This is not an easy question to answer, and I'm still not 100% sure. But here are some tips and links to assist you if you're on a similar mission.
Firstly, the Brisbane City Council provides an excellent guide:
https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/sites/default/files/heritage_house_history.pdf
This is based around 10 'keys', or stages, to slowly crack the history of your house. I must admit I haven't been following it to the letter, but it has been a great starting point to begin thinking about how to tackle the mystery. I would definitely recommend starting with 'Key 1' - identifying the features of your house and comparing them to those in the area, and the info supplied in the council document. Another excellent resource has been this book by Judy Rechner, available from the city council library:
The Department of Natural Resources and Mines is responsible for land titles and can also perform a historical title search. At the time of writing, their website was malfunctioning and effectively useless, but for when it gets fixed, it's here:
https://www.dnrm.qld.gov.au
https://www.business.qld.gov.au/industry/titles-property-construction/titles-property/searches-documents
Obtaining some of the historical titles for your house is an excellent way to start tracking the owners via some other resources. The museum at at the DNRM were exceptionally helpful via email. I provided them with the current title document including the current RP number, and they emailed me back with a comprehensive list of title numbers (they change substantially over the years), links to several historical maps of Brisbane and a contact for the Brisbane City Archives. You can email them at:
Museum@dnrm.qld.gov.au
I then contacted the business centre for the DNRM who (for a fee) provided me with the historical title documents (using the RP numbers provided by the museum), scanned in and emailed.
The Brisbane City Council Archives (based at Moorooka) provided me with this document to aid in searching:
https://library.brisbane.qld.gov.au/client/en_AU/search/asset/41815/0
Of the most use in my case were the 'detailed plans' for Brisbane, dating from 1911 when sewering was being planned for Brisbane. Each house is drawn in detail, including water tanks, boundaries etc. Some of them are accessible online, others you will have to go and visit the archives at Moorooka (see the visiting hours here - https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/facilities-recreation/libraries/library-facilities-services/brisbane-city-archives - you can just turn up and they are very helpful).
Check them out here:
https://library.brisbane.qld.gov.au/client/en_AU/BrisbaneImages/?rm=DETAIL+PLANS1%7C%7C%7C1%7C%7C%7C0%7C%7C%7Ctrue
On this page is a link to the indexes. You can locate which index you need (northern, eastern etc.) and then see which number overlies your street. You can then go back and find the detailed plan number which corresponds with your house location! You may end up with something like this...
You can see the incredible level of detail that went into these plans. Unfortunately they are not all available online, but once again the archives staff should be able to access the hand-drawn notebooks for you, which is pretty awesome.
The city council also has a huge collection of maps, images and building registers available here:
https://library.brisbane.qld.gov.au/client/en_AU/BrisbaneImages/?rm=BRISBANE+IMAGE0%7C%7C%7C1%7C%7C%7C1%7C%7C%7Ctrue
The building registers are useful pre-1925 if your house is in a limited area, and post-1925 for a wider area of Brisbane. Unfortunately our house is pre-1925 (according to the detailed plans above), outside the area for which records were kept.
Other maps of Brisbane can be found here:
https://data.qld.gov.au/dataset/historical-cadastral-map-seriesqueensland
The State Library of Queensland also holds historical photos and maps which you can find by searching here:
http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do
Finally, using what you've found:
- details of your house and area giving an approximate time of construction
- historic title documents with previous owners' names and dates on there
- detailed maps
- building registers
... you can have a look on Trove! This is the National Library of Australia's online search tool. Probably of the most use is searching newspapers, you can try your street and suburb (keep in mind the current street number has not been like that forever), the names of previous owners plus street/suburb, and all sorts of combos. It does take a fair bit of playing around to generate the best search strategies.
http://trove.nla.gov.au
You will find all sorts of interesting stuff. The most detailed events used to be published - such as someone who lived on your street being hit by a tram, or falling off a horse; records of house sales/rentals; births, deaths and marriages etc.
There's way too much more for me to put here but please get in touch if you want any more information or assistance, I've discovered heaps about researching house histories over the last month.
As for our house? Well, it was probably constructed around the early 1920s. Unfortunately I've hit a dead end in terms of research, but it's been really interesting to find out how long our street has existed, who owned the land, when it was subdivided, who lived in our street, and some of the things they got up to.
I encourage you to start your own search - it really is fascinating. Enjoy! :-) And please leave a comment below!