Brisbane's VANISHING Suburb!
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- čas přidán 3. 01. 2024
- There's a place in Brisbane where the houses have been disappearing, leaving behind nothing but grassy areas and memories. Well, it's something like that. Just watch the bloomin' video and see what's going on.
#coopersplains #brisbane #australianhistory
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Another top journey Rob. My first job after leaving School was at Coopers Plains. Back then all the homes were of the same style. I drive down that way now and it is starting to look like every other suburb in Brissy, high density living with no yard.
I'm a bit of a nerd for architectural history, and this is actually a really interesting and significant part of Brisbane's architectural history. The Housing Commission was established in late 1945, initially to buy up surplus land and within a few years the commission had started letting contracts for the construction of houses on this land. The scale was absolutely industrial. In 1949 alone, contracts were let for the construction of over 10,000 houses.
These contracts were for at least 1,000 houses each and there were simply not enough local builders large enough to bid on all of them. The commission turned to interstate and overseas companies to make up the shortfall. It seems like the commission designed these houses in broad strokes, but was more than happy to give individual contractors a lot of leeway with regard to the materials, details and construction methods. Building companies from South Australia, The Netherlands, Italy, France, and Sweden were amongst those who were engaged. In many cases, the builders who came with foreign contractors elected to stay when they were done.
The built form of Brisbane was fundamentally changed by this. There were hundreds of migrant builders who hadn't grown up with the timber and tin Queenslander aesthetic, and who had learnt their craft in wholly different architectural traditions. There were whole suburbs of new houses that, despite being low cost and kind of same-y, exemplified architectural ideas that were incredibly different to what had come before, and which must have seemed quite modern and sophisticated by comparison. In very short order, these new architectural ideas, materials and methods overran the entire industry. Even people who could afford to build their own houses were choosing builders and styles that drew heavily from these international influences instead of choosing traditional vernacular architecture. The demand for timber and tin styles that we value so highly today just evaporated, almost overnight, replaced entirely by non-native styles. Even when Queenslander vernacular architecture started to reassert itself with the mid sixties highsets, it had internalised a lot of the foreign influences that had arrived in the late forties and early fifties.
This period is why Queensland architecture is often divided into pre and post 1946 phases. It gave us more than just the factory built Dutch houses of Coopers Plains or the slipformed Boscrete houses of Inala (which were practically 3D printed into their foundations). This period shaped late 20th century domestic architecture in Queensland, more than just about anything else, and its importance is very little recognised.
Great video by the way!
Thanks for that bit of background:)
Good video Rob. We live in a house from that era in Carina. It was built in 1951 by my wife's parents so about the same time. Due to the shortage of bricks, and the outer walls being cavity, the interior walls had the bricks layed on their side.
We are still on a fairly large block so we get almost daily offers from developers. All of which we ignore.
'Developers'... *cringe*
My grandmother lived in one of those dutch houses right up until she was 90 years old, the houses were always cold inside (summer or winter) but she was grateful to have a roof over her head. Her house was pulled down somewhere around 2014 and now there is now a three-story apartment block in the same location. Lots of happy memories, love & miss you nan xx
Wow great story we rented in mcgroaty Street. Back in 05, 06.
There was two vacant blocks behind and opposite had units. Always thought developers must be hovering for people to leave. Had no idea houses were not built good.
Better cold than sweltering hot.
@@charmaynebruce6215yup sounds perfect.
I live in a small fibro house on the Redcliffe peninsula and it was built after the war too- it has oregan floorboards that the borers didn’t munch on and the frame has timber so hard that modern nails buckle when trying to hammer.
The borers left years ago in disgust.
Hey Rob, if you want to create a blockbuster production bigger than Jaws you could rewalk the Great Nerang River Kite Search.
Back in 1970 when Cronin Island was just built , no houses yet, and me and my brother were flying a kite on the island till the string broke and the kite ended up in the river.
It was drifting to the other bank so we decided to walk to Southport, past Sundale , past the Southport School (no 2nd bridge on Chevron then).
when we couldnt find the kite we kept going to Isle of Capri and home to Chev Island the log way.
This is one of the most tragic stories of history and likely the main reason the west side bridge was added to Chevro Island.
