The Commissariat Store is a heritage-listed storehouse at 115–127 William Street, Brisbane City, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is bordered by William Street, Queen's Wharf Road and the Brisbane River, and is the birthplace of Queensland. It was designed by William John Dumaresq and built from 1828 to 1829 by convict labour under the direction of Captain Logan as a permanent Commissariat Store for the Moreton Bay penal settlement. It is also known as Government Stores, State Stores Building, and Colonial Store. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The building is one of only two surviving buildings from the convict period in Queensland, and is one of only four surviving commissariat buildings in Australia. It is the second oldest building in Queensland, dated to 1829, the oldest building being the Windmill at Wickham Park, dated to 1828. However, the Commissariat Store is the oldest currently occupied building in Queensland, as it is currently occupied by the RHSQ, housing a museum, the Welsby Library, and function spaces.
History The Commissariat Store was constructed of local stone in 1828–1829 by Moreton Bay penal settlement convicts as a two-storey provisions store near the Brisbane River and what was to become Queen's Wharf. A third storey of rendered brick was added in 1913 to accommodate its continuing use as a government store and providing an address to William Street.
Moreton Bay Penal Settlement In 1823 Moreton Bay was chosen as a penal settlement for New South Wales convicts who were secondary offenders or those who had re-offended while serving their sentence of transportation in Botany Bay. It was intended to better control the convicts and affect a reform in them through isolation, hard labor, strict discipline and harsh living conditions. In 1824 Lieutenant Henry Miller arrived at Redcliffe with thirty convicts. As this location proved unsuitable, the settlement was moved in 1825 inland to a ridge overlooking and bounded on three sides by the Brisbane River, and simple buildings were constructed to serve it.Kennedy et al 1998, Commissariat Store Conservation Plan, Department of Public Works, Brisbane, p.6–8.
Penal colonies were run on a military system and so a commissariat directed the procurement, supply and distribution of essential goods, as well as serving as a custom house and bank. The first building used for this purpose in what would become Brisbane Town at Moreton Bay was a slab structure in the vicinity of the current intersection of Albert and Elizabeth streets. There were two other store structures at Amity Point and Dunwich on Stradbroke Island. In 1826 Captain Patrick Logan arrived as Commandant and began a works program that replaced key buildings with more substantial structures made of stone and brick. One of these was the Commissariat Store.Kennedy et al 1998, Commissariat Store Conservation Plan, Department of Public Works, Brisbane, pp. 5–11. Along with houses for the Commandant, Commissariat officer and chaplain, it was erected on the ridge running parallel to William and George Street that remains the focus of government buildings to the present day.Kennedy et al 1998, Commissariat Store Conservation Plan, Department of Public Works, Brisbane, p. 32.
A position near the river bank was selected for the new store, following recommended procedure, to allow goods to be conveniently loaded and unloaded from a wharf. This also provided a single point for the entry and distribution of tools, weapons, clothing and food rations to permit secure control of such vital supplies.
In common with the settlement's other new buildings, the Commissariat Store followed a simple design suitable for everyday use in a penal colony and was well constructed from local materials. The design was by William John Dumaresq (Acting Civil Engineer for New South Wales) whose plans arrived from Sydney in April 1828.Kennedy et al 1998, Commissariat Store Conservation Plan, Department of Public Works, Brisbane, pp.12–13.Watson, D & McKay, J. 1994 Queensland Architects of the 19th century: A Biographical Dictionary. Brisbane: Queensland Museum, p. 57. Dumaresq was also responsible for the design of the store at Dunwich completed in 1828.Watson & McKay 1994, p. 57.
The original river bank in this area was quite steep and the underlying rock was quarried to create a relatively level building platform.Prangnell, J., Warman, L. and Youngberry, A. 2011, Archaeological Salvage of Artefacts from the Collapse of the William Street Retaining Wall, unpublished report to Project Services, Department of Public Works, p.6. The excavation work was heavy and carried out by the Gaol Gang of convicts as a specific punishment, but the masonry and other construction work required skilled labour and was most likely supervised by Lieutenant Thomas Bainbrigge, sent especially from Sydney with skilled stonemasons and quarrymen in 1827 and made Superintendent of Works for the colony the following year.Kennedy 1998, p. 11. Some time after retaining walls were constructed around three sides of the store building; the one to William Street appearing in an 1838 cross-section and the two at each side in Petrie's front elevation of the building also dated to that year.Kennedy 1998, p. 12–13, copy of drawing by George Browne and Andrew Petrie held in the QSA.
