconventionally blank. With the exception of corner bay windows and the front door and sidelights, there were no other openings in the front elevation. At a subsequent date the corner bays were moved to the front, the central pediment porch was removed and two gables were constructed over the relocated bay windows.
Internally, the walls were sheeted with innovative narrow, vertically jointed pine boards and the ceilings with pressed metal of Art Nouveau design.
The service wing at the rear projected to the west at right angles to the main house, and contained kitchen, two pantries and a ground level washhouse. It had a blank wall to the street, relieved only by two oval-shaped windows to the kitchen itself, but opening onto a latticed verandah at the rear.
Lyndhurst remained the Reid family home for nearly 25 years. Following John Reid's death in January 1919 his widow sold the property and in January 1921 the house, on a slightly reduced site, was transferred to David Rhoades of Brisbane, then a month later to Letitia Macdonald. Queensland Post Office Directories list William A Macdonald as a resident from 1921-22 until at least 1940, although a Mrs Buss is thought to have lived at Lyndhurst in the 1930s. A detached extension at the rear of the house was extant by 1929.
Following Mrs MacDonald's death in 1942, the house was transferred in 1945 to Richard and Gladys Lucas. They subdivided the property, separating the front garden and tennis court from the house and driveway (still off London Road). Lyndhurst was sold c1946 and title changed hands frequently from this period until acquired by Aitkin Investments in 1983. It is likely that the house and extension were converted to flats in the late 1940s or early 1950s, resulting in a number of alterations, including enclosing of the verandahs, cladding of the exterior walls with stucco coated fibrous cement, some additional interior partitioning and extensions to the rear addition. Turrawan Private Hospital (1930s) is on adjoining land and was sold to Uniting Healthcare in 1998. 'Lyndhurst' may have become part of the property at that time. It has been sold to the Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association for Clayfield College recently.
","criteria":"'Lyndhurst' is important in terms of Queensland's architectural history and in the development of the Queensland house. It is believed to be the earliest substantial residence designed by the influential partnership of Hall & Dods in 1896. Robert (Robin) Smith Dods is noted for the introduction of ideas on architectural design that were then current in the United Kingdom and integrating them with traditional Queensland forms and materials. His designs subsequently influenced Australian architecture. 'Lyndhurst' is situated in an area where many fine homes, including others by Dods, were subsequently built and illustrates the development of Clayfield as a prestigious residential area.
|'Lyndhurst' is rare as an early example of Dods domestic work. Although he designed many houses, few, particularly of the size and quality of 'Lyndhurst', survive.
|As a residence designed shortly after his return from the United Kingdom, it is of particular interest in understanding the development of domestic design in Brisbane. Although it has sustained major alterations, it retains much of the original layout and characteristic features of his work.
|'Lyndhurst' is important for its association with the life and work of RS (Robin) Dods, an innovative and influential architect who made a major contribution to the development of housing design in Queensland. It is an early and influential example of his work, adapting Arts and Crafts design philosophy with the climactic constraints posed by sub tropical dwelling.
|'Lyndhurst' is important for its association with the life and work of RS (Robin) Dods, an innovative and influential architect who made a major contribution to the development of housing design in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19551,"place_ref":602429,"name":"Gair Park","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"181 Annerley Road","suburb":"DUTTON PARK","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-04-05","description":"Gair Park, a garden of remembrance containing a cenotaph, is a triangular piece of land bounded by Annerley Road, Gladstone Road and Maldon Street at Dutton Park. It is undulating in form and slopes down towards the road junction. The northeast corner has been truncated to close access to Maldon Street from Annerley Road and a side road has been cut to the south linking Gladstone Road and Annerley Road.
The memorial is situated near the western corner of the park at the top of a grassy avenue flanked by hedges and eucalypt trees. It is in the form of a an obelisk, 20 foot high and square in section composed of coursed blocks of Brisbane Tuff (porphyry). It is set on a sloping plinth faced with masonry tiles and is surrounded by a paved area. Bronze memorial tablets beneath bronze laurel wreaths are set low on the sides of the shaft. These are inscribed In Memory of Fallen Comrades with the dates beneath commemorating the First and Second World Wars and the Korean, Malaya, Vietnam and Borneo conflicts. The fourth plaque commemorates the dedication of the memorial and is inscribed Unveiled by his Excellency the Governor of Queensland Lieutenant General Sir John Laverack KBE, CB, CMG, DSO and dedicated by Reverend A G Reilly on 25 April 1951.
On the plinth are plaques inscribed Lest We Forget. Dutton Park sub branch RSSAILA and Lest We Forget. Yeronga/Dutton Park RSL Branch. Merged 3.2.1964. The park also contains a number of park seats and timber shelters and scattered plantings.
","history":"Gair Park is a triangular area of land at the intersection of two major roads at Dutton Park and was developed as a park in 1936 and as a garden of remembrance and memorial following World War II. It now also commemorates subsequent conflicts.
The area now that is now known as Dutton Park was originally called Bloggo or Boggo. It was thickly timbered and cut by steep gullies. Some farms were established there in the 1840s, but there were few houses until the 1880s. As transport became available, more people moved to the district. A railway station was opened at Dutton Park in 1884 and the first horse drawn bus service linking Dutton Park with the city began in 1890. It was replaced by electric tram in 1908, after which the area developed more rapidly. In 1914 the suburb was renamed in honour of C B Dutton, Secretary of Public Lands between 1883 and 1887, and by the late 1920s, was considered fashionable.
In the 30 June 1929 edition of the Sunday Mail, an article generally praising the suburb commented unfavourably on the area at the intersection of Annerley and Gladstone Road where there was 'a vacant triangle of public land which would make a charming little tree shaded reserve, but at the present time it remains little more than a rubbish heap, that is more of a disfigurement to the locality than an acquisition, which it would be if tided up and planted with shade trees.'
Steps were taken to address this problem in 1936 when the area, previously part of the road reserve, was vested in the Brisbane City Council for general municipal purposes. It was reserved as a park and Gilchrist prepared plans for it in June 1936. In 1938 the planting of fifty trees furthered the development.
The new park was named Gair Park in honour of parliamentarian Vincent (Vince) Clair Gair, Labor member for South Brisbane. Born in Rockhampton in 1901, Gair moved to Dutton Park with his parents in 1916. His family was politically active and he became Secretary of the South Brisbane branch of the ALP and by 1924 was its president. He was first elected to the Queensland Parliament in 1932 and gained his first Ministry as Secretary for Mines in 1942. He became Minister for Labour and Employment 1944-50 and Deputy Premier in 1947. In 1950 he became Treasurer and was Premier in 1951. He introduced the 40-hour working week and was associated with the modernisation of the Factory and Shops Act. In 1957 he was expelled from the Labor Party following a divergence of opinion and became leader of the breakaway Democratic Labor Party in 1964. He was a Senator for the DLP between 1965 and 1973, and then took up the appointment of Ambassador for Ireland until 1976 when he withdrew from politics. He lived locally until his death in 1980 and was always active in his constituency, supporting local institutions particularly those associated with health and children's welfare.
Following World War II, the Dutton Park and District Progress Association applied for permission to build a Memorial Hall. The Brisbane City Council did not favour this scheme and it was suggested that they lease a portion of Dutton Park instead. However, the proposal of the Dutton Park sub-branch of the RSSAILA to develop Gair Park as a Garden of Remembrance with a suitable memorial was approved. The Brisbane City Council Building and Planning Branch prepared plans in 1949. The memorial was in the form of a masonry obelisk set with bronze memorial tablets placed on a plinth of sufficient depth to accommodate the laying of wreaths. It was situated at a corner of the park, at the crest of the rise, and was approached through an avenue of shrubs and hedges. Hugh McKernan constructed the memorial, which was unveiled on Anzac Day 1951 by Lieutenant-General Sir John Laverack, Governor of Queensland. To the members of the Dutton Park sub branch it was a major achievement and represented the transformation of what was by then described as an unkept piece of ground into a place of beauty.
Australia, and Queensland in particular, had few civic monuments before World War I. The memorials erected in its wake became our first national monuments, recording the devastating impact of war on a young nation. Australia lost 60,000 from a population of about 4 million, representing one in five of those who served. No previous or subsequent war has made such an impact on the nation and the majority of Australian war memorials date from this era. Monumental memorials built following World War II and subsequent conflicts are less common and many comprise additions to earlier memorials or practical projects, such as public recreational facilities. As a cenotaph in a Garden of Remembrance dating from World War II, therefore, the memorial is of a less common type in Queensland. It has had memorials to previous and subsequent conflicts added to it.
The park setting has become less formal over time. In 1954 approval was given for the construction of a small concrete wall along the full length of the Annerley Road frontage with recesses for park seats and a new flowerbed in the Gladstone and Annerley Road corner. In the 1960s an avenue of eucalypts replaced earlier plantings. In 1973-74 the Multiple Sclerosis Society requested tables and chairs be provided to encourage use of the park by the inmates of the nearby convalescent home. The park now contains a picnic area and a number of shelters.
Gair Park is now used for informal outdoor recreational, cultural and educational activities. Ceremonies are held there on Anzac Day to honour war dead.
","criteria":"Gair Park is a garden of remembrance and cenotaph commemorating the war dead of the Dutton Park district. Memorials that pay tribute to war dead are an important element of Queensland towns and cities and demonstrate the way in which involvement in war has helped to shape the pattern of Queensland's history. They represent a conscious expression of Australian patriotism and sense of nationhood and reflect the public taste and social attitudes of their time.
|A high proportion of war memorials in Queensland were built to commemorate World War I. Gair Park is less common in that the garden and cenotaph were constructed following World War II. After this conflict, adding to existing memorials or constructing practical memorials, such as public facilities, more commonly remembered the fallen. Gair Park is a good example of it type as a cenotaph in a formal garden of remembrance.
|Gair Park is important for the aesthetic qualities of both the parkland setting and the war memorial it contains. The cenotaph is dramatically sited at the top of a grassy slope rising above Annerley Road at a major traffic intersection and is a landmark in the area.
|Gair Park and its memorial have a strong association with the community of Dutton Park as evidence of the impact of a major historic event on the district and also as a major project of the Dutton Park sub branch of the RSSAILA (now RSL). It is also an important ceremonial and recreational venue.
|Gair Park is linked to the life and work of former Queensland Premier, Vincent Clair Gair (1901-1980), and its naming acknowledges his active support for the area while Member of the Legislative Assembly for South Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19561,"place_ref":602439,"name":"Sir William Glasgow Memorial","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"270 Queen Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-05-13","description":"The Sir William Glasgow Memorial is located on a paved area at the northwestern edge of Post Office Square, adjacent to Adelaide Street in Brisbane City. The memorial is comprised of a large statue standing on a stone plinth, and is in strong axial alignment with the Shrine of Remembrance in Anzac Square [QHR 600062]. Prominent vistas of the memorial are available from Anzac Square and from the sections of Adelaide and Queen streets that bound Post Office Square.
The Daphne Mayo designed, bronze statue of Glasgow is approximately 2.5 metres high and set on a tapered plinth. Panels of grey granite clad the plinth and bear gilt inscriptions detailing Glasgow’s career and service record. A square, stone base that supports the plinth has recent inscriptions on the top face, northwest and southeast of the statue, labelling details of the memorial’s rededication on 2 February 2008.
The statue depicts Glasgow in the uniform of an officer of the Light Horse holding a pair of field glasses. He is standing at ease in a relaxed and natural pose and gazes reflectively into the distance. The stamp of the foundry, Foundaria Natistica, Battaglia, Milan is imprinted on the bronze behind the statue's right heel.
Other elements of Post Office Square, including the above ground park area and lower level commercial spaces, are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance in relation to the Sir William Glasgow Memorial.
","history":"The Sir William Glasgow Memorial was designed by Queensland sculptor Daphne Mayo and completed in 1964. It is in the form of a naturalistic bronze figure of Sir William, dressed in Australian Light Horse uniform and set on a granite plinth.
Thomas William Glasgow was born at Blackmount, near Tiaro, Queensland in 1876. He was educated at One Mile State School in Gympie and at Maryborough Grammar School. After leaving school he initially worked as a clerk in the office of a mining company, then as a bank clerk in Gympie. He joined the Wide Bay Regiment, Queensland Mounted Infantry, while still in his teens. In 1897 he was one of 20 chosen to represent Queensland at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in London. He served in the Boer War as a Lieutenant in the 1st Queensland Mounted Infantry Contingent, when he took part in the relief of Kimberley and the occupation of Bloemfontein. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1901, an unusual distinction for someone of his rank.
After the war Glasgow returned to his hometown and took over the operation of his father's grocery store together with his brother, though he married in 1904 and purchased a cattle station in central Queensland. In 1903, he had organised the 13th Light Horse Regiment at Gympie and was promoted to captain in 1906 and major in 1912. When war broke out in 1914 he was appointed to the AIF with the rank of major in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment, which embarked for Egypt in August 1914. Glasgow distinguished himself at Gallipoli and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. In 1916 he became Brigadier-General in command of the 13th Australian Infantry Brigade on the Western Front.
His most memorable battle was at Villers-Bretonneux on 25 April 1918. Two Australian Brigades, including Glasgow's, had been given the task of recapturing this village, recently taken by the Germans and a key position. Glasgow's plan of attack differed from that put forward by the high command, but his opinion prevailed and the action was a great success, later described as a turning point in the war. After this battle Glasgow was promoted to Major General and given command of the Australian 1st Division.
In 1919 William Glasgow returned to Australia and was knighted. He continued in the pastoral industry but entered Federal Parliament as a Senator in 1920 and served as Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Defence. Between 1940 and 1945 he served as Australia's first High Commissioner to Canada.
Sir William died in Brisbane in 1955 and was given a State funeral. The Queensland Club set up a memorial fund and commissioned at statue by the important Australian sculptor, Daphne Mayo, in 1961.
Mayo studied in Brisbane under L J Harvey and was awarded the Wattle Day League travelling art fellowship in 1914. Although the outbreak of World War I delayed her taking up the fellowship, she travelled to London in 1918 at the war's end, and studied at the Royal Academy. There she won the Landseer Scholarship and the Edward Stott travelling scholarship to Rome. She returned to Brisbane in 1925 and began to exhibit her work in Brisbane and Sydney.
Daphne Mayo was most productive in the 1920s and 30s and she is probably best known for her allegorical work, The Progress of Civilization in the State of Queensland, on the tympanum of the Brisbane City Hall (1930) and the Women's War Memorial in Anzac Square, Brisbane (1929-30). She was awarded an MBE for her services to art in 1959 and became a Trustee of the Queensland Art Gallery. In 1964 her statue of Sir William Glasgow was completed and the work was dedicated on Anzac Day, 1966. It was Mayo's last major commission and she died in 1982.
The statue was originally sited on the Police Reserve at the corner of Ann and Roma Streets, but was moved to a triangular reserve near the Roma Street tunnel in 1968. A modern plinth sheeted with granite replaced the original sandstone plinth.
In February 2008 the statue was rededicated following its relocation to Post Office Square during the construction of the Inner Northern busway. The statue now faces Anzac Square.
","criteria":"The statue commemorates the role played by prominent Queenslander, Sir William Glasgow, in the major events of World War I and his service to the community.
|As a monument, prominently sited and erected by subscription as an enduring record of a person's public service and contribution to major historical events, the statue of Sir William demonstrates the principal characteristics of public memorials, being both a commemoration and exemplar of attributes admired by the community.
|The statue of Sir William Glasgow is important for the quality of its design and execution and the major contribution it makes to the streetscape.
|It is significant for its connection with the life and work of the important Australian sculptor, Daphne Mayo, as her last major commissioned work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19562,"place_ref":602440,"name":"Eagle Street Fig Trees","alternate_name":"Plantation Reserve | Fig Tree Reserve","street_address":"118A Eagle Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-05-13","description":"The reserve is a triangular island located at the intersection of Eagle, Elizabeth and Creek Streets. The site, consisting of a partially paved and landscaped area, is dominated by the huge fig trees that provide a striking visual effect in the business precinct of the Eagle Street area.
The reserve is planted with three fig trees, two White Figs (Ficus virens) and one Banyan Fig (Ficus benghalensis). The branches of the Banyan Figs are supported with prop roots that develop from the aerial roots that are produced to gather moisture from the atmosphere. The White Fig is taller than the Banyan and has pale green foliage which first appears as a shade of pink or bronze. This species is found occurring naturally in Queensland and throughout tropical Asia.
There are two interpretive bronze plaques located on site. The first of the bronze plaques is mounted on a small plinth and contains an engraved inscription. The inscription describes the natural features of the site as it was in 1889, the history of the site prior to 1889 and the role it played in the commercial activities of the area. The second plaque contains a map showing the course of the creek that originally flowed through the site.
","history":"The small triangular reserve at the intersection of Eagle, Elizabeth and Creek Streets was granted to the North Brisbane Municipal Council by Queen Victoria, signed by the Governor of Queensland, Sir Henry Wiley Norman, on 16th May 1889.
It was gazetted on 17th May 1889 as, "745 Folio 210 101/11 perches... Reserve for Plantation, urinal etc. only and for no other purpose whatsoever... Rent: 1 peppercorn per year if demanded by the Queen Victoria and her heirs forever. Mineral Rights reserved by the Crown." The land could be resumed if these conditions were not observed.
Walter Hill planted the three fig trees located on the site. He was appointed Brisbane's first superintendent of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens in 1855 and remained a key figure in the management of the Gardens until 1881.
Public toilets were constructed on the reserve but were removed in the 1970's. The area has been paved and 19th Century reproduction light fittings have been installed, as well as facilities such as garbage containers and seats.
","criteria":"The Eagle Street Fig Trees are important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. The Fig Trees or 'Plantation Reserve' is important because it survives as a remnant of the development of the area during the first half of the nineteenth century. Early photographs of the area show rows of horse and carts lined up to service the wharf area and adjacent warehouses. The area was established as a Reserve in the late 19th Century to provide an area for the carriers to rest and refresh themselves amidst an area of high activity.
|As a representative of a mid-Victorian era Reserve, the Eagle Street Fig Trees demonstrate rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage. Located in a busy trading precinct, the Eagle Street Fig Trees provided workmen with respite from the hectic wharf trading area. The Fig Trees have retained this function in their current setting.
|The Eagle Street Fig Trees have landmark value at the intersection of several major streets in Brisbane's central business district and provide shade and visual amenity.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19563,"place_ref":602441,"name":"Francis Lookout","alternate_name":"Francis Outlook","street_address":"157 Dewar Terrace","suburb":"CORINDA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-09-07","description":"The parkland is called Francis Lookout and is located on the corner of Dewar Terrace and Hilda Street, Corinda. The park was previously used as a private cemetery and still contains several memorials. A timber lychgate was constructed in 1902.
The park is in a significant hilltop position with panoramic views of Brisbane, especially towards Mt Coot-tha. The site sits at 50m high, and is in the mid-range of Brisbane lookout heights.
The Lookout is a local landmark, being prominent in the urban landscape of the Corinda area as well as from the cross-river area of Fig Tree Pocket. The site is generally an open, grassed and reasonably level knoll, gently falling away to the northwest corner.
The boundary fence is white painted 100mm x 75mm hardwood intermediate posts set in the ground with a 100mm x 100mm diamond profile top rail and two strands of wire. Entry and corner posts are generally 125mm x 125mm with a chamfered apex.
The collection of eucalypts is especially significant, as they represent a community type that is found exclusively on rock outcrops at higher altitudes. There is also a significant bunya pine, which appears to have been planted 40 - 60 years ago.
The site contains 10 known graves and one unlocated grave. The five Francis family graves are situated together and surrounded by a white painted fence. The other graves are located to the northern side of this and scattered in a seemingly random way.
The lychgate is a small timber structure supported on 100mm x 100mm posts with a gable roof covered by timber shingles. The floor of the structure is concrete.
","history":"Francis Lookout is an area of parkland located on a prominent hilltop site in Corinda. It contains burials from between 1862 and 1966. The Francis family, one of the first families to settle in the Corinda area bought 21 acres, Portion 120, in 1862, which extended from the Brisbane River up to the present location of Francis Lookout. They also bought 33 acres which extended from Oxley creek to the present Sherwood Road.
The Graves
Their cemetery was dedicated when their youngest son, Clement, died in 1863. One acre was dedicated for this purpose as there was no municipal cemetery in the district. The last of the family to be buried here was Mary Francis, wife of the Francis' eldest son, Dick, in 1937.
Other graves in the cemetery include; the Jones grave, the Dunlop grave, the Clarkson grave, the Walker grave, the Gray grave and two unlocated burials.
The Lychgate
According to Alex Francis, his mother, Angela Francis, erected the lychgate for her husband and the elaborate barge boards were carved by her friends. A small bronze plaque reads 'ERECTED BY ANGELA FRANCIS 1902'.
The Lychgate has a gable roof that was originally covered with timber shingles. These were replaced with concrete tiles in 1962, but have again been replaced with timber shingles. East and West gables are infilled with weatherboards. The original timber floor has been replaced with at least two concrete slabs.
In 1930, the Brisbane City Council took direct control of thirteen of Brisbane's cemeteries. At this time Frances Lookout was under the control of trustees. One of these, George Waugh approached the council with the request the council take over the cemetery, on the condition of the trustees waiving all claims to compensation and that the council would undertake to properly care for the cemetery in perpetuity.
Formal council resumption occurred in 1934. Improvements and repairs to the cemetery occurred in 1935-36 and were as follows:
·\tthe erection of a low fence on the road boundaries;
·\trepair and painting of the picturesque shelter shed;
·\tstraightening and adjusting of the existing fence enclosing the graves;
·\tthe provision of a suitable name board on the reserve.
","criteria":"Francis Lookout is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland's history, being rare surviving evidence of the mid and late 19th century development of the Corinda area as a farming community. In its strong association with the Francis family from 1862 and beyond, the place is also illustrative of the contributions made by individuals to the evolution of Queensland's history.
|The place is a rare privately established burial ground in the Brisbane area, and has the potential to reveal further information about the settlement of the Corinda district, about 19th and early 20th century burial practices, and about the contingencies of pioneering life.
|The place illustrates some of the principal characteristics of a small privately established burial ground, including a lack of denominational divisions and the locally connected interments - especially the graves of the family on whose land the ground was established, and of their neighbours. Its layout and funerary furniture are indicative of 19th century cemeteries.
|The hilltop setting of Francis Outlook with its panoramic views of Brisbane and as an example of a well considered timber framed lychgate, Francis Outlook is important because of its aesthetic significance.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19564,"place_ref":602442,"name":"Centenary Place","alternate_name":"Centenary Park","street_address":"85 Wickham Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-08-06","description":"Centenary Place is a teardrop-shaped park bounded by Ann, Wickham and Gotha Streets. The park falls gently from the corner of Ann and Gotha Streets and is bisected along its length by a processional path, starting with a ceremonial archway at the narrow southern end of the park. This path is the formal spine of the park, reinforced by avenues of trees with a series of monuments providing focal points along its length. At the park's centre is the statue of Thomas Joseph Byrnes, former Premier of Queensland. The statue occupies a large paved area formed by the convergence of the central path. Curved paths leading to the centre of the park from Ann and Wickham Streets are mirrored on either side of it.
Between Byrnes and the archway, the central path passes through a shaded avenue of mature fig trees and a monument to the Scottish poet Robert Burns. At the northern or Gotha Street end of the park, the central path accommodates a 1999 sundial sculpture commemorating the 75th anniversary of Centenary Place.
Grassed areas are delineated by formal paths, mulched garden beds, hedges and several regular lines of trees. These significant mature trees include poincianas (Delonix regia), weeping figs (Ficus benjamina), white figs (Ficus virens), Canary Island date palms (Phoenix canariensis), Queen palms (Syagrus romanzoffiana) and wine palms (Butia capitata). The overall visual effect is a well developed formal tropical landscape character.
Sandstone park signage walls have been erected on each of the Wickham and Ann Street frontages.
At the city or southern end of the park, a formal stone podium, incorporating stone steps and the arched gateway, leads into the central path. The gateway is formed by opposing Brisbane Tuff piers surmounted by a wrought iron archway.
The ironwork incorporates the lettering 'Centenary Place' and supports for the spherical glass lanterns on each side. The podium forms the roof of what was variously a tramways cash office and lost property office, and is now an automated traffic signal control centre. Access to this basement area is provided by two steep, narrow concrete stairs bounded by Brisbane Tuff retaining walls. The stairs on the western or Wickham Street side are protected by a simple, compressed fibre cement canopy erected in 2000. The Brisbane Tuff loggia on the western side of the podium was erected as a tramway shelter in 1938.
The bronze figure of Robert Burns stands on a tapered dressed sandstone pedestal with a rusticated granite base and thistle-patterned cornice. Three faces of the plinth feature bronze bas-reliefs. The fourth face features the statue's inscription in applied bronze letters.
The Byrnes statue is also bronze and supported on a sandstone pedestal. When Centenary Place was constructed in 1924, the statue was moved to its present position in the park. The pedestal features an elaborate base and cornice. A carved sandstone wreath decorates the north and south faces of the pedestal. The west face features a worn inscription of Byrnes' name and dates of birth and death. Mounted on the base of the statue is a small plaque bearing a brief description of Byrnes and the statue. This plaque incorrectly credits the sculptor of the statue as being 'Sir Bertram Macenell'. The statue was actually sculpted by renowned artist, 'Sir Bertram Mackennal' and is noted as being Mackennal's fiftieth sculpture.
The strength of the central path as an axial feature has been diminished by the loss of its relationship with the stone remnants of the Holy Name Cathedral site. Thus the northern end of the central path lacks the strong foci provided elsewhere by the archway and the two statues.
","history":"Centenary Place was designed and constructed for the purpose of commemorating the centenary of European settlement in Queensland (1824-1924). Clearing of the land began in 1924 and the park was formed in 1925. It covers an area of 8,748 square metres and is bounded by Wickham Street, Ann Street and Gotha Street, Fortitude Valley. The park was one of the last civic projects undertaken by the former Brisbane City Council prior to the formation of the Greater Brisbane Council in 1925. The park has been in continual use by the public since its creation and was extensively refurbished in 1999/2000.
Celebrating the centenary of European settlement in Queensland was an important milestone in the state's history, an opportunity to demonstrate how far it had progressed in 100 years. From its beginnings as a penal colony, followed by the arrival of free settlers, separation from New South Wales, Federation and the First World War, Queensland had experienced many tumultuous events in its first 100 years worthy of commemoration and celebration. The creation of Centenary Place provided the public with a tangible means of doing this.
To advance the centenary celebrations, a Centenary Celebrations Committee was formed as was a Centenary Fund. Many fundraising events were held by the Centenary Celebrations Committee and all proceeds from these events were devoted to the Centenary Fund to go towards the provision of centenary memorials, including Centenary Place. Other commemorative memorials and events included the minting of commemorative medals, a statue of John Oxley, the founding of the John Oxley Library which included the purchase of some 6000 books and numerous tree planting ceremonies across Brisbane.
The Catholic Church took great interest in the development of Centenary Place, sensing an opportunity to promote their vision of a new cathedral and envisaging the site as the forecourt for the proposed Holy Name Cathedral, a massive 'Renaissance basilica' that was to occupy the block bounded by Gotha, Ann, Gipps and Wickham Streets. Although the park was designed by Henry Moore, the Parks Superintendent for Council, given the layout, which is still intact, includes a central path originally designed to lead to the proposed cathedral entrance, it is possible that Archbishop Duhig and the cathedral architect, John F. Hennessy, contributed to the design.
The Council began clearing existing buildings from the site in 1924 and Centenary Place was formed in 1925. Other features were added at later dates with the drawings for the podium, archway and tramways office dated 1928. Centenary Place was designed by Moore who was also responsible for designing New Farm Park and Newstead Park. He employed a formal design with defined layouts, planted garden beds, grassed areas, low sandstone retaining walls and curved paths. The garden includes mature specimens of poinciana (Delonix regia), Canary Island date palms (Phoenix canariensis), Queen palms (Syagrus romanzoffiana), wine palms (Butia capitata) and fig trees including, weeping figs (Ficus benjamina) and white figs (Ficus virens). In 1947 Harry Oakman, the Council Parks & Gardens Director, planned additional garden beds along the walks in the fig and poinciana avenues. These proposals were largely in place by 1950.
The original design of the park specifically allocated space to accommodate a statue of Thomas Joseph Byrnes [602076] former Premier of Queensland and the first Queensland-born premier. The statue, by renowned sculptor, Sir Bertram Mackennal, is believed to be one of Brisbane's earliest and was originally erected at Petrie Bight, at the junction of Wickham and Boundary Streets in 1902. When the park was completed in 1925, it was moved from Petrie Bight to its new location.
A statue of the Scottish bard, Robert Burns, was proposed for Brisbane as early as 1888 when the President of the Burns Club, Alderman Galloway, contacted the President of the Queensland Scottish Association, Sir Thomas McIlwraith, to suggest their organisations combined forces and funds to commission the statue. However, the Scottish community had to wait many years before seeing their dream realised as it was not until 1929 that a statue of Robert Burns was commissioned by the Brisbane Caledonian Society and Burns Club and installed on a pedestal provided by the Council. Traditionally, statues of Robert Burns are placed so that the poet's back is turned on the church. The statue of Burns in the park has been positioned in accordance to this tradition and had the Holy Name Cathedral been built, the poet's back would have be turned on it. The statue of Burns has served as a focal point for gatherings and events, such as the Burns Night, for the Scottish community of Brisbane since its installation in the park.
From 1962 to the mid 1970s, Centenary Place was Brisbane's designated people's forum or speaker's corner. Sunday afternoons became a regular event in Brisbane with hundreds of people turning up to hear speakers holding forth on all manner of issues including speakers campaigning for Aboriginal rights in the 1960s and 1970s. After the people's forum ceased at Centenary Place, the people of Brisbane had to wait until 1990 before a new location was officially made available by the Brisbane City Council at King George Square.
Over the years the park has undergone numerous changes. In 1938, a tram waiting shelter was built onto the Wickham Street side of the archway podium and tramways office. The park also featured two air raid shelters, one each on the Ann and Wickham Street frontages. Similar shelters [602473] were constructed at many inner city sites in the early 1940s as part of Queensland's wartime defences. In 1961, the Council prepared plans to convert the Wickham Street air raid shelter into a toilet block. These were evidently demolished by the time the Council planned the construction of a new toilet block in 1973. This entailed the demolition of the remaining air raid shelter on Ann Street. In 1977 the park was extended towards Wickham Street at the entry podium area and the edge trimmed around Gotha Street. The park underwent extensive refurbishment in 1999-2000 carried out by Belt Collins Landscape Architects which restored the original formality of the park.
","criteria":"Centenary Place, established in 1925, is important as Brisbane City Council's principal contribution to the celebration of the 1924 centenary of European settlement in Queensland and Queensland's growth and development during this time from a penal colony to a state. It is also important as the site of a public forum or speaker's corner during the 1960s and 1970s when political activism was increasing and public speaking spaces were use to promote public awareness of both national and local issues. The increasing importance of open spaces in urban areas is also demonstrated through the changing land use of Centenary Place from urban development to parkland.
|Centenary Place has strong association with the works of horticulturalist and landscape gardener Henry Moore, who was the first Brisbane City Parks Superintendent (1912-1925). His design work in Brisbane includes New Farm Park and Newstead Park. It is also associated with Harry Oakman, Parks Superintendent for the Brisbane City Council (1948-1963) who was the first purpose-trained landscape architect to be employed by a government in Queensland.
|Centenary Place is aesthetically important for its formal stone stepped arched gateway with opposing piers with a wrought iron archway which leads into the processional pathway that extends through the park. The avenues of mature specimens of poinciana (Delonix regia), Canary Island date palms (Phoenix canariensis), Queen palms (Syagrus romanzoffiana), wine palms (Butia capitata) and fig trees including, weeping figs (Ficus benjamina) and white figs (Ficus virens) provide a pleasant vista amongst its busy, commercial surrounds and make an important contribution to the landscape.
|Centenary Place has a strong association with the Catholic community as evidenced by its selection as the forecourt for the proposed Holy Name Cathedral and placement of the statue of prominent Catholic, former Queensland premier, Thomas Joseph Byrnes. It also has strong association with the Scottish community as evidenced by their selection of the park to house the statue commissioned of Scottish bard, Robert Burns and by their use of the park to hold events such as the Burns Night.
|Centenary Place has an uncommon structure built from Brisbane Tuff which displays both ceremonial and utilitarian functions by combining the formal commemorative steps and archway with a tramway office and passenger shelter.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19565,"place_ref":602443,"name":"Graceville Memorial Park","alternate_name":"Graceville Recreation Reserve","street_address":"173 Oxley Road","suburb":"GRACEVILLE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-09-05","description":"Graceville Memorial Park, bounded by Oxley Rd to the east, Plumridge Street to the north, and Appel Street to the west, lies just to the east of the Ipswich to Brisbane railway line, and currently covers 6.6 hectares. There is vehicle access from Oxley Road, along the memorial drive, and pedestrians can access the park from anywhere along Appel Street, Plumridge Street, and Oxley Road, as well as from the end of Addison Street in the south, and via the access way from Churchill Street. The park is flat, and the main features consist of the tree plantings and buildings. The number one cricket oval is near Oxley road, the number two oval is in the middle of the park, and a concrete wicket is located in the northwest corner of the park.
\nMature bunya trees (Araucaria bidwilli) and cotton trees (Hibiscus tiliaceus) are planted on the northern and western perimeter of the park. An avenue of mature bauhinia (Bauhinia variegata), cabbage tree palms (Livistona australis), and Chinese elms (Celtis sinensis) runs from Oxley road to the war memorial, and a single row of mature figs and camphor laurels runs west from the memorial to Appel Street. Behind the grandstand are two mature Moreton Bay figs (Ficus macrophylla), and two mature bunya pines. The Oxley Road frontage still has some mature fig trees and palm trees, along with more recent plantings.
\nA steamroller stands under a shelter between Oxley Road and the car park. Further west is the cricket clubhouse, a single-story timber building, with a low-pitched skillion roof clad in galvanised iron. A sightboard stands just to the north of the clubhouse, and across the number one oval, a second sightboard stands among the memorial trees on Plumridge Street.
\nThe Cricket Grandstand
\nThe cricket grandstand that faces the number one oval is a rectangular pavilion, with a timber-trussed hipped roof clad in corrugated iron that is supported on plain timber posts. The tiered seating area is supported on an orange brick base, which contains two changing rooms, toilets, and a storage area. The hardwood floorboards of the seating area are covered in bitumen sheeting, and there is a scorer's desk in an upper row of the timber seating. The gable on the northern face has a flagpole and a rising sun motive infill. A divided timber staircase rises to the viewing area on the north face. Below the concrete capping to the walls on the east, west, and south elevations there are decorative panels of roughcast render between the projecting rows of bricks.
\nWar Memorial
\nThe war memorial is at the western end of the memorial avenue of trees, at the south side of the park, and consists of a polished grey granite column set on a light grey granite pedestal, which sits on a stepped base of rusticated grey granite. Sandstone tiles and a low fence of sandstone with eight sandstone bollards surround the 5.5 metre high monument. The shaft of the column has a gold laurel wreath imprinted on its north face, and is crowned with a polished ball, which is etched with a map of Australia, and the words \"ANZAC\". The north face of the pedestal has a small plaque reading The Great War 1914-1919, above a copper scroll that lists the Shire's dead in the First World War and which is inscribed Fallen Heroes of the Sherwood Shire, Honoured and in Memory Evergreen. Under the scroll is a small plaque reading Dulce et Decorum est pro Patria Mori. At the base of the pedestal is the badge of the Royal Australian Navy. On the east face is a plaque reading World War II 1939-45, and under it, is a plaque inscribed In honour of the men and women who served Australia in time of conflict during World War II. Lest We Forget. At the base of the pedestal is the rising sun badge of the Australian army. On the west face a plaque reads Korea-Malaya Borneo-Vietnam. Under this is set the badge of the Royal Australian Air Force. Three flagpoles stand to the west of the monument.
\nCroquet Clubhouse
\nThe croquet clubhouse and its three playing lawns stand on the Appel Street frontage of the park. Small shade structures with seating are on the borders of the croquet lawns. The clubhouse is a rectangular timber building with its long axis addressing the middle lawn. It has a gabled roof that is clad in corrugated iron. A modern shade structure extends over the southern entrance, and there is an extension at the northern end of the building. A gable projects towards the lawn above an entrance on the northern side there are sash windows. Internally, the clubhouse has a timber floor, with walls and ceiling clad in fibrous cement sheeting. Most of this internal space is used for small tables and chairs and there is a small kitchenette and toilet at one end. Two timber honour boards are displayed.
\nNumber two oval's changing shed, which has its back to the croquet lawns, is a timber building on a concrete slab with a skillion roof clad in galvanised iron. It has an extension on its southern end that accommodates a small garage.
\nThe features of the Graceville Memorial Park which are not of historical significance include the aluminium storage shed near the croquet clubhouse and the aluminium shed to the south of the number two oval's changing shed; the brick toilet block; the cricket practice nets; a drinking fountain near the playground; the playground and its equipment; the bikeway; the half basketball court and car park; the steamroller's shelter shed; and assorted park seating.
","history":"Graceville Memorial Park, located on a flat, low-lying part of Graceville, was opened as the Graceville Recreation Reserve in 1904, but it was referred to as Graceville Memorial Park by 1926. The park was enlarged in July 1979, with the resumption of about 11 perches of vacant, ownerless land (now identified as Lot 2 RP70795) for an access way to Churchill Street, south of the park.
\nFrom 1840 to 1859 the peninsula that includes the suburb of Graceville was known as Boyland's Pocket, a run for sheep and cattle. After 1859 the area was subdivided into farms with an average size of about 30 to 40 acres. Maize, potatoes, and bananas were grown, cotton was attempted in the 1860s, and sugar cane was produced until a cold spell in the 1870s. The area was relatively isolated from Brisbane until the railway line from Ipswich bridged the river from Chelmer to Indooroopilly in 1875. Graceville's subdivision for residential housing started during the building boom of the 1880s, and the Graceville railway station was opened in 1886. The Sherwood Shire was created in 1891, as a division of the Yeerongpilly Divisional Board (1879).
\nFrom the late 1880s onwards there was an increased interest in Queensland in healthy outdoor recreation, and the flood-prone grassland on which the park was later sited was used as a lacrosse field in the 1890s. The formation of sporting clubs in Queensland led to pressure on local councils to provide facilities, and in May 1904 the Sherwood Shire Council decided to obtain subdivision 1 of portion 14, a 17 acre 3 rood 3 perch (7.19 hectares) site for use as a recreation reserve.[1] The park was improved by a Recreation Reserve Committee, who planted shade trees around the reserve before it was formally opened in September 1904.[2] The reserve was vested in the Sherwood Shire Council, to be held in trust for recreation purposes, and the park's primary role since then has been as a leased venue for various team sports, mainly cricket and hockey, but also including soccer, rugby league, and Australian Rules football. A croquet club and a tennis club were also established. Other users included the Graceville Methodist Sunday School, which held classes in a ground shed on the reserve between November 1914 and November 1917, and a bridge club, which was formed at the croquet club premises around 1929. Aviators may have also used the park as an aerodrome in the 1920s.
\nThe outpouring of grief in Australia that accompanied the deaths, and overseas burial, of 60,000 service people in World War One, led to a period of memorial building across the nation. A memorial was unveiled in Graceville Recreational Reserve on 29 November 1920. Funded by public subscriptions, the memorial was designed by Mr I Bennet, and was erected by A.L. Petrie Monumental Works, at a cost of £225. On a copper scroll made by Ernest Gunderson, 51 soldiers and one nursing sister were included in a list of Sherwood Shire's fallen. 265 men, and seven nurses had enlisted from the Shire. Between 1985 and 1996, a low sandstone wall was built around the monument, and three flagpoles were set to the west. Plaques representing each of the three armed services have also been added to the north, east and west sides of the monument since 1985. In 2004 sandstone pavers replaced the bitumen that had been laid around the monument.
\nOver a year before the unveiling of the memorial, in August 1919, 52 memorial trees were planted.[3] Bunya pines and cotton trees were set in a single row along Plumridge Street and Appel Street (then called Graceville Parade) on the western and northern edges of the park; and an avenue of bauhinias, cabbage tree palms and Chinese elms was planted either side of a drive from Oxley Road to the memorial. A single line of figs and camphor laurels continued west from the memorial towards Appel Street. It is unclear which 52 trees were specifically planted to commemorate the dead, as memorial plaques and crosses were vandalised in the 1920s and had been removed by the 1950s.[4] Some of the memorial trees were also reportedly vandalised and removed in the 1920s, while others in the avenue and row appear to be later plantings or replacements.[5] By 2004, there were 29 bunya pines and 11 cottontrees remaining in the park.[6]
\nThe eastern section of the drive had a bitumen surface by 1961, but the western section of the memorial drive, from the memorial to Appel Street, has reverted to grass. A trophy field gun captured by the AIF near Abancourt, France, in August 1918 was also sited near the memorial from the early 1920s, but it was removed before 1952.
\nIn 1925 the Sherwood Shire was incorporated in the City of Greater Brisbane, and the recreation reserve is referred to as Graceville Memorial Park in the 1926 Park Schedule for the City. However, the emphasis on sports had continued. By 1924 the park contained three cricket ovals, with a shelter and dressing sheds, three croquet lawns, and two tennis courts. The Graceville Croquet Club was formed in March 1919, with T.M. Hall, MLC, as its first Patron. A number of returned servicemen were settling in area at this time, and their wives wanted their own sporting activities. The Sherwood Shire Council leased a portion of the park to the croquet club in May 1919. The southernmost of the three croquet lawns remained as rough grass until 1923, and the croquet clubhouse was probably built between 1924 and 1929. The clubhouse has received a small extension to the north since 1985. The Brisbane City Council continues to lease the premises to the club.
\nThe Western Suburbs District Cricket Club was formed in 1921, and it has had an association with the park since 1924. In 1928 the Queensland Cricket association took out a twenty-year lease on playing ovals one and two, and a seasonal lease on oval three. The grandstand facing the number one oval was opened in September 1936. The Brisbane City Council Register of new buildings lists the grandstand on 13 February 1936, with H. Sanham as the contractor, and the Brisbane City Council as the architect. The cost of the brick and timber building was listed at £1000. The two changing rooms and storage area within the brick ground floor have been renovated and reconfigured over time, and the current latticed balustrade at the front of the seating was introduced since 1985. Two similar grandstands currently exist in Brisbane, one at Bulimba Memorial Park (built 1923), and one at Langlands Park (1937).
\nOverlapping ovals replaced the three undersize ovals. The number one oval was reconstructed with ash, its sightscreens were moved, and the arris fence was removed. Soon after 1968 some practice-bowling cages were installed on the south side of the park between the croquet club and the war memorial. Currently, the two main ovals have turf wickets, and a concrete wicket stands where the number three oval used to be located. The cricket clubhouse to the east of the grandstand started as a refreshment stall circa 1946, and was extended in the 1960s. Both the number two and number three ovals had their own dressing sheds, which have changed or have been removed. The current timber changing-shed facing the number two oval replaced an earlier structure between 1946 and 1952. It has been extended to the south since 1985, and a new aluminium shed has been erected nearby.
\nAlthough there were two tennis courts in the park's southeast corner by 1924, the Banksia Tennis Club did not take out a formal lease until 1938, for one rood and 4.4 perches of land. The club also built a timber clubhouse before 1946. The Banksia Tennis Club surrendered its lease in 1989, due to the aging of its membership, and a car park and a half basketball court had replaced the tennis courts, their fences, and clubhouse, by 1993.
\nOther clubs have also used the park over time. The Brisbane Hockey Association has had the winter use of the ovals since 1941, and in 1955 the Graceville United Soccer Club had the winter use of the number four oval, an area in the north of the park between ovals one and three. This area had a concrete wicket by 1952, but this had been removed by 1975. In the 1960s there are also references in Brisbane City Council records to the Sherwood District Junior Australian Rules Club, and the South Rugby League Juniors. There were floodlights on poles around the perimeter of the park by 1961, but in 1975 the South West United Hockey Club requested new lighting, for night training.
\nOther built features in the park include the toilet block near the croquet club, which was built in the late 1960s, and the playground, which existed between the cricket clubhouse and the tennis club by 1961. The playground's equipment was upgraded in 1968, the late 1980s, and in the 1990s. A shade canopy was added in 1993. A bikeway path, along the western and northern perimeter of park, was built about 1991. In 1996, the steamroller, which had been in the playground since the 1960s, was moved, restored, and installed inside a roofed enclosure to the east of the car park. The steamroller is an 'S' type, four steam-horse power model, built between 1923 and 1925, by Marshall and Sons and Company, in Gainsborough, the United Kingdom. The ex Brisbane City Council steamroller is listed as a 'Engineering and Industrial Heritage Site' on the website of Engineers Australia, Queensland Division.
\nFeatures that have now been removed include two earth closets, sited either side and to the south of the memorial, which were probably removed around the time that the new toilet block was installed. A zigzag concrete path, installed in the 1960s, once ran through the site of the playground, and some of the tree plantings along Oxley Road, including fig trees and palms, have been replaced. Buildings that have been removed since 1985 include the timber changing shed for the number three oval, and a small shed just north of the croquet club which was replaced by an aluminium shed.
","criteria":"Surviving as a highly visible remnant of the development of the Graceville district, the use of the park for team sports from the 1890s to the present demonstrates the interest in health-promoting recreation that occurred in Queensland from the late 1880s onwards. Reflecting the proliferation of recreational sport clubs that occurred during post-war suburban development, a croquet club was established in the park in 1919, and cricket and tennis facilities were operational by 1924. The Brisbane City Council's expenditure on a cricket grandstand during the Depression demonstrates the continued importance of sport to Queenslanders during the 1930s.The decade after the First World War witnessed demonstrations of grief for those who had died. Graceville Memorial Park's War Memorial, with its linked memorial avenue, and rows of memorial bunya and cottonwood trees along Appel and Plumridge Streets, demonstrates the process of grieving that was occurring across Australia in 1920 and is symbolic of both civic mourning and national pride.
|Graceville Memorial Park has features that are now uncommon within a suburban park, such as the handsome and substantial Interwar grandstand and the extensive formal plantings of memorial bunya trees.
|Graceville Memorial Park is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class, having open recreational space, sports facilities, clubhouses and a grandstand within a park whose focal point is a War Memorial and which is bordered by memorial plantings.
|As a large open space with fine mature trees, the park has landmark value. The memorial avenue of trees delineates the ceremonial approach to the War Memorial and effectively marks the park's southern border. The cottonwood and bunya arrangement is also striking in its contrast of alternating size and shape. A well-designed and substantial cricket grandstand enhances the aesthetic values of the park and is a fine example of the work of the Brisbane City Architect's Office in the 1930s.
|The war memorial in the park has a strong and continuing association with the wider community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and as the focal point for the remembrance of that event. The park is also important to the local area as a venue for sport and recreation for several generations, having a long-standing association with the Graceville Croquet Club and Western Suburbs District Cricket Club.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19566,"place_ref":602445,"name":"Holman Street Ferry Terminal","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"116 Holman Street","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-11-01","description":"The Holman Street Ferry Terminal is on the bank of the Brisbane River at the end of Holman Street, Kangaroo Point next to Captain Burke Park. Trees flank a small timber waiting shed and the river bank on either side of the shed is supported by a retaining wall. This extends about 13 metres to the north and about 30 metres to the south between the ferry and the Brisbane Jazz Club building. The longer section of wall is composed of dressed blocks of Brisbane Tuff; on the northern side it is composed of concrete and irregularly placed pieces of Tuff. The terminal is approached from the riverside by a pontoon and from the landward side by a pathway and concrete apron entrance leading into the terminal. On the northern side of the entrance there are plantings of shrubs and a bauhinia tree. To the south is a grassed area with two large mature trees. The modern pontoon structure and the mangrove trees in the water along the retaining wall hide the waiting shed from the river.
The terminal building is square in plan with a hipped roof, clad in terracotta tiles and crowned with two terracotta finials. It has arched openings to the street and the river. The floor of the building is concrete and the walls are clad in chamfer board. The interior has timber bench seats against the walls.
The terminal has a modern extension to the jetty leading to a pontoon and extending again to another modern pontoon to which the ferry docks. This jetty from the terminal to the landing stage has modern metal mesh guardrails. The modern section of the jetty is not considered to have heritage significance.
","history":"The Holman Street Ferry Terminal was built prior to 1919 for the Municipality of Brisbane, then responsible for the servicing of ferry routes across the Brisbane River. Kangaroo Point is one of Brisbane's earliest suburbs, emerging in the 1840's with other localities such as South Brisbane, Fortitude Valley and Spring Hill. Because of its close proximity to the city, Kangaroo Point played an important role as a point of arrival and departure for Brisbane's ferries.
In 1845 the Government accepted a tender of £34 from George Beer for a second ferry crossing for Brisbane from Kangaroo Point. In 1852 the government outlaid £185 and in 1853, £700 for ferry improvements. Andrew Petrie worked on improving the approaches and also the road at the north end of Kangaroo Point ferry. In 1853 W. Carter won the lease for Kangaroo Point Ferry and put on a new horse-punt - 30 feet long and 12 feet broad, pulled by a rope and chain.
Ferries ran from a number of different localities in the area including Holman, Bright, Thornton and Ferry Streets. Destinations on the north side included Charlotte and Edward streets, and Customs House and Merthyr Road, New Farm. The Petrie Bight - Holman Street ferry was in operation at separation in 1859.
A cable operated vehicular punt plied the route well after the Victoria Bridge was erected in 1874, transporting people, vehicles and animals. The ferry began to operate from the Customs House Reserve in 1882, but as a vehicular ferry, is believed to have ceased in 1883/84. A new vehicular steam ferry began operating from Charlotte Street to Bright Street at the same time. A passenger ferry continued, however, and the waiting shed on that side of the river was re-erected on the customs house site in 1886. Tidal steps were apparently built on the Holman Street side to service the passenger ferry.
Work was carried out at the Holman Street landing stage and pontoon in 1906. At that time there was a ferry tollhouse on site, but it is not possible to tell whether this also served as a waiting shed. Repairs were carried out on the site in 1912, but were probably related to the pontoon.
In 1919 the Ferries and Baths committee recommended that the shelter shed on the Kangaroo Point side of the Customs House ferry be cleaned inside and the chamfer boards be oiled on the outside. A recommendation by the Lighting Committee in 1919 saw the installation of electric lighting at the Holman Street ferry - electricity having replaced gas for street lighting at Kangaroo Point, circa 1918. In July 1925 the Brisbane City Council's Bridges and Ferries Committee recommended that control of all ferries should pass to the new Greater Brisbane Council.
","criteria":"The Holman Street Ferry Terminal is important as an intact example of a purpose built ferry terminal from the first quarter of the 20th Century. Together with terminals such those at Hawthorne [602212] and Bulimba [602211], its quality of design and detail demonstrates the importance of ferries in the development of Brisbane before a network of bridges and public transport was fully developed and before many people owned cars.
|The terminal waiting shed represents an increasingly rare building type as modern buildings now serve most Brisbane River ferry terminals.
|The Holman Street terminal displays those features typical of ferry terminals comprising a pontoon for river access, a landing area and covered waiting area for passengers.
|The terminal also has aesthetic significance as a well-designed public building in a parkland setting. The ferry terminals serve as focal points in the journey along the Brisbane River.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19567,"place_ref":602446,"name":"Mount Coot-tha Forest","alternate_name":"Mount Coot-tha Reserve | Mt Coot-tha | Mount Cootha","street_address":"Sir Samuel Griffith Drive","suburb":"MOUNT COOT-THA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-09-04","description":"Mount Coot-tha Forest is one of Brisbane's largest natural areas, with over 1,500 hectares of open eucalypt forest just 15 minutes drive from the CBD. Flanking the south-western suburbs of Brisbane lies the Taylor Range, the southern end of which ends abruptly at Mount Coot-tha. It is located approximately 5 kilometres west of Brisbane CBD and abuts the suburbs of Enoggera, The Gap, Ashgrove, Bardon, Rainworth, Toowong, Taringa, Chapel Hill, Kenmore Hills and Brookfield. It is primarily accessed by Simpsons Road, Mount Coot-tha Road, Sir Samuel Griffith Drive, Dillon Road, Gap Creek Road and Gold Creek Road.
The vegetation of Mount Coot-tha is mainly associated with dry eucalypt forest including the species, Spotted gum (Corymbia varigata), Grey gum (Eucalyptus propinqua), Forest red gum (Eucalyptus tereticornis) and Narrow-leafed ironbark (Eucalyptus crebra). Various species of acacias, including Brisbane Golden Wattle (Acacia fimbriata) and Broadleaf Wattle (Acacia implexa) are predominant in the understorey shrubs along with grass trees Xanthorrhoea species. Native grasses, primarily Kangaroo grass (Themeda triandra) and Blady grass (Imperata cylindrica) make up the minimal ground cover.
Sir Samuel Griffith Drive is a two lane circuit of the outer edge of Mount Coot-tha. It has an undulating circuit through open forest and offers shifting views of the city. It is a renowned tourist drive, providing access to many picnic areas and vantage points in Mount Coot-tha Forest.
Gold mining related remnants include a wooden trolley line, well, wooden shaft structure, battery site, concrete plinth, iron cover, dam, sump and ore dump.
Second World War remnants include concrete slabs and a number of creek crossings, concrete drains and footbridges at the J.C. Slaughter Falls and Hoop Pine Picnic Grounds. There is also a 'Detonator Locker', cut into a hillside and partially covered with earth, beside one of the walking tracks in J.C. Slaughter Falls Park. It is formed by curved corrugated iron, rolled to an elliptical profile. The manufacturer's stamp 'Manufactured by the American Rolling Mill Co. Middleton Ohio' is still clearly visible. The back wall of the shelter is formed by tray-profile sheet metal. A steel frame surrounds the opening. There is a section of steel frame inside the shelter, which appears to have been built to reinforce the structure.
The ABC broadcast tower and associated structures [located on Lease A on SP122735] are not included in the Entry in the Heritage Register.
","history":"Mount Coot-tha Forest is part of the Taylor Range which forms a backdrop of hills to the city of Brisbane, and is the best known vantage point from which to view Brisbane and surrounds, offering sweeping views of the city, Moreton Bay, Stradbroke Island and the southern ranges. Since the 1870s the area has been extensively utilised in a number of ways including as a timber reserve, a vantage point, a place of recreation, for gold mining, as a military site and for television broadcasting. It is now predominantly used as a recreation and picnicking area and is the broadcasting site for several television stations. It forms part of Brisbane Forest Park.
The Taylor Range was originally named Glenmorrison Range by the explorer John Oxley in 1823. In the earliest recorded visit to Mount Coot-tha by European explorers, including surveyor Alan Cunningham, on 6 July 1828, this range was referred to as Glenmoriston's Range and Sir Herbert Taylor's Range by the colonial botanist, Charles Fraser, and as Glenmorriston's Range by Captain Patrick Logan, Commandant of the penal settlement at Brisbane. Fraser's journal describes in detail the species of trees found there, and that the view from the south-east to north-west was extensive and very grand.
During the decades following the commencement of free settlement in Brisbane in 1842, Mount Coot-tha appears to have been highly valued as a vantage point for recreation and survey and as the source of fresh water streams. The area was originally known as One Tree Hill after all the vegetation on the knoll was cleared except for one large gum tree. When Reverend Bell made an application in 1865 to purchase land on One Tree Hill, it was refused with the Surveyor General noting it was required for trigonometrical purposes, and moreover was frequently used by the people of Brisbane for recreation on account of the extensive views and fresh air. Thus Mount Coot-tha's value as a vantage point and a place of recreation was recognised at an early stage in the city's development.
In 1860 Brisbane Forest Park was investigated for gold prospecting opportunities through the government funded Gold Exploration Expedition. The findings of the expedition was that, with one or two exceptions, there was were no discoveries worthy of notice. Despite this, gold prospectors persisted and a number of small claims were established. It was 1894 before the first claim was recorded in Mount Coot-tha Forest and seemed to have been a tentative affair, not proceeding beyond the initial explorations. In 1933 it was cleaned out and retested. The remains of these attempts are still evident on the eastern bank of Ithaca Creek. Gold prospecting continued intermittently in Mount Coot-tha Forest until the early 1950s but no significant finds were recorded. Some remnants of these activities remain with a number of shafts, open cuts and a trolley line dating from the early 1950s.
The Taylor Range provided a source of good timber and One Tree Hill was first proclaimed a reserve for railway purposes on 21 February 1873 in order that the source of timber could be secured for development of the railway from Ipswich to Brisbane. In 1880 the timber reserve was cancelled and the area was re-designated as a Reserve for a Public Park under the Crown Lands Alienation Act 1861. One Tree Hill, including 1500 acres of surrounding bush land, extending from Toowong cemetery to Gap Creek, was placed in the care of a body of trustees and declared a reserve for public recreation. The site was renamed Mount Coot-tha in 1883 with the name being thought to derive from the aboriginal word for native honey, ku-ta.
The Trust oversaw numerous works projects in the Reserve including fencing, road construction and clearing vegetation. In 1884 the Trust recorded the attendance of some 9000 visitors to the area between April and December demonstrating its popularity with the public. Mount Coot-tha Forest became even more accessible to the public with the granting of the Saturday half-holiday in Queensland, as part of the Factories and Shops Act 1900. The half-holiday was the beginning of the weekend as an institution, and together with public holidays, the popularity of recreation areas and activities increased.
The traditional route up Mount Coot-tha, and now one of the main access roads, is Sir Samuel Griffith Drive. Originally people walked up Mount Coot-tha and from this a track developed. By the 1870s some adventurous people were driving up with horses and carriages. When the area became a public park in 1880, the track was improved to become a steep and windy road that traversed Mount Coot-tha in a circular route, a popular route for walkers, buggies and the occasional motorist. This track formed the basis of Sir Samuel Griffith Drive, named after one of the more eminent trustees, Sir Samuel Griffith, twice Premier of Queensland, from 1883 to 1888 and then again from 1890 to 1893. By the 1920s it was a favoured scenic circuit regularly utilised by motoring day-trippers and for car rallies and in the early 1930s was dedicated as a public road.
Looking at the view has been the most popular and continuing form of recreation on Mount Coot-tha and in 1886, to accommodate people's needs, a shelter shed and water tank were erected on the area of the present Lookout and Kiosk [601564]. In 1901 a pedestal and directional dial, identifying elements of the panorama, were installed. For many years this small feature was a landmark for visitors to the lookout and was a precursor to the directional plate located on the modern lookout platform. A small timber kitchen was later built in 1912. A larger kiosk was constructed c.1918 and formed the basis of the present kiosk. In 1928 the kiosk was enlarged and a two-storey timber extension for living quarters was added. The early shelter shed and small kitchen were demolished. During the Second World War the lookout was converted to military use. In 1949 and 1950 further work and extensions were carried out including a circular drive, new entrance, raised viewing platform, lounge and lavatories, extensions to the living quarters and construction of a timber tankstand.
Prior to the First World War, two dams were built on the gully formed by East Ithaca Creek, in the area now known as J.C. Slaughter Falls. It is unclear when and by whom the dams were constructed although records show them being in place by 1913. The dams were appreciated as a scenic picnic spot and by bird-watchers, wildlife enthusiasts and amateur artists. The destruction of the lower dam by flood in 1916 did not detract from the appeal of the setting and it 'remained a spectacular ruin' below the new dam, erected in 1921. By the mid-1950s the area had fallen into disrepair and the surviving dam was demolished in the late 1960s or early 1970s. In 1974, following extensive improvements along East Ithaca Creek gully, J.C. Slaughter Falls Park, named in honour of the Town Clerk and City Administrator from 1940 to 1967, was opened. In the West Ithaca Creek area a similar development was completed in the late 1970s and was named after the local pioneering landowner Captain Henry George Simpson.
In 1919, following some years of financial difficulties, the Trust was disbanded and the Reserve was transferred to the Toowong Town Council. In 1925, the Queensland State Parliament passed the City of Brisbane Act 1924 to set up a single government in Brisbane. This led to control of Mount Coot-tha passing to the newly formed Brisbane City Council. The first elected mayor was Sir William Jolly and part of his election promise was the extension and improvement of the park system, including the securing of vantage points like Mount Coot-tha. Therefore, under the Jolly administration, the area of the Reserve expanded dramatically, acquiring more than 1000 acres. On his retirement Jolly stated that he felt that securing Mount Coot-tha Reserve was one of his administration's most important achievements.
During the Second World War, the Mount Coot-tha Forest was turned over for military use and served as a mine storage and assembly depot. Personnel from the 55th US Naval Construction Battalion and the RAAF Magnetic and Acoustic Mines Section were based at the depot, with the major camp area lying on the eastern point of the Forest near the present Hoop Pine picnic area. In 1944 the facility was dismantled and moved to Darwin although work was carried out on the building and mine depots until 1945. Rehabilitation of the area commenced in late 1946. A number of features installed by the military such as some concrete slabs, concrete channeling, footbridges and terracing still remain. The concrete slabs have been incorporated into the picnic areas as the floors of picnic shelters and as the floor of the open air chapel at J.C. Slaughter Falls.
The 1950s saw the introduction of television to Australia and by 1959 Channel Nine and Channel Seven both commenced broadcasting in Brisbane resulting in Brisbane City Council giving permission for the construction of transmission towers on Mount Coot-tha. Eventually two more towers were constructed for Channel Ten and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The three towers for the commercial television stations, Channel Seven, Channel Nine and Channel Ten, are located on private freehold land along with their respective studio facilities. The fourth tower, used by the ABC, is on land owned by the Brisbane City Council. The towers are highly visible from many parts of Brisbane, even at night as they are mounted with blinking warning lights for aviation purposes. The towers are not included in the Entry in the Heritage Register.
Apart from its many different land uses by the people of Queensland, Mount Coot-tha Forest provides an area of natural habitat for plants and animals. Its topography provides a variety of habitats for vegetation and for many species of fauna, including three rare species of owl - Powerful owl (Ninox strenua), Masked owl (Tyto novaehollaniae) and Sooty owl (Tyto tenebricosa).
Mount Coot-tha Forest has an extensive and diverse history of uses and associations since the late 1800s to the present including as a timber reserve, a vantage point, a place of recreation, for gold mining, as a military site and for television broadcasting. Its predominant use now is as a recreation and picnicking area and it is the broadcasting site for several television stations.
","criteria":"Mount Coot-tha Forest is an early example of the importance that the Queensland public placed upon recreational, scenic and environmental values. It has been used as a vantage point since the first recorded European ascent of Mount Coot-tha in 1828. Since then, the growing popularity of visiting the summit has reflected the emergence of leisure and recreation time for the general populace, and the advent and popularity of the motor car. The area has been continually used and enjoyed by the public since the early development of Brisbane. It is also important for demonstrating a range of different land uses such as a reference point for surveying, timber reserve, gold mining and military activities that are representative of Queensland history while retaining its original values.
|The recreational, scenic and environmental attributes of Mount Coot-tha Forest have been valued by the people of Brisbane since the early days of European settlement in Brisbane. The use of the area for leisure activities was strengthened with the legislation of the Saturday half day holiday in 1900 which heralded the beginning of the traditional weekend. The picnic areas and walking tracks are evidence of the continuity of recreational activities in Mount Coot-tha Forest since the late 1800s to the present and the area is popular with different recreational groups including scouts, bushwalkers, runners and mountain bike riders.
|Mount Coot-tha Forest is important because of its aesthetic significance as a prominent scenic and landmark element in the cityscape and affords spectacular views in all directions, as well as views to the mountain, particularly from the city.
|The remnants of gold mining in Mount Coot-tha Forest represents a now uncommon aspect of Queensland's history. While gold prospecting was once a common way of life in Queensland, the proximity of gold prospecting activity so close to Brisbane is uncommon. These remnants are the only physical evidence left of the attempts to establish a fledging gold industry at Mount Coot-tha.
|The remnants of gold mining activity have the potential to yield information about the nature and scope of the activities that took place in Mount Coot-tha Forest which will contribute to an understanding of how the area was used over time.
|Mount Coot-tha Forest has strong association with former Queensland Premiers Sir Samuel Griffith, who was a trustee, and Sir William Jolly who, through his administration in the mid 1920s, was instrumental in maintaining and expanding Mount Coot-tha Forest and played an important role in ensuring the area was preserved for the enjoyment of the Queensland public into the future.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion G | Criterion E | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19568,"place_ref":602447,"name":"Oxley War Memorial","alternate_name":"Oxley Place | Oxley Memorial Park","street_address":"1218 Oxley Road","suburb":"OXLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-07-04","description":"The Oxley War Memorial stands to the northwest of a small rectangular park on the corner of Oxley Road and Bannerman Street. The park setting contains grassed areas, decorative planted beds and hedges, scattered trees, children's play equipment and the war memorial monument.
The sandstone and marble monument stands on a low dressed stone plinth on a surround of stone pavers. A stepped sandstone pedestal bears a sandstone soldier figure facing west. Identifiably Australian with a slouch hat and 'rising sun' hat badge, the little digger stands at ease with hands resting on his rifle in the reversed arms position.
Carved squat bollards stand to each corner of the stone paver surround and are linked by hollow metal tube rails to the north, east and south. A rectangular decorative garden is planted to the north and south of the paver surround. Three flagpoles stand to the east of the monument.
Surmounting the plinth is the little digger statue. The soldier stands at ease with his head slightly bowed and his rifle reversed resting on his left boot. The hands are crossed and resting on the rifle butt. He is supported by a tree trunk located behind and to his right side.
The west face of the dado bears a marble plaque commemorating those associated with of the district who fell in the First World War. It reads:
OXLEY HONOURS THE MEMORY
OF
W. M. BOURKE\tR. PRICE
W. COOLING\tT. L. ROWLANDS
W. CROCK\tR. L. SINNAMON
M. ENRIGHT\tC.H. TOWNSON
J. FISHER\t S.J. TOWNSON
A. J. GIBBINGS\tA. WEBSTER
S. HAGGER\tD. WEBSTER
C. MITCHELL\t
WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR
1914-1919
Small marble plaques to the north and south faces commemorate involvement in the Second World War (1939-1945); the Korean War (1950-1953); the Malayan Emergency (1950-1960); Borneo; & the Vietnam War (1962-72). Bronze military badges of the Australian Armed Services are fixed to the base of the pedestal.
","history":"Today, the Oxley War Memorial sits on the crest of a ridge on the corner of Oxley Road and Bannerman Street in Oxley, where it is an important visual component of the streetscape setting on a busy arterial road.
The War Memorial was originally erected by local residents and unveiled in 1920 on a small parcel of reserved land on the corner of Oxley Road & Ipswich Road . In 1929 Brisbane City Council acquired the land on which the monument stood from the previous proprietors who were the registered trustees of the reserve. The memorial was moved to its present location in the 1980's due to traffic requirements.
The memorial was funded by public subscriptions at an establishment cost of about £110. The mason was F Willliams & Co of Ipswich, who was also responsible for the memorials at Toogoolawah, One Mile West Ipswich & Western Suburbs Ipswich (1917); Colington & Mount Alford (1918); Booval & Bundamba (1919); Boonah, Maroon & Oxley (1920); Esk & Toombul Shire Nundah (1921) the Weeping Mother Memorial at Gatton (c.1922); Warwick (1923-4); & the Ipswich Cemetery Cenotaph (1932).
Australia, and Queensland in particular, had few civic monuments before the First World War. The memorials erected in the wake of the war became our first national monuments. Australia lost 60,000 from a population of about 4 million, representing one in five of those who served. The casualty rate of the Australian volunteer military forces was significantly and proportionally higher than any of the other combatant groups, claiming 20% of the Australian volunteers who served, and 1.5% of the total Australian population. Australia's maturity as a nation and continuing commitment to the 'motherland' were proven beyond doubt. No previous or subsequent war has made such a devastating impact on the nation.
Even before the end of the war, memorials became a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief. To those who erected them, they were as sacred as grave sites, substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East. British policy decreed that the Empire war dead were to be buried where they fell. The word 'cenotaph', commonly applied to war memorials at the time, literally means 'empty tomb'.
Australian war memorials are distinctive in that they often commemorate those who served, not only the dead. Australians were proud that their first great national army, unlike other belligerent armies, was composed entirely of volunteers, men worthy of honour whether or not they paid the supreme sacrifice. Many memorials honour all who served from a locality, not just the dead, providing valuable evidence of community involvement in the war. Such evidence is not readily obtainable from military records, or from state or national listings, where names are categorised alphabetically or by military unit.
Australian war memorials are also valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste. In Queensland, the soldier statue was the popular choice of memorial, whereas the obelisk was favoured in the southern states, where overall responsibility for the approval of war memorials fell under the jurisdiction of a Board made up of artists & architects.
Although there are many different types of memorials in Queensland, the digger statue is the most common. It was the most popular choice of communities responsible for erecting the memorials, seen as embodying the ANZAC myth and representing the qualities of the ideal Australian ...loyalty, courage, youth, innocence and masculinity.
The digger and the little digger statues are an iconic Queensland memorial form. Oxley Memorial Park is an exemplar of this class of cultural places.
War memorials are the focal point for the local community during the solemn annual ceremonies of 25 April, Anzac Day, our National day of commemoration & remembrance for all those who have fallen in war. The Anzac Day dawn ceremony, the one minute of silence, the Ode and the bugle call of the Last Post are especially poignant and moving experiences for Australians, young and old alike. The Oxley War Memorial encapsulates this aesthetic for the local community, and for the wider Australian community.
","criteria":"The Oxley War Memorial is an important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history representing a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the State. It provides evidence from an era of widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism, particularly during and following the First World War. The monument provides a unique documentary record of the fallen, and demonstrates popular taste of the inter-war period.
|Unveiled in 1920, the memorial at Oxley demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event. This is achieved through the use of appropriate materials and design elements. As a digger statue, it is representative of the most popular form of memorial in Queensland.
|The Oxley War Memorial is an important visual component of the streetscape, a prominent and sombre landmark within a landscaped park setting on a busy arterial road. The little digger statue displays a high level of workmanship and design, additionally contributing to its aesthetic quality.
|The Oxley War Memorial has a strong and continuing association with the community as evidence of the district's involvement in the First World War. The more recent additions to the memorial for the remembrance of other major offensives during the 20th century, informs us of the historical continuity of the place, and its social & cultural relevance to the community.The Oxley War Memorial is also the focal point for the district's annual Anzac Day memorial services.
|The sandstone sculpture of the little digger atop the marble monument seated on a sandstone pedestal is a fine example of the work of the Queensland mason and sculptor Frederick Williams of F Williams & Co, Ipswich. Williams was responsible for a large number of First World War cenotaphs throughout the Brisbane River Valley and the Ipswich area of south-eastern Queensland. It is believed that Williams used his young 14 year old son as the model and inspiration for this work, as well as for his other little digger statues.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19569,"place_ref":602448,"name":"RAN Station 9, Pinkenba (Myrtletown)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Myrtletown Reserve 51 Sandmere Road","suburb":"PINKENBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-07-17","description":"The surviving structures of the former RAN Station 9 stand at the southeast corner of a reserve at the end of Gannon Road in Myrtletown. A rough dirt roadway continues from the end of Gannon Road along the southwest edge of the reserve, and Sandmere Road is gazetted but unformed along the northwest side of the reserve. The reserve contains two concrete buildings, with other ruined concrete structures and concrete slabs to the north. The wartime concrete structures contrast with the green and peaceful nature of the well-groomed riverside park.
The buildings are single-storey rectangular concrete structures with flat concrete roofs concealed by the parapet edges formed by the perimeter walls. The structures were cast in-situ and the walls and ceilings display an off-form finish. Glazing has been lost to all the window openings and most doors are lost. Steel grill security screens have been fixed to all openings.
The control hut is made of concrete 12" (30.5mm) thick and is approximately 19' by 22' (5.8m by 6.7m). It stands close to the park edge at Boggy Creek, aligned southwest-northeast. The rectangular plan is divided into even quarters with three enclosed rooms and an open entry courtyard in the southwest quarter. There are two doorways off the open courtyard, protected by a freestanding blast wall. The door to the northwest opens into a fully enclosed room (former workshop and store) which connects to a room to the northeast (former indicator loop room). The storeroom contains an uninstalled louvered timber door, leant up against the wall. The indicator loop room has a single narrow unglazed observation window at eye height on the northeast corner. This narrow opening is sheltered by an external cantilevered tapered concrete hood.
The door to the northeast of the courtyard leads into a room at the southeast corner of the building (PE beam receiver room). The floor level of this room is below the ground level and is reached by a small flight of concrete stairs. The PE Beam receiver room has a large low unglazed window opening to the northeast (PE beam opening) and a larger window/doorway to the southeast. Many of the wall openings in the structure contain remnants of timber framing. A concrete slab and kerbing lie to the south and west of the structure.
To the northwest of the control hut is the concrete generator hut, which is about 18' by 18'6" (5.5m by 5.6m). The generator hut consists of a large rectangular room (generator room) and an adjacent smaller narrow rectangular room (store) both opening onto a small enclosed rectangular entrance corridor with an external door to the southwest corner. The generator room has long narrow unglazed windows at eye height to the northeast and southeast. Both openings have external cantilevered tapered concrete hoods. One opening contains the timber window frame. The interior of the generator room contains a concrete mounting on the floor, as well as some freestanding thick timber framing. Two rectangular concrete slabs lie northeast of the generator hut.
There is a scatter of trees, a picnic shelter and barbeque facilities to the northwest of the two concrete huts, but these features are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance. To the north of the huts is a rectangular raised area with remnant low concrete walls, with a concrete slab to its northwest. These features mark the site of the quarters and mess building. Located to the north and south ends of the quarters site, to its northeast, are two rectangular brick cisterns, rendered with concrete. Each has a round pipe opening on top of one end, and a modern metal cover with a hatch at the other end. The cisterns were probably the septic systems for the living quarters.
","history":"The remaining built elements of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Station 9, a World War II-era indicator loop and photo-electric (PE) beam monitoring complex, are located in Myrtletown Reserve, at the end of Gannon Road near Pinkenba. The concrete control hut and concrete generator hut still stand at the southeast corner of the reserve, along with a number of concrete slabs from the quarters and mess building.
The site of RAN Station 9, located on the northern bank of Boggy Creek where it joins the Brisbane River, was gazetted as a Reserve for Recreation in 1885. A Reserve for Landing was located just to the north, and both reserves were initially under the control of the Toombul Divisional Board. In January 1925 both reserves, now jointly known as Myrtletown Reserve (3.55 hectares), were transferred to the Brisbane City Council, which remains the trustee. The Myrtletown area, formerly an agricultural district, is now an industrial zone, with large undeveloped blocks and few houses. Most residents left due to the construction of Brisbane Airport nearby (opened in 1988), and the local school closed in 1971.
During World War II the coastal artillery defences of Moreton Bay were upgraded. These included Fort Lytton (1880-1881) [QHR 600248] on the southern side of the Brisbane River's mouth and Fort Cowan Cowan (late 1930s) [QHR 602559], on the west side of Moreton Island. Fort Bribie [QHR 601143], at the northeast tip of Bribie Island, was established in 1939 after Germany's invasion of Poland plunged the world into war. Japan's entry into the war on 7 December 1941, and the consequent perceived invasion threat to Australia, led to a further expansion of Moreton Bay's defences. Fort Bribie upgraded its two 6" gun emplacements in early 1942, and in June 1942, the Commander of the Allied Naval Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area requested as a matter of high priority that Moreton Bay be developed as a naval operating base. Later that year two American 155mm field guns were emplaced on Panama Mounts at Skirmish Point [QHR 601143], at the south end of Bribie Island. In 1943 a similar battery was built at Rous, on the east side of Moreton Island.
The major access route into the Brisbane River was the Northwest Channel, which ran from near Caloundra across the bay in a southeast direction (east of Bribie Island and towards Moreton Island) and then southwest towards the mouth of the Brisbane River, forming a Z-shaped route. This dictated the ideal positions for coastal artillery batteries, with the most effective sites for guns being the closest points to the channel bends. However, Rous battery was designed to deter ships from shelling targets within Moreton Bay from the ocean side of Moreton Island.
During World War II Moreton Bay was also protected by RAN stations numbers 1 through 10. RAN 1 was a Port War Signal Station at Wickham Point, Caloundra (not extant), and RAN 2 was a Controlled Mining and Guard Loop Station which was initially located at Fort Bribie (extant), before it was moved to Tangalooma on Moreton island in 1943 (not extant). RAN 3 was a Controlled Mining and Guard Loop Station at Cowan Cowan, and RAN 4 was the Indicator Loop and Harbour Defence ASDIC (anti-submarine detection sonar) Station at Woorim [QHR 601143], on Bribie Island (extant). RAN 5 was the Combined Training Centre (Naval Wing), at Toorbul; RAN 6 was an Advanced Fairmile Base (AFMB) at Bongaree, Bribie Island; and RAN 7 was an Indicator Loop and Harbour Defence ASDIC Station at Bulwer on Moreton Island (extant). On the Brisbane River, RAN 8 was the Boom Defence Facility, an Anti-submarine Boom across the Brisbane River between Lytton and Bulwer Island (not extant); RAN 9 was the Indicator Loop and Photo-electric Beam Station, Myrtletown (extant); and RAN 10 was a Naval Store at Pinkenba (status unknown).
Indicator loops were used to detect the presence of any submerged submarines. An indicator loop relies on the production of an induced current in a stationary loop of wire when a magnet moves overhead. Even if wiped or degaussed, submarines still have sufficient magnetism to produce a small current in a loop. The technology was developed by the British Royal Navy at HMS Osprey (Portland Naval Base) from 1915. If an indicator loop showed the presence of a vessel the two possibilities were 'sub' or 'non-sub'. If no ship could be observed on the water, it was obviously a submarine, and a vessel could be despatched to drop depth charges.
Alternatively, if an indicator loop was located next to a controlled minefield, in which the mines were connected by electrical cable back to a mine control hut on shore, the mines could be detonated manually if a submarine was detected. It had to be an enemy submarine as friendly submarines always entered port surfaced. The controlled mines in Moreton Bay were accompanied by 'guard' indicator loops and mine loops. When a submarine was detected by the guard loop, the operator would wait until there was also a galvanometer 'swing' on the mine loop and then the mines would be detonated by sending a current down the mine loop.
RAN Station 9 was designed to detect any Japanese submarines or surface vessels attempting to navigate up the Brisbane River. By 1942, the navy had become aware of recent developments by Japan, Germany and Italy in the manufacture and use of miniature submarines and human torpedoes. Existing indicator loop systems had legs set at a 200 yard spacing which was fine for large submarines but useless for the miniatures. By September 1942 the RAN decided to lay a miniature indicator loop across the mouth of the Brisbane River.
The indicator loop cables were laid in a miniature indicator loop pattern with legs 40 yards apart, from RAN Station 9 to Fisherman Islands. If a submerged submarine was detected by RAN Station 9 a signal would be transmitted to RAN Station 8, the Boom Defence Facility at Fort Lytton, to raise the boom cable. HMAS Kinchela was permanently moored in the Brisbane River as part of this Boom Defence system. The indicator loop was completed by HMAS Bangalow by early March 1943.
The indicator loop was supplemented with a photo-electric beam above the water, to detect the presence of surface vessels entering the Brisbane River. RAN Station 9 in Brisbane was one of only three PE beam installations built in Australia during World War II, the others being between South Head and Middle Head in Sydney, and between Point Lonsdale and Point Nepean at Port Phillip in Melbourne. Lieutenant Colonel Buckland of the Australian Army was responsible for the installation of all three.
The PE Beam equipment consisted of a transmitter on the Fisherman Islands side of the Brisbane River housed in a concrete hut, at a bearing of 68 degrees and 25 minutes from the receiver at Myrtletown. The current status of the transmitting hut is unknown, due to the development of wharfage facilities around that location. The PE beam transmitter consisted of a power valve that transmitted in the visible and infrared wavelengths. An infrared screen blocked out the visible light so that it couldn't be seen from the outside. The beam from the transmitter was directed at the reflector (a 90 cm parabolic mirror) in the control hut at Myrtletown, which focussed the rays to a pin point on the cathode of the PE cell.
Breaking the beam closed a contactor on to an 80 Volt DC supply and connected it in parallel with a service contactor. While the beam was in normal operation, a loudspeaker gave a buzzing note. When the beam was broken, the speaker reproduced the clicking of the receiver relay. An alarm buzzer also sounded and a flashing red light came on actuated by the relay. During this interruption, another contactor closed and a sentry (searchlight) was exposed across the river, on a bearing a few degrees inside the line of the infrared PE beam. The service contactor switch for the searchlight was then closed by the switchman, who carried out a quick search of the area; the control panel contactor being immediately reset by pressing a button on the control panel. Resetting stopped the alarm buzzer, flashing light and the clicking in the loudspeaker, leaving the apparatus ready to give another signature immediately.
The PE beam was completed in September 1943 and on 23 October 1943 the first trial of the beam was undertaken. RAN Station 9 commenced operation in January 1944, after a construction cost of £3337. Lieutenant Joe Duggan was the Officer in Charge.
RAN Station 9 never detected any Japanese intruders, although submarines had been sighted east of Stradbroke Island (March 1942) and off Moreton Island (June 1942), and on 14 May 1943 the hospital ship Centaur was struck by a torpedo and sunk off the Brisbane coastline. The last attack to occur in the approaches to the Port of Brisbane took place on 4 June 1943 off Cape Moreton, when a Japanese submarine fired on the American ship MV Edward Chambers. The indicator loop in the Brisbane River was removed in June 1945.
A 1946 aerial photograph of the RAN Station 9 facility shows that the quarters and mess building were located to the north of the control and generator huts (at the location of the existing concrete slabs and brick cisterns). Two outhouses were located northwest of the existing generator hut. The larger of the two remaining structures, the control hut, accommodated the indicator loop and PE beam instrumentation and was where the loop cables terminated. The smaller building housed the generator. The living quarters for officers and ordinary ranks were separated by a mess area.
","criteria":"As incongruous concrete structures in a quiet area of flat, well maintained grassland along the north bank of Boggy Creek as it joins the Brisbane River, the remaining buildings and foundations of RAN Station 9 are a picturesque but poignant reminder of attempts to defend shipping in the Brisbane River from Japanese submarine attacks.
|The surviving concrete huts and the concrete remnants of the quarters and mess building at RAN Station 9 at Pinkenba (Myrtletown) are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, being surviving evidence of the efforts made to defend Moreton Bay and the Brisbane River against enemy ships and submarines during World War II. The indicator loop and photo-electric beam installation at Myrtletown was part of an interlocking system of naval defences for Moreton Bay, which incorporated coastal artillery batteries, indicator loops, controlled minefields, ASDIC (anti-submarine sonar detection) devices, Fairmile anti-submarine motor launches, a photoelectric (PE) beam and an anti-submarine boom.
|RAN Station 9 was one of only three PE beam harbour defence installations constructed in Australia during World War II. The others were constructed between South Head and Middle Head in Sydney, and between Point Lonsdale and Point Nepean at Port Phillip in Melbourne.
|RAN Station 9, by its location, orientation to the river, and room layout, is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a World War II indicator loop and PE beam station, an anti-submarine defence. Its location next to the Brisbane River demonstrates the need to detect enemy vessels attempting to infiltrate upriver, and the placement of the control hut reveals the bearing of the PE beam transmitted from Fisherman Islands. The layout of the rooms in the control hut provide evidence of the functions of such a facility, with the indicator loop room having an observation window over the river and the PE beam room having a large window to receive the beam transmitted from Fisherman Islands.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion E | Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19574,"place_ref":602452,"name":"Clayfield House","alternate_name":"Turrawan Private Hospital | Turrawan","street_address":"8 London Road","suburb":"CLAYFIELD","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-09-24","description":"Clayfield House is located on a sloping block, supported by high concrete stumps at the eastern end and a brick retaining wall to London Road. It is a single storey building constructed of timber with a typical Dods steeply pitched hipped roof clad with corrugated iron sheeting.
It has two projecting bays facing London Road; the eastern bay contains the main, and former private, entrance. This is accessed by a shallow set of stairs approaching a porch constructed of substantial timber beams in the Arts and Crafts style. The phrase EAST WEST ?? HAME'S BEST is carved into the beam across the entrance.
The remainder of the front elevation comprises a central verandah, which is now enclosed with the balustrades intact and sheeted over, and a protruding bay on the western end. The eastern elevation also comprises an enclosed verandah with intact balustrades and the location of the separate surgery access is evident, although the stairs to this have been removed. Verandah detailing consists of simple and elegant timber brackets and balustrades typical of Dod's style.
The interior is lined with vertical tongue and groove boards and has timber floors and ceilings. The joinery is well detailed and includes such features as cupboards, multiple paned double-hung and French windows, a bay window and a walk through sash window opening on to the verandah.
Although a few internal walls have been removed and some added, and rooms have been built into the verandah, the general form of the house has altered little. The original plan, separating residential and medical areas, can still be read and most rooms remain substantially intact.
","history":"Clayfield House was constructed in 1906 as 'Turrawan', a combined residence and surgery, for Dr Arthur C F Halford.
Robert Smith (Robin) Dods (1868-1920) was born in New Zealand. After living in Scotland in the early 1870s, the family moved to Brisbane after his father's death. From the age of 11 he lived with his mother and stepfather, Dr C F Marks, on Wickham Terrace. In 1886 he returned to Scotland to study architecture, where he was articled with Hay and Henderson in Edinburgh. Completing his articles, Dods moved to London in 1890, where he worked for a number of architects, including the prestigious firm of Aston Webb and Ingress Bell. Dods' training in London placed him amongst the third generation of Arts and Crafts based architects, contemporary with Edwin Lutyens, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright. Central to his philosophy was a belief in developing a new architecture based on regional tradition, clearly expressed in his subsequent domestic work in Brisbane.
In 1894 he returned to Brisbane for a year's visit, during which time he and architect Francis Hall submitted a successful competition entry for the nurses' home at the Brisbane Hospital. He returned to London, but came back to Brisbane in August 1896 to set up in partnership as Hall and Dods. Within the partnership, Dods was responsible for most of the design, while Hall concentrated on management. The practice was the most influential source of modern design in Brisbane, producing a wide range of accomplished buildings and was credited with achieving an 'architectural revolution in Brisbane.' Dods was able to integrate contemporary British design philosophies with the traditions of Queensland housing and the requirements of a subtropical climate, producing practical and attractive houses that were finely detailed and widely copied. The partnership was sustained until 1913, when Dods left to practice in Sydney. Soon after his move to Sydney World War I virtually stopped all building and Dods died prematurely in 1920.
In 1905 Arthur Charles Frederick Halford, a doctor, purchased just under an acre of land comprising re-subdivisions 1-4 and 98-101 of subdivision 3 of portion 79 at the corner of Sandgate and London Roads. Tenders were let for the construction of a house for him, to the design of Robin Dods, in August 1905. The builder is thought to have been Hall and Mayer and the house cost £1382.92 to complete. Comprising a residence and surgery, the building originally faced Sandgate Road, with the entrance to the residential section accessed from this road and the surgery accessed from London Road. Tennis courts were constructed behind the house. It was at the time the only building between Wagner and London Roads.
It was not uncommon in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for doctors to have a surgery in their home. A number of small private hospitals were also run from houses, particularly for maternity cases. An Arthur Halford is registered as an obstetrician in this period. Other houses in the area were used as residence/surgeries at different times. It was a form that Dods was familiar with as his stepfather and brother were doctors and Dods designed a surgery/residence for his brother on Wickham Terrace. [Espie Dods House 600172].
In 1906, Dr Halford was living at 'Turrawan', though by 1915 he was also practicing from 157 Wickham Terrace. In 1910 a trust was set up for the property with trustees Arthur Halford and Union Trustees. In 1923 the trustees for the property became Arthur Halford, his wife Nora and daughter Nora Millar. In 1922 the 1,500 seat Savoy Picture Theatre was constructed next to the house on Sandgate Road.
Dr Halford is thought to have lived and worked from 'Turrawan' until 1920, when a lease was let to Alexander Murray for five years. In 1926 the Post Office Directory lists a Dr Neville Sutton as the occupant, using London Road as his preferred address.
Mrs Halford died in 1932 and in 1935 resubs 98, 99 and 100 in London Road were sold and houses were built on them. Part of this land appears to have included a portion of the 'Turrawan' tennis court. At an unknown date 'Turrawan' was rotated on the site to face London Road and now also occupies a part of the former site of its tennis court.
Nora Millar Halford married Harold Love in 1936 and in 1945 Dr Halford died. In the following year, the property was transferred to Savoy Pictures Pty Limited.
In 1960 the property was resurveyed and subdivided into two blocks and an easement. The realignment of the boundary between lots one and two suggests that the house was already in its current position at that time. In 1961, BP Australia purchased Lot 1, the block on the corner of Clayfield and London Roads and constructed a service station on it. This closed down in the early 1980s and a garden nursery now occupies its site.
In 1984 Lot 2 was sold to Rodney and Colleen Abbott and was a boarding house when purchased by the current owner in 1988. Since then it has operated as Clayfield House, providing supported accommodation.
A small addition containing a bathroom has made to the rear of the house and some internal walls have been removed or altered. Although the chimneys are no longer present, presumably having been lost when the house was rotated, a tiered corner fireplace remains in the former dining room.
","criteria":"Clayfield House is important in terms of Queensland's architectural history and in the development of the Queensland house. It was designed by the influential partnership of Hall & Dods in 1906.
|Clayfield House is uncommon as an early example of a purpose designed doctor's surgery and residence and also as an example of Dods domestic work. Although he designed many houses, few, particularly of the size and quality of Clayfield House, survive. Although some alterations have been made to the house, it retains much of the original layout and detail illustrating characteristics of his work.
|Clayfield House is situated in an area where many fine homes, including others by Dods, were built and illustrates the development of Clayfield as a prestigious residential area. Clayfield House, as a purpose designed surgery/residence, then private hospital illustrates the development of medical practice in Brisbane. Clayfield House demonstrates the principal features of a doctor's residence and surgery with separate entrances and a room layout that separates the practice rooms from the residential areas of the building.
|It has aesthetic significance as a substantial and well-designed dwelling and is important for its association with the life and work of RS (Robin) Dods, an innovative and influential architect who made a major contribution to the development of housing design in Queensland.
|Robert Smith (Robin) Dods is noted for the introduction of ideas on architectural design then current in the United Kingdom and integrating them with traditional Queensland forms and materials. His designs subsequently influenced Australian architecture.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19575,"place_ref":602453,"name":"Pinkenba War Memorial","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Eagle Farm Road","suburb":"PINKENBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-10-03","description":"The monument stands on a small, grassed triangular portion of road reserve at the corner of Eagle Farm and McBride Roads, Pinkenba. Approximately 2.5 metres high, it stands within a grassed area defined by a white painted concrete curb supporting a fence of hollow metal poles linked by metal chain. A flagstaff stands to the north within the fenced area.
The bronze memorial is supported on a plinth of cast rusticated-finish concrete blocks. A pedestal, similar in form to the base of a truncated obelisk comprising beaten panels with a Doric column at each corner sits on top of the plinth. It supports a square platform surmounted by a small dome. An upright artillery shell, hung with a frail bronze wreath, projects from the dome.
The sides of the pedestal bear the memorial inscription and the names of the enlisted and fallen. The panel to the north bears the inscription in relief lettering; the south panel contains the names of the fallen, each an individual name plate within a decorative honour scroll; the east and west panels contain the individual name plates for the enlisted.
A landscaped area incorporating trees, garden bed and park furniture is situated near the fence of the neighbouring property to the north of the monument area. A seat, picnic table, tap and large, green metal utility box in this area are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Pinkenba War Memorial is located on a small triangular portion of land at the intersection of McBride Road and Eagle Farm Road at Pinkenba. Unveiled on 16 August 1919 by Queensland Governor Sir Hamilton John Goold-Adams, it was erected to commemorate the men from the district who had served during WWI.
\nA small community existed at Pinkenba as early as the 1860s when the residents began discussing the need for a school in the district. A formal application for a school, lodged in 1874, listed 22 families with children living in the area. The early residents largely comprised small farmers, many of them of German origin. From the late nineteenth century, the abattoir of the Queensland Meat Export Company was located at Pinkenba and it remained a major employer in the district until after WWI. The wharves, servicing passenger and freight ships, were also a hub of commercial activity. In 1897, a rail link was provided to service the wharves, industries and residents of Pinkenba.
\nDuring WWI, the Pinkenba wharves were the point of embarkation for many Australian troops, including members of the Light Horse. Pupils from the local school visited the wharves to farewell soldiers from the district. The Pinkenba War Memorial records the names of 42 men who enlisted, eight of whom are listed as fallen.
\nThe uniquely styled Pinkenba War Memorial was one of the earliest WWI monument memorials erected in the Brisbane region, predated by the East Brisbane War Memorial in Mowbray Park [QHR600189] which was unveiled in August 1917. The earliest known Queensland WWI monument memorial is the Colinton War Memorial [QHR 650029], which was unveiled on 17 January 1917.
\nThe memorial was designed and constructed by the Queensland firm of Ernest Gunderson. Gunderson was a skilled tradesman of Norwegian extraction whose firm specialized in the manufacture of bronze honour boards. The firm operated until the mid 1930s and supplied memorials all over Queensland. His best-known and largest memorial is in the main street of Gayndah. At the time of its unveiling, it was described as one of the finest in the State.
\nGunderson individually moulded decorative devices for his honour boards and these make them quite distinctive as a Queensland type. The Pinkenba monument features similar devices including an artillery shell encircled by a wreath. There were also a series of statuettes fixed to the monument that were removed, probably before WWII. These included mounted light horsemen located on each corner above the columns and a statuette of a soldier that stood to the north of the dome.
\nIn 1983, Brisbane City Council plumbers and sheet metal workers repaired some of the damage sustained by the monument. However, important elements including the statuettes and some lettering remain lost.
\nIn the 1960s, the character of Pinkenba changed. Many residents moved out of the area as homes were resumed to make way for proposed Airport expansion. More heavy industry moved into the suburb. The War Memorial remains a vestige of the earlier more residential character of the area.
","criteria":"The Pinkenba War Memorial is important in demonstrating part of the pattern of Queensland's history, being associated with the national outpouring of grief at the deaths of about 60,000 Australians during WWI. During an era of strong and widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism most Queensland communities erected a public memorial to honour local participation in the war. Each monument is a unique historical documentary record.
|The memorial is important in exemplifying many of the elements common to WWI memorials in a form that is unusual for its type. Designed as a tangible place of memory to act as a focus for public mourning in the absence of graves, the memorial displays the names of the enlisted and the dead, it is designed to endure and it is set in an area large enough to accommodate ceremonial occasions. However, the memorial demonstrates a form that is unusual for WWI memorials in that it is composed of an unusual combination of classical and non-traditional elements.
|Together with it's setting, the memorial makes a significant aesthetic contribution to the townscape of Pinkenba. It is visually striking and it is located prominently in a verdant setting.
|The memorial is of social and spiritual significance for the local community, having a strong and continuing association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historical event and as the focus for annual remembrance of that event in local Anzac Day commemorative ceremonies.
|It is also significant as an example of the work of Ernest Gunderson, the well-known Queensland manufacturer and supplier of honour boards and memorials.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19576,"place_ref":602454,"name":"Sandgate War Memorial Park","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"8 Seymour Street","suburb":"SANDGATE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-10-03","description":"Sandgate War Memorial Park is a small island of parkland bounded by Seymour Street, Bowser Parade and Brighton Road. The memorial and surrounding gardens constitute an integrated and contained landscape within the island and provide a verdant forecourt to the Sandgate Post Office and the former Sandgate Town Hall.
The monument, a cenotaph form reminiscent of the Lutyens' Cenotaph (Whitehall, London), is the central focus of the park. Constructed from coursed pale grey quarry-faced granite, the monument is approximately 2.6m x 1.4m in plan, rising to a height of about 5m from a concrete plinth measuring about 4.6m x 3.7m. A band of dressed and polished granite forms a collar to the stepped crown of the cenotaph. A low protective painted metal rail is erected to the perimeter of the plinth. Within this protective fence stand decorative bollards linked by metal chains. Plaques to the long sides of the monument list those from the Sandgate district who fell in WWI, WWII and the conflicts in Malaya, Korea and Vietnam. A verse is inscribed to the obverse side:
They died, and yet in memory shall they live,
That we may know the worth of sacrifice,
Know that their death is freedom's cause,
Stands as a beacon light to point the way
To paths of peace.
A large metal utility box located near a path to the north east of the memorial and a recently constructed wooden rotunda in a corner of the park are not considered to be culturally significant.
The park also contains a green painted metal drinking fountain. Concrete paths across the island converge on the monument. The park contains mature palms, shade trees and decorative planted beds and hedges.
","history":"Sandgate War Memorial Park is a triangular portion of land situated close to the Sandgate Town Hall. The war memorial located in the middle of the park was unveiled on 24 February 1924 to memorialize the men from Sandgate who had died while serving their country during WWI (1914 - 1918).
European settlement in the Sandgate district began in the 1850s. By the 1860s, the area was frequented by visitors from Brisbane for recreational purposes and after the opening of the rail to Sandgate in 1882 the area rapidly developed as a seaside resort. A post office was erected near the railway station in 1887, the township of Sandgate was proclaimed in 1902 and a town hall erected in 1912. By the mid-twentieth century, increased use of cars meant that more distant seaside places became more accessible and the popularity of Sandgate as a seaside resort declined.
According to Brigadier J. H. Cannan, in a speech given at the unveiling of the Sandgate monument, 330 soldiers from the township had enlisted for WWI. Of these, 51 were killed. The impact of the war Australia-wide was devastating with over 300, 000 volunteers from a national population of 4 million serving overseas and one fifth, approximately 60, 000 dying. Virtually every community in every state was affected by the war in Europe and Asia Minor.
After the war, memorials honouring those who served were erected in nearly every city, town and community in Australia. The erection of memorials peaked during the period 1919 to 1925. Typically, a committee of patriotic citizens was formed which raised money by public subscription and public entertainments. Land on which to erect the memorial was usually provided by the local authority. Expenditure was often considerable for the size of communities and war memorials became a matter of local pride, an indication of a district's patriotism and wealth (McKay 1983, pp 12 - 13).
Construction of the Sandgate memorial was organized by a committee chaired by the Mayor of Sandgate (Alderman W. H. Bowser). The design was by prominent Queensland architect, George Gray Prentice, who was practicing at the time in partnership with Thomas Ramsay Hall. The Brisbane newspapers reported that the memorial, composed of about 100 tons of granite and concrete, cost around £850. The granite blocks that made up most of the structure were donated by Alderman Bowser from his quarry at Samford and the top sills and the borders of the trachyte panels were of polished Victorian granite. At the unveiling, the Mayor noted that granite was used to 'resist the sea atmosphere'. The front panel of the monument listed the names of the 51 Sandgate soldiers who had lost their lives during the war and the rear panel contained a verse composed by W. H. Lister, a member of the committee. The foundation stone was laid by the Queensland Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan, on 14 July 1923 and the completed memorial was unveiled by the Governor on 24 February 1924.
The monument was built by Messrs. Lowther and Sons. This was an early Brisbane masonry firm, established in the 1880s by John Lowther. The Lowthers became one of the largest suppliers of stone and marble in the southern hemisphere by the time of WWI. Charles Lowther served with the Light Horse in Palestine during the war. After his return in 1919, he executed war memorials for the family firm. Notable memorials built by the firm include the Digger at Blackbutt (1920) and the obelisk at Goodna (McKay 1983, p 36).
The extant concrete posts and chain surrounding the monument were erected in 1931 to replace a pre-existing wooden fence. Subsequently to the unveiling of the monument in 1924, the names of Sandgate residents killed in WWII, Malaya, Korea and Vietnam were added to the monument.
The park that forms the setting for the monument contains a large small-leafed fig that reputedly was a popular meeting place. The grandsons of Hezekiah Shepherd, said to have been an inspector and overseer of works with the then Sandgate Municipal Council, claim that he planted the tree in the early 1880s and built a seat (no longer extant) under it. The rotunda in the park was built during the 'Australia Remembers' commemorations in 1995.
","criteria":"The Sandgate War Memorial Park is important in demonstrating part of the pattern of Queensland's history, being associated with the national outpouring of grief at the death of 60, 000 Australians during WWI. During an era of strong and widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism most Queensland communities erected a public memorial to honour local participation in the war. Each monument is a unique historical documentary record.
|The memorial is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class of cultural places, being a substantial and highly intact commemorative structure erected as a tangible and enduring place of memory to act as a focus for public mourning in the absence of graves. This is achieved through the use of appropriate materials and design elements.
|The memorial and surrounding park make a significant aesthetic contribution to the townscape of Sandgate. The park constitutes an integrated and contained landscape that provides a verdant forecourt to the Sandgate Post Office and the former Sandgate Town Hall.
|The memorial and park are of social and spiritual significance for the local community, having a strong and continuing association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historical event and as the focus for annual remembrance of that event in local Anzac Day commemorative ceremonies.
|The memorial is significant as an example of the work of prominent Brisbane architect, G. G. Prentice and the Brisbane masonry firm Lowther and Sons.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19578,"place_ref":602456,"name":"Sherwood Arboretum (including the John Herbert Memorial Vista)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"38A Turner Street","suburb":"SHERWOOD","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-05-03","description":"A rolling open landscape provides a spacious setting for clumped tree plantings, individual specimen trees, and an avenue of mature and semi-mature Queensland kauri.
The Sherwood Arboretum is bounded on the west by the Brisbane River and on the south-west by Jolimont and Turner Streets. Residential properties occur on the other boundaries. These properties are accessed from Joseph and Ferry Streets in the north; Dudley and Dunella Streets in the east; and Douglas Street in the south.
Public vehicle access occurs off Jolimont Street with a 50 vehicle car park, and a smaller car park on Dewar Street directly into the John Herbert Memorial Vista.
Pedestrian access is provided from the Jolimont Street Car Park; off Dewar Street, Joseph Street, Turner Street; and from the pontoon on the Brisbane River centrally located on the Arboretum's eastern boundary.
","history":"The Sherwood Arboretum covers an area of 15 hectares, containing approximately 1,100 trees from about 300 species. The arboretum comprises parkland, artificial freshwater wetland and has an extensive frontage to the Brisbane River.
In keeping with an international trend toward the application of scientific methods to forestry, and over concern for the depleting stock of Queenslands forests and commercial timbers, Sherwood Arboretum was established at the urging of a number of community interest groups, the Local Government Authorities and the State Government.
In June 1922, the Curator of the Botanical Gardens, Ernest Walter Bick F.L.S. wrote to the Brisbane Deputy Town Clerk outlining the need to establish '...an Arboretum near the city where the growth of native and other trees could be studied.' The Government Botanist, Cyril Tenison White, raised public awareness, when he wrote to the daily papers on 13th July 1922. The proposal was sponsored by the Empire Forest Association, and gathered the support of the Royal Society, the Queensland Naturalists' Club, the Horticultural Society, the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science, the Public Health Association, and through a number of articles in the A & B Journal of Queensland.
No suitable land was initially identified within Brisbane Shire. In 1925, the Greater Brisbane Scheme saw the amalgamation of local councils and shires to establish the City of Brisbane Council. Land previously purchased by Sherwood Shire Council was considered suitable, and a proposal to dedicate land for Arboretum purposes was strongly supported by the outgoing Sherwood Shire Council.
Symbolically, Sherwood Arboretum was officially opened on World Forestry Day, 21 March 1925, with a planting of 72 Queensland kauri (Agathis robusta) along a central promenade named Sir Matthew Nathan Avenue in honour of the Queensland Governor.
Many of the people associated with the opening and the first plantings are well known today as founders of the State and Brisbane City, prominent local residents and landowners, and leading scientists of the day such as: Sir Matthew Nathan, Governor of Queensland; William Jolly, the First Mayor of Greater Brisbane; Archbishop Duhig, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane; Romeo Lahey, local timber mill owner and founder of the National Parks Association, W D Francis of the Queensland Herbarium and author of "Australian Rainforest Trees"; and E H F Swain, then District Inspector of Forests who became Director of Forests in 1928.
From its outset, the Sherwood Arboretum was focussed on growing Australian trees, and especially Queensland trees.
Over 600 specimens had been planted by 1929 with plans for another 400 in place. The temperature, climate and soils did not favour these early endeavours, and many of the plantings from the 1920s and 1930s appear to have failed.
Significant tree plantings include pine, fig and native plum, such as: Queensland kauri (Agathis robusta); bull kauri (Agathis microstachya); bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii); hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii); Bribie Island pine (Callitrus columellaris); (Moreton Bay fig (Ficus macrophylla forma macrophylla); Queensland weeping fig (Ficus microcarpa); cluster fig (Ficus racemosa); rusty fig (Ficus rubiginosa); and Queensland rarities like Burdekin plum, (Pleogynium timorense) and Davidson plum (Davidsonia pruriens). From the west, the more arid interior and tropical north are wilga (Geijera parviflora); broad-leafed bottle tree (Brachychiton australis); lacebark (Brachychiton discolor); tulip oak (Harpuilia pendula); with the Leichardt tree (Nauclea orientalis); celery wood (Polyscias elegans); yellow wood (Flindseria xanthoxyla). Mangroves occur along the river frontage: milky mangrove (Excoecaria agaloeha), grey mangrove (Auicennia marina) and river mangrove (Aegiceras corniculatum). Examples of exotic species are uncommon, but include a Syrian Ash (Fraxinus syriaca) from Asia Minor.
In 1946 a number of land parcels and some connecting unformed roads were acquired adjacent the Arboretum. This addition is now named the John Herbert Memorial Vista, commemorating the State Member for Sherwood 1956-1978, who was an active member of the local community and had a long association with the National Trust of Queensland. The John Herbert Memorial Vista is managed as an integral part of the Arboretums natural biosystem.
The Sherwood Arboretum has a special association with Brisbane's renowned landscape architect, Harry Oakman, Manager of Parks and Gardens for the Brisbane City Council 1946-1963.
Oakman had been Head Gardener, Department of Parks, for Newcastle City Council from 1940 to1946, and was Manager of Parks and Gardens for the Brisbane City Council from 1946 to1963. He later worked in Canberra, and wrote seven books on tropical and sub-tropical gardening.
Harry Oakman (1906-2002) produced a major redesign of the Sherwood Arboretum, although his design was not implemented at the time. It has served subsequent generations, however, and the essential characteristics and elements of today's design reflect those advanced by Oakman by maintaining the original tree plantings and developing new elegant looping pedestrian pathways from the perimeter and within the main drive; capturing vistas overlooking the forests and the plantings; and culminating in the wharf and terminal.
A Report by the Queensland Conservation Council released in 1975 claimed that Brisbane's parks were, in general, often flat, lacking in trees and natural water features, and had too much emphasis on built-recreation facilities. The report argued that too many buildings, sports clubs, car parks, and roads all defeated the purpose of parks as open spaces. The Sherwood Arboretum stands in stark contradiction to this generalisation.
The park's vistas, river frontage, subtropical mature trees and mature plantings of Queensland pines, native figs and specimens of rare Queensland native plums in a setting of grassed open spaces, open lagoons and shrubby borderlines, demonstrate an established subtropical garden character and are well appreciated by the public. Indeed, Sherwood Arboretum is listed as the third or forth most visited park in Brisbane.
The changing land use in and around Sherwood Arboretum, from Aboriginal resource, to colonial farm, to suburban subdivision, and finally to parkland, demonstrates the evolution of Queensland's history, and the process of the creation of open spaces as the area's population grew. The Brisbane City Council's management of the land at Sherwood reflected its interest in the international Town Planning movement of the time. Redesigns of the park also demonstrate changes in parks philosophy and use over time, with a shift in emphasis from formal genteel Edwardian avenues and strictly scientific pursuits, to the development and maintenance of living natural ecosystems with a rich and a diverse biota and multiple opportunities for leisure activities and leisurely interaction with the natural environment.
The park has a long-standing and strong association with the local community. The children's playground is very popular with local mothers and children. The mix of open space, timbered slopes and forest groves attracts the use of festival organisers, wedding parties, sportspeople, the elderly, picnickers and the disabled.
Current park use ranges from active to passive. Active use ranges from sports use, such school events and cross-country running, through numerous social events and festivals, playground use, weddings, cycling and jogging. More passive uses include picnics, strolls through the gardens, quiet contemplation, and visitation by tourists. Many of the trees have heavily scarred trunks and limbs, especially the long-lived figs, bearing the testimonials of the countless lovers who have felt inclined to leave their testimonials inscribed.
Sherwood Arboretum continues to hold its scientific and cultural values with Queensland native specimens and plantings vastly predominant, and exotics noticeable by their near absence.
The original formal Edwardian layout of the park as exemplified by the Queensland kauri plantings along Sir Mathew Nathan Avenue, has given away to less formal grove-like clumpings, more fluid and more in keeping with contemporary standards of garden design and aesthetics. The garden redesign undertaken by Harry Oakman has inspired the contemporary layout, although many of the earlier tree plantings remain.
The Sherwood Arboretum has a character of park planting that is a distinct aspect of Brisbane's historic parks and large gardens.
The Arboretum lands hold important environmental values for the suburb and Brisbane city as a whole by providing critical water habitat for native plants and animals, by maintaining in stream water quality and for flood mitigation. It is a bird watching site of State significance and international repute, with 124 species recorded.
The Arboretum continues to play a role in science, with new plantings of the rare and endangered angle-stemmed myrtle (Austromyrtus gonoclada) in accordance with the State Governments recovery plan for this species; and ongoing studies in ecology and reproductive strategies for the dusty moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa).
A series of improvements since 1974 has led to the establishment of two artificial freshwater lagoons, a children's playground, disabled user access, car parking improvements, a large roofed amenity block with bench seats and tables, a riverside boardwalk and public jetty on the river, and pedestrian pathway system, garden furniture, and an artistic installation commemorating the 1974 flood showing the height of the floodwaters. An ablutions block is currently under construction. These structures are not considered to be significant.
","criteria":"The Sherwood Arboretum is important as evidence for the development of modern scientific methods of managing forestry and timber production in Queensland following the First World War. The need for an arboretum in Queensland was identified by a number of eminent scientists and was supported by important scientific, commercial and community interest groups. The establishment of the Sherwood Arboretum was only achieved through cooperation between these groups and various levels of government, demonstrating the importance of the project.
In keeping with a long tradition of tree planting by eminent persons, the Arboretum contains plantings by the then Governor, Sir Mathew Nathan, and numerous distinguished scientists, politicians, local landholders and community leaders.
|Sherwood Arboretum appears to be unique among Queensland's public open spaces and botanical gardens by its concentration of tree species native to Queensland, and by the virtual exclusion of exotics.
|Sherwood Arboretum is an important example of its type, combining public amenity and scientific purpose within an aesthetically pleasing arboreal landscape. It continues to serve its original function for research along with other public uses such as public relaxation, education and leisure.
|The wide vistas, the riverside location, majestic landscapes and large and small natural beauties of the Sherwood Arboretum have a high aesthetic value, encouraging an appreciation of nature and sense of place which far exceeds what its small acreage might otherwise imply.
|The Sherwood Arboretum is a managed landscape demonstrating a high level of creative and technical achievement in balancing aesthetically pleasing design characteristics with scientific requirements.
|Sherwood Arboretum is important to researchers and national and international visitors for its natural, aesthetic and scientific values, and is also valued by the local communities of Sherwood, Chelmer and Corinda as recreational space.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19580,"place_ref":602458,"name":"Enoggera Reservoir","alternate_name":"Enoggera Dam","street_address":"30 & 50 Mt Nebo Road","suburb":"ENOGGERA RESERVOIR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-07-03","description":"The Enoggera Reservoir is located at Waterworks Road, The Gap. It covers an area of 358.1468ha. The Reservoir landscape contains the Enoggera Dam, associated buildings, cleared land and forest. The buildings include, the valve house, treatment plant and underground reservoir, chemical store and office building, two cottages (referred to as eastern cottage and western cottage), pump house, storage hut, toilet block and hut.
Upstream face of the dam embankment, showing the original crest of the dam (with Valve House) and 1970s wall extension.
Enoggera Dam
Enoggera Dam is located on Enoggera Creek, a largely suburban tributary of the Brisbane River which rises at modest elevations in the D'Aguilar Ranges, eleven kilometres north west of the Brisbane CBD.
Valve House
The valve house, built 1866, is a timber-framed, weatherboard clad house that sits on what was once the crest of the original dam but is now at the base of the new dam wall on the upstream side. The valve house controlled the flow at intake from reservoir into the delivery pipes. It no longer functions.
Treatment Plant
The treatment plant is immediately below the dam and comprises a 1982 dissolved air floatation clarifier and slow sand filters dating from 1912. Both systems are still functioning. A brick, flat roofed chemical store and office building stands beside the slow sand filters. Treated water flows to an underground reservoir between the treatment plant and the pump house.
Cottages
The two cottages are accessed from Waterworks Road. Both are timber-framed, high-set iron roofed houses with front verandahs. The eastern cottage is the more ornate. Its gabled portico features decorative barge boards and timber archway through to the verandah. Structural features of both cottages are consistent with early twentieth century dwellings.
Pump House
The pump house is a small, weatherboard hut with a corrugated iron gable roof. It dates from the 1930s. The pump still functions.
Stone Storage Hut
The storage hut is a simple gabled structure built into the slope falling from the treatment plant to the site entry. It has loadbearing stone walls approximately 450mm thick with brickwork quoins or keystones above the second course of stonework. The gable is infilled with weatherboards and the timber-framed roof is clad with corrugated iron.
Toilet Block
The toilet block is a 1960s concrete structure with a flat, metal roof. This structure is not significant.
Concrete Hut
The hut is a 1960s concrete block structure with a flat concrete roof. This structure is not significant.
Memorial Plaque and Tree
Memorial plaque and jacaranda tree (Jacaranda mimosifolia) planted in memory of August Rudolph Sprenger Junior who was the Enoggera Reservoir caretaker from 19 March 1951 until his death on 22 March 1972, aged 57.
","history":"The Enoggera Dam is the oldest major dam in Queensland, being commissioned by the Brisbane Municipal Council in 1864 and completed in 1866. It is located on Waterworks Road, The Gap, approximately 10 kilometres west of Brisbane's CBD.
Enoggera Dam was one of the earliest major dams to be built in Australia, the first being the Yan Yean Dam north of Melbourne in 1859. It was a conventional nineteenth century clay cored earthfill dam, designed and built by Joseph Brady.
Prior to the establishment of water supply systems, Queensland residents were expected to make their own arrangements to supply water for themselves. There were a number of different methods used such as collecting rainwater (using the runoff from the roof of a house was popular), sinking a well in their gardens, using water reserves from local creeks or purchasing water from private suppliers.
Since separation from New South Wales in 1859, Queensland's European population grew rapidly, from 23,520 in 1859 to 30,059 in 1861 to over 250,000 by 1883. People were attracted to Queensland by the offers of free passage and gifts of land orders. With such rapid population growth the current methods of water supply were both impractical and inadequate to support and sustain the population. The population growth brought with it an expectation, particularly from immigrants to Queensland, that towns with populations in excess of three to four thousand people should be able to supply residents with a clean, reliable source of water. Prior to the building of Enoggera Dam, Brisbane's main source of water was a small and heavily polluted dam across Wheat Creek [602218], which flowed through the centre of the settlement.
In the early 1860s, Queensland's first governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, created municipal councils in the main Queensland towns to provide a foundation upon which the colony's political growth could be based. The municipal councils, realising that strong infrastructure was essential to future growth of the colony, began to investigate the best means of providing a permanent water supply to the Queensland population. Unlike the situation in Britain where private enterprises had traditionally provided infrastructure services such as water supplies, Queensland councils decided from the outset that either the council or publicly run boards would have responsibility of supplying water reticulation systems.
The Brisbane Municipal Council was the first Queensland council to commence proceedings in developing a reticulated water supply. They contracted a civil engineer, Thomas Oldman, to survey Brisbane's water supply in 1863. Oldman recommended schemes based on both the Brisbane River and Enoggera Creek, The Gap, however, the Council preferred Enoggera Creek and this was the option settled on. Another engineer, Joseph Brady, was responsible for the design and construction of Enoggera Dam.
The Gap was originally settled in 1859 by farmers attracted by water in Enoggera Creek and consisted mainly of farming land. The presence of a significant water supply in Enoggera Creek led to it being selected as the site of Brisbane's first major dam and thereby facilitating development in the area.
In 1865, other Queensland municipal councils, Ipswich, Warwick and Maryborough, began surveying water supplies for their areas and after the completion of the Enoggera Dam in 1866, these councils also went on to construct dams.
Construction of Enoggera Dam commenced in 1864 and was completed by 1866. The cost of construction was approximately £65,000, some £15,000 over the council's allocated budget but close to Brady's original estimate of £68,491. After the dam's completion a commemorative drinking fountain, the Walter Hill Fountain, was built in Brisbane Botanic Gardens [600067] to celebrate the arrival of clean drinking water to the city.
In 1867, the Board of Waterworks (later known as Brisbane Board of Water) constructed a cottage on the premises as accommodation for the clerk of the waterworks and later, in 1900, a workman's cottage was also built. Both cottages still exist along Waterworks Road and are still in use as accommodation.
The Enoggera Dam has two unusual features. Its method of drawing water is based on using three outlet pipes as opposed to the traditional one or two outlet pipes. This feature allowed the delivery potential of the dam to be trebled, protected the delivery pipes from damage from the weight of the water and also ensured that in an emergency the water flow could be easily and completely cut off. This arrangement was not in the original designs by Brady and appears to have added at a later date. None of the water supply systems built for the other Queensland councils in the same period appear to have this delivery system. The second unusual feature relates to the spillway, added in 1976. It has a flood mitigation system that incorporates an open culvert at the full water supply level to limit flows in the early part of a flood. This configuration provides an interval during which the peak flood flow from the unregulated downstream catchment can clear before the flood pondage of the reservoir fills and open ogee spillway of the dam begins to function.
The Enoggera Dam demonstrates technological changes over a significant period of time. Since its 19th century construction it has been modified a number of times, particularly after floods in 1870, 1887, 1931, 1967 and 1974. The original outlet work was constructed in masonry, a practice that was discontinued and replaced by concrete shortly after the dam's completion. Modifications were also made in 1908, 1912 and 1982 to improve water quality. Despite the changes, the dam structure remained in near original form until 1977 when major modifications were made to it. This included raising the height, constructing a new byewash and rebuilding the water delivery arrangements. These changes resulted in Enoggera Dam being reopened with a commemorative plaque noting that the new construction incorporated the original 1866 structure.
The Enoggera Dam is no longer the main water supply for Brisbane although it was used to supplement water supplies, albeit in a somewhat modified form, until it was decommissioned in 2003. However, due to prolonged drought conditions, the dam has recently been recommissioned. Of the dams constructed during this period, only Enoggera Dam remains as intact and operational. Only remnants of the dams constructed in Ipswich, Warwick and Maryborough remain. Enoggera Dam now forms part of the scenic Enoggera Reservoir.
","criteria":"The Enoggera Dam, constructed in 1866, is part of an early scheme of setting up water supply systems in key towns in Queensland. It is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland history following Queensland's separation from New South Wales in 1859 and recognising the need to build substantial water supply infrastructure to service its population and stimulate further growth in the region. The present structures clearly show the change in water storage and treatment technology from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. Only remnants remain of the other dams constructed during this era (Ipswich, Warwick, Maryborough). Enoggera Dam is the only one that remains intact and operational.
|The Enoggera Dam is important as the first major dam built in Queensland. It is rare as one of the few remaining examples in Queensland of an intact and functioning reservoir and treatment plant from this period in time.
|The Enoggera Dam is important in demonstrating the principles characteristics of a nineteenth century water storage facility including an earth embankment across the site to form a reservoir, gradients on the upper and lower sides of the embankment to prevent erosion, treatment plant with slow sand filters from 1912 and outlet works (the pipes used to draw and deliver water) constructed with masonry.
|The Enoggera Dam has aesthetic importance as a collection of visually striking and complementary structures including, the treatment plant, valve house, pump house, storage hut and cottages set against the backdrop of the man-made lake and surrounding bush, which are important scenic elements in this area of the Brisbane Forest Park.
|The Enoggera Dam is important in demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement in Queensland as an example of conventional nineteenth century clay cored earthfill dam with a flood mitigation function provided by twentieth century rock fill and concrete technology. The dam also demonstrates an unusual spillway arrangement, which incorporates a flood mitigation function, and an unusual method of drawing water based on using a combination of three outlet pipes to draw and deliver water as opposed to the traditional one or two outlet pipes.
|The Enoggera Dam has special association with Brisbane's early water supply authorities as it is an example of early major water supply infrastructure as commissioned and operated by the Brisbane Municipal Council, Brisbane Board of Waterworks and the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board. It is also associated with renowned engineer, Joseph Brady, one of Australia's earliest and most prominent engineers.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19581,"place_ref":602459,"name":"Toowong Memorial Park","alternate_name":"Toowong Cenotaph | Toowong Soldiers' Memorial","street_address":"65 Sylvan Road","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-09-04","description":"Toowong Memorial Park is an 8.99ha site bounded by Sylvan Road on the south, the Brisbane-Ipswich railway line on the east, Dixon Street on the north, and houses and Park Lane on the west.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nLandscape and layout
\nThe park is a well-maintained landscape of manicured grass with lightly wooded areas and open spaces. A high stony ridge runs through its centre, approximately from southeast to northwest and at its highest point and roughly central in the park stands the Soldiers Memorial. North of the ridge, the park is lightly wooded and slopes gently down to a flat area near Dixon Street. South of the ridge the ground falls more quickly down and is mostly open, accommodating two large grass football fields, a long stand of mature fig trees between fields and bordering Sylvan Road, a Memorial Gate on Sylvan Road, and two sections of a memorial avenue of palms.
\nMemorial Gates, Sylvan Road (in this location since 1959)
\nThe Memorial Gates comprise a pair of face brick piers with moulded caps and finials, supporting a set of decorative wrought iron gates.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nMemorial Avenue of Palms
\nThe Memorial Avenue of Palms comprises two disconnected stretches, one in its original location, and one removed and replanted (1993). The avenue begins at its original location opposite the intersection of Sylvan Road and Bennet Street and immediately curves west (away from its original north direction). This non-original stretch ends at the main vehicle entrance into the park from Sylvan Road. The short second stretch is original and is roughly central to the park and north of the avenue’s beginning. Both avenues comprise closely and evenly-spaced palms on both sides passing through a field of manicured grass. The end of the original avenue is at the base of the slope leading to the Soldiers Memorial.
\nRemnants of Memorial Avenue of Pines
\nThe Remnants of the Memorial Avenue of Pines is not well-defined and other trees and structures have been added to interrupt it. However, some semi-mature pines are in an early alignment on the northern slope running between Dixon Street and toward the Soldiers Memorial.
\nSoldiers Memorial
\nThe Soldiers Memorial is a 12m tall stone column on a 5.75m high square, stepped stone base surrounded by a low palisade enclosure. It stands in a large manicured grass area capable of accommodating memorial service crowds, which is encircled by palm trees.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nMature Fig Trees
\nThe Mature Fig Trees stand between the two sports fields of the southern flats.
\nFeatures of Toowong Memorial Park Not of State-Level Cultural Heritage Significance
\nFeatures of Toowong Memorial Park not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nToowong Park is an 8.99ha park formed on land resumed from private owners in 1914-5 and was allocated as a park in 1918 by Toowong Town Council. Memorial Gates and a Memorial Avenue of trees were added that year and following the dedication of the Toowong Soldiers' Memorial in the park in 1922, it became known as the Toowong Memorial Park. Since this time, Toowong Memorial Park has been important to the community as a central venue for Anzac Day ceremonies, organised and informal sports, and other recreational activities.
\nThe Toowong area (then known as West Milton), was surveyed and divided into several large estates in 1850. In its early days the Toowong area was an upper-middle class suburb, consisting of detached 'villas' on large allotments and made popular by its proximity to the central business district. The opening of the Brisbane to Indooroopilly railway line and Toowong station in 1875 triggered a period of rapid development and a large number of shops and houses were established for the increasing number of residents. In 1880 Toowong's first local authority was elected, the Toowong Divisional Board. However, on 30 May 1880 the area was regrouped and the Shire of Toowong was formed. By the end of the nineteenth century, a large amount of the land surrounding many of the early grand homes had been subdivided into estates. Following sustained growth, on the 19 August 1903, the area was declared the Town of Toowong under the provisions of the Local Authorities Act 1902, and the tram lines were extended to the Toowong Cemetery in the same year. In addition to many other achievements during its time, Toowong Town Council was successful in its focus on securing numerous land allotments for recreational use.
\nDespite the large number of subdivisions that occurred during the latter half of the 19th century, a map from 1895 shows the parcel of land bounded by Sylvan Road, Dixon Street and the railway line to retain large allotments. These allotments were resumed,[1] and on 7 September 1918, Toowong Town Council declared the land a park reserve, to be known as Toowong Park. When Toowong was amalgamated to become part of Greater Brisbane in 1925, management of the park passed to Brisbane City Council.
\nAustralia's involvement in the First World War exacted a heavy toll in death and injury. Of a relatively small population of about five million people, 60 000 service people were killed and 152 000 wounded. The outpouring of grief in Australia that accompanied these deaths, and the fact that the dead were buried overseas, led to a period of memorial building across the nation and residents of Toowong were quick to commemorate their soldiers by rededicating Toowong Park as Toowong Memorial Park and erecting a number of memorial features.
\nThe park's Memorial Gates were erected to mark both the official opening of the park on 7 September 1918, and to honour the more than 400[2] people from the local community who enlisted during the First World War. They were originally located closer to the centre of the Sylvan Road perimeter; and were moved to their current location near the southeast corner of the park in 1959. At the opening ceremony, nearly 350 trees were planted in the park to honour the soldiers.[3] Relatives of deceased soldiers were asked to plant a tree within the park in memory. Each tree had a plaque affixed and inscribed with the soldier’s name.[4] In September 1918, a commemorative avenue of palms was planted in the park running north from the intersection of Sylvan Road and Bennet Street. At the same time, an avenue of ‘Norfolk Island’ pines (Araucaria heterophylla; however, these may have been hoop pines, Araucaria cunninghamii) was planted from Dixon Street running south.[5] These would form north and south avenues to a planned central memorial.[6]
\nIn 1919 a competition was held to design a memorial for the park. It was won by a young Scottish draftsman, George Rae, who worked in the Brisbane office of renowned architect Lange Powell. The work on the memorial was carried out by Andrew L Petrie Monumental Works, who were the largest monumental masonry firm in Queensland at this time. The firm was also responsible for many other First World War memorials throughout Queensland. The memorial cost £700 and was financed by public fundraising.
\nThe new memorial was known as the Toowong Soldiers' Memorial and was located on a prominent hill within the park. It was unveiled by Governor Sir Matthew Nathan on 2 July 1922. Following the opening of the memorial, the park became known as Toowong Memorial Park. Recorded on marble tablets affixed to the memorial are the names of 101 residents of the Town of Toowong who were killed in in the First World War.[7] In April 1993, the Toowong sub-branch RSL dedicated another memorial cairn, located just inside the Memorial Gates on Sylvan Road, intended as the new location for Anzac Day ceremonies. In the same year, part of the Memorial Avenue of palms was relocated to allow completion of a second oval rugby union oval. The Memorial Avenue remains in this alignment, leading toward the RSL memorial from the car park entrance of the park with a small length in its original alignment near the centre of the park. On Anzac Day, processions continue to march along this avenue and gather at the new memorial for the Dawn Service.
\nThe park provides an open space for community activities, recreational pastimes and organised sport, a tradition which is continued today. In its early days, the park was the venue for the annual Sunday School picnics, and the Methodist inter-church children's sporting competitions. In 1919, Toowong Council celebrated the signing of the peace treaty at Versailles by throwing a picnic for the local children in the park. More recently, the park has also been home to local Girl Guide and Scout groups, and the former headquarters of both remain in the park.
\nOne of the earliest sporting facilities associated with the park was the Auchenflower Bowls Club, established on Bayliss Street in 1920. The club was sold in 2003 and demolished to make way for townhouses. Part of the land which protruded into the north-west perimeter of the park was resumed by Brisbane City Council. Originally known as the Toowong Rugby Club, the Western Districts Rugby Football Club, formed in 1960, is the only remaining sporting club to still use the park. Wests Junior Rugby Union Club was formed in 1966 and in 1968 a clubhouse was opened. In 1994 the first Women's team was formed. Sharing the grounds until 1999 was the Toowong Cricket Club, also originally established as a section of the Toowong Amateur Recreation Club in 1948. The Toowong Harriers, one of the oldest athletic clubs in Queensland also used the park during the early 1970s. The park is also home a basketball stadium (formerly known as the Vince Hickey Stadium) and neighbouring public half-court. The stadium was used to host the 1994 World Masters Games, and has also been a venue for the Australian Basketball Championships. It is still currently used for Brisbane Basketball League games. In 2017 a new large clubhouse and car park were built and the oval was reconfigured.
\nThe Toowong Memorial Park enjoys regular patronage from the Brisbane public for both sporting and recreational purposes and is utilised by the Toowong Returned and Services League to conduct remembrance ceremonies throughout the year.
War Memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state. They provide evidence of an era of widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism, particularly during and following the First World War. The Memorial Gates, Soldiers Memorial, and avenues of trees, created between 1918 and 1922, are important aspects of the park, demonstrating the theme of remembrance and establishing the layout of the park. They are representative of the process of grieving that was occurring across not only Toowong, but also Queensland and Australia at that time. After the First World War, Toowong Town Council, like most Queensland communities, erected a public memorial to honour local participation in the war.
\nToowong Memorial Park is also representative of the importance of sport and recreation in Queensland's history as demonstrated through the sporting ovals and Girl Guide and Scouts Huts.
|The memorial gates in Toowong Memorial Park are a type of commemorative structure uncommon in Queensland.
|A public park since 1918 and a memorial park since 1922, Toowong Memorial Park is important as an intact example demonstrating early twentieth century ideals and designs for the layout of such places. Elements within the park include sporting ovals and clubhouses, a Girl Guide hut and Scouts' hut, Memorial Gates, the Soldiers' Memorial and avenues of palm trees, avenues of pines, and native trees, which demonstrate the use of the park for recreational and memorial purposes.
\nThe Memorial Gates and Soldiers' Memorial are commemorative structures erected as a record of the local impact of a major historical event, and are good examples of their type. Memorial gates are also a less common type of commemorative structure.
\nThe Soldiers' Memorial is also a fine example of the early work of prize winning architect George Rae, who was only 21 years of age at the time, and the craftsmanship of the Brisbane masonry firm, AL Petrie and Son.
|Toowong Memorial Park is important for its aesthetic values as it provides a pleasant vista of open, green space in the otherwise densely populated Toowong landscape. The elements within the park are also important for their aesthetic qualities. The memorial gates provide a dignified entrance and display high quality workmanship and design. The Soldiers' Memorial's elevated position and craftsmanship, make a significant contribution to the park's aesthetic value. The abundance of trees, including mature figs and palms, interspersed with open sporting areas, provide for pleasing vistas within the park.
|Toowong Memorial Park is important as a community landmark, which has been continuously used by the people of Toowong for a variety of social, recreational and memorial functions since 2018. The park, memorial gates and Soldiers' Memorial were commissioned by the Toowong Town Council and are important as a place for remembering the participation and deaths of local Toowong residents in the First World War, and as evidence of the impact of a major historic event. Anzac Day dawn services are conducted at the Soldier’s Memorial each year. The Soldier’s Memorial is a place of quiet reflection surrounded by the trees planted by bereaved families. The avenues of palms are also significant for their commemorative function. The park has a long history of use by sporting groups, Girl Guide and Scout groups and strong, ongoing association with the local community, and its aesthetic contribution to the Toowong townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19582,"place_ref":602460,"name":"Dornoch Terrace Bridge","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Dornoch Terrace","suburb":"WEST END","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-10-01","description":"The Dornoch Terrace Bridge in Highgate Hill is a distinctive landmark, which is highly visible from both northern and southern approaches along Boundary Street. The northern view along Boundary Street undulates through corrugated iron roofed cottages and past local landmarks such as the Kurilpa Library clock tower [602461]. Looking south, the scene takes in the St Lucia reach of the Brisbane River and the suburbs beyond. Its arch spans the excavated Boundary Street, and Dornoch Terrace passes over it. The excavations are supported by concrete retaining walls, faced in fine stonework. Pedestrian access is via incorporated concrete staircases and ramps, and vehicular traffic access between the two streets is provided by a slip road.
Located at the highest point in Boundary Street, the bridge's arch terminates powerful axial views along West End's main thoroughfare. Looking south and upwards from the West End shopping area, the eye is led past the Kurilpa Library clocktower towards the bridge. From the south, the arch is also a prominent part of the streetscape.
The Dornoch Terrace roadway is supported by a painted concrete vault, generated by a basket-handle arch and sprung from concrete abutments on either side of Boundary Street. The abutments stand proud of the surrounding stone retaining walls and feature a plinth and impost painted in a contrasting green. The off-form striated finish of the vault's soffit is evident beneath the paintwork, whereas other parts of the bridge appear to be rendered and painted. The arch features an architrave painted in a contrasting green and crowned with a keystone. Above the spandrels, the bridge's solid concrete balustrade features a rendered stringcourse at pavement level and a simple concrete capping. The balustrades are terminated at each end by a pair of Brisbane Tuff piers, except at the eastern end of the southern balustrade which ends in a single stone pier. The balustrade and abutment walls of the bridge are frequent targets for graffiti attacks and bear evidence of many attempts to paint over them.
Retaining walls and bridge approaches
To facilitate pedestrian and vehicular movement between the two streets, a slip road and a series of staircases and ramps were integrated into the treatment of approaches to the bridge. Fine Brisbane Tuff walls taper out from the bridge, supporting surrounding houses.
The stonework to the retaining walls is generally Brisbane Tuff rubblework. The stones are hammer finished to effect a flat surface and carefully shaped and positioned, eliminating the use of infill pieces and effecting the random distribution of Brisbane Tuff colours. The pointing is generally proud of the stone face and shaped into smooth curves.
Western approach - Dornoch Terrace
The main feature of this approach is the narrow two-way slip road along the southern side. This is the only vehicular connection between Dornoch Terrace and Boundary Street
Near-vertical retaining walls rise from each side of the slip road. The wall rising to Dornoch Terrace is surmounted by concrete capping and a simple painted post and rail fence. The wall on the southern side incorporates openings to stairways to the properties above. A small section of this wall curves around into Boundary Street.
Southern approach - Boundary Street - eastern side
The retaining wall stepping down from the southern side of the bridge supports flights of stairs alternating with gentle ramps. The stonework is finished to the profile of the stairs and ramps and capped with concrete. The capping, in turn, supports a balustrade of solid concrete panels spanning between stonework piers. Like the piers on the bridge itself, these consist of Brisbane Tuff ashlaring with a bevelled capping piece.
The retaining wall between the stair and the adjoining property to the east comprises sections of brickwork and Brisbane Tuff ashlaring.
Northern approach - Boundary Street - eastern side
This embankment extends from the bridge down to outside 222 Boundary Street. It combines exposed rock faces, vegetation, dry masonry closest to the bridge, sections of fine stonework similar to that used on other embankments. Part of this stonework appears to have fallen away from the concrete retaining wall behind.
Northern approach - Boundary Street - western side
This embankment supports a pedestrian walkway from the bridge to the corner of Bristol Street. In an unusual arrangement, the stair at the bottom of this walkway passes below the awning of what appears to be a former corner shop. The path, supported on a stonework retaining wall, then ramps up to a dog-leg. Here the retaining wall rakes down to form a low wall in front of a vegetated rock face, before raking up again to meet the bridge. The dog-leg in the path takes it behind this overgrown embankment and connects it with the footpath on Dornoch Terrace. A simple painted timber handrail follows the top of the retaining wall.
","history":"The Dornoch Terrace Bridge was built in 1941 by the Brisbane City Council. It provides a vehicular and pedestrian thoroughfare down Dornoch Terrace towards the Brisbane River. Built as an overpass across Boundary Street, the bridge allows access to the road below by a series of staircases and a slip road.
The Bridge is a prominent landmark in the West End and Highgate Hill area and reflects the period when Boundary Street was regraded as part of an ambitious scheme to connect West End to the new University of Queensland campus at St Lucia. The excavations are supported by concrete retaining walls, faced in fine stonework, creating dramatic approaches to the bridge and incorporating connecting staircases and a slip road between the two streets. The Dornoch Terrace Bridge and associated retaining walls survive as the only visible evidence of this ambitious scheme.
Highgate Hill was first settled by Europeans in 1856. The first European settler in this area was Mr. Trimble, an officer at the Customs House. He was followed by many new settlers, including the Wilson family, famed for naming the area 'Highgate Hill'. Prior to European settlement of this area there was a track along the present Dornoch Terrace through to the present Gladstone Road and through to Annerley. In the mid 1800s Dornoch Terrace was known as 'The Broad Road', and ran atop the area we now know as Highgate Hill.
Initially a farming area, by 1889, the area around Dornoch Terrace became increasingly built up and populated. A reservoir was built on the corner of Dornoch Terrace and Gladstone Road to service the growing population. Not long after this much of the land surrounding Dornoch Terrace was subdivided into various estates.
The increase in urban population in the Highgate Hill area can be partly attributed to the rapid growth of industry in the West End area, especially along the river. Initially the main industry in this area was timber. Once the area had been cleared of timber, factories were subsequently constructed in the late 1800s and early 1900s, many along the river and on Montague Road (well below the high hill of Dornoch Terrace). A variety of industries were established and included a gas works [QHR 600342], a concrete pipes works, a soft drink factory, a boot factory, glass works and an ice-cream plant.
The introduction of a public transport system to service the Highgate Hill area began with the Soden omnibus service in 1878. This ran from the city centre, across the river and up to Dornoch Terrace, from there it would travel to Ipswich Road. Electric trams were introduced to Brisbane in the early 1900s, and by 1908 Highgate Hill could be reached by this service. The electric trams travelled all the way up Hardgrave Road and down to the Hill End ferry. There was also a tram service that travelled up Boundary Street, this however, ceased well below the summit of Dornoch Terrace. The bridge was never used for trams. Tram services ceased in 1969.
Several large houses were built along Dornoch Terrace at this time, including 'Torbreck' (now the Torbreck apartment building [QHR 601256]) and 'Kinauld' [QHR 600225], designed by Architect Alexander. B. Wilson and built in 1888. The building of these prestigious houses signifies the growth and increased wealth of the Highgate Hill area, in particularly along Dornoch Terrace.
There were two prior bridges known to span Boundary Street. A map of 1895 reveals that an 'over bridge' was in existence and in December 1888, the South Brisbane Municipal Council approved a tender by the firm of Walters and Cooper to construct a bridge at this intersection. This late 1880s bridge existed until the current bridge replaced it in 1941. This earlier bridge was known to locals as the 'Black Bridge' due to wet tar falling from wagons carrying felled timber. The ends of the timber were washed with tar, and on the journey across the bridge the tar would drip onto the road and subsequently be splashed onto the bridge railings.
In 1909 the University of Queensland was formed, and was initially accommodated in Old Government House [QHR 60018] at Gardens Point. However, in 1926, Dr James O'Neil Mayne and Miss Mary Emilia Mayne donated £50,000 to the Brisbane City Council to resume land at St Lucia and this was to become the new site of the University.
Due to the Depression there was no prospect of building the new university until 1935 when the Premier, W. Forgan Smith, announced that the Queensland government would undertake construction at St Lucia. Part of this construction was the proposal to build a bridge over the Brisbane River from West End to St. Lucia.
Building a bridge over the Brisbane River involved developing a suitable approach from the city to the proposed bridge included the resumption of land and excavation along Boundary Street. Drawings for a new bridge carrying Dornoch Terrace over Boundary Street, and associated retaining walls, were prepared between 1939 and 1941 and the works were carried out by the Brisbane City Council. The University of Queensland development was suspended during the Second World War, the St. Lucia Bridge project was subsequently postponed. When work resumed after the War, the University building program was revised and downsized due to inflated building costs. The bridge connecting West End to St. Lucia never eventuated; however, in 1941 the Dornoch Terrace Bridge was built.
The building of the Dornoch Terrace Bridge was achieved with no major hurdles. The bridge was designed to sit somewhat lower in elevation to the original 'Black Bridge'. This was due to the side accesses running down the bridge onto Boundary Street below. It was also to attain a comfortable slope down Dornoch Terrace towards Hill End. During the construction of the bridge the embankments were dug away, what was removed was then reused in the Victoria Park embankment on Bowen Bridge Road.
Today the Dornoch Terrace Bridge receives a great deal of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, both over and under. It provides an easy pedestrian thoroughfare to the West End shops on Boundary Street, vehicular and pedestrian access to the restaurants at Hill End, and ease of access to the houses and apartments for Highgate Hill residents.
","criteria":"As a prominent landmark in the district, the scale, texture and colour of the walls have considerable visual impact on Boundary Street, Dornoch Terrace and the surrounding streets. The bridge provides attractive views from Dornoch Terrace and is itself an important scenic element.
|Consisting of substantial stone retaining walls, supporting pedestrian and vehicular paths and associated residential development, Dornoch Terrace Bridge is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places as it displays uncommonness in bridge design in Queensland as well as being an important community facility in the past and the present.
|The Dornoch Terrace Bridge is part of a substantial road expansion / infrastructure project undertaken by the Brisbane City Council and is evidence of the 1930s proposal to connect West End and the University of Queensland at St Lucia. It is important as an indication of a phase in Queensland's history when the value of education, and providing suitable academic institutions, was beginning to be recognised.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion E | Criterion D | Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19583,"place_ref":602461,"name":"Kurilpa Library","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"178 Boundary Road","suburb":"WEST END","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-02-05","description":"Kurilpa Library is sited on Boundary Street, close to the intersection with Vulture Street and the commercial centre of West End.
It is a two-storey brick building with a central clock tower that also contains a peal of bells. It is neo Georgian in style, symmetrical in form and with classical references. The ground floor is higher than the first and rests on a rendered course contributing to the visual solidity of the base of the building. The openings on the ground floor are all of arched brickwork with moulded keystones. The main entrance has a pair of timber doors with a fanlight above and a prominent keystone.
The division between levels is emphasised by a moulded stringcourse and cornice. This carries the wording 'KURILPA LIBRARY' above the entry in bronze lettering. Otherwise it consists of alternating moulded rectangles separated by circles.
The tower continues above the entry with plain pilasters supporting a moulded classical pediment with a dentilled cornice, and flanking another arched opening with a moulded keystone. The windows to each side of the tower on the first floor are square headed, as are those on the sides. Above them the eaves of the terracotta tiled hipped roof are decorated with a supporting row of brackets. The tower penetrates the roof form and continues up to a third storey. On each face it has a recessed arch with a hood mould containing a clock with Roman numerals above two smaller arches of fixed louvers. Plain pilasters run to either side of recesses from a heavily moulded base to a crisp cornice line. The copper dome has a small cast finial.
Inside, the small entrance lobby contains a bronze honour board on the right hand side. It opens onto a high-ceilinged room that occupies the whole of the original ground area and contains the library. To the rear of this is a narrow room created by the enclosure of the verandahs, which contains library support facilities. The upper floor has a large room used for meetings and two small offices. There is a tearoom to the rear in the enclosed verandah space. The clock tower is reached by an access hatch and contains a full peal of bells as well as the clock.
The front fence is designed to match the building, having pillars with moulded tops incorporating rosettes. The base of the fence is brick with a capping mould above, which is an iron railing of crosspieces with central circles similar to that of the entry balustrade. A low hedge is situated between the building and the fence.
The land behind the building is enclosed and contains a landscaped area directly behind the building and small car park.
","history":"The Kurilpa Library is a two-storey brick building with a projecting central clock tower and addresses the main street in the inner Brisbane suburb of West End. It was constructed by the Brisbane City Council and opened in 1929.
The provision of libraries by municipal councils in Queensland is a relatively new phenomenon, with most libraries currently operating having been established since the late 1940s. Previously, Schools of Arts and privately owned Reading Rooms provided books for loan by subscription. Schools of Arts or Mechanics Institutes were established in Britain in the early 1800s with the declared intention of assisting self-improvement and promoting moral, social and intellectual growth, by providing lectures, classes and lending libraries to a rising middle class. At the time there were no public libraries and books were expensive, so that providing access to them for a moderate subscription was an important educational and recreational service. Local councils had sometimes subsidised Schools of Arts and were granted authority in the Local Government Act 1878 to establish and operate libraries, although this was very uncommon until the twentieth century. Kurilpa Library was the first publicly funded municipal library in Queensland and a similar library was opened in South Brisbane soon afterwards. However, local councils did not become seriously involved in the construction of libraries in Queensland until after the Libraries Act 1943 was passed which provided for the establishment of a State Library Board and the improvement of library services throughout the state.
South Brisbane was at one time a municipality in its own right, but was amalgamated, together with the other local government authorities of the Brisbane area, into the Brisbane City Council in 1925. The South Brisbane Council urgently requested that its scheme for building a library at West End be progressed. They had been approached by the committee of the West End School of Arts for £2,000 in order to erect a new library with accommodation for a caretaker. Ernest Barstow, Alderman for Kurilpa, supported this request and the City Architect was requested to prepare plans and estimates.
Kurilpa was the name given to a locality covering South Brisbane, West End and Hill End by local aborigines. European settlers borrowed this name for a small township that grew up within West End, near the existing library and this name is inscribed on the library building.
The City Architect was A H Foster who served in this position from 1925 until his death in 1932. Alfred Herbert Foster was an articled pupil of noted architect G H M Addison. He trained and worked in London for six years before returning to Brisbane and forming the practice of Stanley and Foster in 1902. He worked for the Queensland Government, and then became Architectural Assistant to the City Engineer in 1913. During his time as City Architect he designed several well-known municipal buildings including the Fortitude Valley Baths.
The building was completed in 1929 and was the first purpose built municipal library in Queensland. The clock and tower formed a distinctive part of the building, emphasising its civic nature.
The construction of the library helped to reinforce and define the commercial and civic centre of West End.
The building is still in use as a library and the upper level rooms are used for meetings. Little change has occurred other than the enclosure of the rear verandah to both floors in late 1959.
","criteria":"The Kurilpa Library is important in demonstrating the development of public lending libraries in Queensland. Purpose built by the Brisbane City Council in 1929 before the Libraries Act of 1943 and the establishment of the State Library Board, it illustrates a transition between 19th century subscription services, such as that provided by Schools of Arts, and the modern library network. The quality of the building and its prominent position illustrate the importance given to encouraging literacy and to reading as a recreation in the early 20th century
It is important for its association with the development of the West End district, and is evidence for the provision of civic amenities in response to its growth in the early 20th century.
|The Kurilpa Library has strong social significance to the community of West End and the surrounding area as a public lending library and meeting place for over eighty years.
|The Kurilpa Library is rare as the first municipal lending library in Queensland.
|The Kurilpa Library has aesthetic value as a handsome and well-composed public building in the neo-Georgian style. Its clock tower and prominent position on a major road contribute to its landmark qualities.
|The Kurilpa Library is important for its association with the life and work of A H Foster, Brisbane city architect between 1925 and 1932.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion G | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19584,"place_ref":602462,"name":"Yeronga Memorial Park","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Ipswich Road","suburb":"YERONGA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-12-02","description":"Yeronga Memorial Park is bounded by Ipswich Road to the east, Villa Street to the north, Park Road to the west, and School Road to the south. A road, formerly Frederick Street, enters the park from the north, providing access to car parking for the Bridge Club and Croquet Club. Honour Avenue, which is bitumened, crosses the northern part of the park, with vehicle access from the Park Road end only. Weeping figs (Ficus benjamina) are planted symmetrically, several metres from the kerb. Honour Avenue effectively divides the park into two zones: the sports facilities established in the early twentieth century are situated to the north of Honour Avenue, and the native woodland and late twentieth century sports facilities are situated to the south of Honour Avenue.
At the western end of Honour Avenue are the memorial gates at Park Road. These consist of two pairs of red brick piers with smooth rendered corners. They stand on rough rendered plinths, and are topped by projecting cornices crowned by globes. The two inner piers support vehicle gates, and there are also iron pedestrian gates on each side of Honour Avenue. A metal plaque on the southern inner pier reads: These gates have been erected by the residents of Yeronga and District as a permanent memorial to those men and women of the suburb who served in the Great War 1914-1919. The plaque (1979) on the northern inner pier reads: This plaque has been dedicated as a memorial to those men and women of the district who served in World War II 1939-1945 and Malaya, Borneo, Vietnam 1948-1973.
The Ipswich Road memorial gates, where Honour Avenue used to link with Ipswich Road, are more ornate, with the inner two piers being taller, and have smaller engaged piers facing towards the pedestrian piers. Each of the four main piers stands on a smooth rendered plinth. Low brick walls form a small enclosure on the park side of each pedestrian entrance, and there is a wooden fence leading to the gates from the footpath, north and south of the piers. On each face underneath the cornices is a decorative band of render inset with a green glazed tile displaying a floral pattern. The northern plaque reads: These gates were erected by the women of Stephens Shire in honour of the men who fought for them. The southern plaque reads: This tablet is dedicated to the women workers of Stephens Shire.
The World War One memorial pavilion stands on the southern edge of the rough-formed carpark of the ex-bowling clubhouse, near a palm-lined pedestrian path running diagonally from Honour Avenue to Ipswich Road. The square pavilion is rendered in concrete. The corner pilasters with ornamental capitals carry a thin encircling entablature, with a heavy projecting cornice above. A low parapet conceals a gutter for the domed roof. Standing on a plinth of concrete steps, each of the four arched entrances contains a decorative iron gate and fence. The pavilion shelters a square, polished stone pillar on a rough sandstone plinth. Marble tablets on each side of the stone pillar record the names of the dead from Stephens Shire, in World War One. A plaque also notes: July 1921- Erected by the residents of Stephens Shire and District in appreciation of our boys who sacrificed their lives in the Great War 1914-1919. A small sandstone flaming urn crowns the pillar. A World War Two memorial stone stands to the west of the pavilion.
To the north of Honour Avenue are a number of other significant facilities within the park. From west to east, these include: a Scout hall; three tennis courts; a Girl Guides hall; the site of old tennis courts on a grassy terrace near Frederick Street; and two unused interwar bowling greens, set at different levels. A brick shed stands to the south of the upper bowling green.
The Scout hall is low set, long and rectangular, with narrow vertical timber boards for most of the building, and weatherboards around the wider eastern section. It has a galvanised iron roof, and double-hopper windows. The Girl Guides hall has an early (possibly 1940s) weatherboard, skillion-roofed section with a later concrete block extension.
Several croquet greens and a croquet clubhouse occupy the north-east corner of the park. The weatherboard clubhouse of the Stephens Croquet Club is a small rectangular building with a gambrel roof clad with corrugated iron. It stands on concrete stumps. The roof ridge has an orbed finial at each end, above small gablets which ventilate the roof space. A small projecting pediment marks the main entrance, which faces north over the lawns. The building has early multi-paned windows.
A large in-ground draughtsboard stands between the ex- Bowling Club and Honour Avenue, and an arris rail fence runs north from the memorial gates along Ipswich Road. A shale stone retaining wall runs along Ipswich Road, forming an embankment terrace running south from the memorial gates. A cricket oval lies south-west of the rugby field, and the timber Country Women's Association (CWA) rooms face School Road on the southern edge of the park, between the old Yeronga Fire Station and the Yeronga Park Kindergarten and Preschool Association. The CWA building is a modest timber cottage, supported on low concrete stumps and sheltered by a hip roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting. Between the Swimming Pool Complex and Honour Avenue is a third cricket oval.
Located in the naturalistic bushland landscape of the southwest corner of the park, the Swimming Pool complex includes a masonry slab-on-ground, change rooms and kiosk building, one Olympic size swimming pool, two small wading pools, a 25m heated swimming pool and a small masonry swim club building. The wading pools are sheltered by shade structure and there is a scattering of poolside chairs and tables around the concourse. The pool complex is fenced and entry is from School Road. A bitumen carpark stands adjacent to Yeronga State School.
The mature trees featured around the park include the area of eucalyptus woodland near the swimming pools, and the plantings associated with the park's memorial role. These include the weeping figs planted along Honour Avenue, of which those in the centre of the park are the best examples. Other mature figs are planted along Ipswich Road and School Road. There are Canary Island date palms along the path near the memorial pavilion, and also along the northern boundary of the bowling and croquet greens. A large double-row, alternately queen palms and Chinese fan palms, curves from Ipswich Road, behind the rugby grounds, to School Road, and a line of queen palms runs across the northern boundary of the park. There are some queen palms planted along the eastern side of Frederick Street, which extends into the park, and a small double row of palms cuts from Frederick Street diagonally to Honour Avenue. Some palms also run down Park Road in front of the Scout hall. Two mango trees stand near the old tennis court terrace, there are cypress trees planted on three sides of the functioning tennis courts, and assorted specimen and memorial trees grow on the east lawn between the memorial pavilion and the Ipswich Road memorial gates. A large tallow wood eucalyptus stands near the entry to the rugby ground carpark.
Informative Note
The current clubhouse of the Southern Districts Rugby Union Club, the former bowling clubhouse, the cricket pavilion, the modern tennis courts and tennis clubhouse, the Girl Guides clubhouse and the toilet block south of the Honour Avenue are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Yeronga Memorial Park, bounded by Ipswich Road to the east, Villa Street to the north, Park Road to the west, and School Road to the south, was declared as a reserve for a Public Park and Recreation Ground in 1882. Its evolution has reflected the development of Yeronga and a number of important themes and events in Queensland's history.
Before European settlement the area was utilised by Aborigines of the Coorparoo or Yerongpan clans of the Yaggara Tribe, and this use continued for some time after the establishment of a convict settlement in Brisbane in 1824. The area was first used by the Europeans to depasture sheep from the Government Farm at Oxley. Development of the Darling Downs made the Ipswich Road the main route to the interior, and the initial rough track was surveyed in the 1860s. The first sales of Crown land in the Yeronga area, involving 154 acres, had taken place in 1854. Land use in the area moved towards dairying and crops, including arrowroot, cotton, sugar, corn and potatoes. In 1879 the Yeerongpilly Divisional Board was established, extending from Brisbane to the Logan River and from Mount Gravatt to Goodna. In 1886 the Stephens Division (about nine square miles, and including Yeronga) was formed, becoming the Stephens Shire in 1903.
The first major boost to development around Yeronga occurred when the South Brisbane to Corinda railway link was opened in 1884. The railway link initiated Yeronga's popularity as a residential suburb. By 1887 the Stephens Division had a population of 3480, and by the 1890s Yeronga had become popular with the elite, with grand homes intermingling with farming estates and small subdivisions. The second main phase of development at Yeronga was again transport-related; it began after the Ipswich Road tramline reached Yeronga Park in 1915.
Yeronga Memorial Park is one of the oldest parks in Brisbane. In 1882 103 acres and three roods (41.9 hectares), of portions 153A, 154A, and 155A Parish of Yeerongpilly, County of Stanley, was declared a reserve for a Public Park and Recreation Ground. In 1888 102 acres, three roods and 62 perches were declared a permanent reserve under the Stephens Divisional Board, and areas of the current park were cleared. Remaining native vegetation suggests that the reserve was originally open eucalypt forest. However, the extent of the reserve has been reduced over time by excisions. Part of portion 155A was lost in 1888 to the South Coast Railway and a water reserve. In 1902 and 1912 some parts of 155A were given over to Villa Street, and in 1919 part of the school reserve was added to the park to form Honour Avenue, while some land was lost to a repositioning of the railway line. In 1921 part of portion 155A was reserved for showground purposes, but it was returned to the park in 1925. In 1930 some land from portion 153A was excised for the erection of the Yeronga Fire Station (1934), and in 1931 land from 153A was added to the school reserve for the construction of a sports oval. In 1950 a part of 153A facing School Road was excised for the Yeronga Kindergarten and Pre-School, and in 1953 the remainder of 155A was removed, later being occupied by Yeronga High School (1960) and the Yeronga Technical College (1967). In 1975 another part of 153A facing School Road was excised for a Meals on Wheels Depot, and the current park covers 22.46 hectares.
One of the most historically significant aspects of Yeronga Park is its World War One memorial role, which was developed between 1917 and 1921. Circa 1917, a road was constructed through the park, aligned east to southwest, from Park Road to Ipswich Road. Between 1917 and 1919 a total of 96 weeping figs and flame trees were planted either side of this road, forming Honour Avenue. Each tree was accompanied by a metal shield, which bore the name of a soldier by the Stephens Shire who would not be returning, set on a timber post. Having a named avenue of memorial trees within a park is uncommon in Queensland. The memorial avenue is one of the earliest of its type in Australia. KS Inglis, author of "Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape" (1998) identifies the earliest World War One avenue of honour as being established in Victoria in 1917, which is contemporaneous with the Yeronga Park memorial avenue.
A memorial pavilion and two sets of memorial gates to the park were built in 1921. The gates stand at each end of Honour Avenue, and although the pavilion is offset to the north-east of the avenue, it is still linked to the other memorial elements by a palm-lined footpath that runs diagonally from Honour Avenue to Ipswich Road. The domed pavilion form of war memorial is uncommon. The dedication on the southern inner pier of the Ipswich Road Gates, to the women workers of Stephens Shire, is also unusual in Queensland.
The outpouring of grief in Australia that accompanied the deaths of 60,000 servicepeople in World War One, and the fact that the dead were buried overseas, led to a period of memorial-building across the nation. Of the 559 residents of the Stephens Shire that had enlisted in World War One, the names of 97 are carved into the marble tablets fixed onto a stone in the centre of the memorial pavilion. Although the original shields set on posts by the trees have long since disappeared, they have been replaced by name plates set into concrete at the base of the trees, or on the path along Honour Avenue. Given the attrition rate on the original trees along the avenue, other trees in the park, near the Ipswich Road gates, have received plaques. The old-style plaque and post arrangement can be seen under a mango tree in front of the Country Women's Association Rooms on School Road, dedicated to Private T. Markey. In 1979 the memorial gates at Park Road received a plaque dedicated to the soldiers of later wars.
Following the formation of Greater Brisbane in 1925, the administration of Yeronga Park passed to the Brisbane City Council.
During World War Two Yeronga Park was occupied by a number of American military units. A 1946 aerial photograph shows an extensive network of huts, which had been erected in the park to accommodate these troops. Little physical evidence of this occupation survives within the park. Part of the existing Girl Guides hall at the northern end of the park may date to this period. To the west of the memorial pavilion the American Legion has erected a memorial stone, commemorating the World War Two occupation of the park by the United States' military forces.
Apart from its role as a memorial park and as "Camp Yeronga" in World War Two, Yeronga Park has also been an active recreation venue for most of its history, and various clubs have leased sections of the park. The Yeronga Tennis Club was formed in 1909, and still occupies the three courts near Villa Street. Four other early courts on a terrace near the bowling club have reverted to grass. The Queensland Blind Cricket Association erected a timber hall in the north of the park in the 1920s, and the Stephens Croquet Club was formed in 1923. In the same year the Croquet Club built a wooden clubhouse in the north-east of the park. The Annerley Bowls Club operated in the park from 1927 to 1992, and its modern two-storied brick clubhouse, to the west of the croquet club, is now used by the Brisbane Bridge Centre. There is also a brick shed, which was extended in the 1950s, standing to the south of the upper bowling green. In 1936 a large in-ground draughtsboard was built to the southwest of the World War One memorial pavilion, and this was resurfaced in 2003. The Yeronga Park shale stone wall, which runs south along Ipswich Road from the memorial gates appears to have been the result of a Depression works project in the mid 1930s.
The Yeronga Park Memorial Swimming Pool Complex was built in the southwest of the park between 1960 and 1964, with an Olympic pool and two wading pools, and a heated pool was added by 1972. Designed by architects Bligh Jessup Brentnall and Partners, the pool complex is a type of war memorial that was favoured after World War Two. Utilitarian structures such as swimming pools and hospitals were considered to be a more appropriate gesture of remembrance than purely monumental structures. In 1970 the Southern Districts Rugby Football Club took out a lease in the park. Their current clubhouse was built in 1986.
Non-sports organisations have also staked their claim on park land. The Kurilpa Scouts occupy the Baden Powell Memorial Hall, and the Yeronga Girl Guides occupy a building further east along Villa Street. The Yeronga Boy Scouts, who occupied the scout hall until 2003, was established in 1921. There was a smaller building present in a 1946 aerial photograph, but it was aligned parallel to Park Road. The current hall is drawn in its present position and configuration on a 1951 map. The Annerley Girl Guides was formed in 1934, and their current timber hall may be a relic of the World War Two military occupation of the park, with a 1950s concrete block extension. The Queensland Country Women's Association established a headquarters on the School Road side of the park in 1952. Three organisations also built on land that was excised from the park, as mentioned earlier: the Yeronga Fire Station, the Yeronga Park Kindergarten and Preschool Association, and Meals on Wheels.
Some features of the park have disappeared over time, and these include the small huts, with white or grey mineral siding, built in World War Two for the United States' military. Various older sports clubhouses have also been replaced or removed over time. There was a small clubhouse next to the tennis courts by 1946, but the current concrete block clubhouse was built between 1964 and 1972. The concrete block clubhouse of the Queensland Blind Cricket Association was built in the 1950s, with a later extension to the west. A small shed due east of this clubhouse has been removed since the 1980s. The original interwar timber two-storied Annerley Bowls Club clubhouse was replaced with the current brick two-storied clubhouse before 1972. There also appears to have been an octagonal shelter in the north-east corner of the current Rugby field, until the 1970s. This area had long been used for Sunday School picnics, which usually occurred on the Eight Hour Day holiday in May. A brick pavilion to the west of the South's Rugby Clubrooms, visible in aerial photographs from 1960 onwards, has been demolished recently. Honour Avenue has lost a number of its original trees, and the most easterly section of bitumen and kerbing, near the Ipswich Road Gates, has been removed. The most intact section of the avenue of trees lies adjacent to the central cricket oval.
","criteria":"Yeronga Memorial Park is important in demonstrating part of the pattern of Queensland's history, being a recreation reserve established in 1882, and later a memorial park from 1917. Within the layout, structures, buildings, plantings and activities pursued in the park are illustrated several important themes and events in Queensland's history. These historical layers include: sporting activities since the 1880s, including Queensland Blind Cricket, bowls and croquet since the 1920s; Boy Scouts and Girl Guides activities; a World War One and World War Two memorial function; and providing a Depression-era work opportunity in the construction of the stone wall along Ipswich Road.
|The memorial avenue lined with trees, memorial gates, and memorial pavilion, created between 1917 and 1921, are key aspects of the park, both historically and in establishing the current layout of the park. They demonstrate the process of grieving that was occurring across Stephens Shire (1903 to 1925), Queensland and Australia at that time. After World War One, most Queensland communities erected a public memorial to honour local participation in the war, and each monument is a unique historical documentary record. The honour avenue is one of the earliest World War One memorial avenues established in Australia. The domed memorial pavilion is an uncommon form of war memorial in Queensland. The dedication on the Ipswich Road memorial gates, to the women workers of Stephens Shire, is an unusual public recognition of women's role in World War One.
|Yeronga Memorial Park is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type: a public park since 1882 and a war memorial since 1917. Much of the 1917 layout of the park survives. Elements within the park that are important in demonstrating the use of the park for these purposes include: the tennis courts and surrounding cypress trees; the croquet clubroom and lawn (1923); a pedestrian path lined by palms (pre-1946); the bowls club lawns (1927); the in-ground draughtsboard (1936); the memorial pavilion (1921); the World War Two memorial stone north of Honour Avenue which is formed by a memorial avenue of trees (1917-1919); the memorial gates (1921). To the south of Honour Avenue, lies the CWA hall (1952), the Memorial Swimming Pool Complex (1960-1964); the shale stone retaining wall along Ipswich Road (1930s); a curved palm avenue (pre-1946) and indigenous vegetation (primarily eucalypts).
Individual features of the park are also good examples of their type, such as the timber Croquet clubroom and lawn, the bowling greens, the memorial gates, the memorial pavilion, and the Memorial Swimming Pool Complex.
|Yeronga Memorial Park is significant for its aesthetic values. Contributing to this value are the substantial and imposing memorial gates at both entrances that provide a fitting and dignified entrance to Honour Avenue and the memorial pavilion. The shale stone wall, running south from the Ipswich Road gates towards the former Yeronga Fire Station, is a picturesque feature. The abundance of trees in the park, interspersed with open sporting areas, provide for pleasing vistas within the park, especially between the croquet club and the tennis courts, and across the central cricket oval. The croquet clubroom and the brick structure near the upper bowling green, also contribute to its aesthetic quality. The park also contributes to the streetscape along Ipswich Road at Yeronga/Annerley.
The mature trees that enhance the picturesque aspect of the park include: the surviving memorial fig trees along Honour Avenue; those planted in the eastern memorial lawn; the memorial palms in numerous locations within the park; the cypress trees around the tennis courts; the mango trees near the old tennis court site; the fig trees along Ipswich Road and School Road; and the eucalyptus woodland near the swimming pools.
|Given the role of the park as a memorial to the war dead of the Stephens Shire, its long history of use by sporting groups, and its presence as a landmark on Ipswich Road, Yeronga Park has a strong and ongoing association with the local community and is of social significance.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19587,"place_ref":602465,"name":"Commonwealth Acetate of Lime Factory (former)","alternate_name":"HMAS Moreton, Colmslie | Hans Continental Smallgoods Factory | Fairmile Naval Base | Colmslie Migrant Hostel","street_address":"82 Colmslie Road","suburb":"MORNINGSIDE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-12-07","description":"The former Acetate of Lime Factory, now a part of the Hans Continental Smallgoods factory, is accessed from Colmslie Road. A large modern factory building occupies most of the southern part of the site. The original factory buildings are further north, and are stepped down the north face of the slope towards the Brisbane River. Elements of the Acetate of Lime Factory that still exist on the eastern side of the internal roadway include: the Lime Slacking Store and the Lime Slacking House; the Excise Office, Fertilizer House and Painters' Shop building; the Evaporator House and Alcohol Still House; the Engine Room; the Boiler House and Chimney; and a small latrine block. To the west of the internal road are: the ground floor of the Acidifier House; the Winch House, and the Engineers' Office and Fitters' Shop. To the north of the Engineers' Office and Fitters' shop are two huts that were introduced as extra migrant accommodation.
The Lime Slacking Store is an L-shaped single-storey building, built of brick with a hipped roof clad in corrugated iron. It has been converted into a cold room. Some of the double-hung sash windows have been bricked over, while others have been painted over. A brick-lined gutter runs along the ground on the south side of the building. Just north of the store is the small, brick Lime Slacking House, which is visually obscured by a modern metal-clad extension to the south of the Alcohol Still House. Just to the west of the Lime Slacking Store is the T-shaped single storey timber Excise Office, Fertilizer House and Painters' Shop building, which is clad in weatherboards and has a hipped roof clad in corrugated iron. Between the Excise Office, Fertilizer House and Painters' Shop building and the Evaporator House is a concrete retaining wall.
Further north, the Evaporator House/Alcohol Still House, Engine Room, and Boiler House are staggered down the hill towards the chimney, each constructed of English Bond red bricks. Although they are adjoined externally, they do not have an internal thoroughfare.
The interior of the two storey Evaporator House and Alcohol Still House has been refurbished for use as offices, with a mezzanine level at the eastern end of the first floor. The original timber roof trusses survive above the office cubicles, there are small vents two thirds up the walls at regular intervals, and the ends of metal bolts can also be seen, ground-off flush with the brickwork. There is an outside stairway to the mezzanine level on the east face of the building, and there is a concrete ramp to the first floor entrance near the western end. Dormer windows have been added to the corrugated iron roof above the mezzanine floor.
A modern kitchen extension, of Stretcher Bond brick, protrudes north from the mezzanine level of the Evaporator House, and a modern flat-roofed shed adjoins the north side of the Alcohol Still House. There is also a modern flat-roofed extension to the south of the Alcohol Still House, clad in metal sheeting. East of the Alcohol Still House is a small brick latrine, with bull nosed corners, that is now used for chemical storage.
The Engine Room is used as a cold store, and the Boiler House is used as a storeroom. A modern cold-store extension conceals most of the lower floor of the Engine Room and Boiler House on the eastern side. The chimney has a steel ring encircling its summit, and it has a steel door on its lower north side, which was opened by swinging it completely away along a steel track.
To the west of the internal road is the remaining floor of the Acidifier House, which appears to have been substantially modified, with modern cladding. To the north is the Engineers' Office and Fitters' shop, made with Stretcher Bond brick, of one-storey with a mezzanine floor. To its north is a skillion-roofed timber extension. Just to the east of the fitter's shop is the Winch House, also of Stretcher Bond brick. It is open on one side, and has an extended roof that serves as an entrance porch for the Fitters' shop.
Two one-story wooden barracks stand to the north of the Engineers' Office and Fitters' shop. Raised on timber stumps, each is clad in weatherboards, with a skillion roof of galvanised iron, and timber-lined eaves. Each has six doors on the southern side. The southernmost hut has six windows on the northern side, but the northernmost hut has a sliding steel door in place of one of its windows.
Any post 1970 structures and extensions on the site are not significant, nor are the post 1970 internal modifications to the factory buildings significant. The surviving ground floor of the Acidifier House is no longer significant.
","history":"The former Commonwealth Acetate of Lime Factory at Colmslie consists of a number of brick and timber buildings built between 1917 and 1920. Two timber demountable blocks were added as migrant accommodation c.1949. Since the early 1970s most of the site has been occupied by Hans Continental Smallgoods Pty Ltd, which has constructed a modern factory on the southern part of property. The remaining original buildings are used as offices and for storage. The riverfront fish markets have occupied the northern part of the original factory site since 1966.
During World War One the Australian Commonwealth Arsenal developed its own defence factories, due to disruption of the supply of manufactured goods and armaments to Australia. By 1919 the defence factories included a Small Arms Factory at Lithgow, New South Wales; a Clothing Factory in South Melbourne; an Explosives Factory (Cordite) at Maribyrnong, Melbourne; a Government Woollen Mill; and the Acetate of Lime Factory at Colmslie, Brisbane. The latter provided acetate of lime for cordite production at Maribyrnong.
After World War One the Australian government sought to protect the local steel, copper, chemical, and woollen textile industries, which had grown during the war, and to promote research and development. Government factories and laboratories were to provide a knowledge pool for the private sector, and the latter would then be able to help supply the country's defence needs in wartime. This policy of 'Self Containment' led to Australia being able to supply itself with light weapons and ammunition by World War Two. The Munitions Supply Board (1921 to 1939) inherited the defence factories of the Commonwealth Arsenal, and its High Explosives and Filling Factory Group in Victoria became the centre of chemical engineering in Australia. Other Munitions Supply Board assets in the 1920s included the Ordnance Factory Group, Gun Ammunition Factory Group, and Small Arms Ammunition Factory in Victoria, and the Small Arms Factory Group in New South Wales. The Munitions Supply Board thus controlled the largest and most advanced factory system in Australia, and the largest industrial research laboratories, under the Munitions Supply Laboratories organisation.
A committee from the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs selected a site for the Acetate of Lime Factory at Colmslie in mid 1916, after Cairns was considered and rejected. Subdivisions 2 and 3 of Eastern Suburban Allotment 22, Parish of Bulimba, County of Stanley, covering nine acres, two roods, and 29.5 perches were resumed on 21 September 1916 at a cost of £1,719. A plan drawn up by the Department of Home Affairs in November 1916, and signed 'HJB', laid out the main built elements of the factory, and their function, as designed by the bacteriologist and chemist Auguste J. F. deBavay.
Born in Belgium, deBavay had worked for a number of breweries (including Fosters, Swan, Cascade, Carlton and United), as well as working in the mining industry, and in the paper industry. He had designed the revolutionary ore-extraction technique of the 'skin' or 'film' flotation process, patented in 1905, to deal with 'the Sulphide Problem'. In 1914 deBavay was asked by the Minister of Defence to investigate the manufacture of acetone for use in cordite manufacture, and in two weeks he had developed a process to ferment and distil molasses. He was later asked to build the Colmslie factory, which had a well-equipped chemical and bacteriological laboratory. His son, Francis Xavier deBavay, became the first manager of the factory.
The cost of the factory was about £120,000. Production began in 1918, with 30 employees, and continued after the war ended, in order to lay up reserve supplies. When production of acetate of lime (calcium acetate) ceased early in 1922, about 1000 tonnes had been made; enough to produce 200 tonnes of acetone, leading to 1000 tonnes of cordite, or about 400 million rounds of .303 rifle cartridges.
The process of making acetate of lime started with molasses (from the Babinda and Mulgrave sugar mills) that had been shipped from Cairns to Brisbane. The molasses was pumped into a holding tank near the river, and was diluted with water. The liquid was then heated and cooled in the three-storey Agitator and Cooler House, to destroy foreign bacteria. In the two-storey Fermenting House yeast was added to large wooden temperature-controlled vats, with fermentation producing a dilute (8%) solution of alcohol (ethanol). The 'wash' was transferred to vats on the top floor of the three-storey Settling House, where it was allowed to settle out. The wash was then transferred to the adjacent three-storey Acidifier House, where it was repeatedly pumped through wooden vats, which contained wood shavings and Bacterium Aceti. Over several days, the alcohol was converted into acetic acid (vinegar). The new wash was heated by steam coils, and the acetic acid and water was distilled off, in the two-storey Evaporator House. The acid distillate was neutralised with milk of lime to produce acetate of lime, and this solution was concentrated for evaporation on a heated revolving drum, where it was scraped off as solid flakes. The bagged product was then sent to Maribyrnong for conversion into acetone. Acetone enabled the combination of nitro-glycerine and trinitrocellulose to form cordite.
Alcohol distillation at the factory was approved in 1919, due to shortages of certain grades of concentrated alcohol, and the dilute alcohol produced by the fermentation of molasses was distilled to produce concentrated alcohol in the Alcohol Still House, a two storey eastern extension to the Evaporator House. From early 1920 a pot still was used to produce alcohol for the ammunition factories, and in 1922 a continuous still was installed.
Due to fears that oil resources were limited, alcohol produced from molasses was also considered as an alternative fuel. 'Power alcohol' was manufactured at Colmslie from August 1924 to June 1926, before production was halted by concerns that the cost was too high. Approximately 800 kilolitres of this alcohol was made, and was mixed with benzol and ether to produce 1200 kilolitres of motor fuel. This fuel was used by the Post Master General's Department, in its postal vehicles in Brisbane and Melbourne, and by Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) vehicles in Victoria.
From 1926 the factory was closed down to a reserve status, under a caretaker. In 1935 the factory's plant was moved to the Footscray and Maribyrnong factories in Melbourne, and the factory was handed over to the Department of the Interior in January 1936. In June 1936 the idea was floated that the Post Master General's Department could use a building for its frequency measuring equipment, using the chimney and water tower to mount aerials. The Department's Radio Broadcasting Branch, Wireless Experimental Section, occupied various buildings from 1937, including the Acidifier House and the Fitter's shop.
The Wireless Experimental Section's peace and quiet was disturbed when an advance party of RAAF personnel arrived at the factory on 23 May 1939. Several factory buildings were required for billeting and storage purposes while the RAAF was awaiting the completion of huts at Archerfield. The Ordnance Service also staked a claim for storage space from February 1940 onwards, and the Field Hygiene Section of the Seventh Division occupied a number of buildings in late 1940. The Engineer's Supply Service branch arrived in April 1941, and the Allied Works Council was present in 1942. The 6th Anti Aircraft battery was a resident by June 1942 and the 2nd and 14th AA batteries by August 1943.
The Post Master General, Ordnance Services, and the Anti Aircraft batteries were still using some buildings in October 1943, but from November 1942 onwards the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) gradually took over most of the complex, which became part of the Fairmile Naval Base (by 1948 the base was referred to as 'HMAS Moreton, Colmslie'). The factory's jetty became a refuelling wharf, and navy workshops and a repair slipway were built between the factory and the river.
New tenants were soon to follow. In December 1943 Prime Minister Curtin had expressed the view that, for security reasons, Australia's population had to increase to 20 million. The Commonwealth Department of Immigration was created in 1945, and in 1946 the goal was to allow 70,000 migrants into Australia each year, (roughly 1% of Australia's population at the time). The United Kingdom-Australia Free and Assisted Passage Agreements became active in March 1947. Adults would only pay £10 towards their passage, and children aged 14-18 would be charged £5. A shipping shortage handicapped the program until 1948, but from 1947 to 1958, of 457,898 migrants moving from the United Kingdom to Australia, 68% received assisted passage. In this period the British represented about a third of all migrants to Australia. The peak years of assisted British migration to Australia were between 1949 and 1952.
In order to address labour shortages, the Australian Government also decided to utilise another source of immigrants: the mass of Displaced Persons in Europe. In July 1947 an agreement was reached with the United Nation's International Refugee Organisation, which would provide the ships to deliver a minimum of 12,000 Displaced Persons per year. This was the first assisted passage scheme for non-British migrants. The migrants included people from the Baltic States of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. Other Displaced Persons came from Eastern and Central Europe, including Czechs, Yugoslavs, Ukrainians, Hungarians and Poles. By 1951, about 170,000 Displaced Persons had moved to Australia.
In 1949 the Migrant Accommodation Centres Division was formed within the Commonwealth Department of Immigration. It was decided that Displaced Persons would go to Holding Centres, where the dependants would stay until the 'breadwinner' of the family, working in the vicinity of the Holding Centre, could afford accommodation elsewhere. However, if a worker was allocated to a Worker's Hostel that had room for dependants, the family might be able to live together at the hostel. Although the Department of Immigration administered Holding Centres, the Department of Labour and National Service administered Worker's Hostels.
In June 1949 the Department of Immigration was planning to open four Holding Centres for 'New Australians' in Queensland. Wacol opened 9 November 1949, on Army land; Stuart, on RAAF land south of Townsville [601708], opened 30 March 1950; Frazer's Paddock at Enoggera opened 14 April 1950, on Army land; and Cairns opened 19 August 1950, on acquired land. In 1952 the standard capacities of these camps were listed as: Wacol 1465; Stuart 500; Enoggera 515; and Cairns 370. At this time 13 Holding Centres were still active in Australia. By April 1960 Wacol was the only migrant Holding Centre left in Queensland.
In mid 1948 the Director of Migrant Hostels had visited the old Acetate of Lime Factory, now acting as a naval barracks, with representatives from the Department of Labour and National Service, and the Department of Works and Housing. In December 1948 the Department of Labour and National Service had asked the RAN for the use of the factory buildings for Baltic Displaced Persons, and the site was transferred from the Department of Interior to the Department of Labour and National Service. However, the land near the river would be used by the Army. In June 1949 it was reported that there would be a Worker's Hostel at Colmslie with a projected capacity of 500 persons. The existing buildings of the Acetate of Lime Factory would provide accommodation, but a number of timber huts were also added the site, as illustrated on an April 1949 map by the Commonwealth Department of Works and Housing (the huts are not present on a 1948 site map prepared by the Department of the Interior). Two of these huts, which were used as six room sleeping blocks, remain on site today, to the north of the brick Engineer's Office and Fitter's shop. By December 1949 the term 'Colmslie Migrant Hostel' was being used in correspondence.
Initial government policy was that British migrants would not be sent to Holding Centres. The Immigration Depot at Yungaba, Kangaroo Point, was remodelled to receive the first post-World War Two British migrants to Queensland, who left Britain in May 1947. In general though, Yungaba was used as transit depot for those British migrants who had their own accommodation arranged. British migrants who needed longer-term accommodation would be housed at Workers' Hostels.
In January 1952 'Commonwealth Hostels Limited' took over management of the Colmslie Migrant Hostel. Although it was policy that assisted British migrants should live at hostels, there were also non-British migrants at Colmslie in the late 1950s. According to one woman who lived there between 1959 and 1962, these included Germans, Finns, Danes, Yugoslavs, and Russians. Mr Flood, the hostel's Manager at the time, lived in a bungalow (no longer extant) surrounded by palm trees and hibiscus. This was originally the Factory manager's office and laboratory, situated south of the Evaporator House.
As part of the Colmslie Migrant Hostel, the Acidifier House was used for accommodation, and as a dining room and kitchen. The Engineer's Office and Fitter's Shop became a baggage store and the Assistant Manager's quarters, and the Winch House became a tool room. The Evaporator House was used for accommodation, ablutions and recreation, and the Alcohol Still house was also used for accommodation. The Engine Room was used for accommodation and recreation, and the Boiler House was used as a laundry. The Lime Slacking Store became an office, and the Excise Office, Fertiliser House and Painter's Shop building (extended to the south around 1949) became a store.
The desire to keep the British out of Holding Centres seems to have weakened over time, since by 1959 it was suggested that Wacol could be used for British migrants. Due to the June 1959 'Nest Egg Scheme', whereby British migrants with £500 in savings could get assisted passage without an accommodation sponsor in Australia, there was a need for emergency accommodation. Yungaba and Colmslie were to be used first, but any extra British could join the Dutch migrants at Wacol.
In November 1960 the RAN declared its remaining land near the hostel as surplus to requirements. The RAN workshops, slipway and jetty, which had been occupied by the Army's Small Boat Squadron since 1956, had been declared surplus by the Army by April of 1960. The land adjoining the Hostel was thus transferred from the Department of Interior to the Department of Immigration in March 1962, and in 1966 this waterfront area, with the workshops, slipway, and part of the hostel grounds, was transferred to the Queensland Fish Board. The two-storied Fermentation House of the Acetate of Lime Factory still stands on this land, which now contains the Brisbane Fish Markets.
In January 1963 the Colmslie Migrant Hostel had a capacity of 270, with 30 Families resident. It was closed on 31 March 1963. Those migrants who could not find new accommodation were allowed to go to Wacol, which Commonwealth Hostels was taking over from the Department of Immigration. It appears that the Hostel was briefly reactivated in 1965, before closing permanently. Hans Van der Drift, a Dutch-born chef, started Hans Continental Smallgoods in Ascot in 1960, and his company occupied the remainder of the Colmslie hostel site in the early 1970s.
Although the molasses storage tanks and Montejus pit near the river were demolished before the end of World War Two, and the Agitator and Cooling House, Settling Tank House, and Laboratory/Bungalow have disappeared since World War Two, a number of the main buildings involved in the process of producing acetate of lime are still present on the site. However, the top two floors of the Acidifier House were removed some time after 1965, and with its modern cladding the building no longer resembles its earlier form.
","criteria":"The factory buildings have a strong association with the chemist Auguste deBavay. The factory is also associated with a number of Commonwealth government and military organisations of importance, including the Commonwealth Arsenal, the Munitions Supply Board, the Royal Australian Navy, the Commonwealth Department of Labour and National Service, and the Commonwealth Department of Immigration.
|An innovative process for manufacturing Acetate of Lime from molasses was developed for the Australian Government by the noted bacteriologist and chemist Auguste deBavay, and the Colmslie factory was built to his specifications.
|The Acetate of Lime Factory at Colmslie was the only Commonwealth Arsenal/Munitions Supply Board Factory built in Queensland prior to World War Two, and was the only factory of its type in Australia. The two de-mountable timber huts on the site may be among the last remaining in-situ Queensland examples of the temporary accommodation provided on military properties for post-World War Two migrants.
|The remaining buildings of the Commonwealth Acetate of Lime Factory at Colmslie, built between 1917 and 1920 as part of the defence-factory program of the Australian Commonwealth Arsenal, demonstrate Queensland's role in Australia's early defence industry: using the products of sugar cane to contribute to Australian self-sufficiency in ammunition manufacture. Between 1943 and 1948 the factory was part of a Royal Australian Navy Base, illustrating how Commonwealth properties could be adapted for military use in a crisis. The use of the factory buildings as a hostel for migrants between 1949 and 1963, and c.1965, demonstrates the process of adapting Commonwealth defence properties to temporarily house migrants from Britain and Europe during Australia's post-World War Two period of mass immigration. In addition, the factory network of the Munitions Supply Board was related to a deliberate government effort to provide a scientific and technical knowledge base for Australian private industry.
|The Acetate of Lime Factory at Colmslie has fine industrial aesthetic qualities and its relationship with the river is also aesthetically significant. In particular the brick chimney is an important landmark in the industrial river-scape of the Brisbane River.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion H | Criterion F | Criterion B | Criterion A | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19594,"place_ref":602473,"name":"Albert Park (North) air raid shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-05-31","description":"The Albert Park (North) air raid shelter is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab, which is covered with bitumen, and a flat roof supported by concrete piers. The original floor slab is still evident through the bitumen cover. The shelter is unpainted, and the soffit shows evidence of hasty removal of the blast walls; some reinforcing steel is visible protruding downwards. It stands on the footpath to the northeast corner of Albert Park with the canopies of large trees overhanging the shelter.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Albert Park (north) as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The blast walls of the air raid shelter at Albert Park (North) were removed according to plan after World War Two. The floor slab has been covered with bitumen to form the surrounding footpath.
","criteria":"The Albert Park (north) air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located on the footpath to the north-east corner of Albert Park is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The Albert Park (north) air raid shelter, now used as a shade shelter, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19595,"place_ref":602474,"name":"Albert Park (South) Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Upper Albert Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-05-31","description":"The Albert Park (South) air raid shelter is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab and a flat roof supported by concrete piers. The shelter stands on the footpath to the south corner of Albert Park within the boundary of Albert Park (Roma Street Parklands). It is flanked by decorative flowerbeds and accommodates a freestanding wooden seat with concrete legs in the northern bay. The shelter is unpainted, but a "rainbow serpent" mosaic design decorates the south face of the northern pier, and a rubbish-bin stand has been bolted to the northern part of the floor slab. There is evidence on the floor slab of the two entrances to Wickham Street.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Albert Park (South) as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The blast walls of the air raid shelter at Albert Park (South) were removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the walls is still visible. Seating has been introduced and a mosaic decoration has been applied to the south face of the north pier.
","criteria":"The Albert Park (South) air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located on the footpath to the south corner of Albert Park is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The Albert Park (South) air raid shelter, now used as a shade shelter, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19596,"place_ref":602475,"name":"King Edward Park Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"224 Turbot Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The King Edward Park air raid shelter is a rectangular stone and concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab, rear and side nib blast walls of sandstone, six sandstone piers and a flat concrete roof. The shelter is approached by two flights of concrete stairs from Turbot Street. All the stonework features a hammered finish. The concrete roof is new; there is no evidence of blast wall removal on the soffit, and there is an additional narrow course of stone between the walls and piers and the roof.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the stone shelter at King Edward Park as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The front blast wall of the air raid shelter at King Edward Park was removed according to plan after World War Two, and six stone piers were added at the front of the shelter. Evidence of the location of the wall is still visible. The original shelter roof has been removed and was replaced in 1995 by a slab roof replicating the original. Two timber benches have been added.
","criteria":"The King Edward Park air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located on the edge of the park facing Turbot Street is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The King Edward Park air raid shelter, now used as a shade shelter, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19597,"place_ref":602476,"name":"Wickham Park Air Raid Shelters","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"330 Wickham Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The Wickham Park air raid shelters are rectangular concrete structures comprising a heavy floor slab and a flat roof supported by four concrete piers. The shelters stand to the treed edge of Wickham Park, overlooking the Roma Street Railway Yards, and remain unaltered. They are overhung by mature fig trees. They are unpainted, and evidence of their entrances towards Wickham Terrace is visible on both floor slabs.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelters at Wickham Park as air raid shelters in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The blast walls of the air raid shelters in Wickham Park were removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the walls is still visible.
","criteria":"The Wickham Park air raid shelters are important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelters located in Wickham Park are important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelters' solid construction, rectangular shape, and their siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelters.
|The Wickham Park air raid shelters, now used as shade structures, demonstrate the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelters are durable examples of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19598,"place_ref":602477,"name":"Woolloongabba Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"34 Sword Street","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The Woolloongabba air raid shelter is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab and a flat roof supported by concrete piers. The roof and the piers of the shelter are painted green. The shelter is surrounded by shrubs and shade trees and is adjacent to play equipment. The middle bay accommodates a wooden picnic table and seats that are bolted to the floor slab. The shelter appears to have once had one entrance in each long blast wall, in opposite corners.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Buranda Playground, Woolloongabba as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or ""bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The blast walls of the air raid shelter at the Buranda playground were removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the walls is still visible. The shelter roof and piers have been painted and a picnic table and seats have been added.
","criteria":"The Woolloongabba air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located in Buranda Playground is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The Woolloongabba air raid shelter, now used as a shade structure, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19599,"place_ref":602478,"name":"Raymond Park (West) Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"94 Baines Street","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The Raymond Park (West) air raid shelter is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab and a flat roof supported by concrete piers. The piers and the roof are painted green. The shelter stands behind the Pineapple Hotel on Baines Street at the west end of Raymond Park. There is a run of cat's paw prints and woman's shoeprints across the concrete floor slab.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Raymond Park (west) as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The blast walls of the air raid shelter at Raymond Park (West) were removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the walls is still visible. The shelter roof and piers have been painted.
","criteria":"The Raymond Park (west) air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located in Raymond Park (west) is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The Raymond Park (west) air raid shelter, now used as a park shelter, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19600,"place_ref":602479,"name":"Raymond Park (East) Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"184 Wellington Road","suburb":"KANGAROO POINT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The Raymond Park (East) air raid shelter is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab and a flat roof supported by four concrete piers. The second, lower part of the floor slab is also visible. The piers and the roof of the shelter are painted green. There is evidence of the two entrances on the southern side of the Soffit. The shelter stands towards the Wellington Road end of Raymond Park to the east of the playing fields.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Raymond Park (east) as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The blast walls of the air raid shelter at Raymond Park (East) were removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the walls is still visible. The shelter roof and piers have been painted.
","criteria":"The Raymond Park (east) air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located in Raymond Park (east) is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The Raymond Park (east) air raid shelter, now used as a shade shelter, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19602,"place_ref":602481,"name":"Morningside Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"580 Wynnum Road","suburb":"MORNINGSIDE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The Morningside air raid shelter is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab, which is now covered by concrete pebbling, and a flat roof supported by concrete piers. There is also a coloured mosaic on the western side of the floor slab. There is evidence on the soffit of the two entrances on the Wynnum Road side. The shelter stands within a vegetated road reserve, west of the Morningside Railway Station, with a canopy of mature fig trees and camphor laurels. The roof of the shelter is painted maroon and the piers are painted cream.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Morningside as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ... (unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The blast walls of the air raid shelter at Morningside were removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the walls is still visible. The shelter roof and piers have been painted and the floor slab has been covered with concrete pebble topping.
","criteria":"The Morningside air raid is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located at the corner of Wynnum Road and Thynne Road is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The Morningside air raid shelter, now used as a road reserve shelter, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19603,"place_ref":602482,"name":"Newmarket Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Enogerra Road","suburb":"NEWMARKET","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The Newmarket air raid shelter is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab, rear and side nib blast walls, a flat roof and five brick piers. The original floor slab is covered with concrete topping and an outer edge of pavers, and the rear concrete wall has a mural painted to the interior while the exterior of the rear wall remains unpainted. The roof fascias are painted yellow. The original air-raid shelter timber seat is painted green and is located against the rear wall. There is evidence of the entrances to Enoggera Road on the soffit. Wiring for lighting has been introduced.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Newmarket as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The front blast wall of the air raid shelter at Newmarket was removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the wall is still visible. The original floor slab has been covered with topping and a mural has been painted on the interior of the rear blast wall. A row of five brick piers has been added and electrical wiring has been introduced. The original seat has been removed and refixed within the shelter.
","criteria":"The Newmarket air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located at the intersection of Enoggera Road and Banks Street is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The Newmarket air raid shelter, now used as a bus shelter, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19604,"place_ref":602483,"name":"Newstead Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Commercial Road","suburb":"TENERIFFE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The Newstead air raid shelter is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab, rear blast and side nib blast walls, a flat roof and five brick piers. The rear blast wall features the original seven metal lined ventilators and two freestanding seats are located along the rear wall. The roof and rear wall are painted off-white and lighting and associated wiring is located on the ceiling. There is evidence of the two entrances visible on the soffit. It stands on the bitumen footpath at the end of Commercial Road.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Newstead as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The front blast wall of the air raid shelter at Newstead was removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the wall is still visible. The original floor slab has been covered with topping. A row of five brick piers has been added and seating and electrical wiring has been introduced.
","criteria":"The Newstead air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located in Commercial Road is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The Newstead air raid shelter, now used as a bus shelter, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19605,"place_ref":602484,"name":"Nundah Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Sandgate Road","suburb":"NUNDAH","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The Nundah air raid shelter stands on a small triangular wedge of grassed reserve. It is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a flat roof supported by concrete piers. Two thirds of the shelter accommodates public toilets enclosed by concrete block walls and a mural is painted around the exterior walls of the building. The concrete floor slab is topped with a concrete pebble finish and the floor within the toilet area is tiled. The piers have wall tiles on the lower ends, and a timber seat is fixed onto the floor slab outside the ladies toilet. Wiring has been introduced for lighting, and skylights have been cut though the yellow roof slab inside the toilets.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Nundah as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ... (unused shelters) ... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The blast walls of the air raid shelter at Nundah were removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the walls is still visible. The original floor slab has been covered with concrete pebbles or tiles. The shelter has been enclosed with concrete walls to accommodate public toilets and a mural has been painted on the exterior of the walls. Skylights have been cut into the roof slab.
","criteria":"The Nundah air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located on the corner of Sandgate Road and Wood Street is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The Nundah air raid shelter, now used as a public toilet, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19606,"place_ref":602485,"name":"Stones Corner Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"286 Logan Road","suburb":"STONES CORNER","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The Stones Corner air raid shelter is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab and a flat roof supported by concrete piers. The floor, piers and ceiling of the shelter have been painted cream. The shelter stands under the canopy of a mature fig tree and two seats and a rubbish bin have been bolted to the floor slab. Part of the floor slab has been cut into on the Logan Road side. There is evidence of two entrances on the southern side of the soffit. The shelter stands in the forecourt of the Stones Corner Library.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Stones Corner as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as "bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The blast walls of the air raid shelter at Stones Corner were removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the walls is still visible. The shelter has been painted and seating and a rubbish bin have been added.
","criteria":"The Stones Corner air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located on Logan Road/Old Cleveland Road is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The Stones Corner air raid shelter, now used as a seating refuge near a bus stop, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19607,"place_ref":602486,"name":"Windsor Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Lutwyche Road","suburb":"LUTWYCHE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The Windsor air raid shelter is a rectangular concrete structure comprising a heavy floor slab and a flat roof supported by concrete piers. It is unpainted, and the floor slab and roof slab have been truncated at the northeast corner, where the road reserve narrows to a point. An unused electricity box and wiring remains visible on the south side of the second pier from the south, and there is evidence of two earth closet partitions inside the shelter. An electrical trench has been cut and re-cemented along the centre of the floor slab. A mature fig tree stands nearby.
","history":"The Brisbane City Council built the concrete shelter at Windsor as an air raid shelter in 1942.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. The Japanese first bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
The population of Brisbane swelled dramatically. As it was the major city in Queensland, and the most northerly major population centre in Australia, military planning headquarters were set up in Brisbane, as were a number of important maintenance, communication, and supply facilities. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, Southwest Pacific, was based in the AMP building at the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street in Brisbane, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces, used the recently constructed University of Queensland buildings at St Lucia. Brisbane was obviously a strategic target for bombing, and rapid action had to be taken to protect the population in the event of air raids.
The demand on materials, services and labour was enormous and military projects took precedence in their allocation. Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries were built at Victoria Park, Hendra, Pinkenba, Fort Lytton, Hemmant and Balmoral, and coastal artillery batteries were established on Bribie and Moreton Islands. Before the war, Queensland had a small population and no heavy manufacturing industries. To help overcome these problems, some buildings were prefabricated and standard designs for many structures were used. Designs took into account the scarcity of skilled labour and of some materials.
The Brisbane City Council took responsibility for Air Raid Precautions activities, including establishing an Air Raid Warden system, firefighting systems and constructing air raid shelters. Aboveground salt water pipes were laid along city streets to aid in firefighting. On Christmas Eve, 1941, each Australian State's Emergency Committee issued instructions for government, private employers and private households to immediately start building shelters. Slit trenches were built in parks and schoolyards, windows were taped, and brownouts were applied to buildings.
In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith, with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, National Security (General) Regulations, ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Work had already started on 15 December, and later another 75 shelters were ordered. However, only 235 air raid shelters were constructed, the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, around three kilometres of covered trenches were constructed in public parks, in 13 projects, including 315 metres of concrete-pipe covered trench in the Botanic Gardens, and 150m of the same in Victoria Park. It was believed that one person could be accommodated by each foot of trench. In addition to the public shelters, the Brisbane City Council also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2,3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built under the Story Bridge, for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters were constructed on behalf of the Bureau of Industry at the Howard Smith Wharves.
The Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1 was applied statewide, and outside Brisbane another 24 Local Authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 20 of the Local Authorities were expected to construct a minimum total of 133 surface shelters, which were supposed to be able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. Four other Local Authorities would only build trenches. However, after plans were amended, 23 Local Authorities outside Brisbane, excluding Thursday Island, ended up possessing a total of 129 public shelters: 123 surface and six underground. This effort had cost £56,596. Where Local Authorities were unwilling or unable to build the required number of code-compliant shelters, in some cases because they had already begun erecting other shelters, the Department of Public Works became responsible for the shelters' construction. However, this led to problems when the Department tried to recoup half of the cost from the Local Authorities in question. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied any liability for costs, and a Bill had to be passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council had claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid.
Of the 235 surface shelters built in Brisbane for the public, 21 survive and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council. One of the shelters, on Queens Wharf Road, is a site-specific "special" variation of the standard pillbox design. It is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register as part of the entry for the porphyry retaining wall on William Street. The other 20 public shelters owned by the Brisbane City Council can be divided into three types of pillbox intended for conversion after the war: "park", "bus", and "bus (stone)". They were designed to serve as structures such as bus waiting shelters or shade structures for parks, with some or all of the perimeter blast walls to be removed, leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and piers. The reusable pillboxes were designed to hold 70 people, as were the non-reusable standard pillboxes.
F.G. Costello, Brisbane City Council City Architect between 1941 and 1952, was responsible for the design of the surface air raid shelters, and his variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. In an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane on February 1942, Costello noted that if the emergency for their use does not arise ...(unused shelters)... remain in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance. He added that I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war.
Costello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage.
The first of Costello's reusable designs is the pillbox with double-cantilevered roof slab, or "park" type shelter. In an original list of all the shelters constructed by the Brisbane City Council, these were simply labelled as "cantilever". They had four central piers supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was an entrance at each end of the front wall, where an internal wall extended into the shelter. If the walls were made of brick, the shelter's dimension was 40'9" by 13'3" by 8'6" high, and if concrete was used the dimensions were 40' by 12'6" by 8'6" high. The difference was due to the fact that the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, covering the fascia, whereas the concrete walls finished at the soffit of the roof slab, flush with the fascia. The minimum wall thickness for brick was set at 13.5", and 12" for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least four inches of concrete.
Of the 37 reusable shelters listed as being of the park type only 17 survive: one at Hefferan Park in Annerley; two at Albert Park; two at Wickham Park; one in Buranda Playground in Woolloongabba; two in Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point; and one each at Kelvin Grove, Morningside, Nundah, Stones Corner, and Windsor. Four other shelters stand on East Street and Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Most are used as simple park shelters, as intended, but the shelter at Nundah has been modified as a toilet block, and the shelter at Kelvin Grove is used as a bus shelter (as distinct from those shelters in the next category, which were specifically designed as bus" type shelters). About half of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while half used brick.
The second design was the pillbox with single-cantilevered roof slab, or "bus" type shelter, as it was called in the original Brisbane City Council list. These were designed so that the three brick blast walls could be removed after the war, leaving a concrete back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, entrances were at each end of the front wall. Of the 19 "bus" types listed only two survive, at Newmarket and Newstead.
The third design was also a "bus" type shelter, but it was built with a stone rear wall, instead of concrete, and six stone piers were later added, instead of five brick piers. The three brick blast walls could be removed as normal. Two of these "colonnade" types were built- referred to in the Brisbane City Council list as "bus (stone)"- and only one survives, at King Edward Park.
Most of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of World War Two. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. 156 standard pillboxes were built, but none of the surviving public shelters in Brisbane City Council ownership are of that design. Of the 21 special shelters, only the one on Queens Wharf Road survives. However, of Costello's 58 reusable public surface shelters, 20 have survived; the removal of their blast walls, as planned, had given them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.
The blast walls of the air raid shelter at Windsor were removed according to plan after World War Two, although evidence of the location of the walls is still visible. An electricity box and conduits have been introduced, and parts of the roof and floor slabs have been truncated.
","criteria":"The Windsor air raid shelter is important as a part of the Air Raid Precaution activities that were implemented for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection to the civilian population of Brisbane in the event of air raid attacks or other emergencies, the air raid shelter located at the corner of Lutwyche Road and Stoneleigh Street is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on the civilian population of Brisbane
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. Also, there are not many types of structures built by the Brisbane City Council during World War Two, for wartime purposes, which survive.
|The shelter's solid construction, rectangular shape, and its siting near a population concentration, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two Brisbane public air raid shelter.
|The Windsor air raid shelter, now used as a shelter on a road reserve, demonstrates the secondary uses that were part of the original design intention. The shelter is a durable example of innovative design and use of concrete technology during World War Two.
|The air raid shelter is important as an example of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office and particularly the work of City Architect F.G. Costello.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19608,"place_ref":602487,"name":"Acacia Ridge Air Raid Shelter","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"174 Mortimer Road","suburb":"ACACIA RIDGE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-06","description":"The Acacia Ridge air raid shelter is a rectangular concrete bunker built on a rock shelf cut into the north face of the former quarry. The currently exposed part of the bunker consists of two concrete walls, with a space between the two, running along part of the quarry face and returning into the quarry wall. The outer curtain wall is lower, is buttressed with concrete props, and has rectangular openings at each end. The inner bunker wall is shorter, taller, and has no visible openings. Only the top of the curtain wall is visible above the water in the quarry, and vegetation obscures the main bunker.
","history":"The air raid shelter is built into the north face of the old Archerfield Quarry, or Carr's Quarry, in the southwest corner of the Mortimer Road Reserve, which is bounded by Mortimer Road and Beatty Road, Acacia Ridge.
Archerfield remained largely undeveloped well into the twentieth century, being used for cattle grazing, fruit trees, cotton and maize cropping. A branch railway line reached the quarry, used to extract bluestone to be used for roads and ballast for the Kyogle railway line, in 1913, but the pit was flooded at the end of that year. Although it was closed after this event, the mine may have been used during the 1920s or 1930s. In 1922 there were about a dozen houses nearby, mostly along Beatty Road and the quarry branch line. In 1929 the Commonwealth Government resumed land at Archerfield for the construction of an airfield, and Archerfield Aerodrome later became an important base for the Australian, British, American and Dutch air forces during World War Two.
On 7 December 1941, the United States of America entered World War Two following the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. England and its Commonwealth had been at war with Germany since September 1939, but now the war was truly global. Darwin was first bombed on 19 February 1942 and 14,000 Australians were taken prisoner following the fall of Singapore. Plans to defend Australia from an anticipated Japanese invasion and to use Queensland as a support base for the conduct of the Pacific war were implemented quickly. Australian and American personnel poured into Queensland and urgently required a wide range of new buildings and facilities.
While the American Forces were based at Archerfield, the area to the west of the intersection of Mortimer Road and Beatty Road was occupied by Camp Buckley, and large igloo hangers were built to the north of the quarry. A taxiway linking the igloos to the main aerodrome to the west passed close by the northern side of the quarry, and the air raid shelter was constructed to provide protection for military personnel stationed nearby. World War Two aerial photographs show that the water level in the quarry used to be below the rock shelf on which the shelter was built. They also indicate that the building was freestanding at that time, in the middle of a cleared platform. Earth has since collapsed or been moved onto the shelf around the bunker, giving it the appearance of having being built into the quarry wall. The quarry side of the bunker was protected by an outer curtain wall, which contained entrances to two tunnels leading into the main bunker. There was about a metre between the curtain wall and the edge of the rock shelf. The Allied Works Council Minutes of 8 January 1943 record that a bomb proof building for United States Air Corps Operations had been built near the American camp, and this may refer to the shelter in the quarry.
At the end of the war military debris was dumped into the quarry. In 1963 the area was purchased by the Brisbane City Council for recreation purposes, and in 1992 amateur military historians partially drained the quarry, retrieving a number of military artefacts, including World War Two machine guns, ammunition, and aircraft parts. This operation also enabled an interior inspection of the shelter, which discovered that the two entrance tunnels are 20 feet long, with doorways turning into the main bunker. The remains of four-inch thick wooden sliding doors were found, along with three one-foot diameter holes in the ceiling of the bunker. The present water level in the quarry prevents internal inspection.
","criteria":"The Acacia Ridge air raid shelter is important as part of the Air Raid Precaution activities undertaken for the defence of Brisbane during World War Two. Designed to afford protection for military personnel from the Archerfield aerodrome in the event of a Japanese air attack, the air raid shelter, located on a rock ledge in the north face of the Archerfield Quarry, is important in demonstrating the impact of World War Two on Queensland.
|Although many air raid shelters were constructed during World War Two in Queensland, comparatively few survive. As a shelter that was built for military personnel, and which still includes its outer curtain wall, the Acacia Ridge shelter is uncommon.
|The shelter's solid construction, and its siting near a military installation, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a World War Two military air raid shelter.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19615,"place_ref":602492,"name":"BCC Tramways Substation No. 6 and Windsor Town Quarry Park (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"356 Lutwyche Road","suburb":"WINDSOR","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-05-31","description":"The former Brisbane City Council Tramway Substation No. 6 and Windsor Town Quarry Park occupy an irregular block that is part of an island of land, bounded by Goodacre and Flaherty Streets and Lutwyche Road, that also contains the former Windsor Town Council Chambers [600349], the Hawkins Street road reserve and a former Energex substation on separate lots.
The quarry face to the western side dominates the park. This sheer rock wall is topped by a brilliant splash of bougainvillea, which adds to its landmark qualities. It rises abruptly from a level grassed area. A path runs throughs the park on a north south axis. Recently constructed sandstone clad gateposts mark the entrance from Lutwyche Road. Bedded out plantings edge the park along Lutwyche Road and there are also plantings of ornamental trees scattered about the park.
There is a small, asphalted car park to the south and the former tramways substation is at the northern end of the park close to Lutwyche Road. It is a two-storey building of austere appearance, symmetrical in form, and has load-bearing walls of red glazed bricks set on a concrete plinth. The roof is hipped and is clad with modern coated metal sheeting. The front of the building is divided into bays by brick pilasters and has a decorative cornice of moulded render with small square openings set below wide eaves. The front entrance is placed centrally below a square window set with multiple panes of glass. There are fixed rectangular windows of similar style in the flanking bays and on the sides of the substation. These windows are steel framed and have exterior mesh security grilles. The doors to the front and side of the building have metal roller shutters. There is a later addition in the form of a single story skillion roofed section to the rear to which a brick toilet has been added.
The interior of the substation is painted and the ceilings are clad in fibrous cement sheeting with timber battens. The floors are concrete and there is a suspended mezzanine floor accessed by a steel ladder. The internal space is divided by a brick wall, which has a doorway at the northern end and an opening adjacent to the site of the rectifier at the southern end. Marks on the rear section show where the AC and DC cubicles have been removed.
The steel gantry survives and appears to be functional. Any remaining evidence for machinery mountings on the floor are obscured by timber flooring in the transformer room and material stored in the rectifier room. Marks and fixings on walls indicated where equipment was once attached.
","history":"The former Brisbane City Council Tramways Substation no 6 was operational between 1927 and 1948 and is situated adjacent to an open parkland area created from a former quarry at Windsor.
