Early History of St Rita’s 1885 - 1960

Version 1 - 2013

PART I – the original owners of the College site.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE

CHRONOLOGY OF STANLEY HALL

JOHN FORTH 1885 -1888

HERBERT HUNTER 1888 – 1910

EDWARD G BLUME 1910 – 1926

PRESENTATION SISTERS 1926 – Present

JOHN FORTH

James Sutherland purchased the land that St Rita’s college stands on as well as the surrounding areas for

about £100/acre from the crown in 1858. This land was situated in the county of Stanley, Parish of

Toombul. In 1879 he sold the land on which St Rita’s is situated to a William

Alcock Tully who in 1881 sold this land to Charles Lumley Hill who in turn sold to

John William Forth on the 13th January, 1885. Sr Elvera Sesta interviewed a

descendant of the Forths who told her that some of the family had at one stage

bought the property next to St Rita’s in the south east corner.

John Forth built the stately and majestic first floor of Stanley Hall. He arrived

from England in 1860 and, by industry and perseverance, created a business

which became one of the largest in Brisbane among produce dealers. After one

out of their 11 children died, they decided to take the family on a trip to Europe.

On returning to Brisbane after their vacation, the

Forth’s house was completed and all that was needed

was a house – warming party. On the day of the party, John Forth left his store

early in the afternoon to assist some men in transplanting some Poinciana trees

in a paddock near Florence St and Alexandra Rd. The trees are there to this day.

Unfortunately, a derrick, which was used in the work, fell and crushed John

Forth. He died that evening.

Nine months earlier, John had sold this property to his wife, Selina. She did not

remain in this tragic house for long, but left the property in the care of a Mr

Wilson, a Real Estate agent, who eventually arranged for the sale of the

property to a Herbert hunter on the 16th August, 1888. Selina moved to a

stately home opposite Brisbane Boys’ Grammar School.

HERBERT HUNTER

Herbert Hunter came to Australia aboard the “Fiery Star” in 1863 from

Dumfrieshire, Scotland. He travelled second class, a fact which he later regretted.

He worked as a jackaroo at various stations and finally as a clerk at Miles station

near Roma. While there he fell in love and married Jessie Miles. Stanley Hall

eventually became the Hunter’s town residence.

Herbert Hunter built the second storey and tower, the latter to enable

them to have their private box for viewing the races at Eagle Farm.

Hunter’s additions blended very smoothly with Forth’s original storey.

Hunter employed a Melbourne firm of architects,

Oakden, Addison and Kemp to design a home for

him on this property. In 1976 an elderly parishioner,

Mrs Hammond, of St Agatha’s came up to the

convent to give Sr Elvera this old architect’s drawing

– in several pieces by then – that her sons had

scavenged from the dump when Monseigneur English moved into the presbytery in about 1935. An English

woman who worked at UQ then restored it for her. It hangs in state in the college to this day.

When the old kitchen block was demolished in 1968 to make way for the “new wing” a brick was found

with the following message scribbled on it in chalk: “All me own work, Jack. 1890”. Some of the special

features of the interior of Stanley hall are the mahogany cornices to the windows in the principal rooms;

the beautifully carved wooden mantelpieces in Queen Anne style; some mantelpieces of imported Italian

Carrara marble; the lofty ceilings and spacious rooms; the cedar dado running

throughout the corridors. The mantelpiece in the

drawing room has “H H “inscribed on one side and

1890” on the other.

In the drawing room the cast iron pillars and the

worked plaster from which hung the gas-lit chandeliers all contribute to the

splendour of this majestic building. Hunter Lane is named after him.

The front door of Stanley hall is not visible as one mounts the main steps, since

it is obscured by a massive one metre square pillar which supports the tower.

The arch over the front door is filled in with leaded plates of coloured glass,

the pattern being red hibiscus with yellow and green backgrounds.

The entrance hall opens directly onto the

majestic cedar staircase that leads upstairs to the bedrooms and

bathroom. It is ornamented with rails of carved cedar. Unfortunately,

the billiard room with its slate tiles has been demolished. The wide

verandas are ornamented with a top skirting of green lattice and a

lower green, wrought iron palisade. The tower is fringed with lace

wrought iron.

The College is to restore the wide verandas that opened out from each bedroom and the balcony from the

main bedroom with its plaster palisading. Herbert Hunter’s grandson, when he was three years’ old,

managed to trap his head in this palisading. As the child was screaming blue murder, his mother wanted

the grandfather to break one of the palisades. However, the Scotsman dryly said “he got his head in; he

can get his head out!” The wide verandas were so spacious, that when they had a small orchestra playing

inside, the verandas were ideal for dancing.

Where the swimming pool now stands there once was a gabled coach house and wooden stables, with two

men’s rooms, a chaff room and horse stalls. Clumps of bamboo grew here. On the southern side was a

wooden laundry with servants’ quarters attached. In the corner of Alexandra and Oriel Roads was a

“Chinaman’s Garden”. This area and the orchard, which had a prolific growth of mangoes, peaches, plums,

citrus and loquats, was worked by an Australian couple who lived there rent free, provided they brought

fresh vegetables and fruit daily to Stanley Hall. What was left over was theirs to sell. A grove of silky oak

trees clustered in the site where the Sacred Heart building now stands. The grounds had many camphor

laurels, jacarandas, fig trees, palms and several species of pines. Between the stables and the laundry was

a well about 24 m deep and 2.4 m wide. Stanley Hall was known as the last watering place from the north

to Brisbane and all travellers would use it. There was a ladder leading into the well on the inside and this

became a favourite haunt with all the local boys.

