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FORMER GONA BARRACKS
KELVIN GROVE
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
A Conservation Plan for the Queensland University of Technology
■
© COPYRIGHT Allom Lovell Pty Ltd, November 2004
G:\Projects\04015 CreativeInd QUT\Reports\r02.doc
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
CONTENTS
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i
1
INTRODUCTION
4
1.1
BACKGROUND
4
1.2
HERITAGE LISTINGS
5
1.3
THIS REPORT
6
THE SITE
6
1.4
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
7
2
UNDERSTANDING THE PLACE
8
2.1
A MILITARY BARRACKS
8
THE ENDOWMENT
FEDERATION AND DEFENCE
THE KELVIN GROVE DEFENCE RESERVE
THE INTERWAR PERIOD
THE SECOND WORLD WAR
REGULARS AND RESERVES
DISPOSAL OF THE BARRACKS
2.2
THE URBAN VILLAGE
DEMOLITION
CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
2.3
THE EARLY BUILDINGS
FORMER INFANTRY DRILL HALL (A25)
FORMER SERVICES DRILL HALL (A16)
THE FRANK MORAN MEMORIAL HALL (A21)
FORMER GARAGE AND WORKSHOP BUILDING (A26)
FORMER DINING ROOM (A31)
FORMER BRIGADE OFFICE (C39)
FORMER ARTILLERY DRILL HALL (C39)
FORMER GUN PARK (C33)
FORMER TOOWONG DRILL HALL (A3)
ANCILLARY BUILDINGS
THE PARADE GROUND
8
9
11
13
16
19
21
22
23
23
24
24
25
25
26
26
26
27
28
28
29
29
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
CONTENTS
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ii
2.4
VEGETATION
29
3
UNDERSTANDING CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
31
3.1
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
31
3.2
ANALYSIS
31
MILITARY BARRACKS
DRILL HALLS
3.3
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
EXTENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
31
33
38
39
3.4
PREVIOUS ASSESSMENTS
40
4
CONSERVATION POLICY
44
4.1
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
44
THE BURRA CHARTER
ENDORSEMENT AND REVIEW
STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS
SCOPE OF POLICIES
44
45
45
46
4.2
APPROACH
46
4.3
CONSERVATION OF BUILDING FABRIC
48
4.4
ADAPTATION OF BUILDING FABRIC
48
CREATIVE INDUSTRIES PRECINCT
49
4.5
REMOVAL OF BUILDINGS
49
4.6
NEW USES
50
4.7
NEW CONSTRUCTION
50
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
CONTENTS
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iii
THE PARADE GROUND
50
4.8
INTERPRETATION
51
5
APPENDIX
52
5.1
NOTES
52
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
1
INTRODUCTION
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4
1
INTRODUCTION
T
he former Gona Barracks is currently being redeveloped as part of
the Kelvin Grove Urban Village, a mixed use development
containing residential, commercial and educational facilities and
associated infrastructure. The Creative Industries Precinct of the
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is one element in the urban
village, and the former barracks site.
1.1
BACKGROUND
Gona Barracks was first developed as a military reserve and training area
in the early twentieth century. The Commonwealth government
constructed a series of drill halls and associated training facilities within
the barracks site just prior to and during the First World War. Further
buildings and facilities were built during the Second World War and into
the 1950s. Members of the Citizens Military Forces and the Australian
Army Reserve were based at Kelvin Grove and trained there for many
years. The site closed in the late 1990s.
At the time of its disposal by the Commonwealth government Allom
Lovell Architects prepared a heritage assessment and strategy for the
Department of Defence.1 That study found that the Gona Barracks site
was culturally significant, and contained buildings and other elements
that were significant individually.
In March 2000 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provisionally
entered the former Gona Barracks site in the Queensland Heritage
Register, as part of the cultural heritage of Queensland. An objection to
the entry was made and the EPA appointed an assessor to inquire into
that objection. Negotiations took place between the EPA, QUT and other
sections of the Queensland government over the following months. As a
result of these negotiations and the findings of the assessor’s report a
reduced area of the former Gona Barracks site, namely that part known
as the ‘upper barracks’, was permanently entered in the Queensland
Heritage Register in December 2002.
In 2000 the Queensland government acquired the former Gona Barracks
site and since that time has, in conjunction with QUT, developed the
Kelvin Grove Urban Village, incorporating the former barracks site and
some adjacent land in accordance with a master plan prepared by Hassell
Architects.
The Creative Industries precinct of QUT opened as part of the urban
village in February 2004. It is located in part of the upper barracks area
along Kelvin Grove Road. Some of the former military buildings in this
area have been retained and incorporated into the new development.
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
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INTRODUCTION
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Other lots within the urban village scheme are still to be developed –
some by QUT for various uses and some by the private sector, while
other parts of the village remain with the Department of Housing and
will cater for residential and mixed uses.
1.2
HERITAGE
LISTINGS
The former Gona Barracks site is entered in the Queensland Heritage
Register of the Environmental Protection Agency, and in Schedule 1 of
the Heritage Register Planning Scheme Policy of the Brisbane City
Council City plan 2000.
As the site is entered in the Queensland Heritage Register proposed
development is subject to the provisions of the Queensland Heritage Act
1992 and the Integrated Planning Act 1997. In both acts “development” is
defined as any of the following:
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Carrying out building work;
Carrying out plumbing or drainage work;
Carrying out operational work;
Reconfiguring a lot;
Making a material change of use of premises.
Development within the former Gona Barracks site will be referred to the
Environmental Protection Agency as a concurrence agency using the
Integrated Development Assessment System (IDAS) of the Integrated
Planning Act 1997.
As the barracks site is entered in the BCC heritage register proposed
development will also need to satisfy the provisions of the Heritage Place
Code of the Brisbane City plan 2000, and the performance criteria of that
code.
The site is entered in the Register of the National Estate of the Australian
Heritage Commission, as an ‘indicative place’. In 2004 the Register of the
National Estate was superseded by two other heritage lists administered
by the Commonwealth. Indeed the Australian Heritage Commission has
been replaced by a new body, the Australian Heritage Council. It is
unlikely that the site will be entered in the Commonwealth Heritage List
(a list for Commonwealth-owned properties) or the National Heritage
List (a list for nationally significant places) of the new Australian
Heritage Council.
The site is not listed by the National Trust of Queensland, a community
organisation interested in the protection and conservation of cultural
heritage.
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
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INTRODUCTION
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1.3
THIS
REPORT
QUT has commissioned this conservation plan to guide the care,
conservation and future development of the Creative Industries Precinct
and the remainder of the site. It updates the earlier heritage assessment
and strategy prepared by Allom Lovell Architects at the time of the
Commonwealth’s disposal of the site, and reflects the various changes to
the site, alterations and removal of buildings that have taken place since
then.
The work for this study has broadly followed that approach advocated
by the Burra Charter of Australia ICOMOS and the guidelines to that
document. Historical information about the site has been gathered and
analysed in order to arrive at an understanding of its cultural
significance. This process has been informed by an analysis of the
physical fabric of the buildings and the broader site. From the
significance assessment conservation policies have been prepared to
conserve those parts of the former barracks area containing buildings and
other elements of cultural significance.
A companion document, a heritage management protocol, has been
prepared for the Creative Industries Precinct of QUT. The protocol
details the various processes and approvals required for conducting
work on the site, taking into account the varying degrees of significance
of the elements. The protocol document should be read and consulted by
those proposing to make changes to the site with a view to the approvals
processes required.
THE
SITE
The former Gona Barracks is located in Kelvin Grove in Brisbane’s inner
north between Kelvin Grove and Victoria Park Roads. The upper
barracks part of the Kelvin Grove Urban Village and entered in the
heritage register is described as:
ƒ
Lots 1, 2, 3, 5, 903 and 905 on SP 151277 Parish of North Brisbane,
County of Stanley.
The heritage registered boundary for the site also includes the road
reserves Gona Parade and part of Musk Avenue.
This study examines only the heritage registered parts of the wider
Kelvin Grove Urban Village site. It does not examine in any great detail
the new buildings constructed at the site as part of the Creative
Industries Precinct.
1
Plan of the Gona Barracks site showing the lots
entered in the Heritage Register. [Allom
Lovell]
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
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INTRODUCTION
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7
1.4
SUMMARY
OF FINDINGS
The study finds that the former Gona Barracks site, despite the level of
alteration and adaptation that has taken place, is culturally significant.
The remaining buildings in the upper barracks area provide evidence of
the development of training facilities for the military prior to and during
World War I. A series of drill halls for military training were constructed
in this period, and while the construction of drill halls in this period was
quite common the concentration of drill halls for different arms of the
military in the one location of Kelvin Grove was unusual. Some of these
drill halls are rare examples of their type. The placement of the military
buildings overlooking the parade ground largely survives with the
redevelopment of the upper barracks and allows for an appreciation of
the historic structures; the parade ground itself being a significant
element of the upper barracks site overall.
The identified early buildings (the services drill hall, the infantry drill
hall, Frank Moran Memorial Hall and the former garage/workshop)
should be retained and conserved as part of the continued
redevelopment of the upper barracks area for new purposes. New
construction may take place in areas within the southern end of the
barracks’ precinct where they will not impair cultural heritage values.
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
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UNDERSTANDING THE PLACE
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2
UNDERSTANDING THE PLACE
T
he ‘upper barracks’ area of the former Gona Barracks at Kelvin
Grove are all that remains of a much stronger military presence
across the wider site. Evidence of that activity has been retained with the
redevelopment of the barracks site for new purposes.
2.1
A
MILITARY BARRACKS
The site of the former Gona Barracks was originally part of an early green
belt that was set aside in the earliest years of European settlement in
Brisbane and extended from the central city area around the ridge of
Gregory and Wickham Terraces to Bowen Hills. The area was reserved
and maintained by the government as a series of parks. The largest of
these was Victoria Park, gazetted by the early 1860s.
From this time the colonial government gradually reduced the size of the
park. Reserves were set aside for a hospital, exhibition grounds and
boys’ and girls’ grammar schools, while a suburban rail line was later
constructed. To the west land was alienated from the Crown, surveyed
and sold as residential allotments. A large, irregularly shaped area was
surveyed as portion 322, bounded on three sides by Kelvin Grove Road,
Sylvan Road (now Blamey Street) and Victoria Park Road. It was largely
uneven with three distinct hills and a gully that ran from the north to the
south-east.2
THE
ENDOWMENT
In 1879 the Queensland government endowed this land to the Brisbane
Grammar School. Governments often endowed vacant Crown land to
grammar schools in this period as a way for them to raise revenue – the
girls’ grammar school endowment was in Dutton Park. The schools were
free to deal with their endowments as they saw fit, but had to comply
with a series of conditions imposed by the government.3
The Brisbane Grammar School owned this land for about 40 years. No
buildings are known to have been constructed on the site by the school in
this time, and the only improvements made to the site were a number of
fences. Grazing leases raised some funds for the school.
An area of land adjacent to the endowment was set aside as a recreation
reserve. Many years later it was designated as a public park by the Ithaca
Shire Council, and then later the Brisbane City Council, and was named
McCaskie Park.
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FEDERATION
AND DEFENCE
In the early twentieth century the Commonwealth government acquired
this endowment for a military reserve.
2
An excerpt from McKellars map of 1895
showing the Brisbane Grammar School
endowment along Kelvin Grove Road. The
reserve to the north is now McCaskie Park.
