Sweeney's Reserve is a grassy, partially wooded park on the north bank of the North Pine River in the outer Brisbane suburb of Petrie. The reserve is equipped with barbeques and a playground. Access is possible by foot along a concrete path that runs through the reserve from adjacent green areas or by vehicle via a bitumen roadway.
The roadway enters the reserve mid-way along its northern boundary and continues in a circuit through the park. The entrance comprises two tall wooden posts engraved with the name of the reserve. A brick lavatory block stands to the east of the access road near the entrance.
The eastern end of the reserve comprises a peninsular of land formed by the curve of the river and a wide inlet. Here, the terrain is open, quite level and grassy and the river banks are low. The edge of the water is largely obscured by a thick growth of mangroves.
The former river crossing is located at the eastern end of the reserve. The route of the old road is traced by a raised grassy embankment that curves through the reserve to the present entrance. A grove of camphor laurel trees grow over and beside the embankment where it passes through the central part of the reserve. A wooden bridge crosses a small gully that cuts through the embankment.
The playground and barbeque areas are located in the central part of the reserve near a bitumen car-park. These facilities are recent. The greater part of this section of the reserve is shaded by large trees which blend with the camphor laurels growing on the embankment.
The western end of the park is dominated by a fenced off-lead area for dogs. Another brick lavatory block is located close to this.
The banks of the river are quite accessible for the most part, though mangroves of varying density grow along it. A combined concrete canoe launching area and fishing spot is located on the bank towards the eastern end of the reserve.
","history":"Sweeney's Reserve is a picnic ground located on the banks of the North Pine River in the suburb of Petrie on the northern edges of greater Brisbane. It was used as a rafting ground in the early period of the timber getting industry. Later, the Brisbane to Gympie Road crossed the North Pine River here and the park contains the remains of this road. The remnants of timber bridge piles are located in the adjacent reach of the river. During the interwar period it became a popular picnic and bathing spot maintained by T.P. Sweeney, the owner of small kiosk in the reserve. The picnic ground is named after him.
The area may have been used by timber getters as early as the 1840s. The Pine River area was among the first in Queensland to be logged: convict timber getters were recorded in the area in 1824. The north coast region had a long-lived timber industry, eventually developing into one of the State's most productive timber regions by the middle of the 20th century.
Since timber was the most viable and easily accessible natural resource it was one of the first resources to be exploited by settlers. As a consequence, timber getters entered undeveloped districts which had few, if any roads. So rivers like the Pine were crucial to the viability of the industry. Not only did the sought-after soft woods generally grow in river valleys, but the rivers also represented the most practical way of transporting logs out of the district to market. Rafting grounds were places were logs were assembled in rivers and floated downstream to the sea.
The present Sweeney's Reserve was probably being used as such at least as early as 1859. The Winn family began logging in the district at about this time and family members indicate that the location was used for this purpose. However, it was probably used as a rafting ground before this. When travelling through the area in 1858, Tom Petrie encountered John Griffin, a local pastoralist, carting logs to the tidal reaches of the North Pine River from where they could be rafted out to sea. The encounter took place not far from the present Sweeney's Reserve. Griffin was probably headed for this location which, at the time, was the closest point of the river influenced by tides and the nearest point from where logs could have unobstructed passage to the sea. Given that loggers were recorded on the Griffin property as early as 1847, it is possible that the rafting ground had been in use for some time.
The location meets the essential criteria for a rafting ground: it is close to the 'head of navigation', that is, logs could have clear passage to the sea from here; access to the water is easy because the banks are low; there is a wide expanse of relatively flat ground adjacent to the river where logs could be handled and temporarily stored; and the river can be forded here so that both banks could be used.
The river ford's use as part of a route probably commenced as early as 1860. After Tom Petrie, the district's first settler, established his nearby Murrumba homestead in 1859, he marked a route to Bald Hills which probably crossed the river at the present Sweeney's Reserve. At the onset of closer settlement in 1862, the ford was surveyed as a road reserve suggesting that the route was well established by this time.
By 1865, the ford probably formed part of the main northern route to Maryborough. This route had been first established in the 1840s to provide access to the Archer Brothers' Durundur Station and it later extended to Maryborough via the Mary River. The original North Pine River crossings on this route were some distance upstream. However, the Select Committee Report on Roads (1863) and Pugh's Almanac (1865) suggests that a route via the present Sweeney's Reserve was emerging as a favoured alternative by the mid-1860s although the road was unformed and very poor. The original crossing points probably continued to be used for some time.
The importance of the ford in the current Sweeney's Reserve grew after the discovery of gold at Gympie Creek in 1867. Prospectors initially travelled to the gold fields via the Durundur road or by sea. By 1868, a more direct land route to the gold fields was marked via the ford and Petrie's homestead. This was the forerunner of the present Gympie Road. Cobb and Co commenced using the route from this time and Murrumba was their first coach stop. Since the ford could only be crossed at low tide, it is believed that Tom Petrie operated a punt across the river. The ford was now part of the main Brisbane to Gympie road as well as probably being part of the earlier northern route via Durundur.
For a time, the ford possibly vied with other crossings further upstream. However, the establishment of a nearby hostelry by Petrie in about 1870 suggests that a growing volume of traffic was using it. In 1872, the opening of a post office in the hostelry marked the beginning of the small settlement of North Pine (now Petrie) near the ford.
In 1877, a low level bridge was built next to the ford. It was named 'Sir Arthur's Bridge' after the governor of Queensland, Sir Arthur Kennedy, who performed the opening ceremony. 320 feet (97.5m) long and 18 feet (5.5m) wide, it cost less than £2500. The ford continued to be used by travelling stock until well into the 20th century.
The bridge was designed by the Inspector General of Roads, Mr J. F. Byerley. It was largely undistinguishable from other similar scale bridges of the era except for the innovative design of the piles which are still visible at low tide. These were encased in eight to twelve inches (20.3 to 30.5cm) of concrete from three feet (91.4cm) below the bed of the river to three feet below the corbels. This was designed to protect the piles from the attacks of a marine insect called teredo navalis or cobra. A similar method was used on a bridge over the Logan River at Waterford. The road at the approaches to the bridge was formed on long embankments; these are still extant in Sweeney's Reserve. The bridge remained part of Gympie Road until 1936, when a higher bridge, less subject to flooding, was completed further downstream and the road was diverted to cross there.
The reserve's popularity as a picnic spot may date from the arrival of the North Coast Railway line in March 1888. The railway greatly improved accessibility to places outside of Brisbane and it soon became the preferred means of land travel for medium to long-distances. Access to the rail network remained crucial to the development of tourist locales until late in the interwar period. Given its close proximity to Brisbane, it is likely that pleasure trippers began to visit North Pine soon after the railway opened. The reserve was an easy walk from the Petrie Railway Station and it was heavily used by picnickers at least as early as 1912. By 1921, the council had erected lavatories and two bathing sheds on the reserve. Joe Findlay, a returned serviceman, operated a kiosk selling refreshments. Over 1000 people from Brisbane and the surrounding districts visited the spot each Sunday during the Christmas holidays.
In 1924, the changing use of the reserve was officially acknowledged when the section of land not occupied by the road was gazetted as a recreational reserve. The Land Commissioner also granted Pine Shire Council control of it recognising that they were maintaining the amenities. At the same time a lease agreement was established with Findlay for the land occupied by his kiosk.
Thomas Patrick Sweeney's long involvement with the reserve began in about 1926 when he became lessee of the kiosk. Sweeney's interests soon extended to the whole of the reserve on which his livelihood depended. In 1928, when a flood washed away the bathing sheds and lavatories, Sweeney erected temporary structures clad in calico. It was noted in official correspondence that he was 'using practically the whole of the area of the reserve'. When it was declared a sanctuary for the protection of birds and animals in 1929, Sweeney was appointed an officer under the Animals and Birds Acts 1921 to 1924.
In 1932, Sweeney was granted a special lease on a 'peppercorn' rent for all of the reserve. Pine Shire Council had relinquished control in 1931 to avoid the on-going cost of replacing and repairing amenities washed away by the annual flooding of the river. Under the terms of the 21 year lease, Sweeney had to allow free public access, erect suitable amenities and act as caretaker of the reserve.
Sweeney lived with his family in his house on the reserve probably until his death in 1969. During much of his long tenure, the reserve remained a very popular picnic and swimming spot and he continued to operate his kiosk. It was a favoured location for families from Brisbane and the local area, for companies' annual picnics and school break-ups. In the late 1920s, a local band played on alternate Sundays. Swimming in the river was the main attraction: races were held, rope swings were tied to overhanging trees for the benefit of swimmers, and locals swam there on hot summer nights. The Sweeney's pet emus and kangaroos were another attraction.
By the 1950s, the popularity of the reserve was declining. The post-war period saw a major change in leisure destinations stemming from increased annual holidays, increased car ownership and better roads. Resorts on the north and south coasts now became the favoured weekend destinations for Brisbane people. In 1957, it was reported that the reserve was overgrown with groundsel and that it was almost impossible to drive a car into it. When his lease expired in 1958, Sweeney, now aged in his 70s, was informed that it would not be renewed.
Pine Rivers Shire Council regained control of the reserve in 1961 but Sweeney, his wife and a daughter were allowed to continue living there. In 1974, the kiosk was dilapidated and disused; it was probably removed about this time. Sweeney's daughter, Patsy Eviston, continued to live at the reserve until the 1990s when she died. Their home was demolished soon after. Sweeney's Reserve is now maintained by the council as a popular picnic spot for families in the Petrie area.
","criteria":"Sweeney's Reserve is important as a former river crossing of Gympie Road, an early rafting ground, and a picnic and swimming spot dating to the interwar period.
The reserve contains the remnants of the North Pine River crossing of Gympie Road as it existed between the 1870s and 1936. As the one of the earliest known remnants of the main coastal road north from Brisbane, the reserve provides uncommon evidence of the evolution of a route that was important in the development of the State's road network.
As the location of a rafting ground from as early as 1859, the reserve is important in providing rare surviving evidence of the early period of the timber industry in the coastal region north of Brisbane. The North Coast was one of the first areas to be exploited for its timber and it developed into one the State's most productive timber regions by the middle of the 20th century. Due to the ephemeral nature of their activities, little evidence remains of timber getters' activities during the earliest period of the industry.
The reserve is also indicative of leisure activities when the train was the primary means of transport. Located within walking distance of Petrie Railway Station, a short train trip from the city, the reserve was typically visited during the interwar period by over 1000 people on Sundays who combined a train trip with a day by the riverside picnicking and swimming.
|The reserve is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of rafting grounds where logs were assembled and floated to the ocean. It is located close to the highest navigable portion of the river: from here, logs could have unimpeded passage to the sea. Access to the water is easy because the banks are low, there is a wide expanse of relatively flat ground adjacent to the river where logs could be handled and temporarily stored, and the river could be forded so that both banks could be used.
|As the site of the North Pine River crossing of Gympie Road from the 1870s until 1936, the reserve is an archaeological site that has the potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of this important road and the traffic that passed along it. For much of the period that the site was used as a river crossing, Gympie Road was the main route north from Brisbane.
|A large riverside reserve with clumps and groves of shady mature trees and open grassy flats, scattered with picnic areas and playgrounds, Sweeney's Reserve is valued for its peaceful park setting. Popular for relaxing, playing, picnicking and other informal leisure activities it offers pleasant vistas within and out.
|The reserve is important in containing a rare recognisable remnant of Gympie Road as it existed prior to 1936. This takes the form of a raised embankment, formed in 1877, that traces the road approach to the bridge that crossed the North Pine River there. The remains of the bridge piles (1877) are also extant in the bed of the river. The road remnant was preserved after the position of the road was altered in 1936 due to the continued use of the area as a recreational reserve.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion C | Criterion E | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15541,"place_ref":600766,"name":"Strathpine Honour Board","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"1347 Anzac Avenue","suburb":"KALLANGUR","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"This World War I Honour Board is wall mounted in the old foyer of the Pine Rivers RSL and Services Memorial Club.
\nThe honour board is made of bronze on a marble background with timber edging. Predominantly rectangular in shape, the board has a panel to either top corner featuring a cavalryman with the Queensland state emblem and a soldier below. There are two enamelled flags at the top in the centre, the current Australian flag and the Union Jack, and on either side is the emblem of the AIF. At the bottom in the centre is a plastic replica of Britannia, with the words For king and country, and in each of the bottom corners is a cannon.
\nThe roll of honour features names on separate beaten plates screwed to the board with lettering beside indicating whether the person was killed in action, wounded, died of illness or returned home, many of which are missing. The lettering is in gold and the background is a dull brown metal finish. The board has a handcrafted quality but the figures appear to have been cast.
\nIn the same foyer is a timber honour board for North Pine State School. It has two columns supporting a curved timber gable with a central carved wreath in relief. Names are listed in two vertical panels and all lettering is in gold.
\nThere is also a cast metal plaque dedicated to the RSSAIAL featuring a crown with a sailor, soldier and airman in a centre circle. Also depicted are the Irish clover, Scotch thistle, English rose, Welsh leek and Australian wattle.
\nThe foyer opens to the north to a memorial garden. There is a paved central path with a low brick structure and plaque with the words Lest we forget. Two brick side walls with plates bearing the names of deceased members and three plaques with the emblems of the RAN, the AIF and the RAAF. There is also a flagpole and four rocks with plaques commemorating the US Army presence in Pine Rivers, the Vietnam War, all wars and all those lost at sea. The gardens also contain two guns and World War I memorial gates.
\nThe gates have painted carved stone gateposts with decorative wrought iron gates. The two central gates are larger and roll on wheels for opening. The posts are square in plan with carved stone capitals. The centre two are larger with carved wreaths at the top front, and all the posts have marble memorial plaques attached commemorating the Great War, World War II, Vietnam, Malaya, Borneo and Korea.
","history":"This honour board was designed by leading Brisbane metal worker, Ernest Gunderson in 1921. It was commissioned by the Strathpine Patriotic League and hung in the Pine Rivers Shire Hall until 1980 when it was moved to the local RSL club.
The board lists in alphabetical order the 76 names of local men who served in World War I. Some of the letters are missing and others were replaced in 1984 when a local, Fred Williams, refurbished the board.
Located near this honour board are other memorials to honour the districts service men. In 1985 the First World War Memorial Gates from the Lawnton Agricultural Show Grounds were relocated to Anzac Ave and the area between the gates and club have been constructed as a memorial garden.
The Brisbane based Gunderson firm manufactured cast bronze honour boards which were quite distinctive as the dark bronze background contrasted with the polished brass lettering and ornamentation. Gunderson's honour boards are unique to Queensland and few remain as intact as this example.
","criteria":"Evidence of a widespread social movement expressing the imperial loyalties of the period
|A member of a class of commemorative structures erected as a record of the local impact of a major historical event and intended to endure
|The aesthetic quality and craftsmanship
The memorial gates for their aesthetic quality and streetscape contribution
|A rare example of the work of Brisbane craftsman Ernest Gunderson
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15542,"place_ref":600767,"name":"North Pine Presbyterian Church (former)","alternate_name":"North Pine Presbyterian Church","street_address":"901 Dayboro Road","suburb":"WHITESIDE","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former North Pine Presbyterian Church is a small, timber-framed church located in the historical village tourist attraction ‘Old Petrie Town’ in Whiteside, a suburb near Petrie. It stands in a prominent position surrounded by open lawns with its entry facing approximately north to a large grassed ‘village green’.
\nThe church is lowset and has a steep gable roof over the main body, a small gable roofed front porch, and a lower skillion roof over an attached rear vestry (likely an extension made in 1887). The vestry has a floor level one step higher than the nave.
\nThe church’s main body and porch are of single-skin construction with framing exposed externally, stop chamfering on corner studs, and diagonal bracing toward the building corners. The rear vestry is clad externally with weatherboards.
\nFeatures of the church of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nThe Former North Pine Presbyterian Church was built in 1884 in Petrie and was moved 2.5km northwest in 1985 to form part of a historical village tourist attraction in Whiteside. It is the oldest surviving church in the Petrie district and is a good example of a small nineteenth-century Queensland church of single-skin timber construction.
\nThe North Pine River area is part of the traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi and the Yuggera Ugarapul People.[1] Convict timber getters were recorded in the area in the 1820s, and in the early 1840s pastoral runs were established on either side of the North Pine River. In 1859 Thomas Petrie established a 6400 acre (2590ha) run, known as Murrumba, which extended to Sideling Creek in the west, Redcliffe Point in the east, and to the Pine and North Pine rivers in the south. Petrie was also involved in timber getting, utilising the rafting ground at Sweeney's Reserve [QHR 602687], southeast of the present Petrie town centre.
\nCloser settlement in the area commenced in 1862, with the sale by selection of portions in the ‘Redcliffe Agricultural Reserve'. Having had his pastoral leases cancelled by this reserve, Tom Petrie purchased a homestead block (portion 23, east of the school site), and leased nearby Portions 24, 25, 29 and 30. A coach route from Brisbane to Gympie, with a staging post at Petrie's ‘Murrumba Homestead’, was established in late 1868 by Cobb & Co. A road bridge was built next to the ford at Sweeney's Reserve in 1877, and the North Coast Railway was constructed north from Brisbane to Caboolture by 1888. Tom Petrie took advantage of the railway running through his property to subdivide part of it as the North Pine Terminus Township in 1885. This became the nucleus of the township of North Pine. In 1877, Tom Petrie also donated land for the establishment of the town's first state school.[2]
\nThe first Presbyterian church in the district was known as the ‘Short Cut’, ‘The Pine’, ‘The Crossing’, or the ‘North Pine’ church, and was located several miles east of the suburb known today as Petrie. This church was demolished in 1915. As settlement surrounding the small town of North Pine increased in the 1870s, so too did the need for a new and more conveniently located church for the Presbyterian congregation.[3]
\nIn 1877, North Pine settler, William Townsend, gave one acre (0.4ha) of his 40 acre (16.1ha) selection along the North Pine River, to the Presbyterian Church. A church was not immediately built on the site. In 1881, however, a congregation meeting was held to discuss the construction of a new church. At this meeting Tom Petrie proposed that ‘a new building, to take the place of the one at the riverside, be put up on the church grounds on the hill’.[4] A building committee, comprising of several leading community members, including Messrs Petrie, McCulloch, Gordon, and White, was established. In July 1883, tenders were called for the construction of the church. The successful contractor was local builder and farmer, James Foreman, at a cost of £142. In 1883 the progress of the work was reported, ‘Mr Foreman has in hand another church, which he hopes to finish soon’.[5] It is not known if an architect was associated with the design of the church.
\nOn 8 June 1884, the completed church was officially opened and was described at the time as a ‘fine building’. Standing centrally on its elevated allotment, the church faced northeast to Old Dayboro Road, a main thoroughfare from North Pine, south to Brisbane, and was central to the growing township. Early photographs (undated) show it to have been of ‘single-skin’ timber construction. It was lowset and had a simple rectangular nave with a steep gable roof, a small projecting front porch. It had pointed arch windows either side of the porch and down the sides of the nave.[6]
\nThe distinctive single-skin timber construction technique evolved in Queensland from the mid-1860s. In this period, architects Richard George Suter, working for the Board of General Education in Brisbane, and Richard Hugo Oswald Roehricht, as chief draftsman for the Great Northern Railway at Rockhampton, were exploring similar architectural ideas for what was initially called ‘outside studding’. Exposing the structural frame and the outside face of the internal lining to the exterior increased the architectural expression of buildings and allowed for economic construction. Schools and churches built using this technique were a key influence in the widespread adoption of single-skin timber construction throughout colonial Queensland.[7]
\nThe North Pine Presbyterian Church committee meeting minutes record that on 25 April 1887 the committee accepted a Collins and McTaggart tender of £5/10s for painting the interior of the church, and Mr Whitmore’s tender of £15 for the erection of a small room at the back of the church (likely the vestry), as well as 10/- for ‘fixing in ventilators and cutting/fixing louvre windows in the gable ends’.[8]
\nOver the years, many social events have taken place within the church grounds, including Sunday school classes, fundraising fetes, picnics and community meetings.[9] Minutes record that funds were raised from the congregation between 1890 and 1892 to purchase an organ for £30. In 1911, following the death of Tom Petrie in August 1910, North Pine was renamed ‘Petrie’ in his memory. The church, however, remained known as the North Pine Presbyterian Church.[10]
\nFurther fundraising events for the church were held in the grounds of the Petrie family’s Murrumba Homestead, hosted by two of Tom Petrie’s daughters, Ida and Jessie, who continued to reside at the property following his death: ‘the picturesque grounds of Murrumba lent for the occasion by the Misses Petrie, made an ideal setting for the fete … The ornamental trees, planted so many years ago by the late Mrs Tom Petrie, made a delightful background to the stalls scattered beneath their shade’.[11]
\nIn June 1916, an honour board, dedicated to church members who had enlisted in World War I (WWI), was unveiled. The silky oak board was designed and built by Brisbane furniture manufacturers, F Tritton Ltd (Tritton’s).[12]
\nDuring World War II (WWII) several large military training camps, collectively known as Camp Strathpine, were situated in the Petrie district. Both US troops and Australian troops were accommodated at the camps at various times throughout the war. The North Pine Presbyterian Church congregation welcomed servicemen attending church services and provided supper on Sundays following the evening service.[13]
\nIn October 1983, the congregation celebrated its centenary and the event was attended by more than 200 people. One year later a new brick church was constructed beside the original one.[14] The WWI Honour Board was transferred to the new church at this time. The 1884 church was subsequently relocated in 1985 to a new site in nearby Whiteside for the establishment of North Pine Country Park (in 2020 known as Old Petrie Town), a historical village tourist attraction. Operated by the Pine Rivers Shire Council, it included other old buildings moved onto the site.
\nIn 2020, the church remains consecrated and is used for interdenominational services and weddings.[15] As the oldest remaining church in the district, the former North Pine Presbyterian Church has been an important spiritual and community centre since 1884.
","criteria":"The North Pine Presbyterian Church (former), built in 1884 and moved to its present site in 1985, is the earliest surviving church in Moreton Bay region and is important in demonstrating the development of the Presbyterian Church in Queensland and of Petrie in the late 19th century as a regional centre.
|The church is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a small, timber-framed church built in late-19th century Queensland. Highly intact, these include its: modest size; symmetrical, low-set, gable roof form with projecting gable roof front porch; timber-framed and -clad construction with single-skin elements; nave; vestry; and lancet windows. It also retains early characteristic fittings including pews, cabinet, organ and stool.
|The church is important for its aesthetic qualities, displaying beautiful attributes. This is brought about by its modest size, symmetrical form, exposed construction, decorative timberwork in a modest Carpenter Gothic style, and its simple nave with regularly-spaced lancet windows.
|The church has a strong and ongoing association with the Moreton Bay community. Established in 1884 through the efforts and fundraising of the community, and with sustained use as a church since, it has served as a prominent venue for spiritual worship, social interaction, community support, and valued customary traditions for more than 135 years.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15543,"place_ref":600768,"name":"Pine Rivers Shire Hall (former)","alternate_name":"Pine Shire Hall | Pine Rivers Shire Hall | Pine Divisional Board Hall","street_address":"238 Gympie Road","suburb":"STRATHPINE","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Pine Rivers Shire Hall (former) (1889-c1935) comprises a small, single-storey building fronting east to Gympie Road, the main arterial road, in central Strathpine. It stands back from the front boundary behind a narrow front yard and is surrounded by open space on all sides. It shares its flat site with an adjacent, later brick council chambers building (1960) and a later large public carpark at the rear (bitumened by the 1990s), which are not within the state heritage register boundary. The site is bounded on its north, west, and south by Hall Street, which is a loop road around the site.
\nThe building is a modest, timber-framed and -clad building, elevated on short stumps, and has a corrugated metal sheet-clad roof. It comprises an original Divisional Board Hall that has had additions made in four later stages to accommodate the increased functions of the local government. The building is largely intact in its c1935 arrangement, and its different phases of construction are evident, with their original uses legible. In 2023 it is used as a community theatre venue, reflecting its significant ongoing community use.
\nFeatures of Pine Rivers Shire Hall (former) of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFront Verandah (1889, extended 1932, substantially rebuilt 1984-86)
\nRunning along the east face of the building, the Front Verandah is timber-framed and has a skillion roof. It comprises two sections – an 1889 section across the front of the Divisional Board Hall and a 1932 extension across the front of the Council Office. The later section matches the earlier in form and most details. The Front Verandah has two short timber stairs, separating the entrances of the Divisional Board Hall and Council Office.
\nFeatures of the Front Verandah of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Front Verandah not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nDivisional Board Hall (1889, extended eastwards by 1932)
\nEntrance from the Front Verandah into the Divisional Board Hall is via a central double door, which has been sheeted over internally and is no longer used. The Divisional Board Hall (1889, extended by 1932) comprises a rectangular, long and narrow structure with a steep, gable roof. It has been extended (eastwards by approximately 7m) using the same materials and detailing as the original section but is legible in the fabric. The Divisional Board Hall comprises a single large room with a high, coved ceiling and has been converted for use as a theatre. The interior walls have been lined with flat sheet material over all windows to create a black box, however, the openings and most of their sashes remain in-situ behind. Original partitions (1889) forming offices at the hall’s western end have been removed (by c1905), however, evidence of their locations may survive behind later linings.
\nFeatures of the Divisional Board Hall of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Divisional Board Hall not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nRear Extension (1905, substantially rebuilt 1984-86)
\nAttached to the rear of the Divisional Board Hall is a second addition, the Rear Extension (1905), comprising a lean-to block with a skillion roof. It is a timber-framed, single-skin structure, clad externally with chamferboards with its studs exposed internally. It includes a small rear porch (built by 1905, possibly including earlier fabric) providing access into its southern side. Two doors connect through the rear wall of the Divisional Board Hall into the Rear Extension, which accommodates two rooms separated by a partition with a connecting doorway. In 2023 it is used as backstage dressing rooms.
\nFeatures of the Rear Extension of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Rear Extension not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nCouncil Office Extension (1932)
\nAttached to the southern side of the Divisional Board Hall at its front is a third addition comprising the Council Office (1932). It is a square block with a steep gable roof perpendicular to that of the Divisional Board Hall. Accessed from the Front Verandah via a central door, the interior comprises one large room, which may be the original layout. A doorway (cut in 1932 for this extension) connects into the adjacent Divisional Board Hall. In 2023 the Council Office is used as the foyer for the theatre and a small enclosure has been made in one corner to form a box office.
\nFeatures of the Council Office Extension of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nIt is not known how much of the existing interior wall linings of flat sheets-and-battens above a VJ board-lined dado with moulded dado rail is original. The original fabric is of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nFeatures of the Council Office Extension not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nEnclosed Verandah Extension (1932)
\nThe Enclosed Verandah Extension (part of the third addition in 1932) comprises a wide, rectangular lean-to block with a skillion roof, and is accessed from the rear porch and two doors cut into the southern wall of the adjacent Divisional Board Hall (cut in 1932 for this addition). The interior, originally single-skin with its studs exposed internally, has been lined with modern flat sheet material (likely c1955) and partitions have been added to enclose a costume store within the space. In 2023 it is used as a backstage kitchenette and prop store.
\nFeatures of the Enclosed Verandah Extension of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Enclosed Verandah Extension not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nStrong Room Extension (c1935)
\nAttached to the southwestern corner of the Council Office Extension is a fourth addition, the Strong Room Extension (c1935). It comprises a small, off-form in-situ concrete strong room with a skillion roof. Accessed from the Council Office, it is a small windowless secure room with a thick metal safe door.
\nFeatures of the Strong Room Extension of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Strong Room Extension not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Pine Rivers Shire Hall (former) not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nThe former Pine Rivers Shire Hall (1889-c1935) is a timber building located in central Strathpine. It operated as the local government's centre of administration from its construction in 1889 until 1960, first as a divisional board hall then as a shire council hall and offices. The building has served the community since 1889, and in 2023 is used as a community theatre venue.
\nStrathpine is within the traditional lands of the Turrbal people.[1] Non-Indigenous occupation of the Pine Rivers area began during the 1860s, with European farmers producing sugar cane, potatoes, lucerne, and maize, plus citrus and stone fruit, before later turning to dairy farming. A rum distillery was operating on the South Pine River by the 1870s, and the North Coast Railway opened to Caboolture, with a station at Strathpine, in June 1888. Local government was centred on Strathpine after the Pine Division was established in January 1888, separating from the Caboolture Division (established 1879). In 1897 the Parishes of Samsonvale, Pine, and Whiteside were added to Pine Division, increasing its size from 172 square miles (445.5km2) to 200 square miles (518km2). The Pine Division became the Pine Shire in 1903.[2]
\nPine Shire was later extended north of the North Pine River, and by 1960 it covered 299 square miles (774.4km2). It was renamed Pine Rivers Shire in 1959, and later amalgamated with the Shire of Caboolture and the City of Redcliffe to form Moreton Bay Regional Council in 2008.[3] Its location on the northern outskirts of Brisbane led to the development of commuter suburbs in the formerly rural shire after World War II (WWII).
\nLocal government in Queensland evolved in three phases after Queensland’s separation from New South Wales. The first phase of local government, 1859-79, was a system of permissive municipal incorporation, where local residents could petition for the establishment of a local authority. By 1878, 18 towns and cities had been incorporated in Queensland.[4] Regional areas were serviced only in part by a system of Road Boards, which had been established under the Department of Works.[5]
\nThe second phase of local government was shaped by the Local Government Act 1878 (1878 Act), and the Divisional Boards Act 1879 (1879 Act), following expansion of closer settlement in Queensland. The 1878 Act established towns, cities, and shires (the latter being closely settled areas close to towns or cities); while the 1879 Act created divisional boards to cover rural Queensland outside the towns, cities, and shires.[6] Each division was governed by a board of no less than three and no more than nine members.[7] Pugh’s Queensland Almanac for 1881 listed 77 divisional boards. The initial divisions often proved ineffective (largely due to size) and were progressively revised so that by 1902 there were 116 divisional boards throughout Queensland. Of these, at least 38 were listed as meeting in divisional board ‘halls’ in 1902. The rest met in divisional board ‘offices’, ‘chambers’, ‘rooms’, or in other rented premises.[8]
\nThe third phase saw the abolition of divisional boards and the older form of shire by the Local Authorities Act 1902, which created a simpler system of towns, cities, and shires. The divisional boards became shire councils on 31 March 1903.[9] The former Pine Rivers Shire Hall demonstrates the latter two phases of local government – divisional boards and shire councils.
\nThe Pine Divisional Board, which had its first general meeting on 7 March 1888 in the residence of Henry Ireland, the Board’s Chairman, and later met in rented premises in Bald Hills, soon decided to build a hall for their meetings. In July 1888 the Board resolved to apply for half an acre of land (2,023m2), for a reserve for office purposes, fronting Gympie Road, and on 30 January 1889, Ireland moved that the Board consider erecting a hall. subsequently, in March 1889 a half-acre of land between the Strathpine Railway Station and Gympie Road was gazetted as a ‘Reserve for Divisional Board’s Offices’ – the same month that Ireland’s plans for the hall were adopted.[10] The tender of L Micklewright, for £229, 18 shillings, and 6 pence was accepted at the 4 April 1889 meeting of the Board, with two months to complete the work from signing of the contract.[11]
\nThe 1889 reserve was later gazetted as a ‘Reserve for Local Government Purposes’ in 1940, and was expanded to the west in 1971, to an area of 1 acre and 15.4 perches (4436m2), with the inclusion of land that had been gazetted as a Railway Reserve in 1919, and as a Pound Reserve in 1920.[12]
\nPurpose-built divisional board halls were typically modest in scale and material use, reflecting the tight financial budgets under which most Queensland divisional boards operated.[13] They stood prominently in their rural locations, typically fronting the main throughfare and were central within their local government areas. They were commonly built of timber, had pitched, corrugated metal sheet-clad roofs, a front verandah, and were elevated from the ground. Internally they accommodated offices (typically only two – one for a boardroom and another office for an engineer) and a meeting hall.[14]
\nThe new Pine Divisional Board Hall was typical of these halls. It was described upon its completion in early July 1889 by the local newspaper as being 40ft by 25ft (12.2m by 7.6m), with ‘a portion at the further end being cut off and divided into offices for the use of the divisional clerk and the chairman of the board’ … [and including] five windows on either side and one on each side of the main doorway, which [was] protected by a large and commodious verandah. The interior [was] ceiled and there [was] a plentiful supply of benches … to the residents of the district, it will prove to be of great convenience, being so centrally situated, for meetings, concerts, and balls’.[15] Its opening was celebrated by a ball and supper, reported as ‘most enjoyable’ but ‘overcrowded’ due to the hall’s modest size.[16]
\nAfter the abolition of divisional boards in 1903, the Pine Divisional Board was renamed Pine Shire Council and the hall was renamed the Pine Shire Council Hall.[17] The building was extended over time to meet the needs of the growing shire, and its users, to include more council offices and a larger hall. In late 1905, a skillion-roofed, lean-to addition was made to the rear of the hall, likely accommodating new offices, with Ireland’s tender of £39 and 18 shillings being accepted in October 1905. The partitions forming the old offices were removed at this time, expanding the hall space. At that time, the building was also used by the Australian Department of Defence as a drill hall (c1904/5 to 1909).[18] At some time before 1932, the hall was expanded a second time by removing the hall’s front verandah and front wall, moving them towards Gympie Road (eastwards) by about 7m, and extending the hall to fill the space between.[19]
\nAlthough the hall had a ceiling, the interior walls were most likely unlined originally, as internal wall lining was added to its far end c1925 for displaying ‘war memorials’. A war memorial honour board was present in the hall by 1917; while another honour board was commissioned in 1921 by the Strathpine Patriotic League.[20]
\nThrough the 1920s and 1930s in Queensland, many new shire halls were constructed, or older divisional board or early shire council halls were expanded, to accommodate increased local government activities and administration due to increasing populations. In the late 1930s this building programme was encouraged by the Queensland Government through subsidies to councils.[21] Typically, new shire council halls built at the time accommodated: a front counter for transactions of public business; more offices, both individual and shared, for a shire clerk and other council staff members; a strong room; a council chambers – a room for council meetings similar to a board room; as well as a public hall (sometimes also referred to as a dance hall) with a stage and dressing rooms, and attached supper and/or card rooms, providing increased community facilities.[22] Some existing shire halls were extended to provide similar facilities, such as at Pine Shire.[23]
\nIn 1932 the Pine Shire Council Hall was extended and altered for a third time to accommodate a larger council office area and increased community facilities. The Pine Shire’s population increased through the early twentieth century (nearly doubling from 2631 in 1911 to 4604 in 1933) and its old hall and small rear offices were inadequate.[24] The addition comprised a 20ft by 25ft (6.1m by 7.6m) block extending off the south side of the front of the building, built by M Tilley (tender of £77, construction only). It consisted of ‘an office for the Shire Clerk’ and a front verandah that aligned with the adjacent hall’s relocated 1889 front verandah, forming a continuous front verandah across the front of the old hall and new office. The verandah had two entrances from Gympie Road via lattice doors, one for the hall and one for the office. The additions were done with the assistance of the Strathpine Entertainment Committee, which had been formed to fundraise for local institutions and contributed £100 towards the cost. The committee also funded the full cost of the addition of a 36ft by 14ft (11m by 4.3m) enclosed verandah behind (west of) the new council office. The enclosed verandah opened off the hall and was later referred to as a ‘supper room’. The total cost of the 1932 additions was reported as £276, when they were officially opened at a ball in October that year.[25] After the additions, the building was renamed the ‘Pine Shire Hall Council Chambers’.[26]
\nThe 1932 additions were followed c1935 by the construction of a poured-concrete strong room, off the southwest corner of the council office – probably prompted by the use of explosives to blow off the door of the council’s safe in December 1932, and the theft of more than £248.[27]
\nAs well as its use for local government meetings, the hall was used for public meetings and fundraisers, and was rented out for functions, skating, balls, and church services. Users included the Albany Creek Ambulance Committee, Strathpine State School, Lawnton Cricket Club, the Salvation Army, and the Presbyterian Church.[28]
\nDuring WWII, the hall was requisitioned by the Commonwealth Military Authorities in January 1943 for use by the US Army.[29] Three unsealed airstrips had been established in the district for US aircraft in 1942 (A-1 in Lawnton, A-2 in Strathpine, and A-3 in Brendale), and these were later used by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force, in particular ‘A-2’, which was sealed in 1943.[30] In mid-1943, the US 1st Calvary Division occupied Camp Strathpine, a divisional-sized military camp to the west of the airstrips.[31] During late 1943, Lieutenant Dick Ryan of the 1st Cavalry proposed using the hall as a welfare centre and he also organized American-style public rodeo displays by US soldiers on Sundays, riding local livestock and kangaroos, in the recreation reserve south of the hall (the site of the Moreton Bay Regional Council complex in 2023). The US lease of the hall ended in February 1944.[32]
\nAfter WWII the hall continued to be used by both the shire council and the public. It was also used as a picture theatre from 1950 until an attempted arson at the hall on 10 December 1952, which occurred soon after a change of picture theatre lessee was approved by the council.[33] Repairs to the building in 1953 included replacing the outside wall of the supper room (the enclosed verandah), adding two new louvre windows (likely new sashes added into existing window openings) between the supper room and the hall, and shelves to the ‘back store room’.[34] The remaining single-skin sections of the hall walls were lined internally with flat sheets and cover strips by 1955.[35]
\nIn the late 1940s, the area around Strathpine was still largely rural, although there were houses along either side of Gympie Road, both north and south of the hall.[36] Increased residential development is apparent in Strathpine in aerial photographs by 1959, especially west of Gympie Road to the north of Stanley Street.[37] The population of Strathpine, which had been 221 in 1911, rose to 1831 by 1966, and ballooned to 10,108 by 1986. The population of the shire as a whole also rapidly increased after WWII, rising from 4815 in 1947 to 7250 by 1960; to 13,309 by 1966; and 73,783 by 1986. By 2006 the shire had a population of 141,414.[38]
\nThe shire’s growing population through the 1950s led to the council constructing a new, separate, brick council chambers building, immediately south of the hall. In June 1955, Brisbane architect Clifford Ernest Plant was directed to prepare plans and specifications for a new ‘Council Chambers and office’ at Strathpine, although problems in obtaining finance delayed the building’s construction.[39] The rationale for the new building was stated in 1958: ‘The building now used as an office is part of a Shire Hall building [the 1889 hall] … due to the growth and importance of the shire it is now found that there is absolutely no room for the staff to work and … very little privacy for the Council to meet … as they meet in a public hall’.[40] The contract for the new brick council chambers building was finally signed on 20 March 1959, and the building was officially opened by the Premier, GFR Nicklin, on Saturday 5 March 1960, with afternoon tea in the old hall.[41]
\nWith the construction of a new building, the old building was once again renamed, this time as ‘Pine Rivers Shire Hall’, reflecting its change of use and the 1959 name change of the shire.[42] Public use of the old building was reduced during the 1960s-70s, when most of it was partitioned for offices for the Health, Building, and Engineering departments of the council, with an entrance door and stairs being added to the north elevation of the hall. [43] Another tenant was William H Bowden, who operated his real estate business from the building for five years during the 1960s.[44]
\nThe rapid growth of the shire meant that, despite occupying both buildings, there was still insufficient office space. A prefabricated office building (not extant in 2022) was constructed on the former Pound Reserve, to the rear of the 1960 brick council chambers building, for the Engineering Department, in 1970; and a public toilet and garage (latter not extant 2022) were also present, to the rear of the old building, by 1972.[45] A new civic centre was constructed during the 1970s in the former recreation reserve to the south, across Hall Street. The first stage of the new civic centre (new council chambers and administration offices) opened in 1974, followed by a second stage, a new office building, in 1978. As a result, the old Pine Rivers Shire Hall was no longer required for council offices from 1978.[46]
\nThe Pine Rivers Shire Hall was in a dilapidated state by the time it was inspected by the National Trust of Queensland in 1978, but that year the Pine Rivers Shire Council obtained an $8000 grant from the Department of Local Government for restoration work, and a committee formed to discuss the future of the building, with representatives from the council, Historical Society, National Estate, National Trust, and Pine Rivers Cultural Society. Removal of the building to the historic village at Petrie was considered.[47]
\nThe National Trust added the building to its register in 1982, and in 1984 it guided the council’s renovation of the building on its current site, which proceeded in 1984-86. By this time, the building had been vacant for several years. Since its construction, the building had gradually lost earlier decorative detailing over time through deterioration, extensions, or modifications, or unknown reasons (such as the removal of the bolection mouldings from the front doors by the 1970s) and without these details to copy, the renovation inaccurately and inauthentically applied these details. The renovation included considerable demolition of dilapidated original features and 1960s changes. The building gained a considerable amount of new fabric disguised as original, rebuilt not based on original fabric, which had been long lost. Some areas were altered using inauthentic heritage details. The Front Verandah was almost entirely demolished and rebuilt, which added inaccurate 1880s decorative timber detailing, applied inappropriately (against the Trust’s guidance) across both the 1889 section and 1932 section, not reflecting the Front Verandah’s two eras of construction. The Rear Office Extension was also almost entirely demolished and replaced, employing inaccurate detailing, such as 1880s four-paned windows added where surviving evidence points to the originals being simpler, single- or two-pane windows.
