Primrosa

By the turn of the century the Nundah district had a population of 1675 people. Between these years many new houses were built in the area. An important initiative of the Queensland Government was the Queensland Workers’ Dwelling Act of 1909. This provided a means for working class families to acquire a low interest mortgage to construct their own house.  In 1910 Queensland’s first Workers’ Dwelling Scheme cottage was constructed in Surrey Street, Nundah. The house was a modest timber Queenslander, designed by the Workers’ Dwelling Scheme architectural office. It was a design that was to be used for many of the homes built under the scheme in this period. The scheme was so successful that by the late 1920s 23, 515 houses had been constructed under this plan in Queensland.   

In 1911 Joseph Edwards purchased one rood and eight perches of land at Nundah. In 1912 he received a Workers’ Dwelling Board loan for £281. In this same year Edwards was first recorded at the York Street address. Edwards was a local plasterer in Nundah and the house he built reflected this. In a move away from the traditional timber Workers’ Dwelling Scheme homes Edwards constructed his from masonry with a rendered plaster finish. 

In 1934 State Advances Act and Other Acts Relief Amendment Act was introduced that encouraged the construction of houses from brick to not only stimulate the economy by providing a wider scope of work from a timber house, but also to encourage the enhancement of Brisbane’s domestic architecture, by offering larger loans. Prior to this under the Workers’ Dwelling Act the construction of timber houses was the norm as the loans were lower and the cost of constructing a timber house was considerably less than a masonry one. Therefore the construction of the masonry house at 78 York Street was highly unusual under the circumstances.

Edwards owned the house until 1919 when it was sold to Albert and Jessie Belson and then in 1920 to Anne Maude Featonby, a school teacher.  Anne Featonby resided in the house until her death in 1961.  As an unusual example of a Workers’ Dwelling Scheme home built in the early years of the scheme, ‘Primrosa’ is important as a masonry house that makes an aesthetic contribution to the streetscape in York Street, Nundah.

1. Johnston, Anna “‘God being, not in the bush’: The Nundah Mission (Qld) and Colonialism, Queensland Review, v. 4, no. 1, April, 1997, p. 71-80

2. University of Queensland, Queensland Places, http://queenslandplaces.com.au/home

3. Brisbane City Council Detail Plans

4. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificate of Titles

5. Nundah Historic Cemetery Preservation Association. 150 Years Nundah Families; 1838-1988.  (Brisbane, 1989)

6. Queensland Post Office Directories

7. Queensland Electoral Rolls

8. From Pioneering Days: Nundah, Northgate, Virginia, Nundah and Districts Historical Society Inc, 2002

9. Brisbane City Council, Register of New Buildings

10. Rechner, Judith, The Queensland Workers’ Dwelling 1910-1914,  Private publication, 1988

11. State Advances Corporation, Workers’ Homes: Information from Intending Applicants, 1923

12. State Advances Corporation, Designs of Worker’s Dwellings, 1925