Sandown Cottage (former)

Following the bridging of Cabbage Tree Creek in 1862, further settlement and developed occurred. The Osbourne Hotel on the corner of Eagle Terrace and Loudon Street was established in 1862. William John Loudon purchased almost 3 acres of land (that included the subject site) in 1861 for £27 11s 7p. By 1865 Loudon had subdivided and sold some of the land, with Richard Symes Warry purchasing 39.6 perches.

Richard Symes Warry was a member of Brisbane Municipal Council in 1862-62, 1865-66 and from 1883-88. Warry was mayor of Brisbane in 1866 when he mortgaged the land for £500 and was reported as building a cottage.

Warry sold his land to Emma Hinton in 1870. Emma Hinton was a spinster who kept a day school and opened the first Sunday School in Sandgate in conjunction with the Baptist Church. The first Baptist Church was a small chapel in Loudon St, opened in 1872. In 1874, at the age of 55, Emma Hinton married Richard Board, who was the Financial Controller for the Sandgate Baptist Church. Richard Board and Richard George Petty were nominated as trustees for Emma’s land in 1875. Emma and Richard Board lived in “Sandown Cottage” from the time of their marriage. An article in 1925 describing “Sandgate 50 Years Ago” described the township, including that “at the top of the hill were a couple of cottages owned by Mrs. Board, and then the Osbourne Hotel”. In June 1875, a furnished cottage ‘Ventnor’ was offered to let, with interested parties to apply at Sandown Cottage. The subject site contains Mrs Board’s cottage.

By 1871 Sandgate had a population of 155, a school and by 1877 coaches travelled between Sandgate and Brisbane three times a day. In 1882 the opening of the Sandgate railway connection to the Brisbane changed the sleepy seaside village into Brisbane’s premier seaside resort. Crowds of daytrippers thronged to the seaside, and many of Brisbane’s leading families built large residences on the Flinders Parade foreshore as well as on the heights of Shorncliffe where Pier Avenue was the town centre containing the municipal council chambers. The fine new Baptist Church designed by Richard Gailey was built on the foreshore below Eagle Tce in 1887. The grand masonry post office and the new Town Council building closer to a new Sandgate station, were built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reinforcing Sandgate’s prosperity and importance.

Mrs Emma Board outlived Richard Board and resided ay Sandown Cottage until her death at age 90 on 1 September 1909. Her death was marked as Sandgate losing “another of its old residents”. The former Miss Hinton had been born in Portsmouth, England in 1819 and arrived in Queensland in 1863. It was recorded that she soon came to Sandgate where she kept a day school and operated the first Sunday school in conjunction with the Baptist Church. Emma Board and her husband were remembered as great supporters of the Baptist Church, rendering them periodic financial assistance when required.1

Following her death, under the Will of Emma Board, her trustees sold the furniture of her two four-roomed houses ‘Sandown’ and ‘Southsea’ at the premises. The auction, held on 1 October 1909, offered a piano and stool, plush suite, table, chest drawers, chairs, single, half-tester, and four post bedsteads, spring mattresses, lamp, primus stove, heater, gas stove, crockery, pots, pans, kettles etc, tubs, lamps and sundries.

Title to Emma Board’s land had been transferred to Richard Board in 1906 and on his death on 4 May 1907, the property passed to Cecilia Boyce, wife of John Alexandra Boyce of Taringa. More cottages houses had been built along Eagle Terrace and when Cecilia Boyce died in 1921, she is recorded a living in Sandgate. The two cottages, remained on the one holding as can be seen on the 1953 Sewerage Detail Plan. In 1965 half of Emma Hinton’s property was subdivided and sold. The second cottage has been demolished and the subdivision is part of the Osborne Hotel carpark.

Sandgate is a bayside suburb north of the Brisbane central business district, it has a residential character with a compact commercial centre near Sandgate station and light industrial areas along the rail line. The subject area has one or two-storey houses mostly from the Victorian and Federation eras with some later infill. Eagle Terrace also features some recent two to three storey flats. Buildings on Eagle terrace are all located on the southern side of the street and have a small setback from the street boundary. The northern side of the street has a steep downward slope which is densely vegetated and has several small parks and lookouts and a timber two rail fence the entire length. Portions of the southern side of the street have porphyry kerbstones.

The subject house is has a small setback from the street and occupies a narrow and deep block which extends to Loudon Street at the rear. The Eagle Terrace frontage has a timber picket fence with gate and a small yard which contains a mature mango tree and some smaller vegetation. The Loudon Street boundary has a sheet metal fence and garage built to the boundary. The rear yard contains a large paved area and several small trees.

The hipped roof and separate skillion front verandah roof are clad in corrugated iron and have several solar panels on the northern side. The hipped roof is lower at the rear. A gable frontispiece is located over the front entry and features a decorative bargeboard and timber filigree detailing. Quad gutters line both the hipped and skillion roof. A tall brick chimney is located at the rear of the house on the western side, it features corbeled brick details to the top and a large terracotta chimney pot.

Most external walls are clad in chamferboard with the exceptions of the sheet clad walls that enclose the early front verandah. A short flight of timber stairs with timber railings leads to the metal screen door and timber front door with coloured glass glazed panel. Aluminium framed sliding windows are located either side of the front door and have steel roller shutters. Small sliding windows are located on each side of the front enclosed verandah. Timber framed double hung windows are at regular intervals along both sides of the house and are shorter at the rear portion of the house. All double hung windows have ogee tin window hoods.

The subject house is in good condition and has had several alteration and additions. Historical aerial imagery shows that the south east quarter of the house was added after 1946. The front verandah has been enclosed and solar panels added to the roof. The garage at the rear of the property is a later addition, it has a corrugated tin skillion roof and external walls are clad in chamferboard with a single steel roller door and sliding windows to the sides which have tin hoods similar to those on the house. The front fence and paving in the back yard are recent additions.

The ridge top position of the subject property enables prominent views from the house north over lower stretches of Sandgate and to Bramble and Moreton Bays.

1. ‘Old Sandgate Resident Dead’ The Telegraph 2 Sept 1909, p.9. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/174735507 accessed 29/5/18

2. Brisbane City Council Building Cards

3. Queensland Certificates of Title and other records

4. Queensland Post Office Directories

5. Digitised newspapers and other records. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper