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Portion 9 Parish of Indooroopilly
Peter Brown
St Lucia History Group Paper 23
ST LUCIA HISTORY GROUP
PGB/History/Papers/23 Portion 9 Page 1 of 20 Printed October 14, 2017
ST LUCIA HISTORY GROUP RESEARCH PAPER
23. PORTION 9 PARISH OF INDOOROOPILLY
Author: Peter Brown © 2017
CONTENTS:
Page
1. Portion 9 1
2. Portion 9A 4
3. Portion 9B 7
4. Portion 9C 9
Cover illustration: Anzac Day Commemoration Committee, Brisbane Mail 21 March 1922.
TA Ryan seated far left on the front row
Peter Brown
2017
Private Study Paper – not for general publication
St Lucia History Group
PO Box 4343
St Lucia South
QLD 4067
Email: [email protected]
Web: brisbanehistorywest.wordpress.com
ST LUCIA HISTORY GROUP
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1. PORTION 9
Following the opening of Moreton Bay for free settlement in 1842, the Government (of New
South Wales) began to sell off Crown land for housing, businesses and farms. The first land
sold in today’s St Lucia was in 1853 and comprised 19 acres in the area of Sandford Street/
Heroes Avenue on the west side of Toowong Creek. Robert Cribb named it Lang Farm and it
became a land mark in the area for many years, and is shown on the left of the following map.
In 1857 the Government subdivided and sold much of the rest of St Lucia as farmland, with a
central track to provide access - now Carmody Road and two access tracks to the river - now
Ryans Road and Mill Road.
Courtesy Professor Prentice Album, Fryer Library University of Queensland
William Rawlins was the first purchaser of Portion 9, shown above adjacent to the river
access track, and spanning from the river to the central track. It is important to understand that
today’s Sir Fred Schonell Drive and Gailey Road with its bridge over Toowong Creek did not
come into existence for another thirty years, and that roads were not named for another forty
years. The following current street map indicates Portion 9 today:
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Rawlins purchased his forty acres but subdivided the Portion 9 into three strips, A B and C for
on-sale to farming families. Each strip had both river and road frontage, with subdivision C
also having one of the river access tracks on one side (Ryans Road).
When NSW Surveyor General and explorer John Oxley was rowed up the Brisbane River in
1823 he noted in his journal, when passing the future St Lucia ‘the low land on starboard
shore commences having cypress intermingled with the brush.’1
Years later a newspaper correspondent walked through the brush after visiting Lang Farm, to
reach the new farms and reported: 2
I must…take your readers with me through this bit of scrub-land bordering the Brisbane
River; bearing in mind as you force your way through the pendant vines, or runners,
interlacing and almost obstructing one’s progress in every direction, that great caution need
be exercised to escape the tormenting fangs of the bush lawyer, a very formidable looking
customer…(that has) very little mercy upon those persons who foolishly place themselves
within their clutches…What an immense variety of shrubs, creepers, and botanical
specimens meet the eye in every direction; and the mind of the inquisitive is speedily filled
with wonder and amazement at the beautiful productions of native wild. At last we reach a
clearing:- a spot of some half dozen acres from which the trees and brushwood have been
but recently removed. In this patch we behold a splendid growth of early maize, the well
cobbed stacks of which give the hard working proprietor a sure token that his 30, or
perhaps 50 acre farm, is amply worth all the labor he can bestow upon its clearing and
cultivation…I found in this neighbourhood several other farms, recent purchases from the
Crown, and like the one described, giving unmistakeable evidence of what crops may be
raised. From the scrub and forest lands bordering the rivers and creeks of this district,
splendid potatoes, gigantic mushrooms, huge melons, and other vegetable productions…
Of the area generally between 1857 and 1880, Prof. Robinson says: 3
in the main … [the area] was a farming community, growing potatoes, pumpkins and other
vegetables, maize [corn], lucerne, bananas, pineapples, cotton, and sugar, and even
arrowroot, with some orcharding and dairying…
Early farming houses were small and made from local materials; this is just an example of the
1860s era:
‘Indooroopilly farmers home’ Courtesy SLQ APE-021-01-001 0r
1 J G Steele, The Exploration of Moreton Bay District 1770 – 1830 University of Queensland Press, 1972.p. 111. 2 Moreton Bay Courier, 5 February 1859, p.2.c.5. 3 Prof. Robinson op cit., p 8.
