St Arvans

The Post Office Directories (PODs) provide an indication of the construction period of the house. The house was erected by c.1891. Prior to this date the Courtenay’s appear to have resided at Roberts Street, Toowong. In 1890 the PODs state that a house along Moggill Road Toowong (before Union Street), was in the ‘course of erection’. The following year the POD lists a ‘Court(e)n(a)ey, Mrs, St Arvans’ in the same position as the ‘house in course of erection’ notation of the previous year.

Of the house Fewings in his memoirs of Toowong, (1890s) stated:

The prettiest dwellings on the slopes of this ridge are Dr Hammon’s, Mr Henry     Pears’, Highfields, [?], Mrs Court(e)ne(a)y’s, Miss Larks’ Kensington House School...1 

Clearly Fewings gave recognition to the house’s visual contribution to the area as it was part of an impressive group of residences located on the ridge.

Reputedly during the 1860s and 1870s some of the prominent members of Brisbane society resided at Toowong. There developed what has been termed, ‘the villa concept’, where, ‘estates were sufficiently large to accommodate the accoutrements of gracious living’.2 This house appears to be a late c19th extension of that theme.

Courtney commenced as a clerk with Customs (Colonial Treasurer’s Dept) in 1884 on  a wage of 150/-/- p.a.  By the time the house was starting to be erected his salary had increased to 200/-/- p.a. The salary range for clerks at this time within this Department was 50/-/- to 250/-/-, thus this would place Courtenay in a senior position but not in the high earning capacity (around 300 to 400/-/- p.a) of a public servant).

A number of sources indicate that William Courtenay only lived in the house for a short period, and that his wife took charge of the property. Courtenay resigned from the Queensland State Public Service position in June 1890, about or just soon after the house was completed. Further, Fewings talks of the house as being Mrs Courtney’s and not as would be the custom of the day ‘the residence of Mr Courtenay, Customs Official (or clerk).’ This is underlined by the POD entry from 1891. (There is no death registered at this time for a William Edward Courtenay).

At this stage it appears shortly after the construction of the house the Mr Courtenay moved away or retired. Certainly by the size, type and construction material used, (brick and masonry) the house could be considered larger or beyond the means of a ‘customs clerk’. At the time of construction no mortgage on the property was taken out (however a mortgage was later taken out in 1893 for £350/-/- so it is possible the family had independent wealth.

The house was erected at a time of recession within Brisbane, when the ‘building boom’, which included speculative land sales, of the 1880s yielded to the recession in the 1890s. This recession extended from the late 1880s and lasted through to the mid 1890s. It deeply affected the economy of Brisbane and Queensland. To have such a substantial  dwelling of brick (a comparatively expensive material for the period) erected during this period (that is still existent) is uncommon and reflects the resources of the owners who had it commissioned.

Julia Courtenay owned the property until October 1894 and then transferred it into the name of Benjamin Britton Smith. The property remained in the Smith family until 1909 when it was sold to Alan Foot. The Foots owned the property until 1927. The house has since had a number of owners.

1. J.B. Fewings. Arcadian Simplicity: J.B. Fewings Memoirs of Toowong. Ed Helen Gregory. (Brisbane: Library Board of Qld. 1990). p.119

2. Ibid., p. 29

3. Brisbane City Council Water Supply & Sewerage Detail Plans

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

5. Environmental Protection Agency

6. Fewings. J.B Arcadian Simplicity: J.B. Fewings Memoirs of Toowong. Ed Helen Gregory. (Brisbane: Library Board of Qld. 1990)

7. Lawson, Ronald Brisbane in the 1890s: A Study of an Australian Urban Society. St Lucia U of Q Press, 1973

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

9. Queensland Votes & Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly 1885, 1887, 1889, 1890. (Blue Books)

10. Donald Watson and Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the Nineteenth Century, South Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994