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Herston

History of Brisbane's Herston

Herston's history has been compiled by local historian, Lesley Jenkins, as a part of the BRISbites community history project.

Aboriginal history

The Aborigines of north Brisbane were Turrbal people. They were often referred to as the 'Duke of York's clan' and their leader was called the 'Duke of York'. The clan camped along Breakfast Creek, where in 1824 Alan Cunningham noted 'numerous were the beaten paths of the wild Aborigine'.

Archibald Meston described the main base for the clan as 'York's Hollow' (or 'Yorkes Hollow'), a gully that ran through Victoria Park and the Exhibition grounds, which had been open forest and lagoons.

Fights took place at this campsite, which was called Barrambin. Tom Petrie, who grew up in the Brisbane area in the 1830s and 1840s, spent much of his childhood with the Aborigines near this area. He claimed that at times there would be up to 800 Aborigines in York's Hollow.

Breakfast Creek was rich in fish and the environs of Herston provided hunting grounds. A particular favourite was a type of marine worm, kan-yi, which was cultivated in tree trunks that were left to soak in the creek.

After white colonisation, Aborigines were excluded from the city area. In 1846 (and at other times) shootings occurred at York's Hollow in retaliation for attacks, usually by other tribes, on white settlers.

In the 1850s the numbers of Aborigines living at Victoria Park declined as white settlement spread. By 1860 most of the people native to the north Brisbane area had died. Aboriginal settlement had moved to Breakfast Creek or Enoggera until the spread of the suburbs excluded them.

Urban development

The first people to own land in Herston were John and George Harris, merchants of Brisbane, who received three lots as a Deed of Grant in 1859. Four years later they subdivided this land into allotments of varying sizes. Meanwhile other lots in the area had also been sold.

In 1859, the Colonial Secretary, Robert Herbert, and John Bramston had built the first residence in the area, with its own productive orchard and farm. They named the fine stone and cedar-lined house 'Herston', a combination of their surnames. When they left the country the house was sold to Sir James Garrick, who applied the name to the whole area.

Land purchases and subdivisions increased in the early 1880s, before the floods and depression of the 1890s, and then again in the 1910s. Proximity to the city and the elevated position of the higher land encouraged more affluent settlers. The land and house sizes were therefore greater than those of adjoining Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley. There were also small farms and several stables. Since the early days the growing hospital complex and the open space of Victoria Park have dominated the suburb.

Notable residents

Robert George Wyndham Herbert came to Brisbane with the first Governor of Queensland, George Bowen. Herbert had been educated at Eton and Oxford and became a barrister before joining the public service. He came to Brisbane as the Colonial Secretary and automatically became Queensland's first Premier when Bowen established responsible government. He held this position until 1866 and was also Vice-President of the Executive Council, Member for Leichhardt and West Moreton, foundation member of the Brisbane Club, and Chairman of the Brisbane Hospital. He invested widely in Queensland and, with his friend John Bramston he built 'Herston', the first house in the suburb that took its name.

In 1866 Herbert resigned his positions and returned to England, where he returned to his public-service career, receiving a knighthood in 1882. In 1905 he died at his family home at the age of seventy-three, never having married.

Before the invention of the Sabin and Salk vaccines, throughout the world many people died from poliomyelitis and even more were crippled. Sister Elizabeth Kenny conducted one of the most controversial treatments for polio. Born in 1886 and trained as a nurse, Sister Kenny began treating poliomyelitis when she worked on the Darling Downs in the 1910s. She promoted movement and exercise for limbs affected by polio, bringing her into conflict with the medical establishment who favoured passive treatment. However, Home Secretary Hanlon approved of her methods and success rate and helped her establish clinics in Queensland: the first at Townsville in 1932, then one in George Street, Brisbane, in 1935. In 1939 Ward 7 at the Brisbane Hospital (Herston) became her centre for in-patient treatment. This building is now the Childcare Centre.

Landmarks

In January 1867 the Brisbane Hospital moved from its site in the city to new premises at 'The Quarries' at Herston. John Petrie constructed the first buildings. He was Clerk of Works at the time, and later Chairman of the Hospital Committee from 1882 to 1891, and Mayor of Brisbane three times.

Development of the site continued throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including construction of the Children's Hospital and Women's Hospital – children and pregnant women were not admitted to the original hospital.

Some of the oldest buildings remaining are the Wardsmen's Building, which was opened in 1875 as a fever hospital, and the Childcare Centre, which began as Ward 7 in 1885. The Lady Lamington Home for Nurses began in 1896 after the prominent architect, Robin Dods, won a competition for its design. It was designed to adapt to the Queensland heat, with wide verandahs, a tiled roof, and cross-ventilation.

The low flat area of Victoria Park dominates the southern portion of Herston. This was originally a series of lagoons and wetland known as 'York's Hollow', and was a favourite fighting and camping spot for the local Aborigines, both before and after white colonisation. After the Aborigines moved out in the early 1860s, the land was set aside for public use, drained and filled, and used as a quarry and dump. In 1862 a rifle range was constructed there. Although 6,000 pounds was spent levelling an area for Government House, 'Fernberg' in Bardon became the Governor's house. Another plan was to build the university there, but the gift of land from the Mayne family in 1926 saw that constructed at St Lucia.

During the Great Depression in the 1930s a single-men's camp was located on the upper section of the park. Between 1943 and 1945 there were barracks for the United States Army. After World War II these buildings were used to accommodate war brides, then as classrooms for various institutions and universities, and as emergency accommodation for homeless people. Squatters moved in one Friday night after the army had withdrawn, and they stayed until 1960 when temporary housing was obsolete. Now the area is used for recreation, golf, and other sports, and is Brisbane's favourite circus venue.

In 1823 John Oxley explored the Brisbane River. On one occasion he and his party camped near the mouth of Breakfast Creek, and from this it got its name. It is known as Breakfast Creek until it reaches the area of Three Mile Scrubs in Kelvin Grove, after which it is called Enoggera Creek and shortly it is joined by Ithaca Creek. The Aborigines called it 'Ya-wa-gara'. They camped along its length and used it for fishing and raising marine grubs, which they called kan-yi.

Reference: Lesley Jenkins, BRISbites, 2000

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