Shophouse

The commencement of the Sandgate Railway in 1880 led an increase in population and development in Brisbane’s north-eastern suburbs. Wooloowin (then named Lutwyche) Railway Station opened in 1881. It was renamed Wooloowin in 1890. Due to a rail regrading in 1900, the station was moved north 140 metres, thereby placing it closer to the future site of 102 Dickson Street. In May 1901, twin platforms and a new brick station building, with a distinctive gabled roof with a small, decorative ventilation tower atop were completed. The new Wooloowin Station attracted businesses and residents to this part of ‘Thorroldtown’.  

In 1883, Catherine N. Cottell had acquired Subdivisions 417 to 420, a total of 2 roods and .9 perches that included the land that became 5 Dickson Street. Between1885 and 1914, Cottell’s Wooloowin land holdings underwent numerous ownership changes and further re-subdivisions, until this property was finally described as subdivision B of resubdivision 1 of subdivions 417 and B of Portion 194 plus subdivisions 1-2 of resubdivision B of resubdivisions 2-4 and 115 of Portion 193. 

On 18 June 1914, Emily I. Melton, the wife of Frederick A. Melton, acquired this block of land that comprised 1 rood and 25.1 perches. This large suburban block that was close to the new Wooloowin Station included the site of 5 Dickson Street. On 9 September 1914, Melton mortgaged her land for £200 through the Bank of North Queensland. This loan may have been used to construct the building at 5 dickson Street.  

The two-storey shop/house at 5 Dickson Street was constructed quickly, during the final months of 1914. The shop was leased, for the first time on 25 January 1915, with the Brisbane Courier advertising for a machine man (first class) to build cabinets for Cameron & Melton on 18 February. The 15 year lease (ended 4 February 1930) was granted by Melton to her husband Frederick A. Melton, John S. Irvine, Charles W. Cameron and John Bond. The four men were the principals of the furniture-making firm of Milton & Cameron’s Cabinet Works. This local manufacturing company were also known as Cameron, Melton & Co Ltd.      

The shop/house was soon sold to Brisbane solicitor Patrick A. O’Sullivan on 5 February 1915. But the original lease allowed Cameron, Melton & Co Ltd to operate from this strategic spot until February 1916. O’Sullivan still had the large, 2 roods, 20.1 perch block that had developed into a commercial precinct (the ‘Wooloowin Shops’) close to the railway station. The ‘Electa Picture Palace’ had been built in 1914 beside the Milton & Cameron’s Cabinet Works building. It screened silent films and was a dance venue. It changed its name to ‘The Elite Picture Gardens’ and it was under this name that it undertook an 18 year lease of the building from O’Sullivan on 28 February 1916. O’Sullivan also utilised his large block for investment purposes, securing 3 mortgages worth £1,100, on his property from 1915 to 1920. In 1923, the ‘The Elite Picture Gardens’ were demolished and a new ‘Elite Theatre’ was built. It closed in 1933. ‘The Elite Picture Gardens’ retained use of the shop/hose at 5 Dickson Street until 1923.   

O’Sullivan died on 23 December 1921 and his widow Mary B. O’Sullivan. On 24 July 1923, Mary sold-off just the block that contained the 5 Dickson Street shop/house to Laura E. Varendorff, the wife of Lewis G. Varendorff. They acquired the building and a 28.5 perch block that backed onto the rail line. The property was only held for a short time before it was sold Henry and Rose Whitmee on 7 November 1923. 

Confectioner, Henry Whitmee, resided upstairs with his family and he ran the downstairs shop as a general store until 1929. Thereafter he leased the shop to R.H. Taylor until c1933 and to J. Mitchell thereafter. The upstairs residence was rented to Daniel O’Donohue from 1936. Rose Whitmee died on 12 July 1935. In September 1935, during the middle of the Great Depression, Henry Whitmee took out a loan against his home and business at 5 Dickson Street.  

Roylance and Mabel Manning bought the shop/house on 1 May 1946. The next year, they sold the property to Elizabeth and John Major. The next owners were Edith and John Shannon who acquired 5 Dickson Street on 19 January 1951. The Shannons, who operated a cabinetmakers business from 5 Dickson Street, owned the property for the next 28 years and they made many changes to the building. The Brisbane City Council approved an extension to the building on 17 November 1952. Permission was granted for the construction of a cabinetmaker’s workshop on the site on 17 March 1953. This approval was given under the proviso that an existing old workshop be removed or demolished. This old workshop may have dated back to Milton & Cameron’s Cabinet Works’ lease of the site in 1915-16. The Shannons lived above their cabinetmaker’s shop and they were granted permission on 27 December 1956 to add a new laundry and toilet/water closet (W.C.) to their home. Further changes to the shop/house were approved in 1957.

In 1970, Edith Shannon applied to have a new building with shops built on her property. Permission was not granted by Council. By 1972, the Shannons were leasing the shop/house to TRI-STEEL Industries. On 29 October 1973, Council refused permission to TRI-STEEL to add a combined car port and patio to the timber shop/house. The Queensland Department of Main Roads acquired 5 Dickson Street on 26 July 1979, as part of its multiple property resumptions for a proposed major road project. This project was known as the ‘North-east Freeway’ that was meant to build a transport corridor that directly linked Gympie Road to Sandgate Road. In 1979, these were Brisbane’s two major northern exit roads. This project was later scrapped in favour of the Gateway Arterial Road and the Airport Link Tunnel.           

 

In July 2000, this shop/house was recognised for its heritage significance, when it was entered as the fifth stop along the Windsor & Districts Historical Society’s ‘Thorroldtown’ and ‘Maida Hill’ heritage trail. On 1 January 2004, the heritage significance of the 5 Dickson Street was recognised by the Brisbane City Council, when it was entered onto the City Plan Heritage Register (CPHR).

Surviving timber shop/houses are rare in Brisbane, with less than 20 remaining. They are usually isolated buildings, situated along a main suburban thoroughfare and scattered around the pre-1945 inner suburbs. Thus the nearest timber shop/houses to 5 Dickson Street, can be seen at nearby 109 Adamson Street, Wooloowin and then further afield at 221 Lutwyche Road, Windsor. The shop/house at 5 Dickson Street is a remnant of the early twentieth century Wooloowin commercial precinct, known as the ‘Wooloowin Shops’. It is one only three surviving buildings of this precinct. The others are a row (two) of single-storey timber shops located at 17 Dickson Street and another shop/house at 109 Adamson Street. The former Holy Cross Laundry at 60 Bridge Street may also be considered as a remnant of this Wooloowin commercial precinct.   

1. Brisbane City Council, 1946 & 2011 aerial photographs

2. Brisbane City Council, post-1946 Building Cards

3. Brisbane City Council, Drainage Plan No.23049, 1 March 1938

4. Brisbane City Council, Properties on the Web, website

5. Brisbane City Council, Sewerage Detail Map, No.465A, October 1936

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

7. Kerr, John 1988, Brunswick Street, Bowen Hills and Beyond: The Railways of the Northern Suburbs of Brisbane, Australian Railway Historical Society

8. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949

9. “General Employment” in Brisbane Courier, 18 February 1914

10. Windsor & Districts Historical Society, A Walk Through The History Of Thorroldtown & Maida Hill, (Brisbane: Windsor & Districts Historical Society, 2000)

11. Windsor & Districts Historical Society, photographic collection