Mornington

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 closed in 1890, after only five years.

The land on which this house is situated was part of over fifty acres originally purchased by brothers Aaron and John Adsett in the land sales of 1858-9.  In 1866 John Adsett acquired title to a twenty-five acre portion, holding it for many years before selling it to John Lloyd Bale in August 1883. Bale engaged surveyors Hamilton & Raff to subdivided the land into 197 lots (virtually all of sixteen perches except for nine smaller lots). These were marketed by auctioneers E. Hooker & Son as Maida Hill Estate, from December 1884 onwards. The blocks on which 'Mornington' was built was purchased by James Brand in April 1884, as a part of a 1½ acre area between Wooloowin Avenue and Balmain Street. Brand was evidently speculating –
within the month he had sold off the various 16 perch blocks individually or in pairs.

The Wooloowin Avenue area (formerly called Lutwyche Street) was one of the earliest local streets to undergo housing construction. The area was originally called Maida Hill, the local topography said to resemble London’s Maida Hill. This is probably how the estate was marketed, given the hyperbole surrounding many of the real estate sales during this era. Unlike the exclusive area close to Regent’s Park and West End, Brisbane’s Maida Hill was predominantly working class. Numerous small cottages were built for tradesmen, many of whom were kept busy building more housing for this rapidly expanding area. By 1887 Lutwyche Street was home to a carpenter, engineer, labourer and builder, in addition to coach builder, ironmonger, surveyor, shipwright and bootmaker. Mornington, however, does not fit this pattern of modest dwellings on small allotments.

After training as an engineer in England Frederick Lord returned to Australia, first to Tasmania, and later to Queensland. He worked as a railway engineer and government surveyor before joining the Gympie gold rush. In 1868 Lord selected land at North Branch near Pittsworth. He added to his pastoral holdings in 1874 when he purchased the Eskdale Run, in the Brisbane Valley, from James Ivory. Further acquisitions of three runs in the Multaburra area consolidated his position.

Lord took various public offices including as a member of the Gympie Mining Court, Chairman of both the Esk Divisional Board and Esk Marsupial Board, and as a director of the Queensland National Bank and Moreheads Ltd.

In March 1890 Lord bought four lots (totalling 65 perches) on the corner of Lisson Grove and what was still called Lutwyche Street, at Maida Hill. Two of these, along Lutwyche Street, had been purchased by labourer George Dibbins in late 1885 and early 1886. Dibbins seems to have built here on this land fairly quickly, as he is listed as living here by the time the 1890 Queensland Post Office Directory was published. 

Miss Honoria O’Farrell bought the two corner allotments in October 1884, and raised a £250 mortgage in May the following year. It is uncertain whether this money was used to build a house here, as a further £650 mortgage from a building society in June 1888 seems more likely to have been used to build a house (or possibly extend an existing structure). Miss O’Farrell was living here, in a house named Mornington, by the time the 1890 Queensland Post Office Directory was published.

Lord purchased all four allotments, presumably with the two houses already erected, in March 1890. At the same time a £350 building society mortgage was registered, indicating that Lord may have borrowed money to purchase a residence.

Elected as MLA for Stanley in 1893, Lord served for a decade. He lived here at Mornington until its sale in 1911 to Randolph Wilson. The house built by George Dibbins may have remained on the Lutwyche Street/Wooloowin Avenue portions for some time, but it had disappeared by the time the Detail Plan of 1917 was surveyed.

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

2. Department of Natural Resources, Certificates of Title

3. Kerr, John, Brunswick Street, Bowen Hills and Beyond – the railways of the northern suburbs of Brisbane, (Brisbane: Australian Railway Historical Society, 1988)

4. John Oxley Library photographs & clippings files

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

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

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

8. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1887-1949

9. Waterson, D.B., A Biographical Register of the Queensland Parliament 1860-1929, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1972

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