Researching The History - Museum of Central Queensland

Researching The History Of Your Central Queensland Home

A guide to uncovering its past

PUBLISHER Museum of Central Queensland PO Box 61 Rockhampton, Queensland 4700, Australia [email protected] www.mocq.org.au +61 7 4922 4779 Copyright © Museum of Central Queensland 2014 This publication is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private research, criticism or reviews, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher.

PROJECT COORDINATOR Sue Smith

TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHY Text and photographs by Dr Barbara Webster Additional photographs: p.15 Jan McLaughlin, p.30 Peter Roper, p.8 Capricorn Coast Historical Society, p.19 State Library of Queensland

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Museum of Central Queensland would like to acknowledge the generous financial assistance to the project of the Regional Arts Development Fund, a Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and the Rockhampton Regional Council partnership to support local arts and culture. MoCQ and Dr Barbara Webster would also like to thank a large number of people who supported the project, or provided access to their homes for photographs, and/or provided information: Bruce Webster, Nancy and Norm Arnott (Alpha); Lyn Lee (Gladstone Art Gallery & Museum); Rosemary Penfold, Thora Plate, Carol Laver, Kay Waters and Ruth Smith (Mackay); Jan McLaughlin, Janet Johnson and Philippa Beckinsale (Rockhampton); Alex York (Rolleston); Maria Kavanagh, Nea McQueen and Peter Evert (Winton); Helen Major and Maureen Bartley (Yeppoon); Mary O’Brien (Capricorn Coast Historical Society, Yeppoon); Dr Mike Danaher (CQUniversity Australia); Josh Tarrant (Queensland Museum Network); Elke Dawson and John Fletcher (Rockhampton & District Historical Society); staff of the Rockhampton Regional Council History Centre and the CQUniversity Library CQ Collection. For the case study, thanks to David and Linda Cowen, Denise Lyons, Annette Egan, Justin Clare, Peter Roper, Bryce Plummer and Janet Moran.

PUBLICATION DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT Dr Barbara Webster | Sue Smith Edited by Sue Smith Designer: Shelley Sorrensen

MoCQ COMMITTEE Catherine George Chair Ray Conder Secretary Richard Roper Treasurer


2

CO N T E N TS Foreword................................. 3 Introduction............................ 4 Step One.................................. 5 Identifying architectural styles: assigning a date range

Step Two................................. 21 Observing and recording: compiling a portfolio

Step Three...................................22 Inquiring: seeking information from neighbours and family

Step Four............................... 22 Researching: deeper investigation into the house and people

Step Five................................. 26 Reading: understanding the historical context

Step Six................................... 26 Writing: crafting a history of your house and its inhabitants

Step Seven.............................. 26 Preserving & sharing your home’s history

Case Study............................. 27 Useful Contacts.................... 34 Suggested Reading................ 36

FOREWORD Researching The History of Your Central Queensland Home is a free online publication commissioned by the Museum of Central Queensland (MoCQ). We hope this practical, step-by-step guide will assist individuals and community groups in Central and Central West Queensland who are interested in researching and writing about their own homes, or perhaps would like to record the stories of other buildings that define the character of their local communities. Would you like to share the story of your home (or interesting building) with a wide audience on MoCQ’s website? We invite you to submit to us photographs or a video and your story of your home/building and its associated people and events. Contact us by email: [email protected], or post to PO Box 61, Rockhampton QLD 4700, or phone (07) 4922 4779. Through projects like Researching The History of Your Central Queensland Home, MoCQ aims to encourage the widest possible number of people in our communities to become actively involved in safeguarding our heritage and exploring and recording for future generations the histories and stories that have shaped Central Queensland. I commend historian Dr Barbara Webster for her excellent work in writing this publication and effort in travelling long distances around the region to meet people, view houses and take the photographs in the guide. I also express my sincere appreciation to MoCQ committee member Sue Smith for volunteering her time and expertise to develop the original concept for the guide, source the necessary funding and co-ordinate the project to its successful conclusion. I also thank other members of the MOCQ committee for their contributions to the project. MoCQ also gratefully acknowledges that this publication received financial support through the Regional Arts Development Fund, a Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and the Rockhampton Regional Council partnership to support local arts and culture. Catherine George MoCQ Chair


3

INTRODUCTION Many people build their own home but many more buy a ‘pre-loved’ one. If you are in that latter category, you probably know little more about your house than the name of the people from whom you purchased. But have you wondered when your house was built, for whom and perhaps by whom? What did it originally look like and how has it changed over the years? What about the people who lived there over the decades, either owners or tenants? Who were they and how did their lives unfold within your walls? Judging by the popularity of recent television programs like the ABC’s Who’s Been Sleeping in My House, many people are interested in the history of houses and the show has sparked interest in viewers of uncovering the origins, ownership and occupancy of their own homes. A dwelling doesn’t have to be ‘grand’ or ‘historic’ to have a history. However humble and whatever its age, your home has a unique history that’s waiting to be discovered. Being a ‘housetorian’, as the ABC show says, is like being a detective. The task requires putting together many clues, persistence and patience, some legwork and, most likely, payment to obtain copies of title documents. But it’s rewarding in the end to discover how old your house really is and who lived there in the past. This six-step guide has been written to help you in that quest and has been specifically tailored to Central Queensland – from the Capricorn Coast to the Central West and from Mackay to Rockhampton and Gladstone. The guide contains many examples of typical architectural styles of the region; provides practical advice for investigating the history of your house, its owners and occupiers; directs you to regional resources; explains and demonstrates with a case study how to write a history of a house and its inhabitants; and lists useful contacts and suggested readings. It may sound odd, but it’s easier to discover more about a house and people in the period to the 1950s than later, largely due to digitisation of many early printed sources and more information being available about the dead than the living. The histories of some old houses have already been researched and documented, such as for those with heritage listings. Generally, you would be aware before or at purchase if your house has a listing but check the Queensland Heritage Register if unsure. For most people, the history of their house and who has lived there awaits discovery. Using this guide will make that task easier. Good luck with your search and please share your findings with others by contributing the story of your home to the Museum of Central Queensland’s website.


4

STEP ONE IDENTIFYING ARCHITECTURAL STYLES The first thing you will want to know is when your house was built. One way of finding a broad construction date is by decoding the architectural style. Compare your house with the description below and the examples of different styles of housing in the following pages.

An early Queenslander in Alpha: a gable-roofed cottage, 1880s, with a later kitchen extension

THE QUEENSLANDER The most common type of house built in Central Queensland, and in the state as a whole, up to the Second World War is what is known as a ‘traditional Queensland house’ or ‘Queenslander’. These terms cover several different ‘vernacular’ (indigenous to place and popular) styles that evolved over the decades from the simple two-roomed cottage of the 1880s to the 1930s multi-gable house. What all Queenslanders have in common is the materials used – ‘timber-and-tin’, the design, and the setting. The first two elements largely reflect availability, cost and a tropical climate.

A mature form of the Queenslander in Rockhampton: a multi-gable house, late 1930s. The former residence of Police Prosecutor in the 1940s, Senior Sergeant Joseph Greenwood, and later of long-time Central Queensland University Chancellor, Stan Jones QC

MATERIALS • timber frame, walls and floors: plentiful, cheap, easy to transport and construct but poorly insulated and vulnerable to termite attack • galvanised, corrugated iron (‘tin’) roof: cheaper, lighter, and stronger in cyclones than tiles. Corrugated iron was also used for stove recesses and sometimes external side or rear walls.

DESIGN • steeply pitched roof for fast run-off in summer downpours • single storeyed • raised on timber stumps with metal termite capping. Raising higher created space underneath for laundry and storage as well as assisting ventilation. Long and short (valance) batten infill common when raised • single skin or single thickness timber internal walls. Early Queenslanders had single skin external walls giving an ‘inside-out’ appearance. • open verandahs at the front and back and perhaps sides to provide shade and outdoor living in the heat • other features to shield the sun: window shades/sun hoods, slat blinds, lattice

SETTING • detached house, typically facing the street

DATING Identifying your house as a Queenslander will broadly date it as being built before the Second World War, but closer scrutiny can help assign a particular style to narrow the date range.


