ROSALIE - BRISBANE'S FORGOTTEN DAUGHTER

45

            ROSALIE - BRISBANE'S
           FORGOTTEN DAUGHTER
                                     by A. T Miles

            Presented to a Meeting of the Society on 23 October 1980.

   Few of the suburbs of Brisbane are distinguished by any natural or
historical feature. Each may be attractive in its own way and each has a
history but, with few exceptions, they are fairly ordinary.
   The little suburb of Rosalie is probably about as ordinary as any, yet
it has been chosen as the topic of this paper. The history of the city area
of Brisbane has been covered many times and some of the outer
suburbs have also been favourably treated. The histories of the older,
inner suburbs have been neglected. They are similar to each other in
many ways, and a detailed look at Rosalie will help to paint a back-
ground for ah of them.
   Where is Rosalie? Street directories list well over two hundred
suburbs in Brisbane. Of these the smallest, most unlocatable and most
easily forgettable would probably be Rosalie. Its centre Hes about three
kilometres •west of the city centre - close enough to hear the City Hall
clock chime on a clear morning but far enough out to hear the kooka-
burras from Government House grounds.
   It is very small as suburbs go and the name covers an area barely
eight hundred by a thousand metres at its most assertive extremities.
Suburban boundaries are difficult to define around the edges, especially
in Brisbane where there are no suburban municipalities. Apart from
the large expanse of Government House to the west there are no
natural boundaries either. In those places where Rosalie merges indis-
tinctly into Paddington, Milton, Torwood or Rainworth, the residents
seem to choose the name of the suburb in which they wish to live.
Not that one has much edge in status over another.
   The origin of the name is obscure. Mr J.F. McDougall was an early
landholder in the area. "In about the year 1864", says a newspaper
article, "he turned his attention to pastoral pursuits again and purchased
Rosalie station - from which our suburb takes its name."' This prop-
Mr Miles, a computer programmer and systems analyst, lived in Rosalie from his child-
hood in 1943 until 1974. He has.made the suburb a subject of special study.

46

erty is on the Darling Downs    and was named Rosalie by the previous
owner, WiHiam Kent. It can      hardly be coincidence that McDougall
owned land in the adjoining     parishes of Rosalie and Milton on the
Darling Downs and also in the   adjoining suburbs of Rosalie and Milton
in Brisbane.

   Another version, from an old church history,^ is that the suburb,
previously kno^wn as Oxford Estate, borro^ved the name Rosalie from
a name painted on the side of one of the local buses. The adorning of
vehicles with girls' names was not an uncommon practice.

   Whichever version is accepted, neither explains the intriguing
mystery of just who Rosalie was in the first place. Her identity may be
lost, but her name lives on - at least for a while.

   Rosalie's status as a suburb has been officially abolished. It has been
downgraded to a locality within the suburb of Paddington. The name
has been erased from the memory of the large computers and in other
ways it is being erased from the memory of the people. The Post
Office has gone, the buses no longer show Rosalie as a destination and
there are few public or commercial buildings left which bear the name.
Hence the title, "Brisbane's forgotten daughter".

   Because of Rosalie's small size, ah of its residents liye very close to
the adjoining suburbs, and it is inevitable that those other suburbs be
frequently mentioned here.

                    FROM THE BEGINNINGS

   John Oxley's journals of 1824 mention an aboriginal camp in an area
beside the Brisbane River which, from the description, appears to be
around Milton. The site of Oxley's camp may also be assumed to have
been around Park Road, Mihon.^ The Moreton Bay penal setdement
was moved to the present site of Brisbane in 1824 and there were few
free settlers until transportation of convicts ended in 1840. Some of the
settiers took up land in the area to the west of Hale Street, then called
Boundary Street. A historian writing sixty years ago'' reconstructed a
description of this area as it would have been around 1854.

