Rosalie - Brisbane's Forgotten Daughter

45 ROSALIE - BRISBANE'S FORGOTTEN DAUGHTER by A. T Miles Presented to a Meeting of the Society on 23 October 1980. Few of the suburbs of Brisbane are distinguished by any natural or historical feature. Each may be attractive in its own way and each has a history but, with few exceptions, they are fairly ordinary. The little suburb of Rosalie is probably about as ordinary as any, yet it has been chosen as the topic of this paper. The history of the city area of Brisbane has been covered many times and some of the outer suburbs have also been favourably treated. The histories of the older, inner suburbs have been neglected. They are similar to each other in many ways, and a detailed look at Rosalie will help to paint a back ground for ah of them. Where is Rosalie? Street directories list well over two hundred suburbs in Brisbane. Of these the smallest, most unlocatable and most easily forgettable would probably be Rosalie. Its centre Hes about three kilometres •west of the city centre - close enough to hear the City Hall clock chime on a clear morning but far enough out to hear the kooka burras from Government House grounds. It is very small as suburbs go and the name covers an area barely eight hundred by a thousand metres at its most assertive extremities. Suburban boundaries are difficult to define around the edges, especially in Brisbane where there are no suburban municipalities. Apart from the large expanse of Government House to the west there are no natural boundaries either. In those places where Rosalie merges indis tinctly into Paddington, Milton, Torwood or Rainworth, the residents seem to choose the name of the suburb in which they wish to live. Not that one has much edge in status over another. The origin of the name is obscure. Mr J.F. McDougall was an early landholder in the area. "In about the year 1864", says a newspaper article, "he turned his attention to pastoral pursuits again and purchased Rosalie station - from which our suburb takes its name."' This prop- Mr Miles, a computer programmer and systems analyst, lived in Rosalie from his child hood in 1943 until 1974. He has.made the suburb a subject of special study. 46 erty is on the Darling Downs and was named Rosalie by the previous owner, WiHiam Kent. It can hardly be coincidence that McDougall owned land in the adjoining parishes of Rosalie and Milton on the Darling Downs and also in the adjoining suburbs of Rosalie and Milton in Brisbane. Another version, from an old church history,^ is that the suburb, previously kno^wn as Oxford Estate, borro^ved the name Rosalie from a name painted on the side of one of the local buses. The adorning of vehicles with girls' names was not an uncommon practice. Whichever version is accepted, neither explains the intriguing mystery of just who Rosalie was in the first place. Her identity may be lost, but her name lives on - at least for a while. Rosalie's status as a suburb has been officially abolished. It has been downgraded to a locality within the suburb of Paddington. The name has been erased from the memory of the large computers and in other ways it is being erased from the memory of the people. The Post Office has gone, the buses no longer show Rosalie as a destination and there are few public or commercial buildings left which bear the name. Hence the title, "Brisbane's forgotten daughter". Because of Rosalie's small size, ah of its residents liye very close to the adjoining suburbs, and it is inevitable that those other suburbs be frequently mentioned here. FROM THE BEGINNINGS John Oxley's journals of 1824 mention an aboriginal camp in an area beside the Brisbane River which, from the description, appears to be around Milton. The site of Oxley's camp may also be assumed to have been around Park Road, Mihon.^ The Moreton Bay penal setdement was moved to the present site of Brisbane in 1824 and there were few free settlers until transportation of convicts ended in 1840. Some of the settiers took up land in the area to the west of Hale Street, then called Boundary Street. A historian writing sixty years ago'' reconstructed a description of this area as it would have been around 1854. "Looking from the observatory", he said, "towards the western suburbs - including what is now Petrie Terrace, Milton, Paddington, Rosalie, Toowong, etc - litde could be seen but forest trees, with an occasional patch of cleared ground cultivated for the production of maize, potatoes, pumpkins and lucerne, while the banks of the small 47 creeks which entered the river in the Milton Reach held tangled vine scrub. On the Toowong Road