Rineston

Kangaroo Point was one of Brisbane’s earliest suburbs with the main thoroughfare (Main Street) once a track which was travelled by bullock teams from Ipswich before they crossed the river to Customs House by ferry. The peninsula was both residential and industrial from the early days of the colony with a ‘boiling down’ works established in the 1830s and the cliffs quarried by Andrew Petrie in the 1840s. Stores were built to accommodate the produce arriving from the Darling Downs at this time. The higher parts of Kangaroo Point attracted Brisbane’s early gentry and pastoralists who established homes on large estates such as ‘Shaftson House’ (est’d 1850s) while workers’ housing was built in Kangaroo Point’s many side streets. Homes for the business and artisan classes appeared in the streets around River Terrace in the late 19th century. 

In 1854, some three and a quarter acres on the western side of Kangaroo Point were granted to William Carter who built a residence on River Terrace. In 1883, one and a half acres of this land (including William Street) between River Terrace and Main Street was purchased by Alfred Holland and subdivided for residential development. The first residents in the street were predominantly businessmen and skilled tradesmen, including a stationer, accountant, coachsmith and two engineers. In 1912, the University College of St John’s was established on the corner of River Terrace and William Street.

In 1884, Catherine Elliott purchased a 20.75 perch allotment at the higher end of William Street. She constructed a home, ‘Rineston’, on the property within a year or two and lived with her daughter, Kate, until she died in 1927. At this time, the house backed onto the grounds of St John’s College (now the site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). Mrs Elliott was described in her obituary in Rockhampton’s Morning Bulletin as “a lady of keen mental powers and outstanding personality of mixed Scottish and Irish birth”.  The property was subsequently transferred to her daughter, Kate, a school teacher, who continued living in the family home. 

After Kate Elliott’s death in 1953, ‘Rineston’ passed to her niece, Phyllis Elliott, who sold the property in 1955. An advertisement in the Courier Mail of 7 March 1953, described the house as a “Commodious Home, in handy position. Ideal for conversion 

into Service Rooms, etc, comprising verandahs, front and 2 sides, Hall, 3 Dble [sic] bedrooms, 2 Single Bedrooms, Lounge with fireplace, large Kitchen, Breakfast Room, Bathroom, Pantry, Sewerage”.  The house has since had several owners.

In 2003, the western boundary with the neighbouring property owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was moved slightly, reducing the area of 56 Llewellyn Street to 532 m².

1. Brisbane City Council Aerial Photographs

2. BCC. Surveyor’s Notebook entry. C347-69. 19 May 1922

3. Brisbane Courier. 17 May 1930. 7 Mar 1953. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper?q. Viewed Apr 2013

4. Cairns Post. 12 April 1948. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper?q Viewed Apr 2013

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

6. Queensland Post Office Directories

7. Queensland Titles Records