15 Ealing Street, Annerley

In 1888 Stephens Shire purchased subdivision 2 of Portion 103 comprising 2 roods from Mark Cockerill. There was a tender notice to construct the Stephens Divisional Board offices on Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba in 1888. The building was probably constructed shortly afterwards. It first appeared in the Post Office Directory in 1891.

The building’s architect was Alexander Brown Wilson, a notable Brisbane architect at the time. Wilson played an active role in local politics, and was Chairman of the Stephens Divisional Board from 1890 to 1891. He managed to survive the financial recession of the early 1890s by mortgaging his Yeronga residence and temporarily moving to Sandgate.

Other buildings designed by Wilson included several major Brisbane landmarks like the Hayne residence (later Como) in 1889-90, Lamb residence, Kangaroo Point (1901) and the YMCA in Edward Street (1906-07) 

The land on which the offices were located was later part of Ealing Park Estate, subdivided in 1893. The estate map shows the location of shire office allotment between Ipswich Road and Park Road. Park Road was later renamed Ealing Street.

The population of the Shire grew from 3000 in 1887 to 13000 at the time of the Shire’s incorporation into the City of Brisbane at the time of inauguration in 1924.

The property on which the Stephens Shire office stood was transferred to Brisbane City Council in July 1929. In December 1929 the Council sold re-subdivision 3 of subdivision 2, comprising 19 and two tenths of a perch to George Thomas Wilkinson and Maggie Wilkinson who were located next to the Shire office on Ipswich Road which continued to be their address after purchasing the property. The likelihood is that the Council shifted the building to the back of the block prior to subdividing the land into four separate allotments.

The next land transfer was in 1934 when the Wilkinsons sold the property to Elizabeth Allen of 390 Ipswich Road, wife of Reginald Allen. The property was then transferred to George Williams in 1940 and subsequently transferred to several owners.

1. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificate of Title records

2. Brisbane City Council Properties on the Web

3. Brisbane City Council Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Detail Plan No 437, 1935

4. Brisbane City Council, 1946 aerial photographs.

5. Byrnes, Matthew, Stephens District: Historical Overview, 1995

6. Queensland Post Office Directories

7. Ealing Park Estate Map c1893

8. Photograph of the Stephens Shire Office, Ipswich Road, Annerley, Courier Mail, 4 August 1906. Photo is also located in John Oxley Library photo collection, Neg No 69566

9. Watson, Donald and Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the 19th century: A Biographical Dictionary, Queensland Museum, 1994, p 210