The Quarry
A seam of Brisbane tuff, known locally as 'porphyry', forms part of the Enoggera fault line and was formed by being deposited on the shore and in the shallow waters of small Triassic lakes. This stone was found to be suitable for building in the early stages of European settlement in Queensland. The original hill of the Windsor quarry sloped across Lutwyche Road and down to Albion Road. Nehemiah Bartley acquired the land in the first land sales in 1859, though he sold it in the mid 1860s. Stone was probably removed first in the 1860s as the hill was lowered to allow development of a road, though in the 1870s it still formed a hump in the road and vehicles tended to drive around it.
The Ithaca Divisional Board was formed in 1879 and quarried stone from the hill. In 1887 Windsor became a Shire and the quarry was transferred to it in 1888. The local tuff provided an excellent source of building material for the new Shire and districts beyond and was worked by both private enterprise and the town council. In 1897, the Windsor Town Council Chambers was constructed from the stone, as were a number of local buildings, roadside kerbing and drains. The stonemason's office stood near the corner of Haddock Street at the base of the hill.
In 1904 Windsor became a municipality comprising Albion, Wooloowin, Wilston, Lutwyche, Newmarket, Swan Hill and part of Eagle Junction and Kedron. A stone crushing plant was constructed at the quarry in 1914 and the road metal produced greatly facilitated road development in the area. By the 1920s the quarry is thought to have been largely worked out and quarrying may not have continued beyond the establishment of the substation in 1927.
The Brisbane City Council works department used the quarry floor as a depot for some years before it was redeveloped as a park. It was gazetted for this purpose on 1 August 1976 and was redeveloped as a park in 1988. The quarry face that remains today displays an unconformity between the metamorphic Neranleigh-Fernvale beds of rock and the Brisbane Tuff seam and is a striking feature of the park.
The Substation
The Metropolitan Tramway and Investment Co. Ltd operated horse-drawn trams in Brisbane from August 1885. The first public supply of electricity in Brisbane was from a generator in Edison Lane, which supplied the General Post Office in 1888. Early development in the industry was in the hands of a number of private companies and the situation was complex because the metropolitan area comprised fourteen separate local authorities. After various liquidations and restructurings, the City Electric Light Company Limited (CEL) was established in 1904. Parallel development took place in electric traction. The Brisbane Tramways Company, a private enterprise formed in 1895, introduced the first electric trams to Brisbane in 1897 after purchasing the early horse car system, converting it to electric operation and expanding and extending the routes. A power station to supply current to the electric trams was constructed in Countess Street in 1897.
As the tramway system extended out into the suburbs, this power station was unable to provide all the energy needed. Two engine sets from Countess Street were transferred to a building in Logan Road to provide a feeding point for the system on the south side of the river. Supply was also fed from the tramway 550-volt DC mains to a number of establishments along the tramway routes, such as butcher shops, sawmills and factories. By 1918, the whole of the tramways public power supply equipment in South Brisbane was sold to the City Electric Light Company, which developed a supply for South Brisbane from its power station in William Street. At the conclusion of the First World War there was general support for the notion that the tramway system should be owned and operated by a public authority. In 1922, an Act of Parliament inaugurated the Brisbane Tramway Trust.
In 1925 the many small local authorities were amalgamated into the Greater Brisbane City Council, creating a single public authority that could plan for the provision of electrical services throughout the entire city. Expansion of electricity supply and the development of better public transport networks were important issues for the Council and were closely linked to suburban development. At this time energy generation and supply was chaotic. Three small obsolete power stations generated energy for trams and electricity for Ithaca and Toowong and the supply for all other suburbs was purchased in bulk from CEL under 10 year agreements.
The 1920s and 1930s was a period of tramways expansion following the Greater Brisbane Council's acquisition of the tramways system from the Brisbane Tramways Trust in 1925. In 1926 the Council, anxious to control the city's electricity supply, decided to build its own powerhouse at New Farm, under the supervision of the BCC Tramways Department. Opened on 28 June 1928, New Farm Power Station distributed 1100 KW AC power to a network of 11 suburban tramways substations erected in the 1920s and 1930s. The substations were located at strategic points throughout the system - substations No. 2 (Russell Street) and No. 6 (Windsor) came into service in 1927, No. 4 (Petrie Terrace) and No. 5 (Newstead) in 1928; Substation No. 9 (Norman Park) came on line in 1935.
Considerable attention was given to the design of the substations serving the tramway system. The architecture was marked by the stylistic preferences of individual architects, particularly the Brisbane City Architects AH Foster and FG Costello and the BCC Tramways architect RR Ogg.
Although they were robust utility buildings, generally small in scale, elegant proportions and such details as finely crafted brickwork distinguished them.
Prior to 1940, their design was the responsibility of BCC Tramways Department architect and construction engineer, Roy Rusden Ogg. In conjunction with the tramway's chief engineers Nelson and Arundell, he designed at least 10 Brisbane substations between 1926 and 1936 and the first two stages of the New Farm powerhouse. Ogg also designed the Tramways Departments Head Office building on Coronation Drive in 1929.
The former Brisbane City Council Tramways Substation at Windsor is thought to be the smallest of the substations designed by Ogg. It proved too small to accommodate the requirements of the expanding network and was replaced in 1948 by a larger substation to the design of City Architect F G Costello, located to the south of the reserve.
After it's decommissioning the building was used as a chemical store for the Department of Health and Community Services Entomological and Rodent Control Section and now accommodates an assortment of equipment and chemicals. Material related to its use as a substation was donated to Windsor and District Historical Society. The roof was re-sheeted in 1985 and new rainwater goods installed. Landscaping has been carried out around the building.
","criteria":"The former tramway substation is important in demonstrating a vital aspect of Queensland's industrial development and is closely linked to Brisbane's suburban expansion in the 1920s and 30s and with the development of the electricity supply system. The exposed face of the former quarry, now the main feature of the park between the substation and Windsor Town Council Chambers [600349], is evidence for the former industrial use of the site as a source of stone for buildings and road construction.
|The former substation is now uncommon evidence for an important mode of transport, which was discontinued in Brisbane in 1969 and for which much of the infrastructure has since been removed. The quarry wall has an inclined fault where Brisbane tuff meets phyllite, which is significant as a geological rarity.
|In design, scale and materials, the former substation is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the Brisbane tramways substations. Due to the quality of its design and materials it successfully combines function with a pleasing appearance.
As a well-conceived utility structure, the substation is important as a fine example of the municipal work of tramways architect Roy Rusden Ogg.
|As the substation and the adjoining park with its landmark quarry cliff are prominently sited on a major road, they make an important contribution to the visual character of the area. The quarry face, in particular, is a landmark that is emphasised by being floodlit at night.
|As a well-conceived utility structure, the substation is important as a fine example of the municipal work of tramways architect Roy Rusden Ogg.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19616,"place_ref":602493,"name":"Victoria Park","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"454 Gregory Terrace","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-12-03","description":"Victoria Park occupies a large parkland site, divided through the centre by the North Coast Railway line (Bowen Hills – Roma Street section) and Inner City Bypass (ICB), and is located approximately 1.6km northeast of Brisbane central business district (CBD). Its undulating terrain generally falls steeply from the ridge of Gregory Terrace at the southeast, down toward the playing fields adjacent to Gilchrist Avenue at the northwest. The park is largely an open space, with turf, sporting fields, established trees, footpaths, roads, structures and buildings; and it forms an open, natural setting within its metropolitan context. The heritage boundary excludes a lot in the Southeast Park Section containing tennis courts.
\nFeatures of Victoria Park of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nSoutheast Park Section:
\nThe Southeast Park Section is located south of the North Coast Railway Line, and bounded on other sides by Gregory Terrace (south), Bowen Bridge Road (east), and Brisbane Girls Grammar School (west). It contains expanses of lawn and mature plantings, the Entrance Piers and Riding Row (to its far eastern end and circumference), BCC Electricity Substation No. 4 (former) (to its far eastern end), and the Gundoo Memorial Grove (to its eastern end).
\nRiding Row Entrance Piers and Former Alignment (1936)
\nA pair of tall, stone piers mark an entrance into the Southeast Park Section. These Entrance Piers front the corner of Gregory Terrace and Bowen Bridge Road, and frame the beginning of Riding Row (former) – a horse-riding track that formerly ran the circumference of the Southeast Park Section.
\nSome sections of the Riding Row’s early configuration of tree layouts is discernible.
\nFeatures of the Riding Row Entrance Piers and Former Alignment of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of the Riding Row Entrance Piers and Former Alignment not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nBCC Electricity Substation No. 4 (1928)
\nLocated in the eastern corner of the Southeast Park Section, BCC Electricity Substation No. 4 comprises a single-storey, masonry pavilion fronting the tapered corner of Gregory Terrace and Bowen Bridge Road, with a low stone wall to its east.
\nAngled parallel to the corner, with its long sides facing southeast and northwest, the building is rectangular in plan and is symmetrical. It features a hip roof with gables narrowly projecting at each end of the long elevations and at the centre of the short elevations. A narrow, central entrance porch to the front (southeast) elevation features a stepped and rendered parapet with ‘SUBSTATION.No.4’ in raised lettering. The porch frames dual entrance doors, which are topped with a lunette that displays a decorative crest bearing the lettering ‘BCC’. A number of small metal plaques are embedded in the riser of the front concrete stair, and are stamped with ‘BCC’.
\nStanding in front (southeast) of the substation is a low stone wall (c1928-44) that runs southwest-northeast along the corner of Gregory Terrace and Bowen Bridge Road, and wraps around to the north along Bowen Bridge Road. Retaining earth along its park side, the wall terminates in a stone-capped pier at the northeast end. A small stair inset within the wall accesses a path that aligns with and connects to the main entrance the substation.
\nFeatures of BCC Electricity Substation No. 4 of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of BCC Electricity Substation No. 4 not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nGundoo Memorial Grove (1959)
\nThe Gundoo Memorial Grove stands at the eastern end of the Southeast Park Section, between Centenary Pool [QHR601240] and BCC Electricity Substation No. 4. Originally planted in a radiating arch pattern, the grove features mature trees that resemble native bushland (some of radial planting configuration remains evident).
\nFeatures of the Gundoo Memorial Grove of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nUS Army Flag Pole (1943)
\nThe US Army Flag Pole is located at the southern end of a traffic island in the Gregory Terrace road reserve (formerly a part of the Southeast Park Section, and aligned with the entrance to the Gregory Terrace Officers’ Club Quarters). The metal pole stands on an octagonal-shaped concrete base, which features a plaque by the Rotary Club of Windsor, detailing information on the flag pole’s history and restoration in 1988.
\nFeatures of the US Army Flag Pole of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of the US Army Flag Pole not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nNorthwest Park Section
\nThe Northwest Park Section is located north of the Inner City Bypass (ICB), and is bounded on other sides by Gilchrist Avenue (north and west; the avenue now terminates as a cul-de-sac); ICB off-ramp and Inner Northern Busway (east); and Victoria Park Golf Course (west). It contains large expanses of turfed sporting fields, with a stone wall adjacent Gilchrist Avenue, and a lake in the southwest corner of the site.
\nGilchrist Avenue (1930-32, and 1936)
\nGilchrist Avenue, formerly a thoroughfare running from Herston Road at the northeast end of the park to meet Victoria Park Road at the southwest end, is approximately half of its original alignment, with the road curving from Herston Road and terminating with a cul-de-sac near the Lake (York’s Hollow). Two rows of trees of varying ages and planted as part of an avenue, lines both sides of the road.
\nAlong most of the northwest side of the avenue is a stone retaining wall that curves with the alignment of the road. At the northern end of the curve is a doglegged stone stair (1936) that leads to the top of the retaining wall.
\nFeatures of Gilchrist Avenue Plantings of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of Gilchrist Avenue not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nSporting Fields (1925; re-laid 1935)
\nThe Sporting Fields occupy a large, turfed area south of Gilchrist Avenue, and have been used interchangeably over time for a variety of sports including hockey, cricket, football (soccer), rugby and athletics. The early extent of the Sporting Fields has been reduced to the south by the ICB and in the northeast corner by recent temporary carparks and offices.
\nFeatures of the Sporting Fields of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of the Sporting Fields not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\n‘Play the Game’ Wall (c1936)
\nA coursed ashlar stone wall constructed of Brisbane Tuff is located south of and parallel to Gilchrist Avenue. Tall and retaining earth along its northwest side, the wall features the words ‘PLAY THE GAME’ inset in stone in a random rubble pattern. The wall is reputably associated with use of the place for hockey.
\nFeatures of the ‘Play the Game’ Wall of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of ‘Play the Game’ Wall not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nDressing Shed & Kiosk (c1958-62)
\nThe Dressing Shed & Kiosk is located to the west of the Stone Wall, positioned at an intermediate level between the Sporting Fields and Gilchrist Avenue. The building is rectangular, with face brick walls and a skillion roof. It accommodates dressing rooms, accessed from the centre of its southeast elevation, and a kiosk with a servery at its northeast end. The roofline continues over the servery to the northeast and features curved metal posts, and exposed roof framing.
\nProviding access to the Dressing Shed & Kiosk level from Gilchrist Avenue are two concrete stairs to the northeast and southwest of the building, set into concrete retaining wall.
\nFeatures of the Dressing Shed & Kiosk of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of Stone Wall and Dressing Shed & Kiosk not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nOrnamental Lake (York’s Hollow) (1933-36, with later alterations)
\nThe Ornamental Lake (officially named York’s Hollow in 1988) is located in the southwest corner of the Northwest Park Section, with its water supplied from run-off from the ICB and nearby catchments of Kelvin Grove. The lake is surrounded by vegetation including mature trees, and its form and banks have been altered several times.
\nFeatures of the Ornamental Lake (York’s Hollow) of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of the Ornamental Lake (York’s Hollow) not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nArchaeological Potential
\nHistorical evidence and previous archaeological investigations indicate that archaeological deposits remaining from the place’s use as a municipal dump site during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, are likely to survive, as well as brick and stone (Brisbane Tuff) drains. Likely to be found in areas that historically featured natural depressions / hollows / watercourses and within refuse trenches, there is the potential to identify these types of features and deposits through further archaeological surveys and physical investigations.
\nThere is also some potential that archaeological features and deposits may remain from 19th century gathering, camping, rifle range and brickmaking activities in the historically low-lying ‘York’s Hollow’ area, and the occupation of the place during the Great Depression and World War II.
\nWhile much of the place has the potential for archaeological finds, areas of historical use where there is potential for archaeological evidence that could yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland’s history (state-level significance) include:
\nPlantings and Lawns
\nThe Park has open, turfed recreational spaces, and comprises various areas that feature mature shade and ornamental trees.
\nFeatures of the Plantings and Lawns of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance not previously mentioned include:
\nVictoria Park covers an area of undulating land bordered by Bowen Bridge Road, Gregory Terrace, the Royal Brisbane Hospital and Breakfast Creek in the suburbs of Spring Hill and Herston. Initially part of Barrambbin and Walan, the park was gazetted as a reserve for recreation in 1875. Over the course of its history, Victoria Park’s functions have included social, cultural and sustenance grounds for Aboriginal people across the region; brickmaking and timber-felling industries; municipal rubbish dump; campsites for displaced people; military camps; and sports and recreation grounds. Despite large incursions into its land for educational and other purposes, and the construction of railway lines and roads through its centre, Victoria Park remains one of the largest parks in inner Brisbane.
\nAboriginal custodianship
\nMeanjin, the area now encompassing the Brisbane CBD, is traditionally part of Turrbal and Jagera/Yuggera country.[1] Walan or Woolan (meaning ‘bream’) and Barrambbin (meaning ‘windy place’) comprised the areas now known as Herston and Bowen Hills. Walan and Barrambbin were meeting and gathering places for groups travelling to and from the Blackall Ranges, as well as corroboree sites and hunting and fishing lands. The land was undulating, with hills punctuated by a chain of waterholes and gullies. It was an extensive camp, contact and cultural site.[2]
\nEuropean use (1820s-1840s)
\nEuropean occupation began in the 1820s, with the establishment of the Moreton Bay Penal settlement at Meanjin in 1825. The Europeans used Walan and Barrambbin for industrial activities needed to support the settlement such as brick-making and timber getting. They named the area ‘York’s Hollow’, after the leader of the local clan, whom the Europeans referred to as ‘the Duke of York’, thought to be an Anglicised version of the name Daki Yakka. A small number of interactions took place between Europeans and Aboriginal people prior to, and following, the establishment of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, likely the Duke of York’s clan. The Duke of York, estimated to be in his 40s in 1836, visited the European settlement at the invitation of two Quakers, and a reciprocal visit was made by the commandant of the settlement, Foster Fyans. The clan largely avoided the penal settlement, with only a limited number of interactions reported by European sources.[3]
\nThe Moreton Bay Penal settlement was opened for free settlement in 1842. York’s Hollow, just beyond the town boundary, proved convenient for accommodating unexpected arrivals in the colony. A Chinese camp was established in 1848 following a failed attempt to employ Chinese shepherds on pastoral stations. In 1849, 253 immigrants from the Fortitude, Chaseley and Lima formed a temporary village on the York’s Hollow slopes, after arrangements for land grants fell through. Other recent immigrants to Queensland in the mid-1800s stayed in these temporary fringe camps. As Herston and the surrounding area became increasingly urbanised, these camps were deemed unhealthy. Its residents were 'moved along', and new immigration facilities were constructed elsewhere.[4]
\nThe brickmaking industry continued within the gully, and York’s Hollow bricks were reportedly used in the construction of Parliament House in 1866. The waterway along the hollow provided a water supply for the fledgling residential settlement, supplementing the tank stream within the town.[5]
\nThe Duke of York clan retained its presence in York’s Hollow despite these incursions. Gatherings continued at York’s Hollow, with clashes between different tribes occurring in June 1847 and June 1850; up to 800 people were present. Interactions between the clan and the Europeans were mixed: some members of the clan were employed in Brisbane town by Europeans, while Europeans allegedly visited the camp to collect native vegetation for their gardens, as well as for more nefarious purposes. There were also reports of European assaults on the camp. In December 1846, following the deaths of three European settlers on the Pine River, European soldiers raided the camp at 11pm, firing on the estimated 300 – 400 people sleeping there. Kitty, daughter of the Duke of York, died in the affray. In November 1849, Turrbal people at the Barrambbin camp were shot by military officers after a false report was circulated that they had killed a bullock. Three men were wounded; two police were sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for the offence. Local newspapers stopped reporting on the camp after 1860, but the clan likely remained within Barrambbin and Walan beyond that date.[6]
\nColonial Queensland use (1860s-1890s)
\nWhen Queensland became a separate colony in 1859, the Queensland Government made a concerted effort to provide recreational lands for the people of Brisbane. It was believed that the fledgling society would benefit from having open spaces included in the infrastructure. At a time when industry was choking many of the large cities in Britain and Europe, the Queensland Government did not want the same fate to befall Brisbane. Terms such as 'lungs of the city' and 'breathing space' were used to describe parks established in Brisbane.[7]
\nYork’s Hollow had been proposed for a recreation reserve under the New South Wales Government, and the new Queensland Government indicated its intention to create the reserve. In 1864 the Government announced that it was ‘pleased to grant a reserve of about three hundred acres, in York’s Hollow, for the purpose of a public park and recreation ground for the citizens of Brisbane.’[8] The Brisbane Municipal Council was to be granted the deed, but the Queensland Government retained control over the site. The name ‘Victoria Park’ emerged in the mid-1860s, either in tribute to the then-monarch, or the London park of the same name. In 1866-7 the park was fenced, and the Public Lands Office leased grazing rights over the land for additional revenue. Lessees attempted to evict the brick-makers and squatters who had erected tents and temporary houses within the park. [9]
\nVictoria Park was formally gazetted as a reserve for recreation in 1875. A Board of Trustees was created to manage the 321 acres and 2 roods (approx. 130ha) of parkland; they 'expeditiously drew up a code of by-laws which provided, not only for the protection and good government of the park, but also laid down the rules for raising revenue for the improvement of the park'. The trustees, however, had limited success in fundraising for and improving the site. [10]
\nThe area referred to as ‘York’s Hollow’ had included an extensive area now covered by the Brisbane Showgrounds, Bowen Hills and parts of Herston, to what is now the Normanby Fiveways. From the 1860s, this area was reduced as land was required for other uses, including the Acclimatisation Society Gardens and the Grammar School Reserve. Despite its gazettal, the land set aside for Victoria Park was also reduced, as demands for services and facilities were met by encroachments on the undeveloped park. Land was resumed from the park for a night soil/manure depot (1866), a rifle range (1877, rescinded 1883[11]), sporting facilities for nearby schools, the Brisbane-Sandgate railway (1882), government domain (1883),[12] and children’s hospital (1883). Most of the resumptions were located on the park’s boundaries, but the railway crossed through the centre of the park, dividing it in two. By 1883, Victoria Park had been reduced to 217 acres (88ha), though it remained the largest open reserve within the immediate city area.[13]
\nAt the same time, the importance of the park for recreational use was emphasised. The residential areas surrounding the park (particularly Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley) experienced dramatic residential growth in the second half of the 19th century, becoming amongst the most densely populated areas in Brisbane by 1890. These inner urban areas were also home to a cross section of Brisbane society, from the poorest living in small cottages in the lower slopes of the hill, to the prestigious and wealthy homes overlooking Victoria Park on Gregory Terrace. The park provided an open space for residents, particularly those who lived in crowded and poor conditions at the bottom of the hill.[14]
\nRubbish dumping
\nIn 1872-3, amendments to the laws and regulations relating to public health placed additional restrictions on the disposal of refuse and led to the establishment of municipal dumping grounds.[15] The Local Board of Health, with consent from the Surveyor-General, declared that rubbish could be deposited in Victoria Park – initially ‘in the clay-holes on the side of the ridges’ and later buried in trenches.[16] By 1886, a reported 1,053 loads of rubbish had been trenched and the following year it was noted by council’s health officer Dr Joseph Bancroft that the ‘available ground on the Gregory Terrace side of the railway of sufficient depth of earth is nearly worked out’.[17] In 1899 the park trustees granted the Brisbane Municipal Council permission to deposit and bury rubbish in trenches in one of the Victoria Park gullies, near the watercourse on the western side of the railway.[18] This practice continued until 1901, while unofficial dumping continued into the 1930s.[19]
\nLand use (1890s-1930)
\nIn 1889, a large scheme of improvements was drafted for Victoria Park by William Soutter, a member of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society. Some proposals were rejected, such as selling residential subdivisions within the park, but Soutter implemented other improvements between 1890 and 1892. Much of the park was cleared and the rubbish burned. A 60ft (18m) drive with 12ft (3.6m) walkway was cut and kerbed through the park, atop the park’s excavated clay pits. The railway corridor was fenced, and trees grown in the Acclimatisation Society garden (including camphor laurels and umbrella trees) were planted along both sides of the railway. Drainage was improved, and the waterway running through the park was diverted. Extensive planting schemes were to follow, but were not carried out due to lack of funds.[20] By 1897, despite Soutter’s work, Victoria Park was considered ‘a magnificent tract of country many acres in extent, but it is literally in a state of nature. Little has been done to it’.[21]
\nThe park remained popular for recreational and non-recreational uses. In the absence of formally designed facilities, informal recreation included swimming in the ponds formed in the former brickpits, and football and cricket games on the flat ground at the centre of the park. Military drills and musters were held regularly, with the Queensland Defence Force marching to the park from the Adelaide Street drill shed. Squatters, ‘larrikins’, gamblers, drinkers and others committing undesirable activities in the park were reported. Between August and October 1890, mass meetings drew thousands to the Gregory Terrace section of the park opposite the Exhibition Building each Sunday. The ‘Park Hospital’, a tent hospital for quarantine cases, was operated in the Herston Road section from late 1890. The park also drew the attention of a University Commission as a possible site for a tertiary educational facility.[22]
\nIn 1903, Victoria Park was brought within the boundary of the City of Brisbane, and in 1908, the trusteeship of 210 acres (85ha) of the park was transferred to the Brisbane City Council (BCC). The BCC had been seeking control of the parks within its area, in place of the trustees who administered the parks. Between 1887 and 1913 it gained full control of Wickham, Observatory, Hardgrave, Babbage, Albert, Alexandra and Victoria Parks. The International Town Planning movement that existed at the time also helped to put city planning and beautification programmes on the city council's agenda. Between 1913 and 1925, Bowen, New Farm, Raymond, Newstead, Perry, Centenary and Teneriffe Parks were created.[23]
\nVictoria Park was the largest of the BCC’s new parks, but was ‘a rather difficult one to handle’,[24] due to its uneven topography, waterways and poor soil. Interest in the park for its non-recreational potential had continued, and in 1914, the BCC agreed to reserve around 100 acres of the park for the future use of the university, following extensive lobbying by the University Permanent Site League. While the park was to remain publicly accessible, it would not be developed for park purposes. Park funding was funnelled towards the newly acquired parks, while small improvements were made at Victoria Park. This included tree planting and the construction of tennis courts (1913, not extant), and the creation of rockeries along Gregory Terrace, bordering the park (not extant). In 1913, the park also became part of a worldwide experiment, as a small temporary tent was erected in the park near the hospital, to carry out measurements for the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Terrestrial Magnetism study. However, the park predominantly continued to be used for non-recreational purposes, including cattle agistment (between Gregory Terrace and the railway) and wool and grain storage (in a former quarry near Gregory Terrace and Bowen Bridge Road).[25]
\nIn 1922, 108 acres (44ha) of Victoria Park was formally reserved for university purposes under the University Site Act. The site was reserved conditionally; if the site were not to be used for the university, it would revert to the park. Four years later, funding was provided from a private donor for a larger site at St Lucia, and the reserve was set to be returned to the trustees.[26] This took some time, however, and as the land remained unused, complaints about its condition had continued. ‘[N]ot a flower has been planted in it,’ wrote a correspondent to the Brisbane Courier in 1921, ‘no improvements, except the planting of some trees, and an incompleted, unused, and miserable carriage way or road.’[27] The park was described in 1924 by the Daily Mail as both ‘a magnificent reserve’[28] and ‘a couple of hundred acres of barren land… intersected by more or less smellful drainage channels.’[29]
\nOne of these drainage channels ran through the flat section of the park used for sporting fixtures, making the land swampy and frequently mosquito-infested. Between 1923 and 1925, a 15-20 acre (6-8ha) area at the western end of the park (now between Gilchrist Avenue and the railway reserve) was sewered, levelled and graded for use as sports grounds; a shrub-rockery entrance was laid out from Bowen Bridge Road; and five sports fields were laid out. These improvements were funded by the £750 transfer of Bowen Park to the National Agricultural and Industrial Association. Amateur athletics competition held there in 1928. Football, cricket and hockey teams acquired formal leases of the grounds, and the park hosted up to 200 players each Saturday.[30]
\nBrisbane City Council (BCC) Electricity Substation No. 4
\nIn 1928-9, the BCC’s Substation No. 4 was constructed at the Gregory Terrace/Bowen Bridge Road section of Victoria Park.[31]
\nThe BCC became a public authority for the provision of electrical services across Brisbane in 1925. Electricity in Brisbane to that point had been provided by public and private authorities in a complex overlapping system. Most of the local councils in greater Brisbane arranged supply through bulk supply contracts with the City Electric Light Company. The Brisbane Tramway Company also supplied 600-volt DC power to properties along its electrified tram system, until its responsibilities were transferred to the BCC 1925. Faced with the tramway’s obsolete electricity network, and the BCC decided to upgrade its own generation capacity and infrastructure. This led to rapid expansion in the late 1920s, as a coordinated, uniform distribution system was developed. The BCC encouraged the public to connect to existing supply lines, and constructed a large powerhouse at New Farm in 1928. Substations were quickly constructed in the suburbs, supplied with bulk energy from the BCC power stations and converted for use by consumers.[32]
\nIn 1927, the BCC’s Electrical Department had established stores in the unused woolstores off Bowen Bridge Road in Victoria Park (outside the heritage boundary). The substation was constructed the following year, and served as a central station as the suburban electricity supply was gradually brought onto the New Farm powerhouse grid. It was one of four substations constructed in 1928 for the Electricity Supply Department, the first main control substations erected by the BCC. They received 11,000 volts AC from the New Farm Power Station via high tension underground feeder cables.[33]
\nElectricity substations from the interwar period were typically of masonry construction, with red-brown face brick walls and simple, render details. Most featured a parapet to the main entrance, modest Classical details, and robust material palette. The interiors housed electrical equipment, were well-ventilated, and had roller door access. Located in urban areas, the substations were generally of a domestic scale and form, in line with the council’s policy of producing substations to a domestic style and scale, so that they could fit neatly into the streetscape.[34]
\nThe building at Victoria Park was designed by the BCC's City Architect, AH (Alfred Herbert) Foster. It was located on the corner of Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace, and had a tiled, hip roof with gables narrowly projecting from each elevation. Of a symmetrical design, the substation featured light-coloured rendered details and darker face brick walls, which complemented the prominent museum (Old Museum Building, QHR 600209) on the opposite side of Bowen Bridge Road. A c1944 photograph shows a stone retaining wall wrapped around the road (southeast and east) sides of the substation.[35]
\nGreat Depression
\nThe first set of large-scale improvements at Victoria Park began with the Great Depression. As funding was made available for public works under the Intermittent Relief Scheme to boost employment, Victoria Park was targeted for enhancement.[36]
\nThe largest work were two projects proposed in the mid-1920s: the construction of a golf course and a road. The Queensland Golf Association had made the proposal for a municipal golf course in Victoria Park in 1922, as similar municipal golf courses were being opened throughout Australia. With the return of 108 acres of land from the university forthcoming, the proposal was accepted in 1926. As the return of the land was delayed, however, work on the golf course did not begin until April 1931. The 18-hole golf course was opened in 1931, with a Spanish-style clubhouse designed by AH Foster built in 1935 (QHR 602034).[37]
\nIn addition to the new golf course, Gilchrist Avenue was constructed under the scheme in 1930, connecting Bowen Bridge Road to Ithaca Street, near Kelvin Grove Road at Normanby. This provided a long-sought vehicular path directly through the park, as well as access to the golf course and sportsgrounds. The avenue was named for the City Engineer EF (Eneas Fraser) Gilchrist. As part of the long-awaited beautification of the park, the avenue was lined with silky oak, crepe myrtle, flame and jacaranda trees. In 1933 an ornamental lake was created in a natural basin off Gilchrist Avenue at the western end of the sports fields. The lake was stocked with fish, its banks planted, and an island for birds created in its centre.[38]
\nImprovements were also made to the sports grounds, as lessees had complained about the rough, flood-prone surfaces of the Victoria Park fields. A new amalgamated hockey organisation, the Brisbane Hockey Association, formed in 1931, using Victoria Park as its headquarters. The Association contributed finance towards the improvements, and four new fields were formally laid out in the section fronting the newly-created Gilchrist Avenue, between 1933 and 1935. As well as hockey, these were used for cricket in summer, and hosted some football games in winter. Drainage was also improved to control flooding, and a stone wall with ‘Play The Game’ spelled out in stones was likely constructed at this time.[39]
\nIn the Gregory Terrace section of the park, a 1.5 mile (2.4km) long, 20ft (6.1m) wide horse-riding track called ‘Riding Row’ was created, and palms were planted along its route. The Row was officially opened in 1932, with a military parade and a crowd of around 1,000 people. Two stone piers, made of Brisbane tuff, were constructed to mark its entrance at the corner of Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace in 1936.[40]
\nOther landscaping and reclamation work was undertaken during this time, notably as part of the beautification of the park.[41]
\nThe Depression also impacted on the use of Victoria Park, as camps for the unemployed were erected throughout the park reserve in the 1930s. An increasing number of unemployed, itinerant men travelled either on foot, or by rail, across the state looking for employment. Between 1929 and 1933 Queensland Government policy stipulated unemployed single men, not working on relief projects, would not be able to draw state government funded emergency rations from the same centre in successive weeks. This forced them to move onto the next town, often many miles away, to demonstrate they were seeking work. The term ‘swagmen’, used to describe itinerant men walking around the country, or ‘waltzing Matilda’, seeking work in 19th and early 20th century Australia, was applied to these men who were compelled to travel long distances.[42]
\nA small camp of ‘shanties, shacks, huts and humpies’[43] arose in the Gregory Terrace section of Victoria Park in the early 1930s. It remained until 1932, when the camp was ‘visited by a large policeman, and the occupants agreed that the beauties of the new riding track would be enhanced by the removal of their dwellings.’[44] Other camps within Victoria Park mostly occupied the government and university domains near Herston Road (not within the heritage boundary).
\nSecond World War
\nFurther improvements were promised for the park, including the construction of dressing-shed accommodation for the sportsgrounds,[45] but work was put on hold following the outbreak of World War II. When the war reached the Pacific in late 1941, Brisbane was transformed into a locale of intense military activity, with thousands of American troops stationed in the city before being shipped off to fight the Japanese forces in the Pacific.[46]
\nIn 1942, the BCC offered Victoria Park to the US Army as a large administrative and accommodation camp. ‘Camp Victoria Park’ provided support services for US combat troop operations in the South West Pacific. An air raid shelter was constructed behind the electricity substation. A Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery was emplaced in the golf course (not within the heritage boundary).[47]
\nCamp Victoria Park provided extensive accommodation for US and Australian forces. The camp was divided across the park, with an Officers’ Camp for Base Section 3 (Brisbane), US Army Services of Supply in the Gregory Terrace section, and an enlisted men’s camp near Herston Road (not within the heritage boundary). While most of the accommodation was canvas tents, a number of huts of fibrolite on timber stumps were constructed south of Herston Road and along Gregory Terrace. [48]
\nThe camp was gradually vacated after the end of the war, with the final occupants departing in 1946. A flagpole from the officers’ camp was left standing in the Gregory Terrace rockeries.[49]
\nPostwar
\nThe military facilities remained standing in the park for some years following the war, and were put to other uses. The vacant huts were initially used to house Australian war brides: Australian women who had married American servicemen. During and immediately after the war, between 12,000 and 15,000 Australian women married US servicemen stationed in Australia, including around 4,500 in Queensland. Some remained in Australia, but most travelled to the US to live with their husbands. Mass transportation of the war brides to the US on ‘bride ships’ was arranged from 1945, from ports in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. In September 1945, passage for over 200 brides on the Lurline was cancelled at the last minute, and a number of the women were accommodated in the empty Victoria Park buildings until new passage could be arranged for them.[50]
\nThe post-war reconstruction process heralded an era of rapid population growth in Queensland. This growth, concurrent with material shortages, led to an acute housing shortage. The Queensland Government began repurposing military facilities for temporary accommodation, establishing ‘housing camps’ in suburbs including Holland Park, Chermside, Wacol and Kalinga. Up to 100,000 Queenslanders lived in temporary housing between 1946 and 1960. In February 1947, as the last of the war brides departed, the State Government acquired buildings in Victoria Park for temporary housing purposes. The Queensland State Housing Commission made use of the military facilities in Victoria Park, creating the second largest temporary housing settlement in Brisbane. Each hut housed several families. By 1950 Victoria Park was the impermanent home for 460 families, occupying the park for up to three years while new housing was slowly constructed in outer-lying suburbs. The Victoria Park camp, being close to the city, was highly visible to Brisbane residents. In the 1950s, the camp became the subject of media coverage about the poor living conditions experienced by the ‘old and new Australian families’.[51] As residents were moved to new houses, the temporary housing camps in Victoria Park were gradually emptied in the late 1950s, closed in 1960, and the fibrolite buildings were sold or demolished.[52]
\nCentenary
\nWith the end of the war, the removal of the housing camps, and the appointment of a new Parks Superintendent, improvements to Victoria Park were planned from the 1950s. In 1959 the Centenary Pool Complex [QHR 601240] was constructed by the BCC as its principal contribution to the celebrations of Queensland’s centenary. The pool was placed at the southwest corner of Victoria Park, bordering Gregory Terrace. The complex was designed to fit into the slope of the hill overlooking the park and was designed by BCC's City Architect James Birrell. The initial design of the complex included a landscaped entrance road designed by the Superintendent of Parks and Gardens, Harry Oakman.[53]
\nOakman was one of the pioneers of landscape architecture in Australia. In 1945 he began his seventeen-year appointment with the BCC as Superintendent of Parks and Gardens, and the Director of Separate Parks Branch. One of his earliest roles was transforming many of Brisbane's parks that had been damaged by the military use during the Second World War. He also led an extensive flowering tree planting programme on the slopes and gullies of the Victoria Park golf course, and poincianas, oleanders, jacarandas and flame trees along the fairways. Oakman was recognised as a Fellow of the British and Australian Institutes of Landscape Architects and the Royal Australian Institute of Parks and Recreation.[54]
\nAnother commemorative gesture made within Victoria Park was the planting of a grove of eucalypt trees in the southeast near Bowen Bridge Road. This area of Victoria Park had been the site of some of the Housing Commission buildings, and required beautification. Named 'The Gundoo Memorial Grove', it was planted by the students of the Brisbane Girls' Grammar School as their contribution to the celebrations. The trees were provided by the Forestry Department and comprised nine [ten] different varieties of native trees (mainly eucalypts). In a memorandum, Harry Oakman stated that ‘tree planting along forest lines in this parkland would give a unique feature to the city of Brisbane, particularly if the trees chosen are Eucalypts'. He believed that the eucalypts would provide an attractive, shady grove at low cost and requiring little maintenance.[55] In the early 1960s, the grove was supplemented by subtropical plantings in the area between the pool and Bowen Bridge Road, to beautify and create a ‘tropical atmosphere in the heart of the city’.[56]
\nLate 20th & early 21st century use (1950s-2021)
\nBeautification and improvement works were undertaken under Oakman’s supervision of the park. In order ‘to provide a pleasing view on one of the city’s outlet roads’, planter beds were installed along the Gregory Terrace frontage in 1958; two beds, flanking the Riding Row entrance piers, remain extant. The park’s main entrance was also repositioned from opposite the Museum to a new road from Gregory Terrace.[57]
\nSports continued at the sports fields, with leases to the Brisbane Hockey Association, Queensland Rugby Union and schools. The Hockey Association used up to seven of the fields during its playing seasons between the 1930s and the 1950s, holding junior and school fixtures, women’s practices and regular matches. It contributed finance for the ongoing maintenance of the fields, and hosted its grand finals at the park. The fields were also used to host archery contests, travelling circuses, military and royal parades, and parking for the annual Royal National Agricultural & Industrial Society show.[58]
\nA new brick dressing-shed, kiosk and lavatory facilities was added to the sportsgrounds from 1958. Dressing shed facilities had been provided for the sportsgrounds from 1930, but the dressing shed, a simple timber structure, burned down in 1947. When finance became available, the dressing shed was designed within the BCC and erected by 1959, being opened for the use of the sporting groups in 1960. The kiosk was leased to sporting clubs and individuals to sell refreshments during the sporting seasons. Improvements to the parking and facilities for the sportsgrounds were made in the following years, including two sets of steps from Gilchrist Avenue, flanking the dressing shed.[59]
\nNon-recreational and non-public uses also continued across the park. Small portions of land throughout the park were resumed for railway purposes, school use, hospital and temporary carparks, the Gregory Terrace road reserve and telecommunications, and leases were granted for school playing fields. In 1968 the Department of Electricity acquired land in the park and built an office building behind the substation. They also purchased a large stores building previously used by the Queensland Railway Department in the same corner of the park (not within the heritage boundary). In 1972 it was proposed to run a freeway through the park, though this plan did not come to fruition until the late 1990s.[60]
\nIn 1988 the lake area in Victoria Park was reconditioned and officially named 'York's Hollow'. In the following years, artwork and sculptures were added, including figures from Expo 88. A section of lawn near the Centenary Pool was planted with trees by the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland and named ‘Gregory Grove’ in 1989 in honour of Augustus Gregory’s 170th birthday. Sixty trees were planted in the Gregory Terrace area near Rogers Street to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012.[61]
\nIn 1999, construction on a bypass road connecting Hamilton to Milton was commenced. The bypass, called the Inner City Bypass, was undertaken to reduce traffic congestion in the central business district and Fortitude Valley. An area of 4.606ha was resumed from Victoria Park for the road, which ran through the park adjacent to the railway, exacerbating the park’s divided nature. The road was constructed in 2001, with the entire bypass completed in 2003. A landscaped pedestrian overpass was added to bridge the bypass (not in the boundary).[62]
\nArchaeological investigations undertaken by ARCHAEO Cultural Heritage Services in late 1999, ahead of the construction of the Inner City Bypass, revealed early sections of the York’s Hollow watercourse, fill associated with the construction of the 1880s railway, and refuse dating from the 1890s to early 1900s deposited in natural depressions and buried in rubbish trenches.[63] Over 100,000 artefacts were recovered, including: glass bottles and stoppers; ceramic kitchen, tableware, bottles, and doll parts; clay tobacco pipes; personal and clothing items including buttons, pins and beads; medicine, hygiene and writing implements; metal cutlery, nails, hardware, and coins; leather and textiles fragments; faunal and floral remains, and worked bone artefacts. Further municipal refuse trenches, likely dating from the 1870s and 1880s, were uncovered within the railway corridor and in the southeast section of Victoria Park, during archaeological investigations associated with the Cross River Rail Project in 2020.[64]
\nIn 2021 Victoria Park continues to provide recreational facilities including playgrounds, dog off-leash areas, walking tracks, bike paths, open space and sports fields.
","criteria":"Victoria Park, gazetted as a reserve for recreation in 1875, is important for its association with key phases of Queensland's history. Over the course of its existence Victoria Park’s functions have included social, cultural and sustenance grounds for Aboriginal people in the colonial period; brickmaking and timber-felling industries; municipal rubbish dump; campsites for displaced people; and sports and recreation grounds. Despite large incursions into its land (for educational and other purposes), and the construction of railway lines and roads through its centre, Victoria Park remains one of the largest parks in Brisbane, and demonstrates the value afforded to green recreational space from the 19th to the 21st century.
\nAs part of York’s Hollow, the site was one of Brisbane’s first industrial areas following European occupation.
\nThe park was the site of conflict between Aboriginal people and Europeans in the colonial period; the site of camps for displaced people, including Chinese and Scottish immigrants (1840s), itinerant camps during the Great Depression (1929-1932), war brides (1945-7), and families awaiting housing commission accommodation (1947-1960). As Camp Victoria Park, the park hosted Australian and US soldiers/operations during the Second World War, as well as temporary accommodation for returned servicemen and their families after the war.
\nThe Sports Fields (1925; re-laid 1935; and including ‘Play the Game’ Wall (c.1936) and Dressing Sheds & Kiosk (1959-60)) are associated with the development of sports organisations, particularly as the first headquarters of the Brisbane Hockey Association.
\nThe Brisbane City Council (BCC) Electricity Substation No. 4 (1928), is important in demonstrating the expansion of the electricity supply network in Brisbane during the 1920s.
\nGilchrist Avenue, its retaining wall/stair and its tree plantings (1930-2, and 1936), the Riding Row Entrance Piers (1936) and the Ornamental Lake (1933-6) are important as examples of work carried out under the Intermittent Relief Scheme during the Great Depression.
\nThe park contains examples of the work of professional horticulturalists Henry Moore (Brisbane Parks Superintendent 1912-1940) and Harry Oakman (Brisbane Parks Superintendent 1946-1963), including mature tree plantings, planter beds, and the Gundoo Memorial Grove plantings of native trees in 1959 to celebrate the centenary of Queensland, and remnants of the adjacent subtropical plantings in the early 1960s.
|Victoria Park has the potential to contribute knowledge that will lead to a greater understanding of early urban material culture, consumption and disposal habits in Queensland, and early and evolved service infrastructure and occupation activities on the urban fringe.
\nArchaeological investigations of the extensive late-19th and early-20th century municipal refuse deposits have the potential to reveal artefacts that may provide further information on the lifestyles, diet, and health of Brisbane’s occupants, and facilitate studies of market access, consumer choice, refuse disposal patterns, and social and economic life in the late colonial period. The apparent disposal of refuse progressively across the park – from east to west – also provides an opportunity to explore change in material culture over time.
\nArchaeological investigations of areas subject to late-19th and early-20th century reclamation and drainage improvements, and in the vicinity of the interwar Brisbane City Council Electricity Substation No. 4, have the potential to reveal surface and sub-surface features that could contribute to a greater understanding of the planning, design, and construction of drainage and electrical distribution infrastructure.
\nHistorical use of the park for a variety of purposes has resulted in the potential for subsurface archaeological evidence that could inform about the nature and extent of early- to mid-19th century gathering, camping, rifle range and brickmaking activities in the historically low-lying ‘York’s Hollow’ area, and occupation of the place during the Great Depression and World War II.
|BCC Electricity Substation No. 4, located in the southeast corner of Victoria Park, is an excellent and highly-intact example of an electricity substation constructed during the interwar period in Brisbane. In its form, fabric and materials, it is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, which include: its urban location; domestic scale and form with modest Classical influences; masonry construction with red-brown face brick walls and render details; parapet to the main entrance; use of robust materials with simple detailing; and open and well-ventilated interior designed to contain electrical equipment, with roller door access.
|Victoria Park is significant for its aesthetic attributes, derived from the juxtaposition of the place’s natural qualities with its metropolitan setting, and from the aesthetic contribution of BCC Electricity Substation No. 4.
\nAn extensive green site within the cityscape, Victoria Park features an arrangement of mature trees, planted along an avenue (Gilchrist Avenue), within a grove (Gundoo Memorial Grove), along the circumference of the park, and interspersed with playing fields and open grasses areas. The sloping nature of the site and open grassed areas provide expansive vistas within the park and out into the surrounding area.
\nBCC Electricity Substation No. 4, highly intact and standing prominently on the corner of Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace, has aesthetic importance for its beautiful attributes and streetscape contribution. Through its skilful use of modest Classical-style architectural features, symmetrical composition with central parapet and projecting end gables, and complementary material palette of red-brown face brick, terracotta roof tiles, and render details, the building forms an attractive, well-composed design. The building’s scale, form and design, modelled on contemporary domestic architecture, complements the streetscape of Gregory Terrace and Bowen Bridge Road.
|Victoria Park has a special association with the people of Brisbane as a popular inner-city park for organised sport and informal recreation (having served the community formally since 1875 as a valued green space for recreational purposes). It contains sporting facilities, particularly sports fields.
\nThe sportsgrounds within the park have an association with the Brisbane Hockey Association (established 1931), which used the sportsgrounds as its first headquarters and hosted its matches there into the 1970s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19617,"place_ref":600110,"name":"Telecommunications House (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"283 Elizabeth Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-04-05","description":"Telecommunications House is located on Elizabeth Street adjacent to the grounds of the St Stephens complex. It is a four storey building with a basement, constructed of red face brick with contrasting cream rendered features on its facade.
The street facade is five arched bays wide, organised around a central bay emphasised by a ground floor entry portico, a second floor balcony, and a parapet level Classical pediment. The ground floor portico consisting of a central triangular pediment flanked by scroll-like brackets is supported by paired Tuscan columns, and the balcony above is supported on paired unfluted Composite columns. Paired brick pilasters, followed by paired, rendered Corinthian ones continue the vertical emphasis to the arch below parapet level.
On each side of the central bay the openings are all arched with keystones, and although they house windows at the ground floor level, form arcaded verandahs on the upper three levels. The arcaded upper levels have wrought iron balustrades with the initials CTA located centrally, apart from the second floor central balcony which has balustrading similar to that on the parapet.
The pediment at parapet level has an ornate central moulding of the CTA crest. Behind the facade the levels above the ground floor are recessed, previously providing a light well adjoining Hesketh House (now demolished). The northern face of the building is plainly rendered and has predominantly square openings apart from a couple of arched ones.
Internally the building was linked with neighbouring Hesketh House when it was constructed, and these links remained at the front of the building on the ground floor and two of the upper levels until Hesketh House was demolished. Some sections of ornate plaster ceiling and a pilaster capital remain towards the rear of the ground floor. Timber beams and columns are still evident on the level below the top floor. The interior is currently divided into a number of private offices.
","history":"This building was erected in 1906-07 as headquarters and clubrooms for the Commercial Travellers Association (CTA) of Queensland.
The Commercial Travellers Association of Queensland was formed in 1884. It was the fourth such organisation started in Australia, the first being in Adelaide in the 1870s. Commercial travellers were an integral part of the retailing process in early Queensland. Most businesses employed them. They travelled all over the colony, showing samples of goods to retailers in isolated towns and conveying orders to the suppliers. They saw themselves as 'advance agents', spreading 'the blessings and decencies of civilization'.
Since its inception, the CTA had met in hotels, but between 1904 and 1906 the association acquired property in Elizabeth Street for a purpose-built headquarters and club rooms. The building was designed by prominent Brisbane architect Claude William Chambers, who had established in Brisbane a respected commercial practice which was extended to Sydney in 1915. His known commercial buildings from this period include the Finney Isles Building (QHR 600142) ('The Big Block') and Perry House (QHR 600103) in Brisbane's central business district, and the first Winchcombe Carsons Woolstore (QHR 600326) at Teneriffe. Between 1901 and 1915 he was twice president of the Queensland Institute of Architects, and was president of the Australian Institute of Architects 1916 to 1918. He resided mainly in Sydney from 1915, but remained in partnership in Brisbane with Lange L Powell 1911-20 and EM Ford 1920-35.
The CTA Building was completed in mid-1907 and was opened officially by the Chief Justice of Queensland in August that year. It contained a 'handsome dining hall' and bar on the ground floor, bedrooms for the accommodation of members, and a roof garden. A mansard roof and tower were removed at a later date, possibly when increased accommodation was being constructed c1914.
The CTA ranked amongst the most prominent of Brisbane's special interest associations, although membership was not confined to commercial travellers. With permanent headquarters, the club became a focal point for member interests and business. The association provided a variety of services to its members, including in 1914-15 the provision of a purpose-built Sample Rooms Building, now demolished, on an adjacent site fronting Charlotte Street, acquired in 1913. The CTA negotiated discounts for commercial travellers at hotels throughout the state, and was affiliated with the United Travellers Association of Australasia. As well, it provided services such as mortuary funds, accident and sickness insurance funds, assistance with loans, scholarships for members' children, savings funds, allowances for needy members, and an employment register for out of work commercial travellers.
The Charlotte Street sample rooms did not prove to be as revenue-producing as anticipated. In consequence, in 1926, the CTA decided to erect as a leasing venture, a four-storeyed building (QHR 600109) on the Elizabeth Street section of the site they had acquired in 1913, which ran through to Charlotte Street between the CTA club rooms and the St Stephen's Cathedral complex (QHR 600106-108). The new building, formerly known as Hesketh House, and now demolished, replaced a winter garden, established by the CTA c1914 when the sample rooms fronting Charlotte Street were erected, and was connected with the 1906-07 building at each level. The dining room and associated facilities were moved to the basement of the new building, leaving room in the old one for additional bedrooms.
Changing retail practice, prompted by improvements in transport and communications led to a decline in CTA membership after the Second World War. In 1949 the CTA sold the 1914-15 sample rooms block and the 1927-28 building to the Commonwealth of Australia, which used them to house the Engineering Branch of the Post Master General's Department. In 1963, the CTA also sold the 1906-07 building to the Commonwealth. It was renamed Telecommunications House and occupied as offices of the PMG's marketing and commercial section. The PMG (Telecom after 1975) was located there until 1991.
","criteria":"Telecommunications House is important in demonstrating the development of retail trading practices in Queensland.
|It also demonstrates the principal characteristics of an early 1900s brick commercial building in Brisbane. The building is also important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the commercial work of prominent Brisbane architect CW Chambers.
|Telecommunications House is important for its aesthetic characteristics including the deeply modelled facade of contrasting face brickwork and rendered classical details. The building makes a strong contribution to the streetscape, being complementary in scale and design to the GPO buildings opposite and the neighbouring St Stephens complex.
|Telecommunications House is important for its special association with the operations of the Commercial Travellers Association, a significant commercial association in Queensland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and for its association with C W Chambers as a good example of his commercial work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19619,"place_ref":602495,"name":"Coorparoo Substation No. 210","alternate_name":"Substation 10","street_address":"12 Main Avenue","suburb":"COORPAROO","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-08-01","description":"The former Coorparoo Substation No.210 faces Main Avenue. A pedestrian gate on the south side of the substation allows access to the clubrooms of the Buranda Bowls Club. The modern clubrooms occupy most of the lot on which the substation stands. The bowling club grounds surround the substation to the west and north, and palm trees screen the north side of the substation.
The modest, freestanding single-storey pavilion is constructed of 200mm cement blocks, painted white, with recessed infill panels of colonial-bond red brick. It stands on a plinth of rusticated concrete blocks, and on the street elevation the concrete floor is 600mm above ground level. The timber-framed hipped roof is clad in corrugated iron, and is truncated on the street elevation by a curved Flemish-influenced gable. Insulators protrude from the upper centre of the gable screen, and two conduit holes remain on the north side of the street elevation. Underneath the gable screen is a steel roller door, inset with a smaller door, or "wicket". Crude timber stairs have been added in front of the wicket. To each side of the roller door there is a metal-framed six-pane obscure wire-glass window, set within a recessed brick panel. The lettering "Sub-Station 210", embellished with a decorative moulded scroll and a plaque on each side, is applied in a band above the roller door.
The north and south elevations have no windows, and two recessed brick panels each. The western elevation has two recessed brick panels, each containing a six-pane obscure wire-glass window. Ventilation is provided by terracotta vents at floor level on the north and south elevations, and by meshed gaps between the top of the walls and the eaves, on three sides. Surface drains run around the base of the building.
The interior is a single volume, unceiled, and lined with a cement-plastered brick. There are the remains of fixtures and machinery mountings on the walls and floor, along with input and output cable connection points. There is a manhole near the roller door, and some hairline cracking in the wall render.
The timber stairs to the wicket in the roller door, and the garden beds on the west and north sides of the substation are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The former BCC Coorparoo Substation No. 210 is located on Main Street, Coorparoo, at the southeast corner of Langlands Park, next to the Buranda Bowls Club. The small, one storey concrete block and brick utility building was designed by the City Architect's Office and was commissioned in 1930. It supplied the area's series street lighting system until some time before 1977.
The history of electricity supply and distribution began in Brisbane in 1882, with the demonstration of eight arc light street lamps, which were powered by J.W. Sutton and Company's steam engine, housed in Adelaide Street. The first electricity generating and distribution systems to supply private consumers had started operation in Britain and the United States in the same year.
In 1887 the company Barton and White was formed, and in 1888 it had a powerhouse operating in Edison Lane, behind the General Post Office, the latter becoming the first consumer to be supplied by an electrical supply undertaking in Australia. Barton and White's Direct Current (DC) dynamo produced 100 volts to power the post office's arc lights. By 1896 Barton and White had become the Brisbane Electric Supply Company. In 1904 the latter became the City Electric Light Company (CEL). After the closure of the powerhouse at Edison Lane in 1899, CEL operated a powerhouse at 69 Ann Street until 1915, and another in Williams Street from 1912 to 1930.
In 1893 Thargomindah was the first town in Queensland, outside Brisbane, to have an electrical supply. It was also the first town in Australia to use municipally owned electric streetlights, and the first to have a hydroelectric plant, supplied by an Electric Authority. Charters Towers' electrification followed in 1897, with Rockhampton in 1898, and Toowoomba in 1905. By 1914, six towns outside Brisbane had electricity.
Brisbane's first electric trams ran in 1897, and the Brisbane Tramways Company operated a power station at Countess Street between 1896 and 1929. The power station produced 600 volt DC, which was only useful for short distance transmission. As the tram routes expanded, it became necessary to build a power station at Light Street, Fortitude Valley (1913), and one at Logan Road, Woolloongabba (1915). Some businesses sited alongside the tram routes drew electricity from the tramways' DC mains. In 1922 the Brisbane Tramways Trust took over the network, and in 1925 the tramways were transferred to the new Greater Brisbane Council. At this time there were four power stations in Brisbane: the three tramways power stations, and CEL's Williams Street power station.
The three power stations that the BCC had inherited were having difficulty coping with supplying both the expanding tramways, and the suburbs of Ithaca and Toowong. Other pre-amalgamation local authorities had purchased their electricity in bulk from CEL, under ten year agreements, and the last of those agreements did not expire until 1935. Until then the BCC had to continue to purchase electricity for the areas concerned from CEL, which refused to sell its assets at a price agreeable to the BCC. CEL built the Bulimba power station in 1926, and continued to supply the central city and South Brisbane after 1935.
In 1925 the BCC was faced with an obsolete electricity network, and decided that it needed to upgrade its own generation capacity and infrastructure. This lead to rapid expansion in the late 1920s, as a co-ordinated, uniform distribution system was developed. The BCC encouraged the public to connect to existing supply lines, and promoted electrical appliances at its own showrooms. After the New Farm power station became operational in June 1928, under the BCC Tramways Department, the three obsolete power stations were closed.
The New Farm power station delivered 11,000 volt (11kV) AC to the main control substations of the Tramways Department and the ESD, via underground, paper-insulated, lead-covered, double-wire cables. Eleven tramway substations were commissioned between 1927 and 1939, including a main control substation at Ballow Street. The other stations were automated. Roy Rusden Ogg, the BCC Tramways Department's architect, designed all eleven tramway substations, which were built as large brick boxes, in an austere classical idiom. Transformers in the substations reduced the incoming voltage, while converters changed the current from AC to DC, supplying 600 volt DC to the tramways system.
Alternating Current could be easily converted from one voltage to another by transformers, which made for economic long-distance transmission. High voltage (low current) could be sent by thin wires, instead of thick copper cables, and could then be "stepped down" at load centres, to 415 volts, three phase, or 250 volts, single phase, for consumers. The adoption of AC thus enabled the electrification of large urban areas, and eliminated the need for multiple local power plants. The system of BCC substations built in the late 1920s and 1930s demonstrates this shift to AC distribution, which was an important step in the modernisation of Brisbane.
Meanwhile, Queensland's rural electrification, despite its promising start, was lagging behind the other States. In 1936 the Royal Commission On Electricity reported that, in units generated per head of population, Queensland ranked last in Australia. By 1936 there were 62 Electricity undertakings in Queensland. Of these, 51 generated power and 41 were local authorities. Production was heavily tilted in favour of Brisbane. The BCC had an installed capacity for generating 56,250 kilowatts (New Farm), and CEL could generate 37,500 Kilowatts (Bulimba). Cairns ranked next, at 4,400 kilowatts, followed by Townsville at 3,810 kilowatts, and Toowoomba at 2,400 kilowatts. Of the 152,000,000 units of electricity used in Queensland in 1935, only 30,000,000 units were used outside South East Queensland.
In Brisbane, as each local authority's ten-year agreement with CEL expired, that area's public electricity supply was sourced from New Farm, via ESD substations. The main transmission system carried 11kV AC from New Farm to the main control substations, which were built in a distribution loop. Four 11kV main control substations were built by the BCC in 1928: Victoria Park (No.4), Lang Park (No.6), Victoria street Woolloongabba (No.9), and Cairns Street, Kangaroo Point (No.11). By 1930, Balmoral (No.12), Stephens (No.13), and Hamilton (No. 5) had been added. They were all made of brick, and were designed to harmonise with existing residential buildings. One 5kV main control substation was also in ESD operation in 1930. Underground cables linked the main control substations to automated substations, the distribution being controlled from a room in City Hall.
Coorparoo Shire's electricity supply agreement with CEL ended in 1930, as did the agreements with the Balmoral, Hamilton and Stephens Shires. Coorparoo's first subdivision had occurred in 1882, horse trams reached Buranda in 1887, and the Shire of Coorparoo was formed in 1888. In 1889 there were 2500 people in area, but the 1893 flood slowed development and reduced the number of houses in Coorparoo. By 1900 the settlement was dense from Stones Corner to Kirkland Avenue, but was otherwise bush and farmhouses. The electric tramway reached Stones Corner in 1902, and Coorparoo Junction in 1915, which fuelled suburban expansion. House numbers doubled in ten years, from 1911 to 1921.
The decision to gradually change Brisbane's street lighting to the series system was taken in 1927, and the BCC decided to switch Balmoral and Coorparoo's street lighting to the series system in May 1930. In a parallel circuit system, each item receives its own full voltage from the power supply, but in the series system the current flows through each item in turn, in a loop from the power source. A series street lighting circuit usually consisted of about 100 lamps, and required a minimum of 2000 volts. If more lamps were added, a higher voltage was required to maintain the necessary current. If a lamp burnt out, two metal disks would carry the current and maintain the circuit. Incandescent street lights had become economically practical by 1917, and Brisbane developed its street lighting system using incandescent lamps, in series. The only other towns to use the series system for street lighting, since they had AC generators, were Maryborough, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns. Other towns used incandescent lights on the parallel system.
The substation on Main Avenue, Coorparoo, was seen as the initial step towards controlling the whole of the street lighting system on the south side of the Brisbane River from one source. Tenders were offered in August 1930, and A. Mason was accepted. The City Architect's Office drew up the plans. The City Architect at the time was A.H. Foster, but assistant architect Rayburn Jameson signed the plans for the Coorparoo substation. Its use of 200mm concrete blocks was unusual for City Architect's Office designs of the time, and it was the only pre-World War Two Brisbane substation to be built of such materials. The substation's brick infill panels are for decorative purposes only.
The Coorparoo substation was unmanned, and was equipped with an 11kV Oil Circuit Breaker. This was operated by a time switch, fitted with an Astronomic Dial calibrated to suit seasonal variations in sunrise and sunset. The main control substation at Woolloongabba supplied power at 11kV, which was stepped down to 5kV at Coorparoo, and fed to a bank of constant current transformers. High and low venting in the substation dissipated the heat generated by the equipment. Initially numbered as ESD substation No.10, it was renumbered as No. 210 when all substations in Brisbane were transferred to the BCC in 1963. To avoid any duplication of numbering, all existing BCC stations were prefixed with the number "2" at this time. Prior to the Coorparoo substation's construction, the ESD had three 5kV Public Lighting Substation buildings, and 11 public lighting substations on poles (seven 5kV and four 11kV). Coorparoo Substation No. 210 was the first BCC 11kV public lighting substation building. By 1940, there were three such buildings.
In 1949 CEL started constructing the Bulimba B power station, and the BCC started work on a power station at Tennyson. The new stations were commissioned in 1953 and 1955 respectively. When CEL became the Southern Electric Authority (SEA) in 1953, the BCC continued to run the New Farm and Tennyson power stations, and distributed power to the city, whereas the SEA sold power to the BCC, and distributed outside Brisbane. The New Farm power station was transferred to the SEA in 1963, while all substations were handed over to the BCC in same year. From 1963 onwards, the BCC only distributed power, which was purchased from the SEA. The year 1969 witnessed the disbandment of the tramways system, and the New Farm power station was decommissioned in 1971. On 1 July 1977, the South East Queensland Electricity Board (SEQEB) took over distribution of power in Brisbane, and the BCC's Department of Electricity disappeared.
The series system of street lighting was being replaced with the parallel system by the 1960s. In 1970-1971 there were 3135 lamps in series, and 33,951 in parallel. Since the final annual report of the BCC's Department of Electricity, 1976-77, noted that the last of the series system street lighting substations had been disconnected and dismantled during the year, Coorparoo Substation No. 210 would have been disconnected before or during 1977. For a period, the building was leased by the Buranda Bowls Club and used for storage, but it is currently empty.
","criteria":"Coorparoo Substation No. 210 was part of an integrated network of structures involved in the Brisbane City Council's modernisation of electricity supply in Brisbane in the late 1920s, and 1930s. The reorganisation incorporated the latest developments in the technology of Alternating Current (AC) generation and distribution, which enhanced domestic lifestyles, spurred business development, and aided the expansion of tram routes. The locations chosen for substations also serve as indicators of the main electricity load centres of Brisbane prior to World War Two. Coorparoo Substation No. 210 was Brisbane's first 11,000 volt street lighting substation building, and it demonstrates Brisbane's use of the series system for street lighting, which was abandoned in the 1970s.
|It was rare for the City Architect's Office to use 200mm concrete blocks in the construction of utilities structures in the 1920s and 1930s. In addition, only three 11,000-volt street lighting substations had been built by 1940, and of the three, only Coorparoo remains in Brisbane City Council (BCC) ownership.
|As part of a distinctive group of civic utility structures, Coorparoo Substation No. 210 demonstrates the characteristics of a small-scale, robust, masonry substation of the interwar period. Its open internal volume, venting, and roller door are standard features in buildings designed to contain electrical equipment.
|The substation has a landmark quality due to its picturesque design, which was the result of a decision by the City Architect of the period, A.H. Foster, to limit the visual impact of Electrical Supply Department (ESD) substations in residential areas by drawing on contemporary domestic architecture. The small industrial building reflects the prestige that the BCC associated with its electrification drive of the late 1920s and 1930s
|The substation is strongly associated with the BCC, especially its City Architect's Office, and the ESD, which attempted to rationalise Brisbane's electricity supply after the creation of the Greater Brisbane Council in 1925.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19627,"place_ref":602505,"name":"Austral Motors Building (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"95 Boundary Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-04-11","description":"A two-storey red face brick former motor showroom and workshop, the former Austral Motors Building occupies land on the ridge formed by Boundary Street at the north end of Adelaide Street. The site is bounded by Boundary Street on the south, Dodge Lane on the west, and adjacent allotments on the east and north.
Large fixed glass display windows (some now boarded up) in the Boundary Street shopfront take advantage of the approaching slope of Adelaide Street to feature the showroom to maximum effect. The building is also notable for the banks of windows that throw light into the showroom and workshop areas. Decorated with an applied white cement rendered panel with a dentilled cornice and a decorative central tablet, the parapet front to Boundary Street screens a double gable roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting. Tucked within the base of the tablet, a narrow rectangular rainwater head and downpipes drain the central box gutter of the roof. Banks of large timber framed casement windows with fanlights run across the upper storey of the front elevation, lighting the front of the workshop/office area of the upper storey. This fenestration is enlivened with the inclusion of a number of decorative windows with a pattern of radiating lights. A cantilevered awning projects over the footpath to Boundary Street sheltering the showroom shopfronts. Two roller door entrances provide vehicle access from Boundary Street to the showrooms. The pedestrian entrance off Boundary Street is boarded up.
The ground floor accommodates two spacious showrooms with high ceilings clad in fibrous cement panelling with timber cover strips, which are stained dark to provide a decorative contrast in the western section. The ceiling is supported by steel posts and beams clad with timber sheeting and embellished with decorative timber mouldings. The showroom to the west side is floored towards the front with red brown terrazzo, presumably to display cars to the best advantage. This area is notable for a pair of steel lattice trusses, which support the concrete floor above, and has stairs to the upper storey that are no longer in use.
Windows to the south, east and west light the upper storey, which also has a battened ceiling, though the central section is missing. This workshop level has two large entrances to each side of the building. The floor is concrete to the part of the workshop accessed by the west entrance; the balance of the floor is timber. The east opening accommodates a pair of substantial timber sliding doors. This level has offices and toilets and an enquiry counter near the rear entrance that opens on to a yard accessed from Antrim Street and Dodge Lane. The red face brick double gable parapet of the rear elevation screens the two gable roofs behind. An open lean-to-roof shelter projects out from north end of the building.
The Dodge Lane elevation in red face brick houses banks of timber framed casement windows with fanlights to both storeys. A solid timber sliding door to the middle of the elevation provides entry to the showroom level and access to the timber stair to the upper storey. A narrow rectangular fixed glass window is to the north side of this entrance. Lintels and sills are distinguished in rendered cement.
","history":"The former Austral Motors Building, which closes the vista at the end of Upper Adelaide Street, Petrie Bight, is located on the Fortitude Valley side of Boundary Street at the northern end of the Brisbane central business district. Constructed in 1924-6 for the Austral Motors Company, it has a close association with the 20th century interwar re-development of the Petrie Bight area as an important warehousing precinct and motor vehicle servicing and distribution district.
Petrie Bight is a sharp curve in the Brisbane River at the northern end of the Town Reach. The name is derived from the association of the area with early Brisbane builder Andrew Petrie, who c1838 established his workshop and residence at the corner of Wharf and Queen Streets.
Early Petrie Bight land use
Surveyor Henry Wade, on his 1844 Map of the Environs of Brisbane Town, identified the Petrie's Bight area south of Boundary Street and east of Queen Street as 'Reserved for Dry Dock'. Surveyor Galloway did the same on his 1856 Plan of the Suggested Extension of the Town of Brisbane. At this time the surrounding area was sparsely occupied, with Andrew Petrie's house and factory at the corner of Wharf and Queen Streets; Dr Hobbs' house [now St John's Deanery] a little further north in Adelaide Street; the original customs house in Queen Street, beside the Brisbane River; and a ferry jetty just north of the Customs Houses.
A c1860 map of Brisbane Town showing the new town boundaries no longer labelled Petrie's Bight as a reserve for a dry dock [no dry dock was ever established there], but the site remained unsurveyed Government land. An early track [the northern end of Queen Street] ran through this land, branching off in three directions to New Farm, Fortitude Valley and the northwest end of Spring Hollow.
Under the provisions of the Brisbane Gas Company Bill 1864 the Government granted to the Company a site bounded by what are now Ann, Boundary and Macrossan streets and a 160-metre frontage to the Brisbane River, as the site for Brisbane's first gas works. This was the northern half of the Government land at Petrie's Bight. Gas production commenced there in 1865, providing the Brisbane Municipal Council with a regular supply of gas for street lighting. By the early 1870s the demand for gas for domestic consumption was outstripping supply, and in the mid-1870s a second gasometer was constructed on the site. In 1873 the Brisbane Gas Company gained a formal deed of grant to the Petrie's Bight land, an area of 4 acres 17.5 perches [1.66ha], which the Company had purchased from the Government in May 1873 for £4,300.
An April 1873 a survey plan titled Survey of Site of Gas Works and Adjacent Crown Land Shewing Road Through Same indicates that by this date the gas works site was fenced along the entire length of its land boundaries, but that through this the government had just surveyed a 20 feet wide road between Macrossan and Boundary streets, which later became an extension of Adelaide Street. Photographs from the 1860s and early 1870s show a tall paling fence around the perimeter of the gas works, prohibiting public access. Early Brisbane resident Victor Drury, writing in the Courier Mail in 1939, recalled: "When Adelaide Street was extended to Boundary Street, there were turnstiles there, and only pedestrians could use the path as a short cut to Queen Street."
River wharfage
In the early 1840s wharfage in Brisbane was concentrated along the South Brisbane Reach of the Brisbane River, but within a decade had extended to the Town Reach further downstream, which soon rivalled South Brisbane in terms of shipping activity. An 1849 decision to locate Brisbane's first purpose-built Customs House at the northern end of the Town Reach acted as the impetus for the development of wharves on this part of the river. The Commissariat Store (600176) below William Street, which had served as Brisbane's first customs facility, was replaced in 1850 by a new customs building on the site of the present Customs House (600156) in Queen Street, at Petrie's Bight. [This in turn was replaced in 1886-89 by the current building.] During the 1850s and 1860s, a number of shipping companies and private investors constructed wharves and warehouses between the Customs House and Alice Street, near the Botanic Gardens.
Construction of a Government wharf [Kennedy Wharf] at Petrie's Bight north of the Customs House commenced in 1875 was completed in 1877 and was leased to private shipping firms. In 1880 the Brisbane Municipal Council acquired the wharf and immediately extended it northward. In 1884 the Council also constructed a wharf at the end of Boundary Street, and in the mid-1880s William Collin established his own wharf at Petrie's Bight, just downstream from the Council's Boundary Street wharf. Purchase of land from the Brisbane Gas Company in 1902 gave the Council control of the river frontage from the Customs House to Boundary Street, and between 1913 and 1916 the Council constructed reinforced concrete wharves between Macrossan and Boundary Streets, and between Kennedy Wharf and the Customs House. The whole of the Council's wharfage at Petrie's Bight was subsequently re-named Circular Quay Wharves.
Between 1900 and 1912 Brisbane Wharves Ltd established wharves at Petrie's Bight from Boundary Street to Bowen Terrace, rivalling the Council's Circular Quay facilities in importance. Principal investors in the Brisbane Wharf Company were Howard Smith and William Collin and Sons. From the late 1890s, Howard Smith and Company Ltd occupied the Council's Boundary Street Wharf at Petrie's Bight and in the early years of the 20th century leased the adjacent new wharves constructed by Brisbane Wharves Limited at the base of the New Farm cliffs, below Bowen Terrace. These wharves were extended in the 1920s, and in the 1930s were resumed by the Queensland government for the construction of the Story Bridge.
Adelaide Street widening
In the early 20th century the roads to Petrie's Bight were improved significantly by the Brisbane City Council, providing an important impetus for the construction of new warehouses in the Upper Adelaide Street area.
Under the provisions of the City of Brisbane Improvement Act 1916 and the Local Authorities Act Amendment Act 1923 the Brisbane City Council contributed significantly to the 1920s building boom, with a programme of city beautification and street improvements, including the cutting down and widening of several of the principal thoroughfares. The 1916 Act empowered the City Council, with the approval of the Governor-in-Council, to resume land simply by passing a resolution to the effect that resumption was necessary. Property rights on resumed lands were then converted into compensation rights. The 1923 Act further facilitated this process by exempting all improvements made to a property after resumption notices had been issued, from the payment of compensation.
From 1923 to 1928 the Brisbane City Council implemented its most ambitious town improvement scheme to that date: the widening of Adelaide Street by 14 feet along its entire length. . Resumptions in Adelaide Street had commenced in the 1910s, but work on the street widening did not take place until the 1920s. The work was undertaken in stages, commencing in 1923 at the southern end where the new Brisbane City Hall was under construction. Some buildings had the front section removed and a contemporary façade installed on the new road alignment. Elsewhere, earlier buildings were demolished and substantial new structures took their place. At the northern end of Adelaide Street the cutting down of the hill below St John's Cathedral in 1928 facilitated greater access to Petrie Bight, which, close to new city wharves at the end of Boundary Street, boomed in the 1920s as a warehousing district.
By 1921 Queensland was poised to resume the economic boom interrupted by the First World War (1914-18). In the period 1922-1928, Queensland experienced its first and last economic boom between the outbreak of war in 1914 and the 1950s. The benefits of the boom economy were reflected throughout the State, but nowhere more so than in Brisbane, with 29% of the Queensland population in December 1924. In physical terms the boom was expressed in a spate of building activity that transported the central business district of Brisbane into the 20th century, shedding its late Victorian image.
The take-off in the building industry was evident during 1922-23, reflected in an active central business district real estate market, and prompting the Brisbane City Council to re-assess central city rateable values in 1923. By September 1925 property in Queen Street, the principal retail and financial street of Brisbane, could be acquired only at highly inflated prices, forcing investors into more peripheral locations such as Petrie's Bight. A fall in the price of building materials, combined with the trend in using concrete, a more economical product than brick, for large construction projects, further stimulated building activity.
From 1922 the business of re-building Brisbane assumed impressive proportions. Between 1923 and 1925, an average of 50 new commercial buildings a year were being constructed in Brisbane, contrasting markedly with the 8 constructed twenty years earlier in 1903. During 1925 the value of contracts for buildings in Brisbane, either in course of erection or in contemplation, was reported at £3,000,000. The Greater Brisbane City Council meticulously monitored progress through its building approvals process, statistics for which were released monthly from October 1925 to an eager local press. Construction peaked in 1926 with £3,411,285 worth of building works [new buildings, alterations and additions] approved in the Greater Brisbane area during the year. This included a substantial residential component. In 1927 the figure was around £2,823,000 and in 1928 just over £2,810,000.
The Motor Car Industry
In the 1910s the increasing availability of motor vehicles began to revolutionise public, private and commercial transport. In Brisbane, activities associated with horse transport began to convert to activities associated with motor transport, as coach and carriage builders became motor vehicle repairers or retailers, and livery stables became parking and service stations. In this way, the Austral Carriage Works, established around 1907 by Uhlmann and Lane at 51 Adelaide St, Brisbane, entered the motor trade shortly after the First World War. Austral Motors Limited became the sole agents in Queensland and the Northern Rivers for Dodge Brothers, an American firm that had manufactured motor cars since 1914 and light trucks since 1917. They were successful and by 1924 had two branches, with the Austral Carriage & Motor Works at Stanley Street in South Brisbane, and Austral Motors Distributors at Boundary Street, Spring Hill.
Queenslanders adopted motor vehicles with enthusiasm. Of the six Australian states, Queensland recorded the third largest number of motor vehicle registrations, 31,233, in 1923-24, behind New South Wales and Victoria. At the international level in 1923-24, Australia, with approximately 274,000 motor vehicle registrations, was fifth behind France (545,000), Canada (666,000), The United Kingdom (1,085,000), and the United States (15,400,000), and well ahead of Germany, in sixth place with 211,500 registrations.
Through the daily press, Brisbanites were exposed to a barrage of advertising from the motor vehicle industry, with regular features on aspects of motors and motoring. To accommodate this explosion of public interest in, and acceptance of, the motor vehicle, the number of Brisbane motor engineers' agents, car manufacturers, car importers, and garages listed in the local postal directories increased from 89 in 1920-21, to 134 in 1924-25. This was accompanied by a corresponding increase in the number of motor vehicle accessory dealers, windscreen manufacturers, tyre dealers and motorcar body manufacturers.
By September 1925, the Brisbane City Council was raising the problem of providing parking for motor vehicles in the inner city. Purpose-built privately operated parking stations began to appear in the central business district from the mid-1920s. Numerous small garages and service stations also provided motor vehicle parking and car hire.
From the mid-1920s, Australia's premier building and architectural trade journal, the Sydney publication Building, had printed articles on designing public and commercial buildings to accommodate motor vehicles. Much of the journal's reference material came from the United States, which was leading the way in this type of design. Queensland architects had ready access to this and other architectural journals, and kept informed of the latest in international design developments.
In 1923 Austral Motors Limited engaged Brisbane architects Lange L Powell and George G Hutton Powell to design a showroom and service station at Petrie Bight. The land on which the Austral Motors building was constructed was part of two larger parcels of land first alienated from the Crown in 1852 and was surveyed and subdivided, together with the adjacent lane, in April 1923. The new road, Dodge Lane, was approved in May 1923 and is believed to have derived its name from the firm's Dodge agency. Tenders for construction were let in August 1923, the successful tenderer being Blair Cunningham. The first stage, on the corner of Dodge Lane, was completed in March 1924 at a projected cost of £9,300 and occupied by Austral Motors Limited from 1 April 1924. The two-storeyed building was constructed largely of concrete and steel, with a floor space of approximately 20,000 square feet [1858m²]. Due to the slope of the land, both floors had street access. The Boundary Street level accommodated a motor vehicle show room. The upper level, accessed off Dodge Lane at the rear, was fitted out as the Dodge Brothers Service Station.
In 1925 the firm undertook substantial extensions to their premises. George Hutton, who briefly occupied the position of Queensland Government Architect in 1922 prior to joining Powell in partnership in 1922, established his own practice in 1924, and called tenders for site excavations for Austral Motors Ltd in late 1924, the contract being let by January 1925. By April 1925 WR Juster's tender for additions and alterations to Austral Motors Ltd. had been accepted, but this appears not to have progressed, for by June 1925 Blair Cunningham's tender for the additions had been accepted. In July 1925 Austral Motors Ltd obtained Brisbane City Council approval for the construction, to cost £10,230.
The location was an excellent choice for a business of this type, being close to the city's main wharves at Petrie Bight, and in a location favoured by other motor vehicle retailers and ancillary businesses. The Evers Motor Co. Ltd had established a garage/paint shop at the eastern corner of Ivory and Boundary streets as early as c1918, and by 1920 HS Simpson, motor painter, was located next door to Evers. About 1926/27 Evers constructed a three-storeyed brick motor shed, offices and workshops at the corner of Boundary and Ivory streets, and a single-storeyed brick parking and filling station adjacent in Ivory Street, known as the Super Parking Station. As warehousing activity in Upper Adelaide Street expanding during the 1920s, many buildings were occupied by firms connected with the motor vehicle trade and industry and with car hire and garaging. In 1928, Collin House, a purpose-designed parking station and garage and a four-storey brick warehouse for the Dunlop Rubber Company of Australasia Pty Ltd were constructed in the vicinity. Tyre sales, automotive electricians and spare parts suppliers formed a substantial proportion of tenants in buildings in upper Adelaide Street during the 1920s and 1930s.
In the second half of the 1920s Austral Motors expanded rapidly, due to the Queensland-wide economic boom that coincided with the increasing availability of and public interest in motor vehicles. By 1929 the company was operating from several addresses and two cities, with the Austral Carriage & Motor Works continuing at Stanley Street, South Brisbane; Austral Cars Ltd established at Adelaide Street, Brisbane; and Austral Motors Ltd located at Boundary St, Spring Hill and at Sturt Street, Townsville.
In 1939 Austral Motors Pty Ltd acquired title to the allotment along the eastern boundary of the Company's mid-1920s acquisitions.
In 1986 Austral Motors sold the property to the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland who own the adjacent All Hallows girl's school. It continues its connection with motor vehicles and is leased out as a parking station as well as being used to park vehicles of All Hallows staff.
","criteria":"The former Austral Motors Building, erected in two stages 1923-1925 as a purpose-designed motor vehicle show room and service depot, is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the Queensland-wide economic boom of the 1920s which transformed the appearance of the Brisbane central business district. During this period roads were straightened, widened and levelled; motorised vehicles congested inner city roads; the 19th century building stock was replaced by substantial brick or concrete commercial premises, many of which were designed around the motor car, such as parking stations and garages and motor show rooms; and most of the vacant land in the city centre was rapidly improved with substantial new brick buildings. At this period the Upper Adelaide Street district at Petrie Bight was developed as an important warehousing precinct, the development being facilitated by early 20th century initiatives of the Brisbane City Council, which included: constructing a formal wide road network, graded for motorised vehicular transport; encouraging the establishment of service lanes and alleys to allow for pedestrian and vehicle access to commercial buildings; and providing extensive new wharfage nearby at Circular Quay.
In particular, the former Austral Motors Building is important in illustrating the strong association of the Petrie Bight district with the early expansion of the motor vehicle trade in Queensland. Most of the warehouses in the area accommodated tenants or owners associated with the motor vehicle trade (including distribution, repairs and the provision of parts) or with motor vehicle servicing and parking.
|The former Austral Motors Building is important as an early, rare surviving and remarkably intact purpose-designed mid-1920s motor show room and service station.
|The former Austral Motors Building [1923-25] remains highly intact and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a large, state-of-the-art motor vehicle show room of the interwar period. Its role as a sales and service facility is demonstrated by the spacious show rooms and the garaging facility at the rear for the servicing and maintenance of motor vehicles.
The place is important in illustrating the commercial work of leading Brisbane architects of the interwar period, Lange Powell and George Hutton, expressing the commercial priorities of the time.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19638,"place_ref":602517,"name":"RSL Hall Rosalie","alternate_name":"Rosalie School of Arts Commemoration Hall","street_address":"50 Elizabeth Street","suburb":"PADDINGTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-09-06","description":"The RSL Hall in Rosalie straddles the southern half of three allotments which total 1131 square metres in area. To the north of the hall is a software business in a small timber house, which is clad with chamfer boards, and a carpark, accessed from Elizabeth Street. The hall faces Nash Street, is clad in weatherboards, and has a corrugated iron roof. The first floor contains the hall, while the ground floor contains three shops: two facing Nash Street, and one directly under the hall, entered from the northern carpark.
The gable fronting Nash Street is decorated with cover strips, forming a simple geometric pattern. Below this design, and above the shops, is a stepped projection that currently contains two changing rooms and a kitchen. The two Nash Street shops extend to the east of the hall on the ground floor, and their frontage is angled to conform to the angle of the road reserve. Two small stepped wings extend north and south of the hall, and stairs descend into them from the first floor of the hall. The first floor of the southern wing contains showers, while the first floor of the northern wing contains storage rooms, and has been incorporated into the entrance stairway that rises from the glass entry foyer. The ground floor of the northern wing also contains toilets, which are accessed from the tunnel that runs underneath the entrance stairway.
The main hall of the building has a stage at the western end, and on either side of the stage are stairs up to small side rooms. Stairs also descend from the stage towards toilets to either side. At the eastern end of the hall, large curtains conceal the RSL's memorabilia, which is revealed during RSL meetings. Behind the curtains, in the upper part of the eastern wall, is the open window of the projection room. The projection room is in poor condition, and access to it has been sealed. There is a small office, with open serving bays, between the two doorways at the eastern end of the hall. Near the office, at the top of the entrance stairway, is a large Ithaca Honour Board, listing those who served in World War One.
The carpark, the new entrance foyer and stairway, and the small house just north of the hall, are not of historical significance.
","history":"The RSL Hall at Rosalie, formerly the Rosalie School of Arts Commemoration Hall, is a large timber building roofed in corrugated iron. It faces Nash Street in Rosalie, a locality that is now part of the suburb of Paddington. Since opening in 1928 the RSL Hall has hosted a wide variety of community activities. The ground floor of the Nash Street frontage, below the level of the main hall, was designed to accommodate two shops.
The first major land sales in the Paddington area occurred in 1859, when country lots were sold for £2/10/- an acre. The steep terrain hampered transport, and people sought ridge-top sites, timber cutting sites, or cultivated vegetable patches on the lower ground closer to the river. The first tracks followed the ridgelines, and it was along these narrow corridors that closer development initially occurred. In the late 1870s, Paddington was known as "Ti Tree Flats", and its postal address was simply "back of the gaol", being outside the Hale Street boundary of the city. There was a village at Caxton Street, and some houses on Given Terrace. Further out, the scenery was dotted with trees, vegetable patches, goats, tents, humpies, cottages, and the odd elegant mansion. J.C. Heussler built the stately home "Fernberg" in 1865, and in 1920 the Queensland Government purchased it as a residence for the Governor. During the 1880s a pattern developed whereby shops were clustered near major intersections, the affluent occupied the highest ground, aspiring artisans occupied the slopes, and poorer citizens built in the gullies. The Ithaca Shire was created in 1887, and by 1903 Paddington was a densely populated suburb of the town of Ithaca. The tramway reached Latrobe Terrace in 1898, and Fernberg Road 1909, which spurred development.
Rosalie is a small locality within Paddington, covering about 1000 by 800 metres, on ground that slopes down towards Gregory Park. It is probably named after the station of a Darling Downs grazier, John F. McDougall, who in 1882 purchased portion 225 of the Parish of Enoggera. This portion contained the future site of the RSL Hall. The 1920s saw increased development in Rosalie, and the Rosalie Progress Association sponsored a Rosalie School of Arts Committee, for the purpose of erecting a Memorial Hall.
The first Mechanic's Institutes or Schools of Arts were established in Britain in the early 1800s and were intended to assist self-improvement and to promote moral, social and intellectual growth, by providing lectures, discussions and lending libraries to a rising middle class. At the time there were no public libraries and books were expensive, so that access to books by borrowing as subscribers provided an important educational and recreational service. The first School of Arts committee in Queensland was established in Brisbane in 1849 with the aim of 'the advancement of the community in literary, philosophic and scientific subjects'. As towns and districts became established, local committees were formed to establish schools of arts, and they became one of the principal sources of adult education. The buildings usually included a public hall for debates and performances, a subscription library, and a reading room. The erecting of a School of Arts in a particular community was seen as a sign that that community had "come of age".
However, the Rosalie School of Arts would also serve as a war memorial. The outpouring of grief in Australia that accompanied the deaths of 60,000 servicepeople in World War One, and the fact that the dead were buried overseas, led to a period of memorial construction across the nation. The Toowong Town Council offered the Rosalie School of Arts Committee a site in Gregory Park, next to the Milton State School, for the Rosalie School of Arts Memorial Hall. Instead, the School of Arts Committee held a fete in March 1926, raising the money to buy the current site at the corner of Elizabeth Street and Nash Street. The builder W. Moody designed the hall in 1926, but the Architectural Firm Hall and Prentice, which also designed the Brisbane City Hall and the Tattersall's Club, refined Moody's plan. At the stump-capping ceremony of 9 July 1927, official guests included the Governor, Sir John Goodwin; Brisbane's Mayor William Jolly; Colonel Donald Cameron, Member of House of Representatives for Brisbane, and a decorated veteran of the Boer War and World War One; and Edward M. Hanlon, Member of the Legislative Assembly for Ithaca. Hanlon noted that the site was preferable to Gregory Park. The latter is labelled as "Red Jacket Swamp" on an 1895 map of the area.
Built by Moody, the hall cost £2,650, plus £550 for the library and furnishings, with a mortgage of £1,500 to the Public Curator. Funds to pay off the debt were raised by selling three-year membership subscriptions, and Life Memberships at five guineas. More funds were raised by including two shops on the ground floor frontage of the hall, numbered at 16 and 18 Nash Street. The Rosalie School of Arts Commemoration Hall was officially opened on 28 June 1928 by Mayor Jolly. The purpose of the hall was to bring residents together on social basis, while the library and reading room would help in their education. In mid 1928 work was also started on the Rosalie Marist Brothers monastery and school, and the Rainworth State School was opened.
Although it later experienced some damage during the 1974 Brisbane floods, the RSL Hall has accommodated a wide range of community activities over the years. The Rosalie Kindergarten operated from the hall between 1929 and 1935, and the Ithaca Sub-Branch of the Returned Sailors' Soldiers' and Airmen's Imperial League of Australia (RSSAILA, later known as the Returned Servicemen's League of Australia, or RSL) was founded in the hall in November 1934. In 1938 an Elections Tribunal was held in the hall, during an appeal against the election of E.M. Hanlon, then Minister for Home Affairs. It was home to the Ithaca Youth Club between 1945-1950, and also hosted a Buffalo Lodge for many years. Other community activities have included public meetings, concerts, exhibitions, fancy dress balls, ANZAC Day commemorations, martial arts classes, and indoor bowls. In 1946 the library collection was sent to the Brisbane City Council library in the former Ithaca Town Hall. That same year Premier Hanlon introduced a bill that was passed as the Rosalie School of Arts and Commemoration Hall Transfer Act 1946, which transferred the property to the Ithaca sub-branch of the RSL. In 1991 an amalgamation of sub-branches formed the Ithaca-South Brisbane RSL BCOF sub-branch.
Between 1942 and 1957, on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday nights the hall became the 300-seat Beverley Theatre, with a commercial photographer showing films. Other theatres in the area included the Plaza Theatre, Latrobe Terrace (1930-1960) and the Paddington Theatre, Caxton Street (1923-1979). In 2003 and 2004 the Cine-Retro Film Society, which showed pre-1960 movies in a suitable atmosphere, briefly revived this former use.
The shops below the hall have also had various tenants. Number 16 Nash Street contained a Dressmaker in 1930, Trump Cycles from 1938 to 1942, and a sub-centre of the Maternal and Child Welfare Service from 1942, which was still open one day a week in 1978. An optometrist now occupies 16 Nash Street. Number 18 Nash Street contained a Bootmaker's business between 1935 and 1947, and now contains a hair salon. The RSL sold the property in 2004, and now leases the hall for its monthly meetings and commemorative events. The hall itself currently contains a fitness centre. There is also a computer business on the ground floor directly under the hall, accessed from the carpark on the north side. A software company occupies the small house at 52 Elizabeth Street, which sits just to the north of the hall. This house is included in a 1935 map of the site.
Some changes to the property over the years include the addition of a glass-roofed entry, and a timber passageway linking it to the original northern wing of the hall; an awning on the north side has been removed recently; the RSL renovated the interior of the hall, and the shops have been refurbished. On the northern side of the hall, one of the doorway landings has been fully enclosed, with the outside stairs being removed. The shop awning has also been simplified, losing its original mouldings and detailing. Five rotating galvanised iron vents were added sometime after 1938, projecting from either side of the ridge of the roof, and these were replaced with new vents recently. The first floor rooms above the shops now have three triple-hung sash windows, instead of the original small pane casement windows, which can be seen around the rest of the hall. A sign also projects from the middle of the front gable, which was originally decorated with the words 1928 Rosalie School of Arts Commemoration Hall.
","criteria":"The former School of Arts Memorial Hall in Rosalie demonstrates the system of adult education that functioned in Queensland during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is also illustrates the practice of constructing memorials to those Queenslanders who fell in World War One.
|The RSL Hall is an excellent example of a multi-purpose World War One memorial hall. It has been used as a venue for commemoration, education, entertainment, politics, sport, and socialising, and remains remarkably intact.
|The large timber building, on its corner site, has possessed a landmark quality since its construction. Its size and multi-level stepped design makes a major contribution to the character of Rosalie's streetscape.
|The RSL Hall, through its decades of community service, has a longstanding and ongoing social and cultural association with the local community, and the Returned Services League.
|The building is associated with the notable architectural firm of Hall and Prentice, which also designed the City Hall.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19639,"place_ref":602519,"name":"Expo 88 Nepalese Peace Pagoda","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"South Bank Parklands","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-08-01","description":"The Nepalese Peace Pagoda is currently surrounded by a low stone wall and rainforest plantings, and faces northeast towards the river. From the riverside walkway two sets of steps lead up to the platform on which the pagoda stands. Two stone elephants and two stone lions, set on a stone wall, flank the steps. To either side, at the top of the stairway, are set the two smaller food-service pavilions from Expo 88. These mimic the main pagoda in style and building materials, although they have a three-tiered roof. Just in front of the northeast face of the pagoda a bronze bell hangs from a stone frame. The bell is cast with the words APAC and Association to Preserve Asian Culture.
The timber pagoda is square, with two floors and a small attic, possibly for storage. It has a two-tiered roof, clad in brass. The triple-finial is covered in gold leaf, and a long brass ribbon drapes down the tiered roof levels on the northeast face. Two of the elevations of the ground floor each have five arched openings between the carved supporting posts, with carved screens covering their lower sections. The southwest and northeast elevations have triple doorways, with carved screens in the openings to either side. Glass panels have been installed inside each opening, except for the doorways. The northwest ground floor elevation has 1986 Nepal Peace Pagoda 1988 carved above the openings, and the southwest ground floor elevation is carved with the words APAC and Association to Preserve Asian Culture on the upper right hand side. The southeast ground floor elevation has Nepalese numbers and writing carved above the openings. The exterior carvings include gods, goddesses, and mythical animals. The first floor has carved timber screens, and carved roof supports that angle outwards. The attic, between the two roof tiers, has latticed window screens.
Inside the pagoda the post, beam, ceiling, and screen timber is carved with symbolic designs and scenes. The ceiling has scenes from the enlightenment of Buddha, the walls are carved with flowers, and the inner posts and doors are carved with deities. In the southwest corner stands a statue of Avalokiteshvara, the deity of compassion, within a glass case. The ground floor also contains: a display case, containing articles about the pagoda; stairs to the first floor, which is currently sealed off; and four timber benches. Another stairway links the first floor and the attic. The ground floor is paved with clay tiles. A reflecting pool and a stone lingam (a phallus-shaped religious fertility symbol) stand to the southwest of pagoda.
","history":"The Nepalese Peace Pagoda complemented the Nepalese Pavilion at the World Exposition 1988 (Expo 88), held at Southbank in Brisbane. The square, three-level replica of a traditional Nepalese temple is built of hand-carved wood, and has a double-tiered roof of brass with brass trimmings. It proved popular with the crowds who attended Expo 88, and the Peace Pagoda is the last international exhibit remaining on the Expo 88 site. It was originally sited near the Vulture Street entrance to Expo 88. In 1991 it was moved to its current location, amongst the rainforest near the northern riverbank entrance to the Southbank Parklands.
World Expositions (or Exhibitions) become increasingly popular after the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, but their frequency, and the standard of their facilities, was not regulated until after the 1928 Paris Convention on International Expositions. The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) was established in 1931 to administer the Convention. Under BIE rules there are two types of international exposition: the Universal/Category A/General Exposition, and the International/Category B/Special Exposition. The former involves broad themes, and participants design their own pavilions from the ground up, based on the theme.
The International Exposition, which has a narrower theme, is much cheaper to host, and is usually limited to one branch of human endeavour. Participants rent prefabricated pavilions from the host country's committee. Brisbane's Expo 88 was an International Exposition, with the theme "Leisure in the Age of Technology". Most of the structures built on exposition sites are intended to be temporary, but some sites have become parks, incorporating surviving exposition elements, including the sites of Montreal 1967, Seville 1992, Taejon 1993, and Lisbon 1998. Some structures have gone on to become landmarks in their own right, such as the Royal Exhibition Building (Melbourne 1880), the Eiffel Tower (Paris 1889), and the Space Needle (Seattle 1962).
The first bid to bring an exposition to Brisbane in 1988 began with James Maccormick , the architect who had designed the Australian pavilions at Montreal 1967, Osaka 1970, and Spokane 1974. The Brisbane Chamber of Commerce was converted to the idea, and lobbied the Queensland State Government during 1977. However, the Queensland Government was worried about the cost of a Universal Exposition, and was preoccupied with its bid for the 1982 Commonwealth Games. A second Queensland bid was made in 1981. The Australian Bicentennial Authority (ABA), under John Reid, wanted an Universal Exposition in Australia as part of Bicentennial in 1988, and the Federal Government was prepared to fund half of the cost of an exposition in Melbourne or Sydney. However, when these states turned the offer down in January 1981, Reid approached the Queensland Government with a proposal for a cheaper International Exposition. In late 1981 the State Cabinet funded a study that identified South Brisbane as the preferred site. The State Cabinet approved the study on 5 November 1981, on the condition that the Federal Government share the capital costs, but Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser rejected this notion in December 1981.
Queensland made two more attempts in 1982 for an International Exposition. Frank Moore, Chairman of the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation (QTTC), believed that private enterprise could fund the exposition, and that it would benefit Queensland's tourism. Queensland's Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen asked Prime Minister Fraser to get the BIE to keep a slot open for Brisbane in 1988. Fraser was willing to support this proposal, so long as there was no Federal financial commitment. However, Queensland private enterprise was not forthcoming, and Bjelke-Petersen withdrew the proposal in April 1982. November of 1982 witnessed a renewed bid by the State Government. The State would lend money to a statutory authority, which would be tasked with buying and developing the land, and managing the exposition. Brisbane's application was sent to the December 1982 meeting of the BIE in Paris, and was approved in June 1983.
The Brisbane Exposition and South Bank Redevelopment Authority (BESBRA) was established in February 1984 by an Act of the Queensland Parliament. BESBRA was soon referred to in the media as the Expo 88 Authority, or the Expo Authority. Sir Llewellyn Edwards, the Deputy Premier, was appointed as Chairman. In April 1984 the Expo 88 Authority's general manager, Bob Minnikin, claimed that Expo 88 would require $180 million to produce, including resumptions and development, and $90 million to run. It was hoped that gate takings and sponsorship would cover the running costs, and that the development cost would be recouped through selling off the site after Expo 88. Only 13 hectares of the Expo 88 site was private land, with the remainder of the 40 hectares belonging to either the State Government or the Brisbane City Council. Nonetheless, the last resumption did not occur until October 1984, as the owner of the heritage-listed residence 'Collins Place' fought a running legal battle with the Expo 88 Authority.
Grey and Stanley Streets were closed to traffic in July 1985, and demolition work began. Construction of the pavilions started in January 1986. The concept of the Expo 88 architects, Bligh Maccormick 88, included eight large shade-canopies, to protect the public from the Queensland sun. Landscaping began in March 1987, and the Monorail, which would circle the site on a 2.3 kilometre long track, was commissioned in June of that year. By January 1988, $90 million of the $136.8 million construction budget had been spent, and 7.8 million visitors were expected.
During 1987 developers had been asked to present their proposals for Southbank's redevelopment after Expo 88. In February 1988 the State Government announced that the redevelopment plan of the River City 2000 Consortium had been accepted. The Consortium, headed by Sir Frank Moore of the QTTC, had visions of a World Trade Centre on an island, and a casino. However, by early 1988 there was a growing call in the media for more of the site to be turned into public parkland. During March and April 1988 the National Trust protested the River City 2000 Consortium's scheme to move Collins Place, the Plough Inn, and the Allgas Building, three heritage listed buildings, to a historic village. Premier Mike Ahern eventually gave reassurances that this would not happen.
Expo 88 ran for seven days a week, between the hours of 10am-10pm, for six months. Between its opening on 30 April, attended by Queen Elizabeth II, and 30 October 1988, the Expo attracted 15,760,447 visitors, the majority of these being Australians. Most of the international visitors were Japanese, but 100,000 came from the United Kingdom and Europe, with 150,000 visitors from the United States. A total of 36 nations, two international organisations, 14 state and regional governments, and 34 corporations had exhibits.
The pavilions were mostly plain, modular, and temporary. However, the Nepalese Peace Pagoda is a distinctive building, and was easily noticed as the public came through the Vulture Street entrance to Expo 88. The Association to Preserve Asian Culture (APAC) commissioned the Peace Pagoda, which was built by 160 craftsmen of the Kathmandu Valley over two years, before being assembled in Brisbane. It is one of only three such temples outside Nepal, the others being at Munich and Osaka. Nepal has a long history of intricate woodcarving on buildings, and the Peace Pagoda was an attempt to showcase this skill to the world. The two small timber pavilions in front of the Peace Pagoda sold yoghurt lati, samosas, orange juice and lemon tea. Artisans demonstrated their crafts inside the ground floor of the Pagoda, and people could drink their tea and watch the Expo crowds from the teahouse on the first floor. The nearby Nepalese pavilion showcased traditional costumes, climbing dress, photographs, and artefacts.
Expo 88 was a turning point for Queensland's culture and economy, especially in Brisbane. On 30 May 1983 Joh Bjelke-Petersen had noted that if Brisbane's bid were successful, it would focus the world's spotlight on Queensland. Sir Frank Moore believed that the key to developing a major tourist industry in Queensland was a series of hallmark events, including the 1982 Commonwealth Games, which would focus attention on Queensland far better than any advertising campaign. Expo 88 was also intended to start Brisbane on a modernisation process, and towards becoming a 'global' city. The urban renewal of South Brisbane was just one aspect. In April 1984 Sir Llew stated that Queensland would never be the same again after Expo 88, and Brisbane would develop an image as a centre of trade, culture and entertainment. In April 1988 the Courier Mail claimed that Expo 88 was "bridging the yawning gap from a hayseed State to an urbane, international future". Sir Llew also claimed in April 1988 that the aim was for Expo 88 to be a catalyst for a change in lifestyle. Queenslanders had experienced extended opening hours and outdoor café dining, and had liked it.
While the crowds enjoyed Expo 88, controversy continued regarding future plans for the site. There were calls for more public input on redevelopment plans. About 4.5 hectares of land between Stanley Street and the river belonged to the Brisbane City Council (BCC), as Clem Jones Park, and had been lent to the Expo 88 Authority. In June 1988 it was decided to restore this land as parkland, and the River City 2000 Consortium lost its Preferred Developer status.
Government plans for a South Bank Development Corporation were announced, and in July 1988 an interim committee, headed by Sir Llew, was formed to oversee redevelopment. Sir Llew noted in October 1988 that more public funding was necessary to increase the parkland component of the new Southbank, as the land had been earmarked for development to repay for the cost of Expo 88. The draft redevelopment plans released in November 1988 included 12 hectares of parkland. Public submissions on the plan suggested that people wanted to be able to return to the Expo 88 site, to a public facility that had a similar combination of food, art and nature.
At the end of Expo 88, the APAC had planned to sell the Nepalese Peace Pagoda, and it appeared likely that it would be moved to Japan. However, 90,000 people had signed a petition during Expo 88 to keep the Peace Pagoda in Brisbane, and in late 1988 the BCC offered to provide land for the Peace Pagoda, if the Federal Government would pay for its cost and maintenance. A "Save the Pagoda Campaign" was active by February 1989. Public donations eventually totalled $52,000, with $30,000 coming from one couple, who wanted to "give Brisbane something to remember from Expo 88". The BCC provided $50,000, and the Federal Government supplied $100,000. "The Friends of the Pagoda Committee" also raised funds to buy several items that had complemented the Peace Pagoda, including a brass statue of the deity of compassion, a bronze bell and carved stone frame, and a stone lingam.
The Southbank Development Corporation was set up February 1989, with Vic Pullar as the Chairman. Approximately $200 million had been spent on developing the Expo site, and this money had to be recouped. The South Bank Corporation Act was passed in May 1989, and the former Clem Jones Park area was transferred to the Southbank Corporation, which was tasked with managing a new parkland precinct. In June 1989 submissions were sought from five architectural firms, and in August the "Media Five" concept of a mixed residential, commercial, and parkland development was chosen. Under Media Five's plans, the Peace Pagoda would be moved to the northern part of the parklands. The Media Five Chairman, Desmond Brooks, also suggested that Collins Place, the Plough Inn and the Allgas Building be removed to a historic village, but Vic Pullar rejected this idea. However, when the Southbank Corporation's Draft Development Plan was released in November 1989, it proposed to only keep the facades of the historic buildings. After protests by the National Trust, the State Government overruled the Southbank Corporation.
The proposed redevelopment included a waterway through the park, and a large lagoon, which was later downsized. In March 1990 the Final Plan was presented, after public submissions, and site redevelopment started in July 1990. The official Southbank Parklands opening occurred on 20 June 1992. The Waterway was later filled in and replaced with the Energex Arbour, which was officially opened in March 2000.
The transfer of the Peace Pagoda to its current site started on 24 September 1991. The deity of compassion was moved from the first floor to a glass case on the ground floor, the sides of the ground floor were encased in glass, and a display case was added inside. Access to the first floor was sealed off. The two smaller pavilions were also transferred, but their service windows were locked up. Two lion statues and two elephant statues were also relocated. The building was originally designed to be demountable, but it is currently set in a ceramic tiled floor. The Peace Pagoda was one of the best-loved exhibits at Expo 88, as visitors were able to relax in it away from the bustle of the crowds. Today it is still popular, both with tourists, and those who go there to meditate and reflect.
","criteria":"Expo 88 marked a shift in Brisbane's lifestyle, and it put Queensland on the international tourism map. The Peace Pagoda is a well-known reminder of an event that changed the way Queenslanders' view themselves and the rest of the world.
|The Peace Pagoda is rare in that it is the only international exhibit remaining on the old Expo 88 site. It is also the only example of a Nepalese temple in Australia, being one of only three that exist outside Nepal.
|As a faithful replica of a traditional Nepalese temple, it demonstrates the principle characteristics of a class of places.
|The intricate woodcarving, undertaken by Nepalese craftspeople, has created a picturesque building that is much admired and photographed.
|The Peace Pagoda has a strong association with many Queenslanders who attended Expo 88, both for its own sake, and as a reminder of Expo 88. The public effort to retain the pagoda in Brisbane is evidence of this attachment.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19657,"place_ref":602532,"name":"Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola","alternate_name":"Saint Ignatius Loyola Catholic Church","street_address":"50 Grove Street","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-07-12","description":"The Church of St Ignatius Loyola is a brick Romanesque building cut into a steeply sloping site on Toowong ridge. It commands a fine prospect across the city and its prominent position and square bell tower make it a landmark. It is a two-storey building with a hall on the lower level and the church proper on the upper level.
The church has an asymmetric front with a stepped parapet and is constructed of decorative polychrome brickwork in orange and brown. The roof is clad in Roman terracotta tiles. The upper level is accessed by steps to a large terrace at the eastern end. It is cruciform in plan with a long nave and short transepts terminating in small chapels, that on the northern side accessing an elaborate scagliola pulpit. Doors on the southern side are accessed by bridges that extend from a raised walkway.
The ceiling is clad in fibrous cement sheeting with lattice vents and there is a choir loft faced with silky oak panelling above the eastern entrance, which contains the organ. Below this, on either side of the entrance are altars and in the wall on each side are the doors to confessional booths, now used for storage.
Panels depicting the Stations of the Cross are set into the walls of the nave and at the western end is an apsidal chancel with vestries and a sanctuary approached through arches clad in orange veined scagliola and lined with the same material. The floors are concrete and are paved with marble in the Sanctuary.
The lower floor has separate entrances and contains a large hall with a stage at the eastern end and a kitchen. There is an arcaded verandah along the northern side.
Directly behind the church, and a few metres from it, is a brick school constructed on a similar scale, which is not considered to have heritage significance.
","history":"The Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola at Toowong was opened in 1930 and is a Romanesque building designed by Sydney architect John Francis Hennessy. It was constructed as part of Archbishop James Duhig's vision for the development of the Church in Brisbane through a major building program that included several such landmark churches.
Although there was European settlement at Toowong in the 1860s, the area did not develop until the opening of the Brisbane to Ipswich railway line in 1875 made it readily accessible. A number of villa houses were constructed on large estates on the Toowong ridge, while more modest residences occupied the lower levels. The first (Anglican) church opened in 1875 and by 1878 Toowong had enough families to warrant a provisional school.
In 1879 the first Catholic Mass was celebrated at Toowong in a private home, as there was no church in the area. Catholics living in the area attended St Stephens in the city centre. In 1888 Archbishop Dunne purchased land in Holland Street below the site of the present church and on 9 April 1893 the new timber church, called St Michael and the Holy Souls, was blessed and opened there.
In 1902, the Sisters of Mercy purchased a large private home at the top of the hill and took up residence there, naming the new convent Mount St Mary's. They began teaching at the school next to the church in 1903. A tramline from the city opened in 1904 and was soon extended, contributing to the growth of the Toowong area.
In 1912 James Duhig became Dunne's Co-Adjudicator, taking on much of his administrative duties. The first Catholic Brisbane parishes were erected at Coorparoo, Kangaroo Point, South Brisbane, Red Hill and Rosalie, the parish of Toowong being later formed from part of Rosalie. Although Dunne had only encouraged the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers to establish branches of their orders themselves in Queensland, Duhig was keen to encourage other religious orders in order to expand education. In August 1915 he wrote to Father John Ryan of the Society of Jesus in Sydney in this regard. In 1916 Toowong became the responsibility of the Jesuits who purchased and enlarged a house near the church for use as a presbytery. It was opened on St Ignatius Loyola Day, 30 July 1916.
By the early 1920s, both church and school were becoming inadequate for the growing congregation and the distance between convent and school had always been inconvenient for the teaching nuns, so the Sisters of Mercy provided a solution by offering part of their land for a new building. A public meeting was held in November 1928 at which it was suggested that costs could be kept down by building a hall underneath the church and by using it as a school. John Francis (Jack) Hennessy drew up the plans at the end of 1929. His father, founder of the Sydney firm of Hennessy and Hennessy, was an ecclesiastical architect who had worked on St Patrick's, Manly and St Josephs at Hunters Hill. Duhig met the younger Hennessey when he was Bishop of Rockhampton and they had become friends. After Duhig became Archbishop of Brisbane, Hennessey received a number of commissions from him. These included the churches of St Agatha, Clayfield (1925), Corpus Christi, Nundah (1926) and St Augustine, Coolangatta (1926). He also designed the ambitious Cathedral of the Holy Name whose construction did not proceed.
The foundation stone for the church was laid on 16 June 1929. Duhig announced at the ceremony that 'the day of wooden churches are past 'and that he hoped that no more would be built in the city. His vision for the development of the Catholic Church in Queensland included plans for the building of a number of substantial churches to manifest the strength and presence of the Church. Seeking landmark sites, he chose many on hilltops.
The new church was built by Concrete Constructions Ltd and was supervised by Leo Drinan, Hennessy's partner in the Brisbane office. All materials used were of the best quality and all five altars were designed by H Credington of the Catholic Art Gallery in Melbourne and made in his studios at Carrara in Italy. Andrew Petrie and Sons erected them. Many handsome gifts were bestowed on the church, including altars, statuary and a number of stained glass windows by John Hardman of London and William Bustard, a noted local glass artist who created the 'Magnificat' and 'Christ the King' windows.
The Architects and Builders Journal of Queensland, in its May edition, predicted that 'This building should rank as one of the handsomest churches of its size in Queensland'. The Catholic Leader of 22 May 1930 thought that 'The Italian Romanesque style of architecture, with the scope for elaborate interior embellishment and bold use of colour, is eminently suitable to the climate of Queensland' and the church indeed has a high quality of interior detailing. This decorative work includes ornate main and side altars, statuary, stained glass and in particular, extensive and striking scagliola work to the sanctuary and pulpit.
Scagliola (from scaglia or scales, after the natural form of the mineral used) is an artificial stone created from gypsum plaster, glues and dyes that can be made to imitate various types of stone, though usually rare types and colours of marble. The best work is visually indistinguishable from genuine marble, though it is far lighter, so that large and complex decorative features, such as the St Ignatius pulpit, can be constructed that would be difficult and costly to create in stone. The technique was developed in Germany and Italy at the end of the 15th century and was used mainly for decorating churches, such as the Church of San Miniato at Monte. Fine early examples of it also survive in secular buildings such as the Pantheon and Syon House in England. It became popular in America in the 19th century, the work being carried out by itinerant Italian craftsmen, though much was not of good quality.
The art was revived in Australia by the Sydney firm of Melocco Brothers. In 1908 Italian Pietro Melocco arrived in Sydney and began a commission on St Mary's Cathedral, the magnificent decorated floors of which became his life's work. His two brothers joined him and their firm was responsible for most of Sydney's best mosaic and terrazzo work, though much of this has not survived. For the Government Savings Bank in Martin Place, Tony Melocco decided to use scagliola, a technique by then fallen into disuse. Finding no one in either Italy or America able to teach him, Galli Melocco moved to Brisbane in 1929 to set up a branch of the company, though he returned to Sydney a year later as the Depression reduced the demand for such decorative work. It is not known if any major scagliola project other than that at St Ignatius Church was carried out in Queensland.
The church was blessed and opened by Archbishop Duhig on the 18 May 1930 and dedicated to St Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Its cost of £16010 included excavations, seating, lighting, decoration and fittings. The old church was relocated to Graceville, where it remains.
Between 1933 and 1936 a number of works were carried out by Depression relief labour. Kensington Terrace was excavated and the land on the southern side of the church was excavated to provide better access. The spoil was used to reclaim land along the northern side of the church that is now used as a car park.
The hall under the church did not prove suitable for long-term use as a school as it was too small and could not be divided into separate classrooms. On 3 November 1946 the foundation stone of a new school was laid to the west of the church. It was opened on 18 July 1948 and has been extended in several stages in the late 20th century.
Father Leo Murphy, assistant priest at St Ignatius since 1942, died in 1957 and a fund was set up to purchase a pipe organ as a memorial to him and in accordance with the instructions of Pius XII who had ruled that a pipe organ was the approved instrument for use during the liturgy and to accompany singing. The organ was constructed by Whitehouse at a cost of £2050 and was installed on 2 February and blessed on 8 March 1959.
The Sanctuary was paved with marble in February 1963 and new lighting was installed in the church and hall. Following changes recommended by the Second Vatican Council, the first mass at St Ignatius facing the people was held in 1966. A silky oak communion table was constructed for this purpose and donated by parishioner Frank Shuttlewood and his wife. The baptismal font of carved Carrara marble has been moved from the Baptistery to the front of the church and the confessional booths on either side of the rear of the church appear now to be used for storage.
","criteria":"The Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola is important as evidence for the period of expansion of the Catholic Church in Queensland during the 1920s and 30s under the leadership of Archbishop James Duhig. It is one of the churches, substantial in fabric and notable for quality of design and finish, which were intended to demonstrate and encourage a strong Catholic presence in the diocese. It is a manifestation of the Catholic ethos of selecting imposing sites to produce prominent landmarks and is a characteristic of churches built during the time of Archbishop Duhig.
|The Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola is rare for its extensive use of scagliola for the sanctuary and pulpit which may be the only example of such use in Queensland.
|The Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola is a particularly good example of an inter-war church, influenced by the fashionable revival of Romanesque church architecture in Australia, with its tower, picturesque massing and polychrome brickwork, a style favoured by Archbishop Duhig.
|The Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola has high aesthetic value as a well designed and visually pleasing building on a landmark site. The interior is notable for the quality of its fittings and finishes, including glass, altars, statuary and the use of scagliola for wall cladding and arches to the sanctuary and the ornate pulpit.
|As a parish church and formerly a school, it has been important for several generations of Catholics in the surrounding area as a source of spiritual, social and educational sustenance.
|The Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola has special associations with the life and works of Archbishop James Duhig and the architect John Francis Hennessey and with the work of the Society of Jesus in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19671,"place_ref":602551,"name":"Greystaines","alternate_name":"Greystaines Flats","street_address":"240 Kingsford Smith Drive","suburb":"HAMILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-05-26","description":"Greystaines is situated on the south east slope of Toorak or Hamilton Hill, fronting Kingsford Smith Drive and has expansive views of the Brisbane River and across Bulimba, Newstead and the City centre. There is pedestrian access only from Kingsford Smith Drive, the road being cut down well below the property level. Vehicle access is via Eden Lane at the rear, which is accessed via Hillside Crescent.
The building is a substantial, three-storeyed rendered brick structure in an adaptation of Mediterranean style. It has a multi-hipped roof clad in terracotta tiles. The central bay in the front elevation has a wide gable, below which, on each level, is an arcaded verandah with barley twist columns supporting the arches. These open onto exposed balconies with balustrades. The balustrades on the upper two levels are solid masonry. The balcony on the lower level has concrete balusters and extends across the entire frontage. Either side of the central front bay there are projecting bays with bay windows with later window frames. These side bays have quoining to the edges.
Each of the two upper floors contains two suites of mirror image rooms, while the basement level has arched doorways. This lower level was at one time used as one flat and was later divided by a cement block wall, which has been removed. Modern sliding doors close off the balconies and most windows are metal-framed sashes.
No original bathrooms or kitchens survive. A timber stair and landing remains.
Detailing is spare and well executed. Cornices are plain, skirtings are simple and the same moulding has been used at picture rail height in some rooms. There is a wide plate rail in the halls. Doors have full height vertical recessed panels and the drawing rooms on the upper floors have wide doors with multiple rectangular panes of glass set in narrow cames.
Each of the suites of rooms comprised an open area to back and front, a master bedroom with a bay window, second bedroom, rectangular drawing room, kitchen and bathroom and was accessed by internal stairs. There is also a terrace and stairs to the front and a set of unsympathetic metal stairs at the rear. A metal bridge of similar construction joins the top floor to the street behind.
The front garden slopes steeply toward Kingsford Smith Drive. It is terraced but overgrown. At the rear of the site is a small, two-storey building with a steeply pitched gabled roof with a modern colour-finished metal cladding. It has two rooms on the upper level and four rooms containing toilet and laundry facilities below..
The building makes a strong aesthetic contribution to the streetscape along Kingsford Smith Drive and is prominent when viewed from the Hamilton Reach of the Brisbane River.
","history":"Greystaines is a substantial, three-storeyed block of flats erected in 1934 for Mr Sydney James Dove and his wife Audree Thomasina Dove. The architect was George Rae, a Brisbane-based architect who designed some of Brisbane's best interwar flat buildings.
The land along the southern slope of Hamilton Hill, overlooking the Brisbane River and with frontage to the road along the river leading to Eagle Farm was first proclaimed for sale in September 1853. Allotments 6 to 9 of portion 1 (totalling just under 32 acres) were acquired by William Robert Howe Weekes.
In 1857 access to the area was improved by the construction of a bridge over Breakfast Creek near the confluence with the Brisbane River. From the early 1860s many of the Hamilton allotments were subdivided into smaller parcels, attracting a number of prominent middle-class residents who built comfortable homes on the slopes of Hamilton (later Toorak) and Hemmant (later Eldernell) hills, overlooking the river. Weekes subdivided his land about 1865, creating much of today's pattern of subdivision and roads in the area, including Hillside Crescent, Eden Lane, Crescent Road (originally Weekes Street) and Arran Avenue (originally Robert Street). On the long strip of land at the foot of Hamilton Hill bounded by Hillside Crescent, Eden Lane and Crescent, Hamilton and Toorak roads, two substantial homes had been erected by 1883. 'Braesid' occupied the western third of the site and 'Norwood', the home of Brisbane dentist David Eden from the late 1870s, occupied the eastern two-thirds. The later site of Greystaines formed part of the Norwood Estate.
By the mid-1890s a house was extant to the east of Norwood, still within the Norwood estate and appears to have occupied the later site of Greystaines. In 1906, Eden resurveyed the Norwood estate and sold off the eastern half, with boundaries to Eden's Lane, Hamilton Road and Crescent Road, in two parcels. The site of the flats was transferred to George Longland who occupied a residence at this location from at least 1908. An aerial photograph dated c1925 shows a large house on the site.
Longland transferred his interest in this property to Jessie Jane Buchanan, as trustee, in 1918 and she transferred the property to Alan Gordon Corrie in 1923. Following Corrie's death in 1925, the property was transferred in late 1928/early 1929 to Sydney James Dove and his wife Audree Thomasina Dove, as joint tenants. In 1934 Mr and Mrs Dove commissioned Brisbane architect George Rae to design a modern block of six brick flats for the site.
The site was well chosen for the construction of a purpose-built flat building, offering a number of attractions to potential tenants. The position was high, with extensive views overlooking the Brisbane River and adjacent suburbs; the tram service along Hamilton Road (later Kingsford Smith Drive) provided regular, reliable access to the Brisbane central business district and to inner city attractions such as theatres and restaurants; and the two street frontages made for greater convenience of access. Given this prime location in one of Brisbane's premier residential suburbs, the site warranted a substantial, well-designed building that offered flats of a comfortable size and convenience attracting middle class occupants who could afford a comparatively higher rent.
George Rae was in his early thirties and one of Brisbane's most successful young architects. He had just established his own architectural practice in Brisbane (1933) after working in partnership in this city as Atkinson, Powell and Conrad 1927-31 and Lange L Powell and George Rae 1931-33. These were among the most prominent architectural firms of the day. Rae designed a variety of buildings, including new forms of architectural construction to Brisbane such as picture theatres and residential flats. His more substantial purpose-designed flat buildings are amongst the most important of their type and their period in Brisbane. They include: Carrington (corner of Warry Street and Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill) erected in 1933; Highview (on Dornoch Terrace, Highgate Hill) designed in 1933-34; Casa del Mar (44 Moray Street, New Farm) erected in 1934; Greystaines (240 Hamilton Road, Hamilton) constructed in 1934; and Green Gables [601895] (corner of Julius and Moray streets, New Farm) erected in 1935.
By April 1934 Rae had completed the design for Greystaines Flats and was calling tenders for the construction. In mid-1934 the contract was let to well-known Brisbane master builder Douglas Francis Roberts, who resided nearby at Albion. When Brisbane City Council building approval was obtained early in June 1934, the flats were priced at £4,000. This represented a substantial investment for a Brisbane flat building, where most of the better class of brick or concrete flat buildings of this period cost between $3,000 and $6,000 to construct (exclusive land costs).
In mid-1934 Mr and Mrs Dove took out a mortgage on their Hamilton Road property, which possibly financed the construction of Greystaines.
Early in November 1934 the Courier-Mail reported that Greystaines flats had been completed and published a photograph of the new building. The design was considered very modern and 'a Colonial adaptation of Mediterranean architectural style'. The flats were of a comfortable size, well appointed and finished and clearly were intended for middle-class tenants.
These flats, which command a magnificent view of the Hamilton reach of the Brisbane River, are roofed with mottled tiles. All the flats possess separate garages, which are approached from a higher level in Crescent Road [sic]. Each flat contains two bedrooms, lounge, living room, laundry, kitchen, and bathroom, also front and back balconies. The interior wall decorations are tastefully treated in paper, and the bathrooms are tiled.
Greystaines was erected during a revival of a flat building 'boom' in Brisbane in the interwar period. The first purpose-designed flat buildings had been introduced to Brisbane c1920 and were concentrated in the inner suburbs, including New Farm, Fortitude Valley, Spring Hill, Petrie Terrace, Kangaroo Point and South Brisbane. It took some time for Brisbane to accept this new form of multiple dwelling residency, but by the late 1920s flat buildings were becoming increasingly popular investments. This interest in purpose-built flat construction was curtailed by the severe economic depression of the early 1930s, but with the easing of the depression the construction of purpose-built flats led the recovery in Brisbane residential construction from 1933. In 1933-34 flat buildings reputedly were returning up to 8-12% on capital and were one of the most attractive small investments of the day.
There had been limited activity in purpose-built flat construction in Hamilton prior to this period and Greystaines, constructed in 1934, was one of the first of the larger blocks of residential flats erected in this suburb. In the second half of the 1930s Hamilton became a popular venue for purpose-built flat construction, rivalling New Farm as a focus for flat developments. Many of the larger blocks of flats erected along the southern slopes of Hamilton/Toorak and Eldernell hills in the period 1934-1941 survive. Amongst these Greystaines, with its prominent riverine presence in the townscape, makes a notable aesthetic, architectural and historical contribution.
In the 1930s there was no provision for strata title of property, so the construction of purpose-built flats tended to be a long-term investment for developers, rather than a speculative venture aimed at rapid on-selling. Mr and Mrs Dove retained ownership of Greystaines Flats until the property was transferred to Guy Dart Atherton in July 1941. Ownership changed again in 1950, when title was transferred to Thomas Keith Watson Muir, who retained the property for nearly 30 years.
Around 1950 part of the frontage of the flats was resumed to allow widening of the road. However, the building remains on a single title, unlike many other purpose-built interwar flat buildings that since the 1990s have been strata titled. It has recently changed hands and is in the process of being converted into a single dwelling.
Although changes have occurred over time, notably the addition of a metal staircase and bridge to the rear and the insertion of floor tiles and some aluminium windows in the 1970s, the building and its gardens remain substantially intact.
","criteria":"Greystaines was erected in 1934 at the onset of a boom in purpose-built flat construction in Brisbane and as such, is important in illustrating part of the pattern of Queensland's history. There had been limited activity in purpose-built flat construction in Hamilton prior to this period and Greystaines was one of the first of the larger blocks of residential flats erected in this suburb. In the second half of the 1930s Hamilton became a popular venue for purpose-built flat construction in Brisbane, rivalling New Farm as a focus for flat developments. Purpose-built flat buildings were a phenomenon of the interwar period in Brisbane. They represented a new and modern form of living and their architecture reflected fashionable modern styles of the period. The service building to the rear of Greystaines appears to be related to an earlier house on site reflects the subdivision and redevelopment of many early large estates at this period.
|Greystaines is a good and substantially intact example of its type and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a purpose-built block of flats of the interwar period, aimed at attracting middle-class tenants. These characteristics include the location along a former tram service; the form, the substantial materials, the popular Mediterranean style, the quality of the design, the attention to good quality finishes and the provision of facilities such as garages and private laundries. The amenity of its elevated location with extensive views is also a characteristic of the better quality flats of this era. Greystaines is important also in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the work of architect George Rae, one of the more successful interwar architects in Brisbane, who designed a number of Brisbane's better quality, purpose-designed, middle-class flat buildings. As a group, Brisbane's surviving purpose-designed flat buildings of the interwar period contribute to our understanding of the evolution of this particular form of multiple occupancy residential building and the work of George Rae in particular makes a strong contribution to our understanding of this type.
|The building makes a strong aesthetic contribution to the Hamilton townscape along Kingsford Smith Drive and is prominent when viewed from the Hamilton Reach of the Brisbane River. It has made a significant aesthetic contribution to the Hamilton townscape since 1934.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19677,"place_ref":602559,"name":"Fort Cowan Cowan (Cowan Cowan Battery)","alternate_name":"Fort Cowan, RAN 3 Cowan Cowan","street_address":"30 Jessie Wadsworth Street","suburb":"MORETON ISLAND","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-10-01","description":"Fort Cowan Cowan is located at Cowan Cowan Village, Moreton Island. The area is approximately 34616.033 metres square, roughly triangular in shape and stretches along the western beach from the Cowan Lighthouse in south to the northern end of Cowan Cowan Village. Jessie Wadsworth Street forms part of the eastern boundary.
The site comprises of a number of structures, all built in 1937, including two gun emplacements, concrete paths, four magazine huts, foundations of kitchen and soldiers' mess, storage hut, engine room, underground sewerage and piping and a concrete tank.
The two gun emplacements are constructed from reinforced concrete and are comprised of an enclosed gun platform with metal blast doors and rooms beneath which are actually underground. The emplacements were originally situated behind the first dunes however as the beach has lost sand due to erosion the emplacements are now close to the tide line. Most of the walls have shifted and tilted as the erosion has undermined the gun platforms and the platforms on both emplacements have separated from the rear sections and tipped forwarded onto the beach. As erosion proceeds, the potential for ongoing collapse is high. In addition, structural timbers have become decayed, been destroyed by fires, or have been removed. The lack of structural support means that walls are not tied together and are in an advanced state of collapse.
The doors on Number 1 (northern) emplacement have been removed and placed flat on the platform however, the underground room, steps and metal doors are intact. In the case of Number 2 (southern) emplacement, the blast doors have swung open and are hanging downwards, should either the supporting wall or the door hinge fail, the door and/or attached wall will topple onto the beach. The gun platform has effectively disarticulated from the underground section. The top section of the wall supporting the southern blast door has snapped and fallen onto the foundations.
The concrete pathways lead from the gun emplacements to the magazine huts and between the huts. Although cracked, the paths are still largely intact and clearly visible.
The four magazine huts and storage hut have been converted into accommodation blocks but still retain a large degree of original appearance including the roof vents.
The concrete slab foundations of kitchen and soldiers' mess remain intact and visible.
There are visible remains of the engine room and concrete pipes from the reticulated water and sewerage system.
A concrete tank is still intact and visible.
","history":"Fort Cowan Cowan is a Second World War defence facility located on the western side of Moreton Island in Moreton Bay. The fort was commissioned by the Queensland Government in 1935 and constructed in 1937. It was operational until 1945 after which operations were scaled down and was eventually officially closed in 1960.
\nFort Cowan Cowan was part of a network of artillery installations designed to defend Brisbane and Moreton Bay from attack by sea and which were in turn part of a larger scheme begun in 1935 to upgrade coastal defences. It was completed in 1937 and contributed to the coastal defence of Queensland until the end of the Second World War. Within the perimeter of Fort Cowan Cowan, which belonged to the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) also had a presence with their RAN3 defence establishment.
\nMoreton Bay was named by Captain Cook after Lord Morton, the then president of the Royal Society in Britain. Matthew Flinders then named Moreton Island in 1799. European settlement on Moreton Island began in 1848 when the Queensland Department of Harbours and Marine built a pilot station near Bulwer on the north western side of the island to guide vessels through the passages of Moreton Bay. This was followed by the building of the Cape Moreton Lighthouse in 1857, at the northerly tip of the island and then the Comboyuro Lighthouse in 1877.
\nA telegraph office opened at Cape Moreton in August 1864, followed by a schoolroom in 1879. A telegraph line was constructed during the 1890s, to service the lighthouse. A Morse Lamp for signalling was installed at Cape Moreton c1910. The lamp is recorded as having a range of 20 miles and as being in constant use for signalling purposes. Signal flags were used for daytime communication. A post office opened at Cape Moreton in 1915, and closed in the early 1920s with the Lightkeepers serving as Post Masters during this period. Moreton Island was also the site of Queensland's only whaling station. In operation from 1952 to 1962, it closed after declining whale numbers made it unfeasible to continue. Today, Moreton Island has a small permanent population spread among three townships, Kooringal, Bulwer and Cowan Cowan and is primarily viewed as a holiday/recreational destination.
\nPrior to the 1860s, defence of the Australian colonies had been solely the responsibility of the Imperial government. Britain considered that the Imperial Navy would always provide the first line of defence in any threat to her colonial empire, but from 1863 required the Australian colonies, by then self-governing, to contribute toward the costs of maintaining Imperial garrisons on colonial soil, and encouraged the colonies to provide for their own military infrastructure such as fortifications and barracks. Queensland, which had separated from New South Wales in December 1859, could not afford to contribute to Imperial defence, and so Imperial troops were gradually withdrawn from the colony - the last leaving by 1870. In the 1860s Queensland established a number of volunteer defence units, based on the British model, but their effectiveness was severely impaired by a lack of armaments and ammunition.
\nBy the 1870s the Australian colonies were developing rapidly and were concerned with potential threats from colonial powers such as Russia and France (the latter had annexed New Caledonia in 1873). In 1877 the colonial governments of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia, anxious to secure the land defence of their coastlines, jointly invited British Royal Engineers Colonel Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois and Lieutenant-Colonel Peter H Scratchley, to inspect existing defence installations and make recommendations as to how these might be improved. Scratchley's particular expertise was in the design and construction of deterrent coastal fortresses. Jervois and Scratchley identified maritime attacks as the greatest threat to Australia, and recommended that coastal defences be developed for all the mainland colonies. Despite being physically closer to the source of most threats, Queensland, with its sparse population and limited resources, was not considered to be greatly at risk. In his August 1877 preliminary report on Queensland coastal defences, Jervois identified the principal threat to Queensland security as an attack from the sea on the major ports [Brisbane, Rockhampton and Maryborough], in the form of city bombardment to secure supplies and coal, rather than for permanent occupation. This report was the first to seriously propose the defence of Moreton Bay although due to prohibitive costs the proposal was not supported at the time.
\nAs events in Europe and Asia in the 1930s moved the world towards war, various sectors of Australia's defence, including coastal fortifications, were examined. There was an increased emphasis on defence rearmament from 1935. As major cities and ports along the coastline would be exposed to damage from naval raids or attack, coastal defences were to be upgraded. Batteries were established in Sydney, Darwin and along the Western Australia coast. Invasion was not a major concern at this stage, rather the batteries were for defence against seaborne shelling or the torpedoing of ports. The defence of the Moreton Bay region was concentrated on the mouth of the Brisbane River at Fort Lytton [600248], constructed in 1880-1881, until the mid 1930s, when attempts were made to upgrade the region's defence.
\nPrior to the building of Fort Cowan Cowan, attitudes towards defence were changing. Military experts were supporting the implementation of more mobile defence forces, as opposed to fixed facilities. Technology was changing for both weaponry and shipping and as such, defensive techniques were constantly under review. The government's plan of building coastal defence forts for protection was a somewhat outdated 19th century response to a modern 20th century situation. Unlike previous wars in which sea based attacks were prevalent, the war in the Pacific in the 1940s was far more about aerial warfare. Therefore, coastal defence forts were not necessarily the most appropriate or effective defence plan the government could have implemented.
\nThe shipping channels in Moreton Bay simplified the proposed placement of batteries. The major access route into the Brisbane River was the northwest channel, which ran close to the shore near Caloundra, across the bay in a southeasterly direction towards Moreton Island, and then south westerly towards the mouth of the river, forming a Z-shaped route. This dictated the ideal positions for artillery batteries, with the most effective sites for guns being the closest points to the channel bends.
\nThere were two naval establishments within the army site of Fort Cowan Cowan, consisting of a Port War Signal Station (PWSS), also referred to as the Naval Signal Station (which pre-dated the construction of Fort Cowan Cowan) and the naval station (RAN3). The naval station was responsible for the two controlled minefields, one in Pearl Channel (called M11) and one in the main channel off Cowan Cowan (M5).
\nFort Cowan Cowan was built according to standard military plans that were modified to suit the sandy terrain. Construction of the fortifications commenced late 1936 and were completed by September 1937. Structures included the gun emplacements, command tower, observation post, engine rooms, pump house, jetty, well, mess rooms, washrooms, latrines, equipment stores and water services. The site included the installation of a reticulated water and sewerage system, which was unusual for the time considering the majority of the greater Brisbane area was not sewered until the 1960s.This seems to be related to a hygiene report on the site during construction of the fort which recommended the system for reasons of maintenance costs and adherence to modern sanitary practices.
\nFort Cowan Cowan took over the role of an Examination Battery from Fort Lytton. The function of the Examination Service was to identify and ascertain the character and intentions of vessels seeking to enter defended ports. Merchant vessels approaching a port would be met by an Examination Vessel, stationed permanently at the Examination Anchorage near the entrance to the port. If an approaching vessel could not be identified, it was directed to proceed to the Examination Anchorage under the observation of the Examination Battery, and further investigation was undertaken. The major function of the Naval Signal Station appears to have been to receive signals from the Examination Vessels and relay messages to the gunnery, rather than to send signals which would have revealed the position of the battery.
\nThe first real indication of enemy naval presence in proximity to Brisbane occurred on 24 March 1942 when a suspected Japanese submarine was sighted east of Stradbroke Island. Two 100lb bombs were dropped on it but there has never been any evidence that the submarine was destroyed. On 4 June 1942 another Japanese submarine, identified as 'I.29' was sighted off Moreton Island. This submarine was later identified as one of the vessels involved in the midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour on 31 May 1942. On 14 May 1943, the hospital ship, 'Centaur' was struck and sunk off the Brisbane coastline by the Japanese submarine, 'I.177'. Of the 332 people on board only 64 survived to be rescued by the American destroyer, 'USS Mugford'. The last attack to occur in the approaches to the Port of Brisbane, took place on 4 June 1943 off Cape Moreton when the Japanese submarine 'I.174' fired on the American ship 'MV Edward Chambers'. The submarine withdrew when return fire was given. Although there was clearly hostile activity present in the waters off Brisbane, the only recorded combat firing that took place at Fort Cowan Cowan was on 4 March 1942 when the battery fired upon the trading vessel, SS Tambar, after it failed to give proper identification. This incident resulted in the loss of three crewmen's lives.
\nFort Cowan Cowan was in operation until 1945 when instructions were issued for all coastal defences, except those in Darwin, Sydney and Fremantle, to be scaled down and kept in a state of care and maintenance. With the reassessment of Australia's defensive arrangements in the 1950s, the role of artillery batteries in coastal defence diminished. The government recognised that the nature of modern warfare had changed and fixed coastal defences were no longer considered a necessary part of defensive plans. At this time Brisbane was still a defended port but by 1960 this arrangement was redefined and Fort Cowan Cowan closed.
\nAlthough Moreton Island is primarily a tourist destination, it does have three small townships. Since closing, much of Fort Cowan Cowan has been removed, destroyed or has disappeared into the residential landscape of the Cowan township. In some cases, buildings from the complex have been converted for other uses such as holiday accommodation. Moreton Bay Boat Club (MBBC) has leased Lot 46 C9562 which comprises a number of interlinking concrete paths, the four magazine huts, the foundations of the kitchen and soldiers' mess, store hut and the concrete water tank. MBBC have converted the magazine huts and storage hut into accommodation blocks for use by club members. The two gun emplacements remain in situ on the beach although over the years the tide line has moved progressively closer to them. Their condition has deteriorated and both emplacements are listing dangerously on their foundations as the sand shifts from under them.
\n","criteria":"
Fort Cowan Cowan is representative of Second World War coastal defence batteries in Australia and is one of the first large-scale fortified installations to be constructed on a Queensland island. It has the potential to yield information that will contribute to the understanding of Queensland's history due to the extensive remnants of Second World War fortification sites, which includes both Army and Naval defences. It also has potential to yield information about the relationship between Fort Cowan Cowan and the other defence batteries in the Moreton Bay area that complete the coastal defence system.
|Fort Cowan Cowan has a strong association with military activity in Queensland, as a site for defence, training and military support and with the Australian Military Force and Royal Australian Navy.
|Fort Cowan Cowan is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of Australia's Second World War coastal defence fortifications including 6 inch Mark X1 batteries modified to suit the terrain with emplacements being constructed of reinforced concrete with magazines to the rear of the gun platform rather than below.
The inclusion of a sewerage and pressurised water reticulation system, including plumbing and underground piping systems, at Fort Cowan Cowan was unusual for the late 1930s as the majority of the greater Brisbane area was not sewered until the 1960s.
|The Fort Cowan Cowan Second World War fortifications, constructed in 1937, are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, being part of the preparations for the defence of Australia, in particular the Moreton Bay region, during the 1930s and the Second World War. It demonstrates the evolution of Queensland's coastal defences, which began in the 1880s with the construction of Fort Lytton at the mouth of the Brisbane River and included a signal station at Cowan Cowan prior to Fort Cowan Cowan's construction.
It is important for the intactness of the physical evidence of the Second World War defence scheme, and retains additions and alterations which illustrate the evolution of Queensland's defence planning and of military process and technology up to the 1940s. The place is significant as part of a co-ordinated system of coastal defence in Australia.
|Fort Cowan Cowan demonstrates uncommon surviving evidence of a largely intact and interpretative Second World War battery complex which incorporates a number of structures including two gun emplacements, concrete paths, four magazine huts, foundations of kitchen and soldiers' mess, storage hut, engine room, underground sewerage and piping and concrete tanks.
Fort Cowan Cowan provides rare surviving evidence of a Second War World coastal fortification in Queensland, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, with gun emplacements in situ.
|Fort Cowan Cowan is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community including a sense of place, isolation, landmark quality of the gun emplacements, particularly when viewed from the sea; a sense of discovery; and the form, scale and materials of Fort Cowan Cowan and the Royal Australian Navy Station 3 fortifications.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion C | Criterion H | Criterion D | Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19715,"place_ref":602560,"name":"Former Dispenser's House, Diamantina Hospital","alternate_name":"Diamantina Health Care Museum | Dispensers House","street_address":"Cornwall Street","suburb":"WOOLLOONGABBA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-07-03","description":"The former Dispenser's House is situated close to the Cornwall Street gate to the Princess Alexandra Hospital .It is a timber building with a hipped roof clad with corrugated iron sheeting and is set on new concrete stumps.
There is a gabled bay with four windows to the eastern elevation and verandahs to the north and south. The southern verandah is built in with timber framed windows and the northern by glass louvres. The walls are timber lined and there are timber floors and ceilings. The rooms opening onto the southern verandah and some of the internal rooms have French doors with transom lights above. Modern toilets have been added.
","history":"The former Dispenser's House was built in 1908 as part of the facilities of the Diamantina Hospital for Chronic Diseases and is now a health care museum.
The Diamantina Hospital was established in 1901 by adapting the facilities of the Diamantina Orphanage, named for the wife of Queensland's first Governor, Lady Diamantina Bowen. This had been founded in 1864 under the committee of the Brisbane Hospital in two cottages, near the Victoria Barracks, that had been previously used as a fever hospital.
Within two years, the orphanage was caring for about 100 children and received a government subsidy. In 1882, a 20-acre block of land on Ipswich Road at Woolloongabba was purchased to allow the construction of a larger facility. In 1883 the Diamantina Orphanage opened at this new location and by 1886 was caring for more than 350 children. This number was reduced by boarding out some children and removing those with a parent able to make some contribution to their support.
In 1893, severe flooding damaged the Woogaroo Asylum, so about 40 of the quieter patients from the asylum were moved to the orphanage, and the children were dispersed. From 1898 to 1900, the facility was used as a reformatory for boys.
At that time, Queensland had no hospital to treat chronically ill patients. Tuberculosis was a major cause of death into the 20th century and 'consumptive' patients were also drawn to Queensland because of the belief that warm weather helped to cure the disease. Treatment for tuberculosis at that time consisted mainly of isolation, bed rest, good diet and exposure to fresh air and sunshine. Medical professionals lobbied for a facility to treat chronic cases. A sanatorium was opened in Dalby in 1900 and the Diamantina Orphanage, with its pleasant situation on a wooded slope, was adapted as a hospital. Its dormitories were enlarged as wards, and on 5 August 1901 it opened as the Diamantina Hospital for Chronic Diseases. It was a Public Charitable Institution under the Charitable Institution Ac. and was under the care of the Department of Health. It accepted patients from the general hospital and from the Dunwich Benevolent Institution, many of whom were suffering from tuberculosis. The Diamantina Hospital opened with 32 beds and a general staff of 19 administered by a Matron, Miss Florence Chatfield, a Superintendent, Dr F E Hare, and a Head Wardsman and Dispenser, Mr Frederick Staubwasser.
By 1903 the hospital had 72 beds and two open-air wards. The Superintendent resigned and Miss Chatfield added his duties to her own. In 1907 Mr Staubwasser, planning marriage, requested a raise in salary and a cottage within the hospital grounds. His request was strongly supported by Miss Chatfield, in a letter to the Home Secretary, stressing his value to the institution. The request was approved but the cottage was not built immediately.
Thomas Pye, Deputy Government Architect, prepared sketch plans for a dwelling of 700 square feet plus a large front verandah, to be constructed near the hospital Dispensary. Tenders were called on 9 July 1908 and that of W Chaplain for £330 was accepted. By the beginning of 1909 the house was occupied.
Mr Staubwasser served as Dispenser until 1912 when he became Assistant Superintendent. In that year another verandah was added to the cottage and a laundry in 1914. In 1923 the house was extended by adding another verandah to the south and a third bedroom to the front. The main entrance was then relocated to the northern verandah. In 1935 Mr Staubwasser was promoted to Superintendent but continued to occupy the house until his death in 1938. From then until the end of the Second World War, the house was occupied by a series of Medical Officers from the Brisbane General Hospital who were responsible for the Diamantina Hospital patients.
In 1943 the Diamantina Hospital became the South Brisbane Auxiliary Hospital and was under the control of the Brisbane General Hospital. Following the War, an intensive programme was carried out by the Queensland government to eradicate tuberculosis by screening and treatment. This reduced the need for chronic care facilities.
In 1956 a new 800 bed acute hospital was built in the grounds of the South Brisbane Hospital. In 1960 it was renamed the Princess Alexandra Hospital and had its own hospital board. The cottage, after accommodating a series of staff members, was modified for use as a Home Haemodialysis Training Centre in 1974.
In 1998 it was used by the History and Archives Committee and in 1999 by the Redevelopment Group.
In 2003 the former Dispenser's House was renovated and opened in 2004 as the Diamantina Health Care Museum.
A wall has been removed between bedrooms and an office created on the northern verandah by the construction of a partition. The building remains substantially intact and retains its domestic appearance.
","criteria":"The former Dispenser's House is important for demonstrating the former use of the site as the Diamantina Hospital for Chronic Diseases, which opened in 1901 on the site of the current Princess Alexandra Hospital. This was the first such hospital in Queensland and was important in the development of health care in the State. The former residence, constructed in 1908, also demonstrates the common practice of the time of providing on site living quarters for key personnel.
|The former Dispenser's House is now rare as the last remaining structure from the Diamantina Hospital for Chronic Diseases.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19793,"place_ref":602844,"name":"Queensland Cultural Centre","alternate_name":"(QCC) | Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) | Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) | Queensland Museum (QM) | State Library of Queensland (SLQ)","street_address":"Grey Street","suburb":"SOUTH BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2015-06-12","description":"The Queensland Cultural Centre is an extensive low-rise complex comprising four cultural institutions, associated ancillary facilities and spaces located on the bank of the Brisbane River at South Brisbane. Set against the backdrop of the Taylor Range skirting greater Brisbane, the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Queensland Museum (QM), The Edge and the central services facility and connecting plazas and walkways retain a coherent architectural form. The reworked Queensland State Library (SLQ) building and the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) at the western end of the complex, are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance and are not included within the heritage register boundary.
\nThe site, stretching more than 450m along the river, is bounded by Grey, Peel and Russell Streets and bisected by Melbourne Street, a major thoroughfare connecting South Brisbane to the CBD on the north bank via the Victoria Bridge. Across the site, the components of the Centre are connected by subway tunnels, external plazas, elevated covered walkways and a spinal bridge across Melbourne Street.
\nThe complex is unified by a consistent architectural expression: repetitive cubic forms established through the use of a consistently applied and well resolved three-dimensional grid; monolithic, sand-blasted off-form concrete of superior quality; extensive use of deep shaded glazing; an elegant, expressed primary structure of rhythmic, regular elements; internal and external integrated planting and landscaping; and external public spaces with direct relationships to internal spaces.
\nPrimary circulation between entities is organised around a pedestrian spine running from QPAC across Melbourne Street, between the QM the QAG (known as the Whale mall) and joining the plaza shared by the SLQ and GOMA.
\nThe Queensland Cultural Centre is important for its:
\nLandmark
\nThe Queensland Cultural Centre is a landmark complex. The buildings, individually and collectively, provide impressive visual interest, contribute considerably to the streetscape of South Brisbane and to the panoramic view from the Brisbane River and central business district.
\nQueensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC)
\nThe largest individual component of the complex is QPAC, standing on the southern side of Melbourne Street. QPAC comprises four venues: Concert Hall, Lyric Theatre, Cremorne Theatre and Playhouse.
\nThe major elements are clearly expressed in the building form. Two courtyards provide a setback from Melbourne Street, one accommodates the large, semi-circular Cascade Court Fountain, the other is landscaped and grassed.
\nThe principal entrance is from Melbourne Street, providing access to the Lyric Theatre and Concert Hall; a secondary entrance from Russell Street accesses the Playhouse, and an entrance from the Cultural Centre Forecourt provides access to the Cremorne Theatre. The building is organised so the four venues back onto a shared, central backstage area accessed from Grey Street. The 'black box' volumes of the venues are wrapped by the main foyers overlooking Melbourne Street and secondary foyers along the sides to the river and Grey Street.
\nThe multi-level foyers comprise a series of broad stairs passing through a variety of volumes. Expanses of glazing are shaded by vertical concrete fins supporting horizontal grids of stainless steel. These elements cast a bold, graphic pattern of light and shadow into the foyer, heightening the visual drama during the day. At night, the brightly-lit foyers are strikingly-presented through the tall concrete frames, visible from the surrounding area. A large wall within the grand staircase between the two largest venues prominently displays the Lawrence Daws mural Pacific Nexus. The bars are clad with boldly-coloured marble and from the foyers there are attractive views of the river and city as well as of other parts of the QCC.
\nThe Concert Hall, an auditorium with a capacity of 1,6000 to 1,800 seats, is a long ‘shoe-box' space accommodating a stage, orchestra pit, upholstered stalls seating, a single rear balcony and long side galleries. The auditorium is designed for a long reverberation time, ideal for a big orchestral sound. The space is able to be varied acoustically to give appropriate acoustic definition to other modes of performance. Interior finishes include Johnstone River hardwood flooring and tiers, sand-blasted white concrete and veneered-plywood walls. A white plasterboard coffered ceiling incorporates theatrical lighting pods. The Concert Hall accommodates the Klais Grand Organ with its 6500 pipes arranged symmetrically as a central focus on the rear stage wall.
\nThe Lyric Theatre, an auditorium with a proscenium stage and seating capacity for 2,000, accommodates an orchestra pit, raking stalls and two upper balconies of seating. Designed for a mid-range reverberation time ideal for opera, the space is able to be varied acoustically for light opera, musicals and drama by manipulating absorptive panels in the celling. Interior finishes include: colour-graduated velour house-curtain; carpeted floors and tiers; stained, veneered-plywood wall panelling; aluminium-tube lower ceiling and plasterboard upper ceiling; and upholstered theatre seating.
\nCremorne Theatre, a flexible space with six configurations and seating capacity of 200-300, is an auditorium with a flat floor, moveable tiers of collapsible seating, moveable modular stage elements, an upper surround balcony with removable balustrade, lighting bridges, overhead props and lighting grid and control rooms. Interior finishes reflect the basic functional aspect of the space: timber floor, white plasterboard walls and ceiling, upholstered seating and dark acoustic curtains at the walls.
\nThe Playhouse, a proscenium theatre with a capacity of 850 seats, accommodates stalls, mid-stalls, a balcony and balcony boxes for patron seating. Foyers address Russell Street with a corner bias to Stanley Street, with grand staircases and expressed lifts at each end and outside balconies to both foyer levels.
\nAncillary spaces provide front and back of house facilities, dining, bars, ticket office, Green Room, dressing, rehearsal, administration and storage. Throughout, the building retains original furniture and fittings designed by Robin Gibson and Partners.
\nQueensland Art Gallery (QAG)
\nThe Queensland Art Gallery, a three-storey building with extensive landscaped plazas and gardens, stands to the north side of Melbourne Street, and northeast of the Whale mall pedestrian spine. Standing above two levels of carparking (Levels 1 and 2), the building accommodates two storeys of public exhibition galleries with ancillary administration offices (Levels 3 and 4) and a storey of administration offices, art conservation workshops, and collection store room (Level 5).
\nThe building and its plazas/gardens are integrated: large internal galleries are visibly connected to external sculpture gardens; and planterboxes are integrated into the structure internally and externally. To the riverside of the QAG stands a large landscaped plaza of flat lawns, concrete raised garden beds, and rectangular concrete pads falling to the river in a steep landscaped embankment. The plazas/gardens contain sculptures and fountains by important Australian artists including Approaching Equilibrium (Anthony Pryoro), Pelicans (Leonard and Kathleen Shillam), Sisters (Ante Dabro), Leviathan Play (Rob Robertson-Swann) and Offshoot (Clement Meadmore).
\nThe original main entry to the gallery is from the riverside plaza. An entrance to the southeast corner is the primary approach for pedestrians arriving from the city across the Victoria Bridge. The \"Robin Gibson Entry\", a curved glass structure opening from the SLQ/GOMA plaza, is now the main entrance. On entry, visitors are drawn to the key orientation space, the Watermall.
\nThe elegant, high-volume Watermall is parallel to the Brisbane River and runs the length of the building, visually connecting at each end with landscaped courtyards. The galleries are organised to flow in a logical fashion from one to another, sometimes through half-level floor changes. They have variously high, medium and low ceilings catering for the differing scale of exhibits and vary in enclosure to cater for installations, sound, light and audio-visual displays. The plan of the QAG is strictly organised according to function into long stripes parallel to the river. Long sight lines are had through many spaces, providing visitor orientation and anticipation, and a sense of openness in the large building.
\nThe colour and material palette of the gallery is muted, mainly comprising white-painted, coffered concrete slab ceilings and plasterboard walls, large expanses of sand-coloured concrete walls and travertine floors. Differing floor finishes are important to the functioning of the galleries: substantial areas in general traffic zones are finished with large travertine slabs; travertine also runs in narrow bands along walls as a deterrent to touching the paintings; timber parquetry is extensive. The building retains original furniture designed by Robin Gibson and Partners.
\nQueensland Museum (QM)
\nQueensland Museum stands to the north side of Melbourne Street, and southwest of the Whale mall pedestrian spine. It is a seven-storey building accommodating four levels of public exhibition spaces; and provision for administration and research offices, a library and collection storage.
\nThe monolithic, square-form building is a closed box providing a controlled climate for exhibits. A large, deep aperture is cut into the solid concrete wall on Grey Street and accommodates a dramatic, three-storey garden. Other elevations are generally solid. A plaza forecourt to Melbourne Street with broad concrete stairs provides the main entry to the building. A prominent, glazed, double-height escalator hall projects from the front elevation and leads up to the large, main foyer on Level 2.
\nThe plan comprises large, open floor plates either side of a broad central spine of vertical circulation, voids and service spaces. The exhibition levels step at half levels to each other either side of the spine, allowing visitors to orient themselves and for a sequential experience of the exhibits. The exhibition spaces are varied in size to cater for a range of exhibit sizes. The offices on Levels 5 and 6 access generous garden balconies on the northeastern side with views across the lower QAG to the Brisbane River.
\nAccessed from Grey Street is an open-air loading dock, shared with QAG.
\nAncillary services plant
\nAdjacent to QM stands a tall, detached ancillary building providing accommodation for a services plant providing shared mechanical services across QCC.
\nCultural Centre Forecourt
\nThe Cultural Centre Forecourt is a flat, open, landscaped plaza along the river edge to the southeast elevation of QPAC. The Forecourt provides a setting and view shed for QPAC and a direct visual connection to the Brisbane River. Stretching between Melbourne Street and Russell Street and measuring approximately 220m x 90m, the forecourt is a platform above an underground carpark. An open and flexible space, the Forecourt design responds to changing uses. The Forecourt provides access to the Cremorne Theatre and other functions of QPAC and the underground carpark beneath; the adjacent road accesses the underground carpark beneath QAG.
\nThe fabric of the Forecourt is not of cultural heritage significance, its open, flat character as setting and viewshed for QPAC is of cultural heritage significance.
\nPedestrian spine including the Whale Mall
\nA broad, concrete pedestrian concourse stretches from the Melbourne Street entrance of QPAC, bridges Melbourne Street, runs between QM and QAG, and joins the plaza shared by SLQ and GOMA. Between the QM and QAG it is a grand, axial spine known as the Whale Mall and comprises a high volume space lit by barrel-vaulted skylights, accommodates slit windows into the QAG and secondary entrances to the QM.
\nThe Edge [State Library of Queensland: Fountain Room (former)]
\nThe former Fountain Room, in 2015 known as The Edge, is a three-storey, rectangular building approximately 30m x 15m standing adjacent to the river. Pedestrian walkways link the building with the plaza shared with the SLQ to the northwest and the QAG riverside plaza to the south and provide access to the middle and upper levels of The Edge; the upper walkway is lit by square openings to the sky. The interior retains evidence of the original layout. The middle level accommodates a large, double-height auditorium; a smaller auditorium on the upper level opens onto an external gathering space. The gathering space comprises a flat lawn surrounded by a concrete planterbed balustrades and rectangular concrete pads.
","history":"The Queensland Cultural Centre (QCC), located on the south bank of the Brisbane River opposite the central business district, is the state's principal cultural venue and an important example of late 20th century modernist architecture. Constructed between 1976 and 1998, this ambitious complex, a milestone in the history of the arts in Queensland and the evolution of the state, was designed by renowned Queensland architect Robin Gibson in conjunction with the Queensland Department of Public Works, for the people of Queensland.
\nThe Cultural Centre includes the Queensland Art Gallery (1982), the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (1984), the Queensland Museum (1986), the State Library and The Fountain Room Restaurant and Auditorium (The Edge in 2015) (1988). The substantially altered State Library and the Gallery of Modern Art are part of the broader cultural precinct but are not included in the heritage register boundary.
\nSouth Brisbane before the Queensland Cultural Centre (QCC)
\nBy the late 1960s, much of South Brisbane, especially along the river, was in economic decline. Prior to European settlement, the whole of the South Brisbane peninsula was known as Kurilpa, an important meeting place for the Yuggera/Jagera people. The tip of the South Brisbane peninsula was a traditional river crossing. After the establishment of the Moreton Bay Penal settlement in 1825, convicts cleared the river flats to grow grain for the settlement and during the 1830s, timber from the south bank was exported to Sydney.
\nFrom the 1840s, South Brisbane developed as one of Queensland's key location for portside activity, initially advantaged by its more direct access to the Darling Downs and Ipswich. As maritime trade expanded, wharfs and stores were progressively established adjacent to the river. Over time, a range of commercial, light industrial and manufacturing activities also occurred, along with civic and residential land uses. The area prospered in the 1880s and South Brisbane became a municipality in 1888. Along with the development boom, a dry dock was opened in 1881, coal wharves and associated rail links were constructed and South Brisbane was established as the passenger terminus for suburban and country train lines.
\nBy the end of the 19th century, the area had evolved into a substantial urban settlement, with Stanley Street a major retail centre and thoroughfare. Such development however, could not arrest a gradual 20th century decline which accelerated after World War II, influenced by the reorientation of economic activity and transport networks in Brisbane. Post-war, wharves, stores and railway sidings closed and were subsequently demolished, with the progressive relocation of shipping downriver. The decline of such a centrally located area in the capital city presented an opportunity for significant urban renewal.
\nImpetus for the Queensland Cultural Centre
\nThe pressure to address the lack of adequate cultural facilities in Queensland increased in the 1960s, as public awareness of the importance of the arts to the cultural health of the community was rising. At this time, the Queensland's principal cultural institutions were located in buildings and sites in Brisbane that did not meet their existing or future requirements. The first purpose-built Museum had opened in William Street in 1879 but proved inadequate from the outset. It was converted to the Public Library of Queensland (the State Library from 1971) in 1900-02, after the 1889 Exhibition Building at Bowen Hills was converted for use as a Museum in 1900. From 1895, the Queensland Art Gallery was housed in the Brisbane Town Hall, moving in 1905 to a purpose designed room on the third floor in the new Executive Building overlooking George Street. When the new City Hall was completed in 1930, the Concert Hall at the Museum building was remodelled to house the art gallery.
\nUntil the opening of the Queensland Cultural Centre, there were no Queensland government-operated performing arts facilities. Most musical and theatrical performances were initially held in local venues such as schools of arts, church halls or town halls, of varying suitability. Purpose-built facilities were limited and only erected in major centres. By the 1880s, Brisbane had four theatres, with the Opera House (later Her Majesty's Theatre), erected in 1888, the most lavish and prestigious, with seating for 2700. The Exhibition Building was one of the first buildings specifically designed for musical performances and contained a concert hall complete with a four-manual pipe organ. It became the centre for major musical events until the opening of the Brisbane City Hall in 1930.
\nAcross Australia, the post-war era saw governments on all tiers commit to large projects related to developing the arts, including standalone and integrated landmark projects for institutions such as libraries, theatres and art galleries. Sites for such projects were often in centrally located areas, where previous uses and activities were in decline, or had become redundant. This type of urban renewal offered a blank slate for development, where the existing layout could be reconfigured and the built environment transformed. The construction of Sydney's Opera House had commenced in 1959; preliminary investigations for Adelaide Festival Centre started in 1964; the National Gallery of Australia was established in 1967; the first stage of the Victorian Arts Centre, the National Gallery of Victoria, was completed in 1969 and Perth's Civic Centre was also developed during the 1960s.
\nIn Queensland, an earlier phase of civic construction (mostly town halls and council chambers) occurred in the 1930s, often incorporating spaces for arts and cultural activities. By the early 1950s, architect and town planner Karl Langer was designing civic centre complexes for larger regional centres such as Mackay, Toowoomba and Kingaroy.
\nSeveral attempts were made to secure stately cultural facilities in Queensland's capital but each came to nothing. Construction of an art gallery and museum near the entrance to the Government Domain, on a site granted in 1863, never eventuated. In the 1890s a major architectural competition for a museum and art gallery on a site in Albert Park sought to address the need for sufficient premises. In 1934, on a nearby site along Wickham Park and Turbot Street, an ambitious urban design proposal to incorporate a public art gallery, library and dental hospital resulted only in the construction of the Brisbane Dental Hospital. Post-WWII plans to incorporate the art gallery in the extensions to the original Supreme Court Building did not eventuate. The Queensland Art Gallery Act 1959 paved the way for a new Board of Trustees to establish a gallery with public funds subsidized by Government. The proposal at that time, for a gallery and performance hall at Gardens Point, to mark Queensland's centenary, was not realised; however, an extension to the State Library proceeded and included an exhibition hall and reading rooms.
\nA proposal for a State Gallery and Centre for Allied Arts, on the former municipal markets site adjacent to the Roma Street Railway station, formed part of a government backed plan for the redevelopment of the Roma Street area. Prepared by Bligh Jessup Bretnall & Partners in 1967, this substantial development over a number of city blocks, inspired by the redevelopment of redundant inner city areas in Europe and new towns in America, incorporated a significant commercial component. The plan was abandoned in 1968 due to conflicting local and state interests, together with the lack of an acceptable tender.
\nThe following year, the Treasury Department initiated a formal investigation into a suitable site for an art gallery, led by Treasurer, Deputy Premier and Liberal Party Leader, Gordon Chalk. An expert committee, including Coordinator-General Charles Barton as chair, Under-Secretary of Works David Mercer and Assistant Under-Secretary Roman Pavlyshyn, considered 12 sites, including those from previous proposals. Three sites were shortlisted: The Holy Name Cathedral site in Fortitude Valley; upstream of the Victoria Bridge at South Brisbane; and the BCC Transport Depot in Coronation Drive. The South Brisbane site was preferred, considered to be the most advantageous for the city and the most architecturally suitable. The recommendation was accepted and work on progressing a design commenced.
\nArchitectural competition and concept (1289)
\nIn April 1973, Robin Gibson and Partners Architects won a two-staged competition to design the new Queensland Art Gallery at South Brisbane, with a sophisticated scheme considered superior in its simplicity and presentation. While this design was never realised, the art gallery that was built as part of the Cultural Centre was in many ways very similar, including the palette of materials and modernist design details inspired by the 1969 Oaklands Museum in California. The original design occupied the block bounded by Melbourne, Grey, Stanley and Peel Streets. Over Stanley Street, a pedestrian walkway connected the gallery to the top of an amphitheatre leading to sculpture gardens along the river.
\nThe development of cultural facilities was reconsidered during 1974, evolving into a much more ambitious project. In early November, Deputy Premier Sir Gordon Chalk (who had a real interest and commitment to developing the arts in Queensland) announced as an election policy, a proposal for a $45 million dollar cultural complex. While the development of the Art Gallery had been progressing, Chalk, with the assistance of Under Treasurer Leo Hielscher, had covertly commissioned Robin Gibson to produce a master plan for an integrated complex of buildings which would form the Queensland Cultural Centre (QCC). The plan included an Art Gallery, Museum, Performing Arts Centre, State Library and an auditorium and restaurant. The devastating floods of January, which had further hastened the decline of South Brisbane, provided a timely opportunity to utilise more space adjacent to the river, through resumptions of flood prone land.
\nWhen the proposal was submitted to Cabinet by Chalk in late November, it was initially opposed by Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. However, the support of Brisbane's Lord Mayor, Clem Jones, (who gifted council-owned allotments on what became the QPAC site); influential public servants Hielscher, Pavlyshyn; Mercer, and Sir David Muir, Director of the Department of Commercial and Industrial Development, helped the project gain momentum. After winning the December 7 election, the proposal was formally adopted by the Bjelke-Petersen government. Muir was appointed chairman of the planning committee and became the first chairman of the QCC Trust.
\nGibson's November 1974 Cultural Centre master plan differed significantly from his winning competition design for the Gallery and gave Gibson the opportunity to further demonstrate his planning principles for inner city development. Stanley Street was to be diverted under the Victoria Bridge through to Peel Street, with the Art Gallery and Museum occupying one large block. The scheme included building forms with oblique angles to the street grid, to address the main approaches. The Performing Arts building, comprising a single, multi-purpose hall, and the Art Gallery, extending from the Museum to the river's edge, were aligned diagonally around a Melbourne Street axis to address the approach from the Victoria Bridge. Pedestrian bridges provided access across the site over Melbourne Street and to the South Brisbane Railway Station over Grey Street.
\nGibson's design of the QCC sought to convey a relaxed atmosphere reflective of Queensland's lifestyle. A simple, disciplined palette of materials, and design elements was adopted and rigorously maintained throughout the lengthy construction program to unify the complex: off-white sandblasted concrete; cubic forms with deeply recessed glazing; a constancy of structural elements, fixtures and finishes; repetitive stepped profiles and extensive integrated landscaping.
\nA fundamental conceptual aspect of the Cultural Centre's design was its relationship to the Brisbane River and the natural environment. Gibson saw the Cultural Centre as an opportunity for ‘amalgamating a major public building with the river on the South Bank'. The external landscaping and built form was carefully articulated to ‘step up' from the river. The comparatively low form of the complex was consciously designed so that the profile of the Taylor Range behind would remain visible when viewed from the city.
\nRetaining the approved general placement of the individual buildings, subsequent changes to the complex plan included: the orthogonal realignment of each of the buildings; the duplication of the multipurpose hall to create separate purpose-built facilities for musical and theatrical performances; the extension of an existing diversion in Stanley Street upstream to Peel Street and under the Victoria Bridge, which was bridged by a wide plaza as a forecourt to the Gallery.
\nRobin Gibson & Partners
\nRobin Gibson (1930-2014) attended Yeronga State School and Brisbane State High before studying architecture at the University of Queensland (UQ). After graduating in 1954, Gibson travelled through Europe and worked in London in the offices of architects, Sir Hugh Casson, Neville Conder, and James Cubitt and Partners. Returning to Brisbane in 1957, he set up an architectural practice commencing with residential projects, soon expanding into larger commercial, public and institutional work. Notable Queensland architects employed by his practice included Geoffrey Pie, Don Winsen, Peter Roy, Allan Kirkwood, Bruce Carlyle and Gabriel Poole.
\nGibson's creative, administrative and diplomatic talents were widely recognised. His buildings were consistently simple, refined, and carefully executed, often comprehensively detailed to include fabrics, finishes and furnishings. Characteristically crisp, logical and smoothly functional, his works employed a limited palette of materials and were carefully integrated into their setting.
\nRobin Gibson & Partners' contribution to Queensland's built environment is significant. Other major architectural projects include: Mayne Hall, University of Queensland (UQ) (1972), Central Library, UQ (1973) Library and Humanities building at Nathan Campus, Griffith University (1975), Post Office Square (1982), Queen Street Mall (1982), Wintergarden building (1984), Colonial Mutual Life (1984) and 111 George Street (1993). Over time, Gibson and his body of work has been highly acclaimed and recognised through numerous awards including: 1968 Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) Building of the Year award, Kenmore Church; 1982 RAIA Sir Zelman Cowen Award (for public buildings) QAG; 1982 RAIA Canberra Medallion - Belconnen Library, ACT; 1982 Queenslander of the Year; 1983 Order of Australia; 1986 Honorary Doctorate - Griffith University; 1988 Advance Australia Award; 1989 RAIA Gold Medal for outstanding performance and contributions; 2000, and the 2007 25 year RAIA award for Enduring Architecture.
\nConstruction and completion
\nThe design development, documentation and the multifaceted construction program for the entire complex was administered by Roman Pavlyshyn, Director of Building, Department of Public Works. Pavlyshyn had previously overseen the selection of the site and had run the competition for the Queensland Art Gallery. The Cultural Centre was to continue the Department of Public Works' tradition in providing buildings of high quality in design, materials and construction throughout the state.
\nThe funding of the QCC came entirely from the government-owned Golden Casket. The revenue derived from the Golden Casket was effectively ‘freed up' from health funding after Medicare was introduced by the Whitlam government. The then annual income of $4 million was projected to fund the QCC's construction over 10 years. By the early 1980s, inflationary impacts had blown out the cost to $175 million. Under Hielscher's guidance, Treasury looked at other ways to raise revenue. In response, Instant Scratch-Its and mid-week lotto were introduced to Queensland. This successful increase in gambling revenue enabled the QCC to be built at no extra cost to the state's existing budget and without going into debt.
\nThe construction of the Cultural Centre was a complex undertaking and involved a multifaceted program staged over 11 years with a workforce of thousands, from design consultants to onsite labourers. Pavlyshyn guided Stages One, Two and Three to completion and the commencement of Stage Four, before retiring in July 1985. With the number of contractors and suppliers involved, quality control was a critical factor for a successful outcome. For example, the consistent quality of the concrete finish was achieved by securing a guaranteed supply of the principal materials, South Australian white cement, Stradbroke Island sand and Pine River aggregates, for the duration of the project and the strict control of colour and mix for each contract.
\nThe program commenced with the construction of the Art Gallery, the most resolved of the building designs. Stage One also included the underground carpark to the Gallery and Museum and the central services plant facility on the corner of Grey and Peel Streets. Contractors, Graham Evans & Co, commenced construction in March 1977 and the Art Gallery was officially opened by Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen on 21 June 1982. When awarding the art gallery the Sir Zelman Cowen Award that year, the RAIA jury declared the art gallery would enrich the fabric of Brisbane for many years to come, praising: the sustained architectural expertise and masterly articulation of space; avoidance of rhetorical gestures and fussy details, noting the building would enrich the fabric of the city for many years to come.
\nA development plan for the largest component of the complex, the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), built as Stage Two, was released in 1976. The project architect for the Centre was Allan Kirkwood from Robin Gibson and Partners and contributors to the development and design of the Centre were theatre consultants, Tom Brown and Peter Knowland, the Performing Arts Trust and user committees. Completed in November 1984 by contractors Barclay Bros Pty Ltd, a concert for workers and the first public performance were held in December ahead of the official opening by the Duke and Duchess of Kent on 20 April 1985.
\nThe Centre comprised three venues, each specifically designed for particular performance types. The Lyric Theatre and Concert Hall shared an entrance off Melbourne Street with shared and mimicked foyers, bars, circulation and ancillary facilities. The Studio theatre, now the Cremorne, had a separate entrance and foyer off Stanley Street with its own discreet ancillary facilities.
\nThe Lyric Theatre, (2200 seats) was designed for large-scale dramatic productions including opera, operettas, musicals, ballets and dance performances. It had an orchestra pit, stalls, two balconies and side aisles. The 1800 seat Concert Hall was designed for orchestral concerts, choral performances, chamber music, recitals, popular entertainment and ceremonies. A Klais Grand Organ, featuring 6500 pipes, was built into the stage area. Its ‘shoe box' form, designed to enhance natural acoustics, incorporated an orchestral pit, stalls, single balcony, side galleries and side aisles. The Studio Theatre was built to accommodate up to 300 seats for dramatic performances and could be configured in 6 different ways, from conventional set-ups to theatre-in-the-round. It had stalls and a balcony level with an internal connection to the other two theatres.
\nOpened in 1986, the Queensland Museum, (Stage Three), was connected to the Art Gallery by a covered walkway and to the Performing Arts Complex by a footbridge over Melbourne Street. The entrance on the Melbourne Street side of the building was accessed from street level and the Melbourne Street footbridge. Built over the Stage One carpark, the six-level Museum building had four floors open to the public, with the two top levels dedicated to offices, laboratories , library and artefact storage. The first floor was designed for a variety of uses, including lecture halls, back of house, preparatory area and workshops. Levels 2 to 4 showcased collections in galleries situated on either side of a central circulation core comprising walkways, stairs, lifts and escalators. The outdoor area contained a geological garden on Grey Street side (in 2014 the Energex Playasaurus Place). Stage Four included the State Library and adjacent restaurant and auditorium building (The Edge) completed in 1988.
\nPublic artworks
\nAs part of the construction of the QCC, several pieces of public art were commissioned from Australian artists. Five outdoor sculptures were purchased and installed in 1985, the largest commission of public sculpture at one time in Australia. Four were directly commissioned: Anthony Pryor's Approaching Equilibrium (Steel, painted. River plaza-upper deck); Leonard and Kathleen Shillam's Pelicans (Bronze. QAG Water Mall); Ante Dabro's Sisters (Bronze. Melbourne Street plaza) and Rob Robertson-Swann's Leviathan Play (Steel, painted. Melbourne Street plaza). Clement Meadmore's Offshoot (Aluminium, painted. Gallery plaza) was an existing work.
\nOther public artworks commissioned at the time of construction are located at QPAC: Lawrence Daws' large interior mural, Pacific Nexus and Robert Woodward's Cascade Court Fountain.
\nUse and modifications
\nSince opening, the institutions of the QCC have played a dominant role in fostering and enabling cultural and artistic activities of Queensland - through performances, exhibitions, collections and events. The purpose built world class facilities of the complex, with their careful consideration of both front and back of house requirements, have enabled Queensland to host national and international performances, events and exhibitions, and expand and display collections, in a way that was not possible previously. In addition to the QCC's artistic endeavours, the role of the Queensland Museum in science disciplines has also been an important activity. The QCC (as part of the larger Cultural Precinct) is a major visitor destination in Brisbane; millions of people from Queensland and elsewhere have visited the site.
\nThe successful development of the Cultural Centre was the catalyst for the broader renewal of South Brisbane along the Brisbane River. In 1983 Queensland won the right to hold the 1988 World Exposition (Expo 88). The site for Expo 88 was directly adjacent to the Cultural Centre and underwent a major transformation to host the event. Robin Gibson designed the Queensland Pavilion. Expo 88 was a highly successful for Brisbane and Queensland. After Expo, the site was again comprehensively redeveloped, opening in 1992 as the South Bank Parklands, now a major public space in Brisbane. More widely, the Cultural Centre's direct relationship with the Brisbane River influenced the way the city has come to engage with its dominant natural feature along its edges.
\nWith the exception of The Edge, each of the buildings within the QCC retains its original use. Subsequent modifications to cater for changing requirements have altered the buildings within the complex to varying degrees. The most significant of these changes were the addition of the Playhouse to QPAC and the multimillion dollar Millennium Arts Project, which provided for a refurbishment of the entire complex.
\nQPAC was well utilised from the outset and the need for a mid-sized theatre was soon realised. Plans for Stage Five, a 750-850 seat Playhouse theatre, designed by Gibson, were produced with input from the same committees and advisers as Stage Two. Completed in 1998, the Playhouse, attached at the eastern end of QPAC, incorporated stalls, balcony, mid-stalls and balcony boxes for patron seating. It had a separate entrance off Russell Street and was separated from the rest of the complex by the loading dock. The Playhouse was refurbished between 2011-12.
\nThe key features of the Millenium Arts Project (2002-2009) were: the addition of a new Gallery of Modern Art and public plaza; the major redevelopment of the SLQ including the addition of a fifth floor; a new entrance to the QAG, and refurbishment of the QM and QPAC.
\nAt the north-western end of the complex, the Gallery of Modern Art, completed in 2006 was built to house Queensland's growing art collection and is linked to the rest of the complex by a public plaza.
\nThe major refurbishment of the Library in 2006 included the addition of a fifth storey and substantial alterations to both the interior and exterior. A new entrance and new circulation patterns were established and the stepped terraces were removed, replaced by a large extension toward the river.
New entrances to QAG and QM were designed by Gibson and completed in 2009.
The new art gallery entrance provided alternative access from Peel Street and included the partial enclosure of the courtyard, a new staircase, and a lift. At the Museum, in addition to the new entrance provided on the eastern end of the Museum, a café was added to the western end, the internal circulation was rearranged and a new entrance on the Grey Street elevation was created to provide access to the Sciencentre, relocated from George Street to the ground floor of the museum in 2009.
\nIn 2009 QPAC was refurbished to meet safety standards and to improve access. A setdown area was added along Grey Street to replace the drop off tunnel which was closed in 2001. Changes to circulation included the installation of lifts and the replacement and reorientation of staircases. The lobby book shop was replaced with a bar and other bars and lobbies were refurbished, removing the salmon colour scheme in higher traffic areas. Brown carpet was installed and the red marble bar finishes were replaced with black in the Lyric Theatre foyer and white in the Concert Hall foyer. Many seats were also replaced in the Lyric and Concert Hall. The Cremorne Theatre remains largely unchanged.
\nThe Edge, operated and managed by SLQ, was reopened in 2010 as a new facility containing workshops, spaces for creative activities, events and exhibitions. The dropped restaurant floor was filled and new lifts installed. Wide scale changes were made to interior fit-out and finishes. The auditorium floor was replaced, and new openings were created in the rear and side elevations. The external structure was modified at ground level with changes to access and the loading dock which was made obsolete by changes to SLQ car park entry. The major external change was cosmetic and involved the enclosure of the open verandah with pre-fabricated steel window bays to create riverfront study and meeting spaces.
","criteria":"The Queensland Cultural Centre is of outstanding importance in demonstrating the cultural and social development of Queensland in the late 20th century. Originally built in stages from 1976 to 1988, the aggregation of one complex housing the state's principal cultural institutions was a key milestone in the evolution of Queensland's history. In its form, function and uses, the Cultural Centre demonstrates a major government undertaking in facilitating the development of the arts, on a scale and level of sophistication unparalleled in Queensland's history.
\nThe Cultural Centre is important in demonstrating the evolution of architecture in Queensland. Designed by Robin Gibson OAM (1930-2014), a prominent Australian architect of his time, it is an exceptional example of the late 20th century International Style. In its integration of building and landscape, the Cultural Centre demonstrates the evolution of landscape design in Queensland.
\nThe Cultural Centre is an important Queensland example of a major urban renewal project of the late 20th century. The development and completion of the Cultural Centre dramatically transformed the existing built environment of South Brisbane and was a catalyst for the consolidated regeneration of the entire area, most notably through the revitalisation of the adjacent Expo '88 site, subsequently redeveloped as South Bank.
|The Queensland Cultural Centre is unique as the first and only place purpose-built to house Queensland's principal cultural institutions in one complex.
\nRetaining a high degree of intactness and integrity, the Cultural Centre is an architecturally unique complex in Queensland, illustrated in its distinctive and pervasive design features, scale and size and intrinsic relationship to the Brisbane River.
|The purpose-built Queensland Cultural Centre is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a cultural complex. Easily accessible from the central business district, the Cultural Centre is located on a prominent site adjacent to, and connected with, the river. The Centre combines an art gallery, museum, performing arts complex and associated ancillary facilities on the one site, interconnected by outdoor plazas and boulevards and is notable for its functionality, planning and finishes.
\nA landmark architectural statement, its civic prominence within the capital city illustrates the Cultural Centre's function as the state's principal cultural complex. The monumental scale and form of the Centre reinforces the importance of its cultural, educational and social role as a venue for high profile cultural events in Queensland.
\nThe Cultural Centre is an exceptional, intact example of the work of Robin Gibson and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of his work. Most notably: the integration of building and setting; cohesive, simple low horizontal forms, clean lines and a limited palette of materials (high quality concrete, tinted glass and bronze metal work).
|The Queensland Cultural Centre is of outstanding aesthetic significance to the state for its distinctive, architectural qualities, monumental scale, prominent siting and its many public art installations. These attributes make it a popular tourist destination and inspiration for photographers and artists.
\nIt is a large, cohesive complex of buildings and spaces unified by its cubic forms, structural detailing and fine quality finishes, fixtures and furnishings. The restrained and sustained use of off-white sandblasted concrete throughout the complex, internally and externally, is a conspicuous and unifying element and is of a scale unique in a Queensland context.
\nThe juxtaposition of intimate spaces and large volumes, and its many contemplative and restful interior and exterior spaces, in particular the water mall extending through the Art Gallery, and harmonising of the constrained landscape design to the architectural design, make an important contribution to the Centre's aesthetic value.
\nThe Cultural Centre is a landmark within the capital city, lowset against the backdrop of the Taylor Range that skirts outer Brisbane. The open space - between the river and cultural facilities, the forecourt and plazas, contribute to the landmark quality of the complex, facilitating views to and from the river, the Victoria Bridge, the central business district and the surrounding streets in South Brisbane.
|An outstanding, distinctive and highly awarded display of architectural excellence in the International Style, the Queensland Cultural Centre demonstrates a high degree of creative achievement in the late 20th century. Ambitious in scale and sophisticated in design, the place is a successfully realized architectural vision to create a unified landmark complex for Queensland's principal cultural institutions. Unprecedented in Queensland was the integration of building and landscape, comprising vegetation and water elements, used both internally and externally to counter-balance and soften the rectilinear geometry of the buildings. The Cultural Centre retains a high degree of intactness and integrity.
|The Queensland Cultural Centre has outstanding social value to the Queensland community as the home and physical embodiment of its principal cultural institutions.
\nBuilt for the people of Queensland and visited by millions of people annually, the ongoing use as a Cultural Centre is a fundamental aspect of its significance. The strong connection between the Queensland community and the institutions of the Cultural Centre, both individually and collectively occurs through experiences of the place; its setting, interconnected buildings, internal and external spaces and venues, and the events, exhibitions, performances and activities offered at the complex. An important contributing element is the use of the Cultural Centre as a popular social space and meeting point, and the use of the outdoor spaces for public engagement.
\nAs the state's premier arts complex and as a major site for events, exhibitions, performances, activities and collections, the Cultural Centre has a special association with the arts community in Queensland.
|The Queensland Cultural Centre has a special association with the life and work of architect Robin Gibson OAM (1930-2014), who made an outstanding and influential contribution to the development of Queensland's built environment in the late 20th century. Gibson's achievements have been acknowledged through many awards including: Queenslander of the Year (1982); Sir Zelman Cowen Award (for public buildings) for the Queensland Art Gallery (1982); Royal Australian Institute of Architecture (RAIA) Gold Medal for outstanding performance and contributions (1989), and the 25 year award for Enduring Architecture (2010). Recognised as Gibson's most important project, the Centre embodies the defining modernist architectural principles he developed and employed during his architectural career.
\nThe Queensland Cultural Centre has a special association with the Queensland Museum, Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland Performing Arts Centre and the State Library of Queensland, institutions which have, and continue to make, important contributions to the cultural development of Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":21877,"place_ref":602584,"name":"Kalinga Park","alternate_name":"Anzac Memorial Park","street_address":"100 Bertha Street","suburb":"WOOLOOWIN","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-07-03","description":"Kalinga Park is an irregularly shaped section of open parkland bounded by Bertha, Kalinga and Lewis Streets. A natural watercourse, Kedron Brook, forms its northern boundary.
Bicycle and walking tracks run through the park and it contains a children's playground, picnic areas, a dog off-leash area and various sports fields and recreational facilities. These include tennis courts, a petanque playing area and ovals for cricket and football. There is also a fenced circuit for the Queensland Miniature Race Car Club.
A hut leased by the Kalinga Scouts is on the boundary of the park at the western end, though accessed from Bertha Street. It is a single storey timber building.
An avenue of mature eucalypts is planted along the edge of Kedron Brook and trees are scattered in clumps around the park. The railway and the airport monorail cross the western edge of the park.
Memorial Gates
The gates are at the entrance on Park Avenue. The posts are made of brown Helidon sandstone carved and topped with stone spheres. The central pair is inset with marble panels that read 'Erected by the residents of Kalinga and officially opened 23 October 1920' and 'Erected in commemoration of those of the district who served in the Great War 1914-1919.'
These posts support metal gates across the carriageway and are flanked by smaller pedestrian gates to either side. A matching wall topped by railings flanks each side of the gateway.
The drive runs from the gateway toward Kedron Brook and then along the line of the Brook to Sandgate Road. It is bitumened and kerbed and is lined by mature trees.
This area incorporates built and natural features including sculptures, shelters and picnic tables formed to resemble leaves.
","history":"Kalinga Park was opened in 1910 and is located on the southwest bank of Kedron Brook at Wooloowin.
Kalinga Park occupies a portion of the early German Mission Station established at Zion Hill in 1838, forming the first free European settlement in Queensland. The missionaries named Kedron Brook, but the mission closed in 1850 and the area was surveyed in 1851 prior to other settlers moving into the area. By the 1880s, this area was industrial and in 1884 much of the land now comprising the park was declared a water reserve. Kalinga is derived from Ngalin-nga, a phrase in the Turrbal dialect said to mean 'belonging to us.'
The area was administered as part of Toombul shire and A L Petrie, Member for Toombul of 3 September 1910, officially opened the reserve as a park though several sports clubs were already using it. It had received improvements including levelling and clearing, the erection of a pavilion and the laying down of a cricket pitch.
In 1909 and 1911 land to the south of Kalinga Park between the railway station and the reserve was subdivided and sold as residential blocks. This was an important stage in the subsequent development of the area, as was connection to Brisbane by tram in 1929.
Following the First World War, the local Ladies Patriotic Club and the Kalinga Progress Association, together with the Toombul Shire council, erected memorial gates at the Park Avenue entrance. Brigadier-General L C Wilson dedicated them on 23 October 1920. The event was well attended with a guard of honour formed by Boy Scouts and Cubs from the Albion, Clayfield, Nundah and Kalinga districts and music provided by the Brisbane Citizen's Band. The President of the Ladies Patriotic Club declared at the ceremony that the Honour Gates were erected as a witness and everlasting memory of the patriotic services of the men who enlisted from the Kalinga district. Funds were later raised to embellish the posts of the main gate with inscribed marble slabs. For a time, the park was known as Anzac Memorial Park.
After the war, the Commonwealth Department of Repatriation placed returning soldiers in jobs, but it was a slow process and many found themselves in financial difficulties. Citizens' committees were formed to raise money and to assist in such ways as founding clothing depots. Local committees were also formed to help with finding relief work. In 1922 the Kalinga Unemployed and Distressed Soldiers' Committee was formed. It arranged with the Kalinga Improvement Committee for 83 unemployed returned soldiers to be given work in road formation and drainage in Kalinga Park.
As an initiative of the Kalinga Unemployed and Distressed Soldiers Committee this work included the construction and planting of a memorial drive to those who died in the war. It ran from the gates in Park Avenue to Sandgate Road and was intended for motor traffic. The returned soldiers cleared and levelled 60 chains (1200 metres) of roadway following the curve of Kedron Brook. It was gravelled and lined with trees and was informally known as the 'Diggers' Drive'. The Governor of Queensland, Sir Matthew Nathan, opened the drive on 31 May 1924. He said that he hoped that the scheme for identifying the trees with metal plaques carrying the names of deceased soldiers would be successfully carried out. However, there was difficultly at the time in obtaining some names and the project was not completed.
In 1925, with the amalgamation of the various Brisbane local government authorities, Kalinga Park passed from Toombul Council into the control of the Brisbane City Council.
Between 1943 and 1945, during the Second World War, a large army staging camp was located in Kalinga Park. As part of this development, the bandstand was sold for removal and many buildings, including a post office for soldiers at the camp, were erected. After the war, these were removed with the exception of the post office building, which was relocated to the western edge of the park, and is used by the Scouts, who have considerably altered and extended it over the years. Thiess Brothers were engaged to restore the park to its pre-war condition, though the bandstand was not replaced. In 1952 Harry Oakman, then Manager of Brisbane parks, planted tallowwoods along the memorial drive to replace trees that had died or been removed.
A block of land in Bertha Street was acquired on 21 July 1952 to extend the park. During the late 1960s considerable work was untaken in the park including filling and topsoiling of the football and cricket fields. In 1965 the Scots Presbyterian Church Fellowship Association gained a seven-year lease of the two tennis courts. The Queensland Miniature Race Car Club constructed a circular fenced track at the eastern end of the park.
During the 1990s the Kalinga Karnival based on the park was run for several years, but was discontinued in 1998.
Land at 924 Sandgate Road, Clayfield was acquired in 1991, bringing the park area to 20.4285 hectares.
An interpretive sign for the Diggers' Drive was installed and unveiled on 30 April 1993m and the name was formally gazetted in 2003.The drive is now surfaced with bitumen, though the Council has no record of the date that this was done.
In 1996 the Access Arts organisation from Nundah undertook a project in the park utilising both professional artists and community members. They created sandstone carvings and hand decorated paving.
The park also contains a popular children's playground and picnic area.
","criteria":"Kalinga Park is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history. It follows the line of Kedron Brook and incorporates sections of the land granted to some of Queensland's earliest free settlers. It was a water reserve in 1884, then a recreation reserve, being officially opened as a park in 1910, though it was already being used for sports. It bears witness to the participation of Australia in the First World War with memorial gates and the construction of the memorial Diggers' Drive by returned soldiers. These were constructed between 1920 and 1923 and are key aspects of the park, both historically and in establishing its layout. They demonstrate the process of grieving that was occurring in the district and across Australia at that time. During the Second World War Kalinga Park was the site of a large staging camp and it continues to be a popular recreational facility.
|The memorial avenue, known as 'Diggers' Drive', is the only known example in Queensland of a memorial avenue constructed by returned solders as a relief work project.
|Given the role of the park as a memorial to the war dead of the district, its long history of use by sporting groups, and its presence as a place or resort and recreation, Kalinga Park has a strong and ongoing social value to local community.
|Kalinga Park is significant for its aesthetic values. Contributing to this value is the presence of Kedron Brook along its northern perimeter, the tree lined memorial drive and the substantial memorial gates to Park Avenue. The arrangement of groups of mature trees interspersed with open playing fields areas provides pleasing vistas within the park and contrasts with sculptural groupings and the large children's play area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion G | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":22217,"place_ref":602598,"name":"Animal Research Institute (former)","alternate_name":"Animal Research Station (1932-1953) | Stock Experiment Station (1909-1932) | Animal Research Station | Stock Experiment Station","street_address":"681 Fairfield Road","suburb":"YEERONGPILLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-06-13","description":"The former Animal Research Institute is a complex of buildings, sheds and animal pens on a 12 hectare site in the Brisbane suburb of Yeerongpilly. Those structures considered of state-level heritage significance are: the Stock Experiment Station Main Building (1909), an associated Stable (1909), the purpose-built Animal Morgue (1934), and the Veterinary School Main Building and Hospital Block (1938-1940). The entire Institute site is bound on the north by King Arthur Terrace, to the east by Fairfield Road, on the south by the Tennyson Branch Railway line, and to the west by an easement shared with the Queensland Tennis Centre. Its entrance is on King Arthur Terrace on the north-eastern corner and the significant buildings are clustered on higher ground across the eastern half of the site with the remaining, lower area comprising many large, fenced yards of grass.
Stock Experiment Station Main Building
The Stock Experiment Station Main Building is a large timber-framed building comprising a central rectangular core with wings to the north (1932) and south (1950). All the building's phases feature verandahs, some of which are enclosed. The building is low-set and single-storey except for the southern wing which, in using the slope of the land, is two-storey. The roof is hipped and sheeted with corrugated metal and has three metal ventilators on the centre ridge which are not original. This building occupies the centre of the site facing east onto a large asphalted forecourt used for car parking. The view this forecourt provides of what has historically been the front façade of the earliest building on the Institute site is considered of cultural heritage significance, while the asphalt itself is not.
The different phases of construction of this building are distinguishable in its fabric. The original 1909 core is in a Federation style, the northern wing (1932) has elements typical of the interwar classical style, and the southern wing (1950) is in a post-war functionalist style. The exterior of the building is clad with chamferboards on the core and southern wing and weatherboards on the northern wing. The core is surrounded by verandahs which are mostly enclosed. The southern and northern wings are long and narrow and have verandahs on their western sides providing access to the rooms that open from them.
The composition of the eastern façade reflects the symmetrical plan of the core. The open verandah has a small, projecting central gabled entrance with decorative timber battens and arches sheltering a short timber stair. A later timber ramp provides access to its southern end, which is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance. Each verandah end is enclosed with glazing, weatherboards, and fibrous cement sheeting. The verandah balustrade is a timber post and rail arrangement that is not original and therefore not of cultural heritage significance. The verandah ceiling is tongue-and-groove jointed boarding on the rake and the floor is recent shot-edge boards.
The building's 1909 core comprises six rooms and a central hall leading off the east-facing front verandah to one of the rooms, a large laboratory, to the west. The hall has a decorative timber battened arch with moulded brackets and architrave. All rooms (except the laboratory) have pressed metal ceilings, pressed metal cornices, and decorative, ventilated ceiling roses some of which have evidence of gas pendant lights which are not extant. The ceiling of the former laboratory is lined with flat sheeting with no cornice. The other rooms, formerly laboratories and store rooms, have plastered walls with rounded corners which are stop-chamfered near the ceiling. The hall walls are timber, vertically-jointed boards. There are no skirtings or rails throughout and all walls and ceilings are painted. The floors are lined with non-original carpet or vinyl, coverings which are not of cultural heritage significance.
The rooms feature a number of built-in timber cabinets, shelves, work benches, and freestanding furniture that are early or original. Original internal doors are timber with stop-chamfered detailing and have early or original brass (as well as more recent) door furniture. A number of recent doors have been installed throughout the 1909 core and are not of cultural heritage significance. Timber French doors with glazing and decorative bolection moulding and timber casement windows open onto the eastern verandah. Some of these doors and windows retain original glazed fanlights with curved brass opening stays and mechanisms with ceramic knobs. Projecting from the north-western corner of the rear, western verandah are a number of smaller rooms containing toilets and a shower, a staff room, and a small laboratory. The walls and ceilings of these rooms are lined with fibrous cement sheeting and rounded cover strips, and the floors are finished with vinyl, ceramic tiles, and terrazzo. The 1909 laboratory contains equipment, cupboards, and workbenches.
The core of the Station Main Building is supported on low concrete stumps, and timber and steel posts. There is a small, timber enclosure under the core on its southern side that contains a small laboratory with shelving, workbenches, and cupboards.
The Station Main Building's northern wing comprises three rooms and a semi-enclosed, west-facing verandah. It is supported on low concrete stumps, and timber and steel posts. Tongue-and-groove jointed boarding lines the ceilings of each room and the floors are covered in vinyl or carpet. The walls of the central room are sheeted while the walls of the other two rooms have vertically-jointed boards with moulded belt rails. The rooms contain some solid timber furniture, wall-hung cupboards, and workbenches that appear original to the 1932 construction date. One original timber-boarded door remains in the southern-most room. The original windows are timber-framed and double-hung or casements with fanlights. Air conditioning units have replaced some windows however those remaining retain original brass hardware.
The southern wing comprises two levels, four rooms on the upper floor and three rooms and a toilets area on the lower, connected by a stair to west-facing verandahs. This building wing is founded on a concrete slab partially suspended and supported on brick-faced foundations. The rooms have plasterboard ceilings with a large coved cornice, plasterboard walls, a square timber skirting, and vinyl covered floors. The rooms contain solid timber built-in workbenches and wall-hung cupboards that are original to the 1950 construction date. The rooms also feature a number of solid timber, freestanding pieces of furniture. The doors are timber with a glazed panel and some have screens. The original windows are timber-framed with two layers, an inner set of double hung sashes and an outer layer of casements. Those on the eastern side have timber brackets with slots for a workbench shield. The toilet ceilings and walls are sheeted, and the floor is a vinyl composite coved to the wall. The fixtures are original.
Adjacent to the western side of the Stock Experiment Station's northern wing is a small building, rectangular in plan with a Dutch gable roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting, weatherboard clad walls, and a concrete slab floor. The top section of the exterior walls is in-filled with mesh to the soffit allowing ventilation of the interior. A channel in the slab drains into a drainage trough running around the base of the south-western corner. A concrete ramp leads to a door on the side of the building and a large concrete open-topped tank is positioned next to the north-eastern side. The doors are timber, one having a screen. Some windows have been sheeted up to hold air conditioning units, while others are later aluminium-framed sliders.
Stable
The Stable (1909) is located nearby to the north of the Stock Experiment Station Main Building. It is a long rectangle in plan with a hipped and gabled roof. A small secondary gable extends about three-quarters the length of the main ridge to assist ventilation. All roof planes are sheeted with corrugated metal. The stable is timber-framed, and clad in weatherboards. The floor is a concrete slab with areas of early brick flooring visible in the rooms on its eastern side. The gable end walls have ventilated weatherboards at the apex. The interior is divided into a number of rooms by a combination of vertically-jointed boarding and sheet walls. The doors are all modern and not significant. The early windows are double-hung timber sashes. Some have had air conditioning units installed in the bottom sash. Channels in the floor connect to an external concrete spoon drain that runs around the base of the building. In the largest room, facing west, meshed ventilation windows are positioned near the floor. A freestanding building which is not significant is located on the eastern side of the stable separated by a very narrow space with a concrete spoon drain.
Animal Morgue
The Animal Morgue (1934) is situated north of the Stable. The morgue is a cement-rendered concrete structure, square in plan, with a timber-framed pyramid roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting. A large metal ventilation fleche caps the ridge. A timber lean-to that is not significant shelters the entry doors. There are prominent stepped architraves around the exteriors of the windows. The interior walls are cement-rendered with coving to all corners. The floor is concrete, while the ceiling is white-painted cement sheet with dark-stained timber battens forming a geometric pattern. The ceiling features lattice timber ventilation panels and a skylight at the southern end made with translucent corrugated plastic sheeting. The double door is timber with multi-light glazed panels. The windows are multi-light, timber double-hung sashes and have external hinged timber-framed screens. There are small high level windows in the west wall. All glass in the building is obscured. A steel I-beam spans the width of the room from north to south. In the north-western corner is a concrete dissecting bench with drain and in the north-eastern corner is a similar bench with a ceramic sink and associated foot-operated tap. These tables drain to an integrated concrete surface gutter that runs around the western and northern edges of the floor. There is a central floor drain.
Veterinary School Main Building
The Veterinary School Main Building is located to the south-east of the Stock Experiment Station Main Building, facing east towards Fairfield Road. It is a large, single storey, U-shaped building of brick construction with a hipped roof clad with tiles. The building is notable for its Interwar Classical design and detailing, including its symmetrical plan form, high ceilings, interior colour scheme of white paint and dark-stained timber, and the rhythmic placement of its windows. The exterior of the building is glazed brick with cream-painted, cement-rendered dressings. The symmetrical front façade has a central pedimented entry and flanking wings with rhythmically placed windows terminating in projecting bays. The entry is prominent, having brick planters and metal pedestal lights with large globe-shaped shades. A metal awning shelters the door and is not significant.
The entry foyer has a terrazzo floor, rendered walls scored to imitate stonework, moulded timber picture rail, decorative plaster cornice, and stained and clear lacquered timber doors with leaded glazing panels, sidelights, and fanlights. A timber-framed reception window opens into the adjacent room. The room features timber, wall-hung display cabinet and pigeon holes, and a large amount of veterinary science paraphernalia.
The building plan is arranged around a central corridor that runs down all wings providing access to variously sized rooms on either side. The entry (eastern) wing contains laboratories, offices, toilets, and store rooms. The southern wing contains similar spaces and also a dark room and the post-mortem room. This is a large room, its floor set lower than the other rooms with coved concrete skirtings. It has a large doorway to the exterior in-filled with more recent glazing and a timber door, and a steel I-beam on the ceiling above the door. The northern wing again contains laboratories, offices and store rooms, but also a large lecture room with dais and kitchenette, and an equine operating theatre. Another large room, it has concrete floors, coved concrete skirtings, walls tiled to shoulder height, a steel I-beam and hoist trolley fixed to the ceiling above the large doorway to the exterior.
The Veterinary School building interior has sheeting and batten cover strips lining its ceilings in a geometric pattern. The ceiling ventilation panels have all been sheeted over. Walls are rendered, and floors are finished with carpet, vinyl, or sealed concrete coved to the walls. There are dark-stained and clear-finished timber skirtings, cornices, picture rails, and architraves in most rooms. Room names are painted on timber panels and fixed above doorways. The timber doors match the other timberwork in the building with circular, glass observation panels, or panels with bolection moulding. Most retain original brass hardware and some the original auto-closers. Windows are timber-framed double-hung sashes or timber-framed fixed panes; many of which have external, hinged, timber-framed screens and retain original brass hardware.
The building retains many original items of built-in and freestanding furniture including terrazzo-topped, cantilevered concrete work benches, solid timber cabinets, drawers, cupboards, ceramic pedestal basins, wall-hung timber display cases, and picture frames. The toilets retain original partitions and doors as well as many fixtures and fittings. Cupboards and store rooms retain original timber shelving.
The main facade of the building looks to the east and a grassed area where a large, circular garden bed formed by concrete edging is positioned. Its shape and extent are significant but not the edging. In its centre is a steel flagpole dating from the period of the School's occupation during WWII. The building wings facing to the west enclose a small courtyard which has large sections of concrete pathway and some plantings, none of which are significant.
Veterinary School Hospital Block
The Veterinary School Hospital Block is located to the west of the Veterinary School Main Building and its L-shaped plan completes a large grassed courtyard between the two. The hospital block is long and narrow with small stalls for animals along the western range, a two-level, brick fodder store in the south-western corner, a series of work rooms by the yard entrance on the north-west, further work rooms in the southern range terminating to the east with a blacksmith's room with forge and chimney. It combines glazed brickwork (the same as in the Veterinary School Main Building adjacent) and timber construction with a hipped roof over the fodder store and skillion roofs elsewhere; all clad with corrugated metal sheets. The interior walls of the animal stalls are painted brick with concrete floors. Enclosure on the yard side is by timber half-doors, steel mesh, and fly screens. Small, high-level windows feature on the rear wall. A timber and mesh enclosure runs along the front of the animal stalls and a concrete apron with drain extends into the courtyard. The workrooms and blacksmith's room have timber double-hung sash windows and ceilings of jointed boarding. The forge is sheeted over internally. The upper level of the fodder store is accessed by a timber stair and door on its western facade, where a large timber beam and part of a pulley is fixed to the ceiling above the doorway. There is evidence of a trap door into the lower level. The three-bay garage on the northern end of the hospital block's western range of rooms opens to the north. Adjacent to this is a small reception office, gate, and store rooms that attach to the north-western end of the Veterinary School Main Building.
Additions have been made to the western side of the Hospital Block and are not of heritage significance. Nor are the garages that were part of its original construction (1938-40).
","history":"The former Animal Research Institute at Yeerongpilly was established by the Department of Agriculture and Stock (now the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, part of the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation) in 1909 as the Stock Experiment Station. The Station was the first purpose-built, farm-based facility of Australia's first Stock Institute and its work was primarily to research and control diseases in livestock, develop vaccines and improve animal health and production. The complex was extended over time to accommodate the changing needs of the Institute, the University of Queensland's first veterinary training facility in 1938-1940 and then, between 1933 and 1967, the interrelated work of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.
In 1889 an Intercolonial Stock Conference in Melbourne recommended that an Australasian Stock Institute be established to study diseases in livestock; however the various colonies could not reach agreement on the matter. The first such institute was set up in Queensland in 1893 following a deputation of stock owners to the then Colonial Secretary, the Hon. B Moreton. What was called the Queensland Stock Institute was initially set up in rented premises in Turbot Street, Brisbane, under bacteriologist Charles Joseph Pound. The premises included a laboratory and a museum.
Pound was a 'microscopist' who trained in London in microscopy, physiology and bacteriology and at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in developing vaccines, then a new technology. Arriving in Sydney in 1892, he worked first for the New South Wales Department of Health before taking up the position in Queensland.
As part of his work for the new Stock Institute, in 1894 Pound proved that ticks transmitted Redwater Disease (Bacillary Hemoglobinuria), which was causing heavy losses in Queensland cattle. He conducted the first inoculation studies into this disease in Australia and established a methodology and dosage that are still used worldwide. He trained stockowners in the techniques of collecting recovered blood, defibrillating it and using this vaccine to inoculate their stock. To facilitate this, he invented the 'Pound' syringe and arranged for it to be manufactured. Backed by his lectures and published articles, this work made a major contribution to the success of Queensland's cattle industry. Pound's activities also included obtaining pathological specimens of various manifestations of diseases in stock and other domesticated animals, and items sent in by stock owners were added to the museum's collection. However, the primary object of the Institute in 1895 was to cultivate the pleuro-pneumonia virus for inoculating cattle. In 1897 administration of the Institute passed from the Colonial Secretary's Office to the Queensland Department of Agriculture, founded in 1887.
In 1899 new premises for the Institute were constructed in the Brisbane suburb of Normanby. The two-storey red brick building, located next to the Boys Grammar School residence on College Road, included rooms for Mr Pound and clerical work; a general laboratory; plus chemistry, incubator, sterilizing and photographic rooms on the ground floor, and a museum, library and lecture room on the first floor. Outbuildings included two stalls and loose-boxes, plus other facilities for stock used in experiments.
Due to the government's increased focus on human health Pound was transferred to the Health Section of the Home Secretary's Department as Government Bacteriologist and the department was renamed the Bacteriological Institute. He was the only scientist in Australia then producing tuberculin, used in diagnosing human and bovine tuberculosis, and also carrying out work on leprosy.
In 1907, due to concerns about the impact of cattle tick on the dairy industry, the Institute returned to the control of the Department of Agriculture and Stock and Dr Sydney Dodd was appointed Principal Veterinary Surgeon and Bacteriologist for three years. He continued research work on the eradication of cattle ticks and the diseases caused by them. At his suggestion, the Department acquired 23 hectares of land at Yeerongpilly for an experimental station capable of accommodating the animals needed for research and sufficient for grass and crops to make the farm self-supporting in fodder. The Yeerongpilly site was more suitable than other sites considered as it was bounded on the north by the river, on the south by the railway line, leaving only narrow frontages on the east and west to adjoining land and public roads, thereby reducing the danger that disease could spread.
The first land sales in the Yeerongpilly area had begun in the 1850s and arrowroot and cotton were initially grown, being replaced by sugar cane before the industry moved north following a series of cold winters. In 1879, the Yeerongpilly Divisional Board was formed. The development of rail links in the 1880s opened the area to residential development; but this slowed in the late 19th century following the 1893 floods, which submerged much of Yeerongpilly; and the depression of the 1890s. In the early 20th century, development increased again and most of the area was connected to electricity by the 1920s.
The Stock Experiment Station complex, designed by Dodd, opened in 1909 making Queensland the first state to possess such a facility. As well as Dodd, it employed two laboratory assistants and two farm workers. The offices and laboratories were housed in a timber building, the Stock Experiment Station Main Building, probably designed by Arthur Morry, who was then the Department's architect. It had five rooms off a central corridor that led to a large, sixth room. There were verandahs on the eastern, northern and western sides. The rooms were all airy and well-lit, with fly-proof shields to windows and doors. The main laboratory in the room at the rear was fitted-out with shelves, cupboards and workbenches, much of which remains in 2011. There were also support structures and animal yards, along with a post mortem room, sheep and pig pens and an incinerator.