At Federation in 1901 the Commonwealth government assumed control
of defence and the administration of the defence forces. Out of a military
force of almost 30,000, only 1,500 of these were full-time soldiers with
volunteer forces making up the remainder. Since the 1850s volunteer
forces had trained in drill halls in the colonies, small buildings
constructed by both individuals and governments in the towns and
country areas. The government contributed to the cost of uniforms and
the provision of rifles, while the volunteers freely gave up their time, one
or two nights and some weekends, to drill and train. Units were based
on geographic locality, with volunteers in the various branches of the
military, such as infantry, artillery, engineers, and naval forces.4
In 1909 the Australian Government invited the British general, Lord
Kitchener, to inspect the fledgling Australian Army. Although impressed
with the enthusiasm of the part-time citizen soldiers Kitchener
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
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UNDERSTANDING THE PLACE
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recommended that the existing forces be expanded and their training
facilities improved. His report led to the formation of the Army’s Royal
Military College at Duntroon in Canberra and the passage of new
legislation.5
In 1909 the Commonwealth government passed the Defence Act and
introduced compulsory military training for both men and boys. Boys
from the ages of 12 to 18 would undertake compulsory drilling, while
men from 18 to 20 were to partake in annual training with the established
citizen forces, registering for two to three weeks’ instruction in rifle
shooting, drill and other military activities, serving on a part-time basis in
the Australian Military Forces (AMF).
This expansion put a strain on the limited training facilities that the
Department of Defence had inherited from the various colonial forces. In
Brisbane, there were drill halls in Alice and Adelaide Streets in the
central city and Boundary Street, Spring Hill, accommodating the offices
and equipment for the 9th Australian Infantry Regiment (AIR), the Field
and Garrison Artillery, Engineers and the Senior Cadets. The
Department of Defence recognised that the Boundary Street drill hall was
too small for the expanding companies. However the department
decided not to build a larger drill hall at any of these sites, as none of
them had room for expansion. To solve the problem the three inner
Brisbane drill hall sites would be replaced with a much larger site where
activities could be concentrated.
In April 1909 the Commonwealth Minister for Home Affairs requested
that state government submit particulars of suitable land that could be
exchanged. As defence units were manned by part-time volunteers the
site had to be readily accessible by tram.6 Three possible sites were
found; the most suitable was the Grammar School endowment in Kelvin
Grove. It was close to the city and Victoria Barracks, was accessible by
tram and rail, and also:
…the only unimproved and practically unused land within the radius of
the General Post Office that can be obtained.7
Defence officials submitted plans showing how the site could be used,
suggesting areas where an artillery drill hall, gun parks (storage sheds for
artillery), and an engineer depot could be built. In the process this
provided the first inkling of the layout of the Kelvin Grove Barracks and
the various branches of the forces to be accommodated there.8
The school’s trustees proposed to sell the site and had the endowment
surveyed in mid 1910. In October that year the Commonwealth
Government made £7,000 available to buy the land, but the trustees
wanted £8,000 and refused the offer. The Commonwealth organised a
valuation of the site, which gave its value as more than £11,000. A
second offer of £8,000 was promptly accepted, and the title deeds for the
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Kelvin Grove Defence Reserve were transferred to the Commonwealth
the following year.
THE
KELVIN GROVE DEFENCE RESERVE
During 1912 the Boundary Street and Adelaide Street drill halls were
sold, while the Alice Street drill hall was handed over to the Royal
Australian Navy. It was planned to base a company of field engineers,
and the militia field artillery batteries with its horsed field troop at Kelvin
Grove.
Further surveys of the site were undertaken prior to construction to
counter claims that the uneven nature of the ground made it impractical
for full training of horsed artillery and engineer units. Later in 1912
military officials recommended that the first buildings be constructed,
and in 1913 an infantry drill hall was proposed.9
Plans were prepared by Queensland government architects in mid 1913
and the building completed June 1914, prior to World War I.10 The drill
hall was 100 feet (30 metres) by 50 ft (15 m), with eight offices 12 ft 6 in
(3.8 m) by 12 ft (3.65m) each were located along the western side of the
building. A series of steel trusses supported the roof, which was carried
down over the offices with a continuous ventilator along the ridge.
Windows were placed within the roof to provide additional lighting. The
building had concrete footings, corrugated iron walls, and an asphalt
floor. The building cost £1,259 to construct.11 An artificers’ workshop
was built at about this same time for the use of Army mechanics.
Before any further buildings could be erected at Kelvin Grove, the
ground had to be made level. Tenders for further works were proposed
in November 1914, but due to the problems with the levelling of the site
were not called until February 1915.
An engineer's depot was completed by October 1915 to a design by
architects in the Queensland Public Works Department. The building
accommodated the 15th and 23rd Engineer companies, and cost just over
£1,500 to construct. Its construction was noted in the department’s
annual report for 1915-6 in the following manner:
…a two storey wooden structure, with hipped roof sheeted with iron,
containing on the ground floor two wagon sheds, 55 ft by 26 ft and 26 ft
by 19 ft; two harness rooms, 26 ft by 15 ft and 26 ft by 12 ft, and on the
upper floor a lecture room (51 ft by 26 ft), three storerooms, and four
office rooms for orderly and clerks.12
The next buildings were for artillery units, and comprised an artillery
drill hall, brigade office and two gun parks. The artillery drill hall was a
single storey, rectangular-shaped building comprising a centrally located
drill hall, offices and wagon sheds at each end. To the west of this
3
The original working drawings for the infantry
drill hall of 1913. [Qld State Archives]
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building a two storey artillery brigade office contained on the ground
floor a brigade office, clerk’s office, officers’ room, a harness room and a
shed for brigade vehicles on the ground floor, with a large lecture room
on the top floor. This building was classified as the brigade office and
lecture room, and later accommodated the headquarters of the 3rd Field
Artillery Brigade. The total cost of construction was more than £7,000.13
At right angles to the brigade office building and following the alignment
of Kelvin Grove Road two gun parks were constructed. Each building
contained a large room for storage of the 13 pounder artillery pieces, four
harness and cleaning rooms, storeroom, office and a commanding
officer's room.
The artillery buildings were designed and constructed in 1915 by the
Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs. In the early twentieth
century Commonwealth government buildings were usually designed
and constructed by the state public works departments, before the
Commonwealth public service was properly established. In the interim
state government architects designed Commonwealth buildings. These
are among the earliest Commonwealth designs in Queensland.
Another drill hall was constructed for the Australian Army Service Corps
(AASC) to a design by the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs.
This building was located at the southern end of the site near the 1914
infantry drill hall. The services corps was an important, if secondary,
section of the armed forces, and were responsible for the provision of
ammunition, food, and other supplies to fighting forces in the field. The
services drill hall was a single storey timber building with a double
height central section, comprising two wagon sheds, two harness rooms,
two quartermasters' storerooms, two NCO’s offices, two orderly rooms,
two commanding officer's offices and a large centrally located drill room.
Two toilets were constructed behind the drill hall.
4
Unlike the other buildings at the site, the
brigade office was a two-storey building with
flanking single-storey wings.
[National Archives of Australia]
It is clear that the siting of these various buildings was thoughtfully
considered by the architects involved. The arrangement of the buildings
on the western edge of the site, along Kelvin Grove Road with flanking
wings at each end defined a space within the site used as a parade
ground. This space has remained open since the initial establishment of
the site as a military reserve.
By the end of World War I, a few ancillary buildings had been added to
the site. A military laundry with an attached engine house was built to
the north near the brigade office. A ‘disinfector’ building was also
constructed behind the artillery drill hall. Both are now located outside
of the barracks site.
5
The services drill hal . [Qld State Archives]
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THE
INTERWAR PERIOD
With the end of the war in November 1918, Australian troops returned
home. By 1921, the military laundry and the disinfector building had
been converted to a Repatriation Service laundry and staffed by returned
servicemen. It was leased to a private firm, Bishops Laundry and Dry
Cleaners, who bought the site in 1954.
While Australia was war weary and generally uninterested in military
matters, the defence affairs of the Commonwealth continued.
Compulsory military training was re-introduced after the war (having
been abandoned during its darkest days), and military training at Kelvin
Grove continued over the 1920s. The Kelvin Grove Military Reserve
developed into a training centre for the AASC, signallers, engineers and
artillerymen. Signals training courses were held in the engineers’ depot,
while training courses were conducted by the 11th Mixed Brigade, and the
light horse and medical corps units from elsewhere.
6
A view of McCaskie Park showing the northern
boundary of the military reserve, the laundry
and disinfector buildings (not part of the
current site) and the brigade office and gun
park. [John Oxley Library, Neg No 116412]
With these activities in the 1920s some buildings were given different
uses. The Australian Army Service Corps moved out of its drill hall,
which thereafter became ordnance offices and stores. The drill hall was
converted to an ordnance lecture room, while one of the gun parks was
converted into an ordnance store. The Field Artillery remained in their
buildings.
Other buildings gradually appeared on the Kelvin Grove Military
Reserve in the interwar period. The first of these was a remount depot,
comprising a corrugated iron shed that was built near the corner of
McCaskie Park. This building was dismantled in 1933 and re-erected,
with two riding yards and a manure pit added to the site. The new
complex was renamed the riding school.
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In the 1920s a memorial to an Australian World War I soldier named
Frank Moran was constructed at the Kelvin Grove site. Moran, a highly
respected young cadet officer before World War I, was involved in the
instruction of military cadets at the Brisbane Grammar School. Under his
training the school won the Commonwealth Cadet Military Competition
in 1914. He enlisted in the 1st AIF, fought at Gallipoli, and died in August
1915. After the war, a number of memorials were erected in his memory
including a Memorial Cross at St Brigid's Catholic Church in Red Hill, a
stained glass window at the Brisbane Grammar School War Memorial
Library, and the memorial hall at Kelvin Grove.
The Frank Moran Memorial Hall had its origins in the raising of £400 by
Moran for the construction of a recreation building for cadets at Red Hill.
The money was raised through private donations and an art union
conducted by Moran when he was cadet area officer in 1913 and 1914.
Moran envisaged the construction of a gymnasium, stadium, swimming
pool, miniature rifle range, buffet club rooms and a library. When Moran
joined the AIF the building project was put on hold, and after his death
the funds were forgotten for some time.
7
Kelvin Grove Road and the southern wall of the
infantry drill hall c.1929. [JOL]
As many of Moran’s cadets had died during the war, another use was
considered for the money. Some years passed, and in 1925 the trustees
announced that they would donate the money to the Army, as long as it
was used in a project that matched Moran’s intentions. The Chief of the
General Staff felt that:
…a gymnasium, reading room, or something similar suggests itself and
would, it is thought, meet with the wishes of those who identified
themselves with the original idea.14
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15
In March 1926, the commander of the 49th Battalion proposed that the
money be spent on the erection of a recreation hut at Kelvin Grove for
meetings, socials, gymnasium, the regimental institute and for all trainees
residing in the district.15 The trustees requested that the building be
named after Moran, and that the committee that ran the hall should
include one of the trustees. This was agreed, and the former Brisbane
Grammar School principal SN Bousefield was appointed to the
committee. The Commonwealth retained the right to …remove the hut to
some position within the same district… if so desired.16
The trustees accepted the Commonwealth's conditions. The
Commonwealth Department of Works prepared plans for the Frank
Moran Memorial Hall in January 1928, tenders were called in February
and a price of £461 was accepted.17
The hall was located at the southern end of the upper barracks site,
between the AASC drill hall and the infantry drill hall. A simple timber
building raised on stumps with a gabled corrugated iron roof, the hall
was completed in November 1928. As the collected funds had risen to
more than £500, the balance of the money was given to the 49th Battalion's
commander for the purchase of furniture. Additional funds were used to
construct a bathroom extension in 1933.18
The onset of the Great Depression by 1930 meant that funds for the
expansion of Kelvin Grove were severely restricted. Instead of new
construction, existing buildings such as the Royal Australian Engineers
(RAE) drill hall at Toowong (constructed in 1916) were relocated to
Kelvin Grove in 1934. This building was located at the southern end of
the site near the AASC drill hall.19
The drill hall comprised a large drill room space plus rooms for a
sergeant's mess, clothing store, company office, general office,
commanding officer and adjutant's office and an officer's mess, and
resembled the infantry building in plan. Because of the sloping ground
where the building was to be re-erected, it was positioned on reinforced
concrete stumps which were infilled to create a basement level. A wagon
park, harness room, a cordage room and a technical room were added
within this basement. Mounted on the grass outside the building was the
Belgian 5.9 inch gun that had been captured at Pozieres in France during
World War I by the Queensland 9th Battalion, and subsequently shipped
back to Australia as a war trophy.
