Dutch History Cafe
New Logo
Library Collaboration
Bicentennial Events
History Tours & Events

August 24th’s outing to the Heritage Park at Eagle Junction

First the bad news. All hope seems to be lost for setting aside one of the best examples of Brisbane’s mid-century Dutch built Housing Commission homes at Cornerstone Living. The vision was for 9 Macdevitt Street – a very original building – to become a History Cafe, displaying information about local history, including Dutch immigration and the Dutch East Indies Government-in-Exile at Camp Colombia (Wacol). It was to be run as a self-funded not-for-profit community enterprise with an orchard and outside facilities for neighbours to come together and socialize. Unfortunately the owner/developer Consolidated Property has decided to sell it on the open market.

The house currently serves as the Catchment Centre, or offices of the Oxley Creek Catchment Centre. They have been given an eviction notice of about 2 months. Six months ago, Mr Don O’Rorke, CEO of Consolidated Property, met me and Mr Paul Budde, Chair of the Dutch Australia Cultural Centre, and expressed his support for the project, even kindly offering some funds to market the concept. We were not informed. It appears that profit is overriding the community’s interests yet again. I managed to contact the Brisbane City Council’s Senior Historian, Dr Ross Mahoney in the Architecture and Heritage department. He has had a Heritage listing application on the property under consideration for several years now. On hearing the news of its imminent sale and (very likely) demolition, no sense of urgency was apparent. He reminded me that as a post war home, it is not even covered by Council’s character overlay. As such, it was always going to be a big hurdle that required a great deal of support. Sadly, that has not materialized. This is a significant disappointment, as it brings an end to 4 years of lobbying and a petition signed by more than 1,000 people. I would like to thank Mr Paul Budde for his support.

What do you think of this image as a logo for the group’s new name?

And this, for the website’s homepage?

We’ll be voting on these at the next meeting:

Saturday September 16th
4pm
Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room

All welcome. Please RSVP in the comments below. Anyone who wants to add to this month’s agenda, please comment below (you may need to click on the title of this post for the comment field to appear). Thanks to the friendly and helpful staff of the Coopers Plains Library for printing out these newsletters and offering them to anyone who wants to keep in touch without going online.

Events

There are some great history events on this month. Here are just two of them on Brisbane’s Southside:

Royal Historical Society – The Mermaid, the Castaways, and European Exploration of the Brisbane River. Saturday 9th, Commissariat Store Museum, William St, CBD. Book soon ($25-35)

Brisbane History Group – Yeronga Heritage Tour. Saturday 23rd, Queen Alexandra Community Centre, Cooparoo. Download the flyer here. ($25)

See you there!