5

COMMON HOUSE STYLES OF THE REGION An architectural style is said to exist when many houses possesses a significant number of common physical features. The roof shape is a basic determinant of many Australian house styles.

ROOF SHAPE Simplified, the main styles based on roof shape found in Central Queensland are: Gable: tent-shaped roof of two sides rising to a ridge extending across the core or body of the house to form a gable (inverted V) on either side. Hip or hipped: four uniformly pitched or sloped sides over a rectangular core so that the ridge extends partly across the core; the hip is where two sides join. A hip roof can be either longitudinal (front to back ridge) or transverse (cross ridge). Verandahs are under a separate ‘stepped down’ roof. Pyramid: as for hip but over a square core creating four identical sides rising to an apex; sometimes referred to as a pavilion or pyramid hip roof. Short-ridge: as for pyramid but apex forms a very short ridge that is not wide enough for a hip roof. Like the hip and pyramid, the verandah roof is separate. Bungalow: extent is as important as shape: one roof which extends right to the outer edge of the verandah or wall line. The top may be pyramid, short-ridge or hip; may have a gable projection.

PERIOD Styles are usually grouped into historical periods as certain styles were more popular at particular times. The commonly assigned periods for Australia are: • Late colonial/Victorian (1870s to 1890s) • Federation (1890s to 1910s) • Interwar (1920s and 1930s) • Postwar (1940s and 1950s) • Contemporary/late 20th century (1960s+) There is considerable overlap in styles, and cut-off dates of periods are not rigid. Different authorities cite slightly different dates. This guide inserts another category of Early contemporary for 1960s and 70s and dates Postwar from the mid-1940s. Nor is a particular style necessarily restricted to one period and elements of it may come back into fashion at a later date. For example, the bungalow was a most common style in the Federation period but bungalow-roofed cottages and houses also appeared in the Late colonial period as they did in the Interwar period. Individual builders also had favourite styles and sometimes continued to build them irrespective of fashion. In some areas, rows of houses may demonstrate the same style so that they constitute a streetscape that helps with dating individual houses. In other places, a particular house stands out for its architectural difference and that too can be a help, or hindrance, in assigning a date range. Some houses show a variety of design features such that they appear not to fit any defined style easily and require deeper research to determine their age. Architectural trends seem to have taken longer to change with greater distance from Brisbane and from Rockhampton to the West. Differing tastes and requirements of owners and the depth of their pockets meant a great range of standard within each style from simple, less expensive, popular and mass-planned versions of a style to large, ornate and costly houses commissioned by the wealthy Rockhampton merchant, professional and pastoral elite. In general, more of the simpler, older-style houses remain occupied the farther one travels to the West, perhaps as rural depopulation has decreased the need for additional and newer houses. Even so, like those closer to the coast, most of these houses have been renovated or otherwise modified for modern living so that many of the original features have been covered up or removed.


6

While timber-and-tin Queenslander styles predominated to the Second World War, derivative styles – influenced by international trends – began to appear in the 1930s. Architectural history books contain long and often confusing lists of different house styles with numerous sub-categories. To help you gauge the approximate age of your house more easily, this guide illustrates and describes in simplified terms a range of homes of differing social status which typify the styles most commonly seen today in Central Queensland. Also included are a few notable places that are part of the region’s rich architectural heritage and brief details of people connected with them. Settlement in the region began in the 1860s, usually with slab huts as the first permanent structures, but few dwellings remain from before the 1870s due to the perishable nature of timber. This guide therefore focuses on common Central Queensland architectural styles from the 1870s to today. To assist in identifying house styles and understanding the various elements of house design, take this link to a glossary of building terms compiled by Brisbane City Council. Then consider which house on the following pages most closely resembles yours.

LATE COLONIAL (1870s–1890s): GABLE- AND HIP-ROOFED COTTAGE • two small core rooms with front and back verandahs • often called a miner’s or worker’s cottage • living area extended by enclosing verandahs, extending the rear with a lean-to roof, adding a kitchen or bathroom or extending the core to four rooms with another gable, thus creating an M-gable

Springsure: a gable-roof cottage with enclosed side verandah

Gladstone: a gable-roofed cottage, with closed-in verandah, lean-to extension and weatherboard cladding of the original single skin walls

Rockhampton: an M-gable ‘worker’s cottage’, one of few remaining of the village created by Lakes Creek Meatworks for employees in the 1880s and 1890s

Jericho: an extended gable-roofed cottage with semidetached kitchen. Deep window shades exclude the morning sun while lattice and fibrolite louvres allow ventilation.

Yeppoon: three high-set cottages where hips replace gable. Note the narrowness of typical 16 perch allotments and closeness of houses.


7

LATE COLONIAL (1870s–1890s): PYRAMID/SHORT-RIDGE HOUSE • pyramid roof/very short ridge to accommodate a slightly rectangular core • four core rooms • verandahs front and back • also commonly referred to as a worker’s/miner’s cottage

Winton: a pyramid-roofed house with bull-nose verandahs, awaiting restoration. The inside-out appearance is apparent. The ogee-shaped hoods shield the windows from harsh afternoon sun.

Mount Morgan: a pyramid-roofed house with French doors

Mount Morgan: a short-ridge house with bull-nose front verandah and sash windows. The short ridge may only be the width of a sheet of roofing iron.

Yeppoon: the blue house (left, bottom) began as an 1890s short-ridge house at Mount Morgan. It was disassembled, moved by train and rebuilt at Cooee Bay for pastoralist Stuart MacDonald as a seaside residence in about 1928. The house was extended with a kitchen at the rear, another bedroom and side verandahs (left, top). External wallboards, closer studs and sash windows, as well as different floorboard widths and perpendicular join (right), are clues that the side verandahs were later additions. (photos left: Capricorn Coast Historical Society)


8

LATE COLONIAL (1870s–1890s): SHORT-RIDGE AND HIP-ROOFED HOUSE WITH ENCIRCLING VERANDAHS • ‘stepped-down’ verandah under a separate roof • four core rooms if short-ridge; six or more if elongated to a hip roof

Barcaldine: a short-ridge house with encircling verandahs. In contrast to this house, full-length battens were generally set back to the level of the house core and short valance battening featured below the verandah line.

Rolleston: a hip-roofed house with encircling verandahs. Built in Springsure in 1876 by Irish immigrant draper Martin Burke, the house was moved to Rolleston in 2011 and restored. The core of the house is original but much of the decayed timber verandahs needed replacing.

Clermont: a short-ridge house with encircling verandahs, pediment over the landing and dual steps. The verandahs were likely enclosed in the mid-20th century.

Springsure: an asymmetrical short-ridge house with gableroofed extension and partial verandah enclosure

Roof adornments: (left) an acroterion on the gutter corner; (right) ridge capping and ventilator


9

Winton: a short-ridge house with encircling verandahs, 1880s; (centre) detail of filigree cast iron balustrade and brackets and wellshaded bay windows; (right) decorative glass in an entrance panel in another similar house. Like others in and around Winton, the house was dismantled and moved from Charters Towers in 1918. It was the home of the O’Rourke family who owned Corfield & Fitzmaurice store for many decades and is still in the family.

Winton: another former Charters Towers house. (Far left) typical glass door panels and entrance fanlight, one of two box bay windows onto the front verandah; (centre left) the hallway has matching fanlights and side panels at both the entry and dining room ends; (centre right) Wunderlich pressed metal ceilings and room divider; (right) French doors and bathroom addition on the rear verandah. Like most houses of this era, the walls onto the verandah are horizontal tongue-and-groove boards while interior wallboards are laid vertical (see photos above of entrance).The masonite-lined ceiling was added later when the verandah was closed-in with glass louvres.

FEDERATION (1890s–1910s): BUNGALOW AND ASYMMETRICAL BUNGALOW • one continuous roof extending to verandah line or house line where a side verandah has been omitted from the design • projecting front gable to one side in the asymmetrical bungalow style

Emerald: a bungalow where the absence of a right side verandah terminates the roof at the wall line

Barcaldine: a bungalow with pediment over the front landing and double steps


10

Rockhampton: a bungalow with gabled hips, the home of Dr Ted Hasker and family 1940s-1960s. The verandah has been enclosed, the matching pediment added and the trapezoidal cut-outs covered in a subsequent renovation.