  "Looking from the observatory", he said, "towards the western
suburbs - including what is now Petrie Terrace, Milton, Paddington,
Rosalie, Toowong, etc - litde could be seen but forest trees, with an
occasional patch of cleared ground cultivated for the production of
maize, potatoes, pumpkins and lucerne, while the banks of the small

47

creeks which entered the river in the Milton Reach held tangled vine
scrub. On the Toowong Road could be seen the residence of John F.
McDougall, and a Httle further on was the red-tiled roof of Mr. Robert
Cribb's home. A few houses, a couple of farms, and some large
paddocks occupied the area where Milton now prospers. The gaol on
Petrie Terrace had not then been erected, and very few houses were to
be seen in the neighbourhood. Upper Roma Street and Countess
Street were unfenced tracks."

   In the foHowing years the wealthier landowners built their large
residences in the area. The most famous of these is "Fernberg", since
1910 the official residence of Queensland's Governors.

   The house was built in 1864-65 by Johann Christian Heussler,
merchant, cotton and sugar farmer, and emigration agent for Queens-
land in Europe. In later years he held other official posts. The name
"Fernberg" means "distant hill", as the site certainly was in those days.
Benjamin Backhouse was the architect.

   The original "Fernberg" was a rather thin looking building with a
small tower. A later owner, Mr John Stevenson, more than doubled
the size in about 1890. The house was leased by the Queensland
Government in 1910 for the new Governor, Sir WilHam MacGregor,
and purchased the following year.

   Further substantial additions were made in Sir Leslie Wilson's time,
1937, and other improvements have been added since. A more detailed
history of this residence has been given in another recent paper.

   The house known as "Lucerne" at 23 Fernberg Road was built
around 1862 by James Young, a foreman with the builder John Petrie.
Young later rented the house to John Guthrie, a soHcitor from Scot-
land, and it was he who named it "Lucerne". Young later Hved in two
other houses which he built on the same landholding. The house has
had a number of distinguished tenants and owners since then, and it is
now owned by Dr. and Mrs D. O'Sullivan.

   On top of Baroona HiH, now 90 Howard Street, Rosalie, stands
"Baroona". This house was built about 1865 for Mr W.D. Box. The
grounds of "Baroona" covered a large portion of what is now the
surrounding suburb. An imposing gateway on the crest of the hih
formed the entrance to the property from Baroona Road. In later years
Mr Box sold much of the land and also made additions to the original
house.

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                      "Baroona", house on the hill.

   The next occupant from about 1879 to about 1889 was the Hon.
John Donaldson, M.L.A. Over a period he was Postmaster General,
Secretary for Public Instruction and Colonial Treasurer. A later owner
was Robert Philp who subsequently became a Cabinet Minister and
Premier. William Watts, the Land Commissioner, was another owner
in 1899, and then Cornelius Geaney, manager of the City Mutual Life
Insurance Company, bought it in 1919.

   At this time the house was described as having sitting and dining
rooms, hall, six bedrooms, two maids' rooms, copper, verandas aU
round, garage, stables and man's room, gas and water. "This is an excel-
lent opportunity", the advertisement said, "of securing a large, roomy,
and well ventilated home within a few steps of 2d. tram, and short
distance of city".^ It is difficult to imagine a prospective owner being
attracted by the twopenny tram fare.

  Since 1952 the house has been owned by Dr. James Hill and family.
Although the grounds have been reduced to about Haifa hectare in size
and necessary modern touches have been added, the house retains
much of the charm of the last century.

  "Baroona" has lent its name to many things in this part of Brisbane,
but its origin is not clear. In 1961, when the old Petrie Terrace Girls'

49

School was renamed Baroona, the name was said to mean "a place far
from here".

   A few other old residences in neighbouring suburbs are worthy of
mention, the chief of which is Milton House. Although generaUy
associated with John McDougall, the house was first owned by
Ambrose Eldridge and dates from the early 1850's. McDougall bought
it about 1855. The reason for naming the house Milton is not known,
but it was passed on to the surrounding area. During the construction
of the railway, the nearby station was designated Bishopsbourne, but it
opened in 1875 as Milton. After McDougall many well known politic-
ians, pubHc servants and commercial people occupied Milton House.
Today it is a Uniting Church hostel for student girls.
  Also at Milton, but hidden behind trees and the brewery, is St.
Francis' Theological College. Until 1964 it was the home of the
Anglican Bishops and Archbishops of Brisbane. "Bishopbourne", as it
was caHed, was built about 1868 for the first Bishop, Edward Tufnell.
   The suburb of Rainworth takes its name from the home of Sir
Augustus Charles Gregory, a man of many achievements. He was a
surveyor, explorer, office bearer of many scientific bodies, Surveyor-
General, Chairman of the Toowong Shire Council and Member of the
Legislative Council. The house, built about 1861, stiH stands in Barton
Street, Rainworth, a little removed in distance and far removed in time
from its original setting.
  Space allows only the briefest mention of "Fairseat", off Birdwood
Terrace, the house of Mr W. C. Hume, the Under-Secretary of Lands,
and of "Auchenflower", the home of Sir Thomas Mcllwraith, over-
looking Milton Road, and of the nearby "Rathdonnell", the home of
Randall McDonnell, and "Dunmore", near the river, the home of
Robert Cribb.

