Thomason's Buildings

From the mid 1870s the population of Brisbane increased markedly and a rise in residential settlement began to occur. Brisbane’s population had grown to 47, 000 by 1881. It was during the 1880s that the greatest changes to the residential settlement patterns occurred. This was due to several factors including an expanding economy, expansion of infrastructure including extended tram and train services, improved communication systems, and an increase in immigration to Brisbane. By 1891 Brisbane’s population had increased to over 100, 000. 

The Stones Corner area was named after the first white settler in the area, James Stone, an English immigrant who arrived in Brisbane on board the Mary Pleasants in 1857. By 1872 he and his family had purchased a one acre block on the corner of Old Cleveland Road and Logan Road and by 1884 had built a large home on the site. Stones Corner began its life as a commercial centre in 1890 with the opening of the Junction Hotel, now called the Stones Corner Hotel. As the area around the corner increasingly became settled commercial premises were established for the servicing of the residents. In the 1890s Stones Corner was a small centre for trade compared to the shopping district at South Brisbane on Stanley Street, but with improved road and public transport access the junction of Logan and Old Cleveland Road thrived over the years. 

By the 1890s, the Stones Corner and Coorparoo area included a socio-economic mix that ranged from farmers to politicians. These included Frederick Brentnall M.L.C., James Stodart M.L.A. and Walter Henry Barnes M.L.A., business men such as Nathaniel Lade, James Hipwood and Reuben Nicklin and important public servants such as Edward Deshon C.M.G., Reginald Mulholland King, James Evan Burstall and T.W. Connah. Coorparoo, while not distant from the city, was a semi-rural area until the 1910s. Then the population began to increase rapidly due to the extension of the tramline to Stones Corner in 1915. 

Thomas Watson Thomason was a successful chemist and businessman in Brisbane from as early as the late nineteenth century and owned several businesses. For example he built 303 Logan Road in 1888. Prior to the establishment of this business, Thomason had other businesses in Brisbane.  By the time the Stones Corner store was opened in 1888 Thomason Bros. had another four chemist and dentist shops in Brisbane, two on Stanley Street and one in Queen Street. An advertisement in the 1887 Post Office Directories reads: “Thomason Bros., Surgical and Mechanical Dentists, Stanley Street, South Brisbane and Woolloongabba. All work performed with Neatness, Efficiency, and Despatch at Moderate Rates”. Thomason was also a Councillor on the Stephens Shire Council for several years prior to 1925 and the amalgamation of Brisbane’s Councils. 

He and his brothers conducted the pharmaceutical business at the Logan Road address until 1919 when William Pearce, also a chemist purchased the business. A succession of chemists purchased and occupied this building and around 1923, when Wilfred Illife moved into the building, one half was occupied by his pharmacy and the other was taken over by the Stones Corner Post Office and the Commonwealth Bank.

 

In 1925 Thomason built the two-storey rendered brick corner building after taking out a mortgage in the same year. Prior to this Thomason had built another two-storey rendered brick building at Woolloongabba on the corner of Stanley Street and Logan Road. The triangular design of this building with its inscription ‘Thomason’s Bld (Building)’ on the front façade was also used for the design of the Thomason's Buildings in Stones Corner.  The unusual triangular site at Stones Corner beside the Burnett Swamp Bridge ensured that the two-storey brick building would become a prominent landmark at the entrance to the shopping district.   

The newly built premises with shop on the ground floor and office on the first floor were leased to various retail businesses including a dentist and a plumbing business. The tradition of retail premises has not changed at this address and continues to be used for retail and office use.

1. Historic Titles, Department of Natural Resources and Water

2. Queensland Post Office Directories

3. Metropolitan Water and Sewage Survey Maps, 1949

4. Coorparoo, Stones Corner Centenary, 1856 – 1956, Printed by The Courier Mail, 1956