Robinson Farmhouse

Another major local landowner was the Robinson family. The large Robinson family held farms throughout Banyo, Virginia, Geebung and Aspley. Robinson Roads East and West are named after the family. In Banyo, this family owned land that was downhill from the Orphanage and Cemetery, in the area dominated by Beehive Hill (now the Australian Catholic University site).  William Bulcock Robinson bought Portion 210 on 27 August 1880. He subsequently subdivided the land, retaining Subdivision A. He received a new title deed for this 18 acre, 2 roods and 28.1 perch block of land on 6 July 1882.    

On 10 May 1882, the Sandgate Railway opened though no stop or siding was built at Banyo. Instead, the railway station for the entire district was placed at Railway Parade, Nudgee. Thus a small township grew around this station whereas the lower area where the railway crossed St. Vincent’s Road remained sparsely settled. The rail crossing was known locally as Clapham Junction. 
 
Dairy farmer William B. Robinson built this modest cottage along the road to St. Vincent’s Orphanage around 1882. William B. Robinson is listed in the 1883-84 edition of the Queensland Post Office Directories as living in nearby German Station (now Nundah). So the small residence may have been used as temporary accommodation when he grazed his dairy herd on this, his outlying property in the Nudgee District. William B. Robinson first appears as a resident in the Nudgee District in 1889 edition of the Queensland Post Office Directories. 

This small residence appears to be of an earlier c1860s style, so the cottage may have been relocated to Subdivision A of Portion 210 from elsewhere in Brisbane. It was possibly the first house constructed in this part of Banyo. It remains the earliest house to be found in the suburb. It was built as a farmhouse using local, bush timber. The house stumps were cut from local trees, and rough-edged timber hewn by an axe, adze or saw was used to construct the four-roomed cottage. The roof trusses were made from tea tree lumber. Initially the farmhouse roof was covered with timber shingles but later these were replaced by galvanised iron sheeting. As was standard practice, a detached kitchen was constructed at the rear of the cottage. Open verandahs (now enclosed) were placed at the front and the back of the cottage.

In 1912, a railway station was built at the Clapham Junction crossing and the Railway Department named the station ‘BANYO’. This was supposedly an Aboriginal word for ridge. The station prompted growth and development though this was concentrated on the northern side of the rail line and not near the old Robinson farmhouse. A small shopping precinct developed around the intersection of Royal Parade and St. Vincent’s Road. A School of Arts (later the Banyo Memorial Hall) was constructed adjacent to this intersection in 1925. In 1929, St. Oswald’s Anglican Church opened in Victoria (now Froude) Street. A Baptist Church was constructed in Hartley Street in 1930. 

It was not until the Robinson family created the Robinson’s Paddock Estate in 1928 that the area around the old farmhouse began to urbanise. This Estate created Paradise and Langdon Streets and Redhill Road, with the first auction held on 15 September 1928. Part of the Robinson family land between St. Vincent’s Road, Tufnell Road and the rail line became public space (now Banyo Memorial Park). William Bulcock Robinson died on 19 May 1930 and his estate passed to the state government’s Queensland Trustees Limited. By 1946, the former Robinson farmhouse still remained fairly isolated as there had been little development in this part of Banyo during the Interwar period. Banyo remained a semi-rural area, dominated by fruit (particularly pineapple) farms.  

Henry Daniel Sherratt and Pearl Pearce purchased the property on 28 September 1949 after Pearl Pearce’s parents had been renting the farmhouse from the Queensland Trustees Limited since 1931. The Sherratt family continue to own and occupy the property.  A garage was added to the property in 1956.    
    
In 2000, a group of community members, who comprised the BANGEE Festival Committee, identified 302 St. Vincent’s Road as a local heritage place. They entered this residence as Location 22 in their publication BANYO-NUDGEE Heritage Trail.   
 

1. Bangee Festival Committee, BANYO-NUDGEE Heritage Trail – a pictorial history of Banyo, Nudgee, Nudgee Beach, Virginia and Northgate East, (Banyo: Bangee Festival Committee, 2000)

2. Brisbane City Council, 1946 & 2009 aerial photographs

3. Brisbane City Council, post-1945 building application cards

4. Department of Natural Resources, Property title deeds and other documents

5. John Oxley Library, Brisbane Estate Maps collection

6. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949