Queensland House Designs, 1920 to 1930
Continuing from the collection of Queensland house designs, this page includes catalogues published from 1920 through to 1930.
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I do not own the copyright to these publications. Most of the documents have been sourced from on-line repositories and are freely available in the public domain. They are published here solely to benefit local historical research and promote the conservation of our built heritage.
Worker's Dwellings, State Advances Corporation, 1925
This catalogue was issued by the Worker's Dwellings Branch of the Queensland State Advances Corporation (SAC) in 1925. Tens of thousands of workers' homes were funded by SAC across the state, for a range of pre-approved designs and in accordance with strict eligibility criteria for for applicants. The catalogue includes high-set bungalow and transverse gabled patterns and also introduces the multi-gable designs that came to predominate later in the decace. In many ways the collection represents the golden age of timber architeture in Queensland with an incredible variety of ornate and often fairly spacious designs, a testament to the prosperous "roaring twenties" and the resources invested by contemporary society in humble workers' homes. The designs are found throughout our character neighborhoods and inner suburbs.
This document was digitized by the National Library of Australia and is available here.
Homes for Selection, Qld War Service Home Comm., 1927
This collection comes courtesy of the War Service Home Commission, the Queensland government department charged with construction of affordable housing for returned WW1 soldiers. The design patterns are similar to the 1925 SAC catalogue above. Note that the amenities include electric lighting, which was available in the inner suburbs by the mid 1920's.
Redicut Homes, James Campbell & Sons, 192X
Campbell & Sons Pty Ltd was one of Brisbane's oldest builders' merchants, established in the mid 1850's. By the late 1800s they firm had created a niche in the Queensland market for ready-to-erect homes which were pre-cut and assembled in their Albion timberyard, disassembeled, marked according to a detailed plan and packed with all necessary hardware and finishes for transportation to the customer, who could either erect the house himself or engage a Campbell & Sons construction crew as part of the package. This way, Campbell homes were erected all over Queensland and even overseas in New Guinea and other territories. The method was later emulated by Brown & Broad in their Newstead range of homes, as illustrated in a previous catalogue. This publication from the 1920s contains the typical range of bungalows and gabled houses from the very basic, two-room "Beerburrum" cottage to the substantial "Longreach" homestead complete with worker's accommodation and outbuildings.
Worker's Homes Designs, State Advances Corporation, 1928
A collection of 34 plans from the State Advances Corporation, including photographs of the finished products. The patterns are similar to those of the 1925 catalogue, with a predominance of bunglows, multi-gable houses and an early hybrid design.