'Oakwal' 50 Bush Street, Windsor, Brisbane, Queensland

Oakwal is a heritage-listed villa at 50 Bush Street, Windsor, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by architect James Cowlishaw and built in 1864 by John Petrie with subsequent modifications to c. 1948. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 14 May 1993.(Wikipedia)

The hilly suburbs of Brisbane provided many fine sites for the homes of the early dignitaries and well-to-do. Oakwal, built in the early 'sixties at Windsor Heights for Sir James Cockle, Queensland's first Chief Justice, is one of the first and at the same time one of the best preserved of Brisbane's early stone colonial residences. When Sir James and Lady Cockle returned to England, Oakwal was bought by their architect, James Cowlishaw, whose descendants still occupy and have restored it with loving care.

The early Australian buildings, built by English artisans strongly influenced by the Georgian designs current in England at the time of their training, made little allowance for the demands of a very different environment. However, gradually a colonial style evolved which was adapted to the geographical and climatic conditions, and soon it was the accepted practice for the inner rooms of the early homesteads to have access to a wide veranda on three sides and to a detached kitchen wing on the fourth. (This separation of kitchen from living area reduced the fire danger from wood stoves and restricted entry to the private rooms by servants and indentured labour.) The perimeter veranda and spacious, high-ceilinged rooms offered a retreat from the glare and heat outside. Seven foot high cedar louvred shutters shaded and protected the doorways on to the verandas. The early builders made no attempt to raise their houses—this Queensland tradition only developed some forty years later.

Oakwal is built of large squared blocks of Brisbane freestone with a base of pink "porphyry" rubble. The roof is covered with Welsh slates. Pairs of graceful closely spaced posts support the weight of the slate-roofed veranda and pedimented porch.

(Newell, P. White. U. (1967) Brisbane Sketchbook)