The Glassford mines, the Blue Bag and the Lady Inez and smelters are accessed via a track leading to Glassford Creek from the Monto-Many Peaks Road. The smelters are located approximately 7.5 kilometres along the track from the last farmstead. Beyond the last farming property, the road is a four-wheel drive track that crosses Glassford Creek several times.
The smelter 1 site has a standing chimney with a height of approximately 18 metres. The smelter area is very overgrown with vegetation covering the collapsed remains of the smelter's brickwork. Little can be interpreted, though it does appear that this is the site of the reverberatory furnaces. Adjacent to the smelter and the chimney is a series of at least 6 pits. It is possible that there could be more pits but the area is covered by galvanised iron from the roof of the collapsed work's building. The six pits that are visible are in two rows of three, each of the pits is two metres in width, with their lengths increasing from 1 metre to 2 metres to 2.5metres. Adjacent to the pits are the remains of standing and collapsed posts and roof trusses of a 7 metres by 7.5 metres building. A three hopper feed bin that may be the remains of a spitzkasten classifer is located near the chimney. A small slagheap covers an area 29 metres by 20 metres. Approximately 66 metres to the southwest is a flat area accessed by a road that runs south towards the Lady Inez Mine and northwest towards Smelter 2 and the Blue Bag Mine. This flat area could be an ore sorting/storage floor.
The Smelter 2 site has a standing chimney connected by the stone base of a short horizontal flue to a standing brick smelter-support structure, which presumably supported a water-jacket furnace as referred to in the literature. This structure is 9 metres long by 2.5 metres wide and 3 metres tall. It is partitioned into two sections, with a sloping internal floor inclined down to two access holes in the front face at ground level. Part of the front wall of the structure has collapsed. A series of engine footings are located near the smelter, and a large boiler with tall chimney attached has fallen off one of these engine beds. The associated slagheap extends over an area 48 metres by 32 metres, and consists of pavement-like slag poured into formwork, as evidenced on other water-jacket smelter sites. The slag formwork at the edge of the slagheap is old railway rails.
Behind the smelter and the engine sites is a stone retaining wall up to 1.8 metres high. Above this wall is a flat area that appears to have been an ore sorting or treatment floor. To the east of the smelter area is a 28 metres long tip of mullock, and to the east of that again is a large area of mullock and ore dump that has been cut through in several places. The cutting was shown in the 1941 plan of the site. A track noted in 1941 as a tramway leads off to the Blue Bag Mine in an easterly direction. There are several areas with mullock around them on the hill slope above Smelter 2 that may be filled-in shafts.
","history":"The Glassford Creek copper lode was discovered in 1893. Initially it was mined for silver then in 1896 for gold and subsequently for copper. The two most important lodes on the Glassford field were the Blue Bag Mine in the north and the Lady Inez Mine in the south. Practically all production on the field came from these two lodes with the Blue Bag Mine the major producer.
In 1897, a ten-head battery was erected at Glassford Creek. This led to a total of 560 tons of ore being mined for a return of 166 ounces of gold. When copper sulphides soured the amalgamating tables crushing was discontinued and prospecting reverted to copper. An 1897 plan suggests that the gold battery was located within the vicinity of the later copper smelters.
In 1900, the Boompa Copper Company made plans to erect reverberatory smelters. When the reverberatory furnaces were completed in 1903 it appears that smelting commenced and continued through to 1908. Water-jacket furnaces were built but do not appear to have been completed until 1906. The mined ore was put through a rock-breaker and over shaker tables where it was handpicked prior to going to the smelter.
The Boompa Copper Company went into liquidation in 1908, and in 1915 the water-jacket smelter was dismantled. Residues in the bases of the furnaces were leased out with 8 tons of copper matte being recovered. The amount of matte recovered in this salvage operation indicates that the methods implemented by the company were inefficient and that the smelters were either ineffectively managed or poorly constructed. The salvage of the matte resulted in a yield of 1 ton 11 cwt of copper, 80 ounces of gold and 113 ounces of silver. This salvage operation was carried out in conjunction with similar work at the Mount Hector smelter, which suggests that the Glassford Creek and Mount Hector mines had a common leaseholder at this time.
Originally the Blue Bag Mine operated as an open-cut, however when operations became dangerous as the removal of overburden increased the depth of the open-cut, shafts and tunnels were excavated from the base of the open-cut to afford access to the ore.
The available demographic figures show that the movement of people in and out of the Glassford area was closely aligned to the success and otherwise of the mines. For example, at the beginning of 1907 Glassford had a population of 346 but by the end of that year numbers immediately prior to the Boompa Copper Company going into liquidation had declined to 40.
In 1916 Hunting and Clark took over the Blue Bag Mine and a new shaft was sunk. From the 227 tons of ore sent for treatment they received a return of 22 tons of copper valued at £2,552, 119 ounces of gold valued at £480 and 155 ounces of silver valued at £19. At the end of 1916 the mine was sold to a southern syndicate for floating. At this time it appears that there were approximately 25,000 tons of ore in the dumps located within close proximity of the smelters.
When WA Doyle made application in 1918 for assistance to re-establish the copper smelters Government Geologist Ball undertook investigations, the result being that there was insufficient ore to warrant a re-establishment of the smelters.
However, further mining was undertaken at the Blue Bag Mine and at the Lady Inez Mine after 1920 with the mined ore being shipped to Chillagoe for treatment. Plans were made to install a new plant and powerhouse but these plans did not eventuate and mining ceased in 1921. Following this the Department of Mines took over the machinery. By 1941, all the buildings in the village of Glassford had been removed, the mining plant dismantled and most of it shipped elsewhere with only the remnants of the water-jacket furnace remaining on site.
At the Miriam Vale and Monto community workshops conducted in the 1990s as part of the Comprehensive Regional Assessment for the South East Queensland bio-geographic region's Regional Forest Agreement, Glassford Creek Smelter Sites were considered to satisfy the threshold indicators for National Estate social value.
","criteria":"The remains of the Glassford Creek smelter reflect a typical pattern for small copper fields in Queensland, with initial prospecting followed by more substantial but short-lived company development, tailing off into small-scale mining often recovering values ignored by earlier miners.
|The Glassford Creek Smelters Sites are well preserved for their age and type, and provide uncommon and endangered evidence of this scale of a copper mining enterprise.
|The Glassford Creek Smelters Sites have the potential to provide information that will further existing knowledge of the nature of mining technology utilised during this period of Queensland's mining history.
|The Glassford Creek Smelter Sites are considered by the regional community to be a significant part of the history of European settlement in the Boyne Valley. The Smelter Sites are valued as an historical asset not only for the connection that they provide with the past but also for their educational and interpretational values.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":5090,"place_ref":602491,"name":"Norton Goldfield","alternate_name":"Milton Goldfield","street_address":"Norton Road","suburb":"NAGOORIN","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-10-27","description":"The Norton Goldfield is accessed via Norton Road which exits the village of Nargoorin to the east. Travel along this roadway in a northeast direction for approximately 12 kilometres.
The gold roasting furnace site consists of four parallel 22 metres by 2.75 metres brick plinths with collapsed brick arched roofs, interpreted as being roasting furnace bases. The plinths are separated by approximately 5.25 metres spaces between them, one of which at least is paved (the others are largely covered with soils and rubble). The furnaces fed in pairs into two chimneys via brick and stone flues, interconnected with a cross flue between each pair. The furnace bases have flat floors that appear to have been 2 metres wide internally, with arched roofs about 1.5 metres high, and the floors step up towards the flue-end by one course of brick every 3 metres. There are vaulted tunnels/boxes under two of the furnaces about 2 metres from the end opposite the flues, but there are no apparent fireboxes. The furnace bricks are not firebricks, and there is no vitrification or slag deposit in them, suggesting they were used for roasting rather than smelting.
One chimney remains upslope of the furnaces, to 10 metres height. Downslope of the furnaces is a brick paved area, with water tanks and machinery footings stepping down the slope from it. Close to the creek are footings and base-logs that may have been the footings for a water pump.
The remains of another furnace is located some 45 metres to the east. This furnace is approximately 16 metres long, with a rubble plume extending another 35 metres, possibly indicating a fallen chimney and the extension of the kiln itself.
The four conjoined furnaces, together with the separated one, are interpreted as being the five 'reverberatory' furnaces built in 1886.
On the banks of Norton Creek are the remains of a 375 yards long water-race that is said to have been associated with the arrasta. The water-race appears to have been lined along its sides with bricks as remains of these can be seen in some sections.
The 10-head stamper battery with steel frame is located about 80 metres from the creek. A concrete engine footing is located adjacent to the battery to the southeast. The posts for a partly-collapsed gantry, level with the top of the battery, lead south 22 metres, then in a series of separate low embankments back to a mine adit 120 metres to the south. This appears to be the support embankment for a tramway linking the mine and is not demonstrated.
Some small brick rubble piles around the area may indicate other buildings. The area is also dotted with more recent core-drilling pads, is quite eroded and an upgrade of the access road to the adjacent opencut mine tends to confuse the interpretation of the historical remains.
A concrete-lined brick tank is embedded 2 metres deep into the hillside, and may be a header tank for battery water.
","history":"The Norton Goldfield was originally part of the Milton pastoral run that had been taken up by William Henry Walsh, who had named the property for his childhood English home. Walsh was elected a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1859. His opposition to the separation of Queensland from New South Wales ensured that he did not become a member of the first Queensland Parliament.
George Williams and Charles Lett discovered gold on the Milton (Norton) Goldfield in 1871. Proclaimed on 12 May 1879 the field comprised 107.6 square kilometres and extended west from the Many Peaks Range to the Boyne River. The field is located approximately 35 kilometres south of Calliope and is said to have been named after Albert Norton, a member of the first Calliope Divisional Board.
No information appears to be available on the goldfield until 1878 - 1879 when it was reported that there were 60 miners and two three-head stamper batteries in operation on the field. Carmichael who was to be active on the field for many years had set up these batteries.
Most of the gold extracted from the Norton field came from reefs although some alluvial gold was won from a gully running through the township of Norton and from Naylor's Gully. Norton goldfield reefs were located to the north and south of the Norton Creek; to the north the principal reefs were the Advance, Who'd-Have-Thought-It, Hickey Claim, Carmichael's Gully, Marodian, Rands and Emu, while to the south the reefs included Frampton's (also known as Martin's), All Nations, Never Never, Little Wonder, Chandlers, Bald Hill, Brigham Young, Hans Big Dyke, New Constitution, Old Welcome and Galena Reefs. Silver was also mined at Norton.
The ores at Norton were complex; they contained gold, silver, lead, copper and zinc in varying concentrations, and various methods were explored and tried to maximise gold retrieval, or to retrieve the other minerals.
In 1884 the Frampton United Company was formed in an attempt to establish a chlorination plant but the following year Wattle Creek on which the crushing operations depended dried up and crushing operations were halted. In 1886 five reverberatory furnaces were set up at the Frampton United Company lease, to be operated in conjunction with a chlorination plant for gold retrieval. Frampton United Company then erected a barrel chlorination plant and with the 5 reverberatory furnaces achieved a throughput capacity of 60 tons per week at a cost of £3,000.
Because the miners did not like the smelting work, kanaka labour was employed to operate the furnaces. It appears likely the furnaces were used to roast the ores, rather than actually smelt them, as the ore would have had to be friable to be chlorinated successfully. The ore was first crushed in a 'dry crusher' and a 10-head battery, before roasting. This chlorination works was closed down in 1891, possibly because the nature of the ore changed and the components absorbed too much chlorine. No further reference is made to roasting ore.
In 1888 a 10-head stamper and a 'dry crusher' were installed but these proved a failure. In 1889 the Advance Company went down 400 ft and erected roasting and chlorination plant but following an unsuccessful attempt to treat 70 tons of ore this plant was abandoned in 1890. The continued failure was probably due to a high amount of calcite in the ore.
The Conran Gold Mining Company took over from Frampton United Company in 1891 and the chlorination works were suddenly shut down possibly because of a change in the composition of the ore. By 1893 only minimal work was being undertaken including surface collection.
In 1895 Carmichael again tried chlorination but failed once again. Still further attempts were made to make the field payable and in 1899 Carmichael erected a water-jacket blast furnace but the results were not satisfactory probably because a qualified metallurgist was not employed to manage the blast furnace.
Although an application was made for a further 2 leases no work carried out until 1902 following the opening of the road to Bororen that provided direct access to the North Coast Railway. In 1903 Marodian Gold Mining Company acquired a lease of 40 acres but by 1904 had ceased operation.
In 1906 Carmichael erected a water-jacket blast furnace to drive off lead and zinc which would leave a copper matte containing the gold and silver. Between 1906 and 1918 several small groups worked the mines with the ore being sent to Port Kembla for treatment. It was during this period that German army engineer Johan Gundolf erected a water-driven crushing mill (known as an arrastra) and a 375 metres water-race along the banks of Norton Creek.
In 1918 Frampton Mine, one of the more consistent operations at Norton employed four men to work the mine and although a 10-head stamper battery had been acquired this was not set up until 1923. In 1924 tramlines were laid down connecting the mine and the battery. In 1927 it was reported that a good crushing plant was available but the owners were unable to proceed with crushing. In 1928 a crushing of 4 tons of ore was sent to Port Kembla for treatment. The return from this was 14ounces of gold and 20 ounces of silver.
The last Norton Goldfield returns appear to have been in 1941, when the Frampton mine was re-opened by TH Smith and the ore sent to Chillagoe for treatment.
While official reports of the returns are patchy available figures show that 8,776 ounces of gold were mined on the Norton Goldfield during the period 1879 -1941.
","criteria":"The Norton Goldfield is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's mining and settlement patterns from the late 1870s through to the 1940s; its success, failures and eventual abandonment closely linked to the difficulties encountered in treating the ore.
|The Norton gold roasting works is an unusual aspect of gold mining, not represented at any other known sites in southern and central Queensland. The operational association between the battery and the mine is uncommon and rare.
|The technological evidence of the attempts to treat difficult ore bodies has the potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's mining history and metallurgy.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15160,"place_ref":600385,"name":"St Luke's Anglican Church","alternate_name":"St Lukes Anglican Church","street_address":"Sayre Crescent","suburb":"BOYNE ISLAND","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Luke's is a small church constructed in a simple, rustic style. It is timber-framed and clad with flat galvanised iron fixed with timber battens. The roof is gabled and clad with corrugated iron. The western entrance is sheltered by a small porch and there is a vestry with a separate gabled roof at the northeast end. The church has a seating capacity for 50 people.
The frame of the building consists of exposed hardwood bush posts sunk into the ground and other hardwood framing. The exterior is painted a light colour with dark stained timber battens to provide a decorative effect suggestive of half-timbering. It has a cement floor, galvanised iron roof, timber doors and window frames. Louvred panels on the side walls of the nave do not appear to be original and all other windows are casements.
The interior is plain and comprises a nave, chancel and attached vestry. The walls appear to be lined with fibrous cement, but the ceiling is unlined.
","history":"St Luke's Anglican Church on Boyne Island was erected in the early 1920s by the small farming community on the island.
Boyne Island, on the Gladstone coastline, was taken up illegally for pastoral purposes in the mid-1850s, the first official lease being granted in 1863. In 1870 much of Boyne Island was resumed by the colonial government and opened to selection, and from the late 1870s agriculturalists cultivated fruit and small crops on the island. In 1884, half the remaining pastoral lease was resumed, and several farms were established on this land in the late 1880s and early 1890s. In the 1880s, a timber mill was erected on the southwest part of the island, and a wharf reserve was proclaimed near the mouth of the Boyne River.
In the early 1900s, several more farms were taken up on Boyne Island or in its vicinity. At the time, Boyne Island was also a popular picnic destination for Gladstone residents and was used as a weekend retreat by townspeople. Around 1920, a small Saturday school was established on the island for the children of the farming community in a small shelter shed. Teachers came from Toolooa School or from Gladstone and church services are also said to have also been held regularly in a shelter across the road from the current church, which may well have been the same structure as that used for the school. The local families involved decided to build themselves a church.
The land on which the church is situated was part of an agricultural selection granted in 1908 to Henry Richard Thompson. It changed hands several times before being purchased by Harry Handley in 1922. The Handley family were farmers and donated about an acre for the church, officially subdividing and transferring ownership of the land to the Diocese of Rockhampton in 1925. Funds for the construction were raised both locally and in England, and materials, labour and furnishings were supplied mostly by local residents. The building was designed by Boyne Island resident Arthur Malpas, who also helped in the construction. Reputedly, Mr Malpas drew inspiration from photo-album pictures of half-timbered cottages at Worcester, England. The construction method and materials used to produce the effect however, were not traditional but those available locally.
St Luke's was dedicated on 12 October 1924 by Dr Crick, the Bishop of Rockhampton. At the time coins and a newspaper were placed under the foundation stone. A large sea shell was utilised as a font. In the Interwar period, as cars became more common and with the construction of a traffic bridge over the Boyne River, Wild Cattle Beach [later Tannum Sands] became a popular holiday resort. The island's permanent population appears to have risen after the Second World War, and St Luke's Church served as Boyne Island's only school building from 27 January 1953 until the school was established in another building on 14 May 1956.
In 1961 the church was rehallowed by Canon Donald Kinglake Dunn, coins and a newspaper of that year being added to the time capsule under the foundation stone. Items such as prayer books, vases, a wooden cross, communion cup and paten, pews, candle sticks and christening font were given in memory of the early residents of Boyne Island who established the church.
Boyne Island has become urbanised following the establishment of the Boyne alumina smelter in 1982. During the construction period alone, the population increased from 1,400 to 6000. Housing and public facilities have enormously increased on the island which is now effectively an industrial area.
In the late 20th century, St Mark's Ministry Centre was erected adjacent to St Luke's, which now has the role of a church hall rather than a church and is used for church group meetings, Sunday School and worship on special occasions.
","criteria":"St Luke's church is a simple chapel constructed in an idiosyncratic style using volunteer labour and locally obtained materials by the farming community on Boyne Island. It illustrates the resourcefulness of pioneer communities in providing for their needs with limited resources. The main economic activity on Boyne Island is now industrial following the establishment of alumina smelters in 1982, and so the church illustrates a way of life on the island which has passed.
|The church in its setting has a picturesque appeal effected by an imaginative use of available materials to create the impression of a rustic chapel and makes an attractive visual contribution to the character of the area.
|The church has a strong connection with the Boyne Island community having been designed and built by pioneer families and has served the community as a church, school and meeting place since 1924.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15161,"place_ref":600386,"name":"Glengarry Homestead","alternate_name":"Glengarry","street_address":"Gladstone-Monto Road","suburb":"GLADSTONE","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Glengarry homestead complex consists of a brick dwelling with a modern annexe, a detached kitchen and a number of farm outbuildings. They are situated on a hill with extensive views of the surrounding countryside.
The main residence is a single storey brick building, rectangular in plan, with a hipped roof clad with corrugated iron. It has verandahs to all four sides supported by timber posts. A section of the verandah on the northern side has been built in to provide modern bathroom and laundry facilities. The walls are painted except for the narrow band between verandah and main roofs and this reveals rose red bricks pointed in white cement. The bricks are laid on a course of local sandstone in a modified garden bond pattern, though this varies between walls. There is a camber arch fan over each external door. The interior has 3 rooms leading into each other. Cedar french doors open onto the verandah and the internal doors are constructed from vertical boards. The rooms are ceiled with beaded boards and have small pierced timber ceiling roses. The floorboards, believed to be local white cedar, are covered with lino imitating carpet.
There is a modern annexe at the eastern end of the building. This is constructed of fibrous cement sheeting and glass on a timber frame and is set on low concrete stumps. It is separated from the older section by a breezeway, its flat metal deck roof abutting that of the verandah facing it. A small section of the edge of the verandah roof has been removed where it touches the roof of the annexe.
Behind the brick building is a detached kitchen connected to it by a covered way. This has a frame of hardwood poles and a pyramid roof with a decorative metal ventilator and brick chimney. The roof and walls are clad with corrugated iron. The floor is of rammed earth topped with a layer of bricks and concrete. It has a main room with an open brick fireplace and chimney and two further rooms to the north. There are sash windows to the west and south walls, those on the west shaded by metal sunhoods with a pierced thistle motif. The north and east walls have modern hopper windows in the original openings.
To the north east of this building is the butcher's shop, constructed of timber and sheet iron. The central section has an arched roof of corrugated iron supported by a pole frame and is flanked by two skillion roofed sections. That to the south has corrugated iron sheeting to the walls, that to the north is now open but has the remains of timber slabs.
About 5 metres further north is a single storey timber building set on low stumps. It has a hipped roof with a skillion extension clad in corrugated iron. The walls are clad with sawn weatherboards and it has a timber floor. Adjoining this are the remains of the buggy shed and blacksmith's shop, which have completely collapsed.
Approximately 50 metres to the north west is the dairy which has collapsed completely. It can be seen to have had a corrugated iron roof, flagged floor, hardwood pole frame and slab walls. To the south west, under a fig tree, are the remains of the stables, which appear to have a similar construction. There is a highset fibrous cement clad cottage, possibly interwar, about 100 metres north west of the homestead complex.
A tennis court in front of the main residence is visible only as a section of level ground edged with fragments of nailed-down white plastic tape which once outlined the court. Plantings such as two mango trees outside the kitchen, mulberry, citrus, lagaeostromia, hibiscus and Burdekin plums survive. There is a rockery feature to the south west of the homestead.
","history":"The Glengarry homestead complex is situated on a hill overlooking the Boyne River Valley and the Gladstone-Monto road and comprises a brick residence and timber outbuildings constructed in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
\nThe Port Curtis Pastoral District was developed in the early 1850s when the area was still part of New South Wales. In 1853 a government survey of 7000 square kilometres was carried out. The leading pioneer pastoralist in the Boyne Valley was William Henry Walsh who arrived in 1853 and held several huge runs which comprised most of the Valley. The head station was Milton, applied for in 1856. In 1868 the boundaries of this run were surveyed and included the area which later became Glengarry station. Following the Crown Lands Alienation Act in 1868, large runs were broken up and resumed for selection as grazing properties. Because of the relative isolation of the valley, Milton remained intact longer than most properties in the area, but was divided for resumption in 1883 into comparatively large grazing blocks. John Dickinson applied for a portion at this time, but the application did not succeed, although in 1885 his wife, Isabella, was granted a lease of 628 acres. Dickinson already held Portion 9V, Grazing Farm 52 of 801 acres, on the opposite bank of the river when he selected Portion 26V, Agricultural Farm 79 of 160 acres, on which the homestead is located. This portion was gazetted on 15 July 1892 and was at the time recorded as having no improvements on it. The adjoining Portion 504 was also obtained by Dickinson in 1897.
\nIn 1898, a report was made on the selection by the Bailiff of Crown Lands as part of the conditions of sale. Dickinson is stated to have resided there since 20 March 1894 and improvements to the land were reported to be a brick house, valued at £350, a detached kitchen clad in weatherboards, yards and a large hardwood shed in the approximate position of the stables, all roofed in galvanised iron. There were also a small pig sty and fowl house. The detached kitchen was presumably reclad in corrugated iron at a later date. It appears to be an earlier building than the house and was probably the original homestead, which was relegated to kitchen use and perhaps servant accomodation when the new homestead was built. This manner of replacement and reuse of buildings as the property developed was a practice so common as to have become traditional. The other outbuildings on the property were presumably constructed soon after the 1898 survey, and may even contain recycled material.
\nJohn Dickinson died in 1920, but the property passed to other members of the family and was held by them until 1946 when it was purchased by William Bryce. In the early 1960s, Glengarry was purchased by I O F McDonald who had a large modern annexe constructed at the eastern end of the residence. He also had a section of the verandah built in to provide bathroom and laundry facilities. Because of concerns about the viability of Glengarry as a working property following the construction of Awoonga Dam, it was purchased by the Gladstone Area Water Board on 1 August 1979.
\nThe property has been leased for grazing purposes since 1983. The buildings are not inhabited although they have been used as temporary shelter from time to time by contract workers and have water and power connected. Although the dairy, stables, blacksmith's shop and buggy shed were still standing when recorded by the National Trust in 1979, they have since collapsed.
\nThe Awoonga Dam project at its highest projected levels will make an island of the site from time to time. This level of inundation is not planned for about 50 years.
","criteria":"Glengarry homestead, as a complex of residential and working buildings constructed in traditional forms and materials and associated with the operation of a pastoral property, is important in illustrating the early pastoral settlement of the Boyne Valley in the Port Curtis region.
|Glengarry is the earliest homestead on its original site in the area as several earlier homesteads have been destroyed or removed. The main residence is thought to be the only brick homestead of its era in Central Queensland, the more readily available timber or local stone being generally preferred for construction.
|The homestead in its setting, together with its outbuildings, has the potential to yield information about the life and work of pastoralists in the Boyne Valley.
|The formal main house with an earlier residence used as a detached kitchen, quarters, butcher's shop, blacksmith, dairy, stables and other sheds are good examples of their type.
|The main residence is pleasing in form, scale and materials and is set on a hilltop with extensive views to the mountains over a broad sweep of countryside. It is a local landmark due to this high position.
|The homestead is important for its association with the life and work of the Dickinson family, early settlers in this area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15162,"place_ref":600387,"name":"Langmorn Homestead","alternate_name":"Langmorn","street_address":"Langmorn Road","suburb":"RAGLAN","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Langmorn homestead complex is sited on a hill and can be seen from a distance because the specimen trees around the homestead and along the drive serve as visual markers. The complex comprises the main house, cottage, a number of outbuildings, a family graveyard and mature plantings.
The residence consists of a rectangular 1870s building looking north east with an 1900s extension adjoining it on the north west. This later structure provides a formal front entrance to the house and is approached by a circular drive around a lawn with trees and a rockery fountain. It is constructed of timber with exposed studs. The gambrel roof is clad with corrugated iron. The verandah to the front and north eastern side has balustrading formed of cast iron panels, that on the south west has been built in to create a bedroom, bathroom and toilet. The central entrance opens on to a hall from which bedrooms open out on either side. To the rear there is a third bedroom and a library.
A large open area is formed between the two buildings which comprise the residence where their roofs touch. This building has a hipped roof clad originally with shingles which can still be seen under the roofing iron. The core structure of the earlier building is timber with exposed studs. It comprises three main rooms and has french lights opening onto a verandah which surrounds it. This is now enclosed and has small rooms to what was formerly the rear. The section along the former is built in with fibrous cement panels in the lower section with windows in metal frames above. Kitchen cabinets have been built into the south east corner of the verandah. The post at the this corner is carved with the inscription 'TC GC 1873'. That on the northern corner is similarly carved with 'T Creed 1877'.
Behind the main building is a courtyard area which has a small slab building, formerly a staff bathroom, now used as a toilet for visitors. There is a weatherboard clad cottage to the south of the main building. It is set on low stumps, has a gabled roof with new metal cladding and has verandahs all round, sections at the front having been built in. It has 12 pane windows and the interior walls are to partition height only. It is currently used as a souvenir shop.
There is an L shaped concrete stable building behind the house which is marked with the date '1926.' It has a hipped, metal clad roof and large timber doors. The walls are rough cast and have metal framed multiple-panel windows set within moulded concrete surrounds. Situated to the west of the stables is a small building constructed of timber slabs on a pole frame with a gabled roof. This is believed to be the oldest building on the site.
To the south east of the stables and behind a large modern vehicle shed is a small timber building which the family believe to have been the original homestead. This has a frame clad with weatherboards and a gabled roof extended out to form a verandah supported on timber posts. The interior is divided into two by a partition extending only to wall height.
Situated on a rise to the south of the homestead is the family graveyard. It the highest point in the complex and commands a fine view across the valley. The earliest burial is that of Edith Augusta Creed who died on 21 May 1873 aged 1 year and 8 months. It also contains the burials of several generations of the Creed family including those of Thomas (1826-1911) and Edith Creed (1838-1881) Creed. The memorials are inscribed slabs and the area is encircled by a timber fence with a pair of metal gates.
","history":"Langmorn Homestead is the residence and associated outbuildings of a pastoral property located in the Port Curtis Hinterland and was established in 1869 by Thomas Creed and his family.
The region in which Langmorn is located was first explored by Charles and William Archer in 1853. Two years later, William Landsborough also explored the region, taking up the run of Raglan in the same year. It was managed by Landsborough's sons, James and John, with James occupying the property with his family. By 1862, he had acquired sole ownership of Raglan which then comprised 200 square miles on which sheep were run. By 1865, Raglan had been sold and passed wholly into the ownership of the Bank of New South Wales by 1868. In this year the Crown Land Alienation Act was passed which enabled the Government to resume half the area of large runs to permit closer settlement. The Bank consolidated the property in 1869, selling the south western portion to brothers Thomas and George Creed. They named the new property Langmorn and operated it as a cattle run. From accounts in Thomas Creed's diaries, there appears to have been a continuing relationship between the two properties, with landmarks on Raglan also being used by Langmorn as meeting and resting points.
Thomas Creed first arrived in Australia from England in 1853. He unsuccessfully prospected for gold at Ballarat, later entering a partnership in the farming industry. In 1857 he returned to England where he married Edith Allen. The new Mrs Creed's parents had left her a property in Jamaica which the Creeds took over in 1859. However, in 1868 they returned to England and then sailed for Brisbane with their two small sons, arriving in Moreton Bay on 23 January 1869. When George Creed arrived by a later boat, the brothers travelled north in October to inspect Langmorn Station before purchase. On 14 December 1869, the family moved to Langmorn.