\nA photograph taken after the renovation shows the front of the building painted in two different, period-correct colour schemes, appropriate generally to the two different periods of construction (1889-1905 and 1932-c1935). The building was renamed the Pine Shire Hall Council Chambers after its restoration. It was leased to a local community theatre group in 1985, with its first performance in the hall on 1 July that year.[48] In 2002, an access ramp was added along the north side of the hall.[49]
\nFew divisional board halls are known to survive in Queensland, as most were simple timber buildings that were demolished or sold, as local government facilities were upgraded.[50] The former Pine Divisional Board Hall is the second oldest known in-situ example of its type. Three other surviving in-situ divisional board halls are located at Tinana (Tinana Divisional Board, built 1884), Nundah (Toombul Divisional Board, built 1891, QHR 600272), and Cardwell (Cardwell Divisional Board, built 1892 QHR 601768). The Caboolture Divisional Board Hall (1883) has been relocated (c1981) from its original central Caboolture site to the Caboolture Historical Village, Beerburrum Road, Caboolture.[51]
\nIn 2023, the former Pine Rivers Shire Hall continues in use as a community theatre venue.[52]
\n
The former Pine Rivers Shire Hall (1889-c1935) is important in demonstrating the origins and evolution of local government in Queensland from the 1880s to the 1930s. Built in 1889 as the Pine Divisional Board Hall and extended over time to increase office and hall space as its activities expanded, the place operated as the hub of its local government until 1960.
\nThe second oldest known in-situ divisional board hall in Queensland, the place retains its original Divisional Board Hall (1889) and Front Verandah (1889), as early surviving evidence of this period of administration.
\nThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution of rural local governments in Queensland into shire councils, as populations grew, and services expanded. This is illustrated by the retention of later alterations and extensions made to the earlier Divisional Board Hall to accommodate its evolution into a shire council hall and offices, including its Rear Extension (1905), enlargement of the hall (by 1932), Council Office Extension (1932), Enclosed Verandah (1932), and Strong Room (c1935).
|The Pine Rivers Shire Hall (former) has maintained a special association with the Strathpine and district community since 1889. It was used for local government, an essential community purpose, for almost 90 years, and has included multiple other community uses. It was recognised as a place of enduring community attachment in the 1980s, when Pine Rivers Shire Council adapted the building for ongoing community use.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15915,"place_ref":601143,"name":"Bribie Island Second World War Fortifications","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"North Street","suburb":"BRIBIE ISLAND","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-07-20","description":"The Bribie Island Second World War Fortifications are located along the eastern shore of Bribie Island and consist of the remains of three groups; Fort Bribie on north Bribie Island, Skirmish Point Battery to the north of Woorim at south Bribie Island, and the Royal Australian Navy Station No. 4 at the north end of Woorim.
\nThese groups are located facing the northwest channel, being the entrance to Moreton Bay from the Coral Sea/Pacific Ocean, and within sight of Moreton Island to the southeast and Caloundra to the north.
\nBribie Island is relatively flat and the northern end is affected by shifting dune formations and tidal erosion. As a result, some remaining structures do not have the same position in relation to the shoreline as they had when constructed.
\nFort Bribie
\nThrough the 1993 conservation study, a total of eight reinforced concrete structures have been identified and given element numbers 1-8. This study did not document the remains of the camp, consisting of concrete slabs and stumps of buildings and showing their layout.
\nThe majority of buildings are located behind the first row of dunes, with the exception being the northern searchlight which now stands exposed on the beach within reach of the high tide. The camp area is overgrown, mainly with lantana, and none of the original tracks and access routes can at this stage be determined.
\nElement No.1 -No.1 Gun Emplacement: This is the most dominant and visually striking structure within the group, and along with the No.2 Gun is centrally located behind the first dune. This symmetrical two-storeyed structure consists of a raised concrete platform, with buttressed supports, on which the six inch gun was fixed facing east. The structure is open to the east, curved to allow a wide angle of sight, and has a central metal gun mounting. It originally had steel doors. The western side of the platform is enclosed, with a shell handling facility on the northern side which accessed the storage area below. The platform is accessed from the west via an external concrete stair on the central east-west axis. The form of the structure, and the method of ascension, gives a sense of ritual and discovery. The platform is roofed by heavy timber logs, cantilevered to the east, with timber boarding and concrete above and cement filled hessian bag infill. Large timber post and beam support members are located on the exterior walls. Remnants of painted camouflage are visible on the northern wall. The ground floor contains a room at the southwest with the remains of a duty roster on the northern wall, with another room to the east of this. Shell storage rooms are located on the northern side.
\nElement No.2 -Southern Searchlight: The two searchlights remain at the extreme ends of the site, forming the northern and southern boundaries. This two-storeyed structure, rectangular in plan, is located behind the first dune and has an enclosed ground floor where the generator was housed. The first floor has an open eastern side, exposed to the sea for the operation of the searchlight. Window openings are located on each side, with a first floor doorway and landing on the southern side.
\nElement No.3 -No.2 Gun Emplacement: This is a similar structure to the No.1 Gun Emplacement, except that due to fire the timber members and roof structure have collapsed, resulting in a predominantly single-storey structure with rubble covering the platform. Rusted remains of the platform steel doors are located to the southeast. The ground floor is relatively intact, with a clearer duty roster than in the No.1 Gun Emplacement.
\nElement No.4 -Northerly Mine Control Hut: The two mine control huts were operated by the Royal Australian Navy. This single-storeyed structure, rectangular in plan, is mostly buried in the first dune, with an entrance at the southwest end and a vent pipe at the north end. The walls have timber grounds cast into the concrete.
\nElement No.5 -Southerly Mine Control Hut: This is the larger of the two structures, being square in plan and mostly buried in the first dune. The entrance is from the west, and has a front hall with a steel door which has been attached more recently. The walls have timber grounds cast into the concrete, and the ceiling has two vent pipes.
\nElement No.6 -Northern Searchlight: This is a similar structure to the Southern Searchlight, but is now exposed on the beach and within reach of the high tide. It was presumably in a similar position to the Southern searchlight originally. Caloundra City Council signs have been attached to the southern side of the structure, preventing further access past this point.
\nElement No.7 -Battery Observation Post: Originally this structure was approximately 15 metres in height, and overlooked the ocean observing shipping in the bay. It is located at the top of the first dune, and consists of a raised concrete platform, rectangular in plan, with a partial wall to the north and east. It apparently housed a Barr & Stroud Rangefinder.
\nElement No.8 -Signals Operations Room: This structure is located behind the first dune, and appears to have been originally buried within the dune. A single-storeyed concrete structure, it is rectangular in plan and is accessed via a stair from above on the northwest side. A large hole has been smashed in the western wall.
\nCamp Layout
\nA number of building locations have been identified, with the remains consisting of concrete slabs, concrete perimeter base walls, some of which have metal flashings, concrete stumps and more substantial reinforced concrete structures. These include:
\nCamp Area: Concrete slab remains of the Officer's Mess and Kitchen, concrete stumps and steps to the Command Post and other unidentified structures, and the flagpole base to the Command Post.
\nMen's Latrines: A concrete slab with a central row of eight WC's, back to back, which have been smashed off at their base. On either side is a concrete trough urinal. To the south is the position of the Officer's Latrines and to the west are the concrete stumps to the former water tanks and a row of timber posts which originally carried a pipe and led to the pump house.
\nPump House: A square, inground concrete structure with stairs on the northwestern side. The structure is filled with water, so it is unclear as to whether there are machinery mounting positions remaining.
\nSewerage Treatment Works: A tall concrete structure, open above, containing a central V-shaped chamber with timber gates/baffles either end and smaller chambers either side. A projection on the western side with a pipe outlet/connection suggests this is where the pipeline to the western side of the island, consisting of a series of concrete mountings, was connected.
\nPower House: A rectangular concrete slab, with two raised generator mounting platforms at the eastern end, and a timber power pole to the south.
\nSkirmish Point Battery
\nDue to erosion, most of the Skirmish Point Battery has been lost. The two gun emplacements, command post and two searchlights were located close to the beach between the ocean and North Street. The Battery Plotting Room, located on the corner of North Street and Fourth Avenue, does not survive.
\nElement 4A -Fortress Observation Post: This is the only element of the Skirmish Point Battery to survive, located 4-5 kilometres along the beach north of the Battery. Located on top of the first dune, originally it was positioned on tall timber stumps, but now rests on its side. The structure consists of a concrete box with an opening to the east, with concrete stands on which the readings were taken. Concrete footings are located nearby to the south.
\nRoyal Australian Navy Station No.4
\nThe RAN Station No.4 was inserted within the Skirmish Point Battery, but it appears that the naval and fort buildings had no direct relationship with each other. There are three remaining reinforced concrete structures, located at the north end of North Street Woorim.
\nElement 1A -Naval Control Post: This single-storeyed structure is located at the crest of the first dune, with a long corner window with a view to the north east. The structure has a flat concrete roof, and window openings have concrete hoods. The entry is from the west via a short hall with a steel door, leading into a central corridor with six rooms. Communication cables and ducting is attached to the ceiling in the corridor, and the interior of the building is covered in graffiti.
\nElement 2A -Southerly Engine Room: This single-storeyed, single roomed structure is located in a park behind the first dune. The structure has a flat concrete roof and has been painted green with bars attached to window openings and to the western entrance.
\nElement 3A -Northerly Engine Room: This is a similar structure to the Southerly Engine Room. It is located in the undergrowth to the north of a gravel carparking area which accesses the beach and four wheel drive track. The structure does not have bars to window openings or to the northwestern entrance.
","history":"The Bribie Island Fortifications were constructed from 1939 to 1943 as part of the systems of defence of southeast Queensland during the Second World War, and to provide artillery training for Australian soldiers for overseas service. Other fortifications were also apparent throughout Moreton Bay during the war, at Caloundra and on Moreton Island at Cowan Cowan Point and Rous, which together with the existing installations at Fort Lytton [600248], provided a coordinated series of defensive batteries for the region.
As events in Europe and Asia in the 1930s moved the world towards war, various sectors of Australia's defence, including coastal fortifications, were examined. There was an increased emphasis on defence rearmament from 1935. As major cities and ports along the coastline would be exposed to damage from naval raids or attack, coastal defences were to be upgraded. Batteries were established in Sydney, Darwin and along the Western Australia coast. Invasion was not a major concern at this stage, rather the batteries were for defence against seaborne shelling or the torpedoing of ports.
The defence of the Moreton Bay region was concentrated on the mouth of the Brisbane River at Fort Lytton [600248], constructed in 1880-81, until the mid 1930s, when attempts were made to upgrade the region's defence.
The shipping channels in Moreton Bay simplified the proposed placement of batteries. The major access route into the Brisbane River was the northwest channel, which ran close to the shore near Caloundra, across the bay in a southeasterly direction towards Moreton Island, and then southwesterly towards the mouth of the river, forming a Z-shaped route. This dictated the ideal positions for artillery batteries, with the most effective sites for guns being the closest points to the channel bends.
On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and on 3 September Australia declared war on Germany.
Fort Bribie
Bribie Island was a popular holiday destination from the early twentieth century. Steamers from Brisbane docked at the jetty on the southwestern side of the island, and a road led across the island to the settlement of Woorim, the surfing beach of the island. The island supported a small community, and the permanent residents of the eastern side were relocated from their homes when the Army began moving in to the island in 1939.
It appears that in 1939, temporary batteries were installed at Caloundra and northern Bribie Island, to provide defence support for the RAN against light raiding warships. A battery had previously been installed at Cowan Cowan Point on Moreton Island, possibly pre-1934.
Two six inch guns, surplus from the First World War, were transported across Pumicestone Passage from the mainland to form the Battery at the northern end of Bribie Island. The guns were originally installed on cruciform mountings, consisting of two steel members forming a cross upon which the gun was sited, which were found to be inadequate, for after firing the guns the pivot tilted quite dramatically.
During 1940, much discussion was carried out as to whether a Battery should be located at Caloundra instead. The two sites were weighted as to their respective advantages and disadvantages, and it was decided that Bribie was tactically better placed than Caloundra. It was decided that Fort Bribie would be developed as the principal defensive site of Moreton Bay, to be the Examination Battery at which ships identified themselves. At this stage, Fort Bribie was considered to be of little value from a defensive viewpoint, and it was announced that a detailed survey was to be made of the site.
Colonel JS Whitelaw, Commander Coast Defences, Eastern Command, inspected the Fort Bribie site during 1940-41 and advised on the required structures within the fort. His recommendations were carried out during 1941, and the fort was operational by early 1942. Construction work was undertaken by the Commonwealth Department of the Interior and cost approximately £55,000, including construction of the fortress buildings, administrative, logistical and residential structures, building works and engineering services. The Fort Bribie layout changed often, with the Command Post moving position and new buildings and dugouts being constructed. The fort contained two six inch gun emplacements, and a Battery Observation Post (BOP) 200 yards to the north containing the Battery Command and Depression Range Finder with a Barr & Stroud Rangefinder on a concrete platform to the east of this structure. Whitelaw recommended that a Fortress Observation Post (FOP) be installed at Caloundra, to work in conjunction with the BOP at Fort Bribie. Many of the barrack buildings, recreation halls and ablution blocks were constructed of fibrous cement sheeting or timber on a concrete base.
With the entry of Japan into the war in early December 1941, and their subsequent assaults on British and American positions in southeast Asia, Australia was under grave threat of invasion for the first time in its white history. Reinforcements were sent to Fort Bribie and Fort Cowan Cowan, strengthening the existing defences at the two forts.
The onslaught of the Pacific War brought the Americans, with large supplies of men and material. A number of 155mm guns from the First World War were provided to upgrade Australian coastal defences, and new forts were constructed during 1942-43 at Skirmish Point on south Bribie Island and Rous on Moreton Island. The Skirmish Point Battery at Woorim contained two fixed 155mm gun emplacements on Panama mounts.
The Australian Women's Army service (AWAS) arrived in 1943, and were involved in most aspects except the manning of the guns. Other smaller groups in attendance included the RAN (mine control huts), Volunteer Defence Corps, and a group of American artillery who were stationed at Toorbul Point but training at Bribie Island. Mosquitoes were a problem at the fort, and apparently many soldiers suffered from Dengue fever and were possibly treated at the camp hospital, not yet located.
RAN Station No.4
The defences of the Moreton Bay region were increased during 1942-43 with naval and anti-aircraft defences. Sites were chosen for the latter on the mainland, with the naval defences located at various sites on the Moreton Bay islands.
In June 1942, the Commander of the Allied Naval Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area requested as a matter of high priority that Moreton Bay be developed as a naval operating base. This involved a series of structures on both sides and within the greater bay region. In conjunction with the loop controlled minefields in operation off Fort Bribie (of which the mine control huts at this fort were a part), this naval base involved a system of indicator loops (submerged magnetic cables that would pick up the path of a vessel passing over them on or below the surface) between Skirmish Point at Bribie and Comboyuro Point on Moreton Island, harbour defences ASDICS (anti-submarine detecting systems) south of the loops, and anti-boat gun defences. These activities required a controlling position which would be located in the vicinity of the loop fields, which had been sited between Skirmish Point Battery and Fort Cowan Cowan.
The control position for the naval base installations in Moreton Bay was subsequently sited at Skirmish Point, just north of the 155mm Battery at Woorim.
The buildings were vacated by the RAN and occupied by the Department of the Army in September 1944. An inventory taken in 1945, when buildings were being disposed of, included the reinforced concrete Control Post and two engine houses, along with kitchens, ablutions, sleeping huts and stores.
Operations Scaled Down
The batteries had been reduced in personnel levels in the latter years of the war as the Japanese threat receded. In 1945, instructions were given for all coastal defences, except those in Darwin, Sydney and Fremantle, to be scaled down and kept in a state of care and maintenance. After the Second World War, the defence of ports came within the ambit of the navy and air force rather than the army. With the reassessment of Australia's defensive arrangements in the 1950s, the role of artillery batteries in coastal defence diminished. At this stage Brisbane was still a defended port, but by 1960 this arrangement was redefined and only the three ports previously mentioned were designated defended ports.
The batteries at Fort Bribie and Skirmish Point were scaled down as a result. Any building material at the fort that could be disassembled and used elsewhere was taken apart and transported off the island. Some of the barracks buildings were cut down off their stumps and sold as housing, with the concrete slabs remaining. The reinforced concrete structures remained however. The remaining fort structures at Fort Bribie have since been used as camping areas, shelter for itinerants and have suffered vandalism and neglect.
With the proximity of the structures of Skirmish Point Battery to the ocean, the gun emplacements and other structures gradually fell into the sea and were disposed of in the 1970s. The only remaining structure of the Battery is the northern Fortress Observation Post.
Most of the RAN Station No.4 buildings, located at Skirmish Point at Woorim, were dismantled. The station was handed over to the Army in October 1944. The reinforced concrete structures remain, and have suffered from vandalism.
In early 1993, a conservation study was carried out. A total of eight reinforced concrete structures were identified at Fort Bribie, one at the Skirmish Point Battery and three at the RAN Station No.4.
","criteria":"The Bribie Island Second World War Fortifications are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, being part of the preparations for the defence of Australia, in particular the Moreton Bay region, during the 1930s and the Second World War.
|They have potential to yield information that will contribute to the understanding of Queensland's history, in that there are extensive remnants of Second World War fortification sites.
|They are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of Australia's Second World War coastal defence fortifications.
|They are important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the isolation, and sense of place, of the Fort Bribie fortifications, and the sense of discovery enhanced by the overgrown landscape; the form, scale and materials of the Fort Bribie, Skirmish Point Battery and Royal Australian Navy Station No.4 fortifications; and the siting and landmark quality of Fort Bribie, Skirmish Point Battery and the Royal Australian Navy Station No.4 fortifications.
|They have a strong association with the Second World War Queensland defence efforts of the Australian Military Force and Royal Australian Navy.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16328,"place_ref":601567,"name":"Redcliffe Town Council Chambers (former)","alternate_name":"Redcliffe Community Health Centre","street_address":"185 Redcliffe Parade","suburb":"REDCLIFFE","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-01-13","description":"Redcliffe Community Health Centre is a symmetrical single-storeyed white rendered masonry building with a two-storeyed entrance section. The main facade is curved with stepped parapets which conceal flat roofs. The building incorporates decorative relief shields, glass bricks and stained glass.
The exterior of the building is reasonably intact. Alterations have been made to the interior of the building to adapt it for its present use. The building has been extended at the rear.
","history":"The Redcliffe Community Health Centre was built as the Redcliffe Shire Hall in 1940-1. The building was designed by Sidney William Prior and constructed by CG Thiedeke for a cost of £5200. It was built during a key period of development in Redcliffe which followed the construction of the Hornibrook Highway, which linked the Redcliffe peninsula to Brisbane.
The first permanent settlement on the peninsula occurred after land sales in 1862. By the 1870s Humpybong, Redcliffe's popular name, began to make progress as a seaside resort, although lack of transportation and access limited its development as a resort. In the 1880s many blocks were sub-divided into smaller building allotments, leading to increased population in the area. Redcliffe was proclaimed a Division in April 1887, and by this stage the official name Redcliffe was in more common usage.
The Divisional Board planned an office in 1892 and a design by Brisbane architect CW Brooke was prepared. However due to lack of funding the Board moved to the North Pine (Petrie) School of Arts in 1893, and then briefly to the Masonic Hall at Redcliffe in May 1901 and a cottage belonging to Thomas Snook. In 1902 an official Board Office was constructed, designed by Brisbane architect WC Voller. By April 1903 the Divisional Board had become the Redcliffe Shire Council, and then Redcliffe Town Council in May 1921.
During the 1930s the Town Council instigated many improvements in Redcliffe, developing the area as an attractive sea-side resort. The opening of the Hornibrook Highway from Brighton to Redcliffe on October 4, 1935 was a major impetus for development. The Council proceeded with major redevelopment of seaside areas, providing public facilities and undertaking improvement work.
Mention of the new council chambers was made at the council meeting on February 13, 1939, when comments were passed on the dilapidated condition of the existing building. The Council resolved to erect a new building in July 1939, the Mayor at the time being AH Langdon. The old chambers were removed from the site and altered into residential flats, named 'Granton'.
The new chambers were designed by Sidney William Prior who arrived in Australia from England in 1911 and studied construction and drawing at the Brisbane Central Technical College in 1913 before serving in the First World War. He established his architectural practice in Brisbane in 1923 after having worked for a short period with the Commonwealth Government as a draftsman. A large proportion of Prior's work was domestic though he designed Hesketh House in Elizabeth Street, additions to the Jennings Rubber Company Building in Fortitude Valley and the Bowen Hills Davies Park Speedway.
The chambers were constructed at a cost of £5200, including furnishings, funded by the Council's sale of their electrical undertaking to the City Electric Light Co. Ltd.. The contractor for the building work was CG Thiedeke, whose tender was accepted in August 1940. The building was used to house the chambers of councils along with dental and medical clinics.
The new building was opened on December 3, 1941 by the Minister for Home Affairs, the Hon EM Hanlon. On this same day the minister officially switched on the new Redcliffe water supply.
Redcliffe was proclaimed a city on June 11, 1959, and the Shire Hall, which was inadequate for the expanding council, was given to the control of the State Government Health Department in 1972, for use as a community health centre, when the Council moved to new premises.
","criteria":"The Shire Hall was constructed during a time of development at Redcliffe and provides evidence of this key period of growth.
|The Former Redcliffe Town Council Chambers, erected in 1940-1, is significant as an example of a civic building designed in an international modern style which shows the influence of European architectural influence in the late 1930s. The building is an example of the work of Sidney William Prior.
|It has a long association with the local community as the civic centre and health care facility.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17048,"place_ref":602236,"name":"Lagoon Creek Railway Water Supply Facility and Pump Station","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"cnr Buckle Street","suburb":"CABOOLTURE","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-01-24","description":"Lagoon Creek is a small watercourse in the Caboolture Shire. It begins at Moodlu and runs in an easterly direction through the north of Caboolture before entering Tea Tree Swamp on the eastern side of the Bruce Highway. It is an important part of the ecosystem within Caboolture Shire and provides a regular water flow into the Tea Tree Swamp Wetlands. The pump site is located approximately one kilometre north of the Caboolture CBD. It is situated at the end of Buckle Street and is shielded from the surrounding suburban development by mature vegetation.
The surviving built elements of the system comprise a concrete slab and foundations for the pumping station above the eastern bank of Lagoon Creek, associated iron pipes and a low concrete weir running from bank to bank some 300 metres downstream.
","history":"The former railway water supply pumping station was built in 1913 on a waterhole on Lagoon Creek at Caboolture. It was the third pump site drawing water from this source to supply tanks at the Caboolture railway station replenishing the stock of steam locomotives. The facility was developed in stages from the opening of the line until 1947 and its use was discontinued in 1968 when the use of steam locomotives on the line ceased.
Progress throughout the world during the 19th century was facilitated by the development of industrial technologies, particularly those associated with the use of steam power. The introduction of a railway transport system that was able to move large quantities of goods and materials quickly, reliably and cheaply and could carry passengers and mail was a key component in the development of a modern economic and social structure. In Australia, the linking of resources with trade outlets over large distances and the reliable provision of goods and services to new settlements was a vital factor in the settlement of the country. At the time the only alternative form of transport to rail was horse or bullock dray. Proximity or otherwise to a railway line frequently dictated the success or failure of a budding township. The construction of the North Coast railway line to Caboolture was the catalyst for its growth and development as the principal centre of the district.
When Queensland was separated from New South Wales in 1859 it had no railway system and only one good road, which linked Brisbane and Ipswich. The first railway track was laid between Ipswich and Toowoomba between 1864 and 1867. Laying new lines was expensive because of the distances and difficult terrain involved so priority was given to lines that connected inland resources with ports. Queensland railways were at first a series of parallel lines rather than a network and urban centres along the coast were linked comparatively late and little by little. A line along the coast north of Brisbane was surveyed in 1882 and approved in 1884.
Those surveying a new railway line took into account terrain, soil type, the presence of existing settlements and resources and proximity to a suitable water supply. A good supply of clean water was necessary to supply steam locomotives. Water had to be replenished at 30-40 mile (48-64 km) intervals, a procedure which took about 10 minutes. Watering stops were established at intervals along the line. In urban areas the town water supply was used, but where one did not exist other suitable sources were identified.
The availability of a good and plentiful supply at Lagoon Creek was instrumental in the choice of Caboolture as a railway station. When the line was first surveyed, it was thought that Morayfield might be chosen as it was already a settlement of some size, but the water supply was unsuitable and on 19 April 1884 a water reserve of approximately 130 hectares on the north of Lagoon Creek was proclaimed. A pump house was built at the northern end of the Caboolture railyards to draw water from Lagoon Creek. A pipe was laid to a nearby waterhole and water was then pumped to elevated tanks in the main railway yard from which the locomotives were supplied. The section of railway between Northgate and Caboolture was opened in 1888 and the section to Gympie in 1891.
The boiler supplied to provide steam power for the pumps had originally been part of one of the earliest steam locomotives to operate in Queensland, an A10 class locomotive, which was made by Neilson & Co of Glasgow and imported in 1867. The boiler was removed from its locomotive in 1889 and adapted to drive the pump at Lagoon Creek. However, by 1902, the creeks in the Caboolture district had fallen dramatically, a result of the severe and widespread drought of the late 1890s and early 1900s. By June 1902, it was estimated that, with a weekly consumption of about 60,000 gallons, there was only about six or seven weeks supply remaining in the lagoon. The railway's Chief Engineer, William Pagan, proposed that the pipeline be extended to a larger lagoon further down the creek. To avoid the necessity of resuming land, the pipes were laid along streets to the new site at the termination of a street and a new pump house was built on the bank of the lagoon.
The boiler installed at the new site was a vertical Smith and Faulkner boiler that had been installed in July 1902 at the previous site and operated a Worthington pump. Considerable problems were experienced with this boiler and within a few months, the recycled A10 boiler had replaced it.
The lagoon was estimated to have an unfailing supply and the new site was in use by early 1903. Although the drought broke in 1903 so that the water supply increased, the demand for water also increased along with the volume of traffic on the line. The major regional centre of Rockhampton was then linked to Brisbane and branch lines were constructed, including an important branch line to Kilcoy in 1913. As a result of the increased demand improvements were carried out at Lagoon Creek pumping station. A small concrete weir 300 metres downstream was constructed to increase the capacity of the lagoon. The pumping equipment was upgraded and the station relocated to the eastern side of the lagoon. New pipes were laid and a boiler from a B15 locomotive was installed at the site.
The old boiler at the previous site was sold to WF Suffolk on 14 November 1913. It was stripped of useful components but the shell was left on site. At some point it fell into the lagoon where it stayed until raised in 2000.
In the 1930s 1.6 million litres of water were pumped weekly from the creek to supply railway locomotives. In 1939 electricity was supplied to the pumping station and electric pumps were installed, relegating the steam engine to a backup. In 1934 it had been planned to increase the height of the dam 18 inches (45 cm). This was done and wing walls built into the banks for support between 1943 and 1947.
Diesel trains began operating on main lines in Queensland from 1952 and did not need a water supply. In the 1950s and 1960s they gradually replaced steam trains and the last steam locomotive working on a regular basis in Queensland was decommissioned in 1969. By 1968, there were no steam engines on the North Coast line, so that the pumping station at Lagoon Creek was redundant. The station was closed and the pumping equipment removed in February 1968. The concrete slab and foundations of the pumping station remained, as did the weir. At the railway station the water tanks were removed and sold for scrap. The land containing the pumping station was sold to Caboolture Shire Council in 1984. Roads bound this land on the south and east and the lagoon on the west.
A non-profit community group, the Friends of Lagoon Creek, was formed in 1989 to work to preserve and protect Lagoon Creek and its eco-systems. The restoration and re-vegetation of the Lagoon Creek catchment is their primary objective and they are also working to conserve the pump station site, whose history they have researched. They removed the boiler from the creek in October 2000, it has had conservation work carried out on it and is currently held at Caboolture.
","criteria":"The presence of a pumping station at Lagoon Creek demonstrates the role played by the construction and operation of the North Coast railway line and its branches in the development of Caboolture. A reliable source of clean water was essential to supply locomotives in the days of steam power. That Lagoon Creek offered this was a major factor in the choice of Caboolture as a railway centre and of its continued importance in this role.
|The weir and pumping station remains at Lagoon Creek are a rare surviving components of a water supply facility developed by Queensland Rail for the use of steam locomotives. A reliable water supply was ensured by the provision of tanks along the line using natural water sources where suitable water was available. The pumping station is evidence of the use of steam power, an early and important technology, in the development of Queensland's railway system.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19612,"place_ref":602370,"name":"Murrumba Homestead Grounds (former) | Our Lady of the Way Primary School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"38 Armstrong Street","suburb":"PETRIE","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-02-16","description":"The former Murrumba Homestead grounds are located within the precincts of Our Lady of the Way Primary School, situated near the top of a broad hill overlooking Anzac Avenue at Petrie.
Interpretive signage or plaques have been erected: at the site of the Murrumba homestead (established c1864) near the Armstrong Street car park; at the site of the former stables beside the approach to the car park, commemorating the association of Murrumba with Cobb & Co. as a changing station and accommodation house (established 1869); and at the hoop pine forest likely seeded from trees probably planted by Tom Petrie.
The only visible remnant of the built structures associated with Murrumba Homestead is a section of early handmade brick paving that once was the floor of the bakehouse. A very large weeping fig tree (Ficus benjamina) stands close to this site, near the entrance to the school.
The extent of very mature trees still on the site, that have to have been associated with Tom Petrie¿s establishment and occupation of the site, is considerable. These include: Camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora); Kauri pines (Agathis robusta); Bunya pines (Araucaria bidwillii); and Hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii), as per the attached site plan and schedule. Many of the trees, especially the Kauris along the southern boundary and the Bunyas near the former entrance drive off Anzac Avenue, have landmark value.
The Dalaipi Forest, a plantation of Hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii) thought to be later re-growth, is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance, and has been excluded from the heritage boundary.
None of the school and church structures erected on the site from the 1960s and within the heritage boundary, are considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
Schedule to attached site plan - early planted trees:
1,2,3,5,6,7 Kauri pines (Agathis robusta)
8,9,10 Bunya pines (Araucaria bidwillii)
11,12 Kauri pines (Agathis robusta)
13,14,15 Hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii)
16 Bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii)
17 Camphor laurel (Cinnamomun camphora)
18 Bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii)
19, 20 Kauri pines (Agathis robusta)
21 Hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii)
22 Kauri pine (Agathis robusta)
23, 24, 25, 26, 27 Hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii)
28 Kauri pine (Agathis robusta)
29, 30 Hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii)
32 Mango (Mangifera indica)
33 Weeping fig (Ficus benjamina)
","history":"The Murrumba Homestead Grounds, established by Tom Petrie in the 1860s, are situated at Petrie (earlier North Pine) on a low rise known locally as Murrumba Hill, and within the grounds of Our Lady of the Way Primary School and Parish Church. Murrumba Homestead was demolished in the early 1950s, but many early plantings associated with the occupation of this site by Tom Petrie and his family, survive - principally Bunya (Araucaria bidwillii), Hoop (Araucaria cunninghamii) and Kauri (Agathis robusta) pines and a large Weeping fig (Ficus benjamina) at the crest of the rise. These constitute one of the most extensive early (mid-nineteenth century) private garden plantings in Queensland.
The Murrumba run was established in late 1859 by Thomas Petrie (1831-1910), third son of Andrew Petrie - the first non-convict, non-military European settler in Queensland, who arrived at the Moreton Bay penal colony with his family in 1837 when Tom was six years old. As a child, Tom was allowed to mix freely with children of the local Turrbal people and learned their customs and languages, making many friends among them. He travelled widely with the Turrbal, and in the mid-1840s attended a triennial Bunya festival in the Blackall Range. His ability to converse with Aboriginal people made Tom extremely well known in Brisbane, where he was sought out by explorers (including Ludwig Leichhardt), local business men, government bureaucrats and Queensland governors alike, for his knowledge of the area and its indigenous inhabitants and to assist in locating commercially exploitable timbers and in marking roads.
Tom did not follow his father and older brother John into the construction business, but chose a life on the land. In 1857 he married Elizabeth Campbell, sister of Brisbane timber and hardware merchant James Campbell. Looking for good grazing land in the vicinity of Brisbane, Petrie sought advice on a suitable area from his friend Dalaipi, a distinguished elder of the North Pine clan. Dalaipi recommended land at the mouth of the Pine River and promised to protect Petrie, his household and his cattle. The assistance offered to Petrie was a mark of the regard in which he was held by Aboriginal people and made it possible for him to live in a place generally considered unsafe for European settlers. Several violent incidents had occurred in the district, including spearings of Europeans and Aboriginal deaths at the hands of the Native Police.
The area recommended by Dalaipi had been taken up in the 1840s by Captain Griffin as the Redbank section of the Whiteside pastoral run. Mrs Jane Griffin was willing to sell Petrie the lease to ten square-mile sections, reputedly because the frontier violence made it impossible for her to work the land effectively. The area she ceded to Petrie extended from Sideling Creek in the west to Redcliffe Point in the east, and was bounded on the south by the North Pine and Pine rivers. Petrie named his run Murrumba, meaning 'a good place'. Most of the land was open woodland of gum, ironbark, oak and bloodwood - the product of centuries of regular firing by Aborigines - with vine scrub restricted to small pockets in low-lying areas. With the help of a small group of Dalaipi's people Petrie cleared two acres and built a hut and stockyard near Yebri Creek, below Murrumba Hill.
