Addresses

At 25 Twine Street, Spring hill, Queensland 4000

Type of place

House

Period

Victorian 1860-1890

Style

Queenslander

This is an image of the local heritage place known as Kate O'Driscoll's Residence

Kate O'Driscoll's Residence

Kate O'Driscoll's Residence Download Citation (pdf, 91.8 KB)

Addresses

At 25 Twine Street, Spring hill, Queensland 4000

Type of place

House

Period

Victorian 1860-1890

Style

Queenslander

This traditional timber and tin worker’s cottage dates from the 1870s or possibly earlier and was a rental property for Kate O’Driscoll, the wife of a Brisbane policeman. It demonstrates the pattern of social stratification and residential development in Spring Hill during the mid-late nineteenth century which saw fine homes built by the wealthy along the ridges of Spring Hill while the lower streets were occupied by the working classes in modest cottages on small allotments.

Lot plan

L5_RP10224

Key dates

Local Heritage Place Since —

Date of Citation —

Construction

Roof: Corrugated iron;
Walls: Timber

Criterion for listing

(A) Historical; (D) Representative; (E) Aesthetic

Interactive mapping

City Plan Interactive Mapping

Lot plan

L5_RP10224

Key dates

Local Heritage Place Since —

Date of Citation —

Construction

Roof: Corrugated iron;
Walls: Timber

Criterion for listing

(A) Historical; (D) Representative; (E) Aesthetic

Interactive mapping

City Plan Interactive Mapping

History

This cottage dates from around the 1870s. It was built on an allotment of just over 17 perches owned by Kate O’Driscoll, from 1879 to 1908.

Both sides of Twine Street were subdivided from the original portions into small allotments in the early 1860s soon after the land was granted to its first European owners. The street was well established by 1876 when postal records list 14 households. 

Twine Street is slightly higher along the rise of Wickham Terrace and the cottages at nos. 21 and 25 are more substantial homes than the tiny cottages in neighbouring Lilley Street. The occupants of Twine Street often had more skilled occupations which had a higher social status and income, such as printer, master mariner, bootmaker, confectioner, shipwright, accountant and Courier reporter. Those of wealth and social standing for example,  Sir Charles Lilley, a Queensland judge and premier, established more elite residences along the fashionable ridge top thoroughfares of Spring Hill such as Wickham Terrace.

Kate’s husband, Andrew, a police sergeant, owned the neighbouring property at 21 Twine Street (then no 6 Twine St). Although the O’Driscolls lived at 21 Twine Street in the mid-1870s, it appears that both cottages were subsequently let. At this time, the cottage at 25 Twine Street (then no. 8) was occupied by Hugh  Roberts, a drayman. A procession of other tenants followed including a draper’s assistant and mariner in the 1880s and a charwoman in the early 1900s. During the late 19th century, it appears that the house may have been used as a boarding house.

By 1905, Andrew O’Driscoll had been promoted to Inspector of Police and was living in Maryborough. He returned to Brisbane within a couple of years and took up residence with his wife, Kate, in Cordelia Street, South Brisbane. The O’Driscolls sold no. 21 Twine Street in 1907 and no. 25 in 1908. 

No 25 was purchased by Anna McNae, the wife of a gardener who lived on the opposite side of the street. She sold it in 1923 to a spinster, Jane Mills, also a resident of Twine Street. After the death of Jane Mills in 1949, the cottage remained in the Mills family until 1970.

This house is significant as one of a pair of c 1970s cottages in Spring Hill which demonstrate the historical pattern of development in Spring Hill, one of Brisbane’s earliest suburbs, in the mid-to-late 19th century. This pattern saw elite residences constructed along the ridges while the middle and working classes built or rented modest homes on often tiny allotments in the back streets and on the slopes of the hills.

Statement of significance

Relevant assessment criteria

This is a place of local heritage significance and meets one or more of the local heritage criteria under the Heritage planning scheme policy of the Brisbane City Plan 2014. It is significant because:




References

  1. Brisbane City Council Building Cards

  2. Brisbane City Council Detail Plans

  3. Commonwealth Electoral Rolls. Subdivision of Maryborough 1905, Subdivision of Brisbane South 1908

  4. Department of Natural Resources, titles records

  5. Lawson, Ronald 1973, Brisbane in the 1890s: A Study of an Australian Urban Society, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia

  6. Queensland Post Office Directories

  7. Rechner, Judy. Spring Hill Heritage Tour Wickham Terrace. Brisbane: Playground & Recreation Association of Qld in association with Brisbane History Group and Applied History Centre, U of Q


Citation prepared by — Brisbane City Council (page revised June 2022)

Victorian 1860-1890
Queenslander
House
At 25 Twine Street, Spring hill, Queensland 4000
At 25 Twine Street, Spring hill, Queensland 4000 L5_RP10224
Historical, Representative, Aesthetic