At first the Creeds lived in an existing house, presumably built for Raglan, but in May 1873 a homestead was constructed for them by a Mr Pershouse. In 1877 this was substantially enlarged by William Semfel with assistance from station workers. Timber for the construction and additions to the homestead was cut on the property, although pine planks were ordered for the later work from the Calliope Sawmill.
The area of Langmorn's land was substantially reduced during the late 19th century due to resumptions in relation to the various Land Acts of the period. In 1905 the residence was enlarged by building a new timber structure adjacent to the old; the space where the verandahs of the two abutted becoming an open living area. The addition had four rooms and provided a new formal entrance for the house. This effectively reorientated the residence because the new entrance faced north, while the front of the first house looked east. In 1910 Thomas and George Creed secured ownership of the homestead block at auction. Thomas Creed died at Langmorn in 1911, at the age of 85. Four of his five sons remained on the property, dividing it into four parts, each with its own homestead. The additional three homesteads being named Prior Park, Cecilwood and Cleveden.
Further work continued on the Langmorn homestead building until 1917, when the verandahs were partially enclosed. A large concrete stable building was constructed in 1926.
The current owners, members of the Creed family, have owned the property since 1998. The buildings are very intact and new sheds on the site have been constructed using bush pole frames and corrugated iron roofs in a similar manner to the original buildings. New work has been dated, continuing a family tradition begun in 1873.
","criteria":"Langmorn homestead illustrates the pattern of early European exploration and settlement of Queensland where the development of pastoral properties preceded agriculture and the establishment of towns. As an early homestead in central Queensland which has remained in continuous use, it has important associations with the development of the pastoral industry in Queensland.
|Because Langmorn has continued in the ownership of one family and is well documented, the homestead complex provides an uncommonly good and intact record of an evolving pastoral property established in the mid 19th century.
|Due to its age and intact nature, Langmorn has the potential to yield information on the way in which such properties were run and evidence for the building techniques used over several generations, thus contributing to an understanding of Queensland's history.
|It is a demonstrates the principal characteristics of a 19th century homestead well, including the residential buildings, associated outbuildings, graves, fences and mature trees.
|The homestead complex contains structures which are well designed and made examples of traditional buildings which are pleasing in form, materials and detail and mature trees which contribute visually to the setting and provide a landmark in the area.
|Langmorn homestead has a special association with the life and work of the Creed family, who, as early pastoralists contributed to the development of the area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15164,"place_ref":600389,"name":"Raglan Homestead","alternate_name":"Raglan Station Road","street_address":"Raglan Station Road","suburb":"RAGLAN","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Raglan Homestead is located to the north-east of Raglan Creek and just north of Larcom Vale Creek, approximately halfway between Rockhampton and Gladstone on the old coach road, which is now by-passed by the Bruce Highway. The complex is located six kilometres from the highway in an easterly direction. Early structures within the complex include a slab hut (possibly dating to 1857), a c1886 timber cottage, a 1913 residence, sheds and stables.
The main residence (1913) is a high set, timber-framed house (exposed stud) lined with vertically-jointed tongue-in-groove timber boards. French doors with breezeways and timber-framed sash windows are located along each elevation and open to the verandah which surrounds the building on all sides and offers sweeping views of the surrounding country. Internally, the homestead retains much of its original vertically-jointed timber partition walls and timber ceilings.
A low-set, timber-framed cottage (c1886) clad with weatherboards, with a stepped verandah and a hipped roof clad with corrugated iron, is located just north of the main house. There are back-to-back fireplaces with timber surrounds in the wall between the two rooms, but the chimney is no longer extant.
The slab hut (possibly dating to 1857) is a single-storeyed, timber-framed structure with a gable roof clad with corrugated iron, set on the ground a short distance from the main house. The building has a timber floor and walls constructed of vertical slabs, the tops of which are set in morticed top bearers. The upper sections of the side elevations are clad with corrugated iron. A stepped verandah with a skillion roof is located to one side of the hut. Two nine-pane windows are located in the front elevation. The entrance to the hut, a panelled timber door, is located in this elevation.
A large, two-storey volume shed constructed with bush timbers and clad with corrugated iron is located near the slab hut.
Also located near the slab hut is a stables, which is timber-framed and clad with corrugated iron, with large double timber doors located along one elevation. Attached to the stables is a timber-framed shed and set of timber yards.
Other later sheds and holding yards have been constructed on the homestead site. These are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
A large tamarind tree remains, originally central to the front garden of the c1860 house.
","history":"Raglan Station, located just north of Larcom (earlier Larcombe) Vale Creek in the Port Curtis hinterland, was established in 1857 by James Landsborough. The present main residence at Raglan Homestead was erected in 1913, but there are other earlier structures within the complex, including a slab hut that may date to the establishment of the station, and a c1886 timber cottage.
The area was explored by Charles and William Archer in 1853 and in 1856 by William Landsborough (who in 1861-1862 was to lead one of the official relief expeditions in search of the missing explorers Burke and Wills). It was incorporated within the Port Curtis Pastoral District, proclaimed in January 1854, which included the County of Raglan, named in honour of Lord Raglan, a British hero of the Crimean War (1853-1856). Frontier violence ensued as squatters moved into the district and in 1855 five persons on Mount Larcom Station were killed by Aborigines.
The brothers James and John Landsborough, originally from Stevenston in Scotland, had taken up sheep-raising in the New England district of New South Wales in the 1840s, but in the 1850s decided to search for better pastures to the north. Between 1854 and 1858 James and John in partnership, and their younger brother William in partnership with others, took up a number of Wide Bay-Burnett pastoral leases. From the late 1850s they began transferring their interests to the Port Curtis district, commencing with James Landsborough overlanding sheep onto Raglan run in 1857. The run was situated on Raglan Creek midway between Gladstone and Rockhampton, in the county of Deas Thompson. James had just reached the station and was constructing the first slab hut on the Raglan Homestead site, above the Larcom Vale Creek crossing, when John Macartney visited him on 30 December 1857. The first Raglan wool clip was ready by February 1859, when the Archer's boat the Jenny Lind sailed up Raglan Creek to move the cargo to Gladstone.
A mail service between Port Curtis (Gladstone) and Rockhampton via Raglan Station commenced in 1859. Coaches subsequently used this route, and a change station operated at Raglan Head Station until Parson's Inn [QHR 600388] was opened near Black's Crossing on Raglan Creek c1885.
John and James Landsborough gained the official lease of the 30 square mile (7 770ha) Raglan run in January 1860. About this time James, who had married Georgiana Sothers in Maitland in 1849 and had a young family, erected a new dwelling on Raglan: an exposed-stud timber building of two rooms with a wide surrounding verandah and a detached kitchen at the south-west corner.
In 1862 James acquired sole interest in Raglan and Larcom Vale runs and by 1863 the Raglan Station he had developed comprised at least seven runs - Raglan, Larcom Vale, San Jose, Stevenston, Trafalgar, Meringo and Lodi - approximately 200 square miles (51 800ha) in total, bounded to the north by the Bajool Scrub and Gracemere station, to the south by the Bracewell Scrub and Mount Larcom station, to the west by the Dee Range, and to the east by coastal mudflats. He continued to run sheep at Raglan, cared for mainly by recent Chinese immigrants.
However, in 1865 he relinquished his interest in Raglan to take up Sonoma station near Bowen Downs (held by William Landsborough and others) in the Kennedy pastoral district. The leases to Larcom Vale, San Jose, No.2 Stevenston, and Trafalgar were transferred in mid-1865 to AH Richardson, General Manager of the Australian Joint Stock Bank. By February 1867 John Ward was occupying Raglan station, raising cattle. By March 1868, White and Ronald held the leases to Raglan (30 square miles) and Marengo (25 square miles) in the Port Curtis Pastoral District, and AH Richardson still held Larcom Vale, Trafalgar, and San Jose.
The telegraph line between Rockhampton and Port Curtis Island in Keppel Bay was constructed via Raglan Station in 1867 and in the same year the Raglan and Langmorn goldfields were proclaimed, resulting in a small, brief 'rush' on the station. A few shops and hotels were constructed to service these goldfields, but little evidence of these survives.
In 1868 the Raglan leases passed to the Bank of New South Wales, which in 1869 consolidated the property under the provisions of the Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1868 and sold the south-western portion to brothers Thomas and George Creed, who named their property Langmorn [QHR 600387], which they operated as a cattle station. From accounts in Thomas Creed's diaries, there appears to have been a continuing relationship between the two properties, with landmarks on Raglan also being used by Langmorn occupants as meeting and resting points. At the time of the 1 September 1871 Queensland census, there were four houses on Raglan Station accommodating 20 persons (16 males and 4 females), and at Langmorn there were 2 houses sheltering 10 persons (7 males and 3 females). Part of the resumed portion of Raglan was thrown open to selection as homestead areas in 1876.
Between c1869 and c1874 Raglan was occupied as a cattle run by David Wilson, initially in partnership with Richard Elliot Palmer, but obtaining sole interest early in 1873. His DW2 remains a station brand. He applied for the Raglan Head Station block, located on the north side of Larcom Vale Creek, as a pre-emptive selection of 836 acres (338ha), but did not obtain title and in June 1874 the freehold was purchased by Archibald Menzies of Melbourne, who also acquired the Raglan leasehold of about 80 square miles (about 20 720ha). At this time improvements at Raglan Homestead were valued at over £1,000 and comprised: a dwelling house (c1860) and garden, store, kitchen, bachelors' quarters, men's hut (possibly the original 1857 hut), fowl house, sheep classing yard, wool shed, other stockyards and extensive fencing. Between late 1878 and mid-1885 Raglan Station was managed by John A Menzies, who erected a small weatherboard school at Raglan Homestead, where his children were tutored.
In mid-1885 the Raglan lease and the head station freehold were transferred to Thomas McKellar of Melbourne whose agent, JA McKellar, managed the property and applied in September 1885 to bring Raglan under the provisions of the Crown Lands Act 1884. For this purpose the consolidated Raglan Station was assessed as comprising 71 square miles (18 389ha) available for subdivision, with the land capable of running 37 head of cattle to the square mile. In June 1887, 45 square miles (11 655ha) of the run (much of this marine plains and scrub lands) was resumed for closer settlement, although this was not opened for selection until 1899. The remainder was leased to Thomas McKellar. About 1886 McKellar added a two-roomed cottage wing to the c1860 house.
By December 1892 Thomas McKellar had returned permanently to Scotland and in March 1893 transferred his interest in Raglan, including the head station freehold, to his brother Ernest Edward McKellar, who initially resided on the property. By April 1898 John N Menzies, whose father had managed Raglan station from 1878 to 1885, had returned to Raglan as manager, a position he held for eleven years.
Following the devastating drought of 1902, EE McKellar was left with a run reduced to five-sixths of its original area and in 1909 made the decision to dispose of Raglan Station, selling to John Murray Macdonald on 18 February 1910
JM Macdonald (only he chose this spelling of the family name McDonald) had sold his Ben Ean vineyard, cellar and distillery in New South Wales to Lindeman's Wines Ltd with a four-year management contract to early 1912, allowing him 'cash in hand' to travel north in search of a cattle property. On purchase of Raglan he still had two years of his contract to fulfil with Lindemans, so an agreement was made with Frederick William Tyrrell, who acted as managing partner until John and his wife Harriet (Hettie), arrived at Raglan in May 1912. Title to the Raglan Homestead block was transferred to JM Macdonald in June 1912.
In 1913 a new residence was constructed at Raglan Homestead for the Macdonalds, just south of the c1886 cottage wing and c1860 house, overlooking Larcom Vale Creek. The substantial timber residence was designed by Fredrick Eckersley Boddington, an architect based in Rockhampton from 1911 to 1915, and was constructed by contractors Taylor and McKenzie. A sawmill was set up on the creek below the house where all the hardwood timber was milled. The house was built on high timber stumps and comprised 42 squares, over half of which were taken up by a 10 foot (3m) deep encircling verandah. The front (southern) elevation had a centrally-positioned divided stair leading to the verandah. Both the verandah and the stair had a simple slatted timber balustrade with some cross-braced timber panels for a decorative effect. The hipped roof, which extended in bungalow fashion over the verandahs, had gablets to the eastern and western ends and was clad with corrugated galvanised iron.
The internal layout of the 1913 house incorporated two large living spaces in the centre: a front (southern-facing) dining room 24' x 16' (7.3m x 4.87m) and the only room in the house to contain a fireplace; and behind this, on the northern side of the building, a tropical lounge 24' x 24' (7.3m x 7.3m), separated from the rear verandah by lattice timber panels and walk-through openings. On the western side of this room, steps led to the sub-floor. The eastern side of the building contained a main bedroom at the front, small office, and another bedroom at the rear; the western side was the service wing, with maid's bedroom at the front (separated from the dining room by a hall leading to the front verandah), pantry and kitchen. Ceilings throughout were 12' (3.65m) in height, to encourage air circulation. With the exception of the office and the pantry, all the other rooms opened via French doors to the verandahs. Interior partitions were of vertically-jointed tongue-in-groove timber boards.
During John and Harriet Macdonald's ownership of Raglan, John's nephew Hector McDonald worked on Raglan between 1920 and 1924. Three other overseers were employed: Eric White, who came from Ben Ean in New South Wales; Charlie Mayne who was at Raglan from the 1920s to 1931; and Archie Stewart who stayed for over 32 years from October 1931. The c1860 house was demolished about 1930.
After Hettie's death in 1938 John Macdonald, who had no children, relied increasingly on Archie Stewart and his wife Jane. On his death on 26 December 1957 at the age of 94, John Macdonald left a portion of Raglan Station to the Stewarts but the bulk of his estate, including Raglan Homestead, passed as the John and Hettie Macdonald Trust to the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales, to be used to build homes for the aged. The trust was divided when the Uniting Church was formed in Australia in the 1970s, and is now known as the Macdonald Homes for the Presbyterian Church and McDonald Homes for the Uniting Church, with over 70 houses built in Sydney.
In February 1961 the Presbyterian Church sold Raglan Station to John's nephew and executor, Hector McDonald and his wife Betty and eldest son Ian, who had completed a degree at the Gatton Agricultural College in 1958. The family took up residence there in April 1962. In 1969 Hector and Betty retired to a property near Warwick, leaving Ian and his family on Raglan. In the 1970s Ian McDonald made a number of changes at the homestead, including demolition of the c1878 school house and relocation of part of the old kitchen to the north-east corner of the cattle yards in 1970, and relocation of the slab hut (possibly dating to 1857) from in front of the 1913 house to beside the horse yard, to function as a saddle shed.
In 1983 Raglan Station passed out of the McDonald family and was acquired by the Olive family in 1986. The roof and verandah of the main residence were reconstructed following a severe storm on 7 November 2000.
","criteria":"Raglan Homestead and Slab Hut illustrates the pattern of early European exploration and settlement of Queensland where the development of pastoral properties preceded agriculture and the establishment of towns. As an early homestead in central Queensland which has remained in continuous use, it has important associations with the development of the pastoral industry in Queensland.
|Due to its age and intact nature, Raglan Homestead and Slab Hut has the potential to yield information on the way in which such properties were run and evidence for the building techniques used over several generations, thus contributing to an understanding of Queensland's history.
|Raglan Homestead and Slab Hut is significant in that it demonstrates the principal characteristics of a 19th century homestead well, including the residential buildings, associated outbuildings, fences and mature trees.
|The homestead complex contains structures which are well designed and made examples of traditional buildings which are pleasing in form, materials and detail and mature trees which contribute visually to the setting and provide a landmark in the area.
|Raglan Homestead and Slab Hut has a special association with the life and work of the MacDonald family, who, as early pastoralists contributed to the development of the area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15296,"place_ref":600521,"name":"Our Lady Star of the Sea Church & School","alternate_name":"Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church & School","street_address":"Goondoon Street","suburb":"GLADSTONE","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Our Lady Star of the Sea church and school complex is situated in an elevated position overlooking the harbour at Gladstone. The ground falls away below the eastern side of the church and school and is supported by a stone retaining wall, which separates it from the large playground on the lower level and gives visual prominence to the eastern elevation of the church.
\nThe church is a Gothic influenced timber building, cruciform in plan, with gabled porches featuring decorative timber posts at the north, south and eastern arms. There is also an entry on the southern side. The foundations of the church are concrete and the gabled roof has a modern metal cladding with a louvred fleche at the crossing. The roof ends and porches are topped by timber Celtic crosses. The church has an octagonal sanctuary lit with two sets of triple lancet windows and two single lancet windows set with stained glass. There is a large sacristy to each side of the sanctuary. All windows are triple lancets in aluminium frames beneath arched drip moulds. A marble foundation stone is located at the base of the eastern elevation.
\nThe school is constructed of light red brick with a tiled roof. It has been constructed in three phases, the earliest of which is to the east and is three stories high. This first section is distinct from the additions and is the part of the school considered to have heritage significance. It has a hipped roof and features brick balconies and a tower containing the stair well, which s lit by glass panels. A pink granite foundation stone is also located in the stairwell tower on the eastern side.
\nThe extensions are sympathetic in form to the original school buildings and are two storeys high. They consist of a central section built in the 1970s and the section closest to the park was built in 1981.
","history":"Our Lady Star of the Sea church at Gladstone was erected in 1924. The adjacent school was built in 1950, replacing a 1902 building destroyed in the cyclone of 1949.
\nFollowing an abortive attempt to establish a settlement at Port Curtis in 1847, the township of Gladstone was surveyed in 1853 and by January 1854, Sir Maurice O'Connell was installed as the Government Resident, Police Magistrate and Commissioner of Crown Lands. Although there was pressure from pastoralists to open up the Port Curtis district, northern agitation for Separation from New South Wales was mounting and the government may have hoped to establish a more northerly potential capital than Brisbane for the new colony. In February 1854 the first land sales of Gladstone town and suburban land were held in Sydney. Although the Catholic presence in the Gladstone district was not large at the time, the Catholic Primate of Australia, Archbishop Polding of Sydney, bought a number of allotments on Auckland Hill in these sales.
\nBishop Quinn, Queensland's first Roman Catholic Bishop, visited Gladstone in 1868 and encouraged the formulation of plans for a church. The land purchased by Polding was very steep and in 1870 land was acquired between Auckland Streets and Oaka Lane for a church and in Rosebery Street for a convent/primary school. St Mary's School opened in 1871, staffed by Sisters of the Order of St Joseph, and served for some years as a church also. In 1879 the Sisters were withdrawn from Queensland and in the 1880s and 1890s Catholic pupils were educated at a school run by Mrs Annie Breslin at her residence in Goondoon Street.
\nSt Mary's Church was opened in January 1874 on the Auckland Street land acquired in 1870 but without a resident priest. For many years, its congregation was served by visiting priests, mainly from Rockhampton. In 1882 the Diocese of Rockhampton was established under the Right Reverend Dr Cani, the first Bishop, and the first resident priest was appointed to Gladstone in 1885.
\nBy the turn of the century, the coastal railway was being extended to Gladstone, bringing an increase in population to the town. In 1901, responsibility for the Catholic parish at Gladstone was transferred from the Diocese of Rockhampton to the Marist Fathers. In the same year, the church land at Auckland Street was resumed for railway purposes and a new site was purchased covering two acres bounded by Goondoon Street, Herbert Street and Glenlyon Road and overlooking the harbour. The new site was intended for the building of a church-school, convent and presbytery.
\nThe new church school, designed by Architects Eaton and Bates, opened in January 1902 staffed by three Sisters of Mercy from Rockhampton. They were housed temporarily in a cottage in Rosebery Street until the convent, a timber building, was completed in June 1902. In September the new presbytery was completed, a two-storey timber building erected at Dean Murlay's own expense and known as Villa Maria.
\nTo serve the projected needs of the parish more fully, the Right Reverend Dr Shiel, Bishop of Rockhampton, laid the foundation stone of a larger new church on 13 April 1924. This was erected adjacent to the 1902 church school and was officially opened on 16 November 1924 at a cost of £2700. The older building continued to function as a school.
\nIn the second half of the 1930s, Gladstone experienced renewed economic and population growth following the 1935 takeover of Gladstone Meatworks by the American company Swifts, which increased production. In 1936 fundraising to enlarge the church commenced and the extensions were opened in 1938. In the early 1940s, plans to raise the school and to construct brick classrooms underneath were formulated, but did not eventuate as a bequest of £4,000 enabled the parish to plan for a new school. About 1943, the Brisbane architect Frank Cullen was commissioned to prepare plans for a school to accommodate 300 pupils. Cullen was an articled pupil of Hennessy, Hennessy and Co in Brisbane and Sydney 1928-1933. He worked for some time for the Queensland Government and was registered as an architect in 1935.
\nWartime building restrictions prevented the implementation of plans and not until 1947 was a building permit granted. By this time the plan had been modified to accommodate a further 100 children, necessary because of the strong growth in the Gladstone Meatworks at this period. The contract was let to Young and Sons of Bundaberg for a price of £18,922. When work on the new school had only just begun, the 1902 school and convent buildings were destroyed in the cyclone that struck Gladstone on 2 March 1949. Throughout 1949-50 Our Lady Star of the Sea School was located temporarily at the Town Hall, Our Lady Star of the Sea Church and in two pavilions in the show grounds. Archbishop Duhig officially opened the new school on 30 April 1950. The three-storey brick building, which included a basement assembly hall, library, 16 mm projector for 'visual education' and a public address system on all three levels, was considered one of the most modern school buildings in Queensland. The new convent was completed in 1952.
\nGladstone experienced a boom in the second half of the 1960s with the opening of the Gladstone powerhouse, bauxite refinery and alumina smelter and rapid expansion of farming and grazing in the Dawson and Callide Valleys. Between 1965 and 1970 a number of changes were made to Our Lady Star of the Sea complex including the closing of Central Lane between the convent and presbytery on one side and the church and school on the other. Retaining walls were erected in front of the Convent and Presbytery, a parking area and basketball court bitumen coated and the sanctuary and church remodeled in line with the provisions laid down by the Second Vatican Council. These included cutting down the altar rails and the converting the altar into a table form.
\nIn 1966 the Gladstone Catholic High School began as a small class conducted underneath the presbytery and in 1967 the Stella Maris College for girls opened in West Gladstone staffed by the Sisters of Mercy. In the following year a boys' school, Chanel College, was established at the new location and staffed by the Marist Brothers. The two Colleges opened as Gladstone Catholic High School on 21 April 1968.
\nIn the late 1960s the Marist Sisters were invited to Gladstone to staff the convent school and in 1971, the first extension to the Star of the Sea Primary School was opened, the Marist Sisters taking over around 1972. Further extensions to the school were blessed in 1981.
\nIn July 1982, Villa Maria, the presbytery, was demolished and in 1983 the Sisters of Mercy moved into a new convent in Morley Street.
","criteria":"The church and school of Our Lady Star of the Sea illustrate the development of Gladstone and the Roman Catholic Church in Queensland. The church is the only one in Gladstone that survived the 1949 cyclone and is now the only early building on this site. When the earliest section of the school was completed in 1949 it was said to have been the most modern in Queensland. This reflects the development that was taking place in Gladstone at the time and the confidence of the church in the future of Catholic education in the area.
|Both buildings are prominently sited and in form, scale and materials make an important contribution to the built character of Gladstone.
|Both buildings have a strong connection with the Roman Catholic community of Gladstone and the surrounding area over several generations. The school is probably a major work of Frank Cullen, the architect. The architect of the church is unknown.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15500,"place_ref":600725,"name":"Miriam Vale War Memorial","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Blomfield Street","suburb":"MIRIAM VALE","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Miriam Vale War Memorial is located at the southeastern end of a long, narrow, grassed and treed park reserve which runs parallel to the railway line to the east and Bloomfield Street, the principal street in the town of Miriam Vale, to the west. The memorial faces the morning light and the Miriam Vale Railway Station to the northeast, and provides a principal focus at the southern end of the business sector of town, which has retained an early-to-mid 20th century streetscape.
The memorial comprises a life-sized stone statue of an Australian Infantry soldier standing with head bowed and arms reversed, on a substantial and ornate sandstone pedestal resting on a granite plinth. The pedestal is capped by a gabled cornice with a moulded wreath in the front gable. On all faces of the pedestal are marble plates, the front plate bearing a leaded inscription and the names of 13 brave boys of this district who gave their all in the cause of freedom 1914-1919. The inscription ends with the words common to British war cemeteries throughout the world: Their names liveth for evermore. The southeast plate bears a matching inscription for the Second World War and the names of 8 local men who died in the conflict. The words Miriam Vale Roll of Honour are cast on the front face of the concrete base of the pedestal. The monument rests on a rock-faced granite plinth and is surrounded by its original concrete kerb and iron stake fence, with a gate at the southwest corner. The memorial enclosure in turn is defined by a two-rail timber fence with wrought-iron gates at the western corner.
A flagstaff is located at the northern corner of the memorial enclosure, just inside the timber fence, and the memorial is framed by a large fig tree to the south, just outside the timber fence but within the larger park reserve. From photographic evidence, this tree and other figs along Bloomfield Street and the cross-street leading to the railway, appear to date to the first decade of the 20th century.
","history":"The Miriam Vale War Memorial was erected in 1921 to commemorate the local men who had given their lives in the Great War. Funds were raised by public subscription, and the memorial was unveiled on 14 December 1921. It was designed and erected by the Brisbane firm of AL Petrie & Son at a cost of £238, including the iron fence. Although described in Petrie's account book as a no.8 design, the pedestal was not used for any other of the firm's many soldier-type war monuments throughout Queensland. AL Petrie & Son of Toowong in Brisbane was responsible for more of Queensland's numerous digger monuments than any other masonry firm. They offered a variety of digger monument types and prices, with the Miriam Vale memorial being in the middle of the range.
An inscription for those who died on active service in the Second World War was added later. The surrounding timber fence is of more recent origin.
","criteria":"The Miriam Vale War Memorial is significant historically as one of a group of structures erected by public subscription and intended to endure, which illustrate the conscious expression of emerging Australian nationhood, and which reflect early 20th century public fashion and social attitudes. Importantly, the memorial provides an historical record of local participation and sacrifice in two world wars.
|Whilst one of a group of similar monuments, the type of pedestal on the Miriam Vale War Memorial is uncommon - the only one so far identified in Queensland.
|The Miriam Vale War Memorial is significant historically as one of a group of structures erected by public subscription and intended to endure, which illustrate the conscious expression of emerging Australian nationhood, and which reflect early 20th century public fashion and social attitudes.
|Aesthetically, the memorial is significant as a major landmark in the small town of Miriam Vale, and makes a strong contribution to the Bloomfield Street streetscape.
|The memorial also has an important association with the work of stonemasons AL Petrie & Son, who did much to shape the nature of First World War memorials erected in Queensland, in particular popularising the digger monument type, which appears to be more prevalent in Queensland than in other Australian states.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16023,"place_ref":601260,"name":"Bustard Head Lightstation","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"50kms south of Gladstone","suburb":"BUSTARD HEAD","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-11-03","description":"The Bustard Head lightstation is located in the north-eastern arm of Rodds Peninsula. The lightstation lies about twenty kilometres north-west of the Town of 1770, and about fifty kilometres south of Gladstone. The lightstation is situated on a 419 hectare reserve, bounded by the Jenny Lind Creek to the east and south, Pancake Creek to the west and the Southern Pacific Ocean to the north.
The 18 metre high lighthouse is circular in plan, constructed of cast iron plate, painted white, with splayed flanges at the base. The domed roof is clad with copper sheeting and painted red. It is surmounted by a spherical knob and weather vane. The balcony is of cantilevered iron construction with a simple iron balustrade. Fencing has been placed around the lighthouse. Further installations on the site include fencing around the fuel store.
Internally, a spiral staircase, constructed of iron, with open work cast iron treads, adjoins the internal walls of the building. A cast iron catwalk in the lantern room is supported on ornate iron brackets.
The two keepers residences are timber framed, clad with fibro cement sheeting with timber over battens. The hipped roofs are clad with corrugated fibro cement sheeting with stainless steel gutters.
The old Powerhouse, a timber framed building lined with cement sheet and a gable corrugated fibro cement roof with stainless steel gutters. There are a number of other more recent buildings including the new Powerhouse, built of brick on a concrete foundation.
Most of the service buildings date to c1940 and are of similar construction to the residences, timber framed and clad with fibro cement. Most have been subject to heavy vandalism.
","history":"Up until 10 December 1859, the colony of New South Wales extended as far north as Cape York Peninsula. In 1859, the new colony of Queensland acquired over 5000 kilometres of coastline which had few safety features in place, and became responsible for all navigation lights and harbours along this coastline. At the time the only lighthouse which existed had been built at Cape Moreton [600257] by the New South Wales Government in 1857.
By 1862, the Queensland government had appointed a Portmaster, Commander George Poynter Heath and had passed the Marine Board Act 1862. In the two years following, activity concentrated on dealing with pilots and harbour lights. Nothing was done regarding the issue of coastal lights and on 25 May 1864, Members of the Legislative Assembly moved that a Select Committee be appointed to enquiry into and report upon the state of the harbours and rivers in the colony. The Committee consisted of Messrs Macalister, Douglas, Sandeman, Cribb, Challinor and Bell and convened for the first time on 27 May 1864. The Committee widened the terms of reference to include..the question of the necessity of additional lighthouses on the coast of Australia, within the colony of Queensland.
A Select Committee was also appointed by the Legislative Council with the specific field of reference to enquire into and report upon the requirements of this Colony, under its increasing trade and commerce, as to the provision of additional lighthouses for its coasts and harbors.
The reports of both Select Committees were in agreement regarding the necessity of a light at Sandy Cape. Other points where it was believed that lighthouses were required were Cape Capricorn on Curtis Island, Point Danger or Cape Byron and Bustard Head [601260]. Double Island Point [601722] and Lady Elliot Island were also mentioned by the Committee as possible suitable sites.