In 1909 a stable was erected to the north of the Stock Experiment Station Main Building. The Department of Agriculture and Stock Annual Report for 1910 described the building:
'The stable provide four stalls, a loose-box, and feed-room, with a room for harness, tools, etc., and another room for small animals, specially ventilated. The manger fittings are of iron, with water-pots and hay-racks combined. The floors of stalls are laid with a special channelled stable brick, and a tramway is laid the whole length of the building with an overhead traveller for removing the carcasses of dead animals.'
A similar building of 12 stalls, designated as cattle byres, was erected immediately to the north but it does not survive. The total cost of the complex to October 1909 was £5,000.
In 1910 Dodd resigned and Pound was transferred from the Bacteriological Institute, taking charge of the new Station until his retirement in 1932, when the facility was renamed the Animal Health Station and a large wing was added to the northern side of the main building to provide additional laboratories. This wing comprised three rooms accessed by a verandah on the western side, part of which was later in-filled. Some original benches and bookcases have been removed. A verandah annex accommodating toilet, store, shower and dressing room on the 1909 section was extended in 1940 to include a ladies dressing room and the whole was modified in 1958 for further laboratory space and updated staffroom and toilets.
Facilities for undertaking post mortems were an essential part of the work of the Stock Experiment Station. The first detached post mortem building was erected in the 1920s and by the early 1930s a new one was required. This building, the Animal Morgue, was erected in 1934 to designs prepared by Department of Public Works architect DFW Roberts. It comprised a single room with a purpose-built concrete mortuary table in the centre and two concrete dissecting benches against the northern wall. As much as possible of the building was constructed of concrete for ease of cleaning and hygiene. It was well ventilated with ceiling vents and a Robinson's Patent ventilator on the roof. The joins between walls and floor were coved. The windows and doors were timber and fly-screens were provided to all openings. Taps operated by foot remain at the dissecting bench in the north-eastern corner.
In the 1930s, Station staff carried out the first animal husbandry research studies in Queensland with nutritional experiments on pigs and poultry. Major alterations were undertaken in 1939 to convert the Animal Health Station for use as an anatomy school by the University of Queensland's Veterinary School. In April 1935 Premier Forgan-Smith had stated the reasoning behind the government's funding of a veterinary school for Queensland - that:
'Queensland ... was a primary producer, and its problems could in large measure be solved by research; veterinary science would supplement the contribution of agriculture ... a scientific veterinary staff would enable the Department of Agriculture and Stock to deal efficiently with all aspects of veterinary problems and only a Queensland school could meet Queensland's needs ...'
The Courier Mail concurred: 'animal husbandry, sheep, beef and diary cattle supported the whole edifice of the state's economy. The need was clear ...'.
Subsequently in 1936, a faculty of Veterinary Science had been established within the University of Queensland to provide local training for veterinarians. For practical and economic reasons the faculty used the existing facilities at the Animal Health Station at Yeerongpilly and the North Queensland Stock Experiment Station at Oonoonba in Townsville (est. 1915), as it was thought that their work would complement that of the Veterinary Science Department.
A dedicated building for the School was planned for the Yeerongpilly site and its first stage - comprising part of the animal hospital and the northern wing of the main building - was completed in 1938. Facilities for anatomy were still required so the 1909 stable was altered for this purpose by infilling the door openings on the north with weatherboards and casement windows, lining interior walls with VJ pine boards, inserting a ceiling and covering the brick floor with a concrete slab. (It is not clear if all brick floors were simply covered or some removed. Some channeled brick flooring remains in the room on the south-eastern corner of the stable in 2011.) In circa 1940 a skillion-roofed, weatherboard-clad annex was erected along the stable's eastern side.
The final two stages in the building of the Veterinary School were completed by 1940 commencing with the remainder of the Hospital Block and the southern wing, and ending with the eastern (entry) wing. It contained five laboratories, offices, library, dark room, stores, toilets, locker and common rooms; the northern wing offices, lecture rooms, X-ray room and operating theatres; and the southern wing a museum, preparation room, post-mortem room and common room. The Hospital Block was L-shaped forming a courtyard at the rear of Main Building. It provided accommodation for cattle, horses, dogs, cats, and small animals receiving treatment. A two-storey fodder store was located on the south-western corner of the Hospital Block and a blacksmith shop on the eastern end of its southern wing. The construction of the Veterinary School was completed for £26,000.
The Veterinary School suspended its activities during World War II. The United States Army's 3rd Medical Laboratory arrived in Brisbane in June 1942, and its Headquarters Section moved into the new Veterinary School buildings soon after. The functions of a Medical Laboratory (on behalf of US Army medical units) included: water analyses; examination of food supplies; investigation of epidemics and epizootics; and the distribution of special laboratory supplies. The laboratories performed special serological, bacteriological, pathological and chemical examinations, and would have played an important role in safeguarding the health of US troops operating in a tropical environment.
Medical Laboratories could also furnish support for post mortem examinations. The USA Quartermaster had a morgue in Yeerongpilly by October 1943, and this was probably the morgue at the School. US military personnel who died in Australia were buried locally, including at Ipswich, and their bodies were returned to the US after the war.
The 3rd Medical Laboratory was the only laboratory in the South West Pacific Area until mid 1943, and it also functioned as a Malaria School. Apparently it did not treat any patients. A Veterinary Officer also served at the Headquarters section, to supervise the animal section of the laboratory. In August 1943 the 3rd Medical Laboratory was replaced at Yeerongpilly by the 8th Medical Laboratory, which left Australia in late August 1944. The circular garden arrangement with flagpole located in front of the Veterinary School is a typical US Army design, and probably dates from the period of US occupation. The Veterinary School was handed back to the government in excellent order, with some improvements, in September 1944. After the departure of the US Army, staff from the Stock Experiment Station Main Building moved into the Veterinary School Main Building. In 1946-7 the university moved into relocated timber buildings on site. The University of Queensland's Veterinary School remained there in temporary accommodation until February 1961 when the school moved to the St Lucia campus.
By the early 1930s, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, established in 1926 by the Federal government) were conducting research on stock in Queensland, collaborating with and complementing the work of the Department of Agriculture and Stock. This interaction saw responsibilities for certain aspects of pest control and research shift between the organizations. Over time a number of scientists involved in animal research worked for both organizations. Among these scientists, one who had a longstanding and important association with Yeerongpilly was Dr Frederick Hugh Sherston (FHS) Roberts (1901-1972). Born in Rockhampton, Roberts studied at the University of Queensland and was based at Yeerongpilly from 1933 as an Entomologist and Parasitologist. Roberts specialized in researching parasitic diseases of livestock and was sent abroad for this purpose, and additionally researched domestic animal parasites.
From 1945, CSIR were using the Stock Experiment Station Main Building. In 1947 Roberts was appointed as principal research officer and officer-in charge of the new CSIR Veterinary Parasitology Laboratory at Yeerongpilly. The CSIR announced in early 1948 that in tandem with beef production expansion, Queensland would become the Australian centre for research into the industry. In June of that year the Department of Agriculture and Stock announced that the CSIR would be granted for ten years, 'free of interest' the buildings at the State Animal Health laboratory (Cairns Post, 15 June 1948, p3).
In 1949, CSIR was renamed CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. A timber wing was added on the southern side of the Stock Experiment Station Main Building in 1950 to provide additional facilities for CSIRO's Veterinary Parasitology Laboratory. Under the leadership of Roberts, this laboratory became known internationally for its work on parasitic diseases of cattle. A number of other subsidiary buildings were also erected on the site during this period to accommodate the work of CSIRO.
In 1954, the Animal Health Station was renamed the Animal Research Institute and from 1967 State Government laboratory staff were again housed in the Stock Experiment Station Main Building, following CSIRO's departure for new laboratories at Long Pocket, Indooroopilly.
In 1952 about 21 acres (approx.8.5 hectares) of the site was transferred to the Brisbane City Council and then on to the State Electricity Authority for the development of the Tennyson Power Station, which has since been demolished to make way for riverside apartment blocks and a tennis centre.
There are several buildings on site that are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance. In 1956 three buildings were erected at the rear of western wing of the Veterinary School Hospital Block - two brick buildings accommodating animal stalls and a metal-clad and framed building for stores. The c.1938 garage adjacent to the northern end of the hospital was also extended as part of these additions. In 1960 a brick staff amenities building was erected adjacent to the stores building and abutting the western wall of the Hospital Block. These buildings demonstrate the expansion of the Animal Research Institute in the 1950s and early 1960s but are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance. Several timber buildings erected in the early 1950s to provide additional offices and laboratory accommodation are located immediately to the rear of the Stock Experiment Station Main Building. These buildings are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
Work carried out by the Institute over the years includes testing to diagnose diseases of cattle, sheep, goats, horses, deer, pigs and poultry. It is famous for its research into cattle tick fever and developing vaccines against stock diseases. Research work has been carried out on plant poisons, infectious and parasitic diseases, trace element deficiencies and metabolic disorders. Many diseases of livestock were first diagnosed and described at Yeerongpilly, leading to effective control measures being developed. The research undertaken by the Institute has been a major factor in the development of pastoral primary industries in Queensland.
Following road works in 1983 the main entrance to the Institute was relocated from Fairfield Road to Ortive Street.
In 1999 the Department of Primary Industries opened the CJ Pound Laboratory at the Tick Fever Research Centre at Wacol, in honour of a man who was described by one newspaper as the 'boffin' who 'saved the cattle industry'.
In 2011 the Institute has vacated the site which is to be redeveloped.
","criteria":"The Animal Research Institute (former) at Yeerongpilly is the oldest facility of its kind in Queensland, its work having begun with the establishment of the Stock Experiment Station in 1909 - the state's first purpose-built, farm-based animal research laboratory - and continued until its closure in 2010. The place demonstrates the enduring importance of the pastoral primary industries to Queensland's economy and the commitment of successive governments to supporting this industry through scientific research into its productivity, most particularly the diseases that threatened its profitability.
The Veterinary School Main Building and Hospital Block (1938-1940) are the first purpose-built facility for tertiary-level veterinary science training in Queensland. The buildings demonstrate the formalisation of professional training in the medical and veterinary sciences, and its physical association within professional facilities, an approach being strongly advocated by the state government at the time.
Over the course of its long history the Animal Research Institute (former) has accommodated the work of the state government's Animal Research Institute, the University of Queensland Veterinary School and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The place is associated with important scientific advances in diagnostic research into the prevention and treatment of diseases in livestock, and the development and supply of vaccines, to which all of these organisations have contributed.
The circular garden bed and flagpole at the front of the Veterinary School Main Building provide the only evidence of the occupation of it, and other parts of the site now demolished, by the United States Army during World War II. The 3rd Medical Laboratory, based there from 1942 until 1943 when the 8th Medical Laboratory took its place, played an important role in safeguarding the health of US troops operating in a tropical environment and was the only laboratory in the South West Pacific Area until mid 1943.
|The core of the Stock Experiment Station Main Building and the Stable, the earliest parts of the former Animal Research Institute, have a special association with Charles Joseph Pound (b. 1866, d. 1946), the inaugural director of the Queensland Stock Institute, the first such laboratory in Australia, and head of the facility at Yeerongpilly from 1910 to 1932 when he retired. Pound is credited with the research and development that provided a means of preventing the spread of Redwater Disease, which caused heavy losses to Queensland's vital cattle industry during the late nineteenth century. Under the auspices of the Institute Pound conducted the first inoculation studies into this disease in Australia and established a methodology and dosage that are still used worldwide.
The former Animal Research Institute also has a special association with the internationally renowned parasitologist and entomologist Dr Frederick Hugh Sherston Roberts (b. 1901, d. 1972) who began work at the Yeerongpilly research facility in 1933 when it was known as the Animal Health Station. Following World War II, he returned to work at Yeerongpilly and under his direction as principal research officer and officer-in-charge of CSIRO's veterinary parasitology laboratory (1947-1966) the Yeerongpilly institute gained an international reputation for its studies of parasitic diseases in cattle.
|The Stock Experiment Station Main Building (1909), Stable (1909) and Animal Morgue (1934) are important as a demonstration of the principal characteristics of an animal research facility, comprising research laboratories, offices, animal accommodation and handling, and facility for conducting post mortems.
The Veterinary School Main Building and Hospital Block (1938-1940) are important as a demonstration of the principal characteristics of Queensland's first veterinary school, including formally composed facades, offices, a lecture room, library, laboratories, animal operating and post-mortem rooms, animal stalls, fodder store and blacksmith.
The Stock Experiment Station Main Building, Animal Morgue, Veterinary School Main Building, and Hospital Block are substantially intact and retain original interior and exterior detailing to facilitate superior functionality, as well as built-in and loose furniture, fixtures, and fittings used specifically for performing animal research, all of which provide a clear demonstration of the original function of the place.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion H | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":22228,"place_ref":602607,"name":"Marist Brothers' Monastery and Marist College","alternate_name":"Marist Brothers Catholic Monastery","street_address":"Fernberg Road","suburb":"ROSALIE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-09-18","description":"Marist Brothers' Monastery and Marist College, Rosalie are located within the inner western suburb of Paddington about three kilometres from the city of Brisbane. The north facing buildings are situated on Fernberg Road at the end of the Given Terrace ridge on a large elevated site that falls southward in a series of terraces to Beck Street and contains other structures, playing fields and sports facilities.
Monastery
Marist Brothers' Monastery is sited above Fernberg Road, adjacent to the College on the westward downhill slope. The monastery is a symmetrical, two-storeyed timber building clad in chamferboards with encircling verandahs. It is elevated on a tuck-pointed, glazed, dark brown face-brick base formed in English bond which supports rough-cast rendered masonry verandah columns on three sides. The columns, with a dark brown brick soldier course below moulded capitals, support the hipped terracotta tiled roof which has a pitch break at the line of the verandah.
The northern (front) elevation comprises a central gabled pediment over the main entrance - a large round arched opening projecting forward on decorative corbels. The arch is surmounted by a celtic cross located in front of a solid masonry balustrade to the upper floor verandah. This central bay is flanked on each side by three verandah columns between which oversized timber handrails are supported on a large timber framed balustrade/valance with fibrous cement sheet infill panels to the upper floor and on a solid rendered masonry balustrade to the ground floor.
The verandah detailing continues on the side elevations which comprise five bays. On the eastern elevation there is an opening to the garden at ground level in the central bay and the last bay in the southern corner on the first floor is enclosed with multi-pane sliding timber windows. On the western elevation, four bays on the upper floor verandah and three bays on the lower floor verandah have been enclosed with metal framed sliding windows. Door openings in the dark brick base provide access to the understorey.
The southern elevation has timber verandah posts supported on dark brick piers with an open balustrade supporting the oversized handrail to the ground floor and sliding multi-pane timber windows and fixed glazing to each of the upper floor bays. Timber battens line the understorey openings. The three storey rendered masonry addition built in the 1970s and attached by an enclosed walkway at the western end of the southern verandah has been detailed to match the existing building and houses a garage on the ground floor and bathrooms on the upper floors.
The recessed main entrance contains an entry door, detailed to resemble a celtic cross with a circular leadlight panel depicting the initials of the Society of Mary, set within sidelights and fanlights decorated with celtic patterned leadlight. The entrance foyer, with parquetry floor, decorative plaster ceiling and panelled walls with plaque rails, opens onto the reception room to the east and the study to the west. The stairwell is located opposite the entrance foyer and is separated from it by a hall that runs transversely between the two. The ground floor rooms are large and well-proportioned and have higher ceilings than the first floor rooms and fanlights over most doors. The chapel, containing original furniture, is located at the eastern end of the hall in the south-east corner, the recently refurbished kitchen is located in the south-west corner and the dining room in the north-west corner. at the western end of the hall. The housekeeper's flat was attached at the rear of the house and no longer survives.
The upper floor has bedrooms and a communal room that open off the central hall and a wide sleeping verandah to the rear that has sliding glass windows in timber frames set in the upper half of the exterior wall.
Like the exterior, the interior is largely intact. All the rooms are lined with vertical v-jointed tongue and groove boards, the ceilings are moulded fibrous plaster and the joinery is generally clear finished silky oak with a lamb's tongue profile. Multi-pane French doors with obscure glazing open onto the verandahs from most of the rooms.
Marist College
Marist College is large three-storeyed brick masonry building positioned prominently at the end of the ridge at the junction of Fernberg Road and Given Terrace at Rosalie. Situated on a sloping site, only the upper two storeys and windows of the ground floor are visible from Fernberg Road.
The building is constructed of a light coloured brick in stretcher bond and the solid, monumental, asymmetrical massing of the exterior form follows its internal function. A wide L-shaped entrance stair toward the western end of the building is concealed from view from Fernberg Road by a large solid balustrade with concrete capping. This leads to the entrance foyer which is located asymmetrically within a volume that projects forward toward the street and above the adjacent western stairwell and north facing corridor that gives access to the rooms on all three levels. Each of the volumes has low pitched metal roofs which are drained by box gutters to rainwater heads and downpipes that are concealed behind the parapet walls.
The front elevation features a strong horizontal component created by continuous concrete hoods over five bays of hopper windows to the three floors. This horizontality is accentuated with the use of continuous concrete sills, parapet copings and cappings of similar profile. There is no additional embellishment except for a simple recessed crucifix form in brown face-brick at the eastern end of the front elevation and the more recent addition of a large crucifix set against a light coloured panel adjacent to the main entrance. Metal hoods to ventilation bricks, which occur at regular intervals on all floors, are a later addition.
On the eastern elevation, narrow fixed glazing provides natural light to the north-eastern stairwell and on the projecting eastern end of the classroom wing, six louvred windows to the ground floor and six double-hung windows to the first and second floors, under continuous concrete hoods, provide natural light and ventilation to the toilets and classrooms respectively. The bays of double-hung windows and concrete hoods to the first and second floors continue to four of the five bays on the southern elevation and on the ground floor there are double hung windows and a roller shutter to the counter of the tuckshop. Later doors have replaced the roller doors to the former hall and a large roofed open area has been constructed between the college building and the library to the south. A ground-level entrance on the western elevation provides access to the rear of the tuckshop and northern corridor. Hopper windows and narrow fixed glazing provide light and ventilation to the western stairwell where chutes to the incinerator are located on the half landings.
Like the exterior, the interior of the building is simple and functional in design and finish. The first and second floors contain five classrooms separated by masonry walls and the floors are suspended reinforced concrete. The classroom interiors were rendered and the face brick corridors are now painted. The entrance foyer located on the first floor has large glazed entrance doors, sidelights and fanlights of silky oak. It has a ventilated plaster ceiling decorated with simple mouldings and a fluted cornice detail. Alterations to this floor in 1997 were extensive and included the conversion of the classrooms into offices by the introduction of an additional hallway down the centre and length of the classroom room wing and timber framed partition walls. Three of the five classrooms doors and windows to the northern corridor have been bricked in.
The stairwells and the five classrooms and corridor on the second floor are largely intact. The ceilings are lined with fibrous cement sheeting and cover battens and the floors are carpeted. Pairs of doors and double hung windows in the northern walls of the classrooms that admit light and provide cross ventilation are intact. On the ground floor the volume of the hall survives although it has been adapted for other uses. The tuckshop has been refurbished.
","history":"The Marist Brothers' College and Monastery at Fernberg Road, Rosalie was opened in 1929 as part of Catholic Archbishop James Duhig's vision for the development of the Church in Queensland through the provision of affordable, high quality Catholic education. It was the first Queensland school of the Marist Brothers' order and has continued to provide a religious education to generations of boys over a 80 year period. The school developed into a regional college with the erection in 1949 of the Sacred Heart Memorial College, which provided for families in five adjoining parishes and other areas of the city. The school drew mostly from its local population in the suburbs of Paddington, Milton, Bardon, Red Hill and Petrie Terrace which was made up mainly of Anglo-Irish Catholic Australians, indigenous aboriginal people and waves of Catholic immigrants firstly Irish, followed later by Italians, Croatians, Polish and other post-World War II immigrants. More recent enrolments at the school have included smaller groups of Islander, South American and South-East Asian families.
The first major land sales in the Paddington area occurred in 1859, when large country lots were sold. The steep terrain hampered transport and tracks followed the ridgeline, so that it was along these narrow corridors that development initially occurred. Ithaca Shire was created in 1887, and by 1903 Paddington was a densely populated suburb of the Town of Ithaca. The tramway reached Latrobe Terrace in 1898, and Fernberg Road in 1909, which spurred development.
In 1898 the first Catholic Church in Paddington, the Church of the Holy Rosary, was built on an elevated site on the western side of Given Terrace near Fernberg Road. The early Catholic community was very small and the Sisters of Mercy travelled from All Hallows to teach catechism to the children. By 1907 the Catholic community had grown considerably and a new timber church was built at the corner of Given Terrace and Fernberg Road next to the original church which was adapted for use as a school building. Continuing growth in the parish resulted in the construction of the presbytery on the opposite corner on Given Terrace in 1914, followed by the purchase of the Herbert Estate (the present Marist site) on Fernberg Road by Archbishop Duhig.
In 1918, the 1898 building from Given Terrace was moved onto the Herbert Estate for use by the Sisters of Mercy to teach the older girls and boys. The 1907 church was adapted for use as an infant school and a new brick masonry church designed by GHM Addison was built next to it on the site of the original church. These works included the erection of brick walls along the street frontages of both properties giving them 'an appearance of stability and permanence'. The Sisters of Mercy, who had been travelling from All Hallows by tram to teach the children built their convent further north on Given Terrace at the same time.
In the 1920s Rosalie was quickly developing as a 'working men's parish', and its needs rapidly outstripped the services provided by existing schools. The Church was concerned with providing both secular and religious education and Duhig wanted to ensure that a high quality Catholic secondary education was available. The school population at Rosalie continued to grow and reached 300 students with 200 in the infant school, half of which were boys. With the Archbishop's approval it was decided to seek the assistance of the Marist Brothers to teach the boys and two new buildings were to be erected: a school for the older girls and a residence for the brothers. Both buildings were designed by the newly formed firm of architects, GHM Addison and Son and HS MacDonald, and the builder of the monastery was Dan Gallogly.
George Frederick Addison studied in Brisbane and trained in the office of his father, George Henry Male Addison. After serving in World War I he became a partner in his father's practice which had been responsible for the design of many buildings for the Catholic Church. After GHM Addison died in 1922 GF Addison continued the practice before forming a partnership with Herbert Stanley MacDonald in 1928. Their other projects included Syncarpia (601895d, 1934), a block of flats at New Farm; the former National Bank (601234, 1929) at South Brisbane; the Goondiwindi Civic Centre (600531, 1938); and a large number of hotel commissions (mostly renovations) for Castlemaine Perkins.
James Duhig was born in Ireland and arrived with his family in Brisbane in 1885. He was ordained a priest in 1896 and in 1905 became Bishop of Rockhampton, at the age of 32. In 1912, he became Archbishop Dunne's Co-Adjutor, taking on much of his administrative duties. Duhig energetically promoted the growth of the Church in Queensland. To this end, he was intimately involved throughout his career with the planning and building of over one hundred churches and schools. The first Catholic Brisbane parishes were established at Coorparoo, Kangaroo Point, South Brisbane, Red Hill and Rosalie. Although Dunne had encouraged only the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers to establish branches of their orders in Queensland, Duhig was keen to encourage other religious orders to expand Catholic education in this State. He made approaches to several teaching orders including the Marist Brothers.
The Marist Brothers, an order originating in France and expanding to 33 countries throughout the world came as missionaries to the Pacific in 1857 before arriving in Sydney in 1872 to establish their first antipodean school at St Patrick's, Church Hill, followed by several others in inner Sydney. They opened schools in Victoria and South Australia and began negotiations in 1919 to open a school in Queensland. The Marist Brothers had been invited to Manly parish but found the premises unsuitable so Archbishop Duhig negotiated an agreement to establish a school and residence for the Brothers at Rosalie which was to be their 28th establishment in Australia. The arrival of the Marist Brothers was seen as 'a red letter day' for Queensland where previously the Christian Brothers had a monopoly over the higher education of Catholic boys.
The foundation stone of the Rosalie monastery was laid on 29 July 1928 by the Most Reverend B Catteneo the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop James Duhig, and parish priest, Dean W Lee with Br Reginald Moore, the Director of Lismore representing the Marist Brothers Provincial. The site chosen for the monastery was adjacent to the school building on Fernberg Road which was renovated and remodelled to accommodate the classes of boys that the brothers would teach. In December 1928 three Marist brothers arrived to open the Rosalie boys' school which commenced on 28 January 1929 with an enrolment of 135. The official opening of both the monastery and the girls' school, which was attached to the Convent of Mercy, by Archbishop James Duhig took place on 20 February 1929 by which time the enrolments at the boy's school had increased to 175 with grades three, four and five offered. An article in the Telegraph dated January 29, 1929 reported:
The monastery, which is an entirely new building is a fine structure designed to give the maximum of comfort and convenience. On the ground floor are a study room, dining room, reception room, kitchen and housekeeper's flat in addition to a beautifully furnished chapel, equipped with an attractively finished alter, kneeling stands, brass candle sticks, sanctuary lamp etc.
Upstairs are the sleeping quarters consisting of seven bedrooms, bathrooms and community rooms.
On both floors wide verandahs run completely round the building and from these a commanding view is obtained, the monastery being situated at a high point. A feature of every room is the splendid ventilation and natural and artificial light.
The furnishings and decoration are effective without being elaborate. The building appears to be faithfully built of weatherboard, brick and cement.
In April 1929 the school was approved as a secondary school and by the end of that year five boys had won scholarships to the school and a few boarders had been taken in. The first secondary class of 1930 was accommodated upstairs in the monastery with six scholarship boys, some of the older boys, plus seven boarders. There were also 220 primary students. In 1935, a cottage was moved adjacent to the monastery from a site on Beck Street, and was remodelled and refitted for use as two classrooms and a boarders' dormitory until 1948.
With enrolments at the schools increasing to 450 in the late 1930s, the construction of a new college building was planned. During 1937-1938 a design was prepared and tenders were called for a hip-roofed, two-storeyed masonry building with basement to accommodate 400 students. The new building, which was to contain eight classrooms, two science laboratories, a gymnasium and sheltered playing area was designed by architects Cullen and Egan. The widespread economic depression of the early 1930s, followed by the impact of World War II from 1939 to 1945, and perhaps the imminent opening of a new Marist college at Ashgrove where all the Rosalie boarders and 120 day boys were transferred in 1940, caused the project to be delayed for many years.
Frank Lee Cullen, Archbishop Duhig's nephew, trained as an articled pupil with Hennessy, Hennessy and Co, first at Leo Drinan's office in Brisbane in 1928 and then in Sydney between 1929 and 1932.Cullen returned briefly to the Brisbane office in 1933 before taking up a position with the Queensland Works Department as a draftsman. After completing his architectural education in 1934, Cullen worked with Harold VM Brown of Mackay before beginning his own practice in Brisbane in 1936. Cullen had several commissions that year for the Catholic Church, including a two storey boarding school at Murgon, a brick school at Yeronga, a church at Buranda, school hall at Graceville and a presbytery at Holland Park.
In 1937 Cullen formed a partnership with Desmond Egan who had also worked with Hennessy and Hennessy in the 1920s and 1930s. The partnership received a large number of commissions from the Catholic Church as well as designing numerous hotels, residences and commercial buildings. Following the death of Egan in 1941 Cullen continued his practice as FL Cullen with new projects including several school buildings similar to the Rosalie College for the Catholic Church: St Mary's at Ipswich (1946); St Luke's at Buranda (1949); Our Lady Star of the Sea School at Gladstone (600521) (1950) and St Joseph's at Kangaroo Point (1951).
On 6 June 1948 the foundation stone for a new college building at Rosalie was laid by Archbishop Duhig at a large ceremony attended by 2,000 people including parishioners, Premier EM Hanlon and Minister for Works and MLA for Baroona, William Joseph Power. Sixteen months later, another 2,000 people attended the opening of the school on 2 October 1949. In his address, Archbishop Duhig commended the Marist Brothers on 'their struggle against adverse conditions in the matter of building and equipment'. It had only been when the former 1898 church, which was the main portion of their school, threatened to collapse that they were able to get a permit from the Catholic Finance and Building Commission to build the new school, which Duhig described as a "finely, well-equipped modern building, outstanding in every respect". Duhig also praised the exemplary sacrifice that the pastor and the parish had made and "doubted if there had ever been a working man's parish in the history of Australia that had undertaken to build a school entailing the outlay of so large a sum of money" (The Catholic Leader, Thursday 6 October 1949).
The school, a memorial to fallen Maristonians (past students) of both wars, was constructed to a new design by Cullen and was built by KD Morris and Sons for £35,000. The three storey college was built of fire-resisting construction and contained eight large classrooms and two science laboratories. The lower ground floor incorporated a large assembly hall complete with stage, a sports store, tuckshop and lavatories. The Principal's office was located on the ground floor opening off the main entrance vestibule as was the memorial library. The class rooms and science laboratories were complete with modern educational facilities and all class rooms were newly furnished with dual and single desks. An incinerator incorporated into the building served each of the floors and a public address system was installed to allow for the broadcasting of messages and programmes to all or any number of the classes. The design also provided for the later addition of an extra storey.
With the construction of the new college, the monastery became primarily a residence for the teaching brothers and continues in this function. It is also used as a meeting place for parents and students.
In 1970 Rosalie became an Archdiocesan College although it continued to be administered locally by the Marist Brothers. A Junior College was built on the north side of Fernberg Road behind the church for grades four to seven and was opened in 1971, but was phased out by 1980 due to the declining numbers in inner city parishes and the trend at the time for boys to stay at their local parish schools to complete their primary education. Its buildings and grounds became part of the Senior College.
Various other buildings and facilities were added to the grounds in the 1960s and 1970s, including a swimming pool (1965), science block (1969), library (1975) and enclosure of the basement of the college building to create a hall (1975). In 1977 a covered assembly and shelter area adjacent to the Senior block was erected.
All college buildings have been refurbished in recent years. The plaster ceilings in the monastery were replaced to match the original in recent years following water damage and ceiling repairs were carried out in the dining room. The three storey addition attached to the south-western end of the monastery verandah was built in the 1980s.
","criteria":"Marist Brothers' Monastery and Marist College Rosalie have a special association for generations of Catholic families who have sent their sons to this school since 1929 and have been important for several generations of Catholics in the surrounding area as a source of spiritual, social and educational sustenance. Past and present pupils and teachers share a strong sense of attachment to the college, the construction of which was delayed due to the Second World War and which was dedicated as a memorial to past students who died during both World Wars.
|Situated on the end of the ridge at the southern end of Given Terrace, Marist College has landmark quality for its solid, monumental asymetrical composition that is visible from a number of viewpoints.
The monastery located adjacent to the school is also valued for its landmark qualities as a well composed and visually pleasing building on a prominent site. Additional aesthetic values are derived from the integrity of the buildings architectural qualities and workmanship both internally and externally including its generous planning and proportions and restrained yet effective detailing and finishes, its oversized verandah elements, its symmetrical planning, the proportions of its rooms, the detailing of its joinery.
|The monastery and college have a strong, special and continuing association with the Marist Brothers, the order that founded the boys' school at Rosalie in 1929 and for whom the monastery was purpose-built.
|Marist Brothers' Monastery and Marist College Rosalie are important as evidence of the period of expansion of the Catholic Church in Queensland under the leadership of Archbishop James Duhig. The Marist Brothers' Monastery and school for boys at Fernberg Road, Rosalie were opened in 1929 as part of Duhig's vision for the development of the Church in Queensland through the provision of affordable, high quality Catholic education.
The monastery and college occupy a prominent site in the inner western suburbs of Brisbane and are a manifestation of the Catholic ethos of selecting imposing sites to produce landmarks which is characteristic of buildings erected for the Church during the time of Archbishop Duhig.
Marist Brothers' Monastery and Marist College Rosalie were the first Queensland residence and school of the Marist Brothers' order, which has made a significant and influential contribution to the education, particularly secondary education, of Catholic boys in Queensland. At Rosalie, the Marist Brothers have continued to provide a religious education to generations of boys over an 80 year period. The school developed into a regional college with the erection in 1949 of the Sacred Heart Memorial College, funded largely by the endeavours of the local community.
|The monastery is important as the first commission of the newly formed partnership of architects, GHM Addison and Son and HS MacDonald which continued the association of GHM Addison's practice with the Rosalie parish. The monastery is an excellent example of a residence purpose-built for the accommodation of a religious order. The building and some early furnishings including original chapel furniture remain intact and illustrative of its original and continued function as the home of the Marist Brothers with chapel, reception room, study, dining room and kitchen on the ground floor and bedrooms and communal room on the upper floor set on a hilltop adjacent to the school where the Brothers taught.
The college is a good representative example of the work of architect Frank Cullen, Archbishop Duhig's nephew, who was responsible for the design of many Catholic schools, churches, presbyteries and halls during the 1930s-1950s. Its simple yet functional design and solid monumental asymmetrical massing are typical of the style of school building that Cullen was designing in the 1940s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion G | Criterion E | Criterion H | Criterion A | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":30281,"place_ref":602684,"name":"Castlemaine Perkins Ltd Building (former)","alternate_name":"Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan, Gray & Co. Brisbane Ltd/Castlemaine Perkins Ltd Building (former)","street_address":"418-420 Adelaide Street","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-03-06","description":"The former Castlemaine Perkins Building, a substantial brick and stone warehouse and office building of the early twentieth century, is located at the corner of Adelaide Street and Clark Lane on the northern periphery of Brisbane's central business district. It occupies a rectangular site cut into the hill below the St John's Cathedral precinct.
The footprint of the building takes up most of the site, being constructed to the street alignments along Adelaide Street to the front and Clark Lane along the north-eastern side, and to the property boundary with Webber House at the rear. The south-western side is set back about one metre from the hill that rises to St John's Deanery to permit light and ventilation to the interior of the building. In plan the building sits about five metres from this side boundary.
The front two-thirds of the building is three-storeyed with mostly load-bearing brick exterior walls resting on a substantial stone base, but incorporates elements of an earlier, two-storeyed stone warehouse (c1900) at the corner of Clark Lane and Adelaide Street. The stone structure extends about two-thirds the depth of the site, but less than half the width, with the side and rear walls surviving within the later structure. The two stages of the building (c1900 and 1918-1919) are delineated by separate gabled roofs, hidden behind a front brick parapet. These roofs are clad with corrugated metal sheeting. The north-east wall of the stone building, along Clark Lane, remains an exterior wall but has been rendered externally. A third floor in brick has been added to the stone structure.
The rear third of the site, where the land slopes up from Adelaide Street, is occupied by a two-storeyed brick and concrete section that appears to have been constructed in at least two stages (1918-1919 and 1928-1929). This has a gabled roof on the earliest section and a gambrel roof on the 1928-1929 section. Both roofs are clad with corrugated metal sheeting. The rear wall to the building may have been added as part of the 1928-1929 work.
The external south-west side wall is of unpainted, light-coloured mottled brick; the brickwork along the north-east side fronting Clark Lane has been painted; and the brickwork in the rear wall is of a light reddish unpainted brick.
The structure is unified by the 1918-1919 brick façade to Adelaide Street, designed in a free classical idiom. The face-brickwork in this front elevation is a mottled, deep red, broken by a rendered ashlar base with exaggerated keystones to the windows, a central vertical rendered ashlar bay and pediment, and a rendered cornice and parapet. The central pediment is decorated with a garland of vine leaves and bunches of grapes, symbolizing the business of the firm that commissioned the construction in 1918, and bears the date 1871 (the year in which Quinlan, Donnelly & Co. was formed). The original fenestration pattern remains intact. The lettering "Castlemaine Perkins Limited" can just be made out on the front parapet.
The interior of the building is divided into a centrally positioned public access space toward the front of the building; large open areas formerly used as offices (in part early open plan) and warehousing; and rear storage and dispatch areas. The detailing in the public areas, especially the joinery, demonstrates a high level of design and craftsmanship.
The centrally positioned entrance off Adelaide Street has a pair of painted, panelled timber doors opening directly from the street into a tiny entrance vestibule. This has a varnished, panelled timber ceiling and highly-glazed early ceramic tiles lining the walls to door height. A fine varnished timber screen and double-leaf door with bevelled glass panels and carved timber wreaths separates the vestibule from the central foyer. Both sets of entrance doors have metal handles in Art Nouveau designs. Early marble steps lead up to a central foyer with later stone and tile flooring. Wide openings, one off each side of the foyer, have detailed timber architraves. The opening to the left leads up a couple of steps to the 1918 brick section; the opening at the right leads down a couple of steps, through a stone wall (formerly the south-west exterior wall of the c1900 building) to the earlier structure. The different floor levels reflect the slope of the land down toward the north-east corner of the site. At the end of the front foyer is the central public staircase, which accesses all three floors of the building. This has a well-detailed and crafted varnished timber balustrade with substantial timber newels.
Flooring throughout is of timber boards supported on a substantial framework of timber beams, joists and posts, all of which appear to be part of the 1918-1919 construction. The top floor is largely free of the internal timber posts that are a conspicuous feature of the lower levels. Here, the double-gabled timber roof structure is exposed. Ceilings throughout are unlined, exposing the floor framing to the spaces above.
On the ground and first floors there are recent openings in the stone wall that had previously divided the c1900 and 1918-1919 sections. Most of the stonework in this wall remains exposed; the side wall to Clark Lane and most of the rear wall of the c1900 building is rendered or painted.
The interiors of all levels in the three-storeyed section are lit and ventilated via early windows in the front and side elevations. Window frames are mostly original, but there is later double glazing in the ground floor front windows to Adelaide Street.
Each floor of the three-storeyed section currently accommodates mostly open-plan offices. Some partition walls, exposed air conditioning ducts and an open staircase are later additions. Towards the rear of the stone building is a stairwell enclosing later steel stairs. An early brick elevator shaft is located towards the front of the building. Another elevator shaft appears to have been added at a later date. There is a concrete walk-in safe on the ground floor in the centre of the building, behind the front stairwell.
Due to the slope of the land the building becomes two-storeyed at the rear. Internal access to the ground floor of this section is via the first floor of the three-storeyed section. This rear area contains a two-storeyed brick building (1918-1919) along the south-west side of the site, extended in 1928-1929 in brick and concrete, to occupy the whole of the rear third of the site. The earlier section has a gabled roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting. The ground floor of this section retains a number of elements associated with its former function as a dispatch area - three large goods doors (two in timber and one of fire-proof steel construction) and front loading docks. Internally, concrete posts and steel beams supporting the floor above appear to be associated with the c1928 re-construction of the rear areas. Historical evidence suggests that the reconstruction involved an extension of the 1918 rear section to the rear boundary and removal of the upper level of its north-east brick side wall.
The loading area in front of the 1918 dispatch area is floored in concrete and enclosed with brick walls along the rear and side. Vehicle access is off Clark Lane. As in the earlier section, concrete posts and steel beams support the upper floor.
The upper levels of both rear sections now function as a single large open space. Walls in this space are exposed brick with a painted finish and floors have been lined with later sheeting. Ceilings are lined with a suspended ceiling system. Banks of steel-framed hopper windows remain, but in the rear wall have been bricked over externally.
","history":"The building at 418-420 Adelaide Street was constructed in a number of stages between c1900 and 1928-1929. The main section - a two- and three-storeyed brick warehouse, bond store and office building - was erected in 1918-1919 for The Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan, Gray & Co. Brisbane Ltd (later Castlemaine Perkins Ltd). The designer, Brisbane architect TR Hall, incorporated an earlier (c1900) two-storeyed stone warehouse into the structure. In 1928-1929 a new bulk store was added at the rear.
The Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan, Gray & Co. Brisbane Ltd manufactured Queensland's famous "Fourex" beer and imported wine and spirits. The origins of the firm dated to 1871, when Michael Quinlan and N Donnelly entered into partnership as Quinlan, Donnelly and Co., general business and shipping agents, Brisbane. In late 1873 Donnelly relinquished his interest in the partnership and Quinlan continued to trade as Quinlan and Co. In 1874 the company's office and stores were re-located from Mary Street to Queen Street, opposite the Customs House and close to the new wharves being developed at Petrie's Bight, establishing a long connection with the Petrie's Bight district. Following Michael Quinlan's death in July 1878 his widow took control of the company and in August 1878 entered into partnership with George Wilkie Gray, the firm's principal manager, as Quinlan, Gray & Co.
Prior to Michael Quinlan's death the company had entered into negotiations with Edward and Nicholas Fitzgerald, owners of the Castlemaine Brewery in Victoria, to establish a brewery in Brisbane. In 1877 the firm of Fitzgerald, Quinlan & Co. was formed and the Queensland Distillery at Milton was acquired and developed as the Castlemaine Brewery. The first Castlemaine XXX Sparkling Ale was sold in late 1878. In 1887 The Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan, Gray & Co. Brisbane Ltd was formed to acquire the assets of Fitzgerald, Quinlan & Co. (owners of the Castlemaine Brewery at Milton) and Quinlan, Gray & Co. (general merchants and importers). In addition to the brewing business the firm supplied wine, spirits, groceries and general merchandise to hotelkeepers, storekeepers, and graziers throughout Queensland.
The firm continued to occupy premises in Queen Street near the Customs House through the 1890s and early 1900s, and in 1901 also took up the lease of 385-391 Adelaide Street as a bond store. In 1909-1910 the company purchased two nearby allotments, at the corner of Adelaide Street and Clark Lane, with the object of constructing their own building on the site.
These allotments were part of a larger parcel of land bounded by Wharf, Adelaide and Ann streets alienated in 1853 by Dr William Hobbs. In the late 1870s the Brisbane Municipal Council formed the north-east end of Adelaide Street and in the process Adelaide Street was cut down in front of Dr Hobbs residence to better link with Queen Street at Petrie's Bight. By 1881, when Dr Hobbs placed his property on the market, a right of way existed over what is now Clark Lane. In subsequent years much of Dr Hobbs' property was acquired for the St John's Cathedral precinct, and his former residence is now St John's Deanery.
The allotments at the corner of Adelaide Street and Clark Lane remained unimproved until George Bowser and George Montague Bowser (trading as George Bowser & Co., quarrymen, asphalters and general contractors), acquired title to the allotment adjoining Clark Lane in late 1899. Bowser & Co. were the proprietors of the Bowen Park Quarry opposite the Exhibition Grounds, supplying porphyry (Brisbane tuff) for both building and asphalting purposes, and appear to have been responsible for the construction of a two-storeyed stone warehouse at the corner of Clark Lane and Adelaide Street c1900. The hill was heavily cut into to accommodate this building but may have been partly excavated from the late 1870s when Dr Hobbs, in an attempt to create better access to his property after the cutting down of Adelaide Street, sold fill from his land to the Municipal Council for road works.
From October 1900 the Salvation Army held a five year lease over Bowser & Co'.s building, which they conducted as a Workmen's Metropole providing low-cost temporary accommodation to itinerant working men. After the Salvation Army vacated this building it was occupied by various businesses, including the Queensland Motor Agency, WF Turk & Co. electrical engineers and machinery agents, and JW Walker, clothing manufacturer. In April 1909 title was transferred to The Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan Gray & Co. Brisbane Limited, which also acquired title to the adjacent unimproved allotment in April 1910, providing the firm with a total of 52.6 perches (1330m²) with a frontage of 99 feet (30.2m) to Adelaide Street.
Work on construction of a new building had not commenced prior to World War I (1914-1918), which interrupted trade and had a detrimental impact on the company's activities. In 1916 the directors made three significant decisions: to withdraw from general importing and to specialise in brewing and in the distribution of wine and spirits; to introduce Castlemaine XXXX Sparkling Ale; and to proceed with the construction of the Adelaide Street building.
Construction commenced about September 1918 and was completed in 1919 at a total cost of £22,950. The architect was TR Hall and the contractor GA Baumber, who was a shareholder in the company. The new structure more than doubled the footprint of the existing building on the site, necessitating further cutting into the rocky outcrop adjacent to St John's Deanery.
The new building was considered a 'landmark'. It was of three storeys, brick on a stone base, which could support construction of a further three storeys if required; a two-storeyed brick section at the rear also appears to have been erected at his time. The new building accommodated the firm's town office, a warehouse and a bond store, and in effect was the company's signature building. The main office was arranged on the "American 'open' system" and was finished with Queensland timbers and tessellated floor tiles. On an upper floor a rest lounge with reading and cooking facilities was provided at the front of the building, overlooking Petrie's Bight, for the use of female staff members. A separate lunch room was provided for male staff, and another for the firm's travelling salesmen.
The architect for the project, Thomas Ramsay Hall, had established his practice in Brisbane in 1907. His larger commissions had included the Sandgate Town Hall (1911-1912, QHR 601566), the McDonnell & East department store on George Street (1911-1913, QHR 600120), and work for the Catholic Church. In 1919 he took into partnership his former articled pupil, George Prentice, and in that year their design for the new Brisbane City Hall (QHR 600065, opened 1930) was accepted.
In the interwar years The Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan, Gray & Co. Brisbane Ltd expanded production significantly. The introduction of Castlemaine XXXX Bitter Ale in 1924 proved highly popular and became the basis for future brews; then in October 1928 the firm consolidated its position as a leading Queensland brewing company with the purchase of a controlling interest in Perkin's & Co. Ltd, acquiring the Toowoomba maltings and brewery (established in 1866), sections of the City Brewery plant, the trade of 19 freehold hotels for a period of 25 years, and the trade of 50 leasehold hotels until each lease expired. As a result of the acquisition/merger, the name of the firm was changed to Castlemaine Perkins Ltd; the former Perkins City Brewery in Mary Street was closed and some of the plant taken to the Castlemaine Brewery on Milton Road; an extensive program of refurbishment of the Milton and Toowoomba breweries was commenced; 418-420 Adelaide Street was retained as the company's head office; and a new brick and concrete bulk store was erected at the rear of the Adelaide Street building in 1928-1929, at a cost of around £8,000.
The new bulk store was designed by Brisbane architects Addison and Macdonald, who undertook most of Castlemaine Perkins' hotel refurbishments and brewery expansion work at this period. The principal contractor was GA Baumber, who had constructed the company's 1918-1919 building.
The company's capital increased more than 13 times in the period 1919 to 1937. Despite the impact of the economic depression of the early 1930s, Castlemaine Perkins Ltd was able to consolidate its holdings, taking advantage of the slump in the property market to purchase further hotel freeholds and leaseholds.
After construction of bulk store in 1928-1929 further additions and alterations to 418-420 Adelaide Street were comparatively minor. Additional office fit-outs, designed by Addison and Macdonald, were made to the building c1930 and c1935. In 1961 additional offices were erected on the third floor and a passenger lift was installed.
418-420 Adelaide Street remained the head office of Castlemaine Perkins Ltd until the early 1980s when a new office was constructed at the Castlemaine Brewery at Milton, severing Quinlan, Gray & Co.'s connection of nearly 110 years with the Petrie's Bight district. The Port of Brisbane had moved downstream and the Castlemaine Perkins building was one of many Petrie's Bight warehouses that subsequently became redundant.
In 1980 Castlemaine Perkins Ltd and Tooheys Brewery in New South Wales merged to form Castlemaine Tooheys Ltd, which in turn was acquired by the Bond Corporation in 1985. Late in 1985 title to the former Castlemaine Perkins building at 418-420 Adelaide Street was transferred to film distributor Birch, Carroll & Coyle Limited, which occupied the building as its Queensland headquarters until c2000.
","criteria":"The building at 418-420 Adelaide Street is closely associated with the work of The Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan, Gray and Co. Brisbane Ltd (later Castlemaine Perkins Ltd), a major Queensland brewing company. Designed as the firm's signature building, the front elevation incorporates symbolic elements in the façade associated with the work of the company.
|The building has aesthetic significance generated by the rhythm and detailing in the façade, including exaggerated keystones, decorative elements in the central bay and parapet, and the play of the brick against the render. Internally, the public spaces have finely detailed timber work.
|The former Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan, Gray & Co. Building (1918-1928) / Castlemaine Perkins Building (1928-early 1980s) is a substantial, well designed, substantially intact early twentieth century warehouse and office building important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type. These characteristics include:
-\tthe scale of the three-storeyed building, with a large two-storeyed section at the rear;
-\tthe robust design and materials (including substantial hardwood posts, joists and roof structure);
-\tthe clear division of the building into public areas, warehousing and despatch sections;
-\tthe decorative facade to Adelaide Street, creating a strong and aesthetically pleasing street presence and designed to impress;
-\tthe use of symbolism associated with the business of the firm for which the building was commission in 1918 (a garland of vine leaves and bunches of grapes in the central pediment);
-\tthe use of detailed and finely crafted joinery in the public areas of the building (entrance vestibule, foyer, and front staircase);
-\tthe provision of natural lighting and ventilation to each level via windows to both side and front elevations.
The building is important as an excellent example of the early work of Brisbane architect TR Hall prior to his joining GG Prentice in partnership in 1919. The designer has skilfully utilised a substantial earlier stone structure within the 1918 brick structure.
|This three-storeyed brick warehouse and office building, erected in 1918-1919 with a 1928-1929 addition and incorporating a c1900 two-storeyed stone building within its structure, is associated with a major Queensland twentieth century brewer and wine and spirits dealer: The Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan, Gray & Co. Brisbane Ltd (Castlemaine Perkins Ltd from 1928). The location at the north-east end of Adelaide Street is important in demonstrating the development and consolidation of Petrie's Bight as one of Queensland's principal warehousing and port districts prior to the move of the port of Brisbane downstream.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion H | Criterion E | Criterion D | Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":30579,"place_ref":602717,"name":"Graceville Railway Station","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"110 Long Street","suburb":"GRACEVILLE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-06-12","description":"Graceville Railway Station is situated between Chelmer and Sherwood stations on the Brisbane-Ipswich line, just over eight and a half kilometres on from Roma Street passenger station. It comprises two island platforms with dimpled concrete coping and six structures: a brick and concrete station building, four steel-framed platform awnings and a subway system accessed via ramps leading off both Honour Avenue and Appel Street. From Richlands Park in the north to Sherwood Road in the south, these two roadways run parallel to the generally north-west to south-east oriented rail corridor, which contains four tracks. The local terrain is flat, with the Brisbane River only about half a kilometre to the west and just over one kilometre distant to the east. The adjacent intersections are with Rakeevan Road and Verney Road West where there is a small shopping precinct, and Connors Street and Verney Road East, which is residential except for a timber shop building.
The station building, completed in 1959, sits on the easternmost island platform serving tacks 1 and 2, about half way between each platform end. A long, thin rectangle in plan, oriented with the platform and tracks, the building has a butterfly roof formed with a reinforced concrete slab and supported on pre-cast, reinforced concrete beams which cantilever off a deep, continuous white-painted lintel that itself rests on ten brick piers, almost two and a half metres tall. The roof and its integral beams cantilever by approximately two metres to provide shelter to the platform along each track. The edges of the roof slab are lined with fibrous cement boarding, which is not original. The ten brick piers and associated maroon-painted concrete beams occur at about three and a half metre intervals with a range of materials filling the gaps in the north-eastern and south-western facades: from orange-coloured face brick to screened openings, some small sections of render at each end, to various aluminium-framed windows and doors. On the north-western façade are two banks of aluminium-framed louvre windows with sills approximately two metres off the ground. 'GRACEVILLE' is lettered in maroon-painted timber across the white-painted lintel above these windows. This lettering also features on two similar bulkheads on the south-western façade, as well as at the south-eastern end. This last façade has more depth with the walls stepping back from each corner leaving brick columns. In the centre is a single door to a small room facing the trains coming from the south.
The wide stairs leading from the subway land in the southern third of the building at a ticket hall and waiting area, which is open on both sides. A painted steel mid-rail runs the length of these stairs. Opposite the stair void the gaps between the piers are filled with screens made with a metal frame and grill panel bolted to the brick surrounds and resting on low brick walls. The internal faces of the piers are rendered and painted. The ticket windows are directly opposite the stair landing. Only the western one is currently in use, the other now hidden behind a freestanding automatic ticket machine. A number of timetable wall-boxes line the available wall space, one being an early timber example. One of the original chrome-plated ticket rails in front of the operating ticket window remains. The floor is lined with a chequered pattern of black and white terrazzo tiles, while the ceiling is made with fibrous cement sheeting. A stainless steel downpipe marks the top of the stairs and the endpoint of the middle handrail. There were four downpipes in the original design, one next to what had been the telephone box on the south-eastern façade, another between the office and store and another between the toilet and waiting area. How many still exist is unknown as three were enclosed in various walls along the centreline of the building and could not be viewed. It is likely that some if not all remain.
To the north of the ticket hall is an office and service room for the station manager. Parts of the timber framing to the ticket windows are visible on its south-eastern wall. The floors are carpeted and the walls and ceiling are lined with fibrous cement sheeting. The windows are double-hung sashes with interior sills made with a terrazzo different from that on the floor in the ticket hall. Adjacent to these rooms to the north is the semi-enclosed waiting area. Its floor has a terrazzo tile pattern to match that in the ticket hall. Its southern wall is face brick, while the remainder are plastered. On each side wall, there are two banks of the same double-hung sashes as in the office, with interior terrazzo sills. There is also some solid timber shelving here. The seating, which lines three walls, is made with timber slats and framing on shaped concrete legs. Two timber-framed and screen-infill doors, with matching surrounds provide entry from each side of the platform. At the northernmost end of the building are the toilets, which consist of two toilet cubicles and wash areas accessed by timber doors on the south-western and north-eastern sides. Metal framed louvres open off all three exterior walls at two metre sill height. Approximately one and a half metres from the north-eastern face of the building stands a cast iron drinking fountain. A number of timber and concrete seats, the same as those used in the northern waiting room, sit against the building on its long facades.
Set off from the main building by approximately 13 metres to the north-west and south-east are two wide butterfly-roofed, steel-framed shelters with built-in seating that faces both tracks. Four steel T-shaped components support steel perforated purlins, which inturn support the corrugated metal roof sheeting. The former divide the seating lengths. Set about four and a half metres apart, they are made with two cantilevered, tapering I-beams bolted to a rectangular hollow steel column (made with two C-sections welded together) which is founded in a concrete upstand. A perpendicular upstand runs the length of the shelter along the midline. Welded to the steel columns and beams are lighter steel frames. The infill panels of glass have been removed, as have some of the steel ones, while others are corroded. The seating is made with painted timber slats supported on timber studs and some steel framing. The downpipes taking water from the box gutter continue the rhythm of the columns, piercing the timber caps that join the two sides of seating at the centre of each gap.
Two more narrower butterfly-roofed, steel-framed shelters are situated on the island platform serving tracks 3 and 4 to the west and Honour Avenue. They are of similar construction but with two seating bays at each end and a central section clad with a ribbed sheeting product that closely resembles the zincanneal that featured prominently in the standard design for these awnings. Surrounding the stairway opening in this platform is some metal railings bolted to a concrete upstand.
The subway connects Honour Avenue with Appel Street, is approximately three metres wide and formed with reinforced concrete retaining walls, ceiling and floor slabs. The walls are lined from the concrete floor to approximately two metres with ceramic tiles, dark green bands at the top and bottom and white inside. A number of heavy steel grille covers mark the drainage system. To the west, two ramps going in opposite directions take pedestrians to Honour Avenue. To the east there is one ramp. All are made with reinforced concrete retaining walls and slabs. Where the subway walls join the ramp walls the corners are rounded. There are uncovered drains made in each side of the concrete ramp slabs. Lining the tops of the ramp walls are some painted metal railings, the same as those around the stairway opening on the platform serving tracks 3 and 4.
The tracks, overhead power traction equipment, and railways signalling system within the heritage boundary at Graceville Railway Station are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance for the purposes of this entry in the Queensland Heritage Register.
","history":"Graceville Railway Station is located approximately nine and a half kilometres outbound on the Brisbane-Ipswich line (completed in 1875), one of seven rail lines radiating from the Brisbane central business district to serve the passenger, coal and freight markets of south-east Queensland. The station was established in 1884 to service new residential subdivisions, and had gained its current format by 1958-1959. It services the south-west commuter suburb of Graceville and comprises two island platforms with a butterfly-roofed station building of brick and concrete, four steel and timber platform awnings and a subway system linking the leafy suburb on both sides of the tracks. It was one of a suite of station fit-outs carried out from the early 1950s and into the 1960s in anticipation of the electrification and quadruplication of the rail lines between Nundah and Corinda, and stands out as the first one completed, the most successful resolution of the design themes explored by the Railway Department's architects, and the most intact.
\nThe passing of the Railway Act in 1863 initiated the era of state government owned and operated railways. The first such rail line between Ipswich and Grandchester was built in 1865, being part of a four-stage project that linked to Toowoomba in 1867, Dalby in 1868 and then to Warwick in 1871. In August 1872 Parliament approved the construction the Brisbane railway, but only from Ipswich to Oxley. A survey was required to select the appropriate site for a bridge over the Brisbane River and Oxley Point (now Chelmer) was chosen. On 5 October 1874 the line from Ipswich to Oxley West (now Sherwood) opened. It was extended to Oxley Point early the following year with a ferry transporting passengers across the river until the Albert Bridge, named after Queen Victoria's Consort, was opened on 5 July 1876 allowing a connection to the newly completed Indooroopilly line.
\nThe areas now known as Chelmer, Graceville, Sherwood and Corinda had been part of Boyland's Pocket, a colonial leasehold estate running sheep and cattle. After 1859 the area was subdivided into farms where various crops were grown. Cotton was attempted in the 1860s and sugar cane was grown in the 1860s and 1870s. When the railway was completed to Oxley Point in 1875, the only station between the river and Oxley was Oxley West (Sherwood). The suburban subdivision of Oxley Point began in the building boom of the 1880s and by November 1884 a railway station was operational at Graceville. The Railways Department had asked Samuel Grimes, the MLA for Oxley at the time, to name the station and he suggested one incorporating that of his baby daughter, Grace.
\nThe process of expanding the function of the western line began in 1884. Duplication from Indooroopilly to Oxley was completed in June 1886 and extended to Ipswich by 28 March 1887. A shelter shed was constructed at the Graceville Station c1892. Land adjacent to the station was subdivided and auctioned on 21 November 1895 as Oatlands Estate; it comprised 16 perch allotments to the north of Verney Road on either side of the rail line. In 1897 a contract was let to build overbridges to Sherwood, Chelmer and Graceville Stations.
\nA further suburban subdivision known as Graceville Estate was offered for sale in 1911 on the eastern side of the station along Verney Road. By January 1916 the level crossing dividing this roadway was eliminated and a new station was constructed in March incorporating overhead bridge access. Graceville continued to grow as a small suburban community through the interwar years. Its recreation reserve, which had been gazetted in 1904, became the site of the Graceville War Memorial, unveiled in 1929 (QHR 602443). Electricity was connected in 1920 and a picture theatre opened the following year near to the station on Honour Avenue. A Progress Association formed, and the first Agricultural Show was held in 1921. In 1924, six shops were built by Walter Taylor on Honour Avenue between Verney Road West and Rakeevan Road. He was also a driving force behind the building of the pre-cast concrete Uniting Church building on Oxley Road in 1930 (QHR 601584). A state school opened in 1928 and a Catholic school in 1937.
\nIn 1946 a Commission of Enquiry into the Electrification of the Brisbane Suburban Railway System was held and its 1947 report recommended the installation of a similar electric rail system to Sydney and Melbourne. It was argued that electrification would provide a faster, cleaner service and would eventually lead to the settlement of the outer suburbs. In February 1949 approval was given to electrify the Brisbane suburban railway system at an estimated cost £5,888,000. Planning began in February 1950. The project included an upgrade of stations, platforms, the signalling system between Corinda and Northgate and the provision of subways at some stations. Subways were installed to avoid overhead bridges in the vicinity of power lines. The quadruplication of the line from Corinda to Virginia was necessary, with or without the electrification process, because both incorporated important freight lines; Virginia on the main northern line and Corinda on the main western line. The survey between Virginia and Corinda was completed by June 1950. The quadruplication was later extended to Zillmere.
\nIn 1957 Queensland's new Country-Liberal government under Frank Nicklin commissioned consultants Ford, Bacon and Davis to report on the Railway Department's efficiency, facilities and operations. Their recommendations were numerous, and included a total abandonment of electrification in favour of dieselisation, and steam engines were phased out from 1960.
\nThe quadruplication project, however, was continued. Track layouts were produced by the Permanent Way and Works team, Graceville being drawn in 1955. To accommodate the new works at this station, a number of partial resumptions were undertaken in Appel Street, where two houses and the house/shop on the corner of Verney Avenue were moved east on their allotments. Railway plans indicate a very busy shopping precinct along the opposite roadway, Honour Avenue. The new station layout allowed for one wide suburban island platform, on which a new station building and two awnings with integral seating were to be built, and one narrow main-line island platform, which was to house two awnings with more integral seating. The station structures were designed to fit the layouts.
\nDuring this time the Queensland Railways architect's office was experimenting with modernist designs for the department's buildings and awnings, being influenced by architectural trends coming from Britain, Europe and the United States. There had been not only an influential pre-war migration of European architects to Queensland - professionals like Karl Langer who occupied a role with the railways from 1939 until 1946 - but also a post-war flow of architects from Britain and Europe who came to the State in search of work and brought with them the architectural ideas and training that were driving forward the large task of post-war reconstruction and housing provision being undertaken in their countries of origin.
\nUnder Principal Railway Architect John Sydney Egan, new station designs were prepared for the quadruplication project. An overall concept for the form and structure of the station buildings was established, but the designs were non-standardised, and took account of platform width, which varied from station to station. Architect Jan Kral was responsible for the Graceville and Chelmer designs and signed-off on the drawings for Sherwood station as Acting Principal Architect. He was born in Poland and studied at Stuttgart University after the war. He came to Australia in 1950 and was employed by the Queensland Railways the following year, initially as a draftsman, becoming a Senior Architect by 1958. While the designs were all somewhat different, they shared a form derived from a long, thin building, rectangular in plan and made with a regular procession of columns, surmounted by a butterfly roof that cantilevered over each platform side to shelter waiting and alighting rail passengers. A number of standardised plans for Railways Department butterfly-roofed awnings were developed and used between 1949 and 1960, many having been designed by Bevis Thelwall. A common palette of materials including reinforced concrete, steel and exposed brickwork was used. The steel work was all prefabricated at the Northgate workshops. Graceville Station was the first of these station fit-outs to be completed within the quadruplication project between Corinda and Roma Street.
\nThe main building at Graceville had a butterfly roof formed with a reinforced concrete slab lined with bituminous felt and supported on ten pre-cast, reinforced concrete beams that cantilevered off a continuous lintel resting on ten brick piers. A range of materials were used to fill the gaps between the brick frame: including orange-coloured face brick, screened openings, some small sections of render and various aluminium-framed windows. On either side of this building, two wide butterfly-roofed, steel-framed shelters with built-in seating were erected. Each was made up of four sets of steel columns and cantilevered steel tapering I-beams bolted together. The seating, made with timber slats and a steel and timber frame, was placed back-to-back facing each track. Dividing each row of seating were metal ribbed screens. Fitted to each steel column and under each beam were panels framed in steel and filled with glass above the seat level and sheet steel below. The other narrower platform necessitated smaller butterfly-roofed awnings be built there. They were essentially the same construction as the larger ones with only three bays, two of which were given over to seating. The subway system with its street ramps and stairs to both platforms was constructed with reinforced concrete.
\nIn June 1958 the Commissioner reported that new concrete and brick station buildings were under construction at Sherwood, Graceville, Chelmer, Indooroopilly and Auchenflower, and subways were completed or under construction at Graceville, Chelmer, Taringa and Nundah. The Graceville complex of station building, awnings and subway, and enlarged and raised platforms at a cost of £16,686, was the first of these new stations to open in mid-1959. Chelmer, with an identical layout of one building and four awnings, all butterfly-roofed, opened shortly afterwards. Milton, also drawn by Jan Kral was built in 1960.
\nAt the time of its completion in mid-1959, Graceville Station featured in a number of local newspaper articles where it was described as one of the most modern in Australia. The Commissioner also chose to feature a photograph of it in his annual report. Architect John Egan published an article on the new station designs in the Architecture in Australia journal in June 1961.
\nAll the new station buildings constructed in the 1950s and early 1960s for the quadruplication and electrification projects employed a Modernist idiom, but only the platform stations at Graceville (1959) and Chelmer (1959) on the Corinda line, and at Nundah (1960) and Eagle Junction (1963) on the northern line, were designed with butterfly roofs. Similarly designed, but with flat roof profiles were Sherwood (1960), Indooroopilly (late 1950s), Toowong (c1960) and Milton (1960). Taringa (mid-1950s), Toombul (c1960) and Wooloowin (1960) were butterfly-roofed overhead stations; Corinda (1960) was a flat-roofed overhead station; and Auchenflower (c1960) was a skillion-roofed overhead station. A standard plan was drawn up for Nundah and Graceville in 1955, but only Graceville and Chelmer were later constructed with the same pitch to their butterfly roofs. Nundah was given a flatter roof made with steel framing rather than reinforced concrete.
\nIn September 1960, the quadruplication project was suspended on the northern line. Work continued between Roma Street and Corinda as the signalling contract had been already let. The northern line stations of Nundah and Toombul were constructed within this time frame, and Eagle Junction shortly after. The quadruplicated Corinda to Roma Street line opened on 1 December 1963, providing greater flexibility in the provision of peak hour suburban services and allowing the passage of long distance goods and livestock trains which travelled through these suburban networks to the main western line.
\nDuring the 1960s a number of rail lines were decommissioned as government funds were geared towards the provision of better roads, but by the end of that decade it was clear that public transport also needed to be upgraded. A report delivered in 1970 recommended the electrification of the suburban railway network, the construction of the Merivale Street Bridge and a range of operational improvements, including the creation of a separate public transport authority. By 8 May 1979 the overhead lines between Corinda and Roma Street were switched on as part of the electrification project between Darra and Ferny Grove, which was the first section of the suburban network to be completed.
\nAlterations to the various elements of Graceville railway station have been minimal since its completion in 1959. Changes to the building include carpeting of the office floor, the addition of safety screens to the openings above the stairway and further enclosure of what was the telephone booth at the southern end. The steel-framed awnings originally had ribbed panels dividing the two sides of the timber seating, which have now been removed, as have those panels which divided the various seating bays. Graceville, Chelmer and Sherwood stations were repainted in 1998 with only the former being painted the corporate Queensland Rail colours of maroon and grey. Various ticket machines, a telephone and other signs have been added.
\nOf the thirteen stations designed and built in the 1950s and early 1960s as part of the original Queensland Railways electrification and quadruplication projects, Graceville, which remains substantially intact, best exemplifies the Modernist-influenced design concepts employed. It is the most intact of the four butterfly-roofed platform stations, with Chelmer having been altered somewhat, and Eagle Junction and Nundah altered substantially. Of the four flat-roofed platform stations Sherwood has been altered partially, Milton has been altered substantially, and Indooroopilly and Toowong have been rebuilt. Of the five over-head stations, Auchenflower and Taringa remain the more intact, Corinda and Wooloowin have been altered substantially, and Toombul has been rebuilt.
\n","criteria":"
The reconfigured platforms and new station building, platform awnings and subway at Graceville Railway Station, built between c1952 and 1959, demonstrate the principal characteristics of a suburban railway station embodying Modernist post-World War Two architectural ideas. As part of what was a large suite of similar but individually-designed station structures, Graceville stands out as a significant example of the type, being the first constructed and described at the time as the most modern in Australia. The Graceville and Chelmer railway stations are the most aesthetically successful examples of the butterfly-roof typology adopted for station building and awning design at that time, utilising new materials and technologies to perform the tasks of sheltering passengers, selling tickets and outfitting rail staff. Through a high degree of intactness, the Graceville station complex maintains the integrity of its original design, and is greatly complemented by the standardised butterfly-roofed platform awnings, also largely intact, that accompany it. Significant elements include the platforms, station building, platform awnings, and subway, and fabric of particular note includes: terrazzo tiles to the waiting room and ticket hall floors, the painted steel balustrade to the stairs leading from the subway, the terrazzo windows sills and the early aluminium double-hung window sets, the tiles to the subway walls, the timber and concrete seating throughout, the cast iron drinking fountain adjacent to the northern façade of the building, and the lettering on the southern and western facades of the building.
|The Graceville Railway Station, including the platforms, station building, platform awnings and subway system installed between c1952 and 1959, is important in demonstrating the era of post-World War Two enhancement of Queensland railways, being designed and built by the Queensland Railways Department as part of the quadruplication of the northern and western freight lines and the planned electrification of the metropolitan suburban network.
The design of the structures at Graceville Railway Station was part of a new wave of Modernist architecture being experimented with throughout Queensland as post-war austerity gave way to economic prosperity. It represents a deliberate departure from Queensland Railways Department traditional railway station design and from the standardisation of building designs. Graceville is considered an exemplar from a suite of Modernist railway buildings constructed between Corinda and Nundah in the 1950s and early 1960s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion D | Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":31411,"place_ref":645609,"name":"First Brisbane Burial Ground","alternate_name":"Skew Street Cemetery | 700009","street_address":"18 Eagle Terrace","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2010-07-16","description":"The first European burial ground in Queensland is located beneath unnamed open space bounded by and including Skew Street, Eagle Terrace and North Quay, Brisbane. Although there is no surface evidence of the burial ground, the documented history and an understanding of the previous usage of the area, particularly a lack of major development, indicates potential for both human remains and archaeological artefacts to exist within the place.
The former burial ground is believed to have comprised the majority of today's Lot 1 on RP177960. In April 2010, this was public open space. None of the installed bollards delineating the open space area, vehicular access barriers or plantings and gardens are of archaeological importance or potential.
The physical limits of service easements ARP165780, BRP165780, CRP165780 and DRP165780, which cross the middle of the open space area from near the intersection of North Quay and Skew Street northwest across Eagle Terrace to Quay Street, are excluded due to previous subsurface disturbance, notably in November 2009, which would have destroyed any surviving archaeological remains within the limits of those easements.
The site includes parts of Eagle Terrace and Skew Street. Subsurface areas below the base construction layer of the current road surface are of potential archaeological importance.
","history":"The cemetery at Skew Street was established in 1825 with the relocation of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement to Brisbane. It operated until the North Brisbane Burial Ground opened in 1843. During that time 265 people died in Brisbane and most were buried in the cemetery. The cemetery land was converted to freehold and auctioned in 1875. The Helidon Spa Water Company operated a factory on the land and several cottages were built. The construction of Eagle Terrace and Skew Street in the late 1800s and construction of the Grey Street Bridge in the 1920s will have had some impact on the site.
In May 1825 Lieutenant Henry Miller moved the Moreton Bay Settlement from the Redcliffe Peninsula to its present site on the northern bank of the Brisbane River. This was an elevated location with water holes and cooling breezes. The southern bank was a cliff of rock, suitable for building material, and a fertile flood plain. The settlers faced hardship and privation and the paucity of resources combined with thick sub-tropical vegetation made settlement difficult (Evans 2007:35). Between 1826 and 1829, the number of prisoners in the settlement rose from 200 to 1000 and the plight of the convicts whose labour was to establish the settlement was dire.
The site of Brisbane Town was an on-going cause of disquiet, with Commandant Logan proposing that the settlement be moved to Stradbroke Island. However, the difficulties of crossing the bay saw this plan abandoned. Logan continued to seek alternative sites, establishing a number of outstations including Eagle Farm and Oxley Creek (Johnston 1988:25). Despite the continued uncertainty about the future of Brisbane Town, building had continued under Commandant Logan, who is given credit for laying out the earliest permanent foundations. Logan was responsible for the building of Brisbane's only surviving convict-constructed buildings, the Commissariat Store and the Tower Mill (Johnston 1988:28).
Convict numbers fell 75 percent between 1831 and 1838 by which time the area under cultivation shrank from 200 hectares to only 29 (Evans 2007:47). On 10 February 1842 Governor Gipps declared Moreton Bay open for Free Settlement (Evans 2007:48).
The cemetery was established early in the convict period and operated until the opening of the North Brisbane Burial Grounds at Milton in 1843. During the 18 years of its operation there were 265 recorded deaths in Brisbane, including 220 convicts. Most of these people were buried in the First Brisbane Burial Ground. Probably the most famous person buried in the cemetery was the surveyor G. W. Stapylton who it was believed was killed by Aborigines near Mt Lindsay in May 1840. Two Aborigines were later hanged for this murder at the Tower Mill.
Following the closure of the cemetery in 1843 the area remained as unalienated crown land and in 1848 the Moreton Bay Courier described the cemetery:
It is a disgraceful fact that, notwithstanding the repeated complaints in this journal of the exposed condition of the old burial ground, it is now as bad as ever. The temporary fencing which was placed around has almost entirely disappeared (MBC 11 November 1848).
Four years later it was described:
Six years ago, nearly a hundred tablets, headstones, &c., stood in the old burial ground: now a bare dozen can be counted, and many of these are dilapidated or overturned. The fence is torn down, carried away or burnt..What hands have taken so many monumental stones away none can tell (MBC 16 October 1852).
Between 1864 and 1875 Skew Street was constructed through the cemetery land to provide vehicle access between Roma Street and North Quay. It had not been constructed by October 1864 as the Surveyor General wrote to the Secretary of Lands on 21 October 1864 that:
The arrangement of the portion including the cemetery be deferred until some future time when the relatives and friends of those who have been interred in the cemetery may be less likely to object to the locality being appropriated as a public thoroughfare (Surveyor General 64/2690)
In October 1875 the cemetery land was divided into 7 town allotments varying in size from 12 perches to 27.5 perches and sold at public auction as Section 41. The sale of the land was specifically to raise funds for the provision of drainage facilities within Brisbane. The purchasers were F. Giles, J. Carmody, Dr J. Waugh and H. Morwitch. Section 41 was described as:
The triangular reserve (formerly a burial ground) between the North Quay, Eagle Cliff (or Terrace), and Skew Street (running from opposite the old entrance to the gaol to the North Quay) (BC 13 October 1875).
Dr John Waugh arrived in Brisbane in the early 1860s and originally practiced in Stanley Street but later moved his practice to the brick cottage he constructed on this newly acquired land. He was president of the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland for many years.
In 1881 at least three burials were exhumed from the cemetery and removed with their monuments to the Toowong Cemetery. These were all the remains of children who had died at the convict settlement. They were William Roberts, 5 years 2 months old son of Charles Roberts of the Commissariat Department who died in 1831, Peter Macauley, 15 years and 8 months old son of Private Peter Macauley of the 17th Regiment of Foot who died in 1832, and Jane Pittard the 12 month old daughter of Colour Sergeant John Pittard of the 57th Regiment of Foot who died in 1833 (Gill 1960).
By the 1890s the Helidon Spa Water Company had established a factory on the allotments at the North Quay end of Section 41. Construction of the Grey Street Bridge in the 1920s resulted in resumption of properties and the realignment of roadways at the northern access to the bridge.
References
Brisbane Courier
1875 Sale of Town Allotments, p.3 Wednesday 13 October 1875
Department of Environment and Resource Management (2009) Brisbane City Central Business District Archaeological Plan, November 2009.
Evans, R. (2007) A History of Queensland, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
Gill, J. (1960) Some Investigations into the Site of Brisbane's Earliest Burial Ground, The Royal Historical Society of Queensland Journal 6(2):388-418.
Johnston, W. (1988) Brisbane: The first thirty years, Boolarong Publications, Brisbane.
Moreton Bay Courier
1848 The Old Burial Ground, p.2 Saturday 11 November 1848
1852 Colonial Extracts Moreton Bay, p.4 Saturday 16 October 1852
University of Queensland Cultural and Heritage Unit (2009) The Brisbane City CBD Archaeological Plan: Phases 2, 3 and 4, The University of Queensland Cultural and Heritage Unit Report No.432b, unpublished report to the Department of Environment and Resource Management.
","criteria":"The First Brisbane Burial Ground is an important aspect of Queensland's history as the first European burial ground in Queensland. At least 220 convicts, soldiers, women and children are known to have been interred in the burial ground, accounting for most of the people who died in the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement between 1825 and 1843.
Physical evidence of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement is now rare. Human remains and associated material culture, including personal items, have potential to survive subsurface at the First Brisbane Burial Ground. Development on the site beginning in the 1870s (construction of Skew Street and subdivision has been low impact and unlikely to have had a major detrimental impact on the preservation of human remains and material culture or their potential for survival. The capping of the site by road construction from the 1870s and residential and commercial development (single storey cottages and the Helidon Spa Water Company) in the 1880s is likely to have had a positive effect on site preservation.
The archaeological integrity and potential for site preservation of the First Brisbane Burial Ground is high. Excavations at the nearby North Brisbane Burial Ground (1843-1875) in the early 2000s demonstrate that burials and their associated material culture survive in the Brisbane clays close to the river. The First Brisbane Burial Ground has not been subjected to the extreme levels of post-depositional contamination that occurred at the North Brisbane Burial Ground.
The site has been assessed in the Brisbane City CBD Archaeological Plan (DERM 2009; UQCHU 2009) as being 'exceedingly rare' given its association with the penal settlement phase of Brisbane. The level of disturbance has been designated as 'intact' given the minor nature of road and other activities undertaken, and the lack of any major building construction work at the site. This combination of being designated 'exceedingly rare' and 'intact' leads to the categorisation of the site as having 'Exceptional Research Potential' in the Brisbane City CBD Archaeological Plan.
Archaeological investigations on the site have the potential to answer important research questions about Queensland's history relating to the importation of materials, decay processes, colonial burial practices, gender, class and denominational differences, differential treatment of officers, soldiers, convicts and civilians, and health, nutrition and causes of death in the early colony.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion C","criteria_definitions":"The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":31551,"place_ref":645611,"name":"Early Streets of Brisbane","alternate_name":"700011","street_address":null,"suburb":null,"lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2010-07-16","description":"The Early Streets of Brisbane includes Lot 12 on SP180752; 206 on SP289468, 207 and 209 on SP289465 (former Queens Wharf Road); 204 on SP289461 (former William Street); and the following road reserves (1 ROAD0):
\n- Adelaide Street, between George and Albert Street, excluding Albert Street intersection
\n- Albert Street, between Margaret and Alice Streets, excluding Margaret Street intersection
\n- Alice Street, between William and Albert Streets including Albert Street intersection
\n- Burnett Lane
\n- Charlotte Street, between George and Albert Streets, excluding Albert Street intersection
\n- Elizabeth Street, between George and Albert Streets, including George Street intersection
\n- George Street, between Adelaide and Queen Streets, including Adelaide Street intersection
\n- George Street, between Queen and Elizabeth Streets, including Elizabeth Street intersection
\n- George Street, from Charlotte Street to end, at boundary with QUT campus, including all intersections
\n- North Quay, between Ann and Queen Streets, including Adelaide Street intersection
\n- Margaret Street, between William and George Streets, including intersections
\n- Queen's Wharf Road, between Margaret and Elizabeth Street alignments
\n- Part of William Street, between Queen and Elizabeth Streets, excluding the extent of Lot 300 CP966930, the road surface situated directly above it, and intersections
\n- William Street, between Elizabeth and Alice Streets, excluding Elizabeth Street intersection
\nThe Early Streets of Brisbane excludes the volumetric parcels, being Lot 42 SP145288, Lot 587 SL10897, and Lot 588 SL10897.
\nAll roads are modern bitumenised surfaces with white and yellow line markings. All roads are kerbed and channelled with either concrete or porphyry stone blocks in the kerbing, and concreted gutters. The road reserves include the footpaths which consist of a range of surfacing materials including brick paving, concrete and bitumen.
","history":"In May 1825 Lieutenant Henry Miller moved the Moreton Bay Settlement from the Redcliffe Peninsula to its present site on the northern bank of the Brisbane River. This was an elevated location with water holes and cooling breezes. The southern bank was a cliff of rock, suitable for building material, and a fertile flood plain. The settlers faced hardship and privation and the paucity of resources combined with thick sub-tropical vegetation made settlement difficult (Evans 2007:35). Between 1826 and 1829, the number of prisoners in the settlement rose from 200 to 1000 and the plight of the convicts whose labour was to establish the settlement was dire.
\nThe site of Brisbane Town was an on-going issue, with Commandant Logan proposing that the settlement be moved to Stradbroke Island. However, the difficulties of crossing the bay saw this plan abandoned. Logan continued to seek alternative sites, establishing a number of outstations including Eagle Farm and Oxley Creek (Johnston 1988:25). Despite the continued uncertainty about the future of Brisbane Town, building had continued under Commandant Logan, who is given credit for laying out the earliest permanent foundations. Logan was responsible for the building of Brisbane's only surviving convict-constructed buildings, the Commissariat Store and the Tower Mill (Johnston 1988:28).
\nConvict numbers fell 75 percent between 1831 and 1838 by which time the area under cultivation shrank from 200 hectares to only 29 (Evans 2007:47). On 10 February 1842 Governor Gipps declared Moreton Bay open for Free Settlement (Evans 2007:48).
\nThe Moreton Bay Penal Settlement during its 15 years of operation consisted of a range of buildings including barracks for convicts and troops, officers' quarters, dwellings for the Commandant, chaplain, Commissariat officer, surgeon, Commandant's clerk and engineer, a military and convict hospital, the Commissariat Store, and various stores, barns and sheds. The settlement also included a wharf, wells, a flagstaff, gardens and a lumber yard.
\nThe Commandant's cottage was constructed in 1825 on the site of the present Old Government Printery building (Public Service Club) [QHR 600114] between William and George Streets. It was a timber building with brick chimneys. In 1826 a detached brick building was built to the rear of the Commandant's house (Steele 1975:46-47). A line of buildings ran from the Commandant's house to the first military barracks along present-day William Street. These buildings included the Engineer's cottage on the corner of William and Elizabeth Streets in what is now known as Queen's Gardens [QHR 600112]. The cottage was associated with the first lumber yard on this block, which also contained engineer's stores and workshops (Steele 1975:47).
\nThe first military barracks were constructed in 1825 as two slab huts for the sergeant, corporal and 12 privates, and separate huts for the married couples on the corner of Queen Street and North Quay, site of the present Brisbane Square. The barracks were later moved to the other side of Queen Street and replaced by the second lumber yard in 1831. The first prisoner accommodation also consisted of slab huts, probably at the intersection of Queen and Albert Streets; stone barracks were constructed in 1829. The first Commissariat Store was constructed as a long, low slab building near the corner of Elizabeth and Albert Streets and was later used as a barn, after the stone Commissariat Store [QHR 600176] was built in 1829 (Steele 1975:47-48). The first Commissariat Store appears to have been situated within the alignment of the present day Elizabeth Street.
\nThe only entry point into the settlement was via the wharf on the Brisbane River. Initially known as the King's Wharf, or King's Jetty, it was constructed by 1827 when the boat crew's hut and boat builder's shed were first occupied. A crane was constructed on the end of the wharf in order to transfer goods from the arriving ships to the shore (Steele 1975, illustration 36). The wharf was situated on the river bank opposite the Commissariat Store on Queen's Wharf Road. The main thoroughfare into the settlement was up the steep river bank following the present day alignment of Queen's Wharf Road (Steele 1975, illustration 59). Pedestrians were able to enter the settlement through the vacant land immediately northwest of the Commissariat Store, in what is today known as Miller Park (Kennedy 1998:19).
\nA hospital was completed in 1827, after much government bungling over plans and approvals, on the current site of the Queensland Supreme Court on the block bounded by North Quay, Adelaide, George and Ann Streets, with the buildings extending into the current alignment of Adelaide Street. The windmill tower [QHR 600173] which still stands on Wickham Terrace was likely completed in late 1828, with a treadmill added before September 1829.
\nThe Prisoners' Barracks were constructed between 1827 and 1830 to house up to 1000 convicts and was the largest stone building in the settlement at the time. The barracks were situated with the frontage along present-day Queen Street, on the block surrounded by Albert, Adelaide, George and Queen Streets. The barracks consisted of a multi-storey stone building with a central archway and a large walled yard to the rear. Several smaller buildings were situated in the yard on the far side of what would become Burnett Lane (Steele 1975:87-88).
\nThe dominant archway of the Prisoners Barracks extended approximately 10 metres through the building from the Queen Street frontage towards Adelaide Street opening into the large walled yard. The yard was the site of Moreton Bay's first public execution in 1830. Within the archway itself, strategically situated for all incoming and existing convicts to see, was the flogging triangle. Records indicate that in the period between February and October 1828 alone, over 11,000 lashes were inflicted on 200 convicts; this included 128 sentences of 50 or more lashes. The average in New South Wales was 41 lashes per sentence. The barracks were used from 1860 to 1868 as the court house and for Queensland's first Parliament. The barracks were demolished in 1880 with commercial redevelopment of the area in the early to mid-1880s particularly the buildings along Queen Street backing onto Burnett Lane, many of which are still extant [QHR 600136, 600137, 600138, 600139, 600160, 600161, 600162] (Evans and Ferrier 2004; de Vries and de Vries 2003; Steele 1975:118).
\nBeside the Prisoners' Barracks, along the Queen Street alignment towards the river, a row of single-storey brick buildings were erected. The functions of the six apartments of these buildings changed over time including use as the Commissariat Officer's residence, school room, guard house, Superintendent of Convicts' residence, gaol room, solitary cells, married soldiers' residences, and a military school (Steele 1975:87-88).
\nThe Chaplain's house was constructed in 1828, halfway between the Commandant's house and the Engineer's cottage, on the site now occupied by the former Lands Administration Building (now Conrad Hotel) [QHR 600123] between William and George Streets. Described in 1829 as a handsome brick house, it was later divided into two dwellings, and occupied at various times by the Assistant Surgeon and the Commissariat Officer (Steele 1975:96, 117).
\nThe Government Gardens were established in 1828 to the southwest of the settlement on the site of the present day City Botanic Gardens [QHR 600067] on Alice Street. The garden was under the charge of the Superintendent of Agriculture and produced a wide range of vegetables including cabbage, cauliflower, peas, beans, potatoes and pumpkins, as well as fruit trees and plants such as banana, pineapple, citrus, and apple. The Gardener's house, octagonal in shape and consisting of three rooms surrounded by verandahs, was also situated in the gardens (Steele 1975:112-113, 118). The route of the roadway along the western end of the settlement from the Prisoners' Barracks to the Government Gardens overlaps with the current Albert Street on the block between Margaret and Alice Streets (Steele 1975: illustration 129).
\nThe new Commissariat Store [QHR 600176] was constructed in 1828 and 1829, on its site between present day William Street and Queens Wharf Road. The two story utilitarian building was constructed of local porphyry and sandstone, with its ground and second floor doors opening towards the river and the wharf (Kennedy 1998:13). Used for various stores and government purposes over its history, it is one of only two extant structures from the convict period.
\nOne of the major thoroughfares of the settlement, taken by Allan Cunningham in his 1829 survey, ran along the rear of the Prisoners Barracks towards a pathway up to the windmill tower and to the Kangaroo Point Road. The alignment of this pathway follows the current alignment of Adelaide Street, from George Street to Albert Street, where the original pathway crossed Wheat Creek (Steele 1975:116, illustration 59).
\nAdditional hospital accommodation was erected in 1830-31 adjacent to the existing hospital, situated between present day North Quay and George Street. This included a cottage for the Medical Officer and a building to serve as the Military Hospital (Steele 1975:153). The new Military Barracks were also constructed in 1831. Designed for 100 rank and file, the barracks compound also included a guard house and a dwelling for two subaltern officers. The barracks were constructed on what is today the Treasury Building (Treasury Casino) [QHR 600143] while the former barracks site (situated at Brisbane Square) was converted to the lumber yard (Steele 1975:154).
\nIn 1839, in preparation for the opening of Moreton Bay to free settlement, surveyors were sent from Sydney to draw maps of the district and prepare town plans so the land could be put up for sale. The town plan undertaken by Robert Dixon (Plan MT3, DERM 1840) is based on an earlier 1839 plan but superimposes the proposed street plan for the free town of Brisbane with square blocks of 10 chains (Steele 1975:264, illustration 118; Hadwen et al. 2005:5). Additional features depicted in these plans include a well situated in what is now George Street, near the intersection with Burnett Lane; a flagstaff in the centre of what is now William Street, close to the northwest boundary of Miller Park; and a range of gardens. The garden areas included military gardens and Dixon's garden behind the Military Barracks in the block bounded by Queen, George, Elizabeth and Albert Streets; Whyte's garden to the northwest of the Prisoners Barracks, through which Burnett Lane now runs; Handt's garden and Kent's garden to the rear of the Chaplain's house and Commandant's house, today overlain by parts of Elizabeth, George and Charlotte Streets; the Commandant's garden adjacent to the Commissariat Store along William Street and down towards Alice Street; and Paget's garden and Dr Ballard's garden adjacent to the Hospital, in the location of George and Ann Streets. Barns and a piggery indicated on Dixon's 1840 plan appear to have been situated within the current alignment of Charlotte Street.
\nOn 10 February 1842 Governor George Gipps declared the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement closed and the district open for free settlement (Steele 1975:303-304). A number of revised plans for the town were made, particularly after a visit by Governor Gipps, with the 1843 plan by surveyor Henry Wade (Plan MT8, DERM 1843) being the one adopted as the present day plan of the Brisbane CBD (Steele 1975:307-308, illustration 129).
\nOnly three other places within the Brisbane CBD dating to the penal settlement period are entered in the Queensland Heritage Register:
\n- The Tower Mill [QHR 600173];
\n- The Commissariat Store [QHR 600176]; and
\n- The Botanic Gardens [QHR 600067].
\nArchaeological investigations at the Commissariat Store, Tower Mill and 40 Queen Street (Brisbane Square) have identified archaeological remains dating to the penal period. The original cemetery site at Skew Street is also well known as is the children's burial site at North Quay. The remnants of the original Commandant's House were also unearthed in the mid 1980s without any archaeological investigation.
","criteria":"The Early Streets of Brisbane have the potential to contain archaeological artefacts that are an important source of information about Queensland's history. Potential subsurface remains will demonstrate the establishment, evolution and pattern of settlement of early Brisbane as a penal colony. Evidence of this first European occupation of Brisbane is extremely rare given the substantial development into a modern city. Archaeological remains associated with the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement will provide evidence and understanding of a particular type of place - that of colonial penal settlements - this being the first and only example of its type in Queensland.
\nSurvey plans of the initial settlement overlaid with the proposed (and current) street plan exist, enabling the clear identification of locations of the early settlement structures. Although the current alignment of Queen Street remains substantially the same as its original, the current street plan alignment overlaps with allotments from the penal settlement period. This leads to a high potential for the remains of buildings being situated within the current street alignments. The construction of Brisbane's streets has seen a deposition and build-up of layers rather than being cut down and removed, thereby preserving earlier cultural deposits. This was evident during work undertaken for the construction of Queens Plaza on the corner of Queen and Edward Streets in 2003 which clearly demonstrated the build up of layers in the stratigraphic profile of Queen Street. The streets therefore are the least disturbed areas in the Brisbane Central Business District (CBD) with the most potential for the presence of the earliest remains of Queensland's European settlement.
\nThe Streets have the potential for subsurface remains of the full range of activities occurring in the penal settlement related to the Prisoner's Barracks, Commandant's House and Office, Commissariat Store and Office, Officers' Quarters, and Military Barracks, Military and Convict Hospitals, other dwellings, gardens, stores and barns. The archaeological investigation of the Early Streets of Brisbane has the potential to provide information about unmapped buildings and features, and to provide information about the use of mapped structures whose purpose is historically unknown. The remains of buildings, features and other artefacts have the potential to provide insight into the material culture and life ways of the convicts, soldiers and administrators of the penal settlement. They also have the potential to provide an insight into the social divisions between these groups, and the social development of early Queensland. This will contribute information to the collective understanding of convict sites around Australia and the place of Queensland in the system of forced migration and punishment of the 18th and 19th centuries.
\nGiven the accumulation of material from the initial European settlement of Brisbane to the present day, there is also the potential for archaeological remains from subsequent periods to be recovered. This will contribute to the full history of development of Queensland's capital city of Brisbane.
\nThe Early Streets of Brisbane have been assessed as part of the Brisbane City CBD Archaeological Plan (DERM 2009, UQCHU 2009) as being 'Exceedingly Rare' given their association with the penal settlement phase of Brisbane. The level of disturbance has been designated as 'Intact' given the minor subsurface works undertaken and the tendency for accumulation of deposits when constructing or renewing road surfaces. This combination of being designated 'exceedingly rare' and 'intact' leads to the categorisation of the Early Streets of Brisbane as having 'Exceptional Archaeological Research Potential'.
\nBeing the least disturbed areas of the Brisbane City CBD with high potential for the earliest remains of the colony's establishment, archaeological investigation of the Early Streets of Brisbane has the potential to answer important research questions critical to Queensland's history. Such questions could focus on but are not limited to the identification of the locations and purposes of previously undocumented penal settlement buildings, questions of social status, individual and collective living conditions, and an understanding of the processes of forced migration and punishment.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion C","criteria_definitions":"The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":32294,"place_ref":602797,"name":"Drill Shed, Caretaker's Cottage and Orderly Room (former), Water Street","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"342 Water Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2011-12-02","description":"The former Water Street drill shed, caretaker's cottage and orderly room are collected at the rear (at the north-east) of a large mixed-use development site bounded by Water Street to the south and Brunswick Street to the west. In 2014 the heritage place is surrounded by medium density residential and office developments. The ground plane slopes up from Water Street towards the rear boundary on the north-western side, where the former drill shed, caretaker's cottage and orderly room are located. Facing south-east, these buildings overlook the site from the highest point.
\nDrill shed
\nThe drill shed is a single-storey, weatherboard-clad, timber-framed building standing on concrete stumps at the front and slab-on-ground at the rear. Situated close to the rear boundary, the long axis of the building is aligned approximately north-east to south-west. The main gable roof is clad in corrugated metal sheeting and has a gable-roofed ventilating ridge running nearly its full length. The north-west side of the building has a skillion roof attached to the main roof. Two skillion-roofed additions on concrete stumps are attached to the north-east and south-west sides of the building. A modern verandah of timber construction runs along the south-east and north-east façades - this structure is not of heritage significance.
\nThe main entrance is through the centre of the south-east façade, now accessed by the modern verandah. This doorway consists of two large sliding timber ledged-and-braced doors. A small hatch door is built into the eastern panel and the western door panel has had a modern doorway cut into it. Rows of timber-framed casement windows on either side of the main entrance occupy openings that once housed timber awning shutters.
\nThe north-eastern and south-western facades each retain a single window opening with casements that match those on the main façade. A single timber-battened door with hood is located at the rear of the south-western façade, while a modern flush door is located at the rear of the north-eastern façade. The north-eastern addition is mostly clad in weatherboards with modern French doors opening onto the verandah. Its rear wall is clad in corrugated metal sheeting with a timber hood over a small window. The south-western addition is clad entirely in corrugated metal sheeting, with timber framed double hung sash windows. It has a timber battened door with fanlight on the south-eastern side. A small timber staircase with portico provides access to this door. Windows along the rear north-west facade are timber-framed, eight-light awning windows grouped in five pairs with one solitary window. A concrete spoon drain runs along the base of this wall.
\nThe layout of the drill shed consists of a large hall with a series of five rooms along the north-west side. Eight doors lead to these rooms however only three are operational. Doors in the north-east and south-west walls lead to the two side additions. A ceiling has been installed in the hall area, attached to the bottom chord of the timber roof trusses but with diagonal timber supporting members protruding through it along the north-west and south-east sides. The walls are lined with timber tongue-and-groove boards; vertical v-jointed boards on the north-east, south-east and south-west walls; and wide horizontal beaded boards on the north-west wall. A timber belt rail and timber skirting run around the entire hall. The floor is lined with narrow polished timber boards. Of the eight doors along the north-west wall, six are matching timber-battened doors, some with early door hardware. The door at the western end is of a similar style but made from narrower timber boards, while the door at the eastern end is a modern double door.
\nWall linings in the rooms along the north-west side of the hall retain some original wide beaded boards, while other areas have v-jointed boards or fibre cement sheeting. Openings have been cut into the dividing walls between four of the rooms however the layout and size of each of the rooms is still apparent. Several of the doors into the hall have been sheeted over on this side.
\nThe two side additions are single rectangular rooms. The interior of the north-eastern addition has been relined with modern materials and a kitchenette installed at the northern end. The south-western addition is lined with v-jointed boards on the walls and ceiling.
\nCaretaker's Cottage
\nThe cottage is a high-set, timber-framed building with weatherboard cladding and a hipped roof. Located close to the northernmost corner of the site, it has two skillion-roofed additions to the rear - a corrugated iron clad shed (formerly the laundry) and a modern extension clad in fibre cement sheeting. These two additions are not of heritage significance.
\nWindows along the south-west façade of the cottage are two-light, timber-framed sash windows. An extension along the north-east side of the building was once a verandah but is now enclosed with fibro sheeting. The front verandah, accessed by a central timber staircase, has been enclosed with fibre-cement sheeting and sliding windows but retains the single skin verandah wall, a double-hung sash window, timber verandah posts and balustrade. The core of the house consists of four rooms with a corridor running between the two front rooms. Most walls are single-skin lined with vertical v-jointed tongue-and-groove boards. Some internal doors are high-waisted interwar style. The rear verandah, now enclosed, separates the core from the former kitchen in the north-east corner, now used as office space with doors leading into the modern extension on the northern side. A bathroom at the eastern end of the verandah leads through to a room in the north-east extension. A built-in cupboard made from timber v-jointed boards remains near the entrance to the bathroom.
\nOrderly room
\nThe former orderly room is a timber-framed, weatherboard-clad building standing adjacent to the south-western side of the drill shed. It is single-storey, has a corrugated metal-clad gable roof, and is set off the ground on timber posts. Parts having been demolished, a range of temporary measures have been employed to support and enclose the building. The building retains a short section of verandah running along its southern side. The verandah has stop-chamfered timber posts and the ceiling is lined with wide, beaded timber boards. Two six-light double-hung sash windows feature on the building's eastern and northern elevations. A single, flat-sheeted door opens onto the south-facing verandah, as do two double-hung sashes above a narrow timber counter mounted with simple timber brackets against the wall. The interior of the building contains two rooms. Sections of the interior of the building have been lined with modern materials.
","history":"The large timber drill shed located between Water Street and Gregory Terrace, Fortitude Valley, was originally erected in 1884 in Boundary Street, Fortitude Valley, for infantry units of the Queensland Volunteer Force, prior to the creation of the Queensland Defence Force. The drill shed is the oldest known surviving drill shed in Queensland and the only one with a gable-roofed design. It is also the last survivor of Brisbane's pre-Federation drill sheds. It was transferred to the Commonwealth in 1901 and was moved to its current site in 1925, along with its adjacent timber caretaker's cottage and an orderly room built in 1885 for the Moreton Mounted Infantry. The orderly room was the core of an office building south of the drill shed until its twentieth century additions were demolished and the remaining structure moved next to the drill shed in 2013. As a group, the three colonial era defence buildings are uncommon, and as a pair the drill shed and its accompanying cottage may be a unique surviving example in Queensland.
Upon separation from New South Wales in 1859 Queensland had no military defence, as Brisbane's British garrison (a detachment of the 11th Regiment) had been withdrawn in 1850. The first Governor of the new colony of Queensland, Sir George Bowen, lobbied for a company of British regular soldiers, but it was not until January 1861 that Brisbane received a detachment of the 12th Regiment. A larger unit was not available until a company of the 50th Regiment arrived in October 1866, fresh from campaigning in southern Taranaki, New Zealand. [1] A detachment of Royal Marines was also located at Somerset, Cape York, from 1864 to 1867. The 50th Regiment departed Brisbane in March 1869, and the last of the British regiments left Australia in 1870.
During the 1860s the small number of British regular soldiers in Queensland was supplemented by local forces and Governor Bowen accepted the services of local volunteers in a number of Queensland towns from 1860. The Brisbane Troop, Queensland Mounted Rifles, existed from February 1860 to May 1863. Also in Brisbane, No. 1 and 2 Companies, Queensland Volunteer Rifle Brigade (QVRB) began training in September 1860 (disbanded in 1865). The Queensland Volunteer Artillery was gazetted in Brisbane in August 1862.
More units were raised in Brisbane in 1867, including the Brisbane Volunteer Rifle Corps (later 'A' Company of the 1st Regiment of Queensland Infantry from June 1879, and then 'A' Company of the 1st Queenslanders (or Moreton) Regiment from February 1885); and the Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley Rifle Corps, which later became 'B' Company, 1st Queenslanders Regiment. No. 7 Company (South Brisbane) of the QVRB was raised in 1870, but only lasted until 1872. [2]
The volunteers' training was supervised by members of the 50th Regiment during the late 1860s. However, limited interest and funding continued to hamper the volunteer movement until the late 1870s, when tensions between Britain and Russia raised concerns regarding the vulnerability of Britain's overseas colonies. Colonel Sir William Jervois of the Royal Engineers, assisted by Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Scratchley, toured the Australian colonies to make recommendations for defence arrangements and the pair visited Queensland in August 1877. In order to deal with the perceived Russian naval threat to Brisbane, they recommended small naval vessels, a coastal fort at Lytton (built 1881), and a field force of infantry and engineers with artillery.
Another recommendation was to form a permanent staff to train the volunteers. The Volunteer Act 1878 established a permanent staff of officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs), the latter to act as drill instructors, and a professional Commandant was appointed in April 1878. By 1880 the staff included 10 officers and 6 NCOs in Brisbane, plus 2 NCOs in Ipswich, and one each in Toowoomba, Warwick, Rockhampton and Maryborough. [3]
During the late 1870s more volunteer units were formed in Queensland. In Brisbane these included the Queensland Rangers Volunteer Corps, No. 12 Company (1877); and 'D' Company, formed in 1878 as part of the new Metropolitan Administrative Battalion (later part of the 1st Queenslanders). The Queensland Volunteer Artillery Brigade, formed in June 1879, included No.1 Battery Brisbane, No. 2 Battery Ipswich, No. 3 (Garrison) Battery Brisbane, and the Brisbane Engineers.
Jervois' defence scheme came closer to fruition in January 1882, when a Military Committee of Enquiry was appointed in Queensland. The committee recommended a mixed force, with a permanent staff based in Brisbane, a volunteer militia centred on Brisbane, plus country and coastal units as (unpaid) volunteers. This hybrid force of professionals, militia and volunteers was given legislative form by the Defence Act 1884, after the instigation of Scratchley's pay scales for militia under an October 1882 regulation. An experienced Imperial officer was also appointed Commandant in mid 1883, namely, Colonel George French, Royal Artillery. [4]
When the Defence Act was gazetted in February 1885 the Queensland Volunteer Force became the Queensland Defence Force (QDF). That month, 'A' Battery of the artillery was created as a permanent unit, intended to instruct the militia artillery, engineers, plus officers and NCOs of other units. Although permanent staff existed outside 'A' battery, including HQ staff and Sergeant Instructors, the latter could be attached to 'A' Battery for accommodation purposes. [5]
As a result of these reforms the QDF had a four tier system until 1903. This consisted of a small permanent force of paid professionals (officers and instructors), while the bulk of force was militia (paid to drill and train, provided with uniforms, weapons ammunition and instruction); the third tier were volunteers who were unpaid and who paid for own uniforms while receiving weapons, ammunition and instruction; and a fourth tier consisted of the police, cadets, and rifle clubs. Another war scare, this time over Russian-British tensions over Afghanistan in April-May 1885, provided a timely boost to recruitment for the QDF's militia and volunteer units.
The 1st Queenslanders (or Moreton) Regiment (militia) was established February 1885 from the existing four companies of the former 1st Regiment of Queensland Infantry, an Ipswich company of the former 2nd Regiment, and a new Brisbane company. In the 1880s the Moreton Regiment was one of Queensland's largest militia infantry formations. By 1889 Queensland's militia regiments included the Moreton Regiment, the Wide Bay Regiment, the Kennedy Regiment, and the Darling Downs Regiment. Of the Moreton Regiment's units, 'A' Company was located in Fortitude Valley, 'B' in Spring Hill, 'C' in North Brisbane, 'D' in South Brisbane, and 'E' in Kangaroo Point. In 1903 the Moreton Regiment became the 9th Australian Infantry Regiment, which later served in World War I (as the 9th Battalion, Moreton Regiment) at Gallipoli, Pozières, Ypres, and opposing Germany's Operation Michael, at a total cost of 1,094 killed and 2,422 wounded. [6]
Other infantry units in Brisbane included the Brisbane Volunteer Rifle Corps (including various volunteer companies from 1885, becoming the Queensland Volunteer Rifles (QVR) in 1891); the Queensland Scottish Volunteer Corps (in 1885-86 three companies were formed in Brisbane and two survived to be incorporated into the QVR in 1896); and the Queensland Irish Volunteer Corps (two companies formed in 1887, absorbed into the QVR in 1896).
As well as infantry and artillery units, mounted units were formed in Brisbane during the 1880s. These included the short-lived Brisbane Mounted Volunteer Rifle Brigade, and the Brisbane Company Mounted Infantry. The latter was formed in March 1884, became the Brisbane Mounted Infantry (militia) in February 1885 and was renamed the Moreton Mounted Infantry in May 1885. The Moreton Mounted Infantry was the largest of Queensland's militia mounted infantry formations. It became part of the Queensland Mounted Infantry (QMI) in 1897 and part of the 13th Australian Light Horse (QMI) Regiment in 1903. This was later redesignated as the 2nd ALH (QMI), and members of this unit enlisted in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment to serve during World War I at Gallipoli and in Palestine.
Accompanying the burgeoning number of military units in Brisbane and the rest of Queensland was a need for places where the permanent force, militia or volunteers could assemble, store their weapons, and practice military drill. Drill sheds had existed in Brisbane from at least the 1870s, with an artillery drill shed in George Street by August 1876, [7] and an infantry drill shed at the (Roma Street) railway station by 1879. [8] Tenders for a brick artillery drill shed (located between Adelaide Street and Ann Street opposite today's Central Railway Station) were received in August 1878, and it was completed by February 1880. [9] In the late 1870s drill sheds were also built at Ipswich, Rockhampton, Maryborough and Toowoomba, with a rented building in Warwick. A stone drill shed was also built at the Victoria Barracks on Petrie Terrace in circa 1887.
The Boundary Street drill shed, the last survivor of the pre-Federation Brisbane drill sheds, and the oldest of the seven Queensland pre-Federation drill sheds known to exist, was built in 1884 to replace the late 1870s drill shed near the Roma Street Railway Station. [10] It is the only surviving drill shed built prior to the creation of the QDF in 1885, and it is the only gable-roofed pre-Federation example to survive. All the other surviving pre-Federation drill sheds in Queensland have a curved-roof design. The latter may have been built to a standard design introduced in 1884, and used iron roof trusses. [11] In December 1885, Queensland's Colonial Architect, John James Clark, resigned and was replaced by George Connolly, who held that position until 1891.
The Defence Act 1884 resulted in a burst of construction of drill sheds until 1891, when the economic depression of the early 1890s reduced defence spending. New drill sheds were constructed in Brisbane at Peel Street (South Brisbane) and at Woolloongabba. Elsewhere in Queensland new or replacement drill sheds were erected in Cairns, Townsville, Ravenswood, Charters Towers (1886, extant, Church Street), Bowen, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg (1889, extant, west of Maryborough Street), Gympie (1885, section still extant, moved to Everson lane), Ipswich (1891, extant, Milford Street), Bundamba (1891, extant, moved to Boonah in 1899), Southport (1891, extant, Queen Street), Dalby and Warwick. In the late 1890s drill sheds were built at Gatton, Roma and Thursday Island. A submarine mining drill shed was built at Alice Street, Brisbane in 1900, and a naval drill hall was built in Maryborough in 1901. [12]
In some locations, caretaker's cottages were built near the drill sheds, probably to provide security for weapons stored in the buildings. Such cottages were built at Mackay, Peel Street (South Brisbane), Woolloongabba, Victoria Barracks, Ipswich, Maryborough and Warwick. At least some of these cottages housed the local drill instructor; for example in Ipswich until early 1901 the caretaker and infantry drill instructor was Quarter-Master Sergeant Hoare. [13] Other caretaker's cottages were built near rifle ranges.
An October 1883 plan of the drill shed eventually built at Boundary Street was signed by the contractor, William Watson, and by Henry [Charles] Stanley, Chief Engineer [for Railways]. This plan show a 75 foot by 45 foot (22.9 m by 13.7 m) gabled hall, with a 15 foot (4.6 m) skillion roofed extension along the rear elevation, comprising six rooms entered by eight doors. These probably included an orderly room, as well as armouries for the weapons of various infantry companies. This layout, of an open hall with smaller rooms arranged along one or more elevations, seems to have been a standard arrangement for drill sheds. [14] A small room is sketched on the plan on the left hand side (from the front) of the building, and this room exists as an office on an 1921 plan of the Boundary Street site; but by the time the drill shed was at Water Street this office was on the right hand side.
It appears the original intention was to erect the drill shed in Turbot Street, behind the Ann Street School of Arts, but in December 1883 the latter's members were concerned that the military band might annoy those taking classes - not to mention the mothers at the adjacent lying-in hospital! [15] Another rejected proposal was a site at the corner of Ann and Creek Streets, (now the Central Railway Station), which was close to the Adelaide Street artillery drill shed.
By March 1884 John James Clark had completed plans for a parade ground and drill shed on the Industrial School Reserve on the north side of Boundary Street near Petrie's Bight, to the east of St James's School. The Brisbane Courier of 20 March 1884 noted that 'The design is very plain, but the building will be in every respect suitable for its purpose'. The parade ground of 4 chains by 2.5 chains (80 m by 50 m) was located between today's School Street and Barry Parade and was accessed by a lane from Wickham Street.
The drill shed, completed by November 1884, was located at the rear (north) of the parade ground and was described as 'large, commodious, and well ventilated by means of shutters and a fine lantern roof'. [16] It originally had a shingle roof, although the roof was replaced with iron in two stages, between 1900 and 1908. [17]
In May 1884 there were also requests for an orderly room, armoury, saddle room and stalls on the land reserved for an infantry drill shed at Boundary Street, for the Brisbane Company Mounted Infantry (later the Moreton Mounted Infantry). [18] Tenders were called for a mounted infantry shed in August 1884, but this was not built until mid 1885.
In January 1885 the tender of George Bowser was accepted for levelling and fencing the parade ground, and infantry and mounted infantry were mustering at the Boundary Street drill shed by March 1885. [19] The main units using the Boundary Street site in 1885 were the 1st Queenslanders (Moreton) Regiment and the Moreton Mounted Infantry. Other units that later used the drill shed included the Queensland Irish Volunteer Corps, who were using a room by 1891; and the Brisbane Cyclist Company of the 6th Infantry Regiment, Queensland Rifles, who were present in early 1901. The 6th Regiment and its Cyclist Corps were formed in November 1900, and passed into Commonwealth service in 1901. By July 1903 the drill shed was also used by 'A' Company of the Queensland Volunteer Rifles. [20]
A plan of the site dated late 1884/early 1885 and signed by George Bowser shows the stables occupying the southern boundary (Boundary Street end) of the parade ground, with a harness and orderly room to the west of the stables. The drill shed was located at the west side of the north end of the parade ground, with the sergeant's quarters and a 'new' detached kitchen to the east of the drill shed. [21]
The sergeant's quarters was erected for Staff Sergeant-Major Patrick Joseph Gubbins, who was the caretaker for the drill shed and also a drill instructor for the infantry. It was decided that, as the Railway Department had 'taken the [former] infantry drill shed for their offices, and put up another instead in old Boundary Street', [22] then the Railway Department should either take over the cottage adjacent to the old drill shed and build Gubbins a new residence at Boundary Street, or move the old cottage.
In November 1884 figures were given for moving Gubbin's cottage to Boundary Street, lining and painting it and building a new kitchen and it is likely that this occurred, rather than a new cottage being built. [23] In 1893 the cottage at Boundary Street was referred to as being 'very old'. [24] The cottage was erected at Boundary Street after May 1885, when the officer commanding the 1st Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Mein, noted that a caretaker's residence was urgently required at Boundary Street, as until a responsible person was resident on the spot, it would be unsafe to allow the rifles to remain in the drill shed. [25]
Gubbins, born in Ireland, served with British 80th Regiment (Staffordshire Volunteers) in the Burmese War of 1852-53 and the Bhutan expedition of 1865. He arrived in Queensland in 1875 and joined the Volunteer Force, acting as instructor to the Grammar School Cadets and then the 1st Queenslanders and other corps. During the late 1880s he drilled Companies 'A', 'B' and 'C' of the 1st Queenslanders. In 1889 he was one of the 17 NCOs who were paid instructors of the QDF, and in February 1899 he received long service (39 years) and good conduct medals. He died on 18 August 1901, aged 70, while serving as Staff Paymaster-Sergeant, and his military funeral travelled from the cottage at Boundary Street to the Toowong Cemetery. [26]
A bathroom was added to the cottage in 1907, on a concrete floor next to the kitchen, and by 1921 the cottage had been extended back to the kitchen. [27] However, when it was moved to Water Street in 1925 a new rear area and kitchen appear to have been built. [28] Despite this, the front four rooms and front verandah of the current cottage at Water Street date from at least 1885, and possibly the late 1870s.
After the Boundary Street buildings and Queensland's other defence assets passed to the Commonwealth in March 1901, some changes were made to the orderly room, which by June 1902 served 'A' and 'B' Squadrons of the 1st Battalion, Queensland Mounted Infantry. The orderly room (actually a building comprising three rooms, including an office, store and orderly room) was extended c.1905, with the addition of a Quartermaster Sergeant's store at the east end, which required a truncation of the adjacent stables, and a new front verandah with two sets of steps. [29] By this time the orderly room was used by the 13th Australian Light Horse Regiment. The partition between the two westernmost rooms had been removed by 1921, meaning that the orderly room consisted of three rooms when it was moved to Water Street in 1925.
Other buildings at the Boundary Street site prior to the relocation to Water Street included corrugated iron clad, skillion roofed machine gun and harness rooms built in 1907 just north of the orderly room, [30] and a machine gun room and storage room built 1909-10 within the west end of the stables.
The Boundary Street drill shed became a training base for the newly created militia forces of the Commonwealth. The Defence Act 1909 (in force January 1911) introduced compulsory part-time military training for all males 12 and over. After World War I, the Commonwealth Government re-introduced compulsory military training.
By the 1920s the Boundary Street site was considered unsuitable for military training, as it was small and surrounded by urban development. An exchange of land between the Commonwealth and the Queensland Governments was first proposed in 1923 and the Boundary Street drill shed, caretaker's cottage, orderly room, and both sets of machine gun rooms and harness/store rooms were relocated and re-erected at the Water Street site around the end of 1925. Throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century, drill sheds were often moved to meet immediate needs.
At Water Street, the drill shed was again placed to the rear, left hand side of the parade ground, with the caretaker's cottage to the right. By 1925 the drill shed only had five rooms at the rear, a partition having been removed, and these rooms had a tar-paved floor, while the main hall had been raised on stumps due to the slope of the ground. [31]
In November 1929 the Commonwealth abolished compulsory military training. Water Street was used as a training depot for infantry militia companies, often known as the Australian Military Forces (AMF), rather than for permanent Army personnel. The drill shed was the Regimental Headquarters of the 9/15th Battalion (Moreton and Oxley Regiment) from at least 1932. [32] In addition to the depot's purpose as a training venue, its drill shed was, in particular, used regularly for dances and other regimental social functions by the Battalion officers' mess.
In 1934 the office on the right (northeast) elevation of the drill shed, by then a mess room, was extended to the front of the drill shed, and in 1935 a sergeant's mess was added to the left (southwest) elevation. Verandahs have been added to the southeast and northeast elevations of the drill shed since 1990, and partitions have been partially removed between the four easternmost rooms to the rear of the hall.
Additions to the cottage have also occurred. By 1948 the cottage had a verandah added to its northeast elevation. In 1951 it was occupied by Captain TE Hayes, Camp Commandant, Northern Command. [33] A new, larger laundry existed by 1962, and the cottage has since had a modern extension added to the rear of the kitchen. In 2011 it was being used as offices by the Endeavour College of Natural Health.
The orderly room appears to have been initially set on the north-east boundary of the site (with a single set of steps to the verandah), before being shifted to the south-west boundary by 1934. [34] A new wing was added to the north-west end of the orderly room before 1946, forming an 'L' shaped building, and another extension occurred at the south-east end post 1962. [35] In 1963 it was occupied by a Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC) training unit, and in 2011 it was used as offices by the Endeavour College. In 2013, as part of approved demolition, the twentieth century extensions were demolished and the building relocated adjacent to the south-western side of the drill shed, set off from it about two metres.
The two sets of machine gun rooms and harness/store rooms from Boundary Street were erected on the north-east boundary of the Water Street site near the cottage, but these were replaced circa 1948 with a garage and workshop. After 1925 there were toilets along the south-west boundary of the site, between the drill shed and the second location of the orderly room, but these were replaced by a new toilet block in 1953.
After the outbreak of World War II on 3 September 1939, the drill shed was one of just three AMF depots in Brisbane selected by the Federal Government to accept and process the volunteers enlisting as part of Queensland's contribution to the new 2nd Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF). At the same time, the depot continued to accept new recruits wishing to join the militia, which could serve only within Australian territory. In June 1940, after the fall of France, compulsory home service (militia) training was introduced for unmarried men and widowers without children between 18 to 35 years of age. Many men went to the Water Street Depot with their call-up papers where they were processed for service with the AMF.
On 15 July 1941 a home-guard force entitled the Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC) began to be raised across local districts. At least one company of No. 1 Battalion, Post Office Volunteer Corps, later incorporated into the VDC, trained at the Water Street Depot during World War II. The Water Street Depot was also one of the principal Brisbane sites providing medical examinations and enlistments for Civil Constructional Corps (CCC) workers. New members of the Allied Works Council (AWC) staff were also sent to the depot.
As a result of the above activities, during World War II a number of huts were added to the Water Street site, within the parade ground and along the Water Street boundary. Most of these have since been removed, although in 2011 two huts still survived along the north-east boundary, and were used as a residence and an acupuncture clinic. A smaller World War II hut was moved to between the orderly room and the 1953 toilets, to be used as an office.
After World War II the drill shed continued its pre-war tradition of hosting social events including in late 1945, fund-raising functions for the 'Miss Australia' contest. Reunions of service units, in particular the 2/1st Australian Tank Attack Regiment which held its first reunion at Water Street in 1946, and the 2/15th Battalion AIF, occurred in the post-war years. Former members and veterans of the 2/14th Light Horse and of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment also commenced meeting at Water Street. [36]
The Australian Regular Army was created in September 1947 and in 1948, the Royal Australian Regiment was formed from full-time soldiers. As a result, the AMF was renamed the Citizen Military Forces (CMF). The CMF comprised part-time soldiers recruited into state-based units. Locally, these units became components of the Royal Queensland Regiment (RQR).
In July 1949, approval was given for the establishment of a CMF armoured car squadron to be known as 'A' Squadron 2/14th QMI. The headquarters of this unit were located at the Water Street Depot. In 1951, the National Service Scheme was introduced that required all 18-year old males to register for six months compulsory military training together with a further period of part-time service. Some 'Nashos' would have undergone their military service at the Water Street Depot.
The depot was used for other purposes by the military. It was revamped in 1955 and became the base for a number of health associated CMF units and their training facilities. A new hut at the south-east corner of the site was erected in 1955 as a lecture hut and Quartermaster's store for No. 1 Dental Unit. [37] A World War II hut on the north-east boundary (the northernmost of the two remaining in 2011) was converted into a 'Model Ward' in 1955 presumably for either No. 1 Casualty Clearing Station or No. 4 Preventative Medicine Company. By the late 1970s, the Water Street Depot held Army Reserve (a redesignation of the CMF) units. The Commonwealth disposed of the Water Street Depot in 1988, after which it was adapted for use as the Endeavour College of Natural Health.
In January 2004 the Brisbane City Council entered the former Water Street Army Depot site in Schedule 1 of the Heritage Register Planning Scheme Policy of the Brisbane City Plan (City Plan Heritage Register). The site was included in the Bowen Hills Urban Development Area (UDA) as designated by the Urban Land Development Authority (ULDA) in 2009. The ULDA prepared a Development Scheme for this UDA that acknowledged the nature and extent of the heritage listing of the depot site by the City Council. Then in 2011 the site was sold and the process was begun to transform it and a neighbouring Brunswick Street site into a mixed-use development. In December that year, after receiving an application, the Queensland Heritage Council decided to enter parts of the depot site encompassing the drill shed, cottage and orderly room building in the Queensland Heritage Register.
A series of development applications have been lodged with and approved by the ULDA (now Economic Development Queensland) over the former Water Street depot site. As part of these development approvals the drill shed, cottage and orderly room will be retained and incorporated into the staged development taking place over the entire site. In February 2014 these approvals have meant partial demolition of twentieth century elements of the former orderly room and its relocation within the site.
","criteria":"The drill shed is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a pre-Federation Queensland drill shed, retaining its large hall area with office and armoury rooms arranged along one side. The hall and the rear rooms of the drill shed continue to illustrate how the building functioned, with spaces for drilling, weapons storage and administration.
|The 1884 drill shed at Water Street is the oldest known surviving drill shed in Queensland, built prior to the formation of the QDF in February 1885.
Of the seven known surviving pre-Federation Queensland drill sheds, it is the only one with a gable-roofed design, and it is also the last remaining pre-Federation drill shed in Brisbane.
Along with its accompanying caretaker's cottage and the former 1885 orderly room of the Moreton Mounted Infantry, both also moved from Boundary Street to Water Street in 1925, the drill shed is part of an uncommon group of colonial era defence buildings. As a pair, the drill shed and the cottage may be a unique surviving example in Queensland.
|The drill shed, caretaker's cottage and orderly room (former) are part of Queensland's response to perceived external threats in the 1870s and 1880s, and are important in demonstrating the resulting military training and support infrastructure constructed during the pre-Federation period in Queensland.
Constructed in 1884-1885 at Boundary Street, Fortitude Valley, and moved to Water Street, Fortitude Valley in 1925, the three colonial-era buildings served a number of Brisbane-based units of the Queensland Defence Force (QDF), and later the Australian Military Forces, the 2nd Australian Imperial Force, the Citizen Military Forces and the Army Reserve.
The QDF and its drill sheds and parade grounds, taken over by the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, facilitated the development of Queensland's military units which later went on to serve in World Wars I and II.
|The three buildings have a special association with the QDF, an organisation regarded as the first line of defence for colonial Queensland and whose units became part of the Commonwealth forces of Australia after Federation. The drill shed, cottage and orderly room served as military training, accommodation and administration facilities for over 100 years, from 1885 to 1988.
In particular, the buildings have an important association with the 1st Queenslanders (Moreton) Regiment and the Moreton Mounted Infantry, two important QDF militia units, and their post-Federation incarnations, the 9th Australian Infantry Regiment and the 13th Australian Light Horse Regiment.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion D | Criterion B | Criterion A | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":32439,"place_ref":602820,"name":"Weemalla","alternate_name":"Steele House","street_address":"62 Ruthven Street","suburb":"CORINDA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2013-08-09","description":"Weemalla is a detached timber house in a suburban area of Corinda, located 11 kilometres south-west of the centre of Brisbane. It is on a corner comprising two allotments totalling 2516m2 with Ruthven Street to the north and side access from Dewar Terrace to the west. The surrounding allotments are of similar size and have houses of similar age and scale. Weemalla is located centrally on its land with large trees, an in-ground swimming pool, and carport.
The house, approximately 14m x 24m, is timber-framed and clad, set on timber stumps with a large hipped and gabled roof. It is in an Arts and Crafts style. The roof is conspicuously large and clad with corrugated metal sheets with a ventilated ridge cap. There are two brick chimneys of red face brick with bands of maroon brick and cement rendered cappings. The wide eaves have soffits either of fibrous sheet material or spaced timber battens, the latter being the original condition. A timber verandah with over-scaled posts and a battened balustrade wraps the north and east sides. The walls are clad with weatherboards that also enclose the majority of the understorey.
The north-facing front elevation is flanked by small projecting gables with decorative awnings and timber dentil work. The roofs of the awnings are clad with pan-and-rib metal sheets. A narrow verandah runs across the front of the house between these gables, widening at the north-eastern corner to form a generous verandah piazza. Entry is via a wide timber stair onto the piazza under the north-eastern gable. The stair balustrade and entrance feature timber battens, large brackets, and other over-scaled timber elements. The north-western gable shelters a projecting room (the bathroom) and has a bay window supported on large timber brackets.
The western elevation, facing Dewar Terrace, has a verandah enclosed with aluminium-framed, sliding windows and weatherboards. At the southern end of the verandah is a small lattice-enclosed entrance into the back hall.
The rear elevation has a wide verandah enclosed with aluminium-framed, sliding windows and a large projecting gable at the eastern end containing the kitchen and service zones. Below the kitchen, the understorey is enclosed to form a laundry. A large painted, brick chimney breast is at the centre of the gable and is flanked by windows.
A verandah runs the length of the eastern (side) elevation and is enclosed at the southern end by weatherboards and timber-framed casements.
The main entrance timber door has bolection moulded panels and glazing surrounded by fan and side lights forming an unusual semi-circular feature. The glazing is clear and green leaded glass and the fanlight is operable, retaining an original brass mechanism. The door opens into a small foyer with a bay window with built in timber seat. The foyer ceiling is plaster with decorative mouldings.
The house layout is organised off a central hall with rooms either side; bedrooms are to the west and living rooms are to the east. At the back of the house the hall ends in a wider back hall adjacent to a kitchen/service zone including a pantry and servant's room. A lattice-enclosed external stair connects the back hall with a laundry enclosure under the house. A bathroom is located at the north-western corner, accessible from the western verandah and from the master bedroom. Two small toilets are accommodated within enclosures on the western verandah.
Generally, the rooms have timber board floors, timber tongue-and-groove board walls and ceilings with moulded timber skirtings, architraves, belt rails, and cornices.
The ceilings are generally 3.3m high with a lower ceiling (2.7m) in the hall. The principal rooms (drawing and dining rooms) are connected by a large square opening with an elaborate architrave. These two rooms have larger and more elaborate skirtings and cornices than other rooms and the dining room has a fireplace with a decorative fire surround of painted timber panelling including a small amount of white marble.
Internal doors are timber with moulded panelling and operable timber panelled fanlights that retain original brass opening mechanisms. Timber French doors with fanlights have fine, moulded glazing bars and clear glass lights and open onto the verandah from most rooms. One set of French doors has been modified into one large sliding door and another set has been relocated to enclose the verandah nearby. Other windows are double-hung timber sashes or timber casements with fine, moulded glazing bars and clear glass. Much of the original door and window furniture is retained. The house has several built-in storage cupboards with timber shelves. The opening between the foyer and the hall has an arched and battened fanlight. An early bell system survives with buttons in the main bedroom and the drawing room connected to bells in the back hall.
The kitchen, servant's room, pantry, and large storage cupboard open from the back hall. The kitchen has a fireplace with a painted brick chimney breast.
The laundry under the kitchen has a concrete floor. The room retains early or original fixtures including a concrete washtub and a copper tub built into the chimney breast.
A small, timber-framed building is connected by a covered walkway to the south-western corner of the main house. The building has a hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheets, weatherboard clad walls and accommodates a bedroom and bathroom. It is not of cultural heritage significance.
The garden includes a large Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia), Camphor Laurel (Cinnamomum camphora), and Macadamia (possibly Macadamia tetraphylla). An early timber fence post is located at the north-west corner of the yard. It bears two different sets of post notches suggesting the Dewar Terrace fence was post-and-rail and the Ruthven Street fence was more finely crafted. The grounds contain a carport and swimming pool.
The north-eastern piazza has views to the north-east of the surrounding suburbs and distant horizon. It is well positioned to receive the cool summer breezes from this direction as well as winter sun.
","history":"Weemalla, located at 62 Ruthven Street, Corinda, a south-western suburb of Brisbane, was built in 1908-09. This single-storey timber house was designed by acclaimed architect Robert Smith (Robin) Dods as the suburban home of Robert Moore (RM) Steele, Queensland manager of the Victorian Insurance Company Ltd. It is an excellent example of Dods' residential designs for prosperous clients.
\nLocated 11 kilometres from the centre of Brisbane, Corinda, initially part of a leasehold from 1851, opened for selection in the 1860s and a number of farms of between 25 and 70 acres were established. The opening of a railway bridge at Indooroopilly in 1876 reduced the area's isolation and encouraged subdivision. During the Brisbane land boom of the 1880s, when Brisbane's population doubled, many allotments were sold and residential building commenced. Corinda in the 1890s was one of Brisbane's sparsely settled new suburbs where the scattered estates of the wealthy, often set on hills, merged with small farms.[1]
\nTypically, Brisbane's elite resided in spacious properties located on hilltops or beside the river away from the polluted air, noise and commotion of the city, where breezes could counteract the summer heat.[2] Members of Brisbane's elite ‘society' at the beginning of the twentieth century, which may be described as upper middle class, comprised pastoralists and wealthy merchants and those in managerial positions,[3] such as Weemalla's first owner, RM Steele. Weemalla, located on Corinda Hill, a popular site for the homes of members of this echelon from the 1880s[4], was appropriately sited for an elite residence.
\nBy comparison to its southern counterparts Brisbane, by the 1890s was not a wealthy city and had few notably rich merchants or financiers. It was the location of headquarters for Queensland organisations and branch offices for interstate firms in the finance sector. None of the 87 insurance companies with offices or agents in Brisbane during the 1890s had its head office in Queensland.[5]
\nAs manager of the Queensland branch of the Victoria Insurance Company Ltd from 1901[6], Steele was a member of this upper echelon of Brisbane society. He was a member of the Brisbane Club, an exclusive men's club, and an early member of the Toowong Bowling Club (established 1904), which at the time was a sport with elite connotations.[7] Accompanied by his wife and son, Steele arrived from South Australia where he had opened and managed the Victoria Insurance Co. in Adelaide.[8] Initially they lived in Toowong then Indooroopilly; both middle-class residential areas of Brisbane.[9]
\nIn April 1908 Steele purchased two blocks of land, comprising 2 roods 19.5 perches (2516m2), as the site of a new house for his growing family. In the following month local architecture firm, Hall & Dods advertised a tender for its construction. The job was won by Hall & Mayer and the house was completed during 1908-09 for £953.[10]
\nHall & Dods was a partnership between architects Francis Richard Hall and Robin Dods. Dods (1868-1920) was a New Zealand-born architect who lived briefly in Britain before coming to Brisbane in the 1870s. He later trained as an architect in Scotland and England under a number of esteemed architects who were working in the Arts and Crafts idiom. His architectural career began in Edinburgh in 1886, articled with architects Hay & Henderson. He attended evening classes at the Edinburgh Architectural Association until 1890 and formed a lasting friendship with (Sir) Robert Lorimer (1864-1929), eminent Scottish architect and fellow proponent of Arts and Crafts. In 1890 Dods moved to London, where he worked with the Fortifications Branch of the War Office and in the office of notable architect (Sir) Aston Webb. In 1891 he was admitted to the Royal Institute of British Architects and travelled in Italy. In 1894 Dods visited his mother in Brisbane and while there won a competition for a nurses' home at the Brisbane General Hospital [QHR 600223]. He returned to Brisbane in 1896 and started in practice with architect Francis Hall as Hall & Dods. Dods has been acknowledged as ‘one of the most significant early 20th century Australian architects'[11] and as a rare practitioner of the Arts and Crafts style in Queensland.
\nArts and Crafts was an international design movement flourishing between 1860 and 1910, its influence continuing into the 1930s. It was led by artist and writer William Morris and architect Charles Voysey and was inspired by the writings of John Ruskin and Augustus Pugin. The style championed traditional craftsmanship using simple forms and often applied medieval, romantic or folk styles of decoration. Importantly, it valued local variations in traditions so that good design would have relevance within its context. Arts and Crafts architecture is characterised by solidity and heaviness through well-proportioned solid forms, wide porches and prominent steep roofs. The texture of ordinary materials is expressed in the detailing and building composition is asymmetrical.
\nThe practice of Hall & Dods was the most influential source of modern design in Brisbane, producing a wide range of accomplished buildings, and was credited with achieving an 'architectural revolution' in Brisbane.[12] Dods was responsible for most of the design within the firm, integrating contemporary British design philosophies with the traditions of Queensland housing and the requirements of a subtropical climate, and producing practical, attractive, and finely-detailed houses. The partnership ended in 1913, when Dods left to practice in Sydney. Dods died prematurely in 1920.
\nDods' residential work employed local building techniques combined with a sophisticated discipline and a common-sense response to climate. Dods' houses were mostly built of timber with detailing that was a celebration of craftsmanship. The most noticeable characteristic of his Queensland houses (built between 1896 and 1917) was a general feeling of solidity and substance. This was the result of a number of design decisions, including designing a generous roof (often the largest element) continuous over the verandah and over a lower, rear washhouse. The roof was always simple in geometry and often finished with terracotta tiles, flat shingles or pan-and-tile profile, flat iron sheeting with a prominent rolled joint. Corrugated iron was used only as cost-saving measure. Generally low-set, the houses often had an enclosed or screened understorey to give the house a visually solid base. Individual elements were oversized to appear substantial as if under heavy loads. Bold, dark, earthy colours, darkly-stained timber, rough-sawn weatherboards with mitred corners, roughcast rendering and face brickwork in dark colours were used to give the house a weighty gravity. The building materials and finishes were chosen to allow the building to mellow over time, providing it with a well-established appearance.
\nThe house designs take a formalist approach to planning including formal entry halls and traditional planning arrangements. The plans were generated through a consideration of aspect, with living spaces well-oriented and internal layouts permitting cross ventilation. They are also notable for their informal spaces, a particular feature being the inclusion of generous verandah piazzas[13]. The plans respond to the social needs of the clients in an honest and functional way. The houses were often provided with generous, considered service spaces including back halls and wash houses. The health and comfort of the occupants were major considerations. Ventilation devices included wide window and door openings, ventilated gables and ridges, and ventilation fleches. Piazzas were generous, allowing comfortably-furnished, semi-outdoor living. Operable shading and enclosure of the piazza was sometimes achieved by adding timber vertical louvres above the verandah handrail, creating a room habitable in most weather. Interiors included fine decorative timber joinery and panelling. Fireplace surrounds and built-in cupboards were also a feature.
\nThe composition of facades and circulation routes is a more nuanced element of Dods' houses and highlights his originality and artistic skill. Facades often only implied symmetry. Entries were often off-centre or perpendicular, emphasised by wide and expressive entry stairs. Projecting bay windows and corner fireplaces were recurrent elements.
\nDods designed gardens as a setting for the house, a practice more common in Britain than in Queensland. They featured formal parterre gardens, terraces and walls, flower beds, tennis courts, hedges, topiaries, flowering ornamental trees, and geometric path and lawn layouts. Garden furniture and structures were designed including seats, pergolas, trellises, fences and gates.
\nWeemalla bears Dods' architectural signature fully. The house was a low-set, detached, timber structure with a large, carefully modelled roof. The house front faced north and the land sloped to the north-east providing ideal orientation. The front facade had an implied symmetrical composition with a small gable at either end, although in reality the plan was not symmetrical. Under the eastern gable were the wide entry stairs with emphatic, large balustrade. The western gable was enclosed and a hexagonal bay window projected from the centre. The entry stairs led to a wide piazza that took advantage of the north-eastern corner with views to the distant horizon. Entry into the house was at 90 degrees via a small, square entry hall that had a projecting bay window with built-in timber seat. The entry hall was centrally placed but access to it was from the side through a glazed front door with an over-scaled, semi-circular fanlight. A central corridor ran from front to back with living rooms on the east and bedrooms on the west. The lounge and dining room were the principal interior spaces and opened onto the front piazza. The dining room had a large chimney breast with a timber mantle and surround. Verandahs ran around all sides of the house, connecting with a large back hall/verandah at the rear. The western verandah, which faced Dewar Terrace, was semi-enclosed above the balustrade to provide privacy to the adjacent bedrooms as well as sun control. The northern end of the western verandah was enclosed to form a bathroom. The service spaces were at the rear of the house, with a semi-enclosed rear stair leading to a laundry under the kitchen.
\nThe house sat centrally within the yard; if Dods designed a garden scheme evidence of it has not been located.
\nIn 1916 ownership of Weemalla was transferred to Steele's wife, Beatrice.[14] Steele was resident at Corinda and served as the Queensland Manager for the Victoria Insurance Co. Ltd[15] until July 1928 when he was transferred to Sydney as the New South Wales manager of the company. In September 1937 Weemalla was advertised for auction and described as a sound, commodious bungalow with a north-eastern aspect set on 99.5 perches (approx. 2500m2). It was well built, with extra wide verandahs, four bedrooms, a maid's bedroom, a hall, large dining and lounge with an arch and brick fireplace. It had gas and fuel stoves, enamel bath, basin, and geyser. Its laundry had set-in tubs on a concrete floor. There was car accommodation and beautiful grounds with space for a tennis court.[16] The house was not sold, however, and in September 1939 Steele's elder son William and his family moved into the house and resided there for the next two decades.
\nRM Steele died in Sydney in August 1940, aged 74, only a month after his retirement from more than 58 years service with the Victoria Insurance Co., during which he had represented it in Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney. He was survived by his widow and two sons.[17] Beatrice Steele passed away in 1960 leaving Weemalla to son William who subsequently sold the house in 1963.
\nWeemalla remains largely unchanged since construction. It has been sold several times since 1963 and minor modifications have occurred including the enclosure of parts of the verandahs with glazing, the erection of a carport at the western side c1989 by Riddel Architecture, and the construction of an in-ground pool on the eastern side. In 1964 an extension accommodating a bedroom and bathroom was added to the rear (south-western) corner of the house. The design for the small extension was by Brisbane architecture firm Job & Froud, well-known for their design of Torbreck [QHR 610256] completed in 1960. Consistent with their other work, the extension at Weemalla was designed in an International style.[18] This extension has been refurbished and reconfigured several times including in c1989 by Riddel Architecture when the entrance stair was rebuilt and the bathroom and kitchen refurbished.
\nIn 2013 Weemalla remains a family residence.
","criteria":"Weemalla is a fine, intact example of the high-quality residential work of Dods that is characterised by a pervading sense of tradition, solidity, and an honest use of materials. Designed in an Arts and Crafts idiom, the low-set timber house has deliberately oversized timber elements and openings; verandah piazza; steep dominant roof; finely-detailed, built-in timber furniture; a well-considered service zone; and an interior layout that optimises cross ventilation and solar orientation.
|Weemalla (1909) is important in illustrating the contribution of notable architect, Robert Smith (Robin) Dods, to the evolution of Queensland architecture.
Weemalla is important for providing evidence of the lifestyle of Brisbane's prosperous elite in the outer suburbs in the early twentieth century. Built for the manager of a national insurance company, it also reflects the development of Brisbane as a commercial centre from the 1890s, not only as headquarters of Queensland companies but also as a branch centre for overseas and interstate companies.
|Standing on a rise within a leafy suburban landscape, the low-set house with dominant roof and generous garden is important for its Arts and Crafts aesthetic. Notable for its fine craftsmanship, it features a skilful arrangement of informal and formal living spaces. A sense of simple elegant suburban domesticity is engendered by its generous verandahs and piazza and spacious living rooms.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion D | Criterion A | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":32441,"place_ref":602816,"name":"Chapel of St Peter's Lutheran College, Indooroopilly","alternate_name":"Chapel of St Peters Lutheran College | Chapel of St Peter's College | Chapel of St Peters","street_address":"66 Harts Road","suburb":"INDOOROOPILLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2012-12-07","description":"The Chapel of St Peter's Lutheran College, Indooroopilly, is a fan-shaped building with a bell tower and large concrete paved forecourt terminating a tree-lined plaza. The plaza runs generally from west to east along a high ridge of land within the College campus. The tall bell tower is surmounted by a cross which can be seen from across the area.
The gently-curved, temple front entrance faces west. Three concrete steps lead up to a tall portico running across the face of the building. Four slender square columns divide the front into five bays. The portico is clad with marble presenting a high-quality face to the building that glows strikingly in the setting sun.
At the southern end of the front a tall bell tower made of three concrete fins squats over a small round drum of the meditation chapel, attached to the building by a slender covered corridor. The bell is mounted at the base of the tower and has raised letters, ‘ST. PETERS 1967'.
The rear wall of the portico reveals the concrete structure infilled with panels of yellow face brick. The portico ceiling is lined with dark-stained timber battens. Aluminium framed glass doors open from the portico into the chapel. High level aluminium framed awning windows light the interior choir loft.
The north and south elevations are yellow face brick and comprise a series of stepped blade walls with west facing windows. Secondary entrances to the nave are located along both sides and the low form of the vestry and consultation rooms project out of the south face. The eastern (rear) elevation has no windows and the field of yellow face bricks features a pattern of crosses made of projecting header bricks. The land falls away at the rear and long and narrow openings provide ventilation into the understorey and then up into the chapel via floor louvers behind the altar.
The nave is a wide fan narrowing to the altar at the east end. The floor slopes down to the altar. The wide balcony choir loft is tiered and overhangs the entire west end of the nave forming a low-ceilinged entry zone supported on slender square concrete columns. The balcony balustrade is dark-stained timber battens and forms a sweeping curve. The balcony is reached via timber stairs at both ends of the entry area. The body of the chapel is a large space, brightly lit and uncluttered. The high white ceiling curves seamlessly into the east wall behind the altar where a large timber cross that appears to float on the white field is mounted.
The north and south walls are yellow face brick and the windows are positioned so they are shielded from the nave and their light is directed eastward onto the altar. The pews are darkly-stained timber and are crafted to sit on the sloping floor, progressively shorter towards the altar to suit the reducing width of the nave. The floor of the nave is clear finished timber under the pews and russet coloured carpet in the entry, aisles and sanctuary. The sanctuary is reached by two steps and a third step supports the altar. The altar is made of large thick slabs of Helidon sandstone with the front carved with the Greek letters alpha and omega.
At the southern end a short stair leads down to a narrow, low-ceilinged corridor into the round meditation chapel. The floors of the corridor and meditation chapel are paved with glazed dark bricks and the walls are of yellow bricks. The ceiling of the meditation chapel is rough textured stucco. A large timber cross is fixed to the wall and the room contains timber kneelers and pews. Three long narrow windows light the small dark room.
The chapel contains timber furniture, sandstone font, framed portraits, metal candlesticks and a variety of liturgical items.
The forecourt is paved with concrete tiles in a stretched hexagonal pattern. It is approximately 40m square. The plaza has a concrete surface and is flanked on both sides by grass planted with Poinciana trees at regular intervals. This outdoor furniture and other plantings are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
On the southern side of the forecourt is a WWII memorial, a large sandstone monolith, standing within garden beds and grass and flanked by two steel flagpoles. The stone is carved with a cross and a Roll of Honour listing Queensland Lutherans who died in WWII. This is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
A corner of Luther House and the cafe extension to the dining hall encroach into the forecourt and plaza. They are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The Chapel of St Peter's Lutheran College, Indooroopilly, built in 1968, was designed by architect, Dr Karl Langer as the centrepiece of the school grounds, complete with a tree-lined plaza, forecourt, bell tower, and reflecting pool. The chapel is used regularly by the school and the local Lutheran parish for liturgical and general assembly purposes and remains central to the school community.
\nThe area now known as Indooroopilly was surveyed in 1858 and first settled in 1860. The area was subdivided into farms and later into residential allotments. Prior to 1870 there were few houses built in the area but settlement of the district received impetus from the opening of the Brisbane to Ipswich railway in 1875. During the 1880s and 1890s Indooroopilly developed as a fashionable suburb. Many substantial, architect-designed residences were built on large allotments.
\nIndoocombe was a large brick house built in Indooroopilly in c1897. It became the home of the Munro family who renamed it Ross Roy and the house and its substantial grounds became a centre of high society life. Photographs from this time show the grounds immediately surrounding the house to be landscaped and well maintained and the remainder of the property being native growth with a cleared and grassed understorey. The Munros lived at Ross Roy until their deaths. After the finalisation of the estate, Ross Roy was sold to the Lutheran Church in December 1944 for £16,000.[1] The villa occupied 16 acres (6.5ha) and was established as St Peter's Lutheran College opening 25 February 1945.
\nLutheranism is a major branch of Christianity and places a strong emphasis on education. In 1838 the first Lutherans arrived in Australia from Prussia and established communities in South Australia and Moreton Bay. That year a group of German Lutheran and Presbyterian missionaries established Zion Hill (at present day Nundah), a mission for Christianising aborigines, on the outskirts of Moreton Bay Penal Colony. It was not considered successful and was abandoned in 1848. In 1857 Lutheran Pastor Carl Franz Alexander Schirmeister came to Moreton Bay and established congregations at North Brisbane, South Brisbane, Ipswich, and Toowoomba. He obtained Government grants of land for church use and the first church was built in North Brisbane in 1861, followed quickly by churches at the other locations. Over the following decades Lutheranism was spread across Queensland. Around 1859 the newly-formed colony of Queensland launched a vigorous immigration policy that continued for over 40 years.[2] It attracted many Germans who formed distinct communities amidst the essentially-British nation. Although only a minority of these Germans were Lutheran, across the state Lutheran congregations grew and some established Lutheran schools.
\nWith the introduction of the state school system at the turn of the century, Queensland Lutheran schools disappeared as the state school system grew. By 1914 there were no operational Lutheran schools in Queensland[3] and a period of low activity of Lutheran education followed during the interwar and World War II (WWII) period partly due to anti-German sentiment.
\nA gradual resurgence of independent schools began in the last half of the twentieth century with government financial assistance in the late 1960s. This resulted in a Lutheran school boom in Australia between the 1970s and the 1990s[4] and in 2012 Queensland had 27 Lutheran schools educating over 20,000 students.[5] This resurgence of Lutheran schools in Queensland started in 1945 with the establishment of St Peter's Lutheran College at Indooroopilly. The Courier Mail described it as ‘the first Lutheran secondary school in Queensland'.[6] The school was co-educational and attendance was open to boarders and day school children of all denominations. The school was intended to be a northern adjunct and feeder to Immanuel Seminary in Adelaide where they would be prepared to serve as pastors and in other ministries.[7] On opening day the school received £226/14/8 in donations, ear-marked for the addition of a chapel.
\nA Chapel Fund was established and fundraising activities began. In February 1948 a temporary chapel was dedicated in a former officers' mess building of the Australian Women's Army Service camp. The AWAS camp had occupied part of the Munro estate and the school moved the mess building to the centre of the school campus. In September 1948 the school completed Luther House, a two storey building of classrooms. The upper storey temporarily housed the chapel until a permanent chapel could be built.
\nThe 1950s and 1960s was an era of religious vitality in Australia. During this period the nation was in a sustained economic boom, was lead by conservative governments, and was experiencing high population growth. The congregations of major religions expanded and church attendance and religious society membership rose with accompanying financial improvement.[8] Suburban churches regularly reported record congregation attendances for major holy days. Membership of the Lutheran church also increased after WWII with the major influx of European migrants. In the early to mid 1960s a number of the major Christian religions altered the way they ministered to their congregation in order to re-establish themselves within the modern world. With increased incomes, increased congregations, and an increasingly modern approach, considerable building programs began. Spacious brick churches were built in a modern style, often replacing smaller timber churches.[9]
\nIn 1966 the Chapel Fund had raised $59,995 and borrowed $70,000 for the construction of the chapel. Brisbane-based architect and town planner Dr Karl Langer was engaged as architect.
\nDr Karl Langer (1903-1969) was born on 28 July 1903 in Vienna, Austria. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts under the directorship of pioneer German modernist designer Peter Behrens and in 1928, the year of his graduation, he was employed by Behrens to run his office in Vienna. In 1933 he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy for his thesis entitled Origins and Development of Concrete Construction.
\nDr Langer immigrated to Australia with his wife, Dr Gertrude Langer, in 1939, bringing direct experience of the European Modern Movement to Queensland. He gained temporary employment with architects Cook and Kerrison in Brisbane and from 1940 Dr Langer lectured part time in architecture and architectural design at the University of Queensland, publishing Sub-Tropical Housing in 1944. This booklet explored issues related to house design and town planning in a sub-tropical climate and influenced many architects working in the post-WWII era.[10]
\nIn 1944 Dr Langer was employed as an assistant town planner in the Brisbane City Council. From 1945, he was commissioned to work on a range of town planning projects for Darwin, Ingham, Toowoomba, Yeppoon, Kingaroy, Mount Isa, Mackay and for the National Capital Development Commission, Canberra. Concurrently, he completed numerous architectural projects of a wide variety including small, economical domestic work and large commercial and institutional work.
\nAs an architect and town planner, Dr Langer had a pronounced impact upon the built environment of Australia, especially in Queensland, from the 1940s until his death in 1969. Along with numerous cultural pursuits, he was active in the Royal Australian Institute of Architects; first president (1952) of the Queensland division of the Royal Australian Planning Institute; a founder and chairman (1966-68) of the Queensland Association of Landscape Architects; and a member (1963-69) of the National Trust of Queensland. Important examples of his architectural work include the Langer residence at St Lucia [QHR 600317] (1950); Mackay Sugar Research Station [QHR 602642] (1953); St John's Lutheran Church, Bundaberg (1960); Kingaroy Town Hall and Civic Square (1963); Assembly Hall at Ipswich Girls Grammar [QHR 600565] (1964); Main Roads Department Building, Spring Hill (1966); Lennon's Hotel Broadbeach (1957); and Lennon's Hotel Toowoomba. His body of work is a clearly distinguishable exploration of a sub-tropical modernism that culminates in the Chapel of St Peter's Lutheran College, Indooroopilly, his last built work.
\nModernism developed in pre-World War I Europe and gained popularity in Australia post-WWII. It was more than a design style and is notable for a rationalising of planning emphasising clarity and simplicity of form and detailing.[11] American and Scandinavian influences were strong in Australia.[12] During the 1950s and 1960s a similar rationalisation occurred within Christian religions in an effort to modernise approaches to religious practice. Churches became brighter and simpler in form and decorative treatments. They used new materials and forms while incorporating many traditional elements and symbols. Design responses included variations on the medieval church with simple massing, a rectangular nave stripped of apses, aisles and chapels, a dramatically lit sanctuary rear wall and simple belltower.
\nInfluenced by the architecture of classical Greece and the modernist ideas of contemporary European architecture, Dr Langer developed a sophisticated hybrid of classical and modern principles of design bridging modern and traditional architecture.[13] Typically, Dr Langer explored the idea of the conjunction of landscape and landmark and his designs often involve a designed landscape incorporating the building. At St Peter's, Dr Langer proposed a fan-shaped chapel with a very tall bell tower and a round concrete reflecting pool behind a paved forecourt at the end of a tree lined plaza. The front of the chapel was a crisp, curved colonnade-a stylised temple front-clad in marble. The other walls were yellow face brick with a projecting pattern of crosses on the east wall exterior.
\nLanger's design for the Chapel of St Peter's Lutheran College was in a modernist style and typical of his architectural concepts. Langer's exploration of modernism was heavily influenced by context. He studied the local fauna and flora in Queensland and the climate and his work interprets this in a Modernist manner. Dr Langer integrated native planting into his schemes; at St Peter's he proposed hedges of lemon scented tea trees for the plaza. He typically exploited passive lighting and ventilation in intelligent and uncomplicated ways; at St Peter's his design includes simple methods of passive ventilation and a naturally lit interior.
\nBy 1966 when the design of the chapel was nearing completion, Dr Langer had a strong connection with the Lutheran community of Queensland and with St Peter's Lutheran College. He had previously designed and had constructed St John's Lutheran Church, Bundaberg (1960) and St John's Lutheran Church, Ipswich (1961). At St Peter's College, he had completed a chaplain's residence (1954), a dormitory block (1954-55), a dining hall block (1966), and a concrete footbridge (1966-67). The dormitory block and a 12 ft tall sandstone monolith was a memorial to Queensland Lutheran servicemen killed in WWII. The monolith was a gift by Langer to the school and, at the time, was believed to be the largest stone in Brisbane. A cross was carved on one side with servicemen's name son the other. Langer went on to complete a science block (1967-68) and the entrance fence and gates (1968). The plaza and forecourt connected some of these buildings in a coherent, ordered manner, e.g. the stylised temple fronted dining hall addressed the plaza and forecourt, referencing classical Greek town centres, suggesting Dr Langer had a masterplan for the site. In lectures for architecture students at the University of Queensland he referenced the design of St Peter's chapel and its context (the forecourt/plaza and surrounding buildings) as an example of applying the European model of a functional town square to the College campus.[14] Importantly, the design was symbolic of the essence of Lutheran education-an axis with theology (the chapel) at one end and learning (the library) at the other.[15]
\nDr Langer carefully incorporated Christian symbolism within the design of the chapel. The fan shape concentrates the gaze to the altar; lights are hidden from the nave to remove any distraction from this focus. The curved east wall is plain and dominated by the Cross (a symbol of the resurrection), seemingly floating in a strong light symbolising the rising sun. References to the Holy Trinity can be seen in the altar (constructed of three pieces), the three-finned bell tower and the three windows in the mediation chapel.
\nTenders for the construction of the chapel were called in February 1967. Local contractor WW Groom's tender of $123,938 (the lowest of nine) was accepted on 6 February 1967. Groom had also won the contracts for other Langer buildings at St Peter's. The foundation stone was laid 17 September 1967 and the chapel was opened and dedicated 14 June 1968 with Dr M Lohe, President General of the Lutheran Church, as guest speaker. Dr Langer and Groom attended and were involved in the ceremony.
\nA large timber crucifix was commissioned for the wall within the small round room of the meditation chapel. It was carved by Alfred Schubert, a Czech-born woodcarver from Melbourne who had trained in Bavaria. Schubert had previously carved a crucifix for Langer's St John's Lutheran Church at Bundaberg. The crucifix was dramatically lit and loomed large within the room.
\nThe chapel bell was donated by Pastor Franz Finger who was closely associated with the establishment of St Peter's and in its ongoing ministry and served on the College Council.
\nDr Langer died in 1969 and his funeral service was conducted at the chapel. It has been said that Dr Langer considered the chapel to be his favourite building.[16] He was cremated at Mt Thompson Crematorium, where he had designed the east chapel built in 1962.
\nThere has been little alteration to the chapel over time. Aluminium blade sun shades have been added to some windows and the crucifix in the meditation chapel has been removed. The reflecting pond in the forecourt has been removed. A wide concrete ramp has been added in the forecourt probably replacing a wide stair.
\nAt some time, the large sandstone WWII memorial monolith was moved from its earlier position on the northern side of the boys' dormitory to the southern edge of the chapel forecourt.
\nThe chapel has been the only local Lutheran church in Indooroopilly since 1968 and services for the Lutheran parish are conducted weekly. The chapel, forecourt and plaza have acted as the physical and spiritual centre of the campus and continue to do so. The chapel is regularly used as an auditorium for the College and hosts performances, ceremonies and general assemblies. Larger assemblies and ANZAC day commemorations are held in the forecourt.
","criteria":"The Chapel of St Peter's Lutheran College, Indooroopilly, constructed in 1968, is important in demonstrating the growth and changing practices of Christian liturgies in Queensland between the 1950s and the 1970s, in particular of the Lutheran church, a religious denomination of importance in Queensland since 1838. The chapel in its setting is a strong symbolic gesture embodying the essence of Lutheran education with theology (the chapel) visually linked to learning (the library).
The chapel is important in demonstrating the strong influence of European modernist architecture in Queensland. As a highly intact modernist church, the chapel is important in representing modernist ecclesiastical architecture in Queensland during a period of significant re-evaluation and modernisation of Christian religions worldwide.
|The place, designed by Dr Karl Langer, has a special association with his life and work. It is the culmination of his architectural career and embodies the defining architectural principles he developed and employed. Dr Langer is an architect of importance to Queensland and was one of the earliest architects to promote a local variation of modernist architecture. His work, particularly on climatic design, inspired and influenced contemporary and later architects.
|The chapel is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics and qualities of a modernist church in Queensland. Highly intact, the chapel is notable for incorporating a dominant bell tower, large, well-lit nave shaped to focus to the sanctuary, a choir loft, vestry and stark, dramatic meditation chapel. The Chapel is notable for its subtle incorporation of Christian symbolism including the positioning of the Cross floating on a strongly lit curving wall as a symbol of the rising sun and the use of three elements in the design of features like the bell tower, altar and meditation chapel.
The place is an exceptional example of the work of architect, Dr Karl Langer, embodying architectural principles he developed and refined over his career. Most notably, it incorporates classical architectural devices including a processional plaza, forecourt and stylised temple front; features characteristic simplified forms and spatial arrangements and a restrained use of good quality materials; and incorporates natural light and ventilation.
|Notable for its high quality design, materials and construction, the place is important for its aesthetic significance. The monumental bell tower is visible across the College and surrounding suburbs giving the chapel strong landmark qualities. The forecourt and plaza provide for views to and from the chapel, especially important for the symbolism in the visual link between the chapel and the library. The sculptural qualities of the austere chapel interior-including the seamless curving east wall with floating Cross; use of white plaster finishes complementing timber panelling and pale brickwork; natural lighting from the west facing clear glazing in the bladed side walls and from glazing in the west wall-evoke feelings of awe and reverence. The main chapel is a dramatic contrast to the cave-like small meditation chapel which evokes sensations of introspection and contemplation.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion H | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":34898,"place_ref":602826,"name":"St Paul's Anglican Church and Columbarium","alternate_name":"St Pauls Anglican Church","street_address":"554 Vulture Street East","suburb":"EAST BRISBANE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2014-02-07","description":"St Paul's Anglican Church is situated prominently on an elevated site at the corner of Vulture Street and Balmoral Terrace in East Brisbane. The site comprises a picturesque brick church, timber lych gate, stone retaining walls and a brick columbarium. A toilet block and shed on the north side of the church are within the boundary but are not of cultural heritage significance.
The church is of traditional gabled form. The nave is at its north (symbolic west) end and an extended chancel with apse under a conical roof at its south (symbolic east) end. Facing Balmoral Terrace, the entrance porch is located on the north-east corner of the nave and, flanking the intersection of the nave and chancel, are two adjacent vestries and a tall bell tower. On the western side of the chancel is a high-ceilinged organ chamber, now used as a chapel.
Employing asymmetry, heavy massing, high quality brickwork, semi-circular forms and simplified ornamentation, the design of St Paul's combines characteristics of Gothic, Romanesque and Arts and Crafts styles. The church is constructed in dark-red-brown Flemish bond brickwork, with painted render dressings defining features such as string courses, copings, lintels and sills (internally and externally). Stepped and plain buttresses support the exterior walls, and arched openings are constructed from multiple rowlock (brick-on-edge) courses. The prominent roof form is clad with rib-and-pan profile metal sheeting (replaced in 1997), and features flared eaves supported on decoratively trimmed rafters with a raked soffit of tongue-and-groove boards. The nave end walls are topped with stone cross finials, and gable ends to the vestries and entrance porch are finished with basket weave patterned brickwork. The entrance porch features a radiating arch with deep angled brick jambs, rounded window openings and a boarded ceiling. The belfry atop the octagonal bell tower is enclosed with fixed timber louvres between brick piers of alternating, three-course bands of rendered and face brickwork capped by a concrete hemispherical cupola.
The interior is well detailed and executed with dark stained timber joinery throughout, except for the contrasting honey-coloured boards that line the raked ceiling. Finely detailed trusses, supported on concrete corbels, incorporate semi-circular laminated arches of three vertical layers, bolted and strapped together at intervals. Within the semi-circular apse, the ceiling boards are tapered to a narrow point to form a conical peak. Decorative timber grilles along the apex of the nave and chancel ceiling combined with metal grilles in the chancel window sills are elements of the original ventilation system.
All doors are framed and ledged, most retaining original hardware including locks, metal bolts, keyhole covers and timber reeded knobs, with elaborate metal hinges on exterior doors. Side doors open onto raised semicircular concrete balconies, with the western balcony balustrade cut back to allow access from an adjacent car park.
The nave is lit by tall, timber-framed casement windows with leaded panes of textured green glass and semi-circular fanlights. Window hardware includes ornamental latch handles with spiral end. Three large stained glass windows in the north wall depict intertwined vines, wreaths and religious symbols - the 'alpha' symbol in the western window, ‘IHS' in the central window, and the 'omega' symbol in the eastern window. Stained glass windows in the chancel depict Jesus, various saints and biblical scenes, with some including dedications to parishioners. Red cement-rendered floors, scored to form a square grid, are found throughout the church and entrance porch, except in the chancel, which has been subsequently tiled, and in the former organ chamber, where it is covered in carpet.
Church furniture is generally dark stained timber. The altar table, of carved timber panels, features gilded lettering - ‘TO THE DEAR MEMORY OF THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-18' - across the front face. A sanctuary lamp is suspended over the altar. Various early timber items including chairs, tables, and psalm and hymn boards are found throughout the church and vestries. The timber altar rails remain within the chancel; however these and the altar table have been moved from their original positions. Other notable items within the chancel include: the foundation stone set into the eastern wall and a concrete plaque with a red Canterbury cross on the western wall, commemorating the consecration of the church in 1937. Facing the nave from the eastern side of the chancel steps is a raised octagonal brick pulpit finished with a rendered base and capping, while on the western side is a movable brass lectern topped by an eagle. The timber pews (replacing earlier chairs) are plain and stained a light colour. An octagonal, granite memorial baptismal font with timber lid is located near the centre of the nave. The organ (not original to the church) is on a raised timber platform in the north-west corner of the nave.
Non-significant additions to the church interior include a boarded lining to the chapel and northern nave walls, carpets, fluorescent lighting and ceiling fans.
The lych gate, flanked on both sides by random rubble retaining walls, defines the main entrance to the church grounds at the corner of Vulture Street and Balmoral Terrace. Constructed from heavy timbers, it has decorative cross bracing and a gable roof, clad in metal roof sheeting and lined with timber tongue and groove boards. Curved brackets on the street-facing side form an archway, above which the words ‘Seek and ye shall find' are carved in Gothic-style script. Curved red concrete steps ascend from street level to the gate, before continuing as straight steps up to a red concrete pathway leading to the entrance porch.
The columbarium in the north-east corner of the site, separated from the church by a narrow walkway, is a small, open-walled courtyard, accessed through an arched opening with a metal gate. The tall, orange brick walls, capped by concrete, contain small niches, with those containing ashes enclosed by brass name plaques. Rectangular garden beds are set into the concrete floor.
","history":"St Paul's, an Anglican brick church on Vulture Street in East Brisbane, was built in 1924 and designed by Brisbane Diocesan architects, Atkinson and Conrad. The church dates from a pronounced period of expansion for the Anglican Church in Queensland, when many new ecclesiastical buildings were constructed, especially in the Brisbane Diocese.
\nMuch of the area comprising what is now East Brisbane, traditional country of the Yuggera and Turrbal people, was purchased from the Crown in 1855 by Joseph Darragh. It was the eventual subdivision of this property, and other large estates into allotments in the mid-1880s which established East Brisbane as a residential suburb. Prior to this, it was semi-rural in character, with a few isolated families scattered through the area, and a number of elite estates along the river. The electric tramway reached Woolloongabba/East Brisbane in 1897, and in 1901 an extension through East Brisbane to Norman Park was constructed. The provision of this cheap, efficient form of public transport encouraged further settlement in the East Brisbane area. From the 1910s to the 1930s, it grew gradually.[1]
\nAnglican church services commenced in East Brisbane in 1887, when a curate from St Mary's, Kangaroo Point, began conducting services in a building owned by Charles Ewbank in Didsbury Street. A site was acquired on the corner of Vulture and Edgar Streets and a timber church, also initially used for Sunday School, was opened 1 December 1887. From 1889 St Paul's was serviced by priests from Holy Trinity parish at Woolloongabba before returning to St Mary's parish in 1895. St Paul's was then serviced by the Church Mission until 1921, when it was raised to ‘parochial district' status.[2]
\nIn 1912 the priest attached to St Paul's, Morgan Baker, and the church community began working towards the establishment of a new church. By Easter 1914 a building fund had raised over £400. Fundraising continued through the 1910s but was disrupted by World War I (WWI).[3]
\nThe election of Gerald Sharp as Archbishop of the Diocese of Brisbane in 1921 heralded an important expansion phase for the Anglican Church in Queensland. Over the next ten years 57 new churches were built in the Brisbane Diocese and over 30,000 new members were received into communion. Timber (considered temporary) churches were mainly built in new parishes, while many brick (permanent) churches replaced earlier structures at older parishes. Large-scale building projects also occurred at church schools, including the Anglican Church Grammar School at East Brisbane, during this period.[4]
\nBy 1922, renewed activity under Reverend George Neal saw a committee established to build the new church. A large meeting chaired by Archbishop Sharp was held in July to consider whether a new church should be built in timber or brick. The committee emphasised the need to act as soon as possible, as the present building was inadequate for its needs. The vote for a brick church was ‘practically unanimous'.[5] St Paul's attained the status of parish in 1923 and in June 1923 the Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane formally acquired a new site for St Paul's on the corner of Vulture Street and Balmoral Terrace.[6] The elevated site, ‘nearer the tramline and in a more conspicuous position'[7], was consciously chosen to enhance the prominence of the church within the suburb. At a fundraising event in November, Canon Francis de Witt Batty commended the decision to bring St Paul's Church out of ‘comparative obscurity into the light of day', while also noting ‘Brisbane had awakened at last to its duty in the matter of church building'.[8]
\nIn January 1924 diocesan architects, Atkinson and Conrad, produced a design for the new church at East Brisbane. The firm, (operating in 2013 as Conrad Gargett Riddel) began in 1890 as the practice of Henry Atkinson (1866-1938) who had previously worked as an architect in the Queensland Public Works department. Charles McLay, a former colleague, was admitted into the practice in 1907. McLay was appointed Diocesan Architect in 1916 following the resignation of Robin Dods. The position of Diocesan Architect was passed to Atkinson in 1918 following the death of McLay. Arnold Conrad, who had worked for Atkinson and McLay since 1912 was appointed partner and the firm was renamed Atkinson and Conrad Architects. In 1922 Atkinson travelled to Europe to study church architecture. The firm (from 1938 as Conrad and Gargett), continued to provide church and school designs for the diocese over the next fifty years.[9] Other buildings designed by Atkinson and Conrad and entered in the Queensland Heritage Register (QHR) are Craigston (1928 apartment building, QHR 600165) and the Balmoral Fire Station (1927, QHR 601530).
\nThe new St Paul's church was designed as a nave with an extended semicircular-planned chancel attached to its east end, a side porch at its west end, side vestries for organ and choir, a belfry and attached buttress piers. White banding on facebrick (known as the ‘blood and bandage' style) featured both internally and externally. Up to 250 people could be accommodated within the church in addition to the choir. Provision was also made for a lych gate and rubble stone wall (at the time claimed to be the first for a church in Queensland).[10] Lych gates, sheltered gateways at the entrance of a church ground, traditionally where clergy met corpses and conducted part of a funeral service, became increasingly popular elements of Australian Anglican church design during the interwar period, often dedicated as war memorials. The ‘Seek and ye shall find' inscription over the St Paul's gateway was carved by Reverend Neal.[11]
\nThe design by Atkinson and Conrad for St Paul's was an example of the type of modern ecclesiastic architecture that was widely used during the 1920s and 1930s. While such places incorporated traditional elements and symbology, designs were broadly characterised by a more simplified and freer approach than 19th century Gothic Revival examples, and featured less complicated ornamentation, large plain wall expanses and the ‘honest' use of materials. Brick was the preferred construction material, which (as ‘permanent' churches), allowed for consecration within the Anglican Church.
\nAtkinson and Conrad produced a similar but less detailed design for the Canon Jones Memorial Church in 1923 at the nearby Anglican Church Grammar School in East Brisbane (established in 1917). Other similar churches designed by Atkinson and Conrad for the Brisbane Diocese in the 1920s include those built in Sherwood, Wilston, and St Alban's Chapel at the Southport School.
\nIn a 1929 presentation to the Church of England Men's Society, Arnold Conrad discussed a number of church design philosophies. ‘A church is a house of God', he stated, '...and all our efforts in church building should be directed to the greatest degree in assisting the worshippers to the right frame of mind. We should create the right spiritual emotion by surrounding the worshippers with beauty, and so lift men's minds that their souls may be brought into closer harmony with God'.[12]
\nArchitectural elements outlined by Conrad to achieve this goal included: brick construction over timber, with bare treatments to interior walls; large windows at the rear of the church and side windows on the chancel (rather than behind the altar); low-toned cathedral glass in simple leaded design where stained glass was not affordable, naves that were long rather than wide, and internal roofing wholly of wood, with heavy timber for open trussed roofs, stained with a dull finish to create ‘an interesting and dignified treatment'.[13] Such elements are readily apparent at St Paul's and other churches of the 1920s designed by Atkinson and Conrad. In particular, the use of substantial timber roof trussing in the nave (a word derived from the Latin word navis for ship), resembling the interior of a ship's hull, expressed the longstanding symbolism of the church as a ship, guiding its members to safe harbour.
\nThe tender of Red Hill builder J Hood, of just over £5000, was accepted for the erection of the church in late January 1924. Hood had recently completed St Matthew's Church in Sherwood. Reverend Neal and W Scott turned the first sod on 5 February, with the former laying the first brick on 14 February.[14] The foundation stone was laid on 23 March by Archbishop Sharp and construction occurred over the next 6 months. [15]
\nIncluding St Paul's, eleven new Anglican churches were constructed during 1924 in the Brisbane Diocese.[16] This boom occurred within a much wider context of surging building activity and expansion in Brisbane during the 1920s, reflecting a level of prosperity that had not been seen in the city since the 1880s. By 1929, Greater Brisbane boasted a population of 284,758 people, a substantial increase from an estimated 209,946 in 1921.[17] In early 1923 it was claimed the new buildings and improvements underway or planned constituted ‘the biggest building boom in the history of the city'.[18] Over the next few years the built environment of the city and growing suburban areas was rapidly transformed. As one of Brisbane's leading architectural firms, Atkinson and Conrad were closely involved in this process, designing numerous commercial, civic and residential buildings.
\nSt Paul's was dedicated by Archbishop Sharp on Sunday 21 September 1924. During the ceremony the Archbishop expressed his joy at dedicating the church ‘which he was instrumental in furthering' and was ‘glad of the movement which is manifestly taking place to build adequate and permanent Churches in this city and in this Diocese'.[19] Parish rector Reverend George Neal estimated the final cost of the church, together with the site, at between £6000 and £7000.[20]
\nOn its opening, the church was described as ‘embod[ying] many of the latest ideas of ecclesiastical architecture'.[21] The diocesan publication the Church Chronicle praised the ‘pleasing and dignified design' and the wider windows and roof ventilation system used to keep the building cool.[22] Other ventilation features were a pair of doorways on both sides of the nave enclosed by balustrading, and metal grilles in the chancel window sills, allowing air to be drawn in through the walls. In January 1925 the Church Chronicle published internal and external images of St Paul's, ‘in order that other parishes may be inspired to friendly rivalry with the people of East Brisbane and desire to do similar good work'.[23]
\nOn opening and in later years, a number of parishioners donated furnishings and ecclesiastical requisites to the church: Mrs J Tritton (of home furnishing firm Tritton's) purchased a bell for the belfry (in use from September 1926); Dr GWF Paul provided a font ewer (water jug) in memory of his son; Mr Rolley provided latches and handles for the main doors; Mrs D'Arcy Winten provided a silver chalice and paten (plate), and Lucy Carey and her daughter provided a hymn board in memory of her son Archibald who died in France during WWI. The parish Girls' Guild donated a timber altar (inscribed ‘To the dear memory of those who served in the Great War 1914-1918') and the lectern with a brass eagle, which came from England. In 1931 two Exton and Co. stained glass windows, dedicated to the late Ethel Hobday, were donated as a gift from her family, ‘a beautiful addition to an already beautiful church'. [24] A psalm board dedicated to the memory of Corporal Ray Diggles of the Women's Auxillary Air Force (WAAF) was donated after her death in 1942. A sanctuary lamp was dedicated in 1951 in memory of Elizabeth Hastings and Theresa Day.
\nAfter the church's completion, the parish continued to hold fundraising events to pay off the remainder of the debt. In 1935 succeeding priest Rev. John Parker made an early speech in support of ecumenism; ‘I am looking forward to the day when there will be no barrier between the denominations'.[25] St Paul's was consecrated in a ceremony on 29 August 1937, having met the requirements: permanency of building, freedom of debt, and the vesting of the property in the Synod.[26] The parish also celebrated its jubilee anniversary in that year. In 1942 an adjacent property ‘Ormside' was purchased for a rectory, following the sale of the old church and hall site in Edgar Street. Following the death of Rev. Parker in 1947, a granite baptismal font was dedicated in his memory.[27]
\nIn addition to being the focus of local worship, a number of associated groups were active in the parish, including the Girls Friendly Society, Boys Society, Mothers Union, Women's Guild and Parents Auxillary. St Paul's became a very popular wedding venue in Brisbane, with newspapers reporting weekly on the numerous ceremonies performed there.[28]
\nIn October 1949, a day of record rainfall caused part of the stone wall facing Vulture Street to be washed away, later replaced by a concrete wall. In June 1952 an illuminated cross on top of the church was destroyed by a shotgun blast fired from a car, thought by police to be the work of ‘anti-religious cranks'.[29]
\nIn 1954, a columbarium was controversially built at the rear of the church. Columbariums, walls with niches for the ashes of the dead, became more common at churches and cemeteries, in response to the increased acceptance of cremation. Australia's first columbarium was built in Box Hill in Victoria in 1929.[30] Cremation services first became available in Queensland in September 1934, when the Mount Thompson crematorium opened. The following year a columbarium was provided at Mount Thompson. By 1936, 13% of people interred in Brisbane were being cremated.[31] The increased popularity of cremation led to requests for ashes to be deposited at Anglican churches. The Archbishop of the time, Dr William Wand, publically opposed placing ashes in the main body of the church, preferring a designated annex such as a remodelled crypt or eastward extension.[32] Queensland's first columbaria within churches were built at Holy Trinity, Woolloongabba and St Mark's, Warwick in 1938.[33] The first external columbarium was incorporated into an outer wall of St Mary's Church at Kangaroo Point in 1949.[34]
\nWhen the plan to construct a columbarium at St Paul's became known, 150 local residents signed a petition presented to Brisbane's Lord Mayor Alderman Robert, ‘desiring the district to remain a pleasant residential one' and considering the crematorium or a nearby cemetery a more suitable location for storing ashes.[35] The Brisbane City Council was powerless to act, as the approval was not necessary under their jurisdiction. Contained within an area of 30 by 15 feet (10m x 5m), the columbarium, a roofless structure of four 10 foot (3.3m) high brick walls with a wrought iron gated entrance, was constructed at a cost of £1000 and dedicated on 4 July 1954. The gate was donated in memory of Margaret Pashen by her family. Speaking in defence of the columbarium, the Rector, the Rev. NR Tomlinson, described it as 'the modern version of the old church grave yard'. At the opening ceremony Archbishop Halse stated, ‘Early Christians had raised no objection to cremation, but had buried their dead because of heathen rites which used fire. It was now felt cremation was just as respectful to the dead as burial. It also conformed with the words of the burial service \"ashes to ashes\"'.[36] Since opening, the columbarium has been used to store the ashes of many former parishioners, including those of Rev. Tomlinson.
\nOver time, some alterations and additions have occurred at St Paul's. Between the church and the rectory, a brick war memorial hall (not considered to be of State heritage significance) was built after 1945. The balustrade-enclosed doorway on the western side of the nave was opened to provide access, via a timber ramp. The chairs originally used by worshippers were replaced by timber pews. A Whitehouse Brothers organ, built in 1952 for the Wynnum Baptist Church, was installed on a raised platform at the rear of the church in 1993. The original organ vestry has been converted into a chapel. The roof of the church was replaced in 1997.[37]
\nIn 2013, St Paul's continues to fulfil its essential function as a place of worship for East Brisbane Anglicans.
\n","criteria":"
St Paul's Church East Brisbane is important in demonstrating the development of the Anglican church in Queensland. It was built in 1924 during a pronounced period of expansion, when many new ecclesiastical buildings were constructed by the Anglican church, especially in the Brisbane Diocese. The church also demonstrates the wider growth of Brisbane and rapid development of the city's built environment in the 1920s.
The detached columbarium at St Paul's, built in 1954 in response to the increasing use of cremation, is one of the earliest structures of its type built in Queensland.
|St Paul's is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of 1920s Anglican church architecture in Queensland, expressed in its form, exterior detail and internal layout, fittings, fixtures and decorative treatments. Designed by eminent diocesan architects Atkinson and Conrad, the church is notable for its restrained and simplified brick treatment. The church accommodates traditional internal spaces and elements including the nave, chancel and vestries, coloured glass windows, and ecclesiastical furnishings. The lych gate and stone wall illustrate the revived use of such traditional features during this period.
The 1954 columbarium also demonstrates the principal characteristics of its type; discreetly located within the church ground, the space is enclosed with walls containing niches for ashes of the dead.
|St Paul's has aesthetic significance as a highly picturesque church, employing asymmetry, heavy massing, high quality brickwork, semi-circular forms and simplified ornamentation. The interior, with its dark brickwork and prominent timber roof trusses, evokes a sense of peace and spiritual shelter. The internal and external elements of St Paul's combine to create a cohesive and finely detailed whole.
Sited in an elevated position to express the prominence of the Anglican community, St Paul's makes an important architectural contribution to the Vulture Street streetscape and to the suburb of East Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":34918,"place_ref":602827,"name":"Kurrowah","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"218 Gladstone Road","suburb":"DUTTON PARK","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2014-06-13","description":"Kurrowah is a substantial, rendered brick residence standing on a high ridge in Dutton Park. The allotment is over 1000m2 and a 'battle-axe block', with the house accessed via a long driveway from Gladstone Road. Behind the house (to the north) are ancillary buildings along the rear boundary. The one-storey house faces south-west, down the sloping yard to Gladstone Road, and has striking vistas to the southern mountain ranges.
The house is designed in an eclectic, revival style with a solid character relieved by decorative patterns with Scottish references in architectural and decorative details. The building form is dynamic with multiple projecting rooms sheltered by steep, intersecting gables. The gable ends are decorated with timber panelling or terracotta shingles and the barge boards are moulded terracotta tiles. The exterior walls are roughcast stucco painted white with bands of red facebrick outlining features of the building. The same brick is used for three carefully-modelled chimneys, which rise from sturdy bases to tall, slender stacks. It is high-set on brick piers at the front and low-set at the rear, and the understorey is accessible through arched openings in the perimeter wall. The windows are primarily two banks of small, timber-framed casements with multiple panes.
A wide verandah 'piazza' runs along the south-eastern side.
The north-eastern side is the rear of the house and the gable ends here are clad with weatherboards and are vented with timber louvres. Projecting from the southern end of this side is a timber-framed, weatherboard-clad room with a hipped roof clad with terracotta tiles. It has a hexagonal end wall and windows that include later, timber-framed casements with green lights. At the northern end of the north-eastern side is a piazza, enclosed with more recent timber-framed awning windows.
The north-western side is less articulated and shelters a small back-of-house court, reflecting its service rooms inside. A timber-framed room projects from the northern end. It has walls clad with weatherboards and a pyramidal roof clad with terracotta tiles with a terracotta finial. The windows in this room are also later, timber-framed casements with green lights. This room is set on masonry piers with roughcast stucco. In the understorey under the kitchen at the southern end of this side is a laundry.
From the front, the house looms over the drive, which passes the house on the western side to reach the garages behind. A concrete path, with impressed and coloured diamond shapes, winds up from near the road to the front concrete stair with heavy, sweeping rendered masonry balustrades. (From here, the chimney breast is conspicuous with a central, decorative diamond pattern of polychromatic bricks.) A small, gabled porch with a colourful, tessellated tile floor shelters the front entrance. At the western end of the front elevation is a later timber-framed porch, clad with sheets and battens and enclosed with more recent timber-framed awning windows.
The front door is timber with a high waist and a large glazed top panel. A small brass knocker has a portrait of William Wallace with sword and features 'SCOTLAND', 'WALLACE' and 'ANNO DOM MCCCVI' [1305, the year of Wallace's death], above which are two kangaroos holding a thistle. The fanlight of the front door and the adjacent hall window are divided into small panes by lead cames.
The layout of the house comprises principal reception rooms at the front (south-west) with discreet service rooms on the western side and a separate bedroom wing at the rear (north-east). Circulation is via a central hall divided into distinct sections, reflecting hierarchy of use: wide and decorative in the front hall; narrower and less-decorative in the bedroom wing; and less-decorative still in the service rooms. The reception rooms include a drawing, dining, and morning rooms; den; and another room, designated as a bedroom by the 1930s. The adjacent service area includes a scullery, kitchen, and maid's room. The bedroom wing includes a master bedroom with adjoining dressing room, three other bedrooms, bathroom, and toilet.
The house interior has a distinctly heavy character brought about through an extensive use of dark-stained timber wall panelling, small windows, deep-relief plasterwork on principal ceilings, and other weighty decorative treatments. A distinctive feature of the house is the use of splayed window and door reveals in the front hall and the drawing room, which serve to reduce glare and also to suggest a thicker wall, inferring a weightier construction. The internal partitions are rendered masonry with high-quality, moulded timber joinery throughout and the house retains original timber built-in wardrobes. The house retains early electrical lighting including early fittings and shades, an electrical servant bell system, and original door and window hardware. The dressing room retains an early pedestal basin. The bathroom and kitchen fit-outs are not original. The timber-framed extensions have walls and ceilings lined with sheet material with timber batten cover strips.
The south-eastern piazza is reached through timber-framed, glazed French doors from the south-eastern rooms. The piazza floor is colourful, tessellated tiles on a suspended concrete slab. Two murals depicting bucolic scenes are painted on the piazza walls. At the northern end of the bedroom wing is the enclosed piazza. Its floor is recent ceramic tiles that are not of cultural heritage significance. Doors into this room are original French doors, re-fashioned to be bi-folding.
Three ancillary buildings stand against the rear (northern) boundary. From east to west these are; the cottage, the garages, and a small timber structure of one room. The cottage is a low-set, one-storey building with a roughcast rendered masonry core, a steep, timber-framed hipped roof clad with terracotta tiles, and two banks of small, casement windows that match those of the main house, including hardware. (Later, lightweight extensions to the core are not of cultural heritage significance.) The garages comprise two attached, timber-framed structures and the construction shows the western garage was built first. The earlier garage has a timber board floor while the later garage has a concrete floor. Both are rectangular, timber-framed structures clad externally with cement sheets. Both have a gable roof with timber battened gable ends; the earlier roof is clad with terracotta tiles and the later roof with corrugated metal sheets. The small timber structure of one room is an early timber building, set on low concrete block stumps with metal ant caps. It is a one-storey, timber-framed building with a hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. The sides and rear are clad with v-jointed timber boards the front is clad with later timber chamferboards. The side and rear walls have a timber, lattice ventilation panel with a coarse metal insect screen and it retains an early timber-framed, sliding sash of fixed timber louvres.
The garden consists of exotic specimen trees and lawn with early concrete garden beds. The front fence includes early low, masonry walls of Brisbane tuff with prominent mortar.
","history":"Kurrowah, a rendered masonry, timber and tile residence on Gladstone Road, Dutton Park, in Brisbane, was designed by Lange Leopold Powell and constructed in 1915-6. It is a rare and intact example of the residential work of this noted Queensland architect. This attractive house with a beautifully designed and crafted interior is set on high ground, giving it views to the west and south.
\nThe area now known as Dutton Park developed slowly. Initially it was thickly timbered, deeply gullied land. From the 1840s farms were established near the river. Early land owners included Edward Deighton (Under-Secretary, Department of Public Works and Mines 1877-8) whose house ‘Wahcumba' was situated on a large estate off Gladstone Road. By 1883 there were about ten residences along Gladstone Road, most on the ridge overlooking the river and on large allotments. A railway station opened at Dutton Park in 1884. Subdivision of land from large land holdings, such as the Deighton Estate (between Boggo Road, now Annerley Road, and James Street, now Lochaber Street), followed during Brisbane's 1880s land boom. The first horse drawn bus service linking Dutton Park with the city commenced in 1890 and was replaced by electric tram along Gladstone Road by 1908. This stimulated rapid development of the area and almost doubled land values. In 1914 the suburb was named in honour of Charles B Dutton, Secretary of Public Lands between 1883 and 1887, and by the 1920s the area was considered fashionable.[1]
\nThe land on which Kurrowah stands was sold to Edward Deighton c1860.[2] The eastern portion of his estate adjoining Annerley Road was subdivided during the 1880s, as the Deighton Estate. Three larger blocks [totalling 2ac 2r 18.5p (1.03ha)] were also created. A new certificate for this land, which included the site of the future Kurrowah, was issued to Abraham Fleetwood Luya (timber merchant, South Brisbane Alderman and later South Brisbane Mayor and MLA) in 1888 and a house was built on the site, in which Luya was resident by 1889.[3] He sold the property in 1894 to Anna Magdalena Heinecke, wife of Frederick W Heinecke (manager of the nearby Virginia Tobacco factory), who was listed by the Queensland Post Office Directory as living at ‘Linden' on Gladstone Road, between Gloucester and James Streets, by 1896.[4]
\nDuring the 1880s Brisbane had grown spectacularly. The population more than doubled to over 90,000 in 1891, primarily due to immigration. This stimulated building activity, municipal organisation, provision of amenities and services, and cultural and leisure outlets. The number of inhabited dwellings almost doubled between 1881 and 1891, from 5,814 to 10,321. Aided by the requirement of the Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act 1885, which enforced a minimum allotment size, this population increase caused Brisbane to overshoot its boundaries, growing along the lines of transport - railway, road, tram and omnibus routes which were dictated by the hilly topography of the area - until the town coalesced with its fringe settlements transforming them into suburbs.[5]
\nBy the beginning of the twentieth century, Brisbane was the largest administrative, commercial and industrial centre in Queensland. Two-thirds of the colony's imports were unloaded onto Brisbane wharves. Administration had become centralised and risen in importance with the expansion of government services. The number of civil servants (excluding teachers) had increased, many of whom were located in Brisbane. Increasingly private organisations were established in, or relocated to, Brisbane, centralising control there. With its population of 119,428 in 1901 the city had a sophistication and diversity not found elsewhere in Queensland.[6]
\nIn February 1909 the Queensland Figaro reported that ‘Mr Frank Brodribb has purchased '\"Linden\", Gladstone Road, a handsome residence with charming grounds, occupied for some time by Mr and Mrs Pickworth. Mr Brodribb with his family will shortly take up residence there'.[7] Titles show that the 2 acre 2 rood 18.5 perch (1.09ha) property was purchased in his wife's name - Jessie Scott Brodribb - in November 1908.[8]
\nThe Brodribb family was part of Brisbane's upper stratum of society, which at this time still comprised graziers, leading businessmen and professional men.[9] Frank Kenric Brodribb was the son of Darling Downs property-owner Francis Claudius Brodribb, whose sheep station, ‘Kurrowah', was located between Millmerran and Cecil Plains. The elder Brodribb died in 1904 leaving a considerable estate, including his station, in trust for his four daughters and only son. Frank K Brodribb appears to have owned other properties in Brisbane - a house in Bower Street off Gladstone Road in 1916 and, until its sale in 1917, a commercial building in Queen Street, Brisbane, occupied by the Union Bank of Australia. Jessie Brodribb was a daughter of early Queensland settler and builder John Campbell. The couple married in September 1904 at St Andrew's Church, South Brisbane.[10] They resided in the vicinity of Dutton Park from about 1908 after moving from Toowoomba.[11]
\nBy 18 February 1909 the Brodribbs were in residence at ‘Linden'.[12] They quickly renamed the residence ‘Kurrowah' and their second son was born there in July of that year.[13] Social occasions and fund-raising events held at Kurrowah were often centred on the garden; with guest lists including the state's social elite.[14]
\nIn January 1915, architectural firm Chambers and Powell called tenders ‘for the erection and completion of [a] Brick Residence, Gladstone-road'.[15] Drawings for its construction and that of a garage with pit, man's room, workshop, washing down shed and W.C. date the design to January 1914.[16] In February 1916, the Brodribb's land was re-configured from three blocks to two with the former ‘Linden' (labelled ‘Old House') on the block to the east [Resub 2, 1ac 19.7p (4545m2)] and a ‘New House' on the block to the west [Resub 1, 1ac 1r 34p (5918m2)].[17] Construction of the new Kurrowah was completed by 1916 when it was included in the Queensland Post Office Directory 1916-17 edition.[18]
\nThe siting of the new house conforms to the preference of Brisbane's wealthier residents to site their homes on its hill tops and ridges.[19] Seeking ‘space, air, view, breeze, drainage, display... combined with a rustic home, they ... also settled ... on acreages outside the town boundaries'.[20] Initially Brisbane's social divisions, as in Australia's other capitals, were topographical - between ridge or hill and gully - but later in the nineteenth century, especially after the introduction of mass transport such as trams and trains, increasingly whole suburbs acquired class labels.[21]
\nNo description of the house appeared in the media at the time of its completion. However, newspaper articles reporting later social events reveal that the ‘wide tile piazza was utilised for dancing.... Supper was served in the lounge'.[22] On another occasion, ‘[t]he reception rooms were beautified with [flowers].... The supper table...was set in the large panelled dining room.... Dancing was enjoyed on the wide, tiled piazza'.[23] There was a concrete tennis court in the grounds from at least 1923 which was utilised for tennis and jazz parties.[24]
\nDomestic architecture in Australia in the first two decades of the twentieth century was notable for its use of popular architectural treatments characterised by a conservative eclecticism. Before the modern movement shunned the predilection for styles, English Queen Anne and Arts and Crafts influences were slowly supplanted by the Californian Bungalow and Spanish Mission styles from The United States of America in the quest for architecture appropriate for Australian conditions.[25] Another development, in the yards of affluent home owners, was the introduction of the garage in the back yard adjacent to the fence, usually in materials matching the house, to house the newly acquired car.[26]
\nThe design of Kurrowah demonstrates this evolution and these preferences of the affluent classes at this period. Architectural influences evident in the design of Kurrowah are mostly derived from England and the work of architects such as Charles Voysey, combined with some features in common with the Bungalow. Essentially romantic in style, it has steep gabled roofs with decorative terracotta tiling, tall slender chimneys and deep recessed verandahs supported on substantial masonry piers. The drama of the exterior with its contrasting exterior finishes - light-coloured roughcast walls against dark brick work, shingles, mouldings and timber detailing - was repeated in the interior with dark timber panelling, ceiling beams and battens contrasted against smooth light-coloured friezes, ceilings and heavily decorated plaster embellishments.
\nKurrowah demonstrates a progression in the evolution of domestic architectural planning and decoration. Whilst maintaining picturesque influences such as nooks and bays, a move toward functionalism in line with overseas fashion[27] is evident. The developing rationale provided rooms arranged for greater convenience, more attuned to the occupants' needs and the environmental benefits of aspect. The central hall is wider in the vicinity of the more public areas of the house to accommodate this active area; the piazzas and morning room provide outdoor living, appropriate for the climate; the kitchen is integrated as an ordinary room and features such as built-in cupboards and wardrobes are provided for greater convenience. The move towards a simpler, healthier, coherently arranged, easy to maintain interior is evident in the choice of finishes such as timber wall panelling and parquetry floors.[28]
\nKurrowah's architect, Lange Leopold Powell, was born on 2 July 1886 in Rockhampton. Educated in Brisbane, he was articled to Brisbane architectural firm Addison and Corrie. After he completed his training and gained some experience he travelled to England in 1908, where he joined the London architectural firm of Belcher & Co. Returning to Australia in 1910 he married in April 1911. In the following year he formed a partnership with Claude W Chambers - Chambers and Powell - based in Brisbane. During 1915 Chambers moved to Sydney to practise, leaving Powell working in Brisbane. In 1920 Powell began practising on his own. Between 1922 and 1924 he was in partnership with George Hutton (Government Architect). He practised on his own again between 1925 and 1927 before going into partnership as Atkinson, Powell and Conrad from 1927 to 1930. This was followed by a partnership with his senior draftsman, George Rae from 1931 to 1933; followed again by sole practice until his death on 29 October 1938.[29]
\nDuring this career Powell played a significant role in the development of the architecture profession. He served as honorary secretary (1910-15), councillor, vice-president (1923-7) and president (1927-31) of the Queensland Institute of Architects; became a member of Queensland's first Board of Architects and for many years was the Queensland representative on the Australian Institute of Architects' federal council and its president from 1928 to 1929. With Sir Charles Rosenthal he drafted the constitution of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (1930) and became its second president (1932-3). He also represented the Queensland Board of Architects on the R.A.I.A.'s board of architectural education. He became a fellow of the Queensland Institute of Architects (1918), the Royal Institute of British Architects (1929) and the R.A.I.A. (1930).[30]
\nPowell is noted for his commercial buildings and churches employing a diversity of styles. His obituary in 1938 described him as one of Brisbane's leading architects. Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, John William Charles Wand praised him saying, ‘he had done much to beautify St John's Cathedral [Brisbane, and that Powell] ‘was a genuine artist whose love of beauty was his master passion.... He delighted to use his gift for religious purposes. The great Masonic Temple in Brisbane will long remain to keep his memory green in the minds of those who admired his art.'[31] A number of Powell-designed buildings are entered in the Queensland Heritage Register namely: Austral Motors Building (former), Fortitude Valley, (QHR 602505); BAFS Building, Brisbane City (QHR 601825); Ballow Chambers, Spring Hill (QHR 600164); Holy Trinity Church, Mackay (QHR 601111); Masonic Temple, Brisbane City (QHR 600074); National Bank of Australasia Building (former), Mossman (QHR 601542); St Andrews Uniting Church, Bundaberg (QHR 602489); St Martin's House, Brisbane City (QHR 600075); and St Mark's Anglican Church, Warwick (QHR 600943). His design contributions to other churches illustrate his interest in interior decoration; such as the carved-stone reredos in Holy Trinity Church, Fortitude Valley (QHR 600202) and the altar and triptych (painted by William Bustard) for the Lady Chapel of St John's Cathedral, Brisbane (QHR 600076).[32]
\nPowell also designed about 30 houses and remodelled or made additions to another five. Of the other 29 Powell-designed houses only five are known to survive. These are: his own residence at 50 Eldernell Terrace, Hamilton, dating from 1923; 26 Thornbury Street, Spring Hill (1912); 3 Moreton Street, New Farm, built for Mr A S Huybers in 1918; Mrs O Sandel's Residence in Windemere Road, Hamilton dating from 1920; and a house for builder, George Stronach in Eldernell Terrace, Hamilton, built in 1931.[33]
\nPowell's houses, mostly for wealthy clients, were of generous proportions and located in the select suburbs of Brisbane like Hamilton and Clayfield. Kurrowah's features are characteristic of his residential work and adhered to the stylistic preference of his clients and the period. In her undergraduate thesis on Powell, Margaret Kerr noted the characteristics of his residential work: solid brickwork with a stucco finish; steeply pitched tiled roofs; gable ends; tall chimneys; roof overhangs with exposed rafters; double-hung or casement windows; a broad flight of concrete entrance stairs with a solid balustrade of sweeping curves; a timber entrance porch and often an adjoining piazza; brick porch piers with stucco finish and red brick capping detail.'[34] Features specific to his brick houses included: arches in the base wall to assist with subfloor ventilation; gable ends finished with shingles or flat sheet with wide battens for a half-timbered effect; fireplaces finished with face brickwork. His interiors included dark oak panelling in the entrance hall and living room to door head height, with papered friezes; and fibrous plaster ceilings with elaborate decoration in the more expensive homes. Built-in cupboards were common.[35]
\nAll of these features constituted the home of a well-off Brisbane family. The lifestyle of the Brodribb family, which included regular entertaining, holidays and travel, was that of members of Queensland's upper social stratum. Substantial funds generated by a trust established at Francis Claudius Brodribb's death were successfully managed by his son-in-law, Canon Thomas Pughe.[36] In 1924 part of that estate, ‘Kurrowah', a 53,504 acre pastoral property comprising, plains, river flats and open forest country with about 13 miles (20.92kms) of Condamine River frontage, which had produced good quality wool, was sold; realising a significant sum of money for the beneficiaries.[37]
\nAll of Kurrowah's extensions were built during the Brodribb's ownership. By 1923 a suspended timber verandah, accessed through the panelled drawing room had been added to the front elevation. In 1923 a timber extension was added to the master bedroom at the rear.[38] At this time a garage with attached accommodation was located where the current cottage stands.[39] Floor plans dating from after 1930, show plans for the conversion of this garage with accommodation into a cottage and use of one of the public rooms as a bedroom.[40] By 1946, but probably prior to 1938, a further extension at the rear, creating a fifth bedroom, was added.[41]
\nIn 1938 Mrs Brodribb attempted to sell Kurrowah but was not successful. The house at the time was described by Isles, Loves & Co Pty Ltd, auctioneers, as follows:
\n‘Kurrowah' occupies one of the finest sites with beautiful views of river, city and mountains, and is situated on the corner of Gladstone and Deighton Roads, containing an area of 1 acre 1 rood 34 perches. ‘Kurrowah' was designed by one of Brisbane's leading architects and is built of brick, concrete and stucco, with tiled roof in the Jacobean period of architecture and the interior is finished in a manner befitting such a fine home. The foundations were designed to carry another stor[e]y if so desired.
\nThere are 5 bedrooms, dressing room, den, music room and balcony, beautiful piazza with tiled floor to [the] Eastern side, 2 bathrooms, well-appointed laundry and all modern conveniences throughout, kitchen, pantry and maid's room, 3 separate garages, man's room, tennis court, lawns etc.[42]
\nIn December 1940 Frank Kenric Brodribb died at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital at South Brisbane, aged 71. The following June, Kurrowah was subdivided into five lots with the house occupying the large central lot while four small lots of between about 25 and 31 perches (632m2 - 784m2) were excised from the garden. These were auctioned on 28 June 1941.[43] Described as:
\n4 Magnificent Blocks being part of Mrs F K Brodribb's beautiful property, situated on the corner of Gladstone and Deighton Roads, occupying one of the finest positions. High with excellent views and on the tramline. Every convenience - gas, water, electric light and sewerage available, bitumen roads.[44]
\nThree lots were sold immediately and the fourth in 1944.[45] By 1946, two of these sites had been built upon.[46] This subdivision conforms to the trend, which The Courier-Mail reported in 1938, of renewed interest in subdivision of land in Brisbane after a long-term lull during and after the Depression.[47]
\nMrs Brodribb died in May 1951 and the property passed to her son, Kenric Colin Campbell Brodribb and Queensland Trustees Ltd. Kurrowah was sold in February 1953 to Francis Arthur Rushbrook, who in turn sold it to Robert and Mary Murray in 1955. No additions were made to the house during the Murray's ownership and its interior remains highly intact. This level of intactness is uncommon in houses that are almost a century old, and although there have been minor alterations, the quality of its interior design and decorative character is apparent.[48] Extension to the cottage and the addition of a small structure beside the double garage, used as accommodation by the Murray's gardener, date from after 1946.[49]
\nAlthough nearby houses including the former ‘Linden' (later called ‘Mangerton' by its owner, Dr Morgan Lane) were demolished for higher density housing, Kurrowah remained a family home set in a large garden, although surrounded by suburban development. The Murray family retained the property until its sale in 2013.[50]
","criteria":"Located within a garden setting in an elevated position removed from the road with views to the west and south, Kurrowah is of aesthetic significance for its attractive Romantic form and composition. Designed by notable Queensland interwar architect Lange L Powell, it features a skilful use of stylistic treatments, a striking use of decoration and generously proportioned planning. Its fine interior craftsmanship is significant for its high degree of creative achievement. The highly-intact interior displays considerable artistic value.
|Kurrowah (1915-6) is important in illustrating the contribution of notable architect, Lange Leopold Powell, to the evolution of Queensland's domestic architecture.
It is important evidence of the lifestyle of Queensland's prosperous elite in Brisbane's suburbs in the early twentieth century.
|Kurrowah is a rare and intact example of an architect-designed domestic interior from the early twentieth century.
|Kurrowah is a fine, intact representative example of the early twentieth century housing type preferred by prosperous residents. Romantic in its architectural expression and generous in its proportions, it is sited on a spacious allotment on a hill top near the river, advantageously orientated to capture views and breezes. Characteristically, these houses: were architect-designed; used quality materials; had a generous, slightly modified traditional floor plan with a distinct hierarchy of rooms; and included facilities for servants and accommodation for a motor vehicle.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion E | Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":35158,"place_ref":602830,"name":"Main Roads Department Building (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"477 Boundary Street","suburb":"SPRING HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2014-06-13","description":"The former Main Roads Department Building is a 15 storey, reinforced concrete office building in a Modernist style that stands on a prominent site on Boundary Road, Spring Hill, Brisbane. Totalling almost one hectare, the rectangular site is bounded by Boundary Street to the south, Fortescue Street to the east, and Wedd Street to the north. Small scale commercial and residential development adjoins the western boundary. The sloping terrain is terraced into large, flat platforms by concrete retaining walls. As well as a landscaped garden setting, the building comprises: a front portico; tower; service core; rear podium; and rear carpark. The building structure is a reinforced concrete grid of concrete columns supporting concrete floor slabs.
The building retains design elements characteristic of the work of its architect, Dr Karl Langer, such as: employing a hybrid of subtle Classical allusions and Modernist architectural devices including a forecourt and stylised colonnade front; simplified forms, decoration and spatial arrangements; a restrained use of high-quality materials; and careful siting and manipulation of form to achieve optimum orientation for natural light and ventilation.
The garden forecourt is a flat public space fronting Boundary Street. The garden is laid out in sharp and dynamic lines of concrete, defining contrasting flat areas of mature trees, grass, paths and water to create a bold, abstract effect. A wide entrance path from the street bisects the garden, bridging across a pond and stepping up to the front portico entrance. The Red Cube, a large metal sculpture, stands on the path in front of a marble slab engraved to commemorate the opening of the building.
The western garden is terraced into level areas, retained by concrete walls and linked with concrete stairs. It retains the original abstract layout and also contains mature trees, shrubs, grassed areas and original concrete benches. The eastern garden is narrow and defined by a series of terraced boulder retaining beds and also retains original concrete benches.
The front portico is a rectangular block attached to the tower that, on approach, gives the impression of a grand colonnade across the width of a tall ground floor. This is formed by a rhythmic series of white, smooth-rendered, rectangular concrete columns topped by a low parapet. This is in-filled with large panels of dark aluminium-framed inoperable glazing. The main elevation is symmetrical except for the entrance doors, which are placed off-centre. The windowless side elevations (east and west) of the portico are pale yellow facebrick walls in stretcher bond. The portico has a concealed flat roof clad with metal rib and pan sheeting.
The tower is the major component of the building, comprising 14 levels (B3 to L10) and a rooftop plant room and caretaker's flat (L11). The tower is a tall, narrow, rectangular block with a concealed timber-framed hipped roof clad with metal pan and rib sheeting. It is oriented with its long sides (the front and rear) facing north and south. These elevations are highly-glazed with an external grid of white-painted, concrete sun hoods forming a shading 'egg crate'. The hoods on the northern side project further than the south. The windows are large, double glazed aluminium framed casements and have spandrel panels inset with a chunky, white quartz aggregate. The window hardware has been removed from the sashes. The side (eastern and western) elevations are painted concrete, finely-articulated with off-form-patterned panels. Largely windowless in comparison to the north and south, the eastern and western elevations have four columns of small, square aluminium-framed windows with opaque glass.
The service core projects from the rear (northern side) of the tower with walls of painted concrete with off-form-patterned panels. The core fenestration is minimal, contrasting with the ample glazing of the adjacent northern elevation of the tower. The east and west elevations of the core have long, narrow ribbons of windows with high sills, and the north elevation has a column of small windows with a high sill and a spandrel panel of quartz aggregate. On the roof of the service core and the tower is a large, facebrick plant room and air-conditioning machinery.
Abutting the northern side of the tower is the rectangular rear podium, which stretches the width of the building and comprises four levels (G, B1, B2, and B3) and a roof top deck (L1). The side elevations are pale yellow facebrick in stretcher bond with rhythmically-placed square windows. The northern elevation has an egg crate of white-painted, concrete sun hoods sheltering large, aluminium-framed windows. The windows have spandrel panels featuring dark slates.
The rear carpark stands behind the rear podium, accessed from the lowest level of the building (B3) and from Wedd Street at the rear. It is one-storey with a flat, steel-framed roof clad with metal pan and rib sheeting, pierced by large, rhythmic openings to the sky. A decorative lattice wall of painted concrete breezeblocks lines the Wedd Street boundary, screening the car park.
Internally, the former functions of the building are clearly-defined, with public entry and reception in the front portico; offices in the tower; vertical circulation, toilets, and other shared facilities in the core; offices and a semi-enclosed carpark in the rear podium; and car parks and store rooms in the rear car park.
The public entry and double-height reception area are intact and feature black and white terrazzo floors, and marble-clad walls, columns, reception desk, planterbox and window sills. An original wall-mounted bronze artwork depicting the historical evolution of the wheel is retained in the entrance foyer. Within the front portico, L1 is a mezzanine level retaining original balustrades: iron near the southern glazing and battened timber above the reception area. Mounted on the end wall of the lift foyer facing the front entrance is Communications, a large artwork by Leonard Shillam.
The tower levels (L1 - L9) each comprise long, open floor plans with later lightweight partitions. Window sills are black terrazzo. Small services cores bookend each floor, on the east and west sides of the tower. These contain fire stairs, service risers, store rooms, and kitchenettes. Some levels retain original black bean veneer fire doors. The top level of the tower (L10) contains two large auditoriums. The larger of the two, named the Charles Barton Auditorium, is double-height and has a raised stage with a proscenium arch, velvet curtains, wings spaces either side, and a backstage area with changing rooms. Under the stage is a storage area accessed via original, battened timber doors. The auditoriums are serviced by a single projection room on a mezzanine between the rooms, accessed via a narrow timber stair.
On the roof of the tower is a caretaker's flat, accessed via a narrow concrete stair. It is a modest, timber-framed, three-bedroomed apartment, concealed behind the tower parapet and sheltered under the main roof. It has pale yellow facebrick walls and aluminium-framed windows with original hardware (sliding and double-hung sashes). The front door addresses a generous, north-facing, roofed patio area, paved with square concrete pavers. The layout of the flat is original; however, all ceiling linings have been removed. The kitchen, bathroom, and laundry fitouts are early and it retains early electric monitor boards used by the caretaker to supervise the building.
The service core contains service risers and shared facilities, including lifts, a fire stair, dumb waiter for office files, tearooms, and large toilet and shower rooms. The fire stair in the service core retains original finishes, including black and white terrazzo stair treads and risers, black-painted metal balustrades with black plastic handrails, textured stair undersides, and vinyl tile clad walls with contrasting inset floor numerals.
The rear podium levels (B3 - G) each comprise large, open floor plans with later lightweight partitions. Window sills are black terrazzo.
Early floodlights survive mounted to the exterior of the building.
Elements that are not of cultural heritage include: the building's ramps, awning, and doors at the main entrance portico; lightweight partitions and suspended ceilings throughout; kitchen and store room fitouts; and steel shelters of the garden and roof deck.
The former Main Roads Department Building stands prominently on a ridge of the folding terrain of Spring Hill. It is highly-visible from the surrounding suburbs and has extensive views from the office spaces within. The gardens and open spaces are conspicuous within the immediate streetscape and contribute to the character of the area.
","history":"The former Main Roads Department Building was built in 1967 to accommodate, consolidate, and modernise the department during a period of extensive expansion and upgrade of Queensland's road network. It housed the department until 2012. Designed by important Modernist architect, Dr Karl Langer, the substantial office building is an excellent, intact illustration of his commercial work and is a good representative example of a mid-twentieth century highrise.
\nIn the early 1960s the Main Roads Department (MRD) faced a major task in modernising Queensland's road network. Prior to this, the department saw itself only as a rural roads authority responsible for the provision and maintenance of main roads connecting Queensland settlements.[1] The decentralised nature of Queensland, with its scattered population and small tax base for local governments, was not conducive to systematic road building, and until the mid-twentieth century railways dominated long-distance transport. Although the Colonial (later State) Government was responsible for main roads and roads on Crown Lands open for selection, elsewhere local authorities had to finance their own roads; or where there were no local authorities, local landholders could form road trusts and receive government grants. Queensland's road system developed in a piecemeal fashion until 1920 and even after it remained a secondary government spending priority to railways, which spread rapidly in the early twentieth century to service agricultural areas.