Also during 1934, living quarters were constructed for the Army staff
officer permanently based at Kelvin Grove. As a large military centre
containing drill halls and establishments for artillery, engineers, signals,
infantry and remounts the need for a staff officer based at Kelvin Grove
was strong.20 A substantial timber building, the officer’s quarters
comprised three bedrooms, a servant's bedroom, a dining room, a kitchen
with a separate pantry room, a storeroom with verandahs on three sides.
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
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16
The building was constructed on Blamey Street, and set back some
distance from the corner of Victoria Park Road.21
In 1935, an addition was made between the artillery drill hall and brigade
office for a Field Artillery officer's mess, converting the two separate
buildings into a single structure. In 1937, the Frank Moran Memorial
Hall was transferred to the Defence Department. It was at that time
being used as a sergeants’ mess.
The lower part of the barracks site remained undeveloped during much
of this period. The Defence Department had leased any unused land for
grazing from the early 1920s. Fences and one or two sheds were built on
some of these areas by lessees. However the demands of the riding
school were increasing, and in 1933 the Defence Department Secretary
observed that military activities were rapidly increasing at Kelvin Grove
and grazing land was required for the remounts.22 As the funds raised
from leasing were never large leases were not renewed, and the riding
school resumed control of these areas in late 1934.
In February 1938, the first additions in three years occurred to the
physical layout of the Kelvin Grove Military Reserve. The engineers had
relocated to former Toowong drill hall, and in turn the Army Signals
Corps had moved into the former engineer's depot. A two storey wing
was added to the southern side of this building, at right angles to the
original structure, giving it an L-shaped form. Included in this new wing
were a drill space, a clothing store, a technical store and workshop, an
ante-room, an officer's mess, an office, and a sergeant's mess.
In May 1939, the infantry drill hall was altered. The building was being
used at the time by the Queensland 61st Battalion. Also known as the
Cameron Highlanders, the 61st Battalion had its kilts and other Scottish
regalia paid for by money raised by public subscriptions and not the
Department of Defence. A skillion-roofed extension was made to the
north, thus giving the building an irregular shape. A fire hut was also
moved to a location behind this drill hall.
In May 1939 a new lavatory block featuring a female toilet was erected
under the Signals Corps depot (former Engineer’s depot). One of the
closets behind the AASC drill hall was converted into a cookhouse, and
the disinfector building was renamed the fumigator building. A wireless
hut was added to the north of the Signals Corps depot, and a combined
social and lecture hall was constructed at the site.
THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 and Australia, along with
Great Britain, declared war on Germany two days later. One of the first
units to be mobilised at Kelvin Grove was the 5th Field Regiment.23 By 13
September 1939, the 42nd and the 43rd Artillery Batteries assembled in the
8
Training at the Kelvin Grove site in 1939.
[Australian War Memorial Neg P01485.013]
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artillery drill hall, and the 105th and 111th Artillery Batteries assembled at
the two gun parks. That same month the first motor transport arrived for
the batteries' 18 pounder guns and 4.5 inch howitzers. The 9/49th Signals
Unit and the 61st Battalion were based at the infantry drill hall, while the
Signals Corps, the RAE and the AASC were also at Kelvin Grove.
During the first 12 months of the war, two more buildings were
constructed at the barracks. The Army was in the process of converting
from horse to motorised transport when the war began, and plans for a
garage and workshops building for the servicing of AASC vehicles were
prepared in November 1939. While the building was completed some
time later its precise date of completion is unknown. The US Army was
thought to have been involved. The building was occupied by the
Brisbane Area Workshops of the Australian Electrical and Mechanical
Engineers (AEME), and the AEME radar section.
9
A series of vehicles parked outside the garage
and workshop building during World War II.
[Australian War Memorial Neg 126641]
The other permanent addition to the site during World War II was the
School for Linesmen-in-Training. The building was first proposed by the
Post Master General’s Department in 1938, and the Kelvin Grove site was
chosen as it had tram access and was central (and was owned by the
Commonwealth). To link the school with the military, the PMG offered
to run training classes for militia units based at Kelvin Grove.
In December 1940 plans were prepared for the school’s construction. A
two storey building, timber framed and sheeted with fibrous cement, the
school featured a lecture room, lines room and work room on the first
floor, with ancillary rooms on the ground floor. Tenders for construction
were called in December 1940, and the building was completed by July
1941 at a cost of £2,961. The building was positioned on the still
undeveloped lower barracks area to the north of the site.24
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On 22 December 1941, the first US troops arrived in Brisbane on four
ships escorted by the US heavy cruiser Pensacola. The parade ground
area at the upper barracks site was made level by the US Army, whose
headquarters of the United States Army Services of Supply South Pacific
Area (USASOS) was located across the road in Victoria Park. When the
Americans filled in the parade ground, the alterations made to the
topography of the site created the sunken road that runs past the
relocated Toowong drill hall.
During the war the amenities section of headquarters, Northern
Command was located in the Frank Moran Memorial Hall. The Signals
Corps conducted training from their depot, while the service drill hall
was used as the offices of the Area Officer, Metropolitan Composite Area.
The artillery drill hall was used as an Australian Army Provost Corps
headquarters. Military police had taken over the riding school, and
converted it into an emergency detention compound. Apparently the
mess in the Signals Corps depot was one of the few places in wartime
Brisbane where a Violet Crumble chocolate bar could be purchased.25
Apart from the permanent additions to the barracks site, many
temporary buildings were also constructed. Plans show a large number
of temporary buildings around the existing buildings in both the upper
and lower barracks areas. The staff officer’s quarters in the lower
barracks was adapted for use as the 2nd Australian Commander Royal
Engineers (CRE), while the land surrounding the house housed a Royal
Australian Engineers (Maintenance) camp containing 27 buildings.
These were probably standard prefabricated structures of the World War
II period, constructed of timber and masonite with fibro sheeting. The
remainder of the reserve, on the eastern part of the site near Victoria Park
Road was used as a Signals Corps camp.
10
The former Toowong Drill Hall was relocated
to the Kelvin Grove site in the 1930s and was
utilised during World War II. [Australian War
Memorial 086793, 086796]
11
A plan of the site during World War II showing
the yet to be developed Lower Barracks portion.
[National Archives of Australia]
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The upper and lower barracks areas were connected by a sloping dirt
road, and a long line of steep steps. These steps were nicknamed the
‘Golden Stairs’ by the troops – a wry reference to the steepest section of
the Kokoda Track of the same name.26
REGULARS
AND RESERVES
Immediate post-war activities at the Kelvin Grove Military Reserve saw
the demobilisation of the returning soldiers and the disposal of surplus
stores. While waiting to be ‘demobbed’, soldiers assisted with the
disposal of stores and carried out work on related military projects.
In 1947 a large number of buildings surplus to Army requirements were
sold, predominantly in the RAE Maintenance Company and Signals
Camp areas in the lower barracks. This was partly to wind down defence
operations, but it was also an attempt by the Commonwealth to deal with
the post-war housing shortage. The nearby Brisbane North Intermediate
School used Army land off Maidstone Street for a temporary playground
as there was little open space in the suburb.
The military had not been prepared for war in 1939, a salutary lesson for
all concerned. As a result, the Australian Government conducted a
major reshaping of the Australian Army in the immediate post-war
period. No longer was the nation to be defended by a part-time army
that was supplemented by a small core of professionally trained staff
officers.
In September 1947 the Australian Regular Army was created. It was
planned to have 19,000 full-time soldiers serving in the new 1st Infantry
Brigade, 1st Armoured Regiment plus ancillary troops.27 The Australian
Military Forces (militia) were renamed the Citizens Military Forces
(CMF), with the state’s CMF battalions allotted to the Royal Queensland
Regiment (RQR). In 1951, the National Service Scheme was introduced
which required all 18 year old Australian males to register for six months
compulsory full-time military training together with a further period of
part-time service.
In 1948 the Kelvin Grove Military Reserve became the Kelvin Grove
Training Area. From April 1948, the AASC drill hall became the
headquarters of the 7th Brigade (CMF). This brigade brought with it to
Kelvin Grove its ancillary units, a composite anti-aircraft regiment, the
11th Field Construction Squadron, an RAE Maintenance Company, an
AASC Canteen unit, the 5th Field Regiment, plus the 9th Infantry Battalion
(RQR). The 9th Battalion (RQR) established its headquarters in the former
Toowong drill hall, and was also accommodated in part of the AASC
drill hall. The 9th (RQR) Officers’ Mess moved into the Frank Moran
Memorial Hall. The 11th Field Construction Squadron was based in the
lower barracks while the 5th Field regiment (artillery) moved into the
former artillery drill hall.
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While the Defence Department had disposed of many of the temporary
wartime structures within the barracks area, it sought to develop the site
as a major CMF training centre in Brisbane. The Army wanted the School
for Linesmen-in-Training building as one of the first steps towards the
post-war development of the site. But the PMG had other ideas and
wished to expand its facilities at Kelvin Grove by acquiring the former
riding school. This proposal was rejected by the Army in 1947, which
advised the PMG that:
…the whole of the area at Kelvin Grove will be required for future
Citizens Military Force training and it is requested that the existing lease
be terminated as at 9th February, 1949 and that the two storey building be
handed over to this Department without financial adjustment.28
However the PMG did not leave the Kelvin Grove site until 1950, when it
relocated to new premises at Chermside. The Army acquired £40 worth
of PMG equipment for the use of the signals units based at the barracks,
and moved into the former school building in January 1951.
New buildings were required for the upgrading of the Kelvin Grove site
as a CMF training centre. To save costs, it was proposed to relocate
existing buildings to the lower barracks area from army camps at
Chermside and Wacol, to form new engineers’ and signals’ depots. The
old riding school was demolished as part of this work. A weatherboard
assembly hall was built for both the engineers and signals. These depots
were completed in 1953, and to delineate the Depot areas, the engineers’
buildings were painted blue and the signals buildings painted brown. In
November 1953 the sealing of the dirt road that connected the upper and
lower barracks areas of the site was authorised.
During the 1950s and 1960s the lower barracks area was divided between
various engineers and signals units in this manner. The signals depot
was occupied by the 140th Signals Squadron of the 4th Signals Regiment,
while the engineers’ depot housed the 11th Field Squadron RAE, the 20th
Command Engineers (Works) and the 28th Field Park Squadron and their
heavy construction equipment. The headquarters of the 5th Cadet
Brigade, that controlled all the school cadet units situated in Brisbane and
surrounding districts, was located in the former School for Linesmen.
While this activity was taking place in the lower barracks, the upper
barracks maintained its links with artillery. The Coastal Base Battery was
accommodated there, training at Cowan Cowan on Moreton Island on
World War II gun emplacements. A 6 inch gun, reputed to have come
from the light cruiser HMAS Sydney, was positioned behind the
engineers’ drill hall at this time.
But the major problem for the barracks site was its lack of space for the
further expansion of buildings or other training facilities. The reason
12
McCaskie Park in the 1950s and the relocated
military buildings to the right. [JOL]
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why Kelvin Grove was chosen in 1910, its close proximity to the centre of
Brisbane, had by the 1950s become the very reason why the site had
become so crowded.
