Brasch's Service Station (former)

Miller and Woofrey had bought a corner block, containing 33.5 perches, located in a prime commercial location at the intersection of Breakfast Creek Road with Jordan Street (later renamed Jordan Terrace). It also backed onto Cintra Road. The site was adjacent the Breakfast Creek Road tramline. In March 1927, they were issued with a new title after the property was reduced to 32.59 perches.

Quick Service Stations (Queensland) Limited purchased the site on 21 December 1927. The Melbourne-based Quick Service Stations Ltd began a Queensland branch in 1927, with its prospectus advertised in The Brisbane Courier on 22 February. Directors Arthur Edwin Goldsmith, Arthur William Beauchamp and Karl Millbrook advised potential investors that it was estimated the net profit per station per month would be in the vicinity of £100.1 The company planned a chain of “service stations to be built at various vantage points throughout the city and suburbs” that were “especially equipped to give rapid and efficient service to motorists.”1 It was meant to be a direct contrast to existing Brisbane fuel stops that were motor repair garages which had a couple of fuel pumps installed outside the garage building. Their income was derived from motor vehicle sales and repairs, with fuel and other oil sales being a secondary consideration. The ad-hoc facilities provided to Brisbane motorists in the 1920s was the focus of various campaigns by the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (formed 1905). A particular point of contention was that these garages often employed unqualified workers to undertake the vehicle repairs.

In March 1927 Quick Service Ltd announced its intention to construct a chain of stations with the following sites selected for 10 service stations:-

1.    Brisbane Cricket Ground corner, Woolloongabba;

2.    Corner of Barry Pde and Leichhardt St;

3.    Corner of Jordan Tce and Breakfast Creek Rd;

4.    Albion, near new bridge;

5.    River Rd, Toowong, near Regatta Hotel;

6.    Corner of Hamilton Rd and Racecourse Rd;

7.    Corner of Grey St and Russell St, near Melbourne St Station;

8.    Gregory Tce, near Normanby Hotel;

9.    Stone’s Corner, at bridge;

10.    Corner Ekibin St and Ipswich Rd, near Junction Hotel.

The Quick Service Stations were to be laid out on a plan “which permits the motorist to drive easily in along its open driveways. The ideal site for a station is along an arterial road at the corner of another wide street, which … permits driveways to be constructed from one street to another.”1

The service station at 108 Breakfast Creek Road was completed by 1928. The small service station office with exterior twin petrol pumps faced Breakfast Creek Road providing the driveway service that was the company’s hallmark. A larger, garage shed faced Jordan Street, as did a timber residence built for a residence for the on-site manager. Both the office and adjacent garage were of concrete construction. A small, decorative concrete and lattice timber wall, featuring two globe electric lights atop concrete pillars and built to separate the Breakfast Creek Road entrance from the Jordan Street exit, completed the site. The building design was in the Georgian Revival style that was already featured in the company’s Melbourne service stations. This style was to be employed in a planned chain of service stations to be spread across Brisbane’s suburbs thus enabling public recognition of this particular brand of petrol shop.

Quick Service Stations (Queensland) Limited brought the concept of a fuel stop which provided immediate drive-through service, that is a modern service station, to Brisbane. While motorists could still put their vehicles into the site’s garage for repairs, its main purpose was to sell fuel and related products to the public. The media reported: 

    “The company will be in a position to cater in every respect for the needs and wants of all motorists. Motorists will be assured of being able to procure all brands of petrol, oils, greases, etc. …. will also carry a complete stock of accessories to properly cater for the needs of motorists. Conveniences, such as ladies’ and gentlemen’s lavatories, washing basins and clean towels, will be installed at each station for the use of the motorist.”1

Other modern facilities installed at these service stations were battery charging equipment suitable for both vehicle and home wireless use; and a car wash provided by air mist washing machines.

Unfortunately the advent of the Great Depression in 1929, stymied the company’s expansion in Queensland. Only three service stations were built. The first was at the Fiveways Woolloongabba. The second was this station at 108 Breakfast Creek Road, and the third was at the junction of Ekibin St and Ipswich Rd. Quick Service Stations (Queensland) Ltd recorded a loss of £1289 in its first year of trading and the company went into liquidation after a meeting of creditors on 23 April 1931. The Newstead service station was sold to Hedley Richard Vickers on 11 May 1933 and was operated by P.G. Fegan around 1935.