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2. Portion 9 A
Portion 9 Sub A, 14 acres on the eastern side was first registered
to William Werry.4 He and his wife Phillipa (b. 1838) had nine
children, including Fanny born 1868,5 and Emma, Naomi, George
and Mary.6 William’s great-great-grandson Kevin Seeney
advises that when William died in 1871 aged 38, his wife
remarried German migrant Martin Depper (b.1845) who had been
lodging on the farm whilst working in the neighbourhood. Martin
and Phillipa had at least another six children, one of whom was
Martin Jnr born in 1875.7
In 1874 the Carmody Road boundary was described as ‘fenced
forest’.8
Martin Depper became the formal land owner in 1882 and in the
mid 1880s sold the riverfront part of his fourteen acres, (Sub 1)
north of the new St Lucia Road to the developers of the Ironside
Estate.9 He subsequently purchased two allotments in the
Ironside Estate on the corner of Depper St and Ryans Rd where
he built a house facing Ryans Road for his extensive family and
remained there until just before his death in 1914.10 He named his
new house Rheingan after the similarly named wine-growing area
in Germany that he presumably came from.11
Frederick Depper in front of his St Lucia home 1908
Courtesy PictureQueensland
4 Certificate of Title No. 3017 Vol. XXX Folio 35 Portion 9A. 5 Toowong Primary School register undated possibly 1873 QSA Z2501. 6 Ironside State School Diamond Jubilee Book 1930. 7 Keith Seeney Depper St St Lucia signed note, 2003; QFHS Pedigree chart 2162 Depper. 8 Queensland Government Gazette 1874 p 662. 9 Certificate of Title No. 3017 Vol. XXX Folio 35 Portion 9A. 10 Certificate of Title No. 3013 Vol XXX Folio 31; Certificate of Title No 111305 Vol 715 Folio 45; Keith
Seeney Depper St St Lucia signed note, 2003; Post office Directory 1893. 11 Post Office Directories
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In 1913 the property was bought by his neighbour Henry Monteith of 80 Ryans Road, who
demolished the house and excavated the ground to make a croquet lawn, later a tennis court,
which remains to this day.
In 1888 Depper sold another four acres (Resub 2 of Sub 2) south of and adjoining St Lucia
Road to Charles Highfield but he, Highfield, continued to reside at Toowong.12 He took out a
mortgage for one thousand pounds in 1894 but in 1921 the mortgagee sold the land to Albert
E Marsh, who had been a member of the 3rd Pioneers AIF.
13 His wife was Susan (Spiller), son
Albert Henry, and daughters Ivy Gladys and Lily Doris.14
Throughout the 1920s the Marsh family grew vegetables – carrots, beetroot, and cabbage etc
and customers went and picked their requirements and hosed them off near the house before
paying for them. Albert Marsh won awards for vegetables at the St Lucia Show in 1923 and
continued doing so until 1930; he also contributed at the Church of England flower show in
1930.15 If Mr or Mrs Marsh entered in later years they did not win awards. Jim Mackenzie
says that from about 1930 they converted much of the farm to growing strawberries and
became one of the largest growers in Queensland. The land was finally subdivided into at
least 19 residential blocks in 1950, and land was dedicated for a road – probably the extension
of Sisley Street through to Brisbane Street.16 No estate sale notice has been found for the land
but Mr Marsh withdrew it from ‘all agents’ in 1951 by which time approximately a quarter of
the land had been sold.17 Land prices at this time were about £50 per Lot. Sales continued and
by the time Mr Marsh died in 1954 the rest of the land had been sold, or was sold soon after;
the Marsh house was on Lots 15-17 and it was left to his widow.18
Purchasers of land were Kenneth Crouch (a doctor?), George Hoskins, John Leaver, Francis
Cole, Stanley Neil, Les Hodges, Edith Halliday (Sub 9 of sub 1 of Resub 2 of Sub 2 of resub 2
of sub 1 of Sub A of Portion 9), 68 Sisley St 1953, re-sold in 1980 to Edward Bach, in 1981 to
Mary Cochrane and in 1996 it passed to her daughter Dotti Kemp), Ronald Bowler, Herbert
Pitty, Joseph Costigan (Sub 10, 66 Sisley St 1954, re-sold in 1956 to Colin Kable and in 1965
to Dorothy and Edith Hill), Herbert and Eileen Pitty (Sub 8, 70 Sisley St), Graham (Sub ? 67
Sisley St, re-sold to R J (Dotti) Kemp, and in 1992 to Dr Lee).