From 1860 Tom Petrie became heavily involved in the timber industry. Since the 1840s his family had exploited the Hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) that gave the Pine River its name, and at Murrumba Creek a rafting ground was established, where pines cut from the Pine River district were rafted to Brisbane via Sandgate. In 1860, with the assistance of Aboriginal friends, Tom Petrie accompanied Brisbane sawmill proprietor William Pettigrew to Tin Can Bay, the Mary River and Fraser Island in search of commercially exploitable timbers, paving the way for the exploitation of the giant Kauri pine (Agathis robusta). Petrie also explored the North Coast between the Blackall Ranges and the sea, looking for stands of valuable red cedar (Toona australis) and reporting on the commercial value of other indigenous timbers. Working with William Pettigrew and employing Aboriginal labour, he extracted considerable quantities of cedar and hardwoods from the Maroochy area to build up capital to develop Murrumba. The Bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) of the Blackall Ranges he did not exploit, even after the new Queensland colonial government in 1860 rescinded Governor Gipps' 1842 legislation prohibiting the issuing of occupation or timber licenses on Bunya lands in the North Coast district as far as the Maroochy River and west to the Great Dividing Range. Like his father Andrew, who had been instrumental in the declaration of this reserve, Tom Petrie understood that the Bunya pines and the ranges in which they were found were sacred to Aboriginal people.
To facilitate his timber operations Tom Petrie marked out several early northern roads, including a track between the Pine River and Bald Hills and a trail from Murrumba to Maroochydore, which later became the Gympie Road. He also blazed a track from North Pine to Humpybong (Redcliffe).
Petrie held the ten square mile [6,400 acres] Murrumba leasehold for less than three years. Early in 1861 the government survey office identified an area of 28,000 acres bounded on the south by the North Pine and Pine rivers, to the east by Moreton Bay (Redcliffe Point), and to the north by Deception Bay, as potential farming land. This was proclaimed on 31 May 1862 as the Redcliffe Agricultural Reserve. The square-mile pastoral leases over this area - including Murrumba - were withdrawn and the land re-surveyed as small farm allotments available for purchase or rent-purchase. To secure his improvements on Murrumba, at the first sale of Redcliffe Agricultural Reserve land held in Brisbane in July 1862 Petrie purchased portion 23 (70 acres - the homestead block) and leased the adjacent portions 24 (40 acres), 25 (43 acres), 29 (62 acres) and 30 (49 acres), to which eventually the family obtained title. Each of these parcels fronted Yebri Creek to the north. The track to Humpybong (Redcliffe) and later to Gympie passed through portion 23.
By 1864 Petrie had constructed a more substantial timber homestead at the top of the broad hill above his original slab hut - likely reflecting his recently acquired security of tenure. An 1863 report on agricultural reserves noted that portion 23 contained a house and was cultivated and fenced.
At Murrumba, Tom and Elizabeth Petrie raised a family of six daughters and three sons. Tom's interest in and love of trees - whether for commercial, aesthetic, food or healing potential - was expressed in the numerous trees he planted at Murrumba, including Hoop, Kauri and Bunya pines. The Bunyas are thought to have come from the Maroochy area as seedlings, and the Hoops from Fraser Island as seeds. In a photograph dated c1914/1915, showing the second North Pine River Railway Bridge under construction, four Bunya pines lining the entrance drive to Murrumba (off Gympie Road) are landmarks on the horizon. At this period the trees retained their distinctive conical shape. In a photograph dated c1940, taken from the Lawnton Cemetery looking across the North Pine River Railway Bridge toward Petrie, the Bunya pines lining the entrance drive to Murrumba (off Anzac Avenue) remain noticeable on the horizon, but with the more rounded domes of very mature trees. Petrie is also thought to have planted macadamias at Murrumba in 1865. A grove of hoop pine behind the house reputedly was planted at the suggestion of Dalaipi (the present plantation appears to be re-growth from earlier plantings). The place became noted for its gardens with fruit trees (including an olive grove), flowers and vegetables.
Tom Petrie's occupation of Murrumba was the catalyst for further non-indigenous settlement of the North Pine district, which in the early years he facilitated by conciliating between new settlers and local Aboriginal people. In 1869 Cobb & Co. opened a coach route from Brisbane to Gympie via the route Tom had helped mark out, and a staging post was established temporarily at Murrumba Homestead until Tom erected a hostelry on portion 29 (by 1870). This was later licensed as the North Pine Hotel. In the 1880s Petrie took advantage of the construction of the North Coast Railway through his property to subdivide part of portions 29 and 30 as the North Pine Township Terminus Estate, with 134 building allotments first offered for sale in April 1886. This became the nucleus of the township of North Pine. Tom Petrie was active on a number of local government boards and his home was the focus of local social life.
By 1884 improvements on portion 23 comprised two dwelling houses, kitchen, stables, dairy, milking shed, and two huts; and by 1888 the family held 3,000 acres in the North Pine district, closely fenced and stocked with horses and cattle. Also by 1888 an 'ornamental hedge' had been planted along the western side of Gympie Road, either side of the entrance gate to Murrumba. In 1893-1894 a second residential building was constructed close to the first Murrumba house and linked to it by steps. Also in the 1890s a commercial dairy (Yebri) was established on the eastern side of Gympie Road (later Anzac Avenue), facilitated by construction of the North Coast Railway through portion 23 in the late 1880s.
In the early 1900s Constance Petrie recorded and published her father's memoirs as Tom Petrie's Reminiscences, a book which has remained a classic of Queensland history. Tom Petrie died at Murrumba on 26 August 1910 and in 1911 the North Pine Railway Station and Post Office were renamed Petrie in his memory. He was survived by his wife and two sons and five daughters of their nine children.
For the next 40 years Murrumba was occupied principally by Petrie women. Elizabeth Petrie remained there until her death in 1926, with her daughters Catherine Jessie Petrie (1863-1954) and Idella Morrison Petrie (1865-1943). Idella (Ida) remained at Murrumba all her life, and Catherine (Jessie) left c1951. During this period little appears to have changed at Murrumba, either in the house or the garden. The place remained a centre of social activity and the gardens retained their reputation for plant and birdlife.
"From Murrumba gate to the house there is a long avenue of waving bamboos, cool and inviting and in the garden there are stately pines, bunya and poinciana trees, rows of palms 'magnificently old and gloriousy tall'. When Sir William MacGregor, our onetime Governor, paid a visit to the old Petrie homestead he remarked what a joy it was to see so many fine trees ... [Bessie Palmer "Tom Petrie's Home" in Brisbane Courier 25 January 1930:27]
In the early 1940s, the ornamental hedge along the street frontage was still a local landmark - "ten-foot hedges of duranta bushes that are well-known to all who use the Redcliffe Road"; these shrubs (Duranta repens) had delicate blue flowers followed by bright golden berries - and the grounds were still distinguished by the "great bamboos on either side of the drive", by "towering kauri and hoop pines" and by a giant weeping fig (Ficus benjamina) near the back of the house [Estelle Thomson "The Old Petrie Home, Murrumba" c1940].
In 1937, 35 acres was subdivided from the homestead block and another parcel was sold in 1947. By 1950 Murrumba was the property of Miss Catherine Jessie Petrie and her brother Argyle (Guy) Petrie. In mid-1951 they sold the property to Archbishop Duhig, on the understanding that the homestead be retained. Duhig in turn sold the property to the Presentation Sisters, whom he hoped would establish a training facility on the site. The buildings remained unoccupied for over 12 months until sold by the Sisters for removal in 1952. Funds to construct a new building were not forthcoming, and the site remained vacant until Our Lady of the Way Church and Primary School were established in the grounds in 1964. Many of the trees planted by the Petrie family survive, interspersed amongst the present school structures.
","criteria":"The grounds of the former Murrumba Homestead, established in the 1860s, are important for their association with an unusual aspect of early pastoral settlement in Queensland. The taking up of Murrumba for grazing purposes in 1859, during a period of frontier conflict between the indigenous owners of the Pine Rivers district and pastoralists, was illustrative of a rare cordial relationship that existed between Tom Petrie, explorer and pastoralist, and the people of the North Pine clan, who suggested this place for the home of a man they had considered a friend since his childhood. This level of co-operation between European and indigenous peoples is unusual in the early history of Queensland, and the early surviving trees on the site are important markers of the results of this co-operation.
|The Murrumba Homestead Grounds are important for their special association with early Queensland settler Tom Petrie, who was a member of the first free family to settle in Queensland; a friend to the Turrbal people and an important historical source of information about them; and a pioneer of the north coast district, marking roads that linked Pine Rivers to Brisbane, Gympie, Redcliffe and the North Coast. Tom Petrie, who made his living largely through timber extraction, maintained a strong interest in indigenous trees throughout his lifetime, and planted numerous Hoop (Araucaria cunninghamii), Bunya (Araucaria bidwillii) and Kauri (Agathis robusta) pines at Murrumba. Throughout the period of occupancy by the Petrie family the gardens at Murrumba Homestead were well-known throughout Southeast Queensland for their plants and bird-life, attracting many visitors (including Sir William Macgregor, Governor of Queensland from December 1909 to July 1914).
|The former Murrumba Homestead Grounds retain some of the earliest private garden plantings in Queensland. The extent of the early surviving trees is substantial, and uncommon among Queensland homestead grounds of the nineteenth century. The early plantings include a weeping fig (Ficus benjamina), Hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii), Bunya pines (Araucaria bidwillii) and Kauri pines (Agathis robusta).
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion H | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19631,"place_ref":602509,"name":"Deception Bay Sea Baths","alternate_name":"Bancroft Sea Baths","street_address":"Captain Cook Parade","suburb":"DECEPTION BAY","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-07-04","description":"Boardwalk Bath
\nThis bath is situated within an irregular shaped sandstone formation with a maximum length of 10m and width of 5m. The formation rises to a height of about 1m above the sand. On the landward side of the formation is an elevated timber boardwalk and on the seaward side is an extensive stand of mangroves.
\nThe bath is a rectangular shape cut into the sandstone formation, 3m in length and 1.8m wide. The floor of the bath is covered with a thin layer of cement rendering. Tool marks indicate the use of hand tools to excavate the bath.
\nThe northern end of the bath comprises natural sandstone and a small brick wall. This wall has a height of 365mm (five courses of brick) and a width of 520mm. At the base of the brick wall is a small drainpipe with an internal diameter of 50mm. The internal side of the brick wall is formed into three steps.
\nFisheries Bath
\nThe bath is a rectangular shape 4.3m long and 2.7m wide, with a triangular extrusion on the eastern side. This extrusion provides access to a semicircular ledge within the bath. The sides of the bath are generally perpendicular to an average depth of 1m with the exception of the ledge on the eastern side and a sloping triangular base on the northwestern corner. The base of the bath slopes to the deepest point of 1.3m off center on the southern end.
\nBrick edging surrounds the bath on the south (3.9m), east (7.7m) and northern (3.4m) sides. This edging is offset from the bath, 1.7m from the southern edge, .8m from the eastern edge, and 1.5m from the northern edge. These bricks vary in length between 290mm to 305mm and a width of 110mm. The bricks sit is a shallow trench cut into the sandstone and fixed with a lime mortar. The height of the bricks is weathered to no more than 40mm.
\nThe southeastern and northeastern extent of the bath is demarcated by two postholes cut into the sandstone. These holes are approximately 250mm in diameter. Another posthole demarcates the extent of the bath complex on the northwest. The western side of the bath complex is demarcated by a sandstone platform 100mm higher than the surrounds of the bath.
\nOn the southern side of the bath is a shallow trough. This trough is 70mm in depth, 2.9m long and 250mm wide.
\nNotches to secure timber steps are located on the northern edge. After the 2004 survey, the remnants of the hardwood steps were left in the bath.
","history":"The Deception Bay Sea Baths are two rectangular excavations in sandstone formations on the Deception Bay foreshore. The Fisheries Bath, measuring 4.3m by 2.7m is located in the inter-tidal zone about 20m east of the Department of Primary Industries Southern Fisheries Centre. The Boardwalk Bath measuring 3m by 1.8m, is situated adjacent to the foreshore boardwalk near the intersection of Captain Cook Parade and Seymour Street. The baths were probably built by Joseph Bancroft in the 1880s or 1890s.
Closer settlement of Deception Bay commenced with the opening of the Redcliffe Agricultural Reserve for selection in March 1861. Prior to this, the area had formed part of pastoral runs. Selection of allotments at Deception Bay was slow. Access to the area was difficult because the roads were very poor and the bay was too shallow for navigation by large vessels. Moreover, much of the land was sandy and unsuitable for agriculture. Many of the first selectors soon abandoned their land. Joseph Bancroft was one of the early landholders who retained ownership and gradually expanded his holdings at Deception Bay.
Born and educated in England, Joseph had migrated to Queensland in 1864 and practised as a medical doctor in Brisbane. However, he and his son Thomas had an interest in science beyond medicine and became prominent figures within Queensland's broader scientific community. Joseph is recognised as a founder of medical research in Australia and the Bancroft Centre of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research is named in his honour. Joseph was president of many early scientific and medical organisations in Queensland including the Philosophical Society, the Medical Board, the Hygiene and Public Health section of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science and the Queensland branch of the British Medical Association, which later founded a Bancroft memorial lecture and medal in his honour. He made significant contributions to the field of agricultural entomology and plant pathology and together with Thomas, made outstanding contributions to the field of parasitology. Both men were avid naturalists who discovered many new species of fauna and flora. Thirteen Australian native trees and plants bear their name. They were internationally recognised for Joseph's discovery of the Wucheria Bancrofti parasitic worm that is responsible for causing elephantiasis and Thomas's discovery that the parasite was transmitted by the Aedes Aegypi mosquito. Much of their research was carried out at their Deception Bay property.
Joseph had property at Deception Bay by the early 1880s and by 1890, owned 1500ha. He lived at Wickham Terrace and visited his Deception Bay property with his family on weekends and holidays. At the bay, he pastured cattle, established a dried beef factory and experimented with rice crops and artificially cultivating pearls. He also used the property as a research station supporting his studies of botany and zoology.
The dried beef factory became profitable after Joseph's death in 1894 when the British War Office placed an order for the Bancroft's dried beef as a supplement to their emergency rations. Thomas moved to the bay with his new wife Cecilia and assumed management of the business. While living there, Thomas also carried out scientific research. It was there that he discovered how the Wucheria bancrofti was transmitted by mosquitoes. In 1904, after the dried beef factory ceased to be profitable, Thomas moved to Alderley in Brisbane and the factory was dismantled.
The Bancroft family believe that Joseph constructed the baths. Bancroft family members state that Joseph's wife, Ann, suffered with a chronic illness and that Joseph had the Boardwalk Bath shaped for her from natural tidal pools because she found that sea bathing helped her condition. This conclusion is supported by the relatively small size of the bath.
The Bancrofts may have used the Fisheries Bath, a larger structure, for recreational purposes. Low tide at Deception Bay leaves a broad expanse of mud that needs to be traversed in order to reach the water from the shore. The memoirs of C. Hamilton who, as a child, visited the property when the Bancrofts owned it, indicate that the bath was excavated so that Joseph could bathe when the tide was out. A photograph sourced from family members provides additional evidence that the Fisheries Bath existed when the Bancrofts lived at the bay. The photograph shows a woman believed by family members to be Joseph's half sister standing with her son next to the Bath. The family believe that the photograph dates to the late 19th Century.
The Bancrofts' use of the sea baths for therapeutic and recreational uses is consistent with emerging notions about the seaside in the 19th Century. The western perception of the seaside as a place for recreation emerged between the late 18th and mid 19th Centuries. Bathing in the sea was also promoted for its health benefits and a new field of research and experimentation emerged around the therapeutic uses of the seaside. Especially near urban areas, people resorted to the seaside to escape the ills of increasingly industrialised urban living. Typically, netted enclosures and tidal baths were constructed to provide contained and safe swimming areas.
A number of artificial rock pools, dating to the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, exist in New South Wales, generally of a larger scale than the Deception Bay pools. Like the Deception Bay pools, they are formed by enhancing natural rock formations by excavation and the use of artificial walls. The Deception Bay tidal baths are believed to be the only surviving 19th Century baths of their type in Queensland.
A number of the Bancroft holdings were bought from Thomas by the Dunne brothers in the early 1900s. They pastured a dairy herd, grew some crops and established oyster leases along the foreshore. The sides of the Fisheries Bath show the remains of oysters and this suggests that the bath was used by the Dunne brothers to cultivate the shellfish.
The baths have been excavated a number of times. Due to their location within the inter-tidal zone, they fill with silt soon after excavation. In November 2004, an archaeological survey of the baths was completed in which each bath was recorded and analysed in detail.
","criteria":"The Deception Bath Sea Baths are important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history insofar that they provide physical evidence of the use of the seaside in Queensland for recreational and therapeutic purposes in the late 19th century. Oral and written accounts by the Bancroft family and the local community indicate that the baths were made and used by the Bancroft family in the 1880s and 1890s for recreational bathing and to relieve a chronic ailment suffered by Anne, the wife of Joseph Bancroft.
|The baths are uncommon surviving examples of 19th century sea baths. They are likely to be the only extant examples of their type in Queensland. Excavated from the sandstone in the inter-tidal zone of the Deception Bay foreshore, they were filled by the incoming tide. The Boardwalk Bath was drained via a pipe built into the bottom of the bath.
|The baths demonstrate the principal characteristics of sea baths and have a high degree of intactness. Like tidal baths in other parts of Australia, they are formed by enhancing natural rock formations in the intertidal zone. Similar to other enhanced rock pools, the Boardwalk Bath uses an artificial wall to enclose a natural opening of the pool at one end. Both pools are filled by the natural action of the tide and the Boardwalk Bath is drained through a pipe in the bottom of the artificial wall.
|Both baths have special association with the lives of Joseph Bancroft and his son Thomas who reputedly built and used them. Joseph and Thomas were important Queensland research scientists of the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. Joseph is recognised as a founder of medical research in Australia. He was president of a number of early scientific and medical organisations in Queensland. Both men made important contributions to the fields of botany, zoology and medicine. They gained international recognition for Joseph's discovery of the Wucheria Bancrofti parasitic worm that is responsible for causing elephantiasis and Thomas's discovery that the parasite was transmitted by the Aedes aegypi mosquito. The Bancroft memorial lecture and medal, founded by the Queensland branch of the British Medical Association and also the Bancroft Centre of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, are named in honour of Joseph.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19667,"place_ref":602548,"name":"Redcliffe Fire Station","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"395 Oxley Avenue","suburb":"REDCLIFFE","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-09-06","description":"The two-storey fire station faces east towards Oxley Avenue, with two square towers flanking its two central roller doors. Above the roller doors, at the roofline, are the words Redcliffe Fire Station 1948. The original station is constructed of multi-coloured red bricks in a stretcher bond, and a modern one-storey extension, constructed with similar materials, protrudes to the south of the station. A large V-shaped metal billboard stands just to the south of the station building, on the Oxley Avenue frontage.
The ground floor of the station contains a central two-bay garage, which is flanked on the north by three original rooms, and a stairway to the first floor in the northeastern tower. South of the two-bay garage are five rooms and an appliance garage. To the west are three rooms, and a maintenance garage, which is an extension of the main double garage. At the northwestern corner of the maintenance garage is the base floor of the original hose tower, and a side garage links the tower to the northern rooms of the station. The first floor contains four main rooms, plus a kitchen, bathroom, and toilet. Each tower also contains a small room. A stairway accesses the enclosed veranda on the west side of the first floor.
Just to the west of the main station, arranged in a row from north to south, are: a timber-clad garage, with two timber earth closets immediately to its west; a small red-brick fuel store with a curved concrete roof; and a five-storey training tower with a two-storey attachment to its west, and an attached one-storey training centre to its south, each of the components being built of red brick with a stretcher bond. The training centre is not of cultural heritage significance. The single-gabled timber garage has four windows on each of its north and south sides, and a loft door above its main entrance faces the rear of the brick fire station.
","history":"The Redcliffe Fire Station, built in 1948-1949 is a substantial brick building of two storeys. The fire station and its related structures are sited on 1.2 acres of land on the Redcliffe Peninsula, almost midway along Oxley Avenue between Woody Point and Scarborough. Although the fire engine is now housed in the 1973 southern extension of the building, the layout of both the ground floor station, and the first floor residence, remains largely intact.
For many years the Redcliffe area was known as "Humpybong", the name that the local Aboriginal people gave to the abandoned convict settlement (1824-1825) at Red Cliff Point. In 1861 23,000 acres of the peninsula and the Petrie area were declared an agricultural reserve, and from 1862 onwards a number of farm portions were sold. Very little development occurred until the 1880s, although in the late 1870s publicans and shopkeepers began to cluster on the foreshores of the peninsula. In 1878 Charles George Skinner purchased the 32 acres of Portion 196 for £22. This portion included the land on which the fire station now stands. The 1880s land speculation boom in Brisbane extended to the Redcliffe Peninsula, and the area's identity as a seaside resort solidified in that decade. The Victorians considered "taking the air" by the sea to be healthy, and agricultural portions on the peninsula were subdivided and sold as residential estates, for the building of "Marine Residences". Portion 196 was sold as "Redcliffe Point Estate".
The Caboolture Divisional Board cleared the first road on the peninsula, running from Woody Point to Scarborough, in the early 1880s, and this road later became Oxley Avenue. A Police Station, Courthouse, and Post Office were built in 1885, and the Redcliffe Divisional Board was created in 1888. However, the board's office was initially located in Brisbane, and a proper office was not built in Redcliffe until 1902, in the same year that the Redcliffe Shire Council was created. In 1895 there were still 237 farms, covering 4199 acres, at Redcliffe, and agricultural use of much of the land on the Redcliffe Peninsula continued into the 1940s. An aerial photograph taken in 1942 shows that most development had occurred east of Oxley Avenue.
The reduction of Redcliffe's isolation was a slow process, and until the late 1930s it was considered to be a good place to visit, rather than a good place to live. In 1882 a jetty was erected at Woody Point to receive a steamboat from Sandgate, and another jetty was built near Redcliffe Point in 1885. Tourist daytrips to Redcliffe, on the steamer Koopa, started in 1911. The railway reached North Pine in 1888, but was never extended to Redcliffe, despite persistent local lobbying. In 1921, when the Town of Redcliffe was declared, its permanent population was only 1,631, and it contained 432 private dwellings, six Hotels, and 28 boarding houses. An electricity supply was not connected until July 1928. Decent road access was also slow to arrive. ANZAC Avenue, running from Petrie to Redcliffe, was originally an Aboriginal track, used to access the "Kipper Ring" that was located about three miles northwest of Redcliffe. The tree-lined, bitumen-covered "ANZAC Memorial Avenue" was opened in December 1925.
In October 1935, an event occurred that would accelerate the pace of Redcliffe's development. The opening of the Hornibrook Highway Toll Bridge [601246] ended Redcliffe's isolation, and led to a burst of residential development. At 2.7 km long, the Hornibrook Bridge was the longest road viaduct over built over water in the southern hemisphere, and it shaved 35km off the return road trip from Brisbane to Clontarf Point. Many of the 1880s residential allotments were finally sold after the bridge was completed. Between 1933 and 1940 Redcliffe was one of fastest growing local authorities in Australia, with the number of dwellings increasing from 536 to 1865. Redcliffe's population in 1933 was 2,008, and this had risen to 6,000 by 1940. Wartime and post-war building restrictions hampered development until the 1950s, especially in areas viewed as tourist resorts. Redcliffe and the towns of the Gold Coast were the only Queensland towns still subject to building restrictions in 1949, but Redcliffe's population continued to increase, reaching 8,871 in 1947, and 18,000 in 1959, the year that the City of Redcliffe was declared.
In the late 1930s the Redcliffe Town Council's confidence in the future led to a rush to develop public infrastructure. In 1938 decisions were made to develop a reliable water supply, and to build a new town hall. A water storage reservoir and a concrete water tower were built at Duffield Road, but although the water main from Sandgate reached as far as ANZAC Ave by December 1940, piping for household connections was held up by wartime shortages. The official opening of the Redcliffe Water Works occurred on 3 December 1941, the same day as the opening of the new brick Council Chambers. The establishment of mains water supply in turn enabled the creation of a Fire Brigade in Redcliffe; a reliable source of water meant that the days of the "bucket brigade" were over, and a more effective means of fighting fires could be implemented.
In November 1941 the Redcliffe Fire Brigade Board was formed, and in 1942 the Fire Brigade's first Chief Officer was Frank Mayer, formerly of the MFB. Initial equiptment consisted of a Ford Truck, several hundred feet of hose, two hydrants, two branches and one "Y" coupling. Later, an International Howe fire engine, a small Coventry pump, and some fire extinguishers were added. The Redcliffe Fire Brigade was initially housed at a residence on the corner of Webb Street and Maude Street, Margate, and it won praise for its efforts at firefighting during 1943 and 1944. Mayer, who had started as a volunteer fire fighter in Windsor in 1911, died of an illness in June 1945, and was replaced by P.F. MacFarlane, who resigned in 1949. In September 1947 the Australian Loan Council had agreed to lend £8,800 to the Redcliffe Fire Brigade Board, and in 1948 land was resumed for a fire station at the corner of Oxley Ave and Mary Street, the cornerstone being laid that same year.
To help place developments in Redcliffe within the context of fire fighting in Queensland, it is useful to note events and building trends in nearby Brisbane. Brisbane's first fire station had been built in 1869, for the City Volunteer Fire Brigade, established in 1868. The Fire Brigades Act 1881 detailed a new structure for Fire Brigade Boards, and led to the creation of the Brisbane Fire Brigade. The first professional firemen appeared in 1889. In 1890 a brick Headquarters station was built on the corner of Ann Street and Edwards Street, and this was replaced in 1908 with a Headquarters at the corner of Ann Street and Wharf Street. The Fire Brigades Act Amendment Act 1902 allowed local authorities to establish their own volunteer fire brigades, and the Fire Brigades Act 1920 amalgamated the suburban brigades with the central brigade, thereby creating the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) in 1921.
The MFB operated eight fire stations in 1927, out of the 38 in Queensland. Sandgate built its own station in 1924, and joined the MFB in 1928. By 1949 the MFB operated 14 stations; 11 of these were built of timber, with five of the timber stations being two-storey. Each of Brisbane's three operational brick fire stations in 1949, Headquarters (1908), Woolloongabba (1927), and Albion (1927), had two or more floors. In 1941, Hamilton had received a two-storey timber fire station that was modelled on the Coorparoo fire station (1935), which had also been the model for Nundah (1936) and Wynnum (1938). The usual layout of these two-storey timber stations included a central appliance garage on the ground floor, flanked by a recreation room, kitchen, watch room, showers, toilet, laundry, and dormitory. A three bedroom Chief Officer's residence occupied the first floor. The Redcliffe Fire Station shares this basic layout, if not the timber construction. In Brisbane, timber had been the material of choice between 1928 and 1941, and no new fire stations had been built for the MFB between July 1941 and February 1954, when Chermside became the first of Brisbane's "modern" brick fire stations. The Redcliffe Fire Station seems to occupy an architectural niche of its own, when compared to Brisbane's brick fire stations of the 1920s, and the brick fire stations of the 1950s.
The plans for the station at Redcliffe are signed by J.R. Hughes, who is listed in an advertisement from the period as a Quantity Surveyor with the Express Building Company, in Oxley Avenue, Redcliffe. Alex Smith, a well-known local builder, built the fire station. Smith owned the Renown Theatre in Margate (built 1940), and worked on a number of building projects for the military during World War Two. Frank Nicklin, the leader of the opposition, opened the Redcliffe Fire Station, built at a cost of £11,000, on 1 November 1949. The first Chief Officer was Brian Wallace, who served in this position for 28 years.
There have been some alterations and changes to the station over time. There was a watchtower on the original plans, sited above the laundry near the southwest corner of the building, but if this was built it no longer remains. A hose-drying tower and oil store was also built to the west of the recreation room. Only the base storey remains, clad in weatherboards and used as a gym. In 1973 a single-storey red brick extension was added to the south side of the station, designed by Peninsula Architects; a locker room was added south of the kitchen, the dormitory was extended south, and a new office was extended south from the original watch room. The extension also contained a new appliance garage. In 1987 a training centre with an attached high-rise simulation / hose-drying tower was built to the west of the fire station, but the centre is no longer used because of its condition. A tennis court that used to be located in the south west of the property has been removed. Inside the station, the doorway to a toilet, at the rear of the two-bay appliance garage, has been sealed; and the pit in the rear maintenance bay has been filled in. The first floor Chief Officer's residence remains largely intact, although the bedrooms and lounge are now used as offices for the Rural Fire Service.
","criteria":"The Redcliffe Fire Station, along with its older subsidiary buildings, including the base of the old hose tower, the small brick fuel store, the timber garage, and two timber earth closets, is evidence of the development of fire-fighting services in Queensland. It is also evidence of the rapid transformation of Redcliffe from a holiday destination to a residential centre after the construction of the Hornibrook Bridge. The urbanisation of seaside resorts is a pattern in Queensland's history- one that can also be seen at Sandgate, Cleveland, Southport and Yeppoon. The development boom after 1935 was hampered by World War Two, but continued in the post-war period. The Redcliffe Fire Station was part of the Redcliffe Town Council's drive to develop Redcliffe's public infrastructure, and its existence was also made possible by another public work, the provision of a reliable water supply to Redcliffe in 1941.
|The Redcliffe Fire Station, opened in 1949, has an uncommon external architectural style, in that it resembles neither Brisbane's brick fire stations of the 1920s, nor Brisbane's brick fire stations of the 1950s. During the 1930s, Brisbane's fire stations were built with timber, and no fire stations were constructed in Brisbane between 1941 and 1954. Redcliffe thus preceded Brisbane in the move towards modern brick fire stations.
|The Redcliffe Fire Station's interior layout demonstrates the principal characteristics of a fire station of the period, which include: accommodation on the first floor for the Chief Officer; a central appliance garage on the ground floor, flanked by a dormitory, recreation room, watch room, showers, toilet, laundry and kitchen; a hose drying tower; an outdoor rear area for vehicle maintenance and cleaning; and close access to a main street. This ground floor plan is substantially intact, and resembles that of the two-storey timber fire stations built in Brisbane in the 1930s. The first floor of the original hose drying tower still remains, and the first floor Chief Officer's residence remains in near-original condition.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":21520,"place_ref":645607,"name":"Oaklands Sugar Mill Remnants","alternate_name":"Whish's Sugar Mill Remnants | 700007","street_address":"68-70 Captain Whish Avenue","suburb":"MORAYFIELD","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-09-18","description":"The archaeological features within Lot 600 on RP804608 are most likely associated with the former Oaklands Sugar Mill operations. They are located east of Captain Whish Avenue in a small park owned by the Moreton Bay Regional Council. This constitutes Lot 600 on RP804608 which has been verified as being part of the original property that Claudius Whish acquired as a co-tenant with John Raymond Trevilian in September 1865 and subsequently named "Oaklands". This is verifiable in the historical title for this parcel of land.
Ground surface visibility on the property is good. The site has a low fence of treated pine logs delineating the site. It is suspected that archaeological deposits may particularly extend further east of this fencing.
Substantial archaeological artefacts and features are evident on site, including in-situ bricks that may be the foundations for a substantial structure or foundations for milling and crushing machinery. Four substantial depressions can be identified, with significant brick remnants adjacent to each in low mound formations. The depressions are suggestive of rooms, compartments or in-ground tanks within a larger remnant subsurface structure. Visible bricks appear to be hand-made, with a narrow rectangular frog on one face. Exotic guava trees are also growing throughout the place.
The western extent of the place is considered the edge of the road reserve abutting Lot 600 on RP804608. The eastern extent of the remnants is unclear, but potentially extends beyond the limits of the pine log fencing. The site is abutted by modern houses to the north and south and additional elements of the sugar mill may have at one time been located in those areas. However any remnants located to the north and south are likely to have undergone disturbance due to the levelling of the lot and subsequent construction work. Based on the available evidence and low potential for these areas, the boundary for the sugar mill is considered as the northern and southern extents of Lot 600 on RP804608.
","history":"The Oaklands sugar mill operated between 1865 and 1872. The mill was built and operated by Claudius Buchanan Whish, the first sugar producer to market his produce in Queensland in commercial quantities. The mill was used to process the cane harvested from fields on his Oaklands property - much of the harvesting was performed by South Sea Islander labourers. The mill ceased production in 1872 as sugar yields were poor in the mild winter climate of southern Queensland and due to the competition of larger and better yielding plantations being established in the Maryborough and Mackay regions.
By 1836, sugar cane had reached southern Queensland and was being grown in small plots in the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement. Experimentation with sugar cane as a viable crop was also conducted between 1836 and 1847 by a number of enterprising citizens of the colony. Trials of suitable varieties were undertaken by John Buhot in the Brisbane's botanic gardens (QHR 600067; BHS 1995:5; Blake 2003:36).
Sugar cultivation was pioneered in Queensland by Louis Hope who established a plantation at Ormiston in 1862. Hope erected Queensland's first sugar crushing mill, supplied by Cook & Co. of Glasgow, on his Ormiston property on the banks of Hilliard's Creek in 1864. The first commercially milled sugar in Queensland was produced there in September that year (see QHR entry 600775).
Caboolture was one of the first districts in Queensland where sugar was grown on a substantial scale. George Raff, a prominent Brisbane merchant and politician, began planting sugar at his 'Morayfield' property on the Caboolture River in 1864 (Alcorn and Dunn 1997:2-3; Barter 2009:3).
One of the first to respond to the successes of Hope and Raff in growing sugar was Captain Claudius Buchanan Whish. Whish had served as an officer in the British army in India before deciding to begin a new career in Australia (Australian Dictionary of Biography Online 2008; Blake 2003:36, Tutt 1979:74). After seeing Hope's and Raff's plantations in operation, Whish selected land on the southern banks of the Caboolture River. Whish named his property Oaklands and employed Buhot to provide advice on the planting of his estate (Blake 2003:36, Barter 2009:2).
In 1865, Whish took on John Raymond Trevilian as a business partner for his Oaklands operations. Whish required a large labour force to cultivate the cane in sufficient quantities to make the operation marketable and profitable. After consulting with his contemporaries in the sugar industry, Raff and Hope, Trevilian undertook a voyage to Melanesia to find suitable labourers (BHS 1995:7). In December of 1865, 33 South Sea Islander labourers were brought to Australia and arrived at Oaklands by bullock dray after disembarking on the North Pine River. Whish is reported to have paid up to £7 for each labourer (BHS 1995:7). They were housed in the cotton house and fed milk and rice (BHS 1995:7). Whish was therefore not only a pioneer in the sugar industry but also in the use of South Sea Islander labour only two years after the first group of Islanders had been brought to Australia by Robert Towns for his cotton plantation on the Logan River.
The introduction of Islander labour on Oaklands was an initial success. With a large amount of sugar being cultivated, Whish acquired capital to build a sugar mill on Oaklands in 1865. In 1866, he purchased a six horsepower mill from Smellie & Co. of Brisbane for his new mill and installed a Wetzel pan and centrifuge. A 'single-flued boiler, mill, with three rollers' and a battery 'set in brickworks, with plain brick top and skimmings channel therein', and a boiling-room and curing room were also on site (Brisbane Courier 1867). The sugar processing operations are also noted as being located in the 'middle of the plantation, and at the top side of the present cultivation' (Brisbane Courier 1867). Whish also obtained a distiller's licence for £25 so that he could produce rum from molasses (Alcorn and Dunn 1997:2-3).
The success of the sugar operations at Oaklands and the use of Islander labour is further highlighted by Whish's replacement in 1867 of the original 33 Islander labourers with another 50 for whom he paid £150 in advance (BHS 1995:7). That same year, his homestead included a large house, manager's residence, labourer's cottages and huts. There was also a large store, blacksmith's shop, stables and carriage house, all arranged in "...a rather irregular manner" (Brisbane Courier 1867).
By 1869 Whish had approximately 90 acres of cane under cultivation on Oaklands and another 26 acres on the shores of Moreton Bay. Further evidence of Whish's belief in his Islander labour force was his construction of a building to properly house them in 1871.
The early success on Oaklands however did not last. The climate was marginally too mild for the sugar plants to grow in the winter months (Barter 2009:4). Moreover, the development of plantations further north around Maryborough and Mackay produced better yields and featured a shorter period of growth (Barter 2009:4). As early as 1870, case rum and liqueurs made at Whish's distillery were being offered for sale at reduced priced (Brisbane Courier 1870). In an attempt to continue sugar operations at Oaklands, the idea of a limited liability company was considered. The capital proposed was £12,000 in shares of £10 each (Brisbane Courier 1871). However, by 1872, Oaklands ceased sugar production. In February 1872, much of the equipment and working plant from Oaklands was offered for sale (Brisbane Courier 1872a, 1872b). Much of the equipment was purchased by the Mackenzie brothers of Ingham and moved to their operations in the Herbert River district of north Queensland (Wood 1965:9). The site of Oaklands was sold at auction in September 1873 and subsequently used for grazing and agriculture following the closure of the sugar mill until gazetted as an environmental reserve in 1990 (Brisbane Courier 1873, DERM 1863, 1964, 1967, 1977, 1979, 1990).
References
Alcorn, Berenis and Robin Dunn (1997) Moreton Sugar Mill: sweet heart of Nambour, Nambour: Berenis Alcorn and Robin Dunn.
Ann Wallin and Associates (1998) A cultural heritage analysis of Lot 6 RP158171, 67 Weier Road, Caboolture, unpublished report.
Barter, Leith (2009) The Normanby Story: creating a film history of the Normanby Distillery, paper presented at the Australian Historical Association Regional Conference 2009: Constructing the Past, University of the Sunshine Coast, 30 June 2009).
Blake, Thom (2003) Caboolture Shire Cultural Heritage Study Volume 1, unpublished report to Caboolture Shire Council.
Brisbane Courier
1867\tThe Oaklands Sugar Plantation, Caboolture River, 23 September 1867, p.3
1870\tOaklands Distillery, 19 August 1870, p.1
1871\tCommercial, 20 March 1871, p.4
1872a\tAuction Sales, 26 January 1872, p.4
1872b\tTo Sugar Planters, 31 January 1872, p.1
1873\tAuction Sales, 6 September 1873, p.8
Buderim Historical Society (1995) South Sea Islanders Came to Buderim, Buderim: Buderim Historical Society Inc.