~3:00 Houses being built that are not suitable for our Australian climate?
So, we've learned nothing in 60-odd years.
Fantabulous!
Grew up in Inala , a similar mass housing. My parents rent/bought a house there from council. $13 a week. It was about looking after the low income earner. In that sense it worked and provided a stable life for around 40,000 people.
I lived in one of these houses about 10 years ago, it was so small and was converted into a 3 unit complex!! Basically little studio apartments but with seperate rooms for bathroom and lounge room.
It was disgusting, all the trim and flooring were peeling away, I had mushrooms growing out of the vinyl flooring, mould in every room and all the paint was probably 20 years old and full of stains.
Glad those days are behind me…
Hi Rob, Thank you for doing this area, very close to here i grew up at 429 Mortimer Rd Acacia ridge, now Brigadoon retirement village, were once my father's 35 arce farm was our family home a 4 bedroom brick home the my father built in still there,as part of the admin block he grew veggie of all kinds,we all worked on the farm, my father was Italian, he sold 11arce along the back of the farm to build the house, we also knew 2 Dutch family's the lived in that street behind our farm.
Thanks again, love all your stories, i have been back twice only in 40 years.💜💖
Thanks Louise! You must have some amazing photos in your albums of how your area has grown and developed over the decades.
Thanks Rob. I grew up in Coopers Plains in the 50s. My Dad, who became a carpenter post war, built us a besser brick house in Dartmouth Street which is still standing. Dad must have worked with some of the Dutch because he learned a few Dutch expressions and loved passing them on to us.. Coopers Plains was a great place for kids, lots of bush to play in. From memory, a number of Dutch children attended Coopers Plains State School.
as someone who works in the industry, i wouldn't say modern houses are well ventilated, have big enough windows or are big enough. developers sell tight units to sell more. they don't care about natural ventilation, neither do people who live in them. people want air con and run it with the doors and windows open. so these houses aren't that different to what junk is being built these days. the typical metricon home is big but they don't work spatially. they're big dick measuring houses.
Imagine all those pets buried there over the decades and forgotten.
Omg... yes... what a thought!
A really top class and honest video on the subject, this hidden history of the post war ( WW II ) boom is definately worthy of more attention in the community. Well done Rob, muchly appreciated.
Most kind, thank you 😀
We used to live in Zillmere and the housing commission house we had was a post war house built by the French. We were told the that they were designed as kit homes in France shipped to Brisbane and assembled.
They are still there today.
Love these videos. Local history is so interesting
Great stuff Rob! Our city really needs a CZcams channel like this ❤
Aww thanks! I find that many people are genuinely interested in local history, but often aren't quite sure where to start looking to learn more. I hope this channel helps to fill that need.
Rob, my father used to tell the story of when, in 1949, the newly built suburbs of Nundah and Stafford were deliberately burnt down.
Story of imported European prefab houses constructed, bulk euro wood borer found, no modern fumigation techniques…..
Surprising amount of traffic jams, most interesting thing happening since the Battle of Brisbane. Terrible waste of money.
Great video mate.
As a child raised in a historical western suburb of Sydney, I've lived in Qld for the last 8yrs and this kind of history is fascinating to learn.
So different to where I had grown up, but also similar in ways.
I'm from western Sydney too.
The problem continues. Houses designed for Sydney and Melbourne being built by Southern builders with limited ventilation. They are not really suited to the sub-tropics and need air conditioners to be on all day. and night.
So glad i stumbled upon you, doing some of the best work documenting our letting corner of Queensland before the history is lost. Thankyou
Welcome aboard!
They relocated all the housing commission tenants and demolished the houses promising to replace them with more affordable housing. Instead, they started putting up townhouses which were all bought by Chinese and were in no way affordable. Now we have a housing and homelessness crisis. Can't imagine why 🙄
Taht was a great little vid. I only live on rosedale street and absolutley live the area. I didn’t even know of that little gem right across the road from me.
Of course you know it would’ve been greedy counsellors getting their little brown envelope that caused such shoddy work.
Honestly just really cool that you're taking an interest in Brisbane and exploring our history. It's not a super special place by any means, but anywhere can be interesting if you get into the details. I appreciate your work.