                       H O U S I N G ESTATES
   These first houses were built in the 1850's and 1860's m rather isola-
ted locations. But by the 1880's the urban sprawl, such as it was then,
had engulfed Milton and developers were looking to the next suburb.
The large holdings of Rosalie were broken up and offered to prospec-
tive home buyers with much the same flair as is done today. Attractive
names were given to the estates, easy terms were available and a free
lunch was provided at some sales.
   When the resubdivision of the surrounding suburban aUotments and
farmlets was warranted, it was done piecemeal by the owners without
any government control. There were no laws governing such sub-

50

division until 1885 and even then the law was designed to prevent
what was considered unnecessary subdivision, and not to enable local
authorities to coordinate development.

   Mobility was important to the purchasers. These estates were within
reasonable walking distance (for those days) of the city, and there was
also a train service from Milton. When the people built their homes
and moved in, horse bus services soon followed, encouraging more
buyers. The population increase was given a still bigger boost by the
coming of the tramway in 1904. Census figures are available to illus-
trate this growth. They are for the statistical division of Fernberg,
which has Rosalie as its centre but includes surrounding suburbs. The
population of this area at ten-year intervals was 197 (1871), 485 (1881),
3720 (1891), 4800 (1901), 5600 (1911), and 6500 (1921). There was a
700 per cent increase between 1881 and 1891.

   The names given to the estates were, in some cases, the name of the
house property being subdivided, but others were dreamed up. Most,
like dreams, have vanished. The following estate names have been
found in maps and directories - Baroona, Bayswater, Blackall, Brew-
sterfield, Castletown, Glenallan, Homedale, Lewison, Oxford, Rose
Hill, Soudan and Woodside.

   The dreams of many of the developers were dissipated in the finan-
cial crash of 1892-93. They had bought large estates on terms, hoping
to subdivide and sell the allotments in time to meet their own repay-
ments. Unfortunately this system, as developers are still learning today,
works only while people are still buying.

                      PUBLIC T R A N S P O R T

   Because Rosalie was only three kilometres from the city, the
coming of pubhc transport perhaps had less impact there than in more
distant suburbs, although it was significant. The early residents were
more used to walking such distances than we are today, and the
wealthy had their horses and coaches and horse-drawn cabs.

  Queensland's railways began in 1865, running west from Ipswich,
and it was not until ten years later that the Hne reached Brisbane from
Ipswich. The section from Indooroopilly to Roma Street was opened
on 14 June 1875 and the station at Milton was within easy reach of
Rosalie residents. To begin with, there were four trains each way
except Sunday. The single track was duphcated between 1884 and 1887
and extended to Central in 1889.

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   In 1941 there were 40 trains daily from the city to Milton and the
fare was 4d. first class and 3d. second class. Diesel locomotives began
replacing steam in 1955 and from 1968 all northside trains were diesel
hauled. Later in 1968 there was a long tram and bus strike and many
Rosalie residents were attracted to the all-diesel trains because of the
speed of the journey and the cheap fares (then) compared with the bus.

   In 1978 there were 36 trains daily from the city and the fare was 20
cents. After the opening of the bridge to South Brisbane, the
frequency of services was greatly improved and there are now 47
trains from the city daily and a fare of 30 cents. N e w electric trains
have been running some services through Milton since November
1979.

  Horse-drawn buses appeared on the scene early to provide a cheap
and convenient link between Rosalie and the city. There were two
proprietors, the Morton and Chalk famihes, at Rosalie and others in the
surrounding suburbs.

