St Lucia

History of Brisbane's St Lucia

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

Aboriginal history

The Jagera and Turrbal groups occupied land in the Brisbane and Ipswich areas. The exact boundaries are not known, however, the Turrbal generally occupied the area north of the Brisbane River, and they are classified as belonging to the Yaggera language Group. Toowong Creek was used as a camp on ceremonial occasions. No other specific signs of use have been found, but the area may have provided seasonal food and water.

Aboriginal shelters called Gunyahs were common along the banks of the Creek.

Urban development

St Lucia is contained by three reaches of the Brisbane River; the St Lucia Reach, Cemetery Reach and part of the Long Pocket Reach.

Ex-convict Thomas Pamphlet was the first European to pass by St Lucia when he used a native canoe to travel from Oxley Creek to the river mouth. Surveyor General John Oxley and his party camped overnight on the peninsular in 1823, on his first exploration of the river. He wrote “We passed a miserable night, mosquitoes and sandflies almost devoured us.”

Early observers commented on the small swamps covered with water lilies and the sandy banks along the river. In 1929 it was described by the Sunday Mail:
‘In sylvan beauty it is unsurpassed among the suburbs of Brisbane. Hemmed in on three sides by the Brisbane River, its grassy slopes extend to the water’s edge. Though the higher ground is well dotted with handsome dwellings it is still a delightful mixture of rural and residential’.

In 1853 Robert Cribb established Lang Farm on the south bank of Toowong Creek, and by 1859 the whole peninsular had been divided into twenty-two farm lots. Twelve were used for crop farming, the rest for cattle grazing. For twenty years the farmers grew market garden products together with lucerne, maize, cotton, and, in the 1870s, sugar cane. W Dart was the leading sugar grower and established his own sugar mill and refinery. J. Carmody and his family became the longest residents, farming until 1926.

In the boom decade of the 1880s all the farmers except Carmody, sold their land to developers for housing subdivision. The principal developer was William Alexander Wilson, an Irish immigrant who had been born in St Lucia, West Indies. He named his first development St Lucia Estate.

Poor road access to Brisbane made the land uncompetitive with other areas and land sales were slow. The Great Flood of 1893 devastated the low-lying areas, and the area remained a small community for fifty years.

In October 1926 Dr James O’Neill Mayne and his sister Miss Mary Emelia Mayne signed a deed of grant with the Brisbane City Council donating £50,000 for the purchase of 200 acres at end of the peninsular for a university site or parklands. The University senate accepted the gift and agreed to acquire the site for a University in December 1926.

The partially completed University buildings were used by General Blamey during the war, and the University finally took occupation in 1947. St Lucia developed rapidly to service the University, with shops, churches and community facilities.

Notable residents

Richard Gailey, Queensland Architect of renown, designed built and lived with his family in the spectacular mansion Glenolive [Sandford Street] in the early 1890s.

Lloyd Rees, a well known Australian artist wrote of his early 1900s childhood at Mobolon [Guyatt Park] and Ironside State School, in his autobiography Peaks and Valleys.

Dr Sandford Jackson, Medical Superintendent at Brisbane Hospital, private surgeon, and early cancer specialist lived with his family at Glenolive in the early 1900s.

Karl Langer, an architect who introduced ‘modernism’ to Brisbane, and his art historian wife Gertrude, designed and lived in a house in Swann Road St Lucia in the 1960s.

Vida Lahey, a prominent female artist, lived on Sir Fred Schonell Drive during the 1950s and 1960s.

The Alvey family began the famous Alvey Fishing Reels factory on Macquarie Street in 1920, and remained there employing many people until 1978. During World War II the factory produced aircraft and vehicle components.

The Guyatt family, headed by David Guyatt, lived in Sir Fred Schonell Drive and Ryans Road from 1889, and were well known in Brisbane for their involvement in theatre and the Methodist church over many years.

Landmarks

Cairngorm, Walcott Street, dates from the 1890s when it was the home of the Mitchell family. For twenty years they ran a fencing factory alongside making K-wire. Today it is the home of the University Alumni Association.

264 Swann Road was the second general Store to open in St Lucia in 1914, and the building remains in its original format to this day. The first 1892 Guyatt’s Ironside Post Office and Store on the corner of Sir Fred Schonell Drive and Ryans Road was demolished about 1975 for a high-rise, but the commercial aspect remains.

Avalon Theatre, Sir Fred Schonell Drive was first a Church of England hall in 1923 before passing to the St Lucia Progress Association. The focal point of the community, Annual Shows, dances, theatre productions etc. were held there when the building was smaller and elevated. In the 1950s it was lowered and extended and became a cinema, before being taken over by the University of Queensland.

The St Lucia Golf Links began as a private club in 1926 when they purchased William Dart’s original Hillstone house and grounds. Now a public course, very little of the original house remains in today’s function centre.

The Great Court of the University of Queensland, faced with Helidon sandstone, was progressively completed between the 1930s and the 1960s and is the focal point of the University.

Reference: Lesley Jenkins, BRISbites, 2000

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