Clermont: an asymmetrical bungalow with roof projected to a front gable

Rockhampton: a highset asymmetrical bungalow, Lincluden, 1918, the home of Thomas McIlwraith, son of William McIlwraith of The Morning Bulletin and nephew of Queensland Premier, Sir Thomas McIlwraith. The house is atypical in not facing the street but skewed to better enjoy the pleasant view from the eastern slopes of The Range over the town to the Berserker Ranges.

Wooden shutters and cut-outs (left) are redolent of colonial architecture of the Far East. Fretwork detail in the arch between entrance passage and living room (right). Above the arch is a picture rail from which large family portraits were suspended on wire.

Winton: this highset asymmetrical bungalow in Cobb Lane appears a Federation house with shuttered and unlined verandahs, filigree fanlights, ceiling boards and roses, and sash windows. However, it was erected in 1943 by local businessman Bill Evert and is still in the Evert family. He used materials from the 1890s era Scott’s Hotel which he purchased and demolished for commercial redevelopment. As well as wartime rationing of materials also encouraging recycling, the older architectural style better suited the hot Winton summers. This example demonstrates the need for further research to determine a house’s age.


11

INTERWAR (1920s–1930s): PORCH-AND-GABLE HOUSE • developed from the asymmetrical bungalow • two projecting gables: one over a verandah porch and the second over the main bedroom • many built through the Workers’ Dwelling Board, which was the first public housing-finance scheme in Queensland, and War Service Homes Commission • some prefabricated e.g. Redicut Homes by James Campbell and Sons

Longreach: a lowset porch-and-gable house

Mackay: a porch-and-gable house with vestibule window, flanking a sleepout and valance battening

Detail of a vestibule or lobby window in a Gladstone house (Left to right) house stumps of a highset gable; front door and French doors or ‘lights’ onto the front porch; and casement window and batten window shade of a typical 1930s house

Mackay: interior features of a mid-1920s gable house. (Left) panelled interior door with fretwork fanlight; (centre) fibrolite ceiling with cover-strips forming a pattern; and (right) timber fretwork arch between living and dining rooms together with picture rails


12

Rockhampton: a porch double-gable house with bay window and stepped balustrade on the stairs

Rockhampton: a nested porch double-gable house with valance battens. The front porch reflects the strong influence of the Californian bungalow style which arrived in Australia in the 1920s. Rockhampton: an asymmetrical-gable house with a transverse gable over the core and a gable facing the street. The front gable could be either central or set off to one side in the asymmetrical multi-gable form. Horizontal lattice was a popular alternative to battens.

Gladstone: a triple-gable house. The front has a core gable with two off-centre gables within it.

Rockhampton: a highset porch doublegable house. It was constructed in asbestos fibro-cement or fibrolite which came into widespread use from the 1920s. Fibro was popular for its cheapness during the Great Depression of the 1930s and for availability during and after World War II.


13

POSTWAR (mid 1940s–1950s): AUSTERITY HOUSE • basic design, often transverse gable roof • increased use of cheaper asbestos-based fibro-cement sheeting (fibrolite) • little ornamentation • mass-produced as Queensland Housing Commission homes

Mackay: a two-bedroom Housing Commission house circa 1948. The roof is corrugated fibro-cement (Hardie’s asbestos ‘Super Six’), with fibrolite sheeting above weatherboards. The original sash windows have been replaced and the house restumped with concrete posts.

Inside the Mackay Housing Commission house: (left) internal door and vertical three-inch tongue and groove (VJ) boards; (centre) builtin cupboards fashioned from wallboards and fibro ceiling with cover strips; and (right) a remaining original timber casement window with patterned glass of the 1940s

Capricorn Coast: a simple gable design and newly developed ANZAT concrete roof tiles on a house built in 1952 by the Clayton family on their pineapple farm overlooking Lammermoor Beach; (right) plain arch and fibro sheeting on walls and ceiling reflect postwar austerity


14

POSTWAR (mid 1940s–1950s): CONVENTIONAL HIP-ROOFED/TRIPLE-FRONT HOUSE • hipped roof of corrugated fibrolite, corrugated iron or tiles • three or four front-facing walls of fibrolite, timber or brick-veneer

Barcaldine: a triple-front house, with fibrolite roof and walls, circa 1950, reflects postwar shortages and the cost of timber. The front patio may be a later addition.

Emerald: this 1950s triple-front house constructed of rendered brick and terracotta tiles is more upmarket for the times than its counterpart in Barcaldine.The contrasting brick sills and entrance ornamentation show the fashionable Art Deco influence.

Rockhampton: back to ‘timber and tin’ for the city’s many highset 1950s triple-front houses. These two are built of log cabin boards with corrugated iron roofing. Both feature casements windows with ripple glass and originally had wrought iron balustrades on verandah and step. Garages began to be incorporated into the house design for high-blocked dwellings, wall boards replaced battens across the front, and timber stumps increasingly gave way to concrete posts.

POSTWAR (mid 1940s–1950s): THE BEACH HOUSE / COTTAGE • flat/skillion roof, usually fibrolite • fibro walls inside and out • small, open-plan design

Yeppoon: a skillion-roofed beach cottage built in 1956 by local contractor Bob Walters for Bill and Diana Lawson of Rockhampton. It is typical of many fibro holiday houses built there during the 1950s economic recovery. Even a storeman and owner of a modest home in Rockhampton, as Bill was, could aspire to a place at ‘the seaside’. The house originally had glass louvres. (photo: Jan McLaughlin)


15

EARLY CONTEMPORARY (1960s–1970s) • low-pitched hip, gable, skillion or butterfly roof in corrugated iron or fibro • log cabin and chamferboard cladding in timber or fibro • open-plan living area, typically three bedrooms • sometimes split-level

Rockhampton: a log cabin house, featuring locally manufactured concrete ‘Rockblock’ breeze panels, ranch-style enclosure along the sides and wrought iron balustrade. Timber-frame windows still predominate.

Emerald: a house reflecting an early trend in mono-pitched or skillion roofing, hopper windows and the continued use of fibrolite sheeting. Lowset houses of this era often had an open ‘car port’ attached.

Mackay: (left) a chamferboard split-level house, built in the early 1970s by a builder for himself so he could indulge his design fancies. It features aluminium-framed sliding glass windows and doors, and a tiled patio and front steps with ranch-style balustrades; (centre) inside the 1970s house: a decorative front door, and bi-coloured timber entrance floor leading to sunken lounge; and (right) a coloured bath with asbestos Tilux surround and tiled floor.

EARLY CONTEMPORARY (1960s–1970s): MINING AND GOVERNMENT HOUSES • simple, low-cost design and construction for mass housing

Moura: one of many chamferboard houses erected in the 1960s and 1970s for the influx of coal mine employees. Similar houses are found in Blackwater and other Bowen Basin coal towns.


16

Longreach: a lowset gable house, constructed of Hardie’s fibro ‘Super Six’ roofing and fibro ‘Shadowline’ cladding. The rectangular design, hopper windows, metal louvres and leanto garage are indicative of houses constructed in the 1960s and 1970s by the Department of Health for resident medical officers at rural and remote hospitals.

Alpha: a highset weatherboard and fibro residence. Such houses appeared in all towns in this era, but notably in rural and remote centres to accommodate police officers, school principals, clerks of the court and other government officers.

Mackay: a Housing Commission house built in the 1970s. A new Colorbond roof has been fitted; (right) internal louvres were commonly included in Housing Commission and government houses to assist ventilation.

CONTEMPORARY/LATE 20TH CENTURY AND BEYOND (1980s+) • variety of roof shapes in Colorbond/Zincalume sheeting or cement tiles • brick-veneer, rendered brick, non-asbestos fibre-cement or corrugated metal cladding and plasterboard interiors • powder coated aluminium-framed windows, usually sliding • one or two storeys, some multi-unit dwellings

Different styles and varied manmade building materials in late 20th and 21st century houses (left) in Mackay and (right) Emerald


17

Capricorn Coast residences: detached housing continues to predominate but multi-unit homes are now appearing.