Herbert Hunter was a keen racing man and owned many horses. A true Scot, if he thought one of his

horses had a good chance of winning he would place a bet of £1. In 1888, “Grey wing” won the Tattersall’s

Cup. There was no bar at Eagle Farm during this period, so Hunter would take his own whiskeys hip flask

made of sterling silver with a large cup fitting snugly over its base.

Jessie Hunter died in 1901, on her sixtieth birthday, from a heart condition. The following Christmas we

find this very terse statement in Hunter’s diary: “Very sad Christmas.” In 1905, 1908 two of his children

died while still in their in thirties. Rae Lynette, his great grandchild, attended St Rita’s for a few months in

1939. A daughter of the next generation visited St Rita’s in the 1990s to see what her ancestors had built

and where they had lived. On the 26th January, 1911 Herbert Hunter sold the property of 12.5 acres to E. G.

Blume for £7600.

EDWARD G BLUME

E.G. Blume was born at Mt. Gambier in South Australia in 1859. When his father

wished to remarry in about 1889, he gave each of his sons, Edward and Charles,

£50 000. Seeing the pastoral possibilities of the vast spaces awaiting development

in present day Queensland, the two brothers set out for the north and adventure.

By 1900 they owned 350,000 sheep west of the Thomson River. Although they lost

heavily in the drought at that time when their sheep were boiled down for their

tallow, by 1914 E. G. Blume was the owner of 9 properties. Although not a shrewd

businessman, he certainly knew good land and how to work it. Stanley hall became

Blume’s town residence in 1911.

In 1899, aged 40, Blume married Florence Lucy Craven, aged 19. On their wedding day Blume presented his wife with

a large diamond brooch or pendant in the shape of a star. Later on, it was stolen

by the gardener, but he thought it costume jewellery so he gave it to his

daughter to play with. Their fourth and last child was born at Stanley hall. Their

two sons went jackarooing and the two girls to St Margaret’s and then to NEGS

in NSW. The older girl, Florence, from whom I obtained my information about

the Blumes, was nicknamed Cooey as they had a cuckoo clock and the young

one used to mimic it. Filmer, being eight years younger than her sister,

extremely beautiful and the apple of her mother’s eye, was completely spoilt.

She had many offers of marriage, but turned them all down. She started to drink

heavily and caused one house in Lancaster Rd

to be burnt down. She eventually died in 1962,

aged 46. Blume’s brother, Charles, lived with

the family.

Florence and Craven streets were named after

Mrs Blume. Stanley Hall was not much altered

during the Blume’s sojourn. One of the

parlours became known as the “Prince of

Wales “ room. The Prince did not actually visit Stanley Hall, although the Blumes

attended several functions held in his honour. However, special furniture had

been made for the royal visit which bore the inscription: “Manufactured expressly

for H.R.H The Prince of Wales by Hixco. Brisbane, July 1920.” The Blumes

purchased some of this furniture for one room and hence the name. The Prince

was also a keen racing man. He rode “Redrock”, Blume’s horse. With four heavy

iron shoes and carrying 70 kg the Prince rode the half mile track in the record time

of 48 seconds. As a memento he left the Blumes his ivory and silver-handled whip.

Each of the main rooms had a push button bell that would summon the servants. There were four bells situated near

the main staircase which would inform the servants which room they were to attend. Each of the bedrooms upstairs

had their own balcony with the master bedroom and main guest room having their own fireplace. However, there

was only one bathroom from which led the staircase to the tower.

Mr Blume was a very generous, easy man to live with. His brother was the exact opposite. Mrs Blume was also very

generous and dressed beautifully, if expensively. She always left the front door of Stanley Hall open. One day she

found a huge carpet snake curled along the first set of banisters. Another day she found a burglar making his way up

them. She grabbed him by the tail of his coat and bundled him out. Mr Blume was one of the first Brisbaneites to

own a car – a dark green Daimler with a brass horn on the

outside. A garage was built near the stables. In Blume’s heyday

they employed a cook, housemaid, Japanese laundry man, a

gardener and a chauffeur.

In 1905, Blume bought Morven, in Shorncliffe (built in 1861 –

1864). He converted it into a boarding house (1910 to 1930)

for his widowed mother-in-law and his unmarried sisters-in-law to use. When an English visitor was holidaying with

the Blumes, she constantly remarked how much she liked walking. Mrs Blume decided to try her out – she walked

her from Stanley Hall to Morven. Unlike Herbert Hunter, when Mr Blume went to the races his bets were of the

£1000 variety.

Due to many causes such as drought, drop in wool sales, gambling, the Blumes had a heavy overdraft. Blume decided

to auction off 7.5 acres of his property in the 1920s which raised £14 000. Nature made this auction even more

ominous as a huge storm was brewing. This was the land from Alexandra Rd to the boundary of the College. The

remaining 5 acres of Stanley Hall were sold to the Presentation Sisters in 1926 for £22,000. The Blumes moved to

“Bayundah” in Windemere Rd and Killara Ave. At first they employed one servant, but during the war years only Mr

and Mrs Blume and Charlie lived at Bayundah. Mrs Blume was not used to the housekeeping or the cooking – she

was successful at neither.

Right up to the end, E.G. Blume was at the races. One week later, aged 84, he died of a heart condition in 1943.His

death was followed by that of his brother, Charles. Mrs Blume, aged 64, died in 1944 of cancer. On the 13th

September 1976, Cooey (Mrs Fegan) revisited her old home at Stanley Hall after an absence of 50 years. She made

the majesty and splendour of Stanley Hall come alive once more to those who walked with her through the maze of

rooms. She said how delighted she was that she could at last show her old home to her son and that young girls

were still happy where once she had been so happy. Cooey Blume, aged 79, died in 1987 of a heart attack.