Some of the key scenes in Crossing Live take place in or around the home of Roland Kendall. His house isn’t described in detail in the book – I wanted to leave it as much as possible to the reader’s imagination. But a reader who isn’t familiar with Queenslander houses recently asked me about the architectural features of homes like this. So I thought I’d give a little more detail here.
Roland’s house is a traditional Queenslander, a raised, wooden-walled, single storey home with a corrugated iron roof. Queenslander houses come in a variety of sizes and styles, depending on the period of construction. They always feature verandahs, although these have now often been closed in to provide extra internal living space.
In 1990, the year when Crossing Live is set, there were still plenty of Queenslander houses in the inner western suburbs of Brisbane. They were beginning to disappear, though. Large suburban blocks were valuable real estate and the original houses were gradually being removed or demolished to be replaced by blocks of flats. Roland’s street, which is somewhere in Toowong, had so far escaped this change.
His house still has traditional open front and back verandahs. French doors open onto the front verandah from the lounge and master bedroom. These give easy access to the rooms at the front of the house – too easy in the case of one of his more eccentric nocturnal visitors.
Roland’s house isn’t quite as well maintained as the elegantly appointed Queenslander houses shown in the picture. The exterior walls and the roof are long overdue for a repaint. On the verandah, the only furnishing is an old sofa, where Roland relaxes during the long hot summer. From there he has a perfect view along the street and is well placed to catch sight of the open-topped Mazda belonging to reporter Suzanne Denning.
The downside of spending so much time on the front verandah is that it’s rather too easy to tell when Roland is at home. Whether it’s his friend, Gwen, or his elderly neighbour, Mrs Campbell, there’s always someone bobbing up to catch him unawares.
Mrs Campbell knows everything that goes on chez Roland. Both of their houses, like the Queenslanders in the photo, sit close to the side fence line. Roland and Mrs C could almost lean out of their respective side windows and shake hands. This proximity isn’t always comfortable, but it does allow Roland to keep an eye on his elderly neighbour. After an intruder enters her house late one night, Roland can lean across the railing on his own back verandah and check that Mrs Campbell is all right.
The open nature of Queenslander houses is central to the elements of the plot that take place in Roland’s home. Living in one fits with his character. And it allows for the constant coming and going of visitors.
For more about Queenslander houses, there’s an article discussing this style of architecture in The Conversation.