In 1864 the government placed orders with Hennet, Spinks & Co. of Bridgewater (England) for the manufacture of a prefabricated cast iron tower, and with Chance Bros of Birmingham, England for the provision of a lantern. The material arrived in Brisbane in April 1867. In August 1867, WP Clark was awarded the contract to erect the light and ancillary buildings for £2508. He agreed to complete the work within six months but problems in site preparation, availability of labour, and inclement weather affected construction and the work took four months longer than anticipated. The light was first exhibited on 29 June 1868. A report to the Marine Department's Treasure dated 30th June, 1895, states the initial cost of constructing the Bustard Head lighthouse was £6,959, with annual maintenance costs of £472.
The lighthouse was originally entered via a door on the second level reached by an external flight of stairs and a small landing. In 1935 the stairs were relocated within the tower and a ground floor entrance provided. Of the original constructions, only the tower remains. The original houses were replaced at some unknown date by timer-framed buildings clad in fibro and with corrugated fibro roofing. The workshop and brick powerhouse are also comparatively recent constructions. A cemetery in the area contains nine graves dating from 1879 to 1911. The graves include two unmarked, child sized graves, surrounded by a white picket fence.
When North Reef station was destaffed on 18 December 1977, Bustard Head monitored its continuing operation. The computer at Bustard Head was also equipped to monitor other stations in the area in the event that they too would be automated and destaffed. Bustard Head's new position as a computer monitoring station was soon extended to include the role of head communications station previously carried out by Cape Capricorn. For many years, Cape Capricorn had provided a central communication link between the stations of Bustard Head, Lady Eliott Island, Pine Islet and Dent Island.
During the course of 1985-86, the Bustard Head Lighthouse was automated and destaffed. The two prefabricated houses remain on site.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1868, the first lighthouse built by the Queensland government after separation in 1859, and still in use as part of the coastal navigation system, Bustard Head Lightstation occupies an integral part in understanding the establishment of maritime navigational aids along the Queensland coast. Bustard Head Lightstation reflects the growth and development of Queensland after its separation from New South Wales.
Bustard Head Lightstation is associated with Captain George Poynter Heath, the first Portmaster of Queensland (1862-90) and a significant figure in the development of the Queensland lighthouse service. The Heath period of lighthouse development saw the opening up of the inner reef route for commercial shipping.
|Bustard Head Lighthouse is one of only two prefabricated cast lighthouses built in Queensland and is significant for its rarity. The other prefabricated tower being the Sandy Cape Lighthouses [601712].
|The area also has the potential to reveal further information about infrastructure associated with the lightstation.
|The lighthouse is substantially intact, and survives as a good example of a construction technique using bolted prefabricated segments of cast iron imported from England.
|Located on the south tip of Bustard Head, within a plateau surrounded by sloping forest, the lighthouse has strong aesthetic value. It makes a dramatic visual statement in the natural landscape.
|Bustard Head Lightstation has strong association for lighthouse keepers' and their families who constitute an early maritime community. The group of people that are connected with lightstations are not limited to the lighthouse keepers and their families. The island's isolated location made considerable demands upon people, materials and logistics and stands as testimony to the tenacity of the people who inhabited the island after European settlement. Besides the lighthouse, the grave sites are the only other extant reminder from the 19th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16093,"place_ref":601330,"name":"Kullaroo House","alternate_name":"Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Ltd (Gladstone Branch)","street_address":"40 Goondoon Street","suburb":"GLADSTONE","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-03-05","description":"Kullaroo House, the former Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Building, is a substantial two-storeyed brick building prominently situated in Goondoon Street, overlooking Gladstone Harbour.
The building is rectangular in plan with a large extension, which is connected to the rear of the eastern corner of the building. The building has a double height verandah on three sides and a projecting double height entry porch The porch is detailed with classical elements. The building has a hipped corrugated iron roof with a smaller hipped section over the porch. Three tall chimney stacks, of alternating bands of light and dark brickwork project through the roof.
The original layout of the bank contained the banking chamber and associated offices on the ground floor level, with the mangers residence above. When constructed Kullaroo House was face brickwork, the building has subsequently been painted and this diminishes the architectural articulation of the design.
Kullaroo House is entered via a flight of stairs leading to the entrance porch. The porch is plastered brickwork which distinguishes it from the rest of the building. The plasterwork is rusticated, on either side of the entrance double height pilasters support a triangular pediment. The pilasters have composite capitals and decorative swags. On the upper level of the porch the arched openings have been enclosed and the space is used as an air conditioning plant room. The two storey verandah has a small projecting roof at first floor level and is detailed in timber with paired columns, slatted balustrade and valance. On the southern section of the ground level verandah, the balustrade has been removed and the columns have been sliced off above ground floor level and are supported by concrete plinths.
At ground floor level all the major rooms associated with the original design of the building as a bank remain intact. The entrance porch opens onto the main banking chamber, which has all its original cedar door and window joinery, pressed metal ceiling and black marble fireplace. Part of the original cedar counter remains and has been modified for modern office use. The original safe is at the rear of the chamber and is intact with its patent fireproof door and domed concrete ceiling. Two large rooms open to the east off the main chamber. These rooms have cedar joinery, pressed metal ceilings and white marble fireplace surrounds that are intact with register grates and decorative tiles.
A small room at the rear of the banking chamber has an external door to the verandah and leads to the stair hall which has an intact cedar staircase and pressed metal ceiling. An arched opening at the end of the stair hall leads to the section of the building constructed in 1996-97. Behind the stair hall is a large room that has been created from two smaller rooms; it has a dropped ceiling and a new door to the verandah.
The stair case leads to the second level. On this level all the original ceilings have been removed and replaced with a dropped ceiling, with fluorescent lighting and air conditioning grilles. Most of the internal walls have been removed to create a large open office space. As this level was the residence of the Bank manager most of the rooms had french doors opening onto the verandah. The french doors remain, but benches and desks have been built across the doors so that they no longer operate as doors.
The 1997 extension is set back from Goondoon Street, externally it mimics the classical detailing of the original building. The junction of the original building and the extension is marked on the roof line by a timber belvedere with a corrugated iron roof. The extension is not considered significant and is not included in the listing boundary.
","history":"Kullaroo House was constructed in 1910-11 for the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Ltd, which moved into the building in June 1911. It was designed by Brisbane architect James Percy Owen Cowlishaw, who designed many of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney's Queensland premises.
The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Ltd had been formed in New South Wales by local interests in 1834, and had established its first Queensland branch at Maryborough by 1860. A branch was opened in Gladstone on 9 June 1897, long after the Australian Joint Stock Bank and the Queensland Government Savings Bank had opened offices there in the mid-1860s, but predating the Queensland National Bank [1905] and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia [1912]. The move by the CBC into Gladstone in 1897 appears to have been associated with the 1896 opening of the Gladstone meatworks and extension of the northern railway from Brisbane to Gladstone.
By the turn of the century the ubiquitous cattle tick was decimating the local grazing industry, affecting meatworks production and cattle shipments. This, coupled with the great drought of 1900-02 and the 1903 opening of the Rockhampton extension of the northern railway [which immediately deprived Gladstone of substantial port trade and passenger shipping], caused a crisis in business confidence in the town. The development of a local dairying industry, however, and the 1905 opening of a butter factory at Gladstone, did much to revive the town's fortunes, and the future of town and district appeared secure in 1909 when new Gladstone premises were being planned for the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney.
Initially, the Bank had leased shop premises at 22 Goondoon Street, then in 1901 took a 10 year lease on premises at 30-32 Goondoon Street. As the expiration of the lease approached, the Bank made the decision to invest in new, purpose-built banking premises. The site at the southeast corner of Goondoon and Yarroon Streets, in the heart of Gladstone, was purchased in February 1909 for £600. Brisbane architect James Percy Owen Cowlishaw, son of early Brisbane architect James Cowlishaw, was commissioned to design the building, and the tender was let in May 1910 to AA Carrick of Brisbane, with a tender price of £4,650. In July 1910, the Bank appointed James Beattie as Clerk of Works to supervise construction.
JPO Cowlishaw's design was for a two-storeyed building, with banking chamber on the ground floor and manager's residence on the upper floor. The Gladstone manager, Mr WB Thomas, was keen to see a building of some substance erected: The figures of the Branch and the good prospects of both town and district, entitle a fairly good building. With the splendid harbour here there is every possibility that in time the town will develop into one of some importance. . . . There was no local brickworks at Gladstone, and the manager recommended concrete rather than timber construction. However, when he saw the plans prepared by Cowlishaw for a two-storeyed building of face brickwork, he was delighted: The building will be by far the best in town, and a good advertisement for the Bank.
Despite the contractor having some difficulty in managing the project satisfactorily, Beattie worked to ensured that the contract was completed, and the building was handed over to the Bank on 13 May 1911. Interior fittings were fixed, and the Bank opened for business in its fine new premises in June 1911. In the ensuing months a concrete retaining wall was erected at the rear of the site and along part of Yarroon Street, and picket fences erected on parts of both street frontages.
The two-storeyed brick premises at the corner of Goondoon and Yarroon Streets served the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney for nearly 50 years. In the mid-1950s the Bank commissioned new premises in Goondoon Street [designed by JPO Cowlishaw's son, architect George Owen Cowlishaw of Ure, McNaught & Cowlishaw, Brisbane], which opened on 26 May 1958. In September that year, the Bank accepted an offer of £4,500 from Gladstone businessman Mr MA Busteed, to purchase the former banking premises [land and building]. From the early 1960s at least, the building was occupied as a boarding house, known as Kullaroo House. The name Kullaroo is believed to be an Aboriginal word meaning road that leads to water, and from the upper verandahs of Kullaroo House fine views of Gladstone harbour can be obtained.
In the 1970s, new owners Goodwin, McKenzie, Forbes and Partners, lawyers, refurbished the building as law offices, retaining much of the original detailing. In the late 1980s Kullaroo House was used as a restaurant and in 1993 was acquired by the Gladstone Port Authority, which refurbished the building for office expansion. It is understood that at this time, most of the internal first floor partitions were removed. In 1996-97 further refurbishments were carried out and a large extension, imitating the original detailing, was constructed. Currently, both floors of the 1911 building contain office accommodation.
","criteria":"Kullaroo House, erected in 1910-11 as new premises for the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney's Gladstone branch, is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland's history, demonstrating the renewal of business confidence in Gladstone and district in the early years of the 20th century. It was one of the CBC's more substantial regional offices, and illustrates how Gladstone was perceived at the time as potentially an important regional centre.
|Despite a number of late 20th century refurbishments, the building still illustrates the principal characteristics of a substantial, early 20th century, two-storeyed brick banking premises with classical detailing, designed to impress.
|The building is aesthetically pleasing, is located on a prominent site in the principal street of Gladstone, and makes a strong contribution to the Gladstone townscape.
|The place is considered locally as one of Gladstone's finest buildings, and is of landmark status.
|It is important as a fine example of the work of Queensland architect JPO Cowlishaw, and in illustrating the work of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney in central Queensland in the first half of the 20th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16094,"place_ref":601331,"name":"Gladstone Post Office (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"33 Goondoon Street","suburb":"GLADSTONE","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-05-07","description":"The former Gladstone Post Office is a single-storeyed rendered masonry building with a terracotta-tiled hipped roof, prominent clock tower and two-storeyed brick extension at the rear of the building. The building is situated in Goondoon Street, the principal street in Gladstone, and overlooks the harbour.
The principal façade of the building is to Goondoon Street with two flat roofed porches either side of a protruding gable. The building is designed in a stripped classical style. The clock tower sits above the gabled-end; it is square in plan, has a four-faced clock and is capped with a pyramidal terracotta roof. Below the clock tower the gable-end elevation has two sets of paired sash timber windows arranged symmetrically. There is evidence in the triangular pediment of the gable of the original signage.
The entrance to the twin porches is marked by two simple columns. The northern porch is entered by a flight of steps; aluminium shop fronts and doors give access to the building. The southern porch has been extended along the southern elevation of the building. The extension is rendered masonry, with paired sash windows and a flat metal deck roof. The southern porch has aluminium shop fronts and doors.
The northern elevation of the buildings has two sets of timber sash windows symmetrically arranged. The basement level below has three multi-paned timber sash windows.
Internally the main Goondoon Street level of the 1932 Post Office is one large open space. The original timber floor is extant, as is some remnant light internal partitioning. The ceiling has been removed as part of the process of refurbishing the building. The back wall of the original building was demolished when the extension was constructed.
The two-storeyed face brick rear extension has a flat roof. A concrete stairway leads to the lower level which contains a number of small rooms and connects with the two basement rooms of the 1932 building.
","history":"The former Gladstone Post Office was erected in 1932 as a purpose-designed Post Office for the Commonwealth Postmaster-General's Department, replacing earlier Post and Telegraph Offices on the same site. The 1932 building was at least the third purpose-built post and telegraph offices in Gladstone, and was designed by the office of the Federal Director-General of Works, Canberra. It was one of several important public buildings erected in Gladstone in the interwar years as work creation schemes, including the 1929 Commonwealth Bank Building, the 1934 Town Council Chambers and the c1940 Court House. As a group, these buildings contributed significantly to the development of a 20th century image for Gladstone, and remain important public landmarks.
Gladstone was established by the New South Wales colonial government in 1854, possibly in an attempt to create a more centralised alternative to Brisbane as the capital of any future northern colony. The town's first post office was gazetted on 1 July 1854, opening in premises at the corner of Goondoon and Yarroon Streets [later the site of the Commercial Hotel]. In the late 1850s and early 1860s postal services between Gladstone and Gayndah, Maryborough and Rockhampton were established, and to the Calliope Goldfields in 1864. In 1860, the Brisbane-Gladstone postal service came by fortnightly steamer, increased to a weekly service in 1871. On 28 November 1864 the overland telegraph service was opened to Gladstone, linking the town with Brisbane, Rockhampton and the hinterland.
In 1869 a substantial brick building was erected on the Customs Reserve at the corner of Lord and Goondoon Streets, Gladstone, as purpose-designed Post and Telegraph Offices and Customs House, with attached residences for the post master and the telegraph master. For a short time, post, telegraph and customs shared this building before it was designated as Gladstone Customs House. The post and telegraph departments then occupied temporary premises until a large timber building with separate offices and residences for post and telegraph was constructed in 1877-1878. This building was erected in Goondoon Street, at the intersection with Yarroon Street, on a prominent and centrally located site gazetted as a Post and Telegraph Reserve. Total expenditure on building and site by the Queensland government in the period 1877-1900 was £3,014. A telephone trunk line office opened at the Gladstone Post & Telegraph Offices on 20 September 1910, but the exchange was not built until 1911.
In 1912, most of Queensland's Post and Telegraph Department's property, including the Gladstone Post and Telegraph Offices, was transferred to the Commonwealth Government.
By the late 1920s, the shabby condition of Gladstone's Post and Telegraph Offices was an embarrassment to the local community. The Commonwealth Government's District Works Inspector, based at Rockhampton, recommended in 1925 and 1927 that the building did not warrant substantial expense on repairs, and recommended that a brick or concrete structure be erected in its place. Still the Postmaster-General's Department failed to act. By late 1928 the condition of the Gladstone Post Office had become an election issue, and in 1929, federal MHR for Capricornia, Mr FM Forde, lobbied on behalf of his constituents for a new post office.
Finally, provision was made in the estimates of 1930-31 for a new brick and tile-roofed building, to cost approximately £5,540. However, by the end of 1930, as world-wide economic depression worsened [with primary-producing Australia particularly vulnerable] this proposal was deferred. The depression deepened, and in November 1931, the Federal Works Director for Queensland, James Orwin, recommended to Canberra that urgently required new post offices at Gladstone, Muttaburra, Hughendon and Isisford be erected under relief scheme funding, using day labour. The proposal was accepted, and work on the Gladstone project commenced almost immediately. Before the end of the year, plans and specifications were being prepared by the office of the Director-General of Works, Canberra. By late January 1932, Mr D Gallogly had been engaged as foreman of works and the Post Office half of the 1870's building had been sold for removal.
The new post office was erected on the same reserve as the 1870s building, but with a smaller [66 feet] frontage to Goondoon Street. To enable construction of the new building, the Post Office half and clock tower of the 1870's building were removed first, and the post office temporarily shared facilities with the telegraph office. When the new building was completed, the old Telegraph Offices were removed, leaving a frontage of 64 feet to Goondoon Street for future development.
The new post office was a single-storeyed rendered brick building with symmetrically arranged entrance porches on either side of the front elevation. Unlike the earlier Gladstone Post and Telegraph Offices, the new building did not include quarters for the post master or telegraph master. Only 7 of this 'twin porch' type of masonry post office were erected in Queensland in the period 1923-1932, but 25 timber post offices of similar design were erected 1923-1939. The masonry post offices of this era illustrate the transition from timber to masonry post offices in Queensland, and from design by the Queensland Works Department to the Commonwealth Works Department. No new timber post offices were erected in Queensland after 1940, and the masonry post offices erected in the period 1941 to 1952 favoured the 'porch, parapet and hip' design.
The Gladstone Post Office was the only one of the Queensland 'twin porch' masonry post offices to include a clock tower, illustrating Gladstone's role as an important regional centre. The existing clock mechanism, already recycled from Maryborough and dating to at least 1900, was overhauled and used again in the new building. In 1932 the Gladstone Town Council agreed to illuminate, each night until midnight, the faces of the town clock which was to be installed in the new post office.
The new post office was opened officially on 23 July 1932, when members of the Gladstone Town Council, Chamber of Commerce and Harbour Board were taken on a tour of the building. At the time, the contribution of Mr FM Forde, MHR, in promoting the construction of this building, was acknowledged.
In the second half of the 1940s a two-storeyed rendered-brick Carrier Equipment Building [telephone exchange] was erected on the southern end of the post office reserve, about 20 feet from the post office building and fronting Goondoon Street. This was extended to the rear in 1965-67, linking the exchange with the 1932 post office. Perhaps at this period, and certainly between 1962 and 1976, the post office building was extended on the southern side to accommodate public telephones.
By 1976, the post office had undergone a number of modifications, including a large, two-storeyed brick extension to the rear of the post office, necessitating the removal of the rear wall of the 1932 building, and changes to the two public entrances. Internal verandahs had been created along the north and east sides by means of a rearrangement of the internal partitions, accommodating an expanded number of private post boxes. By the mid-1990s, changes in postal handling techniques made the building redundant to Australia Post, and it was sold to private enterprise in 1997. The interior has been gutted since, in preparation for an internal refurbishment as offices, but the principal street façades survive reasonably intact, and the prominently positioned building, along with its clock tower, remains an integral element in the Gladstone townscape.
","criteria":"The former Gladstone Post Office, erected in 1932, is important in illustrating the pattern of development of Gladstone as a regional centre. As one of a group of employment-generating public buildings erected in Gladstone during the interwar period, [including the 1929 Commonwealth Bank Building, the 1934 Town Council Chambers and the c1940 Court House], the former Post Office is significant in illustrating a more positive impact of the interwar economic depression on regional Queensland.
|As a group, these buildings contributed significantly to the development of a 20th century image for Gladstone, and remain important public landmarks. The prominently positioned former Post Office with clock tower retains a reasonably intact street exterior, and remains an integral element, with landmark status, in the Gladstone townscape.
|As a group, these buildings contributed significantly to the development of a 20th century image for Gladstone, and remain important public landmarks. The prominently positioned former Post Office with clock tower retains a reasonably intact street exterior, and remains an integral element, with landmark status, in the Gladstone townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16095,"place_ref":601332,"name":"Gladstone Court House (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"16 Yarroon Street","suburb":"GLADSTONE","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-05-29","description":"Prominently situated on Auckland Hill with the main entrance addressing Yarroon Street, the Gladstone Court House (former) is a two-storeyed brick building with a hipped corrugated iron roof. Designed in a stripped classical style, the red face brickwork contrasts with rendered string courses at floor and window levels. A rendered masonry fence appears to have been designed with the building.
\nThe building is H-shaped in plan with the main entrance centrally positioned. A flight of stairs leads to a verandah and portico with two Doric columns supporting an entablature with \"COURT HOUSE\" in raised lettering. The entrance doorway contains a two-leafed, eight-panelled door with fanlight and architrave. On the southern section of the main elevation a masonry ramp gives access to the verandah. All the windows throughout the building are timber framed with either six or twelve panes. At the rear of the building a single-storeyed extension encloses the space between the wings of the building.
\nInternally the ground floor contains a central corridor with a large general office on the right hand side and a former Magistrate's Court on the left-hand side. The space occupied by the Magistrate's Court was previously an office. An enclosed verandah at the rear of the building gives access to two staircases and the extension which was a lunch room. On the upper level the former main court room occupies the cross section of the H with the other two wings containing offices. The court room contains all the original court room furniture and has a suspended ceiling with modern light fittings, air conditioning and fans. The purpose-built silky oak court room furniture includes a judges' bench, witness dock, public gallery, jury benches, tables, benches and chairs. The furniture is sombre and plain with decorative battened panels to the front of the judges' bench, sides of jury benches, chair backs and other associated small benches/tables.
\nThe design and detailing of the building is robust and both internally and externally it remains intact. It retains most of its original fixtures and finishes including joinery, hardware, plaster ceilings, timber floors and concrete passageways and staircases.
","history":"Gladstone Court House (former), a two-storeyed masonry building, was erected in 1940-42. The building was designed in the office of the Queensland Department of Public Works, and replaced an 1873-74 court house and lands office. The 1940s building was at least the third purpose-designed court house in Gladstone.
\nGladstone was established by the New South Wales government in 1853-54, possibly in an attempt to create a more centralised alternative to Brisbane as the capital of any future northern colony. When Captain Maurice O'Connell, first Government Resident and Police Magistrate of the Port Curtis district, arrived in March 1854, the township of Gladstone had been laid out near Auckland Inlet, and the first slab buildings had been erected. O'Connell and his family set up residence [initially in tents] at Barney Point, a couple of miles south of Auckland Inlet, and around the residency there soon developed a small residential settlement.
\nO'Connell first conducted court matters from his tent office at Barney Point. Within a few months he had acquired a slab and shingled building on the rise of Auckland Hill - illegally erected by storekeeper Richard Palmer on a crown reserve, prior to O'Connell's arrival - as Gladstone's first court house and public building. About 1860 this building appears to have been replaced with a purpose-designed court house and watch house. This in turn was demolished in 1873-74 and replaced with a two-storeyed timber building, which accommodated both the court house and the land office. The 1873-74 building was situated on the court house reserve, but at the northern end of the block, overlooking Auckland Inlet, and was accessed via a lane from Auckland Street. The building was extended in 1882-83, and served as the Gladstone Court House until the early 1940s, when it was replaced with a two-storeyed brick building.
\nSite preparation for the brick building, which was to face Yarroon Street and the town rather than the harbour, was carried out in the second half of 1940, and plans for the new court house were prepared by the Queensland Department of Public Works in late 1940 and early 1941. A plan dated December 1940 showing front and rear elevations and ground and first floor plans, was drawn by architect Thomas Robert Gladwin, who had been employed as assistant architect in the architectural office of the Public Works Department since 1924. The design of the building is attributed to Raymond Clare Nowland who was also the designer of Stanthorpe Court House (1941) and Charleville Court House (1945). All three court houses are similar in planning, elevational treatment, materials and detailing. These were two-storeyed masonry buildings in stripped-classical style, H-shaped in plan, generally incorporating the court room on the upper floor, and government public offices on the ground floor.
\nThe new Gladstone Court House was completed in late 1942, at a cost of nearly £16,000. Like the Mackay and Charleville court houses, it was a combined court house/public offices, providing court facilities [court room, offices for the Judge, police magistrate/warden and police, and rooms for the jury, witnesses and solicitor] as well as offices for the land ranger, forestry officer, stock and dairy inspectors and mining registrar.
\nAlterations to the fabric of the building have been fairly minimal. Between 1966 and 1972, a single-storeyed brick extension, containing staff room and toilets, was erected at the rear of the building. Some minor internal refurbishment has been undertaken. The former police office on the ground floor has been converted to a small court room, but it is unclear at what date - possibly the mid-1970s. This does not appear to have involved the removal of any partition walls. In the early 1980s, a suspended acoustic ceiling was installed in the court room and a new judge's toilet was provided.
\nIn 2011 the court house building was subdivided from the larger government reserve and a new court house was constructed adjacent. The former court house is no longer owned by the Queensland Government and has been in use as office space.
\n","criteria":"
Gladstone Court House (former), erected in the early 1940s, is important in illustrating the pattern of development of Gladstone as a regional centre. As one of a group of employment-generating public buildings erected in Gladstone during the interwar period, [including the 1929 Commonwealth Bank Building, the 1932 Post Office and the 1934 Town Council Chambers], the court house is significant in illustrating a more positive impact of the interwar economic depression on regional Queensland.
|The two-storeyed brick court house remains substantially intact, and is a good example of interwar Queensland public works design. The court room is important for its collection of intact purpose-built furniture.
|Prominently positioned on the rise of Auckland Hill, Gladstone Court House (former) remains an integral component of the Gladstone townscape, and has landmark status.
|As a group, these buildings contributed significantly to the development of a 20th century image for Gladstone, and remain important public landmarks.
|The building is important for its association with the Department of Public Works and in particular with the work of architect Raymond Clare Nowland. The court house, and the former reserve on which it is located, is significant for its strong association with the dispensing of justice in the Port Curtis district since at least the 1870s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16096,"place_ref":601333,"name":"Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum","alternate_name":"Gladstone Town Hall and Council Chambers","street_address":"142-144 Goondoon Street","suburb":"GLADSTONE CENTRAL","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-07-07","description":"The Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum is situated on the corner of Bramston Street and Goondoon Street, which is the principal street of Gladstone. The Art Gallery and Museum is a single-storeyed masonry building, with a basement level, designed in a free classical style.
\nThe main entrance to the building is from Goodoon Street through a portico with Doric columns and an arched entablature with \"TOWN HALL\" in raised lettering. The doorway is in an arched opening with decorative double doors and fanlight. On either side of the entrance portico are arched windows and pilasters; this western elevation is finished with a parapet and flagpole. Behind the parapet is a hipped roof clad in corrugated iron. The building is rendered and the details are moulded plasterwork. The side elevations of the building contain sash windows and decorative fanlights with a pattern of radiating glazing bars. This is a motif that is used throughout the glazing in the building. The southern elevation to Bramston Street has a secondary entrance to the building. A flight of steps with wrought iron lamp stands leads to an arched doorway. At the eastern end of the building is the concrete framed fly tower.
\nInternally the plan of the building is a central hallway, with rooms on either side, that opens onto the large space that was formerly the hall. The entrance vestibule has silky oak panelling to door head height, silky oak doors and fanlights all with the radiating glazing bars. Opening off the hallway to the north is the room that was the Council chamber. This room contains a very fine timber First World War honour board. The former Council chamber and hallway are connected by a hatch with a writing slope. On the southern side of the hallway are two rooms and a strong room.
\nThe former hall has been renovated to become an art gallery. This room has been lined so that the windows are covered, the proscenium arch has been removed and a wall placed between the former stage area and the hall. The room has two exposed air conditioning ducts running its length and a suspended track lighting system. The room has a curved ceiling with exposed timber trusses. The fly tower is used as a store room with a mezzanine above the stage area. The basement area is entered from Bramston Street and is also used for storage.
\nFeatures Not of State-level Significance
\nFeatures of the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum that are not of State-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nThe Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum, designed by Rockhampton architect Roy Chipps, was erected in 1933-34 as the Gladstone Town Hall and Municipal Chambers. It functioned as such for about 33 years and then as an entertainment venue until 1980, when the City Theatre opened. In 1985 the building was converted to an art gallery and museum.
\nGladstone was established by the New South Wales government in 1853-54, possibly in an attempt to create a more centralised alternative to Brisbane as the capital of any future northern colony. The township acquired municipal status in 1863, and the first town hall was erected in 1868 in Goondoon Street, north of the Yarroon Street intersection.
\nGladstone languished in the 1870s and 1880s, but in the late 1890s sustained a period of strong development associated with the 1896 opening of the Gladstone meatworks and extension of the railway from Brisbane to Gladstone in the same year. However, by 1900 the cattle tick was decimating the local grazing industry, affecting meatworks production and cattle shipments. This, coupled with the great drought of 1900-02 and the 1903 opening of the Rockhampton extension of the northern railway [which immediately deprived Gladstone of substantial port trade and passenger shipping], caused a crisis in business confidence in the town. The development of a local dairying industry and the 1905 opening of a butter factory at Gladstone, did much to revive the town's fortunes, and sustained the town during the interwar period, when many Gladstone business premises were rebuilt or renovated.
\nConstruction of the 1933-34 town hall, a long-needed project, was made possible by low interest loans and subsidised labour provided by the State government during the height of the economic depression of the 1930s. Other buildings constructed in Gladstone during this period as employment-generating schemes included the 1929 Commonwealth Bank Building, the 1932 Post Office, and the 1940-42 Court House.
\nIn late 1932, Gladstone Town Council applied for a State Government loan for the erection of a new town hall at the northeast corner of Goondoon and Bramston Streets, and invited competitive designs for the project. This was won by architect Roy Chipps of Rockhampton.
\nThe Queensland Department of Labour granted the Gladstone Town Council a subsidy of nearly £5,000 to employ labour under the Unemployed Worker's Scheme; ie. men receiving the dole were not eligible for relief work until their sustenance rights were exhausted, and then when given work, were to be employed on a rotational basis of 13 weeks continuous work rather than the 1 or 2 days per week under the usual day labour system.