RARER HOUSE STYLES OF THE REGION LATE COLONIAL (1870s–1890s): GENTLEMAN’S RESIDENCE/VILLA • ornate, spacious and architecturally designed for the wealthy

Rockhampton: circa 1894, wealthy Mount Morgan Goldmine shareholder, local building contractor and ardent separationist John Ferguson built Kenmore (left and right) with the vain hope of becoming the governor of a future Colony of Central Queensland. He envisioned the grand Italianate mansion as government house; the 1901 Federation of Australia blighted his lofty dream. Pastoralist Stuart MacDonald bought Kenmore in 1906 and in 1915 sold the mansion to the Sisters of Mercy for use as a hospital. It is still part of the Mater Misericordiae Hospital.


18

Rockhampton: in 1890 John Ferguson built this elegant villa, originally named Killin, for daughter Catherine and son-in-law solicitor Sydney Jones. After various other owners, it was bought by solicitor Hugh Grant in the 1920s. During the Second World War, Killin was home to US Army’s Lt. Gen. Robert Eichelberger. It became Yungaba Migrant Hostel in 1952 and housed new staff of the Capricornia College of Advanced Education (now Central Queensland University) in the late 1960s. In the 1970s Yungaba accommodated the Family Services Department. Of late, the grand home was privately purchased and is being lovingly restored to much of its former glory.

(Left) Yungaba’s dining room with ornate fireplace and mirrored mantelpiece. The original ‘General MacArthur’s table’ is believed to be where the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Pacific, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, worked and/or dined while visiting US troops in Rockhampton. (Right) Gen. MacArthur (with pipe) in Rockhampton with Lt. Gen. Eichelberger; the latter presented the photograph to the Skyring family in 1943. (photo: State Library of Queensland)

FEDERATION (1890s–1910s): QUEEN ANNE INFLUENCE Rockhampton: Clancholla, built by Stuart MacDonald circa 1921, combines Queen Anne elements of a steep, terracotta-tiled roof, gables, fretwork entrance, internal stained glass and timber panelling with Queensland bungalow features of a timber structure and cladding with surrounding verandahs to keep out the sun. HRH Princess Alexandra stayed here during her 1959 visit to the city.


19

POSTWAR (mid 1940s–1950s): CAPE DUTCH INFLUENCE

Mackay: two of several examples of Cape Dutch influence from South Africa, with stepped-gable and white stucco walls. These are either the work of a Dutch builder, or to suit the tastes of the numerous assisted Dutch immigrants seeking a better life in Australia who made the city their home in the 1950s.

POSTWAR (mid 1940s–1950s): FUNCTIONALIST / WATERFALL / ART DECO INFLUENCE

Rockhampton: a late 1940s house with functionalist features of rendered fibro-cement walls, rounded corners and cantilevered window hood. It has a matching stucco fence and wrought iron gates. Rather than tiles, the roofing material is corrugated fibrocement.

Rockhampton: this late 1940s functionalist home, for many years the residence of T B Macaulay of Denham Bros merchants, has features of the waterfall style: rendered brick/concrete, wrought iron balustrades, terracotta tiles, parapet, and curved corners and windows.

Rockhampton: two houses with functionalist influences, including terracotta tiled roof, parapet, rounded corners and matching fence, built in the early 1950s by Greek café owners Theo and Stephen Cass. The curved staircase on the left was considered very chic at the time.


20

STEP TWO OBSERVING AND RECORDING: COMPILING A PORTFOLIO Once you have identified your home’s architectural style, but before starting any in-depth research, take a close look at the physical elements of the house as it appears now. As you do, record your findings in a dossier or information file. This will provide a baseline for subsequent research and will also be appreciated by others who may live in your house in the future. • Sketch a floor plan – both storeys if there is more than one. Mark each room with dimensions and label according to current usage. Indicate windows, doorways and steps. Using graph paper can simplify this process. Photocopy so that you can indicate alterations to the house you may discover later. • Sketch the house on the allotment, and include paths, fences, mature trees and garden beds. Then sketch the property in relation to surrounding properties. Google Maps can help here. Zoom in to your town and then immediate area. Often the house numbers are only approximate and some are shown only by lot number so take the Google Earth option for an aerial image and then street view to check you have the right house. Go back to the map view, print the map and shade in your allotment. The aerial shot will also help with sketching the house on the property. Mark a North point on all plans and maps to orientate the house to the sun. • Take photographs as you examine the house externally from all sides and internally in each room. Externally, for example, study the roof: corrugated iron or fibro, or terracotta/concrete tiles, roof ventilator or other items of roof ornamentation; walls: singleskin, weatherboards, chamferboards, fibro, brick, brick veneer or render; doors: main, French, sliding; windows: bay, sash, casement, louvre, hopper or sliding; glass: coloured, patterned or clear; balustrades: cast iron, wrought iron or timber, dowels, battens or ranch style. Internally, look at walls: tongue and groove (T&G) beaded (with a small groove and rounded finish along one edge of each board) or vertical-joint (VJ), horizontal or vertical boards or fibro, masonite or other sheeting; ceiling: pressed metal, boards, fibrolite or other sheeting, raked, exposed beams; dividing arches, picture rails, other ornamentation; floors: exposed boards, tiles. Note the width of interior wall and floorboards (from under the house if necessary). A rough guide is: the wider; the older. Similarly, horizontal wallboards are usually, but not always, older than vertical and beaded are older than vertical-joint. • Look for obvious and less obvious signs of alterations. The latter include, for example, casement windows which slide; nail marks and discolouration on floors or indentations in paint on walls and ceilings which might indicate a wall removed; exterior weatherboards on inside walls that usually indicates an extension to the original house; or use of materials that seem too modern or too old for the rest of the house.

Evidence of wall removal: (left) two rows of nail marks in six-inch pine floorboards in an 1880s house. On the right are nails securing boards to the floor joists while those on the left have been filled after nails were removed when a wall was dismantled; (centre) faint marks in paint across ceiling T&G VJs where a passageway was removed in a 1920 house; and (right) plugging of a hole left in four-inch pine floorboards probably from removal of an internal arch pillar in a mid–1920s house


21

STEP THREE INQUIRING: SEEKING INFORMATION FROM NEIGHBOURS AND FAMILY If you have recently purchased a house and know the present location of the vendors, contact them and inquire what they know about previous ownership. Ask neighbours, particularly elderly ones, what they recall about past owners and/or tenants and if they know the whereabouts of any who may still be living or the contact details of children. The smaller your town, the better the chance of finding people who know something of your home’s past. Do a telephone search through White Pages or even an Internet search. Approaching neighbours can often provide much information; it’s also a good way to make yourself known at a new address and to make new friends.

STEP FOUR RESEARCHING: DEEPER INVESTIGATION INTO HOUSE AND PEOPLE Title search The easiest way to discover past ownership of a freehold property is by a title search through the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines [DNRM]. Records are electronic back to 24 April 1994 and earlier paper records back to the first owner are now digitised. A Certificate of Title (commonly called title deed) reveals the owner, details of the land, changes of ownership, mortgages, subdivisions and any transmission by death or trustee appointments. Successive transfers of ownership are noted on the bottom and then back of the document. Title deeds do not show when a house was built on the land; nor do they reveal who actually lived in the house. A title search can be undertaken in person at a DNRM Regional Business Centre at Rockhampton, Mackay, Emerald or Longreach; by telephone to DNRM; or online through an external service provider listed on the DNRM website. Whichever method you choose, access the DNRM website first. Select ‘Title searches and copies of documents’. This page will give the locations of DNRM business centres, telephone number, details of types of searches, the schedule of fees for searching and copies of documents, and a list of external providers should you go through them rather than DNRM directly. To commence a title search, you need the Real Property Description [RPD] or ‘lot on plan description’ shown on the rates or annual valuation notice. If you don’t have this, or simply want to obtain a copy of your title, ask for a current title search. To track back to previous owners to 24 April 1994, request an historical title search and then an historical paper-title search as far back as you require. The RPD is linked to an eight-digit number on the Current Title Search document. All titles issued by the Central Registry in Rockhampton begin with 30 or 300. Title deeds before 1994 were referenced by volume and folio (page) numbers so, for example, 30463141 on a current title refers to the certificate issued in 1979 as vol. C463 folio 141, where C means Central Registry. The ‘previous reference’ on that deed allows an earlier search and so on until the original Deed of Grant by the Crown to the first owner. Usually these were very large portions that were subdivided and re-subdivided many times over the years. Original land grants issued in Brisbane bear the prefix of 100. Queensland State Archives has original Deeds of Grant but an electronic copy is the easier option. The first mortgage on the property may indicate house construction but could have been for other reasons (see Case Study). However houses built under the Workers Dwelling Schemes and other government programs are indicated by mortgages to the State Advances Corporation or Queensland Government Savings Bank.


