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| 1960 - 1969 - The First Home | |
The REIQ had £5,000, "a few typewriters and a bit of office equipment" when then-president Lloyd Olsen put his plan into action to secure the Institute its first home. He wrote to every member asking for interest-free amounts - a campaign that was hugely successful. The banks loaned the rest of the money and within a year the REIQ had bought Real Estate House at 94 Leichhardt Street in Spring Hill for about £30,000. Lloyd took great pride in announcing in the 41st Annual Report that the REIQ finally had their own home and described the event as a long cherished ambition. It was a two-storey commercial dwelling of no real architectural significance, but it soon allowed a move onto bigger and better things. |
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Branches were now prolific and were situated at Cairns, Darling Downs, Gold Coast, Gympie, Ipswich, Mackay, Maryborough, Redcliffe, Rockhampton, South Burnett (Kingaroy), Sunshine Coast (Nambour), Townsville and Wynnum-Manly-Redlands. In the 1965 Annual Report president Doug Bingham expressed his concern at the lingering and devastating drought and the effect it was having on the Queensland economy. It was a period of serious industrial dispute at a time when the country was increasingly committed to the Second Indochina War in Vietnam. The basic wage was now sitting around £16 per week ($32) and interest rates at the bank were close to 7 per cent. |
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Order your copy of Dreams, Deeds and Dedication: A History of the REIQ here |
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1960-1969 |
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