Airdrie

In the 1880s, the Bulimba/Hawthorne area was being transformed from a rural community en route to Wynnum and Cleveland to a residential locality. By 1895, most of the land between Barton Street (then Veitch’s Road) and Wynnum Rd (then the Old Cleveland Rd) had been subdivided into residential estates, including the Barton Estate between Barton Road and Lindsay Street. However, the westernmost part of Barton Road as far as Gordon Street was still a large parcel of just over two acres. 

In 1911, six allotments from this parcel of land (including the three subject lots facing Barton Road) were acquired by George Angus Shand, the manager of the Queensport Meat Works on Lytton Road. By 1908, postal records show Shand’s son-in-law, Alexander Hamilton Thomson, and his wife, Mary (nee Shand) were living at Barton Road. Shand was of Scottish descent and emigrated with his family to Sydney in the 1860s. Both Shand and his father were significant figures in the Australian meat industry.

Postal records indicate that George Angus Shand’s daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Alexander Thomson, were living in Barton Road by 1908. It is possible that Shand purchased the land in Barton Road circa 1907-1908, built the subject house for his daughter and son-in-law who wed in 1906, but delayed registering the titles. In 1914, Mary Thomson advertised in the Brisbane Courier  for “competent help” for her small family at “Barton Road, Hawthorne, near ferry”. In 1917, the titles to the property were transferred to Alexander and Mary Thomson.  

Alexander Thomson was also from a family of Scottish immigrants. His parents arrived in Queensland in the 1880s and settled in Bulimba. His mother, Marion Thomson was a well known local personality and member of the Presbyterian Church at Bulimba. It is likely the house was named ‘Airdrie’ after her birthplace in Scotland.

‘Airdrie’ is a good example of the Federation era bungalow style of housing adapted for the subtropical Brisbane climate. Retaining the symmetry of earlier houses, Brisbane’s early twentieth century bungalows often featured less ornate detailing than the villas of the 1880s, with timber rather than cast iron balustrading. They also tended to have large, single roof forms and a more ground hugging design.

The Thomsons continued to reside in the subject house until they sold it in 1920 to Captain Lancelot Newton, a master mariner, and his wife, Elizabeth. The house has since changed hands numerous times. Alterations to the house have included a pool in 1987, a carport in 1991, an extension to the rear of the house and a recent extension to the deck. 

The U shaped front verandah has been enclosed on the western side of the house at the front.

A jacaranda tree and a Poinciana tree are located near the front boundary and frame the view of the house from the street. There is a pool near the back boundary on the eastern side.

1. Brisbane City Council Building Cards

2. Brisbane City Council. Detail Plan no 1212

3. Courier Mail, 29 Sept 1939. 16 May 1939

4. Queensland Certificates of Title

5. Queensland Post Office Directories

6. Commonwealth Electoral Rolls 1903

7. McKellar's Map of Brisbane and Suburbs. Brisbane: Surveyor-General’s Office, 1895

8. Queenslander, 17 Mar 1906. NLA Trove website

9. Queensland Times. 16 May 1939