Kardinia

Victoria Street, North Ward, is home to a number of beautiful private colonial residences; not publically accessible. Kardinia is one of these houses, which displays the influences of domestic Gothic architecture. Its asymmetrical street presence differs from surrounding colonial homes. The land was purchased by Edward Bevan in 1884. He was a surveyor in partnership with Christian Waagepetersen as architects, surveyors and agents in Townsville. The house was reputedly the second built on Stanton Hill, and was likely built in two stages: 1884 and 1886. In 1888, Bevan sold to John Graham Macdonald; explorer, pastoralist and police magistrate of Townsville. A further extension was undertaken in 1889. Macdonald named the house Kardinia, and resided here until 1893. He then leased it to a number of prominent families until March 1896, when it became home to the first Japanese consulate to Australia Nakagawa Tsunejiro. The consulate was relocated to Sydney in 1908 and the house was then occupied by Townsville business man, alderman and civic worker John Newport Parkes. In 1911 the property was again transferred to Alberta Green, the wife of a North Queensland newspaper proprietor (Humphrey) David Green. The house remained in the Green family for a further 70 years.