Various schemes were tried to obtain land surrounding the barracks. An
additional two acres was purchased from the Queensland government in
September 1953, and in the early 1960s part of a road reserve was
acquired from Queensland government. An exchange of Army land for
privately owned land to make the Barracks site more symmetrical was
also effected. In the 1960s five houses were constructed in Blamey Street
as married quarters, near the staff officer’s quarters. This latter building
was however removed from its site in 1974 and relocated to Witton
Barracks in Indooroopilly.
During the 1960s the Australian Army began to rename many of its
establishments after prominent battles. While the Enoggera Barracks was
renamed Gallipoli Barracks, the Kelvin Grove Barracks was renamed
Gona Barracks. Gona was a Church of England mission on the north
coast of Papua captured by the Japanese during World War II. The Battle
of Gona lasted from 16 November to 9 December 1942, when the
Japanese were finally defeated by troops from the AIF's 25th and 21st
Brigades.
Into the 1970s and 1980s military use of the barracks site consolidated.
The site accommodated many different types of Army units including
specialist medical units. In more recent years Gona Barracks developed
into the centre for Army recruitment in south-east Queensland for both
reserves and the regular army.
DISPOSAL
OF THE BARRACKS
In the 1990s the Department of Defence embarked on a nationwide
rationalisation of its properties, including Gona Barracks.
In 1994, the units at the Barracks included the headquarters of the 7th
Brigade, the 140th Signal Squadron, the 2nd Transport Squadron, the 1st
Field Dental Unit, the 7th Base Area Support Brisbane (BASB), and the 9th
Battalion of the Royal Queensland Regiment. The units based at Gona
Barracks were dispersed to other Army bases. By 1995 the 2nd Transport
Squadron relocated to Meeandah, and most other units moved to new
facilities constructed at Enoggera.
In September 1995 the petrol bowser at Building A51 closed and its two
petrol storage tanks emptied. In late 1996, it was proposed to relocate the
Frank Moran Memorial Hall to Enoggera. The museum itself had
already shifted to Enoggera. In 1997 the war memorial outside the
engineers’ depot was deconsecrated and its flagpole sent out to the Royal
Australian Regiment Memorial Walk and Contemplation Building at
Enoggera.
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The last units to leave Gona Barracks were the 21st and 11th Psychology
Units, the 1st Army Recruitment Unit and the 1st Army Reserve
Recruitment Unit. In October 1998, Gona Barracks main gates on Kelvin
Grove Road were officially closed, in the process ending the Kelvin
Grove site’s long involvement with Australian part-time soldiers.
In 1998 the Commonwealth Department of Defence commissioned a
number of studies of Gona Barracks prior to the sale of the site. A
(European) cultural heritage analysis found that the site contained
buildings and other elements of cultural heritage significance.
2.2
THE
URBAN VILLAGE
The former Gona Barracks site provided a large area of land suitable for
redevelopment quite close to the centre of Brisbane.
The Queensland Department of Housing acquired the barracks site from
the Department of Defence for the development of an “urban village”,
13
Site plan of 1998 just prior to the disposal
of the site. [Department of Defence]
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containing both public and private housing and a retail core,
incorporating the former barracks site and also adjacent land. The
presence of the Kelvin Grove campus of the Queensland University of
Technology to the north-east allowed for a co-operative approach to the
redevelopment of the site. The extension of the university’s activities into
the barracks site was seen as a logical outcome.
In March 2000 the Environmental Protection Agency provisionally
entered the former Gona Barracks site (both the upper and lower
barracks areas) in the Queensland Heritage Register. An objection was
made to the provisional entry and an assessor was appointed to inquire
into the objection.
The government commissioned a master plan of the urban village site to
guide its proposed development, which involved the redevelopment of
the former barracks and the construction of new buildings within this site
and on adjacent areas.
DEMOLITION
Negotiations between the various government departments and
interested parties saw the removal of the lower barracks part of the site
from the register entry. The reduced area of the former barracks site was
permanently entered in the Queensland Heritage Register in December
2002.
The lower barracks area was cleared and all buildings were demolished
or removed. Site levels were altered to facilitate areas for redevelopment,
and a series of new roads were formed to link the site with adjoining
areas.
In the upper barracks area some buildings were demolished, including
the former engineers’ drill hall, one of the gun parks and the infill
building between the artillery drill hall and brigade office. Several
smaller ancillary structures were also demolished and including latrines,
petrol stores and similar buildings dating from the World War II period.
CREATIVE
INDUSTRIES
The northern end of the upper barracks area has been redeveloped as a
‘Creative Industries Precinct’ (CIP) by the Queensland University of
Technology. Opening in February 2004, the CIP incorporates the former
artillery drill hall and brigade office, and one of the former gun parks.
Teaching spaces and administrative facilities have been installed in these
buildings.
New buildings have been constructed to provide additional
accommodation for the CIP, on the sites of the second gun park and
engineers’ drill hall, and opposite the artillery drill hall. Part of the latter
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building was demolished and an extension made to it of a larger
footprint and volume. These new buildings in effect form an enclosure to
this side of the parade ground and help define the eastern edge of the
upper barracks.
2.3
THE
EARLY BUILDINGS
Despite the demolition that has occurred with the redevelopment of the
wider site a number of early buildings remain in the upper barracks of
the former Gona Barracks. These are briefly discussed below.
Building numbers from the military occupation of the site are used for
reference and identification.
FORMER
INFANTRY DRILL HALL
14
A plan showing the configuration of the Gona
Barracks site in 2004, with the newly
constructed buildings for the Creative
Industries precinct together with the remaining
military buildings. [Allom Lovell]
(A25)
This was the first building constructed at the barracks site, in June 1914,
just prior to the outbreak of World War I. Constructed as an infantry
drill hall, it was also used as a lecture room for the services corps, and as
headquarters for the 49th Battalion and the 61st Battalion (Cameron
Highlanders). After World War II it was used by Headquarters Group of
Northern Command and later 7th Brigade.
The building was a standard drill hall for the period, timber framed and
sheeted in corrugated iron. Originally the elevation towards the parade
ground was opened but has since been infilled with timber boards.
15
The former infantry drill hall (A25). [Allom
Lovell]
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Similarly the original asphalt floor has since been laid with concrete.
Additions have been made to each end of the building, but apart from
these extensions the building is quite intact. The building is currently
empty and its future use is not known at this stage.
FORMER
SERVICES DRILL HALL
(A16)
This building was constructed in 1915 as part of the original development
of the site for training of the services corps, who transported
ammunition, food and other supplies in the field. Later the building was
the headquarters of Northern Command and more recently the
headquarters of 7th Brigade and 9th Battalion of the Royal Queensland
Regiment.
A single storey timber framed and clad structure with a two storey height
central section (the former drill room), the building was not a standard
drill hall design for the period. Aluminium awnings have been applied
to the exterior while steel doors have replaced earlier timber doors,
although some original fenestration survives. Internally changes have
been substantial with new partitions and ceilings constructed although
some early fabric survives.
The building is currently empty and its future use is not known at this
stage.
16
The former services drill hall (A16) on the left
and the Frank Moran memorial hall
(A21).[Allom Lovell]
THE FRANK MORAN
MEMORIAL HALL
(A21)
This building was constructed in 1928 as a memorial to the local soldier
Frank Moran and was administered by a local committee before being
transferred to the Department of Defence in the late 1930s. It became a
sergeants’ mess and after the war was the officers’ mess for the 9th
Battalion Royal Queensland Regiment.
The building is single storey timber framed and clad with a gabled roof
sheeted in corrugated steel. A skillion roof addition has been constructed
at the rear of the building.
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
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The building is currently empty and its future use is not known at this
stage.
FORMER
GARAGE AND WORKSHOP BUILDING
(A26)
This building was constructed in about 1941-3 during the Second World
War, as a motor vehicle garage and workshop for the servicing of
services corps vehicles. After the war it was used as 7th Brigade’s
transport unit and later as a quartermaster store.
A large single storey building set on a concrete base, the garage and
workshop building has a distinctive saw tooth roof profile. The building
has been modified as part of the redevelopment of the site, the existing
internal partitions, linings and fixtures were removed and new partitions
installed, while the exterior has been modified only slightly with the steel
sliding doors to the parade ground retained.
While not officially part of the Creative Industries Precinct this building
is currently being used as workshops and storage by sections of QUT. It
is known as Building G2 at the campus.
FORMER
DINING ROOM
17
The former garage and workshop building
(A26).[Allom Lovell]
(A31)
This building was constructed in the late 1930s, its precise date of
construction unknown. It appears to have been used as a dining and
lecture room and later as a social or recreational hall. More recently the
building was used for army recruiting in Brisbane and for medicals.
A single storey low set building, the former dining room was constructed
of timber with a gabled roof sheeted in corrugated iron. The building has
been severely modified since original construction with additional wings
to the east and west and the replacement of early doors and windows,
wall and ceiling linings.
The building is currently empty and its future use is not known at this
stage.
FORMER
BRIGADE OFFICE
18
The former dining room (A31).[Allom Lovell]
(C39)
This building was constructed in 1915 as part of the early development of
the site. Constructed for the artillery, this building was used as a brigade
office for the 3rd Field Artillery. During the Second World War the
building was the headquarters for the provost corps and later by the 5th
Field Regiment.
Constructed of timber the building is two storeys in height with single
storey flanking wings. Originally the building featured harness rooms,
storage space and offices on the ground floor with a lecture room
occupying the whole of the first floor, with access to the first floor via
19
The former Brigade Office (C39). [Allom
Lovell]
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timber staircases at the rear of the building. In 1935 an extension was
made to the east to connect the building to the adjacent drill hall/gun
park.
The building is part of the QUT Creative Industries Precinct and has been
modified for that purpose. The 1935 infill building was demolished.
Most partitions and fixtures internally were removed and new fit outs
installed to both floors providing space for administrative offices and
meeting rooms. Roller shutters to the parade ground elevation were
removed and replaced with fixed glazing.
On the northern side of the building (the rear elevation) parts of the
original timber wall and an early timber staircase were demolished and a
new concrete wall constructed, to mitigate impacts of noise from the
neighbouring site and to provide additional enclosed space for a new
internal stair.
The building is part of QUT Creative Industries Precinct and is known as
Z4, or ‘The Hut’.
FORMER
ARTILLERY DRILL HALL
(C39)
This building was constructed in 1915 as part of the early development of
the site as an artillery drill hall. Shortly afterwards it was used as a gun
park for the artillery; indeed in its form and appearance the building was
almost identical to the other gun parks on the site, single storey
constructed of timber with a gabled roof, and a large central space and
rooms at each end.
The building was used for many years by the artillery. In 1935 an
addition was made to connect it with the adjacent brigade office.
Changes were made to the interior over time with new walls and
suspended ceilings inserted. Slight alterations were made to the external
elevations.
The building is part of the QUT Creative Industries Precinct and has been
modified for that purpose. The interior has been largely removed while a
part of the building to the north-east was completely demolished and
replaced with a new volume inserted into the building fabric and
extending beyond the original footprint and height. This exhibition hall
is clearly detailed and expressed as a modern addition. The remainder of
the building provides studio space, teaching and storage facilities and
has been fitted out with new partitions and services.
The existing double doors to the central section were retained and fixed
in an open position with new glazing installed behind, maintaining the
relationship between the drill hall and the parade ground.
The building has been re-roofed with a ‘sandwich’ system installed that
allows a reduction in heat load but maintains the existing external and
20
Former artillery drill hall (C39).[Allom Lovell]
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
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internal appearance. The original steel roof framing remains visible
internally throughout much of the building.
The building is known as Z3 or ‘The Shed’.
