Jackson's Granary (former)

This site, on the corner of Petrie Terrace and Sexton Street, was occupied from the early 1860s by ‘Tulloona’, residence of government printer Edmund Gregory. The house and land (totalling 71 perches, or 1795.8m2) was offered for sale after Gregory’s death in 1913. By this time Petrie Terrace’s residential development was beginning to cede to industrial development, particularly on sites close to the Roma Street railway yards. Sales notices emphasised the site’s development potential:

FOR FACTORY, BULK STORE, or MEDICAL MAN, PETRIE TERRACE, opposite barracks and the railway bridge… A CHANCE to secure a large area close to the business centre at a reasonable figure.1

Harold James Howes purchased the site on 3 November 1914. The English-born Howes had been in business as a produce merchant since the 1870s, and by 1880s had become ‘amongst the largest dealers in Brisbane, having worked up some of the best connections in the colony’1. From 1901 he managed Howes Brothers, a produce merchant and auctioneering company operating from Roma Street, with branch offices at Lowood, Grantham and Crows Nest. In July 1914 the company purchased 20,000 bags of maize from Sydney, one of the largest maize deals in Queensland’s history. With the grain contracted to be delivered by July 1919, the purchase of the Petrie Terrace site was likely addressing the company’s increased storage needs. The site was conveniently close to the Roma and Turbot Street markets, where farm produce was traded. It was also near the Roma Street railway goods yard, useful for freight brought in from rural Queensland or interstate.

The beginning of World War I slowed development, and it was not until 1918 that Howes engaged architect Frank Longland to design a brick building for the Petrie Terrace site. Longland, son of a Brisbane foreman, began his architectural practice in Brisbane in 1893. His practice was small but progressive, and he was made a Fellow of the Queensland Institute of Architects in 1913. Longland had experience designing industrial buildings, having designed Acme Engineering Works in 1912 and the HB Sales Building in 1913 [QHR 600125]. He had also designed Howes Bros’ Countess Street bulk store in 1897, although this building is no longer extant. Builder J Cunningham successfully tendered to construct Howes Bros’ brick storehouse. 

The building was completed in 1918, as Howes Bros’ foresaw an increased need for storage. In addition to the large maize shipment, which had arrived in October 1917, Queensland’s agricultural merchants anticipated a grain shortage due to drought, and prepared to import grain from southern states. The grain shortage did not occur, however, and a correspondent to the Queensland Times complained:

Then the silos! One has been built already in Brisbane, some six years ago, and it can be seen to-day on Petrie Terrace, Brisbane. It has never been used for the purpose it was built for, because during the last few years there has been no need for it.1

In 1923 Howes Brothers was taken over by Barron Orr and Co, who briefly operated from the building. The Petrie Terrace building was transferred to produce merchant William A Forth in 1924. Forth was ‘one of the best known men in the trade,’ as noted in a Brisbane Courier article in 1932, and advertised his ‘commodious store’ on Petrie Terrace where he would ‘readily give advice’ on the planting of agricultural seeds.1 Forth ran his business from the store until 1938, when J. Jackson & Co bought the property. The new owners were also long-established produce and seeds merchants with premises in Roma Street, near the Roma Street markets. They housed their bulk produce and seed store in the Petrie Terrace building from August 1939. 

In the 1940s conflict between Petrie Terrace residents and the grain stores came to the fore. Other agricultural produce companies had taken advantage of the proximity of the markets and railway station, with Patterson & Scells (trading as Wheatley & Bell) opening a produce store on Petrie Terrace in 1930, while Forth moved his business to Caxton Street. However, the stores were prone to fire, causing danger for nearby residents. The grain and seeds also attracted vermin like weevils which invaded nearby houses. On 24 December 1947 the Jackson & Co building was fumigated with carbon bisulphide, a highly flammable chemical. This caused an explosion in which the side and rear walls were blown out and collapsed on an adjoining house, killing four people.

The building was repaired and carried on business through the 1950s and 1960s. Six 21 metre silos were added to the site in 1961 and Jacksons continued to use the site until 1983 when they sold it to Prino Rossi Pty Ltd. In 1989 Jim Baker of Vestos Pty Ltd purchased the derelict building and it was converted into the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). In 1996 Baker commissioned architect Jon Voller to design eleven apartments inside the granary. The new development was given the name “Jacksons”. In 2016 the building is the sole surviving remnant of the large service precinct that drew its business from the Roma Street goods yard and the now defunct Roma Street Markets.

1. Telegraph, Wednesday 22 July 1914 p12

2. Morrison, Frederic W, The Aldine History of Queensland, Sydney: Aldine Publishing Co, 1888

3. Queensland Times (Ipswich), Tuesday 13 January 1925 p6

4. Brisbane Courier, Saturday 13 February 1932 p9

5. Brisbane City Council, Properties on the Web, website

6. Brisbane City Council, aerial photographs, 1946, 2012

7. Brisbane City Council building register, 1914-1920

8. Brisbane City Council Detail Plans

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

10. Cohen, Kay, “A different outfit”: State trading enterprises in Queensland 1915-1930, thesis, University of Queensland, 1987

11. Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, HP Sales Building [600125]

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

13. National Library of Australia, Trove newspapers, Telegraph, Brisbane Courier, Queensland Times, Beaudesert Times, Courier Mail

14. John Oxley Library, Brisbane Suburbs – Estate Maps

15. Morrison, Frederic W, The Aldine History of Queensland, Sydney: Aldine Publishing Co, 1888

16. Queensland Government, Queensland Pioneers Index 1829-1889, (Brisbane: Department of Justice and Attorney General, 2000)

17. Queensland Post Office Directories

18. Donald Watson and Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the Nineteenth Century, South Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994