\nWork commenced about September 1933, under the foremanship of Mr FH Cecil of Brisbane. Bricks for the building were made in Rockhampton. The original brief and design was for Council Chambers only, but during construction a newly elected Town Council decided to extend the building to include a public hall and stage. The council chambers was already nearing completion, so Chipps had to convert the main chamber into a hall, with a stage and fly tower extension at the eastern end. This work was made possible with an additional State Government loan of £750, granted in January 1934.
\nThe new Gladstone Town Hall and Municipal Chambers was opened officially on Saturday 15 September 1934, by Hon HA Bruce MLA, Minister for Public Works. For the occasion, the front of the building was garlanded with 40 International Signal Flags borrowed from the Pilot Station at Gatcombe Head. The building was considered a fine ornament to the town. The council offices and meeting room were at the western end of the building, fronting Goondoon Street. The town's First World War Honour Board was relocated from the old council chambers and hung in the new council meeting room. Behind the offices was the public hall, 70 feet long by 38.5 feet wide, accessed via a foyer from Goondoon Street, and from a side entrance facing Bramston Street. A short winding staircase near the proscenium at the eastern end led to the supper room in the basement. Stage, dressing rooms and toilets were accessed from the basement.
\nGladstone Town Council's first meeting in the new premises was held on 8 October 1934, and from this time the council chambers at the north end of Goondoon Street was leased to the RSSLIA [Returned Soldiers]. The new Town Hall rapidly became the hub of community life, with a weekly baby clinic, 'talkies' screened 3 times a week [canvas chairs were placed in the auditorium], balls, stage shows, ALP sponsored bingo, and community group meetings of all kinds. In 1956 a children's library, and in 1957 a small adult library, were opened in the basement of the Town Hall, which no longer functioned as a supper room.
\nIn 1947 the 173rd anniversary of Matthew Flinders' birth was celebrated with tree plantings on Auckland Hill and outside the Gladstone Town Hall, and with the unveiling of a plaque at the hall. Flinders had named and explored Port Curtis in August 1802, during his circumnavigation of the Australian mainland.
\nWithin a decade of its opening, plans were being discussed to replace the Gladstone Town Hall and Municipal Chambers with a larger Civic Centre. These plans were deferred a number of times, and when finally built in 1958-59, the new Civic Centre comprised only one floor, with no council chamber, and no offices for council staff. In 1966 work began on the upper floor of the Civic Centre, and the Gladstone Town Council met there for the first time on 18 December 1967. From this date the principal use of the former Town Hall and Municipal Chambers was an as entertainment and meeting venue. The library in the basement of the Town Hall also was transferred to the Civic Centre in the 1960s.
\nThe first Gladstone City Council [1976-79] built a new library and art gallery, established an immunisation centre, chose a site for a City Theatre and planned its construction - all of which contributed to the redundancy of the 1934 Town Hall. In 1980 the new City Theatre opened, and in 1984-85 the Gladstone City Council converted the former Town Hall and Municipal Chambers into an art gallery and museum, to provide the citizens of Gladstone and visitors to the city with a venue in which to view art, of all media, by professional and amateur artists from locally and elsewhere and to acquaint themselves with the cultural and historic heritage of the area. The Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum was opened officially on 3 April 1985. The refurbishment necessitated the installation of 'total environment control', filling-in of the proscenium arch over the stage, and removal of the internal stairs from the hall to the basement. In 1998, a goods lift and internal staircase were added.[1]
\nIn 2003, a 200m2 wing, designed by Peddle Thorp Architects was constructed to the northwest of the former Town Hall and Municipal Chambers building, connected by a glass bridge walkway. It comprised a gallery space, workshop studio, administration offices and courtyard, and was built to accommodate a 19th century marble statue of William Ewart Gladstone.[2] This northwestern wing is not of State-level cultural heritage significance.
\nIn 2024, the place continues to be used as an art gallery and museum.[3]
","criteria":"Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum, erected in 1933-34 as the Gladstone Town Hall and Municipal Chambers, is important in illustrating the pattern of development of Gladstone as a regional centre. As one of a group of employment-generating public buildings erected in Gladstone during the interwar period, [including the 1929 Commonwealth Bank Building, the 1932 Post Office and the 1940-42 Court House], the former town hall is significant in illustrating a more positive impact of the interwar economic depression on regional Queensland. As a group, these buildings contributed significantly to the development of a 20th century image for Gladstone, and the former town hall remains one of the town's most prestigious buildings.
|The conversion into an art gallery and museum in 1984-85 necessitated some alterations, but the building remains sufficiently intact to be important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a regional town hall and municipal chambers of the interwar period, designed in a classically-derived style.
It is a fine example of the public work of Rockhampton architect Roy Chipps.
|Located on a corner block in the main street of Gladstone, the building has strong streetscape presence and townscape value.
|It is valued by the local community for its strong association with municipal government and community activities and entertainments since the 1930s, for its present role as the town's principal repository of Gladstone's history, and for its aesthetic value.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16097,"place_ref":601334,"name":"Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd Factory (former)","alternate_name":"Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Company Ltd Factory | PCD Factory","street_address":"6 Short Street","suburb":"GLADSTONE","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-03-30","description":"The Port Curtis Co-Operative Dairy Factory is a complex of buildings located on a 1.92 hectare site that rises from the reclaimed flats of Barney Point up a rise to the eastern side of a cutting along the north-south railway line. The site is bounded to the north and east by a large vacant freehold property owned by Queensland Rail, to the south by Young Street and to the west by railway reserve.
The administration building is situated on the highest point of the site in the south-western corner adjacent to the railway bridge over Young Street. The building is comprised of two sections. Adjacent to Young Street the single storey rendered masonry section has articulated engaged piers to its southern elevation, a hipped corrugated iron roof surmounted by two small ventilators, quad guttering, later sliding aluminium windows and boarded soffits in line with the rafters. The two storey rendered masonry section attached along its northern also has a hipped corrugated iron roof and quad guttering but has a flat soffit with timber cover strips and no evidence of articulated piers. It has a rendered masonry string course below the window line. The windows comprise groups of six top hung sashes to the western elevation with later aluminium sliding windows generally throughout the remainder of the building.
The butter stores are located between the Administration building and the butter factory to the north. The butter stores are comprised of four parts. There is a two storey wing along the western end which has a despatch/loading area at the excavated platform level of the factory and staff amenities on the upper level which aligns with the ground floor level of the Administration Building. This section has a gabled corrugated fibrous cement roof and metal framed double hung windows - larger openings have fixed sidelights. The stores are divided into three bays and are located at right angles to and are attached to the eastern wall of the dispatch wing. Two of the bays (to the south) have external wall of concrete frame and infill construction with corrugated fibrous cement gable roofs surmounted by pairs of large ventilators. The gable ends are lined with flat fibrous cement sheeting with timber cover battens and house louvred vents below which a suspended fibrous cement awning provides protection to several large doors which open onto a platform. The third bay to the north is of a similar form but of different construction. It has a corrugated iron roof . and appears to have corrugated iron clad walls and steel framed windows.
The butter factory originally housed the laboratory, boiler house, engine room, vacuators and butter processing areas following which it accommodated the milk bottling plant. The factory is a large two storey volume building of concrete frame and infill external wall construction supporting a steel framed roof. The building is divided into two bays with corrugated iron gabled roofs. Gabled roof clerestoreys running the length of each bay provide natural light and ventilation together with steel framed multipaned centrally pivotting windows in the eastern end elevation. A third ventilated gabled roof supported on a steel frame is attached along the northern end of the building providing protection for a receiving/loading area. The tops of the clerestoreys are visible from the west above the large concrete framed façade which faces the city and railway line and prominently displays the Port Curtis Co-Operative Dairy name and insignia. The infill panels are omitted at ground level on western façade providing access to a platform adjacent to which are remains of part of the railway siding.
The railway siding comprised two tracks which entered the site near the south-eastern end across Young Street. These tracks converged at the northern end of the butter stores curving around the northern end of the factory and exiting to the main railway line at the north western end of the site. A spur off this siding returned around the factory along its western face. Sections of the track survive near the Young Street boundary, at the rear of the butter stores and to the west of the factory.
The factory office, relocated to the north of the factory from its original location to the west of the siding, is a timber framed building, lowset on stumps with timber top hung sash windows and a flat fibrous cement wall cladding with timber cover strips. It has a corrugated iron gambrel roof with eaves extended over the south-west elevation.
The ice room and store are located to the north east of the factory. The ice room is a is a two storey, timber framed volume with hipped corrugated iron roof. It has timber battens surrounding the base above which the walls are lined with vertical corrugated iron sheeting. Adjacent to the ice room is a store room which is a single storey volume with a hipped corrugated fibrous cement roof and wall clad in vertical corrugated fibrous cement sheeting.
The tin shed is located toward the north eastern end of the site and is a single storey building clad in vertical corrugated fibrous cement sheeting. It has a gambrel roof with a ventilated ridge and later metal doors and gablet detailing to its eastern end.
A water hole survives in the north eastern portion of the site and may be the salt hole from which water was drawn to form a vacuum in the pasteurisation process at the factory.
","history":"The Port Curtis Dairy Company Ltd [the PCD] was formed at Gladstone in 1904, with its first timber factory buildings erected at Gladstone in 1906. By the 1920s, the PCD was one of the largest co-operative dairy companies in Queensland. The activities of the PDC at Gladstone and in surrounding districts stimulated the expansion of commercial dairying in Central Queensland. State wide, dairying was an important economic activity for the first half of the 20th century, and a mainstay for farming communities during the economic depression of the early 1930s. Surviving elements of the Gladstone factory site include the 1929-30 factory building, an early factory office building, several cold stores, a c1938 single-storeyed office building with two-storeyed extensions erected 1948-1950, a 1938 re-tinning shed, an ice shed and store room erected during the Second World War, and sections of a 1914 railway siding and 1923 siding extension.
From the late 1880s, the Queensland government promoted the establishment of dairying in Queensland as a commercial, rather than subsistence, activity. The development of dairying as a staple industry was considered a means of relieving selector poverty and debt, and as encouragement to closer settlement of the land. The Meat and Dairy Produce Act 1893 was introduced to offer subsidies to dairy farmers and a tax on cattle, the latter funding the establishment of creameries, cheese and butter factories throughout Queensland. In 1895, Queensland produced its first butter surplus.
The real catalyst for the establishment of commercial dairying proved to be the Agricultural Lands Purchase Act 1894, under which valuable agricultural land long freeholded by pastoralists was repurchased by the government, then offered as selections [mostly on perpetual lease] to agriculturalists. By the late 19th century, pastoralists could no longer afford to maintain huge freeholds, and were keen to relinquish land through repurchase. In the Gladstone district, the 1894 Act led to the opening of the Boyne Valley to selection and closer settlement, and this, combined with the provisions of the Meat and Dairy Produce Act 1893, ultimately led to the establishment of a meatworks [1896] and a butter factory [1906] at Gladstone. The Closer Settlement Act 1906 with its provisions for repurchase and on-selling to agriculturalists as settlement farm leases, led to a dairying boom in the Mount Larcom and Yarwun districts behind Gladstone. The Queensland government further supported agriculturalists with its establishment in 1901 of the Queensland Agricultural Bank, aimed at increasing the flow of credit to selectors, further stimulating the dairying industry.
The Queensland Government also intervened to maintain and enhance standards within the dairying industry. In 1898 the government introduced compulsory grading of butter and cream, prohibiting the mixing of all states of cream (fresh, ripe and stale) in the same vat. The Dairy Produce Acts 1904-05 provided further quality control with the introduction of Government inspection of dairies and factories. In addition, Queensland's Margarine Act 1910 restricting the use of margarine, was aimed at protecting the local dairying industry.
One of the most distinctive characteristics of the early Queensland dairy industry was its organisation along co-operative lines. The co-operative movement, established in Switzerland in the 1880s, gained world-wide popularity at the Second International Dairy Conference held in 1905, but Queensland farmers were experimenting with the concept from the 1890s. In the 1890s and early 1900s, Victorian 'dairy immigrants' also brought ideas about co-operatives to Queensland.
In November 1903, a public meeting was held at the Gladstone Town Hall to gauge local interest in forming a co-operative dairy company and erecting a dairy factory at Gladstone. Supported by graziers and selectors alike, a provisional committee was elected, representing Mount Larcombe, Calliope, Clyde Creek, Boyne River, Gladstone, Bororen, and Miriam Vale. The committee canvassed the district for support, soliciting shares and guarantees of milk supplies. As a result, the Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Company Ltd was registered in Brisbane in September 1904 as a joint stock company, with the registered office situated in Gladstone. The company's objective was to erect a factory at Gladstone for the manufacture and storage of butter and other dairy products. During 1904 articles of association were drawn up, and a founding committee comprising prominent local graziers and businessmen was elected. A site for the dairy factory was selected adjacent to the railway line, a couple of blocks southeast of the main Gladstone Railway Station, and the scheme was approved by the Meat and Dairy Board.
Tenders for the construction of a dairy factory [a timber structure] at Gladstone were called in June 1905 by Bundaberg architect FH Faircloth, with the contract let in August to J Connors. A dispute between the contractor and the dairy company delayed completion for several months, but finally the factory commenced butter production in April 1906. In 1914, Queensland Railways constructed a dead end siding for the PCD, which was extended in 1923 by 70 feet.
The establishment of the butter factory at Gladstone provided local farmers with a steady income and stimulated the town economy. For example the Queensland National Bank opened a branch at Gladstone in December 1905, and the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney erected substantial new premises in the town in 1910-11 [601330].
During the 1910s dairying expanded in the surrounding districts, particularly at Mt Larcom and Bracewell, and the PCD made steady progress. Following the appointment in January 1916 of Joseph W Rigby as Manager and Secretary, the area from which the Company received cream was extended and the Company's growth was greatly accelerated. In the period 1916 to 1923, suppliers increased from 216 to 502 and manufactured butter from 179 to 539 tons. Historian Lorna Macdonald [1988:170] suggests that during the 1920s the combination of Wilson [JL, of Calliope Station] as chairman, Rigby as manager, and RM Hill of Bororen who was elected to the board in 1924 . . . made the PCD one of the largest co-operative organisations in Queensland. JW Rigby remained as manager until November 1931.
By the mid-1920s, the Company was expanding at a substantial rate. Under the provisions of the Primary Producers' Co-operative Associations Act 1923, in order to continue to use the word 'co-operative', the Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Company Ltd was de-registered under the Companies Act 1863 to 1913, and in February 1925 was re-registered under the 1923 Act as the Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd. In the same year the PCD erected its own cold stores at Gladstone, with storage capacity for 150 tons of butter. This obviated the heavy costs of railage to Brisbane, as well as Brisbane cold storage charges, and reduced loss in quality during transit to Brisbane. As a consequence, a higher grade of export butter, and direct overseas shipment of butter from Gladstone, were made possible. The installation of coldstores at the PCD's Gladstone factory had important long-term effects for the Port of Gladstone, where butter formed the staple export from 1926 to1934, prior to the first chilled beef [distinct from frozen beef] being exported in 1935.
From the mid-1920s the PCD led the way in consolidating the dairying industry in central Queensland, from just south of Bundaberg to Bowen in the north, and inland to Monto, Biloela and Wowan. Consolidation commenced in July 1927 when the recently established Central Queensland Dairy Co-operative Ltd, based at Rockhampton, [and which had already absorbed Mount Larcom & District Co-operative Dairy & Produce Co., established 1921], amalgamated with the Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd. The amalgamation was conditional on the PCD erecting a dairy factory at Rockhampton, which commenced operation in January 1928.
Further negotiations resulted in the absorption of the Bundaberg Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd, whose factory at Bundaberg operated as a branch of the Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd from 1 March 1928. From 1 April 1928 the Dawson Valley Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd's factory at Wowan operated as a branch of the PCD.
Following the opening of the Upper Burnett to closer settlement in the 1920s, the PCD established a butter factory at Monto in 1929, stimulating a phenomenal expansion of dairying and pig-raising in that district. In the same year the PCD installed a buttermilk drying plant at Gladstone, the powdered buttermilk sold back to dairy farmers for fowl, pig and calf rearing. This proved a popular side-line, and in 1933 the PCD installed a plant at Gladstone for converting buttermilk into a buttermilk curd.
The PCD closed its Gladstone factory on 1 July 1929 for re-building purposes, re-opening early in February 1930 to handle cream only, and was fully operational by September 1930. The 1905-06 building appears to have been demolished at this time, replaced with the present main factory building. The 1929-30 factory contained the PCD's first laboratory.
In addition to the substantial re-building of its Gladstone factory, the PCD opened a new factory in Mackay in March 1930, following the absorption of the Mackay District Co-operative Butter Factory Association Ltd by the PCD in 1929-30.
Dairying proved to be the economic mainstay of many Queensland farming communities, including those of central Queensland, during the depression years of the early 1930s. Pig and calf raising became important adjuncts to the dairying industry, utilising skim milk and later buttermilk from the factories, as stock feed. By the second half of 1934, the increased quantity of butter available for export necessitated the construction of additional cold stores at Gladstone, on land leased from Queensland Railways adjacent to the PCD factory. These commenced operation in January 1935. [This building was demolished c1970s.]
The PCD continued to expand its activities in central Queensland in the second half of the 1930s. In 1937 a dairy factory and buttermilk stud stock piggery [carrying capacity 500 pigs] were opened at Biloela in the Callide Valley. Another PCD buttermilk stud stock piggery, with a carrying capacity of 700 pigs, was opened at Monto in February 1938. In November 1938 the PCD installed a plant at the Gladstone factory for the re-tinning of cream cans, which proved popular with farmers.
PCD butter production peaked in 1938-39 with 9,302 tons. About 1938 a single-storeyed administrative building was erected south of the main factory building, and in May 1939 a contract was let to J Hutchinson for additional cold stores, capable of storing 40,000 boxes of butter, at the PCD's Gladstone factory. These were operational by October 1940, giving the factory a holding capacity of 65,000 boxes of butter.
The outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 had a substantial impact on the operations of the PCD. Cheese factories were established at Bracewell [in operation May 1942 - 31 December 1954] and Theodore [in operation July 1942 - 31 January 1951], to meet requests from the British Government for extra cheese supplies. The processing of pasteurised milk at PCD factories was initiated with the arrival of United States troops at Rockhampton in 1942 - American military authorities did not approve the use of raw milk. At the Gladstone factory a number of new structures were erected, including an ice shed and store to the east of the PCD siding, both of which remain in situ.
During the war all surplus butter was bought by the Commonwealth, but the war-time shortage of refrigerated ships necessitated the construction of emergency cold stores throughout Australia, to store accumulated butter supplies. Gladstone was chosen by the Australian Dairy Produce Control Board as a centre for an emergency cold store for butter and meat, and in 1941-42 a timber cold store was erected there for this purpose In 1946 the PCD purchased the Emergency Stores for a fraction of its original cost, and leased it to Swifts Meatworks for storing meat.
Central Queensland dairy production peaked in the decade 1940-1950, with the PCD providing 28% of all butter exported from Queensland and 10% of the total Australian butter exports. During this period the PCD achieved its greatest diversification with production of butter, cheese, pasteurised milk and ice-cream (after the purchase of Pauls Ice Cream and Milk Ltd factory in Rockhampton in 1945). Facilities for ice cream holding and distribution were established by the PCD at Bundaberg, Gladstone, Mackay and Monto in 1946-47, and in 1948 a complete ice cream manufacturing plant was erected at Mackay for the PCD. In the immediate post-war years the PCD obtained the franchise for pasteurised milk in Rockhampton and established co-operative stores at Gladstone [on PCD land adjacent to the dairy factory, 1949], Biloela, Wowan and Monto, in converted surplus Army Storage Sheds acquired from Eidsvold and Stanwell. In this period the PCD also acquired a half interest in Central Queensland Co-operative Stock Feeds.
In 1947 an attempt to shift PCD headquarters to Rockhampton was defeated and in January 1948 a tender of £11,886 from John Young and Sons was accepted for the construction of a new PCD Head Office at the Gladstone factory [an extension of the c1938 administration building]. In December 1949 it was decided to add a second storey to the new office building, at a cost of about £1,600.
From the 1950s dairying in the Gladstone hinterland declined in favour of beef cattle and tropical fruit, and the PCD, following a national trend, turned to bulk milk rather than butter production, establishing milk pasteurising facilities and a bottling plant at its Gladstone factory in 1955-57. The factory building was refurbished to accommodate milk processing to meet codes of practice and included the introduction of a lower ceiling in the milk processing room and the re-finishing of the floor. Milk from the dairies was transported to the site by road and by rail. It was received at the northern end of the factory, whereupon the cans were weighed, milk was checked for freshness, sample cups were taken from each supplier and daily cream dockets were issued. The cans were placed upon a conveyor which tipped the milk into troughs and milk was strained into vats. The cans went to the can washer where they were cold rinsed, caustic washed, hot washed and steamed dried before being returned to the supplier for removal. The milk was centrifugally tested and pasteurised in the with the salt hole and pump house on the site providing the water for the vacuum before being bottled and then transported by conveyor to the stores.
The PCD's Gladstone factory continued its milk pasteurising and bottling operation until it closed c1980. For some years afterwards, the Gladstone Maritime Museum was housed in the former company administration building, and a number of small businesses leased space in the former factory buildings. In October 1994 the Port Curtis Dairy Co-operative Association Ltd was absorbed by Paul's Ltd [Queensland United Food Industries], which sold the former Gladstone PCD factory in the late 1990s.
","criteria":"The Former Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd Factory, Gladstone, is important in illustrating the pattern and evolution of Queensland's history, being the first in a chain of Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd [PCD] factories established in Central Queensland, and PCD headquarters until c1980.
|The place retains a number of elements integral to the function of the place as a butter [and later milk pasteurising and bottling] factory, including the 1929-30 factory building, an early factory office building, several cold stores, a c1938 single-storeyed company administration building with two-storeyed extensions erected 1948-1950, a 1938 re-tinning shed, an ice shed and a store erected during the Second World War, and sections of the 1914/1923 railway siding. These elements are important in illustrating the principal characteristics of an early to mid 20th century dairy factory with company headquarters and important links to a principal railway network and to overseas port facilities.
|The Former Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd Factory, Gladstone was a major employer for nearly 8 decades, through much of the 20th century, and retains strong social significance for the people of Gladstone and district.
|The place is significant for its association with the work of the PCD in encouraging the expansion of dairying as a commercial activity in Central Queensland through the first half of the 20th century. The PCD was one of the largest dairying co-operatives in Queensland, was highly successful in stimulating the expansion of dairying in Central Queensland, and was a major exporter of Australian butter - most of this via the Gladstone factory.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16101,"place_ref":601338,"name":"Commonwealth Bank Building (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"114 Goondoon Street","suburb":"GLADSTONE","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"The former Commonwealth Bank Building in Goondoon Street, Gladstone, is a two-storeyed brick and concrete building with sub-floor, located in what has been the heart of the city's commercial precinct since the 1920s. It is one of Gladstone's more substantial interwar commercial buildings, and is designed in a restrained Mediterranean style, with a colonnaded entry porch, arched windows, and a terracotta tiled roof. The plan of the building is typical of 19th and 20th century bank buildings with a banking chamber at ground floor level and a residence for the manager on the second floor level.
The building is rectangular in plan, narrower across the street frontage than the depth, and is built up to the street alignment. It has been extended at the rear. It occupies approximately half of the block, with a bitumined carpark at the rear, accessed via a driveway off Goondoon Street along the north side of the building. There are several mature trees along the perimeter of the back yard, possibly related to the period of occupation of the first floor of the building as a bank manager's residence. The site slopes considerably to the rear [east] and to the south, accommodating a basement level with what was formerly a strongroom.
The building has concrete foundations, staircase, verandah floors and strong room. The external and internal walls are rendered brickwork. Internally the floors are timber The terracotta tiled roof is pyramid-shaped, with wide-eaves.
The principal facade of the building facing Goondoon Street has a central recessed entrance porch which leads to the banking chamber [currently occupied by Metway Bank]. A small flight of steps lead to the 3-arched colonnaded porch. Above the entrance porch the first-floor verandah, which mirrored the entrance porch, has been enclosed with glazing panels.
Another first floor verandah on the southern side of the building has been enclosed with brickwork and a small row of windows.
The symmetry of the street facade has been marred with the conversion of a window to the left of the front entrance into a doorway, to provide street access to the internal staircase leading to the upper floor. The original external side access has been enclosed. Most of the other external openings survive and retain their original joinery.
The ground floor, which remains in use as a banking chamber, has undergone refurbishment - including the insertion of a false ceiling and air conditioning ducting. However the space remains substantially intact. The timber counter and teller boxes have been removed, but the fine entrance, manager's office and rear ancillary rooms remain, and the original function of this space can be understood. There is an internal staircase at the rear southeast corner leading to the basement, which also is accessed externally at ground level from the rear of the building.
The first floor is reached via an internal and original timber staircase at the northwest corner of the building, which now is accessed only from the front street. The upper floor has been gutted and refurbished as office space not associated with the bank on the ground floor, hence the alterations to create a separate entrance. There is a set of external timber back stairs leading from the first floor to the back yard, at the original northeast corner of the building.
There is a concrete block extension, two-storeyed with sub-floor, at the rear. This has necessitated little alteration to the main building, with the former rear external wall now an internal partition.
","history":"This two-storeyed masonry building was constructed in 1928-29 as banking offices and bank manager's residence for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and remained the Bank's principal Gladstone branch until February 1972.
The federal government's Commonwealth Bank Act of 1911 established Australia's first bank empowered to conduct both savings and general [trading] bank business, with the security of a federal government guarantee.
On 16 September 1912 the Savings Bank Department of the Commonwealth Bank [later the Commonwealth Savings Bank] commenced business in Queensland. The new bank established a main office in Brisbane, and operated branches through the 194 post offices throughout Queensland which had been transferred to the Commonwealth after Federation, and which previously had acted as agencies for the [Queensland] Government Savings Bank [established in 1864 by act of Queensland Parliament]. The Gladstone Post Office remained the Commonwealth Bank's representative in Gladstone until 1921.
The [Queensland] Government Savings Bank had established a regional branch at Gladstone in June 1912 in rented premises on the eastern side of Goondoon Street, between Lord and Yarroon Streets, formerly occupied by the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. In December 1920 the Queensland Government Savings Bank was absorbed by the Commonwealth Government Savings Bank, following which the Commonwealth Bank's Gladstone Post Office agency was closed and all business moved to the former Queensland Government Savings Bank's premises in Goondoon Street, opening there on 3 January 1921 as the Commonwealth Bank and providing full commercial and savings bank facilities.
By the 1920s Gladstone's business heart was shifting south toward the railway station, and the Commonwealth Bank decided to erect purpose-designed banking premises closer to the centre of business. In 1927 vacant land in Goondoon Street, between William and Roseberry Streets, was purchased for £700 from J Friend. In 1928 plans were prepared by the Commonwealth Department of Works and Railways for a substantial, two-storeyed 'Spanish style' brick building, with ground floor banking chamber and upstairs manager's residence. The use of Mediterranean ['Spanish'] style was in vogue for both domestic and commercial buildings in Australia and overseas at this period, and the Commonwealth Bank, like other financial institutions, was keen to reflect through its buildings a modern, progressive and reliable approach to successful money management. Other popular architectural styles favoured by the Bank at this period were stripped classical and moderne.
Tenders were called in September 1928, and the job was let in November to local Gladstone contractor Mr FF Hill, with a tender price of £8,384 and a completion date of 30 April 1929. This was extended to 17 August 1929, and the bank opened for business in September 1929.
At the time of completion, the building was described as the finest banking chamber in Gladstone. Entrance to the new branch was through a small colonnade leading to a centrally located doorway into the banking chamber on the ground floor. The manager's office was located at the front, and the main counter, which housed three teller boxes, ran across the width of the banking chamber. Behind this were the strong room, staff facilities and store room. The manager's three bedroom residence was located on the upper level.
During the Second World War the Gladstone branch of the Commonwealth Bank became heavily involved with Commonwealth Bonds and other forms of government fund-raising for the war effort, and was the local agent for the meat and clothing rationing authorities.
During the late 1940s and 1950s, the Commonwealth Bank expanded its activities Australia-wide, opening hundreds of branches and agencies to cater for the increase and spread of population accompanying Australia's great post-war migrant influx, and reflecting the buoyant national economy of the 1950s. In December 1959 the Commonwealth Bank of Australia was restructured and renamed the Commonwealth Banking Corporation.
In the 1960s and 1970s Gladstone entered a new period of prosperity with the establishment of an alumina refinery, an alumina smelter, a cement clinker plant, a huge regional power station, and three separate coal loading facilities. As early as 1970, the growth of business through the Commonwealth Banking Corporation's Gladstone office had increased to over 7,800 savings accounts and 800 cheque accounts, and the existing premises were proving inadequate for the conduct of bank business. In June 1970 a vacant site in Goondoon Street, directly opposite the 1928-29 building, was purchased, and larger bank offices were erected there in 1971-72. The new premises opened in February 1972, and the old premises were sold a month later.
At present the former Commonwealth Bank Building at Gladstone is occupied by Kinhill Cameron McNamara, consulting engineers, on the upper floor, and, appropriately, the Metway Bank on the ground floor. Conversion of the upper floor to offices necessitated the removal of most of the original internal partitioning on that floor.