FORMER
GUN PARK
(C33)
This building was constructed in 1915 as part of the original development
of the site for the storage of guns used for artillery training for the 3rd
Field Artillery Brigade. It has also accommodated an ordnance store,
111th Artillery Battery and 5th Field Regiment, while more recently it
housed the 9th Battalion War Memorial Museum.
A single storey timber building on a concrete base, the former gun park
had a large open space in the centre of the building for gun storage with
rooms either side for offices, harness and store rooms.
The building is part of the QUT Creative Industries Precinct and has been
modified for that purpose. Internally most early partitions have been
removed and new layout installed for studio and teaching spaces, while
mezzanine floors at each end of the building house air conditioning
plant. The building exterior is largely unaltered – many existing doors
and windows were retained but have been permanently fixed. The roller
shutters to the eastern elevation to the parade ground (not original) have
been removed and replaced.
21
The former Gun Park (C33). [Allom Lovell]
This building too has been re-roofed with a ‘sandwich’ system installed
that allows a reduction in heat load but maintains the existing external
and internal appearance. The original roof framing remains visible
internally.
The early drinking fountain at the southern end of the building was
retained, together with the door stops on the eastern side of the building
and the hitching rails to the west.
The building is now known as Z5 or ‘Shed 2’.
FORMER TOOWONG
DRILL HALL
(A3)
This building was constructed as an infantry hall in 1915 and originally
located in Toowong. It was relocated to Kelvin Grove in 1934 and was
used for training of militia signallers. The building has had many other
uses and in the last years of Gona Barracks accommodated specialist
medical units.
The building is timber framed and sheeted in corrugated iron and was a
standard drill hall design for this period. While single storey originally
the building now has a part-basement level, sitting on concrete stumps
and bearers with infill of corrugated iron sheeting. Alterations have been
made internally with the installation of partitions.
22
Former Toowong Drill Hall (A3). [Allom
Lovell]
FORMER GONA BARRACKS
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The building is currently empty and its future use is not known at this
stage.
ANCILLARY
BUILDINGS
A series of small storerooms, former latrines and other buildings also
survive in places in the upper barracks. The artificers’ workshop (C34)
and storeroom (C56) at the northern end of the site remain and are part of
the Creative Industries Precinct.
Other ancillary buildings are as follows:
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
A4 – a single storey metal clad former armoury.
A14 – an open steel shelter.
A18 – a concrete block latrine.
A19 – a timber latrine abutting A16.
A23 – a corrugated iron clad latrine at the southern end of A25.
A24 – a corrugated iron clad store at the southern end of A25.
A29 – a recent timber clad latrine between A26 and A31.
A30 – a corrugated iron clad storeroom between A26 and A31.
THE
23
The former artificer’s workshop (C34) and
storeroom (C56). [Allom Lovell]
PARADE GROUND
The parade ground still survives as a space although substantially
altered. Most of the parade ground has been relevelled and new paving
laid to create a broad corridor/plaza. Part of the area has been gazetted
as road space. The placement of new buildings within the site has been
carried out in such a manner that views of the early buildings have been
maintained from each end. Small interpretation plaques are set within
the ground surface in places throughout the upper barracks area, telling
in part the story of the former barracks site.
2.4
VEGETATION
While many trees and shrubs have been removed with the initial stage of
redevelopment of the former Gona Barracks some early vegetation has
survived within the site.
Few records of planting were retained over the years and the site
contains a variety of endemic, planted and self-seeded trees and shrubs
that have been developed over time. Trees have occurred sporadically
and in groups, while some gardens were planted in association with
buildings.
A surviving fig tree along the Kelvin Grove Road alignment near the
former dining room (A31) is a remnant vegetation on the site. A series of
jacarandas and silky oaks (among other trees) survive along the road
between the former Toowong drill hall and the engineers’ drill hall (now
24
Part of the former parade ground space. [Allom
Lovell]
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demolished). These may have been planted in the interwar period in
association with the relocation of the Toowong drill hall to Kelvin Grove.
elms, jacarandas and umbrella trees define the boundaries of the site at
this southern end.
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3
UNDERSTANDING CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
T
he special values and attributes of the former Gona Barracks, its
aesthetic, historic and social values and importantly what the place
means to the Brisbane community and the state of Queensland as a whole
is in essence its cultural significance.
3.1
CULTURAL
SIGNIFICANCE
Cultural significance is the term used to embrace the range of qualities
that make some places especially important to the community, over and
above their basic utilitarian function. These places are usually those that
help understand the past, enrich the present, and that will be of value to
future generations.
The Burra Charter of Australia ICOMOS defines cultural significance as
aesthetic, historic, scientific or social value for past, present, and future
generations.29 This has become the commonly accepted definition of
cultural significance within conservation practice in this country.
Heritage legislation generally acknowledges and accepts the Burra
Charter definition of cultural significance. The Queensland Heritage Act
1992 contains eight criteria of cultural heritage significance that are used
to assess places for possible registration; an identified place has to satisfy
just one of these criteria to be entered in that register. The BCC Heritage
Register Planning Scheme Policy contains eight criteria of cultural
heritage significance to assess places of local heritage significance. These
criteria are quite similar to those in the Queensland Heritage Act 1992;
again a place has to satisfy only one of these criteria to be entered in the
schedule.
3.2
ANALYSIS
The former Gona Barracks is merely one example of a defence facility
constructed and developed over time by the Commonwealth
government.
MILITARY
BARRACKS
During the convict period in Moreton Bay British imperial forces were
stationed in the town, in charge of the penal settlement. Military
barracks were constructed in the 1830s in the block bounded by Queen,
George, Elizabeth and William Streets.
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The penal colony of Moreton Bay closed in 1842 and soon after the
Imperial troops were withdrawn from Brisbane. A detachment of British
troops arrived in Brisbane in 1861 and were permanently stationed in the
town, responsible for the defence of the colony. The colonial government
provided accommodation and facilities for these soldiers with the
construction of Victoria Barracks on Petrie Terrace from the mid 1860s.
Their salaries were paid by the British government, although the colonial
government paid ‘capitation’ rates to the Imperial government based on
the numbers of soldiers in the town. The barracks complex comprised a
number of buildings providing accommodation for the soldiers, for
officers, a guard room and facilities for training. These buildings were
predominantly two storey buildings, constructed of masonry with
corrugated iron roofs. A few years later additional buildings were
constructed on the site including a military hospital, magazine and
further quarters. More buildings were constructed towards the turn of
the century, including magazines and armouries.
But the British troops left the colony again in the early 1870s after it was
decided by the Imperial government that the colonies should take care of
their own defences. The Queensland police moved into the barracks for a
decade or so. After a new building was constructed for use as the police
barracks in Roma Street in the 1880s the Victoria Barracks site was taken
over for use by the Queensland Defence Forces (QDF), the small
permanent force established after the passing of the 1884 legislation that
reorganised the provision of defence in the colony.
Since that time the barracks has retained a strong military presence and
function. The site currently consists of about 25 buildings, the earliest of
which were constructed in the mid 1860s, the more recent were
constructed in the late 1960s. Many buildings were constructed at the
barracks over this 100 year period, meaning that its integrity from a
particular period is relatively weak.
A series of buildings were constructed in the early twentieth century just
prior to the establishment of Kelvin Grove, including stables, an artillery
gun park and administration buildings. Most of these early buildings
however were constructed of brick, and as they were built for the
permanent forces stationed at Victoria Barracks they had different
functional requirements than those buildings at Kelvin Grove.
Enoggera Barracks was established around the same time as the Kelvin
Grove site, but slightly earlier. In 1908 the Commonwealth government
purchased a large site of more than 1,000 acres in Enoggera for the
construction of a rifle range. This rifle range replaced an earlier range at
Toowong used by the Queensland Rifle Association, a club for rifle
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enthusiasts begun in the mid 1870s. There were numbers of these private
rifle clubs in the colonial period in Queensland.
Construction of the rifle range at Enoggera started in 1909, when firing
mounds, targets and shelter sheds were erected. In 1910 the first major
buildings were constructed. These included a school of musketry for
instruction in weapons use and military training, a storage building that
held small arms ammunition, and two magazines for cordite storage.
Other buildings constructed in the next few years were shelter sheds, rifle
rooms, and a caretaker’s cottage. A remount section (providing stables
for horses, a barrack block and stores) was constructed, together with a
number of additional magazines and a laboratory building in the years
just prior to World War I. Some of these magazines reputedly stored the
ammunition used by those units based at Kelvin Grove, which may
explain the absence of such buildings at the latter site.
Once war was declared in mid 1914 Enoggera became the centre for
training for those Queenslanders who joined the first AIF before they
were shipped overseas. Large tent camps were established on the
paddocks of the Enoggera military reserve, but a number of more
permanent buildings were constructed as well for training and
administrative support. Enoggera was the focal point for military
activities in Brisbane during World War I. A hospital was established on
the site, along with other that provided supporting facilities, after the war
for the treatment of returning soldiers. A number of buildings were
constructed in circa 1915 as the barracks for No. 5 Battery RAFA (Royal
Australian Field Artillery).
In the post-war period Enoggera was intensively developed as the major
location for the Regular Army in Brisbane. As a result some of these
buildings from this earlier period of its history have been replaced with
more recent construction. While some of the buildings mentioned above
survive many have been demolished, and the appearance of the
Enoggera Barracks site, renamed Gallipoli Barracks in the 1960s, is that of
relatively recent construction.
It does not have the concentration of World War I period buildings as
does Kelvin Grove. Surviving buildings from the early 1910s period
include the former school of musketry, the small arms store, the remount
section, and a number of magazines. These buildings are generally of
masonry construction except for the remount buildings which are timber.
DRILL
HALLS
The drill hall, a simple building providing a large room for drilling and a
series of supporting offices usually in a flanking wing.
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The history of drill halls is closely related to the history of defence in this
country. Australia has a long history of volunteer defence, and part time
‘citizen’ soldiers. The forces raised to fight both world wars were largely
based on citizen soldiers; in World War I the first AIF (Australian
Imperial Force) was raised entirely from volunteers.
Only since the 1950s has Australia kept a large and permanent defence
force. Before then the defence of the country was largely in the hands of
volunteer forces, or part time ‘citizen’ soldiers, who were supplemented
by small bands of permanent soldiers.30
The tradition of volunteer defence in Queensland can be traced back to
the early days of the colony. In early 1860, only a few months after
separation from New South Wales, two companies of volunteer infantry
and one company of mounted rifles were raised following British
precedent, under the command of the Governor of Queensland Sir
George Bowen. The forces raised were of a local, volunteer nature, with
the colonial government supplying the required weapons and
ammunition, but the volunteers were not paid and would be only if they
were called into action. Training consisted of four hours of drill and
practice each week. A commandant was appointed, together with an
adjutant and drill instructor.
The volunteer movement was not a great success in the 1860s. Annual
expenditure on defence by the colonial government was only a few
hundred pounds for most years in the 1860s and early 1870s. Artillery
batteries were formed around this time after a number of old guns had
been given to the colony from Britain. In 1863 the volunteers had a total
strength of 200 men.
A series of war scares in the late 1870s and an official survey of the
colony’s defences prepared by two military officers (Jervois and
Scratchley) from England forced changes to Queensland’s colonial
defences. In 1884 a Defence Act was passed, completely reorganising the
defence of the colony. The volunteer system was continued but
augmented with additional forces, with the establishment of the first
permanent local force in Queensland. This permanent force, A Battery,
was supported by various companies of militia that were formed across
the colony, created mostly from existing volunteer groups.
The militia existed at a level between the permanent forces and the
volunteers, and were more like ‘part-time’ soldiers. They were required
to attend set hours of drill and military training each week, and expected
to attend the annual encampment. To distinguish them from volunteers
and encourage enrolment the members of the militia groups were paid
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by the government for their service. Below the militia were the
volunteers, who remained unpaid. The permanent force had about 100
members, with a total force of about 900 men across the permanent
forces, militia units and the volunteer groups.
