The unlikely setting for one of Brisbane’s first acts of terrorism

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 5 years ago

The unlikely setting for one of Brisbane’s first acts of terrorism

By Brismania

At the lower end of Wickham Terrace, Ballow Chambers is a relatively unassuming, though elegant, three-storey brick building. Its story is anything but ordinary.

Both murder and art theft have passed its Georgian arches.

Ballow Chambers has a storied history.

Ballow Chambers has a storied history.Credit: Brismania

Wickham Terrace is Brisbane’s answer to London’s Harley Street or Sydney’s Macquarie Street, establishing itself in the 19th century as the address of choice for private doctors, specialists and surgeons.

Ballow Chambers was among the first purpose-built medical buildings in Brisbane when it went up in 1924, (the top two floors were added in 1926), to house medical practitioners of all persuasions as it still does.

Despite its genteel appearance and purpose, this was the unlikely setting for one of Brisbane’s first acts of terrorism.

On December 1, 1955, 39-year-old former German national Karl Kast set off to Wickham Terrace armed with a revolver and 12 home-made pipe bombs to extract his revenge on the medical profession.

Remains of one of the bombs thrown into the foyer of Wickham House.

Remains of one of the bombs thrown into the foyer of Wickham House.Credit: Brismania

A ship’s fireman, he had deserted in July 1939, was interned at Gaythorne during World War II, and on release moved to Cairns, where he gained Australian citizenship.

He had been seeking state government insurance for a back injury he claimed he suffered when he fell into a trench while working as a pipe layer for Cairns council in August 1954.

Advertisement

Tests turned up nothing. Not even a Wickham Terrace specialist could find anything to support his claims for a life pension.

Police later described him as a malingerer who imagined his injuries.

Loading

Kast believed he was being discriminated against and was determined to get his revenge.

The rampage began at Wickham House where he shot a doctor and set three bombs in the foyer (a quick-thinking patient threw the bombs into the street which saved the building but cost him three fingers) before making his way down Wickham Terrace to Ballow Chambers.

Here he shot two doctors in cold blood and a third escaped. He then locked himself in the rooms, shot himself and set off his remaining bombs. The explosion was heard around the city.

It was reported as a horrible crime that “sent a shock of horror through the city and all Queensland”.

The site was previously that of Bunya Bunya Cottage, so it has been home to a medical practice of some kind since the late 1880s.

The facade of Ballow Chambers remains relatively unchanged today.

The facade of Ballow Chambers remains relatively unchanged today.

Others of the Ballow Chambers era are Wickham House, Craigston, Inchcolm and Lister House, all of which cemented Wickham Terrace as a medical precinct between the two world wars.

Built by Lange Powell, who was also behind the Masonic Temple in Ann Street, Ballow Chambers is now heritage listed.

It has three arches under a balcony, cornerstones, and is topped with a parapet and balustrade to match the balcony.

The feel of the 1920s has not been lost, so it’s worth taking a few steps into another time when public buildings were more decorative. There is still a quaint, tiny lift with timbered panelling, and the stairways speak of another era with dado tiles, wrought iron balustrade and silky oak handrails.

Ballow Chambers today.

Ballow Chambers today.Credit: Brismania

The building was named after the colonial surgeon and coroner David Keith Ballow who was the first doctor to establish a private practice in Brisbane.

He was born in Scotland in 1804 and arrived in Brisbane in 1838.

Dr Ballow died of typhus on Stradbroke Island in September 1850. At the time, the island town of Dunwich was a quarantine station, so when a shipload of immigrants arrived suffering the fever, he went to attend them. He stayed over to help nurse them and contracted typhus himself.

Loading

A brass plate noting his story is attached to the front of the building and there is also a plaque in nearby St John’s Cathedral acknowledging his “martyrdom” to his profession.

Ballow Chambers' other infamous aspect is on the ground floor opposite the staircase. A small bronze plaque is on both sides of a bare space, one saying Bonnie Prince Charlie and the other, Henry Cardinal of York (his brother).

A larger brass plaque explains that two paintings were the bequest of Miss Elizabeth E. Moreton, who wanted the paintings to go to “the Ballow Chambers in Brisbane” which were named after her great uncle, Keith Ballow - "a descendant of George Keith, tenth Earl Marischal of Scotland who supported James Stuart the Old Pretender in the Jacobite rising in 1715.

Loading

“Keith had a price placed on his head and all his lands and Dunnottar Castle were seized by the Crown. The paintings were painted for and given to him by the Old Pretender in recognition of his devotion to the Stuarts”.

Alas, it would seem the paintings are now hanging in a private collection somewhere, as the artworks were stolen in September 2007 and never recovered.

Reproductions on canvas now sit on a shelf above where the art treasures should be displayed.

brismania.com is a blog devoted to discovering the inspirational, quirky, exciting or just plain interesting on the streets of Brisbane.

Most Viewed in National

Loading