Automatic Bakeries (former)

The 1910s saw a continuation of the pattern of the Valley’s industrial expansion that had begun in earnest in the 1890s. Access to river, rail and road transport, proximity to the city centre and a concentration of working class residents made the Valley an attractive location for industrialists.

The architect Walter Carey Voller was chosen by Automatic Bakeries to design its new premises. Voller served his articles with the architect FDG Stanley from 1882 to 1886 and later worked in Stanley’s office. Voller was a prominent member of the Queensland Institute of Architects and served as its president in 1903-06, and vice president in 1913, 1919 and 1922. In his later years of practice he was responsible for a number of churches of all denominations. His elder son and grandson also became architects.

Automatic Bakeries was formed around 1912 and by the following year had established this bakery in Brunswick Street in addition to branches in Toowong, Paddington and West End. However the company was not to be a lasting enterprise. In 1923 it was taken over by Websters Bakeries Ltd. The Webster Cake and Biscuit Company was founded by David Webster in the 1880s. The company grew and by the turn of the century operated a bakery at Annerley, a bread bakery at Dutton Park and several restaurants in the city and Valley.

Following Websters’ takeover, the company granted several leases of this building’s ground floor shops. Long term lessees included Foxcroft Sign Company, which specialised in outdoor advertising, electric signs and general signwriting; Portrate and Roswell clothing manufacturers and the Farmers’ Publishing Company. Websters held title to this building until 1958 when the property was sold to Bushells, the well known tea company.

It adjoins an earlier building facing Brunswick Street adjacent to J Morgan booksellers. A 1924 Detail Plan shows the building with an extra wing facing Berwick Street. This was probably a single storey wing. It was demolished to make way for the Bushells building facing Berwick Street which was constructed in the late 1950s following Bushells’ acquisition of the site in 1958.

The building was originally face brick with rendered panels above and below the windows. Its striking corner tower serves as a land mark in this part of the Valley.

1. Brisbane City Council Register of New Buildings

2. John Oxley Library photographic collection, Brisbane – suburbs – Fortitude Valley, 1937

3. Post Office Directories.

4. Titles Office Records

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