Ms Dotti Kemp says Mr Pitty at number 70 used to be in the stone trade in some way, so had
access to off-cuts of marble, granite etc which he used to pave his multicoloured front
veranda/patio. Mr Pitty remembered the strawberry fields near 67 Sisley before the creek was
filled with coke etc and a house built on the block.
Martin Depper, or his descendents upon his death in 1914, or others sold the Carmody Road
end of his property before 1922. The following Plate VI is a series of adverts for the Ferry
Estate which appeared in 1922 and is for this component as it mentions 6 Lots on Carmody
Road and a house in later follow up advertisements. A 1946 aerial photograph shows those
allotments and also a large house and grounds on the corner of Carmody Road and Brisbane
Street.19 The land would have been approximately four and a half acres. Maps show that
Depper Street was extended through to Brisbane Street at about this time.
12 Post Office Directories 1885 – 1898.
13 Certificate of Title 111692 Vol 717 Folio 182 Highfield 1888
14 Queensland State Electoral Roll 1934
15 The Brisbane Courier 9 June 1923 p 11; 4 June 1930 p 14 13 November 1930 p21.
16 Certificate of Title 111692 Vol 717 Folio 182 Highfield 1888.
17 The Courier-Mail 17 January 1951 p14.
18 The Courier-Mail 15 April 1954 p 14.
19 The Brisbane Courier 8 July 1922 p 10 c 1; BCC 1946 aerial photograph of St Lucia.
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Plate VI Advert for Ferry Estate
Courtesy The Brisbane Courier 8 July 1922
Courtesy The Brisbane Courier 26 July 1922 p16
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Courtesy The Brisbane Courier 24 June 1925 p13.
3. Portion 9 B
The Sub B, some 6 acres, was registered to Richard Meddleton in 1864,
and he on-sold it to Thomas Strong in 1878. Meddleton signed the road
opening petition in 1865, and went on to become a timber-getter and
long time resident of Brookfield.20 Strong on-sold Sub B in 1885 to
William Wilson to become part of Ironside Estate.21
Of note in this area is Mobolon, the residence of several notable people;
see Paper 16 DROUGHTS, FLOODS, LAND VALUES, HERITAGE
LISTINGS and HOUSES
Also of note in this area is the Woodhead family. Charles was the
managing director of Bryce Ltd, a pioneer transport company that his
father had been with, finally as senior director, for fifty years.22 The
nearby Bryce Street was not named after this company, but after Robert
Lee Bryce who lived in Hiron Street in the 1890s.
Charles Woodhead married Mary Ann Rose (Rosie) Moore in 1913 and
they had their first daughter Arlie, in 1915 whilst living at west End.23
The family had moved to Romany Rye Sisley Street St Lucia by 1933.24
A daughter Arlie married Hugh Stewart in August 1936.25
20 Wager Libby, ‘Different Tracks’, p.88, M England private papers.
21 Certificate of Title No 3016 Vol XXX Folio 34 Portion 9B.
22 The Courier Mail 3 Auguust 1936 p4.
23 The Brisbane Courier 30 January 1915 p4.
24 The Courier Mail 30 November 1933 p 20, 3 August 1934 p 23.
25 The Courier Mail 26 February 1936 p21; Queensland Figaro 21 March 1936 p 11
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The youngest daughter was Neridah who got engaged to Jack Rennick in 1942.26 Another
daughter married Major General F W De Guingand in Cairo in 1942 and a daughter was born
in London in 1944, at which time her parents were still living in St Lucia.27
A son Keith died in 1943. Another son Jack was born in 1916 and went on to become
managing director of Bryce and Co when his father retired. The Woodheads sold the house in
1949 and moved to Cleveland:28The Woodhead house in 1946 (centre)
26 The Courier Mail 11 June 1942 p8
27 The Courier Mail 24 February 1944 p5; Commonwealth Electoral Roll 1959
28 The Courier Mail 8 October 1949 p 15 near end.
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4. Portion 9 C
George Smith purchased Subdivision 9 C, twenty acres between
the river and the central track, bounding the river access track.
