Craigie Knowe

By the 1880’s, Kedron had developed into a typical farming community situated on Brisbane’s outer fringes. There was a cluster of residences and shops along Gympie Road, of which the most prominent was the Edinburgh Castle Hotel (opened in 1868). In 1883, Scotsman James Slaney established the first tannery at Kedron. Due to the available water supply from Kedron Brook, other tanneries soon opened up in the district and tanning became Kedron’s main industry. 

On 26 April 1882, a Kedron resident, John Stone, became the new owner of Portion 91. Stone subdivided the land, retaining 10 acres, 3 roods and 24 perches for himself. He sold the remaining land to Allan Bell Renton on 28 May 1885. Renton acquired 10 acres, 3 roods and 24 perches of Portion 91. On 24 June 1887, Renton transferred his holdings onto John Collings Ham, a Queen Street land estate and financial agent. He only held the land for a short time before transferring ownership to Isabella Margaret Ewing on 7 June 1889.  

Isabella Ewing was identified as a spinster at the time of the transfer of ownership. She was the sister of William Henry Ewing, the manager of the Scottish Queensland Mortgage Company Limited, which had offices at 150 Queen Street in the City. Ewing, an accountant by trade, had placed the property at Kedron in his sister’s name in order to reduce his land taxes. At the time of purchase, the Ewing family was listed in the Queensland Post Office Directories as residing at Rose Street, Thoroldtown. This was the old name for Lutwyche and the Ewing’s address would be known today as Thistle Street in Gordon Park. 

On 15 September 1897, Isabella Ewing married Duncan Sinclair, who ran a drapery on Vulture Street in East Brisbane. Then William Ewing’s residential address disappears from the 1897-99 edition of the Queensland Post Office Directories. But in the 1900 edition, he reappears at a new address – Gympie Street, Kedron. This is meant to read Gympie Road. It would appear that sometime between 1897 and 1899, Ewing had a new home built on the Portion 91 land acquired ten years earlier. His daughter’s marriage probably influenced his decision to build a large family home in the rural setting of Kedron. Dawn Street did not exist at that time and Ewing’s Gympie Road address was an indication that Gympie Road was the nearest collection point for mail for his residence. Later, Ewing’s residence would be listed as near Turners (Turner) Road at Kedron. As the Queensland Post Office Directories were printed the year following the last survey of mailing address, then Ewing’s residence must have been built so as to be ready to accept mail by 1899. 

According to local historian David Teague, in his 1976 book The History of Kedron, Ewing erected a gracious home “ Craigie Knowe” on a hill on Turner Road in the late 1880s. This date cannot be correct as the Ewings only purchased the Turner Road land in June 1889. Teague noted that “Craigie Knowe”  had good gardens that included a variety of fruit trees. Ewing had his children, John, Tom and Aileen living at the house and he rode everyday from Kedron to Queen Street in his horse and buggy. 

By 1900, Kedron was beginning to change. A new brick Edinburgh Castle Hotel had been built in 1892, a post office at John King’s store opened the next year and the Kedron Park races, on a site now occupied by the Kedron High School, attracted a large following. The area of Kedron, west of Gympie Road remained largely undeveloped farmland with the exception of a quarry excavated by the Kedron Shire Council at the end of Turner Road. In 1888, a grand home, “Dellamore” had been built for the Paymaster of the Queensland Treasury, Henry St John Somerset on a hill on Turner Road. William Ewing was possibly influenced by Somerset’s choice of location when he purchased part of Portion 91 in 1889. Though not as grand as “Dellamore”, Ewing’s “Craigie Knowe” was his rural retreat. Like “Dellamore”, it was built on a hill and it featured a brick fireplace and a large front staircase. The front of the residence, including this staircase, faced Turner Road. A dirt carriage track leading to Turner Road ran from the stairs through the land that is now Numbers 144 and 146 Turner Road. 
   
