St. Briavels
Archer Street, Toowong has a number of classic inter war homes of different architecture styles. Many are of the classic English style popular with the leading architects of that time who were designing homes of distinction. St. Briavels designed by Richard Gailey Junior for Maude Smith the widow of Ormond Howard Smith is definitely different and one could say a rare example of the style used by Gailey. Ormond was the grandson of Captain William Howard Smith the founder of the Howard Smith business. Twentieth century Brisbane is still linked to the name through the redevelopment of the wharves under the Story Bridge.
Brisbane City Council Heritage Register
This interwar house, designed by notable Brisbane architect Richard Gailey Jnr, is an excellent example of a two storey American Colonial Style residence. It was constructed circa 1930 for Maude Smith and named ‘St. Briavels,’ possibly after the village in Gloucestershire, England. This house is a good example of the kinds of middle to upper class residences built in elevated positions on or near the Brisbane River in the early to mid twentieth century, allowing residents to take advantage of the views and cool breezes.
St. Braivels was built by Richard Gailey Jnr for Maude Smith. Maude Smith was the widow of Ormond Howard Smith. Ormond Howard Smith was a grandson of the shipping magnate William Howard Smith who founded the shipping line and business empire of Howard Smith. For those who live in Brisbane the name Howard Smith has been revitalised with the urban renewal of the old Howard Smith wharves under the story bridge. The Howard Smith family were Victorian and Sydney families but Ormond Charles Smith (father of Ormond Howard Smith) was put in charge of the Brisbane expansion in the 1880s. In 1890 Ormond Charles Smith was the manager or in charge of the Brisbane branch of the shipping company. Ormond Howard Smith retired early to a farm at Kilcoy and died young at the age of 43 in Sydney and his body was taken to his farm at Kilcoy and interred there. In 1898 he was employed as a shipping clerk in the Howard Smith and Sons company in Brisbane.
As previously stated Ormond Howard Smith did not enter the family business once past adult age. He attended Eton School, North Quay Brisbane and appears to have graduated in 1894. In 1905 he married Maude Isabel Jackson. He does not appear to have risen past the shipping clerk status with the company but had farming or grazing interests. His father Ormond Charles Smith was manager of the Howard Smith and Sons company in Brisbane but Ormond wanted to be a gentleman Grazier. His property "Wunulla" at Kilcoy became his family home. After his early death in 1920 Maude moved back to Brisbane. On his death the newspaper report states that he was one of the sons of the founder of Howard Smith and Sons. This was incorrect as he was the grandson of Captain William Howard Smith the founder of the company. He was the son of the first manager of the company in Brisbane.
Daily Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1903; 1916 - 1926), Wednesday 20 October 1920, page 6
PERSONAL
The body of Mr. Ormonde Howard Smith, son of one of the original founders of the Howard Smith Steamship Co., was brought to Brisbane from Sydney on the mail train last night. The late Mr. Smith, who was engaged in pastoral pursuits at Kilcoy, owing to indifferent health proceeded to Sydney to consult a specialist, but died whilst there. Mr. Austin Smith, of Melbourne, accompanied the body, and Mr. H. A. Feather, manager of the company in Brisbane, met the train at Central station. The body will to-day be taken to Kilcoy for interment.
Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), Wednesday 25 May 1921, page 9
The will, dated 31st December, 1918, of the late Mr. Ormond Howard Smith, of Kilcoy, Q., grazier, who died on 16th October, 1920. has been presented at the Will Office, Melbourne, for resealing. Testator left estate in Queensland valued at £7262 and personalty in Victoria of the value of £38.250 to his widow and children.
Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Tuesday 11 February 1930, page 3
REAL ESTATE
WUNULLA ESTATE.
Under instructions from the trus-tees of the late Mr. Ormond Howard Smith, Isles, Love, and Co., Ltd., announce that they will sell the Wunulla Estate, known as the home of the I.M.S. stud, and comprising an area of 1900 acres. The property will be subdivided into dairy and agricultural farms, watered permanently by the Kilcoy Creek. Situated five miles from Winya Railway Station and six miles from Kilcoy township, the estate, which in the old days was an out-station and fattening paddock of Durundur, comprises rich alluvial flats and scrub ridges. A large area of the flats is under cultivation, and the ridges have been cleared and planted with rhodes grass, which is showing a most luxurious growth. The improvements are in nice order, and each block will be practically a compact dairy and agricultural farm. Easy terms will be offered.
Howard Smith Limited
Howard Smith Limited was established in 1854 by Captain William Howard Smith, who begantransporting both people and supplies to the goldfields. Originally founded as William Howard Smith and Sons Pty Ltd, the company became Howard Smith Company Ltd in 1901 and in 1914 changed to Howard Smith Limited. The company has interests in distribution of hardware, towage and safety. According to Howard Smith Ltd. was delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange on 17 October 2001 because it was taken over (compulsory) by Wesfarmers Retail Pty Ltd. However the company is still registered with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.
Howard Smith was the last surviving Australian coastal shipping line and has a significant part in Australian maritime history.
The Howard Smith Wharves
The Howard Smith Wharves were constructed 1934-early 1940s by the Queensland government to provide relief work during the depression years of the 1930s. Initially known as the Brisbane Central Wharves, the project was undertaken in conjunction with the construction of the Story Bridge, one of the Forgan-Smith government's principal employment-generating projects. Like other such schemes, the Brisbane Central Wharves not only provided employment, but established important infrastructure for Queensland's future development. Brisbane Central Wharves were leased by the Australian coastal shipping company Howard Smith Co. Ltd from the mid-1930s until the early 1960s, and are more usually referred to as the Howard Smith Wharves.