The relationship between George Smith the purchaser, a
business man in Brisbane, and Jesse Smith the eventual farmer
is not known, possibly father and son. A Mr and Mrs J Smith
are recorded as arriving in Brisbane by ship in 1850.29
Fifty years later a long-term resident of the area wrote:30
The first attempt to arrange locally for the education of the
children of this district was made about the year 1864, when Mrs
Smith, wife of Mr Jesse Smith, a farmer occupying the land
adjoining the water trough and tank opposite Guyatt’s store acted
as teacher. She was not a qualified teacher. No provision was
made for a school building; the children used to assemble at Mrs
Smith’s house. Mrs Smith was not equal to the task and did not
continue the work for more than a few months.
Some twenty years later in 1878 George Smith sold the farm to
Thomas Strong, and just a few months later neighbour
Meddleton also sold his adjoining six acre property to Strong,
Subdivision 9B.31 Thomas Strong had been a successful cane
farmer at Oxley Creek and Long Pocket for a number of years,
winning a Gold Medal at the East Moreton Agricultural and Horticultural Association Show
in 1878, and no doubt continued farming his new purchase of Portion 9B and C.32
Strong raised a £700 mortgage against the properties in 1879 and may have then built a new
home, possibly named Rose Hill (see later) which was described as a large and substantial
wooden house, with outhouses and beautiful flower garden.33
According to Professor Robinsons:34
Between 1878 and 1888 there were moves by other local farmers to have a new road
dedicated from Toowong Creek through Mr Depper and Mr Strong’s property and others to
the end of the peninsular, to improve access to the new Railway Station at Toowong and
Brisbane City. Mr Strong and Mr Depper (and Depper’s immediate neighbours Corbett)
formally objected, because the proposed road would divide their farms in two and pass
between Strong’s house and stables, and also close to Depper’s house thus destroying their
peaceful existence..
29 The Moreton Bay Courier 5 October 1850 p2
30 ‘St Lucia and Long Pocket – Early Educational Arrangements’, c.1916 provenance unknown, RHSQ
Ref Archive Box 23 Folder No 5 Document 4. 31 Certificate of Titles No 3013 Vol XXX Folio 34, No 3016 Vol XXX Folio 34
32 The Brisbane Courier 16 January 1878 p 5.
33 The Brisbane Courier 2 May 1885 p7 c 2, 9 May 1885 p 7 c 1. Ironside Estate
34 As quoted RHSQ Journal 2005 Vol 19 No 2 “William Dart” by Marilyn England.
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In 1885 Strong, having purchased other land at Sandgate, sold the two subdivisions 9C 9B
and the house to residential developers W A Wilson and J Potts, who then marketed the land
together with part of Subdivision 9A, as Ironside Estate.35 The auction advertisements
mentioned the Strong house and showed it on the lithograph as Lot 154; the litho also showed
a proposed new road between the house and the stables (now known as Sir Fred Schonell
Drive):36
In 1886 Thomas Augustine Ryan a well known property agent and coincidentally the
auctioneer for the estate, purchased a large part of the Estate including the Thomas Strong
house and stables37
He incorporated those Lots which were bounded by the future Hiron Street to the North,
Bryce Street, Sir Fred Schonell Drive and Ryans Road, including the house into one Title
shown below, comprising 3½ acres (he didn’t own the Lots 160-164 or 166 on Hiron
Street):38
35 Certificate of Title No 3013 dated1864
36 Sales lithograph for IRONSIDE ESTATE, 1888 John Oxley Library Ref 2545
37 Certificate of Title No 3013 dated 1864.
38 Certificate of Title 91090 Vol 606 Folio 80 T A Ryan 1886
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He previously lived at Boundary Street West End, but the house at Ryans Rd became his new
home:39
Mr Thomas Augustine Ryan (1847-1923) was married to Susan nee Devine (1859-1927) with
one spinster daughter Beatrice (1883-1956) and one son. The son was Augustus (Gus)
Maxwell Ryan who married Marguerite Broadley in 1930; he joined his father’s valuation
business in 1919. Mr T A Ryan played an active role in, and was a respected member of the
community; he was an elected member of the Indooroopilly Divisional Board in 1887 and
1888, and a member of the Toowong Bowls Club for many years. In recognition of his
services the street in which he lived was named Ryan’s Road after him in 1893. Mrs Ryan
was a member of the Toowong Branch of the Queensland Women’s Electoral Lobby.
