Some homes along the banks of the Brisbane River; more of our Bremer River cruise.

Have you ever noticed that the people with money (well lots of money not JUST money) often live along waterways and coastlines? Our cruise on the river gave us an excellent chance to have a 'sticky beak' at some of these prestigious looking  homes along the banks of the Brisbane river.
Some homeowners had surrounded their homes with lots of trees and shrubs to maintain their privacy...like this home almost opposite where the Bremer 'met' the Brisbane River...

Or what about this one with a stand of trees to protect from prying eyes?

Others were a bit more 'loud and proud' like this pink one which was built for Keith Lloyd ( described as a Brisbane entrepeneur) at Norman Park...

And this one upstream in the general area of Mt Ommaney...

I mentioned Keith Lloyd before; he is also associated with another beautiful home on the banks of the river...an historic home known as Shafston. The house has had a number of incarnations/uses but in the mid 1990s Lloyd restored it as part of the Shafston International College Campus.

The gracious big old house is 'overlooked' by the tower block of the college campus...

Talking of history, I must mention Newstead House which is high on a hill surrounded by beautiful Newstead Park. This grand house is described as the oldest residence still standing in Brisbane, with it being completed in 1846. 'Newstead House is an established house museum, decorated and furnished to reflect the late Victorian period and is a significant part of Brisbane history.'

Just glimpses through the trees of this house...

Here is a photo of Newstead House from the Internet...

In the previous post I showed photos of the blocks of units that dot the hill at Hamilton, just near Brett's Wharf...but there are also some grand houses...
I've always loved this house sitting high up on the hill...the land in front of the house stretches down the hill to the road below...no chance at the moment of having another house built in front to spoil the views...

Some houses on the south side of the river in the older suburbs not far upstream from Brett's Wharf (Hamilton) seem to cling precariously to the steep riverside streets...
Just a brief glimpse through those trees...

A better look with the 'zoom' on the camera...just imagine the views from those verandah...and that 'tower' structure on the right?

The next photo is also Hamilton Hill...there is a rather large 'fixer upper' on the extreme left...verandahs clad in fibro sheeting and rusty old roof...but it would be worth a fortune! 

The next 2 are not houses per se but some rather swish old apartment blocks which overlook the river...

 This brick 1930s block of flats used to stand out on its perch high above the river not far from Kangaroo Point; now it's dwarfed a bit by new apartment blocks...but the old block still has spectacular views...

Another gracious old house beside the river...

 And old wooden landing stage...

More grand homes...

Out along the river to the suburb of Tennyson was another lot of big homes...but I only really took photos of this one, known as 'Tintagel'. Obviously I didn't get to see inside this house, but over the years I've read a number of articles about the building of it. 

This house was built by the Garms' family who were well known for rescuing old buildings and restoring what they could. So...Tintagel is built from blocks of granite that were from the Brisbane Bank of Australasia built in 1835 and demolished to make way for newer buildings in the city. In the house are some handpainted glass doors which came from the savoy Hotel in London, ornate plaster ceilings rescued from the demolition of Her majesty's Theatre and the Regent Theatre, both in Brisbane. There are also carved timbers and stain glass windows from Euros Church in London. The Garms family must have had a big storage facility to store all this stuff while they planned and got permits to build their dream home high above the sandstone cliffs of the river. 

Another house high up...

A rather large home beside the river...

The higher upstream we went, the more mooring pontoons in front of homes we found...

 The crew member doing the commentary on the cruise said that during the floods, all these jetties were washed away and ended up downstream in a big jumble...hundreds of them and no way of identifying the owners. So the ones we saw on the trip that day are all new since the 2011 flood.

 At one stage, as far as the eye could see upstream, all the houses had mooring jetties/pontoons.

 Old and new riverside homes...

I love those TV shows on the Lifestyle Channel like Grand Designs, Homes Under the Hammer, Escape to the Country etc where the viewer can have a bit of a stickybeak at other people's homes...and so it was,on this cruise I was able to view from afar how some of the more wealthier citizens of my city live... :-) But I also saw how vulnerable such homes are in the advent of a flood...my modest home on a hill in the 'burbs' seems a good deal safer somehow! lol
One more house...
It is at New Farm...on the river bank and is nestled between high rise apartment blocks...

You may wonder about this little house's inclusion in this posts as it is quite unlike the other grand homes featured...but it is special to DH...
You see it was the share house where DH moved to when he left home in his early 20s...he had a succession of flatmates and parties as young men do...eventually the housemates left so that DH and his first wife could live there as a couple...

DH loved this house...and the owner even offered to sell it to him and Mrs First Wife for $27000...they said no...
It would be worth a mint now due to its position beside the river and being in New Farm...oh well it wasn't meant to be! 

DH took a heap of photos both heading upstream, then again when we were heading back in the afternoon!