22

For leasehold properties, e.g. pastoral leases, Queensland State Archives holds records. Details of pastoral leases granted were published in the Queensland Government Gazette and gazettes from 1859 to 1900 are available online through Text Queensland. Whether you research a freehold or leasehold title, you will find old documents use imperial measurements of acres, roods, perches, chains etc. whereas modern documents use the metric system. The Australian Government National Measurement Institute provides a conversion calculator.

Certificate of Title for the Case Study property issued in 1979, showing owner, particulars of the land, subsequent owners, mortgages and their cancellation on sale, repayment or refinancing. Further transfers and mortgages are listed on the rear. In the top right corner is the volume and folio number of the title certificate while the volume and folio of the previous certificate is indicated in the top left corner.

Rates books and other Council records Local government rates books will reveal the date, or approximate date, of house construction if you can access them. They also give names of the owner and occupier, whether owner or tenant, and the size and rateable value of the land. Until the 1950s, rates books and associated valuation registers were large hand-written volumes which, if they have survived, are now fragile and sometimes restricted in access. • Rockhampton Regional Library History Centre has an extensive and accessible collection of rates books from 1865 to 1952 and related registers. • Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum houses a range of rates books. • Many regional and shire councils have deposited some or all their rates books in the Queensland State Archives [QSA]. These include the former shires of Aramac, Bauhinia, Broadsound, Mirani and Livingstone, and Mackay. • For other local authorities, contact your Council directly and inquire as to the whereabouts of rates books. Searching is time-consuming as rates books are not in strict street order, but are generally in order of the original portion number. Start with the most recent volume, locate the property, then track back using the previous year’s reference number. At some stage, the nature of the tenancy should change from ‘land’ to ‘house’ and will indicate construction date in that year or thereabouts. If you’re lucky, the change will be dated. Don’t discount the possibility that your house was moved from elsewhere, however, as with houses from Mount Morgan and Charters Towers. A newspaper search (see below for Trove) may provide information on house removals. Building approval applications held by the Council are worth investigating for construction or alteration plans. Searches are usually by street address. Few records were kept before the 1960s however. Contact your Council inquiries centre about access and copying. Council engineering departments also have road, flood and other maps that can assist research of your property. They will usually photocopy these for a nominal fee.


23

Cemetery Records can help when you are delving into owners’ and tenants’ past. Most Councils have put these online so ‘Google’ them or contact your local Council. Council Minutes may also contain information about building applications, street naming, other works and correspondence. These may be held by the local authority or deposited in the QSA in Brisbane. Either way, they will probably entail a long and fruitless search.

Maps Archer Ward, Rockhampton, Rates Book for 1920, showing change of tenancy for entry 1412 from land to house and names of the occupier (tenant) and owner as well as the estate agent

Old property or cadastral maps (also called parish maps) often provide the names of original land holders but are more useful in showing subdivisions and re-subdivisions over the years. See the section below on history centres and history societies which may have old maps relevant to your area. Contact the DNRM Regional Business Centre for current maps showing Real Property Descriptions.

Queensland Towns Directories and Almanacs The Queensland Towns Directory (or Post Office Directory) is another way you may discover who lived in your house in the past. These annual publications covered most towns from 1868 to 1949 but only Rockhampton has alphabetical street listings. Mackay and Gladstone were apparently too small for individual street listings. Even so, early Rockhampton directories rarely gave house numbers but inclusion of cross-streets helps narrow the possibilities. From the 1920s, numbers were usually shown. Not everybody was listed though. For other towns, there are lists of residents and occupations (and often the business or grazing property named) that will reveal a person’s presence in a given year. The directories list trades and occupations and other information about government facilities, schools, churches, clubs and societies. Queensland Towns/Post Office Directories and a trade directory, Pugh’s Almanac, are available on microfiche or microfilm at many local history societies, regional and shire libraries, the Central Queensland Family History Association (Rockhampton) and the CQ Collection at CQUniversity Library (Rockhampton). They can also be accessed at the State Library in Brisbane. Pugh’s Almanac 1859 to 1927 is online via Text Queensland.

Post Office Directories: (left) Rockhampton, 1937, for Caroline Street, showing numbers and names on the lefthand side above Davis Street.The Whites had two entries; (right) entries for other towns, as here for Winton, 1940, show names, occupations, businesses and properties

Electoral rolls are useful for locating people if you know their name. Rolls will give the address, details of other family member voters and occupations. Old electoral rolls can be searched at the QSA and some local history societies have selected years. They are also accessible by subscription through family genealogical sites such as Ancestry and Find My Past.


24

Local libraries and history centres Council libraries often have a collection dedicated to local history and some have specialised history centres with a wide variety of manuscripts, maps, photos, diaries, newspapers and directories on microfilm. Many maintain a subscription to library editions of genealogy databases Ancestry and Find My Past. Patrons can use these databases free of charge to search Births, Deaths and Marriage (BDM) indexes, electoral rolls, public family trees and many other resources. Contact your local library or consult the Useful Contacts list at the end of this guide. To obtain copies of BDM certificates, Smart Service Queensland is generally less expensive than buying through the genealogy databases.

CQUniversity Capricornia CQ Collection This collection is open to the public and contains manuscripts, maps, photographs, newspapers (microfilm) and books relating to Central Queensland, as well as Post Office Directories, Pugh’s Almanac, BDM indexes, Queensland Government Gazette, Queensland Parliamentary Papers and many other resources. See Useful Contacts.

Local historical societies Local history societies maintain collections of historical materials as well as having members with extensive knowledge of the local area, including houses and their owners. Some will undertake research, usually for a small fee. Consult the Useful Contacts list for a society near you and think about joining yourself.

Newspapers and other sources on Trove Old newspapers are a valuable source of information about land sales and sometimes translocations of houses but they are most useful in finding information about people. Unless you are searching a narrow date range, microfilm newspapers are time-consuming and tedious. An easier method is the National Library of Australia’s [NLA] Trove which offers a free search of Australian Newspapers Online. The site covers about 50 Queensland newspapers. Searches can be made by keywords, specific newspapers titles or particular dates and in the categories of articles (including lengthy and informative social columns), advertising, detailed lists and family notices. Search results can be downloaded in various formats. Trove only covers papers to about 1954 as yet but will progressively digitise later years. Trove also contains digitised photographs, diaries, articles and other items as well as identifying which libraries throughout Australia hold copies of books.

Google search A general search of the Internet may turn up surprising results, either by way of other people’s research which might intersect with yours or relevant electronic articles, books and photographs. For example, a Google word search on ‘Hardie’s’ and ‘fibrolite’ turned up a 34-page James Hardie & Co. 1920s catalogue that shows houses and their plans. This is available free through Internet Archive to which the NLA is a party. Clicking on ‘See other formats’ allows download of the catalogue in pdf form.

