16/04/2026
“The Castle” by Robert Isdale, CDHS life member
The house was built by my Aunt Alice and Uncle Albert (Freeman), and I visited it a few times as a child. The house and land were later sold to the BP Oil Company, and the house was demolished to become the BP Service Station on the corner of Hamilton Road and Maundrell Terrace. That too has now gone.
I cannot put an actual date on the photo, but it would be about the 1950's. If we take a guess at all the flags and bunting etc., and remember that Alice and Albert Freeman were both born in England (met and married here, almost 20 years later), and remember that that little corner of Chermside was known as 'Chummy Town' because the local residents in that area were predominantly English immigrants, and then recall that the Queen's first visit to Australia was in 1954, - - - - -hmmmm, well , perhaps/maybe.
When our family visited, from Norman Park via public transport, the tram stopped at the cemetery on Gympie Road, then it was the cream and green bus to Hamilton Road, followed by the walk to almost Maundrell Terrace, carrying the usual assortment of play clothes and 'something for lunch'. The walking pace accelerated to a run as we passed the smelly Packer and Knox wool scour at the bridge (now roundabout).
Albert's sister, Bertha Evans and her husband, Bill, had acreage land beside theirs on Hamilton Road, and the Evans family operated a poultry farm which was, no doubt, hard work for them, but a delight for young children to visit. They also had ducks, and I recall herding the ducks down the paddock to the little creek behind the farm, to have a swim. I can't recall why I thought the ducks needed a swim, but they seemed very obliging. That little creek and pond is now about 20 feet under the Craigslea High School oval.
From my visits to Aunt Alice and Uncle Albert Freeman's home, I remember that they later had a water feature pond in the front of the house, with large splendid goldfish cruising through the reed vegetation, and they later had a pigeon loft in the side yard. The original inhabitants of the loft were magnificently pure white pigeons, but for some mysterious reason the future generations became more speckled with colours, similar to that of the local bush pigeons.
In the fishpond, it later became difficult to find traces of the gold fish, but this situation improved when it was re-stocked, and a sturdy wire mesh cover was erected over the top.
Note the prolific bush foliage in the background, and think what is there now.
Albert had a business supplying crushed marble chips for the terrazzo floors that were popular in those years. His 'working yard' was on a marvellous piece of real estate further along Maundrell Terrace on the top of a hill, and I was delighted and amazed that the view took in a marvellous panorama of the mountains to the west and Moreton Bay to the east.
As a child, I stayed for a ‘sleep-over’ for a few days and we enjoyed a summer evening having our meal on the roof (are those the chairs and table on the porch, that I carried up the steps at the side?).
There was an opportunity there that I now regret that I did not take. A group of us local kids were having a game of cricket in the yard, when Aunt Alice called out – ‘did I want to go across the road to Bassnet’s dairy with my cousins Madge and Ivy Evans, to get the milk?’ I decided to stay with the cricket. Off they went with the billy cans, up to the milking sheds, and I missed the opportunity to see the dairy, and to maybe meet Wally Bassnet then, instead of about 50 years later as we sat side by side at a CDHS meeting.
Alice and Albert had business interests on Bribie Island, and when Albert and some other men were travelling along the notoriously corrugated Torbul Point Road, there was an accident.
A teenage 'hoon' driving his father's Ford V8 car (without permission) crashed head-on into Albert's car. One of Albert's passenger's died at the scene and Albert died a few days later in hospital. Another one of the injured passengers, co-coincidently, became our neighbour in Cairns in the early 1970’s. His injuries had been severe, and even years later, contributed to his early death.
The shock to Alice was extreme, and she left the home to take up residence in another area. BP Australia bought the house and land, and you know the rest of the story from there.
Freeland Lane in that area was originally named Freeman Lane, but the Brisbane City Council street naming department already had a Freeman in that area, so it became Freeland.
They say that an Englishman's home is his castle. It is a just a co-incidence that the local nickname for Albert's curious architectural style was - - -"The Castle".
