20 Inwood Street, Wooloowin

This large holding in the northern Brisbane suburbs was evidently an investment for Cowlishaw. After resumption of 25 acres by the Commissioner of Railways for the Brisbane-Sandgate railway line, the remaining land was divided into 743 “villa sites”. The resulting “Thorrold Town Estate” was marketed by auctioneer John Cameron in July 1882 as having Bay and Island views, no bad drainage or smells, served by its own railway station, and already cleared of scrub to make for easy gardening. The first sale was finalised in September 1882; however it would take over twenty years for all the lots to be sold. 

The inner northern suburbs of Albion, Wooloowin and Lutwyche began to be developed and populated as a result of the building of this rail line to Sandgate. The successful completion of the Ipswich-Brisbane rail line in 1876 encouraged those desiring a rail link to Sandgate to press their claims. After consideration of several alternative routes, the Government in 1880 approved a line running from Roma Street, through Albion, and northwards and eastwards to terminate at Sandgate. The contract was let to George Bashford & Co, the line formally opened on 10 May 1882. Regular services began the next day.

When the line first opened, stations had been constructed at Lutwyche (later renamed Wooloowin, and moved north by 140 metres in 1900), Thorroldtown (inserted in 1885 600 metres north of Lutwyche), and Eagle Junction. The 1882 Lutwyche Station was regarded as being at the fringes of suburban development, but development was proceeding quickly, as indicated by the 1885 construction of Thorroldtown Station as a part of a private land development. Thorroldtown Station closed in 1890, after only five years.

Inwood Street began to be populated by tradesmen, virtually of them involved in the building industry. Undoubtedly many of the residents were employed in the construction of Wooloowin and nearby suburbs. For example the 1891 Queensland Post Office Directory listed seven of the eight residents of the street as bricklayers (neighbours John Pierpoint  and Edwin Fawkes), carpenters or joiners.

In September 1888 bricklayer John Pierpoint bought this sixteen-perch block, and almost immediately built his cottage. As Pierpoint married Annie Bird in March the following year (on the same day bricklayer neighbour Edwin Fawkes married Marion Halls) it seems that the purchase of the land and construction of the cottage was to provide a marital home. John and Annie Pierpoint moved into the cottage and lived there.

Brickmaking was one of the earliest manufacturing enterprises in Brisbane, and in the 1870s and 1880s was concentrated principally in the Lutwyche-Kedron district (which then included parts of Wooloowin and Windsor). Bricks were generally made by hand until the 1870s and 1880s, when mechanised processes such as the Hoffman method began to take over. During this period, the greatest concentration of brickyards in Brisbane appears to have been in the Lutwyche area. Well-known Lutwyche brickmakers of this period included William Anderson, Samuel Hedge and Son, John Salt, George and Charles Starkey, and William Williams. Williams operated a claypit on the corner of Inwood and Norman Streets, and it was probably here that John Pierrepoint and neighbour Edwin Fawkes obtained their bricks. One or both of these men may well have also worked for Williams.

One outstanding feature of the character of Windsor, Lutwyche and surrounding suburbs is the number of nineteenth-century brick residences. These range from grand houses such as Boothville at Windsor to small workers’ cottages. 

The house is significant as a rare example in Brisbane of a modest brick worker’s cottage. It provides evidence of development of Wooloowin as an outpost of Brisbane during the late nineteenth century, particularly of the flourishing brickmaking industry in the area at that time.

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

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

3. Department of Natural Resources, Certificates of Title.

4. Kerr, J 1988, Brunswick Street, Bowen Hills and Beyond: the Railways of the Northern suburbs of Brisbane, Australian Railway Historical Society, Brisbane

5. John Oxley Library photographs & clippings files

6. McKellar’s Estate Maps of Brisbane, 1895

7. Queensland Government, Queensland Pioneers Index 1829-1889, (Brisbane: Department of Justice and Attorney General, 2000)

8. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1887-1949

9. Windsor & Districts Historical Society 2000, A Walk Through the History of Thorroldtown and Maida Hill

10. Windsor & Districts Historical Society 2000, A Walk Through the History of Thorroldtown