Queensland State Archives and State Library of Queensland If you have worked through the above sources but need more information, the Queensland State Archives [QSA] holds a large collection of government documents, including some local authority rates/valuations books, early land selection files, survey plans and assisted immigration. Some records are available online but most are not. Searching the online catalogue may prove helpful in locating materials. QSA has a series of Brief guides to records that you can check. QSA staff will not undertake research on your behalf and you would have to visit the Archives in Brisbane in person, find a friend to do so or pay a professional researcher. However most house histories do not need this level of research other than perhaps rates books, and even then they may not be accessible. A phone call to QSA to check is advisable (see web address in Useful Contacts). The State Library of Queensland’s John Oxley Library [JOL] – which houses Queensland history – has numerous useful items such as Workers Dwelling materials, BDM indexes, immigration registers, electoral rolls, other directories, newspapers and photographs. JOL has a series of Info Guides to family history resources. You can make online inquiries and staff will undertake research for up to two hours. As with QSA, your search will probably not require this level of investigation to uncover plenty of information on your house’s history.


25

STEP FIVE READING: UNDERSTANDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT Researching the broader historical context will give you a better appreciation of the life and times of your house and its inhabitants. There are many histories of Queensland and local areas published for Central Queensland and the Central West that are readily accessible in public libraries. Some are available online through Text Queensland.

STEP SIX WRITING: CRAFTING A HISTORY OF YOUR HOUSE AND ITS INHABITANTS Having completed the preceding five steps, you should have amassed considerable detail about your house as it is at present and uncovered information about previous owners. With deeper searching and a degree of luck, you may have worked out fairly accurately the construction date and found out who rented the house if tenanted. Merely storing that material in your portfolio is only half the task, however; weaving it into an interesting historical narrative so that you and others can read and enjoy your findings is the next step in being a ‘housetorian’. Read the following case study which shows the type of information that can be discovered about a house and its residents, as well as the range of sources that can be tapped. Maps, documents and photos will enhance the quality of the finished product. Be sure to include references/endnotes so that others can verify your evidence or use it in their own house research. If you are intending to publish your history, either on the Museum of Central Queensland site or elsewhere, remember that previous owners and occupiers may still be living so be circumspect about the information you include. When you have completed your writing and inserted illustrations and captions, proof your document thoroughly. What you have written will be appreciated by your family, by those who live in your house in years to come and by others with whom you choose to share your contribution to the history of Central Queensland.

STEP SEVEN PRESERVING & SHARING YOUR HOME’S HISTORY Now that you’re finished, here are some suggestions to make sure your hard work will be appreciated in the future. • Keep a copy of your home’s history in a secure, permanent place in the house itself such as a metal box attached to a main beam under the house. • Place copies of your home’s history in your permanent files. Take the history with you when you move and give copies to your children and heirs. • Give a copy of the history to the Museum of Central Queensland and your local historical society or museum to keep in their files. • If the original building date has been determined, it might be a good idea to have the information inscribed on a metal plate that can be attached to a main beam.


26

CASE STUDY 181 CAROLINE STREET, ROCKHAMPTON The Caroline Street home of David and Linda Cowan and their three sons is a near-century-old ‘Queenslander’ on the eastern slopes of The Range in Rockhampton. The land on which 181 was built has a much longer history, though, in being Darumbal land where, for many thousands of years, the local Aboriginal people took refuge during major floods on the Fitzroy River.1 Eight years after the first white settlement by the pastoralist Archer Brothers in 1855, William Archer purchased from the Crown portion 139 in the County of Livingstone, Parish of Rockhampton. Dated 23 September 1863, Deed of Grant No. 6425 bears the signature of Queensland’s first governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen. Archer’s 9 acre 2 roods acquisition extended from present day Agnes Street, down Caroline to the junction with William Street and across to Corbery Street.2 Archer soon subdivided and sold off his holding, including Subdivision 3 in 1866 to Robert Patton, a station overseer from Springsure.3 Patton had a Certificate of Title issued on 2 May.4 After Patton’s untimely death from fever in Fiji in 1878,5 the land was bequeathed to a barrister relative in London who, in 1881, disposed of his inheritance to Patton’s Rockhampton solicitor, Rees Rutland Jones. In 1883, Jones sold to local merchant and four-times mayor Robert Miller Hunter.6 On Hunter’s death in 1903, leading citizens Stewart Williamson Hartley and Robert Gamble Brown, as trustees, took out a mortgage on the property, probably for business reasons. Grazier’s wife Nina Edith Muriel Miller of Mildura, Barcaldine, bought Resub. 1 of Hunter’s land in 1917, after buying Resub. 2 in 19147 and erecting there a bungalow for rental to her brother-in-law, Crown Land Ranger Lancelot Guy Rawson.8 When 181 Caroline was constructed can only be approximated. The 1920 Archer Ward Rate Book shows ‘land’ replaced by ‘house’ in the tenure column but the alteration is undated. The occupier was Winifred Swanwick, wife of Blackall solicitor Ronald Fox Swanwick, who was the brother of leading Rockhampton solicitor Frederick Swanwick, and who later committed suicide on the Commonage. She was also the sister of neighbour Guy Rawson.9 Mrs Swanwick ran a recruitment service for western graziers and placed one such newspaper advertisement in March 1919.10 She was also shown as living in Caroline Street in the 1919 Electoral Roll,11 however she could have been with her relatives next door. So 1919 to 1920 is the best estimate of construction date.

Certificate of Title of Nina Miller who built the house in 1919-1920, showing the 1938 sale to the Clares and the remainder in 1942

The new residence at 181 was a Federation-style bungalow with a corrugated iron hip roof. Dowelling balustrades, lattice end-panels and probably slat blinds graced the surrounding open verandahs. Two small rooms occupied the rear corners, perhaps as a bathroom and bedroom. A semi-detached kitchen stood behind the house, joined by a walkway. From the length of that structure, it probably contained additional rooms.12


27

Panorama of Rockhampton, circa 1929, showing the house (on/to the left of the photo join) and two other rental houses uphill owned by Mrs Miller; (right) close-up of house showing the semi-detached kitchen at the rear and corrugated iron rainwater tank to its left

Marks still visible in the paintwork and on the floorboards indicate an internal passageway running front to back with two rooms on each side. The four rooms opened onto the front and/or side verandahs through French doors topped with glass fanlights. Six-inch horizontal tongue-and-groove V-joint boards clad the single skin interior walls and those opening onto the verandahs while the end rooms and kitchen block were most likely single skin also, giving the typical ‘inside-out’ appearance. Six-inch boards lined the 12ft 6in high ceilings, with open-work timber ceiling roses for ventilation. The floors consisted of six-inch pine boards edged with plain skirting boards. There were no fanlights over the internal doors and seemingly little ornamentation in this lowcost rental house. The land sloped away to the south-east so that the house sat almost at ground level at the front, uphill corner and on high wooden stumps at the opposite corner. The yard then fell away to a steep gully along which Glencoe Street later ran.13 By November 1920 at least, Harry Sully White had taken the tenancy because he placed a notice in the paper about a lost duck which ‘flew from Caroline-st, Range’ and directed finders to ‘White, next Guy Rawson’.14 The Whites took a listing in the Post Office Directory from 1922 and lived at 181 Caroline Street until 1939. That they did not purchase a home is curious considering Harry’s various occupations and their family connections (perhaps they liked the house but Mrs Miller would not sell). Mrs Nadia White was a daughter of engineer Robert Ballard who had constructed the Central Railway line to Longreach. Between 1891 and 1895, Ballard superintended railway activities at Mount Morgan Mine15 where Harry Sully White (never simply Harry White) was a mine engineer and surveyor and that connection could have brought Harry and Nadia together. More socially advantageous was that White’s sister Charlotte (Lottie) had married prominent local doctor Frederick H Vivian Voss.16 The Whites had six daughters and at least one son,17 and many visitors from out of town, so sleeping arrangements would have been tight. Blinds on the verandahs probably created a ‘sleepout’ on the western, and perhaps eastern side. Mrs White and the girls led a busy social life and frequently appeared in the Morning Bulletin’s ‘Personal Paragraphs’ column. Miss Trixie White won the Associates’ Trophy for golf in 1928. She also made news by accompanying her uncle, Dr Voss, on a no doubt arduous motor trip from Sydney in 1930.18


28

Sketch of likely original floor plan

(Top left and bottom) evidence of a corridor wall in paintwork and on floorboards; (top right) marks left by a ceiling rose