   Mrs Leah Morton had her stables at what is now number 72 Beck
Street from about 1885. The Rosalie terminus was at the corner of
Beck and Nash Streets, where the trams later terminated. The route to
the city was via Baroona Road, Park Road and Coronation Drive. In
the city the buses went along George Street and probably Elizabeth
Street to the terminus in Eagle Street. One of Mrs Morton's buses is
preserved in the Queensland Museum. A fire in September 1911
destroyed a house and part of the stables in Beck Street.

  Michael Chalk's bus stables were in Ellena Street, near the Baptist
Church and his service to the city covered the same route as Mrs
Morton's buses.

   Coloured signs were used, in addition to name boards, to indicate
destinations on the buses. The western suburbs of Brisbane had yellow
signs and the particular one for Rosalie was a white cross (like a plus
sign) on a yeHow background. Although the trams arrived at Rosalie in
1904, the horse buses continued to run until 1912, providing mainly
only morning and evening peak hour services to supplement the half-
hourly trams.

   Brisbane's tramway system began in 1885 with horse-drawn cars and
was electrified in 1897. The Paddington Hne was opened in 1897 and
extended to Great George Street (1899), Bernhard Street (1909) and
Jubilee Terrace (1916). On the other side of Rosalie the line through
Milton to Toowong was opened in its entirety m July 1904. The

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Rosalie tram service began on 11 October 1904 as a branch line of the
Toowong route. The Rosalie car (presumably only one was needed)
ran a shuttle service to Milton timed to connect with the Toowong
trams to and from the city. However a direct service was soon started.
   The city terminus for the Rosalie cars was in George Street outside
Tritton's. In 1925 traffic congestion forced the trams to continue on in
a loop around Queen, Wharf and Adelaide Streets.
   The tramways were at this time run by the Brisbane Tramways Co.
Ltd. In 1909 there was a 30-minute service aU day until 11 p.m. and on
Sundays from 2 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. At that stage Paddington had a
10-minute service all day every day and Toowong a 15-minute one. A
week after the fire at Morton's bus depot the frequency of the Rosalie
trams was increased to 15 minutes all day and Sunday afternoons and
30 minutes on Sunday mornings.
  In 1922 the trams were taken over by the Brisbane Tramways Trust
and in 1925 by the Brisbane City Council.
   A motor bus service to Rainworth was provided in 1927 by Mr W.
F. Dunn. On 13 October 1930 the tramline was extended to near the
Rainworth State School. Thereafter, the few Rosalie trams that did run
in peak hours went either to the end of the double track in Elizabeth
Street or to the passing loop beyond there at Osman Street.

                T H E G R E A T T R A M W A Y FIRE
   On 28 September 1962 the Paddington tram depot and one fifth of
Brisbane's trams were destroyed by fire. For a few months transport in
the area was maintained by a varied coHection of trams and buses.
However because of the reduced tram fleet, four of the less profitable
routes were converted to buses. These lines - Rainworth, Toowong,
Kalinga and Bulimba Ferry - closed on 24 December 1962. The final
tram time-table showed 94 trams from the city daily, 68 on Saturday
and 42 on Sunday. A 1980 timetable shows 62 buses from the city
daily, 36 on Saturday and 11 on Sunday.

                   S C H O O L S OF T H E A R E A
   Petrie Terrace State School, opened on 23 March 1868 was the first
Government school in the district, foHowed by Toowong in 1880 and
Ithaca Creek in 1885t A few private schools also existed. Some that are
known are Major Boyd's school in Milton Road, near "Bishopbourne",
around 1880 (later the Eton School at Nundah), Miss Davis' girls'
school at "Lucerne" (1880's), Miss A. R. Matham's school in Latrobe
Terrace near Prince Street (around 1907) and Miss Elsie Brabazon's