While the permanent forces were housed at Victoria Barracks, the militia
or volunteer forces needed somewhere to receive their military training.
As drilling was often carried out outside of working hours, in the
evening, a covered area or self contained building was required. A series
of ‘drill halls’ were constructed in the main towns of the colony where a
militia unit was established. The drill hall was a building or hall where
the militia troops performed their drill. Inside the hall training could be
carried out in all weather conditions, or at night, while outside the hall a
parade ground was formed for military exercises.31
It would appear that a few drill halls were constructed before this 1884
legislation for the volunteer forces, but records for these buildings are
incomplete and details on their construction are sketchy. It is possible
that such buildings were constructed privately for the volunteers without
government involvement.32
After the passing of the 1884 defence act the government authorised the
construction of a large number of drill halls around the colony. Many
were built in the suburbs of Brisbane, and in the major towns such as
Ipswich, Warwick, Gympie, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and
Cairns. Approximately 30 halls were constructed after 1884 and towards
the turn of the century for the militia units in the cities and towns.
These colonial drill halls shared some basic similarities. They were
predominantly constructed of timber, reflecting local tradition and
vernacular, and set on low stumps. The halls were generally rectangular
in plan, and consisted of a main single space that acted as the drill room,
with a number of offices opening from this room along one side. The
drill room was covered by a curved roof, with a skillion roof over the
offices, the whole sheeted with corrugated iron. The drill halls were
utilitarian buildings with a simple and rather ordinary appearance
befitting their function, with no applied decoration or embellishment.
In 1901 the new Commonwealth of Australia was formed with the
federation of the six Australian colonies. The Commonwealth
government thereafter assumed control of a number of formerly colonial
responsibilities, including defence. At Federation the Australian colonies
had a military force of almost 30,000. However only 1,500 of these were
full-time soldiers, with militia forces making up the remainder. A
defence act was passed in 1903, which did little apart from restrict the
employment of Australian forces on active service overseas to volunteers.
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However, there were increasing calls for the introduction of a system of
compulsory military training, particularly after the Japanese victory over
Russia in 1905.33 In 1907 the Royal Australian Navy was formed, and in
1909 the Minister for Defence, Joseph Cook, made amendments to the
defence act that introduced compulsory military training. In an address
to Federal Parliament in announcing the amendments he stated:
…We have no modern defence organisation...and the sooner we set about
creating a proper organisation, the better it will be for our self respect and
for the safety of our country...we propose to continue the existing
organisation of the militia and to make it our first or striking line.34
Cook proposed to increase the numbers of militia to a great degree. The
Defence Act of 1910 provided for compulsory military training for both
men and boys. Boys from the ages of 12 to 18 would undertake
compulsory drilling, while men from 18 to 20 were to partake in annual
training with the established citizen forces. These men were to register
for two to three weeks’ instruction in rifle shooting, drill and other
military activities.35 By 1911 more than 90,000 men and boys were
registered for military training, with another 20,000 in each of the
following two years. By 1913, prior to the outbreak of World War I,
Australia had a defence force of some note. The militia had grown by
50%, there were 3 regiments of light horse, 20 batteries of field artillery,
and 45 battalions of infantry.36 Expenditure on defence matters in
Australia rose to £3 million in 1910-1; when it had been less than £1
million only five years earlier. Defence factories were established,
predominantly in Victoria, to produce small arms and ammunition. The
Royal Military College at Duntroon was established some years later, in
order to train officers to administer this compulsory training.37
Compulsory military training in peacetime was a significant break with
British traditions, although it had the approval of Field Marshall Lord
Kitchener, the famous British soldier, who wanted to include men up to
25 years old. Most of those registered for service complied with the
scheme, and some of those that joined the first (volunteer) Australian
Imperial Force when war was declared in 1914 had taken part in this
military training.38
As a result of this legislation introducing compulsory military training a
further series of drill halls were commissioned and constructed in towns
across Queensland, from 1910 onwards to handle these new conscripts.
While the buildings were commissioned by the Commonwealth
government, the state government was in most cases responsible for their
construction. The Commonwealth entered into an arrangement with the
states in this early period of Federation whereby the Commonwealth
paid for the construction and maintenance of their buildings but the
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state's architects did the work. It took some time before the
Commonwealth government established many of its own departments of
public service, and in the meantime, the expertise of the states was
utilised.
In Queensland the design and construction of this new batch of drill halls
was undertaken by the Queensland Department of Public Works. This
generation of drill halls followed the basic form of those constructed in
the nineteenth century period. Most known examples were timber
framed and sheeted with corrugated iron, like the infantry drill hall at
Kelvin Grove, although some were constructed of timber. Most
nineteenth century drill halls had curved, iron framed, roofs. Those
constructed for World War I broke with this tradition, with timber
framed gabled roofs. The use of corrugated iron was generally adopted
across the country, as pointed out by the Commonwealth Chief Architect
John Smith Murdoch in 1915:
…the Minister of Defence laid down the principle that we were to put the
cost of drill halls down to bedrock, there being so many required; and
those drill halls are made of wood and iron and are found good enough.39
Both the timber and iron drill halls constructed in Queensland during the
First World War had some basic similarities. The halls were rectangular
in plan, with a main drill room space and a number of offices along one
side, like their 1880s peers. There were differences in size according to
the number of troops they had to accommodate.
There were some variations to this standard plan. The drill halls built at
Townsville and Rockhampton in 1906 and 1907 respectively featured a
separate wing of offices placed at right angles to the drill room. Most
however, followed the standard plan of the main drill room with offices
along one side. Records indicate that about 30 drill halls were
constructed in Queensland in this period leading up to World War I. The
drill halls built at Kelvin Grove for the specialist units were quite unlike
the standard type of drill hall constructed in this period.
The construction of drill halls ceased (for a time) at the end of World War
I. Although compulsory military training continued in the 1920s defence
spending was cut, and the existing buildings were adequate for the
purpose. By the mid 1930s the political situation in Europe began to
worsen and there was a revival of citizen forces. Military budgets
improved from 1935, and by the late 1930s another series of drill halls
were constructed. In the 1950s with the reintroduction of compulsory
military training another series of drill halls were constructed.
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Many drill halls were constructed in Queensland from the 1870s to the
1950s for the training of citizens’ forces. At least 80 are known to have
been constructed. But these were primarily single buildings constructed
in locations relatively isolated from one another.
The construction of a concentrated series of drill halls for infantry,
artillery, engineers and services was not common in this period, and
apparently was not replicated anywhere else in the state. As most units
raised were for infantry (infantry was a more cost-effective method of
defence) most drill halls constructed were for infantry units. These
followed a standard plan similar to that of the infantry drill hall at Kelvin
Grove constructed in 1914. There were a smaller number of drill halls
constructed for the specialist units, for artillery and engineers. There
were also naval drill halls constructed as well. Again, the construction of
drill halls for these various other military units in the one location was
uncommon and no other similar sites in Queensland could be found.
3.3
STATEMENT
OF SIGNIFICANCE
The former Gona Barracks is culturally significant for the evidence it
provides of the establishment of facilities for compulsory military
training in the early 1910s, as a direct result of the legislation passed by
the Commonwealth government in 1910 that facilitated such training.
The construction of the drill halls at the upper barracks and the later
expansion of the site demonstrates the importance of the militia forces in
the preparation of an Australian defence capability. The surviving
buildings demonstrate, in the form and fabric, military technology and
practice at that time and the crucial role played by horses in military
activity. The Kelvin Grove site was one of the main military sites in
Brisbane, and in Queensland, and continued in this capacity until the late
1990s. In more recent years the barracks site was one of the main
recruiting areas for defence personnel, both Regular Army and Army
Reserve. As some of the earliest buildings designed and constructed by
the Commonwealth in Queensland, the buildings represent the evolution
of Commonwealth infrastructure in this state and the extent of the federal
government.
The former Gona Barracks provides evidence of rare aspects of
Queensland’s history and its cultural heritage. While many drill halls
were constructed in Queensland from the 1880s to the 1940s most were
constructed on single sites, for one specific section of military training,
normally infantry. The concentration of a number of drill halls for the
training of infantry, engineers, service corps and artillery in the one site
was unusual in Queensland, and indeed across Australia. Some of the
drill halls at the Kelvin Grove site are rare examples of their type.
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The site demonstrates the principal characteristics of buildings for
military training from the First World War period. The careful and
deliberate placement of the buildings around the large central space of
the parade ground, while not confirmed in the documentary evidence,
demonstrates the military use of and presence at the site.
The site and the surviving buildings have aesthetic value due to the scale
and materials of the buildings and the formal nature of the buildings
being located around the former parade ground space.
The surviving buildings have a strong association with the long-lasting
military occupation and activity at the site, and those people who trained
and served there. The site was a specialist recruiting centre for many
years, particularly for the Army Reserve. Sections of the military that
were associated with the site for many years include 9th Battalion Royal
Queensland Regiment and 7th Brigade. School cadet groups also trained
at the site over the years.
While Frank Moran may not be well known in terms of general
Queensland history his life and death are connected with the barracks
site, both as a site of military activity and as a site previously owned by
the Brisbane Grammar School.
A grammar old boy, Moran was a soldier and trainer of school cadets in
the period just before the outbreak of World War I. Moran joined the AIF
but died at Gallipoli in 1915, and after much discussion, a hall was
constructed in his memory at the barracks in 1928. While not a military
training building as such, this memorial hall nevertheless was situated on
the site in such a way that the formal qualities of the upper barracks area
were maintained, with the formation of building arranged around a
central parade ground space.
The memorial hall itself and the overall barracks site in general has a
special association with Frank Moran, a local Brisbane soldier, cadet
trainer, and grammar school old boy.
EXTENT
OF SIGNIFICANCE
The surviving buildings at the former Gona Barracks are significant as a
group of military buildings arranged around the central parade ground
space.
Not all the buildings are equally significant however. The former dining
room/lecture hall contributes to the group but was constructed at a later
date, while the former Toowong drill hall was relocated to this site and
has been severely altered to suit the topography. These buildings assist
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in an understanding of the site as a military place, and in helping to
define the central parade ground space, but have been so modified that
their cultural significance as part of this group has been irretrievably
damaged.
While the loss of one of the gun parks and the former engineers’ drill hall
has impacted on the heritage value of the buildings as a group, the
surviving buildings still retain their cultural heritage significance.
These buildings are a rare surviving and relatively intact group of
military buildings from this period. They demonstrate the range of
military forces in this period and the extent and commitment of these
forces from the period of the First World War. Some of these buildings
are rare types of buildings as well, and demonstrate earlier methods of
military activity and technology. The Frank Moran Memorial Hall is
significant as a result of its military associations with the site, and as a
memorial to Moran a local soldier and cadet trainer.
Significant buildings at the upper barracks area therefore include:
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3.4
Former services drill hall (A16)
Frank Moran Memorial Hall (A21)
Former infantry drill hall (A25)
Former gun park (formerly C33 – now Z5 of Creative Industries
Precinct)
Former brigade office (formerly C39 – now Building Z4)
Former artillery drill hall (formerly C39 – now part of Building Z3)
Garage/workshop (formerly A26)
Artificer’s store (formerly C34 – now Building Z7).
PREVIOUS
ASSESSMENTS
The former Gona Barracks is entered in the Queensland Heritage Register
of the Environmental Protection Agency and Schedule 1 of the Heritage
Register Planning Scheme Policy of the Brisbane City Council’s City plan
2000.
Both organisations have prepared register entries or heritage citations
that summarise the significant values of the former Gona Barracks site.
