Flint's Cottage

McCann used the land as collateral for a number of loans. He first mortgaged the land through George and Thomas Heaslop on 26 January 1885. A second mortgage, for ₤550, was gained from John Ahern on 27 May 1885. McCann may have then gotten into financial difficulties because he transferred the property to a trustee the next day. The trustee was Robert Love, who was part of the auctioneer and real estate firm of Isles and Love that had offices in Queen Street in the City.

On 12 June 1886, McCann finally disposed of the land to John Thomas Costin and George Iredale Bourne. Costin and Bourne were land developers and they took Portions 152 and 153 and subdivided the land into smaller allotments in preparation for a land sale. They named their land sale the Stanley Park Estate. In doing so, Costin and Bourne were inadvertently laying the foundations for that section of the Shire of Belmont that was to become known as Camp Hill/Carina.      

 

Camp Hill gained its title from the many travellers who rested there overnight on their journey to and from the main settlement in the early days of Queenslands history. These included farmers from Redland Bay, Cleveland and Mt Cotton districts, bullock drivers and other travelers. Carina was the name of the largest homestead in the area along Creek Road. This was the farm of Ebenezer Thorne who was a councillor for the Bulimba Divisional Board that later became the Belmont Shire Council. Thorne had one child, a daughter named Kate Carina Thorne and it was her name that was given to Thorne’s land and eventually to the entire local area. The district around Camp Hill and Carina once was a strong German community and consisted mainly of vineyards and dairy farms. The district remained predominantly German until the speculation land boom of the 1880s, when many sold their land. The year 1888 saw the Cleveland rail line take shape and it became the main impetus for the expansion of suburban settlement in the Camp Hill/Carina area.

On 29 August 1888, John Flint purchased subdivisions 6, and 7 of Portion 153 from Costin and Bourne. To this initial purchase of 2 acres and 2 perches of land, Flint added a further 1 acre, 3 roods and 17.8 perches of land when he bought subdivisions 8 and 9 of Portion 153. Flint again expanded his holdings on 13 February 1906. On that day he obtained subdivisions 14-18 of Portion 153 thereby adding another 5 acres of land to his property.  

It was on Flint’s second purchase, that is, subdivisions 8 and 9, that he built his residence (now 40 Lunga Street, Carina). Lunga Street had been created during the subdivision and subsequent land sale conducted by Costin and Bourne. But it was originally called May Street.  John Flint is first listed as a resident of May Street, Bulimba in the 1893 edition of the Queensland Post Office Directories. As the information for these annual directories was gathered during the year prior to publication then it can be assumed that Flint’s Cottage was built sometime in 1892. By 1900, John Flint was listed in the Queensland Post Office Directories as a resident of Kennington Road, Coorparoo though this may have been a new description for his residence at 40 Lunga Street. By 1906, John Flint’s address is simply listed as Belmont.  

When John Flint died on 19 June 1908, his estate passed to his widow Neilsine Maria Flint. In My 1910, she remarried and took on the surname of her new husband James Rinn. Neilsine did not want to hold onto the property from her first marriage so on 15 December 1913, she sold the land and cottage to May Sobraon Brooks, the wife of Alfred Henry Brooks. A number of rapid changeovers of owners of Flint’s Cottage then occurred. The Brooks only held the property for three months before disposing of it to Blanche and Robert Thomas Newitt on 22 December 1913. They, in turn, passed the property onto Eaglesfield Bradshaw Barker on 8 July 1914.

In 1915, the Brisbane tramline system reached Coorparoo and then was extended to Camp Hill in 1925 and this was the impetus for further suburban development in the area. Thus the Carina State School opened on 30 January 1917. There is no record of the Barkers ever living in Flint’s Cottage and it is assumed that they rented the property out to tenants. When Eaglesfield Barker died on 17 June 1920, the property passed to his widow Mabel. On 14 November 1935, Mabel sold the cottage and land to Frederick William Polglass Perrett. Perrett was a schoolteacher and he lived at Coomera so 40 Lunga Street must have remained as a rental property. Frederick Perrett soon transferred ownership to a relative, Francis Joseph Perrett, on 3 December 1935.

Harold Francis Clifford Kratley became the new owner of 40 Lunga Street on 27 May 1946. 

He mortgaged the property through the Toowoomba Permanent Bank and Building Society on 6 September 1946. Kratley sold the property to George Christmas Blunder on 19 June 1950. With the post-war building boom in Brisbane, many of the large properties in Brisbane’s outer suburbs were cut-up into house blocks and sold-off to developers. Thus during the 1950s, John Flint’s original holdings of 8 acres, 3 roods and 19.8 perches of land were steadily sold off as smaller land parcels. The first loss was a .17 perch plot lost through a road dedication on 22 November 1951. A further 29.2 perches was cut from the site and sold to Harry James Langton and his wife Florence May Langton, as resubdivision 3 on 24 July 1951. 

Possibly due to ill-health, George Blunder had trustees appointed to administer the remainder of the property. These trustees were Malcolm Llewellyn McColm, Cecil Arthur Raymond Dobrich and Michael Gerard Lyons. These men oversaw the disposal of the rest of Blunder’s land with the first sale occurring on 27 June 1952, when Betty Genevieve Rowland obtained resubdivision 4 (28.9 perches). Resubdivision 5, comprising a 24 perch block of land, was sold to Mary Ellen Rankin and her husband Amel Edwin Rankin on 1 July 1952.

Finally the land containing Flint’s Cottage, that is resubdivisions 1 and 2, was purchased by Fred Watts on 24 September 1953.Watts financed his purchase of the 1 rood and 13.3 perches of land through a mortgage supplied by George Blunder. Fred Watts mortgaged the property for the second time on 29 August 1960. He transferred resubdivision 2 to Michael Bede Carroll and Beatrice May Coe on 8 October 1965. A new title deed, confirming the existing boundaries of 40 Lunga Street, was issued to Watts on 24 September 1968  

After Eric Victor Koskela and Leila Frances Koskela bought 40 Lunga Street on 31 October 1969, the property changed hands frequently over the next few years. Perhaps this was a reflection of the age and the style of Flint’s Cottage being out of step with the rest of the new housing estates in Carina. The real estate firm of Peter Kurts (Developments) Pty Ltd bought the property on 29 June 1971. That same day the company transferred title to Claude Antoine Chanu and Myria Chanu. The Chanu family held the property for 5 years before disposing of it to Vincent Henry Wheeler and Valda Theresa Wheeler on 13 October 1976.  They gave the property over to Melody Anne Wheeler on 23 March 1979. Michael Brekelmans became the owner of Flint’s Cottage on 11 May 1987 but only held it for two years before selling up to Stephen Faulkner Gray on 2 February 1989. The following year, on 16 August, Patricia Catherine McCormack gained ownership of the property. She kept the property for four years before passing 40 Lunga Street to Nicole Maree Long and Stephen Anthony Smith on 18 May 1994. The current owners, Colin George Wilson and Michelle Allision Kaefer took control of the property on 22 August 2000. 

Flint’s Cottage at 40 Lunga Street is the oldest surviving residence in Carina. With the demolition of the cottage at 66 Epala Street in March 2003, Flint’s Cottage is the only remaining nineteenth century residence left in Carina. Therefore it has rarity value and is important to illustrating the early pattern of development in Carina.

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

2. Brisbane City Council, 1946 aerial photographs.

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

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

5. John Oxley Library, Brisbane Suburbs – Estate Maps

6. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949