Retaining wall east (between Hawthorne & Peterson St)

This porphyry stone retaining wall was constructed between 1867 and 1873 for a land developer as part of street layout of a housing estate. After the closure of the Moreton Bay penal colony in 1842, Brisbane porphyry stone was dug from three quarries at Fortitude Valley, Herston and Spring Hill. The stone was laid to build a retaining wall to stabilise the embankment that was created by the formation of Merton Road and its arterial links of Hawthorne and Peterson Streets. The wall borders land that was subdivided into four urban blocks in 1865. The streets and blocks were created for either Peterson’s “Fleurs Estate” of the 1870s or for the 1876 “Claredon Estate”. It is possibly the earliest privately-built retaining wall located on Brisbane’s south-side.