","criteria":"The former Commonwealth Bank Building, Gladstone, erected 1928-29, is important in illustrating the pattern of development of Gladstone as a regional centre. As one of a group of employment-generating public buildings erected in Gladstone during the interwar period, [including the 1932 Post Office, 1934 Town Council Chambers, and 1940-42 Court House], the former Commonwealth Bank Building is significant in illustrating the less negative impact of the interwar economic depression on regional Queensland.
|The two-storeyed former banking premises remains sufficiently intact to illustrate the quality of interwar Commonwealth public works design; the exterior in particular still demonstrates the intention of the design to impress, and the building remains an integral component of the principal Gladstone streetscape.
|The two-storeyed former banking premises remains sufficiently intact to illustrate the quality of interwar Commonwealth public works design; the exterior in particular still demonstrates the intention of the design to impress, and the building remains an integral component of the principal Gladstone streetscape.
|As a group, these buildings contributed significantly to the development of a 20th century image for Gladstone, and remain important public landmarks.
|The place is significant for its strong association with the work of the Commonwealth Bank in Gladstone over four decades [1929-1972], during which time the town sustained the deepest economic depression of the 20th century, survived the worst global conflict of the 20th century, and finally, entered the greatest period of prosperity since the founding of Gladstone in 1853-54.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16104,"place_ref":601341,"name":"Friend Park and Graves","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Friend Street","suburb":"BARNEY POINT","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-12-03","description":"Friend Park is a 1.72 hectare site located on a low promontory or headland at the southern end of Barney Point Beach and Barney Point Park. The promontory juts into Port Curtis on its northern and eastern sides, with views across Port Curtis, and a rocky foreshore extends around the promontory from Barney Point Beach. On the west the site is bounded by Sutton Street and on the south by Friend Street.
The site slopes [gently in some sections, more steeply in others] down to the foreshore, the slope being rocky and covered with agave spp and indigenous small trees and grasses.
The foreshore is comprised of principally alluvial muds from the Calliope River and various creek systems entering Port Curtis, deposited over Carboniferous sandstones and mudstones of the Wondilla Group.
At the northern end of Friend Park a low dry-stone retaining wall separates a gentle sloping bank from the foreshore and Barney Point Park. The slope here is grassed and almost terraced, and a 'stair' of stones set into the ground at intervals enables easy access to the parkland above.
Above the slope the park comprises an open lawn with specimen trees [including a lone Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla), Ficus sp., palms, and Eucalyptus sp.], several memorials, a timber dais, and children's play equipment.
Close to the apex of the site is the 1954 cairn. This is a four-sided, tapering structure with a flat top, constructed of what appears to be water-polished stone. It rests on a substantial concrete base about 800mm high, and has a bitumened plinth and a low concrete-post-and-single-steel-rail surround. On the northern face of the cairn is a marble plaque with the lettering:
On this spot the first official residence in North Australia was erected, and Captain Maurice Charles O'Connell was installed first Government Resident, Police Magistrate and Commission of Crown Lands, on 17th April 1854 by Sir Charles Fitzroy Governor of New South Wales. Unveiled Centenary Celebrations 17th April 1954.
In the mid-north section of the park is a low-set timber dais resting on timber stumps, with timber railing to three sides and a timber ramp to enable easy access. Just west of this is the grave of Thomas Riddell. This has a stone sarcophagus with two inscriptions, and an iron grave surround [not original] with concrete corner posts. The inscriptions on the sarcophagus read:
Underneath this stone are deposited the remains of THOMAS MILLES STRATFORD RIDDELL eldest son of the Acting Colonial Secretary and Mrs Riddell.
and
He was born at Sydney on 22 January 1832 and died at Port Curtis on the 16 September 1854 aged 22 years.
Further west still is a steel flagstaff associated with the creation of the 1958 children's play area in Friend Park. This has a tapered concrete base, with a metal plaque on the western face which bears the following inscription:
This play area was planned and equipped by the Gladstone Junior Chamber of Commerce and presented to the citizens of Gladstone on 6th(?) December 1958.
While there are no above-ground relics associated with the use of the site as the Port Curtis Government Residence and Domain, there are likely to be sub-surface deposits of archaeological interest.
","history":"Friend Park is the site of the former Port Curtis Government Residence and Domain, established in 1854-56. The former residence was constructed for, and occupied by, Captain Maurice Charles O'Connell, who in 1854 was appointed Government Resident, Police Magistrate, and Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Port Curtis and Leichhardt districts of New South Wales. The Domain was laid out in mid-1854, and a stone residence was completed by the end of 1856.
The township of Gladstone was established by the New South Wales Government in 1853-54. Historian Lorna McDonald suggests that this was possibly an attempt to create a more centralised alternative to Brisbane as the capital of a potential northern colony, because unlike most Queensland ports, Gladstone was established prior to the expansion of pastoral settlement in the hinterland. In April 1853 the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy, announced the intention of establishing a township at Port Curtis, and in May that year surveyor Francis MacCabe was instructed to undertake a survey for the town of Gladstone.
In naming the town Gladstone, Fitzroy commemorated British Colonial Secretary William Ewart Gladstone, who in 1846 had attempted to establish a northern colony in the Antipodes. On 17 February 1846 Queen Victoria signed Letters Patent establishing the colony of North Australia, and the British Parliament passed an Act to define its boundaries, which included all lands and coastal islands north of latitude 26º south and extending from the east coast to the Western Australia border. The new colony therefore included all of the Northern Territory and most of what later became Queensland, with the exception of the Moreton Bay, Darling Downs, and Maranoa districts. On 21 February 1846 Queen Victoria appointed Fitzroy as governor and commander in chief of the colony of North Australia, and on 25 May 1846 appointed Lieutenant-Colonel George Barney as Lieutenant-Governor and Superintendent of North Australia, to administer the new colony on Fitzroy's behalf.
Gladstone's objective in establishing the colony of North Australia was to provide a place of exile for expirees and reformed convicts from both Australian and British gaols. This in effect meant a resumption of transportation to eastern Australia, and was bitterly opposed in New South Wales. In late 1846 Gladstone was replaced as Colonial Secretary by Earl Grey, who reversed his predecessor's colonial policies. On 28 November 1846 Queen Victoria revoked the colony of North Australia, but word did not reach New South Wales before an attempt was made early in 1847 to establish a settlement at Port Curtis.
Colonel Barney and his family had arrived in Sydney in September 1846. Despite finding considerable colonial opposition to the resumption of transportation, Barney carried out his instructions and in November 1846 explored the North Australia coast and selected Port Curtis as a settlement site. Barney and the first contingent of 87 officials and settlers arrived at Port Curtis by boat from Sydney on 25 January 1847, during the height of the wet season. Their ship ran aground and the passengers were embarked at Facing Island, where they waited in tents for 7 weeks, surviving principally on dried meat and biscuits, before a relief ship arrived in mid-March 1847. The wet season hindered the establishment of a settlement on the mainland, and there was discontent within the isolated community. The relief ship also brought news that the colony was likely to be abandoned. This was confirmed officially with the arrival of a second ship in mid-April 1847. The settlement was disbanded between April and July 1847, during which time Colonel Barney took the opportunity to explore the Gladstone district, which he considered had great potential as the site of future settlement. Port Curtis he considered one of the finest natural harbours in the Australian colonies. Barney Point and Barney Point Beach are named in his honour.
The second attempt at non-indigenous settlement at Port Curtis, made six years later in 1853, was more successful. By 23 October 1853 MacCabe had completed his Design for the Town of Gladstone, Port Curtis. Like Colonel Barney in 1847, he identified the area between Auckland Inlet and South Trees Inlet as the most suitable site for a settlement. The principal township was laid out near Auckland Inlet, but MacCabe set aside a substantial area from Barney Point to south of what is now Friend Park, as a reserve for Public Quay, Custom House and Public Offices; and a large reserve for Government House, Domain and Gardens further to the southeast, adjacent to Waapentake Creek. A large sand flat separated the proposed domain from the sea. MacCabe's plan was laid before the Executive Council on 6 December 1853 and the Town of Gladstone was proclaimed on
21 December 1853.
On 1 January 1854 Captain Maurice Charles O'Connell, grandson of former New South Wales Governor Sir William Bligh, was appointed as Government Resident, Police Magistrate and Commissioner for Crown Lands for the Port Curtis and Leichhardt districts. These pastoral districts were proclaimed on 10 January 1854, with Port Curtis declared a settled district although only two stations had been established here by 1854.
The first sale of town lots at Gladstone was held in Sydney on 9 February 1854, and by the time O'Connell arrived at Port Curtis at the end of March 1854, the first slab buildings had been erected near Auckland Inlet. O'Connell and his family and other officials set up residence in tents at Barney Point Beach, in the area proposed as public reserve and out of the way of commercial development closer to Auckland Inlet. Here a small residential precinct soon developed. The O'Connells lived aboard ship for a month while a temporary government residence was being erected: a large marquee with a timber floor. It is understood that this marquee was erected on the low promontory at the southern end of Barney Point Beach, in the area now known as Friend Park.
On 16 April 1854 Governor Fitzroy arrived at Gladstone to inspect the fledgling settlement, and the following day officially installed O'Connell as Government Resident. Whether this ceremony occurred near the temporary government residence, in what is now Friend Park, is not clear. During the 1954 celebrations of the centenary of the establishment of Gladstone, the Gladstone community re-enacted the arrival of Fiztroy on Barney Point Beach and the installation ceremony, which was conducted in Friend Park before an audience of 6500 people. To commemorate the event, a cairn was unveiled in Friend Park.
By early July 1854 O'Connell had decided that the promontory at the southern end of Barney Point Beach, which had been intended as a temporary camp only, would be a more appropriate site for the government residence and domain than the site near Waapentake Creek selected by surveyor MacCabe. O'Connell's domain was laid out with gardens and fencing, but work on construction of a permanent residence in stone did not commence until 1855, and was not completed until late 1856.
Amongst O'Connell's regular reports to Sydney was an account of the accidental death on 16 September 1854 of 22 year old Thomas Milles Stratford Riddell, eldest son of the acting NSW colonial secretary. Riddell had been among the first purchasers of Gladstone land at the February 1854 sale in Sydney, and is thought to have accompanied O'Connell to Gladstone in March 1854. He had been assisting in carting water to the township in September when he was thrown under the wheels of the dray and killed instantly. He was buried in the government domain [now Friend Park], and by the early 1900s his grave was marked by a stone sarcophagus. Another early burial in the domain was that of Lieutenant Le Strange. This grave was known in 1954, when a wreath was laid on it during the centenary celebrations, but is no longer evident.
At the first census of Gladstone conducted by O'Connell in May 1854, the small community comprised 127 non-indigenous residents. A young visitor to the place in March 1855, Richard Mitchell, claimed the township was known locally as Auckland Point and consisted of two commercial stores and a courthouse near Auckland Inlet, while everyone except the storekeepers lived at Barney Point - likely either on or adjacent to the area set aside [but not yet proclaimed] for a public reserve.
O'Connell, autocratic by nature and fiery of temperament, was not well liked in the small Gladstone community. Although his correspondence reveals that he had great hopes for the future of Gladstone and Port Curtis, his critics accused him of inaction, and in late 1855 he faced a Select Committee Inquiry into the conduct of the Government Residency at Port Curtis. As a result, the status of Port Curtis was reduced from that of a government residency with its own revenue and government administration, to that of a pastoral district. O'Connell filed his last report as Port Curtis Resident on 26 April 1856, but remained at Gladstone as Lands Commissioner, still occupying the temporary tent house erected for him in April 1854. In late 1856 he moved into the stone dwelling completed in the government domain.
O'Connell was reinstated as Government Resident in September 1858 to handle the rapid influx of population into the Port Curtis district following the discovery of gold at Canoona. A rush from August 1858 briefly revived the fortunes of the district, but O'Connell's hopes that Port Curtis and Gladstone would now develop their potential were crushed when it became clear that most prospectors were accessing the Canoona goldfield via Rockhampton. In June 1859 the non-indigenous population of Gladstone was 203, which represented an 8 person increase since 1856, while that of Rockhampton stood at 250.
In June 1859 Queen Victoria signed Letters Patent establishing the colony of Queensland north of the 29th parallel of latitude, and following the arrival of Governor Bowen and the proclamation of the new colony on 10 December 1859, the Port Curtis Residency became redundant. O'Connell was informed in February 1860, following which he moved to Brisbane where he served as President of the Queensland Legislative Council from 27 August 1860 to 23 March 1879. He still held an interest in the Port Curtis district, being the pastoral lessee of the Riverston run on the Boyne River.
Following the abolition of the Port Curtis Residency, O'Connell petitioned the Queensland Government to be allowed to purchase his former house and grounds at Barney Point, claiming that he had invested a considerable amount of his own money on improvements, but the colonial government refused.
A survey plan [G14.1] of the government buildings erected at Barney Point, completed by surveyor Clarendon Stuart by 9 July 1860, indicates that the government residency was located on what is now Friend Park. It was a well-ordered establishment comprising a main house, three out houses, stable, cow yard, a formally laid out garden with pathways, and front fencing. To the northwest of the government residence, outside what is now Friend Park, an old brick shed was identified, and further to the northwest, overlooking Barney Point Beach, was the house of the Clerk of Petty Sessions. To the southwest was a more extensive garden and stock yard, which appear to have been associated with the government residence. No graves were identified on the plan.
On 11 July 1862 Surveyor Permien completed a survey of sections 55 to 86 of the Town of Gladstone [survey plan G14.7]. The area of the government residency and domain was surveyed as section 65 of the Town of Gladstone [later Friend Park], and on this the improvements comprised a stone house, another stone dwelling, stables, garden and fencing. These correspond closely to the improvements indicated on surveyor Stuart's 1860 survey plan. Again, no graves were identified on the plan.
Whether anyone occupied the former government residence after O'Connell's departure has not been established. On 28 December 1864 section 65 was purchased from the Crown for £412/10/-, in the name of Alfred Henry Brown of Gladstone. This AH Brown was the six year old son of Henry Hort Brown, not to be confused with the Alfred Henry Brown of Gin Gin Station in the Port Curtis pastoral district. HH Brown was resident in the Port Curtis district by July 1858, when his son Alfred Henry was born, and was among a small party of Gladstone citizens who had prospected for gold at Canoona in mid-1858 and who were largely responsible for the rush of late 1858.
It has not been established whether the Brown family ever lived in the former government residence. The family was resident in the Richmond district of New South Wales during most of the 1860s, where children were born in 1860, 1862, 1863, 1865, and 1867. They had returned to Queensland by December 1867 and were still in this colony in November 1870, but may not have been resident in Gladstone. Thereafter no further record of this family in Queensland has been located. Henry Hort Brown died in the Helensburgh district of New South Wales in 1904. Following his death, the site of the former Port Curtis Government Residency was transferred to his widow, Theresa Brown.
The former government residence at Port Curtis had been long abandoned by late 1888, when a sketch captioned "Ruins of Government Residence, Port Curtis" appeared in The Australasian Sketcher of 27 December 1888. The sketch shows the partly crumbling walls of a roofless stone residence. Photographs of the ruins taken in 1905 and 1906 show only remnants of the stone walls, and the site overgrown with grasses and saplings.
By the 1920s some members of the Gladstone community were keen to seen the site conserved. In 1927 the Gladstone Chamber of Commerce urged the Gladstone Town Council to preserve 'historic spots' such as the graves at Barney Point [that is, those located in the former government domain at the southern end of Barney Point Beach]. Following the death of Theresa Brown in December 1927, the site was acquired in 1929 from her family [who were resident in Sydney] by Gladstone businessmen and former alderman Henry Friend junior. Friend had purchased the property with the express intention of presenting it to the Gladstone Town Council, which he did in November 1929. As a site of strong historical significance to the Gladstone community, the land was to be held by the Council in perpetuity for the people of Gladstone. To honour the generous gift, the site was named Friend Park.
In 1935 George Simmons, curator of the Rockhampton Botanical Gardens, provided sketch plans for Gladstone's three parks: Friend Park, Victoria Park [on Auckland Hill] and Central Park, and Rockhampton City Council gifted trees to Gladstone to assist in the park improvements.
During 1954 the highlight of the centenary celebrations was the unveiling by Gladstone's oldest inhabitant, Mrs Fanny Golding, of the cairn in Friend Park commemorating the installation of Captain Maurice O'Connell as Government Resident on 17 April 1854.
In the mid-1950s Gladstone's Junior Chamber of Commerce [established in 1954] made the creation of a children's playground in Friend Park its principal project. In December 1958 the Gladstone Jaycees handed over the completed playground to the Council.
The place remains one of Gladstone's principal parks, and a popular picnic area. In the late 20th century a decision was made by the Gladstone City Council to remove the stone foundations and remnants of the 1856 government residence.
","criteria":"Friend Park and Graves, Friend and Sutton Streets, Barney Point, Gladstone is one of the most significant historical sites in the Gladstone district, being closely associated with the establishment of Gladstone township in 1853-54. It is also a significant place in Queensland's history, being the site of the former Government Residence and Domain of the Port Curtis Residency, associated with the early development of Port Curtis as the potential hub of a possible northern colony separate from New South Wales.
|Although little above-ground evidence remains of the former use of the site as the Port Curtis Government Residence and Domain, the place is significant for its potential to reveal archaeological information which may assist in our understanding of Queensland's history. This includes evidence of structures and graves on the site, as well as artefacts associated with daily life in the government domain of a remote, mid-19th century British colonial settlement.
|The place is significant for the retention of historical views to and from the headland. In particular the view from the headland across Port Curtis varies little from that which Government Resident Captain Maurice O'Connell found in 1854, when he decided to establish the Government Residence and Domain on this promontory.
|The site has long been valued by the local community for its association with the early history of Gladstone. This is demonstrated in the purchase of the site and donation to the Gladstone Town Council in 1929 by Henry Friend jnr; the erection of a cairn in the park in 1954 to celebrate the centenary of the founding of Gladstone; and Gladstone City Council's nomination of the early graves to the Queensland Heritage Register in the 1990s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16375,"place_ref":601614,"name":"Cook's Landing Place, Town of Seventeen Seventy","alternate_name":"Cooks Landing Place","street_address":"Round Hill Creek and Round Hill Head","suburb":"SEVENTEEN SEVENTY","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1996-03-27","description":"Round Hill Head is a distinctive granite landform at 54m above sea level, a landmark for mariners as the north west extreme of Hervey Bay and the bluff termination of hills, well covered with wood and grass, sloping down around Round Hill, which is 289m high 12kms due south. The headland has naturally grassy areas running from the ocean on the east to the sheltered creek on the west and this swathe has been referred to as "Mrs Cook's Drive" since the turn of the century.
Round Hill Creek on the western side of the headland has a very narrow channel, which has maintained its depth at soundings taken since 1770, but is encumbered with shifting sandbanks. The sandy beach is fringed by mangroves and backed by cotton woods, paperbark and palms in the wetter gullies, with ironbark on the drier slopes.
From Monument Point extensive views may be obtained of the picturesque inlet with boats at anchor, wisps of smoke from the cottages screened in the bush, distant blue mountains and across the sand spits to the west the dense lowland vegetation of Eurimbula National Park with the jagged Munro Range towering in the distance. At night the Bustard Head lighthouse flashes its warning presence across Bustard Bay.
When viewed extensively, European occupation of the land has not altered the landscape irretrievably. Very few of the recent houses intrude into the landscape, mature trees have been retained, and the bush has regenerated on the lower slopes.
Very few clumps of mangroves remain in the lower reaches of Round Hill Creek along the western margin but the caravan park developed in 1978 has a cover of mature native trees while the unreserved Crown land along the foreshore adjacent to Captain Cook Drive has an impressive covering of mature tall Cabbage palms, probably predating Cook's landing.
The spring which fed a streamlet rising on the slope above Captain Cook Drive and running out on the beach only stopped flowing in 1992. It had yielded a bucket of water every 25 seconds at peak flow in 1989. This was probably the stream mentioned by Cook. The nearby area of houses and the 95 site caravan park is now sewered to prevent ground water contamination.
The road reserve retains its vegetation and the picnic area opposite the shop is shaded and attractive. Murgard's marina and the public boat ramp in the "lagoon" of the upper reaches of the creek are not intrusive but the approach to the township is messy, despite driving through tall forest along the base of the ridge immediately before entering Seventeen Seventy. The upper reaches of Round Hill Creek are meandering, shallow, mangrove fringed, and backed by tall paperbark forest.
","history":"The town of Seventeen Seventy is so named because on 24 May in that year, Lieutenant James Cook, captain of His Majesty's barque Endeavour, came ashore and landed on the beach of Round Hill Creek in the vicinity of the present village.
In the morning of Thursday May 1770, the Lieutenant in his pinnace (with Mr Joseph Banks and Dr Solander) and Second Lieutenant Gore in the yawl left the ship for the shore and made their first landing in what is now Queensland and their second landing in Australia. Cook made eleven landings on the eastern seaboard and ten of these were in Queensland. Cook's landing spot at Bustard Bay was in the vicinity of the present caravan park (developed in 1978), where a stream at the southern end enters the beach just north of the remaining mangroves.
Cook described the countryside as "visibly worse" than at Botany Bay, with dry and sandy soils, woods free of undergrowth, the same sort of numerous 'birch' tree (coastal ironbark), mangroves skirting the lagoon and palm trees on low, barren, sandy places. He also noted bustards, black and white ducks, small oysters and other shell fish - mussels, pearl oysters and cockles.
Botanist Joseph Banks, who accompanied Cook on his "little excursion in to the woods", noted the great variety of plants even though the plant cover was not thick. He recognised plants already seen in the Tropics, and described many birds on shore including one species of Bustard. Some of the 55 specimens collected in the general area were illustrated and described in Banks' Florilegium, which was printed from copperplates under Banks' direction from Parkinson's unfinished sketches. (Parkinson died of dysentery on the voyage home.) As the woods behind Round Hill Head and adjacent to Round Hill Creek are the locality of the first botanical type-specimens collected in
Queensland, they are of great scientific value. This was recognised in 1989 with the gazettal of Joseph Banks Environmental Park [R.663].
In August 1802 Matthew Flinders in HM sloop Investigator, accompanied by the Lady Nelson under the command of Lt John Murray, resurveyed Hervey's Bay. They reached the south head of Bustard Bay (Round Hill Head) on 2 August and anchored in nearly the same spot where the Endeavour had lain in 1770.
Subsequent early mariners visited Bustard Bay and noted the prominent landmark of Round Hill from Round Hill Head: Captain Phillip King in the Mermaid 1819, Captain Stokes in HMS Beagle in 1839 and 1841, and Colonel Barney in the steamer Cornubia in 1846, when he was looking for a site for northern settlement.
Port Curtis was proclaimed a district in January 1854. Most European settlement by-passed Bustard Bay and Round Hill Head, but pastoral runs were taken up in the hinterland. In 1867 a lighthouse was erected at Bustard Head because of increased coastal shipping, and a sawmill was established at Eurimbula Creek. By 1894, Agnes Waters beach was a popular weekend resort for sawmill employees. There was a timber shoot down Round Hill and pine logs were hauled by teamsters to the rafting grounds on Oyster Creek and Round Hill Creek. The first cottage at Round Hill was erected in 1915.
In July 1925, the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland resolved to erect a monument at Bustard Bay to commemorate the first landing of the British on the Queensland coast. With the support of the Governor of Queensland, Sir Matthew Nathan, a public appeal for funds was launched on 1 September 1925, and proved so popular that a cairn was ordered the following month. This was erected early in 1926, on the point of land overlooking Bustard Bay to the north. In response to a request from the RGSQ for the reservation of an area of land surrounding the Cook Memorial, the Department of Public Lands set aside an area of 1,790 acres as a Recreation Reserve [R.207] under the control of the Miriam Vale Shire as trustee, February 1927. This did not include the site of the actual landing in Bustard Bay.
An area was surveyed adjacent to Round Hill Creek for the site of a township in the mid-1930s. It was named Seventeen Seventy, re-emphasising that this was Cook's first landing place in Queensland in May 1770.
The significance of Round Hill Head, at the time considered the birthplace of Queensland, drew the attention of those planning the 1970 Bi-Centenary Celebrations. The Queensland Government made available $2,000 for a monument additional to the cairn, to be erected and maintained by the Department of Local Government. The site selected for the new monument was about a mile nearer the tip of Round Hill Head on the western or inshore side, overlooking the spot where the Endeavour had lain.
The new monument was not to imitate the existing cairn as simply a marker for the site of Cook's landing, but was intended to symbolise that in landing at this place, the British first opened the door of opportunity in Queensland. A four-sided concrete portico in classical style was erected, with the words Doorway to Destiny on the top-piece. In 1975, the area surrounding the monument was gazetted as the Captain Cook Memorial and Park Reserve [R.271]. The monument later developed concrete cancer, and was demolished in August 1994.
In 1989 the Joseph Banks Environmental Park [R.663] was gazetted. It covered about 114 hectares and incorporated part of R.207 and R.271, but did not include Cook's actual landing site.
","criteria":"Cook's Landing Place is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history and is a place of national significance. It is the first place where Cook and Banks landed, in what later became Queensland, during the Endeavour voyage which charted the east coast of the Australian continent and led to the beginnings of European settlement in Australia. The natural history collections and observations made on 24 May 1770 at Round Hill Creek excited world interest.
|The place has the potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history, offering a rich source for interpretation and study, including landscapes, terrain, historic coastal navigation, vegetation types and habitats, fauna and their habitats, the Aboriginal people's use of and values in the landscape. The place was the only central Queensland site at which Banks collected botanical specimens and the landscape still holds the detail and scope of the natural landscape of that time to enable comparative study and educational interpretation.
The place also has potential to reveal information on the establishment and evolution of small coastal holiday settlements in Queensland.
|The Town of Seventeen Seventy and its landscape setting and approaches is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a small, coastal, Queensland camping and holiday village, which began as a camping site for fishing and boating holidays, and continues this function to this day. With increasing development pressure being placed on Queensland's small, coastal camping and holiday settlements, the Town of Seventeen Seventy remains an uncommon and beautiful example of its type in Queensland and eastern Australia.
|The place is significant for its very high aesthetic values of both State and National significance.
|In terms of strong or special association, it should be noted that Aboriginal people of the area have, within their oral tradition, stories of witnessing the landing of Lieutenant Cook, Joseph Banks and others of the Endeavour. The place also has a strong and continued association since it was first regularly visited in the early 1890s by the local and district community as a quiet holiday destination.
|Cook's Landing Place has a special association with the work of Lieutenant James Cook, Joseph Banks, and fellow scientists of the Endeavour, whose voyage of exploration along the eastern coast of Australia in 1770 transformed the future of the Australian continent and its indigenous peoples.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16465,"place_ref":601723,"name":"Cape Capricorn Lightstation","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"North eastern tip of Curtis Island","suburb":"CAPE CAPRICORN","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-08-31","description":"The Cape Capricorn Lightstation is situated on the north-east side of Curtis Island, located approximately 40 kilometres north of Gladstone. Cape Capricorn is regarded as the gateway to Keppel Bay.
The Lighthouse
The 6.4 metre lighthouse [1964] has a square plan with chamfered corners. It is constructed on concrete blocks, with a small enclosed porch at the base. The lantern which was originally at the top of the tower has been removed and now a self-contained beacon is mounted on the gallery platform.
Keeper's Quarters
The two keeper's quarters replaced earlier timber framed weatherboard buildings in the late 1930s.
Timber-framed, clad with asbestos cement sheeting with timber cover battens, with hipped roofs clad with corrugated iron, the buildings are of a similar style to the quarters at Lady Elliot Island [1927], Sandy Cape [1935] and Bustard Head [1939]. The buildings retain much of their original form.
Other Buildings
Most of the service buildings are of the same age as the residences, constructed in the late 1930s. The exception is the new powerhouse which is contemporary with the 1964 lighthouse.
The Store is a timber framed building, lined, with painted asbestos cement sheet with cover battens, resting on a high concrete foundation. The structure has a gabled roof clad with corrugated iron.
The Old Powerhouse is a timber framed building, lined, with painted asbestos cement sheet with cover battens, resting on a high concrete foundation. The structure has a gabled roof clad with corrugated iron.
The New Powerhouse is constructed of concrete block walls on a projecting concrete foundation which forms a plinth. The structure has a projecting flat concrete roof to the main room with a similar lower roof to a small attached porch.
The Winch House is a timber framed building lined with painted asbestos cement sheet with cover battens, resting on a concrete foundation. The building has a gabled roof clad with corrugated iron. Associated equipment and landscape features include a motor, winch and coiled metal rope, an attached trolley [timber on a metal base] and cement pathway carrying steel rails down the hill to the beach.
There are a large variety of sheds, from medium to small in size, on the site. These are mostly timber framed utility buildings with corrugated iron walls and roof. A concrete helipad is located approximately 120 metres to the south-east of the lightstation. Two auxiliary [lead] lights are located to the west and east of the lightstation complex. One, to the west, is timber framed clad with fibrous cement. The eastern lead light is concrete. The lead lights are not in working order. The remains of the previous lighthouses are located in a gully to the north of the lightstation.
","history":"Constructed to a design by the Office of the Colonial Architect, FDG Stanley, the original Cape Capricorn Lightstation was operational by July 1875. The extant lighthouse is the third to be built on the site. Later developments in the 1930s and 1960s included the replacement and refurbishment of the lightkeepers' residences, stores buildings and sheds.
Up until 10 December 1859, the colony of New South Wales extended as far north as Cape York Peninsula. In 1859, the new colony of Queensland acquired over 5000 kilometres of coastline which had few safety features in place, and became responsible for all navigation lights and harbours along this coastline. At the time the only lighthouse which existed had been built at Cape Moreton [600257] by the New South Wales Government in 1857.
In 1862, the Queensland government had appointed a Portmaster, Commander GP [George Poynter] Heath and had passed the Marine Board Act 1862. GP Heath [1830-1921] was born at Hanworth, in Norfolk, England. Late in 1859 as a lieutenant, he applied for the government post of marine surveyor in the new colony of Queensland and was appointed. In his thirty-three tenure of office in what became the sub-department of harbours, lighthouses and pilots, Heath was responsible for supervising the opening of 13 new ports, establishing 33 lighthouses, 6 lightships and 150 small lights and marking the inner route of the barrier reef. In November 1887 he retired from public service because of ill health and later returned to England.
