It is very common to hear conversations turn to how Brisbane's history has been demolished over time and replaced by modern architecture. Within 800 metres of the Brisbane GPO you can step back in time and immerse yourself in a world where the worker lived within the town of Brisbane and boundaries of the town was Boundary Street.
The following is taken from the Brisbane City Council's Heritage Register.
This rare timber duplex was constructed circa the early 1870s for grocer, Daniel Kelly. It is located on a small allotment of only 9.7 perches on the eastern side of Birley Street which slopes from Leichardt Street down to the bottom of what was once called Hanly’s Hollow before rising to the ridge of Wickham Terrace. This part of Spring Hill, one of Brisbane’s first residential suburbs, was subdivided by the Crown for private sale from 1856. In 1860, Patrick Byrne was granted just over one and three quarters of an acre stretching from Leichardt Street to Wickham Terrace. Birley Road was added but reached only as far as Lilley Street until the mid-1890s. Byrne soon subdivided the land on either side of Birley Street into allotments of just over 19 perches. Some were further subdivided into smaller lots of only 9.7 perches such as the one purchased by Daniel Kelly.
Most of the allotments in Birley Street were sold prior to 1865 and by the census of 1871, 58 people were residing in the street. As was the case with most of the low lying streets of Spring Hill, these houses were often tenanted by working class residents such as labourers, mariners and bootmakers or others on modest incomes such as widows. Birley Street provides an example of the typical pattern of residential development in Spring Hill prior to the 1885 Undue Subdivision of Land Act which prohibited the subdivision of land into allotments smaller than 16 perches. The Act, which also required a minimum street frontage of 30 feet (around 10 metres), reflected contemporary concerns that the building of terraces and tiny cottages on small parcels of land would lead to the proliferation of slums, increasing the risks of disease and fire.
The duplex at 46 Birley Street, like many other nineteenth-century buildings at Spring Hill has retained the size of its original allotment. Surviving duplexes and terrace houses from the nineteenth century are rare in Brisbane; Spring Hill, however, has retained several. They range from fine 1860s masonry buildings such as ‘Callender House’ (now the Theosophical Society) and ‘Athol Place’ along the elevated ridge of Wickham Terrace to more middle class dwellings built on the slopes of Spring Hill such as the 1860s stone duplex at 19 Gloucester Street and the 1870s brick semi-detached Moody’s cottages in Victoria Street. Humble timber duplexes built in the hollows of Spring Hill for the working classes included this one in Birley Street and a slightly larger one on the corner of Gloucester and Thornbury Streets.
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