FORMER GONA BARRACKS - QUT · former gona barracks contents i 1 introduction 4 1.1 background 4 1.2...

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

■ 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 8 FEDERATION AND DEFENCE 9 THE KELVIN GROVE DEFENCE RESERVE 11 THE INTERWAR PERIOD 13 THE SECOND WORLD WAR 16 REGULARS AND RESERVES 19 DISPOSAL OF THE BARRACKS 21

2.2 THE URBAN VILLAGE 22

DEMOLITION 23 CREATIVE INDUSTRIES 23

2.3 THE EARLY BUILDINGS 24

FORMER INFANTRY DRILL HALL (A25) 24 FORMER SERVICES DRILL HALL (A16) 25 THE FRANK MORAN MEMORIAL HALL (A21) 25 FORMER GARAGE AND WORKSHOP BUILDING (A26) 26 FORMER DINING ROOM (A31) 26 FORMER BRIGADE OFFICE (C39) 26 FORMER ARTILLERY DRILL HALL (C39) 27 FORMER GUN PARK (C33) 28 FORMER TOOWONG DRILL HALL (A3) 28 ANCILLARY BUILDINGS 29 THE PARADE GROUND 29


CONTENTS

■ ii

2.4 VEGETATION 29

3 UNDERSTANDING CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE 31

3.1 CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE 31

3.2 ANALYSIS 31

MILITARY BARRACKS 31 DRILL HALLS 33

3.3 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE 38

EXTENT OF SIGNIFICANCE 39

3.4 PREVIOUS ASSESSMENTS 40

4 CONSERVATION POLICY 44

4.1 GENERAL PRINCIPLES 44

THE BURRA CHARTER 44 ENDORSEMENT AND REVIEW 45 STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS 45 SCOPE OF POLICIES 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


CONTENTS

■ iii

THE PARADE GROUND 50

4.8 INTERPRETATION 51

5 APPENDIX 52

5.1 NOTES 52

FORMER GONA BARRACKS 1

INTRODUCTION

■ 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 B A C K G R O U N D

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.


INTRODUCTION

■ 5

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 H E R I T A G E L I S T I N G S

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: 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.


INTRODUCTION

■ 6

1 . 3 T H I S R E P O R T

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.

T H E S I T E

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: 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.

Plan of the Gona Barracks site showing the lentered in the Heritage Register. [Allo

Love

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.

1ots m ll]


INTRODUCTION

■ 7

1 . 4 S U M M A R Y O F F I N D I N G S

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.


UNDERSTANDING THE PLACE

■ 8

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 M I L I T A R Y B A R R A C K S

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

T H E E N D O W M E N T

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.



■ 9

F E D E R A T I O N A N D D E F E N C E

In the early twentieth century the Commonwealth government acquired this endowment for a military reserve.

An excerpt from McKellars map of 18showing the Brisbane Grammar Sch

endowment along Kelvin Grove Road. Treserve to the north is now McCaskie Pa

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

295

ool he rk.



■ 10

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



■ 11

Kelvin Grove Defence Reserve were transferred to the Commonwealth the following year.

T H E K E L V I N G R O V E D E F E N C E R E S E R V E

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:

3The original working drawings for the infantry

drill hall of 1913. [Qld State Archives]

…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



■ 12

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. 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]

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. 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.

5The services drill hal . [Qld State Archives]



■ 13

T H E I N T E R W A R P E R I O D

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.

6A 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.



■ 14

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.

7Kelvin 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



■ 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.



■ 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.

8Training at the Kelvin Grove site in 1939.

[Australian War Memorial Neg P01485.013]

T H E S E C O N D W O R L D W A R

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



■ 17

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.

A series of vehicles parked outside the garaand workshop building during World War

[Australian War Memorial Neg 12664

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

9ge II. 1]



■ 18

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

10The 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]

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.

11A plan of the site during World War II showing

the yet to be developed Lower Barracks portion. [National Archives of Australia]



■ 19

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

R E G U L A R S A N D R E S E R V E S

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.



■ 20

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.

