In the middle of October,we start a project which needs each of us design a house located at Kenmore.
In the 1840's the area now known as Kenmore was part of a sheep and cattle run which extended from Milton to Mt Crosby, and owned by a man named McDougall. The area was surveyed in the 1850's and after the establishment of the colony of Queensland in 1859, was released for sale in 15 - 20 acre lots to the wave of new settlers arriving from Britain. The earliest land holders were John McGrath and J. Twine, who were both living on their selected land as early as 1849. Other early families where the Paceys, who rented the land where the Queensland University vet farm is now; and Andrew Todd, who purchased 100 acres of land on either side of what is now Gilruth Road. During the 1850's and 1860's the pine, cedar, softwood and hardwood around the Kenmore and Brookfield area was the source of much of Brisbane's timber. It was drawn by bullock wagons along what is now Rafting Ground Road, floated down Moggill Creek to the river, and rafted to the sawmills near the present day William Jolly Bridge. Later a sawmill was in operation on the corner of Gap Creek Roadand
Brookfield Road. There were also small farms in the area, producing a variety of crops. Potatoes, Maize, arrowroot, sugar, grapes and other fruits and vegetables were grown. Cotton was also grown and supplied to the Lancashire cotton mills during the time of the American Civil War, when
US cotton production was disrupted. In the 1860's there were few roads, so one of the most convenient forms of transport and communication was the river. There was a small fleet of steamers carrying goods and passengers between
Brisbane and
Ipswich. Also the farmers along the river used small flat-bottomed boats which were rowed with oars to take their produce to markets in
Brisbane and
Ipswich. About 1880, Andrew Todd bought 100 acres of land in the centre of present day
Kenmore. He built a large home and named the property '
Kenmore Park', after his home town of
Kenmore in
Perthshire, Scotland. Subsequently the name
Kenmore was applied to the present district of that name. Andrew Todd gave the Presbyterians half an acre of his property to build a church. It opened in October 1885. The
Kenmore congregation, led by the Reverend William Patterson, had held services in a small hall on the banks of Moggill Creek, built by the Orange Lodge in 1871. The first church was used until the size of the congregation grew too large, and the present Uniting church was built in 1967.
The earliest school in the district was a private school operated by Mr Storey in the 1870's in the Orange Lodge Hall on Moggill Creek. In the 1880's, the Lodge, like the church, moved to a more central site and built a larger hall in
Moggill Road, where the first Post Office stood. This was used for another private school until a
State Primary School was established in 1900. The first school building was erected on the present site in 1904. An early school mistress was Miss Bessie Palmer, sister of author and playwright, Vance Palmer. In the time when all transport was horse drawn there needed to be blacksmith's forges. At about 1900 there were two in
Kenmore, one on the corner of
Brookfield Roadand
Moggill Roadand another opposite, where the fire station now stands. The earliest store in the area was also on the corner of Moggill and Brookfield Roads. It was opened in 1919 by Mildown and Cox, and was called "
Hyde Park". Dairying began to play a large part in the local economy in the early 1900's. One was run by the Pacey family where the Uni. Vet farm is now. They used to get 9 pence a gallon on their "warm milk run", and sent surplus supplies by rail from Indooroopilly to the Booval butter factory.
Up until 1930, when the Brisbane Abattoirs were established, there were five slaughter yards in the Kenmore area. These included Lisk's in
Huntingdale Street(then
Pullenvale Road); Irish's, who had 60 acres at Wongabel; Land's at
Chapel Hill and Dobson's at Fig Tree Pocket (now Cliveden). Joe Lisk was killed in an accident and his widow married Penhalligan. This is how Penhalligan's became butchers.
There are few remains of the local aboriginal population. At one time there was a bora ring on the southern slopes of Mt Elphinstone and another between
Kersley Roadand the
Brisbane River.
For about 25 years from 1910 Chinese market gardeners worked on the small flats along Cubberla Creek growing vegetables.
In 1947 John Morgan bought and named Wongabel Estate, from Jack Irish and kept racehorses on it.
In the 1950's Hooker's bought land around
Dumbarton Drive, which had formed part of Stack’s dairy farm? It was about this time that the modern development of
Kenmore really began. The ambulance centre was opened in 1972, the fire station in 1975 and the police station in 1978 (?)
PREPARED FROM THE LOCAL HISTORY FILE
INDOOROOPILLY LIBRARY
BRISBANE CITY LIBRARY SERVICE MAY 1987
THE SITE VISITE
For better understanding of the site the whole year 1 students visited Kenmore in October.
This is the first impression that I got from Kenmore, a big stone city gate, guarding the small town.
For years no matter how other parts of the world have changed this small town still has kept what it looked like before. The houses in the photo above have stood there for more than a hundred years.
There is an atmosphere of peace and calm in Kenmore which is different from big cities.
A museum is showing the memory of Kenmore 1000 years ago, including the introduction of animals, plants and how people were living at that time.
Listening the introduction inside Crannog.
Showing us how they make tools.
The Hexagon shape comes from the traditional house roof in Kenmore. But it is not just one shape I have picked up.
The First thing that I considered was the size. As required, the total areas of the house should be no more than 200m2.
There are two trees on the site, and I want to keep it. And as a consequence of that the west view is the best so I desided to make the bedrooms to face the west. I rotated the whole house for 60 degrees. 
The light in Scotland seems never enough, therrefore I tried to invite more light for my house. The hexagon shape I saw at Kenmore came to my mind when I looking at the drawing. I moved it more southwest for getting a park place and increasing the connection with water and the small beach which is on the west side.Then for keeping the noise away I placed the living room on the top. The adding of short walls around the trees created a garden.
Site plan