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Private School (later Leumeah High School) in Jones Street, Auchen-
flower (about 1910-1930).
   By the end of the 1880's the population of Rosalie was expanding
rapidly and included many young children. A local school was needed.
In 1885 the residents began urging the government to provide one.
The committee formed to pursue this matter was headed by Arthur
Rutledge, tod the fact that he was the Attorney-General at the time no
doubt helped to get things moving.
   The government could not afford ;;/]1000 for part of the Baroona
Estate then being sold. The only other available site was the local
swamp. This was Red Jacket Swamp between Baroona, Haig and Bays-
water Roads. The name probably came from a species of bird living
there, but there are other versions of its origin. The swamp collected
water from the surrounding slopes and was drained by Western or
Siemon's Creek into the river. Its attraction as a school site was that it
was dry along the Bayswater Road side and it was free. In 1886 it was
set aside as a School Reserve.
   A single-storied structure with one class room and a head master's
office was ready for its first pupils on 18 March 1889. By the end of
the first week it was too small, as 160 pupils turned up. Extensions
were made later that year and again in 1891. The first head master was
Alfred Wall. He stayed for 28 years and became a well known local
identity.
   The school began as the Rosalie school, but after a year or two the
name was changed to Milton.

                               Milton State School.
          Artist's reconstruction from small original painting, c. 1920.
                           This sketch by James A. Lyle

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   The swampy nature of the adjoining land was always a problem, and
the floods of 1890 and 1893 caused further consideration to be given
to moving the school, but as usual there was no money. The area was
gradually drained and about 1915 was graced with the name Gregory
Park in honour of Sir Augustus Gregory. A sundial was erected in a
corner of the park in 1976 in his memory. The park was finahy fiHed
and top-dressed during the years 1929-31. However the school had to
close when the park was under water during subsequent floods in
1931, 1955 and 1974

   Enrolments at the school continued to rise and additions to the
school were made in 1919, 1923, 1927 and 1933. Finally approval was
given for a new school to be built and this was opened in March 1937.
AH the old buildings except one were demolished, and classes managed
to continue on site during the rebuilding.

   The post-war "baby boom" and smaller class sizes resulted in a small
class-room block being added in 1952. Then followed the enclosing of
the space under the school to provide more classrooms and the exten-
sion of the main building in 1957.

  About this time the rate of increase in the population of the area
declined, the nature of the population changed, the entry age to high
school dropped, and as a result the number of primary school children
enrolled fell. The foHowing figures tell the story.

      Year         Enrolment                Year          Enrolment
      1890             325                  1966             794
      1913             826                  1973             563
      1927            1134                  1977             402
      1940             821                  1980             290
      1951             9.67

  The school is now considered to be in an area of low socio-
economic status and qualifies for assistance under the Special Schools
Program as a Disadvantaged School.

                  OTHER LOCAL SCHOOLS

   A school was opened in the adjoining suburb of Rainworth on 2
July 1928 and many pupils from Milton transferred there. In 1922 an
infants school opened at Auchenflower, also easing the load on Milton.
Only the first two grades were taught there. Declining enrolment

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forced the school to close in 1960. It was in rented premises under the
Methodist Church in Munro Street. An infants school was opened at
Bardon in 1952, and this became a full primary school in 1962. There
has never been a State high school in the area.

   The first Roman Catholic school in the area was St Brigid's Convent
at Red Hill, opened in 1898. At Rosahe a convent was commenced by
the Sisters of Mercy in 1906 in a wooden building on the site of the
present Marist Brothers College in Fernberg Road. This building had
been the first church for the parish in 1898 and was moved across
Fernberg Road to make way for a new wooden church. When the
present brick church was erected in 1917 the newly vacated church
also became available for the school.

  The first principal was Sister Mary Berthil O'Connell and she was
succeeded by Sister Mary Clement Fitzgerald. The original enrolment
was about 100 and rose to about 400 at one stage. The sisters lived at
All Hallows Convent and travelled to the school each day on the tram.
One of these was Sister Mary de Ricci who taught at Rosalie for the
remarkable span of sixty-five years.

   When a new boys' school was opened in 1929 the original church
building was handed over to the Marist Brothers as their first school.
The second church building remained the girls' school. The convent
school continued in the two buildings until 1971 when a third build-
ing, the boys' junior school, was opened a little lower down the hill in
Fernberg Road. This became the Junior School of the Marist Brothers.