The site had an even earlier connection with Howard Smith, as the Brisbane Central Wharves replaced smaller wharves constructed in the early years of the 20th century by Brisbane Wharves Ltd, for lease by William Howard Smith & Sons Ltd [later Howard Smith Co. Ltd].
The construction of wharves beyond Circular Quay was part of the gradual move downstream of port facilities at Brisbane, in a process which began in the 1840s. Following the opening of Moreton Bay to free settlement in 1842, commercial wharf facilities were erected at South Brisbane, which offered more direct access for Darling Downs and Ipswich commodities than the north bank of the river where the government wharf [Queen's Wharf] was located. By 1850 there were 5 commercial wharves on the south side of the Brisbane River.
However, following the declaration of Brisbane as a port of entry in 1846, a customs house was built in Queen Street near the Town Reach of the Brisbane River, on the north side of the river at Petrie Bight. From this time, the Town Reach rivalled South Brisbane in terms of shipping activity. In the late 1840s, 1850s and 1860s, a number of shipping companies and private investors constructed wharves and warehouses between Petrie Bight and Alice Street, near the botanic gardens. To encourage private business activity the colonial government and Brisbane Municipal Council also built wharves along Petrie Bight in the 1870s and leased them to shipping companies. By 1900 the Brisbane Municipal Council owned a string of wharves from the custom's house to Boundary Street.
Private companies constructed wharves further downstream at New Farm, Teneriffe and Newstead from the early 1900s. In the 1920s-30s the government built railway wharves at Pinkenba, branch rail lines to Teneriffe and Hamilton, and the state cold stores and reinforced concrete wharves at Hamilton. After the Story Bridge was opened in 1940 most large overseas and interstate vessels did not use the wharves at the Town Reach. Hamilton became the heart of Brisbane's port, and the part of the river from the South Brisbane Reach, round the Town Reach to Petrie Bight lost the ascendancy it had around the turn of the century. Since the 1960s, most of Brisbane's port activity has relocated to the mouth of the river.
In the 1880s William Howard Smith & Sons Ltd [later Howard Smith Co. Ltd] leased the Commercial Wharf on the Town Reach from the Brisbane Municipal Council. Howard Smith was one of several important shipping companies which traded on the Australian coast from the mid-19th century, and was one of the earliest. The business was established in Melbourne in 1854 by Captain William Howard Smith, and in the second half of the 19th century developed as one of the dominant companies in the Australian coastal shipping trade. Initially the firm traded between Melbourne and England, but in 1860 entered the inter-colonial trade, and from 1864 concentrated solely on this. Howard Smith was trading in central Queensland by the early 1870s, and in the 1880s extended its operations to northern Queensland. In the 1890s, the firm entered into a strong rivalry with other coastal shipping companies for the lucrative intra- and inter-colonial passenger trade.
In the late 1890s, Howard Smith moved downstream from the Commercial Wharves to the Brisbane City Council's Boundary Street Wharf at Petrie Bight, and in the early years of the 20th century leased adjacent new wharves constructed by Brisbane Wharves Limited at the base of the New Farm cliffs. These wharves were extended c1912 and in the 1920s, and in the 1930s were resumed by the Queensland government and rebuilt as the Brisbane Central Wharves.
Additional Information
The Eton School Brisbane
Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Saturday 17 June 1893, page 6
CLOSING OF ETON SCHOOL.
The close of the present school term will also see the close of the oldest established private school in Brisbane, first opened by Mr A J Boyd in 1876 The sons of most of the prominent men of Brisbane, as well as numbers of those of the Northern and Western districts, have received several years of their early education at Eton School Amongst the signatures to illuminated testimonials presented to Mr. and Mrs. Boyd by their old pupils from time to time are to be seen the names of Lilley, Palmer, Hale, Heath, Forrest, Davidson, Stanley, Bernays, Raff, Herbert, Lukin, Donkin, Garrick, Sellheim, Somerset, Gilligan, Little, Headnok, Walsh, Chancellor, Hardgrave, Drew, Tozer, Gregory, Hodgkinson, Baynes, Goggs, Hassell, Walker, Lyons, Pocock, Blakeney, Macpherson, Clifton, Aplin, Brown, Macdonald, Bannigor, Macarthur, Bogle, Thomson, Moore, Wilmington, Paul, Bond, Skinner, Cunningham, Rich, Phillips, Persse, Chauvel, Bell, Mellor, Biscoe, Muir, Cribb, Matthews, Delisser, Newton, Hunter, Finch, Lyster, Hopkins, Gray, Gore, with a host of others equally well known, all of whom are now either professional or business men Whilst Mr Boyd was in England, in 1882, the school was placed under the supervision of Messrs. J. Fenwick and Bogle as trustees, and in that year large school premises were erected at Nundah, which on Mr Boyd's return so rapidly filled up that over £3000 had to be expended in buildings In April, 1888, Mr Boyd was unanimously elected head master of the Toowoomba Grammar School, and he soon restored the number of its scholars to the old standard of its palmiest days in the following year the school's most brilliant pupil passed the Sydney Junior University Examination at the head of all the competitors of Queensland and New South Wales, obtaining seven first class passes. Piqued at the removal of this boy to the Brisbane Grammar School, the whole of the Toowoomba Grammar School masters resigned, and Mr Boyd receives a handsome testimonial from the boys, and also from the trustees, who were anxious to retain his services. He, however, returned to Brisbane, and Eton School was opened at Nundah, where it was carried on with varying success from May, 1890, to the present time .Losses and the general depression, together with the increase of schools have produced their effect, and after seventeen years Eton School is to be finally closed.
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