\nAlthough railways were the priority, the rise of the motor car increased the need for an expanded and improved road network. The Queensland Main Roads Act 1920 provided for responsibility for roads and bridges to be shared between state and local authorities. The mission of the Main Roads Board, formed by this Act, was to develop a cohesive network of ‘main roads' partly funded by the state. Local authorities would fund half the cost, and would be the construction and maintenance authorities where possible.[2] The priority for road construction was to join towns not linked by railways; to link farming areas to existing railways; and to build developmental roads to open Crown Lands for closer settlement.
\nThe interwar period saw a massive increase in car registrations and the revision of the Main Roads Act. By mid-1923 nearly 17,000 cars were registered in Queensland (rising to nearly 92,000 by 1934). As more people took to the car, the need for serviceable roads for motor vehicles became apparent.[3] The Main Roads Acts Amendment Act 1925 abolished the Main Roads Board and formed the Main Roads Commission (MRC), and the board was replaced by John Kemp (formerly the Board's Chairman) as the Commissioner.
\nWorld War II (WWII) also stimulated road building efforts. During the war the MRC carried out a wide range of defence works, mostly for, and under the direction of, the Allied Works Council (AWC). Although the MRC increased its equipment during the war years, after WWII it faced resource shortages and a continued rise in car ownership, plus demands to seal more of the state's roads with bitumen.[4]
\nAfter WWII, roads increasingly competed directly with railways. Vehicle numbers rose from 129,126 in 1945 to over 282,594 by 1954.[5] By 1960, Australia was second only to the United States in terms of car ownership per head of population.[6] In 1951, the MRC became the MRD. The MRD was responsible for the planning, survey and construction of state highways and of main, developmental, secondary, mining access, farmers' roads, and tourist roads and tracks, as well as bridges and related works.[7] The department was under an increasing work load, brought about by the 'explosion' in vehicle ownership and Queensland's buoyant economic expansion.[8]
\nThe MRD's Annual Report of 1955 noted that ‘Queensland is passing out of the earlier phase of road construction ... just sufficient to keep traffic moving. The State has entered a second phase where construction must provide for the traffic of to-day and the traffic of to-morrow in such a way that roads and bridges will carry in safety bigger volumes of traffic, comprising vehicles which move much faster and carry much more heavier loads...'[9]
\nThe push for a new head office for the MRD started around 1955. In December that year the Main Roads Commissioner, AR Williams, wrote to the Minister for Transport, JE Duggan, advising that at no stage the MRD ever had a building designed and constructed for them. Williams stated that the MRD did not have close contact with the public, apart from registration, and ‘Motor vehicle registration activities require that the location be ... away from the heavily trafficked streets'.[10] Other requirements included garaging for departmental vehicles and a full size basement for record storage.
\nPrior to the construction of their new building at Spring Hill, the MRD was accommodated in buildings 'scattered throughout the city'.[11] The intention of the new building was to provide better working facilities and amenities for an increasing staff in an efficient and productive environment.[12] The department was performing a major role with private industry and commerce in Queensland's development and the new building would reflect this.[13] Not only would it be an impressive place for people to register their vehicles, it would be the co-ordinating centre for the planning, survey, design and construction work of the MRD.
\nThe Queensland Government acquired 16 allotments, totalling almost one hectare, at the corner of Boundary and Fortescue Streets, Spring Hill, between 1959 and 1961. At the time this area comprised primarily older detached housing.
\nIn June 1959 Leo J Feenaghty, Secretary of the MRD, wrote to Brisbane-based, private architect and town planner Dr Karl Langer, confirming that the government had decided to retain him as the architect for the new head office building.[14] Langer's earliest designs for the MRD's 'New Head Office Building' date to late 1959 with at least eight further iterations between 1959 and 1963. Early designs were discussed with the Acting Government Architect, EJ Weller, at the Department of Public Works Architectural Branch in September 1959. Although generally satisfied, Weller was concerned that the building would ‘include some features that will set a precedent and to that extent will have an effect upon provision in Government Buildings generally'.[15]
\nBorn in Vienna in 1903, Langer had studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and in 1928 he was employed by pioneer German Modernist designer Peter Behrens to run his Vienna office. In 1933 Langer was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy for his thesis 'Origins and Development of Concrete Construction'. In 1939 Langer immigrated to Australia with his wife, (Dr) Gertrude Langer, bringing direct experience of the European Modern Movement to Queensland. He gained temporary employment with architects Cook and Kerrison in Brisbane and from 1940 Langer lectured part time in architecture and architectural design at The University of Queensland, publishing Sub-Tropical Housing in 1944. This booklet explored issues related to modern house design and town planning in a sub-tropical climate and influenced many Australian architects working in the post-WWII era.[16]
\nModernist architecture developed in pre-World War I Europe and gained popularity in Australia post-WWII. It is notable for a rationalisation of planning, emphasising clarity and simplicity of form and detailing.[17] American and Scandinavian influences were strong in the style's employment in Australia.[18]
\nFrom 1945 Langer was employed as an assistant town planner in the Brisbane City Council and also was commissioned to work on a range of town planning projects for Darwin, Ingham, Toowoomba, Yeppoon, Kingaroy, Mount Isa, and Mackay, and for the National Capital Development Commission, Canberra. Concurrently, he completed a wide variety of architectural projects including small, economical domestic work and large commercial and institutional work.
\nInfluenced by classical Greek and contemporary Modernist architecture, Langer developed a sophisticated hybrid of classical and modern design principles.[19] With his civic designs, Langer explored the idea of the conjunction of landmark and landscape and his designs typically incorporated a harmonious setting for the architecture. Inspired by Queensland's flora, fauna and climate, his designs worked with the context in complementary ways and his work on climatic design in architecture has been called 'pioneering'.[20] Fundamental to his designs, he sited buildings and outdoor spaces for optimum orientation, ensured interiors had high levels of natural daylighting and ventilation, and incorporated gardens of Australian plants for the occupation and enjoyment of the users. His designs were typified by modern, highly-functional spaces that were fit for purpose, yet, had a degree of flexibility of use. Langer set new standards for design in Queensland.[21]
\nThe work of the MRD was a major influence on the shaping and development of Queensland settlements, especially Brisbane,[22] and also on the increasing prosperity of the state during the second half of the twentieth century. In January 1960 (Sir) Charles Barton was appointed Commissioner of Main Roads. Barton made a major push to modernise the existing road network into an extensive metropolitan highway and intercity freeway network and to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of the department.[23] Based on studies by leading transport specialists following American precedents, the department drafted and implemented long term programs of road upgrades and freeway construction.[24] These programs expanded and the department grew to become a primary division of the Queensland Government with considerable authority.[25]
\nOn 1 July 1963 the first Road Plan of Queensland, a 20 year plan to build and upgrade roads to ensure no town was too far from a declared main road, encouraging social and economic development of rural areas, came into effect. The plan was visionary and required a well-organised and highly-functional department.
\nFurther road planning was facilitated by Queensland Government transport studies for major centres in the 1960s and early 1970s. The Brisbane Transportation Study, jointly commissioned in 1964 by the MRD and the Brisbane City Council, and undertaken by American transport planners Wilbur Smith and Associates, recommended a series of freeways, expressways and bridges, although only some of these were built. Under Barton, the MRD was also reshaped. Through operational and attitudinal changes he introduced a 'private sector' business mode to achieve efficiency.[26] He also increased decentralisation, appointing an Assistant Commissioner and Divisional Engineer each at Townsville, Rockhampton and Brisbane, and a Divisional Engineer at Toowoomba.
\nSite preparation for the new MRD head office at Spring Hill began on 15 July 1963.[27] Approximately 15,300 cubic metres of earth was excavated and a reinforced concrete retaining wall up to nine metres high was built around three sides of the excavation to create a level platform on the sloping site.[28]
\nThe government decided that Brisbane architect Colin Tesch would be responsible for construction documentation and administration of the contract. In June 1964 Queensland's State Government Insurance Office (SGIO) agreed to purchase the land from the MRD, pay for construction, and then lease the building back to the MRD for a 40 year term. [29]
\nCP Hornick & Son Pty Ltd, the largest privately-owned construction company in Queensland at the time, constructed the building.[30] To deal with the MRD's ongoing accommodation shortage during construction of its new head office, a nearby partially-erected building on Dickens Street was purchased and completed to MRD requirements, for occupation in late 1965.
\nConstruction of the new head office commenced in July 1965.[31] By this time the number of vehicles registered in Queensland had risen from 363,878 in 1958, to 541,198 in 1965.[32] To deal with this rise in vehicle registrations, the counter section of the new head office was designed to have ten times more public space than the old Albert Street office.[33]
\nLanger's design for the MRD building, the largest of his career, expressed his architectural principles. He described it as being a 'sculptural' landmark.[34] Others described at the time as vast and imposing.[35] Yet, he employed techniques so that it would 'fit' within its context, including stepping the building back from its boundaries so that it would not cast shadow onto the adjacent allotments[36] and not overwhelm them with its scale, an extensive landscaping treatment around the building, and a 'delightful'[37] screen of custom-designed breeze blocks facing Wedd Street to conceal the basement car park.
\nThe building included an expansive public forecourt on Boundary Street, a typical characteristic of Langer's work. Approximately 21m wide by 72m long, it included lawns, gardens with Australian plants, and a large pond with fountain jets to cool the surrounding air. Langer envisioned the forecourt as an important public space for visitors to Spring Hill and to the building.[38]
\nA recurrent inclusion in Langer's works, the building featured a modern allusion to a classical, grand colonnade at the primary entrance. Across the width of the ground floor and encompassing the ground and first floors, the rhythmic verticals and lintel of the concrete structural frame was expressed, smooth finished and painted white, contrasting with the dark glazing adjacent.
\nThe building's structure and materials were modern, rational, and 'honest', consistent with Langer's principles. The structure comprised a grid of concrete columns supporting concrete floor slabs, freeing the floor plan from loadbearing partitions, which maximised the flexibility of interior layouts.[39] The vertical circulation, toilets and shower rooms, tea rooms, and other shared facilities were grouped in a central core. In this way, the floor plan was sensible and efficient and was repeated up the building. Principal materials were self-finishing, expressing their inherent character and beauty, with a noticeable use of Queensland-sourced materials for a 'natural', decorative effect. Where practical, Langer eliminated suspended ceilings from the design.[40]
\nLanger typically exploited passive lighting and ventilation in intelligent and uncomplicated ways and for the MRD building he included simple methods to achieve this. Parallel to the street, the long, narrow plan form (approximately 71m by 16m) was oriented with its long sides facing north-east and south-west.[41] These elevations were highly-glazed, comprising a grid of large, double-glazed, operable windows. A critical requirement for the drafting work of the department, this created interiors that were naturally well-lit and well-insulated, and allowed passive ventilation. The glazing was sheltered by a projecting 'egg-crate' of concrete. The northern side had a deeper projection to block direct sun, reducing heat gain and glare. The west and east elevations were predominantly windowless to occlude the harsh, low sun and were built of concrete to provide a thermal mass quality. In contrast, the photographic and computational spaces that required highly-controlled light and ventilation conditions were located in the basement levels, which had deep floor plans and limited fenestration.
\nAn upturn in the city's economy and a modernising of the building codes that included a removal of building height limits in 1964 saw a considerable increase in the construction of highrise office buildings in Brisbane.[42] Between 1950 and 1965 few office highrise buildings were constructed in Brisbane. These included: Mutual Life & Citizens (MLC) Insurance Building (1955); Friendly Society Building (1957), and; Taxation Building (1961).[43] However, by the middle of 1964, 20 highrise office buildings were in the course of construction in the Brisbane CBD.[44] The number of buildings constructed between 1965 and the end of 1970 far exceeded the previous 15 years. These included: Pearl Assurance Building, Eagle Towers, and Commonwealth Savings Bank Building (1966); Manufacturers Mutual Insurance (MMI) Building, and Main Roads Department Building (1967); Temperance & General (T&G) Insurance Building (1969), and; Westpac Bank Building, and Mount Isa Mines (MIM) Building (1970).
\nHighrise office buildings designed and constructed between c1950 and c1970 are a specific type of architecture that evolved under particular circumstances. The type clearly represents the excitement, prosperity, and vision of Australia and indicates the economic rationalism and progress in the period. Indicating their status, they were often ceremoniously opened by important dignitaries. In cities nationally and internationally, Modernist architects were unencumbered by traditions when designing this new type, challenging aesthetic and symbolic values, and the provision of public and private amenity. Their impact was unprecedented and it was not until critical analysis of tall buildings in the late 1960s that the approach to highrise development changed. Designed in a time when Australia was little concerned about the ethics of energy consumption, typical highrises exploited this abundance. Orientation and shading was generally dismissed and windows were inoperable, relying on mechanical air-conditioning. Floor plates were vast, relying on artificial light. However, some architects designed intelligent buildings that were connected to the traditions of architecture and were better attuned to their environment.[45] Sophisticated in its design, Langer's MRD Building is representative of the better designs in Queensland of the period.
\nThe principal characteristics of highrise office buildings designed and constructed in the 1950s and 1960s are: remarkable height to footprint ratio; an expressive and all-encompassing Modernist aesthetic; reinforced concrete construction; a 'glamorous' treatment of the ground floor/primary entry; an urban, public space used as setting for the building; rationalisation and repetition of the floor plan; and integration of state-of-the-art office technology and staff facilities.
\nThe new head office for the Main Roads Department possessed these principal characteristics. The 50 metre tall building comprised three large basement levels, a generously-proportioned ground level with a mezzanine, a tower of nine levels, and a roof-level caretaker's flat. The building had a huge gross floor area of 33,000 square metres and upon completion was the largest reinforced concrete office building in Queensland.[46] The principal public function of the building, vehicle registration, occupied the ground and mezzanine floors within impressive, robust, and dramatic spaces. The double-height main reception area was well-lit through 'immense' glazing onto the forecourt and featured striking marble, timber, and terrazzo surfaces.[47] Artworks commissioned for the building were prominently displayed.[48] Designed as a showplace for the Queensland Government, the building and grounds were floodlit at night.[49]
\nAs well as occupying pre-existing buildings, the Queensland Government constructed purpose-built buildings to accommodate its administration and departmental offices in Brisbane. These buildings were reflective of the circumstances of the government and illustrate its operations over time.
\nThe Main Roads Department building was purpose-designed, accommodating the Main Roads Department's diverse uses in repetitive and rationalised floor plates. Although offices and administration areas comprised the majority, the building also included: basement car parking; food facilities for the staff - a large cafeteria with kitchen, kiosk for snacks, and lunch room; staff training facilities - a large, double-height auditorium with the latest projection equipment; a technical and recreation library; a room for displaying models of major Main Roads projects, and; a large air-conditioning plant and a caretaker's flat. The building was designed to incorporate modern office technology. The department's technical and commercial electronic data processing divisions were accommodated in the basement, including their state of the art computer, the largest in Queensland at the time.[50] The computer was serviced by a special, independent air-conditioning system, designed to keep the computer room at a constant temperature and humidity[51], with the heat generated by the computer absorbed by the ornamental ponds at the front of the building.[52] A system of vacuum message tubes connected all sections of the building[53] and there were telephones and a master clock system, CCTV, a teleprinter system, a Xerox machine, and a dumbwaiter for the movement of files between floors.[54]
\nThe building was completed in August 1967. In September the MRD moved more than 1250 personnel, from eight offices, into its new $4.5 million head office. The building was officially opened on 6 November 1967 by GFR Nicklin, Premier of Queensland, who stated that ‘this new building, with its modern appointments, the latest business equipment - including a computer - research and design facilities, will greatly enhance the department's work and its world-class reputation'.[55]
\nThe new head office was commended at the time. It featured in the 7 September 1967 edition of The Queensland Master Builder, which detailed the building's construction techniques and highlighted its modern technology. According to the MRD's magazine Queensland Roads, there were hopes ‘that the construction of this building with its landscaped gardens and surroundings in the old Spring Hill area of Brisbane, [would] provide an incentive for other businesses and developers to follow the example of the Main Roads Department.'[56] Commissioner Barton viewed the MRD as ‘a giant consulting engineers and construction organisation', and stated ‘why should a department like Main Roads be any different from private business ... [W]e hope that when our officers are dealing with people they will get the idea that we are here to do business just as efficiently and effectively as anybody else in the community'.[57] The Courier-Mail added that ‘the building design, layout of office space and staff facilities, gives the Main Roads Department an air of big business, not the traditional Government department organisation', while the Mines and Main Roads Minister, RE Camm, claimed that the new building ‘would be one of the most effective ways of organising Main Roads personnel and facilities for a bolder attack on the problems of the future'.[58]
\nThe new 'luxury' head office was only part of the MRD's building program. By the end of the 1960s the department had also constructed new buildings to accommodate its new regional offices in Rockhampton, Cloncurry, Barcaldine, Toowoomba, Mackay, and Warwick, which had responsibility over their local main roads.[59]
\nIn c1969 the artwork Communications by important Queensland sculptor, Leonard Shillam, was installed at the MRD building in Spring Hill. It was commissioned for the building in 1968, made in cast aluminium over painted concrete, and depicted a bas relief map with a rural area and urban area connected by a road.[60]
\nLanger died in 1969. As an architect and town planner, he had a pronounced impact upon the built environment of Australia, especially in Queensland. Having a deep belief in community responsibilities, particularly in cultural matters, he had been active in the Royal Australian Institute of Architects; first president (1952) of the Queensland division of the Royal Australian Planning Institute; a founder and chairman (1966-68) of the Queensland Association of Landscape Architects; and a member (1963-69) of the National Trust of Queensland. Important examples of his architectural work include the Langer residence at St Lucia [QHR 600317] (1950); Mackay Sugar Research Station [QHR 602642] (1953); Lennon's Hotel Broadbeach (1957, demolished) and Lennon's Hotel Toowoomba (1957); St John's Lutheran Church, Bundaberg [QHR 602815] (1960); Kingaroy Town Hall and Civic Square (1963); Assembly Hall at Ipswich Girls Grammar [QHR 600565] (1964); and St Peter's Lutheran College Chapel [QHR 602816] (1968). He was responsible for notable urban ideas of the 1950s and 1960s, including choosing the sites of the Sydney Opera House and Federal Parliament House; the pedestrian shopping mall in Queen Street, Brisbane; and the first canal development of the Gold Coast.[61] After his death, both The University of Queensland and The Queensland Institute (later University) of Technology with the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects established annual student prizes in memoriam. His body of work is a clearly-distinguishable exploration of a sub-tropical modernism and is important in the evolution of Queensland architecture, with Langer described as 'arguably the most influential architect of the 1950s'.[62]
\nFrom the head office, the MRD administered its important work. Motor vehicle ownership continued to rise and the highway network in Queensland was expanded substantially in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s and 2000s the department's work became more sophisticated to cope with increased traffic. By the end of the 2010s the department was responsible for the state's largest built community asset - the Queensland state-controlled road network, worth over $46 billion and carrying more than 85% of the state's traffic. Examples of major main roads projects co-ordinated from the head office include: the Southeast Freeway (1972), the Beef Roads and Developmental Roads schemes of the 1970s, the Bald Hills to Burpengary Deviation of the Bruce Highway (1977) and many subsequent upgrades and extensions of the highway, the Gateway Arterial Road and Bridge (1986), and the Pacific Motorway (2000).[63]
\nOver time the head office building was altered. In c1974 the fountain jets of the forecourt pond were altered to stacked boulder waterfalls.[64] The building was also altered internally to accommodate different office fit-outs. In 2006 the forecourt of the building was remodelled to a design by architects, BAC Group to provide building code compliant pedestrian access to the front entrance. This work included replacement of the original awning with a modern, steel and glass awning, adding two concrete ramps to the entrance bridge, altering the forecourt gardens and ponds, and installing the sculpture The Red Cube[65] at the front of the building.
\nWhile the building was being painted in 2007 it was identified approximately 6% of the render on the northern sun hoods needed repair. The hoods were investigated by structural engineers, no sign of structural distress was identified, and trial repairs of the render were undertaken in 2008.[66]
\nIn March 2009 the MRD merged with Queensland Transport to form the Department of Transport and Main Roads, which continued the control of the state's main roads. In 2012 the department vacated the MRD building. It was sold to Asian Pacific Group Pty Ltd in December 2013.
","criteria":"Notable for its landmark attributes and expressive architectural qualities, the place is important for its aesthetic significance.
The former Main Roads Department Building is highly visible from the surrounding suburb and maintains an imposing streetscape presence. Modernist in style, the building's simplified sculptural form is distinguished through a variety of treatments, including off-form textured concrete, stone spandrel panels, facebrick, egg-crate screening and breeze blocks. The abstract, graphic layout of the forecourt and side gardens, including pond and entrance bridge, and; the use of high-quality Queensland materials and artworks in the public reception areas complete the design.
|Designed to accommodate the department and to express its work, the place has a strong and special association with the Main Roads Department, which had a crucial influence on the economic and social development of Queensland during the twentieth century. It served as the head office for the department for 45 years.
|The former Main Roads Department Building (1967) is important in demonstrating the Queensland Government's response to the rise in mass motoring in the second half of the twentieth century. Purpose-built to consolidate and modernise the department's activities associated with expanding and upgrading the state's road network, it was the largest reinforced concrete office building in Queensland at the time of its construction, illustrating the importance of Main Roads operations and contribution to the state's economic advancement.
The place is also important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland architecture as a good, intact example of a substantial, architect-designed building in a Modernist style adapted to suit local conditions.
|The place is a good, intact and representative example of the work of architect, Dr Karl Langer, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of his work. Most notably, it: displays a hybrid of subtle Classical allusions and Modernist architectural devices including a forecourt and stylised colonnade front; features characteristic simplified forms, decoration and spatial arrangements and a restrained use of high-quality materials; is sited and its form is manipulated for optimum orientation for natural light and ventilation of the interior, and; is designed to be fit for purpose. As the largest commission of his career, it is a rare illustration of Langer's principles applied on a large scale.
The place is a good, intact and representative example of a mid-twentieth century highrise office building in Queensland. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of this type, including: notable height to footprint ratio; expressive and all-encompassing Modernist aesthetic; reinforced concrete construction; refined treatment of the ground floor/primary entry; urban, public space used as setting for the building; rationalisation and repetition of the floor plan; and integration of state-of-the-art office technology and staff facilities.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion E | Criterion H | Criterion A | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":35199,"place_ref":602845,"name":"Toowong State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"50 Quinn Street (37 St Osyth Street)","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2014-11-28","description":"Toowong State School occupies a 0.86ha site on a hilltop in Toowong, bounded by St Osyth Street to the east, residential properties to the south, Quinn Street to the west, and residential properties and the end of Kate Street to the north. The school buildings stand at the eastern end of the property with a playing field, new sports hall and a lower garden area at the western end. The levelled school grounds are edged by concrete retaining walls. The main entrance is via a brick gateway from St Osyth Street with a secondary entrance from Kate Street.
The school complex comprises six long, narrow buildings, linked together by verandahs. All are timber-framed and clad, highset on concrete stumps and accessed by timber stairs. They have a variety of roof forms, all clad in corrugated metal sheeting. From east to west, the buildings are:
- the 1917 Open-air Annexe;
- the 1910 Department of Public Works building;
- the 1887 Ferguson building;
- the 1880 Ferguson building; and
- the 1924 (south) and 1927 (north) Sectional School buildings.
The understorey is partially enclosed to form toilet blocks, storage areas and additional classrooms. Constructed at different times using a variety of materials, none of these understorey enclosures are of cultural heritage significance.
1917 Open-air Annexe (enclosed 1924)
The Open-air Annexe is orientated north-south with a west verandah. An extension to the northern end (ca.1956) is not of cultural heritage significance. The building is clad in chamferboards and has banks of timber-framed awning windows in the eastern wall. The roof form is hipped-gable at the southern end and gabled at the extended northern end.
The verandah wall is single-skin with exposed timber framing, and the raked verandah ceiling is lined with timber, tongue and groove, v-jointed boards. A timber ventilation flap at floor level survives along the verandah wall. Part of the timber, three-rail balustrade has been replaced by bagracks at the northern end. The verandah doors are timber, braced and ledged double doors with fanlights above, and windows are double-hung timber sashes.
The original large, single classroom is divided by a later single-skin timber partition to form two classrooms, connected by a timber, half-glazed double door. The walls are lined with vertical, v-jointed boards. A high, horizontal timber rail marks the height of former openings in the exterior walls. The coved ceiling is lined with decorative pressed metal and metal tie rods are exposed within the room.
1910 Department of Public Works building
The 1910 Department of Public Works building is orientated east-west with a north verandah and an enclosed south verandah with a projecting teachers' room. It is clad in weatherboards and has a gable roof. The gable end walls feature triangular, louvred ventilation panels at the apex and windows sheltered by a skillion hood with decorative window brackets. These windows are later glass louvres inserted in the original window openings. The south verandah has been enclosed with weatherboards and timber-framed awning windows. The former teachers' room has early windows in the southern wall, which are individual, timber-framed, horizontally centre-pivoting windows. These retain a window hood with decorative timber brackets.
The north verandah has a raked ceiling lined with v-jointed tongue and groove boards; a single-skin verandah wall with exposed framing and a section of cross bracing (in the location of a former door); and part of its timber, three rail balustrade has been replaced by bagracks. All windows and doors are later replacements. Part of the northwest corner of the building has been removed to allow a connection between the verandah and a walkway along the southern side of the adjacent 1887 Ferguson building. The walls of the removed section are lined with flat sheeting and a half-glazed double door opens on to the walkway.
The original large single classroom of the interior is divided into two classrooms by a later partition lined with flat sheeting with cover strips. The walls and coved ceiling are lined with v-jointed tongue and groove boards. The ceiling has square lattice ceiling vents and metal tie rods are exposed in the space. Doors and windows have been removed from the south verandah wall and new doorways created, however the original window framing and sills remain.
The enclosed south verandah has a single-skin verandah wall with a section of cross bracing in the location of a former door. Rows of metal hat hooks are attached to this wall below the former windows. The raked verandah ceiling is lined with v-jointed boards. The former hat enclosures at either end of the verandah remain, indicated by the single-skin walls with exposed framing. The teacher's room is lined with v-jointed boards on the walls and coved ceiling, which has a square lattice ventilation panel.
1887 Ferguson building
The 1887 Ferguson building is aligned north-south with verandahs on its long sides. It has a gable roof and is clad in chamferboards. Extensions to the north end of the building (1960, containing a staff room), to the eastern verandah and former teachers' room (ca.1960, containing offices), and a ca.1950s walkway and awning along the south facade are not of cultural heritage significance.
The south gable end wall has a triangular, louvred ventilation panel at its apex (boarded over), eaves lined with diagonal timber boards, and decorative eaves brackets. The western verandah has a raked ceiling lined with diagonal timber beaded boards above exposed rafters, some stop-chamfered verandah posts, and a balustrade of bagracks. It connects at the southern end to the 1881 Ferguson building via a passageway with an early double door and fanlight. The eastern verandah is mostly enveloped by an extension but is discernible by its chamferboard cladding (made internal by the extension). The former teachers' room has a coved ceiling lined with timber boards.
The building retains three sets of original tall, vertically centre-pivoting windows in the side walls. Windows in the southern wall have been replaced by glass louvres with a section of awning windows above. One early, half-glazed double door with tall, vertically centre-pivoting fanlights survives in its original position in the centre of the west wall. The opposite door has a similar fanlight and a later door.
The interior walls are lined with vertical v-jointed boards, with some areas of flat sheeting. The gable end walls are only lined up to the height of the side walls, revealing the original single-skin construction above. Abutting an extension, the north gable end wall retains a louvred ventilation panel and a section of later windows despite no longer being an exterior wall. The raked ceilings are lined with diagonal, wide, beaded timber boards, and the exposed Queen post roof trusses have decorative features including stop-chamfered edges and turned timber pendants.
1880 Ferguson building
The 1880 Ferguson building has a T-shaped plan accommodating two large classrooms: an eastern classroom orientated east-west with a north verandah and enclosed south verandah; and a western classroom orientated north-south with an enclosed west verandah. The building is clad in chamferboards and the gable roof has four long dormer windows over the eastern classroom. The gable end walls of the western classroom have banks of early awning windows; skillion window hoods with decorative brackets; decorative timberwork such as eaves brackets; and small ventilation panels at the gable apex.
The north verandah has a timber balustrade; stop-chamfered verandah posts and beams; and a raked ceiling lined with diagonal wide timber beaded boards above exposed rafters. Original tall, vertically centre-pivoting windows survive at the western end of the verandah wall. Also at the western end is a former hat room enclosure with metal hooks attached to the walls. The enclosed south verandah retains stop-chamfered verandah posts and beams, and a raked ceiling lined with diagonal timber beaded boards above exposed rafters. The enclosed western verandah retains a raked ceiling lined with diagonal timber beaded boards above exposed rafters; rows of metal hooks mounted to the verandah wall; and remnant walls of a former hatroom at the northern end.
The interiors of both classrooms are lined with vertical, v-jointed, tongue and groove boards and have raked ceilings lined with diagonal beaded boards above exposed Queen post trusses. The ceiling of the eastern classroom also has dormer windows and horizontal sections lined with v-jointed boards. The gable end walls of the western classroom are only lined up to the height of the side walls, revealing the original single-skin construction above. An early glazed partition and door separates the two classrooms. Mounted on the wall next to this partition is a large cedar memorial Honour Board, listing the names of former students and teachers who served in World War I. A timber, single-skin partition has been inserted at the northern end of the western classroom, creating a passageway between the north and west verandahs.
1924 and 1927 Sectional School buildings
The Sectional School buildings are both aligned east-west with enclosed verandahs along one side, casement windows along the other, and blank end walls. They have gable roofs and are clad in weatherboards with packed boards in the gable ends walls to provide ventilation. The attached teacher's room on the north side of the 1924 building has a hipped roof, early casement windows and a skillion window hood with battened timber brackets. A single casement window is also located on the southern wall of the 1927 building where a former hat room enclosure survives.
The 1924 building, which was extended at either end in ca.1960, contains three classrooms. The walls are lined with timber, v-jointed tongue and groove boards and one early, single-skin, timber partition wall remains. The central and western classrooms have a coved ceiling lined with v-jointed boards, with exposed metal tie rods and square lattice ceiling vents. The eastern classroom has a flat ceiling lined with flat sheeting. The former verandah wall, which has had large openings cut into it, is single-skin with some sections of cross bracing. The verandah ceiling and the walls and ceiling of the attached teacher's room are all lined with v-jointed boards.
The 1927 building also contains three classrooms, with the walls and coved ceiling lined with v-jointed boards. The ceiling has exposed metal tie rods and square lattice ceiling vents. Large openings have been created in the dividing partition walls and new walls built to create a smaller room in the centre of the building and larger rooms at either end. The enclosed verandah retains its ceiling lining of v-jointed boards and early double-hung sash windows survive in the single-skin verandah wall.
The school retains a collection of early school furniture and memorabilia, including brass bells. The location of a time capsule is marked by a plaque set into the ground on the northern side of the 1880 Ferguson building.
Due to the sloping terrain, high concrete retaining walls form the perimeter of the school property. These are topped by a concrete capping with an angled top. A variety of mature trees are found throughout the school grounds, particularly along the south and west boundaries. Specimens include a sausage tree (Kigelia), Frangipani (Plumeria), Poinciana (Delonix regia), and Paperbark (possibly Melaleuca leucadendra). Views of the surrounding neighbourhood and towards the Brisbane CBD are obtained from the school buildings.
","history":"Toowong State School opened on 22 January 1880, but moved to its present site between Quinn and St Osyth Streets in 1910. The original building was an 1880 Ferguson building with an 1887 addition. At its new site, a Department of Public Works designed classroom (1910), an Open-air Annexe (1917), and two Sectional School buildings (1924 and 1927) were added. Retaining walls were constructed as relief work during in the 1930s; and mature plantings stand along the southern boundary. The school has been in continuous operation since establishment and has been a focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activities.
\nTraditionally the land of the Turrbal people, European settlement of the Toowong area began with the sale of land in the 1850s. By the 1860s the area, within three miles of Brisbane city, was noted for its detached villas on large suburban allotments along the river and on its ridges, and was favoured as a residential area by Brisbane's elite. With the extension of the railway line to Ipswich via Toowong in 1875, the settlement grew rapidly. Subdivision of large properties for residential development began and the area's growth led to the proclamation of Toowong Shire in 1880.[1]
\nWith Toowong's rising population came demand for education in the area.[2] A site in Aston Street was offered for sale to the Toowong State School Committee by architect Richard Gailey for £300 with a donation of £150. The remaining money required for the construction of a school building and a teacher's residence was raised by the local community. The new school (buildings and land), costing a total of £1162 14s, was constructed by contractor NB Headland and opened on the 22 January 1880. Pupils came from great distances, including from Indooroopilly, Milton, and across the river from West End.[3]
\nThe provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. National schools were established in 1848 in New South Wales and continued in Queensland following the colony's creation in 1859. After the introduction of the Education Act 1860, Queensland's public schools grew from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875.[4] The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and the establishment of the Department of Public Instruction. This further standardised the provision of education, and despite difficulties, achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[5]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school's construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and community halls reinforced these connections and provided a venue for a wide range of community events in schools across Queensland.[6]
\nThe first building at Toowong State School was built to a standard plan supplied by the Queensland Government. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[7]
\nIn 1879 the Department of Public Instruction appointed its own Superintendent of Buildings to be responsible for the design of all government schools, the first appointee being the builder-architect Robert Ferguson. Ferguson immediately revised the design of schools to address deficiencies in ventilation and lighting and this period of school design was pivotal in this regard. Ferguson introduced tall and decorative ventilation spires to the roof and louvred panels to the gable apex to vent the classrooms. Additional and larger windows were incorporated with high sill heights that did not allow draughts and sunlight to enter the room. The overall form was lowset on brick piers and in larger schools multiple classrooms were arranged symmetrically around a parade ground. The designs remained single-skin to eliminate 'receptacles for germs and vermin' but were lined externally rather than internally to address the previous weathering problem. Importantly, Ferguson's buildings were decoratively-treated with a variety of elaborate timber work and were heralded by educationalists as 'far superior in design, material and workmanship to any we have before built.[8]
\nIn 1885 Robert Ferguson was replaced as Superintendent of Buildings by his brother John Ferguson who continued to implement his brother's designs until John's death in 1893, when responsibility for school buildings passed back to the Department of Public Works.[9] The Ferguson period (1879-1893) is distinct and marked by extensive redesign of school buildings including associated structures and furniture. The Ferguson brothers' designs were reflective of education requirements of the time, responsive to criticism of previous designs, revolutionary in terms of internal environmental quality, technically innovative, popular and successful and provided a long-lasting legacy of good educational design.[10]
\nThe school building at Toowong State School was built to a standard Ferguson design.[11] It was constructed to accommodate 154 children, but could comfortably seat 200. An article published in the Brisbane Courier at the time praised it as a model for future school buildings in the colony.[12]
\nThe lowset teaching building was described as being 50ft x 18ft (15.24 x 5.49m), with a 35ft x 18ft (10.67 x 5.49m) cross wing at one end, and 8ft (2.44m) wide verandas. Ventilation and light was provided by windows in the side and gable end walls. Ventilators at the apex of each gable encouraged airflow. The exposed internal framework, made from ironbark, was dressed and stop chamfered to give the interiors a ‘neat and finished appearance in the absence of lining'.[13] The wall cladding was 6 x 1in (15 x 2.5cm) beech chamferboards, which were wrought and beaded on the inside. Floors, platforms and the infants' gallery, which was located in the cross wing, were constructed of white-ant resistant beech wood, supported on ironbark joists and bearers. The roof was clad in ironbark shingles, which were expected to last 25 years.[14]
\nThe school was extended in 1887 with the addition of another large classroom of a similar Ferguson design. It had the additional feature of a washroom attached to the verandah, which was later altered and enlarged to become the Principal's office. The tender of £406 for the construction of the new building was won by contractors Bromaby and Bowden in October 1886. The new classroom darkened the interior of the earlier classrooms, but this was alleviated when dormer windows were added in 1907.[15]
\nToowong experienced sustained growth into the twentieth century. On 19 August 1903 Toowong was declared a town under the provision of the Local Authorities Act 1902. In the same year, the tram service extended to the Toowong Cemetery and later along Dean Street and Woodstock Road to a terminus. By 1911 the population of the Toowong municipality was 6286, up 45% from 1891.[16]
\nThe growth of Toowong State School and the need for a more conveniently placed school for Toowong pupils, after the opening of schools at Milton and Indooroopilly, led to the suggestion that the school be moved.[17] In 1909 an elevated 2-acre site (0.81ha) in a more central location, between Quinn and St Osyth streets, was proposed as suitable for increased facilities and to accommodate 450 pupils.[18] Subsequently, in June 1910, a tender by J Macarthur for £1565 was accepted by the government for the re-erection of the school on its new site and for the construction of an additional teaching building.[19]
\nThe building constructed on the new site in 1910 was a standard design (Type C/T2) by the Department of Public Works, which retained responsibility for schools until 2013. Under the Department's stewardship, and through the involvement of some of Queensland's most innovative architects, school buildings became more advanced and diverse. A period of marked experimentation in school design occurred between 1893 and 1914, with a primary focus on improving the natural light and ventilation of classroom interiors.[20] Various combinations of roof ventilators and ducting; ceiling and wall vents; and larger windows of varying sill heights and dormer windows were trialled. For timber-framed buildings, single-skin construction was favoured for its heat dissipation ability and economy. Often the building was lined on the interior rather than exterior, providing a smooth, cleanable surface that provided better interior light. The resulting externally-exposed stud framing was protected from the weather by wide verandahs, which had the added benefit of shading the building and providing makeshift teaching space. The introduction of highset buildings began in the late 1890s, providing better ventilation and additional teaching and covered play space underneath. This was a noticeable new direction and this form became a characteristic of Queensland schools.[21]
\nThe 1910 Department of Public Works building constructed at Toowong incorporated many of these new design features.[22] It was highset with space beneath the building for a lavatory and water tank, as well as play space. It had a roof ridge ventilator and wider windows with lower sills to provide better light and ventilation. The width of the building was greater than the Ferguson buildings, 25 feet (7.6m), and hat enclosures were provided at the ends of the verandahs.
\nThe school began operating from its new site in September 1910 and all works were completed in the following year.[23] The Hon. EH McCartney, Minister for Lands, in the absence of the Minister for Education, officially opened the school in May 1911.[24] Additional land on the corner of Quinn Street and Sylvan Road was purchased in 1912, intended for playing fields, however few improvements were made to the site until the early 1950s when tennis courts were constructed.[25]
\nDuring World War I two additions were made to the school. A cedar honour board commemorating 115 former pupils and teachers who served during World War I was unveiled at the school in 1917 by Mr EH Macartney MLA.[26] For the total cost of £30, Messrs Patterson constructed the board and H Barker completed the writing.[27] Now housed in the library (the 1880 Ferguson building), the honour board was the site of wreath laying at ANZAC Day commemorations.[28]
\nSecondly, the growth of Toowong State School's enrolments to more than 500 children prompted the construction of an additional building, in the form of an Open-air Annexe, in 1917. Open-air Annexes were introduced as a standard design in 1913 by the Department of Public Instruction.[29] This design was developed in response to the contemporary medical belief, advocated by Dr Eleanor Bourne the first Medical Inspector of Schools from 1911, that adequate ventilation and high levels of natural light were necessary for child health; coupled with the need to build inexpensive, portable schools. Accordingly, school architecture evolved through iteration and experimentation to improve interior light and ventilation. The Open-air Annexe achieved maximum ventilation and natural light; it contained only one large room and had only one wall, the western verandah wall. The other sides were open with only adjustable canvas blinds for enclosure. Ideally, they were high-set, thereby increasing the ventilation and providing further shelter underneath. The design was praised by educationalists as conducive to the health of pupils.[30]
\nOfficially opened by the Minister for Public Instruction, The Hon. H F Hardacre, on 8 September 1917,[31] the Open-air Annexe was located at the eastern end of the school complex, linked to the 1910 Department of Public Works building by its verandah. It was a standard design, highset with a west-facing verandah and timber brackets supporting the wall posts of the remaining three sides. It contained a single 25 feet (7.6m) wide classroom and featured a coved ceiling of pressed metal. A ventilation flap was included along the base of the verandah wall.[32]
\nAlthough many Open-air Annexes were constructed across Queensland, they proved to be inadequate and were discontinued in 1923. The open sides provided limited weather protection, better climate control was needed, and the canvas blinds deteriorated quickly. All Open-air Annexes in Queensland were modified to provide better enclosure.[33] Accordingly, in 1924 the Open-air Annexe at Toowong was enclosed and casement windows installed in the exterior walls.
\nDuring the 1920s, the school population continued to rise towards its 1927 peak of 895 pupils.[34] As the school could only accommodate 570 pupils and enrolment was expected to rise to 700 in 1924,[35] an additional wing and improvements to the school grounds were requested in November 1923.[36]
\nIn 1924 and again in 1927 teaching buildings were constructed at Toowong State School to a standard design by the Department of Public Works. These buildings were of a type called the Sectional School. Improvements to achieve an optimum classroom culminated in 1920 with the Sectional School type, a highset timber structure. This fundamentally new design combined all the best features of previous types and implemented theories of an ideal education environment. It proved very successful and was used unaltered until 1950. This type was practical, economical, and satisfied educational requirements and climatic needs. Most importantly, it allowed for the orderly expansion of schools over time. By late 1914, in accordance with the accepted principles, buildings were optimally orientated to maximise natural light from the south. Before the Sectional School, solar orientation was not a key consideration and all school buildings were positioned in relation to the street and property boundaries. The Sectional School type had only one verandah typically on the northern side, allowing the southern wall, with a maximum number of windows, to be unobstructed. The building was designed so that the blank end wall could be detached as the school grew and the building extended in sections, hence the name. This led to the construction of long narrow buildings of many classrooms - a distinctive feature of Queensland schools.[37]
\nThe two Sectional School buildings at Toowong were constructed at the western end of the school complex, connected by verandahs to the 1880 Ferguson building to form a U-shaped courtyard. Due to the slope of the school grounds at that time, the buildings were lowset along the courtyard side, accessed by short flights of steps. Both contained three classrooms with a verandah along the courtyard side, however, the proportions were slightly different, with the 1927 building (north) being longer and narrower than the 1924 building (south). The 1924 building had an attached teachers' room and an additional verandah along its eastern side, and both buildings had hat room enclosures on their verandahs. Windows were banks of casements with fanlights.[38]
\nAs part of the government's unemployment relief program during the Great Depression, extensive work was carried out on the school grounds in the 1930s. This program began in 1932 when newly-elected Premier William Forgan-Smith instituted a capital works program focussed on building modern infrastructure to provide relief work for unemployed Queenslanders. The ‘improvement' of schools was a primary aspect of the scheme.[39] The relief work program ended in 1938, transitioning into a permanent, long-term, capital works program.
\nExtensive funding was given for school grounds improvement work, including fencing, and general ground levelling for play areas involving terracing and retaining walls. This work also created many large, flat school ovals within school grounds, which prior to this period, were mostly cleared of trees but not landscaped. These then became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element.[40]
\nAt Toowong State School relief work included levelling the school grounds, raising the school buildings, replacing all wooden stumps with concrete, and installing sewerage. Concrete retaining walls around the school perimeter were constructed between 1932 and 1935. Dangerous trees were removed from the school grounds and replaced with shade trees under a planting programme running from the 1930s until at least 1980. These works provided the pupils with more playing and sitting areas underneath the now highset school buildings, as well as resolving the issue of massive water runoff onto neighbouring properties caused by siting the school on the crest of a hill.[41]
\nWorld War II brought the connection of electricity and the telephone to the school, when No. 53 Squadron Air Training Corps was given permission to use three school rooms, two nights a week.[42]
\nIn c1945 the teaching buildings at Toowong State School were altered to improve lighting and ventilation. The dormer windows of the 1880 Ferguson building were enlarged; windows in the gable end walls of both Ferguson buildings were widened and lowered so that the sill was 3 feet (0.9m) above the floor, with sun hoods modified accordingly; and sun hoods were added to the windows of the former Open-air Annexe. Other changes at this time included the removal of seating galleries in the Ferguson buildings, modification to some doors, and the installation of folding partitions between classrooms in the 1927 Sectional School.[43]
\nLike many suburbs of Brisbane, Toowong's population grew after World War II, as the nation experienced unprecedented population growth, and changes to the school reflected this. Two new classrooms, a health room and tuckshop were added, while the office and some classrooms were remodelled.[44] There were more improvements to the school grounds. Thirty-four perches (860 sq m) of land were purchased to extend the school ‘paddock' in 1946.[45] Two tennis courts built on the lower playing fields for £1,500 were officially opened in 1951 by Mr Michael Dury, MHR.[46]
\nDuring the 1950s and 60s, the school was enlarged by adding an extra classroom each on the northern sides of the 1887 Ferguson building and the former Open-air Annexe. These extensions were clad externally to match the original buildings and had banks of wide awning windows. Internally, they were lined with flat sheeting and the windows in the former end walls were removed. The 1924 Sectional School building was extended at both ends, its eastern verandah enclosed and the internal partitions modified to create three larger classrooms. Other modifications dating from this period include the addition of an office to the eastern verandah of the 1887 Ferguson building and the extension of its attached teacher's room, the insertion of partitions in the 1887 Ferguson and 1910 Department of Public Works buildings to create smaller classrooms, replacement of timber balustrades with bagracks, extension of verandahs and the addition and relocation of some stairs.[47]
\nThe 1970s were a time of upgrading school facilities. Between 1970 and 1974, reconstruction, drainage and grassing of the top oval occurred, as well as the levelling and grassing of the infants' play area, and the construction of gym towers, platforms and sandpits. More trees were planted and gardens created in the grounds and seats added to the playground. Electricity was installed in each classroom and the library, housed in the 1880 Ferguson building, was upgraded and extended.[48]
\nCentenary celebrations were held in 1980 with a centenary ball, walkathon, fete and reunion day and sports day, as well as the publication of a school history.[49] A new school gate to St Osyth Street was constructed, opened on 29 June 1980 by the Honourable Dr L R Edwards, MLA, Deputy Premier and Treasurer of Queensland, and a time capsule was buried on the northern side of the 1880 Ferguson building, to be retrieved in 2030.
\nOther changes to the school buildings over time include the relocation of doors and internal partitions; replacement of early windows with large banks of glass louvres or awning windows; the enclosure of some verandahs to extend classroom space; and the enclosure of parts of the understory area to create toilets, store rooms and additional classrooms. Recently, a basketball court at the western end of the school grounds was replaced by a sports hall.
\nIn 2014, the school continues to operate from the site established in 1910 and is the only state primary school in Toowong. The school retains early buildings constructed between 1880 and 1927, Depression-era landscaping and mature plantings. The school has served the community since 1880 and taught generations of Toowong students. Since establishment it has been a key social focus for the Toowong community with the grounds and buildings having been the location of many social events.
","criteria":"Queensland schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations. Toowong State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Toowong community. It was established through the efforts of the people of the suburb and has educated generations of Toowong children. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Toowong and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social events, with widespread community support.
|Toowong State School (established in 1880 but moved to its present site in 1910) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland.
With its complex of teaching buildings dating from the 1880s to the 1920s, the place retains excellent, representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies in each period. The Ferguson designed teaching buildings (1880, 1887) are important for integrating changes to improve the practicality and comfort of school buildings and were early standardised designs. The Department of Public Works designed building (1910) illustrates the improvements made to the Ferguson school type. The former Open-air Annexe (1917) demonstrates medical and educational theories of the period which valued adequate ventilation and natural lighting; and the two Sectional School buildings (1925, 1927) demonstrate the culmination of many years of experimental timber school design, providing equally for educational and climatic needs.
|Toowong State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an early Queensland state school complex, comprising a range of building types dating from 1880 to 1927 and incorporating later alterations to improve light and ventilation.
The place retains good, representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to the prevailing government educational philosophies. In particular, the standard designs represented at Toowong are:
Two Ferguson buildings (1880 and 1887) with their large classrooms surrounded by generous verandahs with projecting teacher's rooms; decorative timberwork; ventilation features such as louvred gable vents and the addition of dormer windows; internal features such as raked ceilings with exposed queen post roof trusses; and original doors and windows.
A Department of Public Works designed building (1910) with its highset form; wider plan; generous verandahs with attached teacher's room and former hat room enclosures; ventilation features such as louvred gable vents; coved ceiling and early windows.
An Open-air Annexe (1917, enclosed 1924), with its highset, timber-framed construction; west-facing verandah; single-skin verandah wall with ventilation flap; timber internal wall linings, and coved, pressed metal ceiling with iron tie rods.
Two Sectional School buildings (1924 and 1927) with their gable roofs; verandah along one side; large banks of windows along the opposite side; coved ceiling with metal tie beams and ventilation panels; and subsequent classroom expansion.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion G | Criterion A | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":35398,"place_ref":602838,"name":"Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Harts Road","suburb":"INDOOROOPILLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2014-10-10","description":"The Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens are a public park occupying a (1.21ha) wedge of land on the southern side of Harts Road, Indooroopilly. The park consists of two distinct parts; the northern residential garden, which contains remnant features and plantings of the former residence ‘Somerset'; and the southern sloping lawn which extends south towards the Brisbane River. The park is bounded by private residential properties to the west and Indooroopilly Golf Course to the east. The park and golf course are located on the same lot and separated by a metal pole and cyclone wire fence, which follows an irregular path in a south-west direction from Harts Road. Sweeping views of the golf course and towards the river are obtained from locations in the park, particularly along the south-east boundary.
The most distinctive feature of Thomas Park is its profusion of mature bougainvilleas, which are planted in a variety of configurations throughout the park, including standalone shrubs, long hedges and climbing fences or trees. The bougainvilleas are predominantly the reddish-pink, densely flowering ‘Thomasii' variety (Bougainvillea spectabilis ‘Thomasii'), with a particularly large specimen (the parent plant) located near the former residence site. This type is also formed into long hedges marking the property boundaries and several former garden features. Red, purple, purple-pink, deep pink, white and pink-and-white varieties of bougainvillea can also be found in the park.
The northern residential garden is a triangular shaped, gently sloping plateau of land at the highest point of the site. Much of the original garden layout is evident, with remnants of an ornamental garden fronting Harts Road and service gardens along the rear (southern) edge. Linear elements such as two former driveways, a former pedestrian footpath, long hedges and avenues of mature trees form boundaries between different sections of the garden and divide the public ornamental gardens from the private service gardens, which include a former drying area, former tennis court and former vegetable garden. The sites of the former residence and the former stables are discernable as flat, open areas edged with remnant vegetation. Several individual mature trees are landmark elements in the garden design. The southern sloping lawn is an open area bordered by trees, which falls away steeply along the south-east and southern edges.
The Harts Road boundary is defined by large bougainvillea hedges (of the reddish-pink thomasii variety) interspersed with tall, regularly spaced Cocos Palms (arecastrum romanzoffianum). While there are gaps in both the bougainvillea hedges and the palm avenue, the visual effect of this planting scheme remains intact. A metal trellis archway, of narrow metal poles set in concrete footings, stands at the original pedestrian entrance to the gardens, with the bougainvillea on either side trained to grow over it. A low timber log fence along this boundary is not of cultural heritage significance.
The western boundary, which adjoins seven residential properties, has a number of mature trees along its length. At the northern end, the boundary is lined with large bougainvillea hedges and regularly spaced Cocos palms. South of this section is a very large Weeping Fig (ficus benjamina). Other mature tree species along the western boundary include Poinciana (delonix regia), Mango (mangifera indica), Jacaranda (jacaranda mimosifolia), Small-leaved Fig (ficus obliqua), and Queensland Kauri (agathis robusta). Dense undergrowth of a variety of plant species exists in places, as well as cleared areas where encroachments by neighbouring properties have occurred. None of these encroaching features, which include garden beds, fenced areas and garden ornaments, are of cultural heritage significance.
The south-east boundary approximately follows the edge of the plateau for much of its length before sloping steeply down towards the southern tip of the site. A number of bougainvilleas and mature trees are planted along its length, including an English Oak (quercus robur), a Bribie Island Pine (callitris columellaris), Cocos Palms and a large Bunya Pine (araucaria bidwillii). The north-east corner of the southern sloping lawn also features several tall, individual bougainvilleas and a large Womans Tongue Tree (albizia lebbeck).
The former ornamental garden is a triangular area of lawn bounded on its southern side by the former main driveway and the residence site, and on its western side by a former service driveway. The main driveway commences at the eastern end of the Harts Road boundary following an east-west alignment to what was once a turning circle in front of the residence. The service driveway commences at the western end of the Harts Road boundary and runs south to the site of the former stables. Both driveways retain evidence of their crushed gravel construction, and along the main driveway in particular there is a distinct raised mound in the terrain. The main driveway is bordered on each side by avenues of palms including Date (pheonix dactylifera), Dwarf Date (phoenix roebelenii), Wine (butia eriospatha) and Cocos palms. Remnants of the turning circle include a single centre palm and traces of crushed granite gravel. A modern timber archway spanning the former main driveway supports an original bougainvillea plant with reddish-pink flowers. The service driveway is bordered by bougainvillea hedges on its eastern side. Also along this driveway is a tall metal telegraph pole.
Running north-south through the centre of the ornamental garden is an avenue of trees aligned with the front trellis archway, marking the location of a former pedestrian pathway. This avenue includes Cabbage Palms (livingstonia australis) and Date Palms. To the west of the pathway is a mulched area and two Cocos palm trees which indicate the location of a former circular garden bed. To the east lies a bougainvillea shrub with purple-pink flowers (possibly a variegated bougainvillea) and a guava tree, which are all that remains of a large wedge-shaped garden bed. A Bribie Island Pine is also located in this area.
The former residence site in the south-west corner of the residential garden is a levelled lawn approximately 25m long by 17m wide with remnant concrete slabs overgrown with grass marking features such as the bottom of stairs leading to the former verandah. The large parent "Thomasii" bougainvillea that once covered the verandah stands on the northern side of the area. It has long, thick branches spreading widely in an east-west direction, supported in places by modern timber frames. Slightly further to the north, a row of mature trees running parallel to the Thomasii bougainvillea includes alternating Mango and Cocos Palm trees.
The site of the former stables, south-west of the residence site, is a flat lawn area bordered by vegetation. To the east is the former drying area, which is bounded by a row of shrub and tree plantings on the western side (including a bauhinia) and a long bougainvillea hedge on the southern side. Two large Queensland Bottle Trees (brachychiton rupestris) mark the northern edge of this area and a very large Fig tree (ficus benjamina) marks the boundary between the former drying area and the former enclosed tennis court to the east.
The former tennis court and vegetable garden are located in the south-east corner of the residential garden. Now a single open space, these consist of a long flat lawn area bordered on the northern edge by a dense bougainvillea hedge. Tangled within this hedge are the remains of what appears to be an original fence, namely weathered timber posts and sections of barbed wire. The south-east corner of the former vegetable garden has been truncated by the eastern boundary fence.
Non-significant elements throughout Thomas Park include modern signs, benches and picnic tables, a water bubbler and garbage bin holder.
","history":"The Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens, located on Harts Road, Indooroopilly, in Brisbane, were created as a large residential garden by landowner, Henry Thomas from about 1900. For four decades the gardens were a tourist attraction, bringing visitors from throughout Australia and overseas to see their spectacular display of bougainvilleas in flower. During the almost 60 years that Thomas tended the gardens he bred a number of bougainvillea cultivars, which were displayed there. Converted to a park after 1958, the garden's plan and many of its plants are retained and comprise a good example of a large urban-residential garden from the Federation period.
\nThe Long Pocket area of Indooroopilly, in which the gardens are situated, was used for agricultural purposes from the 1860s. Robert Jarrott established an orchard on Portion 67, Parish of Indooroopilly, County of Stanley (about 22 acres or 8.91ha) in 1867, which his son continued after Jarrott's death in 1879. It was subdivided into seven allotments, transferred to Jarrott snr's children and subsequently sold, between approximately 1888 and 1906.[1]
\nThomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens, or ‘Somerset', as it was originally named, comprised Subdivisions 1, 2 and 7 of Portion 67. Sub. 1 of Portion 67 was purchased by Henry Thomas in 1898 or 1899; Sub. 7 was purchased in 1900; and Sub. 2 at an unknown date.[2] The property comprised 7 acres 2 roods 22.7 perches (3.093ha) on the banks of the Brisbane River.
\nBorn in Wellow, Somerset, Thomas arrived in Brisbane on 14 September 1883, as a 19 year old, unassisted passenger on the SS Nowshera.[3] He worked as a groom for the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly in Sydney, trained racehorses for the Dangar pastoralist family in Armidale and worked as a coachman at Baroona Homestead, Singleton, NSW.[4] He returned to Queensland by 1889 when he married his first wife, who died soon afterwards.[5] At the time of his second marriage in August 1894, again in Brisbane, Thomas was employed as a gardener.[6] From about May 1897 until 1909 Thomas operated a livery stable in Adelaide Street, Brisbane.[7]
\nThomas created his gardens on the Long Pocket site around the turn of the century. The Australian Women's Weekly in 1950 reported that he had planted a purple bougainvillea 49 years previously.[8] A 1956 newspaper article stated that the mature trees in the gardens, including an 80 foot (24.38m) tall Norfolk Island Pine, a Moreton Bay fig and several bottle trees, had been planted 60 years previously.[9] This was a slight exaggeration, but photographic evidence from c1908-10 shows the garden had established palms and bougainvillea;[10] while Thomas' development of a bougainvillea cultivar named after him, Bougainvillea spectabilis ‘Thomasii', pre-dates 1905.[11] The Bougainvillea Gardens' beauty was first reported by a newspaper in 1926, implying that they had been planted quite some time before.[12]
\nThe Thomas property included a wedge-shaped residential garden to the north of the site, comprising about a third of the total area, while the remainder of the property was fenced into paddocks leading down to the Brisbane River. A large dam was situated in the top half of the property, below the residential garden.
\nLocated centrally in the western half of the residential garden was the Thomas' house. The gardens were laid out in a formal manner with the boundaries and specific areas within them (drying area, tennis court and vegetable garden to the south east of the house) defined by bougainvillea hedges.[13] This geometric formality was reinforced by linear access ways from Harts Road - a pedestrian pathway and two driveways - all of crushed gravel. The main driveway ran east-west to the house, ending in a turning circle circumscribing a staghorn-bearing palm tree. The pedestrian pathway ran north-south to the front of the residence, while a secondary driveway similarly ran north-south along the western boundary.
\nThe Harts Road frontage was fenced. The earliest known version was a picket fence (c1912), replaced later by a painted timber and wire fence (c1935).[14]
\nThe Bougainvillea Gardens comprised evergreen trees, such as palms, Ficus, mango and bottle trees; with colour provided primarily by bougainvillea, at least one of which Thomas bred himself,[15] supplemented by crotons, orange crucifix orchids, poinsettia (red and cream), and annuals planted in two garden beds centrally placed in the lawn on either side of the pedestrian footpath.[16]
\nThe pedestrian and main driveway entries were emphasised by archways covered in bougainvillea[17] and a pergola spanned the pathway near the pedestrian entry.[18] Pergola and arches, covered by bougainvillea stood along the west side of the house leading to the rear service area and stables; and steel trellises supported bougainvillea in front of the north side of the house. Large urns stood at the foot of the entry steps to the residence.
\nFrom the 1920s until at least 1958, Thomas' Bougainvillea Gardens were a popular tourist destination for locals and visitors to Brisbane from around Australia and overseas; and the site of large garden parties held for funding-raising purposes. In July 1926, Thomas' garden at Indooroopilly was already recognised as a ‘sight of Brisbane'[19] with interstate dignitaries taken there to admire the ‘wonderful bougainvillea hedges'.[20] In 1927 monies raised from visitors were donated to the Children's Hospital Fund. The first reported garden party was held in September 1929 for St Andrew's Church of England, Indooroopilly, of which Thomas was a member. This annual event continued until at least 1939. These occasions brought hundreds of visitors to the gardens.[21] One garden party to raise money for the St John's Cathedral Fund attracted nearly 3000 people to the gardens in August 1933,[22] and a fete for the Indooroopilly-Taringa branch of the Red Cross Society in 1940 raised £180.[23] By 1940, the Queensland Government Tourist Bureau conducted regular trips to the gardens during the winter tourist season.[24] Visitors included delegates from around Australia visiting Brisbane for conventions; politicians, often bringing guests, such as Mrs Curtin, wife of the Prime Minister; and notables like photographer Frank Hurley, artist Margaret Preston and actress, Shirley Ann Richards.[25]
\nIn their heyday, Thomas' Bougainvillea Gardens were reported on and featured in newspapers, magazines and books published throughout Australia. Colour spreads appeared in The Queenslander, the Australian Women's Weekly and The Land newspaper.[26] Cinesound produced a newsreel of actress Shirley Ann Richards in the Bougainvillea Gardens in 1937. Photographs of the Gardens were used in photographer Frank Hurley's post-World War II publication Australia Calling! Camera Studies by Capt. Frank Hurley: A Souvenir of Interesting Views and Scenes from All Parts of Australia and as the cover and frontispiece of DA Herbert's early book on sub-tropical gardening, Gardening in Warm Climates published in 1952. Photographs of the gardens were also included in The Queensland Calendar 1961 and the publication, Australia Land of Sunshine.[27]
\nHenry Thomas was a renowned figure in Brisbane due to his development of the Bougainvillea Gardens and a number of bougainvillea cultivars.[28] On different occasions the media called him ‘Mr Bougainvillea' and ‘the Bougainvillea King'.[29] Bougainvillea spectabilis ‘Thomasii', his most well-known cultivar, was distributed around the state and overseas.[30] As one horticultural writer stated, ‘the variety ‘Thomasii' is too well known to need description'.[31]
\nThomas' Bougainvillea Gardens influenced garden plantings in Brisbane, Queensland and overseas. Newspapers reported other gardens growing B. ‘Thomasii', e.g. at Glen Kedron and Annerley in Brisbane,[32] and at Gracemere Homestead [QHR 600508], and for road beautification on the Rockhampton-Yeppoon Road.[33] B. ‘Thomasii' was sold by nurserymen who collected cuttings from Thomas' garden. Photographs and media stories also influenced gardeners to grow bougainvillea.[34]
\nPost-World War II, as part of its programme to increase Brisbane's parkland, the Brisbane City Council (BCC) proposed the purchase of the Bougainvillea Gardens for £5000. Acquisition of the property was part of the Lord Mayor's Long Pocket riverside boulevard and park scheme.[35] Thomas agreed in March 1947, on the condition that the property be acquired for the use of the public and that he be allowed to remain in occupation, as caretaker, for as long as he desired. He also offered his ‘experience in the preparation of any further plans to beautify the site, without compensation other than full occupation of the house and the paddocks for grazing house cows'.[36] The BCC accepted this offer stating that ‘the property is ...acquired for park purposes for the use and enjoyment of the citizens of Brisbane and visitors to this City and your offer of advice in connection with proposals for the further beautification and development of the area is greatly appreciated'.[37] A newspaper report at the time said the show garden had a ‘world-wide reputation as a beauty spot'.[38]
\nAfter BCC's acquisition, the Bougainvillea Gardens continued to be used for fund-raising events such as the University of Queensland Women's College Garden Party in August 1948 and its Appeal Fete in August 1950.[39] Afternoon teas also continued to be served daily.[40] Prunings were given to visitors and to a local nurseryman for propagation.[41]
\nHenry Thomas died in April 1958, ending his curatorship of the gardens.[42] Subsequently, A E Wilson, the BCC's newly appointed landscape architect, was granted a lease of the property, conditional upon his making the Gardens available free to visitors during weekends and on holidays.[43]
\nBy 1962 the BCC had new plans for the gardens and the management of the Long Pocket land it had resumed to form the Sir John Chandler Park. During 1962-63 the Council invited tenders for the development of land forming part of the park, for golf and other recreational facilities. A lease of 20 years was proposed on the understanding that such facilities were to be made available to all sections of the public.[44]
\nOnly one tender was received - from the Indooroopilly Golf Club (IGC) - which did not fully conform to the requirements laid down by the BCC. It was approved in principle and referred for further investigation. Subsequently, in 1962, the Council Administration Board recommended that the IGC be granted a 10 year lease over that portion of Sir John Chandler Park described as Portions 67-73, 75, 77 and 78, Parish of Indooroopilly (about 86 acres or 35ha) on the southern side of Long Pocket.[45] The area known as Bougainvillea Gardens (Lots 1, 2 and 7), along with its residence, was included in the area leased by the IGC. The residence was to be used as a Club House, or for any purposes approved by the Council associated with the development of the Golf Course ‘during the first 10 years of the golf course's operation, or from 1 January 1964, whichever was the sooner',[46] conditional upon the IGC maintaining all bougainvillea propagation, along with the gardens and their surrounds. At the end of the 10 year lease, the planted area of Bougainvillea Gardens and residence were to revert to the BCC and be excised from the lease.[47]
\nBrisbane's Lord Mayor, Clem Jones, opened the Indooroopilly Golf Club Long Pocket course on 8 March 1964.[48]
\nHowever, continued use of the Thomas' residence by the IGC did not result. By October 1964 the house had been demolished, leaving only ‘a few bricks and a barren patch of ground'.[49] Alderman Greenfield was quoted in the Sunday Mail as saying: ‘We pulled the old house down because it was showing its age. Vandals were getting into it. It would have been too costly to repair. We are still negotiating with an organisation about how it will be developed.... It will be parkland and free to the public.'[50]
\nIn 1965, the IGC applied to the BCC to lease the land in the lower (southern) section of the Bougainvillea Gardens to expand its golf course.[51] However, the BCC insisted that the IGC comply with the term of its existing lease requiring construction of a football field on the land within the lease for public use, before it would consider the Club's request for an extension of its leased area.[52] The IGC agreed to construct two ovals on the eastern end of its lease for public purposes,[53] so, in early 1967 the BCC granted extension of the IGC's leased area to encompass the Bougainvillea Gardens. The IGC was to maintain the Gardens and permit public access to them between the hours of 10am and 4pm daily, provided that at all times the golf course was safeguarded.[54]
\nThe IGC immediately commenced formation of its new 9th hole on the lower section of the Bougainvillea Gardens, including filling in the Garden's dam located on Sub. 7 of Portion 67.[55] The Club took over the maintenance of the Bougainvillea Gardens from 27 January 1968.[56]
\nIn 1977 a new lease was negotiated over the land used by the IGC. As part of this process, the Long Pocket land was consolidated into two lots - Lot 1 being the land around the Long Pocket Clubhouse and Lot 2 being the remaining area leased to the IGC, comprising the developed golf course.[57]
\nFrom 1980, complaints were made to the BCC by descendants of Thomas about the council's failure to maintain the Bougainvillea Gardens and that the land was not being used for public purposes as intended because part of it was used as ‘a golf course and in the exclusive use and possession of a golf club'.[58]
\nAt some time after the agreement that the IGC maintain the Bougainvillea Gardens, this responsibility reverted back to the BCC Parks Department; where it resides in 2014.
\nThe intactness and integrity of the Bougainvillea Gardens has been commented upon by several sources. A Conservation Management Study for Thomas Park undertaken by the BCC in 2002 found that the garden was in a satisfactory condition with much of the design and plantings of the garden surviving.[59] In 2008 a Conservation Management Plan (CMP) was completed for the park by the BCC City Design Team. Original elements of the Bougainvillea Garden, including many plants from the Thomas' period were identified and were assessed as in good condition generally. This report found that the integrity of Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens was moderate.[60] A botanical survey of Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens in 2014 found that the vegetation survey report by the BCC in May 2008 was comprehensive and since then only five trees have died or been removed from the park,[61] thereby supporting the CMP's assessment of the park's integrity and condition.
\nIn 2014, the original B. spectabilis ‘Thomasii' and many other Bougainvillea plants, mature trees and palms remain in the park. The layout of Thomas' garden is easily readable after consulting the 1958 plan of the garden. The arch over the pedestrian entry is a remnant structure, as is an early telegraph pole that survives in the north west corner of the gardens.
\nRemoved from the garden are the structures and hard landscaping: house and outbuildings; the last front fence; original boundary fences; pergolas; and most archways. Obscured are all gravel driveways and footpaths. Some plants have been removed or died without being replaced. The IGC excised part of the vegetable garden and most of the lower two-thirds of the property with a six-foot high wire fence, creating a new boundary to the park, when it extended a fairway. This change of boundary disconnected the garden from the Brisbane River, to which it previously had access and views.[62]
\nIntroduced to the park have been park furniture: benches, picnic tables, a bubbler and a bin. Additionally, some new plants have been added or self-seeded.[63]
\nAlthough now a park, Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens retain sufficient of their original layout and plantings for assessment as a garden. Using the Australian Heritage Commission's classification and assessment methodology for gardens, the garden type the Bougainvillea Gardens most resemble is a Large Urban-Residence Garden in the Federation style.[64] However, they exhibit features also shared by Suburban Gardens and Homestead Gardens. These are: generous size, decorative front gardens and productive rear gardens. Like Large Urban-Residence and Homestead Gardens, the Bougainvillea Gardens had a carriage-way with turning circle. Similar to Homestead Gardens they included avenue planting, a service area and stable block; were sited on flood-free higher ground with views; and were close to permanent water (both river and dam). Common to all three garden types, the Bougainvillea Gardens had a utilitarian garden (vegetable and picking), which in Large Urban-Residence Gardens was often fenced, hedged or walled off.[65]
\nCommon features of Federation style gardens were the architectural elements which differentiated them from earlier styles: fences were varied in design and predominantly painted timber.[66] A pedestrian entry and a service entry featured, with added emphasis given to the visitors' entry by gateway planting, or a lychgate for larger houses.[67] Lattice work, pergolas, gazebos, summerhouses and rose arches were also features. Conservatories, shade houses, bush houses, greenhouses and ferneries in latticed timber and unpainted hardwood were advocated. Nationalism appeared in cut-in garden beds, with some in the shape of the Federation star and others in the shape of Australia.[68] Seats, sundials and elaborate watering equipment were characteristic of the Federation garden, but ornaments were not. The preferred plantings in these gardens were evergreen trees and colourful flowers.[69]
\nFederation style gardens ‘retained the plantsmanship of the Gardenesque style and incorporated large lawn areas, but [exhibited] diverse layout styles [from] geometric formality to the dramatized natural style of the \"Picturesque\"'.[70] Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens conforms to the Geometric Federation style. The characteristics of this style are:
\nenclosure by boundary walls, hedges and creeper-covered fences; division of the garden into rectangular spaces close to the house by using trellises, fences, walls, pergolas and hedges; designation of special areas such as the pleasure garden, the kitchen garden, the drying garden, the orchard and the tennis court; terracing, sunken gardens; planting features such as lawns, small trees and shrubs, hedges, topiary, flower beds and borders, edging plants of box and a rosary. A neat look was advocated and sometimes natural vegetation was completely removed.[71]
\nThe cultural heritage significance of Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens has been identified in several studies. The 1996 ‘Inventory of Historic Cultural Landscapes in Queensland'[72] named Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens as one of the ‘specific landscapes which were representative of historical cultural landscapes in Queensland.'[73] The BCC 2002 Conservation Management Study found the gardens to be of local cultural heritage significance.[74] In 2008 a full Conservation Management Plan found that the Gardens had cultural heritage significance under a number of criteria. In particular, it stated that ‘[a]s a historic residential garden, the Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens has the potential to increase our understanding of garden design in Queensland in the early 1900s'.[75]
\nIn 2002, the Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens recognised the significance of the Bougainvillea Gardens:
\nThroughout the 1920s and 1930s, ‘Somerset' or Bougainvillea Gardens was a favourite tourist destination, especially during bougainvillea flowering time. Thomas conducted plant breeding experiments and developed the vigorous (carmine-pink) Bougainvillea spectabilis ‘Thomasii'. His gardens featured distinctive Queensland plantings, including palms, shade trees, tropical plants (including 15 cultivars of bougainvillea) and a 25m timber trellis festooned with single specimen of B. ‘Thomasii'.[76]
\nThe gardens also featured in the journal of the Australian Garden History Society Journal[77] and in 2013, the Australian Garden History Society's report ‘Heritage Gardens in Queensland: a survey of Queensland's parks, gardens, trees and other designed landscapes' included Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens as a place of state, or potentially state, cultural heritage significance.[78]
\nIn 1996 the ‘Inventory of Historic Cultural Landscapes in Queensland'[79] concluded that the Bougainvillea Gardens were an ‘important exemplar of a private garden that has inspired or still inspires Queensland gardeners and designers'. All of the other gardens cited by this study as being important and inspiring private gardens, were entered in the QHR.[80]
","criteria":"Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens have a special association with Henry Thomas, who was a renowned figure in Queensland in the 1920s-50s because of his development of the Gardens and a number of bougainvillea cultivars. He designed and planted the garden c1900 and was responsible for creating the cultivar B. spectabilis ‘Thomasii', named after him, the original of which still grows in the park.
For almost 60 years Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens were the home of Henry Thomas, the site of his horticultural work, and recognised as a significant tourist destination during his lifetime.
|The Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens had a special association with the wider Queensland community as a recognised place of beauty from the 1920s to the 1960s, as newspaper and magazine articles, and widely published images of the gardens, show.
|The Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens, are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of large urban-residence gardens of the geometric Federation style.
These characteristics include: enclosure of the garden by boundary hedges; division of the garden into rectangular spaces close to the house using hedges; designation of special areas such as a pleasure garden, a kitchen garden, a drying garden; planting features such as lawns, small trees and shrubs, hedges and gravel paths. Other characteristics include evergreen trees and colourful shrubs; a pedestrian entry and a service entry, with added emphasis to the visitors' gateway through plantings. They have a plantsman emphasis, specialising in breeding and displaying bougainvillea.
Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens retain a sufficient degree of intactness and integrity to show the exceptionality of the original gardens.
|The Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens (c1900), with their emphasis on displaying bougainvillea species amid distinctive Queensland plantings of palms, shade trees and tropical plants, are important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland garden design and planting in the early to mid-twentieth century - popularising bougainvillea as a feature plant in gardens throughout tropical and subtropical Queensland.
The Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens are important as the site of early twentieth century innovation in the development of new bougainvillea cultivars; with the parent plant of the most well-known of these, B. spectabilis ‘Thomasii', still growing in the park.
|Retaining their plan, mature trees and the bougainvillea plantings that made it a tourist attraction between c1920 and c1960, the Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens are important for their aesthetic significance. They exhibit the beautiful attributes of a well composed formal garden, which uses a single feature plant type, the bougainvillea, to unify its variety of garden elements, which include symmetrical avenues and enclosing border hedges. For decades these gardens were photographed, filmed and written about, and attracted Australian and international visitors.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion H | Criterion G | Criterion D | Criterion A | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":35598,"place_ref":602854,"name":"Cannon Hill State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"845 Wynnum Road","suburb":"CANNON HILL","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2015-06-12","description":"Cannon Hill State School occupies a 2.44ha site bounded by Wynnum Road to the north, Molloy Road to the east, Princess Street to the south, and residential properties that front Narela Street to the west. Prominently positioned above the main road through Cannon Hill, the school is a landmark in the suburb. The main entrance to the school is along Wynnum Road, where the original timber school building, Block B, remains a striking feature of the streetscape. The site slopes gently to the south and east. The school buildings, parade ground, swimming pool and tennis courts are concentrated on the northern half of the site, with playing fields and a pre-school situated to the south.
\nThe school complex comprises a variety of educational buildings, amenities and landscape features of varying eras of design and construction. Of these, significant components include:
\nAll buildings are axially sited, aligned parallel and perpendicular to Wynnum Road. Blocks B, E and F are timber-framed, weatherboard-clad and highset on concrete piers, with timber-framed windows and corrugated metal-clad gabled roofs.
\nBlock G and various modern ancillary structures including toilet blocks, a dental clinic, covered play areas and a large structure adjacent to the pool, are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance. Other non-significant elements include modern carpet and linoleum floor linings, kitchenettes, acrylic panels to window openings, modern benches and storage cupboards, and aluminium windows.
\nBlock B - Suburban Timber School Building (1915)
\nBlock B is a large, symmetrically arranged timber school building comprising a U-shaped footprint of three main gable roofed classroom wings, connected by continuous verandahs to the north side. The building exhibits typical characteristics of a Suburban Timber School Building, Type C/T8.[53] All classrooms are 22ft (6.7m) wide and verandahs are 10ft (3m) wide. The east and west wings (formerly 2 classrooms each) are a mirror image of each other (with the exception of later modifications), with verandahs along both east and west elevations. The central wing (formerly 3 classrooms) is longer, with a verandah to the north elevation only. Two small, gable-roofed teachers rooms project diagonally from the inner junctions of the wings, with one of two original verandah cloak rooms retained opposite. Six sets of open timber stairs provide access to the verandahs, and the building is connected to Block F to the south and Block A to the west via covered verandah walkways.
\nThe north (front) elevation is symmetrically composed. Protruding gable ends of the east and west wings each feature a bank of windows, eight narrow sashes wide by three sashes high, flanked by open verandah ends. The windows to the east wing comprise casement windows to the bottom row, horizontal-pivot sashes to the middle and fanlights to the top. The windows to the west wing have been replaced with aluminium framed casements to the two bottom rows, with fanlights above. The gable end windows are sheltered by wide, terracotta-tiled window hoods with decorative timber brackets. This window and sunshade configuration is mirrored on the southern elevations of the east and west wings, and the exposed southern wall of the central wing also features a similar window configuration. Clear acrylic panels have been affixed to the inside of the majority of window openings.
\nThe building retains much of its original timber ornamentation. The wide gabled roofs have open eaves with decorative timber brackets. Exposed framing is visible to the single skin verandah walls and the raked verandah ceilings are lined with timber v-jointed (VJ), tongue-and-groove (T&G) boards. Joinery to the verandahs includes: timber posts with decorative arched brackets; two-rail timber balustrades with battened balusters; panelled double doors with fanlights; and horizontal-pivot sash windows above door height. The outer verandahs of the east and west wings are partially enclosed. The east wing enclosure retains original weatherboard cladding (with some later modifications), whilst the west wing enclosure (c1977) is more extensive and includes a passageway and external stair added at the southern end. Bag hooks are attached to the wall of the outer verandah of the west wing.
\nThe central wing is divided into two classrooms, with a small amenity area between, separated by modern concertina doors. The east and west wings are both open-plan. The original classroom layouts of all wings are evident from the bulkhead partitions retained where the original folding partitions have been removed. Internally, the three classroom wings and teachers rooms all have timber floors (lined with modern vinyl and carpet), and walls lined with VJ, T&G boards. Hinged ventilation boards survive at the base of verandah walls, although painted closed and externally sealed in some locations. The classroom wings have modern suspended ceilings and lighting, though it is possible that pressed metal ceilings remain above.
The projecting teachers rooms walls are lined with timber VJ, T&G boards and the original pressed metal ceilings and decorative air vents have been retained. The cloak room located on the verandah at the junction of the central and west wings is formed by partitions lined with single skin VJ, T&G boards, with open timber shelves. The cloak room partitions are mirrored on the east wing side; however, the construction of the doorway through to the verandah walkway to Block F has resulted in the removal of the original timber shelves and construction of an enclosed storage space.
The understorey has a concrete slab floor, is partially enclosed by vertical timber battening and chain wire storage areas, and is used as a covered seating and play area. The weatherboard cladding to the teachers' rooms extends to form storage rooms below.
\nBlock F - Suburban Timber School Building (1947), with High Set Timber School Building extension (1957)
\nSituated to the south of Block B, Block F comprises two sections: a highset, gable roofed building (1947) sited parallel to Molloy Road; and a perpendicular, gable roofed extension to the west (1957), connected by an enclosed L-shaped verandah.
\nThe 1947 section of Block F aligns with the east wing of Block B, and is similar in plan, form, fenestration and external detailing. External timber stairs provide access to the west verandah which is enclosed with aluminium-framed hopper windows. An additional bank of aluminium-framed hoppers are housed in the southern end and a casement window is located at the enclosed northern end of the east verandah (now a kitchenette). The 1957 extension is highset on concrete piers with a semi-enclosed play space underneath. The building exhibits some of the characteristics of a Highset Timber School Building with semi enclosed chairs, Type F/T4,[54] including: highset timber framed structure on concrete stumps; external cladding carried through both levels; verandah bag racks; and extensive use of hopper windows to the southern elevation. The 8ft (2.4m) wide north facing verandah is enclosed with aluminium-framed hopper windows and accessed via an external set of timber stairs. The exposed southern elevation features a large bank of timber-framed hopper windows, three sashes high.
\nExtensive interior modifications have resulted in an open-plan classroom space across the 1947 and 1957 sections of Block F. Above the large openings created in the former 1947 verandah walls, banks of original high-level horizontal-pivot windows remain, along with timber VJ, T&G board linings. The 1947 raked ceilings are also lined and feature metal tie rods, whilst the 1957 flat ceiling is lined in flat sheeting with cover-strips. The former layout of the 1947 building (2 classrooms) is evident, with some verandah doorway openings with fanlights retained, as well as VJ, T&G lined partition bulkheads where the original folding timber partitions have been removed.
\nThe understorey of the building has a concrete floor and is used as a covered seating and play area. Weatherboard cladding extends to ground level to enclose the east and south elevations of the 1957 extension, with corrugated metal sheeting enclosing the southwest corner of the 1947 building.
\nBlock E - High Set Timber School Building with Semi Enclosed Stair (1954)
\nConnected to the western verandah of Block F, Block E exhibits characteristics of a Highset Timber School Building with semi enclosed chairs, Type F/T4.[55] The building comprises three classrooms and a smaller end room, with a partly enclosed verandah to the north elevation. The verandah is accessed from the west by a set of open timber stairs. The partially enclosed understorey is used as a covered play space, with weatherboard cladding extending to form change rooms at the western end.
\nThe southern elevation features a large bank of hopper windows, 16 sashes wide by three sashes high, with an additional two-sash-wide bank of hopper windows at the western end. Windows on the northern verandah wall are double-hung sashes with fanlights. A bag rack extends the length of the verandah. Internally, the classrooms walls, partitions and flat ceiling are lined with flat sheeting with cover-strips. A large opening has been formed in one of the classroom partitions, with smaller internal ‘windows' formed in the other two original partitions. One set of original interior double doors remains in-situ.
\nBlock C - Temporary Classroom Building with T&G Boarding (c1950-51)
\nBlock C is a lowset structure (c1950-51) with vertical T&G board cladding, half-gabled roof and a partially enclosed northern verandah. A gable roofed former teachers' room projects from the northern elevation. The chamferboard clad extension (1957) to the west is not of cultural heritage significance.
\nThe building (formerly 3 classrooms) exhibits characteristics of a Temporary Classroom Building with T&G Boarding, Type E/T5[56] including vertical T&G board cladding, north facing verandah and casement windows with fanlights. The composite structure incorporates the prefabricated panels typical of Prefabricated Timber School Buildings by the Works Department, Type F/T2[57] with conventional construction and design characteristics consistent with earlier buildings on the site.
\nAll walls are single skin, with vertical T&G board cladding on the exterior of the east, west and south walls, and interior of the northern, verandah wall. The east, west and south walls exhibit characteristics of pre-fabricated construction, comprising pre-fabricated panels set within timber framework. The south and east elevations feature banks of two-light casement windows with fanlights, whilst windows to the verandah wall are double-hung three-light sashes.
\nBlock C is accessed via a modern deck that connects with the eastern end of the verandah, from which classrooms are entered via early timber-boarded double-doors with fanlights. The verandah wall retains characteristics of earlier standard designs, including hinged ventilation boards, and bag hooks attached to the exposed wall framing. The verandah has a two-rail balustrade with battened balusters to the east of the former teachers room, and enclosed bag racks with lattice over to the west. The raked verandah ceilings are lined with VJ, T&G timber boards. A weatherboard-clad storeroom is located at the eastern end of the verandah. The projecting former teachers room is weatherboard-clad with casement windows, and the ceiling is lined with flat sheeting with cover strips. The north and east windows are sheltered by timber-framed window hoods.
\nEarly interior walls and partitions have exposed framing and are lined with VJ, T&G boards. Internal classroom arrangements have been reconfigured, with the original doors and partitions partly or fully removed. Some lintels remain to indicate the former partition layout. The ceiling is coved and flat sheeted, with metal tie rods retained. There is a large opening to the wall between the earlier building and the 1957 extension.
\nBlock A - Timber Framed School Building Incorporating Open Web Floor Trusses (1959)
\nBlock A is a long, gable roofed building sited parallel to Wynnum Road and connected to Block B via a covered walkway at its east end. The asymmetrically arranged building is stepped to respond to the site gradient and comprises two main sections: a double storey brick block to the east; and a highset timber and brick structure to the west. Block A is characteristic of a Timber Framed School Building Incorporating Open Web Floor Trusses, Type F/T7.[58] The structure is supported on tapered open web steel floor trusses, with a cantilever supported northern verandah, enabling unencumbered play space underneath. The stepped, gabled roofs are clad with terracotta tiles, with four modern (1993) roof vents visible from the south.
\nThe double storey section to the east is constructed of face brick. Glass louvres and an area of brickwork (1973) enclose the toilets and store rooms to the ground floor. A small porch covers the ground floor entry to the north and a driveway passes through the building, with a former entrance passageway with timber bench seating on the west side. The first floor has an enclosed south verandah with narrow chamferboard cladding and fixed, timber-framed glazing, with steel framed glass louvres to the verandah wall. The first floor interior contains offices and workrooms divided by partition walls. A central staircase links the two halves of the building.
\nThe west section comprises four classrooms on the first floor and an open play space beneath, with a brick-enclosed staircase at the far western end. Timber framed hopper windows, with fanlights, extend along the full length of the south elevation. The north-facing verandah is enclosed with fixed, timber framed glazing (1993), on enclosed bag racks. The verandah walls are lined with flat sheeting with cover-strips, with steel framed glass louvres above sill height. The classroom walls and raked ceiling are lined with flat sheeting with cover-strips. Folding timber doors survive in two partition walls. The understorey features open web steel floor trusses supported on concrete piers. An additional classroom is located to the east end of the understorey, enclosed by glass louvres to the north, face-brick with hopper windows to the south, and a solid brick wall to the west.
\nSetting and Landscape Features
\nThe established grounds comprise lawn areas, garden beds and numerous mature plantings, as well as various built landscape features such as pathways, terraces and retaining walls; integrated with the concentration of school buildings to the north and surrounding the open playing fields to the south.
\nThe front of the school is elevated and set back from Wynnum Road behind a fenced lawn and densely planted terraced garden beds. The axial siting of Block B is accentuated by the original (1915) concrete entrance pathway and stair layout from Wynnum Road. Mature trees including Poincianas (Delonix regia) are integrated into the front garden, with Wattle (Acacia pycnantha), Figs (Ficus), and Moreton Bay Ash (Corymbia tessellaris) scattered across the northwest corner of the site. Further mature plantings continue along the western boundary of the school including Figs, Eucalypts and various other species.
\nAreas of asphalt are located between the school buildings, including the parade ground (now covered with astro-turf) to the south of Block A which is surrounded by concrete block retaining walls. A mature Mango (Mangifera indica) tree (associated with the early private residence) is located to the southwest of the parade ground. Several shade trees of various species (Moreton Bay Ash, Fig and Camphor Laurel (Cinnamomum camphora)) form an avenue running south from Block A, in line with the driveway.
\nThe rectangular swimming pool (built in 1921) to the south of Block E comprises an in-ground concrete shell and surface surround. A large modern amenity building has been constructed to the west end of the pool and concrete tennis and basketball courts are located to the east.
\nThe site slopes downwards to the south and the level playing fields are surrounded by vegetated embankments. A retaining wall constructed of Brisbane Tuff (porphyry), with later additions in granite, defines the east and north extents of the grassed playing field. Two large figs stand on the slope between the pool and the playing field. Various mature plantings including Paperbarks and a Mango tree are concentrated to the southeast corner of the site around the Pre-School Centre (location of the former Teachers Residence) and along Molloy Road.
","history":"Cannon Hill State School opened in 1915 on a 1.62ha site in the suburb of Cannon Hill, approximately 5km east of central Brisbane, to meet the demand for primary school education in the area. Suburban development after World War II spurred the construction of additional buildings to accommodate the school's growing pupil numbers. Cannon Hill State School comprises a complex of six school buildings, including one Suburban Timber School Building (1915); a building designed to match it (1947, with 1957 Highset Timber Building extension); a Temporary Classroom Building (c1950-1), one Highset Timber School Building (1954); a Timber Framed School Building Incorporating Open Web Floor Trusses (1959); and one of the earliest state school swimming pools (1921); set in landscaped grounds with mature trees. The school has been in continuous operation since its establishment and has been a focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activities.
\nThe provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. Following the introduction of the Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland's national and public schools grew rapidly.[1] The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction. This further standardised the provision of education, and despite difficulties, achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[2]
\nPrior to 1900, the development of the suburb of Cannon Hill was strongly linked to the establishment of local industries and the arrival of affluent settlers in the 1860s - including the Weedon family who, in 1867, built one of the earliest residences in Cannon Hill, known as ‘Cannon Hill House'.[3] Cannon Hill and its surrounding district were pastoral and agricultural during this time and the cultivation of sugar cane was the major local industry.[4] A brickworks operated in Cannon Hill from about 1875 and by the late 1800s the suburb had become semi-industrial, although much of the area remained open bushland. With the establishment of a slaughterhouse in 1906, and the construction of abattoirs and livestock saleyards, Cannon Hill became known as a meatworkers' area in the early 1900s.[5]
\nThe growth of the suburb was stimulated by the establishment of the Swift Company, which built a large abattoir in 1913, described as one of the largest industrial operations undertaken in Queensland at the time.[6] With the influx of residents, created by employment in the flourishing meatworks business, the demand for a local school in Cannon Hill increased significantly. The lack of a local school meant many children had to travel several kilometres to Bulimba, Norman Park or Hemmant to attend primary school.[7]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school's construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. One of the most prominent families residing in Cannon Hill in the early 1900s was the Bartlett family, who owned a significant amount of land, including the portion of land that would later become the site for Cannon Hill State School. According to oral histories, the Bartlett family was strongly associated with the establishment of Cannon Hill State School, intentionally acquiring land for a local school, and subsequently selling four acres to the Department of Public Instruction in 1914.[8] Mr W J Bartlett was a member of the 1913 committee that promoted the establishment of a state school and once the school opened in 1915, became chairman of the first school committee.
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[9]
\nCannon Hill State School, which cost £3034, was officially opened on 25 September 1915 by the Hon. HF Hardacre, Minister for Public Instruction.[10] The original school building, (Block B), is an intact example of a Suburban Timber School Building (Type C/T8), with a U-shaped plan, comprising classrooms and two teachers rooms.[11] The timber building was designed with one central and two side wings, roofed with Marseilles tiles, and metal ceiled. Each wing was divided into 22ft (6.7m) wide classrooms, divided by folding partitions. Ventilation features included hinged ventilation boards to floor level and prominent roof vents, or fleches, centrally mounted on the roof atop a system of metal ducts that ventilated the roof space.[12] The functional and decorative fleches appear to have been removed between 1971 and 1974[13] (possibly in association with the replacement of the terracotta roof tiles with corrugated metal sheeting). Battened gable infills were also visible in the original design documents and early images of the school. [14] This building type solved many of the problems of light, ventilation and classroom size that plagued previous school designs as well as providing what was considered the ideal, modern education environment.[15] A significant feature was the construction of large windows, along with a particular classroom arrangement designed to maximise natural light from the left; a strategy developed by the Department of Works between 1894 and 1914.[16]
\nUnder the stewardship of the Department of Public Works, which retained responsibility for schools until 2013, and through the involvement of some of Queensland's most innovative architects, school buildings became more advanced and diverse. This was the outcome of years of systematic reform and experimentation.[17] The Suburban Timber School Building demonstrates these advances in school architecture, especially in lighting and the building layout. Visiting Cannon Hill State School in 1915, the Hon. HF Hardacre (Minister for Public Instruction) praised Cannon Hill State School as ‘best in the state on grounds of health and economy' and suggested it was a high-water mark in school architecture.[18] JV Story (Under Secretary, Department of Public Instruction) termed the school ‘the most scientific building yet erected' in Queensland and maintained that ‘it lent itself in every way to the healthy education of the children'.[19]
\nIn 1916, the school's sports ground was established at a cost of £45, marking the start of a number of landscape modifications to Cannon Hill State School.[20] The provision of outdoor play space was a result of the early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school. Trees and gardens were planted as part of beautification of the school. In the 1870s, schools inspector, William Boyd, was critical of tropical schools and amongst his recommendations stressed the importance of the adding shade trees to playgrounds. In addition, Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Landscape elements were often constructed to standard designs and were intrinsic to Queensland Government education philosophies. Educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land. Aesthetically designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors.[21] On Arbor Day 29 April 1916, 120 trees and shrubs were planted in the school grounds.[22] The Minister of Education, visiting the school in September 1919 to open a tennis court, noted the school grounds had been transformed by two beautifully laid out gardens including rose bushes, sweet peas and carnations.[23]
\nSchools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and community halls reinforced these connections and provided a venue for a wide range of community events in schools across Queensland.[24] On 23 September 1919, a war memorial comprising an avenue of various trees was planted in the grounds.[25] In 2007, a war memorial plaque was added to the school, next to a mature rosemary bush.[26]
\nIn 1921, one of the earliest state school swimming-pools was built at Cannon Hill State School by the school community, volunteers and parents, at a cost of £496. There was minimal funding from the Department of Public Instruction and construction relied on donations from Kelly Brickworks at Murrarrie.[27] The pool, noted on the 1915 site plan, was the fourth state school pool in Brisbane, with school baths already established at Junction Park (1910), Wooloowin (1916) and Ascot (pre-1921).[28] The construction of the pool, a concrete shell with concrete paved areas adjacent (18.3m x 6m), was a community response to a near drowning tragedy in a local waterhole. Despite the lack of funding, the Cannon Hill community succeeded in building the pool, necessary change sheds and amenities by hosting working bees at weekends.[29] The commitment shown in the construction of the pool strongly highlights the significant relationship between Cannon Hill State School and its local community. The pool, which retains the dimensions noted in a 1946 drawing, has been in continuous use since its official opening on 9 December 1922, demonstrating its important function to the local community over the past century.
\nEnrolment numbers remained steady over the following three decades - largely due to the establishment of Morningside State School in 1926[30] - until suburban growth after World War II spurred a building program. Like other state schools across Brisbane, Cannon Hill State School experienced a rapid increase in pupil numbers post-1945 which, in conjunction with a shortage of building materials, causing drastic overcrowding.[31] In December 1949, The Courier Mail reported that Cannon Hill State School expected 90 to 100 new enrolments in the coming year, on top of its 420 existing pupils.[32]
\nThis was a nation-wide occurrence and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[33] At Cannon Hill State School, a new building, Block F, was added in 1947 and connected to Block B via a raised verandah walkway. Block F shares many features with Block B: its classroom width, use of folding partitions, its verandah layout and external detail; however, it also clearly demonstrates features typical of its period: boarded ceilings with metal tie rods and lack of ventilation flaps.[34]
\nA Temporary Building (Block C), was constructed at Cannon Hill between 1950 and 1951 to accommodate increasing enrolment numbers.[35] This building combined the conventional construction techniques and design characteristics of earlier buildings on the site, with aspects of the Department of Public Works prefabricated buildings constructed for the commencement of the 1951 school year.[36] A factory at Hamilton was established to construct these temporary school buildings, with extensive pre-cutting under way in 1951. Panels for external walls were prefabricated from tongue and groove (T&G) boarding.[37]
\nTemporary buildings were constructed in Queensland schools between 1943 and 1951. This standard type was introduced as an expedient, temporary solution to the exceptional growth in student numbers in the immediate post-war period when skilled labour was scarce and materials were in short supply. They were small timber buildings, lowset on concrete piers, with skillion or gabled roofs clad with corrugated metal sheets. External walls were clad with vertical T&G timber boards and the rear wall had casements with operable fanlights sheltered by a simple hood. Accessed from a verandah, the type comprised two classrooms 21ft x 18ft (6.4m x 5.4m), which was consistent with the department's ideal dimensions of the time. The design, materials and form were a departure from earlier types, did not influence subsequent designs, and only a small number of them were constructed.[38] While the classroom sizes differ, strong similarities exist between this Works Department temporary classroom (Type E/T5) and Block C, especially its gabled roof (introduced after 1949), casement windows with fanlights and vertical boarding. The timber building, comprising three classrooms as well as a teachers room by 1952, is a modification of a standard plan with the addition of a hat room as a verandah annexe and hinged ventilation boards to the verandah wall. Few buildings of this type survive.[39]
\nFrom 1950 the Department of Public Instruction introduced and developed new standard plans for school buildings. These new standards were based on conventional construction yet incorporated concepts derived from the imported prefabricated systems including large banks of glazing and a 4ft (1.2m) design module. These buildings were highset timber-framed structures and the understorey was used as covered play space. Introduced in 1950, the principal type (F/T4) was a long and narrow building with a gable roof. A semi-enclosed stair connected the understorey to a north facing verandah running the length of the building. Classrooms opened off the verandah and had extensive areas of windows; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed, allowing abundant natural light and ventilation. This type was the most commonly constructed in the 1950s in Queensland.[40] A Highset Timber School Building (Type F/T4) with a Semi-enclosed Stair, comprising three classrooms, and a library, (Block E), was constructed at Cannon Hill in 1954. This building runs east-west, with a verandah protecting the northern side. This was a contemporary Works Design practice that evolved from the sectional school design.[41] A 1957 extension to the east of Block F followed the same design principle. Educationalists argued that the ideal orientation of classroom buildings was 10 degrees east of north, with verandahs protecting the northern side and classrooms facing south. This led to the construction of school buildings that were oriented in relation to the sun rather than the site boundaries.[42] This orientation was approximately consistent with the existing axial siting of the majority of existing buildings at Cannon Hill State School.
\nIn 1954 the type was improved by replacing the proliferation of stumps in the understorey with a timber truss that spanned the width of the classroom and provided an unimpeded play space. This concept was further refined in 1957 by replacing the timber truss with a steel open-web joist that spanned further and removed more understorey stumps. This structural system was employed with reinforced concrete piers to support large loads at minimal cost.[43] This particular concept was applied in the 1959 construction of Block A, a two storey brick and timber building (Type F/T7) stepped in section to link with Block B by a walkway. This structure was supported on concrete columns and steel open web joints with a cantilevered portion supporting the verandah. The understorey of Block A was left open for playing until the design was modified to add another classroom on the lower level.[44] The use of brick in the construction of Block A follows a structural scheme typical of 1950s school architecture.[45] It was partially constructed on land acquired in 1957 after the Department of Public Instruction purchased a property, to the west of the school on Wynnum Road, for future extensions to the school.[46]
\nOther modifications to the school included: the construction of Block G (one classroom) in 1951 and Block D in 1955 (four classrooms); an extension to Block C in 1957; the removal and subsequent rebuilding of Block G in 1970 (three classrooms on two levels); the addition of a toilet block in 1970; the construction of a retaining wall to the north and east of the sports ground in 1972; the removal of the teachers residence and the subsequent construction of a pre-school centre in 1974; construction of a tuckshop in 1981 (since removed); the removal of Block D in 1987 following arson damage;[47] the construction of a new toilet block; and the 1988 conversion of the southern toilet block to a covered play area, stores and Janitor's room.[48] The pool dressing sheds were demolished and replaced after 2009.[49]
\nLandscape features still visible at the Cannon Hill State School include mature trees. Numerous mature fig trees grow in the school grounds, with two notable trees located along the path leading from the pool area to the sports ground. Two mature mango trees survive - one near the parade ground north of Block C, which survives from the original private residence gardens, and another from the former teachers residence garden, located near the southern end of the sports ground. During the 1916 Arbor Day, the Hon. HF Hardacre (Minister for Public Instruction) was present when the first Anzac tree, a silver wattle, was planted at Cannon Hill State School.[50] A silver wattle, located just outside Block A facing Wynnum Road, may represent a continued landscaping practice. The front gardens retain the original 1914 pathway and terracing layout,[51] and an avenue of trees, including a mature palm tree, lines the pathway from Block A to Block C.
\nIn 2015, Cannon Hill State School celebrates the school's centenary, with a provisional museum already established at the school, honouring Cannon Hill State School's significant history and community efforts. [52]
\nConsidering the school's continuous operation since 1915, the school has played an important part of Cannon Hill's history, teaching generations of students. The school has been a key site for social meetings and activities since its establishment, including school dances, held there as early as 1916; May fairs and fetes, agricultural shows, welcoming soldiers home from the First World War, and school concerts, each one bringing together the school and local community over the past century. It retains an array of representative Department of Public Works-designed buildings and an early swimming pool set in landscaped grounds with mature shade trees.
","criteria":"Cannon Hill State School (established in 1915) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent and representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies.
\nThe Suburban Timber School Building (1915) represents the culmination of years of experimentation with light, classroom size and elevation, by the Department of Public Works. This was replicated in a similar building (1947) with modifications typical of its period.
\nThe Temporary Classroom Building (c1950-1) demonstrates a transitional period where standardised designs of conventional construction were combined with prefabricated systems to provide basic classroom accommodation in response to the increased post-war demand on schools.
\nTwo Highset Timber School Building extensions (1954, 1957) demonstrate new standard designs that evolved after World War II, incorporating concepts from prefabrication systems.
\nThe Timber Framed School Building Incorporating Open Web Floor Trusses (1959) demonstrates the change to steel truss supports and cantilevered verandahs to create uncluttered understorey play space.
\nThe early swimming pool (1921) reflects the growing popularity of children learning to swim for health and safety reasons.
\nThe large, suburban site with mature trees and landscaping features demonstrates the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Cannon Hill School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a suburban Queensland state school complex. These include: generous, landscaped sites with mature shade trees, assembly/play areas and sporting facilities; and a range of timber-framed teaching buildings constructed between 1915 and 1959. The large school complex retains good, representative examples of standard Queensland government designs that were architectural responses to the prevailing government educational philosophies, and non-standard features such as a swimming pool (1921).
\nThe large Suburban Timber School Building (Block B, 1915) is a good, intact example of its type, comprising: a symmetrical plan of three gable-roofed wings connected via continuous verandahs; highset timber framed structure with play space beneath; projecting teachers rooms; verandah cloak rooms and hat hooks; and continuous operable vents at floor level.
\nAn adjacent classroom building (Block F, 1947) is of similar design to the earlier Suburban Timber School Building, comprising a rectangular plan with consistent classroom width, verandah layout and external details, but without the hinged ventilation boards.
\nThe Temporary Classroom Building (Block C, c1950-51) is a rare, intact example of its type, with lowset timber framed structure, north facing verandah, vertical tongue-and-groove cladding and banks of casement windows with fanlights over.
\nExtensions to the east (Block F, 1957) and west (Block E, 1954) of Block F are good examples of Highset Timber School Buildings, with external cladding carried through both levels, extensive use of hopper windows to southern elevation, and double-hung sash windows to the northern, verandah wall.
\nThe Timber Framed School Building Incorporating Open Web Floor Trusses (Block A, 1959) is a good, intact example of its type, combining face brick construction with a highset timber framed structure supported on open web steel floor trusses, enabling unencumbered play space underneath.
|Cannon Hill State School is of aesthetic significance for its picturesque architectural qualities and contribution to the streetscape. Highly-intact, the Suburban Timber School Building (Block B, 1915) has considerable architectural value as a building of high-quality materials and construction with well-composed features. The symmetrical front elevation, with projecting gabled wings, features decorative elements of finely-crafted timber work. The Suburban Timber School Building is prominently sited, elevated and set back from the road behind open grassed areas and landscaped gardens; it is an attractive feature along Wynnum Road and is a landmark for the area.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
Cannon Hill State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Cannon Hill community. It was established in 1915 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Cannon Hill and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
Wilston State School occupies the whole of a 2.84ha block within the hilly terrain of the Grange, a residential suburb of Brisbane. The site is bounded by Primrose Street to the south, Inglis Street to the east, Thomas Street to the west and Carberry Street to the north. The school comprises a large complex of buildings on a sloping site, with the earliest school buildings located on the high ground at the southern end of the site, more recent development in the centre, and playing fields on the low ground at the north end. In addition to the early buildings are entrance gates on the Thomas Street boundary (1935) and a swimming pool (1923) with dressing shed (1924) in the southwest corner. Other site features include concrete busts of historical figures (1923 and 1932), balustrade walls (1933 and 1935), retaining walls (c1940s), stone pitched walls, an east-west driveway, pathways, and established trees and landscaping.
\nThe six significant buildings within the school complex are all timber-framed and clad, and orientated on an east-west axis. These buildings are:
\nEvidence of early site planning of the school grounds remains, with all significant buildings (except for Block G) positioned symmetrically in relation to Block C, the original 1920 building, which occupies a central position in the southern school grounds. Blocks A and D lie to the northwest and northeast of Block C respectively, positioned in line with each other with a former parade ground in between. Blocks B and E (a matching pair of buildings added to the site in c1949) are positioned in line with Block C at its west (Block B) and east (Block E) ends. Block B stands close to Block C due to the limited space available between it and the swimming pool in the southwest corner of the grounds, while Block E had sufficient space around it to be extended at either end in c1953. Block G is located to the southeast of Block C and its north-facing main entrance is aligned with the gap between blocks C and E.
\nWith the exception of Block G, all of the significant school buildings are weatherboard-clad, highset on either brick or concrete piers, and have corrugated metal-clad roofs. Blocks C, A, B and E are rectangular in plan and have north-facing verandahs; large banks of glazing on the southern elevations to provide maximum natural light to the interiors; and a range of early timber joinery. All buildings have timber floorboards and timber skirtings of a simple profile. In general, eaves, verandah ceilings, and internal walls and ceilings are lined with timber v-jointed (VJ) tongue-and-groove (T&G) boards, with flat sheeting used for some 1950s classrooms. Blocks C, A, B and the central portion of block E have coved ceilings, exposed metal tie rods and square ceiling ventilation panels (most now enclosed). Elements not of cultural heritage significance include lifts, modern carpet and linoleum floor coverings, inserted partitions, kitchenettes, modern benches and storage cupboards, and aluminium windows.
\n1920 Suburban Timber School building (Block C)
\nBlock C is a large, symmetrically-arranged block comprising a central wing (formerly 4 classrooms, now used as offices), two end wings (containing 2 classrooms each), and a projecting teachers room (extended c1973) on the north side of the central wing. The wings are connected by continuous verandahs along the northern sides, sections of which are enclosed. The wings have gambrel roofs and the teachers room has a gable roof. Four sets of stairs and a modern lift provide access to the verandahs and a recent covered staircase is attached to the south side of the central wing.
\nBanks of windows in the south walls of all wings have casements in the bottom row and horizontally centre-pivoting windows above. The east and west wings retain a top row of fanlights that are top-hinged and set within inclined frames (sheeted over on the exterior). Each end wall has three small, high, centre-pivoting windows. The teachers' room has modern aluminium casement windows in timber framing with early square timber fanlights above, shaded by timber-framed, skillion-roofed hoods on the north elevation.
\nThe central wing verandah has a two-rail slat balustrade, curved timber arches between verandah posts, a raked ceiling and a single skin verandah wall. Early timber joinery includes tall, horizontally centre-pivoting fanlights over doorways and later sash windows with fanlights. Verandahs to the east and west wings have been partially enclosed by weatherboards. The interiors are lined and large openings have been cut into the verandah walls.
\nClassrooms in the east and west wings are separated by original timber partitions with fixed glazing, and walls have picture rails. Multiple new partitions have been added to the central wing but original partitions survive under modern linings. All partitions in the central wing have high-level fixed glazing. The teachers' room has a flat ceiling and partitions have been relocated.
\nThe understorey has a concrete slab floor and is partially enclosed by timber batten screens and brick infill walls. The piers are glazed brown bricks with rounded edges. The understorey accommodates several toilet blocks dating from the 1930s and 1950s. These have brick external walls and timber partitions of vertical timber boards. Beneath the west wing a large room and two store rooms have been constructed at different periods from various materials, including wide vertical timber boards. Several long timber benches are located beneath the central wing.
\n1926 Sectional School building (Block A)
\nBlock A is a long building with a projecting teachers room attached to the verandah. It has a gable roof with vertical batten gable infill, and raked eaves. The east and west walls are windowless. Access is via two timber staircases to the verandah.
\nThe verandah has a timber, two-rail slat balustrade, a raked ceiling and a single skin verandah wall. Former hat room enclosures of single-skin weatherboard walls survive at either end, and bag hooks are attached to the verandah wall.
\nThe building retains much of its original timber joinery. The south wall has five banks of casement windows with fanlights. The projecting teachers' room has pairs of casement windows with fanlights above, protected by skillion-roofed hoods. The verandah wall has five sets of double doors with fanlights alternated with five pairs of three-light sash windows with fanlights.
\nThe interior comprises two large classrooms and one smaller classroom. Two single-skin partition walls survive, and the location of a removed partition is evident in the ceiling of the western room. The former teachers room has been enlarged by the removal of its southern wall to incorporate a section of enclosed verandah.
\nThe understorey has a concrete slab floor and is partially enclosed by timber batten screens and brick infill walls. The piers are glazed brown bricks with rounded edges. A 1930s/50s toilet block with brick external walls and timber dividing partitions is at the eastern end and the western end has been enclosed for store rooms.
\n1933 purpose-designed former classroom and hall building (Block D)
\nThe 1933 purpose-designed former classroom and hall building (‘Block D') stands on brick stumps and walls. The building is rectangular in plan, with a projecting, central porch on the western side and projecting stair landings at the eastern end of the north and south sides; the building and western porch have gable roofs with vertically-battened timber gable-ends. A prominent fleche and spaced eaves-cladding along the northern and southern elevations ventilate the roof space. Most windows are timber-framed casements with (now fixed) fanlights, sheltered by corrugated metal hoods with timber brackets. There are four sets of timber stairs; two to the eastern end projections, and two to the west.
\nThe interior comprises a large central space; with an enclosed western porch; and an eastern raised stage and kitchenette (formerly one space) flanked to the north and the south by hallways and former teachers rooms. Most walls and ceilings are lined with T&G VJ timber boards; stud framing is exposed in sections of the teacher's rooms. Bulkhead partitions in the central space are in the locations where original folding partitions have been removed (one in the centre of the space and one at the stage opening). Beams in this space are expressed and clad in VJ timber boards. Ceiling vents remain in their original positions and high-level, timber picture-rails run around the perimeter of the space. Original timber panelled doors with fanlights provide access to the teachers rooms and hallways.
\nThe understorey has rounded brick stumps, brick walls, and a concrete slab floor. There is an early timber door to the space below the western porch, and early windows include timber-framed sashes.
\nc1922 Sectional School building (Block B) (relocated c1950)
\nBlock B has an L-shaped verandah along the north and east sides (enclosed on the east side), a gable roof with vertical batten gable infill, and raked eaves. The building stands on concrete piers and the understory is enclosed with timber batten screens. Access is via a staircase to the north verandah and a recently installed lift and platform connecting the verandah to the pool area to the west.
\nThe verandah has a timber, two-rail dowel balustrade, a raked ceiling and a single skin verandah wall with bag hooks. Fabric from a former hat room located in the northeast corner of the verandah has been incorporated into the verandah enclosure.
\nEarly windows include timber sashes with fanlights in the verandah wall, and two large banks of timber-framed windows on the south wall, consisting of casements on the bottom row, horizontally centre-pivoting windows in the middle and fanlights at the top. Doors in the verandah wall each have two tall, horizontally centre-pivoting fanlights. A double door at the western end of the verandah is the only early door and retains its original handle.
\nThe interior comprises two classrooms divided by a single-skin partition, and the enclosed verandah contains a modern kitchen area and office.
\nc1922 Sectional School Building (Block E), extended c1953
\nThe c1922 sectional school building with 1953 extensions to the east and west ends (‘Block E') stands on concrete and steel stumps. It has gable roof with battened gable-infills. Windows in the south wall are associated with the different construction periods; banks of tall, timber-framed, sash and horizontally centre-pivoting windows with fanlights to the central 1922 section; and banks of dual, timber-framed casement windows with awning fanlights to the 1953 end sections.
\nThe verandah has a raked ceiling, single skin verandah wall and bag-racks between square timber posts. Part of the ceiling is flat over the 1953 verandahs. A line in the ceiling lining at the western end marks the position of the original verandah roofline. The west end of the verandah has a hat room enclosure with exposed stud framing (repositioned from the 1922 verandah), and a small section of early two-rail dowel balustrade is retained at the eastern end. Verandah windows are double-hung with timber sashes and awning fanlights. Timber low-waisted doors with early hardware are retained. Doors to the 1922 section have tall, centre-pivoting fanlights, while doors to the extensions have awning fanlights.
\nThe interior is divided into three classrooms, with the extent of the western classroom overlapping both the 1953 and 1922 sections. Although openings have been cut into original walls, the early layout is readable. The walls and ceilings of the 1953 sections are lined with flat sheeting with square cover-strips to the walls and curved cover strips to the ceilings.
\nThe understorey has a concrete slab floor and a modern enclosure at the southwest end. Remnants of the original, VJ timber verandah lining are attached to a notched bearer, indicating the western extent of the 1922 building. The joists supporting the 1922 section are narrower than those of the extensions.
\n1954 former Visual Education Centre and Library (Block G)
\nThe 1954 former Visual Education Centre and Library (‘Block G') is a purposed-designed, two-storey, chamferboard-clad structure, with a facebrick projecting porch and verandah on the northern side. It has a terracotta-tiled hip roof with flat-sheet eaves linings and ventilated soffits. The primary entrance to the building is through 5-light French doors within the porch, with secondary entrances from the northern verandah, western staircase and southern patio. Windows are generally timber-framed awnings and there are double-hung windows with timber sashes at the upper level of the porch projection. The porch entryway is flanked by circular concrete columns and low, brick planter boxes. The verandah has a terracotta-tiled hip roof, circular concrete columns, a concrete slab floor and a ceiling lined in flat sheeting.
The interior layout of the building is highly intact. The ground floor comprises a foyer with store rooms and a main staircase to the east; and a hall, stage with store rooms, and back-of-house staircase to the west. The upper floor has a singular open space (former library), with a small service room at the western end and a former office space within the northern porch projection. Walls and ceilings of both levels are lined with flat sheeting. The timber handrail of the main staircase is of a geometric design and early 5-light timber French doors between the foyer and hall are retained. Beams expressed within the hall are lined with flat sheeting.
1923 Swimming Pool and 1924 Dressing Shed
\nIn the southwest corner of the site is a rectangular, in-ground, concrete swimming pool with a timber-framed, weatherboard-clad dressing shed along the west side. The shed stands on a low brick plinth, has a corrugated metal-clad gable roof with circular roof vents, and decorative ridge-caps at the gable-ends. The primary entrance is in the centre of the eastern elevation, with secondary entrances at the ends. High-level louvred windows run the length of the eastern elevation and a long, high-level window is located in the southern wall. Louvered vents are spaced along the western and eastern elevations. Early tiered, timber seating is attached to the eastern side of the shed.
\nGrounds and trees
\nThe grounds are well established with many mature trees, including a variety of fig and other shade trees along the Inglis, Carberry and Thomas street boundaries. The terraced nature of the sloping site provides opportunities for views of the surrounding area to be obtained from within the school grounds and the school buildings. Stone pitched walls are in various locations around the site - to the west of Block E; to the north and east of the swimming pool; and to the south of Block C. Gardens at the Primrose Street entrance provide an attractive setting for the school, and are an important connection between Block C and the street. Included in this area are pathways, concrete busts of William Shakespeare and Captain James Cook, established garden beds, a timber pergola structure and lawn areas.
\nOther elements within the grounds are primarily arranged on two axes: an east-west axis from Inglis Street to Thomas Street (north of Block C); and a north-south axis on the western side of the site (in line with the centre of Block A).
\nThe east-west axis comprises a driveway beginning at the decorative, wrought-iron Thomas Street gates. The gates stand between rendered concrete piers and have an archway featuring ‘WILSTON STATE SCHOOL' lettering welded to iron latticework. Emphasising the east-west axis is a concrete balustrade (1933) that tops the retaining walls, forming the south and west edges of the former parade ground (north of Block C). The balustrade, which steps with the contours of the terrain, has large square piers and decorative concrete balusters. Rounded stairs, located in a break within the balustrade, are aligned with the centre of Block C. A timber bell tower with a gable roof and decorative timberwork is located at the east end of Block A and houses an early school bell. Sets of low, c1930s concrete steps are located along the south edge of the driveway, with one set leading to the pool and others on the north side of Block C.
\nThe north-south axis links Block A with the northern oval. It is defined primarily by a footpath that begins at a set of curved, concrete stairs with low edge walls at an intersection with an Art Deco-style balustrade (1935). This balustrade has concrete piers linked by tubular metal handrails and stands on an ash-brick retaining wall that wraps around the southern and western edges of a lower playground. The axis pathway continues north to a second set of concrete stairs with low edge walls, providing access to the oval.
\nThe generous oval and its established shade trees enhance the school's prominence in its location, provide a picturesque setting for the school and generate a strong sense of place.
\nThe streetscape of the area is beautified by mature perimeter trees; terraced embankments; and the provision of ornamental points of interest, including entrance gates and busts of historical figures.
\nOther Structures
\nAll other buildings and structures within the heritage boundary are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance
","history":"Wilston State School opened in 1920 in the Brisbane suburb of Wilston (now the Grange), to serve the growing suburban population in the Wilston-Grange area. Due to suburban development during the interwar period and after World War II, additional buildings were added to serve the school's needs. Wilston State School has a range of standard and purpose-built timber and brick buildings dating from 1920 to the 1950s, set in landscaped grounds. The school has been in continuous operation since establishment and has been a focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activities.
\nThe provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. Following the introduction of Queensland's Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland's public schools grew rapidly.[1] Queensland's State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction. This further standardised the provision of education, and despite difficulties, achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[2]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school's construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and community halls reinforced these connections and provided a venue for a wide range of community events in schools across Queensland.[3]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[4]
\nEuropean settlement of the area around Wilston State School began when William Wilson, a city merchant, took up 300 acres of land and built a stone house c1876, which he called ‘Wilston' after his birthplace in Ireland. The later suburb, located between Newmarket and Windsor, took the name of Wilson's house. During the 19th century, Wilston remained a predominantly rural area.[5]
\nSuburban growth intensified with the arrival of the railway at nearby Newmarket in 1897. In 1899 the railway line was extended to Enoggera and the town of Windsor, incorporating Wilston, was proclaimed in 1904. The suburb, near the Newmarket saleyards (1877-1931), was at first regarded as an outlying district of Newmarket, and was used for agistment, tanneries, fellmongering, dairying and extractive industries.[6] The train line to Newmarket station had a stop at Wilston, and settlement spread northwards from there to the desirable elevated slopes of Eildon Hill.[7] The population of Wilston increased further following establishment of the Grange electric tramway along Days Road in 1928.
\nLobbying for a new school at Wilston began in 1912. The neighbouring schools of Bowen Bridge (Windsor) and Newmarket had resisted the establishment of another school, fearing it would decrease resources for existing schools in the area. In 1914, a further effort was made to have a school erected in the district, pointing out that the steep nature of the area was difficult for small children; and crossing the railway and passing cattle saleyards were added dangers. By 1917 two potential sites for a new school had been selected. Coronation Park, a recreation area, was selected after a secret ballot of parents.[8]
\nSubsequently, Wilston State School opened on 14 August 1920, comprising one Suburban Timber School Building (Type C/T8) (now known as Block C) on 4 acres of land (1.62ha).[9] The building was centrally positioned on the higher ground at the southern (Primrose Street) end of the site. A newspaper report described the building as timber on brick piers with an asbestos slate roof and ornamental fleches. There were 8 classrooms with verandahs and two teachers rooms on the north side. Particular reference was made to good lighting and ventilation. The concreted area under the building was used as play space, with conveniently placed toilets nearby.[10] The school had an initial enrolment of 320 pupils, which rose with the progress of the district.[11]
\nThe school gained a reputation for success in the arts and music, due largely to the efforts of the first head teacher, Walter Collings. His influence played an important role in the development of the school and its grounds. He is recognised for his public stance in opposing corporal punishment in schools and Wilston was reputedly the first school in Queensland to ban corporal punishment.[12] By the late 1920s, the school possessed its own orchestra.[13] Reflecting the school's arts focus, in 1923 a bust of William Shakespeare, located in a garden bed on the north side of the 1920 building, was unveiled by the Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan.[14]
\nCollings also promoted sport. One of the first swimming pools at a state school in Queensland was established at Wilston State School in 1923, located in the southwest corner of the grounds. The school committee raised its £650 cost and undertook preliminary work on the site before its construction by MR Hornibrook.[15] Opened on 10 November 1923 at a large public gathering, the reinforced concrete pool was 23 metres long and 7.6 metres wide with a varied depth of 1-2.1 metres.[16] Earlier pools were opened at Junction Park (1910), Wooloowin State School (1916), Ascot State School (pre-1921) and Cannon Hill State School (1921).[17] In 1915, the Hon HF Hardacre, Minister for Public Instruction, regarded swimming as ‘preferable to other physical drill during the hot summer months' and that he ‘would like to see a swimming pool in every school ground in Queensland'.[18] A year later at the opening of the Wooloowin State School pool, he emphasised the value of swimming to children's physiques.[19] However, water safety was also a motivation for the establishment school swimming pools.[20] A year after the opening of the Wilston State School pool, a long timber dressing shed with a brick base, weatherboard walls and a gable roof was built to the west of the pool and was officially opened in October 1924.[21] In August 1929, tennis courts were officially opened by the Minister for Education, RM King.[22]
\nThe provision of outdoor play space was a result of the early and continuing commitment by the Department of Public Instruction to play-based education, particularly in primary school. Trees and gardens were planted as part of beautification of schools. In the 1870s, schools inspector William Boyd was critical of tropical schools and among his recommendations stressed the importance of adding shade trees to playgrounds.[23] In addition, Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Landscape elements were often constructed to standard designs and were intrinsic to Queensland Government education philosophies. Educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors.[24] Following construction of Wilston State School, its grounds were terraced and gardens with bush houses were created. Principal Collings expressed the importance of school gardens in July 1932 at the opening of the latest part of the school's beautification scheme, which had commenced 12 years previously, when he said ‘a beautiful garden was better than the best teacher'.[25] Shade trees inside the school boundary near the buildings on Inglis Street (Fig trees) and Thomas streets (two Camphor Laurels and one Fig tree) were planted prior to 1946. Fig trees around the oval, along the Inglis, Carberry and Thomas streets' boundaries, were planted prior to 1964.[26]
\nAttention to improving light and ventilation to achieve optimum classroom conditions culminated in 1920 with the Sectional School type, a highset timber structure. This design combined all the best features of previous types and implemented theories of an ideal education environment. It proved very successful and was used unaltered until 1950. It was practical, economical, and satisfied educational requirements and climatic needs. Most importantly, it allowed for the orderly expansion of schools over time. Before the Sectional School, solar orientation was not given priority and all school buildings were oriented in relation to the street and property boundaries, often resulting in poor lighting. The Sectional School type had only one verandah typically on the northern side, allowing the southern wall, with a maximum number of windows, to be unobstructed. The building was designed so that the blank western wall was removable. As the school grew, the western end wall could be detached and the building extended in sections, hence the name. This led to the construction of long narrow buildings of many classrooms - a distinctive feature of Queensland schools.[27]
\nIn 1926 a Sectional School building (Type D/T1),[28] was constructed to the northwest of the 1920 school building as a kindergarten wing (now known as Block A). It contained three standard-size classrooms and one double-size classroom and was intended to accommodate 300 children. Typical of the sectional school type, it was highset with blank end walls, a north-facing verandah, large banks of windows in the southern wall, and a projecting teachers room.[29]
\nThe commitment of the school principal, Collings, to the development of music and the arts was the likely motivation behind the construction of a new, multi-purpose classroom and concert hall building that was not a standard Queensland Government type. Plans were prepared by architect AGF Greenaway in 1933.[30] Working for the Department of Works at the time, Greenaway, who was born in Ipswich in 1894, had previously worked with Brockwell Gill in Ipswich and the Brisbane City Council, and registered as an architect in 1929.[31]
\nThe Governor of Queensland, Sir Leslie Wilson, opened the new purpose-built building (now known as Block D) on 23 September 1933.[32] Located to the northeast of the 1920 building, it was more like a church hall than a school building in form, with a porch at the west end, two double classrooms in the body of the building, separated by a partition, and a classroom on a platform at the east end with a teachers room and lobby each side. There were no verandahs. The roof was gabled with a fleche and windows were standard school casements with fanlights. The classrooms were 12.1 metres wide with a trussed roof.[33]
\nDuring the 1930s changes and additions to the grounds occurred. Around 1934 new toilets were constructed under the original 1920 building and the 1926 infants wing, and two acres of additional land was acquired from Coronation Park to the north for a sports oval in 1937.[34] Landscaping works, including a terraced lawn, concrete stairs, garden beds and a pergola at the main (Primrose Street) entrance, were undertaken by relief labour in 1932 as part of an ongoing school beautification scheme. This stage included the unveiling of a bust of Captain Cook, the work of Mr JA Watts, in a garden bed next to the pergola on 2 July 1932.[35] Further landscaping included a concrete retaining wall and balustrade around the parade area north of the 1920 building in 1933.[36] In 1935 a set of gates, constructed on the Thomas Street boundary, were funded through community fundraising and a donation from the noted manufacturer and philanthropist, George Marchant, who lived in the vicinity.[37] These gates consisted of concrete pillars with iron gates and an archway. They were officially opened on 21 September 1935.[38] In the same year, art deco-style balustrading was added to retaining walls north of the infants wing.[39]
\nFor most Brisbane suburbs, the immediate post-World War II period was one of development with the consequent rise in school populations; as was the case for Wilston State School. After World War II the overriding concern for the Department of Public Instruction was the need to build school buildings as expeditiously and economically as possible. Queensland schools were faced with enormous overcrowding and a lack of resources as the Queensland Government gave education a low priority and provided the department with only a small budget. At the same time, skilled labour was scarce and materials were in short supply. [40]
\nIn this immediate post-war period two 1922 Sectional buildings (now known as blocks B and E) were relocated c1949 to the site from Kelvin Grove Boys School, to accommodate Wilston State School's growing population.[41] Each contained two classrooms with an L-shaped verandah, and were positioned to the west and east of the 1920 building (Block C).[42] In c1953 the eastern building (Block E) was extended at either end. The original eastern wall was relocated to the eastern extent of the extension and fabric from the original, western verandah was reused in the extensions. The original hatroom was relocated to the western corner of the new verandah. The extensions had large banks of timber casements in the southern walls, with timber sashes in the verandah walls. A curved pathway running between blocks C and E was repositioned to accommodate the extension.[43]
\nIn 1954 another purpose-designed building (now known as Block G), was constructed near the Primrose Street boundary, southeast of the 1920 building. School fund-raising for it had begun in 1941 and by 1953, a plan for a £6250 new Visual Education Centre and Library was published in The Courier Mail. Half of the building cost was funded by the school's fund-raising efforts and half by the Queensland Government.[44] Designed by Brisbane firm, Blackburne and Gzell Architects, it was a two-storey timber building with a terracotta roof and a two-storey brick entrance porch.[45] The building was officially opened in 1954 by Queensland Premier, Mr Gair.[46]
\nFrom the 1950s various alterations and additions occurred and more buildings were added to the southern school grounds. In the period 1951-5, a lowset, single-room classroom (Block F) was constructed to the south of Block E, on a diagonal axis.[47] In 1956 the building was extended by two classrooms to the west, and after 2006 it was raised and moved to its present position along the Primrose Street boundary.[48] In 1956 additional toilets were constructed beneath the 1920 building (Block C) in a style similar to the existing 1930s toilets.[49] A highset classroom building was constructed next to the pool in 1970 (Block H), on the site of a former terraced lawn.[50] The 1933 purpose-built building (Block D) was converted into a library in 1983.[51]
\nIn 1970, as the school's Jubilee project, the swimming pool was widened to six lanes and lengthened to 25 metres. At the time, the pool represented 48 years of swimming history at the school and the pool update was considered a suitable commemoration to all who contributed to it. This project was funded jointly by the Wilston State School P & C and the Queensland Government. [52]
\nIn the 1990s several buildings were refurbished and altered to suit new uses. In 1993, the central wing of the 1920 building (Block C) was refurbished for administration purposes, with some modification to joinery and new partitions inserted. The top level of windows on the south-facing walls were either removed or sheeted over. A new staircase, landing and door were added to the southern wall of the central wing, creating a new main entrance to the building. The internal layout of the former teachers room, which had been extended in 1973, was altered to create offices, a store room and a sick bay.[53] In 1997 the verandahs of the east and west wings were enclosed and large openings cut into the verandahs walls.[54] Also in 1997, part of the verandah of the 1926 Sectional School building (Block A) was enclosed and the teachers room and classrooms were refurbished, including the removal of a classroom partition.[55]
\nAdditions and changes to landscape elements have also been made. From the 1950s stone pitched walls were constructed in various locations as retaining walls, including the bank to the north of the 1933 purpose-built building (Block D). The wall to the oval was partly stone pitched by 1959. [56] A bell tower housing the school bell beside the Sectional School building (Block A) dates from before September 1939.[57] Alterations to pathways and gardens between the 1920 building (Block C) and Primrose Street took place in the 1990s, including the realignment of the main entrance gate and pathway.[58]
\nThe importance of the school to the local community has been demonstrated by the support given by parents in the development of buildings, the beautification of the grounds, and continuity of attendance, with several generations of local families attending.[59]
\nIn 2015, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains standard and purpose-built timber and brick buildings dating from 1920 to the 1950s, set in landscaped grounds. The school is important as a focus for the surrounding community and generations of students from the area have been taught there. Since establishment, it has been a key social focus for the community with the grounds and buildings being the site of many social events.
","criteria":"Wilston State School (established in 1920) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent and representative examples of standard government designed school buildings that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies.
\nThe Suburban Timber School Building (1920) represents the culmination of years of experimentation by the Department of Public Works (DPW) with light, classroom size and elevation.
\nThree Sectional School buildings (c1922, c1922, 1926) demonstrate the evolution of DPW timber school designs to provide equally for educational and climatic needs.
\nTwo purpose-built school buildings (1933, 1954) demonstrate a broadening of the curriculum at some schools to incorporate music and the Arts.
\nAn early swimming pool (1923) and dressing shed (1924) reflect the growing popularity of children learning to swim for health and safety reasons.
\nThe large school site, with mature trees and landscaping features in a large suburban setting, demonstrates the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Wilston State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of Queensland state schools with their later modifications. These include: timber-framed teaching buildings constructed to standard designs by the Queensland Government, and generous, landscaped sites with mature shade trees, assembly/play areas and sporting facilities. The school is a good, intact example of a large suburban school complex, comprising a range of standard and purpose-built timber buildings dating from 1920 to the 1950s, and including non-standard features such as a swimming pool and dressing shed (1923, 1924), entrance gates (1935), bell tower (pre-1939), and busts of historical figures (1923, 1932).
\nThe large Suburban Timber School (Block C, 1920) is a good, intact example of its type, with its symmetrical plan of three wings, highset form with play space, toilet blocks and bench seating beneath, gambrel roofs, continuous northern verandahs, large banks of south-facing windows, projecting teacher's room, single-skin verandah walls, early joinery, and internal features such as glazed classroom partitions.
\nThree Sectional School buildings (Block B, c1922; Block E, c1922 with c1953 extensions; and Block A, 1926) are good examples of their type and Block A is very intact. Characteristics include their highset form with play space beneath, gable roofs, blank end walls, northern verandahs, large banks of south-facing windows, projecting teacher's room (Block A), hat room enclosures, single-skin verandah walls, and early joinery and internal linings.
\nThe purpose-built buildings (Block D, 1933, hall and classroom building; and Block G, 1954, hall and library building) are good examples of individually-designed state school buildings constructed in regions with large urban populations to meet the specific needs of the school. Designed to accommodate multiple functions, both buildings remain largely intact.
|Wilston State School is important for its aesthetic significance as a well-composed complex of buildings unified by their consistent form, scale, materials and orientation. The original symmetrical layout of these buildings remains intact and demonstrates a continuation of site planning ideals initiated by the siting of the first building in a prominent, central position at the top of the sloping grounds. The school's setting is beautified by mature trees and formal landscaping elements such as axial pathways, retaining and balustrade walls, stairs, gardens, and ornamental points of interest, such as entrance gates and busts of historical figures.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nWilston State School has a strong and ongoing association with the surrounding community. It was established in 1920 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of children have been educated there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of its suburban district and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":602860,"name":"Virginia State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"1690 Sandgate Road","suburb":"VIRGINIA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2015-08-28","description":"Virginia State School occupies the whole of a levelled, 4.72ha block within Virginia, an industrial and residential suburb of northern Brisbane. The site is located on the corner of Sandgate Road, the major thoroughfare through Virginia, and Jefferis Street; and is bound by Brickyard Road to the southwest, parkland to the west and north, and a railway line to the northeast. The school buildings are primarily located at the southern end of the site with the earliest, a Sectional School Building, approximately in the centre of the group. The school complex also comprises a sports oval at the northern end of the site, a tennis court (1925) in the southwestern corner, and a variety of mature trees and plantings that are mostly positioned along the site boundary, sports oval perimeter, and north and east of the tennis court. The school and its large, leafy grounds are conspicuous in their suburban setting.
\n1920-1933 Sectional School Building (3 wings: Blocks B, C and D)
\nThe Sectional School Building is set well back from Jefferis street and is orientated on a southeast-northwest axis – perpendicular to Sandgate Road. It is comprised of three Sectional School wings (Block B, east; Block C, centre; and Block D, west) that were constructed in five stages between 1920 and 1933.
\nThe building is a highset, timber-framed and weatherboard-clad structure with corrugated metal-clad roofs, timber floors, and tall, rounded-brick (Block B and C) and concrete (Block D) stumps. The building’s three wings are linked by northeast-facing verandahs which are accessed by timber stairs; and teachers rooms are attached to the verandahs of the east and west wings. The understorey is partially enclosed with a variety of brick, flat-sheet and weatherboard-clad partitions that form toilet blocks, a tuckshop, storage areas and additional classrooms – none of which are of cultural heritage significance.
A range of early timber joinery is retained throughout the building including the large banks of casement windows with horizontally centre-pivoting fanlights in the southwestern walls (fanlights in the eastern block are modern); and double-hung sashes with centre-pivoting fanlights in the verandah walls (installed in the 1950s). Most doors are modern, but retain early centre-pivoting fanlights.
All verandah walls are single-skin, with tongue-and-groove (T&G), vertically-jointed (VJ) timber board linings and externally-exposed stud-framing. The verandahs have square timber posts and raked ceilings lined in T&G, VJ boards. Bag-racks have replaced most of the timber balustrading.
\nEarly interior wall and ceiling linings are T&G, VJ boards. Original coved ceilings survive in most classrooms; and exposed metal tie rods and square ceiling ventilation panels are retained in these spaces. Skirtings are timber and of a simple profile.
The eastern and the western wings each have two teachers rooms; most of which retain their original coved ceilings and T&G, VJ board wall and ceiling linings. Their early casement windows with centre-pivoting (eastern wing), awning and fixed (western wing) fanlights survive and some retain early window hardware. Marks within some northeastern wall linings indicate the former locations of window banks (now removed).
Elements not of cultural heritage significance include modern carpet and linoleum floor linings, kitchenettes, modern benches, storage cupboards, stage platforms, modern verandah enclosures, flat suspended ceilings, modern light-weight partitions and flat-sheet wall linings. Extensions northeast of the Sectional School Building, Block A and Block E, and alterations to accommodate the southeast walkway linking to Block F, are not of cultural heritage significance.
\n1920-2 Eastern Wing (Block B)
\nThe eastern wing has a gable roof with a Dutch-gable at the western end and flat-sheet eaves linings. The southeastern end-wall features a bank of high-level, centre-pivoting windows that are sheltered by a wide, corrugated metal-clad hood with decorative timber brackets. An early, low-waisted timber door provides access from the verandah to the easternmost classroom and retains some early door hardware.
The lowest board of the classrooms’ verandah wall is hinged at the base. The verandah has modern enclosures at either end that form additional classroom and storage spaces.
Internally the wing is divided by timber partitions into three large classroom spaces (formerly five classrooms). Two original partitions at the eastern end of the wing have been removed, although their locations are identifiable through protruding marks in the flat, suspended ceiling lining. Partitions at the western end of the wing remain in their original locations, although they have been lined with flat-sheeting from floor to wall height. An opening has been cut into the westernmost partition to combine two classrooms into one large space.
1924-8 Central Wing (Block C)
\nThe central wing has a gable roof with battened timber eaves linings ventilating the roof-space. Its southeastern gable-end features a bank of high-level, centre-pivoting windows; sheltered by a wide, corrugated metal-clad hood with decorative timber brackets.
The verandah has been partially enclosed by modern louvres at the inner junction of the central and western wings.
The interior is divided into three spaces: an eastern classroom; a western classroom; and a large, central performance space. Remnants of the original partitions survive as bulkheads in the western classroom and the central performance space, demonstrating the original six-room layout. Early, low-waisted, timber folding doors with central glass insets divide the western classroom and central performance space – the retention of these doors is rare. Aligned with a remnant partition bulkhead, east of the folding doors, are hinge marks in the wall lining that indicate the position of an additional set of folding doors (now removed).
\n1933 Western Wing (Block D)
\nThe western wing has a gable roof, with an southeastern Dutch-gable and VJ timber board eaves linings. The northwestern gable-end and the western teachers room gable-end have timber battening.
\nThe verandah retains an early hatroom enclosure at the southeastern end, with exposed timber framing and metal hooks. The northwestern end is enclosed with a weatherboard-clad, single-skin wall that houses casement windows.
\nThe interior is divided into three classroom spaces. The partitions have been moved from their original locations, although timber lattice ceiling vents and window locations in the southwestern wall are indicative of the early four-room layout.
\nLandscape Elements / Grounds
\nThe grounds are well-established with many large, mature trees including figs (Ficus spp.), camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora), slash pines (Pinus elliottii), tipuanas (Tipuana tipu), poincianas (Delonix regia) and paper-bark tea-trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia). The generous sports oval north of the school building complex and its mature perimeter shade trees enhance the school’s prominence in its location and provide a picturesque setting for the school.
\nA tennis court is located in its original position in the southwestern corner of the site.
\nForestry plots are located along the northern edge of the sports oval (established by 1952), and north and east of the tennis court (established by 1958). In each of these locations, slash pine trees are planted in uniform rows; those east of the tennis court are bounded by timber log seating.
\nThe school grounds are beautified by mature perimeter trees, planted along the Sandgate Road and Brickyard Road boundaries. A large fig tree on the Jefferis Street boundary, east of the tennis court, is encircled by timber seating.
\nMature shade trees are planted in various places throughout the school site. Particularly large camphor laurel specimens are located north of Block B and north of the tennis court; and a mature Hong Kong orchid tree (Bauhina sp.) is east of the tennis court.
\nA plaque commemorating the opening of the school is positioned north of the Sectional School building.
\nOther Structures
Other buildings, structures, sheds, footpaths and roads within the cultural heritage boundary are not of cultural heritage significance.
Virginia State School opened in 1920 in the northern Brisbane suburb of Virginia to serve the growing population in the area. Due to suburban development during the interwar period and after World War II, extensions were made and buildings added to the site to serve the school’s growing pupil numbers. Virginia State School has a highly intact three-wing Sectional School Building (Blocks B, C and D) that was constructed in five stages between 1920 and 1933, and is set in landscaped grounds with mature shade trees, forestry plots and sporting facilities. The school has been in continuous operation since establishment and has been a focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activities.
\nThe provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. National schools, established in 1848 in New South Wales were continued in Queensland following the colony’s creation in 1859. After the introduction of the Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland’s national and public schools grew from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875. The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction. This further standardised the provision of education, and despite difficulties, achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[1]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and community halls reinforced these connections and provided a venue for a wide range of community events in schools across Queensland.[2]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[3]
\nOriginally the land of the Turrbul people, the land in the vicinity of the later Virginia State School was surveyed in 1864 and country portions sold by 1878. The area became known as ‘Virginia’ after the opening of the Virginia railway station on the North Coast railway line in 1888. The railway made the area more accessible and stimulated growth. The Virginia Brick Company was established nearby about 1892. Between the 1890s and 1910s a small village formed around the railway station and by 1911 the area’s population was 167.[4]
\nThe community petitioned the Department of Public Instruction in 1909-10 for the opening of a state school at Virginia and by 1915 a plan of the area showed a school reserve on the site of a former recreation reserve. In 1918 the Minister for Public Instruction advised that the new school at Virginia would proceed and that its estimated cost was £3000. The Queensland Government subsequently approved expenditure of £1,784 on establishing the school. In January 1920 The Queenslander reported that the new state school at Virginia was nearing completion. The previously-gazetted school reserve (R1066) was increased in size to 8 acres 31.5 perches (3.37ha) through the inclusion of land to the south and west of the initial reserve, after closure of a road leading to the adjacent Virginia Brickworks.[5]
\nThe school was opened by the Minister for Public Instruction on 31 January 1920 and teaching commenced on 2 February. It comprised a highset, three-classroom, Sectional School Building running approximately east-west, with a north-facing verandah and a teachers room centrally positioned off the verandah (this building is the eastern end of the current Block B). Stairs to the east of the teachers room gave access to the verandah, and the base of the verandah wall had operable ventilation boards. The final cost according to the Department of Public Works was £2276 2 shillings (s) 10 pence (p).[6]
\nAttention to improving light and ventilation to achieve an optimum classroom culminated in 1920 with the Sectional School (type DT/1), a high-set timber structure. This fundamentally new design combined all the best features of previous types and implemented theories of an ideal education environment. It proved very successful and was used unaltered until 1950. This type was practical, economical, satisfied educational requirements and climatic needs and allowed for the orderly expansion of schools over time.[7]
\nBefore the Sectional School, all school buildings were generally aligned with street and property boundaries, regardless of aspect. By late 1914, after acceptance of the principles and virtues of providing natural light into classrooms advocated by Dr Eleanor Bourne, (appointed as the first Medical Inspector of Schools in 1911), buildings were being preferably orientated to receive maximum indirect southern light. The Sectional School type was designed to have an unobstructed wall of windows on its southern elevation and verandahs, typically to the north but sometimes to the end elevations, allowing for linkages to other and future buildings. Its blank end walls were also detailed to be removable, so that as the school grew, the building could be easily extended in sections, hence the name. This led to the construction of long narrow buildings of many classrooms – a distinctive feature of Queensland schools.[8]
\nAt Virginia State School, rapid growth in student numbers over the next 12 years resulted in four additions, constructed to the west of the original Sectional School building, and ultimately forming three connected wings. Pupil numbers in the first two years grew from 165 at opening to 252 by December 1921 resulting in the first enlargement of the school in 1922. Two classrooms were added to the western end of the Sectional School Building (the classrooms now form the western end of Block B) at a cost of £1,271 9s. However, by June 1923 a deputation from Virginia State School was requesting the Minister for Public Instruction to duplicate the existing accommodation, provide a retiring room for the female teachers, and to board-in parts of the school’s understorey.[9]
\nBefore any action was taken, disaster struck in January 1924 when a severe storm blew the school building off its brick piers and almost split it in half. The Department of Public Works dismantled, re-erected and enlarged the building at a cost of £4110 12s 3p. The reconstructed and extended building was re-positioned away from the boundaries and did not address the street. Instead, its verandahs were oriented to the northeast. The additions comprised a three-classroom wing (now forming the eastern end of Block C) attached via a verandah from the western side of the earlier wing, and linked to the northeastern verandah of the new wing. A second teachers room was also added to the 1922 classroom wing and a stairway added beside it. The verandah corners were enclosed to form hat rooms. [10]
\nThe student population at Virginia State School continued to grow and further additions were made to the school. In May 1926 the School Committee approached the Department of Public Instruction for increased accommodation, but additions to the school were not approved until August 1927. By then the school’s enrolment figure was 530 and there was only accommodation for 320 pupils. In the meantime children were taught on the verandahs and under the school building. The then western wing (current Block C) was extended by three classrooms and an additional staircase in 1927-28. The new classrooms were separated by timber partitions.[11]
\nThe most westerly wing (current Block D) was added in 1933 at a cost of £1781 10s 8p, and opened on 1 July 1933 by F A Cooper, the Minister for Public Instruction. This wing was connected by verandah to the northwestern end of the 1927-28 additions, making the building more symmetrical. Erected on high concrete piers, the area underneath was concreted. This wing (a Sectional School) comprised four classrooms, each 21ft by 18ft (6.4 x 5.5m); two teachers rooms off its northern verandah, both 15ft by 12ft (4.6 x 3.7m); and a staircase near the northwestern corner. The classrooms were lined with tongue and groove timber boarding, and were divided by fixed timber partitions with central connecting double doors. Their ceilings were coved, with metal tie rods and latticed ceiling vents. This wing provided additional accommodation for 160 pupils, which, together with the existing classrooms, accommodated a total of 560 pupils. Provision was made for an additional room for 40 pupils, which would have made the building symmetrical; but this was never built.[12]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. In the 1870s, schools inspector William Boyd was critical of tropical schools and amongst his recommendations stressed the importance of the adding shade trees to playgrounds. Subsequently, Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline and developed aesthetic tastes.[13]
\nFrom the 1920s, the Virginia State School community implemented plans to improve the school’s grounds. Arbor Day plantings were undertaken in the 1920s and trees were planted on the Sandgate Road boundary at that time. In April 1925 a tennis court, located in the southwestern corner of the grounds was completed. In the following year, further work on the tennis court and grounds was undertaken by community members during a working bee. In 1926, the School Committee supplied trees for Arbor Day planting and decided to approach the Department of Public Instruction for materials to construct seats under those shade trees large enough to warrant seats. In the next year, the School Committee instituted a grounds improvement fund to finance improvements, while in May 1930, it decided to repair the tennis court and proceed with other improvements to the grounds. Subsequently, the Committee held a balloon carnival in October 1930 to raise funds to improve and beautify the school grounds. Drainage work to the ‘cricket pitch area’ was also undertaken in 1930.[14]
\nAfter World War II, the Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[15]
\nAt Virginia State School, increased student numbers resulted in a number of buildings being added to the site during the 1950s; some of which were connected to the Sectional School Building, resulting in modifications. Block A, containing three classrooms, was constructed as a northern extension to Block B in 1953. In July 1957, Block E was constructed as a highset, two-classroom building with an understorey play area. Its east-facing classrooms were accessed from a western verandah, which connected to Block D. Consequently, the eastern teachers room of Block D was altered, with its northeastern windows moved to the northwestern wall and new windows added to either side of the original window in the southeastern wall.[16]
\nIn 1958 alterations to Blocks B, C and D took place. After Block A burnt down in 1957, it was rebuilt in the following year as a highset building with a verandah to the west giving access to the three east facing classrooms of Block B. The eastern teachers room of Block B was rebuilt to the original dimensions with new hopper windows to the east and a double-hung sash to the west. The high-level windows in the verandah wall were removed from Blocks B and C and replaced with three double-hung sashes with fanlights. In the verandah wall of Block D, the number of windows was increased from one to three. To the three eastern classrooms of Block B, a flat suspended ceiling was installed. Glazed screens replaced a store room at the eastern end of the verandah of Block B and a storage space was added under the western teachers room.[17]
\nAfter World War II, further improvements to the school grounds were undertaken. By 1958, a second tennis court had been added. Rows of pine trees to the north of the oval date from the 1950s. In 1959, the school grounds were enlarged to 12 acres 1 rood 13 perches (4.99ha) with the addition of 3 acres 6.5 perches (1.23ha) to the north and west of the school site; despite excision of land to the east for Sandgate road widening. The school’s swimming pool was built in 1970.[18]
\nIn 2015, the school grounds retain three distinct forestry plots to the north and east of the tennis courts and along the northern edge of the sports oval. Forestry plots were the product of after-school agricultural clubs, introduced in 1923 at primary schools, under the ‘home project’ scheme. Curriculum driven, these clubs had a secondary commercial value as well as disseminating information and helping to develop a range of skills. The Department of Primary Industry provided suitable plants and offered horticultural advice. School forestry plots were seen by the government as a way of educating the next generation about the economic and environmental importance of trees, as well as providing testing grounds for new species. Located throughout the state, the plots were a means of experimenting with a variety of tree species in different soil and climatic conditions. The sale of timber grown in school plots provided an additional source of income for the school and the plots themselves were an attractive feature of school grounds. The first school forestry plot was established at Marburg State Rural School in 1928, where 275 exotic and indigenous trees were planted. Encouraged by the Education and Forestry Departments, by 1953 about 380 Queensland schools were undertaking forestry projects. A forestry plot at Virginia State School was established by 1952, at which time it included pine and cypress trees planted.[19]
\nIn 2015, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains the Department of Public Works Sectional School Building set in landscaped grounds with tennis courts, sports oval, mature shade trees and forestry plots. The school is important to the area, having been a focus for the community, and generations of students have been taught there. Since establishment, Virginia State School has been a key social focus for its community with the grounds and buildings having been the location of many social events.
","criteria":"Virginia State School (established in 1920) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains an excellent, representative example of a standard government designed school building that was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies.
\nThe Sectional School Building, comprising three wings (1920-33), is important in demonstrating the evolution of Department of Public Works (DPW) timber school designs to provide adequate lighting and ventilation; equally recognising educational and climatic needs.
\nThe large suburban site with mature trees, landscaping features and sporting facilities demonstrates the Queensland education system’s recognition of the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Virginia State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school with later modifications. This includes a highset timber-framed teaching building of a standard design that incorporates understorey play areas, verandahs, and classrooms with high levels of natural light and ventilation; on a generous, landscaped site with mature shade trees, play areas and sporting facilities.
\nThe Sectional School Building (1920-33) designed by the Department of Public Works is very intact and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of this type and its evolutions. Characteristics include its highset form with play space beneath, gable and Dutch-gable roofs, blank end walls, northern verandahs, large banks of south-facing windows, projecting teachers rooms, hat-room enclosures, single-skin verandah walls, early joinery, coved ceilings and early internal linings.
\nThe forestry plots at Virginia are good examples of their type, containing pine trees (Pinus spp.) planted in uniform rows.
\nThe mature camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora), tipuanas (Tipuana tipu), poincianas (Delonix regia), paper-bark tea-trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia), and fig trees (Ficus spp.) are fine examples of shade trees typically planted in Queensland school grounds.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nVirginia State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Virginia community. It was established in 1920 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of Virginia children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of its suburban district and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":602861,"name":"Moorooka State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Sherley Street","suburb":"MOOROOKA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2015-08-28","description":"Moorooka State School occupies a 5.1ha site (Lots 595 SP118822 and 594 SP118821) bounded by Sherley Street to the north, Beaudesert Road to the west, Alexander Park to the south, and residential properties that front Blomfield Street to the east. However, the registered boundary encompasses the northern 1.3ha of the school (Lot 595 SP118822 only), consistent with the 1927 school reserve. The main entrance to the school is along Sherley Street, where the timber school buildings (Blocks A, B and C) and mature trees along the boundary contribute to the suburban streetscape. The site slopes downwards from northeast to southwest. The school complex comprises a variety of educational buildings and landscape features of varying eras of design and construction. Of these, significant components are concentrated to the north and include:
\n• Block B – Sectional School Building (1929);
• Block A – Sectional School Building (1933);
• Block C – Sectional School Building (1946);
• Block D – Brick and Concrete Building (1956); and
• Landscape features – Mature trees and retaining walls.
Elements within the registered boundary that are not considered to be of cultural significance include: Blocks E, F, and I; the Library; various modern ancillary structures; modern landscape features such as pathways and paved areas; and the swimming pool. Where the register boundary extends into road reserve, the road and footpath fabric is not considered to be of cultural significance.
\nSectional School buildings – Blocks A, B and C
\nThe three Sectional School buildings are timber-framed and weatherboard-clad structures on concrete piers, with corrugated metal-clad Dutch-gable roofs and verandahs along the north, east and west sides. The buildings are symmetrically arranged in a U-shaped plan, with Block A and Block C connected to either end of the northern verandah of Block B. The buildings range from lowset to highset, reflecting the slope of the site. From east to west: Block A is lowset; Block B is highset; and Block C is highset, though set lower than Block B and connected via verandah stairs.
\nThe buildings retain extensive early timber joinery. Southern windows comprise large banks of casements with horizontal centre-pivot fanlights. Windows to the northern verandah walls vary, with banks of high-level horizontal centre-pivot windows to Block B, and double-hung sash windows with horizontal centre-pivot fanlights to Blocks A and C. Windows and doors retain early fittings and hardware. The interior walls and ceilings are lined with timber v-jointed (VJ) tongue-and-groove (T&G) boards. The ceilings are coved, with exposed metal tie rods and square lattice ceiling vents. Skirtings and architraves are timber of a simple profile.
\nVerandah walls are single-skin, lined with VJ, T&G boards with exposed external framing. Verandah floors are timber, and ceilings are raked and lined with VJ, T&G boards. Joinery to the verandahs includes square timber posts and two-rail timber balustrades with battened balusters. Classrooms are accessed from the northern verandahs via flush-panelled doors with fanlights. Hat / bag hooks are attached to the verandah walls of Blocks B and C.
\nTeachers rooms are attached to the north and east sides of Block B, and to the north of Block A; they are gable-roofed and weatherboard-clad, and feature skillion window hoods with timber brackets. The north-facing teachers rooms have battened gable infills. The interior walls and flat ceilings are lined with VJ, T&G boards.
\nElements of the Sectional School buildings not considered to be of cultural significance include additions and alterations such as: modern extensions; carpet and linoleum floor linings; sheeted and glazed partitions; ceiling fans and air conditioning units; understorey enclosures; modern joinery, fixtures and fittings; and aluminium framed windows.
\nBlock B (1929) - Centre
Block B contains an open plan classroom space (formerly five classrooms). The lintels and bulkheads of the four original classroom partitions remain, with a modern concertina door inserted into one opening.
An early hat room enclosure (1946) is retained on the southwestern corner of the verandah, along with a connecting stair to the northwest. The northern verandah is accessed via two sets of external stairs. Additional stairs (c1959) have been inserted into the east and west verandahs, providing covered access to the understorey. The east verandah stairs are enclosed with a combination of modern fixed glazing and louvres.
\nThe eastern teachers room (c1946 - 1950) is lowset on timber stumps; and connected to the 1929 building via a small verandah extension. The door is panelled and the windows to the north, east and south are narrow, double-row casements.
\nThe northern teachers room is highset on concrete piers. floor. The window on the eastern wall is an original casement, while the fixed northern window and verandah door are modern. There is a lowset weatherboard-clad extension to the west (added c1946-50).
\nThe understorey of Block B combines open areas for play, and enclosed areas for storage and a workshop (former modern tuckshop). The southern side has been partly enclosed with facebrick, which also formed the tuckshop counter area. Other areas are enclosed by either concrete, corrugated metal or timber battens. The understorey of the northern teachers room is enclosed with weatherboard cladding.
\nBlock A (1933) - East
Block A contains two classrooms, separated by an original partition with part-glazed double-doors. Part-height modern partitions form a small office space within the western classroom.
The east and west facing Dutch-gable ends feature battened infills. The lowset understorey is also enclosed by timber battens.
The verandahs are partially enclosed with modern sheeted and glazed partitions on the northern side between the teachers room and classrooms, and in the southeast corner for a store room (former hat room). The original semi-enclosed hat room is retained in the northwest corner.
\nTwo sets of timber stairs access the northern verandah either side of the lowset teachers room. The teachers room retains a casement window to the north, while the eastern window has been replaced.
\nBlock C (1946) - West
Block C is primarily highset, with a lowset eastern verandah that is supported by a concrete retaining wall (1946). The building contains an open plan classroom space (formerly two classrooms – larger than those in Block A). The former layout is discernable from partition bulkheads that remain.
The original semi-enclosed hat rooms are retained in the northwest and northeast corners of the verandah. The western verandah (now enclosed) is clad externally with weatherboard and lined internally with flat sheeting, and has with timber-framed hopper windows. Timber stairs provide external access to the north and east verandahs. The understorey is enclosed with corrugated metal, timber battens and concrete panels, and used as a storage area.
\nBrick and Concrete Building – Block D (1956)
\nBlock D is a three-storey, brick and reinforced-concrete building with a low-profile hipped roof. The building has rectangular massing and the elongated form comprises three distinct sections: full height facebrick enclosing concrete stairwells and amenities at the east and west ends; and first and second floor classrooms with north-facing verandahs to the centre.
\nThe north elevation features vertical and horizontal concrete fins forming ten bays to each of the upper floors. The verandahs are painted concrete and the end bays are enclosed with fixed, metal-framed glazing. The south elevation features a continuous, flat reinforced-concrete hood over the lower windows.
\nThe building retains much of its original timber-framed joinery. Windows to the east-end section are hoppers with rendered projecting jambs, and the west-end section has mostly casement windows. Classrooms have banks of south-facing hopper windows with fixed timber shelves to sill height. Windows to the verandah walls are double-hung sashes with horizontal centre-pivot fanlights. Some verandah windows on the second floor have been replaced with aluminium-framed sliders. Classroom doors are low-waisted timber with glazed inserts. Classrooms at the western end have sliding doors.
\nThere are three (formerly four) classrooms on both the first and second floors. The fixed classroom partitions have timber doors at the southern end. Original folding partitions have been removed; however, the fixed partition bulkheads and doorways remain. Walls and ceilings are lined with flat sheeting.
\nThe west end section has lavatories to ground floor, and open meeting spaces (former cloak rooms) and toilets to the first and second floors. The east end section has a glazed entrance lobby to ground floor, and a combination of offices, storage and toilets to the first and second floors. The stairs in both end sections have metal balustrades with timber handrails. A ramp at the eastern end of the first floor connects with the understorey of Block B to the east.
\nMuch of the ground floor (formerly open play space supported by concrete piers) has been enclosed with fibrous-cement sheeting to form modern office spaces. Open areas have been retained adjacent to the east and west stairwells. These thoroughfares have fixed timber bench seats.
\nLandscape Elements / Grounds
\nThe established school grounds comprise mature trees and garden beds, as well as various built landscape features.
\nThe sloping site is terraced with embankments and retaining structures. The school is set slightly below Sherley Street, with earth embankments along part of the northern boundary. There is a flat parade ground to the north of Block B, surrounded by garden beds. A concrete retaining wall (1946) with stairs aligns to the north of Block C, and a similar set of concrete stairs (pre-1950) are located north of Block A. A curved retaining wall (c1955), finished with Brisbane Tuff, extends from northwest of Block C around to southeast of Block D. The wall is stepped and incorporates planter boxes.
\nMature trees including figs (Ficus spp.) and camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora) are concentrated along the northwest boundary of the school and contribute to the streetscape. Further mature plantings of various Eucalypt species (Eucalyptus spp.) are concentrated near the eastern boundary of the school.
Two mature pencil pines (Cupressus Sempervirens) are located adjacent to the entrance on Sherley Street.
Memorial plaques have been placed adjacent to one of the pencil pines. One memorial is an ANZAC Day commemoration from 2008, the other is in commemoration of the opening of the Outdoor Learning Centre in 2004.
","history":"Moorooka State School opened in January 1929 to accommodate the growing population of a previously rural district on the southern outskirts of Brisbane. The first Sectional School building was extended in 1933 and 1946 with further Sectional School buildings to its northeast and northwest corners. In 1956 a three-storey brick and concrete classroom block in a modernist style was added, as post-war housing construction in Moorooka continued to increase the local population. The standard and purpose-built school buildings are set amongst terraced, landscaped grounds with mature trees. Apart from a brief hiatus during World War II (WWII), the school has been in continuous operation since establishment and has been a focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activity.
\nOriginally part of an area called ‘Boggo’, which ran from Dutton Park to Rocky Water Holes (later Rocklea, c1884), and which was part of the traditional lands of the Turrbal people, Moorooka’s development was spurred on by transport improvements. Predominantly an agricultural area until the early 20th century,[1] the coming of the Logan railway in 1885 increased the attraction of the district for residential development. The Moorooka railway station was established in 1887 and the Moorooka Railway Station Estate was advertised in 1889,[2] but flooding in 1893 deterred settlement of the area for some time.[3] By 1900 Moorooka was still primarily rural, with most residents living between Ipswich Road and Beaudesert Road.[4] The house ‘Greenloaning’, built for Robert Bell in 1904, was on land which later became the Moorooka State School’s Infant School, and his family lived there until WWII.[5]
\nResidential development occurred to the west and north of the school site in the early 20th century, assisted by the extension of the tramline to Yeronga Park in 1915.[6] In the 1920s the area east of Ipswich Road, to the south of Yeronga Park, was used for war service housing.[7] The tram line was extended from Yeronga Park, down Beaudesert Road as far as Mayfield Road, in 1937.[8] However, the area around Moorooka State School (east of Beaudesert Road, between Mayfield and Evans Roads) remained largely undeveloped before WWII, apart from some housing between Bracken Street and Sherley Street.[9]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of growing communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.
\nIn 1911, the population of Moorooka was 350, rising to 791 by 1921.[10] Pressure for a state school at Moorooka occurred from around 1912, when the Moorooka Progress Association presented a petition to the Education Department.[11] Moorooka children either attended Rocklea State School, or Yeronga State School (established 1867 as Boggo State School).[12] A site for a new school at Moorooka, consisting of 3 acres, 1 rood and 2 perches (1.3ha), was purchased from Charles Robert Parish by the Department of Public Instruction in December 1927.[13]
\nThe first building constructed for the school, during 1928, was a standard Public Works design. To help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.
\nAttention to improving light and ventilation to achieve an optimum classroom environment culminated in 1920 with the Sectional School (Type DT/1), a high-set timber structure. [14] This fundamentally new design combined all the best features of previous types and implemented theories of an ideal education environment. It proved very successful and was used unaltered until 1950. This type was practical, economical, satisfied educational requirements and climatic needs and allowed for the orderly expansion of schools over time.
\nBefore the Sectional School, all school buildings were generally aligned with street and property boundaries, regardless of aspect. By late 1914, after acceptance of the principles and virtues of providing natural light into classrooms advocated by Dr Eleanor Bourne, (appointed as the first Medical Inspector of Schools in 1911), buildings were being preferably orientated to receive maximum indirect southern light. The Sectional School type was designed to have an unobstructed wall of windows on its southern elevation and verandahs, typically to the north but sometimes to the end elevations, allowing for linkages to other and future buildings. Its blank end walls were also detailed to be removable, so that as the school grew, the building could be easily extended in sections, hence the name. This led to the construction of long narrow buildings of many classrooms – a distinctive feature of Queensland schools.[15]
\nThe Sectional School building at Moorooka was aligned approximately east-west, being lowset at the east end, and highset at the west end (due to sloping ground), and consisted of five classrooms 21ft by 18ft (6.4m by 5.5m), with an 8ft (2.4m) northern verandah which wrapped around the east and west sides. A teachers room projected off the northern verandah, and the northeast and northwest verandah corners were enclosed.[16] The 1928 plan indicated possible future expansion through the addition of buildings off each corner of the first building, linked by their verandahs;[17] an expansion approach that accommodated the sloping site. The building (known as Block B in 2015) had a Dutch-gabled roof and was set on concrete piers. About two thirds of the understorey play area, on the west side, was floored with concrete. Three of the classrooms were linked by folding partitions, which could be opened to create an assembly hall. The remaining partitions were fixed, with centred doorways.[18] It was reported that there was room for 200 pupils, with ample light and ventilation provided by large windows on the southern side. The completed cost was £2,607.[19]
\nMoorooka State School opened in January 1929 with 139 children and 6 teachers. By the end of the year, enrolments had increased to 230.[20] At the school’s official opening on 16 March 1929, T Wilson, the Minister for Education, noted that the school, built on the elevated part of the site, had a beautiful view to the west, and was positioned to allow for future expansion.[21]
\nEfforts were made to improve the school grounds and its facilities. The Ladies Committee worked to provide a piano, a sewing machine and a library, and to install electric lights at the school. In late 1929 a concert was held in the Ideal Picture Theatre in Yeronga to raise funds.[22] The uneven parade ground between the school and Sherley Street was levelled by government relief workers, and boys at the school helped remove tree stumps from the grounds.[23] In 1931 two tennis courts were opened, southwest of the school building, with money raised by the School Committee, the Ladies Committee, and teachers.[24]
\nThe continued increase in daily attendance (averaging 260 by 1933) also led to a new two-classroom wing for 100 children (known as Block A in 2015) officially opened on 27 May 1933 by FA Cooper, the Minister for Public Instruction.[25] Connected to the northeast corner of the 1929 block, the addition was another Sectional School building, with the same proportions and features as the first.[26] The south wall had casement windows with fanlights, while the northern windows were double-hung sashes.[27] There was a teachers room off the north verandah, and semi-enclosed hat rooms at the northwest and southeast verandah corners. Inside, the building had coved ceilings, with exposed metal tie rods.
\nWWII affected the functioning of Moorooka State School. In 1942, a Staging Camp (Camp Moorooka) was constructed for the US Army between Mayfield Road and Bracken Street, extending south to the east of Medina Street, and west to the southeast corner of Moorooka State School.[28] The Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in late January 1942,[29] but while most state schools resumed on 2 March 1942, some, such as Moorooka, remained closed for ‘special reasons’.[30] The US Army took over Moorooka State School from 24 February 1942,[31] and as a result, most of Moorooka’s pupils went to Junction Park State School. However, Moorooka’s students were allowed back to their own school on 13 July 1942.[32]
\nSubstantial housing development also occurred south of the school towards the end of WWII. In 1944-45 the Moorooka War Workers Housing Estate was built between Scherger Street and Evans Road, for married workers at the Rocklea Munitions Works. This complemented the hostels built for single workers, located to the west of Beaudesert Road, south of Hamilton Road,[33] and the hostels’ area was later used for housing ex-servicemen.[34] After the war, the business centre of Moorooka shifted to Moorvale, at the junction of Beaudesert and Mayfield Roads.[35]
\nMoorooka State School continued to expand after WWII, as a result of housing development and an increased local population. In 1947 the combined population of Moorooka, Rocklea and Salisbury was 8,364, and this rose to 12,163 in 1954, and 17,246 by 1971.[36] In late 1946 a new wing for infants (known as Block C in 2015) was added to the northwest corner of the original building.[37] Another Sectional School design, this was highset (although lower than the 1929 building) with the understorey floor concreted. Plans also show a concrete retaining wall between the 1946 building and Sherley Street.[38] The roof was Dutch-gabled, and the northern verandah wrapped around the east and west sides. The southern side was lit by casement windows and the northern by double-hung sash windows. The two classrooms were larger than in the previous blocks, being 26ft by 23ft (7.9 by 7m) and divided by a folding partition. Ceilings were coved, with exposed metal tie-rods and latticed vents. Hat rooms were located at the south end of the west verandah, and the northeast corner of the verandah of the new building; while the connection to the 1929 building, by steps rising up between the verandahs, required the relocation of an existing hatroom to the south end of the latter’s western verandah.[39] It is claimed that the windows on the verandah side of Block C improved ventilation, and that these rooms were popular.[40]
\nThe Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[41] At Moorooka State School, a former Camp Moorooka store building to the south of the school was converted into four classrooms in 1946.[42] Between 1946 and 1950 a new teachers room was attached to the east verandah of the 1929 block, as well as a single-storey extension to the west of the existing northern teachers room. Concrete stairs to the northwest of Block A, similar to those adjacent to Block C, were also added around that time. Two temporary classrooms blocks (totalling five classrooms), were built between 1948 and 1951, on 0.7ha of land added to the south side of Moorooka State School in 1943.[43] Such temporary buildings were constructed in Queensland schools between 1943 and 1951, and were introduced as an expedient, temporary solution to the baby boom and post-war shortages of labour and materials. The remainder of the school grounds, to the south, were added by 1950.[44]
\nWhile the majority of school buildings were built to standard plans, as in other periods, some buildings were also constructed to a purposed design. These were typically constructed in areas of stable, suburban and urban populations and can be seen as an evolution of the urban brick school buildings of the early 1900s and depression-era brick school buildings. They were generally substantial structures of brick and concrete that introduced many innovative ideas that later found their way into standard plans. For example, brick was progressively used more frequently in high schools as standard.[45]
\nIn 1953, new brick primary school buildings were planned for Moorooka, Townsville and Walkervale (Bundaberg), as part of a school-building program at that time that was reportedly a record for the state.[46] Moorooka State School’s new brick and concrete three-storey classroom block (known as Block D in 2015) was approved in 1953, at a cost of £43,635,[47] and the building was opened in 1956.[48] The building was designed by Frederick George Kirkegard,[49] a student architect with the Department of Public Works, in a modernist, austere style popular at the time.
\nModernist architecture developed in pre-World War I Europe and gained popularity in Australia after WWII. It is notable for a rationalisation of planning, emphasising clarity and simplicity of form and detailing.[50] Distinguished by their extensive use of steel, reinforced concrete and glass, Australian buildings in the modern or ‘International’ style were heavily influenced by American and European examples. Characteristics included rectangular massing, plain smooth walls with areas of contrasting textures, and selective expression of structural systems, such as concrete framework. In Queensland, architects sought to create climatically responsive modernist buildings by combining careful building orientation, sun-shading devices and natural ventilation methods. This design approach was consistent with the requirements espoused by UK and NSW educationalists at the time, who advocated for schools that were climatically responsive with diffused natural light, and constructed of modern materials that were durable, washable and attractive.[51] Education in the 1950s was embracing the modern, and media reports at the time espoused the virtues of bright and attractive school buildings for encouraging student attendance, stating that ‘Brisbane’s modern new State schools should make for happier, healthier learning’.[52]
\nThe new building at Moorooka was anticipated to ‘provide classrooms and other facilities of the most modern character’.[53] Kirkegard’s design comprised an elongated form of rectangular massing, with contrasting areas of facebrick (enclosing the east and west ends) and painted concrete (verandah and shade elements). There were open verandahs on the northern side, with large concrete fins that contributed to sun control, and a concrete balustrade. The building had timber-framed hopper windows on the southern elevation with a long flat concrete hood, and double-hung sash windows with fanlights on the northern elevation. Constructed to the southwest of Block C, the new building contained an open play area for most of the ground floor, with a health services room, glazed entry lobby and stairwell at the east end, and a stairwell and boys lavatory at the west end. The first floor included four classrooms, a store and cloakroom at the west end, and a head teachers room, with associated lobby and bathroom, at the east end; while the second floor had four classrooms, with a store and cloak room at the west end and a utility room at the east end.[54] A curved, Brisbane Tuff (commonly known as porphyry) retaining wall with incorporated planter boxes, was also built to the north and east of Block D at this time[55] (with concrete block extension in the late 1960s).
\nThe school continued to expand from the 1950s onwards, with new buildings and some changes to existing buildings. New tennis courts were built by 1955, further south on the east side of the school, after Block D was built north of the original tennis courts. In 1958 Blocks J and K were built for an Infant’s School (opened 1959). In 1959 Block C’s western verandah was enclosed as a store and hat room, new stairs were built at each end of Block B (on the verandahs, leading down to the understorey), and a boys’ toilet was added inside the Head Teacher’s room in Block D.[56]
\nThe 1960s was a period of growth at the school. Enrolments rose from 700 to 1000 between 1967 and 1970, although later fell back to 700 by 1976.[57] Further buildings were added to the school during the 1960s and 1970s, along with a swimming pool in 1963. An east-west retaining wall was built south of Block A in the late 1960s, and the retaining wall to the northwest of Block A was extended to Sherley Street at the same time.[58] Staff toilets were added to the west end of the ground floor of Block D c1968, and a library (Block L) was built south of the east end of Block D in 1977. Meanwhile, the converted army hut was removed from the grounds c1958, and the temporary classrooms blocks between 1972-4. [59]
\nThe population of Moorooka in 1976 was 9,639, but the late 1970s saw a decline in student numbers, due to an aging population. In 1983, the Junior and Primary Schools were combined.[60] In December 2006, Blocks J and K were destroyed by an arson attack,[61] but were replaced with a multi-purpose hall that opened in 2009.[62] Moorooka’s population was 8,609 in 2001, rising to 9,984 in 2011.[63] The arrival in the suburb of immigrant families from culturally diverse backgrounds is reflected in the current student body at Moorooka State School.
\nThe school grounds now cover 5.1ha, and include mature plantings, some of which were planted by students on Arbor Days. The provision of outdoor play space was a result of the early and continuing commitment by the Department of Public Instruction to play-based education, particularly in primary school. Trees and gardens were planted as part of beautification of schools. In the 1870s, schools inspector William Boyd was critical of tropical schools and among his recommendations stressed the importance of adding shade trees to playgrounds.[64] In addition, Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Landscape elements were often constructed to standard designs and were intrinsic to Queensland Government education philosophies. Educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline and developed aesthetic tastes. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors.[65] Mature trees currently along the northwest boundary were evident in aerial photographs from 1946.[66] Memorials commemorating ANZAC Day (2008) and the opening of the Outdoor Learning Centre (2004) have been placed adjacent to one of two pencil pines (Cupressus Sempervirens) to the northeast of Block C.
\nIn 2015, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains standard timber and purpose-built brick buildings dating from 1929 to the 1950s, set in landscaped grounds. The school is important as a focus for the surrounding community and generations of students from the area have been taught there. Since establishment the school has been a key social focus for the local community. The grounds and buildings have been the location of many social and community events over time, including as a meeting place of the Moorooka Branch of the Australian Red Cross during WWII,[67] and for fetes to raise funds for the school.[68]
","criteria":"Moorooka State School (established in 1929) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of a standard government design that was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies, and a non-standard design that reflects the specific needs of the school.
\nThree connected Sectional School buildings (1929, 1933 and 1946) demonstrate the culmination of many years of experimental timber school design by the Department of Public Works (DPW), providing equally for educational and climatic needs.
\nA three-storey brick and concrete building (1956) demonstrates the post-war construction of larger and more permanent school buildings in areas of established populations. The building reflects mid-20th century architectural and educationalist movements through its modernist, climatically responsive design and materials.
\nThe grounds retain mature trees and landscaping features, representative of suburban school sites, and demonstrate the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Moorooka State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school with later modifications. The school is a good, intact example of a suburban school complex, comprising: timber-framed teaching buildings constructed to standard designs by the Queensland Government; a non-standard brick and concrete building; and a landscaped site with mature shade trees, retaining walls and assembly / play areas.
\nThe three connected Sectional School buildings (1929, 1933 and 1946) are fine, intact examples of their type, comprising: timber framed structure; Dutch-gabled roofs; highset form with play space beneath (1929 and 1946 buildings); blank end walls; northern verandahs, with linkages between buildings; large banks of south-facing windows; projecting teachers rooms (1929 and 1933 buildings); hat room enclosures; single-skin verandah walls; coved ceilings with metal tie- rods and latticed vents; and early joinery and internal linings.
\nThe brick and concrete building (1956) is an excellent, intact example of an individually-designed state school building, typically constructed in areas with large urban populations to meet the specific needs of the school. Designed in a mid-20th century modernist style, the building combines rectangular massing, walls with areas of contrasting textures and climatically responsive design elements such as concrete fin sun-shades. The efficiently planned and well composed building comprises an elongated form, with facebrick and metal-framed glazing enclosing stairwells at the east and west ends, north-facing concrete verandahs along the first and second floors, and a glazed entrance and lobby to the east.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nMoorooka State School has a strong and ongoing association with the surrounding community. It was established in 1929 through the efforts of the local community and generations of children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of its suburban district and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650008,"name":"West's Furniture Showroom (former)","alternate_name":"Wests Showroom","street_address":"620 Wickham Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2015-12-04","description":"West’s Furniture Showroom (former) occupies part of a 344m2 urban block on the northeast edge of Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. Addressing the major thoroughfare of Wickham Street to the southeast, the building is bounded to the northwest by Knapp Street, and to the northeast and southwest by commercial properties of a similar scale. The terraced block is divided into three distinct sections, with the showroom occupying the southeast end. Buildings to the rear of the showroom are outside of the heritage boundary and are not of cultural heritage significance. A cantilevered awning projects from the showroom, over the Wickham Street footpath.
\nThe showroom is a long, lowset, masonry and timber structure with a narrow street frontage. Primary access to the building is via a door at the northeast end of the main shopfront. A pedestrian arcade, running part way along the southwest side, allows access to the rear of the showroom via a secondary entrance. The shallow-pitched roof, constructed of deep timber trusses, is clad in metal sheeting.
\nThe Wickham Street shopfront is largely transparent and sheltered by a large, cantilevered awning that has a tongue-and-groove, v-jointed timber board-lined soffit with a stained finish. The timber entrance door is painted yellow and set within a timber and glass frame, adjacent to a masonry wall clad in random rubble stone. The shopfront comprises reconstructed floor-to-ceiling, steel-framed angled windows, standing on concrete and rubber pads and supported by timber mullions. Angled at 60 degrees, these windows reduce the reflection of light from the glass to pedestrians on the exterior footpath, and reflect the sky from a distance. An irregular-shaped shallow pond with a raised concrete kerb forms the base of the shopfront, with the bottom edge of the glass panels set just below the water’s surface. The pond continues around at a right angle to follow the base of a reconstructed glass wall that defines the side pedestrian arcade. The pedestrian arcade has an exposed concrete floor and rectangular ceiling voids which allow light to enter the space. It is partly enclosed by the adjacent property’s masonry wall, which is painted in a contrasting colour to distinguish it from original walls.
\nShopfront features added as part of the 2008 reconstruction works that differ from the original design include: a metal entrance gate to the pedestrian arcade; a wide glass door at the end of the arcade; metal grates set below the surface of the pond; and a signage display outlining the building’s reconstruction. These features are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nThe showroom comprises a large, open space with plasterboard-lined walls and ceilings, and a polished concrete floor. A single row of hardwood timber columns, stained dark brown and standing on metal pin-joints, runs from the front to the rear of the space. These align with plaster-lined pilasters along the northeast wall. The space is naturally spot-lit by skylights: a row of three small, oval-shaped skylights are located just inside the shopfront windows; and three large, rectangular skylights with a curved southwest edge run the length of the showroom along its central axis. The lower portion of the rear wall of the showroom acts as a retaining wall, with banks of aluminium-framed awning windows above. In the centre of this wall is a steep concrete stair with tubular steel handrail, which leads to the rear building. Separating the showroom and the rear building is a wide, earth-floored void and a second retaining wall. This void is protected by a roof overhang, and access is gained from the stair, through openings in the walls. The showroom roof overhang is set at a steep angle to allow natural light to enter the space, and louvres within its soffit are part of the original ventilation system for cooling the roof space.
\nShowroom features that are not of cultural heritage significance include: partition walls at the rear of the showroom; a curved partition at the front of the space that defines an entry foyer; recent fit-outs and joinery; and air-conditioning units and vents.
","history":"The former West’s Furniture Showroom, completed in early 1953, was commissioned by Laurence (Laurie) West (1918-2013) as a Modern, purpose-designed furniture showroom. Located at the northeast end of Fortitude Valley, one of Brisbane’s busiest shopping centres at the time, it was designed by renowned architect Dr Karl Langer (1903-1969) to attract attention and provide a unique setting for West’s cutting-edge modern furniture. As the only Australian business licenced to make and sell Knoll furniture between 1956 and 1962, West’s Furniture Showroom supplied some of the country’s most prominent architects with modern furniture for their buildings, and promoted Modern design both within the design community and to the general public. Sold by the West family in 1964, the building had several owners until its purchase by architect Robert Riddel, who in 2008 instigated and managed award-winning restoration and reconstruction works.
\nFortitude Valley, located on the north side of the Brisbane central business district (CBD), developed over several stages to become one of Brisbane’s most successful shopping centres, concentrated in Ann, Brunswick and Wickham Streets. A major building boom took place there in the 1880s, reflecting the widespread economic and population growth typical of the decade. Old timber buildings were replaced with larger, more impressive buildings, marking the growing sophistication, confidence and population of the suburb. Access was improved by the introduction of public transport in the form of horse-drawn trams (replaced by electric trams in the 1890s). By the close of the 1880s the Valley had become intensively settled and was beginning to grow rapidly as a secondary retail centre to the city centre. In 1891 the train line from the city was extended to Fortitude Valley, fuelling the growth of industry in the area, with large factories and warehouses established beyond the retail centre, close to workers’ dwellings.[1]
\nIt was during the 1880s and 1890s that three major retailers were established in the Valley – Overell’s drapery (est. 1883), TC Beirne’s drapery (est. 1891) [QHR 601395], and McWhirters (est. 1898) [QHR 600214] – whose ongoing expansion reflected the wealth and optimism of Valley retailers, and attracted further activity and capital to the area.[2]
\nAnother building boom took place throughout Brisbane in the 1920s; and the Valley in particular, with its success as a commercial and industrial hub, expanded even further. Connection to the city was improved, and electric trams, which passed the busy corner of Brunswick and Wickham Streets, brought thousands of shoppers to the Valley. In 1949, the year that Fortitude Valley celebrated its centenary of European settlement, the turnover of Valley retailers alone was estimated at £15m each year, of which the three biggest firms, McWhirters, T C Beirne and Overells, accounted for more than a third.[3]
\nIn the early 1950s the Valley underwent a facelift, with investment of more than £1m in expanding and modernising buildings in order to compete with ‘uptown’ Queen Street, bringing a ‘modern slickness’ to the area. Old shopfronts were replaced with stainless steel and plate glass, dozens of shops were renovated inside and out, and larger stores were constructed, with new features such as escalators proving very popular with customers. Unlike Queen Street, the Valley had ample room for expansion and plenty of parking space, making it a desirable location for a ‘shopping centre of the future’.[4]
\nIn addition to the major stores, the Valley was home to hundreds of medium and small-scale businesses, including numerous furniture manufacturers and retailers. In the post-World War II (WWII) period, a growing percentage of goods sold in the Valley were coming from factories in close proximity to the main shopping centre, including printing, textiles, timber, domestic machinery, motor car assembly, hardware and furniture factories. Fortitude Valley was one of the main hubs for furniture retailers in Brisbane, along with Woolloongabba, South Brisbane and the CBD. The 1951-52 Brisbane Metropolitan Trade and Business Directory lists 18 ‘furnishers and furniture dealers’ in the Valley, most concentrated at the southwest end of Wickham Street. The types of retailers ranged from the large department stores, to shops selling mass-produced furniture at affordable prices, to more specialist retailers who designed and/or made furniture to order.[5]
\nThe most important feature of furniture shops were their showrooms: large, flexible spaces where the furniture was displayed, often in room-like configurations so that customers could visualise the furniture in their own homes. Most furniture showrooms at that time were housed within a variety of commercial or warehouse-type buildings; many in older buildings adapted for display purposes. Showrooms also ranged in size, from single-storey shops to multi-storey complexes of adjoining buildings.[6]
\nOne of the Fortitude Valley furniture businesses was West’s Furniture Emporium (West’s) at 132-134 Wickham Street, established in 1937 by Frank Presnell West (father of Laurence West). Frank West had purchased the property in 1922 and in 1927-28 a 4-storey building was constructed on the site for Crafti & Co. Ltd, well known furniture retailers. After Crafti & Co. experienced financial difficulties in the mid-1930s and moved out, the building was occupied by West’s. Advertisements from the 1930s and 40s show that West’s sold a wide variety of furniture, in both ‘period’ and ‘modern’ styles, and their motto was ‘West’s for the Best’. Promoting themselves as a small family concern, their furniture was made in a chain of small factories, each specialising in varied classes of furniture.[7]
\nBy the early 1950s, Frank West’s son Laurence (Laurie) West had joined the family furniture business. Born in 1918, Laurie became well known in musical circles as a fine baritone singer, and performed in many concerts and singing competitions as a young man in the 1930s and 40s. During WWII he served in the Australian army, attaining the rank of sergeant. After his discharge in April 1946, he and his wife Mary (nee Quine, married in 1943) moved into their new, architect-designed residence at Fairfield. While still active in performing and musical circles, Laurie spent a short time studying architecture at the Brisbane Central Technical College. During his studies Laurie was struck by the lack of local consideration given to the ‘world scene,’ especially in terms of interior design. Extending his own knowledge of this field through ‘extensive reading in libraries and [of] purchased books’ - including subscriptions to journals from America, Sweden and Europe - and contact with like-minded individuals, including the architect Karl Langer in Brisbane and Harry Seidler in Sydney, Laurie developed a desire to supply Brisbane (and Australia) with modern furniture. This desire grew in ambition and scale, and in the early 1950s he began planning a new purpose-designed showroom for displaying and selling modern furniture.[8]
\nThe site chosen for the new showroom was at the northeast edge of Fortitude Valley, in a predominantly residential and industrial area. Frank West sold his property at 132-134 Wickham St in 1951 and in the same year purchased 618 Wickham Street (now known as 620 Wickham Street). At the time, the property consisted of an old timber residence with a shop at the front, and had rear access from Knapp Street. In 1951, Laurie West himself drew up some concept plans for a modern showroom on the site, which included a fish pond inside the front display window, a side arcade and entrance, an open-plan showroom with regularly-spaced posts painted bright primary colours, and a flat roof with rooftop garden.[9]
\nThe architect engaged to design West’s new furniture showroom was Dr Karl Langer, who had designed Laurie and Mary West’s house at Fairfield.[10] Born and educated in Vienna, Langer immigrated to Australia with his wife, artist and art critic Dr Gertrude Langer, in 1939; bringing direct experience of the European Modern Movement to Queensland. In addition to working as an architect, Langer lectured part-time in architecture and architectural design at The University of Queensland from 1940, publishing his influential booklet ‘Sub-Tropical Housing’ in 1944.[11] From 1945 Langer was employed as an assistant town planner by Brisbane City Council and was also commissioned to work on a range of town planning projects around Australia. Concurrently, he completed a wide variety of architectural projects ranging from small, economical domestic work to large commercial and institutional work.[12]
\nLanger had a pronounced impact upon the built environment of Australia and set new standards for design in Queensland until his death in 1969. His body of work is a clearly-distinguishable exploration of a sub-tropical Modernism and is important in the evolution of Queensland architecture.[13] Langer’s designs were typified by modern, highly-functional spaces lit by high levels of natural daylight, naturally ventilated, and incorporated gardens and water features for the occupation and enjoyment of users. They were fit for purpose, while having a degree of flexibility of use.[14] Other important examples of Langer’s architectural work include: the Langer residence at St Lucia [QHR 600317] (1950); Mackay Sugar Research Station [QHR 602642] (1953); St John's Lutheran Church, Bundaberg [QHR 602815] (1960); St Peter's Lutheran College Chapel, Indooroopilly [QHR 602816] (1968); and the Department of Main Roads Building (former), Spring Hill [QHR 602830] (1967).[15]
\nLanger’s design for the new West’s showroom comprised a modern display area at the front of the site, with a workshop at the rear housed in the existing residence. This followed the pattern of a new type of small, combined showroom/industrial building which emerged in Queensland in the 1950s. Located in inner city areas on small sites, and built up to the street alignment to match adjacent buildings, these showrooms were usually a single structure of two to three storeys, with large expanses of glazing to the front elevation acting as showcases. They had a clear division between public and private space, with the ground floor area fronting the street housing display and administration areas, while production and storage areas were located to the rear or on upper levels. Detailed attention was given to the design of entry ways, as access to the building was directly off the footpath; and features such as controlled illumination levels, climatic control features and sheltered street frontages reflected a sense of responsibility to the public to provide a comfortable environment.[16]
\nCompleted in early 1953, West’s Furniture Showroom was ‘designed with the utmost economy in the contemporary manner’.[17] The showroom comprised a rectangular 64’ by 34’ (19.51m by 10.36m) space with a cantilevered, upswept awning that extended over the Wickham Street footpath. The building was predominantly of masonry construction, with a glass shopfront, a concrete floor, and a shallow-pitched, asbestos- and bitumen-lined roof constructed from timber trusses. The roof-top was used as garden area for displaying outdoor furniture and some furniture assembly operations.[18] The existing timber residence was relocated to the rear of the site and converted for use as a workshop for the assemblage and storage of furniture. The workshop enabled access to the roof-top display area, and was level with Knapp Street for the loading of goods to transport vehicles. Its ground floor consisted of a woodwork shop, and the upper floor was designated for polishing and inventory storage.[19] Public access to the showroom was through a single timber door at the northeast end of the Wickham Street shopfront, adjacent to a random rubble stone wall. Projecting from the angled shopfront, the door frame was supported by glass, so that it appeared to float.[20]
\nAs the furniture showroom was located on the edge of the Fortitude Valley shopping area, the shopfront was designed to be dramatic and striking, to catch the attention of potential customers. Supported by timber beams, three floor-to-ceiling windows, measuring 11ft 6in high by 8ft wide (3.51m by 2.44m), angled in toward the interior at 60 degrees. They were designed to eliminate the reflections of traffic, adjacent buildings and the sky onto footpath pedestrians; while simultaneously attracting the eye of passing traffic by catching reflections of the sky. Along the southwest side of the building, vertical plate glass walls returned into the site and created a pedestrian arcade. This arcade, combined with the absence of a building at the front of the adjacent property, meant that West’s furniture collection was noticeably visible when approached from the city and the potential customer had a clear view of the showroom. A concrete-edged, serpentine fish pond meandered around the base of the angled windows and glass return. Supported below the water-line by concrete pads with rubber cushions, the glass appeared to float atop the pond. The pond was decorated with water-plants and fish; and, through its half-interior, half-exterior location, it conveyed the notion of easy access to the furniture inside.[21]
\nThe interior of the showroom comprised a large open space, with a steep set of concrete stairs in the centre of the rear wall through which furniture was transported from the workshop. Hardwood timber columns supported the ceiling – five of which stood in a row, exposed within the showroom and just outside the shopfront. The columns were supported on metal pin-joints, and their timber was crafted to hide cables that led to power outlets at their base. A 1953 article in the publication Architecture Building Engineering explains that there were no fixed partitions or obstructions within the showroom to allow complete flexibility in arranging the displays. Aquariums were planned to flank the rear staircase, set within the rear wall, although it is unclear whether these were ever constructed (new windows line the rear wall in 2015, of similar proportions to those shown in a 1952 plan). Despite the length of the showroom, it was designed to be lit by natural light during the day by three large, rectangular light-wells (featuring a curved southwest edge, and running the length of the showroom), as well as three oval-shaped ventilator-skylights (arranged parallel to the shopfront windows). Both the light-wells and the skylights were covered by corrugated, transparent plastic roofing.[22] The deep roof trusses were designed to ventilate the ceiling space, and Laurence West recalls that the showroom was kept cool by air movement in the large space above the curved plaster ceiling (within the rectangular light-wells).[23]
\nConstruction work for West’s Furniture Showroom was carried out by Ajax Builders (concrete and brick works), H Packman (timber), and G McKinnon (skylights and fibrous plaster, ceiling work). West’s completed the timber joinery themselves.[24] Installation of the glass within the sloping display windows proved to be a technical challenge. Ten men were required to ease each of the three panes out of their frames and into position, and two panes were broken in the process.[25]
\nBoth the design and function of the Showroom demonstrated the shifting tastes and values of post-war Queensland and the strong desire within the design community and beyond to move the state towards new and modern ways of living.[26] Modernist architecture, which developed in pre-World War I Europe and gained popularity in Australia after WWII, was notable for rationalised planning and simplicity of form and detailing.[27] Distinguished by their extensive use of steel, reinforced concrete and glass, Australian buildings in the Modern or ‘International’ style were heavily influenced by American and European examples. Characteristics included sleek, glossy, prismatic forms, cubiform shapes clad with curtain walls and selective expression of structural systems.[28]
\nSharing the ideals of the Modernist movement, both international and Australian furniture designers of the mid-20th century sought to revolutionise the contemporary interior.[29] Mid-century Modern furniture turned away from traditional, ornate and ‘over-stuffed’ designs that had previously been fashionable, and instead opted for pieces that were lightweight, practical, comfortable, easily rearranged, and scaled to fit within post-war houses.[30] A 1954 article in Home Beautiful advocated that Modern furniture met the needs of the day and rejected the use of ornamentation.[31] Modern furniture was designed to be pared-back and sculptural, and was ideally suited to Modernist architecture.[32]
\nInfluenced by international furniture trends, Australian contemporary furniture designers of the post-war period also promoted a philosophy of innovative ‘good design’ that was both functional and beautiful.[33] An influx of European immigrants introduced specialised skills and knowledge in fine furniture making to Australia; and production techniques developed in war-time manufacturing industries encouraged experimentation in furniture design. Post-war furniture designers, both in Australia and internationally, became innovative in their use of materials, due to an increased availability of some materials and a shortage of others.[34] This experimentation led to the use of unconventional materials in furniture design, such as: curved plastics, fibreglass and aluminium; bent and laminated plywood; spot welding that joined timber to metal, rubber and plastics; sleek and narrow steel rods; cast aluminium; polyester resins; acrylics; and foam rubber.[35] These materials were durable, lightweight and maintenance-free, reducing the burden on everyday living.[36] They were manipulated to create minimalist, clean lines and, following the Bauhaus principle of ‘form follows function’, framing elements were often showcased.[37]
\nWhen the new West’s Furniture Showroom began operating in 1953 it stocked a wide variety of high-quality, designer Modern furniture, including those from prominent Australian designers: Douglas Snelling (architect, designer of the ‘Snelling Line’, which utilised parachute webbing),[38] Clement Meadmore (industrial designer and sculptor, known for his simple and economical designs that used readily-available materials)[39] and Grant Featherston (designer of the ‘Contour’ line that used bent plywood, which was moulded to the human form).[40] The work of these designers was heavily featured in home-decorating magazines throughout the 1950s.[41]
\nAs well as stocking Australian designers, West’s was the first known retailer in Australia to obtain the licence to manufacture and sell the furniture of Knoll Associates (1938-present). Established by Hans Knoll (1914-1955) in New York as the Hans G Knoll Furniture Company, the first Knoll furniture manufacturing plant was opened in Pennsylvania in 1941. Florence Schust (1917- ), a space planner and designer who had befriended and studied under prominent Modernist architects Eliel Saarinen, Charles Eames, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, was employed by Knoll in 1943. In 1946 Hans and Florence married, and the company changed its name to Knoll Associates. A wide range of prominent architects, designers and artists were engaged to design furniture for their company, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Harry Bertoia, Eero Saarinen, Jens Risom and Marcel Breuer. Influenced by Bauhaus ideals,[42] their furniture was technologically innovative, exceptionally designed, made of high-quality materials and easily mass-produced.[43]
\nIn 1946, Florence established the Knoll Planning Unit – a revolutionary department which designed interior spaces for corporate clients; and later designed Knoll showrooms to allow the customer to experience their furniture and test potential purchases. The showrooms were distinctively modern, open-planned and generally featured bright interiors of primary colours. The first Knoll showroom opened in New York in 1951 with a coloured ceiling grid, artificial pond, and open layout that allowed for a changing layout of products. As Knoll Associates continued to expand, showrooms were opened in eight other locations throughout America. A subsidiary of the company, Knoll International, was established in 1951 and set about opening Modernist showrooms around the globe in places such as Paris, Stuttgart, Stockholm, Madrid, and Milan.[44] A c1956 index released by Knoll Associates lists West’s as the only retailer with a license to sell genuine Knoll furniture in Australia, and as one of only 13 stores selling Knoll furniture outside of America. West’s remained the only known licenced manufacturer and retailer of Knoll products in Australia until William Latchford and Sons, a Melbourne firm, obtained a licence in 1962.[45]
\nFollowing its opening, West’s was featured in various periodicals, including a 1953 Cross Section article, a 1954 issue of Architecture (the Royal Australian Institute of Architect’s journal), and on the front cover of Queensland publication Architecture Building Engineering. The showroom was radically different to any other retail building in Brisbane at the time. It was described as having a striking street presence and it’s planning embraced unique solutions to display problems.[46] Accounts from the West family recall the building being so eye-catching that tourist buses would regularly stop outside, and that the Duke of Edinburgh briefly stopped the Royal Cavalcade to view the building during the Queen’s visit in 1954.[47] A few years later, the Queensland Art Gallery showcased furniture from the showroom in their contemporary living room display in the 1958 exhibition, Interiors Past and Present.[48]
\nWest’s was “…instrumental in introducing mass market designer furniture into Brisbane”[49], and sold high-quality furniture not available elsewhere in Australia to a range of prominent architects and well-known personalities. Notable clients included: architects Harry Seidler, Robin Gibson, James Birrell (for the Chermside and Annerley Libraries), Karl Langer (Broadbeach Hotel) and David Bell (Chevron Hotel); interior designer Langdon Badger; federal politician Harold Holt; and institutions including the Queensland Government, the Canadian Embassy, and the University of Queensland (Student Union Building).[50] At the time, licencing restricted imports to a few sample pieces of furniture, so West’s organised a large group of skilled sub-contractors to make parts, which were assembled at the showroom workshop. High quality Australian wools and yarns were used to upholster the furniture made, including those from Ipswich manufacturer, Morrisons.[51]
\nWest’s operated from the building until the business closed in November 1963.[52] This was due to a variety of factors, including the loss of its exclusive licence with Knoll in 1962.[53] In 1964 the property was sold to Arthur Walter Barrs, who owned the adjacent building (then 620 Wickham Street, now 622 Wickham Street) from which he ran a car radio business. The former West’s showroom remained in the ownership of the Barrs family until the late 1970s, and was at one point leased to Philips Industries Holdings, an electrical products company. Between c1988 and 2008, Queensland Used Appliances, now Queensland Appliances, occupied the building (listing their address as 616 Wickham Street).[54]
\nOver time, the Wickham Street facade of the showroom was converted into a more conventional shopfront – the sloping, front display windows were removed, and new vertical windows that spanned the full width of the site were installed. The pond was concreted in, the glass walls removed, a section of the front awning’s ceiling painted over and the light-wells roofed over (although their locations were still visible). The workshop at the rear was demolished between 1974 and 1986, and a skillion-roofed shed was constructed in its place.[55]
\nIn 2008, architect Robert Riddel purchased the building and carried out extensive renovations and conservation work.[56] This was completed with the guidance of Laurence West himself, contemporary documentation, and the evidence provided by original fabric remaining within the building. Marks in the front stone wall and the ceiling lining enabled Riddel to reconstruct the front window at the original angle. A new front door was also installed, replicating the original design. The side pedestrian arcade was re-established with new glass walls, and a new wide glass door and metal ramp were added to the end of the arcade to provide a secondary entrance and equal access. Concrete that had filled the serpentine pond was removed, revealing some early edging and concrete pads. The pond was waterproofed, with the edging reconstructed, and it was once again filled with water. Light-wells were uncovered and re-glazed, with the original arched framing re-sheeted. Paint was removed from the hardwood timber posts and front awning’s soffit cladding, and the showroom ceiling was sheeted with new plasterboard.[57] The shed at the rear of the site was gutted, re-lined and its roof was raised; and a new carport was added facing Knapp Street.[58]
\nConstruction was carried out by John Speare Builders and was completed in 2009.[59] In early 2010, the building was converted for use as an office through the addition of lightweight partitions, and was occupied by Riddel Architecture until 2012.[60]
\nRiddel’s restoration and reconstruction of West’s Furniture Showroom received both national and international praise and recognition. In 2009 it was awarded a Gold Medal award at the National Trust Heritage Awards, and in 2010 it received the Australian Institute of Architects State and National awards for Heritage.[61] The Jury Citation for the National Award for Heritage praises the Showroom as ‘…a rare example of the restoration of a mid-century modernist commercial building’, and that the reinterpretation and rebuilding process was ‘…painstaking but practical and economical. The architects have helped to demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of preservation over new build. This is not a museum frozen in time. The spirit is faithfully captured; details restored with rigour, energy, affection and wit; and the building revitalized as viable commercial premises.’[62]
\nThe project also appeared in publications including IndesignLive (12 August 2009), Brisbane Modern (Issue 3, 2009), Architecture Australia (vol. 99, Jan-Feb, 2010), Feminity (6 August 2010) and Architecture and Urban Design in Brisbane (vol. 1, 2012).[63] Brisbane Open House, an event launched in 2010 to promote the ‘hidden wealth of architecture, engineering and history in buildings and places around Brisbane city’[64], featured West’s Furniture Showroom in 2011, 2012 and 2013.[65] The building was also included in the 2014 exhibition Hot Modernism: Building Modern Queensland, 1945-75 at the State Library of Queensland, along with furniture pieces from the Wests’ collection.[66]
\nAfter a short period of vacancy, in September 2015 the former West’s Furniture Showroom is being renovated for use as a retail tenancy, with the rear additions converted into living quarters.
","criteria":"West’s Furniture Showroom (former) (opened in 1953) is important in demonstrating the evolution of architecture and design in the 1950s in Queensland. Purpose-designed as a showroom for Modern furniture, it was influential in the promotion of contemporary design both within the design community and to the general public. It is a distinctive example of a 1950s showroom in Queensland, reflecting Modern design principles and aspirations.
\nAs a result of award winning reconstruction and conservation works in 2008, which revealed and reinstated the original design intent of the building, the Showroom is an excellent and representative example of best practice conservation methods.
|West’s Furniture Showroom (former) is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a 1950s showroom, with its carefully detailed shopfront and entrance; large display windows; well-lit, open-plan interior; and clear division between public and private space, with functional and storage spaces located at the rear of the building. It is a fine example of a purpose-designed furniture showroom designed in a bold, Modernist style that complemented the furniture it sold.
\nThe place is a good example of the work of architect Dr Karl Langer, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of his work. Most notably, it features an open, functional plan; the expressive use of simplified, angular forms to create a dramatic main shopfront; the manipulation of the effects of natural light, both within the showroom and from the perspective of the viewer outside; a restrained use of high-quality materials, including stone, concrete, glass and timber; and the integration of the interior with the exterior by utilising the effects of glass, water and reflections.
|West’s Furniture Showroom (former) has aesthetic significance as a distinctive building of exceptional architectural quality. In its extensive use of concrete and glass complemented by simple primary colours, stained timber and stone, the showroom illustrates the honest use of materials and minimal aesthetic that characterises the mid-20th century Modern movement. This is further complemented by the transparent shopfront with subtle framing, open plan interior supported by a single row of columns, and the emphasis on natural lighting.
\nThe main shopfront, with its bold composition of slanted display windows, curvilinear concrete pond and large angled awning, makes an important contribution to the streetscape, standing out dramatically from the adjacent commercial buildings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650017,"name":"First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"273 North Quay","suburb":"BRISBANE CITY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2016-03-11","description":"Approached from North Quay with secondary access from May Street, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane is located at the western end of Brisbane’s central business district overlooking the Brisbane River between the William Jolly and Kurilpa bridges. Its careful composition of simple, cubic volumes of one and two storeys, enveloped in buff-coloured brickwork with concrete parapets and continuous window hoods derives from its unconventional floor plan, which fits inside the boundaries of its irregular shaped allotment. The boundaries are defined by low brick retaining walls. In response both to its siting on a busy thoroughfare and to the introspective nature required of its interior, its limited fenestration to North Quay gives the building an introverted appearance. The building’s intactness is testament to the exceptional quality of its design and execution.
\nElevated from North Quay and accessed by a short flight of wide stairs, the main entrance to the Church is a simple, dignified triple-fronted portico lined with artificial stone. Through three pairs of tall timber entrance doors set within a bronze frame with banks of fanlights above, another short flight of stairs leads to the generous foyer from which are accessible the auditorium to the west and the Sunday School, former book room and rest room (now the clerk’s office), former cloak room (now a children’s nursery), rooms for ladies’ ushers and the stair hall to the east. The secondary entrance with ramp from May Street, together with rooms for male ushers are located at the opposite end of the foyer to the main entrance. An office (former clerk’s office), boardroom, committee rooms and a self-contained flat are located on the first floor.
\nAuditorium
\nThe building’s principal space, the auditorium, is restrained, elegantly proportioned and light-filled. A large volume, it has symmetrically arranged tall, high level windows set in lightly coloured, rendered walls above a perimeter wall lining of 2.4m Queensland Maple panels. Devoid of applied decoration, its beauty is derived from its pleasing proportions and the high quality and finish of its materials, fixings and fixtures. Its fan-shaped plan and sloping floor direct focus to the readers’ platform at the front of the room, and together with acoustic panels located on the rear wall, aid acoustics. The elevated readers’ platform has dual pulpits and, in metal relief lettering, high on the walls to each side, are brief biblical quotations. An attachable additional platform, used for meetings, is located in the underfloor area. To the north (right) of the platform, the Whitehouse Brothers organ is located in an organ pit, the rear of which is accessible from an organ room to the west, which has external access for ease of maintenance. The organ pipework is concealed behind the perforated screen above the readers’ platform. Auditorium seating comprises five banks of pews separated by narrow side, centre and transverse aisles; each pew graduating in length in response to the irregular floor plan.
\nAn inventive feature that is in working order is the mechanical ventilation system. Timber registers, located within the timber wall panels and carefully centred under each of the windows, draw air up through the walls from the plenum system located in the basement, which is then expelled through the ventilated ceiling beams and louvres in the eastern wall.
\nBeyond the readers’ platform is a secondary entrance from North Quay for readers, readers’ rooms and rooms for the soloist, organist, flowers and ancillary facilities. A passage running the length of the auditorium between the main and readers’ entrances provide an effective acoustic buffer from North Quay.
\nSunday School
\nLocated on the eastern side of the foyer and accessible from it, is the Sunday School. Its main entrance is centred in the southern wall, accessible along a short path from North Quay. The Sunday School has a generously proportioned hall with three classrooms on the northern side, girls’ and boys’ toilets on the southern side, either side of the entrance and a platform for the superintendent on the eastern end. Behind this platform are the superintendent’s room and the library.
\nFirst Floor
\nThe stair hall leads to the first floor where are located a suite of committee and literature distribution rooms and the caretaker’s flat located above the Sunday School. An administrative area, located above the main entrance and foyer, contains the boardroom, clerk’s room and treasurer’s room.
\nDetails
\nAll architectural details are well finished and include steel framed windows and balustrades; terrazzo window sills, toilet partitions and floors in the entrance lobby, stairs, stair hall and bathrooms. Original fittings, fixtures, furniture and signage are retained throughout the building. Internal walls throughout are rendered and painted in a limited palette of light colours.
\n","history":"
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane (1940) is a two-storey masonry building located on the western end of North Quay in the Central Business District (CBD) of Brisbane. Erected as the result of the growth of the church in the first half of the 20th century, it continues to serve the needs of its congregation. Designed by noted Brisbane firm, Lucas and Cummings, Architects, the building is an excellent, intact example of their work and of modernist design. In 1950, the church was awarded the ‘Medal for Meritorious Architecture for Institutional Buildings erected in Brisbane between 1940 and 1949’ by the Queensland Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA).
\nThe place is located within the traditional lands of the Turrbal People and Jagera People. During the 19th century, North Quay, running along a ridge beside the Brisbane River from Victoria Bridge (Queen Street) to River Road (Coronation Drive from 1937), was a mixed commercial and residential area including a number of elite houses. Along its course were the Supreme Court Building (between Adelaide and Ann Streets); commercial buildings (Smith’s Building – later Longreach Hotel – on the corner of Queen Street and North Quay, 1877-8; Helidon Spa Co building, between Skew Street and Eagle Terrace, removed 1897; Rankin & Morrow Biscuit Factory, 1896); and villas, houses and ‘cottages’, primarily on its western extent.[1]
\nThe area transitioned from predominantly residential use to government, commercial and institutional uses commencing around the turn of the century. Aubigny (originally Rosalie Villa, 259 North Quay) and William Douglas Grimes’ house (269 North Quay) were leased by the government 1900-04, then were occupied by the first Mater Hospital 1906-10, and subsequently became Loretto Hostel for Catholic girls.[2] Large residences such as Riversleigh and Davidson’s House were converted into boarding houses; and new boarding houses were constructed.[3] Later, houses were converted into flats.[4] In the 1920s the construction of the Grey Street Bridge, a major river crossing into the CBD from West End, brought land resumptions and road changes to the western end of North Quay, to facilitate traffic flow on and off the bridge.
