Rossiter's House

Edmund’s daughter, Elizabeth married Thomas Boasley in December 1874. Rossiter is said to have begun a tannery in Bulimba with his son-in-law Thomas Boasley around 1876. ‘Boasley Brothers’ operated a tannery at Kelvin Grove 1885. In March 1880 the Brisbane Courier reported from Sydney that E. Rossiter of Bulimba had won third prize at the International Exhibition for rugs and mats made from marsupial skins. Rossiter is first mentioned in the Post Office Directories as carrying on a tannery in Cleveland Road in 1885-86. In 1889 the Commissioner for Railways resumed some of Rossiter's land for the new line connecting Brisbane and Cleveland. Although the proximity of the railway was expected to be advantageous in the future, Rossiter claimed compensation for both the value of land resumed and the damage to the remaining land. The proposed line traversed Rossiter's property and damaged his tanning business by severing the land and diverting the road. 

In 1890, Edmund Rossiter subdivided the remaining property amongst his sons, George, Alfred, Charles and Robert, all of whom who worked in the business, but retained the subdivision on which the house stands. It is likely the house was already erected on the property at that time. Rossiter is said to have built the earliest house in the district at the corner of Bridgewater and Rossiter Street, and although he held the land from 1875 it is difficult to determine exactly when the house was built.

From 1891, the tannery appears as the Keralgere Tannery, which was said to have been an Aboriginal word for the chain of waterholes on which it was built. That year, in the marriage notice for Edmund’s second son, A.W.A.H. Rossiter, his father is identified as “of Keralgere, Bulimba” suggesting that it may also have been the name of the house.  From around 1892 Rossiter Brothers operated the Keralgere Tannery. Initially intended for marsupial skins, the business grew large enough to accept any hides. Edmund’s son, Albion George Hending Rossiter sat on the Balmoral Divisional Board from 1895 to 1901, being Chairman in 1898 and 1899.

Edmund Rossiter died in 1895, and the house property passed to his widow Isabella and daughter Elizabeth Boasley as executors. A large portion of the Keralgere Tannery burnt down in 1900 and does not appear to have recovered. The house property remained in family ownership until 1924.

1. Post Office Directories.

2. Queensland Certificates of Title

3. Brisbane Courier http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/titles?state=Queensland

4. History of the Bulimba Electorate 1859 - 1959, Bulimba Electorate Centenary Committee, 1959, pp.19-20