could be seen the residence of John F. McDougall, and a Httle further on was the red-tiled roof of Mr. Robert Cribb's home. A few houses, a couple of farms, and some large paddocks occupied the area where Milton now prospers. The gaol on Petrie Terrace had not then been erected, and very few houses were to be seen in the neighbourhood. Upper Roma Street and Countess Street were unfenced tracks." In the foHowing years the wealthier landowners built their large residences in the area. The most famous of these is "Fernberg", since 1910 the official residence of Queensland's Governors. The house was built in 1864-65 by Johann Christian Heussler, merchant, cotton and sugar farmer, and emigration agent for Queens land in Europe. In later years he held other official posts. The name "Fernberg" means "distant hill", as the site certainly was in those days. Benjamin Backhouse was the architect. The original "Fernberg" was a rather thin looking building with a small tower. A later owner, Mr John Stevenson, more than doubled the size in about 1890. The house was leased by the Queensland Government in 1910 for the new Governor, Sir WilHam MacGregor, and purchased the following year. Further substantial additions were made in Sir Leslie Wilson's time, 1937, and other improvements have been added since. A more detailed history of this residence has been given in another recent paper. The house known as "Lucerne" at 23 Fernberg Road was built around 1862 by James Young, a foreman with the builder John Petrie. Young later rented the house to John Guthrie, a soHcitor from Scot land, and it was he who named it "Lucerne". Young later Hved in two other houses which he built on the same landholding. The house has had a number of distinguished tenants and owners since then, and it is now owned by Dr. and Mrs D. O'Sullivan. On top of Baroona HiH, now 90 Howard Street, Rosalie, stands "Baroona". This house was built about 1865 for Mr W.D. Box. The grounds of "Baroona" covered a large portion of what is now the surrounding suburb. An imposing gateway on the crest of the hih formed the entrance to the property from Baroona Road. In later years Mr Box sold much of the land and also made additions to the original house. 48 "Baroona", house on the hill. The next occupant from about 1879 to about 1889 was the Hon. John Donaldson, M.L.A. Over a period he was Postmaster General, Secretary for Public Instruction and Colonial Treasurer. A later owner was Robert Philp who subsequently became a Cabinet Minister and Premier. William Watts, the Land Commissioner, was another owner in 1899, and then Cornelius Geaney, manager of the City Mutual Life Insurance Company, bought it in 1919. At this time the house was described as having sitting and dining rooms, hall, six bedrooms, two maids' rooms, copper, verandas aU round, garage, stables and man's room, gas and water. "This is an excel lent opportunity", the advertisement said, "of securing a large, roomy, and well ventilated home within a few steps of 2d. tram, and short distance of city".^ It is difficult to imagine a prospective owner being attracted by the twopenny tram fare. Since 1952 the house has been owned by Dr. James Hill and family. Although the grounds have been reduced to about Haifa hectare in size and necessary modern touches have been added, the house retains much of the charm of the last century. "Baroona" has lent its name to many things in this part of Brisbane, but its origin is not clear. In 1961, when the old Petrie Terrace Girls' 49 School was renamed Baroona, the name was said to mean "a place far from here". A few other old residences in neighbouring suburbs are worthy of mention, the chief of which is Milton House. Although generaUy associated with John McDougall, the house was first owned by Ambrose Eldridge and dates from the early 1850's. McDougall bought it about 1855. The reason for naming the house Milton is not known, but it was passed on to the surrounding area. During the construction of the railway, the nearby station was designated Bishopsbourne, but it opened in 1875 as Milton. After McDougall many well known politic ians, pubHc servants and commercial people occupied Milton House. Today it is a Uniting Church hostel for student girls. Also at Milton, but hidden behind trees and the brewery, is St. Francis' Theological College. Until 1964 it was the home of the Anglican Bishops and Archbishops of Brisbane. "Bishopbourne", as it was caHed, was built about 1868 for the first Bishop, Edward Tufnell. The suburb of Rainworth takes its name from the home of Sir Augustus Charles Gregory, a man of many achievements.

Load more