12McCaskie Park in the 1950s and the relocated

military buildings to the right. [JOL]

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



■ 21

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.

D I S P O S A L O F T H E B A R R A C K S

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.



■ 22

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.

Site plan of 1998 just prior to the disp of the site. [Department of Defe

2 . 2 T H E U R B A N V I L L A G E

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”,

13osalnce]



■ 23

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.

D E M O L I T I O N

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.

C R E A T I V E I N D U S T R I E S

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



■ 24

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 T H E E A R L Y B U I L D I N G S

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.

14A 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]

F O R M E R I N F A N T R Y D R I L L H A L L ( A 2 5 )

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.

The former infantry drill hall (A25). [ALo

15llom vell]



■ 25

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.

F O R M E R S E R V I C E S D R I L L H A L L ( A 1 6 )

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.

16The former services drill hall (A16) on the left

and the Frank Moran memorial hall (A21).[Allom Lovell]

T H E F R A N K M O R A N M E M O R I A L H A L L ( A 2 1 )

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.



■ 26

The building is currently empty and its future use is not known at this stage.

F O R M E R G A R A G E A N D W O R K S H O P B U I L D I N G ( A 2 6 )

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.

17The former garage and workshop building

(A26).[Allom Lovell]

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.

F O R M E R D I N I N G R O O M ( A 3 1 )

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.

18The former dining room (A31).[Allom Lovell]


F O R M E R B R I G A D E O F F I C E ( C 3 9 )

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

19The former Brigade Office (C39). [Allom

Lovell]



■ 27

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’.

F O R M E R A R T I L L E R Y D R I L L H A L L ( C 3 9 )

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. 20

Former artillery drill hall (C39).[Allom Lovell] 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



■ 28

internal appearance. The original steel roof framing remains visible internally throughout much of the building. The building is known as Z3 or ‘The Shed’.

F O R M E R G U N P A R K ( C 3 3 )

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.

21The 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’.

F O R M E R T O O W O N G D R I L L H A L L ( A 3 )

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.

22Former Toowong Drill Hall (A3). [Allom

Lovell]



■ 29


A N C I L L A R Y B U I L D I N G S

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: A4 – a single storey metal clad former armoury. A14 – an open steel shelter. A18 – a concrete block latrine. A19 – a timber latrine abutting A16.

23The former artificer’s workshop (C34) and

storeroom (C56). [Allom Lovell]

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.

T H E P A R A D E G R O U N D

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 V E G E T A T I O N

24Part of the former parade ground space. [Allom

Lovell]

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



■ 30

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.


UNDERSTANDING CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

■ 31

3 UNDERSTANDING CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

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.

T

3 . 1 C U L T U R A L S I G N I F I C A N C E

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. This has become the commonly accepted definition of cultural significance within conservation practice in this country.

29

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 A N A L Y S I S

The former Gona Barracks is merely one example of a defence facility constructed and developed over time by the Commonwealth government.

M I L I T A R Y B A R R A C K S

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.



■ 32

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



■ 33

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.

D R I L L H A L L S

The drill hall, a simple building providing a large room for drilling and a series of supporting offices usually in a flanking wing.



■ 34

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



■ 35

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.



■ 36

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



■ 37

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.



■ 38

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 S T A T E M E N T O F S I G N I F I C A N C E

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.



■ 39

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.

E X T E N T O F S I G N I F I C A N C E

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



■ 40

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: 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).

3 . 4 P R E V I O U S A S S E S S M E N T S

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



■ 41

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.



■ 42

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: 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

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

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

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

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



■ 43

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.


CONSERVATION POLICY

■ 44

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 G E N E R A L P R I N C I P L E S

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.

T H E B U R R A C H A R T E R

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.


CONSERVATION POLICY

■ 45

E N D O R S E M E N T A N D R E V I E W

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.

S T A T U T O R Y R E Q U I R E M E N T S

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: 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.


CONSERVATION POLICY

■ 46

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.

