Manola

After Moreton Bay closed as a penal colony in 1842, land in this area with its fine views and cooling breezes was eagerly purchased by Brisbane’s wealthier citizens who built substantial houses on the hilltop and surrounding slopes. These include Cintra House (1865) and Montpelier, built in the early 1860s for the Cowlishaw family and demolished for the construction of Cloudland in the late 1930s. Not far from Manola in Jordan Terrace is another grand residence – Miegunyah – built in the mid 1880s by William Perry, an ironmonger and merchant. By the 1890s, Bowen Hills was quite densely settled although several of the more substantial houses possessed large grounds.

The site on which Manola is located was part of Suburban Portion 140 which was granted to George Raff in 1856. Most of this was purchased by William Perry in 1875. This land stayed in the Perry family for several years after William’s death. It was resubdivided from 1914. In August 1916, three lots were sold to Lilian Mary Corrie.

In September 1916, a month after Lilian Corrie purchased the site in Jordan Terrace, she mortgaged it for £1,400. This was possibly to finance the construction of this house. From the late 1880s to 1900, post office records show Alexander Corrie residing at another residence, also called Manola, on the corner of Kent and Chester Streets, Teneriffe. Alexander Corrie is first listed at Manola in Jordan Terrace in the 1918-19 post office directory.

Alexander Corrie established a successful stockbroking firm in Brisbane during the 1880s in partnership with his father and his brother Frank Corrie. The business of Corrie and Co, “stockbrokers, land and commission agent” is first listed in postal records in 1887. The firm operated from premises in Queen Street.

Building records for 1916 show that this house in Jordan Terrace was designed by Alexander’s brother Leslie Gordon Corrie. Trained in Hobart, Leslie Corrie moved to Brisbane in 1886 and established his own practice. A one time president of the Queensland Institute of Architects and Mayor of Brisbane in 1901, Corrie was in partnership with Henry Hunter from 1888 to 1892.

Manola remained in the Corrie family until 1941, several years after the death of Lilian Corrie in 1933. In 1944 the property was purchased by Maud ‘Lores’ Bonney, the well known Brisbane aviatrix who was responsible for several important milestones in aviation history. Lores Bonney and her husband had lived next door at 15 Jordan Terrace from around 1919 to the 1960s. Lores Bonney sold Manola in 1963.

Manola has changed hands several times since the 1960s and remains in private ownership. It was renovated during the 1980s by Brisbane architect Robert Riddell.

The residence is sited above street level and raised almost a floor above ground level at the front. A brick retaining wall along the street frontage and several large palms standing proud within the front yard.

1. Brisbane City Archives, Brisbane City Council Building Register 1914-1920

2. Brisbane City Council Water Supply and Sewerage Detail Plans

3. John Oxley Library Estate Map Collection

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

5. McBride, Frank and Helen Taylor. Brisbane 100 Stories. Brisbane: BCC. 1997

6. Queensland Certificates of Title

7. Queensland Post Office Directories

8. Queensland Women’s Historical Association. A Look Back in Time: A History of Bowen Hills - Newstead and ‘The Creek’. Breakfast Creek: QWHA, 1996.

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