\nThe interwar period was a time of enormous transformation of Brisbane’s CBD despite economic downturn in the immediate post-World War I years and the Great Depression from 1929 into the 1930s. A building boom between 1922 and 1928 and a wave of building activity from the mid- to late 1930s created new landmark buildings, extended and remodelled existing premises and spread business houses and warehouses into residential areas.[5]
\nThe development of the North Quay site of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane reflected this transformative trend, when, in 1939, two allotments on North Quay, both with substantial residences, were purchased for the site of its future church.[6]
\nChristian Science is a Christian denomination which places a strong emphasis on the Bible’s teachings for healing purposes. The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America in 1879 by influential American author, teacher and religious leader, Mary Baker Eddy, who is noted for her groundbreaking ideas about spirituality and health, which she named Christian Science.
\nThe church has no clergy and each branch is self-governing and elects its own officers, but complies with the Church Manual of ‘The Mother Church’ in Boston. An informal group of Christian Scientists can form into a Christian Science society or Church of Christ, Scientist, both of which are known as branches of The Mother Church. The society or church must comprise ‘at least 16 loyal Christian Scientists, four of whom are members of The Mother Church, and at least one member is a Christian Science practitioner’ (listed in The Christian Science Journal).[7]
\nEvery Church of Christ, Scientist conducts Sunday services; testimony meetings; a Sunday School for pupils up to age 20; operates a Reading Room where information about Christian Science is available to the public; and organises lectures by Christian Science lecturers.[8] Church services are conducted by two readers. These functions of the Church of Christ, Scientist determine the form of its church buildings.
\nInterest in Christian Science teachings started in several Australian colonies during the 1890s.[9] The earliest recorded meetings began in Melbourne in June 1898 while several people met in the Brisbane home of Mrs Eliza Caroline Dutton before September 1899.[10]
\nIn February 1901, meetings were held in Mrs Helen Scott Byrne’s home, Richmond Villa in Upper Roma Street, Brisbane; initially as a Christian Science organisation but soon afterwards as the Christian Science Society.[11] Mrs Byrne’s home became too small for services when attendees reached about 20, so the fledgling Society moved to the first floor of the Edwards Building in Adelaide Street at Petrie Bight, which could accommodate up to 100 people for services in its large room and had a smaller room for a Reading Room.[12] In December 1901 the Christian Science Society formed itself into the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane with Mrs Byrne as the First Reader and Mr J H Granger as the Second Reader. Within less than a year, there were about 60 people attending services.[13]
\nBy 1909 the Petrie Bight location was inadequate, so the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane took over a floor in the Brisbane Permanent Building and Banking Co Ltd’s premises at 139 Adelaide Street, between Edward and Albert Streets.[14] In 1915, the Church of Christ, Scientist was incorporated under the Religious, Education and Charitable Institutions Act, 1861 in Queensland.[15]
\nIn 1917, the church purchased a block of land at the corner of North Quay and Tank Street for a church building designed by Thomas Wightman.[16] The cornerstone of the First Church of Christ Scientist, Brisbane building was laid and stage one of the 300-seat building erected later that year.[17]
\nThroughout the 1920s the Christian Science movement expanded, with new branches and bigger churches opening, especially in suburban Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, as well as new groups meeting outside capital cities.[18]
\nBy 1930 the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane had outgrown its North Quay building, so Centennial Hall at 104 Adelaide Street was purchased for £16,500 and converted to accommodate 1000 people for services, while the Sunday School was held in a nearby cafe.[19]
\nDue to growth of the Christian Science movement in Brisbane, the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane formed, centred on the suburb of Clayfield. It built a church building in 1938 at Vine Street, Clayfield. This modernist building was designed by Robert Percy Cummings to suit the triangular site and to meet the particular spatial needs of the congregation.[20]
\nBy the late 1930s the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane again needed a larger church for its purposes. It purchased two allotments on North Quay to the west of its earlier site in c1939 (the Grimes’ house, which was part of Loretto Hostel) and in March 1939 (Crossen-an-Oder).[21] By April 1939 the house on the Loretto site was sold at public auction for removal.[22]
\nThe planning and architectural expression of Christian Science church edifices has been the subject of considerable discourse since the Mother Church in Boston was completed in the mid-1890s.[23] Autonomy in the choice of architectural design and the departure from long accepted church types was supported by the Christian Science movement from the outset. In its formative years, and in contrast to orthodox churches, the Church of Christ Scientist adopted a Neo-Classical expression. By the early 20th century, Christian Science churches were increasingly inventive and eclectic. Excellence in design and construction and the use of high quality materials were common to all. Increasingly the principles of Modernism were adopted to create distinctive places of worship where the architectural form developed from the planning and practical requirements of the Church.[24]
\nEarly examples of this evolution in design include the 1910 First Church in Berkeley, California designed by renowned architect Bernard Maybeck. Other outstanding examples, in the United Kingdom and Europe, include the First Church (1903) in Manchester England, an Arts and Crafts design by Edgar Woods; the First Church in The Hague, a modernist design by Hendrik Berlage (1925); Salvisberg’s First Church (1936) in Basel, and Hans Hofmann’s First Church (1938) in Zurich.[25]
\nThe development of Christian Science church architecture in Australia closely mirrored its overseas counterparts. Eminent architects were selected to produce high quality buildings with characteristic operational and functional features. In the first two decades of the 20th century, Neo-Classical designs were preferred. Melbourne’s First Church in St Kilda, designed in 1914 by Harold Dumsday of Bates, Peebles and Smart, and completed in 1922, has a temple-like form, Greek Revival elements and Byzantine influences. Sydney’s First Church, opened in 1927 in Darlinghurst, was built in a Beaux Art style and is a major work by Samuel George Thorp, one of the founding partners of Peddle Thorp Walker.[26]
\nBy the 1930s, a Modern aesthetic was being adopted in response to a growing global interest in Modernism, a movement in architecture that emerged in Europe in the 1920s. Modernism embraced the ideals of Functionalism, new technologies and the rejection of ornament in an endeavour to create new and appropriate architectural solutions that reflected the social conditions of the time.[27] Characteristics of the architecture these ideas produced included asymmetrical massing, simple geometric shapes, clean lines, steel-framed corner and strip windows, undecorated brick walls, flat cantilevered concrete awnings and low-pitched or flat roofs concealed behind parapets. One of the first examples of modernist architecture in Queensland was the Masel Residence in Stanthorpe (QHR 601552), designed by Charles Fulton in 1936. It received wide publicity and architectural acclaim and introduced many features of this new and influential architectural vocabulary to Queensland. Modern architecture symbolised progress, innovation, efficiency and economy, qualities that made it appealing in the post-depression era.
\nBates Smart McCutcheon designed the 1937 Moderne-Classical Second Church of Christ Scientist in Camberwell, which is strikingly similar to the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane.[28] In Perth, the First Church of Christ Scientist, an Art Deco building, was designed by the well-known architectural firm Ochiltree and Hargrave and is one of the most notable public buildings in Western Australia from the interwar period. In Adelaide, foundations were laid in 1916 for their First Church designed by Woods, Laybourne Smith architects, but this building was not completed until 1957.
\nAs the wide-ranging architectural expression of the Christian Science movement developed around the globe, there were operational and performance characteristics common to all, with several marked departures from the planning of orthodox churches and cathedrals. To allow all members of the congregation to hear the sermon and see the rostrum, a broader nave with much narrower aisles became necessary. Domes that interfered with acoustics were phased out; and a much larger foyer for congregating after services was required.
\nThe buildings, no matter how their exteriors were expressed, were functional and innovative, and adopted advanced acoustics, lighting and state of the art ventilation systems. A stately appearance was important and entrances porches were frequently made of fine materials such as marble or terracotta with three or five entrance doors. Interiors were skilfully composed, efficient, restful, and well-lit. The substitution of established ecclesiastical symbols with plants and flowers added to the creation of a comfortable environment. [29]
\nGood acoustics were paramount, as auditoriums were for listening and speaking, and contributed to the comfort of service attendees. Churches also needed to be well insulated from outside noise and shaped to complement this aspect of services. A large portion of the Sunday services consisted of reading from a dual pulpit in fixed positions, another aspect that church designers had to take into consideration.[30] Sunday School involved opening and closing exercises, with the Sunday School superintendent standing on a raised platform followed by instruction given in rooms or alcoves around the perimeter, and reassembly in the centre of the main room at the end of the teaching period.[31]
\nThe First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane in its current location on North Quay opened on 4 August 1940 with three special services during the day.[32] The cost of the building was about £20,000.[33] At this time it was described as follows:
\nA site of unusual shape has dictated the unorthodox plan adopted by the architects (Messrs FB Lucas and RP Cummings) in order to provide for the main activities of the church organisation. The imposing entrance from North Quay opens onto the main foyer from which all important sections of the building as accessible.
\nThe church auditorium is entered from one side of the foyer. A fan-shaped auditorium has been used for three reasons. Firstly, it provides good acoustical conditions and assists in the uniform distribution of sound. Secondly, it gives…[a] seating arrangement suitable for testimony meetings and lastly it fits well on the unusual site. Readers’ rooms etc are situated beyond the platform end of the auditorium and have a separate entrance from the side of the church. They are connected to the main entrance by a corridor along the side of the auditorium The corridor also acts as a sound shield to the main body of the building.
\nAt the end of the foyer, opposite the main entrance is a small suite of rooms for men ushers and [the] Love Committee (relief). Also a secondary entrance and ramp from May Street at the rear of the site. A large cloakroom with a broad counter is served directly from the main foyer.
\nThe Sunday School is placed on the opposite side of the main foyer to the auditorium, mainly in order to avoid any possibility of interference by sound transmission from one area to the other during services. It may be entered from the main foyer but the principal entrance is from outside, close to the main church entrance. Individual class rooms, superintendents and other rooms open off the Sunday School room. Entry [is] from the main foyer to a stair hall giving access the ladies’ room, administrative entrance, literature counter and a small rest room.
\nThe staircase ascends to suite of committee rooms, literature distribution room and the caretaker’s flat, all over the Sunday School; and to the administrative section comprising boardroom, clerk’s room and treasurer’s room over the main entrance to the building.
\nA dignified exterior relies for its effect on the well-proportioned main masses of the building and suitable treatment of detail. Walls are finished in cream brick and the main entrance emphasised by a colonnade treatment in artificial stone.
\nInternally a feeling of space and restfulness is gained by handling of large surfaces of colour in light tones.
\nThe auditorium walls are panelled eight feet high with [solid vertical boards] of silver silkwood. The timber pews of special design are in similar material. The auditorium is ventilated by a forced draught system of filtered air…. diffused artificial lighting is employed in the auditorium.
\nThe pipe organ … built by BB Whitehouse and Co Ltd [local organ-makers], is housed above the readers’ platform behind a wide grille, while the console is to the side of the platform in a well, out of sight of the congregation.
\nQueensland timbers and materials are featured…. [Most] materials and labour are of Queensland origin.’[34]
\nThe new building also incorporated the cornerstone of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane’s earlier church on the corner of Tank Street and North Quay.[35]
\nArchitects Frederick Bruce Lucas and Robert Percy Cummings were key figures in architecture in Queensland before and after World War II and had an affinity with the Modern movement. Their works were characterised by meticulous detailing and thoroughness in execution. These characteristics made their selection as architects for the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane, fitting. Cummings had previously designed the Second Church of Christ, Scientist at Clayfield, a commission he may have received due to connections to Christian Science through his mother-in-law.[36] For the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane commission, Cummings was responsible for the design and Lucas was responsible for the working drawings and contract documents. Cummings’ architectural training at the Architectural Association in London and subsequent travels provided him with the opportunity to study the work of European architects such as the Scandinavians and Dutch. He had a particular interest in and affinity with the work of Dutch modernist architect Willem Dudok.[37]
\nLucas and Cummings made a significant contribution to the architectural profession, devoting a major part of their careers to its advancement through architectural education (notably as foundation staff of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Queensland); as office bearers in the RAIA; and to increasing public awareness of architecture, urban design and art in Queensland. Brought into close contact through this work they set up practice in 1936. Despite limited opportunities to practice architecture in the 1930s-40s due to the Depression, World War II and post-war shortages, Lucas and Cummings produced a number of innovative projects. Individually and as partners they designed a small number of important buildings, some of which received awards for excellence in design and which were influential in the development of the post-war vernacular in Queensland.[38]
\nIn 1950 the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane was awarded the ‘Medal for Meritorious Architecture for Institutional Buildings erected in Brisbane between 1940 and 1949’, by the council of the Queensland Chapter of the RAIA.[39] Since then, the building has been identified as being of cultural heritage significance by the study entitled ‘Significant 20th Century Architecture, Queensland’ in 1988;[40] was entered in the Brisbane City Council Heritage Register; and in 2010 was included in a draft list of nationally significant places formulated by an Australian Institute of Architects National Heritage Taskforce. It is also included in the Australian Heritage Places Inventory.[41] In 2010 and 2011, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane participated in the Brisbane Open House event.
\nThe building is notably intact, a testament to its skilful design and execution and meticulous attention to detail. Only minor changes have been implemented in over 70 years of use as a Christian Science church. On the ground floor, the former cloak room has been adapted as a children’s nursery; the book room/reading room is now used as the clerk’s office; and the rooflight in the main foyer is now artificially lit. On the first floor, the caretaker’s accommodation is no longer used for its original purpose, but for storage. The roof sheeting has been replaced and toilet suites on the ground floor have been upgraded. Glazing in many of the south-facing windows, damaged in a 2014 storm, has been replaced. Artificial stone cladding to the entrance columns has been painted.
\nIn 2024, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane remains the largest Christian Science church in Queensland. The building fulfils its purpose of providing a place of worship by Christian Scientists where Christian Science services, testimonials, Sunday School classes and lectures can be conducted.
","criteria":"The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane (1940) is important in demonstrating the development of the Christian Science church in Queensland during the 20th century. Built during a period of significant growth of the Christian Science denomination in Queensland, it is both representative of that growth and a distinctive example of a Christian Science church.
\nThe First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane is an important building in the evolution of architecture in Queensland. Designed by Lucas and Cummings Architects, leaders in all aspects of the architectural profession in Queensland in the first half of the 20th century, it demonstrates the influence of modernist architectural ideas and practices that developed initially in Europe and became the dominant trend in architecture from the mid-twentieth century.
|The First Church of Christ Scientist, Brisbane, is important in demonstrating the principal stylistic and operational characteristics of a Christian Science church from the early 20th century. It features: a stately exterior, and contrasting light and comfortable interior; a portico embellished with a fine finish; an entrance comprising three doors; a large foyer to foster sociability; dual access to a light, airy auditorium designed to maximise acoustics; mechanical ventilation and employed the latest available technology. The building has a Sunday School and offices for church business and the whole is devoid of ecclesiastical symbols.
\nThe First Church of Christ Scientist, Brisbane, exhibits a high degree of intactness and integrity which make it exceptional in illustrating the key attributes of a Modernist building in Queensland. The skilful organisation of its cubic massing determined by practical demands is clearly articulated through the asymmetrical composition, simple geometric shapes and clean lines of its external form. Steel framed windows, undecorated brick walls, flat cantilevered concrete awnings and low pitched roofs concealed behind parapets, contribute to this aesthetic.
|A bold modern design, the First Church of Christ Scientist, Brisbane, has aesthetic significance for its modernist architectural qualities. Abstract monumental elevations, rectangular and cubic massing, asymmetrical composition, simplicity and clarify of form, and an emphasis on horizontal lines create particular visual appeal, delight and interest. The refined design with decorative restraint in the external and internal form, furniture, fittings and detailing, employs exceptional quality materials and construction.
|The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane demonstrates a high degree of creative achievement through its architectural excellence and exceptionality. In 1950, Lucas and Cummings Architects received the ‘Medal for Meritorious Architecture for Institutional Buildings erected in Brisbane between 1940 and 1949’ from the Queensland Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects for this building. Its creative achievement continues to be recognised by the architectural profession.
|The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane has a strong association with the Christian Science church in Queensland. Since 1940, the church building has served as a place of worship, teaching and meeting, for the largest congregation of the Christian Science church in the state.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650020,"name":"Newmarket State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"320 Enoggera Road","suburb":"NEWMARKET","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2016-02-05","description":"Newmarket State School occupies a 3.9ha site on the corner of Enoggera Road and Banks Street in the suburb of Newmarket, five kilometres northwest of the Brisbane CBD. The school buildings are located along the southern boundary, parallel to Banks Street, at the highest point of the school grounds, which slope down from Banks Street towards the north. A steep, rocky bank separates the school buildings from a playing field, which occupies the northwest portion of the grounds. The site is bounded by residential properties to the west and north, with a small section of the northern boundary adjacent to Kate Street and an entrance from Trackson Street. A former police reserve and house occupies the corner of Enoggera Road and Kate Street (now a private residence). The most prominent building on the site is a Depression-era Brick School Building (Block A, 1934, extended 1947) which fronts Banks Street. Behind Block A is a block of 1950s timber classrooms (Block B, 1954, 55, 56), of which the central pair are an imported Boulton & Paul building. The school grounds contain a number of significant mature trees, and landscaping features include earthworks, assembly and play areas, sporting facilities, and paths.
\nDepression-era Brick School Building (1934, toilet block extension 1947), Block A
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building is a long, two-storey building, orientated east-west and set back from Banks Street, fronted by pathways, gardens and mature trees. Asymmetrical in plan, the main entrance is located at the western end of the building, occupying a gable-roofed projecting bay. A classroom wing extends to the east with a secondary entrance in a projecting bay at the end, and a two-storey 1940s toilet block extension forms the far eastern end of the block. West of the main entrance, the original building extends the width of one classroom, with a 1970s stairwell forming the western end.
\nOrnamented with a Arts and Crafts-style decorative treatment, the building is constructed from red face brick walls at ground level, which extend up to window sill height on the first floor. Above this, the walls are rendered in stucco. The base of the building is a plinth of darker brick capped with sloped brick coping. The gabled main entrance comprises an arcaded portico with three, semi-circular arched openings. The central opening is enclosed by a pair of wrought iron gates. Above the first floor windows, the main entrance gable is ornamented with horizontal and vertical pieces of timber to create a half-timbered effect, with a triangular section of terra cotta tiles at the peak. This half-timbering effect is repeated on the three other gables of the 1934 section. A horizontal band of render wraps around the building at ground floor window sill height. Render is also used to highlight the keystones of the three arched entrances of the front portico and lintels of ground floor doors and windows. The hipped and gabled roof is clad in corrugated metal sheeting, and the raked eaves are lined with timber.
\nOn the northern (rear) elevation, sections of keyed brickwork and a filled-in doorway indicate the location of planned extensions which never occurred. An original entrance door, accessed by concrete steps, is located at the eastern end of the classroom wing. A second entrance has been created from a previously filled-in doorway.
\nWindows openings are regularly spaced and contain sets of timber, three-light casement windows with rectangular, three-light fanlights above. Ground floor windows on the southern elevation are sheltered by timber-framed hoods with hipped, corrugated metal-clad roofs and supported by solid timber brackets. Hoods are also located over one window and the original doorway on the north elevation. Original timber entrance doors are generally high-waisted with timber ornamentation and panes of obscure glass in the upper section, with the exception of the main entrance double door, which has a larger area of glazing.
\nThe hip-roofed 1947 toilet block extension is constructed from matching bricks and is a similar (though plainer) style to the original building. It has two entrances in the eastern wall, accessed by concrete steps, with high-waisted, timber board doors with four-light windows of obscure glass. It has tall windows openings fitted with glass louvres, which are divided by a central mullion.
\nThe brick stairwell extension (1974) at the western end of the building is constructed from a different type of brick (of a brighter shade of red). While it does contain some early, relocated timber entrance doors, this stairwell is not of cultural heritage significance.
\nInternally, rooms are arranged along the southern side of the building, linked by a single long corridor on each floor. Two rooms are located on the north side of the corridors at the eastern end. A hall leads from the main entrance to the corridor and an original stairwell is located in the southeast corner. The ground floor contains six classrooms, two teachers rooms (on either side of the entrance hall) and a former hat room. The first floor contains seven classrooms, a teachers room and two former hat rooms. Several classrooms have been converted for use as office space and staff rooms, and the hat rooms enclosed for storage space. The 1934 stairwell has concrete stairs, metal balustrades with timber posts and top rails, and original timber doors.
\nInternal walls are generally plaster-lined with simple skirtings, and classrooms retain timber picture rails. One set of original timber folding doors survives between two classrooms on the ground floor. The location of removed folding partitions is indicated by surviving bulkheads in other classrooms. Original ceilings are lined with flat sheeting and ornamented by timber battens forming a grid pattern. Square ventilation panels survive in first floor classroom ceilings but are now enclosed. Original timber double-hung windows and double doors with large, three-light fanlights remain in the internal corridor walls. An early school bell is fixed to a bulkhead in the ground floor corridor, and an honour board and memorabilia from the former Newmarket High School are displayed next to the 1934 stairwell.
\nThe 1947 toilet block is accessed from the eastern end of the corridors. Each level has girls, boys and teachers toilets, in generously-sized rooms with high ceilings. Walls are plaster lined and ceilings have timber battens. Most original timber partitions and doors are retained.
\nNon-significant elements include modern carpet or linoleum floor linings, ceilings relined with modern flat sheeting or covered with ceilings panels, and added partitions.
\nBoulton & Paul Building (1954) with Department of Public Works extensions (1955, 1956), Block B
\nBlock B is a long, highset, timber-framed building with a gable roof clad in corrugated metal sheeting. It comprises: a 1954 Boulton & Paul (B&P) section in the centre (two classrooms); a 1955 DPW-designed section at the western end (two classrooms), and a 1956 DPW-designed section at the eastern end (two classrooms, passageway, teachers room and store room). Orientated east-west, the building has a verandah along the northern side, accessed by three sets of timber stairs (one to each section).
\nThe exterior is clad in timber chamferboards. The B&P section is clearly distinguishable from the DPW sections by the breaking up of the external cladding by the edges of vertical timber boards between each panel of the prefabricated wall units. Large areas of windows line the southern wall of each section – timber awning windows to the B&P section and western DPW section; replacement aluminium double-hung sash windows with timber awning windows above to the eastern DPW section. Angled timber brackets support the roof overhang and the eaves are unlined. The end walls of the classroom level are windowless.
\nThe verandah has timber floors and large sections of bag rack balustrades. Part of the western end of the verandah is enclosed with chamferboard-clad walls, while the full extent of the verandah to the eastern DPW section is enclosed by chamferboards and areas of louvres above bag racks. Sections of early, horizontal timber rail balustrades survive in places, including to the western and central stairs. Original timber screens with square glass panes from the B&P section survive: two panels relocated to the far western end of the verandah, and one panel at the eastern end of the B&P section. The verandah ceilings are raked and lined with flat sheeting, with bulkheads between the B&P and DPW sections. The B&P section has exposed rafters aligned with joins in the wall panels. Verandah windows are timber-framed, double-hung windows with awning windows above. Surviving verandah doors include: half-glazed, timber double doors to the western DPW section and passageway of the eastern DPW section; and a half-glazed, single timber door to the B&P section.
\nThe interior of the B&P section is lined with panels of flat sheeting, without cover strips, on the walls and ceiling. Vertical members of the structural system are evident on the north and south walls, between pairs of windows. The dividing partition has been removed to form one large classroom, with its location evident in the ceiling lining. Non-significant interior elements include added partitions, modern cupboards and floor linings, and the kitchen fit-out.
\nThe interior of the western DPW section is similar to the B&P section, but without the expressed wall structure on the north and south walls. A large opening has been created between the two former classrooms, and the door to the enclosed section of the verandah has been removed.
\nThe interior of the eastern DPW section is not of heritage significance, due to substantial alterations to the building fabric, including the re-lining of all walls and ceilings and the creation of new doorways and large openings.
\nThe understorey has a concrete floor, brick toilet blocks at each end, and an exposed, unpainted ceiling revealing the floor structure of the classrooms above. The building is supported on a variety of stumps, including round metal posts, square concrete piers and timber posts to the verandahs. Some early seating remains within the space. A concrete retaining wall runs alongside the building, adjacent to southern side of the block, and a set of concrete steps provides access to the concrete playground to the south. A ramp added to the southern side of the eastern DPW section is not of heritage significance.
\nThe southern side of the understory has been enclosed to create storage space. An early, chamferboard-clad timber partition remains between the B&P and western DPW sections. A large mural, which includes a depiction of Block A, is painted along the northern wall of the enclosures.
\nGrounds
\nThe school grounds contain mature trees, including two large fig trees (ficus, sp.) along the Banks Street boundary, in front of Block A, and a row of four large fig trees and a kauri pine north of the tennis courts (along the former police reserve boundary), some of which, according to aerial photos, were planted prior to 1936. A mature Grey Gum (E. sp.) is located to the west of Block B.
\nThe area between Block A and Banks Street includes an early layout of pathways (now relined with concrete and bitumen) and a garden area that contains several memorials. A concrete panel, broken into two pieces and set into the gardens, features the metal lettering: ‘228’ and ‘NSS’.
\nExtensive views of the surrounding suburbs and the Brisbane CBD can be obtained from Block A and within the school grounds. Block A, famed by the large fig trees, is a prominent feature in the area.
\n","history":"
Newmarket State School (established 1904), located in the Brisbane suburb of Newmarket, approximately five kilometres northwest of the central business district (CBD), is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains an early Depression-era Brick School Building (1934, extended 1947) and a Boulton & Paul Building (1954, extended 1955, 1956) set within landscaped grounds including a playing field, assembly and play areas, paths, and mature trees. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Newmarket community.
\nBy 1900, the Queensland Government had achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children. Beginning with National schools and the introduction of the Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education, Queensland’s national and public schools had grown from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875. Further standardisation of curriculum, training and facilities occurred when the State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction.[1]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers. School facilities also provided a venue for a wide range of community events.[2]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, and standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy. Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation.[3]
\nNewmarket State School opened on 4 July 1904 with 135 children enrolled, four years after its School Committee had formed and 40 years after the site was reserved for school purposes.[4] The school comprised a timber school building and a teachers residence on nine acres (3.6 ha) on the corner of Banks Street and Enoggera Road. The occupations of the pupils’ parents in the enrolment register show the rural nature of the area – timber-cutter, dairyman, farmer, grazier, drover, horse-dealer and tanner.[5]
\nEuropean settlement of Newmarket commenced when country allotments were sold as farmland in the 1860s. In 1877 the Newmarket cattle saleyards, bounded by Enoggera, Newmarket and Wilston roads and Alderson Street, commenced operations. Two years later the Newmarket Hotel opened opposite, on the (southeast) corner of Enoggera and Newmarket roads. A post office to serve the district opened in 1888. The opening of a railway line to Enoggera from Mayne Junction in 1899, with a station at Newmarket, boosted suburban development.[6] A police reserve of one acre was excised from the School Reserve in 1900, [7] signalling growth of the area.
\nNewmarket State School continued to grow in conjunction with suburban expansion in the surrounding area and suffered serious overcrowding in the early 20th century. The Kelvin Grove tram along Enoggera Road reached Newmarket Road by 1904, promoting suburban and industrial development. Local employment was offered at sawmills and the Newmarket brickworks (1912-c1985). In 1911 Newmarket’s population was 721 people but two years later there were 419 children enrolled at the school. Further extension of the tram line along Enoggera Road, to a terminus at Banks Street in 1926, brought it right to the school and a shopping centre developed adjacent to the tram terminus.[8]
\nIn 1929, the suburb of Newmarket was described by The Sunday Mail newspaper as resembling ‘a prosperous country district [with] scrub-covered spaces, large residential properties, industries, cattle saleyards, and railway [giving] it the appearance of a country township of quiet importance…. [It] comprised undulating country, gentle slopes rising from rich, high-level flats, making the district admirably suited for home-building. The breeze-swept ridges command[ed] delightful views of the outlying purple-shrouded ranges to the north and west, the picturesque Enoggera Creek flow[ed] quietly through the greater part of the district’.[9] The population of the suburb was estimated at 4000 and attendance at the Newmarket State School was about 500 children.[10]
\nThe 1930s brought changes to Newmarket and its school. Further residential subdivision was promoted by the closure of the Newmarket Saleyards when they relocated to Cannon Hill in 1931.
\nThe Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders and also embarked on an ambitious and important building programme using day labour and Queensland materials, to provide impetus to the economy.[11]
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work programme by the Department of Public Works (DPW). This included painting and repairs to school buildings.[12] By mid-1930 men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme.[13] Extensive funding was given for improvements to school grounds, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, involving terracing and retaining walls. This work created many large school ovals, which prior to this period were mostly cleared of trees but not landscaped. These play areas became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element.[14]
\nThe levelling and clearing of Newmarket State School’s grounds was an ongoing project during the 1930s. Past students recalled that men were employed on the excavation of the Newmarket State School oval and filling the gully, under the Unemployment Relief Scheme. In 1932, three men were given two day’s relief work clearing lantana and stumps from the school grounds.[15] A concrete cricket pitch was completed in 1932, laid down entirely by voluntary labour and was subsequently available for hire to the public.[16] Fundraising fetes and balls for the beatification of the school surroundings took place.[17] During 1933 the School Welfare Association raised £600 for school improvements.[18] In 1939 two new tennis courts were opened.[19]
\nHowever, it was the decision by the Department of Public Instruction to address the inadequacies of the school and its need for additional accommodation, by erecting an entirely new building, which transformed the school.[20] Subsequently, between 1933 and 1934 a new brick building was constructed at Newmarket State School, facing Banks Street.
\nIn June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public works building programme designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state. This building programme included: government offices, schools and colleges; university buildings; court houses and police stations; hospitals and asylums; and gaols.[21]
\nMany of the programmes have had lasting beneficial effects for the citizens of Queensland, including the construction of masonry brick school buildings across the state. Most were designed in a classical idiom as this projects the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings.
\nThe construction of substantial Brick School Buildings[22] in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government’s commitment to remedy the unemployment situation. The Department of Public Works and Department of Public Instruction were extremely enthusiastic about the Depression-era Brick School Buildings. They were considered monuments to progress embodying the most modern principles of the ideal education environment.[23]
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type, exhibiting many common characteristics. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical layout and prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of previous timber buildings being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. Due to their long plan forms of multiple wings, they could be built in stages if necessary; resulting in some complete designs never being realised. Ideally, the classrooms would face south with the verandah or corridor on the north side, but little concession was made for this and almost all brick school buildings faced the primary boundary road, regardless of orientation. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft, where one existed, was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions.[24]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School Building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles, which were derived from contemporary tastes and preferences, included: Arts and Crafts, typified by half-timbered gable-ends; Spanish Mission, with round-arched openings and decorative parapets; and Neo-classical, with pilasters, columns and large triangular pediments. Over time, variations occurred in building size, aesthetic treatment, and climatic-responsive features.[25] The Chief Architect during this period was Andrew Baxter Leven (1885-1966), who was employed by the Queensland Government Works Department from 1910 to 1951, and was Chief Architect and Quantity Surveyor from 1933 to 1951.[26] The DPW architect involved in the design of Newmarket State School was Arthur J Moase.[27]
\nConstructed in three stages, it was intended that the first section of the Newmarket State School’s new brick building would be the nucleus of a building scheme to accommodate 1038 pupils. The complete scheme was to be:
\nof brick construction, two storeys in height, having an overall length of about 288ft [87.78 m], including the attached lavatory blocks at each end. The footings will be of concrete, the walls to the height of mould sill course will be faced brick, above which the brickwork will be rough-cast externally. Floors of porches, corridors and lavatory blocks will be of concrete and also the entrance steps and staircases. The floors of classrooms are to be sheeted with crow’s ash. The main roof and roofs of sunshades will be covered with galvanised corrugated iron, and the ceilings of all classrooms finished in fibro-cement. The dividing walls of classrooms etc will be of brick with the exception of those to four classrooms on each floor, where they will be wooden folding partitions to enable these rooms to be thrown into one room for assembly purposes. All walls internally will be finished in cement plaster. The front elevation is neatly relieved by projecting gables panelled in fibro-cement, and wide overhanding eaves and sunshades added to the appearance, while also the long roof is broken by a large octagonal fleche.[28]
\nThe ground floor will have … [12] classrooms … [and] two teachers’ rooms ... while the remainder of the floor space is taken up by hatrooms, corridors, lavatories, etc. The upper floor will contain … [13] classrooms … one teachers room … also corridors etc, corresponding with those on the ground floor.[29]
\nOnly the central and eastern portions of the overall plan for Newmarket State School’s brick building were completed in 1934, and the scheme was never completed in its entirety. Keyed brickwork on the external walls indicated locations where the building was planned to be extended at a later date (still visible on the northern elevation). This situation was not uncommon, and occurred with other public buildings designed to be constructed in stages. Some examples are the University of Queensland Medical School [QHR601167], the State Government Offices, Townsville [QHR 601385] and the Depression-era Brick School Building at Ipswich North State School [QHR650021].[30]
\nNewmarket State School’s new brick school building (now called Block A) was opened on
30 June 1934 by the Minister for Public Instruction (F A Cooper).[31] It was a two-storey masonry building, constructed from red brick with a darker brick base and pale stucco treatment to the upper floor. It had a hipped roof with gables over the entrances and a prominent ventilation fleche. The main entrance was through a portico with three round arches. Gables featured a half-timbered ornamental effect, utilising timber, fibre-cement panels and terracotta tiles. The building contained 13 classrooms, a head teacher’s office, and retiring rooms on both floors. Circulation was provided by an internal staircase at the eastern end and an external timber staircase attached to the western wall. Windows on the southern elevation were protected by terra-cotta tile-clad window hoods. Landscaping in front of the new building including a row of fig trees along the Banks Street fence line (two of which survive), and the laying out of pathways.[32]
Externally, Block A adopted an Arts and Crafts-style decorative treatment, reminiscent of early 20th century brick schools such as Ascot State School (1920), Windsor State School (1915, QHR 600991) and Wooloowin State School (1914, QHR 601565), giving it a domestic quality quite different to the more imposing Neo-Classical style brick schools from the Depression-era. With its half-timbered gables, round arches to the entrance portico, and lack of undercroft play space, Newmarket State School is most similar in plan and style to Mackay Intermediate School (now Mackay Central State School, QHR 601911), also completed in 1934.[33]
\nIn 1936, the 1904 timber school building was relocated on the site, nearer to the police reserve and perpendicular to Enoggera Road. A donation of £50 was made by a local resident for the building to be re-erected as an up-to-date hall suitable for school functions. It was handed over to the School Committee for this purpose in July 1937.[34] After the former school building site was cleared of its entrance pathway and ornamental trees to build tennis courts, a row of mature trees along the southern edge of the Police Reserve, including fig trees, became the only surviving remnant of the original school planting scheme.[35]
\nWorld War II contingencies had similar impacts upon Newmarket State School as on other Brisbane schools, but during that period the school gained improvements to its facilities. School tennis courts were opened in 1941 by the Minister for Public Instruction, H A Bruce,[36] and in 1944-5 a playshed was erected at a cost of £484, as Block A had no undercroft for this purpose.[37] In August 1945, the George Taylor Memorial Library was housed at Newmarket State School and opened by K J Morris, MLA.[38]
\nThe post-World War II period was a time of enormous population growth Australia-wide and was accompanied by a shortage of building materials. The Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[39]
\nAfter World War II the overriding concern for the Department of Public Instruction was the need to build school buildings as expeditiously and economically as possible. Queensland schools were faced with enormous overcrowding and a lack of resources. However, the Queensland Government and community saw education as a low priority and provided the department with only a small budget.[40]
\nAt Newmarket State School, additional classrooms were required to accommodate the growth in pupil numbers: 728 in 1954; 837 in 1956; rising to its peak of 919 pupils in 1958.[41] Although other brick Depression-era buildings were built in stages and completed as many as 10 years later, this did not occur at Newmarket State School, despite its accommodation needs in the post-World War II period. Extension of brick buildings was made difficult by material shortages, and by the 1950s Newmarket State School had already experienced this situation. In September 1945 the addition of a toilet block to the eastern end of Newmarket’s Depression-era Brick School Building had been authorised and an order placed for common and face bricks, but these had not been supplied ten months later.[42] The toilet block was finally constructed in 1947.[43]
\nInstead, in 1954 a timber Boulton & Paul Building[44] was constructed, comprising two classrooms (now called Block B).[45] Responding to materials shortages and the pressures of the baby boom, the Department of Public Works imported a British prefabricated building system from manufacturers Boulton & Paul Ltd of Norwich. Based on an 8ft (2.4m) planning and construction module, the prefabricated elements in the Boulton & Paul system included wall panels, ceiling panels, roof trusses and banks of awning windows. The buildings were constructed at many schools across Queensland between 1952 and 1958.[46] Boulton & Paul buildings were timber-framed and clad, had a verandah as circulation, and a gable roof. Ideally, they were orientated so the verandah faced north and the classroom faced south but were also added as extensions to existing buildings regardless of orientation. The building could be high or low-set and had extensive areas of timber framed awning windows, providing more glazing than had ever been used in Queensland classrooms; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed, providing excellent natural ventilation and lighting. The classrooms were 24ft x 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m), larger than most previous classrooms.[47] The flexibility of the system meant that the number of classrooms constructed could vary to suit the needs of a particular school. In some cases, Boulton & Paul classrooms were used to form long, interconnected blocks, such as at Geebung State School (1951-55), Dalby State High School (1954) and Indooroopilly State High School (1953-54).[48]
\nThe Boulton & Paul building at Newmarket State School was located to the north of the Block A, aligned parallel to it and overlooking the playing field. The access stairs and verandah, which had glazed screen walls at either end, were on the north side of the building, and a retaining wall was constructed along the southern side of the partially-enclosed understorey. The walls were constructed from prefabricated units, 4ft (1.2m) wide, with those on the north and south sides containing large areas of windows. Units were pre-clad with chamferboards, with the edge of vertical timber boards between each unit visible on the exterior. On the interior, walls and ceilings were lined with flat sheeting.[49]
\nAs the school population continued to rise, more classrooms were required. Extensions to the Boulton & Paul Building were made in 1955 with two classrooms added to its western side. This extension was designed by the Department of Public Works to match the Boulton & Paul section, and illustrates the influence that the Boulton & Paul buildings had upon subsequent school building designs. Immediately after their introduction, DPW developed a standard building which was similar to the Boulton & Paul building but was constructed in the traditional manner. This type adopted many of the Boulton & Paul design features, such as a covered play space under the classrooms and the extensive areas of glazing, but became permanent structures. These architectural features became characteristic of a class of building which was the dominant school type constructed in the 1950s.[50]
\nThe 1955 extension utilised the same plan, dimensions and construction module as the Boulton & Paul section, however it is unclear if any pre-fabricated components were also used. As the walls were not constructed from pre-clad units the external chamferboard cladding had a more traditional appearance. The glazed screen wall at the western end of the Boulton & Paul verandah was relocated to the end of the extension and a doorway was inserted to link the adjoining classrooms of the two sections. Seating was provided in the understorey, which was partially enclosed by walls with areas of louvres. The retaining wall along the south side of the block was extended and a set of concrete steps linked the understorey to the playground behind.[51]
\nIn 1956 the building was extended again, on the eastern side of the Boulton & Paul building. It comprised two classrooms, a teachers room, store room, and a passageway linking the north verandah to the playground on the southern side. This extension also matched the design and dimensions of the earlier sections. Major changes were made to the understorey at this time, including the construction of brick toilet blocks at each end and a small store room, and the relocation of seating. The ground around the block was concreted and new sets of steps constructed between the different playground levels and to the rear of Block A.[52]
\nIn spite of these new additions, further space was required, and in 1956 the playshed was enclosed and converted for use as classrooms.[53]A tuckshop was constructed beneath the Boulton & Paul Building in the 1950s.[54]
\nOver the course of the school’s history, buildings have been added and removed to meet the school’s requirements. In 1958, temporary classrooms were moved to Newmarket State School from Junction Park State School and located near the teachers residence on Banks Street.[55] Also in 1958, the 1904 timber school building, which had been used as a hall for over 30 years, was sold for removal.[56] After the establishment of the Newmarket State High School in 1963, adjacent to and west of the State School in Banks Street, the temporary classrooms from Junction Park State School were used by the high school and removed after that school’s closure in 1996. In 1977 the teachers residence was demolished.[57] The c1945 playshed, next to the tennis courts, was demolished between 1987 and 1992. A recent shelter shed now occupies its former location.[58]
\nChanges to Block A include the removal of the roof fleche between 1961 and 1969,[59] and the addition of a brick stairwell to the western end in 1974, replacing external timber stairs.[60] In the 1990s, wrought iron gates, believed to have come from the Queensland Trustee’s Building in Queen Street, were recovered from the grounds, cleaned and erected in the main entrance portico. This followed requests in 1936 and 1940 from the school to Department of Public Instruction for assistance to erect pillars at the school’s entrance from which to hang the gates.[61] Alterations to the interior include the removal of all but one set of timber folding partitions, and the insertion of new partitions to some classrooms and office areas. Former hat rooms have been enclosed to form office or storage space, and some ground floor ceilings have been relined.[62]
\nBlock B has had some alterations over the years, however the central (Boulton & Paul) and western (DPW) sections remain fairly intact, apart from the enclosure of the western verandah end and modification to some internal partitions. Having undergone a series of renovations since 1999, the interior of the eastern (DPW) section has been heavily modified and is not considered to be of heritage significance. The understory has had further enclosures constructed along the southern edge.[63]
\nChanges to the school grounds have also occurred since WWII. These included the construction of stairs to the oval (the current concrete stairs date from the 1960s, replacing an earlier set).[64] Additions made to the Newmarket School Reserve when it increased to 8 acres 13.1 perches (3.27 ha) in 1963-4 included the extension of the playing field to its west, as part of works relating to the opening of the Newmarket State High school. Much of the bank excavated during the 1930s along the southern edge of the oval was removed or altered at this time.[65] New tennis courts and a shelter shed were completed between 2002 and 2004.[66] More recent buildings added to the school grounds are located along the Banks Street boundary and around former netball courts in the southeast corner. In the area in front of Block A’s entrance portico garden beds have been created, early paths have been paved or laid with bitumen, and several memorials have been established.[67]
\nAnniversary celebrations have been held by the school to mark its milestones. In 1954 for the school’s 50th anniversary the first school principal conducted a roll call of foundation students; a fancy dress ball for students was held with an attendance of nearly 1000 children and 500 adults; and a greeting card featuring an illustration of the school by H Williams was produced.[68] The 75th anniversary celebrations in 1979 involved publication of a school history, a recreated 1904 classroom and a festive event opened by the Governor of Queensland, Sir James Ramsey. 90th anniversary celebrations were held in 1994. For the school’s centenary in 2004, a comprehensive school history was published.[69] Recently painted murals depicting Block A are located within the school grounds (beneath Block B) and on a bus shelter on the corner of Enoggera Road and Banks Street (Newmarket Air Raid Shelter, QHR 602482).
\nIn 2015, the Newmarket State School continues to operate from its original site. It retains its 1934 Depression-era Brick School Building and its 1954 Boulton & Paul Building with DPW extensions, set in landscaped grounds with tennis courts, playing field and mature shade trees. The school is important to the area as a focus for the community, and generations of students have been taught there. Since establishment, Newmarket State School has been a key social focus for its community with the grounds and buildings having been the location of many social events.
Newmarket State School (established 1904) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains a representative example of a standard, government designed Depression-era Brick School Building (1934, extended 1947) that was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies, and a Boulton & Paul Building (1954) with Department of Public Works-designed extensions (1955, 1956) that were a response to acute building shortages and population growth in the post-World War II period; set in landscaped grounds with earthworks, assembly and play areas, sporting facilities, paths, and mature trees.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building and landscaping of the school grounds are the result of the State Government’s building and relief work programmes during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
\nThe Boulton & Paul Building, a type that was imported from Britain in the early 1950s, demonstrates the introduction and adoption of prefabricated systems by the Queensland Government during a period of rapid school expansion to cope with a large increase in student numbers. The Department of Public Works-designed extensions demonstrate the influence of Boulton & Paul buildings on subsequent Department of Public Works school designs.
|Newmarket State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of Queensland state schools. These include: teaching buildings constructed to standard designs by the Queensland Government; and generous, landscaped sites, with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities. The school is a good, intact example of a suburban school complex, comprising a Depression-era Brick School Building and a Boulton & Paul Building with Department of Public Works-designed extensions.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building is a good, intact example of its type. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of Depression-era brick schools, including: its two storey form; high-quality design with ornamental features from one of a variety of styles; face brick exterior; and prominent entrance bay. The building plan comprises a typical linear layout of classrooms, offices and store rooms, accessed by single long corridor. The toilet block extension (1947) is complementary to the 1934 building and respects the scale and design intention of the original plans.
\nThe Boulton & Paul Building is a good, intact example of its type, and clearly demonstrates the characteristics of a prefabricated building through the expression of its modular construction of 4ft (1.2m) wide wall panels. Other characteristic features of this type include: its timber-framed, lightweight construction; gable roof; verandah for circulation, with glazed screens at the ends; large areas of glazing to the north and south walls; classroom size of 24ft by 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m); and flat internal wall linings.
|Through its substantial size, high quality materials, face brick exterior, elegant formal composition and decorative treatment, the Depression-era Brick School Building at Newmarket State School has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, which evoke the sense of progress and permanence that the Queensland Government sought to embody in new public buildings in that era.
\nThe building is also significant for its streetscape contribution. Standing on an elevated site and framed by mature fig trees, it is an attractive and prominent feature of the area. Extensive views of the surrounding suburbs and of the Brisbane CBD are obtained from within the building.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nNewmarket State School has a strong and ongoing association with the surrounding community. It was established in 1904 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of Newmarket children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Newmarket and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650022,"name":"Ithaca Creek State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"49 Lugg Street","suburb":"BARDON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2016-02-05","description":"Ithaca Creek State School occupies a large site within the hilly terrain of Bardon, a residential suburb northwest of Brisbane CBD. Facing Lugg Street to the west, the sloping site is bounded to the north, south and east by residential properties. The school is accessed from Lugg Street, with additional entrances via Dacca and Grace Streets (north) and Primrose Terrace (east). The school comprises a complex of buildings and structures, the largest of which is a Depression-era Brick School Building (Block A; 1934-36), located in the northwestern corner of the site, addressing Lugg Street. Other important elements within the school grounds include various retaining walls (c1930s and pre-1960), a parade ground to the east of Block A, two tennis courts and a Tennis Shed south of the Block A, a war memorial at the northern end of the Lugg Street entry garden, a WWII Honour Board in the entry foyer of Block A, and mature trees.
\nDepression-era Brick School Building (Block A; 1934-36)
\nBlock A is a symmetrical, masonry structure of two storeys, with an undercroft level. A tall copper fleche projects above the tiled, hipped roof and houses the school bell. The building is U-shaped in plan, arranged around an eastern parade ground, and comprises: a range (1935) running north-south; with two lateral wings, the northern (1934) and southern (1936), running perpendicular on a west-east axis. The ends of the northern and southern wings project from the front elevation.
\nThe building is elegantly composed with classical detailing. Constructed from load-bearing face brick walls, it has rendered decorative elements on the ground and first floors, and rendered walls and piers that resemble channel-jointed ashlar to the undercroft level. Red-brown face brick walls in a stretcher bond are relieved with brown face brick pilasters in an English bond. The pilasters have simple, rendered capitals. A two storey bay, projecting from the western side of the central range, frames the main entrance. It is topped by brick parapets – with the section over the central pediment being the tallest – and a large, rendered pediment. The pediment is supported by pilasters and two tall, painted concrete columns. It features the words ‘STATE SCHOOL’ within its entablature and a rendered circle is set on face brick within the tympanum. The centred front door is framed by rendered detailing and has “ITHACA CREEK” written in the aedicule. A stone, set within the wall north of the front door, commemorates the foundation date of the building, 19 May 1934, and the name of the person who laid the stone, Hon. FA Cooper (the then Secretary for Public Instruction).
\nThe interior layout of the building is symmetrical, with the northern and southern wings mirrored; and the ground floor layout approximately repeated on the first floor. The entrance bay comprises a ground floor foyer, centrally located between northern and southern office spaces, and two first floor offices. It is aligned with the range’s central stair, which is flanked to the north and south by storage rooms and classrooms. The northern and southern wings have three large classrooms (formerly four) on the ground and first floors; terminated at the eastern end by storage rooms and enclosed stairs. The classrooms throughout the building retain bulkheads that indicate the original layout of dividing partitions. Most classrooms and offices have plaster walls, timber-framed floors covered in modern carpet, and flat sheeted ceilings with dark-stained timber battens. Skirtings are generally wide and plastered, and most rooms retain timber picture rails. Stairs are of painted concrete and have metal and timber balustrades.
\nCorridors, along the western side of the range, and verandahs (now enclosed), along the parade ground sides of the northern and southern wings, provide access to the classrooms and offices. They have polished concrete floors and their plaster ceilings are flat, with those on the first floor featuring dark-stained timber battens. Verandahs have face brick balustrades, and early sinks are retained at their eastern ends.
\nThe undercroft level is accessed via the central stair and is largely open play-space. Toilets are located at the eastern ends of the northern and southern wings, a tuckshop (former woodwork-classroom) encloses the western end of the northern wing, and a storage room encloses the western end of the southern wing. The undercroft has a concrete slab floor. Timber framing is exposed in parts of the range’s ceiling, and some early corrugated metal ceilings within the northern and southern wings are retained. The piers are stop-chamfered.
\nEarly timber joinery is retained throughout the building, including: tall casement windows (to the exterior); double-hung sash windows (to the verandahs); and panelled timber doors. A set of early timber folding doors is retained in a classroom on the ground floor of the northern wing, which is rare. Most windows and doors retain their awning fanlights and early window and door hardware. Modern aluminium windows (1979) enclosing the verandahs are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nLandscape Elements
\nThe school grounds are well established, with sporting facilities including a generous playing field (1932) at the southeastern end of the site, and two levelled tennis courts (1939, one recently resurfaced as a multi-purpose court) with a timber Tennis Shed (pre-1946) to the south of Block A. The Tennis Shed is located south of the western tennis court; and is lowset, sheltered by a corrugated metal-clad hip roof, and clad with a single-skin of timber weatherboards. It comprises a western store room and an open eastern space, separated by a panelled timber door, set within a timber wall, which is lined with wide timber boards above door head-height, and v-jointed (VJ) boards below door head-height. Metal hooks are retained at the door head height, and a timber seat is built into the southern wall of the eastern space. Window openings have corrugated metal-clad hoods with timber brackets.
\nMany mature trees are located within the school grounds, including a large fig tree (Ficus sp.) southeast of the tennis courts.
\nThe sloping site is terraced by several Depression-era concrete retaining walls. These are located: along the Lugg Street boundary; between Lugg Street and Block A; north, east and west of Block A (including underneath a 2009 two storey brick building); at the northeastern end of the playing field (c1930s); and in between the school buildings and playing field (pre-1960). Concrete stairs (c1930s) between Block A and tennis courts provide access between the terraces. The terraced nature of the site provides opportunities for views of the surrounding area from within the school grounds and buildings.
\nThe parade ground (1934-36) east of Block A allows significant views to be obtained of the building’s eastern elevation (its recent surface of bitumen is not significant).
\nAn Honour Board (1947) is located in the foyer of Block A, listing the names of former students who served in World War II (WWII).
\nA painted concrete WWII memorial (erected after 1954) is located northwest of Block A and is dedicated to the Rats of Tobruk. It is of a stepped, art-deco design, with metal crosses fixed to the highest tier; and stands on a stepped plinth. The memorial displays the crest of the Rats of Tobruk Association, and a plaque with the words, ‘This is hallowed ground for here lie those who died for their country. “At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them” – Lest We Forget – ’.
\nOther Structures
\nOther buildings, structures, pathways, swimming pools, modern partitions, modern joinery, and sheds within the cultural heritage boundary are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Ithaca Creek State School (established 1885), located in the inner Brisbane suburb of Bardon about four kilometres northwest of the central business district (CBD), is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains a Depression-era Brick School Building (1934-6), constructed as a Depression-era work project, which is an aesthetically-pleasing landmark in the streetscape; and landscaped grounds including retaining walls (c1936 and pre-1960), a parade ground (1934-36), tennis court (1939) with Tennis Shed (pre-1946), a playing field (1932), a World War II (WWII) memorial dedicated to the Rats of Tobruk, and mature trees. The school has a strong and ongoing association with its surrounding community.
\nThe provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. National schools, established in 1848 in New South Wales were continued in Queensland following the colony’s creation in 1859. Following the introduction of the Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland’s national and public schools grew from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875.[1] The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction. This further standardised the provision of education, and despite difficulties, achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[2]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and community halls reinforced these connections and provided a venue for a wide range of community events in schools across Queensland.[3]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[4]
\nLand in the vicinity of Ithaca Creek State School was first surveyed in the 1860s, but not auctioned as suburban lots until 1870. Ithaca Divisional Board, incorporating the area between Enoggera and Windsor, was established in 1880. By 1884 a country postal receiving office operated at Ithaca Creek to serve the small community.[5]
\nIn the same year, the community petitioned the Minister for Public Lands to reserve land for a school at Ithaca Creek and soon afterwards a one hectare site (Portion 826B) was reserved for this purpose.[6]
\nIthaca Creek State School opened on a sloping site fronting Lugg Street, Bardon, on 28 September 1885, with a timber school building to accommodate 60 pupils. By December of that year 103 boys and 85 girls were enrolled with, on average, 66 boys and 55 girls attending.[7]
\nThe district continued to grow and in 1887 Ithaca Shire was formed from Ithaca Division. It comprised about one tenth of the former division (11.5 sq km), included Paddington, Bardon and Red Hill, and had a population of about 10,000 residents.[8]
\nFurther growth in the area took place, resulting in the creation of the Town of Ithaca, which replaced the shire in 1903. This development was promoted by the establishment of Brisbane’s electric tram network after 1897, which extended from Roma Street to Enoggera Terrace, via Musgrave Road while a second route travelled along Caxton Street and Given Terrace. In 1925 the municipality of Ithaca was incorporated into Greater Brisbane.[9]
\nIthaca Creek State School grew in synchrony with this development, but its grounds needed work. In 1926 a school committee formed to improve the school grounds to meet modern ideas and provide better equipment for sporting activities. It created a scheme for extension and improvement of the school grounds, which at the time were under 2.5 acres (1.01 ha) and extremely rough, resulting in the children playing on the roadway in front of the school. The scheme embraced the extension of the school grounds, and the provision of septic tanks, swimming pool, gymnasium, library, tennis court, and basketball courts. The first step was the filling in of a gully in the grounds.[10]
\nOver the next six years, the committee provided over £550 and the Government provided approximately £410 for purchase of land. As a result the grounds trebled in size to create a total area of approximately 7.75 acres (3.14 ha) with purchase of land to the south and southeast of the school reserve creating access from Grace Street and Primrose Terrace.[11] This expansion was achieved despite the onset of world-wide economic depression.
\nThe Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders and also embarked on an ambitious and important building programme using day labour and Queensland materials, to provide impetus to the economy.[12]
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work programme by the Department of Public Works. This included painting and repairs to school buildings.[13] By mid-1930 men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme.[14]
\nExtensive funding was given for improvements to school grounds, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, involving terracing and retaining walls. This work created many large school ovals, which prior to this period were mostly cleared of trees but not landscaped. These play areas became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element.[15] In mid-1932 unemployed men working under the government’s relief scheme were employed at Ithaca Creek State School levelling its newly-purchased grounds.[16] The Hon Mr R Hill, MLA told a gathering of parents in June 1932 that Department of Public Works’ ‘expenditure on improvements to the school and its grounds, and expenditure under the intermittent relief scheme had totalled £2121, from 1929 to 1932. In addition, £800 had been approved for relief work at the school, and £126 for the purchase of additional land, making a total of £3047 for three years, or an average of £1000 a year’.[17]
\nIn June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public works building programme designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state. This building programme included: government offices, schools and colleges; university buildings; court houses and police stations; hospitals and asylums; and gaols.[18]
\nMany of the programmes have had lasting beneficial effects for the citizens of Queensland, including the construction of masonry brick school buildings across the state. Most were designed in a classical idiom as this projects the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings.
\nIthaca Creek State School was one of the approximately 30 schools chosen for the addition of a Brick School Building to replace its earlier timber building. The construction of substantial Brick School Buildings (E/B1) in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government’s commitment to remedy the unemployment situation. The Department of Public Works and Department of Public Instruction were extremely enthusiastic about these Depression-era Brick School Buildings. They were considered monuments to progress embodying the most modern principles of the ideal education environment.[19]
\nDepression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type, exhibiting many common characteristics. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. Due to their long plan forms of multiple wings, they could be built in stages if necessary; resulting in some complete designs never being realised. Ideally, the classrooms would face south with the verandah on the north but little concession was made for this and almost all Depression-era Brick School Buildings faced the primary boundary road, regardless of orientation. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions.[20]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles, which were based on contemporary tastes and fashions, included: Arts and Crafts, typified by half-timbered gable-ends; Spanish Mission, with round-arched openings and decorative parapets; and Neo-classical, with pilasters, columns and large triangular pediments. Over time, variations occurred in building size, aesthetic treatment, and climatic-responsive features.[21] The Chief Architect during this period was Andrew Baxter Leven (1885-1966), who was employed by the Queensland Government Works Department from 1910 to 1951, and was Chief Architect and Quantity Surveyor from 1933 to 1951.[22] Other DPW architects involved in the design of Ithaca Creek State School were Nigel Laman Thomas and Harold James Parr.[23]
\nIn 1934, stage one of Ithaca Creek State School’s Brick School Building commenced with construction of the north, lateral wing, of the planned U-shaped building comprising a range and two wings, located on the original school reserve. Construction was carried out by the Inspectorial and Construction Branch of the DPW.[24] The Department of Public Works Annual Report to 30 June 1934 reported the building as follows:
\nIthaca Creek SS, Brisbane: Erection. Estimated Cost, £9,388 (In progress) This building, which is the first section of a scheme to accommodate 1,000 pupils, is constructed of brick with concrete foundation and fibrolite slate roof. The portion of building which is now under construction is of two storeys with basement under. Each floor provides for four classrooms of (40) pupils, giving a total accommodation for 320 pupils, also for cloakroom, and connecting 8ft 6in corridors and concrete staircase. The basement floor [undercroft] comprises lavatory recommendation for girls for the whole school and has play area, fitted with seats and drinking taps. A sewerage system will be installed.[25]
\nThe foundation stone was laid by the Minister for Public Instruction, F A Cooper, on 19 May 1934.[26] The first section was occupied in October 1934 and the next two stages constructed in 1934-5 (range) and 1935-6 (southern wing); both works supervised by the Inspectorial and Construction Branch of the DPW.[27] Concrete retaining walls to the north, south and east were built by the DPW in conjunction with this work.[28]
\nA photograph dated 30 June 1935 shows the Depression-era Brick School Building, with the first two stages – the northern wing and range – completed, and a prominent roof fleche projecting from the centre of the range. Housing the main entrance to the building, a symmetrical, two-storeyed entrance bay projected west from the range, and featured a stepped parapet, and a pediment supported by large columns and pilasters. Pilasters on the elevation had simple, rendered capitals. Casement windows were located between pilasters in the western elevation of the range and in the entry bay, and had awning fanlights.
\nWith all three stages completed, the Depression-era Brick School Building (now called Block A) was officially opened on 21 March 1936 by the Minister for Public Instruction (F A Cooper) who commented that:
\nthe building was part of an undertaking to supply the best possible facilities for education, which were so necessary if Queensland was to keep pace with the rest of the quickly progressing world…. The cost of the building to date is £28,663. It has three wings, providing room for more than 1000 children. Some 800 to 900 pupils are on the present roll. The school is installed with all modern conveniences, broad corridors, spacious, airy, and well lighted classrooms and offices and a septic tank system.[29]
\nA bell was installed in the roof fleche after June 1936.[30]
\nImprovements to the school grounds continued after completion of Block A. The Ithaca Creek State School Committee in March 1936 was raising money for improvement of the sports oval and the laying down of two tennis courts, two basketball courts and other improvements to the 7.5 acres (3.04 ha) of school grounds.[31] In March 1938 The Courier-Mail newspaper reported that the committee had spent £700 on ground improvements.[32] The Minister for Health and Home Affairs (E M Hanlon) opened a tennis court at Ithaca Creek State School on 3 June 1939, commending the school committee for buying adjoining land to provide a cricket and football oval for the boys; and ‘congratulated the relief workers who had done much to improve the school grounds’.[33] A hipped-roofed Tennis Shed, with an eastern opening, existed on the site by 1946 to the south of the western tennis court.[34] A further 8879sqm of land, located to the south of the Lugg Street school reserve, was purchased c1950 (Lot 889 SL1899).[35] The parade ground was sealed in 1969. [36]
\nBlock A underwent modifications in 1949 to convert part of the first storey for use as domestic science classrooms, a visual education room, and teachers room. A manual training room was built in the understorey and later converted into a tuckshop.[37] In 1979 the verandahs of Block A were enclosed with aluminium windows.[38] A metal-framed, concrete walkway was added as a connection to the southern wing of the Block A when a two storey brick building was constructed in 2009. To facilitate this connection, an aluminium-framed door replaced a north-facing window of Block A.[39]
\nOver the school’s history, a number of buildings and structures have been added and removed from the site. These include: the original timber school building (1885, extended 1886, 1888, 1900, 1928, removed 1968); a teachers residence (c1885, removed 1915); a playshed (1889, removed pre-1946); an Open-air Annexe (1915, removed after 1924); a Tennis Shed (pre-1946); a Hawksley Building (1953, demolished c2008); a swimming pool to the east of Block A (1964); grandstands and night lighting for the pool complex (1971) a pre-school centre (1975); a hall (2005, enclosed 2009) with attached outside school care building (2011); a two storey brick building with undercroft (2009); a one storey brick teaching learning centre with undercroft (2010); and a one storey classroom building (2013).[40]
\nIthaca Creek State School has a long history of community involvement – from social dances in the 1930s; to fundraising for the school pool from the 1930s to the 1960s, with lamington drives, ‘brick’ cards and penny miles; to the present day’s functions and events.[41]
\nThe school community’s involvement with world events is also acknowledged. An Honour Board (1947) commemorating those who served in WWII (1939-45) hangs in the foyer of the Block A. A WWII Memorial (erected after 1954), commemorating the Rats of Tobruk, who during WWII defended Tobruk in North Africa against the Axis powers between April and December 1941, stands to the northwest of the front (west) lawn of the school.[42] Constructed as a small replica of a monument built in 1941 by Australian Divisional Engineers in the Tobruk Cemetery, Libya, the memorial is of a stepped, art-deco design and stood on a stepped plinth. Metal crosses feature at the highest tier of the memorial, with the Rats of Tobruk Association’s crest above a plaque on the lowest tier.[43]
\nIthaca Creek State School has marked the anniversaries of its establishment with three school histories published conjunction with: its 75th anniversary, its centenary, and its 120th anniversary. The Ithaca Creek school community also celebrated this latter milestone by building a new hall and holding an anniversary weekend.[44]
\nIn 2015, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains the Department of Public Works Depression-era Brick School Building set in landscaped grounds with tennis (multipurpose) courts and Tennis Shed, playing field and mature shade trees. The school is important to the area, having been a focus for the community, and generations of students have been taught there. Since establishment, Ithaca Creek State School has been a key social focus for its community with the grounds and buildings having been the location of many social events.
\n","criteria":"
Ithaca Creek State School (established 1885) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains an excellent example of a government designed Depression-era Brick School Building (1934-36), which was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with retaining walls, sporting facilities and mature trees.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building and landscaping of the school grounds are the result of the State Government’s building and relief work programmes during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
\nA World War II (WWII) Honour Board (1947) located in the foyer of the Depression-era Brick School Building and a WWII Memorial commemorating the Rats of Tobruk (post-1954) sited in front of the school building are important in demonstrating the school community’s involvement in WWII. War memorials, including honour boards, are a tribute to those who served, and those who died, from a particular community. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
|Ithaca Creek State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school. The school comprises a Depression-era Brick School Building constructed to a government design and a parade ground used as an assembly and play area. These elements are set within a generous, landscaped site that retains mature shade trees, Depression-era terraced retaining walls, and sporting facilities including a playing field and tennis courts with a Tennis Shed.
\nThe substantial Depression-era Brick School Building is a highly-intact, excellent example of its type and retains a high degree of integrity. The building demonstrates the principal characteristics of its type, including: its two storey form, with an undercroft; symmetrical, high-quality design that features classical detailing; loadbearing face brick construction; hipped roof; and prominent and central roof fleche. The building has a linear layout, with rooms accessed by verandahs and corridors, and an undercroft used as an open play space. Typical of this building type, the Depression-era Brick School Building was located in a growing suburban area at the time of its construction.
|Through its substantial size, high quality materials, face brick exterior, elegant formal composition and decorative treatment, the Depression-era Brick School Building at Ithaca Creek State School has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, which evoke the sense of progress and permanence that the Queensland Government sought to embody in new public buildings in that era.
\nThe building’s assertive massing, classically-influenced design, and elegant composition contribute to its dignified streetscape presence, and contrast with the surrounding small-scale residences.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nIthaca Creek State School has a strong and ongoing association with the surrounding community. It was established in 1885 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of the community and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650023,"name":"Junction Park State School","alternate_name":"Thompson Estate State School (former)","street_address":"50 Waldheim Street","suburb":"ANNERLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2016-05-06","description":"Junction Park State School occupies a 2.2ha levelled site within the residential suburb of Annerley, approximately 4km south of the Brisbane CBD. The site faces, and is primarily accessed from, Waldheim Street to the south; and is bounded by Gowrie and Harewood streets (north), residential properties (north, east and west) and the Annerley Library (fronting Ipswich Road, west). The school comprises a range of buildings and structures; with the most prominent being a Depression-era Brick School Building (Block A; 1936), located at the southeast end of the site. A complex containing two early swimming pools (1910 and 1929) and timber stands (pre-1944) is located to the northeast of Block A, as are three brick toilet blocks (1934). Other important elements of the school include various Depression-era retaining walls at the west end of the grounds (c1935), an oval west of Block A, and mature trees.
\nDepression-era Brick School Building (Block A; 1936)
\nBlock A is a symmetrical, masonry structure of two storeys, with an undercroft. A tall fleche projects above the tiled, hipped roof. The building comprises a range, running west-east, with two short lateral wings at the eastern and western ends, running south-north. A two storey bay (with undercroft) projects south from the centre of the range and frames the main entrance to the building. It is accessed by two sets of L-shaped stairs leading from the Waldheim Street to an entrance loggia, which has three brick archways and a concrete balustrade of large square piers and decorative balusters. Additional entrances of concrete stairs diagonally project from the northern elevation at the junction of the range and lateral wings. These stairs have metal balustrades and enclosed, one-storey, face brick landings.
\nThe building is elegantly composed with classical detailing. Constructed from load-bearing face brick walls, it has rendered decorative elements to the first and second floors, and a rendered base that forms the undercroft level. The red-brown brick walls of the first and second floors are laid in a stretcher bond, and are relieved with pilasters – rendered on the front elevation and English-bonded, brown face brick on the northern elevation. The pilasters have simple, rendered capitals. Along the front elevation, tiled window hoods with decorative timber brackets shelter the first storey windows; and two face brick projections protrude from the eastern and western ends of the range. The projections and entry bay are topped with rendered parapets, and rendered string courses run the length of the elevation. A foundation stone is set within the wall east of the entry bay, at the understorey level. Rendered detailing on the entrance bay includes ornamental scrolls, and the words ‘JUNCTION PARK STATE SCHOOL’ in raised lettering. A gabled pediment on the northern side of the range has a face brick tympanum, which is rendered at its apex and has a centred, rendered accent circle.
\nThe interior layout of the building is symmetrical. The ends of the range are terminated by stairwells and store rooms (former cloak rooms), and are flanked by toilets and store rooms (also former cloak rooms) and classrooms in the lateral wings. Aligned with the entry bay and in the centre of the range is a first floor foyer, centrally located between eastern and western office spaces, and a second floor classroom and office. Leadlight fanlights are located in the foyer; featuring the words ‘JUNCTION PARK’ below the school’s crest, with the school’s house symbols to either side. A timber board listing the names of the school’s principals since 1888 is also located in the foyer.
\nThe remainder of the range, on both the first and second floors, comprises classrooms. Most classrooms throughout the building retain original partition bulkheads, which indicate the original layout, and latticed ceiling vents are retained on the second floor. Most classrooms and offices have plaster walls, timber-framed floors covered in recent carpet or linoleum, and flat-sheeted ceilings with timber battens. Skirtings are generally wide and plastered, and most classrooms retain picture rails. A raised timber stage has been constructed in a classroom at the eastern end of the first floor.
\nA timber honour board (1915) is located in the same classroom. It is stained dark brown and has a decorative frame that is stained in a lighter brown and has turned vertical supports. Featured at the head of the board is a photograph of a soldier, surrounded by the words, ‘1915; HONOUR BOARD; OUR BOYS SERVING AT THE FRONT; JUNCTION PARK STATE SCHOOL,’ and leaf patterns painted in gold. Below this are the names of 86 former students who served in World War I, also painted in gold.
\nStairs are of polished and painted concrete, and their balustrades have timber handrails and metal balusters with timber posts. At the landing level between the undercroft and first floor, there are decorative metal screens in the openings to the stairwell.
\nVerandahs along the northern side of the range provide access to the first and second floor classrooms and offices. They have painted concrete floors and their ceilings are flat, with those on the second floor featuring timber battens. The brick balustrades have rendered copings, with concrete drains channelled along their base; the central sections are plastered and enclosed with early windows. Recent lightweight partitions enclose most ends of the verandahs to enlarge the lateral wings’ classrooms, and are not of cultural heritage significance. A large, metal school bell is attached to the western balustrade of the first floor verandah. Its bracket is marked with ‘JPSS, 1888’ in raised letters.
\nThe undercroft level comprises open play-space, a modern tuckshop and storage space, with enclosed classrooms and storage spaces in the lateral wings. It has a concrete slab floor, with floors in some enclosed spaces covered in recent linoleum and carpet. Most ceilings are of flat sheeting, and timber framing is exposed within the range and the western wing. The piers are stop-chamfered, and timber seats supported by metal brackets are attached to some piers.
\nEarly timber joinery is retained throughout the building, including: tall casement windows (to the exterior); double-hung sash windows (to the verandahs); arched casement windows (to the eastern and western range projections); panelled doors on the first floor; low-waisted French doors with arched fanlights (to the entrance bay); a high-waisted timber panelled door (to the tuckshop, 1953); and an interior French glazed door (between classrooms on the second floor). Most windows and doors have early awning fanlights; and most windows retain their early hardware with winding mechanisms. All rendered elements have been painted.
\nSwimming Pools (1910, 1929) and Timber Stands (pre-1944)
\nThe swimming pool complex includes two rectangular, in-ground, concrete swimming pools and timber stands. The 1929 pool has slightly rounded corners. The complex is enclosed by early face brick and perforated concrete block walls to the south and east, a corrugated metal-clad timber-framed fence to the north, and a recent, face brick, changing room structure (2003, not significant) to the west. The oldest and smallest pool is the 1910 swimming pool, which runs on a north-south axis, measures 13m x 4.9m, and is located west of the perpendicular, 1929 swimming pool, which measures 23m x 7.6m. Both pools have tiled edges and concrete pavers around them. The stands comprise tiered, timber-framed seating that allow for the viewing of the 1929 swimming pool. The stands are sheltered by a metal-framed roof (1989) that is not of cultural heritage significance.
\n\n
Toilet Blocks; Boys, Girls and Infants (former, 1934)
\nThe boys, girls and infants toilet blocks are all one storey, rectangular, face brick structures that have corrugated metal-clad Dutch-gable roofs, V-jointed (VJ) timber soffits, and long axes running east-west. Triangular, timber ventilation panels are located within the gable apexes. Entrances to the blocks are from the northern and southern sides, and are screened by facebrick walls that have rounded corners at the entry points. Variance in brickwork colour indicates where some of these screens have been extended; in some cases, both in length and height. The brickwork of the exterior walls is exposed internally (some have been painted). The floors are concrete (with modern linings) and the ceilings are lined in VJ timber. Window openings are timber-framed and have tall sill heights. Most internal partitions have been altered and toilets have been replaced by modern units – these are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nLandscape Elements
\nThe school grounds are well established, and the formerly sloping site has been terraced to the west of Block A by several Depression-era concrete retaining walls that form levelled platforms. These retaining walls are located: west of Block A (running north-south), along the west, northwest and southwest boundaries of the oval, and along the western boundary of the site.
\nMany mature trees which appear to predate 1936, including some large figs (Ficus spp.), are located within the school grounds along the southern boundary of the site and the northern edge of the oval, plus individual mature trees are located south of the 1929 swimming pool, and north of Block B and the former infants toilet block.
\nOther Structures and Elements
\nAn early concrete plinth is set on a square concrete base south of the swimming pool complex.
\nModern partitions, joinery, buildings and sheds within the cultural heritage boundary are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Junction Park State School opened on its present site in 1891 as the Thompson Estate State School, to accommodate the growing suburban population of a previously rural district on the southern outskirts of Brisbane. Junction Park State School retains two early swimming pools (1910, 1929) and a Depression-era Brick School Building (1936) with associated concrete retaining walls (c.1935) and brick toilet blocks (1934). Set in landscaped grounds with mature shade trees, the school has been in continuous operation since establishment and has been a focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activity.
\nThe Junction Park State School is today located in the suburb of Annerley, part of the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Jagera people. Annerley was originally part of an area called ‘Boggo’, which ran from Dutton Park to Rocky Water Holes (later Rocklea).[1] The Junction Hotel, established at the junction of Boggo (now Annerley) Road and Ipswich Road in 1866, was the beginning of a township at that location, known as Boggo until being renamed Annerley in 1892.[2] Local farms, surveyed in the late 1850s, were replaced by suburbs from the late-19th century, due to the area’s proximity to South Brisbane. Development was facilitated by construction of the Corinda-South Brisbane railway in 1884 and the extension of an electric tram service from Woolloongabba to Dudley Street (south of the Junction Hotel) in 1899. The tramline was later extended south to Cracknell Road (north of Yeronga Park) in 1914.[3]
\nThe sale of suburban allotments in the Thompson Estate, east of Ipswich Road and west of Norman Creek, between O’Keefe Street in the north and Victoria Terrace in the south, from 1881, led to calls for a local school.[4] By the mid-1880s the nearest schools were at Yeronga (opened as Boggo Primary School in 1871), Coorparoo (1876), and Dutton Park (1884).[5]
\nThe provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. National schools, established in 1848 in New South Wales were continued in Queensland following the colony’s creation in 1859. Following the introduction of the Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland’s national and public schools grew from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875.[6] The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction. This further standardised the provision of education, and despite difficulties, achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[7]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and community halls reinforced these connections and provided a venue for a wide range of community events in schools across Queensland.[8]
\nFrom 30 April 1888 the Thompson Estate Provisional School No. 514 was conducted in a rented four-room cottage in Oxford Street (now between the Pacific Motorway and Norman Creek). A provisional school could be opened with as few as 15 (later 12) pupils. The Board of General Education gave financial assistance to local committees to set up and maintain these schools. The local committee provided a building and found a teacher, and the Board paid the teacher’s salary relative to the number of pupils. If the district or town developed, provisional schools were raised to state school status, with purpose-designed school buildings and teacher residences attracting better qualified and more experienced teachers. The school, under Mrs Kathleen Barry, initially had 52 pupils, rising to 173 by December 1888. In January 1889 James Joseph Dempsey (head teacher of the school until 1923) replaced Mrs Barry, and upon reaching 200 pupils the school was moved to a hall in Regent Street (west of Oxford Street) in August 1889.[9] The school became Thompson Estate State School in January 1891.[10]
\nWhile pupil attendance was rising, a permanent site for the school was being sought, alongside community fundraising to obtain one-fifth of the cost of a school as required by the government. In mid-1888, William Stephens (1857-1925), MLA, and chairman of the Thompson Estate school committee, asked the Stephens Divisional Board if it would object to the Queensland Government resuming some land for a school. As a result, five acres (2ha) of land east of Ipswich Road (not including land adjacent to Ipswich Road, which remained a recreation reserve) was donated by the Stephens Divisional Board, although there was some disagreement from a rival school committee over the location.[11] The land was reserved for state school purposes on 19 July 1890.[12]
\nBetween October 1890 and March 1891 a teacher’s residence was built at the west end of the school reserve, and a timber school building was constructed further east, on the site of the current brick school building. Between the residence and the school were two small lagoons, on the site of today’s oval.[13] At this point Waldheim Street was only a track, which was included in the school grounds until the grounds were properly fenced in 1923.[14]
\nThe new school and residence cost £1818. The high-set timber school building was occupied on 31 March 1891.[15] The school had been designed to accommodate 280 pupils, but 425 turned up on the first day.[16] Several extensions to the building followed between 1893 and 1900.[17] The name of the school also changed to Junction Park State School in 1892.[18]
\nThe grounds at Junction Park State School were initially rough and unfenced. The first Arbor Day was celebrated at the school in May 1891, and 12 of the trees planted were supplied by the Brisbane Botanic Gardens.[19] Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.[20]
\nAlong with built additions and tree planting, the area of the school also increased. The school grounds were expanded northwards from the 1890 school reserve, largely thanks to the efforts of Dempsey. Residential allotments along Gowrie Street (formerly Ferndale Street), between Harewood Street (formerly Alfred Street) and the eastern end of the school reserve, were gradually acquired.[21] A residence on Lot 117 became the school caretaker’s residence (removed by 1941). A tennis court was opened in 1908 near Gowrie Street, on some of the recently acquired land, and a second court was added in 1913.[22] By 1934 all but three residential allotments – the two closest to Harewood Street (lots 106, 107) and one between B Block and the 1910 pool (lot 115), had been purchased.[23] Lots 107 and 115 were later incorporated into the school grounds, which reached its maximum size of 7.2 acres (2.9ha) by 1982. This included the addition of 23.3p (589m2) of land to the east end of the original reserve in 1958.[24]
\nAs well as tennis courts, other sports facilities were constructed at the school. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. A cricket pitch was created on the school grounds by 1894, after previously being played on a paddock south of the school reserve. In 1908, the school’s military cadets benefited from the establishment of a miniature rifle range at the east end of school grounds. The targets were on the other side of the creek, with the shots passing over the heads of Chinese market gardeners on the creek flats.[25]
\nAnother sports facility constructed was a swimming pool, the first of its kind in a Queensland state school. Junction Park State School was already involved in swimming as a sport, using a local waterhole and a dammed section of Ekibin Creek, until a case of typhoid led to a change of venue from the creek to the Peel Street Baths in South Brisbane. Once a water main was extended to Gowrie Street, it was possible to have a swimming pool in the school grounds. Work commenced on a concrete pool in October 1909. By this time the school had an average attendance of 615, out of an enrolment of 700 pupils.
\nMeasuring 43ft by 16ft (13m by 4.9m), and 3ft 6in to 4ft 3in (1m to 1.3m) deep, the pool was built by Messrs Wells and Bennett of Woolloongabba, and was opened by WH Barnes, the Minister for Public Instruction, on 5 February 1910. One end of the galvanised iron enclosure around the pool was roofed and partly enclosed as dressing rooms. Most of the £175 cost was raised by the school committee, with £80 provided by the government for a ‘recreation shed’ (since it was not policy to fund swimming pools). JJ Dempsey, writing 10 years after he had finished as head teacher at the school, considered the pool to be a memorial to four young students of the school (boys aged 6 and 7) who had drowned at Baynes’ Paddock (Stones Corner) in a flooded waterhole in February 1890.[26]
\nAs enrolments continued to climb, a new building for infants was opened on 22 June 1911, northeast of the main school building. A King Poinciana was planted as a ‘coronation tree’ the same day, to commemorate the coronation of King George V.[27] In October 1913, when the school had an average daily attendance of 800, a two storey infants school building was added to the southeast of the 1911 building. This was named the ‘Denham Infant School’, after the Premier, DF Denham (who was also chairman of the school committee).[28] That year the school was also connected to the main sewerage system, with toilets to the north of the main school building.[29]
\nSoon after, World War I affected Junction Park State School. By December 1917 the school’s honour board (possibly multiple boards) listed 300 former pupils who were ‘serving at the front’, with 30 having died.[30] An honour board, dated 1915 and located in the former assembly room on the first floor of the Depression-era Brick School Building in 2016, has 86 names.
\nChanges continued at the school, to accommodate the educational needs of the growing suburb. Annerley became a thriving business precinct in the early 20th century, and between 1911 and 1921 its population grew from 1203 to 2642.[31] By 1923 a housing estate stood immediately to the south of the school. A new timber block of three classrooms (Block B) was built north of the main school building, near Gowrie Street, c1924.[32] There are references to a ‘new wing’ being opened at the school in 1925 (when there were nearly 1000 pupils in daily attendance), and this may refer to Block B.[33]
\nOther changes in the 1920s included a new, larger swimming pool. The school committee raised funds from c1926, and the new pool, located just east of the 1910 pool, was built by Hornibrook and Co, who had tendered for £690, from December 1928. Completed in early February 1929, the concrete 75ft by 25ft (23m by 7.6m) pool, with 7in (18cm) thick reinforced walls, ranged in depth from 3ft to 7ft (0.9m to 2.1m). A fete was held at the school grounds in September 1929, to liquidate the remaining debt on the pool. The old pool was retained for infants and non-swimmers. [34] By 1934 there was a brick wall around the pool and by 1944 tiered seating had been constructed. The concrete blocks on top of the brick wall post-date 1944.[35] A small concrete plinth south of the 1929 pool is of unknown date and purpose, but may be a flagpole base.[36]
\nThe 1930s brought major changes to the built fabric of the school. The Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building program to provide impetus to the economy.
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work program by the Department of Public Works. This included painting and repairs to school buildings.[37] By mid-1930 men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme.[38] Extensive funding was given for improvements to school grounds, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, involving terracing and retaining walls. This work created many large school ovals, which prior to this period were mostly cleared of trees but not landscaped. These play areas became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element.[39]
\nIn June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public works building program designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state. This building program included: government offices, schools and colleges; university buildings; court houses and police stations; hospitals and asylums; and gaols.[40]
\nMany of the programs have had lasting beneficial effects for the citizens of Queensland, including the construction of masonry brick school buildings across the state. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings.
\nThe construction of substantial brick school buildings[41] in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government’s commitment to remedy the unemployment situation. The Queensland Public Works Department and Department of Public Instruction were extremely enthusiastic about the brick school buildings designed in the 1930s. They were considered monuments to progress embodying the most modern principles of the ideal education environment.[42]
\nDepression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type, exhibiting many common characteristics. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings, being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. Due to their long plan forms of multiple wings, they could be built in stages if necessary; resulting in some complete designs never being realised. Ideally, the classrooms would face south with the verandah on the north but little concession was made for this and almost all Depression-era Brick School Buildings faced the primary boundary road, regardless of orientation. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions.[43]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles, which were derived from contemporary tastes and fashions, included: Arts and Crafts, typified by half-timbered gable-ends; Spanish Mission, with round-arched openings and decorative parapets; and Neo-classical, with pilasters, columns and large triangular pediments. Over time, variations occurred in building size, decorative treatment, and climatic-responsive features.[44] The Chief Architect during this period was Andrew Baxter Leven (1885-1966), who was employed by the Queensland Government Works Department from 1910 to 1951, and was Chief Architect and Quantity Surveyor from 1933 to 1951.[45]
\nA brick school building (Block A in 2016) for Junction Park State School was requested by the school committee in June 1934, approved in December 1934, and completed by June 1936. The central wing of the old timber school building was removed, while two other wings remained in place to the north and south of the new building, to allow teaching to continue during construction.[46] Three new brick toilet blocks – one for boys, one for girls, and one for infants – plus a septic system, were constructed in 1934, for £3400, to complement the new brick school building.[47]
\nIn June 1935 the building ‘in progress’ had an estimated cost of £20,560. It would contain twenty-one classrooms to accommodate 860 pupils, with the possibility for future extensions to provide for 1,020 pupils. The building was to be constructed of brick with an asbestos cement slate roof. The basement comprised a concreted play area and secondary entrances. The ground floor contained a main entrance portico to the south, entrance porches to the northern façade, ten classrooms, cloakrooms, a head teacher’s office and a male teachers’ room; and the first floor contained eleven classrooms, cloakrooms and a female teachers’ room. Three classrooms on each floor were provided with folding partitions, to enable them to be converted to large assembly rooms.[48] The building plans were drawn by Frederick Thomas Jellett, who had been articled with the Victorian Public Works Department and engaged by Queensland Public Works as a draftsman in 1920. Jellett’s name also appears on drawings in the 1930s for extensions at New Farm and Ascot, and for Ayr and Ipswich North Schools.[49]
\nThe symmetrical building, with classical detailing, addressed Waldheim Street, with a range running east-west, terminated by stairwells (and cloak rooms on the first and second floors), with more classrooms in the lateral wings at either end of the building. The classrooms were accessed by a rear (northern) verandah and all but four had windows to the south. The remaining four classrooms projected to the rear in the lateral wings, and had north windows. Classroom ceilings were battened with lattice vents on the second floor. Three classrooms to the east of the entrance bay on both the first and second floor were divided by folding doors. The remainder were divided by solid masonry walls with connecting double doors. Verandah floors were concrete. Entry was via a two storey bay (with undercroft) that projected south from the centre of the range and framed the main entrance to the building. The bay was accessed by two sets of L-shaped stairs leading from Waldheim Street to an entrance loggia, which had three brick archways and a concrete balustrade of large square piers and decorative balusters. To the rear, two stairs with porch landings projected diagonally from the junction of the range and lateral wing on the first floor. The roof was tiled and was provided with a fleche. It appears that terracotta tiles rather than asbestos cement tiles were used.[50]
\nA low concrete retaining wall with two sets of steps was built as part of the levelling of the grounds, to the west of the brick school building, and was constructed by 1935.[51] The school residence had also been removed by 1935, and the land at the west end of the school was terraced by this time, as was the east end of the school. The concrete block retaining walls at the west end of the school may have been built between 1935 and World War II.[52]
\nBlock A was opened by the Minister for Public Instruction, FA Cooper, on 17 October 1936, with the cost reported as £28,000, and the remaining wings of the old school were sold for removal around this time.[53] Some of the timber from the demolished wing was used to build dressing sheds and showers over the 1910 swimming pool, which remained covered until the sheds were demolished in 1955.[54]
\nLike World War I, World War II also affected life at the school. The Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. The closed schools were sometimes occupied for defence purposes, and some schools remained closed ‘for special reasons’ after the rest had reopened.[55] Slit trenches, for protecting the students from Japanese air raids, were also dug at Queensland state schools, often by parents and staff. Zig-zag trenches were dug at Junction Park State School, skirting the oval.[56] Junction Park also hosted students from Moorooka State School, who were displaced by US Army use of their own school between February and July 1942.[57]
\nAfter World War II, enrolments at the school continued to climb. The Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[58]
\nIn 1947 enrolments at Junction Park State School reached 1477, and for a few years Junction Park State School was Brisbane’s largest attended state school. In May 1948, the administration of the infants school separated from that of the primary school.[59] In order to accommodate increasing student numbers at the primary school, Block B was extended at either end in 1953, and in 1955 Block C was added just west of Block B, on the site of the 1908-13 tennis courts.[60] Two new tennis courts had been formed at the west end of the school by 1951, on the terrace that was previously the site of the school residence.[61]
\nA new infants school complex opened at the east end of the school reserve in April 1958.[62] Later, as infant enrolments fell (from 774 in 1952 to 320 in 1966) it was decided in 1974 to re-amalgamate the primary and infants schools. Meanwhile, the primary school had 1523 enrolled in 1958, dropping to 785 by 1965, as the baby boom ended and Grade 8 was transferred to secondary school in 1964. [63]
\nOther changes have been made to the school over time, including partition and entrance alterations to the brick toilet blocks. The brick school building has had some internal changes, with some new partitions added to the first and second floors, and some classroom walls removed. In the summer of 2015-2016 the ceilings on the second floor were replaced. The southern side of the undercroft was enclosed between the piers with doors, fixed glass panels and louvres c1953; a tuck shop was added c1978 as an enclosure in the east side; and the lateral wings of the undercroft have been enclosed for classrooms and store rooms.[64]
\nIn 1964 a new entrance from Waldheim Street was created east of the brick school building, leading to a paved area.[65] Some bitumen was removed from the playground behind the brick school building in 1995, to create a grassed area, and a forest of native trees (sclerophyll forest) was opened in the southeast corner of the grounds in 1997.[66]
\nThe site of the 1950s infants school complex was excised from the east end of the school grounds in 1998, leaving the school grounds at their current size of 5.4 acres (2.2ha), and the infants school buildings were demolished between 1997 and 2000.[67] Some new buildings were added to the school in 2003 and 2009.[68]
\nThe school celebrated the centenary of the opening of the Thomas Estate Provisional School in April 1988, with a banquet for 600 people at the Hilton International Ballroom,[69] and a history of the school was also published that year. Another history was published in 2015.
\nIn 2016 the school continues to operate from its original site, and retains its early swimming pools, Depression-era Brick School Building, toilet blocks, and retaining walls, set in landscaped grounds with mature shade trees. The school remains important to the Annerley community. Since establishment, generations of students have been taught at Junction Park State School and it has been a key social focus for its community with the grounds and buildings having been the location of many social events.
","criteria":"Junction Park State School (established in 1891) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains an excellent example of a government-designed Depression-era Brick School Building (1936), which was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies and is set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities and mature trees.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building, toilet blocks and landscaping of the school grounds demonstrate the State Government’s building and relief work programs that, during the 1930s, stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
\nThe two swimming pools (1910, 1929), the earliest of which was the first built in a Queensland state school, reflect the growing concern in the early 20th century to teach children to swim for health and safety reasons.
\nThe World War I Honour Board (1915) located in the Depression-era Brick School Building is important in demonstrating the school community’s involvement in a major world event.
|Junction Park State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school built during the Depression era. The school comprises a Depression-era Brick School Building, and brick toilet blocks (1934), constructed to a government design. These are set within a generous, landscaped site that retains mature shade trees, Depression-era retaining walls (c1935), and sporting facilities, including the early swimming pools and an oval.
\nThe substantial Depression-era Brick School Building is an intact, excellent example of its type and retains a high degree of integrity. The building demonstrates the principal characteristics of its type, including its two storey form, with an undercroft; symmetrical, high quality design that features classical detailing; loadbearing, face brick construction; hipped roof; and prominent central roof fleche. The building has a linear layout, with rooms accessed by verandahs, and an undercroft used as open play space. Typical of this building type, the Depression-era Brick School Building was located in a growing suburban area at the time of its construction.
|Through its elegant composition of formal and decorative elements, substantial size, face brick exterior and high quality materials, the Depression-era Brick School Building at Junction Park State School has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, by which the Department of Public Works sought to convey the concepts of progress and permanence.
\nThe building’s elegant composition, assertive massing and classically-influenced design contribute to its dignified streetscape presence, and contrast with the surrounding small-scale residences.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nJunction Park State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Annerley community. It was established in 1891 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of Annerley children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Annerley and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
\n","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650025,"name":"Yeronga State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"150 Park Road","suburb":"YERONGA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2016-03-11","description":"
Yeronga State School occupies a 6.7ha site within Yeronga, a residential suburb approximately 6km south of the Brisbane CBD. The school is located on the corner of Park Road and School Road, and is bounded to the north by Honour Avenue, and to the northeast and east by Yeronga Park and the Yeronga Pool complex. The site is divided (by a modern brick Dental School building) into two areas, with the 1920s-50s timber school buildings (Blocks B, C, D, E & F) on the northern part of the site, facing Park Road; and the brick Infants’ School building (Block L) on the southern part of the site, set back from and facing School Road. With its decorative entrance gate on Park Road, mature perimeter trees, and range of timber and brick buildings, the school makes an important visual contribution to the streetscape. The school complex also comprises a sports oval in the northeast corner of the site, the remnants of a forestry plot on the eastern boundary, and a variety of mature shade trees that are mostly positioned along the site boundary, sports oval perimeter, and to the east of the Infants School.
\n1927-33 Sectional School buildings (Blocks B, C, D and E)
\nThe four Sectional School buildings are set back from Park Road and are aligned approximately east-west. The buildings are timber-framed and weatherboard-clad structures, highset on concrete piers, with corrugated metal-clad hipped (Blocks D and E) and Dutch-gable (Blocks C and B) roofs.
\nThe buildings were constructed in three phases between 1927 and 1933 (Block C, centre; Block B, southeast and Block E, southwest; and Block D, northwest) and are connected via enclosed verandah walkways. The north-facing (Block B, C and E) and south-facing (Block D) verandahs are enclosed by bag rack balustrades (Block B, C and E) and modern awning windows, and are accessed by external timber stairs. The remodelled Open-Air Annexe buildings (Blocks B and E) have wider classrooms and verandahs than the other Sectional School buildings.
\nA range of early timber joinery is retained throughout the buildings including the large banks of casement windows with fanlights in the southern walls, which demonstrate the original five-classroom room layouts. East and west end walls are windowless. The interior walls and raked verandah ceilings are lined with timber v-jointed (VJ) tongue-and-groove (T&G) boards.
\nWindows in the former verandah walls have been removed and large openings have created an open-plan arrangement between the former verandah and classroom spaces. Classroom layouts have been reconfigured and original partitions removed; however, some partitions and bulkheads remain to demonstrate the former layout. The classroom ceilings have been lowered and lined with flat sheeting (1960).
\nThe understories combine open areas for play, and enclosed areas with a variety of concrete, corrugated metal and weatherboard-clad partitions that form storage areas and toilet blocks (1945). The concrete slab floors have perimeter surface drains.
\nElements not of cultural significance include modern additions and alterations such as: extensions and enclosures; carpet and linoleum floor linings; sheeted ceilings; added partitions; and joinery, fixtures and fittings.
\n1927 Central Block (Block C)
\nBlock C has verandahs to the north, east and west sides, all of which are enclosed. The interior contains four classrooms defined by part and full-width partitions (1960). Remnants of the four original partitions survive as bulkheads that demonstrate the original layout.
\nTeachers’ rooms are attached to the north, east and west sides of Block C; they are gable-roofed and weatherboard-clad, and feature skillion window hoods with timber brackets. The east and west-facing teachers’ rooms have casement windows with fanlights, and battened gable infills. The interior walls and flat ceilings of all three teachers’ room are lined with VJ, T&G boards. The northern teachers’ room has been extended (1958) with a staff room and hallway added, windows reconfigured and modern louvres added.
\nThe understorey of the extended northern teachers’ room is enclosed with weatherboard-clad walls (1958). The southwest corner of the understorey is clad with corrugated metal sheeting. A modern covered walkway links Block C to Block A to the north.
\n1928 Southeast Block (Block B)
\nBlock B contains four classroom spaces, with fixed partitions defining the two eastern classrooms, and the two western classrooms divided by wide-leaf folding doors (1960). One fixed partition remains in its original location between the eastern and western classrooms.
\nThe Dutch-gable roof has louvred vents in the gable ends.
\nThe western end of the understorey has been enclosed with concrete walls and glass louvres (1945) to form a toilet block.
\n1928 Southwest Block (Block E)
\nBlock C contains three classrooms divided by a fixed partition to the east and folding doors to the west (1960). One fixed partition remains in its original location between the central and eastern classrooms.
\nThe southwest corner of the understorey is clad with corrugated metal sheeting and the eastern end is enclosed with the concrete walls and glass louvres of a former (1945) toilet block. A metal extraction vent (1950) protrudes from the southwest corner of the hipped roof.
\nA covered walkway with timber screen (1954) connects with Block F to the southeast.
\n1933 Northwest Block (Block D)
\nBlock D contains three classrooms divided by fixed partitions. One partition between the central and eastern classrooms is in its original location.
\nConcrete bracing walls are located between piers at the corners and centre of the understorey. The western end has been enclosed.
\n1954-58 Boulton & Paul building and DPW extensions (Block F)
\nBlock F is a long, highset, timber-framed building with a gable roof clad in corrugated metal sheeting. It comprises: a 1954 Boulton & Paul (B&P) section at the western end (two classrooms and kitchenette); a 1954 DPW-designed section in the centre (two classrooms); and a 1958 DPW-designed section at the eastern end (one classroom, a teachers’ room and store room, and modern offices). The plan form is angled, with the 1954 sections diverting southeast from the Sectional School buildings, and the 1958 section returning to parallel (east-west). A verandah continues the length of the northern side of the building, accessed by three sets of timber stairs (1954 B&P and DPW stairs attached-to, and 1958 stairs set-within, the verandah).
\nThe exterior is clad in timber chamferboards, including the southern and western sides of the understorey. The B&P section is clearly distinguishable from the DPW sections by the breaking up of the external cladding by the edges of vertical timber boards between each panel of the prefabricated wall units on the first floor. Large areas of timber awning windows with fanlights line the southern wall of each section; timber brackets supporting the overhanging eaves are attached to the mullions. The end walls of the classroom level are windowless - the western end being clad with crimped metal sheeting. The stairs to the 1954 DWP section are clad with weatherboards and feature a glazed timber screen that is similar to the original B&P timber screen with square glass panes that survives on the western side of the covered walkway to Block E.
\nThe verandah has timber floors and large sections of bag rack balustrades that are clad with weatherboard (B&P section) and crimped metal sheeting (DPW extensions). The verandah of the B&P section and part of the 1954 DWP extension is enclosed with modern awning windows above the bag racks, and external metal-louvred screens. Double-hung sash windows, with fanlights, are retained in the verandah walls of non-enclosed sections, with the exception of the 1958 western classroom, where they have been replaced with modern louvres. Large openings have been formed in the former verandah walls of the 1954 sections, creating an open-plan arrangement between the verandah and classrooms.
\nThe interior of the B&P section is lined with panels of flat sheeting, with cover strips, on the walls and ceiling. Vertical members of the structural system are evident on the south wall, between pairs of windows. The classroom layout has been reconfigured (formerly three classrooms) and original partitions removed; however, their former location is evident in the ceiling linings. Non-significant interior elements include modern partitions, cupboards, wall and floor linings, and kitchenettes.
\nA large opening has been created in the classroom wall between the B&P and central DWP sections. The interior of the DPW section is similar to the B&P section, but without the expressed wall structure on the south wall. The southern windows are also set slightly (170mm) lower than those in the B&P section.
\nThe interior of the eastern DPW section is lined with flat sheeting, with cover strips; excluding the former western classroom, which has been substantially altered including the re-lining of the walls and addition of modern partitions to form offices.
\nThe understorey combines open play space and enclosed areas for teaching and storage; it has a concrete floor that steps down at the junction between the 1954 and 1958 sections. The floor structure of the classrooms above is exposed; the bearers of the 1954 sections are supported on concrete piers, while the 1958 section has open timber trusses. Awning windows, with fanlights and a continuous flat hood, are set between the trusses on the southern wall of the 1958 section and modern louvres enclose the northern side. The open play area under the B&P section retains original timber bracing fins either side of an opening in the southern, single-skin wall.
\n1941 Brick Infants’ School building (Block L)
\nBlock L is a symmetrical, masonry structure of one storey above an undercroft level. The building is orientated east-west and faces School Road; set back behind an open playing field with perimeter trees. The building is rectangular in plan and a projecting entrance bay, flanked by twin stairs to a first-floor landing, is centred on the southern (front) elevation. A tall fleche with decorative finial prominently projects above the Dutch-gabled roof, which has been clad with modern corrugated-metal sheeting.
\nThe building is elegantly composed and ornamented with a combination of Arts and Crafts and Art Deco-style decorative treatments. The face brick is primarily red-brown and has contrasting rendered plinth, windowsills and stringcourses. The projecting entrance bay features a stepped, rendered parapet and doorway surround, with the words ‘YERONGA STATE SCHOOL’ below. This Art Deco-style detailing is repeated on the two entrances to the undercroft, at either end of the northern (rear) elevation. The front entrance stairs have concrete treads and decorative metal balustrade with square metal posts; rendered stringers contrast with the face brick base. Along the front and rear elevations, continuous window hoods with Arts and Crafts-style decorative timber brackets shelter the first storey windows. Windows openings are regularly spaced and contain banks of timber-framed, three-light casement windows, with fanlights above.
\nThe interior layout of the building is symmetrical with first-floor classrooms arranged either side of a central corridor that aligns east-west, between two internal stairwells. A perpendicular entrance hall, flanked by a current and former teachers’ room, connects to the central landing. The four southern classrooms retain original partitions, although one large opening has been formed between two rooms and walls have been removed between the east and west end classrooms and the corridor. The northern classrooms have been reconfigured to accommodate a kitchenette and some offices but retain original partition bulkheads, which demonstrate the former layout. Modern doors are located at both ends of the corridor and hat rooms adjacent to the stairwells have been partially enclosed for storage space. The stairs are concrete and have metal balustrades with timber handrails.
\nInternal walls are generally plaster-lined with simple skirtings, and classrooms retain timber picture rails. Original timber double-hung windows and double doors with large, three-light fanlights remain in the internal corridor walls. Ceilings are lined with flat sheeting and ornamented by timber battens forming a grid pattern. All classrooms retain their original latticed ceiling vents. Original timber double-hung windows and double doors with large, three-light fanlights remain in the internal corridor walls. A bronze plaque in the entrance reads ‘Opened 26 September 1941 by HA Bruce MLA’.
\nNon-significant elements include modern carpet or linoleum floor linings, cupboards and kitchenettes, and added doors and partitions.
\nLandscape Elements, Grounds and Views
\nThe grounds are well-established and contain mature trees including figs (Ficus spp.), camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora), poincianas (Delonix regia) and various eucalypts species. Large figs on the boundary enhance the school’s prominence in its location and provide a picturesque setting for the school buildings. Several mature trees are situated to the east of Block L, and plantings associated with the former school residence include a mature mango tree (Mangifera spp.) to the east of the Dental Therapists Training Centre.
\nA decorative gateway (1945), with rendered columns and metal arch that reads ‘YERONGA STATE SCHOOL’, frames the main pedestrian entrance from Park Road.
\nThe generous playing field (1927-33) to the northeast of the school buildings comprises a level sporting oval with concrete retaining walls to the western end and an earth embankment with stone-pitched drain to the southeast. Mature figs frame the northwest perimeter of the oval, including the canopies of several trees that are part of adjacent Yeronga Park.
\nA forestry plot (established 1939), situated south of the oval, contains a range of mature trees including pines (Pinus spp.) and camphor laurels.
\nOther Structures
\nOther buildings, structures, sheds, footpaths and roads within the cultural heritage boundary are not of cultural heritage significance. Where the register boundary extends into road reserve, the road and footpath fabric is not considered to be of cultural significance.
\n","history":"
Yeronga State School opened in February 1871 as Boggo Primary School, to accommodate the growing population of a previously rural district on the southern outskirts of Brisbane. To serve the school’s growing pupil numbers, extensions were made and buildings added to the site. Yeronga State School retains: four connected Sectional School Buildings that were constructed in three stages (1927, 1928 and 1933); a Depression-era Brick Infants School Building (1941); and a Boulton & Paul pre-fabricated timber-framed building (1954) with Department of Public Works (DPW) designed extensions (1954 and 1958). The school buildings are set amongst landscaped grounds with mature shade trees, a decorative entrance gateway (1945), a forestry plot (established 1939) and sporting facilities. The school has been in continuous operation since establishment and has been a focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activity.
\nHistorically part of an area called ‘Boggo’, which ran from Dutton Park to Rocky Water Holes (later Rocklea, c1884), and which was part of the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Jagera people, Yeronga’s development was spurred on by transport improvements. Development of the Darling Downs made the Ipswich Road the main route to the interior, and the initial rough track was surveyed in the 1860s. The first sales of Crown land in the Yeronga area, involving 154 acres (62.3ha), had taken place in 1854. Land use in the area moved towards dairying and crops, including arrowroot, cotton, sugar, corn and potatoes.[1] To address the education needs of the predominantly rural community, Yeerongpilly School was opened in 1867 as a semi-private school. Classes took place in the Boggo Wesleyan Church.[2] Attendance varied greatly and averaged below the minimum 30 pupils necessary for the Board of General Education to build a national school.[3]
\nThe provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. National schools, established in 1848 in New South Wales, were continued in Queensland following the colony’s creation in 1859. Following the introduction of the Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland’s national and public schools grew from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875.[4] The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction.[5]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[6]
\nBy the early 1870s, an increasingly prosperous local community had been established in the Yeronga area, comprising predominantly farmers and merchants.[7] As attendance grew, Yeerongpilly School, which had been recognised as a provisional school in 1868,[8] achieved national school status and was re-opened on its current site as Boggo Primary School in February 1871, with over 70 students enrolled.[9] A new one-room timber school building and playshed were built for the re-opening of the school, which was located on the corner of what is now known as School Road and Park Road, Yeronga.[10] By 1876 the school was known as Boggo State School,[11] as a result of the State Education Act 1875. In 1878-79 an additional timber school building was constructed that could accommodate 80 pupils.[12]
\nWith the arrival of the South Brisbane railway (Corinda to South Brisbane via Yeronga) in 1884,[13] improved access led to increasing urbanisation in the area. Yeronga developed as a prestigious riverside suburb, with the large homes of wealthy settlers surrounded by the original farms, and Boggo State School was renamed Yeronga State School in 1886.[14] That year a head teacher’s residence was built on the west side of the school, which occupied a 20 acre (8.1ha) site bordered to the north and east by a recreation reserve (reserved 1882, later Yeronga Park). The school’s site was officially designated a Reserve for a State School in 1895.[15]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.[16] Tree planting events were reported at Yeronga State School as early as April 1892, when ten camphor laurels and silky oaks were planted during a gathering of over 200 parents and children.[17] By 1894, Arbor Day was celebrated as a general holiday for Yeronga students, with entertainment organised by the Yeronga State School Committee.[18]
\nYeronga, like many riverside suburbs in Brisbane, was significantly affected by the flood of 1893. Residences were inundated and the school was used as a refuge for flood victims.[19] The flood led to a loss of confidence in the lower lying areas of Yeronga and resulted in reduced housing development until the beginning of the 20th century, when improved public transport led to further settlement and the area became predominantly working class.[20] Attendance at Yeronga State School continued to steadily increase despite the floods and the economic depression of the 1890s.[21] However, building at Yeronga State School was halted and did not resume until 1914, when a new Open-air Annexe was constructed to a standard DPW design.[22]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[23]
\nPlans for the new 1914 Open-air Annexe show it had a single 22ft x 44ft (6.7m x 13.4m) classroom and a teachers’ room off the west-facing 10ft (3m) verandah. The new hip-roofed annexe was connected to the northeast corner of the existing T-shaped timber school building, with the playshed situated to the northwest. [24]
\nEnrolments continued to increase at Yeronga State School, from 236 in 1914, to 260 in 1916, and 325 by 1917. [25] Population growth in the area was facilitated by the extension of the Ipswich Road tramway line to Yeronga Park, in 1915.[26] In March 1917, the school grounds were reduced to just over 15 ½ acres (6.3ha) when excised land to the north was amalgamated into Yeronga Park.[27] In June that year a delegation from the Yeronga State School Committee appealed to the Minister for Public Instruction for the immediate construction of an infants’ school.[28] An additional Open-air Annexe was subsequently built to the north of the playshed at a cost of £1,156 and officially opened in May 1918.[29] The new annexe had a Dutch-gable roof and was 24ft x 64ft (7.3m x 19.5m) with a 10ft (3m) wide verandah, teacher’s room and hat room, and lavatories and a play area underneath.[30]
\nBetween 1927 and 1933 four Sectional School Buildings were added to Yeronga State School, to address further increases in attendance during the 1920s, with 900 enrolled in 1927.[31] The new school buildings occupied higher ground to the north of the existing school site that had previously been used as sports grounds.[32]
\nAttention to improving light and ventilation to achieve an optimum classroom had culminated in 1920 with the Sectional School[33], a high-set timber structure. This fundamentally new design combined all the best features of previous types and implemented theories of an ideal education environment. It proved very successful and was used unaltered until 1950. This type was practical, economical, and satisfied educational requirements and climatic needs. Most importantly, it allowed for the orderly expansion of schools over time.
\nBefore the Sectional School, solar orientation was not given prominence and all school buildings were orientated in relation to the street and property boundaries, often resulting in poorly orientated buildings. The Sectional School type had only one verandah, typically on the northern side, allowing the southern wall, with a maximum number of windows, to be unobstructed. The building was designed so that the blank western wall was removable. As the school grew, the western end wall could be detached and the building extended in sections, hence the name. This led to the construction of long narrow buildings of many classrooms – a distinctive feature of Queensland schools.[34]
\nThe first Sectional School Building at Yeronga was officially opened November 1927.[35] The building (known as Block C in 2015) had a Dutch-gable roof and was aligned approximately east-west; it consisted of five classrooms, 21ft x 18ft (6.4m x 5.5m), with 8ft (2.4m) wide verandahs to the north, east and west sides.[36] The classrooms were linked by folding partitions, which could be opened to create an assembly hall. A teachers’ room projected off the northern verandah, and the northeast and northwest verandah corners were enclosed. Additional teachers’ rooms off the east and west verandahs were evident by 1929; however, they were not documented in the 1926 plan.[37] Block C cost £2,346 and could accommodate 200 pupils;[38] it was intended as the central portion of a group of new buildings, with future extensions planned for all four corners, connected by verandah walkways.[39]
\nIn 1928 the two existing Open-air Annexes were relocated, extended and remodelled as Sectional School Buildings, and attached to the southwest (Block E – 1914 annexe, with 22ft wide classrooms and hipped roof) and southeast (Block B – 1918 annexe, with 24ft wide classrooms and Dutch-gable roof) corners of Block C. The buildings had five classrooms each, accessed via north-facing verandahs.[40] At the official opening in November 1928, it was noted that the three new buildings could accommodate a total of 650 students.[41] In 1929, overcrowding at Yeronga was further alleviated by the opening of Moorooka State School.[42]
\nA fourth Sectional School Building (Block D) was officially opened as part of belated Jubilee celebrations for Yeronga State School in May 1933.[43] Plans from 1932 show the building had a hipped roof and five classrooms, 21ft x 18ft (6.4m x 5.5m), separated by fixed partitions with centred double-leaf doors.[44] The 8ft (2.4m) wide south-facing verandah had a hat room in the southwest corner and was connected to the northwest corner of Block C by a covered walkway.[45] The understorey had concrete bracing walls positioned at all corners and in the centre.[46] The building cost £1,723 and brought the total student accommodation of the Sectional School Buildings to 880.[47] Enrolments at the time numbered 1,100 students,[48] with the balance accommodated in the remaining buildings for infants on the old school site.[49]
\nWith the Sectional School Buildings occupying the site of the former sports grounds, efforts were made to provide alternative sporting facilities and improve the school grounds. In 1927 three acres of timber and stumps were cleared in preparation for a new oval in the northeast corner of the school grounds.[50] In 1931, Yeronga State School was granted another acre of land, which included the eastern end of the oval, to be permanently reserved for State School purposes.[51] The extended oval was officially opened in May 1933.[52] A school swimming pool was excavated to the southwest of the oval; however, it was never completed.[53] The school committee was responsible for much of the improvement works and concerts were held at the Ideal Picture Theatre in Yeronga to raise funds for Yeronga State School improvements fund.[54] Labour under the Unemployment Relief Scheme was also utilised to assist with grounds improvements.[55]
\nThe Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building program to provide impetus to the economy.[56] Even before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work program by the DPW. This included painting and repairs to school buildings.[57] By mid-1930 men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme.[58] Extensive funding was given for improvements to school grounds, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, involving terracing and retaining walls. This work created many large school ovals, which prior to this period were mostly cleared of trees but not landscaped. These play areas became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element.[59]
\nIn June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public works building program including government offices, schools and colleges; university buildings; court houses and police stations; hospitals and asylums; and gaols.[60] Most were designed in a classical idiom as this projects the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings.
\nIn the late 1930s the focus of improvement initiatives at Yeronga State School shifted, to address the needs of the Infants’ School to the south. Infant classes commenced in 1893 at five Queensland Schools but development was delayed by the 1890s Depression and infant classes were usually accommodated by adapting existing accommodation. Brick infant blocks were constructed at Windsor (1933), Morningside (1936) and Yeronga (1941).[61]
\nThe construction of substantial Brick School Buildings[62] in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government’s commitment to remedy the unemployment situation. The Depression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type, exhibiting many common characteristics. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical layout and prominent central entry. Ideally, the classrooms would face south with the verandah or corridor on the north side, but little concession was made for this and almost all brick school buildings faced the primary boundary road, regardless of orientation. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft, where one existed, was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions.[63]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School Building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles, which were derived from contemporary tastes and preferences, included: Arts and Crafts, typified by half-timbered gable-ends; Spanish Mission, with round-arched openings and decorative parapets; Art Deco, with monumental entrance, stylised and stepped decoration, and strong horizontal and vertical lines; and Neo-classical, with pilasters, columns and large triangular pediments. Over time, variations occurred in building size, aesthetic treatment, and climatic-responsive features.[64] The Chief Architect during this period was Andrew Baxter Leven (1885-1966), who was employed by the Queensland Government Works Department from 1910 to 1951, and was Chief Architect and Quantity Surveyor from 1933 to 1951.[65] The DPW architect involved in the design of Yeronga Infants’ School was Thomas Robert Gladwin.[66]
\nYeronga’s new Brick Infants School Building (known as Block L in 2015) was opened by the State Treasurer, FA Cooper, on the 26 September 1941.[67] Externally, Block L adopted a combination of Arts and Crafts and Art Deco-style decorative treatments, giving it a domestic quality quite different to the more imposing Neo-Classical style brick schools from the Depression-era. The symmetrically-arranged single-storey building, above an undercroft, had a face brick exterior with rendered decorative elements, and featured a central projecting entrance bay to the front (south) elevation that had a stepped, rendered parapet. The Dutch-gable roof was clad with Tuscan tiles and featured a decorative central fleche with finial. On the first floor there were eight classrooms accessed by a central corridor that aligned east-west: four classrooms on the north side, 21ft x 19ft (6.4m x 5.9m), separated by panelled folding partitions; and four on the south side, 21ft (6.4m) wide, separated by fixed partitions with central doorways. Hat / cloak rooms were situated adjacent to the two internal stairwells.[68] The building could accommodate 320 pupils and was approved in October 1940, with an anticipated cost of £10,139.[69] The new building was situated in the southwest corner of the school grounds, to the north of the remaining 19th century school buildings, and a forestry plot had recently been established on the eastern boundary.[70]
\nForestry plots were the product of after-school agricultural clubs, introduced in 1923 at primary schools, under the ‘home project’ scheme. School forestry plots were seen by the government as a way of educating the next generation about the economic and environmental importance of trees, as well as providing testing grounds for new species. The sale of timber grown in school plots provided an additional source of income for the school, and the plots themselves were an attractive feature of school grounds. The first school forestry plot was established at Marburg State Rural School in 1928, where 275 exotic and indigenous trees were planted.[71]
\nThe Yeronga State School Forestry Club was formed in May 1939.[72] A plot was cleared and holes were dug eight feet apart in preparation for the first Club Day on June 25th 1939, when the trees were planted.[73] In November 1939 there were 168 native trees in the forestry plot; and 200 exotic pine trees (three main varieties) by 1950.[74] Each child was assigned a pine tree to care for and had their name on a board nailed to the tree.[75]
\nLike many Queensland state schools, Yeronga was affected by the outbreak of World War II. The Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. The closed schools were sometimes occupied for defence purposes, and some schools remained closed ‘for special reasons’ after the rest had reopened.[76] Yeronga Park was occupied by the US Army and Australian Army – and later, by women from the Netherlands East Indies Army – from 1942, and the Yeronga Infants School was closed to pupils and occupied by the Australian Army as part of a Bulk Issue Petroleum Oil Depot (BIPOD) in Yeronga Park from March 1942 to May 1944.[77] The Australian Army also requisitioned the southern part of the school grounds in 1945.[78]
\nSlit trenches, for protecting the students from Japanese air raids, were also dug at Queensland state schools, often by parents and staff. By February 1942, 240ft (73.2m) of trenches had been fully excavated at Yeronga state school, with another 420ft (128m) half done.[79] By May 1944 the military had vacated the Infants’ School, which was subsequently prepared for re-occupation by school children.[80] Other works to the school at this time included: toilet blocks with concrete walls and metal roof vents, constructed under Block B (southeast corner) and Block E (southwest corner);[81] and a decorative gate with iron ‘Yeronga State School’ nameplate and rendered columns added to the Park Road entrance in 1945.[82]
\nThe post-World War II period was a time of enormous population growth Australia-wide and was accompanied by a shortage of building materials. The Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[83]
\nAt Yeronga State School, additional classrooms were required to accommodate the growth in pupil numbers. In 1954 a timber Boulton & Paul Building was constructed to the southeast of the Sectional School Buildings.[84] Responding to materials shortages and the pressures of the baby boom, the DPW imported a British prefabricated building system from manufacturers Boulton & Paul Ltd of Norwich. Based on an 8ft (2.4m) planning and construction module, the prefabricated elements in the Boulton & Paul system included wall panels, ceiling panels, roof trusses and banks of awning windows. The buildings were constructed at many schools across Queensland between 1952 and 1958.[85]
\nBoulton & Paul Buildings were timber-framed and clad, had a verandah as circulation, and a gable roof. Ideally, they were orientated so the verandah faced north and the classroom faced south but were also added as extensions to existing buildings regardless of orientation. The building could be high or low-set and had extensive areas of timber-framed awning windows, providing more glazing than had ever been used in Queensland classrooms; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed, providing excellent natural ventilation and lighting. The classrooms were 24ft x 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m), larger than most previous classrooms.[86] The flexibility of the system meant that the number of classrooms constructed could vary to suit the needs of a particular school.
\nThe highset Boulton & Paul Building at Yeronga State School (known as Block F in 2016) was situated southeast of Block E, orientated at an angle to the Sectional School Buildings. Glazed screens were located at each end of the northern verandah, including along the covered walkway that connected to Block E. The walls were constructed from prefabricated units, 4ft (1.2m) wide, with those on the north and south sides containing large areas of windows. Units were pre-clad with chamferboards, with the edge of vertical timber boards between each unit visible on the exterior of the first floor. The understorey was enclosed with continuous chamferboards to the south and west, and had bracing fins. The three 24ft x 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m) classrooms were separated by fixed partitions, with wide folding doors (DPW Standard) to the west and a single-leaf door to the east. [87]
\nAs the school population continued to rise, more classrooms were required. Extensions to Block F were made in 1954 with two classrooms added to its eastern end. This extension was designed by the DPW to match the Boulton & Paul section, and illustrates the influence that the Boulton & Paul Buildings had upon subsequent school building designs. Immediately after their introduction, DPW developed a standard building, which was similar to the Boulton & Paul building but was constructed in the traditional manner. DPW standard drawings included options for lowset and highset structures on piers, as well as elevated structures on floor trusses.[88] These types adopted many of the Boulton & Paul design features, such as a covered play space under the classrooms and the extensive areas of glazing, but became permanent structures. These architectural features became characteristic of a class of building which was the dominant school type constructed in the 1950s.[89]
\nThe 1954 extension was highset on piers and was distinguishable from the Boulton & Paul section of Block F by its continuous chamferboard cladding to both understorey and first floor. The glazed screen at the eastern end of the Boulton & Paul building was removed to facilitate the continuous north-facing verandah, which was accessed by enclosed stairs at the eastern end of the extension. There was extensive glazing to the north and south walls. The two 24ft x 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m) classrooms were separated by a fixed partition with a single-leaf door at the southern end. [90]
\nIn 1958 the building was extended again to the east end of the DPW building, with a floor plan that diverted to align parallel with the Sectional School Buildings. This extension was similar to the design of the earlier DPW section but was elevated on timber floor trusses that provided open space underneath.[91] It comprised two 21ft x 24ft (6.4m x 7.3m) classrooms, a teachers’ room and a store room to the first floor. The 8ft (2.4m) wide verandah had a balustrade of hat and bag racks that were clad with crimped iron, and stairs at the eastern end. The exterior was clad with chamferboards and there was extensive glazing to the first floor and understorey of the southern wall, and to the northern verandah wall. The concrete slab of the understorey was set lower than the earlier sections of Block F and was accessed by concrete steps.[92]
\nOver the course of the school’s history, buildings have been added and removed, and changes made to the school grounds to meet the school’s requirements. In 1944 the playshed was demolished and in 1946 the early timber school building was sold and removed.[93] In 1959 tennis courts were opened in the northwest corner of the grounds, adjacent to Honour Avenue.[94] In 1971 a two-storey facebrick and chamferboard building (known as Block A in 2016) was built to the north of Block C and the residence was demolished; replaced by the large brick Dental Therapists’ Training Centre in 1974.[95] Other additions include: a tuckshop, covered play area and activities hall to the south of Block F; a substantial Early Childhood Development Program centre and prep-school buildings to the east of Block L; and a war memorial and gate to Honour Avenue situated northwest of the oval.
\nThe Sectional School Buildings, Blocks B, C, D and E, have been subject to additions and interior reconfigurations but remain fairly intact externally. In 1958 the gable-roofed northern teachers’ room was extended to include an additional staff room and hallway.[96] In 1960 each of the four Sectional School Buildings were reconfigured from five classrooms to four, and the verandah walls were demolished and rebuilt as louvres over shelves; existing studs were retained where possible. The stairs to Block D and E were also repositioned and bag rack balustrades were added to the verandahs, which were subsequently enclosed with awning windows sometime after 1971. Flat-sheeted ceilings were also added; however, it is possible the original coved ceilings, tie rods and latticed vents remain above. Further remodelling of the interiors was undertaken in 2000 when large openings were created in the former verandah walls and classrooms were reconfigured in Block B (four classrooms), D and E (three classrooms). An external lift was added to the east of the link between Block B and Block C in 2016.
\nThe Boulton & Paul Buildings with DPW extensions, Block F, remains fairly intact externally apart from enclosure of the verandahs to the 1954 sections with awning windows and crimped-metal cladding to the western wall. In the late 1990s large openings were formed in the verandah walls of 1954 sections and some classroom partitions were relocated; however, boards fixed to the ceiling indicate the former partition locations. The Boulton & Paul section has been reconfigured from three classrooms to two classrooms and a kitchenette. The verandah wall windows of the western classroom in the 1958 section have been replaced with modern louvres and modern partitions have been added to form offices.[97]
\nChanges to the Brick Infants’ School Building, Block L, have been minor and the exterior remains substantially intact. Some external doors have been replaced and a room has been built in the undercroft with modern face brick. On the first floor, the former hat and cloak areas adjacent to the stairwells have been replaced with classroom and storage spaces. Original folding partitions between the northern classrooms have been removed but remaining bulkheads and returns demonstrate the former layout. Doorways have been inserted at either end of the central corridor and large openings have been created in two of the southern classroom walls to the corridor. Offices with modern partitions have been built in the former northeast classroom.
\nIn 2016, the Yeronga State School continues to operate from its original site. The school is important to the area as a focus for the community, and generations of students have been taught there. Since establishment, Yeronga State School has been a key social focus for its community with the grounds and buildings having been the location of many social events.
Yeronga State School (established 1871 as Boggo Primary School) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies; set in landscaped grounds with a decorative entrance gateway, assembly and play areas, sports oval, a remnant forestry plot and mature shade trees.
\nThe four connected Sectional School Buildings (1927, 1928 and 1933) demonstrate the culmination of many years of experimental timber school design, providing equally for educational and climatic needs.
\nThe Depression-era Brick Infants’ School Building (1941) and formation of the sports oval (1927-33) are the result of the State Government’s building and relief work programs during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
\nThe Boulton & Paul Building (1954) demonstrates the introduction and adoption of imported prefabricated systems by the Queensland Government in response to acute building material shortages and population growth in the post-World War II period. The Department of Public Works (DPW) designed extensions (1954 and 1958) demonstrate the influence of Boulton & Paul Buildings on subsequent DPW school designs.
\nThe forestry plot (established 1939) is important surviving evidence of a movement to convey the economic and environmental importance of forestry to students while creating an attractive landscape feature and income for schools.
|Yeronga State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of Queensland state schools. These include: teaching buildings constructed to standard designs; and generous, landscaped sites, with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities. The school is a good, intact example of a suburban school complex, comprising the following building types.
\nThe Sectional School Buildings are good examples of their type and are externally intact. Characteristics include: their highset form with play space beneath; blank end walls; northern verandahs, with linkages between buildings; large banks of south-facing windows, projecting teachers’ rooms and early internal linings.
\nThe Depression-era Brick Infants’ School Building is a good, intact example of its type and retains a high degree of integrity. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of Depression-era Brick Schools, including: its symmetrically arranged form, with an undercroft; high-quality design with ornamental features from a variety of styles; face brick exterior; prominent central roof fleche; and projecting entrance bay.
\nThe Boulton & Paul Building is a good, intact example of its type, and clearly demonstrates the characteristics of a prefabricated building through the expression of its modular construction in the external cladding. Other characteristic features of this type include: its timber-framed, lightweight construction; gable roof; verandah for circulation, with glazed screens at the ends; large areas of glazing to the south walls; flat internal wall linings; and timber bracing walls to the understorey. Designed to match the Boulton & Paul classrooms, the DPW-designed extensions are good, intact examples of their type and demonstrate two iterations of the DPW standard designs for highset timber school buildings: on concrete piers (1954); and incorporating timber floor trusses (1958).
|Through its substantial size, high quality materials, face brick exterior, elegant formal composition and decorative treatment, the Depression-era Brick Infants’ School Building at Yeronga State School has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, which evoke the sense of progress and permanence that the Queensland Government sought to embody in new public buildings in that era.
\nThe building is also significant for its streetscape contribution. Standing on an open corner site and framed by mature fig trees, it is an attractive and prominent feature of the area.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nYeronga State School has a strong and ongoing association with the surrounding community. It was established on its current site in 1871 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of the community and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650030,"name":"Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (former)","alternate_name":"Allied Translator and Interpreter Section headquarters | Northern Command Provost Company headquarters | Witton Barracks","street_address":"9 Lambert Road","suburb":"INDOOROOPILLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2016-10-14","description":"In 2016 the former Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre occupies a 1.95ha, irregular-shaped, terraced site, located on the northern bank of the Brisbane River in the suburb of Indooroopilly, Brisbane. The property is bounded by Lambert Street (north), a railway reserve (west), the Brisbane River (south), and residential properties (east), including Tighnabruaich [QHR 600229]. The area immediately around the former defence buildings, in the southern half of the site, is terraced, stepping up from west to east; and is accessed and set well back from Lambert Street to the north. The defence buildings are organised around a bitumen parade ground (previously a POW exercise yard) and includes a southern cell block (1942-43), two western cell blocks (central, 1942-43; northern, 1942-43), a northwestern Quartermaster’s Store and Office (Q-Store; c1959-60) and an eastern Motorised Transport (MT) Cover (c1959-60).
\nCell Blocks (1942-43)
\nThe three cell blocks are of the same original design. Standing on a sloping site, the buildings step down from the southern cell block to the western (north) cell block. The buildings are all lowset, one storey, brick and timber structures, with corrugated metal-clad hip roofs, and spaced timber board eaves linings. They are approximately rectangular in plan. Most walls are facebrick, with the exception of those in the southwestern (western cell blocks) and southeastern (southern cell block) corners of the buildings, which are single-skin with external V-jointed (VJ) timber board cladding and internally exposed timber stud framing.
\nEach cell block originally comprised five cells, off a long passageway running the length of the building. On the opposite side of the passageway, and occupying almost half the length of each cell block, were two ancillary rooms – a bathroom and a (possible) guard room – and a lean-to entry porch. Most cells have brick walls, wide plaster cornices and wide concrete skirtings. The guard rooms and bathrooms generally have painted brick walls, narrow timber cornices and are free of skirting boards. Ceilings throughout all three of the blocks are recent plaster over VJ boards, and the floors are concrete slabs (some covered with recent linings).
\nTimber joinery is retained throughout the buildings, including timber-framed fixed louvre and awning windows. Most cells have a timber-framed, fixed timber louvre window, with vertical steel bars to the interior; and most windows to the guard room/bathroom sections have interior metal security grates.
\nFeatures not of cultural heritage significance include painted finishes to brickwork, tile and linoleum floor linings, flat sheeting lining some cell walls, fibre cement sheeting, modern bathroom fixtures, plywood boarding over windows and doors, wire mesh screens, and metal barred screens.
\nSouthern Cell Block
\nThe southern cell block is orientated on an east-west axis and its floor level is aligned with the parade ground. The building is accessed via a ground-level footpath to the east and from a timber stair to the west, which both open into the long central passageway.
\nThe facebrick walls of the cells have rough mortar joints, and above each cell door in the passageway is a painted number, listed from one to five (east to west). The entry porch has recently been enclosed with fibre cement sheeting (enclosing fabric is not of significance).
\nMetal grill doors secure the entrance to the building and each of the cells and retain original hardware including a locking device (lever) at the eastern entrance that connects to all the cell door locks.
\nWestern (Central) Cell Block
\nAligned on a north-south axis, the western (central) cell block stands downhill from the parade ground. It is accessed from a footpath to the south, a small concrete stair to the north and an entry porch to the northwest. A shade house (not of significance) is attached to the southern elevation.
\nMost of the cell walls and their skirtings have been painted. A large wall opening has been cut between the second- and third-most northern cells. The southern cell is lined with modern flat sheeting, which is aligned with the skirtings and has wide, rectangular cover strips.
\nThe timber cell doors have metal grill observation openings at eye level. A metal locking mechanism running above the doors is retained.
\nWestern (North) Cell Block
\nThe western (north) cell block is orientated on a north-south axis and its floor-level is slightly lower than that of the western (central) cell block. It is accessed from a footpath to the south and via the northwestern entry porch; the number 47 is painted above the entry porch’s doorway. A single story, brick, skillion-roofed annex has been added to the southwest corner of the building; and a brick, skillion roofed strong room has been added north of the cells.
\nWhile walls that separated the four northernmost cells have been removed, stubs projecting from the eastern and western walls mark their former locations, enabling the original layout to be legible. A lightweight partition has replaced the original wall separating the southernmost cells, and includes a door and a low rectangular opening. All cell walls have been lined with recent flat sheeting (aligned with the skirtings) and finished with wide, rectangular cover strips. The cell windows do not have their original bars or timber louvres. The walls of the guard room/bathroom section are lined with flat sheeting with rounded cover strips. The two-room annex addition has painted brick and VJ timber board-lined walls.[1]
\nVJ timber-lined boarded doors are located at the northern and southern entrances, within the annex and to the southern cell. Most cell doors are modern replacements and some have been removed completely.
\nQuartermaster’s Store and Office (Q-Store, c1959-60)
\nThe Quartermaster’s Store and Office (Q-Store) is rectangular in plan and is orientated to face northwest, with its main floor highset on the northwest elevation but level with the parade ground on its southeast elevation. The building is one-storey, cavity brick structure; supported on brick piers and sheltered by a corrugated metal-clad gable roof. All external walls are facebrick. The main entrances to the building are via a northwestern verandah, with additional access from the rear (southeast) – at ground level (eastern end) and via a concrete stair (western end).
\nInternally, the building is divided into two sections – offices to the northeast and store to the southwest – that are separated by a central Duty Room (north, entered via the verandah) and Security Office (south, entered through the store section). The office section is entered from the north through a central public corridor, which provides access to a northeastern Officer Commanding (OC) Office and northwestern Investigation Absent Without Leave (AWOL) Section Office; and terminates at a southwestern Orderly Room. A smaller corridor in the northern corner of the Orderly Room provides access to a southeastern Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) Office, and a second door to the OC Office. The store section reads as its original, singular space with a timber partition west of the entrance door, although has recent, lightweight office partitions. All external walls are internally lined with plaster, and interior walls are lined with flat sheeting with rounded cover strips. All ceilings are lined with flat sheeting with rounded cover strips, and the timber floor boards are almost completely covered in modern linings. Marks in the floor lining at the entrance to the store section are indicative of the former location of a service counter.
\nThe verandah has a concrete floor and a raked ceiling lined in flat sheets. It has metal circular posts with metal post-and-rail balustrades, and concrete stairs to the east and west.
\nThe sub-floor area is accessible from the southwest. It is divided into three sections of the same proportions as the building’s interior and verandah, with facebrick piers and walls dividing the spaces. A concrete plinth is located at the eastern end of the southwestern section.
\nEarly timber joinery has been retained and includes casement and awning windows to the exterior, sliding windows to the verandah, and louvres (glass removed) within the interior. The OC and RSM offices are connected by a small, timber sliding service window. Interior metal security grills are attached to all windows in the store section. All doors are of timber; the entry doors are partially glazed and those to the office section are high waisted.
\nElements that are not of cultural heritage significance include: lightweight partitions in the store section, linoleum floor linings, kitchenettes, plywood boarding over windows and doors, paint over external brickwork, and wire mesh and timber screens dividing the subfloor area.
\nMotor Transport (MT) Building (c1959-60)
\nThe Motor Transport Building is a brick and timber-framed structure with a concrete slab floor and a skillion roof clad in profiled-metal sheets. The building is rectangular in plan and is largely open for the provision for vehicle-parking in the centre, with brick enclosures at the northern and southern ends. A brick wall with protruding brick piers runs along the eastern side of the building and square timber posts, with timber bracing, hardwood post guards and metal feet, support the roof in the central section.
\nThe northern enclosure includes an eastern and a western office, and the southern enclosure forms a dangerous goods store. The walls of the eastern office are of painted brickwork, while those in the western office are plaster. Timber skirtings and architraves within the western office are of a simple profile. Walls in the dangerous goods store are facebrick. The ceilings within all enclosures are lined with flat sheeting with rounded cover strips.
\nEarly timber joinery retained in the building includes: timber-framed casements to the offices; a panelled timber door to the western office; timber-framed casements with wired glass and metal grates; and VJ-lined timber doors braced with metal strips to the dangerous goods store. External fixed timber louvre sunshades are attached to the eastern office’s windows.
\nNon-significant elements include wire mesh and corrugated metal sheets that divide the central parking area, and plywood boarding over windows.
\nFormer POW Exercise yard
\nA roughly rectangular parade ground (former POW exercise yard) is located between the cell blocks, Q-Store and MT Cover. It is a flattened surface that slightly slopes down from the MT Cover to the west. As an open area, it provides a visual link between the five buildings of cultural heritage significance.
\nLandscape Features within heritage register boundary
\nEarly concrete retaining walls and concrete stairs survive in various locations within the cultural heritage boundary, including: to the east and south of the MT Cover, northeast and south of the Q-Store, between the western cell blocks, and between the southern cell block and MT Store.
\nNon-Significant Elements
\nOther elements that are not of cultural heritage significance include: a metal-framed shed east of the western cell blocks and a former Provost Barracks and Mess (1967) southwest of the cell blocks.
[1] The Strong Room was locked and inaccessible during EHP’s site visit in May 2016.
Three brick and timber cell blocks (c1942-43), and their related former exercise yard, located at 9 Lambert Street, Indooroopilly, Brisbane, are the last surviving purpose-built elements of the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre, which was the headquarters of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) from late 1942 to mid-1945. The facility was the only purpose-built World War II (WWII) interrogation centre for POWs in Australia. The later Q-Store and Office building (c1959-60), and a Motorized Transport Cover (c1959-60) were purpose-built infrastructure for the Australian Army’s Northern Command Provost (military police) unit that occupied the site from 1951 to c1984.
\nBrisbane became an important supply base for the war in the Pacific after Japan entered World War II in December 1941. US General Douglas MacArthur, formally appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the South-West Pacific Area (SWPA) theatre on 18 April 1942, moved his General Headquarters (GHQ) SWPA from Melbourne to Brisbane on 20 July 1942, to prepare for a counter-offensive against the Japanese. The Imperial Japanese Navy had lost a number of aircraft carriers, and therefore much of its offensive strength, in the battles of the Coral Sea (May 1942) and Midway (June 1942); and during September 1942 the Imperial Japanese Army would be defeated, for the first time in the Pacific War, at Milne Bay and on the Kokoda Track in Papua.[1] As a result of these land battles, Japanese prisoners were sent back to Australia from September 1942. The first Japanese documents had been captured in an Australian commando raid on Salamaua, New Guinea, on 29 June 1942.[2]
\nThe Australian Military Forces (AMF, or Army) had begun Japanese language training in Melbourne in 1940, and Australian Japanese linguists were later sent to the Australian Advanced Land Headquarters, Brisbane, established by General Thomas Blamey (Allied Land Forces Commander) at the University of Queensland at St Lucia in August 1942.[3] The large two storey timber residence ‘Tighnabruiach’ [QHR 600229], on 3.8ha of land on the bank of the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly, was requisitioned by the AMF on 17 August 1942,[4] and the Australians established the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre there in early September 1942.[5]
\nThe site of the Interrogation Centre was once the estate of Henry Charles Stanley, Chief Engineer for Railways in Queensland, who built Tighnabruaich c1889-92.[6] Development at Indooroopilly was limited until the Brisbane to Ipswich railway line opened to the locality in 1875. Indooroopilly developed as an elite suburb in the late 19th century, and a number of large villas, including Tighnabruaich, were later erected on the banks of the Brisbane River. Stanley lived at Tighnabruaich until c1901.[7] A 1860s timber residence, Witton House, was moved onto the southwest corner of the Tighnabruaich estate by a later owner, Herbert Brealey Hemming, around 1915-16. After Hemming died on 8 March 1942 the estate was administered by Queensland Trustees Limited.[8]
\nOn 19 September 1942, the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), a joint US-Australian unit, was formed by MacArthur’s Chief Intelligence Officer, Brigadier-General Charles A. Willoughby, and established its headquarters at the Interrogation Centre.[9] The ATIS was one of a number of intelligence organisations developed by General MacArthur’s GHQ from April 1942 onwards, including the Central Bureau (code breaking), the Allied Geographical Section (terrain intelligence), Order of Battle Section (for information on enemy units), and the Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB: propaganda, intelligence gathering, and commando raids or guerrilla warfare in Japanese-occupied territory).[10]
\nThe ATIS initially consisted of 14 Australian officers and three enlisted men, and nine US personnel. The latter included one Caucasian officer and eight Japanese American (Nisei) enlisted men who had completed a Japanese language course at the US Fourth Army Intelligence School in San Francisco on 1 May 1942; and who had arrived in Australia in June 1942.[11] The American-born Nisei, whose families were removed from the US West Coast in early 1942 due to fears about the loyalty of Japanese Americans, were to prove invaluable to the Allied War effort. ‘The Nisei learned to use their knowledge of Japanese culture and psychology to elicit information through indirect questioning. They discovered that compassionate treatment worked wonders. Their captives, expecting torture and death, were at first astonished, then grateful. Any recalcitrant prisoner needed only to hear that authorities would notify his family … that he had been captured alive. The implied disgrace could usually convince him to co-operate’.[12]
\nThe ATIS was formed into four units, with the Nisei attached to GHQ; the other sections were Allied Naval Forces, Allied Land Forces, and Allied Air Forces, and all were accommodated at the Tighnabruaich property. The Tighnabruaich residence was used for senior officers’ accommodation and offices, while Witton House became the Sergeants’ mess. The Nisei enlisted men soon moved into tents at a property directly across the river (Neilson House on Rosebery Terrace, since demolished).[13]
\nThe ATIS headquarters at Tighnabruaich became the primary interrogation centre for enemy POWs in Australia. Other POW sites in Australia were POW Camps for large numbers of prisoners, whereas the cell blocks at the Interrogation Centre were built as temporary holding cells for small numbers of POWs awaiting interrogation.[14]
\nWith a capacity to accommodate 15 prisoners, the three cell blocks, in a compound surrounded by barbed wire, were constructed in late 1942-early 1943. Each of the blocks included five cells linked by an adjacent passageway running the length of the block, and two ancillary rooms in a section on the opposite side of the passageway. Based on a 1958 inventory of room contents, the larger ancillary room (with a hot water cylinder) was probably a guard room, and the smaller a bathroom.[15]
\nThe construction of the cell blocks was kept a closely guarded secret. An Allied Works Council (AWC) meeting in early December 1942 merely noted a requisition for £2000 of alterations and additions to ‘three premises’ at ‘ATIS Indooroopilly’.[16] The work was allocated to Mr Holt, Supervising Engineer of the Bridge Board, with the order lodged on the Main Roads Commission and a time of completion of six weeks. The project ‘Indooroopilly, GHQ, 3 special buildings’ was also included in a list of requisitions to January 1943, with the handwritten annotation ‘Detailed Interrogation Centre’.[17] A Department of the Army minute paper from late January 1943 reported that ‘brick buildings of substantial design are being erected at Indooroopilly…for the Department of the Army on a site adjoining the railway station’ with a hand written annotation noting that ‘this is the ATIS GHQ project for interrogation’. A later minute paper stated that ‘the project referred to is an urgent vital operational one, comprising brick buildings erected to special designs produced by an overseas officer for the purpose of housing a GHQ Centre, and is of such a highly secret nature that only a very few senior intelligence officers were permitted to view the plans’.[18]
\nThe prisoners at the Interrogation Centre were held under tight security. The POWs in the cell blocks were guarded by troops from the Australian 1st Garrison Battalion, and were sent to the Interrogation Centre from the Gaythorne POW Transit Camp. ‘A small, dirt exercise yard was located within the barbed wire enclosure. There was only one Entry Point into the Prisoners’ Compound. POWs were marched through one barbed wire gate into a small holding pen. They remained inside this pen until one gate was closed and locked. Then the other gate was opened to allow them to either exit or enter the Prisoners’ Compound’.[19] The presence of Japanese POWs so near to Brisbane homes was kept a secret from locals. Once interrogation was completed, the POWs were returned to Gaythorne prior to being placed on a train and sent to POW Camps in New South Wales or Victoria. There was one death of a POW at the Interrogation Centre in 1943, when Private Kingo Yamashita of the Imperial Japanese Army hung himself in his cell after interrogation.[20]
\nPOWs of other nationalities were also questioned at the Interrogation Centre. These included German crew members of the blockade-runner Ramses (a cargo ship attempting to deliver rubber from Japan to German-occupied France), scuttled in the Indian Ocean on 28 November 1942; and the submarine U-168, sunk in the Indian Ocean on 6 October 1944. Interrogation of captured Indonesians, or translation of documents written in the Malay languages of the Indies, was undertaken by the Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS).[21]
\nIn its first month of operation the ATIS, which was a polyglot unit including Americans, Australians, Canadians, British, Chinese, White Russians, and East Indies Netherlanders, processed 1000 captured Japanese documents, translated 90, and interrogated seven prisoners, the first Japanese POWs (captured at Normanby Island near Milne Bay) reaching Brisbane on 30 September 1942. The ATIS released its first spot report on 1 November. By
27 December 1942, Allied units in New Guinea had sent back 1100 documents for translation, and during the war the ATIS produced research reports on various topics, including war crimes. [22]
Other important work conducted by ATIS translators at the Interrogation Centre included the breaking of the Japanese Army's codes in 1943 (after the capture of codebooks from the Japanese Army’s 20th Division) and the translation of a captured Japanese officers’ list that allowed the Allies to compile a Japanese Order of Battle.[23] In May 1944, a captured Japanese plan (‘Z’ Plan) for concentrating the Japanese Combined Fleet for a decisive final battle with the US Pacific Fleet, assisted by land-based aircraft, was translated at the Interrogation Centre just before the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944. The largest aircraft carrier battle in history, it was won by the US, with crippling losses of Japanese aircraft.[24]
\nThe cell blocks are the only remaining purpose-built elements of the Interrogation Centre. According to wartime site plans,[25] by April 1944 the complex had a prisoners’ compound, east of Witton House; four ‘Masonite huts’ south of Witton House, and eight along the boundary with the railway line, north of Witton House; an former stable just east of the prisoners’ compound, used as a QM (Quartermaster’s) store;[26] four OR (Other Ranks) quarters northeast of the prisoners’ compound, with showers and latrines to the northeast of the quarters, a mess hall and kitchen to the west, and ablutions and latrines to the south; a car ramp and petrol store further north near Lambert Road; an orderly room northwest of the circular driveway to Tighnabruaich; a translating building southeast of the driveway (built over tennis courts); plus a building just west of Tighnabruaich (possibly the interrogation building),[27] and five buildings east of Tighnabruaich and the translating building. Of the WWII buildings at the facility, only the cell blocks were made of brick.
\nMore buildings were added, and some were removed, between 1944 and 1946. The layout of the prisoner’s compound – with three cell blocks, two small buildings to the north and one small building to the southwest – is visible in a 1946 aerial. By this time the Masonite huts had gone; there was a new building south of the QM store, and there were three additional buildings east of Tighnabruaich and the translating building. The buildings of the prisoners’ compound are finally shown on a 1948 plan. The latter shows that by 1948 small lean-to porches existed at the north end of the western section of the western (north and central) cell blocks; and at the west end of the southern section of the southern cell block.[28] All of the WWII additions to the site, apart from the three cell blocks, were gradually removed by the late 1950s.[29]
\nThe Interrogation Centre was officially acquired by the Commonwealth Government on 26 April 1945,[30] and subsequently a variety of military units were accommodated there. In July, the ATIS left and until the end of the war the site was the barracks for No.2 Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS), which was transferred from St Peter’s Lutheran College on Indooroopilly Road. The site was then used as barracks for No.7 AWAS until July 1946, and was used as a personnel depot until 1949.[31]
\nThere were some changes to the use of the cell blocks in the immediate post-war period. An inventory of buildings at the former Interrogation Centre, dated December 1950, noted that the western (north) cell block was used as a Sergeants’ mess, while the other two blocks were still cells. All cell blocks were 65ft 6inches by 33ft (20m by 10m), while the western (north) block also had a small 4ft 7inch by 3ft 6inch (1.4m by 1.1m) timber annex (south of the western section).[32]
\nIn January 1951 Tighnabruaich became the official residence of the General of Command (GOC), Northern Command, Australian Army (later Commander 1st Division) – the house serving in this capacity until 1998.[33] In 1960 Northern Command, which was headquartered at Victoria Barracks in Brisbane, covered Queensland, some of northern NSW, and the Territory of Papua and New Guinea.[34]
\nThe Northern Command’s Provost Platoon was also based at the former Interrogation Centre from 1951,[35] with the WWII cell blocks being reused as a detention barracks. Instead of POWs, they would now hold Australian soldiers. Provost (military police) units supervised disciplinary regulations and also provided traffic control for other military units. After WWII the Australian Provost Corps had been reduced to one platoon in each of Queensland, Victoria and NSW, plus some units involved in the occupation of Japan. AMF military detention barracks in Queensland (including Grovely, Warwick and Charters Towers) were disbanded, and by 1948 Queensland’s Northern Command Provost Platoon only held prisoners for short periods before they were transferred to Eastern Command detention barracks in NSW. [36]
\nHowever, the re-introduction of National Service in the 1951 meant that the provost platoons were expanded to company strength.[37] Previous National Service schemes had operated from 1911-29 and 1939-1945, and the third National Service Scheme, initiated by the National Service Act 1951, was a result of the Cold War and conflict in South East Asia and Korea. The first call-up notice for compulsory military training of males turning 18 on or after 1 November 1950 was issued in April 1951. Between 1951 and the scheme’s termination in 1959, 227,000 men were trained.[38] The Provosts were kept busy dealing with offences by National Servicemen, and the Northern Command Provost Platoon was expanded to company strength in 1955.
\nA number of changes occurred to the former Interrogation Centre site during its use by the Provost Company. By 1958 the western (north) cell block was a lecture room and gymnasium, with four rooms, a passageway and the timber annex (for a water closet), while the other cell blocks retained their original layout of two ancillary rooms, a passageway and five cells. All three cell blocks were described as having hardwood and brick frames; concrete foundations and floors; walls of brick and tongue & groove vertical joint pine; caneite ceilings; and a corrugated asbestos cement roof. Linings in the western (north) cell block were hardboard and plywood; with brick, caneite, plywood and hardboard partitions; while the other two cell blocks had linings of plywood and partitions of brick and plywood.[39]
\nNew buildings were also added to the Provost headquarters at the former Interrogation Centre, the first being three prefabricated Riley Newsum residences, completed in 1952 and used as married quarters: two on the Lambert Road frontage of the site, and one on Clarence Street, east of the translating building. The married quarters buildings were later removed between 1997 and 2001.[40]
\nTwo more buildings (extant in 2016) were added to the Provost headquarters c1959-60, forming a complex around the perimeter of the former POW exercise yard, which at some point was sealed with bitumen as a parade ground.[41] The arrangement of buildings around a central parade ground is a characteristic of Australian Army barracks.[42] One building was a Q-store (Quartermaster’s store) and Office, built north of the exercise yard. This had a Q-Store at the west end, a security room (possibly a secure room for the Q-Store) and duty room (guard room), orderly room (administration office), investigation AWOL section, and rooms for the OC (Officer Commanding) and RSM (Regimental Sergeant Major) at the east end.[43] In 1961 the Q-Store, highset on brick piers, was described as being 72ft by 32ft (22m by 9.8m), with a corrugated galvanised iron roof; brick walls; hardwood and concrete floors; cement rendered lining; hardboard, brick and louvre partitions, and hardboard and FAC (Flat Asbestos Cement?) ceilings.[44]
\nThe second building was a Motor Transport (MT) Cover, constructed to the east of the exercise yard. It included an office and store room at the north end, 12 vehicle bays, and an oil store room at the south end.[45] In 1961 the building was described as being 150ft by 21ft (45.7m by 6.4m), with concrete foundations and floor; brick walls; hardwood posts; galvanised iron cliplock roof; some cement rendered lining; and some hardboard ceiling.[46] Australia’s Provost units initially used US Jeeps and Harley Davidson motorcycles after WWII, then later British Austin Champs and Land Rovers, and BSA B40 motorcycles.[47]
\nA further addition was made to the Provost headquarters in 1967, when Witton House was demolished and replaced with a new two-storey brick Provost Company barracks (extant in 2016).[48]
\nThere were other changes made to the complex in the 1960s and 1970s. Between 1961 and 1969 a new (brick) annex was built south of the western section of the western (north) cell block; and between 1969 and 1974 a new building (not extant in 2016) was located on the parade ground, running west-east near the western cell blocks.[49] On a c1983 plan this is labelled an SIB (Special Investigations Branch) office.[50] This was replaced by a steel-framed maintenance workshop, located east of and parallel to the western (north) cell block, c1986 (extant 2016).[51] By 1974 the western (north) cell block was being used as a Q-Store, with the 1959-60 Q-store being used as offices.[52] Between 1974 and 1997 a brick extension, for a strong room, was added to the north end of the western (north) cell block. Also in 1974, a timber interwar residence (not extant) was relocated from the Kelvin Grove Military Reserve to face Clarence Road to the east of Tighnabruaich.[53] By 1979 the Provost headquarters was called ‘Witton Barracks’.[54]
\nBetween 1951 and the 1980s the former Interrogation Centre had become ‘the major military police barracks in Queensland’,[55] and ‘to a large degree the area [had] been purpose-built as a military police installation’.[56] By 1979 there were two military police units based at the former Interrogation Centre, to provide support to Divisional units and the Military District, and to prevent, detect and investigate crimes within the army. The units totalled 112 personnel, 39 vehicles and 25 motorcycles, and the western (central) cell block was being used for ‘additional storage and office accommodation’.[57] There was a barrack block (the 1967 barracks) with accommodation and dining rooms for 22 all ranks, and a 16-man barrack block was being used as an office (presumably the 1970s SIB office). Tighnabruaich was now the residence of the Commander of the 1st Division, and the residence moved to the site in 1974 was used by the Commander of the 1st Military District.
\nThe use of Witton Barracks by the military police declined from 1984. In January that year the facility was occupied by the 1 Military Police Company, and 9 Military Police Company, with 110 full-time and 52 half-time staff. However, 1 Military Police Company moved to new barracks accommodation at Enoggera in April 1984, and Witton Barracks was reduced to 30 full-time staff.[58]
\nLater the Queensland University Regiment (an officer training unit of the Australian Army Reserve) took over use of Witton Barracks, occupying it until c2009-11.[59] No structures of cultural heritage significance were added to the former Interrogation Centre during this period.
\nIn 1998, a 1.2ha block of land containing Tighnabruaich, and a 2181 m2 block around the Clarence Road residence, were subdivided from Witton Barracks and sold, reducing the site to 1.97ha.[60]
\nIn 2016 the remainder of Witton Barracks was purchased by the Brisbane City Council. At that time the three WWII cell blocks survived at the former Interrogation Centre, along with the c1959-60 Q-Store and MT Cover, the 1967 barracks block, and the 1980s steel-framed workshop. The barracks block and 1980s workshop are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
The former Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (Interrogation Centre) at Indooroopilly, which includes three brick and timber cell blocks (c1942-43) and a related Prisoner of War (POW) exercise yard, is important surviving evidence of the only purpose-built World War II (WWII) facility in Australia for interrogating enemy POWs. As the headquarters of the joint United States-Australian Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) from 1942-1945, the Interrogation Centre played an important part in Queensland, Australian, and global history. Military intelligence obtained from the POWs interrogated at the Interrogation Centre played an important part in the Allied war effort against Japan and also in investigating war crimes committed by Japanese forces.
\nThe former Interrogation Centre also includes a brick Q-Store and Office and a brick Motor Transport Cover (both c1959-60) which are important in demonstrating the use, from 1951, of the site as the headquarters of the Australian Army’s Provost (military police) presence in Queensland. The 1950s expansion of the Provost Corps, and of the military police presence at the former Interrogation Centre, was due to the introduction of Australia’s third National Service scheme (1951-59).
|The three cell blocks are the last surviving buildings of the former Interrogation Centre, the only purpose-built WWII interrogation centre for POWs in Australia. They are also unique as the only cell blocks constructed in Australia during WWII for holding enemy POWs, mainly Japanese POWs, prior to interrogation by the ATIS.
|The former Interrogation Centre demonstrates the characteristics of a military detention site. The centre accommodated enemy POWs during WWII, and detained Australian soldiers from 1951.
\nThe cell blocks comprise five cells off a passageway running the length of each block, with an adjacent guard room and bathroom section. The southern cell block and western (central) cell block both retain their cell doors and barred windows, plus a locking mechanism above the cell doors along the passageway.
\nThe former POW exercise yard still exists as an open space between the buildings, and was used after WWII as a parade ground. The arrangement of buildings around the parade ground is a characteristic of Australian Army barracks.
\nThe Q-Store and Office retains all its original storage and office spaces, as does the 12-bay Motor Transport Cover. Both these buildings demonstrate the facilities (office and storage space, and vehicle garaging) required by a Provost unit to carry out its duties.
|As the WWII headquarters of the ATIS, the former Interrogation Centre has a close association with an intelligence organisation that provided valuable information to the General Headquarters (GHQ) of US General Douglas MacArthur, during his direction of the war in the South-West Pacific Area (SWPA) theatre.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650032,"name":"Sherwood State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"464 Oxley Road","suburb":"SHERWOOD","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2016-07-15","description":"Sherwood State School occupies a 7ha site within Sherwood, a residential suburb approximately 8km southwest of the Brisbane CBD. The school is located on the corner of Sherwood Road (south) and Oxley Road (west), and is bounded to the north by Hall Street and to the east by McCulla Street. School buildings occupy the elevated western half of the site, with a playing field to the east, separated by stone-pitched retaining terraces. Significant buildings, from south to north, include: a Suburban Timber School Building (Block A, 1917) facing Sherwood Road; two Sectional School Buildings (Block B, 1923; and Block C, 1937 with 1951 extension) either side of Block A, linked by verandahs; a Boulton & Paul Building (Block B, 1952 extension); a Ferguson-designed School Building (Block D; 1887, extended 1900, relocated and altered 1937); and a Timber Vocational Building (Block G; 1952). The school grounds contain a number of significant mature trees, and landscaping features include earthworks, assembly and play areas, sporting facilities, and paths. With its decorative timber school buildings facing Sherwood Road, the school makes an important visual contribution to the streetscape and is a landmark for the area.
\n\n
Suburban Timber School Building (Block A - 1917)
\nBlock A is a symmetrically arranged, highset, timber-framed building, orientated east-west, with east, west and south-facing verandahs. It contains three classrooms. The Dutch-gabled roof is sheeted with corrugated metal, and features a prominent ventilation roof fleche and battened gable infills. A gable-roofed teachers room is attached to the southern verandah and flanked by timber stairs.
\nThe exterior is clad in timber weatherboards and the verandah walls are lined with a single skin of V-jointed (VJ), tongue-and-groove (T&G) boards. The northern wall has banks of windows, which are recently installed aluminium-framed sliders, sheltered by wide eaves supported by timber brackets. There are high-level pivot windows on the eastern and western walls, and the southern wall has three large banks of casement windows with pivot fanlights and louvres above. The teachers room has casement windows to the east and the south (with battened skillion hood). The verandahs have timber floors, flat-sheeted raked ceilings, and two-rail balustrades that are battened. Verandah steps connect Block A with Block B to the northwest and Block C to the northeast.
\nThe interior layout comprises two large classrooms with a central narrow classroom / amenity area (formerly three equal classrooms), separated by modern concertina doors. Part of the verandah has been enclosed, and the verandah wall removed, to connect the central area with the teachers room. The classroom interior is lined with VJ boards and retain bulkheads that demonstrate the former layout. Former ventilations flaps are evident at the base of the verandah walls. The classroom and teachers room ceilings are coved and lined with VJ boards, and retain centred metal tie rods and vent frames; the teachers room vent is latticed. The timber floors are covered with modern carpet and other floor linings.
\nThe understorey has a concrete floor and comprises mostly open play space. The concrete stumps have chamfered corners, and the southern and eastern sides are enclosed with modern crimped sheeting.
\nSectional School Buildings (Block B – 1923; and Block C – 1937, with 1951 extension)
\nThe Sectional School buildings are both highset, timber-framed structures, aligned east-west, with partially enclosed verandahs along the northern side, large banks of windows along the southern side, and blank end walls. The Dutch-gabled and gabled (eastern end of Block C) roofs are clad with corrugated metal and have battened gable infills; Block B features a prominent ventilation roof fleche. Both have gable-roofed teachers rooms projecting north from the verandahs, flanked by timber stairs.
\nThe buildings are clad externally in weatherboards, and the verandah walls and raked ceilings are lined with a single-skin of VJ T&G boards. The walls and flat ceilings of the classrooms and teachers room are lined with VJ T&G boards; the ceiling of the western classroom in Block B is flat-sheeted. Square ceiling vent frames, centred on the former classrooms and banks of southern windows, demonstrate the earlier layouts.
\nBlock B – 1923
\nThe 1923 building contains two large classrooms (formerly three) separated by a fixed partition. Openings in the former verandah walls connect the classrooms with kitchenettes / amenity areas in the enclosed verandah corners. Steps in the eastern verandah connect with the western verandah of Block A.
\nThe southern classroom wall has three large banks of windows, which along with those in the verandah wall have been replaced with aluminium-framed sliders and hoppers. The teachers room has timber-framed casement windows on the east and northern sides; the northern being sheltered by a skillion hood with battened timber brackets. The teachers room door is panelled and the boarded classroom double-doors have fanlights.
\nThe enclosed understorey is clad with a combination of timber battens, weatherboards and flat-sheeting, and contains a number of storage rooms. Concrete paving is visible at the western end.
\nBlock C – 1937 and 1951
\nThe 1937 building contains a computer room and a two-room open-plan library (formerly three classrooms), and the 1951 classroom to the east is connected by a large opening in the former dividing partition. The eastern half of the northern verandah is enclosed with double-hung sashes and large openings have been formed in the former verandah walls. Bulkheads remain, indicating the early partition layout. The open western verandah connects via steps with the eastern verandah of Block A; it has a battened balustrade and a hat room in the northwest corner.
\nThe southern classroom wall has four large banks of casement windows (1937, 2-light; 1951, 3-light) with fanlights, sheltered by a wide eave supported by timber brackets. The remaining verandah windows are double-hung sashes, with fanlights. The 1937 teachers room has casement windows, with fanlights on the eastern side, and double-hung sashes to the west.
\nThe classroom understorey is enclosed with face brick walls, set back from the perimeter posts, and contains workshop and storage areas. The teachers room understorey has been enclosed for use as an office.
\nThe 1956 weatherboard-clad extension north of the 1937 teachers room, contains a staff room and computer room, connected to Block D by a verandah walkway.
\nBoulton & Paul Building (Block B – 1952 extension)
\nThe 1952 prefabricated Boulton & Paul extension is attached to the western end of Block B. The single classroom building is lowset, with a floor level and roofline set lower than the 1923 classrooms. The northern verandah is accessed by timber steps and features a glazed timber screen to the northwest corner; the eastern end is enclosed.
\nThe exterior is clad in narrow chamferboards and has vertical timber strips at 1.2m centres. A timber sign that reads “SHERWOOD STATE SCHOOL” is fixed high on the western wall. The southern wall has a large bank of hopper windows sheltered by wide eaves on metal and timber brackets, which are fixed to the window mullions. The verandah wall has a double-hung sash window, and glazed and boarded double-doors to the classroom.
\nThe classroom walls and ceiling are sheeted; the western wall caneite, which along with the southern wall has cover strips. Awning fanlights remain above openings formed in the wall between the classroom and enclosed verandah.
\nFerguson-designed School Building (Block D – 1887, with 1937 alterations)
\nThe 1887 Ferguson-designed School Building is highset and aligned north-south, with a verandah on its western side; the former eastern verandah has been enclosed. It is clad in chamferboards and the gabled roof features high-level gable-end vents, board-lined eaves, and east and west-facing dormer windows.
\nThe northern and southern walls have banks of timber-framed casement and pivot windows, with modern louvred fanlights, sheltered by skillion hoods with decorative timber brackets. The western verandah wall has double-hung sash windows and panelled double-doors, all with fanlights; the balustrades are three-railed and some verandah posts are stop-chamfered.
\nThe building contains two classrooms, separated by a fixed partition. Large openings connect the classrooms with kitchenette / amenity areas along the enclosed eastern verandah. The classrooms walls are lined with VJ T&G boards. The coved classroom ceilings and raked verandah ceilings are lined with beaded boards; a join in the northern classroom ceiling indicates the location of an earlier dividing partition and the likely point where the building was extended in 1900. The timber collar ties are stop-chamfered.
\nThe understorey has open playspace and is enclosed on the western side with corrugated metal and flat-sheeting.
\nAn Honour Board (1919) is mounted on the western wall of the building, listing the names of former students who served in World War I (WWI). It comprises an engraved marble board on a timber backing, and reads “SHERWOOD STATE SCHOOL - IN HONOUR OF PAST PUPILS WHO SERVED IN THE GREAT WAR. 1914-1919”. A metal plaque below commemorates the schools 125th anniversary in 1992.
\nThe 1953 Boulton & Paul extension to the east of the Ferguson building contains classrooms and an office. It is clad in chamferboards and has a large bank of hopper windows on the southern wall. The understorey is enclosed.
\nTimber Vocational Building (Block G – 1952)
\nThe 1952 Timber Vocational Building aligns east-west and is lowset at the western end and highset at the eastern end, reflecting the slope of the site. The long, gable-roofed building is clad in chamferboards and has a north-facing verandah, of which the eastern half is enclosed with awning windows. The southern wall has four large banks of casement windows, with fanlights, and the remaining verandah wall has double-hung sashes, with fanlights.
\nThe building contains numerous partitioned administration rooms to the west (former manual training unit), and central office / meeting rooms and teaching areas to the east (former domestic science unit). The northwest corner of the verandah is enclosed for toilets (former hat room), and the verandah walls of the enclosed eastern half have been demolished to form open-plan classrooms. The interior walls and ceilings are flat-sheeted; an area of early narrow VJ board linings is retained in one of the central offices.
\nEarly timber stairs are located at the eastern end, while the metal-framed stairs on the north and south sides are later replacements. The northeast corner of the understorey (former laundry and drying area) is battened and sheeted, and the northern side is enclosed with modern timber lattice.
\nLandscape Elements
\nThe school grounds are well established, with sporting facilities including a generous playing field at the eastern end of the site, and school buildings positioned around a parade ground and set amongst landscaped surrounds at the elevated western end.
\nBetween the playing fields and school buildings is a series of retaining walls and stairs that form a terraced bank. The walls are faced with stone and the terrace landings are grassed. Variations in stone sizes and appearance indicate different phases of construction, with part of the northern ends possibly removed. Extensions at the top of the walls are stencilled concrete. A Multi-purpose Hall and Music Block (2010) has been built over the stone-pitched retaining terraces and stairs.
\nMany mature trees are located within the school grounds, including: a hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), eucalypts (Eucalyptus spp.) and leopard trees (Libidibia ferrea) on the corner of Sherwood Road and Oxley Road; a leopard tree in the parade ground; and a grove of eucalypts to the north of the school buildings. These mature trees, along with jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia), poinciana (Delonix regia) and eucalypts along the Sherwood Road boundary of the playing fields, enhance the school’s prominence in its location and contribute to its picturesque setting.
\nOther Structures
\nOther buildings, structures, pathways, modern partitions and suspended ceilings, modern joinery, and sheds within the cultural heritage boundary are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nWhere the register boundary extends into road reserve, the road and footpath fabric is not considered to be of cultural significance.
","history":"Sherwood State School opened in 1867, as West Oxley National School, to accommodate the growing population of a rural district on the south western outskirts of Brisbane. As enrolments grew, extensions were made and buildings added to the site. In 2016, Sherwood State School retains: a Ferguson-designed School Building (1887, with 1900 extension and 1937 alterations) with a WWI memorial tablet (1919) attached; a Suburban Timber School Building (1917); two Sectional School Buildings (1923 and 1937) with 1950s extensions, one a lowset pre-fabricated Boulton & Paul Building (1952); and a Timber Vocational Building (1952). The school buildings are set amongst landscaped grounds with assembly and play areas, sporting facilities, stone-pitched terraces and mature shade trees. The school has been in continuous operation since establishment and has been a focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activity.
\nHistorically part of an area known as West Oxley, which extended from Rocky Water Holes on Ipswich Road to the Brisbane River, and which was part of the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Jagera people, Sherwood was named after Sherwood Forest in England, for its heavy timber cover. Timber felling was a major early occupation in the area, which from the 1840s formed part of an extensive lease where Captain Thomas Boyland grazed cattle, sheep and horses.[1] Following the separation of Queensland from the colony in 1859, the district was divided into 30-40 acre farms. Land use in the area shifted to cultivation, taking advantage of the fertile soils; scrub was cleared and crops planted, with produce later transported to market via nearby Oxley Creek. The mail route from Brisbane to Ipswich also passed through the area along Ipswich Road. The continued importance and development of the Darling Downs made the Ipswich Road the main route to the interior, and the initial rough track was surveyed in the 1860s.[2] To address the education needs of the growing rural community, a national school was opened in West Oxley in March 1867.[3]
\nThe provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. National schools, established in 1848 in New South Wales, were continued in Queensland following the colony’s creation in 1859. Following the introduction of the Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland’s national and public schools grew from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875.[4] The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction. This further standardised the provision of education, and despite difficulties, achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[5]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and community halls reinforced these connections and provided a venue for a wide range of community events in schools across Queensland.[6]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[7]
\nA new 45ft x 18ft (13.7m x 5.5m) school room, designed to accommodate 120 children, and a teacher’s residence were built for the opening of the West Oxley National School, which occupied a three acre (1.2ha) site on the corner of what are now known as Oxley and Sherwood Roads.[8] The picturesque buildings, designed by architect Richard Suter, were sited in the southwest corner of the grounds, with a steep slope to the east leading down to a watercourse just outside the boundary.[9] As was required for the establishment of a national school, approximately one third of the £328 building cost was raised by the local community.[10] Attendance in the first year was reportedly 64 children.[11]
\nWith the arrival of the Southern and Western Railway (Brisbane and Ipswich extension) as far as Oxley West in 1874,[12] improved access led to a population increase in the area. The land surrounding the school grounds was subdivided into smaller lots, through which roads were surveyed that would later become McCulla Street and Hall Street.[13] Enrolments at West Oxley fluctuated, from 135 in 1869, to 72 in 1873, and 160 in 1877.[14] In May 1878 the name of the Oxley West Railway Station changed to Sherwood Station, and in the same year the school became known as Sherwood State School.[15] By 1885, enrolments at Sherwood State School had increased to 180 students and the following year events were being held at the school to raise funds for school improvements.[16] In October 1887 a tender of £318 10s by A Byrne was accepted, and an additional classroom wing was built perpendicular to the original school building.[17]
\nThe new building at Sherwood State School was built to a standard design that had been introduced in 1880 and constructed across the colony until 1893. Employed by the Department of Public Instruction, Robert Ferguson was responsible for school building design between 1879 and 1885 and he was the first to give serious consideration to the ventilation of interiors.[18] Into the low-set, timber-framed buildings Ferguson introduced a coved ceiling and vented the roof space, improving internal temperatures. The number of windows and their size was increased; however, they were few in number and sill heights were typically over 4'6\" (1.3m) above floor level, well above eye level of students. Modestly-decorative timber roof trusses were exposed within the space. Built to this standard design, the new Ferguson-design School Building[19] at Sherwood State School was a lowset, timber-framed structure with gable roof, eastern verandah, and modest 'carpenter gothic' timber detailing.[20]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.[21] Arbor Day plantings and associated fund raising was reported at Sherwood State School as early as 1890, and the following year, when bunyas, jacarandas, poincianas and camphor laurels were planted, it was reported that, if successful, ‘the school grounds will, in a few years, present a very pleasing appearance’.[22]
\nSherwood, like many riverside suburbs in Brisbane, was significantly affected by the flood of 1893. The school grounds, along with surrounding residences in low-lying areas, were inundated. Despite the floods and the economic depression of the 1890s, enrolments rose through the turn of the century and the school committee advocated the urgent need to extend the school building.[23] Tenders were sought in late 1899, and in 1900 the 1887 Ferguson-designed School Building was extended at cost of £182.[24] An image of the extended building around that time shows it had a roof fleche.[25]
\nBy 1914 enrolments had reached 285 students.[26] In 1915, the existing residence, closet buildings and a playshed (built 1878) were sold and removed in 1915, and in 1916 a new playshed, with various apparatus, was built for use as a gymnasium.[27] That year the original school building was sold and removed, and the 1887-1900 school building was remodelled, including the likely removal of the roof fleche and addition of dormer windows.[28] Continued requests from the school committee resulted in the construction of a new three-classroom school building in 1917 that incorporated the latest in climatically responsive design.[29]
\nFrom 1893 the Department of Public Works (DPW) greatly improved the natural ventilation and lighting of classroom interiors, experimenting with different combinations of roof ventilators, ceiling and wall vents, larger windows, dormer windows and ducting. Achieving an ideal or even adequate level of natural light in classrooms, without glare, was of critical importance to educators and consequently it became central to the design and layout of all school buildings. The years of experimentation culminated in the 1914 introduction of the Suburban Timber School Building[30] that solved many of the problems of light, ventilation, and classroom size that plagued previous school designs as well as provided the ideal, modern education environment.[31]
\nThe 1917 Suburban Timber School Building (Block A in 2016) at Sherwood State School was a symmetrically arranged, highset and timber-framed structure with a Dutch-gable roof that featured a prominent roof fleche ventilator. The building addressed Sherwood Road and was connected to the southwest verandah corner of the 1887 Ferguson building. Block A had east, west and south-facing verandahs, and contained three 23ft x 22ft (7m x 6.7m) classrooms, separated by glazed folding partitions. Each room had a centred ceiling vent. A 12ft x 14ft (3.6m x 4.3m) teachers room was connected to the southern verandah, and the northern ends of the east and west verandahs had hat rooms. The northern elevation featured large banks of casement windows, with fanlights, sheltered by projecting eaves on timber brackets. The understorey had open playspace and lavatories. The estimated building cost was £1,595 and seating accommodation was provided for 150 pupils.[32]
\nIn December 1919 a memorial tablet, erected by the School Committee in honour of past pupils who had served in World War I (WWI), was unveiled in the new school room.[33] War memorials are a tribute to those who served, and those who died, from a particular community. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
\nAfter WWI, the Sherwood district continued to grow, as did Sherwood State School. In 1920 the school grounds were extended by one acre (0.4ha) to the east, and by 1922 enrolments had risen to 661.[34] Between 1923 and 1937 two Sectional School Buildings were added, to address further increases in attendance. The new school buildings were connected to the northwest (1923) and northeast (1937) corners of Block A.
\nAttention to improving light and ventilation to achieve an optimum classroom had culminated in 1920 with the Sectional School[35], a high-set timber structure. This fundamentally new design combined all the best features of previous types and implemented theories of an ideal education environment. It proved very successful and was used unaltered until 1950. This type was practical, economical, and satisfied educational requirements and climatic needs. Most importantly, it allowed for the orderly expansion of schools over time.
\nBefore the Sectional School, solar orientation was not given prominence and all school buildings were orientated in relation to the street and property boundaries, often resulting in poorly orientated buildings. The Sectional School type had only one verandah, typically on the northern side, allowing the southern wall, with a maximum number of windows, to be unobstructed. The building was designed so that the blank western wall was removable. As the school grew, the western end wall could be detached and the building extended in sections, hence the name. This led to the construction of long narrow buildings of many classrooms – a distinctive feature of Queensland schools.[36]
\nPlans for the first Sectional School Building (Block B in 2016) at Sherwood show it was a highset, timber-framed structure, similar in appearance to Block A but with a north-facing verandah. Another east-facing verandah connected with the northwest corner of Block A. The new building contained three 20ft x 20ft (6.1m x 6.1m) classrooms, separated by fixed partitions, and had a 12ft x 14ft (3.6m x 4.3m) teachers room connected to the 8ft (2.4m) wide north-facing verandah. Hat room enclosures were located at the northeast and northwest verandah corners. The Dutch-gable roof featured a prominent ventilation fleche, and each classroom had a centred ceiling vent and a large bank of casement windows, with fanlights, on the southern wall. The open understorey had a floor of paved ‘concrete slabs’ with perimeter drains, and was partially enclosed with timber battens.[37] Completed in 1923, the estimated construction cost of the building was £1,886, with dual desks for 144 pupils.[38]
\nThe second Sectional School Building (Block C in 2016) was officially opened in July 1937, 70 years after the establishment of the school, and it was noted by Mr T Nimmo, MLA, that Sherwood State School was ‘now an ornament and show place of the district’.[39] The highset timber-framed structure was similar in design to Block B, with prominent roof fleche and north-facing verandah that had a teachers room attached. Connected to the northeast corner of Block A, the roof was Dutch-gabled at the western end and gabled at the eastern end (possibly to enable easier extension). It contained three 21ft x 18ft (6.4m x 5.5m) classrooms, separated by fixed partitions with centred doors, and had banks of south-facing casements with fanlights. The partitions and verandah walls were clad with a single-skin of vertical boards. In response to the sloping site, Block C was set slightly lower than Block A, to which it was connected by a verandah with steps.[40]
\nTo accommodate the construction of Block C, the 1887/1900 Ferguson-designed School Building (Block D in 2016) was relocated to the north and remodelled for use as an infants’ wing. New steps were built to access the western verandah and a new partition was built between the larger (southern) and smaller (northern) classrooms.[41] Alterations were also made to the verandah windows of Blocks A and B, with sashes added below existing and new fanlights.[42] The authorised cost for the works was £1,475.[43]
\nWith the school buildings occupying the elevated western side of the school grounds, efforts were made to provide sporting facilities and improve the drainage of the flood-prone eastern grounds. In 1930, the City Council decided to replace the open drain that traversed the eastern end of the site with a pipe drain, with the Department of Public Instruction contributing £250 towards the cost.[44] A large embankment was formed to the east of the school buildings in 1931, along which the stone-pitched terraces were also reportedly constructed during the Great Depression.[45] In 1933 the school grounds were extended by a further three acres (1.2ha) to the north, which included a concentration of large eucalypt trees, resulting in the current seven acre (2.8ha) site.[46] Between 1932 and 1935 the tennis courts to the north of Block B were renovated (officially opened September 1932), and the playing area and sports oval to the east were extended and levelled.[47] At the opening of Block C in 1937, it was noted that ‘when the ground improvements were completed [Sherwood] would have one of the finest sporting grounds in the metropolitan area’.[48] The school committee and labour under the Unemployment Relief Scheme were responsible for much of the ground improvement works.[49]
\nThe Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building program to provide impetus to the economy.[50]
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work program by the DPW. This included painting and repairs to school buildings.[51] By mid-1930 men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme.[52] Extensive funding was given for improvements to school grounds, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, involving terracing and retaining walls. This work created many large school ovals, which prior to this period were mostly cleared of trees but not landscaped. These play areas became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element.[53]
\nLike many Queensland state schools, Sherwood was affected by the outbreak of World War II (WWII). The Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. The closed schools were sometimes occupied for defence purposes, and some schools remained closed ‘for special reasons’ after the rest had reopened.[54] Slit trenches, to protect students from Japanese air raids, were also dug at Queensland state schools, often by parents and staff. At Sherwood State School trenches were dug to the northeast of the tennis courts (near the location of the current Administration Block G). A First Aid and Ambulance Post was also established under the school building – at first sand bagged but later bricked in (under Block C).[55]
\nThe post-WWII period was a time of enormous population growth Australia-wide and was accompanied by a shortage of building materials. The Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[56]
\nAfter WWII the overriding concern for the Department of Public Instruction was the need to erect school buildings as expeditiously and economically as possible. Queensland schools were faced with enormous overcrowding and a lack of resources. However, the Queensland Government and community saw education as a low priority and provided the department with only a small budget.[57] Also, educationalists rejected the previous designs of school buildings, considering them outdated, and favoured ‘lighter, loosely grouped, flexible’ buildings.[58]
\nAt Sherwood State School, additional classrooms were required to accommodate the growth in pupil numbers – from 519 in 1945 to 856 in 1955.[59] In 1951 a 24ft x 21ft (7.3m x 6.4m) classroom was added to the eastern end of Block C. Plans for the new classroom show it was formed in the Sectional School manner by moving the gable end wall and inserting a single-skin partition, with centred double-leaf door, between the existing and new classrooms. The southern wall had casement windows, with fanlights, and the north-facing verandah was extended, with the hat room relocated to the new eastern end. Double-hung sash windows were installed in both the new and existing verandah walls.[60]
\nPlans for a new domestic science and manual training building were drawn in 1951. Previously children caught the train to Milton State School one day per week to learn these skills.[61] Vocational education was a Queensland Government priority to support the development of primary industries; this evolved after WWI into a variety of subjects. Vocational training within primary education began in 1895 with drawing classes and expanded to include domestic sciences, agriculture, and sheet metal and wood working classes. The subjects required a variety of purpose-built facilities and were initially gender segregated.[62]
\nThe Queensland Government continued its focus on vocational education during the 1950s and 1960s. New vocational centres were opened at East Brisbane and Sherwood schools in 1952, with one also planned for Eagle Junction.[63] Manual arts and domestic science classes were generally conducted in prefabricated Boulton & Paul buildings in the early 1950s, and in 1954 the DPW introduced a new standard design for a timber-framed Vocational Training Building.[64] Highset with a verandah along one side, this design comprised a large 21ft by 32ft (6.4m by 9.7m) room accommodating either manual training or domestic science classes, with smaller rooms opening off it for complementary purposes (e.g. a laundry room, fitting room, storage etc.). The exterior was clad with chamferboards and interior lined with hardboard sheeting. A mixture of hopper and casement windows were utilised.
\nThe Vocational Training Building (Block G in 2016) at Sherwood State School is not a prefabricated structure and appears to be a forerunner to the 1954 standard design.[65] The initial layout (September 1951) was amended several times, suggesting experimentation with the plan form.[66] The final plans (December 1951) show the building comprised a long highset structure, orientated east-west, with domestic science (east) and manual arts (west) training areas accessed by a north-facing verandah. Domestic science included large rooms for dressmaking and cookery, and smaller change and staff rooms, as well as enclosures underneath for a laundry and drying area. The change room extended to occupy the centre of the verandah. Manual arts included large rooms for sheet metal and woodwork, and smaller staff and store rooms on the verandah; timber racks were housed in a battened area underneath.[67] The estimated cost of the building was £6,507.[68] Interior photographs from 1955 show the walls were lined with vertical boards and the ceiling was flat sheeted with cover strips.[69]
\nIn 1952 a lowset timber Boulton & Paul Building was constructed at the western end of Block B.[70] Responding to materials shortages and the pressures of the baby boom, the DPW imported a British prefabricated building system from manufacturers Boulton & Paul Ltd of Norwich. Based on an 8ft (2.4m) planning and construction module, the prefabricated elements in the Boulton & Paul system included wall panels, ceiling panels, roof trusses and banks of awning windows. The buildings were constructed at many schools across Queensland between 1952 and 1958.[71]
\nBoulton & Paul Buildings were timber-framed and clad, had a verandah as circulation, and a gable roof. Ideally, they were orientated so the verandah faced north and the classroom faced south but were also added as extensions to existing buildings regardless of orientation. The building could be high or low-set and had extensive areas of timber-framed awning windows, providing more glazing than had ever been used in Queensland classrooms; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed, providing excellent natural ventilation and lighting. The classrooms were 24ft x 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m), larger than most previous classrooms.[72] The flexibility of the system meant that the number of classrooms constructed could vary to suit the needs of a particular school.
\nThe lowset Boulton & Paul Building at Sherwood State School comprised a single 24ft 4in x 24ft 8in (7.4m x 7.5m) classroom and a 6ft 6in (2m) wide northern verandah, which had a glazed screen at the northwest corner. The floor and roof of the addition were set lower than existing Block B. The walls were constructed from prefabricated units, predominantly 4ft (1.2m) wide (with the exception of panels at the northwest and southwest corners), with those on the north and south sides contained large areas of windows. The western end of the existing Block B Dutch-gable roof was cut back, and the dividing wall was restumped and flat-sheeted to match the new interior.[73] The 1952 additions cost £1,895.[74]
\nIn 1953 Block D was extended to the east with the addition of two 24ft (7.3m) square highset Boulton & Paul classrooms, with a large bank of awning windows on the south side, a verandah on the north side; and a 24ft square library underneath. The existing Block D stairs were enclosed by the northern verandah of the addition and a new staffroom to the south.[75] In 1956 a new staff room, store and covered way were constructed between Block C and Block D; alterations to the existing Block C staff room included new windows to the east, a northern window relocated and opening infilled, and existing stairs moved slightly west to accommodate new covered way.[76] In 1957 the understorey of the early Block C staff room was enclosed to form a health services room.[77] Alterations to the western end of Block D in 1958 included enclosing the northern end of the eastern verandah to form a store room, widening of windows with the addition of casements (northern wall) and double-hung sashes (east and west walls).[78]
\nTwo highset timber-framed classroom buildings were also built to the north and west of Block D in the 1950s: Block E (north, aligned east-west) was constructed in phases between 1954 and 1956, and connected to Block D by a covered way; and Block F (west, aligned north-south) was constructed in 1957, and extended in 1958.[79]
\nFollowing a peak of 1034 students in 1959, enrolments declined through the 1970s due to demographic change in the area.[80] Over the course of the school’s history, buildings have been added, removed and altered, and changes made to the grounds to meet the school’s requirements.
\nIn 1959 the existing stone-pitched terraces were built up, with new kerb and channel above.[81] A tuckshop was built and officially opened in March 1962.[82] In 1964 one acre (0.4ha) of land was purchased on the opposite side of McCulla Street, and a swimming pool was constructed and opened there in 1967, the school’s centenary year.[83] The school grounds were once again inundated by floods in January 1974, with the ovals submerged and water reaching halfway up the posts supporting Block G, where a painted mark reportedly indicates the flood level.[84] In 1985 a new concrete retaining wall was built along Sherwood Road, and in 1990 Hall Street was widened and a new ramp and access path built.[85]
\nThe Timber Vocational Building (Block G) was remodelled for use by the Western Suburbs Education Centre and Sherwood Special Education Unit in 1976. Changes to the western half of the building included: western steps removed and new steel stairs added to northern side; northwest verandah corner converted to waiting room, with partitions and windows added and replaced; new doorway entrance with steps and landing added to the southwest corner; woodwork area reconfigured for use as a remedial classroom, store/prep room and remedial room; sheet metal area reconfigured for use as a therapy classroom, wet area, and resource teacher room in the northwest corner; and new door and tempered hardwood panels added to verandah wall.[86]
\nIn 1991-92 Block G was again remodelled for use as an administration (western half) and classroom (eastern half) block. The administration section contained the reception and waiting area, Principal’s office, staff room, therapy classroom and adjacent wet area, and staff toilets in the former northwest waiting room.[87] In the eastern half, the former dressmaking and cookery classrooms were converted to an open-plan teaching area with verandah walls removed and verandah enclosed with new awning windows above benches / sinks, and the former change room reconfigured as a withdrawal area. Interior walls were lined with plasterboard.[88]
\nBlocks A, B, C and D were also remodelled through the 1980s (Block C) and 1990s, when enrolment numbers once again rose. The Suburban Timber School Building (Block A) classroom layout was reconfigured, with existing folding partitions removed (bulkheads retained) and concertina doors installed to form a narrow central classroom / amenity space with large classrooms either side. A section of the southern verandah wall was removed and sides enclosed, to connect the central classroom with the projecting teachers room.[89] The southern windows have also been replaced with aluminium-framed sliders, with the wall below flat-sheeted.
\nThe Sectional School Buildings (Blocks B and C) both had verandahs partly enclosed, and partitions partly or fully removed to create open-plan teaching areas. Block B had its southern windows replaced with aluminium-framed sliders, classroom layout reconfigured to two rooms, verandah doors and windows replaced, verandah corners enclosed and new openings formed to create amenity spaces off the classrooms.[90] Block C was converted for use as a computer room and open-plan library, including: enclosure of the eastern half of the northern verandah; demolition of the former verandah walls; and large openings formed in the classroom partitions.[91] The roof fleche has also been removed.
\nThe Ferguson-designed School Building (Block D, western section) had its dividing classroom partition demolished and rebuilt to the south, and openings formed in the eastern verandah wall onto kitchenette / amenity areas.[92] The 1953 Boulton & Paul classrooms (Block D, eastern section) have been considerably altered with the verandah enclosed with aluminium framed windows, folding classroom partitions removed, large openings formed in the former verandah walls and the enclosed stairs removed.
\nRecent additions at Sherwood State School include the construction of a new Activities Hall (c2000), classroom Blocks I, J and K to the north and east of Block G, and a Multi-purpose Hall and Music Block (2010) built over the stone-pitched retaining terraces and stairs. Other landscape features still visible at the Sherwood State School include numerous mature trees: a hoop pine, eucalypts and leopard trees on the corner of Sherwood Road and Oxley Road; a leopard tree in the parade ground; jacarandas, poinciana and eucalypts along the Sherwood Road boundary of the playing fields; and a grove of eucalypts to the north of the school buildings.
\nIn 2016, the Sherwood State School continues to operate from its original site. The school is important to the area as a focus for the community, and generations of students have been taught there. Since establishment, Sherwood State School has been a key social focus for its community with the grounds and buildings having been the location of many social events.
","criteria":"Sherwood State School (established in 1867 as West Oxley National School) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies; set in landscaped grounds with assembly and play areas, stone-pitched terraces, sporting facilities, and mature shade trees.
\nThe Ferguson-designed School Building (1887, extended 1900) demonstrates the early integration of changes to improve the practicality and comfort of school buildings, and was an early standardised design.
\nThe Suburban Timber School Building (1917) demonstrates the evolution of timber school design, including experimentation with light, classroom size and elevation, by the Department of Public Works.
\nThe two Sectional School Buildings (1923 and 1937) demonstrate the culmination of many years of experimental timber school design, providing equally for educational and climatic needs.
\nThe Boulton & Paul Building (1952) demonstrates the introduction and adoption of imported prefabricated systems by the Queensland Government in response to acute building material shortages and population growth in the post-World War II period.
\nThe Timber Vocational Building (1952) demonstrates the incorporation of practical subjects into school curricula and the early development of post-war standardised vocational designs.
\nThe World War I memorial tablet (1919) attached to the Ferguson-designed School Building is important in demonstrating the school communities’ involvement in a major world event. War memorials are a tribute to those who served, and those who died, from a particular community. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
\nThe large, suburban site with mature trees and landscaping features demonstrates the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Sherwood State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of Queensland state schools. These include: teaching buildings constructed to standard designs; and generous, landscaped sites with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities. The school is a good, intact example of a suburban school complex, comprising the following building types.
\nThe Ferguson-designed School Building retains some characteristics of its early standardised design, including: timber-framed structure with high-pitched gable roof; verandahs (eastern enclosed); decorative timberwork; gable-end windows with skillion hoods; coved ceilings with stop-chamfered timber collar ties; early internal linings; and ventilation features such as louvred gable vents.
\nThe Suburban Timber School Building is a good, intact example of its type, retaining its: highset timber-framed structure with play space beneath; symmetrical plan form of classrooms and verandahs; projecting teachers room; coved ceiling and metal tie rods; early internal linings; and ventilation system including remnant vents at floor level and decorative roof fleche.
\nConnected to the Suburban Timber School Building by verandahs, the two Sectional School buildings are good examples of their type and are externally intact. Characteristics include their: highset timber-framed structure; Dutch-gable roofs; northern verandahs; large banks of south-facing windows; blank end walls, the eastern used for classroom expansion; single-skin verandah walls; projecting teachers rooms; hat-room enclosure; and early internal linings.
\nThe lowset Boulton & Paul Building is a good, intact example of its type, retaining its: modular, lightweight construction expressed in the external cladding; gable roof; glazed verandah screen; large areas of glazing to the southern wall; and flat internal wall linings.
\nThe former Vocational Training Building is an early iteration of its type and retains some external characteristics including: highset (eastern end) timber-framed structure with verandah along one side; chamferboard cladding; and banks of south-facing casement windows, with fanlights.
|The well-composed timber school buildings, with their Dutch-gable rooflines, prominent roof fleches, open verandahs and projecting teachers rooms, set amongst mature trees and landscaped gardens, are an attractive feature along Sherwood Road and a landmark for the area.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nSherwood State School has a strong and ongoing association with the surrounding community. It was established in 1867 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of the community and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650033,"name":"Nundah State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"41 Bage Street","suburb":"NUNDAH","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2016-07-15","description":"Nundah State School occupies an elevated 3.24ha site within Nundah, a residential suburb approximately 8km northeast of the Brisbane CBD. Facing Bage Street to the east, the rectangular site slopes down to the west and is bounded to the south by Buckland Road, to the west by Park Road and to the north by Boyd Road. The school complex comprises buildings and landscape features from several periods of design and construction. Significant buildings are located at the eastern end of the site and include: a prominent Depression-era Brick School Building (Block A - 1935, 1941, 1946-51), addressing Bage Street; and a Suburban Timber School Building (Block D – 1915, with 1916, 1955 & 1956 extensions) along Buckland Road. Other important elements within the school grounds include: a WWI Honour Board (1916) housed in the modern school hall; a parade ground to the west of Block A; various retaining walls (c1935, 1940); a curved entrance driveway and landscaped gardens to the east of Block A (c1943); a playing field at the western end of the site; and a variety of mature shade trees.
\nDepression-era Brick School Building (Block A - 1935, 1941, 1946-51)
\nBlock A is a symmetrical, masonry structure of two storeys, above an undercroft level. The building comprises three sections: a range (1941) running north-south; and two lateral wings, the northern (1935) and southern (1946-51), projecting on an east-west axis. Three-storey projecting entrance bays are centred on the eastern (front) and western sides of the range; and flat-roofed first-floor bays at the junction of the range and the wings have diagonal stairs that access the parade ground at the rear. The building’s intersecting hipped roofs are terracotta-tiled.
\nThe building is elegantly composed with a combination of Neo-classical and Arts and Crafts-style detailing. Constructed from load-bearing face brick walls, it has rendered decorative elements on the first and second floors, and rendered walls and piers with an ashlar finish to the undercroft level. The stretcher bond walls comprise bricks in a range of hues (from orange to dark brown), resulting in a textured appearance, and retain areas of tuck pointing. Along the north, east and south elevations, continuous window hoods with decorative timber brackets shelter the first and second-storey windows. Window openings (on all sides except the western end of the wings) are framed by rendered mullions, string courses and quoins, and contain banks of timber-framed, eight-light casement windows, with fanlights above.
\nThe front projecting bay frames the main entrance and is topped by a stepped, gabled brick parapet that has rendered capping and a centred rectangular vent. Divided stairs flank a first floor flat-roofed entrance porch. The clear-finished timber double entrance doors are panelled and glazed, with fanlights above. The stairs have concrete treads, and decorative rendered stringers and metal balustrades. A commemorative stone, set within the rendered eastern wall, reads “THIS STONE WAS THE STEP OF THE ORIGINAL NUNDAH STATE SCHOOL ERECTED 1865”, with “NUNDAH STATE SCHOOL” in metal letters mounted on the brickwork above.
\nThe interior layout of the building is symmetrical, with the northern and southern wings mirrored, and the first floor layout approximately repeated on the second floor. Internal stairs are located at the eastern ends of the wings and in the central western bay of the range, flanked by offices (former cloak rooms). Corridors along the western side of the range connect with corridors on the adjacent sides of the northern and southern wings, and provide access to linearly arranged classrooms, offices and storerooms. The range has a central entrance hall, flanked by offices, and two classrooms and a medical room (formerly four classrooms) on the first floor; and three classrooms (formerly five) and a staff room on the second floor. The second floor of both wings and the first floor of the southern wing have two large classrooms each. One classroom on the first floor (southern wing) has been extended to occupy the corridor, with part of the corridor wall removed. The first floor of the northern wing contains a classroom and two large offices (formerly four classrooms); the western office retains a raised floor (former stage). Classrooms throughout the building retain bulkheads that indicate the original layout of dividing partitions.
\nMost classrooms and offices have plaster walls, timber-framed floors covered in modern carpet, and flat-sheeted ceilings with painted timber battens. Stairs are of painted concrete and have metal and timber (range and northern wing) or rendered (southern wing) balustrades. Corridors have concrete floors with coved edges and flat plaster ceilings, with those on the second floor (range and southern wing) featuring painted timber battens. Early timber joinery is retained throughout the building, including: double-hung sash windows (to the corridors); and panelled timber doors. Most windows and doors retain their fanlights and early hardware. Two sets of original timber folding doors, with glazed inserts, are retained in classrooms on the first and second floors of the northern wing, which is rare. The store room (former cloak room) on the second floor of the northern wing retains its early brown stained ceiling battens and red oxide concrete floor.
\nThe undercroft level of the range is largely open play-space. Toilets are located at the western ends of the wings; a tuckshop encloses the eastern end of the northern wing; and a storage room encloses the eastern end of the southern wing. The undercroft has a concrete slab floor. Timber framing is exposed in parts of the range’s ceiling, with the remainder mostly flat-sheeted. The piers and walls are stop-chamfered face brick.
\nSuburban Timber School Building (Block D - 1915 with 1916, 1955 & 1956 extensions)
\nBlock D is a long, timber-framed building, orientated east-west, with a north-facing verandah. Constructed in phases, it comprises a central section (1915) of three classrooms, between an eastern classroom (1955) and a western classroom (1956), with two teachers rooms (1916 with 1954 extension) attached to the verandah. The building is highset at the western end and lowset to the east, due to the sloping of the site. The gabled roof is sheeted with modern corrugated metal and has five modern ridge vents. The teachers rooms have a hipped roof.
\nThe exterior is clad with timber weatherboards. The southern wall of the central section has three large banks of timber-framed casement windows, with pivot and angled fanlights. The 1916 teachers room has two-light double hung sash windows to the west (relocated 1954) and east (which has a battened skillion hood).
\nThe verandah has a raked ceiling lined with V-jointed (VJ), tongue-and-groove (T&G) boards. Floors are timber and bag rack balustrades are clad externally with corrugated metal sheeting. Timber stairs with three-rail balustrades access the parade ground to the north. Verandah steps connect Block D with Block C to the east, and a verandah walkway connects to Block F to the north.
\nThe northern verandah walls are lined with a single skin of VJ T&G boards and have double-hung sashes, with pivot fanlights. Above the flush-panelled double-leaf doors of the central classrooms are pivot fanlights, and the surrounding wall framing retains evidence where floor-level ventilation flaps may have been positioned.
\nThe interior of the three central classrooms is lined with VJ T&G boards. Dividing partitions retain VJ boarded bulkheads, with flat-sheeting lining the openings formerly enclosed by folding partitions. All three classrooms retain highly decorative pressed-metal coved ceilings, with centred square ceiling-rose vents and metal tie-rods. The timber floors of all classrooms are covered with modern carpet and other floor linings.
\nThe understorey has a concrete floor and comprises mostly open play space. The building is set on a combination of concrete stumps and metal posts. The southern side is clad with corrugated metal, including a store room at the western end.
\nThe 1950s classrooms are detailed externally in keeping with the original building. However, the southern walls have large banks of awning windows, with fanlights, and the western wall has a single row of awnings. The western classroom extends the full width of the building. The understorey of the western classroom and the 1954 teachers room are enclosed, with vertical timber strips indicating the location of extension joins. The interior walls and ceilings are flat-sheeted. The eastern classroom contains small offices with modern partitions.
\nLandscape Elements
\nThe school grounds are well established, with sporting facilities including a generous playing field (c1933) with embankments at the western end of the site.
\nMany mature trees are located within the school grounds, including large fig (Ficus sp.), jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia), poinciana (Delonix regia) and leopard trees (Libidibia ferrea) surrounding the playing field. Various other mature shade trees across the site include a hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), paper bark (Melaleuca quinquenervia), and a 1975 commemorative silky oak (Grevillea robusta) northeast of Block A.
\nThe eastern end of the sloping site is terraced by several Depression-era concrete retaining walls. These are located: north and west of Block A, surrounding the parade ground; and around the northeast corner of the site, along Bage Street and Boyd Road.
\nThe main entrance from Bage Street comprises a curved driveway around landscaped rose gardens that are centred to the east of Block A. The parade ground (1936) west of Block A allows significant views to be obtained of the building’s eastern elevation (its recent surface of bitumen is not significant).
\nAn Honour Board (1916) is located in the modern school hall building, listing the names of former students who served in World War I (WWI). It comprises a decorative, embossed copper plaque with a timber backing board, and reads “ROLL OF HONOR 1914-1919, NUNDAH STATE SCHOOL” above rows of individual name plaques.
\nOther Structures
\nOther buildings, structures, pathways, swimming pools, modern partitions and suspended ceilings, modern joinery, and sheds within the cultural heritage boundary are not of cultural heritage significance.
\n","history":"
Nundah State School (established 1865 as German Station National School) is located in the suburb of Nundah, about eight kilometres northeast of Brisbane’s CBD. It is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains a Depression-era Brick School Building (1935, 1941, 1946-51); a Suburban Timber School Building (1915) with extensions (1916, 1955, 1956), and an Honour Board (1916); set in landscaped grounds with concrete retaining walls (c1935, 1940), a playing field, sporting facilities and mature trees. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Nundah and district community.
\nNundah is the site of the first free European settlement in Queensland. Lutheran missionaries settled there in 1838 on 640 acres (259 ha) of land granted by Major Cotton, the then commandant of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement. They named their settlement Zion Hill. The group numbered 20, including 2 ministers, 10 laymen and their families, until 4 more laymen missionaries arrived in 1844. By 1849, the group had abandoned their missionary work but most remained farming in the area. They purchased land at Nundah, then called German Station, which was surveyed into blocks by the government in 1848, and a small rural community developed.[1]
\nIn the early 1860s, local citizens raised £94 towards the £390 cost for the establishment of German Station National School. The school opened on 2 October 1865 on its current 3.24ha site with 62 children enrolled.[2] The school building was located at the southeast corner of the site facing Buckland Road.[3] A teachers residence was onsite from the 1860s, located to the north of the school building.[4]
\nThe provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. National schools, established in 1848 in New South Wales, were continued in Queensland following the colony’s creation in 1859. Following the introduction of the Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland’s national and public schools grew from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875.[5] The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction. This further standardised the provision of education, and despite difficulties, achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[6]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and community halls reinforced these connections and provided a venue for a wide range of community events in schools across Queensland.[7]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[8]
\nThe development of Nundah, and increased school enrolments, were stimulated by the opening of the Sandgate railway line in 1882, with a stop at German Station (soon renamed Nundah). Subdivision of land near the station from 1882 led to the formation of the Nundah village.[9] Enrolment at German Station State School rose rapidly from 61 pupils in 1883 to 118 by 1886, resulting in extension of the school building in the same year. When a playshed was built in 1889, the school’s enrolment was 200 pupils.[10] Another addition in 1892, connected to the northwest of the school building by a verandah, brought the classroom total to three.[11] The school’s name changed to Nundah State School in 1896.[12] A new teachers residence was built in 1897.
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. In the 1870s, schools inspector William Boyd was critical of tropical schools and amongst his recommendations stressed the importance of the adding shade trees to playgrounds. Subsequently, Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.[13] Arbor Day was regularly observed at Nundah State School from at least 1892, when 20 plants and shrubs were planted.[14] In 2016 a number of mature trees feature in the school’s grounds.
\nFrom the late 19th century, Nundah became the centre for the surrounding district. It served as the headquarters for the Toombul Divisional Board after its new offices and a hall were built on Sandgate Road at Nundah in 1891.[15] Similarly, Nundah State School’s population expanded and in 1909 another classroom was added to the western end of the school buildings.[16] By 1910 the school had an average attendance of 342 pupils while the Nundah and district’s population was 1675 in 1911.
\nEarly in the 20th century, accommodation for the infants of the school became a priority. In 1912 a new room was erected for the infants, to the west of the early school buildings; it was highset and had north and south-facing verandahs.[17] An infants wing (a Suburban Timber School Building, known as Block D in 2016) of ‘substantial finish and ornate appearance’, was erected to the west of the infants classroom in 1915 at a cost of £735.[18] The 65ft x 21ft (19.8m x 6.4m) building contained three classrooms and had a 10ft (3m) wide north-facing verandah.[19] The school’s enrolment was 700 when the building was opened on 17 February 1916.[20] That year, a 16ft x 12ft (4.9m x 3.6m) teachers room was added to the verandah.[21] A drawing of the building from 1933 shows it had a large roof fleche.[22]
\nThis Suburban Timber School Building, designed by the Department of Public Works (DPW) in 1914, was the culmination of years of experimentation to solve many of the problems of light, ventilation, and classroom size that plagued previous school designs as well as provided the ideal, modern education environment. [23] From 1893 the DPW had greatly improved the natural ventilation and lighting of classroom interiors, experimenting with different combinations of roof ventilators, ceiling and wall vents, larger windows, dormer windows and ducting. Achieving an ideal or even adequate level of natural light in classrooms, without glare, was of critical importance to educators and consequently it became central to the design and layout of all school buildings. In c1909 highset timber buildings had been introduced, providing better ventilation as well as further teaching space and a covered play area underneath. This was a noticeable new direction and this form became a characteristic of Queensland schools. A technical innovation developed at this time was a continuous ventilation flap on the wall at floor level. This hinged board could be opened to increase air flow into the space and, combined with a ceiling vent and large roof fleche, improved internal air quality and decreased internal temperatures effectively.[24]
\nDuring World War I (WWI) Nundah State School commemorated those serving in the war in several ways. An Anzac Arbor Day took place in May 1916, when five hibiscuses (Hibiscus spp.) and one Indian laburnum (Cassia fistula) were planted, the latter being given the name ‘Anzac tree’. On 14 December of that year the Nundah State School Honour Board was unveiled by the Governor of Queensland, Major Sir Hamilton John Goold-Adams, in honour of 59 former pupils who were serving at the front.[25] War memorials, including honour boards, are a tribute to those who served, and those who died, from a particular community. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
\nAfter WWI, Nundah and district, and Nundah State School, continued to grow. In 1921 Nundah’s population was 3870. To accommodate the school’s increased population the head teachers residence was converted into classrooms in 1919. In 1924 more than 800 children attended the school. The school committee worked to improve the playing conditions for the children with swings, seesaws, swinging boats and other play equipment being provided, as well as a tennis court to the north of the site opened in October of that year.[26] Another building, of four sectional classrooms (which became Block E), was added in 1927.[27] Money was raised to pay for levelling the grounds, and Arbor Day continued to be celebrated with new plantings.[28] Alterations to the Suburban Timber School Building were made in 1933, including: the relocation of large banks of casement windows from the east and west ends to the southern wall, and lining of the openings; relocation of a verandah wall door; and replacement of the fixed partition between the central and eastern classrooms with a new folding partition.[29]
\nThe Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building programme to provide impetus to the economy.
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work programme by the Department of Public Works. This included painting and repairs to school buildings.[30] By mid-1930 men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme.[31] Extensive funding was given for improvements to school grounds, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, involving terracing and retaining walls. This work created many large school ovals, which prior to this period were mostly cleared of trees but not landscaped. These play areas became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element.[32] At Nundah State School, intermittent relief workers carried out improvements to the playing field in 1933 for an estimated cost of £300.[33]
\nIn June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public works building programme designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state. This building programme included: government offices, schools and colleges; university buildings; court houses and police stations; hospitals and asylums; and gaols.[34]
\nMany of the programmes have had lasting beneficial effects for the citizens of Queensland, including the construction of masonry brick school buildings across the state. Most were designed in a classical idiom as this projects the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings.
\nThe construction of substantial brick school buildings[35] in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government’s commitment to remedy the unemployment situation. The Queensland Public Works Department and Department of Public Instruction were extremely enthusiastic about the brick school buildings designed in the 1930s. They were considered monuments to progress embodying the most modern principles of the ideal education environment. [36]
\nAfter years of requests by the school committee and parents for a more up-to-date school, construction of a Brick School Building at Nundah State School was approved and commenced in 1934. The building would run north-south parallel to Bage Street, with a lateral wing on either end, and would be completed in three stages: north wing (1935); the range (1941); and the south wing (1951, with the boys’ toilet block in the southwest corner evident by 1946). The scheme, of brick with concrete foundations and tile roof, was to ultimately accommodate 1000 pupils.