In the two years following the establishment of the Marine Board Act 1862, due to a lack of funds to spend on marine safety, activity concentrated on dealing with pilots and harbour lights, The issue of coastal lights was not taken up until 25 May 1864, when Members of the Legislative Assembly moved that a Select Committee be appointed to inquiry into and report upon the state of the harbours and rivers in the colony. The Committee consisted of Messrs Macalister, Douglas, Sandeman, Cribb, Challinor and Bell and convened for the first time on 27 May 1864. The Committee widened the terms of reference to include the question of the necessity of additional lighthouses on the coast of Australia, within the colony of Queensland.
Due to the significant relationship of Curtis Island to the mouth of the Fitzroy River and the Port of Rockhampton, it was necessary to provide a pilot service for shipping from an early date. Therefore, in 1861, Rockhampton's first permanent pilot station was erected at Cape Capricorn. Three years later, however, it was moved to Grassy Hill, as this was considered to be a more convenient location for the pilots, with its ready access to fresh water and position overlooking the mainland. Despite the establishment of the local pilot station on Curtis Island, the need for a lighthouse at the outer point of Curtis Island was still considered a priority by the colonial authorities.
Early in 1874, FDG Stanley, who had by then been appointed to the vacant position of Colonial Architect wrote that plans for the Cape Capricorn lighthouse had been prepared and that the building would be constructed of hardwood cased with sheet iron. He estimated the cost of the building with cottages to amount to £1460. Tenders were called, but by the closing date [20 February 1874] none had been received in Brisbane and only one in Rockhampton, this was from John Ferguson for £2850, with the work to be completed in twelve months. Stanley commented that his carefully estimated cost was £1600 for the tower and £600 for the two cottages and Ferguson's was greatly in excess of a reasonable sum of work. His recommendation was for fresh tenders to be called for the construction of the tower only and leaving the remainder of the work to be carried out by the government. Two tenders were received in the second attempt.
James Midson of Charlotte Street, with a tender for a total amount of £1046/10/- was successful on this occasion in acquiring the contract. The lighthouse was to cost £549/10/- and the two cottages £497 and were to be completed in fourteen and ten weeks respectively. Midson must have completed the construction some time in October 1874, for on 2 November, Stanley wrote to the Under Secretary, Public Works advising him that the lighthouses and cottages had been framed together in Brisbane and were ready for shipment to the site. He submitted a 'tender' from Midson and Son for the construction of the buildings complete on the site for the sum of £753. It would appear that tenders were not called from the general public by means of the Government Gazette so that Midson and Son likely made a private offer or quotation to erect the buildings on the site at Cape Capricorn.
The Executive Council approved of Midson and Son's offer whereby as stated in the Memorandum of Agreement they agreed
'to provide the materials for and perform the various works required in the construction and erection of a lighthouse and cottages at Cape Capricorn at or for the sum of seven hundred and fifty three pounds, and has agreed to complete the same within three months from the date of the acceptance of the tender.'
The May Queen [Quinlan & Co] was chartered to convey the prefabricated buildings and the various ancillary effects from Brisbane to Cape Capricorn. The tender for this service was £40/- ton and Stanley estimated that 150 tons of materials would have to be transported. Incredibly, the construction of the lighthouse did not take into account the inclusion of the fitting up of a lamp room, lantern and associated apparatus. As a result, Stanley on reporting the estimated completion by 19 June 1875, requested authority for the expenditure of £180 to rectify the omission. Initially, it had been intended by the Portmaster that the lamp room was to have been made of cast iron and sent from England with the lantern. This arrangement, however, was altered at the last minute, resulting in the tower having no lamp room. Stanley, describing the work as urgent, stated that it would be necessary to provide for the construction of a lamp room with iron galleries in timber framing with iron plating.
Midson having completed his contract to the 'full satisfaction' of the Colonial Architect's Office, had the 'detention money' on the contract returned to him on August 1875. It may be estimated that the lighthouse was complete and the light operating in late July 1875. Besides the lighthouse itself, two other lights were operating at Cape Capricorn. In 1895, a survey of Queensland's existing marine safety measures included entries for two small auxiliary lights, both fixed, located to the north and south-east of the main lighthouse.
Throughout the rest of the 19th century, the Cape Capricorn lightstation was serviced from Rockhampton. A steamer, the Fitzroy, was constructed in Maryborough in 1879, and then acted as a regular link between Rockhampton's port and the lighthouses and beacons at Cape Capricorn, North Reef, Pine Islet and Broad Sound. The delivery of supplies to lightstations was often a precarious and difficult business, with Cape Capricorn being no exception. There, supplies which were brought to the base of the hill by steamer, had to be winched up over 91 metres of jagged rocks.
In 1912, a major assessment of all the lightstations and beacons along Australia's north-east coast was made by Commander Brewis. The report contained not only an assessment of the existing marine safety network, but also provided recommendations to facilitate the standardisation and rejuvenation of the whole system which was brought under the control of the Federal government from July 1915. A summary of Brewis' recommendations was that the power of the light be increased, the auxiliary light on the eastern side to be moved and adjusted, renovation of the lightkeepers dwellings and 'extensive tramway repaired and the steam winches supplied.
It took some time for Brewis' recommendations to be implemented at the many surveyed sites along the coast-line, and it was not until 1923 that the first alterations were made to the light. At this time, the original oil wick burner was replaced by a 55mm incandescent kerosene mantle. Thirteen years later, plans dated 3 January 1936 were prepared for the conversion of the light to electric operation. In the same year, the Commonwealth government decided to replace the whole of the tower at Cape Capricorn with a new concrete block lighthouse six metres in height. Plans for this new building were prepared on 21 September 1937. It appears that an engine house was included at the base of the tower. Part of the base of this tower survives adjacent to the new powerhouse.
The new lighthouse had a square plan, with a circular cantilevered balcony and a small circular lantern above. This lantern had a different fenestration from the original, and a squatter, less round, roof. Other buildings at the lightstation also underwent changes in the late 1930s. The residences and service buildings were also replaced then. The two new residences were timber framed with asbestos cladding, and the service buildings (including the old powerhouse, store and winch house) had a similar construction.
Plans for a new lighthouse to be erected at Cape Capricorn were prepared in July 1963. A concrete engine had already been designed in the previous year, on 9 January 1962. These two buildings appear to have been completed by 1964. It is not clear why the relatively recent lighthouse and powerhouse of 1937 needed to be replaced so soon. Four years later, in 1968, the optical apparatus was converted to 240V AC operation.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Cape Capricorn served as the base radio station of the lightstation network which included North Reef, Lady Elliot, Pine Islet and Dent Island. In effect, this meant that the personnel at Cape Capricorn were responsible for the well being and continued operation of these lightstations and the provisions or organisation of assistance should any accidents or problems have arisen at these stations. On 18 December 1978, the role of base station was transferred from Cape Capricorn to Bustard Head. The latter lightstation had already been provided with computer equipment for monitoring the newly decommissioned North Reef lightstation, and was subsequently allocated the role of key monitoring and communications station for the area. Also, at this time, Cape Capricorn's experienced head keeper Harold Simpson was moved to Bustard Head to continue his role as communications officer. In August 1988, the power of the station was again converted, this time to solar energy.
In 1983, the Commonwealth government prepared a report, Lighthouses: do we keep the keepers, making as assessment of the relative significance of the buildings at the site , with a view to putting the consequences of de-staffing into perspective. The Cape Capricorn lightstation was included in a group of 24 lightstations, were it was found that that economic benefits of de-staffing outweighed the social and other benefits, therefore, the removal of a presence at the lightstation was thought to be justified.
During the early 1990s, the property was transferred to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority for four years, but in 1995 reverted to the ownership of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. The property passed into the ownership of the State government in July 1997. A caretaker is currently occupier one of the lightkeepers residences.
","criteria":"Established by 1875, with further development in the 1930s and 1960s, the Cape Capricorn Lightstation occupies an integral part in understanding the establishment of maritime navigational aids along the Queensland coast and reflects the growth and development of Queensland after its separation from New South Wales.
The Cape Capricorn Lightstation is significant for its association with Commander George Poynter Heath, the first Portmaster of Queensland [1862-1890], a significant figure in the development of the Queensland lighthouse service. Heath was responsible for supervising the opening of 13 new ports, establishing 33 lighthouses, 6 lightships and 150 small lights and marking the inner route through the Barrier Reef.
|Established by 1875, with further development in the 1930s and 1960s, the Cape Capricorn Lightstation occupies an integral part in understanding the establishment of maritime navigational aids along the Queensland coast and reflects the growth and development of Queensland after its separation from New South Wales.
|Located on a commanding position high on a promontory with a panoramic view of the surrounding ocean, the Cape Capricorn Lightstation is important for its strong aesthetic significance.
|The Cape Capricorn Lightstation is especially significant for its strong association with the life of the lightkeepers, their families and maintenance and stores people, who, for more than a century, contributed to the continuum of a system dedicated to the single aim of maintaining the navigational aids.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16548,"place_ref":601811,"name":"William Wyndhams gravesite and remnant orchard trees","alternate_name":"Wyndhams Farm | Carnym","street_address":"Boyne Island","suburb":"BOYNE ISLAND","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-06-23","description":"William Trevelyan Wyndham's gravesite lies in a small clearing amid native flora at the highest point of Boyne Island facing east. The headstone consists of roughly hewn granite and local individual stones placed five feet in front of the grave in a rectangular shape. The stone reads; 'William Trevelyan Wyndham Born 3 April 1830 Died 8 July 1898'.
Nine mango (Mangifera indica) and two tamarind trees (Tamarind indicus) from Wyndham's original orchard are located throughout the suburb. Two tamarind trees are located in the corner of Wyndham Park near the southern boundary of the park at Olunda Street.
","history":"Although Boyne Island is best remembered for William Trevelyan Wyndham's association with it, initially the selection was taken up by Charles Hedley, a naturalist originating from Yorkshire. In 1882 Hedley and J.R.B. Dawson took up selection blocks on Boyne Island resumed under the 1868 Crown Lands Act. Hedley, enjoying a 'liberal allowance' from his father, sampled outback life and tried an oyster lease at Moreton Bay before trying fruit growing at Boyne Island. In 1888 an accident to his left arm rendered him unfit for manual work and he went to Brisbane and worked for the Queensland Museum, pursuing a career in natural history, concentrating on Australian fauna. Hedley wrote confidently on a range of topics including Botany, Ethnology, and Conchology. The culmination of his career was his appointment as Scientific Director of the Great Barrier Reef Committee.
In 1888 William Trevelyan Wyndham acquired Hedley's selection of 240 acres in the south east corner of the Island near the mouth of the Boyne River. Migrating to Australia in 1849 Wyndham first lived with an Uncle in the Hunter River area. His interest in Indigenous culture led to him to live with tribal Aborigines in New South Wales for seven years. He married, but after the financial failure of his farm and subsequent break-up of his marriage he came to the Fitzroy in 1875 and lived by fishing and shooting, spending time with a tribe on Keppel Island. Wyndham worked industriously to improve and establish a large orchard on the Boyne Island property, naming it 'Carnym', reported to be an Aboriginal name meaning 'sand'.
Pineapples, grafted orange trees, bananas and rare plants and seeds were imported from Kew Gardens in England. Wyndham later sent Boyne Island-grown plants such as lilies, back to Kew. The seeds of the mango trees came by boat from India and were given to Wyndham by Hedley. Whether the tamarind trees were planted by Hedley or Wyndham is unclear. The section of property that fronted the river was known as Plum Tree, presumably after the native Burdekin plums which are plentiful in the nearby scrub.
Wyndham's life as a fisherman made Carnym the ideal location, and he earned extra income delivering produce from his property to market through coastal waters to Gladstone. In 1889 he prepared a paper titled 'The Aborigines of Australia'. which he presented to the Royal Society of New South Wales in Sydney in June. Wyndham's paper applied chiefly to the Aborigines of northern New South Wales with whom he had with lived for seven years. He explained their traditions and customs and clearly stated their belief in a supreme being. Most importantly, his linguistic skills led him to the conclusion that the different Aboriginal languages had been derived from one original stock. That he was considered an authority is confirmed by the Smithsonian Society of America's correspondence with him on the possibility of Australian Aboriginal languages being derived from Tamil.
Wyndham died 8 July 1898 and was buried in the orchard at Carnym. Some time later his daughter Bessie had his remains relocated on a hill at the Western end of the property. Wyndham himself had prepared in advance by transporting a block of granite estimated to weigh 1 1/2 tonnes from Magnetic Island and carried by his boat. This was dumped at the mouth of the Boyne River at high tide and later dragged by Bullock team to the highest point on the island to become his headstone. The family association with Boyne Island continued for three generations, later members continuing to grow pineapples on the site, Bessie continuing to live at Carnym until 1941. In 1972 Comalco purchased the farm to build an aluminium smelter, production commencing ten years later. The site where the grave lies is owned by Comalco and is listed by them as a buffer zone between the smelter and the suburb.
The area where Wyndham's house was situated was sold and subdivided in the mid 1970's and the modest weatherboard house demolished in the early 1980's. A park in the area bears his name, with tamarind and mango trees from the original orchard still adorning the park and surrounding suburb.
","criteria":"The remnant trees demonstrate the uncommon aspect of a Nineteenth Century orchard and garden that was used simultaneously for hobby, scientific and commercial reasons.
The Tamarind trees have the potential to yield comparative botanical and genetic information with examples of a similar age in other countries.
Prominently situated on the highest point of Boyne Island, Wyndham's grave is located in a small clearing, its aesthetic appeal enhanced by its surroundings amid indigenous flora. Two Tamarind trees from the original orchard are located in Wyndham park, their age and size contributing to the parks visual appeal.
Wyndham Park is valued by the community for social and recreational purposes. Links to the former use of the site are expressed by a cottage style play structure symbolising Wyndham's dwelling, remnant Tamarind trees and the park bearing his name.
Boyne Island has a special association with the work of William Trevelyan Wyndham and Charles Hedley, both principal pioneers in the early development of Central Queensland and the Calliope area. William Trevelyan Wyndham's gravesite and the Tamarind trees are physical links to his work and interests, in particular his association with and anthropological observations of the languages and customs of Aboriginal tribes in New South Wales and Central Queensland. The site is also significant in regards to the previous owner, Naturalist Charles Hedley.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16737,"place_ref":602001,"name":"Gladstone Central State School, Block B","alternate_name":"Block B, Gladstone State School","street_address":"94 Auckland Street","suburb":"GLADSTONE","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"Situated on a sloping site in the northwest corner of the Gladstone Central State School grounds overlooking Auckland Street, Block B is a free-standing, single-storeyed timber building sitting on low concrete stumps to the east and north and higher concrete stumps to the west and south. The low-pitched gable roof is sheeted with polytex sheeting and has small triangular decorative panels of vertical slats to the north and south gable ends. The exterior is clad with painted weatherboards.
The north and south elevations each have a bank of fourteen awning windows sheltered by a sunshade awning with lattice triangular panels to each end. The south elevation also contains a porch entrance to the east verandah and the north elevation contains two small windows to the west corner.
The building is planned about a single room with lateral verandahs. The building has been altered but some original fabric remains including timber linings, doors and windows. The single room has been subdivided with concertina doors to form three rooms and partitioned spaces and enclosures added to the verandahs.
A small, single-room, rectangular, gable-roofed annexe extends from the centre of the east verandah. Clad externally with weatherboards, the annexe has two casement windows to the north and east elevations and the ceiling and interior walls are lined with tongue-and-groove boarding with coved mouldings to the corners and cornice.
The east verandah is enclosed and lined internally with tongue-and-groove boarding and coved mouldings to the corners and cornice. There is a bank of clerestorey louvres to the south of the annexe and three sets of clerestorey and six sets of half height louvres to the north. Rooms to the corners of the verandah have been partitioned with fibro cement sheeting. A plain timber door opens to the annexe. There is a porch entrance to the south and a plain timber door in the east wall to the north of the annexe.
The west verandah is approached by a central set of timber stairs. The corners of the verandah have been enclosed to the north for toilets and to the south for a small kitchen. Both enclosed areas open to the verandah. There are four timber casement windows to the west in the south corner and three timber casements windows to the west in the north corner. The open middle portion of the verandah has a timber handrail and two horizontal midrails and a single stop chamfered verandah post at the top of the stair. The west verandah has exposed stud framing and is lined with chamfer boards. There are three sets of triple sash windows to the centre with timber doors to each side and an additional timber door near the north enclosure. There are tilting fanlights above all doors. The panel and sheeted french doors to north of the windows are stop chamfered to the interior. Tusk tenon joints to the framing of the windows and doors.
The main room has a coved ceiling lined with tongue-and-groove boarding with coved corner mouldings and cornice and exposed timber truss bases. There are winding mechanisms for the tilting fanlights.
","history":"Block B of the Gladstone Central State School was erected in 1904 as the first timber classroom extension to the Gladstone State School, established in the early 1860s.
The town of Gladstone at Port Curtis was founded by the New South Wales colonial government in 1853-54, and during the 1850s a number of private schools operated in the township. In 1861, following the separation of Queensland from New South Wales, a primary school was established at Gladstone under the provisions of the Queensland Government's Education Act of 1860, which provided government assistance for primary education modelled on the New South Wales system of national [or state-assisted] schools.
At Separation in December 1859, there were only three national schools in Queensland [at Drayton, Warwick and Brisbane], established under New South Wales legislation. The first 7 national schools established in the new colony of Queensland opened in 1861. Among these was the Gladstone Primary School, which opened about April that year.
The Gladstone Primary School initially may have occupied the premises of a former private school conducted from 1859 by JH Carvosso, who was appointed the first national school teacher in Gladstone in 1861. A purpose-designed primary school was constructed in 1863-64 and opened at the beginning of 1864, on the present school reserve. It was a T-shaped brick structure. The front section of the building, facing Auckland Street, was the residence of the school master; behind this, at right angles to the residence, was a long school room to accommodate 70-80 students.
Queensland's national school system, administered by the Board of General Education, was replaced in 1875 with a system of free, compulsory, secular education for children aged 6 to 12 years, administered by the Department of Public Instruction. At this time the Gladstone Primary School became the Gladstone State School. By 1879, average attendance at the school had reached 110, and classes were being conducted on the verandahs. To relieve the overcrowding, a separate teacher's residence was erected in 1880-81, and the front section of the 1863 building was remodelled as a classroom.
By 1897, total enrolment was close to 200 and the average attendance had reached 150. The school was again in urgent need of additional classrooms. Extensions were approved by the Department of Public Instruction, but the local community was not able to raise the one-fifth contribution needed to fund the additions until 1904, when a new timber block was erected in front of the 1863 building, and connected to it by a covered walk-way. Tenders were called in March 1904. The contract was won by J Connors with a price of £437/2/3, and the building was completed by late 1904. Despite a number of modifications, it survives as the present Block B.
In November 1913, the Gladstone State School Committee refused to spend any more money on repairs to the 1863 school building and requested that it be demolished and replaced with a new timber building in keeping with the 1904 wing [Block B]. This building [Block A] was erected in 1914-15 and opened in February 1915. In 1917 the 1863 building was sold for £2 for demolition/removal.
By the mid-1930s, Block A had become the High School wing of the Gladstone State School, and two additional timber wings had been erected. One of these accommodated primary school children [Block C], and the other was the Infants School [Block D]. In 1936/37 a purpose-designed home economics and manual arts wing was erected [Block E], but there was little further expansion of the school premises until well into the second half of the 20th century. Gladstone State School was renamed Gladstone Central State School on 14 November 1968.
By March 1973, the school had acquired an additional large teaching block [Block G], an administration block [Block H], and a toilet block [Block J - replacing earlier earth closets]. At this time plans were drawn for a new Block C, and it appears that the old Block C was removed to another part of the site, and re-named Block F. By 1978, Block A [the 1914-15 building] had been removed and the new Block C had been constructed, but Blocks B, F [the re-sited former Block C], D & E remained.
","criteria":"Block B, Gladstone Central State School is significant historically for its association with the important work of primary school education in Gladstone since the early 1900s,
|Block B, Gladstone Central State School has had a special association for generations of Gladstone residents as a place important in their personal histories.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17042,"place_ref":602229,"name":"Soldier Settler House","alternate_name":"Hecstanvale","street_address":"Gladstone-Monto Road","suburb":"UBOBO","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-09-28","description":"The soldier settler house is a single storey, timber building set on high timber stumps clad with weatherboards. The gable roof building is clad with corrugated galvanised iron. Timber framed, casement windows, with metal window hoods, are located along all elevations of the building. These windows have replaced the original sash windows. [Some of the window hoods have star patterns, a common design and occurrence in the buildings constructed in the Boyne Valley].
The original staircases located in the northern and southern elevations have been removed. The stove recess in the north-west corner of the building is still extant.
Internally, the building comprises three rooms [a bedroom, dining room and a kitchen]. Later, the eastern side of the northern verandah was enclosed and the southern verandah was enclosed to provide for more rooms in the house. A modern water tank is located on the in the north-western corner near the building. The south-west corner of the undercroft has been enclosed with weatherboards.
The verandah on the southern side of the house appears to have been enclosed. Further, it would seem that additions have been constructed on the westerns side in the form of an extension to provide for another room, as well as the enclosing of the verandah on the northern side as well as the addition of a porch and staircase. The house is not in as good condition as the house on Lot 114 and was not inspected internally.
A single storey timber building is located to the rear of the house. The building has sash windows, with metal window hoods with a star pattern. The hipped roof is clad with corrugated galvanised iron.
The former soldier settlers house is located on a working farm. The house is surrounded by mature vegetation, with views south to the Boyne River.
","history":"The soldier settlers house is a high-set, timber building constructed in 1920, on property owned by RS Davies. An ex-serviceman from the First World War, Davies had acquired title to Portion 115 [as it was known] under the Ubobo Soldier Settlement Scheme. In the 1960s, the Davies family purchased Lot 114 [formerly Portion 114], on which another soldier settler's house is located.
Non-Indigenous exploration of Boyne Valley area commenced with Captain James Cook in 1770, Matthew Flinders [who named Port Curtis] in 1802 and John Oxley in 1823. More systematic inland exploration in the area had been led from the mid-1840s by Ludwig Leichhardt and Thomas Mitchell. By the early 1850s there were many squatters seeking to take up pastoral properties on the northern frontier of the Burnett District.
In June 1853, a government survey party under Francis McCabe was established at the Port Curtis harbour to lay out a township and to initiate a survey of the hinterland in preparation for its development as a pastoral district. When McCabe's labours had resulted in the partial survey of the town, a Government Residency was established at Gladstone in 1854 to oversee civil development in the Port Curtis Pastoral District.
Closer settlement in the Boyne Valley and the surrounding district occurred in a number of waves. The first wave was the periodic resumption of the original leasehold runs into smaller leases, which were then let as grazing properties. This was the common pattern from the 1870s through to the end of the First World War. In later years, more intensive settlement occurred with the reduction of the grazing blocks into agricultural and dairy selections. The Port Curtis Dairy Company Ltd [the PCD] was formed at Gladstone in 1904, with its first timber factory buildings erected at Gladstone in 1906. Later developments included the construction of the railway line from Byellee to Many Peaks through Ubobo, which opened on 25 July 1910.
Along the Boyne River, the major development in the pattern of land use occurred with the creation of the so-called 'soldier settlements' to assist veterans of the First World War. In 1920, the 21-year leases on the pastoral properties of Ubobo, Hybla, Melrose, Degalgil and Cluden expired. When the 1914-1918 war ended the Government sought to compensate those members of the services who were being discharged from the Army, Navy or Air Force, by making available land under the Solider Settlement Schemes. One such scheme was the Ubobo Soldier Settlement Scheme.
These areas were resumed by government legislation, leaving a homestead block as an option to the original selectors. The selections were available by perpetual lease, with Agricultural Bank assistance up to approximately $1400 available to develop the property and purchase stock. The Settlement Supervisor was WA Collins. He was later succeeded by ET Wannop. The money provided by the Agricultural Bank as advances on development work, was paid following the inspection of the work, and the endorsement of the payment by the Supervisor. All of the farms were to be used as dairy farms and associated farming. William P [Bill] Spencer, a carpenter at Nagoorin, had a contract to build all the soldier settler houses.
The selectors were from every walk of life. There were shop assistants, bank tellers, a plantation manager, drovers, Englishmen, a Scottish champion ploughman and local residents of the Port Curtis District. One of the first properties in the Ubobo area, Portion 115, was taken up by RS [Robert Sydney] Davies in 1920. The portion number contained 95 acres. Davies was born in England in 1883, and aged sixteen years, he stowed away in a troopship for South Africa. Once there, Davies joined an Essex Regiment with which he fought during the three years of the Boer War [1899-1901]. He remained in the British Army for eight years, serving in India and Burma.
In the years preceding the First World War, Davies was a rubber plantation manager for Burns Philp in Choisuel, in the British Solomon Islands. He also oversaw the Japanese pearl divers working for Burns Philp. Davies enlisted in the war on 5 October 1914, joining the Queensland 9th Battalion.
The 9th Battalion, which served in the First World War with honour, was the first to leave Queensland and among the first Australian troops to land at Gallipoli on the morning of the 25th April 1915. Davies, as a member of a boat carrying twelve men, went ashore ahead of the main force. Some months later, Davies was wounded, losing one of his eyes. He returned to Australia on 5 July 1915.
The Ubobo soldier settlement brought back, for a short while, encouragement for the future, which had fallen away with the ending of the mining era, and the closure of the Many Peaks mine. The dairy industry developed, agriculture was encouraged, and much farm land was opened up on which were grown good cotton crops finding employment for cotton pickers. During the 1910s dairying expanded in the surrounding districts, particularly at Mt Larcom and Bracewell, and the PCD Company made steady progress. Following the appointment in January 1916 of Joseph W Rigby as Manager and Secretary, the area from which the Company received cream was extended and the Company's growth was greatly accelerated. In the period 1916 to 1923, suppliers increased from 216 to 502 and manufactured butter from 179 to 539 tons.
By the 1920s, the PCD was one of the largest co-operative dairy companies in Queensland. The activities of the PDC at Gladstone and in surrounding districts stimulated the expansion of commercial dairying in Central Queensland. State wide, dairying was an important economic activity for the first half of the 20th century.
The township of Ubobo first appears in the Queensland Post Office Directory [Country] in 1926. The majority of those listed in the area are farmers [39 out of 54], including RS Davies. The other listings are for labourers, graziers and stockmen as well as a storekeeper/postmaster and a teacher. There are numerous changes in ownership/tenure over the years in the first ten years of the town appearing in the Directories, seventeen farmers left the area and eleven new names appeared. Later with the years of the depression, falling prices and not being able to meet liability that looked so attractive in the beginning, many others left.
While initially providing future prospects, for the most part the soldier settlement schemes were generally disastrous because the resumed land was cut into small, uneconomic blocks, Added to this was the inexperience of most soldier settlers, or an inadequate capital base, and the result was social and economic disaster. At Ubobo, the resumed leases were cut up into fifty-four farms: twenty-seven in the parish of Wietalba and twenty-seven in the parish of Ubobo. Virtually every block was taken up. These fifty-four households [most including children] were expected to make a living as dairy farmers where five families had formerly grazed cattle and in good years make a modest profit and in bad years a loss. Many properties were surrendered by the original selectors, most of whom left the district with a degree of bitterness.
Following the Second World War, with the economic depression of the butter section of the dairy industry, the properties were gradually bought by others to amalgamate with their holdings, thus providing a larger and more viable area. Excepting the actual river frontage with the good agricultural land thereabout the settlement has again reverted to its former purpose, the grazing of cattle.
RS Davies' property is now occupied by Hector [son of RS Davies] and Gloria Davies, who established a modern piggery as well as lucerne growing on the site. The property taken up by RS Davies is the only block still occupied by descendants of the original soldier settler. The Davies family purchased Portion 114 [now Lot 114], in the 1960s. This block, originally taken up by RJ Metten, has a solider settlers house constructed on the property. It is in a more deteriorated state than the house constructed by RS Davies.
When constructed, the soldier settlers house comprised three rooms, a bedroom, a dining room and a kitchen. A verandah opened on the eastern end of the southern side of the building and another verandah on the northern side. At a later date, the verandahs on both sides of the house were enclosed to provide more space. The house is currently unoccupied.
","criteria":"The soldier settlers house is significant for its association with the major redevelopment of the Boyne Valley area, and the establishment of the soldier settlements in the Ubobo area in particular, following the First World War, which led to closer settlement of the area generally.
\nThe soldier settlers house is significant as a surviving building remaining on the property on which it was taken up. Significantly, it was taken up by one of the earliest soldier settlers in the area, RS Davies, and is the only remaining property which is still being worked by the descendants of the original soldier settler.
|As a substantially intact, extant structure, located on its original block and associated with the development of the soldier settlement schemes, the soldier settlers house is significant for its rarity.
|Designed to a standard government plan, the soldier settlers house is significant as an example of a typical type of construction. Like the majority of soldier settlers' homes, the small, high-set, timber cottage originally comprised a core of four rooms with verandahs opening to both the front and the rear of the building.
|The soldier settlers house is significant for its association with those who took up property under the soldier settlement schemes and their descendants, and with their experiences, in the majority of cases, ultimately unsuccessful, with the scheme.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17131,"place_ref":602323,"name":"Big Fig","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Station Street","suburb":"MIRIAM VALE","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-01-06","description":"The Big Fig (Ficus benjamina) is situated in an unused corner of the Station Street road reserve bounded by a railway fence to the north, a private fence to the east, Blomfield Street to the south and Station Street to the west. Both streets are sealed and a drain has been constructed opposite the trunk of the tree on Station Street.