Although he gave his occupation as ‘grazier’ in electoral rolls while he lived in Caroline Street, Harry Sully White worked in road construction from about 1920 and, in 1929, had a contract with Rockhampton City Council for work on the Yeppoon Road.19 The rate books between 1926 and 1934, when they were amended, erroneously show Harry Sully White as both occupier and owner. After his wife died in 1934,20 Harry remained in the house with several daughters and son Phillip. The Miller properties in Caroline and Glencoe Streets were offered for sale in 1936, including ‘Lot 5’ at 181 Caroline. By that time, the land had been halved in depth and the rear portion facing Glencoe Street was offered separately.21 It was April 1938 before 181 Caroline changed hands and, even then, there was nearly no house to sell because in February that year, ‘a dangerous grass fire’ broke out and the house was only saved by the Fire Brigade using ‘the latest fire fighting appliances…[of]…Knapsack pumps’.22 The new owners were John Clare and his sons Colin and Leslie. They also purchased some of the Miller land on the uphill side of 181. In 1940 and 1941, Colin Clare, by then in real estate himself,23 and wife Eileen bought other parts of the Clare purchase and undertook a series of subdivisions and amalgamations of titles, including selling 1 rood 8.5 perches to Victor and Evelyn Thomason, designated as Sub. 3 of Resub. 1 of Sub. 3 of Portion 139 and containing 181 Caroline Street.24

Advertisement for the unsuccessful sale of 181 Caroline Street situated in ‘The Grandstand of Rockhampton’ in 1936


29

The transaction occurred on 5 April 1940 according to the new title deed. The Whites then moved to 51 Oswald Street.25 The Clares demolished the two other Miller houses on their remaining land and replaced them with three gable-style houses including their own at 187 Caroline, immediately next to 181.26 Railway train control clerk Victor Thomason and wife Evelyn had recently transferred from Brisbane but it seems Mrs Thomason was soon attending bridge parties and charity fund-raisers according to the social column. Their son Allan attended Rockhampton Grammar School and won Returned Services League bursaries in 1940 and 1941. He was also a talented pianist who studied under eminent local music teacher, Miss Marion Morrison. Allan later became a draftsman in Brisbane where his parents returned on Railway transfer in 1960.27

1941 Cadastral map showing 181 Caroline St (outlined in red) as sold by the Clares to the Thomasons in 1940. The narrow yellow strip was surveyed off in 1978 and transferred to the neighbouring property.28

During the 1940s, the Thomasons demolished the rear kitchen and created new kitchen and breakfast rooms by enclosing the back verandah with weatherboards and three sash windows per room. The connection to the old kitchen became the landing for the back steps. The western verandah and its width across the front was enclosed with fibrolite sheeting and casement windows for a more weather-proof sleepout but remained open onto the front verandah. The eastern verandah became a fernery with vertical slats and a ledge extending beyond the railing. If not already there, a bathroom was installed at the end of the eastern verandah, together with a separate toilet following the introduction of sewerage in the 1940s. Perhaps this is when the hallway was removed and the living and dining rooms opened up with a fretwork arch and pot-plant pedestals on either side. It seems this is also when the roof was painted red – an unusual feature in Rockhampton. A concrete path led from the front steps to the gate between garden beds which Mrs Thomason filled with roses; other flower beds extended across the front of the house.29 Perhaps she also planted the poinciana and jacaranda which graced the front garden until recently. When the three mango trees that were in the back garden were planted is also not known. That was essentially the state of the house when purchased by Main Roads divisional engineer Thomas Roper and wife Edith for his five year posting to Rockhampton from 1960 to 1965.30 In mid1965, the property changed hands again, this time to accountant Raymond Thomas and wife Dorothy who had emigrated from England in 1960.31 Kenneth Dyer, a business manager from Victoria, and Margaret Dyer bought the house in December 1969 and in April 1971 they sold to Brian and Maura Mitchell, also from Victoria.32

The house with a red roof in about 1960 (photograph: Peter Roper)


30

Sometime between 1965 and October 1973, when Peter and Janet Moran bought the house, the fernery was demolished, blinds removed from the front and the sleepout closed off from the front verandah. The Morans owned the house for almost five years, during which time they commissioned major alterations by a builder who lived next door at 173, Phillip Ahlstrand. A new and extended L-shaped kitchen replaced the old bathroom and kitchen area and a new bathroom, separate shower on the old landing and toilet replaced the breakfast room. All three were accessed by a narrow passage leading from the new kitchen to the small third bedroom. The changes meant a new back entrance and landing and reversal of direction for the steps. The house was replumbed, re-wired and re-roofed in the traditional unpainted Rockhampton style. Underneath was excavated to above head height, retaining walls erected along the west and north below the upstairs walls, new steel posts were put in and reinforced steel joists inserted to allow double garage space. The excavated soil was pushed out into the back yard towards the mango trees. Below the upstairs ablution area an additional toilet and shower and new laundry facilities were installed. 33

Existing layout in 1975 (left) and proposed alterations (right) submitted to Rockhampton City Council that year

The Morans sold in July 1978 to Yvon Wigley, the sister of Phillip Ahlstrand’s wife, Mary Anne. The Ahlstrands required extra land for a carport and deck at 173 and a 5m strip was surveyed off and transferred to them. That left 181 Caroline Street with the 1030m2 it possesses today. 34 Phillip Ahlstrand made other alterations to the yard: erecting a timber retaining wall and high picket fence along the common boundary and a RockBlock wall and 1.5m fibro fence across part of the back abutting one of the Glencoe Street properties. Additional fill created a more level rear yard where several eucalypts were planted. At the front, he constructed a concrete and brick driveway with a stone wall and steps from where a path crossed the lawn to the front steps. The Ahlstrands made alterations to the kitchen and bathroom cupboards and décor, and, so it seems, removed the fretwork divider between the lounge and dining room. On the remaining open verandas, the single skin walls were clad with HardiPlank and the verandah roof lined with Hardiflex. The house was then repainted white with brown trim.35 With those changes, the property was again on the market. Telecom District Manager Bryce Plummer and wife Beverley ‘fell in love with it’ and purchased in December 1979. The Plummers made no further changes upstairs but built a fourth bedroom below the kitchen, landscaped the back garden with a brick terrace and log garden beds and added an above ground swimming pool.36 Medical practitioner Owen Webster and wife Barbara bought the property in November 1985 and rented it before taking up residence after moving from Winton in December 1986. They extended the roof over the back steps and enclosed them with lattice, built a granny flat downstairs and installed a garage door. They also redecorated the kitchen, repainted the house externally in heritage colours, planted more trees and later removed the pool.37


31

After more than 17 years at 181 Caroline Street, Barbara Webster sold to David and Linda Cowan in March 2004.38 The Cowans have not made any structural changes to date but have installed a new kitchen after water damage during cyclonic weather and plan to repaint inside and outside. They look forward to spending many years in this memory-filled Rockhampton bungalow where successive families over almost a century have made their home within its wooden walls.39

New kitchen in fashionably loud 1970s colours

Front verandah after HardiPlank wall cladding and lining in 1975

The house painted in heritage colours in the late 1980s

Dining and living room, showing the arch and sealed-off fanlight from the 1975 changes and a glimpse of the new all-white kitchen


