Dakota South Apartments- My Uni Dwelling. pt 1

by Adrian How

During my undergrad and postgrad uni days in Brisbane, Australia, I stayed with several groups of friends in several locations around town. In the first 1.5 years, I moved around within Toowong and Indoroopilly- two suburbs infested with students as it’s geographically very close to the campus. However, in my final undergrad year and throughout the course of my postgrad studies, I lived in a place called Teneriffe, which was in the west side of Brisbane and quite a distance to campus but still accessible via the public river ferry or a 15 min drive.

I opted to stay away from where the students dwell simply because I wanted to experience life outside of the student bubble environment. It also meant that I probably wouldn’t have my car smashed up by drunk students throwing a shopping trolley against my car in the night time, again. We found the perfect apartment in the upmarket area of Teneriffe, around the corner from New Farm- the artsy and colourful part of Brisbane- called Dakota South Apartments. My housemates- Lance Wee and Owen Crowe- and I immediately took a liking to the place the moment we saw it.

It was a 1933 pre-war building which was used as a wool store back in the early days (due to its location right beside the river), turned into a modern contemporary apartment with it’s heritage facade maintained. Being a wool store, each floor had very high ceilings, adding grandeur to each unit. The rent was AUD350 per week for a 2-bedroom apartment (it’s now AUD460 per week). Mind you, AUD350 a week wasn’t cheap for a 2 bedroom. For the same price, you could get a 4 bedroom unit at Toowong, Taringa, or Indoroopilly; a large Queenslander (wooden house) in St. Lucia (campustown) itself.

Owen agreed to take the living hall, paying the least amongst us whilst Lance wanted the masterbedroom and I took the other room, paying AUD120 a week, which was 20 bucks more than my previous place. A good deal I’d say.

Here are some pictures from seqrents.com.au to justify why paying 20 more was well worth it.

The facade of the building has been untouched since 1933. Even the signage at the top of the building was not removed. It only says ‘Dakota South’ at the entrance doors. This place gave me the feeling of living in a New York loft.

The foyer area. What I liked about the place is the whole minimalist theme to it. Simple wall art, a bright orange stretched ottoman and a metal flower stand does the trick.

The corridors to the units- plain simple glass and metal bannisters, more wall art. Simply love the wooden beams which were preserved from the woolstore days. The units, internally, have these running through them as well. Rustic.

The pool. It’s really narrow and the carpark is right opposite it, separated only by a low concrete wall. Perhaps that’s why the picture of the pool was taken widthwise.

The gym. Nothing fancy, just the run-of-the-mill equipment for basic fitness exercises.

The riverside just across the apartment. Love the wide pathways intended for cyclists and pedestrians. I used to like walking here in the evenings just to unwind and enjoy the calmness of the river.

Picture of an empty 2 bedroom unit- just like ours before we moved in. Actually, ours looked pretty much like this even after we moved in. We only placed a dining table and four chairs in the hallway.. and oh yeah, Owen’s mattress and his portable wardrobe closer to the window. We played a lot of football in this place. It felt better than most of the futsal turf courts here because each unit was laid with wool carpets. This also meant that any damage to the carpets would cost us dearer.

The units had no balconies because they did not want to deface the facade. They’ve even maintained the brick walls on the inside of the apartment. For me, this felt a bit like the unit in the TV series, Friends, where Ross and co. would climb out the window to their yard where they’d spy on ‘ugly naked guy’. We didn’t have a yard beyond the window but we had a solid roof that stretched about 10 feet out (we were on the 2nd floor and the 1st floor units had the luxury of a private covered garden area). Lance and I would often climb out the window just to lepak.

End of part 1

Image source: seqrents.com.au