As the 1930s brought a bridge that would redefine Brisbane’s skyline, a 1870s timber home quietly slipped away from demolition in Kangaroo Point.
Built decades earlier on the cliffs above the river, this house was one of several moved when the Story Bridge project reshaped Kangaroo Point’s landscape. Instead of being razed like many of its neighbours, it was relocated across the city to Yeronga, where it still stands today at 34 Stevens Street.
Kangaroo Point Before the Bridge
When the house was first built in the 1870s, Kangaroo Point was a busy pocket of early Brisbane—an industrial hub mixed with grand timber homes that overlooked the river. Sawmills, shipyards defined the suburb’s character, and the steep streets climbing away from the cliffs. Historical accounts show many families living in traditional Queenslander-style houses with wide verandas and timber fretwork, much like the one that would later be moved.
By the 1930s, a major change arrived. Work began on the Story Bridge, designed to link Fortitude Valley and Kangaroo Point. The construction required land resumptions and road realignments that cleared many older homes. Brisbane’s urban planners saw progress, but it also meant erasing parts of the suburb’s early architectural fabric.
The House That Moved
Unlike most, this particular home was spared by relocation. Contemporary reports and property archives describe it as having been dismantled and transported to Yeronga in the mid-1930s. Moving entire houses was not unusual in Brisbane at the time; according to the State Library of Queensland, it was common practice to save timber homes by lifting them onto trucks or timber sleds and hauling them to new sites. The move preserved the structure’s original blackbutt floorboards, silky oak doors and pine panelling—details still visible in the current residence.
While records confirm its origin in Kangaroo Point, the exact street and first owner remain unclear. Historians suggest the house likely stood near Main Street or the riverfront, where resumptions were most concentrated during the bridge’s construction. Its journey from those busy streets to the quieter neighbourhood of Yeronga mirrors the city’s own shift from industrial bustle to suburban growth.
Yeronga and the Home’s Second Life
At 34 Stevens Street, the house—known today as “Kingsley,” after the original owner—sits on a 744-sqm block. Current owners Brian and Elaine Egan purchased it in 1986 for A$52,000, maintaining much of its heritage character while updating it for modern living. It’s now listed for sale through a best offer campaign, giving new custodians the chance to preserve one of Brisbane’s few surviving pre-Story Bridge homes.
For the Yeronga community, the house is a link to a different Brisbane—when moving a building was sometimes the only way to save it.
Why It Still Matters
The story of this house is more than a property listing; it’s a thread in the city’s evolution. Kangaroo Point’s transformation into an inner-city enclave came at the cost of many such dwellings. That one of them endures, standing quietly in Yeronga, offers locals a tangible connection to Brisbane’s 19th-century past and the resilience of its timber-built heritage.
Preservation groups have long argued that such structures are key to understanding how Brisbane adapted to modernity without losing its wooden heart.
Published 6-Nov-2025