The first outpost of the convict colony in Australia had been established in New South Wales in 1788, the settlement being almost immediately extended to Norfolk Island (abandoned in 1814 and re-established 1825), and then to Tasmania, to Newcastle (later to Port Macquarie), Moreton Bay and then to Western Australia.Pearson and Marshall, 1995, pp. 21–23 Apart from the Commissariat Store in Brisbane, there are seven other convict-built Commissariat Stores that survive today at:
Hobart, Tasmania (1808–1810) Darlington Probation Station on Maria Island, Tasmania (1825) Oatlands, Tasmania (1827) Paterson Barracks Commissariat Store, Launceston, Tasmania (1828) Kingston and Arthur's Vale Historic Area, Norfolk Island (1835) Fremantle, Western Australia (1852) Guildford, Western Australia (1853–1854)
Two of the earliest store buildings in New South Wales at Sydney Cove (1812) and Parramatta, have been demolished. Only three of the surviving buildings, all of which have been quite changed over time, are older than the store in Brisbane.Commonwealth of Australia, 2008. Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Nomination. Entries in the Western Australia and Tasmania Heritage Registers. All built during a similar period and for the same purpose, the surviving store buildings exhibit a number of similar characteristics, which include proximity to both a point of entry for goods and the settlement served, robust and utilitarian form communicating authority, and incorporating aspects of Georgian and Regency architectural styles such as symmetrical elevations with windows decreasing in size from lower to upper levels, and restrained, Classically inspired decoration.
The importance of the Brisbane store and its river frontage as a portal to the colony was emphasised by the addition of the royal cypher of King George IV and the date to the front, river-facing gable; features retained when the third storey was added later. The clear orientation towards the river (and what is now Queens Wharf Road) is also reflected in the stonework itself, which is evenly coursed at the front, but more random at the rear (William Street) and sides (Miller Park to the north-west). The Commissariat Store was built of Brisbane tuff from the quarry at the Kangaroo Point Cliffs with sandstone from Oxley Creek used for footings, the base course, quoins, sills and lintels.Kennedy et al 1998, p.13.Thomas, G. 1999. Porphyry, tuff and loose specifications. Landscape Australia 21(2):p. 124. Lime for mortar was then obtained from burning oyster shells from Amity Point on Stradbroke Island or from the newly established lime kiln at Limestone Hill in Ipswich. The windows were small, unglazed and barred for security and the roof was clad with ironbark shingles. The Commissarat Store was completed in 1829.
Features of the building included a brick drainage system throughout the foundation, as well as an retaining wall at the rear with a wall and gate at the front facing the river. The Commissariat Store procured, stored, and distributed goods and rations, such as food, clothing, and tools, for the penal colony.
The only entry point into the penal settlement was via the adjacent wharf on the Brisbane River. Initially known as the King's Wharf or Jetty, it was constructed by 1827 when the boat crew's hut and boat builder's shed were first occupied. A crane was constructed on the end of the wharf to transfer goods from the arriving ships to the shore.Steele, J.G. 1975, Brisbane Town in Convict Days, 1824–1842, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, Illustration 36 and p. 118 where Steele reports on communication between the Storekeeper and Deputy Commissary-General (29 July 1827) where the new store is being erected near the wharf. This is at odds with Kennedy 1998, p. 14, which suggests that the wharf was established after the store. The main roadway into the settlement was up along the steep river bank following the present day alignment of Queens Wharf Road.Steele 1975, illustration 59. A pedestrian path developed along the slope from the wharf to the ridge of present-day William Street passing to the north-west of the Commissariat Store, through what is now Miller Park.Kennedy et al 1998, p.9. A retaining wall along the Queens Wharf Road frontage of Miller Park had been constructed by convicts before 1831. A wall, with an opening leading to stairs in a position corresponding to this path, appears in an 1838 plan.Steele 1975, Illustration 68, after p.160. Some kind of wall is shown following the road leading from the wharf up to the Moreton Bay settlement in a pencil sketch dated 1832 held at the Mitchell Library. The wall in this sketch does not appear to feature a gateway or stairs, but a path is visible leading from the corner of the store yard up to William Street.Kennedy 1998, p. 14. A pencil sketch by Henry Boucher Bowerman dated shows a wall here with an arched opening a few metres up the hill from the store yard wall.Held at John Oxley Library, Image No. 3943-1v000r001.
Free settlement
The penal colony closed in 1839 and Moreton Bay was declared open for free settlement in 1842. Other government buildings were soon sold or demolished but the Commissariat Store was retained for continued government use as a store. This did not require all the space available and allowed the upper floor to serve the government in a number of other capacities, being used for land sales in 1848 and intermittently to house immigrants during the 1850s.Holthouse, H. 1982, Illustrated History of Brisbane. A.H. and A.W. Reed, Frenchs Forest, Brisbane, pp.23–24Kennedy 1998, pp.17–18. During this time a door was cut through to the first floor on the north-western side of the building.Kennedy et al 1998, p.17. This enabled immigrants to enter the building through what is now Miller Park without the need to access the ground floor store. Proximity to the immigration barracks of the time (on the site of the Treasury Building), the former military barracks and guard house fitted out to receive immigrants in 1848, made the store a convenient place to accommodate overflow numbers. This use continued even after a purpose-built immigration barracks was constructed on land immediately to the south-east of the store in 1865–1866 (95 William Street) and is likely to have only stopped when the new Yungaba Immigration Centre opened at Kangaroo Point in 1887.Kennedy et al 1998, p. 17–18Yungaba Immigration Depot [QHR 600245].