147 Dornoch Terrace, Highgate Hill

The first of these subdivisions to be sold by Sheppard was Lot 3, which went to Frederick Christian Petersen in November 1886. Lot 4 was next, sold together with most of the adjoining allotments to Robert Alfred Skinner in October 1887. That same month, Skinnner sold his holdings to Alfred John Barker, who quickly sold Lot 4 to Hugh Stirrat. Sheppard sold the allotments at the corner of Dornoch Terrace and Dauphin Terrace, Lots 1 and 2, to Ebenezer Thorne in October 1887. Then in June 1891, Thorne sold his land to Hugh Stirrat. Stirrat  now had Lots 1,2, 3 and 4, which he passed around to his family members. David Stirrat received Lots 1 and 2 in March 1895, while Salome Stirrat was granted Lots 3 and 4 in September 1903. But within a few years, 147 Dornoch Terrace would pass out of the hands of the Stirrats, with David Stirrat selling his land to Thomas Edmonds in May 1905. Then in August 1906, Salome Stirrat sold her two allotments to Clara Fletcher.

The four allotments continued to have separate owners for the next 66 years. In November 1918, Edmonds sold Lots 1 and 2 to James Walter Chew, who in turn, sold them to Patrick Alban O’Sullivan in July 1920. In July 1925, Charles Edward Sligo purchased these allotments before reselling them to Saville J. Hodge Sheard in July 1936. Then in September 1939, the Giles family purchased Lots 1 and 2 at 147 Dornoch Terrace. Next door was 149 Dornoch Terrace [Lots 3 and 4]. When Clara Fletcher died on 17 June 1935, 149 Dornoch Terrace passed to Charles Reginald Nunn. He gave the land to Brenda Alberta Nunn in December 1937. 

The existing house was designed by architect Mervyn Rylance, with the builder being H.W. Stephens. It was built in late 1939 for George Peter Hardie Giles of the 154 Queen Street accountancy firm of Giles & Grant. At the time of home’s construction, G. P. Giles was living at 38 Ernest Street in South Brisbane with his wife Maggie Strachan Giles and two other family members, Dulcie May and Mary Ann Violet Giles. The Giles moved into their new home in 1940 after the outbreak of World War Two. The subsequent drain of the civilian workforce into the armed forces, caused greater employment opportunities for women. Thus Dulcie Giles was promoted from shop assistant to manager, while Mary, who had been unemployed in 1939, had also risen to a manager position by 1941. Such fortuitous opportunities would have enabled the Giles family to cover the cost of Rylance’s services.  

Mervyn Hamilton Rylance (1906-1983) was a prominent Brisbane-born architect who designed a number of residential and commercial buildings in the city from the 1930s through to the 1970s. Architect and architectural historian Michael Kennedy, described Rylance as “the most important architect of the (interwar) period to design in the Mediterranean style in Brisbane”. Rylance’s designs were influenced by the Mediterranean style that had developed in Sydney under Professor Leslie Wilkinson and F. Gynn Gilling. Gilling had employed Rylance, before he returned to Brisbane to establish a practice in 1933. In 1935, he an award winner in the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (Qld) ‘Small Homes Competition’, which was “the most important competition in domestic architecture” at that time.  Rylance’s best work is considered to be from the 1930’s, the period in which this Dornoch Terrace house was designed. 

Prior to the 1939 construction of this home, Rylance had designed Benson house (1936) at Markwell Street, Hamilton and Wolfe house (1938) at Windermere Road, Hamilton. These are substantial dwellings designed for particularly wealthy clients, whereas 147 Dornoch Terrace is a modest design as befitted its middle-class owners. Rylance worked on only three houses in Highgate Hill, with the home at 147 Dornoch Terrace being designed in the interwar ‘Old English’ style. 

This residence was completed just prior to the cessation of private home construction in Brisbane caused by the wartime shortage of building materials and tradesmen. A brick garage with a tiled roof, matching the style of the house was erected in 1947. The Giles’s family purchased the adjoining block at 149 Dornoch Terrace in June 1972, when they bought the land from Brenda Nunn’s estate.  This block of land appears to have remained vacant. 

The house is situated on a high and prominent part of Dornoch Terrace with a blue stone wall and generous amount of foliage partially hiding the residence for view from the street. Several pine trees within the garden also compliment the house.

1. Brisbane City Council Building Cards

2. Brisbane City Council Water Supply & Sewerage Detail Plans

3. Cock, John, A Question of Style: The life and work of Mervyn Hamilton Rylance, Architect, Queensland University of Technology, B.Arch. thesis, 1995

4. Commonwealth Electoral Rolls for Queensland 1939-1941

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

6. Fisher, Rod & Crozier, Brian. The Queensland House: A Roof Over Our Heads. (Brisbane: Queensland. 1994)

7. JOL Estate Map Collection and photographic collection

8. Kennedy, Michael Owen. Domestic Architecture in Queensland Between the Wars. Unpub Thesis. Master of Built Environment. 1989

9. Queensland Post Office Directories