S C O P E O F P O L I C I E S

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 A P P R O A C H

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


CONSERVATION POLICY

■ 47

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: 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


CONSERVATION POLICY

■ 48

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 C O N S E R V A T I O N O F B U I L D I N G F A B R I C

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 A D A P T A T I O N O F B U I L D I N G F A B R I C

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


CONSERVATION POLICY

■ 49

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.

C R E A T I V E I N D U S T R I E S P R E C I N C T

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 R E M O V A L O F B U I L D I N G S

The following buildings within the former Gona Barracks are not of cultural heritage significance: The former Toowong drill hall (A3) Armoury (A4) Training shelter (A14) Latrines (A18, A19, A23, A29) Storerooms (A24, A30, C56)


CONSERVATION POLICY

■ 50

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 N E W U S E S

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 N E W C O N S T R U C T I O N

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.

T H E P A R A D E G R O U N D

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


CONSERVATION POLICY

■ 51

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 I N T E R P R E T A T I O N

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.


APPENDIX

■ 52

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 N O T E S

1 Allom Lovell Architects, ‘Gona Barracks: a cultural heritage

assessment and strategy for conservation’, a report for the Department of Defence, 1999.

2 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.

3 Department of Natural Resources, Queensland, Deed of Grant Number 41781 for the Parish of North Brisbane, County of Stanley.

4 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.

5 John Laffin, The Australian Army at war: 1899-1975 (London: Osprey Publishing, 1986) p. 8.

6 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.

7 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.

8 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.

9 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.

10 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.

11 Queensland parliamentary papers, 1914, Vol III, ‘Annual report of the Department of Public Works, p. 630.


APPENDIX

■ 53

12 Queensland parliamentary papers, 1915-6, Volume III, ‘Annual report

of the Department of Public Works’, p. 1330. 13 QSA, WOR/A, 15091, letter to the Under Secretary, Department of

Defence from the Deputy Government Architect, 4 February 1915. 14 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.

15 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.

16 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.

17 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.

18 NAA (Brisbane office) B1535, 718/3/93, Captain Moran Memorial Hall, Brigadier Ralph, letter to AGC Hawthorn, 3 February 1932.

19 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.

20 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.

21 NAA (Brisbane office) J2774/1, W5178, 18 June 1934. 22 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.

23 Peter Charlton, South Queensland WWII 1941-1945 (Bowen Hills: Boolarong Publications, 1991) p. 43.

24 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.

25 Joel Barnett, interview with Jack Ford, 21 July 1998. 26 Dick Proud, ex-Warrant Officer 2 (RAE), interview with Jack Ford,

4 November 1998. 27 Jeffrey Grey, Australian brass: the career of Lieutenant General Sir

Horace Robertson (Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press, 1992) p.167.


APPENDIX

■ 54

28 NAA (Brisbane office) J56/11, QL589, Kelvin Grove - Linesmen-in-

Training 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.

29 ‘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.

30 DH Johnson, Volunteers at heart: the Queensland Defence Forces 1860-1901 (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1975) pp. 1-3.

31 Patrick Miller report, ‘Thematic history of defence in Victoria: volume 1’ (Australian Construction Services, 1991?) p. 76.

32 Records of Commonwealth Works Departments from Australian Archives and of the Queensland Department of Public Works at Queensland State Archives.

33 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.

34 Quoted in Jeffrey Grey, A military history of Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1990) p. 79.

35 Russell Ward, A nation for a continent: the history of Australia 1901-1975 (Richmond: Heinemann Educational Australia, 1977) p. 62.

36 Michael McKernan and M Browne (eds), Australia: two centuries of war and peace, p. 129.

37 Jeffrey Grey, A military history of Australia, p. 80. 38 Jeffrey Grey, A military history of Australia, pp. 73, 79. 39 JS Murdoch, 11 March 1915, Parliamentary Works Committee,

quoted in Patrick Miller, ‘Thematic history of defence in Victoria: volume 1’, p. 80.

FORMER GONA BARRACKS - QUT · former gona barracks contents i 1 introduction 4 1.1 background 4 1.2...

Documents

Transcript of FORMER GONA BARRACKS - QUT · former gona barracks contents i 1 introduction 4 1.1 background 4 1.2...