Poultney Residence

The site that contains the property at 24 Cutbush Road was originally part of a crown land purchase made by Charles Green on 29 December 1863. Green paid £40.5s. for 35 acres of land that was described as Portion 64 in the Parish of Kedron. In 1866 he subdivided and sold the blocks as residential or small farm lots. Siegmund Berens and Armand Ranniger bought subdivisions 13 and 14 in October 1870. They were declared insolvent in March 1879 and the land was sold to William Grene Power, a Brisbane resident in April 1890. Following his death in 1903 the land was sold to Albert Poultney in March 1907.

Albert Poultney (born 1876) was the son of the Everton Park pioneer, Joseph Poultney. Arriving in Queensland in 1864, Joseph Poultney became one of the largest landholders in the district - from 1873 he owned 591 acres covering Portions 65, 596, 597 and 599. Poultney’s Portion 65 adjoined Charles Green’s Portion 64. Joseph Poultney started a business on his land as a shingle splitter to provide roofing for Brisbane homes. His business expanded into timber getting and then in 1885 he established a sawmill on Bunya (now South Pine) Road near the present intersection with Stafford Road. Poultney’s sawmill became a major industry in the Enoggera district. Describing the Enoggera district in 1906, the Brisbane Courier noted: 

On the Enoggera side Poultney’s saw-mill is perhaps the largest works. A fair number of men are constantly employed.  

Timber cut at Poultney’s sawmill was sold through his timber merchant’s yard in Countess Street in South Brisbane. By 1902 the Poultneys were conducting their timber merchant’s business through a new premises located at 252 Roma Street, in the City. Poultney’s family became prominent members of the Enoggera community. His son Charles represented Enoggera on the local government Nundah Divisional Board from 1885-87. Both Charles and his brother William, were members of the Enoggera State School’s committee. Charles was chairman of the school committee in 1908. 

Joseph Poultney died on 21 November 1908. His obituary published in The Brisbane Courier noted that Joseph Poultney “with the aid of his sons gradually built up the well-known sawmill business on the old North Coast road.”  Prominent in the business were William and his youngest brother Albert, who were designated as the executors of Joseph Poultney’s estate. William was the Outside Sawmill Manager while Albert was the Inside Sawmill Manager of Poultney’s Sawmill. They ran not only the original sawmill on South Pine Road but also a new sawmill at Alderson Street in Newmarket. In 1911 Joseph’s original sawmill on Bunya Road closed and its equipment was removed. One of the original cottages, lived in by Charles Poultney remains nearby at 30 Fallon Street. 

When Albert Poultney purchased subdivisions 12 and 13 of portion 64 in Cutbush Road in 1907, he was living at the family home in Bunya Road. Although he married Lillian Clara Pashen on 26 December 1906 he continued to live in Bunya Road until 1916. Albert Poultney mortgaged the land on 21 October 1916 presumably to fund the construction of his new home on Cutbush Road. He is first recorded as a resident at that address in 1915-16. Cutbush Road overlooked the sawmill and many of the pre-war residences built along this road were constructed for the Poultneys’ employees. Albert and Lillian raised four sons and one daughter at Cutbush Road and Albert continued to co-manage Poultney’s sawmill until his death on 10 July 1930. In his will, the house passed to his widow Lillian. 

Lillian Poultney continued to live at 24 Cutbush Road until 1937 when she sold the property to William Joseph Corvi, a resident of Mitchelton. Corvi further subdivided and sold the land, reducing the holding to just over 1.5 acres by 1958. The postwar housing boom in Brisbane spread to Everton Park and, as new housing estates were developed on the cleared bushland Poultney’s sawmills in the area closed. A second wave of development pressure in the 1980s and ‘nineties led the then owners to further subdivide the land and the develop units nearby. The house was extended and renovated, but remains a fine early twentieth century timber dwelling in a suburb predominantly developed in the postwar years.

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

2. Brisbane City Council, 1946 aerial photographs.

3. The Brisbane Courier, 10 January 1906

4. The Brisbane Courier, 21 November 1908

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

6. Everton Park State School 75th Anniversary Committee From Bunyaville to Beyond EPSS: 2009

7. John Oxley Library, Estate Maps Collection – Everton Park Estate (Cameron Brothers, c1890)

8. John Oxley Library, Suburban clippings file – Everton Park

9. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949