64 Chester Street, Teneriffe

The area was administered by the Booroodabin Divisional Board from 1879 as residential estates were sold and businesses developed. During the 1870s a number of large land purchases were subdivided and sold. Gibbon’s 1854 purchase of 86 acres was subdivided and sold as house lots, mostly ranging from 18.4 to 38 perches, from 1866 to the end of the 1880s. Residential development in the New Farm and Newstead areas from the 1850s established a pattern of smaller residential blocks being sold to the working middle classes with elite settlers settling on elevated land or near the river. During the 1880s Brisbane’s economy was booming as the colony’s primary produce (particularly wool) was in demand, and immigration both fostered and was the result of increased development. Residential development followed the pattern of better, more expensive homes being built on ridges and elevated land, with cheaper workers’ cottages being built on the flats. The elevated land in the vicinity of Teneriffe House on Teneriffe Hill was bought by skilled workers, professionals and merchants.

Weedon Dawes, an officer in the Customs Department purchased land on the corner of Kent and Chester Streets and built his own home which he called ‘Wannock’ in 1885. He had purchased the block next door in 1884 and soon after moving into his own home, had the house that it is now 64 Chester Street, built. This house was named ‘Chesney Wold’, possibly from the Dickens’1850 novel Bleak House. Dawes’ investment house had its first occupant in 1887. William Turnbull, estate agent or stock and station agent rented the house until 1892. During the 1880s the occupants of Chester Street provide a snapshot of the community in this part of the city. The manager of Queensland Fruit and Preserving Works lived near Ann Street, with skilled workers such as a mariner, brewer, horsekeeper and drayman living in the lower part of the street.  A grocer, bricklayer, barber and crockery merchant were the immediate neighbours of Dawes’ houses. A groom, solicitor, accountant and commercial traveller resided in houses further up the hill. This residential development was all overlooked by Gibbon’s ‘Teneriffe House’.

The house was vacant during 1892-3 when the economic depression was at its most severe. At this time, a new title in the name of Fanny Isabella Dawes, Weedon Dawes’ wife, was created. Dawes’ neighbours at this time were a civil engineer, insurance inspector, house decorator, traveller and clerk. From 1894 until 1900 Frederick Hannington, the Secretary of the Darling Downs & Western Land Co Ltd, resided in ‘Chesney Wold’. Following three short term leases, the house was rented long term by Mrs Gladys Bell from 1911 until 1930. The house was sold in the postwar years and did not change hands again until the mid-1960s. This ownership was also long term with new owners acquiring the house in 1998. They undertook some renovation and additions and added a pool before re-selling in 2000. 

The well-kept house and its gardens make a fine contribution to the streetscape of Chester Street and the surrounding area of relatively intact character housing.

1. Brisbane City Council aerial photographs 1946, 2011

2. Brisbane City Council. Property Records

3. Brisbane City Council Water Supply and Sewerage Detail Plans, 1927

4. Department of Environment and Heritage Protection. CHIMS (environment and heritage protection) Teneriffe House (600268) https://www.derm.qld.gov.au/chimsi/ placeDetail.html? siteId=15043 accessed 8/01/2013; Newstead House (600265) https://www.derm.qld.gov.au/chimsi /placeDetail.html?siteId=15040 accessed 8/01/2013

5. Department of Natural Resources. Queensland Certificates of Title Lot 2 RP9222

6. Dickens, Charles. Bleak House. Chapter XXXVI. Chesney Wold. Classic Reader online http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/sid.1/bookid.221/sec.36/ accessed 24/10/2002

7. Queensland. Civil Service list. Queensland Government Gazette 1891

8. Queensland Post Office Directories 1880 - 1935