\nDepression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type, exhibiting many common characteristics. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings, being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. Due to their long plan forms of multiple wings, they could be built in stages if necessary; resulting in some complete designs never being realised. Ideally, the classrooms would face south with the verandah on the north but little concession was made for this and almost all Depression-era Brick School Buildings faced the primary boundary road, regardless of orientation. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, toilets and other functions. [37]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles, which were derived from contemporary tastes and fashions, included: Arts and Crafts, typified by half-timbered gable-ends; Spanish Mission, with round-arched openings and decorative parapets; and Neo-classical, with pilasters, columns and large triangular pediments. Over time, variations occurred in building size, decorative treatment, and climatic-responsive features. Where other functions, such as infants classes or vocational training, were required, standard rooms designed to accommodate these functions were incorporated into the building plan.[38] The Chief Architect during this period was Andrew Baxter Leven (1885-1966), who was employed by the Queensland Government Works Department from 1910 to 1951, and was Chief Architect and Quantity Surveyor from 1933 to 1951.[39]
\nConstruction of the northern wing by day labour commenced after the former head teachers residence, which stood on the building site, was sold for removal.[40] The hip-roofed wing, aligned east-west and perpendicular to Bage Street, consisted of two storeys above an undercroft. Each floor comprised four classrooms for 40 pupils, a cloakroom and connecting corridors. By means of folding partitions each floor of this wing could be converted into one large room. One classroom on the first floor was raised 600mm to form a stage. The undercroft comprised lavatory accommodation for girls and female teachers and a concreted play area. The building’s estimated cost was £9,890.[41] Temporary brick walls with lime mortar and a fibrous-cement gable infill were constructed where the range was to be connected.[42]
\nThe first stage of Nundah State School’s Brick School Building (now called Block A) was opened by the Minister for Public Instruction, F W Cooper, on 5 October 1935 at the 70th anniversary of the school’s commencement.[43] Around the same time, retaining walls to the north and west of Block A were completed, followed by walls along the corner of Bage Street to the east and Boyd Road to the north in 1940. The concrete retaining walls had metal chain wire fences above and the wall to the north of Block A had steps accessing the tennis- basketball court area below.[44]
\nIn 1940, plans for completion of Nundah State School’s Brick School Building were finalised. They were drawn by Douglas FW Roberts who was also responsible for the plans for Toowoomba East School.[45]
\nOverall the building was to be a strongly axial and symmetrically arranged two-storey structure, above an undercroft, that featured both Neo-classical and Arts and Crafts-style design influences. In addition to the existing northern wing, the 1940 plans show a range that aligned north-south and a southern wing that mirrored the north. The tiled hip-roofed range, with its projecting central entrance bay and lateral hip-roofed wings, addressed Bage Street to the east. The face brick exterior featured rendered stringcourses and quoins framing the windows, and the undercroft had an ashlar finish. Exterior windows comprised banks of eight-light casements, with fanlights, sheltered by continuous tiled hoods that had decorative timber brackets. The front entrance bay had a stepped parapeted gable and a divided staircase that led to a first floor flat-roofed porch. The rear entrance bay had internal stairs, flanked by cloakrooms, and diagonal stairs from the parade ground accessed first floor flat-roofed landings at the junctions between the range and the wings.
\nThe first and second floors contained classrooms, offices and storerooms while the undercroft comprised play areas with lavatories in the northwest (girls) and southwest (boys) corners. The range had four classrooms on the first floor, and five classrooms and a teachers room on the second floor. A central hall, flanked by teachers rooms, connected the first floor entrance porch with a corridor that ran along the western side of the range. Mirroring the north, the proposed southern wing contained four classrooms on each floor, separated by folding partitions. All classrooms were 21ft (6.4m) wide. Internal stairs and adjacent cloak rooms at the eastern ends of the wings accessed corridors that ran along the southern side of the north wing and northern side of the south wing, and connected with the perpendicular corridors of the range. The corridors were 8ft (2.4m) wide and had red oxide concrete floors, six-light double-hung sash windows, and panelled double-leaf classroom doors with fanlights.[46]
\nThe second stage – the range – was authorised by Queensland’s Executive Council on
7 March 1940 and work commenced soon afterwards.[47] This stage was opened on
28 August 1941 by the Minister for Public Instruction, H A Bruce.[48] The original stone step of the 1865 school was built into the wall over the front steps of the building.[49] Ground improvements were also undertaken in 1941, with the area in front of the new school wing excavated to a level that conformed with the general scheme.[50]
Soon afterwards, World War II’s impact escalated for Australia, with the entry of Japan into the conflict. The Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. Slit trenches, for protecting the students from Japanese air raids, were also dug at Queensland state schools, including Nundah, often by parents and staff.[51]
\nTypically, schools were a focus for civilian duty during wartime. At many schools, students and staff members grew produce and flowers for donation to local hospitals and organised fundraising and the donation of useful items to Australian soldiers on active service.[52] Nundah State School’s grounds were used by ARP wardens for drills and meetings from May 1942 until April 1944.[53]
\nGround improvements and the construction of the Brick School Building continued during the war years. By 1943 a curved front driveway and central garden bed had been formed. Drawings from 1941 and 1943 detailed the proposed undercroft boys lavatories connected to the southwest corner of the range, indicating that they were to be built in advance of the eastern end and upper stories of the southern wing. The area south of the toilet block was to be excavated and a new bank formed. Works were authorised to be carried out by day labour and the toilet block is evident in aerial photos by March 1946.[54]
\nIn the post-World War II period, enrolments at Nundah State School escalated. Considerable growth in the area, particularly of housing in the neighbouring suburb of Wavell Heights, increased the Nundah and district population to 11,234 in 1947 and the school population increased as well.[55] At the beginning of 1945 student numbers were about 800 but rose to over 1600 in 1954.[56]
\nThe Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[57]
\nConstruction of the third stage of the Brick School Building was completed in time for its opening on 31 March 1951 by the Minister for Public Instruction, G H Devries.[58]
\nIn the years following World War II the overriding concern for the Department of Public Instruction was the need to build school buildings as expeditiously and economically as possible. Queensland schools were faced with enormous overcrowding and a lack of resources. However, the Queensland Government and community saw education as a low priority and provided the department with only a small budget.[59] Also, educationalists rejected the previous designs of school buildings, considering them outdated and favoured ‘lighter, loosely grouped, flexible’ buildings.[60]
\nWith increasing enrolments at Nundah State School in the 1950s, it was necessary to erect new buildings and extend existing ones. In 1954 Suburban Timber School Building was connected to a new two-storey, gable-roofed timber building (Block F) by a verandah walkway. Alterations were also made to its teachers room, including the removal of the northern wall and relocation of the northern window to the western wall, to accommodate a new 15ft x 12ft (4.6m x 3.7m) staff room extension with a medical services / store room underneath.[61]
\nThe Suburban Timber School Building was extended in 1955 and again in 1956, sandwiching the existing 1915-16 building. The 1955 extension added a 24ft x 20ft (7.3m x 6.1m) classroom to the eastern end. It had a bank of casements with fanlights on the southern wall and the northern verandah wall had a bank of double-hung sashes with fanlights, which were also added to each of the three existing classrooms. The existing verandah was extended, with steps relocated and enclosed balustrade bag racks added.[62] The 1956 extension comprised a 28ft x 20ft (8.5m x 6.1m) highset timber classroom over a play area, at the western end of the building. The new classroom had doors opening onto the existing verandah and banks of awning windows on the northern and southern walls. The western wall had a single row of awning windows with a shade over. The weatherboard cladding extended to the north, south and western sides of the understorey, which was concreted and had hardwood seating to the perimeter.[63]
\nIn 1955 a highset, gable-roofed, brick veneer building (Block B) was built on the edge of the concrete retaining wall to the northwest of Brick School Building. The construction of a high-set brick veneer building (Block C) to the east of the Suburban Timber School Building in 1956, provided a link between it and the Brick School Building. The demolition of the adjacent 1912 infants classroom building c1965 required extension of the verandah balustrade of the Suburban Timber School Building and regrading of ground to the north.[64]
\nImprovements to the school’s sporting facilities were made post-World War II with the addition of a swimming pool in 1956.[65]
\nChanges to the Depression-era Brick School Building have occurred during its lifetime; however, the building remains substantially intact and retains a high degree of integrity. In 1962 a tuck shop was built at the southern end of the undercroft.[66] In 1977 part of the first floor northern wing was remodelled for a Remedial Resources Room.[67] Between 1998 and 2000, under the Building Better School initiative, alterations to the central range included demolition forming wide openings in the masonry walls to combine classrooms, replacement of double-leaf doors with singles, division of the northern teachers’ room to form a health room and office, and conversion of the cloak rooms to offices and kitchenettes. The classroom at the western end of the second floor of the southern wing was also extended to occupy the corridor, with the corridor wall removed and a partition and doorway inserted.[68] Cloak rooms in the wings have been enclosed for use as staff or store rooms, and folding partitions between many of the classrooms have been removed to combine classrooms. Bulkheads remain demonstrating the original layout, and two sets of early folding partitions are retained in the southern wing.
\nThe Suburban Timber School Building has been subject to alterations associated with the 1950s additions, but remains fairly intact internally and retains its early three-classroom layout, decorative pressed-metal lined and coved ceilings, square ceiling-rose vents and metal tie rods. The prominent ventilation roof fleche appears to have been removed by 1974 (likely associated with re-sheeting of the roof) but the verandah wall framing retains evidence of former floor-level ventilation flaps either side of the doors. Traces of a partition that divided the central classroom from c1977 are also evident in the ceiling.[69] Modern partitions have formed small offices in the eastern (1955) classroom.
\nSince the major expansion during the 1950s, other buildings have been added to the site. A dental clinic was erected in 1975, and in the 21st century prep school buildings were constructed west of the Suburban Timber School Building (2006-14), a resource centre (2009) was built to the north of the Brick School Building, and a school hall (2011) was erected on the double tennis courts’ site adjacent to the swimming pool on the northern side of the school, which in 2016 houses the WWI honour board.[70]
\nNundah State School celebrated its centenary during September and October 1965. Celebrations included a fancy dress ball at Cloudland Ballroom; the opening of a new Centenary Library; a church service in the school grounds, an open day at the school, a concert by Infants School children, an operetta by Grade 7 pupils, an open swim at the school pool, and a procession from Nundah to the school playing field for its Centenary Fete. In conjunction with these celebrations, a centenary publication was produced.[71]
\nOther commemorative features exist at the school. A silky oak tree (Grevillea robusta) commemorating 100 years of state education in Queensland (1875-1975) was planted in the northeast corner of school grounds.[72] Set within the rose garden on the Bage Street side of the Brick School Building is a memorial commemorating those who served their country during World War II, which was unveiled in November 1995.
\nIn 2016, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains the Department of Public Works Depression-era Brick School Building and the Suburban Timber School Building with extensions, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities, playing areas, retaining walls and mature shade trees. Nundah State School is important to Nundah and its district, as a key social focus for the community, as generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
\n","criteria":"
Nundah State School (established in 1865 as German Station National School) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains fine, representative examples of standard government designs, which were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building (1935-51), retaining walls and improvements to the playing field are the result of the State Government’s building and relief work programmes during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
\nThe Suburban Timber School Building (1915-16) represents the culmination of years of experimentation with light, classroom size and elevation, by the Department of Public Works. Later extensions (1955, 1956) represent the Department of Public Works’ response to overcrowding in schools due to population growth after World War II.
\nThe World War I Honour Board is important in demonstrating the school community’s involvement in a major world event. War memorials, including honour boards, are a tribute to those who served, and those who died, from a particular community. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
\nThe large, suburban site with mature trees, sporting facilities, retaining walls and other landscaping features demonstrates the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Nundah State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school. These include: teaching buildings constructed to standard designs; and generous, landscaped sites, with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities.
\nThe substantial Depression-era Brick School Building is an excellent, highly-intact example of its type and retains a high degree of integrity. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of Depression-era Brick Schools, including: its symmetrically arranged two-storey form, with an undercroft; high-quality design with ornamental features; face brick exterior; terracotta-tiled roof; and projecting central entrance bay. The building has a linear layout, with rooms accessed by corridors, and an undercroft accommodating open play space and toilets.
\nThe Suburban Timber School Building demonstrates principal characteristics of its type. It retains its highset timber-framed structure with play space underneath, north-facing verandah, banks of casement windows, with fanlights, and projecting teachers room. The interior, with its symmetrical plan form, coved ceiling lined with pressed metal, partition bulkheads and early wall linings, is highly intact.
|Through its elegant composition of formal and decorative elements, substantial size and face brick exterior, the Depression-era Brick School Building at Nundah State School has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, by which the Department of Public Works sought to convey the concepts of progress and permanence.
\nThe building is also significant for its streetscape contribution. Standing on an open, elevated site, it is an attractive and prominent feature of the area.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nNundah State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Nundah and district community. It was established in 1865 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Nundah and district and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650035,"name":"Indooroopilly State High School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Ward Street","suburb":"INDOOROOPILLY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2016-10-14","description":"Indooroopilly State High School occupies a 12ha site in the suburb of Indooroopilly, approximately 7km southwest of Brisbane CBD. The site steeply slopes down from the north, and is accessed by an entrance driveway off the corner of Ward and Turner streets to the west, and a driveway from McCaul Street to the north. The site is also bounded by Lambert Road to the south, Carnarvon Road to the west, and Magor Street and Robertson’s Park to the east. The school retains its original complex of seven timber and brick buildings (constructed 1953-59), which are centrally located on a high, flat plateau area at the northern end of the site. Between the buildings are courtyard, assembly and play spaces, and circulation is facilitated by covered walkway connections and concrete stairs, pathways and pavements. The landscaped grounds are well established, and include bushland, mature trees, planter boxes, retaining walls, tennis / basketball courts and playing fields.
\nThe seven significant buildings within the school complex are:
\nThese buildings are constructed from a range of standard materials and structural methods employed by the Department of Public Works (DPW) during the 1950s, including: prefabricated Boulton & Paul (B&P) timber units (blocks A and B); timber trusses (blocks A and C); and steel open-web trusses (blocks D and E). Building A6, Block G, and the western end of Block B are purpose-designed buildings.
\nThe early site planning of the school grounds remains intact and is typical of Queensland schools during the mid to late 1950s. The long classroom blocks are arranged organically, following the contours of the site and linked around courtyard spaces. In the southwest corner of the complex are blocks A and C, positioned parallel to each other in an approximately east-west orientation. They are linked by Building A6 at the western end and a raised, covered walkway at the eastern end; and encircle a bitumen parade ground. Branching off from the east end of Block A is Block B, angled slightly towards the north, with a brick entranceway in between. Block D, the longest block, extends northwards from near the eastern end of Block B. To the north of Block C and west of Block D is a large, flat courtyard area known as ‘Town Square’. The northwest corner of the square is defined by blocks E and G, which are positioned at right angles to each other. Block E is orientated east-west, and Block G, to its south, is orientated north-south.
\nNon-significant elements of the buildings include air conditioning units (interior and exterior); replacement windows and doors; replacement wall and ceiling linings; accessibility ramps; and modern floor linings (carpet and linoleum), suspended ceilings, kitchenettes, fluorescent lighting and ceiling fans.
\nBlock A (1953-54): Boulton & Paul prefabricated classrooms; DPW timber trusses
\nBlock A is a long, two-storey building with a corrugated metal-clad gable roof that continues over a north-facing verandah. It contains classrooms on the first floor and west end of the ground floor, and toilets at the east end of the ground floor. The first floor is constructed from timber prefabricated Boulton & Paul timber units, and the ground floor is constructed from DPW-designed timber floor trusses (west end) and brick (east end toilets and store rooms).
\nThe exterior is clad in a variety of materials including: timber chamferboards (with the edges of vertical timber boards visible between each panel of the B&P wall units); vertical profiled metal sheeting (east facade first floor, south facade ground floor); and orange face brick (toilets and the southwestern corner of the ground floor).
\nThe southern facade features large banks of timber-framed top-hung awning windows along the first floor. The raked eaves are unlined and supported by timber struts fixed to window mullions below. At the west end, the ground floor wall is set back and divided into bays by the projecting tapered edges of the timber trusses. Windows within the bays are awning windows with modern louvres above. The brick eastern end has high-level windows. The east and west walls are blank.
\nAll access is via the northern facade. Timber stairs at the western end, which also provide access to the adjacent Building A6, are semi-enclosed with single-skin walls of exposed timber studs and chamferboard cladding, and have a timber post and rail balustrade. The first floor verandah has a raked ceiling clad in flat sheeting with exposed rafters aligned with joins in the wall panels, square timber posts, and a timber floor. Timber-framed bag racks form the balustrade, and are externally clad in profiled metal sheeting.
\nThe ground floor verandah has a concrete pavement floor and corrugated metal-clad ceiling. Square timber posts and a concrete spoon drain run along the outer edge. The concrete pavement is scored to resemble square pavers and steps up toward the eastern end, in line with the brick-enclosed section. The pavement continues around the northwest corner of the building to terminate in a landing with tubular metal handrails. From here, a short flight of concrete steps leads down to a modern concrete pathway.
\nWindows in the northern wall are large double-hung timber sashes (with fanlights above the first floor windows), and original doors are single or double, part-glazed timber doors with v-jointed (VJ) panelling.
\nThe interior of the first floor comprises four central classrooms, separated from an eastern and a western classroom by two narrow store rooms. The walls and ceilings are lined with flat sheeting, and most walls have rounded cover strips. Vertical members of the structural system are evident on the north and south walls, between pairs of windows. Two sets of original bi-fold timber panelled doors between classrooms are retained, as well as single panelled timber doors between some rooms.
\nOn the ground floor, walls within the brick toilets and store rooms are generally plastered or face brick, and floors are concrete. Doors include early high-waisted or vertical board doors, both with original hardware, and some high-level windows contain fixed glass louvres. Classrooms are lined with flat sheeting with rounded cover strips, and the tapered legs of the timber trusses are exposed within the space. Two of the classrooms have metal floor skirtings. Vertically-sliding, timber-framed blackboards are retained in one classroom on the first floor and one on the ground floor.
\nBlock B (1954): Boulton & Paul prefabricated classrooms; Brick ground floor; Purpose-built western end (former Principal’s Office)
\nBlock B is a long, two-storey building, with a corrugated metal-clad gable roof that continues over a north-facing verandah. Most of the first floor is of prefabricated timber B&P units, containing two classrooms and a store room, and stands on a brick ground floor containing toilets and a large store room. The narrower western end is purpose-designed, containing an office and store room on the first floor and a former outdoor area on the ground floor (enclosed with modern partitions to form a small office).
\nThe exterior of the eastern end is clad in timber chamferboards (with the edges of vertical timber boards visible between each panel of the B&P wall units) vertical profiled metal sheeting (east facade first floor) and orange face brick. The raked eaves of the south wall are unlined and supported by timber struts fixed to window mullions below.
\nThe purpose-designed western end is clad predominantly in timber chamferboards. The walls of the former Principal’s Office in the southwest corner are set back and clad with vertical profiled metal sheeting and flat sheeting. The southwest corner of the office stands on a thick, rounded-rectangular concrete column, and three tall steel posts support the overhang of the roof.
\nMost of the early timber joinery has been retained, including: top-hung awning windows to the former Principal’s Office and the south wall of the B&P classrooms; double-hung sash windows to the verandah wall (with fanlights above) and ground floor store room; and fixed glass louvres to the toilets. Other ground floor windows have been replaced with metal-framed sliders. Early doors include double, part-glazed timber doors with VJ panelling, and vertical board doors, both with original hardware.
\nThe first floor verandah is accessed via timber stairs at the eastern end that are semi-enclosed with timber-framed glazed screens. The verandah has a timber floor, square timber posts and a raked ceiling lined with flat sheeting. Timber-framed bag racks form the balustrade, and are externally clad in profiled metal sheeting. A framed section of chamferboards near the western end of the verandah wall indicates a former opening to an internal stair (now removed).
\nThe ground floor verandah has a profiled metal-lined ceiling, concrete pavement floor and is edged by square timber posts and a spoon drain. The pavement, scored to resemble square pavers, extends north of the verandah line at the eastern and western ends.
\nOn the first floor, the interior walls and ceilings of both sections are lined in flat sheeting and skirtings are timber, of a simple profile. Single panelled timber doors survive between some rooms. In the B&P section, vertical members of the structural system are evident on the north and south walls, between pairs of windows. In the former Principal’s Office, the location of removed partitions is evident in the ceiling lining. A small alcove remains in the western wall, which originally contained a sink (now a kitchenette). The ground floor has a concrete slab floor, which has been covered with modern linings in various locations, and painted brick and plastered walls. Early timber perimeter seating is retained in the central store room.
\nBrick entranceway and stairs between Block A and Block B (c1954)
\nA raised covered walkway with a skillion roof links the first floor verandahs of blocks A and B. The southern side of the walkway is two-storey brick wall with a ground floor opening that forms an entranceway to the parade ground area. Fixed above the opening is metal lettering – ‘INDOOROOPILLY STATE HIGH SCHOOL’. The ground beneath the walkway is concrete pavement, accessed from the southern side by a set of steps with adjacent planter box and garden area. Projecting perpendicular to the walkway on the north side is a tall brick planter box and adjacent set of timber stairs with tubular metal handrails. A metal flag pole is attached to the north face of the planter box. The north side of the walkway is open, with a timber rail balustrade.
\nBlock C (1954-55): Timber school building with clerestory windows; Concrete columns; DPW timber trusses
\nBlock C is a long, two-storey building with a corrugated metal-clad gable roof and north-facing verandah. The first floor contains classrooms while the ground floor, formerly open play space with storage at the east end, has 1980s brick enclosures (tuck shop and former book store) that are not of heritage significance. The first floor is supported by a combination of large, round concrete posts, timber trusses (in the rooms at the east end); and round metal posts (supporting the first floor verandah). Brick walls define the ends of the building. The building is predominantly clad in timber chamferboards, with the exception of the eastern elevation first floor, which is clad in profiled metal sheeting. The raked eaves of the south wall are supported by timber struts fixed to window mullions below.
\nAccess to the first floor is via a set of semi-enclosed timber stairs at the western end of the verandah, and an internal staircase at the eastern end. The separate gable roof over the western stairs is partly supported by metal poles that are angled to form a V shape, and an early sink survives in the northwest corner of the landing. The eastern end of the verandah and part of the western end are enclosed with timber-framed glazed screens.
\nEarly timber joinery is retained throughout the first floor, with large banks of top-hung awning windows with centre-pivoting fanlights along the south facade and double-hung windows with centre-pivoting clerestory windows along the verandah wall. Early doors include double, two-light doors with VJ panels to the verandah and east stairwell, and panelled, two-light interior doors, both with original hardware.
\nThe first floor verandah has a low-pitched skillion roof, set below clerestory windows; a raked ceiling lined with flat sheeting and rounded cover strips; a timber floor and square timber verandah posts. Timber-framed bag racks form the balustrade, and are externally clad in profiled metal sheeting. Metal grills fixed above the bag racks are recent and not of heritage significance. Large rectangular vents (date unknown) are positioned below some windows in the verandah wall.
\nThe classroom interiors on the first floor are generally lined in flat sheeting on the walls and ceilings, with rounded cover strips to some walls and simple timber skirtings.
\nThe unenclosed areas of the ground floor have ceilings lined with flat sheeting (with cover strips in some sections), and a concrete pavement floor scored to resemble square pavers. Below the first floor verandah the ceiling is unlined. The rooms at the eastern end have timber double hung windows (north wall), glass louvres (south wall), internal walls and ceilings lined with flat sheeting with rounded cover strips, and the tapered legs of the timber trusses are exposed within the space.
\nA raised covered walkway with a flat roof links the eastern ends of blocks A and C. Constructed from timber, it is supported by square timber posts and has a three-rail timber balustrade. The floor is provided additional support by diagonal struts attached to the posts. The ceiling is lined with flat sheeting with rounded cover strips.
\nBuilding A6 (1955): Purpose-built (former Drawing Room)
\nBuilding A6 is a highset, masonry building with a corrugated metal-clad gable roof, and is set on a north-south axis. Smaller than the classroom blocks, it connects Block A and Block C at their western ends and forms an edge to the parade ground. It contains a single large room and a store room on the first floor, and the ground floor is open, with some sections enclosed for storage. A narrow section of the building, containing storage on the ground floor and a former corridor on the first floor, extends north to run alongside the west end of Block C, and connects with its western staircase. Walls are predominantly orange face brick with some sections of profiled metal sheeting (below window sill height) and flat sheeting. The brick end walls extend to form wing walls in line with the horizontal eaves on the eastern facade. Large concrete columns of rounded or lozenge-shaped profile support the central section of the building.
\nBanks of top-hung awning windows occupy the full length of the east facade of the first floor, while a single row of high awning windows runs along the west facade. Access to the first floor is via a small stair at the northern end of the building, and via the landing of Block A’s western stairs at the southern end. One early door survives: a high-waisted, single-light door with a VJ panel at the southern first floor entrance.
\nThe interior of the first floor has plaster walls, timber skirtings of a simple profile, and a modern fitout.
\nThe ground floor is mostly open play space, with a concrete pavement floor scored to resemble square pavers. The northeast corner has been enclosed with face brick to form a store room (former armoury) and the southern end is enclosed with face brick and metal caging to form a sports store. A brick planter box is cut into the terrain on the east side of the store room. The concrete pavement extends west beyond the building footprint, connecting with a concrete pathway and stairs along the west side of both Block C and Building A6.
\nParade Ground (1954-55)
\nThe parade ground between Block A, Block C and Building A6 has an upper level of gently sloping ground lined with bitumen, and a lower level (along the southern and western edges) of concrete pavement scored to resemble square pavers. Connecting the levels is a long, curving set of concrete stairs that run from the brick planter box at the northeast corner of Building A6 and curve around to run parallel with Block A. Modern shade structures and concrete planter boxes within the parade ground area are not of heritage significance.
\nBlock D (1957-58): Timber and brick school building with clerestory windows; Open-web steel floor trusses
\nBlock D is a long, two storey building, orientated on a north-south axis and cut into the sloping terrain, so that the upper floor of the building is at ground level on the western side. Constructed predominantly from orange brick, it has a corrugated metal-clad gable roof, with the eaves on the eastern side supported by timber struts fixed to window mullions below. The ground floor contains classrooms connected by a west-facing verandah, while the understorey, formerly open play space, has been progressively enclosed to form additional classrooms. An open-web metal truss system supports the ground floor, held up by lozenge-shaped concrete columns and a battered concrete retaining wall which forms the western wall of the understorey.
\nTimber-framed, top-hung awning windows with centre-pivoting fanlights run almost the entire length of the first floor eastern facade. Stairwells with separate gable roofs are located at each end of the building, enclosed by facebrick walls glazed with timber-framed screens with wired-glass insets. The stairs are concrete and have tubular metal pole handrails.
\nThe western verandah has a low-pitched skillion roof, with clerestory windows (glass louvres) above; square timber posts; and a concrete pavement floor scored to resemble square pavers. The verandah wall is clad in timber chamferboards, and the raked ceiling is lined with flat sheeting with cover strips. A timber-framed glazed screen is located next to the northern verandah entrance with a partially buried brick planter box in front. Timber-framed bag racks along the verandah edge have profiled metal cladding on the exterior. Windows are timber-framed, double-hung sash windows, and all verandah doors have been replaced.
\nThe ground floor level comprises seven classrooms of the same size, interconnected by single, panelled, two-light timber doors adjacent to the eastern wall. The classroom walls are lined in flat sheeting with rounded cover-strips up to dado level, and ceilings are lined in flat sheeting. Early angled hylo-boards with inbuilt cupboards are retained in each classroom.
\nThe understorey level is accessed by a 1970s covered walkway that is not of heritage significance. Enclosing walls date from different periods, with those at the eastern end, constructed from profiled metal sheeting and glass louvres, being the earliest. A number of classrooms and store rooms have been formed by internal partitions, with the open-web steel trusses remaining visible. Early doors include internal single, part-glazed timber doors with VJ panelling.
\n‘Town Square’ (1958-65) and Stairway (1960)
\nThe large courtyard area known as ‘Town Square’ comprises a large lawn encircled by bitumen driveways and blocks D (east) C (south) G (west) and E (north). Other gardens and grassed areas are located in front of blocks C and D. Two concrete pathways cross the lawn and converge at a point near the base of a wide, concrete stairway adjacent to the east end of Block E. The stairway ascends the steep slope and links to a pathway to McCaul Street. Orange brick walls form a retaining wall along the east side, terminating at a brick planter box at the base. Tall brick-enclosed garden beds form the western side of the stairway and wrap around the southeast corner of Block E. One garden wall has been recently replaced by rendered concrete blockwork. Tubular metal handrails run down the centre of the stairway and single rails are attached to the side walls.
\nBlock E (1958-59): Timber and brick school building with clerestory windows; Open-web steel floor trusses
\nBlock E is a two-storey, timber and brick building, set on an east-west axis, with a corrugated metal-clad gable roof and north-facing verandah. The slope of the site has been cut and retained with a concrete wall to accommodate the building. The first floor, which contains classrooms and a staff room, is supported on lozenge-shaped columns and open-web floor trusses. The building has face brick end walls and ground floor enclosures, and the remaining external walls are clad in chamferboards. Large banks of timber-framed, top-hung awning windows with recent, fixed fanlights above run along the first floor southern facade.
\nThe ground floor slab is elevated above ‘Town Square’ and is accessed along the southern side by concrete steps leading to a central landing with tubular metal balustrades. Concrete pavements and pathways run around a large brick garden bed at the west end of the building to connect with the northern side of the ground floor.
\nDue to the sloping site, the first floor verandah is at ground level at the eastern end, accessed from the adjacent stairway via a concrete-paved, face brick entrance bay with a vertical timber louvre screen in the northern wall. A timber stair is located at the western end, semi-enclosed with timber-framed, wired-glass screens, with the lower panels coloured in red, yellow and blue. Below the western stair is a landing used as a seating area.
\nThe verandah has a low-pitched roof, set below clerestory windows (glass louvres) and is supported by round metal posts. The floor is timber and the ceiling is lined in flat sheeting with rectangular cover strips. Timber-framed bag racks form the balustrade, and are externally clad in profiled metal sheeting. Windows in the verandah wall are timber-framed double hung sashes, and all doors have been replaced.
\nThe interior of the first floor has walls lined in flat sheeting with rounded cover-strips below dado-level, and ceilings lined in flat sheeting. Early angled hylo-boards with inbuilt cupboards are retained in each of the classrooms. Panelled, two-light interior doors with original hardware connect some of the rooms.
\nThe ground floor comprises toilets at the eastern end, enclosed in face brick walls, and open play space with a concrete pavement floor scored to resemble square pavers, which extends north of the verandah line. The open-web metal trusses are exposed within the ground floor spaces and cantilever over the northern paved area. A timber bench is retained within the central, open play space. A store room is located beneath the far western end of the block, accessed by a boarded timber door. A 1980s brick-enclosed room (formerly a Textiles Room) is not of heritage significance.
\nBlock G (1958-59): Purpose-built (former Domestic Science building)
\nBlock G is a single-storey, brick and timber building, orientated on a north-south axis and standing on a brick base. It is clad in timber chamferboards and has a corrugated metal-clad, shallow pitched gable roof. The building contains a series of rooms of different sizes, including store rooms and a large cooking classroom, linked by a passageway along the western side. Large banks of timber-framed, top-hung awning windows with recent, fixed fanlights above run along the eastern wall, with some windows in the centre blocked off.
\nThe main entrance is via a gable-roofed entrance portico at the southern end. Semi-enclosed by face brick walls, it features a large timber-framed glazed screen in the southern wall, fitted with metal louvres and tall, wired glass panes. The portico contains a short flight of brick stairs with a tubular metal rail balustrade. A secondary entrance is via an open flight of timber stairs, also with a tubular metal rail balustrade, to a covered walkway on the north side, which links Block G with the ground floor level of Block E.
\nThe western passageway has a timber floor and is enclosed by profiled metal-clad bag racks and banks of wired glass louvres. The passageway roof is supported by metal posts, and the flat ceiling is lined with flat sheeting with rounded cover strips. The eastern wall of the passageway is timber-framed with modern fixed glazing above dado level, and banks of vertical glass louvres above. Internal walls and ceilings are lined with flat sheeting. The internal fitout and some partitions and doors are replacements, dating from the 1970s onwards, and are not of heritage significance.
\nA covered area with a flat roof supported by round metal posts and a concrete pavement floor links the southern end of Block G with Block C’s western staircase. A concrete-edged garden bed adjacent to the entrance portico has been modified to accommodate an access ramp. The west wing of Block G, including its connecting link, is not of heritage significance.
\nDriveways (1960-61)
\nThe bitumen entrance driveways from McCaul Street (north) and Ward Street (southwest) are edged with concrete curbing. The southwest driveway is partly edged by stone-lined retaining walls as it approaches blocks B and D.
\nGrounds
\nThe grounds are well established and contain numerous gardens and mature trees of a wide variety of species, both native and introduced. The steep, northern portion of the grounds retains a native forest area which forms an attractive backdrop to ‘Town Square’ and the northern entrance drive. Remnant patches of tall eucalyptus trees are found throughout the grounds.
\nTennis and basketball courts are located to the west of the 1950s complex. On the low-lying, flat southern grounds are a large Sports Oval (c1959) at the western end and open playing fields to the east, both fringed by mature trees. A low metal gate with lettering ‘I S H S’ is located at the north end of the oval.
","history":"Indooroopilly State High School (SHS) opened in early 1954 in response to post-World War II (WWII) population growth in Brisbane’s suburbs and the growing demand for secondary education. In 2016 Indooroopilly SHS retains its original complex of seven timber and brick buildings constructed during 1953-59: Block A (1953-54); Block B (1954); Block C (1954-55); Building A6 (1955); Block D (1957-58); Block E (1958-59) and Block G (1958-59). These buildings are constructed from a range of standard materials and structural methods employed by the Department of Public Works (DPW) during the 1950s, including: prefabricated Boulton & Paul timber units (blocks A and B); timber trusses (blocks A and C); and steel open-web trusses (blocks D and E). The buildings also feature differences in roof form, glazing, and verandah and stair arrangements that illustrate changes to standard school building types throughout the late-1950s. The school retains its organic 1950s site planning of long classroom blocks positioned in response to existing and man-made contours, spiralling around a high point in the centre of the steeply-sloping site. Blocks are connected by covered areas and walkways, and landscape elements include brick planter boxes, concrete stairs and pavements, a bitumen parade ground and roadways, retaining walls, gardens, mature trees, and sporting facilities such as a c1959 oval and mid-1960s basketball and tennis courts. The school has been in continuous operation since its establishment.
\nThe suburb of Indooroopilly is located 7km southwest of the Brisbane CBD. Although the Indooroopilly area was surveyed as farm allotments in 1858, central Indooroopilly did not attract agricultural settlement to the same extent as nearby Fig Tree Pocket, St Lucia and Long Pocket; and its development was limited until the Brisbane to Ipswich railway line opened to the locality in 1875. In the late 19th century a small township developed near the Indooroopilly railway station, and a number of large villas were erected on the banks of the Brisbane River. By the 1920s further subdivision had created a busy suburb, and growth was also facilitated by the opening of the Walter Taylor road bridge [QHR 600181] in 1936.[1] Indooroopilly’s population (including Taringa) rose from 1029 in 1911, to 2048 in 1921, and 8565 by 1947.[2]
\nEarly schools near Indooroopilly included Toowong Mixed School (opened 1870, now Ironside State school, St Lucia) and Indooroopilly State School, opened in 1889.[3] The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[4]
\nAfter WWII, Indooroopilly was chosen as the site for a new state high school. In Queensland, governments were slow to establish state secondary education, considering it to be of little relevance to Queensland's primary industry-based economy. It was not until 1912 that the government instituted a high school system, whereby separate high schools were established in major towns or, where the student population was too small, a primary school was expanded to include a 'high top'. In Queensland generally, high schools remained few in number until after WWII, when secondary education was generally accepted as essential and was more widely provided for.[5]
\nIn 1954 it was reported that high school enrolments in Queensland had more than doubled since 1948, from 4500 to nearly 11,000.[6] The Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’.[7] Queensland schools were faced with enormous overcrowding and a lack of resources because the Queensland Government and community saw education as a low priority and provided the department with only a small budget. The overriding concern for the Department of Public Instruction was the need to build school buildings as expeditiously and economically as possible.[8]
\nThe Queensland Government had a long-standing practice of developing standard plans for its school buildings, which helped ensure consistency and economy throughout the state. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, and standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy. Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation.[9] In the post-WWII period, the pressures of material shortages and rapid population growth forced the DPW to experiment with prefabrication and new, more efficient structural systems in order to keep up with demand for additional school buildings.[10]
\nIn an attempt to relieve the pressure on the existing state high schools in central Brisbane,[11] which did not have sufficient room to expand, a decision was made in 1950 to establish three new suburban high schools, which would commence with an initial intake of Year 9 pupils and grow over four years.[12] Reflecting the growth of suburbanisation and a move towards a decentralised population in urban centres, new high schools were located in suburban areas rather than the centre of town. This allowed for large grounds with ample room for sports facilities. The general classroom buildings were the same standard types as used for primary schools but high schools also included purpose-built facilities such as science laboratories, domestic science buildings, workshops for woodwork and metal work, libraries, and gymnasiums. These were also built to standard plans but were specific to their use and not a continuation of previous designs.[13]
\nThere was also a focus on the fit between the school and its neighbourhood, as well as site planning for expansion. In the early 1950s, architects developed master planning concepts that influenced the design and layout of the whole school. Initially, these plans were broadly based on regular and symmetrical plan forms around a central or prominent axis.[14] A few years later there was a shift away from grid-like layouts to organic layouts which provided for growth and change. Classroom wings were connected to and fanned away from a central nucleus. Master planning schemes were focussed on the ideal solar orientation of buildings as well as their relationship to the natural contours and existing vegetation, resulting in building layouts that were more asymmetrical and open. The long, narrow buildings were positioned so that the spaces captured between them created playground areas and courtyards.[15]
\nIndooroopilly SHS was one of the three high schools planned to open in Brisbane in 1954, each with room for 250 students. The suburb of Indooroopilly was chosen so that the school could service the western suburbs, with Banyo SHS servicing the northern suburbs and Salisbury SHS the southeast suburbs, thus reducing the number of secondary pupils travelling to and from the city area.[16] Each school would have room for sports fields, and the buildings would be of brick and timber, with spacious well-lit classrooms, modern furniture, and provision for science laboratories, commercial rooms and libraries.
\nBy May 1950 the Department of Public Instruction had identified a satisfactory site for establishing a high school at Indooroopilly. At that time, Indooroopilly was growing rapidly, with house building extending towards St Lucia.[17] The proposed site, which eventually encompassed 29.7 acres (12ha), was situated on high ground at the eastern edge of Indooroopilly’s suburban development, and was ‘handy to St Lucia Fiveways and Indooroopilly railway station’.[18] A mixture of bush and scrub at the northern end, and low lying, cleared land traversed by a creek at the south end, it included parts of farm portions 38, 39 and 42, originally granted to Thomas Lodge Murray Prior.[19] A pre-1936 farmhouse (which was retained by Indooroopilly SHS until at least 1969) stood at the centre of the site, accessed by driveways from Lambert Road to the south and McCaul Street to the north.[20]
\nThe various land parcels needed to form the high school reserve were acquired by the Department of Public Instruction by early 1951. The northern part of the school site – part of Portion 38, consisting of 4.8ha – located south of McCaul Street and between Turner and Magor Streets, was resumed for school purposes by a proclamation dated 22 February 1951.[21] The southern part of the school site, located north of Lambert Road and between Carnarvon Road and Magor Street, absorbed Turner Street (unformed) to the south of Ward Street, plus four land parcels. The largest of these, 3.5ha of land which included parts of portions 38 and 39, was resumed for the school by the February 1951 proclamation.[22] Another 1.6ha was also added to the southeast corner of the school grounds.[23] In addition, a small parcel of 0.03ha near Lambert Road was resumed for the school by the February 1951 proclamation.[24] The site of the western half of the later school oval, 1.7ha of land that was formerly resubdivisions 487-527 of Portions 38, 39 and 42A (a road reserve), was purchased by the Secretary of Public Instruction in January 1951.[25] This part of the school grounds already possessed a concrete cricket pitch by 1936, which was later replaced by the school oval.[26]
\nThe request to commence construction of Indooroopilly State High School was given in July 1953 by the Director General of the Department of Public Instruction (Herbert G Watkin) to the Under Secretary of Public Works. Expenditure of £26,494 for the erection of the first section of the school was announced in September 1953, and clearing work at the site began in October 1953.[27]
\nIndooroopilly SHS opened on 2 February 1954, with one classroom building (known as Block A in 2016), erected on high ground near the centre of the site. The opening enrolment comprised 167 Year 9 students.[28] The building itself combined structural systems and materials typically used for school buildings at that time. The upper floor of the block was constructed from prefabricated Boulton & Paul timber units, while the ground floor structure comprised DPW-designed timber floor trusses at the western end and brick walls at the eastern end.[29]
\nResponding to materials shortages and population pressures post-WWII, the DPW imported a British building system from manufacturers Boulton & Paul Ltd of Norwich. Based on an 8ft (2.4m) planning and construction module, the prefabricated elements in the Boulton & Paul system included ceiling panels, roof trusses, banks of awning windows, and 4ft wide wall panels. The buildings were constructed at many schools across Queensland between 1951 and 1958.[30] Timber framed and clad, they had a verandah as circulation and a gable roof. Ideally, they were oriented so the verandah faced north and the classrooms faced south. The stairs and verandah ends were often semi-enclosed with glazed screens. The building could be lowset or highset and had extensive areas of timber framed awning windows, providing more glazing than had ever been used in Queensland classrooms. The classrooms were 24ft x 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m), larger than most previous classrooms.[31] The flexibility of the Boulton & Paul system meant that the number of classrooms per block could vary in number to suit the needs of a particular school, and classrooms could also be used to extend existing blocks or form part of new blocks in combination with other structural systems.
\nFrom the early 1950s the Department of Public Instruction introduced and developed new standard plans for school buildings, which were similar in form and layout to the Boulton & Paul buildings but not prefabricated: long, narrow, timber-framed buildings with a gable roof, north facing verandah with posts that extended from ground level to roof line, semi-enclosed stairs, and extensive areas of glazing to the verandah and southern classroom walls.[32] This type was the most commonly constructed in the 1950s in Queensland.[33]
\nIn 1954 the type was improved by replacing the proliferation of stumps in the understorey with a timber truss that spanned the width of the classrooms above and provided an unimpeded play space.[34] This truss system, introduced to support Boulton & Paul prefabricated units, was subsequently adopted for conventional timber-framed school buildings. The trusses were distinctive for their tapered legs.[35]
\nBlock A was orientated approximately east-west, with the eastern end angled towards the south. The upper floor contained six 24ft by 24ft (7.3m by 7.3m) classrooms and two teachers rooms. Three of the classrooms were interconnected by large folding timber doors. A semi-enclosed staircase attached to the verandah was located at the western end. The ground floor was completely enclosed, with toilets, locker rooms and store rooms within the brick section at the eastern end; a ‘Students’ Space’ in the centre; and three classrooms at the eastern end – a Commercial Classroom, Science Lecture Room, and a Science Laboratory. Two store rooms were located between the science rooms. The timber floor trusses were visible within the classrooms and students’ space. Banks of awning windows along the southern classroom walls looked out over the low lying grounds and surrounding neighbourhood, while the verandah faced higher ground to the north that would eventually be levelled and turned into a courtyard.[36]
\nThe school was soon extended with the addition of a second building (known as Block B in 2016), which also incorporated Boulton & Paul prefabricated units for the upper floor, but the west end and brick ground floor were purpose-designed by the DPW.[37] Work on Block B was approved in January 1954, and it was erected during 1954.[38] The new building was linked to the east end of Block A by a raised walkway, and was orientated with its eastern end angling towards the northeast, following the contours of the site. Shorter than Block A, Block B originally housed manual training and administration.
\nWhile standard designs predominated in the 1950s, non-standard schools were also constructed, generally in Brisbane and the metropolitan areas where the population was stable and brick supplies guaranteed. Often substantial buildings with extensive use of brick and concrete, these schools introduced many innovative ideas which influenced later standards. Brick was progressively used more frequently in high schools for end walls, and was also commonly used to enclose toilets and stairwells and for landscape elements.[39]
\nIn Block B, the Boulton & Paul section of the building contained a Sheet Metal Room at the eastern end and a Woodwork Room, with a store room and Saw Room in between. On the western side of the Woodwork Room were store and staff rooms. The purpose-designed west end of the upper floor was narrower in width. It contained an internal staircase, a small store room, a Waiting Room, and the Principal’s Office, which was located in the southwest corner. The brick ground floor comprised toilets at the eastern end, a Timber Store, and a large Change Room with bench seating around the edges (temporarily used as a Trade-drawing Room in 1956). The western end was semi-enclosed, originally designated as a Students’ Quiet Area. In the southwest corner, a thick concrete column supported the Principal’s Office above, and the overhang of the gable roof was supported by steel posts.[40]
\nThe landscaping design of Indooroopilly State High School introduced new ideas in the integration of external built landscape elements (such as stairs, planter boxes and pavements) with adjacent functional areas.[41] As the school grew, spaces between buildings and at the ends of blocks were be purpose-designed to address ground level changes, improve circulation, and create gardens, seating and play areas for the students. Between blocks A and B an entranceway was created beneath the connecting walkway. A two-storey brick wall ran along the southern side of the walkway with metal lettering –‘INDOOROOPILLY STATE HIGH SCHOOL’ – attached above an opening. The entranceway was fronted by a concrete pavement and steps with adjacent planter box. Early class photographs show students arranged in rows on these steps, with the entranceway visible in the background. Projecting perpendicular to the walkway on the north side was a tall brick planter box and adjacent set of timber stairs with tubular metal handrails. A flag pole was attached to the north face of the planter box.[42]
\nIn 1954-55, a third classroom wing (known as Block C in 2016) was added to the site, to the north of and parallel with Block A.[43] On the upper level, it was a standard DPW timber school building type,[44] comprising four 24ft by 24ft (7.3m by 7.3m) classrooms, one larger 32ft by 24ft (9.7m by 7.3m) classroom (designated as a Commercial Room), a north-facing verandah with clerestory lighting above the verandah roof, and a semi-enclosed stair with purpose-designed roof at the western end of the verandah. An internal staircase at the eastern end led to an elevated covered walkway, which linked the eastern ends of blocks C and A. The lower level of Block C was predominantly open play area supported by round concrete columns, with a locker room (supported by timber trusses) and a brick cloak room at the eastern end. Due to the steep slope, the ground floor was cut into the site with a retaining wall along the north side of the play area. This made the verandah accessible from ground level at the eastern end, via a short flight of concrete steps flanked by brick planter boxes.[45]
\nA second stage of Block C and landscaping works were constructed in late 1955. A 24ft by 44ft (7.3m by 13.4m) classroom, designated as a Drawing Room, was constructed between blocks A and C at their western ends, forming a link between them. Orientated approximately north-south, this addition (known as Building A6 in 2016) had a shallow gable roof, extensive glazing along the eastern wall of the upper floor, and high level windows along the western wall. The ground floor was open play area with bike racks at either end and access to a bicycle storage room under the western end of Block C. Supported mainly on round concrete columns and brick end walls, an opening in the western wall had a special feature – lozenge-shaped concrete columns that supported four large ‘round the corner’ doors, that allowed the underfloor area to be sealed off from westerly winds (doors now removed).[46]
\nLandscaping works included the formation of a flat, bitumen parade ground in the newly created courtyard between blocks A and C. To address ground level changes between the blocks, a long set of concrete steps ran from a planter box at the northeast corner of Building A6 and curved around to run parallel with Block A, before ending at a right angle in line with the girls locker rooms. Below these steps the ground was concrete pavement, scored to resemble square concrete pavers.[47]
\nAs more buildings were added to the site, rooms in earlier buildings were converted for other uses. For example, in 1954-55 the western end of the ground floor became the Chemistry Lab, Physics Laboratory and Science Lecture room, while the Students’ Space became a Library and Reading Room. The western classroom on the first floor became a Physics Lecture Room.[48]
\nThroughout the late 1950s the school continued to expand to successively accommodate all four high school years. A new two storey block which incorporated the latest structural system of steel open-web joists (known as Block D in 2016) was built north of Block B, in two stages, during 1957-58.[49] From 1957, steel open-web joists that spanned further and removed more understorey stumps replaced the use of timber trusses. This structural system was employed with reinforced concrete piers to support large loads at minimal costs.[50] This was further refined in 1959 by replacing the concrete piers and open-web joist with a steel portal frame that was employed extensively in the 1960s and 1970s.[51]
\nOrientated north-south and cut into the slope, the upper floor of Block D was at ground level along the western side, with a battered concrete retaining wall forming the western wall of the lower level. The upper level was of the same standard timber classroom type as Block C, with a west-facing verandah and clerestory lighting above the verandah roof. When completed, it contained seven identical 24ft by 24ft (7.3m by 7.3m) classrooms, all interconnected by a single door adjacent to the eastern wall. Brick-enclosed stairwells were located at either end of the block, leading down to a large recreation area with a concrete floor. Along the open eastern side were lozenge-shaped concrete columns supporting the steel open-web joists. By late-1959, parts of the lower floor had been enclosed to form temporary classrooms.[52]
\nA second, larger courtyard area was created north of Block C by the addition of two more blocks in 1958-59 – a Domestic Science block (known as Block G in 2016) and a classroom block (known as Block E in 2016).[53] In order to construct them, however, the area had to be lowered and flattened, with excavation works taking place during 1958. Some of the fill was deposited in the western school grounds, where tennis and basketball courts were later formed.[54] The level of the new courtyard (known as ‘Town Square’ in 2016) was the same as the ground floor of Block C, which meant that the concrete steps and planter box at the east end of Block C’s verandah were demolished.[55] Blocks E and G were arranged at right angles to each other and formed the northwest corner of ‘Town Square’. Block G, the smaller of the two, was oriented north-south with its western wall approximately in line with the west end of Block C. Block E ran east-west and part of its lower floor was cut into the slope.
\nBlock E was constructed using standard timber school building construction types[56] with steel open-web trusses supporting the first floor. It had a north-facing verandah, with clerestory lighting above the verandah roof, and contained four 24ft by 24ft (7.3m by 7.3m) classrooms and a 12ft by 24ft (3.6m by 7.3m) teachers room. A semi-enclosed timber stair was located at the western end of the verandah. The eastern end of the verandah was at ground level and had a concrete-paved entrance bay with a vertical timber louvre screen in the northern wall. The ends of the building and part of the ground floor were constructed from brick. The ground floor was largely open play area, with the pavement extending north of the verandah line, surrounded by a concrete retaining wall.[57]
\nBlock G was a single storey, gable-roofed building on a raised brick base, with its floor level slightly lower than the ground floor of Block E. It had a passageway enclosed with glass louvres along the western side, and contained classrooms of different sizes for Domestic Science, including a Dressmaking Room, Dining Room, Cookery Room and Lecture Room. A purpose-designed brick portico, glazed with metal louvers and fixed glass, formed the entrance at the southern end, and by 1961 a covered area linked it to the western end of Block C.[58]
\nThe school grounds continued to be improved throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the scrub northwest of the school buildings had been cleared, and the bush to the northeast had been thinned out to a scatter of trees. In the low-lying southwest corner the school sports oval was formed and a properly laid-down cricket pitch constructed.[59] This was followed in 1960-61 by the formation of new bitumen access driveways – one leading from McCaul Street (at the northeast corner of the site) to the northeast corner of ‘Town Square’; and one from the intersection of Turner and Ward streets that ascended the slope along the southern sides of blocks A and B, and curved northwards to pass between blocks B and D. Further bitumen driveways formed a loop around ‘Town Square’.[60]
\nIn 1960, the area around Block E was re-landscaped to provide better circulation. This included new pathways, stairs, retaining walls and garden beds. Toilets were constructed under the eastern end of the building (within sub-floor space) and a new, wide pedestrian stairway, with adjacent garden bed and planter boxes, was also constructed adjacent to the east end of Block E, linking ‘Town Square’ to a pathway that led north to McCaul Street. By 1964, two concrete pathways had been constructed across the central lawn of ‘Town Square’, converging near the base of the stairway.[61]
\nBy 1960, the school had a population approaching 800 students. Student numbers continued to grow, with a sudden increase in 1964, when Year 8 students were transferred from the primary school system to become the first year of high school.[62]
\nChanges were made to the 1950s buildings over time, new buildings were added to the site, and improvements made to the grounds. A tuckshop was built under the west end of Block C by 1963 (since removed), and a science block (Block F in 2016) was built in 1965. The room under the east end of Block C was also partitioned in 1968.[63] In the grounds, two cricket practice wickets (extant in 2016) were built just east of the oval by 1963; levelling work occurred west of the school buildings in the 1960s, and two basketball courts and four tennis courts opened in 1965.[64] New trees were also planted to the north of Block E. During the 1960s the creek in the southern part of the school grounds was progressively filled in, and underground stormwater pipes were laid, from the east side of the oval to the east side of the grounds.[65]
\nFurther alterations were made to the 1950s buildings in the 1970s and 1980s. A two-storey building was added to the west of Block G in c1972, and Block G’s interior was reconfigured. Around this time a small Armoury room was constructed beneath building A6. The centre of the ground floor of Block D was enclosed for an Arts and Crafts room and a covered walkway and courtyard area were added along its eastern side.[66] In 1979 the first floor of building A6 was remodelled to become a junior science room, with a storeroom constructed at the north end.[67] The first floor rooms at the east end of Block B were reconfigured to become two classrooms and an office in c1981 (at some point the internal staircase in the west end of Block B was demolished and the space merged with the adjacent office). A textiles room was constructed on the ground floor of Block E by enclosing the southwest section of the play area in c1984. On the ground floor of Block C, a new tuck shop was constructed in the centre of the play area and a stationary and book store at the eastern end in c1984.[68] The lower floor of Block D was converted for different uses in the 1980s, including metalwork and woodwork shops.[69] By 1989 other minor changes to partitioning had occurred in blocks A, B and D.[70]
\nAdditional school buildings have been constructed around the 1950s complex on the lower ground to the west, south and east. These included: Block H (administration), a demountable building (west of Block E), and a large assembly hall (west of Block C) by 1977; and Blocks J (manual arts), I (library), K (music, Block L in 2016), and a science building (southeast of Block F) between 1979 and 1986. Demountable buildings were also temporarily used by the school in the 1970s and 1980s, including one placed near the east end of Block C.[71] Other buildings were added to the school between 1986 and 2016, in an outer arc. Alterations to the 1950s buildings and landscape elements since 2000 include the refurbishment of the toilets in blocks A and B, replacement of the roof sheeting of blocks A, B, C, D, E & G, and the rebuilding of the Block E southeast garden retaining wall with rendered concrete block.[72]
\nImprovements to the school grounds included the planting of a ‘Rainforest’ area east of Block F in the early 1980s. In the 1990s the grounds were progressively developed and improved by the Grounds Committee, led by Deputy Principal Lorna Whelan. The committee’s projects included planting “up to 100 or more trees” around the time of Arbor Day. In recognition of her contribution, in 1999 the entire school grounds were named ‘The Whelen Reserve’.[73]
\nThe school held a belated official Opening Ceremony on 5 July 1988, with the opening performed by the Hon. Brian Littleproud, Minister for Education.[74] In 2004 a school history book was published to celebrate the school’s 50th Jubilee.[75]
\nThe school remains a scenic part of Indooroopilly, and the 1950s buildings and landscaping remain at the heart of the school. It is important to the area as a focus for the community, being the venue for numerous social, sporting, and educational programs and events.
","criteria":"Indooroopilly State High School (established in 1954) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of standard government designs (constructed 1953-59) that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities.
\nIt is important in demonstrating the pattern of provision of secondary education, on new sites with expanded facilities, across Queensland in the 1950s, a time of enormous growth.
\nThe layout of the classroom blocks, the covered links between them and associated open spaces, reflect the mid-1950s introduction of organic master planning, which responded to the site contours and provided for ordered growth from a nucleus.
\nBlocks A and B incorporate Boulton & Paul timber units, which demonstrate the introduction and adoption of imported prefabricated systems by the Queensland Government in response to acute building material shortages and population growth in the post-World War II period.
\nBlocks A, D and E incorporate structural systems (timber trusses Block A, steel open-web trusses blocks D and E) that illustrate the evolution of Department of Public Works designs during the mid to late 1950s to allow for unimpeded play space under highset timber school buildings.
\nBlocks C, D and E illustrate the adaptation of standard Department of Public Works designs to suit the specific site conditions and functional requirements of Queensland schools from the 1950s.
\nThe school’s built landscape elements, including stairs, pathways, planter boxes, and pavements, illustrate the introduction of new ideas about integrating buildings and functional areas with their setting, and demonstrates the evolution of landscaping design at Queensland schools during the 1950s and 60s.
|Indooroopilly State High School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state high school of the 1950s. These include its master-planned site incorporating long, narrow buildings, linked around open-ended courtyard spaces; and generous, landscaped grounds with shade trees, assembly and sports areas.
\nDemonstrating organic 1950s site planning principles, the core of the school retains its asymmetrical layout of long, narrow classroom blocks arranged organically to follow the contours of the site, form courtyard spaces and achieve ideal solar orientation.
\nThe Boulton & Paul classrooms of blocks A and B are good, intact examples of their type, and clearly demonstrate the characteristics of prefabricated construction methods through the expression of their modular construction of 4ft (1.2m) wide wall panels. Other characteristic features of this type include: a gable roof; a verandah for circulation, with glazed screens at the ends; standard classroom size of 24ft by 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m); and large banks of timber-framed windows to maximise natural light and ventilation.
\nThe buildings with timber floor trusses (Block A) and open-web steel floor trusses (blocks D and E) demonstrate two iterations of standard Department of Public Works’ structural systems that were introduced in the 1950s to provide unimpeded play space beneath classrooms. The buildings incorporate good, intact examples of their structural type and the visibility of the trusses is retained.
\nThe upper classroom levels of blocks C, D and E are good, intact examples of a standard Department of Public Work timber school building type. Characteristic features of this type include: a verandah for circulation, with glazed screens at the ends; large banks of timber-framed windows, to maximise natural light and ventilation; clerestory lighting above the verandah roof; and 24ft (7.3m) wide classrooms.
\nBuilding A6, Block G and the west end of Block B are good examples of purpose-designed buildings that were constructed, where required, to meet the specific functional and spatial needs of schools. Originally designed to accommodate Drawing (Building A6), Domestic Science (Block G) and the Principal’s Office (west end of Block B), these buildings remain largely intact and are an integral part of the 1950s master plan.
\nThe intact built landscape elements, including brick planter boxes, concrete stairs and pavements, bitumen roadways and parade ground, retaining walls and gardens, demonstrate the innovative landscaping concepts of the 1950s, which sought to improve the functionality and aesthetics of school playground designs.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nIndooroopilly State High School has a strong and ongoing association with the surrounding community. It was established in 1954 and generations of students from Brisbane’s western suburbs have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Indooroopilly and as a focus for the community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650042,"name":"Norman Park State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"68-88 Agnew Street","suburb":"NORMAN PARK","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2017-04-07","description":"Norman Park State School occupies a 1.05ha site in the Brisbane suburb of Norman Park, approximately 4km east of the CBD. Located within a suburban residential area, the school is bounded by Agnew Street to the southwest, School Street to the southeast, Hipwood Street to the northeast and residential properties to the northwest. At the core of the school is the original complex of four brick classroom blocks and one timber classroom block, constructed between 1900 and 1934. The core occupies a high point in the terrain with extensive views to the west and south. The school grounds step down via a series of retaining walls towards the bounding streets, and a playing field occupies the southeast end of the site (the lower playground). The main entrance to the grounds is via a formal pedestrian stairway on Agnew Street, with secondary entrances around the school perimeter and vehicular access provided from Hipwood Street. The school grounds are well established and contain a number of significant mature trees and landscaping features such as Depression-era retaining walls, a playing field and a school bell.
\nThe five significant classroom blocks are positioned close together and linked at their corners by verandahs and walkways. These blocks are:
\n· Block A (central block), Urban Brick School Building (1900)
\n· Block C (southwest block), Urban Brick School Building (1900)
\n· Block D (northeast block), Open-air Annexe (1915)
\n· Block B (southeast block), Depression-era Brick Addition (1934)
\n· Block E (northwest block), Depression-era Brick Addition (1934)
\nBlocks B and E, constructed in the 1930s, were designed to complement the school’s original Urban Brick School Building, of which only blocks A and C were completed in 1900. Block D is a former Open-air Annexe with semi-detached teachers room, and the only timber building of the five. All blocks are two storeys, with hipped roofs clad in corrugated metal sheeting. With the exception of Block B, which has two levels of classrooms, all blocks have open play space on the ground floor.
\nBlock A, Urban Brick School Building (1900)
\nBlock A comprises two classrooms, a northeast verandah, and two offices (formerly a hat room and teachers room), separated from the classrooms by verandah passageway. Access to the first floor is by two sets of timber stairs, located on either side of the offices.
\nThe walls are constructed from orange-red brick with buff brick banding and dark glazed bricks to arched lintels over original door and window openings and throughout the understorey. Some external walls, including the main facade, are strengthened by buttresses with bevelled tops of buff brick. The verandahs and floor and roof framing are constructed from timber. Windows have either stone or concrete sills, and windows inserted or modified from the 1930s onwards have horizontal concrete lintels.
\nThe main (southwest) facade is characterised by the double gable front of the two offices, which feature circular vents at the gable apexes. An early rainwater head survives at the gable valley, and the attached downpipe is positioned to match early photographs. Two large banks of windows on the first floor are sheltered by skillion window hoods with timber battened cheeks. Both the gable eaves and underside of window hoods are lined with V-jointed (VJ) tongue and groove (T&G) boards.
\nThe building has a combination of original and later timber-framed joinery. The windows to the first floor of the main facade comprise two rows of four original windows – the outer ones fixed and the central ones horizontally centre pivoting. A third row along the bottom (inserted in 1953) are casements and taller in proportion. A similar arrangement of sashes exists in a smaller window in the southeast wall. Windows in the side walls of the classrooms comprise two fanlights (top), three horizontally centre-pivoting windows (centre) and three casements (bottom), most with original hardware. Sashes are a combination of original fabric and later additions. Former windows in the southwest and northeast walls of the classrooms have been enclosed with brickwork, but retain their arched brick lintels and stone sills. Doors to the classrooms retain their two horizontally-pivoting fanlights.
\nThe understorey has brick arches beneath structural walls and square brick piers supporting the timber classroom floors and northeast verandah. The corners of all piers and arch are rounded. The ground is laid with bitumen. Beneath the offices are two store rooms, accessed by c1930s battened doors. These rooms retain traces of their former use as toilets, such as the concrete floor slab, timber partitions in the northwest room, and highset louvred windows in the external walls.
\nThe northeast verandah has a raked ceiling lined with VJ, T&G boards; square timber verandah posts; and a spandrel lined with vertical boards at the northwest end.
\nWhile the timber access stairs are largely modern replacements, they both retain an original timber archway with vertical batten screen above at the upper landing. The passageway running between the classrooms and offices has face brick walls and a flat ceiling lined with VJ, T&G boards.
\nThe classrooms have coved ceilings lined with VJ, T&G boards and evidence of two centrally-located circular vents (now enclosed). The masonry walls are rendered, with lines scored into the render to resemble wide skirtings. Sections of two single-skin timber partitions divide the two rooms, and contain early joinery: two three-light double-hung windows with two-light fanlights; and a two light fanlight over the door to the northwest classroom. Both rooms have timber picture rails, and the partitions have lambs tongue-profile skirtings. The offices have plaster-lined walls and flat ceilings lined with VJ, T&G boards.
\nNon-significant elements of Block A include: walkways along the northwest and southeast sides of the building; infill roofs over the access stairs and walkways; bag racks to the northeast verandah; air-conditioning units, ceiling fans, lights and other services; modern floor linings of carpet and linoleum; modern doors and replacement fanlights; and modern partitions and cabinetry.
\nBlock C, Urban Brick School Building (1900)
\nBlock C has the same construction method and aesthetic treatment as Block A. It comprises two former classrooms with verandahs on the southeast and northwest sides. Access is via the southeast verandah, which links to the northwest end of Block A, and a set of external stairs to the northeast corner.
\nThe northeast and southwest elevations are of face brick, with buttress supports and large windows to the classrooms on the first floor. The eaves are unlined, and the exposed rafters are notched at the ends.
\nLike Block A, the large windows are a combination of timber-framed casements, vertically centre-pivoting and top hung fanlight sashes, dating from different periods and most with original hardware. Former windows in the southeast and northwest walls have been enclosed with brickwork, but retain their arched brick lintels and stone sills. Doors in the southeast and northwest walls retain their two horizontally-pivoting fanlights and low waisted double doors, one of which has original hardware.
\nThe understorey has a bitumen ground surface and the same arrangement of brick arches and piers as beneath Block A. The southwest end is partially enclosed for staff toilets (western corner, beneath the verandah) and a store room (beneath the classroom). The store room retains traces of its former use as toilets, including the concrete floor slab, timber enclosing partitions, and highset louvred windows in walls inserted between the external arches. The store room is accessed by a timber batten gate and a pair of relocated, early panelled timber doors. The staff toilets are accessed by a braced and ledged timber board door. The layout of the toilets matches 1930s plans, however the fitout has been modernised.
\nBoth verandahs have square timber verandah posts and raked ceilings lined with VJ, T&G boards. The southeast verandah retains sections of three-rail balustrade with dowel balusters. The southern end of this verandah is enclosed. The northwest verandah is enclosed with weatherboards and timber-framed, four-light sliding sash windows. The enclosing walls are lined on the interior with VJ, T&G boards.
\nThe former classrooms (used as staff and resource rooms in 2016) have coved ceilings lined with VJ, T&G boards and the northeast room retains a circular ceiling vent with fretwork panel. The masonry walls are rendered, with lines scored into the render to resemble wide skirtings. Sections of two single-skin timber partitions divide the two rooms, and contain an early doorway with a two-light fanlight. The northeast room has timber picture rails and lambs tongue-profile skirting to the partition. The southwest room has undergone alterations, including relining of the timber partition, the installation of a suspended ceiling, and the creation of a doorway in the northwest masonry wall. The uppermost level of windows is concealed by the suspended ceiling.
\nNon-significant elements of Block C include: the suspended ceiling and modern wall linings to the staff room (former southwest classroom); air-conditioning units, ceiling fans, lights and other services; modern floor linings of carpet and linoleum; and modern doors, partitions and cabinetry.
\nBlock D, Open-air Annexe (1915)
\nBlock D is timber-framed, clad in timber weatherboards and stands on square brick piers. It comprises two large classrooms with an enclosed verandah along the northwest side, and a semi-detached teachers room with a hipped roof. Access is via the verandah, which links to the northeast corner of Block A, and two sets of timber stairs on the northwest side. A two storey classroom extension to the northeast end of the block (constructed 1957) is not of heritage significance.
\nThe block’s original use as an Open-air Annexe is evident in the external cladding, with the vertical timber posts of the wall structure visible between weatherboard panels. Windows in the southwest wall are 1920s timber-framed, six-light sliding sash windows with long, four-light fanlights above. Windows in the southeast wall have been replaced with c1950s timber-framed awning windows. The teachers room has sets of paired, three-light casement windows, with those on the northwest side sheltered by a timber-framed skillion hood with angled brackets and battened sides. Eaves along the southeast and southwest classroom walls and to the teachers room are unlined.
\nThe southwest side of the understorey is enclosed for girls, boys and staff toilets. Walls within the understory are timber partitions of vertical VJ boards with lattice screens above. Wall and toilet partitions at the southwest end date from the 1930s, while those at the northeast end are 1979 additions in a similar style. Exterior infill walls between piers are of concrete block with high-level louvre windows. The play space has been modified, with modern carpet lining the floor and roller doors installed between the perimeter piers so the space can be enclosed.
\nThe verandah is fully enclosed with weatherboard cladding and modern glazing, apart from a small landing at the top of the southwest staircase, where a small section of three-rail balustrade with dowel balusters survives. It retains its raked ceiling with VJ, T&G board linings. The wall between the verandah and classrooms has been largely demolished and/or reconstructed to create large openings.
\nThe classrooms retain vertical VJ, T&G board linings to the perimeter walls and sections of the former verandah wall. The central partition contains wide, folding timber doors (c1950s). The original ceiling is concealed behind a modern suspended ceiling.
\nThe teachers room has a pressed metal ceiling with square ceiling vent, and walls lined with vertical VJ, T&G boards. The location of the original door is evident in the lining of the southeast wall.
\nNon-significant elements of Block D include: a modern verandah addition to the north side of the teachers room; sun-shading screens to the southeast side; modern partitions, roller doors and floor coverings to the understorey; suspended ceilings to the classrooms; air-conditioning units, ceiling fans, lights and other services; modern floor linings of carpet and linoleum; and modern doors, glazing, partitions and cabinetry.
\nBlock B, Depression-era Brick Addition (1934)
\nBlock B was designed to match Block C in its size, layout, materials and aesthetic treatment. It comprises two classrooms on the first floor, with verandahs (now enclosed) on the northwest and southeast sides, and a large classroom on the ground floor with a ground floor verandah on the southeast side. The ground floor level is lower than the understory level of the other blocks, with brick retaining walls and stairs at the northern and southern ends of the block separating the southeast corner of the upper playground from the understorey level. Access to the first floor is via the northwest verandah, which links to the southeast end of Block A, and a stairwell in the northeast corner of the southeast verandahs.
\nThe building is constructed from glazed, dark red bricks, with orange brick banding and details to the southwest and northeast elevations. The verandahs are timber framed and clad in timber weatherboards. Like Block C, the end walls have shallow buttresses and the unlined eaves feature exposed rafters with notched ends. Windows in masonry walls have concrete sills and doors have horizontal concrete lintels. Windows to the enclosing verandah walls are either timber-framed, three-light casements or modern aluminium sliding windows.
\nWindows to the first floor classrooms are timber-framed and of similar proportions to Block C, with a combination of timber-framed casements, vertically centre-pivoting and top hung fanlight sashes, with original hardware. Ground floor classroom windows are three-light casements with square fanlights above, sheltered by timber-framed, skillion hoods with angled brackets.
\nA walkway beneath the northwest verandah links with the adjoining understorey areas and has a concrete floor and square brick piers with rounded edges supporting the verandah floor above.
\nThe ground floor verandah is partially enclosed with brick walls at each end, to create a hat room (now storage area) at the southwest end and enclose the timber-framed staircase at the northeast end. Timber posts with stop-chamfered edges support a weatherboard-clad panel spanning between the two walls. The verandah has a concrete floor, face brick walls, and a flat ceiling lined with VJ, T&G boards. Coat hooks attached to horizontal timber rails remain attached to walls throughout the space. Doors to the classroom are modern replacements; however, the southern doorway is an original opening with fanlight. The staircase has a timber batten balustrade and timber newel posts with angular-shaped tops.
\nThe ground floor classroom has plaster-lined walls with timber picture rails. The ceiling is spanned by two bulkheads and is lined with flat sheeting with cover strips arranged in a square pattern.
\nBoth first floor verandahs have raked ceilings lined with VJ, T&G boards, and face brick walls to the classrooms. The southeast verandah has an original store room at the northern end, accessed by a timber board door, and a 1950s storeroom in an original hat room enclosure at the southern end, accessed by a high-waisted panelled timber door. Doorways in the centre of each verandah wall retain their timber-framed fanlights, and the southeast door retains its double timber doors with original hardware. Large openings have been created in the northwest classroom walls, supported by steel beam lintels.
\nDividing the classrooms are two timber-framed, single-skin partitions clad in vertical VJ, T&G boards. Large openings have been created in both partitions, however they retain original door and window openings with fanlights above, and one panelled timber door survives in the southwest classroom. Remaining classroom walls are rendered, with timber picture rails. Ceilings are lined with flat sheeting with covered strips arranged in a square pattern, and retain lattice ceiling vent panels in the centre.
\nNon-significant elements of Block B include: metal gates to the ground floor verandah; air-conditioning units, ceiling fans, lights and other services; modern floor linings of carpet and linoleum; and modern doors, glazing, partitions and cabinetry.
\nBlock E, Depression-era Brick Addition (1934)
\nBlock E comprises two large classrooms on the first floor (formerly three), a southeast-facing verandah (now enclosed), and an open understory with later classroom enclosure at the southwest end. Access is via the verandah, which links to the northwest corner of Block A, a set of timber stairs at the northeast end of the verandah, and via Block F, which adjoins Block E on the northwest side.
\nConstructed from the same dark red glazed bricks as Block B, Block E is plainer in style, without buttresses or brick banding details. The verandah is timber-framed and supported on square concrete piers. Windows in masonry walls have concrete sills, and doorways and later inserted windows and doors have horizontal concrete lintels. The northern end of the verandah is partially-enclosed with brick on both levels. A southeast-facing dormer window with three window bays is located over the centre of the building.
\nClassrooms windows in the northeast and southwest walls are three-light casements with two-light fanlights above, sheltered by timber-framed, skillion hoods with angled brackets. Non-significant windows inserted in the northwest wall in c1958 include high-level louvres and large, double-hung sashes with rectangular fanlights.
\nThe understorey has a concrete floor, rendered ceiling, wide brick piers or solid walls below the classroom walls, and square concrete piers down the centre. Brick piers, buttresses and openings have rounded corners, and sections of early timber seating survive along the northwest wall. The southwest end of the space has been enclosed with modern brick infill, partitions and glazing to create a music room; and a store room has been created beneath the northeast end of the verandah.
\nThe verandah has a raked ceiling lined with VJ, T&G boards and face brick walls. A former hat room at the northeast end has been enclosed to form a store room. Three original doorways retain their fanlights, however a bank of windows has been removed to create a large opening.
\nThe classrooms have rendered walls with timber picture rails and lambs tongue-profile skirtings, and ceilings lined with flat sheeting with cover strips arranged in a square pattern. Lattice ceiling vent panels have been removed and infilled. Bulkheads indicate the location of former folding partitions between classrooms.
\nNon-significant elements of Block E include: modern partitions, infill walls and metal gates to the understorey; bag racks and aluminium windows enclosing the verandah; air-conditioning units, ceiling fans, lights and other services; modern floor linings of carpet and linoleum; and modern doors, glazing, partitions and cabinetry.
\nOther buildings
\nA classroom block (Block F) and a swimming pool lie to the northwest of the core complex, and a large, multi-level classroom building (Block G) and a Hall and amenities block lie to the southeast, adjacent to the playing field. None of these buildings or their connecting walkways are of heritage significance.
\nRetaining walls and stairs
\nA series of retaining walls and stairs separate the various levels of the school grounds. Along the Agnew Street boundary are c1935 cast in-situ concrete walls incorporating T-shaped formal entrance stairs near the centre and a staircase with Art Deco-style concrete archway near the southeast end, leading down to the playing field. The walls are topped by chainwire fencing and adjacent concrete spoon drains provide drainage. At the northwest end, the wall adjoins a rectangular concrete structure, formerly used as a septic tank.
\nRunning perpendicular to the base of the playing field stairs is a c1935 high, cast in-situ concrete wall that spans the width of the school grounds, separating the upper and lower playground levels. Concrete spoon drains run along the top and base of the wall, which is topped by chainwire fencing. At the northern end the wall meets a second set of concrete stairs and a stepped concrete retaining wall along the Hipwood Street boundary.
\nAround the core complex are walls and stairs constructed at different periods. Running parallel to Agnew Street in front of blocks C and A is a low wall and spoon drain at the top of a sloping bank, constructed c1935. Concrete stairs ascend this bank in line with the Agnew Street entrance stairs and the centre of Block A’s main facade. Perpendicular to the bank at the southeast end is an earlier brick retaining wall and stairs adjoining the southwest end of Block B. Matching brick retaining walls extend in an L-shape from the northeast end of Block B, ending in set of stairs. From these stairs, a c1950 stone-lined sloping bank wraps around two sides of Block D and continues along the northeast side of Block E. Concrete stairs ascend this stone bank between Blocks D and E.
\nAll other retaining walls and garden beds throughout the grounds are not of heritage significance.
\nGrounds
\nThe school grounds contain mature trees, including a large fig (possibly a weeping fig, ficus benjamina) and two camphor laurels (cinnamomum camphora) planted along the Agnew Street boundary behind the retaining wall; and a large fig and camphor laurel at the southern corner of the playing field.
\nThe playing field is a large raised and levelled platform edged by embankments and trees on the southwest, southeast and northeast sides.
\nAn old school bell is mounted on a metal pole located in a garden bed between blocks C and E. Also in this area is a memorial plaque commemorating the centenary of Norman Park State School, unveiled on 10 June 2000.
\nViews
\nDue to its high position, extensive views of suburbs to the south and west and towards the Brisbane CBD are obtained from the school grounds along Agnew Street; and to the north and northeast from the grounds along Hipwood Street. The Agnew Street entrance, flanked by mature trees which frame views towards Block A, makes an important contribution to the streetscape.
","history":"Norman Park State School (SS) opened on its present site in 1900 due to population growth in and near the Brisbane suburb of Norman Park. The school is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. In 2017 Norman Park SS retains its core complex of five buildings: Blocks A and C (Urban Brick School Building, 1900); Block D (Open-air Annexe, 1915); and Blocks B and E (Depression-era brick additions, 1934). The school grounds also retain brick and concrete retaining walls, stairs and fences (1930s, 1950s); a playing field and mature trees. The school has been in continuous operation since its establishment.
\nThe suburb of Norman Park lies adjacent to the Brisbane River and east of Norman Creek, which was first bridged in the late 1850s. Part of the traditional lands of the Jagera and Turrbal peoples, the area was settled for farming from the 1850s, and in the 1870s it was a popular picnic spot. In 1886 the Queensland Deposit Bank and Building Society Limited purchased the land on which Norman Park SS was later built, and subdivided it as part the Norman Park Estate. Although estate subdivisions were sold off from March 1887, the suburb remained sparsely populated until the interwar period, when stormwater drainage of low-lying flood prone areas was commenced. By 1935 about 35% of land blocks were occupied.[1]
\nDevelopment of the Norman Park Estate was assisted by improvements in transport. The Cleveland railway line, opened in 1889, passed through the suburb; while the Belmont tramway, opened in 1912, branched off the Cleveland line north of the Norman Park railway station. In 1903 a replacement bridge over Norman Creek allowed a new tramline to run along Wynnum Road (then called New Cleveland Road) to a terminus east of Norman Creek. This tramline was extended towards Morningside in 1924.[2]
\nAlthough development of Norman Park was slow initially, there was sufficient population in the area by the late 1890s to lead to pressure for a school. At that time the nearest state schools were at Kangaroo Point and Bulimba, a considerable distance away.[3] The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. Schools became a community focus, with the school community contributing to maintenance and development; a symbol of progress; and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[4]
\nA Norman Park school building committee was formed at a public meeting on 11 June 1897, and an application for a state school was made on 2 September 1897. The site proposed for the new school was on ‘a dry ridge’ between Hipwood and Agnew streets. On 9 December 1898, the Secretary for Public Instruction approved establishment of the school, so long as the site could be purchased at a reasonable price. The initial school reserve (R.872) consisted of 22 subdivisions, totalling 2 acres and 32.4 perches (0.9ha). The land was purchased by the Secretary for Public Instruction in early 1899 for a discounted price (£660 instead of £940), which the estate owners accepted due to the likely improvement in value of the surrounding land that a new school would bring.[5]
\nInstead of a standard timber school, Norman Park’s school building committee requested a brick school, on the same terms as East Brisbane State School; which involved a one-sixth contribution by the community to the building cost. In April 1899 the Works Department presented estimates for the school in either brick or timber, and the building committee again chose brick. Tenders were called, and in November 1899 the tender of Charles Miller, for £2023 and 14s was accepted, with the school, a teacher’s residence, fencing and gates to be completed in five months.[6]
\nThe Urban Brick School Building constructed at Norman Park was individually designed by the Department of Public Works. Brick school buildings were far less frequently built than timber ones, being only provided in prosperous urban or suburban areas with stable or rapidly-increasing populations. All brick school buildings were individually designed with variations in style, size, and form, but generally retained similar classroom sizes, layouts and window arrangements to timber schools to facilitate natural light and ventilation. However, compared to contemporary standard education buildings, these buildings had a grander character and greater landmark attributes.[7]
\nAs shown on an April 1899 plan, the Urban Brick School Building comprised two blocks (Blocks A and C in 2017) linked at right angles, with a third, unbuilt block intended to complete a U-shaped arrangement in future. Each block contained a single large classroom, 40ft by 24ft (12.1m x 7.3m), with 10ft (3m) wide verandahs on each side. A hat/cloak room and teachers room, both measuring 20ft by 13ft 6 inches (6.1m x 4.1m), projected towards Agnew Street off the southeast block’s verandah, with entrance stairs on either side. The open understory had space for play areas, tanks and lavatories. The completed school could accommodate 305 pupils, with 120 in each classroom; 50 on the L-shaped verandah, and 15 in the teachers room.[8]
\nExternally, the red, face brick walls were relieved by light brick banding and dark brick arches and lintels. Verandahs and landings were of timber and protected by lattice screens. Windows were generally pivot-hung sash windows, with those to the teachers room and hat room sheltered by hoods with decorative timber struts. The gabled and hipped roofs were sheeted with corrugated iron and had ventilation fleches. According to the Public Works Annual Report of 1901 the school was constructed on similar lines to New Farm and East Brisbane state schools.[9]
\nA school residence was located in the centre of the school grounds, facing Hipwood Street, backing onto two unpurchased subdivisions facing Agnew Street. This meant that the school grounds were effectively cut in half. Boys and girls toilets were located alongside the northwest boundary of the school, behind the classrooms.[10]
\nThe completed school was opened on 7 July 1900 by the Minister for Education, JG Drake. It was reported that the school was ‘grandly situated on the summit of a hill, and though its immediate surroundings are in the bush, it commands a populous and growing neighbourhood’. The total cost was £2723 16s, with local residents to pay £493 1s 11d. The initial enrolment of 52 students grew to 174 by September 1900.[11]
\nIn May 1908 a tree planting day was held at the school to celebrate Arbor Day, during which Mr JD Story (Under Secretary for Public Instruction) expressed his pleasure that an attempt was being made to beautify the ‘naturally magnificent’ school site. An important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools, and Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline and developed aesthetic tastes.[12]
\nIn 1914 the school finally obtained the two subdivisions in the middle of the school reserve. Enrolments had reached 330, with settlement in the district growing rapidly. [13]
\nTo accommodate a class for infants, an Open-air Annexe (Block D in 2017) was added to the school in 1915, connected to the northeast verandah of Block A. Open-air Annexes were introduced as a standard design in 1914 in response to contemporary medical theories related to the need for high levels of natural ventilation and light for health. [14] The Open-air Annexe type was developed in metropolitan areas and built as an addition to existing school complexes to relieve overcrowded classrooms. It comprised a timber building with one solid wall (the western verandah wall) and three open sides enclosed only by adjustable canvas blinds. Ideally, they were highset, to increase ventilation and provide shelter underneath. By the 1920s Open-air Annexes had proved to be inadequate as the open sides provided limited weather protection and climate control, and the canvas blinds deteriorated quickly. As a final refinement of the design, canvas blinds were replaced by sliding sash windows in new and existing open-air schools and annexes throughout Queensland. Use of the Open-Air Annexe type was discontinued from 1923.[15]
\nThe Open-air Annexe at Norman Park was constructed by FJ Corbett for a contract price of £739. It was a standard design with three open sides, and it was positioned at the northeast corner of the Urban Brick School Building where there was sufficient space for the length of the building and the northwest-facing verandah could accommodate a semi-detached teachers room. The single classroom measured 51ft by 25ft (15.5m by 7.6m), with seating for 70 students, and had a coved ceiling sheeted with pressed metal. The verandah was 10ft (3m) wide, with a semi-enclosed hat room at the northern end. The teachers room measured 15ft by 12ft (4.6m by 3.7m), with stairs on either side. The building stood on brick piers, with a concreted play space underneath.[16]
\nBlock D was opened on Saturday 16 October 1915 by the Minister for Public Instruction, HF Hardacre. As with other Open-air Annexes, the blinds were replaced with sliding sash windows and boarding c1922, due to complaints from teachers and parents about children being exposed to bad weather and unable to see their work when the blinds were closed.[17]
\nIn the 1920s there was concern about a lack of level parade ground space behind the Urban Brick School Building.[18] In 1929, 32 perches (0.08ha) of additional land was acquired at the northwest corner of the school reserve, allowing the toilets to be relocated there.[19] A basketball court had been built at the corner of Hipwood and School streets by June 1923. By 1925 there was an average of nearly 600 children attending the school, as the extension of tram lines through Norman Park had ‘caused a large number of people to build in the vicinity of the school’.[20]
\nMajor ground improvements and extra accommodation were provided at Norman Park SS during the 1930s, due to the pressure of overcrowding (630 enrolled in 1932) and an increase in government spending.[21] The Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of public building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. Even before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work program administered by the Department of Public Works. This included painting and repairs to school buildings and grounds improvement works.[22] Extensive funding was given for improvements, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, involving terracing and retaining walls.[23] In June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power and embarked on a large public building program that included new buildings or additions at schools.[24]
\nDepression-era work at Norman Park SS included the construction of new toilets in 1932, located beneath Block C (girls and female teachers), Block A (infant girls and boys and male teachers) and Block D (boys). The toilets were enclosed externally by infill walls and high-level louvre windows, and timber partitions internally. A tall, concrete septic tank was constructed in the western corner of the grounds and was operational by 1 January 1933. However, the tank was decommissioned after sewerage lines were connected to the school c1937.[25]
\nTwo new brick blocks (Blocks B and E in 2017), sympathetic in design to the 1900 Urban Brick School Building, were also added to the school and opened on 28 July 1934.[26] Block B was connected to the southeast end of Block A and featured decorative details to match Block C. It contained two classrooms on the first floor and one double classroom on the ground floor. The first floor had verandahs on the northwest and southeast sides, and a stairwell at the northeast corner led down to a ground floor verandah on the southeast side. Block E, which was highset with understorey play space, was connected to the northwest corner of Block A. It had three classrooms separated by folding partitions, and a southeast-facing verandah with a semi-enclosed hat room at the north end. Both blocks had hipped roofs of corrugated iron; Block B had a roof fleche and Block E had a dormer window over its central classroom.[27]
\nFurther classrooms were created by dividing the original classrooms in Blocks A and C with new central passageways linking the verandahs. Windows were also modified to comply with the new ideal of providing natural lighting for students on their left hand side. Windows to the verandahs of Blocks A and C were bricked up and additional windows inserted in the end elevations of both blocks. The school now consisted of five connected blocks – four brick and one timber – containing 11 classrooms. [28]
\nWorks to the upper school grounds during the Depression-era improved circulation and stabilised the steep site. Brick retaining walls and concrete steps were built to the north and south of Block B c1933-4. The school residence was removed at this time.[29]
\nIn late-1935 a high retaining wall was built along Agnew Street, with a T-shaped set of entrance stairs aligned with the front of Block A. In addition, a high retaining wall between the upper (northwest) and lower (southeast) sections of the school grounds was added at this time, with stairs at the Agnew Street and Hipwood Street ends. Low, stepped concrete walls were also added along Agnew Street, southeast of the high retaining wall, and along Hipwood Street. All 1935 retaining walls were of cast in-situ concrete and topped with chain wire fences. Between the Agnew Street retaining wall and the school buildings, a sloping bank was added, topped with a surface drain and a two-rail steel fence and ascended by centrally placed stairs.[30]
\nMost non-military building work in Queensland ceased during World War II (WWII), but air raid shelters (slit trenches) were dug at Norman Park SS in 1942 on the lower playground. At this time there was also a tennis court on the lower playground, on the Agnew Street frontage adjacent to the retaining wall. [31]
\nThe lower grounds remained roughly landscaped, with eroded banks and collapsing timber fences, until at least 1949-50. At this time it was proposed to grade the slopes to the streets and fence the playground. A battered (sloped) wall of stones set in concrete was constructed below the southeast and northeast elevations of Block D; and by 1957 the concrete wall along Hipwood Street had been extended to the northwest, past a vehicle entrance, to incorporate a pedestrian entrance and steps.[32]
\nChanges to the school buildings in the 1950s improved natural lighting and increased classroom numbers and storage space. The former cloakroom and head teachers room on the southwest side of Block A became staffrooms in 1953, at which time casement windows were inserted below the original pivot windows to improve natural lighting. A storeroom was enclosed at the south end of the first floor southeast verandah of Block B that year. In 1954 the northwest verandah of Block C was enclosed with sliding sash windows to create a library; the ground floor classroom of Block B was partitioned to form two rooms; and Block D’s classroom was partitioned with folding doors. A two-level addition, with a classroom at each level, was made to the northeast end of Block D in c1957; and two highset classrooms (Block F in 2017) were added to the west of Block E in c1958.[33]
\nAdditions and changes to the school were also made from the 1960s to the 1980s. A swimming pool was built in the northwest corner of the school and officially opened 31 October 1964. A retaining wall was built nearby in c1969. By May 1969 enrolments had dropped to 315 pupils due to the transfer of Grade 8 to high school (1964), and the opening of Seven Hills State School in 1960.[34]
\nBy 1975 further verandah enclosures had taken place at the south end of Block C’s southeast verandah and the south end of Block B’s northwest verandah. In 1977 the southwest classroom of Block C was modified to accommodate a speech therapy resources room. In 1979 the toilets under Block D were extended to the northeast, resulting in the 1930s toilets beneath blocks A and C being converted into store rooms. In 1980 Block B’s first floor southeast verandah was enclosed, and by 1989 an external walkway existed along the northwest side of Block A.[35]
\nChanges after 1990 included the painting of a mural on the Agnew Street retaining wall in 1997, and a major refurbishment of Block D’s interior in 1998, including the enclosure of the verandah and new large openings in the classroom walls.[36] A new building (Block G in 2017) was added to the lower playground in 2004-5, on the site of the tennis courts, and the hall northeast of Block G was constructed between 2009 and 2011.[37]
\nThe school celebrated its centenary in 2000, with the publication of a school history, and the creation of a Centenary Garden. In 2017, the school retains its early complex of five classroom blocks and its Depression-era retaining walls, fences and steps, set within landscaped grounds with mature shade trees. The school is important to the area as a focus for the community where generations of students have been taught.
\n
Norman Park State School (established in 1900) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities and mature trees.
\nThe Urban Brick School Building (1900) represents the culmination of years of experimentation with natural light, classroom size and elevation by the Department of Public Works (DPW), and also demonstrates the growing preference in the early 20th century for constructing brick school buildings at metropolitan schools in developing suburbs. The changes to the window arrangements in c1934, which allowed natural left hand lighting of newly formed classrooms, were a result of changing educational philosophies at that time.
\nThe Open-air Annexe (1915) demonstrates the medical and educational theories of the period, which valued fresh air and natural light; and is important in demonstrating the development pattern of incorporating open-air classrooms into existing school complexes. The enclosure of the annexe in the 1920s demonstrates the final adaptions to the open-air classroom type to improve its functionality.
\nThe Depression-era additions (1934) and the brick and concrete retaining walls and steps (1935) are the result of the Queensland Government’s building and relief work programmes during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
\nThe large, suburban site with mature trees and a playing field demonstrates educational policies which promoted the importance of play and a beautiful environment in the education of children.
|Norman Park State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school. These include: generous, landscaped sites with mature shade trees and assembly and play areas; and teaching buildings of standard and individual designs by the Department of Public Works that incorporate understorey play areas, verandahs, and classrooms with high levels of natural light and ventilation. The school is an excellent, intact example of a suburban school complex, comprising a range of building types dating from 1900 to 1934 and incorporating later alterations.
\nThe Urban Brick School Building (1900, Blocks A and C) is an excellent, intact example of an individually-designed Urban Brick School Building. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of these buildings through its highset form; linear layout, with classrooms and teachers rooms accessed by verandahs; undercrofts or understoreys used as open play spaces; and loadbearing, masonry construction, supported by face brick piers and arches. It also demonstrates the use, by Urban Brick School Buildings, of stylistic features characteristic of their era, which determined their roof forms, decorative treatment and joinery. Typically, Urban Brick School Buildings are located in suburban areas that were growing at the time of their construction.
\nThe Open-air Annexe (1915, Block D) retains its highset, timber-framed structure; sections of 1920s infill glazing; classroom width; northwest verandah (now enclosed); and intact, semi-detached teachers room.
\nThe Depression-era additions (1934, Blocks B and E) are individually-designed masonry classroom blocks designed to complement the aesthetic of the Urban Brick School Building and complete the school’s symmetrical layout. They demonstrate the principal characteristics of Depression-era brick school buildings through their two storey form; high-quality design and materials; face brick exterior; and linear layout of classrooms, accessed by verandahs.
|The early 20th century core of Norman Park State School has aesthetic significance for its beautiful attributes as a well-composed complex of buildings unified by their consistent form, scale and materials. The symmetrical layout of these buildings remains intact and demonstrates a continuation of site planning ideals initiated by the siting of the original Urban Brick School Building in a prominent, central position at the top of the sloping grounds. The individually-designed brick school buildings have considerable architectural value for their high-quality materials and decorative features. The core's setting is beautified by mature trees and formal landscaping elements such as retaining walls and stairs.
\nThe school is significant for its contribution to the Agnew Street streetscape. Standing on an elevated site, with the main façade framed by mature trees and accessed via a sequence of formal entrance stairs, the school is an attractive and prominent feature of the area. Extensive views of the surrounding suburbs and of the Brisbane CBD are obtained from the school grounds.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically have significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nNorman Park State School has a strong and ongoing association with the surrounding community. It was established in 1900 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of Norman Park children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of its suburban district and is a prominent community focal point.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650043,"name":"New Farm State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Cnr James & Heal Streets","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2017-04-28","description":"New Farm State School occupies a 1.25ha site in a residential area of the suburb of New Farm, approximately 2km northeast of the Brisbane CBD. The school occupies a levelled site on formerly steeply-sloping terrain, and is primarily accessed from Heal Street to the northwest. It is bounded on other sides by James Street to the southwest, Annie Street to the southeast, Kingsholme Street to the northeast, and is bordered by residential properties to the southeast and northeast. A cul-de-sac terminating Hawthorne Street to the southeast provides a secondary access point to the grounds. The school comprises a small complex of buildings, with the most prominent being an Urban Brick School Building (Block A, 1901, extended 1908-09 and 1939) at the western corner of the site, fronting Heal Street. To the southeast of this is an Open Air Annexe (Block B, 1919, extended 1972). The school grounds are well established and contain mature trees and landscaping features, such as pre-1940 retaining walls, a playing field, a school bell and various early furniture items.
\nUrban Brick School Building (Block A, established 1901; northeast and southwest wings extended 1908-09; second storey addition to central and southwest wings 1939)
\nThe Urban Brick School Building is a substantial timber and masonry structure, comprising three wings in a U-shape configuration around a central teachers room and small courtyard. The main northwest (central) wing fronts Heal Street, and is linked at its southern and eastern corners to the other two wings, which extend in a south-easterly direction. The central and southwest wings have two storeys of classrooms and the northeast wing has a single storey. All wings have an undercroft, which contains largely open play space. The building is constructed of load-bearing, red face brick walls laid in a Flemish bond; and features contrasting bands and voussoirs of a lighter, cream-coloured face brick.
\nThe Dutch-gable roofs of each wing are clad in corrugated metal sheeting and have ventilated gablets. Two sets of dormer windows are located in the north-facing roof plane of the northeast wing. The central wing features a prominent roof fleche in the centre of the roof, in the form of an octagonal ogee roof supported by miniature columns and topped by a finial. Most soffits are lined with v-jointed (VJ) timber boards.
\nEach wing has verandahs on their inward and outward-facing sides. The connected inward-facing verandahs provide access to the classrooms and circulation between the wings. Vertical circulation is provided by several sets of stairs of various dates, which are generally connected to or located within the verandahs. Early stairs and stair configurations include external timber staircases at each end of the inward-facing verandah of the central wing (by 1938), and an internal concrete staircase at the eastern corner of the southwest wing (1938).
\nMost inward-facing verandahs have square timber posts with timber post and rail balustrades, and timber and concrete floors. The first floor verandahs have flat, corrugated metal-lined ceilings, except for the northeast wing which has exposed decorative rafters and timber beaded board ceilings. The second floor verandahs have raked ceilings lined with timber beaded boards. All outward-facing verandahs have been enclosed with timber weatherboards, flat metal sheeting and louvre windows (c1970s). Non-significant elements of the verandahs include modern floor linings and the 1970s verandah enclosures.
\nThe undercroft level is largely open play space and features semi-circular brick arches and columns, all with rounded corners to above head-height. The floors are concrete slabs. The central wing undercroft has been enclosed to form a classroom/teaching space and toilets, with some early timber infill partitions and windows surviving within arches along the northwest side and enclosing the toilets. Sections of the northeast and southwest wings have been enclosed to form a tuckshop and storage spaces, with some early timber partitions surviving. Recent partitions and roller doors in the undercroft are not of heritage significance.
\nThe first floor internal layout is symmetrical, and the second floor layout of the central and southwest wings essentially mirrors the first floor below. The central wing comprises two classrooms on each level, bookended by former hat and cloak rooms (the northeast rooms have been converted into a stairwell, the southwest rooms are used as office/teachers rooms). The first and second floor teachers rooms, which project into the central courtyard, remain intact, and an early sink is located on the verandah wall of the first floor teachers room. The two southwest wing levels comprise two classrooms at the northwest end, separated from a third classroom at the southeast end by a hallway (former hat and cloak room) linking the inward and outward-facing verandahs. Modifications to the second floor level of this wing include the removal of the southeast wall of the hallway (to create a larger classroom) and removal of sections of the southwest verandah wall. The northeast wing contains a large room (used as a library in 2017) at the northwest end, and a southwest classroom that incorporates the former hallway space (which has had its southeast wall removed).
\nMost internal spaces have plastered walls with VJ timber-clad interior partitions and timber picture rails. The ceilings of the first floor classrooms are flat and lined with flat sheeting with painted timber battens. Bulkheads are exposed within the classrooms, and the northeast wing features decorative ceiling roses. The second floor ceilings are generally coved, with the exception of the teachers room which is flat, and are lined with beaded timber boards.
\nMost early timber joinery survives, including: double-hung sashes with awning fanlights to verandahs; casements with awning fanlights to gable end walls; casements to stairwells; arched windows to the undercroft of the central wing; dormer windows to the northeast wing; panelled double doors with stop-chamfered detailing and awning fanlights above (many retaining early hardware); panelled, folding timber door partitions between some classrooms in the central and southwest wings; and half-glazed partitions within the southwest wing. Most windows have wide concrete sills and lintels. Timber-framed, corrugated metal-clad window hoods shelter windows on the southeast elevations of the northeast and southwest wings. Tall window openings on the southeast elevation of the northeast wing have had their sashes replaced.
\nEarly timber furniture and honour boards are retained within the building, including: a silky oak memorial cupboard dedicated to FJB Marin (Head Teacher 1922-23), a silky oak medicine cabinet and an early safe within the teachers room, various honour boards (with the earliest dating back to 1901), and an early metal school bell on the southwestern verandah of the eastern wing. A foundation stone plaque is set into the northwest end wall of the northeast wing.
\nOpen-air Annexe (Block B; 1919, extended 1972)
\nThe Open-air Annexe is a highset, timber-framed building, located southeast of Block A and orientated perpendicular to James Street. It stands on tall brick piers and is clad in weatherboards. Both the Dutch-gable main roof and smaller gable roof over the teachers room (extended 1972), which projects from the centre of the northwest elevation, are clad in corrugated metal sheeting. The gablets feature louvered timber vents and the gable end of the teachers room has decorative batten infill attached to the bargeboards. The soffits are lined in flat sheeting. An enclosed verandah runs along the northwest side of the building, accessed via timber stairs on either side of the teachers room. Weatherboard cladding and banks of timber-framed louvre windows (1972) enclose former large openings in the northeast, southeast and southwest walls.
\nThe undercroft of the building is largely open play space, with some recent enclosures forming storage spaces and offices. It has a concrete slab floor and the floor framing of the storey above is exposed. The piers are constructed from variegated face brick, and those supporting the addition to the teachers room are of orange brick. All recent undercroft enclosures, including timber battened screens, are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nThe verandah has a raked, VJ timber board-lined ceiling (which flattens adjacent the teachers room); square timber posts; and timber floors. The verandah wall is single-skin with externally-exposed timber stud-framing and lined internally with tongue-and-groove (T&G), VJ timber boards. Hinged ventilation boards survive at the base of verandah walls. At the ends of the verandah are former hat rooms which have been enclosed by partition walls to form a store room (northeast end) and an entry to a classroom (southwest end). Non-significant elements of the verandah include modern linoleum floor linings; added partitions, and bag racks and louvres enclosing the verandah.
\nThe teachers room is accessed from the verandah and contains a single room. The walls and flat ceiling are lined in VJ timber boards. The former location of the northwestern end wall (prior to the 1972 extension) is clearly identifiable through a break in the ceiling lining.
\nThe main interior is divided by recent partitions into four classrooms (formerly two). The classroom spaces feature coved ceilings lined in VJ timber boards, exposed metal tie rods, and timber floors. Most walls are lined in VJ timber boards, although the lower sections of the northeast, southeast and southwest walls are lined in flat sheeting (indicating the extent of former openings).
\nSurviving timber joinery within the building includes: double-hung sash windows with centre-pivoting fanlights to the verandah wall; high-level and wide centre-pivoting windows to the verandah wall; and casement windows to the northwest and southwest elevations of the teachers room. Corrugated metal-clad, timber-framed window hoods with decorative cheeks shelter the windows to the teachers room, and a panelled timber door to the teachers room has been retained.
\nNon-significant elements of the interior include the partitions (including folding doors) between classrooms, and modern louvre windows, doors, and carpet and wall linings.
\nWorld War I Memorial (1923)
\nA concrete and brick World War I (WWI) Memorial stands in the western corner of the site on a circular concrete slab. The memorial comprises a square, red brick pillar with a white-painted concrete cap topped by a metal flagpole. The pillar cap has the words ‘IN LOVING MEMORY OF SCHOLARS WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR’ marked in black lettering around the sides. Fixed to the pillar on the eastern and western sides are marble tablets, inscribed with the names of New Farm State School students who died during WWI. Stone laurel wreaths adorn the northern and southern sides. Extending from all four sides of the pillar are low brick plinths capped with concrete, which are aligned with the cardinal points. A small concrete and sandstone plaque in between the southern and western plinths is a recent addition. A surrounding open lawn area, edged by gardens and trees, forms an attractive setting for the memorial.
\nLandscape Elements
\nThe school grounds are well established and include mature trees and early retaining walls (pre-1940). Due to its elevation, the James Street side of the site has impressive views toward Brisbane City.
\nSeveral mature figs (Ficus sp.) and camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora) stand between the Open-air Annexe and James Street, and at the western end of the Heal Street boundary.
\nPre-1940 retaining walls which stand: to the southeast of the Open Air Annexe (1931); northeast of the Urban Brick School Building, along the Heal Street boundary and the former Hawthorne Street boundary (1935); and along the James Street boundary adjacent to the former tennis court site, are concrete. Other retaining walls constructed from cut stone, stone blocks and concrete are located along the James Street and Heal Street boundaries.
\nNon-Significant Elements
\nA swimming pool southeast of the Open-air Annexe; playing field northeast of the Urban Brick School Building; preschool southeast of the swimming pool; and all other buildings, structures and pathways within the heritage boundary are not of heritage significance.
","history":"Located two kilometres northeast of the Brisbane CBD, New Farm State School was established in 1901 to meet the educational needs of the growing suburban community. It retains an Urban Brick School Building (1901, extended 1909, 1939); an Open-air Annexe (1919); and a World War I Memorial (1923); set in landscaped grounds, with sporting facilities; early retaining walls (pre-1940) and mature trees. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the New Farm community.
\nOriginally the lands of the Turrbul and Jagera people, European settlement began at New Farm when a farm was established to supply the convict settlement founded on the present site of the Brisbane CBD in 1825. In October 1843, after the convict settlement closed, Government surveyor Henry Wade began surveying the land between Fortitude Valley and the Brisbane River into large allotments. Following their sale from 1844, residences were established. Subdivision into smaller allotments occurred in the 1880s when Brisbane’s population more than doubled due to immigration.[1]
\nThe need for a state school at New Farm resulted from extensive urbanisation and population growth in the area in the final decades of the 19th century. Improved transportation with the opening of an electric tramline down Brunswick Street in 1897, and industrial development, such as the CSR Refinery (QHR600261) in 1893 and the first Teneriffe Wharf in 1907, made New Farm a popular residential area.[2]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[3]
\nIn 1899, the Department of Public Instruction approved a request for the establishment of a school at New Farm, for which residents agreed to contribute one sixth of the cost of the erection of the new state school. Acting on the Department’s behalf, the chairman of the New Farm State School Building Committee, businessman Thomas Welsby, secured land for the school site from a number of owners, at a cost of £1087.[4]
\nPlans were approved in 1900 and the contractor, Thomas Hirons, commenced work in May 1900. The foundation stone was laid on 7 July 1900 by the Minister for Public Instruction, the Hon. James G Drake. The total cost of buildings, fencing and interest amounted to £3,571, of which parents contributed £634.[5]
\nNew Farm State School’s 0.8ha site comprised eight allotments, giving a 80.5m frontage to Heal Street and 28.7m frontages to Hawthorne and James streets. From Hawthorne Street to James Street the site fell 6.1m. Designed to accommodate 392 pupils, the Urban Brick School Building (now called Block A) had a U-shaped layout; comprised three large classrooms, measuring 7.3x12.2m with 4.9m ceilings, and 3m verandahs on all sides; with an adjacent 3x2.7m cloakroom; and a room for the Head Teacher. The rolled, galvanised-iron roof incorporated Boyles patent roof ventilators with specially made external casings. The rooms were accessed via stairs on each side of the building. The undercroft, comprising buff-coloured bull-nosed brick pillars and semi-circular arches with an asphalted floor, provided wet-weather play space.[6]
\nIn the first decades of the 20th century the Queensland Government implemented a campaign of construction of large public buildings. This included substantial brick or timber school buildings. Brick school buildings were far less frequently built than those of timber – being only used in prosperous urban or suburban areas with stable or rapidly increasing populations. Like Queensland’s private schools, technical colleges and schools of arts, all brick school buildings were individually designed with variation in style, size, and form. They were given generous budgets, resulting in impressive edifices. Light and ventilation was still a primary concern for the architects but, compared to contemporary standard education buildings, they had a grander character and greater landmark attributes.[7]
\nNew Farm State School commenced on its current site in January 1901, with 582 pupils enrolled. It was officially opened on 21 January 1901 with: the Chief Justice, Sir Samuel Griffith; the Minister for Education, the Hon. James G Drake; the Hon. John McMaster; the Under Secretary for Public Instruction, John G Anderson; Chief Inspector, David Ewart; Chairman of the school committee, Thomas Welsby; all committee members; Head Teacher, Arthur Outridge; and a large number of local children and parents in attendance.[8]
\nHowever, the school building was inadequate to accommodate the immediate school population, which reached 650 by 1903. Consequently, classes were held on the verandahs and under the school building. To address the need for larger play grounds, two adjoining 16-perch allotments were purchased in 1905. For some years this area was used as a rifle range by the school cadets.
\nAn additional classroom was added to the eastern end of both the northeastern and southwestern wings of the building in 1909, at a cost of £1,189. These extensions were designed to match the existing structure, being red brick with stone and buff dressings. Each comprised a 24x24ft (7.3x7.3m) classroom with 10ft (3m) verandahs. A plan dated September 1912 detailed alterations to undercroft archway enclosures, including new sashes, six-light casements and part-glazed double doors, which were part of improvements, repairs and internal painting to ‘basement’ classrooms.[9]
\nAs enrolments climbed sharply to 918 pupils in 1917, the need arose for a dedicated infants school to overcome overcrowding. This was achieved with the building of an Open-air Annexe (now called Block B) in 1918-19, after two adjacent allotments with residences were purchased for £1200 to provide sufficient grounds. The Open-air Annexe, constructed at a cost of £1,813, was opened on 15 February 1919 by the Minister for Education, Herbert F Hardacre. The building was positioned to the southeast of the Urban Brick School Building. Set on brick piers, the highset timber building contained two large classrooms, a verandah to the northwest and an attached teachers room. It had a Dutch gable roof of asbestos slates. Its southeastern, southwestern and northeastern sides were open above balustrade level, and the posts and valances to those elevations were of decorative timber.[10]
\nOpen-air Annexes were introduced as a standard design in 1913 by the Department of Public Works.[11] This design was developed in response to the contemporary medical belief that adequate ventilation and high levels of natural light were needed for health; coupled with the need to build cheap, portable schools. The Open-air Annexe type achieved maximum ventilation and natural light. It contained one large room with only one wall, the western verandah wall. The other sides were open, with only adjustable canvas blinds for enclosure. Ideally, they were high-set, thereby increasing the ventilation and providing further shelter underneath.[12]
\nMany Open-air Annexes were constructed across Queensland, but they proved to be inadequate and were discontinued in 1923. The open sides provided limited weather protection and climate control, and the canvas blinds deteriorated quickly. All Open-air Annexes in Queensland were modified to provide better enclosure.[13] Accordingly, the blinds of New Farm State School’s Open-air Annexe were replaced by sliding sash windows in 1924.[14]
\nA memorial to commemorate the 24 former New Farm State School students who had died during World War I, was organised by the school community and unveiled by the Governor of Queensland, Sir Matthew Nathan, on 2 February 1923. Located in the southwest corner of the school grounds, the memorial comprised a red face brick pillar with a concrete cap, upon which a flag pole was fixed. On two sides of the pillar were marble tablets inscribed with the names of the students who died during World War I; with stone laurel wreaths on the other sides. Radiating out from the column were four face brick plinths, aligned with the cardinal points and set at a lower height to the pillar. Into each, a drinking fountain and basin was set. The memorial was erected by Lowther and Sons, Monumental Masons, of Brisbane.[15]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890 with trees and gardens planted to shade and beautify schools. Aesthetically designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.[16] At New Farm State School, a tennis court was constructed in the southeast corner of the school grounds by September 1928. By 1931 a retaining wall at the eastern boundary had been erected and in 1935 retaining walls and fences were erected along the Hawthorne and Heal Streets’ boundary. Other early retaining walls were erected in the school grounds before 1940, such as those adjacent to the tennis court. By 1936 trees were planted to the west of the tennis court and along the southwest boundary of the school grounds, facing James and Heal Streets.[17]
\nThe Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building programme to provide impetus to the economy.[18]
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government had initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work programme by the Department of Public Works. This included painting and repairs to school buildings. By mid-1930 men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme. Extensive funding was given for improvements to school grounds, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, terracing and retaining walls. This work created many large school ovals, which prior to this period were mostly cleared of trees but not landscaped. These play areas became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element. At New Farm State School, relief workers dug rock from the Hawthorne Street side of the grounds to create a level play area for the children c1931.[19]
\nIn 1939 further additions to the school were made to accommodate the growing student population. A second storey was added to the northwest and southwest wings of the Urban Brick School Building, comprising five classrooms with adjacent hat and cloak rooms. A new teachers room on the first floor and head teachers room on the ground floor were also constructed. Lighting and ventilation was improved as windows, fanlights and doors were altered or replaced. A larger play space was created when the entire understory was cleared of walls and partitions, with the exception of the girls’ lavatory. The total cost of this work was £5430.[20]
\nLike many Queensland state schools, New Farm was affected by World War II (WWII). The Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. Major alterations, renovations and additions to most schools in Queensland halted and New Farm State School undertook only necessary maintenance until the war ended in 1945.[21]
\nThe post-WWII period was a time of enormous population growth Australia-wide and was accompanied by a shortage of building materials. The Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the exponential demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended. At New Farm State School the two classrooms of the Open-air Annexe were divided into four and its windows were altered to include fixed panels and casements in 1949. A tuckshop and a library were also created within the existing Urban Brick School Building in the 1950s. In 1958, folding partitions were installed in three classrooms in the southwest wing to provide a space for school assemblies.[22]
\nFundraising by parents and friends of the school resulted in the building of a swimming pool, sited southeast of the Open-air Annexe, which opened on 29 October 1966.[23]
\nThe Urban Brick School Building was altered during the 1970s. The outer verandahs of all three wings were enclosed with flat sheeting, louvres and sliding windows: beginning with the southwest wing in 1971; followed by the northeast wing in 1977; and finally the northwest wing in 1979.[24]
\nOther alterations at the school included the renovation and re-roofing of the Open-air Annexe in 1972. The largest addition to the school was the construction of a pre-school, sited on the corner of Annie and Hawthorne Streets, in 1976.[25] Sometime after the World War I Memorial’s unveiling, the drinking fountains were removed, but it retained a flag pole, the original carved wreaths and the memorial tablets.
\nThe lack of a sports oval at New Farm State School, an important feature of Queensland schools, was redressed in 1991. The Department of Education secured adjacent land to the northeast from the Department of Main Roads. This land had been resumed for construction of a proposed central freeway to a bridge linking New Farm with Norman Park. Removal of houses and the partial closure of Hawthorne Street occurred in 1989. In March 1991 the official handover of the new school oval occurred, and in June pupils planted 30 trees around the oval.[26]
\nThe 1990s were a period of low pupil numbers at the school, falling to 167 in 1997. This resulted from the decline of industrial and commercial enterprises in the area as they closed or relocated; and to the suburb’s changing demographic as older houses were demolished to make way for blocks of units, which were not favoured by families. However, through initiatives such as the urban renewal and Building Better Schools programs, enrolments increased to 247 by 2001.[27]
\nSince opening in 1901, New Farm State School has served the community and provided a venue for events, such as school fetes, dances and social committee meetings.[28] The publication of school histories recognised the New Farm State School’s 75th and 100th anniversaries in 1976 and 2001.
\nThe school retains early furniture items in the former Head Teachers Room. These are: a silky oak memorial cupboard dedicated to FJB Marin (Head Teacher 1922-23), a silky oak medicine cabinet and an early safe. There are also honour boards (the earliest from 1901), and an early school bell on the southwestern verandah of the eastern wing.
\nIn 2017, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains its Urban Brick School Building and Open-air Annexe, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities, playing areas, retaining walls and mature shade trees. New Farm State School is important to its suburban district as a key social focus for the community, as generations of students have been taught there and many social events have been held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
","criteria":"New Farm State School (established in 1901) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains fine, representative examples of government designs, which were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, and a war memorial, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities, early retaining walls, and mature trees.
\nThe Urban Brick School Building (1901, 1909) represents the culmination of years of experimentation with natural light, classroom size and ventilation by the Department of Public Works (DPW) and also demonstrates the growing preference in the early 20th century for constructing brick school buildings at metropolitan schools in developing suburbs.
\nThe second floor additions to two wings of the Urban Brick School Building (1939) and playground levelling (c1931) are the result of the Queensland Government’s building and relief work programmes during the 1930s, which stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
\nThe Open-air Annexe (1919) demonstrates the medical and educational theories of the period, which valued fresh air and sunlight; and is important in demonstrating the development pattern of incorporating open-air classrooms into existing school complexes. The enclosure of the annexe in the 1920s demonstrates adaptions to the open-air classroom type to improve its functionality.
\nThe World War I Memorial (1923) is important in demonstrating the school community’s involvement in this major world event. War memorials are a tribute from the community to those who served and those who died. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
\nThe large, suburban site with mature trees and sporting facilities demonstrates educational philosophies that promoted the importance of play and a beautiful environment in the education of children.
|New Farm State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of Queensland state schools with later modifications. These include: teaching buildings constructed to standard and individual designs; and generous, landscaped sites with mature trees, assembly and play areas, retaining walls and sporting facilities.
\nThe Urban Brick School Building is an excellent, intact example of its type. The building demonstrates the principal characteristics of an Urban Brick School Building through its highset form; linear layout, with classrooms and teachers rooms accessed by verandahs; undercrofts used as open play spaces and additional classrooms; loadbearing, masonry construction, with face brick piers to undercroft spaces; gable or Dutch-gable roofs with roof fleches; and decorative timbers to verandahs, window hoods and gablets. It demonstrates use of the stylistic features of its era, which determined roof form, decorative treatment and joinery. Typically, Urban Brick School Buildings are configured to create central courtyards, and are located in suburban areas that were growing at the time of their construction.
\nThe Open-air Annexe is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type. It retains its highset, timber-framed structure on brick piers; classroom widths; western verandah (now enclosed); and semi-detached teachers room.
|The Urban Brick School Building at New Farm State School has aesthetic significance due to its beautiful attributes: symmetrical layout; high quality materials, face brick exterior, elegant composition, finely crafted timber work, and decorative treatments.
\nSited on high ground above James Street, the school has extensive views across surrounding suburbs and to the Brisbane CBD. Attractive views of the school buildings are attained from the east.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nNew Farm State School has a strong and ongoing association with the New Farm and district community. It was established in 1901 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of New Farm and is a prominent focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650044,"name":"Ascot State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Pringle Street","suburb":"ASCOT","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2017-04-07","description":"Ascot State School occupies a 1.816ha, sloping site within the residential suburb of Ascot, approximately 6km northeast of the Brisbane CBD. The rectangular site faces and is primarily accessed from Pringle Street to the north; and is bounded on other sides by Anthony Street to the west, Massey Street to the south and residential properties to the east. The school buildings are located on the elevated, western end of the school grounds, and a large playing field occupies the lower, eastern portion of the site. Fronting Pringle, Anthony and Massey streets, three connected Urban Brick School Buildings (blocks A, B and C) are set in a U-shape configuration and are the earliest and westernmost of the school buildings. The school grounds contain a number of significant mature trees and landscaping features, including a courtyard (between blocks A, B and C), mature trees and a playing field. Block B contains rare educational murals on its classroom walls.
\nThree Urban Brick School Buildings (blocks A, B and C)
\nThe three Urban Brick School Buildings (blocks A, B and C) are individually designed, masonry and timber structures, which have terracotta-tiled gable and Dutch-gable roofs. The gable ends and gablets have decorative timbering set in front of circular roof vents; and prominent fleches protrude above the roofs. The three buildings are symmetrically arranged in a U-shaped plan, with Block A located centrally to the west (running north-south); Block B to the south (running east-west); and Block C to the north (running east-west).
\nThe buildings range from a single storey with an undercroft (open space) at the west to two storeys at the east, reflecting the slope of the site. Block A has a single storey, which is lowset at the west; and the ground underneath has been cut to form an understorey (enclosed space).
\nThe first floor of blocks B and C are aligned with Block A. Blocks B and C both have open undercroft spaces at the west and understorey spaces at the east. The first floor of the buildings generally have rough-cast finished masonry walls with red face brick dressings, and red face brick walls to the undercroft and understorey level. The first floors of the blocks are connected by a continuous verandah which runs to the north of Block C, east of Block A and south of Block B. Various stairs provide access to the verandah; with two enclosed by face brick walls and forming the eastern ends of blocks B and C.
\nThe verandahs on each level provide access to the interior spaces. The first floor verandahs have raked ceilings lined in timber v-jointed (VJ) boards, timber floors, square timber posts, timber post-and-rail balustrades, and brick verandah walls (some have been painted). Some sections of single-skin, weatherboard-clad timber walls (former hat racks) are retained; and teachers annexes are connected to the verandahs of Block A and Block C. Block B’s verandah features a scalloped valance, eaves with exposed rafters, and timber-framed, wired-glass partitions at the eastern and western ends. Verandahs to the understorey level have flat ceilings lined with profiled and corrugated metal sheets, concrete slab floors, face brick columns and face brick verandah walls. Bag racks and modern louvre windows that enclose the verandahs are recent additions and are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nThe interior spaces of the three blocks are linearly arranged, with almost all classrooms and offices leading off verandah spaces. On the first floor, Block A contains three classrooms of a similar size; Block B has six classrooms; and Block C has four classrooms, with two withdrawal rooms separating the outermost classrooms from innermost classrooms. Blocks B and C are each terminated at the eastern end by a store and staircase. The classroom spaces generally have plastered walls, timber picture rails, and plastered ceilings with painted timber battens, and ceiling vents. Most partition walls between classrooms have been partially removed, with remaining early sections featuring VJ timber board linings. Skirtings are of concrete and timber picture rails are featured in most rooms.
\nBlock A’s teachers annexe comprises three small offices / store rooms (the outer two are of a lighter construction). Block C’s teachers room comprises a singular space, which has recently been divided by lightweight partitions to form toilet cubicles. The teachers rooms have plaster walls with VJ timber-lined ceilings; with the exception of the outer two rooms to Block A’s teachers annexe, which have flat sheet-lined walls and ceilings.
\nThe lower level of blocks A, B and C comprises an undercroft at the west, and understorey at the east. Block A is mostly open play space, with an early enclosure at the northwestern end, and enclosed store rooms beneath the teachers rooms. The western ends of blocks B and C are mainly open play space with early toilet / amenities enclosures. The eastern end of Block C has three classrooms, with the two easternmost divided by a folding partition (now removed), and terminated by an eastern staircase with store located under the stairs. Block B features two classrooms, with the easternmost being of a double classroom width, and eastern stair with store room under. The floor level of the easternmost classroom is tiered at the western end (former seating platforms relating to the use of the room as a One Teacher School). The classroom spaces generally have plastered walls, plastered ceilings with painted timber battens and concrete skirtings. All undercroft spaces feature face brick columns, which are rounded below head height.
\nRare surviving early educational murals of painted text and images, on topics such as tourism, transport, farming, sugar cane, and Australian states, are painted directly onto the bulkheads and walls of classrooms in Block B. Most feature a detailed image with adjacent wording. Murals to the understorey classroom of Block B have been covered, although it is likely that these survive underneath the recent paint.
\nMost early timber joinery within the building has been retained, including: double-hung sash windows with awning fanlights to verandahs; casements and centre-pivoting windows with awning fanlights (some angled) to exterior walls; fixed louvres to the understorey level; dual timber panelled doors with stop-chamfered detailing and centre-pivoting fanlights; tall, centre-pivoting fanlights over verandah doors, and panelled, folding timber door partitions between some classrooms in Block B. Most windows feature horizontal painted concrete sills and lintels. Timber-framed, terracotta-tiled hoods shelter windows on the northern sides of all blocks, and on the western side of Block A.
\nModern partitions, joinery, carpets and linoleum are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nLandscape Features
\nThe school grounds are well established and comprise various mature trees, hard-scaping and courtyard spaces. Retaining walls and stairs terrace the site, down to a playing field at the east. Recent buildings are generally visually unified with the older school buildings through the use of red brickwork and tiled roofs.
\nA set of concrete stairs (1963) on the southern side of the playing field and a smaller set south of Block B, to the west of the swimming pool, provide access to the site from Massey Street.
\nA courtyard located between blocks A, B and C incorporates a covered play space, a modern sculpture garden and various mosaic artworks, none of which are of cultural heritage significance. A linear, paved and concreted space continues from the courtyard down to the playing field; and facilitates a visual axis across the length of the school site. Tall palm trees in the courtyard area are planted in rows, in line with the visual axis.
\nMature trees including Poincianas (Delonix regia), silky oaks (Grevillea robusta), ironbarks (Eucalyptus sp.), tulipwoods (Harpullia pendula) and Jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia) are concentrated along the northern and eastern boundaries of the playing field. A mature mango tree (Mangifera sp.) is located at the northeastern end of the playing field.
\nProminent views of the Urban Brick School Buildings are available from Anthony and Pringle streets over open play spaces.
\nNon-Significant Elements
\nOther buildings, structures, shade sails, pathways, play equipment, sheds and cricket nets within the cultural heritage boundary are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Ascot State School (established 1920) is located in the Brisbane suburb of Ascot, six kilometres northeast of the CBD. It is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains three Urban Brick School Buildings (Block A: 1920, Block B: 1928-34, Block C: 1923-39), which incorporate rare educational murals in Block B; set in landscaped grounds with a playing field, sporting facilities and mature trees. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Ascot community.
\nTraditionally the land of the Turrbal and Jagera people, land at Ascot was sold as country lots in the late 1850s and early 1860s, and underwent subdivision from the 1880s after the railway line to the Eagle Farm Racecourse opened in 1882. However, most housing development occurred after the turn of the century, stimulated by the opening of the electrified tram to the racecourse, along the current Kingsford Smith Drive and Racecourse Road, in 1899.[1]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. Schools became a community focus, with the school community contributing to maintenance and development; a symbol of progress; and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[2]
\nDramatic reform of the Queensland Education system began around 1909 and continued until the beginning of World War I. During this period a high school system was introduced, technical education was expanded, the University of Queensland was inaugurated, a teachers' training college was established, the requirement for a local contribution of construction costs for new schools was abolished, and the leaving age was increased from 12 to 14 years.[3] Although technically compulsory since 1875, school attendance was not enforced until 1900. Subsequently, student numbers rose across Queensland during the first 15 years of the 20th century.[4]
\nActions to establish a state school in Ascot commenced in 1914. The current site, bounded by Pringle, Anthony and Mayfield (now Massey) Streets, was purchased for a future school in May 1914 at a cost of £1400.[5] In December 1915 a public meeting, held to organise a state school at Ascot, established the prerequisite school building committee for that purpose. However, while the country remained at war there were insufficient funds to institute the school.[6]
\nApproval for the school, comprising an Urban Brick School Building, was given on 13 June 1919.[7] Brick school buildings were far less frequently built than timber ones, only being provided in prosperous urban or suburban areas with stable or rapidly-increasing populations. All brick school buildings were individually designed with variations in style, size, and form, but generally retained similar classroom sizes, layouts and window arrangements to timber schools to facilitate natural light and ventilation. However, compared to contemporary standard education buildings, these buildings had a grander character and greater landmark attributes.[8]
\nAscot State School opened on 24 May 1920 with 124 pupils enrolled. Its Urban Brick School Building (now called Block A) was an ‘attractive building of brick, rough-casted externally, plastered internally, ceiled with fibro-cement and roofed with tiles.’[9] Highset, it comprised three classrooms, verandah and attached teachers room. Each classroom featured a bank of windows, which allowed natural light to enter from the left side of the students, and had battened ceilings with a central ceiling vent. A photograph from 1920 shows casement windows, with fanlights, sheltered below window hoods and a tiled, gable roof with a central ventilation roof fleche. Verandah corners were enclosed with dark-coloured weatherboards, centred four-pane windows, and light-coloured, vertically-battened timber balustrades and trim. Costing £3,556, the school building was designed to accommodate 120 pupils.[10]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.[11] From Ascot State School’s inception, there was an emphasis on creating a beautiful environment for the pupils, with the result that the school’s gardens were admired by locals and visitors.[12] However, Arbor Day was not observed during the first Head Teacher’s administration (Thomas Henderson, 1920-39) because ‘every Thursday the children [were]…given a practical lesson on the planting and culture of various plants and shrubs’.[13]
\nDuring Ascot State School’s first year, its school committee made enormous improvements to the school grounds. They established gardens, spray lines to water them, an impressive array of playground equipment on a terraced playground, a tennis court (located northeast of the school building on the Pringle Street side) and a swimming pool (60x20ft - 18.3x6m) located to the southeast of the school building and fronting Massey Street. The school’s tree-planting programme ‘strictly followed [a] plan, which allowed for only colourful flowering trees to be planted around the school ground’s perimeter i.e poinciana, jacaranda, silky oak and…South African red tulip tree[s]’.[14] However, the school’s small oval was a rough, at times boggy, site that took years to improve.[15]
\nIn the same year, enrolments at Ascot State School outstripped accommodation as subdivision and residential building in Ascot boosted its population. By April 1921, less than a year after opening, the school population was 310.[16]
\nMoney was allocated by the government for an additional wing in October 1922. This northern wing (now called Block C) was completed in the following year and officially opened on 20 October 1923. It ran perpendicular to the school’s first building, faced Pringle Street and was connected to the original building by a verandah. Similar in design and materials to the first building, it was brick with rough-cast external render. It provided three new classrooms and a teachers room, while the undercroft was divided into play space and a gymnasium.[17]
\nEnrolments continued to grow as Ascot’s population increased. In 1927 there were 568 pupils at the school and four classes were taught permanently in the undercroft. In response, the Department of Public Works (DPW) drew plans in 1927 for a new, southern block (Block B), which would form a U-shaped complex plan. [18]
\nOn 25 August 1928, Block B was opened by the Minister for Public Instruction, Thomas Wilson. Built of rough-cast render and brick, it provided four extra classrooms on the upper floor level of the existing school and one underneath, each of which was 20x20ft (6x6m). The whole provided extra seating accommodation for 200 pupils. Folding partitions on the upper floor converted the classrooms into one assembly room. The undercroft was concreted. A photograph from 1928 shows the building had tiled window hoods, and banks of casement windows and centre-pivoting sashes with awning fanlights.[19]
\nCommencement of the Great Depression in 1929 halted fulfilment of further accommodation requests for the next three years at Ascot State School.[20] The Great Depression caused a dramatic reduction in public building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. The Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power in June 1932 after a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. It embarked on a large public building programme designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state. This building programme included: government offices, schools and colleges; university buildings; hospitals and asylums; courthouses, police stations and gaols.[21]
\nExtension of Block C was approved and commenced in September 1932. Comprising two classrooms of 22x18ft (6.7x5.5m) with 10ft (3m)-wide verandahs and a hat room on two levels, plus lavatory facilities underneath, it accommodated a further 80 pupils and cost £1033. The design and materials matched existing work. In the same year, lavatories were also constructed under Block B, and a dressing shed added to the swimming pool.[22]
\nImmediately after the completion of the addition to Block C, more classrooms were required for the 707 pupils enrolled at June 1933, as the school’s 13 classrooms accommodated only 520 pupils. Plans for a major extension to Block B, which would complete that building for approximately £3,388, were approved in December 1933 and construction began early in 1934. The DPW’s Annual Report described it as a three-storied addition with separate entrances to each floor. The middle floor contained a single classroom 40x22ft, [12 x6.7m] designed as a one teacher school with a gallery for 36 trainees and a 10ft [3m] wide verandah. The top floor contained two classrooms, stairs, verandah, hat room and cloakroom. Folding partitions separated these and the existing classrooms. The floor of one of the new classrooms was raised 2ft 6in [0.76m] above the level of the floor of the existing classroom, which enabled it to be used as a stage. The new classroom, together with the four existing rooms, formed a large assembly hall when the folding partitions were opened. The cloakroom served as a dressing room behind the stage.[23]
\nIn 1935, less than a year after the completion of the Block B addition, the Head Teacher requested more accommodation. The disparity between the number of pupils and classrooms worsened, as work on addition did not commence until after May 1939, by which time the school population had risen to 822. With an authorised cost of £4,387, these additions to Block C completed the symmetrical layout of the school buildings. Constructed of brick and concrete with a Marseilles tile roof, the design utilised the fall of the land on the site to provide sub-basement, basement and ground floors. Accommodation comprised four classrooms, teachers room, cloak rooms, seating area and store, together with a concrete staircase at the eastern end of the wing and verandahs to the north. Each classroom had folding partitions to create a single room of approximately 60x22ft (18.3x6m). The extension accommodated 160 pupils.[24]
\nChanges to the grounds took place in conjunction with this addition. Concrete pathways were laid to all sides of the addition and concrete steps, and park rail fences were set on the banks between the terraces of the upper level. A new tennis court replaced the old one, which was encroached upon by the new extension.[25]
\nCommencement of the War in the Pacific during World War II impacted on schools. In January 1942, the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended.[26] Slit trenches, for protecting the students from Japanese air raids, were also dug at Queensland state schools. A photograph of Ascot State School in 1942 shows older male pupils digging slit trenches.[27]
\nTypically, schools were a focus for civilian duty during wartime. At many, students and staff members grew produce and flowers for donation to local hospitals and organised fundraising and the donation of useful items to Australian soldiers on active service.[28] At Ascot State School, vegetable gardens were a special feature of the garden work performed by pupils. The produce was distributed mainly to Red Cross hostels and canteens, although later in the war it was sold for the benefit of Patriotic Funds.[29]
\nAfter World War II, Ascot’s population continued to rise, as did that of the school, which peaked at 1433 in 1959.[30] The Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and to cope many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[31] A number of new buildings were added at Ascot State School between 1950 and 1960. Most have been replaced.[32]
\nAlong with the expansion of the school’s buildings came improvement and expansion of the school’s grounds. In 1955, extensive drainage and earthworks and development of the oval were planned. The Minister for Public Instruction requested that the Brisbane City Council (BCC) transfer its park land to the east of the school to the Department of Public Instruction. The BCC agreed to vest the land in the Secretary of Public Instruction as trustee in perpetuity, provided an undertaking was given ‘to develop, maintain and use the area during normal school hours as playground for the school children, free of buildings and fencing and allow the use of the area by the general public during other than school hours’.[33] The transfer took place in June 1956 and on 10 August 1956 the completed, upgraded Meibush Oval, named after a former school principal, was opened by the Minister for Public Instruction, JCA Pizzey. The total cost of the project was £4087 including a government subsidy of £1577.[34] Further renovations of the oval were required in 1963 when, amongst other improvements, concrete stairs were built on the Massey Street side.[35]
\nWith the transfer of Grade 8 education to secondary schools from January 1964, the issue of insufficient classroom accommodation was largely resolved. However, further additions to the site and improvements to facilities and accommodation occurred in the ensuing decades. During the 1970s and 1980s a number of new buildings were constructed.[36]
\nEarly buildings were also altered over time. In 1970 extensions and alterations to the Block A teachers room took place. In 1977 the verandah of Block B was enclosed. In 1979 alterations to Blocks A, B and C were approved, as were plans for enclosure of Block C’s verandah. In 1980, provision was made for the janitor and cleaners in Block B, and all toilet blocks were remodelled and upgraded. The roofs of Blocks A, B and C were re-tiled in mid-1982. At the turn of the 21st century, as part of the Building Better Schools Program, classrooms in Block C were upgraded.[37]
\nThe school’s grounds also underwent significant improvements. In 1966 a larger pool replaced the earlier one. In the 1980s, landscaping of the areas between Blocks A, B and C, and the rejuvenation and extension of the adventure playground took place. In 2000, the tennis court between Blocks D and G was converted into a covered area and a new canteen added to the east of Block D.[38]
\nCommunity involvement in the school has been significant since the school’s opening. In the early years the parents established gardens, built playground equipment, and constructed a tennis court and swimming pool. Creating a useable oval occupied the school committee’s attention for many years. For about 10 years from c1923, the Ascot Show Society held its annual show in the Ascot State School grounds. Fancy dress balls were also held at the school in the 1930s. From the 1960s, through until at least the late 1970s, fundraising through walkathons was popular.[39]
\nIntroduced by the first Head Teacher at the school, murals were painted on classroom walls for educational purposes. The earliest, painted by a commercial artist, were in place by November 1930. Others were painted by Arthur E Guymer, while working as a trainee and as a teacher at the school in the 1930s. Murals of sheep- and cattle-raising, exports, mining, sugar growing and other industries were painted on bulkheads and classroom walls throughout the school. In the infants’ classroom, Brer Rabbit, Donald Duck and other characters were depicted.[40] Murals relating to Queensland industries, transport and tourism, Australian states and New Zealand remain in some classrooms of Block B.
\nIn 2017, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains its Urban Brick School Buildings, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities, playing areas, and mature shade trees. Ascot State School is important to Ascot as a key social focus for the community, as generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
","criteria":"Ascot State School (established in 1920) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of standard government-designed school buildings, which were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities and mature trees.
\nThree Urban Brick School Buildings (1920, 1923-39, 1928-34) represent the culmination of years of experimentation with natural light, classroom size and elevation by the Department of Public Works (DPW), and also demonstrate the growing preference in the early 20th century for constructing brick school buildings at metropolitan schools in developing suburbs. Additions to Blocks B and C undertaken during the 1930s are the result of the Queensland Government’s building and relief work programmes during the 1930s, which stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
\nThe suburban site with mature trees, sporting facilities and other landscaping features demonstrates educational policies that promoted the importance of play and a beautiful environment in the education of children.
|The 1930s educational murals, painted on the interior classroom walls of Block B are, and have always been, a rare educational practice. Intact and distinctive, they are the only known murals of this kind in Queensland.
|Ascot State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school with later modifications. These include: teaching buildings constructed to individual designs; and generous, landscaped sites, with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities.
\nThe Urban Brick School Buildings are intact, excellent examples of individually designed Urban Brick School Buildings. They demonstrate the principal characteristics of this type through their highset form; linear layout, with classrooms and teachers rooms accessed by verandahs; undercrofts used as open play spaces and understoreys for additional classrooms; loadbearing, masonry construction, with face brick piers to undercroft spaces; and roof fleches. They demonstrate use of the stylistic features of their era, which determined their roof form, decorative treatment and joinery. Typically, Urban Brick School Buildings are configured to create central courtyards, and are located in suburban areas that were growing at the time of their construction.
|The Urban Brick School Buildings at Ascot State School have aesthetic significance due to their beautiful attributes: identifiable by their symmetrical layout; consistent form; scale; materials; elegant composition; finely crafted timber work; and decorative treatment.
\nThese buildings remain intact and demonstrate a continuation of site planning ideals initiated by the placing of the original Urban Brick School Building in a prominent position at the top of the sloping site. The beauty of the school's setting is enhanced by mature trees and formal landscaping elements such as retaining walls and stairs.
\nThe buildings are also significant for their contribution to the Anthony and Pringle Streets’ streetscape.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nAscot State School has a strong and ongoing association with the surrounding community. It developed from 1920 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of Ascot children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of its suburban district and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650045,"name":"Buranda State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"24 Cowley Street","suburb":"BURANDA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2017-04-28","description":"Buranda State School occupies a 2.78ha site in Buranda, a locality within the suburb of Woolloongabba, approximately three kilometres southwest of Brisbane CBD. The site is bounded by Cowley Street, Norman Creek and the Eastern Busway (south), Martin Street (northwest), Salisbury Street (northeast), Churchill Street (east), and light industrial and residential properties (west, north and east). The school shares its site with Narbethong State Special School, which is located at the northeast end of the site and is excluded from the heritage register boundary. Buranda State School’s significant buildings are located on a plateau in the southwestern corner of the site, edged by steep rocky cliffs along the western and northern sides. Access is via a main entrance from Cowley Street and a secondary entrance from Martin Street. Pedestrian access from the south is provided via a footbridge over Norman Creek. Situated adjacent to the Cowley Street entrance is the earliest remaining building – a Suburban Timber School Building (Block A; 1920, with 1928 extension). An early Swimming Pool, Dressing Shed and concrete terraces (1926) are located south of the eastern end of Block A. Other significant elements within the school grounds include a concrete retaining wall and stairs (1928-9), a stone retaining wall on two sides of the Swimming Pool (1926-7), World War II (WWII) Honour Boards in Block A (1944 and post-WWII), rock-edged gardens beds and walls (c1926-1936), and mature trees.
\nSuburban Timber School Building (Block A; 1920, 1928 extension)
\nThe Suburban Timber School Building (Block A) is a highset, timber-framed and weatherboard-clad structure. Orientated on an east-west axis, it comprises three, symmetrically-arranged wings – central, eastern and western – with two adjacent teachers rooms on the northern side of the central wing. The eastern wing is longer due to a two-storey extension (1928) to the eastern end, which has its first floor aligned with the 1920 building and the ground floor set at a lower level than the understorey.
\nThe three wings have Dutch gable roofs and the teachers rooms has a gable roof. All roofs are clad in corrugated metal sheeting and the gablets are infilled with weatherboards. The north-facing wall of the teachers rooms has batten infill to the gable and two timber-framed, skillion-roofed window hoods which retain original asbestos tile cladding. Ground floor windows along the southern side of the 1928 extension are sheltered by wide timber-framed, skillion-roofed window hoods clad in corrugated metal sheeting. The building’s raked eaves have exposed rafters and are lined with tongue-and-groove (T&G), V-jointed (VJ) timber boards. The building is set on brick piers and stumps, and a north-facing verandah, accessed by sets of timber stairs, provides circulation for the whole building. Non-significant elements of the exterior include: steel roofs over the eastern wing verandah stairs; roof-mounted solar panels; modern awnings to enclosed verandah windows; a deck area and ramp constructed on the southern side of the 1928 extension; airconditoning units; modern security screens to windows; and modern pipes and service conduits.
\nThe verandah has a raked ceiling lined in T&G, VJ timber boards; sections of surviving two-rail slat balustrade (other sections have been replaced by bag racks); and square timber posts that are linked by curved timber arches. All verandah walls are single-skin, with T&G, VJ timber board linings and externally-exposed stud-framing; with hat hooks attached to some walls. Non-significant elements of the verandah include: recent enclosures at the far eastern and western ends of the verandah; a store room adjacent to the west wall of the eastern wing; a replacement staircase and lift attached to the north verandah of the western wing; and a staircase inserted within the verandah space at the eastern end of the western wing.
\nIn 2017, the central wing comprises office and staff rooms (from west to east – the Principal’s office, administration office, sick bay and conference room), with original partitions removed and new partitions inserted. The teachers rooms are intact and contain two small offices. The western wing contains a double classroom space with the dividing partition removed and incorporates a section of enclosed verandah (used for after school care in 2017). In the eastern wing, all first floor rooms incorporate enclosed verandah space and have had the verandah walls removed. The 1920 section contains two former classrooms (used for staff and teaching purposes in 2017). The first floor of the 1928 section contains a double classroom (used as a music room in 2017) and a store room at the verandah end. The ground floor contains a single large room (used as a staff room in 2017) and the enclosed verandah retains the verandah wall and a former hat room at the verandah end. Interior spaces throughout the building retain bulkheads that indicate the original layout of dividing partitions. Most spaces have timber T&G, VJ board-lined walls and ceilings – the ceilings of the wings are coved and those in the teachers rooms are flat. The rooms retain their timber floor boards, simple timber skirting boards, exposed metal tie rods and latticed, square ceiling ventilation panels. Non-significant features of the interior include: a set of c1967 stairs leading down to the verandah of the 1928 section; recent carpet and linoleum floor linings; kitchenettes; and modern partitions, doors and cupboards.
\nA range of original and early timber joinery is retained throughout the building, including: high-level, centre-pivoting windows to the eastern and western end walls of each wing; double-hung sashes to the verandah walls (early additions); and double-leaf doors with tall horizontally centre-pivoting fanlights to most classrooms. Large banks of windows to the southern elevations are casements along the bottom row and horizontally centre-pivoting windows and fanlights above. Fanlights in the 1920 wings are set in inclined frames. Windows to the teachers rooms are tall, three-light casements with square fanlights. One set of original folding timber doors survives on the first floor of the 1928 section.
\nThe understorey has a concrete slab floor, with concrete surface drains, and glazed, brown brick piers with rounded edges. A low brick retaining wall runs along the northern edge of western wing with batten screens above, fixed between piers. Most of the understorey is used as open play-space, with the remainder enclosed by partitions to create classroom, store room and tuckshop spaces. An early enclosure which survives beneath the western wing (originally a pre-1939 art and music room) has timber walls lined with vertical VJ boards with timber-framed, four-light, horizontally centre-pivoting windows set high in the southern and western walls. Steel beams inserted to support the floor above were inserted c1940. An early braced and ledged timber board door survives in the eastern wall, and modifications have been made to the northern end of the room to create a separate uniform shop (such as replacing the timber windows with louvres). Beneath the 1920 section of the eastern wing are former toilets (now storerooms and a workshop) enclosed by timber walls lined with vertical VJ boards (west and north sides), brick (adjoining the 1928 extension) and rendered masonry walls (southern side). These walls retain timber batten doors and early fixed louvres in timber frames. Other understorey enclosures, including the tuck shop and storeroom beneath the central wing (c1967) and the store rooms beneath the teachers rooms, are not of heritage significance.
\nSwimming Pool with Dressing Shed and concrete terraces (1926)
\nDirectly south of the eastern end of Block A is a rectangular, in-ground concrete Swimming Pool, with a timber Dressing Shed along its northern side. The sloping ground between the pool and shed is terraced with a series of concrete retaining walls and stairs.
\nThe Swimming Pool, which measures 22.86m x 9.14m, has tiled edges and is surrounded by a concrete slab. Non-significant elements include the diving blocks, metal rails and ladders, and a smaller pool to the west (constructed c1971).
\nThe Dressing Shed is a long, rectangular building, lowset on concrete stumps and clad in timber weatherboards. The gable roof is clad in corrugated metal sheeting. It has a verandah along the southern side (overlooking the pool) with a timber floor, two-rail balustrade, and a single-skin wall, with T&G, VJ timber board lining and externally-exposed stud-framing. A doorway in the centre of the verandah wall is ornamented with a timber fretwork arch. All windows are set high in the walls – those in the north wall are fixed louvres in timber frames; windows in the verandah wall and end walls appear to be modern fixed or awning windows. Internally, a central entrance area is flanked by identical dressing rooms with shower rooms at each end of the building. Walls are lined with T&G, VJ timber boards and have a flat-sheet dado. The ceiling is lined with flat sheets with batten cover strips in a square grid pattern. Metal hooks and timber seating line the walls of the dressing rooms. Non-significant element of the interior include: modern tiles lining the floor and walls of the shower rooms; modern doors and shower fittings; and linoleum floor linings.
\nThe terraces comprise: two long retaining walls; a central stairway flanked by square concrete posts; an eastern stairway and pathway; a set of steps heading west from the lower terrace level; a section of wall heading south from the stairs; and garden bed edging adjacent to the Dressing Shed verandah. All walls and curbing have a rounded top surface. Round drainage holes are regularly spaced along the retaining walls. Non-significant elements of the terraces include metal fences and handrails, and steel posts supporting shade structures.
\nLandscape Elements
\nNumerous walls and garden features are found throughout the school grounds. A tall, battered stone retaining wall (1926-27) is located to the south and east of the Swimming Pool. To the west of the Dressing Shed are early stone-edged garden beds (1926). A low stone wall (c1934) is located along the south-west perimeter facing Cowley Street, part of an early garden scheme at the entrance to the school. A concrete retaining wall (1928-9) runs north from the 1928 extension of Block A, intersected by two sets of concrete stairs. Stone-edged garden beds are located on the north side of the teachers rooms and the eastern wing staircase (by 1936).
\nLarge mature trees, including fig trees (ficus, sp.), are located to the east of the swimming pool, north of the 1928 extension to Block A, and to the south and east of the Martin Street entrance.
\nA playing field on low-lying ground to the east of the main school complex is edged by Norman Creek and vegetation to the southeast, and an arc of school buildings and structures on the higher ground around the western and northern sides.
\nA large timber Honour Board (1944) and a smaller Honour Board (post-WWII) are hung on the eastern wall of the most easterly ground floor classroom of the 1928 section of Block A. These boards list the names of former students who served in World War II (WWII). A small timber Memorial, south of the large Honour Board, is dedicated to Adrian Blair, a former student.
\nAn early school bell hangs from a corner of the verandah eaves of Block A’s western wing.
\nOther Structures
\nAll other buildings, structures, pathways, shelters, playground equipment and sheds within the heritage boundary are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Buranda State School, established in 1918, is located in the suburb of Woolloongabba, approximately three kilometres southwest of the Brisbane CBD. It is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains its Suburban Timber School Building (1920, 1928) with WWII honour boards (1944, post-1945); set in landscaped grounds with a Swimming Pool, Dressing Shed and terraces (1926); sports oval; retaining walls (1926-36); and mature trees. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Buranda-Stone’s Corner-Woolloongabba community.
\nTraditionally the lands of the Turrbal and Jagera people, suburban development around the Buranda State School site began in the 1880s. The nearby Stone’s Corner Hotel opened in the late 1880s and by the 1890s industries were established in the area. The Cleveland railway line ran to the north of the future school site from 1889 and from 1897 electric trams operated along Logan Road to Stones Corner. By 1908 the population had grown sufficiently for the Department of Public Instruction to commence planning a school to serve the district.[1]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. Schools became a community focus, with the school community contributing to maintenance and development; a symbol of progress; and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[2]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[3]
\nBuranda State School was established as a separate Girls and Infants School (1918) and a Boys School (1920) to provide primary school education for the growing population in the locality of Logan Road. Its site, formed from Crown land, purchased land, and a South Brisbane Council quarry, was proclaimed as a school reserve in 1916. The timber Girls and Infants School building occupied high ground at the northwest of the site, and was accessed via Martin Street. The school’s name was taken from the nearby railway station. Establishment of the school was intended to relieve the enrolment pressure on East Brisbane, Dunellan, Junction Park and Dutton Park state schools.[4]
\nThe Buranda Boys School opened on 27 September 1920 with an enrolment of 173 pupils. Its Suburban Timber School Building (Block A), positioned in the lower southwestern portion of the site and accessed via Cowley Street, was a high-set, timber building with a continuous north verandah, and central, projecting teachers rooms. The building comprised a central wing with two side wings, each with a Dutch gable roof of shingle tiles and central fleche. It seated 320 boys in eight classrooms. The central wing was divided into four classrooms (21x20ft / 6.4x6.1m) and each side wing into two similar-sized rooms separated by fixed glazed partitions. The undercroft was utilised for play space and lavatories.[5]
\nThis building type, introduced in 1914, was the culmination of years of experimentation that solved many of the problems of light, ventilation, and classroom size, which had plagued previous school designs, as well as providing the ideal, modern education environment.[6] From 1893 the Department of Public Works greatly improved the natural ventilation and lighting of classroom interiors, experimenting with different combinations of roof ventilators, ceiling and wall vents, larger windows, dormer windows and ducting. In c1909 high-set timber buildings had been introduced, providing better ventilation as well as further teaching space and a covered play area underneath. This was a noticeable new direction and this form became a characteristic of Queensland schools.[7]
\nPrior to the widespread adoption of electricity and artificial lighting, achieving an ideal or even adequate level of natural light in classrooms, without glare, was of critical importance to educators and consequently it became central to the design and layout of all school buildings. From around 1909 windows were rearranged and enlarged to provide a greater amount of gentle, southern light into the room and desks were rearranged so that the light would fall onto students’ left hand sides to avoid throwing shadows onto the pages; this presupposed that all students were right-handed. Windows were larger and sills were lowered to let in more light generally. Smaller classrooms were preferred as they were easier to light correctly. Interiors became lighter and airier and met with immediate approval from educationalists.[8] These features – large banks of south-facing windows and smaller classrooms – are retained at Buranda State School.
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. In the 1870s, schools inspector William Boyd was critical of tropical schools and his recommendations stressed the importance of the adding shade trees to playgrounds. Subsequently, Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.[9] Arbor Day celebrations at Buranda State School commenced in 1918 and were conducted up to at least the late 1950s. By 1958 there were 63 planted trees alive in the school grounds.[10]
\nBuranda State School’s Committee undertook an active programme of fund-raising events to improve the school’s facilities. This included an annual combined schools’ fete, fancy dress balls, socials, euchre parties and excursions. One major outcome of its efforts was the school swimming pool (25x10yards / 22.86x9.14m) with dressing shed, goldfish pond and landscaping, completed for £1800 and opened debt-free. At its opening during a school fete on 30 October 1926, Alderman Lawry acknowledged that the baths were ‘a splendid record of voluntary work, teachers, parents and pupils all assisting in the hard work of clearing and excavating the ground….[while] the Public Works Department…suppl[ied] the materials’.[11] When opening the pool, the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, William Jolly, stated ‘Not only was it a perfect pool but the terraced lawns, flower beds, goldfish pond, and dressing shed created an environment which could not fail to inculcate a love of the beautiful in the children.’[12]
\nThe establishment of swimming pools in Queensland state schools was a growing trend in the early decades of the 20th century. The perceived benefits of learning to swim for pupils were expounded from 1915 onwards: as a particularly appropriate physical exercise during summer; of value to children’s physiques; and for water safety reasons to prevent drownings.[13] Earlier pools had opened at Junction Park (1910) (QHR650023), Milton State School (1914), Wooloowin State School (1916) (QHR601565), Ascot State School (1921), Cannon Hill State School (1921) (QHR602854). Wilston State School (1923) (QHR602855), and Windsor State School (February 1926) (QHR600991).[14]
\nA large section of the swimming pool’s retaining wall collapsed early in 1927, taking with it fencing and concrete floor slabs. Repairs to the wall were completed by M R Hornibrook for £150.[15] The rebuilt structure was described as a ‘battered stone retaining wall…approximately 10 feet (3.05m) from the baths on the southern side and eastern end…’.[16]
\nGrowth in pupil numbers at both Buranda schools resulted in extensions in 1928. The Boys School gained a two-storey addition to accommodate 80 pupils, which was approved in April 1928, with a cost of £2090. A school fete on 22 September 1928 celebrated its completion. This extension comprised two classrooms on each floor and the upper level rooms had folding partitions for assembly room purposes. Circa 1940, the area under the west wing was enclosed as a music and art room. Enrolments reached a peak with an average attendance of 1217 in 1934, leading to the opening of a separate Infants’ School, fronting Salisbury Street, on 30 January 1934, with 225 pupils. [17]
\nMeanwhile, the School Committee continued to work to improve the schools. Between 1926 and 1929 they erected a shelter shed at the lower tennis courts, improved drainage on the site, formed lawns and improved flower beds, and built a concrete retaining wall and steps near the oval (c1928-29). This is the retaining wall running north of the eastern wing of the Block A, which appears in aerial photography available from 1936. The sports oval and parade ground were completed by December 1934. A driveway, rockeries and flower beds for the Boys School Entrance, via Cowley Street, were completed by 1934. A remnant of this is the low retaining wall in the south-western corner of the site near the Cowley Street entrance, apparent on aerial photograph from 1936. Rows of fig trees near the Martin Street entrance appear on aerial photography from 1936.[18]
\nWorld War II affected Buranda State School in similar ways to other Queensland state school. In January 1942, the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. Slit trenches, for protecting the students from Japanese air raids, were also dug at Queensland state schools. At Buranda State School about 1150 feet (350.5m) of these trenches were dug.[19] Typically, schools were a focus for civilian duty during wartime. At many, students and staff members grew produce and flowers for donation to local hospitals and organised fundraising and the donation of useful items to Australian soldiers on active service.[20] Students at Buranda State School attended War Funds concerts at the City Hall; contributed to Red Cross Appeals and a Prisoner of War Fund; and purchased war savings certificates.[21]
\nIn recognition of former students of the school serving in the armed forces during World War II, the school community organised an honour board, which was funded by a swimming carnival held in March 1944. Unveiled on 25 July 1944 by James Larcombe, Minister for Public Instruction, the Honour Board displayed the names of 456 former pupils serving in the armed forces. The large (3.8x1m), timber board, has been mounted in the eastern-most wall of the eastern understorey classroom since at least 1993.[22] A second, smaller honour board, beside the large honour board, lists a further 14 former pupils who served during WWII.
\nAfter World War II, enrolments at the Buranda Schools fell from the 1930s’ peak. Total enrolments in 1959 were 798. Pupil numbers continued to fall due to developmental and demographic changes in the school’s catchment area. Families moved from inner city to outlying suburbs in this period; a large number of houses in the Thompson Estate to the west of the school were resumed for the construction of the Southeast Suburbs Freeway (1967-75); and residential areas underwent commercial development.[23]
\nThe school grounds were expanded a number of times over the years, increasing the site from 1.21ha in 1918 to 2.78ha in 2017, through the addition of land via road closures, land purchases and exchanges; and despite the sale of the former Girls School site.[24] Flood mitigation work to Norman Creek in 1958, straightened and widened the creek. A bend that ran through the school oval was filled and levelled, and land was transferred between the Brisbane City Council and the Department of Public Instruction, resulting in the current configuration of the school oval.[25]
\nFalling student numbers led to the combining of the Girls and Infants Schools, on the Girls School site in Martin Street, from January 1963 when the Buranda Infants School site was taken over by Narbethong School for the Visually Handicapped.[26] Buranda Girls and Infants School and Buranda Boys School were combined as Buranda State School on the Boys School site from 1 January 1967. Average attendance in 1967 was 314 pupils, but fell to 50 in the 1990s.[27] Buranda Opportunity School (later Buranda Special School) was established on the Girls School site.[28]
\nSometime between July 1974 and July 1979, the original Infants School building was demolished to make way for a new building for Narbethong School, which was opened in July 1979.[29] The Girls School building has also been demolished.
\nAlterations to the Suburban Timber School Building have taken place over time. Changes include enclosure of part of the east verandah of the eastern wing for a storeroom in 1980; and enclosure of the north verandah of the eastern wing, with demolition of its verandah wall and internal partitions to create larger classrooms.[30] In 1999 changes to classroom sizes in the central wing were made through removal of dividing walls.[31] In 2017 the Suburban Timber School Building is largely used for staff and office purposes.
\nCommunity involvement in Buranda State School has been continuous since its establishment. Annual combined schools’ fetes were held from the 1920s to 1939, and recommenced in the post-war period. Other fundraising and social events were popular in the pre-war period such as fancy dress balls, ‘socials’, euchre parties and excursions. The school’s 75th anniversary was commemorated with the publication of a school history and the holding of a school reunion.
\nIn 2017, Buranda State School continues to operate from its original site. It retains its Suburban Timber School Building, Swimming Pool and Dressing Shed, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities, playing areas, retaining walls and mature shade trees. Buranda State School is important to its district as a key social focus for the community. Generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
","criteria":"Buranda State School (established 1918) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains an excellent, representative example of a standard government design that was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies, honour boards, and an early swimming pool complex, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities, retaining walls and mature trees.
\nThe Suburban Timber School Building (1920, 1928) represents the culmination of years of experimentation by the Department of Public Works (DPW) with natural light, classroom size and ventilation.
\nThe early Swimming Pool, Dressing Shed and landscaping (1926) reflect the growing popularity of children learning to swim for health and safety reasons. These features comprise a rare remaining 1920s swimming pool complex.
\nThe World War II Honour Boards (1944, post-1945) are important in demonstrating the school community’s involvement in a major world event. War memorials, including honour boards, are a tribute from the community to those who served and those who died. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
\nThe large suburban site with mature trees, retaining walls and sporting facilities demonstrates education philosophies which promoted the importance of play and a beautiful environment in the education of children.
|Buranda State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school with later modifications. These include: teaching buildings constructed to standard designs; and generous, landscaped sites, with mature trees, assembly and play areas, retaining walls and sporting facilities.
\nThe large Suburban Timber School Building is an excellent, intact example of its type, with its symmetrical plan of three wings, highset form with play space beneath, Dutch-gable and gable roofs, continuous northern verandahs, large banks of south-facing windows providing classrooms with high levels of natural light and ventilation, projecting teachers rooms, single-skin verandah walls, and early joinery including one folding partition.
\nThe Swimming Pool and Dressing Shed in their landscaped site are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of early state school pool complexes in size, form and layout.
|The Suburban Timber School Building at Buranda State School has aesthetic significance identifiable by its symmetrical layout; consistent form; scale; materials; elegant composition; finely crafted timber work; and decorative treatment. Views of the attractive north elevation of the building are obtained from the north.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nBuranda State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Buranda community. It developed from 1918 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of Buranda children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of its district and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650047,"name":"Coorparoo State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"327 Old Cleveland Road","suburb":"COORPAROO","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2017-06-22","description":"Coorparoo State School occupies part of a large, 3.252 ha site fronting northwest onto Old Cleveland Road, a main thoroughfare through the suburb of Coorparoo, four kilometres southeast of Brisbane CBD. Attractive views are had to and from the school and it is conspicuous in the area as it occupies the crest of a modest ridge, has long frontages to principal thoroughfares, stands directly beside the retail and civic centre of the area, and includes striking architecture, open playing fields, and impressive mature trees.
\nTwo remarkable Urban Brick School Buildings stand symmetrically and axially aligned with and facing the school’s front entrance on Old Cleveland Road – Block A (1942) in front of Block B (1928-33), connected by a two level enclosed walkway (1942). Despite being built nine to 14 years apart, Block A, Block B, and the walkway are a cohesive design with matching form, style, and material use. A playshed (1907) stands nearby and the grounds include retaining walls and terraced play grounds, and mature trees.
\nBlock A (1942)
\nBlock A is a symmetrical two-storey building set high on an enclosed undercroft level and has a tall hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. At the roof’s central peak is a prominent metal ventilation fleche with round cupola. The building’s facades are defined horizontally with three materials: smooth-rendered masonry with lined coursing at undercroft level; facebrick for the ground floor up to the sill level of the first floor; and painted pebble dash stucco above. The building character is softened through the use of attractive, simple, and low maintenance materials with minimal decorative features, including a restrained use of dark glazed bricks contrasting with the unglazed main body of the building and smooth-rendered concrete dressings, flat window hoods with scrolled brackets, and keystones. A triangular pediment at the parapet highlights the building’s central entrance and features the school name.
\nThe building uses are separated by its levels with an undercroft level of open play space below two levels of teaching rooms. The form of each level is also clearly defined by its use, comprising a central block of primarily teachers’ rooms and former cloak rooms projecting in front of a long wing of classrooms that have a stair well at either end. Connecting the two parts is a verandah providing circulation along the front (northwest side) of the long wing. The verandah has arched openings on the ground floor and square openings with a glazed brick balustrade on the first floor, however, both levels of verandah have been enclosed with later louvres and sheet material, which is not of cultural heritage significance. At either end of the verandah on the ground floor are secondary entrances reached via stairs from the front garden. These are highlighted by a porch with a semi-circular smooth rendered concrete hood. The front entrance and porches have an arched fanlight above timber French doors with panelling and bolection moulding. Mounted on the wall either side of the front door are marble tablets dedicated to two chairmen of the early school committee.
\nThe building layout is highly intact in its original configuration; although new lightweight partitions have been inserted in a number of places. The formerly open undercroft has been partitioned to create a tuckshop, toilets, and a storeroom but retains open areas with original perimeter timber seats and rounded corners to the brick pillars. The ground floor configuration is highly intact. It retains its front staff rooms either side of a short foyer entrance, however, the cloak rooms have been enclosed by a partition to create store or staff rooms. The wall between verandah/corridor and the classrooms retains large double-hung windows, fanlights, and timber French doors, however, the folding partitions that formerly divided all classrooms on this level have been removed to form a long space (used as a library in 2017). This space includes some later glazed partitions and a raised platform that are not of cultural heritage significance. The first floor is a similar layout to the ground and is also highly intact, however, two masonry partitions have been removed to make four classrooms into two. The classrooms on both levels retain their ceilings lined with sheets and battens, with those of the first floor having lattice ventilation panels. The stair wells at either end are intact, retaining iron balustrades and turned, clear-finished timber handrails and bare concrete stairs.
\nIn front of Block A is a modest garden, terraced via a cement rendered boundary retaining wall with pillars and metal palisade. A concrete path leads from the street through the garden on axis between flanking Poinciana trees (Delonix regia) in flat lawns before dividing to either side to reach a branching stair up to the front door. The broad concrete stairs have simple iron balustrades. Framing the northeast and southwest sides of Block A are concrete retaining walls and broad stairs up to the higher land behind. Projecting from the centre of the rear of Block A is a two storey covered walkway to Block B. The walkway is a facebrick structure with a hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. It has open arches on the ground floor and is enclosed on its first floor with timber-framed casement windows with fanlights, which are an early or possibly original feature.
\nBlock B (1928-33)
\nBlock B stands on higher land behind (to the southeast of) Block A and matches it in materials, style, detail, height, and floor levels by omitting an undercroft. The building has a tall hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheets, topped by a metal ventilation fleche, matching Block A. Its form and layout is similar to Block A with a front block of classrooms and cloak rooms projecting in front of a long wing of classrooms with a stairwell toward either end. As in Block A, Block B has secondary entrances into the ground floor via concrete stairs with iron balustrades up to porches with round concrete hoods. The verandah on both levels is enclosed with later windows and sheet material, which is not of cultural heritage significance.
\nIn 2017 the building operates as administration and staff rooms for the school and four former classrooms have had lightweight partitions installed to create offices. Some doorways have been made in brick partition walls to connect rooms. The timber folding partitions of the ground floor end classrooms have been removed; otherwise the layout remains intact.
\nThe first floor contains classrooms and has had minor alterations to create larger classrooms. It retains two of three sets of timber folding partitions between classrooms, however, these have been moved and installed nearby into later partitions – the original four classrooms have been converted into three. Openings have been made in brick partitions and one cloak room has been incorporated into a classroom by removing the brick partition completely and closing it off from the corridor.
\nDespite these changes, the building is highly intact. It retains original fabric including timber French doors with fanlights and iron hardware, high-set casement windows in the wall between verandah and the classrooms, brass window hardware, timber batten and sheet ceilings with lattice ventilation panels on the first floor, and the stair wells retain bare concrete floors and steps with iron balustrade and turned timber handrails.
\nBlock A and B
\nThe interiors of Block A and B and the corridor link between them are simple and functional yet have a generous character with lofty ceilings and high level of natural light and large windows. Both blocks face north-northwest; correspondingly, the long wing of classrooms behind them face south-southeast, to which direction they have large areas of tall timber-framed casement windows with matching fanlights (although some windows on the southern side of Block B have been replaced with similar designs) allowing high levels of natural southern light into the classrooms.
\nPlayshed (1907)
\nStanding behind (south) of Block B is a timber framed playshed. It has ten timber posts and a timber framed hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. It stands on a concrete slab and has timber perimeter seats, which are later replacements. The posts bear notches that indicate former perimeter enclosure.
\nGrounds
\nThe grounds of the school are terraced to form large flat platforms. Behind (to the southeast of) Block B, these were originally parade grounds and playing areas but have had shelter sheds and other teaching buildings constructed on them, which are not of cultural heritage significance, although one open area remains. The terraces are formed via concrete retaining walls (c1928-1942) that show they were formed and poured in situ. The ground generally falls away behind Block B and stairs are incorporated to reach lower terraces. A small section of Brisbane Tuff retaining wall forms a small terrace near Cavendish Road.
\nOn the Old Cleveland Road boundary stands a retaining wall from the former Thompson Estate. It is a masonry wall rendered with roughcast stucco and has piers with moulded caps. Between the piers is a balustrade of two metal pipes and at the centre of the wall are steps up to the former gate, which has been blocked off.
\nThe school grounds contain mature trees, including: rows of camphor laurels (cinnamomum camphora) and figs (likely weeping fig, ficus benjamina). The trees stand to the southwestern side of the former Thompson Estate, at the boundary to and Cavendish Road and in a row away from the road, and lining the retaining wall of the playing field near Halstead Street. At some locations, these are in lines marking the former boundaries of the school grounds.
\nA sundial stands in the grounds in one of the large formerly-open playing terraces to the southwest of Block B (near the northeast corner of Block C). It has a sandstone base and the flat top holds a brass plate of the sundial although the gnomon has been removed. The side of the mount has a brass plaque reading ‘Wolff Park’.
\nOther buildings and structures are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nViews of the Brisbane CBD and surrounding neighbourhood occur from Block A and B and the school grounds. With its open setting contrasting with the suburban residential and retail streetscapes, with its large grassed oval and framed by mature trees, Coorparoo State School is an attractive and prominent element in the built landscape.
","history":"Coorparoo State School (established 1876) is located in the Brisbane suburb of Coorparoo, approximately four kilometres southeast of the CBD. It is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains two Urban Brick School Buildings (Block B: 1928-33; Block A: 1942) and a 10-post Playshed (1907); set in landscaped grounds with retaining walls and fences (1920s-1940s), a sundial (1932-35), sporting facilities, and mature trees.
\nTraditionally part of the land of the Jagera and Turrbul people, government auction of country allotments in the vicinity of the later Coorparoo State School began in 1856. A rural community developed and by 1875 residents proposed a primary school. Local landowner, Samuel Stevens, donated two acres (0.81ha) of land fronting Old Cleveland Road for the school site, excised from Portion 177.[1] The name for the school, a variation of the aboriginal name for the area, Cooraparoo, was proposed by the school committee.[2]
\nCoorparoo State School, comprising a low-set, two-room timber building with verandahs, and a school residence, opened on 31 January 1876, with 37 pupils enrolled. It cost £546 to erect, £95 of which was paid by the local community.[3]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. Schools became a community focus, with the school community contributing to their maintenance and development; a symbol of progress; and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[4]
\nThe Coorparoo district continued to grow during the 1880s as Brisbane’s population increased rapidly and moved to outlying areas, assisted by the development of public transport and the subdivision of land holdings. In 1887 a tramway was extended to Buranda, close to the western end of the Coorparoo district. In 1888 development had progressed so far that Coorparoo Shire, which included Stones Corner and parts of Holland Park and Camp Hill, was established. In 1889 the Cleveland railway line opened through the northern extent of Coorparoo Shire, adding to Coorparoo’s popularity as a residential area. Coorparoo Station was located about 700 metres northeast of the school. The concurrent increase in Coorparoo State School pupils led to the school building being extended in 1885, 1887 and 1889.[5]
\nHowever, development in Coorparoo Shire slowed after floods in 1889, 1890 and 1893 widely affected the district and the 1893 economic depression affected land sales. In 1900 there were fewer houses in Coorparoo than in 1890.[6]
\nNevertheless, improvements continued at the school. The Queensland education system recognised the importance of play in the school curriculum and, as school sites were typically cleared of all vegetation, the provision of all-weather outdoor space was needed. Playsheds were designed as free-standing shelters, with fixed timber seating between posts and earth or decomposed granite floors that provided covered play space and doubled as teaching space when required These structures were timber-framed and generally open sided, although some were partially enclosed with timber boards or corrugated galvanised iron sheets.[7] The hipped (or less frequently, gabled) roofs were clad with timber shingles or corrugated iron. Playsheds were a typical addition to state schools across Queensland between c1880s and the 1950s, although less frequently constructed after c1909, with the introduction of highset school buildings with understorey play areas. Built to standard designs, playsheds ranged in size relative to student numbers.[8] There was a playshed on site at Coorparoo State School by 1887; located directly behind (southeast of) the school buildings. A new playshed, replacing the earlier one and in a similar position, was constructed by RS Exton for £176 8s in 1897. The final and only remaining playshed, with ten posts and a hipped roof, was constructed in late 1907 by James Price for £356.[9]
\nSuburban development in Coorparoo Shire accelerated after an electric tram extension opened in February 1915 from Stones Corner, along Old Cleveland Road, to Coorparoo State School.[10] Enrolments at the school continued to increase and an Open-air Annexe for infants was opened in October 1916 in the northeast corner of the site, following removal of the school residence.[11]
\nAfter World War I, Coorparoo experienced increased property sales and school enrolments. Between 1911 and 1921, Coorparoo Shire’s population more than doubled from 2804 to 6635 residences.[12] School enrolments continued to rise, resulting in overcrowding; with two classes taught in the playsheds and two taught under the infants’ Open-Air Annexe. As a result, in 1924, the fifth and last extension to the timber school was built.[13]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. In the 1870s, schools inspector William Boyd had been critical of tropical schools and amongst his recommendations stressed the importance of adding shade trees to playgrounds. Subsequently, Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.[14]
\nAt Coorparoo State School, the small two-acre site provided only limited space for play and sporting facilities. To address this, more than 100 perches along Halstead Street were purchased in 1912. In 1925, the school acquired another 44.9 perches (.012ha) adjoining Tarlina Lane to the west of the school leading from Cavendish Road, while in 1926 the northeastern extent of the laneway was closed and adsorbed into the school grounds. In the same year, a further 32 perches (.081ha) of land adjacent to the Shire Hall on Cavendish Road, was purchased from the Brisbane City Council for play space. In the following year, the Department of Education purchased 12.6 perches (0.032ha) of adjacent land. This, in addition to the previous Tarlina Lane purchase, became the site of the school pool, which opened on 3 August 1928, having cost £2000 to build.[15]
\nMeanwhile, lobbying of the Department of Public Instruction by the school committee from 1926 for a brick school building to accommodate the rising school population resulted in approval for a rebuilding scheme comprising two linked, two-storey brick buildings, to be constructed in stages.[16]
\nThe Urban Brick School Buildings constructed at Coorparoo State School were an individual design by the Department of Public Works. Brick school buildings were far less frequently built than timber ones, provided only in prosperous urban or suburban areas with stable or rapidly-increasing populations. All brick school buildings were individually designed with variations in style, size, and form, but generally retaining similar classroom sizes, layouts and window arrangements to timber schools to facilitate natural light and ventilation. However, compared to contemporary standard education buildings, these buildings had a grander character and greater landmark attributes.[17]
\nThe first stage, constructed to the south-east of the existing timber classroom buildings, was completed and opened on 22 September 1928. The new two-storey wing (now called Block B) was 78x21 feet (23.77x6.4m) and accommodated 320 pupils. It comprised four classrooms on each floor with enclosed corridors. The classrooms on the first floor were divided by folding partitions to provide one large room (28x21ft/8.53x6.4m) for assembly purposes. The external brick walls above a string course were roughcast. Cavity walls were used which, combined with wide projecting eaves, provided temperature control inside the building. The construction was fireproof and soundproof between floors. It cost approximately £6009.[18]
\nFurther additions to the school grounds were made in 1929 when an adjoining house and land to the west on Cavendish Road was purchased from Collin F Wolff for £1400. The school committee paid £400 of the cost in return for the proceeds from the sale of the house for removal. The Wolff family also donated £150 to the school in appreciation of the school committee’s work in the interests of the present and future pupils of the school. The resultant playing area was called ‘Wolff Park’ and opened by Reginald M King, Deputy Premier and Minister for Works and Public Instruction, on 31 July 1929. At the same time, the Minister acknowledged the donation of a school bell by William Payard, a lifetime friend of the head teacher, GH Hinrichsen.[19]
\nThe Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building programme to provide impetus to the economy.
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work programme by the Department of Public Works. This included painting and repairs to school buildings.[20] By mid-1930 men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme.[21] Extensive funding was given for improvements to school grounds, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, involving terracing and retaining walls. This work created many large school ovals, which prior to this period were mostly cleared of trees but not landscaped. These play areas became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element.[22] As part of the government’s attempt to provide work for the unemployed, intermittent, relief work was carried out on the Coorparoo State School grounds. This work was inspected by the Minister for Public Instruction, RM King, in March 1932. Between 1932 and March 1935, the Committee employed a relief labourer on two occasions to keep the school grounds clean and tidy.[23]
\nWith continuing growth in pupil numbers at Coorparoo State School, further accommodation was required. The second stage of the rebuilding scheme commenced when the tender opened for erection of an additional wing in July 1930.[24] This section, on the Old Cleveland road side of the stage 1 brick building, was completed early in the 1931 and was opened by the Minister for Public Instruction, RM King. The two-storey addition comprised two classrooms, two cloakrooms and a teachers room per floor and accommodated 160 pupils. Its walls were of cavity brick, and cloakroom floors were concrete. The roof over the addition was finished with a fleche. Elevations were completed to harmonise with the existing building: brickwork above a cement bank course at first floor level was roughcast; and the face bricks below were finished with white struck joints. The extension cost £2337.[25]
\nAfter the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power in June 1932 with a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression, the government embarked on a large public works building programme. This was designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state. This building programme included: government offices, schools and colleges; university buildings; court houses and police stations; hospitals and asylums; and gaols.[26] Many of the programmes have had lasting beneficial effects for the citizens of Queensland, including the construction of masonry brick school buildings across the state.
\nThe programme enabled continuation of the rebuilding scheme for Coorparoo State School, warranted by the school’s average attendance having grown to 1100 in 1932. A tender by RJH Heaven of £1230 was accepted in May and the extension, to the eastern end of the stage 1 of Block B, was opened by RM King, MLA, on 29 October 1932.[27]
\nIn 1933, the fourth and final section of Block B, with matching toilet blocks, was completed. This section, to the western end of the stage 1 building, comprised two classrooms on each floor with a verandah and a balcony and accommodated 160 pupils.
\nThe completed two-storey, symmetrical building contained 20 classrooms and accommodated 800 pupils and was set a few steps above ground level, with no undercroft. Both levels had a northwest verandah/corridor which accessed two stairs and eight southeast facing classrooms. A central bay of two classrooms, two cloak rooms and a store room projected north from the verandah making a total of 10 classrooms per level.[28] The total cost of the scheme was £11,513.[29]
\nAlso, as part of the building programme, the whole of the available yard space was graded, and the main playing area south of Block B was bounded by concrete retaining walls. A chain wire fence surmounted the north and east walls and three broad flights of steps led down from the Parade Ground to the main playing area. At the top of each of these stairways was placed a tubular arch, designed by the Head Teacher, GH Hinrichsen.[30] A new tennis court and a new basketball court were completed in 1933. A retaining wall around the basketball court to its south and west was recorded on a 1936 site plan.[31] On 30 September 1933 RM King, MLA opened the fourth section of the Brick School Building, a second tennis court, two lavatory blocks, the concrete retaining walls around the playing field; and the tubular arches over stairways.[32]
\nOther improvements to the school grounds at this time included seven new palms, planted at the bottom of the Parade Ground on Arbor Day in May 1933, and many new flower beds and several hibiscus hedges, laid out by the Head Teacher with donated plants.[33]
\nWith the completion of Block B, the school committee’s attention focused again on increasing the grounds of the growing school. In 1934, 51 perches facing Old Cleveland Rd adjoining the western boundary of the school were purchased from MW Thompson for £1206, of which 1/3 (£400) was paid by the school committee. Removal of the house followed. The property’s fence and retaining wall on the Old Cleveland Road boundary and the mature shade trees were retained, while the land was partially graded for use as an infants’ playground. In the following year, the committee also purchased a 17 perch allotment adjacent to the new playground for £75 for inclusion in the infants’ playground. The playground was later named Hinrichsen Park after the Head Teacher.[34]
\nOther improvements to the school grounds between 1932 and 1935 funded by the school committee, included erection of a pergola, garden seats and a pedestal and sun-dial in Wolff Park. The school committee was also responsible for installing electric light in the school between 1932 and 1935.[35] In 1938, a rockery and watering system were installed. A fence with a pergola and steps leading down to the infants’ area were erected, and lawns and flower beds were established and 40 roses planted.[36]
\nIn June 1940, the Minister for Public Instruction advised that funding was available to build the final stage of the school’s rebuilding scheme. Drawings for the building, in keeping with the earlier proposed design, were completed by DPW architect, Gilbert Robert Beveridge, that month.
\nThe new brick building (now called Block A), located in front of Block B, formed the fifth and final section of the brick school. It comprised two floors with an undercroft play area, similar to other urban brick schools and Depression-era brick school buildings. Some buildings of the original school was demolished to enable its completion.[37] In January 1941 commencement of Block A’s construction, at a cost of £17,252, was announced by the Minister for Public Instruction and Public Works (Henry A Bruce).[38] Work on the building was well advanced by December 1941.[39] Teaching commenced in Block A on 24 August 1942.[40]
\nThe Urban Brick School Building provided accommodation for 370 pupils in nine classrooms: four on the first floor and five on the second. The Head Teachers room was on the ground floor with staff rooms and cloakrooms on each floor. The four classrooms on the ground floor were separated by folding partitions. The upper level classrooms were divided by solid masonry walls with central connecting double doors. Twin stairs led from the ground to the first floor central bay. Through a small portico and short hall (flanked by a teachers room and cloak room), a verandah corridor gave access to the southeast facing classrooms. Stairwells connecting the three levels were positioned at both ends of the building. The upper level replaced the portico, one teachers room, and the short hall of the lower level with a classroom. Block A was connected to the Block B centrally at ground and first floor levels by covered ways. Corridors, verandahs, balconies and cloak rooms had concrete floors; the remaining floors were of wood and the ceilings of fibro-cement. It replaced three timber classroom buildings located in front of Block B, two of which were to be moved to Wolff Park and used as Domestic Science and Vocational classrooms.[41]
\nSometime after completion of Block A, the surrounding grounds were excavated and graded and new retaining walls and fences provided.[42] A new Block Plan, dated 1940, showed removal of the existing concrete retaining wall and fencing in front of Block A (Old Cleveland Road frontage), replaced by a new wall, and a chain wire fence, and excavation of the the grounds to new levels. The retaining wall from the Thompson property was retained. The existing concrete retaining wall and fencing along School Lane were removed, and a new concrete wall and chain wire fencing, extending to the existing gates, were erected. Trellis fencing was erected above the retaining walls to the east and west of Block A.[43]
\nPrior to the completion of Block A, war in the Pacific region commenced in December 1941, resulting in the Queensland Government closing all coastal state schools in January 1942. Although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. The closed schools were sometimes occupied for defence purposes, and some schools remained closed ‘for special reasons’ after the rest had reopened.[44] Typically, schools were a focus for civilian duty during wartime. At many schools, students and staff members grew produce and flowers for donation to local hospitals and organised fundraising and the donation of useful items to Australian soldiers on active service.[45] Slit trenches, for protecting the students from Japanese air raids, were also dug at Queensland state schools, often by parents and staff.
\nCoorparoo State School contributed to the war effort in a number of ways. The Chief Air Warden held Air Raid Precautions meetings once a month. Commercial High School students, whose school in the city closed, came to Coorparoo for lessons in the buildings in Wolff Park. About 1941 Coorparoo State School was officially approved as a combined Decontamination and First Aid post. Initially the first aid post was set up in one of the old buildings, but after the completion of Block A, its basement was used as an Air Raid Post, set up with beds and medical supplies. An air raid siren was mounted on an electric light pole outside the school on Old Cleveland Road. Air raid practice was carried out at the school. Slit trenches were dug around the small playground facing Old Cleveland Road and sand bag trenches made along the Wolff Park fence. Ordinary needlework was replaced by knitting scarves and socks which were distributed to relatives of pupils on active service abroad. Five rugs were given to refugees. From February 1942, Australian soldiers recuperating at the Australian Army hospital at nearby Loreto Convent were given permission to use the school grounds and swimming pool.[46]
\nAfter World War II, the Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[47] This was the case at Coorparoo State School.
\nAfter removal of the relocated timber school buildings, a high-set timber building of three classrooms (now called Block C) was completed in 1950.[48] During the 1950s a number of additions were undertaken leading up to the school’s peak enrolment of 1600 in 1958.[49] A timber Infants School building was erected in Wolff Park in 1956.[50] A completely new Infants school building, on a separate site to the east of the school was undertaken in 1959-60.[51] The building was occupied by pupils and staff from 29 August 1960.[52]
\nAdditional playing space was also needed. Circa 1945, the Methodist Church, the owner of the Alexandra Home, located to the east of the school, granted permission for the school to use some of its grounds for sport and other activities at certain times.[53] Negotiations by the Department of Public Instruction with the Methodist Church to purchase the home, land and buildings of the Alexandra Home were finalised in October 1958.[54] A new cricket pitch was created on this land to the east of the school’s playing grounds.[55] In 1968 a school reserve R1394 (Lot 501 see Sl8907) was created, comprising the school site and the former Nicklin house (Queen Alexandra Home – Lot 501) and totalling 11 acres 2 roods 9 perches (4.67ha).[56]
\nPlans for proposed grounds improvements were drawn in July 1946. These included concrete paving, sewerage, and topdressing of the grounds, but their implementation was not completed until 1953, at a cost of £760 with the school paying half. The school was connected to the city’s sewerage system in 1953-54 at a cost of approximately £3075. The plan shows two timber buildings removed from the site of future Block C in 1950. At this time, the sun dial was located to the northeast of the future Block C.[57] In 1968 two new tennis courts and two new basketball courts were built.[58]
\nChanges to the Urban Brick School Buildings were made from the 1970s. In 1972 the verandahs were enclosed. In the following year, all four ground floor classrooms of Block A were combined and converted into a library.[59]
\nAt the beginning of semester 2, 1987 the Infant School and Primary School re-joined on the original Coorparoo State School site.[60]
\nMajor renovations to the school were undertaken from 1999. Dividing walls between classrooms in Block A were removed at this time. Three additional classrooms were created by extending and upgrading existing buildings in 2001. Between 2001 and 2003, the 1928 swimming pool was demolished for construction of a new music building on its site. A new swimming pool was located to the east of the former playing field on land excised from the Alexandra Home property. In 2003, a three-storey teaching block was constructed on the playing field site. A multipurpose hall was constructed front Old Cleveland Road in 2009; its construction coinciding with the demolition of the 1932 toilet block southwest of Block A. [61]
\nReconfiguration of the school grounds has taken place over the years, resulting in the current 3.252 ha site in 2017.[62]
\nThroughout the school’s history, social events to fund-raise and celebrate milestones have taken place. In 1933 a commemorative re-union dance to celebrate the school was held in the first school building prior to its demolition.[63] In 1936 diamond jubilee celebrations were held. The school’s 100th anniversary was celebrated on 10 April 1976. Part of the commemorations was the release of a video of a day at Coorparoo in 1943.[64] Another re-union of past pupils in 1994 attracted over 600 former students from around Australia.[65]
\nIn 2017, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains its Urban Brick School Buildings and 10-post playshed, set in landscaped grounds with sundial, retaining walls, fences, stairs and balustrading, sporting facilities, playing areas, and mature shade trees. Coorparoo State School is important to the Coorparoo district as a key social focus for the community, as generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
","criteria":"Coorparoo State School (established in 1876) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. It retains excellent, representative examples of government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities, landscaping features, and mature trees.
\nTwo Urban Brick School Buildings (1928-33, 1942) represent the culmination of years of experimentation with natural light, classroom size and elevation by the Department of Public Works (DPW), and also demonstrate the growing preference in the early 20th century for constructing brick school buildings at metropolitan schools in developing suburbs. Additions undertaken during the 1930s are the result of the Queensland Government’s building and relief work programmes, which stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
\nThe suburban site with Playshed (1907), mature trees, sundial (1932-35), sporting facilities and other landscaping features demonstrates educational policies that promoted the importance of play and a beautiful environment in the education of children.
|Coorparoo State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school with later modifications. These include: teaching buildings constructed to individual designs; and generous, landscaped sites, with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities.
\nThe Urban Brick School Buildings are intact, excellent examples of individually designed buildings of their type. They demonstrate the principal characteristics through their highset form; linear layout, with classrooms and teachers rooms accessed by verandahs; undercrofts used as open play spaces and for additional rooms; loadbearing, masonry construction, with face brick piers to undercroft spaces; and roof fleches. They demonstrate use of the stylistic features of their era, which determined their roof form, joinery and decorative treatment. Typically, Urban Brick School Buildings are configured to create central courtyards, and are located in suburban areas that were growing at the time of their construction.
\nThe Playshed is an intact, excellent example of a standard 10-post, hipped-roof playshed, designed to provide all weather play space for children.
|The Urban Brick School Buildings at Coorparoo State School have aesthetic significance due to their beautiful attributes: identifiable by their symmetrical layout; consistent form; scale; materials; elegant composition; finely crafted timber work; and decorative treatment.
\nThese buildings remain intact and demonstrate a continuation of site planning ideals initiated by the placing of the original Urban Brick School Building in a prominent position at the top of the sloping site. The beauty of the school's setting is enhanced by mature trees and formal landscaping elements such as retaining walls, stairs, gardens and a sundial with pedestal.
\nSited on high ground on Old Cleveland Road, the school has views to the Brisbane CBD and its Urban Brick School Buildings are also significant for their contribution to the Old Cleveland Road streetscape.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nCoorparoo State School has a strong and ongoing association with the surrounding community. It developed through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of its suburban district and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650049,"name":"Milton State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Bayswater Street","suburb":"MILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2017-04-28","description":"Milton State School occupies a narrow, 1.02ha site along Bayswater Street in the suburb of Milton, two kilometres west of the Brisbane CBD. A fence line separates the school grounds from adjacent Gregory Park to the east, which is used by the school as their playing field. The school and park occupy the full extent of a triangular block bounded by Bayswater Street to the west, Baroona Road to the north and Haig Road to the southeast. The school buildings are located along the Bayswater Street boundary at the highest point of the school grounds, which fall away to the east and southeast. The most prominent building on the site is a Depression-era Brick School Building (Block A, 1935-37) which fronts Bayswater Street. North of Block A is a timber building formerly used as a vocational training building (Block B, 1923, adapted 1936). Other buildings at the school - Blocks C, D, E and a Junior Learning Centre (constructed 2020-21) - are not of cultural heritage significance. The school grounds contain a number of significant mature trees, and landscaping features including retaining walls and stairs (1935-37), assembly and play areas and sporting facilities.
\nDepression-era Brick School Building (1935-37), Block A
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building is a long, two-storey building with a full undercroft. The building faces southwest and, as the undercroft is below the level of Bayswater Street, it is accessed via a wide walkway and steps to the main entrance in the centre of the first floor facade. Symmetrical in plan, the building comprises a long central wing with projecting entrance bay, flanked by shorter wings to the northwest and southeast, which are parallel but set back from the central wing. Secondary entrances are located at the corners of the intersecting wings, with stairs leading to first floor porticos at the front of the building, and ground floor porticos leading to the undercroft at the rear. A two-storey extension (1959-60) which adjoins the southern end of the block is not of heritage significance.
\nOrnamented with a Spanish Mission-style decorative treatment, the building is constructed from red face brick walls with rough-cast concrete render to the entrance bay walls and smooth render to undercroft walls, window sills and lintels, and panels below the first and second floor windows. The second floor has arched windows to the entrance bay, main façade of the central wing, and to the stairwells and corridors on the east elevation, constructed from semi-circular brick arches with brick or concrete keystones. The entrance bay features a cantilevered balcony over the main entrance door, accessed by French doors, and a decorative parapet with small louvred ventilation panel. An un-rendered version of this parapet also ornaments the northeast side of the central wing. Early iron balustrades survive on the balcony; along the entrance walkway; and to the secondary entrance stairs. The hipped roof is clad in terracotta tiles, and the raked eaves are lined with timber V-jointed (VJ) tongue and groove (T&G) boards. First and second floor windows along the northeast elevation are protected by hipped window hoods clad in terracotta tiles and featuring decorative timber brackets. The northwest and southwest end walls of the wings are largely blank. An early school bell is fixed to the underside of the first floor window hood in the centre of the northeast elevation.
\nWindows openings are regularly spaced and generally comprise three tall casement windows with square fanlights above. Arched windows have a fixed, semi-circular fanlight. Walls to the toilets in the undercroft have high rectangular openings which formerly contained fixed louvres in timber frames, however the glass has been removed and modern screens fixed to the outside. The main entrance double door, set back from the front façade, is a panelled, low-waisted door glazed with six-lights and retains early door hardware. The secondary entrance doors to the first floor have been replaced, but retain their original two-light fanlights with patterned glass.
\nNon-significant features of the exterior include: a lift attached to the northwest wall of the central wing; air-conditioning units, cables and ducting; modern downpipes and rainwater tanks; and modern doors, gates and screens to doors and windows of the undercroft.
\nInternally, rooms are arranged along the northeast side of the wings, linked by wide corridors along the southwest side. Vertical circulation is provided by stairwells at each end of the central wing. Next to the stairwells are rectangular rooms formerly used for play space on the undercroft level and hat and cloak rooms on the upper levels. The entrance bay contains rooms of varying size used for staff and office purposes.
\nThe undercroft contains toilets in the northwest and southwest wings and was originally open play space in the central wing; however, in 2017 the southern portion of the space is enclosed for a tuck shop and music room. This level has a concrete floor with coved edges, rendered masonry walls with rounded corners, and flat rendered ceilings. The toilets largely retain their original layout; partition walls (some with high openings with wire grille infill panels); and flat-sheeted ceilings with batten cover strips. However, doors and cubicles have been replaced, new partitions inserted in places, and some areas have been converted into storage space. Spaces beneath the entrance bay and walkway from Bayswater Street have been enclosed for storage space. Early timber benches survive along some walls in the corridors and play space. Non-significant elements of the undercroft include modern partitions, windows, doors and gates.
\nThe first and second floors originally contained ten classrooms each, but all have been enlarged by removing partitions and folding doors to merge adjacent classrooms, so that each floor has six classrooms in 2017. The former hat and cloak rooms have been merged with part of the adjacent corridor to form storage and staff rooms.
\nThe corridors have concrete floors with coved edges, plastered walls with an inscribed moulding line at shoulder height, and flat ceilings – plastered on the first floor; lined with flat sheeting and batten cover strips on the second floor. The stairwells have concrete stairs and iron balustrades with timber top rails and square, Art Deco-style posts. A timber Roll of Honour board is fixed to the southeast wall of the first floor, central wing corridor. The board is dedicated to those who served in World War I and lists 199 names of former Milton State School students who served. An early built-in timber cupboard survives in the teachers room on the south side of the first floor main entrance.
\nIn the classrooms, walls are generally plaster-lined with timber picture rails and lambs tongue-profile skirtings. Ceilings are lined with flat sheeting and ornamented by timber battens cover strips forming a grid pattern. Two square ceiling ventilation panels survive, one each on the second floor of the northwest and southeast wings. One set of original timber folding doors survives in the centre of the second floor central wing. The location of removed folding partitions is indicated by surviving bulkheads in other classrooms. Original timber double-hung windows with rectangular fanlights remain in the internal corridor walls. Most doors retain their rectangular fanlights. All doors on the first floor are modern replacements, apart from one set of double, part-glazed doors which have been relocated to the southeast wing (accessing the former hat room, now a cooking/staff room). Two identical doors are located on the second floor, accessing the former hat rooms. The second floor retains panelled, double doors with original hardware to most classrooms, and two early doors to the teachers rooms.
\nNon-significant elements of the interior include: air-conditioning units, ceiling fans, lights and other services; modern floor linings of carpet and linoleum; and modern doors, glazing, partitions and cabinetry.
\nTimber Classroom Building (1923) converted to vocational training building (1936), Block B
\nBlock B is a rectangular, two storey timber building located near the northwest end of Block A. The building stands on low concrete stumps and is clad in timber weatherboards. The Dutch gable roof is clad in corrugated metal sheeting, with louvred vents to the gablets. The raked eaves have exposed rafters and are lined with timber VJ, T&G boards. A verandah, now enclosed, runs along the southwest and northwest sides of the first floor, and an enclosed verandah runs along the northwest side of the ground floor. Access to the ground floor is via a two single doors – a main entrance in the centre of the northwest wall, and a secondary entrance at the eastern end of the southeast wall. Access to the first floor is via a main timber staircase to the southwest wall, and a secondary staircase at the northern corner. Windows are generally timber-framed, two or three-light casements, with fanlights above windows in the southeast wall. Windows in the northeast walls are fanlights alone, protected by skillion-roofed hoods with decorative brackets and clad in corrugated metal sheeting. A lean-to shed clad in weatherboards runs along the southwest side of the ground floor.
\nThe ground floor contains two rooms divided by modern folding doors. The walls and ceiling are lined with modern flat sheeting. Toilets occupy the enclosed verandah and have recently been renovated.
\nThe first floor contains two classrooms divided by a modern concertina door, with bulkheads and lines in the ceiling lining indicating the location of former partitions. The former southwest verandah forms part of the open classroom space, and retains its raked ceiling lined with timber VJ, T&G boards. Walls are lined with flat sheeting. Two sets of early double timber doors survive, as well as the classroom ceilings of flat sheeting with timber batten cover strips, arranged in a grid pattern. The northwest verandah contains a series of small rooms and store rooms, divided by partitions from different periods. It retains it raked ceiling lined with timber VJ, T&G boards.
\nNon-significant elements of Block B include air-conditioning units, ceiling fans, lights and other services; modern floor linings of carpet and linoleum; the toilets fitout; and modern doors, glazing, partitions and cabinetry.
\nGrounds
\nAround Block A are a series of concrete retaining walls and stairs (1935-37) constructed to level the ground and create assembly and play spaces. A high retaining wall along Bayswater Street is topped by a concrete fence with three gateways, including a decorative wrought iron set of gates at the main entrance in front of Block A. Sections of the metal balustrades between the concrete posts have been replaced. At the northern end, this wall and fence continues perpendicular to Bayswater Street in line with the end of Block A, and incorporates a set of steps leading down towards Block B. At the southern end, the wall turns at an angle and slopes down adjacent to a concrete ramp, leading to the swimming pool level.
\nBetween the northwest and southeast wings on the eastern side of Block A is a large rectangular concrete platform, edged by a low retaining wall and set of concrete steps on the eastern side. These steps and part of the wall are now concealed beneath a recently constructed covered play area. Modern seating and shade structures on the platform are not of heritage significance.
\nThe school grounds contain numerous significant mature trees, including: a row of six camphor laurels (cinnamomum camphora) and a fig (likely a weeping fig, ficus benjamina) along Bayswater Street, from the Baroona Road corner; a large fig of the same species in the courtyard north of Block A’s main entrance; another large fig south of Block A; a camphor laurel along the Haig Street boundary, near the corner of Bayswater Street; and rows of mature palms along the eastern school fence line, on the Gregory Park side.
\nViews of the park and surrounding neighbourhood can be obtained from Block A and the school grounds. Standing in an open setting, backing onto a park and framed by mature trees, Block A is an attractive and prominent feature of the area.
","history":"Milton State School opened in 1889, as Rosalie State School, on its current site approximately two kilometres west of the Brisbane CBD. The school is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. In 2021 Milton State School retains a Depression-era Brick School Building, retaining walls and stairs (1935-37); a re-purposed two-storey timber classroom building (1923); and mature trees. The school has been in continuous operation since its establishment.
\nThe land north of the Milton Reach of the Brisbane River and southwest of the North Brisbane Burial Ground (used 1843-75, later Lang Park), part of the traditional lands of the Turrbal people, was outside Brisbane’s original town limits. Large suburban allotments were sold in the area in the 1850s. The suburb of Milton is named after Ambrose Eldridge’s ‘Milton House’ [QHR 600253], built near the river in the early 1850s when Eldridge was farming cotton. During the 1860s, the Paddington, Milton, and Auchenflower area consisted of large houses on acreage, but denser settlement later occurred due to the opening of the Southern and Western Railway Line to Ipswich in 1875; and Milton developed a mix of worker’s cottages, small businesses and industry. A distillery opened at Milton in 1871, followed by the Castlemaine brewery in 1878, and there was a population boom during the 1880s due to residential subdivision. The opening of a tram line from Petrie Terrace to Toowong Cemetery, via Milton Road, in July 1904, also promoted suburban development in Milton.[1]
\nA large number of residential estates were created in the 1880s, which soon led to pressure for a state school for Rosalie (today a locality in the suburb of Paddington, northwest of the suburb of Milton).[2] The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[3]
\nThe effort to open a school at Rosalie/Milton accelerated when a committee was formed in February 1886 at a meeting of residents of the Rosalie, Oxford, Bayswater, Blackall, Lewison and Holmedale Estates. A small area of high ground on the west side of Red Jacket Swamp (later Gregory Park), part of an 1884 Water Reserve, was later chosen as the site of the school. Unlike alternative sites, this land was free.[4]
\nThe site of Red Jacket Swamp, which was drained by Western Creek, is today bounded by Baroona Road to the north, Bayswater Street to the west, and Haig Road to the southeast. In the 1880s the swamp was located in Toowong Shire, just south of the boundary with the Ithaca Division (1879-87, then the Ithaca Shire). Land to the west and northwest of the swamp was subdivided into residential allotments in 1879; to the north in 1886-7; and to the southeast in the early 20th century. However, in the 1880s Red Jacket Swamp remained undeveloped, and was a source of contention between the two local governments about who was responsible for draining and filling it. Waste-water runoff from the houses on the higher ground (in Ithaca) around the swamp had created an odorous health hazard.[5]
\nRegardless, the site was deemed suitable for a school. A one acre and 4 perch (0.4ha) Reserve for State School Purposes was surveyed off the Water Reserve in late 1886, and was gazetted in January 1887; with the remainder of Red Jacket Swamp (6 acres, 3 roods and 20 perches, or 2.8ha) gazetted as a Reserve for Recreation in July 1887.[6]
\nIn June 1888 the tender of James Loynes for a new state school at Rosalie, Milton, for £999, was accepted, and the first timber school building – comprising a single classroom, head teachers office, and front and back verandahs – was completed by February 1889. The Rosalie State School opened with an enrolment of 261 students on 18 March 1889, and had an enrolment of 422 by the end of the year. A second classroom was added to the north, perpendicular to the first building, by September 1889. The school soon changed its name, and the ‘Milton State School Committee’ operated by October 1889.[7]
\nThe school’s enrolment continued to increase, with average attendance rising to 850 by 1898. Additions were made to the school in 1891 and 1899; and two playsheds were built by early 1896.[8]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. In late 1889 Milton State School was one of the first Queensland schools to hold an Arbor Day, and 65 trees, supplied free by the Department of Agriculture and including Moreton Bay and other figs, Bauhinia, Poinciana, and Jacaranda trees, were planted by students. The aim was to beautify the school grounds, and reduce the smell of stagnant water, using shade trees.[9]
\nThe school grounds were gradually extended northwards along Bayswater Street. In 1901, two roods and 0.3 perches (0.2ha) were added north of the school buildings; and another 47.2 perches (0.12ha), at the corner of Bayswater Street and Baroona Road, was added in 1920. This corner site had, from c.1892 until 1919, been the headquarters of the Milton Volunteer Fire Brigade (established 1888).[10]
\nIn February 1914 a swimming pool was officially opened at Milton State School, making it the second Queensland state school to have a swimming pool, after Junction Park [QHR 650023] in 1910. The Milton pool, funded by parents, was 40ft (12.2m) long, 16ft (4.9 m) wide, and 3ft 6 inches to 5ft 6 inches (1.1m to 1.7m) deep. Located at the south end of the school grounds, it was built by James Price for £250.[11] This pool was later replaced by a new reinforced concrete pool, built by Messrs William Collin & Sons and opened in November 1930. The new pool (extant in 2017) was 75ft (22.9m) long by 25ft (7.6m) wide, and 3ft to 7ft (0.9m to 2.1m) deep; and cost £1206. Parents again provided most of the funding.[12]
\nImprovements to the school’s accommodation also continued in the interwar period, as the population of Milton expanded. A new highset wing, with three classrooms, was added at the south end of, and perpendicular to, the first school building in 1919; and another wing was added in 1923, this time at the north end of the school. The latter building had six classrooms in two storeys, and cost £2500. In 1923 the average daily attendance at the school was 900-1000 students.[13]
\nImprovements to school facilities in the 1930s included tennis courts, located in the northeast corner of Gregory Park. By this time the park had been filled in and served as the school’s playground. The tennis courts were relocated, east of the swimming pool, between 1951 and 1955.[14]
\nHowever, the main change to the school in the 1930s was the construction of a Depression-era Brick School Building (Block A in 2017) between 1935 and 1937. The Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of public building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building program to provide impetus to the economy.
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work program administered by the Department of Public Works (DPW). This included painting and repairs to school buildings.[15] By mid-1930 men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme.[16]
\nIn June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public building program designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state.[17] The construction of substantial Brick School Buildings[18] in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government’s commitment to remedy the unemployment situation.
\nDepression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type, exhibiting many common characteristics. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings, being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. Due to their long plan forms of multiple wings, they could be built in stages if necessary; resulting in some complete designs never being realised. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions. [19]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles, which were derived from contemporary tastes and fashions, included: Arts and Crafts, typified by half-timbered gable-ends; Spanish Mission, with round-arched openings and decorative parapets; and Neo-classical, with pilasters, columns and large triangular pediments. Over time, variations occurred in building size, decorative treatment, and climatic-responsive features.[20]
\nPlans of the new brick school, dated February 1935, show a long, symmetrical building of three parallel wings, comprising an undercroft with toilets and open play space, and two levels of classrooms, with teachers rooms housed in a projecting entrance bay in the centre of the main façade. The aesthetic treatment of the building incorporated Spanish Mission-style features, such as decorative parapets and semi-circular arches to the upper floor windows. The hipped roof and window hoods to the northeast facing windows were to be clad in terracotta tiles. Typical of these schools, classrooms were linearly arranged along one side of the building, linked by long corridors, and some classrooms were separated by folding timber partitions.[21]
\nConstruction progressed from early 1935. A description of the building by the Department of Public Works that year gave an estimated cost of £19,500, and stated ‘This building will replace the old school buildings on the existing site… The walls above the first floor will be of face brickwork, the base being formed in cement plaster… Retaining walls will be constructed on the street alignment and will provide a level area surrounding the building. The first and second floors will each contain ten classrooms, providing accommodation for 800 pupils… On each floor provisions will be made by means of folding partitions to throw four classrooms into one for assembly purposes’.[22]
\nOnly one of the old main buildings of the school survived the construction of the Depression-era Brick School Building. By January 1935 the two-storey 1923 timber building (Block B in 2017) at the north end of the school was ready to be shifted further north to make way for construction of the new brick school, which was being built on the footprint of the previous school buildings. Rather than demolish Block B, as it was only 13 years old, in 1936 it was remodelled to provide vocational training (domestic science and manual training) at the school, which had been requested by the school committee.[23] Vocational education was a Queensland Government priority to support the development of primary industries; this evolved after World War I into a variety of subjects. Vocational training within primary education began in 1895 with drawing classes and expanded to include domestic sciences, agriculture, and sheet metal and wood working classes. The subjects required a variety of purpose-built facilities and were initially gender segregated. In 1936 the Minister for Education permitted students to take vocational subjects in lieu of geography or history in the Junior Examination, increasing the subjects' popularity.[24]
\nThe remodelling of Block B included altering the internal partitions and partially enclosing the verandahs to create woodwork and sheet metalwork rooms and a teachers room on the ground floor, and cookery, dining and dressmaking rooms, a lecture room and a laundry on the first floor. The ground floor of Block B sat lower than the undercroft level of the new brick building, and the only access to the first floor was via an L-shaped staircase on the southwest side.[25]
\nThe new school, with a total cost of £30,000, was in use from March 1937, and was officially opened in May by the Minister for Public Instruction, FA Cooper. By this time 833 students were enrolled. Minister Cooper said that the new school ‘would stand for the next century or more’. [26]
\nAir raid shelters were constructed in Gregory Park, for students of Milton State School, during World War II (WWII). The Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended.[27] Slit trenches, for protecting the students from Japanese air raids, were also dug at Queensland state schools. The swampy origins of Gregory Park meant that, instead of digging slit trenches, heaped sandbags were used to form six above-ground trenches, each 110ft (33.5m) long. Students, parents and staff were all involved, with women sewing the sandbags shut. However, the school had to threaten that, as they could only teach as many children as there was shelter space for, those children whose parents had assisted with the shelters would have priority to recommence attending school.[28]
\nChanges continued to be made after WWII. Although enrolments declined, from 976 in 1951, to 563 in 1973, smaller classroom sizes meant new additions were still required.[29] In 1951, 3 roods and 10 perches (0.3ha) of land was removed from Gregory Park and added to the south end of the school (the site of the tennis courts until 2020). By 1951, palm trees existed along the school’s rear boundary with Gregory Park, and there were also mature trees along the northern end of the Bayswater Street frontage, and one at the south end of the school near the Haig Road pedestrian crossing. By 1960, a tree existed in front of Block A, north of the front entrance; with another just southeast of the same building. A three-classroom timber building (Block C in 2017) was added at the north end of the school by c1952-55. Part of the open play space in the undercroft of Block A was also enclosed as temporary classrooms in 1957.[30]
\nA timber and brick wing, with timber floor trusses, was also added to the west of the southern wing of Block A in 1959-60. This had a library on the first floor, two rooms underneath, and a verandah on the north side.[31]
\nBy 1960 cricket practice nets existed in the very southwest corner of the school, but new nets were later built northeast of the tennis courts c2012-13, partly in Gregory Park.[32] Asphalt was laid behind and in front of Block A c1962.[33] In the mid-1960s Block B was altered to become a Technical College. Partitions were removed on the upper floor to create one large room with smaller rooms on the now fully enclosed verandah, while the ground floor was altered for use as an optical mechanics room and watchmakers room, with additional storage created within the verandah. [34] In 1991 toilets were constructed in the ground floor verandah.[35]
\nSome minor changes were made to Block A from the late 1970s. The former cloakrooms on the first floor – by now a health room (north) and staff room (south) – were extended eastwards into the corridors of the north and south wings c1978, and the undercroft area of the entrance bay was also converted to three storerooms. By 1978 a tuckshop and a projection room had also been added to the southern end of the former open play area of the undercroft.[36]
\nAround 2000, the classroom configurations of Block A were changed. On the first floor, one classroom wall of the southern wing was removed to form one large and one smaller classroom; while the walls between the three classrooms of the northern wing were removed to create two classrooms divided by a folding partition. The four classrooms of the central wing were converted into two classrooms divided by small rooms containing wet areas and storage. On the second floor, the three classrooms of the southern wing were converted to two classrooms divided by a folding partition.[37] Later, a covered concrete extension was added behind Block A’s central wing (c2008), extending east from the 1930s retaining wall.[38]
\nFor the school’s centenary celebrations in 1989, a 1:15th scale model of first school building was built (extant 2017); a Centenary quilt was produced, and a Centenary Courtyard was created, south of the main entrance. There were 686 students enrolled in mid-2016.[39] In 2021, Milton State School continues to operate from its original site, and its Depression-era Brick School Building is a local landmark. The school is important to the area as a focus for the community, and generations of students have been taught there.