The statement of significance in the EPA register entry for this site is as
follows:
The Gona Barracks are important in demonstrating the pattern of
Queensland’s history as evidence of Queensland’s preparations for
military involvement in various world conflicts. Specifically, the Gona
Barracks is associated with the expansion of military training for militia
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forces after the introduction of compulsory military training in 1911, the
provision of facilities for specialist militia units, and the continuation of
voluntary military forces until 1998. The place contains World War I
drill halls built for militia units of infantry, and more specialised groups
such as the artillery, engineers and service corps, and as such
demonstrates the extent of the various sections of the armed forces at the
time and the commitment of the citizen soldiers who comprised these
units. The general size of the barracks site also demonstrates the site’s
early history as the Brisbane Grammar School endowment, from 1879 to
1911.
The World War I era buildings in the upper barracks area of Gona
Barracks demonstrate rare aspects of Queensland’s cultural heritage as
surviving and intact precinct of buildings from this period, and as
examples of the early design of buildings by the Commonwealth. The
concentration of drill halls, and the number of different types of drill halls
for the various services sited at one location was not a common military
practice at the time. The gun parks, services, artillery and engineers drill
halls are rare surviving examples of their type.
Gona Barracks has the potential to yield information that will contribute
to an understanding of Queensland’s history as the World War I
buildings in the upper barracks demonstrate the development of military
technology. The buildings constructed for the artillery, service corps and
engineers demonstrate in their form and room layouts the important role
played by horses in military activity at that time, which was later
supersede by motorised transportation.
Gona Barracks are important in demonstrating the principal
characteristics of a particular class of cultural places, as the layout of the
World War I buildings illustrate the military use of the site. This group of
buildings was carefully and deliberately placed around a central parade
ground area, a practice which was followed in other parts of Australia.
The World War II buildings also demonstrate the principal characteristics
of this type of building, constructed of timber with corrugated iron roofs,
elevated on low stumps.
Gona Barracks are important because of their aesthetic significance. The
character of the landscape, with its steep and varied topography, the
portion of mature introduced vegetation and the connection between this
site and the green belt of Victoria Park, the Kelvin Grove High School and
Queensland University of Technology are aesthetically significant. The
World War I buildings in the upper barracks area are also of aesthetic
significance as a group of similarly scaled buildings constructed of timber,
positioned around a central open space or parade ground area. These
qualities are enhanced by the overall intactness of the exteriors of most of
these buildings.
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Gona Barracks has a special association with a substantial part of
Queensland’s military community. As a military training ground since
the early years of World War I until 1998, thousands of servicemen and
women have an association with the site which has played an active role
during the major periods of defence organisation in this country. In more
recent years, it has functioned as an Army recruiting centre, particularly
for the Army Reserve who were based at the site.
The Brisbane City Council has determined that the former Gona Barracks
is a place of local heritage significance and has aesthetic, historic and
social significance for past, present and future generations, and satisfies
one or more of the criteria used in the assessment of local heritage
significance under the Heritage Register Planning Scheme Policy of the
Brisbane City Plan 2000, as demonstrated by the following statements of
significance:
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As a military part-time army training precinct which dates from 1911 and
which demonstrates the evolution of preparations in Brisbane for military
involvement in various conflicts during the twentieth century. It is
important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of the City’s or
local area’s history; and
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As it is an intact military precinct of some 70 individual buildings which
contains various rare world War I structures such as gun parks sheds,
service buildings and drill halls for the militia’s infantry and specialised
units. Some drill halls include 2 storeys which differentiates them from
many other buildings of a similar nature. It demonstrates rare,
uncommon or endangered aspects of the City’s or local area’s
cultural heritage; and
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For its potential to provide information about the military history of
Brisbane, particularly the World War I period. It has the potential to
yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the
City’s or local area’s history; and
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As it is an intact, military precinct which contains a variety of military
buildings, particularly timber and corrugated iron World War drill halls
used by engineers, signals and artillery units. It is important in
demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of
cultural places; and
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For the aesthetic qualities of the landscaping, vegetation and, particularly
the group of World War I buildings of similar scale and materials which
were designed to fit the difficult terrain of the site. It is important
because of its aesthetic significance; and
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For its association with a substantial number of Brisbane servicemen and
women who undertook part-time military training in the Militia (later the
Reserve) army on the site for much of the twentieth century. It has a
special association with the life or work of a particular person,
group, or organisation of importance in the City’ or local area’s
history.
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4
CONSERVATION POLICY
C
onservation policy guides the development of culturally significant
places. It is not meant to limit or proscribe development, but should
be seen as a mechanism by which change to a site is managed so that
culturally significant values are retained.
4.1
GENERAL
PRINCIPLES
Conservation recommendations begin at the broadest level, providing the
philosophical basis that underpins heritage conservation and the
approach taken in this study to the conservation of cultural significance
of the former Gona Barracks site.
More detailed recommendations regarding the specific issues and
matters pertinent to the conservation of the various parts of the site
follow from these.
THE
BURRA CHARTER
The Burra Charter of Australia ICOMOS is the accepted standard for
heritage conservation in this country. The charter provides the general
philosophies and approaches to heritage conservation for those making
decisions regarding historic buildings or places. The charter has two
fundamental principles:
…
the planning for management of a place of cultural heritage
significance must be based on an understanding of that significance;
and
…
the cultural significance of a place of heritage value is embodied in
the place itself, its fabric, setting, use, associations, meanings, records,
related places and related objects.
Policy 1: Proposed development at the former Gona Barracks site,
whether master planning or capital works should be carried out in
accordance with the accepted principles of the Australia ICOMOS charter
for the conservation of places of cultural significance (the Burra Charter)
and the guidelines to that document.
Policy 2: A combination of these processes will be necessary in the
conservation and future use of the former Gona Barracks.
Adaptation of the buildings and site for any new use or indeed the
preservation of existing uses will no doubt involve maintenance, but also
restoration and reconstruction of some elements.
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ENDORSEMENT
AND REVIEW
It is imperative that those dealing with the buildings, the landscape and
the wider site are made aware of the culturally significant elements
within it and the requirement for the conservation of those elements.
Policy 3: The policies and supporting arguments in this document
should be endorsed by all bodies involved in site planning, development
and approval processes for the site as an appropriate guide to future
development and the significant elements within it.
This conservation management plan will need to be reviewed to reflect
changes to the buildings or the wider site where and when they occur.
Policy 4: This document generally and the conservation policies within it
should be reviewed every five years, before any major development work is
proposed, or after any event that affects significant fabric such as a fire or
some form of natural disaster.
STATUTORY
REQUIREMENTS
The former Gona Barracks site is entered in the Queensland Heritage
Register. Officers from the Environmental Protection Agency (an agency
of the Queensland government) will be involved in the deliberations on
the care and conservation of the buildings and site.
Proposed development of the site is subject to the provisions of the
Queensland Heritage Act 1992 and the Integrated Planning Act 1997. The
term “development” in the Heritage Act means development as defined
in the IPA and includes any of the following:
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Carrying out building work;
Carrying out plumbing or drainage work;
Carrying out operational work;
Reconfiguring a lot;
Making a material change of use of premises.
Development of a heritage registered place must be assessed and
approved by the Queensland Heritage Council using the Integrated
Development Assessment System (IDAS) under the IPA.
Section 35 of the Heritage Act allows for owners of sites to apply for an
exemption certificate to carry out certain types of development. Further,
Section 39 of the Heritage Act allows for owners of sites entered in the
Queensland Heritage Register to enter into heritage agreements that
attach to the land and are binding on the owner, and may specify
development that may be carried out at the site.
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The companion document to this conservation management plan, the
heritage management protocol for the Creative Industries Precinct, gives
some guidance to future changes that may take place at that part of the
site and the approvals processes required for such changes. It has been
prepared to form part of a heritage agreement between the Queensland
University of Technology and the Minister for the Environmental
Protection Agency.
The site is also entered in Schedule 1 of the Heritage Register Planning
Scheme Policy of the Brisbane City Plan 2000, the planning scheme for
Brisbane City Council. Proposed development will also need to satisfy
the provisions of the Heritage Place Code and the performance criteria of
that document.
The Kelvin Grove Urban Village has been developed in general
accordance with the master plan prepared for the site by Hassell
Architects. While the Queensland Heritage Council approved the master
plan in February 2001, development or construction within the site will
still require heritage approval from the Queensland Heritage Council.
Policy 5: Proposed work at the former Gona Barracks should be conceived
and developed with due regard to the statutory requirements at this site,
the approved master plan and the heritage management protocol for the
Creative Industries Precinct.
SCOPE
OF POLICIES
These policies do not address the new buildings constructed as part of
the QUT Creative Industries Precinct. Although within the heritage
registered area of the former Gona Barracks these buildings themselves
are not culturally significant.
Issues of extensions or alterations to these buildings and their impact on
the early military buildings are dealt with elsewhere in this chapter and
in the heritage management protocol.
4.2
APPROACH
The approach to the conservation of a site of cultural heritage significance
varies according to its particular circumstances. Not every significant
place is significant for the same reasons. Some degree of flexibility in
approach is therefore possible, or even desirable.
The former Gona Barracks site can be seen in two parts – the buildings
that have been adapted as part of the QUT Creative Industries Precinct at
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the northern end, and the remainder of the early buildings that still await
redevelopment and incorporation into the wider Kelvin Grove Urban
Village, that are grouped around the southern end of the site.
Restoration, reconstruction and adaptation have taken place at those
early military buildings – the former artillery drill hall, the brigade office,
and one of the gun parks – that comprise the QUT Creative Industries
Precinct. The engineers’ drill hall and a second gun park were
demolished as part of the site redevelopment and new buildings
constructed on these sites. While not officially part of the Creative
Industries Precinct the garage and workshop building has been adapted
and used for these purposes.
The approach followed in the adaptation of these buildings has been
slightly different to other conservation projects. Some radical
interventions into the historic fabric have been tempered by conservation
in other areas and the retention of individual objects (such as the former
drinking fountain and door stops) from the military period. On balance
the result in conservation terms has been a good one and the former
military buildings have been adapted in a way that successfully
integrates the old with the new, the early building fabric with modern
requirements for educational uses, and the sense of the former parade
ground surrounded by buildings has been retained.
Policy 6: The precedent established by the former barracks buildings
now occupied and used by QUT should be followed in the future
redevelopment of the remaining buildings in the southern part of the site.
Conservation of these buildings may best be achieved through adaptation
of the existing fabric and modification to a new use.
The following buildings are not part of the Creative Industries Precinct
and remain in largely the same state as they were when the military last
occupied the site:
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
Former Toowong drill hall (A3)
Former services drill hall (A16)
Frank Moran Memorial Hall (A21)
Former infantry drill hall (A25)
Former dining room (A31)
Armoury (A4)
Latrines (A18, A19, A23, A29)
Storerooms (A24, A30)
Generally these are simple timber (or galvanised iron) buildings, with
timber ceilings and walls and some early doors and windows. They
feature little external or internal detailing or elements of significance such
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as timber joinery, plaster or pressed metal ceilings, applied decoration
and the like. The buildings have little in the way of architectural or
aesthetic significance as individual structures; their significance mainly
relates to their historical attributes and representative values as examples
of military buildings.
Policy 7: Some scope may exist for new construction in association with
the existing buildings. New work to these buildings should be clearly
distinguishable from early fabric, and designed and inserted in a confident
manner, but respecting the scale and form of the existing buildings.
These policies are not intended to give licence to ill-considered work.
New work should be clearly expressed as such and carefully and
consistently designed.
4.3
CONSERVATION
OF BUILDING FABRIC
Within this approach some elements of early or original buildings fabric
of these remaining buildings should be retained and conserved as
significant fabric.
Policy 8: The basic structure and form of the buildings (wall and roof
framing, floors and ceilings) yet to be developed should be retained. Early
wall claddings, sheeting or linings should be retained.