Department of Environmental and Resource Management
1863\tSurvey Plan M32.26
1865\tCertificate of Title No.8615 19th September 1865
1964\tSurvey Plan SL4615
1967\tSurvey Plan SL115175
1977\tSurvey Plan RP158171
1979\tSurvey Plan SL8958
1990\tSurvey Plan RP804608
Claudius Buchanan Whish (1827-1890) Australian Dictionary of Biography Online: http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060413b.htm?hilite=whish (accessed 28 July 2008)
Louis Hope (1817-1894) Australian Dictionary of Biography Online: http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040471b.htm?hilite=louis%3Bhope (accessed 28 July 2008)
Tutt, Stan (ed.) (1979) From Spear to Musket 1879-1979: Caboolture centenary, Council of the Shire of Caboolture: Caboolture.
Wood, C.T. (1965) Sugar Country: a short history of the raw sugar industry in Australia, 1864-1964, Queensland Cane Growers' Council: Brisbane.
","criteria":"The Oaklands Sugar Mill Remnants are physical evidence of the early agricultural history of the Caboolture region, and are representative of one of the earliest developments in Queensland's influential sugar industry. These remnants are evidence of one of the earliest endeavours to produce sugar on a commercial basis in Queensland.
The remnants demonstrate attempts to develop primary industries in the Caboolture and north coast region. Though production was short-lived (1865 - 1872), the early successes at Oaklands influenced the expansion of the sugar industry into other centres of Queensland.
The remnants are associated with an important identity in the early development of the sugar industry in Queensland, Captain Claudius Buchanan Whish. Whish was one of the first sugar producers in Queensland to market commercial quantities of sugar and high quality rum. He was also to later become a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1870-72 and Surveyor of Roads.
The remnants are a rare and early surviving reminder of the use of South Sea Islander labour in southeast Queensland. South Sea Islander labourer was employed on Oaklands from 1865 only two years after Robert Towns first introduced their labour on his properties in Queensland. The Oaklands site dates from the early phase of South Sea Islander employment in the sugar industry and could provide important evidence about early practices and, in comparison with other sites, if and how those practices may have changed over time.
Oaklands has considerable potential to reveal information regarding the development of sugar production processes. The early era of sugar plantations was marked by the idiosyncratic introduction of new processes and techniques. Although initially successful, the venture at Oaklands was ultimately a failure and comparison of this site with other more successful sites may reveal important information about how producers attempted to adapt to varying environments, and ultimately, about how sugar production techniques in Queensland changed and evolved.
The place has high potential for additional archaeological artefacts. Though subdivision has occurred in the vicinity of the mill remnants, there is no evidence to suggest that Lot 600 on RP804608 has undergone any significant ground disturbance since the closure and dismantling of the mill. A number of in-situ bricks, mound features and depressions on the property are suggestive of substantial structural foundations concealed in shallow to medium depth deposits just below the current land surface.
Little documentary evidence is available that relates to the sugar processing operations on Whish's Oaklands property, other than reports on levels of production and sale. Analysis of available documentary sources combined with further archaeological investigations of the remnants has potential to answer important research questions relating to early sugar processing techniques and technologies and the working conditions experienced by South Sea Islander labourers working on Queensland sugar plantations. Archaeological investigations of the remnants may also reveal new and important information about the Oaklands Mill layout and may provide evidence on the location of other mill and plantation infrastructure not discernible from documentary sources alone.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion C","criteria_definitions":"The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":21530,"place_ref":602839,"name":"Morayfield State School","alternate_name":"Caboolture National School | Caboolture South State School","street_address":"196-230 Morayfield Road","suburb":"MORAYFIELD","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2014-10-10","description":"Morayfield State School is located to the south of the central business district of Morayfield. The school site is a 16.5 hectare irregular-shaped block on the corner of two main thoroughfares, Morayfield Road on the east and Caboolture River Road on the north. The site accommodates a closely-knit complex of buildings, including a Suter-designed teaching building (1873) and a timber playshed (c. 1903). A mature fig tree that stands prominently to the east of the playshed offers shade to the school grounds.
\nThe Suter building is located at the centre of the complex. It is a small, lowset timber structure on concrete stumps, with modern timber lattice screening between the floor level and the ground. The gable roof is clad with corrugated metal sheets. Evidence in the barge boards suggests original timber shingles may survive under the existing roof sheets.[36]
\nThe building has verandahs front (east) and back (west) reached by a small centrally located set of timber stairs on either side. The verandahs have stop-chamfered timber posts, timber floor boards, and raked ceilings lined with wide, beaded timber boards. The verandah walls are single skin with externally exposed timber framing, diagonal cross bracing between studs, and a door into the interior from both the east and west verandahs. The eastern verandah has a decorative timber balustrade of crossed members and the western balustrade is bag racks. The western verandah is enclosed at the southern and northern ends to accommodate small store rooms, and some original stop-chamfered timber posts are visible within the enclosing cladding. The southern storeroom walls are clad with modern fibrocement sheeting, and the northern storeroom has internally exposed timber framing. Original timber floor boards, wider than those of the open verandah, survive in the northern store room, while the southern store room has a modern linoleum floor, as well as recent sink and louvre window additions. The eastern verandah has timber framed casement windows either side of the door and a short stair at the northern end of the verandah connects to the adjacent building, Block A.
\nA plaque that is attached to the eastern verandah wall and adjacent to the front door reads: \"Morayfield State School, Opened 4 August 1873\". The gable end walls are clad with weatherboards and have banks of modern timber-framed awning windows under horizontal hoods.
\nThe interior of the Suter building classroom is lined with horizontal, beaded timber boards on both the walls and the underside of the roof. A line within the beaded boards on the southern end of the western wall indicates a window now enclosed, and indentations in the boards underneath windows on the eastern wall indicate there were earlier, larger window sills. Moulded timber architraves frame the doors and windows of the eastern and western walls. Timber roof framing, including Queen post trusses with stop-chamfered edges, is exposed within the space. The carpet and linoleum floor linings, the fibrous cement wall cladding, the modern sink at the south of the space and the shelving underneath the northern window are modern additions and are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nThe playshed stands to the north of the Suter building and is a 24ft x 16ft (7.3m x 4.8m) structure. The playshed is comprised of a hipped roof of corrugated metal sheets supported on six timber posts, each of which have splayed bracing to support the top plate. All roof-framing is exposed internally. The modern seats, adjacent aluminium playground fencing, and concrete slab are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nA large, mature fig tree (Ficus sp.) provides shade to the area east of the playshed. The lower limbs have been pruned, and the stump in which the fig first was planted is visible within the trunk on the northern side of the tree. The fig has landmark attributes within the school, being clearly visible from many areas and above buildings.
\nNo other buildings and structures within the heritage boundary are of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Morayfield State School opened in 1873 as Caboolture National School within a small timber building designed by architect Richard George Suter. It was built on a large site south of the Caboolture River to service the sparse but growing rural population. As settlement increased, the school expanded to have many other structures and landscape elements, including a play shed (1903) and shade trees. The school has been in continuous operation since its establishment and, as such, has been a focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activity.
The former Moreton Bay Penal Colony was opened to free settlers in 1842. Initially, thanks to river access, the Caboolture area was used for timber-getting, especially red cedar. In the 1860s it developed as an agricultural area, and was one of the first districts in Queensland where sugar was grown on a substantial scale. Queensland's first commercially milled sugar was produced in 1864 at Ormiston, southeast of Brisbane, by Captain Louis Hope.[1] George Raff, a prominent Brisbane merchant and politician, began planting sugar in the mid-1860s on his plantation southeast of Caboolture, and south of the Caboolture River, called 'Moray Field' (QHR 700014). Raff was successful and expanded to a substantial operation.[2] Raff's plantation produced sugar until the mid-1880s; another local sugar plantation, also south of the river and operating from the mid-1860s to 1872, was ‘Oaklands', (QHR 700007) established by Captain CB Whish. Both plantations used South Sea Islander labour.
Caboolture was initially only a stop on the road to the Gympie goldfield from the late 1860s, but growth in the area was sufficient to warrant the establishment of a government school, ‘for the convenience of the farmers' families up the river, and the children of the employees at Mr Raff's plantation'.[3] In April 1872 The Brisbane Courier advertised the government's reservation of 41 acres (16.5 ha) - adjacent to the Gympie Road between Brisbane and Caboolture - for the Caboolture National School.[4] Although the site selected was 2.5 km south of Caboolture, and south of the Caboolture River, it had the advantage of being next to a permanent water source - the lagoons on Sheep Station Creek.[5]
Caboolture National School was established as one of an expanding network of state-run primary schools. The provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. In 1848 the New South Wales Government established National Schools. This was continued by the Queensland Government after the colony's creation in 1859. The Education Act 1860 established the Queensland Board of General Education and began to standardise curriculum, teacher training, and facilities.[6] The State Education Act 1875 provided for the further key initiatives of free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction to administer the Act. This move standardised the provision of education and, despite difficulties, colonial educators achieved a remarkable feat in bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[7]
The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school's construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a major community focus for social interaction, a symbol of progress and a source of pride with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and halls used for community purposes reinforced these connections together with fetes, markets, public holiday celebrations, school break-up days, fundraisers, polling days, sporting events, reunions, and dances, all held within the schools' buildings and grounds[8].
From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber framed, taking advantage of the material's abundance in the state and the high number of builders skilled in its use. This also allowed for easy and economical construction and enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Due to the standardisation of facilities, schools across the state were developed in distinctly similar ways and became complexes of typical components. These components included: the teaching building/s, the school yard, the sports oval, the head teacher's residence, and a variety of landscape elements such as sporting facilities or play equipment, playsheds, gardens and trees.
For the Caboolture National School (Caboolture State School from 1875), Robert Monteith's construction tender of £265 for erection of a teaching building and a head teacher's residence was accepted by the government in October 1872.[9] Both buildings were completed in 1873 and the Caboolture National School opened 4 August 1873.[10] By December 1873, 34 children were on the school roll.[11]
The Board of General Education preferred that national school buildings were single storey, but had no other architectural stipulations. Consequently, the buildings varied depending on the architect responsible. The teaching building at Caboolture National School (designated as Block C in 2014) was designed by Richard Suter (1827-94), a private architect commissioned from 1865 by the Board of General Education to design school buildings. From 1868, Suter was responsible for most of the Board's buildings. Although Suter's Brisbane school buildings were of brick construction, in rural areas he designed timber-framed school buildings. In his timber school designs, Suter incorporated an ‘outside studding' construction technique he was developing, whereby a building with timber stud framing was clad only internally, creating a distinctive exterior of exposed framing similar in appearance to half-timbered construction. Suter is credited with being the first to use this technique in Queensland.[12] Outside studding for school architecture was continued by Suter's successors for another 50 years.[13]
As in other Australian colonies, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings to help to ensure consistency and economy. Prior to, and during Suter's first years, schools were individually designed but conformed to the space requirements set by the Board. In 1869 a ‘recommended plan' for provisional schools was created by Suter that was generic and could be used on any site.[14] It was a lowset structure with gable roof, rectangular in plan with a small porch. An ‘improved plan' developed in 1873 addressed criticisms by Inspectors that the heat inside classrooms was ‘unbearable'.[15] It comprised a single large room with a front and back verandah, providing weather protection and sheltered play and teaching space. It was the beginning of a distinctive design, where the circulation to classrooms was via a verandah, continuing until at least the 1960s.
Although Suter did not intend this plan to be used broadly, the Board of Education, who were faced with an increasing population and limited budget, disseminated it throughout Queensland. As a result, Suter's designs had wide distribution. This had considerable impact on the spread of outside studding as a building technique in Queensland and may have been the main influence in its quick acceptance and use as a vernacular building form throughout the colony.[16]
The reuse of designs diminished the need to pay Suter additional architectural fees and the relationship between Suter and the government became strained. Suter continued as approved architect until 1875 when he was replaced.[17] Around 65 timber school buildings were constructed to Suter's standard type. Of these, only three (Waterford State School [QHR 602672], Morayfield State School, and Mutdapilly State School) are largely intact.[18]
The classroom building at Caboolture National School was typical of Suter's improved plan. It was a lowset timber building with outside studding. It faced east with a verandah on the east and west sides and accommodated one large room 30ft x 16ft (9.1m x 4.8m). The gable roof was clad with hardwood timber shingles and the interior was lined with pine tongued and grooved timber boards.[19] The timber roof framing was exposed internally and the windows were small and few in number.
Suter's standard designs were continually refined by his successors in response to changing needs and educational philosophy. Suter's designs were not without problems - in particular, they were criticised for lack of ventilation. Later school architects focussed intently on improving climate control, lighting, and ventilation and were particularly innovative in their responses.
During the 1870s and early 1880s the Caboolture/Morayfield area continued to develop as an agricultural region with a gradual increase in population. The Caboolture Divisional Board (later Shire Council) was established in 1879. In 1876 and 1885 there were unsuccessful calls to have the school moved north of the river to Caboolture, which was now more populous than Morayfield.[20] This may have been because a wharf was located on the north bank of the river.[21] In 1888 a rail line to Brisbane was constructed, with its terminus in North Caboolture, leading to the establishment of North Caboolture State School in 1889. Caboolture was chosen as the terminus, rather than Morayfield, because the water supply at Lagoon Creek was considered more suitable for locomotives.[22] The Caboolture State School was renamed Caboolture South State School in 1889 and later Morayfield State School in 1907.
Building work continued at Caboolture South State School. By c1900 the rear verandah of the Suter building had been part-enclosed to form a hat room, a typical alteration to school buildings. Both ends of the rear verandah were semi-enclosed hat rooms by 1933.[23]
In 1903 the school committee applied to the Department of Public Instruction to build a playshed and it was completed later that year. The local community contributed one third of the cost.
The Queensland education system recognised the importance of play in the school curriculum and, as well as classrooms, they provided plans for playsheds; free-standing shelters that provided covered play space and were often used for unofficial teaching space when needed. They were timber-framed structures, generally open on all sides, although they were sometimes partially enclosed with timber boards or corrugated galvanised iron sheets. The hipped (or less frequently, gabled) roofs were clad with timber shingles or corrugated iron and they had an earth or decomposed granite floor. Fixed timber seating ran between the perimeter posts. Playsheds were a typical addition to state schools across Queensland between c1880s and the 1950s. They were built to standard designs that ranged in size relative to student numbers. School sites were typically cleared of all vegetation and the provision of all-weather outdoor space was needed. The playshed at Caboolture South State School was built to a standard design by builder Thomas Heron for £44.10.[24] It was a timber framed, open-sided structure, 24ft x 16ft (7.3m x 4.8m), with 6 posts supporting a hipped roof and was built to the north of the Suter building.
The growth of Morayfield remained limited until well into the late-twentieth century, so only minor increases in student accommodation were needed. In 1930 local industries included citrus growing, poultry farming and dairying, and Morayfield railway station was fairly isolated, with only a sawmill and a few residences nearby. At this time Morayfield State School had 40 pupils.[25] In 1933 a new highset timber building, comprising one classroom, was constructed just north of the Suter building.[26] This building (Block A) was originally 21ft x 18ft (6.4m x 5.5m) with 8ft (2.4m) wide verandas to the east and west, and was later extended to the east in the 1950s and 1960s.[27]
Achieving an ideal or even adequate level of natural light in classrooms, without glare, was of critical importance to educators. After 1900 the virtues of maximum natural ventilation and controlled, high-levels of natural light in teaching buildings were extolled and became central to the design and layout of all school buildings.[28] Windows were rearranged and enlarged to provide a greater amount of gentle, southern light into the room. Desks were rearranged so that the light would fall onto students' left sides to avoid throwing shadows onto the pages; this presupposed that all students would be right-handed. The change in philosophy often meant a complete transformation of the fenestration of existing buildings. Interiors became lighter and airier and met with immediate approval from educators.[29] This was a noticeable new direction and the better lit and ventilated form became a characteristic of Queensland schools.
During the 1920s and 1930s alterations were made to the vast majority of older school buildings to upgrade their lighting and ventilation. On a 1933 plan of the Suter building at Morayfield, casement windows are shown in the eastern verandah wall. These would have been added to increase the lighting and ventilation of the interior and were consistent with this education philosophy.
The grounds of the school were developed over time to accommodate outdoor play. The provision of outdoor play space was a result of the early and continuing commitment by the state government to play-based education, particularly in primary school. Across Queensland, trees and gardens were planted as part of beautification of schools. In the 1870s, schools inspector William Boyd was critical of tropical schools and amongst his recommendations was the importance of adding shade trees to playgrounds. Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890 and were occurring at Caboolture South State School by 1891.[30] Educationalists believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land. Aesthetically designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors.
An Arbor Day report of Morayfield State School in 1958 stated that an old and very fine narrow leafed fig growing in the stump of a tree[31] was an extraordinarily good specimen and provided shade all the year.[32] A class photograph from 1959 and aerial photographs from 1956 and 1973 show the fig as a mature tree within an almost treeless playground.[33] Some mature trees visible north of the fig in 1956 were removed by 1973. The topsoil of Morayfield State School is very shallow over clay, meaning most trees do not grow well or quickly. Therefore, the age of the fig might be greater than its size suggests.
Alterations to the Suter building occurred over time but were relatively minor. Bag racks as verandah balustrades became a characteristic design element of Queensland schools after World War II and the Suter building had its rear verandah balustrade replaced by bag racks. As a result of further changes in education philosophies and consistent with alterations of other school buildings across the state, in 1955 the Suter building had its fenestration altered again to increase the amount of light into the classroom. This involved replacing the narrow windows in the gable end walls with modern awning style windows.
Between the 1960s and the 1980s Queensland education was reformed and the teaching buildings at Morayfield State School were altered as a result. The Education Act 1964 was a turning point and the first major update of Queensland education's governing legislation since 1875. Effectively, a new era of state education evolved requiring new architectural responses. The Department of Education (as it had been renamed in 1957) continued to give the responsibility of building design to the architects of the Department of Public Works. With new educational philosophies, government policies and functional requirements combined with new architectural styles, materials and technologies, the evolution of standard designs became more fragmented. Rather than ‘improving' on the previous designs, architects began to design with inspiration drawn from new precedents. Fundamentally, timber construction was no longer favoured and buildings were no longer predominantly highset.
Beginning in the 1970s, Morayfield experienced sharp population growth.[34] Between 1971 and 1976 the population of the Caboolture Shire increased 65.5%, and the number of dwellings increased by 60.5%.[35]
This building boom was repeated at the Morayfield State School. Between 1970 and 1990 new classroom buildings, modular classrooms, toilets, a library, covered areas, a pre-school, an administration block, and a resource centre were constructed. The Suter building received minor alterations in c1977 to convert it for use as a staff room; this involved removing the windows in the western verandah wall and enclosing the southern end of the western verandah to form a cleaners' room. By 2014 the Suter building was utilised as a Student Behaviour Room.
In 2014, the school continues to operate from the site and retains the Suter building, the playshed, and the shade tree. The school is important to the town and district having operated since 1873 and having taught generations of Morayfield students. Since establishment it has been a key social focus for the Morayfield community with the grounds and buildings having been the location of many social events over time. The Suter building is also ‘Site 1' on the local Caboolture River Road Heritage Drive.
","criteria":"Morayfield State School (established in 1873 as Caboolture National School) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education, and its associated architecture, in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies. The teaching building (1873), designed by architect Richard Suter, is an early standardised design; and the playshed (1903), demonstrates the education system's recognition of the importance of play in the curriculum.
Reserved for school purposes in 1872, the place demonstrates the establishment and development of settlement in the Caboolture/Morayfield area, an early agricultural and sugar growing centre in Queensland.
|Queensland schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain a significant and enduring connection with former pupils, their parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations. Morayfield State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Morayfield community. It was established in 1873 through the fund-raising efforts of the local community and has educated generations of Morayfield children. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Morayfield and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social events, with widespread community support.
|Morayfield State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of early Queensland state schools, including standard building designs by the Queensland Government.
The Suter building retains the characteristics of its original design. It is single-skin timber-framed and lowset, with front and rear verandahs and a single classroom that is well ventilated and day-lit. Changing philosophies in state primary education are evident in the modifications made to this building, including enlarged windows and verandah bag racks.
The playshed is open sided, with a hipped timber-framed roof form supported on braced timber posts.
The Fig tree (Ficus sp.) is a fine example of the shade trees planted in Queensland school grounds.
|The Suter building at Morayfield State School is rare as one of three known surviving intact examples of the approximately 65 buildings of this type constructed.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion G | Criterion D | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":21548,"place_ref":645614,"name":"Morayfield Plantation | 700014","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"2 Nolan Drive","suburb":"MORAYFIELD","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2011-05-13","description":"The area covered by the heritage boundary for Morayfield Plantation occupies the north-eastern corner of 1SP266287. While use of the area has changed over time (cotton - sugar - dairying - pine plantation - proposed business park), the nature of these activities may have had limited impact on the integrity of the archaeological record. While the visible, above ground archaeological artefacts lack integrity as evidenced by their ruinous state, the soil profile of the former plantation area (i.e. deep alluvial soils) suggests that the area has potential to contain subsurface archaeological deposits with the possibility of some stratification, especially due to proximity to the Caboolture River, the low-lying nature of the surrounding lands, and a history of flooding (BOM 2009, n.d.). Soils closest to the river are generally sands and mud and areas close to the river generally have a deep alluvial soil profile, while those areas on higher ridgelines are likely to be shallower.
\nArchaeological remains which relate to Raff's occupation and use of the area are located in the northern portion of Lot 10, close to the Caboolture River and around the margin of a lagoon. While information on the full layout of the complex is incomplete, it is possible to identify several key elements from the results of previous field investigations and historical and aerial photograph interpretation, including the location of Raff's residence, exotic gardens and plantings, two wells, stores, stables, a fence line, the sawmill site, and part of the tramway formation.
\nA set of 13 steps (rendered stone base with later brick additions) and the remains of a brick and sandstone wall with patches of render still visible are found at approximately (MGA94 Zone 56) 499685E, 7001805N. These steps are associated with the Morayfield Plantation homestead. The site is approached from the south-west by an indistinct roadway at 499585E, 7001789N whose furthest extent is marked by a camphor laurel tree at 499485E, 7001737N. Unmarked and handmade bricks, sandstone pieces and blocks with render are scattered in the vicinity of the steps. A brick-lined well is also found behind the house site and connected by a brick-paved floor. Exotic plantings, including two groves of bamboo and two palm trees, evenly spaced to either side of the set of stairs, as well as bunya trees are located in the immediate vicinity.
\nA timber post and rail yard is located close to the Caboolture River and the north-east extent of the lagoon. The yard is likely related to the dairying activities on the property in the early 20th century. The site is known to have featured a tin and timber dairy building up to 1960. However the yard remains do overlie earlier structures. This is evidenced by the presence of a closely packed brick surface underneath cracked sections of concrete.
\nA second brick-lined well, filled with sediment, is located on the north-eastern side of the yards. It is not known when this well was constructed, but size and construction pattern are similar to the well located near the former Morayfield Plantation homestead. The well is also located in close proximity to the location of the former bond stores, stable, wharf and tramway which are known to have been constructed sometime before 1873.
\nPossible remains of the 'commodious wharf' noted by Lang in 1868 are found above the waterline include a single large in situ timber post at 499893E, 7002031N and numerous metal artefacts, including horseshoes, circular collars, heavy straps and bolts) which are eroding out of the river bank at at 499886E, 7002022N. Based on an 1873 historical photograph of this area and aerial photography (DERM 2002, 2009b, 2009c), the wharf is thought to be located adjacent to these finds. Archaeological investigations at other historic wharf sites in Queensland and interstate have revealed rich archaeological deposits at such locations, even in the absence of structural remains above the waterline, and also significant archaeological deposits in maritime zones where dredging has occurred (Coroneos 2004; Cosmos Archaeology 2006, 2009; Illidge 2006). There is therefore good potential for archaeological artefacts that were lost overboard or discarded from ships, or the wharf deck itself, to be situated in the vicinity of the former wharf area and within the riverbed out to the mid-channel of the Caboolture River.
\nThe remains of a post and rail fence line cross the lagoon immediately east of the main house ruins. This fence line is also visible in the 1873 photograph and therefore is considered to be physical evidence of Raff's operations on the site. Adjacent to this is a vehicle access track located near the southeast extent of the lagoon. Handmade bricks and a rusting boiler (unknown make) which is located in the vicinity of the former sawmill site and tramway are located adjacent the track. A slightly raised and linear area immediately east of the track is interpreted as remnants of the tramway line that once ran from the mill to the wharf area. The area around the former sawmill site and this tramway formation is considered an area of high archaeological potential.
\nTo the north and northeast of the former sawmill site in the vicinity of the cattle yards at 499892E, 7001981N and in a nearby small grove of bunya pines at 499955E, 702058N are two metal rails which may have formed part of the former tramway. Also concealed within the bunya pine grove is a rendered brick machinery foundation and a rusted metal tank - similar to a ship or steam engine's water tank, but also possibly an artefact relating to the early sugar manufacturing processes at the site. Nearby, a feature of unknown function is set into the ground and is partially filled with concrete, forming a bowl with a surrounding metal rim.
\nThe lone grave of Levi Walker is located on the southern bank of the Caboolture River at 499218E, 7001824N. The headstone reads 'Sacred to the memory of Levi Walker, son of James and Rachel Walker, who was drowned whilst bathing in the River Caboolture, October 10th 1869, in the 28th year of his age.' While it is not impossible that additional graves exist on the property, no physical evidence of such graves survives though any unmarked graves would be of archaeological potential and importance.
\nPotential exists across the area for archaeological evidence associated with the Morayfield Plantation. It is reasonable to assume that archaeological potential also exists for evidence relating to Islander and white labourer accommodation, the remains of the sugar mill and distillery and additional tramway infrastructure.
","history":"In 1866, the Morayfield Plantation was established on the southern bank of the Caboolture River, approximately 40 kilometres north of Brisbane. The plantation was owned by George Raff, a former member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, prominent Brisbane businessman and supporter of the use of indentured South Sea Islander labour in the sugar industry. Cane was grown at Morayfield for the production of sugar, rum and molasses between 1866 and 1889. Raff employed many South Sea Islander labourers in the cane fields during this period. Cane cultivation (and all related production) ceased around 1885-6. Raff died in 1889, with the plantation eventually sold for conversion to dairying in 1901.
\nIn 1861 the Cabulture Cotton Company was formed by a group of settlers including George Raff, William Hobbs, Shepherd Smith, Robert Douglas and John Bramston. Raff was a prominent business identity in mid to late 19th century Queensland and was very active in public affairs. Born in Morayshire, Scotland in 1815, he emigrated to Australia in 1839 arriving in Sydney aboard the Earl Durham. In the 1840s he worked in the pastoral industry and as a merchant before moving to Brisbane in 1851 (Hall 1976). In Brisbane he soon established George Raff & Co., a shipping company with wharves on the Brisbane River situated adjacent to Customs House (Hall 1976; Laverty 2009:20). Raff also founded the Queensland Mercantile and Agency Co., and became a director of the Queensland Steam Navigation Company in 1861 (Hall 1976). He strongly believed in separation from New South Wales and was one of the 26 members of Sir Robert Herbert's first Queensland Parliament. In 1860 Raff was appointed as a member of the Board of Education (Davies 2003:24). He handed in his resignation as Member of the Legislative Assembly to the speaker of parliament in April 1864 (Brisbane Courier 1864). He was re-elected and served again from November 1865, including a period as minister without portfolio in the Herbert and later Macalister ministries until November 1866. He again resigned from parliament in June 1867, only to go on and unsuccessfully contest the seat of Moreton in 1870 (Hall 1976; Waterson 1972).
\nIn June 1861, the founders of the Cabulture Cotton Company sailed in the Breadalbane to explore the shores and rivers of Moreton Bay with the intention of selecting land for the purpose of growing cotton (Davies 2003:26). The land selected became Portions 10 and 26, Parish of Caboolture, County of Stanley. After three unsuccessful seasons growing cotton, the Cabulture Cotton Company put the property up for sale (Brisbane Courier 1865). George Raff purchased Portion 10 in 1866 for £1000 (Brisbane Courier 1868, DERM 1866). Raff purchased additional land immediately adjacent to Portion 10. Portions 24 and 25 to the east were purchased in April 1867 (DERM 1867a, 1867b), and Portion 26 to the west in May 1868 (DERM 1868). Raff named his new property 'Morayfields', which was later referred to as Morayfield in the early 1870s. Raff switched primary production to sugar cane, but between 1865 and 1868, the plantation continued producing some cotton. In 1868 it was reported that 5 bales of 'New Orleans' variety cotton were shipped from Morayfield Plantation to London (Tutt 1973:11).
\nBy 1867 Raff's sugar cultivating, processing and distilling operations were well established. On 19 October of that year, the Brisbane Courier reported in detail the size and scope of his endeavours. Morayfield Plantation then consisted of 2,500 acres of land, the soil being described as 'pretty deep' black alluvial, with cultivation on 'one great plateau'. The whole cultivation of sugar took up an area of 150 acres (60 acres more than on the adjacent Oaklands operation of Claudius Whish), and was chiefly of the 'Bourbon' variety of cane. Living quarters were described as
\n...consisting of a large mansion, manager's house, house for married workmen and their families, laborers' [sic] huts, stockyards, stables, sheds, carpenters' shops, blacksmiths' shop, stores, saw mill, and an innumerable number of other buildings (Brisbane Courier 1867).
\nAdditional housing for workers was also provided a little distance from the homestead complex.
\nA substantial sugar processing works is also described at this time. The works was situated about 200 yards from the river and close to a large reservoir. The main building measured '120 feet square, 20 feet to the eaves, with a pyramidal roof rather than steep'. The works were centred around a 30-horse beam engine worked from a large 'multitubular boiler, fitted with a patented injector' (Brisbane Courier 1867).
\nA distillery was also operating by 1867. It was described as being situated on one side of the main sugar processing works building, and being of 'Shears' patent, 600 gallons, with three rectifying or condensing boxes above the still head, producing a strong spirit by one operation' (Brisbane Courier 1867).
\nIn 1866, Raff constructed a 3ft gauge private tramway to transport cane harvested from nearby fields to the mill, and sugar to the wharf (McKillop and Browning 2000). Cane was loaded by hand onto railway trucks, which held, on average 1 ton each. Two trucks formed a train. In October 1867, all hauling was performed by horse, though a small Aveling and Porter locomotive was in use in the saw mill. At that time, the railway was measured at ½ mile in length from the fields to the sugar works, and described as 'very well formed', on cross heavy logs, with longitudinal sleepers under the plates', and the gauge was three feet (Brisbane Courier 1867).
\nAnother visit was made to the plantation one year later by John Dunmore Lang and published in the Brisbane Courier in 1868. He described the total land under cultivation as being 160 acres, though this could have been increased to 300 acres if desired. The majority of cane was still of the 'Bourbon' variety though 60 acres of 'Rattoon' cane (stems or shoots from the second years' growth of a sugar cane plant) and an unknown quantity of 'Ribbon' cane (a subtropical type of cane) was noted. Lang described the tramway as being 'an eccentric elipse [sic], traversing the whole plantation.' The railway measured 2 miles in length, had cost £2,000 to build, but still relied on animal power (Brisbane Courier 1868). By 1870, the line was described as 2-3 miles in length and Raff had run his 8-ton locomotive engine over it (Brisbane Courier 1878). Raff is believed to be the first to use a locomotive driven tramway on a Queensland sugar plantation (McKillop and Browning 2000).
\nLang notes the presence of South Sea Islander labourers at Morayfield Plantation in 1868. South Sea Islanders-also referred to as Kanakas at the time-made a major contribution to Queensland's early sugar industry, with between 55,000 and 62,000 individuals being brought here between 1863 and 1904 as indentured labourers usually bound to a three-year contract (Australian Human Rights Commission c2011). George Raff was a prominent supporter of the use of an Islander labour force, as was his immediate neighbour at Oaklands, Claudius Buchanan Whish. Raff was considered one of the 'masters' of the trade and a very large employer of Islander labour. He became prominent as one of the abettors of the system in his testimony before a Parliamentary Committee (Morrison 1888:183- 184). Islanders provided cheap manual labour, but were also considered essential in a climate considered too harsh for white manual labourers. Most came from eighty islands in Melanesia, mainly those included in present day Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands (Hamilton 1994:34). The method of recruitment involved some instances of kidnap and deception, while the numbers of Islander people brought to Queensland by these illegal means is a matter for debate. (Multicultural Affairs Queensland c2000).
\nIt is unclear how many Islanders were present at Morayfield Plantation or when Raff first employed them. Lang noted during his 1868 visit the presence of 65 Islanders speaking 5 different languages, working and living on the plantation. Other sources claim about 70 people in total employed on Morayfield Plantation in 1868, of which 15 to 20 were Islanders (Caboolture Historical Society in Davies 2003:31; Tutt 1979:76).
\nLang provides descriptions of the contrasting European workers' accommodation and that of the South Sea Islander labourers (Brisbane Courier 1868). The European workmen and their families were provided with 'a row of comfortable brick cottages', while the Islander labourers were supplied with a large single timber structure with corrugated iron roof measuring 'upwards of eighty feet by forty' and painted on the outside. Sleeping accommodation was described as consisting of
\n...a raised platform stretching along each side of the building, like the berths in the steerage of a ship, each of the inmates sleeping on his blanket on the boards, the fire for cooking their provisions being on the floor in the centre of the building, around which they congregate in the evening, after the labors[sic] of the day, as in their native isles (Brisbane Courier 1868).
\nOne other description of the Islander accommodation was that is consisted of a 'circular structure' located close to the river bank. By 1925 this structure was used by share farmers for housing and feeding young calves (The Queenslander 1925).
\nLang also notes the presence of an additional brick building on the plantation, a 'commodious wharf' on the river for landing or embarking goods and people, and a schoolhouse which doubled as a church (Brisbane Courier 1868). Lang described the conduct of a Presbyterian service at the schoolhouse, at which a number of the South Sea Islanders attended, were literate, and read a portion of scripture in their own language (Brisbane Courier 1868, Saunders 1982:116). These Islanders were described as being from the Island of Maré, the southern most island of the Loyalty Island Group (New Caledonia).
\nIt was not uncommon for Islander labourers to abscond from their employers when conditions were poor. They were commonly provided with insufficient and poor quality food and inadequate clothing (Saunders 1982:132). This was particularly the case on those properties located in the more temperate areas of southern Queensland where the cooler temperatures in winter were completely foreign to many of the Islander labourers. In early 1869, eighteen men, originally from the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) and then employed at Morayfield Plantation, fled the plantation for Brisbane. Raff sought a court order in an attempt to force them back to work, which they refused (Saunders 1982:132). At their court appearance in January 1869, three Maré men by the names of Tarbucket (alias Kichelho), John Bull and Louis, claimed the reason they left was that Mr Raff was not providing them with enough food or 'ki-ki'. They also expressed the belief that their agreements had expired after one year, even though Raff explained that they had agreed to three year work agreements, and that they wanted to return to Maré. The court ruled in Raff's favour and forced the men to return to Morayfield (The Queenslander 1869a).
\nLang, however, reports that Raff treated his Islander labour force 'well', paying them at the rate of 10 shillings a month with rations, and under engagements of 3 years. Each man received a pound of beef per day and worked until 6pm in the evening (Brisbane Courier 1868). Raff purchased much of this beef from the local area, particularly from the McConnels of Durundur station, near Woodford (McConnel n.d.).
\nAt the end of 1868, the Chief Inspector of Distilleries reported that the Morayfield Plantation had 190 acres of land under cultivation with cane, of which 60 acres had been crushed. The total amount of rum distilled since the commencement of operation in October 1867 was 18,431 gallons. The amount of sugar manufactured in 1868 was 100 tons, and molasses 12,000 gallons (Tutt 1973:11).
\nOn 10th October 1869, Levi Walker, a labourer from Heap, near Bury in Lancashire, England, drowned in the Caboolture River (QRG 1869). Walker arrived in Australia just 5 weeks earlier on 6 September 1869 aboard the Star Queen (QSA 2009). No additional information on Levi Walker has been located and his grave is marked with a headstone erected on the southern bank of the Caboolture River.
\nSugar cane cultivation and processing continued on Morayfield Plantation throughout the 1870s (Brisbane Courier 1872, 1877, 1885). In the 1870s, sugar was being regularly shipped from its wharf to Brisbane via small steamers such as the Tadorna Radjah and the Gneering, both owned by William Pettigrew (ANSDB, Brisbane Courier 1870, The Queenslander 1869b, Pettigrew n.d.). In 1877, it was reported that 60 acres of cane was present, about 40 acres under prairie grass, and the remainder of the estate (3,000 - 4,000 acres), in pasture for cattle and horses (Brisbane Courier 1877).
\nIt is unclear, however, the amount of time Raff and his family actually spent on the plantation, as he maintained a separate residence in New Farm, Brisbane, called 'Moray Bank'.
\nDuring the 1870s, South Sea Islander workers were progressively returned to their home islands as their work agreement expired, and were replaced with others from different islands, including three boys from the Island of Sandwich (Rockhampton Bulletin and Central Queensland Advertiser 1871). From 1884 the use of Islanders as labourers was progressively restricted through legislation, starting with an amendment to the Pacific Islanders Labourers Act 1880, which banned them from a range of work and constrained their employment to menial agricultural jobs. Concerns had been and were being voiced by humanitarian and church groups, as well as unions regarding the use and conditions of this labour force. Further legislation sought to end their employment entirely; however this was not finally achieved until after Federation with the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 and the Pacific Islander Labourers Act 1901, the latter of which required deportation of Islanders to begin after December 1906. Of the more than 9000 Islanders in Queensland in 1901, only 1654 were given permission to stay. The last deportation took place in July 1908 (Multicultural Affairs Queensland c2000).
