Brisbane Homes

As noted in 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.¹⁾

At some stage, according to a number of sources, the family lived at Shafston²⁾ in the highly desirable downtown Brisbane suburb of 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.³⁾ 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, presumably to look after baby Hugh. Applicants were also asked to apply to Shafston, but to Mrs Murray Prior.⁴⁾ F. Lord in his series on Brisbane's historic houses, notes that in around the early 1900s, Shafston became the property of J McConnell of Cessbrook.⁵⁾

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.⁶⁾

By August 1867, the family had moved to Montpelier on corner of Main and Ferry Street, Kangaroo Point.⁷⁾. It was more convenient as it was closer to the ferry; as there was no bridge at the time, TLM-P used the ferry to get to work in Brisbane. The family lived there when parliament was sitting;⁸⁾ at Maroon at other times. ⁹⁾

An undated photo of Montpelier.¹⁰⁾

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): ¹¹⁾

TLM-P died on New Year's Eve in 1892 at Whytecliffe(note that later sources spell it Whitecliffe), his home in Albion, a suburb of Brisbane. It is uncertain if it was rented or owned: his will stipulated that his wife chad the right to remain there if she wished. It was built c.1875 and is now a retirement village on Sandgate Road.¹²⁾
Whytecliffe in 1930, from QJO.¹³⁾