Grove Street Pensioners' Cottages is a heritage-listed house at 28D Grove Street, Parramatta Park, Cairns, Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. They were designed by the Cairns City Council and built from 1953 to 1958. They were added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 24 August 2017 amidst some controversy as their heritage listing would prevent the redevelopment of the site for affordable housing.
History The Grove Street Pensioners' Cottages were built by Cairns City Council from 1953 to as part of a scheme subsidised by the Queensland Government for providing affordable accommodation for old age pensioners. Located on a reserve in Grove Street in the Cairns suburb of Parramatta Park, the complex comprises eight small timber cottages arranged in a curved layout surrounded by lawns and gardens. They were the first of their type to be built in Cairns and are an important surviving example of a largely intact pensioners' cottages scheme.
The city of Cairns in tropical far north Queensland was established in 1876 as a port to service the newly discovered Hodgkinson goldfields, and its first local authority, the Cairns Divisional Board, was established in 1879. Initial progress was slow until the establishment of a local sugar industry and the opening up of the Atherton Tableland's mineral fields in the early 1880s. Early industries in the region, such as sugar farming and timber harvesting, created a demand for improved transport facilities to the harbour. In 1885 Cairns was constituted a municipality, and the announcement that Cairns was to be the terminus for the Herberton railway established the town as the principal port in the region.'Cairns,' Queensland Places, Centre for the Government of Queensland at the University of Queensland, <> (accessed 2014)"Cairns Regional Council," Queensland Places, Centre for the Government of Queensland at the University of Queensland, <> (accessed 2014)"Cairns Divisional Board", Queensland State Archives Agency ID2090"Cairns Municipal Council", Queensland State Archives Agency ID89.
Progress and growth continued in the early 20th century. The Cairns Municipal Council became the Cairns Town Council on 31 March 1903, which in turn became the Cairns City Council on 13 October 1923. By this stage the population had reached 8000. This rose to 12,000 by 1933, and 15,700 by 1941. After the disruption of World War II, post-war optimism and prosperity saw development increase and the population grow to 21,018 by June 1954. Of this number, 2099 Cairns residents, (approximately 10% of the population) were aged 60 and over.'Cairns,' Queensland Places, <> (accessed 2014)"Cairns Regional Council," Queensland Places,<> (accessed 2014)QHR 601576 Cairns City Council Chambers"Cairns Town Council", Queensland State Archives Agency ID90"Cairns City Council", Queensland State Archives Agency ID58Census of the Commonwealth of Australia 30 June 1954, Vol III Part 1 - Analysis of Population in Local Government Areas Etc.
Queensland's social fabric is supported by a network of social security and welfare services provided by the Queensland and Australian Governments and voluntary organisations to disadvantaged persons. Until the late-19th century, however, no such government aid existed in Queensland, with most of the responsibility for providing relief falling upon voluntary organisations. In the 1890s, the Queensland Government provided residential institutions and subsidies to voluntary organisations in aid of orphans, the mentally ill, the destitute, the aged, and the infirm. The Dunwich Benevolent Asylum on North Stradbroke Island (established 1866, closed 1945), operated with minimal services and at times could not meet demand for admission. Factors such as increased longevity and the 1890s economic depression saw many families unable to care for aged relatives, and with the system of private charity proving inadequate, the Queensland Government was forced to act.'Queensland Past and Present: 100 Years of Statistics, 1896-1996,' Government Statistician's Office, Queensland Government, Brisbane, 1998, pp.277-309Thom Blake, "Health buildings in Queensland: an historical overview", Asset Management Unit, Capital Works and Assessment Management Branch, Queensland Health, 1997, p.62
In 1907 Queensland implemented a system of non-contributory age pensions, followed shortly after by the Australian Government, which provided a national system in 1909. The intention of the pension scheme was to provide relief for the aged poor that did not involve the stigma associated with charitable aid, or take away individuals' freedom. The age pension was initially 10 shillings a week, available to males and females aged 65 years and over (lowered to 60 years for females in 1910) and to persons aged 60–64 who were permanently incapacitated for work. It was subject to a character and residence test with limitations imposed on income and property.'Queensland Past and Present: 100 Years of Statistics, 1896-1996,' 1998, pp.277-309Andrew Herscovitch and David Stanton, "History of social security in Australia", Family Matters, 2008, no.80, pp.51-60
The site of the Grove Street Pensioners' Cottages in the Cairns suburb of Parramatta Park has a long history of accommodating poor and aged Cairns residents. It was originally part of a railway reserve, with the first stage of the Cairns railway line (constructed 1886–87) running through it. The railway line was deviated in 1910–11 to its present position on the north-eastern side of Lily Creek, and over the following decades negotiations and disagreements about how to use the former railway land (known as the Martyn Street reserve) took place between Cairns City Council and the Queensland Government.Survey Plan C19839, 1888Cairns Post, Saturday 3 Dec 1910, p.5Cairns Post, Friday 25 February 1927, p.8Cairns Post, Wednesday 25 June 1947, p.5.