\nThe valuation register of 1880 noted a number of improvements to Morayfield Plantation though there is no indication as to where on the property such improvements were made. The improvements listed include a dwelling, mill house, two bonded stores, bone house, carpenters' shop, cotton shed, stable, octagon building, Kanakas' outhouse, bakery, managers' dwellings, store, Kanakas' house, eight cottages, hayshed, schoolhouse, kitchen and stables (Tutt 1979:201).
\nThe Morayfield Plantation continued cultivating cane and producing rum until the mid-1880s (Brisbane Courier 1885; Tutt 1979:76). The Chief Inspector of Distilleries, in his annual report of 1885, noted that there was no work at the Morayfield Plantation distillery that year (Brisbane Courier 1885). The Inspector of Distilleries in Morayfield during 1887 reported a flood on the Caboolture River, but no damage to distillery (The Queenslander 1887). In August 1889 however, it was noted that the Morayfield distillery had closed and in May 1891 tenders were invited for the purchase and removal of the sugar mill (Brisbane Courier 1889, 1891).
\nGeorge Raff died on 28th August 1889 at his 'Moray Bank' home in New Farm (The Queenslander 1889). Ownership of the Morayfield Plantation transferred to three of his surviving sons - Alexander, Robert and Harry.
\nThe land on which the Morayfield Plantation was built has changed ownership several times since Raff's death (DERM 1866). Subsequent owners of the property used the land mainly for dairying purposes, including share farming. William Henry Jackson purchased the land from the Raff family and trustees in 1901. A 1903 description of the former plantation area states:
\n'traces of the old sugar mill, Kanakas' huts, rum bonds and the miles of furrows and drains still show here and there and the great sheet of water known as 'the Dam' still exists; but since the 'sixties' the old place has seen so many changes that what may be termed relics of those way-back times only remain (Davies 2003:32).
\nBy 1903, the property was divided into 19 paddocks, 6 of which were cultivated, with the rest used for dairy cattle. A dip had been built and 400 head of cattle (250 for dairying) were being grazed. A dairy shed was also erected on the site of the plantation-period horse stables, close to the Caboolture River. Associated dairying infrastructure was also installed, including a turbine steam engine and 'de Laval' 150 gallon separator (Davies 2003:32).
\nThe property was sold again in 1909 to James Buchanan, in 1947 to William George Currant, to Douglas Ashe and James Rowe in 1948, and in 1951 the whole of Portion 10 was sold to Charles Thomas Williams (DERM 1947, 1951).
\nIn 1960, Portion 10 was again sold to the A.P.M. Forests Pty Ltd and a pine plantation established across the property (DERM 1960). Much of the surviving infrastructure from the plantation period is believed to have been removed during that period of ownership. Some equipment, particularly several boilers dating from the plantation-period are allegedly still buried on the site. A.P.M. later sold the land and most of the pine was sold to a local mill or chipped on site. The land has since been sold to Northeast Business Park Pty Ltd for redevelopment as a commercial centre (Cardno 2008, DERM 2009a).
","criteria":"The Morayfield Plantation is representative of one of the earliest developments in Queensland's influential sugar industry, dating from the earliest phase in southern Queensland.
\nThe Morayfield Plantation contains important archaeological artefacts associated with George Raff's ownership of the property, beginning in 1866 until his death in 1889. George Raff was a prominent early citizen in Queensland who made a major contribution to the development of the sugar industry and notably used South Sea Islanders as indentured labourers.
\nSeveral artefacts and ruins have been located above ground and are considered important in-situ elements - i.e. remnant stairs, wells, handmade bricks, brick-paved floors, exotic plantings, structural foundations and remnant wall features. There exists potential for subsurface deposits of archaeological artefacts, especially additional building foundations, footings and domestic refuse, to be located in the locality of these above-ground elements. Any archaeological artefacts found at this place have potential to provide important information on key aspects of Queensland history, particularly the development of early sugar growing, cultivation, processing and distilling operations, and the role of South Sea Islander peoples in Queensland's sugar industry. The identification of domestic refuse has potential to provide important insights into the everyday lives of those people who lived and worked on the plantation; lives that are not well documented elsewhere. Archaeological investigations of such artefacts would help illustrate the differences in living conditions between Islanders and other labourers who worked in Queensland's early sugar industry.
\nArchaeological investigations at the place could provide important comparative material culture evidence about the processes, practices and techniques of early sugar production. Archaeological evidence may reveal important insights into methods that are undocumented and no longer practiced. Evidence of this nature has potential to provide an important insight into early sugar practice in southeast Queensland and provide rare comparative information for our understanding of other early sugar producing places, particularly the nearby Oaklands Sugar Mill Remnants (QHR 645607).
\nArchaeological investigations around the plantation wharf area and within the adjacent riverbed may reveal structural elements and archaeological artefacts relating to plantation operations, the working life of the wharf and the economic development of the region. Remains may consist of materials associated with the construction, repair and maintenance of the wharf itself. As objects were often deliberately or accidentally dropped from wharves during loading and unloading operations, archaeological artefacts relating to the shipping of cargo to and from the plantation and the greater Caboolture area have potential to survive submerged in the vicinity. The study of such archaeological artefacts may reveal important information on primary production in the area, consumption choices and patterns in material culture, distribution networks for goods coming to and going from the plantation, and the nutrition and diet of the people living on the plantation and in the broader region at the time.
\nFew places associated with early indentured labourers from the South Sea Islands have survived in Southern Queensland (see particularly Oaklands Sugar Mill Remnants at Morayfield and Ormiston House Estate QHR 600775 in Ormiston, Redland Shire). The potential for archaeological artefacts associated with these labourers makes the Morayfield Plantation an important source of information about the use of indentured labour in Queensland and an important comparative place for the analysis of South Sea Islander heritage places found in Southern Queensland and across the state. Potential for archaeological artefacts belonging to plantation owners, managers, and the South Sea Islander labour force exists, enabling important research questions to be posited, particularly in relation to status and class, the use of power, control and resistance to that control, the exploitation and organisation of labour, and adaptation to new environments.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion C","criteria_definitions":"The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":21735,"place_ref":602828,"name":"Woody Point Memorial Hall","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Hornibrook Esplanade","suburb":"WOODY POINT","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2014-03-14","description":"The Woody Point Memorial School of Arts (former) stands on a 2008m2 wedge-shaped allotment on the corner of Hornibrook Esplanade and Oxley Avenue in Woody Point. It is a modest building at the southern end of a fenced yard, facing south to the street intersection.
The T-shaped building is a low-set, one-storey, timber-framed structure, comprising a large hall at the front and a stage with projecting side wings at the rear. It is clad with timber chamferboards, the boards of the front facade are stuccoed with a rough render. The hip and gable roof is clad with corrugated metal sheets. The two periods of construction (1921 and 1955) are discernible; the original, front part is set on short concrete posts with a timber battened perimeter skirt and the later, back part is set on concrete perimeter walls.
The front of the hall is symmetrical, featuring a gable with a bargeboard supported by decorative timber brackets. The entrance is central, sheltered under a gable roofed porch. A flagpole stands near the front, centred on the elevation. Either side of the front porch are windows with decorative timber hoods. These have modern aluminium-framed sliding sashes below original timber-framed fanlights.
Along both sides of the hall are further windows with timber hoods. The projecting wings generally have aluminium-framed, sliding sash windows. On either side of the building is a timber-framed deck providing access to the hall interior via original timber braced and board double doors with glazed fanlights. Across the rear elevation is a timber-framed verandah providing access to the back of the stage. The rear elevation has a door to the understorey.
Entered from the front porch via double timber board doors, the hall is a large, well-proportioned space with a high coved ceiling. It has a timber floor and v-jointed timber board walls to plate rail height, above which the walls are clad with sheet material with timber cover strips. The ceiling at the front of the hall is lined with v-jointed timber boards, changing to sheet material and timber cover strips for the remainder. Adjacent to the front door are timber cupboards.
Mounted on the northeast wall of the hall is a timber World War I honour board. It features decorative timber mouldings, including a curved and scrolled timber top with painted crossed Australian and British flags. It lists servicemen and war workers.
Under the raised stage floor is a storage area accessible from the hall. A proscenium arch is flanked by doors onto the stage reached via timber stairs and a timber board door opens from the stage into the wings on both sides.
The layout of the wings comprises a change room and a large, modern kitchen in the eastern wing and toilets, a small store room and a change room in the western wing. The kitchen and bathroom fitouts are modern and are not of cultural heritage significance.
At the northern end of the hall grounds part of the adjacent croquet club's building extends into the heritage boundary, this is not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The Woody Point Memorial School of Arts (former), now known as the Woody Point War Memorial Hall, is a timber building located at the corner of Hornibrook Esplanade and Oxley Avenue, Woody Point. It was officially opened on 4 March 1922 and contains an honour board listing 94 men from the Redcliffe Peninsula who enlisted in World War I (WWI), along with the names of three war workers. The hall, which initially included a library and reading room, is a product of both the school of arts movement, and post-WWI efforts in Queensland to commemorate those who served and those who died in WWI. It demonstrates the ‘utilitarian' approach to war memorials, and continues to be used by the local community for multiple purposes, including WWI commemoration.
\nFor many years the Redcliffe Peninsula was known as Humpybong, the name that the local Aboriginal people, the Ningy Ningy (Ningi Ningi), gave to the abandoned convict settlement (1824-25) at Red Cliff Point. In 1861 23,000 acres (9308 hectares) of the peninsula and the Petrie area were declared an agricultural reserve,[1] and from 1862 onwards a number of farm portions were sold. Land at Woody Point was first sold in 1864.[2] Very little development occurred on the Redcliffe Peninsula until the 1880s when the land speculation boom in Brisbane during this decade extended to the peninsula, and the area's identity as a seaside resort solidified at this time.[3] However, agricultural use of much of the area continued into the 1940s.
\nA small township sprang up at Woody Point, principally because it was the closest point to Sandgate - to which a railway line opened in May 1882. A jetty was completed at Woody Point by March 1882, allowing ferries, carrying both passengers and goods, to arrive from Sandgate. The Woody Point jetty was extended in 1889-90; a new jetty opened in 1922, and a third incarnation opened in 2009.[4] A number of vessels, including the Redcliffe, Pearl and Garnet, and later the Emerald, Olivine and Beryl, ran regular services between Sandgate and Woody Point. Ferry services continued until 1930.
\nAlthough the Redcliffe Peninsula was popular with holiday makers, residential development was hindered for many years by the peninsula's isolation. The Caboolture Divisional Board cleared the first road on the peninsula, running from Woody Point to Scarborough, in the early 1880s, and this road later became Oxley Avenue.[5] A jetty was built near Redcliffe Point in 1885. The railway reached North Pine in 1888, but was not extended to Redcliffe, despite persistent local lobbying.
\nHowever, holiday visitors prompted the expansion of facilities at Woody Point, including a Post and Telegraph Office, general stores, a bakery, a butcher and a garage. The St Leonard's Hotel opened in 1883 (now the site of Palace Hotel), and the Belvedere Hotel opened in 1901. Boarding houses such as Lorneleigh, Bay View House, and Cambridge House were also built to cater for holiday makers. Fishing was a popular pastime, both from the jetty and along the beaches, and oyster leases provided produce for a local oyster factory. By 1902 ‘buses and wagonettes' were travelling between Woody Point and Redcliffe.[6]
\nAnother local pastime was sailing, and from 1884 an annual regatta took place. From 1938, with the exception of war years, the Humpybong Yacht Club has also conducted sailing activities on Bramble Bay. Celebrations following sailing events were held in the Woody Point Memorial School of Arts after its construction, and the Yacht Club also organized regular fund-raising dances in the hall. [7]
\nThe movement to erect a school of arts at Woody Point was underway by 1909. In March that year the Woody Point Progress Association was formed,[8] and in October 1910 the Redcliffe Shire Council forwarded a plan to the Department of Public Lands for half an acre of land, sought for a school of arts by the Progress Association.[9] A School of Arts Reserve (223) was surveyed off Reserve 358 in 1911, but the actual desired site was further southeast; and the current school of arts site was surveyed in February 1912.[10] A Reserve for a School of Arts, Woody Point, Portion 231, of two roods (2023m2), was notified in the Queensland Government Gazette on 18 May 1912.
\nSchools of arts were a principal source of learning and instruction for Queensland adults in the 19th century and early 20th century when state secondary education was almost non-existent. Schools of arts and mechanics' institutes emerged from a wider social movement of popular education and self-improvement in 19th century industrial Britain, and the school of arts movement found a fertile field in 19th century Queensland.[11] Community organised and financed, these associations were the forerunners of government-funded libraries and technical colleges.
\nMechanics' institutes were formed initially to improve the education of working men and instruct them in various trades. Later their aims broadened and the institutes became a popular agency of adult education in general. Access to books by borrowing as subscribers provided an important educational and recreational service.[12] The first mechanics' institute was established in London in 1824; the first mechanics' institute in Australia was established in Hobart in 1827, while the first mechanics' institute in Queensland was formed at Brisbane in 1849.[13] In Australia, mechanics' institutes became known as schools of arts, reflecting a broader mix of educational, cultural and social roles, and the increasing influence of the middle classes in the movement. The provision of adult education, including formal classes in practical skills, was an important function of these ‘schools', but less formal activities such as debating, amateur dramatics, and the provision of a subscription library and reading room, were also encouraged.
\nAs towns and districts were settled, local committees were formed to establish a school of arts with the aim to ‘promote moral, social and intellectual growth for the community'.[14] Schools of arts established in rural districts often served a wider community purpose than those established in urban areas. Whereas every school of arts established a library as part of their charter, the rural school of arts was likely to serve an equally important function as a public hall and as a focus for district identity. To 1880, only 26 schools of arts had been established in Queensland towns, although the government encouraged the construction of schools of arts by subsidising local fund-raising efforts. The movement grew rapidly during the 1880s and 1890s; so that by federation almost every town and settlement in the colony included a school of arts, or at least a reading room.[15]
\nThe typical school of arts was a timber building consisting of a public hall and two or three rooms for a subscription library, reading room or meeting room. In larger provincial centres, substantial masonry structures were erected.[16] Although schools of arts buildings varied greatly in size, materials and style, a common element was that they were readily identifiable within the townscape. As a group, these buildings were important as symbols of progress and evidence of civilising forces at work. The construction of a school of arts in a particular community was seen as a sign that that community had ‘come of age'.[17]
\nFund-raising for the Woody Point School of Arts had begun in 1911, with a function in the Redcliffe Hall,[18] and in March 1912 a musical evening was held at ‘Evonsleigh', the home of Mr Martin, in aid of the Woody Point School of Arts, with over 70 persons present.[19] Enthusiastic residents and committee members raised funds amounting to between £80 and £90 by the outbreak of WWI.[20] At this point fund-raising ceased, and the money was placed in the name of the School of Arts committee in the Government Savings Bank.
\nAt the end of the war, planning for a school of arts was recommenced. In July 1920 a meeting was called to form a committee to take forward the construction of a suitable building. Mr HR Sykes was elected President, Mr John Henry Cox, Hon. Secretary and Mr W Henderson, Hon. Treasurer, together with a committee of seven others. Around this time locals thought that the building would form a suitable WWI memorial. On 22 November 1920 the wish of the committee to ‘make the institution a patriotic one was given effect at a special public meeting when rule 1 was amended to read \"the institution shall be known as the Woody Point Memorial School of Arts\"'.[21] The new name was adopted locally from this time but was only given official approval by the Department of Public Instruction in September 1925.[22]
\nLike all Australian communities, Woody Point was affected by the impact of WWI. Of the 330,770 Australians who embarked for overseas service in WWI, 58,961 died and 170,909 were wounded, went missing or became prisoners of war. This meant that around 69% of embarked personnel became casualties - or 21% of eligible Australian males.[23] To date, no previous or subsequent war has had such an impact on Australia in terms of loss of life; almost every community in every Australian state lost young people. Even before the end of hostilities, memorials were being erected by Australian communities to honour local people who had served and died. These memorials were a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief; substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East.
\nWWI memorials took a variety of forms in Australia, including honour boards (from 1915), stone monuments (including obelisks, soldier statues, arches, crosses, columns or urns), tree-lined memorial avenues, memorial parks, and utilitarian structures such as gates, halls and clocks. In Queensland the soldier statue was the most popular choice of monument, while the obelisk predominated in southern states.[24] Australia's first permanent WWI memorial to honour the men from a particular community was unveiled at Balmain, NSW, 23 April 1916.[25]
\nThe argument over whether a war memorial should simply be a monument, or have a utilitarian function (the sacred versus the useful), was repeated all over Australia. The utilitarians believed that their approach was more enlightened and humane, and utility also appealed to local governments, as donations could offset the cost of needed infrastructure. However, monumentalists argued that utilitarian solutions were at the mercy of progress and would become outmoded over time. Monumentalists also believed that it was not really ‘commemoration', if a public resource that should have been built anyway was named a memorial. Post-WWI, most Australian localities decided on a monumental approach (60%), with only 22% choosing utilitarian buildings (mostly halls) and 18% choosing the compromise position of utilitarian monuments.[26] Some communities solved the problem by building two memorials: one utilitarian, and one monumental. After World War II (WWII) the utilitarian form of memorial increased in popularity.[27]
\nMemorial halls were an expensive form of utilitarian memorial, but banks were more ready to lend the money for projects with a commercial value; and subscribers knew they were providing a public resource as well as a memorial. Halls were also a common preference of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia (RSSILA), as they provided an amenity for returned soldiers; although some feared that using the halls for entertainment would be disrespectful of the memorial purpose.[28] Although the halls were for the use of returned soldiers, they also served multiple community functions. Early Queensland WWI memorial halls were opened in December 1919 (Coolangatta - a Methodist Memorial Hall and Soldiers' Rest) and January 1920 (Pilton).
\nOutside Victoria, no state governments made direct grants for local WWI memorials except for the building of halls, hospitals and schools which were eligible for public money whether or not they were memorials.[29] Federal assistance could include providing funds for employing returned soldiers for preparation of memorial sites; but no other assistance occurred until the Entertainments Tax Assessment Act 1916 was amended in 1924 to exempt functions held for the erection, maintenance or furnishing of war memorial halls. From 1927, payers of Federal income tax could also deduct gifts over £1 for construction or maintenance of public war memorials. However, by this time two thirds of the nation's WWI memorials had already been built.[30] Fund-raising for local war memorials was thus a voluntary community effort, as was the case at Woody Point.
\nMemorial schools of art form a distinct sub-group of utilitarian war memorials, separate from memorial halls, in that they combine the educational mission of the school of arts movement with the utilitarian war memorial movement. Although they usually included a hall, they also included the library and reading room found in a typical school of arts building. The first memorial schools of arts in Queensland opened at Bald Hills (August 1920) and Caboolture (September 1920). Other early memorial schools of arts include Wooroolin (1921); and Kumbia, Elimbah and Woody Point, (all 1922). Some memorial schools of arts were established in pre-WWI halls or schools of arts buildings, such as at Cooran and Cooroy (both 1926), and Southport (1939). The majority of identified Queensland memorial school of arts buildings were of timber construction, but some used brick or concrete, including Wooroolin, Clayfield (1925), Morningside (1926), Innisfail (1930), and Pittsworth (1930). Demolished memorial schools of arts include Caboolture, Southport, Banyo (1925), Clifton (1926), Goodna (1927), Kedron (1928), and Bulimba (built by 1938).
\nThere were some delays in the construction of the Woody Point Memorial School of Arts, in part due to fund-raising efforts for the tree-lined, bitumen-covered ‘ANZAC Memorial Avenue' [QHR 602693] - the other utilitarian WWI memorial (opened in 1925) on the Redcliffe Peninsula. All but 30 stumps of the Memorial School of Arts were capped in December 1920, but the last stumps were not capped until November 1921, by returned soldiers.[31] The Redcliffe sub-branch of the RSSILA, formed in 1920, actively assisted with the raising of the necessary capital for the building with various functions including afternoon teas, fetes, socials and dances (later the Woody Point Memorial School of Arts became the meeting place of the sub-branch). By December 1921 about £800 had been raised. The Commercial Bank of Australia had agreed to finance the scheme on securities given by seven Woody Point citizens, but sometime after the first stump capping this was changed to a private guarantee by JH Cox.[32] As well as funds, practical items such as cups and saucers were donated.
\nTenders were received by 24 September, 1921.[33] These ranged from £1000 to £1400. On the advice of the architect, Hubert Thomas, the tender of Messrs F and A Pitfield was accepted. HGO Thomas (1857-1922) immigrated to Brisbane from Wales in 1883. He practised as an architect in his own right from c.1885, and from 1898 onwards he lived and practiced at Sandgate, where he served on the local School of Arts Committee. Specialising in urban villas, Thomas became a Member of the Society of Architects, London, in 1904, and a Fellow of the Queensland Institute of Architects c.1910.[34] He was the founder of the St David's Society in Brisbane (extant by 1918), and was its President at the time of his death on the night of 1-2 March 1922, after the annual dinner of the society - two days before the Woody Point Memorial School of Arts was officially opened.[35] Examples of his work include a villa in Hendra for Edward Jones, 1888-89 (‘Dura', later ‘Glengariff') [QHR 600222]; the Bank of North Queensland, Childers, c.1900 [QHR 600616]; and 1919 additions to the Queen Alexandra Home in Coorparoo [QHR 600185].
\nThe building he designed at Woody Point consisted of a hall 30ft wide x 50ft long (9.1m x 15.2m), plus a stage area 30ft wide by 15ft long (9.1m x 4.6m). Small wings on either side of the raised stage each contained a room 12ft wide by 15ft long (3.7m x 4.6m). Verandas on each side of the hall, south of the wings, accessed both the main hall and each wing, and there was an entrance porch on the southeast (front) elevation. Decorative battens (no longer extant) ornamented the front gable and the smaller porch gable; three roof ventilators (not extant) were located along the ridge, and a large flagpole stood in front of the entrance (since replaced by a smaller version). Originally, there were also timber fences either side of the hall. At some stage the front elevation of the hall was stuccoed.
\nOn 4 October 1921, the President of the committee, Mr FW Whitehouse, and the Secretary, JH Cox, were authorized to have the building erected before Christmas. The contractors pushed on with the work and it was completed and handed over on 21 December 1921. It was originally intended to open the building on 26 January 1922, but this clashed with the schedule of the Queensland Governor, Sir Mathew Nathan. The opening was delayed so that he could open new jetties at Redcliffe and Woody Point on the same day as the Memorial School of Arts.[36]
\nThe Governor officially opened the Woody Point Memorial School of Arts, and unveiled its honour board, on the afternoon of 4 March 1922, following the inspection of a guard of honour provided by local returned servicemen. The honour board was made from a single plank of seasoned red cedar by Mr John Storie Jnr.[37] This board hangs in the hall, and lists the names of 94 servicemen who enlisted from the peninsula (of whom seven died), along with three ‘war workers'. The board was supposedly to be displayed with a captured German machine gun, allotted to the town as a war trophy.[38]
\nThe decision on who to name on a war memorial varied across Australia. While some only listed the dead, many also listed those who returned from service. War memorial committees were also lobbied to consider including people who missed the war for various reasons, including munitions workers.[39] Three workers were listed on the Woody Point Honour Board; John Tebby, George. Carpenter and CD Skene. In March 1919, The Queenslander newspaper reported the return of a contingent of 69 Queensland munition workers who had arrived home from Great Britain. The report stated the contingent comprised men who were ineligible for military service but had volunteered to undertake suitable war work. John Tebby and G. Carpenter were included among the list of the returned.[40] CD Skene's (the other listed name) involvement in the war has not been verified. Charles Donaldson Skene, (a builder and contractor who died at age 69 in 1929) became a trustee for the Memorial School of Arts and according to his obituary played a major role in its establishment.[41]
\nThe Governor spoke at length about the library in the building, and the pleasures of reading.[42] In 1922 the library had nearly 600 volumes; by 1923 it had 900 volumes, and the reading room was ‘well stocked with papers and periodicals'.[43] By 1931 there were 2035 books.[44]
\nThe Minister for Public Instruction, Mr Huxham, was also present at the opening ceremony.[45] He had apparently promised to provide a government subsidy for the fund-raising, at a rate of 10 shillings to the pound,[46] but if this ever occurred, it was not mentioned at the opening. The ‘Brisbane Courier' newspaper simply noted that the Memorial School of Arts had been ‘built by public subscription as a memorial to the fallen soldiers of Humpybong'.[47] The opening ceremony was followed by afternoon tea and a ball was held in the hall that evening.
\nAt the time of opening there was still a debt of £500.[48] Although it was made a requirement of the original allocation of land by the Department of Public Lands in 1912, it was only in August 1923 that the initial group of trustees was nominated and ratified by the Department of Lands - Robert Train; Errol Henry Cowen; Charles Donaldson Skene; John Elliott and JH Cox.[49]
\nBy November 1923 almost £1600 had been spent on the hall, and £100 was still owed.[50] The debt on the Memorial School of Arts was cleared in 1924. At this time returned soldiers paid 1 shilling per annum for membership, and Mrs O'Neill was the librarian. In 1927, membership of the Memorial School of Arts was available for 10 shillings per annum or 3 shillings a quarter. By this stage the library, still run by Mrs O'Neill, was open on Tuesday and Thursday 7-9 pm, and on Saturday 3-5 pm.
\nIn 1928, alterations to the hall were carried out to enable movies to be shown. A bio-box (projection room) was constructed above the front entrance gable, as shown in photographs of the hall from this period. Talking pictures arrived on 27 September 1930, and were shown until 1937. The movies, according to advertisements in the local paper, were invariably followed by a dance. These dances were accompanied by a Victor piano bought for £135 by the committee, initially for silent movies.
\nWith the opening of the Hornibrook Highway Toll Bridge [QHR 601246] in October 1935, residential development increased, along with the number of holiday makers, and more use was made of the Woody Point foreshore to pitch tents during the Christmas period. A bathing pavilion, designed by architect CE Plant, was built in 1937 opposite the Memorial School of Arts. During the Christmas period, when camping was popular around the peninsula, entertainment in the hall was a nightly affair.
\nBy the late 1930s management of the hall by the trustees had declined in quality from previous years.[51] A subsequent review by the Brisbane Land Agent on behalf of the Lands Administration Board recommended that the original gazettal be cancelled and the land re-gazetted under the trusteeship of the Redcliffe Town Council (established 1921). The Council having agreed to accept the trusteeship in 1938, it was gazetted as trustees in October 1943.[52] At this time the land was re-gazetted as a ‘Soldiers Memorial Hall Reserve' (R983).[53]
\nOn 26 June 1943, as requested by the Council, the name of the hall was altered by the Department of Lands to Woody Point War Memorial Hall. The school of arts function ceased, the library closed and its books were transferred to form the nucleus of the council library.[54] According to relevant by-laws gazetted on 8 May 1948, a management committee became responsible for the running of the hall.
\nOver time, a number of repairs and additions were made to the building. Minor repairs and refurbishment, for example, painting and roof repairs, were on-going. These often required fund-raising efforts to cover costs. An instance of this was an advertisement, for donations to buy bricks, which appeared in the ‘Redcliffe Herald' of April 1944. The brick fence (not extant) constructed at the front of the hall from this fund-raising effort was still visible in a photograph of the Hall taken in 1993. In 1952, the Memorial Hall was the only public hall on the peninsula.
\nIn the 1950s, extensions, financed by Redcliffe Town Council, lengthened the hall by 25 feet (7.6m) to the northwest (stage end); to a new total length of 90ft (27.4m). The extensions, which were carried out by Mr Bird at a cost of £1800, were officially opened on 5 March 1955. The Council paid for the new stage to be levelled and raised in November 1958 at a cost of £95.[55] During the 1950s, the Eildon Croquet Club opened to the north of the hall, and part of the club extends onto the Memorial Hall Reserve.
\nBy January 1964 toilets were installed in the western wing of the hall, replacing detached toilets located just northwest of the building. A small extension on the south side of the western wing, which now holds an accessible toilet, was built between 1964 and 1969.[56] In February 1967 the reserve was re-gazetted with an area of 1 rood and 39.4 perches (2008m2).
\nWhile the hall changed its appearance over the years, it continued to be used by the community. The RSSILA, which later became the Returned Sailors, Soldiers and Airmens Imperial League of Australia (RSSAILA) and is now called the Returned and Services League (RSL), held its monthly meetings in the hall until its own dedicated premises was completed in 1954. Anzac Day ceremonies have been a familiar event in the hall since its inception and even when the ceremony was moved to the Pier Theatre in the 1950s, the luncheon to conclude the day was held in the hall. Over the years, social functions have been held in the hall, for instance the RSSAILA 1949 Christmas Party for the children of Ex-Servicemen. In 2014 the RSL continue to conduct formal Anzac Day and Remembrance Day ceremonies in the hall, in which the honour board plays a significant role.
\nThe hall also hosted events for the Harmony Club, which was established in 1939 shortly before the start of WWII by Mr and Mrs W Begg, who were closely involved with the Woody Point Hall Committee. This Club held weekly dances and entertainment in the hall. During the war, the Club conducted Farewell Evenings for locals leaving to join the Forces and as time went by Welcome Home celebrations for returning servicemen. Service personnel based close by and those recuperating on the peninsula often attended the weekly dance in the hall. This Club continued to conduct dances until the 1950s.[57]
\nDuring WWII, the monthly meeting of the Welfare Work Circle of the Women's National Emergency League (WNEL) was held in the library room in the Memorial Hall, where they made camouflage netting and woollen gloves, socks and balaclavas for British bomb victims during their working meetings. This same group held fund-raisers in the hall during the war years with the first of these being advertised as ‘Petticoat Lane' in 1941. The library was still in use during the early war years when the Welfare Work Circle made use of its room.
\nLocal people indicate the importance of this hall in the social life of the area. The local community members speak fondly, the older ones almost reverently, on the broad range of activities held in the hall, which became very much a part of their lives. They talk of it as having a ‘sense of place' in the area's social memory.[58] Some examples of organisations which have used the hall include: the Order of the Eastern Star; Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes; Redcliffe Musical Arts Society; Redcliffe Eisteddfod Committee; Redcliffe Youth Club, Redcliffe Marching Girls, and the Indoor Bowls Club. The Humpybong Yacht Club, the Woody Point and Clontarf Progress Association, the Country Women's Association, Redcliffe Citizens Cultural Club, and the Pensioners League held monthly meetings in the hall. In addition, local dance schools made use of the hall, including the Sylvena School of Dancing (later became the Sharon Alback Dance School); and the Sylvia Curie Dance School. Alan and Pat Boulton still hold modern dance classes in the hall every Friday evening.
\nDuring the Christmas school holidays, church services were held in the hall to cater for those campers who came regularly to the peninsula to stay in the tent cities which sprang up around Woody Point and Clontarf. Local election campaigns, such as those of Joe Grant in 1922, and Joe Grice in 1939, were also launched in the hall. In 1924, the Redcliffe Town Council met in the hall on the last Tuesday of each month. Mr Frank Nicklin, a Queensland Premier, spoke at the hall in his State election campaign. During WWII it was a distribution point for ration cards. It has served, and continues to serve, as a voting booth for all elections. Wrestling and boxing events have also been held in the hall. Music appreciation classes were being held there as late as the 1990s. Some of the hall's tenants utilized the stage and its dressing rooms to perform plays and musical theatre. In addition, the hall has been used for many fund-raising events; for example, the Cancer campaign with a ‘Dark Night' Masquerade Ball. The Redcliffe Historical Society used the hall for fund-raisers; and fetes aimed at fund-raising have occurred, while card parties have been held during the years. Local schools have also made regular use of the hall for balls and concerts.
\nIn 2014 permanent bookings are held by the Bethesda Baptist Church; Margate, Woody Point and Clontarf Pensioners League; AA Volunteers; Legal Aid; Healing and Reconciliation outreach. The hall is used regularly for dancing groups and classes - as it apparently had the best dance floor on the peninsula - and for social occasions such as birthday parties and wedding receptions. The Lions Club of Kippa-Ring acts as caretaker.
\nThe hall continues to serve as an enduring and well-used war memorial and multi-purpose community venue into the 21st century.
","criteria":"The Woody Point Memorial School of Arts (former), opened in 1922, is a record of Queensland's involvement in a major world event. WWI memorials, including buildings with honour boards, are a tribute to those who served, and those who died, from a particular community. Often the focus of ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day ceremonies, they are an important element of Queensland's towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
The place is important surviving evidence of the school of arts movement in Queensland. This form of adult education flourished during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, promoting self-improvement by providing a subscription library.
|The Woody Point Memorial School of Arts (former) is an early, intact, well-utilised, and representative example of this type of utilitarian WWI memorial: a building with a dual role of commemoration and providing a community learning and entertainment space.
The building is sited in a prominent and highly visible location within its community; it provides hall space and a stage, and retains its library and reading room spaces. It has been extended and modified over time to accommodate its continuing use and changing community needs.
The honour board within the hall provides a focus for the building's memorial purpose, and its listing of local war workers is unusual.
|Commemorations held in the hall reflect the wider reverence felt for such memorials across Australia. As a focus for ANZAC Day ceremonies the building and its honour board is highly valued by the community for its spiritual, symbolic, cultural and social associations.
The Woody Point Memorial School of Arts (former) has been in continuous community service since its establishment; first as a memorial school of arts, and then as a memorial hall. A heavily utilised building, and a source of fond memories for generations, it has a demonstrated longstanding and ongoing social and cultural association with the Woody Point community, and the Redcliffe sub-branch of the Returned and Services League.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":21754,"place_ref":602692,"name":"Comino's Arcade","alternate_name":"Cominos Arcade","street_address":"133-137 Redcliffe Parade","suburb":"REDCLIFFE","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-03-06","description":"Comino's Arcade is located within the beach-facing shopping strip along Redcliffe Parade and overlooks Queen's Beach and the Redcliffe jetty. The three storey face-brick building incorporates a shopping arcade on the ground floor, office suites on the second floor and a double-height ballroom with small bedroom spaces on the upper floor. The arcade's wide, three-storey frontage contrasts with the low-lying beach opposite and to the other smaller scaled buildings along the Redcliffe Parade shopping strip making the building a prominent part of the streetscape.
The building is symmetrical in form and features functionalist-style influences such as the simple stepped façade of face brick, the use of casement windows and the fine concrete cantilevered window awnings running the width of the building. The Redcliffe Parade façade steps up at parapet level to conceal the hipped roof of the ballroom space beyond which is clad in 'super-6' profiled fibre-cement sheeting. Timber-framed doors open out to a centrally-placed balcony on the second level above the cantilevered street awning.
There are four shop tenancies at ground level adjacent to the entrance to the arcade. Columns on this level are finished with terrazzo and some early mosaic tiling exists on one of the shopfronts. The underside of the street awning and a portion of the original shop-front glazing have been sealed with trim-deck sheeting.
Side elevations of the building are finished with face-brick with fibre-cement cladding to the enclosed verandahs which run along the northern and southern sides of the ballroom level. The rear elevation is also finished with face brick and steps up at parapet level similar to the street façade. Both the side and rear elevations contain casement windows with high-level louvre windows to the ballroom space on the upper floor. Double doors open out to a small landing on the second level.
The arcade provides public passage through the building on ground level and internal facades are symmetrical in layout with full-height glazing to the shopfronts. Ceilings and walls are finished with painted plaster with sandy-coloured terrazzo to the floors. Shop interiors were not accessed during the assessment.
Public spaces on the second and upper levels are reached by a masonry staircase at the rear of the building. Rooms throughout the second and upper floor levels floors and stairs have been finished in colourful terrazzo tiles with a checkered border detail and walls and ceiling have been finished with painted plaster. Internal doors and windows are clear-finished timber joinery. The ballroom space features a fibre-cement ceiling and wall-mounted, half-moon shaped uplight fittings.
A 1968 rear arcade extension links Comino's Arcade to Sutton Street. This extension is not part of the listing.
","history":"Comino's Arcade is a three storey brick building on Redcliffe Parade, built by Greek businessman Arthur Comino between 1942 and 1944 to take advantage of Redcliffe's popularity as a Rest and Recreation area for American and Australian military personnel during World War II. It is a reminder of Redcliffe's past as a popular Queensland seaside holiday resort, and its lively wartime history.
Very little development occurred in Redcliffe until the late 1870s, when publicans and shopkeepers began to cluster on the foreshores of the peninsula. The Victorians considered "taking the air" by the sea to be healthy and sea bathing was considered therapeutic. Long surf beaches were not highly valued in the Victorian period, and the ideal resort comprised of a coastline of picturesque headlands with small coves and inlets offering safe swimming in smooth water. Redcliffe fit the bill, and it was also reasonably close to Brisbane. In the 1880s agricultural portions on the peninsula were subdivided and sold as residential estates, for the building of "Marine Residences", and the area's identity as a seaside resort solidified in that decade.
Rail and sea transport were the favoured means of access for holidaymakers of this period. When the railway reached Sandgate in 1882, it was possible to take a train to Sandgate, and then catch a steamer to the Redcliffe Peninsula. In 1882 a jetty was erected at Woody Point to receive steamers from Sandgate, and another jetty was built near Redcliffe Point in 1885. By 1890 steamers were bringing 10,000 day trippers and holidaymakers to Redcliffe per year. Tourist daytrips to Redcliffe, on the steamer Koopa, started in 1911.
