Kedron

History of Brisbane's Kedron

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Kedron's history has been compiled as a part of the BRISbites community history project.

Aboriginal history

The Aboriginal group that frequented this neighbourhood were known locally as the Duke of York Clan. They were part of the Turrbal Tribe who fished and hunted over territory stretching from Sandgate to the Pine River and west to Enoggera.

One of the few remaining recognisable sites of Aboriginal importance is the eucalyptus tree on the northern bank of Kedron Brook in the vicinity of the Shaw Estate.

Urban development

The first crown land sales in Kedron took place in January 1857. Alexander and Amelia Barron purchased land on Gympie Road between Stafford Road and Kedron Brook. There the family established a farm and a dairy herd. Their son James later became a blacksmith and started up a business on the corner of Stafford and Gympie roads.

Glentanna Road, off Kitchener Road, marks the site of the home of Michael Gallagher. He came to Brisbane in 1882 to manage Thomas Dixon's West End tannery. In 1886 he established the Kedron Tannery on the site that later housed Webster's biscuit factory. Gallagher was involved in many community activities and at one stage was Kedron Shire Chairman. Other streets in this vicinity are named after members of the Gallagher family.

Extensive urban subdivisions took place in Kedron through to the mid-1920s. A tram service was extended from Windsor to the Kedron Park hotel in 1914. It was further extended to the Lutwyche Cemetery in 1925.

Notable residents

Morovian missionaries settled on the creek near Nundah in 1839. They named the creek Kedron Brook after a famous valley near Jerusalem.

Justice Alfred James Lutwyche was involved in the land sale in the Kedron Parish in January 1860. Queensland's first judge bought thirty-five acres [14.2 hectares]. He built his home at Kalinga and named it Kedron Lodge.

John King, in the early 1890s, established a store in the district and named it the Kedron Store after Judge Lutwyche's home. King later became a shire councillor and was the first postmaster for Kedron, although the locality name was not formally recognised until 1901. King bought large quantities of tea from the Oriental Tea Company and made a special blend for his customers. He later sold the rights to this blend to the company, which marketed it as King Tea.

Landmarks

One of the earliest public buildings in the area was the Edinburgh Castle Hotel, established in 1868 in a small timber building on the opposite side of Gympie Road to the current hotel. In 1886, Bridget Goodwin purchased seven allotments of land on the corner of Gympie and Edinburgh Castle roads and built a new brick hotel. The hotel was built in stages and was not completed until 1892. This hotel was demolished in 1959 and a new structure built on the site.

The Kedron Park Emergency services complex is on the site of the original racecourse. Frederick Morris, the publican of the Kedron Park Hotel since its establishment in 1881, ran the first picnic races. In 1888 shares were offered in the Kedron Park Racecourse and Sports Ground Co Ltd. A formal race program was held in 1889, but the track seemed to have been unused until it was bought by James Sharp in 1911. The course changed hands many times and was forced to close in 1931 following a Royal Commission into racing. The site was used for Kedron High School from 1956 and a teachers' college was established on the corner in 1961. It later became the North Brisbane College of Advanced Education and in 1989 it became a campus of the Queensland University of Technology. The Kedron Park Campus was closed in 1995 and sold for $4.8 million.

Lutwyche Cemetery is situated on land originally owned by Henry Craig, who planted a large stand of bunya pines along Gympie Road. He lived there until his death in 1877 after which the land was taken over for the cemetery.

Schools in the area include the state primary school, which was established in 1926, St Anthony's (1930), Kedron High School (1956), Mount Alvernia College (1957), and Padua College (1959).

Reference: L. Jenkins, BRISbites, 2002

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