22 Ettie Street, Sherwood

Sarah Jane Seeney, wife of Stewart Seeney, purchased the 2 roods and 5.1 perches on which the house was built in August 1913, taking out a mortgage for £800 the next month. In November 1914 she purchased the neighbouring 3 roods and 14 perches, taking out a mortgage for £275 in December. As ‘head of the household’, Stewart Seeney is listed as living in Sherwood between 1914 and 1916.

Seeny’s original holding was sold to William Morison in February 1915, and by October 1915 electoral rolls listed Morison, his wife Estella and Estella’s brother, Reginald Viles, as living in ‘Mayfield’ in Ettie Street, Sherwood. The Morisons had moved to Queensland from New South Wales, living in South Brisbane and Hamilton before their purchase of the Sherwood property.  Morison was a commercial agent, and is likely to have had some link to the firm of commission agents and produce merchants, Morison Brothers, which had offices in Roma and Turbot Streets, Brisbane.  

The Morisons lived in ‘Mayfield’ from 1915 to 1921, suffering the death of their eleven-year-old son, William Nevin, at the property in 1918. In January 1921, William Morison sold his furniture, explaining that he was removing to another State. He retained ownership of the Sherwood property, however, and expanded it in December of that year, purchasing adjoining lots which had been part of Seeney’s 1914 purchase. 

It appears that the property was used as the Sherwood Private Hospital shortly after the Morisons moved. Notices placed in the Brisbane Courier announce the births and deaths of residents of surrounding suburbs at the Sherwood Private Hospital from 1921, although the hospital was not listed in Post Office Directories until 1926. ‘Mayfield’ was used as a hospital until 1927, when matrons Agnes and Katherine McKeon purchased ‘Dunalister’ in Lilly Street and relocated the hospital there.

William Morison died in 1926 and the property was transferred to the Queensland Trustees. It was offered for auction in October 1927. The property was large, with eight alloments totalling 3 roods and 32.1 perches, and was described as being situated ‘in a select part of this healthy suburb’, near the railway station and on level ground. The substantial building on the property, also known as the Mayfield Private Hospital, contained five bedrooms as well as large drawing and dining rooms, and three 8-foot verandahs. However, it appears that the property was not sold at the auction.

Another sale of the house and a number of the allotments was attempted in 1929, including the 1 rood and 17 perches on which ‘Mayfield’ was situated. Charles Henry Pickard bought the 78.15 perches containing the house in 1931. Pickard died in 1934 and the land was transferred to Elizabeth Finley Cock, wife of John Saunders Cock. 

A subdivision of twenty-one perches at the rear of the property was sold in 1941 and the remainder transferred to City Investments Limited in 1942. Michael and Eva Real bought the house and the 57.15 perches of land from City Investments in 1950 and converted it to a registered boarding house / tenement. It remained registered as such until mid-1956. George Cain and John Hallam bought the property in early 1956 and sold it to John and Patricia Ritch in 1975. Subsequent to two intervening ownerships, the current owners purchased the property in December 2004.

1. Brisbane City Council, 1946, 2001 & 2005 aerial photographs

2. Walter Taylor South Character and Heritage Study, BCC Heritage Unit, 1997

3. Brisbane City Council Water Supply and Sewerage Detail Plans

4. McKellar's Map of Brisbane and Suburbs. Brisbane: Surveyor-General’s Office, 1895

5. Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Queensland Certificates of Title

6. Queensland Post Office Directories

7. The Brisbane Courier 1927

8. University of Queensland, ‘Queensland Places: Sherwood’ (http://queenslandplaces.com.au/sherwood) accessed 22 July 2010