","criteria":"Milton State School (established in 1889 as Rosalie State School) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains an excellent, representative example of a standard government-designed school building that was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building, retaining walls and stairs (1935-37) are a result of the Queensland Government’s building and relief work programs during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
\nThe 1923 timber building, adapted in 1936 for vocational training, demonstrates the pattern of relocating and re-purposing buildings at Queensland schools. It is the only surviving remnant of the earlier timber school complex at Milton State School.
\nThe World War I Honour Board (1916) is important in demonstrating the school community’s involvement in a major world event. War memorials, including honour boards, are a tribute from the community to those who served, and those who died. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
|Milton State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school built during the Depression-era. These include: a large brick school building, set within a landscaped site with retaining walls, mature shade trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities.
\nThe substantial Depression-era Brick School Building is an excellent, highly intact example of its type and retains a high degree of integrity. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of Depression-era Brick Schools, including: its symmetrically arranged two-storey form with an undercroft; high-quality design with ornamental features from one of a variety of styles; face brick exterior; terracotta-tiled roof; and projecting central entrance bay. The building has a linear layout, with rooms accessed by corridors, and an undercroft accommodating open play space and toilets.
|Through its elegant composition of formal and decorative elements, substantial size and face brick exterior, the Depression-era Brick School Building at Milton State School has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, by which the Department of Public Works sought to convey the concepts of progress and permanence.
\nThe building is also significant for its streetscape contribution. Standing in an open setting adjacent to a park and framed by mature trees, it is an attractive and prominent feature of the area.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nMilton State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Milton community. It was established in 1889 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of Milton children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Milton and is a prominent community focal point.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650057,"name":"Morningside State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"67 Pashen Street","suburb":"MORNINGSIDE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-04-24","description":"Morningside State School occupies a 1.986ha, terraced site in the residential suburb of Morningside, approximately 3.8km east of Brisbane CBD. Fronting Pashen Street to the north, the school is bounded on other sides by residential and commercial properties (east and west), and Stephens Street and Palm Square (south). The site steps down from the east, with the complex of significant school buildings and structures primarily aligned with the highest sections to the east.
\nFeatures of Morningside State School of state cultural heritage significance are:
\nDepression-era Brick Infants School Building (Block A; 1937)
\nBlock A is a symmetrical, masonry structure of one storey, highset on an understorey. The building faces Pashen Street to the north and is approximately rectangular in plan, with protruding enclosures to the east and west. It is elegantly composed and ornamented with modest Art Deco-style treatments and its red-brown face brick exterior is contrasted by painted render dressings. The building has a Dutch-gable roof, clad in terracotta tiles and featuring vented timber gablets.
\nAn entrance bay projecting from the centre of the northern elevation is reached by an imperial concrete stair. It has a stepped and rendered parapet that features the words ‘MORNINGSIDE STATE SCHOOL’ above a framed entrance door. The north and south elevations have regularly spaced banks of windows with fanlights, sheltered by continuous terracotta tile-clad window hoods with timber brackets. A singular bank of windows is centred on the eastern and western elevations, with high-level windows to the understorey.
\nThe first floor layout comprises a short entrance hall leading to a perpendicular central corridor (that runs east-west). To the north and south of the corridor are classrooms and teachers rooms, now used as staffrooms and offices. At both ends of the corridor are enclosed hatrooms (now storerooms) and stairwells lead down to the understorey.
\nThe understorey is aligned with the ground level. Modern lightweight partitions (not significant) have been added to form additional classroom space in the former open play space. Toilets and store rooms are located at the eastern and western ends.
\nFeatures of the Depression-era Brick Infants School Building (Block A) of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Depression-era Brick Infants School Building (Block A) not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nSectional School Buildings (Block B, 1927, extended 1958; and Block D,1927, extended 1954)
\nThe Sectional School Buildings are timber classroom buildings orientated on east-west axes, parallel to Pashen Street. The buildings are partially highset to compensate for the sloping terrain. Each has a Dutch-gable roof, with a gable to the eastern ends (indicative of 1954 and 1958 extensions).
\nThe mostly north-facing verandahs are connected and run the length of the buildings. They are generally accessed via timber stairs (modern replacements connecting to early landing locations), with the eastern ends of the buildings accessed from ground-level. Hatrooms are located at the northwest corner of Block B and in the southwest corner of Block D (remnant), and bag racks have replaced some balustrading.
\nOriginal coved ceilings survive in most early classrooms. Extensions at the eastern ends of the buildings can be identified by flat ceiling and wall linings, and taller window banks with differing sill heights and later joinery / mechanisms on the southern sides. While most interior partitions between classrooms have been removed or modified to form larger teaching spaces, locations of original partitions can generally be identified though wall remnants on the northern and southern walls and bulkheads.
\nThe understoreys that are accessible are mostly used for storage.
\nFeatures of the Sectional School Buildings (Block B and Block D) of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Sectional School Buildings (Block B and Block D) not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nHighset Timber School Buildings (Block E, 1956; and Block F, 1956-7)
\nBlock E and F are long timber classroom buildings, highset on concrete piers, with understoreys. The buildings have gable roofs, and verandahs run along the west (Block E) and north (Block F) sides. Timber stairs access Block F’s verandah, and the Block E links to the verandahs of Block D at the north and Block F at the south.
\nBlock E comprises two classrooms connected by a recent concertina door (within an original folding door opening). Block F has four classrooms, each connected by doors at the southern ends of the room partitions (some partitions have been partially removed, with wall nibs and bulkheads retained).
\nThe understoreys of the blocks primarily comprise open play space, and some later enclosures have been added (not significant).
\nFeatures of the Highset Timber School Buildings (Block E and Block F) of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Highset Timber School Buildings (Block E and Block F) not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLandscape Elements
\nThe school grounds are well-established and are terraced along the northern side of the site with concrete and stone retaining walls and steps. The southeastern boundaries of the site comprise open-cut stone excavations – a remnant of a former quarry site.
\nPashen Street frontage and retaining walls:
\nA concrete retaining wall forms a fence along the Pashen Street boundary and features decorative, Art-Deco-style piers at the entrances. Timber formwork impressions are set within the concrete.
\nTwo retaining walls with concrete stairs stand between Pashen Street and Block B (by 1959), and to the northwest of Block B (formerly between Block C and Pashen Street, by 1960). The wall to the northwest of Block B is battered, with stones set within the concrete, and the wall between Block B and Pashen Street is of concrete.
\nThe setback and open space between Pashen Street and Blocks A and B afford views of the buildings from the street and contribute to the place’s prominence and streetscape presence.
\nTennis courts and playing field:
\nTwo tennis courts (1939) stand in their original location at the northwest corner of the site and have been resurfaced. An open playing field (1960s) is located south of the tennis courts.
\nWar Memorial:
\nA painted concrete WWII memorial (unknown date) stands within an Anzac memorial garden (2014) east of Block B, and is dedicated to the Rats of Tobruk.
\nOpen assembly areas:
\nFormer assembly areas to the north and south of Block A, and between Blocks B and D, and west of Block E / north of Block F, retain their open character, allowing light and ventilation to adjacent interior classroom spaces.
\nFeatures of the landscape elements of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the landscape elements not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures not of State-level Cultural Heritage Significance
\nFeatures of Morningside state School not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nMorningside State School opened in 1926, on its current site at 67 Pashen Street, Morningside, about 3.8km northeast of the Brisbane CBD. The school is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains: two connected Sectional School Buildings (Blocks D and B, 1927, extended c1954 and 1958 respectively); a Depression-era Brick Infants School Building (Block A, 1937); plus two connected Highset Timber School Buildings (Block E, 1956; and Block F, 1956, extended 1957), set in landscaped grounds, with a poured-concrete retaining wall (1939) to Pashen Street, tennis courts (1939) and a WWII memorial to the Rats of Tobruk. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Morningside community.
\nTraditional country of the Jagera and Turrbal peoples, the suburb of Morningside was once within the area of the Bulimba Divisional Board, and later the Balmoral Shire Council, before being absorbed into Greater Brisbane in 1925. Farming, dairying and related industry initially occurred in the district.[1] The later school site was part of a farm surveyed in 1857 and subdivided into residential allotments in 1863.[2] Residential development in Morningside was facilitated by two transport improvements in particular: the opening of the South Brisbane to Cleveland railway line in 1889; and the extension of the electric tram line (from just east of Norman Creek) to Barton Road, Hawthorne, by May 1925.[3]
\nLocal population growth (from 495 in 1911, to 1806 in 1921), prior to the tram line extension, led to pressure for a school at Morningside in the early 1920s. The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[4]
\nIn July 1922 a committee visited the Minister for Education, John Saunders Huxham, to ask for an infants school, given that children were walking long distances to existing schools at Cannon Hill (est.1915), Norman Park (1900) and Bulimba (1866). A shortage of government funds meant that the Morningside masonic hall (actually a converted residence) on Agnes Street had to be rented as an interim measure, and the Morningside Provisional (Infants) School No.1803 opened there on 28 May 1923.[5]
\nBy this time, a site for a state school for Morningside on Pashen Street had been chosen, and the community continued to push for the construction of a school.[6] The nine allotments which made up the original school grounds (consisting of 2 acres/0.8ha) between Pashen Street and Stephen Street, west of Howard Street, were obtained by the Secretary for Public Instruction in December 1924.[7]
\nIn July 1925, the Department of Public Works was asked to prepare a plan and estimate costs for a school building (Block C in 2018) to accommodate 200 pupils.[8] The new building was a Sectional School type. Attention to improving light and ventilation to achieve an optimum classroom culminated in 1920 with the Sectional School type, which proved very successful and was used unaltered until 1950. The Sectional School type had only one verandah, typically on the north side, allowing the southern wall, with a maximum number of windows for natural light, to be unobstructed. The building was designed so that the blank western wall was removable. As the school grew, the western end wall could be detached and the building extended in sections (although no western extensions occurred to Morningside State School’s Sectional School Buildings). This led to the construction of long narrow buildings of many classrooms – a distinctive feature of Queensland schools.[9]
\nThe construction of the new school was announced in October 1925, and its cost by the end of June 1926 was £3163. The infants school vacated the masonic hall shortly before the Morningside State School opened on 16 August 1926.[10]
\nThere was immediately a need for additional accommodation at Morningside State School, which, although designed for 200 pupils, opened with an attendance of 350; rising to 475 by October 1926.[11] As an interim measure, 200 students were taught at the Morningside School of Arts hall in 1927.[12] Two new wings at Morningside State School, also Sectional School Buildings, were built by December 1927, east of Block C, at a cost of £4600: Block B (north wing) and Block D (south wing). They were officially opened on Saturday 25 February 1928. By this time, the school enrolment was 600, with the school’s three buildings only designed for 440.[13]
\nThe three teaching buildings were of similar construction: each was a highset timber-framed and -clad building with a Dutch-gable roof, and 8ft (2.4m) verandahs to the north, west and east sides. Block C also had two gabled teachers rooms, each 15ft by 12ft (4.6m x 3.7m), off its north verandah. All three buildings were higher set at their west ends, due to the slope of the ground. Classrooms (five in Block C, and three in each of Blocks B and D) were all 21ft by 18ft (6.4m x 5.5m), and were designed for 40 children, with double doors linking the classrooms. Each classroom had casement windows on the south side, blackboards to the west, double-hung windows and a double door to the front verandah, and a square vent in their coved ceilings. Block C originally had hatrooms in its northern verandah corners; whereas Block B had hatrooms in each verandah corner apart from the southwest, where the west verandah was linked to the north verandah of Block C. Block D had hatrooms at the southern ends of its east and west verandahs, and plans showed it was originally set at a higher elevation than the other two blocks, with steps from its north verandah leading down to the east verandah of Block C.[14]
\nEfforts to improve the school’s facilities continued. Three 35-perch (885m2) allotments on Pashen Street (in 2018 the site of the swimming pool and tennis courts) were purchased in 1928-9.[15] In late 1929, a fete was held to raise funds to beautify the grounds with shade trees, and plans were drawn up for another Sectional School Building, this time of two storeys, to the west of Block C. The tender of W Alford was accepted in May 1930, for £1111.[16]
\nThe Department of Public Works noted: ‘Owing to the rapid growth of the Morningside district [Morningside’s population rose from 1806 in 1921, to 4919 by 1947] it became necessary to make a second addition to this school, and on account of the fall in the ground a two storied [sic] building was found to be more suitable and economical. The addition will comprise two classrooms on each floor, in size 21ft by 18ft [6.4m x 5.5m], erected on concrete piers joined to the existing building [Block C] and having verandahs 8ft [2.4m] wide on the north, east and west sides. Accommodation for 160 more pupils will be provided’.[17] The new building (Block L in 2018) was opened on 25 October 1930, at the annual school fund-raising fete, by the then Minister for Public Instruction, Reginald M King.[18]
\nIn the early 1930s, land was added to the east side of the school, when an unformed section of Howard Street, plus two allotments which were the site of a council quarry (the latter consisting of about 75.25 perches/0.2ha) were obtained by the Secretary for Public Instruction.[19]
\nThis new land became the site of the next addition to the Morningside State School, a Depression-era Brick Infants School Building (Block A). Infants schools were constructed in Queensland from 1891. In the 1930s, infants schools were sometimes built using brick, as smaller varieties within the Depression-era brick schools type, which were commonly larger and not for infants. Brick infants schools were built at Windsor [QHR 600991], Yeronga [QHR 650025], and Morningside.[20]
\nThe Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of public building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders and embarked on an ambitious and important building program to provide impetus to the economy.
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work program administered by the Department of Public Works (DPW). This included painting and repairs to school buildings.[21] By mid-1930, men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme.[22] Extensive funding was given for improvements to school grounds, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, involving terracing and retaining walls. At Morningside State School, relief workers built two grassed basketball courts (later the site of the swimming pool), and some of the school’s retaining walls.[23]
\nIn June 1932, the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public building program designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, and the purchase of local building materials.[24] The construction of substantial Brick School Buildings[25] in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government’s commitment to remedy the unemployment situation.
\nDepression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open understorey and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the understorey was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions. [26]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set.[27]
\nBlock A at Morningside State School was red face brick, and had a tiled Dutch-gable roof. The understorey had lavatories, a store room, and an open play area. The first floor accommodated: two teachers rooms, both 21ft by 12ft (6.4m x 3.7m); two 50-pupil classrooms, both 22ft by 21ft (6.7m x 6.4m); and three 40-pupil classrooms, divided by folding partitions (two were 21ft by 18ft (6.4m x 5.5m), and one was 24ft 6 inches by 18ft (7.5m x 5.5m)). On either end were enclosed 10ft (3m) wide verandahs with hatrooms.[28]
\nBlock A, which cost £7500, was opened by the Minister for Public Instruction Frank A Cooper on 9 October 1937.[29] In 1939, a small dry stone wall on the Pashen Street boundary, in front of Block A, was replaced by a poured-concrete wall.[30] Retaining walls with steps were at some point added south of the 1939 Pashen Street wall, forming two level, terraced platforms in the upper part of the school: the eastern wall and steps (in front of Block B) existed by at least 1959; and the western wall and steps (in front of Block C) by 1960.[31]
\nIn July 1939, tennis courts (extant in 2018) were officially opened by the Minister for Public Education and Works, Henry A Bruce.[32] This event was soon followed by the outbreak of World War II on 3 September 1939, which had its own impact on the school grounds. After the entry of Japan into the war in December 1941, the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended.[33] Slit trenches, for protecting the students from Japanese air raids, were also dug at Queensland state schools, often by parents and staff.[34]
\nIn March 1942, a call went out for helpers to come to Morningside State School to double the existing 280ft (85m) of slit trenches (located south of Block L) at the school. During the war, female students also sewed and knitted items for the Australian Comforts Fund, and the Junior Red Cross Circle took gifts to a military hospital. In addition, the understorey of Block A was fitted out as an emergency hospital for air raid casualties. In 1944 an Oslo Lunch room, based on the Norwegian nutritious lunch movement, was established under Block A and was upgraded in 1947.[35]
\nAfter the war, more accommodation was required at the school, as the population of Morningside rose (from 4919 in 1947, to 8271 in 1954). In 1949 enrolment at the school was 840.[36] The Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education between the late 1940s and the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and unprecedented population growth. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[37] Two three-classroom temporary buildings were added to Morningside State School between 1949 and 1951.[38] A classroom, 24ft by 21ft (7.3m x 6.4m) was also added to the east end of Block D c1954, with the removal of the east verandah, and a classroom of the same size was added to the east end of Block B in late 1958.[39]
\nTwo permanent buildings were also added to the school. From 1950 the Department of Public Instruction introduced and developed new standard plans for school buildings. These buildings were highset timber framed structures and the understorey was used as covered play space. Introduced in 1950, the principal type was a long and narrow building with a gable roof. A semi-enclosed stair connected the understorey to a north facing verandah running the length of the building. Classrooms opened off the verandah and had extensive areas of windows; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed, allowing abundant natural light and ventilation. This type was the most commonly constructed in the 1950s in Queensland.[40]
\nBlock E (two classrooms) and Block F (three classrooms) were added to the school in 1956, south of Block D. Block F was extended to the west by one classroom in 1957. The classrooms were a standard 24ft by 21ft (7.3m x 6.4m). Other changes to the school in the late 1950s included: enclosing under Block C’s eastern teachers room for a new health services room; installing new hat and bag racks on the north verandah of Block B; enclosing the west verandah of Block C for a new staff room; and enclosing the upper west verandah of Block L for a store room.[41] Also in the late 1950s, the open space between Blocks C and F became the main assembly area, with new paving added to the south of the existing paving near Block C; the space between Blocks B and D was paved as a parade area; and spaces to the north and south of Block A were paved for winter and summer assembly areas respectively.[42]
\nAdditions continued in the 1960s and 1970s, despite a drop in enrolments when Grade 8 was removed to high school in 1964. A swimming pool, funded by the efforts of the school and parents, was constructed west of Block L by November 1964. The school grounds were also extended to the west in the mid-1960s, creating the school playing field and expanding the grounds to a total of 1.99ha. In 1972, plans were drawn for a new fire escape to the upper northern verandah of Block L, and the enclosure of the western verandah of Block L was extended onto the northern verandah to create a male staffroom. In 1973, a toilet block for senior boys and girls was constructed south of Block F; a dental clinic was built c1978 and Block J was built c1979 south of Block A, replacing the earlier temporary classroom building.[43]
\nFrom the 1980s, further structures were added to the school grounds, including covered play areas, and changes were made to existing buildings. In the 1980s, a tuckshop was added under Block F and a pre-school was created under Block A. In the late 1990s, under the Building Better Schools program, changes were made to classroom partitioning in blocks B and C, creating fewer, larger classrooms. In the 2000s, further partitioning was added to the understorey of Block A.[44]
\nIn 2014 an ANZAC memorial garden was created at the east end of Block B, with a small WWII Memorial (date unknown) commemorating the Rats of Tobruk being relocated there from the southeast corner of the school. Constructed as a small replica of a monument built in 1941 by Australian Divisional Engineers in the Tobruk Cemetery, Libya, the memorial is of a stepped, Art-Deco design and stands on a stepped plinth.[45]
\nIn the early morning of 16 October 2018, a fire destroyed two Sectional School Buildings, Blocks C and L, and a walkway connecting Blocks B, C and D. The western end of Block B was also damaged. To enable remedial works to be undertaken, the school was closed for a week and students were accommodated at Balmoral State High School. Three temporary buildings, containing six classrooms, were subsequently installed on the netball courts east of the playing field as an interim measure for classroom accommodation.[46] In 2020, a new, three-storey Learning Centre was constructed in place of Block C, fronting Pashen Street, and landscaping works were undertaken.[47] Like-for-like reconstruction was also undertaken to the damaged, western end of Block B, and comprised works to: the roof and Dutch-gable end, walls, some framing, and verandah details (including its floor, ceiling, balustrade and hatroom with salvaged hooks and backing rail). A salvaged southern window was refurbished, a new northern stair replaced the existing, and a new walkway connecting the western ends of Blocks B and D was constructed.[48]
\nIn 2024, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains two Sectional School Buildings, a Depression-era Brick Infants School Building, and two Highset Timber School Buildings, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities, playing areas, retaining walls and mature shade trees. Morningside State School is important to Morningside, as a key social focus for the community, as generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment. A school history was compiled for the school’s 50th anniversary in 1976.
\n","criteria":"
Morningside State School (established in 1926) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with assembly and play areas, sporting facilities and mature trees.
\nThe Depression-era Brick Infants School Building (1937) and concrete retaining wall to Pashen Street (1939) are a result of the Queensland Government’s building and relief work programs during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
\nThe Sectional School Buildings (1927) are important in demonstrating the evolution of Department of Public Works (DPW) timber school designs to provide adequate lighting and ventilation; equally recognising educational and climatic needs.
\nThe Highset Timber School Buildings (1956-57) are important in representing the continued evolution of DPW timber building designs during the 1950s.
\nThe World War II (WWII) memorial commemorating the Rats of Tobruk is important in demonstrating the school community’s involvement in WWII. War memorials are a tribute from the community to those who served, and those who died. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
|Morningside State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school of the early to mid-20th century, comprising teaching buildings constructed to standard designs by the Queensland Government; set in landscaped grounds with assembly and play areas, sporting facilities and mature trees.
\nThe Depression-era Brick Infants School Building is an excellent, substantial, and intact example of its type, demonstrating the principal characteristics, which include: a handsome edifice standing at the front of the school; symmetrical two-storey form of classrooms and teachers rooms above an understorey of open play space; a linear layout of the main floor with rooms accessed by a corridor; loadbearing masonry construction; prominent projecting central entrance bay; and a high-quality design that provides superior educational environments focusing on abundant natural light and ventilation. It demonstrates the use of stylistic features of its era, which determined its roof form, joinery, and decorative treatment.
\nThe Sectional School Buildings are good, intact examples of their type. Principal characteristics include: their timber-framed construction; highset form with play space underneath; Dutch-gable and gable roofs; blank end walls; connected northern verandahs with single skin verandah walls and double-hung windows; large banks of south-facing casement windows (replaced in Block D); hat rack enclosures; timber joinery; and coved ceilings, with metal tie rods and square lattice ceiling ventilation panels. The original classroom sizes are still readable, due to the surviving nibs and bulkheads.
\nThe Highset Timber School Buildings are good, intact examples of their type and retain: their timber-framed construction; gable roofs; highset form with concrete piers and play space underneath; verandahs for circulation; glazed screens at verandah ends; double-hung windows to the verandahs; and large banks of timber-framed awning windows to the rear elevation (east, Block E; and south, Block F).
|Through its substantial size, materials, symmetry, elegant composition, restrained use of decoration, and fine craftsmanship, the Depression-era Brick Infants School Building has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, by which the Department of Public Works sought to convey the concepts of progress and permanence.
\nThe building is also significant for its streetscape contribution, and is an attractive and prominent feature of the area.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nMorningside State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Morningside community. It was established in 1926 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of Morningside children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Morningside and is a prominent community focal point.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650058,"name":"Ashgrove State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"31 Glory Street","suburb":"ASHGROVE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-04-24","description":"Ashgrove State School occupies a 2.805ha site in Ashgrove, approximately 5.5km northwest of Brisbane Central Business District (CBD). Facing Glory Street and Waterworks Road to the south, the site is bounded on other sides by Woonga Drive (east); Otonga Road and a residence (north); and a carpark, nature reserve and creek (west).
\nThe school comprises a complex of buildings and structures, the most prominent of which is a Depression-era Brick School Building (Block A; 1938, extended 1947, and 1959), located in the southwestern corner of the site, addressing Glory Street. It is conspicuous in the area due to its handsome architecture and substantial scale. A Boulton and Paul Prefabricated Building (Block B, 1953, extended 1956 to a Department of Public Works design) is located northwest of Block A. Other important elements of the school include a memorial flagpole (1951) to the southeast of Block A, a playing field at the eastern end of the site and mature shade trees.
\nDepression-era Brick School Building (Block A; 1938, extended 1947 and 1959)
\nBlock A is a substantial masonry structure of two storeys, with an undercroft level. The building has a hip roof clad in terracotta tiles, with a central metal roof fleche. The eaves are lined in sheets and battens with lattice vents. The building comprises a range, running east-west; a short eastern wing projecting to the north (undercroft); and a western extension built in a more contemporary style and aligned with the range. In the centre of the building is an entrance bay (projecting south) and a short wing (projecting north). The entrance bay frames the main entrance to the building and features a pediment and a crosshead over the doorway. An arched window on the second floor is centred with the doorway and the words ‘ASHGROVE’ and ‘EST 1877’ are painted below. Terracotta-tiled window hoods with decorative brackets run the length of the front elevation of the range and shelter the first storey windows. A split stair provides access to the first floor entry foyer within the bay, and a secondary entrance is located at the eastern end of the building, via concrete stairs.
\nThe building is elegantly composed with classical detailing and has rendered decorative elements on the first and second floors. A rendered base forms the undercroft level. The load-bearing walls of the earlier sections are of red-brown face brick with white tuck pointing, and are relieved by brown face brick pilasters and window sill-height rendered string courses. The walls and pilasters of the western extension are rendered (except for a band of face bricks below the first floor window sills; and metal sheet spandrels below the second floor window sills). All pilasters have simple, rendered capitals. Bricks on the northern elevation of the eastern wing are keyed in line with exterior and verandah walls (in anticipation of extension).
\nThe interior layout is generally repeated on the first and second floors, and access to each floor is provided via central, eastern and western concrete stairs that have timber and metal balustrades. On each level, the four earliest classrooms (1938) stand to the east of a central foyer (first floor) and office (second floor). Five classrooms are to the west, with two adjacent to the foyer (1947) of equal size, and the three westernmost (1959) longer. Offices and store rooms are within the central short wing (1947). Most classrooms retain original bulkheads (which indicate the original layout), and lattice ceiling vents are to the 1938 and 1947 sections of the second floor. Most classrooms and offices have plaster walls, timber-framed floors, and sheet and batten ceilings. Skirtings are generally stepped, and most classrooms retain picture rails. Some verandah walls have been removed to increase classroom space; with bulkheads retained.
\nVerandahs (now enclosed with metal-framed windows) run along the northern side of the building, separating the classrooms from stairs and northern wings. They have polished concrete floors, face brick balustrades, and flat ceilings (with those on the first floor battened).
\nThe undercroft (formerly open play space) is enclosed with modern partitions. It has a concrete slab floor, face brick piers stop-chamfered above head-height (some are rendered), exposed ceiling framing (1938 and 1947 sections) and open-web metal trusses (1959 section). Early toilets are at the eastern and western ends of the building and in the eastern wing; and store rooms are adjacent the central stair. The toilets have plaster and V-jointed (VJ) walls, flat sheet-lined ceilings with rounded cover strips, and VJ timber partitions.
\nEarly timber joinery retained throughout the building includes: casement and awning windows with fanlights to the exterior; double-hung windows with fanlights to the verandah walls; and panelled doors with fanlights. The eastern stair features a large northern screen of fixed and louvered windows. Most windows and doors retain their awning fanlights and early window and door hardware. Folding partitions have been replaced with fixed partitions.
\nA clear-finished ‘Honour Board’ timber cabinet stands in the corridor of Block A, recording the names of Ashgrove State School scholarship winners from 1939 to 1947. Lettering on the front states it was, ‘PRESENTED BY A.M. JOLLY. ESQ’.[1]
\nBoulton and Paul Prefabricated Building (Block B; 1953, extended 1956 to a Department of Works (DPW) design)
\nBlock B is a long, highset, timber-framed building with a corrugated metal-clad, gable roof that continues over the north-facing verandah. The eastern end, comprising two classrooms, is of a prefabricated Boulton and Paul design (1953) and the western end, also two classrooms, is of similar Department of Works (DPW) design (1956). All classrooms are accessed via the verandah, which has stairs at the eastern ends of both sections. The building is clad in timber chamferboards, including the eastern, western and western half of the southern sides of the understorey. The Boulton and Paul section is clearly distinguishable from the DPW section by its vertical timber strips within the wall lining that define each panel of the prefabricated wall units, timber brackets that support the southern eaves, and the higher window sills to the southern elevation.
\nThe interior layout comprises four classrooms that have flat sheet-lined walls with rounded cover-strips, and flat sheet-lined ceilings. The timber skirtings and cornices are narrow.
\nThe verandah has timber floors, square timber posts, raked ceilings lined in flat sheets with rounded cover strips, and battened timber balustrades. The eastern and western ends have later enclosures that extend classroom space (west) and form a store room (east). Early metal cleats are attached to verandah posts (for blinds now removed).
\nLarge banks of timber-framed awning windows with fanlights are located in the southern wall. The Boulton and Paul section retains an internal timber safety rail and brass window stays. Windows to the verandah wall are timber double-hung window with awning fanlights (Boulton and Paul) and centre-pivoting fanlights (DPW section). Timber-framed windows to the understorey are louvered and fixed. Early timber panelled and French doors are retained.
\nThe understorey is largely open play space and the western end has later enclosures forming store rooms. Posts along the southern side are concrete with rounded corners, those along the northern side are timber, and the remainder are steel. The floor is a concrete slab and timber wall framing is exposed to the interior.
\nLandscape elements
\nThe school grounds are well established with mature shade trees, particularly along the site boundaries, and sporting facilities including a generously sized playing field at the eastern end of the site.
\nThe open character of the space between Glory Street and Block A affords views of the building from the street and contributes to the place’s prominence and streetscape presence.
\nA flag pole (1951) is to the south of Block A has a concrete and metal base with a plaque engraved with the words ‘IN COMMEMORATION OF JUBILEE YEAR 1951’.
\nFeatures Not of State Heritage Significance
\nThe former Depression-era brick toilet block (1947) and face brick entry gates are not of state-level significance. Other elements not of state-level heritage significance include recent: windows (including aluminium-framed windows enclosing Block A’s verandah and louvre fanlights to the western end of Block A), doors, partitions, verandah enclosures, floor linings, suspended ceilings (to Block A’s entry foyer), blinds to Block B, understory enclosures, fixtures and fittings. Buildings, structures, shade sails, pathways and sheds within the cultural heritage boundary not previously mentioned are not of state cultural heritage significance.
\n
Ashgrove State School, established 1876 on a site opposite the current school, is situated 5.5 km northwest of the Brisbane CBD and opened on its current site in 1925. It is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains one Depression-era Brick School Building built in stages (Block A: 1938, 1947, 1959), a playing field partially formed by relief workers and a Boulton and Paul prefabricated building and its Department of Public Works extension. (Block B: 1953, 1956).
\nAshgrove was traditionally part of the land of the Turrbal people. Government auction of the small farms here began in 1856. In January 1876, a public meeting was held at St John’s Wood [QHR 601506], the home of George Rogers Harding, with the intention of establishing a local school. Harding, a barrister and later a Supreme Court Judge, had substantial land holdings in the area. The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. Schools became a community focus, with the school community contributing to their maintenance and development; a symbol of progress; and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents and teachers. Residents donated £120 and Harding donated land for the school. Two acres (8093m2) situated on Portion 667 bounded by Waterworks Road and Glory Street at their intersection with Coopers Camp Road, was transferred to the Secretary for Public Instruction in May 1876.[1]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[2]
\nThe Ashgrove State School was officially opened on 4 November 1876. It was the first school built following the introduction of the Education Act 1875, which created the Department of Public Instruction and provided free primary school education to children aged from 6 – 12. This small timber school cost £678, £104 of which was contributed by local residents. The opening ceremony was performed by the Minister for Education, the Hon Samuel Griffith. The site included a teachers residence. Poet James Brunton Stephens was the first Head Teacher when classes commenced on 22 January 1877. [3]
\nThe school building was extended in 1896 and in 1922. The Waterworks Road tramline was extended to Oleander Drive in 1924; concurrent with the subdivision and sale of the Glenlyon [QHR 600049] Gardens Estate by developer TM Burke. The Dorrington Park and Frasers Estates along Enoggera Creek, were also subdivided at this time. In July 1924, the school committee was advocating a new modern school.[4]
\nIn March 1924, the minister had approved a land transfer offered by Burke, whereby the original school site would be transferred to the developer in exchange for five acres (2.02ha) on the opposite side of Glory Street. The school building was removed and relocated across the road to the new site on the northern side of Glory Street in 1925. The school building was enlarged for the official opening on 31 October 1925.[5] Burke then acquired the original school site and subdivided it in 1926. The rapid expansion of Ashgrove saw the population increase from 144 in 1911 to 2500 in 1926. In August 1927, a further 800 housing allotments in the St Johns Wood and Royal Park estates were released. The Ashgrove School celebrated its jubilee in October 1927 with a fete aimed at raising funds to beautify the new school grounds.[6]
\nThe Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building programme to provide impetus to the economy.
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme work programme managed by the Department of Public Works. This included painting and repairs to school buildings. By mid-1930, men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools,[7] creating many large school playing fields. These play areas became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element. The 1930 school fete raised funds to continue work on the school grounds, having already built a tennis and basketball court, with a football field and cricket pitch being developed at that time. Tree planting appears to have been minimal, with the state government discontinuing the subsidy for tree plantings in schools in 1931.[8]
\nIn June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power through a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public works building programme designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state.[9]
\nIn June 1935, the Director of Education approved plans for a new brick school building for Ashgrove. Early plans were drawn up by AJ Moase of the Department of Public Works (DPW) in 1936, with more detailed plans produced in February 1937; both sets of drawings approved by the Chief Architect and Quantity Surveyor, AB Leven. Construction approval was given in April 1937.[10]
\nDepression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings, being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. Due to their long plan forms of multiple wings, they could be built in stages if necessary; resulting in some complete designs never being realised. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions.[11]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School Building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features within the overall set. These styles, derived from contemporary tastes and fashions, included: Arts and Crafts; Spanish Mission; and Neo-classical. Over time, variations occurred in building size, decorative treatment, and climatic-responsive features. Other schools of this type were built in nearby. Oakleigh and Ithaca Creek [QHR 650022] state schools both opened in 1934.[12]
\nThe new Ashgrove State School building (Block A) was opened by the Minister for Health and Home Affairs, EM Hanlon on 19 March 1938.[13] The two storey brick school, plus undercroft, was planned to be built in stages. Phase one of the brick school, costing £6884, included four classrooms 19ft by 21ft (5.8m x 6.4m) and a cloak room on each floor to accommodate 360 pupils, with the undercroft housing an office for the head teacher, large play area, drinking troughs and seats. It did not include the entrance foyer. The classrooms were connected by folding partitions, which could open to provide assembly areas. The building was roofed in terracotta Marseilles tiles. The future remaining portions were planned to accommodate 880 pupils, with the intention of completing the original plan of an E-shape form facing Glory Street. The building was not completed to the 1936 plan, with the eastern end only having a one-storey (understorey) section and the western end later being built to a similar, but not matching, plan.[14]
\nIn March 1937, the Department of Education began negotiations with Brisbane City Council (BCC) to acquire part of the 3.4chain (68m) wide gully on the eastern boundary of the school (Portion 715 – originally part of Woonga Drive), and a one chain wide (20m) strip of the quarry on the western side to expand the playground. Access, but not ownership, was approved for the strip of the quarry. Portion 715 was surveyed in 1938 and transferred to the school in 1939. Woonga Drive was formed adjacent to the school by filling in the gully; including the retention of some trees along the new eastern boundary. Fill was procured from the quarry, financed by the Department of Education, with relief workers undertaking the labour, funded by the DPW. Funding for intermittent relief workers in school grounds was wound-down from September 1938, with the intention of creating full time positions for workers. This left the Ashgrove playground in a dangerous state, according to a news report in October 1939. The government quickly allocated funds to employ 30 men for four weeks to complete the work.[15]
\nIn early 1939 the old school building was moved back across Waterworks Road, to a new site (534 Waterworks Road) for the Crèche and Kindergarten Association’s first pre-school in Brisbane. By July 1939, the Ashgrove State School committee was seeking the construction of the second section of the brick building. This was delayed by the outbreak of World War II (WWII) two months later; the only construction at that time being the digging of slit trenches in the playground in January 1942.[16]
\nWhile there was an intention to complete the brick building at the end of WWII, the shortage of materials impeded the process.[17] Bricks were ordered from the Newmarket Brickworks [QHR 601357] in September 1945, but the brickworks site had been occupied by the army during the war and was yet to resume production. Instead, two additional temporary timber classrooms were added to the site in September 1945.[18] Overcrowding was occurring, with 120 new pupils enrolled in 1947.[19] The brick building was extended during early 1947 at a cost of £8871. It included an entrance hall, head-teachers room, two classrooms on the ground floor, teachers’ rooms and classrooms on the first floor, with a larger play area and a storeroom in the undercroft. The new male and female toilets and septic system, originally planned in 1945 were completed in 1947.[20]
\nBy February 1950, Ashgrove State School was in need of temporary classrooms following the initiation of the first prep classes, which generated an extra 90 enrolments.[21] The DPW’s post-war difficulties in procuring architects, tradesmen and building materials led to the use of temporary structures. The DPW imported 95 prefabricated school buildings, providing 106 classrooms, from Boulton and Paul Ltd of Norwich, England in 1951. They were erected at many schools across Queensland through to 1958. By 1996, there were 42 remaining buildings in Queensland. Nine of these were identified as having potential state significance in 2008. [22]
\nBoulton and Paul buildings were timber-framed and -clad, had a verandah as circulation, and a gable roof. Ideally, they were oriented so the verandah faced north and the classroom faced south but were also added as extensions to existing buildings regardless of orientation. They had prefabricated wall and ceiling panels, roof trusses and banks of awning windows. The buildings, erected on concrete piers placed at 8ft (2.4m) centres were generally highset, providing play space underneath, and included semi-enclosed stairs between the classrooms and ground level. The buildings had extensive areas of timber-framed awning windows which provided more glazing than had ever been used in Queensland classrooms; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed. Natural ventilation and lighting was abundant. The classrooms were 24ft x 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m), larger than most previous classrooms.[23]
\nThe Ashgrove State School’s Boulton and Paul building (Block B) was completed by 1953. It was extended during 1955-56 with two DPW designed classrooms on the western end of the building. The DPW design replicated the existing Boulton and Paul structure, although with higher window sills. The glass screening at the western end of the verandah was relocated to the western end of the extension at this time. In 1954, lavatory facilities were extended on the northern side of the ground floor of the eastern end of Block A. The one chain (20m) wide strip on the western edge of the campus was acquired by the Education Department in 1956.[24]
\nThe post-WWII period was a time of architectural experimentation. In this new era, educators considered the brick buildings of the 1930s too severe and unsuited to modern educational ideas. They demanded up-to-date, ‘flexible’ buildings of light construction using materials that were easy to clean. New designs were developed that borrowed from the successes of the Boulton and Paul buildings and included more and larger areas of glazing throughout, glazing-enclosed stairs, a floor truss system that eliminated the stumps of the understorey and created unencumbered play spaces, and larger classrooms. The next extension to the Ashgrove State School demonstrated this evolution in school design.[25]
\nIn 1957, plans for an extension to the brick school building were produced. Face bricks remained difficult to procure. This new wing, an amended, more modern version of the original 1935 plans, was constructed in a combination of brick, rendered brick and ribbed panels, with awning windows to the south, and was completed in 1959. It comprised three additional classrooms (20, 24 and 26 ft (6.10, 7.32 and 7.92 m) wide) to the first and second floors, and toilets and open play space to the understorey. The northern elevation did not fulfil the intended E-shape footprint of the original plans. Instead, a stairwell was constructed on the northwest corner of this extension, fully enclosed with glass and louvres. A northern verandah connected to the verandah of the earlier section, providing access to the stairs and classrooms, and was enclosed with metal-framed fixed glass.
\nOther changes occurred at the school from the 1950s. In 1954, the school began fundraising for a swimming pool; completed in 1957. In 1960, enrolments peaked at 820 pupils (797 in 2016). Sewerage was connected in 1963 and the toilets were rearranged. During the late 1960s a concrete block retaining wall was built in two sections between the playing field and the school grounds. The large fig tree on the southeastern corner of the grounds appears to have been planted in the early 1960s. A pre-school was built in 1973 and a dental clinic built in 1978. The 1947 male toilet block was substantially altered through its conversion to an art room in 1991.[26]
\nChanges were made to Block A during 1996-7 including: the replacement of folding partitions on the second floor with steel stud partitions, new windows enclosing the verandahs, the part-removal of verandah walls at the western end of the building, and the part-removal of verandah walls to the easternmost classrooms.[27]
\nIn 2002, the school grounds were extended, with the acquisition of a further 517m2 in the northwest corner of the grounds. Multi-purpose court 1 adjacent to the pool is the site of a tennis court built by the school committee in the late 1920s. While there are a number of shade trees planted throughout the school campus, none are considered to be of state heritage significance.[28]
\nAshgrove State School has commemorated its centenary with a publication in 1977 and its 125th anniversary with a subsequent book in 2002. [29]
\nIn 2018, the school continues to serve the Ashgrove community as it has since 1877; and from 1925 at its current site. In 2018, the school retains its Depression-era Brick School (1938, extended 1947 and 1959), the Boulton and Paul building (1953) and its DPW extension (1956), the playing field, levelled by relief workers, set in landscaped grounds. The school community continues its fundraising activities to support the school’s educational, social and facilities development as it has done for generations.
\n
Ashgrove State School (established in 1876) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of standard government-designs that were an architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds, assembly, play and sports areas.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building (1938) and the initial formation of the school playing field, are a result of the Queensland Government’s building and relief work programs during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression. Extensions made to the building in 1947 and 1959 comply with the intended original plan. The 1959 extension reflects a later educational philosophy and architectural style demonstrated in larger classroom size and increased natural light and ventilation.
\nThe Boulton & Paul Building (1953) demonstrates the introduction and adoption of imported prefabricated systems by the Queensland Government in response to acute building material shortages and population growth during the post-WWII period. The Department of Public Works-designed (DPW) extension (1956) demonstrates the influence of Boulton & Paul buildings on subsequent Department of Public Works school designs.
|Ashgrove State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of early to mid-20th century Queensland state schools. These include: teaching buildings constructed to standard designs by the Queensland Government Department of Public Works (DPW); and generous landscaped grounds, shade trees, assembly and play areas and sporting facilities. The school is a good, intact example of a suburban school complex, comprising a Depression-era Brick School Building and a Boulton & Paul Building, both with Department of Public Works-designed extensions.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building is an excellent, substantial, and intact example of its type, demonstrating the principal characteristics, which include: a handsome edifice standing at the front of the school; symmetrical two-storey form of classrooms and teachers rooms above an undercroft of open play spaces; a linear layout of the main floors with rooms accessed by corridors; loadbearing masonry construction; prominent central entrance bay, and high-quality design to provide superior educational environments that focus on abundant natural light and ventilation. It demonstrates the use of stylistic features of its era, which determined its roof form, joinery, and decorative treatment. Its 1959 western extension demonstrates a re-interpretation of the 1937 design to meet standards of the time.
\nThe Boulton & Paul Prefabricated Building (1953) is a good, intact example of this standard type. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics through: the expression of its modular prefabricated construction in the external cladding; its timber-framed, lightweight construction; one-storey, highset, gable-roofed form with open play space underneath; open verandah for circulation; classrooms (24’x24’), flat internal wall linings; and large banks of lowset timber-framed windows in opposing external classroom walls with their distinctive fall-prevention bar and window stays.
\nInfluenced by the Boulton & Paul type, the DPW-designed extension (1956) is a good, intact example of its standard type, demonstrating the principal characteristics including its: timber-framed, lightweight construction; one-storey, highset, gable-roofed form with open play space underneath; full-height timber verandah posts running from ground level to the eaves; open verandah for circulation; classrooms (24’x24’), flat internal wall linings; and large banks of timber-framed awning and double-hung windows in opposing external classroom walls.
|Through its conspicuous position at the front of the school, substantial size and height, materials, symmetry, elegant composition, restrained use of decoration, and fine craftsmanship, the Depression-era Brick School Building has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, by which the Department of Public Works sought to convey the concepts of progress and permanence.
\nThe building is also significant for its streetscape contribution. Framed by mature trees, it is an attractive and prominent feature of the area.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nAshgrove State School has a strong and ongoing association with the community. It was established in 1876 through the fundraising efforts of the local community, with generations of Ashgrove children taught at this school. Relocated in 1925 and the new grounds established through community support, the place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Ashgrove and is a prominent community focal point.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650059,"name":"Wynnum State High School","alternate_name":"Wynnum State High and Intermediate School | Wynnum High and Intermediate School | Wynnum High School","street_address":"Peel Street","suburb":"WYNNUM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-06-28","description":"Wynnum State High School occupies a large, 3.74ha site in Wynnum; a suburb approximately 15km east of Brisbane CBD. Originally facing Wynnum Memorial Park to the northwest, the site is bounded on other sides by a railway line (northeast), Peel Street (southeast) and Buderim Street (southwest). Primary access to the site is from Peel Street via a tree-lined Memorial Avenue (1919), which runs north through the centre of the site, past a playing field and to a Suburban Brick School Building (Block A, 1943). Block A, the oldest and most notable building within the school complex, faces northwest away from Peel Street and to Wynnum Memorial Park (although this visual connection is now somewhat obscured by later buildings). The grounds are well-established and include a former parade ground (c1953) and mature trees. Timber honour boards dating to the school’s opening year (1943) are featured in Block A.
\nSuburban Brick School Building (Block A; 1943)
\nBlock A is a highly-intact, long, narrow, masonry teaching building of two storeys, with an understorey. It is approximately rectangular in plan, with its long sides facing northwest (front) and southeast (rear), and has a terracotta tiled hip roof. A projecting portico in the centre of the front elevation frames the main entrance, and reinforces the symmetrical and balanced aesthetic of the building. The building is accessed via a central concrete stair with heavy, stucco balustrades.
\nThe building is elegantly composed with classical detailing. Constructed from load-bearing brick walls, it has stucco decorative elements to the first and second floors, and stucco walls and piers to the understorey scored to resemble ashlar coursing. The face brick walls of the first and second floors are relieved by darker face brick pilasters and stucco lintels, sills, string courses, and pilaster capitals and bases.
\nThe stucco portico has a pediment supported by tall square pillars and giant-order Ionic columns. Raised lettering on the entablature reads ‘WYNNUM HIGH AND INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL’ and the pediment features heavy stucco accents and dentil detailing. The front and rear elevations have regularly spaced banks of windows, separated into bays by pilasters. Two stairwell bays project from the rear elevation and have large pediments with stucco details.
\nThe interior layout is generally repeated on the first and second floors, with access between the three levels provided by a stairwell toward either end of the building. Primary circulation from these stairs and through the upper two floors is via a long corridor that runs along the northwest side of the building. Originally enclosed at the northeast end (for first floor domestic science storage rooms, and a second floor balance room), the corridors now extend the full length of the building, with the former enclosures generally identifiable through bulkheads and wall nibs. The northeast end wall of the corridor has also been cut through to allow access to a recent elevator. With the exception of the front entrance bay (containing a first floor foyer with flanking administration spaces, and a second floor classroom and teachers room), the classrooms and stairwells are on the southeast side of the corridor. A first floor classroom has a raised floor (designed for use as a stage) and is accessed via a separate small concrete stair with timber and metal balustrade, adjacent the southwest stairwell. Most classrooms and offices have timber-framed floors and the corridors have concrete floors.
\nThe understorey retains its long, enclosed classroom (former workshop) and adjacent store room at the northeast end of the building. The open play areas in the centre and at the southwest end have been enclosed for classrooms and stores. Most toilets (formerly adjacent to stairwells) have been removed, reconfigured or replaced with offices divided by recent lightweight partitions. The floors are concrete.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nGrounds and Landscape Features
\nThe school grounds are well established with a variety of mature trees. Of particular prominence is the Memorial Avenue (1919), comprised of mature hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii) to either side of an entrance drive. The Memorial Avenue runs from Peel Street into the school allotment. It has been shortened from its original configuration (the avenue formerly extended into the northeast side of the Memorial Park) and is now partially obscured by recent school buildings. Some mature trees survive disconnected from the original avenue (in Lot 378 RP226441 and in the adjacent park).
\nOther mature shade trees on the site include a fig tree (Ficus sp.) to the west of Block A, and a Weeping Fig (Ficus Benjamina), pine tree (Pinus sp.) and camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora) to the north of the Music and Science Block (Block I).
\nThe former Parade Ground (c1953) on the southeast side of Block A allows important views to be obtained of the building. It is an open space, defined by its bitumen surface, and has a low stone Retaining Wall (1955) along its southeast edge.
\nViews to, from, and between Block A, the Memorial Park and Buderim Street are of importance to the school’s prominence, planning and setting. In 2018, most of these views are obscured by recent school buildings, but a small view corridor west of Block A (to / from the Memorial Park and Buderim Street) has been retained.
\nFeatures not of State-level Heritage Significance
\nFeatures of Wynnum State High School not of state-level heritage significance include:
\n","history":"
Located approximately 15 km east of the Brisbane Central Business District (CBD), Wynnum State High School (SHS) was established in 1942 as Wynnum State High and Intermediate School. It retains a Suburban Brick School Building (Block A, 1943), set within landscaped grounds including a stone retaining wall (1955), mature trees, and a World War I (WWI) Memorial Avenue (1919). The school has a strong and ongoing association with its surrounding community.
\nOriginally part of the lands of the Turrbal people, non-indigenous settlement of the Wynnum-Manly district occurred in the 1860s when two sugar mills, Lota and Wyvernleigh, were established.[1] Agriculture became the principal occupation of the district, while the Wynnum foreshore became popular with holiday makers and holiday homes were constructed along the bay.[2]
\nThe site of the future Wynnum SHS was sold as the 98-acre (39.66ha) Portion 77, in 1864. Its subdivision into housing allotments quickly followed the construction of the Cleveland railway line, which reached Wynnum and Manly in 1888 (opened to Cleveland in November 1889) and provided a major impetus to closer settlement.[3] In 1889, local government for the area became centred on Wynnum when Kianawah Division was excised from Bulimba Division.[4] The district expanded rapidly over the next 20 years, leading to the establishment of the Town Council of Wynnum in 1913. The area became known as a seaside resort and the Wynnum and Manly foreshore area became increasingly popular with day visitors and holiday-makers. It was incorporated into Greater Brisbane in 1925.[5]
\nWynnum Memorial Park, originally a 21-acre (8.49ha) reserve located between Wynnum and Manly, was set aside for showgrounds in 1918. First known as Russell Park after the then mayor, Richard Russell, it was renamed Memorial Park when the memorial avenue, accessed from Peel Street, was planted in 1919. Sir Hamilton John Goold-Adams, Governor of Queensland, opened the Memorial Avenue and planted its first tree on 27 July 1919. ‘Some sixty trees were planted by…kin of fallen soldiers.’[6] The Wynnum Town Council purchased the park land in 1923, and the reserve was used as a showground, sportsground and recreation area for residents in the Wynnum-Manly area.[7]
\nPrimary schools were established in the growing district: at Wynnum North (1882), Wynnum Central (1896), Manly (1910), and Wynnum West (1922),[8] but Queensland governments were slow to establish state secondary education, considering post-primary education to be of little relevance to Queensland's primary industry-based economy. The Grammar Schools Act 1860 provided scholarships for high-achieving students to attend elite grammar schools, although few were awarded. It was not until 1912 that the government instituted a high school system, whereby separate high schools were established in major towns or, where the student population was too small, a primary school was expanded to include a 'high top'. High tops were an economical measure that provided essentially the same education while utilising already established facilities.[9]
\nIn Wynnum, a high top, called Wynnum SHS, operated at the Wynnum Central School between 1918 and 1921, drawing students from a wide catchment.[10] However, the high top closed in June 1921 due to insufficient enrolments, forcing students to travel to Brisbane State High School.[11]
\nCommunity advocacy for a high school in the Wynnum-Manly area continued. Land was purchased in 1929 for an intermediate school, for which a building was designed by 1933, but construction did not proceed. Finally, in March 1938 the Minister for Public Instruction (Frank A Cooper) announced an Intermediate School would be built at Wynnum as soon as a suitable site was obtained. It was to be followed by a high school.[12]
\nThe idea of creating an intermediate level of schooling emerged in Queensland during the late 1920s. This was intended to be a transition between primary and secondary schooling. Intermediate schools catered for years 6 and 7, and offered vocational subjects: manual training for boys and domestic science for girls.[13] The first intermediate schools were established within existing school facilities at Warwick, Charters Towers, Mount Morgan and South Brisbane from 1928. By 1937 there were 11 intermediate schools in Queensland, most were accommodated through re-use or remodeling of existing buildings.[14]
\nIn 1939, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) completed negotiations with the Brisbane City Council (BCC) to exchange Primrose Park for a portion of Wynnum Memorial Park as the site of the new school. One of the deciding factors in the choice of location was the memorial park’s proximity to the Manly Railway Station. For many years, the Memorial Park had been used by the Wynnum Horticultural and Industrial Society, but more recently had been used exclusively as a sports venue.[15]
\nBetween the announcement of the intermediate school in 1938 and its plans being drawn in April 1939, the government decided that both intermediate and high school functions would proceed together. The school would be Brisbane’s first suburban state high and intermediate school.[16]
\nAlthough not constructed as part of the Depression-era program, the Wynnum Intermediate and High School’s Suburban Brick School Building reflected the design influences of many of the buildings from that program. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open understorey and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings, being only one classroom deep and accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the understorey was used for covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions.[17]
\nBy the end of 1939, preparations were in place for the construction Wynnum State High and Intermediate School on a site of just over two acres (0.81ha), excised from the Wynnum Memorial Park, which included most of the memorial avenue.[18] The Wynnum High and Intermediate School building was to be sited at the east end of the Memorial Park.[19] The school’s narrow road frontage to Peel Street meant siting of the school building to address the street, which was feature of Suburban Brick School Buildings, was not feasible. Instead, the Wynnum building spanned the widest part of its allotment and faced the Memorial Park, enabling unobstructed views of the impressive, classically inspired building from the park, and vice versa.[20]
\nThe Department of Public Works (DPW) was responsible for the design of high school buildings from their introduction in 1912. The first high schools were established within existing technical colleges, utilising their buildings. Purpose-built high school buildings were constructed from 1917 and were large, elaborate buildings, which were variations of a standard design introduced in 1914, as well as vocational buildings built to standard designs.[21] Queensland high schools also included purpose-built science laboratories, domestic science buildings, workshops for woodwork and metal work, libraries, and gymnasiums.[22]
\nWynnum’s planned two-storey brick and concrete building, with understorey, had a colonnaded entrance portico forming a central feature and a Marseille tile roof, finished with a fleche. It was designed for 626 pupils. Within the building were 13 classrooms for general tuition, accommodating 516 pupils. In the understorey was accommodation for a manual training workshop for woodworking and sheet metal classes for approximately 20 pupils. The understorey also housed lavatories and store rooms, with the remainder utilised as play area. The first floor accommodated a domestic science section for approximately 20 pupils, with rooms for cooking, dressmaking and laundry work, plus a fitting room and small dining room. On the second floor were two rooms for commercial subjects, a science laboratory, balance room and a lecture room for approximately 70 pupils. The first and second floors also housed the Head Teachers room, two teachers rooms and four hat and cloak rooms. Folding partitions were fitted in first and second floor classrooms and a stage was included at the western end of the first floor.[23] The grounds around the building were excavated, levelled and graded as required, and necessary surface drains formed.[24]
\nOn 23 January 1941, the Minister for Public Works and Public Instruction (Henry Adam Bruce) announced that the government had approved expenditure for the erection of a High and Intermediate School at Wynnum by the DPW. By the end of June 1941, construction of the school building had commenced. The corner stone for the Wynnum SHS building was laid on 21 August 1941 by the Minister for Works and Education (H A Bruce), in the presence of William L Dart, MLA for the district. [25]
\nThe entry of Japan into World War II and the commencement of the Pacific theatre of war with its threat to Australia, meant construction projects in Brisbane, including Wynnum High and Intermediate School, were reviewed to determine whether they should proceed.[26] Work on the Wynnum High and Intermediate School did continue and in February 1942, the completion of the high school portion of the building was announced. Intending pupils were advised to enrol, although the Queensland Government had closed all coastal state schools in January 1942.[27] Most Queensland schools reopened on 2 March 1942.[28]
\nWhen high school pupils commenced at Wynnum SHS on 2 March 1942, the roof was under construction and there were a few usable first floor rooms, but none were completed. Water had been connected and the septic system installed, but there was no power. There was no equipment for classwork or recreation. Domestic Science or Manual Training students went to Wynnum Central State School for those subjects.[29] As at other Queensland state schools, slit trenches were dug to protect students from air raids. At Wynnum SHS, male pupils dug these trenches in the area occupied by the swimming pool in 2018. Air-raid drills were conducted and windows were taped.[30]
\nWork on the school building (Block A) was completed before intermediate school pupils joined the high school pupils at the Wynnum High and Intermediate School in 1943. The school was officially opened by the Minister for Education, Arthur Jones, on Saturday 17 July 1943.[31] A newspaper report of the event recorded: ‘The school has supplied a long felt want in the district, and has obviated pupils having to travel to Brisbane. It is probably one of the best situated schools in the State. [It is b]uilt on rising park land with a ready-made sports oval and grandstand...’[32]
\nCommunity involvement and school fund raising were important factors in the development of the school. Fancy Dress Balls became a popular annual event from their commencement in May 1945, while school fetes were regular and important fund-raising events for the school from 1950.
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools.[33] In 1947, the Wynnum State High and Intermediate School’s Parents and Citizens Committee (P&C) outlined its plans for improving the school grounds. These included: acquisition of more land including that occupied by the adjacent Commonwealth drill shed; the building of a parade ground; a retaining wall behind Block A to check erosion; creation of properly made roads within the school area; and the planting of 60 trees. Once the war-time slit trenches had been filled and levelled, with the assistance of a government subsidy, the immediate provision of tennis courts on that area became a priority and were completed in 1951.[34]
\nThe addition of land to the school grounds came to fruition in 1949 and 1950. In July 1949, 0.45ha adjoining the school along the railway alignment was added.[35] The school absorbed a further 1.68ha from the east end of the Wynnum Memorial Park in 1950 for its school sports oval. [36] The remainder of Wynnum Memorial Park, (5.63ha) continued as a reserve, providing play and sporting facilities for the local community and the school.[37]
\nWork on the school grounds was a priority throughout the 1950s. Serious consideration was given to the ‘treatment of the grounds in front of [Block A, which] calls for careful planning and consideration if the natural advantages of the setting are not to be lost. The main front of the school faces and overlooks the Memorial Park and it is considered that a lawn and garden treatment of this area of the grounds would still further improve the setting’.[38] Subsequently, a number of shade trees were planted and pergolas erected in front of Block A by the school’s P&C. The area to the east and south of the main building was bituminised c1953 for use as a parade ground. Erosion of the embankment formed behind Block A when the site was levelled for the school building, led to the construction of a stone pitched wall and a new set of concrete stairs in 1955. Approval for the school’s sports oval was given in May 1955 and it was reported that its formation was approaching completion in 1957, as was the part-stone facing of the bank to the oval. However, a year later the oval was still incomplete and students could not take part in organised sport.[39]
\nThe DPI was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education between the late 1940s and the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[40] At Wynnum High and Intermediate School, increased student numbers led to overcrowding and a shortage of classrooms. To alleviate this, the school used the Manly Drill Hall (located on Commonwealth land, southeast of Block A) from 1 August 1949 until 19 February 1951.[41] In the early 1950s, a two-storey timber block of classrooms was erected to the east of Block A, which was later designated Block B.[42] In December 1953, it was announced that four additional classrooms were to be built.[43]
\nThe school population continued to grow, reaching 1000 by the school’s 20th anniversary in 1962; however, the opening of a second high school for the bayside district at Wynnum North in 1964 eased the population pressure.[44]
\nFurther buildings were added to the site during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1960, there were three classroom buildings to the northeast of Block A.[45] During the 1962-63 financial year, a manual training building was added to the northeast of the site.[46] A senior science block was added during the 1966-67 financial year.[47] The school assembly hall, designed by Conrad and Gargett, was opened on 13 March 1971 by the Hon A M Hodges. It was located on the site of the drill hall, which had been purchased c1967, and cleared soon after April 1969.[48] During the 1970s, Block F was extended, and Block G was built, a Machine Annexe was completed and a Music and Science Block (Block I) erected. A new library was officially opened on 3 April 1976.[49] By July 1976, the school comprised the Suburban Brick School Building (Block A) and Blocks D-I, plus an assembly hall, and a modular machine annex. Blocks J, M and N and a school pool on the former tennis court site were subsequently added to the school grounds.
\nAlterations and repairs have been made to Block A since its completion. Repointing of brickwork took place in 1955. Repairs to the school’s front door, and to ceiling joists, wall plate, roof rafters and battens, cover strips and cornice, and fibro ceiling in the chemistry laboratory were undertaken after a fire in November 1958. [50] Alterations included: infilling under Block A to create an Oslo Lunch tuckshop in 1960,[51] conversion of a hat and bag room on the second floor into a staff room in 1964;[52] creation of a senior mistresses room on the first floor and a girls rest room on the second floor, to the north of the south staircase, in 1967.[53] In the same year, the roof fleche was removed because of dry rot.[54] Enclosure of the middle section of the understorey had occurred by the 1970s.[55]
\nBetween 1972 and 1992, the P&C focused on extensions to the school oval and cricket practice wickets, and solving drainage problems. Raising money for the construction of a half-size Olympic swimming pool and new basketball courts, and associated landscaping were the focus during the 1970s and 1980s, with funds raised through ‘walkathons’. [56] To celebrate the school’s 50th anniversary in 1992, a school history was written.[57]
\nOver time, the north extent of the Memorial Avenue has been disturbed and the views between Block A and the Wynnum Memorial Park have been diminished by the addition of buildings and landscape elements. By 1976, No 1 and No 2 buildings were sited over the north extent of the Memorial Avenue and a site plan for Wynnum SHS from 1998 showed a demountable and a multi-purpose shelter over that area. [58] In 2018, a single storey toilet block (Block C), a single-storey office building (Block J), and a two-storey multi-purpose building (Block M) disturb the north extent of the Memorial Avenue. Views between Block A and the Memorial Park are diminished by the location, size and form of Blocks C, I, J and M and mature trees.[59]
\nIn 2018, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains its Suburban Brick School Building, set in landscaped grounds with a Memorial Avenue, sporting facilities, assembly and playing areas, and mature shade trees. Wynnum SHS is important to the Wynnum-Manly district as a key social focus for the community, as generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
","criteria":"Wynnum State High School (established 1942 as Wynnum State High and Intermediate School) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains an excellent example of a government designed Suburban Brick School Building (1943), which was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies; set in landscaped grounds with the provision of assembly and play areas, sporting facilities and mature trees.
\nThe World War I (WWI) Memorial Avenue (1919) is important in demonstrating the community’s involvement in a major world event. War memorials are a tribute from the community to those who served, and those who died. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
|Wynnum State High School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school. The school comprises a Suburban Brick School Building constructed to a government design. This element is set within a generous, landscaped site that retains mature trees, assembly and sporting facilities including a playing field.
\nThe substantial Suburban Brick School Building is a good, intact example of its type and retains a high degree of integrity. The building demonstrates the principal characteristics of its type, including: its two- storey form, with an understorey; symmetrical, high-quality design that features classical detailing; loadbearing face brick construction; and hipped roof. The building has a linear layout, with rooms accessed by corridors; banks of south-facing windows in classrooms, providing light and ventilation; and an understorey formerly used as an open play space. Typical of this building type, the Suburban Brick School Building was located in a growing suburban area at the time of its construction.
|Through its elegant external and internal composition of formal and decorative elements, substantial size, face brick exterior and high quality materials, early timber joinery and decorative metal work, the intact Suburban Brick School Building at Wynnum State High School has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, by which the Department of Public Works (DPW) sought to convey the concepts of progress and permanence.
\nThe building’s assertive massing, classically-influenced and symmetrical design, elegant composition and impressive portico featuring giant-order columns contribute to its beautiful attributes. Standing in an open setting overlooking Wynnum Memorial Park and framed by mature trees, it is an attractive feature of the area. Views to and from the building are an important aspect of its aesthetic significance.
\nThe WWI Memorial Avenue of hoop pine trees (Araucaria cunninghamii), running from Peel Street through the grounds of Wynnum State High School to the Wynnum Memorial Park, is a landmark in the streetscapes of Peranga, Peel and Buderim Streets and visible from high ground in the vicinity.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nWynnum State High School has a strong and ongoing association with its large surrounding district. Established in 1942, generations of pupils have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of the community and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
\nThe Memorial Avenue has an enduring and special relationship with the community as a memorial since 1919 to those from the district who served in WWI.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650060,"name":"Ironside State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"378 Swann Road","suburb":"ST LUCIA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-07-27","description":"Ironside State School stands on an approximately triangular 1.8ha site in St Lucia, 4.5km southwest of Brisbane CBD. The site is bounded by Swann Road / Hawken Drive, the main thoroughfare of the area, which runs along the southwest (front) of the school. Central Avenue and Ironside Street are to the east and north, with a short boundary to residential properties on the northwest.
\nThe school buildings form a complex on the centre and highest part of the site around a landscaped central courtyard. The front building is a substantial Depression-era Brick School Building (Block A). It is the most prominent and impressive building on the site and can be viewed from many points in the surrounding neighbourhood.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nBlock A (1935-59)
\nBlock A is a long, H-shaped face brick building with painted concrete dressings and a multi-hipped roof clad with tiles. Its long sides face approximately north and south and it is symmetrical around a central entrance. It has a generous open space around the building on all sides to allow unimpeded natural light and ventilation to all interior rooms. It has two storeys of classrooms with an undercroft at the east end of the building. The undercroft walls are finished in stucco, scored to mimic ashlar coursing. Originally partially open, it has been fully enclosed to accommodate classrooms. The staged construction of the building in different periods is legible with slight variations in the brick pointing.
\nThe front (south) elevation features regular banks of timber-framed casement windows on both classroom levels. A short wide stair leads from the driveway to the main entrance, which is a projecting porch with an arched front doorway featuring the school crest and raised lettering ‘IRONSIDE STATE SCHOOL’ in stucco. A similar entrance is on the west side of the building but that on the east side has been replaced.
\nThe layout of the classroom levels comprises a series of classrooms on the southern side accessed by a long verandah on the north, terminating at a stairwell at either end of the building. The interior walls are plaster with beading at dado height. Classrooms have timber floors and the verandah floors and stairs are concrete, coved up to the walls. On the first floor, parts of the wall between classrooms and verandah have been demolished as have some partitions between classrooms, including timber folding partitions; however, cover strips and bulkheads indicate their location. Later partitions have been inserted on all levels.
\nFeatures of Block A also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of Block A not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFront Entrance Forecourt
\nThe open play area and vehicle driveway in front (south) of Block A forms an open forecourt to the building and an impressive setting to the elegant and formal architecture of Block A. This open space allows views to Block A from the main thoroughfare of Hawken Drive and Swann Road.
\nThis open space also has features of state-level cultural heritage including:
\nOther Features
\nAll other buildings, sports facilities such as the multi-purpose (former tennis) courts, structures, vegetation, and landscapes are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Ironside State School, established in 1870, (as Toowong Provisional School and later renamed Toowong State School, Indooroopilly State School, and Indooroopilly Pocket State School) is located in the Brisbane suburb of St Lucia, about 4.5km southwest of the central business district (CBD). It is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. The school retains a Depression-era Brick School Building (1935-59) designed by the Department of Public Works (DPW), with landscaped front entrance forecourt (1953-4) and mature trees (pre-1946, pre-1955). The school has a strong and ongoing association with its surrounding community.
\nOriginally part of the lands of the Turrbal people, non-indigenous settlement of the St Lucia area commenced in the 1850s. By 1859 the whole St Lucia-Taringa peninsula had been divided into 22 farm lots used for crop farming and cattle grazing.[1] In 1871 a sugar mill and refinery were established in St Lucia Pocket, with local farmers supplying cane.[2]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[3] The first attempts to provide schooling in the St Lucia locality were private initiatives dating from 1864.[4]
\nIronside State School opened as ‘Toowong Provisional School’ in a temporary building on
10 October 1870, with 42 pupils enrolled.[5] Provisional schools were introduced in 1869 for smaller communities that could guarantee a student population of 15 (later reduced to 12). Provisional schools were once very common and many state schools began as such, on the same or on a different site. These schools generally occupied temporary structures on non-government land. The Government supplied the teacher and school books, but did not fund building construction.[6]
In the same month that Toowong Provisional School opened, the Board of Education called tenders for a new timber schoolhouse and residence, designed by the architect Richard Suter.[7] Drawings show a one-room timber school house with a porch, constructed with external studding. [8] The Toowong Provisional School re-opened on 21 February 1871 on the site of the current Ironside State School, which had been provided by major landholder Thomas Murray Prior.[9] The buildings stood on cleared high ground at the southwest corner of the 0.92ha site, facing Swann Road, and the teachers residence stood behind (to its east). The community donated £86, with the expectation further funds would be raised to cover the £100 required by Government for establishment of the school.[10]
\nWith the opening of railway stations at Toowong, Taringa (West Milton), and Indooroopilly (Witton) in 1875, the surrounding district became more attractive for residential development. Toowong Provisional School was redesignated as ‘Toowong State School’ in 1875 due to the growth in its pupil numbers and by 1879 there were 146 students enrolled. The school was renamed ‘Indooroopilly State School’ in 1881, following the construction of a new primary school in Toowong in 1880 to meet demand in that area.[11]
\nDuring the 1880s, farms surrounding the school were subdivided in response to Brisbane’s population growth, but poor road access and no public transport made the land on the St Lucia peninsula uncompetitive and land sales were slow.[12]
\nDespite owner Murray Prior’s intention to donate the school’s land, and his attempts to do so, the school site was sold to architect Richard Gailey in 1884, as part of Portion 24 (38 acres/11.58ha).[13] Gailey transferred the school site, comprising 0.923ha, to the Secretary for Public Instruction in March 1884.[14]
\nThe school was renamed ‘Indooroopilly Pocket School’ in 1888 following the establishment of a new Indooroopilly State School on Moggill Road.[15]
\nBrisbane’s 1893 flood devastated the low-lying areas of the St Lucia peninsula, and the area remained a small semi-rural community for a further 50 years.[16] Nevertheless, pupil numbers at the school increased enough to warrant additions to the school building in 1895. Additions and repairs to the school were also made in 1908.[17]
\nTo reduce confusion with Indooroopilly State School, Indooroopilly Pocket State School was renamed ‘Ironside State School’ in 1905, which was the name of a neighbouring estate.[18]
\nIn the early 20th century there was strong demand for land as the population of Brisbane grew thirty-fold. The land around Ironside State School was subdivided for residential development in the early 1920s, boosting pupil numbers.[19]
\nThe school grounds were extended during the 1930s to provide space for new sporting facilities. In early 1934, a number of residential land parcels to the east of the original School Reserve were transferred to the Crown. This land was formally gazetted as an extension to the State School Reserve in June 1934, bringing the size of the school grounds to 1.51ha.The additional land was formed into the school’s playing field between 1936 and 1946.[20] The site of the district’s earlier private school (sub 3), located south of the state school was added to the school in 1937. It had been dedicated as a road (Portion 253) in 1927. The road closed in 1937 after its acquisition by the Crown. Land to the south of the road (Subs 894 and 895 of Portion 25) was also added.[21]
\nThe Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders and embarked on an ambitious and important building program to provide impetus to the economy.[22]
\nIn June 1932, the Forgan Smith Labor State Government came to power with a campaign advocating increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public works building program designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers and the purchase of local building materials.[23] The construction of substantial Brick School Buildings[24] in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government’s commitment to remedy the unemployment situation.[25]
\nDepression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical layout and a prominent central entry. Ideally, the classrooms would face south with the verandah or corridor on the north side, but almost all brick school buildings faced the primary boundary road, regardless of orientation. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions.[26]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School Building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles, which were derived from contemporary tastes and preferences, included: Arts and Crafts, typified by half-timbered gable-ends; Spanish Mission, with round-arched openings and decorative parapets; Art Deco, with monumental entrances, stylised and stepped decoration, and strong horizontal and vertical lines; and Neo-classical, with pilasters, columns and large triangular pediments. Over time, variations occurred in building size, aesthetic treatment, and climatic-responsive features.[27] Several of the brick schools were constructed in stages, balancing demand with the availability of resources; and some schools were never fully completed.
\nIronside State School’s Depression-era Brick School Building (Block A) was designed by Thomas Robert Gladwin, a Brisbane-born architect who had worked for the DPW from 1924 and was one of the team of architects designing interwar brick schools.[28] The building was constructed in four stages between 1935 and 1959, in response to population growth in the suburb as well as difficulties procuring materials, including bricks, in the years immediately after World War II (WWII).[29] The school was one of the more modest designs in the family of brick schools, although all the key features of the type were incorporated.
\nThe first stage of construction comprised the undercroft and part of the ground floor level including the front porch, one classroom to the west of the porch and three to the east.[30] The DPW Annual Report for 1935 noted:
\n‘This new building is being erected on the site of the old school. The work at present under construction has four classrooms and will provide accommodation for 168 pupils. Provision has been made for … two [additional] classrooms on the same floor …, which will increase the accommodation to 256 pupils. Provision has also been made for the addition of a second storey containing seven classrooms which will further increase the accommodation to 552 pupils.
\n‘The building is of brick … with a tile roof. Up to the ground level the brickwork is plastered and lined to imitate stonework and serve as a base to the face brick walls above. The section at present under construction has classrooms, teachers’ rooms, cloakroom entrance porch, hall and corridors on ground floor, and advantage has been taken of a sloping site to provide an enclosed and concreted play area under [a] portion of the building; here also a separate porch and hall with concrete stairs leading to ground floor have been provided.’[31]
\nThe original timber school was intended to remain as classroom accommodation after completion of the first stage of the 1930s school, but it was sold in 1936 and moved off-site.[32]
\nBlock A was opened on 16 November 1935 by Frank A Cooper, Minister for Public Instruction.[33] Located on high ground, facing Central Avenue, it had a standard linear plan of classrooms running east-west, symmetrically ordered either side of the central entrance hall, with a teacher’s room on each side of the hall.[34] The classrooms beyond the teachers’ rooms were 21ft (6.4m) wide with large banks of casement windows facing south and were accessed from an 8ft (2.4m) verandah to the north. The four central classrooms were in pairs, each room 19ft and 19ft 8¾in (5.79 x 6.01m) long, and separated by folding partitions. The classrooms at the ends of the building were 19ft x 24ft (5.79 x 7.32m). A cloakroom and staircase projected to the north at each end of the building.
\nConstruction was of brick and reinforced concrete, with cavity brick used on the walls exposed to the weather. Classroom floors were timber, spanning reinforced steel joists. The verandah floors, hallway floors and stairs were concrete, while the verandah balustrades on the north elevation were timber. The slope of the land accommodated a play area in the undercroft at the east end, with fixed windows and mesh screens on the south elevation. A spoon drain ran round the perimeter of the building.
\nBetween the late 1940s and the 1960s, the Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[35] Ironside State School’s pupil numbers rose after WWII due to these causes and the transfer of the University of Queensland to St Lucia in 1946, bringing its associated academic community.[36]
\nFurther post-war accommodation at Ironside State School was provided through additions to Block A and new buildings. Plans to complete the Block A building scheme were drawn in 1946. Two classrooms on the western end of the ground and first floors were completed in 1947.[37] Two further classrooms and a narrow teacher’s room were added to the central section of the first floor in 1948.[38] When the upper floor was added, terracotta tiled hoods supported on timber brackets were installed over the windows at ground floor level. In 1955, plans for the temporary enclosure of the Block A undercroft were drawn.[39] This included modifying the existing window sashes on the south elevation from fixed to opening. Another three classrooms were built on the eastern end of Block A, completing the first floor and the building scheme in 1959. All additions were in accordance with the original design concept. While Block A was being completed other classrooms were built to the north, however, these buildings have since been removed.
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. Trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days, which were celebrated in Queensland from 1890, instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary schools, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as playing fields and tennis courts.[40]
\nDevelopment of the grounds of Ironside State School followed the construction of Block A and the addition of land to the site. These works were primarily funded by the School Committee and later by the school’s Parents and Citizen’s Association (P&C); with subsidies from the State Government.
\nBetween 1936 and 1946, a playing field was formed on the land added to the site in 1934. In July 1939 labourers employed under a job-creation scheme were working on the school grounds.[41] In June 1940 a tennis court was opened on the western boundary, followed by a second tennis court to its north in 1951-52.[42] A basketball court was constructed in 1956 southeast of Block A and in 1958 the swimming pool was opened on the southeast corner of the site.[43]
\nPlans were drawn in October 1952 for landscaping of the site. The tree located southeast of Block A (Eucalyptus sp) in 2018, which appears in aerials of the site from 1946, was noted on this plan.[44] A tender for the construction of porphyry walls, concrete steps and paths, brick walling, decomposed granite paving, wire fencing and a driveway was advertised in 1953. This work, which included the current entrance driveway, and a brick retaining wall with garden bed that ran from southeast to northeast around Block A, was completed in 1954. Re-erection of the existing flagpole on a new concrete base occurred at this time. The current brick gateposts were in-situ by 1955. A bitumen assembly area to the south of Block A was formed in the second half of the 1950s, but no longer exists.[45] In 2018, a section of brick retaining wall and garden bed southeast of Block A, the flagpole, driveway and brick gateposts are extant.
\nAlterations to Block A have been made since its construction. In 1985 the play area in the undercroft was altered.[46] In 1996 the upper floor verandah was enclosed.[47] Doors from the landings at each end were upgraded for fire, and windows onto the landings were filled with glass blocks. Sunscreens were fixed on the north elevation under the eaves to shade the windows enclosing the verandah.[48] The undercroft was upgraded for an office, practice room and rehearsal room, including enclosing the north wall with louvres, removing internal timber partitions, casting new concrete floor slabs and altering doors and installing a new ceiling for fire protection.[49]
\nApart from Block A, all the current school buildings date from 1960 onwards.[50]
\nThroughout its history, Ironside State School has had a close association with the St Lucia and district community. Between the 1930s and 1950s, fancy dress balls and fetes were popular fundraisers, mainly for improvements to the school grounds. In later years, the P&C conducted fetes, dinners, and free dress days as fundraisers. [51] The school’s anniversaries have been marked with a diamond jubilee celebration and a published school history in 1930; a centenary history in 1970; and a further history publication in conjunction with celebrations for the 125th anniversary in 1995.[52]
\nIn 2018, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains its Depression-era Brick School Building (1935-59), with landscaped front entrance forecourt (1953-4) and mature Eucalyptus spp trees (pre-1946, 1950s). Ironside State School is important to St Lucia as a key social focus for the community. Generations of students have been taught there and many community events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
","criteria":"Ironside State School (established as Toowong Provisional School in 1870) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The school retains an excellent, representative example of a Department of Public Works (DPW)-designed Depression-era Brick School Building, which was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies during the interwar Depression; set in landscaped grounds with provision of assembly areas, sporting facilities and mature trees.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building (1935-59) is the result of the State Government’s building and relief work programmes during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression. Its completion in stages between 1947 and 1959 was in response to enormous population growth in the post-war years.
\nThe suburban site with mature trees, sporting facilities, and other landscaping features including front entrance forecourt with terracing, flagpole, entrance gates and gateposts demonstrates the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Ironside State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school built during the Depression-era. These include: a large, intact, brick school building, set within a landscaped site with mature shade trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities.
\nThe substantial Depression-era Brick School Building is a good example of its type and retains a high degree of integrity. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of Depression-era Brick Schools, including: its symmetrically arranged two-storey form, with an undercroft; high-quality design with ornamental features; face brick exterior; terracotta-tiled roof; and projecting central entrance bay. The building has a linear layout, with rooms accessed via verandahs.
|Through its elegant composition of formal and decorative elements, substantial size and face brick exterior, the Depression-era Brick School Building at Ironside State School has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, by which the DPW sought to convey the concepts of progress and permanence.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building is also significant for its streetscape contribution. Standing in a prominent location, with views to the building from Swann Road and Hawken Drive, it is an attractive and highly visible feature of the area.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nIronside State School has a strong and ongoing association with the St Lucia community. It was established in 1870 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of St Lucia and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650061,"name":"West End State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"24 Vulture Street","suburb":"WEST END","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-04-24","description":"West End State School occupies a 1.9ha site in West End, 1.2km southwest of Brisbane’s CBD. The school occupies an entire block and is bounded by Vulture Street to the south (to which it fronts), Jane Street to the north, Horan Street to the east, and Hardgrave Road to the west.
\nA substantial Depression-era Brick School Building (1936) stands to the front of the school grounds, facing the main entrance. It is conspicuous in the area due to its handsome architecture and substantial size. The school grounds have been levelled, with stone-pitched and concrete retaining walls on the boundaries. The school also has mature trees, a WWI memorial drinking fountain, and a large grass playing field.
\nDepression-era Brick School Building (1936)
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building is a symmetrical two-storey building, highset on a undercroft. It is ‘E’ shaped in plan with its long flank facing south to Vulture Street and its centre aligns with the main pedestrian entrance. It comprises an undercroft level of open playing spaces and toilets below two levels of teaching rooms and has a hipped roof clad with metal sheets. At the roof’s central peak is a prominent metal ventilation fleche with round cupola, visible from the surrounding neighbourhood.
\nThe building character expresses a composed simplicity through the use of attractive, simple, and low maintenance materials with minimal decorative features, including extensive use of face bricks contrasting with smooth-rendered concrete and plain, regular fenestration. The elevations use smooth-rendered masonry for the undercroft and face brick on the first and second floors, with rendered sills, lintels, capitals, and frieze. The face bricks are mid-red with white tuck pointing with prominent architectural elements in dark bricks with darker mortar. Throughout the building, the brickwork includes moulded bricks with rounded corners at body height. The building’s eaves are lined with sheets and battens. The building has timber floors in the classrooms (with large steel floor beams in the undercroft) and concrete floors in the circulation spaces and teachers rooms.
\nThe building form is a long wing with a short perpendicular wing at either end that projects north. These wings have been extended further north by one large room on each level. Providing access to the rooms, a long open verandah runs across the rear (north) and returns at the end wings, terminating at the extensions.
\nReached by a split, cement rendered stair with iron railings, the front elevation has a projecting central entrance portico with four double-height rendered concrete columns. These support a deep entablature and cornice with ‘WEST END STATE SCHOOL’ in raised letters. Large, regular banks of timber-framed casement windows with fanlights run the length of the front elevation. The windows of the first floor are sheltered by a continuous rendered hood with elaborate scrolled brackets. The main entry into the building is via a pair of tall timber-framed doors with bolection moulded panels and a glazed fanlight.
\nThe side elevations (east and west) of the original portion are blank except for timber-framed casement windows into the cloak rooms and stairwells. The rear elevation has a projecting central block accommodating teachers rooms and a stairwell with a tall, arch-headed window of fixed timber-framed panes.
\nThe sides and rear elevations of the end wing extensions (1974 – west, and 1984 – east) are complementary in character, materials, and composition, however, they do not mimic the detail of the earlier portion. Their roofs and eaves lines are continuous from the earlier portion, although the building bulk is slightly greater and they do not continue the open corridors. They have a rendered basement level and a face brick first and second floor and bays defined by double-height dark brick pilasters, similar to the earlier portion but they have aluminium-framed casement windows with fanlights sheltered by metal hoods. The open undercroft area of the 1984 extension has been partially enclosed with face brick to form a tuckshop (1992). The interiors of the 1974 and 1984 extensions are not of state level cultural heritage significance.
\nThe corridors on first and second floors have a concrete floor with coved edges and a spoon drain on the outer edge. The ceilings are lined with sheets and battens except for the central area, which is smooth-plastered with a moulded plaster cornice. The wall between the corridor and rooms has timber-framed two-leaf, panelled doors, timber-framed double-hung windows, and glazed awning fanlights. Some doors, windows, and fanlights have been replaced or closed over.
\nThe first and second floors comprise classrooms, teachers rooms, and former hat and cloak rooms that have been enclosed to form store rooms and further teachers rooms. The rooms have smooth-rendered walls with an inscribed skirting line in the teachers rooms and former cloak rooms and moulded timber skirting boards in the classrooms. The door and window openings are square-finished without architraves. Original and early brass door and window hardware is retained throughout. The ceilings are sheet-and-battens with a square timber cornice with those of the second floor retaining a central timber lattice ventilation panel.
\nThree stairwells provide vertical circulation and have fixed multi-paned windows; the windows in the eastern stair have been replaced with glass blocks. The stairs are concrete and have decorative iron balustrades with a moulded, clear-finished timber handrail. In the stair halls the perimeter of the concrete floor is coved to the wall and a small store room is located under the western stair.
\nOriginally open play spaces with toilets at both ends, the undercroft has been partitioned to form store and workshop rooms by chain link fences and brick and timber partitions – the introduced partitions are not of state level cultural heritage significance. The floor is concrete and the walls are rendered. Low-level timber seats are fixed to the walls. The original toilet spaces have been refitted (the introduced fixtures and fittings are not of state level cultural heritage significance), however, one small section of original timber partitions is retained in the western end male teachers toilet. All undercroft windows have been replaced with glass louvres, which are not of state level cultural heritage significance.
\nWWI Memorial Drinking Fountain (1930)
\nStanding on the ground at the front entrance of the school is a WWI memorial drinking fountain, aligned with the centre of the Depression-era Brick School Building. It is a round pedestal cast using white stone and black cement terrazzo. It does not have a faucet or drain cover and no longer flows. It bears two identical plaques with the inscription:
\nThis fountain was erected by the residents of Kurilpa in memory of those who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-1918 Unveiled 24.4.1930 by J.P. Fry Esq. M.L.A. for Kurilpa
\nOne plaque has been added to the fountain later, presumably from one of the two other fountains that were built at the time. It is identifiable by its more recent screws.
\nLandscape Features
\nA stone pitched retaining wall stands on the Vulture, Horan, and Jane street boundaries.
\nA cement rendered masonry stair with a wrought iron double gate and cement rendered pillars stands at the centre of the Vulture Street frontage of the school. It is the main pedestrian entrance and leads down into the front garden.
\nAn off-form concrete retaining wall (1947) stands on the school boundary, wrapping the Hardgrave Road and Vulture Street corner. A metal pipe and chain wire fence standing on top of the wall is not of state level cultural heritage significance.
\nA large grass playing field occupies the northern part (rear) of the site and is bordered by trees on the boundary of the school ground. The trees and field are a contrasting open green space in the closely-developed inner city surroundings. Early jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia) stand on the Jane Street boundary.
\nA mature fig tree (Ficus sp.) stands near the corner of Vulture Street and Hardgrave Road.
\nFeatures Not of State-level Cultural Heritage Significance
\nAll other buildings, structures, and landscape features including shade sails, pathways, and sheds within the cultural heritage boundary and floor coverings, air conditioning, verandah screens, fixtures, and fittings in Block A not previously mentioned are not of state level cultural heritage significance.
","history":"West End State School (established 1875), located in the inner Brisbane suburb of West End, about 1.2 kilometres southwest of the central business district (CBD), is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains a Depression-era Brick School Building (1936, extended 1976, 1984), set in landscaped grounds including a Memorial Fountain (1930), mature trees and perimeter retaining walls (pre-WWII, 1947). The school has a strong and ongoing association with its surrounding community.
\nTraditionally part of the land of the Turrbal and Jagera people, land in the vicinity of the West End State School site was sold by the colonial government as suburban allotments (of about 1-10 acres) from the 1840s. A map from 1844 shows the site of the West End State School designated as a cemetery. Subdivision of suburban allotments at West End into housing sites commenced in the early 1860s. The unused, five-acre cemetery site was converted to a reserve for a state school. [1]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. Schools became a community focus, with the school community contributing to their maintenance and development; a symbol of progress; and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents and teachers.[2] West End State School – comprising a brick school-house, accommodating the girls, boys, and infants schools – opened on 16 August 1875, with 236 pupils enrolled. The R G Suter-designed building was erected by F Chapman and cost approximately £1650.[3]
\nBy the 1880s further residential subdivision in the West End area had led to overcrowding in the school.[4] Tenders were called for a new timber State School for Boys in July 1884. This was built facing Hardgrave Road and was opened near the end of August 1885.[5] The original brick school building became the Girls and Infants School. A large fence constructed through the centre of the grounds separated the two schools.[6] A timber addition on the western side of the brick building (Girls and Infants School Building) was constructed in 1892.[7]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. In the 1870s, schools inspector William Boyd had been critical of tropical schools and amongst his recommendations stressed the importance of adding shade trees to playgrounds. Subsequently, Arbor Day was celebrated in Queensland from 1890. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.[8] At West End Boys, Girls and Infants School, 12 trees were planted by the boys on the first Arbor Day, held on 1 August 1890: four bamboo (unknown genus and species), three silky oak (Grevillea robusta), two Moreton Bay figs (Ficus macrophylla), and three Phytolacca. Within a year, four of the trees had perished. However, another 15 trees were planted in 1891 and further trees were planted in subsequent years.[9]
\nAlthough the 1893 floods affected all the shoreline around West End and slowed development in the area, both the suburban and the school population continued to rise leading up to the 1930s. West End became a popular residential area due to its close proximity to the Brisbane CBD, local employment, and transport options. Trains ran from South Brisbane (Melbourne Street) railway station, which was the terminus for all rail services on the south side of the Brisbane River, from 1884. An electric tram service along Vulture and Hardgrave Streets opened in 1898, placing most residents and workers within easy walking distance of a tram stop. This service was extended to the St Lucia ferry at the end of Hoogley Street in 1929.[10]
\nWest End State School continued to grow as the suburb developed. Circa 1924, timber teachers rooms were added to the verandah of the Girls and Infants Building, and an extension was added to eastern end of the building. Around the same time, the 1884 Boys School was extended to form an ‘L’ shape.[11]
\nIn 1930, three black terrazzo Memorial Drinking Fountains were presented by the Kurilpa Ladies’ War Memorial Committee to each of the three schools comprising the West End State School. The fountains were dedicated to the victims of World War I at a ceremony held on 24 April 1930 to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Anzac Day.[12] Two identical plaques on the only remaining fountain read: ‘this fountain was erected by the residents of Kurilpa in memory of those who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-1918. Unveiled 24.4.30 by J P Fry, Esq. M.L.A., Member for Kurilpa’.[13]
\nThe Great Depression, which commenced in 1929 and extended well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of public building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building program to provide impetus to the economy.
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work program administered by the Department of Public Works (DPW). This included painting and repairs to school buildings.[14] By mid-1930 men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme.[15] At West End State School, the school committee, with assistance from unemployment relief gangs organised by the DPW, converted the school grounds into ‘suitable sport areas’ over a two year period ending in March 1931.[16]
\nIn June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power with a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public building program designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state.[17] The construction of substantial Brick School Buildings in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government’s commitment to remedy the unemployment situation.[18]
\nOvercrowding at West End State School, where enrolments totalled 885 pupils by the early 1930s, led to a deputation of concerned parents meeting with the Minister for Public Instruction (F A Cooper) in November 1934. On 20 December 1934, the DPW announced that approval had been given for a ‘Rebuilding Scheme’ at the school.[19]
\nPlans for the Rebuilding Scheme were drawn in 1934-35. The DPW architects involved were Nigel L Thomas, William J Moulds and Gilbert R Beveridge (assistant architects).[20] The brick building contained 17 classrooms to accommodate 730 pupils. Allowance was made for future extensions to the east and west wings to ultimately accommodate 890 pupils. It comprised an undercroft (containing lavatory blocks and lay areas), a first floor (containing eight classrooms, cloakrooms, head teachers office and teachers room) and second floor (containing nine classrooms, cloakrooms and teachers room). Three classrooms on each floor had folding partitions which when opened formed assembly rooms. The floors of play areas, lavatory blocks, porches, corridors, cloakrooms, and internal and external stairs were of concrete. The building aligned with the Vulture Street frontage and replaced the 1875 brick building. Its preliminary cost was estimated at £16,030.[21]
\nDepression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type, exhibiting many common characteristics. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings, being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. Due to their long plan forms of multiple wings, they could be built in stages if necessary; resulting in some complete designs never being realised. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions.[22]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles, which were derived from contemporary tastes and fashions, included: Arts and Crafts, typified by half-timbered gable-ends; Spanish Mission, with round-arched openings and decorative parapets; and Neo-classical, with pilasters, columns and large triangular pediments. Over time, variations occurred in building size, decorative treatment, and climatic-responsive features.[23]
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building at West End State School (now called the Main Admin Building) was completed in 1936 and occupied on 30 June of that year by the amalgamated West End Girls and Boys Schools.[24] The building was officially opened on
28 November 1936 by the Minister for Public Instruction, F A Cooper.[25] The Telegraph newspaper reported the Depression-era Brick School Building had cost £20,410.[26]
In 1937, two of the school’s earlier buildings, located behind (north) of the Depression-era Brick School Building were renovated for £1600 for domestic science and manual arts training, which had not been offered on site previously.[27] The first Domestic Science and Manual Arts classes commenced in 1938.[28]
\nThe West End Infants School remained separate. It relocated to the old Boys’ School (1884 Timber Building) facing Hardgrave Road, after extensions and the addition, to the southeast corner, of the relocated (c1924) infants school extension. A new fence separated the Infants’ School from main school grounds.[29]
\nDuring World War II, the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended.[30] Slit trenches, to protect the students from Japanese air raids, were also dug at Queensland state schools, often by parents and staff. At West End State School, trenches were dug in the play grounds by parents, past pupils, wardens and United States soldiers.[31]
\nTypically, schools were a focus for civilian duty during wartime. At many schools, students and staff members grew produce and flowers for donation to local hospitals and organised fundraising and the donation of useful items to Australian soldiers on active service.[32] Air Raid Precautions (ARP) meetings were held at West End State School.[33] Like other Queensland schools and communities, West End State School students and the wider community fundraised and donated useful items to Australian soldiers on active service.[34]
\nUpgrading of the school grounds took place after World War II. Concrete retaining walls were built on the corner of Vulture Street and Hardgrave Road in 1947. The work included new chain-wire, timber-framed fence above the new retaining wall and along the boundaries of Hardgrave Road, Jane and Horan Streets. The pre-existing, angled, rock-faced, retaining walls to the Vulture, Horan and Jane Street frontages were retained, and the fencing along the remainder of the Vulture Street frontage was not changed at this time.[35]
\nAfter World War II, West End State School enrolments continued to grow and the multicultural nature of the school became established as the proportion of West End’s population born overseas increased. By 1950, West End had a substantial Greek population and became known as ‘Little Athens’.[36] West End’s overseas-born population numbered about a third in 1971. Greater ethnic diversity was apparent by 1981. Vietnamese migrants had taken up residence in West End and outnumbered Greek-born residents. Cypriots, Lebanese, Turks and Egyptians also had a strong presence, as well as residents from Britain, Ireland and New Zealand, and the indigenous population.[37]
\nAdditions were made to the Depression-era Brick School Building, comprising a western wing extension in 1976 and an east wing in 1983-4.[38] These additions complied with the intent of planned extensions to both ends of the building, as drawn in December 1934, but not the original floor plan. The proposed extensions were located north of stairwells at each end of the building.[39]
\nThe 1976 extension accommodated one large room on each level: a ‘general activity’ room on the undercroft level; a library on the first floor; and a music and movement room on the second floor. The plans were prepared by the DPW and varied from the original plans in several ways. The side verandah was not continued along the projection. Instead, the new rooms occupied the full width of the wing. The floor of the first floor room was higher than the original to allow a higher ceiling in the undercroft area, thereby requiring steps to access the first floor extension. These changes are reflected in the elevations, with sill heights and banding not matching the original. However, the extension matches the height of the original so that the roof profile is consistent. The extension is contemporary in style but complimentary to the original in form.[40]
\nIn 1983-84 the Depression-era Brick School Building was extended with a projection to the eastern end of the building, to plans prepared by the Department of Works in early 1983. This extension matched the earlier 1976 extension, including the change in floor level to the first floor and lack of continuation of the verandah, but was slightly larger. It also incorporated the same brick finishes and detailing, and was contemporary in style but complimentary to the original building in form. The first and second floors accommodated one large room each for ‘double teaching areas’. The undercroft of this extension remained open after completion, but a portion was designated as ‘Future Tuckshop’ on the plans. The tuckshop was completed in 1992 when the end bay of the open basement was enclosed with brickwork.[41] Further alterations to the Depression-era Brick School Building, as part of the ‘Building Better Schools’ program in 2000, included installation of kitchen areas.[42]
\nIn 1995, the West End Primary School and West End Infants School were amalgamated and the dividing fence between them removed.[43]
\nBetween 1988 and 1997, a masonry portico was added on the north side of the Depression-era Brick School Building, leading to the central staircase.[44]
\nIn 2018, as well as the Depression-era Brick School Building, the original, heavily modified, 1884 boys school building, with the 1924 girls school extension attached, remain on site. Modern buildings have also been added to the site. A school swimming pool, on the Hardgrave Road side of the school, opened in 1990, and the pool stadium was constructed in 2000. Only one fig tree (Ficus sp.) planted before World War II survives, located in the rainforest area in the southwest corner of the school grounds. Nearby is the remnant trunk of a large fig tree (Ficus sp.) planted in the school’s courtyard and mature well before World War II, which was felled by a storm in November 2014. Three trees of the same species, planted on the northern (playing field) boundary between 1946 and 1960, also remain (unidentified sp.).[45]
\nThroughout the school’s history, community and social events to fund-raise and celebrate milestones, have taken place at the school.[46] School anniversaries have been celebrated and fetes have been conducted throughout the school’s history. In 1951, the West End State School Diamond Jubilee fete and the unveiling of a memorial plaque took place in the school grounds.[47] The P&C Association continued to organise school fetes in the school grounds to raise funds for school amenities.[48] The school celebrated it centenary anniversary in 1975 and to commemorate its 125th anniversary in 2000, published the school’s history.[49]
\nIn 2018, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains its Depression-era Brick School Building, set in landscaped grounds with Memorial Fountain, retaining walls, sporting facilities, assembly and playing areas, and mature shade trees. West End State School is important to the West End district as a key social focus for the community, as generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
\n","criteria":"
West End State School (established in 1875) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland.
\nThe place retains an excellent example of a Depression-era Brick School Building, which was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies; set in landscaped grounds with assembly and play areas, sporting facilities and mature trees.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building (1936) and the creation of the school playing field are the result of the Queensland Government’s building and relief work programs during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
\nExtensions made to the 1936 building in 1976 and 1984 comply with the intention of the original building plan, but reflect later educational philosophies and architectural styles demonstrated in larger classroom size and increased natural light and ventilation.
\nThe World War I Memorial Fountain (1930) is important in demonstrating the school community’s involvement in a major world event. War memorials are a tribute from the community to those who served, and those who died. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
|West End State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school. These include: teaching buildings constructed to standard designs; and a generous, landscaped site, with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities. The school is a good, intact example of a suburban school complex, including a Depression-era Brick School Building with later extensions.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building and its extensions, designed by the Department of Public Works, is an excellent, substantial, and intact example of its type. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics, which include: a handsome edifice standing at the front of the school; symmetrical two-storey form of classrooms and teachers rooms above an undercroft of open play spaces; a linear layout of the main floors with rooms accessed by corridors; loadbearing masonry construction; prominent projecting central entrance bay, and high-quality design to provide superior educational environments that focus on abundant natural light and ventilation. It demonstrates the use of stylistic features of its era, which determined its roof form, joinery, and decorative treatment.
|Through its elegant composition of formal and decorative elements, substantial size and materials, the highly intact Depression-era Brick School Building at West End State School has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, by which the Department of Public Works sought to convey the concepts of progress and permanence.
\nThe building is also significant for its streetscape contribution. Framed by mature trees, the building’s assertive massing, classically-influenced design, and elegant composition contribute to its dignified presence as an attractive and prominent feature in the streetscape.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nWest End State School has a strong and ongoing association with the West End community. It was established in 1875 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of West End children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of West End and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650063,"name":"Mitchelton State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"47 Glen Retreat Road","suburb":"MITCHELTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-08-23","description":"Mitchelton State School occupies a 3.19ha site in Mitchelton, a suburb approximately 8.5km northwest of Brisbane CBD. The school is accessed via Glen Retreat Road to the southeast, and is bounded on other sides by Mimosa Street (northeast), Turnbull Street (northwest) and a creek (southwest). The school retains a complex of five highset buildings with a highset Administration Bridging Wing, located at the south end of the site and connected by covered walkways. The grounds are well-established and include a northern playing field and northeastern tennis courts.
\nThe features of state-level cultural heritage significance within the school complex are:
\nThe site planning is typical of Queensland schools from the 1950s; with the long, narrow buildings linked by covered walkways and surrounded by open-ended courtyard play spaces. Blocks A (south), B (central) and C (north) are arranged in a staggered, parallel formation, orientated slightly east of north with north-facing verandahs. Blocks D and E (orientated further toward the east, with northeast-facing verandahs) are connected to the western ends of Blocks B and C, and are in parallel alignment.
\nBlock B (1952), Block C (1952, extended 1954), Block D (1958, extended 1959) and Block E (1957): Highset Timber School Buildings with semi-enclosed stairs
\nBlocks B, C, D and E are long, highset, timber-framed teaching buildings with gable roofs. The buildings have north-facing verandahs (Blocks D and E orientated further east than Blocks B and C), accessing southern classrooms. Stairs at the east and west ends of the verandahs (except the west end of Block D, which was relocated and replaced with a smaller stair with the 1958 extension) are semi-enclosed with timber-framed screens and fixed windows.
\nThe interior layouts of the buildings are as follows:
\nThe understoreys are used as play space. The layout of their enclosures are as follows:
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance within Block B, C, D and E include:
\nAdministration Bridging Wing (1952)
\nThe Administration Bridging Wing is a highset, timber-framed office building with a skillion roof. A central walkway provides access to the offices and connects Blocks B and C. The southeast end is the earliest and most significant section, comprising two office spaces (formerly three), with an entryway and toilet.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance within Block A include:
\nBlock A: Boulton & Paul (1953, extended 1954); with DPW extension (1954)
\nBlock A is a long, timber-framed, prefabricated teaching building with a gable roof and long sides facing north and south. Standing on piers, the building is almost level with the ground on the north side, but is highset to the south (due to the sloping terrain). A northern verandah accesses a series of southern classrooms, and a single room (former library, 1954) extends north from its west end.
\nThe west end of the building, comprising four classrooms, a break-out space and store room (formerly five classrooms and a hat room – the west classroom is an early addition), is of a prefabricated Boulton and Paul design. The east end, comprising two classrooms and a break-out space (formerly three classrooms) is of a similar DPW design. The easternmost classroom (1971) is a later addition. Some partitions have been removed to reconfigure classroom sizes.
\nThe gable-end walls extend to the understorey, and an early eastern enclosure forms an art room. A timber screen (1961) along the north length of the building, shields a rock-face.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state-level heritage significance within Block A include:
\nCovered Walkways
\nRaised, covered walkways connect the verandahs of Blocks B and D; and Blocks C and E. They have timber floors, corrugated metal-clad skillion roofs, balustrades of metal pipe and chain wire, and V-shaped circular metal posts.
\nA ground-level covered walkway extending between Blocks A and B has a corrugated metal-clad skillion roof and timber posts.
\nCourtyards
\nOpen courtyards between Blocks A and B, B and C, and D and E, are characteristic of the 1950s planning. They are used as open play-space.
\nRecent artificial turf, stone seating, concrete-edged planters, concrete slabs, basketball goal posts, and a timber school sign within these spaces are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nLandscape Features
\nThe school grounds are well-established, with sporting facilities including a large playing field at the northern end of the site.
\nMature leopard trees (Libidibia ferrea) and a fig tree (Ficus sp.) stand either side of the Glen Retreat Road entrance. An additional mature leopard tree is between the playing field and Mimosa Street.
\nFeatures not of State-level Cultural Heritage Significance
\nFeatures of Mitchelton State School not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nMitchelton State School opened in 1916 as Groveley State School. Located approximately
8.5km northwest from the Brisbane CBD, the school (Years 3-8) moved to its current site in 1952, while the infants school (Years 1-2) remained at the former site until 1986. The school comprises an early 1950s master-planned school site with asymmetrical placement of buildings. Six buildings from the original planning scheme remain: a Boulton & Paul Prefabricated Timber Building – Block A (1953, extended 1954, and 1970); Highset Timber School Buildings with semi-enclosed stair – Blocks B (1952), C (1952, extended c1954), D (1958, extended 1959) and E (1957); a timber Administration Bridging Wing (1952, extended 1970) connecting Blocks B and C; and connecting walkways between buildings. The buildings are set in landscaped grounds with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Mitchelton community.
Originally part of the lands of the Turrbal people, the future site of Mitchelton State School was sold by the Queensland Government in May 1864.[1] A farming community developed in the Mitchelton-Keperra area, which featured vineyards and wineries.[2]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[3] Groveley State School, established for the children of the surrounding farming community, opened on 9 October 1916 on a 2-acre (0.81ha) site purchased from Sarah Jane Keylar and located on Samford Road, north of the current school site.[4]
\nAlthough intended for transportation of dairy and farm produce, the opening of the railway line extension linking Gaythorne to Mitchelton (on the Dayboro branch railway line, now Ferny Grove line) on 2 March 1918, stimulated subdivision of farming land for housing.[5] The first of these interwar housing estates, on sale from May 1918, was stage one of the Groveley Lodge Estate, adjacent to the Groveley State School.[6]
\nGroveley State School was renamed Mitchelton State School in 1923.[7] The population of the school grew due to housing development in Mitchelton, and a larger school site became necessary. In 1935 the Department of Education resumed about 6.5 acres (2.63ha) south of the school, for this purpose. This land on Glen Retreat Road was reserved as R1426 in 1937.[8] Plans were prepared for the new school site, however, it did not move until 15 years later.[9]
\nThe outbreak of war in the Pacific region in December 1941 affected Queensland schools. The Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended.[10] Typically, schools were a focus for civilian duty during wartime. At many schools, students and staff members grew produce and flowers for donation to local hospitals and organised fundraising and the donation of useful items to Australian soldiers on active service.[11] This was the case at Mitchelton State School.[12]
\nAfter World War II, the Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[13] The overriding concern for the Department of Public Instruction, faced with overcrowding and a lack of resources, was the need to build school buildings as expeditiously and economically as possible.[14]
\nThe population of Mitchelton and its adjacent suburb, Keperra, doubled between 1947 and 1954 and this was reflected in the growth of Mitchelton State School’s enrolments.[15] Pupil numbers increased from 331 in 1939 to 657 in October 1950. Temporary classrooms were added in 1947 and 1949, but overcrowding continued.[16] The community requested that work on the new school for Mitchelton commence and in 1951, the Department of Public Works announced it would build six classrooms on the new Mitchelton State School site.[17]
\nPost-war, the Department of Public Instruction focused on more appropriate siting of new schools within their neighbourhoods, as well as site planning for expansion and ideal solar orientation. In the early 1950s, Department of Public Works (DPW) architects developed master planning concepts that influenced the design and layout of the whole school. Initially, these plans were broadly based on regular and symmetrical plan forms around a central or prominent axis.[18] Educationalists argued that the ideal orientation of classroom buildings was 10 degrees east of north, with verandahs protecting the northern side and classrooms facing south. This led to the construction of school buildings that were oriented in relation to the sun rather than the site boundaries.[19] The original positioning of Mitchelton State School’s buildings, with three parallel connected wings orientated this way to the sun, are evidence of these planning considerations.[20]
\nThe DPW introduced and developed new standard plans for school buildings from 1950. These buildings were high-set timber framed structures with the understorey used as covered play space. Introduced in 1950, the principal type, the Highset Timber School Building with semi-enclosed stair, was a long and narrow building with a gable roof. The stair connected the understorey to a north-facing verandah running the length of the building. Classrooms opened off the verandah and had extensive areas of windows; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed, allowing abundant natural light and ventilation. This building type was the most commonly constructed in the 1950s in Queensland.[21] Plans for the first buildings of the new Mitchelton State School – Blocks B and C (both of this type) and a Administration Bridging Wing – were drawn in September and October 1951 and built in time for commencement of the 1952 school year.[22]
\nBlock B had a north-facing verandah and classrooms on the upper level, with open space on the ground level providing a covered play area for students. The southern side had large areas of casement windows with fanlights, while the northern verandah wall had double doors with glazed panels and double-hung windows with fanlights. The classrooms were 21ft wide (6.4m) and separated by timber partitions, some with large folding doors to combine classrooms and some with central double doors. The partition layout incorporated narrow hat rooms between classrooms. The building was supported on timber stumps with short timber bracing walls. The ground floor was only partially concreted and there was a lavatory at the western end. The verandah stair at the western end was partially enclosed with glazing. Verandah balustrades were timber rails.[23]
\nBuilt to the north and parallel to Block B, Block C was almost a duplicate of Block B but with variations to the verandah stair at the western end and it lacked the eastern-most classroom.[24]
\nThe Administration Bridging Wing, comprising a raised and covered walkway, linked Blocks B and C at their western ends. It was enclosed along most of its western side and had high-level windows. Opening off the eastern side were the Head Teacher’s office, medical inspection room, female staff room, and toilet. The Head Teacher’s office opened through double doors onto a small, east-facing balcony. Contemporary drawings of the buildings show a flagpole near this balcony and the area between the buildings labelled “ASSEMBLY AREA”.[25]
\nOn 29 January 1952, the Year 3-8 students commenced the school year at the new 3.2ha site, while the renamed Mitchelton State Infant School (Years 1-2) remained at the previous school site.[26] The cost of building the new school was £22,580.[27]
\nResponding to materials shortages and the enrolment pressures of the baby boom, the Department of Public Works proceeded in 1953 with the proposed future wing (Block A) shown on the original plans, which was sited to the south of Block B and connected by a covered walkway. Comprising three classrooms, this wing was a pre-fabricated building system imported from British manufacturers Boulton & Paul Ltd of Norwich. These buildings were erected at many schools across Queensland between 1951 and 1958.[28]
\nBoulton & Paul buildings were timber-framed and -clad, had verandahs for circulation, and a gable roofs. Ideally, they were oriented so the verandah faced north and the classrooms faced south, but they were also added as extensions to existing buildings regardless of orientation. The building could be high or low-set and had extensive areas of timber framed awning windows, providing more glazing than had ever been used in Queensland classrooms. Almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed. Natural ventilation and lighting was abundant. The classroom size of 24ft x 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m) was larger than most previous classrooms.[29]
\nMitchelton State School’s Boulton & Paul building was extended in 1954 by three DPW-designed classrooms to its east and one Boulton & Paul classroom to its west. North of the western classroom, an extension was built for use as a library.[30] Block C was extended by one classroom to its east by 1954.[31]
\nAnother Highset Timber School building with enclosed stair, Block E, was constructed in 1957, to the west of Block C, to which it was connected by a short, raised walkway. The building faced more to the east than previous buildings. It had a northern verandah on the upper level, was clad with chamfer boards, and had a gable roof. Two of its classrooms, which were 21ft (6.4m) wide, were separated from each other by large folding doors. The verandah had a balustrade of bag and hat racks, and the stair at the eastern end was enclosed by a glazed screen. The walkway between the buildings was steel-framed with v-shaped columns, fabricated from steel pipe, and wire mesh balustrades. Underneath was open play space for pupils.[32]
\nSimilarly, Block D, also a highset, timber building, was built to the west of Block B, to which it was connected by a raised walkway. Parallel to Block E, it was clad with chamfer boards, and had a gable roof. The building was mostly enclosed around the perimeter underneath for students’ play space and had a northern verandah and classrooms on the upper level. The southern side had large areas of hopper windows and the northern verandah wall had double doors and double-hung windows with fanlights. The verandah had a balustrade of bag and hat racks and the stairs were partially enclosed with glazed panels. The classrooms, which were 21ft (6.4m) wide, were divided from each other by a timber partition which had a connecting door at the southern end.[33] A western extension to Block D, of two classrooms, was completed by September 1959.[34]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools.[35] For planting on Arbor Day in May 1957, the Head Teacher, William Grant, ordered four Weeping Figs, three purple Bauhinia (Bauhinia purpurea) and two Leopard Trees (Libidibia ferrea).[36] In 1960, aerial photography showed evidence of a planting scheme on the Mitchelton State School site, along the Mimosa Street and Glen Retreat Road boundaries, as well as the retention of mature trees northeast of Block C. The school playing field and two tennis courts were formed by May 1958. The swimming pool and associated dressing shed were erected by 1964.[37]
\nIn the 1970s, plans for a number of alterations to the 1950s buildings were drawn; the resultant changes are not considered to be of state heritage significance. An extension to Block A, comprising one classroom on its eastern end, was constructed after September 1970 and completed by May 1971.[38] An extension to Block D to its east, along its connecting walkway, was drawn for a female staff room.[39] Plans were also drawn for alterations to partitions, and door and window locations in the Administration Bridging Wing.[40] In 1973, the Administration Bridging Wing was extended to the west of its corridor to provide accommodation for administration, with removal of a partition installed in 1970.[41] Plans for an addition to the administration area between Blocks C and B were drawn in August 1974.[42] In 1975, the Administration Bridging Wing was further altered to extend an office to the northwest side for the Senior and Infant Mistresses.[43] In 1976 Block D was extended for a tea room and the Administration Bridging Wing was altered, with an extension to the sick room to the east and the Health Services room to the west.[44]
\nThe 1970s also brought additional buildings to the site. A two-storey classroom block (Block F, south of Block D) and an Administration Block (adjacent to Glen Retreat Road) were constructed by 1975.[45] These are not considered to be of state heritage significance.
\nIn 1986, Mitchelton State School and Mitchelton Infants School were combined on the present state school site.[46]
\nIn 1998, alterations were made to Blocks B and A. Demolition of internal partitions, removal of glazing and construction of two partitions in new positions, with concertina doors, took place in Block B. In Block A, there was demolition of internal partitions and the verandah wall of the 1970s classroom and enclosure of that classroom’s verandah, removal and replacement of doors, and removal of glazing.[47]
\nMitchelton State School became one of Queensland’s first Independent Public Schools in November 2013.[48] In 2016 it celebrated its centenary anniversary, by publishing a history of the school, and bringing together staff, students, parents and community members who contributed to Mitchelton State School during its first century.[49]
\nIn 2018, the school continues to operate from its 1950s site. It retains a Boulton & Paul Prefabricated Timber Building with additions; four Highset Timber School Buildings with semi-enclosed stairs; a timber Administration Bridging Wing; and connecting walkways, set in landscaped grounds with assembly and play areas, sporting facilities, retaining walls and mature shade trees from the 1950s planting scheme. Mitchelton State School is important to Mitchelton, as a key social focus for the community, as generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
","criteria":"Mitchelton State School (established 1916; on its current site from 1952) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with provision of assembly and play areas, sporting facilities and mature trees.
\nThe layout of the administration and classroom blocks, the covered links between them and associated open spaces, reflect the early 1950s introduction of master planning, which provided for ordered growth from a nucleus.
\nThe Boulton & Paul Building (1953, extended 1954) demonstrates the introduction and adoption of imported prefabricated systems by the Queensland Government in response to acute building material shortages and population growth in the post-World War II period.
\nThe Highset Timber School Buildings with semi-enclosed stair (1952-59) with Administration Bridging Wing (1952) demonstrate the evolution of Department of Public Works designs during the 1950s, based on features of the Boulton & Paul buildings.
|Mitchelton State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school of the 1950s. These include its 1950s site planning; range of highset timber-framed buildings of standard designs; and a generous, landscaped site with shade trees, and assembly and sports areas.
\nThe site planning is intact and important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of 1950s Queensland state school master planning, which provided for ordered growth from a nucleus. The five 1950s buildings at Mitchelton State School contribute to the concept of long, narrow buildings arranged in a staggered, parallel formation fanning out from an administration wing; linked by covered walkways around open-ended courtyard assembly and play spaces.
\nThe highset timber teaching buildings (Blocks B, C, D and E, 1952-59) are good, intact examples of Highset Timber Teaching Buildings with semi-enclosed stairs, and retain their: highset character with covered play space under; timber-framed, lightweight construction; gable roofs; north-facing verandahs for circulation; large banks of south-facing timber-framed casement and awning windows, with fanlights; 24ft (7.3m) wide classrooms; and stairwells semi-enclosed with timber frames and fixed windows.
\nThe Boulton & Paul Building (Block A, 1953-54) is a good, intact example of this standard type. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics through its: expression of the modular, prefabricated construction in external cladding; timber-framed, lightweight construction; highset, gable-roofed form with play space underneath; northern verandah for circulation; 24ft (7.3m) wide classrooms, flat internal wall linings; and large banks of timber-framed awning and double-hung windows with fall-prevention safety rails and window stays.
\nInfluenced by the Boulton & Paul type, the DPW-designed extension (1954) is a good, intact example of its standard type, demonstrating the principal characteristics including its: timber-framed, lightweight construction; highset, gable-roofed form with play space underneath; northern verandah for circulation; 24ft (7.3m) wide classrooms, flat internal wall linings; and large banks of timber-framed awning and double-hung windows to classrooms.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nMitchelton State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Mitchelton community. Established nearby in 1916 and relocated to its current site in 1952, generations of Mitchelton students have been taught at the school. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Mitchelton and as a focus for the community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650067,"name":"Wavell State High School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Telopia Avenue","suburb":"WAVELL HEIGHTS","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-07-27","description":"Wavell State High School occupies an 8.72ha site in Wavell Heights, 7.8km north of the Brisbane CBD. The large site is on a high ridge, which slopes gently south. The complex of buildings stand at the northern end and highest part of the site, with a large playing field occupying the lower, southern half.
\nThe school is well-integrated into the planned layout of the suburb, which is primarily residential. There is a strong relationship between the school entrances and the scale of the streets with quiet streets favoured for access. Telopia Avenue, a minor residential street, rises to terminate at the school on the centre of its north boundary and forms the main entrance. Other minor residential streets terminate at the east and west boundaries of the school, forming secondary entrances. There are no formal entrances on the southern boundary, Edinburgh Castle Road, a busy main thoroughfare.
\nFeatures of state level cultural heritage significance are:
\nLayout and Courtyards
\nThe school layout is highly intact. The axis of Telopia Avenue is carried through the school site and the early buildings and open spaces between them, circulation paths, and the playing field are arranged symmetrically around or with regard to the axis. Later buildings do not follow this pattern but do not encroach on the original layout.
\nA wide pedestrian path leads from Telopia Avenue to the centre of Block A, along the axis of the site. It passes under a two-storey concrete covered link that bears ‘WAVELL STATE HIGH SCHOOL’ in large raised letters. Block A accommodates administration and is on the centre of the axis in the middle of the group. Fanning out from Block A and connected to it by two-storey covered links are classroom buildings: Block C, D, and E on the east side, and Block F, G, H, and J on the west side.
\nThe buildings are long and narrow with long sides facing approximately north and south. They are positioned to form wedge-shaped courtyards between them, which accommodate lunch areas and space for student activity. The open spaces are of state-level cultural heritage significance, however, the trees, vegetation, garden beds, paved areas, and small shelters, are not.
\nThe buildings are two-storey except Block J, which has a partial third level understorey due to the fall in the land. They are timber and loadbearing brick structures with gable roofs clad with corrugated metal sheets. Generally, verandahs run along the north side, connecting to stairs and covered links, and a series of classrooms and ancillary school rooms are on the south side. Both long sides are extensively glazed with operable windows and fanlights to permit high levels of natural light and ventilation. The buildings are divided into regular, repeated structural bays defined by face brick piers that extend across both levels on the southern side. The short, gable ends of the buildings have face brick extending across both levels.
\nElements of Block A, C, D, E, F, G, H, and J of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nElements of Block A, C, D, E, F, G, H, and J not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nBlock A (1960)
\nBlock A accommodates administration use and is the ‘front door’ of the school. A wide open-air foyer with a concrete stair up to the first level has been enclosed with glazing, as has the first level verandah. The verandah walls have been demolished on both levels and replaced in the same position with new walls with different window and door configurations. The southern wall on the ground level has been mostly demolished but that of the first floor has been mostly retained, although the glazing has been replaced or removed.
\nThe large rooms of the ground floor have had lightweight partitions inserted to create small ancillary rooms. The partitions of the first floor have been demolished and new lightweight partitions inserted to a new layout. Original staff toilets are at either end of the building on the first level.
\nElements particular to Block A also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nElements particular to Block A not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nBlock C (1960) and Block H (1960)
\nBlock C and Block H are approximately mirror images of each other standing either side of the central axis.
\nThey are long classroom buildings high set on concrete piers that support steel open-web trusses of the first floor.
\nThe eastern half of Block C is not original, having been built to replace the original demolished due to subsidence, and is not of state-level cultural heritage significance. This replacement is similar to the original but is slightly longer and has a different arrangement of spaces on both levels, however, it follows the general footprint of the original.
\nThe ground and first floor layouts of Block C are not intact, with original partitions demolished and new partitions inserted, the open play area of the ground floor has been enclosed, the verandah has been enclosed for most of its length, and the verandah wall has been demolished to enlarge the classroom. Doors are not original. The southern elevation retains original timber-framed fixed glazing, panels of sheet material, and metal-framed glass louvres fanlights. Some windows have been replaced.
\nThe original open play area of the ground floor of Block H has been enclosed to form further classrooms and the original classroom has had its partitions demolished. The layout of the first floor is mostly intact, although an opening has been made in a partition to combine two classrooms and a partition has been inserted into a classroom at the eastern end of the building. The interiors of both levels have been relined on walls and ceilings with flat sheet material.
\nElements particular to Block H and the original portion of Block C also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nBlock D (1960) and Block G (1960)
\nBlock D and Block G are approximately mirror images of each other standing either side of the central axis.
\nThey are long, high set classroom buildings accommodating large ablution blocks (showers, toilets, and changerooms), and former open play areas (now enclosed for classroom spaces. The first floor accommodates a series of classrooms and ancillary teaching spaces. Supporting the timber-framed first floor, the ground floor has concrete piers with steel open-web trusses (over the former open play area), and loadbearing brick walls, steel open web trusses, and steel posts (ablutions block).
\nThe eastern (Block D) and western (Block G) gable end elevations have original small unglazed window openings.
\nThe layouts of both ablutions blocks are intact, retaining original timber-framed cubicle partitions and doors and masonry partitions. Expressive, glass-enclosed stairs at the ends of the buildings provide access to the first floor. An original enclosed stair on the western end of Block G has been demolished and replaced by a steel-framed two-storey covered link.
\nThe first floor verandah walls are clad with narrow chamferboards and the verandah balustrades are bagracks. Some windows have been replaced to a different design. The first floor doors into classrooms of Block D have been replaced with doors to a different design but those of Block G have been retained.
\nThe first floor layout of Block D has had alterations to the classroom partitions to create larger classrooms but that of Block G is highly-intact.
\nIn both buildings, the interiors of both levels have been relined on walls and ceilings with flat sheet material.
\nElements particular to Block D and Block G also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nElements particular to Block D and Block G not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nBlock E (by 1966) and Block F (by 1966)
\nBlock E and Block F are approximately mirror images of each other standing either side of the central axis and are both highly-intact, long, high set classroom buildings. The ground and first floors accommodate classrooms, store rooms, a janitors’ room (originally a locker room, Block E), an open play area (Block F), and staffrooms. Standing on ground floor concrete slabs, they have steel portal frames supporting timber-framed first floors. The portal frames have tapered beams supporting cantilevered verandahs. Expressive, glass-enclosed stairs project north from the verandahs at either ends of the buildings, providing access to the first floors. The stairs stand in low garden beds. The original concrete garden edges are retained in Block F but have been replaced with large stone blocks in Block E.
\nThe verandah wall windows of both buildings have been altered to a different design within the original timber framing.
\nIn Block E, the ground and first floor layouts are intact, except one lightweight partition has been inserted into a classroom of the ground floor, one small opening has been made in two partitions of the first floor, and at the eastern end of the first floor a short length of the verandah has been enclosed and the verandah wall has been demolished to accommodate a larger classroom.
\nIn Block F, the ground floor layout is intact, retaining two sets of original large folding doors between classrooms. The first floor layout has been altered with the demolition of partitions and the insertion of one lightweight partition to create larger classrooms.
\nIn both buildings, the interiors of both levels have been relined on walls and ceilings with flat sheet material.
\nElements particular to Block E and Block F also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nBlock J (1961)
\nBlock J is a highly intact, long, high set classroom building standing between Block G and H. The building includes a tall concrete retaining wall forming an eastern upper terrace at the level of the ground floor and a western lower terrace at the level of the basement. A broad concrete stair links the two terraces. The basement, originally an open play space enclosed along the southern perimeter, has been fully enclosed and partitioned to form smaller ancillary school rooms. The building has a mixed structural system: basement concrete slab, posts, and beams; ground floor concrete slab, and steel posts and beams; and a primarily timber-framed first floor. The verandahs are cantilevered on tapered beams and have bagracks balustrades. The building has two concrete stairs enclosed in face brick with stucco panels and large wired glass windows. The western gable end wall features rough concrete tiles and a face brick edged garden bed.
\nSome verandah wall windows have been altered to a different design within the original timber framing. The ground and first floor layouts are intact, although one partition has had a concertina door inserted to combine two classrooms and doors have been inserted in two other partitions. The interiors of all levels have been relined on walls and ceilings with flat sheet material.
\nCovered Links (1960-66)
\nThe covered links between the buildings are highly intact. Most are two-storey, concrete-framed with unpainted concrete or timber floors, have metal balustrades, and have ceilings lined with sheets and battens with original ceiling light fittings. The links off Block J retain original timber framed enclosures on the western side of the ground floor, although the large windows and wide double doors have been removed.
\nPlaying Field (1960)
\nThe playing field is a large and flat grassed field for sport and play activities. It includes small sports sheds that are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\n
","history":"
Wavell State High School opened in 1959, on its current site at 70 Telopia Avenue, Wavell Heights, about 7.8km north of the Brisbane CBD. The school is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains: an administration building (Block A 1960, F/T7); seven classroom buildings (Block C, D, G, and H 1960, F/T7; and Block J 1961, Block E and F 1966, F/T8); covered links (1960-6) set in landscaped grounds, and playing field (1964). The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Wavell Heights community.
\nWavell Heights was part of the traditional land of the Turrbul speaking people. The area, first known as West Nundah, was characterised by dairy farming and pineapple growing. By the 1920s a portion of the farming land close to Sandgate Road had been subdivided into small lots intended for residential development. Encouraged by its relatively close proximity to the Nundah Railway Station, which was approximately a 1km walk away, many new houses were built in the interwar period.[1] A great deal of the area, however, remained farmland.
\nBy the early 1930s an active progress association had been established in the district. In the early 1940s the association lobbied to have the suburb officially defined and to have the name changed. Through a series of public meetings, several suggestions were made, including Beverley Heights, Avon Hill, Inala, and Wavell Heights. A poll was taken and Wavell Heights proved to be the most popular. With the Lord Mayor’s and the postal authority’s approval, the name of the area was officially adopted in 1941.[2] The new suburb’s namesake was British Field Marshall Archibald Percival Wavell, who at the time was the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial forces fighting in the Middle East, North Africa, Greece, and Crete. Later in World War II (WWII) he served as Commander-in-Chief of India.
\nIn the immediate post-WWII era some of the undeveloped land in Wavell Heights and Chermside was acquired by the Queensland Housing Commission. This was a time when Queensland was experiencing a major population increase resulting in a severe housing shortage. It is believed that up to 100,000 Queenslanders lived in temporary housing between 1946 and 1960.[3] In 1947, the Housing Minister, Mr William Power, acknowledged this need for housing and assured that the Queensland Government was building houses as quickly as possible. Priority for new houses was given to those living in tents or huts, then for families forced to live apart due to the housing shortage, and finally to those who were sharing accommodation with others.[4]
\nIn August 1947, the Queensland Housing Commission was planning to spend £500,000 on a housing project for Wavell Heights; 450 houses were to be constructed on the 100 acre (40.4ha) site situated between Gympie, Rode and Hamilton roads. At the time, it was deemed to be the Commission’s largest housing project. Following contemporary town-planning principles, the housing project was to be undertaken with the cooperation of the Department of Public Instruction and the Brisbane City Council, who would be essential partners in delivering services and infrastructure, including schools,[5] ‘features of the scheme were reservations for a shopping centre, parks, sports ground, state school, and child welfare centre’.[6] Once constructed, the houses were swiftly tenanted. The population of Wavell Heights increased substantially with an estimated 2000 people moving into the area.[7]
\nThe Department of Public Instruction delivered on its promise to build schools in the area with the Wavell Heights State School being opened by 1950. Closely following this, a Catholic primary school was also built in Wavell Heights. [8] It was quickly apparent, however, that a high school would be needed for the area.
\nIn Queensland, governments were slow to establish state secondary education, considering this to be of little relevance to Queensland's primary industry-based economy. The Grammar Schools Act 1860 provided scholarships for high-achieving students to attend elite grammar schools, although few were awarded. It was not until 1912 that the government instituted a high school system, whereby separate high schools were established in major towns or, where the student population was too small, a primary school was expanded to include a 'high top'. High tops were an economical measure that provided essentially the same education while utilising already established facilities. In Queensland generally, high schools remained few in number until after WWII when secondary education was generally accepted as essential and was more widely provided for.[9]
\nIn the 1950s the number of high schools in Queensland increased significantly. The grounds were large, greater than 12 acres (4.8ha) providing ample room for sports facilities. From their introduction, the design of high school buildings was the responsibility of the Department of Public Works (DPW).[10] The general classroom buildings were the same standard types as used for primary schools but those for high schools included rooms with minor alterations for science laboratories, domestic science classes, workshops for woodwork and metal work, and libraries.[11] The buildings were designed to reflect educationalists’ modern requirements, favouring ‘lighter, loosely grouped, flexible’ buildings.[12]
\nAlso, there was a focus on the fit between the school and its neighbourhood, as well as site planning for expansion and ideal solar orientation. Educationalists argued that the ideal orientation of classroom buildings was ten degrees east of north, with verandahs protecting the northern side and classrooms facing south. This led to the construction of school buildings that were oriented in relation to the sun rather than the site boundaries.[13] New school buildings were constructed using modern materials and featured modern colours.[14]
\nIn the early 1950s, architects developed master-planning concepts that influenced the design and layout of the whole school. Initially, these plans were broadly based on regular and symmetrical plan forms around a central or prominent axis.[15] This concept was replaced a few years later by architects planning for growth and change. There was a shift away from grid-like layouts to nuclear plans, centred on a reception building with classroom wings connected to and fanning away from the nucleus. The primary focus was the ideal solar orientation of buildings. Interest was also shown in developing schemes that related to the natural contours and existing vegetation. The long, narrow buildings were positioned so that the spaces captured between them were triangular, opening out into the landscape.[16]
\nIt was in this period the Department of Education acquired just over 21 acres (8.5ha) of land in an elevated and undeveloped area of Wavell Heights. In September 1958 the Director-General of Education announced that the Executive Council had approved the construction of six new high schools for Queensland, which included Wavell State High School.[17] The Courier Mail reported in September 1958 that ‘sufficient accommodation was expected to be ready at the new Wavell State High School for classes to start on January 27 next … the school, in Edinburgh Castle Road, would have academic, commercial and industrial courses’.[18]
\nAt Wavell Heights, the DPW produced a site master plan for a central core of buildings and playing field. The buildings were laid out symmetrically on an axis from Telopia Avenue at the northern high ground and the playing field was at the southern low ground. Entrance gates were at the surrounding residential streets with vehicle entrance across the northern high ground. The plan comprised a central administration building with four classroom buildings radiating out from it. The buildings had north facing verandahs and south facing classrooms, connected to the administration building by covered links.[19]
\nIn November 1958 construction work began on the first building on the site, the Manual Training Building (Block B). The school was scheduled to receive its first students at the beginning of 1959, however, Block B was not complete by then. To address this, a timber school building was moved from Oakleigh State School to Wavell State High School. Considered a temporary structure on the site, it consisted of three classrooms and an office. All were occupied by the end of January 1959.[20] Initially, there were 122 students and five teachers, with classes taught in the three classrooms of the timber building. Due to the lack of facilities at this time, science classes were held in the principal’s home garage situated beside the school in Childers Street.[21] By May 1959 classes were held in the Manual Training Block.
\nIn February 1959 work commenced on the Chemistry wing (Block D), which at the time of its completion in January 1960, consisted of three classrooms, and a chemistry laboratory, lecture room, and store.[22] The construction of the Administration block (Block A) began in August 1959 and was occupied by January 1960. A new Physics wing (Block G) and the Home Science wing (Block C) were completed by the end of 1960.[23] These new wings were built to a standard type (F/T7) – highset timber-framed buildings incorporating steel open web floor trusses.[24] The new school was officially opened on the 14 May 1960, with the opening ceremony being well attended by the school community and dignitaries, including the Minister for Education, Jack Pizzey.[25]
\nFurther building work was carried out in 1960 and 1961, with the construction of two general classroom buildings (Block H and Block J). The DPW reported that ‘the design has been kept in harmony with the existing buildings to which the new block (Block J) will be connected by covered ways’.[26]
\nIn 1962 Block A was altered with the conversion of a first floor classroom into more administration space and a ground floor extension was made to accommodate a library at the rear (south). In the same year Block C was altered to accommodate dressmaking by enclosing part of the ground floor.[27]
\nAs enrolment numbers increased through the 1960s, so did the need for additional classroom space and in 1963 the construction of a new Science wing (Block E) and another General Classroom wing (Block F) had commenced and was completed by 1966. These new wings were a standard type (F/T8) – highset timber-framed buildings incorporating a steel portal frame.[28] The 1970 student numbers reflect the school’s need for expansion with 1476 enrolments at the beginning of that year.[29]
\nThe original design of the school incorporated an expansive playing field at its rear (south), backing on to Edinburgh Castle Road. Work began on the playing field in October 1959. The surface and drainage of the playing field had been a constant source of concern for the school. Works to the surface were requested by the Parents and Citizens Association, and in August 1964 these were carried out. A previous arrangement between the DPW and the Main Roads Department had been made whereby testing of heavy equipment was carried out on government owned facilities that required improvements.[30] Works to the playing field became an opportunity for the training of Main Roads workers with new equipment. In August 1964 the Courier Mail reported that ‘the Main Roads Department will hold a ‘school’ today – and the Wavell Heights High School will get a new oval in the process’.[31] Further work was undertaken on the playing field in this year and had been completed by the late 1960s.
\nA 25m swimming pool, located between the school buildings and the playing field was proposed by the Parents and Citizens Association as early as 1965. The pool had been completed by 1969.[32] Over time, other sporting facilities have been added to the site, including basketball courts.
\nSeveral other buildings have been constructed on the school site, including the library building (1969-70), the music block (Block M, 1975), and the assembly hall (1979). In 1966 the former Oakleigh State School timber building was removed from the school.
\nMinor alterations have occurred to the buildings over time. In 2001 Block A was refurbished and a two storey extension was added to the south side. Block B was extended in 2006 and again in 2017. In 1977 the verandah of Block C was enclosed. In 1985 Block H was altered to accommodate further classrooms by enclosing the ground floor. In 1997-8 half of Block C was demolished due to subsidence and rebuilt. In 2001 Block D was refurbished removing partitions to form a new layout. Also in 2001 Block J was altered to accommodate a gymnasium by enclosing the basement, and small openings were made in partitions of the ground floor. In 2002 a fire damaged the eastern end wall of Block J and it was repaired to match its previous appearance.
\nVery little tree planting took place within the school grounds prior to the end of the 1960s.[33] Between 1964 and 1969 substantial groundworks were undertaken at the school, which included the bituminisation of some courtyard areas, laying footpaths, and landscape work at the entrance of the school.[34] In 2001 further landscaping work was undertaken to the entrance of the school, which included forming a circular driveway and stairs down to the buildings.[35]
\nWavell State High School, established in 1959, has played an important role in the Wavell Heights and district community and continues to do so. Generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment. The school continues to be a centre for social, sporting and community events.
","criteria":"Wavell State High School (established 1959) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities.
\nAs a representative example, it is also important in demonstrating the pattern of provision of secondary education on new sites in booming suburbs across Queensland in the 1950s, a time of pronounced population growth.
|As an intact example, Wavell State High School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a 1950s Queensland state high school. These include: an ordered site layout; cohesive arrangement of interconnected teaching buildings of standard designs by the Department of Public Works (DPW) that incorporate understorey play areas, verandahs, and classrooms with high levels of natural light and ventilation; and a generous, landscaped site with assembly areas and playing field.
\nThe site layout of the buildings, covered links, open spaces, and playing field is a particularly extensive and intact example of late 1950s Queensland state school master planning, which provided for ordered growth from a nucleus and allowed for change in response to the booming post-war population. The school includes seven classroom buildings that contribute to the concept of splayed, long, narrow buildings linked by covered ways around open ended courtyard assembly and play spaces, fanning out from an administration building.
\nBlock D, E, F, G, H, and J (1960-6) are good, intact examples of their standard types, timber-framed school buildings incorporating steel open web or steel portal frame floor trusses for unimpeded play areas under the classrooms. The buildings retain their: highset character; trusses; north-facing verandahs and south-facing classroom windows; and 24ft (7.3m) wide classrooms.
|Through the extensive and intact rational masterplan and cohesive qualities of its buildings and landscapes, Wavell State High School is important for its aesthetic significance. It has beautiful attributes brought about by its symmetrical and axial layout of long buildings radiating from a central administration building, separated by open spaces, and unified by consistent form, scale, and materials. The buildings have a stylish composition, restrained use of decoration, and a minimal material palette.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nSince its establishment in 1959, Wavell State High School has a strong and ongoing association with the surrounding community. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Wavell Heights and is a prominent community focal point.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650071,"name":"Endrim and the Woodstock Road Tram Shed and Track","alternate_name":"Arlington | 'Boss' Badger's residence","street_address":"28 Woodstock Road","suburb":"TOOWONG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-03-23","description":"Endrim and the Woodstock Road Tram Shed and Track front Woodstock Road, Toowong, approximately 5km southwest of the CBD.
\nENDRIM
\nEndrim is a substantial timber-framed and -clad house standing on the highest part of its 3678m2 grounds. The house faces north to Woodstock Road and its large front yard falls steeply to the north, terraced to form gently sloped lawns, separated by steeper earth berms. From its position, the house is afforded attractive views to the surrounding suburbs and the distant CBD, access to prevailing summer breezes from the northeast, and favourable solar orientation. The grounds are heavily planted on its boundaries, providing a sense of lush privacy, featuring impressive camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora) and poincianas (Delonix regia).
\nEntry from Woodstock Road is via a gateway into a narrow stair well comprising stone-lined walls and concrete treads, leading up to the lower front garden level and then to another narrow concrete stair toward the front of the house. The gateway comprises tall stone pillars topped by concrete spheres and a decorative wrought iron pedestrian gate. Two sets of matching vehicular gates provide entry from Sherwood Road: one set stands on land originally part of the Endrim land parcel but is now part of another residential allotment – 6 Woodstock Road (Lot 4 on RP50607).
\nThe house is high-set and has a rectangular core clad with chamferboards, sheltered by a wide wrap-around verandah on its front (north) and (east and west) sides. It has a large, complex, hipped roof clad with corrugated metal. The roof is continuous over the verandah, with wide eaves battened to provide ventilation of the roof space. Large weatherboard-clad hipped roof dormers projecting on the four sides of the roof house the rooms of the first floor. The western and southern dormers have tall timber-framed casements. Those of the eastern dormer have been replaced with a large set of French doors onto a balcony (c2000), which is not of cultural heritage significance. The northern dormer has large timber-framed double-hung sash windows flanking a central door onto a narrow unroofed balcony nested within the roof above the former front entrance. The balcony was not inspected and its age or significance was not determined. Projecting from the roof beside this narrow balcony is a recent skillion-roofed dormer (c2000), accommodating an ensuite, which is not of cultural heritage significance).
\nThe centre of the front verandah has a wide projecting bay (the former entrance). An angled verandah piazza on the northeast corner and a rectangular broad verandah at the western end provide generous spaces. The verandah has square timber posts with moulded collars and capitals: either side of the original front entrance the posts are paired. The verandah valance is clad with weatherboards on the exterior and lined with v-jointed (VJ) boards on the interior. The verandah ceiling is flat, lined with VJs, and has a moulded timber cornice and cover strips.
\nA semi-detached service wing stands on the western side of the house, connected via the western verandah of the main house to form a breezeway. A timber lattice screen and door shields the breezeway from Sherwood Road. The service wing has a Dutch gable roof, clad with corrugated metal sheets and has generous battened eaves. A verandah wraps its southern and western sides and has been enclosed – the enclosure is not of cultural heritage significance.
\nThere are two tall facebrick chimneys with simple corbelled detailing: one rises from the main house and one from the service wing.
\nThe perimeter of the understorey is screened by a skirt of alternating diagonal panels of timber battens. Arched openings provide access under the house. The excavated understorey is retained by a stone wall to form a flat dirt floor. The subfloor structure comprises steel tram rail posts and facebrick pillars. The posts and pillars support a grid of tram rail beams that are paired where under the outer walls of the house and neatly housed into the chimney. The rails are stamped ‘DICK KERR & CO PHOENIX 1884’ and have evidence of wear consistent with their former use as tram tracks. From the subfloor beams upwards, the structure appears to be conventionally timber framed.
\nA small room of unknown use, accessed by double doors, stands independently under the house comprising part-height brick walls. Nearby is an early metal hot water system comprising a water tank and heater with a metal flue feeding into adjacent chimney breast. The tank is stamped Smith Faulkner and Co. It is unclear if the system is proprietary or custom made or if it is/was also connected to electricity. A wine cellar has been formed in the understorey with a stair up into the ground floor of the house, none of which is of cultural heritage significance.
\nThe impressive main entrance is located centrally on the north elevation, within the octagonal bay. It comprises a wide, glazed and panelled door with side and fan lights framed by moulded architraves and a simple ‘entablature’ that recurs as a motif above doors and windows throughout the house. An early electric doorbell is missing its button.
\nThe interior layout is intact with VJ lined partitions and ceilings, moulded timber skirting boards, cornice, architraves, and dado rails. A transverse hall divides the ground floor of the house in half from east to west, separating the principal rooms (on the northern side of the house) from the secondary rooms (on the southern side). The principal rooms (entrance hall, dining room, and drawing room) are separated by wide sliding pocket doors and when opened, the three rooms form a large space the entire width of the house. The rooms include decorative ceilings and finely-crafted timber joinery with that of the dining room retaining its clear finish, revealing the high quality of its craftsmanship and material. The ceilings of the ground floor are 3.8m (approximately 12 feet) high.
\nThe house retains large double-hung sash windows and timber-framed glazed French doors with fanlights. The dining room has a handsome fireplace with a clear-finished timber surround that includes glazed tiles, shelves, and mirror.
\nThe house retains a variety of early light fixtures and an early ceramic corner sink with cast iron apron and a pressed metal splashback.
\nA stair in the entrance hall and another, similar but less detailed secondary stair in the transverse hall provide access to the first floor, which accommodates bedrooms and a bathroom. The walls and ceiling are lined with VJs and have moulded timber skirtings, architraves, and cornices.
\nThe breezeway separating the main house from the service wing includes a ‘laundry stair’ down to the yard. This is a very narrow and steep timber stair with battened sides and a battened door at its base with an early rim lock. This recess has been enclosed and a floor inserted over the top of the stair to seal it off and it is no longer useable.
\nThe interior of the service wing core has been altered and is now one large space. The walls and ceiling have been relined, however, it retains a double-sided chimney breast with a wide kitchen fireplace and wash tub hob. Part of the now enclosed verandah that wraps the service wing has been incorporated into the room by demolishing part of the verandah wall.
\nAn early door and catwalk over the laundry stair from the kitchen leads into the western broad verandah. This large space has been relined, none of which is of cultural heritage significance. An early door provides access onto the front verandah.
\nThe floor boards of the ground floor are recent, have been laid over the original boards, and are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nWOODSTOCK ROAD TRAM SHED
\nA tram shed stands in the unmade road reserve of Miskin Street, at the intersection with Woodstock Road. Miskin Street is steeply sloped and the shed stands on a flat concrete slab cut into the slope.
\nThe shed is an open-sided, rectangular, freestanding pavilion with an unlined hipped roof supported by robust corner posts with curved bracing brackets. The roof is clad with corrugated metal sheets and has eaves that overhang the posts on all sides.
\nAt the rear of the shelter is a timber-framed infill panel between the upper part of the posts lined with flat sheet material and timber cover battens.
\nTwo seats to a standard design stand under the roof, both facing the street. They comprise a timber plank back rail and seat on a timber frame. The posts of the shelter and the seats stand on modern steel stirrups which are mounted into the concrete slab.
\nWOODSTOCK ROAD TRAM TRACK
\nA tram track is embedded under the bitumen road surface within the Woodstock Road reserve. It is located south of the centre line of the road, within approximately 10m of the front of the tram shed. The track comprises steel rails approximately 1.4m (approximately 4feet 8.5inches) apart embedded in an even, exposed aggregate concrete pavement. Also embedded is a standard stormwater tram rail drain, which is a steel grate that spans between the rails and drains the grooves in the rails. The physical termination of the track is approximately aligned with the eastern edge of Miskin Street.
","history":"Endrim (originally Arlington) and the Woodstock Road Tram Shed and Track are located in Toowong, approximately 6km west of the Brisbane CBD. It comprises the terminus of a passenger tram line, completed by the Brisbane Tramway Company in 1904; Endrim, a residence built above the Toowong terminus in 1906 by the Brisbane Tramway Company for its General Manager Joseph Stillman ‘Boss’ Badger; and a passenger waiting shelter shed, built at the terminus in 1924 by the Brisbane Tramway Trust at the request of the Toowong Progress Association. Together they demonstrate the evolution of Brisbane’s settlement and the influence of the Brisbane tramway system and Joseph Badger on the spread of suburban development.
\nPassenger trams began operating in Brisbane after the Tramways Act 1882 was passed, allowing a local authority or private company to construct, maintain and operate a tramway. The Metropolitan Tramways Company (MTC) was granted a construction order for a line from Woolloongabba to Breakfast Creek in April 1884. Steel rails were ordered from English steelworks Dick Kerr and Co, laid from January 1885, and full services started in May 1886.[1] Residents petitioned the company to extend tramlines to the suburbs, with lines opened to Bulimba, New Farm and Boundary Street in 1886. In 1892, after a legislative amendment, MTC received permission to convert the tramway system to electric power. However, the company encountered major financial difficulties, and shareholders agreed to sell MTC in December 1893.[2]
\nThe Brisbane Tramways Company (BTC), created by a London syndicate in 1895, purchased the MTC later that year and took over tram operations. It quickly embarked on electrifying the tramway system, engaging American company General Electric (GE), which sent engineer Joseph Stillman Badger to Brisbane to oversee the project. Badger had commenced his career in telephones before moving to railway engineering for the Edison Company in 1890. Intending to make the Brisbane tramway system ‘an exhibition one for Australia’,[3] Badger ran the first electric tram on 21 June 1897, just over a year after his arrival. Badger accepted the position of General Manager of BTC and moved his wife Carrie and two sons to Brisbane. Their first home was Bellevue, a rented house on Miskin Street, Toowong.[4]
\nUnder Badger’s management, the electric tramway system expanded across Brisbane. Horse-drawn tram rails were replaced with weightier rails, accommodating heavier rolling stock. Local councils petitioned BTC for extensions to encourage settlement in previously undeveloped suburbs. Tramlines could reach areas not serviced by railways, and the mere promise of a tram service sparked land sales and population growth. Between 1898 and 1900, lines were extended to Paddington, New Farm, Ascot, West End and Ipswich Road.[5]
\nAn extension to Toowong was discussed from 1900. BTC’s preferred route ran too close to the railway, so Badger proposed a variation ‘along Norwood Street instead of Dean or one of the other streets’.[6] Notably, Badger’s Bellevue had frontage to Norwood Street. The tramline was ultimately run along Milton Road to the Toowong Cemetery, opening in July 1904, and up Dean Street to a terminus at the intersection of Woodstock Road and Miskin Street, opening over a month later.[7]
\nBadger and BTC promoted the tramways heavily in the early 20th century. Their innovations included ‘picnic trams’,[8] which could be hired for special events; tram daytrip suggestions for tourists; and tram rides around the suburbs for visiting dignitaries. BTC also offered to supply electricity to areas along tramway lines, installing a demonstration electric light on a 75-foot (22m) tower on Miskin Street.[9]
\nAmidst BTC’s growth, Badger moved into boarding accommodation in the city while his wife and sons lived in America for the boys’ education. In 1905 BTC employees acquired an 1870s villa, Collina, and its nearly two acre (7456m2) elevated site, fronting Woodstock Road and adjacent to the Toowong tram terminus. Badger and his housekeeper resided in Collina from around June 1905. In 1906, with Carrie Badger and their youngest son due to return to Brisbane, construction began on a new house to replace Collina. The designer of the house is not known.[10]
\nThe house has a number of unusual features which reflected its ownership by BTC and occupation by Badger. Unconventionally, its subfloor structure (posts and beams) was tram rails. The rails, stamped ‘DICK KERR & CO PHOENIX 1884’, were from the first order for MTC’s horse-drawn tram system and had been removed as part of BTC’s electrification upgrade. Badger had personal and professional interests in electrical innovations, serving as member and president of the Queensland Electrical Association and inventing electrical devices to use in the tramways. Features of the house which were likely installed for Badger include an early electric light system and fittings and a hot-water system with parts manufactured by Brisbane foundry Smith Faulkner and Co. These would have been uncommon elements in a Queensland home in 1906.[11]
\nBTC’s Superintendent of Buildings, William McLean, called for tenders for excavating and levelling a site in Toowong, likely for the Badgers’ residence, in April 1906. In May 1906 Badger approached the Toowong Town Council and offered to plant ornamental trees on Woodstock Road. By mid-July, advertisements for the sale of a house were referring to ‘Mr Badger’s new residence’ as a nearby landmark.[12] A tennis court was built in the grounds some time before 1909, and a motor garage was added before 1913; Badger, a motoring enthusiast, was an early member and later president of the Royal Automobile Club.[13]
\nCarrie Badger returned to Australia in September 1906, taking up residence in the newly-named Arlington. She undertook charity work, taught Sunday school, and hosted socials at Arlington, including tennis events and an afternoon tea in Arlington’s ‘pretty gardens’ for the Russian consul and his wife.[14] Struck down by sudden illness in 1909, she died in July, and was buried in the Toowong cemetery.[15]
\nAlready somewhat controversial, Badger became a polarising figure after his wife’s death. Well-educated, energetic and credited with the tramway system’s success, he was a symbol of cosmopolitan progress and was a member of one of Brisbane’s elite social circles. He determined where tramlines would be constructed, influencing the development of Brisbane’s suburbs. However, he was also renowned for his authoritarianism. Answerable only to shareholders, he held unquestioned power over BTC and its employees. While Badger paid for employees’ medical care where necessary, BTC workers were amongst the lowest paid in Australia. Attempts to form a union were resisted with threats of unemployment, and Badger forbade uniformed employees from wearing Australian Tramways Employees Union badges.[16]
\nTensions between Badger and BTC employees climaxed in 1912. On 18 January 1912, 480 of 550 BTC employees donned union badges in a coordinated show of strength, and were suspended or dismissed from duty. Approximately 10,000 people protested the ‘lockout’ that evening. Representatives of 43 unions unanimously agreed to hold a general strike, declared 30 January 1912. The pro-union Strike Bulletin reported this as the ‘first simultaneous strike in the world’. Earlier simultaneous strikes had been held overseas, but the Brisbane General Strike appears to be the first in Australia, involving around 20,000 unionists. Businesses closed and tram services ceased. 3,000 special constables were sworn in to help control the unrest. Marches intensified into riots, with conflict between protestors, non-strikers, and police. Guards were posted at Arlington, accompanying Badger to and from work, and Badger reportedly threatened to shoot anyone who came onto the property after dark. Badger eventually dismissed the guards and relocated to temporary accommodation in the city. The height of the strike came on 2 February 1912, later known as Baton or Black Friday, when armed police charged a crowd of protestors. Reports described the violent scene as ‘unprecedented in the history of Brisbane’.[17] The strike ended after six weeks. The Commonwealth Court of Arbitration later ruled Badger had no authority to prevent workers from wearing badges.[18]
\nBadger was granted a long leave of absence after the 1912 strike, and travelled to America. Arlington was transferred to Christina Gore, of Yandilla station, in July 1912. The house was renamed Endrim after the Gore family’s properties in Ireland and Parramatta. In 1916 the house was transferred to Phyllis Trude, nee Gore, wife of tea company manager (and later Spanish consul) John Elworthy Trude.[19]
\nBadger returned to Brisbane with his new wife, Australian-born Marion Starling. They lived in temporary accommodation at the West End tram terminus, but soon moved to Northam, a rental property at the Paddington tram terminus (no longer extant). Badger negotiated an extension of BTC’s ownership of the Brisbane tramway system, due to end in 1917. Authority for the tramway system was handed to the 12 affected local authorities as the Brisbane Tramways Trust (BTT) on 1 January 1923, ending the last privately-run tramway system in an Australian capital. Badger retired and returned to America.[20]
\nIn 1924, the Toowong Progress Association petitioned BTT for a shelter shed at the Toowong terminus. BTC had not provided sheds as standard at stops or termini, but some were approved at the request of local authorities or associations. BTC had declined to build a shed at the Toowong terminus in 1915. BTT, however, engaged contractors Brown and Broad to build six sheds in Brisbane and New Farm in 1923. BTT agreed to construct Toowong’s terminus shed in March 1924, to the same design as the 1923 sheds. This standard design was later called the P.1008 Standard Waiting Shelter Shed in Brisbane City Council (BCC) plans. The Toowong shed was finished by July 1924.[21]
\nControl of the tramway system passed to BCC in 1925, which implemented upgrades and extensions. In 1933-34 BCC's distinctive technique of mass concrete tram tracks was first used extensively in Queen Street. Steel ties were used instead of sleepers, with the whole track set flush in a solid concrete ‘pavement’. These concrete tracks required less maintenance and formed an excellent road surface for other vehicles.[22]
\nEndrim remained well-known as Badger’s residence. By 1922 rumours had begun that Badger had extended the terminus to Woodstock Road for his own benefit. In 1924 the house was described as an ‘ideal home, built by Mr JS Badger many years back’ in an article which referenced its shingled roof and ‘rusticated’ walls and noted that its high stone wall and ornamental iron entrance gates provided a ‘pleasing contrast to more modern homes’.[23] In 1954 a letter to the editor of the Courier Mail mentioned ‘Mr Badger’s old home in Toowong’[24] as one of the most notable remaining shingle roofs in Brisbane, though the roof was replaced shortly afterwards. Newspaper articles in the 1920s and 1930s also praised the gardens, highlighting the silky oak and jacaranda plantings. Trude was an enthusiastic gardener, and used flowers from the property as decoration in numerous socials, teas and wedding parties held at the house between the 1930s and 1950s. Her ‘lovely garden’, featuring flowering annuals against green lawns, was one of a number included in the Sunday Mail’s gardening column in 1936.[25]
\nTrude sold parcels of her land between the 1930s and 1970s. The first, in 1934, was on the corner of Woodstock and Sherwood Roads, which included one set of the house’s gates. Alterations to the house included the demolition of its branching front stair and construction of a garage (approved in 1956) and swimming pool (1968). The house featured in a 1964 Woman’s Weekly article when it hosted a family wedding reception.[26]
\nTram services on the Toowong line continued until 1962, serving residents and tourists visiting Mt Coot-tha. The impact of a major fire at the Paddington tram depot, increasing private car ownership, urban sprawl stretching into areas unconnected to the tram system, and lack of investment in technological developments saw trams replaced with buses throughout Brisbane. The Toowong line was one of the first to be replaced with diesel buses, before the entire system was discontinued in 1969.[27]
\nEndrim’s land was subdivided further and sold in the 1970s. Minor alterations occurred to the house. The service wing verandahs were enclosed and in c2000 the east bedroom of the first floor was altered to include an ensuite in the roof space (involving a skillion roofed dormer on the northern side) and a new balcony was added to its eastern side. In 2017 Endrim remains in private ownership.
","criteria":"Endrim (originally known as Arlington) and the Woodstock Road Tram Shed and Track are important in demonstrating the evolution of Brisbane’s former public tramway system, a vital mode of public transport between 1885 and 1969; the expansion of which determined patterns of settlement in Brisbane.
\nEndrim, built in 1906 by the Brisbane Tramways Company for its general manager, Joseph Stillman Badger, responsible for electrifying and upgrading the tramway system, is the only known company-provided housing for Queensland tramway employees. Former 1884 horse-drawn tram rails, used as integral structural members supporting the house, further illustrate the close association of the house with the tramway.
\nThe Woodstock Road Tram Shed (built 1924 by the Brisbane Tramways Trust as a standard passenger waiting shelter) is an early, representative example of the standard sheds constructed in Brisbane. The concealed Woodstock Road track is the terminus of the Toowong line and demonstrates the expansion of the tram service.
|Endrim is a fine, intact example of an elite early 20th century Queensland house and retains the principal characteristics of this type:
\nThe tram shed is an intact example of a tram passenger waiting shelter built in Brisbane during its tram era. It retains the principal characteristics of these structures, including: standing adjacent to a tram track; freestanding open-sided pavilion form with generous sheltering roof; being built to a standard design, and; incorporating standard waiting seats.
|Standing on a high ridge within a leafy suburban landscape, the house with its wide encircling verandah, picturesque multi-angled roof, decorative interiors, and generous garden with mature trees and stone and iron gates, is highly intact and important for its Federation-era aesthetic. Notable for its excellent craftsmanship including particularly fine timber joinery, it features a skilful arrangement of generous and refined living spaces evoking a sense of sophisticated suburban domesticity. Striking views to the immediate suburban landscape and distant CBD are provided from its verandah and rooms and picturesque views to the house from its front and eastern garden.
|Endrim was built for, and has a special association with, American Joseph Stillman Badger (1851-1934), general manager of the Brisbane Tramways Company from 1897 to 1914 and then managing director to 1922. Badger was instrumental in the early electrification and expansion of the Brisbane tram network, an important advancement of this prominent and integral public transport system. During this period he was the catalyst of the Brisbane General Strike of early 1912, the first simultaneous strike in Australia, and an event of particular significance in Badger’s life and his association with the Brisbane Tramways Company.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650078,"name":"Feniton","alternate_name":"Fenton | Almaden","street_address":"388 Bowen Terrace","suburb":"NEW FARM","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-07-27","description":"Overview
\nFeniton is a highset detached timber house located at 388 Bowen Terrace in the inner Brisbane suburb of New Farm, 2.8 kilometres from the centre of Brisbane on a 1,292m2 allotment. Built in 1906, this substantial dwelling set in spacious grounds, is in an Arts and Crafts style and demonstrates a high standard of design and quality. It has distinctive features that are characteristic of the domestic works of Robert Smith Dods and contribute to its aesthetic significance. It retains:
\nSetting
\nFeniton stands on the rear half and highest part of the allotment, facing southwest and sloping to Bowen Terrace with rear access off Oxley Lane to the northeast. It has a generous setback providing privacy and affording views to and from the house and Bowen Terrace across the garden. The siting of the house close to the northwest boundary optimises the natural light and ventilation to the principal external spaces – the piazza and front verandah.
\nExterior
\nThe house has a proportionally large, steeply pitched hipped roof with projecting gables over a front entrance porch and over a wide verandah ‘piazza’ on the east corner (original stairs removed and reduced in overall size c1938). Two tall, brick chimneys (originally facebrick, now painted), venting the kitchen and drawing room/main bedroom fireplaces are distinctively utilitarian in design with simple, rectangular shafts and flat rendered cornices. The eaves are lined with either fibrous sheeting or tongue-and-groove v-jointed (vj) boards, which also line the verandah ceilings (the extent and detail of original eaves linings is unknown).
\nAlthough it is offset to the south, the dominant, projecting entrance implies symmetry to the front elevation through a classically derived pedimented gable supported on four posts. The large entrance porch with verandahs on both sides is accessed by a wide L-shaped stair. (One flight of the originally bifurcated stair and an overhead trellis have been removed and newel posts replaced).Across the porch, a wide pair of doors with decorative arched fanlight centred between bay windows to the dining room and drawing room, opens into the entrance hall. Original applied decoration was limited to a heavy timber dentil detail to the eaves, mouldings to the large, oval louvred wall vent and front door surround and simple verandah brackets. (verandah brackets have been replaced with ornate brackets and post mouldings added). All verandahs have a simple battened balustrade and handrail detail. (Handrails are comparable replacements to the original design and some balusters have been replaced but match existing).
\nA narrow northerly-facing verandah extends along the rear of the house to the east corner where it widens to form the piazza. Vertical timber louvres are fixed along this verandah above the battened balustrade providing privacy and solar protection to the bedrooms. The verandah and piazza walls have exposed framing and are lined with vj boards. A bay window from the main bedroom projects into the piazza (reduced c1938) which was a key feature designed as an outdoor living room to take advantage of the best aspect for light and ventilation.
\nCross ventilation is also a clear consideration in the detailing of the house. Large French doors, wide windows and fanlights above door openings throughout provide for continuous air flow.
\nContributing to the solid appearance of the house are oversized posts which support all verandah areas. Walls are generally clad with weatherboards. Original, narrow weatherboards with mitred corners are confined to the upper walls; the understorey walls, which provide the visually firm attachment with the ground are clad in wider weatherboards. The understorey at the rear of the house is lined with timber battens. Along the northwest side is a small verandah clad in weatherboards to handrail height, which has been enclosed with casement windows above. A timber stair leads to a path to the rear gate.
\nInterior
\nThe floor plan incorporates a level of symmetry within an asymmetrical layout comprising living, sleeping and service zones. The entrance hall is formal and symmetrical with double doorways (doors to the drawing room have been removed) opening into a generous dining room on the left (northwest)and larger drawing room on the right (southeast) which opens onto the piazza. Through the finely detailed archway at the end of the entrance hall, a perpendicular hall provides access to the best bedroom and dressing room and leads to the spacious back hall. The kitchen, enclosed northwest verandah and two bedrooms open off the back hall. The northwest verandah has a laundry (a later addition) at its south end, and a stair to the back yard at its north end.
\nIn the service area of the house, partitions between the kitchen and pantry rooms have been removed and the kitchen fireplace is partially rendered. A large window between the kitchen and back hall has been enclosed; and the back hall stair and cupboard opposite, removed. The back hall retains a glazed fanlight to the service verandah; the doors below have been removed.
\nUnder the kitchen in the west corner of the understorey, accessed by the (removed) stair from the back hall, is the former laundry, which retains a concrete slab with spoon drain and evidence of a removed corrugated iron wall lining formed in the slab edge. The chimney breast in this space has a void and piping for a copper. Extending across the front of the house is a store room lined with recent sheeting which adjoins a workroom in the south corner lined with recycled vj boards that have been refixed upside down. This room, located partially within what is thought to have been Theodore’s library, has concrete upstands around its perimeter. No definitive evidence of the library survives.
\nThe walls of the dining room, entrance hall and transverse hall are lined with clear finished hoop pine vj boards to picture rail height and painted above – a characteristic lining and finish of Dods’ interiors. Also characteristic are built-in cupboards; in the dining room, there is a built-in sideboard[1] and shelves and cupboards either side of the bay window. The north (former maid’s) room has a painted vj lining and the remaining rooms have been relined and plaster cornices installed. An unusual feature in the drawing room and best bedroom is the evidence of flush-jointed wall linings which provided for a wallpaper finish and an early plaster lining in the bedroom bay window. Another unusual feature is the presence of a fireplace in the bedroom. Early joinery includes multi-paned double hung windows, wide multi-paned French doors and six-panelled doors with splayed panels and two-panel operable fanlights above. Casement windows are later additions.
\nSignificance of features
\nAll 1906 fabric and design features are of state level significance, including concealed linings and decorative finishes.
\nFeatures of the exterior of the house that are not of state level significance include:
\nFeatures of the interior of the house that are not of state level significance
\nFeatures of the grounds that are not of state level significance include:
\nThe highset timber residence located at 388 Bowen Terrace, New Farm, originally called Feniton and later Almaden, was built on just over half an acre (approximately 2036m2) of land in 1906-7 for the Trude family. Designed by the renowned architect Robert Smith (Robin) Dods, the residence was subsequently occupied from 1916-27 by Edward Granville Theodore, Premier of Queensland from 1919-25. The property was reduced by one third in 1938, and in 2018 Feniton remains a private residence. Feniton is a surviving example of Dods’ first quality timber houses from the middle period of Hall & Dods’ practice 1901-09. With its generous setback and views to and from Bowen Terrace, the house is important for its Federation aesthetic, successfully combining Arts and Crafts and Classical elements, and also has a special association with EG Theodore, a person of importance in Queensland’s history.
\nThe New Farm area was traditionally the land of the Jagera and Turrbal peoples. After the Moreton Bay penal settlement was established on the Brisbane River in 1825, in the late 1820s food was grown on the river flats between today’s Merthyr Road and the southeast end of the New Farm peninsula.[1]
\nFollowing free settlement of Brisbane in 1842, the New Farm peninsula was surveyed and sold in the 1840s for cultivation and livestock, as well as residences for Queensland’s pastoralists, merchants and politicians. In the late 1850s, subdivision of allotments overlooking the Shafston Reach of the Brisbane River, at the northwest end of Bowen Terrace, resulted in the construction of villas for Brisbane’s business leaders during the 1860s, and more of Brisbane’s wealthy inhabitants moved to New Farm in the 1870s.[2] The subdivision of New Farm intensified during the 1880s, and transport improvements also encouraged closer residential settlement. Horse-drawn trams ran along Brunswick Street to just past Langshaw Street by 1895, and the electrification of this line occurred in 1897.[3]
\nDespite subdivision into smaller allotments, the area of New Farm between Brunswick Street and the Shafston Reach maintained grand homes on properties covering multiple subdivisions. Described in 1906 as the province of ‘the attractive homes and trim gardens of many of Brisbane’s most distinguished citizens, who enjoy all the advantages of country air and surroundings within a twopenny tram ride of the city proper’, Bowen Terrace and Moray Street included affluent residents drawn from the judiciary, politics, civil service, the church and business.[4] Feniton was one such residence.
\nThe site of Feniton was once part of Eastern Suburban Allotment 15, a block of 4.6ha extending from Brunswick Street southwest to the Brisbane River, which was subdivided in 1874 as part of the Langshaw Estate – advertised as occupying ‘the very finest position about the city or suburbs for gentlemen’s Villa Residences’.[5] After passing through the hands of various owners from 1875, three subdivisions of the estate, totalling 3 roods and 34 perches (3895m2), were by October 1881 consolidated under the ownership of Henry James Oxley, a well-known Brisbane accountant.[6]
\nBy July 1880 Oxley had built his home Mossleigh at the north corner of Bowen Terrace and Langshaw Street, with the remainder of his property, to the northwest, used as his garden. After Oxley’s mortgagee obtained the property in 1905, just over half an acre – 2 roods and half a perch (2036m2) – of Mossleigh’s garden was sold to John Elworthy Trude in 1906.[7]
\nTrude (1869-1952) was born in Poughill, Devon, England, and by April 1891 he was working in Brisbane as the local manager for Australian tea merchants Atcherley and Dawson. In July 1906 he married Phyllis Emlyn Gore, a member of the pioneering pastoralist family of Yandilla Station on the Darling Downs.[8]
\nThe Trude’s new house at 388 Bowen Terrace was named Feniton, after Phyllis’ family home at Yandilla and an earlier Gore residence at Parramatta. Tenders for the house were called in July 1906, the tender of £980 from Louis Hammer, a building contractor of Deagon, was accepted, and the house was under construction by the end of August 1906. [9]
\nFeniton was designed by architect Robert Smith (Robin) Dods (1868-1920), principal of the Brisbane firm of Hall & Dods. Born in Dunedin, New Zealand, Dods lived briefly in Britain before coming to Brisbane in the late 1870s. He later trained as an architect in Scotland and England under a number of esteemed architects who were working in the Arts and Crafts idiom. He returned to Brisbane in 1896 and started in practice with architect Francis Hall (of John Hall & Son) as Hall & Dods. In 1904, Dods was also appointed Diocesan Architect for the Church of England’s Brisbane Diocese. [10]
\nThe practice of Hall & Dods produced a wide range of accomplished buildings and was credited with achieving an 'architectural revolution' in Brisbane. Dods was responsible for most of the design within the firm, integrating contemporary British design philosophies with the traditions of Queensland housing and the requirements of a subtropical climate. In 1913, Dods moved to Sydney to join the firm Spain Cosh & Dods, maintaining his Brisbane association with FR Hall for several years. He died in Sydney in 1920. Dods was one of the few Australian architects to have his work published in the United Kingdom, and has been acknowledged as ‘one of the most significant early 20th century Australian architects' and as a rare practitioner of the Arts and Crafts style in Queensland.[11]
\nArts and Crafts was an international design movement flourishing between 1860 and 1910, its influence continuing into the 1930s. The style championed traditional craftsmanship using simple forms and often applied medieval, romantic or folk styles of decoration. Arts and Crafts architecture is characterised by solidity and heaviness through well-proportioned solid forms, wide porches and prominent steep roofs. The texture of ordinary materials is expressed in the detailing and building composition is asymmetrical.[12]
\nThe most noticeable characteristic of Dods’ Queensland houses was a general feeling of solidity and substance. This was established through a generous roof continuous over the verandah; enclosed or screened understorey to give the house a visually solid base; oversized individual elements; and dark coloured materials to give the house a weighty gravity. Chimney elements were generally tall and flat, topped with a plain rectangular shaft.[13]
\nThe composition of facades and circulation routes is a more nuanced element of Dods' houses. Facades often only implied symmetry. Entries were often off-centre or perpendicular, emphasised by wide and expressive entry stairs. Projecting bay windows and corner fireplaces were recurrent elements, and these features are present in Feniton.
\nThe health and comfort of the occupants were major considerations in Dods’ designs. Living spaces were well-oriented and internal layouts permitted cross ventilation. Other ventilation devices included wide window and door openings, ventilated gables and ridges, and ventilation fleches. Door fanlights were often solid hinged panels, where not on an external wall. The houses were often provided with generous, considered service spaces including back halls and wash houses. Dods houses are also notable for their informal spaces, including verandah ‘piazzas’, a generous verandah area suitable for informal occupation and usually given a northeast aspect. Dods’ piazzas were a principal external space, designed for the Queensland climate.
\nInteriors included fine decorative timber joinery and panelling. Fireplace surrounds and built-in cupboards were also a feature. Offices and halls, dining and drawing rooms often had pine boards up to the picture rail stained in a colour to simulate mahogany. This finish was used also on doors and windows as well as skirtings and architraves.[14]
\nFor the Trudes, Dods designed a highset timber house with verandahs on three sides. It was sheltered by a large, steeply-pitched hip roof with a projecting gable over a front (southwest) entrance and over a piazza on the rear, eastern corner. The roof featured two tall, projecting, face brick chimneys and a ventilated ridge. The walls were clad in timber weatherboards, which were mitred at corners and extended down to the ground-plane, concealing the understorey. Exterior timber detailing was restrained and reinforced the solidity of the house, with oversized timber posts and curved brackets to verandahs.[15]
\nThe formal entry to the Trudes’ house was via a bifurcated front stair leading to the front verandah and an impressive entry hall. Feniton included: generous living and entertaining areas, including the piazza, which was connected to the garden via a stair; two bedrooms (plus dressing room) at the rear; kitchen; utility rooms; and servant’s quarters. A back hall off the kitchen had internal stairs to the laundry in the understorey.[16]
\nDods designed gardens as a setting for his houses. They featured formal parterre gardens, terraces and walls, flower beds, tennis courts, hedges, topiaries, flowering ornamental trees, and geometric path and lawn layouts. In locating a house on its block, Dods considered the size of the site and of the house, the fall of the land, the orientation and outlook, the setback from the street, the location of any drive, the garden, fences and gates.[17]
\nAt 388 Bowen Terrace, Dods’ sited the residence so it had a large garden to both the front (southwest) and side (southeast). Feniton faces Bowen Terrace but is set well back (25m) on the site’s shallow slope; this approach was also used for the Dods-designed Lyndhurst in Clayfield (1896) [QHR 601841], which has since lost most of its large front garden; and Kitawah at East Brisbane (1911) [QHR 601023].[18]
\nFeniton forms part of a group of major works or ‘first quality houses’ of the middle period of the Hall & Dods practice (1901-09), a group described as comprising ‘most of the interesting houses designed by Dods’. Of these, six timber suburban examples survive. Out of all of Dods’ suburban residential works (193 designed), at least 53 are known to survive in 2018.[19]
\nThe Trudes were living at Feniton by April 1907, and a dance was held there on the evening of 17 July, celebrating the first anniversary of their marriage.[20] In August 1910 a garden party was held with more than 100 guests.[21]
\nIt is not known if Dods designed a landscaping scheme for the garden of Feniton, but family photographs show that by 1908 the garden layout had been established, with lawns, garden beds, recent plantings, timber front fence with gothic pickets in concave panels, and front gate. A pathway also led from Bowen Terrace towards the southern corner of the house, and to the front entrance porch and piazza.[22]
\nThe Trudes lived only intermittently at Feniton from late 1913, periodically occupying Endrim in Toowong [QHR 650071], during absences of Phyllis’s mother and sister who had moved to Brisbane after the death of her father, Gerard Ralph Gore.[23] In the Trudes’ absences, Feniton was rented to a Mrs King in 1913-14, and to Allan Jaffrey, Queensland Manager of Australian Estates in 1914-15. The Trudes finally settled at Endrim in 1916.[24]
\nFrom 1916 Feniton was rented by Edward Granville (‘Red Ted’) Theodore (1884-1950), MLA for Chillagoe, Deputy Premier, Treasurer, and Secretary for Public Works in Queensland’s TJ Ryan Labor Government. Theodore, a former union organiser and miner, entered the Queensland Parliament in 1909, aged 24.[25]
\nTogether with his wife Esther, nee Mahoney, and four young children, Theodore occupied 388 Bowen Terrace for most of the next decade. In May 1918, the year before he became Premier, Theodore purchased Feniton, which he had already renamed Almaden (or Alma-den), after the mining town near Chillagoe, North Queensland, where he had his first major victory as a union organiser in 1908 (the Etheridge Railway Strike).[26]
\nEsther used the garden for fetes and other fund-raising activities as part of her work for philanthropic and patriotic causes. On 7 October 1916 a brass band as well as singers and other musicians performed in the garden at her fete for the war effort; and in August 1918 Esther invited a large party of guests to another fete at Almaden, this time in aid of the bachelor’s stall at the coming fete for St Patrick’s Church.[27]
\nSome changes to the gardens occurred under the Theodores, who increased the density of planting with trees, shrubs and flower beds, including a greenhouse in the front garden and a vegetable garden behind the house. By 1924 the front path from Bowen Terrace had been concreted. A 1930 photograph of the house shows flower beds in the front and southeast side gardens, with one palm tree near the southern corner of the house. A brick front fence with infill timber pickets existed by 1934, and a small addition to the northwest side of the house had been added by the 1930s.[28]
\nTheodore also constructed a study and library for his book collection under the southern corner of the house and the front verandah. The large garden setback at Feniton would have afforded Theodore some privacy as he worked in his study under the house. To provide day-lighting, casement windows were cut in the weatherboard cladding of the understorey, and were protected by a continuous window shade. The front half of Theodore’s study and its windows was later removed, with only a possible rear wall surviving under the house in 2018.[29]
\nWhile residing at Almaden between 1916 and 1927, Theodore implemented important social, industrial and constitutional reforms in Queensland. As TJ Ryan’s Treasurer and Secretary for Public Works, he established an arbitration system and state employment bureaux, and enacted legislation to provide for workers’ compensation and regulate working conditions and accommodation. He also established a series of state enterprises, including butcher shops, fish shops, cattle stations, sawmills, mining ventures and a hotel. During World War I, he was instrumental in the Ryan Government’s campaign against military conscription. In 1922, he completed Labor’s campaign to abolish Queensland’s Legislative Council, with Queensland becoming the only Australian state with a unicameral legislature.[30]
\nTheodore decided to enter federal politics, resigning as Premier in February 1925 to contest the federal seat of Herbert in north Queensland. Unsuccessful in his bid, he moved to Sydney in 1927 upon winning the NSW federal seat of Dalley at a by-election that January.[31]
\nTheodore attempted to sell Almaden, but was unsuccessful and so rented it out for several years. In 1929-30 the house was rented by Norah Burrows, who ran it as a guest house called Garden of Kama, which she advertised as a ‘magnificent home’. From June 1930 the house was rented by Louis Emanuel (Lee) Steindl, a former Maryborough brewer, who resided there with his wife Gertrude, nee Brennan, and Gertrude’s unmarried sisters, Florence and Winifred Brennan.[32]
\nIn March 1933, Almaden was sold to the Steindls, who during their occupation created a display garden containing flower beds of annuals, which had made the garden a local tourist attraction by 1934. Severe drought conditions and watering restrictions in 1936 negatively affected the display garden. The Steindls also used Almaden to host parties and dances. [33]
\nIn 1937 the Steindls subdivided the property, and in 1938 they sold 29.33 perches (742m2) of the southeast garden, which became the site of a two-storey brick house (built c.1940) at 404 Bowen Terrace. The sale of this land required the partial demolition of the piazza of Almaden, and its stair, and also separated Almaden from its former pedestrian entrance in the front brick fence, and the concrete path from Bowen Terrace. The Steindls, left with 1 rood, 11.14p (1293m2) of land, constructed a new front entry gate toward the northwest end of the front fence, with a new path to the front stair of the house.[34]
\nBy 1979, the front entry porch and piazza had been enclosed with casement windows and doorways, and the southeast leg of the front stair had been removed.[35]
\nAfter Gertrude Steindl’s death in 1971, her daughter Vera inherited Almaden. The house was sold in 1988 to Albert Kuceli, who had founded Kuceli Real Estate in New Farm in 1965.[36] Kuceli reopened the front entry porch and piazza and made other changes internally, while leaving the panelling and joinery of the principal rooms intact. The cladding below the front verandah and most of Theodore’s study was demolished, with similar cladding added in line with the internal wall of the front verandah.[37]
\nKuceli made major changes to the gardens, including planting palms along the northwest boundary of the front garden, jacarandas on the southeast side of the front garden, adding a pond and fountain, forming new garden beds with stone or brick edging, and laying new brick paths. What had been an open front garden with some flower beds in 1942, and a few trees and shrubs by the 1960s, was lushly treed by the 1990s – resembling the time of the Theodore’s occupation. Kuceli also replaced the former vegetable garden area at the rear with a swimming pool in the early 2000s.[38]
\nBetween 1979 and 2018, windows to the kitchen were removed and replaced by casements, and the adjoining section of wall was reclad to match existing fabric. Internally, the kitchen and back hall walls (including the wall, window and door that divided them and a store cupboard) and some bedroom walls were plastered over and corkboard laid over the floors. New skirting boards were installed in these locations. The pantry joinery and walls were removed and the area incorporated into the kitchen. The dressing room adjacent to the main bedroom was renovated as an ensuite and walk-in wardrobe. Some mantelpieces and mouldings which had previously been painted were stripped and refinished with clear varnish. [39]
\nFeniton was added to the Brisbane City Council’s Heritage Register in 2000. Following Albert Kuceli’s death in 2009, the property passed to his partner Carole Kotowski, who sold it to Judith Noble in 2012. The property was sold to Georgina Lalor in 2013, and to Strathallan Pty Ltd in 2015. In June 2017 the property was transferred to Dave & Dunc Pty Ltd. [40]
\nIn 2018 Feniton continues to be used as a private residence, and retains most of its Dods’ features and its Arts and Crafts aesthetic, including its solid and substantial form, dominant and steeply pitched roof, distinctive chimneys, materiality, partially enclosed understorey, well-proportioned rooms, interior timber joinery/mantlepieces, timber interior linings, generous verandahs and rear verandah louvres. It also retains its large front setback from Bowen Terrace, with views to and from the street.
","criteria":"Feniton (1906-7), a surviving example of nationally acclaimed architect Robert Smith (Robin) Dods' 'first quality' suburban timber houses from the middle period of Hall & Dods' practice 1901-09, is important in demonstrating Dods' contribution to the evolution of Queensland's architecture.
\nAs a substantial, architect-designed house, which was constructed for John Elworthy Trude, a director and local manager for Australian tea merchants Atcherley and Dawson, and set in a large garden, Feniton is important in demonstrating the lifestyle of Brisbane's prosperous elite in the inner suburbs of Brsibane during the early 20th century.
|Feniton, a substantial residence designed by influential architect Robin Dods, is a fine, largely intact example of Dods’ high quality residential work, which is characterised by a pervading sense of tradition, solidity, and an honest use of materials. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of that work, retaining its steep, hipped, dominant roof; pedimented gables; generous verandahs and carefully orientated piazza with a northeast aspect; oversized timber elements and openings; mitred weatherboards; pleasing proportions and restrained decoration; and finely-detailed, clear finished joinery, including built-in timber furniture. Its siting, detailing and unconventional but rational planning optimise views, cross ventilation and solar orientation.
|Sited well back from Bowen Terrace, with views to and from provided across a large and attractive garden setting, Feniton is important for its Federation aesthetic, successfully combining Arts and Crafts and Classical elements in a pleasingly proportioned asymmetrical highset house with dominant roof, wide verandahs, piazza with a northeast aspect, and visually firm connection to the ground. Largely intact, it demonstrates, internally and externally, fine architectural quality and skilful arrangement of generous and refined formal and informal spaces that evoke a sense of an earlier, gracious lifestyle.
|Feniton, occupied by Edward Granville ‘Red Ted’ Theodore (1884-1950) as his family home from 1916 to 1927, has a special association with the life and work of Theodore as his place of residence and work when he was Premier of Queensland (1919-25). Theodore renamed Feniton ‘Almaden’, after the site of a strike victory during his union career. As Premier, Theodore implemented important social, industrial and constitutional reforms in Queensland, including state intervention in the economy and completing Labor’s campaign to abolish Queensland’s Legislative Council, and is a person of importance in Queensland’s history.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650080,"name":"Kelvin Grove State College","alternate_name":"Kelvin Grove Road Provisional School | Kelvin Grove Boys State School | Kelvin Grove Girls and Infants State School | Kelvin Grove State School | Kelvin Grove State High School","street_address":"L'Estrange Terrace","suburb":"KELVIN GROVE","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-08-23","description":"Kelvin Grove State College is located in Kelvin Grove, an inner city residential suburb of Brisbane, about 3km northwest of the city centre. The college stands on a high point in the terrain near a major road, Kelvin Grove Road, and adjacent to the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Kelvin Grove campus.
\nThe college comprises two adjacent campuses facing L’Estrange Terrace to the northwest - the Junior School (1.571 hectares) bounded by L’Estrange Terrace, Kelvin Grove Road, School Street and Tank Street; and the larger Middle and Senior School (7.76 hectares) bounded by L’Estrange Terrace, Victoria Park Road, Boundary Road and Herston Road. A closed section of Victoria Park Road runs between and connects the campuses, with a public footpath retained along the Junior School boundary.
\nThe Junior School campus site is approximately square in shape with buildings located around a combined playground and sports field. The ground slopes away to the south, and steep, tree-lined banks run along the northeast and southeast boundaries.
\nThe Middle and Senior School campus site slopes steeply down to the east and southeast, resulting in a terraced landscape with an oval occupying the lowest ground in the northeast corner. The triangular-shaped Middle School section of the campus is separated from the Senior School by a driveway running from L’Estrange Terrace to Victoria Park Road.
\nThe buildings and features of cultural heritage significance are:
\nJunior School campus
\nMiddle and Senior School campus
\nSite planning and views
\nBlock JA (1950)
\nBlock JA is a three storey building with a hipped roof and a projecting entrance bay that overlooks a triangular forecourt. Due to the slope of the land, the ground floor level is concealed from view from the main (northern) approach. The building’s distinctive plan form is symmetrical along an axis running from the main entrance at the northern corner of the site. The building comprises a long central block that terminates with ends angled at 45 degrees, in line with pathways radiating at 90 degrees from the main entrance. The entrance bay protrudes from the building and has flat parapet walls concealing its hipped roof. The external walls have a strong horizontal emphasis due to continuous window sills and horizontal window hoods linking the banks of windows.
\nThe upper two storeys contain classrooms connected by a corridor along the northern sides. Classrooms occupy the long central portion, with staircases, staff rooms and store rooms located in the angled ends of the building. The ground floor contains enclosed play areas in the centre and toilet facilities in the ends. The entrance bay contains a staircase; resource and store rooms on the upper storey; entrance hall, administration and staff offices on the middle storey; and store rooms on the ground floor.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nNon-significant elements include the glazed door leafs of the main entrance doors, administration desk in the entrance hall; access ramps; a connecting roof to Block JB; and plywood dividing walls in understorey play area.
\nBlock JB (1955)
\nBlock JB is a two storey, gable-roofed building that addresses L’Estrange Terrace and is aligned with the southwest side of Block JA. Formerly a classroom block, the upper level of Block JB is used as a library in 2017. A tuck shop and storage rooms have been inserted in the covered play area underneath.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nLandscaping features associated with Blocks JA and JB
\nThe original 1948 landscaping layout in front of and around Block JA remains intact. It comprises a symmetrical layout of lawns, pathways and stairs in the forecourt and a playground at the rear.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nSignificant landscaping around Block JB includes an extension of the pathway in front of Block JA, edged by a concrete retaining wall topped by tubular steel handrails; and a linking pathway to the WWI Memorial Gateway.
\nWorld War I Memorial Gateway (1919, 1952)
\nThis gateway is located approximately halfway along the L’Estrange Terrace boundary of the Junior School. The lintel (1919) is made from concrete in the form of a scroll and bears the words ‘HONOUR OUR BOYS’ and the dates ‘1914’ and ‘1919’. The supporting posts and wing walls (1952) are of plain, smooth concrete and feature square end posts with chamfered, angled sides and peaked tops.
\nBrick Entrance Gateway elements (1930)
\nThis gateway stands at the southwest corner of the Junior School site, on the corner of L’Estrange Terrace and School Street. It is a modern reconstruction, at a smaller scale, of the 1930 brick gateway. The significant elements are: the large, horizontal concrete lintel; peaked concrete caps on the wing wall end posts; and two marble plaques set into the front face of the gateways piers.
\nSchool bell (1870s)
\nThe original school bell is mounted on a concrete post near the entrance to Block JA.
\nBlock SA/SB (1952)
\nBlock SA/SB is a two storey building with a hipped roof and a curved entrance bay that links two long wings to form a V-shaped plan. The building sits on a high point in the terrain and is approached by a series of pathways and steps leading to a triangular platform in front of the main entrance. The plan is symmetrical along an axis running from the main entrance at the northwest corner of the site, with the two wings parallel to the bounding streets - L’Estrange Terrace (Block SB) and the closed section of Victoria Park Road (Block SA). The concave, curved facade of the entrance bay is topped by a flat parapet and features a projecting entrance porch with a flat concrete roof and glazed front wall. Windows to the upper floor of the entrance bay have thick concrete mullions which align with the columns of the entrance porch. The external walls of the wings have a strong horizontal emphasis due to continuous window sills and horizontal window hoods linking the banks of windows.
\nThe entrance bay contains reception areas and staff rooms. The wing of Block SA contains classrooms on both levels and toilets at the southeast end of the ground floor. Block SB has classrooms on the first floor and administration offices on the ground floor. Circulation is via two staircases at each end of the entrance bay, and long corridors through the wings – the northeast (rear) side of Block SA and the northwest (front) side of Block SB. Original staircases at the ends of each wing and toilets on the ground floor of Block SB have been demolished in order to link with the 1960s extensions.
\nThe exterior remains largely intact, however the internal layout has been modified within the original concrete frame to create the administration and reception areas. Most walls between classrooms and the corridors have been removed.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nNon-significant elements include the lift and connecting walkway; aluminium door and window joinery; steel-framed awning roof on brick piers around the rear (courtyard) walls; porch and entrance doors on northwest elevation of Block SB; infill walls between original brick piers in former ground level play areas; and infill walls forming offices and rooms in the entrance bay.
\nLandscaping features associated with Block SA/SB
\nThe original landscaping layout in front of and around Block SA/SB remains intact. It comprises a symmetrical layout of pathways, planter boxes and stairs leading up to the main entrance and a courtyard at the rear.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nNon-significant elements include brick walls and an access ramp at the main entrance corner, and garden beds, trees and a rectangular shelter shed in the courtyard.
\nBlock SA Extension (1961) and Block SC (1961-63)
\nIn their dimensions, structure, materials and room layouts Block SA Extension and Block SC are typical early-1960s high school classroom blocks, but the exteriors have been modified to complement the style of the early-1950s buildings. These modifications include the hipped roofs clad in terracotta tiles, and the brick-enclosed ends of the blocks, punctuated by single rectangular windows with projecting concrete frames.
\nBlock SA Extension has been extended in line with Block SA along Victoria Park Road, and is linked to it by a stairwell and secondary entrance. Block SC has been built at a right angle to the end of Block JB, with a corridor, toilets and a stairwell in the brick-enclosed junction. Linking Blocks SA Extension and SC across the courtyard is a covered walkway. Both blocks are two storey, with verandahs providing circulation along the courtyard-facing sides of the blocks.
\nThe classrooms occupy both floors of each block, with a tuck shop on the ground floor of Block SA Extension. The original layout of large rooms with narrow preparation areas between is still evident.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nNon-significant elements include vents in the eaves linings, the covered way to Block G, and the tuck shop fitout.
\nBlock SD (1961-63)
\nBlock SD is located along the Victoria Park Road boundary. It is a long, narrow building with an understorey below the northern end (now enclosed). Six work rooms are arranged along the northeast side, separated by a wide, open corridor from a row of rooms containing service and store rooms and toilets. Entrances are via double doors at each end of the corridor and one in the centre of the southwest wall.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nNon-significant elements include attached lean-to roofs and covered walkways, and the understorey workshops, including infill walls and glazing.
\nClosed section of Victoria Park Road (closed c2003)
\nThe road is lined with mature trees, and the road surface and a public footpath are retained.
\nNon-significant elements of all school buildings include:
\nKelvin Grove State College, established as a primary school in 1875, underwent a major redevelopment in the 1950s to create separate primary and infants schools that were regarded as leading examples of school architecture in the post-war period in Queensland. In 1960 the infants school was converted into a high school and the grounds were expanded. The two schools amalgamated in 2002 to become an independent public school with junior, middle and senior campuses. The school complex retains significant 1950s and 1960s buildings set within landscaped grounds including entrance gateways, purpose-designed forecourts, assembly and play areas, and a pedestrianised road.
\nKelvin Grove is a suburb of Brisbane, located approximately three kilometres northwest of the city centre, and was the traditional country of the Jagera and Turrbal peoples. The area was developed primarily as a residential suburb from the 1860s.[1]
\nKelvin Grove Road School, 1875 - 1887
\nLocal residents began fundraising for the establishment of a primary school on the Northern Road (renamed Kelvin Grove Road in the 1880s) in 1874 and a 1.66ha site (Portion 274) was set aside by the Board of Education.[2] Kelvin Grove Road School was opened on 3 May 1875, costing £600 with a community contribution of £150. The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers. School facilities also provided a venue for a wide range of community events.[3]
\nKelvin Grove Boys State School and Kelvin Grove Girls and Infants State School, 1887 - 1950
\nThe school grew in 1886 when a separate boy’s school was built on a triangular site excised from Victoria Park on the other side of Victoria Park Road. The girls and infants school remained on the 1875 site and the schools reopened on 7 November 1887 as Kelvin Grove Boys State School and Kelvin Grove Girls and Infants State School. The school bell from the 1875 school was moved to the boys school after 1887.[4] The school grounds were beautified by tree plantings on Arbor Day from the 1890s until the 1930s.[5]
\nIn 1918 a World War I (WWI) honour board was unveiled in the boys school to commemorate the contribution of Kelvin Grove students and staff. It listed the names of 168 teachers and scholars and one nurse.[6] In 1919 a memorial gateway was constructed at the main entrance of the boys school, on the corner of L’Estrange Terrace and Victoria Park Road. It was designed and built by D Walker of Kelvin Grove and cost £24, which was raised by subscription. Made from reinforced concrete, it featured an ornamental lintel bearing the words ‘HONOUR OUR BOYS’.[7]
\nTo beautify the school grounds, in 1930 a brick and concrete gateway was constructed at the southwest corner of the girls and infants school. It was officially opened on 6 June as part of Arbor Day celebrations.[8]
\nIn 1930 it was reported 757 girls and 527 boys attended the schools at Kelvin Grove, and the girls and infants school was described as the largest in Queensland. Some of the accommodation pressure on the timber school buildings was relieved in 1935 when the North Brisbane Intermediate School opened nearby, accommodating the two upper classes from each school.[9]
\nDuring World War II (WWII), the boys school was occupied by the army.[10] Site improvements were carried out in 1946 when new fences and concrete retaining walls were constructed around the school perimeters, including along the boundary with Victoria Park Road.[11]
\nKelvin Grove State School, 1950 – 2002, and Kelvin Grove State Infants School 1950 - 1961
\nAfter WWII the existing timber buildings had become inadequate to cope with the growing student population at Kelvin Grove. In nearby Victoria Park, permanent huts constructed by the Allied forces had been converted into temporary housing in what became the second largest temporary housing settlement in Brisbane. By 1950 Victoria Park was the impermanent home for 460 families, which placed a high demand on the Kelvin Grove schools.[12]
\nThe Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’, as well as a shortage of architects and skilled tradesmen.[13] In order to cope, by the early 1950s the Department of Public Works (DPW) had developed new standard timber school buildings that were quick to construct, and also began importing pre-fabricated building systems from overseas. Construction of large masonry school buildings, which had been commonplace during the inter-war period, was no longer favoured, and only a few were completed in the immediate post-WWII period.[14]
\nIn April 1947 the Minister for Education, T A Williams, announced that two new, brick, co-educational school buildings would be built at Kelvin Grove to replace the old timber buildings – a primary school on the site of the girls and infants school and an infants school on the site of the boys school.[15] In November 1947 a design concept and site plan were prepared by architect Leslie Sturmer Jacobson, an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA), who was one of four newly-arrived British architects recently recruited by the DPW. The new buildings were conceived as a complementary pair, addressing opposite corners of the intersection of L’Estrange Terrace and Victoria Park Road. They were to be modern in appearance and feature prominent central entrance bays – rectangular for the primary school and curved for the infants school.[16]
\nThese buildings were designed at a time of transition, when the large Depression-era brick schools were being criticised for their appearance and unsuitability to modern educational philosophies. Queensland school design was changing in response to international influences, including that of the British Board of Education, which advocated adaptable designs in a less formal style, with the option for future enlargement. Educationalists wanted schools that were constructed of modern materials with attractive and modern coloured interiors. In the DPW design office, the design influences of the new British and other émigré architects were being adopted. While the majority of school buildings continued to be built to standard plans, some individually-designed masonry buildings were constructed, typically in areas of stable, suburban and urban populations. An evolution of the Depression-era brick school buildings, they were generally substantial structures of brick and concrete that introduced many innovative ideas that found their way into standard plans. For example, brick was progressively used more frequently in high schools as standard. New brick buildings were stripped of revival-style ornamentation in favour of a simpler, more streamlined aesthetic, with new features such as horizontal concrete window hoods introduced. For the Kelvin Grove schools, the concept plans and site layout for the schools, designed by Jacobsen, were further developed by other DPW architects, who prepared the detailed plans.[17]
\nThe primary school building was built first at a cost of £54,000. Features of the design included excellent natural lighting and ventilation, a medical inspection room and a visual education room. On 30 October 1948, at the laying of the foundation stone, the Minister for Public Works, William Power (MLA for the district), who had been instrumental in getting support for the project, said that the school would be the most up-to-date in Australia.[18]
\nThe primary school building (called Block JA in 2018) opened on 29 January 1950 and accommodated up to 460 students. It was a linear building with angled ends, arranged symmetrically along a diagonal axis from the northern corner of the site. Two levels of classrooms addressed the front of the school while a partially below-ground understorey level, containing toilets and play areas, opened onto the rear playground. The entrance bay contained a stairwell, entrance hall, the head master’s office, and a medical inspection room on the ground floor; a visual education room and projection room on the first floor; and store rooms in the understorey. Circulation was via a corridor along the northern side of the building so that the 10 classrooms (6.7m x 7.2m) received southern daylight. On each classroom level, folding doors separated the three middle classrooms and two large cloakrooms occupied the wedge-shaped spaces in the angled corners of the building. The ends accommodated stairwells; staff common rooms on the ground floor; open-air teaching balconies on the first floor (enclosed prior to the completion of the building); and staff toilets in the understorey. The windows were linked by continuous concrete sills and horizontal hoods which gave the building a streamlined, horizontal appearance.[19]
\nConstruction of the infants school building (known as Block SA and SB in 2018) commenced in 1950. It cost £55,700 and was opened by William Power, now the Attorney General, on 17 May 1952.[20] Due to the angular site, it was V-shaped in plan, with two classroom wings linked by the curved entrance bay, which contained a kindergarten room at ground level. Professional training for teaching infants developed in Queensland around 1891, however the first purpose-built state infants schools (from 1911) were not notably different from other classrooms of the period. Frequently, open-air annexes (a standard type, introduced in 1914) were added to existing schools as infants’ classrooms. Special designs for infants developed in the 1930s incorporated a large kindergarten room where children sat in a circle around the teacher, a practice that continued after WWII. Only two other masonry infants buildings were built around the same time as Kelvin Grove, at Bardon State School (1947) and Brisbane Central State School (designed 1949, completed 1952) [QHR 600312].[21]
\nOn completion, the Infants School at Kelvin Grove accommodated up to 440 infants. On the ground floor of the entrance bay, the main door led into the large kindergarten room and side entrances were located adjacent to two stairwells. The wings contained play areas that opened onto the rear playground, and toilets at the ends. The first floor accommodated eight classrooms (6.7m x 7m) and two cloakrooms in the wings, with teachers rooms and a medical room in the entrance bay. Circulation was via a corridor that ran along the northern side of each wing so that classrooms received southern daylight.[22]
\nThe design of both buildings included landscaping works to create formal front forecourts and defined main entrances from the corners. The forecourts comprised symmetrical layouts of concrete paths, stairs, lawns, and garden beds. Asphalted play and assembly areas were built at the rear of the buildings.[23]
\nThe schools received praise in newspapers and other publications for their amenity and modern design. The infants school was described as ‘roomy and bright’, and that it represented ‘a departure from the ordinary style of construction’. The Courier Mail stated, ‘Brisbane’s modern new State schools should make for happier, healthier learning…’, and the Telegraph claimed the school was ‘officially regarded as the best State primary school in Queensland architecturally.’ The Architecture, Building, Engineering journal ranked the infants building as one of the best state schools in Australia.[24]
\nOn completion of the Infants School, the original school bell (1870s) and the WWI Honour Board were moved to the Primary School. The 1919 memorial gateway lintel was also moved to the primary school site, along L’Estrange Terrace, and re-erected on new concrete posts.[25]
\nIn 1953 four classes of pupils returned to the Kelvin Grove primary school due to the closure of the North Brisbane Intermediate School. During 1955, a new brick building (called Block JB in 2018) was built adjacent to Block JA. It accommodated three classrooms over an understorey and featured a glazed front porch. Its external appearance complemented Block JA by using similar materials and fenestration.[26]
\nKelvin Grove State High School 1961 - 2002
\nIn 1960 approval was given to convert the infants school into a state high school. Enrolments had dropped to under 200 at the infants school and under 700 in the primary school due to the closure of the Victoria Park housing settlement. Infants classes were transferred to the primary school, and the infants school site was extended into the adjacent reserve to the east, to provide space for new buildings and sporting facilities.[27]
\nThe first new classroom block built was an extension to the southern wing of the former infants building (part of Block SA in 2018, referred to as Block SA Extension in this report). It accommodated a tuckshop and chemistry classrooms on the ground floor and domestic science classrooms on the first floor.[28]
\nKelvin Grove State High School opened 23 January 1961 with an enrolment of 344 students, some of whom had to be accommodated in temporary classrooms built into the understorey of Block SA/SB. Enrolments had risen to 850 by the start of the 1962 school year; and to 886 by 1963.[29]
\nA second extension to the former infants building was built at a right angle to the northern wing (called Block SC in 2018) and was completed in early 1963. This accommodated toilets, locker rooms and staff rooms at the junction, physics and general classrooms on the ground floor, and commercial, art, and general classrooms on the first floor. A covered walkway was also built to link Block SA Extension and Block SC.[30]
\nThe plan form that resulted, with buildings one room wide with verandahs for circulation and angled around an open-ended courtyard, was characteristic of the organic planning principles first adopted by the DPW in the 1950s, where classroom wings were connected to and fanned away from a central nucleus. Master planning schemes were focussed on the ideal solar orientation of buildings as well as their relationship to the natural contours, resulting in asymmetrical building layouts. Spaces captured between buildings created playground areas and courtyards. At Kelvin Grove, the former infants building was retained as the nucleus and main entrance to the high school.[31]
\nThe new buildings had expressed concrete framework with lightweight infill panels, and incorporated contemporary materials and fenestration, such as ribbed metal panels, awning windows and adjustable louvres. Their tiled gable roofs and facebrick ends were complementary to the school’s 1950s buildings. The main entrance to Block SA Extension, through the stairwell at the junction with Block SA, incorporated a tile-clad wall and a raised planting bed with decorative brickwork. The classrooms (7.3m wide) were linked by verandahs with bag rack balustrades, and standard arrangements of classrooms, storerooms and facilities were provided for specific subjects.[32]
\nThe steeply sloping site of the high school required major ground works to prepare it for development. By c1963 a driveway was built to the east of Block SC, running from L’Estrange Terrace to Victoria Park Road at the intersection with Tank Street.[33] During 1963 the Parents and Citizens Committee assisted with the terracing of the valley to the northeast of the high school, enabling the construction of tennis courts, basketball courts and an oval.[34]
\nA large, brick veneer manual training building (called Block SD in 2018) was built to the southeast of the other buildings, along Victoria Park Road, between 1961 and 1963. Built as a modified version of a standard early-1960s plan, it accommodated six workshops (woodwork, metalwork, and drawing rooms, each approx. 9.3 x 8m) male toilets, machine room, store room, and staffroom. It was a long narrow building with a steel portal frame structure and clerestory windows. It was predominantly of brick construction with lightweight infill panels of crimped metal and glazing. Normally single storey, at Kelvin Grove a partial understorey, accommodating an open recreation area, was added to the building, due to the slope of the land.[35]
\nOn 30 April 1963, the high school held a function to celebrate the official opening of the school. Over the following decades, further high school buildings were constructed to the east and southeast of the c1963 driveway.[36]
\nIn c1977 alterations to Block SA/SB were carried out. The ground floor play areas were enclosed and partitioned to form staff offices (Block SB) and classrooms (Block SA). Partitioning of the former kindergarten room formed a reception and administration area, and partitions were removed from the first floor of the entrance bay to form a staff common room.[37]
\nIn c1984 Block JB was altered to form a library on the first floor. Folding partitions between classrooms were removed and the wall between two classrooms and the corridor was demolished. Further alterations occurred in 1990, including demolition of the remaining corridor wall.[38]
\nIn 1995 and 2003, part of the southwest corner of the primary school site was resumed for road widening. Consequently the 1930 brick gateway was relocated further back on the site. It was reconstructed from modern brickwork and is smaller in size, but retains the 1930 concrete lintel, post caps and marble plaques.[39]
\nKelvin Grove State College 2002 – present
\nIn 2002 Kelvin Grove State School and Kelvin Grove State High School were merged to form Kelvin Grove State College. A ‘Junior School’ occupied the former primary school site; and a ‘Middle School’ and ‘Senior School’ shared the former high school site. As part of the merger the school entered a considerable ‘renewal’ program, including alterations to existing buildings and construction of new buildings.[40] Alterations were made to Blocks SA/SB, and SC to accommodate the Middle School, with some verandahs enclosed and internal partitions removed and rearranged. Additions included an awning roof built along the courtyard side of Block SA/SB, and ramps and a lift for equitable access.[41]
\nIn c2003, the section of Victoria Park Road running through the school was closed and all but a public footpath amalgamated into the former high school site.[42]
\nIn 2018, Kelvin Grove State College continues to operate from its original sites and retains its 1950s and early-1960s masonry buildings with their associated landscaping. It continues to grow, and has long-established reputation for academic excellence.[43] It is a key social focus for the community, as generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
","criteria":"Kelvin Grove State College (established in 1875) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of government-designed school buildings that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities and assembly and play areas.
\nThe school retains two representative examples of post-World War II (WWII) suburban brick state school buildings (Block JA, 1950, and Block SA/SB, 1952) that are important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland state school architecture in the post-WWII period, and were lauded at the time as being exemplars of the Queensland Government’s new approach to school design.
\nThe World War I (WWI) Honour Board (1918) and WWI Memorial Gateway lintel (1919, relocated 1952) are important in demonstrating the school community’s involvement in a major world event. War memorials are a tribute from the community to those who served, and those who died. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
|Kelvin Grove State College is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a post-war suburban primary school complex and a 1960s suburban high school complex. These include: two distinct site planning arrangements; a range of high quality masonry buildings designed by the DPW; and a generous, landscaped site with assembly areas and sporting facilities.
\nBlocks JA (1950) and SA/SB (1952) and their forecourts demonstrate the principal characteristics of a post-war school site plan, being arranged symmetrically along an axis and featuring prominent central entrance bays. The high school extensions to Block SA/SB demonstrate the principal characteristics of organic site planning principles developed in the 1950s, with their asymmetrical layout of long, narrow classroom blocks fanning away from a central nucleus, and arranged to follow the contours of the site around an open-ended courtyard.
\nBlocks JA, JB (1955) and SA/SB demonstrate the principal characteristics of purpose-designed, post-war masonry classroom blocks, with their two or three storey form with ground floor play areas (some now enclosed); high quality design with restrained ornamentation; facebrick exterior; and terracotta tile roofs. The building interiors contain typical linear layouts of classrooms, staff and store rooms, accessed by a single long corridor along the northern side.
\nHigh school additions Block SA Extension (1961) and Block SC (1961-63) demonstrate the principal characteristics of early-1960s, masonry high school classroom blocks, with their roof form and aesthetic treatment modified to complement the style of Block SA/SB. The principal characteristics of this type include: expressed concrete framework with lightweight infill panels of ribbed metal and glazing; brick-enclosed ends of the buildings; banks of awning windows; large classrooms linked by verandahs; fixed glazing and combinations of vertical and horizontal louvres to verandah walls; bag rack balustrades; and standard arrangements of rooms and facilities for specific subjects.
\nBlock SD (1961-1963) demonstrates the principal characteristics of an early-1960s, brick veneer manual training building, with its facebrick exterior; lightweight infill panels of ribbed metal and glazing; banks of awning windows and louvres; steel portal frame construction; southern-facing clerestory windows; metal roof cladding; and large work rooms.
|Kelvin Grove State College is important for the aesthetic significance of blocks JA and SA/SB and their forecourts, as they demonstrate beautiful and expressive attributes.
\nDesigned as a complementary pair to be viewed from the intersection of L’Estrange Terrace and Victoria Park Road, these buildings display the beautiful attributes of symmetry and legibility, and are united by their consistent form, scale, high quality materials and aesthetic treatment. Appreciation of their front elevations is enhanced by being set back behind formal, triangular forecourts and approached by a symmetrical layout of pathways and stairs. The buildings and their forecourts remain highly intact and provide an attractive and impressive entrance to the school.