Until the late 1930s Redcliffe functioned as a holiday destination rather than as a residential suburb. In 1921, when the Town of Redcliffe was declared, its permanent population was only 1,631, and it contained 432 private dwellings, six Hotels, and 28 boarding houses. However, improved road access eventually changed this situation. ANZAC Avenue, running from Petrie to Redcliffe, was opened in December 1925, and in October 1935 the opening of the Hornibrook Highway Toll Bridge [601246] ended Redcliffe's isolation from Brisbane, and led to a burst of residential development. Many of the 1880s residential allotments were finally sold after the bridge was completed. Between 1933 and 1940 Redcliffe was one of fastest growing local authorities in Australia, with the number of dwellings increasing from 536 to 1865. Redcliffe's population in 1933 was 2,008, and this had risen to 6,000 by 1940.
Although Redcliffe had become a residential suburb, it continued to act as a holiday destination - at least until the spread of motor vehicle ownership, and the appeal of surf beaches on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, lured away Brisbane holidaymakers during the 1950s. Public bathing pavilions were opened at Suttons Beach, Margate, Woody Point and Redcliffe jetty in 1937, and a koala sanctuary and zoo was established next to the Country Women's Association hall that same year. The Redcliffe Rollerdrome (a skating rink) was established in 1938, and Frost's private aviary and zoo opened in Joseph Street around 1939.
One businessman who saw potential in Redcliffe during the pre-World War II period was Athanasi (Arthur) Stavrou Comino, born on the Greek island of Kythera in 1880. His brother John S. Comino moved to Australia in 1901, and worked in Sydney and Lismore in New South Wales before moving to Queensland and buying a café in Bundaberg. Around 1903 John was joined by three of his brothers, including Arthur Comino. Two more brothers arrived in 1908, but in 1912 Arthur and Peter, who were still listed as Greek Army reservists, left to fight in the First Balkan War.
In 1919 Arthur married Marigoula (Mary) Comino on Kythera, and they moved back to Australia in 1921. Mary and Arthur ran the Central Café in Laidley for 25 years and raised their four children there. When visiting friends at Redcliffe in 1922 Arthur fell in love with the place and began looking for an investment opportunity. In September 1938 he purchased 1 rood and 24 perches of land on the site of the present Comino's Arcade, which at that time included the Moreton Vista boarding house. The Pier Theatre was located immediately to the south. Arthur planned to move the boarding house back from the street, and then build some shops with living quarters for the family above. However, on 26 June 1941 the Moreton Vista boarding house, the adjacent one-room Embassy fish shop, and two other shops were destroyed by an early morning fire.
Arthur Comino's presence in Redcliffe was part of the ongoing saga of the Comino family in Australia. The pioneer of Greek cafes in Australia was Arthur D. Comino from Kythera. He landed in Sydney in 1873 and within five years had established a small fish shop at 36 Oxford Street. When people heard cafes in Australia were doing well, it prompted others, mostly under 25 years old, to leave Kythera. The popular pattern was for Greek migrants to arrive in Sydney and earn some money working in existing Greek food establishments, before travelling to country New South Wales or Queensland to establish their own businesses.
In 1900 a Comino's Oyster Saloon/cafe was operating in Queen Street, Brisbane. After 1900 the Comino family moved into Bundaberg, Childers, Mackay, Cairns, and Emerald, making Comino cafes almost as conspicuous in Queensland as they were in NSW. Other Kytherians followed the Comino family into cafes in Queensland. By the 1930s there would be at least one Greek café in almost every Queensland town and city.
By the start of World War II over 10,000 Greeks had settled in Australia and the Kytherians, who by then constituted about 22% of the total, remained by far the dominant regional group. The largest group of pre-World War II Queensland Greeks were also from Kythera, the most significant being the Comino, Coronis and Freeleagus families. Although much larger numbers of Greeks would move to Australia after World War II, the earlier immigrants carved out a niche in Australian cultural history by giving rise to the institution of the Greek Café, which acted as the social hub of many country towns until the 1960s.
In 1916 a census of Australian Greeks revealed that, of the 176 Greeks in Brisbane, 140 worked in cafés and related trades. The ratio for the rest of Queensland was 168 out of 407. Other main occupations before 1920 included drapers and tailors, farmers, tradesmen, taxi drivers, cane cutters, fruit wholesalers, and travelling "picture show men". In the 1949 Queensland Alphabetical Post Office Directory, listed Comino businesses included: restaurants (10), wine sellers (1), picture theatres (1), fruit merchants (3), tobacconists (1), grocers (1), drapers (2), restaurant and draper (1), and 'mixed businesses' (2).
During the 1910s changes in café design occurred which produced the layout common from the 1920s to the 1960s: at the front was a display window, then a refrigerated milk bar, with pantry and confectionary counter, and then a dining room, with a kitchen at the rear. Cafes profited from the growth of the popularity of picture theatres as they fed patrons at intervals and after the show. In the country towns especially, the cafés depended on the business gained in the evening from the picture theatres. Arthur's decision to buy land next to the Pier Theatre was probably not accidental, and Comino's Arcade was built with a café on its southern side, immediately adjacent to the theatre.
The Great Depression caused problems for cafes, and many failed. A recovery in the late 1930s saw rebuilding and renovation occur in country cafes. Increased use was made of cubicles to separate the dining tables, and more decoration was added, as an elegant interior could be translated into increased prices. Reception halls or lounges were also added to cafes for larger functions. Greek cafes in 1930s Gympie, Innisfail, and Maryborough each had reception halls or dance floors upstairs, and this trend is reflected in Comino's Arcade at Redcliffe, which was built with a dance floor on the third storey.
Throughout World War II many cafes were forced to close or drastically curtail their business due to rationing, quotas, and loss of staff into the armed services. Conversely, those cafes located near where soldiers - particularly Americans - were camped or stationed did very well.
During World War II Redcliffe's attractions were well patronised by military personnel on Rest and Recreation leave, due to the large numbers of American and Australian troops stationed on or near the Redcliffe peninsula. They were present as part of the defence of Moreton Bay and the Brisbane region, which was an important supply and staging area for the Allied war effort against the Japanese. Military facilities on the peninsula by November 1942 included a Royal Australian Air Force Rifle Range at Scarborough, an Australian Army jungle camping area, amphibious unit, rest area, and Bren Gun Carrier unit near Redcliffe, and an Australian Army bayonet and rifle drilling area at Margate. Seabrae Guesthouse, opposite the site of Luna Park, was used by Australian Military Intelligence as a training school from September 1942, and after June 1943 it was used by United States Navy submariners on Rest and Recreation. The American Red Cross also billeted United States Army soldiers at the Scarborough Hotel from 1943.
During the war other facilities in the area around Redcliffe included an army camp and three airstrips at Strathpine, Australian machine gunners at Deception Bay, United States and Australian troops on Bribie and Moreton Islands and at Caloundra, and amphibious warfare training facilities at Toorbul Point. The jetty at Redcliffe was so heavily used by United States Navy and Royal Australian Navy vessels, such as Landing Ships (Tank), and Corvettes, that it required repairs after the war.
The Australian Comforts Fund was set up January 1940 for people serving in the military, and in 1941 its focus shifted from cakes and knitting for the troops to entertainment. The Redcliffe Australian Comforts Fund became a centre for the whole of the surrounding area. The Pier Theatre, Luna Park (established in August 1944 on the site of the current salt water lagoon), and the Redcliffe Rollerdrome were all popular components of what was a seaside entertainment precinct near the Redcliffe jetty.
With the armed forces swarming over Redcliffe, Arthur Comino was in a good position to capitalise on the situation. After Moreton Vista burned down he planned an entirely new building for the site, and his plans were ambitious for the time. From February 1942 National Security Regulations restricted civilian building, although it was possible to get a permit if construction was linked to the war effort. The construction of government buildings and private housing effectively ceased. However, Arthur arranged for a letter to be delivered by the Chairman of the Laidley Shire Council to Sir Arthur Fadden whilst the latter was campaigning in his Darling Downs electorate during his brief time as Prime Minister of Australia, from late August to early October 1941. The letter requested permission to rebuild Comino's boarding house and this request was granted.
War-related material and labour shortages made construction of the present arcade a drawn-out business. As Arthur was a stone mason, like his father and uncles, he used this experience to build the arcade. The Redcliffe Town Council checked the plans and requested changes in September 1941. Arthur began building in 1942, supervising the project and building substantial portions himself and it was not until 1944 that the shops were completed. The building itself bears lettering that claims it was built between 1939 and 1942, but this does not correspond with the 1941 destruction by fire of the previous buildings on the site.
Architects G Meek and Shaw were commissioned to plan the arcade. A conceptual drawing shows a two storey building with porthole windows on the sides and part of the first floor, glass fronted shops on the ground floor, a glass arcade cupola, and a tower in the form of a "flying bridge" on top of the second storey. The building was called "Lockyer Private Hotel" in the drawing, the name probably relating to Comino's café at Laidley in the Lockyer Valley. Commenting on the design, the Redcliffe Herald noted that the bridge and port holes imparted a marine appearance to a building which was much suitable for a seaside resort. However, during construction a third storey was added, which removed the flying bridge and the glass arcade ceiling.
The finished building, of brick and reinforced concrete with terrazzo and tiled floors throughout, had an arcade and shops on the ground floor. The four shops along the street frontage initially included a café, a dress shop, a casket agency and a photographer, and there was a hairdresser within the arcade: Joan Haycock, who was first listed in the Post Office Directory at Marine Parade (later Redcliffe Parade) in 1947. Mr Cassimatis ran the casket agency. The "Arcade Drapery...Cominos Arcade", was first listed in the Post Office Directory in 1949.
The first floor contained the family's flat along with serviced bedrooms, and the second floor contained more serviced bedrooms, set around a ballroom with a terrazzo floor. The provision of holiday accommodation was consistent with Redcliffe's history as a seaside resort, and the building was effectively a combination of a boarding house, an arcade, and a Greek café with an associated ballroom. Initially the building was named the Acropolis Building. During the war the café was packed with service personnel and soon after opening Arthur built the kitchen and was able to provide meals. The family moved into the first floor flat in 1946, having sold their café in Laidley.
In December 1946 Redcliffe's first nightclub, "The Ace of Clubs", was opened in the ballroom by the Borrowdale brothers. A 1949 advertisement for the arcade touted the "Panorama Dance Palais" for weddings, dances and parties. The Acropoly Café and Milk Bar was also advertised, along with "modern flats and rooms". The bedrooms were later rented as offices. Tragically Arthur died in December 1949 as a result of a fall while working on his arcade. From 1975 until 1982 the ballroom was leased to the Redcliffe Art Society. The arcade's extension through to Sutton Street, designed by Colin Tannett and erected by local builder Jim Fortune, was finished in 1968 and was officially opened by the Post-Master General, the Federal Member for Petrie, Alan Hulme. Members of the Comino family jointly owned the original arcade until 2003.
","criteria":"Comino's Arcade is important in demonstrating the development of the hospitality and retail industries in Queensland in the first half of the twentieth century, particularly in a seaside setting, and it also demonstrates Redcliffe's role as a major seaside resort from the 1880s to the 1950s. It is an important example of a 1940s seaside tourist and entertainment venue offering a café, shops, dance hall and serviced accommodation in close proximity to a range of other popular entertainment venues. An ambitious civilian building project for its time, the building also illustrates the importance of Redcliffe as a Rest and Recreation centre for troops during World War II. The owner's intention to create a durable, high quality building is shown by the intact joinery in the accommodation areas, and by the original terrazzo and ceramic tile floor finishes throughout the building. In addition, Comino's Arcade is a product of the chain migration of Greeks from the island of Kythera into Queensland during the first half of the twentieth century; a migration which influenced the evolution of the hospitality industry in Queensland.
Comino's Arcade is also important in demonstrating the adoption of modernist architectural design principles - principles that were almost universally adopted in post-war architecture. Some of the building's features, uncommon in its time - such as its stark face brick street elevation, its undecorated parapet, and its cantilevered concrete window shades - were to become standard in the 1950s and 1960s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":21770,"place_ref":602693,"name":"Anzac Memorial Avenue (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Anzac Avenue","suburb":"REDCLIFFE","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-02-05","description":"The significant elements of the listing comprise the route of the road, the vistas experienced within the route and the tree plantings noted in the description below.
\nApproximately 18 kilometres in length, Anzac Memorial Avenue travels from its intersection with Gympie Road at Petrie to its intersection with the roundabout at Redcliffe Parade, Redcliffe. It travels north-east through Kallangur, Murrumba Downs and Mango Hill to Deception Bay Road at Rothwell, then turns east through Kippa Ring and travels south-east for a further 750 metres before tracking east again and travelling as a straight avenue to Redcliffe.
\nThe present road incorporates the original route with widenings to accommodate changed traffic conditions.
\nThe Avenue incorporates culverts and bridge crossings, a memorial obelisk to Thomas Rothwell, memorials commemorating Australian participation in various war zones and a number of other public structures - these are not considered to be of heritage significance.
\nThe Avenue incorporates memorial plantings and other plantings including a number of mature trees. Notable plantings include:
\n- Two Cocos palms (Areccastrum romanzooffianum) at the entrance to the North Pine School of Arts;
\n- Eucalyptus trees east and west of Lerose Avenue;
\n- 700 metre Mango tree (Mangifera indica) avenue between the Bruce Highway and Kinsellas Road, Mango Hill;
\n- (Slash) Pines at the roundabout with Deception Bay Road and immediately west of the roundabout;
\n- Norfolk Pines (Araucaria heterophylla) along the Avenue through Rothwell;
\n- Cotton trees and Eucalyptus trees in the median strip through Kippa Ring particularly between Klingner and Bremner Roads;
\n- Slash Pines west of Bremner Road;
\n- Pine trees in the median strip from Nathan Street to the Klingner Road intersection;
\n- A Hoop Pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) to the west side of the corner with Humpybong Street;
\n- Poinciana trees (Delonix regia) along the road through Redcliffe, particularly between John Street and Victoria Avenue; and
\n- The Fig tree at the roundabout terminating Anzac Memorial Avenue at Redcliffe.
\nVistas
\nIn addition to the amenity provided by the range of plantings along the road, the drive along Anzac Avenue provides many opportunities to enjoy vistas and views along and from the road including the vista east from Tilley Street to Redcliffe Parade towards Moreton Bay and towards the Fig tree terminating the Avenue at Redcliffe, and the vista west from Ashmole Street over the low area of Hay's Inlet and Pine Rivers towards Mt D'Aguilar, Mt Samson and Brisbane Forest Park.
","history":"Anzac Memorial Avenue (opened 1925), travelling between Redcliffe and Petrie, is the longest World War I memorial avenue in Queensland and was the first bitumen motor road to a seaside resort connected to Brisbane, a response to the growth in car usage in the early 1920s.
\nThe loss of lives during World War I had a profound impact upon the Australian population and memorials became a prominent feature in communities throughout the nation. Monumental memorials were the most common expressions of remembrance. Memorials with a utilitarian function, such as a hospital or hall were also erected. This practical emphasis also extended to roads, often built with the aid of public subscriptions, additionally providing work for returned soldiers. Anzac Memorial Avenue is an example, as is Memorial Drive in Adelaide (1925) and the Great Ocean Road in Victoria (begun in 1918). Over 200 Avenues of Honour were planted along roads and in parks, a type of memorial found throughout Australia from 1917. Victoria planted more avenues than any other state. While 'digger' statues were ubiquitous throughout Queensland, memorial avenues appeared to be less common.
\nAnzac Memorial Avenue was Queensland's largest planting of an avenue, an ambitious project achieved through public subscription. Most war memorials in Queensland towns and shires honoured servicemen from a specific area. Anzac Memorial Avenue had a wider memorial dedication, not only for residents of the Redcliffe and Petrie areas, but for Brisbane's population, whose support enabled the plantings to occur.
\nRedcliffe's growth as a seaside resort occurred from the late 1870s. In this era, frequenting seaside resorts became increasingly popular in Australia. Taking in sea air and bathing in saltwater were promoted for their health giving properties. The opening of the Redcliffe Jetty in 1885 enabled people from Brisbane to visit in large numbers on steamers, bringing 10,000 passengers in 1889-90. By the end of the 1880s, the Redcliffe Peninsular was the largest tourist resort area between Sandgate and Noosa. Guest houses and hotels were built to cater to the burgeoning tourist trade.
\nAnzac Memorial Avenue was originally known as the Brisbane Road. Its earliest form was an Aboriginal track, used to access the 'Kipper Ring', a bora ring located about three miles north-west of Redcliffe. A road from Bald Hills to Redcliffe was formed by the early 1860s, but by 1864 this was almost impassable. Tom Petrie guided a picnic party to the Redcliffe seashore from North Pine in 1859. He later marked a track from the Hayes Inlet crossing and in the early 1870s, assisted in surveying the road.
\nFrom 1876 a weekly mail service began to Redcliffe via North Pine (Petrie) and a passenger and goods service to Brisbane was established by 1880. By the turn of the century, coaches ran three times a week to North Pine. The poor condition of the road made the trip between Brisbane and Redcliffe difficult, impassable in wet weather. 1885 marked the first of many attempts to pressure the Queensland government for a railway branch off the North Coast line. A potential route was surveyed in 1893, but various lobbying attempts up until 1915 were unsuccessful. By the start of the 1920s, a trip to Brisbane for Redcliffe residents was by road via Petrie or a boat/train connection from Sandgate, both long journeys of up to four hours.
\nRedcliffe's future prosperity depended on reducing its isolation from Brisbane. Its small permanent population grew little between 1900 and 1921. While large steamships brought thousands of people to the area, much of their time and money was spent onboard rather than locally. The growth in motor touring soon determined Redcliffe's linkage to Brisbane.
\nThe early 1920s saw the beginnings of increasing car popularity in Queensland. The number of people driving cars between 1921 and 1923 more than doubled. Such considerable growth increased calls for adequate roads in both urban and rural areas, not only for economic purposes, but also as routes for motor tourists.
\nIn response to these pressures, the Queensland government established the Main Roads Board in 1920. Prior to this, the onus was on local shire councils to fund road construction and management. They were largely unable to provide the finances or technical skills to respond to challenges posed by increased car use. After the Board's establishment, co-operative funding arrangements occurred with local councils, who largely maintained roads after their construction. The policy of the Main Roads Board was to construct roads that operated as feeders to railway networks and aided the development of newly settled and existing districts.
\nPrior to and after the Board's establishment, the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ) occupied a central role in advocating for better roads for Queensland motorists. Thomas James Rothwell, President of the RACQ from 1921-1923, was the key protagonist in establishing the Petrie to Redcliffe Anzac Memorial Avenue. From 1914, the RACQ allied itself to the war time effort, raising funds and holding numerous benefits. Rothwell, a successful men's outfitter in Brisbane, was actively involved in such causes. During the war, he was secretary of the Queensland Patriotic Fund and coordinator of the Returned Soldiers Transport Corps, eventually awarded an OBE for his services.
\nRothwell's initial impetus in advocating for the road came from a referral of the Brisbane Motor Traders Association, who 'desired one good road in the vicinity of Brisbane', for motor touring purposes. This push also coincided with the Returned Services League's public appeal of 'Work Not Charity' in support of the large number of ex-soldiers unemployed at the time. Rothwell saw the opportunity for these causes to coalesce, by constructing a good road for motorists that would provide employment to returned servicemen. Planting an avenue of trees along such a road would also create a significant Queensland war memorial.
\nThe gazettal of the Brisbane-Gympie Rd between Kedron and Petrie as a main road informed the decision to choose the Petrie-Redcliffe road for Rothwell's proposal. By designating the Petrie-Redcliffe route as a main road, Brisbane motorists would gain a high quality motoring road from the city to a seaside resort, while reducing Redcliffe's isolation.
\nOn 21 June 1922, the RACQ presented the case for the road to Mr JH Coyne, Minister for Lands. Coyne agreed the road would likely be gazetted as a main road on the undertaking that non-government capital would be raised to begin its initial construction, while also suggesting the name of 'Anzac Memorial Avenue'. The Anzac Avenue Memorial Committee was established with Rothwell as chairman. A fundraising figure of £20,000 was set. This amount would provide for the wages of ex-servicemen employed on the road, while the Main Roads Board would bear the cost of construction.
\nPublicity for the fundraising appeal for the Anzac Memorial Avenue appeared in the Brisbane press on 1 July with the rationale for supporting the proposal:
\n'Every motorist is interested in this scheme. It is surely worth at least 5 pounds to a motorist to have one good road. Every business man is interested. It is surely worth a good deal to relieve the labour market of its unemployed. Every citizen is interested. It is surely worth something to you to have a Memorial Avenue that will at once connect one of Brisbane's beauty spots and commemorate for all time the valour of our soldiers'.
\nAs part of the public fundraising effort, a progress board was erected outside the premises of the Commonwealth Bank in Queen Street, Brisbane. A figure of a car moved forward in increments of 1000, towards the end goal of £20,000. August 8 was proclaimed as 'Anzac Avenue Badge Day' with car badges sold to raise funds. Other events included social functions at Redcliffe. By December 1922, £7000 had been pledged by public subscription.
\nThe target of £20,000 received a significant boost through government funding. In July 1922, the Commonwealth government, announced a National Main Roads Policy, allocating money to the state's road building schemes on a 4/8 federal, 3/8 state, and 1/8 local government funding arrangement. The objective of the policy was to, 'develop and open up the country, and promote land settlement, and aid temporarily unemployed soldiers'.
\nThrough this funding, the Redcliffe road was allocated £12,000, a larger proportion of funding than any other of the first roads built under this funding agreement in Queensland. The combined public fundraising (£7000) and government contributions (£12,000) meant that within six months of the appeal's inception, the goal of £20,000 pounds was close to being realised. Of the £7000 subscribed, a final amount of £6290 had been received by 1926, with the Main Roads Board making up the difference.
\nThe route was officially gazetted as the 'Redcliffe Road' on 21 October 1922. Anzac Memorial Avenue is one of the earliest examples of Main Roads Boards' involvement in facilitating car driven tourism in Queensland. The Board promoted Anzac Memorial Avenue for its dual purpose; as a road to a seaside resort that offered health benefits from a change of climate and scenic beauty, while providing developmental opportunities for the area. Until improvements to the South Coast and North Coast roads, Anzac Memorial Avenue was the premier road to a tourist resort from Brisbane.
\nBy December 1922, twenty-five returned servicemen had begun work on the road. By March 1923, this number had increased to 50. A number were engaged in clearing the road and undertaking associated earth works. Others were constructing reinforced concrete culverts and the bridge over Hayes Inlet, cutting and bending steel for the reinforcing bars and preparing timber for form work. Eleven men were working at the quarry within the Beerburrum Soldier Settlement to source road materials.
\nThe importance of the avenue was underscored by the decision to seal the road. In the early 1920s, few roads throughout Queensland were sealed, especially outside of urbanized areas. Different materials were trialled by Main Roads to determine their suitability as a top metal surface to dress with tar and bitumen. Anzac Memorial Avenue featured the use of trachyte, a fine grained igneous volcanic rock sourced from the Beerburrum quarry.
\nIn early 1923, Pine Rivers Shire Council and Redcliffe Town Council were granted control of the road's construction in their respective areas. Main Roads maintained responsibility for dressing the top surface with tar and bitumen, this process occurring through 1924 and 1925.
\nAnzac Memorial Avenue was officially opened for traffic on 5 December 1925 by the acting Premier William Forgan Smith. A floral arch was erected in Petrie for the occasion, with the Mayor of Redcliffe, JB Dunn and Chairman of the Pine Shire, W Bradley, providing welcome speeches and thanking the government for its assistance. The party, in a long procession of cars, continued on to Redcliffe which was 'en fete' for the occasion. The avenue was proclaimed as the best road to a tourist resort yet conducted in Queensland.
\nIn the week the road was opened, Rothwell wrote to the Brisbane Courier to draw attention to the tree-planting aspect of the memorial avenue. Rothwell noted the road was already utilised by hundreds of motorists on Sundays and public holidays. He called on the public to assist financially in making the road an avenue from Brisbane (Kedron Brook) to Redcliffe, 'a glorious asset to the State of Queensland'. The first plantings were to be concentrated on the Anzac Memorial Avenue section between Redcliffe and Petrie.
\nThe tree planting operations came more into focus in 1925 as the road works neared completion. An Anzac Avenue Memorial Tree Planting Committee had been established by early 1923. In December 1925, the committee comprised Rothwell, EH Bick (curator of Brisbane Botanic Gardens), EHF Swain (Director of Forestry), ET White (Government Botanist), H Moore (park superintendent of the Brisbane City Council) and Colonel DA Parsons (representing the Queensland Governor Matthew Nathan). The committee considered the types of trees that would be suitable and an estimate of the number of trees that would be required. Placing the trees 60ft apart, it was estimated 1760 trees were needed for each ten miles of the avenue and the cost of planting the trees, preparing the ground and making suitable guards would be less than £1 per tree. The committee selected a mixture of native and introduced sub-tropical species for the avenue.
\nThe inaugural planting occurred at Petrie on February 28 1925. Two Cocos palms (Arecastrum romanzooffianum) were planted at the front of the North Pine School of Arts in Petrie, by Governor Nathan. The trees were donated by Elizabeth Petrie, widow of local pioneer Tom. The palms were sourced from the extensive gardens of their nearby property 'Murrumba'.
\nDuring the ceremony, Rothwell discussed particulars of the tree-planting operations. Approximately £5000 pounds was needed for tree planting the avenue between Redcliffe and Kedron, 'but for that purpose only £50 was in hand'. Donors of trees would receive a certificate for their contribution. For a further small donation, a plaque could be attached on or near the tree with the donor's name or the name of the soldier in whose memory the tree was planted. Mrs Petrie was presented with the certificate for tree No.1, a firewheel tree (Stenocarpus sinuatus) planted on the corner of Anzac Memorial Avenue and White's Road, opposite the School of Arts. This tree has not survived.
\nOn July 7 1926, Rothwell and the president of the RACQ Mr TE Carter, led a motorcade of guests from Brisbane for the official opening of Anzac Memorial Avenue, marked by a tree planting ceremony in Redcliffe. Some one thousand invited guests, along with the general public, braved inclement weather to attend the ceremony.
\nThe Australian Governor-General, Lord Stonehaven planted the first tree, a Hoop Pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) on the northern side of the Avenue, at the Humbybong Street corner. Granting local school children a holiday, Stonehaven hoped they would be 'guardians of the trees' realising that they are guarding not only a Queensland memorial, but one that will be recognised throughout Australia. Lady Stonehaven, WA Jolly, JB Dunn, W Bradley and Mr Fraser East, President of the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League of Australia also planted trees.
\nRothwell's speech highlighted the need for contributions, especially from the motoring public, to make the tree-lined avenue a reality. Rothwell also announced that the Memorial Committee had decided not to offer individual plate names to be associated with particular trees as the Avenue was considered a memorial for all the soldiers and sailors who had lost their lives, especially to commemorate 'the deeds of valour performed by the heroes who went from our state'.
\nBy mid-1927, 1000 trees had been planted, encased in triangular wooden guards. The scale of the project provided challenges for the tree planting committee. While 2000 had been planted by 1933, unsuitable species and soil conditions, bushfires, human and animal impacts, borers and white ants, had damaged and destroyed some of the original plantings. With assistance from Main Roads, the committee were employing a man 'with expert knowledge' to look after the trees. By this time, a shortage of funds meant the committee were unable to extend the planting scheme from Petrie to Kedron as proposed originally. Nevertheless, the avenue was still the largest of its kind in the state, made possible through public and private involvement.
\nThomas Rothwell died in 1928 and his involvement with the Avenue was honoured in April 1933 with the unveiling of the Rothwell monument by the Queensland governor, Sir Leslie Wilson. This stone obelisk was placed on a small triangular piece of land at the intersection of Anzac Memorial Avenue and the Deception Bay Road, later moving to a nearby park when a roundabout was placed on the site. Rothwell bequeathed the substantial sum of £1000 to the tree planting committee, which was acknowledged at the unveiling as having maintained the project.
\nThe building of Anzac Memorial Avenue reduced Redcliffe's isolation from Brisbane and consolidated its position as the city's seaside resort of choice. In 1928, the Brisbane Courier remarked, 'Petrie is today notable for the traffic which passes through it day and night'. By the mid-1930s, the Brisbane-Redcliffe bus ran five trips daily, with extra services on weekends. A 1933 tourist brochure described the recent progress of Redcliffe as 'remarkable', evidenced by the erection of new villas and cottages on the peninsula. In the same year Redcliffe Mayor AH Langdon praised the construction of the road for advancing Redcliffe 'beyond the expectations of the most sanguine'. The opening of the Hornibrook Bridge in 1935 further reduced the distance between Brisbane and Redcliffe, a catalyst for the area's permanent population growth.
\nUntil the late 1950s, when developers first began purchasing properties for subdivision, the landscape between Petrie and Redcliffe on Anzac Memorial Avenue remained predominantly rural, characterised by small mixed farms and sections of native vegetation. A number of farms capitalised on passing tourist trade by operating roadside fruit and vegetable stalls. Since this time, residential areas have extended along the avenue from both Petrie and Redcliffe, as northern commuter suburbs of Brisbane. Redcliffe's most westerly suburb was named Rothwell in 1971 by the Queensland Place Names Board in honour of the man who did much to bring the road to fruition.
\nOver time, Anzac Memorial Avenue has been widened to accommodate increased car usage. During the 1980s and 1990s, sections of the avenue were duplicated to form a dual carriageway. Some trees were removed during this time. In Pine Rivers Shire, the council and the Department of Transport adopted a design to preserve the Avenue during roadworks; however a number of trees were removed. In March 1993, Anzac Memorial Avenue was officially reopened by Queensland RSL President SW Kay and Pine Rivers Shire Chairman R Akers. Following the removal of a number of trees in 2006 for a transit lane, Queensland Transport and the Redcliffe RSL planted a memorial grove in Henry Pieper Park on the avenue at Kippa-Ring, with trees propagated from the slash pines. While originally named Anzac Memorial Avenue, the road is more widely known and signed as Anzac Avenue.
\nOther older trees have also not survived and records relating to the avenue once held by the RACQ and Main Roads Department no longer exist. The Cocos palms planted at Petrie by Governor Nathan in 1925 and the Hoop Pine planted in Redcliffe by Lord Stonehaven in 1926 still remain.
\nDespite alterations, the idea of the road as a Memorial Avenue has been perpetuated by later plantings. While not all the trees are from the original planting list, they are an intrinsic component of the avenue's overall composition. The Mango Hill section of the Avenue is notable for its 700 metre section of Mango trees (Magnifera indica). There is a substantial section of mature Slash Pines (Pinus eliottii) between Kippa Ring and Rothwell, plus smaller sections at Kallangur. The first slash pines in Queensland were grown in Beerwah and Beerburrum from 1924. Director of Forestry EHF Swain, who introduced the trees from the United States, was a member of the tree planting committee in 1925.
\nSince the 1990s, along the Pine Rivers section of the road, different memorials commemorating theatres of war since 1945 have been erected.
","criteria":"Gazetted in 1922 and opened in 1925, following an earlier route established in the 1860s, Anzac Memorial Avenue was one of the earliest roads in Queensland constructed by the Main Roads Board. The Board was established in 1920 to respond to the greater demands on the road network posed by increased motor vehicle usage in the interwar period. Anzac Memorial Avenue is important in illustrating the early stages of this phase in the development of Queensland's road network.
As the first bitumen motor road from a major urban centre to a seaside resort, Anzac Memorial Avenue is important in demonstrating the growth of car based tourism in Queensland in the 1920s and illustrates the growing importance of car access to the development of tourist resorts. Anzac Memorial Avenue catalysed the growth of Redcliffe as a major seaside resort for south-east Queensland during the interwar period.
Built under a government policy designed to promote the development of roads that opened up areas for economic development, the Avenue demonstrates the increasing importance of tourism to the Queensland economy at the time. The Avenue was allocated a larger proportion of government funding than any other of the roads built under this funding agreement in Queensland at the time.
The longest WWI memorial avenue in Queensland, Anzac Memorial Avenue is important for commemorating Queenslanders' involvement in a major world event. The avenue has maintained its role as a place of memorial by subsequent additions commemorating later twentieth century theatres of war.
As a road constructed by returned servicemen, Anzac Memorial Avenue is a good example of a substantial scheme to assist ex-soldiers following WWI. Other initiatives included the state government soldier settlement schemes and other Main Roads projects. The construction of the road is important in demonstrating the involvement of government, civic bodies and the general public in addressing high levels of unemployment among ex-soldiers after WWI.
|Anzac Memorial Avenue is important for its association with Thomas Rothwell and the Royal Automobile Club Queensland (RACQ), an organisation that has made a major contribution to the development of motoring in Queensland. As president of the RACQ from 1921-1923, Rothwell was the key protagonist in the establishment of Anzac Memorial Avenue. Rothwell's contribution to the Avenue is commemorated by a memorial cairn standing at the road edge of Rothwell Park and a nearby suburb that bears his name.
|In its route, and as an extensive tree-lined avenue of planned and evenly spaced plantings, Anzac Memorial Avenue is important in demonstrating the characteristics of a memorial avenue.
|A landmark road in southeast Queensland, Anzac Memorial Avenue is important for vistas experienced while progressing along the route and the visual delight of stretches of striking plantings including poincianas, pines, cotton trees, eucalypts and the lush mango section.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion H | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":29110,"place_ref":602654,"name":"Selector's Hut (former)","alternate_name":"Marks' Hut | Selectors Hut | Marks Hut","street_address":"20 Upper Camp Mountain Road","suburb":"CAMP MOUNTAIN","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-12-03","description":"The former selector's hut at Camp Mountain is located on the west side of Upper Camp Mountain Road approximately one kilometre southwest from the intersection with Camp Mountain Road. It stands on a gentle ridge in an open grassed paddock to the west side of the road. The hut has expansive views to hills beyond particularly the D'Aguilar Range which acts as a picturesque backdrop when viewing the hut from easterly points.
A single room with a projecting alcove to the northeast corner, the hut is sheltered by a rectangular gable roof and has a skillion roofed verandah to the northeast. The hut is clad with vertical and horizontal hardwood slabs and partly lined with horizontal timber boards. Grass and soil obscure the perimeter of the hut but the vertical slabs appear to stand directly into the ground and attach to the perimeter roof beams. Some timber elements have markings and notches that may indicate a recycling of timber from elsewhere. The roofs are clad with corrugated iron sheeting.
The short end elevations are clad with vertical hardwood slabs and the gables are infilled with horizontal timber boards. On the northwest elevation, a gap left by an earlier brick chimney is concealed by wide vertical and horizontal slabs. At the opposite end of the hut, a corrugated iron sheet covers a rectangular window opening.
The long elevation to the rear (southwest) accommodates a rectangular opening cut into the slabs midway along the elevation. A hinged timber framed and boarded window is fitted to this opening.
The front of the alcove is clad with vertical timber slabs and a gap in the wall is patched with a sheet of corrugated iron. The northeast corner is strapped with wire. The wall to the verandah is clad with chamferboards and a timber framed and boarded door opens onto the verandah. The verandah roof is supported by round timber posts and the verandah has a grassed/dirt floor. The verandah elevation of the hut is clad with vertical hardwood slabs and a hinged timber door opens into the hut.
A large area of the interior of the hut is lined with horizontal timber boards which have remnants of newspaper adhering to them. The roof is unlined. The roof framing includes slender log beams and sawn timber members. The dirt floor has loose timber boards laid to the southeast end.
The immediate surrounds of the hut are secured by a fence constructed of timber posts threaded through with barbed wire with narrow metal pipe top rails.
There is stone flagging to the southeast side of the hut.
A tall eucalypt stands to the southwest of the hut and there are scattered clusters of trees and shrubs in the surrounding grassed paddock.
Timber stockyards stand to the northwest of the hut and a hollow in the slope to the north of the yards accommodates an earlier storage area.
","history":"The Former Selector's Hut, Camp Mountain, is a small single roomed cottage located in a rural setting near the township of Samford north of Brisbane. It is constructed of slab and sawn timber and was built circa 1870 by selector George Atthow.
Land settlement in rural Queensland began with a pastoral phase where squatters occupied large tracts of Crown land on which they ran sheep or cattle. Over time, the Crown surveyed these runs and enforced lease arrangements with the squatters. Closer settlement of rural land began in the 1860s, when the government enacted legislation to encourage small scale farming. Crown land began to be made available in small allotments for selection. The 1868 Crown Lands Alienation Act, enabled government to resume substantial portions of leasehold runs for this purpose.
Like most areas close to Brisbane, the Samford valley experienced a fairly short pastoral phase. The earliest known pastoralist to occupy the valley was Archibald Young. Young had probably already occupied the area when he applied to lease land in 1854. His lease became known as the Samford Run. Closer settlement commenced from March 1865 with the first sale of 49 farm allotments excised from the Samford Run. Initially, the farm allotments sold very slowly but the process accelerated after the passing of the 1868 Act. By 1871, there were about 71 people living in the area. The farmers grew small crops and operated dairies. A provisional school opened in 1872.
Grazier and entrepreneur, George Atthow (1828 - 1891), selected portions 42 to 45 in the Parish of Samford on 17 April 1869. It is likely that he built the extant cottage and some nearby cattle yards soon after. An alternative view has been put that the hut was built by surveyors. If this is true, the hut would have been built prior to selection of the land by Atthow. However, this is considered unlikely for two reasons: first, it is unlikely that surveyors would have built accommodation as substantial as the cottage and second, a Commissioner of Crown Lands report dated 1873 notes that the dwelling on the property was completed by the selector. Atthow grazed cattle on the property and on other land he later selected in the Samford and Albany Creek areas. A bailiff was living on the Samford block from January 1870. By 1875, Atthow himself was living there.