The Ewing’s residence retained its original facing until 1925. In that year, a new housing estate was opened up on land bordering their property. This was one of the last of the interwar housing estates that turned Kedron from a farming district into a new Brisbane suburb. The Moreton View Estate created four new streets, named Dawn, Bay, View and Morton, in the Ewing’s vicinity. Morton Street would later be renamed Moree Street. As a result, the Ewing family found that the back of their house faced Dawn Street. By 1925, William Ewing had left Scottish Queensland Mortgage and had established his own accountancy business at 293 Queen Street, in the City. He died on 12 January 1928, but due to his foresight, his home on Turner Road was not part of his estate that was claimed by Thomas William Bouchard, who was the trustee of Ewing’s will. 

Initially, the Moreton View Estate had little impact upon the Ewing’s residence as only three houses were built across from their house, in Dawn Street and only two houses were built next door on the blocks running down to Moree Street. But a public pathway leading from Dawn Street down to Turner Road was built along the edge of their land. The area remained a quite semi-rural retreat, such that it attracted a group of Franciscan Friars who began building a monastery (now Padua College) on Turner Road in 1930. The Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception would acquire “Dellamore” as a novitiate house in 1939. Isabella’s husband Duncan died in 1933. His death may have left her with some debts for, on 16 February 1933, Isabella Sinclair mortgaged her house and land through the Bank of New South Wales. Seeking further funds, Isabella subdivided her property and sold-off 1 rood and 14.4 perches of land to Harry Dunston Williams on 9 August 1939. Isabella Sinclair died without any heirs on 2 August 1941.

Her property passed into the hands of the Queensland Trustees Limited, which disposed of the residence and land at Turner Road to Victor Charles Freeman, Martha Grace Freeman and her husband Christopher Charles Freeman on 26 August 1943. They paid for the purchase through a mortgage arranged with the Commonwealth Bank. Victor Freeman dropped out of the partnership within three years and Martha and Christopher Freeman became the joint owners of the property on 5 February 1946.

Brisbane’s postwar housing boom created a flurry of new housing estates across the city. The Freemans decided to capitalise on their large (2 acres, 2 roods, 27.6 perches) “L” shaped-block by subdividing it into five subdivisions. They disposed of three subdivisions to Gordon William Charlton on 26 February 1948. The subdivisions sold to Charlton included “Craigie Knowe’s” front yard and driveway leading to Turner Road. Thus it was the Freemans who changed the frontage of the property so that it changed from a Turner Road address to Number 21 Dawn Street. The original front staircase could still be seen on Brisbane City Council sewerage maps produced in 1950.  

The remaining two subdivisions, that included “Craigie Knowe”, were sold to Alfred Richard Emmett on 22 July 1949. Emmett transferred ownership of the property to Mervyn and Dorothy Alice Farrell on 23 March 1950. They financed the sale through a mortgage from the Commonwealth Bank. On 6 September 1950, the Farrells further subdivided the property in anticipation of another land sale. “Craigie Knowe” was retained on the largest subdivision that comprised 1 rood and 18.5 perches of land. But on 16 January 1951, they lost 1 rood and 32.35 perches to the Brisbane City Council for the purposes of widening Dawn Street. 

Emmett sold 21 Dawn Street to Eric Francis Richard Beiers and his wife, Eileen Theresa Beiers on 31 December 1951. This marked the end of the period of rapid turnover of owners of the property who bought it for short-term re-development with  “Craigie Knowe” placed on the rental market. The Beiers family lived at 21 Dawn Street until 8 August 1983, when the property transferred to Lawrence Thomas Barnes and Linda Drewette Barnes. They lived there for only three years before title passed to the current owners, Ian George Brown and Janelle Vera Brown on 3 February 1986.   

“Craigie Knowe” at 21 Dawn Street remains as a reminder of a time when Kedron was a farming and tanning district on the outer fringes of suburban Brisbane.

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

2. Brisbane City Council, 1946 aerial photographs.

3. Brisbane City Council Sewerage Maps

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

5. John Oxley Library, Brisbane Suburbs clippings files – Kedron

6. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949

7. Queensland Record Series A: Transmission of Real Estate by Death 1878 – 1937

8. Teague, DR., The History of Kedron, Colonial Press, 1976