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| ====== Brisbane Homes ====== | |
| As noted in [[rural_life_tragedy|Rural Life and Tragedy]], TLM-P owned considerable property in Brisbane. To take up his position as Postmaster-General in 1862, TLM-P moved with his family to Brisbane. As Matilda was ill by then, better access to medical and domestic help was probably a welcome relief. Isobel Hannah states that the family first rented number 1 Hodgson's Terrace. When Hannah was writing in 1953, the house was the Kingsley Private Hotel.((Isobel Hannah, 'The Royal Descent of the First Postmaster-General of Queensland', Queensland Geographical Journal, vol. LV, 1953-54, p.13.))\\ | |
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| At some stage, according to a number of sources, the family lived at //Shafston//((e.g. Kerry Heckenberg,'A taste for art in colonial Queensland: The Queensland Art Gallery Foundational Bequest of Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior', //Queensland Review//, 25:1, June 2018, pp.119-136 states it was on in George Street)) in the highly desirable downtown Brisbane suburb of [[wp>Kangaroo_Point,_Queensland|Kangaroo Point]]. The heritage listing for the property states it was owned by grazier and sugar-grower Louis Hope from October 1859, and then rented out to Gilbert Eliot, Speaker of the Queensland Parliament, and later Matilda's brother-in-law William Barker of Telemon Station. There is no mention of a period of tenancy by TLM-P.(([[https://environment.ehp.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=600241|Shafston House]])) Two advertisements for September 1861 suggest that Matilda was staying there with her sister. 'Mrs Barker' advertised for two servants, requesting they apply to her at Shafston, Kangaroo Point. The very next ad was for an experienced nurse, to also apply to Shafston, but to Mrs Murray Prior.((//The Courier//, 11 September 1861, p.3.))\\ | |
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| By 1864, TLM-P had commissioned prominent architect James Cowlishaw to draw up plans for a new villa residence at Breakfast Creek, Brisbane. He changed his mind as the house was never built, perhaps because he bought Maroon that year instead. Plans for the home are at the Oxley Library, Brisbane.((Box 15376 O/S. They were donated by E.S. M-P))\\ | |
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| In mid-1868, the family moved closer to the ferry when TLM-P purchased //Montpelier// on corner of Main and Ferry Street, Kangaroo Point (there was no bridge at the time, and TLM-P used the ferry to get to work in Brisbane). The family lived there when parliament was sitting;((Patricia Clarke, //Rosa! Rosa!// p.23.)) at [[Rural Life and Tragedy|Maroon]] at other times. ((for a view of Montpelier in 1930, see //The Queenslander// 18 September 1930, p.41.))\\ | |
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| {{:montpelier_ferry_st.jpeg?300|}} An undated photo of Montpelier.((Photo provenance Tom A. & M. Therese M-P.))\\ | |
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| By then he had Maroon as well. This was an essential part of the gentry ideal - a house in town and a country estate. //Montpelier// was demolished in 1938. The next photo is of Montpelier's parlour c. 1875, lavishly furnished in the mid-Victorian style (which assumed housemaids to do the constant dusting of so many objects): {{:montpelier.jpg?400|}}((Photo: JOQ))\\ | |
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| TLM-P died on New Year's Eve in 1892 at //Whytecliffe//(note that later sources spell it Whitecliffe), his rented home in [[wiki>Albion,_Queensland|Albion]], a suburb of Brisbane. It was built c.1875 and is now a retirement village on Sandgate Road. His widow took over the lease after his death.((Whytecliffe House brochure, courtesy T.A. & M.T. M-P. Note that Highlands, the home of the Lightollers (Thomas B. M-P's parents-in-law), also became part of the retirement village, pers. comm. M.T. M-P.))\\ | |
| {{:marsh_p3_whitecliffe.jpeg?300|}} Whytecliffe in 1930, from QJO.((For more photos of Whytecliffe in 1930, see //The Queenslander// 11 September 1930, p.41.)) | |