Lokarlton

Speculative land purchases in the first decade of the new colony resulted in subdivisions, particularly in Spring Hill, as small as seven perches in area. The Queensland Parliament passed legislation in 1865 attempting to control such undue subdivision of land but the groundwork for the sale of subdivided allotments was already in place. Over the next several years, Dickens subdivided Portion 225 but, owing to the land’s location on the town fringes, the resulting allotments remained comparatively large. 

In April 1867, Robert Bulcock purchased subdivision 32 comprising thirty-five perches. He was a well-known Brisbane tannery owner and nurseryman. Bulcock’s buildings were a feature in Queen St. for many years while Bulcock Beach at Caloundra perpetuates the family name.   Originally, he may have intended to join the trend of prominent Brisbane citizens building family homes with gardens on the more salubrious heights above the town centre. However, he held the allotment unimproved until selling it to Thomas Illidge early in 1884. A well-established Brisbane resident, Illidge arrived in 1859, having emigrated from England in 1843. He operated his wholesale and retail bootmaking business from the Illidge Building in Queen St which remains an historic inner-city landmark. He also served a term as municipal councillor for Brisbane’s North Ward. He engaged local architect George Campbell Wilson to design a residence on the allotment and continued to live at nearby ‘Waratah’, his home from the late 1860s, until his new home was completed late in 1884. Wilson’s architectural work was more in the areas of hotels and commercial buildings but his design for Illidge’s house was faithful to the prevailing decorative colonial villa style favoured by leading domestic architects of the period.  The timber house featured verandahs open on three sides to take advantage of the views across Gregory Terrace to Victoria Park and the beneficial north-easterly breezes. It provided a stylish setting for his marriage to Blanche Crake in January 1885 as well as for the marriage of his niece in 1887. Illidge named the house Woolerina but there appears to be no connection with the huge grazing property of the same name in Queensland’s Maranoa district. 

There appeared to be no immediate family as, on Illidge’s death in June 1896, Woolerina was held by devisees in trust until its sale in November that year. The new owners were widow Bridget Healy and her daughter Catherine Bridget Healy who registered a mortgage for one thousand one hundred pounds at the same time. Mrs Healy was the widow of Thomas Healy of Bona Vista Toowoomba and inherited an extensive property portfolio on his death. It appears that she subsequently invested in a number of houses in Brisbane, principally in Spring Hill. Changing the name to Loughill, in August 1898 Mrs Healy authorised a public auction of the furniture and furnishings included in the sale of the house, “in consequence of her leaving the city.” However, she remained in Brisbane, residing either at Bona Vista, 157 Wickham Tce., which she ran as a boarding house or at Loughill which was the setting for the marriage of her daughter Catherine Healy to Patrick Joseph Hunt Ryan in 1903. The couple lived there before moving to Sydney in 1907 when it was rented to Queensland Colonial Architect Alfred B. Brady and then to Frederick Muller and Charles Buchanan. She advertised Bona Vista for sale in 1903. By 1905, when she successfully appealed against land valuations in the North Ward of Brisbane, she had also purchased Rockville, a seven-room house on 13 ¾ perches adjoining Loughill. In 1911 she attempted to sell Loughill, comprising “seven rooms, kitchen and all offices”, with a separate auction for its furniture. In September 1911, having recently renovated both houses, she put them on the market and moved to Sydney where she died at her daughter’s home in 1933. 

Loughill was sold to William Gooley in 1913. He was a director of the firm of Perkins and Co., Brisbane brewers and soft-drink manufacturers, which eventually became the brewing firm of Castlemaine Perkins Ltd. Gooley continued to live at nearby Mononia, his family home for many years, while renting out Loughill.  In 1916 it was bought by Brisbane clothing manufacturer Isedore Josephson.  He immediately transferred it to his wife, Norah Josephson, as an investment property for her. Bills of Mortgage for one thousand pounds and seven hundred pounds respectively were registered to her in 1918.  Letitia Macdonald, wife of shipowner Benjamin Macdonald, purchased the property in 1920. The Macdonalds lived at Hamilton and rented the house to Mrs E. H. Plummer until they sold it in June 1926 to medical practitioner, Dr. Karl Brunnich. Changing its name to Lokarlton, he made it his family home and conducted his medical practice there until his death on 12 September 1951. 

Brunnich left Lokarlton to his widow Lois McLaren Brunnich. After it was put in the name of Arran Pty Ltd in May 1974, part of the property was leased back to Mrs Brunnich for a thirty-year term or until the death of the owner. This occurred in March 1980 and the entire property was transferred to Allendenn Nominees Pty Ltd. on 28 January 1981.

Subsequent owners have been;

DGA Allan and MDH Brown from 13 March 1985.

Gregory Daniel O’Brien from 18 January 1990.

Current owners are David R. Campbell and Christine M. Campbell who purchased Lokarlton on 8 March 2000. The Campbells undertook an extensive restoration and remodelling program in 2005.

1. Plan: Property Holdings 12.12.2001

2. Sewerage Map: 3 October 1914

3. Brisbane City Council Building Cards

4. Titles History, including Certificates of Title, Transfers, and Bills of Mortgage. 1858 - 2004

5. Photographs. Boundary St. Elevation. BCC Heritage Unit Sept. 2001, July 2010

6. Post Office Directories 1883-4 to 1927-8

7. Brisbane Courier, 1883 - 1933

8. Watson, Donald & Judith McKay 1994, Queensland Architects of the 19th Century, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia

9. Fisher, Rod, Spring Hill Heritage Tour: St Pauls to Gregory Terrace, Kelvin Grove: Brisbane History Group, 1993