Dyne's House

Petrie Terrace, due to its close proximity to Brisbane Town, developed as one of the first suburbs of the colony’s capital. The block of land containing the property at 22 Dyne Street was first sold as freehold land in 1861. Brisbane resident William Gray purchased a medium-size block of vacant land comprising one acre, two roods and 21 perches for ₤184.6.8 on 16 September of that year. The block was designated allotment 297 in the City of Brisbane. 

Gray subdivided his purchase into small town allotments suitable for sale as residential blocks. The current property thus became a block of 15.5 perches described as subdivision 4 of allotment 297 and, as such, it was sold to Brisbane resident John Rowland on 16 June 1863. Rowland mortgaged this land for ₤100 through the Queensland Building Society on 17 August 1865. Rowland had a cottage built on his land.  

On 15 March 1877, the property was sold to Brisbane widow Anna Dyne. Dyne used the property for investment purposes, raising three mortgages during her two decades of ownership. On 22 December 1880, Mr. B. Cooper provided a loan of ₤250 against the property. On 16 June 1885, Anna secured a further ₤350 from the New South Wales Land Mortgage and Agency Company Ltd. On 17 October 1887, she mortgaged the property to Thomas Rome for ₤4,000. 

This last mortgage would have been sufficient to pay for the construction of a new home at 22 Cricket Street. Being a widow and therefore possibly dependant on her investments for income, Anna Dyne may have used the last mortgage to both have a new home built on the site and to cram in an existing, older residence next door, but on the same allotment. This would have given her two properties to lease on the single block of land. 

Such an arrangement was not uncommon in Brisbane in the 1880s, as the economic boom period led to increase population and a subsequent housing demand. As well, the small, earlier (1840s-70s) timber cottages were easily transportable via the use of flatbed wagons and draft horse teams. But what makes the dual Dyne Houses unusual is that the combination of old and new residences squeezed onto the same block of land. As historian Rod Fisher explains:

“Instead of a pair of identical semi-detached or pyramid-roofed houses with a four-roomed core, the owner provided two different dwellings. One was newly built in late 1880s style, but was narrower in width and more extended in length to accommodate six rooms and a hallway beneath a hipped roof. The other comprised at least one if not two old buildings, which were sited end to end lengthwise along an even narrower portion of the block….’1

The Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act of October 1885 had prevented the subdivision and subsequent sale of land into house blocks smaller than 16 perches. Thus Mrs. Dyne’s could not further subdivide her 15.5 perch block of land but there was nothing from preventing from having two houses side by side placed on the same small block. The two rental houses were built by 1889 and were given separate addresses - 22 and 24 Cricket Street. It is possible that one of the two residences moved onto 24 Cricket Street to form a single dwelling was Rowland’s small 1870s cottage that had been next-door at 22 Cricket Street. The first tenant of 22 Cricket Street was mason Charles Fluke. Local legend has it that 22 Cricket Street was the home of a dray master but this is actually Donaldson’s Residence (now Brisbane City Aussie Way Backpackers Hostel) at 34 Cricket Street. Low-income tenants lived at 22 Cricket Street – widows, a labourer, a miner, a fruiter and railway workers.   

Anna Dyne held onto her dual houses until the 1890s Depression. An Order of Foreclosure registered by the Queensland Supreme Court on 31 August 1896, seized her property. It was soon sold. Brisbane spinster Maria Bealby bought the property on 14 September and then transferred it to Gorge Orr on 10 November 1896.  It remained with the Orr Family until 16 June 1930 when it passed to spinster Hilda Oswald. She held the title until her death on 17 June 1972. Until 1997, it had a quick succession of 10 different owners, reflecting Petrie Terrace’s then status as a run-down, inner-city suburb offering cheap rental accommodation. Until 2003, 22 and 24 Cricket Street had a parallel history of ownership. The current owners are investors from New South Wales.  

In 1989, the Brisbane History Group identified the houses at 22 and 24 Cricket Street as having heritage significance when they were included as Stop No.39 in its publication The Ups and Downs of Petrie Terrace Walk/Drive Heritage Tour.                      

1. Woodcock, Steve & Fisher, Rod, Petrie Terrace Brisbane 1858-1988, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 1988). P. unspecified

2. Brisbane City Council, Properties on the Web, website, post-1946 building cards

3. Brisbane City Council, 1946, 2001, 2005 & 2009 aerial photographs

4. Brisbane City Council’s Central Library, local history sheets.

5. Brisbane City Council, Sewerage Map, 7 February 1927

6. Brisbane History Group, The Ups and Downs of Petrie Terrace Walk/Drive Heritage Trail, (Brisbane: Brisbane History Group, 1989)

7. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of title and other records.

8. John Oxley Library, Brisbane Suburbs – Estate Maps

9. John Oxley Library, photographic collection.

10. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949

11. http://www.ancestry.com.au/?o_iid=22129&o_lid=22129

12. Woodcock, Steve & Fisher, Rod, Petrie Terrace Brisbane 1858-1988, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 1988)