Soon after he gave his address as Rose Hill Indooroopilly:40
In this context the name Indooroopilly referred to the Indooroopilly Divisional Board, of
which Mr Ryan was the elected representative for Division 3 – St Lucia. Rose Hill was
possibly the name that Mr Strong had earlier given the house as Ryan later gave his address as
Tomona which is believed to refer to the same house. Rose Hill of course is a famous name
from its original use for today’s Parramatta.
The house appears in the following c.1890 photograph:
39 Post Office Directories 1885; T A Ryan obituary, The Brisbane Courier 29 December 1923 page 6
40 The Brisbane Courier 18 April 1887 p 6.
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Brisbane Past and Present RHSQ 1901
Also State Library of Queensland Neg 142828
Also in the following 1891 photograph, just left of centre towards the horizon:
St Lucia Flats 1891 courtesy JOL
Mr Ryan’s house burnt down in February 1892:41
As Mr Ryan’s house was probably very close to the recently built St Lucia Road (Sir Fred
Schonell Drive) he seems to have rebuilt his house a little closer to the river, and lived there
until 1897.42
41 Brisbane Courier 15 February 1892 p 2.
42 Post Office Directories 1894, 1895, 1896 p 128.
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Ryan had taken out a mortgage of £1040 in 1886, replaced it with one for £2 200 in 1887, and
replaced it again with one for £2 500 in 1890, this time with the London owned Queensland
Investment and Land Mortgage Co Ltd. The mortgage may have been registered over other
land he owned as well. This mortgage was due for repayment in 1893 but it was not paid out,
and like many individuals and companies at that time it is possible either Ryan or the
Mortgagee ran into financial difficulties.
Postal records show Mr Ryan moved to rented premises in Emma St/Glenn Rd Toowong after
1897 to a house he also named Tomona, by 1913 to a house in Bennett St Toowong, and then
to a house he purchased at Wienholt Street Auchenflower.
It is not known who if anybody lived in the house after 1897 and the name Tomona seems to
have not been continued at this location.
T A Ryan died in 1923:
He is credited with being the first person to propose what became ANZAC day, following his
son Gus’s involvement as a Major in the First World War: 43
43 Thomas Augustine Ryan, obituary, The Brisbane Courier 29 December 1923 page 6, The Telegraph 29
December 1923 page 8, The Queenslander 5 January 1924 p 40.
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The family grave at Toowong (Portion 7A Sect 3 No 1A) according to the sexton’s records
contains Thomas, Susan and Beatrice; it has an unusual headstone:
In 1912 Ryan’s land and a ‘nice residence’ were advertised for sale as the Shire Estate:44
44 The Brisbane Courier 5 Oct 1912 p.8; 23 October 1912 p 8; 2 November 1912 p 16
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The new plans would have shown the original 23 Lots re-subdivided into 36 Lots, but these
new ones did not take into account that the house sat on more than one lot and had certain
fencing around it. The sale was reported as being ‘fairly successful’ by the auctioneer, and
unsold blocks were advertised later the same month:45
45 The Brisbane Courier 4 November 1912 p.7; 20 November 1912 p.8.
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No mention is made of who organised the sale but it is interesting to note that Mr Ryan, a
longstanding auctioneer, was not the auctioneer for this estate and the subsequent land sales
are notated to show the transfer was by the mortgagee rather than Mr Ryan.
The ‘residence together with four blocks’ (Lots 6 to Part 11/12 being the house and the fenced
garden either side) were sold to William Frederick Turk and the fence location is shown by
the new boundaries established by re-survey.46 The fence around the house and garden was
according to Jim Mackenzie made of ‘K-Wire’, the St Lucia-produced chain link fencing.
Mr Turk came originally from Gympie and in 1911 married a Brisbane girl and established W
F Turk Motors Pty Ltd in Adelaide Street in the city selling Maxwell cars amongst other
mechanical items. The couple were noted as living at Ryans Rd in May 1913 just months after
the purchase of the house and land.47 The Post Office Directory for 1914 indicates only Raven
Jno, Raven Frederick and Turk W living on Ryans Road between the river and St Lucia Road.
Mr Raven was a cooper and actually lived on the riverfront on Hiron Street, not on the corner
of Ryans Road, but the directory in those days did not always include side streets separately.
A year later in 1914 Mr Turk bought the adjoining Lots part 11/12 to 15.48
A month later he on-sold Lots 13, snd part 11 and 12, which totalled 54 perches on the corner
of Ryans Rd and Sir Fred Schonell Drive, to Henry Sampson.