   The Rosalie Kindergarten, estabHshed in 1911, is run by the Creche
and Kindergarten Association of Queensland. Over recent years, with
the changing nature of the suburb, the numbers attending have
declined. In 1978 there were about 90 nursery school and pre-school
children attending. Today there are half that number, and the kinder-
garten is faced with the prospect of having to close or radically change
the service it offers.

  Four churches remain in Rosalie today - Baptist, Gospel HaH, N e w
Church and Roman CathoHc. The former St Martin's Church of
England and the Milton Congregational Church (on the edge of
Rosalie) have closed.

   The beginnings of the Rosalie Baptist Church can be traced back to
a Sunday School commenced at Petrie Terrace in 1867. A church was
formed there in 1870 with the Rev. WilHam Moore as the first pastor.
The church then bought a block of land in a new estate in Fernberg

56

Road. The estate developer had bought the land from WilHam Moore
in the first place. The work began as the Oxford Estate Baptist Mission
on 5 October 1884 under the guidance of Mr Moore. A church build-
ing was erected on the site where the hah now stands. In 1912 the
congregation ceased to be a mission and became independent as the
Rosalie Baptist Church. There were sixteen foundation members and
the Rev. E.S. Short was the first minister. In was 1923 before the
church became financially independent and undertook the sole respon-
sibility of maintaining a pastor.

   Members of the All Saints' Church of England in the city who lived
in the Petrie Terrace—Milton area began a Sunday School in a house in
Caxton Street in 1872. Its success prompted the church to commence
regular services for adults in the mortuary chapel of the nearby
cemetery, now Lang Park. In 1873 the mortuary chapel congregation
was granted its independence and became Christ Church, Milton.

  A member of Christ Church, Alfred Richards, took the first step
towards establishing a church at Rosalie by holding church services and
Sunday School in Bishopbourne Chapel. This was on 16 September
1890. From 15 November 1896 the services were transferred to the
Rosahe Fire Brigade Building on the corner of Baroona and Bayswater
Road.

  Later a site was obtained on the corner of Agars and Howard Streets
and a wooden church building erected. This was dedicated as St
Martin's Church on 11 May 1902.

   In 1920 part of the Milton parish was given away to the new parish
of St Alban's at Auchenflower. St Martin's remained in the Milton
parish until 1927 when it joined with St Alban's to become the
combined Auchenflower-cum-RosaHe parish. Other churches were
established in the adjoining suburbs of Bardon (1923) and Rainworth
(1937).

   With Rosalie surrounded by these other fairly strong churches, its
own congregation began to decrease while the proportion of older
members rose. Eventually the church could no longer afford its own
curate and in 1968 a decision was made to close. The last service was
held there on 14 April 1968. The building was demolished and the site
sold.

 John and Lucy Cribb, who lived at what is now Lucy Street, Milton,
were members of the Independent Church in Brisbane. Mrs Cribb

57

began a Sunday School for the local children in her home in 1861. The
number of children grew and in 1863 Mr Robert Cribb donated some
land in Milton Road opposite the site of the future railway station and
adjacent to the future brewery. A stone church was built here and
opened on 6 March 1864 as a station of the city church.

  Then the railway and the brewery made their presence felt and the
church decided to move. Land was bought at the corner of Haig and
Baroona Roads and a church built there. The first services were held in
August 1887. The old property was sold. Later that year the Milton
Congregational Church was granted its independence with the Rev.
W.W. Watts as the first minister.

  In 1888 the church enrolment was 56 and the Sunday School had
240. The church met many needs of the local residents.

   The floods of 1890 and 1893 caused serious damage to the building
but it was restored. A haH was opened next to the church in 1911 to
commemorate the jubilee of the Sunday School. In 1927 a daughter
church was estabHshed at Bardon. The changing nature of the district
again began taking its toll and the numbers dropped to 31 by 1960. By
1968 it was realised the church would have to close. The last church
service was held on 30 August 1970 and the church and hall were
demolished. The neighbouring manse was sold.

                 SERVICES I N G A R D E N S H E D

   Opposite Milton State School at 9 Bayswater Road is the Rosalie
Gospel Hall. About 1896 some local families commenced a Sunday
School in the Volunteer Fire Brigade Station. Two years later larger
premises were needed and classes were held in a factory building on
the corner of Baroona Road and Agars Street. Sunday evening services
were held in the garden shed at the Rosalie tram terminus as the rented
accommodation was not deemed suitable for visitors.

