Mactaggarts Woolstore (former)

General

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

21 October 1992

Type

Retail, wholesale, services: Warehouse

Themes

3.4 Developing secondary and tertiary industries: Developing economic links outside Queensland

3.8 Developing secondary and tertiary industries: Marketing, retailing and service industries

5.3 Moving goods, people and information: Using rail

5.4 Moving goods, people and information: Using shipping

Builder

Stuart Bros (Sydney)

Construction period

1926, Mactaggarts Woolstore (former) (1926 - 1926)

Historical period

1919–1930s Interwar period

Location

Address

53 Vernon Terrace, Teneriffe

LGA

Brisbane City Council

Coordinates

-27.45312525, 153.04917735

Significance

Criterion AThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.

Mactaggarts Woolstore forms part of the Teneriffe Woolstore group, one of the most cohesive groupings of mercantile buildings in Queensland. The woolstores are powerful evidence of both the importance of the wool industry to the state and the development of its marketing from the turn of the century. The supporting transport infrastructure played an important role in the development of Teneriffe as the woolstore centre; the rail and river links providing evidence of the role of Brisbane as a port for the state's industries.

Criterion DThe place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

Mactaggarts is one of several woolstores built during the 1920s, the second phase of woolstore building in the area, and is typical of the type.

Criterion EThe place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

It contains an impressive skylit upper floor and its interior is the most intact of the woolstores group. It is the last remaining woolstore situated directly on the riverbank.

Criterion GThe place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.

(Criterion under review)

Criterion HThe place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland’s history.

(Criterion under review)

History

The former Mactaggart's Woolstore was erected in 1926 for the New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Agencies Company. Mactaggarts was one of some sixteen woolstores erected in the first half of this century along the river at Teneriffe. From the mid 1960s the woolstores and their associated wharves were in decline, with many of the woolstores being sold as development sites. Finally in 1990, in recognition of the downscaling of industry in the area, the Bulimba branch of the railway was closed.

Description

Sited along the river's edge, on the corner of Vernon Terrace and Commercial Rd, Mactaggarts is a prominent building within the Woolstores group. The building is a substantial, rectangular three-storeyed parapeted brick building with uniform fenestration. Externally Mactaggarts contributes to the Woolstores townscape. Internally, it is the most intact building in the woolstores group, retaining expansive areas of unpartitioned space, and intact fittings. The upper floor has impressive spatial qualities.