\nThrough their composition and aesthetic treatment, the buildings are expressive of a new phase of school design in Queensland in the post-war period that embraced modern architecture and rejected revival styles. The highly intact exteriors are carefully detailed, with a strong horizontal emphasis, minimal embellishment, and distinctive entrance bays. When complete, the buildings were highly praised for their modern design and amenity, and were described as the best examples of school architecture in Queensland.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nKelvin Grove State College has a strong and ongoing association with the surrounding community. It was established on the Junior School site in 1875 through the fundraising efforts of the local community, has expanded to include both primary and high school education, and generations of children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of the community and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650085,"name":"Enoggera State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"235 South Pine Road","suburb":"ENOGGERA","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2019-02-01","description":"Enoggera State School occupies a 1.38ha flat site in the suburb of Enoggera, approximately 6.5km northeast of Brisbane’s CBD. Fronting South Pine Road to the south, the school is bounded on other sides by Laurel Street (north), residential properties (east) and a church (west). The school comprises a large complex of buildings, with most of the teaching buildings located at the southwest end of the site.
\nThe features of State-level cultural heritage significance within the school complex are:
\nLater (post-1950) extensions to the significant buildings are not of State-level cultural heritage significance.
\nThe earliest of the buildings (Blocks A, B and D) stand in a ‘U’-shape, facing south and forming a courtyard fronting South Pine Road. The later of the significant buildings (Blocks C and E) stand symmetrically to the north of Block A, replicating building forms of the earlier buildings (Blocks B and D). Together, the complex of significant buildings is ‘H’-shape in plan, with Block A located centrally, and each of the other buildings connected to its corners via verandahs: Block B to the southwest; Block to the northwest; Block D to the southeast; and Block E to the northeast.
\nSuburban Timber School Buildings (Block A, 1916) (Block B, 1916) (Block D, 1931) (Block C, 1939) (Block E, 1950)
\nBlocks A, B, C, D and E are gable-roofed, timber-framed teaching buildings that are typical of the Suburban Timber School Building type. All of the buildings are rectangular in plan and are highset on tall piers – the pre-1931 buildings generally have face brick piers and the post-1931 buildings have concrete piers (some are now painted). No original ventilation fleches remain.
\nTeaching and administration spaces are located on the first floor, with sheltered play space to the understorey (the toilets, tuckshop and most store rooms are later enclosures). Two teachers rooms project diagonally from inner sides of the verandah intersections of the earliest buildings (Blocks A, B and D), and an additional teachers room projects east from the east verandah of Block C.
\nAll interior spaces are accessed via verandahs and the remaining timber stairs are generally in their early locations. Block A has verandahs to the south, east and west sides. Blocks B, D, C and E all originally had verandahs on their east and west sides, although some have been modified:
\nThe interior layouts of the buildings are as follows:
\nOther features of cultural heritage significance in relation to Blocks A, B, C, D and E include:
\nLandscape Features
\nThe school’s main entrance is centred on the significant buildings, with a concrete footpath leading from South Pine Road to the central stair of Block A. This footpath is intersected by a perpendicular footpath leading to Block B and Block D.
\nViews of the significant buildings from South Pine Road are important, particularly those from and across the front entrance footpath.
\nA turfed playing field is located at the northeast end of the site.
\nFeatures Not of State-level Heritage Significance
\nFeatures at Enoggera State School not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nThe Enoggera State School, established on this site between Laurel Street and South Pine Road in 1871, comprises a number of timber school buildings dating from 1916; including suburban timber school buildings, Blocks A & B (1916) and Block D (1931); Sectional School buildings; Block C (1939) and Block E (planned 1940, built 1950). The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Enoggera community.
\nThe provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. National schools, established in 1848 in New South Wales, were continued in Queensland following the colony’s creation in 1859. Following the introduction of the Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland’s national and public schools grew from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875.[1] The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction. This further standardised the provision of education, and despite difficulties, achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[2]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and community halls reinforced these connections and provided a venue for a wide range of community events in schools across Queensland.[3]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[4]
\nA meeting to establish a school in the Enoggera District was held in the Enoggera Hotel on 5 September 1870, and a school committee was formed. While in the early years of school establishment following the Education Act of 1860, local committees were required to raise one third of the cost of the school, this requirement was relaxed in 1864. The Enoggera School Committee raised £60 by April 1871, although a further £10 was required for construction to commence. The committee resolved to raise this money immediately. The Education Office called for tenders in May 1871 for a school house and teacher’s residence; the final cost amounting to £287.[5]
\nThe school was on the traditional lands of the Turrbul people and origins of the name ‘Enoggera’ have been variously reported as a corruption of Euogra meaning, ‘song and dance’ (place of corrobboree), ‘place of waters’ or ‘place of breezes’. Early European settlers of the 1860s planted orchards and vineyards. A transport route evolved following the discovery of gold in Gympie in 1867, when prospectors and their bullock teams travelled through Enoggera and on to what is now Old Northern Road (previously Great Northern Road) to Gympie. The opening of cattle sale yards at Newmarket in 1877 also added impetus to growth and development of the region. [6]
\nThe Enoggera State School was opened 24 August 1871, with a ceremony attended by more than 70 people. The school committee acknowledged the contribution of Timothy Corbett and James Mooney who contributed financially to the school buildings, as well as each donating an acre of land: Sub A, Portion 5 (Corbett) and Sub 1 Portion 6 (Mooney). Mooney died before his donation was registered and his land transfer did not occur until 1882. The school building was a timber structure, forty feet by twenty feet, with a verandah and the timber school residence to the west of the school. All structures were built within Sub A Portion 5, because the school did not have ownership of the adjoining parcel (Sub 1 Portion 6). The contractor was Edward Lewis of the Pimlico Shops; a timber workshop in Albert Street. Tenders were called for a playshed for the school in August 1877.[7]
\nThe school hosted a public meeting in January 1885, advocating the extension of the railway through this important farming area, enabling farmers to get their crops to the Roma Street Markets. This line, originally intended to reach Samford, was built as far as Enoggera in February 1899. Meanwhile, an additional room was added to the timber school in late-1885. Arbor Day was held regularly at the school in the 1890s and early 20th century, although no mention was made of the species of trees, nor the location of the plantings in the press reports. Ongoing repairs, additions and alterations to the school buildings occurred during these years.[8]
\nThe Department of Public Instruction acquired another four suburban allotments to the east of the school reserve (approx. 1821 m2) in January 1913. In December 1914, the under Secretary for Education, J D Story, promised that Enoggera would soon be in possession of a new brick school building. The war intervened, and in September 1915, the Minister for Education announced that a modern timber school would be built instead. A brick school was estimated to cost £5000 and a timber one could be built for around £2852.[9]
\nThe new school building was a showcase of the revised design elements of Department of Public Works (DPW) designs. From 1893 DPW greatly improved the natural ventilation and lighting of classroom interiors, experimenting with different combinations of roof ventilators, ceiling and wall vents, larger windows, dormer windows and ducting. Achieving an ideal or even adequate level of natural light in classrooms, without glare, was of critical importance to educators and consequently it became central to the design and layout of all school buildings.
\nIn c1909 high-set timber buildings were introduced, providing better ventilation as well as further teaching space and a covered play area underneath. This was a noticeable new direction and this form became a characteristic of Queensland schools. A technical innovation developed at this time was a continuous ventilation flap on the wall at floor level. This hinged board could be opened to increase air flow into the space and, combined with a ceiling vent and large roof fleche, improved internal air quality and decreased internal temperatures effectively. This type was introduced around 1909 and was constructed until approximately 1920.[10]
\nFrom around 1909 windows were rearranged and enlarged to provide a greater amount of gentle, southern light into the room and desks were rearranged so that the light would fall onto students’ left hand sides to avoid throwing shadows onto the pages; this presupposed that all students were right-handed. This often meant a complete transformation of the fenestration of existing buildings. Windows were larger and sills were lowered to let in more light generally. Smaller classrooms were preferred as they were easier to light correctly. Interiors became lighter and airier and met with immediate approval from educationalists.[11]
\nThe years of experimentation culminated in the 1914 introduction of the suburban school type (C/T8) that solved many of the problems of light, ventilation, and classroom size that plagued previous school designs, as well as providing the ideal, modern education environment.[12]
\nThe new Enoggera State School (type C/T8) was opened on 7 October 1916, by the Minister for Education, J F Hardacre. Concurrently, a roll of honour was unveiled, honouring more than 50 committee men, teachers and scholars who volunteered to serve in the war. The Minister described the school as the same type as Cannon Hill State School [QHR 602854] which had opened the previous year. The Enoggera School faced south onto South Pine Road, whereas the Cannon Hill School faced north. The timber building on brick piers, had asbestos slates on the roof, and pressed metal coved ceilings. The two main classroom wings (Block A on an east-west axis and Block B to its west) were placed at right angles to each other, with smaller wings housing hat and cloakroom and teachers rooms, placed diagonally at each veranda end, creating a part courtyard effect. The plans for the school indicate that Block A was divided into three classrooms with ‘accordion petitions’ and Block B into two classrooms. The north wall of Block A , which had no verandah, contained high windows at each end and a large bank of windows in the middle providing left hand light to pupils in the middle classrooms. The large windows on the gable ends provided left hand light to the other classrooms, the classrooms were 22 ft (6.7m) wide and each allowed for 40 pupils. Each block had a prominent central ventilation fleche linked by ducts to ceiling vents. The school at that time had an enrolment of 230 and the new buildings could accommodate 250. The site was planned so another wing could be added in the future. In 1917, the original 1871 school building was gifted to the community for use as a School of Arts.[13]
\nThe school committee inaugurated an annual fund raising event in 1923 to provide for the construction of tennis courts and tree planting. Tennis and basketball courts were built on the north western corner of the site. By July 1925, the school needed to expand further. The school committee approached the minister for Public Instruction, Mr T Wilson, MLA, seeking a new teacher’s residence and the removal of the existing one from the centre of the playground. The School of Arts (1871 school) remained on the school grounds until late 1925 when it was relocated to its present position at 349 Wardell Street; by that time jointly owned by the RSSILA and re-erected as a Memorial Hall. Tenders were called for the removal of the old school residence in November 1925. The school committee held its third annual fund raising event in a recently completed gymnasium on the site in February 1926. The tennis and basketball courts were reportedly recently upgraded.[14]
\nBy 1925 the school which was designed for 320 students, had enrolments of 450 and classes had to be held on verandahs and in the hat enclosures. A new wing was required, but not immediately provided. Tenders were called in August 1930 for the new wing, and outbuildings; J Wight of Milton the successful tenderer at a price of £98/10/-. While the new structure matched the existing wing, fulfilling the site layout design developed in 1915, it did not include the pressed metal ceilings featured in the earlier buildings due to financial restraints. The building (Block D) opened in March 1931. The final cost was £1105, but two classes still had to be accommodated on verandahs. Accommodation pressures were eased with the opening of the Everton Park State School (known as Bunyaville) in 1934.[15]
\nEnoggera State School celebrated its diamond jubilee (one year late) in November 1932, attended by parents and past students. The school grounds were extended by 1821m2 to the east in April 1935. A fete was held in October 1936 to raise funds for continued improvements to the school grounds. The committee had already provided a tennis and basketball court, and a concrete cricket wicket. By mid-1937, the committee was advocating the construction of another wing for the school. The local MLA Mr G Taylor advised that finance had been approved for this addition in November 1937. It was not completed until 31 July 1939 at a cost of £1810. The new wing (Block C) provided two more classrooms, a teacher’s room with hat room and was roofed in red fibre cement slates. It was built on concrete piers and was cemented underneath. This wing was built to the northwest of the 1916 buildings, linked to existing verandas and parallel to the western boundary of the school reserve.[16]
\nFollowing the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941 and the escalation of WWII into the Pacific region, the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942. Although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended.[17] Slit trenches, for protecting the students from Japanese air raids, were also dug at Queensland state schools, often by parents and staff. Only two teachers and four parents turned up to help did the trenches at Enoggera in January 1942.[18]
\nThe Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education between the late 1940s and the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Brisbane had grown from a population of 326,000 in 1939 to 425,000 in 1951, and new housing estates were developed around Enoggera and elsewhere. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended. In 1948 the Department of Education built four temporary classrooms and two army huts were sourced to provide four more classrooms to accommodate 240 extra students.[19]
\nApproval for the expenditure of £3890 for Enoggera State School was given late in 1949. Enrolments by that time were 685 students. The original 1941 plan was fulfilled with the construction during 1950, of another building comprising two classrooms (Block E) on the north east corner of Block A. A new fence was built in 1950. A prefabricated Boulton and Paul classroom was added to the south east corner of the Block E in 1952. The three earliest buildings (Blocks A, B & D) which were roofed in asbestos slates, were reroofed in 1953 and the decorative roof fleches removed. During late 1954, the interiors and exteriors were painted. One acre of land opposite the school in South Pine Road was acquired for new tennis courts, funded by the efforts of the Enoggera State School Welfare Association. This project was completed in October 1954 and a demonstration match by local tennis stars was held at the opening event. School enrolments had reached 900 by 1954.[20]
\nIn August 1954, additional classroom building costing £7266 was planned for the Enoggera State School, replacing some of the temporary army huts. This building faced South Pine Road and was an extension to Block D comprising four classrooms and a library completed in 1955. In 1956, an addition of similar design was added to the Boulton and Paul structure on Block E, comprising five classrooms. Further additions in 1957 included a new classroom to the southern end of Block B and new toilets serviced by a new septic system: boys’ toilets under a new classroom at the northern end of Block E and girls’ toilets under the library at the eastern end of the Block D 1954 extension. Another new classroom was added to the northern end of Block C in 1958. The school had an enrolment approaching 1000 by 1959. The Welfare Committee began fundraising to build a pool.[21]
\nChanges to the education system occurred in 1963 with the abolition of the Scholarship Exam and the transfer of Year 8 to High School. The Department transferred the 1956 northeastern wing (Block E extension) to the Everton Park High School in 1965.The school site and the tennis courts site were re-gazetted in April 1966 as Reserve for School Purposes (R.758), comprising 1.66ha.[22]
\nThe pool was built on a site in the northwest corner of the school yard – the site of the early tennis courts. The pool was completed in 1968, but the filtration system took a further year. The pre-school was planned and approved in 1973. Land was acquired for a pre-school building along Laurel Street in December 1973 and March 1974, totalling 1822m2. The pre-school opened in 1975. School enrolments were dropping back to the level of the 1920s. In 1978, the school properties on either side of South Pine Road were re-gazetted as R.758, Lots 1052 and 1053 on Sl8734. By 1985, enrolments were 250 students. When enrolments dropped to 120 in 1995, it meant the school was no longer entitled to a non-teaching principal. An area in front of Block D, (13.6m deep and 59m wide) was added to the road reserve in November 2000. A new multipurpose court was built to the east of Block D facing South Pine Road during the 2000s. In 2015, the school disposed of the tennis courts site on the southern side of South Pine Road (Lot 1053). Approval for the sale was given in June 2013 in order to fund the construction of a hall. The Enoggera State School Performing Arts Centre was built during 2016 on the site of the former pre-school; pre-school having been replaced by prep in 2007. Year 7 moved to high school in 2015. By 2017 school enrolments were 300 students.[23]
\nIn 2019, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains a complex of five Suburban Timber School Buildings, with play areas, sporting facilities and courtyard spaces. The school is important to Enoggera, as a key social focus of the community, as generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
","criteria":"Enoggera State School (established in 1871) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland.
\nThe Suburban Timber School Buildings, Blocks A & B (1916), Block C (1939), Block D (1931) and Block E (planned 1940, built 1950), represent the culmination of years of experimentation with light, classroom size and ventilation by the Department of Public Works. These standard government designed school buildings were an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies. The school reflects the development of Enoggera, as it evolved from a 19th century farming community to an early 20th century suburban community.
\nThe large suburban landscaped site, including playing field and sporting facilities, demonstrates educational philosophies that promoted the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Enoggera State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a suburban Queensland State School complex. These include: teaching buildings constructed to a standard design by the Department of Public Works that incorporate classrooms with high levels of natural light and ventilation, verandahs and covered play spaces; standing on landscaped grounds with sporting facilities, and assembly and play areas.
\nThe Suburban Timber School Buildings (Blocks A, B, C, D and E) are good examples of their type and have a high degree of integrity. They demonstrate the principal characteristics, including: a symmetrical plan of rectangular, gable-roofed, timber-framed wings, highset with play space beneath, and connected via continuous verandahs; verandahs with arched timber brackets and hat enclosures; projecting teachers rooms; coved ceilings of pressed metal and V-jointed (VJ) timber; deliberate placement of windows to light classrooms from the student’s left hand side; and passive ventilation features including ceiling vents, and continuous vents at floor level (to Block A and B).
|Enoggera State School has a strong and ongoing association with past and present pupils, parents, staff members, and the surrounding community through sustained use since its establishment in 1871. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Enoggera, with generations of children taught at the school, and has served as a prominent venue for social interaction and community focus. Contributions to its operations have been made through repeated local volunteer action, donations, and the Parents and Citizens Association.
\n","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650087,"name":"Dutton Park State School","alternate_name":"Woolloongabba State School | Woolloongabba Boys State School | Dutton Park Boys State School","street_address":"112 Annerley Road","suburb":"DUTTON PARK","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-11-30","description":"
Dutton Park State School occupies a 2.036ha site in Dutton Park, a suburb approximately 2.67km south of the Brisbane CBD. The school is accessed via a driveway connected to Annerley Road to the west and a walkway connected to the Boggo Road Busway to the east. The site is bounded on its other sides by a train line (northeast) and Dutton Park Police Station (south). A complex of teaching buildings stand on the eastern half of the site, with a large playing field occupying the western half, bordered by mature trees along Annerley Road.
\nFeatures of state level cultural heritage significance of Dutton Park State School are:
\nBlock B: Open-air Annexe (1916, relocated to current site 1935 with alterations 1925, 1936, 1954 and 1985)
\nBlock B is a timber-framed, highset Open-air Annexe teaching building with a Dutch-gable roof and long sides facing north and south. The building has a north-facing verandah (now enclosed) accessing three, southern classrooms.
\nFeatures also of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state level cultural heritage significance comprise all alterations and additions post 1936, including:
\nBoys and Girls Interwar Concrete Toilet Blocks (1936)
\nThe Boys and Girls Interwar Concrete Toilet Blocks are two, highly intact, symmetrical, single storey toilet blocks that are located at the north and southeast site boundaries, respectively. They have well composed elevations comprising concrete plinths, in-situ concrete walls with high openings with timber batten screens, and hipped roofs. The Boys Interwar Concrete Toilet Block is larger and rectangular with its long sides facing northeast and southwest. The Girls Concrete Toilet Block is also rectangular with its long sides facing north and south. Each has a front entry accessed by concrete stairs with metal pipe railings and balustrades. Original access openings are to the short sides of the blocks, although these have been boarded over along the back entries.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLandscape Features
\nThe school grounds are well-established, with sporting facilities including a large playing field occupying the western half of the school site.
\nMature fig trees (Ficus benjamina) and cocos palm trees (Syragrus romanzoffiana) stand along the western, Annerley Road boundary of the site.
\nFeatures not of State Level Cultural Heritage Significance
\nFeatures of Dutton Park State School not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\n","history":"
Dutton Park State School is located in the suburb of Dutton Park, approximately 2.67km south of the Brisbane central business district (CBD). It was established in 1884 as Woolloongabba State School on the northern side of a large school reserve. In 1886 the school was divided into Woolloongabba Girls and Infants State School, using the existing buildings, and the Woolloongabba Boys State School, established on the current Dutton Park State School site. Renamed Dutton Park Boys State School and Dutton Park Girls and Infants State School in 1910, the schools amalgamated in 1935 as Dutton Park State School, on the boys school site. The school is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains a rare Open-air Annexe (1916, now called Block B) and two intact Interwar Concrete Toilet Blocks (1936); set in landscaped grounds with mature trees, play areas and sporting facilities. Dutton Park State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Dutton Park community.
\nEuropean settlement of the Dutton Park area proceeded slowly. From the 1840s, farms were established near the Brisbane River. Land in the vicinity of the later Dutton Park school site was surveyed in 1863 for future government uses. By 1883 there were about ten residences along Gladstone Road, most on large allotments on the ridge overlooking the river. In 1883, the new Brisbane gaol on Annerley Road (formally Boggo Road) [QHR601033] opened, as did the Diamantina Orphanage, located to its southeast. Residential subdivision of land, from large land holdings around the future school site, occurred during Brisbane's 1880s land boom. As transport became available, more people moved to the district. A railway station opened at Dutton Park (called Boggo Junction station, now Dutton Park station) in 1884. The first horse-drawn bus service linking Dutton Park with the city commenced in 1890 and was replaced by electric tram along Gladstone Road by 1908, which stimulated rapid development of the area. In 1914 the suburb was named in honour of Charles B Dutton, Secretary of Public Lands between 1883 and 1887.[1]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past students, parents, and teachers.[2]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting and ventilation.[3]
\nIn 1882 the Woolloongabba community united to raise money for a school in the area, as existing schools at Kangaroo Point and South Brisbane were considered too far away. With the assistance of Simon Fraser, M.L.A., their efforts came to fruition. A four-acre (1.62ha) site bounded by Annerley and Park Roads and Merton Street, was granted and construction of the school began in late 1883. Woolloongabba State School opened on 1 September 1884, with more than 400 students.[4]
\nEnrolments at the school quickly increased. Within a few months, the average daily attendance was about 555 students.[5] Consequently, it was decided to separate the school into a Girls and Infants school, and a Boys school. In 1884, the school reserve was extended by four acres (1.62ha) to the south to accommodate the new boys school building. Work commenced on the Woolloongabba Boys School, sited on the southern portion of the school reserve, in 1885. It opened on 5 July 1886 with 353 boys enrolled.[6]
\nIn 1889, 1.5 acres (0.61h) of land was resumed from the school reserve for re-alignment of the Cleveland railway line, dividing the Girls and Infants School (north of the railway line) from the Boys School (south of the railway line).[7]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as playing fields and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.[8]
\nWoolloongabba (Dutton Park) State School participated in Arbor Day from 1890. In 1892 the children planted trees on both sides of the railway cutting. Closure of part of Annerley Road in 1907 provided additional land to the school grounds. A contemporary pupil reported that a row of palms was planted along the Annerley Road boundary by the whole school in 1908.[9]
\nIn 1910, the Woolloongabba Girls and Infants State School and Woolloongabba Boys State School were renamed the Dutton Park State School for Girls and Infants and the Dutton Park State School for Boys.[10]
\nDue to the need for more accommodation, an Open-air Annexe (now called Block B) was constructed at Dutton Park State School for Girls and Infants in 1916.[11] Open-air Annexes were introduced as a standard design in 1913 by the Department of Public Works (DPW) in conjunction with the Department of Public Instruction.[12] This design was developed in response to contemporary medical thought related to the need for adequate ventilation and high levels of natural light for health, coupled with the need to build cheap, portable schools. Dr Eleanor Bourne had been appointed the first Medical Inspector of Schools in 1911 and under her instruction the relationship between classroom environment and child health was given prominence. Subsequently, school architecture evolved through iteration and experimentation to improve interior light and ventilation. The Open-air Annexe type achieved maximum ventilation and natural light; it comprised one large room and had only one wall, the western verandah wall. The other sides were open with only adjustable canvas blinds for enclosure. Ideally, they were high-set, thereby increasing the ventilation and providing further shelter underneath. The design was praised by educationalists as conducive to the good health of students.[13]
\nDutton Park State School’s Open-air Annexe was opened by the Minister for Education, Herbert F Hardacre, and the Home Secretary, John Huxham, at an official ceremony on 29 July 1916.[14] The building was 51ft x 21ft (15.5m x 6.4m) with a 10ft (3m) west-facing verandah; while a 5ft (1.5m) gangway along one side of the Annexe connected it to another building. The Open-air Annexe, a highset timber building on brick piers, had a Dutch-gable, iron roof, and a verandah with decorative timber brackets to its six-bay of perimeter posts. The interior had a coved ceiling lined with pressed metal. The building accommodated 140 students. Constructed by day labour, the open-air annexe cost £969 19s 3d, including its embanked site and furniture.[15]
\nHowever, Open-air Annexes proved to be inadequate because the open sides provided limited weather protection and climate control, and the canvas blinds deteriorated quickly. The building type was discontinued in 1923, after many had been constructed across Queensland. All were modified to provide better enclosure. In 1925, the Dutton Park Girls and Infants School’s Open-air Annexe was enclosed with sliding sash windows, a typical modification of Open-air Annexes in Queensland schools in the 1920s.[16]
\nIn the 1920s and 1930s, substantial changes to the school grounds occurred. In 1925, the railway cutting that divided the Dutton Park schools was widened, requiring relocation of the northern wing of the original 1886 boys school.[17] In 1927, the school reserve was extended to the south, through resumption of a triangular portion of the gaol reserve.[18] In the following years, improvements were made to the grounds including drainage, fencing, and landscaping, and a pedestrian pathway was created along the southern boundary of the school, which is now the driveway from Annerley Road.[19] In 1930, nine Depression relief workers employed under the Queensland Government’s Unemployment Relief Scheme, administered by the DPW during the Great Depression (1929-1930s), were improving the playing grounds and preparing a playing field.[20]
\nIn 1933, concern about decreased enrolments at the girls and infants and boys schools led to discussion by the school committee of amalgamation of the schools. It was proposed that, due to the recent improvements to its grounds and modernisation of its classrooms, the boys school should be the site of the amalgamated school.[21]
\nBy 1934, the decision to locate the Dutton Park State School at the boys school site had been made. Plans to accommodate the increased student population were created in 1934. These included extension of an existing building to provide an extra classroom and a teachers room; relocation of the Open-air Annexe (1916) to the boys school site; and construction of two concrete toilet blocks.[22] The Girls and Infants school site, north of the railway line became an opportunity school.
\nThe Open-air Annexe was relocated to its present site, and re-oriented to face north, in time for the commencement of the 1935 school year. A drawing shows the building contained three classroom separated by folding partitions with doors, verandahs on three sides and hat rooms at the ends of verandahs. The side verandahs (east and west) were additions. Along the north verandah wall, doors were relocated into new openings, and a double hung window with fanlight was added. A new, VJ timber-lined ceiling replaced the pressed metal one. Stairs were centrally located from the verandah.[23] Toilets were added to the understorey in 1936.[24]
\nFrom January 1935, the Dutton Park schools were amalgamated as Dutton Park Primary School, with 755 students enrolled.[25] To provide up-to-date amenities to the newly combined school, two sewered Interwar Concrete Toilet Blocks were added to the site in 1936 at a cost of £1637. Detached brick or concrete toilet blocks were an uncommon addition to schools at this time, as detached toilet blocks were more likely constructed using timber, and most Depression-era Brick School Buildings included toilets in their understorey.[26] Similar designs were produced in the same year for Babinda State School and Southport State School. They were lowset, single-storey structures, with concrete entry stairs. The elevations were well composed, comprising concrete plinths, in-situ concrete walls with high openings with timber batten screens, and hipped roofs. The interiors comprised VJ timber-lined and –panelled partitions, and timber batten screens and doors.[27]
\nThe addition of these toilet blocks resulted from the Queensland Government’s plan to improve toileting amenities and sewerage connection at state schools during the Interwar period, and resulted from two government programmes. A DPW building programme to connect metropolitan state government buildings, including state school buildings, to the Brisbane City Council’s sewerage system, commenced about 1924-25. Its aim was ‘to bring all sanitary conveniences up to the approved standard and to connect them with the Council’s sewerage system, thus providing both the economical and hygienic advantages of the sewerage installation’.[28] The second initiative was the Queensland Government’s Works Programme from 1932 to revive the building trade during the Great Depression, which included £250,000 allocated for the construction of new buildings throughout the State, including sewerage installations at schools.[29]
\nAn aerial image shows the school playing field had been completed by 1936, and a line of mature palm trees, delineated the school’s Annerley Road boundary.[30]
\nThe commencement of the Pacific theatre of war during World War II (WWII), in December 1941, with its threat to Australia, resulted in the Queensland Government closing all coastal state schools in January 1942. Most schools, including Dutton Park State School, reopened on 2 March 1942, but student attendance was optional until the war ended.[31]
\nTypically during wartime, schools were a focus for civilian duty. At many schools, students and staff members grew produce and flowers for donation to local hospitals and organised fundraising and the donation of useful items to Australian soldiers on active service.[32]. In November 1942, Dutton Park State School children were collecting aluminium as part of the school’s war effort. Students had already supplied 10 tons of rubber for salvage and grown 20,000 lettuce and cabbage seedlings in the school grounds. The fully grown vegetables were collected by the Red Cross.[33]
\nAfter World War II, enrolments (Prep to Grade 5) at Dutton Park State School (485 students in 1945 reducing to 366 in 1951) were ‘comfortably accommodated in the existing classrooms’.[34] However, after Intermediate Schools for Year 6 and 7 students in Queensland closed in 1953, the Dutton Park State School’s enrolment increased to 571 students by 1955.[35]
\nTo accommodate growth in enrolments, further changes to the Open-air Annexe were made in 1954, when the side, (east and west) verandahs were enclosed, and the side walls of the eastern and western classrooms were opened onto the side verandahs. The stairs were replaced with a new set of stairs, which were reoriented to face the opposite direction, and another set of stairs was added along the same elevation. The sliding windows (1925) on the southern elevation were retained and a casement window was added at each end of the enclosed verandahs. The hatrooms in the southeast and southwest corners were lined internally to match the classroom spaces. On the east and west ends of the north verandah, the verandah railing and floor fascia were removed and enclosed with stud walls to sill height with fixed, clear glass above to the top plate to create space for hats and bags, including hat and bag hooks under the window sills along the verandah wall. Additional double-hung windows were added to the northern verandah wall to form pairs of windows. Internally the coved ceiling form was retained, and the floors of the end verandahs were raised to be level with the classroom floors.[36]
\nAdditional improvements to the school grounds were made in the 1950s, when trees were planted for shade purposes. From 1953, most of the trees (Ficus spp.) along the Annerley Road boundary and those at the foot of the playing field steps were planted by the children on school Arbor Days.[37] A land exchange with the Boggo Road gaol in 1971 swopped a portion of land on the southeast of the site, adjacent to the railway reserve, for a portion to the south of the school.[38]
\nA fire in October 1973 destroyed the entire original 1886 Boys School Building. The Open-air Annexe, Interwar Concrete Toilet Blocks, and Blocks A and E survived the fire. In 1975, two classroom blocks (Blocks C & D) were built to replace the destroyed building.[39]
\nFurther changes were made to the Open-Air Annexe. By 1985, bag racks had been added on the northern verandah, another set was added, and the partition doors were replaced with folding doors. In 1985, the northern verandah was converted into a wet room with sinks inserted at either end, vinyl flooring was added, and some windows and doors removed from the verandah wall.[40] By this time, the understorey toilets had been modified and a groundsman’s quarters added.
\nThroughout the school’s existence, there has been community involvement in Dutton Park State School and the school has been the focus and site of community events. School fetes were held from c1911 and a fancy dress ball was held annually from c1935.[41] The school’s 50th Anniversary Jubilee was commemorated in 1935, with celebrations and a school reunion, held in conjunction with the official opening ceremony of the re-amalgamated schools.[42] In 1984, the school’s centenary was marked with school open days, a reunion dinner, a school fete and the publication of a school history.[43] Another school history was published in 2009 to commemorate the school’s 125th anniversary.[44]
\nIn 2018, Dutton Park State School continues to operate from its early site and has an enrolment of about 340 students. It retains a rare Open-air Annexe and two intact Interwar Concrete Toilet Blocks, set in landscaped grounds with assembly and play areas, sporting facilities, and mature trees. The school is important as a key social focus for the Dutton Park community as generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
","criteria":"Dutton Park State School (established as Woolloongabba State School in 1884) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. It retains representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies set in landscaped grounds with provision of play areas, sporting facilities and mature trees.
\nThe Open-air Annexe (Block B, 1916) is a representative example demonstrating the medical and educational theories of the period, which valued fresh air and sunlight. The enclosure of the annexe in 1925 demonstrates standard adaptations to the open-air classroom type to improve its functionality.
\nTwo Interwar Concrete Toilet Blocks (Girls and Boys, 1936) and the initial formation of the school playing field (1930) are a result of the Queensland Government’s building and relief work programs during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
\nThe suburban site with mature trees, and play and sporting facilities, demonstrates the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Dutton Park State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school. These include: teaching buildings constructed to standard Government designs that have classrooms with high levels of natural light and ventilation; generous landscaped grounds with shade trees and play areas; and toilet facilities.
\nThe Open-air Annexe (Block B, 1916) is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its standard type designed by the Department of Public Works (DPW) and is a rare example. These characteristics include: highset, timber-framed construction; single skin verandah wall; northern verandah (now enclosed); internal, VJ timber linings; and coved ceiling with steel tie rods and VJ timber lining with timber lattice ceiling vents.
\nThe Open-air Annexe is also important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of later, typical enclosures made to the standard type, including weatherboard cladding (exterior), VJ timber lining (interior) and timber-framed windows.
\nThe Interwar Concrete Toilet Blocks (Girls and Boys, 1936) are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of toilet blocks built on school sites during the interwar period, and are highly intact examples. These characteristics include: their discreet locations on the boundaries of the school site; lowset, single storey, in-situ concrete construction; concrete plinths; concrete entry stairs; VJ timber-lined and -panelled partitions; timber batten screens and doors; and hipped roofs.
|Dutton Park State School has a strong and ongoing association with former students, parents, staff members and the surrounding Dutton Park community. Operating since 1884, generations of students have been taught at the school. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Dutton Park and as a focus for the community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650088,"name":"Hamilton State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Oxford Street","suburb":"HAMILTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-11-30","description":"Hamilton State School is located at the eastern end of the Brisbane suburb of Hamilton, approximately 6.3km northeast of the city centre. It occupies a rectangular, 0.81ha site bounded by Oxford Street to the west and Windsor Street to the east, within a residential area on the south side of Doomben Railway Station. The site, accessed from Oxford Street, is beautified by mature trees lining the street boundaries, and the grounds include a forecourt, tennis court and rear parade ground.
\nFacing Oxford Street and centrally located on the site is the only building of state-level cultural heritage significance, Block A (1907, Urban Brick School Building). Significant building fabric includes the 1945 additions and alterations.
\nBlock A, Urban Brick School Building (1907, with 1945 additions)
\nBlock A is a highset, brick and timber building with an undercroft. It contains four classrooms on the first floor linked by verandahs along the length of the east and west sides. Both verandahs have a centrally-located teachers room, and are accessed by two sets of timber stairs, positioned on either side of each teachers room. Parts of the undercroft are enclosed and contain store rooms, toilets, an Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) room, and a tuck shop.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nGrounds
\nThe school has a tradition of boundary tree plantings and the grounds retain numerous mature trees, including weeping figs (Ficus benjamina) and camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora) along the Oxford Street boundary; and weeping figs, a Moreton Bay fig (Ficus macrophylla) and Moreton Bay chestnuts (Castanospermum austral) along the Windsor Street boundary. A mature leopard tree (Libidibia ferrea) stands in the south-eastern corner of the grounds.
\nA multi-purpose sports court on the site of the original tennis court lies to the north of Block A. An open parade ground extends from the east (rear) side of Block A. On the west (front) side of Block A is a forecourt area that is landscaped with an established, 1970s scheme of gardens, trees and paths.
\nThe flat and largely open site allows attractive views of Block A from Oxford and Windsor streets, framed by trees.
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance
\nNon-significant building elements include: Louvre windows to the classrooms; 1998 verandah enclosures to the east verandah; concertina folding doors; flat linings to the west verandah ceilings; post-1945 roller doors, partitions, doors and toilet fitouts to the undercroft; modern floor finishes and cabinetry; and lights, fans, solar panels and air-conditioning systems.
\nNon-significant elements of the grounds include: the 1945 former boys toilet block, (adjacent to the southern boundary); other buildings, structures and sheds; gardens; pathways; fencing; shade sails; and playground equipment.
\nNon-significant features within the road reserve include: the footpath, road surface, kerb, and all other road infrastructure.
\n","history":"
Hamilton State School, opened in 1907, is located in the riverside residential suburb of Hamilton, 6.3km north-east of Brisbane’s central business district (CBD). The school is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It comprises an attractive Urban Brick School Building (1907), set in landscaped grounds with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Hamilton community.
\nLocated within the traditional lands of the Turrbal people, the school site was part of more than 65-acres (26.3ha) purchased from the New South Wales government in 1843 by Captain John Clements Wickham, the Government Resident in Brisbane until 1859. Subsequent to his death in 1864, his trustees subdivided the land and a ‘monster land sale’ of the Wickham Estate at Hamilton was announced in the press in April 1885.[1] Between December 1886 and March 1889, the 20 residential allotments that later formed the school site, totalling two acres (0.81ha), were purchased by Henry Charles Cleeve, a commission agent. He was declared insolvent in 1891 and the property was transferred to Mary Jane Hampstead in 1892.[2]
\nThe suburb of Hamilton, initially accessed via Eagle Farm Road (later Hamilton Road and now Kingsford Smith Drive) from the convict-built Breakfast Creek Bridge, was noted by the 1860s for its fine villas and gentlemen’s estates sited on elevated land.[3] The Queensland Turf Club established its racecourse nearby from 1863, and the Hamilton Hotel, which gave its name to the suburb, opened around that time.[4]
\nThe availability of transport from the city made the area attractive for residential development, with much of it subdivided by 1895. The railway to Eagle Farm Racecourse opened on 3 September 1882. Horse-drawn bus and tram services to the city were also available, and in 1899 were replaced by an electric tram service terminating at the end of Racecourse Road.[5] Hamilton was managed by the Toombul Divisional Board from 1883, but by 1890 was a separate division, becoming Hamilton Town Council by 1904.[6]
\nThe closest state school for Hamilton residents was the Eagle Farm State School on Nudgee Road, which had operated since 1864. It was considered too distant from the growing population in the new subdivisions, and in poor condition. A request for a new school in the Eagle Farm-Hamilton area was made in 1899. Hampstead’s land was purchased by the Department of Public Instruction in January 1900. Representatives of the Eagle Farm School Committee met with the Minister for Education to request a new school be built on this Hamilton property, financed by the sale of the existing Eagle Farm School. However, the Education Act 1875 required the community to provide one fifth of the cost of the school. By 1905, the committee had raised the required funds and plans for a brick building had been produced by the Department of Public Works (DPW); but construction did not proceed. In 1906, the head teacher at Eagle Farm State School advised that 70 per cent of students lived on the south side of the railway line and were walking long distances to school. When the government finally agreed to proceed with a school at Hamilton in May 1906, it was on the proviso that the Eagle Farm State School be closed. This did not occur and the latter remains operational as the Hendra State School, having been renamed in 1908.[7]
\nTenders were called for a new brick school at Hamilton in July 1906. The successful tenderer was Alfred Henry Barltrop, a local builder who was on the Eagle Farm State School committee and had recently repaired that school. Barltrop’s tender was for £1531. His brother William, also a builder, was secretary of the Hamilton School Committee, which organised local member Andrew Petrie, M.L.A. to officially open the new school and hoist the Union Jack on the school flagpole on 16 March 1907.[8]
\nThe Urban Brick School Building (now called Block A) constructed at Hamilton State School was individually designed by the DPW. Brick school buildings were built far less frequently than timber ones, only being provided in prosperous urban or suburban areas with stable or rapidly increasing populations. All brick school buildings were individually designed with variations in style, size, and form, but generally retained similar classroom sizes, layouts and window arrangements to timber schools, to facilitate natural light and ventilation. However, compared to contemporary standard education buildings, these buildings had a grander character and greater landmark attributes.[9]
\nBlock A provided accommodation for 243 pupils in two classrooms. The building was 80ft by 25ft (24.3m x 7.6m) and built 7ft (2.1m) above the ground, with the area under the school asphalted as a play space. The brick walls were arched on the lower level allowing access to the undercroft. Verandahs on the east and west sides of the building were 10ft (3m) wide. Exterior walls were rough-cast rendered on the upper level, and plastered internally. The classrooms were separated by a glazed partition. The school grounds were fenced and there were four water tanks, one located beneath each corner of the building. The design of the school was described as combining the latest ideas in state schools and responding to the climate better than any other school in the state. It had an excellent system of lighting and ventilation, incorporating dormer windows and a prominent ventilation fleche.[10]
\nTeaching commenced at Hamilton State School on 19 March 1907 with 190 students enrolled. However, an inspection in 1916 showed that it was overcrowded, with children being taught on the verandahs and underneath the school building in a makeshift classroom. This was due to population growth. In the Hamilton Town Council area, the population increased by 81 per cent between 1911 and 1921. The school inspector suggested that the temporary classroom be converted into a permanent one by inserting windows into the walls to allow more light and provide shelter from westerly winds. Subsequently, in 1917 the southern end of the undercroft was partially enclosed to create a classroom for infants. Plans for an extension to the school were made, but never executed.[11] Prior to 1940 the north end of the east verandah was enclosed to create a teachers room.[12]
\nToilet blocks had been added to the site by 1930 with a girls block on the northern boundary and a boys block on the southern boundary.[13]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as playing fields and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.[14]
\nArbor Day was celebrated at Hamilton State School from at least 1912. By 1925 there were 39 trees planted in the school grounds including: Weeping figs (Ficus benjamina), Moreton Bay chestnuts (Castanospermum austral), Cocos or Queen palms (Syragrus romanzoffiana), Macadamia nut trees (Macadamia integrifolia), Camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora) and Candlenut trees (Aleurites moluccanus).[15] Aerial photography dating from 1936 shows extensive tree planting along all boundary fences, except along the eastern half of the southern boundary.[16] In July 1941 a pergola over the front steps of the school building was completed at a cost of £4.[17]
\nThe commencement of the Pacific theatre of World War II (WWII) in December 1941, with its threat to Australia, resulted in the Queensland Government closing all coastal state schools in January 1942. Most schools, including Hamilton State School, reopened on 2 March 1942, but student attendance was optional until the war ended.[18]
\nTypically, schools were a focus for civilian duty during wartime. Students and staff members grew produce and flowers for donation to local hospitals and organised fundraising and the donation of useful items to Australian soldiers on active service.[19] During 1943, male pupils at Hamilton State School cultivated vegetables and flowers in the school grounds, which were sold to raise money for the war effort, while female pupils knitted socks, mittens, and rugs for the Red Cross.[20]
\nChanges to the school were planned at the end of World War II. In February 1945, it was announced that sewerage would be installed and the classrooms remodelled. This work was funded during the 1945-46 financial year, at a cost of £4,046. It included dividing the two classrooms to create four; new hat room enclosures at the verandah ends; changes to the size and location of windows; and the construction of a new brick teachers room off the centre of the rear verandah, with a concrete floor underneath. Gas and electric lights were to be installed.[21] A new male teachers lavatory and store room were built beneath the 1907 teachers room, and toilets for girls and female staff in the undercroft. The c1930 girls toilet block was demolished by May 1946, and the boys toilet block was replaced in the same location by May 1946.[22]
\nThe Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education between the late 1940s and the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[23] A temporary building of two classrooms was constructed for the school during the 1949-50 financial year. A series of other temporary buildings were constructed on the school site, and later removed, as enrolments changed.[24]
\nA number of changes were made to the undercroft of the school building in the late 1970s, including enclosing beneath the east teachers room to create a health room (now a tuck shop), and the construction of a store room.[25]
\nAlso in the 1970s, the native tree garden on the west (Oxford Street) side of the school building was planned and planted by students.[26] In 2018, the boundary planting scheme from pre-1936 are largely retained along the eastern and western boundaries, and a mature Leopard tree (Libidibia ferrea), planted by c1960 is located northeast of the interwar boys toilets.[27]
\nThroughout the school’s existence, it has been the focus and site of community events. The school became the home of the Hamilton Progress Association, inaugurated in September 1907. The school grounds hosted a variety of carnivals and fêtes to raise money for the School of Arts, St Augustine’s Church and for the school, as well as school break-ups.[28] Other early fundraising events held included a moonlight boat trip to the river mouth in 1908, and a fancy dress ball in 1913.[29] Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, fancy dress balls were held annually.[30] This tradition recommenced c1949 and was maintained until the 1970s when they were suspended.[31]
\nOther additions to the site have been made. Hamilton State School showed a strong interest in sport from early in its history, with a netball court on-site by July 1925 and a tennis court in situ by May 1930, both on the north side of the school building.[32] A parade ground was created east of the school building by 1967.[33] The tennis court was converted to a multipurpose court by 1998.[34] The site of the netball court gained a new purpose in 2012 when a federally funded library-adminstration block was constructed in the northwest corner of the site, adjacent to the tennis court.[35] A preschool building has been added in the southwest of the grounds.
\nAlterations to the classrooms and east verandah of Block A were carried out after October 1998. Two of the 1945 partitions were replaced with concertina screen doors; large openings were cut into the eastern classroom wall; and most of the east verandah was enclosed, however, in order to preserve the original timber balustrade, the walls were stepped back. The undercroft toilets were renovated and reconfigured in 2006. The infill walls enclosing the 1917 undercroft classroom (used as the Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) room in 2018) have been removed and replaced with new partitions and roller doors.[36]
\nIn 2018, Hamilton State School continues to operate from its original site and has an enrolment of about 117 pupils. It retains an Urban Brick School Building with beautiful attributes and streetscape presence; set in landscaped grounds with assembly and play areas, sporting facilities, and mature trees. The school is important to Hamilton, as a key social focus for the community, as generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment.
","criteria":"Hamilton State School (established in 1907) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains an excellent example of a Department of Public Works-designed school building that was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with provision of assembly and play areas, sporting facilities, and mature trees.
\nThe Urban Brick School Building (Block A, 1907) represents years of experimentation with natural light, classroom size and ventilation by the Department of Public Works. It also demonstrates a growing preference in the early 20th century for constructing brick school buildings at metropolitan schools in developing suburbs.
\nThe suburban site with mature trees, and play and sporting facilities, demonstrates the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Hamilton State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school. These include: purpose-designed teaching buildings by the Department of Public Works that incorporate undercroft play areas, verandahs, and classrooms with high levels of natural light and ventilation; and landscaped sites with mature shade trees and assembly and play areas.
\nBlock A (1907) is an excellent, intact example of a purpose-designed Urban Brick School Building in Queensland. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, which include: its highset form; linear layout, with classrooms and teachers rooms accessed by verandahs; undercrofts used as open play spaces; loadbearing, masonry construction, with face brick piers and arches to undercroft spaces; and stylistic features characteristic of its era of construction, which determined its roof form, decorative treatment and joinery. Typical of Urban Brick School Buildings, it was built in a suburban area that was growing at the time of its construction.
|Block A (1907) is highly intact and has aesthetic significance for its beautiful attributes, through its symmetrical layout, elegant composition, decorative treatment, and high quality materials including face brick and roughcast render.
\nThe school is an attractive feature of the area and is significant for its streetscape contribution. Set back from the street behind a forecourt, Block A’s setting is beautified by mature trees, which frame views of the school from Oxford and Windsor streets.
|Hamilton State School has a strong and ongoing association with former pupils, parents, staff members and the surrounding Hamilton community. Operating since 1907, generations of students have been taught at the school. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Hamilton and as a focus for the community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650096,"name":"Geebung State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"250 Newman Road","suburb":"GEEBUNG","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2019-05-31","description":"Geebung State School occupies a 4.05ha site in the residential suburb of Geebung, approximately 12km north of Brisbane CBD. Positioned on a rise, the school is accessed via Newman Road to the east, and is bounded on other sides by Ellison Road to the south and residential properties to the north and west. The school retains a complex of three highset teaching buildings with a highset Administration Bridging Wing, located in the elevated northeast corner of the site and connected by covered walkways. The grounds are well-established, with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and a playing field to the west.
\nThe features of state-level cultural heritage significance within the school complex are:
\nSite Planning
\nThe site planning is typical of Queensland schools from the 1950s; with the long, narrow buildings linked by covered walkways and surrounded by open-ended courtyard assembly and play spaces. Set higher than and visible from Newman Road, Blocks C (south), D (central) and E (north) are arranged in a staggered, parallel formation, orientated slightly east of north with north-facing verandahs.
\nBlocks C and D: Boulton & Paul buildings (1953, extended D-1953, C-1954); with DPW-designed extensions (C-1955, D-1960)
\nBlocks C and D are long, highset, timber-framed, teaching buildings with gable roofs. The buildings have open play spaces on the ground floor and south-facing classrooms on the first floor, accessed by north-facing verandahs.
\nThe prefabricated Boulton & Paul (B&P) sections comprise the eastern extents of both buildings: Block D – three classrooms and a store room (former hat room); and Block C – six classrooms (western classroom combining former head teacher, teacher and hat rooms). Single room-width extensions (Block D with understorey classroom), at the western end of the B&P sections, are of a similar DPW design.
\nThe first floor and full-height gable-end walls are clad in timber chamferboards, with the B&P sections distinguishable by vertical timber strips that define the prefabricated panels.
\nThe understoreys are open to the north. The enclosed southern sides are clad in a combination of chamferboards and vertical weatherboards (B&P only). Understorey bracing walls, located adjacent to original south-facing openings, have a diagonal boarded finish.
\nEarly timber stairs at the east and west (Block D only) ends of the B&P verandahs are semi-enclosed with a combination of chamferboard cladding and timber-framed glazed screens. Concrete stairs access the understoreys.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance within Blocks C and D are:
\nBlock E: Highset Timber School Building with semi-enclosed stair (1956, extended 1957, c1958)
\nBlock E is a long, highset, timber-framed teaching building with a gable roof. The building has a north-facing first floor verandah, accessing southern classrooms. Stairs at the west end of the verandah are semi-enclosed with timber-framed glazed screens.
\nThe first floor interior layout comprises six classrooms at the west end, separated from two classrooms at the east end by a passageway that contains timber stairs and connects with the ground-level covered walkway to Block D (due to the sloping site). The classroom at the east end extends the full width of the building.
\nThe understorey is used as play space. Enclosures include a classroom at the west end that features exposed timber trusses, an adjacent room, and walls along the north and south sides of the understorey. South-facing openings access an adjacent concrete walkway and retaining wall.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance within Block E are:
\nFormer Administration Bridging Wing (1955, incorporating 1953 covered walkway)
\nThe Administration Bridging Wing is a highset, timber-framed building with a gable roof. It is located along the east side of, and incorporates, the south end of a raised covered walkway between Blocks C and D.
\nThe first floor contains an open-plan computer room (former male and female staff rooms, and former walkway) and a server room (former head teacher’s room), with an adjacent east-facing balcony overlooking the courtyard below. The enclosed understorey contains the former north-south walkway alignment and a former medical room in the northeast corner.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance within the former Administration Bridging Wing are:
\nCovered Walkways
\nCovered walkways connect the Administration Bridging Wing and Block D, and Blocks D and E. They have corrugated metal-clad roofs and timber posts.
\nThe raised covered walkway between the Administration Bridging Wing and Block D has a gable roof and open understorey. The upper-level has been enclosed with (non-significant) flat sheeting, glass louvres and metal security grilles.
\nThe covered walkway between Blocks D and E has a skillion roof, timber floor and post-and-rail balustrades. The south end is lowset and has concrete steps, with adjacent planter boxes, that connect to Block D at ground level. The north end is flanked by timber-framed glazed screens and connects with the first floor of Block E, bridging the concrete retaining wall and pathway below.
\nLandscape Features and Views
\nThe school grounds are well-established, with mature trees and sporting facilities including a large playing field (c1955) on the western side of the site. Standing in their original locations, Blocks C, D and E are surrounded by open space. There is a direct visual relationship between the structures.
\nOpen courtyards between Blocks C and D, and D and E, are characteristic of the 1950s site planning. They are used as open play-space and for assembly.
\nOpen space between and around the buildings facilitates natural light and ventilation, as well as views of the buildings in their original arrangement from Newman Road to the east.
\nMature fig trees (Ficus sp.) stand to the east of Block D and southeast of Block C, and a group of four mature mango trees (Magnifera indica) stand near the southeast corner of the school site.
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance at Geebung State School are:
\nGeebung State School, which opened in 1953, is located in the residential suburb of Geebung, approximately 12km north of Brisbane’s CBD. The school is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains its 1950s site planning; two Boulton & Paul Buildings (Blocks C, 1953, extended 1954; Block D, 1953, extended 1953), with Department of Public Works (DPW)-designed extensions (Block C, 1956; Block D, 1960); a Highset Timber School Building with semi-enclosed stair (Block E, 1956, extended: c1957, c1958); a highset timber Administration Bridging Wing (1956); covered walkways (1953, 1956); and set in landscaped grounds with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities. The school has a strong and ongoing association with its surrounding community.
\nThe 10-acre (4.05ha) school site is located within the traditional lands of the Turrbal people. This site was used for agriculture from 1866 until its resumption for school purposes in 1949.[1] Geebung remained predominately a farming community, growing fruit and vegetables, until after World War II (WWII). Thereafter, residential subdivision flourished in response to population growth resulting from immigration and the post-war baby boom. Industrial development in Geebung, to the north of the North Coast railway line (established in 1888), also occurred after the war. Geebung’s population grew rapidly from 807 in 1947 to 7000 in 1954, making a primary school necessary.
\nPlans for a school were drawn by the DPW in 1951.[2] In the early 1950s, architects developed masterplanning concepts that influenced the design and layout of the whole school. Initially, these plans were broadly based on regular and symmetrical plan forms around a central or prominent axis.[3] Geebung State School’s site planning reflected this concept. The buildings were located on the highest point of the school site. They were aligned roughly east-west and parallel to each other, linked by covered walkways, and with play and parade space between them.
\nAt this time, the overriding concern for the Department of Public Instruction was the need to build school buildings as expeditiously and economically as possible.[4] Responding to materials shortages and the pressures of the baby boom, the DPW imported a British building system from manufacturers Boulton & Paul Ltd of Norwich. These modular buildings were constructed at many schools across Queensland between 1951 and 1958, including at Geebung State School.[5]
\nBoulton & Paul buildings were timber-framed and -clad, with a verandah for circulation, and a gable roof. Ideally, they were oriented so the verandah faced north and classrooms faced south, but were also added as extensions to existing buildings regardless of orientation. The building could be high or low-set and had extensive areas of timber-framed awning windows, providing more glazing than had ever been used in Queensland classrooms; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed. Natural ventilation and lighting was abundant. The classrooms were 24ft x 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m), larger than most previous classrooms.[6]
\nGeebung State School’s first two buildings (Blocks C & D) were of this type. Block C, to the south, was a highset timber Boulton & Paul Building comprising three classrooms of 24ft x 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m), plus a teachers room and a head teachers room. Block C connected to Block D to its north via a highset, covered, timber walkway 52ft 4ins (15.95m) long. Block D comprised: one classroom, 24ft x 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m), and a hat room. Both blocks had trussed roofs and were supported on stumps and metal posts, with stairs within the verandah space.[7] The southern elevations comprised banks of awning windows. On the north elevation were verandahs with continuous posts, and balustrades of timber rails. Partitions with central doors connected classrooms. Underneath was play space, with timber bracing walls and vertical boarded enclosures to the south elevation.[8]
\nWith its buildings completed in time for the commencement of the 1953 school year on
27 January, the Geebung State School opened with 223 pupils.[9] Construction had cost £12,780.[10] Electricity was not yet connected and the school grounds were unfenced and un-landscaped.[11]
At the official opening of Geebung State School on 29 August 1953, performed by Attorney-General William J Power, accompanied by local member, Herbert F Robinson, MLA for Sandgate, it was announced that a further £1000 would be spent on ground improvements and the addition of two classrooms.[12] These classrooms were added at the eastern end of Block D by November 1953, completing the original building plan.[13]
\nThe school population continued to rise rapidly, necessitating further classroom accommodation. Between 1954 and 1960, the buildings were extended multiple times, in a style consistent with the original Boulton & Paul buildings, forming a cohesive complex. Block C was extended by two Boulton & Paul classrooms to its east by September 1954, in accordance with a plan drawn in November 1953.[14]
\nPlans were drawn in September 1954 for the addition of a Head Teachers Office, and male and female staffrooms attached to the covered walkway between Blocks C and D; and of a new classroom to the western end of Block C.[15] Conversion of the covered walkway into a Bridging Administration Wing had been planned as early as 4 March 1952, and was a typical location for an administration building in a 1950s site plan. The DPW-designed classroom addition to Block C demonstrated the influence of Boulton & Paul Buildings on subsequent school design. The additions were completed by March 1956. Unlike Boulton & Paul buildings, these were not modular. [16]
\nIn March 1956, plans were drawn for the addition of a third classroom block (Block E) comprising three classrooms, 21ft (6.4m) wide, and a connecting timber Covered Walkway to Block D, which was lowset at the south end and highset at the north end, bridging a concrete pathway and retaining wall that ran along the south side of the Block E understorey. Also planned was a Medical Room beneath the north end of the Administration Bridging Wing between Blocks C and D. Block E was supported on concrete stumps, with open space beneath for play. The building had a north-facing verandah with hat and bag racks. However, the eastern-most classroom extended across the building’s width to form a classroom 16ft x 29ft wide (4.88 x 8.84m).[17]
\nThis building was constructed to the standard plan for a Highset Timber School Building with semi-enclosed stair, introduced in 1950 by the Department of Public Instruction. This type comprised a long and narrow building with a gable roof. A semi-enclosed stair connected the understorey to a north-facing verandah running the length of the building. The building was a highset timber-framed structure and the understorey was used as covered play space. Classrooms opened off the verandah and had extensive areas of windows; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed, allowing abundant natural light and ventilation. This type was the most commonly constructed in the 1950s in Queensland.[18] The building at Geebung State School cost £12,233.[19]
\nWith the school population still rising, by April 1958 Block E had been extended by three classrooms (24x21ft) to its west, at a cost of £7127.[20] Block E was extended again, by two classrooms to the west, in the financial year to 30 June 1959, with the end classroom supported on timber trusses.[21] Block D was also extended, by one DPW-designed classroom to its west, in 1960, which unlike the earlier Boulton & Paul sections had crimped metal-clad bag rack balustrades to the upper verandah.[22] A new classroom was created beneath this western one, to a plan approved in July 1961.[23]
\nBy May 1962, a further wing to the south was planned. It was drawn parallel to Block C, to which it connected by a covered walkway to its north.[24] This wing (Block B) was on-site by
7 July 1964, but its alignment with Block C formed a V-shaped courtyard, which reflected mid-1950s master planning rather than the school’s early 1950s site plan.[25]
Alterations were made at the western end of Block D after June 1967 to create new classrooms on the first and understorey levels and new stairs on the northwest corner.[26] A further addition, comprising one classroom to the first and understorey levels, was made to the western end of Block D in 1967.[27]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as playing fields and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools.[28] Mature trees, including two Fig trees (Ficus spp.) and four Mango trees (Mangifera indica), were retained on the largely bare Geebung State School site. By July 1955, a large playing field was formed to the west of the school buildings.[29] Tennis courts and a swimming pool with change rooms and seating (east of the tennis courts) were on site by 1968. By April 1976, the school grounds also included an adventure playground (northwest corner), and basketball courts (south of the playing field).[30]
\nOther additions to the site have been made. These include: amenities blocks (west of Block C, by July 1964); a dental clinic (south of Block B, c1978); a pre-school (on the corner of Newman and Ellison Roads, by March 1985); and an activities centre (west of Block B, by June 1980). An Assembly Hall was added, on the previous site of the amenities blocks, by November 2011.[31]
\nAlterations to the significant buildings have occurred over the life of the school. Plans for additions to the western extent of the Administration Bridging Wing were made in April 1978 and the structure is evident by May 1981.[32] Bag racks were added to the upper verandahs of the Boulton & Paul sections of Blocks C and D sometime between 1960 and 1988.[33] Refurbishment of the Administration Bridging Wing and alterations to two classrooms in Block D, for a staff room and new corridor leading from the Administration Bridging Wing, were made c1989.[34]
\nThroughout the school’s existence, it has been the focus and site of community events. Fund-raising through annual school fetes began in its first year, coinciding with the official opening of the school on 29 August 1953. Other fund-raising initiatives included auctions, bottle drives, a Highland Gathering at the school and a ‘Queen competition’ sponsored by the Returned Sailors’, Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Imperial League of Australia (RSSAILA) in 1967.[35] In 2003 Geebung State School’s golden jubilee was commemorated with a monument erected near the Newman Road entrance to the school site.[36]
\nIn 2019, Geebung State School continues to operate from its original site and has an enrolment of about 320 pupils. The school retains its 1950s site planning and intact 1950s buildings conforming to standard plans; set in landscaped grounds with assembly and play areas, sporting facilities, and mature trees. Since its establishment, the school has been important to Geebung, as a key focus for the community.
","criteria":"Geebung State School (established 1953) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains good, representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with mature trees and provision of assembly and play areas and sporting facilities.
\nThe layout of the buildings and associated open spaces reflect 1950s master planning, which provided for ordered growth from a nucleus.
\nThe Boulton & Paul Buildings: Blocks C (1953, extended 1954) and Block D (1953, extended 1953) demonstrate the introduction and adoption of imported prefabricated systems by the Queensland Government in response to acute building material shortages and population growth in the post-World War II period.
\nThe Department of Public Works (DPW)-designed extensions to Block C (1956) and Block D (1960), the Highset Timber School Building with semi-enclosed stair, Block E, (1956, extended c1957, c1958) and the Administration Bridging Wing (1956, incorporating 1953 covered way) demonstrate the evolution of DPW designs during the 1950s, based on features of the Boulton & Paul Buildings.
\nThe suburban site with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities, demonstrates the government’s recognition of the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Geebung State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school of the 1950s. These include: 1950s site planning; a range of highset timber-framed buildings of standard designs; and a generous, landscaped site with shade trees, and assembly, play and sports areas.
\nThe site planning is intact and important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of 1950s Queensland state school master planning, which provided for ordered growth from a nucleus. The three long, narrow buildings are arranged in a staggered, parallel formation fanning out from an administration wing; linked by covered walkways around open-ended courtyard assembly and play spaces.
\nThe Boulton & Paul Buildings (Blocks C and D, 1953-54) are good, representative examples of this standard type. They are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics through their: expression of the modular, prefabricated construction in external cladding; timber-framed, lightweight construction; highset, gable-roofed form with play space underneath; northern verandah for circulation; semi-enclosed stairs with timber-framed glazed screens; 24ft (7.3m) wide classrooms; flat internal wall linings; timber-bracketed eaves; and large banks of timber-framed awning and double-hung windows, with fall-prevention safety rails and window stays.
\nThese Boulton & Paul characteristics are replicated in the subsequent DPW-designed extensions, Block C (1955) and Block D (1960), but without the modular prefabricated construction and fall-prevention safety rails, and with subtle variations in detailing.
\nThe Highset Timber Teaching Building with semi-enclosed stair (Block E 1956-c58) is a good, intact example of its type, and retains its: highset character with covered play space under; timber-framed, lightweight construction; gable roof; north-facing verandah for circulation; semi-enclosed stairs with timber-framed glazed screens; and large banks of south-facing timber-framed awning windows, with fanlights. Block E demonstrates two iterations of the type: on concrete piers (1956-c57); and incorporating timber floor trusses (c1958).
|Geebung State School has a strong and ongoing association with past and present pupils, parents, staff members, and the surrounding community through sustained use since its establishment in 1953. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Geebung, with generations of children taught at the school, and has served as a prominent venue for social interaction and community focus. Contributions to its operations have been made though repeated local volunteer action, donations, and an active Parents and Citizens Association.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650230,"name":"Heavy Anti-Aircraft Gun Station 385, Lytton","alternate_name":"Lytton Heavy Anti-Aircraft battery emplacement | Gun Station 385, 6 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery | 6 (385) Australian Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery | 385th Troop, 6th Australian Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery","street_address":"50 Pritchard Street","suburb":"LYTTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2019-06-28","description":"Heavy Anti-Aircraft Gun Station 385 occupies an approximately 5180m2 rectangular site in Lytton, an industrial suburb on the southeast side of the Brisbane River mouth, approximately 14km northeast of Brisbane’s central business district (CBD). It is located on the western fringe of an oil refinery complex (c1963-present), and is accessed via private roads that lead into the complex from South Street. The heritage boundary is defined by coordinates aligning to a modern fence (not of cultural heritage significance), which separates the place from the oil refinery site.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nThe gun emplacements are in an arc configuration, radiating from the north to the southeast of the central command post.
\nCommand Post
\nThe command post is a reinforced concrete structure, formerly used as a central control point that identified and calculated aircraft trajectories, and distributed signals to the gun emplacements.
\nThe command post comprises an open pit with three connected compartments – for an identification telescope at the west, rangefinder at the north, and predictor at the south. The east side of the pit steps down to an underground, concrete-roofed plotting room, which has an escape hatch protruding from its north end. The command post is entered via an open narrow passage at the southwest side of the pit.
\nThe command post is largely over-grown by a tree at the west side of the structure, preventing access to the interior. The tree is not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nGun Emplacements
\nThe four gun emplacements are octagonal-shaped, masonry and concrete structures of a standard layout, built to house and operate 3.7 inch (94mm) static anti-aircraft guns. They are located north, northeast, east and southeast of the command post.
\nEach gun emplacement comprises a central unroofed gun pit, with a single entry point through an open side that faces the command post. The other seven sides feature roofed ready ammunition lockers, accessed via door openings and divided into seven rooms by concrete walls. These seven sides and the ready ammunition lockers are concealed externally by formed earth revetments (with the exception of part of the north gun emplacement, where the west side of its revetment has been removed).
\nWhile no guns remain in place, their locations in the centre of the gun pits are clearly discernible through holdfasts (which would have attached to the hexagonal base plates of the guns’ static mounts).
\nBlock screen walls at the entrances to the gun emplacements have been removed.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nSignificant views
\nThe place is located in an open, cleared setting and can be read as an intact complex.
\nImportant views include those to, from and between the Command Post and each Gun Emplacement. These views facilitate the understanding of the place’s historical function.
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance
\nFeatures of the place not of state-level cultural heritage significance are: the boundary fence; all vegetation, including those overgrowing the west side of Command Post and parts of the Gun Emplacements; recent graffiti; and recent moveable objects submerged in water in the Command Post’s Plotting Room.
","history":"Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) Gun Station 385 was constructed at Lytton in 1943 to defend Brisbane against Japanese air attack during World War II (WWII), replacing a 1942 gun station at Colmslie. The Lytton area, on the southeast side of the Brisbane River mouth and part of the traditional land of the Turrbal and Jagera peoples, has long played a part in the defence of Queensland. In 2019, Gun Station 385 is located within the Caltex oil refinery to the east of Fort Lytton National Park, and retains: four above-ground gun emplacements for 3.7 inch (94mm) anti-aircraft guns, consisting of octagonal gun pits, formed of cinder blocks and concrete, surrounded on seven sides by earth revetments; and a semi-underground concrete command post, comprising an underground plotting room and an adjacent open concrete pit with three compartments. It has the most intact gun emplacements of the eight known 3.7 inch gun stations active in Brisbane between 1942 and 1944, and is also one of the most visible and intact 3.7 inch gun stations in Queensland.
\nAlthough WWII started in September 1939, Australia was under little threat of air attack until late 1941. On 8 December 1941, the United States of America entered the war, following the previous day’s bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. Simultaneously, Japanese forces launched assaults on Thailand, the Philippines and the British colony of Malaya. The sudden fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942 and the rapid Japanese advance through the islands of the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) raised fears of air attacks on Australia. The first Japanese air raid on Darwin occurred on 19 February 1942; and Broome, in Western Australia, was attacked on 3 March 1942. Japanese air raids on other targets in Australia seemed likely, and an invasion of Australia was also feared.[1]
\nDue to its position in the north of Australia, Queensland was at risk of land-based air attack (launched from airfields in the NEI or New Guinea), as well as attacks launched from aircraft carriers. As a result of the growing fear of Japanese air raids, the Queensland Government issued the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, which ordered the Brisbane City Council, and other local authorities near the coast, to build air raid shelters. All Queensland coastal state schools were closed in late January 1942, and although most reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. A policy of voluntary evacuation of women and children from Queensland coastal areas was also implemented on 27 January 1942.[2]
\nAir raid shelters were a passive defence, and Brisbane – as well as other ports such as Townsville and Cairns – also needed active defence of the type provided by fighter squadrons and anti-aircraft guns. After the first US forces arrived in Brisbane in the Pensacola Convoy on 22 December 1941, the city became a major supply base and staging point for the war in the South West Pacific, and the largest US naval base in continental Australia.[3] In January 1942 Brisbane became Base Section 3 of the United States Army Forces in Australia (USAFIA), headquartered in Somerville House [QHR 600305], South Brisbane. After General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, South West Pacific Area (SWPA), arrived in Brisbane in July 1942, the city also hosted his General Headquarters in the AMP building at the corner of Queen and Edward Streets [QHR 600147]. General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander Allied Land Forces, had his Advanced Land Headquarters at the University of Queensland, St Lucia [QHR 601025]. Queensland played a major role in the build-up of troops and supplies for the joint US-Australian counter-offensive in New Guinea, which occurred after the Japanese advance was checked at Milne Bay and on the Kokoda track (August-September 1942).[4]
\nPrior to WWII, efforts to defend Australia from air attack included raising the 1st Anti-Aircraft Battery (at George’s Heights, Sydney), in 1926. This unit was later armed with British 3 inch (76.2mm) guns.[5] By the beginning of WWII in September 1939, four more batteries had been raised, and by the end of 1940 Australia’s anti-aircraft units were also equipped with 3.7 inch (94mm) guns, introduced in Britain in the late 1930s. Australia had manufactured 165 of these guns at Maribyrnong, Victoria, by November 1941.[6]
\nIn 1942, Brisbane’s HAA defence included US and Australian units, utilising both 3 inch and 3.7 inch guns, while Australian Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) units were armed with 40mm Bofors.[7] The US 94th Coast Artillery Regiment arrived in Brisbane on 29 March 1942, and sited its 3 inch guns at Heath Park (East Brisbane); Hendra; the Holy Cross laundry in Wooloowin; Amberley and Archerfield airfields; and Cannon Hill; it also deployed machine guns and searchlights at multiple sites around Brisbane.[8] Australian HAA units later replaced the US units at Amberley, Archerfield and Heath Park; but Australian factories were not able to produce enough heavy and light AA guns for Brisbane to receive an allocation of weapons until May 1942.[9]
\nThe AA guns were sited to defend Brisbane’s airfields (Eagle Farm and Archerfield), the US Navy’s submarine base at Teneriffe (established April 1942), and any other shipping on the river.[10] By July 1942 the Australian Army controlled three 3.7 inch gun stations, located at Colmslie (GS 385), Victoria Park (GS 386), and Hendra (GS 389), forming a triangle roughly centred on Hamilton; plus two 3 inch gun stations, at Amberley (GS 391) and Archerfield (GS 392).[11]
\nA map of gun stations in the Brisbane area, circa December 1942, shows there were five active 3.7 inch gun stations by this time. Three were located north of the river, at Victoria Park, Hendra, and Pinkenba (GS 388); while two were south of the river, at Heath Park (East Brisbane), and Colmslie. A 3 inch gun station was shown as active at Archerfield, while Bofors guns were deployed, close to both banks of the river, at 11 sites between Teneriffe and Pinkenba. Locations for 3.7 inch gun stations ‘under construction or construction about to commence’ included Balmoral Park (GS 387), Lytton (GS 385), and Hemmant (GS 390) – all south of the river. Notes indicated that the Colmslie gun station was to be moved to Lytton; and that Pinkenba was a mobile gun station, with a ‘static’ site to be built (where the guns would be bolted to a concrete base).[12]
\nDuring the war, other 3.7 inch gun stations were constructed in Queensland: at Townsville and Cairns, as well as at military airfields at Mareeba; Iron Range (now Lockhart River Airport); Jacky Jacky (now Northern Peninsula Airport); and Horn Island.[13] Although Brisbane’s gun stations never fired at enemy aircraft, Townsville’s guns engaged Japanese aircraft in May-July 1942;[14] and Horn Island was attacked a number of times between March 1942 and June 1943. Japanese aircraft carrier losses at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942 and the Battle of Midway in June 1942, prevented any Japanese carrier-borne air attacks on Queensland.[15]
\nIn 1943 GS 385 was relocated from Colmslie to the Commonwealth defence reserve at Lytton, on the southeast side of the Brisbane River mouth. The new site was within the former town of Lytton, surveyed in 1859 when a customs station was also established on the river. The town never thrived; Fort Lytton [QHR 600248], a coastal artillery fortification, was constructed to the northwest in 1880-82; while a military redoubt, to protect the rear of Fort Lytton from a land assault, was constructed east of the town in 1885, on Lytton Hill [QHR 601366]. The 120 acre (48ha) Lytton Defence Reserve was established in 1887, and was later enlarged, absorbing the town, which was resumed in 1891 and 1900. The defence reserve passed into Commonwealth ownership after 1901. A quarantine station [QHR 601347] was also established, south of Fort Lytton, in 1913-14; and Brisbane’s first airfield operated on the flats between the quarantine station and Lytton Hill from 1919-31.[16]
\nThe new gun station at Lytton, like most WWII Australian defence construction projects, was built by civilian labour, organised through the Allied Works Council (AWC). The AWC was formed in February 1942; and labour was sourced through the Civil Constructional Corps, formed in April that year.[17] Most of Brisbane’s HAA gun stations, including Lytton, were constructed by the Queensland Main Roads Commission, as requested by the AWC, with the Brisbane City Council also doing some work.[18]
\nQueensland’s static HAA gun stations typically consisted of a semi-underground command post, set to one side of a 180 degree arc of four octagonal gun emplacements, with about 100ft (30m) between the centres of the emplacements. There were also two to four earth-covered reserve magazines, set outside the arc of gun emplacements. Brisbane’s static gun stations were built with reinforced concrete or cinder blocks; and their gun pits could either be built above-ground (such as at Lytton), or set in-ground (such as at Hemmant). A gun crew usually consisted of 10-12 men.[19]
\nA typical command post included: an underground plotting room, entered from an external open pit which had separate compartments for a rangefinder, an aircraft spotter’s identification telescope, and a predictor. To be effective against a flying target which was moving rapidly in three dimensions, anti-aircraft guns needed to fire together, not individually. A predictor (a mechanical analog computer) was used to calculate where the aircraft would be when the shells arrived. It was manually programmed to follow a target, taking into account its course and speed, as well as the shells’ direction and velocity. This information was relayed automatically to the gun layers in each emplacement, so that all guns were trained on the same target area. The target’s height was deduced by the rangefinder, so that the fuses of each shell could be set to explode at the correct height. Without a predictor, a gun station was ineffective, but no predictors were manufactured in Australia until 1942.[20]
\nEach emplacement had an entrance corridor on one side, leading into the gun pit of the emplacement; a central group of bolts for securing the gun’s hexagonal metal base plate to the concrete; and surrounding lockers in the walls of the gun pit, for ‘ready’ ammunition, fuses etc.[21] Photographs of the Lytton gun station, taken in November 1943, show doors on each of the ammunition lockers in the gun emplacements; and pairs of cinder block walls within the entrance corridor to each emplacement – protecting the gunners from any bomb splinters from that direction.[22]
\nGun Station 385 at Lytton was a sub-unit of 6 HAA Battery.[23] Funding of £7000 was approved to construct a 3.7 inch gun station, consisting of four emplacements, one command post, and two ‘shell stores’ (reserve magazines), at Lytton in February 1943. One reserve magazine was built north of the gun emplacements, and one to the southwest. Later, another £4,430, for accommodation for 3 officers and 72 other ranks, was approved. The request for camp buildings, located north of the gun emplacements, included: a kitchen and mess for 75 people, all ranks; an administration building; a sleeping hut for 45 women of the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS); latrines, baths and laundry for the AWAS; and latrines, showers and ablutions (male), 30 all ranks. An existing house on the site was used as the officers’ mess. The gun emplacements, command post, and reserve magazines were under construction by May 1943; and the requested accommodation existed by May 1944, when the gun station’s earth cover (revetments for the gun emplacements and reserve magazines) was also present.[24]
\nThe AWAS, formed in August 1941, provided personnel to coastal artillery units from July 1942; and to Home Defence AA and searchlight units from August that year. The AWAS operated radars, predictors, height and range finders, telescopes, searchlights and engines, and undertook fire control, computing, plotting, and aircraft spotting duties. In artillery units, searchlight batteries had the highest percentage of women.[25]
\nGS 385 was in service by August 1943.[26] Partially manned by Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC) soldiers from this time, Brisbane’s gun stations were redesignated as Troops (Static), with their parent batteries under the command of Headquarters, Brisbane AA Group. By late 1943, 6 HAA Battery (Static) controlled the three 3.7 inch gun stations south of the Brisbane River: at Balmoral (387 Troop); Hemmant (390 Troop); and Lytton (385 Troop). North of the Brisbane River, 38 HAA Battery (Static) controlled the three 3.7 inch gun stations at: Victoria Park (386 Troop); Hendra (389 Troop); and Pinkenba (388 Troop).[27] The six active 3.7 inch gun stations now formed a rough oval with its centre south of Eagle Farm.
\nBy early 1944, when the fear of Japanese air attack had diminished, Brisbane was defended by 24 x 3.7 inch guns (in six gun stations); 12 x 40mm Bofors; and 21 searchlights (Townsville also had 24 x 3.7 inch guns; and Cairns 12). In March 1944, a report to the Commonwealth’s Defence Committee recommended reducing the number of anti-aircraft guns in Cairns and Townsville, as they were now out of range of Japanese land-based bombers.[28] In early 1944, VDC personnel formed complete ‘shadow units’, which could fully man the guns. From mid-1944 onwards, the AA groups in Darwin, Cairns, Townsville, Brisbane, Newcastle, Port Kembla and Melbourne were disbanded, with all AA defences in Brisbane disbanded in late 1944.[29]
\nAfter the war, Brisbane’s defences were dismantled. By 1963, the Lytton gun station’s accommodation huts had been removed, although the gun emplacements, command post and two reserve magazines remained. That year several fuel tanks, part of a new Ampol refinery, were already under construction, to the north of the gun station.[30] The southwestern reserve magazine and the house which had been used as an officer’s mess were removed in the 1960s; the northern reserve magazine and the earth revetment on the west side of the northernmost gun emplacement were removed in the 1970s.[31] In 1990, Fort Lytton was declared a Historic National Park, after being relinquished by Ampol. The remaining refinery land, including the former GS 385, later became a Caltex refinery.[32] Photographs from inside the command post, taken in 2000, show caricatures of an Australian officer and a Japanese soldier, drawn on the walls.[33] In 2019 the grassed site of GS 385 is fenced off, within the refinery.
\nIn 2019, of Brisbane’s eight known 3.7 inch HAA gun stations, GS 385 at Lytton retains the most intact gun emplacements.[34] GS 390, south of Fleming Road, Hemmant [QHR 601353], is the next most intact.[35] GS 387, on the treed hilltop in Balmoral Park in Morningside, and GS 386 at Victoria Park, near the southern corner of the golf course, have both been demolished, but may retain buried elements.[36] There is no trace of GS 389, just east of Bannister Park in Hendra; GS 388, on airport land north of Pinkenba; the gun station at Heath Park in East Brisbane; or GS 385, east of the Colmslie Recreation Reserve.
\nGS 385 at Lytton, which retains its four gun emplacements with earth revetments, and its command post, is important surviving evidence of the anti-aircraft defences of Brisbane during WWII, and is a physical reminder of the threat posed by enemy aircraft during that conflict.
","criteria":"Heavy Anti-Aircraft Gun Station 385, Lytton (1943) is a rare, representative surviving example of the anti-aircraft defences of Queensland during World War II (WWII), and is a physical reminder of the threat posed to Brisbane’s shipping and airfields by enemy aircraft. It demonstrates Brisbane’s role as a major supply and naval base, aircraft assembly and headquarters location during the war in the South West Pacific, when Queensland was the main staging area for the Allied effort in New Guinea.
|In its siting, planning and fabric, the intact Heavy Anti-Aircraft Gun Station 385 has the potential to contribute to a greater understanding of WWII strategic defence measures for Brisbane. Comparative analysis with the few other surviving examples, and detailed examination of the features of the site, including the command post, four gun emplacements, communications infrastructure, and submerged or sub-surface features, could reveal important information about the design, operation and site-specific modifications of 3.7 inch heavy anti-aircraft (HAA) gun stations during WWII.
|Heavy Anti-Aircraft Gun Station 385 is an excellent, intact example of an HAA gun station built in Queensland during WWII. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, including: its configuration in a standard layout of a central command post with a radiating arc of gun emplacements; its construction in concrete and cinder block; its command post with an underground plotting room and an open pit comprising compartments for a range-finder, identification telescope and predictor; its gun emplacements with gun pits, ready ammunition lockers, and earth revetments (including surviving earth cover on top of the gun emplacements); and its strategic location, which allowed it to engage enemy aircraft using the river to navigate toward their targets.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650234,"name":"Rainworth State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"185 Boundary Road","suburb":"BARDON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2019-08-21","description":"Rainworth State School occupies a 2.868ha site in Bardon, a suburb approximately 4.2km west of the Brisbane CBD. The school fronts Boundary Road to the north and is bounded on its other sides by Main Avenue (south) and residential properties (east and west). The complex of teaching buildings stands on the north-eastern corner of the site, with a large playing field occupying the western half and tennis courts at the south-eastern corner.
\nFeatures of Rainworth State School of state level cultural heritage significance are:
\n\n
Block C (1934): Depression-era Brick School Building
\nBlock C is a two-storey, brick teaching building that comprises only a small (east) end portion of an unfinished larger building. Surrounded by other nearby teaching buildings, its long sides face north (front) and south with a north-facing verandahs (now enclosed to form corridors). Entrances with porticos, are on the building’s north and south sides at the west end and provide access into a stair hall. The ground and first floors have similar layouts, accommodating two classrooms each, accessed from the corridor.
\nFeatures of Block C also of state level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of Block C not of state level cultural heritage significance are:
\n\n
Retaining Wall (1933)
\nDepression-era concrete retaining wall with concrete entrance stair runs along the north boundary of the site with Boundary Road. The wall is approximately 100m in length, beginning at the edge of the school driveway to the west and returning along the north east corner of the site.
\nFeatures of the retaining wall of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the retaining wall not of state level cultural heritage significance are:
\n\n
Playing Field (1929-30)
\nA large playing field occupies the western half of the school site.
\nFeatures of the playing field of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the playing field not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\n\n
Tennis Courts (1929-30)
\nTwo adjacent tennis courts are located in the southeast corner of the site.
\nFeatures of the tennis courts of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the tennis courts not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\n\n
Features of the school not of state level cultural heritage significance
\nFeatures of Rainworth State School not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nRainworth State School, which opened in July 1928, is located in the residential suburb of Bardon, approximately 4.2km west of Brisbane’s central business district. The school demonstrates the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains the first stage of a Depression-era Brick School Building (1934) and a retaining wall with stairs (1933), set in landscaped grounds with play areas and sporting facilities. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the past and present community of Rainworth and its surrounding suburbs.
\nThe school site is located within the traditional lands of the Turrbal people. Called Upper Paddington, Bardon was surveyed in 1862, sold as country lots in the same year, and became gentlemen’s estates and farms. The future school site was purchased by Brisbane merchant, George Harris, in 1862 as part of an almost 54-acre (21.9ha) landholding. Residential subdivision of the Bardon area began during the 1880s, but progressed slowly until after World War I. The Rainworth Estate, part of Sir Augustus Charles Gregory’s former ‘Rainworth’ property, from which the locality of Rainworth derives its name, was subdivided and quickly sold in 1925.[1]
\nWith residential development came the need for a school. The Department of Public Instruction purchased two adjacent, elevated, well-drained allotments, comprising seven acres and 33 perches (2.868ha), for a school site in December 1925, at a cost of £1008 17s 6d. In July 1926 it was agreed that a school would be established. Prior to the school’s opening, local residents began clearing the school grounds.[2]
\nRainworth State School opened on 2 July 1928, with 253 students and five teachers. The new school was intended to relieve overcrowding at schools in surrounding areas and to serve the Rainworth, Rosehill and Soudan localities, and parts of Birdwood Terrace, Upper Paddington, and Bardon. It comprised two high-set timber Sectional Buildings (now called Blocks A and B) connected by a northern verandah. The buildings, of the most commonly constructed standard type at this time, comprised eight classrooms each accommodating 40 students. The building cost about £5374.[3] By December 1928, 317 children were enrolled.[4]
\nEasier access to the school for pupils and those attending functions, resulted from the opening of an extension of the tram line from Rosalie to the Rainworth Estate on 11 October 1930, terminating on Boundary Road near the western boundary of the school. Enrolments at Rainworth State School reached 415 pupils in October 1931.[5]
\nThe Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of public building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building program to provide impetus to the economy.
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work program administered by the Department of Public Works (DPW). This included painting and repairs to school buildings.[6] Extensive funding was given for improvements to school grounds, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, involving terracing and retaining walls. This work created many large school playing fields, which prior to this period were mostly cleared of trees but not landscaped. These play areas became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element.[7]Under this scheme, men were undertaking grounds improvement works to 20 schools in the metropolitan area, including Rainworth State School, in the 1929-30 financial year.[8]
\nIn June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign advocating increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public building program designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state.[9] The construction of substantial brick school buildings[10] in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government’s commitment to remedy the unemployment situation.[11]
\nDepression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type of Queensland school architecture, exhibiting many common characteristics. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings, being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions. Due to their long plan forms of multiple wings, these buildings could be built in stages, as available funding permitted and student numbers required; resulting in some complete designs never being realised. This was the case at Rainworth State School.[12]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles, which were derived from contemporary tastes and fashions, included: Arts and Crafts, typified by half-timbered gable-ends; Spanish Mission, with round-arched openings and decorative parapets; and Neo-classical, with pilasters, columns and large triangular pediments. Over time, variations occurred in building size, decorative treatment, and climatic-responsive features.[13] The Chief Architect during this period was Andrew Baxter Leven (1885-1966), who was employed by the Queensland Government Works Department from 1910 to 1951, and was Chief Architect and Quantity Surveyor from 1933 to 1951.[14] The DPW architects involved in the design of Rainworth State School were Raymond Clare Nowland and Harold James Parr.[15]
\nThe Department of Public Instruction and the DPW approved a brick school building scheme for Rainworth State School, in the expectation of growing pupil numbers in this developing suburban area. In March and April 1933, plans were drawn for two substantial brick buildings to replace Rainworth State School's existing timber ones. The centre line of the new building scheme was aligned with the existing steps from Boundary Street. The plan of the two buildings and the aesthetic treatment of the rear building to the south, which was to be constructed first, were similar to Coorparoo State School’s brick building scheme, designed in 1927 and implemented between 1928 and 1942. The Rainworth State School scheme was to be built in stages until ultimately containing 40 classrooms and accommodating 1200 pupils.[16]
\nStage One of the school scheme (the eastern section of the rear building) was a two-storey brick building (now called Block C). Its construction was completed during the 1933-34 financial year. The building was of fire-proof construction with external walls of facebrick and roughcast render, surmounted by a galvanised iron roof. It comprised two classrooms for 40 pupils each on both floors, providing accommodation for 160 pupils, plus a stair hall at the western end, accessed by north and south-facing entrances with porticos and short stairs. It had north-facing verandahs on both levels with arched openings at the ground floor and decorative concrete first floor balusters. Intended to be extended to the west, it included exposed keyed brickwork to facilitate future building.[17]
\nRainworth State School’s enrolments failed to achieve the growth expected by the Department of Public Instruction. Students often transferred to Milton State School, which had a swimming pool and offered vocational training from c1937, or to the Central Practising School in Spring Hill, which had a reputation for preparing students for scholarship examinations. The opening of the Petrie Terrace Opportunity Class in 1933, and St Joseph's Primary School in Bardon in 1938, also affected enrolments.[18]
\nConsequently, only Stage One was constructed. This non-completion of the building scheme was not uncommon among the public buildings in Queensland designed to be constructed in stages. Some examples are the University of Queensland Medical School [QHR601167]; the State Government Offices, Townsville [QHR 601385]; and the Depression-era Brick School Buildings at Ipswich North State School [QHR650021] and at Newmarket State School [QHR650020].[19]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as playing fields and tennis courts.[20] The Rainworth State School site was originally rough and hilly, with a creek running through the low-lying area at the southern end of the site. A level, open space to the north of Block A was utilised as a parade ground from the school’s opening day.[21] Between 1928 and 1935, the school was fenced; steps were dug into the steep embankment behind the school buildings; and tennis courts, and a sporting field were levelled and laid out. The DPW provided a concrete cricket pitch, and concreting underneath the timber school buildings was completed. Tree stumps were removed using explosives during a working bee c1929. Relief workers cleared and levelled the playing field and excavated the site for the grass tennis courts during the 1929-30 financial year.[22] A concrete retaining wall and steps to Boundary Road and along the northern part of the eastern boundary, were constructed by the DPW using day labour, between July and September 1932. A 100-foot-long (30.5m) section of the wall collapsed in September 1932 after heavy rain, and was rebuilt in 1933.[23]
\nThe commencement of the Pacific theatre of World War II (WWII) in December 1941, with its threat to Australia, resulted in the Queensland Government closing all coastal state schools in January 1942. Most schools, including Rainworth State School, reopened on 2 March 1942, but student attendance was optional until the war ended.[24] Air-raid trenches were dug at the school by parents and friends for the pupils.[25]
\nTypically, schools were a focus for civilian duty during wartime. At many schools, students and staff members grew produce and flowers for donation to local hospitals and organised fundraising and the donation of useful items to Australian soldiers on active service.[26] At Rainworth State School in 1942, girls in Grade 5 organised a benefit concert and raised £1 for the Smokes for Soldiers’ Appeal. A concert was also held at the school to raise money for the mercantile marine. Proceeds from the Bardon-Rainworth Horse Show and Carnival, held in the school grounds, went to the Battle Stations Appeal.[27]
\nFollowing WWII, the Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education between the late 1940s and the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[28] At Rainworth State School, enrolments increased, but not to the extent experienced at other schools, and it was not until the late 1950s that enrolments exceeded 300 students, equalling the November 1938 level.[29]
\nFurther grounds improvements were made at Rainworth State School after WWII. The tennis courts were repaired and top-dressed in 1949. In 1952, parents filled in the air-raid trenches. Shelter sheds at the tennis courts were constructed and more swings and garden seats were added to the site in 1954. The parade ground fronting Boundary Road was bituminised in 1957. In 1958, the Parents and Citizens Association (P&C), arranged for the Post Master General’s Office (PMG) to use its bulldozers and graders, to widen and lengthen the school oval, fill-in a creek, put in a supporting/retaining wall, do groundwork for a basketball area and built an access road from the school to the playing field. In 1963, the tennis courts were given a new grass surface, drainage was repaired and a new umpire stand erected. In 1964, stairs to the playing field were constructed. In 1981, an Arbor Day celebration resulted in 500 trees being planted in the school grounds but many did not survive; while a Brisbane City Council grant funded a major upgrade of the tennis courts, which were sealed, extended by 2.4m, re-fenced and their drainage improved. Further upgrading of the tennis courts with synthetic grass, improved drainage and re-fencing occurred in 2000.[30] A mural was painted on the Boundary Street retaining wall in the 1980s, and was renewed in 1999.[31]
\nAlterations to Block C took place in 1984. These changes included enclosing the building’s north verandahs by: inserting new timber-framed windows; demolishing the brick ground floor spandrel panels and replacing them with metal louvres; sealing behind the first floor concrete balusters; and adding a concrete screed on the verandah floors to raise them to match the internal floor level. The keyed brickwork on the west elevation, where planned extensions were to connect, was removed, plastered and painted over. To accommodate a school library on the ground floor, a suspended ceiling was inserted and partitions were added in the east classroom to form a workroom and store. On the first floor, the two classrooms were converted into a double teaching area by making a large opening in the partition and introducing an accordion door. Concrete block partitions were added to the first floor stair landing to make a storeroom.[32]
\nOther buildings have been added to the Rainworth State School site and existing buildings have been modified over the life time of the school. In 1981, due to low enrolments, the Rainworth and Bardon State Preschools were combined, at Rainworth State School, resulting in Rainworth Preschool operating on a full-time basis, in a pre-school centre (Block P) built on the southern boundary between 1978 and 1980. In 1983, Block D, a two-storey building, was constructed to the west of Block C. Blocks A and B were extensively modified in 1984 with internal and verandah walls removed, the verandah enclosed using glass louvres, and a sports room and a janitor’s workshop built underneath. In 1986, Block D was extended and a demountable classroom building (Block E) placed on-site. In 1987, a new toilet block and store (Block I) was added to the site. The multipurpose building/OSHC was added north of the parade ground in 1998 and two more demountable buildings were added in 2001. A teaching building (Block N) was constructed in 2014. Prep Buildings (Blocks Q and R) were erected between 2004 and 2010. Blocks K (library and offices) and L (hall) were constructed in 2010. In 2013, Blocks H and J (2001) were removed and the parade ground changed from bitumen to synthetic turf.[33]
\nThroughout its history, Rainworth State School has been the focus and site of community events. The school provided a venue for the local community – sporting, religious, political, and leisure groups – with ‘grounds to play on, rooms to meet in, secure places for storage, equipment for hire and facilities for important community functions’.[34] In return, the community supported the school through donations. Fund-raising for improvements began with the school’s opening when a fete and a dance were held on site. Fancy dress dances and fetes held at the school from 1928 also raised funds. An early fund-raising purpose was sporting facilities.[35]Milestones in the school’s history, including 25th, 50th, 60th, 70th and 75th anniversaries, have been celebrated with commemorative events, souvenirs and a published school history.[36]
\nIn 2019, Rainworth State School continues to operate from its original site and has an enrolment of almost 600 pupils. It retains Stage One of a Depression-era Brick School Building and a Depression-era concrete retaining wall with stairs; set in landscaped grounds with play areas and sporting facilities. The school remains important to Rainworth and surrounding areas, as a key social focus for the community.
Rainworth State School (established in 1928) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains a distinctive example of a government-designed Depression-era Brick School Building (1934) that was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies; set in landscaped grounds with a concrete retaining wall with stairs (1933), play areas, and sporting facilities.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building, retaining wall with stairs, and the levelling of parts of the school grounds for a playing field (1929-30) and tennis courts (1929-30) are the result of the Queensland Government’s building and relief work programmes during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression. As the first stage of a larger scheme (ultimately unrealised), the building demonstrates the Department of Public Works’ policy of staged construction of Depression-era Brick School Buildings, to accommodate growth in pupil numbers, as funding became available.
\nThe landscaped suburban site with provision of play and sporting facilities, demonstrates the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Rainworth State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school of the Depression-era. These include: a government-designed Depression-era Brick School Building with two-storey form, high-quality design with ornamental features, and facebrick exterior, set within a 1930s landscaped site with a retaining wall and stairs, play areas, and sporting facilities.
|Rainworth State School has a strong and ongoing association with past and present pupils, parents, staff members, and the surrounding community through sustained use since its establishment in a rapidly developing residential area in 1928. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Rainworth and its surrounding suburbs within Queensland’s capital as they evolved over more than 90 years, with generations of children taught at the school. Since its inception, it has served as a prominent venue for social interaction and community focus. The strength of association is demonstrated through repeated local volunteer action, donations, and an active Parents and Citizens Association.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650236,"name":"Mount Crosby Pumping Station Complex","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Stumers Road","suburb":"MOUNT CROSBY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2019-10-25","description":"Mount Crosby Pumping Station Complex occupies approximately 10 hectares of land in the two outer suburbs of Mount Crosby and Chuwar, either side of the Brisbane River, 24km southwest of the Brisbane CBD. The complex is organised into separate but adjacent connected zones that reflect the historical operations and key phases of technological development that have formed the place.
\nProcess Driven Layout
\nFreight, including coal to fuel the steam-powered pumping station, was transported from the west, initially carted overland (1892) then via a locomotive tramway (1913), with an electric winch tram (1914) used for the steep approaches to the river crossings (1899 bridge remnants, 1926-28 weir overbridge) that accessed the Pumping Station (1892) on the east bank. A branch line on the west bank curved south to a loading station for the aerial ropeway (1915) that spanned the river to convey construction materials to the treatment plant to the northeast.
\nThe flow of the river was managed by weirs (1902 south, 1926-28 north), and water from intakes (1892 south, 1926 north) on the east bank was pumped through to the Pumping Station wells, then north in underground mains (1892, 1914, 1923, 1948) to the reservoir and subsequent treatment plant. Within the Pumping Station, the engine room contained a row of water pumps set above the deep wells, initially powered by coal-fired boilers housed in the adjacent boiler house, and subsequently expanded and upgraded, including phased electrification (1938-51). A dedicated workforce to maintain and operate the Pumping station resided on elevated ‘Works Hill’ to the east, with access to the Pumping Station via a private road.
\nThe zones, and the features of state-level cultural heritage significance in them, are:
\nWestbank (Chuwar) – former resources supply area
\nBrisbane River – water supply and crossing
\nEastbank (Mount Crosby) – operations and workers’ residential area
\nViews
\nThe extensive site includes views of state-level cultural heritage significance. These are:
\nWestbank
\nOccupying a large pocket of land on the west side of the Brisbane River, the Westbank zone retains features and areas of archaeological potential from its historical use as the resources receiving and supply area for the waterworks. A later large water treatment plant has been built on much of the land and is not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nBrisbane River
\nThe Brisbane River is approximately 150m wide at this location and this zone retains features from its use as the water supply for the waterworks.
\nFeatures of the Brisbane River zone of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nWater Intake (1926) standing in the river near the east river bank, comprising a concrete water intake well, its tower equipment enclosure, and footbridge from the river bank to the tower.
\nFeatures of the water intake (1926) of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the water intake (1926) not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nWeir incorporating a vehicle overbridge (1926-28) connecting the waterworks operations of Westbank and Eastbank, standing approximately 15m downstream from the water intake.
\nFeatures of the weir (1926-28) of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the weir (1926-28) not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFish Ladder (1941), approximately 25m long, on east bank of river adjacent to 1926-28 weir, comprising a chain of rectangular stepped concrete ponds connecting the upstream and downstream sides of the 1926-28 weir. The lower portion of the ladder has been altered to reduce its width and demolish the lowest ponds.
\nFeatures of the fish ladder of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the fish ladder not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nRemnant Foundations of former cross-river coal dray bridge (1899, destroyed by flood 1927), located approximately 7m downstream of 1926-28 weir.
\nFeatures of the remnant bridge foundations of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nRemnant River Weir (1902, extended 1918), approximately 800m downstream from 1926-28 weir.
\nFeatures of the remnant river weir of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nThe Brisbane River zone has potential for sub-surface features associated with:
\nFeatures of the Brisbane River zone not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nEastbank
\nOccupying a large, steeply-sloping area of land on the east side of the Brisbane River, the Eastbank zone retains features and areas of archaeological potential from its use as the waterworks pumping operation centre (pumping station) and workers’ residential area. The Pumping Station stands on a large, flattened terrace adjacent to the river. The workers’ residential area is immediately east of the Pumping Station, on higher land (Works Hill) overlooking the station and the river. A private road winds its way from the overbridge, past the Pumping Station, up Works Hill through the residential area to meet Stumers Road, which continues past the remainder of the residences to the main centre of Mount Crosby, 400m east.
\nThe Pumping Station
\nThe steam-powered pumping station was expanded and upgraded over time, responding to the increased demands on the water supply and as new technology became available, including the transition to electrification (1939-51).
\nFeatures of the Pumping Station of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nPump House
\nThe Pump House (1892-1949) is a large masonry building standing at the front of the site, addressing the bridge road to the north. It has many attached parts to its form, which expresses the original functions of the parts. The attached parts comprise: a Coal Store on the west side; a central Boiler House; two Economiser Houses on the east side (flanking the location of the former chimney, demolished 1958); and a tall Engine House on the building’s south end with a perpendicular tall Engine House Annexe projecting from the rear. A face brick wall (1921) of arches wraps the front and east side (Coal Store, Boiler House, and Economiser House), providing a robust and attractive, unified facade. This wall retains original metal downpipes, and square-headed windows and doors with timber-framed double-hung, multi-paned sashes and timber-framed boarded French doors with fanlights.
\nFeatures of the Pump House also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nForecourt (former coal receiving area)
\nFeatures of the Forecourt of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Forecourt not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nCoal Store (1921). This single-storey building has a hipped roof clad with metal sheets. The building’s southern half has been demolished and replaced with a concrete frame and face brick structure for Well H.\\
\nFeatures of the Coal Store also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Coal Store not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nBoiler House (1892, extended to the north 1921). Attached to and opening from the eastern side of the Coal Store, the Boiler House is a single-storey building with a hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. A large concrete-framed and concrete block enclosure for Switch Room No.2 has been inserted under the roof of the southern half of the building.
\nFeatures of the Boiler House also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Boiler House not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nEconomiser Houses (southern house, 1914; northern house, 1921). These two similar single-storey buildings are attached to the side of the Boiler House, which they serviced. They are separated from each other by a later storeroom (1958), which was built in place of the large demolished chimney they fed into.
\nFeatures of the Economiser Houses also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Economiser Houses not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nEngine House (1892, extended 1913 and 1925). This tall narrow rectangular face brick building is attached to the south end of the Coal Store, Boiler House, and south Economiser House. It has a gable roof clad with corrugated metal sheets.
\nFeatures of the Engine House also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Engine House not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nEngine House Annexe (1926, extended 1941). This three level building projects from the rear (south) wall of the Engine House. On the ground floor, it accommodates a switch room and Well G (in a part basement level), an internal stair up to a first floor former Central Control Room, and an external stair from here to a second floor former electrical workshop.
\nFeatures of the Engine House Annexe also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Engine House Annexe not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nOffice, Generator, and Workshop Building (1921)
\nThe Office, Generator, and Workshop Building (1921) is a single storey face brick building standing back from the front of the site. It stands on the east side of the Pump House, separated from it by a service road. It comprises three attached sections: a front (north) section accommodating offices with a large storeroom behind; a former Generator Room and Condenser Room (now one space) attached to the rear of storeroom; and a Machine Workshop attached to the rear of the generator and condenser rooms.
\nFeatures of the Office, Generator, and Workshop Building of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Offices of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Offices not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Storeroom of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Storeroom not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Generator Room and Condenser Room of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Generator Room and Condenser Room not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Machine Workshop of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Machine Workshop not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Office, Generator, and Workshop Building not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nWell G Fan House (1941)
\nThis is a small, square, single-storey, face brick building on a concrete slab. It is freestanding to the west of the Engine House Annexe, which houses Well G.
\nFeatures of Well G Fan House also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of Well G Fan House not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nElectrical Substation (1948)
\nThis is a fenced array of external electrical infrastructure standing south of the Engine Room Annexe. The features of the Electrical Substation of state-level cultural heritage significance are those constructed in the 1940s.
\nService Lane
\nA service lane runs south from the front forecourt between the Pumping Station building and the Office, Generator, and Workshop Building. It is a wide clear lane to provide ample access into these buildings for large industrial equipment.
\nMovable heritage features
\nRemnant machinery, equipment, fixtures, and fittings are located in the Pumping Station building and its grounds. Those with provenance associated with the fabric or operation of the Pumping Station, tramway, and ropeway (from 1892 to 1949) are of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nSeveral movable features are located in the Flood Free Shed that stands to the southeast of the Pumping Station, on high land. The shed, surrounding concrete pad, and security fence are not of state-level cultural heritage significance, however, this area is used to store remnant machinery and equipment from the Pumping Station.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance of the Flood Free Shed are:
\nFeatures of the Pumping Station not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nWorks Hill
\nThis steep terrain is immediately east of the Pumping Station.
\nFeatures of Works Hill of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nThe residences stand on a ridgeline on the south side of the private road down to the Pumping Station. From lowest (west) to highest (east), these are: (closest to the Pumping Station) the Drayman’s Cottage; the four Fireman’s Duplexes; the Third Engineer’s House; and the Second Engineer’s House.[5] The Drayman’s Cottage and the Fireman’s Duplexes are similar in appearance and size but the engineer’s houses are grander in appearance and larger.
\nA row of mature fig trees (Ficus spp.) stand on the steeply sloping land behind (south) of the duplex (103 & 104), bordering a narrow service road on the Pumping Station land and shielding the houses from the station.
\nDrayman’s Cottage and Fireman’s Duplexes
\nThe Drayman’s Cottage is a small, timber-framed and -clad, single storey, two-bedroom freestanding residence with a hip roof.
\nOriginally identical, the four Fireman’s Duplexes (103 & 104, 105 & 106, 107 & 108, and 109 & 110) are small, timber-framed, single storey, two-bedroom semi-detached residences (with the exception of residence 104, which has a later (pre-c1925) third bedroom projecting from the rear). They have gable roofs and each pair shares a brick party wall.
\nStanding in modest yards and elevated on posts, the duplexes and the cottage have a similar four-room core and front and rear verandahs and the understoreys are mostly open with earth floors. The roofs are continuous over the verandahs and are clad with corrugated metal sheets.
\nFeatures of the Drayman’s Cottage and the Fireman’s Duplexes also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Drayman’s Cottage and Fireman’s Duplexes not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nThird Engineer’s House and Second Engineer’s House
\nOriginally identical, the Third Engineer’s House (111) and Second Engineer’s House (112) are generous, single storey, timber-framed and -clad, two-bedroom freestanding residences. Elevated on posts, the houses have wide verandahs wrapping all sides. An attached kitchen projects from the rear. The understoreys are mostly open with earth floors. The roofs are continuous over the verandahs and are clad with corrugated metal sheets.
\nFeatures of the Third Engineer’s House and Second Engineer’s House also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Third Engineer’s House and Second Engineer’s House not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nThe Recreation Area
\nThis sloping open area of land is approximately 3500m2 in the core of the Works Hill houses. Occupying part of Stumers Road road reserve, it is an irregular shape defined by the fences of the house yards and the road edge. It is grassed and has trees dotted across it forming an attractive setting. On the western corner of the area is a mature hoop pine. The other vegetation and driveways across it are not of state-level cultural heritage significance individually.
\nThe Recreation Area has potential sub-surface artefacts and features from the brief but intensive ‘day labour’ workforce, which camped on-site while constructing the Pumping Station.
\nThe Community Hall
\nThe Community Hall stands on the north side of Stumers Road, highly visible from and central to the Works Hill houses.
\nFeatures of the Community Hall of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Community Hall not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of Works Hill not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nfeatures of the Stumers Road road reserve including road material, kerbs, gutters, lights, signs, electricity supply infrastructure (power lines and poles etc), and underground services
\n","history":"
Mount Crosby Pumping Station Complex is located 24km southwest of Brisbane’s CBD. Established in 1892 by the Brisbane Board of Waterworks as a means of providing Brisbane residents with a reliable source of clean water, the pumping station is situated alongside the Brisbane River from which the water is taken. The complex consists of the 1892 pumping station and a series of contemporaneously built workers’ houses, which provided accommodation for employees. Associated infrastructure and industrial remnants throughout the site represent the pumping station’s technological phases. Mount Crosby Pumping Station continues to provide Brisbane and its surrounds with clean, safe and reliable water.
\nThe Mount Crosby district forms part of the traditional land of the Yuggera Ugarapul People. John Oxley first sailed up the Brisbane River in the early 1820s and named the area now known as Mount Crosby, Belle Vue. It was not until the mid-late 1850s that land at Mount Crosby began to be settled, with small farms emerging, and by the 1870s the majority of the land at Mount Crosby had been selected. Ipswich, the closest regional town, became the centre for supplies and market for the Mount Crosby farmers.[1]
\nThe provision of clean water to Brisbane residents had been a challenge for the municipal authorities for many years and in 1863, to alleviate this problem, the Brisbane Waterworks Act 1863 was introduced, which enabled the Municipal Council to construct reservoirs, supply water to the town and to charge for services, but allowed the Queensland Government to influence decisions with the establishment of a Board of Waterworks. The Enoggera Dam [QHR 6025458] was completed in 1866 and provided reticulated water to the town, and in 1871 the first of Spring Hill’s Service Reservoirs [QHR 600174] improved the supply of water to Brisbane residents. Further improvements to the water supply were made with the construction of the Gold Creek Reservoir in the early 1880s.[2]
\nAs the population of Brisbane grew and the water supply became increasingly stretched following a series of droughts, the Brisbane Board of Waterworks recognised the necessity for expansion of water infrastructure. In 1880, government hydraulic engineer, JB Henderson, recommended the construction of a pumping station at Mount Crosby, and in 1889 the Board’s chief engineer, Alexander Stewart, prepared plans for a new waterworks following the passing of legislation in 1889 (the Brisbane Water Supply Act 1889), when permission was granted to draw fresh water from the Brisbane River at Mount Crosby.[3]
\n1890-1902
\nThe new works were to be constructed on the site of a former farm, on an elevated portion of land above the river, and at the base of a high hill. A brick pumping station, installed with the latest coal-powered steam engines, would pump the water up the hill to a reservoir, where it could be stored before being gravity-fed through a large pipeline to Brisbane. It was reported in 1891 that ‘only about twelve months have elapsed since the first workman struck his pick into the side of the hill to form the site for the buildings, and now the completion of the works is close at hand’.[4]
\nThe contractor awarded the construction of the pumping station was Chamberlain & Wylie, with work commencing on the 1 August 1890. The Board appointed Joseph Stewart as Chief Engineer of the works; he would serve in this position until his death in 1919.[5] At the commencement of the work, Queensland was experiencing high levels of unemployment and it was estimated that more than 80 men were to be employed in the waterworks’ construction.[6] As initial work progressed well, in April 1891 the ceremony of laying the foundation stone was attended by numerous dignitaries, including the Colonial Secretary, Hon. Horace Tozer MLA, and ‘the stone being ready, and a raised platform having been erected for those present, the stone was laid on the left hand corner at the rear of the building’.[7]
\nWork progressed swiftly, and by December 1892 it was reported that the main brick buildings were complete, including the tall engine house, one-storey boiler house, and a 31.6m high chimney. All the bricks were locally made. There was also a timber coal shed, an office/operations room, and a timber weighbridge adjacent to the boiler house.[8] The steam-driven pumping machinery installed in the engine house was supplied by British company, Easton and Anderson Ltd., and the boiler house boilers were supplied by JW Sutton & Co., manufactured in their works at Kangaroo Point, Brisbane.[9]
\nThe engine house was a tall building, aligned east/west and approximately 23m long and housed the pumping machinery. Inside the building, five circular concrete-lined wet wells (A, B, C, D and E - west to east), were dug to a depth of 36m into the ground from the ground floor of the engine house, each with a diameter of 2.4m. Within three of these wells (A, B, and C) the pumping equipment was held, with Wells D and E remaining vacant for future expansion. The pumps were ‘vertical, compound, tandem, direct-acting, condensing machines’, and were believed to take up less floor space than other types, as the machinery was designed to work in a vertical fashion, deep into the ground and high above it in the engine house. To service the equipment within the engine house, a hand-operated traveling crane was installed, running above the wells at a high level on parallel iron rails.[10]
\nThe boiler house was attached to the centre of the north side of the engine house and was aligned north/south. It was a 44m x 13.7m structure. The eastern wall was brick and the western wall featured open arches, which provided access from the detached coal store built at the western side of the boiler house. The design of the boiler house provided space for 13 boilers, although only 8 were installed. When working, the coal-fired boilers produced the steam that powered the pumping machines within the engine house. Water, drawn from the river at an intake constructed below the station, was forced through a pipeline up the steep incline to the reservoir, initially known as the High-level Reservoir, where the water was gravity fed down a series of pipelines to Brisbane.[11]
\nThe pumping machinery, being of the latest technology, was difficult to correctly install. To assist with this, as per the contract, in 1892 Easton and Anderson sent a company representative, Charles May, to supervise the machinery’s installation. May was also responsible for running the machines for six months following the start of operations.[12] After initial issues were quickly rectified, in June 1893 it was reported that ‘those dependent on the water supply at Brisbane will be glad to know that the machinery at Mount Crosby is at length working smoothly, and that a constant and reliable stream of good water is now flowing into the city from that source’.[13]
\nA stable means of coal delivery was crucial for the running of the station. All coal supplies came from the Tivoli coal mines, several kilometres away in North Ipswich. Initially, the coal was delivered by horse-drawn wagons, each capable of holding 3 tonnes of coal. The wagons crossed the river at Colleges Crossing, approximately 2.5km south of the pumping station.[14] In 1893, however, this bridge became a casualty of the flood. The coal then had to be transported across the river in punts, a costly and inefficient venture. In December 1893 the Board of Waterworks accepted a tender from Chamberlain and Wylie for the construction of a new bridge to be built over the river at the actual station. The bridge was completed in 1894.[15] Two years later, it was washed away by a flood, but rebuilt in 1897, only to be washed away again the following year. In 1899 a third bridge had been completed, which was thought to be flood-proof.[16] Drays continued to deliver the coal to the station across this bridge and it was estimated that between 3000 to 5000 tonnes were taken to the station per year.[17]
\nThe site chosen for the pumping station was relatively remote, with only rudimentary tracks to the station from Ipswich and Brisbane. Employee housing was a major requirement for the Board of Waterworks. When work began on construction, accommodation for up to 80 men was required and tents were erected on the slopes surrounding the construction works. ‘Dotting the hillside at every eligible spot, lies the calico township of Mount Crosby, in the midst of which the great brick chimney stack … rears its lofty head’. Temporary structures were also built for offices and a store.[18]
\nPermanent housing for the pump station’s employees was a component of the Board’s original intent and in January 1891, respected Brisbane architect, Charles McLay, was commissioned by the Board to design eight houses.[19] McLay, who had been responsible for the design of the Brisbane Customs House in 1889 [QHR 600156], called for tenders in January 1891, and awarded the contract to Robert Rutherford.[20] It was not unusual in the late 19th century and into the 20th for a company to provide housing for their workers if situated in an isolated location, as Mount Crosby was.[21]
\nFor the workers at the Mount Crosby pumping station a substantial brick chief engineer’s residence, two timber houses for the second and third engineers, four timber duplexes to house eight firemen and their families, and a small timber cottage for the drayman were constructed on a site beside the pumping station which became known as ‘Works Hill’. By December 1891, the three engineers’ residences had been completed, with the chief engineer’s house located on the rise at the northern side of Stumers Road (chief engineers’ house was demolished in the 1970s). The other two engineer’s houses were built higher up on the ridge of the hill and on the southern side of Stumers Road. One year later the remainder of the housing had been completed. Situated down the hill from the two engineers’ houses, were the four fireman’s duplexes, also on the south side of Stumers Road. Unusually for the time, the duplexes were not placed uniformly, facing a road, or within a grid layout, instead they followed the contours of the hill, each with a different outlook toward the pumping station or out to the high-level reservoir.[22] The drayman’s cottage, located closest to the pumping station and on the southern side of Stumers Road, was also complete by this time. In November 1892, the Telegraph reported:
\nOver a dozen very comfortable looking houses have been erected on the slope of the hill at the bottom of which is the pumping station. The second and third engineers occupy the first two houses on the left going towards the engine house, and the eight firemen are accommodated a little lower down the slope, the chief engineer’s house, an exceedingly nice brick cottage, being near the works, but opposite to the other houses. In this way all those engaged on the works live on the spot.[23]
\nThe decision of the Board to construct duplexes rather than detached cottages was unusual, and may have been for economic reasons. Due to the passing of the Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act 1885, which legislated the size of housing allotments to prevent an increase in slum conditions, in crowded, inner-city Brisbane suburbs such as Spring Hill and Petrie Terrace, duplexes and terrace houses were rarely constructed in Queensland after 1885. As all the land on which the duplexes were built was owned by the board, allotment sizes did not need to be considered.[24]
\nFor such an important plant it was imperative to have the majority of staff on hand. When first complete, the pumps were worked for up to 16 hours a day in two shifts, requiring constant attendance at the station, in particular the firemen, whose job it was to stoke the boilers with coal.[25]
\nThe chief engineer’s role was essential to the running of not only the station, but also the high-level reservoir and the main lines to Brisbane. Clear lines of communication to Waterworks’ offices in the Brisbane CBD were essential. Queensland’s longest telephone line at the time was installed, which ran from the engineer’s house to Brisbane. As was the case with much of the station’s machinery, the use of the latest technology demonstrated the importance of the station to the region.[26]
\nOther municipal water pumping stations with steam-powered equipment were established in Queensland at this time, including at Rockhampton (1873), Ipswich (1878), Toowoomba (1879), Warwick (1887), Maryborough (1880) and Charters Towers (1887) [QHR 601081]. All were smaller in scale than Mount Crosby, which remains the only large-scale pumping station complex remaining from this period with intact 19th century workers’ housing. The majority of these sites retain only remnants of the early stations. Maryborough (Tinana Creek) still pumps water, however, there is no longer any early fabric remaining on the site.[27]
\nIn 1893, a state school, located several hundred meters away from the pumping station, along Stumers Road, replaced a smaller 1882 provisional school, providing education to employees’ children.[28]
\n1902-1921
\nIn the early 1900s, Queensland experienced a severe drought that caused the Mount Crosby section of the Brisbane River to become a series of waterholes and almost ceased the flow of water down the river. Chief Engineer, J Stewart, initially took steps to alleviate this by sending men upstream to dig channels to release water. Further emergency measures were taken when a sandbag and clay weir was built just below the 1892 intake. A permanent solution was approved by the board in 1902 and a 3m high, concrete weir was constructed 700m downstream from the original intake.[29]
\nThe quality of the water delivered to Brisbane was often criticised, as it was frequently turbid and odorous. These concerns were voiced by the Central Board of Health who believed the water was not fit for human consumption. Following several reports undertaken by Sydney and American hydraulic engineers and bacteriologists, it was recommended that a plant be constructed to purify the water before its distribution. In 1910, the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board replaced the Board of Waterworks and approved the construction of a water treatment plant on Mount Crosby.[30] Works included the construction of two separate plants – the low-level treatment works, situated below the original 1890s high-level reservoir, and the Holt’s Hill filtration plant, at a higher elevation. The high-level reservoir was then used to hold water to be used as wash-water for cleaning the filtration plant’s sedimentation basins. This work had been completed by 1918.[31]
\nMajor improvements were also made to the pumping station at this time. Much of the equipment was deemed to be inefficient and tenders were called for its upgrading, ‘the proposed new pumping plant was of three units, each capable of delivering 6,000,000 gallons [27,000,000 litres] of water from the Brisbane River in 24 hours’. The accepted tender (albeit the sole tender) was Victorian company, Thompson and Co., with a total cost of £107, 641 for equipment and installation.[32] Three vertical steam engines were to replace the older three. Three wells (the original Wells C, D, and E) were converted into dry wells and widened to accommodate the new engines, reshaping them from circular to oval. One of the original wells (originally Well B) was converted into a lift well and retained. With the expansion of the wells, the engine house required extension northwards and eastwards resulting in a larger floorplate. A new 15 tonne hand-operated travelling crane was installed to service the expanded building and electric lighting was also installed in the engine house at this time.[33]
\nFour of the original boilers were replaced with more efficient Babcock & Wilcox boilers; this required a higher roof on the boiler house. On the east side of the boiler house was built a brick economiser house, adjacent to the chimney to accommodate economiser flues, components of the new equipment. The new pumps were operational by 1916.[34]
\nThe inefficient coal transportation system was also rectified at this time when approval was given by the Board for the construction of a tramway from the Tivoli railway station to the Mount Crosby pumping station. The new line was to be maintained and worked by the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board. Work on the 7km tramway had been completed by December 1913 at a cost of £31,000. The tramway was built to first-class railway standards. As it had been privately built, however, it could not officially be termed a rail line.[35] On the west bank of the river, a 30-tonne capacity weighbridge and small cabin was constructed at the rise of the steep embankment. While initial intention was for the locomotives to deliver the coal directly to the pumping station, the steep embankments on both sides of the river prevented this. As an alternative, electric winches were installed on each side of the river to haul the wagons across the bridge to the station. The tramway was continuously used until 1945 when trucks replaced it.[36]
\nThe construction of the water treatment plant on Holt’s Hill was difficult, due to Mount Crosby’s steep terrain. An aerial ropeway was installed from the west bank, across the river and over the rugged hills, ultimately landing at the apex of the hill at the water treatment plant. The aerial ropeway was powered by a steam engine installed on the west bank and situated slightly further downstream from the weighbridge; the loading station was located here as well. Operational by 1915, the ropeway hauled substantial iron bins to and from the treatment plant’s base, with an interim stop at the low-level reservoir. The bins were filled with gravel needed for concrete making, sand for the filtration systems and many other necessary materials, ‘with the delivery of the materials for a ropeway tramway passing over the hills switchback fashion, and connecting Holt’s hill with the gravel pits, a system which would accelerate construction work at the purification works’.[37] The ropes were suspended by timber trestles (up to 11.5m high) or steel trestles (up to 27m high), depending on the height required. The aerial ropeway was used until 1931, when the east bank trestle was damaged by a flood.[38]
\nIn 1919, a hall was opened. Situated up the hill from the chief engineers’ house, it became the social centre for the Mount Crosby community. Events such as balls, community meetings, church services and fundraising evenings were well-attended by the small Mount Crosby community. In 2019 the hall is used as a child-care centre.[39]
\nFurther work at the pumping station was carried out from 1920, with the construction of a freestanding, one-storey brick office, generator, and workshop building to the east of the pumping station building. It was designed to complement the brick pumping station. Administration offices, a bathroom, and large open store area were accommodated in the front section. Behind this was a generator room and adjacent condenser room, and behind this was a large machines workshop. The southern end of the building was not enclosed, providing easy access into the workshop.[40]
\n1922-1940
\nIn 1922, the Mount Crosby pumping station began supplying water to Ipswich. Prior to this, Ipswich had supplied its own water from a smaller pumping facility at Kholo, also on the Brisbane River, but due to Ipswich’s increasing population, supply became strained.[41]
\nThe remainder of the original pumping equipment was removed from the engine house at this time, with another three oval dry pumping wells constructed at the western end of the engine house, requiring further expansion of the engine house another 12.5m west. The original Well A was demolished but Well B, the lift, was retained. In 1925, a three-storey annexe was constructed, projecting from the rear of the engine house to house a turboalternator, used to generate electricity to the pumps at Lake Manchester, several kilometres away. The upper floors became electrical workshops, accessed by an external staircase.[42]
\nThe boiler house was extended to the north and a higher roof was added over this section; a second economiser house was built on its east side, beside the chimney, and a large coal store, accessed by tram rails that ran into the building, was added along the west side of the boiler house. These new buildings had attractive arched brick façades, unifying the different sections, and were completed by 1921.[43]
\nImportant work to construct a new intake was carried out in the 1920s. It was to be situated near the pumping station and 150m north of the original intake. The design included the construction of a concrete tower on the eastern bank of the river that would hold the associated equipment and strainer wells. From the intake tower, a 1.8m wide underground tunnel would convey the water to the station, where it was distributed to the various pumping engines. The new intake was completed by 1926 and the use of the original one ceased.[44]
\nAs part of these improvements, a new weir was constructed across the river between the 1899 bridge and the intake tower. The new weir incorporated a vehicle overbridge with a tramway to replace the older bridge. Electric haulage of the coal wagons was continued across the new overbridge, with the haulage winch shifted to the north on the west bank. The design of the weir allowed floodwaters to flow through concrete pillars and, theoretically, spare the overbridge from damage. Plans were approved in 1921 and the work was completed in 1925.[45] In February 1927, major flooding damaged the new weir and all but destroyed the 1899 bridge, with one report saying ‘the main course of the Brisbane River has been altered by a huge washaway that carried away in the flood many thousands of tons of earth, tearing a chasm 50 yards wide and 20 feet deep at the end of the composite weir and bridge, and leaving the railway swinging in the air like a clothesline’.[46] The floodwaters gouged out a large section of the west bank leaving a 76m section of tramline swinging in the air. The cost to repair the damage was considerable as the weir and overbridge required further extension and stronger footings at the west bank. This was completed in 1928.[47]
\nThe Brisbane City Council took over the Mount Crosby Pumping Station in 1928, following the dissolution of the Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board. It was then administered by the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage.
\nIn 1938, a three storey extension was made to the engine house annexe to house a new circular well, Well G. Two centrifugal pumps, capable of delivering 22.7 million litres of water per day, were installed in the well and the turboalternator converted to power the new engines. A small fan house to hold a centrifugal fan used to cool the engines was erected beside the extension.[48]
\n1940-2019
\nAn unforeseen issue arose following the completion of the weir, as mullet stock, once plentiful in the upper reaches of the Brisbane River, began to wane. The weir blocked their passage upstream, following spawning season when they had travelled downstream. Anglers on the upper reaches began to notice the depleted stock, and farmers were concerned with the higher numbers of leeches, previously controlled by the mullet as a food source, affecting the cattle. Heavily depleted mullet stock was likewise identified by the coastal fishing industry. Concern was raised by the Esk, Kilkoy, and Crows Nest shire councils. In September 1940, agreement had been reached between Brisbane, Ipswich, Moreton, Esk, Laidley, and Gatton shire councils to contribute to half of the £250 it would cost to build a fish ladder. The remainder would be paid by the State Fisheries Department.[49]
\nThe Brisbane City Council built the fish ladder on the east bank of the river below the weir. It consisted of a stepping series of concrete ponds over which the water cascaded. Each step held a fairly deep pool of water from which the fish would jump 23cm into the next pool, eventually reaching the top of the ladder and gain freedom in the upper reaches of the river. At this time it was reported, ‘lately fish ladders have been in the local news. They are familiar things abroad, especially in America, and now the Brisbane City Council and the State Government are combining to build one at Mount Crosby Weir’.[50] Although fish ladders were not a new concept, with many being constructed in the USA, Canada and New Zealand to assist salmon, the Mount Crosby fish ladder is the earliest known fish ladder in Queensland. The ladder had been completed by March 1941 and in late April the Fisheries Department reported to the State Treasurer that large numbers of young mullet were using the ladder, and stocks upstream were swiftly replenishing. The base of the fish ladder was damaged in the 1980s following works on the mains. [51]
\nAs World War II intensified following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941, the threat of a Japanese attack on Queensland was viewed by the authorities as likely. Protection of southeast Queensland’s foremost water supply plant was crucial, and in 1942, three anti-aircraft guns were placed strategically at high points around the station and a small military camp was set up between the pumping station and the low-level reservoir. At the same time, the water mains between Ipswich and Mount Crosby were patrolled. Windows on the northern and eastern facades of the pumping station were bricked-in. By 1943, the perceived threat had abated and all military installations removed.[52]
\nAnother era of considerable change at the station began in the late 1940s, with the plant’s complete conversion to electricity. A sub-station was constructed south of the engine house through which the City Electric Light Company supplied the plant. A central control room was installed on the first floor of the engine house annexe.[53] From the control room a door was cut into the engine house wall, and a steel mezzanine deck was built, on which a switchroom was installed. This deck extended almost the entire length of the engine house, 7.3m above the ground floor (later removed). All the steam-powered pumping equipment was removed in stages and replaced with more efficient, electricity-driven equipment. The boilers were also removed at this time. New pumping equipment was installed, each with the capacity to hold two pumps, rather than only one steam-driven pump, as was the case prior to electrification. Each pump was capable of pumping 49 million litres of water each day. With well G also in operation, the pumping station had the capacity to pump 365 million litres per day. The plant was fully electrified by 1951 at a cost of £287,000, with the Queensland Government contributing £57,400 and Brisbane City Council covering the remainder. [54]
\nThe official opening ceremony was held on the 30 March 1951, and was attended by dignitaries including the Premier, Edward Hanlon, and Brisbane Lord Mayor, John Beal Chandler. Prior to electrification, each shift at the station had required 20 men, but with the new technology, only two men were needed.[55] The control room became the centre for the plant and was described at the time:
\nHere, on a large curved desk top, the whole installation is represented diagrammatically, the electrical supply system and the motors and pumps and valves, and in this diagram miniature switches are incorporated. These switches control the whole of the operation, and from this point the operator can start and stop pumps or operate as he wills. Coloured lights, green, yellow and red, tell a constant story of the plant operation, so the operator standing at this desk knows exactly what is happening in all parts of the station.[56]
\nIn 1953, the generator room and condenser room, located in the 1920s building, were refitted as an electrical workshop. With the new capacity, a new intake was constructed in 1957, beside the 1920s intake tower. In 1958, the towering brick chimney was demolished and the resultant space in the façade bricked up to make a storeroom.[57] In 1959, a 4 tonne electric crane was added to the existing rails of the earlier hand operated crane (which was retained). Photographs from this period show the tram tracks had been removed from around the pumping station grounds, with coal not needed after electrification; however, they remained in situ on the 1926-28 overbridge. [58]
\nFurther enhancements were made to the station during the 1960s and 1970s, including the installation of pumps in Wells E and F. A second switchroom was built under the roof of the southern half of the former boiler house. In 1975 work began on a new well, Well H, resulting in the southern half of the former coal store being demolished and a new brick enclosure constructed in its place.[59] By 1963, the pumping station was providing 682,000 people with clean water.[60]
\nFrom the late 1950s to the 1970s extensive landscaping and garden improvements were carried out. In the 1970s, the ornamental front fountain was installed. A stepped retaining wall facing the river was also constructed at this time, and a disused pumping station building from Lake Manchester was re-erected on the southern hill above the station. The 15 tonne crane in the engine house was relocated to this building.[61] Since the 1970s, few alterations to the station’s fabric have been made. In 2019, Mount Crosby Pumping Station continues to provide Brisbane and its surrounds with clean and safe water. The Mount Crosby community plays a continuing role in the promotion of their history, with an active historical society and participation in annual events such as Brisbane Open House and the ‘Back to Mount Crosby’ days.
\nThe Mount Crosby Pumping Station Complex has been an important part of Queensland’s industrial history since first established in 1892. Several important technological phases in Queensland’s history are reflected in the buildings, infrastructure, and industrial remnants. In continuous operation, the station has provided generations of workers with employment and accommodation in the adjacent worker’s houses, reflecting the importance of providing accommodation to company workers in remote locations in the late 19th century. The prominent waterworks operation, incorporating daily life as place of employment, residence, and recreation, and the relatively remote location, fostered a close-knit and social community of workers and their families.
","criteria":"Mount Crosby Pumping Station Complex, established in 1892, is important in demonstrating the substantial infrastructure built to supply water to Brisbane. Through its alterations and expansions over time that increased and improved water supply, it is important in demonstrating the changes in water pumping technology in Queensland, from steam in the late-19th century, to electric in the mid-20th century.
\nThe high integrity of the place, retaining diverse layers of waterworks features from many periods, both remnant and operational, provides a rich illustration of the long and continuous operation of the waterworks from the site.
\nThe highly intact collection of workers’ houses built by the Brisbane Board of Waterworks in 1891-92 adjacent to its waterworks, are an important example of late-19th century workers’ housing in Queensland. The houses demonstrate the need to have a dedicated workforce available to consistently maintain and operate the historically remote steam-powered Pumping Station. The range of dwelling types reflects the hierarchy of employment positions, from the small drayman’s cottage and four fireman’s duplexes (1892), to the two large elevated engineers’ houses (1891).
\nThe fish ladder at Mount Crosby, built in 1941 using funds provided by six local councils and the State Fisheries Department, was a combined government effort to save wild mullet. It is important in demonstrating a coordinated government response to ensure the longevity of a native species essential to the state’s commercial fishing industry in south east Queensland.
|Mount Crosby Pumping Station Complex is rare as the only known remaining example in Queensland of a pumping station complex established in the 19th century with intact 1891-92 workers’ housing, making this an exceptional example of its type.
\nThe complex with its diverse layers of waterworks features from many periods is rare and retains a high level of integrity.
|The extensive Mount Crosby Pumping Station Complex has the potential to reveal further information about late 19th and early 20th century waterworks infrastructure and operations, the transition from steam to electric power, and the people who lived and worked there.
\nDetailed analysis of the Pumping Station – its layered building fabric and associated fixtures and equipment – has the potential to address research questions relating to early and evolving waterworks technology, layout, construction, materials and operation. Broader analysis of the associated weirs, intakes and rising mains, including archaeological investigations to determine the location, design and construction of the original intake and tunnel, has the potential to contribute to a greater understanding of early and evolving water management systems for large-scale water supply.
\nArchaeological investigations of the remnant tramway, winch tram and aerial ropeway infrastructure, including surface and sub-surface features, has the potential to contribute to a greater understanding of the layout and operation of transportation systems associated with historically remote steam-powered waterworks.
\nThe collection of workers residences may facilitate detailed studies relating to the proximity of industrial and domestic life, and social dynamics of the community in the late 19th century. Analysis of the layout, design and fabric of the residences and associated landscape features could address research questions relating to: the rationale behind the hierarchical siting of dwellings; and how the unusual use of duplexes may have reflected operational conditions.
\nArchaeological investigations of the Recreation Area have the potential to reveal sub-surface artefacts and features that might inform on the living conditions of the brief but intensive ‘day labour’ workforce, which camped on-site while constructing the Pumping Station, including addressing research questions relating to consumption activities, the presence of women and children, and the layout and nature of dwellings.
|Highly intact and with a high degree of integrity, Mount Crosby Pumping Station Complex is exceptional as an extensive Queensland public waterworks facility from the late-19th century with extensions and alterations to the mid-20th century for increased and improved water supply. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type through its: waterside location; weirs (1902-18 and 1926-28) and water intake (1926); Pumping Station (1892-1949); associated waterworks resources supply infrastructure, including coal tram cabin and weighbridge (1913), tracks (1913 and 1926-28), and remnant tramway embankments, cuttings, and aerial ropeway loading station (1915); and, at isolated sites of the type, waterworks-provided worker’s houses (1891-92) and social facilities (Community Hall, 1919).
\nThe Pumping Station is important as an exceptional example of a 19th century pumping station in Queensland with incremental changes reflecting the advancements in water pumping technology over 50 years. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type through its: wells (1891, 1913, 1924, and 1941); engine house and annexe (1892-1941); boiler house (1891-1921); coal store (1921); economiser houses (1914 and 1921); offices, generator, and workshop building (1921); and additions and alterations to accommodate electrification (1948-49).
|Mount Crosby Pumping Station Complex is a landmark central to the area’s identity, with the substantial industrial pumping station, weirs, bridge foundations juxtaposed against the otherwise vegetated riverbank vista from the west bank.
\nThe place displays picturesque attributes with views unfolding along the winding, narrow private road, which connects the significant features. It provides shifting, attractive views to: the collection of matching, small timber houses and their yards; the hall; the large grassed and treed Recreation Area; the terraced gardens of Works Hill; the substantial pumping station with its attractive face brick facade and open, flat setting; and the waterworks structures built in and next to the Brisbane River – the intake tower, 1926-28 weir and overbridge, 1899 bridge remnants, and 1941 fish ladder.
|Established in 1892, Mount Crosby Pumping Station Complex has a strong association with past and present workers and their families, some of whom have generational links with the place. The once-remote site provided employment, housing, and recreation for the small community since the 1890s, and as such has played an important role in their lives. This continues to be demonstrated with events such as the ‘back to Mount Crosby’ day, held annually, and other events held by the Mount Crosby Historical Society.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650252,"name":"The Fort","alternate_name":"Regina Coeli Retreat | St Mary’s Retreat","street_address":"199 Fort Road","suburb":"OXLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2020-09-25","description":"The Fort comprises a detached riverside house and its setting in Oxley, approximately 10.5km southwest of Brisbane CBD. Accessed from Fort Road on its southwest side, the house stands on a large allotment near the edge of a steep bank of the Brisbane River and has spectacular panoramic views spanning northwest to northeast. The setting of the house comprises part of the surrounding house yard and part of the adjacent public park, which was originally part of The Fort’s large property.
\nFeatures of The Fort of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nThe House (c1882)
\nThe house is a single-storey lowset timber-framed and -clad structure. It faces north toward the view and has a square core with a hipped roof surrounded by a verandah with an ogee roof. Projecting from each end of the south verandah are matching pyramid-roofed service wings and a face brick chimney projects from the core’s roof. A cross is mounted on the centre ridge of the main roof and the kitchen wing’s chimney (western side of the house) has been converted to form a grotto.
\nThe front (north) verandah is open to the view and the northern verandah wall is symmetrical, retaining original step-through double-hung windows either side of an entrance door. Parts of the east, west, and south verandahs have been enclosed (in stages, likely pre-1906) to form a number of smaller interconnected rooms and some have had the verandah wall demolished and the enclosed verandah incorporated into the core.[34]
\nInternally, the core comprises a large front entrance room, which is used a chapel (formerly two rooms – drawing room and bedroom) with an altar at the east end in the enclosed verandah and a small choir alcove in the enclosed north east corner verandah. The core’s two rear rooms are a former dining room with fireplace, and a former bedroom, which has been partitioned to form two passageways and two bedrooms, incorporating the enclosed eastern verandah. The core’s ceilings are notably high. The western service wing comprises a former kitchen (now dining room) and the eastern service wing accommodates two rooms and a short open verandah (the two rooms are possibly a former storeroom, now passageway, and a bathroom, now office). The former cellar under this wing has been replaced by a concreted open space.
\nFeatures of the house of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of the house not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nThe Setting – Grounds, Views, and Mature Trees
\nThe house is approached from the southwest from Fort Street via a long drive arriving at its western side. It stands roughly in the centre of its large house yard, which comprises terraced lawns dotted with mature ornamental trees. To its north, the land slopes steeply down to the Brisbane River waterline and is lightly-forested, permitting distant northerly views from the house and northern grounds.
\nOther mature ornamental trees stand in the adjacent public park that indicate the extent of The Fort’s former property size. These trees line the Fort Street boundary and stand near a former, pre-1936 entrance.
\nFeatures of the setting of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of the setting not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\n‘The Fort’, located at the north end of Fort Road in Oxley, Brisbane, is a c1882 timber house situated on a high bluff on the south bank of the Brisbane River. It was constructed for the retired pastoralist Henry William Coxen (1823-1915), one of the early European settlers on the Darling Downs, on a 9ha property he had purchased in 1865. The Fort was sold to the Corkran family in 1906, then to the Passionist Order of the Catholic Church (the Congregation of the Passion, or the Passionists) in 1955, at which time the property became the Order’s only Queensland retreat (monastery), and a base for their local community outreach. It is officially known as St Mary’s Retreat. The majority of The Fort property, not including the house, was sold to the Brisbane City Council (BBC) in 2005, and is now The Fort Bushland Reserve.
\nOxley, traditionally the land of the Turrbal and Jagera people,[1] is about 11km south-west of the Brisbane Central Business District. In the 1850s the area was known as Boyland’s Pocket, after the pastoralist Thomas Boyland, and in the early 1860s it was subdivided into small farms. Churches, a post office and a hotel were built in the 1860s, near the road between Brisbane and Ipswich, and Oxley Primary School opened nearby in 1870. Although the completion of the railway between Brisbane and Ipswich in 1876 boosted settlement in the district, Oxley remained largely rural until after World War II, with two small areas of settlement: one near Ipswich Road, and the other to the north near the Oxley railway station.[2]
\nIn January 1865, the site of ‘The Fort’ (Portion 189 in the Parish of Oxley) consisting of 22 acres and 1 rood (9ha), was purchased by Henry William Coxen and William Sim of ‘Bendemere’ for £59 15s. Located on the south bank of the Brisbane River, less than 1km northwest of the later location of the Oxley railway station, the land was transferred to Coxen alone in 1866.[3]
\nHenry William Coxen (1823-1915) was born in Croydon, England, on 3 March 1823.[4] In 1838, aged 15, he travelled to Tasmania with his uncle and aunt, noted ornithologist John Gould and his wife Elizabeth (nee Coxen), where they were guests of Governor Franklin. They soon moved to New South Wales. After learning about sheep and cattle management on various stations owned by his paternal uncle, Stephen Coxen, and under the tutelage of his uncle Charles Coxen, Henry was sent north in 1842 to the Darling Downs, where Patrick Leslie and his brothers had begun European settlement in March 1840.[5] Accompanied by Lieutenant Irving, three men and an Aboriginal boy, Henry took two drays and 300 head of cattle and selected ‘Jondaryan’ station in the northern Downs on behalf of his uncle Charles.[6]
\nHenry returned to England in 1845, to work for a mercantile firm. He married Mary Ann Shelton in London in January 1848, and after some time in the Cape Colony (South Africa) the couple returned to Sydney in April 1852. He then took up further pastoral stations in what became Queensland, becoming the owner or part-owner of at least 17 large grazing leases, including Bendemere near Yuleba. He divorced in 1865, and married Margaret Moorhead in Victoria in February 1866. Henry disposed of his pastoral interests, and he and Margaret had returned to England by 1867. After unsuccessful investments in foreign securities and the South African sugar industry, Coxen and his family returned to Queensland in 1880.[7] By this time, Henry and Margaret had four children.[8]
\nCoxen built his house ‘The Fort’ c1882, on the 9ha of land he had purchased in Oxley in 1865.[9] In May 1882, architect Andrea Stombuco sued Coxen for full payment for his preparation of plans and specifications, and taking site levels, for a building for Coxen at Oxley. Stombuco claimed he had been contacted by Coxen in September 1880 to give an estimate for a four-roomed house. Stombuco then drew up his plans, based on sketches received from Coxen, and called for tenders, with the lowest received being £1001.[10] Unhappy with a measurement error on a drawing of a large shed (probably the stables) at the property, which had led to an overestimate of the quantity of timber needed, Coxen employed architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley to revise Stombuco’s plans for the house, and had received a new estimate for the house of £810 from a contractor in Toowoomba. At the time of the court case ‘the building [presumably The Fort house] was now being erected in accordance with the new drawings and specification’. Coxen won the court case.[11]
\nFDG Stanley (1839-97) was an architect in Queensland 1862-97. Rising to Colonial Architect in 1873, Stanley was responsible for ambitious, substantial public buildings in Brisbane and regional centres of the colony, including schools, banks, churches, hotels, shops, and civic buildings such as Brisbane General Post Office (1871-2) and Telegraph Office extension (1876-9) [Commonwealth Heritage List 105521]. His work is distinguished within early Queensland architects, and his high profile and prolific output has been considered formative in Queensland architecture.[12]
\nIn 1882, Stanley was in private practice and at the height of his career, designing the Queensland National Bank’s headquarters (1880-5) [QHR 600153], and opening a branch office of his practice in Maryborough. During this period Stanley also designed substantial residences, including Sidney House, 1882; Villa for Robert Hart, 1883; Whinstaines, 1886; and Tighnabruaich, 1889-90 [QHR 600229].[13] The Fort was considerably more modest.[14]
\nIn 1932, Florence Eliza Lord described The Fort for The Queenslander newspaper: ‘Its outer walls are formed of wide horizontal boards, and the inner of vertical ones. The house was originally built without a hall of any kind, the four main rooms – the drawing-room, dining-room, and two bedrooms–opening into each other. There are two verandah bedrooms, and a verandah running between two wings projecting from each end of the back of the house. The wing on the right as one steps on to this back verandah from the dining-room comprises the kitchen… and the other contains a storeroom, bathroom, and–in the Coxen’s time–a spare room and Mr Coxen’s office. The three latter all open onto a verandah connecting with that previously mentioned. The store-room opened on the other side of this wing, and below it was a cool cellar…’[15]
\nThe house was located near the highest point on the property, with a sweeping view over the Brisbane River. The remainder of the property, which sloped down to the south, was a mixture of treed and open space by 1936.[16] For affluent Queenslanders, residing on spacious properties on hilltops, or near the river, and away from the crowded city, was a common practice, and The Fort’s site achieved all of the above. [17]
\nDuring 1883 and 1884 Coxen purchased more land to the east of Portion 189, on which he built two more houses: ‘Eddystone’ and ‘The Slopes’ (neither extant).[18] Eddystone and The Slopes were described by FE Lord in 1932 as being similar in construction to The Fort, although without rear wings.[19] Eddystone was located amongst trees on the ridge to the east of The Fort, while The Slopes was located on a cleared terrace, down a slope to the east of Eddystone.[20]
\nWhile living at The Fort, Coxen was active in both the Freemasons and in local politics. He was a Justice of the Peace, a board member of the Yeerongpilly Divisional Board (Chairman 1889), and later a board member of the Sherwood Divisional Board (which split from Yeerongpilly in 1891), and its Chairman in 1902. Margaret Coxen died during a visit to Sandgate that year.[21] After he sold The Fort in 1906, Henry lived at Slopes, where he died in 1915.[22]
\nThe Fort house and 9.4ha of property was offered for sale by auction in February 1906, at which time it had 15 rooms, along with a garden of 2 acres (0.8ha), stables, stockyard, laundry, and outbuildings, and ‘one of the most beautiful views around Brisbane’.[23] In May 1906 the Fort and 12.6ha of the property was transferred to Thomas Knight Corkran (1852-1937), an Irish-born Catholic, educated at the Marist College in France, who had joined the Queensland police in Western Queensland in the 1870s.[24]
\nThomas Corkran ran a dairy herd on the land, which included a dam and a well (dug by Coxen) in the small valley to the south of the house. According to Thomas’s daughter Olivia, during the Corkran period of ownership The Fort included a hall, lounge, dining room, six bedrooms, bathroom, storeroom and kitchen; there were cedar doors and some double walls in the house, and ‘two huge rooms for the men’. The ceilings of The Fort were also unlined when the Corkrans purchased the property, according to Olivia. The Corkrans used its cellar as a dairy, housing a cream separator; and Thomas Corkran built a separate laundry at the rear of the house. The Corkran family used Eddystone Road (previously known as Coxen’s Lane) to access The Fort from the east, and they also had an entrance from Fort Road, west of the house, in addition to the original entrance, further south near the stables.[25] In December 1912, subdivision 1 of Portion 189, 2 roods (0.2ha) at the corner of Fort Road and Cliveden Avenue, was transferred to Gertrude Letitia Corkran. A house was built on this site, but had been removed by 1936. By this time, there were mature trees along the Fort Road approach to The Fort residence, including north of the southwest corner of Portion 189, inside the entrance by the stables, and to the immediate north and south residence, and some of these trees survive today.[26]
\nAfter Thomas Corkran died at the Fort in January 1937, subdivision 2 of Portion 189 (21 acres, 3 roods (8.8ha) was transferred to members of the Corkran family, before being sold to the Provincial of the Congregation of the Passion in Australasia, for £6000, in June 1955. Subdivision 1 of Portion 189 (0.2ha), and subdivisions 1 to 4 of Portion 188 (3.4ha), were later transferred to the Passionists in April 1962.[27]
\nThe Passionist Order was founded in Italy in 1720 by St Paul of the Cross (Paolo Danei Massari, 1694-1775). The Passionists, Catholic missionary priests who ‘live in community’ (in a retreat, or monastery), promote the memory of the passion of Jesus. They combine a monastic life of prayer and contemplation with missions and outreach to the communities in which they are located. The Passionists conducted a mission to Stradbroke Island, the traditional land of the Quandamooka people, from 1843-7, the first Catholic outreach to the Aboriginal people of Queensland. The Order later returned to Australia at Marrickville, NSW in 1887. In 2020 the Passionists have a presence in 59 countries, and one Passionist province covers Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Vietnam. In Australia, the Passionists are located at St Brigid’s in Marrickville, Sydney; Holy Cross, Templestowe Melbourne; Endeavour Hills, Melbourne; Glen Osmond, Adelaide; St Joseph’s Church, Hobart; and St Mary’s Retreat (The Fort) at Oxley.[28]
\nThe purchase of The Fort by the Passionists was part of a mid-1950s expansion of the Order, which included sending missionaries to Papua New Guinea in 1955, and Passionists to St Kilda in Melbourne and Hobart in Tasmania in 1956. The Passionist Provincial, Xavier Bates, along with Father Placid and Archbishop James Duhig of Brisbane, scouted Brisbane looking for a site for a Passionist retreat in late 1954, selecting The Fort. Archbishop Duhig formally approved the Passionists’ application to open a house (monastery) for a Passionist community at Oxley in December 1954, and Fathers Placid and John moved into The Fort on 1 April 1955. They were soon joined by Fathers Anselm, Gregory, Hilary, Ignatius and Brother Anthony, and all worked on tidying up the house and grounds. A front room of The Fort was turned into a temporary chapel, and old sheds and stockyards were pulled down, except for the stable building (which was dismantled in 1956, and moved to its present location east of the house) and a small shed. The lookout in front of the house, overlooking the river, was formed in April 1955, and a new wing was added to the rear of the house, running east, with four bedrooms, and a washroom and toilet block.[29] The Corkrans’ gable-roofed laundry was moved and attached to the southern end of the west rear wing (in 2020 there is a skillion-roofed kitchen in this position).[30]
\nOn 6 November 1955, the first mass was celebrated on a new high altar in the chapel, and Archbishop Duhig formally visited The Fort (initially known as the Regina Coeli Retreat, and later St Mary’s Retreat, but commonly known as The Fort) on 2 August 1956, and blessed it. The first public Sunday Mass was held in the chapel on 3 February 1957. Ministries performed by the Passionist community at Oxley have since included Youth Retreats, Family Group, Chaplaincy at the Canossa Hospital (from 1960), School Chaplaincy, assisting at local parishes and the Cathedral of St Stephen, Supplies, Missions, and Retreats. Celebrations are often held in the grounds, including Music under the Stars, Christmas Eve mass and other feast day celebrations, and Mission stalls (markets for charity) are also held on the grounds. Passionist priests stay at The Fort on their way to other locations.[31]
\nOther changes to The Fort house and grounds during the years of Passionist occupancy have included: a new driveway, from near the former site of the stables, to a circular drive on the west side of the house (in the late 1980s this driveway was concreted, and a new entrance was formed, midway between the two pre-1936 entrances from Fort Road); two cannons being located at The Fort between c1963-71 (one mounted on a concrete slab west of the house; the other mounted on concrete blocks east of the lookout), before they were traded for a figure of Christ on the Cross; and the conversion of the Sacristy (southern part of east verandah) into two visitor’s rooms in 1977, by removing the wall between the core and the verandah. In 1982 a pergola was built between the two original rear wings of the house, with a deck added in the late 1980s. Also in the late 1980s, the 1950s accommodation wing at the rear was extended further to the east. In the early 1990s, due to the growth in numbers of members of the public attending, Sunday Mass was moved into the former stables, known as ‘The Shed’, which has since been damaged by two fires, including one in December 2005.[32]
\nIn 2005, most of The Fort’s grounds (10.6ha), were purchased by the Brisbane City Council, after the local community objected to plans for housing on the land, and it is now the Fort Bushland Reserve. This includes regrowth on the areas cleared for dairy farming, and was initially infested with invasive weeds.[33]
\nThe 1880s house built by Coxen, and 1.8ha of land, remains a Passionist Retreat in 2020. The community of priests at The Fort has served the greater Oxley community for 64 years since 1956.
","criteria":"The Fort (c1882), a house constructed for the retired pastoralist Henry William Coxen, an early settler of the Darling Downs, is important in demonstrating the pattern of residential development in Queensland, and in particular the establishment of substantial estates by affluent Queenslanders, on high grounds, or near the river, on the suburban periphery of Brisbane in the 19th century. Early mature trees along the Fort Road approach to the place illustrate the extent of the original estate.
|Sited on a high bluff above the Brisbane River, The Fort is important for its aesthetic significance, brought about through the relationship between the house and its setting, with sweeping views of the river, Fig Tree Pocket peninsula, and the distant forested hills, Mount Coot-tha, and CBD high-rises. Viewing this panorama from the northern verandah and grounds, combined with The Fort’s secluded setting amidst mature trees and lawns, evokes a sense of contemplative retreat.
|The Fort has a special association with the Passionist Order for spiritual reasons as their only community of priests in Queensland. The house was adapted for their use as a retreat (monastery) in 1955 and has since served as the Order’s base for its Ministries, and the site of their public Sunday masses.
|The Fort has a special association with the early Darling Downs settler and prominent Queensland pastoralist Henry William Coxen (1823-1915), who established the house c1882 after his retirement from pastoralism, and resided there until 1906. While living at The Fort, Coxen remained active in the community, serving on local divisional boards and as a Justice of the Peace.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650253,"name":"Fortitude Valley Air Raid Shelters","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"East Street and Wickham Street","suburb":"FORTITUDE VALLEY","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2020-09-25","description":"The Fortitude Valley Air Raid Shelters (the shelters) are four rectangular, reinforced concrete structures in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. Three shelters are located on the northeast side of East Street, between Ann Street and Wickham Street; while one is around the corner on the southeast side of Wickham Street. In 2020 the three northernmost shelters are used as cover for parked motorcycles and scooters. They are surrounded by park landscaping, paving, and other park infrastructure and mature trees (not of state cultural heritage significance).
\nThe shelters (1942):
\nEach shelter comprises a floor slab, and a double-cantilevered roof slab supported by four concrete columns, orientated with their long sides parallel to the street. The roof slabs are about 12.2m long, and 3.8m wide, while the floor slabs are about 4.5m wide, and project beyond the roof slabs. The four central columns of each shelter are about 270mm by 465mm. The former location of removed walls, including the internal walls which formed entrance passages at either end of the shelters, on alternate sides, are noticeable on the floor slabs; and are often covered in a later cement render, or are indicated in brick payers (Southern Shelter, East Street only).[1] The underside of the soffit is stepped twice near the fascia on each side of each roof slab. There are also lighter markings on the underside of each roof slab, providing evidence of the entrance wall locations; plus indications of either former cable routes to interior lighting fixtures, or interior partitions.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFour air raid shelters stand near the corner of East Street and Wickham Street, in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, which is part of the traditional land of the Turrbal and Jagera peoples.[1] Each shelter consists of a concrete floor, four central concrete columns, and a flat double-cantilever concrete roof. Constructed by the Brisbane City Council during early 1942, in the midst of World War II (WWII), these structures are among 20 surviving examples of public surface air raid shelters designed for post-war use as either park shelters or bus stops – after the removal of their brick or concrete walls. There are 27 public surface air raid shelters of all types, built by local governments, remaining in Queensland. The shelters in Fortitude Valley, the largest surviving group of public air raid shelters in Queensland, are important in demonstrating the impact of Japan’s entry into the war on Queensland’s civilian population. They were once arranged around the perimeter of a children’s playground established in 1922.
\nAlthough WWII started in September 1939, Australia was under little threat of air attack until late 1941.[2] On 8 December 1941, the United States of America entered the war, following the previous day’s bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. Simultaneously, Japanese forces launched assaults on Thailand, the Philippines and the British colony of Malaya. The sudden fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942 and the rapid Japanese advance through the islands of the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) raised fears of air attacks on Australia. The first Japanese air raid on Darwin occurred on 19 February 1942; and Broome, in Western Australia, was attacked on 3 March 1942. Japanese air raids on other targets in Australia seemed likely, and an invasion of Australia was also feared.[3]
\nAs a result of the growing fear of Japanese air raids, the Queensland Government issued the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, which ordered the Brisbane City Council (BCC), and other local authorities near the coast, to build air raid shelters. The BCC was ordered to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area. Order No.1 also required the owners of any building in the coastal areas, where over 30 people would normally be present at any one time (such as hotels), to build shelters within, or adjacent to, the building. Queensland Railways (QR) also instituted a shelter-building program at its railway stations.[4] All Queensland coastal state schools were closed in late January 1942, and although most reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. A policy of voluntary evacuation of women and children from Queensland coastal areas was also implemented on 27 January 1942.[5]
\nOrder No.1 was applied state-wide, and another 24 local authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 19 of these local authorities were expected to construct a total of 133 surface shelters able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. A surface shelter was a self-contained external structure with the floor surface at or above ground level. Five local authorities were ordered to dig trenches. Standard designs for brick and concrete surface shelters, and for trench shelters, were sent to local authorities by the Architectural Branch of the Queensland Department of Public Works (DPW).[6]
\nThe number of shelters to be built, and the number of local authorities required to build them, was increased in January 1942. By 26 January, 26 local authorities outside Brisbane were expected to build 143 surface air raid shelters, with Tully and Redcliffe constructing trenches and Ipswich building a combination of surface shelters and trenches.[7] Ultimately, those local authorities outside Brisbane which had work funded by the DPW, built 133 shelters – 126 surface shelters, and seven underground.[8]
\nBrisbane was a prime target with a large civilian population. After the first US forces arrived in Brisbane in the Pensacola Convoy on 22 December 1941, the city became a major supply base and staging point for the war in the South West Pacific, and the largest US naval base in continental Australia.[9] In January 1942 Brisbane became Base Section 3 of the United States Army Forces in Australia (USAFIA), headquartered in Somerville House [QHR 600305], South Brisbane. After General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, South West Pacific Area (SWPA), arrived in Brisbane in July 1942, the city also hosted his General Headquarters in the AMP building at the corner of Queen and Edward Streets [QHR 600147]. General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander Allied Land Forces, had his Advanced Land Headquarters at the University of Queensland, St Lucia [QHR 601025]. Queensland played a major role in the build-up of troops and supplies for the joint US-Australian counter-offensive in New Guinea, which occurred after the Japanese advance was checked at Milne Bay and on the Kokoda track (August-September 1942).[10]
\nThe BCC took responsibility for certain Air Raid Precautions (ARP) activities in Brisbane, including establishing a control headquarters for Essential and Emergency Services, known as BESOR, which communicated with the police ARP control centre in the basement of the Roma Street Police Station, on the corner of Roma and Ann Streets. The latter controlled the ARP wardens. The BCC managed rescue and demolition; installed and maintained the electrically-operated air raid sirens (operated by the Police); equipped first aid sheds; and constructed public air raid shelters while supervising the building of private air raid shelters. Above-ground salt water pipes were also laid along city streets to aid in firefighting.[11]
\nThe BCC constructed 235 surface air raid shelters, with seating, temporary lighting, and lavatory accommodation; the building programme being 90% complete by June 1942. In addition, 9,950ft (3km) of trenches were constructed in public parks, including 8,400ft (2.6km) of slit trenches; plus covered trenches (either concrete-lined or formed with large reinforced concrete pipes) in the Botanic Gardens (1050ft or 320m) and Victoria Park (500ft or 150m). In addition to the public shelters, the BCC also constructed shelters for leased wharves and council properties, including at the Stanley Wharf, Circular Quay Wharves 2, 3 and 4, Norman Wharf, and Musgrave Wharf. Shelters were built on Cairns Street and under the Story Bridge (between Rotherham and Baildon Streets), for Kangaroo Point shipbuilding workers, and five shelters (including three pillboxes and two concrete pipe shelters) were constructed on behalf of the Bridge Board, Bureau of Industry, at the Howard Smith Wharves [QHR 601781].[12]
\nBy mid-1942, of the BCC’s 235 public surface shelters, 177 were listed as ‘pillbox’ (which included 21 ‘special’, or site specific, pillboxes); plus 14 were listed as ‘bus stop’, and 44 as ‘park shelter’. The latter two designs were intended to be reused for other purposes after the war, through the removal of either three walls (bus stop), or four walls (park shelter), and leaving the concrete slab roof, floor slab and support columns or piers.[13]
\nThe designer of the reusable air raid shelters was Frank Gibson Costello (1903-87), who was a head teacher in architectural design and lecturer in town planning at Sydney Technical College, prior to his role as the BCC’s City Architect between 1941 and 1952. His variants of the standard pillbox were designed to provide a post-war utility for at least part of the Council's shelter building programme. Costello later worked for the Queensland Department of Public Works, 1958-69, while also teaching at the Central Technical College (later the Queensland Institute of Technology) from 1959-1975.[14]
\nIn an address delivered to the Constitutional Club in Brisbane 26 February 1942, Costello noted that if ‘the emergency for their use does not arise ... (unused shelters) ... are still there in brick and concrete, in many cases having no further value and being a possible source of nuisance’. He added that ‘I can assure you that wherever it is possible, without sacrificing the primary requirements of shelter from air attack, I have endeavoured in our Council buildings to so plan the shelters that they will fit into schemes of improvement which we hope will proceed immediately after the war’.[15]
\nThe City Architect’s Office’s building projects after the war would include the Brisbane City Council Carpark on Wickham Terrace [QHR 601511]; libraries at Annerley, Chermside, and Toowong [QHR 602011]; the Toowong Swimming Pool, and the Centenary Swimming Pool (1959) [QHR 601240] in Spring Hill – which were all designed by James Birrell, City Architect from 1955 to 1961.[16]
\nCostello's work was characterised by the use of an architectural language inspired by the modern movement in architecture. This movement pursued the rational use of modern materials and principles of functionalist planning and established a visual aesthetic largely inspired by the machine. It was part of an architecture employing the language of vertical and horizontal volumes and planes, floating flat roofs, masses set against voids and monumentality. Though modest in scale and form, the design of the shelters is characteristic of work in this idiom. The reusable shelters were often sited under fig trees, to aid in camouflage – but there were only palm trees near the shelters at the corner of East Street and Wickham Street during WWII.[17]
\nThe first of Costello's reusable designs was a shelter with double-cantilevered roof slab – called a park shelter. In a BCC Department of Works list (undated) of the shelters constructed by the BCC, these were labelled as ‘cantilever’.[18] They had four central columns supporting the roof slab, which allowed for the removal of the four blast walls after the war. There was also an entrance at each end of the shelter, where an internal wall formed an entry passage – on alternate sides of the shelter. If the walls were made of concrete, the shelter’s dimensions were 40ft (12.2m) long, 12ft 6 inches (3.8m) wide and 8ft 6 inches (2.6m) high, while if the walls were made of brick, the dimensions were 40ft 9 inches (12.4m) long by 13ft 3 inches (4m) wide, by 8ft 6 inches (2.6m) high. The difference was due to the fact that, while the concrete walls finished at the soffit (underside of the roof) of the roof slab, flush with the fascia (edge of the roof), the brick walls finished in line with the top of the roof slab, while covering the fascia. The Second Schedule of Order No.1 had set a minimum wall thickness for air raid shelters of 18 inches (457mm) for stone, 13.5 inches (343mm) for brick, with 12 inches (305mm) for concrete. The roof slab was intended to have at least 4 inches (102mm) of concrete.[19]
\nCostello’s second reusable design was a bus stop shelter, with a single-cantilevered roof slab. These were designed so that three walls (brick or concrete) could be removed after the war, leaving a back wall and five brick piers at the front. Again, there were entrances at each end. A third design, a variant of the second, was built with a stone rear wall, three removable brick walls and six stone piers at the front. Only two of the latter appear to have been built – referred to in the BCC Department of Works list as ‘bus (stone)’.[20]
\nNumerous air raid shelters were built in Fortitude Valley, including five near the corner of Wickham Street and East Street. The latter group included one pillbox shelter (southeast of the other four, at a right angle to East Street), and four park shelters, each designed to hold 70 people, and all with concrete walls.[21] These five shelters were completed by mid-1942. They were built around the perimeter of a children’s playground, established by the BCC in 1922, and managed by the Queensland Playground Association (formed 1913). The Queensland Playground Association also managed other parks in working class suburbs of inner Brisbane, including the Neal Macrossan Playground in Paddington, 1918 [QHR 601787], and the Bedford Playground in Spring Hill, 1927 [QHR 601786]. The public air raid shelters were never needed, as no Japanese air raids were conducted on Brisbane.[22]
\nMost of the Brisbane structures built for the war were removed at the end of WWII. The saltwater mains, slit trenches, and sirens disappeared, as did the many standard pillboxes that had stood in the middle of the streets of the Central Business District. Of the 235 public surface air raid shelters built by the BCC, 21 survive in 2020 and are still owned by the BCC: one, a special pillbox (of 21 built), survives on Queens Wharf Road [QHR 600135], while 20 are Costello’s reusable shelters (of the 58 built). The removal of their blast walls, as planned, gave them a renewed purpose. The worker's shelters at the Story Bridge Hotel and Howard Smith Wharves also still exist.[23]
\nOf the 20 surviving reusable public surface air raid shelters, 17 are of the park shelter design. Most of the surviving park shelters had concrete blast walls, while only a couple used brick.[24] Two examples of the bus stop design survive, at Newmarket and Newstead; plus one example of the bus (stone) variant survives on Turbot Street, at King Edward Park.
\nThe walls of the four park shelters at the corner of Wickham and East streets were removed according to plan after WWII, while the nearby pillbox shelter was demolished. A BCC carpark was built on the playground site in 1959, and later photographs show cars parked under the former air raid shelters. The northwest half of the carpark was redeveloped in the 1990s, and in 2020 three of the shelters are used as cover for parked motorcycles and scooters. All the shelters are in a narrow park, and are surrounded by later gardens or paving. The mature trees near the shelters, apart from a palm tree between the central and northern shelters on East Street, post-date 1981.[25]
","criteria":"The Fortitude Valley Air Raid Shelters, designed and constructed by the Brisbane City Council in early 1942, are important in demonstrating the impact of Japan’s entry into World War II (WWII) on Queensland’s civilian population, and the urgent Air Raid Precaution (ARP) measures undertaken in Brisbane during 1941-42. They are a product of the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted in December 1941, which ordered Queensland’s local authorities to construct public air raid shelters.
|Although hundreds of public and private air raid shelters were constructed during WWII in Queensland, they are now rare. In 2020, 27 public surface air raid shelters constructed by Queensland local governments are known to exist.
|The Fortitude Valley Air Raid Shelters are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the reusable ‘park shelter’ public surface air raid shelters built during WWII by the Brisbane City Council. Characteristics of this design include its: siting in an area with a large concentration of civilians, solid construction and dimensions, reinforced concrete floor, four central concrete columns, and a flat rectangular concrete roof.
|The Fortitude Valley Air Raid Shelters are durable examples of innovative design and use of concrete technology during WWII. The shelters demonstrate the secondary uses that were a key part of the original design intent.
|The Fortitude Valley Air Raid Shelters, the largest surviving group of public air raid shelters in Queensland, are important as examples of the wartime work of the City Architect's Office, which over time has made a substantial contribution to the built environment of Brisbane, and particularly the work of Frank Gibson Costello (1903-87), City Architect between 1941 and 1952.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650270,"name":"Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church","alternate_name":"St Luke’s Presbyterian Church","street_address":"64 Spence Road","suburb":"WAVELL HEIGHTS","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2022-09-09","description":"Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church (1966) is situated in the suburb of Wavell Heights about 10km north of the Brisbane CBD. The church stands facing (east) to Spence Road set back from the road behind an open yard, a hall is located to its north (1952) and another hall to its west (1956). Both halls are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nDesigned in a bold Modernist architectural style, the church is highly intact. The church is a single storey slab-on-ground building with a symmetrical pentagonal plan form. It has a low, folded metal-clad roof form with a tall, narrow spire at its centre. The roof appears to float above the low face brick walls of the church, the opening between wall and roof filled with glazing. The roof line extends over a crescent driveway sheltering the main entrance and forming a porte-cochere.
\nThe entry of the church features a floor to ceiling glazed wall with two large double doors. Brick paving matching the colouring of the church’s walls continues from the driveway and into the entry porch. The porch is divided from the nave of the church by a wide screen of coloured leadlight glazing with an entry to the nave either side. Inside, the nave is broad and modest in scale, its ceiling is pale and folded with a skylight lantern at its centre, the base of the spire. a choir alcove is nested at the centre of the eastern end of the nave and carpeted aisles lead to a raised sanctuary at the far (western) end with seating areas either side of these. All glazing to the nave is amber coloured and fills the space with golden light, the lantern at the centre of the ceiling also casts a spotlight. A door either side of the rear wall of the nave open to separate rear rooms - the committee room (south) and vestry and flower room (north). The south-western and north-western corners of the building both have small courtyards sheltered by timber pergolas.
\nThe church retains many of its original fittings and furnishings including original red cedar joinery (pews, planter boxes, and cabinets), downlights and pendant lights. Although slightly altered, the original pulpit, communion table, baptismal font (all removed from their fixed bases), hymn book cupboard (Umbrella stand removed), and memorial and notice board (notice board side shortened) remain in the church.
\nThe church is very intact with only minor alterations and additions including: the addition of a toilet to the southwest courtyard, addition of aluminium frame doors between the lobby and nave and new floor finishes to the nave, vestry and committee room.
\nFeatures of Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church not considered to be of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nWavell Heights Presbyterian Church (1966), in Wavell Heights, Brisbane, is a pentagonal brick church set within a church complex with mature trees. Built in a post-war suburb, the Modernist-style church resulted from the Presbyterian Church’s post-war building program, and its desire to remain relevant to contemporary society. Its plan, lighting, and furniture arrangement were designed to give the congregation a sense of community and involvement in the service, through gathered worship.
\nWavell Heights, part of the traditional land of the Turrbul people, is located west of Sandgate Road, north of Kedron Brook. Prior to the 1940s, most of the area was characterised by dairy farming and pineapple growing, although by 1917 there were some residential subdivisions. The area was known as West Nundah until a public poll in July 1941 selected the name Wavell Heights, after the British General (later Field Marshall) Archibald Percival Wavell.[1] The suburb grew rapidly in the immediate post-World War II (WWII) era. Undeveloped land in Wavell Heights and neighbouring Chermside was acquired by the Queensland Housing Commission, on which by August 1947 it planned to build 450 houses. At the time, it was the Commission’s largest housing project, and it increased the population of Wavell Heights substantially.[2] The Wavell Heights Neighbourhood Society was formed in 1947, and later established a community centre on Edinburgh Castle Road. A non-official post office opened on 4 December 1950,[3] and three schools, including a high school, opened in the late 1940s and 1950s.[4] Although the suburb possessed several churches established in the 1930s, post-WWII growth resulted in a timber Presbyterian church hall being opened on Spence Road in 1952.[5]
\nThe Presbyterian Church and the site at Wavell Heights
\nThe first Presbyterian congregation in Queensland had formed in 1849, and the first Presbyterian Church opened on Grey Street, South Brisbane, in 1851. Other Presbyterian churches opened in newly settled areas of Queensland, and in 1863 Queensland’s Presbyterian congregations combined into a Synod and the Presbyterian Church of Queensland (PCQ) was formed.[6] By 1954, the top four Christian denominations in the Metropolitan area of Brisbane were: the Church of England (34.33% of the population); followed by Catholic (24.35%); Presbyterian (10.74%); and Methodist (10.57%). Presbyterians also made up 11.7% of Queensland’s population at this time.[7]
\nPresbyterian congregations in Queensland were formed into charges, under a minister, and a charge could include one or more church congregations. Before a fully sanctioned charge was formed, ‘Home Mission’ charges could be established by Home Missionaries.[8] The Nundah Charge, which later covered Wavell Heights, held its first service in January 1932, and was a fully sanctioned charge by the end of 1935.[9]
\nThe Spence Road site of the 1952 Presbyterian church was part of a 10 acre 30 perch (4.1ha) undeveloped block that had been acquired by the PCQ for £4,500 in 1947. The site was originally intended to become an auxiliary hospital, connected to the planned St Andrews War Memorial Hospital in central Brisbane, but despite a cairn of remembrance being dedicated on the Wavell Heights site in September 1949, the auxiliary hospital did not proceed, and most of the land was subdivided for housing in 1972.[10]
\nThe auxiliary hospital plan had included a church, hall, and manse (house for a Presbyterian minister) in the northeast corner of the 4ha site, and this aspect of the project did proceed.[11] The first meeting to form a Presbyterian congregation at Wavell Heights, chaired by the Reverend RJE Martin (then Minister of the Nundah Charge) was called by the Nundah Presbyterian Session on 27 January 1949. The use of one acre (4,047m2) of the hospital site for the Wavell Heights church buildings was later obtained from the Medical and Social Services Committee of the PCQ.[12]
\nThe growth of Queensland’s churches and the influence of Modernism, 1950s-60s
\nThe decision to build a Presbyterian church at Wavell Heights was part of wider trends in Brisbane during the 1950s-60s. The 1950s were a prosperous time in Queensland, with low unemployment and a growing sense of optimism. There was also renewed religiosity across most denominations throughout Queensland.[13] In addition, the population of metropolitan Brisbane grew by 36% between 1950 and 1960, and new housing estates and new suburbs developed. There was a rapid increase in housing density to the west, south, and east of the intended Wavell Heights hospital site between 1946 and 1951, and to the north by 1958.[14] The number of Presbyterian communicants in Brisbane also increased by 54% between 1947 and 1961, from 5351 to 8247; while Presbyterian Sunday School enrolments more than doubled in the same period, from 4201 to 9155.[15]
\nThis increase in communicants was accompanied by a marked improvement in church finances. In Brisbane, the total income of Presbyterian parishes rose from £96,000 in 1954 to £230,000 in 1960.[16] The financial position and building programme of the Wavell Heights congregation during the 1950s was assisted by the principle of ‘stewardship’, or regular donations by churchgoers – and the PCQ had set up its own Committee on Stewardship by the late 1950s.[17]
\nThe growth in Brisbane’s population, church attendance, and improved church finances resulted in the construction of new churches in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1950 it was reported that ‘as Brisbane continues to expand rapidly in all directions, more churches, halls and Sunday schools are being built or planned to cope with the growing population’, and that a £1,000,000 building programme was planned by Brisbane religious denominations.[18] By the late 1950s, ambitious building programmes were resulting in new churches, halls, and houses for ministers in new suburbs, while older timber churches in established suburbs were replaced with brick churches.[19] During the 1950s at least 178 new church buildings opened in Brisbane, followed by at least 160 in the 1960s. The rate of church construction in Brisbane declined after 1964, along with membership in Christian churches.[20]
\nThe 1950s was also a period of substantial change within Christian denominations throughout Australia, as they sought to remain relevant to modern society. Coupled with their expansionary building program, this led to a radical departure from established architectural traditions. Reflecting international trends, church designs moved away from historical revival styles and became increasingly influenced by Modernism.[21] However, it was still expected that a church would be recognisable as such, resulting in a wide range of variations combining traditional church elements, symbols, and functions with new construction techniques, materials, and forms.[22] As the 1950s progressed, traditional church building forms adopted further Modernist features, such as modern brick and metal details, and shallower roof pitches, while retaining traditional spaces, configurations, and motifs. These trends continued into the 1960s, with new roof forms and plan shapes.[23]
\nThe Presbyterian building program at Wavell Heights
\nThe Wavell Heights congregation did not immediately commission a Modernist brick church. The first building erected on their land facing Spence Road was a timber ‘church hall’ (church). The stump-capping ceremony was held on 5 May 1951, but due to building delays the first service was not held until 11 May 1952, and the church hall was officially opened and dedicated on 31 August 1952. The Sunday School which was established in the church hall in June 1952 proved popular, and a second timber building, a Kindergarten (Junior Sunday School) hall, was constructed behind the church hall, with volunteer labour from the congregation, and dedicated on 18 March 1956. By 1957 there were 341 children in the Sunday School, with a teaching staff of 31, and around 200 families were affiliated with the church.[24] Wavell Heights soon became its own fully sanctioned charge, St Luke's Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, in October 1959, with its own minister.[25]
\nFurther church buildings were added. A manse was completed, on a separate lot south of the church hall, in October 1959. The manse was designed by local architect Ray Smith, who in March 1957 had been appointed ‘Advising Architect’ to the Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church.[26]
\nA new brick church followed in the 1960s, although construction was delayed due to issues of design and budget, and changes of architect. Sketch plans for a multi-purpose building were presented in October 1961 by Ray Smith, with an estimate of £18,000,[27] but this idea had been abandoned by September 1962. Smith was then asked to design a new church building, with a budget of £20,000,[28] and plans for a brick building with two levels were submitted in November 1962 with an estimate of £22,000.[29] Tenders for this closed on 20 December 1963, with the lowest being £36,621.[30] A new design was consequently sought, and the firm of Cross and Bain was appointed on 4 November 1964, with James (Jim) William Gibson (1932-2018), who had joined the firm in 1956, nominated as project architect.[31]
\nJames Gibson, church design, and the renewal of worship practices
\nWhile working for Cross and Bain, Gibson designed almost 20 Queensland church buildings (plus other unbuilt schemes) between 1957-77. These were mainly in Brisbane, for the Presbyterians, Church of England and Methodists.[32] An inaugural member of the Queensland Presbyterian Assembly Architectural Committee (1963-77), and its convenor for much of this time, Gibson advocated changes to church design within Queensland’s Presbyterian and Methodist churches. He was also well known within both churches, attending and speaking at events, and was involved in merger discussions prior to the formation of the Uniting Church of Australia in 1977, even designing the logo for the new organisation. In 1977 he became a member of the Uniting Church Architectural Advisory Panel.[33]
\nIn 1967 he prepared the book ‘Except the LORD Build’, a manual of building for Presbyterian congregations for the Australian Presbyterian Church. Gibson's manual was approved by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland in May 1967.[34] Through this manual it was hoped that ‘the community may realise that the design of Presbyterian buildings is motivated by Christian purpose and that Presbyterian places of worship and activity stand as silent witness to the faith we profess’.[35] It stated that the design of a church should be based on how the congregation worshipped, and their preferred locational arrangement of the choir and furnishings (font, pulpit, communion table, pews), rather than adopting traditional church forms (i.e., a rectangular nave), and trying to insert all the functions of worship. The manual also asserted that a church should utilise modern materials, methods of construction, and design techniques, ‘simple in concept but capable of having an impact on the community’.[36]
\nGibson also believed that the interior design of a church should reflect 20th century reformist principles and worship practices, and he adopted contemporary ideas for gathered worship spaces, with the congregation closer to the minister than in traditional church plans. The aims of the liturgical renewal movement in the Catholic Church, which promoted a closer relationship between clergy and laity, and more congregational involvement in the liturgy (ritual of public worship), were largely implemented at the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Vatican II) of the Catholic Church (final session 1965), and had an effect on Catholic Church architecture; while reformist principles were also reflected in the changing architecture of Protestant churches.[37]
\nTo facilitate gathered worship, the 1967 book advocated Presbyterian church designs with no barriers between the minister and congregation, and that people should also be involved in the service and ‘close to the centre of the action’, no further than ‘five or six pews’ from the minister. As the Sacraments were of equal importance to the Word, the communion table and pulpit should also be close together, with the font nearby, while the choir and organ should be closer to the congregation, such as near the entrance. Gibson believed that once an internal arrangement of furniture which enabled the congregation to be more involved and closer to the minister was decided, then new external shapes for churches could emerge, with more equal (less rectangular) dimensions.[38]
\nThe design of the new church at Wavell Heights, besides being illustrated in ‘Except the LORD Build’, closely followed the principles Gibson promoted, and reflected the progression of his designs. It successfully combined a number of his ideas,[39] including adapting international designs for the local climate, and his approach to contemporary church design and worship practices, such as concepts of gathered worship, equality of the Sacraments and Word, and association of the choir with the congregation.
\nIn 1965 Cross and Bain’s design by Gibson was approved, working drawings prepared, and tenders called. The lowest tender of £15,488 ($30,976), from Macquarie Constructions, was accepted.[40] Construction commenced in early 1966, but work halted when the builder ran into financial difficulties and a liquidator was appointed on 5 April. On 6 May 1966 the second lowest tenderer, Thomas & Provan, was awarded the contract to complete the building, for $32,990.[41] To make room for the new church, the 1952 church hall was relocated northwards and its understorey enclosed with brick, to provide accommodation for the Sunday School Kindergarten, while the 1956 Kindergarten hall remained in its original location.[42]
\nThe new church, a one-storey structure, was set back from the street, aligning with its neighbouring residences, which reflected a shift in suburban church architecture in Queensland towards designing buildings that were more similar to residences in materials and scale.[43] In accordance with the principles of renewed worship practices, the building’s pentagonal plan was topped with a folded roof and ceiling to create an inclusive worship space. The rows of pews were set to either side of the sanctuary, rather than directly in front of it. A narrow spire with a skylight at its base was placed centrally over the baptismal font, which was positioned in the centre of the nave, between the sets of pews. Careful attention was paid to natural and artificial light so that more prominence was not given to the sanctuary rather than the congregation that gathered around it. Glazing consisted of deep amber glass set in black steel window frames, and the organ and choir were located opposite the sanctuary and adjacent to an enclosed entrance porch, separated from it by a screen of random-patterned, coloured glass. The pulpit and the communion table were placed side by side, on a common marble base, to reflect their equality within Presbyterian worship.[44] The red cedar (Toona ciliata var. australis) furniture was custom-designed designed by Gibson and made in nearby Northgate by Maunsell’s.[45]
\nThe evolution of Presbyterian ecclesiastical architecture in post-WWII Queensland
\nA number of plan shapes were used in the 1960s by church designers to facilitate renewed worship practices and particularly to create a sense of gathered worship. As an example of this evolution in plan shapes, Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church marked a distinct shift in Presbyterian Church design.[46] More than 40 churches were opened by the PCQ between 1950 and 1977, when the Uniting Church was formed. Of these, 16 were opened in the 1950s, 22 in the 1960s, and only 3 opened in the 1970s. Those from the 1950s typically had historical architecture with some modern influences (Coorparoo Presbyterian Church, 1951) with further simplifying of historical features in the second half of the decade as demonstrated by Roma Presbyterian Church (1955). Churches like Wynnum Presbyterian Church (1959) marked a change to churches becoming modern in styling; however, they retained their traditional spaces, configurations and motifs in simplified forms, and this trend continued in to the 1960s with other examples like Stanthorpe Presbyterian Church (1963) and Holland Park Presbyterian Church (1965). Other Presbyterian churches in the 1960s experimented with more distinctive and modern forms (St Andrew’s Presbyterian Memorial Church Innisfail, 1960 [QHR 602332], and St Andrews Presbyterian Church Mount Isa, 1960). Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church (opened 19 November 1966) and Stafford Presbyterian Church (opened 1 October 1966)[47] marked another change in Presbyterian Church architecture, being the first two Presbyterian churches in Queensland to include broad naves with seating gathered closer to the minister in response to renewal of worship practices. The church at Stafford included seating on three sides of the minister.[48] However, the architecture of Stafford Presbyterian Church was simpler than at Wavell Heights; it had a square plan form without features like large windows of coloured glass or a folded roof form, and it also did not receive the same degree of publication in the periodical Australian Presbyterian Life. These concepts of responding to renewed worship practices were further developed throughout the remainder of the 1960s (Kenmore Uniting Church, 1968; St George Presbyterian church, 1968) and into the 1970s (Weller’s Hill Presbyterian Church, 1970).[49]
\nThe new church at Wavell Heights
\nConstruction was completed early in November 1966 and the new church was dedicated on the afternoon of Saturday 19 November, while the interior furnishings were dedicated the following morning. It was reported that a ‘five-sided church whose unusual features do not end with its exterior appearance had its two-stage blessing completed yesterday morning’.[50] Notable features included the proximity of the congregation to the pulpit and communion table, with no single person ‘more than five seats away’ from either (there were four blocks of six rows of pews), and the church’s feeling of ‘togetherness’ and its family atmosphere. The interior was ‘bathed in a golden light, from amber panes of glass’, and the red cedar furnishings ‘were chosen to augment the effect’.[51]
\nThe church was built and furnished for approximately $55,000 ($36,000 plus furniture), the majority of the cost met by a £20,000 ($40,000) loan from the Bank of NSW, which was eventually repaid from congregational offerings.[52]
\nThe new church received three mentions in Australian Presbyterian Life in 1966-7.[53] In June 1967, the periodical noted: ‘all commented favourably on the “gathered around” seating arrangement [...] to conduct worship in this building, or to be one of the other worshippers in the service, is to begin to understand what it is to belong in a community – the beloved community of Christ’s people.’[54]
\nIn 2022, only minor changes have been made to the church since its completion. These have included the addition of air-conditioning, the addition of aluminium-framed glazed doors between the porch and nave to facilitate this, and replacement of original carpet with new carpet. In 2020, a new freestanding universal access toilet was added at the southwest corner of the church, replacing a pergola. Stormwater pits were removed from the southern side of the building, replaced by a new full-width concrete path laid in 2015. In 2013 the marble-clad base of the font was replaced with timber, and made portable, and in 2020 the marble-clad common base of the pulpit and communion table was replaced with separate steel frames, although the pulpit and table remain adjacent. Some of the original timber pews have been removed for storage in the 1952 church.
\nIn 2022 Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church has remained in continuous use for its original purpose as a place of worship, and as a venue for baptisms, weddings and funerals, with the construction cost of the church long since repaid by weekly offerings from the congregation. A Korean Presbyterian Church, the Brisbane Logos Mission Church, also worships in the 1966 church.
","criteria":"Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church (1966), a highly intact Modernist-style church in a suburban setting, is important in demonstrating the evolution of Presbyterian Church architecture in Queensland during the post-World War II (WWII) period. By the late 1960s, Presbyterian Church architecture in Queensland featured cohesive design responses to the renewal of worship practices. The place is one of the earliest products of this movement and a good representative example of these design responses, as demonstrated in its built form, detailing, and layout.
|Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a post-WWII Modernist church in Queensland. Architect-designed and highly intact, this importance is evident in its: all-encompassing and unified Modernist aesthetic; restrained materials palette; traditional Christian spaces (nave, sanctuary, lobby), and motifs (coloured and leadlight glass, steeple) presented in non-traditional forms and layouts (low, folded roof form; pentagonal plan form; and broad, modestly-scaled nave with gathered layout); and original furniture (red cedar pews, pulpit, communion table, hymn book cupboards, and noticeboard).
|Retaining a high degree of intactness and integrity, Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church has aesthetic significance for its beautiful and expressive attributes, which are derived from its architectural design qualities. These attributes express renewed worship practices of the Presbyterian Church and include an all-encompassing and cohesive Modernist style; distinctive form; scale sympathetic to a suburban setting; symmetry; restrained materials palette; minimal use of decoration; and manipulation of light with amber coloured glass illuminating the nave, the roof lantern permitting a central light from above, and placement of artificial lighting.
|Architect James (Jim) William Gibson (1932-2018) is a person of importance in Queensland’s history. As a key advocate for the incorporation of the renewal of worship practices into Protestant church designs, Gibson had a notable role in the evolution of post-WWII Modernist church design in Queensland.
\nWavell Heights Presbyterian Church has a special association with Gibson, as its built form, detailing, and layout represents the culmination of his ideas and, as a result, the place is an important example of the architectural principles he advocated.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650272,"name":"Carpenter Hall House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"86 Main Avenue","suburb":"WILSTON","lga":"BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2021-12-10","description":"Carpenter Hall House (1986-2018) is a tower-like, timber-framed house in Wilston, approximately 4km north of the Brisbane CBD. The house stands on two allotments (totalling approximately 809m²) fronting Main Avenue to the south with Silvester Street, an unformed road reserve, on its eastern side. Located on the southern slopes of the Eildon Hill Reserve, the land is steep, and the five-storey house stands on the rear (northern) part of the yard at its high point, affording impressive panoramic views. The house has two bedrooms, and its small footprint is surrounded by a lush sub-tropical garden setting, which stretches across into the Silvester Street road reserve.
\nStanding adjacent to the road in the front yard is a two-storey garage/art studio (2021), also designed by Russell Hall, which is not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nThe place is highly intact and has a high degree of integrity.
\nFeatures of the place of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nHouse
\nThe house is a five-storey, timber-framed and -clad, freestanding residence with a corrugated metal sheet-clad roof. Its incremental construction period (1984-2018) has seen a number of small changes made to it over time, either completing the original design, or corrections and embellishments to it, designed by Russell Hall. The building is well crafted, particularly in the use of Queensland timbers, and features architectural mechanisms to allow abundant ventilation of the interior while providing protection from the sub-tropical climate.
\nThe house is approached via a concrete vehicle driveway or adjacent tiled stair from Main Avenue in the south, up the steep slope of Silvester Street (east of the house), to arrive on the northern side of the house at a small terrace, the main entrance.
\nThe house stands on two flat terraces cut into the steep slope and retained by walls. The lowest floor is level with a small terrace on the southern side and the first floor is level with the northern entry, the main entrance. The building rises above this to a 12-sided, peaked roof, crowned by a cap that incorporates a multi-faceted, light-refracting prism and turbine ventilator. The building’s external walls comprise modular, single-skin timber wall frames with diagonal bracing members, forming an attractive lattice-like exterior skin. Wrapping this is a series of wide, galvanised metal-sheet fins, projecting from the walls and angled diagonally on the east and west faces of the house to shelter it from the low rising and setting sun.
\nThe house fuses traditional and non-traditional Queensland building materials, construction techniques, and detailing. It has an airy, romantic character brought about by its tower-like form, lightweight construction, open plan and room layout, its small floor plate size, attention to cross ventilation, and whimsical features such as triangular windows with vibrant coloured glass and leadlights, and the prism which casts large rainbowspectra through the house and into the garden.
\nThe shape of the floor plan of each level is based on two concentric 12-sided polygons. The floor plates occupy part or all of those shapes, and the geometry of the house is faceted rather than rectilinear. Its walls and partitions meet at angles (multiples of 30 degrees) to form a variety of faceted or wedge-shaped rooms. The plan layout is typically one room deep, open plan, with open doorways rather than doors, and incorporates a winding stair with generous voids to facilitate natural cross-ventilation and emphasise the flowing, complex spatial form and arrangement of its rooms.
\nLevel 1 (the lowest floor) accommodates a guest suite (bedroom, bathroom, and small sitting room) and laundry, and opens out onto the southern terrace via a secondary entrance to the house. Level 2 accommodates the main entry (on the northern side) and a kitchen and dining area. It opens out onto the northern terrace. Level 3 accommodates a living room and opens out on its northern and southern sides to raised decks. Level 4 accommodates the main bedroom, a walk-through dressing room, and ensuite bathroom. Level 5, the top of the tower, accommodates a sewing room.
\nFeatures of the house of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\n\n
Garden Setting and Views
\nThe house opens onto a lush surrounding garden through its many openings with tiled terraces on the northern and southern side. The garden is dense and provides a screening buffer to the neighbours, cooling outdoor living spaces, and open space on all sides of the house to facilitate abundant natural ventilation of the interior. The garden stretches eastwards from the house into Silvester Street, and incorporates the driveway and entrance stair winding up its slope.
\nPlanted and maintained by Jennifer Carpenter Hall since 1986, the garden has an informal layout and features many mature Australian native trees species, some of which were planted to match the timbers used in the house, including brush box (Lophostemon confertus), Queensland maple (Flindersia brayleyana), and silky oak (Grevillea robusta).
\nFeatures of the Garden Setting of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nViews of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nCarpenter Hall House (occupied 1986) is a five-storey tower-like residence at Wilston, approximately 4km north of Brisbane’s CBD. Built between 1984 and 1986, and completed incrementally until 2018, it was designed by Queensland architect, Russell Hall, for his sister, Jennifer Carpenter Hall. The timber-framed house is situated on an elevated hillside beside the Eildon Hill Reserve, and has extensive views south to the city. Hall used traditional Queensland materials and construction techniques in a modern way to produce a non-traditional building form. The exterior walls of the house use Hall’s patented wall frame system, prefabricated and assembled on site. The house embodies Hall’s architectural philosophies developed throughout his career, including expressive and extensive use of Queensland timbers, carefully considered natural light and ventilation mechanisms, as well as whimsical features such as a large skylight of fluid-filled prisms that refract colours and rainbow spectra into and out of the house. Highly intact, the house is an excellent example of the evolution of Queensland architecture.
\nPrior to European settlement, the area now known as Wilston was part of the traditional country of the Turrbal people. Non-Indigenous residential occupation of the area began when merchant, William Wilson, took up 300 acres (121.4ha) of land and built a stone house in c1876, which he called ‘Wilston' (QHR 600344) after his birthplace in Ireland. The later suburb, located between Newmarket and Windsor, took the name of Wilson's house. During the 19th century, Wilston remained a predominantly rural area.
\nSuburban growth intensified with the arrival of the railway at nearby Newmarket in 1897. In 1899 the railway line was extended to Enoggera and the town of Windsor, incorporating Wilston, was proclaimed in 1904. The train line to Newmarket station had a stop at Wilston, and settlement spread northwards from there to the desirable elevated slopes of Eildon Hill. The population of Wilston increased further following the establishment of the Grange electric tramway along Days Road in 1928.[1]
\nA reservoir was constructed in 1929 by the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board on Eildon Hill, situated between the suburbs of Wilston and Windsor. The hill had long been a popular vantage point for views around Brisbane and a favourite place for picnics and recreation. With the increasing population in the area, the Greater Brisbane City Council deemed it necessary to construct the reservoir to ensure residents had a reliable source of clean water. Once the reservoir had been completed in 1930, the hill was replanted and a formal drive to the top, with stately entrance pillars and gates, was constructed. Eildon Hill continued to be utilised by residents as a vantage point.[2]
\nIn 1924, following the earlier subdivision and sale of the land below Eildon Hill, Richard Avison, a railway employee, purchased Lots 130 and 131 of Portion 261, totalling 32 perches (809m²), and by 1929 a house had been built on the site. Avison resided in the address until the late 1940s, after which the property was sold to a succession of new owners. In 1981 Jennifer Anne Carpenter Hall purchased the property and in 1984 asked her brother, architect Russell Hall (1947-), to design a house for her.[3] By this time, the original house had fallen into disrepair and was demolished between 1981 and 1983.[4]
\nBrisbane in the late 1970s and early 1980s was a city attempting to transition itself away from the reputation it had in other states - a sleepy, unsophisticated, large country town. The conservative Bjelke-Petersen state government had been in power since 1968. In local politics, the long serving Lord Mayor, Clem Jones (mayor from 1961 until 1975), had encouraged inner-city development, with many new high-rise buildings replacing older ones.[5]
\nThe almost unabated building boom of the 70s and early 80s in the inner-city areas had resulted in the demolition of many of Brisbane’s older buildings. This came to the fore when the Bjelke-Petersen government had the Belle Vue Hotel, a grand Victorian-era iron lace building, on the corner of William and Alice streets, torn down in the middle of the night in April 1979, despite protests from the Brisbane community. In November 1982, another much-loved landmark, ‘Cloudland Ballroom’ in Bowen Hills, was clandestinely demolished in the middle of the night. In the suburbs, traditional character housing, or ‘timber and tin’ areas, were increasingly eroded, with developers permitted to replace the early timber housing with modern brick houses and the ubiquitous ‘six pack’ of brick flats:
\n[I]n Brisbane the building boom trebled investment and brought a population increase of 35%. Moreover, there was a significant change in the use of building materials – the climatically-adapted weatherboard [house] on stilts was discarded for southern-oriented brick and brick veneer.[6]
\nHomogenous home designs from building companies such as AV Jennings appeared in suburbs throughout the country, often with little appreciation of the climatic and environmental context of the place in which they were constructed. In Brisbane, a heightened focus on the protection of the city’s heritage (prior to heritage legislation) and a renewed appreciation of Queensland’s traditional timber houses - the aesthetics, materials, and construction methods - emerged in the community.[7]
\nThe Queenslander house developed during the 19th century as a response to the local subtropical climate, including the need for ventilation, dry open-air living space in summer, and termite control. It was generally elevated on timber stumps and had verandahs on some or all sides that shaded and protected external walls. Roofs were pitched and sheeted with corrugated iron. Timber (hardwood and softwood) was extensively used due to the abundant supply, and many houses were single-skin, with timber stud framing and cross-bracing exposed. Decorative features that screened the sun or ventilated the interior evolved over the decades.[8]
\nThe distinctive single-skin timber construction technique evolved in Queensland from the mid-1860s. In this period, architects Richard George Suter, working for the Board of General Education in Brisbane, and Richard Hugo Oswald Roehricht, as chief draftsman for the Great Northern Railway at Rockhampton, were exploring similar architectural ideas for what was initially called ‘outside studding’. Exposing the structural frame and the outside face of the internal lining to the exterior increased the architectural expression of buildings and allowed for economic construction. Schools and churches built using this technique were a key influence in the widespread adoption of single-skin timber construction throughout colonial Queensland.[9]
\nFollowing World War II, the traditional house broadly fell out of favour, with an increasing preference for modern residential designs and materials.[10] However, the 1960s gradually saw a renewed awareness and appreciation of the state’s architectural history, especially its distinctive domestic tradition. Architects such as John Railton, Graham Bligh and John Dalton are recognised as among the earliest designers whose work expressed these influences. Students at the University of Queensland and the Queensland Institute of Technology, taught by architectural educators such as Peter Newell, Ian Sinnamon and James Birrell, began undertaking surveys and research of traditional buildings as part of their studies, advocating for its qualities and retention of this architectural heritage.[11]
\nRussell Hall Architects was one of several firms that were, increasingly from the 1970s, taking inspiration from the traditional ‘Queenslander’ house to develop a contemporary expression for Queensland architecture. These were predominantly residences, although in an abstracted form.[12] Differing in execution and often experimental, the work of Queensland architects such as Hall, Rex Addison, and Gabriel Poole drew upon this tradition.[13] Characteristics they drew inspiration from included: materials (predominantly timber and corrugated metal sheets); form (elevated above ground, box-like, and having a dominant roof); construction techniques (lightweight stud wall framing, often single-skin); use of smaller repeated timber members (battens, slats, and lattice); provision of semi-outdoor spaces (verandahs, decks, courtyards, and outdoor rooms); and mechanisms to allow abundant natural light and ventilation of the interior while providing protection from harsh weather (cross ventilation, shaded operable windows, and wide overhanging eaves).[14]
\nRussell and Jennifer Hall grew up on a farm in the small town of Harrisville, in the Fassifern (now Scenic Rim) district. Russell received his education from Scots College, Warwick and Brisbane Grammar School (QHR 600124). He studied architecture at the University of Queensland and Queensland Institute of Technology (QUT in 2021), graduating in 1974. After working briefly in architect, James Birrell’s firm, Hall accepted a role with the Papua New Guinea Housing Commission in 1976 and worked in Papua New Guinea until 1979. On returning to Australia, he established his own architectural practice in Buderim in 1980 and then in Brisbane in 1986, as Russell Hall Architects. In 1991 Hall also established a sheet metal design and manufacturing business, Ripple Iron Curving Company, that produced high quality metal products such as street furniture.[15]
\nHall’s architecture has been described by contemporaries as inventive, rational and yet, romantic.[16] Hall’s houses employed traditional materials and forms, building scale and lot siting, and fitted well into traditional streetscapes. The typical Hall house is small, single skin, and with an unusually shaped roof with wide overhanging eaves for shelter from rain and sun. They are generally raised from the ground and are light and airy in character. They are connected to their sites and usually topped by a ventilator. The buildings use clear-finished timber extensively, especially on the interiors for floors, walls, and ceilings and the primary structural timbers were left exposed. Other examples of Hall’s work in Queensland include Hall House, Mons, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland (1982), which was built as his own home and used upturned tree trunks with exposed roots as the main structural support for the roof; Judge Residence, Camp Island in North Queensland (1988); Prasser House, Ashgrove in Brisbane (1984); the restoration and redevelopment of the Rialto Theatre, West End in Brisbane (1995); and the Varitimos Buildings on the corner of Boundary and Vulture streets, West End in Brisbane (1996-98).[17]
\nWork began on the Carpenter Hall House project in 1984-85.[18] The initial design submitted to the Brisbane City Council (BCC) for Carpenter Hall House differed to what was built, with the final design approved by the BCC in 1984.[19] The appointed builder for the house was Maroochydore based, Dave Berg.[20]
\nThe site sloped steeply to the south and was adjacent to the Eildon Hill Reserve to the north and east, with only one neighbour to the west. The new house would take up approximately 16 percent of the land to accommodate a large garden. The topography of the site allowed Hall’s design to make use of the northern sun and afford southern views toward the city.
\nThe decision to construct the house from timber followed Hall’s design philosophies of experimenting with construction techniques and materials of traditional Queensland houses.[21] His work in Papua New Guinea for the National Housing Commission had developed a technique that used exposed stud and single skin construction as a response to the consistent hot, humid climate, coupled with cost restraints.[22]
\nArchitectureAU described Hall’s design for the house in 2019 as:
\nA five-storey building…For the body of the house, he used a traditional nineteenth-century timber construction technique of exposed stud bracing, single-skin walls and tall timber stumps, which he wrapped in diagonal sunshades of galvanised steel that beautifully compliment the pattern of the timber structure. In terms of its materiality, the residence conforms to Queensland’s timber-and-tin building tradition. However, this is about all that is ‘traditional’ about this house.[23]
\nUnlike most conventional houses, Carpenter Hall House’s axes were vertical, rather than horizontal.[24] He based his design on the geometric shape of the dodecagon and in a 2013 interview, Hall explained his design:
\nIn laying out Jennifer’s house, I divided the thing into parts of 12, into a dodecagon … on her house, I thought, if I could make it look more like an overall sculpture, it’s an exercise in dodecagon, with final form being the full dodecagon which is the loft. The other ones [floors] are various divisions of a dodecagon, and then you’ve got to move through it, there was a fair bit done to try and make it interesting to move through … just by the staircases and the voids and how much area you have on this level… you can look through the house and look through 3 or 4 levels … so you get the feeling of, you’re not just a floor, a floor, a floor’.[25]
\nAt the top level of the five-storey house (Level 5) was the loft, fitted out as a sewing room and open to the prism skylight above; Level 4 was the main bedroom with ensuite bathroom; Level 3 was the living room; and Level 2 was the kitchen, dining, and main entrance to the house. Level 1 was another bedroom, bathroom, laundry, and a separate entrance. Connecting each floor were timber staircases with elaborate (and allegorical) timber balustrades. Throughout the interior of the house, polished Queensland timbers have been used, and windows include coloured glass and lead-light by glass artist, Norman Birrell.[26]
\nHall, a self-confessed proponent of imperial measurements, rather than metric, believed that the use of imperial has ‘a straight relationship with the human body’ and the design of the house was not only an exercise in numbers, but also an exercise in geometry.
\nHall used his patented wall frame system for the exterior walls of the house. This system ‘uses nail plates to join the wall framing members, to form a high strength, yet attractive timber frame. This enables factory production of wall frames which can also act as trusses, allowing the possibility of eliminating some bearers and footings’.[27] All were prefabricated in a factory in Maryborough, and Hall has stated Carpenter Hall House was the highpoint of the use of this technique.[28]
\nConsideration for comfort within Brisbane’s subtropical climate was foremost in the design of the house. Traditional Queenslanders incorporated sun-shading, including verandahs with wide overhangs, and natural ventilation through the house. Considered and innovative sun-shading was a key component, as Hall explains:
\nshading devices were installed to improve the climatic performance of the house and to reduce the need for maintenance. These are made from 16 gauge flat, galvanised steel which is folded, eliminating the need for supporting battens. The angles at which these awnings have been placed reflect the sun control needs to the various elevations.[29]
\nThe shade devices also provided the house a particular feature of its distinctive aesthetic.
\nThe verticality of the house assisted with the ventilation in the house with a turbine vent installed on the roof of the loft to extract hot air away from the voids.[30] Additionally, a cooling system was installed on the roof to spray water onto the roof to help cool the house.[31] The skylight at the top of the house was an inventive feature which used fluid-filled prisms to refract coloured light and rainbows into and out of the house.[32] The skylight was experimental and after several failed attempts to create a fluid-filled skylight that would refract coloured light, and with technical help from advisors from the QIT (QUT in 2021), the skylight was developed and installed. Although it was not entirely complete, Jennifer Carpenter Hall occupied the house by 1986.[33]
\nWhen referring to Carpenter Hall House, architectural critic, Graham Jahn described Hall: ‘his ideology resides outside the mainstream themes of wider architectural practice, especially in terms of metaphor, allegorical allusions and handicraft motifs’.[34] With a focus on traditional, craft-based methods, the interior timber work throughout the house reflects Hall’s philosophy.[35] An admirer of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi’s work, Hall embedded fairy tales and story within the design of the house – the tower design, staircase balustrades, and lead-light windows.
\nIn August 1987, Carpenter Hall House was featured in the Sunday Mail Colour Magazine’s ‘Design for Living’ section, which highlighted its innovative architecture to a broad audience. The house was described as a ‘castle in the sky…something special has happened to architecture. It has found its artistic heart’. The article included an interview with Hall who explained the design of the house and its creative features. Large photographs showcased the interior and exterior of the house, and the article also included the architectural plans.[36]
\nFurther work on Carpenter Hall House was carried out incrementally over the years to complete the final design, including the completion of the timber balustrades to the staircases c1992. Jennifer and Russell Hall declared the house complete in 2018.[37] In 2021 Hall designed a detached, two-storey garage and art studio in the garden at the front of the house, lower down the slope.[38]
\nThe extensive sub-tropical gardens surrounding the house have been planted by Jennifer Carpenter Hall over the years and consist of an array of predominately native Queensland species with a focus on attracting native animals and birds. The garden extends across the house lots onto the adjacent unformed road reserve east of the house, Silvester Street, which also contains the driveway and entrance stair to the house.
\nCarpenter Hall House has been included in many Australian architectural publications including books, journal articles and magazines. Titles such as Contemporary Australian Architecture, Eight Great Houses, Australian Architecture Since 1960, Architecture in Brisbane, ArchitectureAU, Houses, Architecture Australia, and International Architect have celebrated the house’s attributes and the architect’s creativity. In 2008 it was included in the Australian contribution to the prestigious Venice Biennale of Architecture.[39]
\nRussell Hall has been the recipient of several prestigious awards for the design of Carpenter Hall House. In 1988 Hall was awarded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA), Queensland Chapter, Innovation Award for his patented wall frame system used on the house. In 2009-2010 the house was included on the Australian Institute of Architect’s (AIA) ‘Nationally Significant 20th-Century Architecture’ Heritage Register, and was described as an ‘extraordinary beacon of individual expression … an extremely inventive conception in pushing vernacular forms into unfamiliar geometry to produce a highly individual yet functional result’.[40] In 2018, after it was declared complete, Hall won an award for Carpenter Hall House in the AIA’s Queensland Architecture Award in the Residential Architecture - Houses (New) category.[41]
\nIn 2021, the house continues to be a private residence and remains highly intact.
","criteria":"Carpenter Hall House (1986), an excellent example of a late 20th century architect-designed timber residence, is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland’s domestic architecture. The house was designed by Queensland architect, Russell Hall (1947-). Through its form, structure, use of traditional materials (including timber and metal sheeting), design response to its setting, internal layout, and passive climate design features, the house is a distinctive and exceptional example of the way the state’s architectural profession was reworking the characteristics of traditional Queensland housing in late twentieth century architecture.
|Carpenter Hall House is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a late 20th century architect-designed residence inspired by traditional Queensland domestic architecture. Highly intact, the place retains the principal characteristics of this class of place including its: timber-framed and -clad structure with single-skin walls with diagonal bracing; pitched roof clad with corrugated metal sheets; climate responsiveness through broad roof eaves, sun shields, and abundant passive cross ventilation of the interior; and the provision of semi-outdoor rooms and garden spaces.
\nDistinct within this type is Russell Hall’s architectural work. Carpenter Hall House embodies architectural concepts Hall developed and refined over his career, including: Hall’s single-skin wall frames with diagonal bracing and gang-nail plates; extensive use of clear-finished Queensland timber; open plan layouts; dimensions based on the imperial system; and creative elements such as its allegorical stair balustrade, rooftop rain sprinkler system, and prominent rooftop crown with light-refracting prism.
|Carpenter Hall House is important for its aesthetic significance as a building of exceptional architectural quality. Highly intact, it possesses beautiful attributes derived from its symmetry, form, scale, materials, detailed and meticulous assembly, and careful manipulation of natural ventilation. It possesses picturesque qualities derived from the unfolding views to, and movement through, its faceted tower-like form in a lush garden setting, large sun shields angled and repeated across its exterior, open plan interior, and winding stair through voids.
\nThe refraction of light throughout the interior of the house and into its garden setting from coloured glass doors and windows and rooftop prism enhances the place’s picturesque qualities.
\nThe architectural quality of the house has been recognised by its extensive representation in architectural publications and it having received numerous architectural awards since its construction.
|In its highly intact form, materials, and details, Carpenter Hall House demonstrates a high degree of architectural excellence as an experimental design, finely tailored to the client’s specific requirements and interests. It is important for its cohesive aesthetic, high level of craft and creative detail, extensive use of Hall’s wall frame system, light refracting prism, and carefully considered mechanisms for abundant natural ventilation of the interior. Its extensive representation in publications and architectural awards since its construction are evidence of its recognition as a place noted for its creative and technical achievement in Queensland architecture.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"} ]}