The site is located in the commercial centre of Miriam Vale, close to the railway station, and adjacent to the War Memorial Park to the west, which lies between the Fig Tree and the Miriam Vale Hotel on the other side of Blomfield Street, opposite the railway station. The Big Fig is easily identified when entering the eastern end of the main street, which tourists travelling through to Agnes Waters and the Town of Seventeen Seventy must do. The Big Fig is associated visually with Miriam Vale Shire Council's town beautification scheme along Blomfield Street, in which the reserve on the railway side of the street has been converted into a long, tree-lined park fitted with amenities for local residents and tourists.
The trunk of the Fig Tree is approximately 12 metres in circumference, and the canopy has a span of approximately 30 metres east to west, by 35 metres north to south. The lower branches of the tree near the trunk are very high and thick. The outer limits of the canopy droop down to near ground level on the western, northern and eastern sides. The crown of the canopy is between 10 and 15 metres high.
There is no grass cover under the canopy to the west and south of the tree, and sparse ground cover near the fence lines of both the railway yard and private property. Leaf litter covers most of the ground surface beneath the canopy. The tree root system protrudes from the trunk and surface roots are evident to the west and south of the trunk.
","history":"The Big Fig at Miriam Vale is thought to have been planted around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, local residents recalling the Fig Tree as being well established by the 1920s. It was a focus for community activity, both social and economic, through much of the 20th century. The tree is a well known landmark and meeting place in the town, and until 1977 served as the site for the collection of local cream and milk for rail or road transportation to Gladstone, dairying being an important economic activity in the Miriam Vale district.
Miriam Vale pastoral run was one of the earliest established in the Port Curtis district, reputedly taken up in January 1854 by Arthur PJ Chauvel and Joseph Sharp, along with the runs of Urquhart, Polmaily and Walton, soon after the proclamation of the Port Curtis Pastoral District on 10 January 1854. Acceptance of their tender for these runs did not appear in the New South Wales Government Gazette until 9 June 1857. Walter Blomfield, reminiscing in 1949, states that cousins Edwin Cordeaux Blomfield [Walter's father] and EK Cox purchased the lease, along with 8,000 sheep, in 1856, although the lease was not recorded in Queensland as being transferred to Cox and Bloomfield until 1869. Early squatters in the area concentrated on wool production, exporting their produce via Gladstone, which was established in 1853-54.
In 1868 Cox and Bloomfield applied under the conditions of the Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1868 for their runs Woodlands, Miriam Vale and Polmaily to be consolidated as the Miriam Vale run and Silex, Ilex and Gochen to be consolidated as Bulburan. Miriam Vale was divided into resumed and leasehold sections in 1869/70, but there was little demand to open this land for selection. Some Miriam Vale land had been taken up as freehold by 1884. In January 1875 a telegraph office was opened at Miriam Vale, and a post office was established there in April 1877, reflecting a population increase in the district.
The first Miriam Vale selections were made available in 1889, encouraging new settlers into the area. Saw milling was an important adjunct industry, as the land was cleared for grazing or agriculture. Miriam Vale was first listed as a separate district in the Queensland Post Office Directory of 1892. It had a population of about 60, but no real township. The post office was located at Miriam Vale, but closest settlement appears to have been in the Mt Jacob area at that time. In 1893 the Miriam Vale Hotel was established and the Miriam Vale Post and Telegraph Office was made official.
The township of Miriam Vale was surveyed in 1895 in anticipation of completion in 1896-97 of the final segment of the Gladstone-Bundaberg section of the North Coast Railway. The route passed close to the Miriam Vale Post and Telegraph Office on House Creek, and the Miriam Vale Railway Station and township were established in the vicinity. The opening of the railway to Gladstone on 1 October 1897 had an immediate impact on the development of the Miriam Vale district. With ready access to markets now available via the railway, 90 Miriam Vale blocks were thrown open for selection between 1897 and 1902, and district residents listed in the Post Office Directories jumped from 26 in 1896-97 to 83 in 1900. The Miriam Vale State School was opened on 14 July 1897.
Dairying emerged as an important economic activity on these selections, boosted by the establishment of a butter factory at Gladstone in the early 1900s. In September 1904 the Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Company Ltd was formed at Gladstone, with the express purpose of establishing a regional butter factory, which opened at Gladstone about March 1906. Located adjacent to the main railway line, it provided an accessible market for cream produced by regional dairy farmers, including those at Miriam Vale.
The Big Fig at Miriam Vale is located close to the Miriam Vale Railway Station. It is a Ficus benjamina, which is an introduced species to the area, and may have been planted as a Queensland Railways initiative following construction of the North Coast Line through the Miriam Vale district in 1896-97. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Queensland Railways Department promoted ground and garden improvements at its stations, and encouraged the planting of quickly growing, large-canopied trees which would help to keep down dust and provide travellers with shade. Near several of the railway stations along the Bundaberg-Gladstone section of the North Coast Line a single large Ficus benjamina has been planted, suggesting that the tree at Miriam Vale was part of an early Railways Department tree-planting scheme. However, this has not been confirmed, and there are several local stories suggesting that the tree was planted in the early 1900s by differing early residents.
Older Miriam Vale residents can recall the tree as having reached a substantial size by the 1920s and 1930s, such that horses could be tethered underneath it while their owners attended to business at the nearby general store, and children played in its branches. The Big Fig has provided a shady meeting spot for generations of Miriam Vale residents, and since construction of the nearby war memorial in 1921 has provided welcome shade for many Anzac Day meetings. Farmers and their drays [later trucks] congregated under the tree while waiting for their cream cans to be loaded onto the train to Gladstone. In the 1950s/1960s a Gladstone veterinarian regularly visited Miriam Vale, where he conducted consultations beneath the Big Fig.
The tree maintained its connection with the dairy industry through the mid-20th century, serving as a collection point for dairy farmers bringing cans of cream to be loaded and transported by road to Gladstone when the first motorised truck began carting cream from Miriam Vale to the Port Curtis Dairy Factory in 1952. By this year a ramp, facing Blomfield Street, had been built alongside the trunk of the Big Fig for the loading of cream and later milk cans onto the back of delivery vehicles. The place served as an easily accessible and shady location for farmers to assemble and wait for their produce to be loaded. During the 1960s, the original loading ramp was replaced with a new ramp, and an early fence and gates, reputedly constructed around the tree and cream/milk collection area by Queensland Railways, was demolished. The new ramp was built facing Station Street, and remained until at least 1977 when the last contract for the milk run to Gladstone was cancelled. Several small earth mounds to the north of the trunk of the Fig Tree are all that remain of the second ramp.
The Big Fig is an instantly recognisable landmark in Miriam Vale and its expansive canopy has provided a shady resting place for generations of travellers passing through the town to Agnes Waters and the Town of Seventeen Seventy. It has recently been adopted by Miriam Vale Community Development Inc. as its official logo. Plans have already been made by this group for the future conservation of the tree, with a board walk, rest area and interpretive information planned to be constructed beneath the Big Fig.
","criteria":"The Big Fig at Miriam Vale, adjacent to the Miriam Vale Railway Station, is thought to have been planted around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. During much of the 20th century it had an important association with the development of dairying in the Miriam Vale district, being associated with the collection of Miriam Vale cream and milk for transport by rail, and later road, to Gladstone for processing.
|The Big Fig has aesthetic qualities which have contributed significantly to the Miriam Vale townscape since at least the 1920s, and which are valued by the Miriam Vale community and visitors alike. The tree is a well-known landmark in the town, and is recognised by, and is familiar to, visitors who pass through Miriam Vale to the coastal holiday towns of Agnes Waters and the Town of Seventeen Seventy.
|The Big Fig is significant as a popular meeting place for generations of Miriam Vale residents, and the current Miriam Vale community holds the historical, social and tourism values of the tree in high esteem.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19506,"place_ref":602385,"name":"Fig Tree","alternate_name":"Heritage Tree","street_address":"Roseberry Street","suburb":"GLADSTONE","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-12-03","description":"The Roseberry Street Fig Tree is a mature Ficus benjamina (weeping fig) situated in the grounds of the Government Offices in Roseberry Street, Gladstone. It has a height of 12 metres and a canopy spread of approximately 37 metres with a trunk circumference of 660cm. The tree overhangs the road providing shade for cars parked along the street. Around the base of the tree is a small garden planted with shade loving shrubs which add to the aesthetic value of the place. A modern wooden seat has been placed underneath the deep shade of the tree and near this is located a plaque outlining the history of the tree and its connection to former prominent Gladstone citizens, James Friend and William Robert Golding. The tree dominates the streetscape with its obvious beauty, age and size and it has become a place of rest and conversation for those working in the immediate vicinity.
","history":"The Fig Tree, located on the corner of Roseberry and Auckland Streets, Gladstone, is a mature Ficus benjamina planted c1903 by local businessman James Friend in what was at the time, the horse paddock in the grounds of his Roseberry Street home, Elonera House.
Gladstone township was established in April 1854, and the Friend family [Henry and Mary Ann Friend and their two small sons Harry (Henry jnr) aged 3 and James aged 1] were amongst its earliest settlers, arriving in 1855. Henry Friend snr was employed on the construction of Gladstone's first water supply. When this work was completed he established a general store in Toolooa Street, at the Barney Point end of town. As settlement gradually focussed further north, on Auckland Creek and the shipping trade, Friend established a shipping and forwarding agency, with his own wharf and warehouse, on the banks of the creek. He was a foundation alderman on Gladstone's first municipal council in 1863, and served as Mayor in 1866 and again in 1869-70.
In 1875 his sons Henry and James took over the family general merchandising business as H & J Friend, with considerable success. In 1900 they moved from Auckland Creek to Goondoon Street, and in 1939 the business became a limited liability company known as Friends Pty Ltd. In 1954 the company celebrated 97 years of service to Gladstone during the centenary of the establishment of Gladstone in 1854.
The Friend family were also involved in the pastoral industry. Henry Friend snr acquired an interest in Diamantina Station and the export of cattle to Asia; and by 1900 Henry jnr and James Friend were the proprietors of Springwood Station in the Springsure district. By 1920 their interest in Springwood Station had passed to James Friend's sons, Herbert and Cyril. The Friends were prominent members of the Gladstone community. Both Henry and James were Justices of the Peace, and Mrs James Friend was secretary of the Gladstone Benevolent Asylum.
James Friend married Ellen Matilda Prizeman in 1879. They raised a family of 3 sons and 3 daughters, born between 1880 and 1891. In June 1900 title to a one acre block of land bounded by Roseberry and Auckland Streets and Oaka Lane, was transferred to Ellen Matilda Friend, wife of James Friend of Gladstone, merchant. On this land James and Ellen erected a substantial two-storeyed residence, Elonera House, facing Roseberry Street near the corner of Oaka Lane. It was one of Gladstone's finest houses, complemented with a large garden and stables, and a horse paddock at the corner of Roseberry and Auckland streets. It was in this paddock that the Fig Tree was planted on the Roseberry Street frontage, reputedly by James Friend c1903.
In February 1928 title to the property passed to Robert Horner Fletcher, medical practitioner, of Gladstone, who subdivided it into four allotments. Title to the 28.85 perch subdivision at the corner of Roseberry and Auckland Streets, containing the Fig Tree, was transferred to prominent Gladstone citizen and historian William Robert Golding jnr in May 1930. Elonera House was converted into a private hospital called Balcomba in 1931, and into four flats during the Second World War, in response to the housing shortage. It remained flats until 1980 and was demolished soon after.
Title to the corner allotment with the fig tree passed to a series of investors in 1980-1981, until in 1982 it was acquired, along with the adjacent subdivisions, by the Crown. Government offices were constructed on the site of Elonera House, at the corner of Roseberry and Oaka Lane. The Fig Tree remains near the corner of Roseberry and Auckland Streets, adjacent to an open area which is used as a car park. In 1983 the local community was successful in having the tree entered in the National Trust of Queensland's Register of Significant Trees, and in the early 1990s the Fig was the focus of public attention when the community rallied to save the tree, which appeared to be in decline. In 1993 the Gladstone Port Authority funded the erection of a sign recording the history of the tree. The tree has been identified in the 1999 Gladstone City Cultural Heritage Places Study as a place of cultural heritage significance.
","criteria":"Estimated to be around 100 years old, the Fig Tree, State Government Centre, Roseberry Street, Gladstone is a familiar landmark in the town of Gladstone, and is linked historically to James Friend, a prominent member of the Gladstone community, who reputedly planted it in his Roseberry Street garden c1903. It is the only surviving remnant of the large garden which surrounded one of Gladstone's finest residences, Elonera House, erected c1900 and demolished c1980. The tree is valued by the present community for its streetscape and aesthetic value and is well-known to local residents and business houses, many of whom have contributed newspaper articles and offered support to conserve the tree when it appeared to be in decline in the early 1990s.
|Estimated to be around 100 years old, the Fig Tree, State Government Centre, Roseberry Street, Gladstone is a familiar landmark in the town of Gladstone, and is linked historically to James Friend, a prominent member of the Gladstone community, who reputedly planted it in his Roseberry Street garden c1903. It is the only surviving remnant of the large garden which surrounded one of Gladstone's finest residences, Elonera House, erected c1900 and demolished c1980.
|The tree is valued by the present community for its streetscape and aesthetic value and is well-known to local residents and business houses, many of whom have contributed newspaper articles and offered support to conserve the tree when it appeared to be in decline in the early 1990s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":22216,"place_ref":600388,"name":"Parson's Inn","alternate_name":"Parsons Inn","street_address":"Raglan Station Road","suburb":"RAGLAN","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-07-31","description":"Parsons Inn is located a little south of Raglan Creek, halfway along the old coach road between Gladstone and Rockhampton, which has been bypassed. The former inn is set parallel with the road and is a single-storeyed timber building on low stumps.
The building has a frame of bush poles and was originally clad at least partially with slabs, although most of these seem to have been replaced many years ago with weatherboards. The broken back roof is clad in corrugated iron. The front has an open verandah section in the centre and rooms on either side of this. These rooms have been extended. Behind this is a large room with lined walls and ceiling. At the rear are small rooms and a veranda which has lost most of its cladding and a section of roof.
The windows are between uprights of bush timber, as are the doors. The floors are of pit-sawn boards fastened to the bearers in places with large rectangular wooden pegs cut from pieces of pit-sawn timber. The sawpit is still visible close behind the building, though it has been filled in for safety reasons. Some sections originally open have been built in. The front wall, most interior walls and the ceilings of the main section are clad with beaded boards. The main room is lined with wide plain boards and has a stencilled dado on the end walls. The upper wall is pale blue and the lower wall pinkish grey, divided by a pink line and a grey/pink stencilled anthemion pattern above. Some boards which carried part of this design have been removed.
The former residence is a two-storeyed timber-framed building clad with weatherboards, with verandahs to both levels at each end and a galvanised iron roof. This building is now little more than a frame and is leaning precariously.
Beyond this house is a small weatherboard clad building with a pole frame standing in the remains of a post and rail enclosure. A roofed open area adjoins the building and leads into the yard section. There is a windmill and a water tank on stumps alongside.
It is thought that there are graves some distance behind the inn, but these were not located. The area around the inn is of value as an archaeological site which may yield further information on the way in which such early wayside inns were operated.
","history":"The former Parson's Inn buildings are timber vernacular structures located approximately 5 kilometres south of Raglan on the old coach road, now bypassed by the highway. The proprietor of this wayside inn from 1885 until the early 1900s was Edwin Parson and the property has remained in the possession of members of his family.
The area in which the inn is situated was surveyed for pastoral settlement in 1855 and most of county Clinton was soon taken up as runs producing wool. This included Raglan which was selected by William Landsborough and by 1857 was occupied by James and John Landsborough. By 1865 cattle were established in the district and soon replaced sheep. By 1867 there were over 180 runs in the district and a goldfield was proclaimed at Raglan, just south of Mount Holly. Miners from this field were later to frequent Parson's Inn, paying for their rations in gold. Following the Crown Lands Alienation Act in 1868, the huge early runs were broken up and resumed for selection as smaller grazing properties. The numbers of cattle being raised and transported in the Port Curtis area increased following the setting up of the Lakes Creek meatworks in 1871.
Edwin Parson's name first appears in the Post Office Directory of 1874 as being at Long Morn. He selected 517 acres at Black's Crossing, Raglan, in 1873 and an adjoining selection of 667 acres in 1874. On 5 May 1979, a mention is made in the diary of Stephen Creed of Langmorn station of an E Parsons 'in charge of 169 fat bullocks to be delivered to Brisbane by road', which may well refer to Edwin Parsons. The purchase of his selections was finalised in 1881.
Black's Crossing was the local name for a section of Raglan Creek crossed by a stock route. The places where major routes crossed watercourses were often used as camps by drovers and carriers and were excellent locations for inns which catered to travellers. These were places where one could obtain food and accommodation for people and horses, where it was usually possible to obtain the services of a blacksmith, leave or collect messages and gain information on the condition of the road ahead. The inns were also a social amenity as a source of company and conviviality on the road. Their services made the development of regular supply routes possible, which in turn made a major contribution to the way in which areas were opened up for European settlement.
Parson obtained a license for a hostelry named the Raglan Hotel at Black's Crossing in 1885. Although his name appears in most documents as Parsons, it is spelt on the hotel's signboard on a 19th century photograph without the 's'. He had not held a publican's license before and the license was in his name until 1902. It then passed to Joseph Jones and was held briefly by David Parsons in 1905, after which no further licenses were issued. It is probable that the inn operated only during the period when there was sufficient traffic on this road to support it. The route was also used for mail, a post office having opened in Raglan in 1879, although the mail was carried on horseback until 1887 when a weekly coach served the route.
It is not certain whether the building was constructed as an inn, or whether an existing building was modified, but it had both slabs and sawn boards for wall cladding at an early stage of its existence. A saw pit is still visible behind the building. In the use of bush pole frames for the building and window openings, pit sawn weatherboards, pegged floorboards, adzed slabs and other details, the inn provides examples of a range of early building techniques and demonstrates what could be achieved in a remote spot using the materials available to hand.
The hotel is described in a diary of Lady Lamington, wife of the governor of Queensland between 1896 and 1901. In 1897, while travelling privately to meet her husband at Rockhampton on his return from New Guinea, her boat encountered bad weather and it was agreed that she, her husband's secretary and his wife should hire a vehicle and driver and travel the last section overland. They stayed one night at the Raglan Hotel 'a wooden hut with some small trees nearby.' The hotel was run by a woman and her children, one of whom had recently died and who she had buried, presumably in the vicinity of the inn. Lady Lamington remembered that:
We were shown into the house, one rather small centre room with a sort of counter on one side for a bar, and behind this room were two or three bedrooms. The floor and walls were of planks which had shrunk after being put up, so we could with little effort, see what was going on in the next room, and as the floor was the same, I used to see the chickens scratching the ground under the floor between the short wooden piles on which the little Hotel!!! was built. The walls had coloured and uncoloured illustrations from different newspapers stuck on them in places, which made one's room a little more private. There was only one bedroom and a sort of press with a bed in it. We had only one very small basin between us for our ablutions. It was easy to empty it by just opening a wooden window, but not so easy to get the water to fill it again. "I have seen a good deal during my travels but sitting there in the little Bush shanty listening to this good woman's stories was very touching. Next morning I was woke up by hearing the children bringing in the cows for milking"
A photograph, which survives, was taken of the inn on this occasion by Pascoe Stuart, the Governor's secretary. Since then, rooms have been added to the ends of the building, but the simple rectangular form and open area at the front remain.
In 1904, some of Parson's land was resumed for the railway which opened in 1910. A new certificate of title was issued to him in 1904 for 491 acres giving his address as Sunnyside, Raglan. Although the inn was no longer licensed, it appeared as a hotel in the Post Office Directory until 1909 and may still have been used to accommodate travellers. The introduction of the railway no doubt cut traffic considerably on the old road and Edwin Parson was listed in the Post Office Directory as a selector before he died in 1911. The property was left to Walter Parsons who leased it to John Patrick Mitchell in 1912 for 21 years.
The Port Curtis Dairy Association was formed in 1906 and opened a dairy co-operative in Gladstone and in Rockhampton in 1928. This provided the opportunity for the development of the dairy industry in the area. For many years, until the late 1950s, the property on which Parson's Inn was located was run as a dairy farm. Walter Parsons lived in a 2 storeyed house nearby, the frame of which is still standing, while a family who worked on the farm occupied the inn. The property passed to Edwin Miles Parsons in February 1961. In 1970 it was surrendered to the Crown and a new Deed of Grant issued on 31 March 1971 for 491 acres to allow for road resumptions. The land passed to the current owner, also a family member, in 1982.
It is over 35 years since the building was occupied and it was used until recently for storing hay. A storm is said to have removed much of the cladding from the rear about 10-15 years ago. The stables behind the inn recorded in the National Trust's survey of 1981 have gone with no visible trace.
The small pole-framed building standing in yards near the house is said to have been used as a dairy. Its age is unknown, but it may be contemporary with the inn as similar construction techniques have been employed. No family documentation relating to the inn is known to survive.
","criteria":"The former Raglan Hotel, or Parson's Inn, illustrates the pattern of European settlement in Queensland as a wayside inn serving early an early route for the movement of livestock, essential supplies and mail. Such inns were an important element in the settlement of remote areas.
|The inn is rare in Queensland, as although many such travellers' inns were built, few examples using local materials, such as this one, have survived. It is thought that no other example of the technique used to peg the floor boards to the bearers has been identified in Queensland.
|The inn, its subsidiary structures and the area around them which formed part of the inn yards have the potential to reveal information about the operation of early hotels in Queensland.
|The former Parson's Inn is a good example of its kind and preserves many examples of early building techniques.
|The inn has associations with several generations of the Parsons family, who were early settlers in the area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":30518,"place_ref":602711,"name":"Port Curtis Sailing Club Clubhouse","alternate_name":"Gladstone Yacht Club","street_address":"1 Goondoon Street","suburb":"GLADSTONE","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-06-26","description":"The Port Curtis Sailing Club Clubhouse marks the northern end of Goondoon Street, Gladstone's main street, where the land slopes towards Gladstone Harbour. It forms part of a series of maritime structures at the mouth of Auckland Inlet including the Port Authority boat ramp, the O'Connell Wharf to the north, the Volunteer Marine Rescue Gladstone building and a recently constructed Customs building. It is located on largely flat ground overlooking the boat ramp towards the harbour.
The Port Curtis Sailing Club Clubhouse is a timber-framed structure which has been altered and extended since its completion in 1959. The 1950s structure forms the core of the existing building and various extensions have taken place around its perimeter. The building has a large hipped roof clad with galvanised metal sheeting with the main ridge finishing at gablets at either end. At the north-western end the hipped roof extends lower to form a balcony space. A two storey section has been added along the main north-eastern elevation. On the opposite side of the building a large deck with a curved roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting has been added. A two-storeyed kitchen wing has also been added behind the new deck space.
The main elevation, which faces to the north-east, features a protruding entry area and a parapet wall which extends for most of the length of the building. These are formed from timber sheeting. Narrow lengths of corrugated metal sheeting have been fixed to form column-like details within the parapet wall, framing each end and the entry area. The exterior is clad with chamferboards at the base with fibre-cement sheeting with timber cover strips to the remainder. A cantilevered street awning is located above the entry area with 'Port Curtis Sailing Club' in lettering fixed along its front edge and 'Gladstone Yacht Club' in lettering adjacent to the entry door. Narrow window hoods cover each of the window bays. Timber casement windows are located above the street awning. A verandah space on the upper level has exposed steel posts and balustrades with a small enclosed area clad with fibre-cement sheeting. Recent aluminium windows are located adjacent to the entry on the second level and on the lower level.
On the north-west elevation which overlooks the boat ramp and Auckland Inlet is a recently added enclosed balcony space supported on cantilevered tapered steel beams. The balcony is roofed with a skillion roof which extends from the hipped main roof and is enclosed with fixed and sliding glass panels. Adjacent to the balcony space is a recent outdoor dining area with a steel framed curved roof. The undercoft area below the outdoor dining area is open.
The lower level of the building is enclosed with fibre cement sheeting with chamferboards at the base. Openings are varied throughout the building and include metal roller-doors, aluminium framed sliding and hopper windows, louvre windows. A recent kitchen extension has been added to the rear south-western corner of the building which has a hipped roof and is clad with fibre cement on the upper floor and enclosed with blockwork on the lower level.
The building consists of various dining and bar areas on the upper floor with storage for boats and catering equipment on the lower level. The two levels are linked by an early stairwell which remains largely intact and is reached from a small foyer/entry area adjacent to the main entry. A new office has been constructed in the foyer area. The upper floor has been divided into a central lounge bar, balcony dining area and function room. The verandah space to the north-east has been enclosed to form a games room. A new outdoor dining area is located behind the lounge bar to the west.
The lower floor of the building is largely open for storage with early timber stumps visible. A training room has been enclosed in the north-east corner and a catering storage area formed by blockwork in the southern corner.
The upper floor has walls lined with vertically fixed painted chamferboards and plasterboard sheeting. The ceiling is lined with plasterboard with some recessed ceiling panels visible. Floors are lined with recent linoleum strip sheeting with carpet in some areas. The internal stairwell has walls lined with long lengths of chamferboards and fibre cement sheeting with cover strips. The staircase has treads and risers of polished timber and balustrades with timber cappings. The balcony space has walls and ceilings lined with plasterboard. On the lower floor walls and ceilings are generally unlined with some early louvre windows visible which are hidden behind cladding on the outside.
The grounds include lawned boat-rigging areas adjacent to the concrete boat ramp to the north of the clubhouse and bitumened carparks in front of the building (fronting Goondoon Street) and at its rear to the west. A white, painted steel flagpole is located to the north. There is a recent pontoon extending into Auckland Inlet, but this sits outside the heritage boundary.
","history":"The Port Curtis Sailing Club Clubhouse was constructed between 1949 and 1959 by members of the Port Curtis Sailing Club. The club was formed in 1941 by the sailing fraternity of Gladstone to provide facilities and support for the sport, as well as a venue for social functions. While renovations were undertaken to the building in recent years, the core of the post-war building remains as a landmark on Auckland Inlet. The clubhouse evolved from an initial concept as a single-storeyed boat storage facility to a double-storeyed building with boat storage underneath and an entertainment and dining venue above. The clubhouse is known Australia-wide for its association with the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race, the finish of which is hosted by the Port Curtis Sailing Club. This race has been a highlight of the Australian sailing calendar since its inauguration in 1949 and was the first ocean race held in Queensland.
Sailing clubs for both recreation and competitive sport have been active in Queensland since the late nineteenth century, including: Brisbane Sailing Club (established 1885), Fitzroy Sailing Club at Rockhampton (1895), Sandgate Yacht Club (1897), Townsville Yacht Club (1901), Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron (1902), Oxley Sailing Club (1902), South Brisbane Sailing Club (1903); Cleveland Yacht Club (1904), and Cairns Yacht Club (1908). New clubs formed after World War Two and many new and existing clubs began building clubhouses at this time. The Townsville club credits the post-war Olympic Games for a renewed interest in sailing, while others suggest returned servicemen seeking adventure and camaraderie led to the formation of new clubs. In terms of social regattas, it is likely that the improved economy, growth in car ownership and improved roads allowed sailors to tow their boats to compete in regattas around the State. It is clear that many clubs utilised remnant war-time buildings to create clubhouses and most, like Port Curtis Sailing Club, took advantage of member's skills, enthusiasm and business contacts in the construction process.
Sailing and rowing were popular activities on the Gladstone harbour (Port Curtis). Regattas were often held on Separation Day (10 December) in the 1870s. By 1890 regattas were held annually on Easter Monday. These were the forerunners of the more recent Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race held over the Easter weekend. Rowing was also popular on the harbour. Twenty four people with an interest in rowing or sailing met on 3 April 1941 at Feros' Paramount Café and formed the Port Curtis Aquatic Club. Shortly after that the club sought permission from the Gladstone Harbour Board to place a set of rails in Auckland Creek for launching and retrieving boats. The war led to a downturn in sailing activities, but the club reformed in 1946. Members quickly realised that sailing was the main interest so on 3 September 1947 it was renamed the Port Curtis Sailing Club. Fund raising to build a clubhouse commenced and the club asked the Gladstone Harbour Board for a site. In July 1948 the Gladstone Town Council agreed to grant the remainder of the Reserve for Baths (between the baths and Auckland Inlet) to the Gladstone Harbour Board, provided the council could continue to access the drainage pipes for the baths. The baths which had been built by the council in 1936 were situated at the corner of Goondoon and Lord Streets. By granting the remainder of the reserve to the Harbour Board, the council was in essence, providing a site for the sailing club on the harbour front.
In 1948 the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club (QCYC) approached the Port Curtis Sailing Club with a proposal to establish a race between Brisbane and Gladstone. This was to be the first ocean racing event in Queensland. Gladstone Mayor Jack O'Malley was enthusiastic about the proposal, although he had little local support initially. The sailing club began planning for the event, with a particular focus on the finish of the race which was to be at the Auckland Point Jetty. Six weeks prior to the event, Gladstone was hit by a destructive cyclone. The sailing club still wanted to proceed with building a club house and wrote to the Harbour Board in March 1949 seeking clarification of the dimensions of the land it intended to lease to the club for its clubhouse. In April 1949 the club made a request to the Gladstone Town Council for number of substantial trees knocked over by the cyclone on Council land. Council agreed and these trees were used in the construction of a clubhouse.