Thank you most kindly.
I used to live 273 Turton Street circa 2005... looking on street view, so much has changed....
Oh my uncle loved compiling info about Coopers Plains! They had the cutest little housing commission stucco home - they’re all being knocked down now…. What a great video!!!!
A lot would have asbestos that’s probably why they are getting knocked down
What a great video! Very interesting! So they built houses to cover a housing shortage ... and then rented the houses out to 100 foreign blokes (and their families) they brought in to build the houses?!?! Then found they were unsuitable for the area and climate they were built in and now they are all getting demolished. There has got to be a Utopia episode in this :) Thanks for this great video.
They would have never ending content
My grandparents lived in one of these houses in Breton Street and my grandmother lived there until she died in the late 90's. She loved her little house and her garden. I was really upset when they knocked her house down after she passed away. Thank you for the video, it brought back so many memories of my childhood.
Cramped, stuffy, windows too small, but they did have things the new ones will never have - Yards to play in, sheds to tinker in. The new homes will be built just to exist in between sundown and sunup. Rackem and stackem like products in a warehouse.
This has been making me so angry having worked removing Houses to go home to my camp because of the housing shortage. The land is like all of it set aside for low cost housing but where is it 😡 they're sitting on land profiting from land shortage. Everybody is making the problem's worse and nobody gives a fuck about the ppl who are queenslsnd
Yep, they want MORE Immigrants to come into Australia, but where the bloody hell are they going to put them if there's not enough homes for the people already living here?
The lack of consideration for renters and low income earners seems to have always been a situation. Now that most is sold off for private housing, I wonder how much that impacts the current rental crisis in Brisbane. What do you think? Do you think something needs to change?
People need to be willing to move to towns. Everyone wants to live in the city because there are more people there and more servies available.
@@williamlevy6964 its one thing for people to be willing to move towns, another thing pushing people out because they can't afford it. That is what happened to us. If you have a support network in that town, it may not be realistic to move elsewhere. In our case, we completely moved away to New Zealand.
Love the suburb. I had always lived on the Northside and didn't have a very good opinion of the southside. When I attended uni around the corner from here, I fell in love with CoopersPlains.
Thanks for the info- I had spent many an arvo/evening walking around here and just assumed they were all being demolished for apartments!
Yep. All those high-blocked, wrap-around verandah, classic "Queenslanders" weren't all built that way just to keep the punters up out of the Taipans! 😉😊
Always refreshing to see land put aside for those that are most vulnerable being turned into yet another flat pack development for middle-class families
The information about the European sourced wood is wild! Great episode. The cans of JD got a chukle from me. Oh Southside.
Another great video Rob,that whole area was full of young house proud families and kids playing in the streets back in the 70s when I was kid. I had a lot of friends that lived in those Dutch houses,We were lucky to have a world class swimming pool just up the road at the oasis gardens for those long hot summers
The Oasis was fantastic!
Oasis pools on Station Rd was the place to be in summer 👌
So once again Australian workers and businesses were overlooked in favour of foreigners. What poly got rich from kickbacks off that deal?
I think there was a paucity of people to provide the labour, remembering a whole swathe of the young men had gone to war, and those who returned were often suffering from the traumas of war. This time round it's an aging population and a high need for immigration for skilled workers since we gutted and largely privatised much of vocational education in the last 30 years. Many pollies have a lot to answer for...
I have always wondered why those blocks empty, thank you. Really interesting, next time I'm zooming past on the train I won't wonder.
The issue is when you walk through the corner stone location in 30 years you will see the same…. The developer will produce products which for most part will not last the time and cost us a lot. Standard have dropped significantly, builders are driving a lowest dollar outcome all at the costs of quality and longevity.
Hey Rob
Great Documentary.
I always wondered why there were so few houses in that area, now I know.
A two bedroom bungalow with a sleepout and a carport, was always a great place to start a family, not any more.
I get despondent with we live in one of the most prosperous countries on the planet, in a very prosperous time, millionaires on every corner and a big bunch on billionaires, and all I see in the parks and creek banks are tents from homeless Australians.