In 1921 part of the Martyn Street reserve, south of Grove Street, was allocated as a site for old age pensioners to reside.Cairns Post, Wednesday 26 January 1921, p.2Cairns Post, Saturday 27 November 1926, p.8article describes the location of this pensioners' reserve area as opposite Section 52, which places it south of Grove Street, opposite the current pensioners' cottages siteCairns Post, Wednesday 22 September 1920, p.3. Pensioners' reserves, where old age pensioners unable to afford other forms of accommodation could build themselves a hut or shelter to live in, existed in many Queensland towns and some suburbs of Brisbane in the early 20th century. Administered by the local authorities, who issued permits to pensioners wishing to reside there, it was a cheap but ultimately inadequate way of housing the poorest members of the community. Self-built huts were not connected to water or electricity and were vulnerable to bad weather and being destroyed by fire. Several pensioners' reserves existed at different times in Cairns, including one at Bungalow.For example, Tarragindi pensioners' reserve, in Brisbane - Courier Mail Thursday 22 January 1953 p.3Charleville pensioners' reserve - Charleville Times Friday 17 February 1933, p.7Cairns Post, Thursday 24 October 1940, p.4Charleville Times Friday 30 December 1938, p.5Cairns Post, Wednesday 22 October 1919, p.8Cairns Post, Wednesday 8 May 1946, p.4.
A proposal to provide better accommodation for Cairns pensioners was considered by Cairns City Council in September 1926, when the Works Committee recommended that three cottages be erected by the council, to be let at a nominal rental to approved local pensioners. An article in The Cairns Post on 27 November 1926 stated that the council had approved the scheme, however whether or not these cottages were constructed is unclear, as shortly afterwards the pensioners were relocated further north within the Martyn Street reserve, to an area on the southern side of Charles Street. By September 1928 this area had been partly fenced and a water source provided. It was here that the pensioners established themselves, living in tents and small self-built huts.Cairns Post, Thursday 23 September 1926, p.14Cairns Post, Wednesday 19 September 1928, p.7Cairns Post, Thursday 21 August 1947, p.4Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNRM) aerial QAP81-108, 1949.
Between 1910 and 1950 the number of old age pensioners in Queensland rose from 8,561 to 45,937. As the population grew and the pension rate failed to keep pace with rising costs of living, pensioners found it increasingly difficult to afford decent accommodation. A Courier Mail article printed in June 1950 summed up the housing plight faced by hundreds of pensioners living a "hand to mouth" existence, with a lack of proper accommodation forcing many of them to live in small rooms with inadequate facilities. Homes for the aged were too few to handle the number of pensioners seeking accommodation, with at least 1000 waiting for admission to homes in the Brisbane area alone.Townsville Daily Bulletin, Wednesday 19 February 1947, p.5Courier Mail, Saturday 10 June 1950, p.3.
From the 1920s the Queensland Government had established institutions for the aged, infirm and/or destitute in different parts of the state. The first purpose-built government home for the aged, named "Eventide", was opened at Charters Towers in 1929, providing accommodation for 150 inmates. Unlike the Dunwich asylum, which housed inmates in large dormitories, Charters Towers inmates were provided with "single and double huts, each having its own small garden plot". In 1945, the Dunwich asylum was closed and the inmates transferred to a former Royal Australia Air Force (RAAF) station at Sandgate. Also named "Eventide", this institution became the principal government aged care facility in southern Queensland. A third "Eventide" was opened in Rockhampton in 1950, offering similar hut accommodation to Charters Towers, arranged within a complex including hospital wards, a workshop/library, a recreation building and kitchen, dining, bathing and laundry facilities.Thom Blake, "Health buildings in Queensland: an historical overview", p.62Thom Blake, Michael Kennedy and Margaret Pullar, "Queensland Health Heritage Survey, Volume 2: Site Assessments", Queensland Health Central Office, 1996, no. CN27 Rockhampton Eventide Home.
The alternatives to Government-run institutions were benevolent institutions and homes for the aged run by charities and religious organisations. Early examples were often housed within converted residences, such as at Hanworth Home for the Aged, established in 1913.QHR 601026 Hanworth Home for the Aged. A new type of charitable institution, similar to the Charters Towers "Eventide", was established in 1936 in the Brisbane suburb of Chermside, due to the combined efforts of Methodist social advocate Reverend Harold Wheller and philanthropist/businessman George Marchant. Chermside Garden Settlement consisted of 20 cottages in a garden setting, with communal dining room and laundry buildings, and grew rapidly to include a chapel, bowling green and a further nine cottages within four years.BCC Heritage Register - H M Wheller Garden SettlementCourier Mail Tuesday 18 February 1936, p.12Courier Mail, Thursday 24 November 1938, p.2"Wheller Gardens", Chermside and Districts Historical Society Inc. website <>