The inaugural Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race was held at Easter 1949. No Gladstone yachts participated in the race although a number of locals crewed on the winning boats. Despite particularly heavy weather, the race was deemed a success and plans were made by the Port Curtis Sailing Club and the QCYC to ensure it was an annual event. As local interest in sailing grew, so did the need for a Gladstone club house. In 1950 a resurvey was undertaken of the Gladstone baths (R.270, Portion 22) and the land between the baths and Auckland Inlet. The latter was to be the site of the Port Curtis Sailing Club Clubhouse, but vested as a Reserve for Harbour Purposes (R.301, Portion 119).
Club members continued to procure more trees felled during the 1949 cyclone, this time from local graziers with family interests in the club. Members were involved in the long process of milling the logs. In 1953 land was reclaimed for a clubhouse. The fill came from Auckland Hill, which had been successively excavated for fill over the years, particularly in the 1950s. Locals drew up a basic design for the clubhouse, initially for a single-storeyed boat and gear shed. When extra timber was procured, architect Phil Hanman refined the plans to include two storeys with a dance hall on the top floor. While the initial funds were raised through debentures, the construction of the dance hall was specifically to provide an income stream for the club. Other fundraising means included art unions, dances, socials and door knocking for donations.
The Gladstone Port Authority lent the club a pile driver and timber piles were driven into the reclaimed land to depths ranging between 8 and 15 feet. In 1954 the piles were capped with concrete and the construction of the frame work began. All work was done by volunteer labour and supervised by professional tradesmen. Building materials were sourced through a number of means including donations from local businesses. Construction was inhibited by post-war building material regulations, in which all available materials were destined for housing. At first, permission was only granted to build and roof the lower storey, with the upper floor waiting until material shortages eased. One section of the building was completed by 3 May 1955 and club members were able to move in.
In November 1957 the Gladstone Harbour Board wrote to the local Land Commissioner stating that the Sailing Club Building was in fact 2 feet (0.6m) beyond the official boundary of the reserve, towards Auckland Inlet. The boundaries were then extended by an Order in Council on 19 June 1958, without re-surveying. The sailing club building was completed by the chairman of the Gladstone Harbour Board, local councillor and builder, Mr W R Golding MBE. The official opening was held on the evening of 28 March 1959 in time for the Easter Regatta.
The Port Curtis Sailing Club's clubhouse was erected during a period of expanded interest in amateur sailing in Queensland after World War Two. At least eleven clubhouses have been identified as being constructed for Queensland sailing/yacht clubs in the 1940s and 1950s and like Port Curtis Sailing Club premises, most utilised donated materials and labour: Sandgate Skiff Club (1944), Southport Sailing Club (1946), Sandgate Sailing Club (1948), Townsville Sailing Club (1948), Maryborough Sailing Club (1950), North Queensland Cruising Yacht Club (1952), Oxley (1953), Bulimba (1953), South Brisbane (1956), Darling Point (1958) and Port Curtis (1959). Sandgate Skiff Club relocated a former church hall to its Cabbage Tree Creek site, near to where the Sandgate Yacht Club had reconstructed old army huts into the Sandgate Memorial Boat Shed in 1948 (later handed over to the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club). Maryborough Sailing Club initially used an old World War Two Navy boatshed and built a clubhouse beside it in 1950, using new and recycled materials. The North Queensland Cruising Yacht Club in Bowen relocated a former WRAAF Mess Hall and like Port Curtis, raised money through debentures for the 1952 project. The Oxley Sailing Club had been given a parcel of riverfront land. Timber was donated in 1951 for the first boat shed which was completed by club members in June 1953. Bulimba Sailing Club volunteers built its clubhouse in 1953 and raised the building later to accommodate boat storage. South Brisbane Sailing Club was given a lease in Orleigh Park at H, and the clubhouse was built by volunteer labour in 1956. Darling Point was built by club members in 1958.
Only six of the eleven post-war clubhouses remain: Oxley, South Brisbane, Darling Point (relocated to Manly Breakwater in 1978), Sandgate, Bulimba and Port Curtis. It appears that Port Curtis Sailing Club is the only extant clubhouse from the 1940s and 1950s to have used an architect in its design. Architect Phil Hanman, who designed the upper floor, had served with club vice president Doug Patrick in the Middle East during World War Two.
At Gladstone, the Harbour Board continued to reclaim land and in February 1967 the boundaries of R.301 (which included the sailing club site) were amended to reflect this reclamation. On 14 December 1967, R.301 was cancelled and Portion 119 was vested with the Gladstone Harbour Board. The sailing club then negotiated with the Gladstone Harbour Board for a lease on the clubhouse site for up to 75 years.
To gain a liquor licence during the mid 1970s an association was formed between the sailing club, the Port Curtis Air Sea Rescue, and the Gladstone Power Boat Club, to create the Gladstone Yacht Club as an entity. The air sea rescue and boating club are no longer associated with the yacht club which is now the trading name for the Port Curtis Sailing Club Inc.
The Port Curtis Sailing Club installed a pontoon sometime in the 1980s. In the 1990s the clubhouse was extended and upgraded including the addition of an open veranda on the north-east side, an extension on the north-west, and a new licensed bar area in part of the original ball room facing Auckland Creek, which was opened up with a glass front. A large verandah was added to the western side which included a restaurant. The project was designed by architect Allan Jeffery who assured the club that the original 1950s building would last for many more years and was a credit to the local volunteer builders. These new extensions were formally opened on 13 September 1997.
The Port Curtis Sailing Club has been proactive in organising a number of significant sailing activities and events in Queensland. In 1960 the club commenced 'learn to sail' classes for local children and in 1961 it purchased ten sabots and initiated the South Queensland Sabot Association. It then negotiated with the Gladstone State High School to run the first sailing classes in Queensland High Schools. The Port Curtis Sailing Club provided the boats and the expertise. 1961 was also the year of the first Harbour Festival which was organised by the club to entertain spectators waiting for the yachts to arrive in the Brisbane to Gladstone race. The festival continues to be an annual event, though now organised through the local council. The club has also organised a wide range of ocean racing events including the Gladstone to Bowen, Gladstone to Bundaberg, Gladstone to Cairns, Gladstone to Great Keppel and Gladstone to Hamilton Island. Another first was claimed by club member Lesley Barker who was sailing mistress for the first all girl crew in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race in 1975. Club stalwart and foundation member Noel Patrick won the Brisbane to Gladstone on five occasions in his boat Wistari. He also published the first sailing directory for the Port Curtis region Cruising the Curtis Coast in 1986.
The Port Curtis Sailing Club has always been part of the organisational team involved in managing the finish of the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race. Other organisations involved include the Gladstone Volunteer Marine Rescue, Gladstone Harbour Festival Committee, Gladstone Port Corporation, Gladstone Marina, Gladstone Mayor's office and interested local citizens. While the formal trophy presentations have been held at various locations over the 60 year history of the race, including the Town Hall, O'Connell Wharf and the clubhouse, the social activities have always occurred at the Port Curtis Sailing Club. The Club is open 24 hours a day during the Easter weekend in order to welcome sailing crews as they arrive. A plotting room is set up in the sail training room on the ground floor providing public access to the progress of the race. Electronic monitoring is managed at the adjacent Volunteer Marine Rescue headquarters.
In November 2008 the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race was awarded the first prize in the 'festival and events' category at the Queensland Tourism Awards. The race now generates festivals in Redcliffe (Festival of Sails) and Gladstone (Harbour Festival) and is recognised as a significant ocean racing event in Australia, second only to the Sydney to Hobart race. For race participants, it is known as 'the friendly race', and the camaraderie amongst participants is what draws competitors back annually. The clubhouse was also awarded the Best Small Social Club in 2007 and 2008 in the Clubs Queensland Achievement Awards. The importance of the clubhouse to the race was summed up in 1983 by the Commodore, Julian Walker, who commented prior to the race: 'Port Curtis Sailing Club is gearing up to make you feel welcome and give you an atmosphere in which to swap yarns and tall stories.'
","criteria":"The Port Curtis Sailing Club Clubhouse is significant for its special association with the Australian sailing community as the principal venue for the celebration of the end of the annual Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race, and as a past venue for the presentation of race trophies.
|The Port Curtis Sailing Club Clubhouse, constructed between 1949 and 1959 on Auckland Inlet at Gladstone, is important in illustrating part of the pattern of Queensland's history, namely the development of the sport of sailing in Queensland.
The place is important for its close association with the annual Easter-weekend Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race, inaugurated in 1949 and second only to the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race in terms of significance in Australian ocean racing. The race was awarded first prize in the 'festival and events' category at the Queensland Tourism Awards in 2008. The Port Curtis Sailing Club has played an integral role in the management of the race since its inception, and its clubhouse remains an iconic venue for end-of-the-race celebrations by participants, organisers and spectators alike. A plotting room set up in the sail training room on the ground floor of the clubhouse provides public access to the progress of the race, and the clubhouse has been the venue for the presentation of race trophies.
The Club also has been credited with initiating the South Queensland Sabot Association and being the first in Queensland to offer sail training as a high school subject, activities that were based at the clubhouse.
The clubhouse remains one of the earlier sailing club facilities on the Queensland coast. The 1950s core of the clubhouse survives, with undercroft boat storage and sail training room, and a former dance hall on the upper level.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion G | Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":31935,"place_ref":602784,"name":"Little Sea Hill Lighthouse","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Sea Hill Point","suburb":"CURTIS ISLAND","lga":"GLADSTONE REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2011-08-12","description":"The Little Sea Hill Lighthouse stands on Little Sea Hill, Sea Hill Point, the north-westernmost point on Curtis Island overlooking Keppel Bay off the Central Coast of Queensland. It is in a remote location, approximately 17 kilometres by sea north-easterly from Port Alma, the port of Rockhampton located on the Fitzroy River. The sites of the pilots' houses and post office are immediately southeast of the lighthouse and the site of the first lighthouse is to the northwest.
\nThe lighthouse is a composite structure measuring approximately 12 m high with a 4.3 m diameter base reducing to a 2.24 m lantern floor. The timber framed tower and lantern base are clad with corrugated iron sheeting, fixed vertically and tapered to suit the conical form of the tower. A band of slip sheets approximately 300mm high has replaced the original sheeting around the base. The lantern has flat trapezoidal glazing panels supported in a cast iron frame bolted to the lantern base below and gutter ring above. Four of the landward side panels are infilled with flat sheet metal and a layer of wire mesh has been fitted across all panels. The lantern roof is a hemispherical dome consisting of a cast iron radial rib frame clad with a single skin of metal sheets, lapped and riveted. Attached to the roof are: a central ventilator with drip tray fixed internally; a secondary horseshoe-shaped metal gutter feeding an internal water tank; and a lightning conductor.
\nThe balcony fixed to the exterior of the lantern room is supported on cast iron brackets. Hardwood plank flooring spans between the brackets to which the gallery railing is also fixed. The railing is made of solid wrought iron stanchions with wrought eyes for top and middle rails of iron gas pipe. Two timber light screens, attached to the gallery flooring are supported by steel brackets fixed back to the lantern gutter.
\nThe tower frame is round in plan and tapered in profile, forming a truncated cone which is fixed to a concrete base. A concrete screed covers the base to the top of the bottom plate. The battered tower walls comprise main studs, bands of horizontal battens and lightweight diagonal braces between bottom and top plate. A steel angle ring beam supports the intermediate floor joists which are lined with unpainted pine tongue-and-groove floor boards. There are two windows to both ground and intermediate levels, each of which house a vertically sliding sash. The sash in the intermediate level windows retains clear glazing, the sashes in the ground level windows have been sheeted externally with flat iron sheeting and contain some remnant 10 mm glazing.
\nTwo concrete steps provide access to the entrance door which projects from the western side of the tower. The projecting walls are clad in flat iron sheeting and the barrel vaulted roof in corrugated iron. The timber framed and lined entrance door is a recent replacement.
\nThe timber framed gas cylinder stand with concrete base, the manifolds and main gas riser pipe from the 1933 conversion to acetylene gas are housed in the tower at ground floor level. Other parts of the acetylene system survive in the lantern, including the filter attached to the optic pedestal, and the bracket and pipework for the sun valve. The sun valve, burner, flasher and gas cylinders have all been removed.
\nFixed ladders provide access between the ground, intermediate and lantern floor levels.
\nA perforated timber trap door covers the access hole in the lantern floor. The cylindrical lantern base wall is lined with vertical beaded tongue-and-groove boards and four small round copper alloy regulators in the wall vent the space through cylindrical flues fixed to the exterior. In the centre of the lantern room, a Tideland Max Lumina ML-300 Series E self-contained marine beacon is fixed to the 1895 cast iron optic pedestal and table. The beacon is powered by batteries enclosed in a box in the lantern, charged by photo-voltaic panels on the balcony. The lantern also contains a freestanding timber cupboard.
\nAll elements, externally and internally (with the exception of the intermediate floor level floor boards) have received a painted finish.
","history":"The Little Sea Hill Lighthouse is a timber-framed, corrugated iron-clad lighthouse, erected in 1895, standing on Little Sea Hill at Sea Hill Point on the northwest corner of Curtis Island. When built it was an important aid to navigation from Keppel Bay into the Fitzroy River. From 1858 a system of navigation aids, including buoys, beacons, lightships and lighthouses, along with a pilot service, guided vessels into and up the Fitzroy River; and this system was progressively upgraded. Little Sea Hill has been used for navigation purposes since 1877 or earlier, and the current lighthouse is still active as a solar-powered landfall light with a modern lens.
The timber-framed design of the lighthouse on top of Little Sea Hill (the locality is referred to as Sea Hill, after the hill to the east of Little Sea Hill) is a Queensland innovation. The design was part of the late 19th century effort to improve maritime safety along Queensland's long coastline within a limited budget. When Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859 the new colony had only one active light station (a complex including a lighthouse and support buildings): Cape Moreton (QHR 600257) on Moreton Island - with a stone lighthouse erected in 1856. This situation was untenable for a colony that relied heavily on coastal shipping.
In 1864 the Queensland government appointed a select committee to investigate the state of harbours and rivers in the colony. A direct outcome of this inquiry was the construction of the Bustard Head Lighthouse south-east of Gladstone in 1867-68 and a lighthouse at Sandy Cape in 1870. [1] These were prefabricated structures built of cast-iron segments bolted together, wholly imported from England.
By 1873, the year of the inaugural Intercolonial Coast Lighthouse Conference in Sydney, Queensland had 39 lights (including lighthouses and beacons) along its coastline. The conference was the first attempt to coordinate coastal lights and signals around Australia and recommendations included the need for more coastal lights in Queensland.
Around this time a new Queensland lighthouse design was implemented. For the lighthouse erected on Lady Elliott Island in 1872-73, Colonial Architect FDG Stanley designed a structure which utilised readily available local timber, specifying a hardwood frame clad with curved wrought iron plating. [2] This reduced the cost of construction, and despite problems of termite infestation and rusting, this type of construction, or its derivative, a timber frame with corrugated galvanised iron sheeting, became the standard for subsequent 19th century Queensland lighthouses.
Between 1873 and 1901 approximately 14 lighthouses were constructed in Queensland using hardwood framing and plated iron sheeting, [3] and another six were constructed with a conical timber framed tower enclosed with light gauge galvanised iron with corrugations tapered from bottom to top. The latter were associated mostly with harbour entrances and included: Bay Rock (1886 - inactive - relocated to the Maritime Museum of Townsville); Grassy Hill, Cooktown (1886 - active, QHR 601241); Goods Island (circa 1886 - active, Commonwealth Heritage List 105458); Little Sea Hill (2nd) (1895 - active); Caloundra Head (1896 - inactive, QHR 602746); and Gatcombe Head (1900 - demolished). A seventh lighthouse of this type, and the tallest, was constructed at Bulwer Island in the Brisbane River in 1912 (inactive - relocated to the Queensland Maritime Museum in Brisbane, QHR 600301). The first Little Sea Hill lighthouse (1886 - inactive - relocated to the Gladstone Maritime Museum) has not been included in the above list of lighthouses, as although it used corrugated iron over a timber frame, unlike the others it had a hexagonal tower design. This had more in common with earlier timber-clad lighthouses built in Queensland.
The current lighthouse at Little Sea Hill is one of only four known corrugated iron Queensland lighthouses still standing at their original sites (and one of three still active at the time of writing).
The Little Sea Hill lighthouse's location resulted from the rise of Rockhampton as a port, and the need to guide ships into the Fitzroy River. The Archer brothers arrived in the district in 1853 and established a small wharf at the highest navigable point on the Fitzroy River to load wool from Gracemere station.
Although Rockhampton existed by 1856, its development as a port stemmed from the short lived Canoona gold rush of late 1858, with Rockhampton declared a Port of Entry in October that year. In 1867 the Central railway opened west from Rockhampton, but the local railway system was not linked to Brisbane until 1903.
The 1880s witnessed a building boom in Rockhampton, due to the commencement of goldmining at Mount Morgan. The Rockhampton Harbour Board was established in 1895 and an impressive customs house [QHR 600817] was built in 1899, but the Port of Rockhampton was eventually eclipsed by Port Curtis (Gladstone Harbour). As Rockhampton was initially the main outlet for goods produced in Central Queensland (and for goods and immigrants arriving) it was the second most important port in Queensland after Brisbane between 1860 and 1899. Rockhampton handled between 86% and 99% of the port trade of Central Queensland in this period. However, in state importance as a port Rockhampton fell behind Townsville from 1895, and it was also surpassed by Cairns and Gladstone between 1925 and 1939. By 1939 Rockhampton only handled 55% of the port trade of Central Queensland. [4]
One reason for the decline of Rockhampton as a port was because the tidal Fitzroy River required constant dredging to keep its channels open to shipping; and as ships became larger over time they required deeper water. Broadmount and Port Alma were developed as deep water options to the town wharves in Rockhampton. A railway line opened to a new wharf at Broadmount in 1898 (this railway closed in 1929), and to Port Alma in 1912 (where a wharf had been built in 1884), but neither port was a success. Port Alma supplanted Broadmount during and after World War I [5] but was in turn overshadowed by bulk handling facilities at Gladstone from the 1960s.
In the early days of the Port of Rockhampton, the main concern was the safety of shipping. The surge of vessels up the Fitzroy River in 1858, and the wrecking of some of them, meant a pilot was needed. Pilot Robertson was initially appointed by the NSW government, but in June 1859 he was replaced by Captain Matthew S Rundle.
Newspaper reports indicate the presence of a pilot station on Curtis Island by December 1858, [6] but the first permanent pilot station on Curtis Island was built at Cape Capricorn (where a lighthouse was constructed in 1875) in 1861-1862. The pilot station was then moved to Grassy Hill (near Station Point, between Cape Keppel and Sea Hill) c.1864. [7] At this time the only navigation aid in Keppel Bay was a black buoy off Timandra Bank (between Sea Hill and Keppel Rocks).
To assist with night navigation in Keppel Bay and the Fitzroy River, in 1865 two lanterns were placed at the Grassy Hill Pilot Station, to point to the position of the Timandra buoy, and lightships were placed at the entrance to the river (at a bend in the channel known as 'the elbow') and at the Upper Flats soon after. By this time there was also an anchorage off Sea Hill. [8]
In June 1873 Sea Hill was chosen as the site for a quarantine station, in anticipation of the arrival of the 'Countess Russell', an immigrant ship suffering from an outbreak of typhoid fever. A number of the ship's passengers lie in the Keppel Bay Cemetery, located northwest of the lighthouse. In early 1877 over 500 Chinese people were quarantined at Sea Hill due to a smallpox outbreak, but by 1878 the Quarantine Station was moved to Mackenzie Island, due to serious problems with mosquitoes and sandflies.
As well as acting briefly as a Quarantine Station, Sea Hill increased its role in maritime navigation with the erection of a signal mast for Customs in 1875. [9] There were also two lights at Sea Hill Point by early 1877, [10] which worked in conjunction with the lights at Grassy Hill to indicate the Timandra buoy.
Further changes followed. By 1881 there were six pairs of lights in the lower reaches of the Fitzroy, and plans were made to adjust the leading lights at Sea Hill to assist vessels of heavy draught to Port Alma. In August 1885 it was announced that a tide surveyor and three boatmen would be stationed at Sea Hill, [11] and a cottage was built for the tide surveyor in 1886. [12] In March 1886 the Department of Ports and Harbours announced there would be a lightship at the Timandra buoy, and the northern light (on the beach) at Little Sea Hill and the two leading lights at the Pilot Station would be discontinued. One light was to remain at the Pilot Station and the high light at Little Sea Hill would have a red sector. Ships could take on pilots from the lightship, the Pilot Station, or Sea Hill. [13]
The first of two lighthouses erected at Little Sea Hill was lit in late 1886 during the annual tour of inspection by Captain GP Heath (appointed Portmaster in 1862 and responsible for opening new ports, lighthouses and lightships). After lighting the Bay Rock (near Magnetic Island) and Grassy Hill (Cooktown) lighthouses, Captain Heath made sure the new light at Sea Hill was in working order. He reported that in consequence of the lightship being moved from the Elbow to the Timandra buoy, the northern leading light at Sea Hill was removed and the upper light on the hill was 'improved by a more powerful apparatus placed in a small tower'. [14]
The newspapers initially referred to the light as being one of the Fifth Order, [15] replacing the two lanterns at Sea Hill, but later it was reported as a light of the Fourth Order 'exhibited from a light-house that has only recently been completed', which would light vessels from the sea to the Balaklava Island line of lights, clearing them of the east and centre banks, and lighting them up the Narrows as far as Deception Creek. [16]
By 1886 the Lightkeeper was a Mr Aird, and near the beach northwest of the lighthouse the Golden Shore Hotel provided accommodation for passengers landed at Sea Hill and awaiting the tender to Rockhampton. [17]
Sea Hill assumed even more importance over the years; the lighthouse became a boarding station for Customs officers in 1887, [18] and by 1894 Sea Hill possessed a telegraph station, signal station and light station. The Lightkeeper's cottage and telegraph station were illustrated in The Queenslander 17 November 1894, and these appear to be on the flat where the Pilot Station was later built. A building in the foreground may be the schoolhouse which was built circa 1886. [19]
By November 1894 the Queensland Marine Department planned to erect a new lighthouse at Sea Hill, and in February 1895 the tender of Mr A Lind, of Brisbane, for £113 5s, was accepted. [20] A Queensland Marine Department plan of the lighthouse was signed on 16 January 1895 by the Engineer EA Cullen and by the Portmaster TM Almond (1 February 1895). This plan shows the timber framing for a two-storey truncated cone tower, about 25 feet 10 inches (7.87m) in height between the base plate and the bottom of the lantern and its surrounding gallery (balcony). The base diameter was 14 feet 1 inch (4.29m), with a 7 feet 4 inch (2.24m) diameter at the top of the tower. Little Sea Hill lighthouse was taller than the 1886 Bay Rock (8m), Grassy Hill (6m) and Goods Island (5m) lighthouses. The plans are basically identical to the 1899 plans for the Gatcombe Head lighthouse, [21] and the 1896 Caloundra Head lighthouse is a similar size.
The Little Sea Hill lighthouse was almost finished by the end of April 1895, but the illuminating apparatus did not arrive until July 1895. The light was exhibited on 7 August and was visible for 16 miles (25.7km) in clear weather. [22] A May 1895 plan shows a Fourth Order Fixed and Condensing Apparatus, by Chance Brothers and Co Ltd. [23] The light had a 250mm focal radius, used a three wick Trinity [House] burner (for paraffin oil, or kerosene), and had red and white sectors. The new lighthouse and apparatus reportedly cost £500. [24]
The original 1886 lighthouse remained on site adjacent to the taller new lighthouse, but was listed as 'disused' on a 1920 survey plan. It was moved to Grassy Hill to replace the flashing light there between October 1947 and June 1948, [25] and was later moved to the Gladstone Maritime Museum.
The Commonwealth took over the 1895 lighthouse, along with Queensland's other major lighthouses, in 1915. Following the passage of the 1912 Commonwealth Navigation Act, from 1 July 1915 Queensland handed over responsibility for 30 manned lights and 37 unattended lights, beacons, and buoys to the Commonwealth Government. The Commonwealth constructed additional light stations and made substantial upgrades to existing lights, with many lighthouses converted to unattended acetylene lights.
In 1913 only one family, that of Mr Gray, the Lightkeeper and Postmaster, lived at Sea Hill, while the Pilot Station at Grassy Hill had 8 families. [26] However, this situation changed when the Pilot Station was moved to Sea Hill in 1918-1919. The best of the old housing material from Grassy Hill was reused at Sea Hill, and the old Lightkeeper's cottage and the old school building at Sea Hill were renovated. [27] At this time the flagstaff was moved to the top of the hill and the small lighthouse was altered for watch purposes. [28]
Two Pilots' houses were located on top of Little Sea Hill behind the two lighthouses, and a small building located between the houses was used as a post office/telephone exchange. By October 1924 the second (spare) Pilot's house was occupied by the Lightkeeper, as the old Lightkeeper's cottage was beyond repair. The latter cottage was removed by August 1925.
The Lightkeeper's cottage at Sea Hill was maintained by Queensland's Marine Department both before and after the transfer of the lighthouse to the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth's Lighthouse Service (CLS) paid for the services of a Queensland Marine Department Lightkeeper. The location of the pilot station at Sea Hill was referred to as a 'coast light station' in 1922. [29]
A June 1925 inspection of the lighthouse listed a three wick trinity burner, two oil reservoirs and two oil pipes; there was provision for 10 panes of glass, but two bays were blocked with timber. The dome was of galvanised sheet metal, the gutters were cast iron, and the lantern's interior was lined in cedar. The tower had 19 hardwood uprights and was sheathed with corrugated iron. [30]
In 1932 the Lightkeeper's surname was Ralston, but his services were dispensed with after the Commonwealth automated the 1895 lighthouse (still referred to as a coast light at this time), converting it from kerosene to acetylene gas operation on 10 August 1933. The fixed lens with white and red sectors was retained, and the kerosene burner was replaced by an acetylene burner and flasher, to show two flashes every six seconds. The candlepower of the light was increased from 1,000 to 1,500 candles, although it was reported that the new light was not as powerful as the old. [31] A June 1933 CLS plan for the conversion of the lighthouse to gas shows gas cylinders located inside at the base of the tower. At this time the tower had a total height (including the 2 foot (.61 m) concrete base) of 40 feet, 11+3/8 inches, (12.48 m) to the top of the vent on top of the dome. The focal plane was at a height of 34 feet 1+3/8 inches (10.4 m). [32]
After 1933 the Little Sea Hill was listed as an 'unattended' light. The second Pilot's residence was unoccupied by 1934, and is not mentioned in correspondence after 1938. It was apparently moved to Gatcombe Head, [33] leaving only one residence on top of Little Sea Hill.
The position of Pilot at Sea Hill was abolished in 1961 and the remaining Pilot's residence and the post office on Little Sea Hill were removed soon after. Three residences from the Pilot Station survive, located between Little Sea Hill and Pacific Creek, where the former stables are used as a boatshed.
Rockhampton's river port closed in the mid 1960s, and all shipping had to terminate at Port Alma. A change in port limits brought the Little Sea Hill lighthouse within the limits of the port, and the lighthouse reverted to state control in December 1976, with settlement on 6 April 1977, at a cost of $5,000 (lighthouse and 2.185 hectares of land). [34] By 1977 it was converted from gas light to electric power, [35] and around 1984 it was upgraded as a lead structure for Port Alma. [36] It currently has a Tideland ML-300 electric beacon powered by batteries replenished by solar panels, is operated by Maritime Safety Queensland and acts as a landfall light for ships traversing the mouth of the Fitzroy River.
","criteria":"The Little Sea Hill Lighthouse is one of only four timber framed and corrugated iron clad lighthouses, built to aid coastal navigation, which are still in situ. This is a type unique to colonial Queensland. The other surviving examples are those at Grassy Hill, Cooktown (QHR 601241); Caloundra Head (QHR 602746) and Goods Island, Torres Strait (Commonwealth Heritage List 105458).
The Little Sea Hill Lighthouse retains the main elements of its type, including the braced hardwood timber framing, tapered corrugated iron cladding, timber doors and windows, and locally-designed and made lantern room.
The lighthouse provides important evidence of the evolution of the light sources used by Queensland lighthouses, retaining evidence of its use of kerosene (1895-1933) through its roof top vent and four wall vents in the lantern; and of its use of acetylene gas (1933 to 1977) through the surviving gas cylinder stand and gas pipes. It now operates a solar-powered electric light.
|The lighthouse demonstrates the classic lighthouse form and architectural qualities (truncated cone tower, lantern room, balcony and domed roof) which are celebrated and photographed by enthusiasts across Australia.
The white tower, on its elevated site above the Golden Shore, stands in dramatic contrast to the colours of the surrounding natural landscape and acts as a monument to human endeavour in an isolated environment.
|Through its location, material and design the Little Sea Hill Lighthouse, constructed in 1895 on Curtis Island, is important in demonstrating the Queensland government's policy of installing visual navigation aids on the Queensland coast. During its working life it has been an integral component of safe navigation from Keppel Bay to the Rockhampton town wharves and to the deepwater ports at Broadmount and Port Alma.
The lighthouse is also surviving evidence of the past importance of the Port of Rockhampton to Queensland. Between 1860 and 1899 Rockhampton was the second most important port in Queensland after Brisbane, handling between 86% and 99% of the port trade of Central Queensland.
The lighthouse stands on an elevated site which has been used to assist navigation in Keppel Bay since the 1870s. The location continues to function as part of the navigation system for Port Alma.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"} ]}