Turk had a separate Title issued for Lots 14 and 15 which was possibly sold to a Percy
Atkinson who is recorded as living there from 1918 (now apartments 116 Sir Fred Schonell
Drive).49
46 Certificate of Title 211928 Vol 1244 Folio 168 W F Turk 1913.
47 The Brisbane Courier 14 May 1913 p17.
48 Certificate of Title 219602 Vol 1279 Folio 92.dated 1914 William Turk
49 Certificate of Title 219602 Vol 1279 Folio 92.dated 1914 William Turk; Post Office Directory 1918-1922
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Five years later Henry Sampson sold his land, as Jim Mackenzie reports that his mother Mrs
Myra Mackenzie, a war widow, purchased that land in 1919 and had a new house built for her
and infant son Jim.50 Jim reports that the house was no more than a very basic cottage built by
Mrs Mackenzie’s stepbrother, comprising one bedroom, a lounge, a bathroom and a wrap-
around verandah; the construction was of unpainted ‘second class’ pine with malthoid felt
used as flooring in the bathroom. That original part of the house is incorporated in the present
house.
Mrs Mackenzie later subdivided off and sold the rear of her block, now a house,114 Sir Fred
Schonell Drive. In 1950 Brisbane City Council resumed from Mrs Mackenzie some 20 feet of
St Lucia Rd frontage for road widening; she was paid £20 for 1.33 perch [equivalent to £240
per 16 perch Lot] and Council paid for a new fence.51
Briastra 40 Ryans Road 2012
Jim lived there at No 40 Ryans Rd, using the verandah as his bedroom until selling the house
after his mother died in 1969. Jim married Mavis in 1971 and they now, 2012 live in Chapel
Hill. The house was and still is named Briastra after a town on the Belgium/French border
where Jim’s father died in WW I. The house was sold initially to Mr Bell a barrister who
rented it out.
Jim confirms that the original house Tomona had burnt down and he remembers finding the
base of a brick chimney, and large charred gate posts. The gate itself was made of iron with
25mm vertical bars and it was so heavy the bottom edge swung out along an arced steel
support; Jim took the gate to his sister-in-laws property at Mt Tambourine. Jim also found a
badly charred pair of map dividers near the posts that were probably used by Mr Ryan before
the house burnt down.
50 The Queensland Post Office and Official Directory 1920, Wises Directories, CD Archive Books
51 Brisbane City Council Minutes 22 August 1950 p 124, 125.
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Mr Turk sold his house and land in 1917 to Alice, wife of Robert Thompson from Gympie,
but seems to have rented the house back as the family lived there until about 1921. In 1921
there were still only the Ravens, the Turks and the Mackenzies living on that stretch of Ryans
Road.52 Alice sold the property in 1921 to Morgan Hugh Simon and it was occupied by he
and Mrs Marion and Miss Simon; Simon was a timber merchant from Toowoomba.53
Returning briefly to Mr Turk, he was involved in the first aeroplane visits to Brisbane during
the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1920, and arranged for one of the planes to go to Gympie
for joy flights.54 Mrs Turk was closely involved with the newly established Toowong Reach
Methodist Church just up Ryans Road from her house and was given a farewell party in 1921
when she left for Sydney.55 W F Turk Motors went into voluntary liquidation in 1923 and Mr
Turk moved to Sydney.56
In 1926 the house and land was purchased from the Thompsons by returned soldier Captain
Francis Basil Bolton and his wife Florence; he (and his wife and three children) were recorded
as living at Rathnascer in 1928 (phone Toowong 216).57 Mrs Bolton was closely involved in
the St Lucia branch of the Red Cross during WWII, and she exhibited at the St Lucia Show in
the 1930s. Mr Bolton was a keen writer of ‘letters to the editor’ of local newspapers. One of
the twin sons, Geoffrey, married in 1943, and the daughter Elizabeth became engaged in
1944.58
In 1937 Bolton sold off 36 perches on the south side, between his house and the Mackenzies
to Andrew M Marsh by 1937; he built a house and was living there in 1940 at No 36 Ryans
Road but Jim says it was later occupied by Doris Williams and later still the Gurton family59.