32

REFERENCES Capricornian, 23 Jan 1918 (Trove); Barbara Webster, Marooned: Rockhampton’s great flood of 1918, Coastal CRC, Brisbane, 2003, p. 71. 2 Deed of Grant 6425/vol. 21 folio 190 (ref. no. 10021190). 3 Rear of Deed of Grant 6425. 4 Certificate of Title, vol. C87 folio 197. 5 Morning Bulletin [MB], 13 July 1878 (all MB from Trove). 6 Death notice and obituary, MB, 15 Oct 1903. 7 Certificate of Title, vol. C124 folio 197 and vol. C117 folio 163. 8 Archer Ward Rate Book, 1916. Rockhampton Regional Library History Centre; MB, 24 Feb 1930. 9 RF Swanwick inquest, MB, 28 Nov 1921, 24 Feb 1930. 10 MB, 18 Feb 1920. 11 Electoral Roll, Subdivision of Rockhampton, 1919. (Ancestry.com.au) 12 Photo in Allenstown State School Centenary Book, 1977. 13 Physical examination of house. 14 MB, 1 Nov 1920. 15 Jacqueline Bell, ‘Robert Ballard: An early Queensland Railway engineer’, Queensland Heritage, vol. 1, no. 10, 1969, p. 8, http://www.textqueensland.com.au/item/ article/1450348c3315091b8db5f263e3e233be. 16 MB, 22 April 1930. 17 Harry Sully White family tree. (Ancestry.com.au) 18 MB, 1 June 1928 and 22 Apr 1930. 19 MB,7 Mar 1929 and 28 Sept 1933. 20 Family tree. 21 Sale notice, MB, 13 June 1936. 22 MB, 9 Feb 1938. 23 MB, 14 and 22 Feb 1939. 24 Certificate of Title, vol. C190 folio 45. 25 Electoral Roll, Subdivision of Fitzroy, 1943. 26 Information from Eileen Clare, circa 1988. 27 MB, 25 Nov 1940, 12 Feb 1942, 15 May 1948. 28 Cadastral map, Rockhampton, 1942. Rockhampton Regional Library History Centre. 29 Conversation with Clare family descendents, 2014. 30 Conversation with Roper family descendent, 2014. 31 Emigration records in Ancestry.com.au. 32 Certificate of Title, vol. C 190 folio 45. 33 Telephone conversation with Janet Moran, 20 Apr 2014. 34 Certificate of Title, vol. C190 folio 45, vol. C462 folio 181 and vol. C463 folio 141; Moran telephone conversation. 35 Moran and Clare family conversations. 36 Telephone conversation with Bryce Plummer, 16 Apr 2014. 37 Recollections of Barbara Webster. 38 Transfer 707585281, title ref. 30463141. 39 Conversations with Linda Cowan and house visits, 2014. 1


33

USEFUL CONTACTS Australian War Memorial www.awm.gov.au Military history and records of owners/occupants Births, Deaths and Marriages (Queensland) https://www.qld.gov.au/law/births-deaths-marriages-and-divorces/family-history-research/ Copies of BDM certificates Central Queensland University Library Capricornia CQ Collection http://libguides.library.cqu.edu.au/content.php?pid=366309 Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum http://gallerymuseum.gladstonerc.qld.gov.au Rates books, photos, hard copy newspapers, council minutes, reference books. Gladstone Regional Library Local Collection http://www.gladstonelibraries.qld.gov.au/library-services Books, newspapers (microfilm), newspaper clippings, PO Directories Queensland State Archives http://archives.qld.gov.au Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines http://www.dnrm.qld.gov.au/land Queensland Heritage Register http://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/heritage/qld-register/ Index and details of heritage listings Rockhampton Regional Library History Centre http://www.rockhamptonregion.qld.gov.au/Your_Community/Libraries/Local_and_Family_History Rates books, photographs, maps, plans, BDM indexes, immigration and shipping records, Post Office Directories (fiche), newspapers (film), access to Ancestry/Find My Past, local history books. State Library of Queensland http://www.slq.qld.gov.au Text Queensland http://www.textqueensland.com.au Qld Government Gazette, Pugh’s Almanac, books, journal articles, theses etc. UQ eSpace http://espace.library.uq.edu.au Books, theses, journal articles Workplace Health and Safety Queensland http://www.deir.qld.gov.au/workplace/resources/pdfs/common-location-asbestos-1970s-house.pdf Asbestos information relating to building products.


34

USEFUL CONTACTS HISTORY SOCIETIES Banana Shire Historical Society Inc (Biloela) https://sites.google.com/site/greycliffehomestead/ Baralaba & District Historical Society Inc Ph: (07) 4998 1383 Boyne Valley Historical Society (Ubobo) http://www.boynevalley.org.au/organisations/boyne-valley-historical-society/ Byfield & District Historical Society Inc. Email: [email protected] Capricorn Coast Historical Society Inc. (Yeppoon) http://www.cchs.org.au Central Queensland Family History Association (Rockhampton) http://www.cqfamilyhistory.org.au Clermont & District Historical Society Museum Ph: (07) 4983 3311 Emerald & District Historical Association Inc Email: [email protected] [email protected] Genealogical Society Gladstone District Inc http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ausgsgdi/ Longreach Archival & Historical Research Group Inc Email: [email protected] Mackay Historical Society and Museum Inc http://www.mackayhistory.org/research/mackayhistoricalsociety/ Mount Chalmers Community History Centre Email: [email protected] Moura Coal & Country Historical Society Inc PO Box 104, Moura Q 4718 Museum of Central Queensland (Rockhampton) http://www.mocq.org.au/ Rockhampton & District Historical Society Ph: (07) 4927 8431 Winton District Historical Society & Museum Inc http://www.matildacentre.com.au/


35

SUGGESTED READING Websites and Web articles Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ‘Research: Who’s been sleeping in your house’. Brisbane City Council, ‘Recognising housing styles’. Brisbane City Council, ‘Your house has a history: keys to unlocking its past’. Fisher, Rod, ‘Brisbane’s timber houses in Queensland context: the human dimension’, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, vol. 13, no. 9, Feb 1989. Fox, Matthew J, The history of Queensland: its people and industries: an historical and commercial review, States Publishing Co, Brisbane, 1923. Available for free download through UQ eSpace at http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/ UQ:216975. [Select vol.3 part b for Central Queensland] Queensland House Styles Information Page, www.raia.net.au/i-cms_file?page=192/05.YH_Topic_4_Qld.pdf Queensland State Archives, ‘Tracing the history of your house: brief guide 27. Queensland State Archives, ‘Land tenure records: brief guide 5’. Rechner, Judy, ‘The Queensland Workers’ Dwelling, 1910–1940, Royal Historical Society of Queensland Journal, vol. 15, no. 6, Feb. 1994. Available from UQ eSpace at http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:206931 Rechner, Judy, ‘Houses for Queenslanders of small means?: Workers’ Dwellings in Old Coorparoo Shire, 1910-1940’, MA Thesis, 1998. Available from UQ eSpace at http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/ UQ:185255 ‘Research the history of your house’, House Histories: House and Suburban Histories from South East Queensland. State Library of Queensland, Land Records State Library of Queensland, ‘Straw, sticks and bricks: Queensland House Histories’ ‘The Queenslander’ (excerpts from various sources) Toowoomba City Council, ‘The Toowoomba house: styles and history’, Part 1 Toowoomba City Council, ‘The Toowoomba house: styles and history’, Part 2 Townsville Regional Council, ‘Heritage and character housing: information guide’ University of Queensland Fryer Library, Brisbane between the wars: a history by design.


36

SUGGESTED READING Books on Australian / Queensland house styles Apperly, Richard, Robert Irving and Peter Reynolds, A pictorial guide to identifying Australian architecture: styles and terms from 1788 to the present, Angus & Robertson, North Ryde NSW, 1989. Bell, Peter, Timber and iron: houses in North Queensland mining settlements, 1861–1920, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1984. Cuffley, Peter, Australian houses of the forties & fifties, Five Mile Press, Knoxfield VIC, 1993. Evans, Ian & The National Trust of Queensland, The Queensland house: history and conservation, Flannel Flower Press, Mullumbimby NSW, 2001. Evans, Ian, The Australian home, Flannel Flower Press, Sydney, 1985. Fisher, Rod & Brian Crozier (eds), The Queensland house: a roof over our heads, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, 1994. Fraser, Hugh & Ray Joyce, The federation house: Australia’s own style, New Holland, Sydney, 2002. Moore, Robert, Sheridan Burke, and Ray Joyce, Australian cottages, Lansdowne, Sydney, 1993. Pickett, Charles, The fibro frontier: a different history of Australian architecture, Powerhouse Publishing/Doubleday, Sydney, 1997. Saini, Balwant & Ray Joyce, The Australian house: homes of the tropical North, Lansdowne, Sydney, 1985. Stapleton, Maisy & Ian Stapleton, Australian house styles, Flannel Flower Press, Mullumbimby NSW, 2010.

Books on local history Search the catalogue or ask at your local library for titles


37