Did you know that Lutwyche, one of Brisbane’s oldest suburbs, was named after the first Supreme Court judge of Queensland? Here are some other interesting facts you may not know about this suburb.
Alfred Lutwyche and St. Andrew’s Church of England
This inner-city suburb owes its name to Alfred Lutwyche who was born in London in 1810. He was appointed resident judge of the Supreme Court of Moreton Bay and New South Wales Supreme Court judge in 1859.
It was also during this time that Queensland became a self-governing colony and two years later, Alfred became the first Queensland Supreme Court judge, earning him the moniker “father of the Supreme Court”.
In 1866, St. Andrew’s Church of England was built on a block of land on Lutwyche Road that Alfred purchased (1864) and donated (1865) to the Church.
He died on 12 June 1880 and was buried on the Church’s southern side where a Celtic Cross was erected as the grave’s headstone. His burial site has since become an important feature of the churchyard.
Heritage-listed sites
Located at 29 Conon Street, this detached dwelling was entered into the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992. Conon, built in 1863, was one of the earliest dwellings to be built in the area.
Located on Lutwyche Road, the former air-raid shelter was built in 1942 by Brisbane City Council as a wartime precautionary measure. Designed by Frank Gibson Costello, Windsor Air Raid Shelter became a heritage-listed site on 6 April 2005.
Added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 13 January 1995, the school comprises one- and two-storey blocks of classrooms that were connected by verandahs. Among other criteria, Wooloowin State School was considered an important site for its aesthetic significance.
Located at 100 Stoneleigh, Killila was built in c1885 as a working-class cottage and was the former home of prominent Catholic Archbishop James Duhig during his younger years. The timber house was entered into the Queensland Heritage Register on 1 October 2003.
Key inner-city transportation hub
A year after Alfred Lutwyche immigrated to Australia in 1853, a bridge was built over the Enoggera Creek that provided northerly road access from Brisbane and would later become the starting point going to the Gympie gold fields.
Tram services that meet along Lutwyche Road from Chermside, Kalinga and Stafford served the Lutwyche area until 1968. In 1914, a tramline that ran from Brisbane to Bowen Bridge was extended up to Lutwyche Road, near Kedron Book.
The Stafford line then branched off to Bradshaw and by 1928 the Grange tramline along Maygar Street on Lutwyche and Windsor border opened. In 1925, the tram line further extended from Kedron Brook to Lutwyche Cemetery.