Ms Williams was a well respected London trained optometrist in the City who was very active
in many community organisations.60 The house is constructed of timber frame with a chicken
wire and concrete render external façade. Mr Marsh sold the house in 1953 to St Lucia
History Group member Ron Scott and his wife Irene.61
In 1938 Bolton sold off 31 perches on the north side of his house, part of Lots 6 and 7, to Dr
Cecil Norman Sinnamon the local GP who built a house there in the 1930s (phone Toowong
716); his wife was also closely involved in the St Lucia branch of the Red Cross during
WWII.62 Dr Sinnamon moved away c.1951 and the house was then occupied by the
Robinsons; it can be seen in the background of this photograph of Jerdanefield:63
52 Post Office Directories 1919-1922.
53 Post office Directory 1923-4 p 99.
54 The Brisbane Courier 4 August 1920 p7.
55 The Brisbane Courier 10 September 1921 p14.
56 The Brisbane Courier 5 May 1923 p3; 1 November 1924 p23.
57 Simmons information by Jim Mackenzie; The Brisbane Courier 21 April 1928 p 9. Post Office Directory 1928
Certificate of Title 211928 Vol 1244 Folio 168 W F Turk 1913. 58 The CourierMail 31 August 1943 p4, 26 February 1944 p6.
59 Post Office Directory 1937 p 141,1940
60 Post Office Directory 1937 p 141,1940
61 Conservations with R Scott 2005-2012; Certificate of Title 378718 Vol 1995 Folio 58 Marsh 1937; Post office
Directory 1940. 62 The Courier Mail 24 February 1940 p13; Telephone Directory 1947; not in electoral roll for 1939.
63 The Courier Mail 10 March 1937 p22; 27 November 1939 p13; R Scott 2005.
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Jerdanefield with Dr Sinnamon’s house in the background
Photograph courtesy Jim Mackenzie.
The house burnt down c.2000 and is being replaced by a block of apartments in 2012.
Bolton continued to live in the original house which must have been on Lots 7-9 until it was
demolished in 1963, and replaced by apartments now No 30 Ryans Road.64
Of the remaining land in the 1912 Shire Estate sale, Scotsman Henry Monteith editor the The
Brisbane Courier and later Chairman of Directors of The Brisbane Newspaper Co Ltd,
purchased Lots 4 and 5 on Ryans Road, Lot 25 immediately behind it facing on to Bryce
Street, and separate Lots 30 and 31 facing onto Hiron Street.
In 1913 Monteith built a house named Clynder, not on this land but further up Ryans Road
between Sisley Street and Depper Street and lived there until his death in 1930. He or his
estate eventually sold Lots 4 and 5 (No 24 Ryans Road)
The Chittleboroughs were living at No 20, which was on Lots 1 and 2 of Shire Estate and Lot
160 of the original Ironside Estate, by 1947 [phone Toowong 1244] with the house
demolished and rebuilt about 2000.65 The Boyles lived at No 14 on the corner with Hiron
Street which was Lots 161 and 162 of Ironside Estate possibly from the 1940s and that house
was rebuilt in the late 1990’s.66
The remaining Lots 1-3, 16 – 24, 26 – 36 of the Shire Estate were re-advertised in 1923 under
the heading South Toowong Estate despite there already being an estate of that name
elsewhere in South Toowong.67
64 The Brisbane Courier 5 June 1926 p 12; 21 April 1928 p 9; The Courier Mail 3 November 1939 p6; Electoral
Roll 1939; Post Office Directory 1935,1940; Telephone Directory 1947. 65 Telephone Directory 1947; not in electoral roll 1939.
66 Per Ron Scott 2003; not on 1939 electoral roll.
67 The Brisbane Courier 27 June 1923 p20; 4 July 1923 p 20.
ST LUCIA HISTORY GROUP
PGB/History/Papers/23 Portion 9 Page 20 of 20 Printed October 14, 2017
The Estate was advertised again in 1926 with the Lots for sale at £55 each.68 Wm Probst
operated a butchery on the corner Lot by 1937, and it was operated by Gregory & Son in the
1940s.69
The following aerial photograph taken in 1946 illustrates much of the above, including
showing the replacement Tomona, the third house in from Sir Fred Schonell Drive.
The conclusion may be drawn that the first house Rose Hill / Tomona (1878) was probably
situated approximately where Jim Mackenzie’s house No 40 Ryans Rd is today, and that the
second Tomona (1893) was built and became home to Ryan/Turk/Simon/Boltons as No 30
Ryans Road until it was demolished in 1963.
Aerial Photograph Courtesy BCC 1946
68 The Brisbane Courier 14 August 1926 p13.
69 Post Office Directory 1937 p 141, 1949