Policy 9: Original and early doors and windows to these buildings
should be retained. They may be fixed closed and reglazed if necessary.
Policy 10: Early timber framed and lined internal partitions should be
retained. If reworking of interiors is proposed enough of the early
partitions should be retained to indicate in part the early floor plans of the
buildings.
Policy 11: Later accretions such as awnings, roller doors, internal
fittings, suspended ceilings, floor finishes and the like should be removed.
4.4
ADAPTATION
OF BUILDING FABRIC
The development of the QUT Creative Industries Precinct demonstrates
that the former military buildings at the southern end of the site are
capable of adaptation for a new use. These buildings are not so
significant that they need to be preserved in their existing state, or
restored to their original form and appearance. Changes to building
fabric may take place to adapt the buildings for new uses.
Policy 12: The buildings at the southern end of the site may be adapted
for new use. New layouts may be constructed; however some early
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partitions and the sense of open space internally should be retained. The
use of suspended ceilings in new floor plans should be minimised and the
roof structure remain visible.
Policy 13: Roof cladding may be renewed or altered as part of any
schemes to mechanically ventilate the buildings. Rainwater goods may be
renewed to match existing size and profile.
Policy 14: New materials, paint finishes, floor finishes and surfaces may
be introduced internally. Air-conditioning may be introduced where this
does not substantially impact on building fabric.
Policy 15: Wet areas such as kitchens and bathrooms may be constructed
where they do not compromise significant fabric. Ideally these should be
located in any new buildings constructed as part of the redevelopment of
this end of the site, or within new additions to the early buildings.
Policy 16: The Frank Moran Memorial Hall has remained largely intact
both externally and internally. The open space within the main part of
the building should remain. Some of the rooms at the southern end may be
modified.
CREATIVE INDUSTRIES PRECINCT
While less likely in the short term at least, the former military buildings
of the Creative Industries Precinct may also be adapted for continued or
evolving use as part of this precinct.
Policy 17: Existing early and original fabric within these buildings
should be retained. Exposed roof framing should remain visible. Fabric
introduced with the redevelopment of the buildings may be modified to
suit changed circumstances.
Policy 18: Modifications to introduced fabric within these buildings
should not compromise existing early fabric, or the broader cultural
significance of these buildings.
4.5
REMOVAL
OF BUILDINGS
The following buildings within the former Gona Barracks are not of
cultural heritage significance:
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
The former Toowong drill hall (A3)
Armoury (A4)
Training shelter (A14)
Latrines (A18, A19, A23, A29)
Storerooms (A24, A30, C56)
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ƒ
Dining room (A31)
Policy 19: Early buildings at the site that have been assessed as being
non-significant may be removed or demolished.
4.6
NEW
USES
The use of the early military buildings of the QUT Creative Industries
Precinct is unlikely to change in the short to medium term.
While not known at the present time it is likely that the other buildings of
the former Gona Barracks will be adapted for some form of institutional
use. Proposals to adapt the buildings for any new use must take into
account the conservation policies regarding conservation and adaptation.
Policy 20: The conservation policies for the vacant buildings at the site
(not part of the QUT Creative Industries Precinct) may be reviewed once
the future use of these buildings becomes clearer.
Policy 21: The buildings should be given a use compatible with their
cultural significance.
Policy 22: The conservation policies in this document should apply
whatever use the site and buildings is put to in the future.
4.7
NEW
CONSTRUCTION
The master plan for the Kelvin Grove Urban Village envisages the
construction of new buildings within the southern part of the former
barracks site.
Policy 23: The construction of new buildings at the southern end of the
site may take place providing the sense of enclosure around the parade
ground is strengthened.
Policy 24: Extensions or additions to the new buildings within the
Creative Industries Precinct should not compromise views of the early
buildings from within and across the parade ground, or the significant
fabric of these buildings.
THE
PARADE GROUND
As part of the 2000 master plan for the Kelvin Grove Urban Village site,
parts of the parade ground were retained. An open 25 metre wide
corridor, Gona Parade, extending the length of the parade ground from
north and south and linking open plaza spaces at each end was created
within the former parade ground. Gona Parade is a gazetted road owned
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and maintained by the Brisbane City Council. At each end of Gona
Parade are the two open plaza spaces – Parer Place at the Creative
Industries end and Chauvel Place at the southern end.
Policy 25: The sense of the parade ground should be retained as an open
space and as a utilitarian space. No structures or landscape elements
should be constructed in this space which will obstruct views along the
length of the parade ground.
The redevelopment of the former barracks site has been conceived and
undertaken so that views within the parade ground and of the buildings
at either end remain. The sense of buildings facing the parade ground
has been reinforced with the new development.
4.8
INTERPRETATION
The military use of the former Gona Barracks site has finished and the
site turned over to other uses. The site will not be used for military
purposes again.
The first stage of the Creative Industries Precinct development has
included schemes of interpretation of the former history of the site and its
use over time. Plaques and panels with text inform visitors of this history
at various places within the site.
Policy 26: The existing program of interpretation of the history of the site
should be continued with future redevelopment of the southern part of the
former barracks.
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5
APPENDIX
T
his chapter includes supplementary material such as end notes that
provide the bibliographic references of the sources used in the
research for the report.
5.1
NOTES
1
Allom Lovell Architects, ‘Gona Barracks: a cultural heritage
assessment and strategy for conservation’, a report for the
Department of Defence, 1999.
National Archives of Australia (NAA) (Brisbane office) J56/11,
QL4851 Part 2, Kelvin Grove - Defence reserve - Acquisition (from
1911), Lieutenant WH Raymond, Report on Area of Ground Kelvin Grove Road suggested for Defence purposes, 8 October
1910.
Department of Natural Resources, Queensland, Deed of Grant
Number 41781 for the Parish of North Brisbane, County of Stanley.
See Craig Wilcox, For hearths and homes: citizen soldiering in Australia
1854-1945 (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1998) for discussion on this
aspect of Australian history.
John Laffin, The Australian Army at war: 1899-1975 (London: Osprey
Publishing, 1986) p. 8.
NAA ( Brisbane office) J56/11, QL4851 Part 2, Kelvin Grove Defence reserve - Acquisition (from 1911), the Minister of Home
Affairs, letter to the Premier of Queensland, 20 April 1909.
NAA (Brisbane office) J56/11, QL4851 Part 2, Kelvin Grove Defence reserve - Acquisition (from 1911), Lt WH Raymond,
Report on area of ground – Kelvin Grove Road, suggested for
defence purposes, 8 October 1910.
NAA (Brisbane office) J56/11, QL4851 Part 2, Kelvin Grove Defence reserve - Acquisition (from 1911), Lt WH Raymond,
suggested area for drill hall – Kelvin Grove plan of portion
proposed for Field Artillery No. 3, 18 October 1910.
NAA (Brisbane office) BP 129/1, 25/1/55, ‘Proposed buildings at
Kelvin Grove, Brisbane’, Colonel JJ Lyster, Commandant, First
Military District, letter to the Director of the Queensland
Department of Works, 22 November 1912.
Queensland State Archives (QSA), WOR/A, 15091, Kelvin Grove
Drill Hall, Commandant, First Military District, letter to the Works
Registrar, Queensland Department of Public Works, 26 June 1914.
Queensland parliamentary papers, 1914, Vol III, ‘Annual report of the
Department of Public Works, p. 630.
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
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12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
Queensland parliamentary papers, 1915-6, Volume III, ‘Annual report
of the Department of Public Works’, p. 1330.
QSA, WOR/A, 15091, letter to the Under Secretary, Department of
Defence from the Deputy Government Architect, 4 February 1915.
NAA (Brisbane office) B1535, 718/3/93, Kelvin Grove Queensland,
Capt Moran Memorial Hall, WJ Foster, Chief of the General Staff,
letter to Finance Member, 2 September 1925.
NAA (Brisbane office) B1535, 718/3/93, Kelvin Grove Queensland
Capt Moran Memorial Hall, Commander, 11th Mixed Brigade,
letter to The Secretary, Department of Defence, 4 March 1926.
NAA (Brisbane office) B1535, 718/3/93, Kelvin Grove Queensland,
Capt Moran Memorial Hall, letter from the Secretary of the
Department of Defence to the Secretary of the Attorney-General’s
Department, 14 May 1927.
NAA (Brisbane office) B1535, 718/3/93, Kelvin Grove Queensland,
Captain Moran Memorial Hall, Captain, Administration, 1st
District Base, letter to the Secretary, Department of Defence, 16
January 1928.
NAA (Brisbane office) B1535, 718/3/93, Captain Moran Memorial
Hall, Brigadier Ralph, letter to AGC Hawthorn, 3 February 1932.
NAA (Brisbane office) B1535, 948/5/61, Kelvin Grove erection of
quarters, Commandant, 1st. District Base, letter to the Secretary,
Military Board, 19 March 1934.
NAA (Brisbane office) B1535, 948/5/61, Kelvin Grove erection of
quarters, ML Shepherd, the Secretary, Military Board,
memorandum to the Secretary, Department of the Interior, 20
March 1934.
NAA (Brisbane office) J2774/1, W5178, 18 June 1934.
NAA (Brisbane office) J56/11, QL1319, Kelvin Grove Defence
Reserve, Licence to City of Brisbane, MC Shepherd, the Secretary,
Department of Defence, memorandum to the Secretary,
Department of the Interior, 4 May 1934.
Peter Charlton, South Queensland WWII 1941-1945 (Bowen Hills:
Boolarong Publications, 1991) p. 43.
NAA (Brisbane office) J2774/1, W8620, Brisbane Kelvin Grove, the
Deputy Director, Department of Posts and Telegraphs, letter to the
Surveyor-General and Chief Property Officer, Department of the
Interior, 15 February 1940.
Joel Barnett, interview with Jack Ford, 21 July 1998.
Dick Proud, ex-Warrant Officer 2 (RAE), interview with Jack Ford,
4 November 1998.
Jeffrey Grey, Australian brass: the career of Lieutenant General Sir
Horace Robertson (Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press, 1992)
p.167.
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28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
NAA (Brisbane office) J56/11, QL589, Kelvin Grove - Linesmen-inTraining school accommodation, FM Johnston, for the Surveyor
and Property Officer, Department of the Interior, memorandum to
the Director-General of Posts and Telegraphs, 16 June 1948.
‘The Australia ICOMOS Charter for the conservation of places of
cultural significance (the Burra Charter)’, reprinted in Peter
Marquis-Kyle and Meredith Walker, The illustrated Burra Charter:
making good decisions about the care of important places (Sydney:
Australia ICOMOS, 1994) p. 69.
DH Johnson, Volunteers at heart: the Queensland Defence Forces 18601901 (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1975) pp. 1-3.
Patrick Miller report, ‘Thematic history of defence in Victoria:
volume 1’ (Australian Construction Services, 1991?) p. 76.
Records of Commonwealth Works Departments from Australian
Archives and of the Queensland Department of Public Works at
Queensland State Archives.
Michael McKernan and M Browne (eds), Australia: two decades of
war and peace (Canberra: Australian War Memorial in association
with Allen & Unwin Australia, 1988) pp. 121, 126-7.
Quoted in Jeffrey Grey, A military history of Australia (Melbourne:
Cambridge University Press, 1990) p. 79.
Russell Ward, A nation for a continent: the history of Australia 19011975 (Richmond: Heinemann Educational Australia, 1977) p. 62.
Michael McKernan and M Browne (eds), Australia: two centuries of
war and peace, p. 129.
Jeffrey Grey, A military history of Australia, p. 80.
Jeffrey Grey, A military history of Australia, pp. 73, 79.
JS Murdoch, 11 March 1915, Parliamentary Works Committee,
quoted in Patrick Miller, ‘Thematic history of defence in Victoria:
volume 1’, p. 80.