17 Burlington Street, East Brisbane

Following sales of the ‘Heathfield Estate’ in 1885-6, labourer Edward Neill purchased a sixteen-perch allotment in 1887 and had this small brick cottage constructed on the site around 1888. The use of brick is unusual in this area, which was predominately settled by working and lower middle-class residents who lived in timber workers’ cottages. The cottage was sold in 1890 and used by its subsequent owners primarily as a rental property. This is a rare surviving, working class, nineteenth-century brick cottage, reflecting the residential growth of East Brisbane during the late nineteenth century.