Chelmer Police College, Heritage-listed former police barracks in Chelmer, Brisbane, Australia.
Chelmer Police College is a heritage-listed building on Laurel Avenue constructed in Federation style with multiple connected wings featuring gabled roofs and wide verandahs. The structure shows features from different construction phases, with modifications from the 1940s still visible today.
The building was constructed in 1900 as a private residence by Thomas Beevor Steele and later served as a Red Cross convalescent home during World War II. After the war it became a police training facility.
The name Waterton, used for the c. 1900 house, gave way to the Lady Wilson Red Cross Convalescent Home, named for the wife of Queensland's Governor Sir Leslie Orme Wilson and president of the state's Red Cross division. From 1953 the site housed the 10 WRAAC, the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps formed in 1951 amid Korean War manpower shortages.
The building sits on a property in a quiet residential neighborhood accessible via Laurel Avenue. The area offers parking and is easily reached on foot.
The Red Cross paid £2,000 in December 1940 for the house and nearly 3.5 acres, a price noted as scarcely reflecting the value of one of Chelmer's oldest and largest family homes. The home was named for Lady Wilson, wife of Queensland Governor Sir Leslie Orme Wilson.
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