And a lot of my friends still have their adult children living with them, as they have no where to go they can afford.
What have we done. T-rocks..
My grandmother lived in one at 11 babbige st years ago cosey home
I always thought and grandma loved it
Did you ever remember George's Fruitshop?
Politicians sugn a cintract with foreign developer thinking they will save money and create "affordable housing", But the developers don;t understand local climate, culture, lifestyles, economy etc. Various high rise apartment developments across Australia bulit cheaply and then "cracking up" in no time are the mdern version of the same old story.
another great video Rob! SHame I missed you recording it I live on the other side of Boundary Road in an old post war housing commission house. Given the current lack of housing such a shame that they knock down these houses without replacing quickly with the new accomodation
Great video Rob, well done.
That aerial photo taken 1955 is great, where did you access that from?
Bit of trivia for you, in that photo, just to the north of Boundary Rd see those large rectangular buildings? Leftovers from the American logistical war machine, in 1955 they would have been Da'mour Barracks a small army depot, they had a army reserve unit there, but moved to Kelvin Grove when the army shut the barracks down.
Just to the north of that was ( and still is) the primary school I went to Orange Grove State School.
Building over the feeder underground flow into stable swamp creek was never going to end well anyway, in to 50+ years i've known the area drainage has improved markedly.
To the north of that photo, the Govt labs, QEII hospital as well as the Aldi are all build on what was once soggy ground.
Many of those plots of land have been bare for decades, it would be nice to see new blood and life in the old neighbourhood.
Cheers
The aerial photo was from the QImagery website, run by the state government. And yes I was aware of the former US army buildings. I remember they were still standing when I moved here from Sydney.
At 9:21, an example of mistakes still being made. Those houses are hot upstairs in summer.
Would have been Dutch ovens around this time of year.
Literally, they built the same type of houses in Inala too, and they really are Dutch ovens at this time of year.
Same in UK after the second world war. The government started putting up concrete prefab housing. It was mostly for Council housing / Housing commission homes. And they were meant to be a stop gap. Ten to fifteen years. With a max life span of 30 years. They built about 150 000 of them. In the 1980's the Council still had loads of them left. All starting to get concrete cancer and decay. Instead of demolishing them they started a renovation plan. As a builder I have worked on loads. It was the transition era. Maggie Thatcher offered long term council renters the chance to buy their houses cheap. Based on length of time occupying. After a lot of the concrete houses were sold of. They introduced the rebuild programme. Those that now owned them had to go without or do it at their own cost. There are probably still loads left. Mostly clad in a brick skin. So you would never know.
Fascinating history. The houses are cute but unfortunately totally unsuitable for our humidity.
We haven't learnt from our mistakes. All the new developments suffer from the exact some problems. Dark brick houses, poor natural lighting, no air flow, lack of consideration for the environment around qnd bloody cramped
I rekon all the energy and aircon companies essentially bribe the architechs and builders to not make houses with good natural airflow, all for the sake of profit.
I used to live in Pallara, next suburb along from there when it was all 4-acre blocks and I even had horses there! Went back a few years ago and it's all being surrounded by wall-to-wall new housing developments now. I will always miss my Pallara place. I was so happy there...would love to know more about that area!
@lisawanderess Pallara is an area I've not explored before. I am thinking of doing Forest Lake so Pallara could be included in that show. Had a look at your channel, some very good content there.
I recall driving through Pallara, about 20 years ago, and thinking how very quiet it was. Lovely, big blocks.
Pallara ~ beautiful area. I learned to drive there.
Well. Here I sit in Coopers Plains... wasn't expecting that 😅
Yeah same! Feels cool to hear the history of my neighbourhood.
Thank you for this video! I am keen to check out the rest of your channel, having spent my whole life in Brisbane. I agree, the homes were a failure, but I would still love to see a couple preserved.
I hope they plan on preserving a couple of them, it would be tragic if none were preserved. We tend to forget that history didn't stop after WW2; we are very good at preserving old QLDers but we need to make sure we preserve some of the newer stuff as well.
I guess we can expect a heap of expensive ugly apartments like the ones toward the end of the clip covered in cement covered polystyrene.
