1860s home on ABC Toowong site heritage listed

It will remain in a riverside park on the Toowong site, with apartments built nearby by developers,  Sunland.

The single-storey property is known as Middenbury and looks over the Brisbane River from Toowong towards West End and Highgate Hill.

Middenbury was built and completed by December 1866 for Eliza Mary Rogers, who lived there until she died in 1875, and the land and home passed to her children.

The home and the property was eventually subdivided and bought by Brisbane merchant Tim O’Shea in 1891. It remained with the O’Shea family for 59 years.

The O’Shea family hosted the Price of Wales at Middenbury in 1920, because the home had become one of the most respected residential properties on Brisbane’s riverside.

Queensland Heritage Council chairman Peter Coaldrake said Middenbury was an important villa-styled home in Brisbane’s development.

“Most of the population at the time was crammed into town or on the fringes, in suburbs such as Spring Hill,” Professor Coaldrake said.

“Some of the more affluent and professional people started building villa residences, as they were called at the time, in desirable locations on the edges of Brisbane.

“Here they could have their own space, with room for servants, and perhaps indulge in rural pursuits in their leisure time.”

The ABC was forced to leave the Toowong site in 2006 after 17 women who had worked there were diagnosed with breast cancer.

The 1.5 hectare site – which includes the home – was sold to the Sunland Group in 2013 for $20 million.

It was declared free of radioactive contamination in 2010 and Sunland now plans to build apartments on the site.

Professor Coaldrake said the ABC nominated the home for listing on the Queensland Heritage Council as a condition of the property’ sale.

“The contract of sale made reference to a heritage application being made to ensure the heritage values of the place are protected,” he said.

The home – which has been used more recently as office space - also has links to Queensland’s television’s history, Professor Coaldrake said.

“The ABC’s first television broadcast in Queensland occurred on 2 November 1959. In a nod to its social past, Middenbury hosted some 300 invited guests at the official function to mark the occasion, with 10 televisions set up within the building for viewing of the live broadcast of the ABC’s Queensland Television Service.

The building was recognised by the National Trust in 1969 and subsequently by Brisbane City Council’s heritage register.

Sunland Group Executive Development Manager David Brown said the company always wanted to preserve the home.

“It was always our intention to do something that respected the heritage building within its original context,” Mr Brown said.

“The listing boundary ensures Middenbury will remain in a park setting—this is a great outcome for the city and the development.”