The leasing of this land by the
Montessori School and Gan Gani kindergarten ends a forty year period during
which the land has lain idle.
The original Deed of Grant was
registered to a James Milne in 1867 and transferred to James
Denniston. Son Matthew sold the land in 1915 to Adam Reid, who in
turn sold it to Andrew Magee in 1922. It was resumed by the
Brisbane City Council on November 28th, 1946 and zoned
"special use" for the establishment of a sewage plant.
It was later decided that the land was unsuitable for this purpose
and the Donaldson Road Plant was established.
The Clem Jones Council developed
the land with roads, power, etc in 1961 without first going to the
trouble of rezoning it. An auction was held in 1969 - even though
the land had still not been rezoned - but it was a total flop, not
one block being sold. The State Government rejected zoning
applications on three separate occasions until in 1984 Mr. Hinze,
Minister for Local Government, used his reserve powers to rezone
portions 155 and 156 to residential A. A bill known as the
"Fig Tree Pocket Noise Emission Bill" was introduced
into parliament shortly afterwards by Mr. J. Tenni, Minister for
Environment, Valuation and Administrative Services. This bill
eliminated a lot of rights future buyers would normally expect to
have.
Much of the political background
surrounding the land from 1961 onwards is known, but it would be
impolitic to put it on paper. Enough to say that Ald. Roy Harvey
had achieved the Council's ambition for the land and a fifteen
year battle with local residents appeared to be over. The timely
election of Ald. Sallyanne Atkinson and a Liberal Council allowed
us to lobby again for the re-zoning to be over-ruled.
The Progress Association managed to
organize a public meeting in November 1985, jointly chaired by
Lord Mayor Atkinson and Association President, Warren Fletcher. As
a result of this meeting, plans for the development of a
sub-standard estate were dropped and a tribunal consisting of Ald.
Bob Mills, John Butler (Strategic Town Planner) and Warren
Fletcher Was set up by the Lord Mayor to accept proposals for the
use of the land, determine local reaction to these proposals and
make recommendations to Council.
This tribunal evaluated seven
detailed proposals submitted by interested parties and passed on
their findings to Council. After long and detailed negotiations
with the parties in question, the Council adopted the
recommendation of the tribunal.
The residents had won in that the
land was now to be developed in a manner acceptable to them. The
real loser in the scenario was Mr. Andrew Magee. According to his
solicitor (who attended the public meeting in 1985), Mr. Magee
died a broken man after his personal retirement plans for
subdivision of his land were shattered when the land was resumed
from him for a plan that was never implemented.
(Much of the early history of the
land, as detailed above, has come to hand through the research for
a school project conducted by Cameron Brown of Cyllene Court. This
research was detailed and accurate and we acknowledge his valuable
contribution. Our thanks go to Warren Fletcher for the more recent
part of the story. The information on the Montessori school has
been provided by Mr. Paul Seijbel, the Principal.)
8. Bounded by Mactier St and Fig
Tree Pocket Rd is the O'Brien property. Three O'Brien brothers
migrated from Port-o-down, Northern Ireland, in 1863 on the
"Queen of the Colonies", a 1246 ton windjammer that took
140 days to reach Brisbane. The eldest son, Charles, settled at
Moggill, while William and James settled at Fig Tree Pocket. No
doubt their reasons for emigrating were similar to those of many
Irish at that time: potato famine and persecution of Catholic
Irish, who were not permitted to vote, to hold public office, to
be educated and, worst of all, were not given religious freedom.
According to the O'Brien family
history, James O'Brien took up Portions 157 and 204. The details
here are hazy as the survey map dated 1886 shows the deeds for
those portions were held at that stage by C. Morrison and D.
Ewart. James O'Brien was to become the keeper of the lights that
marked the dangerous shoals at Seventeen Mile Rocks. He tended
these lights daily for nearly fifty years until his death in 1922
at the age of 100. His son Felix took over and tended the lights
until his death in about 1961 so between them they looked after
the lights for nearly a century. The rocks were finally blasted
away in 1968. Prior to that, large vessels had to wait until high
tide to get past the rocks. The rocks had been blasted to some
extent previously. When H.C. Rawnsley sent in the survey plans of
the pocket in 1866, his terse letter contained the following
interesting comment:
It may possibly be deemed
advisable to withhold from sale Portion No 153 as a small
magazine for the works at the "Rocks" has been formed
in the face of the River bank.
William O'Brien took up Portion
158, which is across the road near where Lone Pine now is. It is
known that both James and William were actively involved in
establishing the first school in the area, but at some stage
William and his Family left the area. It is speculated that they
may have left after the destruction of the great Flood of 1893,
after which many of the local farmers left the area.
The O'Briens were friendly with
Herc. Sinnamon and would row across the river for evening
sing-songs around the piano. The latter's book Gentleman Farmer
will be of interest to some readers.
(Thank you to Dermott O'Brien for
supplying a booklet outlining the O'Brien family history.)
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