Walter Reid Building facade

Brabant & Co had been formed by German migrant Julius Brabant, who came to Brisbane in 1863. Brabant had come to Australia from Hanover and had first gone to the Victorian goldfields to establish a general store. Brabant later served as the Consul in Brisbane for the independent German State of Bremen between 1865 and 1868. Brabant’s importing firm grew and he formed a partnership with two Victorian associates Augustus Heusmann and George Robert Fife. In 1881 Heusmann and Fife purchased the two allotments on which the former Brabant & Co Building was constructed over the next two years.

Such construction in Charlotte Street reflects the predominant use of land in this area originally known as ‘Frogs Hollow’, which was roughly bounded by Alice, George, Elizabeth and Edward Streets. Until the late nineteenth century, the area was prone to flooding and possessed a dubious reputation due to the presence of brothels and opium dens. The area was also characterised by residences, boarding houses, hotels, the Chinese Quarter and light industry. From the 1880s onward, however, the area came to be increasingly dominated by warehouses and light industry. This was encouraged by the area’s proximity to the city’s busy wharves located on the Town Reach of the river. Thus, the construction of the building in Charlotte Street reflects this broader trend, which is an important aspect of the development of Brisbane’s Central Business District (CBD).

Brabant & Co remained in the building into the twentieth century. By 1915 Walter Reid and Co Ltd, Rockhampton merchants established in 1862, had moved into the warehouse after having purchased the building in 1907. Scotsman Walter Reid founded the company with a retail store in East Street, Rockhampton in that year. He 

imported general merchandise, hardware, wine and spirits. Walter Reid sold the business in 1881 to McIlwraith McEachearn who retained its name. The company expanded in Rockhampton leading to their building a warehouse in 1894 and a second one in 1900-02. Architect Montague Talbot Stanley added extensions to the building in 1908 for Walter Reid & Co.

During World War Two, the Walter Reid & Co Building was requisitioned for use by the United States Army. In 1944, the building was severely damaged by fire. The top half of the building was later demolished as the structure was considered to be a public safety hazard.

Walter Reid & Co continued as owners of the building until its sale in 1982 to the State Government Insurance Office (SGIO). In 1984, the SGIO began a $19 million redevelopment of the site but planned to retain the three-storey façade as it was listed with the National Trust of Queensland. The third storey facade was subsequently demolished when it was found to be unstable, leaving only the current two-storey façade, and then a high-rise office building was erected above the façade. The SGIO spent $100,00 restoring the façade’s crumbling plasterwork and then placed a metal cap pn the top of the façade so as to protect it. The building is currently leased by the Administrative Services Department and is now known as the Queensland Health Building.

The façade’s heritage significance was recognised in 1987 by National Trust of Queensland. It was subsequently granted heritage protection under the Brisbane City Council’s pre-2000 Town Plan. In 1986, it was included in the Brisbane City Council’s Heritage Trail Brisbane City Centre and again in 2002 in Council’s Heritage Experience Guides Shadows of the Past.

1. Australian Heritage Database. Register of the National Estate. Walter Reid Building (former). Accessed 13 June 2006

2.  Australian Heritage Photographic Library, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2004. Walter Reid Building (former). Accessed 13 June 2006

3. Brisbane City Council, Heritage Experience Guides: Shadows of the Past, A Brisbane City Council Heritage Trail, Brisbane City Council

4. Brisbane City Council, Heritage Trail Brisbane City Centre, Series No. 1, 13th Edition

5. The Daily Sun, 25 February 1984, “Historic Frontage Demolished”

6. German Australia Diplomats website: www.teachers.ash.org.au/dnutting/Germanaustralia/e/diplomat/brisbane.htm. Accessed 14 June 2006

7. Gistitin, Carol.  ‘The Walter Reid Community Arts Centre’ at: www.magsq.com.au/_dbase_upl/gistitinc.pdf. Accessed 14 June 2006

8. Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board, Sewerage Map, 22 October 1913

9. National Trust of Queensland, Heritage Listing, 1987

10. Post Office Directories of Queensland, 1914-1916

11. Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Queensland Certificates of Title

12. The Telegraph, 9 May 1984, “A Facelift at 101”

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