Trevecca

Andrew Hoggan was a railways engineer, appointed Assistant Engineer in the Southern and Central Division in 1886. Pagan also worked for the Railways Department, appointed Resident Engineer for the Central Division from January 1882. Hoggan and Pagan were probably brothers-in-law. Pagan married Sarah Hampton Hoggan, and a daughter was born in 1886. Andrew Hoggan and wife Catherine had a daughter in 1887, making it probable that Sarah and Andrew Hoggan were of the same generation, siblings or cousins. 

It seems likely that Pagan built his house on his part of this land around 1894 to 1895 when he returned to work in Brisbane. The McKellar’s map published in 1895 labels the ten-acre block “Tulloona”, for the house situated at 81 Alexandra Road

In March 1909 Pagan and Hoggan split their ten-acre holding, Pagan retaining the lot containing “Tulloona” and Hoggan taking the other five acres. There is no evidence that Hoggan built a house or lived here. A year and a half after ownership of the land was split, Hoggan died in Strathyre Scotland, leaving the five acres of land to George Bradbury Hoggan, John Hoggan and James Miller. Four years later they sold the land to Annie Smith, Elizabeth Jardine and John Paddle, who subdivided it into quarter-acre blocks and sold them, in the main in pairs, resulting in a series of large building sites.

In June 1915 physicist and mathematician Sydney Gordon Lusby bought a half-acre plot comprising two subdivisions. After an education in Sydney and at the Cavendish Laboratory Cambridge, and a short stint lecturing in mathematics at Sydney University, Lusby was appointed Lecturer in Physics at the University of Queensland in 1912. He remained at the University in various academic posts, rising to Associate Professor, until retiring aged 70 years 1955. He died in Brisbane in February 1973 at 88 years of age.

Lusby evidently built “Trevecca” immediately after purchasing the land. There was no mortgage registered against the place. By the time the 1915/6 Queensland Post Office Directory was issued Lusby was living here. The Lusby family lived in the house until at least the mid 1930s. In 1917 Lusby transferred the land to his wife Alice, who retained ownership until 1960.

By 1933, when the Council Detail Plan was surveyed, the area around Alexandra and Enderley Roads, Sword and Bennison Streets and Palm Avenue boasted numerous substantial houses sited within large grounds, including many with tennis courts.

The house with its large, simple tiled roof planes and deep shady verandahs with simple, elegant timber brackets is a fine example of the Federation Bungalow style. Although visible from the street the house is located too far back to allow for an accurate description of its finer details and architectural elements.

The masonry fence with timber gate is of more recent construction.

1. Brisbane City Council Building Registers & Building Cards

2. Brisbane City Council Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Detail Plans

4. John Oxley Library photographs & clippings files

5. McKellar’s Estate Maps of Brisbane, 1895

6. New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Indexes

7. Queensland Pioneers Index 1829-1889, Qld Registrar-General, March 2000

8. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1887-1949

9. Sherrat, Tim & Victoria Young, Physics in Australia to 1945, Australian Science & Technology Heritage Centre, 2003