Stage Number: MBSH.05.03.08
Group: Western
Local Study Area: Seventeen Mile Rocks-Darra
Epoch: Early 20th Century
Street Address: 39 Railway Parade, Darra
Latitude & Longitude: -27.56625,152.95286111
Time Link: 1913
Map Link: 1914
Image Time Point: 1914
One of Darra’s earliest shops was opened by Len Bridgwater Snr on the corner of Railway Parade and Scotts Road in 1913. There had been a tiny tin shop before this time, but that one had burned down. There were only a few houses in Darra at that time, with many people were living in tents. This was around the time that the Queensland Cement and Lime Co. (and the Oates sub-division) were established in Darra. The shop was made of chamfer boards, and was quite large, with two entrances and a wide veranda on two sides. Bridgwater used to go to town in a horse and cart to collect stores for the shop. In 1927 he opened a community hall next to the shop.
Vicki Mynott, Darra by Decade 1820-2010, Inala Heights: Richlands, Inala & Suburbs History Group Inc., 2010.
Bridgwater’s Shop, Darra. Undated. Image: June Piercy (nee Bridgwater).
MLMS. 8 chain series 1904–1917—Brisbane. 8 chains to the inch. Cadastral map of Brisbane and Suburbs sheet 8. MLMS 8 Chain
