Cox's Cottage

The district received a major boost when, on 11 May 1882, the Nudgee Railway Station and Goods Shed opened. The station ensured a regular transport service for the local residents, most of who were small farmers. Their crops of oats, corn, grapes and pineapples could now be more quickly gotten to markets and the station also ensured a better mail service for the district. Already, James Robinson had subdivided some his farmland and sold them off as 16 and 20 perch housing blocks. Robinson’s land sale was aimed at “Mechanics, Working Men and persons of limited means” who were asked to place a deposit of ₤2 and pay monthly instalments of ₤1.1 Robinson’s housing estate created three unnamed roads that were the first streets of the new Nudgee Township. These would later be named Hayden, Oakmere and St Achs Streets.

Robinson disposed of Portion 231 on 22 October 1883. The new owners were David Joseph Childs and Thomas Smith Henzell. Childs had also migrated to Queensland on the Fortitude. Both Childs and Henzell had established farms in the Nudgee district and they bought Portion 321 for investment purposes. The two partners followed Robinson’s example by subdividing Portion 231 into residential allotments and putting them up for sale in 1884.

On 12 April 1885, Celia Cox, the wife of William Joseph Cox bought subdivisions 50 and 51 that totalled an area of 32 perches off St Achs Street. Their son William Joseph Cox (junior) purchased the adjoining subdivisions 52 and 53 on 8 June 1888. William Cox was a carpenter and labourer by trade. On 15 June 1888, Celia Cox mortgaged her 32 perch block for ₤125 through the Imperial Deposit Bank Building and Investment Company of Queensland Limited. It is thought that this mortgage was used to finance the erection of the cottage at 40 St Achs Street. According to the title deeds, the Cox family held the land at 40 St Achs Street until 1891. But according to the Queensland Post Office Directories, during the period 1885 to 1891, William Cox is listed as a resident of Hutton Lane, in the City and later at Drake Street, West End. They never moved to Nudgee, so if William Cox built the cottage at 40 St Achs Street then he did so for the purpose of using it as a rental property. Apart from Celia Cox’s house, the rest of this section of St Achs Street remained undeveloped until the first decade of the twentieth century. Isaac John Price bought 40 St Achs Street from Celia Cox on 10 February 1891. Price’s name never appears in the Queensland Post Office Directories so it would appear that he never moved onto his land at Nudgee. In 1912, the residence of fruit farmer Frederick Coombes was built next door at 46 St Achs Street, on the land that had previously been owned by William Joseph Cox (junior).

On 16 February 1912, Price disposed of the property to William Luke Mitchell, of Nudgee. The only Mitchell listed at Nudgee at this time was Stephen Mitchell, so, perhaps, William was living at the same Nudgee residence as Stephen. When William Mitchell died on 21 July 1925, the property transferred to his widow Isabella Ann Mitchell. Isabella Mitchell is never listed as a resident of Nudgee in the Queensland Post Office Directories, even though she held onto the property for another 14 years. She did mortgage the property on three occasions. On 19 March 1926, Isabella Mitchell obtained a mortgage from  Leonora Longsley Crouch. A spinster, Annie Watson Macdonald financed the second mortgage, on 15 April 1931. Isabella Mitchell obtained her final mortgage on 5 December 1934. The lender was the Trustees of the Brisbane District Branch of the Queensland Branch of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows Friendly Society. 

Laucelot Chudleigh Clifford and his wife Lyndia Louisa Clifford obtained 40 St Achs Street from Isabella Mitchell on 6 April 1939. The Cliffords never lived at 40 St Achs Street but rented it out to tenants. In the 1940 edition of Queensland Post Office Directories, Alban Price is listed as the tenant living at 40 St Achs Street. During World War Two, the Nudgee area saw an influx of United States Army personnel who were based at the U.S. General Depot situated along Northgate (later Earnshaw) Road. At the end of St Achs Street, two U.S. warehouses were built beside the Sandgate rail line in 1943. Due to security concerns, no new buildings were permitted within the proximity of these warehouses and so, by 1946, Numbers 40 and 46 remained isolated on their side of St Achs Street. The Cliffords only held their rental property until 1947. On 4 September of that year, Gordon Charles Stephens and his wife Elizabeth became the new owners of 40 St Achs Street. To finance their purchase, Gordon and Elizabeth Stephens obtained a mortgage from the Cliffords.

The Stephens family built a carport, at a cost of $250 to the property in 1974. When Elizabeth Stephens died on 16 May 1978, the property reverted to the sole ownership of Gordon Stephens. Gordon died in 1988 and the property passed into the hands of the Public Trustee of Queensland. The property was sold to Magmead Pty Ltd on 12 April 1989. This company split the property into its two subdivisions and sold the cottage on Lot 51 (40 St Achs Street) to Harold Henry Hesselwood and Heather  Hesselwood on 28 September 1989. Nearly five months later, on 8 February 1990, the Hesselwoods disposed of the property to Vitus Roswall Jorgensen and Carmela Josephine Jorgensen. They only held the property until 18 June 1990 before transferring ownership to Geoffrey Graham Gay and Liza-Ann Gay. The current owner, Judith Mary Brown gained title to 40 St Achs Street on 2 June 2000.

1. John Oxley Library, Estate Maps – Nudgee

2. Brisbane City Council, Properties on the Web, website, post-1946 building cards

3. Brisbane City Council, 1946 aerial photographs.

4. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of Title and other records

5. John Oxley Library, Estate Maps – Town of Nudgee Estate (1880s)

6. John Oxley Library, Suburban clippings file - Nudgee

7. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949

8. Tremayne, Jean and Pechey, Sue, Pioneers, Picnics and Pineapples, (Brisbane: A.E.B.I.S., 1994)