Just stumbled on your channel. I grew up in Brisbane, and so I find this very interesting. Subscribed.
Thank you for sharing, i used to live in sunnydale street upper mount gravatt, very sad what they are doing to the suburb with high rise building.
Sourcing the building materials from overseas turned out to be an expensive move when the Housing Commision had to fumigate wooden kit houses in other estates for termites.
It’s so weird to learn about the history of these houses having grown up in this area and spent time in them. Interesting to see how many are interested in local brisbania.
Awesome video.. I never cease to stop learning interesting things watching your videos.
Don't think we've learnt much , by the look of what we're building now.....
Happy New year mate. Another bonzer video to learn with.
Thanks Rob
Thanks so much, I've often driven past and wondered what the history was of all those ancient looking 'driveways to nowhere'.
Growing up in the seventies in the area I remember those houses. The other commission homes of the fifties were the red brick ones you see today. Thousands still exist. I seem to remember that the 74 floods were also not kind to that area
This one was interesting. I don't know much about the area except Sunnybank and Nathan/Mt Gravatt (I worked in Nathan before). I love that you cover suburbs that are not the obvious ones on the city tourist map. Wonder if you will cover St Lucia/Toowong/Taringa or Paddington/Bardon? All interesting in their own way. I lived in both Taringa and St Lucia about 20 years ago. Really liked Taringa in particular.
I was living at Sherwood in the timespan you mentioned and can definitely attest, all of that area from St Lucia, Toowong, all the way through to the back of Corinda/Oxley etc was the most pleasant area I've ever lived in. I often miss it!! It was such a dreamy, peaceful place. I drive through now and see alot of developments since I was a local back around 2002-2005 🙂
Another great video Rob. I had no idea this happened in Brisbane. Totally agree with you though - sometimes, it's best to discard the old in favour of the new. Also, great to see your channel is finally getting the attention it deserves! I share it with anyone I feel may be interested - yours and T-Rocks - different from one another but both very interesting. Keep up the great work.
Thanks very much for your kind and ongoing support. It really is greatly appreciated.
Glad to be living in a Queenslander, its perfectly in tune with the climate. Outlasted all these decades of terrible design and development.
I really wanted to live in a QLDer. But there are so few on the GC where I live. The few ones that were on the market were wayyyy out of our league financially. But I am really happy with my 50s cottage in Labrador...
Spot on mate, great video
Our government is a disgrace.
My family of 5 has been homless for 9 months, thru no fault of our own,
We have been told there is no funding for housing at the moment?? Not sure how long a moment is, but it's 9 months in our case,
They also said there is 30.000 family's on the public housing list, and atleast 15 single people.
Yet there is land like this that has say for so many years.
Disgraceful.
How bad is the government when they cant even house their own citizens... complete and utter failure of government
@@Joseph-wu6kd ok fuk head,
I'm a tradesman that claims nothing from the government.
So go fuk yourself cockhead
Thanks again Rob for an imformative walk.At least the new developers will have heads up regarding beliw ground issues.
'We have the technology ' now but before.
Cheers mate can't wait for your next one.😊
Just go around sunnybank station as well, heaps of empty blocks... Its as if they are waiting for something.
Some developer’s land bank, probably…
Another very interesting presentation, Rob. Thanks for your efforts !
I enjoyed that Rob. Nice film 👍
Hi Rob, I love your videos. Some are informative, & some are educational, but all are entertaining. Keep up the good work, mate!
Most kind, thanks!
Love history videos like this, not enough of them about Gold Coast, Brisbane and surrounding cities.
Didn't know this... though i've lived in Brisbane for 60+ years
"Too compact, lacked imaginative design and natural light"...what's changed?
Very interesting. Thanks for another good one
we talk about the good ol days but it is an indicator that stuffups on an industrial scale don’t just happen in the last few years because of economic and climate change but have been happening all throught humanity, it is interesting to read about stuffups made in the ‘50s and ‘60s. I’m sure lots happened in the ‘20s and ‘30s.
Just read the newspapers at the time and look at what concerned the community then.
You hit the nail on the head. Everyone thinks it's generational. It's not. It's ongoing. That is how the human race progresses. We learn from making monumental stuff ups. That's the only way forward.
