Mitchell: another chapter in Kingsford Terrace’s history
The third stage of development at the Kingsford Terrace retirement community at Corinda is named Mitchell in honour of a pioneering family connected to the site.
The original homestead on land now encompassing the retirement village was known as St Elmo and was home to James Mitchell, his wife Annie and their family. (Saint Elmo is the patron saint of sailors.)
James Mitchell was born in Falkirk, Scotland, in 1852 and emigrated to Queensland in 1881. He was the Registrar of Titles and the Chief Commissioner of Stamp Duties and purchased St Elmo at what was then part of Oxley around 1900.
A photograph of the gracious Queenslander with wraparound verandas and wrought-iron railings was featured in the Brisbane Courier on June 23, 1906, with a description of its manicured gardens with flower beds near the front steps.
On June 16, 1909, the newspaper reported that a wedding was held at the home to celebrate the marriage of the Mitchells’ eldest daughter, Catherine, to William Michael Dibdin, of Rockhampton. A photograph of the extended Mitchell family outside St Elmo was taken on Catherine’s wedding day.
St Elmo sat on the Mitchell family’s large landholding bordering an area by the current Menin and Ardoyne roads and Lyon Avenue. As the Mitchell children married, they received sections of land shaved off from the property.
Like many Brisbane families during World War I, the Mitchells’ sons served their country and paid the ultimate sacrifice. Son Robert George Mitchell, a Private in the 4th Australian Pioneer Battalion, was killed in action on August 3, 1916, in Pozieres, France, aged 22.
Another son, Quartermaster-Sergeant James Finlay Mitchell, was wounded in Gallipoli, while Thomas William Mitchell received the Military Medal for his brave actions with the 2nd Australian Field Ambulance near Ypres in Belgium in 1917.
James and Annie Mitchell (pictured centre) sold St Elmo in 1930 to William Robert Black who renamed it Hopetoun after the Earl of Hopetoun, first Governor-General of Australia. Irishman William Black made Brisbane his home in 1885 where he delivered coal with a horse and dray. He quickly increased his wealth, purchasing coal deposits near Ipswich, establishing the Blackheath Colliery, and purchasing the Caledonian Colliery at Walloon.
Black, a single man, was a devout Presbyterian and an extraordinary philanthropist. In 1929 he donated Hopetoun to the Presbyterian Church for use as an aged men’s home. Keeping the name Hopetoun it opened its first group of independent living cottages in 1952 and an aged care complex was developed. During this redevelopment the St Elmo/Hopetoun homestead was demolished.
Now a new chapter in the history of St Elmo/Hopetoun is being written with the development of Mitchell, offering 10 beautifully-appointed three-bedroom apartments as part of the popular Kingsford Terrace retirement community on Cliveden Avenue at Corinda.
For information about Mitchell or the other retirement living options at Kingsford Terrace Corinda phone 07 3716 0804 or email live@kingsfordterrace.com.au.
Compiled by Jo Cranstoun