Queen Alexandra Home

This landmark brick residence, remembered largely as the Queen Alexandra Home was initially called Hatherton, built as a private home in 1886 for businessman Reuben Nicklin, manager of a saddlery and ironmonger firm.

His tenure here was cut short tragically in 1890 as he and his wife drowned in the shipwreck of HMS Quetta when it sank in Torres Strait en route to England. The merchant ship carrying 292 took only five minutes to sink, having struck an uncharted rock. Their daughter Alice was one of only two adult women who survived and were rescued after a day and night without food and water on nearby Little Adolphus Island. The ship’s carcass is one of Queensland’s protected wrecks and remains on its side at the locale where it sunk.

After the ordeal Alice returned and stayed on at the house for a time before renting it to Hon AJ Carter MLC.

In 1911 it was bequeathed to the Methodist Church, who turned it into a home for children and with an additional wing built ion 1919-20 the home reached a capacity of 100. Local residents of Coorparoo can still recall their joyless classmates from the home, who in winter would wear paper thin school tunics that were threadbare from being handed down countless times between the home’s inmates.

With a change in policy in 1960 from institutions to group homes, the last of the children were moved out at that time and since then tenants have included colleges for catering, hospitality and tourism.