In January 1936, the service station was sold to Desmond Patrick Eagers, with Vickers lending the money to Eagers via a mortgage. Des Eagers was a member of E.G. Eagers & Son, a major Brisbane motor dealership that had been established in 1913 by Fred and Edward Eagers. In 1922, Eagers opened the first motor vehicle assembly factory in Brisbane. In 1930, the firm achieved a major commercial coup by acquiring the General Motors Holden (US) sale franchise for Queensland. Eagers had its showroom beside Breakfast Creek Road, Newstead so the purchase of the nearby service station added to its local service facilities. Eagers only held onto the site for a year before selling it to Gilbert Osbert Wilkinson, the proprietor of the 108 Breakfast Creek Road service station in September 1937. From 1933 to 1938, the site continued to trade under the name Quick Service Station.

On 21 December 1937, Andrew and Francis Mervyn (Merv) Brasch purchased the property. Andrew and Merv became the station proprietors and the site was renamed Brasch’s Service Station. Andrew did not live in the site’s house in Jordan Street, but instead resided at Roche Avenue, Newstead. The Brasch family retained ownership of the service station site for 50 years, until it was sold to Philip C. Jeremy in 1987.  

This continuity of proprietorship was only interrupted for three years during World War II. On 15 April 1942, the US submarine tender Griffin and six old S-class submarines sailed up the Brisbane River to establish a US Navy (USN) base at New Farm wharf. As Brasch’s Service Station was close to the New Farm US submarine base and it contained modern facilities, it was requisitioned by the Australian Army Hirings Service for the use of the US Navy Supply Depot (NSD) from 22 May 1942 to 4 October 1944. During its occupation by the USN, where it was known as a ‘gas station’ by the Americans, an oil storage locker and repair shop were added to this, USN service station. It was the principal USN gas station, refueling and servicing a variety of military and requisitioned civilian vehicles. These included sedans, pick-up trucks, jeeps, a command car, weapons carriers, 4WD trucks and buses, as well as some of the heavy construction equipment belonging to two Seabee battalions. On 7 February 1945, the Australian Department of the Navy approved paying £339.14.9 compensation to Brasch for damages caused to his service station by the USN.

In 1947, the property transferred to the sole ownership of Andrew Brasch. He leased part of the site to Phillips Oil Products Ltd in 1962. In 1983, the site was subdivided into Lots 1 and 2, with the smaller Lot 1 resumed by the Brisbane City Council for road works. Ownership was transferred to Catherine Emily Brasch. By 2000, the service station had closed and the petrol pumps with their fuel bunkers removed. Due to its strategic corner location, along Breakfast Creek Road and close to Fortitude Valley and the CBD, the property remained commercially viable. Rent-a-car companies, including Abel Rent-a-Car leased the site.

1. “Abridged Prospectus of Quick Service Stations (Queensland) limited” The Brisbane Courier 22 February 1927, p.8

2. “Modern and Beautiful Service Station”, The Brisbane Courier, 23 March 1927, p. 8

3. “Chain of Modern Service Stations for Brisbane. Quick Service Stations. Good Investment for Motorists”, The Brisbane Courier 23 March 1927, p.8

4. “Quick Service Stations – New Enterprise for Brisbane”, The Brisbane Courier, 16 March 1927, p.8

5. Brisbane City Council Properties on the Web

6. Brisbane City Council, 1946 & 2009 aerial photographs

7. Brisbane City Council, Properties on the Web, post-1946 building approval cards

8. Brisbane City Council, Plan of House Drain, 5 February 1928

9. "Quick Service Stations (Q’land) Ltd”, The Brisbane Courier, 22 February 1927

10. “Quick Service Stations – New Enterprise for Brisbane”, The Brisbane Courier, 16 March 1927

11. "Modern and Beautiful Service Station”, The Brisbane Courier, 23 March 1927

12. "Quick Service Stations”, The Brisbane Courier, 19 April 1927

13. "Meeting of Creditors - Quick Service Stations Pty Ltd”, The Brisbane Courier, 24 April 1931

14. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of Title and other records

15. John Oxley Library (J.O.L.), photographic collection, Negative No.122945

16. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949

17. "Fight for rights”, The Road Ahead, (Brisbane: R.A.C.Q., April/May 2005)

18. USN Bureau of Yards and Docks Section, US Naval Base, Navy 134, Brisbane, General Defense Aid – Reciprocal and Review Board Report, 1946