The cottage is typical of the relatively primitive dwellings built by selectors when they first occupied their land. Built largely of undressed timber slabs, it initially comprised two rooms and a front verandah. An 1875 Bailiff of Crown Lands report noted that it had a shingle roof. By 1887, a further two small rooms had been added under the verandah and, if the roof had originally been clad with shingles, these had been replaced by corrugated iron. It is possible that one of the new rooms was used as a consulting room by Dr Keighly Marks who occupied the cottage from 1887 to circa 1894 and practised medicine from there. It is believed that a pit close to the cottage may have been used for storing cream, milk and other perishables it may also have been used as a dump. The Duranta and Oleander located near the cottage may be relics of a 19th century garden.
A number of changes have occurred to the cottage since this time. The cottage has lost one of the rooms under the verandah, internal walls, the rear skillion kitchen and chimney, and the living room chimney. The traces of Bulletin pages on the wall probably date from the interwar period. Stone flagging to one side of the hut supported a tank (no longer extant) that was installed during the same period. The remaining front verandah room was originally clad with horizontal boards. These were replaced by slabs during repairs carried out in 1976. At this time, slabs taken from old horse stalls and a collapsed hut located elsewhere in the area were used on repairs to the main part of the cottage. The slabs from the hut are broader that those from the horse stalls. A ship's tank near the cottage was placed there in 1979.
The original cattle yards (no longer extant) were noted in the 1873 survey report. A sketch map included with an 1875 report by the Crown Lands Bailiff indicates that they were north of the hut and further from the boundary than the existing yards. It is believed that the existing yards, just northwest of the hut, were built by the Marks family in the 1950s.
From 1877, the property was owned for short periods of time by various owners until 1887 when it was purchased by Charles Ferdinand Marks and it remained in Marks family ownership for well over a century becoming the nucleus of their 'Cushleva' farm. Dr Keighly Marks lived in the cottage until circa 1894. From this time it was let by the Marks family to various tenants until about 1945. The property was still in Marks family ownership at the death of Pat Marks in 2002.
The Marks family were prominent in Brisbane's medical and scientific communities. Charles Marks was a medical practitioner and politician, based at Wickham Terrace. He was a member of the Central Board of Health and the Queensland Medical Board. He was president of the latter organisation between 1910 and 1912. His son, Edward Oswald (Ted) Marks, was a geologist and ophthalmologist. Another son, Alexander Hammett Marks, was a distinguished medical practitioner and soldier. Ted Marks' daughter, Elizabeth (Pat) Marks, was one of Australia's leading entomologists and malaria experts. Pat Marks took a close interest in the cottage. In recent years, the area around the cottage has experienced another phase of settlement as the Samford Valley has developed into a rural residential area.
","criteria":"The hut is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a selector's timber slab dwelling of the 19th century. The design and construction techniques reflect the limited resources available when constructing a dwelling on a selected block during the initial stages of closer settlement. The hut is small in scale and simple in design. Timber elements are set directly into the ground and the hut is mostly clad with hardwood timber slabs.
|Sited on a gentle ridge, surrounded by lightly wooded pasture with the backdrop of rolling hills including the D'Aguilar Range, the humble slab hut in its picturesque setting evokes the sensibilities of a rustic idyll. Modern elements are minimised in many of the important view lines, and this is effective in conveying a sense of the early form and setting of the hut.
|The hut is a rare example of a 19th century selector's dwelling and a good example of a slab hut. It is uncommon in southeast Queensland for its earliness. Its austerity, modest scale and construction techniques are important in demonstrating a way of life and a building type once common but now rare.
|The Former Selector's Hut, Camp Mountain, built in circa 1870 or earlier, illustrates an important phase of settlement that was occurring throughout the colony of Queensland at the time. From the 1860s, Crown land began to be divided into allotments and made available for selection in line with a government policy to encourage the growth of small scale farming. The Camp Mountain hut was built by a selector during the early stages of this process in the Samford Valley.
The storage pit and stockyards are important evidence of farming activities associated with the changing uses of the hut, the property and land use in the Samford since 1870.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion B | Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":30232,"place_ref":602691,"name":"North Pine Pumping Station","alternate_name":"Dayboro Road Pumping Station","street_address":"Lake Kurwongbah-Dayboro Road","suburb":"KURWONGBAH","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-01-28","description":"Tucked into a bend in Dayboro Road southwest of Lake Kurwongbah, the North Pine Pumping Station backs onto the North Pine River. From Dayboro Road the pumping station is seen as a discreet single-storey orange facebrick building sheltered by a tiled hip roof. This part of the building houses the control room.
The main components of the pumping operation are the river inlet, basement and chamber, and the control room. The operations are computer controlled allowing the station to function unmanned.
Arranged over two levels, the building is organised around a compact plan meeting its functional program of drawing water from the river and pumping it to the nearby water treatment plant or to Lake Kurwongbah dam. The building rises approximately 20 metres as a concrete shaft from its base on the riverbank to four tapered concrete beams supporting the concrete floor of the control room.
Approached across a concrete driveway from Dayboro Road, the building has two entrances - the main entrance which is defined by recessed brickwork is a timber door shielded by a decorative metal door and the other is a roller door defined by a projecting surround in darker brick. Lettering over the main entrance doorway identifies the building as 'Pine Shire Council Pumping Station' and a plaque commemorating the turning of the sod ceremony is fixed between the main and roller door entrances. A bank of narrow louvres sits over the roller door. The long elevations contain five bays defined by plain projecting pilasters with a six-light frosted wire-glass steel framed window to the middle of each bay. The river elevation is divided into three bays by projecting pilasters with the end bays accommodating sets of windows matching those found on the long elevations. The window to the south bay accommodates a metal exhaust vent to the upper half. The sets of six-light windows have a fixed tilted lower middle light.
The entrance level contains a foyer, small office and control room. The foyer accommodates a timber shelf, cupboards and a hand basin and leads into the enclosed office with a built-in timber desk below a glazed window which allows surveillance of the control room. The concrete floor of the control room has six removable metal grates for access to the chamber and basement below. A portable tubular steel frame safety barrier sitting in the room is placed around the hole when a grate is removed. The control room accommodates a number of metal cabinets housing the computerised controls for the pumping plant. A gantry crane travels on rails along the length of the room. The gantry rails are carried by concrete beams supported by concrete columns with corbelled capitals. The interior is plastered and painted. Concrete steps from the control room descend down to the basement winding down along the inner northeast wall.
Evidence of the early manual operation of the station survives. The wheel handle valve controls are now gone but marks on the control room floor indicate the locations of their footings. The steel frame within the chamber accommodates the fixings for the shafts that ran down from the wheel handles to the pipes at the basement level. The original Kemp hydraulic controls machine now stands near the roller door. It once stood on the raised concrete pad at the river side of the control room. Associated with this is the lever control mounted on a small pedestal which stands in the middle of the control room. The lever control opened and shut the valves which when they were too tight had to be manipulated by hand. This hydraulic control mechanism is no longer operational. Dotted lines on the control room floor near the lever pedestal indicate that the river valves are to the southeast and the dam valves to the northwest. Three original pressure gauges are housed in a timber panel below the middle window on the northwest wall. These were connected to the pumps.
Below the control room a three to four storey volume chamber drops to the pumps, pipes, valves, drains, pits and motors housed at the basement level. There are six raw water variable speed pumps (these replaced the original four single speed pumps). The cantilevered concrete stairs winding down along the northeast wall of the chamber rest at a number of open metal grate gangways which run around the inner perimeter. The concrete stairs and metal gangways have tubular metal rails. The metal gangways, steel frame that housed the shafts, various conduits, conduit platforms, rising pipes and plant are contained within the chamber. There are two windows to the middle of the chamber wall on both the river and southwest sides just below the control room.
One flight down from the control room a door to the northwest opens onto external metal stairs which lead down to the river intake facility. The river intake facility is housed below the pumping station beneath a concrete platform at the edge of the river. Metal grille screens run across the inlet. A block and tackle is fitted to the hook on the steel frame at the end of the concrete platform to pull the screens up for cleaning. The intake draws water from the river and through the pumping station by a series of valve controlled pipes power by electric motors housed in the basement level from where it is pumped via two mains to the water treatment plant in Monaro Drive, Petrie or into the Lake Kurwongbah dam. Water is also pumped from the dam to the water treatment plant.
Additional pits, pipes and valves are located beneath the external metal stair and the front concrete driveway.
A small brick toilet block stands to the southeast of the station.
Wunderlich clay tiles in a Marseilles pattern which were removed from the station roof lie in piles behind the toilet.
The pumping station is set within grassed and treed paddocks. A barbed wire fence runs around the property.
","history":"The Pine River Pumping Station is located on Dayboro Road opposite Lake Kurwongbah dam near Petrie. It is an important component of the North Pine Water Supply scheme constructed in the late 1950s to supply water to the former Pine Rivers Shire, Redcliffe and the Amcor carton board mill at Petrie.
A scheme to supply water to the (then) townships of Strathpine, Lawnton, Petrie and Kallangur was first proposed in 1946. Water was to be obtained from Brisbane City Council via the South Pine River Bridge. However, before this proposal could be acted upon, Pine Shire Council (now Pine Rivers Shire Council) was approached by Australian Paper Manufacturers (APM) (now Amcor) and the Coordinator General's Department who advised them of the future water needs of APM's planned carton board mill at Petrie. The cardboard making process requires large quantities of water and so an adequate water supply was a vital part of the required infrastructure for the mill.
Soon after the initial approach, APM presented the council with a proposal for a scheme supplying water from the North Pine River. In 1949, council undertook to proceed with this scheme and to act as the constructing authority. Acting on advice from the Local Government Department, council modified the scheme so that water could also be drawn from a dam on Sideling Creek if needed. By 1954, the planned scheme was expanded to also supply water to Redcliffe Town Council.
The APM mill at Petrie was the largest industrial undertaking in southern Queensland during the immediate post-war period and probably the largest individual industrial unit to be constructed by the private sector in Queensland to that date. It made an important contribution to the post-war development of Queensland's secondary industries. Prior to World War II, Queensland lacked secondary industries of any note and from the 1950s the Queensland government encouraged their growth. The State assisted APM to establish the mill and assisted with financing the water supply scheme by granting a 50% subsidy and helping with raising loans. In 2004, the Petrie Mill was the only coated carton board manufacturing plant in Australia, producing about thirty different carton board products and with production exceeding 140,000 tonnes per annum.
The agreement that ultimately formed the foundation of the project was signed by Pine Shire Council, Redcliffe Town Council and APM at a ceremony attended by the State Premier on 29th June 1955. Under its terms, Pine Shire Council was to supply APM and Redcliffe Town Council with specified quantities of water at cost price for a period of 60 years.
Under the agreement, Pine Shire Council was responsible for constructing the scheme that consisted of three major components: the pumping station, a dam on Sideling Creek and a filtration works. The council's consulting engineers, John Wilson and Partners, designed and managed the project assisted by Scott and Furphy, consulting engineers of Melbourne.
The pumping station was the first major construction of the project. A sod turning ceremony was held at the pump house site on 18 February 1956 to mark the commencement of the project. The State treasurer, who officiated at the ceremony, noted that the pump house was the nucleus of the scheme.
Construction of the pump house by Brisbane firm KD Morris & Sons Pty Ltd reached completion in mid-1957. The pumps were installed by Alfred Snahall Anthon Pty Ltd. When built, the station housed two 100,000 gallons (454,609 litres) per hour and two 50,000 gallons (227,304.5 litres) per hour pumps together with ancillary equipment. Water could be drawn from the adjacent North Pine River or from the dam to be constructed nearby on Sideling Creek. Water was conveyed from the dam, later to be known as Lake Kurwongbah, via a tunnel containing a 30 inch (76.2cm) main that passed under the Petrie to Dayboro Road. The station could also be configured to top up the dam by pumping water from the North Pine River. The pumping station cost around £86,000.
In its essential elements, the station building follows standard design principles for pump stations of the time. For cost and maintenance reasons, the pumps are located below the river level. This means that although the station presents as a single storey building from the road, the floor of the building, where the pumps are located, is over 20 metres below the entrance. The electrical control mechanisms and offices are above river flood levels on the same floor as the entrance.
The completed water supply scheme was officially opened by the Honourable HW Noble (State Minister for Health and Home Affairs) in April 1961, though it had first supplied water to the APM mill in 1957. When opened, it was Queensland's third largest water supply scheme outside of Brisbane; the cost of construction was around £1,000,000.
Subsequently to its construction, the pump station has undergone a number of changes. Externally, the roof tiles have been replaced. Inside the station, the pumps have been upgraded from single speed to variable speed units and the operation, originally manual, has been computerised.
The establishment of the mill and the construction of the water supply created a surge of development in the Pine Shire. By 1961, when the scheme was opened, the Pine Shire Mayor noted that houses were being built in the shire at the rate of one every two days and that property sales in the previous year had reached a record figure. The villages of the shire which had existed for decades as tiny rural settlements were beginning their transformation into urbanised outer suburbs of greater Brisbane.
","criteria":"In a grassed and treed setting overlooking the North Pine River and Lake Kurwongbah, this robust utility building designed in a discrete classical idiom is a picturesque treatment of a utility structure. From the river the building is a surprise, rising dramatically as a soaring concrete shaft.
|The North Pine Pump Station (1957) formed an integral part of the infrastructure for Australian Paper Manufacturers' (now Amcor's) Cartonboard Mill at Petrie (1957). This was reported to be the largest industrial undertaking in southern Queensland during the post-war period. Prior to World War II, Queensland had few secondary industries; the pump station is important in demonstrating the post-war expansion of this sector of the State's economy.
The pump station was also part of the North Pine Water Supply Scheme, Pine (now Pine Rivers) Shire's first water reticulation scheme and important infrastructure contributing to the growth of the shire in the 1950s and 1960s. As such, it is important in demonstrating the development of Brisbane's outer suburbs during the post-war period. The establishment of the mill and the water supply scheme in the late 1950s marked the beginning of the transformation of the small rural settlements of Pine Shire into commuter suburbs of the State's capital.
|The pump station formed part of important infrastructure for Australian Paper Manufacturers' Mill. As such it has close association with the largest post war undertaking in Southern Queensland and a company that continues to be of national importance.
|A well-conceived utility structure, the North Pine Pumping Station is a small scale industrial building designed to accommodate the operations for water pumping. Although now computerised (no longer manually operated), the station retains much original plant and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of this building type. In its essential elements, the station follows the standard design principles for pumping stations. It presents from the road as a single storey building with the bulk of the structure housed below. The intake pumps are located below river level and draw water into the mains for pumping through a series of pipes and valves to the water treatment plant. The basement contains the main plant for the pumping operations including pipes, valves, drains, pits and motors. The control room sits safely above flood level and houses the equipment that operates and monitors the plant. This room is connected to the basement by a chamber.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion E | Criterion A | Criterion H | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":30452,"place_ref":602703,"name":"Remnants of former acclimatisation society gardens at Lawnton","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Bray Road","suburb":"LAWNTON","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-05-08","description":"Some 15 mature pecan trees (Carya sp) remain from the Acclimatisation Society plantings along the river flats of the North Pine River northeast of Bray Road, Lawnton. The pecan trees stand in Stephen Lawn Park and in the backyards of properties bounding the Park. Formed in distinct rows, six mature trees stand in the Park and a further nine trees stand in the backyards. There are a number of less mature trees scattered across the area that may have seeded from the original grove.
","history":"The remnant pecan nut grove in the former Queensland Acclimatisation Society Gardens at Lawnton, a residential suburb north of Brisbane, contain a number of mature trees which are all that remain of a dense grove planted by the society between 1915 and World War II. They are dispersed around Stephen Lawn Park and a number of adjacent, privately owned properties.
Acclimatisation in the nineteenth century was scientifically understood to mean the process by which animals and plants gradually adapt to climatic and environmental conditions different to those that prevailed in their original habitats. The interest in acclimatisation derived from early theories that the environment could bring about evolutionary change in species. In Australia, however, scientific theory was not a primary motivation and acclimatisation came to represent simply the exchange of plants and animals with other countries.
Acclimatisation societies were established in all of the Australian colonies in the mid to late 19th century. These societies formed part of an international network of other acclimatisation societies and botanical gardens, including Kew in the United Kingdom, which exchanged plants and animals. Imported fauna and flora was kept in the societies' gardens and distributed to their subscribers and other interested parties. At times, exotic plants and animals were released into the wild.
From its inception in 1862 at the instigation of the Governor of Queensland, Sir George Bowen, the Queensland Acclimatisation Society focussed on contributing to the development of Queensland's fledgling agricultural industry. It imported plants that had commercial potential and conducted experiments to determine if they could be adapted to Queensland's tropical and sub-tropical climate. Plants researched included sugar cane, bananas, cotton, apples, pineapples, pasture grasses, maize, olives, mangoes, pecan nuts and macadamia nuts. Many of these became important agricultural crops in Queensland.
The society fulfilled a supporting role to the sugar industry from 1863. In that year, the Queensland Acclimatisation Society began importing cane from Mauritius and New Caledonia and distributing it to growers. Until well into the 20th century, they continued researching into the crop, importing and distributing new varieties and experimenting with propagating cane from seed and artificially cross-fertilising canes. They produced a popular variety of sugar cane, Q813, which was known for its resistance to disease and was still in use as late as 1926.
Before the establishment of the Department of Agriculture, the society acted as a government advisory body on agricultural matters. Until at least 1888, it was dependant on government funding and regarded itself to all intents and purposes as a government institution. The society contributed to the establishment of the Queensland Herbarium, the Kamerunga State Nursery, and the State Forestry Department.
Between 1914 and 1915, the society closed its first gardens at Bowen Park and moved its operational base to a 100 acre property on the south bank of the North Pine River at Lawnton. The society had begun to lose Government support after the establishment of the Department of Agriculture in 1887 and this, together with the expansion of the adjoining National Association grounds (the present Exhibition Grounds), meant that Bowen Park was no longer viable. No buildings associated with the Queensland Acclimatisation Society remain extant at the Bowen Park site.
The Lawnton site already contained an old house (no longer extant) on the banks of the river. This was raised and repaired. In March 1915, tenders were requested for the construction of a new cottage (extant but altered) including a "roomy office" for storing the society's books and papers. A tender for £306 was accepted and the cottage was completed by August 1915. During the 1920s, further structures were built including propagating houses, a tool house and a fumigating plant. Between 1935 and 1936, ornamental trees were planted along the entrance driveway.
During some thirty years of operation at Lawnton, the society continued to assist the State's agricultural industry. In its research, the society worked with the Department of Agriculture and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (now the CSIRO). Plants introduced and researched at Lawnton included cotton, castor oil plants, avocados, pecan nuts, citrus fruits, macadamia nuts, custard apples, mangoes, pineapples, soy beans and fodder canes. The society contributed to making avocados, pecan nuts and grape fruit commercially viable crops in Queensland. The Allsopp variety of avocado, named after the society's overseer, was developed at the Lawnton gardens. The Pecan Nut grove was located at the northern end of the gardens on the present Bray Road. It was still flourishing when the gardens were sold.
Pecan Nuts are now a commercial crop in Australia with in excess of 100 growers in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia. It is difficult to establish a direct link between the Acclimatisation society's work on Pecan Nuts and the present commercial crop. The society was probably only one of many organisations and individuals who contributed to the commercial development of the crop. However, the Pecan Nut trees at Lawnton are the only pre-World War II Acclimatisation Society plantings, known to be extant, that are related to commercial crops. They are therefore important in illustrating the society's work in supporting the State's agricultural industries.
The society sold its Lawnton gardens between 1941 and 1942 and moved to a ten acre property at Redcliffe. This move was prompted by land degradation at Lawnton. The land was subsequently operated as a dairy farm until its subdivision for residential purposes commenced in 1959.
","criteria":"The remnant grove has a special association with the work of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society, an organisation that made a notable contribution to the development of Queensland's agricultural industries. The pecan nut grove was an important component of its Lawnton gardens between 1915 and 1941.
|The remnants of the pecan nut grove at the former Queensland Acclimatisation Society Gardens at Lawnton are physical evidence of the process of adaptation by the non-indigenous settler society to Queensland's environment during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Acclimatisation societies experimented with adapting plants and animals from other countries to Australian conditions. The Queensland society focussed on finding and importing plants that could be adapted for use as commercial crops in Queensland's tropical and sub-tropical conditions.
The remnant grove is also evidence of an important aspect of the development of Queensland's agricultural industries. Through its work of adapting plants with commercial potential, the society made a notable contribution to these industries. As the only pre-World War II Acclimatisation Society plantings, known to be extant, that relate to commercial crops, the remnant grove is important in illustrating the society's early work in supporting the State's agricultural industries.
|The pecan nut trees are among only a few known extant trees at the sites of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society's pre-World War II gardens. The main focus of the society's activities was economic botany. Pecan nuts are now a commercial crop in Queensland and the trees at Lawnton constitute the only known plantings related to the society's pre-World War II work in economic botany. Remnant vegetation at Bowen Park, the site of the society's earlier gardens, is ornamental in nature.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion H | Criterion A | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":35200,"place_ref":602841,"name":"Petrie State School","alternate_name":"Pine River North State School | North Pine River Provisional School | North Pine State School","street_address":"42 Dayboro Road (Brisbane Woodford Road)","suburb":"PETRIE","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2014-10-10","description":"Petrie State School is located on the northern side of Dayboro Road (Brisbane Woodford Road), Petrie, on a sloping site that falls away from the road. The school is bounded by Tandoor Drive and residential properties to the north-west, Young Street to the north-east, and North Pine Anglican Church property to the south-east. The majority of school buildings are located in the south-western corner of the site, with the original 1878 Stanley building and 1888 Ferguson building overlooking Dayboro Road, set back in a garden setting with mature trees. Extensions to the south-east of the 1878 building (1962) and to the north of the 1888 building (1956 and 1962) are not of state level cultural heritage significance.
Joined together to form a T-shaped plan, both the Stanley and Ferguson sections are rectangular, timber-framed structures with gable roofs. Orientated to address the street, the Stanley building forms the south-eastern end of the building while the Ferguson building faces west. Due to the slope of the land, the front (south-west) sides of the buildings are lowset while the rear (north-east) sides are highset. Both sections are supported by a combination of square concrete and cylindrical metal stumps, with the underfloor area enclosed by modern vertical timber batten screens. Exterior walls are timber weatherboards and the roofs are clad in corrugated metal sheeting.
The Stanley building has a modern verandah enclosure on the south-west side, a 1954 extension to the south-east side (incorporating early fabric), and a partially enclosed verandah on the north-east side. The south-west facade is a recent wall with a new entrance door at the western end, accessed by a concrete ramp and a sheltered landing. None of these features are of cultural heritage significance. The south-east wall features a large bank of timber framed windows, some of which are early. The lower windows are tall, timber-framed casements of either three or four lights, while above each casement is a rectangular fanlight. The windows are sheltered by a timber-framed, corrugated metal-clad, skillion hood with decorative brackets. On the north-east side of the building a centrally located timber staircase leads to the verandah. The southern end of the verandah is enclosed with weatherboards and modern aluminium windows. The verandah has a timber floor, a raked ceiling with exposed rafters and lined with timber boards, and some stop-chamfered timber posts and beams.
On the interior of the Stanley building, the recently enclosed south-west verandah is a long space with a raked ceiling. It retains timber weatherboard cladding on the north-west and north-east walls and a section of exposed timber studwork at the eastern end of the north-east wall. All other floor, wall and ceiling linings in this space are recent and not of cultural heritage significance. Large openings in the north-east wall have replaced former windows and doors. A low-waisted, four-panel timber door with rectangular fanlight remains in the north-west wall, leading to the Ferguson building.
The main room has a high coved ceiling clad in timber V-jointed boards, with two square lattice ventilation panels and exposed timber tie-beams. The north-east, south-east and south-west walls are lined with vertical V-jointed timber boards, while the north-west wall is lined with flat sheeting. Sections of flat wall sheeting also exist at the western end of the north-east and south-west walls (where a passageway has been removed). On the south-west wall, the locations of former walls and doors are evident in places where there are horizontal breaks in the wall lining. Non-significant features include all internal openings, doors and windows, all floor linings of carpet and linoleum, a kitchen installed along the south-east wall, and the interior of the partially enclosed north-east verandah.
The Ferguson building has two visible facades: a gable end wall with tall windows on the main (south-west) side and a verandah along the north-west side. The windows in the gable end wall are tall, timber-framed, three-light casements with rectangular fanlights above. These are sheltered by a timber skillion-roofed hood clad in corrugated metal sheeting and lined on the underside with timber boards. The outer timber brackets supporting the hood are more finely detailed than the centre brackets, featuring stop-chamfered edges to all members. At the apex of the wall is a triangular ventilation panel of fixed timber louvres. This detail is repeated at the opposite end of the Ferguson building.
The north-west verandah features a raked ceiling lined with V-jointed timber boards, some stop-chamfered verandah posts and beams, and a timber floor. Alterations dating from the c.1950s include a section of the balustrade configured as bag racks and a screen of timber-framed glazing on a low brick base at the southern end. One early double door survives, located near the centre of the verandah wall (not in its original position). It is a low-waisted timber door with tall fanlights above. All other doors and windows in the western wall are modern replacements and are not of cultural heritage significance.
The interior of the Ferguson building has been divided by post-1950s partitions into three rooms and the roof framing is concealed by a ceiling of flat sheeting with cover strips. The southern room is the largest and most intact, retaining early horizontal beaded boards lining the south-east wall. The south-west and north-west walls are lined with timber V-jointed boards, and the north-east wall is lined with flat sheeting with cover strips. The walls of the two smaller rooms are completely lined with flat sheeting with cover strips, and floors throughout the building are carpeted. None of these modern linings are of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Petrie State School opened in 1879 as Pine River North State School, replacing two ‘half-time' provisional schools that had begun operating to the south and north of the North Pine River in 1874 and 1875 respectively. The state school was built on 2 acres of land donated in 1877 by early settler Thomas (Tom) Petrie. The first school teaching building, designed by Colonial Architect FDG Stanley, was erected during 1878. As settlement increased, the school expanded to have other structures and landscape elements, including an extension designed by architects Robert and John Ferguson (1888). The school has been in continuous operation since establishment and has been a focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activity.
\nPrior to European settlement, the Pine Rivers area was home to a number of clans belonging to the Turrbal, Kabi and Waka language groups.[1] Convict timber getters were recorded in the area in the 1820s, and in the early 1840s pastoral runs were established on either side of the North Pine River. In 1859 Tom Petrie established a 6400 acre (2590 hectare) run, known as Murrumba, which extended to Sideling Creek in the west, Redcliffe Point in the east, and to the Pine and North Pine rivers in the south.[2] Petrie was also involved in timber getting, utilising the rafting ground at Sweeney's Reserve [QHR602687], south-east of the present state school site.
\nCloser settlement in the area commenced in 1862, with the sale by selection of portions in the ‘Redcliff Agricultural Reserve'.[3] Having had his pastoral leases cancelled by this reserve, Tom Petrie purchased a homestead block (portion 23, east of the school site), and leased nearby Portions 24, 25, 29 and 30.[4] A coach route from Brisbane to Gympie,[5] with a staging post at Petrie's Murrumba Homestead, was established in late 1868 by Cobb & Co. A road bridge was built next to the ford at Sweeney's Reserve in 1877, and the North Coast Railway was constructed north from Brisbane to Caboolture by 1888.[6] Tom Petrie took advantage of the railway running through his property to subdivide part of it as the North Pine Terminus Township in 1885.[7] This became the nucleus of the township of North Pine.[8] In 1877, Tom Petrie had also donated land for the establishment of the town's first state school.
\nThe provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. In 1848 the New South Wales Government established National Schools. This was continued by the Queensland Government after the colony's creation in 1859. The Education Act 1860 established the Queensland Board of General Education and began to standardise curriculum, teacher training, and facilities. The State Education Act 1875 provided a number of key initiatives for primary education; it was to be free, compulsory and secular. The Department of Public Instruction was established to administer the Act. This move standardised the provision of education and, despite difficulties, colonial educators achieved a remarkable feat in bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[9]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school's construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a major community focus for social interaction, a symbol of progress and a source of pride with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and halls used for community purposes reinforced these connections together with fetes, markets, public holiday celebrations, school break-up days, fundraisers, polling days, sporting events, reunions, and dances, all held within the schools' buildings and grounds.[10]
\nDuring the 1870s, the farming community at North Pine sought educational facilities for the local children. From 1869, provisional schools were the alternative to national schools if minimum student numbers (30) could not be met (which was frequently the case given that Queensland's rural population was small, scattered and often transient). Provisional schools were seen as a convenient means of providing an elementary education throughout the colony and soon became an integral part of the educational landscape. A provisional school could be opened with as few as 15 (later 12) pupils. The Board of General Education gave financial assistance to local committees to set up and maintain these schools. The local community provided a building (often slab and shingle) and found a teacher, and the Board paid the teacher's salary relative to the number of pupils. The provisional teacher was often badly trained and poorly paid, but at least some elementary education was being provided. If the local population moved on (perhaps following new gold discoveries or a railway under construction), the provisional school was closed at little expense to the Board. If the district or town developed, provisional schools were raised to national (later state) school status, with purpose-designed school buildings and teacher residences attracting better qualified and more experienced teachers.[11]
\nAt North Pine, a meeting was held on 20 April 1874 to elect a school committee, and the North Pine River Crossing Provisional School No.183 opened on 22 April 1874 in a rented room south of the North Pine River.[12] As there was no bridge, two provisional schools were planned, on a half-time basis, to avoid the hazards of children crossing the river to attend classes. The teacher would teach on the south side of the river for the morning and on the north side of the river in the afternoon, a unique arrangement in the Moreton region.[13]. The northern school (No.1831/2), a small slab hut with shingle roof, opened for the 1875 school year. The schools became known as North Pine I (Provisional) [south side], and North Pine II (Provisional) [north side]. An inspection in August 1875 recorded 16 students present (of 20 enrolled) at North Pine I, with 13 students present (of 14) at North Pine II.[14]
\nThe opening of the bridge at Sweeney's Reserve in 1877 allowed the two provisional schools to amalgamate into one state school. At a meeting in June 1877, Tom Petrie donated 2 acres (0.81 hectares) of land for the new school.[15] The site, at the south-west corner of Portion 30, was surveyed the same year, and was gazetted a Reserve for a School in 1878.[16] The new school was located north of the river, on the north side of the Dayboro Road. The community had to raise 20% of the construction cost. By November 1877, tenders had been called and £90 had been subscribed for construction.[17] The school classroom and a teacher's residence were built during 1878,[18] and the school opened for the 1879 school year as Pine River North State School.[19]
\nFrom the 1860s until the 1960s school buildings were predominantly timber framed, which took advantage of the material's abundance in the state and the high number of builders skilled in its use. This also allowed for easy and economical construction and enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Due to the standardisation of facilities, schools across the state were developed in distinctly similar ways and became complexes of typical components. These components included: teaching building/s, school yard, sports oval, head teacher's residence, and a variety of landscape elements such as sporting facilities or play equipment, playsheds, gardens and trees.[20]
\nThe new Pine River North State School building was constructed to a standard design by Colonial Architect Francis Drummond Greville (FDG) Stanley who was then responsible for all government school designs. During his prolific career he was also responsible for many important government and private buildings. For his schools Stanley became the first to develop standard designs and produce ‘classes' of buildings that would later evolve into ‘types'. The vast majority of subsequent school buildings in Queensland were built from standard ‘type' designs.[21]
\nStanley's school designs were typically low-set, timber framed structures with separate residential accommodation provided. Distinguishing characteristics include the classroom width, the location, size and detailing of windows, and central stairs to the verandah in line with a central access door. Stanley's designs also remedied weatherproofing problems of preceding school designs by cladding the exterior with chamferboards and lining the interiors.[22] Although many Stanley school buildings were constructed, few remain and extant examples are rare.[23] Known examples survive at the former Carbrook State School (QHR 600661), Tallegalla State School (QHR 601687), former Hemmant State School (QHR 602382), Kalkie State School (QHR 600971) and Aramac State School.
\nThe 1878 school building constructed at North Pine was a low-set, timber, gable-roofed building with verandahs on the south-west and north-east sides, located close to Dayboro Road at the southern end of the school reserve. A 1936 plan of the building shows a main room of 18ft x 33ft 9inches (5.5m x 10.3m), a southern verandah measuring 8ft (2.4m) wide, and a northern verandah measuring 7ft 8inches (2.3m) wide. By 1936 the northern verandah had a small enclosure at the eastern end.[24]
\nBy 1887 the school had become too crowded and needed to be enlarged.[25] Another low-set building with a main room of 40ft by 20ft (12.1m x 6.1m), and a western verandah 8ft (2.4m) wide, with semi-enclosed hat rooms at each end and a central staircase, was built in 1888 to a standard design by Robert and John Ferguson. The tender of Thomas Curry, for £319 10s, was accepted by the Education Department in December 1887.[26] The new building was added to the north-western end of the Stanley school building, connected by at least one internal door.
\nIn 1879 the Department of Public Instruction appointed its own Superintendent of Buildings to be responsible for the design of all government schools, the first appointee being the builder-architect Robert Ferguson. Ferguson immediately revised the design of schools to address deficiencies in ventilation and lighting and this period of education design was pivotal in this regard. In his designs he allowed for ventilation of the classrooms and ceiling space by providing prominent and decorative ventilation fleches to the roof. The standard Ferguson classroom was a low-set, timber-framed structure with a gable roof, verandahs front and back, and modest 'carpenter gothic' timber detailing. It included a coved ceiling; while timber roof trusses were exposed within the space. Many more and larger windows were introduced with high sill heights that did not allow draughts and sunlight to enter the room.[27]
\nIn 1885 Robert Ferguson was replaced by his brother John Ferguson who continued to implement his brother's designs until John's death in 1893, when responsibility for school buildings passed back to the Department of Public Works.[28] The Ferguson period (1879-93) is distinct and marked by extensive redesign of school buildings including associated structures and furniture. The Ferguson brothers' designs were reflective of education requirements of the time, responsive to criticism of previous designs, revolutionary in terms of internal environmental quality, technically innovative, popular and successful and provided a long-lasting legacy of good educational design.[29]
\nThe building of a second classroom at the Pine River North State School coincided with the rise of dairy farming as the economic mainstay of the region, aided by the opening of the railway line through North Pine, which allowed local farmers to rail their cream to butter factories to the north and south. The Samsonvale Butter Factory opened to the west in 1892, later reopening in 1903 at Terror's Creek (Dayboro) as the Silverwood Butter Factory.[30]
\nIn 1896 the school was renamed North Pine State School, and retained this name after the town of North Pine changed its name to Petrie in 1911. Over the following years, changes to the school included the construction of a playshed in 1907 and improvements to the school residence.[31] By 1918 there were 112 children enrolled.[32] At some point, a World War I Honour Board, listing 44 past pupils of the school who had enlisted, was located at the school (now removed).[33] A tennis court was completed in 1934.[34]
\nUnder the stewardship of the Department of Public Works which retained responsibility for schools until 2013, and through the involvement of some of Queensland's most innovative architects, school buildings became more advanced and diverse. This was the outcome of years of systematic reform and experimentation.[35]
\nAchieving an ideal or even adequate level of natural light in classrooms, without glare, was of critical importance to educators. After 1900 the virtues of maximum natural ventilation and controlled, high-levels of natural light in teaching buildings were extolled and became central to the design and layout of all school buildings. Architects experimented with different combinations of roof, ceiling and wall vents, larger windows, dormer windows and ducting. Roof ventilators became fleches which grew larger as the experimentation continued.[36] Windows were rearranged and enlarged to provide a greater amount of gentle, southern light into the room. Desks were rearranged so that the light would fall onto students' left sides to avoid throwing shadows onto the pages; this presupposed that all students would be right-handed. The change in philosophy often meant a complete transformation of the openings in existing buildings. Windows were larger and sills were lowered to let in more light generally.[37]
\nIn 1937, the fenestration of the North Pine School buildings was altered to improve lighting and ventilation. Windows were rearranged and doors were rehung in both the Stanley and Ferguson buildings. Banks of windows in the gable end walls of both buildings were lowered so that the sill was 3ft (0.9m) above the floor, and the sashes were rehung as casements with new fanlights above.[38] By this stage, the number of windows in the end walls had been increased from three to seven and window hoods had been widened accordingly.[39]
\nLittle changed at the school after 1937 and it had only 60 pupils in 1947.[40] However, growth came in the 1950s, with the opening of the Australian Paper Manufacturers' (APM) Petrie Mill, which commenced manufacturing operations in 1957.[41]
\nIn 1954, the Stanley building was extended to the east by 9ft (2.7m) and a partition was inserted to make two classrooms, while the casement windows in the north-east and south-west verandah walls were replaced with colonial hung sashes. The door into the Ferguson building was removed (it was later reinstated, off centre), and the Ferguson building was also partitioned into two classrooms.
\nIn 1956 the school was renamed Petrie State School. Around 1956 a new high-set classroom, with play space underneath, was built to the north of the Ferguson building, connected by a raised walkway extension of the latter's western verandah. In 1962 an additional classroom was constructed in the space between the two buildings, resulting in the loss of the windows in the north-east wall of the Ferguson building.[42]
\nThe district's population continued to increase during the 1960s and 1970s. By 1964, along with the construction of two classroom blocks in the western corner of the school grounds (c.1959), classrooms had been added to the south-east corner of the Stanley building and to the north-west of the Ferguson building, connected by verandahs.[43] In 1973 the partition inside the Stanley building was removed and it became a library, while the Ferguson building was used for administration. Further buildings were added to the school grounds in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The size of the school grounds also increased in the second half of the 20th century, growing from 2.4 hectares in 1957 to its current size of 4.5 hectares.
