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When Frank Green moved his family to 159 Tufnell Road in 1928, their friends asked them why they had chosen to live in the bush at Banyo. The house was built in the early 1920s on what was formerly a fruit grove.
At that time there were less than 10 houses in the street; the other side of the train line (eastern side) was still basically scrub.
While electricity and water were connected, the road surface was just red dirt, with large round stones, not gravel. Tufnell Road was sealed during the great depression by relief workers. They pushed wheelbarrows to shift soil and used horses and drays to move stones around. The stones were manually broken up by men swinging hammers.
The area was mainly farmland, with mangos, valencia oranges, pumpkins, watermelons and pineapples.
In 1937 Frank Green was elected to the Brisbane City Council as the local Alderman. He served one term, finishing in 1940.
On Sundays the Green family caught the ten past nine train to Sandgate. It was so crowded that by the time the train reached Banyo, there were no seats available, nor was there much room for standing. Mrs Green would instruct her children to "Get in where you can!".
When they arrived at Sandgate, there was a mad rush to get a good spot on the beach at Shorncliffe.
During World War II, Frank Green was the local Air Raid Warden. He kept his equipment which consisted of a helmet, a bucket of sand and a stirrup pump, in good order. Emergency food and water was also kept under the house once the previously open area was enclosed by palings.
The house remains in very good condition.
It is a reminder of the time when, 'timber and tin', were the standard building materials for houses in Queensland.
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