That’s creepy. CZcams suggested this video as I’m on the train going straight past the area in question.
I’ve often wondered why all that land was empty, I wanted to buy a block there.
Another great video mate. Hope to see you in Mount Gravatt / Mount Gravatt East one day.
Possibly the best channel on the Tube. Well at least for Brisbane folk anyway. Love the vids. Keep them coming. Do you plan on doing any about Mt Gravatt.
Yes, I am very keen to explore the Mt Gravatt area. Much to uncover there!
@@walkaboutwithrobyou could start with GU's campus which is a koala haven, and is being handed back to Gov't sometime in 2025... Much excellent history there, and a future of many possibilities. They canned my idea of using it's dorms for emergency accommodation though unfortunately.
Christchurch NZ was planned in England and so a lot of the old houses faced south. Good intention, bad design.
And cold, my wife and I loved living in them though even if that meant being super cold in winter.
Thanks for the video Rob. Great information about a nearby suburb.
Thank you for the informative video! Great to learn about these houses, having Dutch grandparents and growing up nearby. 🤗👍🏻
Great info and research - thanks Rob
This is what it looks like in various areas in Christchurch where our earthquake has deemed the land unsuitable for building. You have streets that have basically been shut off because they’re of no use now and you can still make out where houses and driveways would have been with the trees and plants being arranged along boundaries. It’s quite an eerie feeling. I’d imagine this place would feel the same.
Yes, it has that kind of a feeling here as well...
G'day Rob. Interesting research. Being in the building game, my take is A: Dutchy boy must have been a cheap tender from the start, B: He would have cut corners on his material and methods of construction, C: Sourced materials that were possibly cheaper from Europe, but definitely not suitable for the Aussie climate, D: Soil testing back then was none existent! E: He designed houses that were more suitable for Europe? F: Termites love a bit of untreated pine! So no wonder the houses were up to shit! If Dutchy boy had studied the reason behind the "Queenslander", the houses would have stood up to the Aussie climate! But it all boils down to the cost! I've heard of the horror stories of southern builders coming up here into cyclone tropical territory and build like they do back to where they came from! Majority of the builders went bust!!! 🤔
Love your work mate, very interesting, nice to see the old haunts....
Great video! I live near Coopers Plains.... I like the green spaces, but admit it is prime land for developing. Of course the units won't be affordable to most.
I grew up in the area, even In 1969 the area was almost semi rural, the years have seen a slow creep of first houses, now more and more low to medium density housing. Now its well and truly suburbia.
Awesome video as usual Rob. Surely Salisbury/Moorooka is next before all the old war buildings have 'mysteriously' burnt down!
Great video Rob! Can't wait for you to do Park Ridge!
First suburb i lived in when moving out of mum and dads place back in the 90's.
I was dating a girl in the 90's who lived in the area.
What a great video, and interesting info on our city. Glad I found your channel. Def subscribed for more.
Thank you Rob, opened my eyes up, and educated me too.
Very interesting and informative, thanks for posting this Rob. That’s my grandma and Opa’s house (blue one on the left) at 3:42min, they’re both long gone but I’m happy to see their house is still standing, although it has changed a lot. They immigrated in 1955 and I have many fond childhood memories of time spent at their home. There used to be a large Weeping Willow tree in the backyard that I used climb and swing on. My grandma had an aviary of finches and there was a shade house for Opa’s orchids. Boats were built in that backyard shed and my uncle even built a yacht in the early 70’s. As a child I knew they lived in a Dutch community but I wasn’t aware of the Dutch building history. Sherry Wheeler a (channel 10) tv personality/singer’s mother lived just two houses up and I remember my grandma taking me over to meet her😊
I also remember my grandma complaining about the rising damp in the house 😅
First time viewer. Great presentation style and lace! Subscribed. 🖖
Great video. Learnt a lot.
I've driven past here so many times, always saw the vacant blocks but never seemed to question it. Thanks for the insight, my wife and I found it so insightful and interesting. Got a subscriber 🔥
Another great video. I had no idea!
Can’t wait until you do Mount Gravatt 👍
Great video as always 👍 Done with knowledge, passion and honesty.
Much appreciated