Cnoc Rhue

The land on which the house is situated was purchased in early 1908 by Robert L’Estrange’s brother, William Mandeville Ellis L’Estrange, a prominent electrical engineer. William M.E. L’Estrange built his residence Hunstanton at Kelvin Grove in 1914, hence the naming of L’Estrange Terrace. This house is now part of the premises of the Australian Medical Association and is entered on the Queensland Heritage Register. 

The Victoria Street property, purchased by William L’Estrange in 1908 was part of Lilley’s Hill Estate, offered for sale in 1888. This land was granted to Charles Lilley, a Queensland Premier and Chief Justice, in 1865. At the time of the subdivision of Lilley’s Hill Estate, Red Hill was a developing suburb on the outskirts of the inner city in the shire of Ithaca. Ithaca was created from part of the divisional Board of Enoggera in 1887 and included Red Hill, Paddington, Ashgrove and parts of Kelvin Grove, Milton and Bardon. During the economic and population boom of the 1880s, settlement increased a Red Hill as the population of overcrowded Spring Hill split into neighbouring area.

As was customary in Brisbane, affluent residents at Red Hill and Kelvin Grove established their homes on the ridges overlooking the city, while those with more limited means built in the lower areas and gullies. The Windsor Road Baptist Church was constructed in 1888.

Development in the Red Hill/Kelvin Grove area was further facilitated by the opening of the tramline along nearby Waterworks Road (Musgrave Road) in 1897 and Enoggera Road in 1901. In 1903, Ithaca Shire was elevated to the status of the Town of Ithaca. By this time the population of the shire had grown to some 3000. The first decade of the 20th century was a time of rapid growth for Ithaca. The surge in development in the area (the population reached 17,500 by 1910 prompted the Town Council to commence a program of Civic improvements such as the establishment of Lang Park (1917), Ithaca Swimming Pool (1918), the Ithaca Children’s Playground (1918) and extensive roadworks and landscaping. This included the creation of several embankments with lush plantings designed by the Ithaca Town Council’s landscape gardener, Alexander Jolly. The surviving embankments have been entered on the Queensland Heritage Register.

In June 1909, Elizabeth L’Estrange purchased the site of 65 Victoria Street from her brother-in-law, William. By this time, Windsor Road was well populated. The L’Estrange property comprised subdivisions 33, 34, 35 and 36 of portion 565, providing generous grounds for the future family residence.

At the time of purchasing the site of 65 Victoria Street, Elizabeth L’Estrange mortgaged the land to her brother-in-law, William for £255. This was possibly to finance the construction of the house, which was named Cnoc Rhue – reportedly Gaelic for Red Hill. The L’Estrange family are first listed as residing at this address in 1909-10 postal records. The house is located on the crest of the hill that gave the suburb (and the home) its name.

Robert Augustus Henry L’Estrange was born in Ireland circa 1859. It is possible he immigrated to Queensland in 1886 at the same time as his brother William. In 1888, Robert Augustus married Elizabeth Esplin Ely. They had two children, Fredrick Robert (1889) and Mary Elizabeth (1918). Fredrick Robert was later employed by Barton and White, and electric which became the City Electric Light Company. William M.E L’Estrange was the company’s Managing Director from the late 1920s both men contributed significantly to the development of the electricity industry in Queensland. Robert Augustus was also employed by the Brisbane Electric Light company during the 1920s, although his occupation is given in the records as “collector”. At the time of his death at the age of 82 in Brisbane in 1941, Robert L’Estrange’s occupation was recorded as “Company Representative”.

Robert L’Estrange’s window and daughter continued to live at Victoria Street after his death. Elizabeth L’Estrange died in 1953. The house and its grounds remained in the L’Estrange family until 1999. The original block of land purchased by Elizabeth L’Estrange in 1909 has remained intact to the present day. The house’s garden setting with its distinctive tall palms is enhanced by the lush vegetation of one of the heritage listed Ithaca embankments along its Victoria Street boundary established circa 1917. A reference to this distinctive Brisbane landscape as “a line of pals on Red Hill tossed wildly against ragged cloud” appears in David Malouf’s famous novel of post-war Brisbane, Johnno.

The house at 65 Victoria Street, its garden and the Ithaca Embankment provide an excellent example of the distinctive topography and landscape for which Brisbane is famous. Amendments to the Town Plan designated to protect the special character of the Paddington-Red Hill area note that the traditional housing in the area combines with the topography and vegetation to create a special character “values by a wide cross section of the community”.

The house is currently set on 4 lots and is screened from the street by Lush vegetation, including that of the State Heritage listed Ithaca Embankment along the front boundary.

The garden includes mature weeping figs and cocos palms on the southern boundary above the embankment.

1. Brisbane City Council Water Supply & Sewerage Detail Plans

2. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of title and other records.

3. Environmental Protection Agency

4. JOL Estate Map Collection and photographic collection

5. Lawson, Ronald. Brisbane in the 1890s: a study of an Australian urban society ( St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 1973)

6. McKellar's Map of Brisbane and Suburbs. Brisbane: Surveyor-General’s Office, 1895

7. Donald Watson and Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the Nineteenth Century, South Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994