  However a permanent building was needed and the site in Bays-
water Road was acquired. The hall was opened early in 1922. The
Rosalie Gospel Hall remains connected with the Central Conference
Hall Assembly.

  The Brisbane Society of the N e w Church was estabHshed in 1865.
Meetings were held in various premises in the city until a church was
built and opened at Wickham Terrace and Wharf Street in 1879. In

58

July 1909 the Society moved to a new church building in Ann Street.
Fifty years later the Society decided to move from the city to Rosalie,
where the first service was held on 27 August 1961. This church is the
Society's only representation in Brisbane.

   The first Catholics in Rosalie were in the parish of St Brigid's, Red
HiH, where a church was opened about 1879. Later a congregation was
estabHshed at Rosalie and in 1898 a church was bulk on the corner of
Given Terrace and Fernberg Road and named the Sacred Heart
Church. In 1906 this building was removed to the other side of Fern-
berg Road. The parish built its third and latest church in 1917. The
church was severely damaged by fire in January 1942 and later
restored.

                  M U N I C I P A L LIFE D I V I D E D

   The original Brisbane City Council in 1859 covered the city area
and westwards to Hale Street. Beyond its boundaries, various Divisional
Boards exercised control after 1879. Rosalie was split between two of
them, Enoggera to the north and Indooroopilly to the south, the
boundary being Baroona Road. This boundary survived all later
municipal reorganisations and still separates rating and valuation
divisions.

   The larger northern part of Rosalie was under the control of the
Enoggera Divisional Board from 1879 to 1887 when the Ithaca Shire
Council was formed. The smaller part of Rosalie lying south of
Baroona Road was in the IndooroopiHy Division in 1879 and the Shire
of Toowong from 1880. In 1925 the Ithaca and Toowong Councils
were dissolved as part of the formation of the Greater Brisbane
Council. In the early 1930's the Brisbane City Council attended to the
problem of the street names in suburban Brisbane. The early develop-
ers had left a legacy of dozens of John, Henry and Alice Streets in
honour of their families. The Council changed most of them and gave
instead names of the old Town Councillors or other local personalities.
Those in Rosalie that were changed at this time were George to Agars,
WilHam to Bass, Mary to Beck, Annie to Berry, Charlotte to Boys,
Robert to McNab, George to Nash, and Charlotte (northern part) to
Stevenson.

  A building on the corner of Baroona and Bayswater Roads once
housed the Milton Volunteer Fire Brigade. The brigade was formed in
1889. It had a sub-station at Paddington. The station was closed when

59

the new Ithaca Fire Station was opened at Cook's HiH, Paddington, in
1919. The old building at Rosalie was demolished but the tower was
re-erected at Ithaca where it now stands, safe from the floods which
used to swirl around its base.

   The Rosalie PoHce Station opened in 1886 in a converted dweHing
on the corner of Fernberg Road and Boys Street. Constable Thomas
Macdonald was the first officer in charge. The building was demolished
in 1911 and a new station opened on the same site in April 1912, its
functions having been temporarily taken over by the city police
station. In October 1964, as part of a redistribution of poHce from the
inner to the outer suburbs, the Rosalie station was closed, but the
building remains a police residence.

   The little shopping centre at Rosalie has long since passed its heyday.
The number of businesses that have come and gone are too numerous
to mention. Most of them, past and present, served only the small local
needs. Rosalie was always overshadowed by the larger Paddington and
city shopping areas and lately by Indooroopilly.

   Rosahe never had any bank branches. The Commonwealth Savings
Bank conducted its usual agency at the Post Office, and the old
Government Savings Bank had an agency at Milton railway station.
The Queensland" National Bank had a bank-staffed agency at Rosalie
from 1926 to 1935, as did the Commercial Bank of Australia fi-om
1962 to 1970. Private agencies are now conducted by local businesses.
Some of the banks have branches nearby at Paddington and Milton.

   Of the several bakeries in the area, one in Heussler Terrace is still
making pies and one in Baroona Road has been converted to a
residence. But a third has undergone a metamorphosis to emerge as
Rosahe's first restaurant, and perhaps herald a change in Rosalie's
declining fortunes.

