Kelly's Duplex

This part of Spring Hill, one of Brisbane’s first residential suburbs, was subdivided by the Crown for private sale from 1856. In 1860, Patrick Byrne was granted just over one and three quarters of an acre stretching from Leichardt Street to Wickham Terrace. Birley Road was added but reached only as far as Lilley Street until the mid-1890s.

Byrne soon subdivided the land on either side of Birley Street into allotments of just over 19 perches. Some were further subdivided into smaller lots of only 9.7 perches such as the one purchased by Daniel Kelly. Most of the allotments in Birley Street were sold prior to 1865 and by the census of 1871, 58 people were residing in the street. As was the case with most of the low lying streets of Spring Hill, these houses were often tenanted by working class residents such as labourers, mariners and bootmakers or others on modest incomes such as widows.

Birley Street provides an example of the typical pattern of residential development in Spring Hill prior to the 1885 Undue Subdivision of Land Act which prohibited the subdivision of land into allotments smaller than 16 perches. The Act, which also required a minimum street frontage of 30 feet (around 10 metres), reflected contemporary concerns that the building of terraces and tiny cottages on small parcels of land would lead to the proliferation of slums, increasing the risks of disease and fire. The duplex at 46 Birley Street, like many other nineteenth-century buildings at Spring Hill has retained the size of its original allotment.

Surviving duplexes and terrace houses from the nineteenth century are rare in Brisbane; Spring Hill, however, has retained several. They range from fine 1860s masonry buildings such as ‘Callender House’ (now the Theosophical Society) and ‘Athol Place’ along the elevated ridge of Wickham Terrace to more middle class dwellings built on the slopes of Spring Hill such as the 1860s stone duplex at 19 Gloucester Street and the 1870s brick semi-detached Moody’s cottages in Victoria Street. Humble timber duplexes built in the hollows of Spring Hill for the working classes included this one in Birley Street and a slightly larger one on the corner of Gloucester and Thornbury Streets.  Duplexes at Spring Hill that have been demolished include two at the western end of Gregory Terrace.

The Birley Street duplex was initially occupied by Daniel Kelly. By the early 1880s, records show Kelly in the northern half and Frederick Hann, a labourer, residing in the southern part of the building. Over the subsequent decades, both sides are occupied by a frequently changing number of tenants, including another grocer. This pattern of cheaper housing in the hollows and valleys reflects the geographical stratification of classes in Spring Hill and other inner city suburbs such as Red Hill and Paddington.

In 1911, Daniel Kelly’s property in Birley Street was transferred to Julia Kelly, a spinster. After her death in 1914, the land passed to other members of the Kelly family who retained the property until it was sold in 1951. A 1911 plan of the building shows that both sides of the duplex had rear external stairs to the backyard which contained a pair of adjoining “earth closets” and a bath house. During the 1950s, the duplex was used as flats. It has since been converted to a single dwelling.

This humble timber building provides significant evidence of the mid-nineteenth century development of Spring Hill as an early dormitory suburb, particularly as rental housing for working class tenants. 

1. BCC building cards

2. Brisbane City Council Detail Plan no. 16, 1914

3. BCA Surveyor’s Field Book, 46 Birley St, Spring Hill – C12-114 16 Nov 1911

4. Environment and Heritage Protection. Entries for Queensland Heritage Register: ‘Athol Place’ (600167), Moody’s Cottages (600314), ‘Theosophical Society Building’ (600169), McWhinney’s Brick Cottage (602248)

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

6. Queensland Certificates of Title

7. Queensland Post Office Directories