Newstead

History of Brisbane's Newstead

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Newstead's history has been compiled 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 creek was called 'Yawagar' (or 'yowoggera') meaning 'corroboree place', and Newstead Point was called 'Garran-binbilla'. It was a popular camping and corroboree spot, and a significant fishing area was located near the outlet for the creek.

Breakfast Creek and the river were rich in fish. The Aborigines cultivated a type of marine worm, kan-yi, in tree trunks that were left to soak in the creek.

In 1823 John Oxley travelled up the Brisbane River and saw a large group of Aborigines on the shore at Breakfast Creek. Oxley described them as possessing 'a most friendly disposition'. The clan camped along Breakfast Creek, where Oxley met them again in 1824 and Alan Cunningham noted 'numerous were the beaten paths of the wild Aborigine'. One of these men took Oxley's hat and was shot several days later by Lieutenant Butler at Toowong.

James Backhouse saw evidence of a corroboree ground and a burial ground at Yowoggera in 1836 and Charles Fraser saw hollow logs filled with bones there. Breakfast Creek and the river were rich in fish and the Aborigines cultivated a type of marine worm, kan-yi, in tree trunks that were left to soak in the creek. In 1836, the Commandant of the Penal Settlement, Foster Fyans, met the Duke of York, visited the 'rush made huts' on the river at Breakfast Creek, and watched members of the clan fishing with nets.

After white settlement, Aborigines were excluded from the city area during the night and many camped in the Breakfast Creek area, usually on the Hamilton side of the creek. As the settlement spread in the 1840s, there were attacks on white farmers in this area. These were followed by reprisal shootings, including one particularly vicious attack on three camps in the Breakfast Creek region in 1860. Ladies travelling to Newstead House were accompanied by soldiers for their protection.

Gradually the original inhabitants succumbed to white pressure and disease. By the 1860s the local population was virtually extinct.

Urban development

In 1824 John Oxley proposed that the initial settlement at Moreton Bay should be 'on the West side of the river, at the termination of Sea Reach', at what we now call Newstead. However, when the colony moved from Redcliffe in 1825, it settled at Gardens Point.

In 1828, when James Warner, the Government Surveyor, mapped the Newstead area it was used as a government farm. In 1845 New Farm was still a farming area and Fortitude Valley consisted of a few shacks. Patrick Leslie, one of the first squatters on the Darling Downs, erected Newstead House. He described the land as partially cleared. The house had some livestock, a garden, and an orchard, planted with pineapples and grapes.

In 1850 James Gibbon, a property speculator known as 'Street Corner Jimmy', bought two blocks of 119 acres [48.2 hectares] on Teneriffe Hill. He named his property 'Teneriffe' after one of the Canary Islands and the mountain on it. He later divided the property into smaller allotments and sold them. Other developments in the area gave their names to the particular regions until Kingsholme, Waterloo, Stratton, and Teneriffe all occupied the area between Newstead Park and New Farm. In the 1920s the region became known as part of Bulimba, which was the suburb across the river.

When the early land holders began to subdivide their estates in the 1880s, smaller homes and industry moved into the area. The mainly residential nature of the suburb began to change in the late nineteenth century when deepwater frontage, the growth of the pastoral industry, and the railway led to the development of the Teneriffe–Newstead area as industrial or commercial properties. River-based industries predominated in the area. Boats were built just south of Newstead House and wharves grew up after the dredging of the river allowed large ships to come upstream. In 1887 the gas works opened at Newstead. In 1908 Dalgety's Wool Store opened and flourished until 1973. Newstead became increasingly industrialised.

A railway line was built to service the wharves at Newstead, Teneriffe, and New Farm. In 1886 the first tram ran through Newstead to the Bulimba Ferry.

The area around the Teneriffe wool stores was zoned as commercial until 1987, when it was changed to high-density residential, reflecting a shift back to the originally residential nature of Newstead.

Notable residents

Patrick Leslie was born in Scotland in 1815 and migrated to Australia in 1835. He managed properties in New South Wales before exploring the land around the Condamine River in 1840. The Leslie brothers took up land there, including Canning Downs and Toolburra Stations, becoming the first white settlers on the Darling Downs. In 1845, Patrick Leslie bought land in Newstead and built Newstead House. He sold the house to John Wickham in 1847 and bought Goomburra Station. In 1854, the Leslies settled in New South Wales and in the 1860s they took up land in New Zealand. Patrick Leslie returned to Sydney in 1878 and died there three years later.

