From dosshouse to hotel: The rise and rise of the Sturt Street Lodge
ON the corner of Sturt St and Blackwood St, Townsville is a hotel – but few people who live in the city know this.
It’s secure and you must contact the manager to go inside. The guests have their own key. At the entrance you are immediately struck by how clean it is. The walls are newly painted, the steps and corridors are spotless.
As you walk around the silence is sepulchral and as you go up the stairs and walk along the corridors you encounter common rooms and public toilets all just as neat and clean as the entrance.
There are common rooms with seats and tables arrayed before large LCD television sets, kitchen facilities with brand new ovens and cook tops, places to take a cup of tea. They are mainly empty but you encounter the occasional guest who smiles and greets you while he makes his coffee and sometimes offers you a cup.
It seems that all these facilities are surplus luxuries compared to the number of guests who use them.
The silence continues as you walk along the corridors but from time to time you hear guests talking quietly to each other in the rooms, friends sharing music or perhaps playing cards.
But a few short years ago this was a different place.
The Sturt Street Lodge was notorious. It was a hangout for drug addicts and drunks. This was the only place left to you if you were down and out or on the street. No matter how bad your situation, you could always find a bed at the Sturt Street Lodge, but, not any longer.
The Sturt Street Lodge has a 96 per cent occupancy rate, the highest in Townsville. Now, no matter what your circumstances, you would be very lucky to find a bed at the lodge and if you did manage to find a place the quality and comfort of that room would rival any in the city. The bed has a new mattress and fresh cover, the walls are newly painted and each room has its own airconditioner.
While you slept, peace and quiet prevail. And although the streets are busy outside you might only hear the distant wail of an ambulance.
How is it possible that a place with the reputation of a dosshouse could be completely converted to a high quality
hotel within two or three years? This represents one of the most extraordinary feats of management in the history of the city.
The current building was built in June 1967 by the Salvation Army.
It was to be the Townsville People’s Palace, the only example of such in Queensland outside Brisbane (which had its own famous People’s Palace a temperance house in Edward St).
This was not the first People’s Palace in Townsville. On the same site an original People’s Palace was built to be opened in 1912 next to the Salvation Army Barracks and it was described by the Morning Bulletin as “a substantial addition to the architecture of the city”. People’s Palaces existed in Sydney and also in New Zealand.
The first building in 1912 offered meals at a shilling and beds at 2 shillings. Many readers would be unfamiliar with this currency which in Australia preceded the dollar. It had 36 bedrooms including 10 double bedrooms. When demolished the wood of the building sold for 5 pounds.
The profits from both the original and the final building would go towards the work of the Salvation Army.
The guests during the first years after 1967 were mainly students and meals were
cooked on the first floor and given out to the needy on the first floor transferred by a dumb waiter.
The building continued to house students for 14 years but as the focus of the Salvation Army shifted, the building became difficult to staff and maintain and was sold to a family who resided on the second floor and rented the rooms below.
Gradually over those years the condition of the rooms and the quality of the guests declined. More and more the building became a dosshouse for drunks, drug addicts and prostitutes.
Eventually the people of Townsville saw the hostel as the final step before complete homelessness. All variety of drugs were sold in the halls of the building. Screams could be heard at night as drunks staggered around. There were often fights and episodes of violence. The police knew if they were looking for a felon the hostel was a good place to start and in the newspapers, on many occasions, Sturt Street Hostel was given as the address of the accused before a magistrate.
When I first came to Townsville 13 years ago, I knew well the reputation of the place and everyone saw it as the last hope of the desperate.
Then things began to change. In 2012 two business
partners Mike Menkens and Yap De Jong bought the building from the family who lived there. On December 16, 2016 the business pair made a brilliant decision. They engaged the services of Peter Millios.
Peter had been a very successful businessman and it was he and his family who built the Townsville Transit Centre. A man of many parts he was also an inventor who designed an almost indestructible work visor.
He was the fencing coach who established the North Queensland Fencing Academy and a chorister in the Greek Church among other talents. He has reached past retiring age but remains an unstoppable force.
Peter turned the place completely around. It took him over two years to do it. All the furniture and beds were renewed and the place was painted. There were new washing machines, televisions, airconditioners. All the old mattresses were thrown out. New covers were given to each and changed regularly. The days of bed bugs were gone. CCTV cameras were installed. The average person’s stay is now 10 years. The occupancy rate of 96 per cent is unbeaten anywhere. The front entrance was locked at the beginning of Covid and will stay locked. Only guests and service personnel are admitted.
The drunks are gone, the violence is gone and peace, harmony and cleanliness are the order of the day. Service organisations and the police cannot find enough praise for the manager responsible for this.
In 2106 the building was sold by the business partners to the 5 Rivers Development Group based in Cairns. The Group only purchased the building with the proviso that Peter went with it.
I spoke to the many characters who live there, the longest is Martin. He has been there for 30 years and says that the transformation of the place is amazing. There is also Fernando, who has been there 14 years. He is in his 90s and a superb chess player. He is one of the many characters who make the place a really interesting place to stay – if you can get a bed, but that’s not likely. The Sturt Street lodge does cater for women and married couples but most of the guests are men. The future of the Lodge is bright to say the least.
Since Peter took over the financial value of the Lodge has easily doubled making it one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the city.
The Sturt Street Lodge is one of the biggest unknown success stories in Northern Queensland. I hope this article changes all that and I also hope that Peter Millios, one of Townsville’s most successful citizens comes to be recognised for his work.