Articles - Ashgrove History

What is the Corley Collection and the Corley Explorer?

From the 1960s to the 1970s, Frank and Eunice Corley drove the suburban streets of Queensland in their pink Cadillac, taking photographs of houses and selling them to homeowners. They are thought to have taken over a quarter of a million photographs of houses, from Bundaberg to Beenleigh. Around two-thirds of the photographs were sold to householders.

The 61,000 images that were not sold to householders were donated to the State Library of Queensland in 1995. These images were restored and digitised over many years. The Corley Collection went online as part of the Home: a suburban obsession exhibition held at SLQ January - July 2019.

Corley Explorer – The Corley Explorer was created as part of the above exhibition and is still available to search. You may not find the photo of your house, as the resident of the house back in the 1960s and 70s may have purchased the photo that Frank took. However, it’s fun to look and you may be able to identify a neighbouring house. To start your search, go to the Corley Explorer and click on the tab ‘Places’ then click on Ash or any other suburb you’d like to search.

Bardon – There are 234 photographs in 37 spools and street addresses for 69 photos. I created the list below in 2019 to assist people in finding a house in Bardon more easily. Many photos have been identified by other ‘Corley explorers’ and these people have added addresses and other information. Good luck with your search.

Lindy Sugars

Ashgrove Historical Society Inc.

Corley Explorer spool numbers for Bardon