John Clement Wickham was born in Scotland in 1798 and joined the Naval College at fourteen years of age. He had an active career in the navy, including sailing with Charles Darwin on the Beagle. He carried out important survey work in South America and returned to Australia in 1841. He married Anna Macarthur, sister to the wives of both Patrick and George Leslie. In 1843, he was appointed Police Magistrate to the Moreton Bay colony. He established law and order in the settlement and made an extensive survey of Moreton Bay in 1846–77.

The Wickhams lived in the premises of the last Commandant of the penal colony before buying Newstead House from Patrick Leslie in 1847. Newstead House was considerably enlarged and remodelled to accommodate the social events required. In 1853, John Wickham was appointed the Government Resident for Moreton Bay. Anna Wickham died in 1852 and Wickham remarried in 1857. Captain Wickham retired when Queensland became a separate state in 1859. The Wickhams returned to England in 1860 and Captain Wickham died in France in 1864.

George Harris was born in 1831 in London and came to Australia with his family when he was two years old. He had a partnership with his brother and was a merchant in Bendigo before he reformed the partnership with his brother John, with a store in South Brisbane and a fellmongery, tannery, boot and harness factory. The Harris brothers also acted as stock and station agents and speculated in property.

In 1854 a two-storey porphyry and sandstone warehouse and wharf were built near the city for their shipping and shipping agents business, and it was here that they held dances and picnics on race days. In 1862 the Harris family moved into Newstead House and continued the home's tradition of grand entertaining. In 1860 when Queensland's parliament first sat, George Harris became a member of the Upper House, a position he held until 1878, even though he had become bankrupt the year earlier. He died in 1891.

David Ferdinando Longland arrived in Brisbane in 1849. In 1857 he was appointed Foreman of Works and he held various positions until he retired as Chief Inspector of Roads and Bridges. He supervised the building of bridges over Breakfast Creek at the mouth (1858) and at Bowen Bridge. He was a member of the Booroodabin Divisional Board and owned land in many parts of Brisbane. He retired in 1879 and died in 1896. His house 'Stratton', on the corner of Commercial Road and Doggett Street, gave its name to a suburb there for many years, until it was absorbed into Newstead.

Landmarks

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 after this it is joined by Ithaca Creek. The Aborigines called it 'Ya-wa-gara' and camped along its length, using it for fishing and raising a marine grub, which they called kan-yi.

The first bridge across Breakfast Creek was built in 1836. A traffic bridge followed in 1848, but it fell down in 1856 and was replaced by a punt for two years until a second bridge was built. The next bridge, built in 1888–89, lasted until 1958 when the current bridge was built.

Newstead House is one of Brisbane's oldest residences. Patrick Leslie, the first squatter on the Darling Downs, bought the land in 1845. Andrew Petrie erected the house in the design of the homestead at Leslie's property, Canning Downs. In 1847 he sold it to his brother-in-law, Captain John Clements Wickham, the Police Magistrate and later the Government Resident. Wickham altered what had been a plain two-storey cottage with stone foundations, plastered brick walls, and a slate roof, to become an unofficial government house, suitable for the lavish parties he hosted, and the business he conducted there. After Wickham's departure in 1859 the house was owned by George Harris, a Brisbane merchant and politician, then by various other owners until 1918 when the Brisbane City Council used it for the Superintendent of Parks. Since 1932 the Royal Historical Society has made use of Newstead House and has restored it as a museum.

Teneriffe House was built for James Gibbon, a property speculator and later a Member of the Legislative Council. In 1850 Gibbon bought two blocks of 119 acres [48.2 hectares] on Teneriffe Hill and named his property 'Teneriffe' after one of the Canary Islands and the mountain on it. The house, designed by W. H. Ellerker, had separate wings for bedrooms, servants' rooms, and billiards room, linked by verandahs. It was constructed of rendered brick and timber, including a sprung-timber floor for dancing, and was built for the enormous sum of 1650 pounds.

James Cowlishaw designed 'Roseville', at 56 Chester Street, for George Myers, a Queen Street businessman. It was built in the 1880s of brick and sandstone. A later owner, James Mortimer, who was a pastoralist, gave the house its name. It has also been used as a hostel and a restaurant.

The Newstead area was dominated by river-based industry for many years. A railway line was constructed into Macquarie Street to cater for these industries. Wool was railed to the wool stores to be inspected, sold, and hoisted onto ships for export. The first wool store, Dalgety's, opened in 1911, finished operating in 1979, and burned down in 1984. Several other wool stores were later erected, all of unadorned brick construction, with large warehouse-like interiors. The Teneriffe wool store area was zoned as commercial until 1987 when it was changed to high-density residential. Many if the stores have since been converted for commercial or residential use.

Reference: BRISbites, 2000

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