   This was the bakery, begun in 1889 by Thomas Webster at 117
Fernberg Road. In 1906 it was taken over by James McDougall, in
1932 by R o n McDougall (no relation) and in 1953 by Ray Barns. It
was sold again in 1972 and closed the following year. For a short time
the residence attached to the bakery was the home of the Camerata
Theatre Group. The owners then converted the residence into a
restaurant.

60

                   McDougall's Bakery, Rosalie, 1924.

   One of Rosalie's earliest social centres was the rather grandly named
Albert Hall, still standing at 145 Baroona Road. When a better standard
of premises was required a School of Arts Committee was formed and
set about building a new hall. The result was the School of Arts and
Commemoration Hall built on freehold land owned by the trustees in
Nash Street. The hall was opened in July 1928 by the Mayor of Bris-
bane, Alderman Jolly. It contains a large hall, small meeting rooms and
two shops for rent. For many years it became the Beverley Theatre
three times a week when the pictures were on, but this function ceased
about 1957, even before television came to Brisbane.

   Before the advent of the Beverley there had been the open-air
pictures, the Bungalow Picture Palace, directly opposite, run by Mr J.J.
Ross. Another open-air show was the Arcadia on the corner of Haig
Road and Torwood Street. Other open-air theatres in surrounding
suburbs eventually became "hard-tops", but all have since closed, the
last to go being the Paddington Theatre in 1979.

  Rosalie's low levels and its proximity to the river have resulted in
many floods. The worst were in March 1890, two separate ones in
February 1893, then January 1898, February 1931 and January 1974.
Although the 1893 flood was higher, the 1974 one caused much more
damage because many of the low-lying parts which had been avoided
by the builders of old had eventually been built on.

61

                      PRESENT A N D FUTURE
   The rapid growth of the suburb in its first fifty years soon slowed,
and now the population is falling. The population of the district of
Fernberg (extending beyond Rosalie) in later censuses was 6500 (1921),
8200 (1933), 10,900 (1947), 10,600 (1954), 10,900 (1961), 11,100 (1966)
and 10,500 (1971). From 1971 the census boundaries changed and
Rosalie came into the Paddington district which fell from 8500 in
1971 to 7900 in 1976.
   Apart from the decrease in the population, the average age is now
greater. This accounts for the decline in school numbers and the
closing of some churches. However as the number of home units
continues to increase, so may the population.
   Rosalie's small size and location has always made it little more than
an outpost or dependency of Paddington and, to a lesser extent, Milton.
As the name begins to disappear, so the merge wiH become more
complete. Still, with Paddington now enjoying a revival, it may be
Rosalie's fortune to share in it and perhaps Brisbane's forgotten
daughter will be forgotten no more.
                                  REFERENCES
1. F.E. Lord's articles on Brisbane's Historic Homes. No. XLV. The Queenslander, 1 9 3 0 .
2.   Rosalie Baptist Church Jubilee Booklet, 1 935.
3.   Brisbane Centenary Souvenir, 1 924, page 25.
4. Brisbane Courier 28 July 1924.
5. Brisbane Courier 8 February 1919.

                                  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bardon, Rev. Rjchard. Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church in Queensland.
Barton, E.J.T {ed.).Jubilee History of Queensland, 1909.
Brisbane Centenary Celebrations Committee. Brisbane Centenary Official Souvenir, 1924.
Cilento, Sir Raphael and Lack, Clem. Triumph in the Tropics - An Historical Sketch of
Queensland, 1959.
Dingle, Rev. R.S.C. (ed.). Annals of Achievement - A Review of Queensland Methodism
1847-1947,-[947.
Doyle, Brother Alban. The Marist Brothers in Australia 1872-1972.
Greenwood, G. and Laverty, J. Brisbane 1859-1959 - A History of Local Government, 1959.
Heather, W.S. Paddington, Renewal or Decay. A Thesis, 1971.
Lawson, Ronald. Brisbane in the 1890's - A Study of an Australian Urban Society, 1973.
McClurg, John H.C. Historical Sketches of Brisbane, 1975.
Royal Historical Society of Queensland, Various Journals.