\nBy 1997, the Ferguson building had been divided into three rooms, with new door and window locations, and a passageway had been created between the Ferguson and Stanley buildings, linking the south-west and north-east verandahs of the latter. Part of the north-east verandah of the Stanley building had been enclosed and stairs to the south-west verandah had been relocated to the western end. Bag racks also lined the balustrades of most verandahs. Some doors in the Stanley building were enclosed and kitchen benches were installed along the south-east wall at that time.[44]
\nSince 2007, changes to the Stanley building have resulted in the enclosure of the south-west verandah and the removal of doors and windows in the verandah wall to create large openings. The internal wall which formed the passageway between the Stanley and Ferguson sections has been removed, with the external walls being reinstated at either end; and an additional room has been formed on the north-east verandah by the insertion of a new wall.
\nIn 2014, the 1878 Stanley building is used for the school's Special Education Program and the 1888 Ferguson building contains a reading room, meeting room and an office. The school continues to be important to the town and district, having operated on this site since 1879 and having taught generations of Petrie students. Since establishment it has been a key social focus for the Petrie community with the grounds and buildings having been the location of many social events over time.
","criteria":"The 1878 Stanley building at Petrie State School is rare as one of the six known surviving examples of this once common type.
|Queensland schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain a significant and enduring connection with former pupils, their parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations. Petrie State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Petrie community. It was established in 1879 (to replace an 1875 half-time provisional school) through the efforts of the local community and has educated generations of Petrie children. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Petrie and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social events with widespread community support.
|Petrie State School (established in 1879 as Pine River North State School) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education, and its associated architecture, in Queensland. The place retains representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies.
The first teaching building (1878), designed by architect FDG Stanley, and the 1888 building, designed by architects Robert and John Ferguson, are both early standardised designs.
|Petrie State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of early Queensland state schools, including standard building designs by the Queensland Government.
The 1878 Stanley building retains characteristics of its original design. It is low-set, of timber-framed construction with external weatherboard cladding, with gable roof, front and rear verandahs, centrally placed stairs to the north-east verandah, coved ceiling and tall windows.
The 1888 Ferguson building is low-set, with timber-framed construction, gable roof, wide verandah, louvred ceiling ventilation panels, and tall windows sheltered by a hood with decorated timber brackets. The building also retains one early double door with tall fanlights (not in its original location).
Changing philosophies in state primary education are evident in the modifications made to both buildings, including alterations to window type, location and size, and bag racks on the western verandah of the Ferguson building.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion B | Criterion G | Criterion A | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650066,"name":"Redcliffe State High School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"cnr Klingner Road & Oxley Avenue","suburb":"REDCLIFFE","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2019-05-31","description":"Redcliffe State High School occupies two sites east and west of the intersection of two main thoroughfares in Redcliffe, Oxley Avenue and Klingner Road. The east site is 3.37ha and comprises a complex of buildings and a stand of mature trees on the north edge standing inside the school allotment on the boundary with Klingner Road.
\nThe features of state-level significance are:
\nBlock A
\nBlock A is a one-storey, slab-on-ground administration building facing west to Oxley Avenue.
\nFeatures of Block A of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of Block A not of state level significance include:
\nBlocks B, C, and E
\nBlocks B, C, and E are standard classroom buildings, highset on concrete pillars with open-web steel floor trusses supporting the timber-framed first floor. Blocks B and C are highly intact. The buildings are two-storey, long and narrow with long sides facing approximately north and south, positioned to form courtyards between them for student lunch and activity space. They feature extensive areas of facebrick across both levels and have gable roofs clad with corrugated metal sheets. Verandahs run along the north side of the buildings, connecting to stairs, breezeways, and covered links, and a series of classrooms and ancillary school rooms along the south side. Both long sides are extensively glazed with operable windows and fanlights to permit high levels of natural light and ventilation.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state level significance include:
\nBlock D
\nBlock D is a slab-on-ground one-storey vocational training building and is highly intact. It is boomerang shaped with a large wedge-shaped vestibule at the elbow separating two manual arts workshops from a third large manual arts room. The rooms have a gable roof with a steel open-web portal frame, exposed internally. The vestibule, originally open-ended but later enclosed, has a lower skillion roof and is used as a manual arts lecture room. The building has a covered way on its western side that links from the covered stair of Block C to a freestanding covered way through the courtyard to Block B.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state level significance include:
\nBlock F
\nBlock F is a slab-on-ground one-storey former vocational training building built to a standard floor plan. It is a long narrow building with its long sides facing north and south and has a covered walkway on the north side accessing a series of classrooms on the south side. It is timber-framed with facebrick veneer walls and the walkway wall is clad with narrow chamferboards. It has a gable roof over the classrooms and a separate, lower roof over the walkway with banks of north-facing metal-framed glass louvres between the two roofs opening into the classrooms. The building is attached by its eastern end to Block E via an open breezeway that has a connection to Block B via a covered way. The original roof sheets and the north and south windows, fanlights, and doors have been replaced (some within the original openings). The original internal partitions have mostly been demolished and new partitions inserted to form general classrooms. The internal linings have been replaced with flat sheets with no cover strip.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state level significance include:
\n
Block G
Block G is a slab-on-ground one-storey vocational training building to a standard design and is highly intact. It is a long narrow building with its long sides facing east and west. It accommodates a series of workshops accessed by an external walkway along the west side. The structure is a steel portal frame with an east-facing clerestory window of metal louvres into the classrooms. The exterior is clad with crimped metal sheets and facebrick, which defines the building’s corners. A gable-roofed projection on the south end of the building accommodates a small staffroom and storeroom. The east and west sides of the building have large banks of steel-framed awning windows (some fixed closed, an original condition) and glass louvre fanlights.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state level significance include:
\nCourtyards and landscape features
\nThe school complex includes courtyards and open spaces to provide abundant natural light and ventilation to the buildings and accommodate student play, lunch, and activity space.
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state level significance include:
\nRedcliffe State High School opened in 1958 as the first state high school on the Redcliffe Peninsula. The school retains its seven original school buildings built between 1958 and 1962, which were designed by the Department of Public Works to provide abundant natural light and ventilation for optimal educational environments. These standard buildings are arranged on the site according to 1950s nuclear master planning ideals, providing outdoor courtyard assembly and play areas and retaining pre-existing mature trees. The complex includes three vocational training buildings, built between 1959 and 1962.
\nThe Redcliffe Peninsula is part of the traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi people, and was briefly the site of a convict settlement at Redcliffe Point (1824-5).[1] A 23,000 acre (9302ha) Redcliffe Agricultural Reserve, which included the peninsula, was declared in 1861, followed by the sale of farm portions from 1862. Some coastal portions were subdivided for ‘marine villas’ in the late 1870s-early 1880s, when the peninsula was promoted as a resort, but few subdivisions were actually occupied at this time. Steamers initially provided the main access to Redcliffe, with jetties constructed at Woody Point (1882) and Redcliffe Point (1885). By 1890 steamers were bringing 10,000 day-trippers and holidaymakers per year, although there were still only 352 permanent residents on the peninsula in 1891. [2]
\nRedcliffe did not develop as a residential centre until road transport links improved. The ANZAC Memorial Avenue [QHR602693] was opened from Petrie to Redcliffe in December 1925, and the population boomed after the Hornibrook Highway Toll Bridge [QHR601246] was opened in October 1935. The population of the Town of Redcliffe (declared in 1921) grew from 8871 in 1947 to 18,000 in 1959, the year the City of Redcliffe was declared, and this strong growth continued into the 1960s.[3]
\nThe earliest school on the peninsula, the Humpybong Provisional School, opened in Clontarf in 1876. Humpybong State School opened in Margate in 1909, and the peninsula’s first private secondary school, Soubirous Convent School, opened in 1951; but the peninsula would not have a public secondary school for another seven years.[4] The Queensland Government had instituted a high school system in 1912 but high schools remained few in number until after World War II.[5]
\nThe site of Redcliffe State High School was once part of Portion 226 of the Redcliffe Agricultural Reserve.[6] By 1905 2.26ha of land at the northwest corner of this portion was a Reserve for Railway Purposes.[7] In 1936 the unused railway reserve was leased by Claude AM Reid, of Lone Pine in Indooroopilly, who opened a koala park and zoo on the site in October 1937.[8] The former railway reserve and koala park was gazetted as a ‘Reserve for a State School’ in 1945. The government also acquired 6.5ha of the northern part of the showgrounds, opposite the school reserve and west of Oxley Avenue, in 1947 for a school sports ground.[9]
\nAnother decade passed before a high school was built. In 1954 it was reported that high school enrolments in Queensland had more than doubled since 1948, from 4500 to nearly 11,000.[10] An enormous demand for state education began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’.[11]
\nPlans for the first four school buildings at Redcliffe State High School were prepared by the Department of Public Works (DPW) in August 1957.[12] During a period of high demand for more classroom accommodation, from the mid-1950s DPW architects introduced school master planning, a concept to plan for controlled growth and change. During the period emphasis shifted away from grid-like layouts to nuclear layouts, centred on a nucleus of core facilities. The plans balanced the need for correct orientation and an appropriate response to contours and existing vegetation. Generous courtyard spaces between classroom wings were used for assembly and play areas. Redcliffe State High School followed this nuclear master planning approach.[13]
\nThe school opened in 1958 with 107 students. By May that year only Block C had been constructed, set in a cleared section of the treed school reserve – and some trees which predate the school survive in 2019.[14] Blocks A, B, and D were completed by mid-1959.[15]
\nBlock A was a one-storey, slab-on-ground administration building constructed at the front of the school on the west side of the complex, facing Oxley Avenue. It had an asymmetrical gable roof and a splayed feature wall leading through large doors into a foyer at the north end of the building. The building accommodated: three offices (for the Principal, Deputy Principal, and staff); toilets; staffroom, and a store. The corridor featured school honour boards. A large dais at the rear (east) of the building faced directly into the understorey of the adjacent Block B, which was open and two steps lower.[16]
\nBlocks B and C were built to a standard design (Timber Framed School Building incorporating steel open-web floor trusses).[17] From 1950 the Department of Public Instruction introduced new standard plans for school buildings designed by the DPW. These buildings were high-set timber framed structures and the ground floor ‘understorey’ was used as covered play space. The principal type was a long and narrow building with a gable roof. A semi-enclosed stair connected the understorey to a north-facing verandah running the length of the building. Classrooms opened off the verandah and had extensive areas of windows, allowing abundant natural light and ventilation.[18] In 1954 this type was improved by replacing the proliferation of stumps in the understorey with a timber truss that provided an unimpeded play space. This concept was further refined in 1957 with a steel open-web joist, set on reinforced concrete piers, that spanned further and removed more understorey stumps.[19] Blocks B and C at Redcliffe were of this latter type, which had a standard classroom size of either 24ft (7.3m) square or 24ft by 21ft (7.3m by 6.4m).[20]
\nBlocks B and C projected east from each end of Block A, forming a courtyard which widened towards the east. Block B was connected to the rear (east) of the northern end of Block A. It was a long, narrow, brick veneer, timber-framed building with its long sides facing north and south. It had a gable roof and was highset, with an open play area in the western half of the ground floor and a female ablutions block (lockers, toilets, and showers) in the eastern half. The first floor was supported by exposed open-web steel floor trusses on concrete columns, with a cantilevered portion supporting a northern verandah that had a bagracks balustrade. Protruding stairwells on the north side, enclosed with brick and glass, gave access to each end of the verandah. The first floor included a small staffroom and six classrooms, including: a physics lecture room with tiered gallery; physics lab; physics store/balance room; and four standard classrooms (three of which were initially used for domestic science classes). The rooms were well-lit and ventilated with awning windows used extensively on the southern wall, and double-hung windows in the verandah wall with pivoting clerestory fanlights above the verandah roof.[21]
\nBlock C was similar to Block B and was attached by a partially-enclosed covered area to the south end of Block A. The ground floor accommodated: a library; chemistry lecture room, lab, and store room; and male ablutions. The first floor had a northern verandah accessed by stairs at both ends; the east end stairs were enclosed with fixed glass. The verandah had a section of fixed glazing at its west end. The first floor accommodated: a small general classroom 24ft by 15ft (7.3m by 4.6m); four standard-sized general classrooms (three combinable by large folding doors); and a commercial room, 32ft by 24ft (9.8m by 7.3m). It was described as having ‘clean, simple lines, characteristic of new schools’.[22]
\nThe east ends of Blocks B and C were connected to Block D, a vocational training building. Standard, purpose-designed vocational buildings were first introduced to high schools in 1928.[23] The Queensland Government continued its focus on vocational education during the 1950s and 1960s and a number of new standard building types were developed for manual training from the late 1950s.[24]
\nBlock D was built to a standard building type, the Brick Veneer Vocational Building.[25] It was a one-storey, concrete slab-on-ground building with an open-web steel portal frame structure. The building oriented its long sides east-west and a covered walkway ran along part of the west side. Varying from the standard, it was slightly boomerang-shaped with an open-sided, wedge-shaped ‘vestibule’ at the elbow and two classrooms at either end. It had a skillion roof over the vestibule and gable roofs over the classrooms. The northern classrooms were 25ft by 25ft (7.6m by 7.6m) drawing rooms and the southern classrooms, for woodwork and for sheet metalwork, were both 25ft by 30ft (7.6m by 9.1m). At this end was also a timber store, saw bench room, and corridor. The rooms were well-lit and ventilated with banks of awning windows with fanlights of glass louvres on the eastern side, and double-hung windows and a clerestory of glass louvres above the walkway roof on the western side.[26]
\nAn open-sided, steel-framed covered way connected the covered walkway of Block D north to the end of Block B, capturing a wedge-shaped courtyard between Blocks A-D. This open, flat area was used as an ‘Assembly Area’ and had a bitumen surface. A small courtyard area to the side of this space, between Blocks C and D, had a concrete-edged triangular garden bed in its centre.
\nRedcliffe’s population increased to 23,500 by 1963, and increasing enrolments at Redcliffe State High School resulted in the construction of three new buildings in three years – Block E and F during 1960, and Block G in 1962. Blocks E and F were built north of, and parallel to, Block B.[27] Block E was built to a standard type similar to Blocks B and C. It was a long, narrow, brick veneer, timber-framed building with its long sides facing north and south. It had a gable roof and was highset. The ground floor accommodated two locker rooms, an open play area with a tuckshop, an armoury (for military cadets), and small storerooms under the stairs. The first floor was supported by exposed open-web steel floor trusses on concrete columns, with a cantilevered portion supporting a northern verandah with a bagracks balustrade. The first floor had six standard-sized classrooms, with folding doors between two pairs of classrooms, and a ‘services room’ at the east end. The verandah had projecting stairwells at each end, enclosed with brick and glass.[28]
\nBlock F was built to a standard floor plan layout for home science classes, and was a one-storey, concrete slab-on-ground, timber-framed vocational training building with a gable roof. It was a long, narrow brick veneer, timber-framed building with its long sides facing north and south and was attached to the west end of Block F via a breezeway. It had a verandah on its north side with bagracks and a hat and coat area at each end. It had a dressmaking room with fitting room; storeroom; staffroom; laundry; dining room; cooking room; and lecture room. The rooms were well-lit and ventilated with awning windows and fanlights used extensively on the southern wall, and double-hung windows in the verandah wall with louvred clerestory windows above the verandah roof. There was a small concrete flower bed north of the east end of the building. A covered walkway was also built at this time to connect Block E across the courtyard to the east end of Block B.[29]
\nBlock G was built to a standard type (Brick Veneer Vocational Building with skylight) east of Block D. It was a one-storey, steel portal-framed building with an east-facing clerestory roof.[30] It was long and narrow, with its long sides facing east and west and a covered walkway along the west side. The building accommodated woodwork and drawing rooms. A small staffroom, store, and machine room were accommodated in a small projecting annexe with a gable roof. The rooms were well-lit and ventilated with banks of awning windows, fixed glass panes, and fanlights used extensively in the east and west walls, and via the clerestory, which had metal blade louvres and was positioned centrally over the work rooms.[31]
\nWith the construction of Block G for woodwork and drawing, Block D was converted for use as two sheet metalwork rooms and one art classroom. Minor alterations included enclosing part of the covered walkway using some relocated original windows and walls, removing partitions, and sheeting over the western windows of the former drawing rooms. This work was planned in late 1961.[32]
\nBetween 1962 and 2018, other buildings were added to the school, including: Block H (1963), an extension at the east end of Block B for science and general classrooms; Block J (1965) science classrooms; Block K (1972), general classrooms (extended 1973); a P&C assembly hall (1977, replaced 2014); and a library, Block L (1979).[33] Buildings were also constructed on the ‘Western Campus’ on the opposite side of Oxley Avenue after 1981.[34] After a 13-year-old student, Caitlin Hanrick, was killed while crossing Oxley Avenue in December 2006, a pedestrian bridge was constructed to link the campuses; opening in October 2008 as ‘Caity’s Crossing’.[35]
\nChanges to the early buildings have occurred over time, including: adding more toilet cubicles at the east end of Block B (c1963); adding enclosures and partitions under the east end of Block E (c1971); and enclosing the vestibule of Block D for a further art room (1979).[36] Later changes included extending and refurbishing Block A to the north for more offices (1981); converting Block E to Domestic Science and Block F to general classrooms (1982), both of which involved considerable internal alterations; and two small extensions were added to the east side of Block D (1984). Block A was refurbished again in c2001 and in c2002 the ground floor of Block B was altered to include a uniform shop (by remodelling part of the toilets); and a cybercafe was added on the ground floor of Block E, by enclosing some of the open space adjacent to the tuck shop, which had by then been extended one bay to the west. In 2004 a ground floor locker room in Block C was converted into a technology and interview room.[37]
\nThe school grounds have also increased in size over time. By 1974 the school reserve had been expanded to 3.13ha to incorporate an opportunity school established to the east of the high school in 1964.[38] A residential lot, south of the school, was added to the grounds in 1980, providing access to Irene Street, and in 1989 land was added at the northeast corner of the school grounds, to create a total area of 3.37ha.[39]
\nSince its establishment, the school has been the focus of community events, such as fetes, and a fashion show was held in 1977 to raise funds for the first assembly hall.[40] For the school’s 50th anniversary in 2008, a DVD was compiled with a collection of photos, documents and newspaper articles from the school’s history.
\nRedcliffe State High School, established in 1958 as the first state secondary school on the peninsula, has played an important role in the Redcliffe peninsula community and continues to do so. Generations of students have been taught there. In 2019 it retains: Blocks A to F, which, as a complex, represent an excellent, intact example of 1950s master planning; plus Blocks D, E and G, three examples of vocational building types. A number of mature trees on the site in 2019 may predate the school.
","criteria":"Redcliffe State High School (established in 1958) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with mature trees and assembly areas.
\nIt is also important as a demonstration of the Queensland Government’s provision of substantial high schools on new, master planned sites in booming population centres across Queensland in the 1950s, a time of pronounced population growth.
\nThe layout of the administration and classroom blocks, the covered links between them and associated open spaces, reflect the mid-1950s introduction of organic master planning, which responded to the existing contours of the site and provided for ordered growth from a nucleus.
\nThe three vocational training buildings (Block D 1958-9, Block F 1960, and Block G 1962) reflect the Queensland Government’s focus in the 1950s and 1960s on vocational training.
|Redcliffe State High School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state high school of the 1950s and 1960s. These include its: site planning; range of highset and lowset timber and brick teaching buildings of standard designs that incorporate understorey play areas, verandahs, and classrooms with high levels of natural light and ventilation; and a generous, landscaped site with mature shade trees and assembly areas.
\nThe school site planning is intact and illustrates the school master planning concepts introduced by the Department of Public Works in the 1950s, comprising long narrow classroom blocks (Blocks B, C, D, E, and F 1958-60) linked around open-ended courtyard assembly and play spaces, connected to a core administration building (Block A 1959).
\nBlocks B and C (Timber Framed School Buildings incorporating steel open-web floor trusses) are good intact examples of their standard types. The buildings retain their: highset form; trusses; open play space underneath classrooms; north-facing, open verandahs; abundant natural light and ventilation of the classrooms; and 24ft (7.3m) wide classrooms.
\nBlocks D and G (Brick Veneer Vocational Buildings) demonstrate the principal characteristics of state high school vocational training buildings from the mid-20th century in Queensland. They are highly intact, retaining their: brick veneer, concrete slab-on-ground, and steel portal frame construction; vented clerestory; large, open workshop spaces with minimal and durable internal finishes; and high levels of natural light and ventilation.
|Redcliffe State High School has a strong and ongoing association with past and present pupils, parents, staff members, and the surrounding community through sustained use since its establishment in 1958. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Redcliffe, with generations of children taught at the school, and it has served as a prominent venue for social interaction and community focus. Contributions to its operations have been made through repeated local volunteer action, donations, and the Parents and Citizens Association.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650277,"name":"Sandstone Point Hydrographic Survey Bench Mark","alternate_name":"LEUT Bedwell’s Hydrographic Survey Bench Mark at Sandstone Point | Sandstone Point Datum Mark","street_address":"Shoreline off Bayswater Court","suburb":"SANDSTONE POINT","lga":"MORETON BAY CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2022-11-25","description":"The Sandstone Point Hydrographic Survey Bench Mark (1867) is located at the northern end of Moreton Bay, on the mainland side of the southern entrance to Pumicestone Channel (also known as Pumicestone Passage), which runs between the Queensland mainland and Bribie Island. Situated in the intertidal zone, the bench mark is accessed from Bayswater Court, on foot via stairs and a foreshore walking track.
\nThe bench mark comprises two broad arrows flanking a small ‘U’, arranged in a row running northeast to southwest and inscribed into the top surface of a horizontal sandstone ledge. The marks are below tidal inundation level and were originally filled with lead, which is no longer visible. The arrows point southeast and are set approximately two metres apart. The northeast broad arrow is 0.7 metres wide; the southeast broad arrow is 0.8 metres wide and more legible.
\nFeatures of the Sandstone Point Hydrographic Survey Bench Mark of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Sandstone Point Hydrographic Survey Bench Mark not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nThe Sandstone Point Hydrographic Survey Bench Mark was created in 1867, during the British Admiralty’s hydrographic survey of Moreton Bay. It consists of two broad arrows, both pointing southeast, on either side of a small ‘U’, inscribed on top of a sandstone ledge in the intertidal flats at Sandstone Point, west of the southern entrance to Pumicestone Channel. The bench mark is surviving physical evidence of the joint effort (from 1862) by the Queensland Government and British Admiralty to survey the Queensland coastline, which assisted shipping navigation, and in particular the survey of Moreton Bay (1865-8), which facilitated the development of Brisbane as Queensland’s most important port.
\nHydrographic surveying, which developed as a highly specialised branch of surveying in 19th century Britain, mapped the seabed and coastal features to enable safe marine navigation. It included establishing a triangulation network over the survey area, from the mainland to the sea or adjacent islands, with control points on coastal hills or headlands. ‘Coast liner' parties then conducted a land survey of coastal features, recorded high and low water lines, and took soundings to determine the depth and composition of the seabed.[1]
\nWhile the ‘mother' survey ship would take soundings in deep water, ‘chicks' (smaller boats, initially rowed and later steam powered) would run lines of soundings from the shore to deep water, using a lead line. Sounding positions were fixed and charted by reading sextant angles between the three nearest control points. Soundings were taken at all tide stages and later corrected for the tide height to create a common datum (a quantity or set of quantities that serve as a reference or basis for calculation of other quantities). The tidal observations were recorded by a tide gauge established nearby. During the survey the tides and datum were related to a permanent bench mark, for use in future surveys. [2] Bench marks were cut by a party who monitored the tides over a lengthy period of time, preferably at a sheltered area with calm water.[3]
\nBased on the definition contained in Bill Kitson and Judith McKay’s Surveying Queensland 1839-1945: A Pictorial History, and known surviving hydrographic bench marks in Queensland, a bench mark (sometimes called a datum mark) is a point, at a known elevation either above or below an adopted datum (usually sea level), marked on a natural or manufactured, durable, fixed object – or it could even be a particular part of an object.[4] In Queensland, ‘broad arrow’ symbols (used to denote a government survey from 1852) were cut on the side of a rock as an upward pointing arrow, or on top of a rock with the arrow lying horizontally (meaning the upper surface of the rock became the measurement point), as bench marks. Alternatively, metal disks were attached to a rock or concrete, or a broad arrow was cut into a tree. Often a line was cut, balanced on the point of the arrow, as the measuring point for the datum.[5] As well as at Sandstone Point, other confirmed examples of broad arrow bench marks cut into rocks are located in Cairns Harbour (Bessie Point, 1878, QHR 602833); Bowen (waterfront, 1887); and at Princess Charlotte Bay in the Flinders group of islands (1899, by HMS Dart).[6]
\nThe hydrographic survey of Moreton Bay, which spans the traditional lands and seas of the Quandamooka, Kabi Kabi, Jagera and Turrbal first nations peoples,[7] was part of a long-term effort by the British Admiralty to survey Queensland’s coastline and its harbours and rivers. In 1770 Captain James Cook in HM Bark Endeavour was the first British navigator to chart the coast of what is now Queensland. Admiralty surveys commenced after the establishment of the British Admiralty Hydrographic Office in 1795, and parts of Queensland's waters were charted and surveyed by a series of British navigators prior to Queensland's separation from New South Wales (NSW) in 1859.[8]
\nAfter Separation, more accurate charts were required as the new colony developed its ports. Coastal shipping was of vital importance to Queensland's economy at the time, given the geographical size of the colony, lack of all-weather roads, and the absence of a coastal railway. In 1860 Lieutenant (later Commander) George Poynter Heath, RN, was appointed as marine surveyor to Queensland's Surveyor-General's Department, and in his first year he surveyed the Maroochy and Mooloolah rivers in the Spitfire. In 1862 he was appointed Portmaster and Marine Surveyor of Queensland.[9]
\nIn 1860-61 Queensland entered into an agreement with the British Admiralty to split the annual costs of hydrographic surveying (then about £3000 per annum). The Admiralty would provide staff and instruments and publish charts, while the Queensland Government would provide the lodging, subsistence, and ‘means of locomotion' for staff.[10] The focus was on charting a safe shipping route along the Queensland coast, but the Admiralty surveyors could also assist the Queensland Government with its river and harbour surveys.[11]
\nThe Admiralty survey of Queensland under the agreement with Queensland began in 1862. Master (later Lieutenant, then Staff Commander) James Jeffery was appointed as Queensland's first Admiralty Surveyor and arrived in the colony in September 1862. He then hired a local vessel to survey the Great Sandy Strait, Hervey Bay, and the mouth of the Mary River, but soon persuaded the Queensland Government to have a surveying schooner constructed. HMS Pearl, a 60 foot 6 inch (18.44m) vessel built in Sydney, came into service in October 1863.[12] This vessel was rigged as a fore and aft schooner, was of 70 tons [71.12 metric tons] burden with a shallow draught, and left Brisbane to complete a survey of Hervey Bay in late October 1863.[13] Between 1864 and 1866 Jeffery surveyed Moreton Bay between Peel Island and Mud Island, Keppel Bay, and the outer route to Point Danger.[14]
\nJeffery’s survey of Moreton Bay began in mid-1865.[15] This survey, and its soundings of water depths, was important to the safe navigation of ships across the bay to the mouth of the Brisbane River. During the period of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement (1824-42), most ships that entered Moreton Bay were government vessels, and the preferred route was the southern entrance (also known as the South Passage) between Moreton Island and Stradbroke Island, and a pilot station was established at Amity Point on Stradbroke Island. To prevent smuggling of goods into the penal settlement, in the late 1820s a garrisoned depot was constructed at Dunwich, Stradbroke Island, for transhipping goods to smaller vessels before they were sent up the river to Brisbane. Although the northern entrance was known to be superior by 1838, it was still seen as easier to control shipping through the southern entrance.[16]
\nAs a result of there being a transhipment depot at Dunwich, during the convict period there was no need to improve access for larger vessels into and up the Brisbane River, by dredging channels through the bar at the mouth of the Brisbane River and the mud flats further upriver. However, the introduction of ‘free settlement’ in the Moreton Bay district in 1842 meant that settlers needed to import goods and export their produce, and, although small vessels could reach Brisbane, larger ships had to anchor in the bay, outside the Brisbane River bar, and have their goods and passengers lightered up the river. Although Brisbane was declared a Port of Entry in 1846, a Warehousing Port in 1849, and a customs house was built in 1850, no dredging of the river and its bar occurred before Separation.[17]
\nSome surveys of Moreton Bay had occurred prior to 1859, but these were not comprehensive. With the assistance of Lieutenant CB Yule commanding HM Surveying vessel Bramble, Captain John Clements Wickham (1798-1864), the Police Magistrate for Moreton Bay from 1842, had surveyed the channels into the bay from the northern entrance in 1846; and added buoys and beacons in 1847, in preparation for the closure of the South Passage as the main entrance. The pilot station had been moved to Cowan Cowan on Moreton Island in 1848. In other efforts to improve maritime safety, Moreton Bay’s first Harbour Master, Captain Frederick Freeman, had been appointed in 1847, and in 1848 more soundings had been added to the chart of the northern entrance by Captain Stanley. The mouth of the Brisbane River, and the anchorage outside the bar, had been surveyed by Yule in 1848, while the Cape Moreton lighthouse [QHR 600257] had been built in 1856.[18]
\nBy 1859, Brisbane was the most important trading port of the new colony of Queensland, having successfully seen off an early challenge by Cleveland Point, which was supported by Darling Downs squatters as the port for Moreton Bay. The value of the port of Brisbane’s trade during the 1860s well exceeded the second and third most valuable ports, which at that time were Rockhampton and Maryborough.[19] The main impediment to Ipswich – upriver from Brisbane and another rival port – effectively competing with Brisbane was the navigation hazard of Seventeen Mile Rocks, which were not cut through until 1865-6.[20]
\nAccess into the Brisbane River for larger vessels was improved during the 1860s. A channel was dredged through the bar at the river mouth by 1866, and one was cut through the sandbank near Fisherman Islands (to allow larger vessels to reach Lytton) by 1867.[21] Later, cuttings were made in the Upper Flats and Eagle Farm Flats of the Brisbane River by 1872, which allowed large ships to reach Brisbane’s wharves and proved to be a turning point in Brisbane’s rivalry with Ipswich.[22]
\nIn July 1866 Jeffery was replaced as commander of the Admiralty survey by Master (later Navigating Lieutenant, then Staff-Commander) Edward Parker Bedwell (1834-1919). Bedwell was born in St Heliers, Jersey, joined the RN in the late 1840s, served in the Crimean War, and joined the surveying service in 1857, where he worked off the coasts of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. He was posted to Australia as chief assistant to the NSW hydrographic survey in 1864, later taking charge of the Queensland survey.[23] By April 1867 it was reported that a map of the bay between Mud Island and Comboyuro Point (on Moreton Island) had been completed, with ‘Mr EP Bedwell, RN’ and his assistant, ‘Mr Bray’ having undertaken the ‘greater portion’ of the survey of that area.[24]
\nBy March 1868 the entire Admiralty survey of Moreton Bay, along with the coastline between Point Danger and a point 6 miles (9.7km) north of Cape Moreton, had been completed. During the survey the Pearl Channel, between the Central and Western Banks in the north of Moreton Bay, was documented, along with a harbour in ‘Pumice Stone Strait’. It was claimed that the harbour (presumably the anchorage inside the southern entrance to the strait), ‘being in the direction of one of the routes to the Mary River diggings [Gympie] and some of the principal sugar plantations, may become the seat of considerable commerce’.[25]
\nDuring the survey, a bench mark, consisting of two broad arrows and a ‘U’ cut into the top of a horizontal sandstone ledge in the intertidal zone, was established at Sandstone Point, in the traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi People.[26] A chart of Pumice Stone Strait (today known as Pumicestone Channel or Pumicestone Passage), published in 1868, noted that it had been surveyed in 1867 by Navigating Lieutenant EP Bedwell, RN, assisted by Navigating Sub-Lieutenant EHS Bray. This chart included the bench mark at Sandstone Point, and the chart’s title noted that the ‘Datum mark [bench mark] cut into ledge at Sandstone Point thus [two vertical arrow symbols] and filled with lead, is one foot [30.5cm] below HW Springs [high water spring tides] in August 1867 & February 1868’.[27] Spring tides do not refer to the season, but to those days twice a month in which the tidal range is greatest (with a higher high tide and lower low tide than usual), due to the linear alignment of the sun and moon with the Earth.[28] The chart, on which the soundings in fathoms (1 fathom being 6 feet, or 1.8m) were reduced to low water spring tides (the usual practice for depth soundings, as this was the lowest water depth that could be expected), also indicated that a tide gauge had been established at Toorbul Point, within the Pumice Stone Strait (just north of the current bridge to Bribie Island). The land near Sandstone Point was labelled as ‘wooded’, while ‘Bonney Farm’ was located at Toorbul Point.[29] In the 1870s, Toorbul Point became part of a sugar plantation owned by Captain Douglas Douglas Hamilton.[30]
\nThe Admiralty survey continued after the Moreton Bay survey was completed. From 1868 to 1879 Bedwell surveyed the coast between Cape Moreton and the north end of the Cumberland Islands (between Mackay and Bowen); the Brisbane, Mary, Burnett and Fitzroy rivers to their principal townships; plus Port Curtis and Bowen. The Bedwell group of islands southeast of Mackay are named after him.[31]
\nDuring the Admiralty survey of Queensland’s coastline, various ships were used. The 39 foot (11.89m) steam launch Sabina was built in 1872 to assist HMS Pearl, and in 1878 the 195 ton [198.12 metric tons] screw steamer Llewellyn was chartered to replace the Pearl.[32] Bedwell reported that the steamer could cover much more ground in less time than the schooner.[33] Other survey ships that operated in Queensland during the 1860s and 1870s included HMS Salamander, HMS Virago and HMS Basilisk.[34]
\nBy early 1880 Queensland had decided to withdraw from the Admiralty agreement for financial reasons, and the British navy officers, including Bedwell, were recalled to England. Total expenditure on the Admiralty survey in 1879 was £7961, of which the British government only contributed £2500.[35] However, the HMS Pearl continued to be used by the Queensland Government, undertaking a survey of ports and rivers in the Gulf of Carpentaria under the command of Captain CE Pennefather in the early 1880s.[36]
\nDespite the withdrawal of the Queensland Government from the joint project, the Admiralty continued its own surveying of Queensland waters, and the ships involved included HMS Alert from 1881, and HMS Dart from 1883. The agreement with Queensland was renewed in 1885, although this time the Admiralty accepted the larger share of costs, and the new Queensland gunboat HMS Paluma was lent to the Admiralty for survey work, charting the coast north of Bowen.[37] This agreement expired on 31 March 1895, but co-operation between Queensland and the Admiralty continued, as a bill was introduced in the Queensland Parliament in late 1894 to continue funding the Admiralty survey (while using a British ship) at a rate of £3270 per year, for six years from 1 April 1895.[38]
\nIn the late 1880s HMS Myrmidon assisted with surveying the Great Barrier Reef, and in 1897 HMS Waterwitch joined northern surveying operations. During surveys, Admiralty crews planted edible plants and released pigs and goats on islands for shipwreck survivors. After Australian Federation in 1901 the Admiralty continued to work off Queensland until c1926, using the HMS Dart, HMS Penguin, HMS Fantome, and HMS Herald. The Hydrographic Branch of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) was formed in 1920, and Australia's first naval survey vessel, HMAS Geranium, began surveying the Great Barrier Reef in 1924.[39]
\nIn 2022 the 1867 bench mark at Sandstone Point, cut during the Admiralty survey of Moreton Bay, survives as a physical reminder of the early work of Queensland’s maritime surveyors, in particular the survey of Moreton Bay from 1865-68, which was important to safe navigation within the bay, and the development of Brisbane as a port. The bench mark is an enduring feature with a weathered patina from more than 150 years of tidal inundation, and provides a tangible record of sea levels in the 19th century, against which future sea level rises can be measured.
","criteria":"The Sandstone Point Hydrographic Survey Bench Mark (1867) is early important surviving evidence of the British Admiralty’s hydrographic survey of Queensland's coastal waters, harbours and rivers, which became a joint initiative with the Queensland Government from 1862, and the efforts of the British Admiralty hydrographic surveyors, including Navigating Lieutenant (later Staff Commander) Edward Parker Bedwell, RN, who led Queensland’s hydrographic survey from 1866 to 1880. This survey was essential for safe shipping navigation, which was the principal means of early long-distance transport for the colony that facilitated the settlement of remote areas, and the economic development of Queensland.
\nThe establishment of a bench mark at Sandstone Point was an important step in the hydrographic survey of Moreton Bay in the late 1860s, which facilitated the development of the Port of Brisbane. The hydrographic survey produced accurate navigation charts, necessary to identify safe shipping routes through the bay to the Brisbane River.
|The Sandstone Point Hydrographic Survey Bench Mark demonstrates the principal characteristics of a British Admiralty hydrographic survey mark in Queensland (its particular class of cultural place), including: inscribed markings (in this instance two broad arrows and a U shape) on a large, fixed, durable object near a body of water, either above or below inundation level, with a recorded elevation above or below a datum (in this case high water spring tides). Sandstone Point Hydrographic Survey Bench Mark is important in demonstrating these principal characteristics because it is an early example and retains its integrity.
\n|
The Sandstone Point Hydrographic Survey Bench Mark has a special symbolic association with the British Admiralty hydrographic surveyors who measured and mapped Queensland’s coastal waters, harbours and rivers, from the 1860s to the 1920s, being tangible evidence of their skills and efforts that were important in facilitating safe shipping and the development of Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"} ]}